The mother who lost three children in the Mitchells Plain house fire in which eight people died heard their desperate cries for help before she fainted.

Cape Town - The mother who lost three children in the devastating Mitchells Plain house fire in which eight people died heard their desperate cries for help before she fainted.

When pregnant Gloria Abrahams, 31, woke up, it was to learn that her three kids as well as her boyfriend had passed away.

Gloria, who suffered burns to her right arm, was discharged from Tygerberg Hospital on Monday night.

On Tuesday, she learnt that her children Tamia Swartz, 22 months old, Cameron Fredericks, six and Elmarie Fredericks, five, had perished in a fire at their home in Eastridge on Saturday at 8am.

Her boyrfriend, Alfonso Swartz, 35, her brothers Kyle, 18, Joshua, 13, baby sister Nikita Abrahams, three, and cousin, Arafaat Madatt, 14, also died.

Lying in bed at a relative’s home, pain is etched on the five-month pregnant mother’s face.

She was one of five people who survived the flames including her father Patrick Abrahams, 54, her mother Verona, 52, sister Shanice, 22, and friends Nawaal Erasmus, 23, and Lance Minnies, 16, who is currently on life support at Tygerberg Hospital.

Gloria said Alfonso, a security guard, came home at about 7.30am, after working night shift at Mitchells Plain Day Hospital.

She said: “I opened the door for him at 7.30am and I said he must give the back door key to my father but he put the key in our room.”

“We locked the door (to our room) and we both fell asleep, the children were also sleeping, and we woke up to people screaming.

“I got up and ran to the lounge but the flames were strong and it burnt my arm.

“I went [back] to the bed and I lay there and I could hear how my children were screaming. Then they became quiet.

“I got up from the bed and I was looking for them but the smoke was so thick. It went into my chest and I couldn’t breathe.”

She didn’t explain why she went back to bed while the house was burning.

She said Alfonso managed to break a window, while people were banging from the outside.

“Alfonso was holding the children, all of them, in his arms. Then I blacked out. I was saved after they took me out through the window,” she recalled.

Gloria also has two other children Antonio, 12, and Fanton, 10, who live in Heidelberg with their father.

Authorities have yet to reveal the cause of the blaze, believed to be caused by an electrical fault.

Tears flowed at a memorial service held for the family at Imperial Primary School in Eastridge on Saturday where the community came together to mourn and say goodbye.

Daily Voice

Cape Town - Four ratepayers’ associations have backed a call by Ndifuna Ukwazi in objecting to the sale of the former Tafelberg Remedial High School in Sea Point.

The Bo-Kaap Civic and Ratepayers’ Association (BOCRA), the Green Point Residents’s and Ratepayers’ Association (GPRRA), the City Bowl Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (CIBRA) and the Upper Woodstock Residents’ Association (UWRA) have appealed to Premier Helen Zille not to sell the property to the Phyllis Jowell Day School for R135 million, and instead consider it for housing.

Their letters are among the 934 submissions collated by Reclaim the City - the movement driving the campaign against the sale of city land for profit - to Zille in line with a court order that the public comment period on the proposed sale be re-opened.

In its submission, BOCRA noted that no social housing had been built in the city since 1994. Selling city land to private developers would be perpetuating the cycle of apartheid and denying lower income groups the opportunity of living closer to their places of work. “This project will clearly demonstrate the willingness to start the integration process not only on paper, but practically,” said the association.

UWRA agreed, saying the sale of public property for private development would entrench Cape Town’s structural exclusivity. By stopping the sale, provincial government would set a historical precedent for surrounding areas, the association said.

CIBRA claimed while the tender process may have been legal, it was flawed in that the provincial government ignored its regeneration, socio-economic objectives.

The Sea Point Fresnaye Bantry Bay Ratepayers’ Association, in whose area the disputed property falls, has not joined theother associations in filing an objection.

But 60 residents from the area have made a submission, saying they do not support the view of deputy chairman David Polovin who, in an open letter last month, claimed that using the site for affordable housing was not practical and not in the interests of the Sea Point community.

Spokesman for Zille, Michael Mpofu, said the Western Cape government had received numerous submissions in this second round of public participation which closed last week.

lindsay.dentlinger@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

In part 3 of a 5-part series, Lance Witten takes a tour of the Question Document unit of the Cape Town Police Forensics Laboratory. [VIDEO]

 Cape Town - Colonel Veni Ruthenavelu meets us in the halls of the Question Document unit of the Police Forensics Laboratory.

She’s a slight, bespectacled woman who downplays the significance of the work her unit performs.

“You’ll probably find this boring,” she says.

Leading the Cape Argus team into the first lab, we immediately realise she’s wrong.

A warrant officer has her new South African passport ready to show us the myriad security features included in the document.

“We use a visual spectral comparator to analyse evidence,” she says excitedly. She points out the infrared capabilities of the machine. “This is my favourite toy,” she says.

Placing the document inside the apparatus, she shows us the range of security features contained in documents.

“We deal with bank notes, IDs, passports, licences,handwriting, signatures, fraudulent cheques, etc,” Ruthenavelu explains.

“Let’s say you have a cheque and there’s a nine where there should be a zero. And let’s say the line was added to the zero afterwards. We can see the difference in the ink markings because the signature of the compound, or the recipe used to make up the ink, is different.

“This unit can do that. To the naked eye, it’s just another black pen. But to us, we can tell you if the pens used were from a different manufacturer or if they used a different ink,” Ruthenavelu says.

The warrant officer places a sample of two black pen scribes into the machine.

One shows up positive, and the other negative. To the naked eye, they look like they were written with the same pen.

There are hundreds of identifying elements in official documents, from the UV signature in the paper used tomicroprinting.

Did you know the picture of the elephant on the R20 note is made up of different shadings of the characters “R20” micro printed onto the note? Or that there is a micro-perforation of your passport photo on one of the pages of your passport, invisible to the naked eye?

“So the asking price to pay for that document seems worth it now, doesn’t it,” the warrant officer says.

Also read: How to catch a criminal through DNA

Turning to the main page of her passport, she exposes it to UV light.

