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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
ANC sings a false tune in London…
22:58 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Nationalisation: What the ANC says to investors in London
Due to the growing chorus among the ruling troika-partners calling for the nationalisation of the mines and other industries, South African mining giant Lonmin called an urgent meeting at a luxury London hotel on October 29 2009 -- trying to put to rest the growing worries of British and European business partners. However, the tune sung by the ANC-treasurer-secretary Matthews Phosa carries a very false note, provides overly optimistic economic forecasts, and while denying plans to nationalise, also stating that the ANC would apply the broader distribution of wealth in a responsible fashion”.
2 November 2009 -- Text of the ANC treasurer-secretary Matthews Phosa’s address to a briefing at the ‘progressive business forum briefing for British and European business and industry leaders’, Grosvernor House Hotel, Park Lane, London, UK. After the usual introduction, he said:
“As we stand here today Britain is South Africa's second largest trade partner after China. It is, however, a partner that we have trusted and valued over the centuries and one that has stood by us during both good and bad times. It is a partnership and relationship that we wish to continue and expand at all times. This point was made by our President when he visited your Prime Minister in April last year and repeated recently when he met with your High Commissioner to accept her credentials as your countries representative in South Africa.
“It is one of the major reasons that I am here today as the Treasurer General of the African National Congress. I also convey the wishes of our party's leadership as well as that of the President to strengthen and deepen our commercial relationship. In that regard, you have been a mining partner of ours for a very long time. Your recent substantial investments by Barclays into our local bank, ABSA, as well as Vodafone into our own Vodacom critically enhanced that preferred partner relationship between us.
It is my fervent hope that my visit can, in time, unlock further opportunities for both British and South African investors. I am told that I can now go and drink coffee here at the South African coffee shop Vida e Caffe and have lunch at our restaurant group, Spur. Financial services groups such as Old Mutual, Investec and Standard Bank utilize London as a springboard to identify opportunities in Europe.
It is my fervent hope that even more British companies will utilize our major cities as a similar springboard to broaden your business activities into Southern Africa and the African continent. On a political level, we believe that we have been a sound and trusted partner for our friends in multi-lateral forums such as SADC, the African Union, the G20 and the United Nations. We will continue to utilize those forums to work for the advancement of the agenda of political and commercial partnerships that will further enhance our agenda of South and Southern Africa as a favoured developmental, political and commercial partner.
In the challenging global economic environment in which Jacob Zuma became the fourth President of the Republic of South Africa at the end of April this year, he inherited the following:
- A strong governing party with a clear and decisive majority at the polls.
- A region dominated by the instability in Zimbabwe where the Zanu PF/MDC alliance is a cause for concern, amongst many other concerns.
- A continent where the final form and format of the African Union is still being debated.
- A country where crime and corruption is at unacceptable levels and an issue of concern for our British, European and global partners. In this regard, we will and must move away from a culture of greed and self enrichment to one of transparent accountability. We should also consider additional legal measures, one of them being the potential appointment of a Corruption Commissioner with wide ranging legal powers.
- A country where we have no other choice but to focus a large amount of energy on addressing decades of old backlogs in education, health and housing. In the mini budget delivered by our Minister of Finance on Tuesday, he announced an additional package of almost R1 billion for HIV/AIDS as well as substantial increase in spending in housing and education through a number of initiatives, inclusive of infrastructure creation. We hope to create more than 4 million jobs in the next three years.
In addition, there is a view that, because of the above, the South African government will incrementally move its economic policies to the left of centre and thereby cause concern amongst some of its partners.
You can expect the following from the ANC government, headed by President Zuma:
- That Mr Zuma, as President, will move swiftly to restore the legacy of reconciliation and nation building, bequeathed to him by Mr Mandela. South Africa will operate as a team from a non-racial, non-sexist basis.
- That we will work tirelessly to find democratic solutions to enhance a political settlement in Zimbabwe.
- That we will work very hard towards defining our role on the continent in such a way that we act as leaders, but also enhance unity and solidarity on the continent.
- That we will launch a massive effort to enhance stability ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, but at the same time finding the right mix of socio-economic measures that will combat poverty and unemployment, issues that are at the root of crime. One of the announcements in Tuesday's mini budget was that we will put more than 22,000 new policemen on the street and that a massive spending programme will be launched to improve security in our country over the next three years.
