Professional Update
A
monthly newsletter for KZN Attorneys from the Kwazulu-Natal Law Society

12 June 2009

This professional service draws attention to current and important items of news
 and members are directed to the hosts' websites

InfoUpdate 12 of 2009
Recent Judgments

Electronic copies of this information may be obtained from our librarians at help@lawlibrary.co.za or click on the underlined hyperlink where relevant

Regional Courts

Durban

Police to question R Kelly over scam - 23 June
US R&B singer Robert Kelly, popularly known as R Kelly, will be questioned by police following allegations he was involved in an investment scam, police said today. Durban woman, Busisiwe Priscilla Zakwe, implicated R Kelly in an alleged investment scam that apparently swindled money out of more than 50 people, many of them pensioners. State prosecutor Blackie Swart wrote a letter to Kelly’s agent Jason Miller earlier this year requesting the singer to explain his involvement in the scam but he did not receive any response. - The Times website

Parow

I was asked to change Yengeni docket, cop tells court - 17 June
A constable involved in the arrest last year of former African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Tony Yengeni was asked to change statements in the police docket, the Parow Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The purpose of the alleged request by former Goodwood police station commander Siphiwo Hewana was to protect Yengeni, Constable Charles Japhta testified. Hewana is on trial before magistrate Elsa van Zyl on three charges - an attempt to defeat the ends of justice, incitement to commit perjury and interfering with the Yengeni investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. - Mail & Guardian website

Yengeni docket order 'came from top' - 18 June
Orders to falsify a Toni Yengeni drunken driving docket came from Western Cape provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, the Parow Regional Court heard today. - The Times website

Confusion on night of Yengeni arrest - 19 June
The alleged falsification of Tony Yengeni's drunken driving docket caused confusion, the Parow Regional Court heard today. The result was a confrontation in which a police captain at the Goodwood police station was accused of "not knowing what was going on". This was the testimony of Captain Yolande Adonis, shift commander at the Goodwood police station, in the trial of former station commander Siphiwo Hewana. He faces charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, incitement to commit perjury and interfering with former ANC chief whip Yengeni’s drunk driving investigation. - The Times website

E-mail could sink Hewana's case - 20 June
An e-mail placed before court appears to show that Siphiwo Hewana appealed to two officers to cover up the time ex-ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni was arrested for drunk driving. In the e-mail addressed to the department of the provincial police commissioner, then-Goodwood police station commissioner Hewana allegedly asked the officers to alter the time of arrest to protect the image of the station and provincial office. - IOL website

Yengeni case : 'blood sample diluted' - 26 June
Three senior police officers who heard confessions implicating the station commissioner in interfering with the drunken driving case of former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, have echoed testimony previously given in the Parow Regional Court by the junior officers who were involved. The court also heard the original case docket disappeared from a safe and a blood sample was tampered with. - IOL website

Pietermaritzburg

Child drowns at creche : suspended sentence for owner - 10 June
A Pietermaritzburg creche owner has been given a five-year sentence, suspended, for the accidental drowning of a 2-year-old boy in an unfenced pool. Lalita Harry pleaded guilty in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court to culpable homicide and entered into a plea agreement with the State. Harry admitted to negligence, in that the pool should have been fenced and that the non-separation of the pool from the creche was a direct and substantial cause of the death of Luthando Mkhize. - Sowetan website

Man on R200m fraud charges stripped of assets - 11 June
KwaZulu-Natal businessman Jabulani Mabaso, who stands accused of defrauding the provincial Education Department of about R200-million, has been stripped of the expensive properties and luxury cars which, the State alleges, were his ill-gotten gains. The assets - the value of which is still being determined - will remain under the control of a court-appointed curator until the outcome of a criminal trial in which he will have to answer to theft and fraud charges relating to a tender for the supply of books and stationery to schools. This week, curator Trevor White of PricewaterhouseCoopers began taking control of the properties which were "restrained" by the order handed down by Judge King Ndlovu in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. The order also authorised the attachment of about R4-million in several bank accounts and five vehicles. The order also covers assets of other entities in which Mabaso holds shares. Mabaso has until July 7 to oppose the asset forfeiture application. He will appear in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court again on the criminal charges on July 15. - IOL website
Keyphrases :
Afribooks
Indiza Capital
Indiza Infrastructure Solutions
KZN Asset Forfeiture Unit
Scorpions
Twilight Logistics

