RIGHT TO RAMP UP: DWYPD Demands Economic Access for Disabled Youth to Mark 50th Anniversary of 1976 Uprising

 

BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA 

RIGHT TO RAMP UP: DWYPD Demands Economic Access for Disabled Youth to Mark 50th Anniversary of 1976 Uprising

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​PRETORIA — Marking exactly a half-century since the historical June 16 turning point, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) has issued a national call to action on Saturday, 6 June 2026, demanding the total economic integration of young people with disabilities into the core mainstream economy.

​The Department emphasized that the ultimate legacy of the 1976 Youth Uprising remains profoundly incomplete as long as millions of physically and intellectually disabled youth remain systematically trapped in systemic poverty, social isolation, and structural unemployment.

​50 Years Post-1976: Moving Beyond Political Freedom

​The DWYPD pointed out that the brave student generation of 1976 laid down their lives not merely for fundamental political liberation, but to pave the way for a fair, democratic, and prosperous South Africa where every single young individual can fully participate in daily socioeconomic life.

​However, despite massive legal strides over the past few decades, structural bottlenecks continue to choke the real-world progression of disabled youth across multiple critical fronts:

The Department firmly reminded stakeholders that economic inclusion is a fundamental human rights mandate and a constitutional obligation—not an act of social welfare or corporate charity.

​The Legal Mandate and Untapped Capital

​South Africa’s democratic framework explicitly guarantees the path to total inclusivity. The DWYPD highlighted that the state is structurally bound by major domestic policies and global human rights accords designed to enforce equal labor market access:

​The Supreme Law: The Constitution of South Africa.

​The Policy Blueprints: The National Development Plan (NDP), Integrated Youth Policy, and the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

​The Global Shield: South Africa’s signed status under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

​"Young people with disabilities possess immense raw talent, innovative creativity, and unique leadership potential that can actively catalyze South Africa's broader economic growth. True freedom only occurs when every single young person has an equal, unhindered chance to learn, work, and proactively shape the future of this country," the Department stated.

​A Call to Open Public and Private Procurement

​

To shatter the status quo of exclusion, the DWYPD is urgently rallying national government departments, state-owned enterprises, the private corporate sector, and civil society organs to rapidly open up commercial avenues.

​The strategy demands that institutional partners actively streamline access to preferential procurement quotas, targeted entrepreneurship incubators, and specialized vocational training programs. 

By transforming youth with disabilities from passive bystanders into active economic players, the department notes that South Africa will radically reduce deep inequality, strengthen local communities, and foster genuine, lasting social cohesion.

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EMPTY SHELVES FOR SURVIVORS: DA Demands Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia Crush Sordid 'Rape Kit Shortage' Inside SAPS Warehouses

BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA 

EMPTY SHELVES FOR SURVIVORS: DA Demands Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia Crush Sordid 'Rape Kit Shortage' Inside SAPS Warehouses

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​CAPE TOWN — The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched an urgent political intervention, demanding that newly appointed Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, step in to immediately resolve a catastrophic logistical and supply chain failure that has left police stations across South Africa completely depleted of forensic rape kits.

​The official opposition exposed the escalating crisis following a nationwide string of oversight visits to South African Police Service (SAPS) community centers and specialized Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units.

​Child Rape Kits Missing From Action

​A rape kit is the absolute bedrock of gender-based violence (GBV) investigations, acting as the primary medical-legal tool used to extract critical DNA, fluid samples, and fiber evidence needed to identify and convict sexual predators.

​

The DA’s oversight data revealed a horrific administrative failure: SAPS relies on two distinct, specialized evidence kits—one formatted for adults and a separate, sensitive kit tailored specifically for child survivors. Station commanders across multiple provinces have now quietly confirmed that the child-specific rape kits are completely unavailable and out of stock across vast regional sectors.

When a survivor gathers the immense courage to report a sexual offense, the clock is ticking. Delays of just a few hours can result in the degradation, contamination, or total loss of essential DNA evidence, effectively dismantling a case before it ever reaches a high court judge.

​The Logistical Black Hole: Sitting in Warehouses

​Alarmingly, the DA’s intelligence indicates that the crisis might not be driven by a lack of national procurement budget, but rather by a complete and total breakdown in internal police logistics, distribution, and stock tracking.

​"Rape kits are reaching provincial mega-stores and centralized points within the SAPS supply chain, but they are not reliably trickling down to the local stations, FCS units, and frontline medical facilities where survivors actually go to seek help. A rape kit sitting in a locked warehouse does not help a crying survivor sitting in a police station," argued the DA's shadow policing unit.

​The opposition noted that this represents a profound breakdown in basic operational control, operational accountability, and stock management by regional SAPS commissioners.