“ Noise you have been hearing about nationalization of mines “
He said: “I know that you are concerned about the noise that you have been hearing around the issue of the nationalization of mines in South Africa. I understand that you regard this as a very serious issue, and I want to reassure you that we will manage it, keeping your substantial and historical interests in mind. Given our democratic nature as a party, the ANC has no choice but to allow its' structures to voice their opinions about this matter. It is the open and transparent way that we conduct our business and we will continue to do so. Nationalization of the mines is, however, not the policy of the ANC, nor that of the ANC led government.
“We will, however, explore ways and means of broadening this debate and finding creative long term solutions to the serious issue of the broader distribution of wealth in a responsible fashion. It is not a debate in isolation, and your serious and blunt views about the issue will be welcomed.
“You are also concerned about repeated views that have been expressed regarding the possibility that the ANC led government will start a move towards economic policies that are investor unfriendly and less responsible than our current fiscal and monetary policies. I am confident that Tuesday's mini budget made a contribution towards dispelling those views over time. Our budget policies will continue those that we developed over time, target inflation, encourage counter cyclical investments and relax export regulations. The signs are that we will move out of the recession in the fourth quarter of this year, start growing by just over 1% next year and move towards a growth of 3.2% in 2012.
“We are flattered by the investment into our financial services industry by Britain and China. Other investments are being discussed into this sector, a sector that has been praised globally for its strength under the onslaught of the global crisis. Similarly, we have been strengthened by your support of our conservative and sound fiscal and monetary policies.
“Whilst mindful of our responsibility to broaden our services to our voters at speed, we are also mindful of the need of a constant and increased inflow of foreign direct investment as well the development of profitable joint ventures. It is simply not in our interest to deviate from that path. I am here as an elected representative of the ANC leadership to seek lasting commercial partnerships that will benefit the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and Southern Africa.
“Hopefully our interactions here this evening will contribute towards creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs on both sides. In closing, I want to thank Lonmin for their sponsorship of this event. Their sponsorship of this event shows their deep understanding for the support of forums where we can engage business leaders in global financial centers such as London.
“The co-convenors of the Progressive Business Forum, Renier Schoeman and Daryl Swanepoel, will engage with you regarding further events next year where members of the ANC leadership as well as government ministers will engage with you here on issues that define our commercial and other relationships. We sincerely appreciate Lonmin's sponsorship of this event as well as your attendance. I thank you. Source: African National Congress http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=149399&sn=Marketingweb_detail
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Nationalisation: what the National Union of Mineworkers says at home
2 November 2009 - Castro Ngobese of the National Union of Mineworkers calls for the ‘rich-boy club to be targetted for nationalisation of their wealth: the Motsepes, Sexwales, Macozomas, Nhlekos, Mittals and Oppenheimers …
Picture: Mining company owner Patrice Motsepe, South Africa’s first black billionaire, and others like him, became this wealthy not because of entrepreneurial skills, but because of the Black Economic Empowerment laws which require all companies to be between 26% and 50% black-owned. Now, the National Union of Mineworkers wants to confiscate Motsepe’s gathered ‘wealth’.
“The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is concerned that massive wealth worth of billions is concerted in the hands of private individuals as reported in the Sunday Times Rich List.
“This obscene and massive wealth is being reported by the Sunday Times in the midst of the revelations that South Africa has apparently taken over Brazil as the most unequal country in the world ever. This has been confirmed by University of Cape Town, School of Economics, Professor Haroon Bhorat, that indeed South Africa is now the most unequal country in the world, with a significant increase in income inequalities.
- “White South Africans’ salaries grew by a stinking 83%” - he claimed inaccurately…
- Ngobese: “Bhorat also confirms that whilst inequalities have risen amongst Black South Africans, the growth of White South Africans salaries between 1995 and 2008 surpasses by far the growth of salaries amongst Black South Africans. He further points out that at this juncture, the salaries of Black South Africans grew on average by about 38%, and those of White South Africans salaries grew by a stinking 83%. (Note 1*)
Ngobese continues his speech: “This quantifies the fact that income inequalities have worsen since the demise of Apartheid in our country and a tiny Black capitalist fraction has emerged, and which is dependent on both the State and established White monopoly capital for its own survival.
This absurdity has been sharply characterized by the vanguard - the South African Communist Party (SACP) as the javelin syndrome. The use of incumbency in particular positions in the State to ‘throw the javelin' (public resources) to a network of friends, family and other connections so that a comfortable personal transit can be made from the public sector to the private - where the ‘javelin', or at least the share of it, can be personally retrieved. This accumulation and obsceneness was fostered by the 1996 Class Project and deepened everywhere in the State, private sector and systematically transmitted to our society at large.
