Thank you!
“Meet Ian Cameron, the man who wouldn’t cower to Bheki Cele”
https://youtu.be/BYq5xnPqhZE
“Community policing activist Ian Cameron - who heads up NGO Action Society - made headlines when cops ejected him from a community meeting in Gugulethu after a war of words with Police Minister Bheki Cele. Cameron told BizNews he was the 13th speaker at the event, where he proceeded to tell the minister about the reality of crime and gender-based violence in the area. Cameron said: “I’m tired of the excuses and I’m tired of you making this a political thing. I want to graciously invite you to come and patrol without a bodyguard, without a grand car, in normal clothes with this community tonight to get the sewage on your shoes that they patrol through.” The minister warned Cameron not to provoke him. “You regard me as a garden boy,” Cele said. When Cameron stood to defend himself from the racial assertion, Cele yelled at him to, “Shut up” several times and sit down. “It’s your turn to listen, young man, or get out,” shouted Cele. Cameron will be laying a complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate regarding police conduct, as well as criminal charges against officers who attempted to assault him.”
“Why more women in South Africa need firearms for self-defence” – Gender Based Violence (Part 1)
https://firearms.co.za/opinion/why-women-in-south-africa-need-firearms-for-self-defence/
August 17, 2021
Gender-based violence the biggest human rights violation of our generation
The ANC has transformed our country into the rape capital of the world and South Africa is now possibly facing the greatest human rights crisis of our generation. The ANC must never claim the right to celebrate the freedom of women, women’s day and women’s month during their existence in South Africa. 116 women have their livelihoods stolen from them everyday when they are raped and they have an almost 100% guarantee that justice will not prevail.
It must be said that many victims are children and very simply put, would not be able to obtain a firearm for self-defence, but where possibly adult citizens should be legally armed and prepared for different situations they could be confronted with.
Imagine being the mother of a 5 year old little girl that was raped and murdered, then dumped in a pit toilet with severe injuries from being beaten and knowing that the chance of justice being served is less than 7%? Well, that is the case of little Chantal Makwena (5) from Rocklands who was brutally raped and murdered in August 2019. The same suspect that allegedly raped and murdered Chantal was arrested for the rape of a woman in 2018 and was out on bail.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, and a femicide rate that is five times the global average, with an estimated 12.1 in 100,000 victims each year. South Africa’s gender-based violence statistics (GBV) are equal to a country at war. It is important to note that 2 695 women are murdered every year in South Africa that’s 1 woman every 3 hours.
It is because of incompetent officials like Bheki Cele that men like Nicholas Ninow can roam the streets of this country. Ninow destroyed a little 7 year-old girl’s life before it could even begin, when he raped her in a restaurant in Pretoria in 2018. He was not convicted because of DNA- evidence but was caught red handed.
In the plenary debate on the DNA crisis, held on May 11 2021, Police Minister Bheki Cele confirmed that the South African Police Services (SAPS) was already implementing overtime to clear up the DNA backlog of 208 000 cases. “Our goal is to have 40% of human resources dedicated to addressing the backlog and 60% of staff will handle new cases,” said Cele. It is now 3 months later and the backlog has passed the 300 000 mark with no real evidence of Cele fulfilling his mandate and the SAPS obviously failing in their’s.
South Africa has in the last year, maintained it’s spot as the rape capital of the world, with about 132 incidents per 100,000 people. Tshegofatso Pule, Naledi Phangindawo, Alexia Nyamadzawo, Nolundi Dondolo and many others were victims of gender-based violence and were brutally killed at the hands of abusers in 2020
More than 300 000 victims of violence in South Africa have been denied justice by a corrupt law enforcement cluster that cannot ensure that basic forensic procedures are completed. How many children like Chantal are still going to be subjected to rape and murder with no hope of protection or justice?
“Why more women in South Africa need firearms for self-defence” – Gender Based Violence (Part 2)
https://firearms.co.za/opinion/why-women-in-south-africa-need-firearms-for-self-defence/
August 17, 2021
In June 2020, Bheki Cele appointed an oversight commission that gets paid to sort outthe DNA backlog in South Africa, but they have only met once since being appointed. How do you sleep at night, knowing that your failed oversight is denying more victims of gender-based violence and specifically rape from getting justice?
No example is being set as to what should happen to perpetrators that commit these horrific crimes.
South Africa is faced by a pandemic far greater than Covid 19, namely gender-based violence, as the ANC poses as a ruling political party, but is in actual fact a criminal mafia that have become professional in capturing state institutions. Under the supposed leadership of people like Cyril Ramaphosa, Jacob Zuma, Bheki Cele, Khehla Sithole, Jackie Selebi, Nathi Nhleko and Nathi Mthetwa, the ANC has become complicit in the gender- based violence pandemic that South Africa faces. There is only one reason for this: government is led by an intellectually corrupt organisation that has become the biggest criminal network South Africa has ever known. Law enforcement institutions have been hijacked for political gain by the ANC, they abuse these bodies to ensure that justice never prevails. Not one promise Bheki Cele has made during his term as minister of police has been honoured, in fact, further deterioration is happening as I write this.
Cyril Ramaphosa should be ashamed of associating with a minister like Bheki Cele, who started his own round of police destruction when he was made national police commissioner as part of an ANC cadre deployment scheme about a decade ago. Cele was also found unfit for duty by a court of law when he was national commissioner.
Mbali Shongwe, a rape survivor tells the real story of being failed by the South African justice system. After reporting her case and going through all the necessary channels, the case was dismissed. She was told it was due to a lack of evidence but after further investigation she learned that none of the leads were followed, the CCTV footage that was perfectly positioned to witness the crime was not reviewed and the detectives refused to pick up her assailant despite the overwhelming information she provided to them (after becoming hopeless and conducting an investigation to find her assailant herself).
“Not only did my rapist seek to silence and disempower me, but the system, that is designed to protect me, did too. The women of South Africa are tired. What we face daily is a scourge that we can no longer ignore. My rape has irrevocably changed who I am but unfortunately for my abuser and the justice system that failed me, I have emerged stronger than I was before. I have committed myself to the fact that I will never be silent. Until someone listens and the systems and culture change, I will continue to fight for the justice that I and so many other women deserve,” she says.
How many more women need to die at the hands of their ruthless and violent killers? When is enough, enough? How can government justify spending another R26 million on VIP protection while the vulnerable women and children in our communities remain exposed and unprotected?
Women, like so many other citizens should be encouraged to be legally armed and trained to equal the playing field where violent criminals threaten their lives.
Help us to bring justice where the system is failing victims. Join Action Society today and be a voice for the voiceless.
Ian Cameron
Ian leads Action Society’s community safety drive and is an ambassador for the #SafeCitizen Campaign. Ian is the founder of firearms.co.za.
>the restructure of the company’s debt and the sale of Burnstone to Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources – now Sibanye Gold.
“Wits Gold [Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources] delivered on a plate to Sibanye”
https://www.miningmx.com/news/gold/20129-wits-gold-delivered-on-a-plate-to-sibanye/
January 7, 2014
THE R407m takeover of Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources (Wits Gold) last year sees the departure – at least for now – of Johannesburg’s great gold bull, Adam Fleming, from active participation in South Africa’s gold exploration industry.
Fleming, the former chairman of Harmony Gold, in 2006 correctly anticipated a recovery in the gold price, saying memorably that the world’s gold market was “in the foothills’ of a major bull run.
He also forecast, wrongly, that the world’s gold mining companies would return to the riches of the historic Witwatersrand gold basin. It’s hard to see that happening, especially as Wits Gold itself has demonstrated how difficult building new gold mines in the region can be.
The company is wrapping up its business having witnessed a harrowing loss of value in the last two years.
Whereas Wits Gold once traded at R94.50, giving it a market value of over R3bn, the counter is now worth R369m. This follows Sibanye Gold’s R406m bid for the company last week which effectively brings the curtain down on Wits Gold after seven years of existence.
And whereas Fleming once boasted wealth in Wits Gold of about R750m, equal to a 26% stake in the company, that has now diminished to just over R100m. It’s a sign of the times that investors have lost faith with South Africa’s gold exploration story.
The whisper in the market is that Wits Gold’s attempts to raise capital to repay a R40m loan, provided by a Fleming company, were proving troublesome. Equally difficult to digest for Wits Gold was its growth target Burnstone which had been developed for a breathtaking $800m or R8bn by the now bankrupt Great Basin Gold.
__Wits Gold had successfully bid for Burnstone from Great Basin’s liquidators offering R100 and offering to take over $177.3m in bank debt owed by Southgold, Great Basin’s subsidiary. Wits Gold had committed to provide a R950m loan for working capital and capital expenditure at Burnstone.___
Wits Gold’s other projects, such as De Bron-Merriespruit (DBM), were also looking difficult to fund. DBM had a peak funding requirement of about R2.37bn. As of December 31, 2012, Wits Gold had cash and cash equivalents of R15m. Fleming then tried to support Wits Gold’s share by buying up 66,000 shares.
The bid from Sibanye Gold, a 47% premium to Wits Gold 30-day weighted average price probably presented Fleming with an easy choice, and other shareholders too who had been effectively locked into the company given its lack of liquidity. At the time of the announcement, some 56% of Wits Gold shareholders had accepted the Sibanye Gold offer.
For Sibanye Gold’s Neal Froneman, who once worked at Harmony Gold, this was a waiting game executed with opportunism. Macquarie Research correctly speculated in December 2012 following the formation of Sibanye Gold that Wits Gold would be a good fit for the company.
By waiting a year, Sibanye was able to buy Wits Gold by about R290m less. Speaking to Miningmx in December last year, Fleming said it was “a good deal’ for Wits Gold shareholders, and that he would take the proceeds from the buyout and reinvest them in Sibanye Gold.
“I think Neal is poised to do the ultimate consolidation in South Africa’s gold industry. Apart from the fact that Wits Gold is a natural extension of Beatrix (its DBM is adjacent to Sibanye Gold’s mature Beatrix mine in the Free State), I think Neal has got the power and the energy to pull this off,’ he says.
Fleming sticks by his view that South Africa will once again become the focus of global gold company interest. “It’s where the gold is. I cannot believe the world will never come back here. What we’re seeing now is temporary noise; it will dissipate,’ he says.
>[Adam] Fleming, the former chairman of Harmony Gold
>For Sibanye Gold’s Neal Froneman, who once worked at Harmony Gold
>“Business rescue of Southgold gives mine a new lease on life” – “Bowman Gilfillan acted for the secured lenders”
Harmony Gold – Dr. Patrice Motsepe (founding chairman of BRICS), also links to Sanlam, Bowman Gilfillan, World Economic Forum, Warren Buffet, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. (Part 1)
https://www.harmony.co.za/about/history
Harmony was incorporated and registered as a public company in South Africa on 25 August 1950 and later became a Randgold-managed company, exploiting the single Harmony mine lease. In 1995, Harmony was recreated as a separate entity following the winding up of Randgold. The number of operations has grown significantly since 1995, with Harmony transforming from a single, lease-bound mining operation into a multi-operation, global, independent, world-class gold producer.
Dr. Patrice Motsepe’s Biography
https://www.harmony.co.za/about/board
NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
LLB and Doctorate of Commerce (Honoris Causa) (University of Witwatersrand), Doctorate of Commerce (Honoris Causa) (Stellenbosch University), Doctor of Management and Commerce (Honoris Causa) (University of Fort Hare) and BA Law and Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) (University of Eswatini, formerly the University of Swaziland)
Member of the nomination committee
Dr Patrice Motsepe was appointed non-independent non-executive chairman on 23 September 2003. In 1994 [the year of South Africa’s “independence”], Dr Motsepe founded Future Mining which grew rapidly to become a successful contract mining company. He then formed ARMgold in 1997 which listed on the JSE in 2002.
In 2003, Dr Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony. Following the merger, Avmin changed its name to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and he became the founder and executive chairman of ARM.
Dr Patrice Motsepe was a partner in one of the largest law firms in South Africa, Bowmans [Bowman Gilfillan] and was also a visiting attorney in the USA with the law firm McGuireWoods.
In 2002, Dr Motsepe was voted South Africa’s Business Leader of the Year by the chief executive officers of the top 100 companies in South Africa. In the same year, he was the winner of the Ernst & Young Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
In 2017, Forbes Magazine commemorated its 100th anniversary and honoured Dr Motsepe as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” in the world alongside many prominent global business leaders. He is the only person living on the African continent to be recognised and honoured as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds” in the world.
__Dr Motsepe is the founder and Chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP) and UBI General Partner Proprietary Limited. He is also the deputy chairman of Sanlam and chairman of Harmony Gold.___
He is the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and a vice president of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). He was previously Chairman of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
Dr Motsepe is a member Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Network Advisory Board of the WEF Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the WEF International Business Council (IBC) which is made up of 100 of the most highly respected and influential chief executives from all industries. He is also a member of the Harvard Global Advisory Council and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).
Harmony Gold – Dr. Patrice Motsepe (founding chairman of BRICS), also links to Sanlam, Bowman Gilfillan, World Economic Forum, Warren Buffet, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. (Part 2)
https://www.harmony.co.za/about/board
His past business responsibilities include being the president of National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC) from 2002 to 2006, founding president of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) from January 2004 to May 2008, founding president of Chambers of Commerce and Industry South Africa (CHAMSA), president of the Black Business Council (BBC), and the founding chairman of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Business Council in March 2013.
Dr Motsepe is a recipient of numerous business and leadership awards and recognitions including:
• Sunday Times Lifetime Achiever Award, 2017
• Harvard University Veritas Award for Excellence in Global Business and Philanthropy, 2014
• BRICS Business Council, Outstanding Leadership Award, 2014
• The Black Management Forum (BMF) Presidential Award for Business Excellence, 2010
• McGuireWoods Outstanding Alumnus Awards, 2009
• African Business Roundtable, USA, Entrepreneur & Freedom of Trade Award, 2009
• South African Jewish Report, Special Board Members Award for Outstanding Achievement, 2004
• Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut, MS Louw Award for Exceptional Business Achievement, 2003
• World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow, 1999.
In January 2013 Dr Motsepe and his wife, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe joined the Giving Pledge which was started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Dr Motsepe committed to give half of the wealth, which is owned by the Motsepe family to the poor and for philanthropic purposes during his lifetime and that of his wife and beyond. In April 2019, Forbes Magazine stated that US$500 million was donated by the Motsepe family to the poor and for philanthropic purposes.
Dr Motsepe announced on 28 March 2020 that his family, in partnership with companies and organisations that they are associated with, including ARM, pledge R1 billion (US$57 million) to assist with South Africa and Africa’s response to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe Background; “appointed the first black partner of [Bowman Gilfillan], in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa [1994] and more” (Part 1)
“How The Son Of A Former African School Teacher Made Over $1 Billion Dollars”
https://startuptipsdaily.com/success-story-patrice-motsepe/
July 16, 2017
After getting his LLB, in 1988, Patrice Motsepe got a great job offer from the Bowman Gilfillan law firm, which was one of South Africa’s most reputable law firms.
Despite being a firm predominantly run by white South Africans, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s drive, commitment to growth, and high success rates in his job activities got his bosses to take a unique interest in him.
In 1991, Patrice Motsepe, under the American Bar Association program, was a visiting attorney to McGuire Woods law firm located in the heart of Richmond, Virginia, USA. During his visit, he met several mining organizations, and studying their operations sprouted a zeal and attraction in him for the business.
This exposure caused Patrice Motsepe to start studying the mining business in every way that he could. He would read all kinds of books & articles and study anything he could on mining, just so he could have a complete understanding and technical know-how on how the business operates.
In the year 1994, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s hard work at the Bowman Gilfillan law firm paid off, as he was appointed the first black partner of the organization, in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.
The Start Of His Business Journey
Now in the law firm, Patrice Motsepe specialized in mining and business law. His exposure to the sector caused him to start up a mining firm called Future Mining; a company which was into contract mining services that involved creating a system of worker remuneration that integrated a low base salary with a profit-sharing bonus, and also the cleaning of gold dust from inside mine shafts for the Vaal Reefs Gold mine, currently a subsidiary of AngloGold.
While his company handled very miniature mining contract services, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe continued to strive until he realized that the successful mines didn’t have to be the large ones, but rather any one, especially small ones that better managed their finances and operations.
The Establishment of The African Rainbow Minerals (ARM)
After saving up for many years, in 1997 when the price of Gold was falling, one of the largest mining companies in South Africa, AngloGold, was looking to sell some of their smaller, older, low-performing mine shafts, so they could focus on their larger and higher performing mines.
With this golden opportunity staring him in the face, Patrice Motsepe promptly founded the African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and proceeded to acquire one of the mine shafts that were up for sale by AngloGold.
In just three years after taking over the mines, Patrice Motsepe was able to fully repay the debt, which came as a complete shocker to almost every observer, as he had turned the mines’ operations around and made them profitable in just about 12 months after the takeover.
After this success, in the year 2000, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe partnered with Anglo Platinum, the world’s largest platinum producer. This partnership was a 50 – 50 ratio, and together, they created the largest platinum-producing mines in South Africa called Modikwa.
He further went on to partner with a South African gold producer called Harmony, in 2002, to acquire a certain number of shafts from Anglo. After the acquisition and commencement of operations on the shafts, they collectively went on to produce a total of 1 million troy ounces of platinum a year.
Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe Background; “appointed the first black partner of [Bowman Gilfillan], in exactly the same year that Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa [1994] and more” (Part 2)
https://startuptipsdaily.com/success-story-patrice-motsepe/
July 16, 2017
His Business Today
Since his business mergers and explosive growth, Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, making him one of the first black entrepreneurs in South Africa to own a major controlling stake in a publicly listed company.
Today, his company has strategic partnerships and mergers with other mining organizations, and have added a wide list of minerals to their coffers like nickel, chrome, coal, iron, manganese and precious metals (platinum and its related products).
