Pages

20100208

Rural Death Squad Attacks - Updates Jan - Feb 2010

Executed Bethal Farmer Fanie Venter ’s Mom Hannetjie Venter,79 - walked 4km to get help…

BETHAL – February 7 2010 - An elderly Afrikaner Bethal farm woman had to walk 4km to get help after three farm attackers had killed her son execution-style on  on Sunday-morning – a popular time for farm-attackers --  and stole her cellphone so she couldn’t call for help. Hannetjie Venter, 79, didn't actually see them kill her son Fanie, but did hearthe single shot the robbers had fired into his head – execution style. A friend of the family, Sakkie Pretorius, says her ordeal started at about 08:30.  He says Hannetjie saw the black gunmen -  apparently three of them - and tried to warn Fanie who was busy elsewhere on the farmyard. "He probably didn't hear her.One of the men put his hand over her mouth."Fanie, who always carried a firearm, was caught unawares and was shot in the head."When she got to him, one of the men said her son was ‘just sleeping’. But there was blood everywhere and she could see that he was dead," Pretorius said.The robbers held a gun to her head and forced her to unlock the safe.  "She asked: 'Why don't you shoot me as well?"  The farm attackers could have looted all the contents of the homestead at their leasure – but they only stole a shotgun, cellphones money and Hannetjie's handbag. Francois van Dijk, a neighbour, says because the robbers stole the Venters' cellphones and Hannetjie can't drive, she and their dog walked about 4km to Van Dijk's house to get help. "She got here at about 10:00. She walked all the way.  It was very traumatic for her." Van Dijk immediately alerted the police and neighbours, but the men - who'd arrived in a car - were long gone. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/60b201281fb34a4f9adce8ae2c9fdea5/07-02-2010-11-18/Farmer_dies_from_single_shot_to_the_head

-------------------------------------------------

Executed Meyerton 2010-02-05 smallholder Collin McLaud 63 murdered in ‘house robbery’

    February 8 2010 - André Damons reports in Beeld that two woman neighbours found smallholder Collin McLaud 63 shot dead on his Meyerton smallholding – shot twice while the unarmed white smallholder making tea in the kitchen. Beeld wrote the story after the SAPS captain Shado Mashobane had confirmed the murder – that’s why it took three days to report.  “Beamptes op die toneel het ’n windbuks en flitslig naby die man se lyk gevind,” het Mashobane gesê. Stolen were two hunting rifles from the safe. And after he’d cooperated by opening the safe for them – they clearly had just gunned him down. The police officer also refused to provide Beeld with a contact number for the murdered man’s wife so that they could speak to her about her ordeal.   http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/7ca2947023d74fff976a9cd3e68c2adf/08-02-2010-12-39/Man_(63)_op_kleinhoewe_vermoor

    -----------------------------------------------------

    Panga-attack Theresa Eksteen, panga-attack victim Jan 26 2010, Stilfontein – still in serious condition

    Stilfontein farm worker Ms Sophie Jonas was still cleaning the blood-stains from the homestead’s carpet when Beeld journalist Nicolize van der Walt arrived on January 26 2010 to report about the frenzied panga-attack which has left Afrikaans farm resident Theresa Eksteen, 51, in serious condition at a local hospital.

    Eksteen Theresa Jan 25 2010 Stilfontein panga attack victim serious in hospital pic Elria van Schalkwyk Facebook According to her family, Mrs Eksteen, left, underwent surgery to repair her crushed hands – one pinkie was nearly severed --  and she remains in deep shock and in pain. “

    The picture left of the injured Mrs Eksteen was taken by neighbours while she was being stabilised by emergency personnel.

    Mrs Hodges lives just a few metres away from her daughter’s cottage along the Vaal riverfront.  “She came knocking at our door, and blood was streaming from her. She couldn’t speak and could barely stand.’ Her husband Norman – who works in Zimbabwe, installing cellphone towers –  rushed back upon hearing the dreadful news.

    Right after the attack, local farmers, neighbours and workers  rushed in to help find the attacker and hunted the man down after a 4-hour search. They handed him over to the police. The panga found in his possession was accepted to be the murder-weapon, said police afterwards.The homestead was coated in blood – the bed, bedding, curtains, mats and most of the kitchen. “It happened while she ws struggling to walk to the front door to seek help. It’s cruel, but the Lord is good to us and we are getting our strength from Above, she will be allright,’ said her mother.  http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/81c07dd929c6474298c7c5b3321455c5/26-01-2010-01-50/%E2%80%98Dit_was_net_bloed%E2%80%99_in_Vaal-aanval_

    ---------------

    VanStaden Koos 69 murdered next to wife Henriette Hoedspruit LI Feb42010 Nothing Robbed Watching TV

    Friday, 5 February 2010

    Executed watching TV 2010-02-06 Koos van Staden, 77, Glenco sugar estate Hoedspruit, killed by attacker, wife shoots back

    Hoedspruit, LIMPOPO. - Unknown criminals attacked an elderly Afrikaner couple on their farm in Limpopo on Thursday night, killing 70- year-old  Koos van Staden. He and 66-year-old wife Henriette (both pictured left) were sleeping in their homestead on the Glenco sugar estate in the Hoedspruit district when they were shot at from the outside through the bedroom window while watching TV, writes Thobile Mlangeni. He quoted SAPS superintendent Ronel Otto as saying that the elderly couple were in bed at about 21:30 when “ intruders or an intruder “ fired a shot through a window into the Van Stadens' bedroom. "Van Staden was shot in the neck and died on the scene," said Otto.

    The victim's wife managed to shoot back at the attacker (s) and ‘they fled without taking anything. The number of suspects involved is not known and neither is the motive for the attack," said Otto. No arrests have yet been made. Trackers and members from the police's dog unit are helping to search for the attackers. Otto could not confirm whether the couple was the owners of the farm or just living there. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/6381b4a8663342f3a807f246c02298bc/05-02-2010-01-12/Elderly_farmer_shot_dead

    -----------------------------

    Munk Roy Hoedspruit farmer murder inaccurate finding of accidental death by buffalo attack

    Farm murder hidden behind ‘buffalo attack”

    Another similarly mysterious murder was also committed in Hoedspruit before. On July 1 2008, 65-year-old wildlife farmer and East Rand businessman Roy Munks, news clipping from Rapport newspaper left, was found dead in a kraal on his Hoedspruit farm - and while police initially reported this as an accidential death due to a ‘buffalo attack’, forensic examinations revealed that he had been stabbed to death.

    A second court-hearing subsequently ruled that the initial ruling by the local inquest court that Munks had been killed by a buffalo on his Hoedspruit farm was wrong. A few weeks after this ruling, two armed attackers were arrested while breaking into a nearby house – and ‘spoke out of turn during questioning by police’ admitting to Munks’ violent death.  http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2396862,00.html

    ------------------------------------------------------------------

    Saturday, 6 February 2010 - ‘Stop Farm Murders’ petition to Zuma

    StopFarmMurders Protestor Pretoria Feb 7 2010StopFarmMurdersProtestDuncanPrinslooHermanDeJagerPlaasMoordePretoria – Feb 6 2010 -- A group of Afrikaner farmers in Pretoria on Saturday demanded that government help "stop farm murders" and pleaded their case in an open letter to President Jacob Zuma. "Surely, if politicians and senior officials can publicly direct police officials to use firearms to prevent crime or becoming the victims...the very same principle should apply to law-abiding citizens who do not enjoy the luxury of police protection," said Transvaal Landbou Unie SA (TLU SA) chief executive Bennie Van Zyl. He accused the police of being corrupt and said government failed in its responsibility to protect its citizens.

