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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
People don’t bother to phone the police any more…
17:48 | 
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A Stuijt |
‘ June 2009 murder attempt against Pastor Charl Pretorius: a cold-case file without a case number…’
Thursday 22 October 2009 By Cynthia Dreyer, co-editor of Madibeng Pulse
BRITS --- What do you do when there has been an attempt on your husband’s life and you cannot get a case number from the police? This is the strange situation that Mrs Antoinette Pretorius has found herself in after two rogue detectives reluctantly took details down days after the attempted murder incident against her and her husband -- but never entered it in the police crime register!
The miracle of Psalm 27
MadibengPulse reported on the case on 23 June at 23:30 in Broederstroom when pastor Charl Pretorius was shot at apparently from about three metres through a glass door with a 9mm pistol, but miraculously wasn’t hit.
- The family have attributed the miracle to the fact that Pastor Charl was reciting Psalm 27 shortly before the shooting.
The Pretorius family was looking after a home whose owner was away overseas at the time. After Maxi Security had responded to their panic button, the family was helped to move their most vital possessions in the middle of the night to their in-laws in Skeerpoort, with no reaction from police who were apparently attending to another shooting in Broederstroom. No one came out the next day to take statements or collect evidence and eventually after having a student constable slam down the phone, Mrs Pretorius phoned the Station Commissioner, Senior Superintendent Matlala on the Monday.
He apologised and sent two investigators out -- but they didn’t even give us a case number afterwards.
- “You want to feel the police are there for you!” she told Madibeng Pulse at the time. “Now people are not even bothering to phone the police, they are just doing things themselves. It’s scary!”
Previously police had given her a case number by sms when there was an attempted burglary in May. Mrs Pretorius says that she contacted the Hartbeespoort Community Policing Forum after MadibengPulse told her to report the incident to them as they are the liaison between the public and the police -- and was shocked to hear that the two investigating officers who attended to her case “had left the Hartbeespoort Police Station under a cloud.”
- Meanwhile, she still has no case number - What do you think? Email us
- http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=29503&HeadingText=CrimeAlert+221009+cold+case
Labels:
We no longer know what it’s like to live in peace…
They’re Not Wearing Uniforms, But It’s War Against All Our Rural Communities…
Thursday 22 October 2009 - By Cynthia Dreyer, co-editor, Madibeng Pulse
Broederstroom, Kalkheuvel, Leeuwenkloof, De Wildt, Skeerpoort, Rietfontein and all the farming communities around Madibeng are under a state of siege each night and often during the day.
Patrols by armed companies, radio contact and neighbourhood watches have become everyday phenomena in our communities as armed criminals target ordinary citizens of all colours all the time, night and day.. They’re not wearing enemy soldiers’ uniforms but are doing the same job, terrorising the community and looting whatever they can lay their hands on.
South Africans no longer know what it is like to live in peace…
read her entire article: http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=29505&HeadingText=CrimeAlert+221009+rural#t
“South Africans no longer know what it is to live in peace, being able to walk in the streets at night and are sometimes scared even to leave their homes. Is this the legacy we are leaving to future generations? In some rural areas such as Broederstroom and Rietfontein, residents have simply abandoned their homes for fear of being the next victim of some mindless but ruthless farm attack.
Brits: The latest such incident to be reported happened early on Sunday morning in the Geluk farming community north of Brits. Five armed robbers attacked a man and his wife before tying them their hands and feet and hitting the man over the head with a sharp object before ransacking the house. They even tried to dislodge the safe from the wall with a corner iron. The thieves were able to escape with a TV, hi fi equipment and clothing which they loaded into the couple’s silver Toyota Corolla before driving off with it. The registration number is FRK 654 NW. The public is urged to be on the lookout for this vehicle and to report it to the Detectives Unit at Brits on 012 252 9320.
Geluk farm, Brits: In another incident on a Geluk farm, a farmer who was issuing instructions to his workers on his lands at around 19:00 on Friday night was suddenly forced from his Mazda bakkie by two armed robbers. They raced away in the direction of Barseba, but according to Inspector Brian Dlamini of Brits Police, the farmer was able to alert his neighbours who gave chase. “The suspects fired at their pursuers when they were traced to the Barseba cemetery, jumped out of the Mazda and fled into the bushes,” he told MadibengPulse yesterday. “Fortunately no one was hurt. The investigation is continuing and detectives will do everything in their power to trace the robbers and bring them to book. We cannot allow such criminals to upset the lives of communities, holding them to ransom!”
