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20090708

Children at war in South Africa

 

20090707 Tebogo Serumula, 16 months, executed while nursing, Eersterust

Serumula, Tebogo 16moBabyExecutedAtMomSophyBreastJuly72009Eeersterust July 8 2009 – EERSTERUST, South Africa. 16-month-old Tebogo Serumula was shot execution-style in his mother’s arms by an armed attacker who told the family: “if you don’t give us what we want, we shoot the baby. I haven’t killed anyone in a long time…’ Beeld journalist Fanie van Rooyen writes that little Tebogo was nursing at his mother’s breast when he was murdered.

The family was attacked in their Eersterust living room in the Eenheidsoord community at 3am where the older children had  fallen asleep watching television, she said.

The distraught mother Sophy, left, is telling the Beeld journalists exactly how she held Tebogo when he was killed, execution style. With her are daughters Mapula, 13, Sylvia, 9 and in front Sinah, 5. The children all witnessed the terrifying ordeal. Picture: Beeld photographer Deaan Vivier.

‘“I am broken. I am trembling all the time. They shot dead my baby for nothing,” said Mrs Serumula, 36Serumula Tebogo 16mos executed by robbers Eersterust July 7 2009.

She only realised that Tebogo was shot dead when she felt his blood streaming across her breast, she said. Her husband Lazarus was the first to fall victim to the armed gang as they broke into their home: the father was  tied up and pistol-whipped over the head when one of the attackers couldn’t find a cellphone in the house.

Apparently that’s all they wanted, the family told Beeld. Mom Sophy started nursing the baby to keep him quiet'; and when the shot was fired which killed the baby, the father jumped up and threw himself through a bedroom window, cutting his hands in the process.

He immediately raised the alarm with neighbours – and the gang fled. Police captain Johannes Maheso confirmed that they were investigating the murder attack, that a police helicopter had been summonsed to try and locate the fleeing gang, but that no-one was arrested. He said other homes in the area had also recently been attacked by an aggressive gang. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2536691,00.html

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20090707 Six-year-old boy’s throat cut in Thohoyandou, Limpopo

Jul 7 2009 Click here to find out more!THOHOYANDOU, Limpopo. A six-year-old boy’s throat was cut in a suspected attempt to harvest his head for ‘ritual purposes’ on Tuesday, said police inspector Nkanukeni Raedani. The child is in ‘serious’ condition at the local hospital, he added. “The boy had just come back from the shop to buy bread, when he was followed into the family’s kitchen by a man who immediately grabbed him and started slicing at his throat,’ said Raenani. His five-year-old brother started screaming for help, alerting their 16-year-old sister. The girl immediately attacked the knifeman but he threw her to one side and fled. Raenani said they are searching for the man, who is known in the area. “It appears as if this man did this for ritual purposes but we are investigating,’ said Raedani. The family has not been named. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2536673,00.html

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20090707 Kelly Gossman, 17, forced to undress in public, assaulted by four uniformed people

Gossman Kelly 17 forced to undress four armed cops and beaten Florida South Africa July 7 2009 Jul 7 2009 FLORIDA, South Africa. Beeld journalist DaniĆ«lla du Plooy and photographer Brendan Croft interviewed 17-year-old Kelly Gossman of Fleurhof in Roodepoort, who was assaulted and forced to undress together with three male friends by four people in police uniforms who had stopped the four young people by hemming them in with three vehicles with flashing blue lights. The four young people were driving in Ontdekkers Road in Florida enroute to a hotel liquor outlet on Friday-evening at around 8pm, and Kelly had gone along with her friends to update her cellphone prepaid card.  Two of the young men are 18, and the other is 20.  “We would have come straight back home,’ she said.

When stopped at a red light, they were suddenly blocked in by three black Golf Velociti motor cars with flashing blue lights. Three men and a uniformed woman ordered the young people from their car, told them they were ‘working undercover’ and accused them of ‘wanting to buy drugs’.   “They all spoke English and were very aggressive, constantly cursing and screaming at us. It was clear that they were behaving this way to show us that they were in total control of us, that we were at their mercy. It terrified me. The cops claimed they had 'watched us at the hotel and knew we were going to buy drugs…’ Kelly said. The uniformed woman ordered Kelly to undress completely right there in the street, which she did, but the teen refused to take off her panties. One of her male friends was also taken to a petrol-station and beaten up. Of course no drugs were found on the young people at all. Kelly’s mom Claudia has launched a formal complaint at the Florida police station.

  • None of the four uniformed people had identified themselves with any identity cards or names, as police are required to do in South Africa when accosting suspects, writes Beeld. Police inspector Karen Jacobs commented that it was a ‘very suspicious incident’ which they were investigating. “ Police aren’t allowed to order anyone to undress in public. Police can only take suspects to a police station to undress them,” she said.