    The agricultural union called for a formal summit with the ANC-government to renew the safety initiatives that former president Nelson Mandela had implemented during his term. Van Zyl and several others spoke at a ceremony held in memory of farmers who were murdered. In the open letter to Zuma, Van Zyl spoke about the threat against farmers, their families and their employees.

    "The producers of food and fibre are threatened by vicious criminals responsible for committing the most hideous crimes against mankind displaying no respect for age or gender," he said.

    Johan van Biljon, chair of the organisation's youth divison said since 2006 there had been a systematic increase in farm murders. While wiping away tears, the group laid calla lilies at empty coffins and on a white cross in commemoration. "They say we [are] ready for the [Fifa] World Cup, but in the rural areas it's a different story," said Van Biljon, expressing concern about rural safety.

    "The unabated continuance of the most brutal violence against the producers of food and fibre, their families and their employees is not only targeting a specific sector of the economy in a manner to which none other can compare," he said. "But it seriously places South Africa's already-eroded strategic asset of food security at risk." The youth division were expected to hand over the statement to police representatives as they did not attend the ceremony to receive it.

    Roche Wilhelm arrested 24Jan2010 for arresting stock thief accused of attempted murder

    ---------------------------------------

    Farmer Wilhelm Rocher arrested for making citizen’s arrest of armed stock thief:

    Picture left:  Farmer Wilhelm Rochér, the chairman of the TLU’s western region was forced to spend a weekend in a police jail after he was arrested for making a citizen’s arrest of an armed stock thief. The TLU points out that this farmer now has to stand trial for ‘attempted murder’ for carrying out the duties of the SAPS –  50,000 of the 117,000-strong police force were forced to attend National Police Day celebrations in Bloemfontein. The TLU points out that if the police had been available, Mr Rocher would not have had to arrest a stock thief who was threatening his livelihood.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    Retired Afrikaans couple Nick and Elsie Els murdered in Swellendam near George – they’d moved from Phalaborwa to be ‘safe’…

    Els Nick and wife Elsie murdered in Swellendam Feb42010 2010-02-05  GEORGE, Garden Route - Tisha Steyn reports in Die Burger newspaper that Nick and Elsie Els – a retired couple who had moved from Phalaborwa to the rural village of Swellendam on the Garden Route to be ‘safe in a peaceful village’, were both found murdered yesterday-morning. Their bloodied, lifeless bodies were discovered by their gardener at their home on the corner of Kerk- and Bloekom avenues, reports Ms Steyn.

    Swellendam is world-famous for the nearby Bontebok National Park, where this dignified endangered African buck can be seen in all its glory. The SAPS statistics show that the population of about 25,000 residents last year were targetted by 159 armed attacks against families inside their homes last year;  19 murders plus homicides together and 48 registered rapes (‘sexual crimes’). There also were 219 grievous assaults and there’s also an amazingly high level of drug-related crimes registered for such a small village. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swellendam_Local_Municipality

    Sixty-three-year-old Els and 58-year old wife Elsie were murdered with a ‘blunt object similar to a road-hacking tool,’ said police. They found ‘blood on the front-door, and there were signs of a struggle in the living room,’ they said. Mr Els lifeless body was found in the living room, Mrs Els was found dead in their bedroom. Neighbours and long-time friends were deeply shocked. Mrs Mariaan van Wyk a friend of the couple for 45 years who knew them ever since Phalaborwa, said the couple had moved to Swellendam because they wanted to live in a quiet, safe village.’  Five years ago, the Van Wyks and the Steyns had pooled their resources and purchased Powell House business premises in Voortrekker street together and the building houses Mrs Van Wyk’s hair-salon and Mrs Els’ interior decorators’ shop, ‘Something Else.’ The entire building now is owned by Els because Van Wyk had sold his shares to the couple. “Nick was retired but helped Elsie with hanging blinds etc. They built their dream-house on top of the koppie overlooking the town,’ Mrs van Wyk said. The Els couple leaves two sons, Jaco of Pretoria and Francois of Nelspruit, who are enroute to Swellendam to arrange the funerals. Daughter in law Coret Els said they still visited with the family in Swellendam and Struisbaai over the December holidays. Good friends from Phalaborwa, such as the businessman Manie Kriel,  said they were devastated by the double murder. There seems no motive – police were unable to establish whether anything was stolen --  and no-one was arrested. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/15cb5f42ed784e58a8167580deb03f9e/05-02-2010-06-53/Egpaar_in_stil_dorp_vermoor

    ---------------------------------------------------------

    Farmer wins lawsuit against ANC-regime - Crawford von Abo, Free State farmer, wins ground-breaking lawsuit on behalf of all South Africans -- making ANC-regime responsible for the loss of his Zimbabwean farms

    Von Abo Crawford, wins case making SA government responsible for loss of his Zim farms... JOHANNESBURG. – Well-known Free State farmer Crawford von Abo won a groundbreaking law suit in the Pretoria High Court – which sets the precedent for the private land-ownership rights for all South Africans who invested in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector, writes senior Beeld editor Philip de Bruin, who is a former magistrate. “In Von Abo’s case he was a victim of Mugabe’s ‘land-reform policy’ which is widely being described as draconian,’ writes De Bruin.

    Von Abo owned several well-utilised farms in Zimbabwe which were all confiscated. The Pretoria High Court ordered the SA government to compensate him for the seizure of his 14 Zimbabwean farms, unless it acts to protect his rights. The court ruled that he not only has a right to diplomatic protection against the Zimbabwe government’s violation of his rights, but that the South African government is obliged to provide this protection.

    Yesterday Judge Bill Prinsloo ruled that the South African government and the foreign affairs Minister must bear mutual responsibility for the financial losses suffered by Von Abo due to the events in Zimbabwe. The farmer’s attorney Ernst Penzhorn of Pretoria said after the ruling that as far as he knew, this was a ‘groundbreaking ruling in South Africa because such cases have not yet been dealt with in any South African courts’.  The next step is for Von Abo and his legal team to work out the costs of his losses and hand over the bill to the ANC-government and its foreign affairs minister. They might have to go to court again to force payment. “It will probably take a few months longer before matters are completed,’ said Penzhorn to Beeld. Von Abo has waged a long drawn out battle in the South African law courts – and he even sued in the Constitutional Court to demand his rights. Other farmers who lost their properties may also now follow suit and sue the ANC-regime. Von Abo’s bill he expects to present to the South African government may amount to as much as R500-million. After the positive ruling in the Constitutional Court, the SA Centre for Constitutional Rights supported the judgment, noting that this is good news for all property owners who “feel threatened by moves to dilute their rights in property”.  

