Ex-Bok coach Div’s sex tape bombshell

By Yolandé Stander and John Harvey
CONTROVERSIAL former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has accused Southern Kings rugby boss Cheeky Watson and local ANC MP Cedric Frolick of being behind shock allegations that he had been filmed having sex in a parking lot in 2008 shortly after being appointed.

The accusations are made in De Villiers’s new book Politically Incorrect, released on Friday May 25. In the book, De Villiers claims he had been told the two were behind the sex tape smear which almost derailed his Bok coaching career before it had properly begun.

“The first time I heard about the so-called sex tape was the weekend of the Tri-Nations test against the All Blacks in Cape Town. Chris Hewitt, the South African Rugby Union (Saru) media manager who was later killed in a light aircraft crash, informed me about the existence of the tape. Apparently Cheeky Watson and Cedric Frolick were going to reveal a sex tape they had obtained of me in a compromising position with a woman in a car park during a trip to the Eastern Cape.

“By then Chris had informed me that Cedric, who as an ANC MP was involved with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation, had told him he would rather have a white coach who would listen to him than a black coach who did his own thing.”

The sex tape allegations centre on an incident in April 2008 when the Bok coach was allegedly caught on tape having sex in a car with an unknown woman. Later that year Springbok communications manager Andy Colquhoun was quoted as saying Saru had found “no evidence of a plot and no evidence such a tape exists”.
Watson and Frolick both rubbished De Villiers’s claim on Friday. Watson told Weekend Post: “My only comment is: ‘Shame, I feel sorry for him.’ It’s completely unfounded.”
An equally incensed Frolick said: “As I said initially when the story [about the sex tape] broke in 2008, I do not know anything about it. I don’t get involved in people’s personal business.”
He was surprised this was even mentioned in the book, because De Villiers never raised the issue with him after the incident. “If he had a problem he could have spoken to me about it, but he never did.”
De Villiers’s book has already courted controversy in Eastern Cape rugby circles as it contains assertions about Watson’s son Luke and the fact that the Southern Kings should not be part of the Super Rugby competition next year.
Frolick said De Villiers’s disclosures were a “slap in the face” to the Eastern Cape rugby community.
De Villiers’s criticism of the Southern Kings being included in the tough Super Rugby competition next year also came as a shock to Frolick.
In the book, De Villiers says the Eastern Cape needs rugby to be developed, as 60% of all South Africa’s black players come from the region, but the Kings are not the answer. “If you want to introduce rugby, make every Super 15 team play a game there. If you want to develop talent, let it run its natural course, not by buying players from elsewhere. If they gave black players the chance, they would be the best they could be  …
“We don’t have enough players to justify it. Instead of creating a vehicle to develop and keep the best black rugby players in the country, we’re making a team for the seventh, eighth and ninth best white players who don’t have anything left to give.”
He says the Kings simply would not be competitive in Super Rugby.
Also tackled in the book is the issue of Luke Watson, the current EP Kings captain, and his controversial stint with the Springbok team. In a section of who would captain the team he details his decision not to make Luke skipper.
“Cheeky didn’t expect me to be so strong. Like most South African fathers, he couldn’t take a step back from his child’s sport. Luke is an outstanding player and captain, but he never lived up to my expectations.”

