Drop the charges, and we'll give the car back

Drop the charges, and we'll give the car back

1 September 2010, 06:54
By Angelique Serrao

A bizarre hijacking of a Joburg businessman - allegedly by police - saw him being asked to "drop the charges" in order to get his car back.

But the businessman, whose name is known to The Star, refused, and police are yet to recover his brand-new Golf GTi, saying he may be the latest victim of the notorious Blue Light Gang.

The 33-year-old businessman, who does not want to be identified, said he was driving his silver GTi from Linbro business park towards the Glenhove Road off-ramp at around 12.30pm when he was stopped by four men in a black Ford Focus with flashing blue lights and an antenna on top. His friend was in the passengerseat.

According to the businessman, four men came towards the car carrying what he believes were R-5 rifles. They flashed police badges at them.

"They held the rifles to our heads and told us that the car was stolen and we were suspects. They searched the car and took out our briefcases."

The two men were put in the back seat of the Ford and were told they were being taken to a police station by two of the police officers, while two others got into the Golf. Both cars then left the scene in convoy.

The businessman said they then drove in circles before the driver of the Golf pulled off on a slip road near Louis Botha Avenue and parked in front of a black BMW.

While driving towards Norwood, one of the officers looked through their briefcases while the driver spoke on his cellphone.

"He had about three phones which were ringing, and he spoke to numerous people," the businessman said.

"I heard him say 'superintendent, we have the suspects'. They told us not to stress, that nothing would happen to us. His phone rang again. I heard someone tell him they had the wrong people, and that they must leave us and take the car."

In Norwood, the man said they saw a marked police car with "Norwood" written at the back.

"The two cars signalled each other with their sirens and then the marked car drove in front of us, stopping traffic," he said.

The two men were driven to a quiet road in Sandringham, where they were told to get out and lie face down.

"The one man held the R-5 rifle to my head, and the other held a handgun to my friend's head. We were told not to look up," he said.

The guns were cocked before the suspects drove away.

The pair flagged down a passing motorist, who took them to the Sandringham police station, where they were told that the number plate of the Ford was fake and that "they wouldn't open a case".

The men went home and called 10111, and were told that police would come to their home. They never arrived, and the businessman went to the Norwood police station in the evening to lay charges.

"When the police looked up the registration number, they said the Ford was a state car and was owned by a policeman," the man said.

He added there was a lot of activity at the police station, and one policeman asked him if he would drive to Alexandra to fetch his car.

"Then a policeman behind the desk passed me a cellphone and told me that a senior superintendent wanted to speak to me. I asked him his name and he said it didn't matter. Then he asked me if I would drop the charges if I got my car back," he said.

His GTi was eventually put on a registry for stolen cars at 11.30pm.

Captain Philip Maganedisa, of the Norwood police station, said he had looked at the docket and was sure this was the work of the Blue Light Gang. He said the fact that the Ford had four antennae (which trace trackers of stolen and hijacked cars) might mean it was the police, but it could also be members of the gang.

"We discovered that the vehicle was not a state vehicle, but the number plates may have been stolen," the captain said.

He added that the docket had been taken to the provincial office to see which police cars were in the area at the time.

Meanwhile, the businessman is convinced that police officers were involved in the crime. "What happened is just too strange. Too many things don't add up," he said.




This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on September 01, 2010

Pretoria ATM blown up

31 August 2010, 09:00

Pretoria - An Absa ATM at the Kwaggasrand Engen garage, in Pretoria West, has been blown up and looted, police said on Tuesday.

Captain Jan Legoabe said that a man sat down next to the ATM without arousing the suspicions of people working at the filling station on Monday night.

When a garage employee walked up to him at 9.45pm, the man suddenly stood up and shouted at him to "run away".

The machine exploded and a hatchback pulled up. The machine was looted and the car then sped off again.

The man who had shouted the warning disappeared from the scene.

Nobody was injured and police are investigating. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Has ATM bombing become "SECRET?"

We read about arrested and then the trail goes dead?

Who is protecting these criminals?

Is it a funding for a Third Force?

The crime of the Century!

MK vets to lay charges against SABC board

31 August 2010, 12:36
Johannesburg - The Mkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) will lay charges against the SABC board after the suspension of group chief executive Solly Mokoetle.

"We are going to lay charges against these board members with the relevant authorities...but we are also saying they must resign because they are corrupt," MKMVA chairman Kebby Maphatsoe said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

Maphatsoe charged that Cedric Gina, a non executive board member compelled the SABC management to hire a human resources consulting company that belongs to his personal friend, Justice Ndaba.

He said Gina also insists that the SABC pays his telephone billsevery month despite being a non permanent board member.

He further charged that chief financial officer Rob Nicholson approved a payment to board member Peter Harris for an amount of R200 000 for work Harris did as a board member.

"To add salt to the wound, he [Harris] was paid through the staff salary system and not as a vendor providing a service in order to hide the money."

Maphatsoe further accused Harris of insisting to the board that he be in contract negotiations with a French based company for the World Cup and subsequently billed the board for R200 000.

"This is a clear case of embezzlement that is rife in the SABC board."

Maphatsoe attributed Mokoetle's suspension to the board wanting to hide corruption.

"How do you remove a clean person and replace him with a corrupt person," Maphatsoe said of Mokoetle being replaced with Nicholson in an acting capacity.

Maphatsoe further charged that the move to suspend Mokoetle was political due to the upcoming local government elections.

"The counter revolutionary want to take over the SABC board and make it political," he said.

He described non executive board member David Niveri, who is also a member of the SA Communist Party as a "yellow communist"

He charged that people were "reconsolidating themselves" so that they could "own the media" when the local government elections arrive.

Maphatsoe said those sitting on the board were not representing their organisations but were expected to represent the public.

The MKMVA will march to parliament next week to hand over a memorandum demanding the resignation of the board.

It further demands that Mokoetle be reinstated immediately.

Mokoetle was suspended last week from the position he took up eight months ago and he had indicated that he would challenge his removal and any disciplinary action taken against him.

Board members challenged Mokoetle on his appointment of Phil Molefe as head of news and his apparent failure to come up with a turnaround strategy for the cash strapped national broadcaster.

