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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
German horse-breeder fears deportation from South Africa
20:23 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Sven Delika, a crucial witness in a fraud trial against a Home Affairs official in Krugersdorp, suddenly gets deportation orders…
2010-01-09 BRITS, South Africa. German horse-breeder Sven Delika, who used to run the Slide Stop Stables in Magalies, fears that he will be deported with his wife and two small children from the country after ‘intimitating’ visits and sudden deportation orders from Home affairs officials, he told Beeld newspaper. Mr Delika, who is an award-winning, top expert trainer of thoroughbred horses, is an important witness in a corruption investigation against a Krugersdorp Home Affairs official, he told Beeld journalist Amanda Roestoff.
His business was forced to close down on 31 December 2008 because his permit had expired and he couldn’t get it renewed. He then was given 21 days notice to leave the country, but only a day later, was given only three days to ‘provide valid reasons to the minister of home affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, why he and his wife Marion, 33, and their two toddlers should not be immediately deported to Germany.’
Delika told Roestoff: “I feel I am being intimidated, something isn’t right.’ According to a police statement which Beeld was given access to, Mr Delika had handed over R25,000 in cash to a specific woman at the home affairs office in Krugersdorp, in exchange for a permanent residency permit. The official who received the cash refused to accept a bank-guaranteed checks or a guaranteed internet payment – and only gave Delika a receipt, which does not however carried an official departmental stamp: Beeld reports that it ‘looks like an ordinary cash-receipt’.
He became suspicious when an immigration official arrived the following day and asked him about his legal status in South Africa – and told him that ‘the Krugersdorp branch wasn’t authorised to hand out permits’. He was told that the woman he had handed the R25,000 cash to, had been ‘fired pending an investigation’ and that Delika would have to testify in her trial.
And since then he’s received his deportation notices. “I will do anything to stop my deportation because I have built up a life in SA since 2003 with my family,’ he said.
Superintendent Christa Shermann of the West Rand Organised Crime unit of the SAPS has also written to M Matthews, the chief director of immigration services in Pretoria, pointing out that Mr Delika’s testimony is crucial in the forthcoming fraud case against the Home Affairs official.
Home affairs spokeswoman Cleo Mosana said she ‘cannot comment on Delika’s situation because several officials are still on vacation'.
‘The enquiry has been referred to the head of the corruption-unit. It’s also unclear whether the Minister has received all of (Delika’s) petitions,’ Mosana told Beeld.
sources: http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/3eb4b99b05044f2bb2851cfda9c2d966/09-01-2010-01-33/Duitser_leef_in_vrees_oor_deportasie Contact Sven at Tel: 072 745 6647 Email: sven@slidestopstables.co.za
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Policing news Jan 10 2010
Berserker SAPS Inspector Ian Kock, 45, suffering from post-traumatic stress, kills Klerksdorp resident…
2010-01-09
As has only become known a full two weeks after this horrific event, SAPS inspector Ian Kock, 45, an Afrikaner police officer with 26 years of service, allegedly went berserk a day before Christmas eve, walking down Irvine Street in La Hoff, a black suburb of Klerksdorp, wearing his bullet-proof vest and firing off his service pistol. He reportedly hunted down and killed Frans Oupa Lentsela, 38, and fired off at least 25 shots during his rampage down the street. This story was written by Rapport Afrikaans newspaper today by journalist Herman Scholtz.
According to the charge-sheet in the Klerksdorp magistrate’s court, Kock is being charged with murdering Frans (Oupa) Lentsela, a builder who was making food in his room just before he was planning to leave for Leeudoringstad for a family visit.
Kock meanwhile has been released on R2,000 bail and is now undergoing psychiatric treatment at a local hospital, writes the newspaper.
