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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Demonisation, criminalisation of Afrikaners continues
23:01 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Worker lied: farmer van Biljon still investigated for attempted murder...
24/03/2009 Bloemfontein - Police are still investigating a charge of attempted murder against parttime Odendaalsrus farmer/miner Neels van Biljon, after an injured farmworker claimed he was tortured by being dragged behind a farm vehicle by the farmer.
Worker Andries Xaba, 57, now admits he lied about the dragging. He was however admitted to hospital in Welkom with serious injuries on Monday and obviously, some body-damaging incident has occurred which thus far has not yet been fully explained.
Neels van Biljon, a part-time farmer who works at the Beatrix gold mine, appeared briefly in the Odendaalsrus Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. He was not asked to plead to anything. He had handed himself over to police at the Odendaalsrus police station, accompanied by his lawyer.
- He was remanded for one night in police custody until his formal bail application on Wednesday.
Police Captain Stephen Thakeng said on Tuesday that Xaba “sustained multiple body and head injuries in an incident" and was treated in the intensive care unit at Bongani Hospital.
False statement:
- “Xaba had initially told the police that 'he was tied up with a rope and dragged behind the farmer's bakkie for not slaughtering two sheep.
- "Mr Xaba has since changed his statement regarding the dragging behind the bakkie. It was false," Thakeng said.
The farmer's wife took Xaba to hospital for medical treatment after a clearly body-damaging incident which thus far has not yet been fully explained, Thakeng said.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2491000,00.html
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Rawsonville farmers targetted by farm workers land rights movement:
Nov 24 2008 – 2009 RAWSONVILLE, WESTERN CAPE. Afrikaner farmer Hennie du Preez of the farm Excelsior was arrested with six employees on October 20. The case, Nr RV699/08, was remanded to 5 December in the Rawsonville law court, writes Rapport journalist Julian Jansen, who also took the picture of worker Manie Thomas, 23 on the left. The worker lodged formal charges of assault, pointing a firearm and kidnapping against Du Preez, Rapport newspaper wrote. The alleged beating occurred on October 6. It's not known why it took the farm worker two weeks before lodging the complaint. The truth will all hopefully emerge during the trial. "Someone is behind these stories" - read: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/11/white-farmers-must-be-dealt-with-warn.html
'Rawsonville farmers demonised' plot against 4 arrested farmers revealed
April 2006 -- There's indeed ample evidence that such arrests of white farmers are politically-motivated and orchestrated with false testimony. One such plot to demonise and criminalise white South African farmers was indeed uncovered in April 2006 in Rawsonville, after four white farmers were arrested in a blaze of international media attention, accused of gang-raping a female farm worker and beating a youth into a coma. read: Rape charges against four white Rawsonville farmers were fraudulent
- These charges all came from one source: farm worker Annelise Davids - and she confessed shortly thereafter that she had lied 'because she'd been drunk;'. Her friend Beverley van Rooyen was then forced - with torture by a cattle prong -- to write a statement claiming she had seen the rapes of her friend. This torture was carried out by a Ceres police inspector, Matthew Ntshanga. He has since been charged with interfering with the judicial process. He still keeps his job. Davids also admitted that she had lied to the police about these same four farmers having beaten a local youth, Anthony Ntonzeni, leaving him in a coma. The police directorate investigation determined independently that this youngster had been left permanently brain-damaged after falling off a vehicle and that the farmers had not been anywhere near the scene at the time.
The two female farm workers were never charged at all -- and have never apologised to the four white farming families, either. A huge amount of hate-speech was generated in South Africa and abroad against these four accused white farmers at the time - and in fact land-rights campaigners still cite this case to this day at their public meetings and protests as 'an example of the cruelty which racist white farmers show towards their workers'...when none of these events had ever happened...
"Four white farm families went through hell...got death threats:
Meanwhile the four white farm families have been through hell, they said. "Nobody involved in this case has ever apologised to the families. The least which Davids could have done, was to apologise on a public platform about the harm which was done to our families,' one of the farmers told Rapport.
Tony Ehrenreich, West Cape leader of Cosatu, said at the time that "we are here today to declare war. We are against violence but if that's what it takes to get bad farmers to go into the right direction, we will 'moer' them. (Beat them up). "If farmers continue like mad dogs to infringe on the human rights of our farm workers, we must beat them, even if it is a last resort. They will shit if they don't stop. There's already a lot of blood drawn among our farm workers. If this does not stop, there will also be blood on the farmers'. Based on RAPPORT story by jjansen@rapport.co.za http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Kaap-Rapport/0,,752-799_2423119,00.html
Land-rights protest march against white Van der Merwe farm family Aug 9 2008, Rawsonville
Picture: An investigation was launched by the Women on Farms Project, said its deputy-director Colette Solomons. This organisation -- funded by the Ford Foundation, Sida, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Open Society Foundation -- held a dramatic protest march on Saturday, August 9 2008 in Rawsonville, protesting 'against the lack of access to land for women, and stating that they 'are claiming back the land that was stolen from our mothers and fathers." They had gathered at the Rawsonville police station and marched to the nearby Merwiede Farm. They claimed: "On the six farms owned by the van der Merwes assaults on farm workers are common-place. One woman cooperative member has been assaulted twice by a foreman and no action was taken..." http://lists.mindspring.co.za/pipermail/pgmwc/2008-August/000020.html
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20081120 Farmer Nic van Rensburg , Vryburg, NW arrested after worker's Jan 2008 death from alcohol poisoning
Nov 22 2008 VRYBURG, NW - Beeld journalist Linda de Beer and Rapport newspaper's Maryna van Wyk reported from Vryburg that the Afrikaner smallholder/motor mechanic Nic van Rensburg, left on picture by Rapport, was arrested after a local worker, Piet Mopelwa, had allegedly died of 'alcohol poisoning' in January this year. Van Rensburg's legal counsel Adv. Kammie Strydom told journalists outside the courtroom Friday that Mopelwa had died of pneumonia instead.
- "It could not have been alcohol-poisoning: the alcohol had already been secreted from his body by the time he'd died,' said Strydom. Forensic tests are still being awaited as to the exact way in which Mopelwa may have died.
