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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Job news Jan 15 2010
19:35 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Solidarity trade union warns that 32 workers face job-dismissal at the Johannesburg stock-exchange listed Afgri agricultural company – even though the company is also building a gigantic new headquarters in Centurion and investing heavily in its ‘Farm City shopping centre’ concept.
The Farm City shopping centres, says the company, promises to ‘bring the benefits of the farm to the people living and working close to the city and provide them with a product, service and shopping experience which embraces the values and benefits of the Farm yet meets the needs and demands of the City.”
Employees in the southern-African agricultural company’s logistics, commodities-trading- and financial services departments are meanwhile also facing lay-offs despite all these ambitious plans.
Solidarity’s spokesman Jaco Kleynhans said the negotiations are troublesome because the company insists on dealing with the consultations for these workers’ seperation-packets seperately -- with the directors of the company claiming that these departments are “individual entities” instead of being an integral part of the same company...
Meanwhile Solidarity also noted that Afgri ‘s new multi-million Rand headquarters building of 9,000 m2 is nearing completion next to the N1 freeway in Centurion. http://www.solidaritysa.co.za/Tuis/wmview.php?ArtID=2959
Sasol places bid on Zambia’s Indeni Petroleum
Solidarity also noted that the giant state-owned SASOL fuel-from-coal company has made a bid for the Zambian government-owned oil-refinery Indeni Petroleum, (IPR). The decision apparently will be made in March 2010.
Mergers and Acquisitions dropped by 61% in 2009
Meanwhile, Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in South Africa have dropped by a whopping 61 percent in 2009, independent M&A intelligence service Mergermarket said on Friday.
2009 saw a total of 85 deals valued at $6.8 billion (R50.5 billion) in South Africa, a decrease of 61 percent by value and 42 percent by volume from 2008. In 2008, there were 146 deals with a total value of $17.4 billion. Mergermarket expected 2010 to be " a tough one" for the local M&A scene.
"Increasing unemployment figures have taken a substantial number of paying customers out of the economy affecting sectors such as retail and manufacturing." http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fArticleId=5313929
Eskom, the state-run national electricity provider, still is in the firing line - over its proposal to the National Energy Regulator NERSA to raise electricity prices by a whopping 35% over the next three years. Trade unions representing all the job-provision sectors have uninimously expressed great dissatisfaction with these plans – especially the commercial farmers who already spend 10,2% of all their overhead costs on electricity costs, writes Solidarity. This union has put forward alternative plans instead: Full Story
Gold Fields’ Driefontein-mine suspended its mining activities for a full week in December due to earth-quakes – and the cash-cost to the mine has thus also been driven up by 4% per troy ounce.
Solidarity also reports that both the mining and construction industries survived 2009, but at a very high cost – with more than 46,000 jobs lost in the mining industry in 2009 – that’s 8,6 percent of the total number of employees in this sector. The construction industry also lost another 37,000 jobs in 2009. http://www.solidaritysa.co.za/Tuis/wmview.php?ArtID=2959
And there’s more bad news for the job-market: despite producing more, South African platinum miner Anglo Platinum expects to report an 89 – 99% fall in full-year headline EPS because of lower prices in the precious metal. http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=5314012
Zimbabwe government loses AfriForum law suit:
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe government is unfazed by a high court ruling that granted AfriForum an order for leave to sue it for the return or compensation of South African-owned seized farms, where thousands of Zimbabwean farm workers have also lost their jobs and homes. Full story
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Farmer ‘s luck: all 3 shots by robber misfired
2010_1_15 Houtnek FS dairy farmer Jan vd Westhuizen saved by 3 gun misfires
Petrus Steyn Houtnek smallholdings, Free State - The trigger was pulled once, twice, thrice - but not a single shot fired. reports Volksblad journalist Vicus Bürger. Dairy farmer Jan van der Westhuizen, 59, thanks God that not one of the shots actually fired when an armed man wanted to kill him in his house after he’d given him R150.
Two farmers killed each week
The farmers’ lobby Agri-SA announced this week that an average of two_white_farmers_are_murdered_each_week in South Africa – and that the farm attacks have soared since August last year. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/01/cruel-farm-attacks-in-north-cape-free.html - Don’t look away from these murders
Van der Westhuizen lives with his son, GF, on a Houtnek smallholding. He and his son left the house before 06:00 on Thursday. Van der Westhuizen picked up his labourers and went to the milking stalls while his son left for the farm where he works. Van der Westhuizen says he had to use the bathroom later and went back to the house, where he unlocked the door and went inside.
He was immediately suspicious when he noticed that the lights in the house were switched on. Furthermore, he noticed bottles in the foyer which had been taken from the drinks cabinet in another room.
Van der Westhuizen was on his way to the kitchen when he saw the attacker standing at his daughter's bedroom door. The robber was carrying his .38 revolver. "What are you doing in my house?" the unarmed farmer asked. The robber said he wanted money. Van der Westhuizen threw about R150 on the floor. The robber then pulled the trigger for the first time. Van der Westhuizen says he can't describe the feeling which came over him at that point. "At that stage [when the shot didn't fire] I realised the Lord is on my side." The robber first ordered Van der Westhuizen to lie down on the ground, and then to come into his daughter's room. "I decided he would shoot. He had pulled the trigger before." He ran to another room instead.
