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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Umbilo cops on trial for racist massacre of 4 whites dismissed from SAPS
12:07 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Asian police inspectors Brian and Leon Steven were dismissed from the SAPS in June this year -- after an internal SAPS hearing found them guilty of carrying out a racist massacre: they had gunned down four Afrikaner family men in Umbilo on September 10 2008
September 19 2008 -- UMBILO, KwaZulu-Natal. Brian and Leon Steven, the two Indian ex-policemen who are on trial this week for gunning down and killing four unarmed Afrikaner men in cold blood after a racist ‘argument over the size of penises’ at an Umbilo pub, were found guilty in an internal hearing of the SAPS, and dismissed from the force in June this year -- KwaZulu-Natal police announced on Friday. http://www.thestar.co.za/?fArticleId=5170920
On September 10 2008, four Afrikaner pub patrons -- Shawn Strydom, Nick Jansen van Rensburg, Rory Menzes and Bruce Edwards -- were gunned down and killed while watching a football match at the Merseyside Pub in Umbilo in Durban. The massacre-scene was described as a ‘slaughterhouse’.
News media turns a racist massacre into sick ‘penis-joke’:
The South African news media has turned this terrible tragedy into some kind of sexist joke – describing this massacre of four white family men as an ‘argument over penis sizes’— and thus also hiding the fact that this was a very vicious racist massacre.
Initial reports said three had died, and a fourth man died later of his injuries.
Five men of Asian origin were arrested by a special task force from the Phoenix police station very shortly thereafter. One of these suspects was a police inspector stationed at the Mayville police station and the other was based at the Point police station in KZN. One of the police officers already had been placed on suspension for a previous, unknown offense.
Both men found guilty by internal SAPS hearing:
Superintendent Jay Naicker pointed out on Sept 19 2009 that the news media has to take note of the dismissal of the these two Asian policemen because they were still inaccurately reporting that they were merely ‘suspended’ from the force – when in fact both men had been dismissed from the force outright after an internal hearing of the SAPS had found both men guilty.
- "The dismissal of Brian Steven and his brother Leon did not receive media attention. This has seen the media reporting that the brothers were still inspectors and that they were under suspension," said Naicker. "On June 8 this year the two policemen were dismissed from the South African Police force after the murder of four men," said Naicker.
The two Asian brothers face four counts of murder in Umbilo court this month. One of the accused, Brian Samuel Steven, testified in Umbilo court this week that ‘he’d shot the four men in self-defence, fearing for his brother's life” and describing a confused scene where shots were exchanged back and forth.
Massacre-scene was like ‘a slaughterhouse’
However – on the day in question, September 10 2008, the four murdered Afrikaner pub patrons, all family men with small children -- Shawn Strydom, Nick Jansen van Rensburg, Rory Menzes and Bruce Edwards -- were gunned down and killed while they were seated peacefully at a table together, watching a televised football match at the Merseyside Pub in Umbilo in Durban. And the two Asian men accused of killing them, had according to the evidence, gone home after an argument with the Afrikaners which had been started by one of the police-officers in the pub’s urinal; had fetched police-issue guns from their homes, returned to the pub and then massacred the white men where they sat. Security officials said the scene ‘reminded them of a slaughterhouse’.
Police also said at the time that this was the culmination of an argument which began when 'a patron of Indian descent had approached a white man at the pub’s urinals and made a derogatory comment about the size of the white patron's genitals.”
When the white man returned to the table with his other friends, the Asian man had called his brother and several other Asian friends and followed him to the table, continuing the argument. The two groups of men then took their argument outside, and had stood on the sidewalk for a while exchanging insults and engaging in scuffles and fisticuffs. The Asian brothers then left and the Afrikaners went back inside to finish watching the game. None were armed.
Internal hearing by police found the two cops 'guilty'
The Steven brothers were suspended by the SAPS immediately after they were charged on four counts of murder -- and they had also attended an internal hearing 'where they were found guilty and dismissed’ in June this year.
On Friday the High Court in Durban adjourned the case until Monday after Brian Steven had failed to show up.
His lawyer Jay Naidoo told the court Brian was suffering from "severe flu" and was seeing a medical doctor on Friday morning. – http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20090918150142516C915701
Slaughterhouse:
Enforce Security company spokeswoman Brendi Baard said at the time that the security guards who had attended to the scene had described it as a slaughterhouse. "We had to calm people down and ask them to clear the scene. It was very gruesome."
