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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Dutch WC2010 fans must travel in convoy
21:53 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Dec 14 2009 -- The Dutch foreign affairs ministry and its embassy in Pretoria are compiling a booklet with safety tips for all the fans and the embassy personnel will accompany the football fans, who are moreover advised to travel around only in protected convoys.
Every Dutch fan who buys a WC2010 ticket will get a booklet crammed with this safety advice, the Ministry announced Monday. And to help pay for all the cultural activities they sponsor in the WC2010 circus, the embassy in Pretoria has access to a budget of R5-million a year. Read previous statement from Ministry about WC2010
The same old saw: ‘whites are rich, blacks are poor’ …
The Dutch government will also set up a special site to keep its WC2010 information up to date. It’s not known whether it will also contain crime-reports, however – but the Dutch are concentrating specifically on conditioning people to understand the eventuality of being robbed: it’s due to “the grinding poverty among blacks’, writes De Pers NL, which is trotting out all the old anti-apartheid propaganda to try and explain away this excessive need for security in post-apartheid South Africa. For instance De Pers NL writes that ‘the big houses can be found mostly in the luxury suburbs, especially in Johannesburg where the Orange team will set up its headquarters.
And the booklet apparently will also emphasize that while there are places where one should not be either in the daytime or at night, ‘there also are beautiful green suburbs where it’s very pleasant for tourists’.
However the most important safety measure taken by the Dutch is to allow their team and fans to travel between venues only in protected convoys. And embassy people will also travel in this convoy with two camper-vans to ‘provide advice and help wherever needed’ and they will strongly emphasize the need for fans not to strike out on their own.
”Forget walking around in the streets at night in an orange lion-suit…’
However while the Dutch are emphasizing the high crime-levels, their news media also are still clearly also beating the old ‘anti-apartheid drum’.
“The apartheid may be over, but there’s still economic segregation. It’s hoped that the WC 2010 will provide an economic boost to the country because the rich are whites and the poor are black,’ writes De Pers NL.
“The whites are rich, the blacks are poor’, writes the Dutch news media...
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Documentary tackles SA's World Cup struggles
December 14, 2009 ape Town - South Africa has wasted resources on next year's soccer World Cup and will be left with stadiums that are no more than white elephants, a critical new documentary says. South Africa, the first African nation to stage the sports spectacle, has spent billions of dollars to build new stadiums and refurbish existing venues in 10 cities where games will be played.
- But social activists and academics say the funds would have been better spent tackling poverty, housing shortages and a health system buckling under a major HIV and Aids epidemic. When you build enormous stadia, you (are) shifting those resources ... from building schools or hospitals and then you have these huge structures standing empty and being used to a very limited extent.
They become white elephants," anti-apartheid veteran Dennis Brutus, who was jailed with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island in the 1960s, tells Fahrenheit_2010
Lingering concerns that some stadiums will become empty shells that are a burden to taxpayers have threatened to take the shine off government plans to leave a meaningful post-tournament legacy. In September Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the government faced a R2,3-billion shortfall for six new stadiums.
Besides funding challenges, claims of corruption and tender rigging have been linked to the new Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit, where only four of the 64 World Cup games will be played. The location of other new stadiums, notably semi-final venues Green Point in Cape Town and in Durban, have also been criticised.
"There is currently no contingency plan saying what's actually going to happen to this stadium (Mbombela) once the World Cup is gone... and at the end of the day one can only think that the stadium is going to stand redundant and empty afterwards," said Anthony Benadie, an opposition politician.
Feature documentary Fahrenheit 2010, written and directed by Australian Craig Tanner, was screened to a Cape Town audience for the first time on Sunday evening. outh Africa, emerging from its first recession in two decades, is hoping 450,00 foreign tourists will boost revenues during the month-long tournament starting June 11.
- Marketing the country's attractions to a global audience estimated at one billion is also expected to lead to a long-term tourist boom and job creation.
But besides a politically connected elite, centred in the construction sector, there was little evidence so far to suggest South Africans will benefit economically.
FIFA expects to make R25-billion from its 2010 television broadcasting deals alone, more than the combined total achieved for television rights in its 2002 and 2006 tournaments. The tragedy is that public funds have been looted for a moment in our history. People are still going to be living in shacks, the jobs are not sustainable - this is a blatant misuse of funds," said sociologist Ashwin Desai.
