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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Missionaries, dominees murdered, maimed
02:49 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
2009-06-01 Father Ernst Plöchl, 78, Catholic missionary, killed at rural Marianhill mission, Western Cape
June 1 2009. A venerated, elderly Cistercian missionary from Upper Austria who dedicated the last forty ears of his life to the Maria Zell rural mission in the Griqualand region of South Africa near Kokstad, was found murdered there on Sunday. Authorities said Father Ernst Plöchl, 78, born in Neumarkt im Mühlkreis in the Austrian district of Freistadt, was killed under circumstances which remain murky. He was either shot to death or strangled, and it’s also not known if anything was stolen or what the actual motive may have been.The priest was widely admired in his hometown for his dedication to try and uplift the poor. A memorial mass is planned in his Austrian hometown on Friday. (Picture of father Ernst Plöchl by Marianhill Religious Order.)
Information initially given by the South African authorities was confusing: it was at first announced that he had been shot, while the word later was that he had been strangled. His religious order announced he would be brought back to Austria and buried in his native country. Father Plöchl was found dead on Sunday morning at his lonely outpost of Maria Zell mission, said Father Andreas Rohring, a spokesman for the Mariannhill order. He spoke to Austria's APA news agency. The elderly priest’s murder sent immediate shockwaves throughout Austria, as the ‘socially very engaged’ priest was a much-loved figure in his home country. A memorial mass will be held for him on Friday at Neumarkt-im-Mühlkreis, his home town, where he is much loved for his dedication to help the poor in South Africa. The Marianhill missions were founded in South Africa n 1882 by the Rev. Francis Pfanner, then prior of the Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) Monastery of Maria-stern (Bosnia). He landed at Port Elizabeth with thirty-one companions in July, 1880, and settled in a place he called Dunbrody, after an old Irish monastery. This he had to abandon in 1882; and at the solicitation of the late Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., transferred his community to Mariannhil. http://www.rundschau.co.at/rsooe/home/story.csp?cid=8846560&sid=75&fid=55 http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Congregation_of_the_Missionaries_of_Mariannhill http://www.griquas.com/2007/14/090.jpg
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20090430 Senior leaders of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints attacked
May 30 2009 The Deseret News is reporting that Dr. Russell M. Nelson and his wife Wendy Nelson, and possibly other leaders of the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, which has 13,5-million members worldwide, were robbed by an armed gang in Mozambique. Dr Nelson, a senior elder on the church’s Quorum of the Twelve and his wife Wendy, a leading author, were among other church leaders robbed by the armed assailants Friday evening in the its Maputo Mission home. (contact for journalists: Florencia Paulo Mondlane Phone Mozambique 258 82 758 9610 Mondlaneflo@gmail.com Email Contact)
On a church assignment in Mozambique, Mr and Mrs Nelson were having dinner with elder William W. Parmley of the Quorums of the Seventy and the church’s Africa Southeast Presidency and his wife, Shanna Lee, and with mission president Blair J. Packard and his wife, Precinda, said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. “We don’t have complete information yet, but we understand Sister Packard’s arm was broken,” said Trotter. “In addition, she and others suffered some superficial injuries, mainly cuts and bruises.” The Nelson couple will continue their assignment over the weekend as planned, he added. Local authorities are investigating the matter. The LDS Church was legally recognized in Mozambique, a southeastern Africa nation, in 1996, with the first branch created in the capital city of Maputo. Missionaries arrived in 1999.The Mozambique Maputo Mission was created on Jan. 1, 2005, the church’s 339th mission.
