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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Kippenmoord & diefstal hulpgelden…
14:48 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
met dank aan minister Koenders
Geplaatst op: maandag 14 september 2009 Door: Henk Steenhuis
Enkele weken geleden baarde het tv-programma Carte Blanche in Zuid-Afrika veel opzien.
Het onderzoeksteam ( *onder leiding van de journaliste Susan Puren) van het programma toonde hoe wekelijks 70.000 eendags kuikens (mannetjes) werden vernietigd, omdat ze geen eieren leggen en dus van geen betekenis waren.
De kuikens werden door één van de grootste kippenproducenten van het land, Boskop Layer Chicks (eigendom van de heer Jan Serfontein) niet vergast of door de schredder gehaald (de gebruikelijke en 'humane' manier), maar in een oude cementput gegooid, waar ze gewoon dood lagen te gaan - een proces dat soms wel vijf dagen duurde.Serfontein wacht nu een aanklacht voor negen overtredingen van de Zuidafrikaanse Animal Protection Act.
- Het programma ontdekte nog iets anders: Serfontein ontving een royale subsidie van het Nederlandse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken uit de pot voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (groot 500.000 euro) om allerlei activiteiten van de zwarte bevolking rondom deze farm te stimuleren, het zogenaamde Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). http://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/kippenmoord-met-behulp-van-nederlandse-ontwikkelingshulp.html
Nu Carte Blache had ontdekt hoe Serfontein met zijn kuikens omging, was de nieuwsgierigheid groot naar de uitkomsten van dit hulpprograma om de zwarte bevolking een beter lot te bezorgen, en dat was het onderwerp van de uitzending van zondag 13 september.
En wat bleek?
Serfontein heeft de zwarte medewerkers, die zijn ingesloten in een klein dorpje, het leven onmogelijk gemaakt. Ze zijn verstoken van water en electriciteit en van riolering.
- De zogenaamde eigenaren van het BEE--bedrijf zijn nagenoeg analfabeet en zitten als een soort poppetjes op kantoor, waar Serfontein ze blanco checques laat tekenen. Om zo verzekerd te zijn van de subsidies.
De zwarten ontvangen in ruil hiervoor een minimaal salaris. Eén van de zwarte medewerkers is intussen weggestuurd omdat hij te veel vragen stelde. Behalve van Nederlandse zijde ontving Serfontein ook fondsen van de Zuid-Afrikaanse overheid voor de BEE-bedrijven, ongeveer eenzelfde bedrag, zo'n 500.000 euro.
- De Nederlandse diplomatieke kaste staan lelijk te kijk nu blijkt dat geld - bestemd voor ontwikkelingshulp - in deze zwendel is verdwenen. De vraag is of er nog iets valt terug te vorderen. En wat gaat de Nederlandse partner van Serfontein, Hendrix Genetics, voor stappen ondernemen?
De uitgeschreven tekst van het tv-programma zit achter de eerste link, en heet Boskop.http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3755
In de tweede link spreekt de EVD vol trots over bovengenoemd hulppprogramma.http://www.evd.nl/zoeken/showbouwsteen.asp?bstnum=120154&location
Bronnen: Carte Blanche, Economische Voorlichtings Dienst
http://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/kippenmoord-met-behulp-van-nederlandse-ontwikkelingshulp.html
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TB-patients sell sputum in big benefits-fraud
South Africa has at least 4,4-million TB-patients … or does it?
2009-09-13 – An excellent investigative reporter, Brenda Nkuna of City Press newspaper, reports from South Africa – where millions of people are co-infected with AIDS and Tuberculosis -- that ‘desperate’ people are paying TB patients for their saliva to get social grants illegally. The City Press’ diligent reporter has found that TB sufferers charge between R50 and R100 a sample to benefits-cheats…who then get at least R6,060’s worth of benefits for the next six months.
The scam is becoming widespread mainly because of the dire shortage of health care workers at all of the country’s public-health care facilities... TB patients coughing up for cash
The Social Security Administration of South Africa’s records for this month showed that about 30,015 temporary disability grant beneficiaries were receiving benefits nationally. However, the deputy director-general in the Department of Health Gorvan Molefe said he ‘could not provide statistics on exactly how many TB patients there were in the country. Picture: UN news agency IRIn news.
