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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
German businessman Claus Schroeder disappears at Jeffrey’s Bay farm
09:36 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
JEFFREY’S BAY, East Cape – August 28 2009 -- The Cape Times writes that police are baffled by the disappearance of a well-known German immigrant, Jeffrey's Bay businessman Claus Schroeder, 50 of Schroeder’s Motor Homes, last seen two weeks ago on a Thornhill farm.
The skillful German motorhome builder disappeared after he’d delivered a modified Hummer to a nearby farm on Friday morning two weeks ago.
He called his wife Tanja shortly before the delivery and planned to meet her in Port Elizabeth that afternoon.
Police spokeswoman Gerda Swart said he was “seen getting into a black Golf, not owned by him,” but would not give more details.
Schroeder has not been seen since. Family friend Louisa Lightfoot told the Cape Times on Thursday that Tanja did not want to speak to the media: "She is really battling. Tanja can't talk about her feelings. But she is determined to find him," said Lightfoot. The couple reportedly were happily married and had no marital strife. They have two children.
Respected in Germany:
Schroeder, designer and qualified master of joinery, boasts more than 25 years of international experience in the design and manufacturing of custom-made motorhomes and is well known and respected in Germany for building some of the finest and most technologically advanced motorhomes in the European market.
His wife Tanja, in her capacity as administrative head and a professional MBA, governs this business and manages all administration work. They have two sons, aged 13 and 21.
In January 2000 the Schroeder family moved to the coastal town of Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Province of Southern Africa – near the world-famous beach with the longest-lasting surfing wave as featured in the cult surfing movie Endless Summer – and where the Schroeders have since established a reputation as the most dynamic manufacturers of distinctively designed motorhomes in Southern Africa.
contact: http://www.schroeder.co.za/
- 27 42 293 4110 (Tel)
+27 42 293 4120 (Fax - motorhomes@schroeder.co.za
The SA Police are following several leads in the case and have requested that anybody who saw Claus Schroeder or any of the vehicles, particularly the pink motor home pictured above, between Friday 14 August and Monday 17 August to contact motorhomes@schroeder.co.za or Tanja Schroeder on 079 299 8087 or Inspector Viljoen in Jeffreys Bay on 082 576 2137 or 082 441 8160
Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of Cape Times
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Somali pirates fire on US Navy Chopper
Press release from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs
MANAMA, Bahrain – August 27 2009 - Yesterday, at approximately 8:00 a.m. local time, Somali pirates aboard Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far, (registered in Taiwan), fired what appeared to be a large caliber weapon at a U.S. Navy SH-60B Helicopter from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 49, embarked aboard USS Chancellorsville (CG 62).
No rounds of ammunition struck the SH-60B. The SH-60 crew did not return fire. No personnel injuries resulted from the incident. Win Far is a Taiwanese-flagged vessel that was pirated April 6, 2009, and over the past 135 days it has been used as a “mother ship” to conduct other known pirate attacks, most notably the U.S. flagged Maersk-Alabama in April 2009.
The helicopter was conducting a routine surveillance flight of M/V Win Far currently held at anchorage by Somali pirates south of Garacad, Somalia when the incident occurred. During the flight, aircrew observed activity, but could not ascertain they were fired upon until their return to Chancellorsville and review of Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) video, which recorded the incident. The helicopter was approximately 3,000 yards from Win Far when it was fired upon.More than 30 crewmembers remain as hostages aboard the pirated vessel M/V Win Far.
Somali pirates aboard the Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far fired on a U.S. Navy SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Scorpions of Helicopter anti-Submarine Squadron light (HSL 49). The helicopter, embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), was conducting a surveillance mission near the anchored M/V Win Far south of Garacad, Somalia. No rounds struck the helicopter and no one was injured.
Somali pirates aboard the Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far fired on a U.S. Navy SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Scorpions of Helicopter anti-Submarine Squadron light (HSL 49). The helicopter, embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), was conducting a surveillance mission near the anchored M/V Win Far south of Garacad, Somalia. No rounds struck the helicopter and no one was injured.
Somali pirates aboard the Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far fired on a U.S. Navy SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Scorpions of Helicopter anti-Submarine Squadron light (HSL 49). The helicopter, embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), was conducting a surveillance mission near the anchored M/V Win Far south of Garacad, Somalia. No rounds struck the helicopter and no one was injured.
Video:
Somali pirates aboard the Motor Vessel (M/V) Win Far fired on a U.S. Navy SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Scorpions of Helicopter anti-Submarine Squadron light (HSL 49). The helicopter, embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), was conducting a surveillance mission near the anchored M/V Win Far south of Garacad, Somalia. No rounds struck the helicopter and no one was injured. VIEW VIDEO -http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/videos/2009/WIN%20FAR%20FIRING%20INCIDENT.wmv
Traditional healers intervene in AIDS/TB epidemic
… With the deadly co-infection of AIDS/TB ravaging the South African population, the country’s all-powerful traditional healers demand that herbal African medicine must form the most important part of the new health-care strategy to combat the twin scourges….