Mokoetle, said Maphatsoe, was a long standing member of the MKMVA. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Corruption in the ANC.

A case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Imagine the business at the SABC being declared "SECRET!"

Will we still have NEWS?

Girl's body dumped after raped and tortured

31 August 2010, 08:42
By Angelique Serrao

She lay in the soft soil for a night, wrapped in a dirty duvet, among plastic bags and decaying rats.

While her body lay just two streets away from where she lived, her parents and community members searched for her in mounting desperation.

Nine-year-old Banele Precious Khumalo was raped and killed on Thursday, allegedly by a neighbour. She had been handcuffed, cut and burnt before her body was wrapped in a duvet and dumped in a field in Phumula Extension 21, near Spruitview.

The Leondale Primary School pupil was home on Thursday because of the strike. Her father Bongani Khumalo said she went to the shop to buy sweetsaround 1pm.

Bongani said the family did not worry at first when she did not return because she often played at the neighbours' houses.

When she hadn't returned by 5pm, her two older brothers went looking for her. When they couldn't find her, the family knew something was wrong.

"I went to the police station at Vosloorus, but they told me Phumula falls under the Alberton police station and I must go there," Bongani said. He then phoned the Alberton police station.

"We didn't know it then, but she had already been murdered. They should have helped us look for her and moved the docket over later," the angry father said. "You need to see the body to see what this man did to my child."

Alberton police came to the family's house that night, and residents gathered to look for the little girl.

A neighbour, Paul Thatho, who is also a member of the local community policing forum, heard about the missing child on Friday morning. He set off with other residents to see if he could find her.

His daughter Lerato said she had been at the house of the 36-year-old suspect the afternoon prior to the girl's murder and said he had been acting strangely.

"He opened his bedroom door with a screwdriver in his hand," Lerato said. "I also saw bloodstains by the bottom of his fridge, but I didn't know then the child was missing."

He was shivering uncontrollably and asked her to leave because he needed to sleep.

At 2pm on Friday, a small child found the bloodstained duvet with Banele's body wrapped inside it.

The suspect was at the scene, said Lerato, and she noticed then that his pants had bloodstains on them and his face was scratched.

Thatho said residents then went to the suspect's house. They found bloodstains on the floor, inside a wheelbarrow and on an axe.

Captain George Manaka from the Alberton police station said police had come to the man's rescue because community members wanted to kill him. He had been arrested but had not appeared in court yet as police were still investigating.

Community members burnt down the suspect's house after his arrest.

Education MEC Barbara Creecy and Ekurhuleni ANC councillors visited the family yesterday. Creecy said the family were grief-stricken and the department was organising counselling for them.

"The mother is speechless with grief. I understand they went to the mortuary today and saw that the child had been tortured. We will start counselling this afternoon," she said.

A memorial service will be held at Leondale Primary School on Thursday morning.

Local councillor Bennet Nikani said the area where the child had been buried was being cleared, but they would leave the mound where her body was found so that the family could perform a cleansing ceremony.

He wanted to propose to the council that the area be turned into a community park, named after Banele.

Meanwhile Banele's mother Thandiwe sleeps with a picture of her "sweet girl" by her bedside. "I just feel upset, she was such a happy child. With the way we found her, no clothes, raped, handcuffed? I hope they give him a life sentence."



This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on August 31, 2010

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Was our Constitution 'really' written to protect these "Barbarians?"

ANC corruption in Focus

At home and abroad

By Allister Sparks

For publication Wedy 18 August 2010

Possible headline: The swift trashing of our World Cup image

The speed at which we are trashing the positive image of this country created by the soccer World Cup is astonishing.

A mere six weeks ago the world was applauding us for the success of that event. Thousands of visitors were expressing their pleasure at being here in what was a visible display of our "rainbow nation," expressing surprise, too, at our wonderful infrastructure, our fine hotels, the efficiency of our services and the harmony of our multi-cultural society. It was way beyond what they had expected, given the bad publicity we have had about our crime rate and poor governance.

Investors were beginning to reassess us as the realisation spread that South Africa was different from the rest of what many still perceived to be "the hopeless continent," riddled with corruption, coups and incompetence.

It was the greatest public relations bonanza this country has ever had. But now, only these few weeks later, our government seems to be going out of its way to blot that new image. It has delivered a series of public relations disasters.

This began with some questionable interventions by the Department of Mineral Resources that appear to have been aimed at diverting mineral and prospecting rights into the hands of senior African National Congress (ANC) figures, including family members and friends of President Jacob Zuma. This has rattled the mining industry as well as investors at home and abroad.

The most dodgy of these deals began when the big steel company AcerlorMittal failed, apparently through oversight, to convert its prospecting rights at Sishen iron ore mine in Limpopo Province to new order rights, as the law required. That meant these rights reverted to the state.

Kumba, Mittal's biggest supplier of iron ore, grabbed the opportunity to hike its price to Mittal from a discounted figure fixed years ago when the old Iscor, which owned both the mine and the steel plant, was split and privatised.

Kumba also seized on Mittal’s lapse and applied for the conversion rights for itself -- only to find that a little-known company with no mining expertise, Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), had done likewise. And, hey presto, ICT was awarded the rights -- although the issue is the subject of what is likely to be a long legal battle.

Meanwhile, it just so happens that one of Zuma's sons, Duduzane, is a key figure in ICT along with the Gupta family, enormously wealthy immigrants from India who appear to have become the President's best friends and are on the point of publishing a new pro-ANC daily newspaper, New Age.

The chief executive of the Gupta family's investment arm, Jagdish Parekh, also has a substantial shareholding in ICT, while Duduzane Zuma's twin brother, Duduzile, is a business partner of the Guptas.

Sensing which way the wind was blowing in the conflict between Mittal and Kumba, Mittal has now moved to secure its supply of cheap ore from Sishen by offering ICT a cool R800-million for its rights plus R9-billion worth of shares in Mittal itself. All in the name of Black Economic Empowerment.

It's an outrageous steal -- “money for jam,” as one beneficiary brazenly put it -- and a grotesque abuse of BEE. That policy was introduced to benefit the disadvantaged people of this country, and there is nothing disadvantaged about the beneficiaries of this windfall. They are already among the stinking rich, politically connected fat cats.