​Hardline Demands Issued to Cachalia

​The DA has formally petitioned Acting Minister Cachalia, demanding he immediately bypass standard bureaucratic red tape and table a comprehensive, transparent accountability report before parliament detailing:

• ​The National Audit: The exact, verified number of functional adult and child rape evidence kits currently sitting at every single police station nationwide.
• ​The Logistics Cure: The immediate rollout of emergency distribution measures to ensure an uninterrupted, automated supply chain from central vaults straight to local trauma rooms.
• ​Heads Must Roll: A strict framework of disciplinary and performance accountability measures targeted at supply chain managers who allow local shelves to sit empty.

​The party reiterated that South Africa cannot realistically claim to be waging a political war against gender-based violence while the state repeatedly fails to provide the most basic forensic plastic tubes and swabs required to catch and convict violent criminals.

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MountainTop SOS: Brave Farm Wife (81) Scales Peaks to Free Kidnapped Husband as Attackers Get 20 Years

​BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA 

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SMITHFIELD — An extraordinary act of raw survival and physical bravery by an 81-year-old farm wife has led to the high-speed capture and heavy sentencing of two ruthless house robbers who stabbed her, ransacked her home, and left her elderly husband tied to a tree.

​Free State Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thabang Lesia, on Saturday, 6 June 2026, highly lauded the effective 20-year direct prison terms handed down to Sechaba Silence Maseli (29) and Sammy Pakiso Paint (38).

​The swift judicial resolution follows a terrifying Sunday afternoon ambush on 3 August 2025 at a farm homestead just outside Smithfield.

​The Church-Day Ambush and Digital Extortion

​According to the police docket, the elderly victims—aged 78 and 81—had just returned to their farm after attending a morning church service. Approaching the house, the 81-year-old wife noticed the kitchen door was ajar. Stepping inside to check, she was instantly lunged at and overpowered by two armed men.

​The attackers subjected her to a brutal beating, stabbed her through the hand, and dragged her outside at knifepoint to corner her approaching husband. The couple was forced back into the house, thrown to the floor, and bound tightly with plastic cable ties.

​The robbers then systematically cleaned out the house, stealing cellphones, cash, and family heirlooms. However, the crime took a highly calculated, digital turn:

The criminals forced the 78-year-old farmer to unlock his banking app and execute an immediate electronic transfer of R15,000 directly into a bank account belonging to a relative of one of the suspects. After cracking open the main safe to pocket an extra R6,000, the gang bundled the farmer into his own luxury Mercedes-Benz, drove him deep into the bush, and left him bound to a tree trunk before speeding off.

​The Mountaintop Escape

​What the attackers did not count on was the unyielding resilience of the injured 81-year-old woman.

​Bleeding heavily from her stab wound, the elderly wife managed to painfully rub and break her cable ties. Realizing there was no signal at the farmhouse to call for help, she walked out into the winter afternoon and physically climbed up a nearby rugged mountain peak.

​Once she reached the high-altitude crest, her phone picked up a single bar of cellular reception. She instantly launched an emergency broadcast, alerting neighboring farmers and activating the local police tracking networks.

​Former Employee Intercepted on the Run

​The mountain SOS triggered an immediate, massive law enforcement dragnet. Within hours, public order police and local farm-watch units spotted the hijacked Mercedes-Benz fleeing on the gravel backroads heading toward Bethulie.

​The vehicle was successfully boxed in, and both Maseli and Paint were hauled out at gunpoint. Police successfully recovered 100% of the stolen items, jewellery, and cash inside the car, and rushed to untie the stranded farmer from the bush. Detective Constable Larochell Macpherson of the Provincial Serious and Violent Crime Unit quickly uncovered a bitter betrayal: the mastermind, Sechaba Maseli, was a disgruntled former employee who had previously worked on the very farm he targeted.

​"This sentence sends a clear message that attacks on our farming communities will be met with the full might of the law. These dangerous criminals have been swiftly removed from society," said Lieutenant General Thabang Lesia.

​The Sentence Sheet: Cybercrimes Act Enforced

​Confronted with an airtight forensic case and the fact that they were caught driving the victim's car with his stolen money transferred into their family bank accounts, both men collapsed their defense and pleaded guilty to all counts.

​The Smithfield court hammered the duo across multiple statutory acts, using new electronic laws to punish the digital transfer:

• ​Robbery with Aggravating Circumstances: 20 years imprisonment
• ​Kidnapping: 5 years imprisonment
• ​Contravention of the Cybercrimes Act: 4 years imprisonment
• ​Common Fraud: 4 years imprisonment
• ​Possession of Suspected Stolen Property: 1 year imprisonment

​The presiding judge ordered all auxiliary sentences to run concurrently alongside the heaviest count. This results in an effective, flat 20 years of direct imprisonment behind bars for both Maseli and Paint. Additionally, both men have been permanently declared completely unfit to ever legally possess firearms in South Africa.

