Suspended sentence for strike caller

A 42-year-old employee of the department of education in KwaZulu-Natal was sentenced to four years in jail, suspended for five years, after she made two threatening phone calls in relation to the public service strike.

Fiona Kotze, from the Bluff area, made the first threatening call on 24 August. An employee of the Bluff Medical Centre in Lighthouse Road, Brighton Beach received an anonymous call during which a demand accompanied by a threat was made that the Medical Centre should close its doors immediately in accordance with the strike.

The second call was made on 29 August which resulted in the principal of the Glen Ardle School being threatened to close the school to pupils or risk being burnt to the ground.

Police investigations pointed to Kotze and she eventually handed herself to the police and was arrested on 31 August 2010.

Although the accused will not serve time in prison due to the suspension of the sentence, should she commit this crime again she could certainly face incarceration. Government has warned strikers to refrain from resorting to intimidation, violence, destruction of property and making inflammatory remarks. - BuaNews