Monday, August 5, 2013

Why Africa Check failed to disprove Steve Hofmeyr - Whites ARE dying like flies

The media has been deliberately suppressing the truth about the murders, rapes and other atrocities in South Africa since 1994.

This suppression has been growing to the extent that certain groups and the media have been targeting prominent human rights activists like Steve HofmeyrSunette BridgesDr. Dan Roodt and others, discrediting and ridiculing them.

Off course while the South African media has always praised overseas singers and artists for their human rights efforts, typically the same media has been demonising local singers and artists for their human rights activism. This has always been the case and is standard procedure for the South African media.

How this is done is best summarised as follows:

"Negative publicity are quickly reported on with the extent and seriousness of the issue white-washed to be quickly ignored for further scrutiny and buried in the cemetery of Consequenter. Think of Obama’s Fast & Furious scandal or Benghazi or the IRS scandal or…or…or…Think of how various reports by the Public Protector on DA controlled municipalities are swept under the rug and made out as less than what they actually are. 

Criticism and detractors of the person [in the case of South Africa, the ANC government] is dealt with quickly, harshly and in the most vicious manner often resulting in character assassination, threats and personal insult. There are many examples of this available today – MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and CNN’s Piers Morgan are masters at the above when any criticism is levelled at Barack Obama’s Administration with the racism card being played often as an ad hominem audi alteram partum. The UK Media and UK Government’s treatment of the EDL, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer whom are all anti-Islamisation of Western Society. In South Africa we have Naspers’ media arm Media24 who has appointed themselves as the guardians of what may and may not be said by independent thinkers and Conservatives about Mandela, the ANC and the DA. They often employ the services of ideological hit-men or groupings such as AfricaCheck – which is funded by George Soros’ Soros Foundations – Max du Preez, Leopoldt Scholtz and Tim du Plessis with a sprinkling of lesser opinionadas covering the rear guard. Naspers very often censors the opinions of counter-thinking individuals skirting the SA Press Code, International Council for Press and Broadcasting and the right to free speech entrenched in the SA Constitution." - The Cult Personality & Idolatry
In the latest, most publicised attack on Steve Hofmeyr, initiated by the new kid on the block, Africa Check, the media went out of their way to discredit and ridicule Steve Hofmeyr as much as possible. (See "Related Articles")

Throughout the article Africa Check tried to ridicule Steve Hofmeyr with immature assertions like "non-experts to support some form of race-based conspiracy theory""a race-crime mythology", accusing him of making "sweeping statements" and so forth, which certainly is not becoming of an organisation hoping to earn respect as "fact-check" experts . 

So Who is Africa Check?

Trust is earned through the test of time, not through marketing and self-acclaim. Africa Check has, by their own admission, only been in existence for short while, yet they proclaim themselves trustworthy beyond reproach?

Africa Check proclaims themselves "a non-partisan organisation that exists to fact-check claims made in the public arena, impartially and fairly, and publish the results."

As can be seen from their page "How we are funded", Africa Check is funded by exclusively liberal sources, most of which also supported the ANC pre-1994. They are also funded by none other than the Open Society Foundation for South Africa (See the members of the Board) founded by the infamous George Soros (For more information on Soros, see "Further Reading")

While our human rights activists in question are self-funded and independent, Africa Check cannot claim the same. Africa Check has to remain politically correct in accordance with the prescribed agenda and bound by the guidelines of their sponsors, such as George Soros, the Vienna based International Press Institute and WITS Journalism. If Africa Check is considered as being "non-partisan" then surely the Cosatu and State-owned Independent News and Media SA should also be considered "non-partisan".

Africa Check is dependent upon its liberal sponsors for their salaries and very existence.

"non-partisan"? and "impartial"?

Being sponsored, and particularly being exclusively sponsored by leftist-liberal sponsors, Africa Check is not in any position to proclaim themselves "non-partisan", "impartial", independent or objective. Who, but they themselves, appointed Africa Check the experts to"fact-check" others anyway?

Africa Check proclaims"We seek, over time, to check all sides in any debate and we base our reports on fact not opinion." Yet, in the case of Steve Hofmeyr, we find no evidence of checking "all sides in any debate", we find rather a direct insulting attack on the credibility and integrity of Mr Hofmeyr.

As put in one of the comments to Africa Check's article"I think this website could be an important tool for civil society in Africa. To do that, however, it needs to establish its credibility. The only way it will achieve that is if it sticks to cold, empirical facts. It seems that most of the content is being supplied by journalists who are trained to find a story. As a result, the pieces posted on here have emotive, newspaper-ish headlines like “Why Steve Hofmeyr is Wrong” and contain paragraphs of journalistic waffle that is unnecessary for the purpose of verifying the fact and ultimately winds up expressing an opinion." - By John 
09:42 | 25 June 2013

The truth is that South Africa really does need a non-partisanimpartial, unbiased organisation that could "fact-check". Had Africa Check been sponsored by Republicans from the US and by conservative groups and organisations, the SA media would have laughed them off, but because they all tend to be leftist liberal, this makes the liberal sponsored Africa Check "respectable."  Such an organisation should be above reproach, not be answerable to anyone, not be "politically correct" and not be "owned" by financial sponsors from only either the left or the right. It should consist of representatives from all sides, not just the left as is the case with Africa Check. 

Now while Africa Check has a right to their biased opinion that dares to ask "Where does Hofmeyr get his information?", should we then not also be allowed to ask ...

Where does Africa Check get their information?

Africa Check says "The interpretation of data on “farm attacks” is problematic as it relies on old police data and current, self-reported data collected and submitted by the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAUSA).", but where do they get their data from?

Crime statistics in South Africa are obtained primarily from two sources, the SA Police and Statistics SA. All analysis published by other sources are based on the figures supplied by the SA Police and Stats SA.

The question is, how trustworthy are the SA Police and Stats SA?