However, some viewed the tournament in a different light - as a vehicle for uniting a nation still battling the effects of discrimination 15 years after apartheid, and where the gap between rich and poor is the highest in the world."With all the negative things that are taking place in Africa, this is a superb moment for us. If we are going to have white elephants, so be it," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu. – Reuters http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/fahrenheit-2010/trailer
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Afrikaner bond urges action on racism
The SA Human Rights Commission flatly ignores these ‘new forms of racism’
Cape Town – December 14 2009 - Parliament should act to quell a surge of racism in South African society, the Afrikanerbond said on Monday. “The year 2009 would be remembered as a stain on South Africa's claim to be a non-racial democracy,” AB managing director Jan Bosman said in a statement.
In the past 12 months "crude racist undertones", hate speech and inflammatory statements by people such as ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema had thrived, he said. (a list with links is provided below).
“Even worse is that these statements and pronouncements, for short term political gain, are based on generalisations that can seriously harm South Africa's fragile democracy," he said.
He said the AB had written to National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu and to the chair of the National Council of Provinces Mninwa Mahlangu asking them to call the country's statutory human rights watchdogs to order.
- Bosman said the SA Human Rights Commission and the commission set up to protect the rights of cultural and communities had "flatly ignored" these new forms of racism. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/Politics/1057/56c2b35aa0e442a6805b58fa9fdcef00/14-12-2009-08-55/Bond_urges_action_on_racism
‘South Africa watch your hate-speech’, warns Prof Kader Asmal
2-Nov-2009 - The language used by some political leaders in South Africa has become too intemperate and borders on hate speech. At times politicians have referred to others as "dogs" and "bastards", and threatened to kill or start "World War III". This is unacceptable, say experts on the constitution.In recent days some heated abuse has been directed at the vice-chancellor of the University of Free State, Professor Jonathan Jansen, because he decided the four students expelled for making a controversial video should be allowed to return to campus. Abuse has also been directed at the ANC veteran and former minister of education, Professor Kader Asmal, for criticising party decisions and the conduct of some leaders. Asmal was told by the ANC military veterans association to "go to the nearest cemetery and die". He has said he was particularly upset because the abuse had come from his party.
- "I am saddened rather than angered, because this is not what my movement has stood for in the 50 years I have been with it."
Asmal called on the country's leadership to lead by example in establishing principles of decency. "The leadership must reflect the values of our constitution, the recognition of the dignity of human beings, of solidarity, of fairness of treatment," he said. "The moral basis of society comes from our leaders, because it percolates down. If our leaders are silent about this, then people consider it a licence to behave in whatever way they like."
Asmal made his call for a return to traditional values while taking part in SAfm's After Eight Debate, in which participants discussed whether the parameters of free expression had crossed the line to hate speech.
He said he was saddened rather than concerned by the intemperate language used in some recent political debate.
"The moral compass of our political debate has lost its sense of direction," he said. "It requires, especially for those in power, to reject, to repudiate this monstrous language. "We must be able to disagree with the vice-chancellor without allegedly threatening to kill him, for example."
- But limits on free speech should be kept to a minimum, said a second member of the radio debating panel, Melissa Moore, of the Freedom of Expression Institute. She said freedom of expression could include statements that shocked, offended or disturbed. "But there are certain limitations to that freedom. There are certain forms of speech that are not protected by the constitution and those are, first, propaganda for war, secondly, incitement to imminent violence, and then the much-debated hate speech clause."
A third member of the debating panel, advocate Tseliso Thipanyane, chief executive of the Human Rights Commission, agreed that the right to freedom of expression was limited by the constitution. "We also have the Equality Act in South Africa, which puts further limitations on freedom of expression," he said.
- "For example, it does not allow expression that promotes unfair discrimination, does not allow expression that is hurtful, does not allow expression that is harmful or incites harm, or expression that promotes hatred."
Thipanyane said action could be taken over some of the statements made about Jansen and the University of Free State. "There is a constitutional imperative for us as a country to promote a peaceful and harmonious existence. "We live in a very diverse society and we need to be careful that our utterances do not spark off unnecessary tensions and violence in our country."http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20091102104056905C258319
Related Links
- Hate-speech charge against SA depy-president Motlanthe
- Anti-white racism in SAPS a growing concern
- Racist hate-speech by black robber-gang
- Racist hate-speech in City Press
- Zulu hate-speech prayer: ‘whites killed Jesús’.
