Sunday 28 February 2010

Elderly man stabbed to death at his home

A 76-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his Edenvale home on Wednesday

It is reported that the man's neighbours contacted his family when they became concerned about his car being left out all night and at not seeing him during out the day.

The family then contacted a security company who raced to the Gannet Avenue residence where the victim was found in a pool of blood on the lounge floor.

Paramedics were unable to save him because of the extent of his injuries..

Source

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Dina


Alleged killer's relative apologises - plays race card

A relative of one of the men accused of kidnapping and murdering a teenage boy says he wants to say sorry.

The heartbroken man said he desperately wanted to attend the funeral service of murdered Keanan Drial, 14, on Saturday but police warned him to stay away.

He said cops had warned that his black skin would only intensify newly-sparked racial tensions. "snip"

- Police say Ngcanga and accused number one, Mzamazi Mbiza, 40, of Mont Claire, and accused three, Sityhilelo Nkakla, 32, of Philippi, stabbed Keanan in the chest and kidnapped him on the afternoon of February 11 in Loftus Road, Beacon Valley, Mitchell's Plain.

Police believe the trio accused the Grade 9 Oval North Technical High School pupil of stoning the windscreen of their driving school truck.

Since the start of the court case, Xolani says he and other family members have been desperate to pay their respects to Keanan's mother Vanessa Drial, 34.

"This was so brutal, it was cruel and barbaric if I had the words to describe this," explains Xolani.

"Since the beginning we wanted to speak to the family. We expressed our condolences to them and we told them we wished to attend his funeral service but police members advised us not to because of the racial tension.

"We want to say to the family that we are sorry for what has happened, we are not God. If we could go to that child's grave and wake him up, we would."

Xolani also expressed his hurt and disgust at the senseless murder, saying nobody deserved such a death.
'snip'

Full story

Three more elderly South African whites murdered in Pretoria

Translated by Dina:

Mr and Mrs Jozua (70) and Esmé Booysen (54) were attacked outside their house on Friday on mine property in Mokopane ingewag and stoned to death.

The gardener of Mr Jerzy (George) Kamieński (60), an engineer originally from Poland, found his bloody body the day before yesterday, around 07:00 on Kamieński where he lay in the corridor of his house in Eldoraigne. Kamieński’s hands were tied with cable ties and he had stab wounds.

This follows 6 elderly residents already killed this year in Pretoria.

Afrikaans language news story

Five Weddings and a fiancé



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Hat tip: Barry

Media storm over Malema's tender excesses


A picture of unrestrained excess and cronyism is painted in three Sunday newspaper reports claiming ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's millionaire lifestyle is being bank-rolled by lucrative government contracts awarded to his companies, writes Legalbrief.

The Sunday Times, City Press and Rapport all allege Malema has benefited substantially from several tenders - and that most of them stem from his home province Limpopo, where he wields significant influence. According to the Sunday Times, official tender and government documents show Malema was involved in more than 20 contracts, each worth between R500 000 and R39m between 2007 and 2008. One of Malema's businesses, SGL Engineering Projects, has profited from more than R130m worth of tenders in just two years. Among the tenders awarded to SGL, notes the report, was one by Roads Agency Limpopo, which has a budget of over R2bn, and which is headed by Sello Rasethaba, a close friend of Malema. Rasethaba was appointed last year shortly after Malema's ally, Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale, took office

Both the ANC and the Youth League have strongly defended Malema, In a report on the News24 site, the ANC pointed out Malema had not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business. Spokesperson Brian Sokutu said: 'Comrade Malema is neither a member of Parliament or a Cabinet Minister and he has therefore not breached any law or code of ethics by being involved in business.' ID leader Patricia De Lille said Malema should stop pretending to represent the poor when he was living in opulence earned from the poor and ordinary taxpayers in a society plagued by the worst inequalities in the world. She called on the SARS to 'tell us if Malema has paid his taxes'.

