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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Chinese visitors charge SAPS with robbery, assault
13:24 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Black SA cops are turning into feral criminal gangs: visitors ‘beaten, robbed and falsely charged by police’
7 Dec 2011 – RANDBURG, South AFrica. Four Chinese nationals are laying criminal charges against members of the police: they were allegedly robbed and assaulted by puniformed, armed SA police officers.
The Citizen journalists William Tshabalala and Aarifah Nosarka quote the advocate representing the four Chinese businessman as saying that one of his clients was ‘arrested’ and appeared in Randburg court for ‘reckless and negligent driving, attempted murder and failure to stop for police’. All charges were withdrawn by the State as false however -- when it was revealed by Adv M.D. Saladino that the four Chinese businessmen instead had been assaulted and robbed by the police during a supposedly ‘routine stop and check operation’ in the Douglasdale area.
The businessmen, three of whom are visiting South Africa from China, said they had been followed by a car from Bruma to Lonehill. “As we were leaving Chinatown, driving towards Lonehill, we noticed a car following us. We were worried that hijackers may have been tailing us, so we carried on to our accommodation,” businessman Marlin Chen was quoted by The Citizen as saying.
Uncertain if it was a police car or hijackers pretending to be cops…
However the businessmen then had shots fired at their vehicle. “And as we got close to Monte Casino, we noticed the car turned on (flashing )blue lights. We were unsure if it was in fact a police car, or if it was hijackers pretending to be police, so we carried on to the complex,” said Chen.
They searched our pockets and took cash, they kicked and hit us: we were so badly beaten we went to Fourways Life Hospital…
As the men arrived at the entrance to the complex, a number of police officers climbed out of their car and handcuffed the men, wrote The Citizen. “We were told to lie down on the floor and they started kicking and hitting us. They searched our pockets and took cash,” Chen said. They were then told to open the townhouse. His colleagues were made to wait outside while officers ‘searched the premises: they did not take anything from the house, but they messed it up,” he said. All four men were then taken to Douglasdale police station, but only the driver, a permanent SA resident, was arrested. “We were so badly beaten, we went to Fourways Life Hospital,” Chen said. “We would never have thought that we would be robbed by policemen. We did everything they asked us to.” According to Saladino, an undisclosed amount of money was taken from his clients. – aarifahn@citizen.co.za, williamt@ citizen.co.za
MRC: allowing younger people to own more guns is disastrous
‘ Firearms are mainly used to murder women, to intimidate them and force them into submission…’
CAPE TOWN — The proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act should be opposed at all costs. While the exact changes to the Act are still being drawn up, all the indications are that there are plans for the amended law expected to be passed in parliament next year to lower the age at which a firearm licence may be obtained and to also increase the number of firearms allowed per person. link
And allowing younger people to own more guns is a recipe for disaster which will cause even greater suffering for South African women and children, warns Dr Naeemah Abrahams, a researcher with the Medical Research Council.
Click here for many more articles on gun violence in South Africa:
note: the SAPS DOES NOT maintain stand-alone records on criminal violence and guns:
She pointed out the dangers of the proposed amendments during a discussion in Cape Town. Dr Abrahams said the perception that firearms are being kept in homes for 'security' is false: "If firearms are not used to murder women, they are used to intimidate them and force them into submission. “There are women who go to sleep knowing that there is a firearm under the pillow or in the drawer. These firearms are often not used against criminals, but against loved ones.”
Warning that firearms featured in up to 40% of all sworn statements by women about violence against them in the Western Cape, she pointed out the dangers of the proposed amendments to the Firearms Control Act during a discussion on the issue.
Supporters for the new changes say more control will be exercised over all existing firearms if more are registered:
Supporters for the new proposal say however that 'data on firearm violence in South Africa identifies firearms as one of the leading means of non-natural deaths in the country, with handguns being the preferred weapon of choice. The misuse of firearms claims thousands of lives every year, and gravely affects the social harmony and security of individuals in South Africa. The perceived ease with which they can be obtained by individuals in the illegal pool, through loss or theft from the South African Police Services, private individuals, the South African National Defence Force ,and the private security industry, h”ave only served to increase the fear of violence and crime,” supporters for the amended law argue.
