Tag: Cape Town

Mob burns Covid-19 facility and community hall in Cape Town

  • Protesters torched the Desmond Tutu Community Hall and a new facility for Covid-19 patients in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, on Saturday.
  • The new facility opened a week ago and damage is estimated to be close to R1 million.
  • The exact reason for the protests is yet to be determined but it is suspected to be a group occupying vacant land nearby.

The City of Cape Town’s newly built facility meant for Covid-19 patients in Makhaza, Khayelitsha was torched allegedly by people protesting over land on Saturday.

The estimated cost of the damage caused by the fire is about R1 million, according to Mayor Dan Plato. The clinic facility had only been open for a week.

In a statement released on Monday, Plato said the facility was meant to serve vulnerable Covid-19 positive patients with treatment, testing and isolation.

“I am truly appalled by this criminal behaviour. The City will do everything we can to ensure that those responsible are brought to book. I am calling on the South African Police Service to arrest those responsible so that they face the full might of the law,” he said.

“Their callous actions have the potential to put entire communities at risk,” he said.

In another incident, protesters also torched and looted the Desmond Tutu Community Hall while protesting on Saturday morning. It is still unclear whether it was the same group who burnt the health facility, but sources we spoke to believe the group are among those occupying land near the Noxolo Xauka Primary school in Makhaza where Law Enforcement officials were demolishing structures earlier in the week.

Nosipho Qaku, a security guard at the hall, said Law Enforcement officials fired rubber bullets at the protesters to disperse them. “The protesters retreated and regrouped before returning to loot the hall. My cellphone was also stolen,” she said.

Ward councillor Danile Khatshwa said: “Because of Covid-19, I and other leaders hold Skype meetings. I will not be able to participate in such meetings because I get the internet at the hall. Residents also won’t be able to report damaged storm water drains and other problems at the hall.”

Khatshwa’s house was stoned by protesters at about 8pm on Saturday. His family has since been moved from their community for their safety.

“Thugs are now involved in the protests. They steal and damage property. My family was shocked and scared because I was not even around when the protesters tried to attack them,” said Khatshwa.

Police are yet to respond to questions on whether any arrests have been made since Saturday.

Correction: This article previously stated that the councillor’s house was burnt. His house was only stoned by protesters.

Originally published by GroundUp.

SA passenger train derailed

The Shosholoza passenger train between Johannesburg to Cape Town derailed early Wednesday morning outside Kimberley, injuring more than 100 people.

The incident happened just after midnight at Modderrivier, a small town next to the N12 highway about 32 kilometres from Kimberley. Seven coaches overturned.

Although details surrounding the cause of the accident are still sketchy, it is believed that work was being conducted on the stretch of rail where it happened.

Injured passengers were quickly assisted by Transnet personnel at the scene shortly after the accident and a fleet of ambulances were dispatched to transport the injured to the Kimberley Hospital Complex.

About eight ambulances from ER24, Netcare 911 and the provincial ambulance service had to make several trips between the crash site and Kimberley.

While most passengers only sustained light injuries, the driver of the train was thrown out and seriously injured.

Source: DFA

Vehicle stonings on R300 increase

Motorists using the R300 near Cape Town have been cautioned to drive on a full tank and not stop for any reason – the latest warning about a stretch of road that authorities regard as a vehicle-stoning hot spot.

The warning from Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa follows an incident on Saturday evening in which a motorist narrowly escaped being hit by bricks hurled at his vehicle near Hindle Road.

IT technician Jeandre Terblanch was travelling towards Kuils River when he and other motorists were targeted by assailants standing on the side of the R300, just metres before the Hindle Road off-ramp.

Terblanch said three black men, two dressed in reflector jackets, picked up bricks and started pelting passing vehicles.

“My bakkie was damaged by one of the bricks. I was travelling in the slow lane so I managed to get away. The car travelling next to me in the fast lane was hit extensively. His windows were bashed in,” he said.

Terblanch said that when he came to a stop at a red traffic light, he checked to see if the driver of the badly damaged vehicle was unharmed.

“I looked for police or traffic officials alongside the road but could not spot any. I believe the guys (the assailants) were trying to cause our vehicles to swerve so that they could hijack and rob us. They could have killed us in the process,” he said.

The Delft and Kuils River cluster Community Policing Forum chairman Reginald Maart said yesterday that there has been an upsurge in vehicle stonings in the last two months.