  • "Discovery of unrecorded post-mortem reports and allegations of police negligence and manipulation of crime figures" - Cloud over murder statistics
  • "Kirstenhof police are on a witch-hunt for the officer who leaked information about cooked crime statistics" - Cops gun for snitch
  • a new study by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation finds a“pervasive pattern of (police) manipulation of the statistics” - The great scourges
  • "it is reasonable to assume that there should be some correlation between trends in attempted murder and trends in murder. How then to account for the fact that attempted murder is decreasing at a rate five times greater than murder? If the reduction is a result of government efforts to reduce violent crime, how is it that the SAPS, or the criminal justice system, or government more generally, were able to reduce attempted murder so dramatically, but not murder itself?"
    "current violent crime statistics cannot be relied on as an indicator of trends in violent crime." 
    "In recent years there have been persistent reports in the press about the 'cooking of crime statistics' by police. In a selection of press articles on the matter, 13 allegations relating to such manipulation are made in relation to five of South Africa's nine provinces. In this selection of press articles, eleven different police stations in the Western Cape, four stations in Gauteng, one station in KwaZulu-Natal and one station in Limpopo are alleged to have manipulated crime statistics." - The Reliability of violent crime statistics in South Africa - David Bruce - SA Crime Quarterly 2010 (.pdf)
  • SA sees SAPS as most corrupt within the state - Corruption Watch survey
  • About 83% of South Africans believed that police were corrupt. In the Global Corruption Barometer 2013, South Africa was among 36 countries in which the police was seen as the most corrupt institution - 83% believe SAPS is corrupt - survey
  • Findings on corruption amongst SAPS members suggested that:
  • South Africa's police force seems rotten to the core - riddled with corruption, crime, dirty tricks, political machinations and even murder - Something very rotten
    Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis said the findings confirmed that the increase in corruption was “not a mere perception” - Country Corruption Assessment Report South Africa .pdf (July 12 2013)
  • Four top Limpopo police officers have appeared in court for allegedly manipulating crime statistics in Tzaneen - Cops held for manipulating crime stats 
  • "In 2009 reports of numerous instances of manipulation of crime statistics by ‘a substantial number’ of police stations surfaced in the media. That year 12 officials of the Mountain Rise police station in KwaZulu-Natal were charged with tampering with crime statistics. The station had received a R500 000 bonus for being the top station in the reduction of crime. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) found 170 unregistered dockets hidden in a room at the station. In the Western Cape the ICD investigated 1 000 dockets after receiving complaints that police were registering complaints as inquiries rather than criminal cases on the police database to keep down crime figures." 
  • "Between 1996 and 2011 the degree of overcrowding in prisons grew by 52%."(While crime was coming down according to Stats SA?)
    "The proportion of prisoners sentenced to less than six months declined by 93% between 1995 and 2011 while that of prisoners serving sentences of 10 years and longer went up by more than 2 400%." (While crime was coming down according to Stats SA?)- South Africa: Crime and security
    SA Police documents found dumped in Tzaneen included, Notice of Constitutional Rights, Legal Postmortem Registers, Incidents Reports, Warrant of Detention of Illegal Foreigners, Body Receipts for Jail, Files for Warrant of Detention with bail particulars; the list goes on. - VIDEO: Sensitive police documents dumped near Tzaneen SPCA
  • In 2012 Dianne Kohler Barnard, the DA's Shadow Minister of Police, said:  "The current method of collecting, collating and reporting South Africa’s crime statistics means that few people trust the figures reported by the Minister each year. The problems with our crime statistics are manifold:  It is not clear if they are valid as they do not provide an accurate picture of the crime situation;  they are not reliable;  they are open to manipulation; and the statistics are out of date." - DA to propose crime statistics overhaul 
  • Crime statistics published by the South African Police Service show that carjacking decreased dramatically by 23.6%, truck hijacking reduced by 29.2%, and theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles are down by 10.1%.  Carjacking decreased in all provinces, except the Northern Cape. The decreases varied between 39.8% in Mpumalanga and 13% in the Eastern Cape. It was hard to pinpoint the exact reasons for the decline, said Johan Burger, senior researcher for the crime and justice programme at the Institute of Security Studies. Auto and General Insurance's claims reflected an increase in the number of hijackings across South Africa, said its spokesperson, Angelo Haggiyannes. "Hijacking remains an ever-growing threat to South Africans …. So while & General noticed the number of stolen vehicles dropping, hijackings continue to increase." -Hijacking claims are down
  • See the sudden decrease in 2010 to make things look good in anticipation of the Soccer World Cup 2010 - Theft of Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Reported Cases
Besides people like David Bruce and others, Unisa criminologist, Professor Rudolph Zinn ranks among the most respected crime experts in South Africa (See "Further Reading") and this is what he had to say about SA crime statistics in this most important article:
  • He said the statistics document was “farcical”..; Zinn said it was virtually impossible to determine the true picture in categories such as murder.; “Some murders are listed and others are not. This is because some people think certain kinds of murders, such as farm killings, are not important."“It is like rape. They say it is down, yet it is not listed anywhere in the document,”“Serious questions must be asked, especially of police stations that record sudden, major, unexplained decreases."“Housebreaking was under- reported by 41%, house robbery by 44% and stock theft by 64%, yet police report decreases in these crimes,” - Read The “resounding” successes of crime stats were immediately shot down by experts.
The list goes on and on and on... Quoting from each and every source would require a book and more examples can therefore be found in listed in the links under "Further Reading".

SA Police data, particularly new and current data, is so incomplete and unreliable that private individuals like Sunette BridgesAdriana Stuijt, community forums like Farmitrackerand organisations like the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAUSA), took it upon themselves, using their own time and resources, to try and gather information on attacks and murders from the limited number of reports in the media and from the families of victims. Conservative as their collected data may be, it is still jarring.
(Please note that in their attempts to hide and deny the murders on whites, liberals and the media have been using their contacts and resources to close down the Facebook pages, blogs and websites of people like Sunette Bridges and Adriana Stuijt, which list the names and circumstances relating to white murder victims.)

At least "McCafferty acknowledged himself." "several significant flaws in the presentation and interpretation of data", while Africa Check, in spite of all of the above, declares themselves flawless and beyond reproach with the statement that "All the independent security and research experts we consulted for this report agreed that current murder figures provided by the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) should be considered accurate."

Africa Check has "trouble with apartheid-era data"(?) based on their own assumptions, while it is quite obvious that the crime statistics they chose and presented as "accurate"according to their experts, are completely and utterly untrustworthy and not worth the paper it was written on, which in itself wipes Africa Check's article from the table in its entirety and destroys their own credibility without any outside help. 

Rather than quoting many available examples, the following two quotes should suffice for showing just how untrustworthy Stats SA are (See "Further Reading" for many more examples):


By 2008 the total death figure had increased to 592 073. I did not bother to check any further. A 57 percent increase in deaths, while "Population growth could account for approximately 10% of this increase." and no one questions this? So what then are our population and our murder figures really? What are the causes of the ever increasing number of deaths in the country?

It is disappointing that an organisation that could have made a difference would attack Steve Hofmeyr and deny the murders on South Africans based on such untrustworthy data.

Africa Check had themselves reported that "Census 2011: StatsSA failed the open data test". They also reported that "SA police face R14 billion in civil lawsuits, not R7 billion as reported".

As a result Africa Check cannot claim ignorance about the untrustworthy state of South African crime statistics and yet, while 83% of South Africans believe that the SA police is corrupt, Africa Check found it appropriate to use their untrustworthy statistics to deny the murders of South Africans.

While independent crime experts refer to the the SA Polce crime statics as “farcical” and publicly state that “Some murders are listed and others are not.", Africa Check finds it appropriate to use those very same statistics to deny the murders of South Africans.

By knowingly using untrustworthy data for the basis of their denial about the true state of murders in South AfricaAfrica Check failed in their claim that they are "a non-partisan organisation that exists to fact-check claims made in the public arena, impartially and fairly," 

Based on the above, clearly showing that the SA Police and Stats SA's data are completely untrustworthy, Africa Check's article must therefore be dismissed in its entirety. 

Who’s claims about white murders really are grossly incorrect?

Obviously, based on the above, this article does not deserve any further attention, but we need to set the record straight and particularly on the ridiculous claim that only 6,498 whites have been murdered since 1994 and that whites supposedly account for only 1.8% of murders in South Africa. 

Before we continue it is important to note that, notwithstanding the corruption in Stats SA, in their defence and in defence of statisticians generally, it must be pointed out that they are only able to work with the information and data they receive. Stats SA can only analyse that which is before them and they are therefore stuck with a "garbage-in-garbage-out" situation for which they cannot be blamed. The same applies to statisticians generally.

