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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Nelspruit farmer gets death-threat letter
19:42 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Dave Mortlock ‘s farmhouse at Dustin Brondal near Nelspruit burns down – and he gets a death-threat letter two days later
2010-05-07
Buks Viljoen of Beeld newspaper reports from Nelspruit that farmer Dave Mortlock, 53, of Dustin farm in Brondal outside Nelspruit, was threatened with murder after his R3-million farm was burnt to the ground on Monday.
The farmer’s son Roger said initially they suspected that the farm burnt down because of an electrical short. Mr Mortlock senior had left the homestead at around 09:15am. Scarcely half-an-hour later a worker phoned him to tell him his house was on fire. On Wednesday-morning an unnamed worker found the letter threatening the farmer alongside a pathway between the homestead and the workers’ cottages. Police now are investigating a charge of arson as well as intimidation.
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Above: the letter threatening Mortlock that he would be just like Eugene blanche (sic) next… you will be killed’
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Forensic experts from the SAPS have now been asked to establish the exact cause of the devastating fire. The family is terrified ever since they received the letter.
- In the letter (above) minimum wages of R1,800 and better working conditions were demanded – and the writer(s) also complain about Mortlock hiring Mozambiquans and Zimbabweans. The writer warns Mortlock to leave the farm ‘within four days’ or he will be murdered – later on he is given two weeks to leave the farm.
Workers were questioned by the SAPS yesterday but. said Danie Coetzer, manager of J& M Security in Witrivier, the company protecting the farm, there are no indications that the workers know anything about the letter of the fire. He said the worker which found the letter handed it to Mortlock.
Coetzer said the suspicion is strong that the letter is connected with a number of land-claims aganst several area farms – it is known that one land-claimant was ‘bitter after having his claim denied’ . Warrant officer Dawie Pretorius of the Nelspruit police confirmed that charges are being investigated. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Brief-dreig-boer-met-dood-waar-plaashuis-brand-20100507
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Some 328,000 people murdered under ANC-rule …
Nearly 800,000 people raped since 1994… one rape every ten minutes…
Author: Pieter Groenewald, Freedom Front Plus MP, deputy-minister of Agriculture - submitted in Budget Vote Debate Police Portfolio: Parliament, Cape Town, May 6 2010
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“More than 5,56-million people have in the past seven years been victims of violent crime in South Africa . More than 328,000 people have been murdered in South Africa since 1994. That is an average of 60 people a day. Nearly 800,000 women have been raped in South Africa since 1994. That means that a woman is raped every 10 minutes in South Africa . When this debate has been concluded, at least 14 women would have been raped.
The Constitution places a responsibility on the Minister to ensure that people in South Africa are protected against crime and that they are kept safe. From the above figures it is clear that this is not happening. In the light of this the FF Plus will be officially be submitting a proposal that a special fund is set up for the victims of violent crime. The trauma and human suffering of victims of violent crime are causing extremely high costs for those victims. I hope the ANC will support this proposal to at least try to restrict the financial losses suffered by victims of violent crime.
I am aware that the Minister says that farm murders should not be ‘politicised’. The reality is once again that the Minister cannot deny that there are indeed cases of farm murders where a political motive is involved.
- How does the Minister explain that a farm murder occurs, but nothing is stolen and nothing goes missing? There can only be one motive, and that is a political motive. The FF Plus will in due course be providing the Minister with proof that some farm murders are due to political motives.
Another aspect is the firearms re-licensing process. The Minister declared that firearm owners can indeed again apply for the re-registration of firearms during the amnesty period. That however did not happen and people who wanted to do it were shown away. I asked the Minister a question in Parliament as to how many legal firearms were used in crime by the legal owners of firearms as well as by criminals.
“The Minister accuses legal firearm owners of contributing to crime – but he can’t supply any proof…”
- The Minister's answer was that he ‘could not tell me’. Now, I ask the Minister how he can accuse legal firearm owners that they contribute to crime if he cannot even provide me with any figures.
Law-abiding citizens need to arm themselves against criminals…
“The crime situation in South Africa demands that law-abiding citizens have to arm themselves against criminals. I know of so many cases in which, had the firearm owners not had their firearms with them, they would have been the victims of murder. We have to stop targeting legal firearm owners as if they are contributing to crime. It is simply not true.”
The Police have to foster trust with the public. The Minister is on record that he has said that he wants a Police Service free from criminals.
