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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
African Reed Dance violates women's rights, is sexist...
22:39 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Johannesburg - The traditional Reed Dances in southern Africa -- hugely popular with foreign sex-tourists -- are outdated, violate women's rights and are sexist, the Young Communist League said on Wednesday.
- Girl gang-raped at Reed Dance
- http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2394096,00.html
"Young girls are being coerced to expose or display their genitals under the pretext of promoting outdated cultural practices such as the Reed Dance," said Young Communist League spokesman Castro Ngobese. He said the practice was outdated and violated women's rights by propagating a sexist notion of how "good girls" should behave.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/vrouw/psyche_relatie/1631100/__Ik_wil_een_man_in_mijn_leven__.html
"This seeks to conserve backwards notions about women's virtuousness deriving from sexual purity and lack of autonomy over their bodies instead of having genuine choices about sexual activity and engagements.
- "The practice also vilifies those that are non-virgins and judges them as impure according to largely patriarchal standards." Ngobese said the practice was biased against the working class and rural where women see 'being chosen' (by the tribal king as a new wife) as a way to escape poverty.
He said the YCL dedicated this year's Heritage Day to the girl who got brutally gang-raped during reed dance celebrations in northern Kwazulu-Natal.
- The 14-year-old Zulu maiden was participating in the Reed Dance ceremony at King Goodwill Zwelithini's Nkoyeni palace over the weekend of September 13 when she was dragged outside and raped. Police blamed the girl, saing that she had "strayed from the group she was with and was forced outside by a group of men who then raped her.'
Only one of her rapists has appeared in the Nongoma Magistrates Court on Tuesday - but others have not been charged. On Wednesday Ngobese said the league called on the working class and the poor to fight and abolish these "reactionary and backward" cultural practices.
"Young girls and women should not be chained prisoners of backwards traditions in the 21st century.:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2394096,00.html
Students torch North West University
In spite of whole-scale arson of residences, administration buildings and attempted petrol bombing of an ATM by "students" at the University of North West today, management of the university still think they can "reason" with these young thugs over their "disagreement" with chancellor Dan Mofokeng.Millions of rands worth of university property destroyed ... the mind boggles. They should be "reasoned" with by way of arrest and prosecution.
Forty-nine students were arrested today for allegedly setting fire to one of the residences at the Mafikeng Campus of the North West University, police said.
"Firefighters were called but the students started throwing stones at them while they tried to contain the fire," said spokesperson Superintendent Lesego Metsi. Police used rubber bullets to disperse them and they ran to their hostel rooms.
Security guards at the university went to their rooms to arrest them. Four students were injured in the process and taken to hospital for treatment. They were discharged and arrested together with 45 others. All were charged with malicious damage to property and arson.
Meanwhile the SABC reported that all residences on the campus had been closed and students were asked to leave. More than 2 000 lived on the campus. Students want vice chancellor Dan Mofokeng to resign, claiming he is incompetent.
On Tuesday two students were arrested after they allegedly set fire to a computer lab and the administration building at the university. "They also shattered windows and tried to petrol bomb an automated teller machine at the campus, but did not succeed," said Metsi. Damage running into millions of rands has been caused by arson attacked on administration buildings this week.
Management says the academic programme will resume tomorrow. The management of North West University in Mafikeng says it is prepared to resume negotiations with students to find a lasting solution to the ongoing crisis at the institution. University spokesperson Louis Jacobs says there is still room for talks.
What absolute bullshit!
Lads from Lagos operating in Johannesburg
Two Nigerian men were arrested and the Swedish man they allegedly kidnapped was rescued unharmed in Johannesburg, police said on Wednesday. Kenth Sadaaki Suzuki was apparently lured to South Africa by a group of Nigerians after he fell for the so-called 419 scam, police spokesperson senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said.
The victim was made to believe he would be part of an investment opportunity with a company known as Jeffdon Properties.
"The men met their victim at 8am on Wednesday at the OR Tambo International Airport and transported him to a house in Rosettenville where they robbed him of all his belongings.
"They bound his hands and legs and held him against his will for the entire day."
Naidoo said the men then demanded a ransom of 20 000 euros (about R235 000) from his wife and family.
Head of the police's detective services Commissioner Rayman Lalla got a call from Sweden about the matter and jumped into action. The perpetrators were tracked down and arrested and Suzuki was rescued unharmed. The two had been linked to three other cases in which they allegedly kidnapped Americans as part of the same scam. They are also being investigated for their possible involvement in other cases. The two would appear in the Kempton Park magistrate's court on charges of kidnapping, extortion, intimidation and assault on Monday. - Sapa 24 September 2008
EastRand Police Chief Robert McBride gets the boot
"I can arrange to have your wife raped, your kids and pets killed,' he'd told a colleague...
September 26 2008 -- PRETORIA. Robert McBride, controversial head of the Est/Rand Ekurhuleni metro police, was dismissed on Thursday evening.
However - here's the onion for taxpayers -- the council has undertaken to pay the legal costs for his drunk-driving trial.
Mayor Ntombi Mekgwe said the council had decided on Thursday to end McBride's contract with immediate effect. This meant he would be unemployed from Friday.
During his current drunken-driving hearing at the Pretoria Regional Court, witnesses testified that East Rand/Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride - a senior ANC-member -- had told one officer that he 'would arrange for his wife to be raped and his children and pets murdered'.
