CHAOS erupted yesterday when three top leaders of the Congress of the People had to flee an angry crowd at an East London restaurant last night.

Cope's president, Mosiuoa Lekota, head of policy, Smuts Ngonyama, and national spokesperson, Phillip Dexter, had gone to the Imbizo restaurant in Quigney after a fiery meeting at the East London Golf Club.

While there, a group of anti-Lekota supporters barged into the restaurant and threatened to assault them.

By MSIMELELO NJWABANE, DAILY DISPATCH

For Ryan Jenkins, life ended in a suicide in a remote Canadian motel room, and police who had sought the reality show contestant in the killing of his ex-wife hunted Monday for someone new: the mysterious woman who accompanied him to his lodgings.

Jenkins, a contestant on VH1's “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” was accused of killing his ex-wife, a model whose body was so badly mutilated when found in a trash bin outside Los Angeles it had to be identified by her breast implants’ serial numbers. He evaded a massive international manhunt for days as he crossed from the United States into his native Canada.

Police in California have still not located the crime scene and said Monday they believe the victim's missing white Mercedes-Benz could be the key. Jenkins’ dramatic end came at an isolated motel at the edge of British Columbia's mountainous interior, on the outskirts of Hope, a town with limited claims to fame as the place where the first Rambo movie was filmed and where residents make giant wooden carvings with chainsaws. On Sunday evening, police responded to a call from motel staff about a dead person, and then called investigators who were part of the manhunt for Jenkins, said Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police border integrity unit. The manager of The Thunderbird Motel and his nephew said they found Jenkins hanging from the bar of a coat rack by a belt. They said a young woman had checked him in to the two-story inn surrounded by trees. The 32-year-old real estate developer and investor was charged in California with first-degree murder Thursday after the dismembered body of Jasmine Fiore was found in a trash bin in Buena Park, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Fiore's teeth had been pulled out and her fingers cut off, apparently to impede her identification. Investigators used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her, Orange County prosecutors said. Buena Park police Sgt. William Kohanek said Monday that Fiore's missing car, a white 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL S550, is part of a “big unsolved puzzle” as they try to determine where she was killed. Jenkins was recently a contestant on the VH1 reality show “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” in which wealthy young men tried to win over a materialistic blonde. The network canceled the show Friday. Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore, said Monday that she had a mixed reaction to news of Jenkins’ death. “It brings some closure to what's been going on,” said Lepore, who lives in Maui, Hawaii. “We don't have to worry about looking for him anymore or being worried that he is a threat to any other women or men.” She added: “We still have a long process of closure.” Lepore spoke on NBC's “Today” show. Jenkins’ mother Nada, who lives in Vancouver, said in a brief telephone interview that she just can't believe her son killed his ex-wife and that she's sure the evidence will eventually prove his innocence. “He was good, he's kind and we need to clear his name,” she said, weeping. But when asked how that could be done she replied: “I don't know. I'm sure the evidence will prove it eventually. I'm praying for that.” Kevin Walker, who manages the Thunderbird Motel, said Jenkins and the mystery woman arrived Thursday in a Chrysler PT Cruiser with tinted windows and license plates from Alberta, Jenkins’ home province. He stayed in the car while the woman checked them in, he said. She was blonde, in her early 20s and “naturally pretty, one of those wholesome little ladies,” he said. Walker said the woman paid cash — 140 Canadian dollars (130) — for three nights’ stay. “He stayed in the car far, far away from the front of the office,” Walker said. “I didn't think nothing of it because it's just a couple checking in.” Walker said he never saw the woman or the car again. “I didn't see her leave, but apparently the tenant in No. 1 (next to Jenkins’ room) said she only stuck around for about 20 minutes,” he said. Adam Curt, 19, a motel employee and Walker's nephew, said Jenkins “looked stressed out,” adding: “He wouldn't look anybody in the eye.” Walker said he didn't recognize the man although Jenkins' face had been all over the news. “In no way shape or form did he look like the man on TV,” he said. “He looked spent.” The motel manager said when the couple didn't check out, he unlocked the room and found Jenkins dead. “I cracked the door and there he was, hanging there in front of me, feet touching” the floor, Walker said. “He definitely wanted to die. I smelt death.” Michelle Beck, who lives near the motel, said people who stay there are “kind of seedy — lots of drugs addicts and people down on their luck.” Police carried out bags of Jenkins’ belongings, including his laptop computer, Walker said. Hope is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Point Roberts, Washington state, the last place Jenkins was reported to have been seen before he crossed by boat into Canada. Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that an autopsy was planned. He declined to comment on the woman who assisted Jenkins but said the investigation was by no means over. “We're trying to determine as best we can how it is that he came to be in that motel,” Pound said. He also declined comment on what evidence they seized from the motel room. Jenkins and Fiore met in Las Vegas in March and they married a few weeks later. The couple separated shortly afterward, but had reportedly reconciled. Friends said Fiore was a model who worked mainly in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, doing gigs such as being bodypainted at parties. She also was an aspiring actress and had a bit part in a small 2008 horror science-fiction movie, “The Abandoned,” according to the Internet Movie Database. Lisa Lepore told The Associated Press earlier this week that her daughter had the marriage annulled in May. However, there were no court records of an annulment in either Nevada, where the couple was married, or in Los Angeles County, where they most recently lived. The two were married in a Las Vegas casino after taping for “Megan Wants a Millionaire” finished in early March, Lepore said. Court records show the date of marriage as March 18. But in May they fought because he was jealous of her ex-boyfriends, Lepore said. Local residents were shocked that he was found in Hope. “This is not the kind of thing you want to be on the map for. I think everybody is kind of shocked and surprised,” longtime resident Peter Scherle said. Hope has 6,600 residents. Jenkins also was a participant in an as-yet-unaired competitive reality series, “I Love Money 3.” A VH1 spokesman said no decision has been made on whether or not to run the show. Jenkins had been charged with allegedly hitting Fiore in the arm recently, court records showed. In his hometown of Calgary, Jenkins was sentenced to 15 months probation in January 2007 on an unspecified assault charge. ——— Gillies reported from Toronto and Associated Press Writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Ron DePasquale in New York contributed to this report.

