HANTI OTTOCOURT REPORTER

THE CHILDREN of FireTrust and its founder aresuing e.tv and DeboraPatta of the programme3rd Degree for R5 million

after alleged defamatory pro-grammes were aired in August andDecember, 2006.

According to papers filed in theJohannesburg High Court, the char-ity felt that due to the image por-trayed by 3rd Degree, and statementsmade by Patta during the pro-gramme, the Trust lost donationsand suffered damages to its goodwilland name of R3 million.

Bronwen Jones, a trustee andfounder of Children of Fire, whowas interviewed by Patta, is suing

for R2 million for damages to herreputation.

Patta and e.tv have until Thurs-day to respond.

e.tv spokesman Vasili Vass con-firmed that they had received thesummons and would defend it incourt.

Children of Fire takes care ofburn victims by supplying medicalhelp and education. Some of thechildren are also housed at the char-ity while receiving treatment. Oneof their well-known cases is SeisoRatswana (4), who was burnt in anattempted murder by two teenagerswhen he was a baby.

In court documents the charityclaimed that during the nationally-viewed programme, 3rd Degree

alleged that Jones was not distribut-ing donations to children in the

charity’s care. The programme alsoalleged that Jones handed outexpired food.

Patta started the programme,saying: “With blankets, food ormoney, South Africans are knownfor their generosity. A generosity, inthe case of tonight’s story, that wassadly abused (by Jones and/or Chil-dren of Fire).”

The presenter continued thatwhile some saw Jones as a saint, oth-ers accused her of “hoarding dona-tions meant for the needy”. Pattasaid 3rd Degree uncovered “shock-ing evidence that blankets and dona-tions meant for burn victims are col-lecting dust” in Jones’s house.

Former employees were alsoquoted as saying the children werecold and hungry.

During the programme Patta

asked Jones why 1 200 victims offires in Johannesburg that year didnot receive blankets. Jones repliedthat they were not asked for 1 200blankets.

The court papers quoted Patta:“That is a complete bald-faced lie.You were supposed to distributethem”, and, later in the programme:“You are lying again. You collectedblankets, you pretended to be thissaint…”

Jones again said emergency serv-ices did not ask them for aid.

The charity stated that the pro-gramme was wrongful and defama-tory to Jones and the trust. It arguedthat the context of the programmeswas intended to mean, and wasunderstood by viewers, that theTrust and/or Jones were guilty offraud, engaged in wrongful conduct,

neglected children and exploited thegoodwill and generosity of the pub-lic for personal gain.

In addition, it feared that the pub-lic would believe Children of Firewas lying and collected charitabledonations under false pretence.

The additional “sting” was thatthe charity was inefficient, couldnot be trusted and that the publicshould not co-operate with theorganisation.

The charity said in a pressrelease that it first went to theBroadcasting Complaints Commis-sion of South Africa but wasinformed that if it pursued thatroute, it would have to sign a waivernot to pursue a civil claim.

“The Trust decided in the inter-est of justice, that a civil actionwould be lodged,” it said.

3NewsPRETORIA NEWSTUESDAY AUGUST 11 2009

Children of Fire charity takes on e.tv’s PattaTrust’s founder wants R5m, says she was defamed in a 3rd Degree programme

Bronwen Jonesis suing e.tv fordamages to her reputation.

e.tv’s Debora Patta allegedly aired adefamatory programme.

Crackdown on illegal taxis under wayBARRY BATEMAN

THE TSHWANE Metro Policehave heeded the call by thenational Department of Trans-port to clamp down on convertedpanel vans illegally being used astaxis.

Last week the departmentcalled on provincial and munici-pal authorities to be on the look-out for the 1 070 or so vehicles ithad identified as being converted.

In the market, panel vans areabout R45 000 cheaper than taxis.Dealers buy these vehicles, con-vert them into taxis and then sellthem to operators at the sameprice as a standard specificationtaxi to cream off large profits.

While these vehicles are notsub-standard, and could be usedby non-public operators or forprivate use, they are not of thestandard required for publictransport.

Tshwane community safetyspokesman Console Tleane con-firmed that cases of “illegalminibuses” had been picked upby the Tshwane Metro Police.

But, he explained, these caseswere usually not easy for thelicensing division to identifybecause the paperwork could be

made to seem legitimate by theowners. However, Tleane said themetro police were able to pick upthe problem through physicalexamination by officers on theroad. “We are not able to give spe-cific numbers, although thesewill be made available soon,” hesaid.

A converted vehicle is identi-fied by a number of key charac-teristics – the side windowstowards the rear of the vehicleare separated by a metal paneland the vehicle has a folding“jockey-seat” which has nowbeen outlawed in public trans-port vehicles.

Tleane said officers took sev-eral “firm steps” if they cameacross such an illegal vehicle.“Firstly, the officer would liter-ally strip of the licence disc ofthe vehicle so that it is renderedimmediately unroadworthy.

“Secondly, the officer wouldissue a fine and order of ‘Discon-tinue of Use’. That is, the vehiclecannot be used in any way untilit is fixed,” he said.

Tleane said the third step wasto order all passengers out of thevehicle. “This is because the vehi-cle is illegal and therefore not cer-tified to carry any passengers, or

to be on the road. “The last step, to complete the

on-the-spot enforcement, is toorder that the driver not take thevehicle from the scene.

“Instead, a tow-truck, whichmust be paid for by the owner ordriver, must take the vehicleaway. The owner or driver wouldthen, after this on-the-road inter-vention, have to convert the vehi-cle to a legal status. This wouldmean that the vehicle would haveto be reconverted properly into apanel van,” he said.