Report continues

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Hat Tip: Dina

Chez Malema

Putting issues of taste to one side, one really has to ask how ANC Youth league leader Julius Malema can afford a home like this.
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Hat Tip: Dina

Sunday 21 February 2010

Alarm over spate of Cop killings

Police officers in Pretoria are dying more quickly by their own hands and those of their colleagues than in the line of duty.

In a space of 24 hours, three police officers were killed and another is recovering in an intensive care unit following an attempted suicide and will be charged with murder as soon as she recovers.

The officer to be charged allegedly shot dead two colleagues, and then turned the gun on herself. Another shot his former wife's lover before shooting himself, while another succumbed to a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head, sustained last week.

An expert police analyst said this recent spate of police killings and suicides might hint at the lack of adequate counselling services for officers who faced tremendous stress and violence daily.

More

Farmers wife murdered in Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape farming community has expressed shock and anger over the murder of Uitenhage businesswoman Rene Slater, whose body was found buried under a pile of branches.

The wife of Angora goat farmer Desmond Slater, Rene, 52, who ran a diet clinic in Kirkwood, was reported missing on Monday after leaving their farm outside Uitenhage. Her body was found on Tuesday near where her vehicle had been found in a ditch on the gravel road to Kleinpoort.

Agri Eastern Cape president Cerneels Pietersen dubbed the murder “nonsensical” yesterday, saying farm murders, like any other, “are completely unacceptable, especially their brutality”.

“It goes directly against the grain of job security and investment confidence in the rural community,” said Pietersen. “Agri Eastern Cape, my family and I, would like to express sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Slater family.”

He hoped the family would find “the strength and courage to come to terms with their sudden loss”.

Source Afrikaner Genocide Archives

Zuma's mailbox flooded with letters about Crime

Solidarity union's anti-crime campaign saw President Jacob Zuma receive a letter in his inbox every six seconds after thousands of members of the public signed in to the website www.dearpresident.co.za where an open letter to the president was published.

It states: "Dear Mr. Zuma... we looked forward to your state-of-the-nation address with great anticipation. We were especially anxious to hear what you have to say about crime....

"Only two percent of your speech or 115 of your 4 411 words were devoted to crime. In other words, in a speech that lasted almost an hour, one minute was spent on crime."

The letter is signed, "Concerned citizens of South Africa".

At one point the website posted a Twitter message saying: "The president is receiving one letter every six seconds!"

Full report

Man held for violating corpses


A 41-year-old mortuary assistant has been arrested for alleged violation of corpses, Eastern Cape police said on Monday.

Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said the man was arrested on Sunday after another worker allegedly caught him with his pants down in the mortuary.

Source

Sunday 14 February 2010

Update- more detail on the latest Pretoria killings

Yet another elderly couple have been brutally murdered in the city, bringing to six the number of pensioners killed in Pretoria over the past month.

The bodies of Theuns Venter - who celebrated his 85th birthday last week - and his wife Suzie, 83, were discovered by their grandson when he returned from his night shift as a security guard on Thursday morning.

Police are also investigating the possibility that the woman might have been raped. 'snip'

Although the couple were very security-aware, the front gate, security gate of the front door, the front door and the back door were open. It did not appear that the doors and gates had been forced open.

Seeing that his grandparents' 1984 model minibus was missing, Engelbrecht ran into the house.

He found his grandfather in the living room. "He was lying on his stomach and his hands and feet were tied with electrical cables believed to have been cut from appliances in the house. We suspect he was hit over the head with a blunt object," Olivier said.

The grandmother was lying in the passage. She was not tied up. It is believed she was strangled with a piece of cloth that was found nearby. 'snip'

Full report

Schoolboy stabbed on roadside

A schoolboy who threw a stone on to the windscreen of a truck was chased down by one of the truck's passengers and stabbed to death in the road.

Keenan Drial, 14, of Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, was stabbed in the heart on Thursday and bundled into the truck, which then drove off.