Accusations are rife that Van Rensburg's worker had allegedly been ‘tortured by electric shocks and forced to drink two bottles of brandy’. Van Rensburg was released on R2,000 and his case was remanded to 12 December by the Ganyesa/Vryburg magistrate's court. It’s not known what has happened to this case since that time. Police captain Charlize van der Linden confirmed that charges were lodged against the farmer/businessman. Apparently Mopelwa was one of the two state-witnesses in another murder charge against Van Rensburg - which trial continues in January 2008. In this case he's charged with murdering a man from Amalia in 2004, Samual Gaoshubele, who allegedly went missing after going to Rensburg's homestead to complain about a car he'd bought from him. Gaoshubele's sister Dinkwe Mofokeng was quoted by Rapport as saying that her brother had been 'afraid shortly before his death and was receiving threatening anonymous phone calls. from a man' Two black workers, including Mopelwa had testified in the Gaoshubele case that the man had been 'tied to a tree.' However Gaoshubele's wallet and remains of a human skeleton later identified forensically as his, were later found alongside a road. The local community has meanwhile taken the law into their own hands by attacking Van Rensburg's property. On this picture he is seen talking about this attack. Picture by RAPPORT newspaper. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2430727,00.html http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2431009,00.html
Afrikaner ex-commander of SAPS anti-corruption unit arrested, dumped in cell with hardened criminals
'WITCH-HUNT AGAINST WHITE POLICE OFFICERS BY PRETORIA METROPOLITAN POLICEMAN'
Nov 11 2008 - Afrikaner advocate Marius Bouwer, testifying in Pretoria High Court: "I prayed that the hardened criminals in that cell did not know I was a cop'... The former 47-year-old operational commander of the SA Police's anti-corruption unit is suing the SA regime for his false arrest in connection with the death of an unknown black man, found dead on his farm Soetdorings near Bultfontein, Pretoria in January 2002.Bouwer quit the police service with a medical discharge in December 2003. The dead man's name has never been published, and nothing seems to be known about him. Advocate Bouwer demands damages of R649,000 in his lawsuit against the Minister of security and safety and the Commissioner of police for the false arrest. He was arrested in 2003 after the black man's body was found -- an event, Adv. Bouwer testified, which had also 'set off a vicious witch-hunt against specific white members of the SA Police Service' by the Pretoria-metropolitan police's Mpho Mmutle. Bouwer said although he was accused of the mystery man's death, he knew nothing whatsoever about the death of this black man who, the metro-cops claimed, had been shot, dragged behind a motorbike and then had a liquid poured down his throat “to make him decompose faster”... "I received a call which confirmed that a witch-hunt had been initiated against specific white police officers by the ( highly controversial) current assistant-commissioner of the Pretoria metropolitan police Mpho Mmutle. Mmmutle, the former chief of the VIP-protection unit under ex-pres. Nelson Mandela, now heads the community safety portfolio for the Pretoria municipal council... and which fact also may explain the following events: 'Afrikaner farmers, smallholders around Pretoria facing genocide, demand local police chief's removal...' Bouwer testified: '"I was told that I would be the next person to be arrested. In December 2002, a huge police task-force descended on his farm during which the doors were broken open and damaged -- and after this event, the tension became unbearable for him at work, he said. "One waited every day that those people (the task-team investigating police officers) will walk in your home and arrest you quite illegally, that's their modus operandus,' he said. During Christmas 2002, Adv Bouwer had a breakdown, and spent five days in the Vista psychiatric clinic. Bouwer told the court he had to be admitted to the psychiatric institution over the Christmas period in 2002 as a result of the stress of waiting to be arrested on some or other charge. And after his arrest and detention, he developed nightmares and panic attacks. He was unable to concentrate, his memory was affected and his family life suffered because he withdrew from everyone. He said the humiliation was so extreme that it affected his self image. He felt as if he was worth nothing and eventually developed a bleeding ulcer because there was no finality in the charges against him.
- “It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth if the employer to whom you had given 20 years of loyal service, made sacrifices for and walked the extra mile simply sits back and does nothing when you’re being treated unlawfully and maliciously,” he said.
On 20 January 2003, he was ordered by Dir.Vincent Ntengu, then the area's chief of police detectives in the Pretoria region, that he needed to give Bouwer a 'warning declaration about a murder charge pending against him'. Seven days later, Bouwer was arrested. He was not informed why he was arrested: he only heard much later that the investigating police were accusing him of the unknown man's murder. He was given no access to any legal representative, but instead the Afrikaner policeman was held at three different police stations - in one he was thrown into a cell with 11 hardened criminals, 'murderers, armed robbers and burglars', he testified. Four days after his unlawful arrest, a magistrate in the Pretoria North regional court released him on his own recognisance and two months later the 'charges' were dropped altogether due to a total lack of proof. "At times I cried like a little boy. There's simply not a greater humiliation than to be locked up innocently, and know that you were locked up for no reason at all,' he said.Bouwer was so shaken and traumatised by these events, that he was medically boarded from the police at the end of 2003. The case continues.http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2424758,00.html
IS TRAUMATISED COLIGNY FARM WIFE ANNATJIE STANDER FACING A MURDER RAP?
In an unrelated case, Coligny police have also announced the arrests of three Shangaan-speaking suspects, charged with the assassination-style farm-murder of Sias Stander on his Coligny farm last week. The question still remains whether farm wife Hannetjie Stander, 67, will now be arrested for 'murder' and 'attempted murder,' after she'd managed to shoot dead one attacker, Ernest Vilakazi of Mozambique and injuring another Shangaan-speaking man seriously after she had already been stabbed eleven times...
Sias Stander murder, Coligny farm: 3 arrested, one shot dead, one injured:
The three arrested Shangaan-speaking men, Samuel Katgetla, 26; Sergio Masibela, 26, of Mozambique and Patrick Malebo, 28, LEFT, this week appeared in the Coligny magistrate's court as suspects in the execution-style murder of local farmer Sias Stander last week. Their trial starts Nov 17 and they remain in custody. Police identified the killed farm-attacker as Mozambiquan migrant Ernest Vilakazi, 34. It's not yet known whether the badly traumatised elderly farm-wife will now be charged with murder and attempted murder for killing Vilakazi and injuring his comrade. The current record shows that such arrests of Afrikaner farm-attack victims often follow such self-defence deaths. Mr Stander was one of three farmers murdered thus far this month in very violent farm attacks in the North West province. Also murdered were farmers Brink Botha of Mamogaleskraal, 2 Nov; and Flip Minnie of Rooikoppies farm near Brits 6 Nov. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2424154,00.html
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Murder charges dropped against farmer Jaco Swart, Delareyville
The Delareyville magistrate's court dropped the murder-charge against local farmer Jaco Swart, 26, arrested in May this year after shooting dead farm-attacker Michael Thipe and injuring one of of Thipe's comrades while they were attacking his parental homestead. The court refused to try the case: it was scrapped off the roll because Swart 'had acted in self-defence', said the magistrate. Afriforum community-security spokesman Nantes Kelder said this latest dismissal of the young farmer's case 'proves that Swart was arrested illegally."The arrest was motivated purely by politics," he said. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2424128,00.html
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Oudtshoorn sheep farmer Piet Botes charged with murder of farm-child Elizabeth Martiens, 13
Nov 10 2008 - OUDTSHOORN, Karoo. The Circuit Court in Oudtshoorn this week also viewed a gruesome video of 13-year-old farmworker's child Elizabeth Martiens‘s decomposing body where it was found in an empty water tank on one of the three sheep farms owned by accused farmer Piet Botes. Elizabeth was last seen alive when Botes drove off with her from his Karoo sheep farm Weltevrede in April last year, according to this report. He has pleaded not guilty, claiming that he had dropped Elizabeth off next to her mother‘s house in Merweville, but that the girl never arrived there. Her remains were found on Weltevrede farm three months later, a day after police arrested Botes on charges of 'child abandonment'.
Case postponed to March 9 2008 - he stays in jail:
This case is however complicated by the fact that Botes' own brother has testified against him. Even though Botes is the owner of three local sheep-farms, an income-earner with a fix-abode and no previous criminal record, Botes was ordered to remain in Oudtshoorn prison for the next five months: his case was postponed to March 9 2009. It's not known what has happened to this case by March 24 2009.The video screened in the courtroom in November 2008 showed her lifeless body lying under two zinc sheets and some of her personal items, which had been burnt.
- Botes, 49, is accused of abducting and murdering the girl. He has since then also been charged with abducting and indecently assaulting two teenage sisters in 2006 after finding them gathering wood on another of his three farms. Their names were not published in this report, nor is it known whether he pleaded guilty to these last two charges.
Botes family distraught, mother grief-stricken: His brother, Frans, testified earlier that Piet had confessed to him that he ' had something to do with Elizabeth‘s death." The defence attorney, unnamed in this report, did not cross-examine the brother.
Judge Vincent Saldanha and his assessors did cross-examine the brother Frans about their upbringing: Frans Botes told the judge that 'they had received a good upbringing, and that moreover their father, Frans Botes snr, had 'not been particularly strict "-- although they often got hidings, he added. Asked why he decided to testify against his brother, Frans said it was difficult, and that the charges against Piet were putting the family “through a very difficult time”.
