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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Disabled pupil stabbed, robbed on Pretoria bus
19:37 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Bus driver and cops laughed at injured boy:
2009-08-29 PRETORIA. Virginia Kepler reports in Beeld newspaper that a learning-disabled 13-year-old Afrikaner pupil, Tjaart du Plessis, was stabbed in the arm and leg and robbed of his cellphone on a bus from his Prospectus Novus school on Friday by an older pupil. When the youngster asked the bus driver for help, the driver told him curtly that he was ‘talking nonsense’.
Beeld reports that Tjaart had taken the bus from Paul Kruger Street to the city and then switched to a bus heading for East Lynne at around 14:10. A high school boy came and sat next to him on this bus and demanded his cellphone – and when the youngster refused, the older pupil stabbed him, first in the right leg and then in his right arm.
“He grabbed my cellphone, jumped off the bus and ran off. I screamed to the bus driver to help, but he said I was ‘talking nonsense’. He would definitely recognise the armed high school boy again, he said.
Policemen laughed at us
His father Nico, 45, is deeply upset, also about the treatment they received at athe hands of the Villieria police. He first took his deeply upset son to the bus-depot in East Lynne to report the robbery incident – and then lodged a formal charge at the Villieria police station – where their ordeal continued:
- “At the police station, the policemen laughed at us. They also thought they were being funny when they asked my son whether he knew the stabber’s name…’
It helps to go to the news media…
Beeld was told upon enquiry with the station commander that she would ‘see to it that Tjaart’s case is being handled correctly.”
And an inspector at the Pretoria municipal bus service told Ms Kepler that they have also launched an investigation, first to identify the bus driver.
- They would also ask the metropolitan (municipal) police to try and trace the armed pupil with the stolen cellphone. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/903e0dc628104d528355198ba452368e/29-08-2009%2002-08/Seun_op_munisipale_bus_gesteek,__beroof
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Flying Squad cops arrested for armed robbery
“They had an arrest warrant”, said their attorney…
August 29 2009 -- CAPE TOWN MAGISTRATE’S COURT. Jade Witten of the Cape Argus reports that two black Flying Squad police officers, charged with robbery and the kidnapping of a muslim Salt River café-owner, have appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court. Their lawyers claimed in court in their bail-application arguments that the police officers had ‘search warrants’.
However, according to the court docket, the two officers, Chumani Madyibi, 35, of Eerste River and Welcome Magqazama, 32, of Kraaifontein, along with four others still at large, are accused of robbing the unnamed owner of Bismilah General Dealer at gunpoint around 8pm on Monday, abducting him and dumping him in nearby Langa township.
The court docket also accuses this large gang of searching the premises for drugs, assaulting the owner, stealing R3,500 in cash, stealing airtime vouchers worth R4,500 and stealing cigarettes valued at R6,500. The terrified owner has asked that his identity be withheld. Madyibi and Magqazama were arrested on Wednesday, reports Ms Witten.
Bail opposed: ‘accused police officers may tamper with evidence…’
State prosecutor Karin Barnard asked the court for a two week postponement “so an identity parade could be held, and to allow time for the police to arrest the other four men”. She said the State was opposing bail.
- "The accused are police officers and the risk exists that they may interfere with the case and tamper with evidence," she said. She also requested that the men remain in custody at Woodstock police station.
This was objected to by Magqazama’s attorney Afzal Vallie and Madyibi's lawyer -- who would only give his surname of Celetshe, who said: "The ID parade is a non-issue, they (the accused) were in possession of warrants and went to search the complainants who are known to them.” Magistrate Vusi Mhlanga postponed the case to Friday. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20090829062729262C504016
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SA secures sealanes from pirates
Fears of homegrown piracy also raised due to depletion of fishing stocks, warns SA Navy spokesman
JOHANNESBURG. Bobby Jordan of the Sunday Times reports on Aug 22 2009 that South Africa is moving to secure its territorial waters amid rising lawlessness on the high seas and fears that pirates will target ships heading to South Africa for the 2010 Football World Cup.
This satellite image taken by the Automatic Identification System on 2 April 2009 shows the movement of vessels in South African territorial waters over a 24 hour-period.
The South African Maritime Safety Authority – whose website http://www.samsa.org.za/ is not visible for online viewers -- has set up a compulsory, regional long-range vessel monitoring system which can track all big ships in SA waters. The new tracking system monitoring the 27,000-million km of square kilometres of SA territorial waters will be managed by a specialist British company
It’s actually an international maritime law requirement, but South Africa has been slow to implement it. The head of the authority, Commander Tsietsi Mokhele, was quoted by The Times as saying that the new system would also aid neighbouring states, including Mozambique. That southern African country last month formally requested help from South Africa in monitoring its troubled coastline.
The SA authorities finally acted after the strong surge in pirate attacks along the East African coast, including in the Mozambique Channel. Pirate boats have even been spotted off the coast of Kenya. About 22,000 ships a year pass through the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aden, where regional instability and “no-questions-asked” ransom payments have led to a dramatic rise in attacks on vessels by heavily armed Somali raiders in speedboats.
Piracy has become a serious menace in the Gulf of Aden and the eastern half of the Indian Ocean as far south as the Seychelles in the last 18 months -- and this is not the sum of the African maritime safety and security challenge. Africa and its surrounding maritime areas are continuously being threatened by activities such as illegal fishing, illegal migration, smuggling and oil pollution, and in most cases these activities are difficult to detect, let along prevent.