    The Constitutional court in its 2008 ruling had also been highly critical of ‘the failure of government to afford diplomatic protection against the violation of the property rights” of Von Abo whose farms in Zimbabwe were expropriated without compensation by the regime there. The Constitutional Court also complained that officials "have done absolutely nothing to assist the applicant [Von Abo] despite diligent and continued requests for diplomatic protection...No explanation whatsoever has been forthcoming for this tardy and lacklustre behaviour." http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/99ccec7f5dda4b6a9e5730b81038f69c/06-02-2010-05-11/Bekende_VS-boer_wen_Zim-saak

    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    Pepper spray, whistles and security guards for tourists visiting rural Fernkloof nature reserve in Hermanus.

    hermanus_whalewatchingFernkloof reserve Hermanus South Africa Warning Signs to Visitors about Security problems Dec12009

    Hermanus on the Garden Route hit the headlines recently with some very violent attacks on foreign tourists, all hiking in the remote state-owned Fernkloof nature reserve. Things got so bad there that the authorities at the nature reserve put up crime-warning signs, started assigning security guards to hiking groups – and issuing them with pepper spray and whistles.

    The last reported attack was on December 30 last year, when a fifth group of tourists hiking at Fernkloof reserve in Hermanus was attacked within just a few months. There probably have been more since – but are not being reported by the SAPS.  Three international volunteers lodging at nearby Camphill School were held up at knifepoint on Monday morning by two men who stole their camera and a cellphone, police spokeswoman Pindelwa Mavakala said. And just as had happened in previous attacks, the attackers stoned the hikers, telling them to look away.  The hikers - Brazilian Luca Reigosa, Swiss Cornelia Schneider and German Anna Fliske, aged between 19 and 26, according to Mavakala - were not injured. This happened only a week after a Canadian couple of South African descent were stabbed, stoned and left bound by two men at the intersection of a jeep track and a hiking trail. A week before that, an Italian couple were attacked: noted is the extreme violence and cruelty with which these attacks are carried out: for instance, a party of elderly South African hikers was cruelly beaten with their own walking sticks. Municipal manager Werner Zybrandts said the two women were body-searched by the attackers. Four of the five attacks occurred at this site and police are investigating “whether the attacks are linked”. After Monday's attack, which happened shortly after 11am, the three hikers walked down to the information centre at the Fernkloof Nature Reserve entrance.  Law enforcement officers subsequently arrested a man they found in the reserve, Zybrandts said. Later, in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley on the other side of the mountain, Mavakala said a security guard had become suspicious and followed a man who was slowly driving a vehicle close to Camphill Farm while talking on a cellphone.  "Two guys climbed into the car and he dropped them off later, close to Hermanus," she said.

    Police officers, who had arrived on the scene, arrested all three men and found the hikers' cellphone and camera in bushes close by. Zybrandts said one of the four men - who were still in police custody late Tuesday - had been positively linked to Monday's mugging.  "We're still busy with investigations to see if we can recover any of the items that were stolen in the other attacks," said Mavakala. As a result of the previous four attacks, Zybrandts said, warning signs had been erected at six of the reserve's informal entrances, warning hikers of the attacks and urging them to use the main entrance where they could sign in to a control book.  The three hikers mugged on Monday had not, however, passed one of these signs. "They came in from a totally different area on the other side of the mountain. There are no signs there." In the first attack on November 12, an Italian couple was held up while sitting on a bench. One week later a German couple was held up at knifepoint nearby, and a week after that eight elderly South African hikers from Strand were beaten with their own walking sticks, said reserve manager Grant Forbes. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20091230043520332C161573

    -----------------------------------------------
    Popular rural Garden Route nature reserve visitors attacked by vicious gangs
    Janet and Martin Stern, SA expats from Toronto, tied up, thrown with rocks, beaten and left behind, bleeding and injured

    Dec 25 2009. The Sterns had visited Hermanus annually for the past 10 years, but this  Christmas Day they found themselves pleading for their lives after being stabbed, stoned, bound and robbed. This was the fourth attack in two months at the Fernkloof reserve. The news of the latest attack hit the headlines in Canada. http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/player.html?clipid=1367435107

    Stern Martin and Janet recovering attack HermanusDec222009PicMichaelWalkerCapeTimes The Canadian news media was told how they were stabbed, stoned, bound and robbed while hiking. Martin, 59, and Janet, 57, Stern, left, were left bruised and lacerated after the "completely senseless" attack.

    A concerned hiker, Delia Scott, has offered a R1,000 reward for information about the attacks: "It is very close to our hearts because my husband and I often hike that route," she said.

    Picture left:: Cape Times, Michael Walker, also read Canadian news article: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/12/23/hikers-stabbed.html

    Municipal manager Werner Zybrandts said Hermanus was now stepping up its security in the area, erecting warning signs and offering security guards, pepper spray and whistles for hiking groups.

    Martin said having hiked for more than half an hour from the entrance to the reserve at the bottom of the kloof, they were walking along a jeep track on top of the mountain when they passed two men walking in the opposite direction. "I said good morning, and they nodded," he said, speaking from his hospital bed at Hermanus Medi-Clinic. A few seconds later they heard running footsteps behind them and presumed joggers were approaching. "The next thing we knew we were being stabbed in the back. I was stabbed next to my kidney, and they stabbed Janet in the arm," said Martin. "They pushed us to the ground and picked up rocks." One attacker smashed Martin across the face with a rock and ripped his bag from his back using his knife. "They had large hunting knives that looked about 12 inches (30cm) long, then they really started roughing us up. " Janet started saying to them: 'Would you treat your mother like this?'" Every time she said it they beat her again. "I was trying to reason with them, but they were totally out of control," she said. "I think they were drugged up," said Martin. "They were completely senseless - there was no rationale.  "If they had just come to us with knives I would have given them the money equally." The attackers took a camera, Janet's watch and wedding ring and cellphone before forcing them down the slope away from the road, throwing rocks at them as they walked. About 30m down the slope the attackers used the couples' shoelaces to bind their feet and hands. "We were feeling very faint and we were beginning to pass out and they told us to lie down. One of them kept saying: 'Don't kill them. Don't kill them.' Our worst thoughts were that they would slit our throats, or rape. "Janet said to me in Hebrew: 'We're going to pray to God,' and then they left us." The couple were left alone, dehydrated, drenched in blood and weak… When Janet tried to raise her head, they threw rocks at her, and then the couple were left alone, dehydrated, drenched in blood and weak. Staggering back to the road, they collapsed repeatedly."There were flies all around us. The blood was caked everywhere." Reaching a bench at a viewing site, Martin said: "We can't stay here. We're losing too much blood." Staggering again down the jeep track, they saw a group of hikers approaching - the Jouberts. They gave them water, mopped their brows, applied a tourniquet to Martin's worst wound and called rescuers, who airlifted the couple to hospital. "They saved us," said Janet of the Jouberts.Martin Stern said they agreed to be interviewed "because I don't want anyone else to be killed." Originally from South Africa, the Sterns moved to Canada more than 20 years ago. Born in Cape Town, Martin Stern is a vice-president and financial adviser at CIBC Wood Gundy. The couple had been returning to the Cape Town area annually since 1994.  One of the couple's three daughters told the Globe and Mail that her parents had no plans to change their travel arrangements in South Africa despite the attack. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/12/24/south-africa-stern-martin-janet-attack.html

