“Marikana Massacre | Amcu President Joseph Mathunjwa addresses the gathering”; “Mineral energy complex… is the genesis of all social evil in South Africa.”

https://youtu.be/tUHlSsEmGE4

Aug 16, 2022

0:45 – “South African government is spending billions of social grants just to put the people of South Africa in the dark. Just to confine people to be their slaves, to vote them to power, to create a state that is dependent on politicians. Instead of coming with a social program that will uplift the South Africans, we can have all investment in the world without radical revolution of values, we are going nowhere.”

2:30 – “But all these presidents [Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa] have chained the life of a black child in South Africa. We need a president that has compassion and such a president can be appointed by God.”

9:33 – “The time of promises is over. Mineral energy complex, as I’ve said earlier on, is the genesis of all social evil in South Africa. The disposition of land was caused by mineral energy complex. Taxation that was structured for black people was caused by the very same mineral energy complex to use black people to be the cannon fodder for these mines.”

10:55 – “Foreign direct investment, foreign direct thieves. Did you hear that one?… It’s foreign direct thieves!”

11:51 – “Our struggle should be channeled to mineral energy complex. Even during Apartheid years… no government has led the country. The control of the country lies with the mineral energy complex. Even when you go back to 1922, in the Rand Revolt, the same thing has happened where the employer was beating white employees against black employees.”

20:40 – “Love them or hate them, the Afrikaners… but they gave us the country that was functional… a functional state… The Nationalist Party was cruel to humanity but they left us with a functioning state. Where’s the railway today? Where’s the SAA today? Where’s the healthcare system today? Even though during Apartheid, there was a board saying “whites only” and “blacks only” but whenever you entered that door… you’ll get service… you will get all the medication that you want. Today there’s no white or black but there’s no service.”

22:39 – “The elephant in the room is the constitution of the country called South Africa, the best constitution in the world but poor people are poor as a mouse church. Until such time we tear this constitution and write our own constitution that will embrace our culture, that will embrace our norms, that will embrace our values because this constitution has changed us to be like zombies. Until such time we tear down this constitution, this constitution is enslaving us. This constitution is making the same colonizers to have power to the people who are the majority of the country.”

29:23 – “We only see evil when it is committed… by white government, but when the evil is committed by black government, we see no reason to uprise.”

37:24 – “When workers were massacred here, AIDC through Comrade Brian, they’ve done a study of illicit financial flow. We find out, Lonmin registered a company overseas in a safe haven where there is only a postbox, where there is no onw, where they were paying over 200 million per month.”

>>22978036

“Press Release: Lonmin, the Marikana Massacre and the Bermuda Connection”

https://aidc.org.za/press-release-lonmin-the-marikana-massacre-and-the-bermuda-connection/

Posted on December 3, 2014 by AIDC

1. On June 2 AIDC issued a press statement in which we raised the concern of the Platinum Cartel’s possible involvement in transfer pricing in respect of under-selling their metals.

1. Our concerns regarding Lonmin’s involvement in possible transfer pricing is greater than ever. Tuesday hearings of the Marikana Commission showed that Lonmin needs to clarify the role and relationship of several of its subsidiaries, not least Lonmin PLC (the parent company), Western Platinum Ltd, Eastern Platinum Ltd, Lonmin Management Services (PTY) Ltd and Western Metals Sales Limited, located in the tax haven of Bermuda.

1. Contradictory answers have been provided both to the Marikana Commission and to journalists in relation to revelations made.

1. In sum, Lonmin, just for the years 2008 to 2012 transferred in commission fees $160 million (R1,231 billion) to a Lonmin subsidiary, Western Metals Sales Limited based in Bermuda, a well known tax haven. A further $155 million (R1,170 billion) was paid in management fees to Lonmin Management Services.

1. These amounts were shifted from Lonmin’s South African operations and effectively put out of reach of possible wage demands, meetings of its social labour plan commitments and beyond what would have been “taxable income”. It is necessary to ask is if this a case of the so-called “illicit financial flows” that has so worried African heads of state and prompted the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union (AU) to establish the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows.

1. Lonmin’s Bermuda connection is one piece in a complex inter-company labyrinth and picture of excessive dividend payments before the 2008 crash, exorbitant executive salaries as well as yearly management fees to head offices.

1. This is an important part of the background to the August 16 Marikana massacre and shaped Lonmin’s response to the wage demands of rock drill operators and other workers at its operations.

1. That Lonmin has something to hide became clear in the last days of evidence at the Marikana Commission of Inquiry. When questioned on these transfers and the relations between Lonmin, its South African subsidiaries and its overseas subsidiaries, its Executive Director, Mr M Seedat seemed to suffer from severe memory loss and could only provide general information that was contradictory. Nevertheless, he was forced to admit in reference to the Lonmin subsidiary in Bermuda, Western Metal Sales Limited, that “A structure like this is normally set up to be optimal from a tax perspective.”

1. Further to this, Mr Seedat told the Commission that the “Bermuda operation” was closed in 2008, yet financial reports audited by the international firm KPMG, records the flow of money to Bermuda up until 2012. A decision was made by Lonmin to rewrite its business history in June 2012 in relation to these payments and retrospectively decree (in June 2012) the closure of Western Metals Sales Limited in 2008.

1. A research report on the issue of Lonmin’s affordability will soon be lodged at the Marikana Commission. https://aidc.org.za/download/BermudaLonmin04low.pdf (See attachment)

1. Perhaps it is legal to rewrite a company’s financial history without a comment in the audited books, however, AIDC calls on SARS and the South African government to urgently establish a major and detailed investigation into Lonmin’s financial operations and more generally into other mining transnational corporations and the problem of transfer pricing, illicit financial flows that also may be contributing to South Africa’s worsening capital account deficit and balance of payment problems.

For more information also read this article:https://aidc.org.za/programmes/political-economy/wage-and-profits/83-lonmin-s-bermuda-connection-the-story-to-emerge-from-cross-examination-during-the-marikana-commission-hearings

For further information, contact Dick Forslund (+ 27 828 957 947), senior economist at the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC), Brian Ashley (+27 820857088), Director at AIDC, MP Giyose (+27 823500361), Chair of the AIDC board.

>>22978036

>>22978041

“Cyril Ramaphosa’s Lonmin tax-dodge headache”

https://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-18-cyril-ramaphosas-lonmin-tax-dodge-headache/

18 September 2014

Evidence before the Marikana commission that Lonmin moved millions in platinum revenue from South Africa to tax-free Bermuda is likely to prove embarrassing for ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa, who was a Lonmin director and major shareholder until recently, came out swinging last month against corporate tax evaders, which he said have committed a crime against “ordinary” South Africans.

This week the Farlam commission of inquiry, which is investigating the events that led to the killing of 34 miners by police during the 2012 platinum strikes, heard that, for many years, Lonmin’s South African mines have paid “sales commissions”, recently averaging more than R200-million a year, to a company it owned in Bermuda.

Lonmin told the commission that it only put a stop to this practice in 2012, with a decision it says it backdated to 2008. The decision to stop was not made sooner, the company said, because it was blocked by its black economic empowerment partner Incwala – a company controlled by Ramaphosa’s Shanduka Group.

When evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson then pressed Seedat on why the decision was only made in 2012 and then backdated, Lonmin’s lawyer, Schalk Burger, interjected: “I have an instruction from the chief legal adviser to Lonmin to say the reason for the lateness of that agreement was that Incwala for very many years refused to agree to the new structure, and it was only by the middle of 2012 that that agreement could be obtained and that the agreement could be concluded.”

Incwala Resources owns 18% of Lonmin’s South African subsidiaries Western Platinum and Eastern Platinum. Ramaphosa became a Lonmin board member in July 2010 when his Shanduka Group acquired a 50.03% controlling stake in Incwala.

He resigned from Lonmin’s board in January 2013 when he re-entered the political sphere.

The reasons why Incwala allegedly prevented the Bermuda payments from being stopped was not discussed further at the commission. It is also not clear when this happened and what Ramaphosa’s role was.

>>22978036

>>22978041

>>22978052

“Cyril Ramaphosa: from Lonmin mining massacre to President”

https://theweek.com/south-africa/91665/cyril-ramaphosa-from-lonmin-mining-massacre-to-president

last updated 15 February 2018

The new South African leader was an apartheid hero - but some haven’t forgiven his role in the deaths of 34 miners

Cyril Ramaphosa will lead South Africa into the next decade, a formidable challenge for the anti-apartheid activist-turned-businessman.

Ramaphosa, 65, is an activist lawyer who grew up in a poor township in Johannesburg. He was detained twice in the 1970s for anti-apartheid activities, Time says, and formed the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1980s.

The union leader then transformed himself into a multi-millionaire businessman, eventually taking over the McDonald’s franchise in South Africa in 2011, the BBC says.

But Ramaphosa is better known in South Africa in connection with a massacre at the British-owned mining company Lonmin in 2012. Ramaphosa was a non-executive director when a wildcat strike at the Marikana platinum mine ended with police shooting dead 34 strikers. He had called on the authorities to take “concomitant action” against the miners in the days before the massacre.

During his testimony at an inquiry into the massacre he was heckled by protesters shouting “blood on his hands, Ramaphosa must go”, the BBC reported at the time.

The South African news agency Business Live says that in a “bid to clear a major hurdle in his campaign for top office”, Ramaphosa apologised last year for the manner in which the Marikana massacre unfolded, saying he was “sorry for the type of language he used at the time”.

“An inquiry subsequently absolved Ramaphosa of guilt. But some families of the victims still blame him for urging the authorities to intervene,” Reuters reports.

The incident “rocked the mining industry and traumatised South Africa”, The Daily Telegraph writes.

Could Ramaphosa heal and restore South Africa’s politics and economy, in spite of his past? A country once described as the “miracle” of the African continent is about to find out.

>>22978036

>Our struggle should be channeled to mineral energy complex. Even during Apartheid years… no government has led the country. The control of the country lies with the mineral energy complex.

>>22978041

>>22978052

>>22978061

>Could Ramaphosa heal and restore South Africa’s politics and economy, in spite of his past?

“The Stilfontein Massacre: State Violence in Defense of Corporate Mining Interests”

https://www.telesurenglish.net/the-stilfontein-massacre-state-violence-in-defense-of-corporate-mining-interests/

March 12, 2025 Hour: 6:12 pm

The Stilfontein massacre, reminiscent of the Marikana massacre, has once again exposed the deadly means the South African government is willing to employ to protect private corporate and commercial interests.

Labeled “illegal miners” by the state, artisanal miners are marginalized individuals struggling for better living conditions. They operate in parallel—and in resistance—to the industrial-scale mining industry, which has a long history of dispossession and exploitation dating back to the colonial era.

Stilfontein, like Marikana, reveals the state’s collusion with corporate mining interests. The violence it employs ranges from direct, structural, and narrative violence to the violence of inaction—all part of a legacy of colonial extortion driven by the need to control and extract labor and resources.

Every February, Cape Town hosts Mining Indaba, Africa’s largest mining investment conference, attended by politicians, mining lobbyists, and corporate elites. The conference features South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe, and 42 ministers from 29 African nations.

https://www.africanmining.co.za/events/investing-in-african-mining-indaba-2025-cape-town/

Since its inception in 1994, the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference has become a pivotal event for mining professionals, investors, and industry leaders looking to capitalise on the vast opportunities in Africa’s mining sector. With a focus on fostering long-term economic growth and sustainability, the event serves as a premier meeting place for networking, deal-making, and discussions on topics such as technological advancements in mining, sustainable mining practices, and investment opportunities in African mining projects. As the event continues to grow in size and influence, it remains a crucial platform for shaping the future of mining on the African continent.

>>22978036

>>22978070

”The Rise in Class Action Lawsuits against Mining ‘Powerhouses’ in South Africa”

https://law.uct.ac.za/mineral-law/articles/2024-03-12-rise-class-action-lawsuits-against-mining-powerhouses-south-africa

12 Mar 2024

The discovery of gold in South Africa in the 19th century contributed to the rapid growth of the country’s mining industry.[1] Due to the mining industry's insistent demands, South Africa, an underdeveloped and mostly pastoral or agricultural country, transformed into an economic hub with power, railways, roads, and improved water supply.[2] As the mining industry expanded over the years, ensuring an adequate supply of cheap labour became a significant challenge.[3] Resultantly, the South African mining industry relied heavily on black male workers who would migrate from their homelands to the mining towns so they could earn a living and support their families.[4]

Mines are inherently dangerous workplaces. The reality of sustaining Injuries due to accidents and contracting untreatable occupational diseases presents a great health hazard among mineworkers.

the South African government has published regulations, guidelines, and mandatory Codes of Practice that assist employers in managing risks to health.[14] However, mining companies, who generate billions of rands in profits from the operation of the mines, fail to provide adequate protective equipment and healthcare services and implement the safety guidelines.

On the 15th of August 2023, Richard Spoor Inc. Attorneys (RSI) filed a class action lawsuit against coal mining companies BHP Billiton, Seriti Power and South32. Further applications were brought against Exxaro, Glencore and Anglo American later for similar reasons. The law firm will represent thousands of coal mineworkers and relatives affected by coal mine dust lung disease (CMDLD). CMDLD are a group of occupational lung diseases attributed to long-term exposure and inhalation of coal mine dust.[15] Cumulative coal dust exposure adversely affects the lung function of [16] The applicants argue that the international mining companies made little to no effort that would protect mineworkers against incurable lung morbidities. Further, the applicants argue that they were not educated about the disease and its symptoms and they often brushed off the discomfort in the respiratory tract as a recurring flu. This makes it difficult for them to seek medical attention for early intervention.to implement statutorily mandated measures that would protect mineworkers against incurable lung morbidities. Further, the applicants argue that they were not educated about the disease and its symptoms and they often brushed off the discomfort in the respiratory tract as a recurring flu. This makes it difficult for them to seek medical attention for early intervention.

>>22978036

>>22978041

>>22978052

>>22978061

>>22978070

>Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe

>>22978079

>class action lawsuit against coal mining companies

“Freedom Day 2025 | Acting President Gwede Mantashe reflects on democracy in keynote address”

https://youtu.be/C7bx69yNp7Q

Apr 27, 2025

13:20 – “Actually coal mining which is your pride, premier, is ran, owned and managed by black South Africans. Only Glencore is predominantly white in mining coal here and that coal is not underperforming. Why should you not be celebrate that? Is it because I don’t own a mine then I can’t celebrate? I must celebrate that our people own those mines, they manage them… It is 80% driven by black South Africans. We celebrate.”

21:07 – “When people criticize us for the government of national unity, they say, “why do you talk to the DA?” It takes us all the time to explain that you never negotiate with your friend. You negotiate with your enemy.”

22:12 – “I always remind people, ideology has no colour. Ideology is the mindset. We can leave the DA but I’m not sure if MKP and EFF are better options. They are so aggressive and hostile against the ANC. So it’s like choosing a devil and also but run into the fire. That’s it. You run away from the devil, you get into the fire, you burn anyway.”

23:14 – “Peace over conflict. Right-wing fringes regard this gesture as cowardice than a noble one. That is why you will find some of the people taking over Orania. Orania, a piece of land in the Northern Cape. They want to create it as some land that is independent. Actually, if I would be a president for more than 3 hours, I would declare that we must go and build in Orania. Black people must go and build there. And we mix them. They appreciate that hatred can never survive peace. It is peace that build a nation… Others go over to America… They told to go there and be refugees. They are refusing. They must go because we are a free country, we are a sovereign country, we’re not a province of the United States. And that sovereignity will be defended. That’s why when we see soldiers here, we know that our sovereignty is protected. That’s it.”

25:22 – “These choices we made over three decades ago defined our national character and we have elevated moral standing in the world… We don’t apologize for the standing with the people of Palestine. We can never apologize because other people stood with us. We can’t apologize for standing with the people of Sahara. We can’t apologize for standing with people of Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan. We must pay our price and render our solidarity.”

27:31 – “South Africa remains committed to progressive foreign policy and to engaging the countries of both the global north and global south. South Africa owed this liberation to many countries of the world that stood by us and supported our struggle… What we owe is to continue pledging solidarity… We stand with the people of Palestine.”

https://www.gov.za/news/speeches/minister-gwede-mantashe-freedom-day-2025-27-apr-2025

Address by Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa on the occasion of Freedom Day, AJ Swanepoel Stadium, Ermelo, 27 April 2025

>>22978090

> if I would be a president for more than 3 hours, I would declare that we must go and build in Orania. Black people must go and build there. And we mix them.

“Orania: South Africa’s most functional town - or its most misunderstood?” – Part 1

https://www.biznews.com/sarenewal/orania-south-africas-most-functional-town-most-misunderstood

Published on: 21 Apr 2025, 12:02 pm

• Orania thrives through self-reliance and zero state support

• Town upholds Afrikaner culture via education, economy, and local currency

• Critics allege segregation, but Orania cites democratic self-determination

Amidst the vast, dusty plains of the Northern Cape lies Orania, a unique Afrikaner community that emerged in the early 1990s as a bold experiment in self-determination.

What began as a vision for a space where Afrikaners could preserve their culture, language, and values has today developed into a functional, well-organized town.

Orania stands as a shining example of what can be achieved through vision, perseverance, and a strong sense of community — all without state subsidies, foreign aid, or the chaos that often plagues other South African municipalities.

A History of Dedication

Orania’s origins lie in South Africa’s turbulent transitional years, when the country’s political landscape was shifting dramatically.

In 1990, an abandoned village in the Northern Cape — originally a workers’ camp for the construction of the Vanderkloof Dam — was legally purchased by a group of Afrikaners under the leadership of Carel Boshoff III.

This land, which at the time held little value to others, was not seized or stolen, but honestly paid for and carefully developed. The founders’ goal was clear: to create a space where Afrikaners could safeguard their identity and values in a time of uncertainty, all within the framework of the South African Constitution.

Perhaps the Ingonyama Trust in Kwa Zulu-Natal was created with a similar goal in mind.

Be that as it may, from the beginning, Orania’s development has been a testament to self-sufficiency. The community built its own infrastructure, including water and power systems, roads, and public facilities.

They established their own school system, which offers education in Afrikaans and emphasizes Christian values and practical skills.

Today, Orania has its own currency, the Ora, which circulates to support the local economy, along with a thriving network of small businesses that create jobs and promote self-reliance.

>>22978097

“Orania: South Africa’s most functional town - or its most misunderstood?” – Part 2

https://www.biznews.com/sarenewal/orania-south-africas-most-functional-town-most-misunderstood

Published on: 21 Apr 2025, 12:02 pm

An Economic and Social Success Story

Orania’s economy is one of its greatest strengths. In contrast to many other small towns in South Africa, where economic stagnation and unemployment prevail, Orania has developed a vibrant local economy.

Agriculture — particularly the cultivation of pecans and grapes — forms the backbone of the economy, but the town also has a diverse range of businesses, from bakeries and construction companies to tech and service enterprises.

This economic activity is supported by a strong work ethic and a culture of cooperation, where residents actively support one another’s ventures.

Socially, Orania is equally impressive.

Crime is virtually non-existent, and the town’s clean, well-maintained streets and public spaces reflect a community that takes pride in its surroundings.

The school system produces excellent results, and cultural activities — such as traditional folk dancing, music festivals, and historical commemorations — strengthen communal bonds.

This stability and order stand in stark contrast to the service delivery crises plaguing many other South African municipalities, where power outages, water shortages, and corruption have become the norm.

Criticism and the Question of Self-Determination

Despite its successes, Orania is frequently criticized, particularly by certain political parties and public figures. The primary criticism is that the town is predominantly inhabited by white Afrikaners, which some interpret as a form of apartheid-like segregation.

However, this viewpoint ignores the fundamental principle upon which Orania is founded: self-determination within a democratic and constitutional framework.

Orania’s residents do not impose rules that unlawfully exclude or harm other groups. The focus is not on exclusion, but on preserving a specific cultural identity — something that, in other contexts such as indigenous communities or religious enclaves, is often recognized as a fundamental right.

The opposition to Orania raises important questions. Is the criticism truly rooted in ideological differences, or does it stem from a deeper discomfort with the town’s success?

Orania’s ability to build a functional, corruption-free community highlights the failures of other institutions. It is often easier to criticize a successful example than to create one.

Moreover, the principle of self-determination is selectively applied in South Africa. While other groups’ right to preserve their culture and traditions is often celebrated, Afrikaners who pursue the same goals are frequently viewed with suspicion.

This double standard warrants closer examination.

>>22978097

>>22978099

“Orania: South Africa’s most functional town - or its most misunderstood?” – Part 3

https://www.biznews.com/sarenewal/orania-south-africas-most-functional-town-most-misunderstood

Published on: 21 Apr 2025, 12:02 pm

A Lesson for South Africa

Orania’s story is not one of division, but of dedication and innovation.

In a country where service delivery is collapsing and economic challenges are mounting, Orania offers a model of what is possible when communities take their future into their own hands.

The town proves that small-scale, community-driven development can work — even in remote and challenging environments. It highlights the value of local self-governance, where communities can set their own priorities and manage resources efficiently.

Furthermore, Orania is a reminder that diversity in a democratic society does not only refer to racial or linguistic differences, but also to different ways of living and governing.

If South Africa truly wants to build a pluralistic society, there must be space for communities like Orania — just as there is space for other cultural or religious enclaves.

Recognizing this diversity can reduce, rather than heighten, tensions by allowing communities to preserve their identities while still being part of the broader national fabric.

Future Challenges and Potential

Orania is not without its challenges. The town’s small scale and remote location limit its economic growth, and the community will need to continue innovating to remain sustainable. Moreover, Orania is likely to face ongoing political and ideological opposition, requiring diplomatic and transparent communication to counter misconceptions.

Yet, these challenges also present opportunities. Orania can serve as a testing ground for other communities seeking self-governance and self-reliance, and its successes can inspire broader discussions about decentralization and local development in South Africa.

Final Thoughts

Orania is more than just a town; it is a symbol of what is possible when people with a shared vision work together to build their own future. It is not a threat to national unity, but a testament to the power of independence and cultural pride.

In a time when South Africa is grappling with economic stagnation, corruption, and social division, Orania’s story is one of hope and inspiration.

It deserves not only the right to exist, but recognition as a model of peaceful, productive, and self-sustaining development.

Perhaps it is time for South Africa to stop viewing Orania as an anomaly and begin to study its lessons.

In a country yearning for solutions, this small Northern Cape community may just offer a blueprint for a better, more self-reliant future.

>>22978036

>Until such time we tear this constitution and write our own constitution that will embrace our culture, that will embrace our norms, that will embrace our values because this constitution has changed us to be like zombies. Until such time we tear down this constitution, this constitution is enslaving us.

>>22978097

>>22978099

>>22978104

>Orania: a testament to the power of independence and cultural pride.

Afrikaners created their own "homeland" while Africans call for it but academics and the world condemned it..

