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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
‘Stop Farm Murders’ petition to Zuma
20:19 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
“The producers of food are threatened by vicious criminals committing the most hideous crimes…”
Pretoria – Feb 6 2010 -- A group of Afrikaner farmers in Pretoria on Saturday demanded that government help "stop farm murders" and pleaded their case in an open letter to President Jacob Zuma. "Surely, if politicians and senior officials can publicly direct police officials to use firearms to prevent crime or becoming the victims...the very same principle should apply to law-abiding citizens who do not enjoy the luxury of police protection," said Transvaal Landbou Unie SA (TLU SA) chief executive Bennie Van Zyl. He accused the police of being corrupt and said government failed in its responsibility to protect its citizens.
Picture left: Farmer Wilhelm Rochér, the chairman of the TLU’s western region was forced to spend a weekend in a police jail after he was arrested for making a citizen’s arrest of an armed stock thief. The TLU points out that this farmer now has to stand trial for ‘attempted murder’ for carrying out the duties of the SAPS – 50,000 of the 117,000-strong police force were forced to attend National Police Day celebrations in Bloemfontein. The TLU points out that if the police had been available, Mr Rocher would not have had to arrest a stock thief who was threatening his livelihood.
The agricultural union called for a formal summit with the ANC-government to renew the safety initiatives that former president Nelson Mandela had implemented during his term. Van Zyl and several others spoke at a ceremony held in memory of farmers who were murdered. In the open letter to Zuma, Van Zyl spoke about the threat against farmers, their families and their employees.
"The producers of food and fibre are threatened by vicious criminals responsible for committing the most hideous crimes against mankind displaying no respect for age or gender," he said.
Johan van Biljon, chair of the organisation's youth divison said since 2006 there had been a systematic increase in farm murders. While wiping away tears, the group laid calla lilies at empty coffins and on a white cross in commemoration. "They say we [are] ready for the [Fifa] World Cup, but in the rural areas it's a different story," said Van Biljon, expressing concern about rural safety.
"The unabated continuance of the most brutal violence against the producers of food and fibre, their families and their employees is not only targeting a specific sector of the economy in a manner to which none other can compare," he said. "But it seriously places South Africa's already-eroded strategic asset of food security at risk." The youth division were expected to hand over the statement to police representatives as they did not attend the ceremony to receive it.
Pictures of murdered and traumatised Afrikaners and Boers in the cities and the countryside
Labels:
News reports Feb 6 2010
Updated summary : Beware of fake doctors warns Helderberg newspaper; South African farmer Crawford von Abo obtains a groundbreaking Pretoria High court ruling making the ANC-regime responsible for the loss of his valuable, wel-run Zimbabwean farms; monstrous potholes on South African roads indicate an irreversable deterioration of the roads, warns a Bloemfontein architect; an Afrikaans technology teacher was bashed in the face by an aggressive pupil; a dangerous car-smuggling syndicate member who had snitched to the SAPS was found murdered and dumped in the Bosbokrand dam and a rogue SAPS officer absconded to Mozambique; three infamous Cape Town hitmen are jailed for assassinating three local residents; A Cape-blackmailing team arrested in police sting: tried to blackmail an unnamed senior ex-judge; Austrian-based football federation FIFA seems to be running South Africa behind the scenes and is even allowed to ban street traders, write municipal by-laws and issue fines… also: would you eat rabbits from Robben island?