In the process, Patrice Motsepe has built one of the largest mining companies in not just Africa, but the world, with revenues totaling over $2 billion, and employing over 10,000 people.
He also owns stakes in several other companies, including about a 5.5% stake in Sanlam, a publicly traded financial services company located outside of Cape Town, South Africa.
It is interesting that Patrice Motsepe is going to Uganda for the first time for soccer, especially after a huge deposit of gold was discovered in the country and his business is gold mining.
“Caf president Patrice Motsepe to visit Uganda”
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/sports/soccer/caf-president-patrice-motsepe-to-visit-uganda-3878252
July 13, 2022
What you need to know:
• This will be the South African billionaire’s first visit to Uganda. He took charge following a five-year ban handed to his predecessor Ahmad.
• Ahmad, who had been Caf president and Fifa vice president since 2017, was found guilty of violating several of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE), including abuse of office, distribution of gifts and misappropriations of funds during his presidency.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Dr. Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe will pay a two-day visit to Uganda starting tomorrow.
Motsepe, who took over the leadership of the continental football governing body in March, 2021, will be hosted by the Fufa president and Caf executive committee member Hon. Moses Hasim Magogo.
“During the visit, the Caf president will hold meetings with HE President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among, Fufa Executive and key football stakeholders,” a statement released by Fufa reads.
This will be the South African billionaire’s first visit to Uganda. He took charge following a five-year ban handed to his predecessor Ahmad.
Ahmad, who had been Caf president and Fifa vice president since 2017, was found guilty of violating several of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE), including abuse of office, distribution of gifts and misappropriations of funds during his presidency.
A five-year ban from taking part in all football-related activities at national and international level was imposed by Fifa on November 23, 2020, as well as a fine of 200,000 Swiss francs (about 220,000 US dollars).
Motsepe arrives here following last week’s decision by Caf to move the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations from June/July, 2023 to January/February, 2024.
The tournament was to be hosted in June-July 2023, which is the height of the rainy season in Ivory Coast. It will now be played in January-February the following year.
“We cannot take the risk,” said the South African, Motsepe, in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
Caf, also recently passed the Caf African Super League. On the agenda since Fifa President Gianni Infantino hinted at its possibility in 2019, the African Super League will get underway in August 2023.
The tournament will feature 24 teams and carry total prize money of $100m, said Motsepe, adding that just over $10m will go to the winner.
Citing ‘financial challenges’ in Caf which he inherited from Ahmad, Motsepe said that businesses are interested in sponsoring the event.
“The key issue for us is the abnormal interest we’ve been exposed to from some of the biggest and most prominent investors and sponsors,” he said.
Caf also said that the African Champions League, which is open to all countries in Africa, will continue alongside the new African Super League, where the top 24 teams will be determined according to their Fifa ranking.
>Webber Wentzel - Southgold
>Bowman Gilfillan - Southgold
Bowmans: Timeless Ties - Excerpts
https://www.bowmanslaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Alumni-Newsletter_25-October-2018.pdf
Once part of Bowmans, always part of Bowmans. Although dispersed all over the world, in virtually every sector and industry, our alumni share a common bond – one that we would like to strengthen and nurture.
Leading South African jurists Sisi Khampepe and Dunstan Mlambo are among our alumni who have reached great heights.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, advocate and author of The Land is Ours, was a partner in Johannesburg before switching to the Bar. Top South African business leaders Patrice Motsepe of African Rainbow Minerals and Sim Tshabalala of Standard Bank grew up in this firm and are now loyal clients.
Following the progress of these luminaries is easy because of their public profiles. There are countless other Bowmans alumni who, in their own ways, are making their mark across the world and have inspiring stories and experiences to share.
JUDGE DUNSTAN MLAMBO
Bowmans alumni are people to watch long after they have struck out in new directions. A fearless champion of access to justice is Judge Dunstan Mlambo, Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, who completed his articles at Bowmans.
The many high-profile cases Dunstan has considered include the 2014 decision to allow the media to broadcast the proceedings of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. His reasons for allowing the trial to be broadcast live included dispelling perceptions that the rich and famous receive preferential treatment from the justice system.
Another landmark case was the matter between former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Gupta-owned company Oakbay.
Then there was his December 2017 ruling that then Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had to appoint a new National Director of Public Prosecutions within 60 days.
AI: A NEW FORM OF PARTNER
This year we introduced a new partner to Bowmans: Kira. Kira is an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve efficiencies in certain key legal processes, primarily in the mergers and acquisitions and regulatory areas. Bowmans is one of the first African firms to be able to offer a solution of this nature to clients.
In 2017 we celebrated 50 years of the Bowmans vs Webber Wentzel cricket match, an enjoyable social tradition between the two fine firms.
Bowmans – Global reach
https://www.bowmanslaw.com/our-firm/our-african-footprint/
Recognising the size and enormous diversity of Africa, our approach to providing legal services across the continent is intended to offer on-the-ground advice in the countries that matter for our clients. Our presence in Africa is always evolving to meet the changes that are shaping the future of this vast continent.
Currently, we have our own offices in six African countries: Kenya (Nairobi), Mauritius (Moka), South Africa (Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg), Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), Uganda (Kampala) and Zambia (Lusaka).
We work closely with our Bowmans Alliance firms in Ethiopia (Aman Assefa & Associates Law Office) and Nigeria (Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie). These are two of the leading corporate and commercial law firms in their jurisdictions.
We have special relationships with competent practitioners in Malawi and Mozambique. We also have a non-exclusive co-operation agreement with French international law firm Gide Loyrette Nouel that provides our clients access to assistance in francophone west and north Africa. The arrangement provides complementary access for Gide’s clients and lawyers to markets in central, southern and eastern Africa.
We ensure that, whenever our clients need legal advice in other parts of Africa, we can assist them by tapping into our comprehensive database of contacts of the best firms and practitioners across the continent.
On the global front, Bowmans has long-standing and excellent relationships with a range of international law firms with whom we often work on Africa-focussed client mandates. We are also a member firm of Lex Mundi, a global association of more than 160 independent law firms in all the major centres across the globe. Lex Mundi gives us the ability to connect our clients with the best law firms in each of the countries represented.
>Dr Motsepe is the founder and Chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, African Rainbow Capital (ARC), African Rainbow Energy and Power (AREP)
“Bowmans are advising Absa Bank Ltd on the formation of the African Rainbow Energy Fund Partnership”
https://www.bowmanslaw.com/
We are advising Absa Bank Ltd on the formation of the African Rainbow Energy Fund Partnership, a private equity renewable energy investment fund in partnership with African Rainbow Energy and Power (Pty) Ltd.
>In 2003, Dr Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony. Following the merger, Avmin changed its name to African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and he became the founder and executive chairman of ARM.
>An important consideration in this process was the homogeneous nature of SA business. In the 1970s and 1980s the major national companies were Anglo (the Oppenheimers); Rembrandt (the Ruperts); Liberty (the Gordons); and Anglovaal (the Menells and Hersovs). The top six companies owned over 80% of the economy in 1985. This economic clout provided considerable leverage.
>1977 Urban Foundation “think tank” is founded by Harry Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and Clive Menell.This Foundation introduced neoliberal housing policy for Blacks under the guise of “development”. Cyril Ramaphosa, Nthato Motlana and Phuthuma Ntleko became the leaders of this “development” Foundation
>1990 Independent Development Trust (IDT) is established as a Schedule 2 State Owned Entity largely taking on the “development” programmes of the Urban Foundation “think tank” which was setup in 1977 by Oppenheimer, Rupert and Menell. Chairman of Urban Foundation, Judge Jan Steyn becomes the head of IDT
>13 April 1992 Nelson Mandela announces intention to separate from Winnie Madikizela Mandela and moves in with Menell family .Clive Menell is one of the founders of the Urban Foundation which was established in 1977
Remember Anglovaal Mining (Avmin) was owned by the Menell and Hersov families
“Patrice Motsepe | Africa’s Billionaire | Personal Life”
https://theexchange.africa/african-billionaires/patrice-motsepe-net-worth/
September 22, 2020
He launched ARMgold in 1997, which in 2003 merged with Harmony and acquired Anglovaal Mining (Avmin). In 2004, Motsepe was named chairman of the newly reorganized ARM and by 2006 the company had expanded beyond gold and other metals into coal mining.
>Glencore’s client list is a roster of the world’s largest firms including BP, Total, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhilips, Chevron, Vale, Rio Tinto, ArcelorMittal and Sony
>Both [Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust] organizations are invested in the Rio Tinto mines
>The considerable proceeds from the sale gave the Wellcome Trust financial independence. Today, we invest in a wide range of financial assets around the world, and the returns from our portfolio – currently worth around £38 billion – fund everything we do.
>Viscount Alfred Milner, co-founder of the Pilgrims Society, was Rio Tinto chairman from 1923-1925, and earlier a director for many years.
“Rio Tinto's recent scandals” – “sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination”; “Indigenous site destroyed”; “Bougainville civil war”; “Equatorial Guinea probe” (Part 1)
https://www.rfi.fr/en/rio-tinto-s-recent-scandals
03/02/2022
Sydney (AFP) – Revelations of rape and sexual assault at Rio Tinto are the latest in a series of scandals to hit the global mining giant, which is listed in London and Sydney.
Here is a selection of Rio Tinto's recent problems:
'Deeply disturbing'
On Tuesday, Rio Tinto released a searing internal report showing that sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination were rife "throughout the company".
The 85-page report, based on one-on-one interviews and a survey of 10,000 staff, found that 21 women had reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault in the past five years.
CEO Jakob Stausholm said the findings were "deeply disturbing".
"I offer my heartfelt apology to every team member, past or present, who has suffered as a result of these behaviours. This is not the kind of company we want to be," he said.
Indigenous site destroyed
In 2020, Rio admitted blowing up 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, destroying a priceless piece of the country's Aboriginal history.
Following public backlash and an investor revolt, then-CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques and two other top executives were forced to resign.
The caves were one of the earliest known locations inhabited by Australia's Indigenous people and had contained some of the oldest Aboriginal artefacts ever found in the country.
Rio Tinto's then-chairman Simon Thompson apologised and said the company's 2020 successes which saw it pay out a record dividend to investors on the back of booming iron ore prices had been "overshadowed" by the destruction.
The site is considered sacred by the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people of Western Australia.
“Rio Tinto's recent scandals” – “sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination”; “Indigenous site destroyed”; “Bougainville civil war”; “Equatorial Guinea probe” (Part 2)
https://www.rfi.fr/en/rio-tinto-s-recent-scandals
03/02/2022
Bougainville civil war
After decades of pressure, Rio Tinto agreed in 2021 to investigate the legacy of environmental damage and human rights abuses linked to its mine on the once war-torn Pacific island of Bougainville.
The now-shuttered Panguna copper and gold mine was at the centre of the brutal decade-long civil war in Bougainville, part of Papua New Guinea.
While in operation between 1972 and 1989, it was one of the South Pacific's largest mines.
Anger among locals over the environmental damage and distribution of profits fuelled an uprising and civil war that killed an estimated 20,000 people – 10 percent of the island's population at the time.
Clean-up costs are believed to be in the region of US$1 billion and have become prominent in the debate over Bougainville's independence from Papua New Guinea, which the island's residents overwhelmingly voted for in December 2019.
Equatorial Guinea probe
In 2017, Britain's Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation into "suspected corruption" surrounding Rio Tinto's development of the world's biggest untapped iron ore deposit in Equatorial Guinea.
A year earlier, Rio Tinto reported itself to regulators after an internal probe found US$10.5 million in "advisory services" payments had been made in relation to the project.
The company first secured exploration rights in the Simandou mountains in 1997.
In 2014, it sealed a US$20 billion deal with a consortium led by a Chinese state-run aluminium group to develop Simandou, which would have been Africa's biggest-ever mining and infrastructure venture.
The stake was later sold. The investigation is ongoing.
“US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is Yet Another in a Long Line of Made Men” – Samuel Pisar, Robert Maxwell, Bruce Rappoport, Jeff Epstein, so on (Part 1)
https://www.winterwatch.net/2021/03/secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-is-another-in-a-line-of-made-men/
March 27, 2021
Newly anointed President Joe Biden chose for U.S. Secretary of State a creature from the bowels of the Crime Syndicate cesspool named Antony Blinken, who has often been described in the press as Biden’s closest and most-loyal friend.
Blinken’s stepfather, one Samuel Pisar (1929-2015), was a “long-trusted attorney” for Israeli and Soviet Union superspy Robert Maxwell (1923-1991). Based in Paris, Pisar “had become one of Maxwell’s few confidants and probably his closest business adviser,” according to reports at the time.
Antony “Tony” Blinken was born on April 16, 1962, in Yonkers, New York, to Jewish parents Judith and Donald Blinken. He attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City until 1971, when he moved to Paris, France, with his divorced mother and her new husband, the aforementioned lawyer Samuel Pisar.
As you may recall, the notorious Jeffrey Epstein was a teacher at Dalton School and Bill Barr’s father was its principal. Donald Barr “hired Epstein to teach at Dalton when Epstein was merely a 20-year-old college dropout from both Cooper Union and New York University. Epstein taught at Dalton 2 years before he was hired by the investment bank Bear Stearns.”
During the Clinton Administration, the then-assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs brought Blinken into the National Security Council.
The fast-rising Blinken was well established in American foreign-policy circles. He worked as a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2001 to ’02 and then served as Democratic Staff Director of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 2002 until 2008. During that time, he became a close friend of then-Sen. Joe Biden.
In 2006, Donald Blinken and Jeffrey Epstein were both members of the Council on Foreign Relations.
When Democratic nominee Barack Obama chose Biden as his running mate in the 2008 election, Biden gave Blinken a broad portfolio, including managing the team’s Iraq policy. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President and helped craft U.S. policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Iranian nuclear program. He was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor in 2014.
Blinken’s half-sister, Leah Pisar, also worked at the State Department and as communications director at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. Blinken’s uncle, meanwhile, served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium at the same time that Blinken’s father was ambassador to Hungary.
“US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is Yet Another in a Long Line of Made Men” – Samuel Pisar, Robert Maxwell, Bruce Rappoport, Jeff Epstein, so on (Part 2)
https://www.winterwatch.net/2021/03/secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-is-another-in-a-line-of-made-men/
March 27, 2021
Six Degrees of Samuel Pisar
Most of the background on stepfather Samuel Pisar is whitewashed other than mentions that he was a “lawyer for Fortune 500 companies.” The truth is much more sketchy.
Pisar was the longtime consigliere, confidant and one of the last people to speak to Robert Maxwell (aka Ján Ludvík Hyman Hoch) by phone probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers “fell off” his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine (named for his daughter) on Nov. 5, 1991.
Maxwell, of course, was the father of Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell. Cozy, isn’t it?
Six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence services attended Maxwell’s funeral in Israel, while Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir eulogized him and stated, “He has done more for Israel than can today be told.”
Read “Israel gives Maxwell farewell fit for hero”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/11/israel-gives-maxwell-farewell-fit-for-hero/1773995a-0eac-4a3e-abed-1d3254cc0baa/, from The Washington Post on 11 November 1991- “Herzog delivered the eulogy, the Kaddish was recited by his fellow Holocaust survivor, friend and longtime attorney Samuel Pisar.”
The central organizing precept in these circles is corruption, and a singular, well understood, self righteous thirst for power and wealth.
It emerged after the funeral that, Pisar’s pal and client Maxwell had looted hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds to shore up the shares of the Mirror Group to save his companies from bankruptcy. Eventually, the pension funds were replenished from public funds. The result was that in general, pensioners received about half of their company pension entitlement.
“US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is Yet Another in a Long Line of Made Men” – Samuel Pisar, Robert Maxwell, Bruce Rappoport, Jeff Epstein, so on (Part 3)
https://www.winterwatch.net/2021/03/secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-is-another-in-a-line-of-made-men/
March 27, 2021
Pisar was an advisor to French presidents François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. [“June (1989), a UDF (Harry Oppenheimer funded >>16554865 ) delegation, led by Albertina Sisulu, meets British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, new American President George Bush, the French President, Francois Mitterrand and the Swedish Prime Minister.” - >>16544926 ]
“In Paris Pisar, was the intermediary, https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/affaire-esptein-les-nombreux-liens-du-millionnaire-avec-la-france-13-08-2019-8133258.php, between Epstein and the (French) cabinet.
Samuel Pisar’s name and seven phone numbers were in Epstein’s “black book.
Many roads lead to Pisar and there are ample clues on the who, what, and whens of this transnational organized crime network.
Pisar represented Armand Hammer in a number of his international negotiations.
Pisar represented Sir James Goldsmith, crooked Geneva banker Bruce Rappaport [Marc Rich’s business partner >>16526352 ] and high-level members of the Bank of New York. He worked with Roget Tamraz on the BCCI bailout plan.
__Bruce Rappaport and high-level members of the Bank of New York, criminal Russian (code for Jewish) organizations were able to thrive and prosper during a time when the rest of the former Soviet Union crumbled.___
Samuel Pisar code name was ‘’The Phoenix’’ and to understand his role you need to look into his close friend from Harvard Ahmed Zaki Yamani. Pisar was also part of the negotiation in the Al-Yamamah arms deal.
Pisar was one of the earliest exponents of détente in the heyday of the Cold War and one of the advisors to corporations on how to do business with the Soviet Union. The cornerstone of his reputation with the broad public was his 558 page book entitled Coexistence & Commerce: Guidelines for Transactions between East and West.
Steven Jobs spent lots of time with Pisar too. A declassified FBI interrogation statement describes Jobs as a likely intelligence asset of some kind.