    Italian couple two months ago:

    Fernkloof WGrant Forbes, reserve manager at Fernkloof, said that in the first attack two months ago, an Italian couple were approached from behind and held up at knifepoint: "They didn't see the guys' faces." The other two attacks were similar. In the second, a woman was slapped in the face, and in the most recent attack, three weeks ago, eight hikers were mugged by two men who beat them with their own walking sticks. In each incident the attackers were two men, although police Inspector David Payne still insists – despite the identical modus operandi  that there ‘was no evidence linking the attacks’. They occurred on the same trail, in the same area. Zybrandts said two men were apprehended by baboon monitors after the third attack, but they were released due to a lack of evidence.  "Their excuse was that they were looking for jobs," he said.http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20091224053146203C608060&newslett=1&em=205034a6a20091224ah

    Unknown man also found dead on rock-ledge: Police have also not yet identified the partially decomposed body found on Sunday away from a mountain about a kilometre above Voelklip beach. The circumstances surrounding his death remain murky.  Contact information Overstrand municipality security officer: Director: Protection Services Contact Person: Neville Michaels Contact Number: 028 313 8914

    -----------------------------------------

    Thursday, 4 February 2010

    Farm attack survivor Flip Nel is back in his Hartbeespoort shop

    -- in a wheelchair

    Nel Flip florist farm attack survivor July 30 2009 Hartbeespoort smallholding his partner Christo Smit was murdered HARTBEESPOORT. Wheelchair-bound farm attack survivor Flip Nel, who owns the Flower Art shop in Hartbeespoort, won’t let the cruel, gruesome attack on July 30 last year against him and his murdered life partner of 20 years, Christo Smit, destroy his fighting spirit, writes Cynthia Dreyer of Madibeng Pulse, the online newspaper for the Magalies/Brits region.

    Smit was shot in the spine – the bullet is still lodged in it -- and he’s grieving for his murdered partner, who was fatally injured at their smallholding in Elandsfontein in July last year. Christo died in hospital the next day, and Flip has been in rehabilitation between July and November last year at the Academic hospital ‘s Pretoria Rehabilitation Centre. Cynthia Dreyer of Madibeng Pulse, who interviewed the popular florist,  writes that Flip Nel’s strong spirit prevails despite all the pain and trauma he has endured – also thanks to all his many friends and well-wishers. Picture left: Flip Nel, now wheelchair-bound, is picking up the threads of his life again and returned to work at Flower Art in Hartbeespoort.He is deeply grateful for all the many messages of support he received from so many residents, said the popular florist, who has his shop in the Sediba Plaza of Hartbeespoort. “There are many angels in Hartbeespoort, he said.  This was a summary - Read the entire story in Afrikaans: http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=29982&HeadingText=Mense+040210+flip+nel

    -----------------------------------------

    Executed at Cradle of Humankind rural tourist hotel German hotelier Franz Richter murder suspect:  ‘I was tortured’

    Richter_Franz_GermanOwnerHeiaKalahariSafariRanchMuldersdrftMurderedDec2008  JOHANNESBURG HIGH COURT -- The man co-accused of murdering Franz Richter, a major German investor owning the Heia Safari Ranch at the Cradle of Humankind tourist resort near Muldersdrift/Magalies,  claimed in court yesterday that a top cop had ‘tortured him and forced him to implicate his co-accused, Ms Celiwe Mbokazi,’ - Richter's widow. The claim was made by co-accused Dumisani Sibusiso Xulu, 39, who told the Johannesburg High Court yesterday that he had ‘ lied to save his life.’ Ms Mbokazi was only linked to the gruesome murder on December 9 2008, when Xulu made a confession to Director Piet Byleveld alleging that a woman, "Thobila", had hired him to kill Richter. Xulu claimed Byleveld and his officers ‘beat and tortured him’ when he denied the woman was involved. He claimed that Byleveld ‘shoved a loaded gun into his mouth and that he was suffocated several times’. He then implicated the woman to save his life, he said. Byleveld has denied the accusations in his testimony during the ongoing trial.http://www.capeargus.co.za/?fSectionId=3571&fArticleId=vn20100204042107262C425929 picture on: http://cid-b6b44a5376348175.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Kill%20the%20Boer%20kill%20the%20farmer%202009%20victims%20P%20-%20R/Richter%5E_Franz%5E_GermanOwnerHeiaKalahariSafariRanchMuldersdrftMurderedDec2008.jpg?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=945941528

    -------------------------------------------------

    2010-02-01 Mannetjie Pieterse, 69, Schweizer-Reneke, blind son Johan and guests survive farm attack

    2010-02-04  Linda de Beer  - 69-year-old Schweizer-Reneke farmer Mannetjie Pieterse, his blind son Johan, 27, and their guests were attacked on Monday-night just after they had been outside, having a braai on their farm Houtvolop. Two attackers had first confronted Johan, in the bathroom – and the blind man was pistol-whipped three times over the head before the attackers stormed down the hall to confront the rest of the family. Mr Pieterse senior said they must have been watching the family while they were having their barbeque with their guests in the (fenced in) backyard. “The backdoor was open at one stage and they must have entered there,’ he said. A ‘rifle was  fired’. And what happened after that is unclear from this report -- however two suspects were arrested the following night, said inspector Wimarie van der Merwe. The two suspects will appear in the local magistrate’s court on Thursday.  http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/9f8b451da08e47b7911c2f91e26c2280/04-02-2010-02-46/Boer_dink_eers_plaasaanval_is_%E2%80%99n_flou_grappie

    ------------------------------------------------------------

    Wednesday, 3 February 2010

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

    Midlands KwaZulu Facing Zimbabwe-style land invasions reports Carte Blanche TVCarte Blanche TV recently reported about the tremendous stress commercial farmers are being placed under in KwaZulu. They interviewed attacked farmer Colin de Gaspary, a Midwest farmer whose life has been turned into a nightmare by illegal squatters on his farm. TV’s investigative journalist Carol Albertyn Christie and its presenter Bongani Bingwa also interviewed the Landless Peoples’ Organisation and various Land Affairs officials. Their conclusion: Zimbabe-style farm invasions are inevitable…

    Colin de Gaspary (interviewed Midwest farmer on Carte-Blanche TV): 'I want my future to be here - this is my dream. I have always dreamt of living in this country and farming and I'm trying to live my dream. That is what I am trying to do.' For Colin de Gaspary, who has been living in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands for the past 11 years, that dream remains elusive. For now it's more like a nightmare. His life, he says, is being threatened by people who have unlawfully settled on his farm. He was brutally attacked one evening when he was burning a firebreak on his farm. Colin: 'I was surrounded by seven of them, and tried to talk my way out of it. And the next minute the blows just came from all directions. They hit me with sticks and one of them had a metal pole. And they split my skull, broke my nose, two blue eyes, broke my finger, chipped my elbow.' Read the entire transcript (M-net very stupidly does not put extracted news clips of their reports on You Tube – a very poor publicity decision…) http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3766&ShowId=3

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    Wednesday, 3 February 2010

    ANC ‘land reform’ is a shambles – government auditor:

    The issue over the ‘redistribution’ of South Africa’s scarce commercial farm land –  only 6 percent of the entire land-surface can be used for food-cropping  --  to ‘previously disadvantaged’ people without any farming knowledge, continues to plague the South African agricultural sector, a benchmark survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) has found.

