Brutality not policy - Cele

Police commissioner meets parents of shot woman

Apr 28, 2011

On the day President Jacob Zuma told the nation the ANC was concerned about police brutality, the family of Jeanette Odendaal, who was allegedly shot by an officer outside the Kempton Park police station, identified her body at a mortuary. 

 

Jeanette Odendaal

A grey-haired Dick Odendaal and his wife, Ella, were sad and subdued when they met National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele after identifying their daughter's body yesterday. 

                                                               Dick and Ella Odendaal 

Odendaal, 45, was allegedly shot outside the police station on Tuesday night after bumping into a parked police van. 

Witnesses say they saw a police officer walk into the station to get a firearm and return to Odendaal's car to allegedly shoot her in the left shoulder as she sat in the driver's seat of her white Citi Golf. 

"It would have been much better if it did not happen," Cele told the media after meeting the Odendaals at the police station yesterday. 

Odendaal's best friend, who asked not to be named, said she was "completely shocked" by her death. 

Clutching three clear bags containing Odendaal's watch and other valuables she had fetched from the police, the friend smoked in the garden outside the station, while high-ranking police officials inspected her friend's car, still parked outside the station. 

Odendaal's parents refused to speak to the media. They were flanked by two police chaplains and the station commander of the Kempton Park police station as they listened to Cele. 

Refusing to divulge details of the case, Cele attacked the media for labelling the death as another case of police brutality. 

"There is no policy [of police brutality] that police must step out of the way and use excessive force when it is unnecessary," he said. 

Speaking at ANC headquarters yesterday, Zuma said a "culture" of police brutality should not be tolerated. Referring to the killing of both Odendaal and service-delivery protester Andries Tatane two weeks ago, Zuma said: "We don't want police that are violent against people. 

"We can't allow a situation like the one in Ficksburg where one man carrying nothing in his hands is beaten to death by a pack of policemen. It's not acceptable." 

                                                                              Cele

Cele, however, said he was "not about to retreat" from his previous message to police to protect themselves "when they go for a cash heist criminal or when they go for a bank robber". 

He accused the media of not having reported that 20 police officers had been killed on duty since January or and that last week a young constable was shot dead during an ATM bombing. 

Cele refused to say whether the sergeant who was arrested for allegedly killing Odendaal was mentally unstable. 

"I am not a psychologist," he said. 

Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said it was difficult to link the shooting to recent "shoot to kill" rhetoric. 

"The officer allegedly just completely lost all control, took a firearm and apparently shot this woman," said Burger. 

He likened the shooting to a road rage incident, where a person uses a firearm just "because they have a firearm". 

The officer linked to Odendaal's death was arrested by the Independent Complaints Directorate, who have taken over the case. 

He will appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court today.

Cele your cops are out of control. But then what do you understand about the police when you're a teacher and have never served a day as a policeman? You cannot give untrained, uneducated, power hungry fools an instruction of shoot to kill. Was Andries Tatane armed? Was this 45-year old woman posing a threat to YOUR cops? Were either of them pointing a gun at YOUR cops?

Time for Cele to resign - another unqualified ANC cadre appointed for his struggle credentials. 

 

 

Welcome to the new screwed up regime.

I realise that there are still a hand full of honest and good policeman left but lets face, who trusts the police anymore? 

There is this thing about rank amongst the blacks that up until this day still astounds me. The moment you feel you have power it becomes a case of how I can use it to my own benefit and, just dare to cross my path, you will feel my wrath!

 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1041977.ece/Brutality-not-policy---Cele 

 

Farm Watch Organisations

Group shocked at farm green lights ban

2011-04-28 

Johannesburg - Farmers organisation TAU-SA is in "shock and disbelief", after Limpopo police vowed to stop farm watch organisations from using "green lights" on their patrol vehicles.

TAU-SA North provincial safety committee chairperson Doors le Roux, said he first thought the statement made by police last week was a "bad April fools joke". "They [the green lights] are imperative so that we can be visible and the criminals and residents can know we are patrolling," he said.

