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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
South African military machine 'faces imminent collapse' -warning
17:52 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
... So who is going to provide security at the FIFA WC2010 tournaments then? August 22 2008 - Cape Town Parliament. SA defence minister Mosiuoa "Terror' Lekota today endorsed pleas from ANC- parliamentarians for ever-more money to be spent on the country's 'beleaguered' defence force...http://www.dod.mil.za/
ANC MP Gerhard Koornhof - who sits on the defence portfolio committee -- warned parliamentarians on Thursday that 'the SANDF was on the verge of collapse.'
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the SA military indeed has very little to do since they have no enemies anywhere in the world - they now mainly keep themselves occupied with various Mbeki-glorifying international peace-missions in Africa and the distribution of food-parcels to the needy. Other than that, they have not exactly covered themselves in glory, with frequent reports of SANDF members engaging in wild sex-parties and being arrested for carrying out armed robberies and stealing from the government...
The regime plans for the SANDF to be the key element in the country's security plans for the FIFA World Cup football tournaments being held in the country. Terror Lekota recently announced plans for the SANDF to 'use state-of-the-art military information and communication technology networks to ensure safety and security of all under their watchful eye.' http://www.africanresponse.co.za/pdf/20_Release_SANDF_final.doc
However, the opposition party Democratic Alliance points out that if the defence force just managed their budget a bit better, they wouldn't be in this much trouble at all. For instance, while Lekota begged for more and more money, the SA National Defence Force had also wasted almost R10-million just paying the salaries of suspended members - who often already have been away from their jobs for more than a year yet were suspended on full pay, mainly while being investigated or already being found guilty by military tribunals for fraudulent or other criminal activities.... http://www.sasoldier.mil.za/
At least 42 SANDF members now are suspended with full pay - the DA points out. "The SANDF has spent a total of nearly R10-million on suspended members' salaries over the past three financial years - an average of R3.6m a year," the DA's defence MP, Rafeek Shah, said.
Also see our prevous report:http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/07/sa-air-force-submarine-fleet-collapsing.html
SA's first female admiral: a convicted fraudster on full pay:
One prime example of this state of affairs is SA's first female admiral Comrade Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala who, although found guilty on fraud and assaulting a lower-ranking staff member, remains on full pay while she's not been at work for at least a year:http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/07/sas-first-female-admiral-up-for-fraud.html
Koornhof claimed that 'the shortage of funds was putting the well-being of soldiers at risk, causing experienced staff to leave in their droves and equipment to become obsolete.'
- Of course he lies through omission: he avoids saying is that this 'experienced staff' is leaving mainly because they are being forced to by law: even the most qualified whites are rapidly being phased out from all government-service posts under Mbeki's ongoing black-economic-empowerment hiring laws.
Koornhof also claimed that defence spending had to be boosted to 1,7 percent of GDP over the next three years - 'or the defence force would simply collapse'. According to South Africa's leading defence analyst, Helmoed Roemer-Heitman, the military's crippling cash crisis has already led to the early retirement of the country's fighter jets, the Cheetahs, earlier this year - nearly four years before they were due to be decommissioned.
- And Roemer-Heitman also carefully avoids to say that South Africa's huge number of top-experienced, white pilots - often experienced 'bush pilots' with a lot of fighter-plane combat experience -- now are being recruited in large numbers by countries such as Australia - and it was reported by Rapport newspaper recently that the entire air force only had 23 active on-duty pilots left.
The Cheetahs were meant to be retired between 2010 and 2012 to avoid any gap that could be created before the arrival of the newly-ordered British Gripen fighter aircraft. However from the way things are going now, there won't be any pilots left at all by the time the British Gripens have all arrived in the country.
SA Air Force chief Lieutenant-General Carlos Gagiano admitted publicly just recently that 'the current lack of funding did not allow for both the Cheetah and Gripen programmes to be operated simultaneously'.