- However, he had been taught not to lie, he testified: noting that their mother, 72, was taking the situation badly and that the rest of the family was sad and tense. The case was postponed to March 9 2009. Botes will remain in custody at the Oudtshoorn prison. We will continue to monitor this case, which may or may not be related to the fact that there are six land-restitution claims pending in the Oudtshoorn region.
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n08_10112008.htm
Land-claims in Oudtshoorn region:
SIX land-restitution claims were submitted all on the same day, December 24, 2004, to the Land Restitution office, for Oudtshoorn land-parcels Erven 2619, 2260, 2461, 2341, 2255 and 2277, and against the farm Die Rust. Nothing further is presently known about these land claims; who lodged them, where these (often giant) parcels are located in this arid region -- nor whether Botes' three sheep farms were included in these claims. We are still investigating whether a 'Rawsonville" situation has arisen here or not. http://www.lawlibrary.co.za/landclaims/restitutionoflandrightsact_22of1994/2004.htm
Woman on Farms and Dopstop land/human-rights campaigning projects, SA government:
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Two senior Afrikaner officers of 121 Battallion cleared of trumped-up charges by Appeal Court
NOT GUILTY -- Lt.col. Tobie van Eeden, former commander of 121 Battallion
Pietermaritzburg Oct 19 2008 - The convictions and sentences of two senior 121 Battallion officers - arrested in front of their men amidst a blaze of publicity in 2004, and who had lost their jobs after their convictions -- were set aside by Appeals Court judges Nic van der Reyde and Piet Koen. It's not yet clear whether these Afrikaner officers would now get back their jobs -- with back-pay, as the law requires.
Ex-commander of 121 Battallion near Mtubatuba, lt-col Tobie van Eeden (45, left), and its former judicial officer maj. Ferdinand Labuschagne (39) were cleared of all charges stemming from false accusations which had been made by a black driver, rifleman M Sithole, that the Afrikaner officers had conspired to kill a black 21 Battallion officer (who has since died of AIDS).
Originally, four Afrikaner officers were arrested in the most distressing circumstances possible for senior military men: in front of the entire 121 Battallion near St. Lucia in 2004. Two were cleared, but LtCol Louis van Eeden, officer commanding of 121 Battalion and its judicial officer Maj Ferdinand Labuschagne were convicted for 'defeating the ends of justice' by regional magistrate L Naidoo in the Eskhawini court near Richard's Bay in November 2004. Each was fined R4 000, or two years jail, plus five years jail suspended. And of course, they also lost their jobs.
"Magistrate Naido had closed his mind...'
-
Judge Van der Reyden said in his Appeals Court summary setting aside their convictions that magistrate Naidoo had "closed his mind to the probability that a black driver, rifleman M Sithole, could ever have falsely implicated the two white officers, i.e. Bronkhorst and Goosen, accusing them of conspiring to murder the second in command, Maj M Manekwane.' The main witness in the conspiracy case against Bronkhorst and Goosen had been Rifleman M Sithole yet, the Appeal Court noted, this sole witness had "submitted three conflicting statements" which should have been examined more closely by magistrate Naidoo...
Black driver was 'forced to falsely implicate the Afrikaner officers' -- he testified:
The state had accused Van Eeden and Labuschagne of 'influencing Sithole to retract a first formal statement to the police in which he 'd alleged that the two other Afrikaner officers, Bronkhorst and Goosen, had ' plotted to murder Manekwane."
-
Legal officer Labuschagne had taken Sithole to a Mtubatuba SAPS officer after this first statement, where Sithole had retracted it -- claiming that he had been forced to falsely implicate Bronkhorst and Goosen in the plot to kill Manekwane. When Sithole's retracting statement was handed to a prosecutor she had told the SAPS investigating officer of Sithole' second statement.
-
That very same evening the police had obtained a third statement from Sithole in which he retracted his second statement and said his first statement implicating Bronkhorst and Goosen had been true.
In his judgment at the time, magiistrate Naidoo had said "this case has all the characteristics of a tragic play where the prejudices, bias and so forth based on race kinmanship, partisanship and other prejudices are rife, and were indeed exposed."
However, noted Judge Van der Reyden, "one would have expected a regional magistrate to approach the case with an objective and open mind.
-
"However he (Naidoo) did not do so. He lost sight of the fact that Sithole's two statements revealed two possible plots - a conspiracy of white officers to get rid of Manekwane and/or a conspiracy by black officer officers to get rid of white officers.
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"It is clear that this magistrate had closed his mind to the probability that Sithole had falsely implicated Bronkhorst and Goosen, that he went to Labuschagne of his own volition and disclosed to him the falsity of his third statement and that his second statement retracting his first statement reflected the true position.This oversight by the magistrate resulted in him defining the main plot solely based on the state case.'
"He also overlooked the fact that a finding that Sithole went to Labuschagne on his own volition and told him the true position - that he had falsely implicated Bronkhorst and Goosen - could only have one outcome: an acquittal on the charge of defeating the course of justice," Van der Reyden said. Judge Koen concurred. - Sapa
- http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2412105,00.html
- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20081017170106388
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Three Afrikaners in Prieska had an 'unfair trial' because of racist judge Frans Kgomo - Supreme court of appeal
Bloemfontein, South Africa. - Sept. 18 2008 -- The Supreme Court of Appeal (on Thursday agreed with three Afrikaner men, Joseph le Grange, son Pieter and a friend Hendrik van der Westhuizen of Prieska, that they did not have a fair trial. The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the court proceedings against the three men were 'invalid' and that the convictions and sentences imposed on them could not stand.
- The SCA also ruled that the men should be retried - but that this time, Northern Cape Judge President Frans Kgomo - left -- was not allowed to preside over the matter. Judge Nathan Ponnan said in the judgment that when 'taken cumulatively, I have no doubt that ... the learned judge-president was not fair and impartial during the trial'. The found that Kgomo ... showed a clear personal prejudice against the Afrikaner defendants.
The SCA upheld the appeal brought by Joseph le Grange, found guilty of murder by Kgomo, and his son Pieter and Van der Westhuizen, who were convicted of being accessories after the fact to murder. Kgomo had sentenced Le Grange senior to 24 years in prison, while the other two were sent to prison for six and five years respectively.
The matter relates to the death of a 13-year-old Prieska boy in March 2004. He had been stabbed with a sword hidden inside a walking stick.The boy, who died in hospital, was allegedly confronted by the Afrikaner men for stealing. The SCA 's appeal hearing - heard by a full bench -- did not consider the merits of the murder itself, but focused solely on certain alleged irregularities in the course of the trial.
It held that the three Afrikaner men did not have a fair trial and that the proceedings before Judge Pres. Frans Kgomo were invalid.
The SCA set aside the convictions and sentences and remitted the matter to the Kimberley High Court, ordering that proceedings in respect of the same offence may again be instituted. They found that during the trial an application for Kgomo's recusal had been launched by these defendants - and had been refused. "He (Kgomo) sought, it would seem, from time to time to expedite the hearing of the matter by virtually taking over the prosecution from counsel for the State," the judgement read. However, the SCA found that in doing that it appeared that judge president Kgomo had 'at times overlooked the judge's usual role in a trial and had associated himself too closely with the conduct of the case. ' http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2395637,00.html
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Senior Limpopo detective Johan Fourie fights to get job back - 5 years after he was cleared of trumped-up 'theft' charges
Pietersburg - This is Senior Superintendent Johan Fourie, one of Limpopo province's most senior and experienced police detectives, who has been waging a five-year battle -- doing odd-jobs to stay alive -- trying to regain his job rights via the law courts.