    Business Report writes that farmers in the PwC survey said the great many failed ‘land-redistribution’ projects were the key reasons for the ANC-regime’s unsuccessful land reform policy. According to Johan Rossouw, an economist at Vunani Securities, many farmers had made land available to the mostly inexperienced ‘emerging farmers’ in an effort to hasten land reform – but that the [ ‘emergent farmers’]  lack of farming-skills continue to puncture these efforts. "Everyone lost in this instance," said Rossouw. "The farmer is not going to spend money on the ‘reformed’ land and the emerging farmer still needs the skills." The PwC survey found that ‘failed projects led to a great percentage of formerly productive land now contributing little or nothing to agricultural production.’ According to Kobie Bekker, PwC's national leader for agribusiness, the fact that the agricultural sector earned 44% more for the 18 months to September last year – was mainly due to the fact that people had to eat. “Agriculture meets a basic human need, which meant the impact of the international financial crisis was not as negative as on other businesses, such as luxury goods and the financial services sector.” "However, the variability in the prices of grain and other agricultural products, combined with the abnormal increases in input costs (especially the soaring electricity rates) has resulted in many producers finding themselves in a difficult situation," Bekker said. Bekker said that the 16 survey participants, who are geographically spread out across the country, had indicated their concern about the producer's income not keeping up with the rising production costs.According to the survey, the agricultural sector faces several risks, including a very unsafe working environment because of the large number of armed attackers targetting farmers – together with a lack of financial support (for the new farmers).

    -------------------------------------------------------------

    Monday, 1 February 2010

    Afrikaner Boers left to the killers – Dutch paper

    Feb 1 2010 - The Dutch liberal daily Trouw journalist Gineke Mons reports that ‘hundreds of young black males torture to death about 100 white farmers a year in South Africa.’  Their article, headlined “Afrikaner Boers left in the lurch’. describes that two farmers a week are murdered on average and that the Agri-SA farmers’ lobby has rung the alarm-bell, warning that the rural security plan – ( launched in 1999) -- doesn’t work.’

    The Gineke Mons article in Trouw describes the trial in Senekal of Petrus Ndaba, 29 and comrade Pule Jacob Mpanyane, 22, suspected of last year’s murders of the elderly farm couple Koos and Retha van Zyl – shot dead with their own shotgun after he had tortured the couple on a meat-hook on January 5 2009. http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article2976849.ece/Afrikaner_boeren_in_de_steek_gelaten_.html

    Ndaba was arrested while fleeing in their daughter Marietjie’s red Chevrolet Avea sedan with a stolen sheep. Sergeant Majang Mosupa of the Free State police said Mrs Van Zyl had apparently gone outside to turn on the electricity generator when she was attacked. It is suspected that the attacker, a former labourer who was fired for stealing from the couple only a day earlier, had apparently turned off the generator off to her outside. Mr Van Zyl, who was frail and very ill, was then attacked in the kitchen with a meathook which slashed open his neck and head, said Mosupa, while Mrs Van Zyl, who had also been attacked several times with the meathook, then was tied up and dragged through the homestead. The couple then both were shot in their chests with a shotgun. Trouw writes: “White farm families and smallholders on the South African ‘platteland’ have been terrorised for years by violent attacks. Farmers union AgriSA, which represents about 90 percent of the 45,000 (?) commercial white farmers, estimates an average of 750 to 800 farm attacks a year during which about 100 people are murdered. “Some Afrikaner groups refer to this as a ‘white genocide’ but Agri-SA does not want to go that far, claiming instead that farmers and smallholders are ‘soft targets,’ writes Trouw, quoting André Botha, who heads the organisation’s security department, as repeating the same old ANC-saw, namely that:  “Farmers live in remote areas and usually have guns, money and cars. Attackers know that it takes a long time on these rural farms before police arrives after an emergency call.’ Trouw quotes the University of Pretoria’s 2008 investigation of 37 convicted farm-murderers, noting that on average, each one of them had carried out an average of 105 violent crimes before they were even caught. And police statistics overall show that from all the reported crimes, only 12 percent ever end up in a conviction. Trouw quotes Unisa-criminologist Dawie Swart, who says the detective investigations by the SAPS are ‘pathetic. Ever since the takeover by the ANC-government, inexperienced, untrained black people have been appointed in police post and a great deal of expertise, knowledge was lost in this process’.Trouw also reports about the pre-1994 commando system, when the SAPS worked with local defence-force volunteers who knew the area well. However when the ANC gained hegemony, the commandos  cooperation with the SAPS were ended.“To fill the vacuum, Agri-SA developed an alternative rural security system with the government,’ Trouw reports. “The rural areas were split into sector-policing areas and the police was supposed to be assisted by patrolling police-reservists in each sector. These police-reservists were civilians, often farmers, and were given  brief military training and given similar (arrest) authority to the SAPS.”

    ‘Too many cops not doing their jobs and not being punished for it…

    • Botha says the sector-policing plan for rural areas, which was launched in1999, does not function well in many places. “There are too many police officers not doing their jobs, and who are never corrected for not doing their work. The rotten apples don’t get fired. This infects the entire policing system. Agri-SA has been trying to raise this issue with the Police Minister for the past two years but we get no reactions,’  said Botha.

    “Farmers and smallholdings feel marginalised because there is no attention for their unsafe situation. And this while the commercial farmers keep the rural areas afloat financially. If they disappear, development in our rural areas will collapse. The commercial farmer is the key to a South Africa with a future, or a country which will glide into a country like Zimbabwe,’ warns Botha. Trouw ‘s article ends with a quote from a black farmer and neighbour of the murdered Senekal couple, April Modibedi. „We worked together for a long time. He was a good man. Whenever I had lost a sheep, he helped me in the search to find it back again.”…  .http://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/wereld/article2976849.ece/Afrikaner_boeren_in_de_steek_gelaten_.html

    links:

    Thursday, 28 January 2010

    ‘Kill Boer” protestors target kids at Bethlehem Afrikaans High School

    Bethlehem ethnic cleansing of Afrikaans schools protest
    Kill the Farmer, Kill the Boer,’ chanted the black protestors from the Young Communist League, who were gathered at the gates of the Bethlehem, Free State Voortrekker Afrikaans High School on January 28 2010, while ‘handing over a petition’ against the presence of the region’s only remaining Afrikaans-language high school. The chairman of the school’s management committee, Dr Henk Basson, said he was deeply concerned about the hate-speech and the calls for murdering all the whites at the school, and had thus sent the children home early becauses of these threats. “Our school is being turned into a political playing-ball for certain groups’ secret agendas, despite Pres Zuma’s recent plea for quality-education and despite his warnings against politically-motivated protests at schools,’ he said.