Revolver left behind outside the homestead…
The robber must have pulled the trigger twice more -- but once again, no shots were fired. The farmer stormed into another room and kept the door closed until the robber fled. Stolen were the R150 and his son's cellphone, which he had forgotten at home that morning, but (the man) left the revolver outside the house. The robber had forced open a steel door to gain access to the house. There is the suspicion that another robber could possibly have been in the house. Van der Westhuizen says during an incident in December 2009, a labourer had tried to hit him with a panga – and ever since then, he’d kept his revolver in his bedside drawer at night. On Thursday morning, he forgot to lock the firearm in the safe, which is how the robber got hold of the revolver. Van der Westhuizen says when the robber pulled the trigger the first two times, there were only casings in the respective chambers of the revolver. The third time, the striker slammed into the back. He thanks his Creator for still being alive. "If it hadn't been for Him, I'd be gone. His mercy was there, His hand in everything."
News updates Jan 15 2010
Looking for relatives of Flora Wannenburg, buried in East London, 6-8-1972
EAST LONDON. Even the graves of Afrikaner ancestors aren’t safe from Southern Africa’s massive army of copper looters any more. This week, the police recovered about 18 brass memorial plates, apparently from Afrikaner graveyards, at a scrap metal dealer at St Pauls Road in North End, East London on Monday, 11 January 2010. The top plaque on the stackreads “In loving memory of Flora Wannenburg, 25-8-1904 to 6-8-1972 – RIP” . The East London police ask relatives who may lost such brass or copper memorial plates to contact superintendent M R Tana, tel (043) 7090529; 0823017593 Email elareacommunic@saps.org.za
Picture: the plaques were recovered after a scrap metal business owner called the police while the seller was waiting for payment. The suspect whose address was given to the Police by the scrap yard ran away before he could be arrested. http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=18128
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Human foot, ‘lightly coloured’ found in Welkom Klippan dam
Holiday fishermen found a severed human foot in a dam in Welkom on Friday morning, Free State police said. Captain Stephen Thakeng said Kobus Geyser, his girlfriend and his father were fishing in the Klippan dam when they saw the decomposed foot floating in the water. Thakeng said the foot was neatly amputated and light in colour. Geyser said he had fished regularly in the dam in the past. They also fished there on Thursday evening with no incident. Geyser moved to Swartklip a few years ago. He was visiting his parents in Welkom for a few days. Police dogs were used to scout the dam, but did not find any other human remains.The dam lies among some gold mines and is far away from any hospitals. – Sapa http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100115145529965C980809
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15 January 2010 – SOWETAN, Johannesburg. Boksburg police are looking for four people who can help them convict nine suspects, including branch managers and tellers, who robbed, stole from and defrauded the South African Post Office of R2,4-million and deposited the money in fake bank accounts, writes Sibongile Mashaba of Sowetan – email: mashabas@sowetan.co.za
The suspects are expected to appear in Johannesburg high court next month to face charges, including racketeering. The nine people – two branch managers, five tellers and two other men who were members of a crime-syndicate – were arrested following a spate of robberies at post offices in Boksburg/Ekurhuleni in 2008.
Police say four people – three were pictured on the front page of Sowetan -- “ may have information about a syndicate that was operating in Gauteng and bordering provinces in 2008.” Gauteng police Inspector Sefako Xaba has also appealed to Michael Nxumalo , Simon Moseneke , Ncala Khumalo, and SSB Mothlaping to come forward to assist them in their enquiries.
SA Post Office security and investigations general manager Patrick Ngomane said: “The syndicate stole about R2,4million from post offices in more than four months.
“The two men who were not employed by Sapo would rob the post office and then lock up staff. The employees knew how to use our production system which records all transaction and accessed it and then transferred money into false accounts through Post Bank.”
Ngomane said the investigation started as soon as they noticed an increase in such robberies. “Large amounts of money were stolen from post offices. Of the R2,4million, about R320,000 was stolen through the transactions. We managed to stop all the bank accounts,” he said. He said after the arrests, the tellers were suspended with pay. They were later dismissed. Xaba said the syndicate was alleged to have stolen identity documents from the post office.
“They stole the ID books and committed fraud. They also robbed post offices,” he said. “We have been to Nxumalo, Moseneke, Khumalo and Mothlaping’s houses but we could not find them. We believe that they could help with the investigations.” Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the four is requested to call the investigating officer Detective Superintendent Beukman on 082-568-4502 or 011-871-5624.http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1104799
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BLOEMFONTEIN. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) recommends that Free State's police chief inspector Amon Mashigo and some deputies be disciplined for irregularities in the province's police service, Volksblad reported on Friday. These irregularities, contained in a report by ICD chief in the Northern Cape Dan Morena, included the "manipulation of crime statistics", the misuse of travel allowances and unauthorised appointments of 36 people, mostly friends and family members.These posts were never advertised, the newspaper said.It said Morena was awaiting feedback from Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa's office after making recommendations on how to discipline chief of police Amon Mashigo and his management.