Five years ago, he was unceremoniously arrested without any arrest warrant after an amount of R109,000 in cash had allegedly 'gone missing'. However, this recovered cash had been paid over by the police immediately to the security company it had been robbed from.
The following internal police investigation had found him innocent of any wrong-doing when it was found his commanding officer senior superintendent Benny Nkuna had ordered the investigating police officer to 'keep quiet about the statement from the security company that there was no missing cash'.
Yet five years later, Fourie -- totally innocent -- is still fighting to get his job and R1million in backpay restored to him. He says he is being victimised by the deliberate delaying tactics of Senior superintendent Benny Nkuna and asked the Human Rights Commission to investigate the inequal way he is being treated by police management.
One of the country's most dedicated cops is now keeping body and soul together by repairing TV-antennas and installing kitchen-cabinets. Five years ago, he was the officer in charge of the organised crime unit in Limpopo and solved several high-profile cases, including important farm murders for which he was featured on the Carte Blanche programme "A Bloody Harvest'.
He's one of the best-trained detectives in the country. Now Fourie has asked for his police-pension to be paid out so that he can pay for his legal costs for his forthcoming Labour Court hearing which started in October 2008 - because the police legal-aid fund he'd been paying his fees to all those years, also refused to help him with the court costs...
- The 'fraud' case which had been lodged against him and four colleagues was scrapped off the court rolls within just days, proven to be trumped-up charges, but police management now keeps lodging appeals to keep the Afrikaner policeman suspended without pay and in limbo.
The internal police investigation has cleared him, the police personnel-board has ordered Fourie's immediate reinstatement with back pay -- but senior superintendent Benny Nkuna has lodged yet another appeal against this latest decision. Fourie says these are all delaying tactics to keep him off his job and without an income. Fourie is becoming increasingly bitter about the way he's being treated by police management. He has always been innocent, yet he's being treated like dirt. "Police management's willfull actions against me have ruined me financially. I am being victimised,' he said. He feels that the public prosecutor's office and the Human Rights Commission should investigate these human rights violations against him. http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2377292,00.html
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Ex-cop Sakkie van der Mescht dumped in Rustenburg cell, threatened with gang-rape -- to force a fake 'confession'
23/07/2008 Linda de Beer, Beeld - Rustenburg - A hunting trip turned into a nightmare for a former police officer when he was kept in a crowded cell for a weekend for trumped up 'crimen injuria' charges, along with people who assaulted him and wanted to rape him.These cellmates also ejaculated into his drinking water. Due to this hell he's had indured in the police cell, and after he was threatened with another seven days just like it, he pleaded guilty on June 30 in Madikwe Magistrate's Court to a charge of crimen injuria. His lawyer is now appealing against this verdict because it was extracted under extreme duress.
Until March, Van der Mescht had been the police's appointed firearm official in Rustenburg. He works at present as a security manager for a hotel group.
The 37-year-old Afrikaner was stripped naked and assaulted repeatedly in the cells by inmates. He also was stabbed in the head with a knife and another sharp object. His cellmates also tried to rape him, but he fought with all his might to prevent this. A knife was held to his genitals while the men threatened to cut them off.
After this, he had to sit on the cold cell floor for a long time before his clothes were given back to him, said Van der Mescht on Monday.
Van der Mescht, a father of two, did not eat or drink anything for the whole weekend: his cellmates apparently ejaculated into the water that was offered to him. He said the police visited the cell only once every morning and once every evening.
Since his experience at the end of June, nightmares have been preventing Van der Mescht from sleeping. His lawyer, Carl Arnold, said they were waiting on the test results for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections because of the dirty knife that was used on Van der Mescht.
- On June 27, Van der Mescht was part of a group who went hunting in the Madikwe Trust area. He was at their camp when two fellow hunters in a bakkie were stopped by police.They were unable to show the licence of another hunter's firearm that was in the car.
- After an assurance that someone would go to show them the licence, the police left without taking further action. Arnold said Van der Mescht -- until March the Rustenburg police's former firearm-license officer -- and another man drove after the police with the other hunter's firearm licence and identity document, but they repeatedly ignored him when he tried to show the documents to them.
Van der Mescht and the driver of the bakkie he was in, then stopped at a place where a few police vehicles were standing next to the road. Some of the police officers apparently spotted him and stormed at Van der Mescht. The door of the bakkie was yanked open and he was jerked out by the arm. Van der Mescht said he told them he did not appreciate their actions.
- At that, he was thrown into the back of a police van. They apparently drove around with him for more than an hour before he was taken to Madikwe police station. He said: "I was arrested for crimen injuria and intimidation."
Van der Mescht's wife was rudely chased from the police station when she wanted to see her husband on the Saturday, she told the news-media. She apparently also was threatened with arrest. On June 30, Van der Mescht was forced to plead guilty in Madikwe Magistrate's Court under extreme duress to a charge of crimen injuria, after he was threatened 'with another seven days in the cells.'
North West police's Captain Aafje Botma claimed that 'Van der Mescht threatened and swore at the police officer when they were driving next to each other' and that the former police officer 'was taken to a hospital for treatment'.She also denied that his wife had been kept from visiting him -- and said police 'had visited the cells every hour...' However, Botma was at a loss to answer a question about how a sharp object got into the prisoners' cell.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2362959,00.html
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Harry Halgryn, fiancee Gwen Maritz: Robbed, then roughed up by investigating cops
Rustenburg. – June 8 2007 - Harry Halgryn and fiancee Gwen Maritz of Rustenburg became victims twice on June 8 2007.
Their ordeal started after all his valuables, documents, bank-cards and money were stolen from their locked bakkie while they were staying at a guest house. Harry had kept his (legally-registered) gun on him, so they didn't steal that...
After the guest farm manager had notified police of the robbery by telephone, a heavily-armed police force showed up -- but only the next day. They refused to identify themselves - instead roughly arresting the robbery victim, Mr Halgryn for a clarly inaccurate charge: 'having an unlicensed firearm." They had no arrest warrant. Harry said a constable Kgapola claimed to be in charge of taking him to the police station in Witbank, but after stopping there he then was rushed at breakneck speed to Middelburg, where Harry was kept in a police cell overnight. He says here, female policers continuously and he said very rudely, refused to respond to his repeated requests to verify his gun-registration at the computerised central registry office - which they could easily have done. The confiscated firearm is meanwhile, still is lodged in a police safe in Middelburg after he was released on bail via a court appearance the next day.
Sexually harassed by black female cops:
Halgryn also said that while he was in the police cell, female police officers had entered the cell and 'sexually tormented' him.
He and his fiancee have been so traumatised by the events that both now are undergoing trauma-councelling.
He's lodged formal charges with the police complaints directorate and said his human rights and those of his fiancee have been 'grossly violated'.
