Court stories of 2017 take the stand
BARRED from seeing her ailing dad, a devastated woman turned to the courts, claiming her family assaulted and verbally abused her after her brother’s recent death, for which she was blamed. Businesswoman Shevana Hiraman put up a spirited fight against eight family members, including her brother, sister-in-law, adult nieces and nephews.
The mother of three obtained an interim High Court order against them in the Durban High Court.
Hiraman said in her affidavit that another brother, Sanjay Basdeo, had fallen ill in October and was admitted to Stanger Hospital on a waiting list to receive a stent.
She said her brother was transferred to Entabeni Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a “much more serious problem” requiring open heart surgery, which would cost in the region of R450 000. Hiraman said some family members were extremely unhappy because of her efforts to have her brother treated at a private hospital.
She claimed her nieces, Kiara, Sharlene and Salisha, and her brother Anil had all sent her SMSes in which they blamed her for Sanjay’s death.
But Sushila Basdeo of KwaDukuza (Stanger), one of eight relatives that her sister-in-law, Hiraman, obtained the court order against, fought back.
In court papers, Basdeo and the other respondents denied the allegations and opposed the order being made final. HURT that her husband had allegedly likened her to a “sumo wrestler”, saying he would rather go fishing than sleep with her, a KwaZulu-Natal woman turned the tables on him.
After her now ex-husband allegedly tried to derail her new marriage to a wealthy doctor by hauling him before a Health Professions Council of South Africa tribunal, the scorned woman laid bare the troubles she claims had doomed their relationship.
Her ex, a 42-yearold auto electrician, claimed the general specialist surgeon had wrecked his marriage by having had an inappropriate relationship with his thenwife, while she was a patient of his between 2013 and 2014. The South Coast woman, 37, divorced her husband and married the doctor last year.
The ex-husband had testified in November that the doctor had lured away his wife by buying her a new car and flat.
However, in December, the scorned husband’s bid to get the doctor disbarred failed. The specialist surgeon, who was charged for unprofessional conduct, was found not guilty by the HPCSA. MOGAMBERRY “Rajan” Kandasamy was found to be a vicious killer, who wiped out his wife and children.
Four years after his wife Varsha, 41, daughter Melarisa, 18, and son Megandren, 17, were brutally battered with a Hanuman mace at their Chatsworth home, Kandasamy, 44, was convicted in the Durban High Court of their murders. The former chain store merchandiser was given three life sentences, despite the best attempts of his attorney, Siven Samuel, to sway the court towards a lesser sentence. Describing his client, who was in a troubled marriage, as a loving father and husband, who “lived for his family”, Samuel said the idea of divorcing his wife was not something he could accept.
Judge Shyam Gyanda said Kandasamy had not only misled the court about who was responsible for the December 29, 2013, murders, but had also shown no remorse.
His duty as a father was to nurture and protect his children, he said, but he had robbed them of their lives. The judge added that the attack was planned and premeditated. SIVAKUMAR Sugen Naicker, 37, was found guilty of stabbing his wife, Lorraine Munsamy, in a taxi in KwaDukuza (Stanger), where the estranged couple had lived.
Munsamy was a factory worker and her husband, a former taxi conductor. Munsamy’s father now cares for his three grandchildren – 7-year-old twin boys and a 5-year-old girl.
Judge Gregory Kruger found Naicker guilty of murder and two counts of assault on his wife and jailed him to life imprisonment. The incident happened in 2015.
Judge Kruger found that not only was Naicker of a violent disposition, who planned the murder, but that the State had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. A WELL-KNOWN Hindu priest suffered emotional trauma and public humiliation “in the highest order” after being accused of raping a teenage worshipper.
A year after being arrested, detained in custody and forced to move home, the charge against him was withdrawn in the city’s regional court.
This was after it was revealed that the rape allegation had been fabricated and allegedly orchestrated by a rival priest, who had wanted to destroy his following of devotees.
According to attorney Wesley John Rogers, of Jacques Botha & Associates, the girl’s cousin, who was present at the time the alleged rape took place and who had previously deposed to an affidavit supporting her version, subsequently recanted. She had submitted another affidavit confirming there was no truth to the allegations.
Last July, had reported that the teenager was demanding justice. The 18-year-old girl claimed she was raped at the priest’s home after she and her cousin had prepared his supper, which he had requested. The priest was alleged to have put on loud music and began drinking and dancing before pouncing on the girls, raping one. He also allegedly wanted them to smoke dagga. LIVING the high life with his mistress, while his wife struggled to put food on the table for their two children, a wealthy KwaZulu-Natal businessman was forced to pay up – or go to jail.
The 52-year-old man, who runs a successful marquee hire business, was expected to pay close to R1 million after a four-year court battle for maintenance.