>Read “Israel gives Maxwell farewell fit for hero”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/11/israel-gives-maxwell-farewell-fit-for-hero/1773995a-0eac-4a3e-abed-1d3254cc0baa/, from The Washington Post on 11 November 1991- “Herzog delivered the eulogy, the Kaddish was recited by his fellow Holocaust survivor, friend and longtime attorney Samuel Pisar.”
>“Homeward Bound : Operation Exodus Lends Support to Soviet Jews in Their Return to Israel” – Mendel Kaplan (South African)
Robert Maxwell and Mendel Kaplan (South African) would have worked closely together to help Soviet Jews migrate to Israel
“ISRAEL GIVES MAXWELL FAREWELL FIT FOR HERO”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/11/11/israel-gives-maxwell-farewell-fit-for-hero/1773995a-0eac-4a3e-abed-1d3254cc0baa/
November 11, 1991
One official source, while denying that Maxwell ever had contact with the Mossad or access to sensitive information, said the government did not shrink from asking his help on issues ranging from Soviet immigration to the financing of pet projects. Maxwell reportedly helped arrange the transit of Soviet Jews to Israel through Eastern Europe, where he had extensive contacts and investments. Six months ago, he paid for the transfer to Israel of several dozen Jewish children affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Ukraine.
“Homeward Bound : Operation Exodus Lends Support to Soviet Jews in Their Return to Israel” – Mendel Kaplan (South African)
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-11-vw-81-story.html
June 11, 1990
Israeli businessman Mendel Kaplan reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a sheaf of papers written in Hebrew and English. In mundane words and numbers, the documents detail housing construction for Soviet Jews emigrating to Israel in a modern exodus that sometimes sets the world on edge.
Casting aside geopolitics for a moment, Kaplanalso head of the private agency responsible for transporting and resettling the emigrantsflips through the pages and delivers a litany on the perils of putting up apartments in his country.
Stabbing a finger at one project, he says: “I’m going to take photographs of (the contractor’s) progress.” Then he adds, “I’ve been in business in Israel for 20 years, and I’m happier when I’m checking up on the exact progress of every aspect of my activities. I’m putting it gently.”
Kaplan, a steel and wire manufacturer who doubles as chairman of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors, is in Los Angeles on a private trip. But he concedes it is almost impossible to extract himself completely from the complex operation behind “another great moment in Jewish history, the ingathering of the last reservoir of Jews left in the world.”
In his Jewish Agency role, the bluff, no-nonsense Kaplan is at the focal point of a worldwide campaign to raise $600 million over the next three years to pay for the unprecedented and controversial flood of Jews leaving the Soviet Union for Israel. Jewish communities in the United States are expected to raise more than two-thirds of this amount, some $420 million. In Los Angeles, the goal is $36 million.
For example, during his recent summit meeting with President Bush, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said his government would reconsider its emigration policy unless Israel guaranteed Soviet Jews would not be resettled on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Days later, the Soviets backed away from this position, telling U.S. officials they are “committed” to liberalized emigration.
Based on the number of Soviet Jewish families who have requested resettlement in Israel, Kaplan estimates that 600,000 to 700,000 currently are eligible to come to Israel. In Los Angeles, officials orchestrating the local fund-raising drive acknowledge the influx of Soviet Jews involves explosive issues, such as where they settle in Israel and the long-running uprising of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, taken by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
Kaplan is a native of South Africa and maintains ties with that country’s Jewish community. Although he supports an end to apartheid, Kaplan says he draws no direct parallels with Soviet Jewish emigration and the freedom drives of black South Africans.
Black South Africans are already in their homeland, he says, whereas Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel is another act in the age-old Jewish search for a homeland.
Knowing this, it gives this speech a different perspective.
Secretary Blinken’s speech on “The United States and Africa: Building a 21st Century” – November 19, 2021
https://youtu.be/EVF8Q11Zw60
Secretary Antony J. Blinken's speech on “The United States and Africa: Building a 21st Century” at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 19, 2021.
Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President's chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President's foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
4:47 – “At this moment of testing for democracy around the world, we see across Africa a microcosm of what democracies can achieve – as well as the challenges that they must overcome. And as we debate how to govern the use of technologies to ensure they strengthen democracies – not undermine them – the choices that governments, industries, and innovators make here will affect people’s rights and freedoms everywhere for a long time to come. For all these reasons and more, I believe Africa will shape the future – and not just the future of the African people but of the world.”
10:04 – “We’re also supporting countries like South Africa and Senegal in their work to manufacture vaccines themselves, and we want to invest more in efforts like these, because increasing vaccine production in Africa makes it easier to distribute them, which saves lives. Likewise, the Africa CDC has been a vital partner throughout the pandemic. And we hope other regions will see the success of the Africa CDC and create their own centers for disease control, because a global network of regional CDCs would put the world on stronger footing for the future. This pandemic has revealed how vulnerable all of us are. We have to seize the opportunity to strengthen global health security. On this, the United States and the countries of Africa are uniquely well-positioned to lead, because we’ve spent decades working together to improve health across the continent. PEPFAR, for example, has saved millions of lives, brought the world to the edge of the first AIDS-free generation – and transformed public health infrastructure, including here in Nigeria, where the investments we made years ago in labs and clinics formed the backbone of this nation’s COVID response. We know how to do this work together. Let’s take on the challenge of global health security – for the sake of our countries and countries around the world that will be safer if we act and we lead.”
12:28 - “Now, a few weeks ago, President Biden launched the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience. He’ll work with our Congress to allocate $3 billion every year by 2024 to finance climate adaptation projects around the world. It’s the largest commitment ever made by the United States to reduce the impact of climate change on those most endangered by it.”
14:29 – “Just look at what Nigeria has done in “financial tech” – with electronic payments, cryptocurrency, digital banking. And imagine what we could achieve together in building our green economic future.”
16:43 – “The Global Minimum Tax, which 130 countries have agreed to, is a strong step in the right direction; it will raise billions in revenues for countries and end the global race to the bottom that had corporations moving from one place to another to pay as little in taxes as they could.”
19:54 - “Many Africans are now living under at least partially authoritarian governments. And militaries have taken over civilian governments four times this year; that’s the highest number in four decades.”
21:27 – “Now, I want to emphasize that democratic backsliding is not just an African problem. It’s a global problem. My own country is struggling with threats to our democracy. And the solutions to those threats will come as much from Africa as from anywhere.”
25:46 – “So I’ve covered a little bit of ground. But everything I’ve said can be boiled down to this: the United States wants to strengthen our partnerships across Africa in ways that serve your interests, our interests, and the interests of people worldwide whose lives and futures depend in part on what we can achieve together.”
Transcript: https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-and-africa-building-a-21st-century-partnership/
“”George Bush And The 12333 Serial Murder Ring; High Level Links To Murder Of Swedish Prime Minister – “Communist Rules for Revolution” [1919]”
http://www.phoenixsourcedistributors.com/961112.pdf
November 12, 1996
It provides plenty of ties between presidents, prime ministers, cartels, countries (which includes South Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, more), intelligence agencies, Marc Rich etc.. Below is an excerpt from the attached document which “is the “Communist Rules for Revolution” found by the Allied Forces May, 1919 in Dusseldof, Germany.”
Page 22
Excerpted from THE BIG LIE flyer, [quoting:]
A. Corrupt the young; get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial; destroy their ruggedness.
B. Get control of all means of publicity, thereby:
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Get people’s minds off their government by focusing their attention on sexy books and other trivialities.
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Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
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Destroy the people’s faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule, and obliquity.
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Always preach true democracy, but sieze power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
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By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.
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Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster lenient and soft attitude on the part of the government toward such disorders.
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By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues; honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, [and] ruggedness.
C. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the population helpless.
Read, stop and think. This list is the “Communist Rules for Revolution” found by the Allied Forces May, 1919 in Dusseldorf, Germany. NOW READ IT AGAIN! [emphasis mine] [End quoting]
When you observe what is going on in the world TODAY, can you still say there is no conspiracy to take over the control of the world by the EVIL POWER ELITE?? Let us face the truth!
“A Tribute To Photographer Kevin Carter (who apparently killed himself 4 months later)” - https://youtu.be/FC7UyAN-jrY
Remember, the ANC stated that the homeland, Bophuthatswana, was a puppet of the Apartheid government. The right wing AWB tried to help its government to keep its independence. On their way back to South Africa, some were gunned down in front of about 24 members of the press by Bop’s military. The press reported that the AWB indiscriminately killed civilians on their way out of the homeland but there was no footage of these incidents. Yet many of them were waiting to witness the murder of these members. As someone stated in the video at 1:23, “it was almost like a movie set.”
Yet
Shabtai Kalmanowitch (Lithuanian-born Israeli citizen) “dominated the economies and government of” Bophuthatswana, “an operative for Marc Rich”, protected by Mossad
http://www.phoenixsourcedistributors.com/961112.pdf
November 12, 1996
Page 7
The Israeli Connection
The presence of Marc Rich at the 1984 meeting to plan out the sanctions-busting effort, adds a further dimension to the Ricci-Williamson-White concert. Marc Rich served, throughout the 1980s, as a liaison among Israeli, Iranian, Soviet, and American intelligence networks, engaged in vast arms-, oil-, and drug-trafficking operations in the Middle East, Africa, and South America. The story of this bizarre set of subterranean business dealins came to light following the December 23, 1987 arrest of a Lithuanian-born Israeli citizen, Shabai Kalmanowitch, by Israeli police, on charges that he was spying for the Soviet KGB.
Kalmanowitch was an operative for Marc Rich, who had played a pivotal role in Israeli intelligence operations in Africa. Kalmanowitch had “excaped”to Israel from Lithuania in 1971, and rapidly established himself as a sharp political operative, working, first, for the Israeli Labor Party in the office of Prime Mininster Golda Meir and, later, as a political liaison officer in East Europe. In 1977, Kalmanowitch’s switched over to the Likud Party, at the point that Menachim Begin [was a militant; https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-opens-secret-files-about-jewish-terrorists-in-1940s/] became prime minister. Kalmanowitch’s initial Likud sponsor was notorious North African Jewish gangster Samuel Flatto-Sharon, who bought his seat in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) that same year, in order to avoid criminal prosecution in France for his smuggling activities in francophone Africa.
In the 1980s, Kalmanowitch set up a string of front companies, including B International, and LIAT, which came to dominate the economies and governments of the South Africa Bantustan Bophutatswana, and the West African state of Sierra Leone, following a Mossad-engineered coup d’etat there in 1985. Wherever Kalmanowitch set up shop, Marc Rich was immediately brought in as his super-partner. Rich, who launched his career as one of the world’s biggest and dirtiest commodities traders, at Phillips Brothers, struck out on his own in 1973, setting up Marc Rich and Company as a strategic metals and petroleum trading house in Zug, Switzerland. Soon, Rich had established a special relationship with Iran, that survived the overthow of the Shah and the takeover by Ayatollah Khomeini.
By the early 1980s, Rich was running his own oil-for-arms pipeline in and out of Iran; he was the leading spot market trader in Soviet oil, and precious metals; and was the leading oil supplier to the Republic of South Africa, end-running the United Nations boycott. According to Africa Confidential, during 1983-86, Rich delivered over 2.5 million tons of Iranian oil to South Africa. Among the commodities swapped for the Iranian oil was 155-millimeter howitzers and ground-to-air missiles, manufactured in the South African factories of Gerald Bull’s Space Research Corp.
During their intitial efforts on the continent, Rich and Kalmanowitch’s African operations were well-protected by the Israeli Mossad’s senior officer in charge of Africa, David Kimche. Kimche, during the middle of the 1980s, became the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and the liaison to the Reagan-Bush White House secret operations. Through this Kimche connection, Kalmanowitch was able to staff every office of the LIAT firm with “retired” Mossad and Israeli Defence Force officials. Kalmanowitch also used his status as a “diplomat” for the Sierre Leone government to travel throught the Soviet bloc, arranging joint business ventures in Africa. Sierre Leone, in the meantime, had become a favorite smuggling port for Iranian oil bound for South Africa, but “delivered” to Rich and Kalmanowitch-owned companies in the West African republic.
“DID A MYSTERY TYCOON DOUBLE-CROSS ISRAEL?” - SHABTAI KALMANOVITCH, Bophuthatswana, Marc Rich, Soviet Union. Natan Sharansky (Part 1)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/05/08/did-a-mystery-tycoon-double-cross-israel/699da8c4-59be-45ef-b45e-dc6c122f536f/
May 8, 1988
SHABTAI KALMANOVITCH was an Israeli success story. Within little more than a decade after arriving there from the Soviet Union, he had built a far-flung empire that included a crocodile farm in the South African tribal homeland of Bophuthatswana, gold and diamond concessions in Sierra Leone and a sprawling villa in Cannes – a champagne-cork-pop away from Adnan Khashoggi's yacht.
By the mid-1980s, Kalmanovitch not only reportedly controlled much of the commerce of Bophuthatswana and Sierra Leone, but he had imported Israelis to help run their internal security services as well. The swashbuckling 42-year-old Russian Jewish emigre is said to have joked that while it would take a half-million dollars to buy an African minister of finance, he could have his pick of out-of-work Israeli generals for the price of a good hummus dinner.
Kalmanovitch was more than just another charming entrepreneur who rubbed shoulders with Israeli cabinet ministers. In 1978, he helped to arrange a three-way spy swap among Israel, the United States and the Soviet Union by opening a channel through East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, who was later involved in the negotiations that brought Natan Sharansky to the West. This relationship made Kalmanovitch an important asset to Israel's intelligence community and the U.S. State Department.
Kalmanovitch's world started to come unglued a year ago when he and a business partner were indicted in the United States for allegedly passing forged checks worth more than $2 million. Then, on Dec. 23, Kalmanovitch was arrested in Israel on suspicion of being a Soviet spy. He is now in prison awaiting trial.
The Israeli establishment was stunned. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said he was "almost certain" that the Soviets had passed on information obtained from Kalmanovitch to Syria and other countries at war with Israel. His arrest also reportedly upset the CIA, further eroding its confidence in Israel's intelligence services in the wake of the Pollard spy scandal.
Kalmanovitch has denied the espionage charge. But one indication that he may indeed have been working for the Soviets came on Feb. 4, when his wife smuggled a note from Kalmanovitch out of an Israeli prison to one of his New York business associates, Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, an international commodities broker visiting Tel Aviv. Greenwald had worked with Kalmanovitch and Vogel on several East-West spy swap ventures. According to one source who has read the note, it said simply: Talk to Vogel "and get me home."
A few days later, Greenwald handed the note to Vogel at his office in East Berlin. On March 1, Greenwald received a message from Vogel asking him to get an official document from the Israeli government that declared its interest in exchanging Kalmanovitch.
The riddle of the Kalmanovitch case probably won't be solved until his trial later this year. For now, he's a mystery man whose actions are incomprehensible, even to his closest friends.
Whatever the final legal judgment on Kalmanovitch, his story offers a rare glimpse into a new breed of high-flying Israelis who can be found anywhere from Sri Lanka to Panama, selling arms and military know-how. These entrepreneurs get into the most unlikely (and sometimes embarrassing) deals – such as those arranged by arms dealers Al Schwimmer and Jacob Nimrodi in setting up the first shipments of U.S. weapons to Iran in the Iran-contra affair, and the efforts of Geneva-based businessman Bruce Rappaport to gain the help of Attorney General Edwin Meese III for the ill-fated Iraqi pipeline deal.
“DID A MYSTERY TYCOON DOUBLE-CROSS ISRAEL?” - SHABTAI KALMANOVITCH, Bophuthatswana, Marc Rich, Soviet Union. Natan Sharansky (Part 2)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/05/08/did-a-mystery-tycoon-double-cross-israel/699da8c4-59be-45ef-b45e-dc6c122f536f/
May 8, 1988
The new Israeli entrepreneurs often work in countries where Israel has no formal diplomatic ties, spawning rumors that they are semi-official representatives of Israel's intelligence service. But the Israeli tycoons usually are free agents, working without controls in countries where the possibility for personal corruption is quite high. Like many Arab businessmen, many of them make their money at the margin of legitimate commerce, acting as middlemen and commission agents for powerful politicians in the Third World. From his first days in Israel, Kalmanovitch displayed a talent for making high-level government contacts. Soon after he immigrated in 1971, he became an advisor on the absorption of Soviet Jews to the Labor government of then Prime Minister Golda Meir. He then became the head of hasbara, or propaganda for Eastern Europe. Later he joined the fledgling political party of Samuel Flatto-Sharon, a flamboyant French Jew who had fled to Israel after he was convicted in France on tax-evasion charges. Later, Flatto-Sharon was convicted in Israel for bribery.
Greenwald says he first met Kalmanovitch in early 1978 in Israel, after Flatto-Sharon asked him if he would be interested in arranging Sharansky's release from the Soviet Union. The Israelis outlined a plan for a three-way swap involving an Israeli who was being held in Mozambique on espionage charges, a Soviet spy incarcerated in a Pennsylvania prison and Sharansky. A few days later Greenwald and Kalmanovitch flew to East Berlin to discuss the spy-swap with Vogel.
In spring 1978, Kalmanovitch, Greenwald and Vogel flew to Washington to finalize the deal with the State Department. "Kalmanovitch was introduced to me as a private representative of the government of Israel," said a former State Department official who flew to East Berlin with Kalmanovitch to exchange the Soviet spy for an American college student who had been jailed in East Germany for trying to smuggle a doctor out of East Berlin in the trunk of a car. The Sharansky deal did not come off then because of an unfavorable political climate.
If U.S. officials found something odd about Kalmanovitch, it didn't stop them from relying on him as an intermediary. During the next few years, Kalmanovitch continued to travel to East Berlin to talk to Vogel about winning Sharansky's release and to propose other trades, according to the former State Department official.