- Democratic Alliance lays hate speech complaint against ANCYL Free State chairman Thebe Meeko
- http://www.afriforum.co.za/english/?cat=7
- 2nd charge against ANCYL leader Julius Malema
- ANCYL faces hate speech charge
- The World According to Malema
- ANC secretary-general Mantashe calls AfriForum civil rights group ‘racist’
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kader_Asmal
Reduce world population fast – or the planet will die
Prevent Easter Island Syndrome with population control – or perish…
COPENHAGEN - The London School of Economics has produced a study for the Copenhagen climate-summit this week‚ released by the Optimum Population Trust (OPT)‚ calling for the reduction of world population by between three to five billion people between now and 2050.
The Copenhagen conference is sponsored by the United Nations, and the Population Fund tapped OPT director Roger Martin‚ to present the UNFPA State of the World Population 2009 report.The report states that the most cost-effective cure for global warming is a radical reduction in the world’s population. 
“The world population is projected to rise from today's 6.8 billion to 9.15 billion in 2050.* The World Population Clock is ticking. We are rapidly destabilising our climate and destroying the natural world on which we depend for future life,” warns OPT. And people aren’t nearly as dumb as some radical groups would have us believe: for instance, the OPT’s own July 2009 “YouGov poll” showed that 51 per cent of the public thinks the ideal population size for the UK would be less than 60 million.”
This increasingly urgent call has also been heard ever since 2002 by the world-famous and widely acknowledged as one of the world’s top naturalists, Sir David Attenborough in his programmes such as “The Life of Mammals” and “The State of the Planet”.
- Previously, Attenborough had been reticent about describing man's impact on the natural environment (unless it was relevant to the content, as in the last episode of The Living Planet or The First Eden). However, since State of the Planet, the presenter had become more publicly outspoken on the subject, writes Wikipedia.
In the final programme of this series, "Food for Thought", he took the opportunity to put the case explicitly for finding ways to deal with overpopulation. Broadcast 5 February 2003, the final episode studies human society and mammals. It provides an illustration of how early man pursued his prey with no weapons. The domestication of cattle led to farms and then to villages. With vastly increased food supplies, the number of human beings multiplied. Ritual and the arts flourished, and villages became towns. Attenborough visits Tikal, the capital of the Maya people, who achieved sophisticated advances in architecture, mathematics and astronomy.
However, the Maya (and the Easter Islanders) couldn't sustain their population — and, Attenborough warns, mankind may be precariously close to a similar catastrophe.
"Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of all mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever-increasing population. In spite of disasters when civilisations have over-reached themselves, that process has continued, indeed accelerated, even today. Now mankind is looking for food, not just on this planet but on others. Perhaps the time has now come to put that process into reverse. Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment." – David Attenborough, in closing the Life of Mammals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Mammals
As can be expected, there’s considerable opposition to the very idea that the world can only sustain a limited number of human beings – and that we humans will have to decide on our own to stop our frantic reproduction rate – or face having the authorities force it upon us, as is being done in certain regions of China. Especially the rightwingers are already foaming at the mouth. Lord Christopher Monckton claimed on a radio show on 9 December that he was ‘initially rebuffed” at the summit when he tried to obtain a copy of the 180-page current draft of its negotiating text agreement. He had to threaten with an international diplomatic incident unless the document was forthcoming. “I insisted‚ and it took about 10 minutes and they consulted each other with three or four of them arguing over it—none of them would produce the document … I said I know this treaty exists because this is what the conference is all about‚” said Monckton.
As does Monckton, American rightwingers also are already screaming ‘genocide’, however these measures proposed by the OPT report are badly needed if the world still wants to stave of its rapidly-approaching Easter Island syndrome due to the depletion of the planet’s resources from massive overpopulation, as was pointed out in UNFPA State of World Population 2009 report
Policing news Dec 14 2009
80 worshippers injured in brand-new R14,6m temple after staircase collapse
14 December 2009, SAPA reports at 6:48am that more than 80 worshippers below were hurt, 8 critically, when a steel staircase collapsed during the 9.30am service at the charismatic Universal Church of the Kingdom of God Temple in Eloff Street in the Joburg CBD yesterday.