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Man killed in Meyerton; woman killed in Hillcrest KZN armed house-robberies; minister’s wife killed in Bothasig CT
2010-02-06 Johannesburg – An unnamed 60-year-old man was shot and killed in his Meyerton home during an armed house robbery while making tea, Gauteng police said on Saturday. Four firearms were missing from the gun-safe. The man was shot twice, beside him lay a flashlight and an airgun, said Captain Shado Mashobane. "Two women who were his neighbours went to the deceased to inform them they are going out for shopping when they discovered that he was killed," he said. "It seems the deceased was attacked when he was preparing tea in the kitchen." Nothing else appeared to have been taken.The man is believed to have been murdered in the early hours of Friday morning. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/950a40b995bc4affbcab4360e21173af/06-02-2010-12-00/Man_killed_in_house_robbery
In another armed robbery report on Friday-night in greater Johannesburg on Friday night, a couple arrived home to find their home robbed. "When the man and his wife arrived at their home the suspects were already on the premises," said Mashobane. “The suspects attacked the victims as soon as they got out of their car." The couple were forced inside the house and made to sit in the living room while the three robbers ransacked the house.They stole household goods which they loaded the loot into the couple's double-cab bakkie. "Before they left they tied the man and his wife and put them in two separate bathrooms," said Mashobane. Police were called after the husband escaped his bonds. Police believe the men were foreigners because they spoke English to each other with accents the couple described as Nigerian or Mozambican. Also in a third house-robbery in Hillcrest, KwaZulu Natal on Saturday, ER24 spokesman Derrick Banks said paramedics arrived at the woman's home in Summerveld on Friday to find her body covered with a blanket. "Under closer examination they found the woman had sustained a fatal gunshot wound." It is believed the suspects arrived at her house and started demanding money. A gunshot went off and the suspects ran away. It is unclear how much money was taken at the time of the robbery, Banks said.http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/950a40b995bc4affbcab4360e21173af/06-02-2010-12-00/Man_killed_in_house_robbery Also in Cape Town on Friday might, the wife of a Methodist minister was murdered in her home in Bothasig . Nonkosi Makhananda, 54, was stabbed to death. Her husband, Reverend Fikile Makhananda, found her body in the lounge when he and their children came back from buying her a birthday cake. A member of the church's congregation says she had seven stab wounds to the chest. There were also slashes on her arms, indicating that she'd tried to fend off her attacker. Nothing appeared to be missing from the house. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/45f40f0d379442f89c79e8d087997ddf/06-02-2010-12-38/Ministers_wife_murdered
Beware of fake doctors – warns Helderberg newspaper -
With his practice in a ramshackle building in Wesley Street, “Dr Sebo” charges people money for cures that are unlikely ever to be proven to work. His colleague, “Dr Ali” has a similar business around the block.
BY Clifford Roberts. DistrictMail – The Helderberg has in recent months attracted a few people masquerading as doctors and armed with dubious cures - all intended to make money from the sick, desperate and gullible. Of the latest with an apparent interest in settling here is Rudi Boshoff, who last week was exposed in Die Burger newspaper over his claims of being a neurologist with a space-age machine that cures thousands of illnesses, while neither he nor his machine are registered with the required authorities in either the conventional or alternative medical fields. Boshoff is believed in the past month to have been shopping for a house in Strand or Gordon’s Bay to open a practice.
Also relatively new to the region are two other “doctors” who neighbours say settled in Strand less than a year ago. Both Ugandan and both situated in ramshackle buildings in the town’s CBD, they dispense powders and creams to help unsuspecting customers to among others sell their property quickly, remove ghosts and treat depression.
- For a consultation fee of R80, “Dr Sebo” claims to be able to help with everything from divorce to gambling - “We heal epilepsy,” the enterprise’s pamphlet that was distributed in town, declares. Its easy to see how people might be fooled into believing they’re receiving genuine medical advice - a sign on a door leading off Sebo’s waiting room identifies whatever lies beyond as the “surgery”.
When DistrictMail visited “Dr Ali”, a craft salesman sharing the premises first said the “doctor” was in Uganda collecting muti (traditional remedy), but minutes later a man in camouflage cargo pants and slipslops arrived, claiming to be him. Eager to usher prospective “patients” into a dark room behind a draped sheet, “Dr Ali” says most of his “patients” these days see him because they’re desperate for work. He says he helps by selling them muti that they must rub on their arms and hands. His shop is lined with bottles of aloe oil extract.
