Blindness
: MEC liable to pay damages - 9 October
The KZN Health MEC has been held liable by the high court in
Pietermaritzburg to pay damages for a child’s blindness. Judge
Trevor Gorven yesterday ruled in favour of Tanya Bunge, who sued
the MEC as well as medical practitioners at Port Shepstone
Hospital for negligence in connection with their dealings with
her premature baby boy, George, in 2003. She later withdrew the
lawsuit against the doctors as it was common cause that the MEC
is legally liable for their conduct as their employer. At this
stage the high court has ruled only that the MEC is liable to
pay damages, and the actual sum will be determined separately. -
The Witness website
Rape
me instead, pleads granny - 21 October
A young rape victim yesterday spoke of how her grandmother
begged her attacker to leave the girl alone and rape her
instead. This was the testimony of a nine-year-old Grade 4 pupil
in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. "He unzipped his pants
and he raped [my 12-year old sister] twice," she said. The
girl said he untied her and her grandmother and told them to
follow him into the next room where he again raped her sister.
"He tried to rape me, but he couldn't. It was hurting me a
lot. My grandmother told him to please leave me alone and should
rather do that to her, and not to me because I am still a young
child". The girl said Mbhele then raped her grandmother.
After a while, Mbhele is alleged to have gagged the girls and
then again raped his 12-year-old victim. She had been screaming
out in pain, upon which he told her that she should keep quiet
because she was annoying him. The girl said Mbhele raped her
grandmother and her sister another time, before deciding to
leave. - IOL website