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

Tennis Hall of Fame halts its Hewitt probe

By Shaun Gillham
A WOMAN who claims to have been molested as a child while being coached by tennis legend Bob Hewitt is pinning her hopes for justice on a South African police investigation which she says has produced little since it was launched nearly seven months ago.
This follows a report published in America this week that the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF), into which the 72-year-old tennis celebrity had been inducted, has halted an investigation into Hewitt’s off-court conduct.
A resident of the Eastern Cape town of Addo, Hewitt has been accused of sexually abusing young female tennis students in South Africa and in the US during his heyday as a renowned doubles and singles player and coach between the 1970s and early 1990s.
Suellen Sheehan, who was the first person to lay charges against Hewitt, told Weekend Post she was “disgusted and furious” to learn the ITHF investigation had been halted.
“Originally they would do nothing because despite the growing evidence against him no formal charges had been laid. Now that charges have been laid and the SA police are supposed to be investigating, they [the ITHF] stop the investigation. This is unbelievable,” said Sheehan, who vowed to step up the campaign to bring Hewitt to book.
Sheehan said members of the ITHF had visited South Africa, but failed to secure an interview with Hewitt and apparently only spoke to his legal representative.
Boston Globe journalist Bob Hohler, who has covered the case and last year visited Addo to investigate the claims, wrote in the publication on Monday that, nine months after the hall said it would investigate the allegations, “it turns out there is no inquiry”. “Executive director Mark Stenning told the Globe the hall scrapped the investigation in favour of drafting a policy to address similar issues. He said the board will consider the proposal… in July,” Hohler reported.
Sheehan, who claims she was abused by the coach when she was 12, said police had done little since she laid the complaint against Hewitt.
Weekend Post could not establish the progress of the investigation through either the police or Pieter van Niekerk, an attorney acting for the South African group of alleged victims.
But Germaine Vogel, spokeswoman of lobby group Women and Men Against Child Abuse, which is close to the investigation, said: “I can’t reveal too much but confirm progress is being made. We have been silenced by the National Prosecuting Authority due to sensitivities around the case.”
Hewitt could not be reached for comment.

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

Slap in the face for local soccer talent

By Shaun Gillham

BAY Stars managing director and businessman Tony Lovegrove has slammed a move by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality – in particular Mayor Zonoxolo Wayile – to buy Premier Soccer League (PSL) team Maritzburg United as a slap in the face for local football development.
An angry Lovegrove said on Friday that politicians and officials “did not care about the great talent in their own back yard” and were demonstrating that they did not think locals were “good enough”.
Municipal spokesman Kupido Baron confirmed the initiative, which insiders told Weekend Post will cost the metro R30-million in relocation costs alone.
“I can confirm that the municipality is in the advanced stages of negotiations with Maritzburg United Football Club. This is towards maintaining the sustainability of the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium,” Baron said.
According to a source close to the deal, Wayile instructed Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency Pierre Voges to negotiate with Maritzburg United and that the deal had to be closed before May 18 or 19 due to a Safa deadline dictating the cut-off date by which clubs have to declare their home stadiums.
According to another source, the team might not even be permanently based in the region, but would simply be “rented for some PSL games”.
The new development comes as a massive blow to Bay Stars, which was created out of the former Bay Academy Football Club with extensive financial backing from local business and with the aim of representing the metro in the PSL within three years.
 Lovegrove believed a contract signing with Maritzburg was imminent.
He said Bay Stars was formed after Safa contacted local businessmen to assist in the former Bay Academy team. “We looked at the PSL model and we formed a team, which has full technical support, with the aim of getting it into the PSL in three years. We’ve done all the right things; put all the correct structures and support systems in place. We had an MOA [memorandum of agreement] with the mayor, who publicly supported the team and its aims, and we are on track to develop this team, which has great talent,” Lovegrove said.
Lovegrove questioned why tens of millions would potentially be spent on importing a franchise when they had battled to get R4-million worth of repairs done to the team’s home ground, the Wolfson Stadium.

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday May 12, 2012.

Ballroom dancers to show their style

Sriking a pose with the floating trophy which Collegiate and Grey High Schools hold jointly are (front) pupils Michelle Zondagh and JP Jooste, and (back) Melita Bagshaw (Collegiate principal) and Ryan Laurie (Grey teacher). Picture: Mike Holmes

