THE WEST RAND KNOCKER'S & THEIR FATE....

Suspected underworld ‘legend’ mysteriously goes missing
Haynes was connected to the murder of Charles Petrus Marais near Randfontein in 1985. Marais was shot and robbed of R14 000.

25 January 2011 | TOBIE VAN DEN BERGH


MIDDELBURG – A man who is some legend in the underworld, Ralph Haynes, went missing here on Friday.

He drove at the time a Ford Bantam bakkie belonging to a well known businessman of the town, Frikkie Lutzkie, and had R400 000 cash with him.

The bakkie was found at Bronkhorstspruit on Saturday night with some grass inside and a broken window on the passenger side. Forensic experts from Middelburg searched the bakkie for clues.

Haynes was connected to the murder of Charles Petrus Marais near Randfontein in 1985. Marais was shot with a submachine gun and robbed of R14 000. Haynes was later charged with three others and received a jail sentence.

The local newspaper, Middelburg Observer, received a number of calls from unidentified persons since Sunday stating that Haynes has done some “work” in town.

Lutzkie picked him up with his helicopter at the Kitty Hawk air strip near Pretoria on Friday. They were going to fly to Nelspruit to fetch gold for testing at a refinery in Haynes’s home town, Krugersdorp.

The two went to the Lutzkie development next to Kruger Dam where Haynes requested a loan from Lutzkie for R400 000 which he was to pay back tomorrow.

“He said he knew who shot me last year and would give me the names,” Lutzkie said yesterday.

He was certain that Haynes would give him the information about his attackers because he knew so many people in the underworld. He also signed an IOU.

Because of bad weather they were unable to fly back to Pretoria and Lutzkie offered Haynes his bakkie. Haynes drove off and has not been seen since.

After he departed his wife Jackie phoned to enquire where he was. She did not report a missing person but his ex-wife Nikkie did.

A cellphone signal of one of Haynes’s five phones was received from the Witbank road and another on the N12 Highway near Ogies and one at Orkney.

Specialist investigator Mike Bolhuis said yesterday he has been investigating Haynes for 10 years and that he owes many people money. –

Corrie Goosen

On May 31 1997 mobster Corrie Goosen died when he crashed his Honda Blackbird 1100 cc motorbike while racing at a speed of over 300km on a highway near Port Elizabeth.

His death was as spectacular and dramatic as his life. Goosen was a legend: a former kick-boxing champion, dragster racer, brothel boss and above all: a gangster of Sicilian proportions. His death came three weeks before he was due to appear in court in Klerksdorp on charges of stealing more than R10 million of diamonds from a family of Afrikaner farmers and prospectors.

Jacques Pauw's DEATH OF A GANGSTER takes viewers on a journey into the heart of the underworld and exposes a litany of murder, diamond smuggling, robbery, prostitution and police corruption as it tells the story of one of Johannesburg's most notorious gangs.

This 90-minute film traces Goosen's life from his poor childhood in the mining village of Randfontein to the sleaze of the Johannesburg underworld. He was a member of one of Johannesburg's most notorious gangs. Other members were Ferdi Barnard, former CCB operative, and Ralph Heyns, who was sentenced to death during the Eighties for a series of bank robberies and spent several years on death row before being reprieved. Heyns, the main storyteller in this film, is currently a boxing trainer.

Goosen is the third member of the gang who has died since 1994. His brother Johan faked his own death in 1992 to pick up a R172 000 insurance claim, but was arrested two years later and convicted of fraud. He actually died in 1995 - also in a high-speed motorbike accident. Another gang member, Eugene Riley, was murdered in 1994.

All the members of the gang grew up in the conservative Afrikaner suburbs of western Johannesburg and Corrie Goosen, Barnard and Riley also worked for apartheid's dirty tricks units during the Eighties. For nearly ten years, this gang reigned supreme. Up to the early Nineties, they committed their crimes under the protection of the apartheid security forces. Although Corrie had several previous convictions for diamond smuggling, he always managed to stay out of prison: by threatening to kill state witnesses and bribing policemen to steal dockets.

Barnard, Goosen and Heyns were a terrifying trio, and although they were investigated for a series of diamond robberies, police could not find witnesses to testify against them. Now victims who were previously too scared to come forward tell their stories to Jacques Pauw.

Diplomat was involved in illegal diamond deals, claims Barnard Stephané Bothma

PRETORIA - A former Austrian consul-general in SA was involved in illegal diamond dealings worth R1,4m and even flew his "agent" and Ferdi Barnard to Swaziland in his official jet to look at uncut diamonds, the high court heard yesterday.

The claim was made by Barnard, a former policeman and Civil Co-operation Bureau operative who has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges including the murder of Wits university anti-apartheid activist David Webster. Other charges relate to fraud involving illegal diamond deals.

State witness Bill Douven told the court that Barnard's alleged crime partner, Corrie Goosen, had borrowed more than R2,1m from him to purchase diamonds. Douven denied being involved in any illegal deal and said his only involvement was to value diamonds for Goosen occasionally and to advance the money. Goosen died in a motorcycle accident last year.

However, through his defence advocate Fanie Coetzee, Barnard claimed that Douven had in 1990 and 1991 acted as an agent for Hubert Krottenberger, then the Austrian consul-general in SA, to purchase large amounts of uncut diamonds.

"Krottenberger even gave Douven a black Mercedes 500 as a reward for acting on his behalf," Coetzee told the court.

Douven strongly denied the allegations, but admitted that Krottenberger had flown him and Barnard to Swaziland on one occasion to inspect diamonds. The "diamonds" turned out to be glass, Douven said.

"The only reason he flew us to Swaziland was because I did not feel like driving there," Douven told Judge Johan Els.

He said Krottenberger, "a very successful businessman and a friend for 30 years currently residing in the US", had also lent him R75 000 which was paid over to Barnard. "That was Krottenberger's only involvement."

Barnard said that the R1,4m diamond deal was arranged by Douven and the sellers on behalf of Krottenberger and that he (Barnard) had merely provided security. Barnard claimed he was paid R50 000 by Douven for his services, which was denied by Douven.

Douven told the court he had lost R2,19m through his dealings with Barnard and Goosen. "I was shocked and disheartened and any other person would probably have taken his own life," Douven, a Kempton Park businessman, said.

Douven also told the court that Barnard had admitted to him his involvement in the 1989 assassination of Webster. "I received an order to kill Webster," Barnard allegedly told Douven.

Last Updated (Wednesday, 05 January 2011 15:41)

COMMENTS BY SONNY

Eugene Riley was one of the first victims in this saga.......

Acting Brixton Murder and Robbery Unit Commander (at the time) Charlie Landman is alleged to have been a 'silent' member of this gang.

