20090804 Jaco Pretorius, 37, MD Protea Coin Armed Reaction company, shot dead at Sterns jewellery robbery
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545462,00.html
Aug 5 2009 - Virginia Keppler of Beeld newspaper reports that Jaco Pretorius, 37, legendary crime-fighting Managing Director - Armed Response executive of the Protea Coin Armed Reaction security company, was shot dead while trying to arrest an armed robber at theJ Pretorius (Managing Director - Armed Response) Irene Village Shopping Centre in Nellmapius Road, Pretoria. Pretorius’ father Johan also was a well-known Brixton murder and robbery detective. Pretorius was a police detective in Krugersdorp before he joined the special police crime-fighting unit in Pretoria - which specialised in in-transit armed robbery prevention. He quit the police to join Protea Coin ten years ago.
Director Sally de Beer, police spokeswoman, said Pretorius, described by colleagues as 'a legendary crime-fighter', was enroute to a meeting with a colleague in his Toyota Prado when he noticed an armed robbery in progress at 9am while passing the Irene Village Shopping Centre. He rushed to the aid of the security guard which had come across the robbery by three armed men at Sterns jewellery shop. A robber shot Mr Pretorius dead through an open window on the passenger side of his car, with his horrified female colleague still in the passenger seat. Despite his injury, he still tried to drive to a hospital, but died on the R21 highway, where his vehicle came to a standstill. The colleague who was riding with him escaped from the ordeal unscathed. She has received trauma treatment. Mr Pretorius was hit in the chest, said Mrs De Beer.
Managing director Jorg Ferreira of Protea Coin Security said 'Pretorius was a legend in the fight against crime. His murder is a great loss for South Africa.' Assistant-commander Bushie Engelbrecht of the Gauteng police said Pretorius' action 'was very typical of him'. "He always wanted to help everybody – people expected that of him, it was his personality. I am very heart-sore and feel sorry for his children and his wife. Jaco was an excellent investigative officer. I always called him 'my son' because he was a bit naughty. We have travelled a long road together ever since he joined our police unit in 1996. We ‘’d always kept in touch,' said Engelbrecht. Pretorius' dad Johan also was a '' well-known Brixton murder and robbery man', he said.Famous South African police detective Piet Byleveld said he was very shocked. "I saw him grow up in front of me. I am heartbroken', he said.Pretorius is survived by widow Karen and their two children Ricardo, 8 and Marco, 3.
Coin Security Group was launched as a local company in Pretoria in July 1979. The company training centre, Gijima was established in 1980 to ensure professionally trained guards. Gijima was the first training establishment in South Africa to be accredited by the then SA Defence Force for the training of the government’s National Key-Point guards. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545462,00.html
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20090805 Gericke Smit, 28, Afrikaner lawyer, beaten to death, Rampie Smit building, Pietersburg: 3 blacks confess
Aug 5 2009 -- Marietie Louw-Carstens of Beeld newspaper reports from Polokwane/Pietersburg magistrate’s court. Two of 3 arrested men who admitted to killing well-known Pietersburg lawyer Gericke Smit, pictured, by bludgeoning him to death with a shovel, had also threatened to kill a relative of the Afrikaner lawyer before the murder. There had also been threats daubed on a window of the building, owned by his father Rampie. This was testified to by retired policeman Gerhardus van Zyl during the bail-application for the three men. Van Zyl said two of the accused, Terence Maredi and Jan Lamola, had threatened to cut off a finger of one of Smit's relatives according to a statement from one of their employees, a man named Terry. The three co-accused, Maredi (25), Lamola (27) and Marius Mokgokong (23) have confessed to the murder of the lawyer but were applying for bail this week. The retired police detective testified that just after the murder he was hired by Rampie Smit, the father of the murdered lawyer, to help investigate the murder of his son. Van Zyl testified that a very upset Smit sr. had called him at around 2pm on 18 July and told him: 'My child was murdered, he's lying in the back room and there's blood.' Earlier in July, before the murder, the words 'Smit is a f...k' were also daubed on a window of the Rampie Smit building, owned by the father and where his son later was killed. An independent forensic report by Dr Patricia Klepp, a forensic pathologist of Johannesburg,showed that the 28-year-old Afrikaner was bludgeoned 17 times with a shovel over his head and in his face. The public prosecutor is opposing the bail application, saying that the suspects would pose a danger to the family of the murdered lawyer and would attempt to flee to escape trial. Maredi had testified two days earlier in the hearing that he had beaten Smit 'twice with a shovel while he was lying on the floor'. Magistrate Janine Ungerer will decide Thursday whether the three self-confessed murderers will get bail. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545460,00.html
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20090804 Herman Smit, 49, tortured for an hour by attackers, Brakpan while housekeeper looks on...
