Eight years for Abu Ghraib jail abuse, and other brief reports

* Parliament’s Ethics Committee will resume its investigation today into some of the institution’s top MPs, including Joyce Kgoali and ANC Chief Whip Mbulelo Goniwe. Kgoali and Goniwe are among at least a dozen MPs who allegedly did not fully declare their business interests in Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests. – The Mercury * The fraud case against former Bearing Man employee Imtiaz Meakhan was provisionally withdrawn in the Verulam Magistrates’ Court last week, after the case docket was temporarily mislaid. Meakhan was arrested in June on the charge of theft of documents that were reputedly worth at least R5.5m, including confidential Bearing Man price listings, suppliers’ details and other sensitive trade information. – Business Report * Accused of robbery and rape on Robben Island seven years ago, Gerrit Rossouw, has secured a settlement from the state for an undisclosed amount. Rossouw, the elder brother of Western Province rugby players Pieter and Chris Rossouw, lodged a R1.5m claim in 1997 in the Cape Town High Court against then Community Safety Minister Sydney Mufamadi, police investigator Jannie Kruger and a witness who allegedly gave false information. – The Mercury * Child abuse cases in Port Elizabeth’s Magistrates’ Court have been dealt a blow after closed-circuit equipment, which enables children to testify against their attackers without having to face them, was stolen. The court is already facing huge backlogs because the closed-circuit TV was faulty. – The Herald * Tony Blignaut, CE of the internationally renowned Garden Route tourist attraction Monkeyland, has appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrates’ Court on charges of raping a 29-year-old foreign volunteer who works at the primate sanctuary. Blignaut was released on R2 000 bail and the case was postponed. – The Herald