KZN man killed while fleeing from 'robbers' on R102 near Cornubia
A KwaZulu-Natal man, 40, was killed while trying to flee from three men who allegedly attempted to rob him on the R102 near Cornubia, north of Durban, on Friday.
Reaction Unit South Africa spokesperson Prem Balram said their officers arrived on the scene at about 6pm and found a fatally injured male on the side of the road.
'Two of his friends informed Reaction Unit South Africa they were returning to their Cornubia home when they were confronted by three males who produced knives,' he said.
The friends fled onto the roadway in an attempt to flee from the robbers, but one was struck and killed by a white Renault Triber.
The driver of the vehicle was not injured.
TimesLIVE

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Mail & Guardian
2 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
Uganda's parliament ignores rule of law
Robert Kyagulanyi, aka 'Bobi Wine', leader of the National Unity Platform. Rule of law in Uganda is precarious — injustices, atrocities and oppression abnormalities are the norm. Parliament has passed the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces (Amendment) Bill, which targets dissenting voices, activists and political opponents. This comes ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2026. The draconian Bill turned into law comes amid the abductions and torture of activists and other people who oppose the government in the Buganda region. Key opposition figures such as Achileo Kivumbi, Edward Ssebuufu ( also known as Eddy Mutwe) and Noah Mutwe are among the thousands who have been subjected to such treatment. Ssebuufu, a bodyguard for National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, went missing on 27 April after being abducted by armed men. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda's military chief and son of President Yoweri Museveni, said he was holding Ssebuufu in his Days later, another of Kyagulanyi's bodyguards, Noah Mutwe, was abducted on 15 May by armed men driving a double-cab without number plates. He appeared in court on charges of incitement to violence, hate speech, malicious information and conspiracy to commit a felony related to social media messages. The NUP's head of security, Achileo Kivumbi, was arrested in August 2024 on charges of being in possession of military attire — a T-shirt and cap. He appeared in a general court martial chaired by a brigadier. Veteran opposition politician Kizza Besigye was detained in Kenya and taken back to Uganda where he was transferred to a military court. No extradition proceedings were followed and Kenya denied knowledge of the abduction. He was charged with treason in a civilian court after his case was transferred from a military tribunal. In 2018, Kyagulanyi was first taken to a military court and then transferred to a civilian court on charges of treason. The general court martial is a specialised court set up by the legislative arm to deal with uniformed and military discipline in the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces, not civilians. What is so dangerous about this situation is that martial law is used specifically against Museveni's opponents In January this year, in On 21 May, contrary to the court ruling, parliament passed the Bill allowing military trials of civilians. Museveni and his son still insist on trying civilians in military courts, stating that the move stabilises the country. The president is on record stating that 'civilian courts are clogged with the many court cases of the whole country like murder, rape, assaults, robbery, land matters, divorce matters emphasising that they could not handle gun-wielding criminals quickly'. 'Yet for stabilisation you need speed. Moreover these individuals, although not soldiers, voluntarily and with evil intentions acquired killing instruments that should be the monopoly of the armed forces, governed by the relevant laws.' Museveni's statements hold little substance and 'these individuals' are political opponents and civilians who should not appear in the specialised general court martial. It is against the law and unconstitutional. The legality of this military court was tested in Uganda Law Society vs Attorney General and in 2nd Lt. Ogwang Ambrose vs Uganda. But now Museveni has passed the 2025 Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces (Amendment) Bill. It's clear that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) of the Museveni regime is using the military court as a tool against its political opponents to entrench fear among opposition party members and Uganda's voters. The NRM government has been using political corruption and violence to suppress opposition parties and voters for the past 40 years. My fear is the wrath that is being built and will be unleashed against opponents of the NRM regime ahead of the 2026 elections. Robert Kigongo is a sustainable development analyst.