- And its recently purchased submarines from Germany have been in harbour ever since they arrived from the Kiel shipyards in northern Germany-- because there aren't any qualified submariners to run them. The navy is advertising 48 vacancies in the submarine fleet: on submarines with 11 crew members each.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080822115521373C589908
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SA teen beaten to death - wanted to stay a virgin
Four SA females arrested for beating to death teenager Nobuhle Khumalo, 17 - for chosing an educationAugust 22 2008 -- Ladysmith, South Africa. This pretty teenager is Nobuhle Khumalo, 17, who was raised by her destitute grandmother Florence Buthelezi in a dismal squatter camp near Ladysmith.
Nobuhle, a devout Christian girl, had taken the conscious decision to keep her virginity and not have any babies -- unlike so many of her classmates -- until she'd completed her high school education and had built up a career for herself and her devoted grandmom.
Last month, the promising and studious pupil was viciously set upon with African fighting sticks by four females at her school. Her grandmother Florence jumped in between, fighting fiercely to try and protect her beloved granddaughter - but the old lady's arm was broken by a powerful blow from one of the 'knobkieries' (fighting sticks)".
Police announced yesterday that four females -- three 17-year-olds and a 24-year-old - have now been arrested at Wasbank near Ladysmith in connection with the gruesome murder on the young girl a month ago.
- Attempts may even have been made to make the girl's death look like a suicide: she was found in her room, still alive but unconscious, with a bottle of pills placed conspicuously next to her.
One of her teachers, Mr Samkeliso Chiliza, said the four females had apparently attacked her 'out of sheer jealousy' because the girl's decision to remain a virgin was being held up as an example for other girls to follow.
- "The other girls were angry with Nobuhle for her choice, and felt it made the other girls who already had babies, look bad.'
Chiliza teaches at the Ethangeni Combined School in Dundee where the girl was attacked. Forensic examinators established after she'd died at hospital that she had not taken an overdose of anything - instead she had suffered severe brain damage with a large number of blows to her head, said police capt. Shoes Magudulela.
Her grandmother is inconsolable. She has raised Nobuhle from babyhood and the girl was the old woman's hope for the future: she had registered the promising pupil at Ethangeni -- 29 km away from their home in the "Hierteenoor' squatter camp at Wasbank -- because it was a school which had been persistently producing top-grade students and obtained 90% + pass rates.
Her teacher Chiliza described Nobuhle as an excellent pupil - 'a wonderful role-model for all of our nation's women.' "She was a good Christian, diligent and always got good grades - and it was her dream to obtain high grades in her matriculation-exams and 'get a better future'. "She viewed her body as a temple of God,' said Chiliza.
The shack in which her grandmother had raised her is in "Hierteenoor' (Afrikaans word for 'across-from-here'), a dismal, subeconomic squatter camp which has grown up around some abandoned railway-houses. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2380459,00.html
And to get an idea of the culture which this young girl was trying to remain virginal, please also read the following:
East London detective Xoliswa Maseti got two rapists jailed for years...
- Story written by police captain S C Marais, tel (043) 7221461, cellphone: 082 4161597 stephenmaraissaps@webmail.co.za
August 22 2008 -- Two violence-driven rape suspects who had faced questioning by zero-tolerance East London detective inspector Xoliswa Maseti of the Family Child and Sexual Offences Unit, got themselves jailed by the local magistrate for many years this week due to her diligent police work. In South Africa, where 1-m rapes a year are reported, often of very young children and girls, less than 6% of these cases ever end up in court. See SA police statistics http://www.saps.gov.za/
That's why it's always noteworthy when convicted rapists are sent to jail and removed from society for many years. This week, Siyabonga Mgoqi, 22, and Andile Meyile, 19 both were found guilty and jailed this week for violent rapes of very young girls. Mgoqi was jailed for raping at knifepoint a 13-year-old girl he had lured to a shack under false pretences on 17 November 2006. He also threatened the terrified child with a sword. Mgoqi was sentenced to 20 years' effective imprisonment on 15 August 2008.
Meyile was convicted for raping a young girl at knifepoint in the Soto Location on 12 January 2008. He was sentenced to 10 years' imrisonment of which 4 years were suspended for 5 years.
And police inspector Maseti - who say she has zero-tolerance towards rapists -- was the investigating officer in both cases.
Story written by police captain S C Marais, tel (043) 7221461, cellphone: 082 4161597 Email address: stephenmaraissaps@webmail.co.za http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=10506