While both practitioners charge nominal consulting fees, a neighbour tells DistrictMail one of the men’s customers was offered a special cure, made of lion’s blood, for a fee of R2,000. With a wry smile, she added: “Waar gaan hulle nou ’n leeu kry? En dan moet hulle hom nog vang ook!” (Where are they going to find a lion? And then they’ve first got to catch it!).
• The Democratic Alliance issued a statement last week appealing for the Medicines Control Council (MCC) to step up its fight against fake doctors. The MCC is mandated by law to protect South Africans from fake doctors who claim they are able to cure ailments with medicines not proven in any way to work. Referring to Die Burger’s investigation of Rudi Boshoff, the statement said: “Boshoff is only one of countless numbers of people who make these claims on street corners and in newspapers across the country every day”. Read more
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JOHANNESBURG. – Well-known Free State farmer Crawford von Abo won a groundbreaking law suit in the Pretoria High Court – which sets the precedent for the private land-ownership rights for all South Africans who invested in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, writes senior Beeld editor Philip de Bruin, who is a former magistrate. “In Von Abo’s case he was a victim of Mugabe’s ‘land-reform policy’ which is widely being described as draconian,’ writes De Bruin.
Von Abo owned several well-utilised farms in Zimbabwe which were all confiscated. The Pretoria High Court ordered the SA government to compensate him for the seizure of his 14 Zimbabwean farms, unless it acts to protect his rights. The court ruled that he not only has a right to diplomatic protection against the Zimbabwe government’s violation of his rights, but that the South African government is obliged to provide this protection.
Yesterday Judge Bill Prinsloo ruled that the South African government and the foreign affairs Minister must bear mutual responsibility for the financial losses suffered by Von Abo due to the events in Zimbabwe. The farmer’s attorney Ernst Penzhorn of Pretoria said after the ruling that as far as he knew, this was a ‘groundbreaking ruling in South Africa because such cases have not yet been dealt with in any South African courts’. The next step is for Von Abo and his legal team to work out the costs of his losses and hand over the bill to the ANC-government and its foreign affairs minister. They might have to go to court again to force payment. “It will probably take a few months longer before matters are completed,’ said Penzhorn to Beeld. Von Abo has waged a long drawn out battle in the South African law courts – and he even sued in the Constitutional Court to demand his rights. Other farmers who lost their properties may also now follow suit and sue the ANC-regime. Von Abo’s bill he expects to present to the South African government may amount to as much as R500-million. After the positive ruling in the Constitutional Court, the SA Centre for Constitutional Rights supported the judgment, noting that this is good news for all property owners who “feel threatened by moves to dilute their rights in property”.
The Constitutional court in its 2008 ruling had also been highly critical of ‘the failure of government to afford diplomatic protection against the violation of the property rights” of Von Abo whose farms in Zimbabwe were expropriated without compensation by the regime there. The Constitutional Court also complained that officials "have done absolutely nothing to assist the applicant [Von Abo] despite diligent and continued requests for diplomatic protection...No explanation whatsoever has been forthcoming for this tardy and lacklustre behaviour." http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/99ccec7f5dda4b6a9e5730b81038f69c/06-02-2010-05-11/Bekende_VS-boer_wen_Zim-saak
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Bloemfontein architect warns of dangerous potholes, irretrievable deterioration of South African roads
Bloemfontein, Free State. Volksblad reader Etienne de Beer writes on February 5 2010 that he was shocked when spotting this super-gigantic, deep pothole on the road between Viljoenskroon and Parys a day earlier. “it’s so big that a car could fall into it,’ he said. “Some parts of this road looked as if it had been subjected to a mortar-attack. Ironically, a SA defence force convoy was also travelling the road at the same time – I drove at around 60km/h and had to frequently make way for vehicles which tried to evade the holes on their side of the road. How can farmers transfer their goods? How can I do business? I am an architect and was late for my meeting in Potchefstroom because of the delays. And what upset me even more, is that there were so many potholes on the roads in town – in Parys and Potchefstroom -- and on my return trip to Bloemfontein.
