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Durban - A girl aged,6 from a farm near Sugar Rush in Ballito survived a harrowing ordeal after she was bitten on the chin by a Mozambican spitting cobra on Sunday night.

The snake, however, did not stop there and sprayed little Mikayla-Sue Grove's mom, Inge, in the face, from a distance of about 30cm, when she went to investigate what had happened.

Mikayla-Sue’s father, Ludwig, said his two girls Mikayla-Sue and Izabella were in the room they shared when they heard a commotion.

Mikayla-Sue told her dad she had a “toothache” and Ludwig realised she had been bitten.

He located the snake and made sure his daughters left the room safely.

Inge, after the snake spat in her eyes, immediately started washing her eyes out with water.

Ludwig said they had a 10 to 15-minute dash to the Alberlito Hospital and what had saved his wife's eyes was that they took a bottle of water along with them and Inge constantly washed her eyes out.

Writing on Facebook page Snake Bite Assist, expert Arno Naude, said doctors had urgently applied anti-venom and, when the swelling reached the child's throat, had intubated her so that she would not suffocate.

Ludwig told The Mercury that 17 vials of anti-venom were applied over a 12-hour period.

Naude said Inge had since recovered from the venom in the eyes and was with their daughter in hospital.

Ludwig on Facebook thanked all those involved in his daughter's treatment.

“Mikayla is doing much better, the tubes have been removed, she is very responsive and looks around, eyes wide open,” he said yesterday. "Still in ICU, but I think I can safely say she is out of danger. We will know for certain over the next two to three days what the extent of the tissue damage will be.”

He said on Tuesday doctors had removed the tubes and the swelling had decreased substantially. In the next 48 hours they would learn if there would be any permanent tissue damage.

The family thanked the public for all the messages of support.

Snake catcher Neville Wolmarans was called to the scene shortly after the incident occurred and removed the snake.

Considered one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa, the Mozambican spitting cobra's venom can cause severe local tissue destruction. Venom to the eyes can also cause impaired vision or blindness if the eyes are not urgently cleaned out with water or milk.

The snake's fangs are specially modified for spitting venom. This allows the Mozambican spitting cobra to spit its venom to a distance of two to three metres.

Durban - Five people were injured, one critically, after two vehicles collided in a T Bone format on Blair Atholl Road near the Shell Garage in Westville on Tuesday morning.

Rescue Care  spokesman Garrith Jamieson said paramedics were called to the scene about 10.30am. They found one vehicle on the pavement and the second down an embankment. The driver of the one vehicle was trapped in the wreckage. While paramedics worked to stabilise the man the Durban Fire Department used the Jaws of Life to free him. The man was then placed on a manual ventilator before being rushed through to a nearby hospital. Four others were injured and stabilised before being transported to various Durban hospitals

Meanwhile, four people have been injured one seriously so after two vehicles collided in a T Bone format at the corner of Essenwood Road and Sydenham Road on the Berea on Tuesday afternoon after 12:45pm.

Jamieson said paramedics found the vehicles badly damaged on the roadside. Four occupants from both vehicles were injured with injuries ranging from minor to serious. They were stabilised and transported to various Durban Hospitals.

In a separate incident three people were injured after a multi-vehicle collision on the M7 Durban bound near the N3 onramp in Pinetown this morning.

Jamieson said paramedics responded to a single vehicle that had overturned in the central median just after 11am. While attending to the injured a vehicle lost control and collided into two breakdown trucks and two other vehicles followed. Three people had sustained various injuries.

At this stage the events leading up to all three collision are unknown. Police were at all accident scenes and will be investigating further.

THUGS saw the school holidays as a chance to break into the school.

Some were excited when schools opened yesterday, but teachers at Sibonele Lower Primary School in J section, KwaMashu, were in for a surprise.

The school had been broken into and the computers and equipment stolen.

An SGB member said they suspected the thugs gained entry through the roof.

“The principal phoned me to tell me the computers and tablets were gone. I went to school and was met with this terrible scene.

“It is shocking that equipment which gives our children a future should be stolen like this.”

More than 30 computers and tablets were gone. The SGB member said the school had an alarm and the principal had told him the security company called him on Sunday.

“The principal said the company told him there was a problem with the alarm. He told them to fix it, not thinking there was a robbery. He only realised yesterday what was going on.”

Principal Lindokuhle Madonsela confirmed the incident and referred the People’s Paper to the department.

Education spokesman Scelo Khuzwayo told the SunTeam they had not 
received a report.

“Residents in the area where the school is located must work with us.

“I’m sure some residents have knowledge of the incident and we urge anyone who knows something to contact the police.”

Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said: “A case of business robbery was opened after a school was broken into by unknown suspects.

“Computers, an overhead projector, monitor, desktop, laptop, paper, money boxes, hockey kits, tools and speakers were stolen.”