What do you think? Email us
Police Report Oct 22 2009
20091021 – Jan Potgieter, 65, caretaker, shot dead, Villa Nora, Johannesberg farm, Limpopo
2009-10-21 Jan Potgieter, 65, caretaker of the holiday chalets Villa Nora at the Johannesberg farm near Ellisras/Lephalale in Limpopo, was shot dead inside the homestead and a Zimbabwean man – injured by Mr Potgieter’s wife Annelie during the attack, was later arrested by a commando of local farmers and police, reports Beeld journalist Marietie Louw-Carstens
- The speedy arrest was due to the rapid action of farmers and police who barred the access roads and trapped the 18-year-old injured, armed Zimbabwean man, said police superintendent Mohale Ramatseba.
Local farmer Neels Hennop said the Zimbabwean man had apparently worked for Potgieter. It’s not known exactly what took place inside the homestead. Japie Spanio, security chairman of the Transvaal AGricultural Union of South Africa, said the farmers are linked in a security-radio network, and managed to encircle the farm roads and also engaged spoor-finders and a private helicopter in the massive search. The man will appear in the local magistrate’s court on a remand hearing soon, said the police. .http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/d8276acf338448709c64d5cedfc50660/21-10-2009-11-30/Opsigter_by_rusoord_deur_Zimbabwi%C3%ABr_doodgeskiet
Woman finds adult son Morne le Grange, 27, dead in Disselboom Park, Elardus Park bathroom
An Elardus Park, Pretoria woman has discovered the dead body of her 27-year-old son in their bathroom in the high-security complex of Disselboom Park. Police spokeswoman Lynnette Erasmus, said it’s not yet known what the cause of death was. The dead man, Morné le Grange, showed ‘several bruises across his body’ but no other injuries. His mother said Mrs Le Grange went to the bathroom at around 6am but turned away when she realised her son was inside. At 9am, she tried the door again but he was still inside – she then called to him and tried to speak to him but got no response. The third time she opened the door, came across her son in the bathroom, seated on the toilet with his upper body hanging halfway across the bathtub. “She touched him, realised he was ice-cold, and called the police, said Ms Erasmus. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/55c4881035f44184bf8c2f8e3c7eb03e/22-10-2009-11-51/Vrou_kom_op_haar_seun_se_lyk_in_badkamer_af_
Murdered 17-year-old Lanche Robert’s attackers still missing
Amanda Roestoff – Nobody has been arrested thus far for th emurder of Lanché Roberts, a grade-ten pupil at the Hoërskool Jan Viljoen, shot by a large armed gang while the youth was riding on a bakkie with a classmate whose father was delivering the payroll to a local sandstone quarry in Randfontein. The bakkie was ambushed by an armed gang which had blocked the access road – and when the father drove off at high speed with the gang in pursuit, firing madly, the youth was shot dead Police Supt. Gert Kruger of the Randfontein-police said the attack gang fled in a silver VW Polo. Anyone with information about the incident may call him at telephone 082 413 2635 bel. ’A memorial service is held on Friday at 15.00 in the Ou Apostoliese Kerksaal on the corner of Greenhills Avenue and Nerine Street in Greenhills, Randfontein. Read original Beeld report of shooting
Vereeniging civil-engineering student killed – nothing taken
2009-10-22 Johannesburg - A 19-year-old VaalTechnology university student from Limpopo was stabbed to death in near his residence in Vereeniging, Gauteng police said on Thursday
"He was walking to his residence with his friend at 23:00 on Wednesday, after they studied together at the campus library," Constable Teboho Lephoto said. The students were walking through Bedworth Park when two men with knives demanded cash and cellphones. "The robbers took the friend's cellphone and he managed to flee... the friend was stabbed in the upper body," Lephoto said. The attackers fled , leaving the stabbed student to die at the scene. They did not take anything, ‘he still had his cellphone on him as well as cash…’ said the constable. Lephoto said the student was from Limpopo and was in his first year, studying civil engineering. His parets were informed of the murder on Wednesday night and were driving up from Limpopo to identify the body. "It's very sad, they sent their child to study and become something, and now his body is going home," he said. No arrests had been made as yet, and a case of murder was being investigated. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/696a9e8062774ec1962dbba618692b1e/22-10-2009-10-42/Student_killed_in_robbery
Bullet-proof vests for German team WC 2010
Bullet-proof vests for German football stars - World Cup in South Africa ..-
Oct 21 2009 -- PRETORIA. Germany's football stars have been warned to expect to wear bullet-proof vests at next summer's World Cup in South Africa. The head of their top security firm said players would need such protection if they ventured away from the team's Pretoria hotel amid safety fears.