A beautiful shot of Cape Town’s city skyline as seen across Table Bay from Bloubergstrand shows up, with reflections in the water, on the screen. Each ray of light, each building, is not only imprinted in ultra-violet markers, but it also micro printed in the words “South Africa” and “RSA”.

Even the identifying picture on the main page of the passport is printed using shading in microprint of your name.

It’s a complex and highly secure system of identification.

“It doesn’t mean people won’t forge documents. They still try,” says Ruthenavelu.

“But, we’ll catch you.”

The security measures extend to every official document in South Africa, from ID books and cards to legal tender. Some of these measuresare incorporated internationally by every government.

“But ours is among the most secure and the most difficult to forge.”

And the unit doesn’t only deal with forged official documents. It analyses handwriting and signatures too.

“Our electrostatic detection apparatus (Esda) can detect what was written four pages up on a notepad and produce a perfect copy,” says another warrant officer.

“Let’s say the suspect wrote a note and then ripped off the paper.”

He demonstrates by placing a blank page onto the vacuum surface, covering it in a kind of cling foil, before magnetising the material using another attachment to the Esda machine. Shaking a primer over it allows the filament fragments to stick to the indentations in the paper now magnetised by the electric current passed through it, creating a carbon copy of the handwritten note. An adhesive strip of clear sheeting is then applied, making it a perfect slide for admission in the courts.

Read more: Inside the SAPS’ Forensics Lab

“I like the flashy lights and the shiny reflections,” says the first warrant officer.

The second agrees that the work of the Question Document unit is crucial.

“Evidence removed is still evidence, because we can still use it to catch criminals,” he says.

“But it depends on the officers gathering evidence at the crime scene. That’s why in this case where the suspects left a threatening letter but removed it, we can still make it out.”

“The forensic investigation is only as good as the evidence they (officers) gather,” says Brigadier Deon Meintjes, who runs the Plattekloof facility.

lance.witten@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Some UCT students are calling for a Truth and Reconciliation commission to right the wrongs that happened during protests at the university.

Cape Town - Twenty years ago the Truth and Reconciliation aimed at righting the wrongs of the past.

Now some UCT students are calling for a similar commission to right the wrongs that happened during recent protests at the university.

Earlier this year, students erected a shack on the university’s upper campus, in protest against the lack of student accomodation.

The shack was removed by the university and now the Rhodes Must Fall Movement has started a petition calling for a Shackville TRC.

The group aims to get at least 1 000 signatures on their online petition, and yesterday afternoon were not far from their target at 870 signatures.

Rouen Thebus of the movement said they were looking forward to the restorative justice. “Why is it only applied in higher political space and not in microcosm of smaller communities like UCT in reconciling and sorting out differences? Not only to reflect why students have been excluded and suspended and using legal means to suppress activism, but also to put an idea to test that restorative justice will only be applied.”

Thebus said they also received letters of support for their petition.

“As the new generation we are questioning the things that were dismissed to gloss over real serious issues.”

UCT spokeswoman Pat Lucas said they were aware of the petition and the university had responded to a set of demands made by protesters representing the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA). Their demands included the establishment of “a truth and reconciliation commission premised on amnesty for Shackville and prior events”.

“I reiterate that the legal and disciplinary processes under way must run their course. We are not in a position to reverse the interdict or to withdraw any charges in respect of those who are alleged to have engaged in unlawful actions. The interdict remains as a protection against anyone who wishes to harm the institution by committing unlawful action like arson or destruction of property.”

She said the university was completing disciplinary processes involving 12 students who were accused of breaching the code of conduct, by committing acts like vandalism, arson, intimidation and assault.

“It must be remembered that institutions suffered millions of rands of damage through unlawful actions and it is our duty to protect the legitimate interests of UCT students and staff to the best of our ability.

“I note the suggestion of a truth and reconciliation process and I undertake to present this proposal to the executive of the university for consideration.”

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Henri van Breda's best friend has described the alleged axe murderer as a genius.

Cape Town - Henri van Breda’s best friend has described the alleged axe murderer as a genius.

Alexander Boshoff, 20, told the Cape Times he had spent a holiday with the Van Breda family just two weeks before Martin, Theresa and Rudi had been axed to death at De Zalze Golf Estate in Stellenbosch on January 27 last year.

Boshoff said Van Breda was “very clever”.

“In fact, he is a genius. His IQ is way above 145. While we were on holiday we spoke about higher grade mathematics because it was a subject we both found very interesting.

“Henri’s manner of thinking is way above that of a normal person,” said Boshoff.

The 20-year-old said Martin was one of his father’s business partners at Curro Holdings.

“Our families often spent holidays together. We have known each other for years.”

Boshoff, who is currently studying for a BAccLLB at Stellenbosch University, said the Van Bredas were a “typical happy family”.

“When the attack happened, I just couldn’t make sense of it because, on the surface, nothing was wrong. They seemed like the perfect family,” he said.

Besides being charged with three counts of murder and one of attempted murder, Van Breda also faces a charge of intent to defeat the course of justice.

In the State’s indictment against Van Breda, it is alleged he inflicted injuries to his person, tampered with the crime scene and supplied false information to mislead police as to the true identity of the perpetrator.

The State relayed that these acts defeated or obstructed the administration of justice.

Emergency medical services personnel had treated the murder accused for minor bruises on his arms after the incident.

Police retrieved an axe and a kitchen knife from the scene but, according to the State, the axe is most likely to have been used in the attacks on the three deceased.

“The accused exhibited superficial wounds which included knife wounds. There is expert medical opinion that the wounds are self-inflicted,” the indictment reads.

The States alleges that, after committing the crimes, Henri tampered with the crime scene, inflicted injuries to himself and supplied false information to police in order to mislead the police as to the true identity of the perpetrator.

Van Breda has been released on R100 000 bail after appearing in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

He has been warned to appear in the Western Cape High Court on September 9.

carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

@carlo_petersen

Cape Times

Working on Fire said that firefighters deployed to Canada will not face disciplinary action for the pay dispute that disrupted their work.