Weekend Post Reporter

THE belles and beaus of Nelson Mandela’s ballroom dancing scene will be putting the best foot forward when they compete in this weekend’s annual Dare 2 Dance Studio Inter-schools Social Ballroom Dance Competition.
The cream of the city’s high school talent will be displayed at the Feather Market Centre on Saturday when teams from Alexander Road, DF Malherbe, Framesby, Grey High and Collegiate High (who will compete as one team), St George’s College, Victoria Park High, Westering High and Pearson High vie for the coveted floating trophy.
With the top three teams competing for the gold, silver and bronze medals, reigning champions Grey and Collegiate will have their work cut out as competition is expected to be tough.
Dare 2 Dance teachers Hadrian Roberts, Lesley van Onselen and Shellaine Strydom are once again driving the popular competition, which tests skill levels in disciplines like the rhythm foxtrot, waltz, quickstep, tango and rock ‘n roll, as well as Latin styles like mambo, cha cha and jive.
“The competition is the only one of its kind in South Africa,” Roberts said.
Roberts took over the dance school from veteran instructors Ron Sanderson-Smith and wife Brenda three years ago.
This year will be the first time the competition has included an open category, with organisers asking students from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Rhodes University to take a turn on the dance floor.
Adjudicators are Neville Letard, Dorothy McFarlane and Dina Marx, while Nigel Hawkins fills the role of scrutineer. All are members of the South African Dance Teachers Association (SADTA).
Registration for dancers is at 4pm and dancing will begin at 5pm. Tickets for the public are R60 and are available from Computicket.

Readers win tickets to preview of ‘Think Like a Man’

FIFTY readers each won double tickets to a sneak preview screening of romantic comedy ‘Think Like a Man’ at Ster-Kinekor The Bridge this week.

The film, which opened at The Bridge on Friday May 4, is based on the bestselling relationship advice book, ‘Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man’.

In the film a group of men attempt to turn the tables on their ladies, who are all secretly reading the book that was written by twinkly-eyed comedian and media personality Steve Harvey.

But it is only a matter of time before the ladies switch on to the deception and things start to go pear-shaped for all!

See MyWeekend this Saturday May 5 for a review of the movie, which is only being screened at Ster-Kinekor The Bridge. Scroll down for the list of preview winners and social pictures by Salvelio Meyer from the evening.

Ken and Frankie Simpson on the left with Gail Channon and daughter Monique.

Mandy Damons (left) with Taryn Pillay.

Winners and guests (from left) Tamara McNamara and Colleen Greeveling, with Monique and Gregory van der Merwe.

Dee and Dennis Guscott with Peter Garde (centre).

Mervyn and Patricia Roberts with Weekend Post’s Louise Liebenberg (centre).

Margaret Bailey (left) with Avusa’s Deirdre Brand and Janet Williams on the right.

Celeste and John Scott with Lynette Ludwick on the right.

The full list of winners are: Maureen Viviers; Kenneth Simpson; Daphne Keyter; Annalene van Rooyen; Crystan Prinsloo; Shelley Koekemoer; Vuyo Mpapela; Sally Forsdick; June Potter; Leziwe Ngbelange; Judy Wiggill; Debra Coetzee; Janet Williams; Monique Channon; Aldridge Pillay; Susan Greenwood; Lindette Beegs; Dawn Clack; Yvette Wright; Peter Meistre; Patricia Roberts; Prudence Bekker; Charlton Perkins; Dennis Guscott; Peggy Anne Fell; Peleste Scott; Taryn Pillay; Jolleen Lottering; Sherylin Schneider; Mbalenhle Vimakazi; Monique van der Merwe; Mary Scharnick; Adele Seady; Theresa Burke; Hamesh Ravchod; Jean Watkins; Annette Mackennon; George Williamson; Lenchia Baartman; Neil Hettherington; David Trundle; Tanail McNamara; Lynette Ludwick; Shaikaya Makapela; Sadra Bielby; Phillip Pieterse; Duke Ndayi; Derrik Kivido; Beryl Wood and Anita Rinchov.

See special report on corpse mutilations

THE illicit trade in human body parts is booming, including in the Eastern Cape as Weekend Post’s special investigation into the ghoulish practice reveals in our front page lead of today’s paper.
To read our story get your copy of Weekend Post today. You can click on the link below to read the latest report by HumaneAfrica, an organisation  established to reduce the number of people mutilated for their body parts.

Click here to view report.

From shack to degree, Balisa’s dream is fulfilled

Balisa Ntloko has graduated and intends to do her honours next. Picture: Mike Holmes

By Shaanaaz de Jager

A RAGS to riches tale came true for former Weekend Post Matric of the Year scholarship winner Balisa Ntloko when she graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on Monday April 23.
The 2008 winner of the award walked away with a three- to four-year scholarship to study towards a degree or diploma at the university, where she hoped to complete a degree in media, communication and culture. And that is precisely what she did. She now hopes to complete her honours degree in corporate communications and ultimately pursue a career in journalism.
What makes her achievement even more special is that while attending Loyiso Senior Secondary School she had to endure harsh living conditions in her Soweto-on-Sea home, where she lived with her parents, three brothers and sister.
A double bed and a mattress on the floor doubled as a kitchen and lounge, while her two elder brothers and father slept in small areas built onto the shack. She also had to save her textbooks from the rain that came through the roof.
Ntloko, who is the first in her immediately family to graduate, said: “It feels good to have a degree to my name. I am grateful to Weekend Post and NMMU for allowing me the opportunity to receive the scholarship. My three years did not go to waste. In 2008 no one knew it was possible.
“If at any time there was doubt that I could do this, I just worked harder. I want to continue my studies and have applied to do honours this year.”
Ntloko, who was born in the Transkei, was a keen debater at school – something which not only impressed the judges at the time but also the editorial staff at Weekend Post where she interned for several months.
She enjoys public speaking and is often asked to address the youth to inspire them to aim higher.
“I will be forever grateful to Weekend Post and NMMU who gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and my teachers at school for encouraging me to enter Matric of the Year.”

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday April 28, 2012.

Sex for studies scandal

By Barbara Hollands

 CASH-STRAPPED students in the Eastern Cape are turning to prostitution to finance their tertiary studies, openly advertising their services in newspapers or hustling for business on the streets. And for some of them, their life of vice has become so lucrative they can work from homes in upmarket suburbs instead of spending entire nights trawling backstreets for customers.

This has been the case with one mother of three and East London university student who was forced to stop studying after passing the first year of her social work degree because she could no longer afford to study.

The woman, who spoke to Weekend Post on condition of anonymity, said to make ends meet and support her children she started working as a prostitute in her home city of Port Elizabeth. She had responded to an advert “looking for girls” earlier this year.

She said she left the brothel because she did not want her family to find out how she was making money, but now “offers her sex services from an upmarket” home in Beacon Bay which she shares with a friend.

The woman is entertaining up to four men a day at her home, but plans to return to her studies in July once she has saved enough money to re-register. She said she resorted to prostitution because jobs she has had in the past – as a cashier and supervisor – had not paid enough for her to complete her studies and give her children a good education.

“I did it out of desperation. At first I was very nervous, but the men were all right to me. I haven’t had a bad or violent guy yet. All my clients are married. I don’t like doing this but I live with it.” The woman, who uses her student status to entice customers in a newspaper advertisement, says she is sure “many students” moonlight as prostitutes.

“Some do it because they can’t afford an education, but others do it because they have spent their fees on other things like alcohol and clothes and don’t want to ask their parents for more money.” 

Third-year IT student Chuma Danisa said he knew of two students trading sex. “And I know plenty who date older guys who pay their fees. I don’t feel sorry for them because they could get bursaries. They do it because they want the high life.” 

But universities say they have no evidence of students selling their bodies for sex. “It probably does happen, but I have never had any direct evidence. It would be a very personal and private matter,” Walter Sisulu University spokeswoman Angela Church said.

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday April 28, 2012.

Shock as famous hotel closes doors

By Barbara Hollands

RESIDENTS in the picturesque Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet are reeling over the closure of the landmark 200-year old Drostdy Hotel which has shut its doors amid rumours its management company has run into financial difficulties.
Despite the majestic, antique-filled hotel recently showing a marked increase in occupancy levels and improvement in the quality of its service, the establishment was not open for business this past week – allegedly because Celsius Hospitality Services had money troubles – wreaking havoc with tourist bookings.
According to Graaff-Reinet marketing and development project manager Mandy Roets, the hotel, which was designed by famous French architect Louis Michel Thibault and built in 1806, had become very popular with tour groups from countries like Holland, Germany and Britain.
 “Huge damage has been done because all the tours have been cancelled. This will have a huge economic impact on a small town like this.”
A former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Celsius Hospitality Services, owned by East London-based True Group, had experienced financial difficulties due to the failure of other hospitality businesses it managed countrywide.
True Group financial manager Debbie Flanagan would not verify this or answer any other questions. She instead referred Weekend Post to the hotel’s landlord, Historical Homes, but Historical Homes manager Petra du Preez also declined to comment.
But Weekend Post has established that an employee who had taken over the management of the hotel two years ago immediately realised the establishment was in financial difficulty.
The man, who did not want to be named, said the manager had been forced to pay for “eggs and bacon for the restaurant and beers for the bar” from his own pocket because the hotel had debts going back to 2007.
“The sheriff of the court came to the hotel once a week with an order to seize assets for historical debt, but this was eventually sorted out.”
He added that while over the years local residents had stopped frequenting the hotel’s restaurants and pub, they started returning after the new manager took over and improved standards. The restaurant and pub became so popular that advance bookings became necessary to secure a seat at the in-house Camdeboo Restaurant.
The source said following the manager’s sacking a tour group which booked a six-week stay in the hotel left after 10 days, complaining of poor service – a loss representing more than R1.5-million for the hotel which consists of 51 bedrooms.
 Apparently the hotel’s 60 staff members, some of whom had been employed for up to 25 years, are now without jobs. Those lodging in the hotel’s staff quarters have reportedly been given a month to vacate.

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday April 28, 2012.

Sharp-witted Archer back in SA

JEFFREY ARCHER

By John Harvey

JEFFREY Archer is anything but the staid, reclusive figure the literary world so loves to revere, romanticise and sometimes revile.
For one thing, the best-selling British author makes no secret of his passion for women, even though it was his alleged liaisons with a prostitute in the 1980s that led to his political downfall and ultimately earned him a four-year stretch in prison.
For another, he speaks his mind as loudly and as publicly as possible with little regard for the sensibilities of those around him. The odd thing is, each sentence is so punctuated with humour that it is impossible to take offence. On his fifth visit to South Africa where he is promoting his latest book, The Sins of the Father, in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, Archer, 72, is both excited and disappointed about what he has seen, drawing strong – though unusual – comparisons between the current and former regimes.
“What has changed in South Africa? I’ll tell you. All the beautiful black women you see now,” Archer told Weekend Post from Johannesburg.
“When I came here in the late 1980s all the black women were overweight and badly dressed. Now they are slim and have healthy diets and are exceptionally beautiful. I am thinking of marrying four of them, taking them back to England and introducing them to my wife.”
The author, who has sold 350 million copies of his non-fiction and fiction works in a career spanning more than 30 years, believes South Africans have become   friendlier, more jovial people.
“When I came here in the 1980s as part of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government they [the apartheid government] did not know what to make of me.
“I was staunchly against apartheid yet the government had strong ties with Thatcher.
“The next thing I knew I was taken to the airport and put on a plane back to the UK. In Johannesburg this time around I was able to say to my driver, ‘You people are the worst drivers I have ever seen’, and he did not take offence. We just carried on with good banter.”
Archer shows no signs of the controversies that rocked his personal and political life in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The most notorious of these relates to his relations with prostitute Monica Coghlan, the newspaper coverage that followed and Archer being sent to prison for perjury after being found guilty years afterwards.
Though Archer has been out of politics for more than a decade, he was quick to point out South Africa found itself at a political crossroads and that the country would still need years of healing.
While his current trip to South Africa was primarily to promote Sins of the Father, he was also using it to relay how important it was for the children of the country to read. “Reading is the cornerstone of education and a country can only develop if it is educated.”

This is a shortened version of an article that first appeared in the print edition of Weekend Post on Saturday April 21, 2012.