No one has been arrested and police are investigating.

CAPE TOWN - A man has been arrested in connection with the attack on a group of cyclists near Stellenbosch.

The five victims sustained minor injuries during Sunday morning's attack.

The suspect and an accomplice armed with knives allegedly tried to rob the cyclists of their bicycles.

The other attacker escaped.

The police's Andre Traut: "A 32-year-old suspect is expected to make a court appearance on a charge of robbery in Stellenbosch this morning following an incident on Sunday morning, where two suspects attacked a group of cyclists training on the Helshoogte pass. Police reacted swiftly and arrested the suspect."

 No arrests in the case of seven zama zama’s who were killed in the Benoni area have yet been made.

The men were found with gunshot wounds in a veld over the weekend.

Residents are calling on the police to raid the residences of illegal miners believed to live in the area.

Ward councillor Sinethemba Matiwane says the illegal miners behind the killings in the area are believed to be armed and dangerous and have urged the police to use any force necessary to get to the bottom of the murders.

“SAPS have identified that they will conduct raids on a continuous basis. It can’t be a once-off.”

He says the defence force should be called in to man the situation with at least 40 murder cases being investigated by the police since 2015.

In that year, 15 miners were killed when zama zama's clashed at the Grootvlei Aurora Mine in Springs in Ekurhuleni.

In that very metro municipality early last year, 14 illegal miners were found dead, most riddled with bullet holes in the Benoni area.

Matiwane says this is a national crisis.

THE fighting over little Latoya’s death at Pastor Paseka “Mboro” Motsoeneng’s church led to a number of cases being opened with the police.

And last week, the drama continued when the child’s mum, Nontombi Gwam, attempted suicide due to stress over the cost of burying her daughter.

However, the mum was discharged from hospital last week and the three-year-old was finally laid to rest in Ngqamakwe, Eastern Cape, on Saturday.

She had been in a mortuary for three weeks.

Latoya died on Christmas Eve after her mum took her to the Incredible Happenings Church in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni. Nontombi said Latoya died in an ambulance after a paramedic failed to give her immediate medical care.

Although the family appealed to the public for financial help to pay for food and transport at the funeral, no one came forward. However, Mboro agreed to cover all the costs.

He told the SunTeam: “Instead of waiting, I’ll cover the whole cost.

“It’s not that I have enough money but I don’t want the mum to do something stupid.

“She must know that she is loved and people are giving her support.”

A man is in hot water after marrying the daughter of his wife – without divorcing his wife first.

According to Pennlive, Christopher Hauptmann (44) from Shamokin in Pennsylvania, America did not try to defend himself against a bunch of charges when he appeared in court last week.

Among the charges was that of bigamy, which is the offence in America of marrying someone while already being married to another person.

Hauptmann married Shannon Deitrich in 2015 in Florida. But then a year later, he wedded Kaylee Durovick, Deitrich’s daughter. He was still married to Deitrich at the time.

Durovick and Hauptmann are still together.

Other charges Hauptmann faces are the illegal possession of a firearm. He apparently lied when he applied to buy guns that he didn’t have any previous convictions. Actually, Hauptmann did have a conviction for drugs, which means he can’t own a gun.

Judge Paige Rosini sentenced Hauptmann to a year minus a day to two years minus a day in prison followed by 10 years' probation. He was given credit for the 332 days he has been in jail, unable to post bail.

A suspect is expected in court in Limpopo in the first week of 2018 following his arrest for allegedly killing a white lion.

 Captain Moatshe Ngoepe Limpopo Police Spokesman  told TimesLIVE four poachers allegedly killed the lion in January 2017.

The second suspect was arrested last week‚ Ngoepe said.

One man was arrested a year ago‚ with police searching the others.

"We happened to identify the suspects days later [after the incident]. One was arrested. All along we were looking for the other three."

The first suspect is in custody and his trial is not yet completed.

Asked how the suspects were identified‚ Ngoepe just said "through our sources".

The man will appear in the magistrate's court in Senwabarwana‚ also known as Bochum‚ this week.

Durban - Two people have been killed in an early morning crash in Pinetown near Durban on New Year's Day.

Private emergency services provider Rescue Care spokesperson Garrith Jamieson said the accident occurred on the Dumisanya Makhanya freeway just outside Claremont in Pinetown.

"Just after 4am, Rescue Care paramedics were called to the scene to find that a vehicle had somehow lost control and come to rest on its roof in a ditch on the roadside. 

"Paramedics assessed the scene and found that there had been seven occupants in the vehicle at the time of the collision,"he said. "Unfortunately a male and a female, believed to be in their 30s, had suffered major injuries and there was nothing more anyone could do for them and they were declared deceased at the scene. 