Cape Town - Firefighters deployed to Canada have returned home and will not face disciplinary action for the pay dispute that disrupted their work, Working on Fire has confirmed.

The contingent of 301 firefighters arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday morning, and then boarded buses to take them to their home provinces.

At 7pm on Tuesday, only the Western Cape firefighters were not back home.

Working on Fire spokesman Albi Modise confirmed there would be no disciplinary steps taken against the firefighters.

“Minister (of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna) Molewa has said this must be resolved amicably,” he said.

Molewa sent a management team to resolve the pay dispute which arose a week ago when the firefighters were on location in Fort McMurray, Alberta province, Canada.

Mediator Trevor Abrahams flew out to meet with the firefighters and get to the bottom of the dispute.

“It’s very clear what happened,” Abrahams said. “It is simple, and on another level, very problematic.”

The 301 firefighters had signed a contract agreeing to all the monetary details set out for their trip.

They were to be given food and accommodation by Canadian authorities, paid their normal South African salary, and also receive an out-of-country allowance of $50 (R762.92) per day, in two payments.

“We had come up with an amount that we thought was equitable and fair,” Abrahams said. “The $50 translates into almost six times the Extended Public Works Programme rate, so that was considered a good out-of-country rate.”

Then, two “disingenuous” media reports started circulating of a supposed salary increase from the Canadian government: one report from Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, and one from eNCA, Abrahams said.

“Our firefighters got onto the web and saw these reports and said 'what’s going on here?' That is what started the impasse,” he said.

But Abrahams claimed the firefighters never downed tools or officially went on strike. “In the morning they had gathered for parade and this particular morning, a lot of their songs were about the money.

“The local management elected to give them the day off instead of having them going up to the fireline with issues.

“When I met the firefighters, they said they were there to work, but we should resolve the dispute.”

Back home, he has promised the South African firefighters that they would review structures so that a communication breakdown like this would not happen again.

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Cosatu is preparing for mass strike action over the dismal state of rail and bus services in Cape Town.

Cape Town - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) is preparing for mass strike action against rail and bus services in Cape Town.

The National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is expected to give the go-ahead before the end of the week for the protest action that could see Cosatu and its affiliates, which have over 200 000 members, down tools.

Strike action is almost a year in the making after the trade union federation filed an application to Nedlac last July under Section 77 of the Labour Act against national government, Prasa, the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government and the Cape Town Chamber of Business and Industry for the dismal state of the city’s rail services and the MyCiTi bus routes.

On Tuesday Cosatu’s Western Cape regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich said negotiations to date had not yielded the intended results, and that the trade union was now awaiting official confirmation under section 77 (1)(d) of the act to strike.

This means the protest would be considered protected and no disciplinary action would be allowed against workers who joined the strike.

Nedlac’s communications co-ordinator Kim Jurgensen said that following talks last week, the matter was being considered by the standing committee and that a final decision would be communicated to the parties by Friday.

In its application last year, Cosatu said its members were being disciplined and even losing their jobs because they were arriving at work late due to the poor state of the city’s rail services. Overcrowding and frequent robberies also affected their safety.

Cosatu also lambasted the council for its MyCiTi bus service which it wanted deployed to the Cape Flats to compensate for the erratic rail service.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said the city had been waiting for two years to take control over rail services under the National Land Transport Act and that the city’s transport authority, Transport Cape Town, had been set up to allow for its management.

The council had entered into an intergovernmental dispute over the apparent reluctance of Transport Minister Dipuo Peters to cede the service to the city.

De Lille said National Treasury and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs had already given their approval.

“We have to follow due process but I’m on the brink of going to court with her. If the city can begin to take over Metrorail and link it to MyCiTi, we will realise what we said about one mode of transport.”

Nedlac had over the past year convened meetings with the parties involved to discuss Cosatu’s concerns about the city’s public transport services, but after a meeting last week, parties said it became apparent they would not be resolved to the union’s satisfaction.

Ehrenreich said Cosatu would make an announcement soon on what strike action it planned to take.

Cape Argus

Nicro’s Youth Day theme, ‘Unlocking 5-star Parenting – Be the Key’, aims to encourage parents to be the kind of people they want their children to be.

Cape Town - Young people are significantly more likely than adults to be either victims or offenders of crime, according to a research bulletin by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention.

The bulletin also revealed that the ages between 12 and 21 were the peak years for offending and victimisation.

Added to this, the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Service’s annual report revealed that as at April 30 last year, South Africa held 40 803 youth between the ages of 18 and 25 in correctional centres.

With 20.2% of the country’s population being between the ages of 15 and 24, it is clear that a large proportion of South Africa’s falls within this high-risk age category.

Soraya Solomon,chief executive of Nicro (National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders) says: “It is a worldwide trend that many crimes are committed by youth.

“In South Africa, the tendencies are similar, and there is a growing concern about the youthfulness of youth in conflict with the law, as well as the nature and seriousness of the crimes committed.”

“This Youth Day, our theme is ‘Unlocking 5-star Parenting – Be the Key’, which aims to encourage parents to be the kind of people they want their children to be.

“Nicro will be running workshops with parents countrywide.”

These are designed to enhance parenting skills to protect their children from the negative influences that surround them, guide them and enable them to reach their full potential, says Solomon.

In addition, as one of the oldest, national, non-profit organisations of its kind, Nicro is the first organisation in the country to develop intervention programmes specifically targeted at children and young people involved in crime.

These include a Youth Diversion Programme and Crime Prevention Programmes involving campaigns such as Safety Ambassadors and School is Cool.

Nicro also has a Youth Diversion Programme providing young offenders with an alternative to the court process by channelling them away from the formal criminal justice system into a range of developmental and therapeutic programmes.

“The Diversion Programme also benefits society by dealing early and quickly with delinquent and criminal behaviour.

“Early intervention, in turn, saves the taxpayer vast sums of money by reducing the burden on the police services,” Solomon says.

“The vast majority of young South Africans are exposed to an ever-increasing number of vulnerabilities and threats.