    -------------------------------------------------

    Wednesday, 27 January 2010

    2010126 Brothers Johan, Eugen Ramsauer; friend Marno Gerber survive Wellington farm attack – farmworkers capture four
    2010-01-27 Wellington, Cape. Farmer Johan Ramsauer, 45, his brother Eugen 44, and Mano Gerber, 27, a friend of the farmer’s daughter, survived a vicious farm attack on the farm Driefontein on Sunday, reports Die Burger newspaper. Eugen, 44 is recovering at home with a broken foot-bone and head and hand injuries; his brother Johan 45 is under treatment in hospital with spinal injuries and awaiting surgery for a broken shoulder; and Marno Gerber, 27, required stitches for knifewounds in an arm. http://www.dieburger.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1708/8e5313fc04144dba98fd8a8eccb64508/27-01-2010-12-53/Vier_in_hof_n%C3%A1_aanval_op_plaasgesin_by_Wellington
    The attack took place when Eugen Ramsauer stepped out to investigate two armed strangers inside his fenced-in backyard and had gone outside with the other family members at around 17:15 after the dogs started barking at their back fence’s gate. There he was smacked with a plank, while other attackers also arrived and attacked the unarmed farm residents with knives and butchers’ knives. In the fierce struggle which followed, one of the attackers’ knives was slapped out of hand and the family daughter grabbed and fled with it, said Johan’s wife Liesel, 41. The attackers fled and tried to hide among the farm workers’ cottages – however the workers and their family members all joined forces, chasing the attackers through the vineyards, said Liesel. during this impressive community effort, they managed to capture four of the unknown number of attackers. They appeared in court today on charges of serious assault with intent to do grievous bodily injury: named were Abraham Geduld (36), Michael Titus (38), Jerome Lewis (28) and one woman, Mrs Jacqueline Dampies (30). “It was hell, said Eugen Ramsauer.”It’s harvest time and one never knows when those people are let out on bail and come back again. I can’t stay (and guard) the homestead all day, I worry about my people,’ he said. http://www.dieburger.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1708/8e5313fc04144dba98fd8a8eccb64508/27-01-2010-12-53/Vier_in_hof_n%C3%A1_aanval_op_plaasgesin_by_Wellington

    -------------------------------------------

    You don’t have a husband anymore’… “Jan 23 2010 - Ernest Giesekke murdered on Ficksburg farm
    Bloemfontein. – Retired chemistry scientist and philantropist Dr Ernest Giesekke, 69, was found cruelly murdered on his farm Good Hope near Ficksburg on January 23 2010, write Sandra Coetzee of Volksblad newspaper and freelance photographer/journalist Gavin Boy. Dr Giesekke’s head was bashed in with a rock, and as also become known after forensic examination, is that he was repeatedly stabbed with a screw-driver before his throat was slashed.http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/8a4dbddf1bf1425dba96ff9123f7a9ed/25-01-2010-05-14/Filantroop_vir_R50_vermoor

    Giesekke Dr Ernest murdered Goodhope farm Ficksburg Jan232010 retired chemistry scientist Picture by Volksblad photographer/journalist Gavin Boy -  who reported that the farm attack was well-planned: the electric fencing around the homestead was cut a week earlier.The only items missing were a cellphone and R50 in cash (about $5). A team of police, the Gumtree Farmers Association, farm workers and the Ficksburg security- and safety committee all teamed up to track down the three attackers. Police said Dr Giesekke ‘s wife Eve, 77, was still in bed when her husband stepped outside at 5:45 am to feed the livestock and check up on the irrigation system. The Giesekke couple raised lavender for the manufacture of essential oils, and also raised berries. He was murdered near the water tank, which can seen behind the homestead on the picture, left. The attackers then assaulted Mrs Giesekke in the bedroom, telling her: you don’t have a husband any longer.’ Police sr.supt. Mptantsi Makhele said the attackers only managed to abscond with Mrs Giesekke’s handbag containing R50 and a cellphone. The first person on the scene was James Brown, owner of the private Alarm Security company, who discovered the murdered scientist’s body.  Dr Giesekke is the third Ficksburg farmer who was murdered in the past three years. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/8a4dbddf1bf1425dba96ff9123f7a9ed/25-01-2010-05-14/Filantroop_vir_R50_vermoor

    Giesseke, Dr Ernest murder Bloodied grass and rock with which he was bludgeoned Jan 232010

    pictures above and left of bloodied crime scene of Dr Ernest Giesekke’s murder -- by Gavin Boy, freelance Free State journalist, reporting to Volksblad newspaper.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Non-fatal Farm attack against Charles and Violet Engelbrecht, Hartswater Jan 10 2010: six blacks arrested

    January 26 2010 – Volksblad journalist Jana Engelbrecht reports that six black men were arrested in connection with the armed attack against Afrikaner farm couple Charles and Violet Engelbracht on their Hartswater smallholding on January 10 2010 but that they are still searching for another 3-man gang who attached another smallholder the same day. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/9078cc692b184bfaaaecdfc8c007290d/26-01-2010-06-22/Plaasaanval_Ses_aangekeer Engelbrecht was seriously injured and is still in hospital, while his wife was beaten and tied to a tree. Police superintendent Mashay Gamieldien said the suspects, Victor Mariping (36) of Hartswater, John Assan (25) of Mozambique, Manapule Mongale (20), William Salome (44), Ishmael Motwani (47) and  Johannes Gorewang, all four from Magogong, appeared for a remand hearing in the Hartswater magistrate’s court yesterday. The police tracked the farmer’s stolen bakkie in Jan Kempdorp, and his stolen VW Golf 4 in a nearby vineyard, he said. They also confiscated the suspected farm-attack gang’s Ford Laser, a 9mm pistol and ammo. Their case was remanded to 28 January.Gamieldien praised the efforts by the police – singling out captain P van Staden, Hartswater detective, for their ‘determined investigation and quick response. He also thanked the Vaalharts Security company and Mr Deon Haasbroek, detective of Corporate Investigation Services, who assisted the police in their enquiries,’ he added. On the same day the Engelbrect farm was targetted, the unnamed owner of another smallholding there was also attacked by three unknown men – he fought back and in the struggle was pistol-whipped. In this case, the police have not made any arrests as yet, he said. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/9078cc692b184bfaaaecdfc8c007290d/26-01-2010-06-22/Plaasaanval_Ses_aangekeer

    -------------------------

    Free State traffic cop pulled over Afrikaans motorist ón rural route near Viljoenskroon:  ‘wanted sexual experience with a white woman’

    January 21 2010 - Bothaville, Free State. The Freedom Front Plus demands discliplinary action be undertaken against a traffic officer of Nala-municipality who had pulled over an Afrikaans woman driver from Pretoria on New Year’s Eve on the road between Viljoenskroon and Bothaville, pretended that she had committed a traffic-offense: and then told her that he ‘had always wanted to have a sexual experience with a white woman.’ The terrified woman – a widow – said she felt very trapped and afraid because the man had pulled her car over in a lonely, rural area of the road which was surrounded by maize-fields.  After the incident – she was issued with a traffic citation for which she had to pay a fine -- the woman felt so unsafe about lodging a formal complaint of sexual harassment that she wrote a letter to Beeld newspaper, asking whether someone could assist her. The Freedom Front Plus party, which represents the Afrikaner voting community, was asked to assist – and the party has already been in touch with municipal officials about the matter, demanding an investigation into the traffic official’s behaviour, said provincial leader Abrie Oosthuizen. Mr Oosthuizen also expressed concern about other reports regarding such incidents and asked that anyone who has experienced similar problems, to contact them directly. Beeld was unable to obtain formal comment from the municipal officials of Nala, they wrote. http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/45c49eb92f1d4c49b3e9b5d51b035db6/21-01-2010-09-15/Verkeersman_teister_vrou_glo_seksueel__

