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20110117

109 people killed violently each day in SA

 

  • 109 people a day were killed violently between April 2009-April 2010; 177 families a day were robbed at gunpoint inside their homes; and 566 people (nearly two a day) also were murdered in the SAPS holding cells after their arrests…

  • 110 cops were killed in 2009/10 + 38,894 * civilians, all killed in armed violence that year (* the murders plus culpible homicides categories combined) : 

  • 39,004 total violent deaths of civilians and cops combined in 2009/10 … and that does not include the 566 murders in the police holding cells last year…

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Pretoria – One hundred and ten police officers had lost their lives between April 2009 and April 2010, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said. There also were 38,894 civilians killed in armed violence: the combined total of the ‘murders’ and ‘culpible homicide’ categories.

There also were 13,902 reported car hijackings and 68 ,332 sonamed ‘sexual crimes’: a new category which combines anal rapes against male victims, as well as pornography convictions: this also means that the sexual crimes targetting women and girls in South Africa are being hidden inside the new category.  Also, there were 64,670 robberies of families inside their homes – that’s 177 armed robberies of families and businesses A DAY - up to April 2010.  The most affluent region of South Africa - Sandton police station -  reported the highest number of armed house robberies targetting families at their homes; followed by other mostly ‘white’ suburbs such as Honeydew, Midrand, Wierdabrug and Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/110-police-killed-in-200910-20100909

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566 arrested people died violent deaths in police holding cells in 2010: that’s almost TWO PER DAY…

December 22 2010 Cape Town - Cape Times journalist A’Eysha Kassiem  quoted inspecting judge Deon van Zyl as saying that ‘prison officials are the biggest killers of prisoners’. Combined with the earlier report warning that thus far this year, 566 people had died in SA police custody – and that was up to October 30 2010 – this paints a very grim picture of South Africa’s new-style ‘democracy’ where trial-awaiting prisoners – people presumed innocent until proven guilty – can be tortured to death in police jails and prisons at will… 

Why can so many people’s deaths in custody of the State go unpunished? Because ‘South African law does not classify torture as a crime…’ warned van Zyl in his report.

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PRISONS 566 DEATHS IN SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE CELLS 2010 23NOV2010 SOWETAN

Above: Sowetan article quoting from the Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services’ analysis, released by Inspecting Judge Deon van Zyl. http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/prison-staff-biggest-killers-1.1004054

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The number of inmates murdered by prison officials was even more frequent than murders committed by other inmates and raised “serious concerns”. “Officials appear to have been involved in acts of violence against inmates who are alleged to have assaulted an official or other inmates . These actions often constitute a form of revenge in response to an attack on an official,” he said, citing ineffective disciplinary measures at the disposal of correctional officials.

Swift criminal prosecution should, in appropriate cases, ensue, particularly where the level of violence constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment of inmates, if not acts of torture. Our reading of the reports, however, indicates recalcitrance on the part of authorities to take decisive action against correctional officials involved in such cases,” he said.

 

South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights president Golden Miles Bhudu said they had been lobbying the Correctional Services department for years about unnatural prison deaths. Lukas Muntingh, project co-ordinator at the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative, said the problem was that South Africa had not classified torture as a crime. “We need legislation to criminalise torture so that every death in a prison will be treated as a suspicious death.” Correctional Services did not respond by deadline. - Cape Times http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/prison-staff-biggest-killers-1.1004054 also read: http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20101117-judicial-inspectorate-correctional-services-200910-annual-report-brie

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34,000 employees run 240 prisons with room for 190,000 inmates –   

Racial composition of jailed SA criminals SA correctional services STATS

2009 – 55 ‘unnatural deaths’ in South African prisons: yet no-one has ever been charged…

  • 34,000 employees run 240 prisons with room for 190,000 inmates – but he cells usually house considerable more inmates due to large number of trial-awaiting prisoners…  

----------------------------PRISON OFFICIALS BIGGEST KILLERS OF PRISONERS REPORT JUDGE DEON VAN ZYL DEC222010 IOL

2010-11-18 CAPE TOWNA number of "extremely worrying trends" have been found during an investigation into 55 reported “unnatural deaths” in South African prisons in 2009. The Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative said one of the "top concerns" was that not one correctional services official had been prosecuted in any of the unnatural death cases. This was despite disciplinary enquiries finding them guilty of offences such as gross negligence and excessive use of force."Of topmost concern is that in not one of these 55 cases has a single Department of Correctional Services (DCS) official been prosecuted yet," the Initiative said."It is rare that officials are dismissed following the death of a prisoner."