“These include challenges such as very high rates of crime, violence and substance abuse, especially in the school environment.”

Solomon explained that experiences of crime and violence within the school environment have a profoundly negative impact on children, their development and, in turn, their communities.

“Not only are such incidents likely to impact on a child’s attachment to school, leading to increased drop-out and truancy rates, low self-confidence and low levels of academic performance, but they are also likely to impact on young people’s later vulnerability to violence, as well as the likelihood of their own turning to crime and violence as they grow older.”

The diversion programme benefited 9 478 young people during the 2014/15 financial year – 4 729 of them between ages 16 to 22 while the organisation also reached approximately 10 000 youth every year through its crime-prevention programmes, says Solomon.

Cape Argus

Nizaam Ajam, 42, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of 180 charges of sexual crimes against children.

Cape Town - A Cape Town paedophile has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being found guilty of 180 charges of sexual crimes against children.

Nizaam Ajam of Mitchells Plain appeared calm as he stood before Western Cape High Court Judge Mokgoatjie Josiah Dlamo on Wednesday. He entered into a plea and sentencing agreement with the State.

The charges against the 42-year-old included sexually grooming children, creating child pornography, using a child for the purposes of child pornography, exposing children to pornography, distributing child pornography, encouraging self-sexual assault, rape and extortion.

Ajam’s name will be included on the sex offenders' list and he was declared unfit to own a firearm.

He targeted boys and girls from Woodstock, Crawford, Claremont, Ottery and Mowbray between 2012 and 2014. He used social networks such as BlackBerry Mesenger (BBM), WhatsApp, Facebook and Mxit to contact eight minors between the ages of 12 and 16.

He used two fake profiles, disguising himself as a young girl and a young boy to lure his victims.

The children would chat to Ajam and share private information with him. He would build up a relationship of trust with his victims before asking them to take naked pictures of themselves and send them to him.

On more than one occasion, Ajam blackmailed his victims by threatening to expose the naked pictures to their friends and family if they did not do what he asked.

He would use the naked pictures he acquired from his young victims to trap other children.

The plea explanation says Ajam would often demand more pictures of his victims, at times specifying that they should touch themselves or insert objects into their genitals.

He coerced some of his victims into performing sexual acts on him.

He admitted to using manipulation and threats to get what he wanted from his victims.

Court papers explain that he would buy his victims gifts in exchange for their silence.

He also lured three children and raped them, one of them in a public toilet.

Advocate Bonnie Currie-Gamwo, who secured the plea and sentencing agreement, said: “One of the negatives of social networks and the easy access that our children have to them, is that predators like Ajam are able to use them to target young unsuspecting children.”

Cape Argus

Police had to rescue a woman who was stranded in Mfuleni, after residents accused her of being part of a child-snatching syndicate.

Cape Town - A woman who found herself stranded in Mfuleni was confronted by angry residents who accused her of being a member of an alleged child-snatching syndicate.

Rumours of a syndicate snatching children on the Cape Flats and in surrounding townships have been circulating.

Police intervened in the heated situation when residents surrounded the woman on Tuesday, saying they believed she was scoping the area to kidnap children.

“After police intervened, the (woman) was taken to safety. The situation did however spark some tension and in the process vehicles and property were damaged,” said police spokesman Captain Andre Traut.

Cases of malicious damage to property are being investigated.

In a separate incident, another woman was attacked for taking photographs of a child in a mall in Somerset West.

Police confirmed a case of crimen injuria was being investigated.

Traut assured concerned parents that no one had been arrested for kidnapping in the incidents related to the social media posts. He appealed to the public to refrain from spreading inaccurate information deliberately.

However, police are investigating a case of attempted kidnapping in Strand where a 10-year-old girl was allegedly approached by an unidentified woman driving a white Toyota Quantum. The woman beckoned the girl to come to the van, but the child escaped, said Traut.

Western Cape Education Department spokesman, Paddy Attwell, said the department was aware of the “rumours” circulating on social media. “We cannot substantiate any of the claims. No school has reported an actual case of abduction. Unfortunately, these rumours run the risk of crying wolf, by raising false alarms. This could place children at risk, in genuine cases of child abuse, which do happen. Our advice is that learners and parents exercise the caution that they normally exercise every day when engaging with strangers,” said Attwell.

The Education Department said many schools were concerned about the rumours. “Schools have advised parents to fetch their children on time and advise children who commute to exercise caution. Some schools have hired security guards.

He reiterated that no actual case of abduction had been reported at schools.

gadeeja.abbas@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

LGBTI youth packed out a venue in the Cape Town Library to talk about what it was like being young and queer in a township community.

Cape Town - What is it like to grow up gay in Nyanga, or lesbian in Khayelitsha?

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex or LGBTI youth packed out a venue in the Cape Town Library on Wednesday to talk about what it was like being young and queer in a township community.

“I am not my sexuality” began as an audiovisual presentation, but quickly evolved into a lively discussion on how to know if you are lesbian, how to come out to your family, how to tell the difference between a butch, stud and femme and what to do if your straight friends think you are flirting with them.

The event was centred around an exhibition of photographs and audio slide-shows at the American Corner in the library, created by youth reporters working for the Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF).

Two teams spent six months learning to photograph, to record and edit sound into audiovisual presentations that tell personal stories.

The first personal story was abut Mfundo Dafeti, a 24-year-old from Crossroads in Nyanga.

Dafeti said he had never “come out” to his family - he had simply lived his life, and they understood.

He had never experienced hate crime, but still never walked anywhere alone out of fear for his safety.

“As a gay man you are seen as a soft target,” he said.

Dafeti was moved by the recent Orlando shootings and wished people would be less ignorant about the LGBTI community. “I hope my story educates someone else,” he said.

“I wish people could just take the time to Google what it means to be gay, or ask politely, and educate themselves.”

The CRF uses radio as a life skill to get the youth to speak about things that matter to them, said Farhana Jacobs, who heads up the Future Positive programme which produced the exhibition.

Jacobs said this team of youth reporters had been working with the CRF for over a year, but it was only since partnering with American Corner that they had begun to produce work focused on sexual health, HIV and LGBTI issues.