Former Commissioner of Police Genl Johan Coetzee, after retirement, investigated the case of Corrie Goosen's brother in law, Vivienne Beukes, who was on Appeal Bail in the early to late 2003's, for his son in law who was a lawyer in Graaf Reinete.

They alleged that Beukes did not know about the brothers Deon, Marius and Fanie Nel robbery in Lichtenburg/Klerksdorp and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was on the scene as a diamond expert to evaluate the diamonds.

The suspicion was that Corrie Goosen staged his own death to keep Beukes, Barnard and

Calla Botha out of jail. They had used Botha's BMW during the robbery.

This plot just thickens.

Jacques Pauw never got to the bottom of the last Chapter of his book, Dance with the Devil.

Dance with the Devil

[Verse 1]
I once knew a nigga whose real name was William
his primary concern, was making a million
being the illest hustler, that the world ever seen
he used to fuck movie stars and sniff coke in his dreams
a corrupted young mind, at the age of thirteen
nigga never had a father and his mom was a fiend
she put the pipe down, but for every year she was sober
her sons heart simultaneously grew colder
he started hanging out selling bags in the projects
checking the young chicks, looking for hit and run prospects
he was fascinated by material objects
but he understood money never bought respect
he built a reputation cause he could hustle and steal
but got locked once and didn't hesitate to squeal
so criminals he chilled with didn't think he was real
you see me and niggas like this have never been equal
I dont project my insecurities on other people
he fiended for props like addicts with pipes and needles
so he felt he had to prove to everyone he was evil
a feeble minded young man with infinite potential
the product of a ghetto bred capitalistic mental
coincidentally dropped out of school to sell weed
dancing with the devil, smoked until his eyes would bleed
but he was sick of selling trees and gave in to his greed

[Hook]
Everyone trying to be trife never face the consequences
you propably only did a month for minor offences
ask a nigga doing life if he had another chance
but then again there's always the wicked that knew in advance
dance forever with the devil on a cold cell block
but thats what happens when you rape, murder and sell rock
devils used to be gods, angels that fell from the top
there's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot

[Verse 2]
So Billy started robbing niggaz, anything he could do
to get his respect back, in the eyes of his crew
starting fights over little shit, up on the block
stepped up to selling mothers and brothers the crack rock
working overtime for making money for the crack spot
hit the jackpot and wanted to move up to cocaine
fulfilling the scarface fantasy stuck in his brain
tired of the block niggaz treating him the same
he wanted to be major like the cut throats and the thugs
but when he tried to step to 'em, niggaz showed him no love
they told him any motherfucking coward can sell drugs
any bitch nigga with a gun can bust slugs
any nigga with a red shirt can front like a blood
even Puffy smoked a motherfucker up in the club
but only a real thug can stab someone till they die
standing in front of them, staring straight into their eyes
Billy realized that these men were well guarded
and they wanted to test him, before business started
suggested raping a bitch to prove he was cold hearted
so now he had a choice between going back to his life
or making money with made men, up in the cife
his dreams about cars and ice, made him agree
a hardcore nigga is all he ever wanted to be
and so he met them friday night at a quarter to three

[Hook]

[Verse 3]
They drove around the projects slow while it was raining
smoking blunts, drinking and joking for entertainment

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/dance-with-the-devil-lyrics-immortal-technique.html ]

until they saw a woman on the street walking alone
three in the morning, coming back from work, on her way home
and so they quietly got out the car and followed her
walking through the projects, the darkness swallowed her
they wrapped her shirt around her head and knocked her onto the floor
"this is it kid, now you got your chance to be raw..."
so Billy yoked her up and grabbed the chick by the hair
and dragged her into a lobby that had nobody there
she struggled hard but they forced her to go up the stairs
they got to the roof and then held her down on the ground
screaming shut the fuck up and stop moving around
the shirt covered her face, but she screamed and clawed
so Billy stomped on the bitch, until he broken her jaw
the dirty bastards knew exactly what they were doing
they kicked her until they cracked her ribs and she stopped moving
blood leaking through the cloth, she cried silently
and then they all proceeded to rape her violently
Billy was meant to go first, but each of them took a turn
ripping her up, and choking her until her throat burned
her broken jaw mumbled for God but they weren't concerned
when they were done and she was lying bloody, broken and bruised
one of them niggaz pulled out a brand new .22
they told him that she was a witness of what she'd gone through
and if he killed her he was guaranteed a spot in the crew
he thought about it for a minute, she was practically dead
and so he leaned over and put the gun right to her head

(Sample from "Survival of the Fittest" by Mobb Deep)
I'm falling and I can't turn back
I'm falling and I can't turn back

[Verse 4]
Right before he pulled the trigger, and ended her life
he thought about the cocaine with the platinum and ice
and he felt strong standing along with his new brothers
cocked the gat to her head, and pulled back the shirt cover
but what he saw made him start to cringe and stutter
'cause he was staring into the eyes of his own mother
she looked back at him and cried, cause he had forsaken her
she cried more painfully, than when they were raping her
his whole world stopped, he couldn't even contemplate
his corruption had succesfully changed his fate
and he remembered how his mom used to come home late
working hard for nothing, cause now what was he worth
he turned away from the woman that had once given him birth
and crying out to the sky cause he was lonely and scared
but only the devil responded, cause God wasn't there
and right then he knew what it was to be empty and cold
and so he jumped off the roof and died with no soul
they say death take you to a better place but I doubt it
after that they killed his mother, and never spoke about it
and listen cause the story that I'm telling is true
'cause I was there when Billy Jacobs and I raped his mom too
and now the devil follows me everywhere that I go
in fact I'm sure he's standing among one of you at my shows
and every street cipher listening to little thugs flow
he could be standing right next to you, and you wouldn't know
the devil grows inside the hearts of the selfish and wicked
white, brown, yellow and black color is not restricted
you have a self destructive destiny when you're inflicted
and you'll be one of God's children that fell from the top
there's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot
so when the devil wants to dance with you, you better say never
because a dance with the devil might last you forever........

http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=10021&tmpl=transcript

This Chapter is about written......!

Net closing on 'free' robber
2004-06-17 21:53


Related Links
Robber defies jail for 7 years


Pretoria - The prosecuting authority was taking steps on Thursday to expedite the appeal proceedings of a convicted armed robber who was still a free man more than six years after receiving a 10-year jail sentence.

Prosecutor Andre Fourie said the Pretoria High Court would be asked to enrol the appeal of Vivian Beukes for hearing as soon as possible.

Should his defence team fail to file the necessary documents by a deadline to be set by the court, he would be jailed immediately.

Beukes was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in January 1998 for a robbery three years earlier, also involving former Civil Co-operation Bureau member Ferdi Barnard.

Beukes and Barnard were convicted of robbing brothers Deon, Marius and Fanie Nel of diamonds worth more than R10m. A third accomplice, Corrie Goosen, died in a motorbike accident before sentence was passed.

