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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
20 Aurora goldmine pirates executed by guards
16:31 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Trade union, ANC, SAPS claim that 20 illegal miners at the bankrupt Aurora goldmine in Grootvlei, Springs were ‘executed’ – mine owned by Khilubuse Zuma and Zondwa Mandela…
2010-08-12 Johannesburg - After one security guard was killed and another kidnapped, Aurora Grootvlei mine 
security guards ' went on a killing spree and executed twenty illegal gold-pirates at the mine which is owned by the nephew of President Jacob Zuma and the grandson of Nelson Mandela, the Sowetan reported.
Police on Thursday recovered four bodies from a shaft at the Aurora Grootvlei Mine three days after they were shot and another eight bodies the next day.They believe more bodies remain at the bottom of a shaft.
The ‘blame-whitey’ game game has started: "There's now four bodies that have been retrieved from the shaft," SAPS Warrant Officer Jannie van Aswegen said. The Star meanwhile screamed in a front-page headline on Saturday Aug 14 2010 that the controversial bouncer, security consultant and reality TV star "Bad Brad" Wood (left after he was beaten by 7 black men in a pub) had led the security team “that was involved in a bloody shootout several hundred metres underground in Springs” on Monday. A “ Saturday Star investigation “ had placed Wood at the scene, and he confirmed through his lawyer, Piet du Plessis that ‘although he had been present during the shootout, he did not make himself guilty of any unlawful actions. He was involved in his capacity as chief of security." http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20100814074321450C164865&newslett=1&em=205034a6a20100814ah and http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/article170985.ece
The mine is co-owned by President Jacob Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma, above, and Nelson Mandela's grandson Zondwa. With Aurora's desperate gold-mining community even resorting to selling off looted copper from the mine - and hundreds of miners and their family members needing daily food-aid from private charities while waiting for their long-overdue pay, its co-owner Zuma junior is "rapidly becoming a billionaire" it was reported by the Mail & Guardian on Aug 13 2010. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-13-zuma-jnr-heading-for-first-billion
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Police allegedly found out about the shootings from the Sowetan newspaper on Thursday. According to the newspaper security guards allegedly shot at least 20 people at the Aurora Grootvlei Mine between Springs and Benoni, and left the bodies underground on Monday.Police began retrieving the bodies from the mine shaft and could not yet confirm the figure reported in the Sowetan.
Meanwhile the National Union of Mineworkers linked the incident to the mine's failing to pay its workers for many months - leaving them and their families "to fend for themselves".The mine confirmed there "had been deaths". However their spokesman claimed that these killings were caused 'by a push by the police to flush them out" .http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/20-miners-executed-report-20100812
Zuma's nephew becomes a billionaire while hundreds of his unpaid mineworkers are starving...
Meanwhile, with Aurora's desperate gold-mining community even resorting to selling off looted copper from the mine - and miners and their family members dying while waiting for their long-overdue pay, its co-owner Zuma junior is "rapidly becoming a billionaire" it was reported by the Mail & Guardian on Aug 13 2010. (scroll down for original article). The community in Springs is meanwhile trying to provide daily meals, temporary housing, blankets and even school books to the children - while Zuma's nephew and Mandela’s grandson are living the high life.
Solidarity trade union has launched a campaign to help these miners. Anyone wishing to help, contact Natasha Kotze or Ernest Wolmarans at 011 812 4800 for further information. Meanwhile the miners show a lot more social responsibity than the mine-owners: they use their own skills and unpaid labour to help keep the pumping station at Grootvlei going – to stop environmental pollution. http://www.helpinghandfund.co.za/?p=2185
Aurora 's ‘legal’ mining families ave become so desperate to keep feeding their families every day that they have reportedly also started stealing and selling off copper looted from the mine. A total 548 families of the Grootvlei families are also being fed daily by the trade union charity Helping Hand; which reports that 25 of these families had by July 2010 lost their homes and were surviving in squatter tent-towns; another 490 families were in heavy arrears in house-payments. Solidarity reported on July 7 2010 that some desperate miners even try to commit suicide: one father of two was recently stopped by a comrade from jumping into a mine-shaft…
- http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Miners-die-while-waiting-for-pay-20100511
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-13-zuma-jnr-heading-for-first-billion - http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/07/zuma-nephew-khulubuse-splurges-while.html
CRIMINAL CHARGES LODGED AGAINST PRES. JACOB ZUMA AND HIS ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: AUG 8 2010
Formal critiminal charges were lodged by the Hartbeespoort environmental activist Nicole Barlow on August 8 2010 at the Hartbeespoort police station against Pres Jacob Zuma and his environment Minister Mrs Buyelwa Sonjica. http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=30834&HeadingText=Environment+120810+activist+nicole+#daihatsu
Barlow and local residents drove up to the police station together to lodge formal charges against Pres. Jacob Zuma and his environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica-- charging them with deliberate failure to prevent the region’s severe environmental pollution. This is caused mostly by Aurora’s untreated highly toxic waste-water, which is overflowing from the unmaintained, failing mines.