"The...committee has worked hard to open up communication channels with the South African Police Services (SAPS)."

The TAU SA North has a crime prevention programme known as Operation Iron Fist that is run with the full support of police, he said.

"The question now is whether the SAPS have the same purpose as the farm watch groups."

Police know nothing

Limpopo provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, said police management will do all in its power to stop the use of "green lights".

"We have had complaints from members of some rural communities that some farm watch groups using "green lights" think they can do what they like," he said.

"In effect they think they are the police and some of the actions allegedly taken by them are bordering on vigilantism.

"They also claim they are working hand-in-hand with the police, when in fact the police know nothing about them," he charged.

Mulaudzi said "green lights" may not be used unless on private property, and only police were allowed to use blue lights when executing their tasks.

"Emergency services use red lights, and green lights can only be used by Disaster Management personnel.

"Tough punitive steps will be taken against those who contravene this directive," Mulaudzi warned.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Group-shocked-at-farm-green-lights-ban-20110428

Bribes for ANC Votes

2011-04-28

ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe heard of unfulfilled election promises when he campaigned in a coloured area in Durban’s polluted South Basin on Thursday.

Mantashe, who was making door-to-door visits in Wentworth, located near two oil refineries, was reminded of former President Thabo Mbeki’s undertakings to voters during the 2004 general elections campaign.

Some of these, which included refurbishment of dilapidated municipal flats, had not materialised, residents claimed.

“They promise they will fix that and that during campaigns and nothing happens. That is why I get cross,” said one man who did not want to be named.

He said he was a "Democratic Alliance man", but was disappointed by all political parties.

Mantashe was accompanied by KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairperson Zweli Mkhize. The areas Mantashe and Mkhize visited have two wards - one controlled by the DA and the other by the Inkatha Freedom Party.

                                                                    Zweli Mkhize

Most residents welcomed the ANC leaders, but some were hostile. Brian Hargreaves told Mantashe, during a visit to a local supermarket, that he would vote for the ANC if he gave him R1 000 to buy groceries.

Shopkeeper Douglas Seethal said he would vote for the ruling party if Mantashe arranged a second wife for him.

“I need a second wife and I don’t have money to pay for ilobolo.”
More service delivery complaints were raised when Mantashe and Mkhize addressed a group of residents after their door-to-door visits.

They were asked to help reduce high electricity rates and start the process of transferring ownership of council flats to residents.

Although the ANC did not control the two wards, the ruling party was blamed for many service delivery problems.

Mantashe said people should not vote for other parties and then blame the ANC for poor services.

“Don’t vote the DA and blame the ANC. Vote it (ANC) and criticise it,” he said.
 

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Local-Elections-2011/Get-me-a-wife-for-a-vote-ANC-hears-20110428 

Xenophobia Starts Again

Xenophobia fears on East Rand

2011-04-28 

Johannesburg - Seventy-one people have been arrested in Katlehong for sending intimidating letters to foreign-owned businesses, police said on Thursday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said the arrests were made on Wednesday night after the notices were distributed giving foreign business owners seven days to vacate their premises.

The letter from "Greater Gauteng Business Forum" threatened drastic action against business owners who did not comply.

"The Gauteng SA Police Service is in possession of the alleged letter and views it in a serious light," Ndou said.

He advised business owners who had received the letter to lay criminal charges.

The 71 would appear in the Katlehong Magistrate's Court on Friday.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Businesses-sent-intimidation-letters-20110428 

Cops in CCTV beating

CITY police officers have been caught on closed-circuit television cameras handcuffing a local nightclub owner and hitting him repeatedly on the head and body until he falls over.

The footage was captured by cameras in Woodstock’s Dreams Sports Bar late on Saturday night.

One series of images shows the bar’s owner, Nnamdi Muoka, standing next to a table and a couch, his hands cuffed behind his back, while a male police officer hits him with what looks like a torch. 