Incorrect crime-statistics given to police minister:
The probe into the provincial management of the police service was reportedly ordered by President Jacob Zuma's office, after a police reservist George Mashale submitted complaints to the president. Mashale told Volksblad he would, before the end of the week, ask Zuma to "remove" Mashigo as chief of police.
We're sick and tired of corrupt people. I want to give President Zuma credit. He has kept his promise to investigate all complaints about corruption," he was quoted as saying. In the report Morena reveals that provincial chief of crime intelligence Joey Kers had given incorrect crime statistics to the minister of police during a visit in January 2009.
- Mashale's complaint said Kers was warned the figures were incorrect, and Mashigo was aware of this.
Another complaint was that Mashigo ordered two police officials to drive his official vehicle and a government vehicle to Pretoria, while he flew there. One official said he had done so to obtain a warning statement, which he failed to do. In another incident related to expense claims, two deputies Pierre le Roux and Thapelo Mamabolo reportedly attended the funeral of Mashigo's father-in-law, and claimed travel and accommodation allowances. According to Mashale, Mamabolo was given a lift and still claimed expenses, to which the report by the ICD states that no policy could be found to justify that trip. It was also found that Mashigo's secretary, following his orders, travelled to Pretoria with a government vehicle to fetch documents and a cellphone. Apparently they could not be sent by mail or courier.She also attended a sporting event that her child participated in and claimed travel and accommodation expenses.No comment was given by Mashigo's office because the case was still sub judice. - Sapa http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=&art_id=nw20100115104804306C967332
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Mbabatho inspector B J N Jansen, wife Aletta, stepson Brian Heydenrych, 24, in court for theft
Mbabatho, East Cape. A police official, his wife and stepson were arrested at their house in the police barracks at Ramatlabama Border Post at around 15:30 on 7 January 2010. They stand accused of being in possession of property suspected to have been stolen as well as unlawful possession of ammunition.Insp BJN Jansen (30), his wife, Aletta (50) and his stepson, Brian Heydenrych (24) were arrested. A Sony Plasma television, a Telefunken DVD player, two black and green bedside lamps, an R5 magazine, three boxes of 9 mm live rounds, five R5 live rounds, 21 .303 live rounds, three 9 mm magazines and 45 9 mm live rounds were recovered. It is suspected that the property, excluding the ammunition and magazines, is the property of Mmabatho Palms where Brian Heydenrych was allegedly formerly employed as a contractor. The three accused appeared in the Mmabatho Magistrates' Court on 8 January 2010 and were granted bail of R1,000 each. They are to appear in court again on 18 March 2010. Story by SA Police constable A. Smit, tel. (018) 299 7269 http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=18147
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”Hands off our wives”, shout demonstrators at school of accused sex-pest teacher
Is the ‘Sex for jobs’ problem finally out in the open in South Africa?
An angry group of teachers' husbands is demanding a senior KwaDukuza teacher be sacked amid claims of sexual harassment and mismanagement.
Daily News journalist Dasen Thathiah reports that a probe by a Department of Education task team is expected to be completed soon. After the issue came to light in November, husbands of alleged victims of harassment formed a "concerned spouses" group. A group spokesman said a number of issue had sparked a placard demonstration outside the school this week. The men gathered outside the school on Monday holding up posters which read "Get a life, get your own wife", and "No to woman abuse".
In a letter addressed to the superintendent-general's office last week, the group called for the immediate removal of two senior school officials.
Some of the allegations against one of the teachers include groping some female teachers, mismanagement and nepotism. "The teachers have reached breaking point. Something had to be done," the group spokesman said.
"Women were being touched, on their hands, bodies and buttocks, and other staff were ridiculed and persecuted for no reason. He even kept the staff register on his desk so the females were forced to come there to sign it."
The spokesman said although his wife had not been a victim of sexual harassment, she had become a bundle of nerves as a result of the working environment. The group has vowed to take legal action if the teacher is not fired or removed after the investigation. The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has expressed concern at the allegations, saying they were being treated very seriously.
"We are always against corruption and sexual abuse and these cases involve the abuse of women. We cannot stand by and watch while our members are treated in this way."
Khuzwayo emphasised that the union "has not branded anyone guilty" and promised to let the investigation take its course. Sadtu officials visited the school every day this week to ensure their members were "in a safe environment".
The principal confirmed that a probe was under way. "I cannot comment on the matter while the investigation is being conducted, but all I can say is that desperate individuals will subscribe to desperate means," he said.
Provincial Education Department spokeswoman Mbali Thusi was “unaware of the incident but promised to look into it”. Names of the school and parties involved are known to the Daily News, but are being withheld for the time being. This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on January 15, 2010 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100115113046736C495007
Boy, 12, shot in the head to stop him identifying criminals:
Also on the front page of the Daily News was the shocking story about a 12-year-old boy, who was was shot in the head and critically injured during a hijacking "so he would not be able to speak about what he saw". http://www.dailynews.co.za/?fArticleId=5313964
Naomi Campbell got a blood diamond from Charles Taylor
Supermodel Naomi Campbell received blood diamond The Hague court told
The Hague, 14 Jan 2010 -- - Liberia's ex-president Charles Taylor gave a so-called blood diamond to supermodel Naomi Campbell after a 1997 dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela, the prosecution in his war crimes trial charged on Thursday. Actress Mia Farrow is listed as a witness to this event in the trial.