”Self-Determination, International Law and the South African Bantustan Policy” [1978]

https://www.academia.edu/101180591/Self_Determination_International_Law_and_the_South_African_Bantustan_Policy

1978

An integral element of the South African apartheid policy is the permanent repatriation of most members of various government-designated African tribal groups to ten territorial areas around the country, designated as the respective "homelands" of each group. Citizenship for members of such groups is apparently to be transferred from South Africa as a whole to the respective bantustan, each having been granted internal self-government in many respects. The implementors of the bantustan policy see the territorial status of the bantustans as a precursor to independence, with a progressive reduction of blacks' privileges in South Africa as the program is further implemented. The bantustan of the Transkei requested and was granted independence by the Vorster government on October 26, 1976.

This Article will explore the legality under international law of the bantustan policy in South Africa-as distinguished from the legality of similar policies in the international territory of Namibia'-especially as that policy relates to the right of selfdetermination for black South Africans. Two comparatively recent United Nations General Assembly resolutions 2 provide a useful prescriptive focus. Both explicitly condemn the bantustan policy and declare it to be a violation of the United Nations Charter because of the denial of self-determination to black South Africans. To these must be added a third resolution 3 passed directly in response to the Transkei's change of status. The General Assembly resolutions raise the question whether maintaining the original territorial integrity of South Africa would help or hinder black South Africans to achieve self-determination, They also raise the questions of the permissibility under international law of intense coercion against blacks to prevent self-determination and the effect of coercion upon the international legal competence of black groups to conclude with the South African government certain transactions vital to the bantustan policy.

This Article concludes that the granting of "independence" to bantustan territories, as has been done for the Transkei and Bophuthatswana, and related South African policies, violate international law. A final question, then, is the scope of the expectations and legal obligations that flow to the international community from this violation.

The idea of "separate development" for Africans and whites originated, not surprisingly, among Afrikaners, especially from the then Prime Minister Voerwoerd in the 1950's. Its territorial manifestations have only recently become of international concern.

>>22978147

Take note

“Clash of Spears: Unraveling the Tribal Conflicts in South Africa”

https://african.nativetribes.info/clash-of-spears-unraveling-the-tribal-conflicts-in-south-africa/

Posted on March 1, 2024

In the heart of South Africa, amidst the vibrant tapestry of cultures, lies a stark reality that has plagued the nation for centuries: tribal wars. These conflicts, steeped in historical grievances, cultural divides, and resource scarcity, continue to cast a long shadow over the country’s progress and prosperity. The human toll is immeasurable, with countless lives lost, families torn apart, and communities left shattered in the wake of violence.

Tribal wars in South Africa are a complex web of historical, social, economic, and political factors. At their core, they often stem from centuries-old disputes over land, cattle, and other resources, which are exacerbated by poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The lack of effective governance and conflict resolution mechanisms further fuels tensions, leading to cycles of violence and retaliation. The target of these tribal wars is often innocent civilians, who bear the brunt of the violence and displacement.

The consequences of tribal wars in South Africa are far-reaching. They not only claim lives and destroy communities but also hinder economic development, discourage investment, and undermine the rule of law. The diversion of resources from essential services such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure further perpetuates poverty and inequality. Moreover, the deep-seated mistrust and animosity between warring tribes make reconciliation and lasting peace elusive.

South Africa’s tribal wars are a stark reminder of the enduring challenges facing the nation.

https://www.polilingua.com/blog/post/11-official-languages-of-south-africa-and-multilingualism.htm

South Africa’s linguistic landscape is as diverse as its people, featuring a remarkable distinction of having not one, not two, but eleven official languages. Each language reflects a unique culture within a nation, with its own distinct voice and heritage.

>>22978147

>>22978149

As John Vorster tried to explain to the world.

John Vorster (1974): “Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Question of South Africa”

https://youtu.be/VVWh01yCoIQ

Feb 9, 2017

Episode S0132, Recorded on March 13, 1974

Guest: B. J. (Balthazar Johannes) Vorster

6:09 – “What you do mean in fact - maybe you were too polite to say it - it is said that we are in fact a police state. If that is the case then it is the only police state that I know of where you must do your level best to keep people out because as it happens at the moment that we have 1000s and 1000s of illegal black immigrants in this country and we can’t get them out.”

7:12 – “It is not widely known that there is severe press criticism but it has also been remarked that recently as a few months ago you threatened to close down certain newspapers in the event that they should publish copy quote, “which would lead to an explosive situation among various races.” Is that not absolute freedom then?… Naturally in our situation I think that each and every man who has the future of this country at heart will agree with me that the one thing we should avoid is to incite one race against another… If one race is incited to act violently to put it mildly against another race then certainly the government of the day must be entitled to take steps against it.“

9:59 – “The policy of separate development as I understand it has this point, roughly speaking, as follows; roughly 14% of South Africa is reserved for the bantustans… It is not a question of being reserved for them. That is where the mistake is made all along the line to interpret this situation. You must know something of the history of this country and its people. It so happens that more or less for all practical purposes the time the whites moved up from the Cape, the blacks moved down from the middle of Africa and they settled certain portions of what is now the Republic of South Africa. Xhosas settled the Transkei, the Zulus settled portions of Natal, Tswana settled portions of Western Transvaal, Sotho settled portions of Northern Transvaal, Venda settled another portion of Northern Transvaal and so I can go on. They claimed certain land and to this day, they still possess. So it is not a question that it was reserved for them. They settled the land and they got it to this very day and the whites settled the rest. Apart from the land they initially settled which is today still their land, in 1936 the then United Party under the leadership of General Hertzog as Prime Minister and General Smuts as Deputy Prime Minister… passed the law saying that in addition to that land which the black peoples originally settled, the whites at their expense should add 7 ¼ morgen of land and that land is still being bought up today… We didn’t put them there and said to them, “that is where you must live.” They settled that land, they picked that land and let me say, from an agricultural point of view and the rainfall point of view, it is the best land in South Africa.”

31:25 – “But what I do know because I was Minister of Justice in 1961 that an attempt was in fact made by the Communists to overthrow this government by sabotage and violence and these people were brought before the courts and they were sentenced… In actual fact, they were Communists… As a matter of fact, in the 50s the Communists shouted it from the rooftops that they were going to take over this country in 1963 and they still have not abandoned the idea that ultimately the communists will take over this country over the simple reason that they want to control the tip of South Africa so that they can control the Cape sea route which is the lifeline of Europe.”

34:01 – “The background of all of this is that there are many countries in the world and mainly for that reason they vote against us are annoyed with us because we haven’t got the system of one man one vote as far as the whole Republic is concerned and they won’t accept the policy of separate development which means that there is in fact a white state in South Africa and 8 black states consisting of different peoples with their own language, their own customs, their own traditions, etc., etc.”

41:07 – “You’ll find in practice the moment that you put Indian and black children in the same school, you have friction leading ultimately to violence.”

>>22978169

>“You’ll find in practice the moment that you put Indian and black children in the same school, you have friction leading ultimately to violence.”

>>22978149

Consider tensions between Africans and Indians in South Africa

“3 Indian-Origin students in South Africa injured in racist attack”

https://youtu.be/yhZY8pxKqlg

Feb 5, 2025

A shocking incident in South Africa has left three Indian-origin students in critical condition after they were brutally attacked outside Centenary Secondary School in Asherville on Tuesday. The attack has sparked outrage, with parents calling it a racially motivated assault.

https://www.facebook.com/IOLnews/videos/three-learners-from-centenary-high-school-in-durban-were-rushed-to-the-hospital-/1577622739791084/

>>22978231

>>22978169

“What's fuelling tensions between Black and Indian South Africans?”

https://youtu.be/ufozr7zeiuo

Sep 11, 2021

South Africa was recently hit by its worst unrest since apartheid after former president Jacob Zuma was jailed for failing to co-operate with a corruption probe. What started off as protests quickly descended into looting and violence, especially in Durban against South Africa’s Indian community, and led to the founding of vigilante groups. We look at what could be fuelling these ethnic tensions.

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/10/world/violence-spreads-in-durban-area-of-south-africa.html

• Aug. 10, 1985

Violence and confrontation spread deeper into black townships around Durban today, pitting black rioters against white police officers and Indian vigilantes armed with shotguns and pistols.

At one point, the arson and looting engulfed the former home of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The house was pillaged and buildings and schools next to it were set on fire by black looters.

The violence around Durban started Tuesday night and was apparently linked to protests by black activists over the assassination of Victoria Mxenge, a black civil rights lawyer closely linked to the United Democratic Front, an anti-apartheid coalition. The front's affiliates generally oppose Inkatha.

But since then, the unrest in this area far from the 36 districts under the emergency decree has taken a different turn. It has appeared to lose any ideological direction in a morass of racial hatred between blacks and Indians, recalling the massacre of 142 Indians by Zulus in 1949.

This is not 1949! one angry young Indian shouted today after his colleagues fired shotguns at a black crowd. This is 1985, and we are ready for them!

Most Slain Were Black

Only a few of the more than 50 people reported killed here were Indians; the rest were blacks killed by the police, by Indians and in a few cases by other blacks.

In other areas, violence by blacks has been mostly directed at the police presence in black townships or at those blacks considered as collaborators with the white authorities. But in this township, the targets seem to be almost exclusively Indians.

“ANC VIPs of Violence Full”

https://youtu.be/BniyOkX09G8

Government trying to justify its rule?… Necklacing, Mbokodo, camp Quatro, etc. should also be investigated.

“South Africa to probe alleged suppression of justice in apartheid-era killings”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/south-africa-to-probe-alleged-suppression-of-justice-in-apartheid-era-killings/ar-AA1DV0uB

4/30/2025

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is setting up a judicial commission of inquiry to establish whether attempts were made to prevent the investigation or prosecution of apartheid-era crimes, his office said on Wednesday.

The move is the outcome of settlement discussions in a court case brought by families of the victims of political killings and disappearances that happened decades ago, who say post-apartheid governments never properly investigated those crimes.

"Allegations of improper influence in delaying or hindering the investigation and prosecution of apartheid-era crimes have persisted from previous administrations," the presidency said in a statement.

"Through this commission, President Ramaphosa is determined that the true facts be established and the matter brought to finality."

After apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to help uncover human rights violations perpetrated under white minority rule.

The TRC handed over a list of several hundred cases to state prosecutors for investigation, but many were never pursued.

The 25 family members and survivors who filed the case in a Pretoria court in January are also seeking about 167 million rand ($9 million) from the state in damages.

The government will ask for their application to be suspended pending the commission's findings, the presidency said. It did not give a time frame.

The Foundation for Human Rights, an NGO supporting the families, said that they welcomed the establishment of a commission of inquiry but opposed the president's move to delay a ruling on their damages claim.

"Instead of entering into mediation, he has decided to offload the declaration of rights and constitutional damages onto a commission of inquiry, which has no authority to deal with it," it said in a statement.

>>22979456

>The Foundation for Human Rights

>>22970972

>>>22632198 Shadow Empire: How USAID and Ford Foundation helped the CIA control India’s policy & culture

Foundation for Human Rights Funded by the Ford Foundation and Others

https://fhr.org.za/about-us/

The FHR, based in Johannesburg, is a non-profit organisation established in 1996, working to protect and promote human rights and the values and commitments enshrined in South Africa’s Constitution. This includes solidarity with formations struggling for human rights realisation in Southern Africa and beyond.

Our vision is a just society for all. Our mission is to partner with civil society formations in marginalised communities and with institutions who support our vision of a just society for all, in order to sustain the struggle for and realisation of constitutional and human rights, holding duty bearers and rights violators to account.

FHR is both intermediary grant-maker and an implementer of targeted human rights programmes that strengthen rights awareness, including conducting research, policy development, advocacy and litigation.

https://fhr.org.za/about-us/our-supervisory-board/

Mahandra Chetty (Judge)

Member

Judge Chetty grew up and attended school in Durban, thereafter attending the University of Durban- Westville, where he completed my LLB in 1985. During that time he was actively involved in student politics, and served as the President of the Law Students Council.

He completed his articles in the Western Cape, and was admitted as an attorney in March 1988. He took up a Fulbright scholarship at New York University where he did an LLM focusing on International Human Rights law. During this time he interned at various law firms. He returned to South Africa and took up employment with the Legal Resources Centre in Johannesburg in March 1990 where he has worked for 4 years before transferring to the Durban office, where he remained until his appointment to the High Court bench in June 2014. As the Director of the Durban office for more than 12 years, he has served on the Executive Committee of the LRC. Since his appointment to the bench, he has been invited to serve on the Board of the Legal Resources Trust, which oversees the work of the LRC. He is a dedicated activist who still retains contact with the various community organizations with whom he has worked with over the years.

https://fhr.org.za/about-us/donors-sponsors/

As at 2024-2025 our donors and sponsors include: European Union Delegation in South Africa, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Ford Foundation, Constitutionalism Fund, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria.

>>22970972

>>>22632198 Shadow Empire: How USAID and Ford Foundation helped the CIA control India’s policy & culture

>>22978036

>this constitution is enslaving us

>>22979475

>>22979456

Ford Foundation and Legal Resource Centres in South Africa

https://www.fordfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2000-ford-foundation-grantees-and-the-pursuit-of-justice.pdf

In early 1998, Mary McClymont, senior director of the Foundation’s Peace and Social Justice program, assembled an international team of legal scholars, activists, and social scientists to conduct an in-depth look at the activities of the Foundation and its grantees in the area of law-related work. The Global Law Programs Learning Initiative focused much of its research on five countries: China, South Africa, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and the United States; and two regions: Eastern Europe and the Andean and Southern Cone areas of South America. Additional visits were made to other countries where Ford works. Team members reviewed literature, conducted on-site visits, and interviewed Foundation staff, grantees, and other experts. The lessons that emerged from their work are compiled in a separate volume of papers for funders, practitioners and legal analysts, entitled Many Roads to Justice: The Law-Related Work of Ford Foundation Grantees Around the World.

Internationally, public interest litigation is a promising and increasingly popular strategy for protecting and promoting rights, and it has already borne fruit in various countries. The Foundation began supporting such work in the 1970s at the Legal Resources Centre(LRC) in South Africa. LRC and others’ challenges to apartheid’s legal structure helped pave the way for South Africa’s transition to democracy and demonstrated that law could be used by advocates to seek justice, and not only by the South African government to impose repression. LRC has continued to represent disadvantaged South Africans since the fall of apartheid.

To recap…

https://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/oral_hist/carnegie/pdfs/john-dugard.pdf

John Dugard: “David Hood went to the Carnegie board of trustees and persuaded the board to make a grant to the University of the Witwatersrand to set up the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, with one of its early tasks the establishment of the Legal Resources Centre. So that meant that in 1978 we received funding for public education in the field of law, but with one of the main functions the establishment of the Legal Resources Centre. And thereafter, Arthur Chaskalson and I visited the United States to raise funds for the Legal Resources Centre, and in the following year the Legal Resources Centre was set up with funding from Ford Foundation, Rockefeller, and Carnegie.”

https://www.wits.ac.za/cals/about-us/our-history/

CALS is one of South Africa's oldest public interest law organisations. It was founded by Prof. John Dugard and based at Wits University during the apartheid era when human rights groups simply did not exist. With three original staff members and funding from the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the organisation made a significant impact first as an applied research centre and later as a law clinic.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-29-professor-sandy-liebenberg-the-constitutions-keeper/

However, her [Professor Sandy Liebenberg] biggest break in rights came when in 1994 she was nominated by the ANC as one of the four constitutional experts to sit on the technical committee that advised Theme Committee 4 (Fundamental Rights) during the Constitution drafting process of the Constitutional Assembly. The others were Halton Cheadle, John Dugard and Ignatius Rautenbach.

https://www.boell.de/en/2024/01/10/south-africas-icj-case-against-israel-judicial-stress-test-multilateral-system

South Africa simultaneously embarked on compiling the 84-page submission to the ICJ to make a determination of genocide against Israeli military assaults in Gaza.

The South African legal team is led by Professor John Dugard, a former member of the United Nations Law Commission and professor of international law at the Universities of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Leiden (The Netherlands), and Witswatersrand (Johannesburg).

>>22978036

>Until such time we tear down this constitution, this constitution is enslaving us.

>>22979492

>Internationally, public interest litigation is a promising and increasingly popular strategy for protecting and promoting rights, and it has already borne fruit in various countries. The Foundation began supporting such work in the 1970s at the Legal Resources Centre(LRC) in South Africa

>Centre for Applied Legal Studies, with one of its early tasks the establishment of the Legal Resources Centre

>CALS… founded by Prof. John Dugard

>South Africa vs Israel: The South African legal team is led by Professor John Dugard

>>22979475

>>22979456

Legal Resources Centre Connections; “Kill the Boer” case, South Africa vs Israel ICJ case, Zondo Commission, Classifying the Chinese as “black people”, South Africa’s Constitution

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi

• Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, a lawyer, public speaker and author whose current work for the Legal Resources Centre and Johannesburg Bar spans public law, labour law and competition - member of the advisory panel on land reform. https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/president-cyril-ramaphosa-appoints-advisory-panel-land-reform-21-sep-2018

• On January 11, South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi presented video of Israeli soldiers singing a song with the line “no uninvolved civilians” to the International Court of Justice genocide hearing in the Hague. This video, Ngcukaitobi stated, is “not open to neutral interpretation or after-the-fact rationalizations and reinterpretations by Israel.” Statements made by leaders, Ngcukaitobi insisted, were an indication of “state policy,” and the “genocidal intent was not ambiguous” to those hearing it. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, incidentally, was the lawyer who defended political leader Julius Malema’s use of the song “Kill the Boer” during a 2022 trial in which the Johannesburg High Court ruled that its use did not constitute hate speech… South Africa is leading the charge in accusing Israel of genocide https://thebridgehead.ca/2024/01/17/kill-the-boer-south-africas-hypocrisy-on-israel/

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo

• After his BJuris degree, he worked at the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) to secure funding to further his studies… Member of the Ministerial Task Team that drafted the Labour Relations Bill for the post-apartheid era, first chairperson of the Governing Body of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), served on the Goldstone Commission, Judge President of the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court, chair of the Language Committee of Heads of Court, Constitutional Court judge, Deputy Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa and current Acting Chief Justice, and Chair of the Judicial Commission into State Capture. https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chief-justice-raymond-zondo

George Bizos

• Bizos, known as one of the icons of South Africa's fight for democracy, died of old age at his home in Johannesburg, his family said in a joint statement with the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), where he was a member. "George Bizos is one of those lawyers who contributed immensely to the attainment of our democracy," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised statement, calling him one of the architects of the country's constitution. https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/1205479-south-african-human-rights-lawyer-george-bizos-dies-at-92

• [Chinese Association of South Africa]’s lawyers, including renowned human rights advocate George Bizos, SC, argued that like other designated “coloureds”, Chinese people were discriminated against in several areas, such as education, employment, ownership of property, and voting rights… Judge Cynthia Pretorius ordered that South African Chinese people did in fact fall within the ambit of “black people” in both the Employment Equity Act and the B-BBEE Act. https://www.phfirms.co.za/kc/Data/South_African_Chinese_%E2%80%98black_people%E2%80%99__court_rules__2880.asp

https://lrc.org.za/who-we-are/

In 1979 a group of activist lawyers, including prominent human rights lawyers Arthur Chaskalson, Felicia Kentridge and Geoff Budlender, created the Legal Resources Centre with two goals in mind: use the law to resist the oppressive apartheid system, and provide a training ground for public interest lawyering and young black lawyers. The LRC soon became well known for using the law as an instrument to challenge apartheid injustices and for representing black South Africans against the apartheid state. The LRC played an important role in helping to dismantle apartheid legal structures.

A Timeline of LRC History

1996: Members of the LRC play an important role in developing the new Constitution of South Africa.

>>22979530

>Arthur Chaskalson

>>22979492

>>22979475

>>22970972

>>>22632198 Shadow Empire: How USAID and Ford Foundation helped the CIA control India’s policy & culture

“First Constitutional Court President and former Chief Justice, Arthur Chaskalson has passed on.”

https://youtu.be/BRcXzJc1CtU

Dec 1, 2012

Arthur Chaskalson (First Constitutional Court President); “Ford Foundation was regarded as a subversive organization by the South African government… seen as an indirect Communist plot”

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/world/africa/arthur-chaskalson-south-african-chief-justice-dies-at-81.html

Dec. 3, 2012

“The last time I was in court was to hear whether or not I was going to be sentenced to death,” Nelson Mandela said in 1995. Mr. Mandela, South Africa’s president, was speaking during the inauguration of Arthur Chaskalson as the first presiding judge of their country’s newly established Constitutional Court. The moment signified the new order that Mr. Mandela had for decades fought to achieve: a majority-ruled nation where minority rights were protected by a Constitution and a bill of rights.

Justice Chaskalson, who died on Saturday in Johannesburg at 81, had helped write that Constitution and create the court that would be its safeguard. He had earlier been part of the team of defense lawyers that saved Mr. Mandela and other antiapartheid activists from the death penalty at the infamous Rivonia trial in 1963-64. Mr. Mandela, convicted of sabotage and other crimes, spent 27 years in prison before being released in 1990.

Blacks wanted an end to what had effectively been a parliamentary dictatorship, even though they would now dominate Parliament.

https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/ohac/10.7916/d8-p5gd-c656

Oral history interview with Arthur Chaskalson 1999

(born 1931) Establishment of Legal Resources Centre [LRC] 1978: position as director 1978-1993, initial funding by Carnegie Corporation of New York [Carnegie], Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund; LRC' s close relationship with Centre for Applied Legal Studies: separate entity from LRC, research focused

Portion of the Transcript;

“Ford Foundation was regarded as a subversive organization by the South African government. At one stage some of the people from Ford had difficulty in getting into the country, and they were one of the initial funders of the organization. I think the fact that funding came from the United States of America and not Eastern Europe might have been of some moment, in the sense that it wasn't seen as a direct Communist plot; it was seen as an indirect Communist plot, using left-leaning people in the United States, who were really either surrogates or fellow travelers of the Communists to do their dirty work for them.”

https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-p5gd-c656

https://aaregistry.org/story/arthur-chaskalson-disarmed-aparthied/

Arthur Chaskalson was born on this date in 1931. He was a white Jewish-South African lawyer, judge, and activist. Born in Johannesburg, he came from a modest background; his father was a Lithuanian immigrant who died when he was five.

>>22970972

>>>22632198 Shadow Empire: How USAID and Ford Foundation helped the CIA control India’s policy & culture

>>22979475

>>22979492

>>22979530

>>22979868

Did the world merge with the Soviet Union through organisations like the Ford Foundation?

“Norman Dodd and Ford Foundation”

https://youtu.be/os9WDdznSN4

1:32 – “All of us [Foundations] have a hand in the making of policies here; have had experience either with the OSS during the war or European economic administration after the war…”

2:28 – “We [Ford Foundation] shall use our grantmaking power… in the United States that it can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union.”

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/FordFandCIA.html

15 December 2001

The CIA considers foundations such as Ford "The best and most plausible kind of funding cover" (Ibid, p. 135). The collaboration of respectable and prestigious foundations, according to one former CIA operative, allowed the Agency to fund "a seemingly limitless range of covert action programs affecting youth groups, labor unions, universities, publishing houses and other private institutions" (p. 135). The latter included "human rights" groups beginning in the 1950s to the present. One of the most important "private foundations" collaborating with the CIA over a significant span of time in major projects in the cultural Cold War is the Ford Foundation.