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Mpumalanga/0,,3-2034_2153984,00.html
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Afrikaans protest-singer Theuns Jordaan illegaly arrested
Aug 18 2007 -- Beeld newspaper -- Afrikaans protest-singer Theuns Jordaan was falsely arrested after a musical performance in Vereeniging. He had refused to pull over for an unmarked civilian BMW car with flashing lights which had followed him and his assistant from his performance -- fearing he was being hijacked. The driver of the car tried to push him off the road and had not identified himself as an off-duty police officer. Jordaan as then arrested in a police roadblock allegedly for 'reckless driving' while he tried to evade the unmarked BMW-car, which he and his assistant said had had tried to run his car off the road. See his music on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruqvySlNwFI
The unarmed Jordaan was arrested at gun-point, and was first held in the Brackendowns-police cells for 4 hours and then taken to Alberton police-cells. Blood was drawn by the police against his permission - and these tests proved he was sober. An emergency bail application was lodged by his attorney at around 6am after his assistant had raised the alarm, fearing he'd be gang-raped in the police cells. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2166812,00.html
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SOURCES:
Agri-Western Cape http://www.polity.org.za/print_version.php?a_id=39061
Farm Workers' Development organisation, funded by Ford Foundation: http://www.dfpt.co.za/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,110/Itemid,110/lang,en/
SA Human Rights Commission, report on Tony Ehrenreich, West Cape leader of Cosatu, alleged hate-speech: The SAHRC wrote that "Mr Ehrenreich was accused that he'd incited violence against 'boere', which is a term that, directly translated from Afrikaans into English, means 'farmers'. That the term also has a dual meaning in Afrikaans, specifically that of a DEROGATORY TERM ... commonly understood as 'referring to a White Afrikaner minority group which historically and politically has been regarded as suppressors of the non-white farm workers - should not be overlooked...' The call by Mr Ehrenreich was made specifically in response to and against those 'boere' (farmers) who abuse and mistreat there (sic) workers. .. The farmers denied the allegations of rape and assault... The fact that the farm worker later admitted that she lied and that the rape never occurred, does not minimize the harm suffered by these farmers... Mr Ehrenreich's statement used extreme language including words and expressions such as 'moer", "war", "mad dogs", "blood on the farms" "take the land" and so forth. ..(...) in light of the above, it is the SAHRC's opinion that Mr Ehrenreich's utterances LACK A CLEAR INTENTION to be hurtful, harmful, incite harm or to promote or propagate hatred...' and do not amount to hate-speech...' http://www.sahrc.org.za/sahrc_cms/downloads/AgriWes%20Cape_finding.pdf
2006 Die Burger archived notes: http://lists.mindspring.co.za/pipermail/pgmwc/2008-August/000020.html
Women on Farms project, funded by Ford Foundation: http://www.communitylawcentre.org.za/gender/links/employment-equity/women-on-farms-project/
Campaign to vilify white farmers must stop Sunday Argus, 14 Jan 2006
Leaders of civil organisations have called for an urgent end to what they believe is an "orchestrated campaign" to denigrate and vilify farmers with a view to driving them off their land. Agricultural leaders, opposition politicians and the FW de Klerk Foundation have called for the demonisation of farmers to stop -- after a Rawsonville woman this week admitted she had made up claims that she had been raped and a youth beaten by four Rawsonville farmers.
The Human Rights Commission will meet farmers and workers in the Rawsonville area to try to defuse a volatile situation. The Commission is also investigating a charge of hate speech laid against Cosatu and the Women on Farms organisation over "crude and racist comments" made at a meeting held in the area last year. Women on Farms has in turn laid a complaint of "general" human rights infringements in the area. Dave Steward, executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, said Davids's retraction of the charge that she was raped by four Rawsonville farmers could not be seen in isolation, nor could it be dismissed lightly. "The charges, which were vociferously supported by Women on Farms and Cosatu, have now been shown by subsequent investigation and Ms Davids's own retraction to have been perjurious and without foundation. "MEC Cobus Dowry's subsequent calls on the community to desist with such allegations have nevertheless been met with calls by activist organisations for his resignation.
"These and other developments would suggest that there is an orchestrated campaign to denigrate and vilify farmers with a view to driving them off their land. This situation has been aggravated by (Cosatu's) Tony Ehrenreich's recent call for farm invasion in Hout Bay and by radio advertisements by the minister of agriculture appealing to farmers not to evict farm workers over the festive season. AgriSA has denied that there is any such tendency. "These developments have inevitably contributed to a general climate of hostility against farmers. The recent brutal murder of a farm manager in KwaZulu-Natal tragically illustrates the importance of not contributing to this inflammatory climate." Robin Carlisle, DA spokesperson on corruption, said the manner the Rawsonville rape claims had been dealt with smacked of "moral corruption". He criticised Ehrenreich's refusal to back down in the light of Davids's retraction. "Any South African who under-estimates the serious consequences of the racist and irrational statement made by Tony Ehrenreich and others, is living in a fool's paradise. "That a tale of rape and torture is deliberately concocted and promoted by certain organisations and individuals and then supported in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is an indication of the lengths that some will go to drive up racial hatred particularly against white farmers."
Christof Cloete, chair of Agri Western Cape, said the unfounded allegations were tearing the Rawsonville community apart." "We have laid a charge of hate speech against Ehrenreich and Women on Farms after a call for all-out war to be declared against farmers during a meeting held at Rawsonville last year. Several other crude and vicious allegations were levelled at farmers. "This is a very unhappy situation. We cannot allow our members to be humiliated and denigrated. '
70% of black-owned SA farms unproductive http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=81886,1,22
Expropriated farm brought to ruin in 8 months
http://iluvsa.blogspot.com/2008/09/expropriated-farm-brought-to-ruin-in-8.html
Africa's Obsession With Land
http://iluvsa.blogspot.com/2008/10/africas-obsession-with-land.html
Land Reform - Beginning of the End?
http://iluvsa.blogspot.com/2008/10/beginning-of-end.html
ANC calls for rethink on land redistribution
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-10-20-anc-calls-for-rethink-on-land-redistribution
THE ROAD TO POVERTY- The Collapse of The AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
http://greatsalandscandal.blogspot.com/2007/06/chapter-15-road-to-poverty.html
Background on Pretoria metropolitan community-safety chief Mpho Mmutle:
http://www.newstoday.co.za/cgi-bin/newstoday/show.pl?1222694116:FF%20Plus%20complains%20about%20Tshwane%20police
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080729173236174C236241
http://www.news24.com/City_Press/Gauteng/0,,186-2295_2263499,00.html
http://www.mnet.co.za/Mnet/Shows/carteblanche/Story.asp?Id=3584
Labels:
Feb 2008 Elize Havenga ‘s accused killer in Pretoria High Court
200802 Eliza Havenga, Rietfontein, Pretoria smallholder rape/murder:
Elize Havenga, 26, left. Her accused murderer Mitya Rammutla said: 'he raped and robbed her because he 'was thinking the wrong things in his head…’
March 24 2009 - Mrs Elize Havenga (26) was raped, robbed and strangled to death on her Rietfontein smallholding in February last year because her accused murderer, who was walking 300m behind her when she was walking to her homestead from the nearby highway, ‘started thinking the wrong things in his head...' testified Mitya Richard Rammutla, 30, in his trial Pretoria High Court trial. He said after he raped her, he had also choked her with a wire ‘to give him time to get away’ – but denied that he intended to kill her. A police forensic expert testified however that the man had not only raped her, but had also sodomised her, and that the wire he’d admitted tying around the young Afrikaans mom’s neck ‘had cut deep into the skin’...
Rammutla admitted guilt in the Pretoria High Court on March 23 2009 on charges of rape and robbery with ‘extenuating circumstances’, – but denied the murder charge. He admits ‘being responsible for her death, but that he didn’t intend to kill her’.
Mrs Havenga was murdered in February 2008 on her smallholding in Rietfontein, Pretoria, when her baby girl Arista. left with her accountant-dad, Jan Adriaan Havenga, was just nine months old.
Mrs Havenga had been dropped off at their smallholding by her brother Daniel Vrey after she’d had a row with her husband and was walking to her homestead on the smallholding’s dirt road, when she was raped and murdered. Rammutla testified that he saw her being dropped off and was walking about 300m behind her “when I started thinkng the wrong things in my head,’ he testified. He grabbed her, dragged her into the bushes, and he raped her. He said she was threatening to ‘have him arrested for what he’d done. So he tied a wire around her neck and strangled her. “I didn’t think she’d die,’ he claimed. “I just wanted the chance to get away.’
