He insulted my penis, alleged killer tells court

2015-05-18 12:41

Jenna Etheridge, News24

                          

                                            Dr Louis Heyns

Cape Town - A man repeatedly hit and kicked a Stellenbosch doctor because he had apparently insulted his penis, he told the Western Cape High Court on Monday.

Marthinus van der Walt, 35, took the stand to offer his version of events after pleading not guilty to hijacking, kidnapping and killing Louis Heyns in May 2013.

He testified that Heyns, a well-known paediatrician and academic, got out of his black Peugeot in the evening and approached him in a bushy area near the ocean in Strand. He wanted to know what Van der Walt charged for sexual favours.

“We stepped into the bush, where he grabbed me. He said: 'You expect me to pay you but your penis won’t even get hard’. That is when I hit him in different places,” Van der Walt told his lawyer Gert Fourie in Afrikaans.

“I was just angry. I can’t say how long I hit him for … that is when I realised I had seriously injured him. It was wrong. It was not my intention to do something like that.”

Heyns's wife and other family members shook their heads at hearing his testimony.

‘The drugs made me do it’

Van der Walt said he and his brother Sarel had travelled from Malmesbury to Strand early that morning to take drugs and drink in the bushes next to the Supertube. Sarel had beer and he had a vodka cooler.

He also smoked Tik (methamphetamine) and dagga, and took Mandrax. His brother only drank beer.
Van der Walt told the court his thinking was impaired by the drugs and alcohol.

“My thoughts were not clean and pure. Tik makes you angry and argumentative. Sometimes it makes you a bit paranoid. If it wasn’t for the drugs, what happened wouldn’t have happened.”

Sarel apparently stopped the assault. Marthinus used Heyns’s belt and shoelaces to tie the victim up while he was on the ground. He felt for a pulse but there was none.

“I didn’t know what to do. My paranoia told me that the police wouldn’t believe me no matter what I told them.”

‘I felt scared’

He decided to take Heyns's car keys and flee the scene with his brother. They later returned to check he was dead. They buried him in a shallow sand grave.

Van der Walt told Fourie he did not kill the doctor with the intention of stealing his car.

He said he put his SIM card into Heyns’s phone because his own phone battery was dead and he needed to make calls.

He felt scared the following day and tried to get rid of the car, the court heard. A few days after that, he decided to contact a police officer acquaintance to tell him what had happened and ask for his advice.

Van der Walt said he knew his actions were wrong and never intended for Heyns to die.

Last year, Sarel van der Walt pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to the murder and theft. He reached a plea bargain with the State and is currently serving a seven-year sentence

Zwelithini's advisers to investigate xenophobia complaints before responding

2015-05-20 15:41

Amanda Khoza, News24

                                    

                                        King Goodwill Zwelithini (City Press)

Durban - King Goodwill Zwelithini’s advisers will investigate the “genuineness" and "fairness” of the complaints made against him before responding, said Judge Jerome Ngwenya on Wednesday.

The SA Human Rights Commission met Zwelithini’s advisers in Durban on Tuesday to discuss complaints made about a speech the king delivered during a moral regeneration event in Pongola in March.

Judge Jerome Ngwenya, who is leading the team of advisers, said: “We are happy with the manner in which the commission has handled the matter so far.

"What we are going to do on our side is look at the genuineness and the fairness of the complaints before responding because we have picked up that some complaints are derogatory and insulting to the king.

“We are wary of such things because some of the people who complained were not present when the statements were made, but they were quick to jump on the bandwagon after reading newspapers and hearing it on the radio.”

Complaints about comments

He said the meeting was the first official one with the commission.

“Until recently we had heard that there had been complaints about the king’s comments. This was the first official meeting with the commission where they presented the statements to us.

“We have agreed to respond to the statements, following that they can tell us if they need further evidence or input from us.”

Ngwenya said the process of formulating a response would include going through each complaint.

“After going through each statement we are going to formulate a summary response. We won’t be responding to each statement individually because some of the complaints are the same,” said Ngwenya.  

The commission's advocate, Lawrence Mushwana, and commissioner Lindiwe Mokate chaired Tuesday’s consultation.

The commission’s spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, said: “There was nothing unusual about the meeting. It is the process of every investigation. We meet with the complainants and the respondents to gather further evidence and to seek clarity on the matter.”

Investigation in final stages

Mangena said the commission had received 28 complaints, most relating to the alleged utterances made by the king.

“The investigation is in its final stages and we are about to release our preliminary findings. We think we will release the findings by mid-June.”

Mangena said the king has been co-operating with the investigation.

“[The king's advisers] have promised that we will have their full co-operation with any binding issues that we may arrive at and they have also promised to respond to the complaints.

“We in turn have promised to give them time to formulate a response. This will also give us time to go through the investigation which forms part of a bigger investigation by the commission into the root cause of the recent xenophobic attacks in the country.”

Mangena said the commission had also received complaints against President Jacob Zuma’s son, Edward.

“Unfortunately I don’t have all the details of that investigation because we are still dealing with the king’s investigation but we have received complaints against Edward Zuma.”