Together with interest and costs, the cumulative amount is believed to be the highest relating to a maintenance contempt application in South Africa.
The former Chatsworth man was found to be in contempt of two 2013 court orders, for R393 500 and R161 000.
He had tried to petition for leave to appeal those judgments, but this was thrown out by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Mathew Pravda, a partner in the law firm Pravda and Knowles Attorneys, submitted evidence showing the estranged husband had lived a “lavish lifestyle” with his 54-year-old mistress, enjoying “extravagant trips” to Cape Town, Johannesburg, the Maldives and Disney World.
Pravda proved that the husband made renovations to his house, threw elaborate parties and splashed out on a new car and spa day trips for his lover – all while his wife and children were left destitute. MOTHER of two Charlene Singh will miss the most important years of her kids’ lives after being sent to prison for 15 years for conning 30 pensioners.
Singh, 33, of Pietermaritzburg, ripped off the folk, most of them elderly, of goods worth R600 000 under the guise of being a massage therapist with special healing magnets.
Appearing in the Durban Regional Court in September, Singh pleaded guilty to 30 counts of theft, possession of cocaine and attempting to escape from custody.
She claimed her drug addiction was behind the fraud committed with the help of her friend and ex-boyfriend.
Singh would pretend to massage her victims for free and ask them to remove their jewellery that apparently hindered the full healing power of the magnet.
She would then rush off to her car for a “pain-relief ointment” and never return. Hawks policeman Captain Jageesh Devnarain Singh, from the Pietermaritzburg Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, stepped in after a string of isolated cases with the same modus operandi were reported at various police stations.
Victims began sharing their experiences on Facebook and warned the public about the con woman.
This led to more than 30 cases being opened, all pointing to the same person. Magistrate Fariedha Mohamed sentenced Singh to 15 years, six months for each count against her. UNHAPPY with the R400 his 84-year old grandmother had given him, a young man is alleged to have strangled her before making off with her television set stuffed in a suitcase.
Sheldon Naicker, 21, pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial in the Durban High Court.
He said through his lawyer Maggie Pillay that while his maternal grandmother, Mariamma Govender, had given him R400, he had asked for more money as he wanted to go to Johannesburg.
But she had refused, telling him that he wanted the money for drugs. Naicker said he had merely “pushed” the elderly woman onto the sofa before leaving with the TV set.
Govender died at her Phoenix home in August last year. The post-mortem examination established the cause of death as “consistent with manual strangulation”, the court heard.
He was charged with murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and theft.
Naicker pleaded not guilty to the three charges. Durban High Court Judge, President Achmat Jappie, sentenced Naicker to 33 years in prison.
A PHOENIX father, who was charged with negligently causing the death of his wife by shooting her in December last year, on their child’s fifth birthday, walked out of court a free man.
Bruce Naidoo, 44, was charged with murder – later changed to culpable homicide – after his wife Claire, a Sunday school church teacher, was shot during an alleged tussle at the couple’s Eastbury home on December 4 last year. The 40-year-old was shot in the neck and died at the scene.
Naidoo was let off the hook due to lack of evidence. The State is believed to be considering appealing the decision by magistrate Anitha Govender on a question of law. TRADITIONAL healer Sibonakaliso Mbili will spend the rest of his life behind bars for his role in the murder of Shallcross woman Desiree Murugan.
Murugan, a divorced mother of one, was stabbed 192 times and decapitated in August 2014. She was 39 years old.
Her body was found near a Shallcross sports field. In January this year, Thuso Stanley Thelejane, 19, Mlungisi Ndlovu, 18, Mbali Magwala, 18, and traditional healer Sibonakaliso Mbili, 32, were found guilty of murder. In October, the Durban High Court jailed Thelejane and Ndlovu to 15 years behind bars.
Magwala was jailed for 12. At the start of the investigation, six people were arrested for Desiree’s death.
In September 2014, Falakhe Khumalo was convicted and jailed for life. He had pleaded guilty in the Durban Magistrate’s Court, saying he had been offered R2 million by two witchdoctors to find the head of an Indian, coloured or white woman with long hair.
Vusumuzi Gumede, 30, who was charged with being an accessory after the fact, was acquitted.
According to the indictments, Khumalo together with Ndlovu, who was a minor at the time, had lured Murugan to the field where Khumalo engaged in sexual activities with her, while Ndlovu stood guard. During this time, Thelejane, who had been hiding nearby, revealed himself and began stabbing Desiree. She was thereafter decapitated.
Ndlovu carried the head in a plastic bag and all three went to Magwala’s home.
Magwala, 15 at the time and the mother of one, washed the head before it was taken by Khumalo to a traditional healer in Mfume on the KZN South Coast.