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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Appendix removed through belly-button
19:54 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Antoinette Pienaar of Beeld newspaper reports aapienaar@beeld.com on 
July 17 2009 that ground-breaking surgery for South Africa was performed this week when specialist surgeon Dr Johan van Belhon, middle, removed a female patient’s appendix through her belly-button. He was assisted by Dr Louis Wannenberg, left and sister Eliza Huissamen, surgical nurse. Only a small scar of about 2cm will remain.
picture: aapienaar@beeld.com
The unnamed 24-jarige patient was operated at the Netcare-Montana-hospital and discharged without her appendix the same day.
South African surgeons have been removing gall-bladders and other similar organs with these so-called laparoscopic operations for a long time, but usually these still required about four cuts in the upper body to insert all the equipment.
However, new surgical equipment now has simplified this procedure to sucha degree that it only requires two tiny pinhole cuts. Van Beljon said this had great health advantages: the patient suffered far less pain afterwards,can be examined internally for any other problems with a tiny camera, recovers much quicker and of course cosmetically, it’s more acceptable too. With this new procedure they can go home the same day. It’s this cost-cutting aspect which is important to the patients too: people usually remain in hospital to recover two days after appendectomies, but this patient went home the same day.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2539434,00.html
Bok van Blerk won’t be at UK arts festival
July 17, 2009 - Three top Afrikaans acts have announced that they would not be performing at the “Immergroen Arts Festival at Redbourn, in Hertsfordshire, UK on 17 and 18 July 2009.
The Immergroen Arts Festival is hugely popular among the many Afrikaner exiles in the UK. and features Bok van Blerk, left, as its top-draw this year.
However Bok van Blerk and other popular acts announced on its website, ddisselblom and Klopjag, announced that they wouldn’t be there. They announced after final negotiations with the festival organiser, Mr Craig le Roux that the arrangements were not satisfactory.
- “We were booked to perform at the festival in November 2008 and since then we have been in constant contact with the organizers, requesting more information and final detail, such as accommodation confirmations, flight bookings and other logistics. An e-mail was sent to all the artists from the festival organisers on 4 July 2009 setting out all detail and requirements with regards to visa applications. Most of the artists only received this e-mail on Monday 6 July 2009,” said Theresa du Preez, of The Sixth Sense, the management agency for ddisselblom.
“Not only does it take 5 to 10 days to apply for and receive the travel visa, which makes it virtually impossible for us to obtain the visas in time, but we were also informed that we had to pay for the visas ourselves--- which was not part of the written agreement.”
Sean Else from Mozi Records, who represents well-known artist Bok van Blerk, also said the artists have not received any flight detail or sponsorship certificates.
“In short, the artists have received very little detail or funding up until this moment. All three of the above acts are highly professional and would not cancel such an important international performance on a whim. “We cannot allow our artist to arrive in a foreign country, without ensuring he has all the required legal documentation and to take the risk that they might be stranded without confirmed accommodation and transport.” says Else.
The artists said they are truly sorry that they will not be performing in the UK, as they would have loved to do so and regret the inconvenience to festival goers.
For more information: Theresa du Preez, The Sixth Sense, tel:+27 11 880 1027
theresa@thesixthsense.co.za
Labels:
US warship helps SA Navy fight piracy
By Christopher Szabo
July 17, 2009 - An advanced US Navy warship, the USS Arleigh Burke, has begun a series of joint manoeuvres with the South African Navy off the South African coastline. The ship is based in Norfolk, Virginia, and is heading up the African Partnership Station program - designed to help African navies protect their own coastlines against threats like human trafficking or piracy.
Read entire article on http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/276088
Harvesting body-parts for ‘traditional medicine’
page regularly updated. If you spot any similar stories, please send me the link at a.j.stuijt@knid.nl
Businessman killed by mob for ‘trying to kill women for muti’
July 18 2009 KHOZA, KZN. The Mercury newspaper in Kwazulu-Natal reports that an unnamed businessman was hacked and stoned to death by an angry mob on Friday morning. The mob accused their vicitm of 'trying to kill women for muti - traditional good-luck medicine - in the Khoza area outside Eshowe.