Amidst this melee, when buses were used by the emergency services to rush people to hospital, the Star’s photographer Shayne Robinson was harassed by the church’s security guards, who threatened him with violence if he didn’t stop taking pictures. The church leadership is aggressive about addressing ‘media misconceptions’, according to its website.
Joburg Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman Nana Radebe said people were taken for treatment to Hillbrow Clinic and Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and eight of them were also admitted – all in serious ‘but stable’ condition.
There were so many people injured that the emergency services used a bus to transport those with minor injuries.Radebe said a metal staircase to the first floor had collapsed. Universal Church spokeswoman Nametso Mofokeng confirmed that the collapse took place during the main service at about 9.30am.
"The people were seated in their chairs when the staircase collapsed on them. Some of the people got hurt and some of the congregation members who are nurses worked to stabilise the injured. The nurses handed over the injured to the paramedics who arrived at the church."We could not determine the extent of injuries to members of the congregation. We just ensured that all of them were taken to hospital for medical attention," Mofokeng said.The church took occupation of its newly constructed building on October 25.
A clearly disappointed Mofokeng could not deny or dispute the fact that poor workmanship could have been the cause of the collapse. "Our building inspectors are already investigating the cause of the collapse of the staircase. The church is fairly new. We delayed the opening of the church. "We were supposed to take occupation in August, and we postponed to September. We again postponed to October. The collapse of the staircase was unfortunate. We took measures to avoid it," Mofokeng said.
The property runs down Eloff from De Villiers to Plein streets, with a property size of about 5,000m2. The purchase price is not known, but the City of Joburg ‘s taxable value is R14.6-million .
- The charismatic Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) was formed in 1977, in Brazil, is registered in Zambia and has branches throughout the world, a great many also inside South Africa. They have their own broadcasts, Ark-TV: Contact: Tel:(083) 287 13 02 Website:http://www.uckg.org.za Email:info@uckg.org.za http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20091214040741602C169703
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20091212 George Erasmus, 50, Gerhardsville smallholder: beaten up: dogs poisoned but his family survived
2009-12-14 - Erasmia. Six of the family dogs were poisoned and their corpses still were strewn across the erf at the Gerhardsville, Pretoria smallholding of George Erasmus after an armed attack by 4 black men while the family had been asleep early Friday-morning. Two of the family dogs had survived the mass-poisoning by the gang because the animals were inside the homestead at the time. Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie wrote that Mr Erasmus had tears in his eyes when he spoke of his six murdered animal-friends -- but that he also thanked the Lord that his entire family – his wife, in-laws, his son and live-in girlfriend – all had survived the attack. The gang came looking for their registered guns – but the family had already handed them in to the police…
He was awaked at 4am with a gun against his face while he was sleeping on the couch in front of the TV. Four men were in the living room and immediately tied him up with shoelaces and electric cables. Apparently they had managed to break into the homestead through the garage.
Sexual humiliation but ‘fortunately nothing else happened’…
After tying up the homesteader, the attackers then sexually-humiliated his wife Riana, (49) : they happened across her while she was enroute, half-asleep, to the bathroom: the men took her there, pulled her pants down and watched her go to the toilet. “Daar het gelukkig niks meer as dit gebeur nie,” (i.e. rape ) Erasmus told the journalist. They then took their son Gertin, 22, and his girlfriend Bianca Sadie, 20 at gunpoint to the grandparents Pieter (76) and Joey (72) Engelbrecht’s room and tied them up all up for about an hour. The gang was looking for guns, said Erasmus. “I told them we handed in all our guns to the police. One then kicked me in the face and beat me with a gunbelt, and also hit my father-in-law with a gun-butt in the face.’ Then the gang ran into technical difficulties when trying to make their getaway with the family’s white VW Polo – they couldn’t find the button which turned off the anti-hijacking device. Erasmus was fetched from the house and forced to get the car started – at which point the gang left and Erasmus ran to the neighbours to raise the alarm.
