Foreigners 'chased like dogs'
By Caryn Dolley
Foreigners forced from informal settlements around the province are
still too scared to return to their homes because they fear being
attacked again.
"I'm not going back. I don't care if the police are there. I am scared.
They've torn down my shop and my brothers who have gone back were
threatened again. We will wait - maybe until next week," Abduragman
Alikar, a Somali who ran a shop in Khayelitsha, said on Tuesday.
On Sunday and Monday scores of foreigners left a number of informal
settlements around the province after being threatened. Some had had
their shops looted.
Late on Monday in Nyanga fears of attacks against foreigners were
further fuelled when the body of a 33-year-old Malawian, Peter Chavura,
was discovered.
He had been murdered and his genitals cut off.
Nyanga police station spokeswoman Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said the murder
was not xenophobia-related.
She said Chavura had been drinking with his friends on Sunday at a
shebeen in Samora Machel.
That was where his girlfriend last saw him but on Monday a resident told
her his body had been discovered in bushes in the area.
Pictures of the scene show his genitals on grass near his body.
This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on July
14, 2010
By Shaun Smillie
Twice police had former SA Police Service captain Patrick Magonono in
cuffs, and twice he got off to continue an alleged life of crime.
But luck ran out for the former head of the Criminal Investigations
Division (CID) at the Magaliesburg police station, when he was arrested
by the Hawks for his alleged involvement in the robbery at the Rio Hotel
Casino in Klerksdorp this year.
Hawks spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lesego Metsi said investigators
tracked down Magonono after CCTV footage caught an image of the number
plates on the black BMW 320 used in the crime.
The BMW was registered to Magonono. The robbery took place on April 15,
when staff and patrons were held up at gunpoint at the casino. A day
later, police made arrests.
Police allege Magonono's crime spree began at least two years ago while
he was head of the CID at the Magaliesburg police station.
Then, Metsi claims, Magonono was involved in a series of violent crimes
on smallholdings in the area.
The top cop was arrested in April 2008 along with five of his policemen
colleagues.
Prior to his arrest in 2008, said Metsi, Magonono resigned from the
police service.
He appeared in a Gauteng magistrate's court and was granted bail.
Then, in March, North West police again caught up with Magonono, this
time after a car chase and shootout.
While they were tying up the shopkeeper and his workers with cable ties,
a patrolling police van happened to drive by.
Police found a blue light inside the BMW, which was also fitted with a
police siren. Police also recovered Magonono's SAPS appointment
certificate and discovered that the car had been hijacked.
Magonono appeared in the Tlhabane Magistrate's Court on March 23 on a
charge of business robbery, possession of a vehicle suspected to have
been stolen, attempted murder and impersonating a police official.
He was again granted bail, said Metsi.
"He was given bail because it was alleged he was assaulted by police,
and because he had a fixed address and was South African," explained
Metsi.
A month before Magonono appeared in the Tlhabane Magistrate's Court, the
Hawks believed he was involved in another armed robbery at the Sun City
casino near Rustenburg, where a gang of 10 heavily armed men made off
with an undisclosed amount of money.
Metsi said investigators were also trying to link Magonono to a number
of house robberies.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on June 30,
2010
Published on the Web by IOL on 2010-06-30 04:35:00
Comments:
Anonymous wrote :
Why give him bail after he was caught the second time?
Anonymous wrote :
Let me guess, he used a firearm handed into the police station by some
innocent citizen who didn't get a licence renewed.
Peter T wrote :
An armed robber who happen to be a former Police Captain is granted bail
for Armed Robbery? Our justice system is getting worse by the day
(Edited by IOL)
Anonymous wrote :
Oh he will be released soon and all charges dropped against him so he
ONCE AGAIN can continue with his criminal behaviour. Welcome to the NEW
south africa
Tjoppie wrote :
We need another police force to protect us against the police.
The death toll in the Eastern Cape's winter **circumcision season**
(WTF???) has risen to 39, the provincial health department said on
Monday.
Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the latest deaths had occurred in the
Ntabankulu and Engcobo areas of the Transkei, and on farms in the Chris
Hani district, which includes Queenstown.
National Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka said at the weekend
he was considering regulating initiation schools after ongoing reports
of youths dying at illegal schools.
His department was also seeking harsh sentencing for those found to be
running illegal schools.
The Eastern Cape already has its own circumcision legislation, but says
prosecutions are sometimes hampered by a lack of co-operation from
communities and parents.
The defeated England team will be able to return home with their
underwear and a Fifa gold medal - if not their dignity - following their
embarrassing loss to Germany.
The England team were bundled out of the World Cup on Saturday when
Germany beat them 4-1 - and were robbed of a goal by the ref.