Batons, electric shields, kicks with booted feet, severe beatings, suffocation: and 55% were suicides…

The CSPRI - a project of the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape - said it had analysed a report by the Judicial Inspectorate which provided details of 55 "unnatural deaths" in 2009. It said in many of the cases, the deceased had been brutally assaulted by officials with batons, electric shields and booted feet. The official had then failed to provide "adequate and timeous" medical attention.

Nothing more than murder

In one case, involving the death of a 59-year old prisoner at the (‘super-max’) Maximum Security Prison in Kokstad, an independent pathologist had found "death consistent with smothering" or an obstruction of mouth and nose. "The incident happened on August 9 2009 and according to the inspectorate, no action has been taken by the DCS nor has the investigation by the police resulted in anything," the CSPRI said.The prisoner, known only by his initials 'RT'", must have died a horrible death - first severely beaten and then suffocated."This is nothing more than murder and all officials implicated should be prosecuted and punished accordingly." Other trends apparent from the 2009 Judicial Report indicated that 55% of the deaths were suicides. In a significant proportion of these, the prisoner was a known as a suicide risk. Despite this, "The DCS failed to take effective measures to prevent the suicide," the CSPRI said."In nearly 65% of the 55 cases, the DCS had not taken any action against its officials although there is evidence indicating liability."

Investigations by the police in the deaths of prisoners seldom progressed to a stage where a docket was handed to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). "The CSPRI is of the view that when a person dies in state custody, the state is liable until the matter has been properly investigated by independent and competent authorities and the findings indicate the contrary."In meeting its obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, South Africa is obligated to investigate promptly wherever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an act of torture or ill treatment has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction." Poor, delayed and uncompleted investigations fostered a culture of impunity within the DCS”, the CSPRI said.- SAPA http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Worrying-trends-in-prison-deaths-20101118

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Natural death rates + medical releases due to fatal diseases, SA prisons 1996 to 2007

The number of South African prisoners who died from natural causes and/or were granted a medical release just before their disease-related deaths rose from 260 in 1996 to 1,116 inmates by the end of 2007 – mostly due to AIDS.

PRISONS NATURAL DEATHS RATES 1996 TO 2007

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Worrying-trends-in-prison-deaths-20101118

News Jan 17 2011

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Summary:  The Sutherland French-survivalist couple who gunned down two cops still on the run; Afrikaans Post Office-mistress Magda Frazer bludgeoned to death by two black males in Highlands North; four suspect attackers of Afrikaner jailer Jannie Brits and Witbank smallholder Gordon Cooke arrested in squatter camp; another of the many petrol-station execution-style murders by black gang which stole nothing; Pretoria prosecutor astonished about honesty of Karoo restaurant cleaner who returned her forgotten wallet; SA minister Nomusa Dube declares war on lightning;

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Magda Frazer, killed with hammer by two black males, Highlands north PO manager, Jan 15 2011

Afbeelding kaart

2011-01-16 Greater Johannesburg - Mrs Magda Frazer, 42, Afrikaans post-office manager at Highlands North in Balfour Shopping Centre, was ruthlessly bludgeoned to death with a hammer on Saturday Jan 15 2011 by two black men who followed the unarmed woman inside just as she was dropped off at work at 06:30 by her husband. SAPS spokesman Philip Maganedisa said one suspect was a parttime worker who was filmed on CCTV killing the white woman with another black man. However, Maganedisa said 'security officials watching on CCTV, 'thought nothing of it when they saw a man unlocking the back door of the post office. They identified the man as a post office worker." Frazer's husband had dropped her at work at 06:30 that day and Maganedisa said she entered through the front door, followed shortly thereafter by her two black murderers. One murderer was clearly identified on the CCTV video as a part-time worker at the PO. Mr Mike Sears from the local community policing organisation CAP said a client alerted security when they could not get inside... "Members of the CAP and the police went to investigate and discovered Mrs Frazer's lifeless body. Closed circuit television cameras in the post office filmed the entire murder”, Sears said. “The video shows Mrs Frazer being repeatedly beaten with a hammer." And one of the two black murderers was clearly identified as a part-time employee at the post office. Maganedisa said the post office's safe was found open and empty. Frazer's personal belongings were also stolen. Written by Salette Cloete and Jani Meyer,Beeld http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Womans-murder-captured-on-CCTV-20110116