It is apparently quite routine for influential ANC-members like McBride to threaten and intimidate others in order to maintain their power-base. This is where they were taught to do this:- ANC torture camps http://groups.msn.com/crimebustersofsouthafrica/ancthesecrettorturecampsoftheancregime.msnw
Former mayor Duma Nkosi had put McBride on compulsory leave in July last year after he was charged with drunken driving and obstruction of justice. He crashed his official car in December 2006, after the metro- police year-end function - which is where this photograph of him and his buddies was taken.The hearing into the incident is presently taking place in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court.
- McBride's five-year contract would have expired at the end of November. However, Mekgwe said the council had decided to rather terminate the contract now, as McBride was on paid leave anyway. "We could have made our decision at the end of November, but decided to rather do it now." She declined to elaborate on the council's reasons for doing so. The rest of his contract will be paid out.
Mekgwe said the council would honour its commitment to pay the legal costs it had undertaken to pay, but if any new legal costs were incurred in any of his cases, McBride would be liable for those himself.
- She said Mkhabela Sibeko, acting head of metro police, would continue in that capacity until Patrick Flusk, city manager, decided who should be appointed.
- At 20:00 on Thursday night, McBride told Beeld that he had not been informed of the decision, and did not want to comment. http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2400017,00.html
Top squash-player James-Thomas Geldart, 20, shot by Ekhurhuleni metrocops
April 19 2008 A young Afrikaner Unisa student, and one of the country's top ten squash players, James-Thomas Geldart (20) is recovering from serious gunshot wounds in Glynnwood hospital after he was shot in the groin and the face by members of the notorious EastRand/kurhuleni-metropolitian police on the N12 highway near Springs.
He was returning from the Benoni Country Club. He's a trainer there and plays in its top honours-winning squash-team.
Photographed here with him by Beeld newspaper are his parents James jr and Amanda, and sister Petri, 15. The unarmed Unisa student was returning from the Benoni club when he was shot at around 12:30 and, chasing home with serious gun-shot wounds, crashed his car into a wall.
The family said he was dragged from his car covered in blood, and kept saying: 'dad I thought I was being hijacked, they were shooting me.' The Geldart family already was badly traumatised by violent crime: recently they were also was attacked by armed black men inside their home, and about a year ago, James-Thomas' car also was hijacked.
He said the shots were fired by two groups of armed men in two unmarked cars who had followed him on the N12 highway near Springs.
- They were giving no indications that they may have been cops.
- Believing they were hijackers or robbers, he called his security company CMS while he continued driving to his parental home.
Spokesmen confirmed that they could hear the shots while he was calling them in sheer panic -- and immediately rushed to his house because a security alarm had also been raised there by his mother. Mr Geldart, bleeding profusely and weak from the gunshot wounds, by then had lost control over his car and crashed it into a wall a block away from his house.
There was no sign of the men who had been following him. He was treated on the scene by paramedics and rushed to Glynnwood hospital.
SA Police captain Julia Claasen claimed that the metro-cops were 'following' the young Afrikaner when he had 'ignored a red traffic-light'. They are now 'investigating attempted murder,' she added.
His dad says he cannot understand why his unarmed son was shot at at all."He's still a child, he was the headboy at Brandwag (Afrikaans) High School and among the top-ten squash players in the country. "He's in his third year studying for a B-com in financial management at Unisa.'
The father 'had heard that the metro police were busy with some kind of crime-prevention campaign in Springs. Perhaps that had something to do with it.'
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2308619,00.html
- Translate Afrikaans article to English:
- http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/ger/afr/erafreng.htm
INNOCENT MAN SHOT DEAD IN CROSSFIRE AT RAMAPHOSA SQUATTER CAMP
June 1 2008 -- This photograph by Rapport newspaper photographer Christiaan Kotze was taken while the East Rand/Ekurhuleni metropolitan police had been ordered to shoot at a crowd at the Ramaphosa squatter camp.
The man in the red shirt in the foreground was Qenesane Benjamin Hans, a South African resident who lived at the Ramaphosa squatter camp.
The policemen seen firing behind him all belong to the EastRand/Ehkurhuleni police force - and they had just been ordered to fire on a crowd at Ramaphosa squatter camp by Robert McBride, who had arrived and taken over command of the action.
Kotze and Hans both were injured by rubber bullets and shotgun-pellets being fired in volleys fired from metropolitan-police guns just seconds after this photograph was taken and pellets had also shattered the camera-lens.
The two injured men were taken to hospital in the same ambulance. Mr. Hans had suffered severe head wounds and succumbed in the ambulance, Mr. Kotze was treated and discharged.
Kotze states that he had noticed that Mr Hans clearly had been an innocent bystander who really was just walking through the area and had not been involved in any 'xenophobic attacks'. Kotze had not noticed him amongst the rowdy crowd behind them before he and Kotze were shot.
The entire incident is even more controversial because at that time, the officially 'suspended' metropolitan police chief Robert McBride had arrived in the middle of these xenophobic attacks and intervened with the national SA Police's attempts to calm down the crowd -- by taking over command.
Shortly thereafter, when a bottle was thrown at McBride from the crowd, orders were given to shoot at them - injuring Hans and Kotze, amongst others.
McBride 's actions were so controversial because he had officially been placed on 'extended leave' pending the outcome of his trial for drunk-driving.
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