Tleane said it was only afterall the legal stipulations had beenfulfilled that the owner couldre-apply for the the vehicle to belicensed.

Last week SA Taxi Finance(SATF) announced that it hadpledged R20 million to assistoperators in upgrading their con-verted vehicles to the standardrequired for public transport.

SATF executive director Bon-isile Makubalo said they esti-mated it would cost about R25 000to upgrade a vehicle to therequired standard. “About 100vehicles have been made avail-able to protect the taxi operators’businesses while the upgradestake place,” he said.

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Family honour Maths guru’s last wishBALDWIN NDABA

THE FAMILY of one of SouthAfrica’s greatest mathematiciansand educationists, Professor Tham-sanqa Wilkinson Kambule, fulfilledhis last wish by cremating himwithin 48 hours of his death.

Kambule, 88, succumbed to alung infection on Friday at UnitasHospital in Centurion.

Yesterday his family and friendsgathered at the BraamfonteinCemetery to pay their last respectsbefore he was cremated.

Family spokesman and grand-son Mthunzi Mdwaba said hisgrandfather had left a writteninstruction with his lawyers thathe had to be cremated within 48hours of his death. According tothe instruction, his children had to

provide proof of his death to hislawyers before his wish could befulfilled. Mdwaba said his familyhonoured his wish and he was cre-mated at 9am yesterday.

“The family will later decidewhat to do with his ashes,”Mdwaba said.

Kambule’s son, Lulama,described his father as a “caringperson”. “He was a people’s per-

son,” Lulama said.Kambule’s death has saddened

his former pupil, musician Sipho“Hot-stix” Mabuse.

Mabuse was a pupil at OrlandoHigh School when Kambule wasthe principal. “He was a resoluteand steadfast man. He was verypractical as a principal and thatwas why most of us enjoyed goingto school,” Mabuse said.

For most residents, the Women’s Day long weekend was a quiet, lazy affair. This couple enjoyed an afternoon chat by the lake at Irene Country Club,while others enjoyed free music at concerts held at various venues in the city. A handful ventured out to the council’s resorts, which were trouble-free,according to authorities. PICTURE: MASI LOSI

TWO’S COMPANY… Numeracy, literacylevel shock at varsitiesJO-ANNE SMETHERHAM

SHOCKING new tests results showmost first-year students at universi-ties across the country do not havethe literacy skills, and only a tinyproportion have the mathematicalskills required in higher education.

The final pilot phase of theNational Benchmark Tests Project(NBTP) is a damning indictment ofthe implementation of OutcomesBased Education, and raises ques-tions about the validity of NationalSenior Certificate results.

It also explains the high failurerate at tertiary institutions. Previ-ous research has shown that fewerthan one in three of students at alltechnikons and universities gradu-ate after five years.

The principal investigator of theNBTP, Professor Nan Yeld, dean ofhigher education development atthe University of Cape Town, saidthe tests showed “the school systemis not able, at this stage, to deliverthe ambitious new curricula, partic-ularly in mathematics”.

She emphasised, however, that“this is not the same as saying thatthe curriculum is the problem”.

The findings largely confirmedwhat the researchers had knownabout student competence, she said,although “some have been angrythat the National Senior Certificateresults gave a different picture”.

About 13 000 students wrote theassessments in February. Theresults of the tests have been distrib-

uted to universities in recent weeks. The participating universities

were Cape Town, Western Cape,Stellenbosch, Witwatersrand,KwaZulu-Natal, the MangosuthuUniversity of Technology, andRhodes. More than 300 academicsparticipated in the project.

Only about 7% of the studentswho wrote the maths tests, werefound to be proficient, meaning theywould not need extra help to passtheir first year. The test assessed theskills needed to study first-yearmaths at university.

About 73% had “intermediate”mathematical skills, and would needto take part in extended or aug-mented programmes to pass univer-sity mathematics. The remaining20% had only “basic” skills, andwould need long-term support.

This finding “provides some sup-port for doubts about the large num-ber of students achieving over 70%in the NSC examination in this sub-ject”, the study’s authors wrote.

The challenges universities facedregarding mathematics were “enor-mous”, they said, and universitiesmathematics curricula should adaptto help the struggling students.

About 47% of the students whowrote the tests on academic literacywere proficient, 46% had intermedi-ate skills, and 7% had basic skills.This test assessed ability in English,the medium of instruction.

The student sample was repre-sentative in gender and demograph-ics, the project leaders said.

Professor Thamsanqa Kambule, whowas cremated yesterday.

Fresh call forcalm as swineflu tightens grip

BARRY BATEMAN

HEALTH practitioners and expertshave reiterated their call for calm asswine flu continues to sweep acrossthe country.

Only two people have been con-firmed casualties of the H1N1 virus,while the National Institute forCommunicable Diseases (NICD) isinvestigating two more.

Ruan Muller, a 22-year-old Stel-lenbosch University student, wasthe first death directly linked to theH1N1 virus based on laboratory con-firmation by the NICD.

Symptoms of the disease are ahigh fever – 38°C and over – bodyaches, runny nose, sore throat, nau-sea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fastbreathing or trouble breathing, sud-den dizziness, and pain or pressurein the chest or abdomen.

It was reported last week that atleast four Pretoria public schoolshad about 16 cases of swine flu.

A general practitioner in Hat-field said he had ordered tests on sixpatients suspected to be infectedwith swine flu, but only three testedpositive. The doctor said they werenot testing all patients for the H1N1virus, but only those who showedsevere symptoms. All other caseswere treated like seasonal flu.

NICD director Lucille Blumbergsaid the institute was recommend-ing that not all patients be testedfor the virus, saying: “This is a mildillness that should be treated likeseasonal flu.”