y@g

Cape Town - Bus company Roadlink is to be summoned to a meeting with Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle after another of its buses was found breaking the law.

The meeting would take place early this freshwater pearl earrings week, Carlisle's office said on Sunday.

He would ask Roadlink "to explain why its buses continue to disregard traffic and transportation laws".

This followed the news that a Roadlink bus was pulled over on the N1 near the Huguenot Tunnel on Friday night for travelling without an operating licence.

"Minister Carlisle is outraged by the fact that the same bus is still serving a twisted pearl necklace suspension notice for a previous traffic offence," the statement said.

"The mere fact that Roadlink knew that the bus was suspended and still sent it [out on] the road is a reflection of its utter contempt for traffic laws."

Carlisle was consulting legal advisers about the freshwater pearl necklace possibility of confiscation.

Pietermaritzburg - The driver of an SA Roadlink bus which crashed on the N3 highway on December 24 2006, killing 12 people, was on Monday acquitted of 12 charges of culpable homicide.

Driver Charles Vaudim, of Durban, pleaded not guilty to pearl jewelry the charges before Pietermaritzburg Regional Magistrate M Mngomezulu.

Vaudim's plea was that a rear tyre burst, causing the bus to veer out of control hitting a bridge over the N3 highway in Pietermaritzburg.

Mngomezulu said the prosecution failed to prove that Vaudim had driven so recklessly and negligently that he was responsible for the deaths of the passengers.

"This judgement is a clear indication of the fact that the safety of our passengers at SA Roadlink is our primary concern and that every possible measure is always taken to ensure the well-being of our travellers," spokesperson Mapaseka Mashele said in a statement.

"Today's court ruling vindicates SA Roadlink which has said all along that the cause of freshwater pearl jewelry the accident was a burst tyre, and not as a result of driver negligence."

It was alleged at the time of the accident that the driver was speeding, was drunk and had fallen asleep at the wheel. People had also questioned the roadworthiness of the bus, said Mashele.

In the latest Roadlink accident earlier this month, a coach lost control and overturned on the N1 outside Beaufort West, leaving seven people dead and 50 others injured.

Hours later a second Roadlink bus, sent to pick up stranded passengers, was pulled off the cultured freshwater pearl same freeway after it was found to be unroadworthy.

At the time, police told Sapa both coaches failed to comply with permit conditions which stipulated they could not travel on the N1.

Mashele had yet to comment on that matter.

Pietermaritzburg - A 30-year-old Johannesburg man who suffered severe head injuries in a South African Roadlink bus crash in 2006 is claiming R1.215m from the bus company's passenger services.

The accident in which Wellington Manana was involved occurred on inflatable water games the Christmas Eve of 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.

The case began in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court on Wednesday and was expected to last for the rest of the week. SA Roadlink is opposing the claim.

The bus collided with a pillar of an overhead bridge on the N3 bypass.

Manana's legal counsel Gerrie Roberts submitted that the driver, Charles Vaudin, was driving too fast, failed to keep a proper look-out, did not control the bus properly, did not avoid the pillar and failed to take evasive action.

Vaudin was acquitted on a charge of culpable homicide in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court last year

The defence claims the accident was caused by the sudden deflation of freshwater pearl earrings a rear tyre.

Manana's wife Marina told the court she and her husband boarded the bus in Johannesburg to attend a relative's wedding in Durban and that she hear a scraping noise shortly before the crash.

She was slightly injured in the crash, but her husband suffered head injuries and a broken neck and leg. He was taken to Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg where he was treated for freshwater perl jewelry two months.

Johannesburg - The South Gauteng High Court will on freshwater pearl jewelry Thursday hear a bid by Jackie Selebi's defence to have Judge Meyer Joffe recuse himself from the former police chief's corruption trial.

The State had indicated it would oppose the bid, which the defence was basing on claims that Joffe allegedly showed bias against Selebi.

The recusal application last week brought proceedings to freshwater pearl jewelry a temporary halt.

If the recusal were to be granted, the trial - which got underway after years of postponements - would start all over again in front of a new judge.

Selebi is facing a charge of corruption and another of defeating the ends of justice in connection with at least R1.2m he allegedly received from convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti and others in return for freshwater pearl necklace favours.

His wife, Marina, told the court her husband was hospitalised for two months and is he is no longer “able to function as before”.

She explained that since the sterling silver jewelry crash her previously outgoing husband has become short-tempered, has no time for friends and easily forgets things.

She said they never spoke about the accident except that he kept asking her exactly what happened. Her husband was asleep when the crash happened, she said.

Marina maintained that the bus was travelling at “high speed” at a cultured freshwater pearl stage before the accident, but said after someone on the bus spoke to the driver he drove normally. “It became very quiet after that and we had no more complaints,” she said.

This evidence is disputed.

Manana also denied having heard a “popping sound” or a sound like a tyre bursting at the rear of the bus shortly before the collision.

The court has heard that the bus left Johannesburg en route to freshwater pearl necklace Durban at about 20:45. It stopped on the way to refuel, and some time after leaving the garage, made a U-turn. The bus thereafter resumed its journey. Manana said they were not told the reason for turning back.