    --------------------------------------

    Afrikaans women, infant threatened by ‘laughing gunmen’  in BMW on rural Boschkop road: Anita Fourie, Ankea Pretorius, baby Ruben (1 month):

    2010-01-21 PRETORIA. Three black gunmen in a white BMW luxury car had earlier that day terrorised and pointed a gun while driving alongside an Afrikaner mom, her daughter and one-month-old grandson on the Boschkop farm road near Pretoria on Wednesday. After their ordeal, the two women tried to report the terrifying incident to the Boschkop police -- but the policeman who answered the telephone after the women had tried to phone for two hours, refused to investigate the gunmen, saying ‘nobody had been killed or injured’.The women said they were probably saved from being run off the road and murdered because an oncoming truck had caused the gunmen to turn around and flee from the lonely farm-road. The men kept driving alongside the women laughing throughout while terrorising and pointing a gun at Mrs Anita Fourie (56), her daughter Ankea Pretorius (33),  and baby Ruben, 1 month. Ankea was driving and Mrs Fourie was in the backseat with the tiny infant, enroute to their farm in Boschkop, when a white BMW suddenly moved up behind them very rapidly and started riding their bumper, said Mrs Fourie. “I kept gesturing to the driver of the BMW to pass us because there were no other vehicles on the road at all but he ignored me,’ she said. Then the BMW started driving alongside the women. “The passenger at the front side then rolled down his window, and pointed a gun at my daughter, straight at her window’. Her terrified daughter screamed throughout while the men were laughing: ‘Mom he’s going to shoot me.’ while the men kept driving next to their car for at least four minutes. “They were laughing at us throughout this entire time. I was holding onto the baby and was trying to protect him with my body,’ said Mrs Fourie, weeping during the interview. She told Beeld journalist Virginia Keppler that at one stage, her daughter had tried to hit the BMW on its side o try and stop the gunmen from driving right next to her window, but it didn’t help. They just kept on driving next to her, pointing a gun at her daughter’s head and laughing uproarously. Then a truck approached from the opposite direction – and the women believed that this also saved their lives as the BMW then reduced speed, turned around and chased off.  Mrs Fourie said her daughter is ‘badly traumatised’ –also because their ordeal continued when they were unable to raise the Boschkop police. “After two hours, I finally reached the Boschkop police, but they merely said he ‘wasn’t going to come out to investigate because nobody had died or was injured’, ‘ Mrs Fourie told the newspaper. Instead of the police, the neighbourhood watch arrived to give them support and protection, she said. Police inspector Marinda Stoltz, who was told of the incident, personally phoned Mrs Fourie to apologise and to also tell her that the entire incident would be thoroughly investigated, also to determine which Boschkop police officer had been derelict in carrying out his duties. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/9423b184b62f42509b6bec29373b8fd1/21-01-2010-08-23/Laggende_gewapendes_wil_vroue_van_pad_druk

    Unnamed shot at Boschkop smallholding – in critical condition

    January 21 2010 Sapa reports that an unnamed man is in critical condition after he was shot on Wednesday-night. Chris Botha of Netcare 911 said they were called to the scene after the incident at around 23:00 and found the man in critical condition. “We suspect that the man heard a noise from house-invaders in the kitchen and went to investigate. The burglars then must have shot him,’ said Botha. They stabilised him on the scene before taking him to hospital, said Botha. http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/1435/3e34a68bbd794412b5e688065464b208/21-01-2010-04-36/Man_op_klienhoewe_geskiet

    -----------------------------------------------

    Thursday, 21 January 2010

    You all have to die’, screamed violent gang at Hartbeespoort Rietfontein AH family

    A year after a violent gang-attack in which a young Afrikaner woman’s face was slashed, their dog shot and a litter of kittens was murdered, the provincial police commissioner has finally managed to end the fraudulent conditions at the Hartbeespoort police station…

    Raath Mrs Corrie Rietfontein attacked by four squatters Jan262009 Brits MadibengPulse 21 Jan 2010 – RIETFONTEIN, Hartbeespoort - Pieter Raath is angry. A cruel attack last year, in which his wife Corrie’s face was slashed and their dog and a litter of kittens were murdered by four illegal migrants from a local squatter camp, has still not brought any justice, writes Dolf Dreyer, editor of Madibeng Pulse newspaper. The smallholding attack against the Raath family on the night of 26 January last year was extremely racist and malicious, with the four berserker attackers screaming: ‘you must all die’. Clearly, said the victims, these four squatters were only out to kill and maim them: they stole nothing whatsoever – but carved up Corrie Raath’s face, (picture); shot dead their beloved white German Shepherd Terry, and even killed a litter of tiny kittens. It was mindless, cruel violence.Raath said the first team of investigators which were put on the case from the Hartbeespoort police station had mismanaged the case in a very disgraceful manner: not only was the couple forced to flee for fear of reprisals, but at one stage a state-prosecutor, he said, was allegedly even bribed to drop the case and the leader of the four-man attack team was released on a mere R500 bail by the Brits magistrate’s court.  This infuriated the local community so much that they even threatened to take matters into their own hands…

    “They would have killed us”…

    Pieter Raath said the four attackers would have killed them  if the flashing blue lights of an arriving security-vehicle hadn’t made them flee. Nothing was robbed and during the vicious attack, the four men were abusive and hysterical, screaming: ‘you all have to die’. The Raath couple moved to Pretoria and didn’t want their address published for fear of reprisals. Shortly after the attack, Pieter Raath had identified one of the attackers, an man identified only by his first name, “Piet’ – yet this man, who was described as the gang leader, was released on bail on 15 February. One of the other arrested gang-members identified only as “Prince’, also is a well-known felon who has been arrested many times and also granted bail numerous times – in fact Prince and Piet were out on bail when they attacked the Raath family, writes Dreyer. Raath said when he enquired about the case, he heard to his deep dismay that the case had been closed because ‘the file was empty and the investigative detective did not hold an identity parade.’ “He also never fetched forensic photographs from the police-forensic department, and all four suspects were eventually let go’. In November 2009, he was asked to attend an identity-parade after Piet had been arrested again, on another violent crime. And again, he recognised Piet as the leader of their attack gang.  The case was reopened because the local station commander and investigating detectives were transferred because the local community forum, Pieter Rautenbach, launched a community campaign to rid themselves of fraud at the police station. “It now looks as if the case is getting on track, because on Friday Superintendent Jannie van der Walt visited us with a detective and took another statement from us to reopen the case. Their visit followed after my enquiry two weeks earlier.  Dreyer writes that the community forum’s campaign to end corruption at the Hartbeespoort police station appears to be won, with NW provincial police commissioner Beethe undertaking in personal talks with forum members Rautenbach, Johan Pretorius and Ahmed Jalalpor that he would personally make sure that the investigating detective and other detectives named in connection with fraud at the station, would face investigations and if necessary, be charged.  The new SAPS commissioner Bheke Cele also said the same thing in December, writes Dreyer. One matter which still raises deep concerns among the police and the community is the fact that so many violent criminals still get bail far too easily and set at very low bail-costs, after which they can simply stroll out of jail and continue their criminal career immediately. Commissioner Beetha also undertook to pay urgent attention to this problem. Read the rest of the article: http://www.madibengpulse.co.za/?Task=system&CategoryID=28789&HeadingText=News+210110+corrie+raath