“Don’t the [road-maintenance] people realise how rapidly the roads deteriorate whenever the substructures are invaded by water, especially now with all the rains? Ths is a growing (maintenance) backlog which the government won’t be able to wipe out – in fact it might already be too late, because our funds have already been poured into projects such as a bridge at the (Bloemfontein) airport. Why this bridge was necessary I don’t understand. Here’s a comparison: if you throw a frog into hot water it will jump out at once. But if you slowly warm it up in a pot of cold water, he doesn’t jump out and boils to death. We can see the decay right in front of our own eyes. Just go and look at the railway station to see what’s going on there. We all voted ‘yes’ for the upliftment of South Africa – not for this deterioration. We are slowly being boiled to death…’ Complaints about giant potholes and poor road maintenance are pouring in from the entire country: Madibeng Pulse editor Dolf Dreyer also photographed the pothole on the right on the R511 to Brits on 28 January 2010… http://www.volksblad.com/Content/MyVolksblad/JouStorie/2046/c2bb87bff5f34a96a4ebf932475a35c4/05-02-2010-03-14/Slaggat_kan_motor_insluk
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Bloemfontein stadium athletics meets run up unpaid R258,000 electricity bill – but who will pay for it?
A bitter row has broken out between the Free State Rugby Union and Athletics Free State about an outstanding R258,000 electricity bill at the stadium. The issue is also threatening to embroil the World Cup 2010 football tournaments to be held at Bloemfontein’s Vodacom Park, warns the Free State Rugby Union – which says they are no longer willing to pay the long-overdue electricity bills being run up by the Athletics body. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/1985f90964c8404095d00a94a5e46f66/06-02-2010-05-11/Atletiek_Vrystaat,_VRU_in_dispuut_oor_kragrekening
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Afrikaans teacher Stefanie van Heerden beaten up by Grade 9 pupil ;
PRETORIA. 28-year-old technology teacher Stefanie van Heerden has lodged a formal assault charge after she was bashed in the face by a male Grade 9 pupil after she had been unable to give him instructions for the next day’s work immediately - because he’d arrived late for her class. Her face was injured and her glasses – without them her eyesight is poor - were broken in the melee.
Ms van Heerden has been teaching technology for Grade 8 and Grade 9 students for the past two years at the Pretoria Afrikaans high school. She said she ‘couldn’t believe it when he assaulted me with his fist’. She was shocked and taken aback about the incident, she told Beeld newspaper.
The assault took place after Ms van Heerden had asked a group of pupils who had all arrived late for her class, to wait outside until she finished explaining the day’s tasks to the other students. After the bell rang for class-changes, she then also gave the late-comers their instructions and asked them to show her their (technical) sketches.
