A GROUP of suspected hijackers are due to appear in the New Brighton Magistrate’s Court today after they were arrested following a high-speed car chase and shootout.

The four men, aged between 21 and 25, were arrested an hour after they allegedly hijacked a Toyota Hilux bakkie in Commercial Road, Sidwell, at about 6pm on Monday.

Police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said police on the lookout for the hijacked bakkie had spotted it on the M17 heading towards Motherwell about an hour later.

“During the chase, the suspect leant out the bakkie window and pointed a gun at the police officials in pursuit.”

Police then started shooting at the bakkie’s tyres. “In Addo Road near Wells Estate, the vehicle was forced to a halt after several tyres were damaged.

“As the vehicle stopped, the suspect with the firearm . . . started shooting [at the] police.

“The suspects surrendered a short while later and were arrested. The firearm was recovered.”

Janse van Rensburg said a 33-year-old electrical contractor had been working on a substation in Commercial Road when the men, one with a firearm, approached.

“They threatened him and stole his car keys, laptop and wallet,” she said.

“The man locked himself in the substation while the suspects stole his bakkie. His firearm was under the car seat and was taken with the bakkie.”

“Getting to the number one spot is not usually something special as it comes down to diners’ votes, but what does make this extraordinary is when you consider that we only serve up to 70 diners once a week for six months of the year, compared to other restaurants that see hundreds pass through every single day,” owner Jenny Kilzer said.

Kilzer’s, based in Knysna Heights on the Garden Route, provides diners with a unique eating experience.

Every Wednesday, Jenny and her husband Albin – a qualified chef and butcher from Austria – welcome groups of up to 70 visitors into their kitchen as part of their “Cook & Look” evenings.

Upon arrival, guests receive appetisers to nibble on as well as a welcome drink before heading to the kitchen where starters and main courses are prepared in full view of the guests.

After the food is prepared, diners are served their meals at individual tables followed by dessert, coffee or tea and biscuits.

Everything edible is prepared in the Kilzers’ kitchen with the freshest local ingredients.

“We grow all our own herbs, so the lettuce used in your salad would have been picked just an hour or two before you get to enjoy it. We buy nothing in, even the biscuits we serve with our coffee are made by us,” Jenny said.

They also try, as far as possible, to source produce from local farmers and suppliers.

As most of their guests are foreign visitors, the cooking couple makes sure that their food has a South African flavour.

No meal is ever the same and every week there is a different menu.

“We don’t even make the same flavour ice-cream twice.”

The couple are no strangers to the kitchen, with Albin’s career as a chef stretching over 59 years, while Jenny has been cooking for 20 years. Both have been involved with Kilzer’s Kitchen for 15 years.

“We are both passionate about people, food and wine, and I think this comes through every time we cook for our guests,” Jenny said.

One of the reviews which saw Kilzer’s climb the TripAdvisor rankings was from a diner who felt the establishment was “a wonderful experience”.

“The food is truly worth travelling halfway round the earth for. Service is impeccable and the whole atmosphere is warm and very inviting,” the diner said.

“The menu was really exciting and all the dishes served were perfectly presented. It was an evening to remember in a magical setting.”

Another said: “I’m fairly widely travelled and I have never seen anything like Kilzer’s Kitchen.

“I’ve been visiting for years and have never had anything but delicious food.”

For the past three years, Trip Advisor has awarded Kilzer’s Kitchen its service excellence award.

Last year, Kilzer’s made it to the top three restaurants in the Sanlam Knysna Awards and has been nominated again this year.

The Kilzers also run a cooking school, cater for events and host various functions and tastings.

A MALABAR resident says she and her family are living like prisoners in their own home after a huge hole, filled with live electrical cables, was left open by the municipality which had come to fix a supply issue.

Monowara Bhamjee 50, said she has been battling for the better part of two weeks to have the hole, which is in front of her Haworthia Drive home, filled in.

She also wants the temporary electrical connection fixed because both the hole and the wires pose a serious danger.

