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Debt-ceiling hike denier and proud

by Ilana Mercer

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The government “not paying for all sorts of things” is how Tom Foreman messily defined a default on the debt-ceiling for the Chicken Littles of his news network. In one of many doomandgloom debt-ceiling segments for state broadcaster CNN, Foreman forewarned that a default on the country’s debt “would not be just about D.C., but it could be about YOU.”

In the same phillipic, Foreman carelessly conflated a debt default with a failure to raise the debt ceiling before its Oct. 17th deadline. But then President Pain has been setting the tone for the media, having accused Republicans, in his “Oct. 8 news conference on the shutdown and debt limit,” “of refusing to “meet our country’s commitments, pay our bills,” and of generally precipitating an “economic shutdown.”

The notion, however, that not raising the government’s credit limit must necessarily result in a default on the debt is untrue.

The government takes in approximately $250 billion a month in revenue. Servicing the national debt costs about $30 billion a month. Three trillion dollars is what the federal government expects to loot in the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, 2013 and will end on Sept. 30, 2014.

On reflection, the U.S. Treasury collects enough to pay down the interest on the debt as well as a portion of the principal.

Claiming that the president is powerless to prioritize won’t wash either. “There is no constitutional feature that says the president cannot allocate revenues,” David Stockman told Lou Dobbs. Paraphrased, the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan said this: Unless President Obama orders it, there will be no default on the government debt, because Obama has the power to prioritize and allocate the revenue coming in. Oct. 17 is a phony date, designed to intimidate Republicans—and anyone trying to stand against a massive increase in the “public debt.” The Beltway is silent about the ability of the president to honor the country’s debt, because of an opposition to entitlement reform.

Not to be outdone, the president has further asserted that “… raising the debt ceiling … does not add a dime to our debt.” (I confess to being impressed with this bit of logic, coming as it does from a man whose reasoning skills are hardly robust.)

Too true.”Technically, having the credit limit increased on a credit card does not force you to spend beyond your means and end up with a higher balance on the credit card,” averred Professor Jeffrey Dorfman of the University of Georgia. “However, it makes it much more likely.”

Increasing the credit limit on the deadbeat U.S. government’s credit card—it owes 17 trillion gigabucks and counting—guarantees more spending.

The distinction between the country’s “debt obligations” to bondholders and its “expenditures”—what Foreman called “all sorts of things”—seems to befuddle the president. Said Obama: “… we’ve got a lot of other obligations, not just people who pay Treasury bills. We’ve got … senior citizens who are counting on their Social Security check … We have veterans …farmers who are waiting for loans.”

And there are the promises made under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. But these are promises, not debts. Spending programs are not to be equated with debt.

David Henderson of the Library of Economics and Liberty’s EconLog made quick work of this fallacy: The president “is effectively saying that if the government wants to spend x and has only enough money to spend 0.67x, then not spending on the other 0.33x is a failure to keep an obligation. In a political sense, that might be: the government has made a lot of spending promises to a lot of people. But in an economic sense, it’s not.”

What this president has excoriated as a Republican demand for ransom is entirely reasonable. It is not a first for one party to use a government shut-down or the debt limit to get a policy concession, added the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards during a Fox-Business broadcast. President Obama and the Democrats excluded Republicans from the Obamacare negotiations. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act got no Republican votes in both Houses. Unilateral decisions on Obamacare made by Obama have been the order of the day. Using the levers available to them to get changes in a rotten law is hardly unusual or unreasonable on the part of the Republicans.

How nice it would have been had Republicans stood firm; had they refused to raise the debt ceiling—and horrors!—forced the government to balance its budget. Alas, they’ve already been shoehorned into “exploring … a short-term increase in [said] ceiling.” The forces arrayed against the GOP are formidable. There are just too many Americans grubbing for free stuff and a preponderance of Republicans eager to parcel it out in exchange for power.

Considering the U.S. government’s set-in stone spending, the real phony construct is the debt-ceiling itself. In the words of economist and philosopher Anthony de Jasay, placing a ceiling on the federal debt is “a measure whose only effect is to oblige the Congress to raise the debt ceiling every time the rising debt catches up with it.”

