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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
De-luxe Constantia mansions looted of priceless antique jewellery
12:32 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
German-accented robbers’ haul: millions of Rands worth of unique, antique jewellery
November 6 2009 - A robber who handed some of his loot to employees in the Constantia mansion he broke into got away with millions of rand worth of jewellery. Four days ago three massive Constantia mansions were targeted and residents held at gun- or knifepoint, reports Caryn Dolley from Cape Town. However some employees also got R10,000 in cash from the robbers…
Some of South Africa’s most high-profile super-rich, including top politicians and nouveau-riche highflyers, live in these massive Constantia mansions. The names of the victims have not been released, however. Police in and around the luxurious suburb of Constantia are now working around the clock to try and nab the criminals.
Venter said the man gave staff members R10,000 each.. in the most bizarre of the three incidents, one man who according to police had a German accent, got into one 56-roomed Constantia mansion for the second time within a few weeks – and then gave employees R10, 000 in cash fromof the money he had stolen from a safe there.
This particular robber, who had got into the Duntor Close home on Tuesday wearing the clothes he had stolen from the mansion a few weeks ago, managed to get away with R40,000 cash, a firearm and millions of rands worth of antique jewellery from a safe. On Thursday police spokesman Andre Venter said although the value of the jewellery was not yet known, it was estimated to be worth "millions and millions".
Police fails to provide pictures of the antique jewellery for publication:
Pictures of the jewellery, taken before the scores of unique, antique pieces were stolen and showing how they had been positioned in the safe, show some 73 items including necklaces, watches, earrings, broaches and rings.
Unfortunately the police did not submit these pictures for publication – which would have helped them in their search, since these pictures would then also be picked up by international jewellery outlets specialising in such rare antique jewellery…
The intricately designed pieces consist of pearls, diamonds, gold and silver. Some of the more distinct pieces include a detailed butterfly broach, a diamond dog broach, a single strand pearl necklace with a bow-shaped clasp and an emerald and amethyst on separate necklaces.
Venter said the man gave staff members R10,000 each from the safe-loot… He said officers, with the help of other sectors including the dog unit, were trying to track down the robber as well as others who had recently broken into the massive Constantia homes.
"We're working around the clock in seeking these perpetrators," Venter said. story by: caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Picture left : This article was published on page 6 of the Cape Times on November 6, 2009: Constantia robber stole jewellery worth millions, say police
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Boers to join UNPO in The Hague
Nov 6 2009 - The Boervolk Freedom Foundation only needs about 1,000 Euros in membership fees to join the Unrepresented Nations and People's Organisation in The Hague. By donating to this cause, you would also greatly help further the cause of a permanent peace in violence-wracked South Africa: all UNPO members have to swear off ALL violence to achieve their aims – and this is the most important requirement to qualify for UNPO membership.
Map of UNPO members: http://www.unpo.org/content/view/7783/240/ show the Rehoboth Basters, (Namibia) the Afrikaners (S.Africa) and the Vhavenda (Kenya) as three minority-groups who are without fair political representation in their home countries and have joined UNPO to champion their minority-rights causes….
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It's also important to note that the Boer Freedom Movement, representing the Boer minority, thus follows in the footsteps of the Freedom Front Plus Party, which has already joined UNPO as representatives of the Afrikaner minority several years ago. (view map above).
It is my firm personal belief that the more South African minorities join UNPO, the better it will be for creating a permanent peace in South Africa - as UNPO provides a peaceful international platform which can lobby for all the minorities’ rights -- and whose very existence is now being denied by the present-day ruling troika.
I’m asking all the readers to please donate, even if it’s only R10 – and to also place their call for funding on your site and forward it to your friends. I believe this to be a worthwhile effort.
I most certainly will be donating to this worthwhile, peaceful effort and hope everybody else does too - even if it's only R10....
Donations can be made to
"Die Boerevolk Vryheidstigting"
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch: Gezina (Branch Nr 014845)
Account Nr. 01 337 031 6
View their documentation for their UNPO membership application on:
http://www.facebook.com/l/03dfa;www.boerevryheid.co.za/forums...t=unpo+aansoek
See the Boer Freedom Facebook page on:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox%2Freadmessage.php&t=1241891814668&mid=15de519G3d35e136Gfd89a6G0
UNPO’s nations and peoples: membership: http://www.unpo.org/content/view/7783/240/
Dries de Jager shot dead in Windhoek, Namibia
Top security company boss Dries de Jager shot dead in Namibia
Windhoek, Namibia. Nangula Shejavali of the Namibian reports on Nov 4 2009 that the much-liked and well-known owner of H.A.M.S. Security, Andries “Dries” de Jager, was shot dead at around 12:40 in Windhoek’s northern industrial area a day earlier.