Muoka is shown trying to evade the uniformed officer, who follows him around the couch and eventually corners him, beating him to the ground. 

One of Muoka’s friends, Nicky Asher-Pedro, said she was also attacked by the officers from the Woodstock police station just before midnight on Saturday, while she was at the bar in Victoria Road.

Asher-Pedro, a former Bush Radio presenter and producer who now works for city magazine the Big Issue, said she was pepper-sprayed, manhandled and her skirt was torn by police officers after she questioned their attack on Muoka.

She, Muoka and the bar owner’s brother, Osita Nwadike, were arrested and detained in the Woodstock police station’s holding cells from the early hours of Sunday morning, before being released on warning on Monday. 

The three are due to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s court on May 10, having been charged under “the liquor act”, Asher-Pedro said. 

When approached for comment, Woodstock police station spokesman Hilton Malila said he was not aware of the incident, but would investigate. 

An officer at the Woodstock police station confirmed the arrests today, and told the Cape Argus the three had been charged with assaulting a police officer. 

Malila would not confirm details of the arrests, referring all further queries to the provincial communications office. 

Asher-Pedro claimed that the trio had not been allowed to make phone calls and that the police refused to allow anyone bring them jackets. 

“I could not even tell my 14-year-old son, who was at home, where I was (over) the weekend,” she said. 

Asher-Pedro said that six police officers entered the Dreams Sports Bar just before midnight on Saturday and told Muoka that there was too much noise coming from the premises.

Muoka questioned them, she said, and the police allegedly responded by swearing at him and telling him to shut up. 

Asher-Pedro said Muoka had persisted, and the officers allegedly threatened to arrest him. She said they handcuffed him and one officer allegedly hit Muoka in the face. 

At that point, she intervened, asking the officer why he was hitting a handcuffed man. 

“That is when they started attacking me, throwing my phone on the floor and dragging me, while ripping my skirt. 

“They pepper sprayed me in the eyes.” 

She claimed that other patrons were also pepper sprayed and were chased out of the club. Some, who were recording the incident on their cellphones, had the phones confiscated, she said. 

Muoka confirmed the incident, saying he had talked to his lawyers and preferred not to comment at this stage. 

The three were due to meet with lawyers today to provide statements, which would be filed to the Independent Complaints Directorate so it could investigate, Asher-Pedro said this morning. 

Muoka showed the Cape Argus several City of Cape Town documents showing he was licensed to do business on the premises. 

 http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/cops-in-cctv-beating-1.1061536

Rapes at Easter

April 28 2011

Five incidents of rape, including that of an 85-year-old woman, occurred at the Easter weekend in Limpopo, police said. 

Lieutenant Colonel Mohale Ramatseba said from the five cases, four occurred in the Vhembe area alone. 

The most shocking incident involved the rape of an 85-year-old woman, allegedly by a 17-year-old boy, he said. The boy was arrested on Friday after the incident in Matshena Village. 

On Sunday, a 16-year-old girl was raped when walking home. Two men confronted her, raped her and then stole her cellphone, he said. 

A 19-year-old girl was also raped and robbed of her phone on Friday at Khujwane Village.

“It is alleged the victim was walking to her boyfriend's home when she was also confronted by two men.” 

In Vuwani, a 23-year-old woman was raped in Lwamondo on Sunday night, and in Dennilton a 15-year-old girl was allegedly drinking liquor at a tavern when she was apparently forced into the bushes by two men and raped on Monday night. Ramatseba said drastic steps were taken by police against the tavern owner selling alcohol to the under-age girl.

“Measures being taken might lead to the permanent closure of the tavern, he said. 

 

“Girls are (advised) not to walk alone during the night and also to avoid frequenting liquor outlets alone during the night.”

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/5-women-raped-in-limpopo-1.1062123 

Cop Shoots Woman

2011-04-28

A car guard who said he witnessed the shooting of an unarmed civilian outside the Kempton Park police station, east of Johannesburg, has told The Star newspaper that the policeman refused to call an ambulance. 