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Zuma wants young black academics to replace retiring whites

More young black graduates are needed to fill academic posts at universities, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday.

“… We want to attract more young black graduates into academic careers,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Gauteng Manifesto Forum at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg.

“Our research indicates that one fifth of our university academics will retire within a decade, of which 32 percent are professors, meaning most experienced academics will be leaving the field.”

There were only limited numbers of younger researchers entering academia to replace those leaving.

The government was prioritising investment in education and skills development to help boost youth employment.

“The National Development Plan envisages an increase in higher education enrolments from 17.9 percent in 2012 to 25 percent by 2030.

“Indeed, our young people are hungry for education,” Zuma said.

In the past 10 years, the number of enrolments had grown by more than half.

Two new universities were being built in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape in response to the demand for education.

“Our economy has expanded, more opportunities are becoming available for all,” he said.

Since 1994, total employment had increased by more than 3.5 million

In mining and industry, the average real wages had increased by more than 150 percent, also since 1994.

“While income inequality remains high, the expansion of our social grants system has contributed to a reduction in the proportion of households living in poverty,” said Zuma.

There had also been progress in transformation of ownership and the management of the economy.

“To date, over R600 billion in Black Economic Empowerment transactions have been recorded since 1995,” he said.

Black people and women in senior management positions had increased from less than 10 percent in the 1990s to over 40 percent.

“More progress is needed, but the trend is in the right direction.”

While the global economic meltdown had affected the economy considerably since 2009, the resilience of South Africa’s banking sector had shielded the economy to some extent.

On the issue of e-tolling, Zuma said: “The roads are to be tolled to pay back the money we borrowed to build the freeways.

“… It is not fair to make the whole of South Africa pay for Gauteng’s road use by taxing everyone’s petrol more or put more burden on the already strained fiscus.”

On October 9, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein dismissed the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s (Outa) challenge to the e-tolling of Gauteng’s freeways.

On Friday, Outa announced that it would abandon its legal battle as it had insufficient funds.

“We still owe our lawyers R1.8 million and it will cost R1.5m to continue. We realised that we are out of money,” Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said at the time. – Sapa

US spying causes new anger in France, Mexico

by Marianne Barriaux and Michael Mainville BARRIAUX, Michael MAINVILLE

The United States has become embroiled in a new row over its controversial spying programme as allies France and Mexico condemned revelations Washington tapped millions of phonecalls and hacked into leaders’ emails.

French President Francois Hollande on Monday expressed his “deep disapproval” of reports of US spying in a phone call with President Barack Obama.

France’s Le Monde newspaper reported that the US National Security Agency had secretly monitored 70.3 million phone communications in France over 30 days from December 10, 2012, to January 8 this year.

The allegations, the latest from leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also marred a visit to Paris by US Secretary of State John Kerry, where he discussed moves to try to end the war in Syria.

At the same time, German weekly Der Spiegel reported the NSA had also hacked into former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s email account.

Calderon, on Twitter, described the revelations as an “affront to the institutions of the country, given that it took place when I was president”.

Hollande told Obama that the alleged practices were “unacceptable between friends and allies because they infringe on the privacy of French citizens”, the French leader’s office said in a statement.

The allegations come on top of previous revelations by Snowden — who has sought safety in Russia as US authorities pursue him for leaking classified information — that the United States had a vast, secret programme called PRISM to monitor Internet users.

French prosecutors are already investigating the programme, and French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was “deeply shocked” by the new revelations.

“It’s incredible that an allied country like the United States at this point goes as far as spying on private communications that have no strategic justification, no justification on the basis of national defence,” he told journalists.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, on a visit to Luxembourg, said US ambassador Charles Rivkin was summoned to his ministry early Monday.

“These kinds of practices between partners that harm privacy are totally unacceptable,” he told reporters, adding France needed assurances that the United States was no longer monitoring its communications.