Although Kalmanovitch's talks with Vogel "petered out" after several years, "we were grateful for his help," said the former State Department official, who added that not only did Kalmanovitch provide the U.S. government with "reliable" information, but he also did much to open the "very sensitive" channel to Vogel that ultimately brought Sharansky to the West in 1986.
Kalmanovitch's deepening relationship with Greenwald also helped his business dealings in Africa. In May 1980, the New York rabbi and commodities broker introduced Kalmanovitch to Lucas Mangope, the president of Bophuthatswana, one of the four so-called independent black homelands inside South Africa. Greenwald said he had been asked by Mangope to be Bophuthatswana's economic advisor with rank of ambassador in New York and Washington.
"But because there is a strong black opinion here and a strong liberal opinion that the black homelands are just an extension of apartheid," Greenwald says, "I told Mangope that there was only so much I could do for him in the U.S. and he would be more successful dealing with Israel. Israel is closer, Israel doesn't have political restrictions with South Africa like America has. I suggested they hire Shabtai."
Within several years after being introduced to Mangope, Kalmanovitch was a multi-millionaire, according to Greenwald. Through a newly formed company called Liat, he landed lucrative contracts to build a soccer stadium manned with Israeli players and coaches, as well as a 2,000-unit housing complex and shopping center. He also imported Israeli specialists to train the Bantustan's police and security service. Kalmanovitch was soon tooling around in a Mercedes flying Bophuthatswana's flag, much to the embarrassment of Israel's Foreign Ministry. But while Liat prospered, Bophuthatswana staggered under an increasing debt load. Last February, Mangope and some associates were seized by rebels who accused them of exploiting the country in league with Kalmanovitch. Mangope, who was held captive in a dressing room in the soccer stadium that Kalmanovitch had built until he was rescued by the South African army, denied the charges. He was later reinstalled in power.
“DID A MYSTERY TYCOON DOUBLE-CROSS ISRAEL?” - SHABTAI KALMANOVITCH, Bophuthatswana, Marc Rich, Soviet Union. Natan Sharansky (Part 3)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/05/08/did-a-mystery-tycoon-double-cross-israel/699da8c4-59be-45ef-b45e-dc6c122f536f/
May 8, 1988
Kalmanovitch took his considerable profits from Bophuthatswana and invested them in Sierra Leone where he developed a friendship with President Joseph Momoh whom he reportedly had bankrolled during Momoh's successful 1985 presidential election campaign. Soon Liat whose 20-man staff in Tel Aviv included Dov Tamari, the former deputy head of Israeli military intelligence and according to Israeli press reports, a one-time internal-security adviser for Ferdinand Marcos was running the West African nation's largest bus company as well as a chicken farm and had won major fishing and mining concessions.
Kalmanovitch was also appointed economic attache for Sierra Leone, which he represented at the European Economic Community and the East bloc's COMECON, according to his Washington lawyer Seth Waxman. The Israeli press has reported that Kalmanovitch also was selling Sierra Leone arms. "As an arms dealer, he had access to secret information about Israeli weapons and about Israel's arms network abroad," says Nachum Barnea, editor of the Israeli news magazine Koteret Rashit. Kalmanovitch, meanwhile, was quietly lobbying for Israel with the rulers of Sierra Leone: Greenwald remembers attending a meeting in which Kalmanovitch urged Momoh to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
Always in search of new financing, Kalmanovitch made numerous trips to the United States. "Kalmanovitch wanted to import whiskey and oil into Sierra Leone and open a beer factory," said a New York businessman who invested in several of Kalmanovitch's ventures after being introduced to him by Greenwald at a New York kosher restaurant. "Greenwald made the introductions and spoke well of him."
While in New York, Kalmanovitch also looked up several old aquaintances from the Soviet Union – including 42-year-old Marat Balagula, who is known to Brooklyn's Russian Jewish emigre community as the "Big Man" or the "Georgian" and to police authorities as the boss of the Russian Jewish mob. Balagula was convicted two years ago in Philadelphia for masterminding a massive credit-card scam. He failed to show up at his sentencing in November 1986 and is still at large.
Kalmanovitch and Balagula hatched several business schemes together, including one to import gasoline to Sierra Leone through Liat. Balaguala and his partner Fema Najinsky went to Arthur Tarricone of Tarricone Oil Co. in Yonkers. Tarricone, who declined to be interviewed, financed the gasoline deal against a $500,000 personal guarantee put up by Najinsky and Balagula, according to two businessmen who were involved. The gasoline was then brokered through the Spanish office of Marc Rich the billionaire American commodities trader wanted in the U.S. on tax evasion and fraud charges by Greenwald, who is an agent for Rich in New York.
Not only did Balagula and Najinsky lose their money in the gasoline deal, but they were eventually to lose more than $3 million in other business ventures with Kalmanovitch, according to several of Balagula's associates. "Every deal we did with Kalmanovitch went sour," said a New York businessman associated with Balagula who requested anonymity. "In one instance, we were negotiating against the Russians for fishing rights in Sierra Leone. Kalmanovitch said we lost the deal because we offered the appropriate minister a $150,000 bribe, and he wanted $300,000."
In November 1987, Kalmanovitch was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, N.C. on felony charges for allegedly passing $2 million in forged checks. He denied the charges and was released on personal recognizance, according to his attorney, and was scheduled to be tried in February.
“DID A MYSTERY TYCOON DOUBLE-CROSS ISRAEL?” - SHABTAI KALMANOVITCH, Bophuthatswana, Marc Rich, Soviet Union. Natan Sharansky (Part 4)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1988/05/08/did-a-mystery-tycoon-double-cross-israel/699da8c4-59be-45ef-b45e-dc6c122f536f/
May 8, 1988
It is unlikely that Kalmanovitch will ever return to America to stand trial on forgery charges. His trial in Israel for espionage will get underway soon, and he has already told Greenwald that he wants to go home to the Soviet Union. Speculation abounds in Israel about what might have possibly turned Kalmanovitch into the Soviet agent he is alleged to be. Some friends say he might have been blackmailed by the Soviets; others say family members he left behind might have been in jeopardy; few believe he was a KGB mole when he came to Israel, though federal officials in New York City say the Russians have salted the emigre community with KGB spies.
Meanwhile, the Israelis are trying to assess what damage Kalmanovitch may have done. The international wheeler-dealer who was once one of the most sought-after dinner guests of Tel Aviv's glitterari had an impressive network of personal and professional contacts inside Israel's ruling elite. "He had excellent access," says Barnea. "If you're talking about selling the Russians information about Israeli bunker positions on the Golan Heights, I'm not so sure. But if you're talking about someone who could provide the KGB with accurate analysis of the thinking of the top political and military echelon – then Kalmanovitch is your man."
>>16960573 - Shabtai Kalmanovitch was also responsible "to ease the resettlement of Russian emigrants in Israel."
“Moscow: Jewish Spy [Shabtai Kalmanovitch] Shot to Death”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/134188
November 2, 2009
Israeli-Russian businessman and spy Shabtai Kalmanovitch was shot to death on Monday, Russian news agency Interfax reports.
The Russian news agency Interfax reports that Israeli-Russian businessman Shabtai Kalmanovitch, who was convicted by an Israeli court of spying for Russia, was shot to death on Monday.
Kalmanovitch was fired upon by a passing car near his home in Moscow. The personal driver of his Mercedes was seriously wounded in the incident.
Kalmanovitch was convicted some 20 years ago of having given information to the Russian KGB agency, and served 5.5 years of a nine-year sentence. He was released from prison in March 1993 because of ill health and as part of a deal in which Russia would help supply information about captive Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad.
Kalmanovitch later became a successful businessman in Russia, as he had been in Israel. He would have been 62 next month.
https://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/pollard-question-soviets/
(One important Soviet spy, Shabtai Kalmanovitch, whose job at one point was to ease the resettlement of Russian emigrants in Israel, was arrested in 1987.)
“The Communist Rules for Revoultion” – 1975 and 1970 articles (Part 1)
Attached is a 1975 newspaper clipping. https://me.me/i/some-oddend-a-reader-who-has-kept-a-copy-since-0eb75461a5ef4ce18da008ed9eafa94a
Even the New York Times wrote about it in 1970
“Communist ‘Rules’ For Revolt Viewed As Durable Fraud”
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/10/archives/communist-rules-for-revolt-viewed-as-durable-fraud-rules-for.html
July 10, 1970
Among a spate of broad sides, leaflets and ultraconserv ative books distributed at the New England Rally for God, Family and Country, which ended earlier this week in Boston, was a stack of flyers labeled “Communist Rules for Revolution.”
The “rules” call for corrupt ing the young by stressing sex to the exclusion of moral vir tues, fomenting disorder and dissatisfaction with govern ment, legislating gun control and seizing power.
“Friend, do you recognize any of these things going on in our world?” the Committee for American Broadcasting asks af ter listing the “rules.” The com mittee is a project of Warren B. Appleton, a John Birch Soci ety leader in Brockton, Mass.
The same list has been re produced in right‐wing publica tions, small‐town newspaper ad vertisements and gun lobby magazines for a quarter of a century. Group Research, a Washington organization, re ports a spurt in recent months.
The Port Washington (L.I.) News carried a full‐page ad last month reprinting the “rules” and asking: “How many of these rules are being carried out in this nation today? Or is it just a coincidence?”
Frequently the ads are print ed without imprimatur. The ad in the Port Washington paper says only that it was “placed by a group of loyal Americans.”
Each reproduction of the “rules” says they were captured from Communists by allied of ficers in May, 1919, in Dussel dorf, Germany.
Never are names or addresses given. The National Archives, the Library of Congress and the libraries of the nation's univer sities have no copy or trace of the “document.”
Senator Lee Metcalf, Demo crat of Montana, said in an interview that exhaustive re search had proved the “rules for revolution” to be “com pletely spurious.”
“The extreme right wing in America also follows rules,” he said earlier in placing his findings in The Congressional Record, “and one of these rules is to make maximum use of false, misleading and fear inspiring quotations.”
He checked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Library of Congress and the Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and none could au thenticate the “rules.” [Of course they would.]
Senator James O. Eastland, Democrat, of Mississippi, the subcommittee chairman, said F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover testified that no source could be found for the “document” and “therefore we can logically speculate that the document is spurious.”
The “loyal Americans” who advertised in the Port Washing ton News, for example, called it a reprint from the Waterville (N.Y.) Advance. There is no Waterville (N.Y.) Advance. They apparently meant the Water ville (Minn.) Advance, which printed the “rules” in 1968 with the comment that it did not “see how any thinking person can truthfully say that the Communists do not have any part in the chaos that is upset ting our nation.”
“The Communist Rules for Revoultion” – 1975 and 1970 articles (Part 2)
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/10/archives/communist-rules-for-revolt-viewed-as-durable-fraud-rules-for.html
July 10, 1970
The earliest publication of the “rules” turned up in search was in The New World News of February, 1946. Many who reproduce the “rules” quote the defunct biweekly newsletter of Moral Re‐Arma ment Inc. as their source.
Morris Kominsky, in a book called “The Hoaxers,” to be published soon by Branden Press of Boston, quotes H. Mead Twitchell Jr., until re cently an employe of the now closed Los Angeles office of Moral Re‐Armament, as saying that the “rules” appeared in German “in a German paper during the twenties and thirties, was translated into English in Britain [and) I believe it was first used in the United States in Rising Tide, a magazine pub lished about 1937, but I can not find a copy to check this and do not know the name of the German newspaper.”
Role of Prosecutor
Reproduction of the “rules” accelerated after they were en dorsed in 1954 as authentic by George A. Brautigam, Florida State Attorney for Dade County (Miami).
Since then, numerous ultra conservative publications have reproduced the “rules” with the Brautigam statement and his signature appended. The Rev. Billy James Hargis devoted the cover of Christian Crusade to this combination a decade later.
The Brautigam statement said “the above rules for revo lution were secured by the state attorney's office from a known member of the Communist party, who acknowledged it to he still a part of the Commu nist program for overthrowing our government.”
Mr. Brautigam died in 1957. His successor, Richard E. Gerstein, said in a telephone inter view that people have been asking him ever since, more frequently in the last year or two, what basis Mr. Brautigaml had for the statement.
‘To Protect Our Country’
Mr. Duncan commented, in doing so, that “I became alarmed as I reviewed these and realized how effective they are right now in this great country of ours.”
“We see the resuits taking place our society,” he said, “and it is our duty to warn our constituency and to protect our country.”
Police stations in the Boston area have tacked up on bul letin hoards flyers bearing the “rules.” The “document” has been widely distributed by the Network of Patriotic Letter Writers, Pasadena, Calif., and the Association to Preserve Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Medford, Ore.
Last year American Opinion, the Birch Society magazine, linked the country's sexual revolution to the “rules.” This summer Arthur C. Pruden of Flora, Miss., like hundreds of others, typed them out and sent them to his Congressman, not ing that he considered them “fond for thought.”
He said purveyors of fear frequently quote Nikita S. Khrushchev's remark while in the United States in 1959 that “we will bury you,” but never add that he meant economically.
Another statement attributed to Mr. Khrushchev in right wing speeches and publications, he noted, says: “We cannot ex pect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.”
He said its use among right wing pamphlet and book writ ers continues to be as great as ever despite futile searches by the F.B.I., C.I.A. and Library of Congress to find any source for it.
“The Communist Rules for Revoultion” – 1975 and 1970 articles (Part 3)
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/10/archives/communist-rules-for-revolt-viewed-as-durable-fraud-rules-for.html
July 10, 1970
Even more popular among ultraconservatives is one at tributed to Lenin.
“First we will take Eastern Europe,” it goes, “next the masses of Asia, then we will circle that last bastion of capi talism, the United States of America. We shall not have to attack it; it will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands.”
A quotation stressed at the weekend rally in a speech by the Rev. William S. McBirnie of the Voice of Americanism in Glendale, Calif., and printed earlier in the year in American Opinion, the Birch magazine, quotes Lenin as saying in 1923:
“We must secure the good will of teachers and professors in schools and universities, of liberal ministers of religion and of the pacifists and reformers of the world in order to create a mental barrage in the minds of capitalist youth which shall forever bar them from partici pating in a carnal conflict with the Communist order.”
Left‐Wing Example
More recently the left wing has been employing apparently fabricated quotations. One at tributed to Hitler in 1932 says:
“The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebel ling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might. The republic is in danger. We need law and order.”
“King revives gold mining in Swaziland” – “In 1908 Britain expropriated the country’s mineral rights”
https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/international/king-revives-gold-mining-in-swaziland-1988306
February 23, 2016
Only anthracite coal is currently mined in the country. Production from the Maloma coal colliery is exported to industrial users in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province.
The Ministry of Natural Resources pegs Swaziland’s coal reserves at 159 million tons. Gold will be the second mineral to be legally excavated in the country. In late 2014, an iron ore mine was shut down due to falling iron ore prices. Production from the mine combined with coal output contributed to 2 percent of Swaziland’s gross domestic product and 2 percent of export earnings.
A diamond mine in the Dvokolwako area of central Swaziland was closed in the 1990s. Subsequent talk of the mine’s reopening has not led to renewed diamond production.
Easily-mined gold veins were exhausted in the late 19th century when Mswati’s great grandfather, King Mbandzeni, issued mineral concessions to European miners. These concessions were cancelled in 1907 by British colonial authorities five years after Swaziland became a British protectorate.
In 1908 Britain expropriated the country’s mineral rights, which had been owned by the Swazis. By that time gold had largely been removed from the country, with no profit for the Swazi people.
“Lions Bay Capital Inc. Enters into Loan and Option Agreement with Salamander Mining International Ltd.”
https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/87863/Lions-Bay-Capital-Inc.-Enters-into-Loan-and-Option-Agreement-with-Salamander-Mining-International-Ltd.
June 17, 2021
Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. - June 17, 2021) - Lions Bay Capital Inc. (TSXV: LBI) ("Lions Bay" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into a loan and option agreement with Salamander Mining International Ltd. ("Salamander") as a result of which it may earn a direct cash flow from gold processing within the next year.
Salamander is a Mauritius based mining group currently focused on tailings extraction and pyrometallurgical recovery of gold. The co-founder and CEO of Salamander is Mr Lloyd Birrell who was instrumental in the reopening of ERGO (now DRD Gold) and founded Stonewall Resources (now ASX listed Theta Mines). The other co-founder and CFO is Deon Robbertze who has extensive experience with mining projects in sub-Saharan Africa including the role of CFO at Xstrata SA (now part of Glencore).
Under the terms of the loan agreement, Salamander will use $US750,000 of the funds to build and operate a 20,000 ton per month mobile treatment plant to be initially located on the Joyce mine in Zimbabwe, some 50 kms from capital, Harare. The plant will produce a gold concentrate which will be exported and is expected to be operational before the end of 2021.
Salamander designed and constructed a 12,500 ton a month plant for Bosveld Mines in South Africa which is currently being commissioned. Salamander is entitled to 10 per cent of the profit of the operation and has a $US2.1 million loan note secured by the plant and tailings.
Salamander is also a major creditor of the Vantage Goldfields group which is currently in Business Rescue, which is similar to a receivership in Canada. Vantage was placed into business rescue in April 2016. At the time its mines and mills were producing at an annual rate of 32,400 ounces of gold. Its published reserves and resources were in the order of 4.96 million ounces.
Salamander is in negotiations with the various parties and creditors with a view to treating the tailings from the mines and using the funds to settle debts and reopen underground operations.
The Vantage gold assets are located within the Barberton Greenstone belt, a world renowned heavily mineralised zone stretching from Zimbabwe through Eastern South Africa and into north-western Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). Mining of the belt has been taking place for over 100 years and is home to famous gold mines such as Sheba, Consort, Fairview and Agnes. These mining areas have limited oxidised orebodies remaining but vast resources of gold that is refractory, encased in pyrite, making recovery extremely difficult.