Hardly had this shocker hit the news than another followed. The Department of Mineral Resources ordered Lonmin, an international mining company, to stop selling nickel, copper and chrome from a portion of one of its platinum mines, because it had awarded exploration rights for these minerals to an empowerment company called the HolGoun Group.

HolGoun is an investment company controlled by the family of Sivi Gounden, a former Director-General of the Department of Public Enterprises. Political connections again.

As it turns out, these other minerals cannot be separated from the platinum in the mining process, so the Department of Mineral Resources has rescinded its order.

But the damage to South Africa's image in the investor community has been great. Mining is one of our major employers, and given our distressing unemployment figures we badly need to keep the industry going. Many of our mines are nearing the end of their productive lives, so it is imperative that we seek new deposits and open new mining operations. But opening a new mine requires huge capital investment. Nobody is going to make that kind of investment in a country where there is uncertainty about the security of mineral rights.

So it is the poor and the working-class who are going to suffer from these shenanegans aimed at bloating the already rich and politically connected -- all in the name of BEE.

The rot spreads well beyond the mining industry. The ANC itself admits that it is a deeply corrupt organisation. One of its discussion documents prepared for next month's national general council meeting lists a number of "tendencies" leading to "organisational decay." What's more the ANC leadership has known this for years. When Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe was still general-secretary of the ANC he admitted as much in a remarkably candid interview with the Financial Mail's Carol Paton.

The trouble is, a fatal precedent was set right at the outset -- right at the top. A 1995 document, unearthed from ANC archives at Fort Hare University and published by the Sunday Times last weekend, gives details of how then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki requested Shabir Shaik, of arms scandal notoriety, to set up a company that would fund the ANC through "patriotic" dividends paid out for major government contracts.

The ANC was seriously strapped for cash in the early nineties. Its funds were seized when it was banned in 1960, it had no accommodation and no means to build its organisation and run election campaigns. The need for money was obvious and understandable, but the means of acquiring it turned out to be dubious. Shaik formed his company, Nkobi Holdings, which was to feature prominently in the arms deal scandal. That was the start of the corruption -- and sadly corruption, once started, expands exponentially. Especially when started by heroes bearing the halo of heroic liberators.

That is why the government has had to go to such extraordinary lengths to avoid any proper inquiry into the arms deal -- and to avoid President Zuma’s having to go on trial, where he might well have blown the whistle on many others who were involved.

That is why corruption is now rotting the very soul of the ANC.

And that is why this desperate government wants to stop investigative reporting, because it is the media that keeps exposing the scale of the corruption which the government cannot stop because too many at the top are involved.

But what Zuma and his government seem not to realise is that ending freedom of the media means ending free speech, and nothing can do more to shatter the image of a country than that. Because a country that does not have free speech is no longer a free country. Add to that the heavy-handed arrest and political interrogation of journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika and investors begin to catch the repellent whiff of another Zimbabwe.

ENDS

Comments by Sonny

No normal South African can support this dysfunctional party at war!!

As true South Africans we cannot just sit around and watch as Rome burns!!

DA newsletter 30 August 2010

30 August 2010

Welcome to the latest edition of SA Today, the weekly newsletter from the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille.



SA Today
Helen Zille, DA Leader

The "War on Poverty" entrenches poverty
Almost everyone in South Africa agrees that our country’s major challenge is poverty and unemployment.

The question is, how can we enable people to move out of poverty, and earn an income, in a sustainable way?

The “War on Poverty” programme is one of the major initiatives of President Zuma’s office. It is spearheaded by the Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe. Its key strategy is “community profiling”. In theory this involves compiling a detailed survey of each household in a community, so that the state can target its interventions with the purpose of enhancing the capacity of households to move out of poverty and earn a living.

I wanted to see how this works in practice.

It was, therefore, with great interest, that I accepted an invitation from Mr Motlanthe, to the Bitou Region (which includes some of the poorest people in the Western Cape) as part of the “War on Poverty”.

I gave the opening address (an edited version of which appeared in this newsletter, last week).

My key point was that although the “community profiling” approach was useful, it could not substitute for a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy. If “profiling” was well done, and followed-up, it could be the starting point for interventions to increase the capacity of families to move out of poverty.

After the visit I have re-assessed this analysis. On the basis of the examples I saw, I have concluded that “the War on Poverty” in its current form, will increase rather than alleviate South Africa’s poverty crisis.

Why do I say so?

My starting point is Amartya Sen’s definition of poverty as “capability deprivation” -- the inability of a person to lead a life they value. A person is poor when she is unable to meet her basic needs or the needs of her dependents.

The thrust of any war on poverty must, therefore, be to increase people’s capability to meet these needs. There are various ways the state must do this: through policies that increase economic growth and expand people’s opportunities, particularly through good public education and health care. Social grants are also an important component of any “anti-poverty” strategy. They cushion people from the effects of extreme deprivation. They are intended to provide a catalyst for development, a “hand up” so that people can take the next step towards meeting their needs in a sustainable way.

If “community profiling” were helping to identify the precise intervention that could facilitate the development of each family, it could potentially be a useful tool.

But, in its present form, it is doing precisely the opposite. After my experience “on the ground” in Bitou, I believe the “war on poverty” approach is decreasing capability and increasing dependence. It is actually preventing people becoming active agents of their own destiny, and entrenching their bondage.

Why do I say so? We visited various areas. In KwaNokuthula we visited four selected households, whose poverty profile (and the proposed interventions) had been recorded on the prescribed forms.

But the key information was missing. As a result, the proposed interventions actually undermined the key purpose of building the family’s capacity to move out of poverty. In any event, none of the families we visited had received the interventions proposed. The state does not have the capacity to follow-up on the scale required. In truth, very few countries in the world would be able to do so.

I assumed that the families we visited (each living in an RDP house) were carefully selected. So I was amazed to find that three out of the four had extreme substance abuse problems. In two of the houses, the adults were so drunk by mid-morning that they could not participate meaningfully in a conversation. In the third house, the adults (including a pregnant woman) openly conceded that they were under the influence of marijuana. As Rastafarians they contended that smoking “ganja” was integral to their religion.