JOHANNESBURG, 27 August 2009. The UN’s news agency Plusnews reports that the authorative medical journal The Lancet has published a report showing that one in six HIV/AIDS-infected people in the world live in South Africa, which is also in the middle of a drug-resistant, parallel tuberculosis (TB) co-epidemic. This lethal combination is killing off hundreds-of-thousands of mostly young, working-age black South Africans at the moment. The Lancet writes that years of weak leadership, poor policies and underfunded health-care budgets undermined all efforts to control the deadly twin health emergencies in the country, which only 15 years ago, had the best free health-care system for the poor on the entire African continent.
Picture by Andrew Bannister, IRIN news: The mortality rate for HIV+ pregnant women in South Africa is nearly ten times higher than the death rates for uninfected women…
The country finally launched an antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme in 2004 and is now the largest in the world – yet the average life expectancy has declined to 48.4 years for men and 51.6 years for women. Starting in the late 1990s, the HIV epidemic has also fuelled a sharp rise in TB incidence: 50 percent of all new TB cases occur in patients co-infected with HIV, making TB the most common natural cause of death in the country, The Lancet article notes.
“The poor performance of TB control programmes and many years of low cure rates have seen the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the disease that are more difficult and costly to diagnose and treat - the caseload of drug-resistant TB now puts South Africa among the world's top 10 countries.”
These are grim statistics, yet The Lancet authors describe the government's response to the two epidemics in the past decade as marked by "denialism, ineptitude, obtuseness and deliberate efforts to undermine scientific evidence as the basis for action."
“Important achievements, such as a vastly increased distribution of male condoms, the scale up of the ARV programme, and the development of well-formulated national strategic plans for HIV/AIDS and TB have not been enough to overcome a lack of high-level political commitment to controlling the health crises.”
An international HIV/AIDS scorecard various elements in country-level programmes found South Africa's performance worse than many of its lower-income neighbours.
- The authors note that the change of administration in 2008 has provided a potential "window of opportunity" to tackle HIV and TB, and suggest a number of priority actions.
TB and HIV treatment should be integrated:
In the area of TB control, they recommend improving case detection and cure rates, and integrating HIV and TB services. “The first step in strengthening HIV prevention efforts should be using all available data to generate a clearer picture of the demographic features and key drivers of the epidemic, followed by scaling up prevention of mother-to-child transmission, targeted behaviour-change programmes, and making male circumcision widely available.
HIV treatment efforts could be boosted by routinely offering testing at all health care facilities, and raising the threshold for starting ARV treatment to a CD4 cell count of 350. “
- “Treatment programmes play an important part in prevention: studies show that patients who start ARV treatment early are less likely to transmit the virus, and more likely to access sexual and reproductive health services,” the authors noted.
Strong leadership required:
However, the authors note that successful implementation of these approaches will require "strong leadership, political will, social mobilisation, adequate human and financial resources, and sustainable development of health care services." Http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=85889
- While millions of dollars are spent by foreign donors, especially the US and Canada, to supply free antiretroviral drugs to South Africa, township youths smoke the drugs to get high on: SA kids get high on free AIDS-drugs-
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Traditional healers launch physical attack on health department HQ
PRETORIA. Meanwhile, Beeld Afrikaans journalist Antoinette Pienaar reports that the police didn’t only battle a 3,000-strong group of disgruntled soldiers in Pretoria who tried to invade the Union Buildings this week - they also had to wage warfare with a 300-strong group of very angry local traditional healers who tried to break down the doors of the country’s national health department in Prinsloo Street, Pretoria yesterday in their eagerness to present a petition to the new minister of health.
The traditional healers, banded together in the Organisation for Traditional Healers, have only one aim: to promote African traditional healing as a holistic health care practice for all of South Africa instead of Western-based science-based medicine.
- This group has had a powerful influence in the Mbeki-cabinet, even managing to block and sabotage the use of western antiretrovirals to combat AIDS/TB infections through their determined lobbying with Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. the social worker who was appointed as the minister of health by Mbeki. Her policies to use herbal medicines instead of ARVs drew widespread condemnation of the Mbeki cabinet worldwide.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio of traditional health practitioners to the general population is approximately 1 to 500, while western doctors have a 1 to 40,000 ratio to the rest of the population. The healers point out that “the traditional health practitioners thus have a crucial role to play in building health systems and strengthening and supporting national responses to HIV & AIDS. In 2007, the South African Parliament was still considering passing a Traditional Health Practitioner’s Act to legalise the profession, and this is still pending.”
Wanted to break down the door:
Police on Wednesday 27 August 2009 sprayed pepper spray to stop the 300 traditional healers – amongst them many elderly women, and all dressed in bright-red attire – from invading the health department ‘s offices to hand over their petition to the minister of health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi personally. Headed by the national coordinator for the Organisation for Traditional Healers, Ms Phephsile Maseko, the very influential group’s petition centered on complaints that companies refuse to accept ‘sick-notes’ from the traditional healers, and that the government’s strategy to combat the country’s deadly twin epidemics of HIV/AIDS and TB did not include the use of traditional herbal medicines. This stand-off at high noon was averted only when police got ready to shoot off their rubber-bullet stoppers and called for reinforcements.