Salamander has a 50 per cent interest in Kobolondo Mining Pty Ltd (KME). The remaining 50 per cent is owned 25 per cent by the Ingwenyama Trust for the Nation (administered by His Majesty, King Mswati 111) and 25 per cent the Government of Eswatini (KME has been granted a mining lease over the old Havelock chrysotile asbestos mine with 25 million tonnes of tailings containing 23 per cent magnesium.
>Salamander is a Mauritius based mining group
Salamander Mining Background - Lloyd Birrell, Deon Robbertze, Dr Shengfei Gan (Part 1)
http://salamandermining.com/about.html
The CEO is Lloyd Birrell, born and raised in Pretoria, South African and a mining entrepreneur with qualifications in accounting and law. He has founded two mining companies, both of which are listed and has been involved with two other gold mining companies at an executive level. In 2016, Lloyd and Deon Robbertze founded Salamander Mining, to progress a magnesium and gold strategy.
In 2005, Lloyd led the team that acquired Ergo, the world’s largest gold tailings operation, for Mintails from Anglo Gold Ashanti. He was on the executive team that joint ventured Ergo with DRD, bringing the operation back into production, on time and within budget.
It was at Ergo that he studied the highly profitable 1970s Anglo process and strategy, which was to extract gold from the tailings sulphides using floatation to concentrate and then roasting the gold bearing sulphide. This oxidisation process enhanced gold recoveries after which the by-product of roasting, namely sulphuric acid, was used to extract base metals at low cost and high volume. Today, under the able leadership of DRD, Ergo has gone from strength to strength.
In 2009, Lloyd formed a consortium that acquired Agnes gold mine. As CEO, he was confronted by metallurgically complex sulphide orebodies, which required oxidisation for gold extraction, such as BIOX®, which is used so successfully at Barberton Gold Mines (Pan African Resources). Agnes, now owned by Galane Gold, built a BIOX® and successfully used floatation to extract gold bearing concentrate from tailings. Galaxy is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In 2011 Lloyd founded Stonewall Mining, with the first acquisition being Bosveld Mines, a small gold mine in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Bosveld is currently in production. Thereafter Stonewall acquired TGME (in Pilgrims Rest) and Sabie Mines, both gold mines. The company, which was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2012, is now called Theta Mines, and remains listed.
In 2011 Deon joined Stonewall as the CFO, after a highly successful career with Xstrata, declining to relocate to Switzerland after the Xstrata merger with Glencore.
Deon is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a Master of Business Leadership degree and numerous international tax diplomas. After articles he started his career at Iscor and managed multiple financial structuring and business initiatives.
He has structured and implemented empowerment initiatives and managed the phased divestment from an initial stake in Kumba Base Metals’ zinc mine in southern Namibia. He also managed a joint venture with a Chinese company to expand production at a refinery operation in Inner Mongolia. As CFO of Xstrata South Africa, he jointly oversaw the integration of Falconbridge into Xstrata. He designed and managed the offshore holding and funding structures for Xstrata’s South African operations.
The challenge Stonewall faced was that the Pilgrim’s Rest Goldfields are highly refractory, and a process of oxidisation is required to successfully extract gold. Nonetheless, it enjoyed success with refractory tailings and shallow underground mining. The profits from the tailings were immediate, and substantially funded the acquisition of the mine.
The Salamander strategy was always to permit and build a central roaster plant, which could propel any mine in the Greenstone Belt to super-profitability. The challenge was going to be finding a base metals resource that could be extracted by the sulphuric acid produced during roasting as a by-product.
Salamander Mining Background - Lloyd Birrell, Deon Robbertze, Dr Shengfei Gan (Part 2)
http://salamandermining.com/about.html
In 2016, following Lloyd’s departure from Theta, he created Salamander Mining with Deon Robbertze and a small team. Salamander also has the privilege of being able to tap into the wealth of expertise and experience of Dr Shengfei Gan. Shengfei had joined Salamander as the Group Geological Manager. His past roles include General Manager of Geology at Stonewall Mining, Senior Strategist of Anglo American and Chief Representative of Kumba Resources in China. Shengfei obtained his PhD degree in geology from Beijing University in 1989 and joined Rand Afrikaans University in 1993 as a postdoctoral research fellow, focusing on studies of gold mineralization in the Limpopo Belt of South Africa. In 2000, Shengfei completed his MBA studies. In the past 25 years, Shengfei has been engaged in mineral target generation, exploration, resources and production management for both open-pit and underground operations. He is an expert in Greenstone Belt geology.
Salamander’s strategy was to find a base metals resource in close proximity to the refractory gold mines in the Eastern Goldfields of South Africa. The plan was simple - establish a centralised roasting complex which could ensure a 90% gold recovery, and which would give Salamander a significant strategic advantage in the acquisition and control of these mines. This roasting complex would convert SO2 gas expelled from the roasters into sulphuric acid which would be used to cost effectively leach-extract base metals.
The base metals resource emerged from an unlikely source – the abandoned Havelock chrysotile tailings dumps situated on the edge of Eswatini (Swaziland) in the middle of the Barberton Greenstone Belt. Left behind after Turner & Newell departed Eswatini, the massive tailings presented Eswatini with a rehabilitation problem. In 2017 Salamander acquired a mining licence over the mine and drilled the dump. Salamander’s pre-feasibility estimates proved accurate, and the 25+ Mt dumps contain over 5.5 Mt of magnesium, at 23% content, as well as a significant nickel resource. This JORC compliant resource is more fully described later in this document.
In addition, Salamander also permitted a roaster, acid and magnesium plant at Bulembu.
The original idea was to find an outlet for the sulphuric acid and focus on the gold project, producing a medium grade magnesium sulphate heptahydrate for the fertiliser market as a by-product.
Following extensive metallurgical testwork the Salamander team produced a 99.7% pure magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) and magnesium sulphate heptahydrate (MgSO4.7H2O) which positions the Group well to become a globally significant producer of high quality magnesium products and magnesium metal.
Essentially the magnesium project is of a commercial magnitude far greater than the gold opportunities.
“Reopening eSwatini’s controversial Ngwenya Mine” – Anglo American, VM Salgaocar & Bro Pvt Ltd, Vuka Lilanga Minerals Pty Ltd, SWAGEO Capital and Holdings Ltd (Part 1)
https://www.newframe.com/odd-revival-of-eswatinis-disputed-ngwenya-mine/
20 Oct 2020
Between 1963 and 1977, the Swaziland Iron Ore Development Company, a subsidiary of the Anglo American Corporation, dug up tons of hematite from the opencast Ngwenya Mine. Hematite is a hard oxide mineral with a high iron content (70%). One and a half million tons were shipped in 1967 alone.
After stopping operations in 1977, Anglo American continued to ship the mountains of ore already dug up and prepared. But it proved too plentiful. In 1979, all operations came to a halt, leaving behind mounds of hematite, mainly in the form of “fines” or small particles.
Things changed in 2011. The Mines and Minerals Act was signed into law by the king. The country’s Minerals Management Board granted VM Salgaocar & Bro Pvt Ltd a licence to mine what it called “iron ore dumps”.
Salgaocar then bought some ministers iPads “as a token of appreciation for welcoming the investor to Swaziland”. A controversial environmental impact assessment report was submitted to the eSwatini Environment Authority. A South African company, Fines Mining and Melting (Pty), built three processing plants at the mine. Shortly afterwards, Salgaocar began mining.
Section 133 of the Mines Act states: “The iNgwenyama in trust for the Swazi Nation shall acquire 25% shareholding without any monetary consideration in a large-scale mining project for which a mining licence is granted.” iNgwenyama, in this context, means king. Mswati III, the reigning monarch, raked in the proceeds. The government, likewise, got a 25% share.
“In trust for the Swazi Nation”: not many people in eSwatini know what this phrase means – and there is no evidence of its implicit claim, which suggests everyone should benefit from the country’s natural riches.
Why Salgaocar?
The mining licence granted to Salgaocar was the first given in 20 years. It is not clear if other mining companies applied for licences in the interval, and especially to mine at the Old Ngwenya Mine, or why the company was chosen.
According to City Press, Salgaocar boss Shanmuga Rethenam knew the king way before the licence was granted in 2011, and even before the Mines and Minerals Act was promulgated. In 2010, he sold the king a plane (now his personal jet) for $11.45 million and helped revamp it. This would later be one of the reasons for Rethenam and the king’s relationship souring in 2014, with the mine eventually closing down.
In October 2011, mining – the so-called rehabilitation of tailings – began and went on for three years, abruptly coming to a halt in October 2014 “because of a drop in global iron ore prices”. This is the official story. Some reports suggest that the mine closed because King Mswati and Rethenam’s relationship ended after a dispute about money owed for the refurbishment of the plane.
Salgaocar stopped operations abruptly in October 2014. Workers were not paid their full salaries. Many of them were given only a fraction of their meagre salaries.
“It was more of a fly-by-night situation. No one told us anything. But there were signs. First, heads of departments left [as if taking leave days off], until there were only a few left. Then some contractors began removing their equipment from the plant. Weeks later, the labour broker that had hired us called a meeting. … He told us that the mine was now closed, and we were no longer allowed inside. He told us there was no money, and we’d get half of our salary. There was no severance pay, nothing. All we would get is only a fraction of our salary,” says Mnisi.
When Anglo American mined at Ngwenya – from 1964 up until 1977 (and in the years from 1977 up until total closure in 1979) – iron ore was transported by trains. The ore descended the mountain into Ka-Dake Station through conveyor belts (after an elaborate beneficiation process). It was then loaded into trains, transported along a 210km railway line from Ngwenya to Maputo (then Lorenzo Marques) and loaded onto ships bound for Japan.
Nomsa Vilakati*, a resident of Ngwenya Village – a settlement built by Anglo American for its employees – says at some point red water came out of house taps. There was also dust everywhere, she says. “You hang your clothes outside and they [go] red from the soil.”
*Not her real name for fear of victimisation.
“Reopening eSwatini’s controversial Ngwenya Mine” Anglo American, VM Salgaocar & Bro Pvt Ltd, Vuka Lilanga Minerals Pty Ltd, SWAGEO Capital and Holdings Ltd (Part 2)
https://www.newframe.com/odd-revival-of-eswatinis-disputed-ngwenya-mine/
20 Oct 2020
Gary Hayter, general manager at Ngwenya Glass – a 33-year-old glass-blowing factory and tourist attraction near the mining site – says the sections in the environmental audit report about water resources are a joke. He says the whole document was put together to justify the mining company’s actions. It disregards the environment and water sources in the area.
Not only did the mining operation lead to pollution of water sources in the area, but it also depleted reserves since the Ngwenya Mountain is a catchment area, says Hayter.
Reopening of mine
The Times of eSwatini reported on 25 May 2020 that the mine will reopen. Taking over operations this time is Vuka Lilanga Minerals.
“Vuka Lilanga Minerals Pty Ltd (VLM) is an Eswatini mining company established in the year 2017, focused on iron ore exploration and production in [the] Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland). VLM is a subsidiary of SWAGEO Capital and Holdings Ltd, a holding company registered under the laws of United Arab Emirates,” the company website states.
A quick look at the new company’s leadership shows that they are led by the people who were at the helm at Salgaocar. The only difference is that there is now an eSwatini citizen in a top leadership position. Prasad, former Salgaocar chief executive, is the boss of this new company.
No new licence was granted to this “brand new” company. The eSwatini Minerals Management Board simply transferred permission from Salgaocar to Vuka Lilanga Minerals.
“A new approved investor, Vuka Lilanga Minerals was granted the mining licence included a mining lease together with all the necessary statutory permission transferred from SG Iron Ore Mining Pty Ltd to Vuka Lilanga Minerals Pty Ltd in order to resume the operations without any time delays. The liquidator will then clear all the debtors of the SG Iron Ore Mining Pty Ltd from the liquidation proceeds and Vuka Lilanga Minerals Pty Ltd will be free from any liabilities of the previous operator. The past operations liabilities inclusive of environmental liabilities lies with the Liquidator,” reads the environmental audit report.
These residents were never consulted about the mine’s proposed reopening, even though they are directly affected. A Vuka Lilanga representative called a meeting at the Ngwenya Town Board hall and informed residents of the small village in Ngwenya of its plan. The many villages in the communal land on the peripheries were ignored.
Vilakati says Vuka Lilanga was not there to consult residents. Rather, “we were simply told what’s going to happen. And there is nothing you can do about that, can you?”
That was in May. Machines will come rolling in soon. No one dares protest aloud.
“State capture inquiry | Minutes show high level ANC interference” - https://youtu.be/4VTJDDpIfgo
The Democratic Alliance is accusing the ANC's deployment committee of running a parallel deployment process. The DA member of Parliament, Leon Schreiber spoke with eNCA's Faith Mangope about the allegations. Courtesy of #DStv403
“Ramaphosa facing calls to ‘de-register’ the ANC as a political party – here’s why…” – “deactivating the biggest crime syndicate”, “Ramaphosa says that the Zondo Commission was “not binding””
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-cyril-ramaphosa-deregister-anc-why-tuesday-30-august/
30-08-2022 15:16
We’ve heard calls for President Ramaphosa to quit many times many times over the past few years – but things have now taken a different turn.
This is better than being told to ‘resign’, we guess. It’s certainly a bit more creative. Leon Schreiber, who serves as the Shadow Minister for Public Service, has made a rather bold statement on Tuesday. He wants Cyril Ramaphosa to ‘completely de-register’ the ANC.
CAN THE ANC BE DE-REGISTERED?
There’s a fair bit of righteous anger on the DA benches, in regards to Ramaphosa’s plans to stop corruption. Not only has the president announced plans for an ‘advisory council’ to tackle suspicious activity, but the ANC leader also played down the significance of the Zondo Commission.
When Cyril stated the State Capture Inquiry ‘was not binding’, it irked many of his critics. The four-year exercise cost the state over R1 billion. The nonchalant dismissal of its importance, therefore, has not sat well with the detractors.
Schreiber, a key DA representative, isn’t happy with the wasteful nature of the president’s claims. He has instead offered to give Ramaphosa some legal advice for free – imploring the head of state to go and DE-REGISTER the ANC as a political party.
DA ASK CYRIL RAMAPHOSA TO ‘THROW IN THE TOWEL’ ON CORRUPTION
We seriously doubt Cyril will follow this advice, but the Shadow Minister is steadfast in his views. Schreiber believes that the ANC ‘is the biggest crime syndicate in South Africa’ – and its failure to counter corruption has been described as ‘toothless’…
“President Cyril Ramaphosa does not need to appoint an anti-corruption ‘advisory council’ that will again inevitably cost the taxpayers millions. That’s because the DA will give him advice for free.”
“To root out corruption, the President merely needs to fire his corrupt poverty cabinet. Even better, he should go to the nearest IEC office and deregister the ANC as a political party – thereby deactivating the biggest crime syndicate in the country.”
“Ramaphosa says that the Zondo Commission was “not binding” – implying it was essentially a committee, costing South African taxpayers R1 billion. This President, who hides millions of dollars in his furniture, is in no way serious about rooting out corruption.” | Leon Schreiber
“Cyril Ramaphosa's Cabinet performance review done in less than 3 minutes!”
https://youtu.be/9Ojqf0oGNBc
“LIVE: Antony Blinken holds joint news conference with South Africa's Foreign Minister [DIRCO] Naledi Pandor” – 8 August 2022
https://youtu.be/rmNr6ESak-Y
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-south-african-minister-of-international-relations-and-cooperation-naledi-pandor-at-a-joint-press-availability/
Below are excerpts
Antony Blinken
“I think for so many Americans – and I include myself among them – South Africa holds a special place in our hearts. I was last here in 2013 with President Obama, and I remember still his words about how South Africa and the United States have been bound together throughout our history, how the freedom fighters of our Civil Rights Movement back in the United States inspired those fighting for freedom and equality here in South Africa, and how the movement against Apartheid here in turn inspired a generation of activists in the United States and well beyond.”
“Today, South Africa is a leading global voice on global health, the climate crisis, democracy, security, so much else. The South African economy is renowned for its cutting-edge tech sector, for pioneering work in medicine. A very vibrant press is ranked as one of the freest in the world. Cultural contributions are vast. Universities draw students from pretty much everywhere. In short, what happens here and the reason we’re here is because what happens in South Africa really does shape the world. And that’s why we’re so committed to this partnership, because fundamentally we believe that together we can deliver more progress for the people of our two countries and many others across a whole range of issues that matter most to their lives and their futures.”
“I think you know that it covers the four areas that President Ramaphosa and President Biden laid out after their conversation earlier this year – health, climate, infrastructure, trade – issues that are critical to the well-being of our countries, to their security, to the strength of our economies, but especially to the well-being of our people.”
“The truth is South Africa is a powerful, dynamic country helping write the future of the region and the world. We know in the United States by working together in the spirit of a true partnership we can advance a whole host of mutual interests and the collective interest. We can do good for our people, we can do good for our countries, we can do some good for the world. So that’s really what today is about, and that’s what we want this relationship to be about. Thank you.”
Naledi Pandor
“We’ve not seen an even-handed approach in the utilization of the prescripts of international law, and we encourage that the world should have greater attention to ensuring that we are equal to everybody else. This has been a concern, and this is what at times leads to cynicism about international bodies and a lack of belief in their ability to protect the weakest and most marginalized. We have to change that belief and cynicism and ensure that all international institutions treat all human beings in a fashion that shows them – whether we are ICC, ICJ, UN Security Council, G20, EU, whoever we are – we will protect those interests.” [What about the Boers in your own country???]
“On Russia, I’ve tried so many times to explain to so many people, Russia is a very negligible economic partner for South Africa. Our trade with Russia is less than $4 billion annually compared to the $20 billion that I referred to earlier with respect to the United States.”
Antony Blinken
“By 2050, one in four people on this planet will be African. Over the next couple of years, half the population of this continent will be 25 years old or younger.”