Sipho Baloyi, who had helped Jeanette Odendaal, 45, to park her car when she crashed into a stationary police vehicle, said the sergeant shot her from short distance after Baloyi alerted the police to the accident in the parking lot.

"A sergeant came around from the charge office and walked out of the station. He didn't say anything, but walked to her passenger window. He shot her upper arm and it looked like the bullet went through her breast and out of her chest," said Baloyi.

The police officer then walked back into the police station, but returned a few seconds later.

He said he pleaded with the sergeant to call emergency services.

But, said Baloyi, the sergeant told him: "She's dying already, there's no point in calling the ambulance."

He said other police officers flooded the scene after the shooting and demanded to know from the sergeant why he had shot her. The sergeant then allegedly burst into tears.

Beeld newspaper reported that Odendaal, who lived in Aston Manor, a few kilometres from the police station, had wanted to report a case of disturbance of peace.

The Star said her family would travel from Middelburg in Mpumalanga on Thursday to identify her body.

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) said on Wednesday that the sergeant had been arrested and would appear in court soon.

It was believed that he mistook the noise of the crash for gun shots.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Kempton-Park-cop-refused-to-call-ambulance-20110428 

Zuma - Progress since 1994

2011-04-27 

President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday spoke of how proud he was at the "substantial progress" South Africa has made since 1994 in comparison to other countries that deteriorated after liberation.

"We have done exceptionally well against all odds, in only 17 years," Zuma said at Freedom Day celebrations at the Union Buildings.

He spoke of the importance of Chapter 9 institutions like the Office of the Public Protector and the Human Rights Commission, which formed part of available mechanisms to ensure that apartheid never recurred.

He urged South Africans not allow anyone or any grouping in society to reverse the gains of the country's hard-won democracy.

This day, he said, marked the celebration of a freedom and democracy obtained through the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifices of scores of freedom fighters and ordinary South Africans.

"We must therefore commit ourselves to not allow anyone or any grouping or structure in our society, to trivialise our freedom or to reverse the gains of our hard-won democracy."

He recalled how a few years ago, people lived in a country whose system of government was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations.

He also spoke of the pain caused by the legacy of apartheid that stripped away the dignity of millions of South Africans.

Referring to the Group Areas Act of 1950 which designated residential areas according to race, Zuma said the scars caused by forced removals remain to this day.

The government was attempting to reverse the impact, he said.

"Thousands more still bear the psychological scars of being bundled into Bantustans or so-called homelands."

A broken covenant 

I don't see the benefits of freedom, but I hope they will come in my lifetime. I love freedom, but for now it means bloody empty promises. I still have to s*** in such a toilet [a "ventilated improved pit" toilet] and have no privacy in my house. 

I wish they could buy me a house because clearly this government is failing. I don't know why they have not bought me a house and I'm scared to ask them. 

No one in their wildest dream would have dreamed that this place would be like this today. 

 

But the Kliptown you see today is different. On the other side of the railway line is a modern Kliptown, where there is progress, with the government having spent about R300-million to give the area a face-lift. There is a four-star Holiday Inn, underground parking, shops, good roads and houses. That side is strictly for tourists. 

But where we live is rotten. My heart sinks when I cross the railway line. On our side there are streams of dirty and smelly water running around our shacks; there is no electricity. We use communal taps and toilets. We don't have houses. 

You will be surprised that some people here still use the bucket system, which the government promised to get rid of in 2007. If they tell us that they will not do anything for us, better still, we will die in peace knowing that they care less about us."

I will still vote for the ANC anyway; after all, I get an old-age grant from them. 

Hundreds of protesting Cape Town shack dwellers yesterday threatened to boycott next month' s local government elections. 

Thandiswa Gabula, of QQ section, an informal settlement in Khayelitsha, on the Cape Flats, was one of the people protesting against lack of services, including basic sanitation, while participating in a shack-fire meeting organised by the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers') movement. 

Gabula, 45, a mother of four, said she felt excluded from South Africa and that Freedom Day meant nothing to her because her community did not have toilets, running water or electricity.