Guenter Schnelle from BaySecur told the German magazine Sport-Bild: (click on the pictures to read the original story in German): "The possibility for the players of moving outside of the hotel boundaries should be kept to a minimum. Otherwise there must be a full escort: armed security guards and bullet-proof vests for the players.”’
BaySecur looks after the German Football Federation (DFB) and their guests when the national team plays away from Germany. It is one of the security firms expected to be employed by the DFB while the team is involved in the tournament from June 11.
The final are planned for July 11 2010 at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium. This is the upgraded former 80,000-seat FNB_stadium near the football-crazy townships of Soweto. About 40 percent of greater Johannesburg's population live there - and this close proximity “is bound to make the stadium a hub of activity throughout the 2010 finals…” promise the organisers of FIFA on their website.
Meanwhile, the German Football League is looking to step up security around the team's five-star hotel in downtown Pretoria, and all-set to recruit 20 extra security guards.
Due to the extremely high violent-crime rates in South Africa the DFB “is taking no risks,” its security boss Helmut Spahn told Sports-Bild. “ Private bodyguards will protect the players both in and around the Velmore Grande hotel in the province of Gauteng. We will probably use more personnel than we would normally have," said Mr Spahn, who will also spend four days in South Africa next week looking at security arrangements.
"We need to first of all get an idea of what security arrangements are already in place for both the team and the media. Then we will decide whether to improve the security measures or whether they are sufficient."
Germans also bringing their own security
According to Mr Spahn, “there is little chance the DFB will rely only on local security guards in South Africa” – in fact Germany's federal police force “are in talks with the DFB on the issue.” http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091021/twl-bullet-proof-vests-for-germans-at-wo-3fd0ae9.html
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Analysis, South African war-zone lifestyle:
168,906 people killed im criminal violence since 2002…
I've been adding up all the statistics and have drawn up the following picture of the violent-crime situation since 2002 up to April 2009:
Murders since 2002 totaled 94,774 -- plus Culpible Homicides totaled another 74,132 -- so added together, a total of 168,906 people were killed in criminal violence from March 2002 to April 2009.
Compare this to one of the worst war-zones: the total people killed in Iraq thus far in ALL their violence in the same period of time was 85,000 people -- and this included the number of trauma-related deaths in mortuaries also from traffic accidents...
The attempted murders in South Africa since 2002 were 132,398 - which means that many lives could still be saved in hospitals.
However with the hospital services deteriorating so fast now, the 'attempted murder' rates will undoubtedly be more rapidly converted to 'murders'. It’s not known how many of these 132,398 'attempted murders' since 2002, also have died later from their injuries.
Some become so long-term traumatised and paralysed that it takes many months or even years to die... and the police won't change those deaths to 'murders' because, they claim, these deaths 'could be from other non-related medical causes'...
Street robberies: Then look at this horrid picture: the total number of "street robberies" since 2002 were officially recorded at a total 444,305...
- 1,190,740 violence-driven robberies since 2002…
- However -- then one must also add to these another 'robbery' category, listed elsewhere, namely the 'aggravated robberies' (identical to street robberies, but then carried out with weapons), which were another 746,435 since 2002... I cannot figure out why they are listed seperatedly, however if you add these two statistics together, you get the real picture of the incredibly violent society which South Africa has been turned into since 2002....
- 444,305 + 746,435 robberies equals 1,190,740 violence-driven robberies -- and in a society with 47-million people that is an incredibly harrowing statistic.
And there’s also a strong impression among many victims that these criminal attacks are driven by racial hatred, since the vast majority (90%) of all the criminals are blacks, 8,3% of these crimes are carried out by 'Cape coloured' gangs, the remaining 0,7% by Asians and Whites combined, according to the Institute of Security Studies.
- (In South Africa, culpible homicides do not include those deaths registered by the traffic authorities and related to negligence or willful violence in traffic accidents... )
Racial abuse often shouted during violent crimes by black criminals:
One can easily imagine why many of those victims might perceive this crime wave as being targetted against them for racial reasons, especially if they get racial abuse shouted at them during these crimes...
