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DAILY NEWS PAGE 5MONDAY APRIL 27 2015NEWS
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Health, safety dangers raised
Power cutover ratesarrears billNOELENE BARBEAU
DESPITE lodging a dis-pute with the eThek-wini Municipalityover his utilities bill
and alleged R100 000 propertyrates arrears, a Sherwood busi-nessman said the electricity tohis home had been discon-nected on Thursday – for asecond time.
This led to his urgent appli-cation on Friday before DurbanHigh Court Judge Fikile Mok-gohloa to compel the muni-cipality to re-connect his elec-tricity.
The municipality argued incourt that non-payment ofrates was sufficient reason todisconnect an account.
In court papers, MohamedEssa said he purchased theSherwood property in May2012, but did not take transferof it because there were de-fects.
He and the sellers were in-volved in a legal wrangle over areduction of the purchase priceof the property and payment ofthe purchase price with inter-est, respectively.
Essa currently lives on the
property with his wife and twominor children, whom he saidwere both diabetic and re-quired insulin, which is refrig-erated.
He said the electricity dis-connection was putting hischildren’s health and hisfamily’s safety at risk, as theelectric fencing and his alarmsystem were now not func-tional.
According to his affidavit,he tried to transfer the utilitiesaccount into his name, but themunicipality refused becausehe had not taken transfer of theproperty.
PaidEssa claimed he had faith-
fully paid the account sincetaking occupation, but noticedin September last year that theaccounts were “incorrect”,with reflected estimates andexcessively high amounts with-out any increase in usage ofthe electricity and water.
He said he raised a disputeand was told it would be inves-tigated.
In March this year, he saidhis electricity was discon-nected and when he queried
this, he was told to continue topay the estimates on the ac-count until the dispute hadbeen resolved.
He subsequently learntfrom the municipality thatthere was a R100 000 rates ar-rears on the property.
He said he contacted thesellers and that all attempts toresolve this matter were re-jected by them.
On Thursday, their electri-city was again disconnecteddespite, Essa said, the disputeraised.
In court on Friday, the mu-nicipality argued it was beingprejudiced for services ren-dered over a fight between Essaand the sellers.
Mokgohloa said she was notprepared to grant an order tore-connect the electricity whena debt was owed on the prop-erty. “I’m not going to set thatprecedent,” she told both par-ties.
She requested both sides tospeak and come to an agree-ment that perhaps Essa pays acertain amount towards thearrears so the electricity couldbe re-connected.
Action movie raking in the randsIN CASE there was any doubt, the lat-est box office figures confirm thatSouth Africans like to see car chasesand plenty of skop, skiet en donnerwhen they go to the bioscope.
Universal Pictures and UIP SouthAfrica has announced that with theweekend’s takings, Fast & Furious 7
was expected to overtake Avatar tobecome the all-time highest-grossingfilm in the country.
It would surpass the R56 179 423-record Avatar achieved in 2010, and doso in a record 23 days, said UIP.
To put that in perspective, the SA-
made movie with the highest gross is2010’s Schuks Tshabalala’s Survival
Guide to South Africa at R38 million,according to the National Film andVideo Foundation.
Internationally, Fast & Furious 7
had grossed $1.2 billion at the world-wide box office more than a week ago.
The action film, the seventh instal-ment in a franchise, has been the No 1film at the worldwide box office forthree consecutive weeks, and openedNo 1 in all 67 markets where it wasreleased, including North America. –Daily News Reporter
Rocket car builder pupils have a blastMPHATHI NXUMALO
KEARSNEY College pupils hada blast building and racingmodel rocket cars in a competi-tion designed to fire up interestin science, technology, engin-eering and mathematics.
The competition, at theBotha’s Hill school on Friday,was part of an education pro-gramme run by the Blood-hound Super Sonic Car (SSC)Project.
Bloodhound, a British com-pany, is designing and buildinga car with the aim of breakingthe current land speed recordof 1 228km/h, which was set in1997 by the Thrust SSC.
