South Africa Car Hire

Katrien Smith and Lucia Swart , Beeld


Johannesburg - "He said he was sorry, he wanted to apologise."

These were the alleged words of Jacob Zuma to the mother of the woman who has accused him of raping her, when the mother went to see Zuma at his house in Forest Town, Johannesburg.

The mother of Khwezi, as the complainant has been named by women's supporter groups, testified on Friday in the Johannesburg Supreme Court after the cross-questioning of Khwezi was completed. She said Zuma had said to her he was sorry.

The mother testified how she went to the house on Sunday, 13 November last year, to see Zuma about the incident and what had happened to her daughter.

Her daughter had told her the previous day after she (the mother) had returned from Swaziland about the alleged rape by Zuma.

Dr Zweli Mkhize, MEC for finance in KwaZulu-Natal, paid her air fare for this visit.

'How could he do this?'

"I asked him why he should to anything like that but he could not give me a straightforward reply and said he was ashamed and would like to apologise for the incident," she said

She said she was "shattered" by the news of the rape.

"How he could he have done anything like this after having worked so hard? All of us were looking up to him."

"He furthermore knew that the child was HIV positive - at a time I thought I was going to lose my daughter.

"I asked myself: 'How am I going to fight this war?'

"I then saw it as war and I thought: 'How will I fight against the whole world?'"

According to her Zuma also offered that evening to help to send Khwezi to a university in England and to have a fence erected around her mother's house - something I had wanted for a long time.

"I did not want money - that would have been an insult to me.

"To me the money for a fence was not equal to the mistreatment of myself and my child."

Withdraw the case

She further testified how two of the elder women, who had been in the group with her and Zuma when they were in exile, came to see her while she was in Swaziland.

"They said they came to make me aware of the dangers of proceeding with the case (the rape charge) against Zuma.

"Then one said I should imagine if Zuma lost the case and was found guilty, how he would then lose everything.

"They pleaded that we should withdraw the charge."

Earlier on Friday Zuma, through his legal counsel, adv Kemp J Kemp, gave his version of what had happened on the night of the alleged rape.

One of the fundamental differences between his version and that of Khwezi's is that Zuma alleges that their sex with consent took place in his bedroom on the first floor of the house.

Khwezi said she had been raped in the guest room on the ground floor of the house.

According to Zuma, Khwezi had come to his room where they chatted and this later turned into a massage session with baby oil and after they realised that neither of them had a condom, they had sex for about 15 minutes.

Zuma acknowledges that he had asked her whether he may ejaculate inside her, but he did not receive a clear answer from Khwezi.


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Johannesburg - The recent power outages in South Africa were nothing but a logistical problem, Minerals and Energy Minister Lindiwe Hendricks said on Thursday.
"What we experienced is a problem of a particular type," the minister told reporters at an African ministerial conference on hydropower in Sandton, Johannesburg.

"If there is a problem at Koeberg, the transmission of power from Mpumalanga and Gauteng is not sufficient to feed the large electricity demand in the Western Cape," she said in response to a reporter's question.

The reporter asked if South Africa could meet its ever rising power demands.

South Africa was not running out of power, Hendricks said, adding that the country was supplying power to some of its neighbouring states, but did not name them.

Asked whether South Africa would cut down on exports to those countries, she replied: "Internal problems, specifically those at Koeberg, should not be considered to affect or destabilise our supply to our neighbours.

"... we have agreements with these nations and we cannot decide all of a sudden because of internal issues to cut down on such," she said.

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Johannesburg - Police say there has been no demand from the kidnappers of Transvaal Judge-President Bernard Ngoepe's four-year-old granddaughter.

Little Makgabo Matlala was kidnapped in what appeared to be a robbery at her home in Lenasia on Wednesday.

Vaal police spokesperson Nthabiseng Mazibuko said a massive manhunt had been launched for the kidnappers. It would continue throughout the night.

"So far, there has been no ransom demand. We have activated all units within the police to assist."

Mazibuko added that preliminary investigations ruled out the possibility of a link between the kidnapping and the Jacob Zuma rape trial, from which Judge Ngoepe had recused himself.

"There is no link at all. The findings of our preliminary investigations haven't taken us in that direction.

"There is nothing that indicates a link," said Mazibuko.

Ngoepe 'very upset'

Ngoepe added that there was no reason for the kidnapping and the Jacob Zuma rape case to be linked.