Alan Gale -- employed at the Coimbra Restaurant next door to the pub -- went to look for a friend next door and found himself in the line of fire."When I heard the first gunshot I thought it was a cracker. I looked straight at a man pointing a gun. At the second shot, I hit the floor. Around seven shots were fired. People were screaming and diving on to the floor all around me. I saw a wounded man with blood flowing from his side. He was pleading for help and then passed away in front of me."
When the shooting stopped, a group of men split up and some drove off in a blue Toyota Tazz without number plates. The rest drove away in a white BMW. The security guard on duty managed to get the number plate and reported it to the police."
A musician at the Coimbra also related his version of events on condition of anonymity. "The shots were so loud they sounded like they were being fired in the restaurant. I rushed outside and saw three guys leaving the bar. A big guy was holstering a gun. "They got into a white BMW and screamed off. A man ran out of the bar after the car, bleeding from a wound in his groin, and then he collapsed. " nside the bar one man was dead from a head shot. Two were alive and moaning and one of their friends was throwing chairs around and screaming."
According to the musician, restaurant-staff members tried their best to stem the bleeding from the injured men's wounds, and comforted patrons. Security and medical personnel arrived rapidly, followed by the police.
- Five South African-Indian men were arrested shortly afterwards by a special police task-force in the Indian suburb of Phoenix for carrying out the racist massacre.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20080912055859285C436717
other reports:
http://jv.news24.com//Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2392159,00.html
http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/09/three-white-afrikaner-men-executed-2.html
Labels:
Don’t hire strangers off the street – you could lose your life…
PINETOWN, KZN. The Witness newspaper in KwaZulu published a dire warning on September 19 2009-- highlighting ‘the full horror of what can go wrong when people spend fortunes on personal security — and then employ strangers off the street to work in their homes”.
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=28218
Picture: Sandown Retirement Village hired an unknown stranger off the street, and who’s now in the dock with a comrade, accused of the torture-murder of wheelchair-bound Sheila Hesk, 87. One of the two accused men turned out to have an ‘extensive criminal record’, The Witness reports.
‘Fortunes are spent on personal security – but total strangers are employed off the street to work in their homes without any security checks…’
Writes The Witness: “The results of ‘the fool-hardy hiring total strangers off the streets, was illustrated by the accused who despite his criminal record, was hired as the new gardener by the up-market Sandown Retirement Village in Pinetown, KZN. Ayanda Mthembu, the gardener, and his comrade Sphamandla Cele were charged with the murder of 87-year-old Sheila Hesk in August after the frail old woman ‘s body was found near-naked, bruised and bloodied on August 26 2009, The Witness writes.
- The man, arrested while on the run in KwaDabheka west of Durban, reportedly also told the arresting officers that he did kill the frail Mrs Hesk, and that he’d shown ‘no remorse at all’ while telling them this. The two co-accused were remanded into police custody until Tuesday, September 22.
It’s the extreme cruelty with which this defenceless, frail white woman was murdered, which shocked Durban residents: “Hesk, a wheelchair-bound widow was bound hand and foot, beaten and tortured to death” .
- ‘Hesk’s flat had been ransacked. However, police noted that a small safe remained unopened and had clearly resisted attempts to force it off the wall. It ‘s suspected that the old woman could not remember how to open the safe and so, convinced that she was holding out on them, her attackers tortured her to death by repeatedly stabbing and punching and kicking her.’
Yet somehow, one of the two men now in the dock for this callous murder, had managed to get a job at the retirement village. The retirement village Sandown’s own website boasts: “The level of security at Sandown Village should give you added comfort too. The entire property is walled and there are security officers on patrol at night, which means [that] you can feel totally confident of your home’s security when you go on holiday.”
Hesk’s body was found by the Sandown estate manager Mike Roberts. Neighbours of the wheelchair-bound woman had heard noises from her flat during the night but said ‘ they had not been alarmed.’ However, when her door remained closed the following morning they alerted Roberts.
Within minutes of arriving at the scene of Hesk’s death, the SAPS had positively identified a suspect from fingerprint and forensic evidence left at the scene. Various items belonging to the gardener at the estate were also found inside Hesk’s flat, while the gardener’s spade is believed to have been used to force apart her burglar-guard-gate.
Mthembu’s extensive criminal record was revealed by a one-minute check:
Fingerprints found inside Hesk’s flat were matched to the gardener within seconds. A simple check on his prints or identity document number would have revealed that Mthembu, the 22-year-old gardener, had an extensive criminal record with arrests for assault, housebreaking and a string of other crimes.