His comments were relayed to the US ambassador during the meeting, a ministry spokesman said — the second time in less than four months that America’s top representative in France has been hauled in over revelations about US snooping.

Kerry refused to comment on the specific accusations, but noted that Washington was reviewing its intelligence gathering operations following protests from allied governments.

He also sought to defend the US position.

“Protecting the security of our citizens in today’s world is a very complicated, very challenging task… because there are lots of people out there seeking to do harm to other people,” Kerry said at a press conference after meeting Arab League officials.

“Lots of countries are engaged in the activity of trying to protect their citizens in the world,” he said. “Our goal is always to try to find the right balance between protecting the privacy and security of our citizens.”

According to Le Monde, the spy agency automatically picked up communications from certain phone numbers in France and recorded certain text messages under a programme code-named “US-985D”.

The French daily said the documents gave grounds to believe that the NSA targeted not only people suspected of being involved in terrorism but also high-profile individuals in business and politics.

Hollande’s office said the French president and Obama had agreed “to work together to determine the facts and the exact scope of surveillance activities” revealed by Le Monde.

Der Spiegel also revealed that US agents had hacked into the Mexican presidency’s network, gaining access to Calderon’s account.

According to the report, the NSA said this contained “diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which continue to provide insight into Mexico’s political system and internal stability”.

The agency reportedly said the president’s office was now “a lucrative source”.

Mexican authorities said they would be seeking answers from US officials “as soon as possible”.

“This practice is unacceptable, illegitimate and contrary to Mexican law and international law,” the foreign ministry said.

Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist now living in Brazil who has broken many of the recent stories about secret US surveillance programmes, says Washington has spied on all Latin American countries.

Speaking to a press association in Miami, Greenwald said he would report about each case in the region and warned that more spying within the United States would also be revealed.

He also said the disclosures published by Le Monde Monday had been in the hands of the French daily for some time.

This is not the first time there have been reports that France and Mexico have been targeted in relation to NSA spying allegations since information leaked by Snowden first emerged in June.

Mexico’s current President Enrique Pena Nieto has already complained to Obama over reports US spies have gone through his emails.

And Der Spiegel reported last month that in 2010 the NSA monitored the internal computer network of France’s diplomats and that of the foreign ministry.

But France itself has also been accused of spying. Le Monde reported in recent months that intelligence services intercepted all communications in the country, stocking telephone and computer data for years –accusations denied by the government. – AFP

Coloured ANC leader wants to honour assassin Tsafendas

Christian Martins, MPL for the Eastern Cape

A request has been made to declare the graves of Hendrik Verwoerd and his assassin Dimitri Tsafendas national heritage sites.

The request came from ANC Eastern Cape MPL Christian Martins in a letter to the National Heritage Council of SA, released to the media on Monday.

Martins argues in the letter that South Africa’s history would be incomplete without Verwoerd, referred to as the “architect of apartheid”.

Verwoerd served as South Africa’s prime minister from September 2, 1958 to September 6, 1966, when he was stabbed by Tsafendas in the then House of Assembly in Parliament.

“Dimitri Tsafendas and Hendrik Verwoerd arguably changed the course of post-war South African history more than any other, when Tsafendas stabbed to death the ‘architect of apartheid’,” said Martins.

Martins said that while Tsafendas was declared unfit to stand trial due to insanity, research showed Tsafendas knew what he was doing and planned the assassination well in advance.

“And further research clearly shows that this act of Tsafendas was politically motivated, aggravated by the heinous racial prejudices that Verwoerd exploited to try to entrench white rule on the subcontinent.”

It was Martin’s opinion that rather than forgetting these important role-players in the country’s history, homage should be bestowed upon Tsafendas, a hero and martyr for the cause of the South African people.

“The assassination of Verwoerd was our exodus from the policies, laws and by-laws articulated and crafted by Verwoerd,” he said.

“Verwoerd inculcated in South Africans a belief that those who opposed apartheid or criticised it either misunderstood the policy or were dangerous communists.”

This led to violence which drove black leaders into exile and quenched internal opposition, giving birth to a form of leadership within many mass movements that saw South Africa transformed to democracy.