“Things are about to get worse in SA | Dawie Roodt” – “32 million people get an income from the State”
https://youtu.be/B2N-EPLNM9M
South Africa's GDP contracted by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2022. David Ansara of the CRA speaks with Dawie Roodt of the Efficient Group about why South Africa's economy will struggle to get out of its current low-growth trap.
9:52 – “We’ve spoken about this before that 32 million people get an income from the State [paid voters]. 10 million of them will lose this income or supposedly losing this income COVID grant in March next year. I think they’re going to make it permanent by the way, but the reality is that the state simply cannot afford this. The tax base is just not strong enough to carry this. So we have very high levels of unemployment, poverty is rising in South Africa and very important energy prices and food prices are going up and this is a recipe for disaster because that people the state cannot keep on paying all of this. There will be a real fall in income of many people in South Africa and if you take money away from people especially when they’re hungry and especially when food prices are going up, they get angry. So that’s the social environment in which we find ourselves.”
SA total population - 60,892,172 [https://populationstat.com/south-africa/]
"Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96 | Calls to Return 'Kohinoor' & 'Great Star of Africa Trend'" - https://youtu.be/IVdW88Hb-Vg
“Queen Elizabeth II: Will the diamond ‘stolen’ from SA be returned?”
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/queen-elizabeth-ii-great-star-of-africa-cullinan-diamond-9-september-2022/
09-09-2022 07:30
The Great Star of Africa is the world’s largest diamond worth between $400m – $2 billion. Will it be returned to SA?
The late and longest reigning British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II owned the largest clear cut diamond in the world known as The Great Star of Africa which was mined on 26 January 1905 in Pretoria in Gauteng, South Africa and was reportedly stolen.
On 26 June a 3,106-carat diamond was discovered from the Premier Mine. The Great Star of Africa was the largest stone cut from the diamond. The 530 carats gem is approximately worth between $400 million (roughly R 6 947 000 000) and $2 billion (roughly R34 685 200 000). Now that Queen Elizabeth II has passed away, the question that lingers on everyone’s lips in the social media streets is will The Great Star of Africa be returned “home”?
WILL THE DIAMOND ‘STOLEN’ FROM SA BE RETURNED?
The British have reportedly claimed that the diamond was handed over to them as a symbol of friendship and peace yet this happened during the apartheid era in South Africa where there was no peace at all in the country. [And to think, HF Verwoerd, the ‘architect of Apartheid’, was born in 1901.]
According to Africa Archives, the British replaced the name The Great Star of Africa with the name of the owner of the mine Thomas Cullinan.
Other sources claim that the diamond belonged to Cullinan and it was purchased by the Transvaal Government and donated to King Edward VII. That is how Elizabeth inherited it.
Upon receiving the Cullinan I diamond, the British Royal family reportedly cut it into several stones and strategically placed the biggest one—christened the Star of Africa—in the royal sceptre.
According to Natural Diamonds, in 1910, after King Edward VII’s death, it was King George who had the royal sceptre redesigned with the Star of Africa as the centrepiece, surrounded by an enamel heart-shaped case and diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and a large amethyst.
The Star of Africa remains in the British Crown Jewels on display at the Tower of London, where millions of visitors come annually just to see the mediaeval regalia that has been used in royal ceremonies for centuries.
“Shocking videos of guns, money, attacks by zama zamas, shows threat to SA's gold mining sector” – Ties to Lesotho and Soweto tavern mass shooting
https://youtu.be/3gmHG0MN54I
TimesLIVE investigation reveals shocking videos of underground illegal miners armed with assault rifles and showing off hundreds of thousands of rands. We look at how these illegal miners, reportedly from Lesotho and connected to rival Famo music gangs, have created feared syndicates that threaten South African's safety and the gold mining industry.
“CARTE BLANCHE: Young Couple’s Murder Linked to Zama Zamas, Unemployment and More”
https://www.sapeople.com/2019/06/22/carte-blanche-young-couples-murder-linked-to-zama-zamas-unemployment-and-more/
Jun 22, 2019
A young couple is found gunned down on the side of a notorious highway. Police have no suspects but there’s a war going on underground – armed gangs of illegal miners operating right under the busy streets of Johannesburg – and they fear the killers could be among them.
With access to guns, ammunition and explosives these so-called zama zamas run amok in some of Gauteng’s abandoned mines.
The illegal miners trade high priced commodities underground and are willing to risk life and limb as they continue to pilfer abandoned mines.
It’s a network of organised crime syndicates, and authorities seem powerless to stop them.
“Murder of Young Couple in South Africa, Stranded on Side of Road”
https://www.sapeople.com/2019/05/27/murder-of-young-couple-benoni-south-africa/
May 27, 2019
The murder of a young couple whose Toyota Hilux had broken down on Sunday morning near Benoni in South Africa has shocked the country, and made news across the world.
It came less than 24 hours after South Africa celebrated a new dawn and new surge of hope with the inauguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday in Pretoria.
Yesterday morning the couple – Johanco Fleischman (19) and his girlfriend Jessica Kuhn (23) – were “executed in cold blood” (in the words of the Daily Mail) as they waited for a friend to bring a can of diesel because their bakkie had run out. The only thing that was stolen was a mobile phone.
“The young male was found outside the vehicle. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Both showed no signs of life and were declared dead on arrival.
“Two workers who were travelling with them fled the scene but returned once Emergency Services arrived. They alleged that a group of men had approached them after they had stopped on the side of Putfontein Road – where the bridge crosses over the N12.”
The workers had reportedly been “brutally beaten”, and have described the details of the murders to police.
The Daily Mail claims the attack was racially motivated, but this is disputed by Head of Gauteng Province Community Police Board (GPCPB) Dr MR Patel.
According to the Daily Mail: “It is understood the (three) attackers walked past the car and murmured a racial insult at Fleischman before opening fire.”
Dr Patel says: “(Witnesses) said the attackers had used the word “Uhmlungu” which is a phrase of sorts for “white man” to the driver before he started shooting but I don’t think that necessarily makes this attack racist.
After saying “uhmlungu”, one of the three then allegedly pulled out a gun and fired about nine shots at Johanco, before killing Jessica with one shot to her head.
The attackers reportedly set fire to the inside of the bakkie, and stole a mobile phone.
“How zama zamas raped us for 12 hours –victims”
https://sundayworld.co.za/breaking-news/how-zama-zamas-raped-us-for-12-hours-victims/
31st Jul 2022
Three trail-blazing models have related the blood curdling details of gang rapes they suffered at the hands of Lesotho nationals in Gauteng on Thursday.
The models, two siblings and their neighbour, were among the eight women who were accosted and gang raped by gun-totting foreign nationals while they were shooting a music video at a mine dump in West Village, Krugersdorp.
Police announced on Friday that 67 suspects were arrested following an operation by a massive police multi-disciplinary task team.
Speaking to Sunday World from the house of one of the victims yesterday, Noxolo Methula* described how they were punched, kicked, whipped and sexually violated by the suspects in one of the most heinous crimes to have shocked the world.
After finishing, the suspects ordered them to pour them cool drinks in paper cups, and merrily imbibed it in celebration of their evil deeds.
Methula said many guys kept on picking her among other girls, and took her to a grove of trees and raped her, even when she was profusely bleeding. “I am not sure how many guys raped me, but we can say around six and most of them had guns. They never touched any white people who were there with us,” she said.
Police are investigating 32 counts of rape and 22 counts of armed robbery. The victims were also robbed of equipment worth over R1.5-million.
“Zama Zamas | More alarming details discovered by SAPS in Krugersdorp” - https://youtu.be/8R0stL-H250
1:59 – “Operation freely through intimidation. Intimidating the owner of the mine, you understand. That is why we decided that we need to up our game and as you can see here… So what does it mean to all of us? It means that it’s another level of operation. Hence you see now this operation is led by the DPCI. Previously we’ve been conducting this operation disruption, operation through operation […]. We’re removing a lot of […], the equipment used by these zamas zamas. You remove today, tomorrow they are back, they are operating there.”
“Zama zamas are better equipped than us, says police minister as specialised teams activated to move in”
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2022-08-07-zama-zamas-are-better-equipped-than-us-says-police-minister-as-specialised-teams-activated-to-move-in/
07 August 2022
Illegal miners or ‘zama zamas’ are “an armed force, gaining more confidence, removing people from their houses and taking over”.
Speaking at a mass meeting between residents and officials in Krugersdorp on the West Rand, Gauteng premier David Makhura described illegal miners as “an issue of national security”.
Makhura, police minister Bheki Cele and national commissioner Gen Sehlahle Fannie Masemola were among the high-level delegates at the second leg of the ministerial crime combating imbizo at which delegates from the police ministry and SAPS management appealed for calm and promised action after a tense week in the area.
“I am telling you now. The Hawks, the Special Task Force, the National Intervention Unit, the Tactical Response Team. They will all be back here tomorrow [Monday],” Makhura roared, after emotional outbursts from people who are angry, frustrated and scared.
“I myself will be back to deal with this on the 11th when we will go door-to-door and do inspections. I will be back here with the revenue service and home affairs,” he added as the crowd cheered.
Cele then took the podium and declared: “They are better equipped than us. So the Hawks will come back, and will trace the money.”
The aim of the event was to address policing needs, in light of illegal mining activities in the area. More than 100 suspected illegal miners have been arrested since a horrific gang rape in Kagiso last weekend. Eight women involved in a music video shoot were attacked and raped by suspects believed to be illegal miners.
>“I am telling you now. The Hawks, the Special Task Force, the National Intervention Unit, the Tactical Response Team. They will all be back here tomorrow [Monday],”
“Protests over Zama Zamas continue” [August 8, 2022] - https://youtu.be/pvB1WR3scAE
“IN PICS | Alleged zama zamas’ rooms raided, possessions burnt by another West Rand community” – in response to the gang rapes
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2022-08-08-in-pics-alleged-zama-zamas-rooms-raided-possessions-burnt-by-another-west-rand-community/
08 August 2022
A few homes that allegedly house zama zamas in Mohlakeng, Randfontein, were targeted when community members searched for illegal miners on Monday.
Members of the community burned shacks close to a hill in Extension 11 and ransacked two homes at a corner close to mine shafts.
Back rooms on the properties were dismantled and beds, tools and other belongings were burned.
The community on Monday joined those in other areas on the West Rand to hunt down the miners in an effort to clamp down on informal operations. There has been an outpouring of anger after the rapes of eight women at a disused mine in Krugersdorp 11 days ago.
Bridgette Nkosi, a resident, said the mission was close to her heart as she allegedly lost her aunt at the hands of a zama zama.
“Our lives have been turned upside down. In March we lost a breadwinner because someone couldn’t respect her.
“She sold fast food. He bought chips and told my aunt he didn’t like them and asked for his money back. They had a little argument and he demanded she give him more money. When she refused, he shot her. This happened in front of my baby brother.
“The community came together but it didn’t bring us anything because no-one was arrested,” said Nkosi.
“These people have kids in the area and have entrenched themselves in our community. It’s a difficult one, getting rid of them. Negotiations won’t help.
“This morning we found fresh holes dug by the zama zamas, so it means they are not afraid. They know we’re looking for them,” said Nkosi.
At the weekend the police cluster and other stakeholders held imbizos in Kagiso and West Village where they promised to deploy extra resources on the West Rand. On Monday morning there was little-to-no visibility of police in the neighbouring areas.
Resident Dikeledi Phaahla reiterated a call made at the weekend for soldiers to be deployed.
“They gave us hope and said they will be here. We needed 'amabherete' to be here this morning but they’re nowhere to be seen. Our plea for the army stands. Clearly police don’t respect us,” said Phaahla.
“Crime in SA | Deceased believed to be zama zamas”
https://youtu.be/CS7HJ902CMY
Posted Sep 14, 2022
At least 6 bodies have been found in the veld next to the N1 highway on the West Rand. It appears the victims have been shot, stabbed and stoned to death. eNCA's Pule Letshwiti-Jones. Courtesy #DStv403
“BOSMONT RESIDENTS SAY THEY'RE TIRED OF ILLEGAL MINERS [zama zamas] COMMITTING CRIMES IN AREA” – 6 bodies found
https://ewn.co.za/2022/09/15/bosmont-residents-say-they-re-tired-of-illegal-miners-committing-crimes-in-area
15 September 2022 07:22
Six men, believed to be illegal miners, were found dead near the N1 highway on Wednesday but residents think they were killed by an angry mob of community members.
JOHANNESBURG - Residents of Bosmont, in western Johannesburg, say they are tired of the multiple gun battles between zama zamas in their area.
Six men, believed to be illegal miners, were found dead near the N1 highway on Wednesday but residents think they were killed by an angry mob of community members.
They say gunshots are heard regularly at the illegal mine dumps.
Bosmont residents, who claim to have witnessed this week’s gun battle, say they doubt that it was a clash between two rival groups of zama zamas.
The residents believe the zama zamas were attacked by a group of community members from a nearby informal settlement.
A resident told Eyewitness News that they were exhausted by the crimes that were committed in their area by the illegal miners.
"About 100 to 120 people chased about 7 illegal miners. I'm sure it was the community from the squatter camp opposite China Mall," the resident said.
The suspected zama zamas were were found dead with gunshot and panga wounds almost 12 hours after the incident.
>>17528667 - It's déjà vu… There was also a "cooperative model" between businesses and the ANC in South Africa. Now look at the results.
>“Local Business, Local Peace: the Peacebuilding Potential of the Domestic Private Sector; Case study South Africa*” – “Exploring the contributions of the private sector to the social, economic and political transformation process in South Africa”
Take note.
ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), operated out of Lesotho during Apartheid
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thenjiwe-Mtintso
In Lesotho [Thenjiwe] Mtintso joined the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Zulu and Xhosa: “Spear of the Nation”), the armed wing of the ANC, and the SACP. After receiving military training, including in Cuba, she worked in Lesotho with the Regional Political-Military Council, which coordinated the ANC’s political and military activities in that country, and later served as head of the Regional Political-Military Council in Botswana (1986–89) and as the ANC’s first chief representative to Uganda (1989–91).
“ANC Cadre’s Remains Exhumed [in Lesotho]”
https://lestimes.com/anc-cadres-remains-exhumed/
Oct 27, 2010
MASERU — The remains of one of the members the African National Congress (ANC)’s military wing killed in the 1982 massacre in Lesotho were on Tuesday exhumed from a Sea Point graveyard in Maseru for reburial in the Eastern Cape.
Vikile Jobo was one of the 32 ANC cadres who were massacred by the apartheid regime’s armed forces that attacked Lesotho on December 12, 1982.
Jobo was a member of the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe.
The exhumation, which was done according to Xhosa traditions, was attended by relatives, friends and former members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Officials from the South African High Commission also attended the event.
A comrade in the struggle, Sipho Mnqayi, told the Lesotho Times that Jobo’s family did not know where he was after he fled the Eastern Cape early 1982.
Even after he was killed by the apartheid army the family was still unaware that their son was among the ANC dead buried along the Seputana stream in Lesotho’s Sea Point village, Mnqayi said.
“They only discovered his grave last year after the exhumation of another former refugee here,” Mnqayi said.
“A former Umkhonto we Sizwe member who is now in the South African National Defence Force was here when the exhumation took place and he was the one who informed the family about the presence of Vikile Jobo’s grave in Maseru.”
Ironically…
“‘ANC Regime Worse Than Apartheid’” – “South Africa tightened its borders in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup tournament” - Lesotho
https://lestimes.com/anc-regime-worse-than-apartheid/
Jan 11, 2012
MASERU — Foreign Affairs Minister Mohlabi Tsekoa says Basotho are getting a raw deal from the South African government which is now treating them worse than they were treated under apartheid.
Tsekoa was addressing a press conference held in Maseru on Tuesday following the ANC’s centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein last weekend.
Tsekoa lashed out at the South African government saying it felt “offended when told that the way it treats Basotho is worse than the dealings between the two countries during white rule”.
Tsekoa said he was concerned that Lesotho’s accommodating diplomacy was being interpreted by some Basotho as “folding arms and doing nothing” about South Africa’s high-handed bilateral relations especially regarding the issue of free movement of citizens between the two countries.
South Africa tightened its borders in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup tournament forcing thousands of Basotho who worked in that country to queue for hours at the Maseru border post. [In one interview, Ernst Roets made a comment that there were no farm murders during the 2010 World Cup but resumed afterwards. Coincidence?]
Tsekoa accused the South African government of not being interested in Lesotho’s quest for free movement at the borders.
He said although the two governments had agreed to work together to find solutions to the border crisis, the authorities in Pretoria had always dragged their feet on the issue.
He said the only thing South Africa had done well was to allow thousands of Basotho to study in that country without paying a levy charged on other foreigners.
“They agreed to this after we tirelessly told them that they were being unfair to us because during the apartheid era many of them attended schools in Lesotho and were treated as equals to Basotho children,” Tsekoa said.
“I can mention many of them who are in authority in South Africa who received their education in Lesotho and were never treated differently from Basotho.”
“A Case for Closer Integration between South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland [Now Eswatini]?” (Part 1)
https://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1335
18 Jun 2012
South Africa looms large in the affairs of the Kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho, the local geo-political giant. Economically, each receives disproportionate amounts of their annual GDP directly from South Africa. Each is profoundly reliant on their powerful neighbour for the supply of food, fuel, goods and services and linking infrastructure to the world.
Given the vision of an African Union and increasing rapprochement between the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) it is perhaps a good time to consider the closer integration of two smallest regional nations with their dominant neighbour.
Ironically the apartheid government was legally obliged to continue supporting them financially through the historical 1910 Southern African Customs Union (SACU) agreement. This obliges South Africa to pay the smaller, landlocked states a disproportionate amount of the total income earned through collection of customs and excise revenue.