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Another petrol-station execution-style murder: this time in Soshanguve Jan152011 

2011-01-16 Fanie van Rooyen, Beeld. SOSHANGUVE, Pretoria. The 35-year-old manager of the Engen-petrol station in Soshanguve, a township northwest of Pretoria, was murdered in cold blood by four armed black males who arrived at 8:30am in a luxurious silver BMW without number-plates. They gunned down the unnamed manager down. SAPS Dumisani Ndlazi said the men then left in their posh car without stealing anything whatsoever. The manager was rushed to the nearby hospital but died from his wounds. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Vier-boewe-skiet-man-by-vulstasie-20110116

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SAPS w/o Glenwald du Toit, shot Jan132011 by French survivalist-cultist couple at Sutherland farm talks of ordeal http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/cop-shot-by-cultists-speaks-1.1012732

 SUTHERLAND FRENCH ARMED COUPLE MANHUNT JAN152011 COP GLENWALL DU TOIT SHOT January 17 2011 SUTHERLAND. Warrant Officer Glenwall du Toit, left, shot in the spine during their attempt to confiscate an illegal arms-cache from a French survivalist-couple on a farm near Sutherland, is recovering in N1 City Hospital. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane. The policeman - who survived a deadly shooting at the hands of a middle-aged French survivalist-couple on the run, told of laying on the ground; praying his attacker would not finish him off. Speaking from the intensive care unit at N1 City Hospital in Cape Town, Warrant Officer Glenwall du Toit ‘was lucky to still be alive’. His colleague student constable Jacob Boleme, was killed on Hardie farm, 35km from Sutherland, on Friday. Philippe and Agnis Neniere, the middle-aged French couple are still evading a large manhunt with two helicopters and trackers in the mountainous region. “After he shot me in the back, he kept firing at the tyres of our cars. I lay on the ground, afraid I was going to die,” said Du Toit, 42. Du Toit said the shooting took place when he and three fellow officers went to the farm of Gerhardus du Plessis to collect unlicensed firearms from the farmer’s tenants, the Neniere couple.

“They wanted to have an underground bunker built… ‘

The Nenieres are self-admitted survival experts who are well-acquainted with the region they’d lived and explored for the past 12 years. They said they belonged to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment cult which believes that the end of the world will come in 2012. SUTHERLAND FRENCH ARMED COUPLE MANHUNT JAN152011 CULTISTSThe couple lived for free on the farm but were being legally evicted because the Du Plessis family bcame frightened by their bizarre behaviour. When the officers went to the farm on Friday they were accompanied by the Du Plessis’ two sons, Cobus and Jaen. Du Toit said they arrived and found the firearms without any problem. But when they were loading the guns into a police vehicle, Philippe, believed to be in his 60s, told them he was not feeling well. He asked for a few minutes and then turned away from them, said du Toit. “He turned around and suddenly I heard gun shots. We split in different directions.”

As he was running for cover, Du Toit was shot in the back. “I jumped over a gate but I had run about 10 metres when I felt sharp pain in my back. It was one shot and I fell.” Du Toit said the man “fired a lot of shots” but he had no idea his colleague, Student Constable Jacob Boleme, had been shot. “When I was being taken away from the scene, I looked around and saw my colleague had been shot,” he said. Boleme, from Soutpan in the Free State, died on the scene.