Sporting posters such as “Manto please come back’ and “Stop companies from returning our sick-notes’, the witchdoctors were irate because Mo-Tsoaledi did not come to the front door personally to accept their petition. His deputy, Thami Mseleku, who is the new director-general of health, eventually showed up at 2pm to receive their petition. They demand an end to the ‘racism’ by employers who refuse to accept sick-notes from traditional healers and who are also actively discouraging their employees from using the services of traditional healers.
Disband ‘racist’ Medicines Control Council…
The healers also demand that the department’s ‘racist’ medicines control council be disbanded and replaced by an official oversight group which would “actively encourage the use of traditional herbal medicines and which also would create ‘a space for traditional healers at government hospitals’.
However, the MCC actively discourages the use of any ‘mono-therapy” to prevent mother to child transmission of HiV/AIDS and thus also is blocking the use of traditional herbal medicines in the South African public-health care system.
Their memorandum attacked the government’s current HIV-AIDS campaign which includes the use of antiretroviral medication but excludes traditional herbal medicines ‘as an alternative option’.
The healers pointed out that Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the ex-health minister in the Mbeki cabinet, had ‘actively campaigned to get traditional herbal medicines established in the South African health care system.”
Manto introduced laws to legalise witchdoctors as medical practitioners on an equal level with Western doctors and appointed the Organisation for Traditional Healers, which has an estimated membership of at least 150,000. Its national coordinator Ms Phephsile Maseko told Beeld ‘s journalist on the steps of the health department yesterday that ever since Manto’s departure, ‘a gaping hole was left in which traditional healing is being sabotaged’. Mrs Tshabalala-Msimang’s strategy to sabotage antiretrovirals in favour of herbal remedies was however widely condemned by the international health-care community. The Zuma-cabinet has dropped this strategy and now is focussing on antiretroviral use as its central strategy to try and combat the deadly epidemics, receiving large international grants to supply ARVs for free in the country’s health-care clinics.
There isn’t a National Strategic Framework plan as yet…
However, said the new director-general of health Mseleku when speaking to the angry healers at the front door, the Zuma government was ‘not at all unsympathethic towards traditional healers”; and that Dr Motsoaledi would have received their memorandum personally -- but that his flight from Cape Town had been delayed.
- Mseleku also told the healers that ‘there isn’t a National Health Strategy plan as yet:-- and that the traditional healers will be given ample chance to contribute to drawing up the new programme ‘together with other role-players…’
Mseleku also told them that Dr Motsoaledi ‘had not had enough time as yet to pay attention to all the health-care questions. Shortly after his appointment, he was overwhelmed by the countrywide strike of medical doctors in the national health service and now the flu epidemic.”He promised that the ‘government would undertake moves to meet with the traditional healers soon’. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/c97ab2b8c5bc45a09896e2a8bd00638a/28-08-2009%2012-08/Polisie_keer_genesers_met_peper
SA National AIDS Council encourages ARV-use
The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), long perceived by activists as largely dormant, also made groundbreaking recommendations to the Zuma cabinet this month. London-based specialist obstetrician/gynaecologist Dr Nono Simelela, who takes over as the new CEO on 1 September, spoke to IRIN/PlusNews about where she would like to take the council.
Despite the challenges, Simelela said she was drawn to her new post at SANAC primarily because it would offer her a chance to work in a sector she feels passionately about, and in what she called a “conscious environment” – given current political leadership – which the country desperately needed.
Simelela was educated under the apartheid-system, became the first South African black woman to qualify as a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, which led to a 20-year career in the Department of Health, culminating as chief director of the National HIV, AIDS and TB programme in 1998 until she left in 2004.
- It was a time when HIV treatment was largely unavailable and the fight against HIV/AIDS under the country’s then health minister Tshabalala-Msimang, was heavily politicized.
“I think everyone knows it was a very challenging time in South Africa … in many ways. The magnitude of the epidemic was really brought to the fore, and the need to move quickly, in terms of treatment and care, was evident,” Simelela told IRIN/PlusNews on the phone from London, where she heads the technical knowledge and support division of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
“It was tough and you had to hang in there, [but] I think that it was necessary. The fact that we did get a plan and have people accessing treatment has been a huge positive outcome.”
She said South Africa’s antiretroviral programme – one of the world’s largest – remained one of its biggest achievements, but also noted the recurring drug shortages, poor monitoring and evaluation, and the need to slow new infections.
- “We haven't really established a robust monitoring and evaluation system across all sectors, including government. We’ve got the National Strategic Framework, and targets that have been set, but we need a robust tool to monitor progress so we know what needs to be done,” she said.
“The fact is that we have an epidemic that is raging, and new infections are occurring. We need to go back to the prevention side of things to look at what we’re not doing well enough.” http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85794