Not allowed to charge the President…
Barlow, East Rand environmentalist and chair of the Environment and Conservation Association, says that even with the best environmental legislation in the world in South Africa, there’s non existent enforcement under the Zuma cabinet.Also accompanied by a journalist and a photographer from The Star as well as that feisty, fearless local paper MadibengPulse, Barlow had greeat difficulty in lodging the formal complaint: the officer on duty, Captain Enoch Legoete was “nonplussed at the prospect of having the president charged at a police station.,” reported MadibengPulse. “ He telephoned the police legal adviser and while Ms Barlow’s statement was being taken down, interrupted the proceedings to say that “she was not allowed to charge the president”.
However – Barlow’s homework is thorough – and she countered with her impeccable legal advice from Advocate Wim Trengrove SC as well as the National Prosecutions’ Office’s Tladi Tladi: “South Africa is the only country in the world where provision is made in the law to make it a criminal offence to allow water pollution,” she explained. “
If we carry on like this, in five years we will have no drinking water left…
Water is a finite resource, Hartbeespoort Dam has an enormous catchment area, if we can fix that it will go a long way to fixing other rivers such as the Crocodile, the Hennops, the Blesbokspruit, the Rietvlei Dam and others, they’re all interlinked. But at the moment Hartbeespoort Dam has the 15th worst surface water in the world!” she told MadibengPulse. “If we carry on like this, in five years we’ll have no more drinkable water left.”
![Acid Mine Drainage from West Rand Mines Mariette Liefferink Hartbeespoortdam[8]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ZL3Kngb81qo/TGaqFCQJNLI/AAAAAAAAt8A/XKF9BnZyeN0/s1600-h/Acid%20Mine%20Drainage%20from%20West%20Rand%20Mines%20Mariette%20Liefferink%20Hartbeespoortdam%5B8%5D%5B11%5D.jpg "Acid Mine Drainage from West Rand Mines Mariette Liefferink Hartbeespoortdam[8]")
After 90 minutes of haggling with the local charge office captain trying to place formal charges with the police against President Zuma and the Minister of Water Affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica, it was decided by Legoete to accept it and then refer the charge to the SAPS provincial North West division. It is believed that the Blue Scorpions will take over the investigation and will collect a copy of the docket.
And Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica has become in an extreme hurry to push through a new law which would create an “Environmental Crimes Court … http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=30834&HeadingText=Environment+120810+activist+nicole+#daihatsu
Nicole Barlow is a relentless, successful campaigner who uses the law to its full ability: she campaigned relentlessly against the horrific crimes against the environment which constantly take place. She obtained a High Court order and stopped the building of a Sasol filling station halfway into a wetlands in Boksburg - with the court ruling that it was unconstitutional. She won the case with costs after much wrangling by government officials and big business.
Barlow's group also forced Airports Company SA to rehabilitate a wetland damaged by a fuel spill at OR Tambo airport in Kempton Park; http://allafrica.com/stories/200908140112.html
She also stopped the siting of the R700million "Pan African Parliament" in Midrand a month after it had started in July 2009 because of “the lack of transparency, no proper public participation and an incompetent environmental impact study.”Apparently work was 'allowed to continue under certain provisions’, it was reported on August 5 2010 in Engineering News – the companies tendering for the work all reportedly are run by Zuma-cronies. http://allafrica.com/stories/200908140112.html
Barlow warned that the department "could never build on that site without irretrievably damaging the wetland and the association wants parliament moved away from the site altogether and restoration of the site to some semblance of what it was before the destruction. If that wetland is removed the Hennops River will become badly polluted as a result of the development upstream. SA is 15th in the United Nations list of countries with the most badly polluted surface water in the world. A few years ago we had no pollution."In May this year, she was also present at the raid by the SAPS' Green Scorpions unit when hazardous and massive amounts of medical waste was being dumped in Germiston.