Fall of the Berlin was on 9 November 1989. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50013048

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990. https://www.nelsonmandela.org/news/entry/mandela-walks-free-35-years-remembered

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.

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.

Since the Soviet Union liberalized emigration policies in the spring of 1989, some 51,700 Soviet Jews have arrived in Israel. Estimates of how many of the Soviet Union’s 1.5 to 2 million Jews ultimately will leave have varied widely, ranging up to 1 million.

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.

https://banotes.org/international-relations/collapse-ussr-shaping-new-world-order/

December 9, 2023

The Collapse of the USSR: Shaping a New World Order: As the grip of central Soviet control weakened, the republics sensed an opportunity… Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were among the first to declare their intent to break away. [Take note: 90% of all Jews in South Africa are Litvaks [Lithuanians], https://vilnews.com/2011-01-litvaks-in-south-africa]

In Russia, Boris Yeltsin rose to the forefront as the first president of the Russian Federation. The transition was rocky, with immediate economic and political challenges, but it also opened Russia to the world in a way that had never been possible during the Soviet era.

The USSR’s collapse not only signified the end of the Cold War but also the beginning of a unipolar world order, with the United States emerging as the sole superpower. This shift had profound implications for international relations and the global balance of power.

The absence of a rival superpower gave the United States unprecedented influence on the world stage. It allowed for the spread of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism as the dominant global ideologies, shaping international policies and alliances for years to come.

>>22979885

>>22979868

>Rivonia trial in 1963-64

>>22978036

>we tear this constitution

>>22978090

>We stand with the people of Palestine

>>22979530

>South Africa vs Israel ICJ case

World seems to be in a Jewish battleground.

Apartheid vs ANC; Consider Nelson Mandela’s historical ties to the Israeli Jews to understand the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict and South Africa’s involvement

http://www.mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/before/640420_trial.htm

Statement by Nelson Mandela from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria Supreme Court – Pretoria, 20 April 1964

Incidentally, the terms High Command and Regional Command were an importation from the Jewish national underground organization Irgun Zvai Leumi, which operated in Israel between 1944 and 1948.

[The Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) was a Jewish terrorist organization that transitioned from a terrorist group to a political party. As a movement the group was founded in 1931 under Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s leadership, but even then their operations did not include violence against their enemies, the British or Arabs. Not until 1939, when group leaders recognized the need to start initiating violence, can the Irgun really be called a terrorist organization. The source of the Irgun’s grievances can be found in the settlement of Israel... C.L. Sulzberger interviews Menachem Begin, one of the most prominent leaders of the Irgun, and writes that “the extremist organization Irgun Zvai Leumi does not recognize the partition of Palestine as binding upon its supporters and is insistent that the State of Israel shall include all of the former Palestinian mandate as well as all of the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan” (Sulzberger 9). https://www.lycoming.edu/schemata/pdfs/sellers.pdf]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/nelson-mandela-weapons-training-mossad-agents

Fri 20 Dec 2013 17.33 CET

Nelson Mandela 'received weapons training from Mossad agents in 1962'

Mandela visited other African countries in 1962 in order to drum up support for the African National Congress's fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa. While in Ethiopia, he sought help from the Israeli embassy, using a pseudonym, according to the letter – classified top secret – which was sent to officials in Israel in October 1962. Its subject line was the "Black Pimpernel", a term used by the South African press to refer to Mandela.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/188856/jewish-groups-had-complex-relationship-with-nelson/

The roots of the mutual suspicions between the Jewish leadership and Mandela were deep. Jews were on both sides of the battle over South African apartheid, both in South Africa and around the world. “There were progressive Jews in South Africa who played a key role as whites in supporting Mandela and the early efforts of the ANC,” Teutsch said. “There were also establishment whites in the Jewish community who supported the status quo… And of course both of those groups appealed to Jews elsewhere for their support.”

Israel had a military relationship with the apartheid regime, offering to sell them nuclear arms in 1975. At the same time, many Jewish organizations in the U.S. actively opposed Mandela’s imprisonment. In 1986, B’nai Brith urged then-South African president P.W. Botha to free Mandela.

https://apnews.com/general-news-37f88cba81fd4690be621ffee72a5e71

According to other documents released by the archives, Israel maintained a strong interest in Mandela’s well-being after his arrest and throughout the Rivonia Trial, where he was convicted of sabotage in 1964 and sentenced to life in prison.

According to the archives, Israel also had an interest in the case because about one third of the defendants were Jewish, and Israel feared the case could spread anti-Semitism in South Africa.

One letter, dated April 21, 1964 and written by Azriel Harel, an Israeli diplomat in South Africa at the time, called for rallying international opinion to prevent the Rivonia defendants from receiving death sentences.

And now there is a term; “Israeli Apartheid” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_apartheid

>>22982284

>Israel also had an interest in the case because about one third of the defendants were Jewish… Azriel Harel, an Israeli diplomat in South Africa at the time, called for rallying international opinion to prevent the Rivonia defendants from receiving death sentences.

>>22979492

>>22979868

>Arthur Chaskalson (First Constitutional Court President)… helped write that Constitution

>>22979530

>George Bizos… calling him one of the architects of the country's constitution.

Rivonia Trial 1963 – 1964; "the trial that changed South Africa”

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/rivonia-trial-1963-1964

Often referred to as "the trial that changed South Africa,” in October 1963, ten leading opponents of apartheid went on trial for their lives on charges of sabotage.

In the Rivonia Trial, the ‘accused’ addressed this problem by using the courts as a site of struggle. They argued that the law was drawn up without the consent of the majority; it was enforced to ensure the perpetuation of an unjust system, and therefore the struggle would be waged to establish a new system, including a legal system that would embody the values of a non-racial constitution that protected human rights.

On 30 October 1963 ten defendants appeared in the Pretoria Supreme Court charged on two counts of sabotage. The specific charges the accused faced were: (1) recruiting persons for training in the preparation and use of explosives and in guerrilla warfare for the purpose of violent revolution and committing acts of sabotage; (2) conspiring to commit the aforementioned acts and to aid foreign military units when they invaded the Republic; (3) acting in these ways to further the objects of communism; and (4) soliciting and receiving money for these purposes from sympathisers in Algeria, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Tunisia, and elsewhere.

The defence team comprised of Joel Joffe, who was the instructing attorney, Bram Fischer, Vernon Berrange, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos. The trial judge was Justice Quartus de Wet, with the Prosecution led by Dr Percy Yutar. The Verwoerd government was hoping for the maximum sentence for the accused i.e. the death penalty. From the outset, the defence team informed their clients that they should expect the worst. All ten accused pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In presenting the prosecution’s case, Yutar claimed that the accused were all members of what he considered ‘a cabinet of the government soon after the overthrow of the state’. [They already planned it then!]

Soon after the trial defence lawyer Bram Fischer was arrested and put on trial for ‘supporting communism’. Many believe the state went after Fischer because the Rivonia trialists had not received the death penalty. Fischer’s case received much attention, as Fischer was an Afrikaner fighting against an Afrikaner government. He was sentenced to life in prison and was only released when he was critically ill.

>>22979885

>90% of all Jews in South Africa are Litvaks [Lithuanians], https://vilnews.com/2011-01-litvaks-in-south-africa

>>22982284

>>22982337

>Yutar claimed that the accused were all members of what he considered ‘a cabinet of the government soon after the overthrow of the state’. [They already planned it then!]

“Percy Yutar, 90; Led Prosecution of Mandela in 1964 Treason Case”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jul-17-my-yutar17-story.html

July 17, 2002 12 AM PT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Percy Yutar, the prosecutor who won life sentences against Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress leaders in the 1964 Rivonia treason trial, has died. He was 90.

Yutar rose to become the first Jewish attorney general in the country when he was named the top lawyer of the Orange Free State in 1968.

Joel Joffe, the lead defense attorney in the trial, said later that Yutar was particularly aggressive toward the Jewish defendants.

He “seemed to regard it as a duty to prove to the government that there were ‘good Jews,’ through his own enthusiastic persecution of these subversive Jews,” Joffe said.

Despite his energetic prosecution in the Rivonia case, Yutar insisted he had saved them from hanging by charging them only with sabotage instead of treason, though sabotage also carried the death sentence.

Yutar later called Mandela, whom he had once accused of being a Communist stooge plotting a bloody revolution, “a saintly man.”

He was born in Cape Town after his family emigrated from Lithuania. His father was a butcher, and Yutar was expected to work in the family business, but he was seriously injured in an accident that left the fingers on one hand mangled.

After winning the Rivonia case, Yutar was named attorney general of the Orange Free State and later the Transvaal. He retired 12 years later.

>>22978036

>Mineral energy complex, as I’ve said earlier on, is the genesis of all social evil in South Africa.

”GOLD & DIAMONDS: Passing the Scepter” (1951)

https://time.com/archive/6885417/gold-diamonds-passing-the-scepter/

February 12, 1951 12:00 AM GMT-5

From a massive, block-long building in Johannesburg last week came a discreet announcement that set the trading marts of the world buzzing. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the world’s king of diamonds and its prime minister of gold, was giving up a bit of his vast suzerainty. At 70, he relinquished directorships in seven of his 30-odd gold-mining companies—a step towards turning over his empire to his son and spit & image, 41-year-old Harry Oppenheimer.

This did not mean that Sir Ernest, last and greatest of South Africa’s great “Randlords,” was going to take things much easier. In his three-story citadel he would still work his usual 16 hours a day, still sit firmly in the chairmanship of his Anglo American Corp. of South Africa, Ltd., the master holding company through which he has built an economic pyramid of more than 200 companies worth more than $2.5 billion. They control 15% of the Transvaal’s gold production, 43% of its coal, 50% of its explosives, 9% of the world’s copper, and a bewildering hodgepodge of enterprises ranging from breakfast foods to railways.

Acres of Diamonds. As chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., a syndicate of seven companies, Sir Ernest also controls 95% of the world’s supply of diamonds, and sees to it that the supply is always less than the demand. As always, war and inflation are now swelling the demand for diamonds, and Sir Ernest’s cartel has opened up two idle mines to step up production. The wholesale price of gem diamonds has risen 20% in six months, and U.S. rearmament has sent the price of industrial diamonds (vital for cutting tools) soaring 100% since Korea. Not only capitalists buy diamonds; an “unknown buyer” thought to be the Soviet Union has suddenly started buying all it can in the Belgian markets, presumably to build its own stockpile for machine tools for war.

Sir Ernest, who has one of the world’s prize collections of rare diamonds, started learning about stones at 16. The son of a middle-class Jewish family in Friedberg, Germany, he went to London to learn the diamond-cutting trade, was sent to South Africa at 22 to look after his London employer’s diamond properties. The year was 1902, when Cecil Rhodes, who had formed the De Beers combine out of hundreds of small claims, died murmuring: “So little done, so much to do.” Oppenheimer was just the man to do it. He stayed in Kimberley and went into mining on his own.

Shrewd, eager and personable, he was enough of a success by 1912 to be elected Kimberley’s mayor at 32 (he was twice reelected, later went to Parliament). In 1917 he teamed up with an American engineer, William Lincoln Honnold, and, with backing from J. P. Morgan and others, formed Anglo American.

At the end of World War I, Sir Ernest got a five-year exclusive sales contract covering the rich diamond fields of Germany’s former colony in South-West Africa [now Namibia]. He used this tremendous lever to pry his way into the clam-tight De Beers syndicate. In 1929, after secretly buying up 20% of De Beers’ shares, he took over the syndicate. It keeps its tight control of diamonds by persuading any who find new fields to join the syndicate and reap the benefits of its controlled prices.

New Bonanza. Sir Ernest’s biggest interest now is not diamonds, but gold, from which Anglo American last year made £11 million ($30.8 million) profit. His Anglo American is the biggest single holder in the immensely rich new fields of the Orange Free State, and has put up more than half of the £200 million ($560 million) being spent to develop them. Believing that South Africa must wipe out the disgrace of its mining “kraals,” where Bantu workers live like prisoners, he has led the spending of £70 million by mine operators to develop a model village to house 100,000 _ people at the new Free State mining center near Odendaalsrust. By July he expects to start taking gold out of his first mine there, open another shortly after. Says Sir Ernest: “This is the most extensive mining development the world has ever known.”

In this new venture, Sir Ernest’s right-hand man is son Harry, a deputy chairman of Anglo American. Harry, who was educated at Oxford, and captained a company of Britain’s “Desert Rats” against Rommel’s troops in World War II, lives with his wife and two children in a smaller villa adjoining “Brenthurst,” the palatial residence of his father and stepmother, outside Johannesburg… When Parliament is in session (Harry has succeeded to his father’s old seat*), he drives the nearly 1,000 miles to Cape Town at breakneck speed.

*In the party of the late great General Smuts, opposed to fanatically anti-Negro Malan.

>>23024791

>At the end of World War I, Sir Ernest got a five-year exclusive sales contract covering the rich diamond fields of Germany’s former colony in South-West Africa [now Namibia].

>When Parliament is in session (Harry has succeeded to his father’s old seat*… In the party of the late great General Smuts

>>22978036

>>22982284

>Irgun Zvai Leumi

>>22978147

>homeland

>>22979885

>https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-06-11-vw-81-story.html; “Black South Africans are already in their homeland, [Mendel Kaplan] says, whereas Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel is another act in the age-old Jewish search for a homeland.”

Jan Smuts’s significant influence; signing WW1 & WW2 peace treaties, drafted United Nations Covenant, signing to establish both the League of Nations and UN, Balfour Declaration, etc. - Part 1

https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWsmuts.htm

In 1917 David Lloyd George invited Smuts to join the Imperial War Cabinet in London. He soon obtained a high reputation and was an influential figure in devising Allied war strategy. While in England he played a leading role in establishing the Royal Air Force.

At the Paris Peace Conference, Smuts worked closely with Woodrow Wilson, in advocating a League of Nations. Smuts returned to South Africa after the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 and soon afterwards became prime minister. Smuts lost power in 1924 but later returned to office as deputy prime minister (1933-39) and prime minister (1939-48).

Smuts worked closely with Winston Churchill during the Second World War and was the only man to sign the peace treaties at the end of both wars. Smuts was also a leading figure in the drafting of the United Nations Covenant. Jan Christian Smuts died in 1950.

https://www.telfed.org.il/jan-christian-smuts-and-the-jews/

“Similarly South African Jan Smuts, a member of the British War Cabinet who was actively involved in the discussions behind the Balfour Declaration and the Versailles Treaty, recalled the views of the British Cabinet in deciding to favor a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It was naturally assumed that large-scale immigration of Jews into their historic homeland could not and would not be looked upon as a hostile gesture to the highly favored Arab people—-[who ] largely as a result of British action, came out better of the Great War than any other people.” [A Place Among the Nations by Benjamin Netanyahu – P46 published May, 1993.]

Chaim Weizmann was quoted as saying that without Smuts there would have been no Balfour Declaration.

Smuts enjoyed close friendships with many in the South African Jewish Community. In June 1917 he met Chaim Weizmann ,commencing which a lifelong friendship of 33 years. They enjoyed each other’s company, were compatible intellectually and together they shared a vision of a home for the Jews, He also shared this strong conviction with both Lloyd George the British Prime Minister and his Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour. Both Weizmann and Smuts shared the belief that because Palestine was the Biblical home of the Jews, it was historically justified and natural that this was the place which should be chosen.

Jan Smuts was elected Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919-1924 and then subsequently from 1939-1948. He personally fundraised for many Zionist organizations during his Premiership. His government granted de facto recognition of Israel on 24 May, 1948, a few days prior to his party being voted out of power.

>>23024860

Jan Smuts’s significant influence; signing WW1 & WW2 peace treaties, drafted United Nations Covenant, signing to establish both the League of Nations and UN, Balfour Declaration, etc. - Part 2

https://www.telfed.org.il/jan-christian-smuts-and-the-jews/

David Fromkin’s, “A Peace to End All Peace” on the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, was described by Fouad Ajami as ambitious and splendid—-An epic tale of ruin and disillusion—of great men, their large deeds and even large follies. From this book, we learn the following:

English Prime Minister, Lloyd George invoked an Imperial War Conference also called the Imperial War Cabinet to consult on issues of war and peace, to meet in London around March 16/17, 1917. “Nobody was more suspicious of the government’s intentions than the delegate from South Africa , Jan Christian Smuts, a lawyer-turned-general, who had fought against the British in the Boer War; he had no desire to be ruled from London and who upon arrival received an invitation to dine at Brook’s with Lord Milner, his former adversary.

The meeting was a victory for Smuts recognized as a superb administrator who had gained acceptance to the basis of the reorganization would be the independence of South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Having been a successful general in the Boer War days and East Africa and a representative in of the Dominions , he could help Lloyd George in confronting the British generals.

Lloyd George prevailed upon Smuts to stay on in London and serve in the War Cabinet “on loan” from his own country’s “Cabinet”. He was the only Cabinet Minister in modern British history to have no connection with either House of Parliament; and spent the rest of the war away from home living in a hotel room at the Savoy. “General Smuts had expressed very decided views as to the strategical importance of Palestine to the British Empire”. The capture of German East Africa by Botha and Smuts had already created a continuous stretch of British-controlled territories between , on the one hand, Cape Town, the Atlantic Ocean port at the southern tip of Africa, and on the other, Suez, which bridged the Mediterranean and the Red Sea at the continent’s northeastern tip. As of 1917, Palestine was the key missing link that could join together the parts of the British Empire so that they would form a continuous chain from the Atlantic to the middle of the Pacific.

The Jerusalem Report published, “Smuts and Weizmann -My great-grandfather’s love of Israel and South African Jews” by Philip Weyers on 13/12/2017. What follows are 1st hand extracts from this remarkable piece of history. In the early 1920,South Africa heard of a tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, affecting in particular the Jews… One of the tragic results of these pogroms were thousands of orphans, whose numbers were estimated at 400,000. Before any organized relief could be effected, a Russian born resident of Cape Town, Isaac Ochberg took matters under his wing and approached General Jan Smuts, the Prime Minister and Patrick Duncan, the Minister of the Interior. Smuts reacted with alacrity, granting permission for an unrestricted number of orphans, as many as could be saved.

In January, 1921, Ochberg persuaded the Smuts government to contribute on a pound for pound towards the rescue and repatriation effort, resulting in 250 rather than the previously calculated 200 orphans being rescued and brought to South Africa. Many of these orphans returned in later life to Europe, but many also remained in their adopted country and contributed inestimably to the South African economy adding considerably to its heritage.

Professor Richard P. Stevens describes the Smuts-Weizmann relationship as follows: “Perhaps a few personal friendships have so influenced the course of political events during the 20th century as the relationship between General Jan Christian Smuts, South Africa’s celebrated Prime minister and Chaim Weizmann, the charismatic Zionist leader and Israel’s 1st President. But the importance and insignificance of this little publicized relationship transcends the personal elements involved or its contribution to Zionist success rather, it helps throw into perspective the contradictions of Western liberalism and the psychological climate which rationalized the dominant position of a white minority in South Africa on the one hand and of a new European settlement in Palestine on the other.”

>>23024860

>>23024871

Jan Smuts’s significant influence; signing WW1 & WW2 peace treaties, drafted United Nations Covenant, signing to establish both the League of Nations and UN, Balfour Declaration, etc. - Part 3

https://www.telfed.org.il/jan-christian-smuts-and-the-jews/

Bailey reminds us that following the end of hostilities in 1918, which initiated the conclusion of WW1, a peace conference was held at Versailles in France on January 1919, between the victorious Allied Forces and the defeated Central Powers, which had been led by Germany. A Peace Treaty ensued including the Balfour Declaration granting a homeland to the Jewish people as one of its many clauses, notably at the insistence of Jan Smuts.

Subsequently, Smuts attended the San Remo Conference during April, 1920 for the ratification of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in order to establish the League of Nations. Smuts, as the as its author ensured the inclusion of the Belfour Declaration. What followed was the issuing of the British Mandate over Palestine , and should have resulted in a self-governing Jewish state in the whole territory between the Jordan River and the sea.

Jan Smuts was the author of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations and the only politician to serve in the British War Cabinet in both the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Further, he was the only politician to sign the peace treaties ending global conflict after both world wars and was the only signatory to the establishment of both the League of Nations and the United Nations – a truly amazing record. One also recalls Smuts opposition to all the negative British White Papers.

>>23024871

>Jan Christian Smuts, a lawyer-turned-general, who had fought against the British in the Boer War; he had no desire to be ruled from London and who upon arrival received an invitation to dine at Brook’s with Lord Milner, his former adversary.

>The meeting was a victory for Smuts recognized as a superb administrator who had gained acceptance to the basis of the reorganization would be the independence of South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“White-washing the Boer War”

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/uncategorized/white-washing-the-boer-war/

April 7, 2018

In 1901, Lord Alfred Milner was “lamenting” the “fact that the death rate among young children in the [Boer War concentration] camps was still not dropping. ‘The theory that, all the weakly children being dead, the rate would fall off is not so far borne out by the facts,’ Milner wrote. ‘The strong ones must be dying now and they will all be dead by the spring of 1903.'” On October 14, 1901 the cornerstone for the Boer War monument was laid at Province House.

[Jean] Laroche goes on to interview Joe Ballard, president of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, who says something ridiculous:

“We often forget about the South African campaign and it gets lost with more recent wars, but it was significant and I think it deserves greater honour than having cars parked around it,” said Ballard.

Please. The Boer War exemplified everything horrible about humanity, about imperialism, about the British Empire, about Canada, about Halifax, and about the boys and men who fought it. It was shameless slaughter conducted by vile people for despicable reasons.

I’ve written before about the use of concentration camps during the South African War (formerly known as the Boer War). This site [http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/women-children-white-concentration-camps-during-anglo-boer-war-1900-1902] has an extensive timeline of the British atrocities in the camps, which led to the deaths of 10 per cent of the Afrikaner population (22,000 of them children) from disease and starvation. Some 115, 000 were imprisoned in these camps. The British did not keep numbers on how many Black South African workers interned in the camps also died, but estimates suggest around 20,000 out of the approximately 100,000 Blacks in the camps were worked to death.

Yves Engler describes the role of Canadian troops in the war, and the mythologizing of Canada’s military prowess in this article for Rabble [http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/yves-engler/2015/06/conservative-warrior-nation-mythology-glorifies-boer-war-against-]:

In Another Kind of Justice: Canadian Military Law from Confederation to Somalia, Chris Madsen points out that, “Canadian troops became intimately involved in the nastier aspects of the South African war.” Whole columns of troops participated in search, expel and burn missions. Looting was common. One Canadian soldier wrote home, “as fast as we come up the country…we loot the farms.” Another wrote, “I tell you there is some fun in it. We ride up to a house and commandeer anything you set your eyes on. We are living pretty well now.” There are also numerous documented instances of Canadian troops raping and killing innocent civilians.