“Shared opposition and shared passion for apartheid shaped South Africa and for that we have to honour and remember the oppressed and the oppressor, the villain and the hero,” said Martins.

Martins was punished by the Eastern Cape legislature’s ethics committee in September for referring to the Democratic Alliance as peacocks in October last year.

He was penalised one months salary and suspended from participating in the activities of the legislature for 30 days from October 1. – Sapa

Suspect in Diepsloot toddler murder to appear in court today

A 29-year-old accused of the murder of two children in Diepsloot was expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

He was arrested in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, on Friday for the murder of two-year-old Yonelisa Mali and her three-year-old cousin, Zandile Mali.

The man had been on the run since the discovery of the toddlers in a toilet cubicle on Tuesday.

He would face two charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.

Four other men appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of rape and murder. The case was postponed to Thursday for the men to apply for Legal Aid.

South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality ‘outraged’ by killing and raping of children

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) expressed outrage on Friday at the killing and raping of children in Diepsloot and elsewhere in the country.

“It is with great sadness that we experience yet another rape and murder of children,” the organisation said in a statement.

“It should be noted that this happens at the time when the CGE has taken measures to ensure that there is public awareness… of gender-based violence in our society.”

It welcomed the arrests in Diepsloot.

“[We] applaud the police for moving swiftly in arresting the alleged perpetrator and believe justice would be served. The CGE will closely monitor the case as part of its internal mandate.”

On Tuesday, Diepsloot residents took to the streets after the bodies of two-year-old Yonelisa Mali and her three-year-old cousin Zandile Mali, were discovered in a communal toilet. They had been reported missing at the weekend.

Four men appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of rape and murder. The case was postponed to Thursday for the men to apply for Legal Aid. A fifth man, who was arrested early Friday morning in Alexandra, will appear on Monday.

The girls’ funeral will be held on Saturday.

In a separate case, on Wednesday, Katlehong residents found two toddlers, aged one and three, dead in a field near Zonkizizwe. Their mother, Esther Moyana, faces two charges of murder for allegedly poisoning them.

She initially told police that her husband had abandoned her and the children in the veld on Tuesday, while on their way from Witbank to Johannesburg.

She claimed he left them with cooldrink, which they drank on Tuesday night. When she woke in the morning, the children were dead.

Police said there appeared to be discrepancies in Moyana’s story. – Sapa

Diepsloot vows to vote for Malema’s EFF because of crime

Some Diepsloot residents angered by the killing of two children vowed on Friday to vote for the Economic Freedom Fighters in general elections next year.

“In other countries if you kill you get killed, but in South Africa you are awarded with a comfortable life in prison. You eat healthy food and you have a television,” said Reneilwe Mokwena, 34, a mother of four.

Another mother, Darksha Fenyane, 36, said the two of them would be voting for the EFF, saying President Jacob Zuma had let them down.

“We voted for him not knowing he is like this. He must not come here because we will hurt him,” said Fenyane.

The bodies of two-year-old Yonelisa Mali and her cousin Zandile Mali, three, were found on Tuesday. They were reported missing at the weekend.

Four men appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of rape and murder. The case was postponed to Thursday for the men to apply for Legal Aid.

A fifth man, who was arrested early Friday morning in Alexandra, would appear in the court on Monday.

Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane urged Diepsloot residents to support the family of the two toddlers.

“This is something that must never happen to anybody’s child,” she said outside the family’s home in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.

She said police received information which helped them make the arrests.

“What has happened today [Friday] in Diepsloot is a demonstration that community and police relationship are very important. Their partnership can go a long way.

“Now that the suspect has been arrested let’s all rally behind the family give them the necessary support. Give the mothers space to grieve the loss of their children so that they can find closure.”

She told reporters the family was thankful and looking forward to a swift prosecution of the perpetrators.

Earlier, residents gathered outside the police station to protest about the murders. They demanded that police release the fifth man so they could burn him.