Five teams of four, compris-ing top achieving Grade 11 and12 Kearsney schoolboys and asixth team representing theteachers, were pitted againsteach other.
Amid plenty of smoke andexcitement, Team PocketRocket eventually won with atop speed of 171km/h – a bit offthe pace if you consider thatthe Guinness world record forthe world’s fastest model rocketcar is about 400km/h.
But, to be fair to the buddingKearsney rocket scientists,they only had an hour-and-a-half to complete the building oftheir cars, after a three-hourhow-to tutorial.
Also, unlike the car thatbroke the Guinness record,which had three rockets, theschoolboys’ cars each had onlyone rocket.
The rockets used potassiumnitrate or “sugar rocket fuel”.
Gianluca Pauselli, spokes-man for Team Pocket Rocket,said he was ecstatic about thewin. He said his adrenalin hadbeen rushing when he pushed
the launch button that blastedoff his team’s car.
The 16-year-old Grade 11pupil revealed the glue theyhad used in the car only set anhour-and-a-half before the race,and he joked that the “luckynumber 13” on their car mayhave contributed to victory.
“I am definitely going to tellmy parents,” Pauselli saidabout the win, and said heplanned to study engineering atStellenbosch when he finishedschool.
Education ambassador forBloodhound, ChristopherMaxwell, said the race atKearsney was intended tospark an interest in engineer-ing and science, much like theApollo moon landing had donein 1969.
Bloodhound aims to breakthe land speed record byachieving a top speed of 1 690
km/h – faster than a bulletfired from a Magnum 357.
The 7.5 ton, 13.5m long carpacks a combined 135 000horsepower punch from itsthree engines: a prototype Eu-rojet EJ200 jet engine, a hybridrocket power plant and an aux-iliary Jaguar Land Rover V8unit. This total has six timesmore power than all the cars ona Formula One grid… put to-gether.
A 20km racetrack which hasbeen created in Hakskeenpanin the Northern Cape wasdeemed by Bloodhound SSC tobe the best place to hold theworld record attempt.
The car will be driven byBritish Royal Air Force pilotAndy Green, who achieved thecurrent land speed record inthe ThrustSSC betweenSeptember and November thisyear.
Car wrecked in S Coast toll plaza accidentNONHLANHLA MKHABELA
AN N2 TOLL plaza cashier gotthe fright of her life when a car,travelling at “flying speed”,slammed into a crash barrierjust metres from her booth onthe South Coast at the week-end.
KZN Emergency MedicalServices spokesman, RobertMcKenzie, said although therewas massive damage to the car,the five occupants, all men,escape unscathed.
“Much of the force of thecrash was absorbed by thecrash protection (a barrier andplastic containers filled withwater) placed in front of thebarrier wall at the toll gate,” hesaid.
The Oribi Toll Plaza chiefmanager, Carol Ndlanzi, whowas on duty at the time of theincident, at about 8am on Sat-urday, said staff had never beenso frightened.
“Out of all the 10 years thatI have worked here, I havenever seen such an incident.The car just kept on coming atflying speed with no intentionof slowing down. We have noidea what was going on inthere, but we suspect the driverhit the wall because he wasavoiding crashing into the car
that was before him. We arejust thankful no one was hurt,”she said.
She said the occupants ofthe car appeared dazed anddisoriented.
The cashier who was on
duty in the booth wasunavailable to speak to theDaily News yesterday.
Police spokesman, MajorThulani Zwane, said the driver,a 30-year-old, had been arrestedand was to appear in the Port
Shepstone Magistrate’s Courttomorrow.
He said Port Shepstonepolice were investigating a caseof negligent driving and driv-ing under the influence ofalcohol.
A car crashed into a barrier at the Oribi Toll Plaza near Port Shepstone at the weekend.
Gun, drugsfound in raidsA FIREARM belonging to aLamontville policeman hasbeen seized during a drug raidin Sydenham.