“Currently, millions of jobs have been shed in the manufacturing and other sectors, the cost of basic necessities are skyrocketing, unemployment rate is escalating, massive service delivery backlogs, houses and cars are being repossessed by financial institutions and massive poverty is deepening amongst the vast sections of the workers and the poor. This can be attributed to deep seated and embedded crisis of capitalism entrenched in our economy and social sphere by the 1996 Class Project and which has reproduced a fraction of a black elites co-opted by dominant White monopoly capital. Why should such massive wealth be in the hands of private individuals?
The threat of violence: a ‘radical and militant campaign
“We strongly believe that our National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter was never meant to reproduce or replace a White capitalist class with a Black capitalist class or co-opt connected politicians to join exploiters. The NDR has always been anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist. This then calls for the radical and revolutionary agenda to be championed by the broad movement as led by the ANC to transfer the wealth of our country to the hands of the people as a whole, as opposed to a selected few.
The failure by the ANC and movement to champion this revolutionary agenda will spiral today's alienation and upsurge of service delivery protests over economic marginalization and resources.
“As Numsa, we are calling for the nationalization, and eventually the socialization of the massive and privately owned wealth in the hands of Motsepes, Sexwales, Macozomas, Nhlekos, Mittals and Oppenheimers of this world.
“We are conscious of the fact that there has never been any transfer of wealth from the capitalists to the workers and the poor without any form of force or ‘imposition'. We are not blind to no way in which the exploiters and oppressors of the workers and the poor surrender our wealth without being forced to so.
“Numsa will lobby other Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliated unions and progressive forces to mount a radical and militant campaign to put a stop on excessive privately owned wealth and salaries which are reproducing racialised (class and gendered) apartheid inequalities and opulence.
“This also calls on the Tripartite Alliance Secretariat to have an informed and structured discussion on the privately owned wealth and earned salaries in relation to our ongoing efforts of building a Freedom Charter based society. The inability by the Alliance Secretariat to have a frank and honest discussion on this matter will be tantamount to auctioning the revolution to the highest bidders in the market.” NUMSA http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=149363&sn=Marketingweb_detail
notes:
* Note 1: - These race-based income distribution stats used in this speech have been slammed as highly inaccurate by Dave Steward, executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, who says ‘something is badly wrong with the numbers provided by the president’s latest Development Indicators. “ http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=147454&sn=Marketingweb_detail
Note 2: Most of South Africa’s newly wealthy black millionaires are not entrepreneurial: instead they have gained this wealth through their directorships of multinational companies and mining conglomerates under the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws, which mandate that companies be at least 26% black-owned in order to get a government mining license and that these companies may not hire any permanent white workers. http://hottestgossip.co.za/2009/03/12/african-billionaires-meet-the-richest-people-in-the-continent/
TAXPAYER BASE IS SHRINKING … THE MONEY NOW HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE…
South Africa’s rapidly shrinking taxpayer-base now has to carry the burden not only for the massive free housing-, free education and free municipal service-delivery projects and infrastructure renewals which keep the black township voters’support for the ruling ANC/Cosatu/SA Communist ruling troika -- but this small taxpayer base of less than 5-million people is still shrinking fast due to the massive job-losses – while at the same time also being taxed more and more to foot the bill to house, feed and somehow also care for the many millions of poor refugees from the rest of Africa who are streaming into the country at the rate of 5,000 a day.. Thus the taxpayers and ratepayers are getting squeezed beyond their ability to pay and the ruling troika now has to find its funding for its own luxurious lifestyle somewhere else. These calls for nationalisation of the mines is the natural result and these will indoubtedly be implemented. One note of interest: those ‘white wealth’ claims in Ngobese’s speech are based on complately inaccurate figures from the president’s latest Development Indicators. In reality, more than 1-m of the 3million whites now are already living below the breadline of R10 income a day, are unemployed and homeless because they are barred from the entire labour market. However due to the fact that ‘poor whites” as a population group do not by law qualify for unemployment or support-benefits from the State, the existence of this poor-white population also is not calculated into the president’s figures at all….
http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-face-of-white-poverty-in-safrica.html
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Ekurhuleni metro-cops strike again
Donovan Whittle and wife were attacked, and cursed because they are white
November 2 2009 Ekurhuleni – East Rand. Donovan Whittle, 40, of Bedfordview said he was sworn at, roughed up and illegally jailed by three Ekurhuleni metro police officers only because he is white, reports The Star’s journalist Botho Molosankwe. Whittle’s ‘case’ for which he purportedly had been arrested, moreover was scrapped off the court roll just a day later by the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court …
Mr Whittle’s wife, he said, was sworn at and pushed against a counter by an Ekurhuleni metro police officer, who also mishandled her in full view of SAPS members at the Olifantsfontein police station without anybody intervening. "It's about race. Why allow someone to attack a white woman in a police station and do nothing about it? The way he spoke to her makes us sure that it was racist," Donovan Whittle said.