Africa Check on the other hand states that "All the independent security and research experts we consulted for this report agreed that current murder figures provided by the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) should be considered accurate.", which means that they do not deserve any defence. Are we to accept this data as accurate, because Africa Check and their experts, say so?

Africa Check goes on to use one part of one sentence from the entire section on Safety of youth, which spans some three pages in Chapter 12, Building safer communities, of the National Development Plan. 

They strengthen their false assertion that only 6,498 (1.8%) whites have been murdered since 1994 by stating as "fact" that "The current murder rate of white South Africans is also equivalent to, or lower than, murder rates for whites recorded between 1979 and 1991."  

What Africa Check omits to mention is that further down in the same NDP report it is stated that "The majority of the victims whose race could be established were Africans followed by coloureds and whites." Please note "whose race could be established".

The SA Police's dockets are so incomplete that out of a tiny sample of only 1378 murder dockets, the race of nine victims could not be established. It could therefore be possible that those nine victims were white, which would already have taken the percentage of whites murdered up to 2,5%, from 1.8%. 

In a further six cases the gender was unknown and in 173 cases the age of the victim (some of which they could perhaps be excused for) was unknown, which means that the SA Police would have had to charge someone for murder, while not even knowing the age, the gender or race of a particular victim? No wonder we have a pathetic murder conviction rate of only some 10%.

Africa check quotes from the NDP, without referencing the original study, because while the NDP document references the "Mid-year population estimates: 2009", it also does not reference the original study from which this information was supposedly obtained.

Africa Check has obviously never seen the original study.

Africa Check has no clue as to:

  • Why this study was done;
  • What the purpose and objective for this study was;
  • How the dockets were sampled;
  • Whether the dockets were sampled in proportion to the populations of each of the nine SA provinces;
  • How many of the 1 116 SA Police precincts that existed at the time were included (increased to 1 125 since);
  • Whether the sampling of dockets were weighted based on murder hot spots like the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal or not;
  • From which period the dockets were sampled;
  • Whether the dockets were sampled from all murder dockets between 1652 and 2008, 1948 to 1994, 1990 to 1994, 1994 to 2008, 2008 only, or the latest murder dockets being handled at the time of the study;
Each of the above would produce vastly different results.

Had the SA Police actually done their work, there would have been no need for a "sample analysis" of this kind, because all the information calculated from the mere 1378 dockets would have been readily available in detail and would have been made available with each publication of crime figures. Unfortunately the SA Police dockets are too incomplete to do this, which forces statisticians into drawing samples to try and get some idea of the crime situation in South Africa.

I consulted a senior lecturer in Statistics at one of our local universities to check the maths and particularly the probabilities of the farcical conclusions arrived at in the Africa Check article, but then realised I was a wasting his time, because based on the information already provided thus far, the maths in the Africa Check document is comparable to Ma and Pa Kettle's Maths and that each and every single statement in their article must be dismissed as rubbish.

South Africa's criminal justice data

As can be seen from the following quotes, South Africa's criminal justice data is in such shambles that it is virtually impossible to make any sense of it.

  • "How many reported crimes result in convictions? The answer would tell us how well the South African criminal justice system (CJS) functions. The current information provided by the annual reports of the police, justice department and correctional services don't provide the answer. This is because each department records different information in ways that cannot be linked."
  • "Five years later we still struggle to make sense of criminal justice data"
  • "When the 2011/2012 Annual Report of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is examined, it becomes clear that there is no way to link the police statistics to those of the NPA."
  • "the statistics continue to be collected and reported in a compartmentalised way and do not speak each to other." - The Problem with South African Criminal Justice Performance Indicators 25 October 2012
South Africa's conviction rate for murders ranges between only 10% and 12.7%. Only 12.7% of murders in SA’s crime hot spots end in convictions. “84% of murder and attempted murder cases originating from five gang hotspots in the Western Cape end in acquittals.”, which impacts directly upon murder statistics.
Crime conviction rates in SA (10.6% - 2006)
Conviction rate for murder 12.6% - Kohler Barnard (2007/08 SAPS Annual Report)
Crime statistics – ‘It’s not safe here’ - 22 September 2012
Expert: Low rate of murder convictions in South Africa (less than 10% - 2013)

Murder statistics are influenced by convictions. Each time a case against a person charged with murder is dismissed or changed to a lesser conviction such a culpable homicide, it affects the murder statistics. Cases take years to complete, while murdered statistics are published in the meantime, albeit six months late on average and only once a year.

Please be reminded that at no stage does Africa Check admit that they were basing their denial on untrustworthy, let alone completely “farcical” crime statistics. While Africa Check has the audacity to accuse Steve Hofmeyr of making "several sweeping statements about South Africa’s murder rate" it should be clear by now that the entire Africa Check article is nothing other than a compilation of "several sweeping statements".

Misclassification of Deaths

Misclassification of death has a serious direct impact upon the accuracy of statistics relating to cause of death. To demonstrate just how worthless South African data really is, I wish to presented the following unrelated, yet excellent example:

While the media is singing the praise of the SA government's claims that South Africa is winning the battle against HIV/AIDS and how fewer and fewer people have been dying from HIV/AIDS in this country, the results of a truly a groundbreaking study published by the World Health Organisation in February 2011 confirmed, "the substantial misclassification of HIV/AIDS deaths in South Africa’s vital registration system reported in the literature." It then validates this statement with the following shocking revelation "While audits of death records in selected areas in 2003–2004 have shown that 53–73% of HIV/AIDS deaths do not explicitly record HIV/AIDS as the underlying cause of death, this study suggests that during 1996–2006 as many as 94% of all HIV/AIDS deaths in the country were being misclassified" - Exposing misclassified HIV/AIDS deaths in South Africa Published online: 17 February 2011 

South Africa has also seen a 400 per cent increase in TB cases over the past 15 years, and more than 70 per cent of patients are co-infected with HIV. - Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) programme in Khayelitsha 

And yes you read correctly, "94% [NINETY FOUR PERCENT] of all HIV/AIDS deaths in the country were being misclassified." But why could this be?

Obviously, where an ostensible victory over HIV/AIDS could secure more donations, a perceived futility could see major universal donation fatigue.

The NPD document from which Africa Check selected only part of one sentence upon which to build their denial states that "it is clear that more attention should be given to the causal factors of homicides.", but is this possible if the causes of death are not recorded correctly?

South Africa's top 10 causes of death, according to Stats SA 2008 were:
1st place - Ill-defined and unknown causes:  80 515 (13,6%)
5th place - Other external causes of accidental injury: 33 983 (5,7%)

Garbage codes in mortality data are those codes which do not signify an underlying cause of death. The underlying cause of death means"the disease or injury that started the sequence of events leading directly to death or the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury." 

In 2008 a total of 592 073 deaths were recorded in South Africa. Almost one third29.5% or 174 872, of the total number of deaths were recorded as garbage categories.

But what about the misclassification of external cause of deaths (e.g. hunting accident orinterpersonal violence) due to injury (e.g. gunshot wound on the head)?