I also beat my mother …
“That particular youth was angered and threw his book at me”, she said – whereupon she asked him to re-cover the book he’d thrown: at which point he hauled out at her with his fist and hit her ‘really hard’ in the face. She said she was so surprised that she still asked him whether he was a woman beater, and he then arrogantly told her that he’d also hit his mother once after she’d angered him. This particular youth has also been involved in incidents involving bullying other pupils, and about which events a corrective internal hearing had also been held. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/5f36d4ab8ddb4feb95e7d3b01965737e/05-02-2010-09-51/Seun_slaan_onderwyseres_met_vuis_in_haar_gesig
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The Robben Island bunny cull – picture gallery (not happy viewing for animal-lovers):
Professional sharpshooters are killing an average of 80 rabbits a night as authorities try to rid Robben Island of its invasive rabbit population. Argus photographer Matthew Jordaan spent the night on the island with the culling team. The island’s acting chief executive Jatti Bredekamp says that ‘all the rabbits certified safe to eat would be dressed and packaged for donation to charities.” However – it’s also important to know that not all of these rabbits may be altogether so safe for humans to eat: the species is known to harbour para-tuberculosis, myxoma virus and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, and because of the large cat population has also been identified with various cat-diseases as well as rabies. A recent report noted that these rabbits are responsible for serious erosion problems as they eat virtually any and all plants available to them (including roots and seeds), which leaves the topsoil exposed and vulnerable to erosion. The poor hygiene displayed in the picture above – no gloves, no masks, filthy work space – also makes one wonder … http://gallery.iol.co.za/v/iolnews/Robben+Islands+rabbit+culling+05-02-2010/
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South Africa’s wide-open borders: Rogue SAPS officer who used to guard the Mozambique border post missing after murder of police snitch:
2010-02-05 - BOSBOKRAND, Mpumalanga - A man who was a member of an organised-crime syndicate was found murdered with cement blocks on his feet: he’d been thrown off a 15-m bridge across the entrance of the Bosbokrand dam. Members of the organised-crime SAPS unit said he was their informer and had been murdered in revenge. The crime-syndicate is involved in smuggling stolen vehicles from South Africa across the border to Mozambique. The SAPS now are looking for a Hazyview police officer who is suspected of involvement in the syndicate, and who has since gone missing and police suspect he may have fled to Mozambique. The police were told of the man’s murder by another syndicate member they had arrested. A team of divers from the internal water-wing stationed near Hectorspruit searched for the murdered informer’s body for two days. It was located on Monday-afternoon at a depth of about 15 meters, writes Beeld newspaper. The man’s hands and feet were tied together and two heavy cement-blocks were tied to his feet. The missing policeman used to be stationed at the border post with Mozambique and South Africa– Buks Viljoen http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/dbd7263871e64c328e8c0a34753b4f4c/05-02-2010-07-17/Lyk_uit_dam_gehaal_met_sementblokke_aan_voete Meanwhile it was also announced that the international policing-organisation Interpol would have an office in SA during the WC2010; and a South African police official made the unproven claim that the terrorist attack on an Africa-Cup football team was ‘undertaken to embarrass South Africa’.
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Trio nabbed in bid to blackmail ex-judge
6 February 2010, SOMERSET WEST. Three people have been arrested for trying to blackmail a retired senior judge. The judge, from one of South Africa's best-known legal families, is aged 90 and lives in Somerset West - but cannot be named.
Police said the judge had been blackmailed for over four years from 2006 until the present, and had, over the years, handed over R30 000 in various instalments to his blackmailer. But police were finally alerted last week when the alleged blackmailer contacted the judge again - this time allegedly demanding R3 000. This time, however, the alleged blackmailer took on a new identity.
"The suspect pretended to be a well-known reporter, and threatened to publish certain information in the newspaper," the police's Suzan Jantjies said. It has been established that the alleged blackmailer identified himself as Ian Baard, a veteran reporter in the Helderberg, who is now a freelance reporter. Baard said he was dismayed to learn that he had been impersonated “I’m disappointed,’ he said, adding that he had never met any of the suspects.
The police were alerted and set up a sting operation. The judge was told to meet his blackmailer at Firgrove railway station, between Somerset West and Eerste River, to hand over the cash. Police detectives lay in wait, and arrested the blackmailer on the scene.
On Monday, Lance Davids, 30, appeared on a charge of extortion in Somerset West Magistrate's Court. He remains in custody and is due to apply for bail on Monday. The following day, two alleged accomplices, Berendine Marthinus and Jathniel Lackay, handed themselves in and appeared in court, also on extortion charges. The pair was released on R500 bail. The judge could not be reached at his home at an upmarket retirement village yesterday, and his son, a respected advocate, declined to comment from Joburg. Davids was due to spend the weekend behind bars at Polsmoor Prison. http://www.capeargus.co.za/?fSectionId=3571&fArticleId=vn20100206104529930C565195
Three Cape hitmen jailed for murdering two black men in Delft
From left to right: State Advocate Pedro van Wyk, D/Captains Patrick Mdwaba and Lourens Grill, and in front, Mrs Constance Jacobs, mother of one of the victims. Photograph by Supt Norman Joseph
Three hitmen, hired by a well-known Cape Flats drug-dealer to take out two Delft residents at a cost of R80,000, have been sentenced to a total of 155 years' prison by the Cape High Court, to be served concurrently.