- Many similarly-disturbing incidents have been reported about Ekurhuleni metro-cops before. view some of the harrowing details just below this article.
'Why allow someone to attack a white woman in a police station?'
The 40-year-old South African man says that on October 17 he was stopped and asked by a metro police officer for his licence. He said he had handed it over, but when the officer just walked up and down the road with it and would not return it, he grabbed it from his hand. "I then snatched the licence from him, I did not even touch him. As far as I am concerned, he was not allowed to keep my licence."
- "I believe the incident was racially motivated. Me, my father and son were the only white people at the scene ... he was trying to prove a point," he said.
Whittle described how eight metro police officers who were on the other side of the road then also arrived at the scene, shouted and swore at him and pushed him around. He believes they must have seen him grab his licence.
He said two officers grabbed him - one so hard and tightly that fingernails gouged the skin on his arm.
Whittle then called 10111, and the other officers left. When he failed to get the name of the officers who had grabbed him, he tried to take his picture, something that worsened the situation.
He was told he was ‘interfering’, thrown into a police van and taken to the Olifantsfontein police station, where he was charged with ‘assault, refusing to give particulars, resisting arrest and interfering.’ The charges were dropped the next day.
Assaulted Mrs Whittle:
When his wife arrived at the police station, Whittle pointed out the officer who had hurt her arm, and she took his picture. That incensed the cop, said Whittle:
- "He grabbed her, demanding her phone. He then grabbed her by the arm and pushed her against the counter.
"When she tried to lay a charge of assault, an officer at the charge office said 'f*** you, sit down and shut up!' Whittle was held in the police cells for five hours before being released on bail of R500.
He and his wife then tried to lay a charge against the police officer at the Primrose police station the following day, but were told they could lay a charge “only after Whittle's case has been finalised. “ The Bedfordview police station was approached next – and he was told the same thing, and they also told him he ‘had to lay the charge with the Olifantsfontein police.’
Wilfred Kgasago, of the Ekurhuleni metro police department, asked for comment by The Star, said they would investigate the officers' alleged conduct. “The department's integrity and standards unit would contact Whittle and get the full story from him.”Whittle appeared in the Tembisa Magistrate's Court, but the matter was struck off the roll.
This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on November 02, 2009 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20091102041227602C445919
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Pattern of hate-crimes involving Ekurhuleni authorities:
Easttrand/Ekurhuleni police chief gets the boot
- 26 Sep 2008 - during his current drunken-driving hearing at the Pretoria regional court, witnesses testified that East Rand/Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride - a senior ANC-cadre nicknamed ‘Bomber’ McBride -- had told one officer that he 'would arrange for his wife raped and murdered ...http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2008/09/eastrandekurhuleni-police-chief-gets.html
Innocent bystander Qenesane Benjamin Hans shot dead by Ekurhuleni metro-cops
June 1 2008 -- On this same Robert McBride's watch, innocent people were also injured and killed by Ekurhuleni metro-cops. This photograph by Rapport newspaper photographer Christiaan Kotze was taken while the East Rand/Ekurhuleni metropolitan police had been ordered to shoot at a crowd at the Ramaphosa squatter camp.
The man in the red shirt in the foreground died just minutes after this photograph was taken. He was Qenesane Benjamin Hans, a South African resident who lived at the Ramaphosa squatter camp and had walked past, enroute to his job. And the policemen which can be seen firing behind him all belong to the EastRand/Ehkurhuleni police force - they had just been ordered to 'fire on a crowd' at Ramaphosa squatter camp by Robert McBride, who had just arrived and taken over command of the action from the national SA Police Service. Kotze also was injured and taken to hospital in the same ambulance with Hans. The squatter camp resident died enroute.