2012 document published by Statistics South Africa states that "Currently, the circumstances (manner, external cause and intent) of almost half of the injury deaths in South Africa are unknown."

To be more specific "in 47% of injuries the specific external cause is unknown", external cause being "hunting accident or interpersonal violence"

Once again you read it correctly. In 47.1%almost half, of all injury deaths the external cause is unknown. - Cause of Death Certification: A guide for completing the Notice of Death/Stillbirth (DHA-1663), Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General, Statistics South Africa, 2012

And yet Africa Check says "All the independent security and research experts we consulted for this report agreed that current murder figures provided by the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) should be considered accurate."?

From the above it should be quite obvious that South Africa's murder figures are grossly incorrect and grossly understated.

Based on the above, Africa Check's ridiculous assertion that only 6,498 whites have been murdered and that whites supposedly account for only 1.8% of murders in South Africa must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

White Murders at the hands of Blacks

In a politically correct attempt to deny that whites are being murdered by blacks in South Africa, Africa Check asserts that "Even if the proportion of “outsider” crime was doubled for white homicide victims, this would still fall drastically short of the “77.3%” of white murders that Hofmeyr appears to claim are at the hands of black perpetrators."

Firstly, I could not find any evidence of any study ever conducted where SA Police dockets of white murder victims were sampled to determine the race of their murderers in an attempt to disprove that whites are being murdered mostly by blacks.

Secondly, Africa Check used the SAPS annual report 2011/2012, which we have already shown to be farcical and virtually worthless.

Thirdly, in an attempt to strengthen their misleading assertion, Africa Check then goes on to state that "The 2012 Victims of Crime Survey confirmed this assertion", while it is clearly stated on page 61 of the said survey, under the heading "10.11 Reliability of the survey estimates", that;

  • "statistics related to specific crimes should be analysed and used with caution. Crimes that are relatively rare – such as murder – resulted in very few cases in the database and submitting these to too detailed analysis, will provide unreliable results."
  • "Specific categories of crime, such as sexual assault, were generally under-reported in this survey and it should not be regarded as an accurate source of sexual assault data."
Fourthly, quoting Ilana Mercer ;
"in the research for my book I uncovered data according to which,  at 76.6 percent of the population, blacks committed 76.4 percent of “intimate femicides” (defined as “the killing of a female person by an intimate partner”). And they committed 68.3 percent of “non-intimate femicides”: “the killing of a woman by someone other than an intimate partner.”

Whites have proven woefully inadequate to the task of filling their pro-rata crime quotas (page 38). At less than nine percent of the population and dwindling, the corresponding numbers for white South Africans were 3.9 and 2.6 percent respectively.

With respect to incarceration rates, whites "underperformed" again. According to the South African Department of Correctional Services, 113,773 criminals had been sentenced as of June 2008, of whom only 2,190 were white.
[Notwithstanding the fact that whites account for 8.9% of the total population]Whites make up only 1.9 percent of the number of sentenced criminals.

Weighing in with 90,013 sentenced individuals — approximately 79.1 percent of the total number of criminals sentenced — blacks more than filled their per-population crime allotment."
Blade runner killing and the media blackout
Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa - Ilana Mercer

Ridiculously, Africa Check denies that whites are being murdered mostly by blacks. So Who is doing the Killing then? Are they perhaps trying to create the perception that whites are behind the committing of these xenophobic killings? That whites are being murdered by whites, while we can barely calculate the number of whites convicted for murder each year? 

Is Africa Check also trying to suggest that whites are committing the corrective rapes on lesbians, that whites are raping babies in an attempt to cure themselves of HIV/AIDS? Or is Africa Check trying to suggest that whites are committing the rapes and therefore rapists have a 99% chance of getting away with their crimes?

Given the above we have to conclude that Africa Check's misleading politically correct assertion that whites are not being murdered mostly by blacks, must be dismissed.

Drugs and Crime in South Africa

  • According to SAPS figures, 60 percent of crimes nationally were related to substance abuse. In the Western Cape, the figure was closer to 80 percent.
  • Alcohol consumption in South Africa is among the 10 highest in the world. 1.9 million South Africans are alcoholics, 37% of the population are binge drinkers and 10% are classified "risky drinkers".
  • 67% of domestic violence in the Cape Metropolitan area was alcohol related (MRC).
  • In a study of women abused by their spouses, 69% identified alcohol/drug abuse as the main cause of conflict leading to the abuse (MRC).
  • 76% of domestic violence in rural areas in the South-Western Cape was found to be alcohol related (MRC).
  • Half of all murders were the result of drunkenness (MRC).
  • Approximately 40% of firearm and 58% of blunt instrument homicide victims have consumed alcohol prior to their fatal injury.
  • Almost 80% of all assault patients - both male and female - presented at an urban hospital Trauma Unit in Cape Town were either found to be under the influence of alcohol or injured because of alcohol related violence.
  • Even in the analysis of the 1 378 murder dockets referred to by Africa Check and the NDP, it was found that at least 28.2 percent of the victims had used alcohol or drugs prior to the incident.
  • Tik usage has nearly doubled in the last year increasing by 88% and Cat usage increased by 82%.
  • There are links between the growing gangsterism and the illicit trade in drugs
  • A study conducted in 2009 also indicates the use of drugs among teenagers had increased over the last 10 years by more than 600%.
(See "Drugs and Crime" under Reference List)

Notwithstanding the fact that 'SA has lost the war on drugs' evidenced by at least a 600% increase in drug abuse over the last ten years (which continues to rise year-on-year) and the clear link between substance abuse and crime, including murder and assault, miraculously South Africa still claims an annual decrease in crime over the same period. If this was possible, let alone true, then South Africa should patent their formula and sell it to security agencies in all other countries of the world.

The forgotten victims of attacks that the media choose to ignore

Six out of seven people shot with a handgun survive. Only 5% survive gunshot wounds to the head, with only 3% achieving a good quality of life afterwards. An ex-colleague of my son'sentire family was wiped out by what the media continues to call "robbers". Three black gunmen fired 14 shots at their bodies. His brother died within a week of taking six bullets during the brutal armed assault and his mother died within one month from three bullets during the armed attack, while his father survived the three gunshot wounds, only to die from complications more than seven months later. The son's girlfriend survived a gunshot injury to her leg.

We usually only hear of the armed assault victims who died at the scene or during the initial hospital stay. In cases such as the father who died seven months later, it is seldom classified as murder or death due to gunshot injury. In most cases the cause of death would be misclassified, not indicating murder or even due to gunshot injury.

More than this, while most patients survive (do not immediately die from) gunshot wounds most will eventually die from their gunshot wounds to the torso, pelvis, neck and head, many months or even many years later. A person is never the same after a gunshot wound and they are usually in and out of hospital for the rest of their lives.

While many patients do not die soon after attacks with guns, knives, pangas (machetes) and other dangerous objects, they are often left paralysed, end up as vegetables, mentally and emotionally unstable, blind, deaf, left without a leg or arm, many even committing suicide later on. Many victims are so injured and so maimed for life that they might as well be considered dead, because they have no quality of life afterwards.