She said damage had already been done to two visitors’ cars – both of which were damaged when they drove into the hole.

The Bhamjees now receive electricity through a makeshift connection from her neighbour’s yard.

Bhamjee said the live cables were clearly visible and easily accessible.

“It rained so heavily this past weekend and I was so scared that something would happen to me, or even worse, a family member of mine,” she said.

Bhamjee’s ordeal began on the evening of November 7, when her electricity cut out without any warning.

“Initially I thought it was just another stage of load-shedding, but when I looked at the schedule, there was nothing scheduled for us that day. This [the outage] continued for two days,” Bhamjee said.

Approaching the third day, Bhamjee notified officials at the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Munelek offices about her problem.

She said a contractor was brought in to find the fault but could not immediately locate the error in the line.

The contractor then dug up parts of her driveway, as well as a huge chunk of the neighbour’s lawn, which has still not been fixed.

“It’s been a constant struggle to reach officials to come and sort out the issue,” she said.

“I have seen them no more than three or four times, and when the temporary connection was made, the engineer came, made the connection and left.

“He never even explained to my husband or I what they were doing or when the issue would be sorted out.”

Numerous attempts by The Herald to contact officials at the Munelek offices were unsuccessful.

However, municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said: “I will follow up with the executive director of electricity and energy.

“I will only be able to give you feedback once the investigation into the matter has been concluded,” he said.

“If an official fails to deliver as expected, we intend on finding out where he was at the time and why he was not on duty as expected.

“I also need to make sure that the complaint was lodged in our system, because we encourage residents to lodge any complaints they might have,” Mniki said.

NOT every man who has been abused by the woman he loves is brave enough to share his story, but Bay FM presenter Lunga Ncala is doing just that – and cycling around Nelson Mandela Bay to commemorate the national 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children.

“I want to be a man who stands for women, supports them and shows them that they are not the only ones affected by abuse and that it happens to men too,” Ncala said.

Starting today, the presenter, who moved to Port Elizabeth more than six months ago, will cycle 16km every day for the duration of the 16-day activism campaign, in aid of Port Elizabeth’s Yokhuselo Haven.

Yokhuselo Haven is the umbrella name for two shelters dedicated to women and their children who are affected by domestic violence – Prospect Hill Crisis Centre (PHCC) and The Haven Yokhuselo.

The havens aim to be places of safety for those in crisis, helping with rehabilitation through counselling and empowerment.

Yokhuselo manager Lindsay Ziehl said Ncala was doing something “amazing” and the publicity for the haven would be welcomed.

“Lunga is very brave because not many men would come forward.

“People need to remember that it’s not only women who are abused, but men too,” Ziehl said.

Ncala said the abuse he endured in a past relationship broke him down as a man. But two months after moving to Port Elizabeth he got a bicycle, started cycling and rediscovered who he was.

“When I moved here, I was depressed and using substances. I got a bike and through cycling [and] being on the road I got to know myself [and] PE. And, through prayer while cycling, I found God,” he said.

With a new bicycle sponsored by Wayne Pheiffer Cycles, the presenter said he was looking forward to cycling around the Bay with his banner that proclaims “Making it my Fight”.

He said the hardest step he had to take to get on the road to recovery was leaving his abusive partner.

“The battle does not end when you leave the one abusing you. The biggest struggle comes after, because you ask yourself: ‘Who’s going to love me?’ ” he said.

“I want to feel I’ve done something. I want to raise awareness, because most men who are abused feel they can’t talk to anyone because if you go to the police you won’t be taken seriously or will simply be laughed at.”

To follow Ncala on his 16km journey follow the hashtags #cyclemycity and #16km16days on Instagram and Twitter.

IN A move that saw counsel in the Christopher Panayiotou murder case bump heads in fiery arguments yesterday, the murder accused’s lawyers abandoned their application for copies of the docket, saying they would instead go straight to the high court for relief.