“It has been really interesting watching the dynamic in the group. Some of the straight members had to confront their own stigma. Their opinions and perspectives shifted as they learned from each other,” Jacobs said.

While Jacobs helped the young reporters develop their radio and photography skills, she left them to shape the content of their stories.

“They told their story as they were. We let the youth lead,” she said.

Telling their own stories had given the participants confidence to express their opinions and raise their voices.

“They’re becoming activists in their own way. They’re accessing that voice inside of them.” Watch, listen and find out more about these young reporters” stories at www.childrensradiofoundation.org.

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za Cape Argus

Heavy rains have resulted in flooding reports from at least seven informal settlements in and around Cape Town.

Cape Town - Heavy rains have lashed the Western Cape with the city receiving a number of flooding reports.

On Thursday, the city’s Disaster Risk spokeswoman Mandy Thomas confirmed they had received reports from informal settlements in Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha, Nomzamo, Chris Hani Park, Simanyene New Village in Strand and New Crossroads, Barcelona and Mashulanga in Gugulethu.

Thomas said the NY 63 roadway was also flooded. “So far we have received several reports of flooding. The city’s response operation staff are at the various areas doing assessments.”

On Tuesday, the South African Weather Service warned of flooding due to the 80 percent chance of rain that was predicted.

Grabouw residents were also affected by the floods.

Frans Mavusa, whose Grabouw home had flooded, said that this was not the first time that water had entered his home, ruining his furniture, tiles and other valuables.

“I had to build a wall around my house to stop the water from coming in. These floods happen every year and there’s nothing we can do about it, the municipality needs to make a plan because we are losing a lot of valuables.”

Mavusa and his family had to close the doors, move the furniture around and lay down blankets and towels to soak up the water once the rain had stopped.

Meanwhile, the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works has warned that Chapman’s Peak Drive could be closed to traffic this winter.

Department spokesman Byron la Hoe said motorists should expect intermittent road closures on Chapman’s Peak Drive whenever high-risk weather conditions make the road unsafe.

“The area is very exposed to strong winds, and there is a high risk of rockfalls and mudslides down the steep mountain slopes.”

La Hoe said Entilini, the concessionaire managing the road on behalf of the Western Cape government, had an incident management procedure which provided for the road to be closed when wind speeds reached 54km/h, after which the road would be monitored for three hours and reopened only once conditions were safe.

He said it advised that when there was steady or heavy rainfall, the road would be pre-emptively closed because of the risk of mudslides and rockfalls.

La Hoe said motorists were requested to use Ou Kaapseweg when the road was closed. He said Chapman’s Peak Drive will be reopened as soon as conditions were safe. Information on the Chapman’s Peak roads can be sourced on Twitter @ChapmansPeakSA, Facebook, www.chapmanspeakdrive.co.za or by calling 021 791 8222.

Cape Argus

In Part 4 of a five-part series, Lance Witten looks at the chemistry unit at the Western Cape SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory.

In Part 4 of a five-part series, Lance Witten looks at the chemistry unit at the Western Cape SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory.

 Drugs are pervasive to life in Cape Town and the fight against the scourge is being championed not only by the men in blue, but the staff of the Police Forensics Laboratory in Plattekloof.

The facility services most of the country, but it is in the drug lab that some of the most urgent work is conducted.

Colonel Jaco Westraat runs the chemistry unit at the facility and deals with hundreds of kilograms of drugs coming through his labs.

The labs are state-of-the-art. The evidence is delivered directly to the lab technicians via a complex rail cart system which is biometrically controlled to ensure there is a traceable chain of custody.

At no point, from the time the evidence enters the premises in Plattekloof to the time it is handed over for destruction, does the opportunity to tamper with it present itself.

On the day the Cape Argus visited the facility, there was more than R10 million worth of tik and mandrax in the unit’s boardroom, packed neatly in signed evidence bags.

“There’s only two reasons people do drugs,” Westraat says. “It’s nice - it gives you a good feeling. Anything that affects your central nervous system and makes you feel good I consider drugs. And there’s money in it. For example, in this bag” - he picks up a 10kg bag of tik - “you have enough tik for 10 000 straws of a gram each. And each gram is selling for R30. You do the maths.”

He says the mark-ups on the products is what gets people into the drug trade.

“You buy some for R1 000. You sell the batch for R10 000. But the people who made it maybe used R100 worth of raw materials. And it’s carcinogenic. You don’t see it now, when you’re using, but three, four, 10 years down the line, you’ve got liver cancer, or throat cancer, or some other kind of cancer. Not to mention, two years from now, you lose your teeth, but you still use it. Why? Because it makes you feel lekker and there’s money in it.”

When police officers find a peculiar substance in your possession, they can arrest you on suspicion of possession, but they can’t charge you until it’s proven that the substance you have is illegal. That’s where Westraat and his team come in.

They use a plethora of equipment to identify substances, but among the most important are the Ultra-high Pressure Liquid Chromatograph Tandem Mass Spectrometer (UPLC MS/MS) and the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer.

The UPLC MS/MS costs about R4m and the Gas Spectrometer is worth about R1.3m. There are multiple units which run analyses independently, 24/7.

Samples are placed into liquid suspensions and then run through the machine.

The drugs are picked up when the solution travels through a 10m coiled tube inside the spectrometers, being bombarded with electrons to isolate the compounds, to identify the chemical compounds which create “drug fingerprints”.

“I can see by just looking at this reading that this is cocaine,” Westraat says.

A few clicks of the mouse proves he knows his signatures.

The signatures present as peaks and troughs on a graph.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 1 percent pure or 100 percent pure, the signature doesn’t lie.”

And the machines don’t lie either.

Each one is serviced annually, and calibration is done every 72 hours.

“It’s like if you switch on your posh German vehicle. You insert the key and all lights are green. Fine, you can start up and go. But it will tell you if something isn’t right. The minute we fire these machines up in the morning, if something is wrong, it will tell us.