Allegedly according to the documents in the court, Kock started his rampage from about 11pm, walking down the street, knocking on doors, kicking trees, yelling and bashing with his police baton against steel gates. He did not react to anyone who asked him what he was looking for. When he reached Lentsela’s house, he allegedly walked in through the front gate of the erf, and fired eight bulletholes into Lentsela’s room. He was clearly ‘hunting down’ Lentsela, bystanders said. The first shot missed the 34-year-old black man who then fled to an outbuilding to hide. He was shot through the steel-door which he had pushed closed – but managed to flee again. Home owner Elsie Monare said she woke up from the shots, believing they were fireworks. “I wanted to go and rescue my two dogs from the fire crackers when I saw the man (allegedly Kock_ walk around the house. He looked at me and said: ‘sorry’. Mr Lentsela then jumped across a 1,8 m high wall to seek help with his neighbour, who also was his employer, writes Rapport.
Kock then started firing shots towards Ms Monare and her husband Abraham, hiding inside their homes. Rapport writes that the bulletholes showed that they travelled right through the walls and through the house and lodged in the wall of the garage. Meanwhile Mrs Claude van Wyk, Mrs Monare’s neighbour, also woke up from the noise. She spotted their worker Mr Lentsela, covered in blood, at their backdoor. Her husband Andries rushed to help Lentsela together with the police which had arrived on the scene and repeatedly asked the builder while he was being stabilised, who had shot him. Apparently, according to Rapport, the shot man was unable to identify his attacker. “He also said it was unfair that he was shot. He was merely making food in his room,’ Mr Andries van Wyk was quoted as saying. Mr Lentsela died on Christmas eve in the hospital.
The community has been left behind in dispair and fear by the berserker cop: the Van Wyk couple and their three young children were now planning to move to another house in a hurry. “We can’t stay. The man is out on bail. What if he is released from hospital? He’s safe there and probably gets a sleeping pill. We can’t sleep any longer,’ the couple told Rapport.
Inspector Kock’s colleagues reportedly were in tears when they spoke to Rapport. Kock is the sector-policing manager at the Jouberton police station and had been assigned to patrol the black neighbourhood for the past few years. Previously he had worked in the riot-unit and he seemed outwardly ‘able to handle the political changes and the high pressures of the job,’ said a colleague. The police officer’s attorney Kobus Burger told the court during the bail application that Kock had been working as a police officer for longer than 26 years.
Police superintendent Lesego Metsi told the news media that he ‘had heard that Kock had been under the influence of alcohol or of other substances and that his bail application contains the provision that he may not use any alcohol. ‘ He also said that a ‘notice to try and suspend him’ was served on Kock on Tuesday, his service pistol was taken away from him meanwhile – however the suspension could not legally take effect until he’s released from hospital.
A senior police member told Rapport that they were ‘particularly upset because the police did not intervene in time, especially in the light of a previous serious incident which he did not want to elaborate about.’
Top SA psychiatrist Dr. Johan Grové, who is a world-expert on the subject of post-traumatic stress among police officers, said many such victims start self-medicating – either with alcohol, drugs or any other way ‘to survive: these people have been exposed to violence over a long period of time and if they don’t get treatment in time, some can start engaging in needless violence,’ he said. “It’s often also those people nearest to such patients who get targetted the worst.’ http://www.rapport.co.za/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2315/495643af3c5e4856886839294b500c52/09-01-2010-10-15/%E2%80%98Klappers%E2%80%99_eintlik_berserker_se_skote
sources -- Post Traumatic Stress Studies among SA police officers:
- http://www.csvr.org.za/wits/papers/papstres.htm
- Predictors of post-traumatic stress symptoms among South African police personnel
- Authors: Jones, Russell Kagee, Ashraf ISSN: 00812463 Volume 35 Issue 2 Publication Date:2005 Pages:p.209-224 Abstract: The present study investigated the relationship between coping style, perceived social support, length of service experience, age, and gender on symptoms of post-traumatic stress among members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape. In Phase 1 of the study, 19 police officers participated in a series of qualitative interviews aimed at eliciting a list of duty-related stressors that formed the basis of a stressor questionnaire. In Phase 2 of the study 97 officers from twelve police stations in the western metropolis of Cape Town completed a battery of questionnaires that assessed stressful experiences, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, coping, social and family support, and various demographic variables. The first multiple regression analysis showed that problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and perceived social support explained 42.6% of the variance in the severity of posttraumatic stress scores, although problem-focused coping was positively associated with symptom severity (ß = 0.68). In the second multiple regression analysis, coping was entered as a composite variable and, together with perceived social support, accounted for 29.3% of the variance in post-traumatic stress scores. These results imply a need to enhance specific coping skills among police officers in addressing duty-related traumatic stressors and to fortify social support structures both within the police service and in the private lives of officers. Tel: +27 12 643-9500 email: info@sabinet.co.za http://www.sabinet.co.za/abstracts/sapsyc/sapsyc_v35_n2_a4.xml
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Police-inspector, reservist arrested after accident and Duncan Village mob-shooting
2010-01-10 EAST LONDON, South Africa. A police officer and a police-reservists are expected in the East London magistrate’s court Monday after their arrest for drunk-driving and for shooting at a group of people on Friday-night. The unnamed on-duty 46-year-old police-inspector was arrested in Dun can Village after he drove with his car into a hut while drunk, said police superintendent Mtati Tana. The off-duty 39-year-old reservist then allegedly fired shots towards a group of people on the accident scene who had started throwing the drunken inspector with stones. Amazingly, no-one was injured in this incident.