The SA government has not identified the use of firearms in crime statistics since 2000… AND WHY DON’T THEY?
The main problem is the lack of accurate official information: the available disaggregated SAPS data on the use of firearms in incidents of crime and violence, such as cases of murder, attempted murder, rape and indecent assault, have not been made publically available by the South African government since 2000. Trends in firearms crime and violence can therefore only be analysed by means of gathering data from media reports, the aggregated statistics provided by the SAPS on violence and crime, and various other data collection systems, such as Statistics South Africa and the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System.
An urgent call was also issued yesterday for the SAPS to start collecting data on the use of guns in violent crime. Their last statistics in this regard date from 2000: link . The minister of social development Bathabile Dlamini said in parliament last week that the SAPS did not feel this was even necessarty: ‘The SAPS do not consider domestic violence (or indeed also farm-murders) as ‘stand-alone crimes when compiling statistics. The SAPS thus cannot track trends and develop effective policing strategies to combat domestic violence.’ comment here.
‘ A girl born in South Africa is more likely to be raped than to learn to read…’
Changes to the act being presented to parliament next year include lowering the age at which a firearm licences may be obtained and increasing the number of firearms allowed per person. Abrahams said the perception that firearms are kept in homes for security is false. If firearms are not used to murder women, they are used to intimidate them and force them into submission. “There are women who go to sleep knowing that there is a firearm under the pillow or in the drawer. These firearms are often not used against criminals, but against loved ones.” She said firearms feature in up to 40% of sworn statements by women about violence in the Western Cape.
During the discussion reference was also made to statistics showing that a girl born in South Africa is more likely to be raped than to learn to read.
Synnov Skorje, director of the centre opposing violence against women and children, said they see women literally running for their lives. Democratic Alliance MP Helen Lamoela said a policy on the compensation of victims is also necessary because they are frequently left to fend for themselves. Community worker Darlina Tyawana also pointed out that offenders who go to jail “get hot food, receive training and are better off than their victims…” link
‘Men in Cape Town who witness abuse of females as children are three times as likely to be arrested for gun-possession..’
Speaking in Cape Town yesterday at a public meeting campaigning against violence targetting women and children, Dr Abrahams was clearly also using her own findings through the MRC’s gender and health group, showing that men in Cape Town who had witnessed abuse of their mothers when they were children are nearly three times as likely to be arrested for possession of a weapon (gun) and nearly twice as likely to be involved in fights at work or in the community as other men.
Such men also also two and a half times as likely to beat one of their own partners. “These findings show that the problems of gender-based violence and violent crime are intimately linked in our society” says Dr. Naeemah Abrahams. She said this was the first major study of men’s use of violence against intimate partners in South Africa. Nearly a quarter of the 1,368 men interviewed (23.5%) reported that they witnessed their mother being abused by their father or her boyfriend when they were a child. “It seems likely that by witnessing the behaviour of their parents, boys take messages about the acceptability of violence in solving conflict and achieving goals. This sets up a cycle of violence,” she said.
“It is critically important that we develop ways to interrupt the cycle by decreasing intimate partner violence, and thus children’s chances of witnessing it, and by early identification of boys that require help in developing non-violent conflict skills. Equally important are interventions at places of work,” Dr. Abrahams said. She further stated that a recent study showed that workplace violence cost South Africa about R40 billion per year. “The workplace thus provides excellent opportunities to identify men at risk for using violent means of conflict against partners and other and provides chances for work place interventions,” said Dr. Abrahams. For more information contact: Dr Naeemah Abrahams: Medical Research Council of South Africa, 2001 PO Box 19070, 7505 Tygerberg, South Africa HO Tel +27 (0)21 9380911 Fax +27 (0)21 9380200; People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) Tel: +27 11 642 4345/6 Fax:+ 27 11 484 3195 Mobile No: +27 83 540 2289 Email: info@powa.co.za http://www.powa.co.za or info@mrc.ac.za
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=73095