Attacks against unarmed families by black gangs inside their homes: And the racial angle is definitely being reinforced even more by the incredible terror endured by so many South African families inside their homes:
- from those statistics it's clear that the most-targetted areas in 'residential homes robberies' are those regions occupied by'white' families, especially in Gauteng province such as Sandton – where the Dutch football team is going to be housed…
"Residential robberies" -- which are direct attacks against at-home families by gang s-- were 9,351 in 2002 and have soared to a whacking 18,298 by April 2009 -- and 90% were carried out by black youth-gangs operating in heavily-armed, organised rape/murder gangs of five or more, the ISS describes them as 'militia gangs'-- which are targetting families inside their homes:
- add them all up and you get a total of 74,595 of these attacks against families since 2002... small wonder that more than 1,2-million of South Africa’s top-skilled young whites have already left the country permanently with their families…
Also, according to the analysis by the Institute of Security Studies about this specific crime-statistic, the homes most targetted were "working-class to upper-class homes in residential neighbourhoods in Gauteng province which suburbs are overwhelmingly occupied by white families. These include the great many attacks against the working-class Afrikaners living on the smallholdings of greater Pretoria, Randburg/Honeydew and the Vaal triangle, and also include the heavily-secured fortresses in the elite, 'white' upperclass suburb of Sandton...
So the ISS confirmed::
- the people most targetted by these violent, armed black attack gangs in Gauteng province most certainly are primarily white families - and they aren't all necessarily 'rich' either…
- Working-class Afrikaners who now have next to nothing left to steal, and are living in squatter shacks and caravans, crowded together on the smallholdings of relatives, also are being targetted by these gangs. Now why would that be unless these attacks were driven by racial hatred towards the victims? http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2009/crime_stats.htm
- http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/10/summary-sa-crime-stats-32002-42009.html
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Dutch ‘Orange-legion’ ignores security warnings:
- http://www.onsoranje.nl/news/content/news/oranje/ned-xi/Sfeer-proeven-in-Zuid-Afrika.html
- Dutch media bombarded with ‘safe WC2010’ guarantees…
- http://www.zuidafrika2010.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25:veiligheid-prioriteit-in-2010&catid=36:veiligheid-zuid-afrika&Itemid=12
- Dutch team lives in Sandton Hilton:
South Africa cannot be protected warns Flemish news media
AIDS-vaccine experiment questioned
Early excitement over US military’s HIV vaccine trials dimming fast
--------------
Johannesburg, 21 October 2009 - The worldwide initial excitement over an apparently modestly-succesful experimental HIV-vaccine, has been dimmed by scientists revelations that these trial results had been based only on the most promising of three different analyses. The other, far less promising analyses details which could have been caused by the placebo-effect, were left out of the US military HIV research programme Protocol G team’s initial reports, writes PlusNews (the UN-funded news agency).
Now the US military research want to focus their efforts to find an AIDS-vaccine on southern Africa, because they had found “some genetic variants among the East (and southern) African populations which are rarely found elsewhere, and these could provide some level of protection from HIV acquisition or disease progression..”
- Read the full report: Http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86681
Claimed 31% positive effect questioned after release of all study-data:
The US Military HIV research programme’s trial team in Bangkok, Thailand (left, PlusNews picture) had initially generated great excitement worldwide when announcing on 24 September 2009 that “a combination of two (gene-based) vaccines had reduced the rate of HIV infection by 31 percent in about 8,200 volunteers, compared to around the same number who were given placebos.” Their research in this Protocol G programme is funded by the International Aids-Vaccine Initiative, IAVI. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0908492
The US Military HIV research programme’s website however, hails these initial reports as a breakthrough , writing:
“Two new antibodies with the ability to neutralize many strains of HIV have been discovered. The work was published in Science during the first week of September. In 2006, IAVI launched Protocol G—an international collaborative study searching for antibodies that can neutralize the strains of HIV that circulate in the developing world. Working with doctors and clinics in Thailand, Australia, the U.S. and Africa, the group collected blood samples from 1,800 people who had been infected with HIV for at least three years without developing symptoms. The samples from Thailand, which were used in the study, were contributed by MHRP led by LTC (Dr.) Robert Paris through the Department of Retrovirology, US Army Medical Component, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS) in Bangkok.” https://www01.hjf.org/apps/internet/hivnewscenter.nsf/newsmainlistview/EEBC48A1593E5F1D85257633005A3AD1
However only a few weeks later, researchers who had seen the full data from this trial told Science Magazine that another analysis based only on those participants who had received all six doses of the vaccine at the right times did not show any statistically significant protective effect and that only the most positive results had been published.
It was hoped that the release of more details from the trial to coincide with the AIDS Vaccine 2009 conference taking place in Paris this week would settle the question of whether the vaccine results were really as significant as the initial announcement had suggested or a mere fluke.
Instead, full results of the study, published online yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) raised more questions than they answered.
31 percent is modestly successful – 26% could be the placebo effect…
PlusNews writes that the 31 percent efficacy in the initial announcement was based on a "modified intention-to-treat" analysis that included all the 16,402 trial participants, except for seven who were found to have contracted HIV before receiving any vaccinations.