It was quite apparent, in all three homes, that no intervention would increase the capability of the families to move out of poverty until their addiction problems were addressed. But their “community profile” did not contain any reference to substance abuse.

I could unpack the “profiles” of any one of the families (as well as the proposed interventions) to show how counter-productive the present approach to fighting poverty is. I have chosen one of them (to protect the family’s identity I will call them “Dlamini”, which is not their real name). Mr Dlamini was so drunk he could not stand on his feet and kept referring to me as “baby”. His wife was also drunk. The family’s source of income is Mrs Dlamini’s “disability grant”. It was clearly a context of chronic alcoholism.

I consulted the family’s “profile”. It listed Mr Dlamini’s skills as: “brick-laying, painting, walls, welding, carpentry.” This was followed by a list of state interventions required to support him moving out of poverty. It notes: “needs assistance in fixing cracks in RDP house.”

Here was a man with all the skills required to fix his wall. But the state was instructing a local government department to send someone else to do so, for the ostensible purpose of enabling the Dlamini family to escape poverty! To be sure, he needed the assistance, not because he lacked the skills, but because he could not stand up.

This made the other proposal on his “profile form” even more ironic. It instructed the department of Economic Development to assist Mr Dlamini start his own business to utilize his skills.

The form also lists a daughter in the house as requiring access to bursaries and help with school admission. This sounded like a sensible intervention that could enhance the family’s capacity to move out of poverty. When I enquired about the daughter, it transpired that she had moved away to live in Oudtshoorn. I concluded that this was the most sensible thing she could have done, on her own initiative, to escape a situation that would inevitably destroy her opportunities.

Overall, my conclusion was that the “community profile” of this family was entirely useless. It had cost a lot of money to compile, and would cost even more to “follow-up” and would predictably have no beneficial consequence at all for the “war on poverty”. The other “profiles” were equally unhelpful.

Apart from the families in KwaNokuthula, we visited families in other areas as well.

At the end of the day, I concluded the following:

1) A common feature of all the families in dire poverty was the absence of a functional father figure.
2) Many had an obvious, and severe, substance abuse problem.
3) A significant number of family units comprised grandmothers looking after their grandchildren, either because the mothers had died or because the mothers were teenagers.

I concluded that the state was playing an important role in alleviating the extreme deprivation of these families through the provision of RDP houses, free medical treatment (typically anti-retrovirals) and state grants.

Each family we visited asked for additional grants or food parcels as their proposed method of moving out of poverty.

A grandmother told me she had been to the doctor many times, in an attempt to qualify for a disability grant, but each time the doctor had declared her fit to work. She could not work because she had to look after her grandchildren after their mother had died of AIDS. The father could not be traced. One of the children was HIV positive and very sickly. It was heart breaking to see this fragile little girl, slumped in a chair. She received medication and nutrition from the clinic. She was living in a shack because her granny had already been allocated an RDP house in another province and could not get a second one.

Another woman confronted me in the street, in a state of extreme intoxication, demanding to know how I expected her to raise her child on a grant of R250. When I asked her where the child’s father was, she dismissed my question as entirely irrelevant and told me she intended to have another child to receive an additional grant. There was no point trying to reason with her.

After the door-to-door visits Deputy President Motlanthe led the delegation in addressing a large rally of about 3,000 people in a huge marquee. I used the opportunity to talk bluntly about some of the “unmentionable” causes of poverty: teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, the spread of HIV through unprotected sex, the failure of many fathers to take responsibility for their children. I said that if we were to wage a real and effective “War on Poverty” we would have to be honest about these issues and devise effective strategies to address them. This would require both the government and individuals to take responsibility. The current approach was entrenching poverty and dependence, not eradicating it.

I also reflected on how much more productively the millions spent on the rally might have been spent if they had been used for bursaries for poor children to attend good schools.

When the master of ceremonies moved the vote of thanks for the day’s proceedings, I was struck by a final irony. The major corporate sponsor of the event was none other than South African Breweries. Go figure.




Signed Helen Zille

Strikers accused of kidnapping nurse

August 30, 2010

Submit your comment

A nurse was kidnapped on her way home from work at Stanger Hospital on Monday, apparently by striking public service workers, said the KwaZulu-Natal health department.

Spokesman Chris Maxon the nurse was one of the people hired by the department to help during the strike.

Her captors told her to phone the hospital to let it know what had happened to her, he said

"She has still not been found."

"The people who allegedly abducted her made her phone the hospital and told the hospital to release all the nurses working before abducting the nurse," said Maxon.



"The department is shocked to hear such news happening to people who are committed to providing health were being victimised in this matter," he said, hoping the culprits were found and placed behind bars.

The police were not immediately available for comment. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Unionists or murderers?

This happens every year and nothing gets done about it!

The president should be held accountable here!

ANC view of media 'bizarrely' at odds with reality

ANC view of media 'bizarrely' at odds with reality
Aug 29, 2010 12:00 AM By ROWAN PHILP

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

Official complaints by ANC and government officials against newspaper stories have quadrupled over the past three years.

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However, despite allegations of widespread newspaper falsehoods and "an astonishing degree of dishonesty", the total number of complaints to the ombudsman by these institutions was still only 24 in the past year, out of tens of thousands of stories published.

This week, media experts said the few cases of deliberately biased or false stories in South Africa's "improving" press made it "bizarre" that the opposite perception within the ANC was driving proposals for a tribunal to fine, investigate and even imprison journalists.

This week, it emerged that:

•Only four stories about the ANC or ANC Youth League were found to be unfair or inaccurate in the past three years, from eight complaints lodged, according to the ombudsman.
•Government and local government officials lodged 33 complaints with the Press Council in the past three years, with nine being found to be unfair, and another seven cases pending;
•Separate research by Media Monitoring Africa showed that 84% of 60000 media reports on the 2009 elections were fair to all political parties "and clear of overt bias", and concluded that "the South African media landscape demonstrated good levels of fairness and balance in its coverage".
However, what the ANC calls a concern that newspapers are beset with consistent anti-ANC bias, deliberate falsehoods and malicious reporting remains a stated reason for a policy debate over a media appeals tribunal at the ANC National General Council next month.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said there was far more irresponsible reporting than the statistics suggested, and that the figures "do not assist in the argument for a media appeals tribunal".

