Nzimande urges caution at rail crossings after Buttskop tragedy

Nzimande urges caution at rail crossings after Buttskop tragedy

2018-04-29

Jenni Evans

Seven people have been killed in a crash at the Butttskop level crossing in Blackheath. (Supplied by Kenny Africa)

Transport Minister Blade Nzimande urged extreme caution at railway crossings after seven people were killed when a Metrorail train slammed into a bakkie at Buttskop level crossing in the Western Cape on Friday.

"Road users are called upon to be circumspect when using our roads or crossing the railway, as human [error] account[s] for the majority of the crashes we have in South Africa," Nzimande said on Saturday.

READ: 7 killed after train, vehicle collide at level crossing

In a statement expressing condolences to the families and friends of the seven people who were killed, Nzimande said that according to preliminary investigations, a bakkie and a taxi were driving on Frederick Road, parallel to the railway track approaching the crossing on Friday.

"As the train was approaching the crossing, the taxi drove across and the bakkie followed the taxi, but was unfortunately hit by the train," said Nzimande.

The collision took place at the Buttskop Level Crossing, east of Cape Town, which is protected by boom gates and flashing lights, at 05:46 on Friday.

READ: Railway watchdog probes deadly Cape Town level crossing crash

He called on the Railway Safety Regulator to continue with railway safety information sharing, and the enforcement of railroad rules.

^{Seven people have been killed in a crash at the Butttskop level crossing in Blackheath. (Supplied by Kenny Africa)}

New twist in eNatis court case

CRIME & COURTS / 18 Jun '16,

ANA Reporter

Pretoria – Tasima (Pty) Ltd, the company which operates South Africa’s eNatis vehicle management system, has convinced the High Court in Pretoria that the transport department was in contempt for failing to pay a portion of money owed from a long-standing contract.

However, it is this same contract, with a total value of R1.8 billion and awarded in October 2010, that the department is currently asking the Constitutional Court to declare invalid.

File photo. Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Simultaneously, Tasima is being charged, alongside former transport minister Sbu Ndebele and eight other accused, for fraud, corruption, racketeering, and bribery related to the same contract.

Since being charged, Ndebele has been recalled as South Africa’s high commissioner to Australia.

This week, High Court in Pretoria Judge Neil Tuchten found the department and director general Pule Selepe were in breach of an order to pay Tasima R104 million, which the department had been ordered to do by the same court on May 6, by Judge J Basson, by no later than May 25.

After the department failed to pay, Tasima on May 31 brought an application before Tuchten to find the department and Selepe in “breach and wilful contempt” of Basson’s order and asking for imprisonment and costs to be awarded. On June 6, under pressure by Tasima and the pending court action, the department made payment.

“[Selepe] acted wilfully and mala fide [in bad faith with intent to deceive] [by failing to pay on time],” said Tuchten.

While imprisonment was no longer sought as payment had been made, a cost order had to be made. “I regret that this will give rise merely to an additional disbursement from the public purse,” said Tuchten.

Tasima developed and operated the electronic national administration traffic information system (eNatis) – the official register for all vehicle, driving licence, traffic contraventions, and accident data – from 2002 to 2007.

It then operated on a month-to-month basis until October 2010 when a new, now disputed, five-year contract was signed by then director general George Mahlalela.

In June 2015, on the back of an investigation into the new contract launched in 2014 by the Special Investigating Unit, the department successfully convinced the Pretoria High Court that the contract was invalid, but Tasima had this overturned on appeal. The Constitutional Court matter has yet to be finalised.

The criminal investigation, expected to continue next month, has already uncovered an alleged mountain of corruption, including hotel stays, air-tickets, Fifa world cup 2010 tickets, dodgy lease agreements, and in excess of R10 million allegedly paid to Ndebele by a private company linked to Sibusiso Ncube, who was also a middle-man in the re-awarding of the eNatis contract.

Ncube, a long-time ally of President Jacob Zuma, is married to KwaZulu-Natal local government MEC and African National Congress provincial treasurer Nomusa Dube-Ncube.

African News Agency

System snarls drunk-driving campaigns

INDUSTRY NEWS / 25 Feb '13,

Colleen Dardagan

Dedicated policing and massive public awareness campaigns to stop drunk driving are all for naught after it has emerged that most of those arrested are escaping prosecution because of administrative snarl-ups and blood test backlogs.

The festive season blitz, which saw 2800 people arrested for drunk driving, might as well never have happened as blood samples are not being processed timeously, making prosecutions unlikely.

File photo: Hannes Thiart. Credit: Ex-QDMS

This is despite statistics showing that alcohol accounts for 65 percent of road accidents.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said transport officials were very concerned.

