Thursday 22 January 2004

This site will be updated on 30 January  2004 at 17:00

Nuus - News

• First day blues
• Vroue bly oor vinnigste vangste
• Vas oor perlemoen
• Red hot weather
• Man dies in blaze

"We were geared for a single grade one class, and now we have 70 pupils. They need to be divided, and we need to find a new teacher - quickly."

At another primary school in Paarl East, a teacher exclaimed: "It will be through a miracle, nothing else, that all the youngsters find a desk.

"We are bursting our seams, and we know, tomorrow there will again be parents queueing to register their offspring.

"It is terrible to have to tell a mother or a father, sorry - we cannot help you, you have to find another school."

At a school in Paarl East 150 first graders (50 per class) were sweating in the three available classrooms yesterday.

"We might still manage in winter, but certainly not in summer," a teacher said.

"How can the little ones ever concentrate?"

TWEE mans wat na bewering die afgelope drie weke 'n skrikbewind onder vroue in die Paarl gevoer het, is agter tralies.

Benewens roofaanvalle in die strate van die Paarl, word die twee verbind met die onlangse verkragting van 'n 14-jarige meisie by die BMX-baan in Markstraat en die aanvalle op twee 21-jarige meisies in Tekstielstraat en in die Arboretum.

Die arrestasies volg op vinnige voetwerk van 'n lid van die publiek, en fyn speurwerk deur Paarlse polisiebeamptes verlede Woensdag.

Dié middag is Doreen Oberholzer in Hoofstraat, Noorder-Paarl, deur drie mans agtervolg.

"Ek het gesien die drie hurk tussen voertuie by Nantes Motors in Hoofstraat, en toe hoor ek hulle agter my by die Optenhorststraat verkeerslig," het Doreen gesê.

"En toe ek by Gimnasium te uitgang kom, toe stap een by my verby. Hy het skielik voor my gaan staan soos een wat urineer, en ek het verbygestap.

"Net toe het ek 'n arm van agter om my kop gevoel en die slag gehoor toe my kop teen die sypaadjie kap. Toe was ek genadiglik bewusteloos."

Voetgangers wat die aanval gesien het, het die man agternagesit terwyl die polisie in kennis gestel is. Die verdagte, Lawrence Baadjies (21) van Newton, is kort daarna in hegtenis geneem.

Die vrou is in die hospitaal opgeneem met 'n gebreekte neus en ernstige kneusings teen haar kop.

Insp Lucas Lourens het vasgestel dat Baadjies onlangs uit Allandale Gevangenis vrygelaat is en dat nog huisbraaksake in die Paarl en Wellington teen hom ondersoek word.

Verdere inligting het hom gelei na Jan Fiskaalstraat, Paarl-Oos, en 'n 15-jarige makker van die verdagte.

Insp Lourens het besef dat die tiener met die liggroen oë kan die beskrywing, verskaf deur 'n verkragtingslagoffer, pas. Die polisie-ondersoek het uitgekring.

Donderdag, met die berig in die Paarl Post oor die verkragting en die beskrywing van die kleredrag van die vermeende verkragters, het 'n verdere brokkie inligting die polisie-ondersoek onderskraag.

'n Man het uit Paarl-Oos geskakel nadat hy afgekom het op 'n langbroek en T-hemp soos die verkragter sou aangehad het.

* Suspected rapists have been arrested.

TWEE jong mans van Noorder-Paarl is hierdie week in hegtenis geneem met perlemoen ter waarde van R1,5 miljoen in hul besit.

Walter Gerhard du Toit (25) van Prinsstraat en Johannes Jacobus Horn (28) van Kronkelstraat is Dinsdag elk op borgtog van R5000 vrygelaat.

Die arrestasies is gemaak deur vier lede van die Georganiseerde Misdaadeenheid in die Paarl.

Hulle het inligting opgevolg en die twee mans dopgehou toe hulle Maandag met 'n Mercedes bussie ingetrek het by 'n stoor in Okavangopark in Brackenfell.

Beslag is gelê op 17 302 ontskulpte, gevriesde perlemoen.

Die paneelwa is ingerig met koelhouers, en die vermoede bestaan dat die perlemoen vir Gauteng bestem was.

In die stoor was daar elf lang vrieskaste.

Die mans is Maandagnag in Brackenfell polisieselle aangehou, tot hulle borgaansoek Dinsdag in die Kuilsrivier Landdroshof.

YESTERDAY the mercury hit a sizzling 38 degrees in Paarl and Wellington, the highest temperature so far this year, following a week of hot weather (32 to 35 degrees).

Swimming pools were crowded and man and beast took shelter in the nearest shade.

The hot weather of the past week is set to continue in the mid-thirites until the weekend, but the mercury is not expected to hit 38 again.

By Sunday the temperature will drop to 28 degrees, with cloudy weather set to bring relief on Monday (27 degrees) and Tuesday (23 degrees).

It has been a "red week", a warm spell when fire brigades are kept busy around the clock with veld and bush fires.

The worst fires at the weekend caused the loss of a life and destroyed 100 informal homes in Mbekweni and Franschhoek.

A veld fire near Backsberg on Sunday threatened property and caused a pall of smoke to hang over the Valley, but it was brought under control in time.

A MBEKWENI resident died when the second fire in two weeks gutted the homes of hundreds of squatters in the Nederpark settlement at the weekend.

Shocked survivors this week sifted through the remains of their lives in the 30m narrow strip of land between the railway line and Drommedaris Street.

Dazed schoolchildren wondered how they would manage without books and the school uniforms their parents had purchased on Saturday.

Bicyles bought as Christmas gifts lay charred. Babies' nappies were reduced to ashes.

Steel bedframes stood as silent reminders of homes that had been full of furniture.

Informal traders lost all their stock.

"What are we to do without identity documents?," a man exclaimed.

"How will we be able to vote?"

The fire which broke out shortly before 02:00 on Saturday night destroyed 75 homes and left about 200 people homeless.

The charred body of a 38-year-old man was found after the flames had been extinguished. He had lived alone and no-one had realised that he had not woken to flee the flames.

At the Mbekweni community centre the homeless people sat in the shade of a large tree on Monday.

"We are very hungry," a man said pointing to his stomach.

"The fire brigade brought us bags of mealie meal, but now we need pots to cook the meals. We don't have any crockery or cutlery left."

Over the past eight years 991 shacks had been erected along Drommedaris Road, and thousands of people have been living in the confined area among their own debris and live electric cables that criss-cross the ground.

The illegal power connections run for 500m, from the Langabuya settlement, over Drommedaris Street, and between the shacks all the way to the Mbekweni railway station.

Until the fire which gutted 98 homes and left 250 people homeless on December 27, the residents had two water taps, no toilets and no refuse removal except for skips.

After a visit by provincial minister Marius Fransman in December, the Drakenstein municipality had another three upright taps erected, ten chemical toilets installed and promised a refuse bin to be delivered to each home.

Franschhoek

On Saturday night 15 shacks went up in flames in the Langrug squatter settlement at Franschhoek.

On Sunday night, the Boland District fire brigade had to rush to Langrug again, when another fire broke out in the township, destroying one shack.