Farm wife Joeline du Plessis said: “In the last two years, the Neniere couple got a little strange. They wanted to have an underground bunker, and asked Cobus’s dad about it and obviously he just laughed at them.” She said Philippe had this year come to town, selling utensils and electrical equipment to a trader. “They looked skinny and looked like they weren’t eating much. When he was at a braai he (Philippe) would put on long rubber gloves and goggles over his eyes. It seemed like they weren’t going to last a day outside. They were at my wedding in 2008 - we called them our friends,” Jolene said. Dave O’Hearns, owner of Primrose Cottage guest house, said he had not seen much of the couple in his seven years in Sutherland. It was probably four years ago when he last saw them in a local supermarket, he said. Sutherland police spokesman Hendrik Swart yesterday said they were still searching for the’ heavily armed, slender, grey-haired’ couple believed to have been wearing khaki or camouflage when they fled on foot into the hills. Two helicopters, police trackers and a large police ground crew had searched for them after the shooting.http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/cop-shot-by-cultists-speaks-1.1012732

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Four blacks arrested for murder of Afrikaner jailer Jannie Brits, Dec 17 2010 Paxton Prison grounds Witbank

  • also suspected of leaving Gordon Cooke, 27, permanently paralysed attack on 26 Dec 2010, Jackaroo smallholdings

Cooke Gordon paralysed after attack Witbank Dec272010_fianceeBiancaBarrand 2011-01-16 Buks Viljoen, Beeld. WITBANK. Four blacks suspected of murdering Afrikaner jailer Jannie Brits on Dec 17 2010 at his home on the grounds of Paxton-Prison prison have been arrested, reports warrant-officer Zero Masango. They are also suspects in the vicious armed attacks targetting residents at the nearby Jackaroo smallholdings where 27-year-old English-speaking white South African Gordon Cooke was left permanently paralysed when he was shot in the neck at midnight on Dec 26 2010. Cooke now is under 24-hour care at the Muelmed rahabilitation centre in Pretoria. His fiancee Bianca, pregnant with their second child, now has to somehow survive without the family breadwinner. W/o Masango said that police-forensics established that all these crimes were committed with the same gun. Their breakthrough came on Thursday when they arrested a man who led them to the three other suspects in the Coronation squatters camp. The suspected murder weapon, a 7.65-pistol, was found in their possesion. The camp is located 2km from the prison. Also confiscated were a man’s watch and jewellery, all suspected stolen goods. They appear for their first remand-date in Witbank magistrate’s court on Monday Jan. 17 2011. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Vier-van-Witbank-vasgetrek-na-moord-op-bewaarder-20110116

Weird news of the day:

Pretoria prosecutor astonished about honesty of Karoo restaurant maid who returned her forgotten wallet…

2011-01-16 Beeld senior editor Philip de Bruin writes that Afrikaans advocate Retha Meintjes, deputy-prosecutor in Pretoria, discovered that her wallet with all her bank cards and cash was missing ‘somewhere in the dry Karoo’ she immediately believed that she had become another victim of the SA crime epidemic. “I work every day of my life with hardened criminals who will kill anyone for a cellphone,’ she said. Two days later however, to her immense astonishment, she received a phone call from her bank manager, informing her that her property was safe and sound. Someone had found it at the Surf-Side restaurant in the Strand where she’d been vacationing – and its manager Mrs Yolandi Groenewald had put the wallet in the restaurant’s safe after it was turned in by a cleaner.  On Monday, Mrs Groenewald contacted the bank – and had Mrs Meintjes’ wallet couriered back to her. Mrs Groeneveld it’s the restaurant’s policy to ‘return items they forgot at our place, back to them safely. People leave behind the strangest stuff at our place, even laptop computers…’ she was quoted as saying by De Bruin. And this kind of honesty and hospitality – for which Afrikaners used to be justly famous worldwide – now has become so extraordinary in South Africa that such a little gem of happiness actually becomes a news item.  http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Regsvrou-oorbluf-toe-beursie-nie-gesteel-is-20110116

SA Minister declares war on lightning 

2011-01-11 Mrs Nomusa Dube, the ruling ANC's MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs, says her department is prepared to "fight and wage war" against the pesky freaks of nature that have claimed several lives in the country over the past month.  "We can't stop an act of God but as people we can't die without a fight," said her spokesman, Lennox Mabaso. He said Mrs Dube wants to know from the Department of Science and Technology why ‘remote, rural areas are more prone to incidents of lightning…’ and wants them to launch an investigation at once. http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/YourStory/War-declared-on-freaks-of-nature-20110111