Police were in the area as Economic Freedom Fighters supporters and African National Congress supporters clashed. EFF supporters accused ANC supporters of beating them. – Sapa

145 arrested in Soweto

Police arrested 145 people in Soweto over the weekend, police said on Sunday.

Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said most of those arrested were charged with drunken driving.

The other charges included rape, murder, possession of unlicensed firearms, robbery, possession for dagga, drug dealing, shop lifting and malicious damage to property.

“These people were arrested around Lenasia, Lenasia South, Jabulani, Moroka, Dobsonville, Naledi and Protea Glen,” said Makhubela.

They would appear in various Johannesburg courts soon. – Sapa

Armed gun rights activists rally at the Alamo

Gun rights activists assembling at the Alamo

by Christopher Sherman, AP

Several hundred gun rights activists armed with rifles and shotguns rallied Saturday outside of the Alamo in a demonstration that broke a longstanding tradition of not staging such events at the enduring symbol of Texas independence.

The “Come and Take It San Antonio!” rally was intended to draw attention to a right Texans already have – to carry long arms publicly so long as they don’t do it in a menacing manner. Organizers thought it necessary to offer a reminder after several open carry advocates were threatened with arrest at a Starbucks in the city two months ago. The problem remains that a local ordinance effectively limits the open carrying of firearms to police and security guards.

That ordinance was not enforced Saturday. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus mingled in the crowd that police estimated at about 300 to 400, but the larger police presence remained around the perimeter of the Alamo plaza.

“There are too many issues associated with trying to enforce every ordinance here today,” McManus said. He said his priority was that people be able to exercise their constitutional rights and that everyone remain safe. Volunteers walked through the crowd placing red plastic straws in rifle chambers, a visible assurance they were not holding a round.

Rally organizers said just holding their demonstration in front of police without incident was a victory.

“(The San Antonio Police Department) is no longer going to be messing with us,” said C.J. Grisham, president of Open Carry Texas, with the Alamo’s famed Spanish mission behind him.

Organizers had also hoped that seeing a large peaceful gathering of armed citizens in the downtown of the country’s seventh largest city would be a step toward making people comfortable with the sight. There were people of all ages in the crowd, including young children. Some waved flags that read “Come and Take It,” others dressed in period costumes, but most looked like anyone else one might encounter on the street, they just happened to be carrying rifles.

Men strolling through the streets with rifles isn’t an image to which Hilary Rand thinks people should have to grow accustomed.

Rand, a regional manager for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, was at a counter-demonstration about a half mile (800 meters) away. Amid hula-hoops and face painting, Rand called the gun rights rally “bullying” and said it may serve opponents’ interest as well.

“If anything, they’re just alerting the general public that this is something that needs to be changed,” she said. “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that it’s OK and that you should. And if anything they’re helping to make that argument for us.” She said the threat of an accidental discharge was too great to justify gun rights advocates making their point.

For the tourists who just happened upon the rally – 2.5 million visit the Alamo annually – there was initial trepidation among some.

Mark Roberts, 63, of London, Ontario, was among a group of Canadian tourists caught off guard.

“We’re not used to seeing guns carried openly in Canada, so that was almost like a culture shock,” Roberts said, noting that it appeared well organized. It was more unnerving for his wife.

“I didn’t like it at all because you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” Julie Roberts said. “You don’t know who these people are.”

Another member of their group, Peter Hinch, declared it “fantastic,” but was dismissed by his friends as not your typical Canadian.

It didn’t give Don Norwood, 49, of Little Rock, Ark., any pause. Norwood, who was visiting the Alamo with his wife and daughter, hadn’t expected the demonstration, but gazing over the crowd, he said, “it’s healthy, that’s what America’s about.”

The rally proceeded peacefully without incident.

Lee Spencer White, president of the Alamo Defenders’ Descendants Association, said her group considers the Alamo its family cemetery and as hallowed ground should remain free of demonstrations, which historically have been held on the adjacent plaza.

From 1905 to 2011, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas were the Alamo’s custodians. But in 2011, lawmakers gave the state’s General Land office control of the monument where Col. William Travis and 200 Texas defenders famously died in a siege with the Mexican army in 1836. It was Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson who approved the rally here.