He said the forum had been dealing with multiple complaints from Mfuleni to Delft and urged motorists not to travel alone along the R300 highway.

Terblanch said he had decided against reporting the incident to the police.

‘Racist attack’ charges withdrawn

Delia Adonis, a coloured woman, has spent the weekend in tears after charges against three men, who she claimed had assaulted her during a racist attack, were withdrawn on Thursday.

It’s a bitter end to a trial almost a year in the making for the Cape Town cleaner who feels she has been denied justice.

Constable Andy Hendricks will learn his fate on Monday after he was arrested last year for allegedly accepting a bribe from one of the accused, Chad de Matos.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel André Traut said the internal disciplinary hearing against Hendricks will conclude on Monday.

“The outcome thereof will be a matter between the employer and the employee. The criminal aspect of the case is still being heard in court.”

Hendricks allegedly accepted the bribe and promised to make the matter against De Matos and his co-accused “disappear”.

William Booth, the attorney who represented the three men in this case, said evidence showed that Adonis, 52, had fabricated “material aspects” involving his clients.

He said his clients had been unfairly demonised and wrongfully accused after it was, in fact, Adonis and her son who had instigated the attack.

Prosecutor Nathan Johnson likened the trio to the Waterkloof Four, who were convicted of murder of an unidentified vagrant in Pretoria’s Moreleta Park in 2001.

But on Thursday, during a court appearance at Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, the Director of Public Prosecutions Office revealed that the charges against De Matos and company had been withdrawn.

This was after Booth submitted a docket, which included evidence collected by a private detective, to the office of the director. In it, it was revealed that a number of independent witnesses had “directly contradicted the evidence of Adonis and her son”.

“Adonis and her son were in fact the instigators as they were responsible for the attack. Adonis’s son was armed with a broken bottle and she with a broom,” Booth said.

Adonis said she wasn’t even aware that the three had appeared in court.

“If we started this, why am I the one who was hurt?”

Source: IOL

Wheels come off in Cape Town

They work in the dark, stripping wheels from parked cars and fleeing into the night.

It’s part of a new wave of crime that is gripping the streets of Table View where owners have woken up to find their car’s axles left bare and balanced on nothing but a set of bricks.

“It’s happening almost every night all around us,” said the area’s Community Policing Forum. “It’s not safe to park on the streets anymore.”

In the past week, there have been at least four reported incidents but forum’s spokeswoman Gemma Gardner, who has labelled the spate of crime as a new trend, said this might be just the tip of the iceberg “as many people tend not to report this type of crime”.

She said while they were not sure how the thieves were able to rapidly strip the vehicles, the assumption was that they worked in teams and used a jack to prop up the car on cinder blocks or bricks.

According to the police’s annual crime statistics, there has been a dramatic increase in these types of crime in the Western Cape over the past five years.

The statistics show that the number of reported incidents of theft out of motor vehicles, which is not just limited to the theft of wheels, has increased from 35 367 in 2009 to 42 638 last year – an 18 percent surge.

Durbanville has seen those thefts rise from 283 reported incidents to 533 in the same period (almost 50 percent).

And Table View has seen a 19 percent spike from 797 incidents to 975.

Source: IOL

Flying the old flag

The “old South Africa” is still alive and well on the Cape Flats.

The country’s old “oranje, blanje, blou” flag was spotted fluttering over a Coloured [mixed race] residence in Fifth Road, Heathfield.

But neighbours say the flag is an insult to those who fought for freedom, and reminds them of the brutal days of apartheid.

They say the flag has been hoisted since October, and requests for it to be taken down have been ignored.

“This behaviour, in my opinion, indicates a total disrespect to the law and an insult to others,” said resident Richard Talliard.

But Mishkah Jappie, 36, says her husband Thaabied, 40, has “very good reasons” why he hung the flag on their roof.

“We believe nothing has changed from the apartheid days,” said the mom of six.

Thaabied was out on the road, looking for work when the Daily Voice visited. He lost his job as a paramedic in 2009.

“We don’t have water or electricity here and nothing seems to be better in our lives,” added Mishkah.

She said Thaabied got the flag from his stepfather, who served in the army during apartheid.

Her husband has become bitter because doors are still being slammed in his face more than 20 years after democracy.

“I am proud to say Nelson Mandela has opened up the pathway for us to prosper equally. But a lot of people are struggling while a few are getting richer everyday,” she added.

She said neighbours have asked them to remove the weathered and faded flag, but they refused.