    Sunday, 17 January 2010

    Katrina Hendrika van den Berg, 65, murdered, Daspoort AH Pretoria
    The Daspoort smallholder  was tied up, dragged through the house, brutally beaten in the bath - yet only her cellphone was missing…

    Berg van den Katrina Hendrika 65 murdered Jan142009 Daspoort AH Pretoria NewsP2 (2) Graeme Hosken of the Pretoria News writes - January 14 2010 A second Pretoria pensioner in less than a week has met a violent death at the hands of thugs. Police are searching for a handyman and the gardener.Katrina Hendrika van den Berg, 65, was found murdered in her Daspoort home. Her death comes days after Kitty Botha, 83, was slain in her Lyttelton home, which was set alight by robbers who killed her without taking anything.

    Van den Berg's badly bruised and battered body was discovered in her lounge yesterday by her husband, Jan, 56, after neighbours were unable to raise her on the phone or by calling her name outside her Herman Street property. Unable to reach his wife on her cellphone, Van den Berg phoned neighbours and asked them to go and see if they could see his frail wife in the garden.  When they called him back and said they could not see her, he raced home. Unable to unlock the gate and seeing the kitchen security door standing open, Van den Berg scaled the garden wall. He walked through his ransacked home and found his wife's body sprawled in the lounge, a kitchen dishcloth clasped tightly in her hand.  It is suspected that she was attacked by a man assigned to do repairs to the roof of their home. Police believe Van den Berg was attacked in the kitchen before she was dragged through to the bathroom where she was tied up. Police Inspector Louis de Bruin said Van den Berg had been tied up and beaten in the bath. "As well as finding ropes, which Van den Berg managed to undo, investigators also found blood smears in the bath. Investigators believe the blood may be from injuries caused either when she was beaten over the head or when she fell in the bath," he said. He said it was not yet known whether Van den Berg was finally killed in the lounge after being dragged from the bathroom, or whether she was attacked there when she tried to escape from her home to raise the alarm, thinking her assailant had fled. De Bruin confirmed that detectives were looking for a man who had been doing maintenance work at the home, as well as the family's gardener. He said it appeared as though only Van den Berg's cellphone had been stolen in the attack. As police searched the house for clues, visibly distraught family members gathered at a neighbour's home. "I can't believe it, I can't believe they have killed her," said a family friend. The woman, who broke down in tears and had to be led away by a trauma counsellor, said Van den Berg had been extremely kind and caring.  "She never said a bad word about anyone. She had so much time for people and was very loving towards everyone."  Van den Berg's stepson, who asked not to be named, said the family were devastated. "We are heartsore. We don't know what to do. It is like a bad dream. I keep on thinking we are going to wake up, but in the end we are not," he said. He said his stepmother was full of love and kindness. "She would do anything to help someone and always had time for people. What happened is beyond belief," he said.  This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on January 14, 2010 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100114042644891C318712

    2010_1_16 Mrs Jean McLeod, Stutterheim farmer, assaulted, sand stuffed in mouth and eyes, gagged, bound, in hospital in serious condition

    SAPA January 19 2010 -- Bongani Fuzile writes that Mrs Jean McLeod, 79, is in a serious condition in Stutterheim Hospital after being severely assaulted on Wednesday afternoon Jan 16 2010. The news only came to light two days later and local farmers were shocked when hearing it.  Jean McLeod, 79, was attacked as she was entering her farm – situated a few kilometres outside Stutterheim.According to police information, McLeod arrived home from a shopping outing in Stutterheim. She entered the house with her groceries, was overpowered, dragged to an old shed on the property and assaulted. Police spokesman Captain Thozama Solani yesterday confirmed the incident, saying the victim had broken ribs and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Solani said after McLeod had been beaten, sand was put into her mouth and thrown into her eyes. She was then gagged with masking tape and her legs bound. The attacker then ransacked the house and drove off in the victim’s vehicle. Groceries, paintings, jewellery, and about R500 in cash was stolen from the house.  McLeod managed to free herself and crawled to the house to call police. The vehicle stolen from McLeod were found on the road to Cathcart. “Apparently the driver lost control and it veered off the road,” Solani said.McLeod had identified the attacker as “someone who used to come to collect old stuff like wire from the farm for his personal use”. Yesterday, neighbouring farmers were shocked to hear about the attack on McLeod. “This is news to us. We are her neighbours, but we never heard anything about the incident,” said one woman, who asked that her name not be published. “ “We really condemn crime in the farming areas, especially attacks on vulnerable, elderly people, " said the police officer. The man was arrested on Friday in Cathcart after an intensive search by police, He will appear in court on Monday."  The crime statistics for  Stutterheim show that there were 17 murders plus 5 culpible homicides in the March 2008-April 2009 reporting year;  Stutterheim’s website places special emphasis on its rural nature and the fact that it is visited by many tourists: “blessed by an abundant natural beauty of its surrounding dams, hills, indigenous forests, farmland and forestry areas, Stutterheim is perfect for hikers, mountain bikers, boating, fisherman, birders and campers. The Kubusie River and Wriggleswade Dam is popular for boating, fishing and swimming. Being situated on the N6 to East London makes for easy access to the town and its surroundings.“The town's primary industries are the surrounding farming (cattle, fine woolled sheep and citrus) and forestry areas and associated industries such as saw milling. The Dohne Merino sheep breed was developed at the Dohne Agricultural Research Institute just north of Stutterheim. The last several decades have also seen the development of a successful light manufacturing industry and recently the establishment of a growing tourist industry.” Telephone numbers of Eastern Cape police stations, http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=519502

    More recent farm-related incidents January 2010:

    other recent anti-Afrikaner crime incidents:

    Jan 20 2010: ANC-members groove with Zuma’s machine-gun

    Jan 17 2010:

    Jan 16 2010:

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Photo Albums - murdered and traumatised Afrikaners and Boers in the cities and the countryside 2008 2009 and 2010

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2008 victims A - J weergegeven

    View entire album A - J

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2009 victims A - B weergegeven

    View entire album A _ B

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2009 victims C - F weergegeven

    View enire album C - F

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2009 victims G - J weergegeven

    View entire album G - J

    Kill the Boer kill the Farmer 2009 victims N - O weergegeven

    View entire album N – O

    Kill the Boer kill the Farmer 2009 victims N - O weergegeven

    View entire album Q - Z

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2009 victims Q - Z weergegeven

    View entire album Q – Z

    Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer 2009 victims Q - Z weergegeven

    View entire album Q – Z (2)Kill the Boer Kill the Farmer Trauma Society of SA pictures weergegeven

    View entire album Trauma Society Injuries