Yves Engler, author of several books including Canada in Africa, observed to me in a Facebook message about the monument:

As with the scramble for the continent, which was justified in large part by saying we want to stop slavery, the Boer War was justified by they are treating Blacks poorly. And then they of course are brutal to Africans during the war and implement racial apartheid after. While they kept records on the Boer of who died in the concentration camps, they completely ignored the Africans. I think I discuss it in Canada in Africa book, there is quite impressive racial solidarity with the Boer within only a few years after the brutal conflict. The Boer go from the devil to the British supporting [Boer] self governance.

>>23024871

>The meeting was a victory for Smuts recognized as a superb administrator who had gained acceptance to the basis of the reorganization would be the independence of South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

>>23024883

> there is quite impressive racial solidarity with the Boer within only a few years after the brutal conflict. The Boer go from the devil to the British supporting [Boer] self governance.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand fought in the Boer War

https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXII/495/215/394451?login=false

Extract

THE war fought in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 was the most extensive and costly of all the wars fought by Britain between 1815 and 1914 but it does not only belong to British and South African history. Some 30,000 Australian, Canadian and New Zealand forces took part in a British imperial war which also has a place in their national histories. Carman Miller has written the definitive account of the Canadian case, Painting the Map Red: Canada and the South African War, 1899-1902 (second edition, 1998) (rev. ante, cxi (1996), 240–41). Now Craig Wilcox has produced a similarly exhaustive treatment for Australia, in a handsome volume of more than 500 pages, complete with voluminous footnotes, extensive photographs, maps, tables, appendices and stiff covers. The centenary of that war has also been marked by the publication of a volume of thirteen essays which were written for a symposium on New Zealand's role in that war. In terms of their scholarly research, fresh analysis and conclusions, these essays mark a real advance on the ‘official’ history published in 1949.

>>22978036

>“Our struggle should be channeled to mineral energy complex. Even during Apartheid years… no government has led the country. The control of the country lies with the mineral energy complex

>>23024791

>When Parliament is in session (Harry has succeeded to his father’s old seat)… In the party of the late great General Smuts

>>23024860

>>23024871

>>23024876

>Jan Smuts

>>22979885

>>23010307

>>23024791

>Soviet Union

“De Beers Diamond Company & Black Labour (In "Diamond Road" documentary)”

https://youtu.be/XETdnQFT9VM

0:49 – Nicky Oppenheimer: “This indeed is a splendid occasion and it’s fantastic for De Beers to have played a role in this process in getting us where we are today. Huge things are being done here and it’s particularly important to appreciate what diamonds have done for South Africa.”

“Diamond trader Philip Oppenheimer”; “De Beers Mining Co. gain control of the world diamond market by persuading the Soviet Union to let him market its gems”

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1995/10/21/diamond-trader-philip-oppenheimer/

Published Oct. 21, 1995|Updated Oct. 4, 2005

Sir Philip Oppenheimer, who helped De Beers Mining Co. gain control of the world diamond market by persuading the Soviet Union to let him market its gems, has died. He was 83.

Sir Philip, a member of the family that controls De Beers, died in London on Oct. 8, family members said. They did not give a cause of death or details of the funeral.

A former chairman of the company's diamond-marketing cartel, he was instrumental in persuading nations that entered the diamond trade after World War II _ African and Soviet producers and Israeli and Indian cutters and polishers _ to work with De Beers to keep the market stable.

His biggest coup came in 1959, when he persuaded the Soviets to let De Beers market their diamonds. The Soviets soon became major players in the world diamond industry.

In 1970, as expanding world diamond production flowed through London, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

He entered De Beers in 1933, working as a diamond sorter and trainee salesman.

After the Great Depression, companies were stuck with large stocks of diamonds and many mines closed. But De Beers set up a producers' cooperative, the Central Selling Organization, that aimed to restore stability to the industry.

He took over management of the cooperative after the war and was named a De Beers director in 1956.

https://archive.nytimes.com/query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage-990CEFDE123CF933A15753C1A963958260.html

In addition to his role at De Beers, Sir Philip was well known in Britain for his involvement in horse racing. In addition to owning a stable of winning horses, he pushed De Beers into sponsoring the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot, one of the nation's most prestigious races, each July.

“Ramaphosa's US Visit: Steenhuisen joins delegation 'to save AGOA'”

https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/2025-05-18-ramaphosas-us-visit-steenhuisen-joins-delegation-to-save-agoa/

Sunday, May 18, 2025

President Cyril Ramaphosa's upcoming visit to the US is expected to be a high-stakes encounter with President Donald Trump, with Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen joining the delegation to help negotiate for the continuation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

The meeting aims to reset strained relations between the two countries and secure a favorable trade deal.

Ramaphosa and Steenhuisen, who is also the DA leader, will be joined by Minister of Trade and Industry Parks Tau, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and International Relations and Minister Ronald Lamola.

Steenhuisen's spokesperson Charity McCord on Sunday confirmed that Ramaphosa and his delegation were already en-route and would be landing in the US on Sunday evening.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/daily-news-south-africa/20250516/281513642054720

16 May 2025

Mcebisi Jonas, who was recently appointed special envoy to the US, was also said to be part of the delegation. Jonas is expected to play a key role in laying the groundwork for Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump.

Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu expressed concerns about Ramaphosa’s meeting with Trump, citing the US president’s tendency to make provocative statements.

“If our President doesn’t contain himself, we might see a worse situation than we saw when President Trump hosted President Zelenskyy,” he said.

https://eurweb.com/2025/mcebisi-jonas-called-trump-a-racist-homophobic-right-winger/

April 17, 2025

Mcebisi Jonas served as South Africa’s deputy finance minister before his recent appointment. President Cyril Ramaphosa selected him to represent South Africa in the U.S. However, Jonas is not new to controversy. In a speech from 2020, he labeled Trump as a “racist, homophobic and narcissistic right-winger.” His comments were made in the context of Trump’s presidency and have circulated widely since then, NewsOne is reporting.

In his speech, Jonas said, “Right now, the U.S. is undergoing a watershed moment, with Biden the certain winner in the presidential race against the racist, homophobic Donald Trump.” He highlighted concerns about how the world let a “narcissistic right-winger” such as Trump gain power. His statements reflect serious concerns about Trump’s impact on democracy, both in the U.S. and globally.

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/leaders/south-africas-ramaphosa-to-meet-trump-in-washington-next-week-amid-strained-ties/cjxw4jy?op=1

15 May 2025 02:21 PM

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to visit the United States next week for a working trip, where he will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on May 21, according to a statement from Ramaphosa’s office released late Wednesday.

>>23050703

John Steenhuisen; “Brenthurst Foundation paid for DA leader’s trip into Ukraine” and signed the Gdansk Agreement

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-05-07-brenthurst-foundation-paid-for-da-leaders-trip-into-ukraine/

07 May 2022

DA leader John Steenhuisen has confirmed that his six-day “fact-finding mission” to Ukraine, which ended on Friday, 5 May was funded by the Brenthurst Foundation.

Brenthurst Foundation director Greg Mills said the foundation funded Steenhuisen’s trip with its photographer Richard Harper.

The foundation has funded a number of trips for politicians from across the spectrum, such as the monitoring mission during the Somaliland elections last year. The foundation covered that trip as well which Steenhuisen declared in the register of members’ interest.

Throughout his trip, Steenhuisen emphasised the economic repercussions the war in Ukraine has on Africa, especially food prices.

“This is a war for freedom,” he said in a video message on his timeline. “Ukraine has now become the new frontier of freedom in the world, in the battle against tyranny and imperialism. It is important that we understand, particularly in Africa, what the impact of this war on our continent and especially in South Africa will be.”

The Brenthurst Foundation was established in 2004 by the Oppenheimer family to build on the work of the Brenthurst Initiative, which was a programme that “instigated debate around policy strategies in South Africa to accelerate economic expansion”.

https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/news/the-gdansk-declaration-solidarity-for-democracy/

From 21-23 June 2023, the European Solidarity Centre and The Brenthurst Foundation staged a conference on 'Rolling Back Authoritarianism' in Gdańsk, Poland, the epicentre of political change in Poland and in Europe in the late 1980s. The event was attended by more than 50 leaders from Africa, Latin America, Poland and the Baltic States. At the end of the event, the Gdańsk Declaration was adopted unanimously. It lays out the commitment of all delegates to ending authoritarianism and introducing democracy, accountability and transparency. This is the full text of this historic declaration. The signatories are listed at the end of the document

We recognise that freedom is not free. Democrats everywhere need to be united, and work together to reduce the costs and risks of this formidable if achievable task. We must provide moral support to all comrades in struggle, from Ukraine to Uganda.

>>23050703

>>23050770

>DA

“BEE Under Fire: Why South Africa’s Social Engineering Project Faces Unprecedented Attacks”

https://www.joburgetc.com/business/bee-south-africa-controversy-future/

March 10, 2025

South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy, a cornerstone of post-apartheid economic transformation, is facing its most significant challenges yet. Designed to address racialized inequality, BEE has long been a controversial and polarizing policy. Now, for the first time in 30 years, political and international forces are mounting a concerted effort to overturn it, raising questions about its future.

The Controversy Surrounding BEE

BEE was introduced to redress the economic disparities created by apartheid by empowering black South Africans through ownership, management, and skills development. However, its implementation has been fraught with challenges and criticisms. Critics argue that BEE has often benefited a small elite, with figures like President Cyril Ramaphosa and his brother-in-law, Patrice Motsepe, frequently cited as examples. Meanwhile, the broader black population has seen limited gains.

The policy has also led to absurd outcomes, such as black shareholders being unable to sell their stakes to foreign investors without jeopardizing a company’s BEE compliance. In the mining sector, legal battles over the “once-empowered, always empowered” principle have highlighted the complexities and unintended consequences of BEE.

Political Shifts Threaten BEE’s Future

The ANC, BEE’s primary champion, is losing political ground rapidly. The party now relies on an uneasy coalition with the DA, which has long opposed BEE. In its 2024 manifesto, the DA proposed replacing BEE with the UN Development Goals. Andrew Whitfield, a DA deputy minister in the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition, now oversees BEE administration—a stark irony given his party’s stance.

The MK party, the third-largest political force, has also criticized BEE, arguing that its ownership element reinforces oligopoly power. With the EFF as the only major party still supporting BEE, the policy’s future looks increasingly uncertain.

International Pressure Adds to the Strain

International figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump have added fuel to the fire. Musk has repeatedly attacked BEE on social media, claiming it is the reason his Starlink service cannot operate in South Africa. While his assertion that “Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa because I’m not black” is inaccurate, the requirement for 30% black ownership or alternative BEE compliance measures remains a barrier.

Trump, Musk’s benefactor, has also voiced opposition to race-based policies in South Africa, raising concerns that the U.S. could use its economic power to pressure the country. This international criticism has intensified the debate around BEE, giving opponents new ammunition.

What’s Next for BEE?

As the political landscape shifts and international pressure mounts, BEE’s future hangs in the balance. The policy may need to evolve or be replaced entirely, but there is little public discussion about what should come next. The debate is likely to intensify, with arguments increasingly framed around economic growth rather than equity.

For now, BEE remains a defining feature of South Africa’s economic policy. However, its critics are growing louder, and its supporters are dwindling. Whether it adapts, fades, or is replaced, the conversation around BEE is far from over.

>>23050703

>Ramaphosa's US Visit: Steenhuisen joins delegation 'to save AGOA'

>>23050770

>>23053976

Does/will AGOA benefit these investors?

“Focus On: Gauteng hosts first annual Investment Conference”

Apr 08 2025

https://youtu.be/u1fN4sgVtwU

”Gauteng Investment Conference secures target-shattering R312.5 billion in pledges”

https://gic.ggda.co.za/gauteng-investment-conference-secures-target-shattering-r312-5-billion-in-pledges/

The conference, officially launched at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in February 2025, has surpassed its initial target of securing R300 billion in investment pledges, achieving an outstanding R312.5 billion.

“Deputy President Paul Mashatile addresses inaugural Gauteng Investment Conference, 3 Apr”

https://www.gov.za/news/media-advisories/conferences-summits-seminars-and-workshops/deputy-president-paul-mashatile-13

02 Apr 2025

Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile will on Thursday, 03 April 2025, virtually deliver the inaugural Gauteng Investment Conference keynote address, under the theme: “Unlocking Gauteng’s Economic Potential – A National Priority to enhance Economic Growth".

The Gauteng Investment Conference will be held at the Marriott Hotel, Melrose Arch, in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province under the theme, “Investing in Gauteng: The Engine of Africa’s Growth”. The conference brings together government leaders, global investors, business executives, and industry experts to discuss strategies for positioning Gauteng as a key investment destination on the continent.

Convened by the Gauteng Provincial Government, the conference will explore high-impact investment opportunities in sectors such as:

• Green Energy and Sustainability;

• Infrastructure and Transport;

• Manufacturing and Industrialisation;

• ICT and Digital Economy; and

• Township and Inclusive Economic Development.

The Investment Conference forms a central part of President Cyril Ramaphosa ambitious target announced during the 2025 State of the Nation Address, to lift economic growth to above three percent.

In this regard, government is committed to the task of growing the economy and creating job opportunities, working together with all key stakeholders including the private sector.

Other leading participants from the public sector, will include the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Mr Parks Tau, Premier of the Gauteng Province, Mr Panyaza Lesufi, Members of the Gauteng Provincial Executive Council, Mayors, as well as senior government officials.

>>23053982

“Maximum Group CEO Slaven Gajovic Joins the Exclusive Gauteng Investment Conference”

https://maximumgroup.co.za/maximum-group-ceo-slaven-gajovic-joins-the-exclusive-gauteng-investment-conference/

Maximum Group CEO Slaven Gajovic has been invited to the Gauteng Investment Conference (GIC) 2025, an exclusive, invite-only gathering of global leaders, investors, and innovators dedicated to shaping Gauteng’s economic future. His presence at the conference is driven by his commitment to AI-driven economic transformation, with a particular focus on Mega Projects, most notably the West Rand Mega Park.

Transforming Gauteng Through the West Rand Mega Park Project & AI.

The West Rand Mega Park Project is a groundbreaking initiative that merges cutting-edge AI, digital innovation, and large-scale infrastructure development to drive economic transformation in Gauteng. Spearheaded by Maximum Group and Maximum Group Digital, this visionary project integrates advanced in- house technologies such as MaxiAI, MaxiCyber, MyLED, MyTender, and blockchain, making it a revolutionary model for smart industrial and logistics hubs. With AI-powered automation optimizing operations, cybersecurity solutions securing digital ecosystems, and blockchain streamlining procurement and contracts, the Mega Park is designed to enhance efficiency, attract investment, and create thousands of job opportunities. This tech-driven ecosystem reinforces Gauteng’s position as Africa’s leading business hub, proving that AI and digital solutions can fuel industrial growth while ensuring sustainability and inclusivity.

Influential Voices Driving Gauteng’s Economic Transformation

The Gauteng Investment Conference (GIC) 2025 aims to secure R300 billion in investment pledges, focusing on advanced manufacturing, green energy, ICT, transport, and urban regeneration, key sectors where Maximum Group is driving AI-powered industry growth. Featuring influential leaders like Hon. Paul Mashatile, Hon. Parks Tau, Hon. Panyaza Lesufi, H.E. Wamkele Mene, and Neale Hill, the event will shape policy implementation, economic inclusivity, and Gauteng’s global investment position. Panel Discussions & Growth Dialogues will explore FDI strategies, cross-border trade, and infrastructure development, reinforcing the West Rand Mega Park’s role in attracting investors, creating jobs, and securing Gauteng’s future as Africa’s leading business hub.

The Future of AI-Enabled Job Creation

As Maximum Group continues to lead the charge in AI-powered job creation, Slaven Gajovic’s attendance at GIC 2025 will play a critical role in securing partnerships and investment for Mega Projects that define the future of work, including the ambitious 100 Million Jobs campaign.

With AI-driven ecosystems transforming industries, the West Rand Mega Park stands as a shining example of how technology, infrastructure, and investment can unlock unparalleled economic potential, creating millions of opportunities across Africa and ensuring that AI fuels progress rather than displacement.

>>23053984

Maximum Group

https://agricrowdfunding.co.za/

Maximum Group has several diverse property and IT related companies and interests, which include:

Mega projects developments.

Renewable energies, services, and infrastructure.

Agricultural technology.

Real Estate Crowdfunding.

Agricultural crowdfunding platform.

IT companies.

Agricultural infrastructure development.

Industrial Infrastructure developments.

Maximum Group is developing a unique industrial, International Agri City and Fresh Produce Market to enable logistics, light industrial, food processing and production in Protea Glen, Soweto. A new Industrial and International Agri City – West Rand Mega Park –

Our Mission is to create value and drive economic transformation across the world.

You can read more about founder and CEO Slaven Gajovic or see more about us on www.maximumgroup.co.za

https://maximumgroup.co.za/mega-projects/

Dan Tloome Mega Project - https://dantloome.co.za/

Dan Tloome Mega City in West Rand, Gauteng, is a sustainable Smart City spanning 538,406 hectares. It features extensive community facilities, renewable energy, advanced infrastructure, and 22,000 residential units, promoting a green and smart urban environment.

West Rand Mega Park - https://westrandmegapark.co.za/

Western Sebokeng Mega Project - https://johandeo.co.za/

East Rand Mega Project - https://hartes.co.za/

Eastern Sebokeng Mega Project - https://unitaspark.org.za/

>>23053984

>>23053991

“About Slaven Gajović”

https://megaprojectsassociation.africa/about-us/

–Born 1972 in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia (and ex Yugoslavia), where in 1991 Slaven finished schooling and obtained a diploma in IT (qualified computer programmer) with distinction.

Thereafter, Slaven started at a paging company where, within few months, was promoted to Pager Programming Department Manager.–

Due to the political situation in Serbia, he decided to emigrate and chose South Africa as the destination.

Slaven arrived in SA in 1992, and started pursuing a computer career. In 1993 he found an interest in real estate investments and the same year founded his first Real Estate company.

Since then Slaven has tweaked interests to commercial and Mega Project Property Developments as a real estate investor, developer and property entrepreneur.

Today, Slaven is heading groups of companies – Maximum Group Holdings (www.maximumgroup.co.za) and Ariobex Holdings Group (www.ariobex.co.za).

His motto with both groups is “Profit while doing good” and the groups have interests in the development of large scale smart city human settlements (100 000 residents plus) and regional industrial and agricultural infrastructures.

His groups of companies are also involved in utility-scale renewable energies, water treatment, smart metering, education and so on. Maximum Group has an IT arm with interests in FinTech, AgriTech, cybersecurity, blockchain, NFTs and smart payments platforms.

Slaven is a founder of the Mega Projects Developers Association of South Africa and is well known in the Property Development and Real Estate investment circles. Hence, he enjoys a large network of professionals and megaproject development colleagues with whom he collaborates on a number of projects and aspects thereof.

Slaven’s own “Conscious Property Alchemy” business model and unique RDP development model is known as “RDP 2.0 – connected societies” is at the forefront of the industry.

His ability to merge the “brick” and the “cloud” brings new efficiencies in planning property developments merged with cloud and IT technology in order to enable 4th industrial revolution, Society 5.0 and RDP 2.0.

In order to stay on top in the property industry – he is continuously learning and striving to improve himself, companies, offerings, as well as his personal life and businesses.

Likewise, Slaven is involved with a number of community projects, with the aim of giving back to the community, thereby contributing to better life and standard for everyone in the area.

His hobbies include playing lots of sports (basketball, gym, yoga and instructing of Krav Maga), reading and exploring new technologies, listening to blues and jazz as well as travelling.

https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Slaven-Gajovic/2024089950

Previously, Slaven was a Director, Business Development at Farm2Forkza and also held positions at West Rand Mega Park, Real Estate Crowdfunding, Dan Tloome Mega Project, ARIOBEX developments, Maximum One Property Investments, Maximum Group, Maximum Dynamics IT, Maximum One Property Group.

>>23053991

>Dan Tloome Mega City in West Rand, Gauteng, is a sustainable Smart City spanning 538,406 hectares. It features extensive community facilities, renewable energy, advanced infrastructure, and 22,000 residential units, promoting a green and smart urban environment.

>>23053984

>>23053992

“Dan Tloome housing project in the spotlight yet again”

https://www.citizen.co.za/randfontein-herald/news-headlines/local-news/2024/01/18/dan-tloome-housing-project-in-the-spotlight-yet-again/

January 18, 2024

After visiting the Dan Tloome mega housing project, ActionSA RandWest revealed many shortcomings yet again.

Diale said they had uncovered distressing shortcomings where one of the houses (that was not built too long ago) had a section of its wall caving in. The house’s ceilings were also crumbling. To Diale’s shock, she confirmed that the house was already occupied despite it being in such bad condition.

ActionSA RandWest City confirmed they had been receiving multiple complaints from residents residing in Dan Tloome regarding issues about the state of the building, along with problems regarding surrounding areas.

Diale revealed some of the issues saying, “Within the housing project, there was raw sewage allocated in multiple places. Many buildings were also severely damaged or identified as defective. Then there are allegations of individuals illegally renting out finished units before allocating to the rightful person and foreigners given trading spaces by contractors without consultation and illegal evictions and no title deeds.”

On January 17, ActionSA RandWest City arranged a thorough meeting with the community to discuss solutions for the housing project.

“We are calling on the municipality and the Gauteng provincial government to urgently assess the work done by the contractor to ensure that all affected families of unsafe buildings are accommodated with safe living space. We further call for an immediate investigation into all allegations levied.

“ActionSA RandWest is still obtaining statements and evidence daily and will not stop until the mega projects in this municipality are rectified, are rid of corrupt activities and residents benefit from this project,” added ActionSA Rand West City media manager Dauw Steyn.

In September 2023, the Randfontein Herald also reported that the DA conducted an oversight visit at the mega housing project to inspect the area and the state that it is currently in. Meanwhile, DA Shadow MEC for Human Settlements Mervyn Cirota said that it was evident that residents continue to suffer due to terrible infrastructure and the lack of basic service delivery.

In addition, the Herald has this past week alone received two complaints from residents who opted to remain anonymous in fear of being victimised.

“We are not safe, I foresee disaster,” one of them stated.

https://awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/randfontein-dan-tloome-community-calling-out-for-help

To: Gauteng MEC for Human Settlement, Tasneem Motara, Randwest Municipality, Slaven Gajovic, Ariobex Holdings

Fix the issues at the Dan Tloome Randfontein Housing Project

>>23053992

>Farm2Forkza

“Farm2ForkZA’s Post”

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/farm2forkza_patented-agri-digital-transformation-at-west-activity-7238668364049506304-2H9L

Agri-Tech Revolution at West Rand Mega Park: Empowering Small-Scale Farmers 🌱

WRMP - is a partnership Maximum Group and Maximum Group Digital and awarded a patent covering brick-and-motar, as well as, digital innovation across the value chain.