Petition against Winnie Mandela

This bullying of police officers by the power-mad elite must stop – Solidarity. Institute of Race Relations: “ The incident could seriously undermine police morale…” SAPS flying-squad constable Abel Tswala:  “Mama Winnie is turning this into a racism thing…

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An internet petition has been launched among the Afrikaans community to be lodged with SA pres. Jacob Zuma, AnC-Police Minister Nati Mthethwa and Lt-gen Mzwandile Petros, provincial SAPS-chief  - demanding an independent investigation into Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s ongoing victimisation of SAPS Flying Squad officers w/o Jannie Odendaal and colleague constable Abel Twala  - after they had pulled over her luxury Audi for travelling 150 km/hr through a heavily-populated urban area of greater Johannesburg in Dec 2010.

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Mandela Winnie PETITION AGAINST HER VICTIMISATIONJ OF SAPS COPS DEC302010

This bullying of police officers by the power-mad elite must stop ’ – Solidarity … The Institute of Race Relations: “ The incident could seriously undermine police morale…”

http://winniepetisie.co.cc/

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SAPS warrant/officer Jannie Odendaal told the entire detailed story of his run-in with the passengers in the luxury silver Audi belonging to Winnie Mandela in an exclusive radio broadcast of his trade union Solidarity last week. He added that even if he had known that Nelson Mandela’s high-publicity ex-wife was a passenger in the car, he would ‘still have done his duty.’ And Constable Abel Twala of Soweto backed up his Boer colleague in an exclusive, hard-hitting interview with Rapport newspaper on Sunday, Jan 16 2010, accusing “Mama Winnie of turning this into a racism thing…’.

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MANDELA WINNIE ACCUSES Constable Abel Twala OF pointing R1 rifle at her during Dec302010 traffic incident ODENDAAL Jannie runin with speeding Winnie Mandela Dec 302010 Sandton

LISTEN TO ODENDAAL’S VERSION OF EVENTS IN AFRIKAANS ON SOLIDARITEIT RADIO:

: http://www.solidariteitradio.co.za/jannie-odendaal-vs-winnie-die-volle-storie/

Flying squad colleague constable Abel Twala, above left,  of Soweto supports Odendaal, and accuses “Mama Winnie of turning this into a racism thing’ : http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Mama-Winnie-maak-dit-n-rassistiese-ding-20110115

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The petition ‘objects in the strongest terms to the  behaviour of Winnie Mandela who views herself as being above the law’. The petition describes details of the incident: that she had ‘yelled at warrant officer Jannie Odendaal and SAPS constable Abel Twala after her vehicle had been clocked at a speed of 150km an hour in the urban area of greater Johannesburg on the M1 freeway on Dec 30 2010. She also accused constable Abel Twala of pointing an R1-assault carbine at her and her employees. The two flying-squad officers deny this, saying that the R1 had been pointing towards the pavement throughout the incident.

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The petition also details the previous violence-related and fraud-crimes for which Mrs Madikizela-Mandela has already been convicted and received very light sentences, pointing out that she is a ‘convicted criminal who in this case endangered the lives of other road users…. Besides the fact that she has made herself guilty of the practice of ANC-politicians to place themselves above the ordinary citizens and above the law with their ‘blue-light convoy escapades’ she and her body guard(s) threatened two police officials who merely viewed it as their duty to carry out the law. And now she and her body-guard (s) are engaged in victimising the police officers from an abusive position of power.

“We demand that Winnie Mandela and her body-guards be prosecuted under the full letter of the law for the violations. We also demand that an independent commission of investigation be established to investigate the entire incident – including the fact that Mrs Mandela had received such light sentences for her previous heinous crimes (including for the m u r d e r of naive young ANC-activist Stompie Seipei.)

sign petition: http://winniepetisie.co.cc/

Winnie and Me – personal interview describing the event on Dec 30 2010:

December 30, 2010 – SANDTON.  Afrikaans Flying Squad w/o Jannie Odendaal and his black colleague Constable Abel Twala were abused, treated with abusive contempt; Odendaal was physically assaulted and threatened by her body guard and the two Flying Squad officers were yelled at by Winnie Mandela, whose face was initially unrecognisable to them when she got out of the luxury-Audi, as she was painted in a white powder in the Xhosa-tribal custom…. And why was she being so abusive?