The Salt Lake Tribune provides more detail, writing that a group of armed robbers attacked LDS Church Apostle Russell M. Nelson, his wife and four other people during a dinner in a Mozambique home Friday evening. Robbers entered the home and assaulted the group. It’s not clear what was taken from the home during the robbery. Nelson was ordained as an apostle in 1984. He has a bachelor of arts and medical degrees from the University of Utah and also graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is an accomplished surgeon and medical researcher, according to www.lds.org.Nelson’s wife, Wendy Watson, was a professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University before she retired in 2006. She has authored several books, according to www.lds.org. The couple married in 2006.A group of armed robbers attacked LDS Church Apostle Russell M. Nelson, his wife and four other people during a dinner in a Mozambique home Friday evening. Nelson, 84, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was visiting Maputo, Mozambique for a church assignment when the assault happened, said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. Dr Nelson, who is a surgeon, was ordained as an apostle in 1984. He has a bachelor of arts and medical degrees from the University of Utah and also graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is an accomplished surgeon and medical researcher, according to the church’s website, http://www.lds.org. Nelson’s wife, Wendy Watson, was a professor of marriage and family therapy at Brigham Young University before she retired in 2006. She has authored several books. The couple married in 2006. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705307540/Elder-Russell-M-Nelson-wife-robbed-in-Mozambique.html
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20090102 Rev Philip Bergh, 63, shot in the neck, Quaggapoort, Pretoria
January 2 2009 - Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie writes that just before Rev. Philip Bergh of the Quaggapoort Dutch Reformed church was shot in the neck, he still courteously greeted the two men who gunned him down a minute later.And they greeted back - just before he was shot. It was the third time over the past two years that he has been robbed at gunpoint: last time they just stole a cellphone, and broke into the house. And two of the previous microbuses for transporting congregation members also were hijacked. He has been the dominee of this congregation for the past 30 years. New Year's eve, he was planting new plants in his garden at 6am when two men strolled past casualty. He greeted them cheerfully and went back to his work. Then he walked over to his old Volkswagen microbus in his garage to go and check up on the oil before taking a planned trip to Middelburg. As he climbed halfway into the combi to adjust the seats, he heard men talking - and the same men who had greeted him earlier pointed guns at him. He said a 'heavenly peace came over me. I asked them what they wanted and grabbed the one with the gun. I had the gun in my grip when he shot me in the neck. The bullet missed the artery and bones."I can praise the Lord that I am still alive. My gratitude for being alive, exceeds my wish for revenge over the shooting,' he said. http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2448044,00.html
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Media expert Dr Klaas Jonkheid found murdered
June 1 2009 - Jackie Pienaar-Brink reports from Die Burger newspaper in Stellenbosch that the murdered and partially burnt body of Dr Klaas Jonkheid, 48, a top Afrikaans news media consumer expert who had just completed a market survey for that newspaper, was found murdered and torched in a church yard in Faure in the Western Cape over the weekend.
Stellenbosch police said they arrested four men in Bellville-South over the weekend who were in possession of his cellphone, and a battery and spare wheel from his rental car.
Dr Jonkheid, owner of the Consumer Psychology Lab in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, ‘presumably died of a head injury,’ said Stellenbosch police spokeswoman René Matthee. “There are indications that he had been set alight after his death.”
Dr Jonkheid arrived in the Western Cape the Wednesday before his murder to serve as a judge at a conference of the Southern African Marketing Research Association at Spier.
He was staying at the Protea-hotel near the Stellenbosch Technopark for the duration of his Western Cape visit. On May 30 2009, the local police was informed by a passerby that a man’s burnt body was lying in a wooded patch on the terrain of the St. Paul’s Church about 500 metres from the Faure railway station.
According to Matthee, Jonkheid left Spier at about 15:00 on Friday and was due to return at 19:00 for a farewell dinner, but never showed up. He didn’t arrive for his flight back to Johannesburg at 08:00 on Saturday either. Dr Jonkheid then was reported missing by his wife and was positively identified by forensic experts as the man who had been found murdered and torched in Faure.
”It’s a huge, huge shock”, said Henry Jeffreys, editor of Die Burger Afrikaans newspaper. “He’s very well-known in the media world, and he did research for Media24 products. He was without a doubt at the top-end of his field.”
With a D-Comm in Marketing Management from Rand Afrikaans University, Jonkheid worked his way up the marketing ranks as a marketing and communication strategist through to Strategic Planning Director at advertising agency FCB. He regularly lectured at the Witwatersrand and Rand Afrikaans universities, was a multiple winner of Southern African Marketing Research Association (SAMRA) awards, and a member of the Society for Consumer Psychology in the United States. During his career Klaas devised branding and communication strategies for numerous major brands and in 2003, together with Dr Thomas Oosthuizen, established iD8 Marketing Services
He had just completed research for the recent redesign of Die Burger and concluded a country-wide study about the market of Afrikaans-speaking ‘people of colour’ for the media company. Its project manager Mrs Friede le Roux said he was highly regarded in news media circles. ‘He was intelligent, inspiring, professional and full of passion for his job’, she said.
Jonkheid also was a Harley-Davidson motorbike enthuisiast. He ran the Consumer Psychology Lab with his wife Liezel in Parkhurst, Johannesburg. He is survived by his parents Klaas and Joan of Kleinmond and Pretoria.
The rented blue Toyota Yaris he’d hired from Avis in Cape Town is still missing. The investigating officer is Det. Constable Stephen Adams, at tel. 079 854 2680 or 021 809 9140
sources:
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Stellenbosch/Faure police crime stats 2007/8: http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2008/_provinces/w_cape/pdf/stellenbosch.pdf
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http://www.consumerlab.co.za/essays.htm
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http://www.consumerlab.co.za/jonkheid.htm tel +27 [11] 463 9819
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http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2524894,00.html
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http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/b49b941b866a47f4b75a9661bcca0355/01-06-2009%2007-06/Media_expert_found_murdered
- http://www.marketingweb.co.za/marketingweb/view/marketingweb/en/page105748?oid=76667&sn=Daily%20news%20detail
- http://www.bizcommunity.com/PressOffice/PressRelease.aspx?i=142&ai=4375