“But we don’t rely on that. We know what the imprint of methamphetamine is supposed to look like. So we run a control sample. I bought this purest form, and I know it to be methamphetamine, the active ingredient in tik. Now I run it, and I know what the signature must look like. Then I run another sample. And it looks like a similar sample. I know the second sample to be methamphetamine. So I know the machine works when it returns a similar signature. This we do every 72 hours.”

Westraat explains the process of identification: “Now, because of the control sample, I know what methamphetamine must look like. Now we run sample B. It is similar to the control sample. Now we run the drugs we found on you. Sample A is the purest sample, which we know chemically to be tik. Sample B is a control sample and it shows up the same signature to A, no matter what you cut with it. Sample C is your sample, the sample we find on you. Now Sample C shows up a similar signature to B, our control sample. Now, if C matches B, and we know B to match A - the purest form - then C equals A. Then your sample is tik.

“And it doesn’t matter. The quantity, the purity, the law is the law. You have drugs on you, you have broken the law.”

Cape Argus

The South African National Roads Agency is not giving up on its plan to toll sections of the N1 and N2 in Cape Town.

Cape Town - The South African National Roads Agency is not giving up on its plan to toll sections of the N1 and N2.

A court date has now been set for its appeal against the 2015 ruling in the Western Cape High Court that put a stop to the Winelands tolling plan.

The City of Cape Town said it had been informed by the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, that the case had been set down for 16 August.

In September 2015 the Western Cape High Court set aside the approvals that would enable Sanral to toll the freeways after the city applied for a review of the decision. The court ruled that if Sanral wanted to proceed with its Winelands Tolling Project, it would have to start the process again including proper public participation.

Also read: Court scraps Winelands Toll Project

But the same court also granted Sanral leave to appeal the decision in December.

Judges Ashley Binns-Ward and Nolwazi Boqwana also granted the city leave to appeal certain aspects of their judgment.

Cape Argus

Polly Parolus, who lost her job at Franky’s Diner in Sea Point after asking a Muslim man to take off his fez, has been offered a new job.

Cape Town - Polly Parolus has been offered a new job in a halaal restaurant.

The waitress lost her job at Franky’s Diner in Sea Point after asking a Muslim man to take off his fez before entering the non-halaal restaurant two weeks ago.

Parolus will start her new job at Vangate Mall Spur on Tuesday, and says getting fired was a blessing in disguise, because it will now be easier to travel to work from her home in Bonteheuwel.

Parolus, 46, was devastated when her bosses told her to go, simply because she was trying to give a group of Muslim youngsters advice during the holy month of Ramadaan.

The two guys – one wearing a fez and salaah top – and two girls with scarfs on rocked up at Franky’s on Friday night after taraweeh prayers to have some milkshake.

Parolus asked one of the men to remove his fez “out of respect for the Fast”, because Franky’s is not halaal and serves alcohol.

After the group left, @Nabeel_26 posted on Twitter: “Being denied entry into @Franky’sDinerSP for wearing a salaah top and fez and still being asked to remove it by the waitress.”

Franky’s owners, Saul Beder and Franklin Arendse, apologised to the customers on their Facebook page.

They also claimed Parolus wasn’t fired, but “let go” as she had only been on training, and they decided to stop the training because of the incident.

Parolus’s plight was taken up by Radio 786, who interviewed her on Tuesday.

It was after hearing the emotional response from the Muslim community, commending Parolus for reminding the youngsters about the importance of Ramadaan, that Vangate Spur decided to make her the job offer.

Managers at Golden Feather Spur has confirmed to the Daily Voice that Parolus will start training there on Tuesday.

A grateful Parolus says she can’t wait to start her new job.

“I was contacted by Radio 786 and told my story again on air and on Wednesday I went for an interview at Golden Feather Spur in Vangate Mall,” she says.

“It all happened so quickly. I am excited. My one-week training starts on Tuesday. I am truly grateful to everyone who has supported me and especially thankful that I will be able to work and provide for my family again.”

Daily Voice

The audience at the Bonteheuwel Civic Centre sat in tears as images of Asley Kriel’s dead body played out on the screen.

 Cape Town - The untold story of the revolutionary freedom fighter, Ashley Kriel, was brought home as the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1976 youth uprisings on Thursday.

Braving the cold, hundreds of people packed the Bonteheuwel Civic Centre on Bluegum Road to watch the documentary Action Kommandant that explores the life and death of one of the most influential figures to have come out of the suburb.

Kriel was a young freedom fighter who started youth movements at three schools - Bonteheuwel High, Arcadia High and Modderdam High - during a time when the political atmosphere was tense and the country on the verge of a civil war.

The audience sat in tears as images of his dead body played out on the screen. The 20-year-old Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier was shot dead by security police in 1987 in Hazendal, Athlone.

Also read: Meet the film-maker behind Action Kommandant

Police officers told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Kriel was shot while resisting arrest and engaging in a scuffle with a security policeman.

During the course of the arrest, Kriel was said to have produced a .22 pistol. Police captain Jeffrey Benzien, who was later granted amnesty for his involvement in Kriel’s murder, told the TRC he had tried to take the gun away from Kriel and that was when the gun went off and Kriel was “accidentally shot”.

Evidence produced by forensic scientist, David Klatzow, proves that Kriel was shot from behind from a distance while his wrists were handcuffed behind his back.

Kriel’s high school girlfriend, Charlene Edem, 50, who is featured in the documentary, brought her family to the screening to allow them an opportunity to have a glimpse into her childhood and the struggles she faced.

Edem told the Cape Argus she believed Kriel was betrayed by a comrade who knew he was at the safe house in Hazendal.

“The fact that he was shot in such a gruesome manner in a safe space, I believe he was betrayed.

“He was given away by someone. In my mind I could not see him. He was gone for a while.

“That is the saddest part for me, because he fought so hard for us and someone had the audacity to reveal where he was,” she said.

Edem met Kriel when she joined the Bonteheuwel Youth Movement in the 1980s. She said the movement consisted of children from a similar background - most of them came from impoverished homes.

“What we learned from the movement is that we can change our community.