“I respect the opinions of folks who say this is not the right place,” Patterson said to the crowd on Saturday. “But I submit to you there’s one standard we should apply to gatherings here at this sacred cradle of Texas liberty and that is whether our activity and our purpose would be supported by those men who gave it all.”

Patterson, who is running for lieutenant governor, asked attendees to not block the path to the mission and to leave their rifles and signs outside when entering the chapel.

Deported Roma girl, family attacked in Kosovo

Unidentified assailants on Sunday attacked a Roma schoolgirl, whose deportation from France sparked controversy, along with her family in Kosovo where they have been living since their eviction, police said.

“The Dibrani (family) were walking in Mitrovica with their children when they were attacked by unknown” people, a police officer, who requested to remain anonymous, told AFP.

The mother of 15-year-old Leonarda, Xhemaili, was “beaten and is in hospital while the children, who are traumatised, are at a police station”, the officer said.

Meanwhile, another police officer told reporters that four people were detained over the incident which, according to first findings, may have been caused by some previous private affairs.

“The incident occurred between two families, the Dibranis and the Bislimis,” police captain Ahmet Gjosha said.

“It turned out that Mr Bislimi was Xhemaili Dibrani’s husband 25 years ago and we assume that this fact sparked the incident.”

The Beslimi family was repatriated from Switzerland four months ago, he said.

Police said they were taking the incident very seriously and a probe was launched.

Shortly after the incident a police officer had told AFP that “it shows that the Dibranis are not safe here”.

Leonarda’s father Resat Dibrani, 47, was at the hospital by his wife’s side.

On Saturday, French President Francois Hollande offered Leonarda the chance to go back to France, but without her family.

Hollande’s offer was immediately rejected by the girl while her father said that the family, deported on October 9, would not be divided and would return to France by any means.

Her parents and five brothers and sisters had lived in France for four years while their asylum bid was processed. It was eventually rejected in the summer.

Leonarda Dibrani’s eviction caused an outcry in France because she was detained during a school trip before being deported with her family, and students took to the streets demanding she return and Interior Minister Manuel Valls resign.

In an interview with AFP Thursday, Resat Dibrani said he was born in Kosovo and that his wife and five of his six children, including Leonarda, were born in Italy.

He said he had lied about his family’s Kosovo origins to have a better chance of obtaining asylum.

Earlier on Sunday, the father told AFP that his “children are afraid to go out”.

“I cannot adapt myself, I left 35 years ago. I do not recognise the town any more,” he said stressing that he had only 200 euros ($275) left to feed his family.

The father, who wants to return to France, said: “The problem is to get into (EU member) Croatia and afterwards the way is open.”

“I would have to get 20,000 euros” for people who would take us into Croatia, he added.

The results of a formal probe published in France on Saturday found that the deportation was lawful but that police could have used better judgement in the way they handled it.

They also found that Leonarda and her sister were taken in by French social services after having accused their father of violence — a claim they later retracted.

Last year, 36,822 immigrants, many of them Roma, were deported from France, a nearly 12 percent rise from 2011. – AFP

Murder accused asked sangoma ‘to make case go away’

Tshepo Mosai, 30, Roger Godfrey Moseki, 33, Ndaedzo Isaac Vele, 29 and Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe, 32

One of four men arrested for the murder of Johannesburg cluster commander Maj-Gen Tirhani Maswanganyi pleaded with a sangoma “to make his case go away”, the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday.

Provincial investigating unit commander Colonel Abednego Shibiri said Nditsheni Daniel Nefolovhodwe sought the services of a sangoma prior to his arrest on June 25.

“We have the transcripts of the phone records. He called the sangoma on the 24th and told him that accused number one [Ndaedzo Isaac Vele] had been arrested and wanted the case to go away,” Shibiri said during the four men’s bail application.

He told the court that Nefolovhodwe had spoken to the sangoma in Venda.