Police forensic expert Dr. Paul Lombard testified that the wire was twirled so tightly around her neck that it had cut into her neck. Besides being raped, she was also sodomised and there were scratch-marks on her body. The man took her cellphone and camera, which he sold for $700 he said. He burnt her handbag. Police captain Steven Hermitage, head of detectives at the Welbekend police station, testified that one of his detectives was buying feed for her horse when she recognised one of the workers at the feed-store at Rammutla. Judge Lettie Molopa is on the bench. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490417,00.html
20090321 Johan Dreyer, 48, murdered,Pretoria AH, wife Sandra assaulted, dog poisoned 
Just 2 months before Pretoria businessman Johan Dreyer, 48, was going to be a granddad for the first time, he was shot seven times in his home and killed in front of his wife.
Mar 23 2009 Beeld journalist Daniel Maluleke reports that
Johan Dreyer, 48, was shot seven times and killed this weekend in front of his wife Sandra (44) at their Pretoria West business, West Trailer II. Their dog was poisoned.
She fought like a lioness, throwing glasses and CDs at the five armed attackers – who pistol-whipped her mercilessly in the face after killing her husband.
He owned the West Trailer II business in Chrome Street, Proclamation Hill in Pretoria West and their home is on the same erf, which according to the municipal land registration records, is sto;; listed as a smallholding. Earlier that night the couple had a braai with son Shaun, 24, his pregnant wife Lucia, 24, his sister Carla-Marie, 23, and the latter’s boyfriend Ronnie Scheltema, 23. The son said that only two hours later, they received the call that his father was murdered and his murder assaulted and inthe Eguene Marais Hospital. Their loot was a mere $20, two cellphones.The dog is in an animal clinic: they had poisoned him but he survived. Police captain Bonginkosi Msimango said no-one was arrested for Dreyer’s murder.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490406,00.html
20090222 Strijdom couple attacked on AH in Thabazimbi, two days after midnight arrest by six local cops…
Only two days after six policemen had arrived at their smallholding in the middle of the night on a false-arrest charge of Joos Strydom, 70, he and his wife Hannetjie, 71, were attacked and robbed. And the four armed men knew exactly where the safe was…
March 22 2009 Beeld journalist Marietie Louw-Carstens reports that four armed men attacked Joos and Hannetjie Strijdom at 11am, shortly before their daughter Trudie van Rhyn and husband Dewald showed up for a visit. The attackers were scared away upon their arrival – so things could have ended up a lot worse. Mr Strijdom was choked with a wire and tied by his hands and feet with wire coathangers. The old lady was bashed in the face, and also was shoved between a mattress and the box-springs while the the men sat on top of her, demanding to know ‘where the money was’. “They knew exactly where the safe was located, isn’t that a coincidence, just a few days after the police raided the homestead…’ said the daughter. When the Van Rhyn couple arrived, they knew something was wrong because the garage door was open. The men then fled, with Mr van Rhyn chasing them. He was unable to find them however. About R10,000 in cash, cellphones watches and jewellery were robbed from the safe.
- Two days earlier, the couple had been awaked at around 23:00 by six armed policemen inside their bedroom after a tenant on their smallholding had lodged a false claim that Mr Strijdom had ‘pointed a gun at her’.
- The old man spent the night in the police cells and appeared in Thabazimbi magistrate’s court the next day on a charge of ‘pointing a firearm’, which he denied. He was then merely released with ‘a warning’. Anyone with any information may contact the Thabazimbi police at 014 777 3512 http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490410,00.html
20061127 Chris Nel, Gloudina farmer survives shooting with his dog, Wolmaransstad, five arrested March 23 2009
March 23 2009 Carla van Niekerk of Beeld newspaper reports that five suspects of a farm attack in Wolmaransstad in NW province on 27 November 2006 were arrested. Farmer Chris Nel, 47 and his dog were shot in the head, but survived. Nel said five men had ambushed him at his homestead, with his own gun which they had robbed just minutes before while he was visiting with friends. “I was unlocking the kitchen door when they shot me.’ The bullet entered just above his left eye and exited from his skull.”I was knocked out for about two hours. When I woke up I realised they had also beaten me while I was unconscious. Us farmers are being murdered at a fast rate now,’ he told the newspaper. . He spent months recovering at Unitas hospital in centurion, and ‘they put plates in my head,’ he said. Nel was intussen lank in die Unitas-hospitaal in Centurion.
A family member had hired private detectives Wayne and Christian Botha of EWB investigations -- after a local man had tried to exchange one of Nel’s stolen cheques at his bank.“
‘Shot dead a white pig…’
They changed the amount on the cheque from 150 to 6,900 and the bank contacted me,’said the farmer. This man was arrested and told police that ‘the man who had given him the cheque, said they had shot dead a white pig and stolen his guns’. This stolen cheque led the detectives to the alleged farm-attacks, and superintendent Lesego Metsi said they are expected to ‘appear in the Leeudoringstad court soon’.
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490420,00.html.
Feb 2008 Elize Havenga ‘s accused killer in Pretoria High Court
200902 Eliza Havenga, Rietfontein, Pretoria smallholder rape/murder:
Elize Havenga, 26, left. Her accused murderer Mitya Rammutla said: 'he raped and robbed her because he 'was thinking the wrong things in his head…’
March 24 2009 - Mrs Elize Havenga (26) was raped, robbed and strangled to death on her Rietfontein smallholding in February last year because her accused murderer, who was walking 300m behind her when she was walking to her homestead from the nearby highway, ‘started thinking the wrong things in his head...' testified Mitya Richard Rammutla, 30, in his trial Pretoria High Court trial. He said after he raped her, he had also choked her with a wire ‘to give him time to get away’ – but denied that he intended to kill her. A police forensic expert testified however that the man had not only raped her, but had also sodomosed her, and that the wire he’d admitted tying around the young Afrikaans mom’s neck ‘had cut deep into the skin’...
Rammutla admitted guilt in the Pretoria High Court on March 23 2009 on charges of rape and robbery with ‘extenuating circumstances’, – but denied the murder charge. He admits ‘being responsible for her death, but that he didn’t intend to kill her’.
Mrs Havenga was murdered in February 2008 on her smallholding in Rietfontein, Pretoria, when her baby girl Arista. left with dad, Afrikaner artist Jan Adriaan Havenga, was just nine months old. Mrs Havenga had been dropped off at their smallholding by her brother-in-law Daniel Vrey after she’d had a row with her husband and was walking to her homestead on the smallholding’s dirt road, when she was raped and murdered. Rammutla testified that he saw her being dropped off and was walking about 300m behind her “when I started thinkng the wrong things in my head,’ he testified. He grabbed her, dragged her into the bushes, and he raped her. He said she was threatening to ‘have him arrested for what he’d done. So he tied a wire around her neck and strangled her. “I didn’t think she’d die,’ he claimed. “I just wanted the chance to get away.’
Police forensic expert Dr. Paul Lombard testified that the wire was twirled so tightly around her neck that it had cut into her neck. Besides being raped, she was also sodomised and there were scratch-marks on her body. The man took her cellphone and camera, which he sold for $700 he said. He burnt her handbag. Police captain Steven Hermitage, head of detectives at the Welbekend police station, testified that one of his detectives was buying feed for her horse when she recognised one of the workers at the feed-store at Rammutla. Judge Lettie Molopa is on the bench. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490417,00.html
20090222 Strijdom couple attacked on AH in Thabazimbi, two days after midnight arrest by six local cops…
Only two days after six policemen had arrived at their smallholding in the middle of the night on a false-arrest charge of Joos Strydom, 70, he and his wife Hannetjie, 71, were attacked and robbed. And the four armed men knew exactly where the safe was…
March 22 2009 Beeld journalist Marietie Louw-Carstens reports that four armed men attacked Joos and Hannetjie Strijdom at 11am, shortly before their daughter Trudie van Rhyn and husband Dewald showed up for a visit. The attackers were scared away upon their arrival – so things could have ended up a lot worse. Mr Strijdom was choked with a wire and tied by his hands and feet with wire coathangers. The old lady was bashed in the face, and also was shoved between a mattress and the box-springs while the the men sat on top of her, demanding to know ‘where the money was’. “They knew exactly where the safe was located, isn’t that a coincidence, just a few days after the police raided the homestead…’ said the daughter. When the Van Rhyn couple arrived, they knew something was wrong because the garage door was open. The men then fled, with Mr van Rhyn chasing them. He was unable to find them however. About R10,000 in cash, cellphones watches and jewellery were robbed from the safe.