Police searched a flat inSydenham Heights A-Block fordrugs when they found a 9mmparabellum Vektor pistol and15 rounds of ammunition. A 19-year-old was held.
The pistol was alleged tohave been taken from the po-liceman in Mobeni HeightsShopping Centre last year.
The policeman was al-legedly held up by three men.
Police spokesman, MajorThulani Zwane, said a secondflat was raided where police re-covered 655 ecstasy tablets, 10mandrax tablets, 68 whoongastraws, 29 pieces of crack co-caine and four bags of cocainepowder. They arrested a man,aged 28, for drug possessionestimated at a street value ofR46 320.
The two suspects are ex-pected to appear in the DurbanMagistrate’s Court tomorrow. –Daily News Reporter
Doctor defrauded medical aidsNOELENE BARBEAU
A PINETOWN doctor has beenconvicted on 14 counts of fraudfor submitting false claims tothe Government EmployeesMedical Scheme (GEMS).
Dr Kalpesh Ramcharanpleaded not guilty in the Dur-ban Regional Court to 18 countsof fraud relating to the periods2011 and 2012.
According to the chargesheet, he submitted variousclaims, ranging from aboutR100 to just over R1 000, forpatients he claimed to havetreated at his Chatsworth prac-tice.
However, the complainants,many of them nurses, said thedoctor had never treated them.Many had said their medicalaid was already exhaustedwhen the claims were submit-ted. They had alerted GEMS,who investigated the matter.
Handing down her judg-ment on Thursday, magistrateDelia Turner said she foundthe State witnesses to be credi-ble and Ramcharan’s version to
be weak. She said Ramcharanhad told the court he hadtreated a lot of the people forwhom he had made claims.
The magistrate found this tobe improbable, saying that assoon as the allegations arose,he had refunded the medicalaid scheme. This, she said, infact strengthened the State’scase.
Turner acquitted him onfour of the 18 fraud counts.
Arguments for sentencingare expected to be made nextmonth by the prosecutor,Surekha Marimuthu, and de-fence attorney, Siven Samuel.
Samuel requested a reportfrom the Department of Cor-rectional Services.
In 2012, it was reported thatRamcharan was found guiltyby the Health ProfessionsCouncil of SA (HPCSA) of un-professional conduct relatingto the submission of accounts.
The doctor was fined R30 000with R20 000 suspended for fiveyears on condition he was notagain found guilty of a similaroffence.
According to a report in theDaily News’s sister paper, TheIndependent on Saturday, Ram-charan had pleaded guilty tothat charge, which he des-cribed as an honest mistake.
He had told the HPCSA com-mittee that a well-known pa-tient, whose extended family hetreated, had brought a man tohis surgery in April 2009 andintroduced him as a brother.
He was treated and a claimwas thereafter submitted. How-ever, a week later he learnt theperson he treated was not whohe claimed to be.
The doctor said he immedi-ately contacted the medical aidscheme and asked for the claimto be reversed. The money wasrepaid to the medical scheme,which then filed a complaintwith the council.
The HPCSA committeechairman said at the time thatwhile the doctor had shown re-morse, it was this conduct thatdepleted medical aids and un-suspecting consumers of mil-lions of rand.
Murder pair’s new bail bidNOELENE BARBEAU
AFTER two failed attempts,two Wentworth youngsters onFriday made another court bidfor bail.
Durban High Court JudgeEsther Steyn, however, calledfor further submissions fromtheir legal counsel and was ex-pected to hear the matter laterthis week.
Tevin Davis, 22, and BruceMeth, 21, are accused of fatallyshooting Tevin Rivers, 19, andshooting at Kyle Cornellison,20, who had both been standingon a street corner in Went-worth in June last year.
A witness said she over-heard the two accuseddiscussing shooting whoeverwould be on that street corner.Other witnesses are said tohave identified the two men atan identity parade.
During their first bail appli-cation in August, Durbanmagistrate Vanitha Armu saidmurders of this nature hadreached epidemic proportionsin the Wentworth area.