Barnard is serving a life sentence in Pretoria's C-Max prison for, among other things, the 1989 murder of anti-apartheid activist David Webster.

In a statement issued through his lawyers on Thursday, he expressed surprise at the fact that Beukes had not yet been jailed.

According to Fourie, an array of administrative bungles were to blame.

When his first appeal failed to the Pretoria High Court against his conviction and sentence, the clerk of the Klerksdorp regional court should have informed Beukes in writing to hand himself over to police within seven days.

This was never done.

Blunder upon blunder

Instead, the clerk informed the police, and when they sought to arrest him, Beukes lodged an application for the extension of his bail pending an application to the High Court for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

The bail application was granted and Beukes was given until the end of February to lodge this application for leave to appeal, as well as an application for condonation for the late filing. This deadline was also missed, Fourie said.

The state of affairs slipped by unnoticed until May, when the complainants in the criminal matter protested to prosecutors about Beukes being a free man.

Fourie said the prosecuting authority would seek a court date from Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe as soon as possible.

In his statement, Barnard said he found it ironic that he was the only member of the CCB and directorate of covert intelligence gathering convicted and sentenced for acts committed on behalf of the apartheid government.

He also expressed gratitude towards the late transport minister Dullah Omar and his family for forgiving him for plotting to kill Omar.

- SAPA

Coincidentally Corrie Goosen was personally know to the "main Scorpion investigator, Andrew Leask!"

They all ran together on the West RAND - RANDFONTEIN AREA!

http://citizenalertzablogspotcom-tango.blogspot.com/2013/07/dirty-cops-rule-by-fear-in-soweto.html

Where did the R190 million go ?

Where did the R190 million go?
January 27 2011 at 02:48pm
By TANIA BROUGHTON


INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Colin Cowan

Preliminary inquiries indicate that self-confessed fraudster, attorney Colin Cowan, had very few assets - a car, R60 000 in a bank account and insurance policies worth a few million.

This raises questions about what happened to the estimated R190 million he took from investors.

One investor has approached the court, seeking to have a curator appointed to delve into Cowan’s financial affairs to establish exactly what assets he had and to have his estate sequestrated.

Cowan, an executive consultant with Garlicke and Bousfield, committed suicide at the end of November 2010, admitting in a suicide note that he had committed fraud.

In Wednesday’s application before the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Harry Spain of Topspec Investments, with the support of Roy Ekstein of Roy Ekstein Investments CC, said the matter was urgent because nothing had been done about Cowan’s estate.

However, Deputy Judge President Chiman Patel declined to appoint a curator, ordering that the Master appoint an executor of the estate and report back to the court on progress within 15 days.

It emerged in documents before the court that Cowan left all his money to his wife, Norma, whom he named as executor, along with a Durban accountant, who has renounced his appointment.

Spain speculated that nobody would want the job because of the allegations of fraud and because there were so few assets.

He said the will - which dids not detail any assets - had not yet been formally lodged with the Master.


“It is clear that the estate is insolvent and will not be able to pay what is just due to me. Claims could run into hundreds of millions of rands.”

Spain said Topspec and Roy Ekstein collectively deposited R41.6 million into Garlicke and Bousfield’s trust account on the advice of Cowan.

Topspec is owed more than R30 million, which excludes deposits he made into accounts of other businesses on Cowan’s instructions.


Over the years, both Topspec and Roy Ekstein Investments made many deposits and each time they were given undertakings on the firm’s letterheads signed by Cowan and two directors.

After Cowan’s suicide, Spain’s attorney, Andries Geyser, wrote to the firm demanding that it give an undertaking that it would repay the money, but this was not forthcoming.

Spain said possible claims against the firm and others would be dealt with separately.

But, he argued, it was “vitally important to sequestrate the estate so that his affairs can be investigated and so that people, who may be implicated in his unlawful conduct and who could be liable to compensate investors, can be interrogated”.

The papers were served on Norma Cowan earlier this week but she did not come to court to either oppose or consent to the application.

Spain’s application is the third in what is expected to be many court applications as people attempt to recover their money, either from the law firm itself, from companies and close corporations into which Cowan apparently transferred their money and from Cowan’s estate.

Already before the court is an application by Westville freelance journalist Marjorie Copeland for the winding up of Rodlane Trading, a company owned by Cowan and his brother, Martin, in an attempt to recover just less than R1 million which she invested through Cowan and which went into that account.

KPMG, which is conducting an forensic audit into the “Cowan transactions”, has reported that R70 million went through this account in five years.

However, only about R180 000 remains of that money.

Director Camilla Singh has already reported that Cowan was running a pyramid scheme. - The Mercury

Sars employee held for R83 million fraud

Sars employee held for R83m fraud
January 28 2011 at 04:33pm



Independent Newspapers

A SA Revenue Service worker was arrested in East London for alleged involvement in a countrywide fraud syndicate that has allegedly stolen cheques worth over R83 million. Photo: Independent Newspapers

A SA Revenue Service worker was arrested in East London on Friday for alleged involvement in a countrywide fraud syndicate that has allegedly stolen cheques worth over R83-million.

The syndicate had been under investigation for two-and-a-half years, and this was the second Sars employee caught, spokesperson Adrian Lackay said in a statement.

The first, Neo Kotsane from the SARS office in Pretoria, was awaiting sentencing in the matter. It was believed more staff members may be involved.

“Various Sars officials are suspected of having colluded with the syndicate members by stealing cheques, providing it to syndicate members, opening duplicate bank accounts in the name of registered companies and depositing stolen cheques into these accounts.”

Sars said more than 390 cheques, including one for about R480 000 from East London's Daily Dispatch newspaper, were stolen and paid into these accounts. The paper's cheque was placed in a drop box at the East London Sars branch office, allegedly stolen and placed in a fake company account.

The revenue service said the fraud decreased dramatically as the investigation progressed, with no further incidents reported since June last year. It had also, with the help of law enforcement agencies, managed to recover about half the stolen money.

“No taxpayer who had cheques stolen by the syndicate was disadvantaged on the tax system.”

Two other suspected syndicate ringleaders were arrested in Johannesburg earlier this week. They had been evading police for the past three months.

“The three accused who were arrested this week have and will be charged with fraud and theft relating to a sample of seven of the stolen cheques that were identified,” Lackay said. -

Sapa

One Killed , three held for killing cop

1 killed, 3 held for killing cop
January 2011
Durban - A man was killed by police in Umlazi township on Friday after he allegedly resisted arrest in connection with the murder of a police officer, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

"The police received the information that the man was linked to the murder and when they approached him, he resisted the arrest and he was shot dead. Three other people were arrested," said Lieutenant Vincent Mdunge.

