A Week In South Africa
Stories of the past week in South Africa, Compiled by CHRIS MAKHAYE
It was a week when the past came to reclaim the present, when a police chief walked back into headquarters, when a businessman tried to fly out and ended up in leg-irons, and when a man died on a Durban pavement for the crime of being foreign.
1. MBEKI BREAKS SILENCE - "I DID NOT SUPPRESS TRC CASES"
Former President Thabo Mbeki finally entered the box at the Khampepe Commission in Newtown on Monday, and he came out swinging.
Accused of burying justice for apartheid's victims, Mbeki looked the families in the eye and called the allegations "lies".
"I did not direct, authorise or approve the suppression of investigation or prosecution of cases referred by the TRC to the NPA. I had no reason to do so," he said.
"There is no instance at all when the executive intervened to stop prosecution. Any statement that says so is a lie."
Mbeki was answering the ghost that has haunted the democratic state for 25 years - more than 300 cases referred by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the NPA that were never prosecuted. The Cradock Four. The Pebco Three. Frank Chikane's poisoning.
He denied ever holding secret meetings with apartheid generals to give them amnesty, calling it a "complete fabrication". He conceded one meeting where old SADF generals complained that foot soldiers were being made to confess while their political bosses - FW de Klerk and his cabinet - walked free.
And then he pointed the finger at the NPA itself - saying apartheid-era prosecutors never wanted to prosecute their own.
Mbeki approved 33 presidential pardons while in office, including ANC and PAC members. He now wants NPA officials held accountable. Mbeki is not completely out of box yet, as the date for his cross-examination is yet to be set.
Next in the dock: former Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla, who allegedly ordered prosecutors in 2004 to suspend all TRC investigations pending an Amnesty Task Team.
On Friday, it was the turn of Charles Nqakula, the former Police Minister in the Mbeki years, in the stand.
2. ZUMA - THE NO-SHOW
Mbeki’s successor Jacob Zuma was supposed to be next after him. But Wednesday, 22 October, was circled in red.
He did not come.
The 84-year-old MK Party leader was discharged on Sunday from St Anne's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, where he was rushed after collapsing on the campaign trail in Msinga last week.
His lawyers told evidence leader Lionel Adendorff he is too weak to travel. The Commission says it will interview him when he is "much better".
The allegation against Zuma is identical to Mbeki's - that under his tenure as head of the executive, the political suppression of TRC cases continued, denying justice to families for three decades.
Both men tried to force Justice Sisi Khampepe to recuse herself, arguing her past as an Amnesty Committee commissioner and Deputy NDPP made her biased. The High Court threw it out. The Constitutional Court dismissed their appeal in August. Now they must face her.
3. MASEMOLA RETURNS TO SAPS HQ
On Monday morning, General Fannie Masemola walked back through the doors of SAPS headquarters in Tshwane, four months after he walked out in handcuffs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa lifted his precautionary suspension on 16 October after the NPA withdrew charges.
Masemola was suspended in April over the infamous R228-million - later R360-million - SAPS health services tender to Medicare24, linked to tenderpreneur Vusimuzi "Cat" Matlala. The NPA ordered the charges withdrawn on 15 September.
"I acknowledge the past, but I will not allow it to distract us from the future," Masemola said. "The SAPS is bigger than any one person."
He promised to rebuild public confidence, resource police stations, buy vehicles, and fill 10,000 vacancies. He thanked acting commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane.
And he made a pointed promise: he will implement the recommendations of the Madlanga Commission, and he will act decisively against political killings ahead of the November 4 local elections - after four ANC Youth League members were murdered in Katlehong and two in Umgababa last week.
4. SULEMAN CARRIM - FROM BOARDROOM TO BEITBRIDGE
North West businessman Suliman Carrim thought he was on his way to Dubai. He ended up in Kgosi Mampuru II Prison.
The 49-year-old former ANC regional treasurer was nabbed at OR Tambo on 15 October by the Commission's Recommendations Task Team as he boarded a flight, final destination Saudi Arabia.
His sin: defying the Madlanga Commission. He testified in March about his dealings with "Cat" Matlala, then refused to come back, citing ill-health and refusing a medical examination. Madlanga authorised criminal charges under the Commissions Act.
He awaits judgment on bail for that case on 28 October in Pretoria.
But n Tuesday, the noose tightened.
The Task Team added him as accused in two new dockets - attempted theft, fraud, uttering, and money laundering.
The case: On 22 July at Beitbridge border post in Musina, police intercepted two vehicles - still under finance with Absa - being driven from Mahikeng to Malawi. Investigators found fraudulent bank authorisation letters had been manufactured to smuggle them across.