- How is it them possible that a victim of a robbery recognised a police officer at the police station, but the Police does not suspend the member and he is still working in the police station?
It cannot be tolerated -- it creates mistrust toward the Police -- the Minister has to act against such cases otherwise he will not be fulfilling his Constitutional duty. Issued by the FF Plus, May 6 2010 riginally published by Politicsweb
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SA water: a looming apocalypse
read original article by Patrick Lawrence on http://sareporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1311&Itemid=70
White motorists targets of stone-throwing youth gangs
Black youths deliberately target white drivers in Pretoria with large boulders; killed was engineer Gideon Ehlers – damaging the cars of hotel chef Brian Engelbrecht and gymnasium instructor Gabriel Barnard…
May 8 2010 - Beeld newspaper reports that 39-year-old Afrikaner engineer Gideon Ehlers, who works at the Drift Super Sand company in Muldersdrift, was murdered yesterday by a group of black youths who had thrown a giant boulder into his car from the Pretoria Street bridge on May 7 2010.
Amanda Roestoff reports that the young dad was killed only one day after another young Afrikaner, 21-year-old Brian Engelbrecht, a chef at the Ndlovu Lodge, escaped death when he swerved just as a big boulder was thrown from the same bridge while he driving underneath it. And 24-year-old Afrikaner gymnasium instructor Gabriel Barnard also was targetted by a boulder in Church Street along the N-4 highway. The boulder landed on his back-seat and it caused him to swerve and crash into a VW Polo, he said.
The murdered engineer Mr Ehlers was alone in his car when he was killed by the large boulder, said SAPS constable Portia Maleka. Crime-dossiers were opened, she added.
The distraught Mrs Ehlers told Beeld “I don’t know what is going on in this country. My husband has never hurt anyone. The government must do something…’
Engelbrecht told Beeld that he escaped being murdered when he saw the boulder being thrown and swerved just in time. It hit the passenger side of his VW Polo, shattered his windscreen, head-rest and instrument panel. He’s lodged a case of malicious damage. Mr Ehlers is survived by his wife and two sons, Robbie (17) and Taylor (6). http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Brugboewe-se-klip-eis-jong-pa-20100507
Theunis Pelser killed, Kameelsdrift AH
2010-05-07 Theunis Pelser, 66, truckdriver, shot dead, Kameeldrift J&B sugar company office
Fourth shooting within month:
Picture: Kameelsdrift/Leeuwfontein smallholder Johan Swiegers wipes the tears from his eyes while talking about his murdered friend and colleague, truck-driver Theunis Pelser, 66, who was shot during a robbery by a ‘neatly dressed man’ and two comrades who had arrived “to buy sugar”. The picture can be ordered from photographer Jaco Marais at Beeld newspaper. This is the fourth shooting within a month: on 6 April matric pupil Ernst Hoon 18, was shot dead through his bedroom window; on 16 April, Suna Steenberg was left in a coma after she was shot execution-style through the head at Kameelfontein; on 30 April, Jan du Toit, 80, survived a shot in the stomach while he was in bed...
Hilda Fourie of Beeld newspaper reports that the gang crime-afflicted smallholdings of Leeuwfontein/Kameeldrift north-east of Pretoria have claimed its third gun crime-victim this month.
Truckdriver Theunis Pelser ‘s wife Zelma was still pleading with her husband to ‘please live’, when he died.
His friend Johan Swiegers, 55, owner of J&B Sugars where Pelser worked as a truck-driver, struggled to hold back the tears while telling Beeld newspaper about the death of his friend.
He said at around 7:15am a ‘neatly dressed’ man showed up at the business, “wanting to buy sugar”. Swieger asked Pelser to take the man to the office next to his home to write out an invoice for him.
Swiegers then noticed two more men lingering about outside, one saying he was looking for a job, and the other one claiming that he was with the customer inside. Swiegers said he went into his bathroom putting eyedrops into his eyes, when he heard ‘banging noises’ . When he rushed to the adjacent room he saw the three men pointing guns at Pelser and a worker, identified only as Themba. The gang demanded that Swiegers lie down on the floor and that he had to give them money, kicking him against the neck. He was then ordered to get up by a man holding a gun to his head. “I didn’t realise that at this stage, Theunis stood right behind me also with a gun pointed to his head while I was getting up,’ he said.
“I pushed the emergency button and simultaneously struck down the gun-barrel which was being held to my head. A shot was fired and a bullet grazed one of his fingers, he said. “That’s when I saw Theunis fall: he was hit in the chest. “
That shot wasn’t meant for Pelser, he said: “it was meant for me. I should have been dead,” Swiegers said nothing was robbed. The men fled in the same white Mazda double-cabbed bakkie they had arrived in. Pelser died about half-an-hour after the shooting with Swiegers and his wife at his side. The working-class Afrikaner leaves behind three adult children besides his wife: Karen (45), Riaan (43) and Anita (39). Police constable Portia Maleka said no-one has been arrested. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/N%C3%B3g-een-in-Ptabuurt-vermoor-20100507
Related links:
Abductions for ransom soar, Ministers charged over water-pollution disasters..
Summary: Abductions for ransom soar in SA; criminal charges lodged at Brooklyn SAPS against three ANC-Ministers over serious water-pollution problems; and the ANC-kleptocrats allocate next to nothing to train the next generation of clinical researchers… And the ANC has just bought controlling shares in a foreign mine company…
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Criminal abductions, kidnappings are soaring in SA – 70% never reported…
Guardrisk Insurance company consultant Wally Thom warns in a report in Beeld newspaper today that kidnappiungs, and abductions for ransom are soaring in South Africa – yet more than seventy percent of these cases are never reported to the SAPS and oreover, people often don’t obtain the services of experts to help them bring their kidnapping-ordeals to a safe conclusion.
“There are many more kidnappings of wealthy people in South Africa now, in which ransoms ranging from R100,000 to several million Rands are being demanded. Also targetted: the children of the wealthy who are attending private schools are also being abducted more often - for ransom ranging from R20,000 to R40,000 each. These abductions normally aren’t reported because the parents only want to pay up to get their child back.”
Very dangerous criminal gangs which don’t hesitate to kill
These criminal gangs are very, very dangerous and people who get embroiled in such situations should always contact the experts, he warned. The dangerous nature of these gangs can best be illustrated by, for instance, the sudden disappearance of one of the country’s most experienced hostage-negotiators, Gert Barnard, 43, (click on picture left to read details) -- a man with many years of experience in his field -- who went missing last month while on a mission for the private security company Tactical Support Unit in Centurion – and hasn’t been heard of since...
Even more devastating are the flash-kidnappings’ – targetting ordinary working-class people without access to expensive security and insurance firms to deal with: people who are kidnapped from their homes, forced to withdraw cash from a cash-point while relatives are held at gunpoint back home.
He warned that more than 70% of any of these kidnapping-dramas are moreover, never reported to the authorities. Thom said when people find themselves in kidnapping-situaitons, they should always try and obtain advice from the people wh are trained in such matters. “They must work with people who know the mind-sets of kidnappers,’ he warned. Guardrisk Allied Products & Services has a network of experts to help their clients who take out a Kidnapping Policy . http://www.sake24.com/JouGeldsake/Al-hoel-meer-rykes-sakelui-word-ontvoer-20100507
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Three ANC-Ministers charged over criminal water-pollution
Louis Meintjies, the chairman of the National Water Forum has lodged formal criminal charges at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria against three ANC-Ministers: Bueylwa Sonjica Water Affairs, Susan Shabangu Mining; and Tina Joemat-Pettersson , Agriculture – accusing them of criminal negligence in their continuous failure to act against the country’s pollutors of its scarce water-resources. Meintjie submitted evidence of very serious water pollution incidents which were caused by 104 illegal mines and criminal negligence by many local authorities.
Meintjies who also is the deputy-president of the Transvaal agricultural union submitted a large body of evidence in these criminal charges against the three Ministers – submitting that they were failing in their Constitutional duties by their failure to take any action in the cases of 104 pollutors – illegal mines and municipalities detailed in his formal complaint – and which persons and municipalities are causing ‘ very serious threats to the country’s food security, ‘ writes Elise Tempelhoff of Beeld newspaper. Criminal charges against the three Ministers can be lodged under the National Water Act of 1998 for their ongoing failure to intervene in preventing the country’s ongoing water-pollution problems.
- “An Apocalypse Looms in SA over Water Pollution:
- http://sareporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1311&Itemid=70
Food pollution endangers entire population:
Meintjes emphasised that the country’s very serious water pollution not only poses serious problems for organized agriculture – but that society at large will also suffer because of the pollution of the country’s food. “Every resident in South Africa relies on his/her surival on having access to sufficient and clean water and safe food . The commercial farmer requires sufficient clean water to help provide safe food to all the residents of South Africa.’
He expressed ‘deep concern’ over the dangerously-poor water quality of the country – and slams the fact that these three ANC-ministers are ‘not fulfilling their constitutional duties to protect the country’s water resources.’
Sonjica, he says, completely fails in her duties to take legal actions against water-pollutors and to stop their activities. Shabanga ‘hands out mining licenses all over the place even in the most environmentally-sensitive, water-rich areas; and Joemat-Pettersson fails to protect agriculturalists from water-pollutors, he said in his formal charges lodged at the SAPS.
He accuses the three ministers of ‘criminal negligence and irresponsibility because of their lack in intervening. “They are endangering food-security for the entire country by failing to act against illegal mines and other water-pollutors’. One example, he pointed out, was that Sonjica had ‘illegally’ granted a water-license to Vuna Mining – the company belonging to her predecessor’s husband Andrew Hendricks. “This mine lies right in the water-surce of the already seriously polluted Olifants River outside Middelburg in Mpumalanga.
- He also accused Sonjica and Shabanga of being “fully aware of the country’s very serious water-pollution problems because they have been in their functions for several years now. Sonjica has been in the cabinet for the past six years, first as Water Affairs Minister, then she was handed the Mining portfolio, and now she’s back at Water and Environmental Affairs,’ he said. Shabangu served as deputy-minister on the Minerals and Energy portfolio between April 1996 to April 2009.
“If the police refuses to investigate, and if the National Prosecuting Authority refuses to charge and prosecute these three Ministers over their criminal failure to intervene in these matters, we will lodge a private criminal case against them. We will not let this matter go’.
Tempelhoff was told by a legal expert that the National Water Act of 1998 can be used to charge the three Ministers with criminal offences if they continue to allow these water-pollution affences – and if they continue to fail to apply the existing laws in this regard.
- More than twelve non-governmental organisations are teamed up in the National Water Forum and are backing the criminal charges against the three ministers: amongst them are SA Food Tech, the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, AfriForum and the Wildlife and Environment Society (Wessa).
Meintjies says that ever since the National Water Forum was formed, they have been ‘flooded with complaints’. He asks people with water-pollution complaints and knowledge of suspected violations to contact their central telephone at 079-030-3294 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 079-030-3294 end_of_the_skype_highlighting te stuur, or submit their complaint at their website http://www.nwf.za.net . None of the Ministers’ spindoctors, approached for comment, were interested in commenting to the criminal charges, reports Tempelhoff. http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Ministers-aangekla-oor-waterbesoedeling-20100508
And… the ruling ANC-party of South Africa has just bought the controlling shares in a foreign mining company – with whose money? http://www.times.co.sz/index.php?news=16409
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CAPE TOWN. Less than twenty years ago, South Africa’s clinic research was rated as among the world’s very best and definitely the best on the African continent.
Now, after nearly two decades under the gentle administrations from the greedy kleptocrats at the ruling African National Congress, the country’s crucial clinical research sector is in such serious decline that only 0,15 percent of the entire health care budget now gets allocated to health-related research and development projects – instead of the 20 percent required to help educate the next generation of clinical researchers, warns the Academy of Science of SA (ASSAF) in a little-noticed report , published on April 22.
Clinical research is in serious decline because of ‘grossly insufficient government funding for research professorships through its Medical Research Council “ – leading to an aging workforce because the government does not allocate enough funds to train new students. This lack of government funding is also driving many South African researchers into “working on diseases of the affluent for the pharmaceutical industry”, or for “the HIV-TB agendas of external donors”, warns the Academy of Science of South Africa,.
Now, over half of the country's expenditure on clinical research comes from the private sector, according to the report, Revitalising Clinical Research in South Africa: A Study on Clinical Research and Related Training in South Africa, published last month. http://www.assaf.co.za/?p=1666
The report was compiled by a 13-member panel representing a wide diversity of health scientists and scholars from all over the country chaired by professor Bongani Mayosi of the University of Cape Town.
“Clinical research activity and capacity in SA has declined dramatically, prompting ASSAf, following discussions with the Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa (PIASA), to undertake this study in order to make recommendations on the overall revitalisation of clinical research in the country within the framework of essential national health research.”
Chronic underfunding, cumulative disinvestment in publicly-funded research programmes…
“The last two decades have seen a "… cumulative disinvestment in publicly funded programmes resulting from the withdrawal of the health departments of provincial governments from this sector, the absence of discounts for research tests from the business model for the National Health Laboratory Service, chronic underfunding of the Medical Research Council ... and the lack of funding streams to universities that might in principle have been applied to meet the overall shortfall in support.
"There is little likelihood that continuation of the present situation is compatible with rebuilding and sustaining solid research capacity in the clinical domain," adds the report, by the Academy's panel of health scientists and scholars.
While a tenth of South Africa's state expenditure goes into the public health services – the proportion going to research is "much too little" — only 0.15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), the report warns.
Twenty percent of health budget should be allocated to research… not 0.15%…
The report now calls for, amongst other things, a national funding scheme for clinical research, with two percent of GDP committed to research and development (R&D) – and of which 20 per cent should be allocated to health research.
However at the moment the ANC-regime has only committed itself to investing two percent of the GDP on research and development, says Bongani Mayosi of the University of Cape Town, who chairs the Academy’s panel.
We need more new clinical researchers:
Warns Mrs Kirti Narsai, head of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa in an interview with SciDev.Ner: “The government needs a focused approach to health research, especially public health issues. Government needs to attract institutional, non-governmental organisations and private sector funding to work in partnership with academic institutions to increase levels of clinical research in South Africa," she told SciDev.
"A decline in clinical research decreases the number of people the pharmaceutical industry can employ who are interested or have experience in doing clinical research," warned Narsai.
- http://www.scidev.net/en/sub-suharan-africa/news/south-africa-s-clinical-research-in-serious-decline-.html
- http://www.assaf.co.za/?p=1666
ANC BUYS CONTROLLING SHARES IN FOREIGN MINING COMPANY:
Paedophile farmer jailed for killing farm child
“Piet Botes cannot be rehabilitated for his criminal paedophilia’, testified SAPS psychology unit expert Prof Gerard Labuschagne...
10-05-08 -- Oudtshoorn paedophile-farmer Piet Botes, the father of two minor children, has lost everything: the former scion from a wealthy local Afrikaner family, this week was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for the murder on a farm worker’s child, Elizabeth Martiens in April 2007. Cruelly, he had hidden the raped, murdered child in a water-tank on his farm for three months after the murder, keeping silent while the police and her grieving family were searching for the missing girl. Botes was also sentenced to another eight years for the indecent sexual assaults on two young girls from Leeu-Gamka. Botes already served three years in prison while awaiting his trial. He moreover, cannot be rehabilated from his criminal paedophilia, a top SAPS expert told the court this week. Botes has lost all except the inherited family farm, his wife has divorced him and he has become an social outcast…
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“Client recognises seriousness of his offences”:
Botes’ own defence counsel Willem Wagner reportedly also told the court before sentencing that ‘no extenuating circumstances can be submitted, my client recognises the seriousness of his criminal offences”.
- Wagner , again speaking on behalf of his client, also accepted the findings by Prof. Gerard Labuschagne of the SAPS psychology unit, who testified on Tbhursday that Botes is “a serial-criminal with pedophilic tendencies who ‘had moved very rapidly from indecent assaults of minor children to murder’. Labuschagne also testified that Botes could ‘not be rehabilitated’
“Child’s father had entrusted his daughter’s safety to his employer…’
Advocate Meg Allie also based her plea to hand down a heavy sentence on the testimony by Prof Labuschagne. She also pointed out that the murdered child’s father Samuel Martiens, “had entrusted his daughter’s safety to his employer. It is a sign of his lack of emphathy that three months after he had killed the girl, he even took Samuel Martiens to the water-tank where the child’s body had been hidden. Botes consistently lied to the SAPS, his wife and to Elizabeth’s parents about the day’s events.
Judge Saldanha said during his summary during sentencing that Botes, the father of two minor children, hails from a ‘good family’. He has now lost everything except his inherited family farm Weltevrede, and he is being shunned by the local community. Only his brother and sister-in-law still support him due to familial ties and are running his farm. “The sentence must confirm to the community that the court views these crimes in a very serious light and wants to assure that farm-workers and their children be treated with respect, also in rural areas.’
Martiens told Volksblad’s journalist Tisha Steyn after the sentencing that he blamed himself for allowing Botes to travel with Botes – but he was satisfied with the stringent prison sentence. “Botes has been sentenced but that won’t bring back my child,’ he said. http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Boer-35-jaar-tronk-toe-weens-moord-20100508