The police wanted the men in connection with the murder of a warrant officer, Johan Nortjie of Montclair police station, he said. Nortjie was killed at his home on Monday.

Those arrested would appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday.



- SAPA

Pensioner case: state considers next move

Pensioner case: state considers next move
January 2011 By Matthew Sheldon


AN affidavit relating to the 81-year-old Cape Town woman who was locked in a windowless room for almost a year, allegedly by her son, has been presented to a State public prosecutor. Photo: Supplied

An affidavit relating to the 81-year-old Cape Town woman who was locked in a windowless room for almost a year, allegedly by her son, has been presented to a State public prosecutor.

The Department of Social Development advised the Afrikaanse Christelike Vrouevereniging (ACVV) last week to file a complaint against the woman’s son.

An ACVV social worker found the woman locked in a small room in Brooklyn. She was allegedly only being fed every four days.

Shanie Boshoff, chief executive of the ACVV, confirmed that the documhad been was handed over to a state prosecutor at the Cape Town Magistrate’s court yesterday.

“We are now waiting for the prosecutor to get back to us and inform us whether there is enough evidence to prosecute the woman’s son,” said Boshoff.

The social worker went to the Brooklyn home on January 3 after she had been told that it seemed all was not well with the woman, who was living with her son.

Having entered the house under police escort, the social worker found the woman locked in a room at the back of the property, without running water or electricity.

It later emerged that the woman had been locked up for about 11 months.

Steven Otter, spokesman for Social Development MEC Patricia de Lille, said on Tuesday that the social worker and the relative who instigated the rescue had since helped the woman change her banking pin and take control of her finances.

The allegation that her son had withdrawn her money for his use without her permission would certainly be included in the investigation, he said.

“After studying and validating the report by the social worker, we sent an urgent letter to (the ACVV) requesting that (the social worker) open a case,” Otter said.

“The ACVV has assured the department that they have spoken with the National Prosecuting Authority and requested a meeting with the public prosecutor, where the evidence will be presented.”

The woman, who according to the social worker’s report is 81, is now living at a care centre. She was admitted to the centre on January 5 and has her own room, an en suite bathroom, and a window with a view.

Otter said the first time the social worker arrived at the old woman’s home (January 3), she had assessed the situation and before leaving, she contacted an old age home to discuss a possible emergency admission and made an appointment with the Child and Family Health Centre, for a doctor to examine the her.

“When the social worker went back to the old lady the next day (January 4), the doctor examined the elderly woman, and on the same day, the old age home, which had been contacted the previous day, called to confirm admittance of the woman,” said Otter.

According to the report, she weighed only 38kg when she was found.

Otter said the report had also revealed the woman had been initially sceptical about leaving her room, but was eventually convinced by her concerned relative to come out.

The Department of Social Development says prosecution is a crucial part of dealing with the scourge of neglect and abuse of all vulnerable people.


matthew.sheldon@inl.co.za

Ponzi accused to request bail

Ponzi accused to request bail
January 2011
INLSA

Goodman Goqo is facing a number of corruption cases. Photo: Sbu Ndlovu

Kamini Padayachee


Goodman Goqo, who stands accused of running a Ponzi scheme, will learn this week whether he will be granted bail.

Goqo, 26, has been behind bars since he was arrested at his home at Plantations, Hillcrest, last Tuesday. He appeared in the Durban Commercial Crime Court the same day and was remanded. Goqo appeared in court again on Friday for his bail application, which was adjourned to this week.

The State, which is opposing his release on bail, is expected to argue its case on Wednesday.

According to the charge sheet, Goqo was the director of Ingede Mineral Holdings, a private company that undertook to manage investments. Goqo allegedly told investors in written agreements that their money would be invested on the stock market. He promised them a 30 percent return over a six-month period. Their capital was also guaranteed.

Several people borrowed money, sold their houses and used their pensions to invest in the scheme. However, the company allegedly operated as a bank, accepting deposits when it did not have the authority to do so, and did not invest the money on the stock market. The charge sheet says the money was deposited in Ingede Mineral Holdings’ bank account and was then transferred to Goqo’s personal account.

The company was shut down by the Reserve Bank last year. The bank appointed attorney Johan Kruger to take control of Ingede and to recover about R73 million to pay back its more than 3 000 investors. Kruger raided Goqo’s home in June last year and seized assets, including expensive cars, worth more than R2m.

Goqo has been charged with fraud and contravening the Banks Act, the Financial Institutions Act and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.

Cowan fraud battle hots up

Cowan fraud battle hots up
January 25 2011 at 11:58am
By Tania Broughton


INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Colin Cowan

Businessman Naren Pattundeen has launched a vigorous counter-attack against Garlicke and Bousfield after the law firm obtained an interdict against him two weeks ago.

Pattundeen, who claims R5-million he placed in trust with Garlicke and Bousfield through disgraced attorney Colin Cowan was “misappropriated”, now accuses some of the firm’s directors of authorising the transfer of his money out of the trust fund.

And, he claims in his counter-application to set aside the interdict, some of the directors must have been aware of Cowan’s bridging finance scheme because they signed letters of undertaking which were given to investors.

But the directors insist they were also Cowan’s victims and he misled them into believing they were signing authority for legitimate commercial transactions.

The matter was adjourned in the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday by acting Judge Philip Nkosi. It will now be argued in early March and, before then, both sides are expected to file more papers.

Details of the Cowan’s crimes were exposed late last year when he shot himself, admitting in a suicide note that he had stolen money - believed to be in the region of R190-million - from clients.

The firm’s directors, in a paid-for advertisement last year, said “apart from the Cowan transactions”, its trust account had been given a clean bill of health by auditors.

They distanced themselves from Cowan’s actions, saying he was not authorised by the firm to give undertakings to people investing in his own scheme and that they were completely unaware of his “illegal activities”.

Pattundeen, who owns Palm Stationary Manufacturers, in a letter of demand to the firm, said his R5-million was not an investment, but was to be held in trust as a guarantee for the purchase and development of three pieces of land.

He learnt after Cowan’s death that the day after he deposited the money into the firm’s trust account, it was “illegally” transferred to another account in the name of Espro Capital, a company owned by (former Italk Cellular owner) Bebinchand Seevnarayan.

When Pattundeen threatened to attempt to wind up the firm, the directors secured an interim interdict to stop him, insisting the firm was not liable because the money was “part of Cowan’s investment scheme”.

The firm said any winding-up application, even if unsuccessful, would cause it irreparable damage.

Pattundeen now wants the “drastic and draconian” interdict set aside and in his affidavit before the court, he accuses the firm of not disclosing all the facts including that directors Brian Jennings and Craig Jones signed the authorisation for the transfer to Espro.