NPA spokesperson Mashudu Malabi: "It is alleged that Carrim, acting in collusion with his employees, attempted to steal two vehicles belonging to Absa by taking them out of the country using fraudulent documentation."
The vehicles have been returned to the bank. Two of his alleged runners were arrested at the border. Carrim appeared in Musina Magistrate's Court on Thursday and will apply for bail on 30 October.
5. MDTB - THE R10-BILLION FUEL GAMBLE
On Thursday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabled his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday, and he came bearing a sweetener on the eve of elections.
With petrol at R30.25 inland, he announced a R10-billion fuel levy cut:
From 4 November to 1 December: diesel down R3 a litre, petrol down R1.50.
From 2 December to 5 January: diesel down R1.50, petrol down R1.
Funded by clawing back R10-billion that was to go to the Central Energy Fund from last year's revenue overrun.
The cut starts on Election Day - 4 November. Godongwana denies electioneering.
Stagnant Economy
Growth forecast slashed from 1.6% to 1.2%. But Treasury says debt will stabilise for the first time in 20 years.
Also in the statement: R3.8-billion to fight gender-based violence, including 3,500 social workers, and billions more for police and local government.
Economists warn relief is temporary. Motorists say they will take what they can get.
6. MURDER ON DR PIXLEY KASEME STREET
A foreign national lay dead on the tar in Durban's city centre on Thursday morning, beaten to death by a mob that broke away from an anti-immigrant march.
Police said the victim, a man in his late 30s, was standing on the side of Dr Pixley kaSeme Street when two men peeled off from a column of March and March protesters heading into the CBD.
A crowd of about 50 then set upon him. He was declared dead at the scene.
It is the fifth killing linked to the anti-foreigner protests that have rocked the country since June, when March and Marc, led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma have been constantly leading anti-immigrants, with some issuing a deadline of 30 June for all undocumented migrants to leave.
Since then, at least two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian and a Malawian have been murdered, shops looted, cars torched in Durban and Soweto.
KZN police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda: "We have opened a case of murder."
The killing came a day after March and March staged a motorcade through Durban demanding "mass deportation". Government says more than 25,000 foreign nationals have been processed for voluntary repatriation.
7. AKA MURDER TRIAL - THE BMW THAT FOLLOWED
In the Durban High Court, the trial of Kiernan "AKA" Forbes and Tibz Motsoane continued.
State witness Constable Rajen Saunders, a CCTV expert, told Judge Nomfundo Sipunzi that accused number four, Mziwethemba Gwabeni, was the man behind the wheel.
Saunders linked a grey BMW hired by Gwabeni to the tracking of AKA from King Shaka International Airport to the Hilton Garden Inn in Umhlanga, then to a VW Polo and a Hyundai Grand i10 that circled Wish Restaurant on Florida Road on 10 February 2023.
Three hours of new video evidence was handed to the defence on Wednesday and is expected to be played on Thursday. On Friday video testimony continued throughout the day, with the State trying to link the suspect to the crime through the video footages.
Seven men are in the dock: Lindokuhle Thabani Mkhwanazi, Lindani Ndimande, Siyanda Myeza, Gwabeni, Lindokuhle Lindo Ndimande, Siyabonga and Melusi Ndimande. All pleaded not guilty to two murders, five attempted murders, conspiracy and illegal firearms.
The State alleges Gwabeni was paid R800,000 after the hit.
The Anele Tembe Inquest
Coincidentally, as the Durban trial continued, so was the inquest into Anele Tembe in the Western Cape.
The inquest into the death of Anele Tembe, the 22-year-old fiancée of late rapper Kiernan "AKA" Forbes who fell from the 10th floor of the Pepperclub Hotel on 11 April 2021, resumed at the Cape Town Magistrate's Court this week and has heard that toxicology samples taken 10 days after her death contained 0.2mg of cocaine in her stomach, plus cocaethylene formed when cocaine and alcohol mix, norcocaine, traces of an antidepressant and antipsychotic and a mood stabiliser; that a forensic investigator found a single footprint believed to be Tembe's on the outer edge of the balcony railing facing the city with no usable fingerprints due to contamination; that a pathologist said superficial neck bruises could have been hand pressure but were more likely a love bite with no clear strangulation, while a surgeon who examined Forbes hours later found fresh scratches and bruises on his forearm, behind his knee, neck and torso and said he appeared stressed; and that analysts said the trajectory was consistent with either a forceful push or a jump, not a slip — before the court adjourned to 17 November for further expert testimony.
Both the trial and inquest continues in Durban and Cape Town respectively. TQ
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