“There has been a meeting with the national justice cluster to make drunk-driving cases a priority in the courts,” he said.

Llewellyn Curlewis, from the Law Society of South Africa, said lab reports on blood samples could take up to six months before they were completed.

CASES DISCHARGED

“The person arrested will usually appear in court within 48 hours, when their case is then postponed for six months to give the police time to get the lab results. But by the time they have managed to secure the results, the case has been discharged,” he said.

Last week, staff at the national health department’s pathology lab, where blood samples are sent for testing, confirmed that many of the festive season samples had not been processed.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) refused to release statistics of how many of the 12 867 drivers arrested in KZN for drunk driving between April 2011 and March 2012 were ever convicted.

These statistics, they claim, were only for “official purposes”.

The Justice Department also declined to respond to how many of the cases heard in the province’s courts last year resulted in convictions, referring queries to the NPA.

Curlewis said the NPA and Justice Department would not release the figures as they showed how few drivers arrested for being over the limit were ever convicted.

“I doubt they would like to hand those out to the public,” he said.

Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesman Ashref Ismail said the corporation was also denied access to the statistics.

Health Department spokesman Popo Maja said the turnaround time on drunk-driving tests was 12 to 18 weeks, but admitted the 2 759 samples received from the police over the festive season were yet to be processed.

KZN police spokesman Thulani Zwane said six months was more the reality. -The Mercury

Bribes are an affront to God, traffic cops told

CRIME & COURTS / 15 Jun '16,

NOMASWAZI NKOSI

Pretoria - If you accept bribes, you are an embarrassment to God. Minister of Transport Dipou Peters did not mince her words when she said this on Tuesday during the graduation ceremony of 200 traffic officers in Pretoria West.

“If you accept a bribe you are an embarrassment to God your creator and to your family. When they write about you in the newspaper they use your surname and it tarnishes your family name,” Peters said.

The mobile vehicle testing stations that Transport Minister Dipuo Peters handed over in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe. Credit: PRETORIA NEWS

She said the habit some traffic officers had of asking for “cold drink” (slang for a bribe) money should end.

“Resist the temptation to accept bribes. Enforce the law without fear, favour or prejudice,” she said.

Free State MEC for Police, Roads and Transport Butana Komphela said traffic officers who accepted bribes under his jurisdiction should not expect the union to save them.

“When a traffic officer accepts a bribe, I don’t listen to these unions. I will take these unions to court until they run out of money,” Komphela said.

In his province when someone was arrested for excessive speeding on a Thursday, they should not appear in court the following day, they should instead appear on Monday morning with their clothes reeking of a prison smell.

Peters said she loved the idea that people arrested for speeding on a Thursday should only appear in court on a Monday.

“I have spoken to the Department of Justice and the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) because we are tired of the traffic officers giving people fines of R10 000 only for the magistrate to reduce it to R200,” she said.

She announced that all traffic officers in all provinces would wear identical uniforms and the vehicles used would also be branded in the same way.

Peters handed over nine mobile testing stations, one for each province, enabling law enforcement officers to do their jobs better.

The mobile testing stations can test braking systems and faulty lights and steering wheel functions.

“The day of driving unfit vehicles is coming to an end,” Peters said.

She revealed that in cases of fatal accidents, unroadworthy vehicles were the leading cause.

One of the new recruits, Mologadi Ngoasheng, from Limpopo, won an award for the best student for her work during the 12 months they were in training. She said she was a second-year law student at the University of Johannesburg and it was through volunteer work that she wound up doing a course in traffic law enforcement.

“Not all women were created equally. The best become law enforcement officers and I am one of them,” she said during her acceptance speech.

nomaswazi.nkosi@inl.co.za

Pretoria News

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Western Cape leads in cop killings

 

• 14 Jun 2016
• Cape Times
• Dominic Adriaanse

THE Western Cape has suffered the most attacks on police officers of all provinces.

Picture: CINDY WAXA

DEATH SCENE: A police officer was shot dead last night at a garage in Delft while investigating a robbery.

This is what national police spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi, said yesterday after constable Mthetho Sandla, 35, was shot dead and his partner wounded when they responded to a business robbery in Delft early yesterday.

A total of 714 police officers have come under attack nationally – 276 in the Western Cape alone, Mulaudzi said.

About 38 police officers have been killed this year.

“As of the turn of the year, 276 police officers in total have been attacked within the province.

“The Western Cape has the most attacks on police officers of all provinces” said Mulaudzi.