Mitesh C., CEO of Maximum Group Digital: "At Maximum Group Digital, we're passionate about leveraging technology to create sustainable solutions for small-scale farmers. Our digital platforms provide the tools they need to thrive, from accessing markets and financial services to improving their agricultural practices. We're proud to be part of the West Rand Mega Park initiative and see the positive impact it's having on the community."

Slaven Gajovic , CEO of Maximum Group: "The West Rand Mega Park is a testament to our commitment to driving economic growth and social development. By integrating our #digital #platforms, we're creating a thriving ecosystem that empowers small-scale farmers, promotes financial inclusion, and enhances #education. This is a model for sustainable urban development that can be replicated across #Africa."

Key highlights of the project:

• Empowering small-scale farmers: Providing access to markets, #technology, finance, and education.

• Leveraging digital platforms: Integrating MaxiWallet, Kasinomics, Student Information System, Maxi #Cyber, #Cloud & #AI for maximum impact.

• Achieving real results: Enhanced financial #inclusion, #economic empowerment, educational advancement, and #sustainable infrastructure.

Join us in revolutionizing agriculture in Africa! #AgriTech #WestRandMegaPark #DigitalTransformation #SmallScaleFarmers #SustainableDevelopment #SouthAfrica #SDG

>>23054004

>>23053992

>Farm2ForkZA

Considering the name, is it the same concept?

“The Farm to Fork Strategy: reasons for failure and how to move forward”

https://www.iddri.org/sites/default/files/PDF/Publications/Catalogue%20Iddri/Autre%20Publication/NOTE%20Veblen%20paper%20agri%20EN.pdf

With its “Farm to Fork” strategy, the European Commission proposed an ambitious project to transform Europe’s food system. However, the strategy has faced strong opposition and political blockages, indicating that a change of approach is needed if we are to move towards a more sustainable agricultural model.

Will European agriculture be able to feed 530 million Europeans with a healthy diet in 2050, while helping to achieve climate neutrality and contributing to global food equilibria? This question is at the heart of the Green Deal’s agriculture and food policy, the so-called “Farm to Fork” (F2F) strategy (EC, 2020).1 Nearly four years after its publication, it would be an understatement to say that this strategy has sparked debate and controversy within the farming world and beyond. Adopting a systemic view of the food system and setting ambitious environmental targets, F2F was seen either as a cornerstone of a new approach to reform the European food system and keep it within planetary boundaries (e.g. Schebesta et al., 2020); or as a vehicle for an unacceptable decline in European agricultural production, creating risks not only for the EU but for food security worldwide (e.g. Beckman et al., 2020).

“Tee off: Johann Rupert, golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen join Ramaphosa in crucial Trump meeting”

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/tee-off-johann-rupert-golfers-ernie-els-and-retief-goosen-join-ramaphosa-in-crucial-trump-meeting/ar-AA1FbLYd

2025/05/21

One of South Africa’s richest men, renowned businessman Johann Rupert and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are reportedly part of the high-level South African delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who are set to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington.

Ramaphosa will meet Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, as the Pretoria government seeks to reset the damaged relations with the US, a key trading partner and investor in South Africa.

According to media reports, Ramaphosa has included the golfers in his arsenal, seeking to appeal to Trump who loves the sport.

>>23063152

“JOHANN RUPERT - THE MAN WHO "CONTROLS" SOUTH AFRICA”

https://youtu.be/82vg8AtvJ10

May 15, 2025

“Johann Rupert 2008: DOCTOR OF COMMERCE (HONORIS CAUSA)”

https://www.mandela.ac.za/Leadership-and-Governance/Honorary-Doctorates/Johann-Rupert-2008

Johann Peter Rupert was born in Stellenbosch on 1 June 1950 as the eldest son of business tycoon Anton Rupert and his wife Huberte. He attended the University of Stellenbosch, studying economics and company law but did not complete his studies, choosing rather to pursue a career in business.

Johann Rupert served his business apprenticeship in New York, where he worked for Chase Manhattan for two years and for Lazard Freres for three years. In 1979, he returned to South Africa. Among his many achievements, one of the earliest and most remarkable is Rupert’s founding of the Rand Merchant Bank in 1979 at just 29 years of age. One of his most enduring legacies achieved in the same year, was starting the Small Business Development Corporation. This is a company that boasts having created a half a million jobs since its inception.

Subsequent to inheriting the family empire built by his father, Johann Rupert has significantly expanded and developed the original business to the extent that he is now the owner or executive chairperson or a major stakeholder in numerous national and multinational companies. He is the head of the Swiss-based luxury group, Richemont which boasts an impressive stable of brands including Cartier, Chloe and Dunhill. He is also chairperson of South African based companies Venfin and Remgro. He owns one of South Africa’s most prestigious golfing estates in Mpumalanga, as well as two wine estates in Franschhoek. In addition to these business enterprises, he has played a major role in the establishment of Vodacom, ETV and the Tracker Network (Pty) Ltd in South Africa. Rupert has also invested substantially in the British American Tobacco Company, Absa, FirstRand, Medi-Clinic, Dorbyl, Nampak, Gencor and Afrox Healthcare, amongst others. Collectively, these achievements and investments have made him instrumental in creating thousands of jobs and promoting general economic empowerment in South Africa.

Over the years, and as a result of his business acumen, his professionalism and his expertise, Johann Rupert has been involved in local and global community engagement in various capacities. This includes serving on numerous advisory boards including the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, as a council member of The South African Foundation, a trustee of The Institute of Directors in Southern Africa and of Business South Africa, and on the Daimler Chrysler International Advisory Board.

In addition, Johann Rupert is an active promoter of the educational and transformational aspects of South African community life. He co-founded the Sports Science Institute, together with Morné du Plessis and Dr Tim Noakes, and he helped create the Laureus Foundation which funds the development of sport for marginalised groups. Furthermore, he serves as chairperson of the South African PGA Tour and of the South African Golf Development Board. He has been a trustee of the Southern African Nature Foundation and “Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap and Kuns.”

Some of Rupert’s most noteworthy accolades include being elected “Businessman of the Year” by The Sunday Times in 1988 and 1996, and being voted “Business Leader of the Year” by Die Burger and the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce in 1990. In 1992 he was one of only two hundred “Global Leaders of Tomorrow” chosen by the World Economic Forum. In 2000 he was singled out as South Africa’s “Most Influential Business Leader” by CEOs of the top hundred listed companies.

In recognition of his substantial contribution to the economic health of South Africa and the philanthropic way in which he has used his wealth in promoting job opportunities and corporate professionalism, and in supporting the environment, the arts, sport, education and social upliftment, it is an honour for NMMU to confer the degree of Doctor of Commerce (Honoris Causa) on JOHANN PETER RUPERT.

>>23063158

>business tycoon Anton Rupert

>>23053976

>“once-empowered, always empowered” principle

>>23063152

“Peace Parks (trailer for series)”

https://youtu.be/zgY2ok8wwbU

0:16 – Nelson Mandela: “Anton Rupert and Prince Bernhard have sent me to various places and I put aside everything because it is important if various countries across boundaries work together that unites those countries and the boundaries become something unimportant.”

Anton Rupert

Rupert will be remembered for his immense contribution to the South African Business Development Corporation, a non-profit organisation, which helped to create half-a-million jobs in 1981. He was co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). His last big project was creating the Peace Parks Foundation, a non-profit foundation, founded in association with Mandela and the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, aiming to allow free movement of animals and people across country borders within the parks.

He was once credited with having 35 companies in six different continents, with a yearly profit of 10 – billion US dollars.

Anton Rupert died peacefully in his sleep on 18 January 2006 in his home in Stellenbosch. Tributes poured in from across the country. Former President Mandela called him his friend and described him as “a giant of a man …famous for his approach of helping others to help themselves rather than fostering dependency …”. President Mbeki said: “Dr Rupert played a pivotal role in the development of South Africa's industrial and commercial sectors. Not only did he distinguish himself in the Afrikaner community, but also played a significant role in supporting and initiating significant transformation of South Africa's business.”

He believed firmly in affirmative action and black economic empowerment and he will always be remembered for his ingenuity, generosity, modesty and firm belief that everything is possible if the idea is worthwhile and well thought-out.

>>23063204

Forgot to add the link; https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/anton-edward-rupert

>>23063204

>He was co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

>>23063213

World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

https://www.worldwildlife.org/about/history

1961

World Wildlife Fund was conceived in April, 1961, and set up shop in September, 1961, at IUCN's headquarters in Morges, Switzerland. H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands became the organization's first president.

H.R.H. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 1961 became president of the British National Appeal, the first national organization in the World Wildlife Fund family.

World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (WWF)—the U.S. appeal—became the second national organization to be formed in 1961. The giant panda becomes the logo for WWF.

Launch of WWF at the Royal Society of Arts, London, September 28, 1961. From left to right: Peter Scott, Lord Hurcomb holding a panda, Julian Huxley and Jean Baer.

Incorporated in the District of Columbia on December 1, 1961, WWF-U.S. names Dwight D. Eisenhower its President of Honor.

https://www.wwf.org.za/our_people/our_history/

In 1968, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (then president of the World Wildlife Fund) approached Dr Anton Rupert (a successful South African businessman and conservationist) to work towards securing South Africa’s wildlife and nature.

Dr Rupert garnered support from a group of local business aficionados. They realised that something had to be done quickly if South Africa’s biodiversity - its plants and animals and the ecosystems they live in - were to be conserved.

The Southern African Wildlife Foundation was formed in 1968, later becoming the Southern African Nature Foundation and in 1995 renamed to WWF South Africa.

Since its founding, WWF has been dedicated to protecting South Africa’s natural heritage. This includes plant and animal species, and people.

In 2018, WWF South Africa celebrates 50 years of environmental achievements and impact.

>>23053976

>Critics argue that BEE has often benefited a small elite, with figures like President Cyril Ramaphosa

>“once-empowered, always empowered”

>>23063158

>>23063204

>>23063225

>business tycoon Anton Rupert

“BOOK REVIEW: Oppenheimer missed opportunities to bend the arc of our history” – Part 1

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/books/2023-06-08-book-review-oppenheimer-missed-opportunities-to-bend-the-arc-of-our-history/

08 June 2023 - 05:01

My colleague Michael Cardo’s eloquently written and solidly researched tome — about 500 pages — Harry Oppenheimer, Diamonds, Gold and Dynasty, triggered a series of thoughts on how the entry of Ernest Oppenheimer — “with fifty pounds in his pocket” — to the diamond diggings of Kimberley shaped the economic and political history of this country.

Astute and driven, as he was, it was within a Rhodes-tinted world that denied local people and other sojourners any meaningful entry on the grounds of race. It was in this post-Anglo-Boer War world that Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (HFO) was born in 1908.

The Union of SA, formed in 1910, had established white supremacy over indigenous people, effectively fusing the Boer republic’s doctrine of “No equality between black or white in church or state” and the British principle of “equal rights for all civilised men”.

While Cardo’s book — no hagiography — evinces an understanding, balance and questioning of the gap, there is a discernible thread which suggests a behemoth that evolved and helped alter the pernicious aspects of economic and social apartheid. In doing so, it is inescapably cognisant of HFO’s rider to the London Stock Exchange: “without destroying the great achievements of a long period of white rule”.

It does however raise the question which Cardo alludes to but doesn’t interrogate deeply: whether, given the heft of the Oppenheimer empire, an opportunity was not missed which would have altered the course of history and perhaps delivered us in a place not quite as parlous as we find ourselves today.

Initiatives like the Urban Foundation, set up by HFO and Anton Rupert in 1977, began to inform and help initiate political, economic and social reform “for betterment in the hearts of people” while preserving “the great achievements of a long period of white rule” (HFO). Big business bought into this effort “to build bridges between pragmatic whites and moderate blacks” (Cardo).

[Cyril Ramaphosa having earned a law graduate degree on an Urban Foundation scholarship, sidelined leaders like Thabo Mbeki to head the National Empowerment Consortium. The Oppenheimer led Urban Foundation had sown the seeds of aspirations for a lucrative business career and lust for power. https://sa-news.com/how-cyril-ramaphosa-sold-his-soul-to-the-oppenheimers-for-900-million-how-much-will-he-sell-sa-for/. Posted on December 21, 2017]

>>23065085

>>22970970

>>>20971100 Open Society Institute Mourns Loss of Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert

“BOOK REVIEW: Oppenheimer missed opportunities to bend the arc of our history” – Part 2

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/books/2023-06-08-book-review-oppenheimer-missed-opportunities-to-bend-the-arc-of-our-history/

08 June 2023 - 05:01

As Cardo points out, by 1978 HFO still justified support for a qualified franchise and only fell in line with the new constitutional policy of the Progressive Federal Party after it recognised and supported universal suffrage. This followed Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, who became leader in 1978 and steered it towards supporting a universal franchise within a federal system.

Four weeks after Botha’s Durban speech, HFO’s successor Gavin Relly led a delegation to meet ANC leaders in Zambia. The demise of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin wall, which Cardo describes as “the determining event in FW De Klerk’s unfolding glasnost and perestroika,” provided the space to do this. Apartheid had become a drain on the economy and both the ANC and business understood that they needed each other. The rest, as they say, is history.

Cardo justifies, in his final balancing of the scales, the claim “that Oppenheimer moved his country forward from the murk of apartheid to the dawn of a nonracial democracy”. He cites HFO’s “individual and corporate philanthropy, his championship of black trade union rights, his role in the Urban Foundation and the reformist initiatives of the 1980s”.

The degeneration of BEE — an initiative championed by HFO, “into a patronage scheme, a system of elite enrichment for the politically well connected, and a vehicle for state capture” — Cardo avers was not foreseen by Oppenheimer, “who would have been aghast at the turn of events”.

The question remains: was BEE not different from the empowerment of Afrikaner capital in the mining industry by Anglo American? Afrikaner capital was not simply “gifted” an increased share of the mining economy. Afrikaner investors, through their financial contributions, played a role in the acquisition and ownership of assets within the mining sector. Of course, they too amassed their dispensable finances on the back of Apartheid.

It was, after all, Vladimir Lenin who argued in his famously eponymous pamphlet that “the economic struggle is inseparably linked to the political struggle”.

>>23065085

>>23065089

>It was, after all, Vladimir Lenin who argued in his famously eponymous pamphlet that “the economic struggle is inseparably linked to the political struggle”.

>>23063204

>Nelson Mandela: “Anton Rupert and Prince Bernhard have sent me to various places and I put aside everything because it is important if various countries across boundaries work together that unites those countries and the boundaries become something unimportant.”

>>23063158

>>23063152

>>23050770

>>22978097

>>22978099

>>22978104

“WATCH LIVE: President Trump Hosts South African President Ramaphosa In The Oval Office”

https://youtu.be/nTWQYKhtCbQ

May 12, 2025

Johann Rupert (with the golfers he probably sponsors) and John Steenhuisen representing the Oppenheimers are part of the South African delegation, so all billionaires are covered.

17:44 – Ramaphosa: “We were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace – to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him [Zelensky]. I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk.”

From 21:19 - Playing videos with Julius Malema’s songs and rhetoric as well as Jacob Zuma’s song against white farmers in South Africa. Ramaphosa seems to be smiling throughout.

Ramaphosa response, “Let me clarify because what you saw, the speeches that were being made; one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves.”

The ANC started the rhetoric and songs against the white farmers in South Africa during the ‘struggle’ [https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-origins-of-south-africas-farm-murder-epidemic] and Malema and Zuma were part of the party. The government does nothing about the rhetoric against farmers while a white woman goes to jail “for using a derogatory word against a black police officer 48 times.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43567468

They request to get technology to fight crime, yet crime was very low during Apartheid without technology. Then Rupert complains about illegal aliens however his father encouraged it in Mandela’s own words.

51:20 - Johann Rupert: “You emphasized the devastation that occurs when big companies leave towns and cities and there’s a culture of dependency that develops… Now that’s our problem. If we don’t get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and the lawlessness will increase.”

Should I remind you of Orania? "Orania: a testament to the power of independence and cultural pride."

They are just there to spread their propaganda… I need a drink.

“My family suffered 2 farm attacks, on 2 different farms in South Africa, a decade apart. No justice”

https://youtu.be/7yAUR8HL55Y

Jun 10, 2025

In our Crimes against Humanity documentary, we interviewed Pieter van der Westhuizen. His family suffered 2 different farm attacks, a decade apart, in 2 different provinces. In one of the attacks, he said that the Police Station Commander's son was involved. He was the second person we interviewed that suffered multiple attacks in the family.

“Ramaphosa Says Apartheid's to Blame for Slow Progress!”

https://youtu.be/QEEf0odR6UE

Jun 17, 2025

In a recent address, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attributed the country's slow progress to the legacy of apartheid. Ramaphosa's comments have sparked a heated debate about the role of apartheid in hindering the country's development. Is it fair to blame apartheid for South Africa's current challenges, or are there other factors at play? Watch to find out more.

>>23171247

>The Iran Project - The cooperation deal signed between Iran and South Africa ahead of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg highlights Iran's efforts to join the influential group of developing economies.

>>23203815

>The ambassador recalled the shared revolutionary paths of Iran in 1979 and South Africa in 1994, emphasizing the common spirit of overcoming imperialism and oppression.

“Saudi crown prince says Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is "very much like Hitler"”

https://youtu.be/ABKz2wJyDaU

Mar 15, 2018

0:30 – “Because he wants to expand, he wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time. Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened happened. I don’t want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.”

“The Iranian Project: Goals and Consequences”

https://khazna.ku.ac.ae/ws/portalfiles/portal/19119365/The-Iranian-Project-Goals-And-Consequences.pdf

By Ismaeel Abdulla Al Mansouri

2015

This thesis addresses a fundamental aspect of Iran’s foreign policy, primarily the so called Iran project. It encompasses three essential aspects: territorial expansion, ideological expansion and Iran’s nuclear program. While the Iranian Project may seem a recent manifestation of Iran’s regional ambitions, it is in fact deeply rooted in history. The current regime in Iran inherited the Shah’s expansionist policy; a continuation of a tradition which began centuries ago in its history, well-rooted in the Sassanid Dynasty’s expansionist tendencies across Arabia in pre-Islamic eras. On the territorial level, Iran has imposed the right to navigation in Shat Al Arab, its eastern borders with Iraq and has extended this by crossing into Iraq’s territory. In addition, it has claimed sovereignty over three of UAE’s islands in the Arabia Gulf. In terms of ideological expansion, Iran has been actively promoting Shi’ism and exporting its revolutionary ideology since 1979. It has actively supported Hezbollah in Lebanon and other Shi’ movements across Arabia reviving old Sunni-Shi’ animosities. Iran has pursued a process of destabilization in Arab countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon. It has substantiated its territorial and ideological claims with a commitment to nuclear arms. Iran has fully constructed a nuclear program which aims at producing nuclear weapons seeking to impose its dominance over regional affairs, therefore, prompting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In order to counter the threat, Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia have been actively confronting Iran in different fronts, in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, to name a few. However, at this point this far reaching confrontation with Iran is only assembling, but it is expected to develop at a certain period of time into a direct confrontation between the two sides, which will destabilize the entire region.

This thesis examines the Iran Project (IP) in terms of its ideological dimension, territorial expansion and nuclear program. The IP is not a new national project, rather a continuation of Iran’s hegemonic dominance in the Gulf and the Greater Middle East region over the past two millennia. However, this program with its militant dimension was articulated specifically in 2005 during the Ahmadinejad administration, which promoted turbulence, instability and dominance in the region. It has also been associated with the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. While Iran managed to manipulate the American invasion in order to topple two of its most ardent Sunni enemies, the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, it has come at a heavy cost to Iraq. Ultimately, the US withdrew from Iraq and literally handed this country to Iran in 2010. Therefore, Iran has become the primary beneficiary of the US invasion of Iraq, and therefore, has utilized its influence in Iraq to reengineer the political scene there, and expand into neighboring countries especially Syria. Iran’s project has also been facilitated by the phenomenon of the Arab Spring and the instability it has brought to the region. The Arab Spring uprisings were valuable to Iran, which took credit for it from day one, claiming that it was a continuation of the Iranian Revolution, inspired by it and seeking its identical goals. Such a claim was rejected by the revolutionary forces which distanced themselves from Iran and its model of governance.

>>23221289

>https://youtu.be/ABKz2wJyDaU

Embedded

“US Anti-Terrorism Cases Against [South Africa’s] MTN Group Put Multinationals in Peril” – Part 1

https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/05/us-anti-terrorism-cases-against-mtn-group-put-multinationals-in-peril/

Michael Walsh

May 15, 2025

In April 2025, legal scholars raised concerns about the ongoing Iran-related terrorism cases against the MTN Group in the US court system. Professor Jeffrey Breinholt of George Washington University even went so far as to express his belief that MTN Group may have committed securities fraud. A few weeks ago, MTN Group experienced another unwelcome development. After more than a decade in the South African courts, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that South African courts have jurisdiction to hear a separate Iran-linked bribery case brought against MTN Group. Its legal woes mounting, legal scholars are now saying that multinational companies should do more to notify their own shareholders of the risks of their own business partnerships with the MTN Group. That includes US financial services companies (e.g., BNY Mellon; Mastercard), professional services companies (e.g., Accenture; Covington & Burling; Deloitte), and technology companies (e.g., Apple; Meta; Microsoft).

The Anti-Terrorism Act

On 17 March 2025, the MTN Board of Directors authorized the most recent version of its Annual Financial Statements. That report disclosed that MTN Group is involved in a total of five Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) cases in US courts.

One of those cases is Zobay v. MTN Group Limited. That case alleges that MTN Group is legally responsible for damages involving “a group of American citizens killed or injured by terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2011 and 2019.”

On 28 September 2023, the plaintiffs passed the first major legal hurdle in their case when a United States District Court ruled that they had plausibly stated a claim for aiding and abetting liability against MTN Group, and the court denied a motion to dismiss MTN Group from the case.

That order carries political implications for President Cyril Ramaphosa, who served as the MTN Chairman of the Board from 2002 to 2013. That means that he was at the helm when some of the aiding and abetting-related claims are said to have occurred. According to William Saunderson-Meyer, “MTN’s close connections to the (African National Congress) elite” creates “a gigantic political problem” for South Africa.

The Director’s Report Could be Evidence Against MTN

Despite losing the motion to dismiss, the Annual Financial Statements reported that the company had assessed the risks associated with ATA cases as “remote,” and therefore, no contingent liabilities had been disclosed.

“From a governance and risk disclosure standpoint,” Professor John Katsos of American University of Sharjah argues that “the prudent approach” would have instead been “to treat this litigation as a non-remote contingency and disclose the potential financial and operational impacts.” By pursuing an alternative approach, Katsos warns that the MTN Group has now created the risk that the annual financial statements could “later be deemed misleading to investors,” which could lead to further litigation that “would need to wind its way through the courts.”

Those risks are problematic for the newly appointed South African Special Envoy to the United States, Mcebisi Jonas, who was the MTN Chairman of the Board when the most recent annual financial statements report was authorized. As MTN Chairman of the Board, Jonas had a fiduciary responsibility to protect the interests of MTN Group as well as its shareholders. This included ensuring that the Board of Directors exercised proper oversight of the Annual Financial Statements.

