A Montclair school teacher in Durban was held at gunpoint before being robbed of about R23,000 on the school premises, Southlands Sunreports.
On her return from a bank, the woman had just switched off her car when she noticed a masked man approach her with a firearm.
He swore at her and demanded her handbag while pointing the gun at her. Before she could react, he grabbed her bag which contained the money and told her to remain in the car.
He also grabbed her phone from her hands and threatened to shoot her if she screamed.
He took her car keys from the ignition before fleeing in a getaway car that was parked behind his victim’s vehicle.
No shots were fired. The money was intended for the school and the teacher has received trauma counselling.
A teenager on a critical condition after falling from an upper level parking area in Durban on Saturday afternoon, paramedics said.
“On Saturday afternoon Netcare 911 paramedics responded to the Durban South Beach for a man that had fallen from a height,” Netcare 911 said in a statement.
“Reports from the scene indicate that the 18-year-old-boy was sitting on the wall of the upper level parking with friends when he slipped and fell.
“Paramedics arrived at the scene and found the patient to have sustained severe head injuries. The advanced life support paramedic and his team stabilised him on [the] scene and after he was spinally immobilised they transported him to a nearby hospital for further care,” the statement said.
Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President just recently reportedly angered the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal after he deviated from its campaign programme for a by-election in Nquthu to deliver the Chris Hani memorial lecture in Newcastle to party “rebels”.
On Saturday it was reported that the lecture was organised by the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) – an allience partner of the ANC.
Ramaphosahe is said to have stunned some members of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) when he flew to the eMalahleni region some 200km away to address party dissidents who included former KZN chairperson Senzo Mchunu and former MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu.
Mdumiseni Ntuli, the ANC’s provincial spokesperson and PEC member said they were disappointed with Ramaphosa.
“It was clearly a gathering of the faction. We did not know about the event and the ANC was never invited‚” Ntuli was quoted as saying.
He said they would not raise the matter with Ramaphosa but would take it up with SANCO.
Meanwhile, SANCO’s provincial secretary Richard Mkhungo‚ according to the report, said his members had the right to invite anyone to address them.
“They are not a faction. Until such time that we take an opinion on which candidate we feel should lead the ANC‚ we will invite all officials‚” he said.
In response to the criticism surrounding the KZN ANC’ s unhappiness, Ramaphosa said the matter had not been brought to his attention.
“No it hasn’t been brought to my attention. I was [there] talking about the ANC and how the ANC needs to rebuild…that is the task for all of us to undertake‚” he said.
The ANC in KZN went to the last two national conferences of the ruling party – Polokwane in 2007 and Mangaung in 2012 – as a single voting block but cracks are beginning to show in the province.
Mchunu and Mabuyakhulu are seen as being among the party’s provincial figures opposed to President Jacob Zuma and his preferred successor Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Those backing Mchunu are said to be supporting a pro-Ramaphosa slate while the other grouping backs Dlamini-Zuma.
The department adds it will be attending the funerals of all those involved.
MEC Panyaza Lesufi says the learners were coming from a school in Gauteng and heading back to a town in Mpumalanga.
He says there are no policies governing this kind of situation.
“We’d hate to learn from an accident but I can tell you that from this one there are many things that we need to change.”
Lesufi says these pupils were travelling to Gauteng to access isiZulu as a subject.
“We need to find a mechanism with the provincial government that side. How can we manage this particular process of ensuring that language is available?”
Lesufi says the department will be attending funerals in various provinces this week.
African National Congress (ANC) NEC member Lindiwe Sisulu believes the party is ready for a female president to lead it to the 2019 general elections.
Sisulu on Saturday delivered a memorial lecture in honour of Lillian Ngoyi, whom she described as a towering figure, in Khayelitsha.
The Human Settlements minister strongly feels a female leader would elevate the ANC to greater heights going forward.
Sisulu believes the ANC has several good female leaders to take over from President Jacob Zuma after the party’s elective conference in December.
“I believe in women... and I think the leadership of women would take us to greater heights. A victory for that woman would be a victory for all of us.”
She’s however not ready to throw her name in the ring officially just yet because ANC rules don’t allow for pronouncement before the process is opened.
“It would be premature, irregular and wrong of me to answer that question.”
Sisulu has already been approached with a nomination by a branch in the Eastern Cape and was also endorsed by ANC structures in Site C on Saturday.