"I have been voting since 1994. My life hasn't changed. I will not vote this time around," she said.

"I know South Africans who have got the means are celebrating this day elsewhere, but this day brings me a lot of sadness." 

For the 23 years that Gabula has lived in the township, she has had to ask her neighbours for permission to use their toilet. 

"I think I will only vote during the national government elections," she said. 

Resident Lulama Njadu, 42, echoed Gabula's sentiments. 

He said his family's circumstances pained him and that he had to send his four young children to Eastern Cape to live with a relative because living conditions in his community were unhealthy. 

"I don't see the reason why I should vote. Leaders have been using us as a ladder to get cushy jobs. Once elected, they take us for fools ... this day means nothing to me but suffering."

Mzonke Poni, spokesman for Abahlali baseMjondolo, said the gathering was not to celebrate Freedom Day but to "mourn it". 

"We live in shacks, in other people's back yards, in rotting council homes and other urban and rural ghettos. But it's not only about where we live or what services we receive," said Poni. 

"Because we are poor, the government treats us as though we are less than human. This is why we are forced to hold Unfreedom Day - to assert our right to dignity." 

Earlier, the Social Justice Coalition and hundreds of Khayelitsha residents delivered a memorandum to Cape Town mayor Dan Plato to demand access to "clean and safe sanitation services".

 http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Zuma-praises-progress-since-1994-20110427

Street Signage

Apr 26, 2011

A lack of street signs in townships is leaving emergency services lost when they need to reach critically ill patients or crime victims urgently. 

 

“Because of this problem we face when responding to an emergency, we have to now start using landmarks.”

Demands and "Rights"

When the bulbous lady croons

Tuesday, 26 April 2011 14:33 David Allinson

America’s current financial crisis may become the world’s next plague. By any measure, the situation is dangerously close to popping in much the same way a festering boil explodes when lanced.

Virtually every nation with a minority population is heading in the direction that has destroyed the financial sovereignty of America. Of all the mementos passed from one generation to the next, it may be readily stated, with complete accuracy, that the one thing blacks pass on to their children is a lack of personal responsibility: Without personal responsibility society fragments into a miasma of hopeless dependents.

America’s solution to black dependency has led to the creation of the largest entitlement culture in world history. 

Obama’s arrival heightened the belief that blacks were finally going to get their ‘stuff’. 

These days it’s fairly common to hear a black talk about “Obama money” – As though Obama, alone, created. “Obama money”, as it is called, represents the mindset that expects and demands “‘more and more and more free stuff” - At tax payer expense. 

In fact, Obama’s 2012 budget is so huge - stuffed with entitlement programs for wounded, helpless, victims – that by year’s end an additional two trillion dollars will be stacked on top of America’s impossible debt.

With Obama insisting America must serve as the model for ‘human decency’ and ‘compassion’, it seems reasonable to expect other nations, like South Africa, to toss caution to the wind in favor of dumping money on blacks demanding “more and more and more” from responsible citizens.

Other than plants, I can’t think of another living thing in this universe that is so loathsome, so inept, so unintelligent that it cannot be held responsible for its behavior. According to misguided white altruists, however, blacks are nothing less than close descendants of some sort of bipedal plant now extinct or, perhaps, hiding in the jungle somewhere using a false identity. What ever the case, those of us who see into and through the crippling errors of liberal altruism have a much higher opinion of the ability of blacks to manage their lives quite well – When they’re held responsible for their behavior.

This brings us to the notion of accountability. No person is likely to act responsibly in the absence of accountability as President Johnson and many, many others have sorely learned. President Lyndon Johnson’s vision of a grand, great society included the construction of apartments that would house minorities. The cost for those apartments, at the time, was staggering.

                                                       President Lyndon Johnson

 

As it happened, a family friend, Bob, was directly engaged In the creation and construction of Johnson’s dream houses. Bob was ecstatic that America was finally, FINALLY, doing something for its “poor, victimized, tragic, sad, pathetically inept blacks”.

