The South Africans returning home from Wuhan in China will be quarantined at a secured resort in Limpopo and tested for the coronavirus.
Image: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
Life cover has been offered to the staff employed at the Ranch Resort in Polokwane which will host the South Africans who are being repatriated from China, the government said on Friday.

“To allay the fears of workers at the resort, insurance company Momentum has partnered the government to offer a limited life cover to the workers. Staff will also receive medical screening ahead of the arrival of the South Africans,” said a government statement.

Concern was raised, particularly from the ANC Youth League, about the safety of the staff and locals living close to the resort were the 122 repatriated citizens will remain in quarantine.

The health ministry has repeatedly emphasised that none of those who are being repatriated have tested positive for the virus and that the quarantine is precautionary.

A medic who is on the military-led repatriation mission stressed that those being flown back home will be screened before leaving China by Chinese authorities. They would again be screened by South African authorities before boarding the SAA plane that brought them home, and they were due to screened again before disembarking.

Former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli at the Johannesburg high court last year.
Image: SANDILE NDLOVU
Courts have in the past imposed jail sentences ranging from five years to 15 years for kidnapping convictions, the high court in Johannesburg heard on Friday.

Prosecutor Zaais van Zyl SC made this submission as he argued that former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, 61, and Mthembeni Mthunzi, 60, should be jailed after they were convicted on two counts of kidnapping. They were also convicted of two counts of assault and two counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.The matter relates to the assault of Mdluli’s customary wife, Tshidi Buthelezi, and her boyfriend, Oupa Ramogibe, in 1998.

Mthunzi accompanied Mdluli to a house in Vosloorus where they also assaulted Alice Manana, forcing her to reveal the whereabouts of Buthelezi and Ramogibe.

The attorney for Mdluli, Ike Motloung, argued that his client should be fined for these offences while attorney for Mthunzi, Sabelo Nobangule, argued for a sentence of correctional supervision.

The probation officers recommended that the two men be sentenced to correctional supervision.

However, Van Zyl said the offences committed by the two former policemen were so serious that a prison sentence was the only appropriate punishment.

The court reserved judgment and will pass sentence on May 18.

Van Zyl said kidnapping was removing someone else’s liberty. He said other crimes happen when someone is kidnapped such as assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm as had happened in this case.

Van Zyl said the crime of kidnapping spanned a wide field, including domestic kidnappings, political kidnappings and stranger kidnappings for ransom.

“Where a firearm is used, the starting point is five years in prison. The upper range goes to 15 to 16 years for someone who is kidnapped and kept for a short time,” Van Zyl said.

He cited the case of Donovan Moodley, who was in 2005 sentenced to 15 years for kidnapping Bond University student Leigh Matthews. Moodley was also sentenced to life for her murder.

“Police officers have a special position in our society. We look up to them for protection. When they become criminals, we need to deal with them decisively,” Van Zyl said.

He also dismissed contentions by Mdluli and Mthunzi that they should not serve a jail term because they were primary caregivers of their minor children.

“This is not the case where children will be left with no primary caregiver. None of the accused are primary caregivers,” Van Zyl said.

He said Mthunzi was described as the co-primary caregiver, while Mdluli spent 40% of the time away from his minor children as he kept two homes.

Van Zyl cited a case in the Constitutional Court which dismissed an appeal by a woman who was sentenced to a custodial sentence for fraud as she claimed she was a primary caregiver of her children.

The court held that she was not the sole parent as the father of her children was a co-resident parent and was willing to take care of them during her incarceration.

Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday rejected former president Jacob Zuma’s application to appeal a lower court’s decision that he should stand trial for corruption.
Image: File
Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has rejected former president Jacob Zuma’s application to appeal a lower court’s decision that he should stand trial for corruption, a registrar of the court said on Friday.

According to the local news agency Eye Witness News, the SCA ruled that Zuma’s appeal against an October decision by the Pietermaritzburg High Court had “no reasonable prospects of success”.

Zuma, in office from 2009-2018, had applied for the stay of prosecution for alleged fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to a deal to buy European military equipment for South Africa’s armed forces in the 1990s.

The French defence firm Thales, accused of agreeing to pay Zuma around $34,000 annually for protection from an investigation into the $2 billion arms deal, and set to stand trial this year along with the former leader, had also appealed the decision. Both Zuma and Thales had their appeals rejected, the court said.

Gauteng police are searching for attackers who gunned down a businessman on the M1 highway in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon.
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Gauteng police are searching for the gunmen responsible for the murder of a 35-year-old man on the M1 north, near the Corlett Drive off-ramp, on Friday afternoon.

According to police spokesperson Capt Mavela Masondo, preliminary investigations revealed that the victim was driving from Johannesburg to Sandton when he was shot dead by suspects using automatic rifles.

“The motive for the killing is unknown.

“Police are appealing to any member of the public who witnessed the shooting or with information that can help in the investigation to please call crime stop on 08600-10111 or via MySAPS App. Callers can remain anonymous,” Masondo said.

Prasa has suspended 12 senior officials as it tries to clean up the railway entity.
Image: Gallo Images / Rapport / Deon Raath
The embattled Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has placed 12 of its senior officials on suspension over allegations of misconduct.

Prasa spokesperson Makhosini Mgitywa said the suspensions were in response to damning findings made by auditor-general and the public protector into alleged corruption at the rail entity over the past decade.

In 2015, former public protector Thuli Madonsela found that R2bn was misappropriated at Prasa.

She found that the “culture of systemic failure to comply with [supply chain management] policies” at Prasa cost the entity millions in avoidable expenditure.

Mgitywa said some of the suspensions “arise from ongoing investigations by the Special Investigating Unit into contracts and payments made by Prasa from January 1 2010 to the present, with a view to uncovering corruption”.

“This action is consistent with the mandate given to Prasa administrator Bongisizwe Mpondo when he took office in December of 2019. The suspensions are in line with the administrator’s commitment to ensuring good governance, as well as the eradication of corruption and fruitless and wasteful expenditure by various employees throughout the organisation,” he said.

Mgitywa admitted that Prasa’s dire financial position was due to irregular expenditure under the watch of its senior officials and former board.

“Prasa is going through a debilitating cash flow crunch that has depleted its operational budget and further led to the company failing to pay suppliers and creditors,” said Mgitywa.

The entity was left red-faced in March after Eskom cut its power in Cape Town due to non-payment.