- The World Health Organisation’s Global TB Report 2008 ranks South Africa fourth in the entire world for new TB infection rates – at 940 cases for every 100,000 people. With an official 47-million residents, this translates to at least 4,4-million people having active Tuberculosis – of whom many also are co-infected with HIV-AIDS. and because of poor drug-adherence, often also contract the deadliest and most untreatable varieties, namely extremely-drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Dire shortage of health-care workers:
One reason why this benefits-fraud can work so well is the fact that there is such a dire shortage of health-care workers -- and that TB-AIDS clinics often are grotesquely undermanned for this reason: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=85889
Here’s how the TB-sputum scam works, writes Nkuna: ‘TB patients apparently easily smuggle sample bottles out of government clinics to customers. The bottles with infected sputum are then handed to health workers for testing. Once they are certified infected, the cheats can then obtain (six-months’ worth of) temporary disability grants of R1,010 a month from the Department of Social Development.’
The practice is especially rife in Western Cape. Her enquiries in Khayelitsha also quickly revealed three TB-infected residents willing to sell their sputum, she writes:
- “A 54-year-old man who legitimately receives a disability grant for his illness sold City Press two samples for R50. He said on average he made about R500 a month through selling his saliva.”
A lot of ‘competition’ from other infected patients:
He said “business” was not good, however, because many people in the township were infected with TB, which meant a lot of competition.
- The man’s samples were taken to the Nolungile Clinic in Site C, Khayelitsha, for a TB test, where the health workers ‘do not normally insist that the sample be coughed up in front of them’, Nkuna wrote, adding that she’d found it ‘easy to hand over the bought samples’.
The Western Cape spokespwoman for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Shivani Wahab said a temporary disability grant was provided for a minimum of six months and for a continuous period of not more than 12 months.
- Wahab said applicants were “assessed by a medical doctor who recommended an applicant, based on their medical condition, for a grant.” And those receiving the grants would then be re-assessed after a six- or 12-month period.”
However, a TB patient who had also just qualified for the grant told the journalist that ‘it was rare that doctors did a proper physical check-up. They mostly just checked the test results.”
South African National Tuberculosis Association (Santa) chief executive John Heinrich confirmed that he’d also heard of this scam – and said ‘patients must be required to cough up their samples in front of a health worker.”
- However – he added -- ‘ that could present logistical challenges as the best samples for TB detection were produced early in the morning.”
Patients want to remain sick to get their grants:
And another worrying issue he had come across was that some TB patients deliberately neglected taking their medication in order to continue receiving grants. He said patients abandoning their six-month course of medication risked multiple drug-resistant (MDR) TB or even extreme drug-resistant (XDR) TB.
National health department spokesman Fidel Hadebe also confirmed that ‘the department was aware of TB patients selling their sputum. This is wrong and cannot be allowed. People have to be tested by professional workers,” he said.
Social Development Department spokesman Mandla Sidu also said he ‘had no doubt that such scams existed. The department was, however, not aware of specific cases,’ he added.
- He said the correct procedure for accessing grants was to have a TB test at a clinic under the supervision of a professional nurse. If the results were positive a doctor would write a report stating whether the patient qualified for a grant or not.
Fuzzy health statistics
Comment - in view of this very interesting new information, it’s no surpise that the country’sTB- statistics also appear to be totally unknown even to the national health department, or are rather fuzzy to say the least. For instance, the Western Cape health department also told her that there were 50,156 TB cases in that province in 2008. –
---------------------------------
sources, contact info:
TB patients coughing up for cash
Nolungile Clinic, Site C, Lawrence Road Site C, Khayelitsha, tel. 021 387 1107 - The contact person is: N Magwaca
Retired teacher, 74, shot in bed next to blind wife
20090912 Ben Laing, shot, injured in bed next to blind wife by 3 armed robbers http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/f1c1fcfa73f5480693f3a5e8d50e556c/13-09-2009-09-36/%E2%80%98Dit_het_gevoel_soos_bleddie_%C2%ADhorror_movie%E2%80%99_
Retired Afrikaner teacher Ben Laing, 74, was shot and injured in his bed -- right next to his blind wife Rebecca -- by three armed black robbers who had forced the hinges off the front-door of their backyard-cottage in Bronkhorstbaai, Pretoria East on Saturday-night at 2.20am.
