The stories that made headlines
Tanya Waterworth, Arthi Gopi and Duncan Guy look back at some of the stand-out reports in The Independent on Saturday in 2016
January 2
IT’S now a year since the news broke after nearly a month’s silence that six tigers had been shot dead in the Cato Ridge area.
Their owner, circus entrepreneur Brian Boswell, claimed at the time that they had escaped from their enclosures at the National Zoological Gardens and Lion Park after their locks had been removed and were a danger on the loose.
Animal rights activists reacted with fury and protested outside the premises.
This week, he told The Independent on Saturday: “Nothing that I know of has come of any investigations,” adding that no exhumations of their carcasses had taken place, as was spoken about at the time.
This week, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife was not in a position to confirm whether the investigation into their deaths had been wound up or was still pending. February 13 Dinesh Nana was sentenced to 12 years’ jail with four suspended and Bilal Tayob was given 10 years wholly suspended for the kidnapping, robbery and murder of graphic designer Kurtlee Pillay in November 2014.
Both had turned State witness and pleaded guilty to kidnapping, robbery and murder.
Blain Raman, labelled the ringleader, was acquitted in May last year but when the other two were sentenced, the Durban High Court ordered he be investigated and prosecuted. He is expected to stand trial in February.
Pillay was stabbed several times and dragged under a vehicle. He was found dead at 45th Cutting having been caught in a trap to lure him and “teach him a lesson” for his friendship with Raman’s girlfriend, the court heard.
Tayob’s lawyer recommended that a payment be made to Pillay’s mother as part of the plea bargain agreement, but Tracey Pillay told the court: “Money can never bring him back.” March 5 The Durban Child and Youth Care Centre was burgled three times in one week, in February. The home, which houses up to 82 children on two properties, relies on subsidies and donations to operate. The children at the home are aged between 2 and 18.
A microwave, two urns, speakers, two plastic chairs, six school bags and even lunch that had been prepared for the children had been stolen. No one was hurt in the incidents.
After reading the article in the paper, Hampson Interiors and Hampson Peters, owned by Russell Hampson, donated R65 000 to the centre, to be used for security upgrades.
Director of the centre, Mandy Goble, said dozens of people called to pledge their support and replace items at the centre, and they were overwhelmed by the support of the public after the article was published. March 12 Durban Metro Police member Ed Thompson was sentenced to six years and eight months by a Peruvian court after being found with drugs in his suitcase.
He maintained they were not his and his hearing followed a plea bargain, according to reports. Back home, friends set up a Facebook page to rally for support.
Around the time of Thompson’s arrest, in March, seven other South Africans were also arrested on drug charges, one in Peru and the others in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Phoenix residents were among the first to have water restrictors fitted to their water pipes in Durban as the drought took its toll on the province. These devices were to restrict the water flow to households, but residents said the municipality had not given any prior notification about the restrictor roll-out. Residents also voiced concern over leaks once they had been fitted.
As winter followed, the levels of Durban’s two main supply dams, Midmar and Albert Falls, continued to drop. Hazelmere Dam dropped to 25 percent but rose later to 70 percent. In September, restrictions were lifted in Ballito and other places in its supply area.
While dam levels remained low, rain later in the year caused the countryside to change colour, prompting talk of a “green drought”.
While holidaying with family, Liam Lotter from the Midlands discovered a piece of wreckage on a beach in Inhambane, Mozambique, which proved to be part of the missing MH370 flight. The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 vanished on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, sparking one of the biggest searches in air crash investigation history.
A number on the piece of wreckage found by Lotter identified it as a Boeing 777.
In August, Lotter, US adventurer, Blaine Gibson, who had also been investigating the plane's disappearance, and Neels Kruger from Pretoria, who had found another piece of the missing plane on a Mossel Bay beach, scoured KZN beaches for four days but no further wreckage was found. March 19 Umhlanga doctor Genchen (Robin) Rugnath and his wife, Ravina, said they would sue the State after being acquitted of all charges of human trafficking, racketeering and running a brothel.