"We have been told that he has been killed because he tried to kill one of ten women who were collecting wood in the local bush," said Inspector Mbongeni Mdlalose. The community members claimed that the businessman had allegedly tried to snatch the woman while she was gathering wood in the bush. "The community claim that the women managed to run to the main road and mobilised the community to catch the man. He was hacked and stoned to death." Mdlalose said the community believed the man wanted to kill one of the women so that he could use her body parts for muti to boost his business. No details were forthcoming as to how the mob may have reached this conclusion. http://www.themercury.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20090717103125280C298058
Annually in South Africa, an average 200 people are reported slaughtered while still alive to harvest such 'muti' body parts – although these facts are not reflected in the official SA Police Statistics. Lately there has been a peak in white muti-murder victims - although in the past, some whites have also been slaughtered for muti, the death rate in this category now is growing dramatically.
- Lately, SA criminologists have also been warning that the FIFA World Cup 2010 being held in the country next year, is also increasing the call for such ‘traditional’ medicine. .. click here
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20090715 Accused body-parts traders Batulekile Baloyi and Ben Mongadi: cases postponed to August 17 and July 20.
July 17 2009 A 48-year-old man accused of ‘violating a corpse and selling human body parts” was denied bail at the Acornhoek Magistrates' Court on Friday, Mpumalanga police said. Captain Leonard Hlathi said Philemon Batulekile Baloyi was one of two men arrested for the crime in June. Baloyi was caught after an “inyanga,” (traditional healer) who he tried to sell body parts to, alerted police. http://www.lowvelder.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234:human-hand-and-breast-for-sale&catid=34:news&Itemid=75
- The suspect was found in possession of a white woman's breast and a manicured left hand. "He told police that he received the body parts from a certain man from Lydenburg Doves Funerals," Hlathi said in a statement.
- Mongadi (35), a casual worker at Doves Funerals in Lydenburg, was arrested later on the same day.He confessed it was not the first time he has received body parts from Mongadi. He told police that he had collected two hands, human body fat and fluid on previous occasions. Mongadi added that he had given Baloyi human hair as well. He also claimed the white woman’s body parts had been cut off from a killed Dutch tourist at the scene of an accident in Lydenburg on May 22.
“Relatives would only check the face of the bodies to be cremated…”
Hlathi, spokesman for the police’s provincial organised crime unit said they had established that these suspects ‘were targeting bodies that were to be cremated: ‘They knew that the families would only check the face before the cremation," Hlathi explained. They allegedly supplied five local inyangas, whose names were currently being withheld.
The white woman’s hand and breast were in a good condition, indicating that ‘the body had recently been mutilated. They are now being preserved in a state mortuary awaiting DNA testing’.
Was it Salomien Terblanche, 32, missing in Nelspruit on April 15? Or a Dutch tourist who died in a traffic accident on May 22?
Hlathi added that DNA tests would be performed to establish if they might be those of Ms Salomien Terblanche (32), who went missing in Nelspruit on April 15. Mongadi appeared in the Lydenburg Magi-strate’s Court and Baloyi in the Acornhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of violation of a corpse and possession of human body parts. Mr Mongadi also claimed he worked at Tswelopele Funerals, but the company denied this, saying he was not even on their payroll. "Both funeral parlours distanced themselves from the dealings of the suspects," said Hlathi. Baloyi's case was postponed to August 17. Mongadi’s case in Lydenburg was scheduled to start on Monday, July 20. Both accused were ordered to remain in custody. Mongadi also told police, according to their statements, that he had ‘removed the parts from a Dutch tourist 's body at the scene of a deadly accident, which was due to be cremated at the mortuary".