Because Odendaal and his colleague Twala had been doing their jobs: clocking Winnie Mandela ‘s luxury silver Audi speeding at 150 km/hr on the M1 motorway near Sandton; they had pulled over the car:  also because the police-cartracker listed it as reportedly stolen. They did not know Madikizeli-Mandela was inside: the vehicle had tinted windows. As they walked towards the car from their unmarked vehicle, Twala backed Odendaal up by being armed with an R1 rifle, which is routine as SA cops are gunned down and murdered at a rate of 100 police officers a year. Twala had pointed the loaded assault-carbine downwards, as required, while the two officers were getting out of the police car and approaching the Mandela vehicle. They didn’t know at the time who was inside…. and who the woman in the white-painted face was when she got out and started yelling at them. Odendaal described her as ‘much older-looking than in her photographs’. The officers then were told by the body-guard that she was “Mrs Mandela’, and that they were moreover not allowed to search the car, that ‘this wasn’t apartheid.’

After the incident, the SAPS-officers were immediately victimised by their bosses: both men were transferred 70 km away from their homes within a day; their lives as police-officers also were deliberately endangered because their service-pistols were taken away from them – even though there had not been any firearm-related threats from their side. And they were disarmed while they are still expected to continue doing their extremely dangerous jobs.

The Afrikaans cop in particular has been singled out as a target for vengeful hatespeech in the news media -  originating from the Mandela camp.  Mrs Mandela demanded that ‘the white man apologise’ to her personally, that he be brought to her home by his senior officers and come and apologise to her. And even his colleague constable Abel Twala thinks she’s being racist, openly accusing “Mama Winnie of Turning this into a Racism Thing”…

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The South African Institute of Race Relations  warned in reaction that ‘the behaviour of senior managers in the South African Police Force, around the recent Winnie Mandela incident, damages police morale, the rule of law, and the fight against crime.”

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Senior SAPS general to Odendaal: “Mrs Mandela fought for the freedom of our country and you must apologise to her…’

Odendaal said in his Solidarity Radio interview that he has signed himself out on sick leave due to all the stress: that  it’s far too dangerous for him to work without his service pistol; that he canot afford on is salary to drive his own car 140km to work each day. He’s deeply hurt by the fact that his commanding officer, Genl. Petros, refused to back them up. Considerable pressure was put on Odendaal to apologise to her, with one leading SAPS officer telling him in Petros’ office: “Mrs Mandela fought for the freedom of our country and you must apologise to her.’ Odendaal said ‘at that point’ he was ‘thinking of apologising because my career would be in danger if I didn’t. “However he decided not to, he said in the interview, because ‘far too many important people show such contempt and utter disrespect for law and order’.

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English-language summary  from Afrikaans radio-solidarity interview with warrant/officer Odendaal’s  radio-interview of his encounter with Winnie Mandela and her body-guard to Solidarity:

Odendaal: “He works for the Emergency Response unit at the East Rand and has been a police-officer since 1991. It is part of his job to react to violent crimes in progress but it’s also part of his job to pull over suspect vehicles while patrolling the freeways. On December 30 he and his colleague noticed a high-speed silver Audi luxury car with tinted windows driving with bright headlights on the M7 freeway north of Golden City.  They checked on the radio with the vehicle-tracker and were advised that the car had been ‘stolen’ and was ‘registered in the name of a company in Soweto’. They didn’t know who was inside, the car had tinted windows. The police-team, driving in an unmarked Mercedes, flashed their blue-strobe lights, indicating that the driver of the silver Audi had to pull over. ‘It didn’t, we kept following it with our lights flashing but they did slow down and waved a hand-radio from the window’. Odendaal said he recognised this hand-radio: ‘it was not a police issue item and such radios are often used in armed robberies, so we decided to keep following them and called in for backup from the dog-patrol unit’. The Audi finally stopped at the Jan Smuts avenue turnoff, pointing in the direction of Sandton.  Odendaal said he and his colleague got out of their vehicle, with his colleague, as is routine, backing him up with an R1 rifle as they approached the at that point a ‘suspect vehicle’. The rifle was pointed downwards, he said. Odendaal said as he tapped on the car-boot, it was opened from the inside, while a ‘burly, strong-looking’ male passenger jumped from the Audi and immediately accosted him, pushing the officer on the chest and shouting at him, telling him that Mrs Mandela was in the car, that ‘they weren’t allowed to search the vehicle, because this wasn’t apartheid any more’.  Odendaal said he shoved the man back and then walked back to the police vehicle to fetch his Tazer. “I told the man to stop assaulting me or I would fire the Tazer’, he said. Then a second passenger, a woman who he did not immediately recognise, jumped from the car and immediately started ranting, shouting and screaming abuse at him. “I didn’t recognise her as Mrs Mandela. She had this white powder-make up all over her face and she looked much older than she does in her newspaper pictures,’ he said.