He said there were many instances of "unfair reporting on the ANC and the ANCYL and other progressive forces and society at-large that have not gone to the Press Council".

He said the proposals for a tribunal were "not in any way" a response to unfair stories about the ANC, but were to protect society "against unfair, malicious and irresponsible reporting by the print media".

Constitutional lawyer Pierre de Vos said "you cannot have a tribunal accountable to parliament if you want a free press", and media academic Professor Guy Berger said the proposal should be actively resisted because it "would give the ruling party the final say over what the press can publish".

Professor Anton Harber, head of media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Wits, said many serious errors did not reach the stage of a ruling by the ombudsman, with editors voluntarily offering retractions when the mistake was realised.


Flawed reports that angered ANC

The Ombudsman ruled that:

•In a story in The Times on July 7 this year, "Kaunda wins battle in the Presidency", said by Lakela Kaunda, deputy-director general in President Jacob Zuma's office, to have portrayed her "as a person who makes life unbearable for colleagues and who manoeuvres to have them lose their jobs if they disagree with her", the paper neglected to ask her for comment, represented opinion as fact, and readers could not be satisfied with the independence of its unnamed sources.
•In a story in the Sunday Tribune in February, "Premier's family lands juicy contracts", which alleged wrongdoing by the KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize, the paper failed to corroborate allegations, or include responses of parties.
•In a story in the Mail & Guardian in January, "Youth League targets Mantashe", that stated that the ANC Youth League had devised a plan to weaken the influence of ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, the newspaper ought to be reprimanded for failing to approach the league for comment.
•A key part of the report "Phosa tries to Muzzle City Press" in that newspaper in August last year about ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa was unfair. The newspaper gave Phosa insufficient time to respond, and its "random" use of unnamed sources was misleading.

Mugabe is dying of cancer ????

Mugabe is dying of cancer – REPORT
By _
for ZimEye.org

Published: August 27, 2010
Comment

An unconfirmed report published on an online publication says that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is actively considering successors after his doctor told him he is losing the battle against cancer.

The African Aristocract reported that his urologist Awang Kechick visited him in Zimbabwe and told him that his condition is advancing faster than any treatment could delay it.

The report says that Mugabe has been struggling with undisclosed health issues for a long while, although he has returned to public life looking healthy. However, his health has deteriorated dramatically in the last months, with some images showing him unable to walk without help during a recent trip to Uganda.

Mugabe’s condition is allegedly so volatile that his physicians don’t leave his side, and the State House has been equipped with state-of-the-art resuscitation facilities.

There are also assertions that Zanu-PF officials ’are aware’ of Mugabe’s ill health, and the succession issue has been high on the list of topics recently.

According to the article, Mugabe seems to have surprised everyone by dumping presidential hopefuls and selecting Simba Makoni.
Makoni left the Zanu-PF to start his own party, and he seems to have support from both the Zanu-PF and its opposition the MDC, as well as the media.

If Mugabe wins the elections in 2011 and institutes Makoni as president, Makoni will most certainly make an impression with the public, while, with Zimbabwe’s economic growth due to increase over the coming five years, he will also take credit for these developments.

This might be bad news for the MDC though, as four years is enough to rebrand the current ruling party.

Related Posts:
•Mugabe falls asleep during Investment conference
•Simba Makoni Arrested




30 Comments on "Mugabe is dying of cancer – REPORT"

wevhu on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:06 am

zviroto zviroto ngazviperere kudzimba, vaMugabe vari panyanga… since when muchiti arwara, he afa?
Dzimai Moto on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:13 am

Mudhara is alive and kicking. The man sends rumours as CIO projects to gauge public response. Malawians are very strong people they can reach 140 years. Mugabe has used a divide and rule approach and to play an end game well he has to test public response before playing the next move in the political game.

I know that insurance companies test policy holders frequently in order to determine benefits and adjust monthly premiums. When they do their tests they bring all the medical kits. Those who are not conversant with medical procedures might take it as a serious operation. The nurses are just doing a rotine test on Mugabe. The oldman is alive, we will have him for the next 10 years. One has to watch him addressing a rally at his age, his stamina is surprising. He stands upon his two feet while addressing a rally for 45 minutes at his age. It disputes the cancer story.
wevhu on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:17 am

zviroto zviroto ngazviperere kudzimba, vaMugabe vari panyanga… since when muchiti arwara, he-e afa? kusvika riini zvido zvenyu zvisati zvazadziswa
T.Musango on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:30 am

The surprising thing with the MDC cheerleaders is, they are pinning their hopes of getting into power thru the death of the oldman. The MDC IS A PARTY OF OPPORTUNISTS.
coyachatsva on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:44 am

Right Guys,i want to put my final nail on guvnor’s coffin now.i’m not here just for roaming here and there in this forum and i’m not working for this anyway as some of you are saying.i’m a managing director of a big company,so i do have lot of things to do, but i cannot leave people like guvnor,tindo and makwembere in the darkness and also full of ignorance about how zimbabwe came to be. if we zimbabweans want to be a well off country,please listen to my advice,Guvnor don’t you want land for your own? don’t you want your own company from nowhere i.e black empoerement? i’m not decampaining mdc-t,it has decampained it self through calling for illegal sanctions on its citizens hence the party left with people at heart is zanu pf and its president Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
Anonymous on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:45 am

ngarife. a murderer
Guvnor on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:14 am

May the Lord heal him from all has maladies.
David Mayo on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:16 am

Zvakaoma. Mamemories edu mapfupi. Vari pa RSA apa varikutozvionera how varungu treats blacks. Zvinhu zvese hazvidi kungopfuuridza chete asi vakomana varungu vakatopenga nehutsinye…Ofcourse you do not correct a wrong by doing another wrong
tindo on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:19 am

Nyaya yekufa kwava Mugabe inyaya inofadza chose kuruzhinji rwema Zimbabweans arikumativi mana ose epasi rino. We are cautiuosly taking this news because the old man is a survivor, he survived RF bullets and jails then Morgan Tsvangirai ballot blows now he may draw a shocker against cancer who knows?.
peter on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:32 am