Eye witnesses said De Jager was walking to his shop with one of his security guards – he had just withdrawn wage-money from the bank -- when two suspects approached them. One of the men grabbed the security guard and the other shot De Jager in the back.
The guard gave chase, shooting one of the suspects in the thigh. The second suspect sped away in a waiting blue BMW driven by a third black man. According to the eyewitness, the injured attacker - left behind by his accomplices, also had the stolen money on him. This money was recovered, and this injured amn was arrested and is now in hospital under police guard.
Mr De Jager died on arrival at the hospital. The shocked eyewitness said Iscor Street where the crime took place, is a busy street with several businesses, and that De Jager had a number of people around him at the time of the attack. http://allafrica.com/stories/200911040746.html?viewall=1 H.A.M.S. security: telephone 061 221750
The Red Flag Rises in S.Africa
Martin Plaut, Africa Editor of the BBC World Service News, writes that South Africa is at the crossroads: that the Red Flag is Rising…
This article is derived from the Chatham House programme paper, November 2009. For more see here: http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/research/africa/
Plaut writes: “There has been a fierce argument within the African National Congress (ANC) over the future direction of government policy. It is a debate that has included its allies in the Tripartite Alliance - the unions (COSATU) and the Communist Party (SACP) - and has raised questions about their role in the running of the country. As the ANC is the governing party for the foreseeable future, this is a battle for the future direction of South Africa itself.
After appointing a Cabinet that brought together all the different strands of opinion within the ANC, Jacob Zuma is having to do the thing he most resists - making choices between conflicting tendencies within his party.
- Generally a conciliator, this is an uncomfortable time for President Zuma. It is also a time of uncertainty for the nation, for investors - local and foreign - and for South Africa's international allies. The country is gradually coming out of a deep recession, unemployment is on the rise, social unrest is growing and preparations are under way for the largest sporting event South Africa has ever hosted, the 2010 World Cup.
There is a struggle over the future direction of economic policy. President Mbeki was openly willing to face down the radical demands of the left - by ignoring or isolating them, in the wider national interest. President Zuma is much more tolerant of the left, which supported his ousting of Thabo Mbeki, arguing that the discussion” is little more than healthy debate. “ (…)
The right within the ANC, (the party traditionalists), have been on the back foot since Polokwane and the defection of leading members to the Congress of the People, COPE. They saw the stand taken by the left as an opportunity to draw a line in the sand. In an interview in the Mail and Guardian, Billy Masetlha, a member of the ANC National Executive, openly attacked the left. He drew attention to what he described as the growing dominance of the unions and the SA Communist Party within the ANC. Masetlha told the paper that a number of senior ANC leaders have expressed disquiet about the push by COSATU and the Communists for a socialist agenda within the ANC. [7]
Masetlha was doing something that few ANC senior members had been prepared to do in recent years - openly attack the role of the SACP and its leader, Blade Nzimande. "I will have a problem with someone trying to impose a communist manifesto on the ANC. We fired a lot of [comrades] in the past who wanted to do the same thing...The ANC was not founded on a socialist agenda. Socialism has no space within the ANC," he said.
What appears to have sparked off this anger was concern that the ANC's allies were attempting to meddle in government appointments to ensure that their members get key jobs and thus influence economic policy. This was expressed by President Zuma during a meeting of the ANC National Executive.[8]
Which way forward? Find out by reading the rest of this political treatise: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=149835&sn=Marketingweb_detail
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A beaten-down Jackie Selebi… one very strange day indeed
Veteran South African journalist Jeremy Gordin on the ‘startling, almost miraculous occurrences of November 5th.”.. “Yesterday was 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day, not Friday, 13 November. Yet what a day it was - a day of startling, almost miraculous, occurrences. “
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But help me out here: I thought it was our guys who helped nail them originally. Yeah, well, do we behave in a contradictory manner? So we do - that's okay, we are large, we contain multitudes, as Walt Whitman remarked.
Moving right along: according to Bobby Godsell, the Eskom chairman, chief executive officer Jacob Maroga resigned yesterday. An Eskom board member, Mpho Makwana, allegedly said: "It is a difficult time for Eskom. All that we can do is put our heads together ... Mr Maroga needs time to heal, we have to allow that process to go on."
Heal from what? The injury caused to his gluteus maximus by the weight of his wallet? Pass the sick bag, Bullfinch; I want to rest it on the scar of my hernia operation.
But the ANC youth brigades weren't having any of that codswallop and they/it issued a remarkable statement (see here). One of the great sentences in the statement reads as follows (and I quote): "The Board, which is under the manipulative control of Bobby Godsell, has tried every trick in the book to get rid of Maroga, including through increment of his salary amidst electricity challenges, so that the South African public can perceive him as greedy."
