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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Policing Dec 20 2009
06:38 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
21 children among 97 illegal miners arrested in Fairview Mine shafts, Barberton
Dec 20 2009 – Barberton. A worrying new trend is developing in the gold-mine piracy business in South Africa: 21 of the 97 suspected illegal miners (zama-zamas) arrested in Barberton were school children, found hacking away gold-ore illegally in the dark shafts of Avgold’s Fairview mine in Barberton.The SAPS and mine security officials launched a massive swoop belowground from 15 December. Another 107 other illegal miners were still stuck inside the mine, and the security forces were still searching for them, it was reported by the SAPS . Amongst the arrested suspects were 21 school-aged children between the ages of 14 and 17 years. “We suspect that the children are abusing the opportunity of school holidays, and commit to this illegal and extremely dangerous activity, instead of them resting and getting ready for the New Year’s school cycle”, writes SAPS Captain L Hlathi. The suspects appeared in the Barberton Magistrates' Court on 17 December 2009 and were remanded to custody. Cellphone: 082 462 0804. Avgold's Eastern Transvaal Consolidated (ETCons) comprises of three mining operations (New Consort, Fairview and Sheba ) located in the Barberton Greenstone belt. ETC intends produces in the region of 100,000 oz of gold a year (91,000 oz in 2000).http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=17888 ALSO:
Thirty gold-mine pirates arrested at Pamodzi Gold
Probe gold-mining piracy gangs, demand SA miners…
Toddler dies from parents’ illegal smelting of gold dust with mercury, Makwassie, North West
Gold-mine piracy in South Africa:
- Gold-mine piracy in SA involves a huge international smuggling operation, run in cooperation between local crime-lords and Chinese crime-syndicates -according to the evidence found thus far by the SAPS: several Chinese citizens were also arrested in connection with gold-mining piracy recently. There’s also a growing danger of mercury-poisoning in the fresh-water supplies from hundreds of illegal backyard smelters in these illegal gold-mining operations – and the danger of careless blasting inside the mine-shafts carried out by these zama-zamas. South African Gold Mine Deathwatch Department of Minerals and Energy, Accident Statistics
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“Newborn baby killing has to stop,” writes SAPS sergeant M C Mophiring
On 10 December 2009 ,a 15-year-old girl from Midrand in Gauteng appeared in the Harrismith District Court for the alleged murder of her newborn baby girl. She was released under the supervision of her parents and the case was remanded to April 2010. The tragedy came to light after the girl gave birth to the child while camping out in Qwanthanenear Harrismith on a schooltrip -- and her friends informed the police.
Sergeant Mophiring writes that the 15-year-old girl was at a camp site in Qwanthane with other pupils and their teachers. “Not even her parents knew that she was pregnant. She went into labour while at the camp. It is alleged that she moved away from the other learners and her teachers. When the time arrived, she gave birth to a baby girl. Unfortunately, she allegedly stabbed the baby with a knife in the chest and buried her,”writes Mophiring. “It is further alleged that one of the teachers saw blood running from her legs and thought that she was experiencing period pains. Some of the other learners came across a bloodied knife inside the tent. They made enquires until the girl told them what had happened. She was taken to Thebe District Hospital in Harrismith. The doctors confirmed that she had given birth. She took the police to where the body had been hidden. She was arrested and detained in police custody for alleged murder. Her parents were immediately informed of the incident and took their daughter back home. She is expected to appear in the Harrismith Magistrates' Court in April 2010. Sergeant MC. Mophiring, tel. (058) 3077841, Cellphone: 0795284784 Email fs.bethlehem.comm@saps.org.za
Juba found three missing people this week
Three-year-old Juba, left with Inspector Ronald Lacock and Supt Stapelberg of the NW police, was trained as a search and rescue dog early in 2008. Together with handler Lacock, Juba has however proven that he’s great at finding missing people. This week, once again proving that he has the right stuff, Juba and Insp Lacock found three missing people within a matter of days. Juba's unyielding determination to find those who are missing in the North West has made him an asset to be treasured.Luckily for the North West, Juba also does not have a malicious bone in his body.
This week he found a 67-year-old woman, who went looking for firewood with some of her friends, got lost when she wandered off on Friday, 11 December 2009. Juba and Insp Lacock found her within five minutes of arriving at the scene. The old lady sustained a laceration on her right arm, but was otherwise unharmed.
On Monday, 14 December 2009, they found the body of a 25-year-old man in the river near Orkney. The man, who was baptised in the river the previous day, was said to have returned to the water after the ceremony, claiming that the ‘man of the river’ wanted to talk to him again. This, unfortunately, had led to his death.
On Saturday, 12 December 2009, an 80-year-old man from Madikwe went into the veld to check on his cattle. He never returned home, but was spotted by nearby villagers on Sunday, when they saw him drinking water at a local dam. On Monday, 14 December 2009, Juba and Insp Lacock were called upon to assist in the search for the old man. They did not find him on Monday, but resumed their search on Tuesday and found the old man at a cattle post. He was taken for medical assistance, as he is believed to be suffering from diabetes. Juba’s unyielding determination to find those who are missing in the North West has made him an asset to be treasured. And treasured he is, especially by his handler, Insp Lacock, writes SAPS constable A Smit, tel. (018) 299 7269 http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=17903
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Sunday papers Nov 20 2009
Widow of detective Tolla Wiehahn wants justice ...