Nefolovhodwe’s lawyer disputed Shibiri’s claims and said the police should have brought the transcript to court.

Shibiri said the evidence was not before the court because the transcription process had not been concluded.

Earlier, the court heard that Vele did not have money and would not abscond if released on bail.

Johann Engelbrecht SC, for Vele, cross-examined Shibiri about the police evidence against his client.

“I have a problem in this matter. You come here to oppose bail in this matter on the basis of the expectation that further evidence will reveal A, B, or C. Where are the cellphones and the iPad [of Maswanganyi]?”

Shibiri said ongoing investigations would disclose the people who took the murdered policeman’s property.

Engelbrecht was not convinced: “Oh please, you don’t know that the further investigation will recover the cellphones and the iPad. You hope that, possibly.”

Shibiri said his hopes were pinned on the investigations currently underway. However, Engelbrecht contended there was no evidence placing his client at the scene of the crime.

Vele, Nefolovhodwe, Tshepo Mosai, and Roger Godfrey Moseki are accused of killing the senior policeman.

Maswanganyi was found dead in a field near Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, near the R101, in June.

His hands and feet were bound. A police patrol found Maswanganyi’s abandoned Isuzu bakkie next to the road.

A police uniform and police identification card were in the bakkie, which prompted a search.

Three of the four accused, including Vele and Nefolovhodwe, were members of the SA National Defence Force.

Engelbrecht said Shibiri’s team had found that Vele could not escape and start afresh in another country.

“His financial position is virtually zero. No money is in the possession of the accused which would enable him to leave and stay out of the country.

“You also confirmed his residential address and found that he has a pregnant girlfriend whom he is planning to marry.”

Shibiri disagreed.

“I am a police officer and in my experience people have left countries without a cent. People also come into countries without a cent,” he said.

“We confirmed about the girlfriend, but I cannot say anything about him wanting to marry her. He [Vele] is the one who knows that.”

Shibiri told the court the evidence linking Vele to the crime was his own confession, admissible in court.

Engelbrecht said Vele would surrender his passport to the police in an attempt to increase his chances for bail.

Shibiri said investigations so far had revealed that Vele had been out of South Africa 16 times.

The bail applications were postponed to November 6 and 7. – Sapa

Coloured teenager to appear in court over severed head in garden

A 17-year-old boy was expected to appear in the Parow Magistrate’s Court on Monday, in connection with a possible satanic murder.

Western Cape police said the teenager was arrested in Ravensmead, Cape Town on Saturday after a beheaded body was discovered at a derelict primary school in Ravensmead on Thursday. (Ravensmead is a majority Coloured (mixed-race) area – ed.)

“This gruesome discovery was followed by a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the crime, which led detectives to an address in Connaught Road Ravensmead this afternoon [Saturday] where a search warrant was executed,” said Lt-Col Andre Traut.

“A search at the residence of the suspect led to the discovery of the head buried in the front garden last night…paraphernalia suggesting that satanism was a possible motive, was found at the residence of the suspect.” – Sapa

ANC and EFF supporters clash in Diepsloot

Economic Freedom Fighters supporters accused ANC supporters of beating them up in Diepsloot on Friday.

Residents supporting the EFF stood outside the Diepsloot police station but were not allowed in.

They complained about being shut out saying the police were supposed to provide a place of safety.

Residents refused to speak to the media. However, one EFF supporter said he planned to open a case with the police.

Earlier, angry Diepsloot residents gathered outside the local police station protesting about the murder of two toddlers.

They demanded that police release to them a fifth man arrested earlier in the day so they could burn him.

The bodies of two-year-old Yonelisa Mali and her cousin Zandile Mali, three, were found on Tuesday. They were reported missing at the weekend.

Four men are expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of rape and murder.

There was a heavy police presence in the area.

The African National Congress Youth League marched to the police station to hand over a memorandum.

“We raised a lot of grievances that we have as a community here in Diepsloot on issues of crime and drugs,” ANCYL national task team co-ordinator Mzwandile Masina said after handing over the memorandum.