The diamond was among those Taylor had obtained from Sierra Leone rebels and took to South Africa "to sell .. or exchange them from weapons," prosecutor Brenda Hollis asserted in cross-examining Taylor.
"From among those diamonds that you took to South Africa, after this dinner that you attended you sent your men to Ms Campbell's room to provide her with a large ... diamond," she said. "That is totally incorrect," Taylor responded.
"That diamond that you sent to Naomi Campbell was one of the diamonds that you had been given by the junta in Sierra Leone."
"Total nonsense."
Dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in September 1997:
Hollis said the alleged gift was made after a dinner hosted by South Africa's then-president Mandela in September 1997, which was attended by celebrities like singer Quincy Jones and actress Mia Farrow.
Campbell told Farrow of the diamond the following morning, according to the prosecution. The actress is listed as a witness in Taylor's trial.
Taylor, 61, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the brutal 1991-2001 civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. These include charges of murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers, enslavement and pillaging. He has been on trial since January 2008, accused of having fuelled war in Sierra Leone by arming the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for "blood diamonds".
Sometimes referred to as conflict diamonds, blood diamonds is the name given to diamonds mined in ‘ rebel-held ‘ regions of Africa used to fund warfare/
The RUF is blamed for the mutilation of thousands of civilians who had their hands and arms severed in one of the most brutal wars in modern history, which claimed about 120,000 lives.Taylor took the stand in his own defence last July, and completed his evidence in November. - Radio Netherlands. http://www.rnw.nl/int-justice/article/charles-taylor-gave-naomi-campbell-blood-diamond
picture by Radio Netherlands of Charles Taylor
Terror threat to WC2010 ‘very real’
SA Institute of Race Relations: the WC2010, with 2-billion TV viewers worldwide and one of the largest gatherings of Westerners outside Europe and the USA, would be an attractive target for Al Qaeda…
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‘ The WC2010 would be attractive to Al Qaeda: … with over 2-billion TV viewers, it’s also one of the largest gatherings of Westerners outside of western Europe and the United States”, writes Frans Cronje
14 January 2010 – PRETORIA. The “amateurish’ attack by Cabindan separatists on Togo’s soccer team at the current Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Angola created some controversy about safety surrounding the soccer World Cup to be staged in South Africa later this year. A number of analysts and newspaper editorials have dismissed concerns at terror attacks in South Africa.
“Soccer authorities have called the idea ‘stupid’ and one newspaper even went as far as to suggest it was ‘racist’. However there is some evidence to suggest that a risk does exist,” writes Frans Cronje in this report.
“Of course there is very little, if any risk, of those same Cabindan separatists launching a second attack in South Africa. Their dispute with Angola’s government is too distant and too localised. Their attack was relatively amateur and involved nothing more sophisticated than the setting up of a machine-gun on the side of a road.
“The terror risk facing South Africa’s World Cup does not originate from such relatively small and isolated rebel and political groups. There are in any case no such groups operating in South Africa. Route and venue security and the saturation policing likely to be employed by the South African police during the World Cup will also leave very little scope for such a relatively small scale ‘machine-gun’ assault to be carried out. South Africa’s security forces have proven themselves to be very adept at securing major events from petty crimes or other amateur security threats.
More serious:…
The terror threat facing the tournament in South Africa is altogether more serious.
- “ It revolves around the possibility that an Al Qaeda aligned movement may use the tournament as a platform upon which to launch a massive strike against a Western target in South Africa. South Africa is particularly vulnerable to such a threat with all the circumstances or pre-conditions to stage such an attack in place.”
Porous borders…. easy to get fraudulent documents…
These include that South Africa’s borders are porous and controls on entry and exit are easily circumvented. It is also relatively easy to obtain fraudulent documents to live and work in South Africa under an assumed name. It would provide little challenge to an Al Qaeda cell to infiltrate any weaponry or personnel into the country ahead of the World Cup. Indeed if a terror attack were on the cards Al Qaeda’s track record in planning suggests that this may already have occurred.
Borders in Western countries and particularly the United States are altogether more difficult to penetrate. Over the past decade border and visa controls have been stepped up dramatically. The fact that there has not been a major terror attack on American soil in almost a decade suggests that these efforts may have frustrated Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda may therefore be particularly drawn to the lax border controls and security on offer on South Africa.
SA intelligence services concentrate on domestical political battles within the ANC…
here should also be concern at the capacity of South Africa’s intelligence services to accurately detect and act against such a threat. There is some evidence to suggest that the efforts of these agencies have been turned inwards to fight domestic political battles for factions within the ANC. They may not have their eye on the ball internationally to the extent that they should. Evidence led in the current Jackie Selebi trial also suggests that these agencies have been corrupted.
- Evidence from that trial includes that South African security agencies showed international intelligence reports to alleged drug smugglers in exchange for bribes. There must also be concerns about the simple ‘capacity’ of these agencies to do intelligence work.