Two men have been arrested on charges of murder and kidnapping. A third is still being sought by Mitchells Plain police and an arrest is imminent.

Full report

South African Monopoly

Elderly Couple found Dead

An elderly Pretoria couple were found dead in their home on Thursday morning, paramedics said.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said they were called to a house in Mayville to treat a person who had collapsed.

"When we got there the poor paramedics got the shock of their lives," he said.

The man, in his 80s, was found face-down in the lounge with his arms and legs tied up, and was dead.

His wife, also in her 80s, was found dead in the passage.

Report

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Dina

Public 'misled' about gun laws

The Freedom Front Plus on Tuesday accused Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and national police Commissioner Bheki Cele of misleading the public about firearms.

Mthethwa's statements that only law-enforcers should be carrying weapons was an acknowledgement that government wanted to disarm civilians 'snip'
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Mthethwa had acknowledged in an answer to another parliamentary question that he could not say how many crimes had been committed by owners of legal firearms or by persons with stolen or illegal firearms.

"If the Minister does not even know how many criminal acts had been committed with illegal firearms, how can Cele say that the impact the police are making in the number of illegal firearms in circulation can be seen in the increase of crimes committed with knives?

"The Minister and Commissioner contradict themselves and each other and it proves that they are running a campaign against legal firearm owners," Groenewald said.

"Since the inception of the new Firearms Control Act the government has been running a vendetta against legal firearm owners.

"It is now being continued and it is clear from the statements made by Mthethwa in October of last year when he said that the extraordinary high level of crime in South Africa is partly due to the large number of firearms in the possession of civilians. 'snip'

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"Civilians need firearms to defend themselves against criminals because of the high crime rate in South Africa.

"If crime figures were low, civilians would arm themselves less and there would then be fewer firearms in circulation. 'snip'

Full report

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Dina

SA to pay for Mugabe's sins


The South African government has been hauled over the coals by a Pretoria High Court judge for not protecting its citizens from Robert Mugabe's land expropriations.

The government was ordered to pay damages to a South African farmer to whom it failed to provide diplomatic protection after Mugabe's government seized 11 of his farms in Zimbabwe without compensation.

Although the damages have yet to be calculated, it could amount to R100 million.

Report continues
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Dina

Saturday 13 February 2010

‘Land for All’ promises by ruling ANC causes collapse of agriculture

muti harvesting increases

Nearly 1 000 families nationwide reported that the corpses of their dead relatives had been harvested for muti before burial last year.

The cases of missing body parts were reported to the Traditional Healers Organisation (THO), but there is no clear record as to whether police charged or arrested anyone.

"About 901 bodies had some parts missing, especially breasts and genitals," said national co-ordinator of the THO, Phephisile Maseko, on Monday. "The biggest question is, who are these people who purchase the parts? And, if we expose them, what systems are there to protect us?"

She expressed concern that in "most cases" police were involved in protecting those, often wealthy businessmen, who buy human body parts in the belief that it will boost their businesses.

Maseko said the elderly and children were particularly vulnerable to muti killings.

"People believe that if you use the genitals or hands of an old person or a child for muti, your business will make lots of money, but it's not true," she said.

She said traditional healers who used body parts to make muti were not true healers, but "heartless witches".

"How could a healer use body parts or remove somebody's body parts while the person is still alive? That means you are a witch, not a healer," she said.

Full report


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Hat Tip: Dina

From Legalbrief


A selection of recent stories from Legalbrief of South Africa

Magistrate, senior prosecutor on corruption charges

In what is described by Beeld as a 'black day for officers of the law', it reports that a Regional Court Magistrate, senior prosecutor, attorney and several police officers have appeared in court on charges ranging from corruption to rape and murder.