“Now we want to work with the community to ensure there’s peace in the area. We want visible policing at all times.”

Residents supporting the ANC and those supporting Julius Malema’s EFF clashed in the streets.

EFF supporters in red berets sang songs mocking President Jacob Zuma.

“If you are a person who is voting for Zuma you are not to be trusted,” they sang in Sesotho.

Some residents ripped up ANC placards.

Others started banging on a car when they saw a person in an ANC T-shirt inside. Police intervened. – Sapa

Why no military coup before 1994?

by Albert Brenner

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Many of us still wonder why no military coup was carried out by the, erstwhile, formidable South African Defense Force in the early 1990s – an army rated as one of the top four at the time, and one which contributed hugely to the final defeat of Communism.

It goes without saying that the SADF had some of the best soldiers in the world. True winners! So it is a very pertinent question to ask why these top people failed to take matters into their own hands, especially given the fact that what FW de Klerk and ilk did was illegal in terms of internationally-recognized norms and conventions governing the democratic process.

I have received personal permission to publish the opinion of one of those former SADF members. A man who has some knowledge and insight regarding what transpired during those tumultuous years… in which political treachery bested even one of the top armies on the planet at the time:

During the time period leading up to 1994, there were plans made within the SADF military hierarchy to oppose, and possibly prevent, the impending hand-over of South Africa to the main South African terrorist organisation and our enemies. These plans were never executed, for various reasons. However, even if they had been attempted, they would probably have failed, at the latest in the long run, because they were simply not good enough. They did not sufficiently take into account the political aspect and what is nowadays called ‘sustainability’.

Let us start with what we could see was coming, and what our SADF ‘coup’ planners were up against: A hand-over of our internationally recognised state, the Orange-White-and-Blue RSA, to our enemies BY MEANS OF AN ELECTION. An Azanian election, dressed up and touted as an all-inclusive South African one, i.e. one in which WE, the voters of the Orange-White-and-Blue republic, were seen to take part in and thus recognise. Now, if you go against this with military force only, – even though you have the power to do so, – you will lose the legality and acceptance which our own state had had ever since 1910. You needed a righteous and un-smearable issue to make a stand. A stand on which you would and could JUSTIFY your resistance and action, – at the very least in the eyes of your own people, and then also in the eyes of your friends and people of goodwill overseas (who did exist, make no mistake, they weren’t all loony left).

Such an issue had, in fact, been presented to us by FW de Klerk and his scheming Broeders. In fact, they had no choice, because, in essence, what they were planning was illegal. You cannot simply eliminate an internationally recognised state and replace it with another one, which was basically what they were doing. ‘Freedom once conferred cannot be taken away’, – old English international law. De Klerk’s elimination-and-hand-over plan had more than one such weak point, in fact. I will mention just two, the most vulnerable ones in my opinion. First, he stopped our traditional, democratic by-elections. And ‘sommer’ all of our own democratic elections. And thereby our whole democratic election process, undermining his own legitimacy. This was after he saw during the Florida by-election in 1992 that his government would lose the next national election. Then, in 1993, he handed over, officially, the authority of our state to an UNELECTED body, the Transitional Executive Council, on 7 December to be exact. A total no-no if you think about it, what with unelected terrorists with the blood of innocent civilians like those of the Church Street massacre on their hands sitting there and ruling over us.

Any military action by the SADF to try stop FW de Klerk would have had to utilize, and home in on, these weak points of our enemies’ and traitors’ plans. Thereby giving the resistance to it the necessary legality, righteousness and appeal to decent people in our own ranks and overseas. For example, making an armed, militarily overwhelming stand somewhere, – not necessarily at the Union Buildings and not necessarily using force or shedding blood, – at the time of, or just after, the above illegal (in terms of our own constitution) acts by de Klerk. Demanding the restoration of our democracy and legality of government. Making it clear to our own people and the world that it is about restoring our democracy, our right to elect our own leaders, and have an elected, loyal government of our own as we had had since 1910, as set up by Great Britain and with the full approval of the international community. SUCH a military action would have had a chance of success.

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