Zuma/Mandela-owned gold mine polluting Gauteng's major water-sources.
Picture: Johannesburg from the international space station: the gold-mining the Witwatersrand ridge, seen above, has created many thousands of holding tanks filled with toxic mine sludge which can be clearly seen from space. During apartheid between 1948 to 1994, environmental regulations controlling the dispersal of this toxic, highly radioactive, super-acid mine water back into the environment, were strictly enforced and environmental spills by mining companies were dealt with rapidly – with the full force of the law behind the authorities. South Africa is the only country in the world where provision was made in the law for years which makes it a criminal offence to allow water pollution – and the law still exists. However after 1994, under the Mbeki and Zuma cabinets, the ANC-cronies now peopling the corridors of power could care less and are easily bribed… leading to massive pollution of semi-arid South Africa’s preciously-few fresh water resources.
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n March this year, Elise Tempelhoff of Beeld also reported that ex-president Nelson Mandela's grandson and President Jacob Zuma's cousin "might land up in prison or be fined" - because they are apparently allowing acid, radioactive mine water to be dumped in the Blesbokspruit - which leads to the Hartbeespoort Dam, a major drinking-water source for millions of Gauteng residents. This may be the result of the Department of Water Affairs action against the Grootvlei mine outside Springs, where up to 130 mega-litres of polluted mine water per day is dumped into the spruit. A part of the spruit is in a nature reserve and Marievale, a wetland downstream from the mine, is a protected Ramsar area. Marius Keet, deputy director of water quality control, said the Blue Scorpions raided the Grootvlei mine and carried out arrests. "What's happening at Grootvlei is unacceptable. We're going to take them to court. One of the Blue Scorpions phoned me and said there are no chemicals (used to treat the water against acidity before it's dumped in the wetland) on the premises at all."
These chemicals, including lime, have been used for the past 15 years to up the pH balance of the acidic mine water, which is pumped from the dolomites about 1km below the surface, before it's pumped into the Blesbokspruit. There is however no remedy against the high radio-active content, caused by the gold mine's uranium sideproduct. Still, treating the water with chemicals to regain a safe ph-level is one of the requirements in the mine's water licence. "Clearly this isn't being done," said Keet.
That one essential pump to keep out the polluted water has been broken since March:
Boksburg/Ekurhuleni town council spokesman Zweli Dlamini announced in March that their one and only pumping station at Grootvlei had flooded “due to the recent heavy rains. The pump is broken”. The local authority and Department of Water Affairs have decided to build a wall along the side of the wetland to ensure that, in future, water doesn't flow near this low-lying pump station, spindoctored Dlamini. However a meeting between residents of the area and representatives of the departments of water affairs and health resolved nothing.
By half-August 2010, this wall has not been built – and responsibility for the pump was taken over by the destitute mineworkers of Springs, who are fighting to keep the pump repaired and properly maintained in spite of the fact that their high-living bosses aren’t paying their back salaries. A total 548 families at the Grootvlei families are also being fed daily by the trade union charity Helping Hand; 25 of these families have already lost their homes and are living in squatter tent-towns; another 490 families are in heavy arrears in house-payments, and their trade union Solidarity reported on July 7 2010 that some desperate miners even try to commit suicide: one father of two was recently stopped by a comrade from jumping into a mine-shaft…
Labels:
Crime Aug 13 2010
Summary: SA’ns may lose their citizenship if they work for governments which the ANC-regime does not approve of; attacked, robbed baby Marzanne Kruger regains partial eyesight; Sannieshof, NW teen robbed of his savings; two farm murders: Theuns Fourie, brother of scrapped SAPS organised-crime-unit chief Johan Fourie) was tied to a tree and tortured to death in Tzaneen and a Brits farmholding cash store shopkeeper was also shot dead in cold blood; why is the SADF spending R318-m on huge supplies of mortars? The underground battles at Aurora’s gold mine in Springs (owned by relatives of Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela) cause the deaths of one of two kidnapped security guards and of at least 20 gold-mine pirates… Farmer Marietta Nel faces more surgery to reconstruct her face – partially blasted away by an attacker’s shotgun eight years ago…
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Afrikaner Jan Venter, 32, dies of Swine Flu in Mauritius prison
2010-08-13 SAPA. Johannesburg. Jan Venter, 32, the South African man who was arrested in Mauritius on allegations of drug-smuggling, died a mysterious death which his fiancee and his mother claim were caused by ‘swine flu’.