Cops strong-arming of protests cause violence
3 Sep 2009 – Thokoza residents told researcher Owen Manda that Ekurhuleni metro-police had randomly opened fire at protesters "without any provocation" during the July protest in which they called for the immediate resignation of Ekurhuleni mayor Mtombi Mekgwe. ...http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/09/cops-strong-arming-of-protests-cause.html
Top squash-player James-Thomas Geldart, 20, shot by Ekhurhuleni metrocops
April 19 2008 - A young Afrikaner Unisa student, and one of the country's top ten squash players, James-Thomas Geldart (20) sustainedserious gunshot wounds after he was shot in the groin and the face by members of the EastRand/kurhuleni-metropolitian police on the N12 highway near Springs. He was returning from the Benoni Country Club. He's a trainer there and plays in its top honours-winning squash-team.
Photographed by Beeld newspaperwere his parents James jr and Amanda, and sister Petri, 15. The unarmed Unisa student was returning from the Benoni club when he was shot at around 12:30 and, chasing home with serious gun-shot wounds, crashed his car into a wall.
The family said he was dragged from his car covered in blood, and kept saying: 'dad I thought I was being hijacked, they were shooting me.' The Geldart family already was badly traumatised by violent crime: recently they were also was attacked by armed black men inside their home, and about a year earlier, James-Thomas' car also was hijacked. He said the shots were fired by two groups of armed men in two unmarked cars who had followed him on the N12 highway near Springs.
They were giving no indications that they may have been cops. Believing they were hijackers or robbers, he called his security company CMS while he continued driving to his parental home. Spokesmen confirmed that they could hear the shots while he was calling them in sheer panic -- and immediately rushed to his house because a security alarm had also been raised there by his mother. Mr Geldart, bleeding profusely and weak from the gunshot wounds, by then had lost control over his car and crashed it into a wall a block away from his house. There was no sign of the men who had been following him. He was treated on the scene by paramedics and rushed to Glynnwood hospital.
SA Police captain Julia Claasen said they are 'investigating attempted murder charges. His dad said at the time that he could ‘not understand why his unarmed son was shot at at all: he's still a child, he was the headboy at Brandwag (Afrikaans) High School and among the top-ten squash players in the country. He's in his third year studying for a B-com in financial management at Unisa.' The father 'had heard that the metro police were busy with some kind of crime-prevention campaign in Springs. Perhaps that had something to do with it.' http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2308619,00.html
White teachers under siege in Ekurhuleni
4 Sep 2009 - One Afrikaans principal at a school in Boksburg/Ekurhuleni received sms’s every day for a week reading: warning breakins at school. you are next then your staff. be warned watch your back... “We know you not at school today and we will get you tomorrow. We know your every move..are you scared? Tomorrow is YOUR day .. The whites ‘ days are numbered at school…
Philip du Plessis, the (white) principal at Bedfordview High School, where the other white teacher also had been forced out on trumped-up charges, also was intimidated and hired bodyguards to protect him from “certain members of his staff during meetings because he has been threatened and physically attacked, allegedly by SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) members,’ according to independent investigations carried out by The Star journalist, quoting from a Department of Education memorandum, seen by The Star, listing 63 problems identified by teachers at theschool. The teacher even was falsely ‘accusing the principal of stealing school funds.’ The ousted teacher has been living in his car for five months, after a contract job he had for many years was discontinued. "There are lots of days when I don't have any food. I'm so emotional about this," the Afrikaans teacher said. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2009/09/white-teachers-under-siege.html The SA Council for Educators has expressed ‘dismay over this violence, both physical and psychological, against teachers.’ The Star September 4, 2009 http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090904033835251C341540
Anti-Jewish war crimes tribunal for SA
South Africa's legal war over Gaza
Nov 2 2009 – Journalist Imran Garda of the pro-Palestinian Al Jazeera news agency reports that South African judge Richard Goldstone heads yet another legal commission, this time on behalf of a group of Muslim lawyers in Laudium, Johannesburg. This legal team wants to prosecute about 75 South Africans – amongst them Afrikaans-speakers – in a war-crimes tribunal, accusing them of crimes against humanity while fighting in the Israeli army. They want this tribunal to take place on South African soil.
South Africa's Jewish Board of Deputies has condemned the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict, Al Jazeera reported. The United Nations has set a date to debate the issue this week: UN sets date for Gaza report debate
South Africa heading for a civil war:
Although their own country is being plunged into unprecedented levels of criminal violence which is the worst in the entire world according to the SAPS own statistics; a ‘crime epidemic’ with all the hallmarks of a growing civil war now claiming tens of thousands of deaths each year, Goldstone and his team of Johannesburg-based Muslim lawyers are instead bending themselves over the Gaza conflict in December/January in far-away Israel. They represent two civic organisations – the Media Review Network and the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance.