- ‘No police car – so sorry we can’t come out… ‘
- However when he phoned the Erasmia police station, he heard from the on-duty police officer that they ‘couldn’t come and investigate the crime because they didn’t have a police vehicle.’ The family then arranged with an off-duty SAPS member of their acquaintance to contact the police and try and get them to investigate the crime. One-and-a-half hours later, a police team finally arrived, he said. SAPS insp. Wanda Olivier confirmed that ‘a charge of house breaking’ is being investigated. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/93851b4aa9d244349bfb5f8280ae47f9/13-12-2009-11-00/Hondkarkasse_l%C3%AA_die_erf_vol
Ex-SAPS commissioner Harriram Badul seeks bail
PIetermaritzburg, KZN. The former Mountain Rise local police station commissioner Harriram Badul lodged a bail-application procedure in the magistrate’s court on Friday. He was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and his lawyer Petrus Coetzee said he needed bail because he had been scheduled to undergo surgery when he was arrested on December 4. The surgery was moved forward. The State opposes bail, alleging that Badul, while in a position of trust as the SAPS commissioner, was the leader of a scam in which he, three other policemen, a clerk at the Mountain Rise police station and a businessman allegedly defrauded the state of equipment valued at about R1-million. Badul also faces charges of fraud and theft, but further charges, such as racketeering and corruption, are also still being contemplated, the court heard. Badul was arrested on December 4 and admitted to hospital later that day. The Mercury.
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KZN teen raped, murdered: police commissioner takes food-parcel to family, promises to pay for funeral
14 December 2009 - By Nompumelelo Magwaza The Mercury - Umkomaas teenager Nolwazi Phohlwane, 15, who died after being raped, stabbed and struck with a rock had been looking for a holiday job when she was attacked, her family said on Sunday. The girl died from internal injuries enroute to Durban's Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital last Thursday. "She wanted to get a holiday job so that she could help around at home," said a relative, Mthoko Hadebe. Social Development MEC Meshack Hadebe and provincial police commissioner Mmamonye Ngobeni visited her family on Sunday to comfort them. The MEC took along food parcels and said his department would assist with burial costs.Nolwazi was last seen by her family last Sunday, when she went to look for a job at Roseneath, a suburb of Umkomaas. Police suspect that a man she met had promised to take her to a family which was looking for a helper. However, the man allegedly dragged Nolwazi into a cane field and raped her, before attacking her.
"It is believed the girl was stabbed six times before a heavy rock was used to crush her. But she managed to escape and staggered to a nearby house for help," said police Superintendent Vincent Mdunge. A 20-year-old man has been arrested and is due to appear in court on Monday..http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=3268&fArticleId=nw20091214000255448C233707
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Police detective seeks identity of torched white teen, Orange Farm
This very young girl on this police-forensic sketch -- described as white, blonde hair with pink streaks, wearing a pair of blue jeans,sideway-striped multicolour t-shirt, sizxe 34-A bra and size 4 shoes, with well-manicured toe- and fingernails -- was torched to death while alive on November 16 2009 alongside the Welgevonden road in Orange Farm squatter camp between 4 am and 5am. A passerby notified the police that there was a body burning alongside the roadway. Police forensic experts believe she was between 15 and 20 years of age. Anyone with information is urged to call the investigating SAPS detective, Capt Mike Van Aardt on telephone 0 082 575 1808
Capt Mike van Aardt, one of Johannesburg's top crime-detectives, has taken on the gruesome murder investigation of the blonde girl. A week after starting his investigation, Captain van Aardt released a forensic sketch of what the white victim may have looked like and a photograph of the shirt she wore. Forensic examinations showed that the girl had been alive when she was set alight.
He appeals to the public to help identify the young girl.. She weighed around 60kg and was 1,7 metres tall. She had blonde hair about 35cm long, wore a size 4 shoe and a size 34A bra. Her fingernails were painted a pearl colour and her toes had red nailpolish. She lay about a metre from the main road and no effort had been made to hide her body.
'Her identity is crucial to hunting down her killers'
Van Aardt, who works with crack detective Piet Byleveld, has also investigated the notorious Moffat Park serial killer, the Sheldean Human murder, the Bruma Lake serial murders and various other high-profile cases.The young white girl’s body was discovered in the early hours of November 16 next to Welgevonden Road. A passer-by reportedly saw the flames and called the police, although recent police reports said it was a police patrol van that came across the burning body shortly before 5am. Police officers at the scene told detectives there were ‘no suspicious-looking vehicles in the area’ and that patrol cars in the vicinity had been alerted immediately. But as the morning traffic rush began, it became impossible to spot suspicious-looking cars.Anyone with information is urged to call Van Aardt on telephone 0 082 575 1808. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/7b843e83915343b98730223d5a79f040/11-12-2009-11-44/Blonde_meisie_se_verbrande_lyk_steeds_nie_ge%C3%ABien_
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