“We can confirm that he did die, and that we are in contact with his family, said Dayanand Naidoo, chief-director of cuntsular services. Naidoo also said that his department could not confirm the death cause as yet because they had not yet been informed themselves. However Talk Radio 702 interviewed Mr Nel’s fiancee Ms Vee Brijlall – who told the radio station that she had been informed by an SMS from Mr Nel’s mother that the Mauritian authorities had told her that her son had died of swine flu, caused by the H1N1-virus http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Varkgriep-eis-SA-man-in-eilandtronk-20100813
Theuns Fourie, (brother of SAPS’ scrapped organised crime unit chief Johan Fourie) tied to tree, bludgeoned to death with pangas, Tzaneen smallholding
Aug 11 2010 – TZANEEN. Tow-truck operator and smallholder Theuns Fourie, 46, a brother of the SAPS’ now scrapped organised-crime prevention unit Johan Fourie, was ambushed, tied to a tree and then bludgeoned to death. The five black attackers also gang-raped and abducted his housekeeper – but she was able to escape and gave the SAPS a very description of the murderers. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Man-aan-boom-gebind-vermoor-20100811
Beeld journalist Marietjie Louw-Carstens quotes SAPS Lt.kol. Ronel Otto as describing the woman’s ordeal: after the gang-rape, the woman was dumped into the boot of Fourie’s Toyota Camry and managed to escape, walking for a kilometer seeing for help at a neighbouring farm.Fourie worked for the past 17 years at the Sonco towing service in Tzaneen. A colleague said he must have been extensively tortured before he was bludgeoned to death at the tree: “the house was covered in blood, even a cupboard next to the safe.’ Fourie returned from his annual vacation at 9pm to his rental smallholding, about 5km outside Tzaneen on the Agtha Road. gewerk. ’n Kollega van hom het gesê daar was baie bloed waar sy lyk gekry is. “ His brother, the retired former chief of the SAPS’ scrapped organised-crime unit, said his brother visited him in Pretoria on the Friday before his murder. Rudi Sonnekus of the Sonco towing service said Theuns Fourie was ambushed at his homestead-gate: the attackers clearly knew the time of his arrival and helped themselves to food while waiting for him. They got into the secured smallholding by bending apart the massive security gate at the backdoor. “The entire place was littered with rubbish while the black atttackers helped themselves to food.’ The housekeeper provided detailed descriptions of her rapists and said there were five black man. The entire smallholding was emptied of all valuables including two firearms: they had also broken open the safe. His brother was devastated: “I always investigated these kind of crimes and now it’s happened to someone so close to me.’ Sonnekos praised the murdered man for his loyalty. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Man-aan-boom-gebind-vermoor-20100811
SAs prosecutors threatened by organised crime syndicates
National Prosecuting Authority chief, Menzi Simelane warned on August 13 2010 that ‘a high number of prosecutors require protection from organised crime syndicates.” It must be noted as background information that the SAPS’ very efficient and experienced organised-crime unit was disbanded, its members dismissed or transferred – and a new unit was set up drawn from the ranks of the ANC’s own cronies inside the SAPS. It’s therefore very ironic that the ANC’s chief crony in the National Prosecuting Authority would be giving the members of parliament a quarterly briefing about the growing dangers of the organised criminal networks in South Africa. He told MPs that ‘many prosecutors are threatened with violence. We are providing quite a lot of security for quite a large number of prosecutors - even in places where people would not necessarily expect a lot of organised crime organisation in that way.”Simelane also said no prosecutors have been put on the witness protection programme because “it is not a viable option.” http://bit.ly/c8dCvz
Mooinooi Brits smallholding: cash-shop supervisor Simon Kwenaete, 47, shot dead
Thursday 12 August 2010 By Cynthia Dreyer Madibeng Pulse – BRITS. A deeply shocked friend of murdered cash-store shopkeeper assistant Simon Kwenaete (47) watched helplessly as two black men shot him dead before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash. Captain Adele Myburgh of North West SAPS Communications said Mr Kwenaete had just cashed up and locked the store on Saturday night at around 19:00 when the two overpowered him and cold bloodedly shot him. For the past 17 years, the murdered man had run the cash store on a smallholding in Barnardsvlei near Mooi Nooi which is owned by Ms Ellie Schultz (62). He is the father of three small children said Mrs Schultz. Police are appealing for any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects and all information will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Phone Inspector George Khondlo of Mooi Nooi Police on 072 240 2247 or 014 574 3215 http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=30965&HeadingText=CrimeAlert+120810+shooting#daihatsu
North-West, Sannieshof: 16-year-old CJ Hepburn robbed of his savings by armed attackers.