If he dies,i will attend the funeral just to make sure he is dead and will not ressurect.We are where we are becoz of HIm .Zimbabwe is our country too and we need to enjoy there not being called foreigners all the time
Guvnor on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:32 am

But may he none the less live long enough to see Zimbabwe prospering mightily without his brand of leadership and being ruled by someone he detests.
John makumbe on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 8:20 am

Muchati baba! Mugabe hahafi. Isu veZanu tinozviziva zvima”tricks” zvevavengi. Ndiyani asingazive kuti cancer takes for ever to kill. Mudhara wedu has all the medical attention he needs. He has the best medical equip right in his home. Munopenga! Ivhu kuvanhu! Garai ikoko ku”diaspora” isu tichitora ivhu pamadiro!!
manex k on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 8:40 am

well l dont wish someone to die but with the way kamudhara mugabe has caused other (many many ) people to flee the country and killing his own people for supporting his party aah ngakafe zvako.l will celebrate his death more than anything.zimbabwe is bleeding sufferring nokuda kwekadhara aka.Achafa chete
Shaun on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 9:04 am

May his death be a long and painful one – so he can at least get a glimpse of the pain he has inflicted!
T.Musango on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 10:46 am

What about the chubby-cheecked-one, who has caused so much suffering and death to many Zimbos with the promise that he was real and would take them to the promised land, yet he ended up joining the so-called killer and now claiming that the GNU is working. Vamwe dzave shirikadzi coz varume vakafa believing they were fighting along with real patriots yet the patriots are now enjoying and sharing with the so-called murderous.
Cde Digden on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 10:55 am

Lest we forget,mugabe has done nothing wrong that needs to be heralded as the evil one.have the white man ever prosecuted themselves for tormenting the black man from years i memorial,the slave trade,apartheid etc.the black man has suffered in the hands of the whites.now that the blackman wants what belongs to him,he becomes the devil.the white man knows how to twist people`s minds eg demonising other religions that do not support their actions.they know how to label someone as evil.if anyone of you people listening to the whites existed back in the days when zimbabwe was colonised.our land takedn by the whites,our cattle and we were not seen as human.the white man feels that they are God and can judge them.Mbuya Nehanda said that her bones will rise.she knew the wrath that the white man had inflicted on them.no that the owners want what belongs to them,its now invasion and the people are evil.the parameters of ownership are done by their(whiteman) system of deeds, pen and paper and so on coz they knew their acts will eventually catch up with them and our blackman parameter is by heart.this land is our birth right and no-one has the right of taking it away from us.our heart lies with this land. now the few misguided fellows are there to celebrate this news,that`s unheard of,the worst thing coz it`s not up to anyone of us to judge,only God in the Heavens has the power to judge.
choyachatsva on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 11:54 am

guvnor read the comment given by david mayo!!!!!!!
Bla Miki on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 12:04 pm

Saka zvirikunzi chiiko, President vakafa asi vachatakura nama Vice Presidents ose? Still haziise Tsvangson panyanga saka chirikufadza apa chii?
choyachatsva on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 12:07 pm

today i’m enjoying a rest guvnor, here comes cde Digden telling the really truth. read and meditate my friend. don’t read as if you are reading a novel.
unknown on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 1:45 pm

Our so called Honourable RG Mugabe ! we are not judges but Our Mighty God is the one whom you will face , before you die sir give your self time & try you calculate how many people you had killed since you started rule, how many people died because of you, how many people suffering just bcoz of you, how many kids left being orphans whilst their parents left your country to earn a living , how many marriage divorces have you caused . Cant you see the mess that you had caused to peope , Remember that God is for us all, i wish you live many more bcoz you have to pay your dues while alive
denzel on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 1:49 pm

this is a matter of time only God knows
Guvnor on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 2:47 pm

Hero worshipers tremble in your shoes the immovable will meet the irrisistable.
Mkaranga on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 4:41 pm

I just beseech the Almighty God to delay the demise of this man as he cannot go into the next world before atoning for his sins here on earth. This man has done terrible things to our country and altered the fate and lives of millions. He must be tried and face justice so that any other pretenders in his party know what awaits them at the end of the tunnel if they follow his ways. He must not die now. Not at least before he has gone to the Hague.
Amen.
Nhamo C Tutisani on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 5:43 pm

The fact is that he is incrementally dying, no matter what from.
Many hopeful Zanu PF cadres have awaited his demise for far too long.
Who will the High Priestess Grace shack up with next?
It is good to know that the Gushongo genomes have been widely captured well before his demise.
Despite his reliance on spirits, Gabriel will not be able to prescribe anymore – particularly from his everlasting underground internment.
sem paul kateta on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 5:46 pm

Ag, I am not suprised at all by this article, I know how Euro-centric medias are, they are forever speculating the health of the leaders they don’t like. thats what they do to Castro,Kim and now HE Mugabe, yet they don’t care to update us on the health of Ariel Sharon the former Israel Prime minister who has been in Coma since 2006. to hell,hell,hell,hell with this nonsense!! HE Mugabe as well and fine,shame on you sellout,western puppets
Cheers on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 6:13 pm

At the fullness of time so shall it be, so why worry. No one has lived for ever we shall all pass on. You shall not rejoice over somebodies suffering, regardless who it is.
our prayers are answered on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:20 pm

he must pay for his sins … he affected all our lives in major ways .. he has seperated families for ever because of his lust for power /// he must suffer here on earth and in hell as well for all eternity ..
chatsva kudhara on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:23 pm

ummm these picture worries me a lot my assylum case is still under consideration and i can see Mugabe is dying, i think its time i should pray for him to live for the next two or theree years by that time hopefully mapepa anenge aita bhoo
chatsva kudhara on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 7:23 pm

ummm these picture worries me a lot my assylum case is still under consideration and i can see Mugabe is dying, i think its time i should pray for him to live for the next two or theree years by that time hopefully mapepa anenge aita bhoo
Tongai on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 9:17 pm

ma1, I don’t wish death upon the old man, I just hope he repents of his sins and lets go of power.
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Reason for concern - De Klerk

2010-08-26 08:40



Former president FW de Klerk gives an interview in his office in Plattekloof in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. (Jaco Marais, Die Burger)
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Murray la Vita, Die Burger
Cape Town - All "balanced South Africans" who value democracy have reason to be very concerned, says former president FW de Klerk.

