Police must give man’s guns back

A Western Cape businessperson, who claims his former wife laid false criminal charges against him to gain an advantage in their divorce, has obtained a court order forcing the police to return his firearms.

The High Court in Pretoria granted an order to Shaheed Alexander, 37, setting aside the Firearms Appeal Board’s ruling that he was unfit to possess firearms for a period of five years and ordering the police minister to return his two firearms immediately.

Alexander turned to the court for relief after he was in May 2014 declared unfit to own a firearm, because of an assault charge laid against him by his now former wife, although she later withdrew the charge.

He said the charge was the result of a very protracted and acrimonious divorce, during which his wife shamelessly abused the criminal and domestic violence processes to obtain an unfair advantage over him in their divorce proceedings.

According to Alexander, his former wife laid an assault charge against him, but told him she would withdraw the charge if he agreed to sign their house over to her.

She withdrew the charge, but the police instituted an inquiry against him on the strength of allegations that he had expressed the intention to kill or injure his former wife and had “an inclination to violence”.

Alexander alleged there were material irregularities during the inquiry against him as his former wife was a witness and the presiding officer relied on her statement in the criminal matter, but refused to provide him with a copy.

He said he was “completely ambushed” by the police, was unable to prepare himself for the inquiry, was only “superficially” afforded the opportunity to cross-examine his wife and was not afforded a fair opportunity to state his side of the story.

Alexander denied he had ever threatened to kill or injure his former wife and had firearms as he was concerned about his safety in Mitchell’s Plain where he lived.

The City of Tshwane has decided to let thousands of tyres which caught fire at the weekend burn out instead of dousing the flames to prevent water and ground pollution.

MMC for community safety Derrick Kissonduth said Tshwane emergency services had battled the raging fire – which was fuelled by about 10000 tyres – in Sunderland Ridge, Centurion, since Saturday night.

He said the initial attempt was to prevent the fire from spreading to the other stacks of tyres, which were about 20m apart.

“The tyres were stored in an open field to be used at a rifle shooting range. Investigations will ensue to deal with the unlawful conduct that took place on site,” Kissonduth said.

Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said it was impossible to say how long the fire would continue to burn. “It could take up to two to three days before it is completely burnt out. “We hope it will be sooner rather than later. We are also constantly on the scene to monitor the situation,” Pieterse said. He added it was unknown how the fire started, but no one was injured. Kissonduth, together with the chairperson of the community safety oversight committee and ward councillor in the area, visited the scene to assess the risk and determine the way forward. “A decision was then taken to let the fire burn out as the emergency services did not want to pollute the water table and ground levels by putting a large volume of water on the fire.

“Protecting exposures and separating tyres from the burn area will continue to be a tactical priority, and to clear all other tyres in the area.”

Kissonduth said tyre fires presented a potential threat to the environment similar to an incident involving an oil tanker or railway tanker carrying flammable substances. This could turn the tyre pile into a running oil fire.

The environment and agriculture management will monitor the impact of air pollution at the air quality monitoring station at Pretoria West Power Station.

Kissonduth said community members could expect to see thick, black smoke. However, they need not panic as the fire posed no direct harm. –