Mayor's docket 'resurfaces'
2003-11-11 08:26
Piet Retief - Assault charges against Piet Retief mayor Andries Gamede may be back on the court roll after the missing case docket was recovered.
Mpumalanga police said they had submitted Gamede's docket to the local prosecutor, who declined to prosecute due to lack of evidence, but the prosecutor denied ever receiving it.
Gamede is accused of grabbing National Education, Health & Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) organiser Joseph Nkadimeng by the throat and flooring him on September 3.
Piet Retief detective branch commander Captain Vika Shabangu made a firm promise on Monday that the docket was on his table and would be sent to the local court on Tuesday.
Ermelo-based senior prosecutor Leorna Lloyd has insisted that neither she nor the Piet Retief prosecution team had received the docket.
Gamede allegedly attacked Nkadimeng after intruding in a meeting between about 20 municipal employees from Driefontein, provincial local government officials and Mkhondo municipal officials.
Nkadimeng was negotiating on behalf of the former local government department workers who complain that since they were transferred to work at Gamede's municipality, they were being paid late and that deductions were not transferred to their insurers.
Gamede allegedly asked the unionist and his followers to identify themselves and thereafter accused the workers of being "lazy" and ordered them to leave.
Nkadimeng, who had not seen Gamede before, also asked him to identify himself - an action, which apparently infuriated Gamede.
The unionist said he had not received any feedback from the police since he laid a charge, and he had tried to trace the case at the Piet Retief magistrate's court but was told the docket had not been referred to prosecutors.
Gamede confirmed that he had given the police his statement but they had not come back to him.
Gamede has been involved in all sorts of controversies since he became a mayor for the forestry-farming town in 1995.
He outraged his fellow councillors in June this year when he allegedly loaned the council's flashy Mercedes Benz for two weeks to his Durban girlfriend, Ukhozi FM current affairs presenter Za Memela.
The R250 000 limousine only re-appeared when Gamede arrived at June 16 celebrations in Witbank with Memela on his arm.
Gamede denied the allegations but refused to provide a logbook or his itinerary detailing the whereabouts of the Mercedes over the two weeks.
During his first mayoral term after the 1995 first local government elections, Gamede issued six ANC councillors with pistols as part of a public safety programme at taxpayers' expense.
In 2001, he fired Piet Retief's town clerk Teddy Khoza after calling him a "womaniser and a drunkard" but was later forced to authorise a R190 000 out-of-court settlement at taxpayer expense when it became obvious Khoza would win his unfair dismissal case.