Around 95% of that amount originates from South Africa but under the terms of the SACU agreement, it retains less than 50% after distribution to the SACU partners; Lesotho and Swaziland as well as Botswana and Namibia. In this way the funds from SACU provide around 60% of total revenue of both Lesotho and Swaziland, indicating how critical this income is to their economic viability.
The relationships between Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa were close enough to consider dissolving borders in the past – the primary stumbling block was the racist nature of South Africa’s government. Because of this, Britain, the colonial power, along with the leadership of those nations, was leery of integration. Accordingly they gained full independence.
It is notable that neither Lesotho nor Swaziland contain the entire population of either the amaSwati or abaSotho nations. This is particularly so in the case of Lesotho, with baSotho people surrounding Lesotho, from the borderlands of the Eastern Cape, through the Orange Free State and up into Gauteng. The political borders remain colonial era artefacts, influenced more by geography and historical pragmatism than by the locations of clan, culture and tribe.
The linguistic boundaries are far more indicative of cultural affiliations. SeSotho is estimated to be spoken by 3.5 million South Africans, against around 2 million speakers inside Lesotho. SiSwati is spoken by over a million South Africans, slightly fewer in Swaziland. These numbers illustrated the extensive overlaps of cultural roots across national boundaries.
It is equally notable that Swaziland and Lesotho collectively account for more than 35% of South African tourism numbers. It is absurd to presume that these two nations provide more than a third of what are conventionally considered to be tourists. Lesotho provides around 2.5 million visits per year, from a total population of 2.2 million. Swaziland provides 1.2 million visits from 1.2 million residents.
This is clearly not tourism but something else entirely. Lesotho, with a per capita GDP of just over R8000, is not so much providing 2.5 tourists but rather visitors who travel to trade, visit family and clans, to work and yes, occasionally to just visit. How many residents of Maseru pop across the border to shop in Ladybrand on a Saturday morning? Can we consider these to be tourists? The situation in Swaziland is similar.
“A Case for Closer Integration between South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland [Now Eswatini]?” (Part 2)
https://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1335
18 Jun 2012
The only reason that there are any borders separating Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa is to tally the value of trans-border trade, itself a vain hope. But because these figures are directly relevant to estimating income distribution from within the SACU pool, the borders remain. Without the SACU income, Lesotho and Swaziland would rapidly tend toward failed states. Neither is independently economically viable.
Another commonality is that Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa – as well as Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia - share a common legal history, founded on Roman-Dutch Law, influenced by English and indigenous African law. Judge Schreiner of the Lesotho High Court once referred to these countries as ‘The Southern African Law Association’, given the practice of referring to cross-border case law and the potential for future legal harmonisation. This places this region in a better position than even the EU, which has struggled to harmonise far more diverse legal systems than those of Southern Africa.
While Lesotho is deeply reliant on South Africa, the reverse is increasingly so. The implementation and construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) over the past 25 years has seen a mutual agreement to utilise Lesotho’s water resources to supply the sub-continent’s economic engine room, the water-stressed Gauteng region.
The LHWP is one of the world’s largest inter-basin water transfer schemes and has the potential to expand for several more decades. Lesotho is also considering the potential of building pumped storage hydro-electric schemes, to sell green power to the economic giant on its doorstep. This could also be used to store off peak, excess renewable energy such as solar and wind power.
Given the intimacy of the relationship between South Africa and its two smallest neighbours, it appears sensible to explore closer rapprochement between the three nations. While the grand schemes of the African Union are fine and well, imminent resolution to the complexities inherent in creating such a union appear unlikely.
Surely it is far more sensible to start small and build on that, rather than start big and work down? If we can, for instance, demonstrate that it is possible to build a working model of, say a Southern African Union, starting with South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, then it may be more feasible to build on the successes and broaden the concept to other neighbours.
One way to kick off the process would be to permit the free movement of people between these nations. The only complication is that the eastern border of Swaziland, which abuts Mozambique, could be leaky. Yet reduced demands on border policing elsewhere would enable sufficient resources to be re-allocated.
Given that there is already an almost unregulated movement of people between these nations, in the guise of tourism, it appears illogical to not normalise this reality. This could echo the free movement ordained by the EU Schengen agreement.
The movement of goods is equally easily managed – most goods are transported by truck. Again, reallocating resources by formalising open borders would facilitate this shift of priorities, which could in time be scaled down. The present costs of administering this complex border control are unjustifiable and simple cross-subsidisation agreements could readily replace the complex SACU formulas. Closer economic integration would reduce these high administrative costs and liberate resources better employed elsewhere.
“A Case for Closer Integration between South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland [Now Eswatini]?” (Part 3)
https://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1335
18 Jun 2012
The most prickly aspects will certainly relate to the facets of nationalism and self-government. Swaziland probably presents the greater challenge, given the oppressive control of conservative monarchism there. However the uncomfortable reality is that this faction is rapidly shifting Swaziland toward classification as an economic basket case. Sooner or later South Africa will have to bail out this politically backward monarchy. Swaziland has already burned its bridges with pretty much any other lender of note. It is running out of options and space to negotiate.
Opening up Swaziland to broader economic inclusion within new political and economic alliances is an obvious and overdue solution. Perhaps diplomats are already thinking along these lines. It is difficult to imagine another coherent reason for South Africa’s continued generosity toward the monarchy.
Lesotho has always exhibited a more politically and economically pragmatic stance, primarily through recognition of its peculiar circumstances. It closely co-operated with the apartheid government and international agencies to develop the LHWP. It re-negotiated the SACU agreement and has maintained co-operation with the Southern African common monetary area. While Lesotho has never been nominally colonised – it was only a protectorate – the reality is that it remains intimately interdependent with its regional superpower neighbour.
While a gradual political assimilation of Swaziland and Lesotho may not be immediately possible, it would be unwise not to explore a closer rapprochement and relationship than presently exists. Surely it makes far more sense to build an African Union from the bottom up, rather than from the top down?
The real question is whether the present South African government is either able or adept enough to manage such delicate negotiations. Given the internecine rivalry within the ruling ANC on the one hand, and the singular lack of vision of its nominally leftist partners on the other, a broader, strategic inertia seems to paralyse national leadership. Little or nothing is going to happen before the inevitable machiavellian Mangaung manoeuvres. Our government certainly does not seem about to suddenly project visionary or decisive regional or pan-African leadership.
In this regard, the present ANC leadership almost makes one miss Thabo Mbeki. Despite his shortcomings, Mbeki certainly projected a broader Africanist vision, while the present leadership has remained fixated on political succession and intrigue. It may even be sensible to pull Mbeki out of the shadows and appoint him to manage the closer integration of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.
Any regional integration cannot be built in the image of South Africa as the regional bully, seeking to usurp the crown from its two neighbouring kingdoms. Rather South Africa should build on its strong, existing relationships with these nation states, recognising the strength of each. Surely this is an overdue dialogue?
>In South Africa, some communal disputes are settled in traditional courts rather than in a state judicial setting.
“Traditional court unjustly condemns 19-year-old to DEATH” (Part 1)
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/traditional-court-condemns-19-year-old-to-death-breaking-21-september-2022/
21-09-2022 12:10
Two years after Abulele Kwindana was condemned to death by a traditional court for a crime he didn’t commit – has justice been served?
Abulele Kwindana from Tsilithwa village in Eastern Cape Qumbu town, was only 19 years old when he was accused of stock theft. The traditional court in his village took a decision to kill him. The cattle were later found, but Kwindana was dead. And more than two years later, no-one has been arrested.
Community Head Xolelo Libala told this reporter that a decision to kill Abulele was taken in his home, where traditional court hearings take place.
According to Libala, the grade 11 learner from Qumbu Technical High School had been accused of stock theft. Abulele had been looking after the cattle of a relative, Luthando Kwindana, who reported to the traditional court that his cattle were missing.
Sinazo Kwindana said her son had been looking after the cattle because it was his duty as a boy.
That was in March 2020.
Libala said a community meeting was called, attended only by the men in the village. Abulele had been presented as a suspect. “The boy was questioned,” said Libala.
He said Abulele was beaten and told to go and find the cattle. Asked by GroundUp what proof there was that Abulele stole the cattle, Libala said: “His grandfather told us that he is the suspect and the boy himself said he knows where the cows are and asked to be given time to fetch them. We gave him a week but he failed to bring back the cows. Another meeting was then called and a decision for him to be killed was taken,” said Libala.
Libala said if the questioners feel a person is not telling the truth they beat him.
He said Abulele had been taken to bushes nearby and killed. Libala said he had not been present at the time.
The cattle were later found locked in one of the old rondavels in the village.
THE DAY ABULELE DIED
Abulele’s mother Sinazo, who was in Cape Town at the time, said: “When the first beating occurred I advised him to report the matter to the police. He promised to go in the morning but on that morning it was raining. The police station is very far. There are no taxis going there, so people walk.”
She said Abulele told her he would go to the bushes to continue with the search for the cattle.
“On the day he was killed, I called him in the morning. I asked him if he had found the missing cows. He told me that he had looked everywhere and he couldn’t find them. He told me he was going to school because he had missed a few tests while he went to look for the cows, but he promised to go look for the cows again after school,”
she said.
Sinazo Kwindana said she heard after a week that her son had been killed.
“I called him that afternoon and his phone rang with no response. The next morning his phone went straight to voicemail,” she said. “It never crossed my mind that he was killed. We only thought he went to look for the cows, that he could not find them, and now he was scared to go home.”
Sinazo Kwindana said she asked her sister to go report Abulele missing at Sulenkama police station and she herself returned to the Eastern Cape. “The police investigation was very slow. I would wake up so early in the morning, going around the village with no help from the community members. Only his teachers supported me,” she said.
She said days later her sister received a private call telling her that Abulele had been killed and his body was in the bushes.
“My son died a very painful death for something he didn’t do. They tied him to a tree, then made a fire under his feets. His lower body was burnt. He was found a week later,”
she said.
She opened a case in 2020. But until now no-one has been charged with the killing.
“Traditional court unjustly condemns 19-year-old to DEATH” (Part 2)
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/traditional-court-condemns-19-year-old-to-death-breaking-21-september-2022/
21-09-2022 12:10
WHERE WERE THE POLICE?
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Thembinkosi Kinana said some people had been arrested shortly after the killing but later released. He said the docket was taken to Mthatha for a decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyhali said he could not comment.
Libala said he had given police the names of people who had attended the meetings and the minutes of the meetings. “But nothing ever came of the investigation,” he said.
“That is why people are taking law into their own hands.”
Luthando Kwindana denied that he had suspected Abulele to be behind the stock theft.
“I told Libala that my cows were missing, then some of the community members said they saw Abulele with them,”
he said.
Asked why he had not called the police, after being present at the meeting where the decision to kill Abulele had been taken, he said: “We don’t have police here. We reported a number of theft cases to that Sulenkama police station. None of them were solved.”
THE POWER OF TRADITIONAL COURT
Nolundi Luwaya, director of the Land and Accountability Research Centre in Cape Town, which has opposed the Traditional Courts Bill, said the killing of Abulele was a crime and those involved must be arrested.
Luwaya said traditional courts could only take certain decisions and hear certain cases. Depending on how many cattle were stolen, cases of stock theft could be heard in a traditional court, she said. But if someone is found guilty, “the traditional court is only allowed to fine the person. Not the beating and the killing.”.
LARC is one of several organisations that have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign into law the Traditional Courts Bill, which has been passed by Parliament. The organisations say that though useful changes have been made to the bill since it was first aired in 2008, it still “has the potential to perpetuate abuses and leaves rural people vulnerable to bad practices by presiding officers of traditional courts”. In a statement, the 22 individuals and organisations protested against the removal of the “opt-out” clause in the Bill which would allow people to opt out of the jurisdiction of traditional courts in favour of another court.
“For over a decade, rural people have made it clear to Parliament they will be locked into the jurisdiction of a traditional leader and a traditional court without any choice if the Bill failed to include an explicit opt-out provision,” they said. “Some of these traditional leaders are not recognised by rural communities as they were imposed over them during apartheid.”
The exclusion of an “opt-out” provision “is an affront to rural people who have consistently demanded that their constitutional and customary rights be protected.”
“Africa's Newest President Kenya's Ruto Has Come to Shake Up the UN Watch His 1st Fierce Speech”
https://youtu.be/z2LIpBb8d6c
William Samoei Ruto, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya, addresses the general debate of the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 20 - 26 September 2022).
1:22 – “A just and inclusive world order cannot be spearheaded by a United Nations Security Council that persistently and unjustly fails the inclusivity criteria. Similarly, threats to democracy will not be credibly resolved by an undemocratic, unrepresentative Security Council.”
2:03 – “We welcome the call by President Biden this morning for the expansion of the membership of the Security Council as a significant step in the right direction and we look forward to building consensus for the actualization of the same.”
3:51 – “History indicates the last time Africa was the focal point of strong and effective multilateralism and multilateral consensus was during the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and the character of the ensuing interventions casts a long shadow to date.”
4:59 – “In conclusion, Kenya joins the Secretary General in calling for the strengthening of multilaterism as the only sustainable path to a peaceful stable and prosperous world for all… with strong conviction that none of us is really safe until all of us are safe.”
7:29 – “Kenya pursues numerous essential domestic agenda through the multilateral framework. We are heavily invested in the strenghth, effectiveness and eventual success of all interventions formulated by the United Nations.”
8:20 – “Africa places immense value in the international community and the tremendous possibilities it can unlock through inclusive, sustainable and effective action to transform the lives of our people and establish lasting peace security and shared prosperity. This watershed moment is our chance to turn the key and open this door of opportunity.”
“Kenya’s President-elect: Who is William Samoei Ruto?”
https://africa.cgtn.com/2022/08/15/kenyas-president-elect-who-is-william-samoei-ruto/
August 15, 2022
Barring a petition filed lodged to contest the results of Kenya’s recently completed presidential election campaign, William Samoei Ruto will be sworn into office as Kenya’s fifth president on August 30, taking over from Uhuru Kenyatta who has completed his constitutionally allowed two 5-year terms.
[Raila] Odinga lost the highly controversial 2007 election, which sparked violence after allegations of vote rigging by President Mwai Kibaki.
Odinga and Kibaki agreed on a power-sharing agreement to end the chaos, and Ruto was appointed Minister of Agriculture.
Ruto was however indicted in the International Criminal Court alongside Uhuru Kenyatta and Joshua Sang, Francis Muthaura, Henry Kosgei and Mohammed Hussein Ali.
This indictment would serve Ruto and Uhuru years later, as they joined forces to vie in the 2013 elections.
Uhuru won the August 2013 election with Ruto as his deputy, beating Odinga.
Since 2013, Ruto has served as Kenya’s Deputy President under Uhuru Kenyatta.
The two however seemed to have a falling after they won re-election in 2017, and this would play a big part in Ruto’s push for the presidency.
Ruto used his fallout with Uhuru to solidify his support bases, tapping onto his Rift Valley backyard and Uhuru’s Mount Kenya region.
>Ruto was however indicted in the International Criminal Court alongside Uhuru Kenyatta and Joshua Sang, Francis Muthaura, Henry Kosgei and Mohammed Hussein Ali.
“ The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang”
icc-cpi.int/kenya/rutosang?ln=en
ICC-01/09-01/11
William Samoei Ruto
Kenyan Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology (suspended), MP for Eldoret North (and during the post-election violence, MP for Eldoret North), at time of summons. Summons to appear: 8 March 2011
Charges: three crimes against humanity: murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population, and persecution, allegedly committed during the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya. Case against William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang was terminated on 5 April 2016. Case also involved Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang. Judges declined to confirm the charges against Mr Kosgey on 23 January 2012.
Charges vacated
On 5 April 2016, Trial Chamber V(A) decided, by majority that the case against William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang is to be terminated. The parties have not appealed this decision. Case also involved Henry Kiprono Kosgey. Judges declined to confirm the charges against Mr Kosgey on 23 January 2012.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/iccdocs/PIDS/publications/EN-QandA-Ruto.pdf
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WHY WAS THE CASE STOPPED? The case stopped, because at the end of the case for the prosecution, the Defence requested the Chamber to terminate the case and acquit the accused, on the basis that the evidence presented by the prosecution was weak.
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WAS THE DEFENCE REQUEST UNUSUAL? No. Although it was the first time that such a request was made in a case at the ICC, it is really a generally available request in many national jurisdictions, as well as at the ICTR and the ICTY. In some jurisdictions, it is known as a ‘submission or motion of no case to answer’. In other jurisdictions it is called ‘submission or motion for directed verdict of acquittal’ or ‘request for judgment of acquittal’ or ‘motion for non-suit’. It goes by various names. But the objective of the motion and the essential elements of the procedure are the same.
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IF THE THREE EXPRESSED THEMSELVES DIFFERENTLY, WHAT THEN WAS THE DECISION OF THE CHAMBER? The Chamber’s decision was by majority. Judge Eboe-Osuji (the presiding judge) and Judge Fremr were in the majority. They agreed that the evidence presented in the prosecution case was weak and that the case should be terminated as a result; but that a judgment of acquittal should not be entered. Judge Herrera Carbuccia delivered a dissenting opinion. [Take note, Judge Eboe-Osuji became President of the International Criminal Court and Judge Fremr became Vice President of the International Criminal Court for the same term, 11/03/2018 - 10/03/2021]
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IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TERMINATING THE CASE AND NOT ENTERING A JUDGMENT OF ACQUITTAL? There is a difference, and it is legally significant. A judgment of acquittal means that an accused person has been found to be ‘not guilty’ of the crimes charged against him or her. In many jurisdictions, including before the ICC, such a finding may prevent the future prosecution of the accused again for the same crimes. But, in terminating the case against Mr Ruto and Mr Sang, it was made clear that they could be prosecuted afresh in future.