It says Magistrate Ronnie Rambau, prosecutor Estene Willemse and attorney TE Lobisi all appeared in court in Musina where their alleged crimes took place. They were arrested on Friday for allegedly influencing the outcome of several cases - including murder, rape and theft of motor vehicles - so that criminals received either light or suspended sentences. The report says a police informant used marked money to trap the law officers. They were all released on bail of R10 000 each. Magistrates' Commission Secretary Danie Schoeman said an investigation of Rambau's involvement was already under way. He has been suspended until the investigation is completed.

A senior police officer has appeared in court in Sasolburg for allegedly raping a woman in his office. ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini told Beeld the officer called the woman to type a document and then raped her in the police station. Two police officials have also appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court for murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances after the death of an Egyptian hawker at the Bruma market in the city. Another police officer is being investigated by the ICD for allegedly ordering prisoners in Bloemfontein to eat condoms.
Full Beeld report

Another alleged police rape is being investigated Knysna where police officers on duty over the weekend have been ordered to take part in an identity parade after a Plettenberg Bay woman laid a charge of rape against two on-duty policemen. Die Burger reports that the 32-year-old woman was leaving a restaurant after a birthday celebration when two police officials asked her if they could be of assistance. She asked for a lift to her home and got into the police vehicle. The woman alleges that she was then raped by the two men. Southern Cape police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie told the paper no Knysna police officers would be involved in the investigation.
Full report in Die Burger

Source

Crime not linked to poverty

High levels of violent crime were not linked to poverty levels in municipalities across the country, a SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) study has found.

In a statement on Monday, the SAIRR said Eastern Cape municipalities had the highest murder rate, 54 murders per 100 000 people, and a poverty rate of 62%.

Limpopo municipalities, however, recorded the lowest murder rate but also had a poverty rate of 62%.

The findings form part of a local government study which assessed 80 indicators from each of the 52 metropolitan and district municipalities.

The indicators included demographics, education, employment, housing, access to basic services, transport, social security, health and crime.

Poverty rates vary

Western Cape municipalities also recorded a high murder rate with a low poverty rate of 27.5%.

Report continues

Hat Tip: Dina
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Comment

At least half a million whites, out of a population of around 4.3 million now live in dire poverty in South Africa yet hardly feature at all in the crime figures.

The Solidarity Helping Hand organisation provides practical and financial help to Afrikaans people living in Poverty - click here to donate

DA questions inequality report

A government report stating inequality within South Africa's black population group dropped over the past decade is at odds with an international finding it is increasing, says the Democratic Alliance.

In this regard, a paper published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stood in "stark contrast" to the presidency's 2009 Development Indicators report, DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The DA will therefore be writing to the Minister in the Presidency of National Planning, Trevor Manuel, requesting an official explanation for this disparity," he said.

According to the 2009 Development Indicators report, "inequality within the African population has declined since 2000".

Paper suggests otherwise

But a working paper released last month by the international OECD, titled "Trends in South African Income Distribution and Poverty since the Fall of Apartheid", suggests otherwise.

It notes South Africa's "high aggregate level of income inequality" increased between 1993 and 2008, and says "the same is true of inequality within each of South Africa's four major racial groups".

The paper further calls into question race-based redistribution policies.

"From a policy point of view it is important to flag the fact that intra-African inequality and poverty trends increasingly dominate aggregate inequality and poverty in South Africa."

"Race-based redistribution may become less effective over time relative to policies addressing increasing inequality within each racial group and especially within the African group," it states.

Report continues

Monday 8 February 2010

Update: Sheryl Cwele out on R100,000 bail

Sheryl Cwele, the wife of State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, was granted bail of R100,000 by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday.

Full story

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Hat tip: JP

South African farmers blamed for increas in squatter camps

The following commentary on the Fromtheold site followed an incident when the South African minister of housing, blamed the increase in squatter camps from 300 in 1994 to 2600 today, on farmers evicting workers off their farms.

South African farmers under attack by Tokyo Sexwale

Tokyo Sexwale complained on Thursday that "boers chased black people from their farms". He said "millions of black people" to be specific. He went further to say that South Africa is having Haiti daily, every day South Africa goes through what Haiti is going through.