Mrs Mandela and her body guard kept shouting and yelling at the police officers. Odendaal said he was indeed ‘very shocked at the lack of respect they showed for our police uniforms and the contempt with which they spoke to us.’ Then the driver got out of the Audi too and Odendaal started exchanging documentary information with him, both men were calm. He told the driver about the car being listed as a ‘stolen vehicle’. He said the driver was ‘courteous and calm at all times’.  While Odendaal was speaking to the driver, telling him that the police-team had to search the car, as those were Genl. Petros’ orders, Mrs Mandela yelled at the driver to ‘stop this at once’ , ordered everyone back into the Audi and they drove off. “ Odendaal said they continued to follow the car until they received confirmation via the radio that the ‘stolen-car’ warning had been withdrawn, that it was  ‘sorted out’. The police-officers, including the dog-patrol unit which had joined them in the meantime, then  returned to their police-station, where they filed a detailed incident report. Odendaal said he had ‘expected his commanding officers to back him up because I was doing my job’. He was shocked when they didn’t: “

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After this incident, Mrs Mandela became so irate that she demanded that the SAPS provincial chief Genl. Petros bring the ‘white cop to her house to apologise to her’. Petros apparently received this order directly from his national senior SAPS Genl. Gela – who is his brother in law.

Solidarity trade union’s spokesman Dirk Hermann has issued a statement warning the Mandela-clan and her “aggressive body guards to leave the young cop alone.  Solidarity stands 100 percent behind our member and will not allow him to be bullied.’

Bullying of ordinary citizens and police officers by the power-mad elite must stop

Hermann: “We have ordered our legal team to provide their full support to Odendaal if the SAPS continues with its ‘bullying tactics’ against this police-officer. We are also preparing criminal charges agaisnt Mrs Madikizela-Mandela’s body guards. This could involve assault, crimen injuria and attempts to divert the course of justice. We cannot allow that ordinary citizens are pushed around like this by the political elite and organisations. We plan to push back. On the one side we stand up for this one member but on the other side we also stand up to fight on behalf of every defenceless individual against the power-mad elite. In a healthy democracy ordinary citizens receive protection and we plan to protect this important aspect of our democracy.’

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links: http://www.solidariteitradio.co.za/jannie-odendaal-vs-winnie-die-volle-storie/

The South African Institute of Race Relations warned that ‘the behaviour of senior managers in the South African Police Force, around the recent Winnie Mandela incident, damages police morale, the rule of law, and the fight against crime.”The Institute's deputy CEO, Frans Cronje, said: "Police members on the ground must be able to trust in the backing of the chain of command if they are to do their jobs effectively. In this case it appears as if the command chain has placed political considerations above its responsibility to its members. This is likely to undermine the morale not only of flying squad members around the country but also of all police officers. We therefore echo calls for an independent inquiry into events surrounding the Winnie Mandela incident. This matter goes far beyond the rights of a few officers. It goes to the heart of police effectiveness and the maintenance of the rule of law."http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=217284&sn=Detail&pid=71616

 

SIGN THE PETITION: http://winniepetisie.co.cc/

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Dutch Development Aid site features Winnie Mandela petition:

Mandela Winnie Petition www nl aid org petion against winnie mandela Jan172011

http://www.nl-aid.org/petition-against-winnie-mandela/