"A further five people had sustained various injuries and were stabilised on the scene before being transported to various Durban Hospitals for the further care that they required."

Police were on the scene to investigate the cause of the accident.

African News Agency/ANA

Harare - Car horns blared and cheering crowds waving the national flag thronged the streets of Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Tuesday after news broke that President Robert Mugabe had resigned after 37 years in power.

The announcement came after days of mounting pressure on the 93-year-old leader, whose long and authoritarian rule made him feared by many of his citizens.

"We are just so happy that things are finally going to change," Togo Ndhlalambi, 32, a hairdresser, told AFP.

"We woke up every morning waiting for this day. This country has been through tough times."

After a week of political turmoil, Zimbabweans reacted with shock, disbelief and delight.

"I am so happy that Mugabe is gone, 37 years under a dictatorship is not a joke," said Tinashe Chakanetsa, 18.

"I am hoping for a new Zimbabwe ruled by the people and not by one person.

"We need leaders who are selected by the people and not rulers. I am looking forward to get a job after our economy recovers."

Massive crowds gathered within minutes of the surprise announcement made to a meeting of parliamentary lawmakers who were discussing a motion to impeach Mugabe.

At the Rainbow Towers conference centre where the MPs were gathered, a framed portrait of the president was ripped from the wall, torn apart and stamped to pieces by a cheering crowd..

"It's shocking, that guy (was) powerful, very powerful," said Barber Wright Chirombe, one of those who joined the euphoric street celebrations.

Across the city, men danced, women sang and many were in tears, brandishing national flags and often praising General Constantino Chiwenga -- the man who led the army takeover that finally triggered the crisis that overthrew the ageing president.

"We were reduced to worthless people under Mugabe," said Yeukai Magwari, 33, a vendor dancing with uniformed domestic maids in the Avondale neighbourhood of the capital.

"From now on we don't want to see our elderly men and women sleeping in queues outside banks, and people reduced to being destitute after going to college," he said.

Tendai Chaitezvi, 29, a bank employee, celebrated with friends at the Fiesta bar in the Avenues district as music was blasted from several car stereos.

"The situation in the country under this man was rough," he said. "A lot of our friends went abroad in search of jobs and were wondering how we managed to survive back here.

"There is suddenly a sense of optimism now. Today is the start of hoping that things will get back to normal."

Leah Macharaga, 37, was born in 1980, the same year that Mugabe came to power. "I hated that man," she said simply.

The news came shortly before dusk in Harare, and as dark fell cars careened through the unlit streets.

"I am happy beyond words. Now we expect a better future for our country than the hardship we endured under Mugabe," Modesta Macharaga, 35, told AFP. 

Some locals immediately focused on the country's uncertain future, and likely next president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe ally with a reputation as a ZANU-PF party hardliner responsible for violent crackdowns on dissent.

"Mugabe's resignation must be followed by the resignation of all those have surrounded him," Munyaradzi Chihota, 40, a businessman in Harare, told AFP.

"We need a complete overhaul, not just the removal of one person at the top. With any elements of ZANU PF still in power I doubt that we will move forward."

"We hate ZANU-PF and we don't want to replace a dictator with another dictator," said Oscar Muponda, a office worker in the capital.

In Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, Mandla Mpofu, 63, a lawyer gathered with friends at the Continental Bar.

"It has been years and years of suffering and here is freedom at last. I am going to celebrate late tonight."

CAPE TOWN - Triple murder accused Henri van Breda has told the court he wishes that he had done more to save his family from an axe-wielding killer.

Testifying in his trial this week, Van Breda was also made to demonstrate how an intruder attacked his relatives with an axe.

He says he also couldn’t bring himself to help his family.

“If I have been thinking clearly I probably would have done these things. If I hadn’t been so scared.”

Van Breda is on trial for the murder his parents and older brother and for seriously injuring his sister in an attack at their Stellenbosch home in 2015.

During cross examination on Wednesday, prosecutor Susan Galloway questioned why the intruder would enter the house unarmed.

“It would be strange had a person planned to enter your house and attack the family that they come armed inadequately or unarmed. So they were, in actual fact, ill-prepared for the attack.”

A few months ago, Van Breda's lawyer Advocate Matthys Combrink argued that the axe found on the crime scene might have been one of two used in the attacks.

Prosecutor Susan Galloway asked Van Breda what he thinks about the possibility of a second axe.

“I don’t know. But I only saw one of them. I only saw one of the attackers and he was holding the one axe.”

Van Breda said it’s likely that the other attacker, who he only heard in the house, could have had a second axe.

But Galloway pressed harder.

“Did you ever see another axe other than exhibit 111C (the axe)?”

Van Breda responded: “No”

Van Breda claims the attacker must have come to the house unarmed, and taken a knife from one of the kitchen drawers, and the axe from the pantry where it had been kept.