Beeld newspaper also reported a very similar incident earlier in the month in Berea, Johannesburg, where a group of uniformed people had accused 30-year-old Angelo Oosthuizen of drugs-possession, arresting him and dumping him in a cell after also ordering him to undress in public.  Oosthuizen had refused to take off his clothes however. No drugs were found on him and after a night for no reason at all in a police cell, he was released the next morning. 

Police counter-corruption hotline 0800-203712

  • The police advice is that anyone encountering such a situation, can contact the police counter-corruption hotline for immediate help at 0800-203712. It’s accessable 24 hours a day.’ More information can be obtained from http://www.eblockwatch.co.za

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20090701 Craig Jackson, 17, ‘used like football’ by five youths at Bronkhorstspruit Dam

Jackson Craig 17 beaten up by 5 youths Bronhorstspruitdam July42009 Jul 7 2009 BRONKHORSTSPRUIT. This is 17-year-old Craig Jackson of the Afrikaans High School Erasmus in this rural town, photographed a week agter he was ‘used like a football’ by a group of five unknown youths during a picnic at the local dam resort. He was beaten and kicked so badly that his skull, eye sockets, nose and sinuses were caved in. His father David, 41, said ‘they used his head as a football’.  Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie interviewed the injured youngster at the Pretoria East hospital, where’s he’s still recovering from his ordeal. The father said Craig, his 14-year-old sister Caroline and about 15 other friends were assaulted by the unknown youths when they were holding a barbeque at the dam’s picnic area. Their party was crashed by five unknown youths who demanded alcohol. The Afrikaans children told them they didn’t have any alcohol, and asked the youths to leave because they were just having a get-together with their own school friends. The youths left in a bakkie but returned two hours later and started assaulting the youngsters. Four of Craig’s friends also were assaulted but managed to flee. But Craig was thrown to the ground and kicked against the head until he passed out. He required reconstructive surgery on his skull. Police arrested 18-yea-old Divian Botha of the Brandwag High School in Benoni and four 17-year-olds from Benoni and Kempton Park. They appeared in the bronkhorstspruit magistrate’s court on Thursday in connection with the case, said police. Botha was released on his own cognisance and the other four in parental care, and ordered to appear to hear formal charges later this month. “All I want to now know from these guys is this: ‘’ what were you thinking off'?’ ‘ said Craig from his hospital bed this week. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2536652,00.html

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Children grieve for mom who died because paramedics were on strike

BaragwanathHospitalStrikingFrontPageTheStar Karyn Maughan of the Star newspaper describes how the grief-stricken children of Duduzile Dubazane, 37, had clutched the coffin of their mom and wouldn’t let go during her funeral on Friday. The children, Petrus, 12 and Bongani, 21, had tried frantically to get paramedics to save their dying mother – but had been told that the doctors and the emergency services were out on strike. Bongani told The Star how he had phoned again and again to get paramedics to come save his dying mother. Groaning softly and with tears pouring down his face, he gripped the wooden edges that framed his mother Duduzile's face and wouldn't let go. He was eventually pried away by members of his family. Bongani's 12-year-old brother Petrus, who kept his hands in his pockets throughout his mother's burial at the Elandsfontein cemetery in Ennerdale, tried to mask his emotions. But he couldn't stop tears from seeping out of the corners of his eyes. Duduzile was denied emergency medical care for nearly 28 hours before her mother Cora Bailey, who is an animal-welfare official managed to get her admitted to the  Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

Security staff at both the Lawley and Eldorado Park fire stations had earlier told the women they could not help "because of the strike. Mrs Bailey, deeply concerned by Duduzile's worsening appearance and inability to communicate, decided to take her to Kliptown Public Clinic – where an unmoved clinic nurse declared her “absolutely fine" and  not in need of medical attention. Bailey had to throw a temper tantrum before the Kliptown staff would place Duduzile on a drip and call a private ambulance company to rush her to Baragwanath hospital, where she died in her own waste. Gauteng Health Department spokesman Mandla Sidu said “Duduzile's death was regrettable", that the provincial government had spent "millions" of the taxpayers’ money to contract "30 to 50" private ambulance companies to fill the gap left by striking state paramedics; that he "really wouldn't know" why the family's calls for help had gone unanswered. At the funeral, Methodist Church Reverend Stanford Coxo presided over the brief ceremony, during which Duduzile's friends praised her warmth, friendliness and kind heart. Duduzile's 87-year-old grandmother Lizzie told The Star that the young woman … ‘is happy where she is. God loves her in that place and she is better there." The Star July 06, 2009

 

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