Always carried a ritual knife to harvest body parts:
It is strongly suspected that the body parts belonged to two Dutch tourists, a mother and daughter who had died in one accident in Lydenburg in May. The women's funeral has already taken place. Two other members of the same family, a father and son who ran a hotel in a small Dutch town, also were seriously injured. Police were meanwhile, a;sp investigating Baloyi’s claims that he had sold body parts to five traditional healers in the Acornhoek area, they said.
Self-censorship of SA news media:
Because of the all-important tourism trade, but also because of the sensitivities of the families involved, we will probably never find out exactly what did happen here - nor ever know whether these unfortunate Dutch tourists had come to their end only due to the injuries sustained in a tragic car accident – or whether a ‘traditional knife’ had also helped hasten their deaths.
- Captain Hlathi hasn’t published the results of the DNA investigation of the confiscated hand and breast, whether this has shed any new light on the identity of the white victim (s). He can be called in South Africa at 27 ( 0) 82 462 0804. He issued a call shortly after the discovery of the white woman’s body parts for relatives of any missing people to contact him for DNA-identification.
Picture: Hlathi is acknowledged as an expert on the subject of this so-named ‘muti-harvesting’ allegedly carried out to manufacture traditional medicine from human body-parts. His very courageous investigations over the years – carried out in a community which is terrified of angering practitioners of such witchcraft -- have already led to at least three convictions and many arrests: due to his perseverence in pursuing the case, convicted muti-murderers Bosbokrand restaurant-owner Floyd Mokoena, 58, son Toto Mokoena, 33, and family friend Justice Mjojo Ndubane, 28, photographed in court by the SA Police, were sentenced to twelve years in prison on 15 August 2008 for the muti-murder of Mokoena’s nephew Clarence Brown on 23 February 2008. Brown’s sexual parts were removed while he was still alive to manufacture ‘good luck’ medicine for the businessman’s new enterprises. The traditional-medicine practitioner (sangoma) who had, according to their testimony, told the men to harvest the body part of a relative because it would be ‘more powerful’, was not arrested for the illegal possession of human tissue. http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=10428
Government crackdown on 200 annual muti-murders:
The South African government, together with the Council for Traditional Healers, is clearly sincere in its atttempt to stamp out this vile trade in human body parts, to which many children also fall victim – usually their heads are hacked off, but also, little baby girls are raped in the vile belief that raping virgins cures the rapist of AIDS. This is usually done under the guidance of a traditional healer who has to ‘ritually open up’ such virginal babies. However, this murky underground world of witchcraft is particulary difficult to investigate because many police officers remain fearful of those traditional healers who are known to engage in such gruesome practices, scared that harm would come to their families. Many other traditional healers have spoken up against this however, in statements claiming that the manufacture of human body parts is done only by ‘charletans’.
- Annually in South Africa, an average 200 people are reported slaughtered while still alive to harvest such 'muti' body parts – although these facts are not reflected in the official SA Police Statistics. and lately, there has been a peak in white muti-murder victims - although in the past, whites have also been slaughtered for muti, : in April and May this year, the Afrikaner community exploded into anger after four elderly farm dwellers, two men and two women, were tortured to death and their sexual organs removed in horrendously gruesome torture-rituals:
Afrikaner community explodes in anger over ‘Kill-the-Boer” blood-slogans in Odendaalsrust, and muti-murders of FS farmers:
On April 1 2009, Alice Lotter, 77, and her handicapped daughter Helen, 57, also were tortured to death on an Allenridge farm near Welkom, in the Free State. The defenceless Afrikaner women were gruesomely tortured: broken bottle shards were stabbed into their vaginas, and the breasts of the daughter removed while she was still alive. The women then died by strangulation: hanged. Their torture had lasted at least three hours, police forensic examinations have shown. What made this case particularly traumatic for the Afrikaner policemen who investigated it, was the fact that the slogan ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer’, was ritually-daubed with these women’s blood on the walls of the homestead. Three unnamed men were arrested for these ritual murders and are being tried at the Odendaalsrust magistrate’s court. Members of the Afrikaner community burst into an angry demonstration at their first court appearance (left, front page), with the demonstrators illustrating the gruesome scenes in which the Lotter women had been tortured to death. That day, they also clashed with the local ANC-mayor, who had organised a counter-protest against a Afrikaner farmer who had appeared for a minor charge at the same time and has since been acquitted. Original Afrikaans story here
On May 8 2009, Jan van Wyk, 82 and Basie Venter, 65, also were left to bleed to death after their penises were hacked off on two adjacent farms in Viljoenskroon in the Free State. A self-confessed traditional healer from Lesotho was arrested by a citizens’ patrol and handed over to the police – and the farmers’ hacked-off penises were found ‘in a ritual burial’ on one of the farms. This case also is still pending. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/05/african-witchdoctor-charged-with-muti.html
FIFA CRACKS DOWN ON AFRICAN RITUALS FOR WC2010
Even FIFA, the world football body organising the tournaments, has had to crack down this month on the traditional rituals in which slaughtered chickens are buried on the four corners and the centres of the artificial grass mats which FIFA has been installing at huge cost in many African stadia. FIFA says the witchdoctors are cutting holes throught the mats and they can’t afford to keep having to replace them all…
- http://www.sport24.co.za/Content/Soccer/WorldCup/383/734b11a65ffe48a9a54b885af3139e7c/02-06-2009%2012-06/FIFA_crack_down_on_Sangomas
- http://www.fifa.com/mm/goalproject/winAF_E.pdf
- http://www.kickoff.com/static/news/article.php?id=8813
- http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/06/fifa-cracks-down-on-witchdoctors.html
- http://www.lowvelder.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234:human-hand-and-breast-for-sale&catid=34:news&Itemid=75
news video of muti murders in South Africa:
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Media sources white accident victim’s body parts:
- First arrest in Mpumalanga: 21 June 2009: http://jv.news24.com/Rapport/Suid-Afrika/0,,752-2460_2531627,00.html
- Second arrest on 30 juni 2009: http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2534366,00.html
- Ongeluk treft eigenaars hotel http://www.rtvnh.nl/nieuws/index.asp?newsid=98293
- http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/06/man-arrested-selling-white-womans.html
Traditional Healers’ Organisation condemns killing of people for muti:
June 23 2009 - South Africa’s Mpumalanga Traditional Healers Organisation has condemned the killing of people for muti purposes after two men were arrested in Acornhoek and Lydenburg for allegedly dealing in human body parts. Apparently one of the suspects confessed to police that he had had dealings with five sangomas. Mpumalanga police are also investigating five sangomas who are suspected of dealing in human body parts in Acornhoek near Bushbuckridge. The investigation follows the arrest of a 48 year-old man for allegedly being in possession of human body parts. Mpumalanga police spokesman Capt.Leonard Hlathi says the suspect attempted to sell the parts to a traditional healer who then alerted the police. The suspect informed police that he got the parts from a mortuary in Lydenburg. Hlathi says a mortuary worker has been arrested following investigations. Medicine murder or muti, involves the murder of someone in order to excise body parts for incorporation as ingredients into medicine. “It is not human sacrifice in a religious sense”. Its practice in the format described below appears in the main to be limited to countries in sub-saharan Africa. However, medicine murder in southern Africa has been documented in some detail in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. It is a difficult subject to investigate because of its controversial standing in customary practices and laws. Very few research and discussion documents have been devoted to this subject. Three reports concerning Lesotho were published in 1951, 2000 and 2005 regarding the same events in the 1940s and 1950s; one concerning Swaziland was published in 1993 covering the 1970s and 1980s; and a commission of enquiry held in South Africa in 1995 covering medicine murder and witchcraft in the 1980s and 1990s. http://www.sabcnews.com/portal/site/SABCNews/menuitem.5c4f8fe7ee929f602ea12ea1674daeb9/?vgnextoid=d0cef9bba6e02210VgnVCM10000077d4ea9bRCRD&vgnextfmt=default