 

The day came when Bob drove to Chicago to celebrate the grand opening of Johnson’s dream. Late that evening, Bob returned, filled with rage, confusion, dismay, disappointment and a little sorrow.

It seems black families had already destroyed almost a quarter of the housing units. Refrigerators, washers and driers – anything that wasn’t nailed down - disappeared. Bob was dumbfounded.  He had imagined that providing free housing, free benefits – free ‘everything’ - to blacks would somehow cause them to manifest behaviors consistent with someone who believed he is accountable for his actions. 

As Bob learned, as many Americans have painfully learned, blacks are just as human as the rest of us: Give them an inch they’ll take a mile.

Take for instance Oprah Winfrey. In the early nineties dear Oprah decided to prove that with a little financial incentive, blacks would achieve ‘great things’. Oprah and friends devised a program. They sent out ads requesting volunteers to take part in a program that would provide them a pathway to ‘freedom’. 

Over two hundred fifty thousand people applied. Oprah and friends hand selected the best one hundred applicants from the lot.

Oprah poured millions of dollars into her ‘miracle program’. 

Within a year she quietly shut-down the program. 

Not one of her ‘hand-picked miracles’ evolved into anything remotely resembling a responsible human being. 

In fact, Oprah’s volunteers scurried off like a pack of well-fed rats – with so much as a “thank you sister Oprah for proving how stupid you are.

Let’s face it: If Oprah cant’ do it what makes any government, or any altruist, believe they can do it?

Even with all the evidence that has mounted over the years, one nation after another is struggling to model itself after America’s failed notion that if you give a man a fish - he’ll keep coming back for more.

After all, there is nothing so mysterious or complicated about fishing that a motivated person can’t learn how to do it on his own – But that implies taking personal responsibility for one’s well-being and, as we know, dependent blacks reject that notion with every ounce of pathetic passion they can muster.

The fact is America’s heart is in the right place: Americans want to be helpful to the helpless. 

This fact is also true: America is being scammed by a population of con artists and their supporters whose guiltless behaviors allow them to believe they owe no allegiance to other human beings – regardless of the destruction their actions produce.

One has to ask how the ‘entitlement culture’ will react when the endless stream of cash being thrown at them suddenly disappears. Does anybody even reasonably believe they will react favorably?

In fact, this summer will begin the process of affirming the rights of all social dependents. The process is most commonly known as ‘revolution’. Blacks, Hispanics, Indians, 

Progressive whites, unions and many radicalized groups have bonded together to form an odd assortment of victims whose goals are to disassemble the constitution to make it more favorable to dependency. Dependents have come full circle with their demands, even going so far as to believe home ownership, food, medical care, schooling are a ‘right’. The concept of ‘earning these privileges’ is never mentioned, of course.

Fact is, America’s problems are much, much more than financial.

Watching America’s ever-expanding debt crisis is like watching a finely-tuned female opera singer destroy herself. The day will come, and soon, when she will walk onto the stage to sing her final aria. The floor will pulse and rumble as her massive frame slowly, painfully moves across the stage. Applause will rapidly die as the audience consumes her disgusting visage; they remember when she was young, vital, strong, purposeful and well-defined. Today, she is little more than a second-rate wench whose few remaining attributes are hidden beneath layers and layers of rotting adipose tissue.

As has been true throughout human history, the dependents America has nurtured will eventually destroyed her. This strange, suicidal relationship has plagued nations for as long as nations have existed: An irresponsible, dependent group demands nurturing from a responsible host. When all the circumstances are measured, dependents don’t really care what will happen to their American host – Like locusts, they’ll find another nation to pillage.

As South Africa moves ever closer to the American ideal, the pains attending the illusions of social and economic justice will eventually raise an economic boil of monumental proportions and, as South Africans will rapidly discover, lancing the boil is not without dire consequences.

http://www.praag.co.uk/columns/david-allinson/655-when-the-bulbous-lady-croons.html