- On a number of occasions they have been embarrassed by having their operatives and operations publically identified in the media.
Strong Islamic influence throughout east-Africa’s coastal belt all the way down to Cape Town…
Threat detection and mitigation must therefore be left to foreign agencies, many of which probably operate quite freely in South Africa. In part their interest in the country may arise from the concept of an African ‘terror belt’ that extends southwards from Yemen across the Gulf of Aden to Somalia and then down the east coast of Africa through Kenya and Tanzania before ending up in Cape Town. The strong Islamic influence that runs through this coastal belt probably provides ample opportunity for the concealment of terror cells.
- This is not to suggest that Muslim communities in Cape Town or elsewhere in Africa are actively complicit in such terrorist activities. Rather that terror cells are by their nature secretive and operate as clandestine minorities of the communities they penetrate.
Confidence in the abilities of these Western agencies should also not be exaggerated. American intelligence operatives failed to detect both the 9/11 attacks and the more recent Christmas Day airline bomb scare even though they appear to have had sufficient information to pre-empt these attacks. The recent killing in Afghanistan of several CIA agents by an Al Qaeda triple-agent is a further example of the challenges and miscalculations that beset Western agencies.
Weakness to infiltrate terror networks…
While many successfully pre-empted attacks may never make newspaper headlines there appears to be a weakness in the ability of many agencies to properly penetrate terror networks and then draw correct conclusions from the information they do obtain.
There is much evidence that the difficulty in attacking Westerners in Western countries has seen Al Qaeda adopt the strategy of rather attacking Westerners in ‘third party’ countries. Other than the bombings of the London underground in 2005, and train bombings in Spain in 2004, most terror attacks of the past decade have been conducted on Western targets outside of western Europe and the United States. A selection of these include:
- The 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people including 90 Australians.
- Bombings in Morocco in 2003 that were targeted at Westerners and Jews and killed over 40 people.
- Suicide bomb attacks on a Western compound in Saudi Arabia in 2003 that killed over 30 people.
- Bomb attacks on western occupied hotels in Jordan in 2005 that killed over 50 people.
- Truck bomb attacks on the British Consulate and HSBC bank in Turkey in 2003 that killed over 60 people.
Africa too has a record of being a stage for Islamist terror networks to strike Western targets as testified to by attacks on embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, the failed 2002 effort to shoot down an Israeli Boeing 757 with Strela surface to air missiles in Kenya, and the 2002 bombing of a holiday resort also in Kenya.
- “South Africans would be naïve to believe that the warm relations that their Government enjoys with many rogue states, proffers them any degree of extra security.” writes Cronje.
“The World Cup will also be a particularly attractive target for Al Qaeda. Estimates range at between 300,00 and 500,000 for the number of foreign tourists who will be in South Africa during the World Cup. This could make the tournament one of the largest gatherings of Westerners outside of western Europe and the United States.
2-billion TV viewers, and the largest gathering of Westerners outside the US and Western Europe…
With over 2 billion viewers the World Cup is also the world’s biggest live televised event. It dwarfs any event previously hosted in South Africa. The fact that every global news and press agency will converge on South Africa will greatly magnify the impact of any attack. Such global news coverage is a further factor that would make a terror attack on the World Cup a very attractive proposition for Al Qaeda.
Many of the circumstances that would make a terror attack possible and attractive to Al Qaeda therefore converge very neatly around the World Cup in South Africa in just six months’ time.
That is not to say that such an attack will occur nor that it is even likely. However, if an attack is carried out the diagnosis of why it occurred will be fairly simple, revolving chiefly around the circumstances and factors that this paper has highlighted. Nor is it possible to point to the nature of such an attack except to warn that Al Qaeda has unfortunately demonstrated its capacity both for patience and for highly imaginative planning.
Three weeks ago the Institute told Reuters, in an interview later published in media ranging from the New York Times to ESPN.com, that the Soccer World Cup could come to be regarded as key milestone in changing attitudes about the African continent. It is also the Institute’s view that the risks commonly associated with South Africa’s World Cup, including crime, a shortage of accommodation, and weak transport infrastructure will not adversely affect the tournament. Planning around the tournament appears to have been very effective as demonstrated by the now complete stadiums which are hugely impressive sporting arenas. On this score alone the sceptics about our ability to host the tournament appear to have got it wrong. The World Cup tourist experience of South Africa will be one of the best tourist experiences in the world. In almost every respect the factors that South Africa can control in arranging the World Cup appear to be well under control. But international terrorism is not something over which we have the capacity to exercise much control. In addition one of the most effective assets that any terrorist group can possess is to convince its next target that they are no longer at risk. South Africans should therefore be a little less hasty to dismiss the risk of the World Cup being targeted and realise that the scourge of global terror applies to all societies and particularly under circumstances such as those pointed out above. - Frans Cronje” http://www.sairr.org.za/sairr-today/sairr-today-how-vulnerable-is-south-africa2019s-soccer-world-cup-to-a-major-terrorist-attack-14th-january-2009/
WHO wants water-quality reports straight from SA consumers…
Our Water Is As Pure As The Driven Snow, SA Government Officials Tell WHO
Irene Main of the National Taxpayers Union has asked consumers of municipal water countrywide to write her about their own local water-quality and sewage processing -- for her report to the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Ms Main recently asked the international health body’s assistance in putting pressure on the ANC-regime to enforce the country’s own National Water Act and Chapter 3 of the country’s own Constitution. However the SA government denies that there’s any problem. WHO now asks local residents to provide first-person accounts of the quality of their own water- and sewage-reticulation.