She felt the interest of jus-
tice far outweighed the inter-ests of Davis and Meth.
Community activists havealso been vocal about the num-ber of shootings in the area,and fear a turf war over drugtrading.
The investigating officer,Warrant Officer Mandla Zondi,from the provincial task team,said he was assigned the caseafter complaints had beenreceived that the original inves-tigating officer, from the Went-worth SAPS, was not investi-gating the matter.
CommonIn his affidavit opposing
bail, Zondi said: “Shootingsand killings in the Wentwortharea have become so common,to the extent that the commu-nity have lost faith in the policeand courts as they allege thatsuspects are sometimes arrest-ed and a few days thereafter,released on bail.”
He said there were threewitnesses, but others wereafraid of coming forward.
He said the accused wereflight risks and had only
handed themselves in becausethey now had CCTV footagethat purported to place themelsewhere during the shoot-ings.
He said the video footagewas unclear and had to be sentto Pretoria for forensic analy-sis.
The pair then made anotherbail application based on newfacts, and both testified.
Davis had told the court hehad CCTV footage and five alibiwitnesses. These witnesses’confirmatory affidavits wereread out to the court at thetime.
Meth had testified that hewas with his girlfriend at thetime of the shootings, and heraffidavit was also read out tothe court.
Magistrate Armu found thatno new facts were presented,saying the alibi witnesses werementioned at the initial appli-cation and the CCTV footagewas of no value at that stage asno faces could be seen.
She also said the State had astrong case.
A little hillclimbingfun atlast!Independent Newspapers Group
Sports Editor, Tim Whitfield,
is riding 900km from Heidelberg
to Scottburgh to raise funds for
the Daily News Milk Fund.
THREE days done with 331kmof the 2015 Old MutualjoBerg2C completed. Six daysto go until we reach Scottburghon Saturday, and today the funstarts as we drop over the es-carpment that separates Kwa-Zulu-Natal from the Free State.
Day one was a neutral stagefrom Heidelberg to Frankforton Friday that was 113km ofvery boring, flat riding on thedistrict back roads. Day two toReitz was a little more exciting,but still relatively flat. The FreeState is known for its flat, undu-lating landscapes and moun-tain biking without mountainsis, well, just biking.
But the joBerg2C organisersare nothing if not sadistic, andyesterday they found whatcould be the only mountainbetween Reitz and last night’sovernight stop at SterkfonteinDam.
Mount Paul is a chunk ofrock that towers over the damand the surrounding land-scape. The race organisers de-cided it was fun to put themountain back into biking, andtook us around and up it. Thefast descent down the otherside was the highlight of thefirst three days, but after 105kmof undulations my tired, wob-bly legs did not appreciate theeffort needed to get to the fun.
As much as my legs and bot-tom are feeling the after-effectsof 300km spent sitting on ahard, small piece of leather thesize of my hand propelling abicycle, my mind will not allowme to complain.
My hero of this event has tobe Kenyan Douglas Sidialo,who completed the third dayyesterday about an hour be-hind me. Nothing exceptionalin that – except he is blind andriding on a tandem with com-patriot John Mwangi.
To complete this event on atandem is a phenomenal effortin itself, but with one riderhaving to rely completely onhis partner for all the informa-tion needed is simply unbeliev-able, and their effort makes mevery guilty about whingeingabout my aches and pains.
It does make me feel slightlybetter that I am riding for theDaily NewsMilk Fund, aworthwhilecause if everthere wasone.
Do you have any news? Call us at 031 308 2124or e-mail us at [email protected] US
Team Pocket Rocket, from left, Cuan Crocker, Gianluca Pauselli, Brendan Stead and Dan van Zyl are interviewed by educationambassador for the Bloodhound Super Sonic car project, Christopher Maxwell, on their win at Kearsney College in Botha’s Hill.
PICTURE: SIBUSISO NDLOVU