"As far as I know, I've no reason to link that and I would actually have preferred not even to think along those lines because at this stage, I've no reason to think of any linkage," he told the SABC.

A relative told Sapa on Wednesday night that Ngoepe was "very upset".

He rushed to Lenasia just hours after the child was snatched, said his nephew Phakedi Mpe.

"My uncle is not home. He went straight to Lenasia. Please, we are appealing to the kidnappers to bring our little girl home. She knows nothing and is innocent.

"I don't know what kind of person this is," he said.

Gauteng community safety MEC Firoz Cachalia expressed shock at the kidnapping.

"The MEC is very angry both at the kidnapping and the abduction," said spokesperson Phumla Sekhonyana.

"He appealed for Makgabo's safe return and gave his assurance that no stone would be left unturned in making sure those responsible were brought to book," she said.

At home with her nanny

The daughter of Springs magistrate Stephen Matlala, little Makgabo Bernice Matlala was wearing a pink top with a butterfly on the left side when she was taken.

She had been at her parents home with her nanny when three robbers stormed in at 08:00, said Mazibuko.

"The helper was scrubbing the floor when she heard noises in the house.

"She turned around, saw three males who then approached and blindfolded her.

"The men took her to one of the rooms and gang-raped her.

"The little girl... was asleep in her room."

The attackers ransacked the house, stealing DVDs and cellphones. They then picked up Makgabo and left.

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Johannesburg - South Africa will consider selling its 37.7% stake in fixed-line phone operator Telkom if it makes business sense, a key government official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Business Report quoted MP Mpetjane Lekgoro, chairperson of the parliamentary committee on communications, as saying the government could sell if it was confident it would not hurt efforts to bring down tariffs and roll out communications to the poor.

"If the deal makes good business sense and (the government) is confident that matters of pricing and universal coverage will go right ... then that will be a good time to sell," Lekgoro was quoted as saying in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

A spokesperson at the department of communications said he was not able to comment immediately but was not aware of government plans to sell, or reduce, its stake in Telkom.

The government owns 37.7% of Telkom, black investor group the Elephant Consortium owns 10.1% and institutional and individual shareholders own the rest.

Telkom floated on the Johannesburg and New York stock exchanges in March 2003.

Consumer groups have accused Telkom of overcharging customers and the government says it is working on finding ways to reduce the price of phone calls and Internet access, which it says is inflating the cost of doing business.

Shares in Telkom closed at R156.20 on Tuesday.

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Johannesburg - The appearance of Springbok flyhalf Andre Pretorius in Randburg magistrate's court on a charge of drunken driving was delayed on Wednesday morning when the docket went missing.

His lawyer, Carrol von Molendorff told journalists waiting outside the courtroom that the docket had gone missing.

Pretorius, 27, who also plays for the Golden Lions, was arrested at the end of January in Main Road Bryanston, after his car collided with another.

The other driver was also arrested and both were released on R500 bail.

"Both were booked for drunken driving," said police spokesperson Captain Schalk Bornman at the time.

The case was initially postponed for the finalisation and receipt of blood tests taken after the accident.

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Johannesburg - Two buses carrying Jacob Zuma supporters on Monday arrived at Johannesburg High Court, where Zuma goes on trial for allegedly raping a family friend in November last year.

The supporters were singing, "We'll follow Zuma wherever he goes."

One of the buses bore a picture of Nelson Mandela whispering something to Thabo Mbeki. At the bottom was written "Mxelele Tata (Tell him, Father)."

The buses had Pietermaritzburg registration plates.

There was a heavy police presence at the court in downtown Johannesburg on Monday and all the roads leading to the precinct were closed.

Zuma allegedly raped the woman - an Aids activist - at his home in Forest Town, Johannesburg, on November 2 after she refused his offer of a massage. At the time Zuma was awaiting trial on corruption charges, to be heard in Durban later this year.

Zuma's trial will be presided over by judge Willem van der Merwe, who sentenced apartheid assassin Eugene De Kock to two life terms and 212 years in jail.

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Los Angeles - Tsotsi, a South African film about a township thug who finds a sense of decency, won the Oscar for best foreign language film on Sunday.

Directed and written by Gavin Hood, the film features a searing performance by Presley Chweneyagae as the gun-toting, emotionally dead gangster who suddenly learns the value of human life when he is forced to care for a baby he has kidnapped.

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