Dolf Dreyer, editor of the Madibeng Pulse, in Brits, asks that all residents in South Africa using local municipal water can send proof directly to Irene Main about any local transgressions of the Water Act in local areas to Ms Irene May: vaalmarina@telkomsa.net (telephone SA 082 411 7127) – who is directly liaising with the World Health Organisation on the matter.
Ms Main wrote in Madibeng Pulse:
Contamination of our water resources …”I have been liaising with the World Health Organisation since October 2009, with the support of the National Tax Payers Union, seeking their assistance in putting pressure on our Government, on an international level, to have our National Water Act enforced, and to ensure that Chapter 3 of our Constitution be interpreted correctly, and the necessary action be taken against Government Departments and parties that are not compliant by the Department of Water Affairs.
“A recent report that has been submitted to the WHO by certain (South African) Government Departments, (claims) shows that ‘all the stipulated criteria required, has been met in terms of hygiene, sanitation and drinking water in South Africa’.
“As a result the World Health Organisation has requested to obtain, at ground level, from the mouths of the people of South Africa, the following reports, which I will collate and hand to the World Health Organisation.
“Please could All Towns advise me of any sewage and/ or mining contamination that is taking place in or near their Town, together with photos and water tests where possible, copies of criminal charges that have been made, etc. that is affecting our Rivers and Dams.
Please note that the report is for the benefit of the people of South Africa, to stop our resources from being contaminated daily any further, and not politically motivated. Please, where possible, do the report in English, as the World Health Organisation is an International Organisation whose Head Office is in Geneva.
Please email the above information to me at vaalmarina@telkomsa.net as soon as possible. I really appreciate your assistance in this matter. Together, we can have a beter quality of life. http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=29880&HeadingText=Environment%20140110%20water%20trans#o
On December 6 2008, Censorbugbear-reports already wrote about the courageous Dr Anthony Turton, left, the country’s top water-research expert who then was still working at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR. He was ‘suspended from his job’ a month earlier for trying to warn in a government report, which he would have read at an international clean-water conference, that ‘South Africa was facing very rapid socio-economic collapse due to the heavily polluted South African fresh-water resources.”
The rivers and streams were becoming increasingly clogged and difficult to clean because of the mountains of mostly plastic and chemical waste – including heavy metals and radioactive materials -- and all the fresh-water resources, including the underground acquifers, wereincreasingly becoming polluted with human faeces at very dangerous levels as well, he warned. Turton, as the top water-scientist at the Council for Science and Industrial Research, has since resigned. Read reports here and here: http://www.anthonyturton.com/admin/my_documents/my_files/Project_Concept_Note_version_2.pdf
- Turton resignation: http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2434440,00.html
A month later, the parliamentary joint working group meeting called on the ANC-regime to declare a water emergency. They didn’t.
Less than 450mm annual rainfall cannot clean up this mess, warned Turton:
- Turton warned last year in this (banned) water-pollution document that due to the fact that South Africa gets so little rainfall, as does all of southern Africa; and also now is rapidly polluting with faeces and chemicals all of its scarce water-resources - the 'dilution factor' washing pollutants from the water with the country's less than 450mm annual rainfall, no longer exists. The chemical and faecal waste levels have simply become far too high in SA open-water supplies to still get cleaned up by any annual rains. Even crocodiles - creatures with the oldest and best immune systems on the planet -- are now dying of this by eating polluted fishes in the rivers flowing through the Kruger National Wildlife Park. His banned report: http://blat.co.za/KeynoteAddressCSIR2008.pdf Read report, more details here and here:
181 of the 232 municipal sewerage plants failed by June 2009:
Turton warned that this ‘overwhelming’ faecal pollution of the country’s preciously sparse fresh-water supplies – above and below the ground -- was mainly due to the near-total collapse of the 181 of the country's 232 municipal waste-water purification plants, all sited along the countrys network of rivers and dams. Municipal purification plants are daily pouring thousands of tons of human and chemical waste directly into the country's fresh-water streams asnd rivers, he warned. Taxpayers countrywide complain of falling ill and even dying from drinking the municipal water, he warned.
9,000 municipal sewerage plant engineers forced to quit only because they were white men:
And while Turton didn’t write this fact -- other research published on Sept 9 2008, by top investigative journalist Louise Flanagan of The Star newspaper, also showed that the water treatment plants across the country were so badly run by unqualified and often nearly illiterate personnel, that the Water Research Commission has had to resort to drawing up a very basic, cartoon-like manual to teach operators with symbols instead of in writing, how to make their drinking water safer.
A countrywide survey among 181 small water-treatment plants in all but two provinces found an alarming situation, Flanagan wrote in her report, namely that all these plants ‘were being run by people with very low educational standards’ -- some could barely read, hence the plan for the cartoon-manual -- and none had any engineering skills.