A certificate of urgency was then filed with the high court.

Panayiotou, 28, wants the police file so he can bring a bail application based on new facts.

The state is opposing this, claiming its investigation is not yet complete.

Panayiotou sat quietly in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court yesterday as Advocate Terry Price SC clashed with state advocate Marius Stander, at one stage telling him he was “not that important”.

Price, on instructions from lawyer Alwyn Griebenow, had approached magistrate Abigail Beeton in hopes she would order Stander to hand over details of his investigation, but then an issue of jurisdiction arose.

Panayiotou is accused of orchestrating the murder of his 29-year-old wife, Jayde, in April.

It is alleged he paid a former employee to hire hitmen to kill the Uitenhage schoolteacher.

Yesterday, the court was set to hear argument on whether or not Beeton had the jurisdiction to hear the application for copies of the police docket.

However, Price immediately asked the court to strike the matter from the roll, saying he would instead approach the Port Elizabeth High Court on a basis of urgency on Tuesday.

In response, Stander said it had been agreed between counsel, and discussed in chambers, that a bail application would proceed that day no matter what the court decided about the docket.

“Mr Griebenow said come hell or high water a bail application would proceed in this court on December 1.

“The high court roll was then reshuffled to accommodate this accused,” Stander said.

“December 4 is my last day at work [before going abroad]. All parties were aware of that all along. It was discussed in chambers that the application needed to be finalised by December 4, or alternatively stand over to January 11.”

Stander said if the defence planned to approach the high court on December 1, it was unlikely a bail application would conclude by December 4.

He said if a bail application did not proceed on Tuesday, then it should be placed on record that it was the accused who was not ready to proceed.

This caused Price to retort with: “This reminds me of the young man who murdered his parents and then used the fact that he was an orphan as a mitigating factor.

“The delays are the state’s fault. They have been holding their cards close to their chest throughout this case. We are trying very hard to get everything done as quickly as possible.”

They had since realised they had been wrong to bring the application to the magistrate’s court in the first place.

“If I read between the lines, Advocate Stander is implying we are delaying for him not to be here for the bail application. Well he is not that important.

“I do not want a situation where the application is brought with him out of the country, but we are talking about a human being’s freedom and if it must be done then so be it.”

Price said once they had perused the docket, if they felt the state’s case was as strong as it alleged, then he would advise his client not to proceed with the bail application.

“But if it is not as strong as Mr Stander suggests, which we believe to be the case, then we will go ahead with the application.”

TAXI bosses in Nelson Mandela Bay will today embark on what they say is a peaceful protest in front of the City Hall in a bid to force the city’s leaders to get the R2-billion bus system off the ground.

Laphum’ilanga Transport Services, which represents the taxi industry, has vowed to pursue all its options – including possible legal action against the municipality – to compel the city to start the IPTS project.

This follows an ultimatum issued to the metro’s political bosses a week ago requesting them to start the project within a week, or else.

Laphum’ilanga chief executive Gregory Rockman said the metro had not responded to their ultimatum.

But mayor Danny Jordaan’s chief of staff, Mlungisi Ncame, said they had responded yesterday. He declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, Laphum’ilanga has vowed to stop any plans by the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) to start a new train route from Motherwell to the existing passenger line at Swartkops.

“We want to send a clear message to Prasa that we are never going to allow them to operate. They must stay out of the metro.

“It’s out of bounds for them until they reach an agreement with the industry,” Rockman said.

He, meanwhile, refused to say if the industry would embark on a strike, insisting only that they would stage a peaceful protest.

“Peaceful protest means exactly what it says. It means, you’re not going to find us burning tyres. You’re not going to find us assaulting people,” Rockman said.

For years, the municipality blamed the IPTS delays on the taxi industry.

Rockman said: “There is nothing stopping the IPTS [Integrated Public Transport System] from starting. The taxi industry is ready and waiting to deliver.”

