A man facing more than 700 charges related to the sexual abuse of children has failed to appear in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg because he is reportedly ill.
From exposing himself to children in public bathrooms, creating child pornography, and raping a minor, to running a child sex ring in Johannesburg, the crimes Gerhard Ackerman has been accused of span more than a decade.
Marikana violence was avoidable, Mahikeng court hears
1 Jun 2021
13 October 2020: Major General William Mpembe, a former provincial commissioner in North West, appears in the high court in Mahikeng during his trial over the death of a striking miner who had died in a police van. (Photograph by Paul Botes)
When the tear gas cleared on 13 August 2012, from the veld near the railway line used to transport platinum from Lonmin’s processing plant at Marikana, five people were dead: two police officers and three striking mineworkers.
It was apparent to the police’s “boots on the ground” the ordinary rank and file who were in the majority of the specialised public order policing unit that inept leadership and an inability to follow basic crowd management procedures had led to the deaths of two of their colleagues. They allegedly blamed the commander in charge, Major General William Mpembe.