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Notorious killer worked as occasional gardener, builder’s assistant:
In a very similar case last year, Petros Mthethwa, named as “South Africa’s most violent house robber” by the KZN house robbery unit at the time, was sentenced to several life sentences for a series of violent house robberies, rapes and murders, most committed with a traditional Zulu spear. Mthethwa favoured a spear over firearms even though he had several firearms. He was known to enjoy tormenting his victims by stabbing them repeatedly before administering the coup de grace with his spear. Mthethwa, an expert knife fighter, was on the run for well over a year after escaping from custody by overpowering two armed policemen and stabbing them repeatedly with a knife smuggled into his cell.
And during the time that he was on the run he travelled between Gauteng and Durban taking occasional employment as a gardener or builder’s assistant. During Mthethwa’s trial Detective Inspector Keith Caswell of the house robbery unit gave evidence that Mthethwa had attacked and murdered at least one of his employers.
- “I simply cannot understand why people hire unchecked staff knowing that horror stories can so often be the result,” said Lane.
No residential development has ever hired local private investigator for security checks:
Amanzimtoti-based private investigator Carol Lane of Lane, Van Staden and Associates also commented that while her company is often requested to undertake background and credit checks of potential tenants, no residential development had ever hired her company to check the backgrounds of their staff.
- Nor had any private person ever asked her company to check out their domestic staff.
“That always amazes me. Domestic staff are trusted with our homes, our children and our lives and yet nobody bothers to do even the most basic background check on their domestic help. The vast majority of domestic staff are absolutely honest, decent people — but if they are hired straight off the street they could well be violent criminals.”
Nina de Winter, CEO of international investigations company Kroll, also commented that her company ‘was very rarely asked to conduct background checks on domestic helpers:
- “We have had such requests, but many people do not realise that this can in fact be done. In this day and age the cost of performing such a check is nothing compared to the price you might pay for not doing so. The price you may pay for hiring unknown help could be your life.”
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90-year-old Pretoria woman and son, 67, survive attack – they suspect the new gardener, although he ‘was neatly dressed and had such good credentials from the Methodist Church’
September 17 2009 – QUEENSWOOD, Pretoria. Mrs Koekie Elliott, 90, and son Norman, 67, are both under treatment at the Netcare Moot-hospital on Thursday after a cruel attack by a group of black men who had bashed and kicked the old woman, and bashed her son over the head with shovels. reports Beeld journalist Virginia Keppler. Their loot: only a cellphone and house-keys. The Elliotts believe their new gardener, hired just two days earlier, ‘may have had something to do with it.’
Beeld picture: Koekie Elliott
Koekie’s son left their home at 13:30 to go and buy compost and food for their newly-appointed gardener when Mrs Elliott was attacked. “I thought it was a joke, then I saw the man, and another one also arrived. I tried to resist but one bashed me really hard in the face, threw me down on the floor, while the other grapped by armes and tied my hands behind my back with an electric cord. Then they dragged me by my arms to my bedroom, where they tried to strangle me to death.’ she said. The attackers already
knew that the Elliotts had a registered safe and repeatedly bashed and kicked her, demanding that she give them the keys. She yelled at the brand-new gardener outside to help her but ‘they just kicked and bashed me more,’ she said. This new gardener must have been suffering from hearing-loss, because when 
Mr Elliott returned from his shopping to find the electric security gates open and called the gardener over to help him offload – the new employee said nothing as Elliott walked right into the arms of the attackers inside. The gardener has since disappeared.
“When I walked into the kitchen I ran in a strange man, and it really scared me,’ Elliott said. He was hit over the head from behind with a spade, fell on the floor and broke his nose, his right-eye and lip. They also tied him up.
When things quieted down in the house, he managed to get himself and his mother untied and called the police.
He said he strongly suspected the new gardener was involved in the attack somehow. “We only hired him day before yesterday when he showed up looking for a job. He had a letter of recommendation from the Methodist church and was neatly dressed,’ he said. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/75cefe3a0ae846e4a66fc8d2860a80a6/17-09-2009-12-42/Vrou_(90),_seun_met_graaf_aangeval
Dr Allan Boesak:”Crime targetting farmers affects all South Africans…’
Well known political personality and liberation-theologist Dr Allan Boesak also spoke up about the country’s horrendous crime epidemic, and said during a radio broadcast on Radio Solidarity on September 17 2009, that this was “ a burning question for all South Africans. As long as people are seen as targets which can be attacked at will by criminal gangs at any time, all South Africans are at risk.”