Aug 13 2010 – SANNIESHOF, NW - CJ Hepburn, 16, with mom Annette: the Afrikaans teen was attacked and robbed of the R350 he’d saved for months to buy perfume for her birthday, writes Beeld journalist Suzanne Cilliers. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Seun-spaar-geld-vir-geskenk-vir-sy-ma-toe-roof-boewe-dit-20100813
The teen had saved the money for months, keeping it in a tin. Beeld newspaper writes that CJ Hepburn was still very traumatised after the brutal assault at 8am after two armed men had broken into his family home. He was home alone: he had the flu and was asleep when he heard the family dogs raising the alarm. He went to the bathroom window and was bashed with a heavy spanner. The blow knocked him out. Just then his other Annette arrived – and it’s suspected that this caused the attackers to flee because besides taking a money-tin and four of Annette’s Steve Hofmeyr-CDs they didn’t take anything else. She said she was ‘like a madwoman’ when she arrived at the house and discovered her son unconscious on the bathroom floor. Her first fear was that he may be dead, however he woke up when he heard his mother’s voice. His injuries aren’t life-threatening: the fingers on one hand were bruised as he’d tried to ward off the blow. His vision also was temporary impaired because of the hard blow against his skull. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Seun-spaar-geld-vir-geskenk-vir-sy-ma-toe-roof-boewe-dit-20100813
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Brutally attacked baby Marzanne Kruger’s survival is a miracle according to Dr Michael Greef, the Afrikaans baby’s pediatrist. He was interviewed by Beeld journalist Janice Keogh. The assault on the infant on 22 April 2010 at her Robindale, Randburg home shocked the nation. She was battered so brutally that her skull had “cracked like an egg,” said her doctor .http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Sy-kruip-lag-en-is-gelukkig-20100813
Greeff, who has a practice in Bryanston, was on emergency call at the Sandton Medi-clinic on the day she was attacked and said he was ‘shocked when he saw the baby’s injuries. “they were the most awful and gruesome I’ve ever seen’. Her skull was ‘cracked like an egg, most damage was inflicted against the back of her brain – causing her blindness. She may have slowly regained some sight since the attack but Greeff said she’s too young to establish the full extent of her current eyesight. Her development lagged behind that of other infants initially, he said, but ‘she’s catching up fast. She crawls, she laughs and she’s a happy baby,’ he said. 
Greeff was also full of praise for Marzanne’s parents Bertus and M
adelein. “They are a kind-hearted, forgiving couple and totally dedicated parents,’ he said. They first noticed that her eyesight was returning, he said. Marzanne also did not get a replacement nanny after her previous nanny Franscina Sekhu was fired in May -- after a labour tribunal had agreed with the family that she’d been grossly negligent by letting the three Mozambiquan builders into the Kruger home twice to let them watch TV on the day before the attack and again the next day… Chakoma was her boyfriend.