“When we went into the Struggle, we really wanted to change the way we lived, we were in it with our hearts and our souls,” she said.

She described Kriel as having a sense of urgency, a pressing need to change the environment he lived in for the betterment of his people.

“He was very humorous and musical. He loved to play the guitar. He was a well-rounded person,” she said.

Referring to the documentary, she said: “Action Kommandant does Ashley justice in a way, but, if you had known him and met him - you would have loved him.”

Kriel’s sister, Michel Assure, was overcome with mixed feelings - joy that the life of her brother touched so many hearts and regret he was not present to experience the impact he had made.

“Bonteheuwel has a rich history. The youth will be able to gain insight into our political history through the documentary.

“They enjoy the freedom they have today through the sacrifices made by many of our heroes who were maimed and killed,” she said.

Filmmaker, Nadine Cloete, said the documentary, which took the better part of a decade to produce, won the Audience Award at the 18th Encounters South Africa International Documentary Festival for Best South African Film.

gadeeja.abbas@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Organisation calls on those opposed to the use of breathalysers not to challenge the equipment's efficacy.

Cape Town - South Africans Against Drunk Driving (Sadd) has called on those opposed to the use of alcohol breathalysers not to challenge the equipment’s efficacy.

This comes in the wake of the National Prosecuting Authority giving the Western Cape Transport department the green light to reintroduce the Dräger breathalyser, for use in evidentiary breath alcohol testing (EBAT), after a five-year break.

In 2011, a court ruled that the Dräger could no longer be used due to problems in the way tests were administered, leading to the acquittal of those accused of driving under the influence. However, the device will be back in action from August 1.

Transport MEC Donald Grant said with the reintroduction of EBAT, blood tests will no longer be needed for drunk driving prosecutions.

“We are confident that the reintroduction of EBAT will add yet another weapon in our arsenal to combat the illicit effects of drink driving and errant road user behaviour.”

Sadd’s Caro Smit said she was “absolutely delighted” that the Dräger is being reintroduced in Western Cape.

“The delays from the taking of blood samples and analysis of the results have caused many very preventable deaths and injuries. Sadd hopes with all our hearts and souls that people who have opposed breathalyser use will desist from challenging its efficacy. It has been proven to be accurate and effective and is used in many First World countries,” she said.

Smit said the Dräger meant people appeared in court quicker, which was one of the best ways to improve road safety. “Drunk driving is not an accident. It is a choice.”

Alcohol Breathalysers, distributors of breath alcohol testing devices also welcomed the move. Angus MacArthur said although they did not sell Evidential Breath Analysers (EBAs), they supported the use of EBAs for drunk driving prosecutions in South Africa.

“We welcome them back into use in the hope that this will drastically speed up drink driving prosecutions and help to reduce the shocking and absolutely unacceptable death toll on South Africa’s roads relating to drink driving,” he said. Grant said his department was ready for the full roll out of EBAT across the province. “Our collective efforts, as part of the Safely Home campaign, will undoubtedly go a long way to ridding our roads of dangerous drunk drivers,” he said.

Grant said he was confident that the reintroduction of the Dräger will see offenders handed swift justice, thereby deterring others from engaging in life-threatening behaviour, and refraining from getting behind the wheel of a car after having consumed alcohol.

Cape Argus

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Irate Hangberg residents, who have been trapped indoors due to flooding, have accused the City of Cape Townof failing to provide proper service delivery.

Cape Town - Irate Hangberg residents, who have been trapped indoors due to flooding, have accused the city of failing to provide proper service delivery.

Roscoe Jacobs of the Hout Bay Civic Association said the flooding affected more than 100 people. He said on Wednesday that the water was knee-deep and had seeped into some of the flats and shacks in Block V, D and W.

“We have learnt that this area has been flooded for the past month and residents’ attempts to get the City to assist were unsuccessful despite numerous calls to have stormwater drains unblocked as this was what they believed to be the problem.”

The City’s Disaster Risk Management team had been informed of the blockage, but failed to act immediately, Jacobs said.

“This exposes the City’s failure for winter readiness. They know stormwater drainage is a problem around this time, they were supposed to have had the rubbish cleaned out already.

“Service delivery is not done properly here. They will only act once they hear of a death due to this hazardous problem.”

When the Cape Argus visited the area on Thursday, residents were clearing the roadway.

City spokeswoman Priya Reddy said Disaster Risk Management made an assessment on Thursday morning along with Roads and Stormwater. “Our field officers are also in the informal settlements and dealing with the concerns of the community. The City of Cape Town is widely known as being the most responsive municipality in the country.

“Stormwater drains are often blocked as residents throw rubbish into them. The city spends vast resources on the problem of unblocking drains.”

Hangberg resident Daphne Olivier said she could not attend a job interview because the water had flooded her doorstep. She said the previous night’s heavy rainfall had mixed with the water coming from the drain.

“I was forced to stay indoors because there was no way I could leave. When I opened the door some of the water seeped in. We have contacted the municipality numerous times, but there has been no response to this drain problem that we have been facing for the past month.

“We are sick of living in this filth, it is inhumane and our children are getting sick from the water coming out of this drain,” Olivier said.

Lee-Anne Williams, who was sweeping what was left of the water into the road, said her bathroom had been flooded. “There was water all over near the toilet.

“My brother in-law had to come out and walk across the knee-deep water to open the drain so that water could somehow go in.”

Williams said to get the children to school they had to carry them while wading through the water barefoot. “This is a constant struggle that we face.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

In Part 5 of a five-part series, Lance Witten looks at the Ballistics division at the Western Cape SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory. [VIDEO]

In Part 5 of a five-part series, Lance Witten looks at the Ballistics division at the Western Cape SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory.

Cape Town - “Remember,” says Captain Kagiso Banda of the Police Forensics Laboratory’s Ballistics division, “you’re still in South Africa.”

The Cape Argus team was invited to a rare behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the police’s state-of-the-art crime lab in Plattekloof.

The amount of space the ballistics division takes up is mind-boggling.