- He made the comment while reading a list of names of farm-murder victims on Solidarity radio. Listen to Dr Allan Boesak, reading the name list
Son awarded damages for false arrest during siege-mentality killing of dad
It’s warfare in the suburbs of Pretoria -- and residents have developed a ‘siege-mentality’ in which they can’t even trust the cops…
Pretoria. Sept. 19 2009 - Björn Gugger, 29 (picture by Pretoria News) the son of the late Eric Gugger, a senior Reserve Bank official who was shot dead in the driveway of his Pierre van Ryneveld home in August 2004, was awarded R50,000 ($5,000) in damages in response to the Gugger relatives’ multi-million rand civil-court suit against the minister of police.
The High Court in Pretoria on Friday ordered the minister of police to pay these damages to Björn Gugger, 29, for his unlawful assault, arrest and detention in 2004.
Acting Judge Henk Havenga, however, reserved judgment in the widowed Rosemary Gugger's R2,3-million loss of support claim against the minister and former police inspector Daniel Pienaar: remarking that “there seemed to have been a series of misunderstandings, which led to the tragic event.” Son of slain man awarded damages
In 2004 Mrs Rosemarie Gugger was also still quoted by journalists as saying that it clearly ‘had all been a terrible mistake.’ http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20040831063859517C151902
It was indeed a tragic incident during which Gugger believed that his son Björn was being followed by ‘hijackers’ claiming to be cops – while the son was in fact, being followed to the driveway of his home by on-duty police detectives who had clearly identified themselves to him after the young man’s car had nearly collided with their vehicle while they were transporting suspects to Lyttleton police station.
In South Africa, there are frequent criminal incidents in which bona-fide or ‘fake’ cops use police vehicles, blue lights and police identification to ambush, rob and often gang-rape their victims. Residents thus are growing increasingly wary of all police officers : Read: SA Police has dozens of convicted killers on payroll: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/09/police-has-dozens-of-convicted-killers.html
Gugger junior – clearly also not taking any chances -- chased away from the police even though they had identified themselves as police officers with documentation. Police testimony was that when the police team followed his speeding car to the driveway of the Gugger family’s heavily-secured home, the father – who had been alerted by his fleeing son, and was told the son was being chased by hijackers -- confronted police detective Daniel Pienaar at close range with a loaded gun in his drive – while the police officer was busy talking on the police radio, holding his microphone -- the Pretoria News reported in their summary on Sept 19 2009. Pienaar ‘s testimony described how, convinced that his life was in immediate danger, he then was forced to shoot the armed Eric Gugger in self-defence. The policeman was acquitted in 2006 on one count of murder for this incident. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20040831063859517C151902
Ex-cop defends Pta killing
The civil trial was very emotional for all the parties concerned: on September 17, 2009, the court had to even adjourn briefly when Mrs Gugger burst into tears while listening to the testimony of witnesses describing her husband’s death.
Raced through streets
When they stopped next to Gugger Jr, the policemen motioned for him to stop and one of his colleagues showed Gugger his appointment certificate.
- Testimony was that ‘Gugger Jr nodded that he understood,’ -- but then drove onto the gravel past them and started racing through the streets, ignoring numerous red traffic lights, making u-turns and nearly running down an attendant when he raced through a petrol station. They followed Gugger Jr to a house in Pierre van Ryneveld, where his two police colleagues jumped out and followed him in through the security gate before it could close, the former officer testified.
Pienaar testified: "I was on the police radio and was standing at the car door with the microphone still in my hand. The next moment someone grabbed me from behind... He pushed what I presumed was a firearm into my neck. "I put my hands up so that the person would not shoot me. The person said: 'if you move, I’ll kill you. Who are you?' "I turned around suddenly and saw that he had a cocked firearm in his hand. I explained to him that I was a police inspector. He did not react. "...I decided to get away. I passed under the person's arm and pushed his shoulder. He was half upright and turned in my direction with the firearm. I realised the person was going to shoot me... I drew my firearm and immediately started firing. After I fired ... shots, the deceased went down on his hands and knees. I said to him: 'I’ve told you I’m from the police; didn’t you hear the police radio?'"He said 'sorry, I thought you were hijackers'.’ Then he rolled over and died,’ Pienaar testified.