Now lets just look at that for a moment. When South Africa was given away in 1994 it was a working country, there was no lack of anything in fact we were a 1st world country.

When the ANC took control they promised everyone houses, they promised jobs and did the entire Obama thing of making promises but not actually doing them.

Now 16 years later South Africa is in chaos. A working water system is now almost not functioning, Eskom is a disaster and Telkom that once was the best internet in Africa rips the country off like no other telecommunications in the world.

Tokyo Sexwale blamed the boers and farmers while he admits that the ANC is responsible (although he's not ANC, he's blaming the wrong people). He said that in 1994 there was around 300 informal settlements and then he continued to say that now there are almost 2600. That says a lot.

Tokyou Sexwale went further, he said that when the government said they will give security of homes to the farm workers that the farmers and boers chased off millions of people from their farms.

Tokyo Sexwale not only encouraged by this more farm murders and hatred towards white farmers but also furthered the genocide in South Africa.

Source

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Submitted by Dina

And yet more farm killings


One mother's son

An elderly Bethal woman Hannetjie Venter, 79 had to walk 4km to get help after robbers killed her son on Sunday.

Mrs Venter was confronted by intruders and attempted to call to her son who was working elsewhere on the farm but was prevented from doing so when one man put his hand over her mouth.

Fanie Venter, who always carried a firearm, was caught unawares and shot in the head.

When his mother got to him, one of the men said her son was just sleeping. But there was blood everywhere and the heartbroken woman could see that her son was dead.

The robbers then held a gun to her head and forced her to unlock the safe. They stole a shotgun and money together with both of the Venter's cell phones

As Hannetjie can not drive and she and their dog walked for help, however, by then the attackers were long gone

source

Elderly farmer shot dead

Intruders attacked an elderly couple on their farm in Limpopo on Thursday night, killing a 70- year-old man.

Koos van Staden and his 66-year-old wife, Henriette, were sleeping in their farm house on Glenco sugar estate in the Hoedspruit district when they were attacked.

According to a police Spokesman, the couple were in bed at about 21:30 when intruder fired a shot through an open window into the Van Stadens' bedroom. Mr van Staden was shot in the neck and died on the scene..

The victim's wife managed to shoot at the attackers and they fled without taking anything.

The number of suspects involved is not known and neither is the motive for the attack.

Source

Third farmer escapes with his life after three shots failed

A further farmer escaped with his life when an assailant's gun misfired three times. Jan van der Westhuizen, 59, a dairy farmer, said he thanks God that all three attempted shots, fired at him by an intruder failed. Full story

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Thanks to Dina and Johann for reporting these latest killings in what has been a very violent few days

Another Day in Africa


By August Pointneuf

1. The Cape Times ( Cape Town )

"I have promised to keep his identity confidential,' said Jack Maxim, a spokeswoman for the Sandton Sun Hotel, Johannesburg , "but I can confirm that he is no longer in our employment". "We asked him to clean the lifts and he spent four days on the job. When I asked him why, he replied: 'Well, there are forty of them, two on each floor, and sometimes some of them aren't there'. Eventually, we realised that he thought each floor had a different lift, and he'd cleaned the same two, twelve times. "We had to let him go. It seemed best all round. I understand he is now working for GE Lighting."

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2. The Star ( Johannesburg ):

"The situation is absolutely under control," Transport Minister Ephraem Magagula told the Swaziland Parliament in Mbabane . "Our nation's merchant navy is perfectly safe. We just don't know where it is, that's all." Replying to an MP's question, Minister Magagula admitted that the landlocked country had completely lost track of its only ship, the Swazimar: "We believe it is in a sea somewhere. At one time, we sent a team of men to look for it, but there was a problem with drink and they failed to find it, and so, technically, yes, we've lost it a bit. But I categorically reject all suggestions of incompetence on the part of this government. The Swazimar is a big ship painted in the sort of nice bright colours you can see at night. Mark my words, it will turn up. The right honourable gentleman opposite is a very naughty man, and he will laugh on the other side of his face when my ship comes in."

