A Johannesburg businessman is seeking an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbandment of the Scorpions elite crime-fighting unit. In a statement issued by Hugh Glenister, he argues that the disbanding of the unit would ”not be rationally connected to a legitimate governmental purpose”.
The police should be more cautious when dealing with deportation matters, Mpumalanga’s department of safety and security said on Friday, after a South African teenager was awarded damages for being arrested on suspicion of being in the country illegally.
President Thabo Mbeki needs to urgently intervene to stop Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla’s ”sadistic games”, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Wednesday. ”The minister of justice can best be described as a sadist,” he said in a statement.
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/ 20 February 2008
A damages claim of almost R1,4-million, instituted by Gaye Derby-Lewis against Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for her alleged unlawful arrest more than five years ago, was postponed indefinitely in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
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/ 19 February 2008
A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that a murderer and robber did not deserve life imprisonment because of his disadvantaged background. Acting Judge Legodi Phatudi sentenced 35-year-old Jeffrey Mogatla of Mamelodi East to 40 years imprisonment, of which he effectively has to serve about 19 years — for the murder and robbery of Mariana Bothma.
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/ 11 February 2008
A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla had failed to exercise her constitutional duties diligently over the applications of 384 prisoners for presidential pardons.
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/ 5 February 2008
A Baviaanspoort prisoner who allegedly attacked and almost killed two nurses at the jail three years ago had acted rationally at the time of the offence, a psychiatrist told the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Dr Herman Pretorius told acting Judge Solly Sithole there were no signs that Thabo Masinga had suffered from psychosis.
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/ 5 February 2008
A second member of an international nuclear smuggling ring, Swiss engineer Daniel Geiges, was given a suspended sentence by the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Judge Willie van der Merwe sentenced Geiges, who is gravely ill with cancer, to a total of 13 years’ imprisonment but suspended the sentence for five years in terms of a plea-bargain agreement.
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/ 31 January 2008
It will likely be a short first appearance for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in the Randburg Regional Court on Friday, a member of his legal team said. Selebi would be present at the court but it was likely that his case was going to be postponed, advocate Fanus Coetzee said on Thursday.
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/ 30 January 2008
The Pretoria High Court refused bail on Wednesday to one of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial, Kobus Pretorius. Pretorius (34), whose father and brother are on trial with him along with 17 other accused on 42 charges including high treason, terrorism and murder, said he had experienced a religious conversion while in jail.
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/ 25 January 2008
Boeremag accused Kobus Pretorius was a changed man after ”meeting Christ” while being held in jail, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday. Counsel for Pretorius, Annelie Van der Walt, argued before Judge Khami Makhafola that Pretorius should be released on bail so that he could become involved in church and school activities.
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/ 23 January 2008
Treason trial accused Kobus Pretorius was a danger to society and would commit further acts of violence if released on bail, the chief investigating officer told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. Pretorius this week, for the first time since his arrest in December 2002, applied for bail.
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/ 22 January 2008
The mother of three of the Boeremag treason-trial accused, whose husband is also on trial, on Tuesday told the Pretoria High Court she knew nothing about evidence that one of her sons had built a bomb to kill former president Nelson Mandela. Minnie Pretorius testified in the bail application of her son, Kobus.
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/ 21 January 2008
One of the Boeremag treason trial accused, Kobus Pretorius, on Monday told a Pretoria High Court judge he had had an epiphany in jail and wanted to be released on bail so that he could ”serve the community of South Africa”. He told Judge Khami Makhafola he was ”a new man” after accepting Jesus Christ as his saviour.
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/ 15 January 2008
The Presidency on Tuesday defended Thabo Mbeki’s handling of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s case. Addressing reporters at the Union Buildings, Mbeki’s legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi, said Mbeki acted immediately when he learned that the National Prosecuting Authority was ready to proceed with action against Selebi.
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/ 15 January 2008
There was no change in the status of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) position on its investigation into police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, the NPA said on Tuesday. ”There is no change,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali. Selebi is on leave and has resigned his post as head of Interpol.
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/ 14 January 2008
Charges against Gerrie Nel, the head of the Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, in Gauteng, were withdrawn in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. ”After careful consideration of the evidence in the docket, the decision was made to withdraw the charges,” chief prosecutor Matric Lupondo said during Nel’s brief appearance.
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/ 14 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will meet this week to discuss how to proceed with their case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, a spokesperson said. On Friday Selebi failed to secure an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court to stop the investigation against him.
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/ 14 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s legal team were on Monday waiting for a date for a hearing for his application to stop the investigation against him, after last week’s attempt to have it heard urgently failed. ”The judge president must provide a date for a full bench,” said Selebi’s advocate Jaap Cilliers.
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/ 12 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has quit as head of international crime-fighting body Interpol, the organisation said on Sunday. The news follows President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement on Saturday that Selebi, who faces allegations of corruption, fraud, racketeering and defeating the ends of justice, was going on extended leave of absence.
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/ 11 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi is to be charged with corruption and defeating the course of justice after his application to prevent the National Prosecuting Authority from prosecuting him was denied in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Judge Nico Coetzee said Selebi’s application bore no merit.
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/ 11 January 2008
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is ready to charge police National Commissioner and Interpol chief Jackie Selebi, it said in court papers at the Pretoria High Court on Friday. The NPA said it would charge Selebi with corruption and defeating the course of justice.
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/ 11 January 2008
The Mail & Guardian has strongly objected to allegations made about it in an affidavit by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi supporting his court application to stop the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from prosecuting him. Selebi’s bid was being heard in the Pretoria High Court on Friday.
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/ 10 January 2008
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s bid to stop the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from proceeding with prosecution against him will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Selebi has brought an urgent application seeking more information about the charges the NPA intends levelling against him.
Gerrie Nel, the head of the Directorate of Special Operations in Gauteng — also known as the Scorpions — who was released on bail on Wednesday following his dramatic arrest by police the night before, hopes to be back in his post on Thursday. Nel was arrested at his Pretoria home in front of his wife and children at about on Tuesday night.
The legal team of arrested Gauteng Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel began an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday for his release. ”The police did not play open cards when they asked for his arrest,” said Nel’s lawyer Ian Small Smith shortly before the application.
Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel was arrested at his Pretoria home on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice on Tuesday night, his attorney Ian Small Smith confirmed on Wednesday. Nel was arrested by about 20 armed policemen in front of his wife and children at his home at around 9pm on Tuesday.
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/ 14 December 2007
Two teenagers, accused of strangling and stabbing to death teenager Samantha Uys, were found guilty of her murder in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Handing down judgement, Judge Tholi Vilakazi found Ricky ”Slash” Godfrey and Kabelo ”KB” Mokwena, both 19, guilty of the November 2005 murder.
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/ 7 December 2007
The Pretoria High Court has reversed a temporary ban on the book White Power: The Rise and Fall of the National Party. Judge Willie Seriti on Friday discharged an interim court order granted last month to Eugene de Kock to recall the book and stop its further publication, distribution and sale.
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/ 30 November 2007
Three condom suppliers, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel face a R5-billion class-action lawsuit over defective condoms the Health Department distributed earlier this year, a media report said on Friday.
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/ 28 November 2007
A sacked Transnet human resources manager who took her case all the way to the Constitutional Court will have to start again by seeking arbitration, the court ruled on Wednesday. Petronella Chirwa worked as a human resources manager for the Transnet pension-fund business unit.
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/ 27 November 2007
The trial of the Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Tuesday because he was too ill to stand trial. The Pretoria High Court was earlier told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.