Jailed were Deodath Peter Adams, alias “Angel” from Kraaifontein, and Raymond Hendricks, alias Mafunga from Elsies River and Andre Edward Marthinus, alias Giant from Mitchell’s Plain.
They were convicted of shooting dead execution style Simthembile Ntengento, 17, and Marumbuka Fikelephi, 18, at point blank range in the heads and chests and left to die while the three men escaped on foot.
The court found that the trio acted on orders from the known drug-dealer shortly before midnight on 25 May 2007. During evidence led in court it emerged that the drug kingpin posted the R80 000 price tag on the two victims several weeks before they were assassinated. The three accused had gone to the homes of the victims, manhandled and took them to bushes in Delft South where they demanded that the victims strip naked.
Ntengento and Fikelephi were shot dead at point blank range in the heads and chests and left to die while the three men escaped on foot. Detective Captains Lourens Grill and Patrick Mdwaba (Hawks’ Organised Crime Unit) launched a manhunt and arrested the three accused several days after the double murder.
The accused men had managed to escape from the Bellville Magistrates’ Court holding cells on 29 January 2008 – and they went straight to the drug-dealer who had ordered the hit, demanding the compensation money he had promised them. However when he refused to pay up, one of the hitmen had fired a shot, hitting the drug-dealer in the face. Their freedom didn’t last long: Captains Grill and Mdwaba captured the fugitives in their Delft hide-out a few days later.
On Monday, 1 February 2010 the men were given long sentences. Ntengento’s mother Mrs Constance Jacobs, 42, of Delft South said she was satisfied with the court’s sentences of the three accused. “I would like to thank the detectives, Mr Grill and Mr Mdwaba, for the way they worked on the case. They kept us informed of the investigation and the court dates." State Advocate Pedro van Wyk said: "The two captains did excellent work. They did not give up hope and re-captured the three accused after their escape from the court cells. They acted professionally and never failed to support me during the trial in the Cape High Court." source: SAPS Superintendent N. Joseph , tel 021) 4177100, cell 0827776004 email wcjournalist@saps.org.za This was a summary Read the entire article on: http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=18465
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Is South Africa being run by Austrian-based FIFA?
5 February 2010,
Related Articles
- 'Fifa-driven bylaws vague, embarrassing'
- The law, as laid down by Fifa
- Fifa dictates to city on informal trading
- Fleamarket traders upset about shutdown
By Slindile Maluleka writes in the Daily News that ‘Durban street traders have been warned not to engage in ambush marketing during the Fifa 2010 World Cup or else they could face possible fines…’
- Comment: This is a rather amazing statement: an Austrian-based football organisation which is is laying down the law to South African street-traders… and is actively involved in denying them street-trading permits in Durban, too.
Yesterday, during a public meeting between the eThekwini Municipality and street traders held at the city hall ‘to discuss WC2010 Fifa by-laws,’ other issues that were highlighted included “illegal forms of advertising and prohibited trading areas” according to the FIFA dictates…
Malusi Mhlongo, a lawyer for the city, said street traders would continue to trade as normal during the match days at their permanent trading premises.
Advertising without city authority is prohibited within a 100m radius of the Fifa Fan Park and also at the controlled access site outside the perimeter of the stadium. "If the street traders had to trade away from their official premises or if they had to sell other objects that they are not known to trade, they would be going against the by-laws," Mhlongo said. Mhlongo explained to traders the difference between the two types of ambush marketing.