Mail & Guardian
3 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
There is no genocide in South Africa – but there is billionaire disinformation
US President Donald Trump. What unfolded recently in the Oval Office — a meeting between US President Donald Trump, President Cyril Ramaphosa, Elon Musk, Johann Rupert, and DA leader John Steenhuisen — was a shameful display of misinformation, disinformation, elite self-preservation and racial scapegoating. It was a calculated act of fear-mongering and a spectacle of national chauvinism of the US state. Trump's tirade about a genocide against white people, or more specifically white farmers, in South Africa is not only factually wrong, it is morally grotesque. Especially in the context of the real genocide taking place in Gaza and which is being televised live around the world. According to reports by the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) champions a pan-African agenda. Race is a social construct, not a biological reality; it is shaped by history, politics and culture rather than rooted in genetics. There is only one race and that is the human race. By referring to a section of the population in South Africa who happen to have a white skin as refugees, especially a section of the population who benefited unfairly under the apartheid regime, is disingenuous at best. One apartheid-era example is job reservation where all white collar work was reserved exclusively for 'whites only'. It also makes a mockery of the plight of human beings fleeing war, conflict and persecution based on their political beliefs, sexual orientation and so forth; fleeing for their lives. Trump's fear-based rhetoric is echoed by US officials such as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are leveraging disinformation to justify racist immigration policies. It also informs the practice of many European countries and others such as Australia, which are embedded in repressive measures taken against people fleeing countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These can only be seen as racially informed policies to keep refugees out, based on a racist trope of 'cultural difference'. Rupert's presence in the White House was a masterclass in elite deflection. He spoke about building homes for his grandchildren while ignoring the millions of children growing up in South Africa's informal settlements, excluded from land and opportunity by the very class Rupert belongs to. Rupert accumulated his wealth through the unfair privilege that he enjoyed simply because of the colour of his skin. So to talk about transformation and redress is to talk about how apartheid's systemic construction of inequality remains a reality. Rupert also referred to undocumented migrants as 'aliens' — a term that reeks of apartheid-era violence, recalling the Aliens Control Act, which dehumanised African workers while Rupert's empire was fattened by the exploitation that was the legal framework of apartheid. Today, that legacy continues. But words such as equality and science are anathema to Trump. It is no surprise that Trump uses false and unsubstantiated information, because it is Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon that are vehicles for the spreading of misinformation and toxic hatred. Big Tech firms increasingly operate above the regulatory grasp of governments. And the more toxic and divisive the information that is shared such as the claim of 'white genocide in South Africa', the more profits these companies make. Those US-based tech corporates own the vast majority of the world's digital nervous system and they use this to spread misinformation, lies and unsubstantiated statements. What we saw in the Oval Office was global apartheid in action. The apartheid of the rich and the poor. The apartheid of the excessively rich. This wealth distribution and inequality is informed by an era of the existence of a global empire shaped by multi-tech companies that have a monopoly and domination of global markets and are economic powerhouses. These multi-tech companies are the ones who have coined the phrase 'precarious work', which has impoverished and stripped the dignity of hundreds of millions of workers. There are serious problems in South Africa, but they are not unique to us. Around the world, and very much including Trump's US, it is the greed, cowardice, corruption and inhumanity of those who hold political power and who hoard wealth and dodge taxes, that drives systemic poverty, unemployment and crime, not the poor and not migrants. The Trump-led US state, like most of the states in the Global North, is choosing to ignore the real global crises — climate refugees, displaced people, economic migrants and the genocide in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians are being killed. Whole neighbourhoods flattened. Hospitals bombed. Journalists assassinated. You don't get to preach about justice and peddle lies about 'white genocide' when you not only ignore but support actual crimes against humanity. We call on every worker, activist, migrant, and citizen to reject the myth of the 'invading alien' and stand firm against the real threat: a global billionaire elite desperate to protect its position and power at any cost. Stand in solidarity with the struggle for equality and justice in the world. Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia is a coalition of organisations united against xenophobia.


Mail & Guardian
3 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
Government's gender-based violence plan lacks funds
File photo Inadequate government funding for the The '[The plan] is a comprehensive strategy to deal with gender-based violence and my feeling is we should be putting our energy, our advocacy, our legal work and our responses into getting it to work,' said Bronwyn Pithy, an advocate at the Women's Centre for Legal Studies. 'We should be pressurising governments to get the NSP [national strategic plan] to work and be funded and properly done.' In his But Pithy said the government's response to the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide was not enough. Rights group Women for Change has put forward a number of demands to the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities to address gender-based violence, including that it be declared a national disaster, funding the national strategic plan and urgently implementing the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill, which was signed into law in May last year. In a written response to the organisation, the department said it had submitted funding proposals to the treasury for the implementation of the national strategic plan and had also put in funding proposals for the establishment of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. 'The [department] is engaged in all these matters. The department of social development has highlighted the need for immediate allocation of funding and resources for GBVF-prevention initiatives. This action is pending,' it said. 'Additional funding is required The department of women, youth and persons with disabilities did not respond to questions from the Mail & Guardian. In a statement, Women for Change said while the department acknowledged the funding crisis, it offered no solution beyond stating that it is 'subject to the availability of funds'. 'This is not good enough! Survivors cannot wait for the next budget cycle. Shelters are closing. Victims are being turned away. Legal and psychological services are under-resourced, like many other organisations at the forefront,' it said. 'This is not a planning issue. This is a moral emergency, where you ignore the 15 murdered women every day.' The organisation also called for judicial and legislative reform, which includes opposing bail in cases of child sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence, attempted murder and murder, where sufficient evidence exists and if they are a danger to survivors and the community. While the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act makes provision for opposing bail, Women for Change said its application is 'inconsistent and dangerously flawed'. It added that the criminal justice system does not adequately address survivors' lived experience and they are often 're-traumatised by the justice system, with rapists, abusers and murderers walking free on bail or reoffending while out on parole'. Pithy conceded that the sexual offences legislation is not being implemented consistently, adding that the government needed to pay attention to detecting and prosecuting cases. 'Our biggest problem in this country is, apart from the fact that we have a very low reporting rate … is the attrition rates and that the number of cases that are reported in comparison to those that eventually land up in conviction is so minuscule,' she said. 'The conviction rate in sexual offences at the moment, realistically, is between 5% and 7% of the cases that actually get reported.' She added that the system needed to show perpetrators that they will be caught, they will be prosecuted and be found guilty — and there will be consequences. 'It is probably one of the most effective ways of addressing GBVF.' 'Facing these levels of violence, at the moment, people operate with impunity. They know they won't get caught and they know they won't proceed to prosecution.'