Scorpions saga delays school fraud case - 19 March
The disbanding of the Scorpions has impacted on a R270-million school stationery fraud case against a KwaZulu-Natal businessman - holding up the arrests of senior Department of Education officials. Indiza Infrastructure Solutions boss Jabulani Mabaso of Durban appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on charges of fraud, money laundering and corruption related to a tender awarded to Indiza by the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department for the supply of stationery to schools. Mabaso is out on R1-million bail. - IOL website

Man in court for R43m in unpaid VAT - 31 May 2007
A man accused of failing to pay R43-million in value added tax (VAT) to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) appeared in the Durban regional court on Thursday afternoon on charges of theft and fraud. Jabulani Mabaso was released with a warning and ordered to hand over his passport to the investigating officers. Mabaso was unable to pay any bail because his assets had been frozen. Judge Ibrahim Khalil will hear the case on June 27. - IOL website

South Africa must mine its human resources - 4 February 1992
If a democratic South Africa is to work, it needs to view the empowerment of blacks not as charity or even the righting of past wrongs, but as taking advantage of the enormous resources, resourcefulness and talent to be found among black youths who are being lost to society. This was brought most forcefully to my attention by 22-year-old Jabulani Mabaso, whose self-help Masmove learning movement in strife-torn Natal province targeted students who had failed the "matric." Study groups of 6 to 15 students were formed, who enlisted tutors, set their own work schedules and helped one another. The result is a phenomenal 87 percent pass rate. Masmove is expanding and will soon be tried in schools throughout South Africa. That Mr Mabaso is tackling his country's severe educational problems suggests there is no alternative to empowering black South Africans in the search for solutions. - New York Times website
See also : http://indizacapital.co.za/ 

Peggy Nkonyeni's trial set for August - 12 June
The KwaZulu-Natal legislature's speaker Peggy Nkonyeni and two co-accused go on trial in August for alleged corruption. The trial was set down from August 13 to 18 on Friday by Pietermaritzburg regional magistrate Chris van Vuuren. According to the indictment, Nkonyeni allegedly accepted kickbacks of R20 000 and free accommodation at the luxury Steenberg Boutique in Constantia. - The Times website

1 June 2009
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize has noted the court appearance of the Speaker of the Provincial Legislature, Mrs Peggy Nkonyeni
SA Government Information website

KZN speaker must step down : DA - 2 June
The DA in KwaZulu-Natal today called on premier Zweli Mkhize and the ANC to ask the provincial legislature speaker to step down pending the outcome of her corruption trial."As the political head of the KZN legislature, the appearance of [Peggy] Nkonyeni in the dock has sullied the entire legislature and runs the real risk of bringing the legislature into disrepute", DA caucus leader in the legislature John Steenhuisen said in a statement. - The Times website

'Mabizela's rights were violated' - 23 June
Troubled footballer Mbulelo Mabizela no longer has a charge of drunk driving hanging over his head following his acquittal in the Pietermaritzburg District Court on Monday. Magistrate Dieter Schultz found that Mabizela's Constitutional rights had not been properly explained to him upon his arrest, which resulted in him having an unfair trial. His attorney Nasen Naicker had argued that when the former Bafana Bafana captain was arrested, on December 12, last year on Alan Paton (Durban) Road, the arresting officer had not explained his rights to him. - IOL website

Pretoria

R45m fraud puts brothers in prison - 25 June
Two brothers were each sent to jail for more than a decade on Wednesday after being convicted of 248 charges of fraud, involving more than R30-million, by the Pretoria Regional Court. Cornelius Abraham Lottering of Johannesburg and Beatrix Johannes Lottering of Midrand, both in their 50s, pleaded not guilty after their arrest in 2000. They were, however, convicted of fraud and contravening the Banking Act and the Companies Act. The two ran a pyramid scheme. - IOL website

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society