"Fifa has commercial partners and they would go to any length to protect them from ambush marketing. Marketing by association is creating an impression that you work with the association while you derive profit unlawfully. Marketing by intrusion is intruding a product at an event to draw attention to it," explained Mhlongo.
These ‘laws’ laid down by FIFA ‘were part of the host city agreement where host cities undertook to adopt all measures including passing the necessary ordinances and by-laws to respond to the legislation challenges after the 2010 World Cup was awarded to South Africa, he said.
However, Harry Ramlal, Early Morning Market Association chairman, feels that informal traders are not being accommodated because many traders have been trying to get permits but have been unsuccessful. "Some informal traders would like to be accommodated outside the stadium. There are some with permits who have been allocated trading premises near the beachfront," he said. This article was originally published on page 3 of The Daily News on February 05, 2010 http://www.capeargus.co.za/?fSectionId=3571&fArticleId=vn20100205123011336C481472
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S.A. woman jailed in Wales – enslaved African kids
Couple – Irish and South African - jailed after using trafficked girls in huge prostitution ring
Terror of of voodoo was used to force Nigerian kids into working as sex-slaves in a 35-brothel prostitution ring in Ireland – controlled from a former vicarage in Wales, report the UK Guardian and BBC-Wales this week.
Video clip from BBC Wales: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/8498759.stm
Irishman Thomas Caroll, 48, and Shamiela Clark, 32, left, his South African wife and herself a former prostitute, were jailed together with her daughter Toma for money-laundering and for running a prostitution ring from an old vicarage in Wales -- using girls and boys also trafficked from Nigeria.
Her daughter Toma, 26, was imprisoned for money-laundering the profits. The couple controlled their multimillion-pound business from a mobile phone "call centre" in Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire, reports The Guardian.
Among the sex-slaves were six trafficked girls and young women, aged from 15 to 21, some of whom had been terrified into working for fear of breaking a "juju" oath they were forced to take during voodoo ceremonies in Nigeria.
Carroll was jailed for seven years, and Clark for three and a half years at Cardiff crown court, after both admitted conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and conspiracy to money-launder. Carroll's daughter, Toma, 26, was also imprisoned for two years after admitting laundering the profits which, in one year alone, totalled more than £800,000.
The BBC Wales also reports that Judge Bidder QC described Carroll as a "determined and forceful man" and said the strength of the evidence against him was "overwhelming". He rejected assertions from Clark's barrister that she was a mere receptionist for the business and instead said she was "a second in command. Much more than a mere receptionist". Addressing Carroll's daughter, who was a fourth year law student when she was arrested, he said: "You are intelligent and capable and should have followed your career in law. It was to a great extent your father's fault you are where you are," but added she could not shrug off all responsibility for her actions. The girls were telephoned by Clark who would tell them when to expect their first client. She also told them the rates and the rules of the brothel. "They were cynically catapulted into a miserable existence and exploited, they must have felt highly disorientated and frightened by their new life working as a working girl, particularly given the regime that was operating,’ the public prosecutor said. Other prostitutes were recruited through advertisements on the internet and in newspapers, the court was told. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/8498759.stm
Planning to set up a similar operation in South Africa for the WC2010 tourists
After the case, investigators also revealed that ‘the evidence suggested that at the time of their arrest, the couple were in the process of setting up a similar operation in South Africa to coincide with the World Cup,’ writes the Guardian.
The couple ran more than 35 brothels, mainly in the Irish Republic, from the rented Welsh farmhouse to which they fled after coming to the attention of the gardaí.
One girl rescued by police was just 14 when trafficked out of Nigeria, and 15 when placed in one of the Carroll brothels.
All came from poor family backgrounds, having lost one or both parents, and were promised a better life away from their remote, rural villages. One was told she could be a hairdresser, another that she would be put into further education.