Who writes the copy for the ANCYL? Somebody should give this person a job as an editor. Also, I wish some of my various employers had tried to cast me in a bad light by increasing my salary. As it happens, they did the exact opposite.
What I don't know - maybe some readers do - is why the ANCYL, not to mention Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan, are so upset by the rustication of Maroga.
I heard a grumpy Hogan say that Eskom's multiple balls-ups should not be blamed on one person. What can one say to the lady who went out to bat for the Dalai lama? Only this, I guess: we would have liked to lop off the heads of all Eskom employees, as well as Little Julie Malema's (for good measure). But alas we aren't as forthright about our desires as the Chinese. So it's the guys who get paid the big bucks and drive the big beemers who have to carry the can, Babs.
Poor Caster Semenya:
“But, just as I was weeping into my still water about Jacob, I learned that South Africa's Olympic governing body, SASCOC, had suspended Athletics SA president Leonard Chuene, the Board of ASA, and its members, "with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action" over their handling of the Caster Semenya saga.
- Furthermore (see here), SASCOC is considering "taking appropriate action against the IAAF for its disregard of Semenya's rights to privacy," following speculation over her gender [sic]. What happiness! The mills of the lord might grind slowly but they grind exceeding small.
And then - well, you could have blown me down with a feather: government spokesman Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had decided to terminate the multibillion-rand Airbus A400M strategic lift military aircraft contract.
"The termination of the contract is due to extensive cost escalation and the supplier's failure to deliver the aircraft within the stipulated timeframes," Maseko said. The original cost of buying the eight military airlift planes was R17-billion; going ahead with the deal would now mean paying about R40-billion due to cost increases.
“Maseko said the decision followed a review of the contract by the ministries of defence, finance, trade and industry, science and technology, and public enterprises. He did not mention that the Democratic Alliance, known as the DA, had requested that the deal be terminated.
Talk about an early Christmas. And so much good news that it almost went unnoticed that minister of basic education Angie Motshekga has said that the outcomes based education (OBE) method of teaching had been a failure and teachers can get back to teaching and edjamacation.
Jackie Selebi seemed a bit battered…
But one of the most interesting occurrences of yesterday - at least for me - was this. I was visiting the Johannesburg high court - now called the South Gauteng high court, as opposed to the Pretoria or North Gauteng high court - standing around under that echoing and mosque-like cupola covering the foyer of the "new" section of the court.
It was about midday and a colleague and I were about to launch a surprise raid on the records and archives offices when I espied former national commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi - the man I used to call the "fat commish".
The strange thing about him was that he - and his wife and someone who appeared to be a sort of female minder of maybe just a friend - were all alone in the court foyer. They looked pretty forlorn and cut loose.
Where were the vigilant members of the fourth estate? When I was a boy and a bit, we reporters would have been all over the man like a rash, trying to get comments to spice up the court narrative. But I suppose that the Muller person had just given evidence (see here) and the doughty members of the fourth estate must have been busy filing their breathless copy.
So I went over to chat to the ex-fat commish. He seemed battered - so much so that it was as though he had not slept for weeks (maybe he hasn't) and was not quite with us.
"Do you remember me?" I asked him, referring to an interview I once had with Selebi at his office in De Wachthuis in Pretoria on a Saturday afternoon. I'd gone there with Eleanor "mommies" Momberg, a colleague from The Sunday Independent. And we'd written an article, quoting the national commissioner as saying that all allegations made against him were "rubbish".
Of course Selebi would later be charged and Vusi Pikoli, the national director of public prosecutions, would lose his job over the national police commissioner, and so on and so forth - and I would never be allowed to live that story down, especially not by Sam "Shmulik" Sole and Stefaans Brummer of the Mail&Grauniad, who felt rather aggrieved, to put it mildly, that Momberg and I had suggested that maybe they might be wrong about the fat commish.
"Yes," said Selebi yesterday, "you're the one that said that I said that Agliotti was my friend ‘finish and klaar'." "No,' I said, looking perplexed, "that wasn't me". Because in fact it hadn't been me - it'd been Sole or Brummer. Or, actually, I think it was Brummer to whom Selebi said it. And, well, Brummer is a young, good-looking fellow, so if Selebi wanted to confuse me with Brummer, that was okay. Still, for the record, I said to Selebi that it hadn't been me. "It was you," he insisted and wouldn't hear otherwise, albeit in a very ethereal sort of way.
Strange day, indeed. Do you think someone slipped some essence of marijuana into the Gauteng drinking water? I'm a bit frightened about tomorrow. Will Helen Zille join the tripartite alliance? Will Paul Trewhela stop harrumphing about the state of South Africa and its authors? Will Little Julie Malema be appointed editor of The Star?http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=149965&sn=Marketingweb_detail