Kidnapping, murder, and a faked death: SANDF soldiers in court over Hawks detective killing
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News24
38 minutes ago
- News24
City Power board launches corruption probe after News24 exposé
News24's ongoing Power Connections investigation has seen City Power's board state it will take action. A string of alleged governance failures has led to the municipal entity being saddled with a negative R16 billion bank balance. The board hinted that it would wield the axe for what it said were internal control weaknesses at the firm. For secure, anonymous communication with News24's Investigations team, click here. City Power's board of directors announced a sweeping investigation into alleged corruption following News24 reports detailing apparent mismanagement and governance failures at the loss-making power entity. In a late-night media statement on Tuesday, City Power's board chairperson, Makhosini Kharodi, said the utility's structure 'noted' the latest article of News24's ongoing Power Connections investigation. On Monday, the Power Connections series revealed an alleged nepotism racket headed by the entity's CEO, Tshifularo Mashava, who allegedly appointed her blood relatives, causing angst among usurped workers. Kharodi said the board-sanctioned probe sought to strengthen governance, accountability, and integrity within City Power. 'The review, initiated through the Audit and Risk Committee, will focus on the issues highlighted in the News24 article, including allegations of nepotism, unqualified appointments, and internal control weaknesses, as well as other concerns raised in the public domain,' the chairperson added. The claims of unqualified persons being appointed to senior positions as electrician team leaders come after the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) had two of its shop stewards and one branch secretary promoted despite not meeting the requirements, including academic qualifications and at least five years' experience. Samwu's Johannesburg regional spokesperson, Thobani Nkosi, admitted that the three union leaders benefited from what he called 'irregular deviations' that he said City Power's management sanctioned in appointing people who did not meet the team leader requirements. Moreover, Kharodi acknowledged the electricity company's cash-strapped financial status. The utility is saddled with a more than R16.3 billion negative bank balance as of September 2024, the end of the first quarter of City Power's financial year. The perilous financial position was contained in official City of Johannesburg reports, which Mayor Dada Morero allegedly concealed from the council and the public. The chairperson further conceded that there were alleged internal control weaknesses at the company, an assertion echoed by the Auditor-General's November 2024 report, laying bare the struggles of the municipal entity. The AG's report, which found that the electricity firm made a R2.8 billion loss in the 12 months ending 30 June 2024, recorded that City Power could fail as a company, owing to its liabilities exceeding its assets by more than R1.1 billion. The November report chastised Mashava and her senior management for handling the entity's affairs. It said there was a lack of 'adequate oversight' regarding compliance with municipal laws and regulations. The AG added that this followed management's failure to ensure that 'reasonable steps were not taken to prevent' irregular expenditures of nearly R4.9 billion, including fruitless and wasteful spending of more than R150.9 million. On Tuesday, Kharodi said the company's board took News24's revelations seriously, adding that 'interventions' had begun to fix City Power, including a structural review aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and oversight, and a 'revenue enhancement and protection strategy to address losses and improve financial sustainability'. On the investigation, Kharodi said: 'The aim of this process is to establish the facts, ensure appropriate consequence management where warranted, and reinforce ethical leadership throughout the organisation.' He added: 'City Power remains committed to delivering reliable service to the residents of Johannesburg while holding itself to the highest standards of public accountability.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jail for visitor who 'had no explanation' for stealing from city store
A VISITOR to Carlisle who stopped off in the city could offer no explanation for why he stole goods worth more than £200 from a local store. At the time when he committed the offence during his visit to the Newtown Road branch of B&M, 41-year-old Antonio Gabriel Maldonado Rueda was under the threat of a suspended jail term, the city's Rickergate court heard. The defendant admitted theft. Prosecutor Diane Jackson said the defendant stole various goods, including pain killers, leaving the store after making no attempt to pay for the goods he took. Their total value was £214, she said. 'He was stopped as he left the store,' said Mrs Jackson. The court heard that Rueda – following the proceedings with the help of a Spanish interpreter – had five previous offences on his record. In March, magistrates in Wales gave him a 16-week jail term for similar offending. This was suspended for two years and was thus in force when he committed the Carlisle offence. Lauren Heasley, for Rueda, told the court: 'He apologises for offending on Saturday. He'd been travelling from his home to Glasgow. 'He stopped off in Carlisle and he can't provide an explanation for his actions. He was not in financial difficulty and had the means to pay. "It seems that for whatever reasons, while he was in the B&M store, temptation got the better of him. Without any sophistication, he sought to remove those items without paying.' She added that Rueda was willing to work with the Probation Service. Deputy District Judge Roger Lowe noted how the defendant was serving a suspended sentence for three previous shoplifting offences in March after appearing at Somerset and Avon Magistrates earlier that month for yet more shoplifting. The law states that in such circumstances – when there is further similar offences - a suspended sentence should be activated unless it would be unjust to do so. 'I can't find any grounds on which I can say it would be unjust,' said the judge. He jailed the defendant, of Castlehey, Skelmersdale, for 14 weeks.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