Roy Eckstein, former owner of Reebok and now director of Topspec Investments, and Shoayb Joosub, of Anglorand Derivatives, have put up supporting affidavits and documents which, Pattundeen says, show the firm’s directors “were aware and actively participated in Cowan’s separate investment business”.

Eckstein says he entered into short-term bridging finance transactions with the firm which gave him letters of undertaking signed by Cowan and “various directors such as BS Jennings, SL Collier and JC Jones”.

Joosub said Cowan had said the investments were “no-risk property related transactions” and the money would be retained unencumbered in the firm’s trust account.

In an affidavit filed yesterday, Garlicke and Bousfield director Yvonne Boden says Jennings and Jones both believed the payment to Espro was legitimate.

“None of the directors (of the firm) was involved in Cowan’s investment business. They believed that the transactions they sanctioned were legitimate.

“All that the affidavits of Ekstein and Joosub illustrate is that certain directors were misled by Cowan into believing that the undertakings which they were being asked to sign related to legitimate commercial transactions. They had no knowledge that the undertakings related to his unauthorised investment scheme.”

Boden said Pattundeen’s claim that he was not aware of Espro Capital was “hardly credible” because Seevnarayan was his former business partner and was related to him by marriage.

She said Seevnarayn had also submitted an affidavit for Pattundeen but had withdrawn it and Ekstein had also attempted to withdraw his.

She said documentation would show that Pattundeen had previously given Cowan money to invest and that he intended to earn interest on the R5-million, which would not be possible if it sat in the trust account.

Both sides are expected to file further papers before the matter is argued in early March. - The Mercury

DA Newsletter 24 January 2011

24 January 2011

A Weekly Newsletter from the Leader of the
Democratic Alliance:

Outliers – The story of Masibambane High School

In his best-selling book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell seeks to unravel “the story of success” – exceptional success, not just great achievement.

He defines an outlier as a “statistical observation that is markedly different from the norm” and asks: why do some people achieve so much more than others? How come they lie so far outside the ordinary? What is the secret of their success? He tries to find the answers by examining the lives, times and circumstances of legendary figures like Bill Gates, the Beatles and various sports stars.

In each case, he finds the fortuitous combination of three key factors:

• Opportunity;
• Natural ability combined with enormous personal effort; and
• The proverbial “hand of fate” – a confluence of circumstances that make exceptional things possible.

I decided to test Gladwell’s thesis after the recent release of matric results. It is appropriate to use the term “Outlier” to describe a 17-year old boy, who lives in a backyard shack with his single mother and three siblings, and achieves 7 distinctions in matric, including 97% for higher grade mathematics and the top award in the Western Cape for life sciences.

A shy, finely-built young man, Asavela Rawe arrived at the annual “matric achievers” ceremony in the school uniform of Masibambane high school. As I handed him his award (in my capacity as Premier), I resolved to find out what lay behind his exceptional achievement. When his classmate Monde Simbosini (three distinctions and 98% for higher grade mathematics) was also honoured, I was even more determined to find out more about the school that serves the poverty-stricken community of Bloekombos and achieved a 95% pass rate with 24 subject distinctions.

The purpose of my investigation was to address this simple question: what is the government’s role in creating the circumstances that offer children the opportunity to excel? If this can happen in Masibambane, what must we do to enable it to happen elsewhere? How much of Asavela and Monde’s academic success can be attributed to opportunity, intelligence, personal effort, and plain good luck?

During my investigation, I concluded that all these factors played a role, each a tributary flowing into a river, reinforcing one another to create the momentum for exceptional achievement.

Having sourced the cell number of the school’s principal, Mr Rajan Naidoo, I gave him a call. I apologized for phoning him on a Friday evening during the school holidays.

“No, no”, he replied. “I am at school. We always start the matrics a week early, so that they settle into the learning programme before the other pupils arrive.”

That said a lot about the ethos of Masibambane.

I asked Mr Naidoo if I could visit the school, and possibly meet the key matric teachers and the chair of the governing body. I also enquired whether it would be possible to speak to Asavela and Monde as well. “Come tomorrow morning at 11,” he replied without hesitation. The next day, Mr Naidoo welcomed me to the school accompanied by his daughter, Vinolia, a second year law student. She reminded me that we had met before at the opening of the state-of-the-art operating theatres at Red Cross Children’s hospital. I then recalled the lovely, petite young woman who had given a moving speech about the doctors and staff that had saved her life through a combined liver and kidney transplant.

While doctors were battling to save his daughter’s life, her father, then a deputy school principal in Durban, had applied for teaching posts in Cape Town, so that he could be near his desperately ill child. He was appointed principal at Masibambane in 2003, at that time one of the weakest schools in the Western Cape.

“The hand of fate”, I thought to myself as I applied Gladwell’s thesis.

On the final weekend of the holidays, the school property was a hive of activity – a gardener weeding, a cleaner sweeping and a handyman painting a classroom. “We are preparing for the opening of school next week” he said as he showed me the stacks of text books and stationery ready for distribution on day one.

He proudly walked me around his school, formerly a derelict provincial building which was converted into a school in 2001. He explained how he had driven each improvement, including a sports field with an embankment where pupils can sit and cheer their teams. There is a computer laboratory, a science laboratory, a small library (with a rack for daily newspapers), a kitchen for the feeding scheme, a new hall and toilets. The absence of any sign of vandalism was striking.

“Opportunity,” I thought to myself. Decent basic facilities are necessary to create opportunity, but entirely insufficient on their own. What Mr Naidoo said next, delivered in his characteristic matter-of-fact way, demonstrated why Masibambane is a school capable of producing “outliers”.

“When Vinolia came out of hospital, I wanted her to be near me, so I enrolled her here, at Masibambane,” he said. “I believe principals should be prepared to enrol their own children in their schools, to show they have confidence in the quality of the education they are providing for other children”.

He paused and added: “Vinolia was probably the first Indian child to attend a township school.”

We entered the new administration building, where a small gathering was waiting at a table laid with refreshments.

There I was introduced to Mr Yusif Sium, the school’s mathematics teacher; Mr Andre Kleinschmidt, who teaches physics and life sciences; Mr Shimeless Zeleke the maths literacy teacher; Mr Phumzile Dosi, the English teacher and grade 12 co-ordinator; Mr Thabiso Motsana the life orientation teacher; and Mr Michael Vena, the chair of the school governing body. There were also the star pupils, Asavela and Monde, together with Asavela’s mother, Lungiswa, who works at the “fruit and veg” section of Checkers in Kraaifontein. She told me she had not seen Asavela’s father since her baby was one month old. “That is why I say he died,” she said. Monde’s parents were visiting family in the Eastern Cape.

Mr Naidoo told me he and the governing body applied a strict “merit selection” policy when recommending teachers for positions at the school.

It was not always that way.