Forensic report, ritual murders: a white adult male and a negroid youth in South Africa (2004):
Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, PO Box 2034, Pretoria 0001, South Africa Tel.: +27 12 4203156; fax: +27 12 3192240. PII: S0379-0738(05)00101-5 - In Southern Africa, human body parts are sometimes used for medicinal (muti) purposes. The human body is seen as being very powerful. Although ritual killing for this purpose is not common, some cases have been reported. This paper reports on an unusual muti murder, where the remains of two individuals were found in a medicine man's house. Three pots were found, two of which were constructed around human skulls. Various objects, such as coins, bullets, stones, human and animal bones were found inside the pots. They were decorated with beadwork, whistles, skin bangles, etc. Osteological analysis revealed that the human remains probably belonged to a young, white adult male individual, and a juvenile individual of Negroid descent. All associated objects probably have ritual significance. http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/fsi/article/PIIS0379073805001015/abstract
Traditional healers in South Africa:
Bill legalising traditional medicine on equal level of excellence with Western medical practitioners: http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/health/traditional-healersbill.htm
Muti museum in Johannesburg:
The 66-year-old museum (why it was originally called a museum is lost in time) is a traditional muti or medicine shop in Diagonal Street in Johannesburg's CBD, and is described on the board above the door as the "The King of Muti, Herbal and Homeopathic Remedies". The sangoma, or diviner, is more concerned with the ancestors and keeping them happy. Some illnesses are believed to be caused by unhappy ancestors, who haven't been respected or acknowledged sufficiently. The sangoma will throw a set of bones, and give advice to the customer on actions to be taken to appease the ancestors. Some items in the shop are exclusively for use by inyangas and sangomas. Calabashes are used by them to store muti, jackal fur caps are worn by them, as are belts decorated with cowrie shells. The tails of cattle, buffalo and wildebeest are a symbol of power and used as whisks to flick muti onto people, or around a hut or village to ward off disease or evil. At the back of the shop is a hut, stacked with muti, with bones and mats on the floor. Customers and tourists can make an appointment with a sangoma, who will throw the bones in the hut and offer advice. http://www.southafrica.info/travel/cultural/mutimuseum.htm
Can Rockwell Diamonds be rescued?
Top-quality diamond mines show puzzling $4-million loss in a booming diamond market…
July 17 2009 -- A deeply puzzling report was issued today by Rockwell Diamonds company. The Vancouver, Canada-based company owns various high-yield alluvial diamond mines in South Africa’s middle-Orange River region: Wouterspan, Holpan, Klipdam and Saxendrift.
- The company admits that it sold a total 5,116.29 carats in diamonds at an average price of US$ 554,79 per carat last year – these were 75% higher prices than last year’s: and thus earning $3,9-million in sales. And the company also has a sizeable stockpile of high-quality diamonds now valued at more than $1,5-million -- in a market showing rising prices for its luxury products. Yet the company claims that its overheads were so high that they have a shortfall of $4-million.. The investors get no returns at all this year – and they aren’t well-pleased.
Enter Afrikaner diamond expert Hennie van Wyk
Rockwell Diamond’s BEE-partner African Vanguard – which has a direct link to South African president Jacob Zuma’s office through its youthful CEO Sandile Zunqu -- now has roped in one of the alluvial diamond industry’s top experts to turn the company around, the Afrikaner businessman Hennie van Wyk. He says the current CEO of Rockwell Diamonds ‘struggles to grasp basic alluvial-diamond concepts…’
Complicated background:
The day-to-day operations of Rockwell Diamonds were being run in partnership with the management company Pala Investments Holdings, registered on the island of Jersey in the British Channel Islands. Twenty-six percent of the company’s shares are also owned by the black-economic-empowerment company African Vanguard, headed by Sandile Zunqu, who is South African President Jacob Zuma’s right-hand-man and one of his top-ranking fundraisers during the presidential election.