Sandile Zweni, 37, Nonduzo Dlamini, 24, and Bhabha Dubazini, 29, were all found guilty on a number of charges relating to the trafficking and prostitution operation they ran from the Inn Town Lodge, owned by the Rugnaths.
The couple’s lawyer, Anand Nepaul, said it was the first major human trafficking case in South Africa.
It is still to be determined by the court as to whether the lodge’s manager, Veena Budhram, who turned State witness, will be charged after the Rugnaths’ acquittal. April 9 The arrest of Glenwood High School’s former headmaster, Trevor Kershaw, sent shock waves through Durban’s education community.
Kershaw appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court facing a charge of fraud relating to 1 577 payments totalling more than R5 million.
The trial has been set down for 18 days in August next year.
Kershaw had been employed as the school’s headmaster from 1999 until December 2015. April 23 Sharks rugby fans reacted to the controversial announcement in April that the Sharks may move their matches from the Shark Tank, Kings Park Stadium, to the Moses Mabhida Stadium next year.
After a press statement by former Sharks chief executive John Smit, social media went into overdrive, with some fans expressing outrage over the predicted move from the familiar Shark Tank, while some welcomed the news with great enthusiasm.
Smit quit as CEO in May, saying he wished to spend more time with his family, as the beleaguered franchise struggled on and off the field.
Former Springbok captain Gary Teichmann has since taken over the reins as chief executive.
There have been no further announcements about a possible move from the Shark Tank. May 21 Phoenix residents Sumeer Maharaj and Pravin Mahabir died tragically after they were struck by a vehicle on the M4 bridge near Blue Lagoon in May this year. The two were helping fix their friend’s vehicle which had broken down.
The driver of that vehicle, Kearadilwe Refilwe Modise Moloto, fled, and the surviving friends only remembered that the vehicle that struck them was a Kia Koup.
Soon after, friends of the young men launched a massive search to trace the driver.
The driver had allegedly taken her vehicle to a repair company, and the police were called. A 38-year-old Gauteng woman faces charges of culpable homicide, failing to perform the duties of a driver after an accident, driving recklessly and negligently and defeating or obstructing the ends of justice.
Junaid Singh, 28, from Phoenix, the owner of the vehicle that had broken down, spoke to The Independent on Saturday in an emotional interview about the closeness of the friends, and his devastation at losing them. Maharaj had died at the scene and Mahabir died later in hospital. The trial date will be set on January 18. June 11 A night in June saw a fire raze the 5 000-seater Jesus Dome of the Durban Christian Centre (DCC) in Mayville.
Services have since been held in a tent with half the seating capacity.
The DCC was started by Pastors Fred and Nellie Roberts in 1979. Their daughter and son-in-law, Pastors John and Joy Torrens, have since taken over from them.
The institution prides itself as a pioneering multi-racial, interdenominational charismatic church in Durban. June 11 In September, disgraced South African tennis icon Bob Hewitt started serving a six-year sentence at St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth after being found guilty of two charges of rape which took place in the 1980s and one charge of sexual assault from an incident in the 1990s.
The historical allegations regarding Hewitt first surfaced in 2011 when one of Hewitt’s former tennis protégés, USbased Heather Crowe-Conner, told The Boston Globe that Hewitt had raped and molested her.
The Independent on Saturday broke the story in South Africa, as former tennis pupils coached by Hewitt in South Africa came forward with similar allegations. A rape charge was laid by one of his former victims, which led to a lengthy investigation by SA authorities and more victims coming forward.
In November 2012, Hewitt was suspended from the International Tennis Hall of Fame and in March 2015 he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault. His appeal against his six-year sentence was denied in June and he started serving time. Hewitt was a doubles champion, winning seven Wimbledon titles. June 18 Our readers joined in the excitement of a new arrival this year by naming a baby elephant born at Thula Thula Private Reserve in Zululand in June.
Baby “Themba” received loads of attention and suggestions for a name from readers after we featured her birth to mother elephant Nandi and bull elephant Mabula.