Hawks spokesperson, Lloyd Ramovha, confirmed police officers responded to a robbery in progress at a garage in Delft Main Road early yesterday.

“The officers came on the scene and were ambushed by two AK-47 wielding suspects who shot at them indiscriminately before fleeing,” said Ramovha.

Three balaclava-clad accomplices emerged from the store, joined the shooters as they fled and left explosives behind, Ramovha said,

“This points at a failed ATM bombing attempt.

“A 35-year-old constable succumbed to his injuries on the scene while a warrant officer is receiving treatment at a hospital.

“No arrests have been made,” he said.

Yesterday’s incident followed last month’s killing of constable Luntu Nkabi in what his family believed was a “planned and well orchestrated” attack.

Other recent attacks on police officers included Lindekile Skade, who was shot and killed outside From page 1 his Lower Crossroads house and his official gun taken, a 32year-old constable, stationed at Mitchells Plain shot and wounded while sitting in a vehicle in Nyanga, and a 42year-old warrant officer, stationed at Milnerton, shot and wounded while responding to a business robbery in Joe Slovo, Milnerton.

Community Safety MEC Dan Plato condemned yesterday’s attack.

“This murder in cold blood is an attack on the police and an attack on the communities our officers work to keep safe,” said Plato.

His department offered a R50 000 reward for information resulting in an arrest and successful conviction.

YENGENI 'DIDN'T ENDANGER ANYONE’S LIFE' ON NIGHT OF ARREST

The ANC NEC member is back on the witness stand for the resumption of his trial in Cape Town.

FILE: Tony Yengeni leaves the Cape Town Magistrates Court after his drunk driving trial resumed on Friday, 11 December 2015. Picture: Xolani Koyana/EWN.

Xolani Koyana |

CAPE TOWN – African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) member Tony Yengeni has told the court he did not endanger anyone’s life on the night he was arrested for alleged drunk driving.
Yengeni is back on the witness stand for the resumption of his trial in the Cape Town Magistrates Court today.
The state claims the politician was three times beyond the legal limit, but he says he only had three sips of traditional beer hours before his arrest. 

Under cross examination by Prosecutor Leon Snyman, Yengeni has denied that he was driving recklessly on the night he was arrested.

Yengeni says the impression being created is that he was endangering the lives of other motorists.

But that is not the case, he argued.
He told the court the notion that he was driving while drunk is a figment of someone’s imagination.
Snyman showed the court CCTV footage of the night Yengeni was arrested, in which he alleges the politician’s vehicle made several illegal moves.
He says Yengeni had previously told the court he did not change lanes but the video shows otherwise.

(Edited by Leeto M Khoza)

City’s Informant Reward System pays off

CITY OF CAPE TOWN

7 JUNE 2016

MEDIA RELEASE

City’s Informant Reward System pays off

The return on investment has been huge since the launch of the City’s initiative to reward informants which sees members of the public paid a small cash amount in exchange for blowing the whistle on crime. Read more below:

The City of Cape Town has made dozens of arrests and recovered stolen goods and contraband worth millions of rands, courtesy of its Informant Reward System.

The City’s Safety and Security Directorate formulated the Informant Reward Policy in 2013. It makes provision for payment of up to R1 000 for information that will lead to an arrest or the successful confiscation or recovery of stolen goods or contraband.

Since the initiative was launched in October 2013, 34 payments have been made to informants, totalling R33 500. In return, the City has made 51 arrests:

Charge

Number of arrests

Theft

21

Dealing in drugs

12

Murder

6

Kidnapping/human trafficking

6

Illegal possession of firearms

5

Attempted murder

1

Total

51

In addition to the arrests, staff have also recovered the following:

· Drugs with a street value of more than R485 000

· Abalone valued at R5 million

· Four firearms, including an R4 assault rifle

· Copper cable and other metals valued in excess of R500 000

‘The return on investment is a no-brainer and if ever there was doubt about the success of the reward policy, these operational outcomes surely put those doubts to bed,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

Applications for the payment of a reward can only be submitted by the member of the Safety and Security Directorate who received the information that led to the arrest(s) or recovery of stolen goods. They have to provide proof of the informant’s involvement to a special committee which considers each application. The system is not open to people under the age of 18 or City of Cape Town employees.

‘The information is handled very sensitively because we don’t want to compromise the safety of the informants. Some people are critical of such payment reward schemes, but the benefits of stopping crimes of this nature completely outweigh the small cost of paying informants. Our enforcement staff cannot be everywhere all of the time. We need extra eyes and ears on the ground that can provide good intelligence to help us rid the streets of criminals,’ added Alderman Smith.

End