#LindiweSisulu Mcebo Dlamini has the mic, says "it's time for women to take their place in politics. Shape the policies of this country”. XK pic.twitter.com/fXzprLaxNR
Six-year-old twin boys killed earlier on near Hopetown after a bus crashed into the donkey cart they had been travelling in.
The boys’ parents had pulled over onto the side of the road on the N12 last night to secure the donkey to the cart.
A short while later a bus swayed into the breakdown lane, crashing into the cart.
While the mother and father managed to jump out of the way, both children, who had been sleeping at the back of the cart, died on the scene.
No other fatalities or injuries were reported.
ER24’s Chris Botha says police are now investigating the cause of the crash.
“The two boys were found about 100 meters apart when we arrived at the scene and parts of the donkey cart were also badly damaged and killed the donkey instantly.
“Paramedics examined the two boys at the scene but tragically they died there due to the severe injuries that they had sustained.”
The African National Congress (ANC) says it’s not worried that members of some Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) unions may boo or disrupt President Jacob Zuma’s speech when he addresses the federation’s main May Day rally on Monday.
Both Cosatu and the ANC confirmed on Friday that Zuma will speak at the rally despite the fact at least three Cosatu unions said he should not attend the event.
The unions said that it would send a confusing message for Zuma to go to the event when Cosatu has taken a resolution that Zuma should step down as president.
The ANC’s Zizi Kodwa said this is not about Cosatu’s resolution around Zuma as president but about their acceptance of his role as leader of the ANC.
“It has got nothing to do with a view that’s expressed in public about their preference and about their view of the president. That issue is being dealt with internally within the alliance structures.”
While Cosatu’s Sizwe Pamla said they can’t tell the ANC who to send to the rally.
“We will never accept the situation where the ANC in future or any other alliance partner will send us an invitation and then put conditions to say ‘we invite you on condition to you one, two or three.’”
Pamla said this decision to allow Zuma to speak at their main rally on Monday does not contradict their resolution that he should step down as president.
“We do have a standing decision coming from the special CEC, but that decision was never extended to mean the president should step down from his position as the leader of the ANC.”
Kodwa said Zuma will go to Bloemfontein.
“Cosatu affirmed and confirmed that they areexpecting the president. Of course, affiliates of Cosatu have got a right to their views, but it does not make it a view of Cosatu.”
Cosatu President Sdumo Dlamini has been heavily criticised for attending Zuma’s birthday celebrations, despite the fact his federation has said Zuma should leave the Union Buildings.
A Powerful earthquake measuring 7.2 struck off the Coast of Mindanao Island in the Philippines on Saturday, and the country’s seismology agency advised people to stay away from coastal areas but expected no major damage.
There were no immediate reports of destruction or casualties, but witnesses said the quake was very strong and shook the ground and walls.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was a risk big waves could spread 300 km away from the epicenter, reaching as far away as Indonesia.
The Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) said no tsunami warning was issued after a quake it had measured at 7.2. The US Geological Survey downgraded its own assessment of the magnitude to 6.8.
The Philippines is on the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences frequent earthquakes, particularly in the south, although there were several last month in Batangas on the main island of Luzon, felt also in the capital Manila.
The earthquake was about 57 km (35 miles) southwest of Sarangani province, the southernmost part of Mindanao, the biggest island in the south of the archipelago nation.
“It was so strong, you could hear the ground shaking for almost 10 seconds,” Jenifer Bugtay, who works at a beach-front resort in Sarangani, said by telephone.
“This is the strongest earthquake I have experienced,” she said. “The wall looked like it would fall.”
Philvolcs head Renato Solidum said there was no need to evacuate the area. The quake was at sea, and deep, although the public had been advised to stay away from the coast in the south for the next few hours.
Solidum said no major damage was anticipated.
“Many of our southern cities are far from the epicenter so we are not expecting much damage,” he told news channel ANC.
“We have had some aftershocks, we expect that.”
Janet Bongolan, tourism officer at the Tuka Marine Park in Sarangani province, said people spilled out of their homes and into the streets during the earthquake, but most had returned and there was no sign of panic.
“There’s no news here that there will be a tsunami. But we are watching out for aftershocks. We are careful here,” she said by telephone.
Jacob Zuma the President says the majority of black people remain disempowered and this is one of the reasons why radical economic transformation needs to be implemented.
Zuma was speaking at the national Freedom Day celebrations in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday.
The president was warmly received by residents in Manguzi as he was joined by his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa.
He didn’t shy away from promoting radical economic transformation.
“The majority of black people are still economically disempowered and are dissatisfied with the economic gains from liberation.”