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WHY DID THE CHAMBER MAJORITY DECLINE TO ENTER A JUDGMENT OF ACQUITTAL? Judge Eboe-Osuji was of the view that, because there was evidence which suggested that witnesses had been interfered with and because there had been political interference in a manner that was likely to have intimidated witnesses, the case should be declared a mistrial, leaving by that the possibility for a future prosecution afresh. Although Judge Fremr expressed a preference for entering an acquittal, he accepted that there had been witness interference and political meddling which the accused had profited from even though there was no evidence of their personal involvement in it. He therefore accepted that the special circumstances of the case justified leaving open the opportunity to re-prosecute the accused.
>[Take note, Judge Eboe-Osuji became President of the International Criminal Court and Judge Fremr became Vice President of the International Criminal Court for the same term, 11/03/2018 - 10/03/2021]
Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, was President of the International Criminal Court
https://www.icc-cpi.int/judges/judge-chile-eboe-osuji
Nationality: Nigeria (African States)
Term: 11 March 2012 - 10 March 2021
Assumed full-time duty: 16 March 2012
Elected from: List A on 16 December 2011
Previously assigned to: Trial Division (11 March 2012 - 20 March 2018)
President: 11/03/2018 - 10/03/2021
President of the Court since 11 March 2018. Assigned to the Appeals Division since 11 March 2018. Earlier served in Trial Division from March 2012 to March 2018. Elected from list A (competence in criminal law and procedure) on 16 December 2011. Judge as of 11 March 2012, for a term of nine years. Assumed full time duty 16 March 2012. National of Nigeria.
Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji was the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during which time he anchored the High Commissioner's interventions in cases involving human rights questions. In that capacity, he led the writing of amicus curiae submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court. He served as principal appeals counsel for the Prosecution in the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and has held several posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including Head of Chambers and Lead Prosecution Trial Counsel.
He practiced law as a barrister before trial courts in Nigeria and Canada; and conducted appeals before the Court of Appeal for Ontario (Canada) and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Judge Eboe-Osuji taught international criminal law as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications, including the books titled International Law and Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts, and Protecting Humanity (ed). He is the editor-in-chief of the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law. He served as legal expert to Nigeria's delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression.
He was called to the Bar in Nigeria (1986); Ontario, Canada (1992); and British Columbia, Canada (1992). He served as a pupil barrister and articled student-at-law under Chief Mike Ahamba SAN (of Ahamba & Associates, Owerri, Nigeria); Mr David W Scott QC (of Scott & Aylen, now Borden Lardner Gervais LLP, Ottawa, Canada); and, Dr Christopher Harvey QC (of Russell & DuMoulin, now Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver, Canada).
Judge Eboe-Osuji received his PhD degree from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (with thesis in international criminal law). He received his LLM degree from McGill University, Canada; and also did his Canadian law accreditation studies at McGill. He received the LLB degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria.
Past situations and cases:
The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain - Trial Chamber IV ( 16 March 2012 - 17 March 2015 )
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V ( 29 March 2012 - 26 April 2013 )
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber V ( 29 March 2012 - 26 April 2013 )
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber V(a) ( 26 April 2013 - 21 May 2013 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V ( 26 April 2013 - 21 May 2013 )
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber V(a) ( 21 May 2013 - 20 March 2018 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V(b) ( 21 May 2013 - 30 January 2014 )
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidèle Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido - Trial Chamber VII ( 30 January 2015 - 18 March 2015 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain - Trial Chamber IV ( 17 March 2015 - 20 March 2018 )
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidèle Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido - Trial Chamber VII ( 18 March 2015 - 24 August 2015 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo - Appeals Chamber ( 2 August 2016 - 8 June 2018 )
The Prosecutor v. Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé - Appeals Chamber ( 17 July 2019 - 31 March 2021 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Appeals Chamber ( 11 December 2019 - 30 March 2021 )
> He received the LLB degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria.
>>17602374 - This link stopped working but I found another.
“Top 7 Confraternities In Nigeria And Their History + Beliefs (Must See)” - University of Calabar (UNICAL)
Oct 26, 2018
Confraternities in Nigeria: For those of you who don’t know how the various cult groups came into being in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, here’s a brief to further broaden your spectrum. Most of the publications I have read on the subject of cultism seem to agree that what is known as “secret cults” in tertiary institutions in Nigeria started when the Pyrates Confraternity was formed at the University college Ibadan (UCI) in 1953.
There is no doubt that the intentions of the founders of Pyrates Confraternity were altruistic. They obviously did not set out to create the hydra-headed monster (or phenomenon) known as cultism in today’s terminology. But like a farmer clearing a bush in the harmattan and setting a fire to a heap of dry leaves, what started with a group of six has now become a chimeric underground movement, a tyrannical monster with many heads.
The list of the secret cults operating in our educational institutions looks like what you will find in the encyclopedia of any computer anti-virus software. At the count it was estimated that there are 44 cult groups operating in various campuses in Nigeria. This is probably an underestimate. It has also been estimated that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), University of Calabar (UNICAL), Univerisity of Benin (UNIBEN), University of Lagos (UNILAG), and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (OAU) have not less than 16 cult groups operating in each of these campuses at any given time.
>[Take note, Judge Eboe-Osuji became President of the International Criminal Court and Judge Fremr became Vice President of the International Criminal Court for the same term, 11/03/2018 - 10/03/2021]
Judge Robert Fremr, was Vice President of the International Criminal Court
https://www.icc-cpi.int/judges/judge-robert-fremr
Nationality: Czech Republic (the) (Eastern Europe)
Term: 11 March 2012 - 10 March 2021
Assumed full-time duty: 1 March 2013
Elected from: List A on 13 December 2011
Previously assigned to: Trial Division (11 March 2012 - 16 March 2021)
First Vice-President: 11/03/2018 - 10/03/2021
Biography
Judge as of 11 March 2012 for a term of nine years. Assigned to the Trial Division; assumed full time duty 1 March 2013. National of the Czech Republic, elected from list A (competence in criminal law and procedure) on 15 December 2011.
Prior to his election as a Judge at the International Criminal Court in 2011, Judge Fremr served the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as an ad litem judge of the Trial Chamber (2006-2008 and 2010-2012).
After holding several positions within the Czech judicial system (judge of the District Court, the Court of Appeal and the High Court in Prague), he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Czech Republic in 2004. He also represented the Czech Republic as a member of several expert committees of the Council of Europe, focused on the fight against organised crime, corruption, and the agenda of human rights, and was a member of the Consultative Council of European Judges.
Judge Fremr has been active as an educator throughout his career, both as an external teacher of Criminal Law at the Charles University in Prague, and a lecturer at courses for judicial practitioners and judges organized by the Judicial Academy of the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic.
He graduated from the Law School of the Charles University in Prague, and obtained his Doctorate of Laws in 1981.
Past situations and cases:
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber V(a) ( 26 April 2013 - 21 May 2013 )
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V ( 26 April 2013 - 21 May 2013 )
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V(b) ( 21 May 2013 - 30 January 2014 )
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber V(a) ( 21 May 2013 - 20 March 2018 )
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V(b) ( 1 February 2014 - 13 May 2015 )
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber V(b) ( 1 February 2014 - 13 May 2015 )
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Trial Chamber VI ( 18 April 2014 - 18 March 2015 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidèle Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido - Trial Chamber VII ( 30 January 2015 - 18 March 2015 )
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Trial Chamber VI ( 18 March 2015 - 20 March 2018 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Trial Chamber VI ( 20 March 2018 - 20 November 2019 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain - Trial Chamber IV ( 20 March 2018 - 16 March 2021 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang - Trial Chamber IV ( 20 March 2018 - 16 March 2021 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Trial Chamber IV ( 20 March 2018 - 16 March 2021 ) (Presiding)
The Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta - Pre-Trial Chamber III ( 27 June 2019 - 16 March 2021 )
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Trial Chamber VI ( 20 November 2019 - 16 March 2021 )
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Pre-Trial Chamber III ( 16 March 2020 - 16 March 2021 )
The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda - Pre-Trial Chamber III ( 9 September 2020 - 16 March 2021 )
>We [Kenya] are heavily invested in the strength, effectiveness and eventual success of all interventions formulated by the United Nations.
“Ghanaian President Prematually Reveals Plans for a United States of Africa During UN Speech”
https://youtu.be/0Gdm-44Y_8w
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, addresses the general debate of the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 20 - 26 September 2022).
1:22 – “We, the current leaders of Africa, should be determined not to waste a crisis that confronts us.”
2:26 – “Our message to the global investor community is therefore this, Africa is ready for business. Africa needs you and you need Africa.”
2:46 –“Soon we will have a customs union and soon we will have a continental payment system that will accelerate and facilitate trade amongst ourselves. Already goods and services are flowing more freely across our artificial borders. See Africa for what it is, the new frontier for manufacturing, for technology, for food production.”
3:21 – “The African Continental Free Trade Area whose Secretariat is located in Accra, Ghana’s capital, is driving intra-african trade and creating unparalleled momentum for our continent’s economic diversity and transformation.”
3:52 – “We’re processing more of our cocoa, refining more of our gold and we’re determined to exploit the entire value chain of our huge lithium deposits. We’re busy building an integrated bauxite and aluminum industry and an integrated iron and steel industry. Building new oil refineries and –have so far attracted 6 of the world’s biggest automobile manufacturers to setup assembling plants in Ghana.—
4:27 – “In line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Africa’s ambition is to –transfer– [was this supposed to have been the correct term and not the correction?]… transform our food systems over the next decade, anchored in the comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program and the Malibu Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth. What we require now is support form the investor community for the rolling out of Africa’s lucrative Agro industry.”
5:15 – “In conclusion Mr President, on 25th July 2016, this assembly adopted resolution A/RES/70/293 proclaiming 2016-2025 as the 3rd industrial development decade for Africa with UNIDO tasked to lead it in collaboration with the range of partners. I believe it is time for the United Nations to take proper stock of this initiative and ask a few searching questions recognizing what could have been achieved with a greater commitment and focus. Working together, we can get our world back into a better and happier place.”
>In conclusion Mr President, on 25th July 2016, this assembly adopted resolution A/RES/70/293 proclaiming 2016-2025 as the 3rd industrial development decade for Africa with UNIDO tasked to lead it in collaboration with the range of partners.
“Executive Summary of the UNIDO ROADMAP Implementation of the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (2016–2025)”
https://www.unido.org/sites/default/files/files/2018-09/IDDA3_Roadmap_Executive_Summary.pdf
On 25 July 2016, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution A/RES/70/293, which proclaimed the period 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III).
Four guiding principles are deemed critical to ensuring the successful implementation of IDDA III:
(a) Government ownership and leadership of the initiative. The success of IDDA III depends on a clear vision, commitment, and resolve by African governments.
(b) A strengthened enabling business environment. A robust framework for industrialization needs to be developed, or enhanced. Such a framework should include the appropriate policies, infrastructure, knowledge and skills, financing, technologies and market institutions.
(c) Sectors with high potential for growth, and which can therefore meaningfully contribute to the reduction of poverty, must be prioritized.
(d) Strong partnerships for financial and non-financial resource mobilization at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels need to be built.
Stakeholder co-ordination IDDA III requires intense consultations with all implementing stakeholders.
This necessitates the design and operationalization of an appropriate oversight and consultation mechanisms. The following inter-institutional groups shall be created (subject to approval by the institutional partners):
(a) A Core Group consisting of representatives from UNIDO, the African Union Commission (AUC), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), for the purpose of developing and leading the operationalization of the Roadmap.
(b) An Implementing Group with representatives from UNIDO, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Environment (UN Environment), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
(c) An Expanded Group, including government representatives, UNIDO, UNCTAD, FAO, WIPO, ILO, UN Environment, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the World Health Organization (WHO), IMF, WB, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), academia, the private sector, bilateral development co-operation agencies and other donors, non-governmental organizations, the Group of 20 (G 20), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
To provide context;
>3:51 – “History indicates the last time Africa was the focal point of strong and effective multilateralism and multilateral consensus was during the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and the character of the ensuing interventions casts a long shadow to date.” [William Samoei Ruto, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya]
>Many Africans resent the contentions of others that tribalism is exclusively an African problem. They contend that their ethnic conflicts are not essentially different from those that have sparked wars and violence in Europe and elsewhere for centuries.
>The European drive for formal political control of Africa did not start in earnest until the 1880s, even though commercial contacts and slave trading began almost four centuries earlier.
>An international conference in Berlin in 1884-85often described as the forum where Africa was carved updid not in itself partition Africa but set guidelines for the Europeans to do so without major squabbling among themselves. The participants were the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
>The conference secured free trade in the Congo Basin, free navigation on the Congo and Niger rivers, and bound the 14 signatories to respect any annexation of coastal Africa if accompanied by effective occupation.
“ICYMI – Dis-Chem withdraws moratorium on hiring of whites”
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/icymi-dischem-withdraws-moratorium-hiring-whites-breaking-news-18-october-2022/
18-10-2022 06:14
Dis-Chem has withdrawn an internal memo and said it regretted offending staff and customers. It said it was committed to transformation.
Dis-Chem has withdrawn an internal memo that called for a moratorium on hiring white people.
IN A STATEMENT, DIS-CHEM WITHDREW THE INTERNAL MEMO
In a statement released by the pharmaceutical retailer late on Monday afternoon, it said it regretted offending staff and customers.
It furthermore said it was committed to transformation.
“We regret the wording and tone of an internal memorandum that has been erroneously widely shared.
“We acknowledge that it did not follow our correct internal vetting processes, and steps have been put in place to ensure that going forward, relevant checks and balances are thoroughly duly performed.
“More importantly, we sincerely regret the offense and distress it caused so many people, including our staff and millions of loyal customers.”
Dis-Chem
‘WE REGRET THE WORDING AND THE TONE..’
After initially standing by the memo on Friday, the company said on Monday it regretted the “wording and tone” of the memo, adding it had “been erroneously widely shared.”
This comes after Dis-Chem issued a moratorium on hiring white people to improve its employment equity profile.
In a letter to senior management dated September 19, founder and CEO Ivan Saltzman announced the moratorium, which includes external appointments and internal promotions.
THIS COMES AFTER INITIALLY STANDING BY THE LEAKED MEMO ON FRIDAY
“It’s the ratio between white and black that counts. So, when no suitable black candidate is found, and a white is appointed, we need several blacks just to maintain the status quo, never mind moving forward,” said Saltzman.
Saltzman referred to employment equity targets and said that as Dis-Chem is a listed group, these “are harsh measures and necessary if we are to remain profitable and to avoid a potential fine of 10% of turnover, which would cripple the business”.
Meanwhile, this internal memorandum sparked outrage in the country. Some white South Africans are now boycotting Dis-Chem for its decision to enforce a moratorium on the appointment of white people, including promotions.
Controversial entertainer Steve Hofmeyr has also hinted that he will be taking his money elsewhere following Dis-Chem’s leaked letter this week.
ALSO READ: ‘Hypocrite!’ – Dis-Chem CEO ‘told to resign’ over white-worker policy, https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-who-is-dis-chem-ceo-hiring-whites-policy/
AFRIFORUM TELL DIS-CHEM CEO TO HAND HIS OWN RESIGNATION IN
As one would expect, this has caused an almighty amount of controversy. On top of the boycott, a number of leading politicians and prominent business figures have denounced Dis-Chem for entertaining ‘racist and divisive’ policies. AfriForum’s Kallie Kriel went in hard on Saltzman:
“Perhaps Ivan Saltzman should practice what he preaches and resign, because he too is white. Or does he really think it is OK to abuse ‘transformation’ to destroy the lives of other whites, in order to protect his own position?” | Kallie Kriel
And it continues…
“CIC #JuliusMalema on the #EFF response to racism. Violence must be responded to with violence.” – “You must never be scared to kill… killing is part of revolutionary act”
https://youtu.be/pFUKWJjnEDc
Oct 16, 2022
CiC #JuliusMalema on the EFF response, as a black consciousness movement to racism in the Western Cape. Racism is violence and violence must be met with violence. The revolution, at some point demands killing! CIC was addressing delegates at the #EFF Western Cape Provincial Peoples’ Assembly 2022
2:22 – –“You must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of revolutionary act. Why did Mandela take up a gun? He was the first soldier of uMkhonto we Sizwe. Why did he take up a gun? Was he taking a gun to distribute roses? He took up a gun because the revolution has reached a point when there is no longer an alternative but to kill. Why are you scared? That anything that stand on the way of the revolution, it must be eliminated in the best interest of the revolution and we must never be scared to do that. The founding manifesto of the EFF says we’ll take power by all means necessary and therefore revolutionaries, when confronted by that situation, should never think twice. Cowards are not for the revolution.”—
4:39 – “When a racist confronted me at Winnie Mandela’s funeral, I did what I was expected to do because I was not scared of a white man.”
The South African judiciary supports him…
>The judge also declared that he ‘generally accepted’ the evidence Julius Malema submitted in his own defence. The ruling means that singing Kill The Boer cannot be classed as hate speech, despite its allegedly inflammatory content.
>Malema beats assault charges
“Julius Malema and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi acquitted of assaulting cop at Winnie Mandela funeral”
https://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/julius-malema-and-mbuyiseni-ndlozi-acquitted-of-assaulting-cop-at-winnie-mandela-funeral-db648535-5dc3-4684-aa97-eec120993988
Published Sep 29, 2022
“The accused lack intent to commit the offence of assault in this regard. Even when the court assessed the version of the accused, the court finds that the accused’s version is reasonably, possibly true. Therefore I accept that the defence of justification is to be applied and the accused had no intent to assault the complainant.”
“Both accused are therefore found not guilty and acquitted of the charge of assault,” he said.
The two were accused of assaulting police officer Lieutenant-Colonel Johannes Venter at the funeral of Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in April 2018.