He said in a wide-ranging interview that the elements of federalism in the Constitution, freedom of the media, the free market economy and the independence of the judiciary are in danger.

"It there has ever been a good time for civil society to join the debate on these four matters, it is now. The framework offered by the Constitution provides some protection.

Constitution

"I don't believe the Constitutional Court will approve the media legislation and the Protection of Information Bill as they stand at the moment.

"The same goes for ownership rights. The green paper which will be published soon does not comply with the Constitution. The same goes for the provinces. This is protected in the Constitution.

"But we need to be wide awake! We need to be ready!"

It is necessary for the media to critically evaluate the mechanisms by which the industry regulates itself.

"I think there is room for improvement. And if the media should decide to make some improvements, it would relieve some of the pressure and then there will be a way to successfully prevent the establishment of a state-controlled tribunal and access to information being limited too severely."

Apartheid comparisons

He conceded that there are "corresponding elements" between the arguments currently being used by the ANC to justify a media tribunal and those used by the apartheid government in 1982.

"But the situation in 1982 was somewhat different. There was actually a silent war going on.

"We were still involved in Angola then and there were still thousands and thousands of Cuban troops and the USSR was still alive and it was still providing financial support, weapons and training to struggle movements."

The emergency measures set in place by the government in 1986 and 1987 were essential and saved many lives.

According to De Klerk, the glue which holds the ANC together has disappeared, and it is going to tear apart.

"If you analyse the broader structures of the ANC you will find people grouped together who believe in completely different things. The old glue which kept them connected was the struggle to end apartheid. Apartheid is gone now, and so is the cement.

ANC split

"So the ANC is going to split. They don't like hearing it, but I'm convinced it will happen. And when it does, we will see our democracy normalised to a greater degree.

"Then alliance politics will take a strong step forward in South Africa. Alliance politics allows for realistic compromises."

De Klerk, who received the Nobel Peace Prize along with former president Nelson Mandela in 1993, says he did not betray anyone or let anyone down.

"I am convinced that what we did between 1989 and 1994 was in the best interests of everyone in South Africa, and that we prevented a catastrophe.

"I'm convinced we saved hundreds of thousands of lives which would have been lost in a struggle that would have destroyed this country."


- Die Burger

The star

Comments by Sonny

Had FW De Klerk foreseen the 'catastrophe' 16 years ago, would he have taken the same

decisions?

It does not take a rocket scientist to make predictions now!

We will protect our Constitution with everything at our disposal!

Policeman 'beaten to death'

27 August 2010, 10:47

A Tshwane metro police officer was allegedly beaten to death in the early hours on Friday, paramedics said.

Police have opened a case of murder, but could not confirm that a Blue Bulls player committed the assault.

Blue Bulls chief executive officer Barend Van Graan said he would be "sending out a press release in the next few minutes".

He could not immediately confirm that a player was behind the assault.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said paramedics found the critically injured police officer lying in the middle of Schoeman Street.

The officer died moments later of extensive injuries.

Colonel EugeneOpperman said a case of murder had been opened but would give no further details. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Which 'dronkgat' will defend the suspect here?

Let's hope the truth is not tainted!

Did this incident happen in Tshwane or Pretoria?

Mbalula takes centre stage at NGC

25 August 2010, 21:15

By Natasha Marrian and Hlengiwe Nhlabathi

Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula took centre stage at the ANCYL national general council, despite being absent from the mid-term policy gathering in Midrand on Wednesday.

ANCYL deputy president Andile Lungisa, who was chairing the session, called on delegates to sing a "revolutionary song".

They broke out in a song in support of Mbalula, who the league wants to replace ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at the ruling party's 2012 elective conference. They did this despite Lungisa earlier urging them not to sing about "personalities".

Mantashe is also chairman of the SA Communist Party, an ANC ally.

ANCYL president Julius Malema joined in the revelry, dancing and clapping, prompting delegates to leave their seats and make their way to the stage. They gathered at the front of the hall, singing their support for Mbalula, with Malema and the league's national executive committee members joining in from the stage.

ANC leaders Thandi Modise, Baleka Mbete and Nathi Mthethwa stayed in their seats and looked on as the singing swelled.

Mbalula was due to attend the NGC but had not yet arrived.

The ANCYL in the Eastern Cape said it would push to have the NGC resolve on lobbying for Mbalula to take Mantashe's place in the run-up to 2012.

In a recent interview Malema described Mbalula as "my man". He also reportedly wanted the ruling party's leadership to reflect a "generational mix".

Mbalula is a former ANCYL president, a member of the ANC's national executive and working committees.

Lungisa battled to get the delegates to return to their seats, urging them to do so as an "international guest" was due to address them.

When they eventually settled down, the league received a message of support from Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF. - Sapa

The Star

Comments by Sonny

Will one Communist Anarchist be replaced by another?

Is the ANC still going backwards?

Rocket launchers missing - SANDF

2010-08-23 14:44

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Cape Town - Six rocket launchers and four mortars are among weaponry that has gone missing from SA National Defence Force arsenals over the past year, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu revealed on Monday.

The missing launchers include three 88mm anti-tank weapons, which can be used to knock out armoured vehicles.

In a written response to a parliamentary question, Sisulu gave details of weapons that had "been stolen or gone missing" from the SANDF over the past three years.

According to a table included in the reply - titled "Firearm losses of the DOD (department of defence)" - weapon losses during 2009 included:

- five 9mm pistols;
- six 5.56mm rifles;
- seven 7.62mm rifles;
- one 7.70mm rifle;
- six 0.22 (inch) rifles;
- four 60mm mortars;
- one 81mm mortar;
- three 88mm rocket launchers;
- two 40mm rocket launchers; and
- one 70mm rocket launcher.

The table did not indicate whether the stolen or missing launchers and mortars included rockets and shells.

Alarming

The losses were "alarming", Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald, who posed the question to Sisulu, said on Monday.

"It is alarming to see these figures. The fact that 88mm rocket launchers, which can be used against tanks and vehicles, have been stolen is quite disturbing.

"The question is: What do those who have these weapons want to use them for? What will people do with these rocket launchers?"