Laing – who together with his wife had taught Venda children most of his adult life -- told Virginia Keppler of Beeld newspaper from his hospital bed that he was ‘barely awake’ when he was shot through the stomach ‘by a tallish black man who yelled Where’s the Money and then just fired the shot… ‘
After stealing TV and laptop – went back inside to shoot the old man…
What was particularly strange about this incident was the fact hat the three armed black men had already carried out the couple’s TV and a laptop computer before going back into the cottage to go and shoot the old man in his bed.
The couple had moved into the cottage of Mrs Laing’s daughter only two weeks earlier and many of their household items were still packed in boxes.
‘It was like a blerrie horror movie…’
The shot went straight through his stomach, exiting his leftside and then got stuck in the matress underneath.
‘My wife, who can just barely see enough not to run into things, didn’t know what was going on. Then they fired off another shot. I thought they’d shot my wife, but that one went into the ceiling. I felt as if I was in the middle of a blerrie horror movie…’ said the old man.
“So I asked them, ‘why did you shoot me?’ but the gunman didn’t answer me… it wasn’t even necessary for him to shoot me, because I’d never argue with a guy holding a gun in his hand.’ His wife then was ordered to hand over her jewellery – and they again demanded money. The blind woman then took off her wedding rings and handed them over, said her daughter Mrs Amanda Els.
The couple had just moved into her daughter’s backyard cottage two weeks earlier. “They first tried to break in through three seperate windows but the burglar-bars were too strong. Then they forced open the front door hinges with a screw-driver,’ said Mrs Laing’s daughter, Mrs Amanda Els.
“The robbers had already carried out a tv and a laptop computer before they went back into the house and just shot my father-in-law right there,’ she said.. She was very heartsore she said, adding:
- ‘They aren’t racists: ‘my father-in-law spent his entire life teaching black kids in Venda’s townships… and she speaks nine black languages. They are good people, so why did they shoot him? ’
Police sergeant Marinda Stoltz confirmed the armed attack and said the police were investigating. Nobody was arrested. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/f1c1fcfa73f5480693f3a5e8d50e556c/13-09-2009-09-36/%E2%80%98Dit_het_gevoel_soos_bleddie_%C2%ADhorror_movie%E2%80%99_
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Empoverished young couple killed execution-style for not having any money…
2009-09-14 Cape Town – Philiippi East squatter camp. A 25-year-old man and his 20-year-old girlfriend were shot dead execution style by three armed black men who broke into their shack and stole only a radio and DVD-player. Police inspector Nondumiso Paul said the couple were shot dead in their shack after the couple couldn’t give the gunmen any money – they didn’t have any, being too poor. Both were shot execution-style, with bullets through the head. Background on Philippi-East squatter camp.
Witnesses said one suspect black male wore a yellow jacket and a balaclava over his head. Nobody was arrested. The investigating officer is insp. Johannes Philipps at tel. (021) 370 1900 http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/d95b8ccf41db40da952d92daa858a8d3/14-09-2009-11-30/Paartjie_vermoor_vir_radio
Semi-conscious patient ignored at Kimberley Hospital ER
“Whatever has happened to our caring for our fellow Man?”, asks angry Kimberley businessman…
2009-09-14 Frans Coetzee of the Volksblad newspaper reports from Kimberley that they were contacted by a ‘shocked businessman of the city’ after he found a ‘semi-conscious patient outside the emergency department of Kimberley Hospital on Saturday morning at 9am – with an uncaring security guard ‘sunning himself nearby’.
The businessman handed his photographs of the incident over to the newspaper for publication, saying that the security guard said upon questioning that ‘he hadn’t noticed the patient’ although he was only paces away from him. “This patient must have been lying outside for a long time, because when he was lifted onto the trolley by the alerted nursing staff, he was clearly ‘stiff-limbed from the cold’. Two of the guard’s colleagues also were standing around nearby.
The clearly furious businessman said it was ‘shocking that people’s basic humanity are being denied by this gruesome neglect by government officials.’
“These people are needy and totally rely on state-hospitals to look after them. When a helpless patient lies at the very gates of a healing institution begging for help, nobody cares. Whatever happened to our ‘caring for our fellow man’? If the temperature drops below freezing, as it often does in Kimberley, this man would have died of the exposure to cold,’ he added.
Volksblad’s journalist next asked these questions posed by the businessman in a formal inequiry to the health department of the Northern Cape, where its spokesman Andrid Scholtz said that these allegations ‘were being viewed in a very serious light, and a complete and thorough investigation will be launched.’
This unnamed patient’s present condition was not published by the newspaper thus far.