- White engineers barred from jobs:
- This deadly health danger was brought about mainly by the fact that more than 9,000 municipal posts have fallen vacant after some 80% of the country's qualified engineers have emigrated since 1994 -- these 'paler-skinned' South African male citizens lost their jobs only due to the ANC government's black-economic empowerment laws.
Previous water affairs minister refused to admit faecal pollution problems:
However the previous administration’s minister of water affairs, Lindiwe Hendricks, that’s the militantly-angry lady on the far left in this Volksblad newspaper picture, adamantly refused to admit that the country’s growing water-borne health problems could in any way be due to the overwhelming faecal pollution of the country’s water supplies – i.e. that this could in any way be blamed on any of the ANC-run municipal sewerage plants.
This female minister instead, was only furious about a white farmer ‘stealing river water’, and ordered front-end loaders to stop this excess food-producer from irrigating his crops…
Instead of addressing the underlying issue – the lack of qualified engineers – she blamed farmers and businesses for the atrocious condition of the country's rivers and streams and went about dealing with it by personally travelling around in her blue-light motorcade to issue summonses to businesses and farmers for 'stealing water from the rivers' - even when they had all the necessary permits.
The Afrikaans-language Volksblad journalist Frans Coetzee reported from Douglas in the Northern Cape at that time, that Hendricks was ' furious ' when she saw how six (black) diamond-mine concessioneers had, according to the water affairs minister, been 'illegally sucking water from the Vaal River.' The journalist wrote that this former ANC-minister clearly took this alleged water-theft as a personal affront. She was described as being 'horrified, angry and dismayed' during her flash-inspection of six diamond-diggings and ordered the regional head of the water affairs department Louis Snyder, far right on this picture, to read the riot act to the astonished and dismayed Pico Diamonds company's manager Philip Pikwane (second-right).
- Farmer fined for creating a dam to filter polluted water with before spraying his crops…
- A week before that, she had also targetted a commercial farm in Limpopo, accusing this major excess-food-producer of 'stealing' water by creating a dam – he needed to do this, he explained to the news media, so that he could first purify the water from the (dangerously-polluted) Crocodile river before irrigating his crops. She said nothing about the pollution – instead, she was only irate about the farmer 'stealing river water'. So while Hendricks was blaming private businesses for all of the country's water-woes, the underlying pollution problems raised by Dr Turton were not being addressed. http://www.news24.com/Die_Volksblad/Nuus/0,,5-83_2432593,00.html
![ScientistsWorriedAboutDangerousHuman FaecalPollutionKrugerWater[1]_thumb[1]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZL3Kngb81qo/SmwLxeTFm9I/AAAAAAAAUpg/hnY4WtYqFlY/s1600-h/ScientistsWorriedAboutDangerousHuman%20FaecalPollutionKrugerWater%5B1%5D_thumb%5B1%5D%5B5%5D.jpg "ScientistsWorriedAboutDangerousHuman FaecalPollutionKrugerWater[1]_thumb[1]")
Picture: Beeld newspaper also reported in October last year that Kruger Park scientists were searching the river systems and finding many dead crocodiles.
The current administration has admitted that there ‘might be a problem ‘ -- although they at the same time also denied this in official reports to the World Health Organisation.
The new minister admitted in parliament that the dangerously high level of human faeces in the rivers, which scientists measure by testing for E. coli bacteria. was caused by sewerage spills from municipal facilities. However again, the underlying lack of engineering skills was not addressed: instead, she lodged notices to municipalities to stop sewerage spills and clean up their act namely: Delmas, Bushbuckridge, Govan Mbeki, Mbombela, Nkomazi, Emakhazeni, Kungwini and Greater Sekhukhune, as well as the Vhembe and Greater Tzaneen municipalities in Limpopo.
It’s not known if these municipalities would be able to do so, since most of the country’s skilled sewerage-plant engineers were fired years ago.
The minister admitted that a downstream point on the Sabie River of the Kruger Park showed E. coli levels of 727 cfu/100ml in January and more than 1000 cfu/100ml in March. National water standards stipulate that the E. coli level should be zero. Other rivers were similarly contaminated, although of course due to various rainfall, levels also varied widely throughout the year.
The polluted water has also turned the entire region into an endemic cholera area, where people and their livestock are often falling deadly ill, with hundreds of people dying of cholera each year now. People and livestock even fall ill from well water which is being drawn from the acquifers deep below the surface.
Once pristine rivers — including the Crocodile, Olifants and Sabie — all show dangerously high levels of human waste contamination. The affected rivers flow through crowded Highveld towns such as Nelspruit and Sabie into the Kruger National Park -- where recent “ mysterious “ crocodile deaths have highlighted the problem of contaminated water. Now the minister has warned that livestock may also be affected in severely polluted areas.
Rage blog against water pollution in Durban
Picture: The problem is countrywide: KwaZulu-Natal rivers are also showing identical levels of pollution, as this picture by Durban photographer Snowey Smith shows in the rage-blog the ‘Death of Durban’. He’s been campaigning against the growing filth and pollution in KwaZulu-Natal for years, bombarding people with CDs filled with his photographs showing this massive pollution problem...