And while the likes of Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard tried their best
to salvage their battered reputations, staff at their Rustenburg hotel
were rifling through the players' designer label closets, helping
themselves to briefs and boxers and a selection of other items.
Whereas the hordes of English supporters refused to see the writing on
the wall for their team, the cleaners at the state-of-the-art Royal
Bafokeng Sports Palace, where the team were based, seemed to see their
opportunity fading before their eyes.
With the team having drawn two games and facing the prospect of not
proceeding past the group stage and going home, the cleaning staff at
the Royal Marang Hotel started their spree, collecting nearly R80 000
worth of clothes, personal belongings and ?485 (R5 530) in cash.
"They started on June 21 and stole things until June 25," said North
West police Colonel Junior Metsi.
Police have been asked not to reveal the names of the players who had
goods stolen, but The Star has been reliably informed that items were
stolen from virtually every member of the squad.
It seems the English team started missing their jocks only after four
days, with a case of theft opened with the police on Saturday.
In less than 24 hours, Thulane Fortunate Mongake, 26, Ernest Zimisile
Klaas, 28, Thapelo Joseph Senne, 21, Basimane Levy Njielane, 34, and
Catherine Motsilanyane, 28, were arrested, tried and sentenced to three
years or a fine of R6 000 in the Tlhabane World Cup court.
All the stolen items were returned, among them a gold World Cup winners'
medal.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on June 29,
2010
Now the impostors – as a French newspaper dubbed their team – have
collapsed in a scandalous frenzy of infighting, training strikes,
insubordination and resignations, and even the French media are rooting
for a Bafana Bafana victory today. One can only wonder if FIFA still
thinks rigging the game to make sure the arguing cheats got to South
Africa was better than being honest and welcoming an Irish team to the
big time. I live in the town where the French team stays, and I have yet
to meet someone who wouldn't have preferred to host the Irish,
especially after the French tried to avoid the crowd who were out in a
chilly dawn to welcome them, and had to be turned back by police towards
the crowd-lined main road, only to whine about the amenities at the
town's most luxurious resort hotel.
While all this has been going on, FIFA has kept itself occupied with
hunting down criminals in South Africa.
People like Bongani Sithole, a part-time employee of the South African
Football Association, who happened to have a pair of complimentary
tickets and offered them to a desperate fan for a fee. He was arrested,
and the tickets confiscated, until a court found that he had contravened
neither any law, nor the terms and conditions of the tickets. The
hopeful buyer never did get to see the match.
Like Rodos Ioannides, a Bloemfontein coffee shop owner, who is in
trouble for using the acronym "FIFO", a well-known term for "First-In,
First-Out". The products he promotes cost R20.10. This price, it would
appear, is illegal.
Innocent fans entering stadiums are searched by SAPS officers, under the
direction of FIFA officials, to confiscate illegal clothes, folding
umbrellas and handbags of criminal size. On the orders of FIFA, our own
police stands ready to arrest our own citizens, should they be suspected
of infringing the Byzantine laws our new masters have imposed.
The 56 special FIFA courts, staffed by 110 magistrates, 260 prosecutors,
93 foreign language interpreters, 110 local language interpreters, 1 140
court officials and 327 court orderlies who usually just laze around our
regular courts all day, has heard 18 cases to date, reports Mail &
Guardian journalist Lionel Faull. He notes that with a total budget of
R45 million, this works out to R1.75 million for each of the eight
convictions. Our FIFA magistrates, naturally, have a lot of time to
follow the football, and can credibly call it research, to boot.
Full article at
http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2010-06-22-i-ordered-an-orange-skirt
Dear World Cup visitors,
Now that you are safely in our country you are no doubt happily
realising you are not in a war zone. This may be in stark contrast to
what you have been bracing yourself for should you have listened to Uli
Hoeness or are an avid reader of English tabloids, which as we all know
are only good for wrapping fish 'n chips and advancing the careers of
large-chested teens on page three.
As you emerge blinking from your luxury hotel room into our big blue
winter skies, you will surely realise you are far more likely to be
killed by kindness than by a stray bullet. Remember that most of the
media reports you have read, which have informed your views on South
Africa, will have been penned by your colleagues. And you know what
journos are like, what with their earnest two thousand word opuses on
the op-ed pages designed to fix this country's ills in a heartbeat.
Based on exhaustive research over a three-day visit.
Funnily enough, we are well aware of the challenges we face as a nation
and you will find that 95% of the population is singing from the same
song-sheet in order to ensure we can live up to our own exacting
expectations.
We are also here to look after you and show you a good time. Prepare to
have your preconceived notions well and truly shattered.
For instance, you will find precious few rhinos loitering on street
corners, we don't know a guy in Cairo named Dave just because we live in
Johannesburg, and our stadiums are magnificent, world-class works of
art.
