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Pupils robbed
DURBAN - A private security company, a crime prevention organisation and the police worked together to apprehend one of the suspects accused of robbing pupils of their cellphones last Friday. ET Rapid Response Managing Director Tony Lokker said that at about 2pm on Friday, a community crime prevention organisation (CCPO) foot patroller reported a robbery along School Road, Amanzimtoti, stating that suspects in a white Honda SUV had robbed schoolchildren of their cellphones.
Mutilated body found
JOHANNESBURG - The mutilated body of a 24-year-old Durban woman who had started an internship at the eThekwini Municipality last year was found on Monday, three days after she was last seen leaving her office. Luyanda Cele’s body was found dumped on one of Durban’s busy streets after she was last seen in the CBD on Friday afternoon. A missing person’s poster was published on social media, saying her colleagues reported she had left the office after work on Friday. Luyanda, who was an occupational health and safety intern at the municipality, allegedly told one of her sisters she would be home late as she was going out for drinks after work.
Blame the police
RICHARDS BAY - The EFF in northern KwaZulu-Natal claim their last minute no-show at Richards Bay port during Monday’s national shutdown was due to assaults and intimidation by law enforcement. The party’s supporters were expected to march to the port as part of their nationwide protest against load-shedding and their call for the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa. However, it was busine–ssasusua lin theport al–beit with a heavy security presence at all entrances. Workers were seen coming and leaving after their shifts with no sign of any EFF members. DURBAN - The High Court in Pietermaritzburg has heard that NPA advocate Andrew Breitenbach has submitted an affidavit in which he admits to giving legal journalist, Karyn Maughan, former President Jacob’s Zuma’s medical records.
The legal team for Advocate Billy Downer has wrapped up their submissions. The court is hearing applications by Downer and Maughan, to have their private prosecution matter set aside.
It is centred on the alleged leaking of information about Zuma’s medical condition, which was attached to court documents in the arms deal corruption trial.
For Downer, Advocate Geoff Budlender told the court that Zuma was simply trying to discredit his client.
“For the past 19 years, Zuma has made multiple applications to court with regard to the investigations of his alleged criminal offences and his prosecution. Not one of Zuma’s applications had succeeded. The reconsideration of his application to appeal was refused. We say the case now is weak… before his Lordships, there is an affidavit that is now before the court by advocate Breteinbach. He says ‘I’m the person who disclosed medical information I told Downer about it afterwards’.”
SENEGAL - Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko claimed on Monday to have survived an assassination attempt during his appearance at a politically charged trial that sparked deadly unrest last week.
Sonko, a fierce opponent of President Macky Sall, has been receiving medical treatment since he was allegedly sprayed with tear gas and manhandled while authorities escorted him to a courthouse last Thursday.
In a Facebook post that evening, Sonko said he was suffering ‘terrible dizziness’, lower abdominal pain and breathing difficulties.
“We sent the product that was sprayed on me to France to find out what it was,” Sonko said from a private clinic in the capital Dakar on Monday.
“It is an assassination attempt,” he added. Authorities have not responded to the allegation.
Violence has flared in several cities since the opposition leader’s defamation trial opened last Thursday, a case that could make him ineligible to contest next year’s presidential elections.
More than 400 people have been arrested since then, according to El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, head of communications for Sonko’s party.
In the town of Bignona, a Sonko stronghold in the south, ‘a child was shot’ last Thursday, Yankhoba Dieme, president of a local departmental council, told AFP, with an administrative official confirming the demonstrator’s death.
The clashes had started after ‘young people spontaneously went out to demonstrate in the street’, said Dieme, a member of Sonko’s party.
The security forces did not respond to requests for comment.
Sonko is being tried for allegedly defaming Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, a member of President Sall’s party.
Convictions in either the defamation trial, which has been postponed until March 30, or a separate rape case that has not gone to court, could prevent Sonko from contesting the 2024 election.