Aug 4 2009 BRAKPAN magistrate’s court. Gloria Edwards of Beeld newspaper reports that Brakman resident Herman Smit, 49, pictured left by Beeld newspaper, said it's a miracle that he survived being stabbed 43 times in an hour-long torture by four armed attackers a week ago in his home. He yesterday confronted his arrested housekeeper Bettie Sindane, 51, in Brakpan court about the cruel robbery he had to endure. Mrs Sindane was arrested on Friday and remains in police custody. She had worked for him for 18 months. Smit said he was attacked by four armed black men who, he said, were allegedly let into his house in Huilboom Street, Dalpark, Brakpan by Mrs Sindane herself - who then allegedly lured Mr Smit from his locked bedroom after his Doberman dog Shakira was poisoned. Smit, a father of four children, said his wife Della and youngest son Karel 16, were at work and at school respectively during the attack. He told the newspaper that he'd had 'a gut-feeling earlier that something was going to happen because Mrs Sindane had suddenly changed her routine. I wanted to sleep late and had locked my bedroom door. Just after 8am I heard our little dog Lulu, a fox-terrier cross, start barking loudly, but I thought she was just chasing something,' he said. 'Then I noticed the bedroom door latch being pushed down, and Bettie knocking on the door, saying there was something wrong with Kira, the Doberman'. He only found out later that this champion dog had been poisoned, and was deeply moved while telling the newspaper of the discovery. The little foxterrier Lulu meanwhile was wrapped up into bedclothes and pushed into a laundry basket but survived. "When I opened the door, the attackers were on top of me. They tied my hands tightly behind my back to my feet and covered up my mouth and nose with tape. I pushed out my tongue so that I could still breathe air around the sides,' he said. Then his torture started: he was beaten, bashed and repeatedly stabbed in the back while Mrs Sindane watched. "My front teeth, nose and a few ribs were broken.' He was dragged from bedroom to garage three times by his hair. The attackers also tried to burn him with an iron but the electricity tripped out... After an hour of this, he was locked into a closet. The family's personal belongings were loaded in Smit's Audi passenger car. He said after hearing the Audi leave, he 'rolled out of the closet' - 'and there, suddenly was Mrs Sindane, “with her hands tied loosely... She loosened my feet, I ran to the backdoor, found the neighbour's gardener there who'd seen the robbers flee and had come to help,' he said. He alerted the neighbours - the Swanepoel and Labuschagne families - and they alerted the police, who were on the scene within minutes. He required medical treatment, where it was found that he’d had 43 stab-wounds. His Audi was found back half-an-hour later, abandoned in the nearby township of Duduza. Mrs Sindane was arrested on Friday based on information during the police investigation. She was not asked to plead. She remains in custody until her bail application.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545468,00.html
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20090724 Neville Olivier, killed in 'road-rage': accused Nigerian Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye gets bail of R2,000…
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545444,00.htmlhttp://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545444,00.html
Aug 5 2009 Herman Scholtz of Beeld newspaper reports that Nigerian 1988 Olympic athlete Ambrose Monye was granted R2,000 bail in the Pretoria magistrate's court.
Monye is being held responsible for the 'road-rage murder' of Pretoria Afrikaner Neville Olivier on July 24 2009. Monye, who is a naturalised South African citizen, still had to hand in his passport and report to the local police station every week. The murdered man's brother Steven Olivier told Beeld that the family 'isn't happy with the claims made surrounding this death, and had appointed a private detective, Mike Bolhuis, to carry out their own investigation. We want to make certain that all the available evidence and testimony will be brought before the court when the trial starts,' he said. Monye's attorney Peter Jay told the court that he had represented Nigeria in 1988 at the Olympic Games in S.Korea and won silver medals in the athletics events during the Africa champsionships. His advicate André Swanepoel submitted to the court that Monye 'had to defend himself on 24 july when confronted by four men in a street across a shopping centre.'
During this claimed self-defence action, Mr Olivier had died from the injuries he'd sustained at that time. Sipho Letsoalo, public prosecutor, submitted his opposition to the bail application, noting that while Monye did not have any criminal convictions, he had had been the defendant in two criminal cases regarding criminal assault and drugs-possession - but that these cases 'had been withdrawn'.http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2545444,00.html
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20090804 Janice Breredon, 74, attacked, tied up for 3 days in Port Elizabeth
2009-08-05 Johannesburg - 74-year-old Mrs Janice Breredon of Port Elizabeth was tied up and locked up in her house for three days without food or water by armed attackers, said East Cape police inspector Alwin Labans. Mrs Breredon, who lived alone with her two cats, was ambushed by three black men on Sunday when she opened the door to let her cats out, Inspector Alwin Labans said. Neighbours heard her screams three days later - on Wednesday. "The attackers tied her feet and hands up with cables and put sellotape over her mouth. They ransacked the house and left."
Police said on arrival she was still tied up and on the top floor of her double-storey house. Her feet and hands were swollen. She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.No arrests had been made.
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