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KZN South Coast Terror: 'Tiger' Shusha Handed 23 Years for Savage Bush-Knife Attack on Sleeping Pensioner (75)

BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA 

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​PORT SHEPSTONE — The Port Shepstone Regional Court has handed down a heavy 23-year direct prison sentence to 45-year-old Mpumelelo "Tiger" Shusha following a brutal home invasion in the holiday town of Port Edward.

​The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) welcomed the sentence, which marks a significant breakthrough against a violent housebreaking syndicate that had been terrorizing elderly residents along the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.

​Ambushed in the Dark

​According to the state's evidence, the harrowing attack took place near midnight on 24 November 2023. The 75-year-old victim was fast asleep in his home when Shusha and two heavily armed accomplices smashed their way through the security barriers.

​Armed with a large bush knife (panga) and an assortment of other weapons, the three men stormed the elderly man's bedroom. They launched a savage physical assault on the pensioner while he was still trapped in his bed, leaving him with severe physical injuries.

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Hammer Horror in Gqeberha: Tenants Handed 25 Years After Lovers' Plot with Landlord's Partner to Bludgeon Elder to Death

BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA

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GQEBERHA — In a chilling case of domestic betrayal, a romantic couple who rented a backyard flatlet have each been slapped with an effective 25-year direct prison sentence for the brutal hammer murder and staged robbery of their 65-year-old landlord.

The High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division, sitting in Gqeberha, handed down the heavy sentences against Anke-Mari Cilliers (39) and Lee-Roy Scholtz (38) after the lovers capitulated to overwhelming forensic evidence, signing a formal Section 105A plea and sentencing agreement.

The trial has also exposed an alleged deeper, more sinister mastermind: the victim's cohabiting life partner, Estelle Le Grange (57), who is accused of orchestrating the hit on her lover.

The Plot: A Murder Disguised as a Housebreaking

According to the plea statements admitted into the court record, the murder of Daniel de Jager on the night of 29 October 2025 at his Newton Park home was not a random crime, but a carefully coordinated conspiracy.

Cilliers and Scholtz admitted that Le Grange had approached them on numerous occasions, explicitly begging the tenants to help her eliminate De Jager. On the night of the murder, the trio met in the backyard flatlet to finalize the assassination plot, agreeing to disguise the killing as a violent housebreaking and robbery.

Shortly before midnight, once Le Grange confirmed De Jager was fast asleep, she unlocked the main house to let the tenants inside.

Bludgeoned in His Sleep

Le Grange allegedly led the tenants directly into the victim's bedroom, handed Scholtz a heavy workshop hammer, and commanded him to attack.

Scholtz repeatedly bashed De Jager in the head with the hammer, while Le Grange allegedly stood by the bedside, actively encouraging him to keep striking until the 65-year-old stopped moving. A post-mortem report later confirmed that De Jager died from a combination of catastrophic blunt-force head trauma and a sharp-force injury to his neck.

Following the execution, the trio ransacked the house to simulate a messy home invasion. They stole De Jager's:

• Motor vehicle (later abandoned and recovered by police)

• Jewellery and wallet

• Bank cards and laptop

In the early hours of the following morning, the killer tenants were caught on CCTV using the dead man's bank cards to withdraw R4,500 from an ATM.

Caught by Digital Footprints

The state's case was completely unassailable. Prosecutors presented intensive cellular data and digital evidence showing extensive, real-time communication between Le Grange, Scholtz, and Cilliers before, during, and directly after the murder—obliterating any alibi they attempted to fabricate.

Facing a mountain of digital evidence, the tenants pleaded guilty to murder, aggravated robbery, defeating the ends of justice, and a statutory violation of the Older Persons Act.

Conviction Count	Individual Sentence Imposed	Operational Court Directive
Count 1: Murder	25 Years Direct Imprisonment	Primary custodial sentence term.
Count 2: Aggravated Robbery	15 Years Imprisonment	Ordered to run concurrently with Count 1.
Count 3: Older Persons Act Violation	5 Years Imprisonment	Ordered to run concurrently with Count 1.
Count 4: Defeating Ends of Justice	5 Years Imprisonment	Ordered to run concurrently with Count 1.

The court ordered all auxiliary sentences to merge into the murder count, leaving both Scholtz and Cilliers with an effective 25 years behind bars.

"The successful finalisation of this matter demonstrates the strength of a coordinated criminal justice system. We remain resolute in our efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities," said Eastern Cape Acting Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Samkelo Mtwana.

Alleged Mastermind Up Next

While the tenants begin their quarter-century stretch in maximum-security prison, the legal nightmare is far from over for the woman who allegedly commissioned the hit.

The court granted a formal separation of trials, and the alleged mastermind, Estelle Le Grange, is officially scheduled to stand trial alone on 10 June 2026. State prosecutors intend to use the signed confessions and testimonies of her former tenants to secure a life sentence against her.

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