Battle for control of Rockwell Diamonds:
Wouterspan (pictured are the containerised greasebelts which capture the washed diamonds, and were originally installed by Van Wyk) is a particularly spectacular diamond mine with fine-quality stones. Diamonds of exceptional value have been recovered there for years -- including a 156 carat D-flawless stone that sold for approximately US$5.7 million and a 152 carat D-colour stone that sold for approximately US$4.3 million at official tender in 2006. In addition to the 156 and 152 carat stones, a 134 carat yellow stone, a 39.97 carat D flawless stone and a 41.31 carat light yellow stone were also recovered in 2006. Production at Wouterspan for Fiscal Year 2008 averaged over US$2,292 per carat. And last year Wouterspan again hit pay-dirt with two very beautiful diamonds totalling 68,29 carats, which were auctioned off at $454,952 by Steinmetz.
Rockwell sold a total of 5,116.29 carats at an average price of US$554.79 per carat last year – 75% more than in the previous year, earning $3,9-million from its sales last year. In other words, the company should be showing growing profits, owning some of the highest-quality diamond mines in South Africa. So why is Rockwell Diamonds’ annual report announcing a $4-million (Canadian) shortfall because of its huge overhead -- and warned that it ‘would not be able to continue as a going concern if the weakness in the diamond market continued”?
The company’s claims contradict the facts: the worldwide diamond market instead is showing rising prices, with diamonds selling at 55% to 75% higher values than they did in the previous three years, depending on the quality of carats… http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_&fArticleId=5086411
“Management struggles to grasp basic alluvial diamond-mining concepts…’
However, the country’s top expert in the alluvial diamond-mining business in the Orange River Basin, Hennie Van Wyk -- former owner and operator of the majority of the assets of Rockwell Diamonds Inc., and a holder of approximately 4.3% of Rockwell – warned this month that he had ‘grave concerns about the current mismanagement of this company I helped to create”. He actually left Rockwell because, he said, their management company Pala Investments Holdings’ ‘showed an inability, under the leadership of the current CEO (John Bristow, right) , “to develop a cohesive mine plan and their general struggle to grasp basic alluvial diamond-mining operational concepts.”
BEE partner African Vanguard holds 26% shareholding:
The fight for the control of Rockwell Diamonds is split down the middle, with some directors supporting Pala Investments which is bidding to overhaul the current board. They include Sandile Zungu, chairman of African Vanguard Resources which is the BEE partner holding 26% of Rockwell’s various mines and three of the non-executive directors.
Wealthy businessman Sandile “Grabs”Zungu (left) is a very powerful man indeed: he was recently also named as head of South African President Jacob Zuma’s office in the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Also joining Pala this month to try and turn its fortunes around is Van Wyk -- highly regarded in the alluvial diamond mining industry as an efficient and innovative builder and operator of recovery plants. He is also, according to Pala Investments, “a sizeable shareholder of Rockwell.” He has now agreed to go back to Rockwell to help them out of their current predicament, saying:
“Pala has put forward a board of directors, including me, that possesses the alluvial diamond-mining, South African, management and financial experience necessary to turn Rockwell around. In addition, I note that the proposed slate of directors enjoys the full support of Rockwell’s black economic empowerment partner (African Vanguard, i.e. Sandile Zunqu).
Van Wyk noted: “As anyone who understands South Africa knows, this is an essential component for success in this country. I look forward to working with the new board to create value for all shareholders, including myself,” said Van Wyk. The innovative Afrikaner has over 15 years of experience in the South African alluvial diamond mining industry. He is one of the most renowned and innovative forces in South African alluvial diamond mining, having spent his whole career in the alluvial terraces of the Middle Orange and Vaal Rivers.
- He also has an unparalleled knowledge of all Rockwell’s mining operations and processing plant, having founded HC Van Wyk Diamonds in 1994, which successfully owned and operated the Holpan and Klipdam mines prior to their acquisition by Rockwell.