Mom hopes doctor can help son born without penis

Vania van der Heever, Netwerk24

                         

Surgeons carry out the world's first successful penis transplant. (Stellenbosch University)

Johannesburg - The mother of a 5-year-old boy is hoping that the Cape Town "penis doctor" can help her child who was born without sexual organs.
The boy was born with a rare condition called epispadias and he still has to wear nappies.
He has had to undergo several operations and now urinates through an implanted tube.
But the tube often breaks and causes serious bladder infections, his mom told Netwerk24 from their home in Rustenburg in the North West.
Professor Dionne Celliers, a urologist from Pretoria, said the boy was suffering from a severe case of epispadias.
She has referred him to experts at the Red Cross hospital in Cape Town.
The boy and his mom are scheduled to travel to Cape Town on June 28.
‘I will sell everything’
She hopes to then meet professor Andre van der Merwe, the urologist from the University of Stellenbosch, who earlier this year performed the world's first successful penis transplant.
She has sent him the results of his medical tests and is waiting for feedback on whether he would be able to help her son.
"I hope they can help my child,” she said.
"It doesn't matter what it costs. I will sell everything in my house so that my child can lead a normal life.”
He never gets invited to birthday parties and cannot play at his friends' homes because he is still wearing nappies.
He also gets teased about it.
"He does not understand... it breaks my heart," said his mom.   -News24

Doers stand up and be counted

By Upenyu Silent Chaota
A great thinker in his memoirs once said, "The only way for evil to triumph is for good man to do nothing". This proves to be true in the Zimbabwean context.
Many of us are just talkers and less of doers. This great nation needs pragmatists and not idealists.
Idealists should now keep their ideas to themselves because saying alone is not suffice to change the world.
After all has been said and done, it is the doers who change the world and changes us. So doers stand up and be counted.
Zimbabwean politics has now been tainted because of talkers who never act upon their words. All we hear is political party A is now at logger heads with political party B the same with politicians who are on each other's throat for political expediency.
We have been made to believe that the ruling party has failed the people and the economy. Yes talk is cheap but what are we doing about it- if they really have failed- or could it be that they haven't failed that's why no one is standing up?
For the past 35 years we have been ruled by our revolutionary party and with our one president- i am sure those with quick imaginations know this party which i already have forgotten about.
Now here comes the problem...since my memory to remember names is a bit blurry, there is this opposition party which claims to be the one to lead the country to Canaan (the land of milk and honey) but what they have done thus far is just talk about it.
They have talked about massive demos, for over a year now, to end people's suffering but the idea lacked practice. It was never set in motion. Lets walk the talk gentleman- Doers stand up and be counted.
If i remember well- well at least if i try- the same opposition now threatens to boycott elections!!! I remember they are saying something like 'No Reforms No Elections' but what i am yet to understand is what it is exactly they want reformed in the electoral process.
I am sure that these reforms are going to be a pipe-dream so does it mean that we are no longer going to Canaan? How sad. 
If people continue talking and not act on their words, they should just be told to shut up and sit down or euphemistically- Talk is cheap.
Am not saying its bad to talk but do not talk and give people hopeless hope when you cannot man up and be a doers.
As i pen this down i would like to share my sympathies with the Dzamara family as they are suffering over the disappearance of Itai Dzamara and plead with his abductors to return him to his family.
For now i will rest it here- Doers stand up and be counted.

China baby survives 8 days buried alive - reports

2015-05-13 08:47


                                        

Beijing - A Chinese baby born with a cleft lip was abandoned by his parents and buried in a cardboard box two days later, but rescued alive eight days further on, media reported.
The parents left the baby in a remote countryside in the southern province of Guangxi, before he was buried, apparently by relatives who believed he had died, Guangxi Online News said.
But water and air were able to seep into the box, the report said.
The baby was buried in a container the size of a shoebox on a dusty dry, landscape, surrounded by long grass, according to images posted by China Central Television on its verified account on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
He was discovered when a woman heard him crying as she was picking herbs, the post by the state broadcaster late on Tuesday said.
The baby was spitting soil when doctors examined him last week, the Guangxi Online News said.
"Five people including three relatives have been detained on suspicion of intentional murder," CCTV said.
A disabled child can be a huge drain on a family's resources in China, and many of the babies abandoned in the country are given up because parents cannot afford expensive medical bills and fees for special education, authorities say.
China's strict family planning rules can also be a factor, although the one-child policy normally allows parents to have another baby if their first is disabled.
A relaxation of the regulations in late 2013 also allows couples to have two offspring if at least one parent was an only child.

- Source News24

ZCTU blames government for the ailing economy

As the nation joins the whole world in commemorating May Day today, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) blames the government for the failure of the economy. They also blame them for not delivering the 2million jobs they promised to the electorate but rather they spent most time and resources fighting each other for political posts like cats and dogs.

This year's commemorations are running under the theme, "Workers under siege arise and fight on".

He said it in black and white..."Kana MDC T isingadi kupinda mumaelections tichatonga tigotonga tigozotonga (If MDC T doesn't want to take part in any elections we will rule and rule and rule", VP Emerson Mnangagwa in Masvingo last week.