Ecosystem Risks

Over the past few years, MTN has established business relationships with several multinational corporations that have a US jurisdictional nexus. Prominent examples include Accenture, Apple, Bank of New York Mellon, Ericsson, Deloitte, Genesys, IHS Towers, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.

Now that a United States District Court has denied the motion to dismiss MTN Group from Zobay v. MTN Group, Professor Breinholt warns that these companies face significant risks in doing business with MTN Group. Breinholt is a former US government official who spent over two decades working on counterterrorism and national security law in the US Department of Justice. He is also the editor of “Pursuing terrorists in US civil courts: the Encyclopedia of ATA cases.”

With the United States District Court order in the public domain, Breinholt says that multinational companies “can’t very well say that they didn’t know about” the risks associated with doing business with MTN Group.

>>23235869

“US Anti-Terrorism Cases Against [South Africa’s] MTN Group Put Multinationals in Peril” – Part 2

https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/05/us-anti-terrorism-cases-against-mtn-group-put-multinationals-in-peril/

Michael Walsh

May 15, 2025

The risks include legal risks.

“The Zobay order’s recognition that the plaintiffs ‘plausibly stated a claim for aiding-and-abetting liability” under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA)raises serious concerns for US companies maintaining relationships with MTN Group,” explains Katsos. “From a legal standpoint, any American entity continuing business with MTN after this finding risks secondary liability under the ATA if it can be shown that they provided substantial assistance to if MTN is ever found liable for terrorism-related harms (which it hasn’t been),” continues Katsos. “This could include supply chain providers, professional services firms, or technology companies.”

The risks also include reputational risks.

“Any time you have a company that relies on its reputation,” notes Breinholt, “there is a risk of harming that reputation by meddling with companies accused of engaging with terrorists.” Breinholt cautions that the legal and reputational risks vary by sector. This is because plaintiffs tend to target the “deep pockets” when it comes to ATA cases, such as financial services companies and social media companies.

Aside from the risks, there are also ethical concerns.

“From a business ethics perspective, continued partnership – absent rigorous due diligence and robust mitigation measures – could imply complicity in or willful ignorance of alleged misconduct,” maintains Katsos. “Firms must now consider whether their relationships uphold standards of human rights due diligence and responsible business conduct, particularly under frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and in certain markets.”

Corporate Responses

Multinational corporations in the MTN partner ecosystem appear to be somewhat hesitant in responding to questions about managing the risks arising from their business relationships with the MTN Group. Apple, Bank of New York Mellon, Ericsson, Genesys, IHS Towers, and Microsoft, were provided an opportunity to comment for this report. However, none responded with a comment before filing. Those who are willing to respond tend to be brief in their comments.

A Deloitte representative stressed that Deloitte Africa, not Deloitte US, is part of the MTN Group ecosystem, and “Deloitte US is separate and independent from Deloitte Africa.”

A Mastercard representative sought to clarify that the company wanted “to be clear that our relationship is with MTN Group Fintech, an entity specifically focused on the African continent,” and all of their “activities – including supporting the expansion of digital payments across the continent – are guided by strong governance standards and internal controls.”

An Accenture representative provided the boilerplate response, “Accenture is a global company committed to conducting business responsibly, which includes reviewing where and who we do business with. We are committed to complying with sanctions laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate, including sanctions administered and enforced by the US, UN, and EU. This commitment extends to compliance with Iran-related sanctions.”

According to a Meta spokesperson, “Like many other American companies, we work with MTN Group, the largest mobile provider in Africa. Meta does not have, and has never had, any commercial relationship with MTN’s Iran subsidiary and our work with MTN itself explicitly excludes Iran.”

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>>23235871

“US Anti-Terrorism Cases Against [South Africa’s] MTN Group Put Multinationals in Peril” – Part 3

https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/05/us-anti-terrorism-cases-against-mtn-group-put-multinationals-in-peril/

Michael Walsh

May 15, 2025

What does all this mean?

Legal scholars express skepticism about how some multinational corporations frame the terrorism litigation risks associated with their business relationships with MTN Group.

“It is well established that ethically and also in very many legal contexts that companies are responsible for the actions of their subsidiaries and affiliates,” said Michael Santoro, Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.

“Legally, the separation between Deloitte US and Deloitte Africa might offer some insulation, but it does not absolve Deloitte US entirely,“ adds Katsos. “If there is any financial, managerial, or operational entanglement, or if Deloitte US benefits from revenues or reputational capital generated through Deloitte Africa’s work with MTN, plaintiffs could argue contributory involvement; not an easy argument to make by any means and, depending on the facts (which we don’t have as of yet) unlikely to succeed.” Katsos takes a more nuanced stance on Meta. Assuming that Meta excluded MTN Irancell from its strategic partnership with the MTN Group, Katsos says that this “indicates a proactive risk mitigation step that could reduce exposure.” From a purely “legal perspective,” that, in turn, “shows a wariness of potential ATA liability and a deliberate move to avoid facilitating activity connected to sanctioned or high-risk entities.”

From an ethical perspective, Katsos says that it also “signals that Meta is attempting to navigate the complexities of operating in geopolitically sensitive regions while honoring international norms.” However, he cautions. ‘that “may not be sufficient if MTN Group’s broader actions remain problematic (again, yet to be evidenced in court).”

“The parent group, MTN Group, is being sued,” explains Santoro. “As a matter of corporate social responsibility, the parent is ethically and legally responsible for its subsidiaries and affiliates. This is not a close or complicated case in this regard. If the facts as alleged are true, then the reputational risks of MTN strategic partnerships extends to relations with the parent.”

Generally speaking, Katsos is of the opinion that it is essential to draw a distinction between business relationships established before and after 28 September 2023.

“Legally, companies that entered into partnerships after the Zobay order may face greater exposure,” observes Katsos. That is because that “ruling establishes a clearer line of foreseeability: it would be difficult for a post-September 2023 partner to argue ignorance of potential ATA implications.”

Either way, Katsos argues that multinational corporations in the MTN partner ecosystem should treat corporate disclosure of the risks associated with the MTN terrorism litigation as “essential from both a fiduciary and ethical perspective.” That is because shareholders “have a right to know the risk exposure of ongoing business activities – especially when those activities could result in litigation, regulatory action, or reputational damage.”

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“US Anti-Terrorism Cases Against [South Africa’s] MTN Group Put Multinationals in Peril” – Part 4

https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/05/us-anti-terrorism-cases-against-mtn-group-put-multinationals-in-peril/

Michael Walsh

May 15, 2025

Important Questions

The MTN terrorism litigation raises novel corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues that Katsos says revolve “around indirect complicity in conflict zones.”

“Traditionally, CSR has focused on direct violations (e.g., labor practices, environmental harm),” emphasizes Katsos, but “the MTN case underscores the evolving expectation that firms must consider how their business relationships affect peace, security, and human rights in fragile regions.”

The MTN terrorism litigation also carries serious implications for national security, foreign policy, and trade and investment interests of the United States.

“The average American should care for two reasons,” Katsos said.

One is because their retirement funds, pensions, or consumer dollars may be invested in companies that – knowingly or unknowingly – support enterprises allegedly linked to armed groups or terrorism.

Another is because the alleged conduct “undermines US foreign policy goals by damaging America’s international reputation, which (was) the same primary justifications for passage of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which had been (up until recently) one of the best examples of America’s moral leadership in international business.”

“Very few Americans are aware of these lawsuits,” said Santoro. “If the facts alleged turn out to be true,” Santoro says, that US companies that are in strategic partnerships with MTN Group “will have a lot of explaining to do. Both ethically and in regard to the effect on their shareholders.”

In the short term, media coverage of the MTN terrorism litigation could also impact the debate over Ramaphosa’s appointment of Jonas as Special Envoy to the United States, potentially leading shareholders to demand that multinational corporations justify their business relationships with the MTN Group.

MTN Group was contacted for comment, and a company representative responded, “As the legal matter you referenced is ongoing, MTN Group will not be participating in interviews at this time.”

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“Stefanik Demands BNY Mellon Provide Transparency over Troubling Ties to Iranian-Linked Terrorist Organizations”

https://stefanik.house.gov/2025/6/stefanik-demands-bny-mellon-provide-transparency-over-troubling-ties-to-iranian-linked-terrorist-organizations

June 11, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik issued a letter to Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) demanding transparency concerning its sponsorship of the South African telecommunications company MTN Group through its American Depository Receipts (ADR) program, which has ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the facilitation of funding and support for Iranian state-sponsored terrorism.

Grave national security concerns stem from MTN Group’s 49 percent ownership of Iran Cell, Iran’s largest mobile operator, which U.S. authorities and courts link directly to terrorist activities that resulted in the injury and death of American servicemembers and civilians.

Chairwoman Stefanik wrote, "I write to you regarding deeply troubling and well-documented concerns about The Bank of New York Mellon’s (BNY Mellon) sponsorship of the South African telecommunications company MTN Group through its American Depository Receipts (ADR) program. As the number one global depository bank by number of sponsored ADR programs, and custodian of over $341 billion in ADR assets, BNY Mellon occupies a critical gatekeeping role that carries significant responsibility to uphold the integrity of U.S. financial markets and national security interests."

Stefanik continued, "Recent reports and ongoing litigation have revealed MTN Group’s extensive ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the facilitation of funding and support for Iranian-sponsored terrorism. MTN Group owns 49% of Iran Cell, Iran’s largest mobile operator, which U.S. authorities and courts have linked directly to terrorist activities that resulted in the injury and death of American servicemembers and civilians. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York recently affirmed claims against MTN under the Anti-Terrorism Act, marking a significant legal precedent confirming MTN’s complicity."

Stefanik added, "Furthermore, MTN’s long-time chairman and current South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has amassed significant personal wealth through his association with the company. Ramaphosa’s government has aggressively opposed Israel following the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, including filing genocide accusations against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). South Africa’s increasing alignment with Iran, an avowed sponsor of terrorism and antisemitism, poses profound ethical and geopolitical questions. The country’s diplomatic, ideological, and financial ties to Iran, including signing two memorandum of understanding with Hamas and support for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, exacerbate these concerns."

Stefanik said, "BNY Mellon’s role as a major strategic partner enabling U.S. pension funds, government entities, and other American investors to invest in MTN Group through your ADR program directly exposes the American public to financially propping up a company complicit in funding terrorism and antisemitic activities. This exposure is unacceptable and demands urgent corrective action."

Stefanik continued, “The United States must continue to ensure strict sanctions enforcement on the Iranian regime and prevent American financial institutions and investors from unwittingly funding terror networks. BNY Mellon must be held accountable to the highest standards of transparency, compliance, and ethical responsibility. I stand ready to work with you and relevant oversight bodies to ensure these urgent matters are addressed promptly and comprehensively."

Read the full letter here;

https://files.constantcontact.com/81b76c35801/0501cd44-f55d-4483-a74b-be213c3261c2.pdf?_gl=116vvvik_gaMTg1MTM5OTMxOC4xNzQ5NjUwODAx_ga_14T5LGLSQ3*czE3NDk2NTc0NzQkbzIkZzEkdDE3NDk2NTc1MTIkajIyJGwwJGgw

>>23235869

>That order carries political implications for President Cyril Ramaphosa, who served as the MTN Chairman of the Board from 2002 to 2013.

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>Furthermore, MTN’s long-time chairman and current South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has amassed significant personal wealth through his association with the company.

“Rhamaposa slammed for Shanduka, MTN conflict” (2012)

https://businesstech.co.za/news/telecommunications/27581/rhamaposa-slammed-for-shanduka-mtn-conflict/

30 Nov 2012

Cyril Ramaphosa‘s ties to the Shanduka Mauritius purchase of a minority stake in MTN Nigera has been described as “pushing the envelope” of the tycoon’s position as chairman of both holding companies.

Ramaphosa has become the center of controversy over an alleged conflict of interest present in his investment company, Shanduka’s acquisition of a “minority stake” in MTN Nigeria.

On 28 November, Shanduka Group, a company founded and chaired Ramaphosa, paid $335 million for a stake in MTN’s Nigerian business.

The acquisition of the “minority stake” had been purchased through Shanduka Telecommunication (Mauritius), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Shanduka group.

Rhamaphosa has now become a matter of media attention in the deal, as sitting as chairman for both parties in the transaction – MTN Group and Shanduka group – poses an alleged conflict of interest, bringing the transaction into question.

Speaking to 702, the institute of directors of Southern Africa CEO, Ansie Ramalho, explained that the alleged conflict of interest is technically legal and above board according to South Africa’s Companies Act.

“The presence of a conflict of interest does not necessarily taint a transaction in terms of corporate governance – nor is it unlawful,” Ramalho said.

However, outspoken chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Management, Hlelo Giyose, still criticised Ramaphosa and the deal on 702.

“People take for granted how implicit the government is in MTN’s success – in no small part because of him (Ramaphosa) playing political cover for MTN.”

“He’s running a play he has set a long time ago – and he knows it more than anyone else. And that’s not really what you want to teach kids in business schools,” Giyose said.

“We (South Africa) need really good, clean business here.”

Giyose continued, saying that the political climate – where Ramaphosa is pegged as a potential new deputy president of the country – and the Shanduka/MTN deal, is leaving Ramaphosa open to many insinuations.

>>23240068

>On 28 November, Shanduka Group, a company founded and chaired Ramaphosa, paid $335 million for a stake in MTN’s Nigerian business.

“Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, culpable in MTN Nigeria’s forex scandal?” (2018)

https://www.icirnigeria.org/ramaphosa-president-of-south-africa-culpable-in-mtn-nigerias-forex-scandal/

March 19, 2018

President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa could be implicated in the allegation of gross foreign exchange violation against MTN Nigeria, according to an investigation by Finance Uncovered and Amabhungane, investigative websites based in the UK and South Africa respectively.

Ramaphosa, who was sworn in as South Africa’s President in February following the resignation of Jacob Zuma, was MTN’s non-executive Chairman as of the time the violations allegedly took place.

Also, Ramaphosa’s former investment holding company, Shanduka, is among MTN Nigeria’s major shareholders whose names have been mentioned in the forensic audit of billions of dollars which flowed illicitly in and out of Nigeria.

In September 2016, Dino Melaye raised the matter on the floor of the Senate, alleging that MTN had connived with a serving minister to illegally move over $12 billion out of Nigeria in the last decade.

“Between 2006 and 2016, the MTN, in collaboration with four commercial banks and with the help of a serving Minister, moved over $12 billion out of this country,” Melaye claimed

“All hands must be on deck to recover every loot in the country. We are in a precarious situation and now is the time to recover every stolen money in the country.”

MTN denied the allegation. But almost one year before Melaye’s revelation, Premium Times had published a report detailing how MTN Nigeria outwit Nigerian authorities to ship millions of dollars abroad, thereby avoiding paying adequate tax.”

According to a confidential audit report sighted by Finance Uncovered, no allegations of wrongdoing were made against MTN but questions were raised about whether MTN knew that its bankers violated Nigerian laws and that it might even have benefited from this.

South Africa’s Standard Bank, which is also MTN’s major banker, is one of several global banking groups alleged to have “breached” Nigeria’s foreign exchange regulations repeatedly, to the tune of billions of dollars over a period of 15 years.

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“Ramaphosa’s MTN ties fuel Starlink backlash” Part 1

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-sunday-independent/20250608/281513642101572

8 Jun 2025

GIANT digital communication network service provider, MTN, whose chairperson is South Africa’s special envoy to the US, Mcebisi Jonas, has expressed support for Starlink being licensed to operate in the country.

However, this is only if one of the world’s richest men, Elon Musk's satellite internet service licence, complies with black economic empowerment regulations.

“By providing high-speed, low-latency internet, leveraging LEO [Low Earth Orbit] capabilities could bridge the digital divide, supporting South Africa’s national goals of broader digital inclusion, economic development, and innovation,” said MTN Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Ofcer Nompilo Morafo.

MTN advocates for partnerships with LEO communication providers, including Starlink, as these can enhance service resilience, extend reach, and improve customer experience, especially in challenging geographical areas.

“MTN welcomes co-operation and competition in the telecommunications space, provided there is regulatory parity,” said Morafo.

It has been reported that Starlink currently operates in 18 of the 54 countries in Africa, and it would expand to 10 more states before the end of the year.

MTN’s Digital Infrastructure Chief Executive Officer, Mazen Mroué, had, on December 14, 2023, while he was still the group’s chief technology and information ofcer, revealed that there were engagements with SpaceX’s Starlink, with enterprise-grade trials under way in Rwanda and Nigeria.

When asked if those MTN engagements with Starlink had been expanded to involve the latter coming to South Africa, the group said it did not comment on confidential market-specific discussions.

It was reported in 2013 that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Shanduka Group had paid $335 million for a stake in MTN's Nigerian business.

Soon before being appointed state deputy president, Ramaphosa disinvested from Shanduka to focus on his government responsibilities to avoid a conflict of interest.

Former finance deputy minister Jonas was appointed MTN Group chairperson on June 1, 2018, and on April 14, 2025, Ramaphosa appointed him as his special envoy to the US with the responsibility of advancing South Africa's diplomatic, trade, and bilateral priorities.

This entailed fostering strategic partnerships and engaging with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote South Africa.

>>23240215

“Ramaphosa’s MTN ties fuel Starlink backlash” Part 2

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-sunday-independent/20250608/281513642101572

8 Jun 2025

Ramaphosa led the delegation to Washington to negotiate with Trump on May 21 to save South Africa/US trade agreements and recruit new investors.

The Presidency had listed Jonas as among the delegation, but he did not go due to his business commitments, although he had contributed to the preparation of that meeting.

Before the two leaders held a private meeting at the White House, there was a media brief¬ing in which the issue of genocide and crime was discussed. It was in that brief¬ing that South African billionaire Johann Rupert pleaded with Trump to assist South Africa with modern technology to ght crime and even suggested, in the presence of Musk, that Starlink should come to the country.

The negotiation took place before it was reported that Trump had fired Musk as his senior advisor and Department of Government Efciency head.

When asked if Jonas had in any way participated in negotiations to bring Starlink to the country, Morafo said “no”.

“In his capacity as MTN Group chairperson, Mr Mcebisi Jonas does not participate in operational negotiations relating to Starlink or any other specific vendor or technology partner.

“His responsibilities are focused on providing strategic oversight and governance at the MTN Group level, in line with the role of a non-executive chairperson,” she said.

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi raised eyebrows when, on May 23, two days after the White House meeting, issued a statement announcing the relaxation of the B-BBEE Act in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector to “allow qualifying multinationals to meet empowerment obligations through alternatives to 30% ownership”. This opened the floodgates of reaction, including from politicians and civil society groups who believed that Malatsi was facilitating the licensing of Starlink by bypassing B-BBEE requirements.

“Afrikanerdom’s 3 Amigos return from White House with message of hope (even if ANC keeps blundering)”

https://youtu.be/0mzVZ09U9uI

Jul 1, 2025

“US lists FOUR demands of South Africa, including condemnation of ‘Kill the Boer’”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/politics/us-lists-four-demands-of-south-africa-including-condemnation-of-kill-the-boer/

27-06-25 10:07

The US government has outlined a set of preconditions that it wants met before fully normalising bilateral relations with South Africa.

Improving relations

The delegation, made up of Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Corné Mulder, Southern African Agri Initiative chairman Dr Theo de Jager, and National Employers’ Association of South Africa CEO Gerhard Papenfus, met with representatives from the Office of the US Vice President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council.

During the meeting, US officials emphasised that improving relations will depend on South Africa addressing four key issues:

1. Farm attacks to be prioritised

The US wants the South African government to officially classify farm attacks as a priority crime, on par with crimes like rhino poaching and cash-in-transit heists.

They said that each incident should be handled by elite investigative units such as the Hawks, and warned that the current lack of urgency sends the wrong message about rural safety and human rights.

1. Condemnation of ‘Kill the Boer’

American officials called for a clear, public condemnation by the ANC of the chant “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer,” which they described as inciting violence, regardless of whether it is expressed in song or speech.

The US stressed the importance of promoting inclusive rhetoric to foster social cohesion.

1. Fair compensation for land expropriation

The US reaffirmed its stance that land expropriation must include fair market compensation and follow full legal processes.

Officials noted concern about property rights and investor confidence, saying that land reform must be conducted in a transparent, lawful, and non-discriminatory manner.

1. Exemption from BEE requirements

Another demand is that US companies be exempt from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies that impose race-based requirements.

According to the officials, BEE regulations function as non-tariff trade barriers and should not be imposed on American entities doing business in South Africa.

“Senior Crime Intelligence Officials Arrested in Expanding SAPS Corruption Scandal”

https://www.protectionweb.co.za/police/senior-crime-intelligence-officials-arrested-in-expanding-saps-corruption-scandal/

Published on

27 June 2025

The South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Crime Intelligence division is facing an escalating crisis as a second wave of arrests were carried out on 26 June 2025, targeting it’s senior leadership. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) has confirmed the detention of multiple high-ranking officials amid mounting allegations of corruption, financial misconduct, abuse of state resources, and serious breaches of internal procedures.

Those arrested include:

• Lieutenant General Dumisani Khumalo, the Divisional Commissioner of Crime Intelligence,

• Major General Lushaba, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) who has now been arrested for a second time,

• Major General Lekalakala, Gauteng’s Head of Crime Intelligence,

• Major General Madondo, who leads the Crime Intelligence Analysis Centre,

• Major General Gabela from SAPS Technology Services,

• Brigadier Mokwele, the Technical Support System Manager,

• Brigadier Ncube, Head of the Vetting Office.

The charges reportedly involve corruption, defeating the ends of justice, perjury, manipulation of recruitment processes, the looting of Crime Intelligence’s covert slush fund, and the unauthorised use of public funds. The arrests mark a significant turning point in what many observers see as an overdue effort to hold senior law enforcement officials accountable for systemic abuse of their positions.

A key figure in the unfolding scandal is Brigadier Mokwele, whose appointment to a senior post within SAPS has drawn intense scrutiny. Mokwele, who previously worked in cybersecurity at BMW South Africa, was appointed to a brigadier role in Crime Intelligence despite having no policing background. Her annual salary is reported to be close to R1 million. The appointment has come to symbolise the irregular hiring practices and internal favouritism that critics argue have undermined the integrity and professionalism of the division.

In February this year, Kohler Barnard wrote to the Inspector General of Intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, after exposing that Crime Intelligence had allegedly spent R22.8 million on the purchase of a commercial property in Berea, Durban, and a further R22.7 million on a luxury boutique hotel in Pretoria North. These acquisitions were both authorised by Major General Lushaba in his capacity as CFO, and by Lieutenant General Khumalo. According to Kohler Barnard, the transactions were not only highly questionable but also symptomatic of a broader culture of financial mismanagement within the division.

“These properties appear to be just the tip of the iceberg,” she said, warning that the full scope of what is being uncovered could lead to the collapse of Crime Intelligence as an institution.