Which is obviously news to the Sky TV sports anchor who this week
remarked that Soccer City looked 'a bit of a mess'. She didn't realize
the gaps in the calabash exterior are to allow in natural light and for
illumination at night, and not the result of vandalism or negligence.
The fact that England, the nation which safely delivered Wembley Stadium
two years past its due date, is prepared to offer us South Africans
advice on stadium-readiness should not be surprising. The steadiest
stream of World Cup misinformation has emanated from our mates the Brits
over the past couple of years.
If it's not man-eating snakes lurking in Rooney's closet at the team's
(allegedly half-built) Royal Bafokeng training base, then it's
machete-wielding gangs roaming the suburbs in search of tattooed,
overweight Dagenham dole-queuers to ransack and leave gurgling on the
pavement.
In fact what you are entering is the world's most fascinating country,
in my opinion. I'm pretty sure you will find that it functions far more
smoothly, is heaps more friendly and offers plenty more diversions than
you could possibly have imagined.
In addition to which, the population actually acts like human beings,
and not like they are being controlled by sinister forces from above
which turns them into bureaucratically-manipulated robots.
Plus we have world's most beautiful [white] women. The best weather.
Eight channels of SuperSport. Food and wine from the gods themselves.
Wildlife galore. (Love the Dutch team's bus slogan: "Don't fear the Big
5; fear the Orange 11").
Having said all that, Jo'burg is undoubtedly one of the world's most
dangerous cities. Just ask those Taiwanese tourists who got out of their
hired car to take close-up snaps of tawny beasts at the Lion Park a few
years back. Actually, ask what's left of them. And did you know the
chances of being felled by cardiac arrest from devouring a mountain of
meat at one of our world class restaurants has been statistically proven
to be 33.3% higher in Jozi than in any other major urban centre not
built upon a significant waterway? It's true. I swear. I read it in a
British tabloid.
Having recently spent two years comfortably cocooned in small town
America, I'm only too aware of how little much of the outside world
knows about this country. The American channel I used to work for has a
massive battalion of employees descending on World Cup country. It has
also apparently issued a recommendation to its staff to stay in their
hotels when not working.
Given that said corporation is headquartered in a small town which many
say is "best viewed through the rear-view mirror", I find the
recommendation, if it's true, to be utterly astounding. In fact I don't
believe it is true.
Contrary to the global stereotype, the best Americans are some of the
sharpest people in the world. The fact they have bought most tickets in
this World Cup proves the point.
Of course I have only lived in Johannesburg, city of terror and dread,
virtually all my life, so don't have the in-depth knowledge of say, an
English broadsheet journalist who has been in the country for the
weekend, but nevertheless I will share some of my observations gleaned
over the years.
Any foreign tourist or media representative who is worried about his
safety in South Africa should have a word with the Lions rugby fans from
last year, or the Barmy Army cricket supporters (lilywhite hecklers by
day, slurring, lager-fuelled lobsters by night). They managed just fine,
just like the hundreds of thousands of fans who have streamed into the
country over the past fifteen years for various World Cups, Super 14
matches, TriNations tests and other international events. Negligible
crime incidents involving said fans over said period of time.
Trivia question: which country has hosted the most global sporting
events over the past decade and a half? You don't need me to answer
that, do you?
In addition. Don't fret when you see a gaggle of freelance salesmen
converge on your car at the traffic lights (or robots as we like to call
them) festooned with products. You are not about to be hijacked. Here in
Mzansi (nickname for SA) we do a lot of our purchasing at robots. Here
you can stock up on flags, coat hangers, batteries, roses for the wife
you forgot to kiss goodbye this morning and a whole host of useful
merchandise.
Similarly, that guy who runs up as you park the rental car outside the
pub intends no malice. He's your car guard. Give him a buck or two and
your vehicle will be safe while you refuel for hours on our cheap,
splendid beer. Unless someone breaks into it, of course.
We drive on the left in this country. Exercise caution when crossing the
road at a jog-trot with 15 kilograms of camera gear on your back.
Exercise common sense full stop. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you want
to leave wads of cash in your hotel room like our Colombian friends,
don't be surprised if it grows wings.
Bottomline. Get out there and breathe in great lusty lungfuls of this
amazing nation. Tuck into our world-class food and wines. Disprove the
adage that white men can't dance at our throbbing, vibrant night-clubs.
Learn to say hello in all eleven official languages. Watch at least one
game in a township. You will not be robbed and shot. You will be
welcomed like a lost family member and looked after as if you are
royalty. Ask those Bulls rugby fans who journeyed to Soweto recently.
With a dollop of the right attitude, this country will change your life.
It's Africa's time. Vacate your hotel room. Join the party.
Waka waka eh eh.
Posts
All Comments