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3. The Standard ( Kenya ):

"What is all the fuss about?" Weseka Sambu asked a hastily convened news conference at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport . "A technical hitch like this could have happened anywhere in the world. You people are not patriots. You just want to cause trouble." Sambu, a spokesman for Kenya Airways, was speaking after the cancellation of a through flight from Kisumu, via Jomo Kenyatta, to Berlin : "The forty-two passengers had boarded the plane ready for take-off, when the pilot noticed one of the tyres was flat. Kenya Airways did not possess a spare tyre, and unfortunately the airport nitrogen canister was empty. A passenger suggested taking the tyre to a petrol station for inflation, but unluckily the jack had gone missing so we couldn't get the wheel off. Our engineers tried heroically to reinflate the tyre with a bicycle pump, but had no luck. "When I announced that the flight had to be abandoned, one of the passengers, Mr Mutu, suddenly struck me about the face with a life-jacket whistle and said we were a national disgrace. I told him he was being ridiculous, and that there was to be another flight in a fortnight. And, in the meantime, he would be able to enjoy the scenery around Kisumu, albeit at his own expense."

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4. From a Zimbabwean newspaper:

While transporting mental patients from Harare to Bulawayo , the bus driver stopped at a roadside shebeen (beerhall) for a few beers. When he got Back to his vehicle, he found it empty, with the 20 patients nowhere to be seen. Realizing the trouble he was in if the truth were uncovered, he halted his bus at the next bus stop and offered lifts to those in the queue. Letting 20 people aboard, he then shut the doors and drove straight to the Bulawayo mental hospital, where he hastily handed over his 'charges', warning the nurses that they were particularly excitable. Staff removed the furious passengers; it was three days later that suspicions were roused by the consistency of stories from the 20. As for the real patients: nothing more has been heard of them and they have apparently blended comfortably back into Zimbabwean society.

Saturday 6 February 2010

A week of murders


Man killed, wife badly injured

Although the first crime occurred last week, it has, as far as I can tell, not yet been reported in the English language press. I am grateful to Dina for the summarised translation.

Mr Johan Venter (59) and his wife, Rentia (60), was attacked on their farm near Middelburg Mpumalanga, last week Friday around 01:30.

Mr Venter was killed by a shot in the head, and his wife injured by gunshots to the stomach & arm. The attackers had forced entry through the bedroom window. their son, Jaco (22), heard his parent screaming followed by gunshots. Nothing whatsoever was taken/stolen.

It is reported that the men suspected of the murder, at around 7:00 on the same day, may have kidnapped & robbed a teacher, mev. Hendrieka van der Merwe (59) who were driving to the school where she teaches. An obstruction was placed in the road to force her to stop

The suspects are however still at large

News source

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Couple found murdered in their home

Mr. and Mrs. Els

In a separate incident, this Thursday the bodies of a man and wife were found in their Swellendam home, Western Cape.

Police were called to the scene after the couple's gardener saw blood on the front door. When police gained entry into the house from the back, they discovered 63-year-old Nick Els dead on the lounge floor and his 58-year-old wife Elsie dead on the bedroom floor.

It appeared the killers used a blunt object to kill the couple.

It was unclear how the killers entered the house or if anything was taken.

News source

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Arrests in retired Cardiologist's murder


Police have made a breakthrough in their investigation into the murder of a retired cardiologist.

Dr Francois Steenkamp’s body was found in his home in a retirement village in Newlands on Wednesday – it was believed he was beaten to death.

Two men were arrested in connection with the murder.

Police are not willing to reveal any further information, saying the investigation was at a sensitive stage and more arrests may follow.

It is understood investigators are looking for the retired cardiologist’s white Toyota Tazz which was stolen by his attackers.