- This latest in the growing series of Goldstone investigations centers on about 75 South African citizens ‘who may have fought for the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in December and January.’ Much of their personal information was plucked from the internet from their own Facebook profiles.
One of their high profile targets is a South African born Israeli soldier Lt-Col. David Benjamin, who served as a legal advisor in the Israeli Military Advocates Corps during the Gaza conflict.
The International Criminal Court ‘s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo ( contact via Nicola Fletcher Tne Netherlands +31 (0)70 515 8071) was also quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that he was ‘keen to investigate Benjamin” . The journalist referred to an alleged quote from Lt-Col Benjamin whÃch ‘hinted that he was one of the legal masterminds behind ‘Operation Cast Lead’—however Benjamin has denied that he ever said this.
Al Jazeera video: South Africans 'fought in Gaza war'
Writes Garda: “The lawyers are all Muslims, but deny they are only taking on the case to defend their co-religionists.
"This is not a Muslim-Jew thing. No religion condones the killing of innocents. No religion condones the killing of 1,400 people, or the use of white phosphorus on a civilian population," says Feroze Boda, the group's spokesman.
Israeli soldiers who spoke Afrikaans…
The group has drawn up 3,500 pages in their Gaza docket and say they have already presented this ‘evidence to South Africa's police and National Prosecution Authority. “There's always been rumours within the community in South Africa that local South African citizens fight in the IDF, and you would attend mass meetings for example and you would have people who would say they were interrogated at a border point or in Jerusalem by Israeli soldiers and that soldier spoke Afrikaans," he said.
Their report relies heavily on information gathered from Facebook and other internet sites, testimony of UN workers, human rights groups, journalists, and doctors who treated the wounded. The information was gathered by the lawyers in Egypt and Gaza earlier this year. They have the backing of John Dugard, SC, the former UN special rapporteur for human rights, who is acting as legal counsel to the Gaza docket team.
Informants from South African police stations:
The lawyers say the docket also contains evidence that South Africans took part in the fighting. "We've identified about 75 South Africans who we believe served in the IDF at one point or the other," Boda says. "We believe that there is prima facae evidence against all of them. We have informants from South African police stations, whose identity we are currently protecting for their safety, who have pinpointed which of their fellow South African police force reservists went to Gaza to fight in the war. We have pictorial evidence as well."
Also scooped information from the internet:
The lawyers say some of their evidence can be found on public profiles on social networking sites like Facebook. Al Jazeera ‘s journalist also located ‘a dazzling array of photographs of South Africans proudly showing off their stints fighting for the Israeli army.” (left: one example of Al Jazeera’s ‘dazzling array of soldiers’).
As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa could theoretically arrest and prosecute these individuals for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity - which is why lawyers like Boda are confident they can set up a war crimes court in South Africa.
And even if ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity’ cannot be prove, these South African citizens can also be charged under a local law, the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act – which bars any citizen from fighting for a foreign force without express government permission.
The Jewish Board of Deputies commented that while they felt the Gaza docket has no merit, they would ‘investigating this further.” View the original Al Jazeerah article on http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/10/200910298247857309.html
Israel has already dismissed the report as ‘one-sided”: It’s also notable that in the above story about the SA war-crimes tribunal plans, Al Jazeera forgot to somehow also mention the very relevant fact that the UN-report’s finding was that ‘war-crimes’ were committed by both sides of the Gaza conflict….
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contacts and sources:
- The International Criminal Court ‘s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo ( contact via Nicola Fletcher +31 (0)70 515 8071)
- Media Review Network, PO Box-14391, Laudium-0037, Gauteng, South Africa. Email: Fletcherinfo@mediareviewnet.com http://www.mediareviewnet.com/
- Palestine Solidarity Alliance: Suraya Bibi Khan, http://www.psc.za.org/ (note: South Africa’s internet providers are blocking international access to this website)
- Jewish Board of Deputies: http://www.jewish.org.za/index.asp?itm=6&fn=.redirect&url=http://www.kol.co.za/ Tel: 011 645 2500
Fax: 011 645 2559 E-Mail: webmaster@jewish.org.za - SA gives in to demands for more social grants: the fine line between debt and a ‘stable’ society