A second analysis included those seven, while a third "per-protocol" analysis involving 12,452 participants – and there it was found that the vaccine was only 26 percent effective.
“This was not enough to be statistically significant, meaning that the difference between the vaccine and the placebo arms of the trial was so small that it could have been a coincidence…”
Scientists with different interpretations
Dr Jerome Kim of the US Military HIV Research Programme, who helped lead the trial, told reporters at the vaccine conference in Paris that the modified intention-to-treat analysis was the most accurate, but others disagreed, writes PlusNews.
- “A statistician quoted in a New York Times report placed more emphasis on the analysis that included the seven HIV-positive participants, while another did not believe that any of the analyses provided sufficient evidence the vaccine worked.
“In an editorial accompanying the article, NEJM editor Raphael Dolin said that "although the merits of each type of analysis can be debated, all three yielded a possible, albeit modest, effect of the vaccine in preventing HIV infection."
- Why did vaccine efficacy decrease over time?
- Other authors also argued that, taken together, the three different analyses of the results were "consistent with a modest protective effect of vaccine", but could not explain why other findings from the trial indicated that the vaccine's efficacy appeared to decrease over time -- or why it was less effective among “participants at high risk of infection”?
PlusNews also writes that ‘the scientists were also unsure whether it was one of the two vaccines that produced a potentially protective effect, or the combination of the two. Dolin noted that the findings raised ‘a number of questions that have important implications for future directions in vaccine research’, and recommended that the duration of the vaccine's effect be addressed by following up the trial participants, as well as by future trials.
- Modified vaccine may be conducted in South Africa:
- PlusNews also quoted a report by a South African news service, Health-e, quoting Colonel Nelson Michael of the US Military HIV Research Programme, another lead investigator of the Thai trial, as saying in Paris that “a further study of the vaccine may be conducted in South Africa, which has a much higher HIV prevalence than Thailand.
This vaccine ‘would however first have to be modified ‘to contain the strain of HIV most common in sub-Saharan Africa,’ Michael was quoted as saying -- IPLUSNEWS/ks/he http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86681
“Shared genetic variants in East-African black populations rarely found elsewhere…”
However, in order to develop such an HIV-vaccine based on its great variety of genetic strains, the US military has also launched an extensive genome-study programme amongst the black populations of several East-African countries -- Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda -- and discovered that they while they were all closely inter-related genetically – this specific group also shared ‘genetic variants which were rarely found elsewhere –- and that these “ could provide some level of protection from HIV.’ https://www01.hjf.org/apps/internet/hivnewscenter.nsf/newsmainlistview/9CEEB0312DF6FD1B852576330045273E
Of special interest to these HIV vaccine developers are these sub-Saharan African populations because they also have the largest prevalence of HIV worldwide. Under the leadership of COL Jerome Kim and Francine McCutchan, PhD, scientists at the Department of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis have ‘developed novel tools’, they write, to ‘study the genetic composition of populations in Uganda and Tanzania -- and these have led to a rapid understanding of the genetic complexity in this region.”
- Dr. Rebecca Koehler and Dr. Gustavo Kijak have co-authored two papers recently in the journal Tissue Antigens on this genetic diversity of the key HLA and KIR genes in East Africa. These genes are key determinants of cellular immune responses against HIV and can play a significant role in vaccine efficacy, they wrote in their report on the genetic diversity of host restriction genes APOBEC and TRIM5, which have the ability to interfere with key steps in the HIV replication cycle within infected cells at the International AIDS Society Conference on Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Until recently, we did not have substantial knowledge of the complexity of human genetic factors that influence HIV infection immune responses in this geographic region, which has been a major obstacle for vaccine development,” they wrote.
“We observed that East African populations exhibit a much larger degree of genetic diversity than other global groups, which further supports the Out-of-Africa theory (that postulates that modern humans originated in East Africa and migrated out of the continent to populate the world)” says Dr. Koehler.
They also found that populations from different countries in East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda) shared common patterns of genetic variation.
- Dr. Kijak noted that “some of these genetic variants, rarely found elsewhere, could provide some level of protection from HIV acquisition or disease progression. Understanding their mechanism of action may help us design better drugs and vaccines.”
Overall, they noted that ‘the uniqueness of East African populations and their concordant genetic makeup reinforce the rationale for conducting multi-center vaccine trials in this region.”
other reading:
- US Military HIV Research: http://www.hivresearch.org/
- Science magazine initial positive report: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/NEJMoa0908492
- SOUTH AFRICA: HIV-positive inmates speak out
- SOUTH AFRICA: Turning the tide against drug-resistant TB?
- SOUTH AFRICA: HIV rate among pregnant women remains high