http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/76c7274cc03540c0bdd13c9ff9d0a8d2/15-09-2009-10-25/Ex-cop_defends_Pta_killing
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Why did the Gugger men display this ‘siege mentality”? :
Residents in this suburb – and many other regions of South Africa -- often display a very similar ‘siege mentality’ as described in Pienaar’s testimony. This suburb -- like so many others in Gauteng and other provinces where white families are the majority-taxpayers -- is also under siege from many lethal, heavily-armed killer-gangs who, the record shows, always carry out extensive surveillance of their white targets’ habits before attacking them. These gangs often break down security barriers, guns blazing, killing anyone in their sights. And often, they also pose as bona-fide police officers, using blue emergency lights to pull over their hapless victims. For some of the latest incidents, also read our previous reports: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/07/three-killed-4-critical-in-pierre-van_23.html
On July 21 2009, housekeeper Anna Maleka was attacked by gunmen in a house robbery in Pierre van Ryneveld's Mustang Street – only one of many armed house-robberies which gripped the region during a two-week period after a lull of several months. These two weeks of terror claimed three deaths, all Afrikaans victims, and left four Afrikaner homeowners seriously injured. Read entire story
Jan Botha, 51, shot, critically injured while parking his car:
The attack against Mrs Maleka occurred only metres from where Pierre van Ryneveld Community Policing Forum member Jan Botha, 51, was also shot and critically injured the Sunday beforewhile parking his car – the sixth attack on Pretoria Afrikaner homeowners within just that one week. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090723011850843C430547
For several months before, there had been a brief lull in this horrifying crime wave carried out by armed gangs in this Afrikaner-dominated suburb. The lull was mainly due because of improved community policing in which Jan Botha also had been closely involved. said police and residents. The brutality and lethal force these youth gangs were willing to use also has increased dramatically over the past year, they said. These youth gangs just break into people’s homes and start shooting – apparently unafraid of getting caught, and they don’t hesitate to shoot down anyone inside the house in cold blood.
And these attacks aren’t ‘opportunistic crimes’ – but are carefully planned: Pretoria News journalist Grahame Hosken reported that CCTV footage from Botha's home security system showed a white Toyota Corolla driving past his home several times shortly before the gunmen launched their attack. The gunmen, who were armed with a Colt 45, attacked Botha as he walked towards his carport and shot him in the pelvis at point-blank range. Neighbour Jaco Engelbrecht said he was in his garage when he heard a gunshot. "As I ran outside I saw two men driving slowly out of the driveway in Jan's car. I did not know what was happening and watched as they drove off," he said.
He added that the men were not in a hurry and had watched him closely as they drove off. "It was as though they were not afraid of anything. It was as though they had all the time in the world and were not scared of getting caught," he said.
Frans Esterhuyse, Botha's business partner and fellow CPF member, said : ‘you do not expect this to happen, especially when it happens to someone who is so involved in looking after other people's security. Jan is very involved in the community and is always looking out for our suburb's safety," he said.
- He said crime had been ‘very low in the suburb for the past couple of months’, thanks to the actions of Botha and others. "We had some problems earlier in 2009 with serious crime, but we were able to get the community to come together and bring it under control. This attack is worrying and I am afraid that what is happening in other suburbs is going to start happening here with more and more violent attacks occurring," he said.
On April 10 2009, the Pierre van Ryneveld suburbian streets were plunged into similar mayhem after an armed man who was part of a three-member hijacking gang which had stolen a car at gunpoint outside a nursery school in Pretoria, was shot dead after a hot pursuit through fenced-in backyards by citizens' patrols and the police.
ACCUSED ‘HIJACKER’ KILLED DURING POLICE CHASE APRIL 10 2009
left, picture of killed suspected hijacker: This pciture was taken by community member Cornél van Heerden of Pierre van Byleveld -- showing a man’s body and one of the guns used by agroup of armed hijackers of a mom’s car utside a nursery school on April 10 2009. The dead man, who at that time was described by the police as a ‘suspect gunman” -- lies about 2m away from a gun he’d allegedly used while he was being chased by police and dozens of members of the community-policing forum. see
Police station commander, director Andre Wiese of the Lyttelton police station, said at that time that the citizen's policing-forum members who went into hot pursuit in cooperation with the police patrols, have probably saved the lives of many. He praised them for their courage.
And on December 31st 2008, the same section of Pierre van Ryneveld around Melville and Jim Verster streets was also besieged by a combination of police vehicles, a police helicopter and many of the local residents when a group of armed men also attempted to flee through the gardens after an armed robbery.