It is believed Steenkamp was severely assaulted at his home on Tuesday night.

Source
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Hat Tip Dina

Murder Suspect claims torture

Franz Richter

Richter suspect: I was tortured

The man accused of murdering Heia Safari Ranch owner Franz Richter has claimed a top cop tortured him and forced him to implicate his co-accused, Celiwe Mbokazi, Richter's widow.

One of the alleged killers of Heia Safari Ranch owner Franz Richter first blamed dagga when he implicated himself in the murder. He claimed that he was highly under the influence of dagga when he linked him and four of his male co-accused in the murder.

On Monday, eight months later, Johnson Tshepo Chirwa, 34, abandoned his earlier version and claimed in the Johannesburg High Court that the investigating officer Inspector Jakobus Abram Joubert dictated his confession to him.

Chirwa made the claims when he was taking the stand to exonerate him on charges of murdering Richter outside his farm on November 28 2007.

Chirwa stand accused along with Gilbert Mosadi, 32, Dumisani Sibusiso Xulu, 39, Ronnie Mazwi Khumalo, 29, Vincent Dlamini, 31, and Richter's common-law wife Celiwe Mbokazi. In his confession, he implicated all of them except Celiwe in the murder. He gave detailed account, acting on Khumalo's advise, on how Richter was to be attacked on the day he was about to pay wages to his employees on the farm.

Surprisingly on Monday, Chirwa made no mention of the effect dagga had on him when he took the stand for the final stages of the trial which began in April last year. He also accused the police of having stolen cash of R7000 and couple more rands when they arrested him for the murder and robbery. Police had to set the bush on fire where Chirwa and Mosadi were hiding minutes after the attack on Richter.

Richter was found in his car with a fatal bullet wound.

Source

Wednesday 3 February 2010

From the Afrikaans press

The Afrikaans media reports various stories which do not yet appear to have featured in the English language press, even in South Africa. Reports include a Father of 2 being shot in his new house shortly after moving in, a 8 year old boy having to witness his cousin being kicked to death on a fishing trip.

Elsewhere it reports an attack on an elderly man and his two sisters.

Three black men, Edwin Molefe (20), Pitso Kapelo (18) en Steven Selebale (25) attacked them, gang raping the two woman (aged 62 and 68) in front of a grand child aged 4 years - and afterwards burning down the house, killing the womens brother inside.

The three were independant before this event, doing a lot of charity work in the community. The 68-year old woman had a stroke during the rape, and is now in a wheel chair and a burden to her children and the community, and the 62 year old sister severely traumatised and unable to do what she did before.

Source

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Dina

The Zuma files



President Jacob Zuma had undermined the struggle against HIV/Aids by having unprotected sex again, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday.

This, after the Sunday Times reported that he fathered a love-child with the daughter of soccer boss Irvin Khoza.

"President Jacob Zuma's behaviour directly contradicts the government's campaign against multiple sexual partners, and the inherent Aids risk in having unprotected sex," said DA leader Helen Zille in a statement.

The President’s staff remained silent about the baby girl, reportedly born to Sonono Khoza, 39, on October 8 last year.

The Sunday Times reported that the child, Thandekile Matina, was given Zuma's surname and was registered as his daughter. He now has 20 children.

Zuma's behaviour was "in stark contrast" to the government's efforts to promote safe sex through condom use, especially in the case of multiple sexual partners, Zille said.

She likened Zuma's behaviour to that of former president Thabo Mbeki, whose denialist stance on HIV/Aids was found by a Harvard University to have possibly contributed to the deaths of more than 300 000 South Africans during his tenure.

"South Africa now has a president who, both through his words and actions, is doing similar damage to the struggle [against HIV/Aids] - a life and death struggle for millions of South Africans," Zille said.

In 2006, Zuma was acquitted of raping the HIV-infected daughter of a close family friend.

Full story

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Dina