He said all the paperwork and infrastructure were in place and they had been begging the city to start using the buses. It was contractually obliged to follow through with its agreement to implement the system.

“The project is not corrupt – the problem lies with individuals alleged to have acted inappropriately.

“Whatever investigations or disciplinary actions need to be taken must be done swiftly and decisively. But we see no reason why this should halt progress in providing efficient public transport to the citizens of the metro.”

Politicians “must stop being corruption busters . . . and implement projects”.

The municipality has not paid the 59 taxi operators who were pulled off the Summerstrand route in January 2013 – to create a commuter market for IPTS buses – since January.

The national Department of Transport last month instructed the metro not to pay a cent more to the taxi industry after it emerged that 45 of the 59 operators had not worked the Summerstrand route, and that some of the vehicles impounded were not roadworthy.

Rockman conceded some of the fleet were old, but said replacing them was “precisely the point of IPTS”.

THE military launched its 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children awareness campaign during an armed forces parade at the Donkin Reserve in Central yesterday.

The campaign saw all military branches, including the army, air force and navy, participate in the march, which was also attended by police top brass.

The national theme of the 2015 campaign is “Count Me In Together, Moving A Non-Violent South Africa Forward”.

Guest speaker, the Salvation Army’s Major Margaret Stafford, addressed more than 100 military personnel, calling them – and all law enforcement agencies – the gatekeepers of society.

“We rely on you to keep us safe and to guide the community. Each day we are hearing more about attacks and brutal killings. We depend on our gatekeepers to watch over us and protect the society in which we live,” she said.

Stafford mentioned the recent terrorist attacks in France and Mali, saying this was the reality of the world we lived in.

“There are 49 murders a day in South Africa and unfortunately it is seen as the norm. It should not be the norm. We need you and other gatekeepers to stand up,” she said.

“The sexual offence figures might be down, but we know that only one in every 13 rapes is reported to police.”

The breaking of an international child porn ring which saw the arrest of a Plettenberg Bay man was also highlighted in her speech.

Eastern Cape Military Health Services commander Colonel Phindile Phike said the campaign included World Aids Day and Universal Children’s Day.

“This campaign aims to raise awareness about the negative impact of violence against women and children as well as all members of the community,” he said.

All physical violence and violent crimes should be reported and not tolerated.

“We soldiers should set an example for the community in which we live.”

Military spokesman Captain Cedric Paulse said the event was the launch of a campaign that would see other awareness events rolled out.

Provincial police commander Brigadier Marinda Mills said the police were aiming to make this a 365-day-a-year campaign.

“We do have additional events during the designated period and this year our first big event will take place in Bityi on Thursday.

“This is to campaign for the protection of survivors of violence and call for the elimination of crimes against vulnerable groups, which include women, children, people with disabilities and the elderly.”

Various operations will be held during the campaign, including raiding suspects, visiting crime hotspot areas and conducting door-to-door visits to raise awareness.

THE Port Elizabeth woman in a sexual assault case who was identified last month when a banner was held outside court branding her “a liar”, is more determined than ever to follow through with the court case.

It happened when the 23-year-old NMMU student appeared at court after laying a complaint against a Kingfisher FM presenter who she accused of harassing, stalking and threatening to rape her.

On her arrival at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court, members of the Nelson Mandela metro district’s Young Communist League were holding the banner, which read: “Hold your horses, [the woman’s name] is a liar.”

The woman said yesterday: “I was upset on the day, but I am fighting a bigger issue here.

“Sexual abuse and assault is a cancer that is eating away at our very fabric.

“No one deserves to be threatened and definitely not victims of sexual assault.”

She said the move, which saw her name revealed to the public without her consent, had changed the minds of more women who would have come forward in the same matter.

“I believe some that are even younger than me are scared of coming forward because the same thing might happen to them,” the student said.

“They do not want to be involved anymore. We are talking young girls and they are terrified.

“Also, this type of retaliation is a desperate act.

“When people design smear campaigns like this, what does it say about them?”