And ships traversing the Cape of Good Hope route through the Suez canal are frequent victims such as the product tanker MV Bow Asir in March as it headed for Durban, and the cruise liner MSC Melody after it left South Africa bound for Italy. Bow Asir’s crew was held for ransom, while MSC Melody ‘s crew and passengers fought off the pirates and managed to escape.
As the pirates grow bolder, richer and increasingly able to buy more sophisticated weaponry, similar attacks are also expected in South Africa’s 27-million square kilometres of territorial water — almost 25 times the country’s land area.
Mokhele told the Sunday Times that ‘SA urgently needed to step up its monitoring of ships in SA waters, both to comply with international law and to prepare for the 2010 World Cup. “
Luxury cruise liners are expected to dock in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth to provide extra luxury accommodation during the tournament. There might also be “mass carriers” offering cheap transport from other African ports , Mokhele said.
Our landing strips have limitations:
“There is this assumption of flying people in. But our landing strips have limitations and aircraft have a limit. There could be some coastal traffic that takes place that is a bit cheaper. The porousness of our coast will be a big concern. We definitely have to be on top of our game,” Mokhele said. SAMSA was already in discussions with defence and intelligence officials about its preparations for the World Cup.
- “From a Samsa perspective we will track what is happening out at sea, account for every vessel that is there and guide the authorities who can physically intervene, like the navy and the police wing.”
Specialist British company:
Captain Karl Otto, executive head of the Samsa Centre for Sea Watch and Response, said that while the monitoring of South Africa’s land borders was being increased, “the sea side also needs to be gearing up”. He said the new tracking system, which was supposed to have been in place at the end of last year, would be managed by a specialist British company in conjunction with the newly established South African National Data System. The information on the ships would be transmitted to neighbouring states.
Piracy is moving southwards:
The international navies have started taking an interest in what the pirates have been doing along the Somalian coastline — so the pirates have moved further afield, according to maritime security monitoring agencies. http://www.tncmps.com/
There’s also been mounting pressure on the South African National Defence Force to commit to peace-keeping efforts off the coast of Somalia – however the navy’s senior liaison officer, Commander Prince Tshabalala, said military intervention would require cabinet approval. “We have taken note that the pirate activity is moving south. We are monitoring the situation very closely,” he told the Sunday Times.
Depleted fishing stocks lead to piracy:
He also expressed fears that piracy could become a homegrown industry inside South Africa because the country’s fishing stocks are being depleted by ‘unregulated ocean dumping and intensive poaching”. He told the Sunday Times that “this could lead embittered fishing communities to follow the example of Somalia’s pirates. The Somali piracy is a product of poor governance of the seaside. Had there been strong governance or had compliance levels been higher by the shipping communities, we would not be paying the price we are paying now,” Mokhele said.
- “If we don’t look after our waters ... we don’t know what those dynamics might do to the fishing communities who are dependent on the sea for their livelihood.” journalist contact: jordanb@sundaytimes.co.za
The International Maritime Organisation developed the new system – which is compulsory and requires ships to automatically transmit radio signals that reveal their identity, the date and time, and their position. It cannot be switched off. The signal is security coded and sent via satellite to an application service provider. The service provider in turn forwards the information to the data centre of the ship’s country of registration and to the International LRIT Data Exchange (managed by the IMO).
This system is compulsory and cannot be switched off, meaning any ship can be monitored by its own national data centre anywhere in the world — and also by the coastal state in whose waters the vessel is operating. In the past, ships were only detected by shore-based radar systems up to 30 nautical miles (54km) offshore, primarily by port control centres.
However, the South African military – which now is supposed to run on a ‘business footing’— still has to get international maritime companies, governments and security experts to sign up for this system, i.e. to help pay for it. Thus a Maritime Security Symposium for Africa will be held on 13 – 15 October 2009 at the Raddison Blu Hotel at Cape Town’s waterfront -- to try and market its new security platform.
Featured as speakers at the symposium will be Vice Admiral Johannes Mudimu, Chief of the South African Navy, Brig Gen Tsoku Khumalo , Director, Air Transport & Maritime Services, South African Air Force (SAAF), Capt. Phillip Heyl, US Coast Guard (Rtd), Tsietsi Mokhele, CEO, SAMSA, Captain (SAN) Andre Katerinic, South African Navy, Capt Frank C Rooyen, Security Fellow, Emerging Powers, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), Rear Adm (Rtd) Chris Bennet, Capt. Karl Otto, Executive Head, Centre for Sea Watch and Response, South Africa, Andre Botes, Head – Maritime SAR Operations, South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), Prof Thean Potgieter , Director - (CEMIS), Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, Dr. Francois Vrey, Subject Chair, Military Strategy, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, Prof Mike Hough, Director, Institute of Strategic Studies, University of Pretoria, Rear Adm (Rtd) Rolf Hauter, MMAGS CONSULTING (Member of SA Aerospace, Maritime & Defence Industries Association), Rear Adm A.N. Howell SA Navy (Rtd), Prof Theo Neethling - Head, Dept of Political Science, University of Free State, and Deane Peter Baker - Associate Proffessor of Ethics, University of Kwa Zulu Natal. Guest will also get the opportunity to tour the facilities at the Simon’s Town Naval base. http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_eventreg&task=show_event&eventname=Maritime&eventid=3&Itemid=406
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