At least R92 million will also be spent to upgrade the local police station in Manguzi in an attempt to deal with cross-border crime.
Hawks' spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi says big companies and individuals were approached by the suspect to fund his plot.
Meanwhile, terrorism expert Jasmine Opperman says a few things do not add up in the alleged terror plot.
Opperman says there appears to be a growing conspiracy mindset in state institutions.
“Are we seeing what has been taking place in these institutions for a long time now, where there is a continuous build-up of conspiracy to protect and justify their actions because of what is happening in South Africa against the president?”
Pretoria - Former president Nelson Mandela's eldest granddaughter told an opposition rally on Thursday the country was in dire of leaders who have moral values and integrity and will uphold the constitution.
Ndileka Mandela was speaking during a Freedom Movement rally in Pretoria at which political leaders reiterated a call to President Jacob Zuma to step down. It was held to coincide with Freedom Day, which marked the anniversary of the country's first democratic elections in 1994.
"This is the day that we should remind ourselves what we stand for as the people, as a country. We are a non-racial, non- sexist democratic country which stood as one when we're fighting for our democracy, we still stand as one irrespective of political affiliations, colour, creed and religion."
"We call on our government to account, this is enshrined in our constitution, to always hold our government in check. We are asking our government to listen to our voices, to listen to our cries, when we ask them that we want equal opportunities for our children in terms of education, job and benefiting from the land."
Political leaders hold hands to show that they will not be separated by race, religion or gender.
Earlier this year, the 52-year-old publicly stated that she would never vote for the ANC again.
She cited the social grant crisis and Life Esidimeni tragedy as her reasons for having lost faith in the ruling party.
The rally which was dominated by DA members, was attended by different political leaders including Cope's Mosiuoa Lekota, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa and the African Christian Democratic Party's Kenneth Meshoe.
Ndileka Mandela shaking hands with cope leader Mosiua Lekota after her speech
Speaking to journalists after giving his speech, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said there were going to be more events such as this rolling across the country and there would be march against Zuma on the day the National Assembly voted on a motion of no confidence against him.
"The issues we are facing are not secretarial, they are not divisive, they are for all South Africans. Whether it's junk status, all of us, the poor South Africans, are going to face difficult days ahead as food prices rise, as the economy faces the prospects of not creating work, these are the issues that speak to all of us."
He said even if Zuma refused to hear the cries to protest, the fact remained that he was losing his hold on leadership as more and more South Africans stood together and called for him to be removed from office.
"But we must not lose track, and all of us as the people of this country must build a government that is capable. That is why I maintain that coalition governments are the way foward....People can work together across the political spectrum, labour and religious sectors," Maimane said.
Maimane said on this day in 1994 people voted for a new government because they were tired with the old one. He said history will repeat itself in the 2019 elections
Pretoria - Restaurant chain Spur Corporation has announced several initiatives since a racism incident at one of its establishments last month.
A Facebook video went viral showing a black woman in a confrontation with a white man, allegedly over a spat between their respective children at Texamo Spur in Joburg.
In a statement on Thursday, Spur chief executive Pierre van Tonder apologised “unreservedly” to South Africans for the incident.
He announced that Professor Elmien du Plessis from North West University’s Faculty of Law would convene a panel “for an in-depth investigation of the incident”.
The panel will be independent and have full access to the facts and footage of the event, Van Tonder added.
“Such an investigation will take time, and although we have impressed the need for urgency upon Prof Du Plessis, it is important that she and the convened panel have the time to do a proper investigation," he said.
"In an effort to confront criminal elements still hellbent on terrorizing the students of the University of Limpopo residing outside campus‚ the Crime Intelligence-led task team has been established‚" the SAPS said in a statement.
Seven students residing off campus became victims to house robberies that took place over the weekend around Mankweng township.
This was despite police arresting two suspects in Mankweng earlier this year. Firearms as well as stolen property were recovered. This was followed by the arrest of another suspect who was found with property including laptops and cellphones.
Students were also the target of a rapist in 2012. Sylvester Nomafela‚ aged 33‚ who attacked off-campus female students aged between 18 and 20‚ was jailed on 13 April 2017. He was given a life sentence coupled with 20 years each for three counts of rape plus five years on another count of armed robbery.
Limpopo SAPS said the provincial task team would collaborate with Mankweng detectives to apprehend suspects over the latest spate of crimes.
South African Airways (SAA) says at this stage four domestic flights have been canceled and two have been delayed due to the strike by its cabin crew.