The best example of this must be Foresaken Hero Cherise Cox - Shot Policewoman Cast Aside By Metro Police who battled without quality of life until her death almost ten years after having been shot during an armed robbery committed by four black gunmen of the “Shezi gang”. Of course this is not the kind of story that would draw any kind or interest from Africa Check and their kind, but to us mere average white South Africans these cases actually matter. While Africa Check makes it their business to deny the murdering of whites, we make it our business to make the world aware of it.

There are many more attacks than victims dying from those attacks and while the media is doing their utmost best to deny the murder figures, they ignore these assault victims completely. The South African criminal justice data is in such shambles that virtually 100% of the victims who die later on fall through the cracks. 

Just with regards to farm attacks alone, Treurgrond describes the attacks on at least 5 818 direct victims over the period 1990 to 2012.

As a matter of interest, one article claimed that between 77% (house) and 87% (business) of all robberies are armed robberies and that guns are the cause of death in more than half of all murders. If we were to deduct the comparatively small number of murders committed by owners of legally licensed firearms and and killings committed by the SA Police, which are also legally owned firearms, we find that the vast, vast majority of all armed assaults are committed with illegal firearms, a problem that is yet to be addressed in any meaningful way in this country. 

From the above it should be quite obvious that Africa Check and their experts' ridiculous assertion, based on part of one sentence extracted from an entire unreferenced document, that only 6,498 whites have been murdered since 1994 and that whites supposedly account for only 1.8% of murders in South Africa must be dismissed entirely.

Apartheid era data 

As for Africa Check's section under the heading "The trouble with apartheid-era data" it is not even worthy of comment. The entire section contains no facts, only assumptions, pure conjecture without any evidence and sweeping statement like "it is probable that....black homicides was understated in official reports" and "the data is simply not reliable enough to make any accurate findings", while their own entire article is based on farcical data.

They state that "Since 1990, race has not been listed as a category in official death records." yet they are denying the white murder figures based on these very statistics? 

They then shoot themselves in the foot by adding that "This deliberate omission may have been intended to avoid exactly the kind of issue raised by Hofmeyr’s claims; the interpretation of raw data by non-experts to support some form of race-based conspiracy theory. In reality, however, the absence of such information has effectively perpetuated a race-crime mythology in South Africa." 

They are thereby admitting that prior to 1990, before FW de Klerk arrived on the scene, deaths were in fact classified by race, while at the same time attempting to sweep it under the carpet with the sweeping assumption, without any supporting evidence that "it is probable that....black homicides was understated in official reports" . Africa Check may also be suggesting that the interpretation of raw data by their "experts" based on untrustworthy farcical statistics to support denial of race-based murders would be more acceptable.

At the same time Africa Check tries to create the impression that the "Apartheid Government" tried to hide black deaths by no longer listing "race as a category in official death records.", while this is exactly the reason why the current SA government, the SA Police, Africa Check and the liberal media have been avoiding race classification of crime in South Africa since 1994. Why has Africa Check not complained about this very trend being perpetuated since 1994? The non-racial classification of deaths did not start in 1990 under the "Apartheid Government" and end in 1994 under the so-called democratic ANC, it became much worse after 1994, because they have been trying to hide the murdering of whites under this government's rule.

While Steve Hofmeyr was discussing murders, Africa Check chose to draw no distinction between deaths due to political violence in South Africa before 1994 and actual murders. In their attempt to demonise pre-1994 South Africa in an effort to make the New South Africa under the ANC look good, they conveniently forgot to mention the 7000 political deaths between 1948 and 1989, 30 abductions, 38 disappearances and another 150 internal assassinations, the total of 73 deaths in detention recorded by the HRC as deaths while in the hands of the security police, the 37 who died while in custody of the uniformed police under politically-related circumstances, the 14,000 deaths and 22,000 casualties that occurred between 1990-1994 in South Africa due to political violence (mostly black-on-black), which NelsonMandela.org states as 12,000 deaths without mentioning that it was black-on-black political violence.

They also omit the fact that 90% of the deaths were attributed to vigilante-style activity (Black on Black) as the two political parties engaged in a series of attacks and counter-attacks in villages, tribes, and cities. 600 deaths were the direct cause of South African police intervention and 173 deaths were believed to be acts of state-sponsored assassinations.

The 1976 riots where the number of people who died is usually given as 176 with unconfirmed estimates up to 700 and Sharpville figures were also part of the murder figures used to obscure the comparison between the old and the new South Africa.

Farm attacks

Africa Check is trying to deny the farm murders without any evidence whatsoever. Africa Check has never conducted any research into farm murders. All they have is one ten-year-old SA Police committee inquiry into farm attacks dating back to 2003 and the figures produced by the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAUSA).

Africa Check goes on to contradict themselves by quoting the TAUSA’s figures which clearly show that only 13.5% of the total number of people murdered on farms between 1990 and 2012 were black. The rest were white.

The only figures we have are contained in the book Treurgrond which, while considered the most comprehensive and most accurate database of South African farm murders to date, is as admitted by the publishers as being a very conservative representation of the reality at best, because  this database was compiled from reports on farm murders in the media and information obtained from farmers who are members of the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAUSA) only. This huge task was undertaken, because the SA Police is incapable of doing so and Africa Check is too scared to even try, for fear of what they may find.

Africa Check ends off with the sweeping statement, without any evidence to the contrary, that "Hofmeyr’s statement that a white farmer is murdered every five days is therefore also incorrect. The claim would only be true if he included all farm attack victims of all races."This proves that Africa Check did not even bother to consult with TAUSA to learn that they had in fact done this in the meantime, which provided even more damning evidence showing how white farmers are being killed like flies. 

In the book "Bloedsusters" written by Eileen de Jager en Roelien Schutte who run a country-wide crime clean-up service, the authors conclude from personal on site experience that farm murders are far more brutal than other murders. They also stated that they have observed a marked increase in the brutality during farm attacks.

Based on the fact that Africa Check has no research to back up their denial of white farm murder figures their conclusions must be dismissed

Discussion

"Denialism and political correctness are both tacit approval and the single most important perpetuators of the murders, rapes, violent crime and corruption in South Africa. By denying that we have a rape problem, a murder problem, a high-jacking and juvenile delinquency problem we are actually stating that we have no problem." - How Liberals' Denialism Bred A Culture of Entitlement Among SA Blacks

It is obvious that the SA Police, Africa Check and other news media have much to hide about what is truly happening in the New South Africa under the ANC.

Denialism is so pervasive in the liberal media that they have lost all sense of morality.

While the killing of rhinos is an important issue, it enjoys a hundred time more exposure than the murdering and raping of hundreds of thousands of human beings in South Africa. While we often see articles about the rhino killings on the front pages of newspapers we very seldom, if ever, see any articles on the almost half a million murders under ANC rule since 1994 making the news.

Africa Check, in their anxiousness to deny the murdering of whites uses the already downward manipulated figure of 361 015 people murdered in South Africa without even flinching an eyelid, not sparing a moment to focus any attention on it. 

Had this been any other country, there would have been a constant outcry from the media, the churches, human rights groups, opposition parties and NGOs, but not in South Africa. Here they choose to rather deny it than draw any attention to it.

But, If foreigners knew the truth, would South Africa still have secured 87 business conferences worth R2.6 billion between 2013 and 2017?