The Sunday Times of Johannesburg features the story of Mrs Eureka Wiehahn, who is suing the ANC-regime for negligence after it failed to keep a convict - who stabbed her retired police detective husband 13 times - behind bars to serve a prison sentence for theft. Her husband Tolla Wiehahn was stabbed in the stomach three days before his 40th birthday, shortly after being medically boarded from his job at the then Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit in Johannesburg. He'd moved to the Cape West Coast after spending 14 years investigating murders, child rapes and hijackings - and had survived being stabbed with a garden fork and shot twice. But instead of catching snoek and raising a family at the coast, he died of septicaemia at Cape Town's Groote Schuur hospital on June 5 2005, nearly three months after the attack. His widow, Eureka, 39, said he would still be alive had the police and Justice Department not let his killer, John Ockhuis, 33, roam the streets a free man. Advocate Francois Joubert, SC, acting for Eureka, argued that police should "keep criminals where they belong - in jail" and said they had a responsibility to protect the public. Read the entire story on: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article238155.ece
Cape Town minstrels fuming at ban from World Cup pitch
The Sunday Times also writes that the many thousands of Cape Minstrels who participate in the annual Minstrel Carnival on Tweede Nuwejaar (January 2) in Cape Town, have been barred from the Athlone Stadium’s revamped grass pitch. They are planning a march to court, claiming the city has treated them like "second-grade citizens". This needs to be explained to outsiders: the source of the parade and the festival are the horrors of slavery, and celebrate their freedom. It’s thus not surprising that the usually jovial performers - often used to market the city to tourists - are irate and feel put-upon after being told their takkies would damage the grass pitch at the revamped Athlone Stadium. Thousands of minstrels gather there every year to compete over a series of Saturdays in January and February for the coveted title of top team - and rely on gate takings from spectators to raise funds. The origins of the annual Minstrels’ parade date from 1890 when the ‘Orpheus Myron McAdoo’s Virginia Jubilee Singers” arrived from Hampton, Virginia, the first black minstrels to tour South Africa – and received an overwhelming reception on June 19, 1890. The reception was so overwhelming because, locals are recorded as having said in amazement, "they were black" and the original songs and performances from the Orpheus singers have been faithfully reproduced each year on the streets of Cape Town ever since… The minstrels are grouped into klopse ("clubs" in Cape Dutch, but more accurately translated as troupes in English). Participants are typically from Afrikaans-speaking working class "coloured" families who have preserved the custom since the mid-19th century.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article238142.ece
2009-12-19 A Rapport newspaper photographer captured convincted arms-deal fraudster Schabir Schaik – released on medical parole with claims that he was ‘terminally ill and wanted to die with dignity’ – out shopping in his BMW in Durban and looking as fit as a fiddle: The picture on: Perdfris Shaik ry self rond in nuwe BMW X6 Schaik also demanded in a seperate interview that they had to give him his f*!*g amnesty now because others who were also involved in the scandal were still running around, unpunished: http://www.rapport.co.za/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2315/eae9b215df01404c957b5d2248639660/19-12-2009-10-51/%E2%80%98Ek_eis_my_fn_kwytskeldingnou!%E2%80%99
18 000 vacancies in government service – but no ‘suitable’ candidates
2009-12-19 Rapport also writes that the BEE-insanity continues under Jacob Zuma, with nearly 18,000 vacant government jobs going begging because ‘the government claims there are no suitable candidates’. Quoted is Adv. Johan Kruger of Solidarity trade union’s legal department, who says there are two reasons for this: the skills shortage and black-economic empowerment laws. “The recent case of Captain Renate Barnard, picture, against the SAPS is only one such example: the police service said she was the best candidate, however she wasn’t ‘qualified’ under the Department’s (BEE) plan. Other examples: HIV+ patients are denied drugs in the Free State and the majority of top posts in the Free State health department currently are filled by ‘acting observers’. “If you only have observers for those posts, who are doing the ‘observers’ jobs?” asked Dr Bevan Goqwana, ANC provincial MP, during a committee hearing…Rapport noted that Goqwana was told that observers have to do both jobs at the same time... The prison service has 87 vacancies for psychiatrists’ posts, and one-third of all its social-worker jobs remain vacant. Minister of corrective services Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was quoted by Rapport as saying: “this shortage of critical skills has a direct impact on the department’s ability to offer all-encompassing rehabilitation programmes for offenders.’ Read more on: 18 000 vakatures in staatsdiens, maar ‘g’n geskikte kandidate’
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s death eulogised by The Witness cartoonist Stidy
Durban’s Sunday Tribune’s latest Dec 19 2009 edition was not available online at 5am, when I wrote this summary. However their front page from last week also was very interesting: it described South Africa as a haven for drugs-syndicates. Nothing new there then.
This newspaper also concentrated on the mounting death toll from South Africa’s holiday traffic accidents, which although already sky-high during normal periods, go into a murderous overdrive over the holiday season, with daily crashes in which more than five people are killed, routine occurrances and emergency personnel working overtime to rescue the survivors from this charnel house.
The Witness also reports that nightclub-patrons in the south-coast holiday town of Margate, KZN live in fear of a gang of bouncers who have allegedly been terrorising them. Read More...
Also in The Witness, its cartoonist Stidy eulogised the death of South Africa’s AIDS-denialist former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week from failure of her transplanted liver by showing a grieving man resembling ex-pres. Thabo Mbeki putting flowers on her grave - amidst a cemetery filled up with AIDS-victims. http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=32967