Thula Thula’s Françoise Malby Anthony confirmed the new addition to their elephant family after the whole herd disappeared into some thick bushes for a number of days. They emerged with the tiny baby and made their way down to the main house on the reserve to show off the new baby.
While the female elephants kept a close circle around the baby as the herd travelled through the reserve, big daddy Mabula, who is known on the reserve for his antics and showing off to visitors, also kept close at hand.
Thula Thula Private Reserve was the home of “elephant whisperer” and worldfamous conservationist, the late Lawrence Anthony. July 30 The centenary of Delville Wood, the battle in France in which so many South Africans were killed during World War I, saw a pilgrimage of South Africans to the site.
Among them were delegations from KwaZulu-Natal schools that had lost old boys: Hilton College, Michaelhouse, Durban High School and Maritzburg College. Glenwood High School commemorated the event at home, its preparatory school establishing a memorial garden to remember its fallen.
The trip also saw a photograph by Jonathan Burton of Pietermaritzburg’s famous weeping cross presented to French President Francois Hollande.
The cross, which is made from wood brought back from the battle site, is on display at the Garden of Remembrance in the capital. Every year around the anniversary of the battle it “weeps” as it releases resin. August 20 Non-profit civil society organisations came out in force to protest against the Department of Social Development offices in Phoenix to highlight proposed subsidy cuts on the social services sector which could see a meltdown in services across the province.
Organisations such as the Black Sash, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and the KZN Civil Society Coalition joined other NGOs to hand over a memorandum to the department detailing their concerns over proposed drastic cuts in subsidies from the government.
Social Development MEC Weziwe Thusi, who had denied any such cuts would take place, scheduled further meetings with the NGOs, promising no budget cuts in the current financial year, but advising that the department would embark on a rationalisation process. September 3 When we ran a story on high utility bills, dozens of readers told us of their bad experiences with the council. Residents, whose bills were almost double their average monthly bills, were angry at the excessive amounts, and called for the city to reveal the cause of the problem. The inflated bills were received at the same time as the city changed to a new revenue management system, and the annual tariff increase. The city maintained there was no error on their side. September 17 The Independent on Saturday closely followed the case of murdered schoolboy Shahiel Sewpujun because it was a case that touched the hearts of everyone who heard about it.
Sewpujun, a 9-year-old Grade 4 pupil at Clayhaven Primary School, did not go to school in February 2015, and a massive search was launched. The truth hit close to home – two female relatives whom he and his mother lived with, 32-year-old Kavitha Naicker and her 56-year-old mother, Rajwanthie Haripersadh, were sentenced in the Durban High Court in November this year for his murder.
As he was getting ready for school, Sewpujun was hit on the head with a chisel, his mouth covered with tape and his naked body placed in a bin bag to be dumped later in a nearby drain. His mother, Ishara Dewnarain, only learnt of his disappearance when she returned home from work. His body was found a few days later. Durban High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay sentenced Haripersadh to 25 years in jail, while Naicker was handed a term of life imprisonment. October 1 At the end of September, six armed men stormed the premises of charity organisation ABH (Aryan Benevolent Home) in Chatsworth. The gang attacked and tied up two security guards before ransacking the buildings, taking most of the food from their stores.
The organisation houses 700 residents at their Chatsworth Centre, which includes children, mentally and physically challenged adults, and the aged, and their central stores also supply smaller homes in Chatsworth and Sydenham.
ABH board member Nirode Bramdaw appealed to the public for help to re-stock their food stores and our readers responded with a huge outpouring of concern and generosity. October 22 Former jockey Graham Gregorowski appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on a murder charge after the body of Shongweni resident Janet Scott was found at his home.
The Scott family are wellknown in horse-racing circles and Scott’s death created shock waves in the community.
State prosecutor Nqobile Malinga said Scott’s face was so badly injured as to be “unrecognisable”.
Gregorowski’s bail hearing will continue in February. He will stay in custody until then.