The crisis deepened earlier this month when it emerged that Major General Lushaba had handed himself over to the authorities. This followed an incident in which a sex worker allegedly stole his state-issued firearm and laptop. Lushaba reportedly lied about the circumstances surrounding the incident, an act that contributed directly to his arrest.

Compounding the situation are reports that key investigative dockets, including those related to Brigadier Mokwele’s controversial appointment, had mysteriously disappeared. These cases have since been reopened in Gauteng by Member of Parliament Fadiel Adams and prominent private investigator Paul O’Sullivan. They were escalated to IDAC, which is now spearheading a more aggressive phase of investigation and prosecution.

With more arrests anticipated in the coming days, the scandal now threatens to engulf broader elements of SAPS leadership, raising serious questions about accountability, oversight, and the future of South Africa’s intelligence and law enforcement capacity.

More arrests are expected as investigations continue.

>>22983254

“Proposal to rename South Africa as ‘Azania’ heads to Parliament”

https://www.getaway.co.za/travel-news/proposal-to-rename-south-africa-as-azania-heads-to-parliament/

Posted on 4 July 2025

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) is reigniting national debate by proposing to change South Africa’s name to the Republic of Azania, a move they say would reclaim cultural identity and sever colonial ties.

ATM leader Vuyo Zungula announced that his party, along with other aligned groups, will formally take the proposal to Parliament and the Constitutional Review Committee as part of a broader campaign to reform South Africa’s Constitution and national identity.

Zungula argues that the name ‘South Africa’ was never chosen by its people, but rather imposed through colonial constructs like the Union of South Africa in 1910, a merger engineered by the British and Boers that excluded the indigenous population.

>>22983254

>>23283504

>>23266252

>>23267057

>>23267060

“The perils of Azanian Critical Theory” – Part 1

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-perils-of-azanian-critical-theory

Willem Gravett |

04 March 2025

A proverbial storm in a teacup has erupted over comments made by Dr. Ernst Roets in an interview with the American podcaster, Tucker Carlson, which aired on Youtube on 3 March 2025. In the interview, Roets briefly discussed a virulent strand of Critical Race Theory, so-called “Azanian Critical Theory,” that has taken root at South African universities. Dr. Tristán Kapp, a self-described human rights activist and academic, sought to dispel Roets’s statements by claiming that Azanian Critical Theory is “[a]n intellectual framework that examines the enduring impact of race and racism in SA, particularly through the lens of Azanian political thought.”

Dr. Kapp is trying to put an innocuous gloss on a deeply divisive, radical, and violent ideology that is indeed taught at South African universities. Marxism was also a “theoretical framework” – until it wasn’t. So what are the basic tenets of Azanian Critical Theory and what is its vision for South Africa?

In this piece I engage with the work of three scholars, namely Professor Mogobe Bernard Ramose, Dr Ndumiso Dladla, and Professor Joel Modiri – all associated with the Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria Law Faculty. They have been called “constitutional denigrators” (Davis 2018:365), which is a term they deem derogatory (Dladla 2018: 416), presumably because it does not capture the scope and intensity of their opposition to the South African Constitution.

They call themselves “constitutional abolitionists” (Modiri 2018:296). However, I also do not think that this term captures the true scope of their endeavour. They make it clear that what they seek is not only the abolition of the Constitution, but the destruction of the South African polity itself which is “an ethical and political necessity” (Dladla 2018: 416).

Dladla claims to be writing from the perspective of “Azanian critical philosophy”. Thus, I have settled on the term “Azanian critical theory” (ACT) to describe their work, and I will refer to Ramose, Dladla, and Modiri collectively as “Azanian critical theorists” (ACTs).

The term “Azanian” is significant. The ACTs deplore the term “South Africa”, which they claim is the name given to Azania by the conqueror, i.e., white people. Whenever the ACTs use the appellation “South Africa”, they do so “provisionally and under protest” (Modiri 2017:71n107). Their name for South Africa – “Azania” – is to be preferred because it means “the land of Black people” (Modiri 2017:71n107) and signifies that “Azania is to be a wholly African polity rather than the old colonial vision of a little Europe in Africa” (Dladla 2018: 417). ACT emphasises that Azania is “a black majority African country” (Modiri 2018:22) in which the white population are “foreigners” (Modiri 2017:183).

What does the ACTs have against the Constitution? Their claim is basically the following: The ANC “entered the ‘negotiations’ from a position of weakness and ended up agreeing to compromises with the National Party (NP)” which resulted in “the protection of white minority interests, shielding their massive privileges and preventing large-scale redistribution of resources . . .” (Modiri 2018:19-20).

ACT claims that all white people – i.e., each and every one of us – carry a blight on our very souls called “white racism” (Modiri 2017:136). Borrowing uncritically from American critical race theory, ACT asserts that the “singular location” of racism is “within white culture” ((Modiri 2017:135). Thus, it is ethically impossible for a black person to be racist (Modiri 2017:132).

>>23283507

“Dr Gregory Stanton on farm murders in South Africa”

https://youtu.be/VQH0QbsLBWI

May 5, 2017

6:41 – “We raised South Africa from stage 5 to stage 6 [of genocide] when Julius Malema began to go around singing “Shoot the Boer” song again.”

“The perils of Azanian Critical Theory” – Part 2

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-perils-of-azanian-critical-theory

Willem Gravett |

04 March 2025

No matter what a white person does, “the colour of his skin – his passport to privilege” means that no white person will ever be able to escape being part of the oppressor camp” (Modiri 2017:162).

This point will become critically important when I discuss what it will take for white people to be able to become part of “post-conquest” Azania.

Dladla takes this point on white group identity to the extreme when he argues that, regardless of what the Constitutional Court and a myriad of other scholars might have had to say on the subject, the correct interpretation of ubuntu is that white people do not have ubuntu, and therefore white people are not human (Dladla 2017:54). He is quick to add – as if it would make any difference whatsoever – that this is not a racist argument, but “an ethical judgment based on the historical interaction between the indigenous conquered people conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation . . . on the one hand and their European conquerors . . . on the other” (Dladla 2017:54).

This rhetoric is deeply alarming. As the research of Jordan Peterson and Maja Djikic (2003) bears out with reference to Nazi Germany and Serbia, it is precisely this kind of dehumanising discourse that precedes genocide, especially if the dehumanisation is coupled with an enhanced sense of victimhood on the side of the group who is going to commit the genocide.

How Will “Post-conquest” Azania Be Born?

Next, let us consider how “post-conquest” Azania will be born. ACT is opposed to gradual, progressive social change and moderate politics that characterise liberal democracy (Modiri 2017:105). All that reliance on the law and human rights have achieved, is to “insulate the beneficiaries and perpetrators of racial atrocities [i.e., white people] from historical and moral responsibility” (Modiri 2018:14).

As Dladla contends, for justice to be done, South Africa itself must come to an end (Dladla 2018:440). Constitutional democracy merely achieved the “inclusion of the black majory into the conqueror’s world . . .” (Modiri 2018:17). Liberating the conquered majority will involve “dismantling the conqueror’s world altogether” (Modiri 2018:17).

Thus, liberal constitutional democracy, which is consistent with “white domination, colonial violence, and racial capitalism” (Modiri 2018:19), must be countered by “radical politics” (Modiri 2018:8). “Radical measures” are called for, which would entail “revolutionary transformation” (Modiri 2018:17) of the social structures that secure white supremacy (Modiri 2018:16), and the ”radical socio-economic, political and cultural restructuring of society” (Modiri 2017:46) through programmes of redistribution, redress and reparations” (Modiri 2017:71).

There can thus be no doubt that the ACTs want revolution!

This begs the question: Why are two of the ACTs – Dladla and Modiri – teaching at a law faculty if the South African legal system is not only ineffectual in achieving social change, but also “violent” and the embodiment of “epistemic imperialism” (Modiri 2017:262)? Are they working to undo the South African legal system from inside the legal academy? Will Modiri, who might become the next dean of the law faculty of the University of Pretoria, establish the first “anti-law” law faculty in South Africa, where the students will get an unrelenting four-year indoctrination in ACT? I guess time will tell.

>>23283507

>>23283509

“The perils of Azanian Critical Theory” – Part 3

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/the-perils-of-azanian-critical-theory

Willem Gravett |

04 March 2025

The ACTs want to “terminate the coloniser’s world” (Modiri 2017:277) through revolution. What is equally clear is that they do not intend for that revolution to be a peaceful one of the Arab spring variety.

The allusion to violent revolution in their work is unmistakable. For example, they claim that colonial conquest has caused an unresolved historical antagonism that is “not amenable to negotiation, compromise, reform, reconciliation, tolerance, and nation-building” (Modiri 2018:22).

The ACTs also view themselves as “rebels” who inherited the legacy of African chiefs and warriors who consistently waged wars of resistance against colonial rule (Modiri 2017:181). The ACTs’ veneration of especially Shaka and the Zulu kingdom in this regard is telling. Dladla describes Shaka as one of the “great kings” (Dladla 2018:418-419), for whom ubuntu philosophy was the basis of his “wars of resistance” (Dladla 2017:44).

Of course, the historical facts are that Shaka never fought in any war that could even remotely be described as one of “resistance”, let alone a war of resistance against white settlers. Shaka was a despot who, notwithstanding the limitations of primitive technology, was able to use violence and terror “on such a scale as to create what some social scientists have called a proto-totalitarian system” (Walter 1972:110). This is the model for the legacy of ubuntu that the ACTs have appropriated for themselves.

If these indirect references do not convince you of ACT’s penchant for violent revolution, let me be more direct. Modiri cites with approval to Biko who praised the merits of “armed struggle” (Modiri 2017:128), and to Frans Fanon who said that freedom must be attained by struggle and “blood” (Modiri: 2017:255). Modiri also neutrally posits “revolutionary violence” as one solution to the ongoing colonial situation (Modiri 2018:21).

Although the ACTs would like to think that their version of race Marxism is more sophisticated than the Eurocentric version, their prescription to fix inequality is exactly the same – socialism. Modiri describes it as “black socialism” (Modiri 2017:363), which seeks the “complete economic restructuring of society” (Modiri 2107:363). Black socialism is the cure for capitalism, or, rather “racial capitalism” (Modiri 2017:363-364) or “white supremacist capitalism” (Modiri 2017:151), as the ACTs refer to it.

Dladla and Ramose spell out the racialised socialist agenda of the ACTs. First, the Azanian liberation struggle will not be over until “title to territory has been restored to its rightful indigenous owners” (Dladla 2017:47).

Secondly, just in case there was any confusion about to whom title is to be restored, Dladla makes clear that title to territory “belongs exclusively to the indigenous people conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation” (Dladla 2018:418).

To this Modiri adds the following – which could as well have been written by Marx himself: firstly, the nationalisation of mines and banks; and secondly, payment of reparations and wealth taxes (Modiri 2018:21).

The question that arises is what white people would have to do, having been removed from the South African table, to receive an invitation to the new Azanian table. Modiri explains that it is only when the white settler population has relinquished title to territory, disavowed European supremacy, renounced white privilege, and accepted democratic African political rule, that it can be re-included into Azania on terms set by a Black majority society (Modiri 2017:175, 251).

“Exposing Corruption: KZN Top Cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi Takes on Corrupt Officials and Politicians”

https://youtu.be/h1wFQylq9YA

Jul 6, 2025

Exposing Corruption: KZN Top Cop Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi Takes on Corrupt Officials and Politicians

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on the arrest of the businessman Vusimuzi Matlala and the alleged relationship with the Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.

“On 26 of March 2025 this year, a total of 121 case dockets that were under investigation were taken away from the task team as directed by a Deputy National Commission Crime Detection, a Lieutenant General Sibiya, who was acting on the instruction of the Minister of Police to disband the team. This was done without the authority of the National Commissioner nor I as a Provincial Commissionar was never informed. These case dockets have since March been sitting at the Head Office ever since without any investigation work done on them. Five of these dockets had already instruction to arrest perpetrators but nothing has been done because Lieutenant General Sibiya being instructed by executing instruction of the Minister withdrew all these dockets and they are sitting in archive in his office in Pretoria. God knows why?

“Therefore, only a total of 112 dockets which are still in court of which 54 of them are political related and other will include parallel ad hoc as well as those dockets that involving the incident at Fort Hare University and five of them are traditional leadership are still with the team at this present moment.

“In the year 2024, a request was received from Gauteng Organised Crime Investigating Unit to assist with investigation to dismantle the organised crime syndicate that was operating in Gauteng that was controlled in Gauteng but operating in the rest of the country and neighbouring countries. I as a Provincial Commissioner took a decision to deploy ten member from this political task team to go and support this organised crime in Gauteng. I can tell South African that this decision was a cause for the disbandment of this team because they overstepped their mandate of only focusing in KZN… I can confirm before the South Africans today that the investigation which these members were involved with in Gauteng has unmasked the syndicate and this syndicate involves amongst other, politicians who are currently serving in parliament, the law enforcement officers include the members of the South African Police Service, Metro Police and Correctional Services. They include prosecutors in Gauteng Province, the judiciary and all these are controlled by the drug cartel as well as business people in the Province of Gauteng.”

>>23283999

>Lieutenant General Sibiya

>I can confirm before the South Africans today that the investigation which these members were involved with in Gauteng has unmasked the syndicate and this syndicate involves amongst other, politicians who are currently serving in parliament, the law enforcement officers include the members of the South African Police Service, Metro Police and Correctional Services. They include prosecutors in Gauteng Province, the judiciary and all these are controlled by the drug cartel as well as business people in the Province of Gauteng.

“General Sibiya wins right to be reinstated to his top job at SAPS”

https://iol.co.za/the-star/news/2022-05-16-general-sibiya-wins-right-to-be-reinstated-to-his-top-job-at-saps/

Published 3 years ago

Top cop Shadrack Sibiya has won his bid to be reinstated to his old job at the SA Police Services (SAPS).

He approached the Labour Appeal Court (LAC) to argue an earlier judgment by the Labour Court that only ordered his compensation, instead of reinstatement, was erroneous.

The earlier judgment found Sibiya’s axing from his position as the Gauteng head of the Hawks in 2015 was procedurally and substantively unfair, but awarded him a year’s salary.

Sibiya, currently the City of Joburg’s head of the Group Forensic Investigative Services, launched an appeal on the grounds he should have won a reinstatement order.

He submitted at the LAC that the Labour Court overlooked amendments to his relief pleas that he wished to go back to his old job.

Sibiya submitted he initially did not wish to go back to the SAPS because former Hawks national head Berning Mthandazo Ntlemeza was still on the job. He said Ntlemeza caused his axing on trumped-up charges.

These charges were he played a part in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals sought by their country for alleged crimes.

Sibiya was found guilty in an internal disciplinary hearing and axed, only to be cleared by the Labour Court.

He submitted in the LAC the Labour Court should have taken note of amendments he made and which indicated that due to Ntlemeza’s departure from the Hawks in 2017, he wished to go back to his old job.

In a fresh judgment, Judge of Appeal Phillip Coppin found in favour of Sibiya’s argument.

“The court (Labour Court) was wrong in not finding that the appellant wanted to be reinstated … and in not granting the amendment which was sought, or alternatively, in not finding that the parties had widened the issues as pleaded to include the issue of reinstatement,” said Judge Coppin.

“The court was not justified in such circumstances to assume that the appellant did not wish to be reinstated (or re-employed) in the SAPS. Before, at the time and during the trial, there could have been no doubt that the appellant wished to be reinstated.”

The SAPS, which did not oppose Sibiya’s LAC application, also had no room to claim he could not be reinstated on grounds that his old job was now occupied, said Judge Coppin.

“The SAPS is a vast organisation, with multiple positions for officers with the rank of Major-General, which is the rank the appellant held at the time of his dismissal.

“The fact that the position he occupied at the time of his dismissal, namely that of Provincial Head of Hawks, had since been filled is no reason for refusing him reinstatement into the SAPS, as he may be re-assigned following a proper and fair procedure to a post at the same rank and level as that he held at the time of his dismissal,” Judge Coppin said.

“Whistleblower Fred Daniel on the “corruption emergency that’s killing the country””

https://youtu.be/KkWddp0MTck

Dec 7, 2022

For 15 years Fred Daniel has faced unthinkable intimidation, destruction of property, obstruction of justice, and even death threats by a criminal cabal in Mpumalanga. The entrepreneur and conservationist, turned whistleblower, built the Nkomazi Wilderness Reserve, a collection of 89 farms he painstakingly amalgamated in the area between Badplaas and Barbeton - a UNESCO world heritage site. His conservation mission was scuppered by a “criminal enterprise targeting the public purse”, exploiting the land reform process in order to loot. In an extensive interview with BizNews correspondent Michael Appel, he explains the personal and professional cost involved in standing in the way of grand scale corruption. It’s graft that Daniel believes involves Deputy President David Mabuza as the “strongman” of Mpumalanga. Earlier this week, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse referred several criminal complaints related to Mabuza’s tenure as both MEC for Agriculture and Land Administration, as well as Premier of Mpumalanga, to the NPA’s Investigating Directorate. In a statement, the Deputy President’s office said: “This complaint is a regurgitation of old allegations by Fred Daniel, which have been and continue to be litigated in other courts, including the High Court. Every application that Mr. Daniel has filed against the Deputy President has been rejected with punitive costs. The judicial system has found him to be a dishonest litigant who takes advantage of the system.”

25:58 – “In one of the forensic reports judge, he sets it up beautifully of how they hijacked the Badplaas Land Reform project because there wasn’t much money for land reform so they had to turn it into a fraudulent land restitution project because there’s billions of Rands for land restitutions. So they hijacked the Land Reform project that turned into fraudulent Land Restitution project. They then created fake transaction and although there’s only 6 000 people that were living in Badplaas in 2011, they fabricated 35 000 beneficiaries… The whole thing is not really about land reform or land restitution or it’s really just about fraudulent land transactions.”

33:05 – “I actually came face-to-face with state capture in 1999.”

https://www.biznews.com/news/fred-daniel-david-mabuza-land-scam

Published on:

07 Dec 2022, 3:19 pm

Tourism was a big part of the project and that's why we got Sol Kerzner involved, because he was a master at putting new destinations on the map like Mauritius and Sun City. [Sol Kerzner is in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book; https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1508273-jeffrey-epsteins-little-black-book-redacted/] The Barbeton Mountainlands area has the most tourism potential and the least infrastructure.

What you've got is a criminal enterprise targeting the public purse. And this criminal enterprise consists of criminal networks. One network was involved in the Badplaas land grab. Another network was involved in the Problem Animal Fund. So you have one strong man [Mabuza] who looks after all the corrupt people.

>>23284959

>Deputy President David Mabuza

“David Mabuza: South African politician who served his nine lives”

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/politics/government/david-mabuza-south-african-politician-who-served-his-nine-lives/ar-AA1I1KQJ

7/5/2025

David Mabuza was probably never presidential material, having been distracted by accusations of graft later in his career. However, the former South African deputy president is credited with elevating the political power of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mabuza died on Thursday at the age of 64.

On Thursday, July 3, President Ramaphosa announced that Mabuza had passed away in Mpumalanga after a short illness.

The South African leader praised his “leadership and mobilisation abilities in his role as the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, leading the SA National Aids Council, and coordinating anti-poverty initiatives.”The Mpumalanga premierPresident Ramaphosa also praised Mabuza’s lifelong activism: he was a student activist with the Azanian Students Organisation (Azaso) and later became a teacher in what would later become Mpumalanga. It was in this province that he rose to national prominence as premier.

Locally, he was a master political entrepreneur and provincial boss, meticulously laying a foundation he hoped would one day propel him to presidency. For a time, it seemed within reach, but ultimately Mabuza died defeated by the very political chess game he had once dominated.

https://iharare.com/former-deputy-president-david-mabuzas-cause-of-death-revealed/

July 4, 2025

The family of former Deputy President David Dabede Mabuza has released a statement shedding light on the circumstances surrounding his sudden death.

According to the statement, Mabuza began experiencing significant respiratory distress on Thursday, July 3, 2025. He immediately sought urgent medical help at a hospital in Gauteng.

Tragically, he passed away in the emergency room while doctors worked to stabilise him.

https://www.myzimbabwe.co.zw/news/182797-former-deputy-president-david-mabuza-dies-who-poisoned-him-and-paul-mashatile-russia-failed-to-save-his-life.html

3 July 2025

Mabuza’s career was marked by both strategic brilliance and political maneuvering. He was known as “The Cat” for his ability to navigate complex political landscapes, and his influence was particularly strong in Mpumalanga. He played a key role in Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise to the presidency, shifting his support at a crucial moment in the 2017 ANC elective conference.

As South Africa grapples with the news of Mabuza’s death, the circumstances surrounding his passing remain a subject of intense speculation. The history of alleged poisoning, the secretive medical treatments in Russia, and the unanswered questions about his health have all contributed to a sense of unease. Whether the truth will ever be fully known remains to be seen, but the whispers of poisoning will likely continue to haunt his legacy.

>>23284959

>>23284964

“OUTA pushes for Mabuza co-accused to answer for corruption”

https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/outa-pushes-for-mabuza-co-accused-to-answer-for-corruption/

4 July 2025, 12:23 [SAST]

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says, despite the death of former deputy president David Mabuza, those accused of corruption alongside him should be held to account.

Conservationist Fred Daniel is seeking over R1 billion in damages. He alleges that Mabuza and others, including the Mpumalanga government, orchestrated fraudulent land scams in Mpumalanga.

PODCAST | Corruption case involving late David Mabuza continues: https://omny.fm/shows/first-take-sa/corruption-case-involving-the-late-david-mabuza-continues

Daniel also claims his nature reserve was targeted with vandalism, arson, and death threats after he exposed the scheme.

OUTA’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wayne Duvenage says Daniels needs to be compensated for the damage done to what was going to be a world-class reserve had it been allowed to develop and create jobs and income for the country.

“Which was scarpered by the conduct of David Mabuza and his cohorts in that province. So, we must never allow the legacies that people have created to be forgotten as well,” says Duvenage.

>>23266643

>>23283999

“Ian Cameron: Assassination, looting - but high-profile arrests and a good-news budget.”

https://youtu.be/I73zVxrzPQk

Jul 2, 2025

In his latest interview with BizNews, Ian Cameron, the Chair of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, gives his take on the apparent assassination of the Head of the Ekurhuleni Forensic Audit Investigation Division, Mpho Mafole, saying: “…what happened with him, it unfortunately has become the norm, especially for people that work in these types of departments”. Commenting on the arrests of Crime Intelligence (CI) chief General Dumisani Khumalo and other high-ranking police officers, Cameron states: “…if cases are proved through this and successful prosecution does happen, it will stand as one of the biggest moves of its kind in South Africa, ever, from what I know.” He also has some good news about the latest SAPS budget: “I must tell you from all the annual performance plans, strategic plans that I've ever seen of the South African Police Service, this is really the best one.” One of the highlights is a “massive push” to better allocate resources to Public Order Policing. However, he expresses “huge concerns” about the integrity management of PSiRA where the very people being implicated in significant corruption just stay in their positions. “South Africans can't go without private security, but now the very people that need to police private security also need policing.”