She said despite the case being the first sexual assault prosecution of its kind in the city, in which no physical contact or assault had taken place, she believed she had to report it.

“The intensity of the threats will be heard in court, but it was so bad that I was scared of going to varsity. I was scared of leaving my home.

“I knew that changing my number would not work as he could contact me over a range of platforms. “It was a terrifying experience.” She said while coming forward was scary, “no one deserves to be devalued” in such a way.

“This can happen to anyone. It can even happen to men,” the woman said.

Her father, a prominent businessman in the city, confirmed that they would be proceeding with the complaint of crimen injuria, which had been made at the Mount Road police station.

“The case has been lodged. I think my daughter feels much more victimised by what happened at court,” he said.

“Also, this whole situation has turned into a racial issue because he is a person of colour. “It has nothing to do with race.” The businessman said while his daughter felt victimised, she was more determined than ever to go ahead with the case.

“She is prepared to testify in court and we believe the truth will come out,” he said.

“She is very resilient and has the support of her entire family.”

Lindsay Ziehl, who runs the Yokhuselo Haven for women and children affected by domestic violence, said tactics like the banner action prevented more abused women from coming forward.

“These strong-arm tactics are designed to frighten and further harass,” she said.

“The fact that they put her name on that banner is appalling, but we applaud her for not backing down and fighting for her rights.”

Police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said the case was still being investigated.

The tournament will be aligned with the men’s T20 Big Bash League, which is now in its fifth season and also starts next month.

Eight teams will compete in the inaugural edition in an exciting new concept that is bound to increase the promotion and exposure of women’s cricket.

Both players are thrilled at the prospect of taking on the best.

“Obviously, in the women’s game it’s a very big achievement, because South Africa are not one of the strongest teams in women’s cricket,” Kapp said.

“For us, being chosen to represent South Africa there is a big honour and we are really looking forward to it.”

Van Niekerk explained how she had first been offered the deal.

“Marizanne got swept up a lot earlier than the other players. Sydney Sixers made sure they got her early,” the legspinner-batsman said.

“I was not really sure if I would make the cut because I thought the process was done.

“I had already forgotten about it [when] Melbourne Renegades contacted me via e-mail and offered me a contract.”

Van Niekerk, 22, captained the SA U19 team at the age of 16. She has since played 50 ODIs and 47 T20s for the Proteas.

She has a highest score of 90 not out in T20 internationals and a total of 790 runs at a strike rate of 81.61 runs per 100 balls. Her best bowling figures are 4/17.

The 25-year-old Kapp also has an impressive international career, having played 46 ODIs and 40 T20s. Her strike rate in the shortest form of the game is 94.39.

Kapp has won the coveted SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year award twice, in 2013 and last year, and has best bowling figures in T20 cricket of 4/6 as a seamer.

Asked whether there was much competition between the two, Kapp said: “We are different players. Dané is a more attacking batsman and legspin bowler, and I am a middle-order batsman and look to get players like Dané on strike. I’m also an opening bowler and a death bowler.”

Substantial cash retainers of between A$3 000 (R30 400) and A$10 000 (R100 000) will be earned by the players.

“The money is a bonus. For me it’s more about the experience of playing at the highest level. Yes, it’s still good money for us, but it’s about the cricket first and foremost,” Kapp said.

Both women play for Old Grey in the men’s Prospect League (second team sides), but they were a bit iffy when asked about setting their sights on playing in the NMB men’s Premier League.

“They [Old Grey] have asked a few times if we want to play for the premier league side. But I’m not too keen on that because you still get the boys who want to hurt me because I’m a girl,” Kapp said.

EP Cricket chief executive Jesse Chellan said the union was proud of the pair and was expecting big things down under.

“We are very proud of the ladies and with women’s cricket coming to the fore on the international arena, we are sure they will represent the country and Eastern Province with pride,” he said.

“We wish them all the best for the tournament and look forward to seeing their careers flourish.”