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'We are ‘maar’ just glad we are alive'
January 9 2010 ALBERTON, Johannesburg. Deon Holtzhausen and Louis Venter used to greet each other as neighbours do - with a friendly wave and the occasional "hello". But since Venter shot and killed an armed robber who was holding Holtzhausen's family hostage in their Alberton home, his neighbour thinks it is likely they will get to know each other better, reports Sheree Bega of The Star. And the best news of all is that the SAPS is not going to charge the Good Samaritan with murder for rescuing an entire family…
"Louis and his family moved in next door about five months ago," said Holtzhausen, a bank manager. "We were just greeting each other, but we'll probably become better friends now. "We've spoken a lot this week. He's a big hero. He's actually a very nice guy."
Three armed men stormed into Holtzhausen's home soon after midnight last Sunday while he and his wife Cecilia were entertaining two guests. The intruders tied them up, bit jewellery off their fingers and demanded money.
Holtzhausen had little hope his family would escape unharmed as the men had already stripped off his wife's underwear but Venter, an ex-traffic officer, alerted by Cecilia's screams, entered the house, shot dead one of the robbers just as the attacker was cocking his pistol at the head of one of his captives – and Holtzhausen then subdued the other two until police arrived.
"My wife's battling a bit," Holtzhausen said. "Louis' wife is also emotional. She took a bit of punishment with what her husband did but he is not being charged.
"We've already gone for some counselling, it helps. We are maar just glad we are alive. What can you do? You must go on living. I think the Man Upstairs was sitting on our shoulders."
Venter has paid tribute to his 17-year-old son and Holtzhausen's teenage daughter for being the real heroes. When the men entered her home Holtzhausen's daughter was woken by her her dogs' growling. She phoned Venter's son and told him what was happening. His father told the teenager to call the police and was waiting for officers to arrive when he heard screams from the house. "Louis didn't just run into the house. He peeked all around the house. It was very clever of him," Holtzhausen said.
When Venter confronted the suspected ringleader of the trio he cocked his pistol to shoot one of his captives. Venter shot him in the head. Yet it's clear he doesn't want to be seen as a hero. "The heroes of this were Deon's daughter and my son’, he said earlier this week. "I did want I had to do. I have very mixed feelings about what I did. It's not easy to kill someone, but we have to help each other, as neighbours." Venter later said he was no longer talking to the media because he had been misquoted in the press. story: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?newslett=1&em=205034a6a20100109ah&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100109080348780C539401&set_id=1
Attacks against SA families inside their homes – SAPS map 2008/9
http://www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/crimestats/2009/categories/robbery_residential.pdf
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Just so you know – crime is the fault of ‘careless visitors…’
January 8 2010, By Rizwana Sheik Umar, Daily News, KZN -- “Careless holiday makers are to blame for the high crime rate in Pennington on the South Coast” where an Australian family also was recently attacked, says Umdoni Ward Councillor Russell Meyer. He made this claim after a family of 14 were terrorised by intruders while on holiday in the town recently. The Kidger family from Creighton, near Ixopo had family members from Australia staying with them when they were attacked at their holiday home while enjoying a game of cards in the living room. Three very aggressive, belligerent armed men jumped over the high wall and walked through the front door.