What Time is Bryan Kohberger's Plea Hearing? What To Know, How To Watch
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the murders of four University of Idaho students, is expected in court on Wednesday morning to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Why It Matters Kohberger, 30, is expected to plead guilty to charges that he murdered Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, in Moscow, Idaho, early on November 13, 2022. He agreed to the plea deal in the past few days, just weeks before his trial was set to begin, after his attorneys tried but failed to stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. The deal has divided the victims' families, with some furious that it will allow Kohberger to avoid capital punishment and others supporting it. What Time Is the Hearing? Kohberger is due to appear before Idaho Fourth Judicial District Judge Steven Hippler for a change of plea hearing at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise at 11 a.m. MDT (1 p.m. ET), according to a notice filed on Monday. Bryan Kohberger listens to arguments during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment in Moscow, Idaho, on October 26, 2023. Bryan Kohberger listens to arguments during a hearing to overturn his grand jury indictment in Moscow, Idaho, on October 26, 2023. Kai Eiselein/Pool-Getty Images How To Watch the Hearing The proceedings will be live-streamed on YouTube by the court. Hippler on Tuesday denied requests by media outlets to record Wednesday's hearing. "A live-steam of the proceedings will be provided by the Court on its media streaming account," he wrote in an order. "Therefore, the various requests by media outlets to independently video record the proceedings are denied." Photographs From the Hearing The judge said he would permit The Associated Press to capture still photographs from the hearing. "The permission to provide such coverage is contingent on the AP agreeing to act as a pooled resource for such photographs for all media entities," he wrote. Hippler said the photographer may only capture images from the location within the courtroom assigned to them by court personnel. He added that photographs may not be taken of the family members of the victims inside the courthouse. What To Know The four University of Idaho students were found fatally stabbed at a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow in the early hours of November 13, 2022. The slayings sparked a massive hunt for the perpetrator, including an effort to track down a white sedan seen on surveillance cameras repeatedly driving by the rental home, the use of genetic genealogy to identify Kohberger as a possible suspect and cellphone data to pinpoint his movements on the night of the killings. Kohberger, who was a graduate student at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, at the time, was arrested at his parents' home in Pennsylvania weeks after the murders. Investigators said they had matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He stood silent when asked to enter pleas in 2023, prompting a judge to enter not-guilty pleas on his behalf. His attorneys have since tried in vain to take the death penalty off the table. But with Kohberger's murder trial now just weeks away, they turned to a plea deal to avoid the possibility of execution. Prosecutors said in a letter to the families of the victims that Kohberger's defense attorneys had approached them seeking a plea deal last week, ABC News reported. "This resolution is our sincere attempt to seek justice for your family," they wrote in the letter. "This agreement ensures that the defendant will be convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison, and will not be able to put you and the other families through the uncertainty of decades of post-conviction appeals." The Goncalves family is furious about the plea deal, and have said they will seek to stop it. But they have also said that any deal should "at a bare minimum" require Kohberger to make a full confession, provide the location of the murder weapon and detail the facts of what happened on the night of the killings. No motive has emerged for the killings, and it is also not clear why the attacker spared two roommates who were also in the home at the time of the killings. What People Are Saying The Goncalves family said in a Facebook post on Tuesday: "We stand strong that it is not over until a plea is accepted. We will not stop fighting for the life that was stolen unjustly." They added: "While we are cognizant that some may have wanted the plea, the prosecution relayed to us it was NOT a majority vote that was the deciding factor in offering this plea. At a bare minimum, please - require a full confession, full accountability, location of the murder weapon, confirmation the defendant acted alone, & the true facts of what happened that night. We deserve to know when the beginning of the end was." Chapin's mother Stacy Chapin told KTVB on Tuesday: "The Chapins will be in Boise tomorrow, July 2, in support of the plea bargain." Mogen's father Ben Mogen, who is supportive of the deal, told CBS News: "We can actually put this behind us and not have these future dates and future things that we don't want to have to be at, that we shouldn't have to be at, that have to do with this terrible person. "We get to just think about the rest of [our] lives and have to try and figure out how to do it without Maddie and the rest of the kids." Martin Souto Diaz, an attorney for the Kohberger family, said in a statement on behalf of the family: "In light of recent developments, the Kohbergers are asking members of the media for privacy, respect, and responsible judgement during this time. "We will continue to allow the legal process to unfold with respect to all parties, and will not release any comments or take any questions. We ask that you respect our wishes during a difficult time for all those affected." What's Next Hippler must approve the plea deal. If Kohberger pleads guilty as expected at the change of plea hearing on Wednesday, prosectors expect sentencing to take place in late July. He will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on the murder counts and the maximum penalty of 10 years on the burglary count, ABC News reported, citing the agreement. This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