“When I came to this school, I confronted a governing body that had a different approach. Some were even prepared to accept bribes from applicants to be nominated for positions. Everything was politicised. It was difficult to change that approach. We had some conflict about it. But I knew the school would only succeed if we applied merit selection”. He recalls the backing and support he received from an outstanding senior circuit manager, Mrs Ntombi Dwane, who helped him implement the new policy.

“Today I follow a strict policy of keeping party politics out of this school. We take decisions on their merits. We employ our staff on the basis of their ability to teach our pupils,” Mr Naidoo emphasized.

This was immediately apparent as I spoke to the teachers. Their own stories show an astounding confluence of excellence and effort, influenced by the inevitable “hand of fate”. Mr Sium, for example, is an Eritrean studying actuarial science part-time at the University of Cape Town. He earns his living as Masibambane’s maths teacher.

The team ethos and mutual support were tangible. But the greatest insights came from the pupils themselves.

Asavela and Monde told me how they were able to stay at school until 9 o’clock at night, so that they could study in an environment conducive to learning. They negotiated the after-hours use of their classrooms with teachers, and worked in groups to assist others with their homework. Prefects were given the responsibility of locking up when they left. They were accountable for the state of the premises the next day.

Then Asavela made the following observation: “Monde and I would not have done so well if we were not competing with one another. We are good friends, but also competitors. That helped a lot. We will carry on as friendly competitors when we go to University.” Both will study actuarial science at UCT next year, and Mr Sium has made a commitment to continue teaching and supporting them.

I asked Mrs Rawe whether we could visit her home – two shacks in the backyard of an RDP house in Bloekombos. Her baby was asleep on her bed. She told me the tiny premature boy had spent 5 months in Tygerberg hospital, where she had remained with him. With his mother away, Asavela had spent most of his matric year taking personal responsibility for his younger siblings as well as himself. All of his belongings, including the computer he had won as a prize for his matric results, were neatly stacked in a small pile at the bottom of his narrow bed. I realised that he had come to the matric achievers function in his school uniform because it was probably the only suitable outfit he had.

Above his pillow, he had written on the shack wall in red koki: “A true gentleman is a true genius in calculation. A true legend lives on”. Those words gave him inspiration, he told me.

We then went on to visit Monde’s house. He lives with his siblings in a backyard shack of his parents’ RDP house, where he shares a bed with his brother.

The rest of the space in the shack is taken up by a rickety home-made table on which stands an ancient Dell computer.

“You must never get rid of that computer,” Asavela said to Monde. “That computer helped us to succeed”.

Monde told me that his uncle had been given the computer by his employers when they upgraded their systems. Together Monde and Asavela set it up – and through their own efforts turned this stroke of luck into yet another opportunity. At school, during the day, they downloaded matric papers and worked on them late into the night, on the old computer in the shack. “The computer kept freezing, but we kept starting it again,” said Monde.

That comment captured it all.

We often talk about the “opportunity” society. On that Saturday I saw what this idea can mean when opportunity meets singular human effort. The key priority of any government is to create real opportunities for all, so that people can use them.

It is true that “Outliers” like Asavela and Monde cannot be used as the yardstick for the rest of society. But the story of Masibambane as a school is a demonstration that many young people, of average ability, can become part of the “story of success”. There is no reason why this cannot become South Africa’s story too.

Yours Sincerely,


Signed Helen Zille

Comments by Sonny

As quoted by our president in 2011......"NOTHING FOR MAHALA!"......

Doomsday Massacre

Even in death, Doomsday couple a mystery

January 21 2011 at 09:47am
By Melanie Gosling
Comment on this story

CAPE TIMES
A police warrant officer from the dog unit jumps over the fence after French couple Philippe Meniere, 60, and his partner Agnes Jardel, 55, were found dead after a shootout with police in the farmhouse in the background. Police found ammunition and a bullet maker at the French couple s house (left). Photo: Michael Walker
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The search is over, the dust has settled, and the mysterious French couple who came to settle on a farm outside this tiny Karoo town over a decade ago, are dead.

With their death ends a massive manhunt, where over 70 police officers with highly trained trackers and dogs searched a 3 000ha farm on foot and from the air, for six days.

In the end, the couple, who astonishingly managed to remain at large for so long, had crept back almost to the place they had come from, and holed up in a vacant farmhouse a few hundred metres from the farmhouse in which they had lived for 12 years.

Not only near their old home, but almost right under the noses of the investigating team, who had set up their operational headquarters in the farmhouse next door to the French couple’s home.

It’s all over, but no one is nearer the truth of finding out just who were Philippe Meniere, 60, and his partner, Agnes Jardel, 55. What were they about? How did this couple, who came to Sutherland to get away from city life and to escape “the system”, who seemed so peaceful and who would “not even kill a snake”, end up shooting a young police officer dead last Friday?

Then Meniere, with Jardel shooting from their house, wounded another police officer in the back, and when the remaining two policemen and two civilians fled, they climbed into one of the men’s bakkies and reportedly tried to hunt them as the men ran for their lives, leaping over bushes and dodging bullets.


After evading police for six days, French couple Philippe Meniere and Agnes Jardel were killed after a shootout with police in an abandoned farmhouse just a stone s throw from where they lived. Photo: Michael Walker
CAPE TIMES

The couple may have had more deaths on their hands, but the bakkie got stuck, the men got away, and the French couple fled into the veld.

What had sparked the seemingly crazy behaviour? If the police know, they are not saying, nor are Jaen and Cobus du Plessis, sons of Gerhardus, who owned the farm on which the couple lived.

The little information that can be gathered about the couple is that Meniere was a medical doctor, trained in France, who had come to South Africa in the 1980s. Police said he had worked at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and at Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg.

Little is known about Jardel. She told the Du Plessis family that she had been in advertising.

The couple came to Sutherland about 12 years ago, and rented a house in the town. It’s a tiny dorp, and Gerhardus du Plessis soon got to know them. When it became apparent that they wanted to find a farm to live on, he offered them the original farmhouse on his property, 22km outside Sutherland. Du Plessis himself did not live on the farm, as he also ran a construction business with his son, Cobus in town. It apparently suited him to have the couple on the farm for security.

Du Plessis was divorced at the time. The family got to know them over the decade they lived there, but did not find out very much of their background – nor were they particularly forthcoming. They did, however, say they belonged to the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, and over discussions over the years, it became apparent that they believed that the end of the world was near, and even asked Du Plessis if he would build them a survival bunker. He laughed it off.

But they appeared to take the survival aspect seriously. In their house, police found stacks of tinned food, camping equipment, paraffin, gas bottles, candles, firelighters and water containers. That, and lots of equipment to make bullets.

The couple escaped with several weapons, and left behind in the safe Meniere’s passport and R8 000 cash.