In any other country the media would have lashed out at their government about the scandalous state of crime, the murder and rapes as well as the inaccuracy of statistical data, but not in South Africa. Here the media and the various groups prefer using the sad state of crime statistics to assist them in protecting the false angelic image of the ANC, its leaders and the New South Africa that the very media helped to create.

So serious is the situation in South Africa that media houses should have crime, murder and rape counters running on their home pages, to draw attention and pressure the government into action.

Instead, the media is using their demonisation of activists fighting for their own people as a means to draw attention away from the murders and rapes generally. The media is not only denying the xenophobic murdering of whites, they are using their denial of it to also deny the murders of all South Africans at the same time by trying to find ways and means to further downscale the already diluted murder, rape and crime figures.

Because there is an outcry from one particular race group (particularly being the whites) making the world aware of the dangerous nature of the situation by crying out for help to stop the xenophobic murdering of their own people, their family and their friends, the media considers it their duty to jump to the defence of their beloved government by using untrustworthy crime statistics to deny the murders generally.

In South Africa the media sees themselves as the officially appointed protectors of the false angelic image of the ruling party that the media had created for them.

Conclusion - Africa Check's claims are grossly incorrect

Barbara Holtman, leader of research into crime and violence at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said. “But in reality, we will know when we are getting safer. Not because the crime statistics tell us, but because it will become acceptable to walk alone at night, or because we worry less about our children when they are not with us, or when we are confident to use public transport.” - A society still driven by fear 

Given the obvious discrepancies between claims of reducing crime figures, drastically increasing drug abuse and trafficking, the gross misclassification of causes of deaths, the inexplicable increasing number of annual recorded deaths, totally unreconcilable criminal justice data, ludicrous crime statistics and SA Police corruption, which includes unrecorded post-mortem reports and allegations of police negligence and manipulation of crime figures, all Africa Check's statements suggesting a declining, lesser or lower post-1994 murder rate, including "the [murder] rate had fallen""The murder rate has continued to decline""it is lower than the murder rate documented in 1970 under apartheid.", and including their statement that "Both McCafferty and Hofmeyr’s claims about murder number discrepancies must therefore be dismissed.""Hofmeyr’s claims are incorrect and grossly exaggerated the level of killings.", the heading "Conclusion – Hofmeyr’s claims are grossly incorrect" and their closing paragraph MUST ALL THEREFORE BE DISMISSED.

In their over-anxiousness to demonise, discredit and ridicule Steve Hofmeyr, Africa Check actually discredited and ridiculed themselves, thereby showing that Africa Check must be disregarded and dismissed as a possible source of trustworthy information

Given the above we have to conclude that Steve Hofmeyr was right, whites are being murdered like flies in South Africa. At the same time, blacks, coloureds and Indians are being murdered like flies in South Africa too, while there is no outcry from the media, only denial.

White, black, coloured, Indian, male and female, newborns, babies, toddlers, teenagers, adolescent, adults and old people are being raped like flies in South Africa, while there is no outcry from the media, only denial.


http://toxinews.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-africa-check-failed-to-disprove.html

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Power-obsessed leaders fiddle while SA burns

It has been a week-and-a-half since Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan both dropped bombshells on South Africa.

Without beating about the bush, they told us that the economy is tanking and tough times lie ahead.
The country is in economic crisis but no one seems to care much about it except these two leaders.
Marcus told us on July 18 that the Reserve Bank's economic growth outlook for 2013 had been revised down from 2.4% to 2%.
Then, speaking from Moscow the next day, Gordhan echoed Marcus and said the Treasury would cut its economic growth forecast for this year to as low as 2% because mining strikes and the recession in Europe would dent exports.
But it says something about our political elite, and our political culture, that these announcements have not made it into most newspapers.
Let's unpack what the two announcements really mean.
First, consider that the economy grew by only 0.9% in the first quarter, the slowest since 2009, when President Jacob Zuma's administration came into power. Consider also that we need the economy to grow at about 7% annually to lower the unemployment rate to 14% by 2020.
Then consider this: Marcus announced on the same day that the youth unemployment rate had reached 52.8%. Yes, more than half of all young people are walking the streets instead of working.
The Zuma administration's economic performance has been getting worse ever since it came into power. Gordhan's projections for economic growth have taken a beating every year. He promised 2.7% last year but gave us only 2.5%. He promised 2.7% this year but has already backed off to a measly 2%.
The implications are dire: unemployment is likely to rise and retrenchments will continue as businesses take strain. South Africans are hugely indebted as it is, but things will get worse.
So who cares? No one, it seems.
Election season is in full swing. A lot of mud, poo, scandal and tears are being flung about.
There is a lot of noise, but no real engagement with the issues that affect the poorest of the poor - the people whose lives are going to be devastated by inadequate economic growth, retrenchments and deepening unemployment.
We have forgotten about them.
Instead, the ANC, its allies and the twitterati were yesterday salivating over the Zwelinzima Vavi sex scandal.
The in-fighting and the divisions that have gripped the tripartite alliance - the ANC, labour federation Cosatu, and the SA Communist Party - are now more important than a serious discussion about what ails this economy and how we should go about fixing it.
Many political players are in this sad, pathetic state of disarray.
COPE is still in court fighting over leadership positions.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, despite the name, are nothing more than champagne socialists, drunk on the promise of power.
The party is only in its infancy but already it is flirting with dangerous religious quacks such as the notorious Pastor Mboro, of the East Rand.
The Pan Africanist Congress and Azapo are in tatters and will be wiped out in the next election.
The Inkatha Freedom Party is being consumed by its own ghosts.
The DA is bending over backwards to sign up a man associated with homophobia, sexism and an attempted murder charge.
All the while, the economy is tanking. If there is a case for Zuma to answer, this is it.
Since he came to power he has singularly failed to provide leadership on economic policy.
To avoid making a clear decision, he appointed four ministers to oversee the economy.
Gordhan and Minister in The Presidency Trevor Manuel have gamely tried to pull one way while Economic Planning Minister Ebrahim Patel and Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies have pulled the other way.
It's a confusing mess. Four years later, there is still no certainty about our macro-economic policy.
The whole thing is a patch job. Last week, the ANC announced that it would establish yet another task team on the economy. Oh my, not another.
All this has consequences. South Africa has been wracked by service delivery protests: who is behind them? Answer: the young people walking the streets without jobs.
Now the populists are running around promising young people "economic freedom" and nationalisation of the mines and land - all of which could lead to a Zimbabwe scenario.
What will the hopeless, unemployed young do then? They will follow the populists because the ANC is failing them.
There's a popular phrase: "It's the economy, stupid!" Our leaders would do well to reflect on it before the nation goes bust.