- Two days earlier, the couple had been awaked at around 23:00 by six armed policemen inside their bedroom after a tenant on their smallholding had lodged a false claim that Mr Strijdom had ‘pointed a gun at her’.
- The old man spent the night in the police cells and appeared in Thabazimbi magistrate’s court the next day on a charge of ‘pointing a firearm’, which he denied. He was then merely released with ‘a warning’. Anyone with any information may contact the Thabazimbi police at 014 777 3512 http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490410,00.html
20090321 Johan Dreyer, 48, murdered,Pretoria AH, wife Sandra assaulted, dog poisoned Just 2 months before Pretoria businessman Johan Dreyer, 48, was going to be a granddad for the first time, he was shot seven times in his home and killed in front of his wife.
Mar 23 2009 Beeld journalist Daniel Maluleke reports that
Johan Dreyer, 48, was shot seven times and killed this weekend in front of his wife Sandra (44) at their Pretoria West business, West Trailer II. Their dog was poisoned.
She fought like a lioness, throwing glasses and CDs at the five armed attackers – who pistol-whipped her mercilessly in the face after killing her husband.
He owned the West Trailer II business in Chrome Street, Proclamation Hill in Pretoria West and their home is on the same erf, which according to the municipal land registration records, is sto;; listed as a smallholding. Earlier that night the couple had a braai with son Shaun, 24, his pregnant wife Lucia, 24, his sister Carla-Marie, 23, and the latter’s boyfriend Ronnie Scheltema, 23. The son said that only two hours later, they received the call that his father was murdered and his murder assaulted and inthe Eguene Marais Hospital. Their loot was a mere $20, two cellphones.The dog is in an animal clinic: they had poisoned him but he survived. Police captain Bonginkosi Msimango said no-one was arrested for Dreyer’s murder.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490406,00.html
20061127 Chris Nel, Gloudina farmer survives shooting with his dog, Wolmaransstad, five arrested March 23 2009
March 23 2009 Carla van Niekerk of Beeld newspaper reports that five suspects of a farm attack in Wolmaransstad in NW province on 27 November 2006 were arrested. Farmer Christ Nel, 47 and his dog were shot in the head, but survived. Nel said five men had ambushed him at his homestead, with his own gun which they had robbed just minutes before while he was visiting with friends. “I was unlocking the kitchen door when they shot me.’ The bullet entered just above his left eye and exited from his skull.”I was knocked out for about two hours. When I woke up I realised they had also beaten me while I was unconscious. Us farmers are being murdered at a fast rate now,’ he told the newspaper. . He spent months recovering at Unitas hospital in centurion, and ‘they put plates in my head,’ he said. Nel was intussen lank in die Unitas-hospitaal in Centurion.
A family member had hired private detectives Wayne and Christian Botha of EWB investigations -- after a local man had tried to exchange one of Nel’s stolen cheques at his bank.“
‘Shot dead a white pig…’
They changed the amount on the cheque from 150 to 6,900 and the bank contacted me,’said the farmer. This man was arrested and told police that ‘the man who had given him the cheque, said they had shot dead a white pig and stolen his guns’. This stolen cheque led the detectives to the alleged farm-attacks, and superintendent Lesego Metsi said they are expected to ‘appear in the Leeudoringstad court soon’.
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490420,00.html.
Pupil kills three, injures 12 in Ermelo axe rampage
March 24 2009 – Twenty-year-old Boy Dube, left, a twenty-year-old grade-ten high school pupil of the Mayflower rural region near Ermelo, South Africa, appeared in the local law court after he had run amok on Sunday, allegedly hacking to death three people: a six-month-old baby, her 16-year-old mom and a 70-year-old grandmother. He also seriously injured twelve more people.
The alleged axe-rampage started at about 15:30pm in the township streets of Waverley Trust - located between Ermelo and the Swaziland border.
Capt. Leonard Hlathi, spokesman for the SA Police Service's organised crime unit, said the man was probably ‘psychologically disturbed’. He’s being scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation at Weskoppies psychiatric institute before he can be tried.
The suspect's family had already called the police on Friday because he was 'aggressive'. Police and ambulance personnel managed to calm him down, said Hlathi – but on Sunday, he became aggressive again. His family tried to tie him down but he broke free from his bonds and allegedly went on the rampage.
PSYCHOLOGICAL RAGES DUE TO AIDS/TB WARNS PSYCHIATRIST
Young black South Africans are increasingly suffering from such psychological rages and even torch themselves in thousands of annual, very manic suicides a year - mainly due infection with HIV-AIDS, top psychiatry UNISA professor Prof Mathsepo Matoane warned recently:
Matoane, pictured above, warned that the country's combined TB and AIDS epidemics among black soldiers are 'having a lethal impact on its military forces'.
Axe-man ‘very violent before’…
While it’s not yet known whether the Mayflower township amok-runner was infected with HIV-AIDS, it was also already known in the community however that this young man was very violent: the local community thus was mobilised very rapidly after his Sunday rampage and some neighbours were injured while trying to restrain him. He’d also become violent the Friday before -- but had calmed down after police and ambulance personnel were called in.
However on Sunday he went on the rampage and managed to kill three and stab twelve more before he could be caught, said police. Their names will be released as soon as the kin have been notified.
Neighbours wanted to prise him from police van…
“By the time the police arrived the man also had to be protected from his neighbours, who wanted to prise the amok-maker from the van and take revenge on him," a clearly distraught police captain Sabelo Mlangeni told the Sowetan newspaper.
Mlangeni also confirmed that the community had already warned them on Friday that this man was 'very violent', but said he’d 'calmed down' after police and an ambulance showed up.
However on Sunday morning, he again became violent and aggressive once again, and family members tried to tie him up with a rope while contacting the police.
He got lose, grabbed an axe, first attacking his brother before he went out into the street and started hacking people in the street," Mlangeni was quoted as saying.
The man then went into the house of the 70-year-old woman who lived alone and hacked her in the head. The woman died at once.
“Then he went into the street and hacked a baby to death, being carried on the back of her mother. And it was not long before the madman then attacked the shocked mother, killing her.”(telephone Mayflower police, 27 0 17-8813049)
By the time police showed up, he had already killed three people and injured seven. Five more people were injured while he was being restrained, including a policeman and the man’s own brother. At least twelve people are in a serious condition at area hospitals.
Police said when they showed up, the man was armed with a spade - and he struck out at a police officer, injuring the cop's hand.
The suspect sustained a head wound during the rampage. After his arrest, he was first taken to hospital for treatment under police guard. On Monday he was taken from the hospital to the local police lockup, and is expected to appear in the Mayflower district's court on three charges of murder and twelve attempted murder soon.
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2490067,00.html
Man gets 12 years for killing granddad and eating his heart
He was charged with murder – but not cannibalism
Nelspruit - Axe murderer Wonder Nyundu was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the Nelspruit circuit of the Pretoria high court on Tuesday for killing his grandfather and eating his heart.