What triggered the murder? Police say Du Plessis wanted to evict the couple from the house where he had allowed them to live rent-free. He had since married, and his new wife and his sons wanted to renovate the historic farmhouse for their own use.

The couple had apparently agreed to move by December, but did not. It is not clear why the Du Plessis family went to police last week, to tell them that they suspected that the couple had unlicensed weapons at their house, but it appears that this might have been to expedite their departure.

Four police officers, Cobus and his brother Jaen, went to the house last Friday. Police say Meniere was reasonable and handed over a mass of weapons. He apparently had had licences for them, but they had expired. Police put the weapons in their vehicle. This is where it becomes strange: police say Meniere said he did not feel well, leant over and pulled a handgun from his clothes and shot student officer Jacob Boleme, 27, dead. The others fled. He then shot a second officer, Glenwall du Toit in the back, wounding him. Jardel was shooting from the house.

Ironically, it was their committing murder that led to the couple having to survive in the Karoo veld, not any end of world scenario. In their possession was a book Don’t Die in the Bundu. A handy survival book, but not one that can offer advice on how to escape the biggest police manhunt the Northern Cape has seen. - Cape Times

Cape Times

Comments by Sonny

Outnumbered and Outgunned!

One thing I fail to comprehend here....... Gerhardus du Plessis used the police to achieve his own agenda - The fire arm licenses did not expire.. there were deferred because of the problematic FCA and the pending Agriforum High Court case. Du Plessis should have followed procedure and applied for an eviction order to have the French couple removed from his farm.

I wish the truth comes back to haunt him!!

Cowen puts pressure on TDs with change of strategy

By Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor
Monday January 17 2011
Seventy-one Fianna Fail TDs will vote on Taoiseach Brian Cowen's position as leader tomorrow.

Mr Cowen is dispensing with procedure and putting forward a motion of confidence in himself at the parliamentary party meeting to resolve the issue surrounding his leadership.

Under normal Fianna Fail rules, a leader would only face a vote on the leadership if a quarter of the TDs in the party -- 18 at the moment -- put forward a motion of no confidence.

In the case of a motion of no confidence, the vote has to be taken at least five days later.

Senators are not entitled to vote on the leadership.

Tomorrow's meeting of the parliamentary party is expected to take place at the normal teatime slot in the party rooms on the fifth floor of the Leinster House complex.

Mr Cowen's calling of a motion of confidence in himself is reminiscent of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny's move last year.

Manipulating

It was also a tactic employed by Charlie Haughey when he sensed the rebels were gathering strength. Mr Haughey was a master of manipulating the party in heaves -- even though the ineptitude of his opponents was often the key to his victories.

The strategy is regarded as being of advantage to the party leader as it makes it psychologically more difficult for a TD to directly vote against the leader.

The difference between a confidence vote or a no confidence vote may seem narrow, but casting any doubt into a TD's mind is deemed to be significant.

Cutting off the tabling of a motion of no confidence also ensures there won't be a quarter of the TDs declaring against the party leader to start with.

Mr Cowen also has the advantage of knowing there are a number of TDs who believe a leadership contest at this time would be divisive for the party.

A number of middle-ground TDs are of the view it is too close to the general election to be changing the party leader.

- Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor

Irish Independent

Comments by Sonny

Tuesday will be decisive for Irish politics.......

Irish PM won't quit over debt crisis

January 17 2011 at 10:39am

REUTERS
Ireland's Prime Minister, Brian Cowen will not resign as head of the ruling Fianna Fail party.
Dublin - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen faces a fight for political survival as he rebuffed pressure to resign and a senior Cabinet colleague announced he would challenge him for the party leadership.

Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said he had “reluctantly concluded” that Cowen would have to be forced from office since he refused to go voluntarily. The two face a showdown on Tuesday when lawmakers of the long-ruling Fianna Fail party gather to vote whether to keep Cowen or promote Martin.

At stake is the course of Ireland's fightback from a European-record deficit amid a €67.5 billion international bailout. The leadership tussle within Fianna Fail - “Soldiers of Destiny” in Gaelic - raised new doubt over whether lawmakers would be able to pass a deficit-slashing bill without a national election first.

For the second time in four days, Cowen defied expectations and refused to quit on Sunday in the face of mounting opposition within Fianna Fail to his leadership.

Instead, Cowen announced he would ask his party's legislators to take a vote of confidence in him on Tuesday. Cowen said he was assured of winning the secret-ballot vote and lead Fianna Fail to a seventh straight election victory.

Hours later Martin - one of three Cabinet ministers who have signalled their desire to succeed Cowen - became the first to declare a challenge. Martin said he had tendered his resignation as foreign minister because he no longer supported Cowen and would ask lawmakers to back him instead on Tuesday.

Many lawmakers want Cowen to quit immediately in hopes that their party might fare better with a new leader in place for an election expected to take place sometime this spring. Cowen, who was finance minister before gaining the top post in 2008, is closely associated with the property-pushing tax policies that have brought Ireland to financial ruin.

Fianna Fail has governed Ireland almost continuously since 1987, but has plummeted to historic lows in recent opinion polls.

Opposition leaders, meanwhile, still intend to pursue their own no-confidence motion in parliament against Cowen - and pleaded for Fianna Fail to declare an election date. Fianna Fail has sought to delay that vote as long as possible.

“The longer (the Irish government) stays in power, the greater the damage that is being done to the economy and to our international reputation. This government should go,” said Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party.

Cowen rose to power as Ireland's 13-year Celtic Tiger economic boom was giving way to a property-market implosion and banking crisis. He has faced rising accusations in recent weeks of making decisions that benefited corrupt bankers far more than taxpayers, who have been burdened with a bank-rescue bill expected to top €50 billion.

The pressure for Cowen's removal flared last week when a new book revealed that Cowen held dinners and social events, including a day-long golf outing, with top bankers in the weeks before his government decided in September 2008 to insure all of the borrowings of Dublin banks.

That blanket guarantee failed to prevent most of those banks from facing collapse as their loan books- heavily exposed to runaway property markets in Ireland, Britain and the United States - began to suffer massive defaults.

Ireland has nationalised four of the six Irish-owned banks and repaid tens of billions to foreign bondholders, who normally would be expected to suffer losses when a bank fails.

Ireland spent two years trying to fund the bank bailouts itself, but the cost drove Ireland's 2010 deficit to 32 percent of gross domestic product, a postwar European record. Even excluding the exceptional bank-bailout costs, Ireland spent more than €50 billion last year but collected just €31 billion as unemployment soared and taxes from property sales slowed to a trickle.

In November, as the state-owned banks found themselves unable to borrow on open markets, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund stepped in to insist that Ireland negotiate a multiyear loan deal. Under terms of the deal, Ireland must slash €15 billion from its deficit spending over the coming four years and is imposing the harshest cuts this year.