"I still don't know why the door was open. We're usually very conscious about security, but I guess it was warm and we didn't think anything would happen to us," said John Kidger yesterday.
Meyer said crime peaked during the holiday season because the population doubled. He also said: "Many holidaymakers leave doors wide open and most commonly leave areas of the house unattended. Pickings are there for the taking The police are doing a very good job and several of the inspectors live in Pennington."
That does not ease the trauma for the latest victims of crime in the area. John Kidger described their harrowing ordeal. "My sister, brother-in-law and their son were enjoying a game of cards at 11.30pm when three armed balaclava-clad men brazenly walked into the living room," he said. "They calmly swept aside the blinds and I immediately noticed a firearm and two daggers. My sister and I shouted and they told us to 'shut up or we'll kill you'. "We were led to the garage through the interleading door and forced to lie face down with our arms stretched out in front of us. We were body-searched by one of them. They kept asking if we had weapons and at that stage we didn't. "Two of them went back into the house while one stayed behind, watching us. The hardest thing was lying there and hearing them rummage through the house. The rest of the family was asleep, including my wife, who was in the main bedroom with three children who were sleeping on the floor." Kidger said that soon afterwards, one of them had marched in with his father and then with his mother, who had been asleep in the bedroom, and forced them to the ground. "They were well-composed and kept threatening us the entire time. "I remember hearing a dog bark and I hoped someone heard or saw something. Everything happened so fast we couldn't even get to the panic button. These guys were so methodical; they knew exactly what they were doing." His sister, who was in another room with four children, saw the intruders walk the father down the hall. She later told John that she had quietly got out of bed and held on to the door handle with all her strength when they had tried to force the door open. "Between myself, my dad and my brother-in-law, I could sense we all knew that we had to do something. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to retaliate. "We just had to find the right opportunity. There must have been some guardian angel watching over us, because that opportunity presented itself. "I heard someone shout: 'Put your hands up and lie down.'"
A neighbour had become suspicious when there was suddenly silence in the Kidger household after a loud game of cards. Kidger said the neighbour had then seen one of the intruders march his mother at gunpoint down the passage.The neighbour had alerted the two men in her house, who happened to be ex-military.
"When the intruder wielding the dagger who was 'guarding' us heard the neighbour's voice, he panicked and ran into the living room. "As he ran out, we got up and tackled him from behind."When we all burst into the living room, I saw one of the intruders shooting at our neighbour, who was inside our house."
Kidger said gunfire had been exchanged and one of the robbers had been killed. Two others had been injured. He said that even after the police had arrived and arrested the men, the attackers had still been belligerent.When the police had searched them, they had found cable ties and lawyers' cards in their pockets.
Kidger added that his sister and brother-in-law from Australia had been holidaying with them. They had left the country because of crime and hadn't been back for four years. The police were not available to comment on the incident. The Daily News January 08, 2010
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27 Ngcobo residents arrested in East Cape mob attack
Jan 8, 2010 Ngcobo, Eastern Cape - SAPS superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said ‘ Ngcobo residents were angry and accused the headman of stealing their stock on Thursday afternoon. Stock theft is an ongoing problem. The people said one of the stolen sheep were found in the headman's kraal, so that's why they burned his home," said Fatyela. The headman's home and eight other houses, belonging to his son and other relatives, were set alight. "It was a group of men armed with knobkieries and assegais and pangas... the police chopper followed them and we arrested 27 people."
Nobody was injured during the following day. The group appeared in court on Friday. Fatyela said the area was quiet on Friday morning. "But fights may break out again. The relatives of the headman whose homes were torched may retaliate." He said the police were hoping to make more arrests on Friday. http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/article252908.ece
Cape Town ‘s many male prostitutes can’t wait for WC2010
2010-01-09 Rapport newspaper writes that Cape Town, as the country’s Male Sex Prostitution capital, can’t wait for the start of the WC2010 – they expect to earn a lot of hot foreign cash… Kaapstad dán ’n gay-seksmekka