Nyundu, 26, pleaded guilty to axing to death his grandfather Ndubaze Nyundu, 63, in September 2006.
Granddad asked for it:
He claimed his grandfather 'had asked him to do it as he was old and didn't want to live anymore'.
No explanation was given in this report as to why the man decided to eat the old man’s heart. However it probably is due to this: also this and this
Judge Cynthia Pretorius took Nyundu's age (26) into consideration, as well as the fact that he had already spent nearly two years in jail awaiting trial.
"Nyundu will spent the best years of his life in prison, considering that he is still young," said Judge Cynthia Pretorius.
- She said the court 'could not dispute Nyundu's reason for killing his grandfather as he had been very co-operative from the start of the investigation.'
- Nyundu's sister, who was sitting in a public gallery, burst into tears when Judge Prinsloo sentenced him.
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2490754,00.html - http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/267957
- http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268485
- http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268432
WITCHCRAFT RIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA:
Picture, Left to right: South African restaurant-owner Floyd Mokoena, son Toto and friend Justice Ndubane in the Bushbuckridge Magistrates' Court, for the muti-murder of Floyd's nephew Clarence Brown on 15 August 2008. They slaughtered Brown alive for body parts on 23 February 2008 on behest of a witchdoctor which made 'lucky potions' out of this human flesh for them, and were found guilty. The witchdoctor was not charged.
Triple gang-killing suspects in Atlantis law court
March 24 2009 - Two suspects of the “Rastas” gang, are making their second appearance in the Atlantis Magistrates' Court following the triple murder of three members of the “Fancy Boys” gang that shocked the West Coast town.
The 19 and 21-year-old suspects are scheduled to appear on Thursday, 26 March 2009 when they will formally lodge a bail application. The pair was arrested at 3:00 on Wednesday, 18 March 2009 in connection with the slayings.
The bloodied bodies of Angelo Martinus, 18, Llewelyn Batties, 24, and Stiaan Swanepoel, 21, were found by residents in front of Dura Flats, Westfleur (Atlantis) in the early hours on Tuesday, 17 March 2009.
- Indications were that the trio was shot at close range.
Atlantis Police Communications Officer, Capt Cyril Dicks, said that detectives were hunting a third suspect related to the killings. He said that the two firearms found in the possession of the suspects, were sent for ballistics tests.
- According to allegations, the suspects are members of the Rastas gang who is in conflict with the Fancy Boys in Atlantis.
Story by Superintendent N. Joseph, telephone No: (021) 4177100, Cellphone: 0827776004
Email address: JosephN@saps.org.za
http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=14523
First black diving safety officer on SA sub
March 11 2009 was the graduation of South Africa’s first black submariner-diving safety officer, the rather portly Lt L.A. Letsholo right with fellow graduate Lt-Cdr R Beattie.
Letsholo qualified as the diving safety officer on one of South Africa’s new, multimillion dollar German-made subs, the SAS Queen Modjadji-1.
After he and his fellow graduates had been dumped into the harbour as part of their formal graduation ceremony, the dripping-wet, barefooted Lt Letsholo said he was ‘very excited’ about his new career in the Navy. He’s been trained as the sub’s diving-safety officer.
The other new submariners on this graduation picture below are from left Lt-Cdr R. Beattie, also qualified as diving-safety officer; Lt Letsholo; and two new submarine control room watchkeepers Seamen M. Shabalala and M.J. Moalosi. (click on picture for story).
MORE PICTURES:
The two officers completed 10 months training ashore, after which they successfully completed three weeks training at sea, before qualifying as Diving Safety Officers.
http://www.navy.mil.za/archive/0903/090313_Black_Diving_safety_officer/article.htm
The submarine was commissioned in Emden, northern Germany on 15 March 2007. Below is the crew at that time before it was taken home to Cape Town.
http://www.navy.mil.za/forecastle/070220_OPERATION%20SIYAKHULA/070323_Sitrep08/article.htm
Also, for our previous story on the SA Navy’s Transformation Officer, who is the country’s very first female admiral: click
Top cops grabbed in $17m narcotics bust
Question: Already publicly named and shamed before they even had a chance to plead, how can these cops still get any fair trial?
March 24, 2009 - Journalist Sibongile Mashaba of the Sowetan newspaper in South Africa and the state-news outlet SABC both report that four top police officers from the crime-intelligence unit were arrested in a huge drug-bust. They were ‘named and shamed’ before they even appeared in a court of law or had a chance to consult any lawyers.
There ‘s a serious legal rights issue involved: Even before their appearance in court today, the four police officers have already been PUBLICLY 'named and shamed' in this large-circulation newspaper, i.e. they have been prejudged guilty. How these cops can stilll get a fair trial after this massive publicity -- before they’ve even had a chance to plead to any charges, is anybody’s guess.
Sowetan reports that ‘a crack police team made the $17-million (R170,000) narcotics bust at Johannesburg Airport on March 24. They name the cops, with the published accusation that these top police officers from the Krugersdorp Crime Intelligence Squad were allegedly reselling confiscated drugs to drug-lords countrywide after the drugs had been found in two major drugbusts at Johannesburg airport this month.
South Africa’s main international airport as well the country’s national airline SAA have both repeatedly hit the news headlines over the past months after customs officers arrested two entire flight crews at Heathrow airport in the United Kingdom for drugs-possession.
Mostly Nigerian crime syndicates have increasingly been using South Africa as a drug-smuggling centre and laundering the proceeds through South African banks. The SA Police Service arrests such gangsters regularly.
RAVENSMEAD COPS ARREST NIGERIAN DEALER:
For instance, this particular haul shown on the left was found at Cape Town airport by two hard-working Ravensmead police station cops, sergeants Sgt Thelejane, left, and Constable Xuba. They confiscated the drugs from a Nigerian man who had just arrived from a flight from Johannesburg airport. And on that very same day at Heathrow Airport, the entire crew of a SAA flight was also arrested with a large haul of marijuana in their luggage. A month later, another SAA crew was arrested at Heathrow. see and see and also
The Sowetan writes on March 24 20009 that one of the arrested policemen is the head of the Krugersdorp crime-intelligence unit, together with his three colleagues, all captains at the same unit.
We will not publish their names until they have had a chance to plead in court. The senior superintendent was arrested at the SA Police Service's Gauteng provincial headquarters in Parktown, Johannesburg, where he was attending a meeting.
Also arrested were his colleagues in swoops on their homes and offices.
The Sowetan was told by Tummi Golding of the SAPS that 'the officers’ houses and offices were searched. DVD players, CDs, more than 10 cellphones, bank statements and other documents confiscated."
She said the officers “face having their houses and other assets attached as investigations continue."
- “If it is found that their houses or cars and other things were bought with the money they made from selling drugs to kingpins, those things will be seized,” Golding said. One of the senior cops is a taxi owner. He claims that the taxis belong to his wife. We will investigate that. If it is found that they are in his name they will be confiscated,” Golding said.
Allegations, published in the Sowetan, also were that 'the officers took some of the consignments of drugs from crime scenes and sold them to drug lords around the country. Most of it was allegedly stolen from drugs which were seized at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.”
The Crime Intelligence Covert Collection Directorate in Pretoria has been investigating the case since 2006, she claimed.
Last week, police had confiscated drugs worth more than $18,5-million at the Johannesburg international airport in two separate operations.These four senior officers are expected to appear in the Roodepoort court on charges of ‘racketeering and fraud’. However, their names can’t legally be published until they have been asked to plead to these charges in a court of law.
“Corrupt officials will be rooted out. We are definitely anticipating more arrests. We are proud to say that we are not ashamed to name one of our own,” Golding said.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=965490