The parliament has already approved bills that will slash welfare benefits and the minimum wage, raise school fees and cut the salaries of Cabinet ministers. But the toughest measures - to increase income taxes across the 2 million-strong work force, raising effective tax levels to 41 percent or more - have yet to be approved in the 2011 Finance Bill. - Sapa-AP

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Why does 'The Crown' not bail the Irish out of their debt?

Or is the Irish still being treated as 'second class citizens?'

The following is what an Irishman thinks of Irish charity for Africa!


This report by K. Myers appeared in an Irish newspaper "The Irish Independent."

AFRICA is giving nothing to anyone -- apart from AIDS

No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again.
It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia's (and Bob Geldof's) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.

So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none.
To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn't count.

One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there.
The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this.

It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous, hand wringing , letter -writing wrathful individuals, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O'Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.

But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia's has more than doubled.

Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.

Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive, illiterate indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.

This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense.
Indeed, voodoo idiocy it seems to be in the ascendant, with the president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against AIDS infection.

Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.

Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters.
Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.

They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.

Meanwhile, Africa's peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million: The equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.

So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country?

How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity.! But that is not good enough.

For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed.

It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates' programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating.

If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts.
Oh good: then what? I know. Let them all come here or America. Yes, that's an idea.

-AKA K Myers

Comments by Sonny

A great part of Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, has already

infiltrated South Africa!

Suppose they will also be given Asylum like those from Zimbabwe!

Sharemax lawyers files defamation suit

Sharemax lawyer files defamation suit
January 14 2011 at 09:45am
By roy cokayne



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Independent Newspapers

Zambezi mall - one of Sharemax's properties. Photo: Simphiwe Mbokazi

Sharemax Investments attorneys Weavind & Weavind, along with its seven directors, have instituted a multimillion-rand damages claim against three people and a company over allegations that the law firm had misappropriated funds from its trust account.

Weavind & Weavind’s particulars of claim lists a number of statements alleging that funds deposited into the firm’s trust fund had been stolen by the company. These allegations were made in affidavits drafted in support of a complaint to the Law Society of the Northern Provinces and a criminal case.

The firm said the allegations were “wrongful and defamatory” of the firm and carried the implication that the directors were complicit in the theft and shared in the proceeds.

It said the statements were made with the intention to defame the firm and its directors and injure their reputation.

Pierre Hough, the managing director of Chase International, who assisted with the drafting of the affidavits and is one of the respondents in the matter, said yesterday that the summons and damages claim had no substance or merit and confirmed that the respondents would be defending the matter.

Hough claimed that the damages claim was a tactic by Weavind & Weavind to “scare off” other investors in syndications marketed by Sharemax from lodging claims against the law firm.

Weavind & Weavind and its directors have issued a combined summons against Hough, Chase Consulting, financial planner Toffie Risk and Johanna Margaretha Magdalena Bosman, an investor in the Zambezi Retail Park syndication marketed by Sharemax.

The firm is claiming R2 million and its seven directors a further R1m each from Bosman, Hough and Chase Consulting because of damages they claim resulted from Bosman’s conduct.

It is also claiming R2m and its directors R1m each from Hough, Chase Consulting and Toffie Risk related to a similar affidavit submitted by Risk.

Jaco Fourie, a senior legal official of disciplinary department at the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, said yesterday that the organisation was waiting for a response from Hough to Weavind & Weavind’s comments about the complaint before presenting the evidence to a disciplinary committee of the law society.

The complaint to the law society and the opening of a fraud case at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, which was subsequently transferred to the commercial crimes unit of the SAPS, followed Sharemax defaulting on monthly payments to investors in early September last year.

Construction on both Zambezi Retail Park and The Villa schemes promoted by Sharemax ground to a halt at the same time.

The registrar of banks in mid-September appointed statutory managers to manage the repayment of funds after an investigation found that Sharemax’s funding model contravened the Banks Act. - Roy Cokayne

Chief rabbi slams anti-Tutu petition

January 14 2011 at 02:44pm
By Melanie Gosling

INLSA
Chief rabbi of South Africa Warren Goldstein has condemned the controversial "anti-Tutu" petition which calls for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to be axed as patron of the two Holocaust centres in this country, although he considers Tutu's criticisms of Israel "unfair". Photo: Dumisani Sibeko
South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, has condemned the controversial “anti-Tutu” petition which calls for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to be axed as patron of the two Holocaust centres in this country.

However, Goldstein added that he considered Tutu’s criticisms of Israel “unfair”.

The petition, launched in December by three Jewish Capetonians, calls for the Nobel Peace laureate to be ousted as patron of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre and the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre because of his “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements”.

In a statement on Thursday, Goldstein said: “I believe it is wrong to call for the resignation of Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a patron of the Holocaust Centre.

“In deference to Archbishop Tutu’s widely recognised leadership role in the Struggle against apartheid and to his revered position in South Africa, it would be an act of disrespect to remove him as a patron.”

Goldstein, who is also a patron of the Holocaust centre, described it as an important institution in South Africa, which not only honoured the memory of the six million Jews the Nazis killed, but also educated thousands of South Africans in the “vital lessons of the Holocaust (and) the horrific consequences of hatred and racism”.

“The centre preaches and teaches sensitivity and commitment to human rights, tolerance and the dignity of all people, irrespective of race, colour or creed. For this holy and vital work to be disrupted by the divisive politics of the Middle East would be a real tragedy,” Goldstein said.

“The correct approach, I believe, to the archbishop’s unfair criticisms of Israel is not through protest action of petitions, but rather to engage with him in a dignified and respectful manner on the substance of the real issues from a rational, intellectual and historical point of view, so that truth and peace can ultimately triumph.”

The online petition was started by Capetonians Joselle Reuben, Howard Joffe and David Hersch, who, although he is one of four vice-chairmen of the SA Zionist Federation, drew up the petition in his personal capacity.

The federation has said the petition was launched without the organisation’s approval and represents the personal views of the three.

By late Thursday the petition had 401 signatures from around the world.

A counter-petition, in defence of Tutu, had 2771 signatures.

Although the Zionist Federation has said the anti-Tutu petition did “not reflect any statements which have been issued by official representatives of the South African Zionist Federation”, chairman Avrom Krengel would not say whether the federation supported or condemned either petition.

But Krengel questioned Tutu’s patronage in a written statement last November, saying that Tutu’s “present conduct has met with wall to wall condemnation from the community, best expressed by our Chief Rabbi’s excellent article recently published in the Jerusalem Post… Admittedly, Tutu’s continued office as a patron clearly needs to be reassessed and addressed by his fellow patrons of the Foundation”. - Cape Times

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Now that the debate has begun, we can expose the Zionists for what they really stand for!

They are by far, not the chosen Race!

No, Tutu is not our Icon of Peace!!