Liana Petersen, left, and her sister, Desiree Johnson.
Image: Desiree Johnson
The 11- year-old daughter of Liana Petersen, one of the women who was shot dead in Melville, witnessed her mother take her last breaths.

Petersen and her daughter moved to Johannesburg from Cape Town about a year ago.

The 41-year-old was killed after shots were fired indiscriminately at patrons just after 1am on New Year’s Day at Poppy’s Restaurant.

The incident claimed the lives of two women, including Petersen, while six other patrons were wounded and hospitalised.

Her sister, Desiree Johnson, told TimesLIVE Petersen’s daughter was at the restaurant when her mother was shot.

“It is not good for a child to witness her mother being shot and killed in a few seconds,” she said.

The daughter was undergoing counselling and living with her father in Johannesburg, she said.

Petersen, who grew up in Hanover Park, Cape Town, was laid to rest on Saturday.

The family was still reeling after her brutal murder.“Her funeral was sad and very emotional. We are still in disbelief and asked ourselves if it really happened to her,” Johnson said.

Their upbringing wasn’t easy, she said, but her sister “pushed and worked hard” at school.

“She was a go-getter and didn’t allow her situation to deter her from reaching her goals. She was career-driven, hardworking and organised.”

Johnson described Petersen as a fun, loving and vibrant person who loved being around people.

“She cared for her daughter very much and always wanted the best for her. I miss her smile and laughter, and our chats.

“I will never hear her voice again and I will never see her smile again.”

The other woman killed, Samantha Basdew, 29, was also laid to rest at the weekend, in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape.

“Everyone is still emotional and we can’t come to terms to what happened. We are trying to cope. I think reality will kick in when everyone is away and starts getting quiet,” her uncle, Wayne Daniels, said.

Daniels said Basdew’s father, Phillip, was taking her death “extremely hard”

“He is OK under the circumstances.”

No arrests have been made.

Mogale City mayor Naga Patrick Lipudi, 59, died on Sunday morning.
Image: Supplied
Mogale City mayor Naga Patrick Lipudi died on Sunday morning aged 59.

According to Sabelo Ngwane, chief administration officer in the mayor’s office, Lupudi was in and out of hospital due to an illness the family could not disclose.

“He had been home recuperating but was readmitted on Saturday at Helen Joseph Hospital and died this morning [Sunday].

“His family is not taking the sudden death well,” Ngwane said.

The date of his funeral has not yet been confirmed.

Lipudi became mayor in 2017, when he replaced Michael Holenstein.

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer is under fire from Numsa.
Image: BusinessLIVE
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has launched an attack on the entire Eskom board, as well as chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer.

In a lengthy statement issued on Sunday by Irvin Jim, Numsa general secretary, the union said that while it welcomed the resignation and departure of the “economically conflicted” Jabu Mabuza it did “not buy his cheap tactic of simply taking the fall for misleading the president”.

“Our honest view is that the entire incompetent Eskom board must go including the COO, Jan Oberholzer, who has added absolutely no value except adding to the wage bill,” the statement read.

Mabuza resigned as chair of the Eskom board on Friday after reports that he had misled President Cyril Ramaphosa over the load-shedding saga.Jim’s statement continued: “In fact, Numsa is calling on the ANC national leadership to take decisive action and deploy a new competent minister of public enterprises as, unfortunately, minister Pravin Gordhan has not just moved from one SOE crisis to another but, with due respect, he honestly appears to be overwhelmed and is unable to provide the necessary required leadership to fix our SOEs, in particular Eskom.”

Jim added: “During the tenures of Brian Molefe and Matshela Koko, Eskom generating plant performance improved significantly. However, when the new board took over these improvements were reversed and we are now paying the price.

“Under this new Eskom leadership we have witnessed a trend of load-shedding at a scale which has never been witnessed in the history of Eskom. What is also not being understood is that this load-shedding is permanently accompanied by the expensive utilisation of diesel.

“In fact, while it is obvious that communities and the rest of the economy continue to suffer under load-shedding, what Numsa demands is that Eskom and minister Pravin Gordhan disclose companies that are the beneficiaries and make money out of load-shedding and how much load-shedding has cost Eskom out of burning diesel.”

The OR Tambo airport was hit by a power failure after an Eskom transformer caught alight on Sunday morning.
Image: Richard Whalley / via Twitter
OR Tambo International Airport was plunged into darkness after a transformer at a Kempton Park substation caught fire on Sunday morning.

The Ekurhuleni municipality confirmed that the airport was one of a number of places affected.

According to reports by commuters, the power outage caused major inconveniences. Many commuters took to Twitter to share their frustrations. The outage lasted about two hours.On Sunday morning, Eskom confirmed that a transformer had caught alight in Kempton Park in Ekurhuleni.

“Eskom’s transformer in Kempton Park caught fire affecting @City_Ekurhuleni customers. Ekurhuleni Emergency Services on site,” Eskom tweeted.

It said the cause of the fire would only be established once it was safe to investigate.

Emergency services could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

The municipality released video footage of the fire on its social media platforms:Airports Company SA spokesperson Samukelo Khambule said that the power outage started at around 11am and lasted about two hours.

“Certain services were affected, such as people movers, retail outlets and some communication mechanisms. Airport operations continued, assisted by the back-up generator systems which ensured that critical infrastructure continued. Manual operations were also activated in main stream services such as baggage systems,” said Khambule.

A court has issued an arrest warrant for the prime minister’s wife after she failed to turn up for questioning over the 2017 murder of his previous wife, police said on Saturday.

The announcement came just days after senior officials in the ruling party called for Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to resign, accusing him of obstructing the investigation into the killing.

Lipolelo Thabane was gunned down by unknown assailants on the outskirts of the capital Maseru in June 2017, two days before her husband’s inauguration.

In a letter that only became public in court documents this week, Lesotho’s police chief Holomo Molibeli asked the prime minister to answer questions regarding his estranged wife’s killing.Thabane subsequently tried to suspend him but went back on his decision this week after Molibeli challenged it in court.

Thabane’s current wife Maesaiah Thabane was summoned for questioning on Friday to “shed some light into the ongoing investigations”, deputy police commissioner Paseka Mokete told AFP.

“We got at the State House at around 12 midday (on Friday) but were denied access by the guards at the gate,” Mokete told AFP on Saturday.

“When we were allowed entry… she was nowhere to be found.” A court subsequently issued a warrant for her arrest, he added.

Attorney general Haae Phoofolo later told police that Maesaiah Thabane would be handed over on Monday.

Phoofolo did not respond to AFP requests for comment.