SAA says it’s exploring a few contingency plans in order to reduce the impact of the demonstration.
Employees affiliated to the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) are demanding a $170 a day meal allowance when working overseas.
They currently receive $131 which they say has not been increased in the last six years.
SAA’s Tladi Tladi says: “These options include combining flights in case there have been delays on some other flights as well as exploring the possibility of accommodating our passengers on the partner airlines that could be operating on the routes that are affected at this stage.”
Talks between SAA management and the union reached a deadlock on Tuesday night.
Sacca’s deputy president Christopher Shabangu says: “Unfortunately it is going to affect travel, internationally and domestically.
“We’re the biggest union within SAA and the bargaining forum at the SAA. It’s not what we would have liked to see but unfortunately, we were forced to do this.”
Shabangu added: “The little that you get as a meal allowance you can’t now even supplement on anything because now it’s not even going up.
“We’re not saying this is supplementing a salary but it’s so little we feel that we’ve no choice but to strike.”
SAA meanwhile says it’s doing everything possible to resolve the strike as soon as possible.
Travellers have been advised to visit the airline's website for regular updates on possible flight delays.
Shortly after Zuma’s reshuffle, Mantashe told Radio 702’s Xolani Gwala that the ANC’s leadership was not consulted while Ramaphosa also said the reshuffle was unacceptable.
On Wednesday morning, the Sowetan newspaper is reporting that the ANC secretary-general has dismissed as a lie Zuma’s submission to the Constitutional Court that he said sorry for publically questioning his decision.
Zuma told the court in his documents that Ramaphosa and Mantashe had apologised.
Mantashe says this claim by Zuma is wrong.
“There was no apology because we were not even asked to. We had a discussion which was very fruitful, very constructive. Nobody was asked to apologise.”
And he says he doesn’t know why Zuma had made this claim in court documents.
“The legal team must actually answer that question because in the meeting I was in, there was no apology. There was no requirement for an apology. Nobody asked for it.
Last week, he filed papers in the United Democratic Movement (UDM)’s legal challenge, in which the party wants Members of Parliament to vote in a secret ballot in the president's motion of no confidence.
It’s filed an urgent interdict to this effect, in a follow-up attempt to get answers from Zuma.
Three weeks ago, the opposition party filed a review application in the same court to test the rationality of Zuma’s decision to fire Gordhan and Jonas.
In his reply to this application, Zuma said his decision was informed by political judgment and he did not need to provide further reasons.
But the DA’s Federal Executive Chairperson James Selfe says this is not good enough.
"The president has, on several occasions, alluded to an intelligence report as being the basis for his decision to fire Mr Gordhan.
"A least he must be able to say either that the intelligence report played a role or it didn’t play a role. But either way, the public of South Africa need to know."
On a warm evening late last month, two men broke into Gift Notisi’s house in southern Malawi. One held him down while the other tried to cut off his arm.
Struggling to hack away at his limb, a scuffle broke out and the attackers were forced to flee.
Notisi was lucky to survive, but the 38-year-old now lives in constant fear, reminded of that horrific evening.
A few weeks earlier, a group of thugs tried to drill a hole through the wall of a man’s house late at night. If it wasn’t for the intervention of his neighbours he, too, would have been butchered while he slept.
People with albinism, a congenital disorder that often results in a lack of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, have come under attack in Malawi over the past two years. Twenty have been murdered and more than 115 assaulted.
Last year, the UN warned that if action was not taken, there would be “systematic extinction” of a community made up of around 10 000 people.
There are some in Malawi, as there are in other parts of southern and eastern Africa, who believe that the bones of such people are worth a lot of money.
These beliefs suggest that the bones of people with albinism contain gold dust or that if the bones are crushed and mixed in potions they will bring wealth.
With poverty at critical levels, albinos have become a walking target for hunters and killers. They tiptoe around their towns and villages, staying indoors after dark and are hesitant to talk to strangers.
No one is to be trusted.
Many of the attacks have been committed by people close to the victims.
We know of fathers who have tried to sell their own children, uncles who have tried to abduct their nephews, even neighbours conspiring with strangers to dismember a person in their community, all in the name of making some money.
To its credit, the Malawian government has admitted that their laws were insufficient, their actions slow and they committed to working to end the scourge.
But activists are concerned that words have not been followed up with the appropriate action. For instance, only 35 cases have been prosecuted, while 43 others are under investigation. No one has been sentenced for the murders.
At least 35 cases have been prosecuted, while 43 others are under investigation. No murder cases have been concluded.