On January 16 2009, several large gangs of armed robbers also besieged the suburb in a spate of attacks in which two people were shot, a domestic worker was raped and dozens of citizens terrorised inside their homes. Two of these three suspects were armed with guns, and were shooting wildly towards unarmed citizens while running through the backyards, climbing walls and fences, with one even climbing a tree and shooting straight at the citizens from his high perch at one stage…
Young mom’s car hijacked at school:
With several cars of the SA national police and the municipal police’s dog units all patrolling the neighbourhood searching for the men - also suspected of an armed robbery inside a local home shortly before the hijacking -- the suspects fled into a backyard and had gone to ground.
In neighbouring Moreleta Park, Mr Johan Bester and his wife, his daughter, his mother and his mother-in-law had all been relaxing at home when the group of armed men burst in and held them at gun-point. They were all tied up and the men took what they wanted and left in a VW Golf. Mr Bester was able to free himself and proceded to give chase after the men. He took with him only his hand-gun and his cell-phone and was dressed only in shorts and socks. He apparently said on the phone, while he was in pursuit, that he would chase them until they crashed their vehicle into a tree. These words turned out to be profetic as the men turned off Hans Strydom drive into Pierre van Ryneveld and then took the corner into Melville street at high speed. Unable to negotiate the corner they drove straight into a large tree on the pavement and all piled out of the vehicle and took flight on foot. From there they split up and it was at this point that local members of the Pierre van Ryneveld Community Police Forum, as well as other local residents took up the chase. Initially only one of the four was captured but due to the sterling work of members of the Lyttleton Police Department, the other three were eventually caught. The trail led them all the way back to Mamelodi where they caught the last member of the group at approximately 21:00 that night.
Marina Bosch shot in leg, driver Charles Smit seriously injured:
In January 2009, local business owner and mother of two, Marina Bosch, was shot in the leg by one of this armed gang attacks and her driver seriously injured. She’d been cashing up during the early hours of Friday morning when three gunmen stormed her home in Fury Street -- shooting her driver Charles Smit twice in the chest, critically injuring him before opening fire on her. Her husband Christo managed to hide with their small children.
Cynthia Uren and children, terrorised in three-hour ordeal:
This attack came only hours after a foiled attack on another unnamed woman in her home, and shortly after robbers had also stormed the home of Cynthia Uren, attacking and terrorising her and her children in a three-hour ordeal. The attack in Uren's security complex home ended when she leapt from her car as the four gunmen raced off with her in the car carrying her family’s household appliances. "I was not going to let them take me. I was rather going to be shot than dragged off somewhere terrible and raped," she said. The gunmen are believed to have returned hours later to attack another homeowner in the same complex where they held him and his family up, robbing them of jewellery, money and cellphones.
- The gang, according to local community police forum members and police sources, was also linked to the attack on Neels Kruger and his children during the early hours of Tuesday morning:
Neels Kruger and children under gunfire, domestic worker raped:
Gunmen surprised Kruger's children as they were saying goodbye to friends at the front door of their home. Opening fire on Kruger's children when one of their friends spotted them, the gunmen chased their victims into their Spitfire Street home where they continued firing indiscriminately before fleeing empty-handed when the house alarm was sounded. Security guards who spotted the robbers fleeing along the R21 were forced to abandon their chase when the gunmen shot out their vehicle's tyres. Kruger, describing how his children fled for their lives as the gunmen chased after them, said what had happened was frightening. Recalling how the bullets narrowly missed hitting them, he said:
- "It is only by the grace of God that we are alive. These attacks happen so quickly and when you least expect them," he said. Police spokeswoman Aveline Hardaker, said after these attacks that ‘the police were determining whether the attacks were linked. Police presence has been increased in the area," she said at that time.
sources
- http://www.pvr.org.za/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=24&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
- http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2498944,00.html
- http://www.pvr.org.za/index.php
- http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/04/wild-west-shoot-out-after-hijacking-at.html
Laws for Police Community Forums:
- The South African Police Service Amendment Bill No 39 of 1998- Municipal Policing
- http://www.pvr.org.za/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=34
- http://www.africasafari.co.za/chat/modules.php?name=News&file=categories&op=newindex&catid=3
Siege mentality:
A siege mentality is a shared feeling of helplessness, victimization and defensiveness. Although the term evolved from real sieges, today it refers to persecution feelings by anyone in the minority, or of a group that views itself as a threatened minority.[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_mentality