After Rockwell’s acquisition, Mr. Van Wyk subsequently joined Rockwell’s senior management team as Operations Director in 2006 and continued to manage the development and operation of those same mines. He also oversaw the design and development of all of Rockwell’s processing plants and continues to be a sizeable shareholder of Rockwell. Mr. Van Wyk however left Rockwell due to his stated ‘frustrations over the way senior management were operating the company.”
- http://www.rockwelldiamonds.com/rcw/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=356076
- http://www.rockwelldiamonds.com/rcw/SocialResponsibility.asp
- http://www.miningtopnews.com/alluvial-diamond-mining-expert-wants-changes-to-rockwell-board.html
- http://www.steinmetzdiamonds.com/
- http://www.steinmetz-group.com/
- http://www.miningmx.com/mybk07/461706.htm
- http://www.diamondintelligence.com/magazine/magazine.aspx?id=6885
- http://www.info.gov.za/leaders/president/index.htm
- http://www.africa-confidential.com/whos-who-profile/id/3048/Sandile-Zungu
- http://www.diamondregistry.com/price.htm
- http://www.bateman.com/Globe55/Grease_belt_system_for_HC_van_Wyks_diamond_recovery_plant.htm
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ROCKWELL DIAMONDS PLAYPARK
‘Mercenaries’ in court for assassination attempt
Gunmen stormed prime minister Pakalitha Misisili’s residence in Maseru on April 22…
July 17 2009 BLOEMFONTEIN. The South African Press Association reports that six men, described as ‘South African and Mozambican mercenaries’, were remanded in the Bloemfontein Regional Court on Friday for the attempted assassination of Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili in the nearby capitol city of Maseru.
Free State police superintendent Sam Makhele said in a statement that the case was postponed to August 3 for further investigation. No extradition orders had been received thus far, and the suspects remained in custody, he said.
Gunmen opened fire on and stormed Mosisili's residence in the capital Maseru on April 22. Lesotho Communications Minister Mothetjoa Metsing described the attackers as ‘South African and Mozambican mercenaries who'd been contracted to stage a coup,’ the SABC also reported.
The attack on Mosisili was reportedly part of several aimed at Lesotho's political leaders since its violence-driven 2007 election, which resulted in a dispute over the allocation of seats in parliament.
The landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho. the former British protectorate Basutoland, is a unilingual nation of 2,1-million people – of whom 260,000 are HIV-positive and about 18,000 people die of AIDS-related diseases and its co-epidemic XDR-TB each year, according to Medicines Sans Frontieres. AS a result, its population growth has dropped to below 0,1 % over the past ten years. Sotho-speakers comprise 99.7% of the population, and the other 0.3% are Europeans and Asians. It is totally surrounded by, entirely reliant on and hugely influenced by the overwhelming presence of South Africa: in 1998, violent protests and a military mutiny following a contentious election prompted a brief but bloody intervention by the ANC-government of South Africa, together with Botswanan military forces under the aegis of the Southern African Development Community. Peaceful parliamentary elections were held in 2002, but the National Assembly elections of February 2007 were hotly contested and aggrieved parties continue to periodically ‘demonstrate their distrust of the results’. One of its most important sources of income are wages from Lesotho’s 838,000 labourers mostly working in SA industries and mines, the sale of water to South Africa, and its mountain dwellers’ amazing ability to raise huge, illegal cash-crops of marijuana which are smuggled to South African harbours for export to Europe. It also exports rope from hemp/jute, and 49% of its citizens live officially below the poverty line – however the country’s ‘unofficial wealth’ generated by its illegal marijuana exports is unknown. The underlying reasons for the growing political crisis in the tiny country are outlined in the following research document by the Africa Institute of South Africa: .http://www.upeace.org/PDF/APCJ_Vol_1_1_Dec_08%20final.pdf http://www.afrol.com/articles/23107