Groenewald said the reply also showed a total of 87 7.62mm rifles and 47 5.56mm rifles had been stolen from the SANDF since 2007.

"If we look at cash-in-transit heists, these are exactly the sort of weapons criminals use."

He said an investigation was needed to see if this was the case, and blamed the weapon losses on "poor management and control" in the SANDF.

In her reply, Sisulu said "all possible physical measures" were in place to secure weapons in SANDF storage.

"With regard to losses, regular inspections are done as part of unit standing orders to effectively verify and control weapons.

"Stock verification is done on a regular basis to ensure compliance with requirements of policy and a central firearms control register is kept and verified with the (SA Police Force) firearms control register as a measure to control losses," she said.

'Not the worst in the world'

Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent Helmut Heitman told Sapa the 40mm rocket launchers were probably in fact grenade launchers, and were the most worrisome of the missing weapons.

"The grenades are still in production," he said.

The 88mm rocket launchers on the list of missing weapons probably referred to the "old 3 1/2-inch bazooka", which had long been out of service.

"I suspect these were grabbed as souvenirs," he said.

The ammunition for such bazookas was no longer manufactured, but the weapon was capable, in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing, of "blowing up a car or knocking a hole through a wall".

Heitman said the 70mm rocket launcher, as described in the table, baffled him.

"The only 70mm part I can think of is the rocket launch tube on the Rooivalk helicopter," he said.

In her written reply, Sisulu said she was not prepared to make a statement on the missing weapons.

Heitman said SANDF ammunition and weapons stores were "pretty highly controlled".

"The problem is probably at a unit level. They (the SANDF) are supposed to have tight control, but some stuff does go missing. We're not among the worst in the world.

"Over the past 15 years, we've had more stuff gone missing than we should have," he said.

- SAPA

News24.Com

Comments by Sonny

Black Market or Third Force; YOU DECIDE!!!!

Lindiwe Sisulu - The time has come for you to run the gauntlet!!

High Treason is a serious offence!

ROBBERS ARSENAL.........

- five 9mm pistols;
- six 5.56mm rifles;
- seven 7.62mm rifles;
- one 7.70mm rifle;
- six 0.22 (inch) rifles;
- four 60mm mortars;
- one 81mm mortar;
- three 88mm rocket launchers;
- two 40mm rocket launchers; and
- one 70mm rocket launcher......

COMPLIMENTS OF THE SANDF!

SA IS BECOMING LIKE COLUMBIA!!

NO LAWS AND LOTS OF DRUG AND ARMS SMUGGLERS!!

State is 'misleading the public' - unions

August 24, 2010

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Trade unions reacted angrily on Tuesday to the government's claim that it had made a new wage offer to public servants as they entered the seventh day of a national strike.

"That is not a new offer from the government. Its offer is still seven percent. The government is just misleading the public," said SA Democratic Teachers Union deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said on Monday that there was only one tenth of a percentage difference between the unions' demands and the state's offer.

He said the government was "in real terms" offering an 8.5 percent increase, while the unions were demanding an 8.6 percent hike.

Maseko said additional to a seven percent increase, there was a 1.5 percent pay progression, which came to a total of 8.5 percent.

Unionists slammed his statement as "mischievous".

"The question of the pay progression has always been there... a collective agreement on the pay progression was signed in 2003," said Dolopi.

He said the pay progression was performance-related, and pointed out that teachers only qualified for a one-percent pay progression.

"That is something we need to correct as well," said Dolopi.

The 210 000-strong Public Servants Association (PSA) issued a statement last week warning the public that the government was trying to mislead people by claiming to have added pay progression to its offer.



"The PSA has noted with extreme concern this distribution of incorrect information by the ministry for public service and administration," said spokesman Manie de Clercq.

He said the pay progression was a "notch increment" for deserving workers.

"Employees who qualify for this increment are therefore entitled to receive it, irrespective of what the annual general increase for public servants will be for 2010," said De Clercq.

"The ministry is clearly grasping at straws and is seeking to artificially inflate its meagre offer, which has driven its entire workforce to strike action."

Maseko acknowledged on Monday that the 1.5 percent "was always on the table", but there had been a "delay in highlighting this fact", and the government now wanted to make this clear to both the public and workers.

Some 1.3 million public workers went on strike on Wednesday to demand an 8.6 percent hike and R1 000 a month housing allowance, compared to the government's offer of seven percent and R700.

The strike has become violent at times, and dozens of protesters have been arrested for public violence, There have been severe service disruptions at schools and hospitals. - Sapa

Business Report

Comments by Sonny

Why is the government 'mischievous?'

Do they want to score more political points amongst the poor and illiterate?

If they stop splashing tax payers money on exclusive ANC parties, then, they will be

able to pay for the demanded wage increases!

STOP ANC CORRUPTION AND DEMAND SERVICE DELIVERY NOW!

Gaddafi's son visits Zimbabwe

Gaddafi's son visits Zimbabwe

2010-08-24 07:30
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Harare - The son of longtime Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi is coming to assess Libyan investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, an indication the two estranged rogue states are mending relations.Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said on Monday that businessman and former professional soccer player Saadi Gaddafi would be looking at tourism and other sectors. Gaddafi will also meet longtime Zimbabwe ruler President Robert Mugabe during a five-day trip this week, Mzembi said.While Libya-Zimbabwe relations have been strained for several years, Mzembi said Zimbabwe now was focused on recovery."We want investors," he said.In 2002, at the height of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, lines of vehicles snaked around streets leading to gas stations in Zimbabwe and Libya was hailed as coming to the rescue with fuel.But Libya's patience ran out when Zimbabwe didn't pay its debt. It cut its gasoline supplies and sent officials to take possession of platinum and other minerals and assets in Zimbabwe.Relations deteriorated further when Libya befriended Western countries two decades after a Libyan bomb brought down an American airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an arch foe of Mugabe, travelled to Tripoli and shook hands with Gaddafi in 2007.The photograph of the handshake irked Mugabe and his party. Mugabe says travel, banking and other sanctions imposed by the British and other Western governments ruined his economy. Western nations said the measures were meant to protest human rights violations and the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms that have disrupted the agriculture based economy since 2000.
- SAPA