Multiple floors, maze-like corridors and stairwells, an indoor 50m underground shooting range and even a firearms museum is housed within its halls, not to mention the office space, sprawling lab space and hi-tech imaging, matching and logging areas.

One of the labs tests proximity. “This helps us determine the distance at which the shot was fired. The cartridge needs primer to be fired out of the barrel. The primer and propellants are made of nitrates. When the bullet hits the body, some of the nitrates are still attached to it. Therefore, the more nitrates show up and the broader the pattern on the clothing of the victim, the closer the shot was fired.”

This is used in the determination of whether or not a shot was fired inself-defence.

“If I am 10m away, there was maybe enough time for me to duck or run for cover from the alleged attacker. But if I fired a shot from that distance, that’s not self-defence and the nitrate pattern will show us this.”

There are bullet traps in every lab. “You can’t be too careful. If there is a cartridge in the chamber, we need to make the gun safe first. So we discharge into these bullet traps. It slows the velocity down to zero. Safety first. Always safety first.”

In the general workspace, firearms that were perhaps not well taken care of, rusty, sticky, or are jamming, are laid in troughs of helicopter fuel, which breaks down rust and dissolves any solvents which may be affecting the weapon’s performance.

Through a maze of more stairwells, the Cape Argus team is led up to what Brigadier Deon Meintjes, who runs the facility, calls the “ballistics jacuzzi”.

The shooting tank hangs suspended from thick reinforced steel rafters by chain and hinge links the width of a man’s arm.

“They need to be strong to disseminate the force of the weapons fired into this tank,” Meintjes says.

The tank is about four metres long and filled with water. Its sides are reinforced steel a few centimetres thick and knocking a fist against it produces a dull thud - an indication of just how solid it is.”This tank stops that force. The bullet doesn’t even reach the end of the tank before the water slows it down and the bullet drops to the bottom. And the energy is distributed through these supports and into the roof structure.

“Remember, you are still in South Africa. And we developed this piece of equipment, built to our requirements and specifications.”

Banda then leads the team into the “mic room”, a darkened lab filled with millions of rands worth of electron microscopes which match casings, cartridges and bullets with the weapons they have been fired from.

“The inside of a gun has these score-marks that aren’t man made. It’s a result of the manufacturing process, you can’t get around it. The casing comes into contact with the inside of the weapon five times, and each of those times, the weapon leaves its mark on the casing.

“There is no way you can replicate these marks. So, the gun leaves five unique fingerprints on the casing, and here we match that up.”

All cartridge signatures are stored in a central database.

Banda then shows the team the etch room.

“Yes, you think you’re smart and you file off the serial number of the firearm and think it can’t be traced. But when that serial number is punched into the metal at the manufacturing stage, it compresses the metal beneath. Compressed metal carries greater magnetism than normal metal. So, we magnetise it and we put special magnetic dyes on it, et voila, I can read the serial number as clearly as the first day it was punched in.

“What if you have an aluminium barrel which can’t be magnetised? Easy, punched aluminium carries more charge than if the metal wasn’t compressed by punching. So, we run an electric charge through it, and we then use special materials to be able to see the serial number.

“Criminals are clever. We are cleverer.”

Banda takes the team to the final stop on the Ballistics unit tour - an ultra-high tech underground shooting range where a warrant officer is testing a P38, an old standard police issue weapon from the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The range is fitted with radar speedguns, infrared tracking, a sound and bullet proof viewing room and is soundproof once the two heavy blast doors are closed.The warrant officer explains that the high-speed camera he’s using to photograph every movement of the P38 is “incredibly expensive”.

“Right now, I’m only capturing 30 000 frames per second. Remember, the P38 fires the bullet and that bullet hits 50m later travelling at 350m per second. So the camera must be fast.”

The camera is capable of capturing up to 150 000 frames per second. To put that in perspective, the “ultra slow motion” cameras used in sport capture up to 18 500 frames per second.

“And remember,” Captain Banda says with a smirk, “you’re still in South Africa.”

Cape Argus

Disabled people have slammed Oscar Pistorius’ lawyers for parading him on his stumps in court in a bid to keep him out of jail.

Disabled people have slammed the lawyers representing Oscar Pistorius for parading him on his stumps in court in a bid to keep him out of jail.

The world watched in amazement on Wednesday as the paralympian took off his prosthetic legs and tottered across a packed courtroom at the North Gauteng High Court.

Pistorius, red-faced and sobbing, walked in a grey T-shirt and black tights, at one point being assisted by an elderly woman.

Read: #OscarPistorius: Walk on stumps under fire

This was on the instructions of his lawyer, Barry Roux, as he tried to show the court how vulnerable the convicted murderer was without his false limbs.

“I’m told he’s very embarrassed to do that, but he knows it’s important,” said Roux.

“I don’t want to overplay disability but the time has come that we must just look with different eyes.

“This is the person ... that you have to sentence.”

Read: ‘Oscar has paid for his crime’

The Blade Runner faces a possible 15 years in prison for murder at the end of sentencing procedures for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Now Disabled People South Africa has condemned the act, saying all it achieved was to make Pistorius look pathetic.

The organisation’s Gillian Moses says: “It’s very humiliating that they have done that to a disabled person, we condemn that kind of treatment to any person living with disability.

“I don’t know the reasons for doing that, be it to get sympathy, but as Disabled People SA we don’t like this ‘ag shame’ mentality, we want to be treated with dignity, Oscar included.”

Ashley Willis, 43, a paraplegic Cape Flats man who spends his days on a wheelchair-bed, says he was very upset by what he saw.

The Mitchells Plain man lost his legs 20 years ago after he was shot five times in broad daylight while he was working as a security guard at a school in Lentegeur.

“It was like they were degrading him, how would anyone feel if they were asked to take off their pants and walk on their knees in front of the whole world?” he asks.

“I cannot say what his lawyer was thinking but we as disabled people hate the pity word.

“We are human beings, I feel sorry for Oscar, I feel his pain. Of course, there are a lot of people with disabilities in prison, but everyone’s situation is different.”

The incident also sparked a debate on social media, where the hashtag #OscarPistorius trended.

Daily Voice