Phillip Owen from the ecological-watch organisation GeaSphere, based in Mpumalanga, said the situation in the Kruger Park ‘is a disgrace,’ writing in the Sunday Times; “That’s supposed to be our premier wildlife area, but it is impacted by the mismanagement of our rivers.”
The management of the Kruger National Park has of course been ringing the alarm bell about the situation for several years now – many experts there are convinced that these rivers of human faeces flowing through the park are directly responsible for the crocodile die-offs ‘in a mystery disease epidemic’.
It’s important to point out that crocodiles have the oldest and most efficient immune system on the planet. So if they are dying from this vile, crappy water, what chance do human beings have to survive this filth?
Taxpayers countrywide have for the past few years, been complaining bitterly about their water quality, and township residents even carry posters complaining that they have to ‘live like pigs’…
Famous beaches lost blue-water certificates:
South Africa's most famous beaches along the Indian Ocean, stretching from Port Elizabeth in the south all the way to northern KZN and including Durban, last year also lost their international 'blue-water' certificates issued by international tourism experts -- because the water and the beaches had simply become far too filthy. And several international wine experts also commented that 'South African wines had become very smelly...'
Residents in the Indian-ocean seaside hamlet of Sunrise-on-Sea near East London also reported odd little beasties in their drinking water in October 2008, reporting thousands of “mysterious parasites” swimming around in their drinking water and people were falling ill from them. Residents said the problem had by then already been around for nearly seven weeks and complained that the municipal sewerage plant was to blame. Resident Marlene van Brakel, photograph, said they were increasingly worried that they might have drunk the water containing the parasites long before these were discovered.
She said they had contacted various Buffalo City departments and Amatola Water officials but “nobody seemed to care the least bit,’ she reportedly said, adding: “It’s definitely a health risk and a number of people had been to the doctor with stomach problems and running tummies.” Van Brakel said her family started to boil the water since spotting the creatures in the water.
‘Municipal waste-water officials can barely read: and only tested for E.coli...’
Mrs van Brakel said that municipal officials had claimed that they had been 'testing the water - which the offcials said came out negative.' Residents were told that they 'could continue drinking the water'.
- She warned however that the officials carrying out these tests were unqualified and that they only tested for micro-organisms, but not for any parasites. “The water is not drinkable, apparently they tested it for E.coli but they never tested it for the worms, so how can they say this water is drinkable?” she asked. Residents said they were upset with the municipality’s lack of response to the water problem. Describing their situation as “disgusting and a health hazard”, another resident, Belinda Torr, said she stopped drinking the water. She had made arrangement with a local farmer to provide her with water instead. Buffalo City Municipality spindoctor Samkelo Ngwenya denied all this back then.
Hundreds of babies died from water-pollution:
Some Eastern Cape water 'purification' plants -- including the one at Sunrise-on-Sea with last year’s still-mysterious parasite-infestation -- indeed were so badly-run that about hundreds of babies's deaths in a 'diarrhoea outbreak' at two local hospitals last summer were blamed on the dangerous water quality... with doctors and nurses warning that many babies were sickening and dying at the Sterkspruit and Barkly East hospitals-- from totally preventable water-borne infections.
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sources dr Turton:
Dr Anthony Turton has exposed real dangers such as radioactivity and heavy metals in SA’s drinking water – and which at least 11-million consumers will be forced to drink as part of the domestic water – and the consumers will be asked to pick up the bill for cleaning it up...
He wrote to the NBU Water Committee: “For an insight into my own work into heavy metals that was not allowed to happen, please see:
“It was this work that ended my career at the CSIR and not the keynote paper (which was used to camouflage the truth). I also send you the Water Utilities Corporation EIA for circulation via your network. Note that Mariette and I spoke to (journalist) Freek Robinson last week and after that the public participation phase was extended until Tuesday 15 July 2009. Please note that the EIA is about the positioning of pipes, and NOT about whether the 11 million consumers of Rand Water products are willing to be asked to pay for the cost of remediation of water that is radioactive and laced with heavy metals.
“Please mobilize your network so they can know about this EIA and urge them to participate via the formal channel (Golder Associates - Vanessa Viljoen vviljoen@golder.co.za as only formal written submissions will be considered.
“There are four issues that this EIA raises” (writes Turton:
1) The polluter pays principle is being neatly bypassed because the consuming public is being asked to pick up the bill. The mining industry has a long history of externalizing their costs and this is another example (see Externalisation of Mining Costs)
2) 11 million consumers are being locked into a solution with no broad-based consultation so the public has no choice and will be forced to drink this effluent as part of the domestic water.
3) Seismicity is possible when large volumes of water are channeled through the Central Basin void from the Western Basin, but no allowance is being made for a study of the effect of seismicity. This potentially places land owners in Johannesburg at risk as buildings could be damaded by earth tremors and it is not clear if the insurance industry will cover this.
4) It is unclear if the technology being used will remove 100% of the readioactivity and heavy metals 100% of the time. http://www.nbusa.org/?p=278#more-278
http://www.anthonyturton.com/admin/my_documents/my_files/Project_Concept_Note_version_2.pdf