FACEBOOK Muzzles Human Rights Campaigner

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Sunette Bridges
Sunette Bridges, human rights campaigner
Sunette Bridges Human Rights Campaigner
Sunette Bridges, South African human rights campaigner 
has been highly critical of the powerful South African 
press group NASPERS over the group’s policy on non 
reporting of human rights abuses, murders and torture 
of white minority members in South Africa. Now 
FACEBOOK is also helping to keep her message out of 
the public arena.
Since the beginning of 2012 Ms Bridges has been keeping a record of attacks 
and murders, most of which of go unreported by the mainstream press in South 
Africa and posting them on FACEBOOK.
FACEBOOK has reacted to complaints, thought to originate from NASPERS 
and ANC supporters, by deleting her group page and even editing her 
personal page. She has been under fire since she started publishing the 
attacks which are proving to be an embarrassment to the ANC 
Government.
The current controversy is thought to have started when another popular singer, 
Steve Hofmeyer published an article titled “ My Tribe is Dying like Flies”.
This sparked off a "Boycott Naspers" movement on Facebook which was 
established on Monday 1 June 2013. The membership numbers jumped to 
over 7,000 in less than a week to close to 223 by 28 July. Others who have 
been active in the publishing of victim’s names and criticism of the ANC and
 NASPERS have also been in the firing line with smear campaigns and even 
threats directed at their lives.
FACEBOOK has also closed another well known campaigner’s page but it is
 thought Ms. Bridges, who avoids publishing gruesome pictures but simply 
keeps a note of basic details of victims is coming in for a more concerted 
attack to muzzle her because of her popularity. She is the daughter of a well 
loved local music icon, Bless Bridges who died in 2000 and is regarded by 
many as a symbol of the Afrikaaner nation. Sunette Bridges is perceived as 
a brave, outspoken, caring person who is deeply troubled by the relentless 
slaughter of her people and the fact that it is being covered up, not only
 by the ruling party but by the press supposedly representing her own 
people.
Ms. Bridges has been a thorn in the side of the ANC bringing to light the fact 
that over 69 000 white South Africans have been brutally murdered since 
1994 mostly in racially motivated hate killings. Well over 4000 white 
commercial farmers have been murdered in the same period. It is 
noteworthy that The attackers seldom spare anyone - even children, babies 
and the elderly are tortured, raped, castrated, mutilated and often dismembered 
while still alive - even family pets are mutilated. In some cases, only a few articles 
are stolen, often - nothing.
For the past 17 months Ms. Bridges has put 
names, dates and details to the statistics which 
is attracting attention to the plight of her people.
The NASPERS group was founded in Cape Town in 1915 and is the largest 
media company in Africa. The group has interests in Internet, Pay TV, 
Newspapers, Magazines, Books and is very powerful with increasing interests
 around the world. In 2006, NASPERS invested 422 million USD in the Brazilian 
media company Abril S.A. The company also has an ADR listing on the London 
Stock Exchange (LSE). In 2012 the online retail division of the group, Kalhari 
reported well over a billion USD in revenue for just 6 months.
NASPERS own Code of Ethics lays out a clear set of guidelines for business 
practices and employees but there is a noticeable lack of any reference to 
ethical reporting. It does however state that “Through its various operations, 
the group wants to be useful to the communities it serves and use its expertise 
to that end”. There is clearly a dim view taken of any community that does not 
want to be served by the group.
In South Africa it is virtually impossible to make economic headway 
without embracing the ANC’s BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) rules 
which basically exclude white males from the job market. This policy has resulted 
in well over a half a million whites becoming destitute and recently the 
ANC prohibited any companies from offering these people food aid. 
NASPERS has enthusiastically implemented these policies although, 
interestingly the senior management is made up of white males only.
NASPERS is also in complete compliance with ANC policy of under 
reporting black on white violence and the group’s highlighting of the 
rare incidences of the reverse have not gone un noticed by the white minority.
 To this end Ms. Bridges took particular offence to an article in a NASPERS’ 
paper in response to her listings that claimed that white women in South 
Africa have more to fear from their husbands and boyfriends. She 
countered this with a detailed list of 55 white women who were 
brutally murdered by unknown black males since 15 May 2012 to
8 June 2013. Murders that were not reported in the NASPERS press. 
These include numerous horrific cases that, in any other country would make 
headlines – reports of elderly women being gang raped, tortured and 
hacked to death.
The surprise is not that Ms. Bridges is under attack by the powerful, pro 
ANC NASPERS but by FACEBOOK. A close look at FACEBOOK’s rules 
does not shed any light on why Ms. Bridges’ group page should have been 
deleted. It also does not outline any ethical policy that FACEBOOK should 
adhere to with regards the allowing of the publication of facts concerning 
what has been deemed by the US organization, Genocide Watch to be a 
stage 6 genocide of the white minority in SA.
Clearly this feisty woman who has a heart for the survival of her people is 
up against some very powerful opponents – both government and commercial. 
These opponents, for a variety of self serving reasons do not want the
 world to know the truth of what is going on in South Africa. Sadly 
FACEBOOK is all too happy to join in this scandalous activity and dictate 
what they think a section of their billion member users should and should not know.
Africadesk is based in Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, and is a Stringer for Allvoices.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Torture and Terrorizing of White people in South Africa

While many are tying to silence those who speak out, the murder, torture and terrorizing of White people in South Africa is continuing unabated! 

July 2013 attacks: 28 Days, 30 Attacks, 48 Victims, 3 Raped, 13 Murdered! 

*1 July 2013: Struisbaai, Western Cape: Rex and Irma van Zyl were assaulted in their home by a black man. Rex was badly beaten. Their attacker fled with R50 and a packet of cigarettes. 

*1 July 2013: Port Edward, Natal: A mother and her 2 daughters, on holiday from Pretoria, were attacked by a gang of black men while taking a stroll to the beach. They were brutally assaulted and robbed. 

*1 July 2013: Springs, Gauteng: Elderly couple, Dirk and Rita Koekemoer, were attacked by a gang of black men when getting into their car. Dirk was stabbed several times and thrown on the back of his LDV. Rita was assaulted and also put in the back of the vehicle. They were dumped in the veld some distance from town. Dirk died from his wounds and Rita spent the entire night searching for help. She was eventually found the next morning. She is in hospital. 

*2 July 2013: Johannesburg, Gauteng: Brian Shalkof (65) dies after he and his partner were brutally assaulted and robbed by 4 balck men. He suffered serious head and internal injuries. 

*2 July 2013: Port Elizabeth, Eatern Cape: Andrew Brown (42) was shot to death by a black man while on duty as a security officer. 

*3 July 2013: St. Francis Bay, Eastern Cape: An elderly man was stabbed in his face at his home by a black attacker. He is currently in a serious condition in hospital. 

*5 July 2013: Piet Retief, Mpumalanga: Elderly farmer, Vic Mohle, was attacked on his farm road by a group of black men. He was assaulted and shot in the leg. They took off with his LDV. He was only found the next morning. 

*5 July 2013: Kempton Park, Gauteng: Raymond Els (17) and a friend were attacked by 3 black men while on their way to the Festival Mall. Raymond was assaulted and kicked until het lost consciousness and his friend was held up with a knife and robbed

*6 July 2013: Pretoria, Gauteng: Jerome (22) was attacked in his parents home on their smallholding. He was assaulted and shot in the back when he tried to escape. He is currently in a serious condition in hospital.

*7 July 2013: Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape: Clyde Byrns (26) was stabbed to death by a gang of black men who attempted to mug his girlfriend.

*8 July 2013: Clocolan, Free State: Isabel Hugo (67) dies almost a year after being hit by a rock thrown at her during an attempted land grab in Clocolan. She suffered serious brain damage and never recovered from her injuries. 

