Whatever happened to the trial of four local blacks arrested for the murder of pharmacist Viviana Ponté, 57 in Oranjeville? They were found with some of her possessions when arrested in August 2013. She was the pharmacacist who had, amongst others, registered the CAPS pharmaceuticals companies on the registers in South Africa (page grab) - the company which delivered 70 percent of all the drugs in Zimbabwe until the Reserve Bank allegedly intervened. (story at By Martin Kadzere
http://allafrica.com/stories/201403171127.html)
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Oranjeville is one of the safest towns in South Africa. Yet this woman was tied up on her bed, beaten up and then her bed was set alight in the small, usually crimefree village of Oranjeville, Free State South Africa.
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Ms Ponte was an expert advisor to pharmaceutical companies and a registered botanist.
A mysterious incident occurred shortly after her murder: a white female colleague of Ms Ponté was arrested by Sasolburg police and appeared in Heilbron court, charged with removing harddrive from Ms Ponté's laptop computer: http://www.censorbugbear.org/farmitracker/reports/view/1441)
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four black South African men made a brief remand-appearance in Heilbron magistrate's court, said investigating officer of the Sasolburg SAPS, Karelli. They are suspected of murder, robbery and arson.
He named them as Moses Motloung (23), Johannes Mofokeng (24), Jeremiah Mnune (26) and Moleketi Motloung (21).
Beeld reported that one of the two Motloung men had made a statement to the magistrate - however this will only be published during the 'formal hearing'.
It is believed that the four South Africans also broke in that same night of the Ponté murder in Oranjeville's Kraanvoëlvlakte Primary School and stole food and money.
*reported by Beeld journalist Riata Nel.
http://www.beeld.com/nuus/2013-08-20-vermoorde-se-kollega-vas-oor-rekenaar
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Oranjeville pharmacist and good samaritan Ms Viviana Ponté. 57, emigrated to South Africa with her parents as a six-year-old. Her father was the late Umberto Ponte of the round Ponte Building in central Johannesburg.
The divorced woman was much-loved in the tiny Free State community. She lived alone in her three-bedroom home. She was known for her 'kind heart', and often helped poor residents in a nearby squatter camp next to the Vaaldam, handing out food parcels once a month, giving art-lessons and helping the mostly elderly and single-women who lived there financially, too.
On Monday, her torched body was discovered on her burnt-out bed, where, police say, she clearly died a 'gruesome death'. From the forensic scene they could tell that she had been tied to her bed, possibly raped although they weren't certain forensically, and then set alight. She may have died of smoke inhalation: the forensic examination will have to determine her exact cause of death. Ms Ponté 's gruesome murder was discovered when one of her gardeners sought help from the police after realizing 'something was wrong' inside the house early on Monday-morning August 11 2013.She didn't as usual arrive at the house early as she usually did - and there were burn marks outside the house above the bedroom windows.
The police found her body at around 10h00am. One of the neighbours said Oranjeville 's smallholdings 'are like a safe, peaceful village. That something like this can happen in a rural village is horrific'.
Only the one main street is tarred - the smallholdings are connected with dirt roads. On Mrs Ponté 's smallholding there were ostriches and chickens scratching around.
Neighbours suspect she must have been attacked late Sunday-night. The community is close-knit, everyone knows one another.
As soon as a stranger arrives, neighbours phone each other and some will go and talk to the stranger to find out who the person is.
The neighbours questioned by the police said there were no strangers in the area on Sunday night.
The dogs - the animals know the sound of everyone's car -- did not raise any alarms. "If there are 'strange' cars in Oranjeville, they go wild,' said a neighbour woman who went inside with the police inside Mrs Ponté's house and made the discovery.
She arrived at the house at the same time the policeman did. "I walked in behind him. He opened the bedroom door, then turned back to me, saying 'perhaps it's better if I didn't go inside but rather wait outside', she said.
The house was ransacked, with many office files strewn all over the house. But only the main bedroom had been torched.
The bed and the curtains had burned, and blood-spatters could be seen amongst the soot.
The SAPS spokesman constable Peter Kareli said 'this was a gruesome murder." Possibly they had raped her, tied her hands and feet and possibly even strangled her, they don't know yet, before the bedroom was torched. While the house was strewn with office files and ransacked, from the photograph of the torched bedroom it was clear that easy-to-remove small items such as a clock, were not 'stolen'.
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http://www.beeld.com/nuus/2013-08-13-verkrag-verbrand
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http://www.saps.gov.za The Sasolburg SAPS is investigating the case.
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background on her advisory work:
"StemEnhance: ASA (UK) Appeal Ruling 21 September 2009:
Professor Carr appealed the previous ASA ruling in favour of StemEnhance.
In 2009, the ASA were not as rigorous with confirming whether an individual was a credible expert.
Ms Viviane Ponte substantiated this product.
It is my contention that she either lied or is incompetent for there is simply not a single study conducted on humans that confirms the claims for this product.
- Stemenhance / J Carr / 12708 (ASC)
Ruling of the : Advertising Standards Committee
In the matter between: Prof. Johnathan Carr Complainant(s)/Appellant(s)
Stemtech Africa (Pty) Ltd Respondent
21 Sep 2009
http://www.asasa.org.za/ResultDetail.aspx?Ruling=4851
At the meeting of the Advertising Standards Committee (“the Committee”) held on Tuesday, 25 August 2009, the Committee considered an appeal against the Advertising Standards Directorate (“the Directorate”) ruling of 7 April 2009.
BACKGROUND
Professor Carr (the Appellant) lodged a consumer complaint against a Stemtech brochure promoting Stemenhance, which, inter alia, contained the claim “Stem cell enhancers are products that support the natural release of adult stem cells.”
His complaint stated “The claims made by the advertisements that stem cell enhancers are beneficial are false. There is no proven medical benefit of such a product. The claim that stem cell enhancers support stem cells is false”.
In reply the respondent submitted documentation from Ms Viviana Ponte whom they submitted was an independent expert in the matter.
In its ruling the Directorate noted that it was not an expert in this field and therefore has to rely on independent and credible experts to evaluate the substantiation and verify that the claims, as they appear in the advertising, are true. Should the Directorate be satisfied that the expert used meets the criteria of Clause 4.1 of section II, the only remaining question is whether or not the expert confirms the claims disputed.
The Directorate was satisfied that Ms Ponte met the requirements of Clause 4.1.4 of Section II of the Code.
She had previously been accepted as an independent credible expert in matters relating to the pharmacological functioning of supplements and there was no evidence before the Directorate to warrant a different approach in this matter.
Ms Ponte confirmed the veracity of the respondent’s claims.
As such the Directorate was satisfied that these claims were substantiated in terms of Clause 4.1 of Section II and accordingly could not be said to be misleading in terms of Clause 4.2.1 of Section II of the Code. The complaint was dismissed.
The complainant appealed the Directorate’s ruling and applied for condonation for the late filing of the appeal. This application for condonation was granted, and the appeal proceeded.
APPEAL HEARING
The complainant’s grounds for the appeal were that:
He, as a Professor of neurology, was better qualified to give an opinion on the qualities of the product than a pharmacist (Ms Ponte) and that no other scientific evidence, other than Ms Ponte’s opinion had been given.
The Directorate erred in finding that Ms Ponte was suitably qualified.
The Directorate erred in failing to advise the complainant that he was entitled to provide other expert evidence in support of his claim.
At the appeal hearing the following parties were present
• Professor J Carr – Complainant/Appellant UK
• L Vryenhoek – Respondent
• V Ponte – External Expert
• A Hoff – Observer
• G Schimmel – Observer
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