AFP

South Africa's athletes are expected to be greeted by thousands of supporters when they arrive at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport from Berlin on Tuesday proudly bearing their two golds and one silver medal.

Even the Congress of SA Trade Unions, normally wrapped up in recession-busting wage agreements, has called on its members to “flock” to the airport to welcome the team back, spurred by what it considered the outrageous treatment middle distance champion Caster Semenya was subjected to in questions over her gender.

Semenya and her male counterpart in the 800m, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, cracked gold and long jumper Khotso Mokoena the silver at the International Amateur Athletics Federation's World Championships in Berlin.

But it was Semenya who drew an inordinate amount of interest when it emerged that the IAAF wanted to verify her gender in a controversy marked by comments over her physique.

The ANC Youth League's Julius Malema is among those who have sprung to Semenya's defence, expressing anger over how she was treated.

The Young Communist League echoed his sentiments and said: “We call on all South Africans, irrespective of their gender and race, to throng the OR Tambo International Airport tomorrow in support of Semenya and the entire team.”

The 18-year-old first year sports science student at the University of Pretoria reportedly had to be convinced to go up to the podium to accept the coveted gold when it became clear that her gender was in question.

After relatively poor times this year, she won in one minute 55.45 and the IAAF wants to settle the matter with a gender test.

The matter has set off a flurry of debate and opinion.

Veteran feminist Germaine Greer even penned a piece for the UK Guardian on the matter commenting that in sport, sex discrimination that is illegal everywhere else, is permitted.

A Facebook group started in support of Semenya had 646 members by Monday afternoon over the controversy, which has been labeled by some as a European attempt at downplaying a significant achievement by an African woman.

Malema said there were calls for her to be tested because she was black and had surpassed her European competitors, while Commission for Employment Equity chairman Jimmy Manyi said she was being “targeted” because of society's inability to recognise that black people could excel.

Twenty five men and six women went to Berlin for the event, but two men had to withdraw due to injuries.

Their reception in the Piazza Parking facility will be monitored by a team from the Airports Company of SA, police officials, immigration, customs and representatives of Athletics South Africa.

They are due in at 8.50am and to accommodate them and their fans, the lower arrival roadway in front of the terminal building will be closed from 6.30am to noon and traffic will be diverted.

The pick-up point outside International Terminal A and Domestic Terminal B will be inaccessible during that time, said Acsa, with only disabled passengers allowed access.

Meanwhile, congratulations kept coming for the team, the latest from Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile who said: “We are encouraged by the attitude of our athletes amid controversy surrounding one of their own. One could see that even those who were not able to win a medal, were highly determined to win”.

“The Ministry is proud of Team SA for representing the country with aplomb.”

“We hope that Semenya's win will encourage the up-and-coming athletes to work even harder in their quest to achieve at the highest level.”

Sapa

An 18-year-old schoolgirl gave birth at a school in Eersterus near Pretoria on Monday, the school principal said.

Rakgotso High School principal Rufas Mokwe said they were alerted by other pupils that a girl was giving birth in the toilets and a female teacher had to assist.

“The baby was in good health when the ambulance took them to Jubilee hospital. The mother, I am not sure of her condition,” he told Sapa.

He said the school had a high number of pregnant pupils and he pleaded with their parents to help monitor their conditions.

“Some of them were at home, but were allowed to come to school under the laws,” he said.

Sapa

The wife of murdered conservationist Franz Richter has lodged her second bail application in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on the grounds that Correctional Services has ordered that her 18-month-old baby be taken away from the prison from 1 September 2009.

Seliwe Mbokazi, 37, gave birth to the child while in prison. She was denied bailed in the Krugersdorp Magistrates Court in 2007.

Mbokazi is on trial with five others for the November 2007 murder of the 80-year-old Hea Safari Lodge owner who was ambushed outside the gate of his property while allegedly carrying R40,000 to pay his staff.

One of the accused, Ronnie Khumalo, is the father of Mbokazi's 18-month-old daughter. The two started having an affair after Richter told Mbokazi that they could no longer have sexual intercourse in 2000, according to Mbokazi.

The court heard this morning that Mbokazi had tried to abort the baby but had failed.

Khethiwe Chelemu