The lack of corrective action has left the community feeling as if the governments, the courts are not taking the matter seriously.
Understanding why the attacks continue to take place is difficult. There is no obvious market for human bones in the country. Certainly, we have not have been able to find anyone who has actually benefited from the sale of bones.
Edna Cedric, left, Harrison, 9, and Marizane Kapiri in Machinga, southern Malawi. The family was attacked in February 2016. Harrison’s twin brother, Hari, was abducted and murdered. Picture: Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera
And the issue is certainly not limited to Malawi.
If anything, it is said to have been exported from Tanzania and Mozambique, where the problem has existed for years. In South Africa, there have been attacks as well.
Amnesty International says that people with albinism face hostility in up to 23 African countries.
And while it may be easy to look at the brutality levelled at this community as some sort of unique human abomination, the targeting of people with albinism in Malawi is in no way different to the rise of attacks on refugees in Europe and in the US.
Neither is our homegrown xenophobia in South Africa any different. The hate of “the other” often comes from an instinct to conflate insecurity with opportunity, often leading to vile acts of terror on a disenfranchised community.
Before the attacks on this community in Malawi, the vitriol had long been planted in the society. Albinos have long been mocked, taunted in the streets and looked down on.
And while “education” is touted to being the difference between acts of savagery and civility, there is little proof education has assuaged hate for its own sake.
And so it remains: People have grown so desperate, everywhere, they will believe anything, if it comes from a source they trust.
In Malawi, where traditional healers are important in the face of an absent state in rural parts of the country, they wield tremendous influence.
In other places, it is politicians or tribal leaders who speak to the concerns of the poor, who exert that type of influence.
On both ends, the desperation gives rise to con-men, crass opportunists who seek little more than to exploit the pain of others.
* Essa is a journalist at Al Jazeera. He is also co-founder of The Daily Vox
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
What’s Kaizer Motaung to do? The records are a bit sketchy, but the archives suggest not since the 1995/96 and 1996/97 seasons has Kaizer Chiefs gone two campaigns without a trophy. Not to jinx coach Steve Komphela, but it’s certainly looking like he is well on course to breaking that unwanted record.
Chiefs crashed out of the Nedbank Cup in the quarter-finals stage at the weekend, losing 5-3 on penalties to SuperSport United. With that defeat, Komphela, by his own admission, said that his side had given away an opportunity to win some silverware without needing any favours.
Regardless of yesterday’s result against Cape Town City in one of several top of the Absa Premiership table clashes around the country, Amakhosi simply do not have their fate in their own hands.
What’s Kaizer to do?
In hiring Komphela in June 2015 to replace Scotsman Stuart Baxter, who had won an impressive two league and cup doubles in three seasons, the Amakhosi supremo bucked the trend.
Komphela was the first South African - not to mention black - permanent coach since Trott Moloto in 1994.
Motaung was never really under any pressure to seek out a local to take the reins, but, perhaps through a personal conviction, he felt the need to acquire the services of one to continue the success.
He was also never expected to sack Komphela in his first year, in which Chiefs choked in two domestic cup finals and finished in fifth place on the league table, behind dark horses Platinum Stars and the now defunct Mpumalanga Black Aces.
Motaung instead fully backed the coach, arguing that Amakhosi were a team in transition following the departure of several key players and that Komphela needed time to build his own team.
Fair enough, but that didn’t stop supporters from demanding a trophy or two, which, as we now know, is yet to become a reality.
There were suggestions at the start of the season that Komphela would struggle to win anything given the quality, or lack thereof, brought in during the winter transfer season.
Chiefs mostly recruited free agents, which shouldn’t be frowned upon considering Bidvest Wits are strong favourites to clinch the championship with a side made up mostly of players who arrived without the Clever Boys spending a single cent on transfer fees. But it’s who Chiefs bought that’s up for debate here.
Komphela made things slightly worse when he insisted in an interview just before the season kicked off: “The new players were not my preference, but they fit the Chiefs way”.
Oh boy. Fast forward to just five league matches remaining with Amakhosi needing all the favours they can get to avoid going another campaign without a trophy and that statement suddenly becomes loaded.
Then again, Komphela might yet have all the luck in the world and have things his way. After all, the Premier League quite often produces dramatic results at this stage of the season - whether it’s at the top of the table or further down in the relegation quagmire.
What’s Kaizer to do?
Maybe have a strong black, excuse the pun, cup of coffee with his Orlando Pirates counterpart Irvin Khoza?