*9 July 2013: Pretoria, Gauteng: The Potgieter-family was attacked on their smallholding by a gang of black men. Rudolph Potgieter (45) and his son, Colin (25) were both shot and are recovering in hospital. A bullet is still lodged in Colin’s spine. 

*12 July 2013: Saldanah, Western Cape: Onica Bakkes (25) was assaulted, beaten over the head and stabbed to death. 

*12 July 2013: Parkhurst, Gauteng: 82-year-old Mrs. Forleo was attacked in her home at 10 am. She was severely beaten and left bleeding while the attacker ransacked her home. She is recovering in hospital. 

*14 July 2013: Molteno, Eastern Cape: Lizelle le Roux (42) was attacked and stabbed to death while walking on her parent’s farm by a gang of black men busy stealing sheep.

*16 July 2013: Montague, Western Cape: Robert Bader and his daughter were attacked at their home by a gang of armed black men. Bader was shot dead and his daughter injured.

*17 Jule 2013: Rustenburg, Northwest: Bossie Barnard died after being shot the previous day when he happened to drive by as a gang of black men were bombing an ATM. He was shot in his leg. He was taken to hospital but discharged the next morning without receiving any treatment and died on the hospital premises. 

*18 July 2013: Evander, Mpumalanga: A family was attacked in their home and threatened and tortured for 8 hours by 3 black men. Monica and her 2 year-old son were tied together and made to sit on the floor along with Johan and the other kids. They had to urinate on the floor as they could not use the bathroom. Their dinner was devoured in front of them and they were continually threatened with loaded guns while the gang ransacked their home, loaded all their belongings into the family vehicle and eventually left at 2am. 

*18 July 2013: Rayton, Gauteng: Gideon Niemand (19) jumped on the back of his father’s LDV, trying to prevent a highjacker from getting away with the vehicle. The highjacker lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a concrete wall. Gideon was badly injured and taken to hospital where it has since been established that he suffered serious brain damage. 

*18 July 2013: Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng: Judith Christina Müller (84) was strangled to death in her home.

*20 July 2013: Sabie, Mpumalanga: Ben Oberholzer and his family were attacked in their home by 3 black men. He was shot in his shoulder and right arm and is currently in hospital. 

*23 July 2013: Kloof, Natal: Bruce Galloway (59) was abducted from his home at 4 am in the morning while on his way to a meeting in Mthata. His abductors stole his money, forced him into their vehicle and threw him off a cliff some distance from his home. He was discovered 2 days later by a group of students. He was still alive but hurt. His ring finger was almost amputated in an attempt to steal his wedding ring. He is currently is hospital. 

*23 July 2013: Krugersdorp, Gauteng: Neil Muller was shot dead in the driveway of his home in Luipaardsvlei by a gang of black men who tried to hidghjack his car. 

*24 July 2013: Naboomspurit, Limpopo: Gerda Botha was attacked, stabbed with a knife and raped by her black gardener on her farm. She was stuffed into and walk-in fridge covered with bags and left for dead. The attacker fled on a stolen quad bike, dumped it in town and escaped in a taxi. 

*24 July 2013: Randfontein, Gauteng: A 61-year old woman was brutally attacked in her home in Helikonpark by 2 black men. She was assaulted, continuously beaten and allegedly raped in broad daylight. 

*25 July 2013: Alberton, Gauteng: Nicky Klopper was shot dead in his home in New Redruth by 2 attackers who also robbed him of his weapons. 

*25 July 2013: Bloemfontein, Free State: Victoria James (34) was attacked by 4 black men armed with guns when she returned home from work. She was assaulted, forced into her home and robbed. The attackers fled and then withdrew R3500 from her bank account after forcing her to provide them with the pin. 

*26 July 2013: Modderspruit, Mpumalanga: Berryl van den Berg was attacked, held up with knives and robbed at her home on the farm by 4 black men who were at the house earlier in the day pretending to look for work. Her husband asked them to leave, but they returned shortly after he left the house. 

*27 July 2013: Hendrina, Mpumalanga: Claudi van der Merwe was highjacked and murdered, her body dumped on a farm road in the district and her car deserted 2km further down the road. She was stabbed to death and found half-naked. She leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter. 

*28 July 2013: Zeerust, Northwest: Elderly farmer, Hennie Enslin, was attacked and brutally assaulted on his farm Doringhoek. He is in hospital in a serious condition.


https://www.facebook.com/sunette.bridges.9?hc_location=stream

Friday, July 26, 2013

Mandela family got free legal aid meant for poor

JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela's family has come under new scrutiny after a South African university law clinic said it gave free legal aid to a group of the former president's relatives on the grounds that some are poor.

The revelation was met with skepticism in South Africa where poverty is endemic and a number of commentators have questioned whether a clinic that is supposed to help the needy was instead seeking benefits from association with the high-profile family.

Many South Africans were already troubled by the Mandela family feud, which has coincided with the long illness of the 95-year-old anti-apartheid leader. Mandela was taken to a hospital on June 8 to be treated for a lung infection; the government says he is improving but remains in critical condition.

Mandela's family members went to court against a grandson of Mandela who exhumed the anti-apartheid leader's three deceased children from Mandela's hometown, Qunu, and reburied them in nearby Mvezo. The group won the case with help from the Rhodes University Law Clinic and the bodies were reburied in their original location.

The grandson, Mandla Mandela, is the oldest male Mandela heir and a tribal chief in Mvezo, where his grandfather was born.

Rhodes University said it became involved when the Mandela family urgently requested help from Wesley Hayes, a deputy director of the law clinic who was "previously known" to the family.
Among four family members deemed by the law clinic to be indigent and therefore deserving of aid are 22-year-old Mbuso and 20-year-old Andile, younger brothers of Mandla.

They were aligned in the case with a dozen other relatives including Mandela's three surviving daughters, one of whom is South Africa's ambassador in Argentina, and Graca Machel, Mandela's wife and a former first lady of Mozambique.

Susan Smailes, director of the special projects for the university, said Wednesday that one objective of the clinic in taking the prominent case was to highlight the kind of issues that clinic lawyers are pursuing. In a statement on Monday, the university gave other reasons.

"It is not uncommon for law clinics to represent groups of people, including some who are not indigent, in litigation involving matters that impact on human rights and the socio-economic conditions of disadvantaged communities," it said.

"The view was that Mr. Mandla Mandela's approach to deciding this family matter was at the expense of women's voices in the family," it said. It noted "tension" between the role of women in traditional matters and women's rights enshrined in South Africa's constitution.

Freddy Pilusa, a spokesman for Mandla Mandela, said the dispute had nothing to do with women's rights and that it was "absurd" to suggest that any member of the Mandela family is indigent.

"That is really tantamount to taking from the poor and giving to the rich," Pilusa said in reference to the provision of legal aid to the family.

Hayes, a salaried employee of the law clinic, did not receive additional payment for representing the family, according to Smailes. She said case costs would be covered by Mandla Mandela because he lost.

On its website, the law clinic says a key objective is to help those who can't afford private lawyers, "thereby increasing access to justice to the poorest of the poor and creating a greater respect for the rule of law."


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Jul-24/224907-mandela-family-got-free-legal-aid-meant-for-poor.ashx#ixzz2aAA40vaU
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)