Marzanne now is cared for fulltime at home by her dedicated mom, said the doctor. The trial of two of the three alleged Mozambiquan attackers of baby Marzanne Kruger on April 22 2010, Maphosa and Nyantumba, are on trial in the Johannesburg magistrate court. The SAPS is still trying to get Chakoma Machaba, 28, expedited from Mozambique, where he’d fled after the brutal assault of the infant. The two suspects in custody testified during their bail-application hearings that Machaba had bashed the baby against the head with the butt of a gun. A warrant for his arrest was issued by Interpol. South Africa and Mozabique do not have extradiction treaties. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Sy-kruip-lag-en-is-gelukkig-20100813
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Victim of Ivory Park hijacking charged with murdering one of his three attacking criminals
2010-08-11 Johannesburg - A hijacking victim shot two of his attackers – killing one – and now the victim is being charged with murder. Tembisa police constable Nelda Hlase said that three men had tried to hijack the man's red Toyota Hilux bakkie in Ivory Park – very near the Ivory Park police station around 20:30 on Tuesday night. "The steering of the car was locked and the victim started to fight with the assailants. He overpowered them, took their own gun away from them and shot two of the suspects," said Hlase. He was alone in the car at the time. The third man ran away. One of the attackers died of wounds in the upper body at Tembisa hospital on Wednesday morning. The other one was still in a "bad" condition, Hlase said. Police decided to open a case of murder against the victim – instead of waiting for the results of the inquest. Hlase said: "It is the responsibility of the State to open a murder case. We don't know if he shot lawfully or not, it is for the court to decide." The wounded hijacker would appear in court on charges of attempted robbery and possession of an illegal firearm if he recovered. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Victim-charged-with-killing-hijacker-20100811
SA to strip ‘soldiers abroad’ of citizenship
Thursday, 12 August 2010 An amendment to the South African Citizenship Act will allow government to strip “any South African serving in a foreign military of his or her citizenship under what could be vague or arbitrary conditions.The South African Citizenship Amendment Bill [B17-2010] contains a clause that extends the grounds for loss of citizenship to include cases where “he or she engages in a war under the flag of a country that the Government of South Africa does not support.”
The existing Section 6 of the existing Act, 88 of 195, allows for loss of citizenship under two sets of circumstances, namely, where “he or she, whilst not being a minor, by some voluntary and formal act other than marriage, acquires the citizenship or nationality of a country other than the Republic; or (b) he or she in terms of the laws of any other country also has the citizenship or nationality of that country, and serves in the armed forces of such country while that country is at war with the Republic.” Acccording to the South African Press Association (SAPA) Department of Home Affairs director general Mkuseli Apleni told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs this week that there “is currently no provision for the loss of citizenship by a naturalised citizen for engaging in a war that the republic does not support. The amendment of section 6 of the Act will provide that a naturalised citizen may not apply for retention of citizenship if he or she wishes to engage in a war that the government of the republic does not support, under the flag of another country.” However nothing in the principal Act or the amendment Bill seems to restrict the new clause to naturalised citizens (immigrants) only. .http://us-cdn.creamermedia.co.za/assets/articles/attachments/28650_100715b17-10.pdf
ANC: twelve illegal miners ‘were executed’ at Aurora Gold Mine Springs
12 Aug 2010 SPRINGS. Police have recovered the body of one of the many illegal miners who were shot dead in running gun battles belowground this week at the deeply troubled Aurora gold mine in Springs. Aurora is owned by a nephew of Pres Jacob Zuma and a grandson of Nelson Mandela, and has been so badly managed that it has not paid its workers for the past five months – plunging the entire mining community in Springs into deep poverty and homelessness. Many of the miners have also told their trade unions, the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity, that these illegal gold miners were endangering their lives each and every day: they were causing severe safety hazards and the armed illegal mining-gangs also were shooting at the legal miners. The mine spokesman confirmed that ‘four people were killed and a number of others shot and wounded on Monday”. It is believed that at least twenty illegal miners may have been killed during these running battles between the security firm and the miners. One gang had kidnapped a security guard a day earlier. The guards then opened fire on a group of armed people who were found underground the next day. The mine spokesman Thulani Ngubane said emergency workers have been underground for most of the day to recover all the bodies. Edited by Deshnee Subramany http://bit.ly/acxr7C
The ANC regime has lashed out at the security company – claiming that twelve miners found dead belowground, and possibly more, had been ‘executed’. Both the African National Congress party and the Gauteng Community Safety MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu criticised the event, saying that ‘even though the illegal miners were committing a crime there was no need for them to be killed”. The ruling party’s Ishmael Mnisi said: “The responsible security company should have sought the assistance of police on suspicion of crime being committed rather than shooting at first instance”. Aurora’s spokesman Thulani Ngubane however said their security guards were attacked by the illegal miners just a day before the incident and their mineworkers are constantly endangered by these illegal mining-operations. “One security guard was killed and one was taken away (kidnapped) by these people. I am asking you, were these people (illegal mining-gangs) within their rights to kill our security guard and steal from our mine?” said Ngubane. http://bit.ly/agqIXw
- Lessons in Democracy : Don't spill your drink on Zuma
- August 13, 2010 PRETORIA. Never ever - even under pain of death - show your middle finger to the convoy of South African President Jacob Zuma. The lecture on this point was delivered by student Chumane Maxwele… And while the country celebrated Women's Day on Monday, some mothers dodged bullets, warded off blows and spent the day out in the cold after they were evicted from a hijacked building in the Johannesburg CBD. Full Story ...
Pres Jacob Zuma and his increasingly wealthy family… How can you dare to charge SA president Jacob Zuma? Brits environmental activist Nicole perserveres with complaint about failures by the Zuma’s cabinet to prevent the region’s severe environmental pollution – caused mostly by overflowing, failing mines owned by top ANC-members such as Jacob Zuma and Nelson Mandela’s relatives. Read more . The ANC countermanded these allegations by hurriedly setting up an “Environmental Crimes Court”, announced by the “Water Affairs & Environment Minister”.. Read more
Also: Zuma junior is heading for his first Billion… 2010-08-13-zuma-jnr-heading-for-first-billionhttp://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-13-zuma-jnr-heading-for-first-billion
Farmer Marietta Nel ‘s face was disfigured by a shotgun blast during a farm attack 8 years ago. She needs urgent help for plastic surgery…
August 13 2010 – LADYSMITH. SA farmer Lita Fourie started the Tabita charity to help attacked farm-families deal with their trauma. And nobody needs help more urgently than does farmer Marietta Nel, (right) writes Mrs Fourie on 11 August 2010 from the Nel farm in Ladysmith.
“We are visiting with Marietta in Ladysmith and plan to take her to her first visit to the doctors. Eight years ago, after she a portion of her face was blown away by a shotgun-blast, many things have changed for Mrs Nel. One of the three farm-attackers was arrested but released: Mrs Nel was only able to identify him by his voice and the State said this was ‘insufficient evidence’. When she was released from hospital, she had to stop farming because of her ill health and financial problems. She started baking for a living. This wasn’t easy because she’d not had any reconstructive surgery at that stage, and half of her face was missing (her teeth and upper lip), and the hole was simply closed up with bandages. It was very uncomfortable, painful and embarrassing for the proudly-independent Boer woman: saliva kept running from her mouth and she had to feed herself through a pipe in her stomach. After the partial reconstruction this improved a bit, but she still needed to feed herself through her stomach. After the surgery she suffered infections and the tissue and bones didn’t mend. After many months of being ill, she is still fighting the infection. The stomach pipe was removed. She now can eat finely-chopped foods. She suffers from frequently-recurring infections and absesses for which she needs antibiotics – and her body is deteriorating. There’s also the psyhological effect of her disfigured face: She looks in the mirror and says ‘I don’t want to look like this’. She bakes all day long: even though she’s ill, she has workers to pay, there’s electric bills and her animals need feeding every day. She’d bought some goats in the hope of getting the farm going again – and they were all stolen one night. A while later all four her bakkie’s tyres were stolen. Six weeks ago she’s driving home from Ladysmith and she got shot at again. However with each setback Mariette stands up, and believes that things will get better. ..”
- The organisation Tabita is raising funds to pay for more surgery to Mariette’s face -- which will cost R600,000. Contact Lita Fourie of Tabita on 072-542-7352 or at tabita12@ovi.com
Destroyed for R300:
“All the farm activities at Mathafeni, near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, ceased one day in 2002 when with a single shot an attacker on her farm shattered not only Mariette Nel’s jawbone (she was 47 at the time) but her life. But, she says with conviction, there will be farming here again. She was born here, worked on the farm from an early age and took over when her parents died in the mid-’90s. Her life changed on 26 October 2002 when she and her domestic worker, Miriam Mamyembe (59), set out in the farm bakkie to the market with vegetables. At the farm gate a black man ran towards the vehicle, pressed a shotgun to her face and pulled the trigger. He made off with a bank bag containing a mere R300. ($30 – US)… After two months in hospital a partial reconstruction of Mariette’s face was done. It was badly mutilated and the limited state hospital resources didn’t allow for replacing her teeth and upper lip. When she returned to the farm in May 2003 nothing was left of her livestock and vegetable gardens. To make a living Mariette and Miriam started baking and selling cakes and Mariette rented the farmland to a neighbour. Within a year she was R16,000 in arrears with her bond repayments and the bank wanted to repossess the farm. A group of businesspeople in the town came to her rescue with a loan, which she has repaid with the income from her cake sales.
- She finds difficult to go into town. “I can hear people laughing at me. And I just turn away. I’m not saying I was beautiful but I was never awful-looking.”She must dice or liquidise everything she eats - and eats with difficulty. An ongoing sense of powerlessness has left her furious. “My face is disgusting, my farm has been destroyed and my attacker is a free man. “And all for R300,” she says.http://www.you.co.za/articles/Local/Destroyed-for-R300
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One-third of SA maize farmers may stop farming altogether
South Africa could lose thirty percent of all its maize farmers if they continued to overproduce the staple-food, warned Solidarity trade union spokesman Reint Dykema and Neels Ferreira, chairman of Grain-SA. “Our farmers are too productive and are farming themselves into bankruptcy because they cause a glut on the market, leading to maize prices dropping well below the farmers’ overhead costs. The new season is ahead of us and they will now have to take important decisions: Ferreira says ‘the smarter farmers say that a decision must be made to plant a lot less maize this year…’.Read more Maize crisis: SA can lose 30% of maize farmers’
For whose war is the SA army ordering huge quantities of mortars, to the tune of R318-million?
Leon Engelbrecht reports on Friday, 13 August 2010 that the South African Army has ordered a “substantial amount “of long-range 60mm mortar ammunition worth about R29 million.
- This order is added to a May 6 order worth R214.1-million of Acrobat 60mm long-range mortar systems and ammo…bringing the total bill to R318_883_314 and seventy-eight cents….
The SA Army now uses three mortar systems – the M1/M4 60mm, M3 81mm and M5 120mm mortar systems, and plans are afoot to also introduce Acrobat weapons. Not entirely understood is why these massive new orders were placed with the State-run munitions supplier Denel’s subsidiaries. South Africa has no enemies.
The latest order placed at Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (Pty) Ltd of Potchefstroom on Wednesday is for 60 mm long range high explosive mortar bombs (R14 532 712.02) and long range mortar smoke burst bombs (R14 531 143.20).The Army has in addition also ordered other ammunition and pyrotechnics worth around R194 million since August last year to “ replenish stocks that have not been significantly augmented since the advent of democracy in 1994”, the regime says. The Armscor tender awards website shows the contracts have principally been placed with state arsenal Denel subsidiaries Pretoria Metal Pressings (PMP) and Rheinmetall Denel Munitions (RDM).The SA Army uses three mortar systems – the M1/M4 60mm, M3 81mm and M5 120mm mortar systems in addition to the still to-be-introduced Acrobat weapons that will likely be type-classified the M6.
The Ministry of Defence in September 2006 told Parliament that the SA Army had in the middle of that year placed an order for 102 Project Acrobat LRM for R101 million, with delivery then expected from 2009 to 2010. It is not clear if these deliveries have taken place. The number ordered in 2006 was sufficient to equip 12 infantry battalions at a scale of eight tube per unit and leaving six tubes for training. The LRM, with its long-range ammunition, can fire to 6180m and has the lethality range and lethal area substantially better than the M3 ‘s 81mm mortar, regarded by many as an extraordinary range. The Army acquired the type for its airborne (parachute and air assault) as well as motorised infantry, who will likely use it in place of the older M3 81mm mortar as it is lighter at 34kg (compared to the M3’s 42.8kg) to a greater range and effect. The LRM is, however, much heavier than the M1 ‘s 60mm mortar with bipod (18.7kg) or the M4 ‘s patrol mortar (“patmor”) variant at 7.8k. This, however, has a maximum range of just 2100m. Originally published by defenceWeb http://sareporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1542&Itemid=1