The “Iron Duke” very stubbornly ignored calls from his club supporters to give one Ruud Krol the boot after two seasons without a trophy, and then boom the Dutchman won the treble in his third year.
A Kensington mom who went missing on Saturday, and was found by police in Paarl Hospital on Monday, was kidnapped and assaulted, it has emerged.
Family of the woman say she recalled how she was brutally beaten by three males and two females in a taxi before being dumped and left for dead in Worcester.
Edwina Presence, 37, left her home on Saturday at about 9am to do shopping in Maitland, but never returned.
The mother of five has been left traumatised and could only briefly explain what had happened to her husband and mother late on Monday when they went to see her in hospital.
Police had contacted the family to say they found a woman in Paarl hospital who might be Edwina.
Husband Quinton and Edwina’s mother headed to the hospital on Monday evening, as the rest of the family anxiously waited for word from the hospital.
Edwina’s frantic 17-year-old daughter contacted the Daily Voice on Tuesday and confirmed that her mother had been found alive, but had been hurt and was still traumatised.
“My mother said she got into a Bellville taxi in Maitland because the route allows her to get to 12th Avenue in Kensington,” the teen explained.
“The taxi passed her stop and she got really frightened and panicked. Three men [one of them the driver] and two women started beating her up.
“They took her bank card and her phone and dumped her on a field in Worcester.
“They thought she was dead. That is how badly she was beaten.
“A woman found her on the road and took her to hospital.”
The ordeal has been a nightmare for her as the eldest child, as well as her little siblings who do not understand where their mother has gone.
“I am so grateful my mother is alive and will be coming home soon. I can’t wait. I knew she would never leave us for anything. I missed her so much,” says the relieved girl.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut says the vigilant work of police officers had paid dividends.
“The mother from Kensington who was reported missing has been found. The circumstances surrounding the matter are still under investigation,” was all he could say.
A young woman found half-naked with several wounds and killed, who may have been physically and mentally disabled, was found in overgrown grass at the Percival Jas Community Hall in Stock and Stock, Galeshewe on Tuesday morning-Kimberley .
Shocked residents believe that the woman was raped before she was killed, as her clothes had been pulled halfway off her body.
“Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth and her private parts were exposed. This young lady did not deserve to die in such a cruel manner. We are living among people who are worse than pigs,” said one resident.
The body was discovered by a five-year-old boy on Tuesday morning, at about 7:30am, when he peered out of a window at the crèche that is housed in the community hall.
The principal of the crèche said that the boy called her, as he thought that there was someone sleeping outside.
“Luckily the wall is high and he was not able to see what had happened to the woman. We have to watch the children closely when they play outside so that they don’t disappear under the long grass,” said the principal.
While a number of police officers and vehicles arrived on the scene, the crèche was not adjourned for the day as the children’s parents were at work.
Residents estimated that the deceased was about 16-years-old and pointed out that pedestrians often walked through the park at night as the gates were always open.
“There are a number of taverns in the area, while drug use is rife. Youngsters come to the park at all hours of the day and night to use drugs.”
Community members formed a prayer chain at the site and prayed against the evils, including the increasing drug use among youths, that are plaguing society.
Residents and the crèche also approached the ward councillor for assistance, as the grass has not been cut since last year and the recent rains have caused the veld and grass to grow prolifically.
Complaints were also made about the broken high-mast lights in the area, which residents believe is contributing to crime.
Captain Bashoabile Ernest Kale said the Galeshewe police had opened an inquest into the death of a woman who was estimated to be between the age of 28 to 30 years.
“The identity of the deceased has not been confirmed yet. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death as well as whether she was raped. There were no visible injuries, bruises or marks on her body,” said Kale.
He stated that the deceased had a right hand and foot disability and could have also possibly suffered from a mental disability.
“At this stage the police are investigating if the body was dragged and dumped at the site or if she died of natural causes due to exposure and the cold.”
Kale added that no arrests had been made yet.
Office manager of the Sol Plaatje Municipality executive mayor, George Mosimane, extended heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased.
“We condemn any form of violence committed against women and children,” said Mosimane.
He added that municipal workers were unable to clear all areas that were overgrown due to the unexpected rains.
“Our cleaning project was stopped for a while but the municipality does have a cleaning schedule where we attend to all areas.”
Mosimane indicated that they were also in the process of cleaning and clearing all drains and canals in the city.
“The community must work together with the municipality to prevent illegal dumping and littering and must refrain from throwing foreign objects into the stormwater drains.”