"Instead, they find themselves being issued with forged passports in different names and being taken to Dublin via various routes and find themselves in the hands of the Carroll family," Mark Phillips, deputy director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which investigated the crime-operation, said police discovered Carroll and Clark as part of Operation Pentameter 2, a UK-wide operation into human trafficking. Officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in Wales and Northern Ireland and the Vulnerable Persons Team were among a number of agencies who then investigated them in an inquiry, codenamed Operation Palladic.
- "The first these girls know they are going into a life of prostitution is when they are bought items of clothing, dropped off at a flat, and get a phone call to say 'expect a male customer and do what you are told',"
The Guardian reports that the girls were ‘worked’ 12 to 15 hours a day, were regularly moved from brothel to brothel, and supplied with "necessities" – which were condoms, creams and lingerie. Food was brought to them. The going rate was €160 (£140) for half an hour, but the sex-slaves had to pay their money into Toma Carroll's bank account.
Of the 15 prostitutes caught in the police raids on Carroll's brothels, some were from South America and Europe and willingly worked for him too. However, many of the trafficked women and girls lived in fear of juju oaths, made during "terrifying and humiliating" rituals they were forced into by traffickers.
Often the girls were kept naked – one was cut all over her body with blades…
One girl was forced to sleep in a coffin to "put the fear of death" in her. Menstrual blood was drawn into a padlock, locked, and thrown in the river to signify their lives were in the hands of the river goddess, said investigators. Live chickens were killed and the victims made to eat the raw hearts. Fingernail clippings and pubic hair cuttings were taken, and retained, to "instill the fear of God in them" and show they could be "metaphysically" reached wherever they were. Often the girls were naked, and one was cut all over her body with blades, said investigators.
An important part of the oath was each was told they had to pay back, on average, £65,000 to their traffickers. If they breached the oath, they would die, or their families back in Nigeria would die.
Investigations continue to track down those responsible for trafficking them out of Nigeria and those passing them through Europe to Ireland. The defendants are said to have properties in South Africa, Bulgaria and Mozambique thought to be worth "millions". At the farmhouse, police found 70 mobile phones, all linked to adverts placed on sexual services websties or in newspapers.
Phone records showed 300 calls a day were made or received. "That gives you some idea of the scale", said Tony Fitzpatrick of SOCA Wales. They also found drafted advertisements, one reading: "African Nandi, very petite tanned chocolate delight, petite slim size 8, 34C but leggy flexible kinky, Nandi enjoys nudism and exploring her body and yours making the sessions fun and intimate."
Over a period of three months, they spent £5,200 on one telephone bill, running to 5,000 pages. Male clients would phone and be given directions where to go. Unlike traditional massage parlour brothels, Carroll's "closed brothels", were set up in rented flats or houses, and regularly moved around 15 towns in the Republic and three in Northern Ireland so proved particularly challenging for investigators.
In one year Carroll, a father of four originally from County Carlow, spent £28,580 on newspaper advertising alone. From 2002 increasing amounts of money were deposited into his daughter's bank account. In 2006 €111,000 were deposited, in 2007 €1.13m and in 2008 €500,000had been deposited by September.
Sentencing the defendants, judge Neil Bidder, told them: "I'm not sentencing you for trafficking those women and accept you were unaware of the personal circumstance of the women who worked in your brothels and you were not responsible for any violence and threats of violence. But the Nigerian women who were threatened with dreadful coercion all ended up working for you. You did not ask and did not care what personal tragedies had befallen those women submitting for your profit."
The multi-agency operation was spearheaded by detectives from Northern Ireland Police Service's Serious Organised Crime branch, in partnership with the Serious Organised Crime Agency and An Garda Siochana.
Philips said: "This was a well organised and lucrative enterprise. The defendants made substantial amount of money from their business which they used to purchase properties in South Africa, Bulgaria and to make a down payment on a property being built in Mozambique. They will now be subject to confiscation proceedings to seize the proceeds of their crime." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/04/wales-prostitution-nigeria-court-carroll and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8498132.stm