>>23283999

>>23285075

“Ian Cameron: Mkhwanazi v/s "Underworld" Mchunu: parties rally behind the brave general”

https://youtu.be/joGUWyzzo00

Jul 7, 2025

There has been a swell of public and Parliamentary party political support for KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi after he made explosive allegations against Police Minister Senzo Mchunu and Deputy National Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya. In this interview with BizNews, Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on Police, Ian Cameron says: “..all the political parties are at one that they must come to Parliament to account…I would find it very shocking that a provincial commissioner like General Mkhwanazi would take the risk, both physical and in terms of his job, his entire career, would take the risk that he took yesterday if he didn't have something to back it up with”. Cameron - who once had high hopes for the new Police Minister - adds: “I can't defend the Minister in any way. He hasn't answered substantially to any significant corruption matters that were reported to him by the committee, by myself as well.” As for the response from President Cyril Ramaphosa, Cameron says: “The President (stated) that he would give urgent attention to the matter and that it is a matter of national security. And I agree, it definitely is…. It comes back to one, the President, it comes back to the Minister of Police and to the National Commissioner of Police. Those three people should be held accountable for the disaster that we're currently in. “

4:07 – “Obviously, it’s interesting that all of this happens just a week or two after the arrest of certain high level crime intelligence members. So it’s difficult to not come to a conclusion that there are significant factional battles ongoing in this whole issue.”

11:32 – “Yesterday’s press conference was meticulously planned. That wasn’t an ad hoc type of press conference, from the uniforms to the conduct, the senior members sitting around him – many of them Brigadiers, Major Generals, etc… Therefore I cannot help but wonder what this evidence looks like because I can’t think that they would have taken the risk if there isn’t something of substance behind it.”

14:43 – “Everything that I’ve questioned so far from disciplinary processes that weren’t done properly to strange promotions of let’s call them dark horses in the Hawks and the South African Police service, appointments, promotion, corruption at training academies. None of it was answered. Everything just continues unabated.”

17:05 – “The point is that the President, the Minister [of Police], the National Commissioner [of Police] need to be held accountable for the disaster that South Africa Police Service is in.”

>>23289604

>>23283999

“IN FULL | KZN Police Commissioner Mkhwanazi speaks in detail about Brown Mogotsi”

https://youtu.be/mEsK6fGoMGI

Jul 7, 2025

Earlier this year, EWN sat down with KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, to discuss IPID’s investigation into his involvement in the arrest of a correctional services official in northern KZN. During the interview, Mkhwanazi spoke in detail about an individual from the North West, known as “Brown Mogotsi,” who claims to be a close associate of Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. KZN’s top cop described how Mogotsi contacted him and began meddling in police matters, fueling tensions within the organisation’s hierarchy in September last year.

17:50 – “I know that there’s some terrible things that happen in Gauteng about other murder cases in Gauteng that seems to have been squashed somehow that this team is picking up. That seems to be an issue which is for me the interesting one that is coming up. So obviously there will be many people involved. That’s why I said senior officers are involved and I know for a fact that… there is a Brigadier involved.”

19:08 – “There’s someone who influenced the Minister to write a letter to the National Commissioner to disband a task team that is deployed in KZN. Someone, who the person is I wouldn’t know, but there is someone who felt that if this team is part of this investigation, they most likely going to see the end of this investigation. The best is to disband this team. So when you disband this team, those investigations you’re busy with, they’re going to fall away. It’s against that context that I was making a reference to this.”

20:41 – “There’s so many political parties that have been affected by this violence of our time. I must explain to them about our interventions and trying to stabilize and get rid of this political killings in the province. We the only province where such team had to be formed because we are the ones that been killing a lot of politicians unlike any other province… But the questions is who is the person that will have whispered to the Minister and influence the Minister to sign a letter disband the unit and the timing of it - signed the letter now while the National Commissioner is on leave so it can be implemented. When Commissioner comes back from leave, this unit is disbanded.”

>>23329433

>The heroin coast

“SA embroiled in botched international drug shipment”

https://www.southafricanlawyer.co.za/article/2024/07/sa-embroiled-in-botched-international-drug-shipment/

By Daily News Published on Monday, 08 July 2024

Cocaine with an estimated street value of more than R1bn, the Bulgarian mafia, a Colombian cartel and top 28s gang associates feature in an international drug deal that appears to have gone awry off the shores of Simon's Town leading to shootings, kidnappings and a high level-police investigation.

An alleged Western Cape crime lord and his associate have now been kidnapped in what has unfolded as a saga that involves a missing shipment of cocaine.

Four sources close to the investigation told News24 Peter Jaggers and his associate, William Peterson, went missing on 30 June, a few hours after travelling from Cape Town to Gauteng.

Jaggers is believed to be the leader of the infamous Terrible Josters gang which operates in Kalksteenfontein and Netreg near Valhalla Park and is affiliated to the 28s gang.

Jaggers and Peterson were allegedly kidnapped because of a botched drug deal involving Colombian and Bulgarian organised crime syndicates in which a cocaine shipment estimated to be between 500 and 700kg went missing off the Western Cape coast.

A well-placed insider told News24 Jaggers' gang allegedly acted as intermediaries between the Colombians and Bulgarians and their role was to ensure the cocaine made its way from South America and into the hands of the eastern European syndicate.

Full News24 report; https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/cocaine-kidnappings-and-chaos-inside-failed-international-drug-heist-off-the-shores-of-western-cape-20240708

>>23333697

“Bodies Of Cape Town Gang Boss And Associate Found Murdered Nearly Four Months After Kidnapping”

https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2024/10/17/bodies-of-cape-town-gang-boss-and-associate-found-murdered-nearly-four-months-after-kidnapping/#:~:text=Authorities%20believe%20two%20bodies%20that%20were%20found%20in,three%20months%20ago%20following%20a%20botched%20drug%20deal.

October 17, 2024

Authorities believe two bodies that were found in the Vaal River in the Free State on Friday are those of Terrible Josters gang leader Peter Jaggers and his associate, William (Billy) Peterson, who were abducted three months ago following a botched drug deal.

It is believed that the two men were tortured.

Police stated that the remains were in a poor stage of decomposition and that the deceased were “estimated to be between 40 and 55 years old”. According to a preliminary investigation, the duo was handcuffed and their feet were tied together using cable ties.

They further stated that one of the victims had no teeth, but several identifying tattoos, including “Billie 08/06/2016” on his back, a cross and fire on his right lower thigh, and “Kauthew” on his left hand.

The second victim had tattoos of the words “International Crook” on his back and flames on his left leg.

Jaggers and Peterson being allegedly kidnapped because of a botched drug deal involving Colombian and Bulgarian organised crime syndicates was widely reported in July. Authorities believed that a cocaine shipment, estimated to be between 500kg and 700kg, that went missing off the Western Cape coast was the reason the men were taken. Several ominous voice recordings from the kidnappers later confirmed this.

The consignment was supposed to arrive in South Africa during Easter Weekend, with Jaggers’ crew waiting for it some 80 nautical miles off the coast of the Western Cape, but it appears to have been lost at sea.

>>23296380

”WATCH | How Transnet whistleblowing cost Vereeniging man his life”

https://youtu.be/hmg035f-kg8

Sep 9, 2024

Armand Swart, a low-level employee of a Vereeniging engineering company, was killed in a hit after the alleged triggermen mistook him for a colleague.

“KZN Police Boss Mkhwanazi Links Firearms in Musician Murders to Political Corruption Network”

https://centralnews.co.za/kzn-police-boss-mkhwanazi-links-firearms-in-musician-murders-to-political-corruption-network/

July 7, 2025

KwaZulu Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, flanked by his deputies, district commanders and tactical teams, addressed a special operational press briefing at KZN Police Headquarters in Durban this morning, revealing that ballistic tests on recovered firearms have linked them not only to the murders of notable musicians—including AKA and DJ Sumbody—but also to a broader network of political corruption involving senior law enforcement and parliamentary figures.

In a shocking turn, Mkhwanazi revealed that among those firearms, forensic analysis connected weapons traced to the murders of DJ Sumbody and rapper AKA—both high profile killings deeply felt in KwaZulu Natal. In February 2023, AKA (Kiernan “AKA” Forbes) and his friend Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane were gunned down outside a Durban restaurant. Mkhwanazi earlier confirmed KZN police had recovered and positively identified the murder weapon, and investigators believe suspects may already be in custody on other charges . According to Mkhwanazi, the firearms tested by the Political Killings Task Team have been ballistically linked to a number of high profile murders dating back to 2021, including those of musicians who remain unnamed publicly.

Mkhwanazi further disclosed that in April 2024, after a Q Tech employee (Mr Swart) was killed by suspects armed with an AK 47 and a pistol in Johannesburg, the KZN Task Team was deployed to assist the Gauteng Organised Crime Unit. The ballistic analysis on these seized weapons revealed links to multiple unresolved musician murders and politically motivated killings (). One high-profile arrest in December 2024 targeted Katiso MV, allegedly linked to the Swart murder. SAHA head office personnel reportedly attempted to halt the arrest—but eventually stepped back once they recognised it was a genuine police operation ().

Significantly, on 30 December 2024, ballistic test results surfaced linking these firearms to those musician murders and political killings. Yet the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, issued a letter disbanding the Task Team on 31 December, also freezing appointments in Crime Intelligence—the move was executed without consultation with either the National Commissioner or the provincial commander. Deputy National Commissioner Sibia then withdrew 121 case dockets from the Task Team on 26 March 2025; only 112 remain under investigation, with 54 linked to political cases. The remainder are with the Task Team, including investigations into traditional leadership killings and the Fort Hare university murders .

Mkhwanazi alleges the timing of the disbandment coincided with the Task Team’s role in exposing an organised‐crime and drug cartel based in Gauteng, implicating politicians, prosecutors, police, metro police, correctional officials and judiciary figures—suggesting syndicates wield control over elements of the criminal justice system (). He claims this interference is why the Task Team—initially focused on political killings—was diverted to uncover this expansive cartel. Their efforts included dismantling senior‐level connections and unmasking financial links involving police tenders worth over R360 million ().

The commissioner also detailed explosive WhatsApp communications involving Mr Brown Makuzi—a known associate of the minister of police—Minister Mchunu, and contract holder Vousimuzi “Cat” Matlala. These chats, dated 1 January 2025, reveal that Makuzi informed Matlala that the Task Team had been “dissolved” and all dockets “sent to Spear”, one day after the disbandment letter was issued . Financial transaction records show Matlala promoting the minister’s political endeavours, including funding and travel expenses (). Ray in May 2025, the Investigative Directorate for Corruption (IDC) downloaded Matlala’s phone exhibits and arrested the Task Team’s project coordinator (May) and Katiso MV (June) ().

>>23333718

>Armand Swart

>One high-profile arrest in December 2024 targeted Katiso MV, allegedly linked to the Swart murder.

>>23329433

“Katiso Molefe, a Sandton businessman accused of murdering engineer Armand Swart”

https://etender.co.za/da-meets-us-leaders-r360m-tender-handed-to-placeholder-director-todays-top-7-stories-in-7-minutes-news24/

Murder-accused Sandton businessman a flight risk and ‘danger to investigators’ – State

– Katiso Molefe, a Sandton businessman accused of murdering engineer Armand Swart, is considered a flight risk due to his frequent international travel history, having crossed the South African border over 165 times in 20 years.

– The State argues that Molefe poses a danger to investigators, alleging he has already paid for their assassination and that the investigating team has received death threats and is under protection.

– Molefe, who has a prior conviction for drug smuggling in the UK, was linked to the alleged murder through cellphone records and claims he was on a business trip to Hong Kong when arrested.

Source:

https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/murder-accused-sandton-businessman-a-flight-risk-and-danger-to-investigators-state-20250305

>>23333697

>>23333703

>28s gang

>>23333718

>DJ Sumbody

>>23320792

>>23283999

>>23333718

>arrest of the businessman Vusimuzi Matlala and the alleged relationship with the Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.

>>23329433

“The DJ Sumbody Assassination”

https://youtu.be/I-mGVwOugtA

Premiered May 20, 2025

6:47 – “It is alleged that [Kagiso] Setsetse flew to Cape Town and met with Ralph Stanfield, the alleged leader of the 28’s numbers gang. During this meeting, Setsetse claims that Stanfield was accompanied by an armed entourage. The purpose of this meeting, according to Setsetse, was to ask Stanfield to help him and DJ Sumbody so that they would not be extorted by the local gangs when they open Ayepyep in Cape Town.”

13:31 – “Who ordered his murder? And how deep does the rabbit hole of extortion in Cape Town go?”

“General Mkhwanazi's bombshell: Why DJ Sumbody and his bodyguard were shot dead, and how Cat Matlala is linked”

https://www.celebgossip.co.za/celeb-gossip-news/44664-general-mkhwanazis-bombshell-why-dj-sumbody-and-his-bodyguard-were-shot-dead-and-how-cat-matlala-is-linked.html

14 July 2025

In the shadows of South Africa's vibrant entertainment scene, a sinister plot may be unfolding, one that links the deaths of beloved artists to high-level corruption and a ruthless battle for control. The story begins with a chilling question: What connects an AK-47, a pistol, and the murder of DJ Sumbody and his bodyguard?

The investigation is zeroing in on a possible connection between these firearms and the April 2024 killing of engineer Armand Swart in Vereeniging. Swart's company had reportedly uncovered corruption related to Transnet tenders, making him a target. But the tendrils of this case may extend far beyond a single murder, potentially illuminating a series of shootings targeting high-profile artists in Gauteng over the past four years.

Oupa John Sefoka, known to his fans as DJ Sumbody, and his bodyguard, Wolter Sbusiso, were gunned down in JOHANNESBURG in November 2022. Their deaths, initially shrouded in mystery, now edge closer to a disturbing nexus of gangsterism, drug trafficking, state corruption, extortion rackets, and criminal networks embedded in private security companies and nightclubs.

A key figure emerging in this complex web is Vusi “Cat” Matlala, a businessman with alleged ties to Sbusiso's past. Sbusiso is believed to have worked for Cat VIP Protection, a security company founded by Matlala. Matlala himself was awarded a R360-million police contract last year, which has since been terminated. Adding another layer of intrigue, slain whistle-blower Babita Deokaran had previously flagged Matlala over contracts linked to Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng.

The plot thickened when KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that Matlala was financially supporting Police Minister Senzo Mchunu’s "political endeavors." Mchunu has vehemently denied these claims, stating that he does not know Matlala and has never received anything from him.

Mkhwanazi's allegations have ignited an "unprecedented" scandal, one that threatens to expose a high-level criminal syndicate operating within the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Police Ministry, Parliament, prison officials, the judiciary, and other law-enforcement authorities. Mkhwanazi claims that a "drug cartel" headquartered in Gauteng is ultimately controlling this syndicate, suggesting that an internationally operating cartel, with ties to the state and the private sector, is based in the province that also houses South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria.

>>23333697

>>23333703

>>23333776

>28s gang

>>23283999

>>23329433

“We should be worried: 28s gang’s access to SAPS intel, guns from army”

https://dailyvoice.co.za/news/2022-11-01-we-should-be-worried-28s-gangs-access-to-saps-intel-guns-from-army/

Published 2 years ago

Shocking details of just how deeply gangsters have infiltrated the police force have emerged following a recent judgement in the Western Cape High Court.

The verdict by Judge Daniel Thulare has sent shockwaves through the underworld as various dik dinge skarrel for information about who exactly is being linked to the claims that the 28s gang smokkeled with high-ranking cops, and even obtained access to classified documents of crime intelligence and the anti-gang unit.

This comes amid a bail appeal by two members of the Mobsters gang, namely Elcardo Adams and Alfonso Cloete, who along with 12 other bandiete are being hit with various charges involving the murder of Hampshire “Hempie” Brown in February 2018.

The judgement states that after Cloete made a confession to the cops, Adams (accused 1) planned to poison him on November 5, 2021 when the group appeared at the high court.

Thulare said: “The State’s case was that he [Adams]would have injected accused 2 with poison at the High Court when he was next to him, after he [Adams]realised that the confession made by accused 2 was captured on video footage, and corroborated the two section 204 witnesses.”

Adams also allegedly instructed that the two investigating officers be killed for “targeting the Mobsters”.

According to the testimony of a State witness, whose name is being withheld, cops from Mfuleni, Blue Downs and Beaufort West had helped the Mobsters transport drugs.

“V [State witness] mentioned Van Schalkwyk at Mfuleni, Geduld at Blue Downs, who even used to transport drugs with the police truck to prison, and a captain at Beaufort West, known as Baard.”

Investigations revealed that three 204 witnesses were killed after the gang was informed of who made statements to the police.

“The gang called them traitors and scavengers. They were killed even before the cases were enrolled. The other 204 witnesses went into hiding.”

Thulare said the gang was so well protected by corrupt cops that even the army sold firearms to them.

“The corrupt police protection and assistance included transportation of its drugs from court to prison, the betrayal of rival gangs and their exposure to death and leaking of information from police-planned activities, strategies and tactics to deal with gangs.

“These allegations, including the involvement of members of the army in selling arms and ammunition to the gang, which arms are used in the killings, rape and robbery of other people to advance the aims, objectives and the hegemony of the 28s gang in general and the Mobster gang in particular, surely created a sense of shock and outrage to the law-abiding members of the South African society, especially in the Western Cape.”

Thulare said there was evidence that the gang had infiltrated cops at all levels.

“This includes penetration of and access to the sanctity of the reports by specialised units like the anti-gang unit and crime intelligence, to the provincial commissioner.”

>>23333697

>>23333703

>>23333776

>>23333795

>28s gang

“28s gang leader Ralph Stanfield's trial set to reveal explosive details”

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/28s-gang-leader-ralph-stanfields-trial-set-to-reveal-explosive-details/ar-AA1IBPHK?ocid=BingNewsSerp

2025/07/14

Ralph Stanfield, who is alleged to be the leader of the 28s gang, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday alongside his co-accused. During this court session, it was revealed that they are set to face trial in the Western Cape High Court.

Stanfield, his wife, Nicole Johnson, and 12 others face an array of charges in what is expected to be an explosive trial to hit the high court.

The accused include: Johannes Abrahams, Denver Booysen, Jose Brandt, Jonathan Cloete, Shakeel Pelston, Imtyaas Sedick, Warren-Lee Dennis, Michael Morris, Chevonne McNab, Sharaxaadt Essop, Brandon Cornelius, and Keathan Gardiner.

The other accused, Abraham Wilson, has since died.

The group face 41 charges, including murder, attempted murder, fraud, illegal possession of firearms, illegal possession of ammunition, robbery, and theft of a motor vehicle.

In an indictment handed over to the court, the group are alleged to have conspired and murdered Hard Livings (HL) gang boss Rashied Staggie in a hail of bullets on December 13, 2019, in London Road, Salt River.

At the time, the 28s and HLs were embroiled in a hectic turf war.

Staggie was killed on the same spot where his twin brother, Rashaad was shot and set alight in August 1996.

The murder charges also relate to the late City of Cape Town employee Wendy Kloppers.

Kloppers, 49, who worked for the City’s Environmental Affairs Department, was gunned down on February 16, 2023, in Delft.

The murder of 27s gang leader, William ‘Red’ Stevens, who was gunned down in February 2021, in Kraaifontein has also been listed among the charges.

In its indictment handed over to the court, the State is set to prove that the group acted and are active members of a criminal gang known as ‘The Firm’ operating in Bishop Lavis, Valhalla Park, Delft, and Mitchells Plain and hold positions of leadership and subservience in accordance with the ranking system of the 28s prison gang. The indictment names Stanfield as the leader.

The Firm opposes and fights against members of the 27s prison gang, HLs, Dixie Boys, Sexy Boys, and Ghetto Kids operating in Kraaifontein, Woodstock, Parow, Bellville, Belhar, and Eerste River.

The Western Cape spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Eric Ntabazalila, confirmed the matter has been transferred to the high court.

The matter has since been postponed until November 7, 2025, for pre-trial.

>>23333805

“Stanfield gang trial looms as prosecutors push to reinstate R1bn fraud charges”

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2025-07-14-stanfield-gang-trial-looms-as-prosecutors-push-to-reinstate-r1bn-fraud-charges/

14 July 2025 - 21:31

The prosecution is pulling all the stops to reinstate charges in the R1bn Cape Town housing tender fraud case before alleged 28s gang boss Ralph Stanfield appears in the high court on gang-related charges in November.

The prosecution provisionally withdrew fraud charges against Stanfield and former human settlements MMC Malusi Booi, and several others, in May.

Stanfield, his wife Nicole Johnson and 13 other accused appeared in the Cape Town magistrate's on Monday on 41 counts. They range from murder to attempted murder, possession of illegal firearms and robbery. The matter was transferred to the high court in Cape Town for trial.

Eric Ntabazalila, the spokesperson for the prosecution, said the charges only related to “murder, being a member of a gang, possession of illegal firearms, illegal possession of ammunition and robbery”.

He said the state hopes all charges withdrawn in the R1bn city tender fraud matter will be reinstated against all the accused before Stanfield and Johnson’s matter is heard in the high court.

“You will remember that the cases that involve financial crimes, including the City of Cape Town tender, were withdrawn because the investigation continues. We hope that investigation can be completed before the other matter goes to the high court on November 7,” said Ntabazalila.

“The investigation is continuing. We hope that it will be finalised in the next month or two. Our hope and plans are that when everyone goes to the high court, they will be joined by the group whose charges were withdrawn.”

Stanfield, Johnson and a few others appeared virtually from the various prisons where they are held.

>>22978036

>>22978041

>>22978052

>>22978061

>>22978070

>>22978090

>>23172975

>>23203893

>>23329458

>some were the cronies of connections of Gwede Mantashe and as you know Gwede Mantashe alone is the powerhouse in South African politics and a political bodyguard of Ramaphosa.

>>23329590

>Firoz Cachalia

“Mantashe Takes OVER As Acting Police Minister, Is This A JOKE?”

https://youtu.be/wGjAF5Nh7EQ

Jul 16, 2025

“President Ramaphosa appoints Gwede Mantashe as Acting Police Minister”

https://www.ewn.co.za/2025/07/15/president-ramaphosa-appoints-gwede-mantashe-as-acting-police-minister-until-cachalia-takes-over

15 July 2025 | 19:03

Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister, Gwede Mantashe has been appointed Acting Police Minister after Senzo Mchunu was placed on special leave.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Mantashe to act in the position with immediate effect.

Mchunu was put on special leave after he was linked to alleged corruption in the police service.

In a short statement released on Tuesday night, the Presidency said Mantashe will act as Police Minister until Professor Firoz Cachalia assumes the position at the start of August.

In a late-night address on Sunday, Ramaphosa announced that Cachalia would act in the position in accordance with section 91 subsection (3)(c) of the Constitution which grants the president the authority to appoint a maximum of two ministers from outside the National Assembly.

Mantashe’s appointment as Acting Police Minister is in line with section 98 of the constitution.

The provision prescribes that the President may assign to a cabinet member any power or function of another member who is absent from office or is unable to exercise that power or perform that function.

Mantashe will, however, retain his responsibilities as Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources.