DAILY NEWS PAGE 5 MONDAY APRIL 27 2015 NEWS Leading Board Timber & Hardware Store SUPPLIER Winner of Best Supplier of Timber & Board in KZN * Master Builders Awards Xpress Store : 37 Beatrice/ Charlotte Maxeke St 031 309 1259 Mega Store : 10 Palmfeld Road, Springfeld Park 031 579 3401 [email protected] www.pinetimbers.co.za 0861 4 TIMBER [0861 4 846237] Your Preferred Contractor Supplier On Special Cupboard Fittings & Handles Mentorship challenges in the teaching practice of distance learning students DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE ARTICLE www.iie.ac.za Health, safety dangers raised Power cut over rates arrears bill NOELENE BARBEAU D ESPITE lodging a dis- pute with the eThek- wini Municipality over his utilities bill and alleged R100 000 property rates arrears, a Sherwood busi- nessman said the electricity to his home had been discon- nected on Thursday – for a second time. This led to his urgent appli- cation on Friday before Durban High Court Judge Fikile Mok- gohloa to compel the muni- cipality to re-connect his elec- tricity. The municipality argued in court that non-payment of rates was sufficient reason to disconnect an account. In court papers, Mohamed Essa said he purchased the Sherwood property in May 2012, but did not take transfer of it because there were de- fects. He and the sellers were in- volved in a legal wrangle over a reduction of the purchase price of the property and payment of the purchase price with inter- est, respectively. Essa currently lives on the property with his wife and two minor children, whom he said were both diabetic and re- quired insulin, which is refrig- erated. He said the electricity dis- connection was putting his children’s health and his family’s safety at risk, as the electric fencing and his alarm system were now not func- tional. According to his affidavit, he tried to transfer the utilities account into his name, but the municipality refused because he had not taken transfer of the property. Paid Essa claimed he had faith- fully paid the account since taking occupation, but noticed in September last year that the accounts were “incorrect”, with reflected estimates and excessively high amounts with- out any increase in usage of the electricity and water. He said he raised a dispute and was told it would be inves- tigated. In March this year, he said his electricity was discon- nected and when he queried this, he was told to continue to pay the estimates on the ac- count until the dispute had been resolved. He subsequently learnt from the municipality that there was a R100 000 rates ar- rears on the property. He said he contacted the sellers and that all attempts to resolve this matter were re- jected by them. On Thursday, their electri- city was again disconnected despite, Essa said, the dispute raised. In court on Friday, the mu- nicipality argued it was being prejudiced for services ren- dered over a fight between Essa and the sellers. Mokgohloa said she was not prepared to grant an order to re-connect the electricity when a debt was owed on the prop- erty. “I’m not going to set that precedent,” she told both par- ties. She requested both sides to speak and come to an agree- ment that perhaps Essa pays a certain amount towards the arrears so the electricity could be re-connected. [email protected] Action movie raking in the rands IN CASE there was any doubt, the lat- est box office figures confirm that South Africans like to see car chases and plenty of skop, skiet en donner when they go to the bioscope. Universal Pictures and UIP South Africa has announced that with the weekend’s takings, Fast & Furious 7 was expected to overtake Avatar to become the all-time highest-grossing film in the country. It would surpass the R56 179 423- record Avatar achieved in 2010, and do so in a record 23 days,said UIP. To put that in perspective, the SA- made movie with the highest gross is 2010’s Schuks Tshabalala’s Survival Guide to South Africa at R38 million, according to the National Film and Video 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 1 film at the worldwide box office for three consecutive weeks, and opened No 1 in all 67 markets where it was released, including North America. – Daily News Reporter Rocket car builder pupils have a blast MPHATHI NXUMALO KEARSNEY College pupils had a blast building and racing model rocket cars in a competi- tion designed to fire up interest in science, technology, engin- eering and mathematics. The competition, at the Botha’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 building a car with the aim of breaking the current land speed record of 1 228km/h, which was set in 1997 by the Thrust SSC. Five teams of four, compris- ing top achieving Grade 11 and 12 Kearsney schoolboys and a sixth team representing the teachers, were pitted against each other. Amid plenty of smoke and excitement, Team Pocket Rocket eventually won with a top speed of 171km/h – a bit off the pace if you consider that the Guinness world record for the world’s fastest model rocket car is about 400km/h. But, to be fair to the budding Kearsney rocket scientists, they only had an hour-and-a- half to complete the building of their cars, after a three-hour how-to tutorial. Also, unlike the car that broke the Guinness record, which had three rockets, the schoolboys’ cars each had only one rocket. The rockets used potassium nitrate or “sugar rocket fuel”. Gianluca Pauselli, spokes- man for Team Pocket Rocket, said he was ecstatic about the win. He said his adrenalin had been rushing when he pushed the launch button that blasted off his team’s car. The 16-year-old Grade 11 pupil revealed the glue they had used in the car only set an hour-and-a-half before the race, and he joked that the “lucky number 13” on their car may have contributed to victory. “I am definitely going to tell my parents,” Pauselli said about the win, and said he planned to study engineering at Stellenbosch when he finished school. Education ambassador for Bloodhound, Christopher Maxwell, said the race at Kearsney was intended to spark an interest in engineer- ing and science, much like the Apollo moon landing had done in 1969. Bloodhound aims to break the land speed record by achieving a top speed of 1 690 km/h – faster than a bullet fired from a Magnum 357. The 7.5 ton, 13.5m long car packs a combined 135 000 horsepower punch from its three engines: a prototype Eu- rojet EJ200 jet engine, a hybrid rocket power plant and an aux- iliary Jaguar Land Rover V8 unit. This total has six times more power than all the cars on a Formula One grid… put to- gether. A 20km racetrack which has been created in Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape was deemed by Bloodhound SSC to be the best place to hold the world record attempt. The car will be driven by British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green, who achieved the current land speed record in the ThrustSSC between September and November this year. Car wrecked in S Coast toll plaza accident NONHLANHLA MKHABELA AN N2 TOLL plaza cashier got the fright of her life when a car, travelling at “flying speed”, slammed into a crash barrier just metres from her booth on the South Coast at the week- end. KZN Emergency Medical Services spokesman, Robert McKenzie, said although there was massive damage to the car, the five occupants, all men, escape unscathed. “Much of the force of the crash was absorbed by the crash protection (a barrier and plastic containers filled with water) placed in front of the barrier wall at the toll gate,” he said. The Oribi Toll Plaza chief manager, Carol Ndlanzi, who was on duty at the time of the incident, at about 8am on Sat- urday, said staff had never been so frightened. “Out of all the 10 years that I have worked here, I have never seen such an incident. The car just kept on coming at flying speed with no intention of slowing down. We have no idea what was going on in there, but we suspect the driver hit the wall because he was avoiding crashing into the car that was before him. We are just thankful no one was hurt,” she said. She said the occupants of the car appeared dazed and disoriented. The cashier who was on duty in the booth was unavailable to speak to the Daily News yesterday. Police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, said the driver, a 30-year-old, had been arrested and was to appear in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court tomorrow. He said Port Shepstone police were investigating a case of negligent driving and driv- ing under the influence of alcohol. A car crashed into a barrier at the Oribi Toll Plaza near Port Shepstone at the weekend. Gun, drugs found in raids A FIREARM belonging to a Lamontville policeman has been seized during a drug raid in Sydenham. Police searched a flat in Sydenham Heights A-Block for drugs when they found a 9mm parabellum Vektor pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition. A 19- year-old was held. The pistol was alleged to have been taken from the po- liceman in Mobeni Heights Shopping Centre last year. The policeman was al- legedly held up by three men. Police spokesman, Major Thulani Zwane, said a second flat was raided where police re- covered 655 ecstasy tablets, 10 mandrax tablets, 68 whoonga straws, 29 pieces of crack co- caine and four bags of cocaine powder. They arrested a man, aged 28, for drug possession estimated at a street value of R46 320. The two suspects are ex- pected to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court tomorrow. – Daily News Reporter Doctor defrauded medical aids NOELENE BARBEAU A PINETOWN doctor has been convicted on 14 counts of fraud for submitting false claims to the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS). Dr Kalpesh Ramcharan pleaded not guilty in the Dur- ban Regional Court to 18 counts of fraud relating to the periods 2011 and 2012. According to the charge sheet, he submitted various claims, ranging from about R100 to just over R1 000, for patients he claimed to have treated at his Chatsworth prac- tice. However, the complainants, many of them nurses, said the doctor had never treated them. Many had said their medical aid was already exhausted when the claims were submit- ted. They had alerted GEMS, who investigated the matter. Handing down her judg- ment on Thursday, magistrate Delia Turner said she found the State witnesses to be credi- ble and Ramcharan’s version to be weak. She said Ramcharan had told the court he had treated a lot of the people for whom he had made claims. The magistrate found this to be improbable, saying that as soon as the allegations arose, he had refunded the medical aid scheme. This, she said, in fact strengthened the State’s case. Turner acquitted him on four of the 18 fraud counts. Arguments for sentencing are expected to be made next month by the prosecutor, Surekha Marimuthu, and de- fence attorney, Siven Samuel. Samuel requested a report from the Department of Cor- rectional Services. In 2012, it was reported that Ramcharan was found guilty by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) of un- professional conduct relating to the submission of accounts. The doctor was fined R30 000 with R20 000 suspended for five years on condition he was not again found guilty of a similar offence. According to a report in the Daily News’s sister paper, The Independent on Saturday, Ram- charan had pleaded guilty to that 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 he treated, had brought a man to his surgery in April 2009 and introduced him as a brother. He was treated and a claim was thereafter submitted. How- ever, a week later he learnt the person he treated was not who he claimed to be. The doctor said he immedi- ately contacted the medical aid scheme and asked for the claim to be reversed. The money was repaid to the medical scheme, which then filed a complaint with the council. The HPCSA committee chairman said at the time that while the doctor had shown re- morse, it was this conduct that depleted medical aids and un- suspecting consumers of mil- lions of rand. [email protected] Murder pair’s new bail bid NOELENE BARBEAU AFTER two failed attempts, two Wentworth youngsters on Friday made another court bid for bail. Durban High Court Judge Esther Steyn, however, called for further submissions from their legal counsel and was ex- pected to hear the matter later this week. Tevin Davis, 22, and Bruce Meth, 21, are accused of fatally shooting Tevin Rivers, 19, and shooting at Kyle Cornellison, 20, who had both been standing on a street corner in Went- worth in June last year. A witness said she over- heard the two accused discussing shooting whoever would be on that street corner. Other witnesses are said to have identified the two men at an identity parade. During their first bail appli- cation in August, Durban magistrate Vanitha Armu said murders of this nature had reached epidemic proportions in the Wentworth area. She felt the interest of jus- tice far outweighed the inter- ests of Davis and Meth. Community activists have also been vocal about the num- ber of shootings in the area, and fear a turf war over drug trading. The investigating officer, Warrant Officer Mandla Zondi, from the provincial task team, said he was assigned the case after complaints had been received that the original inves- tigating officer, from the Went- worth SAPS, was not investi- gating the matter. Common In his affidavit opposing bail, Zondi said: “Shootings and killings in the Wentworth area have become so common, to the extent that the commu- nity have lost faith in the police and courts as they allege that suspects are sometimes arrest- ed and a few days thereafter, released on bail.” He said there were three witnesses, but others were afraid of coming forward. He said the accused were flight risks and had only handed themselves in because they now had CCTV footage that purported to place them elsewhere during the shoot- ings. He said the video footage was unclear and had to be sent to Pretoria for forensic analy- sis. The pair then made another bail application based on new facts, and both testified. Davis had told the court he had CCTV footage and five alibi witnesses. These witnesses’ confirmatory affidavits were read out to the court at the time. Meth had testified that he was with his girlfriend at the time of the shootings, and her affidavit was also read out to the court. Magistrate Armu found that no new facts were presented, saying the alibi witnesses were mentioned at the initial appli- cation and the CCTV footage was of no value at that stage as no faces could be seen. She also said the State had a strong case. [email protected] A little hill climbing fun at last! 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 331km of the 2015 Old Mutual joBerg2C completed. Six days to go until we reach Scottburgh on Saturday, and today the fun starts as we drop over the es- carpment that separates Kwa- Zulu-Natal from the Free State. Day one was a neutral stage from Heidelberg to Frankfort on Friday that was 113km of very boring, flat riding on the district back roads. Day two to Reitz was a little more exciting, but still relatively flat. The Free State is known for its flat, undu- lating landscapes and moun- tain biking without mountains is, well, just biking. But the joBerg2C organisers are nothing if not sadistic, and yesterday they found what could be the only mountain between Reitz and last night’s overnight stop at Sterkfontein Dam. Mount Paul is a chunk of rock that towers over the dam and the surrounding land- scape. The race organisers de- cided it was fun to put the mountain back into biking, and took us around and up it. The fast descent down the other side was the highlight of the first three days, but after 105km of undulations my tired, wob- bly legs did not appreciate the effort needed to get to the fun. As much as my legs and bot- tom are feeling the after-effects of 300km spent sitting on a hard, small piece of leather the size of my hand propelling a bicycle, my mind will not allow me to complain. My hero of this event has to be Kenyan Douglas Sidialo, who completed the third day yesterday about an hour be- hind me. Nothing exceptional in that – except he is blind and riding on a tandem with com- patriot John Mwangi. To complete this event on a tandem is a phenomenal effort in itself, but with one rider having to rely completely on his partner for all the informa- tion needed is simply unbeliev- able, and their effort makes me very guilty about whingeing about my aches and pains. It does make me feel slightly better that I am riding for the Daily News Milk Fund, a worthwhile cause if ever there was one. Do you have any news? Call us at 031 308 2124 or e-mail us at [email protected] CALL US Team Pocket Rocket, from left, Cuan Crocker, Gianluca Pauselli, Brendan Stead and Dan van Zyl are interviewed by education ambassador for the Bloodhound Super Sonic car project, Christopher Maxwell, on their win at Kearsney College in Botha’s Hill. PICTURE: SIBUSISO NDLOVU