Johannesburg – Moegoe of the week: Ricardo Mettler is a moegoe after he was found guilty of stealing an R8-million painting by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef in a government building in Bloemfontein.
The moegoe, who is ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule’s former driver and bodyguard, has been found guilty of theft, fraud, money-laundering and perjury.
The disappearance of the painting from the Free State government’s headquarters was the subject of a criminal investigation after Mettler tried to sell it to a local businessman.
The businessman went to have the piece evaluated at Gauteng-based Strauss and Co, unknowingly causing alarm.
Strauss and Co alerted the authorities.
Charmza of the week:
Congratulations to our charmza LaToya Seoke for coming out on top in her research on foot and mouth disease among goats.
The charmza’s focus is on the development of diagnostic tools to detect foot and mouth disease, which is prevalent in goats in Southern Africa.
A PhD student at the University of Pretoria, she is one of 20 young women who have been awarded the sub-Saharan Africa Young Talent Award for academic excellence. Seoke, 33, was awarded €10 000 (R180 000) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and L’Oréal, which will go towards her work in creating a quick diagnostic testing kit that can be used in the field of research.
The Unesco-L’Oréal For Women in Science programme was created to improve the representation of women in scientific careers.
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