The flag has become her family’s own symbol of oppression in the new South Africa.

“The neighbours say it’s hurting them to see the flag, but there are still features of the old order here,” said Mishkah.

A neighbour who did not want to be identified said: “Many people died because of that flag, it opens up old wounds for all of us.”

The South African Human Rights Commission said it would look into the matter.

Spokesman Isaac Mangena says: “South Africa has a flag that represents a rainbow nation. People must desist from displaying anything that would remind others of their sad past.”

Source: Daily Voice

Two murdered on school run in Cape Town

The morning school run erupted into chaos in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town on Monday when a parent was shot dead outside a high school and, in an unrelated shooting, a taxi driver was killed near a primary school a few metres away.

Gilianno Smith, 34, was on his way to meet the principal of Cedar Secondary School, where his son is in Grade 8, at about 7.50am when he was shot several times, allegedly by gunmen in a passing vehicle.

“It is believed that the deceased was standing on the street corner when unidentified suspects in a Toyota Quantum fired several shots fatally wounding the deceased,” police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said.

Smith’s death and the subsequent shooting of a taxi driver near Spine View Primary at about 8.30am have left pupils and parents traumatised.

Van Wyk said the taxi driver is believed to have stopped his minibus in Spine Road to pick up commuters when he was shot by an unidentified suspect.

Smith’s distraught mother, Veronica Smith, said he had been on his way to Cedar Secondary to meet the principal, David Charles, when the shooting occurred.

Mother’s Day was the last time she spoke to her son.

“I am very, very sad. He made me a card (for Mother’s Day) because he believed a bought one wouldn’t express the words he wanted to say to me.”

She said her grandson had walked ahead of his father and arrived at the school unaware of his father’s death.

Source: IOL

Black students rally in support of expelled Wits SRC president

Support is pouring in for the University of Witwatersrand’s expelled SRC president.

Mcebo Dlamini’s Facebook post that mentioned Hitler has sparked outrage from the South African Union of Jewish Students.

Students from the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and activist group, Open Stellenbosch, are marching in support of Mcebo Dlamini.

The Higher Education Transformation Network also says the decision to expel him was harsh.

It says action is being taken against Dlamini when other students from Cape Town and Stellenbosch universities got a slap on the wrist for racist incidents.

The Network was referring to, among others, the white students who painted their faces black.

Second SA teenager wanted to join ISIS

State security services stopped a second Cape Town teenager from absconding to join the Islamic State group, South African State Security Minister David Mahlobo confirmed on Tuesday.

“Yes, we know about that one,” Mahlobo told ANA when asked about the high school girl from Grassy Park.

He said she was apprehended at Cape Town International Airport last month following a tip-off.

“The nice thing is that we are acting before these things happen,” he added.

“There are certain communities that are being targeted.”

It is understood that security services and the Hawks were in part acting on information given by a 15-year-old girl from Kenwyn who admitted that she was planning to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS) after she was taken off a flight from Cape Town to OR Tambo on Easter Sunday. The girls are believed to be friends, and tried to leave the country within 10 days of each other.

The incident has seen Mahlobo warn repeatedly that parents should monitor their children’s internet usage, as he did again at a media briefing ahead of his ministry’s budget debate in Parliament on Tuesday.

However, intelligence sources said they are also investigating the physical presence of recruiters for the jihadist group in the country.

Mahlobo said security agencies were being highly vigilant on the issue of recruitment by fundamentalist groups and staying in close contact with communities who are considered targets.

Source: ANA

Cannibal gets 18 years

A black man who ate his murdered victim’s heart has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in the Western Cape High Court.

Thirty-five-year old Andrew Chimboza pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona, in Gugulethu in 2014. He denied eating his heart.

Chimboza stabbed his victim in the neck with a fork during an argument and stabbed him several times with a knife.

Sentencing got underway in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday morning.

Judge Ashley Binns-Ward read through the horrific evidence led during the trial before handing down the sentence.

Nagging questions about SA’s ISIS recruit

Following news that a 15-year-old girl was taken off a British Airways flight in Cape Town after a failed attempt to join ISIS, nagging questions remain about how a minor managed to book an international flight alone.

The suspicious circumstances surrounding her attempt to board a plane destined for Saudi Arabia at Cape Town International Airport has begged many questions about how British Airways screens its passengers.

British Airways reservations office at OR Tambo International maintains that a teenager does not need a legal guardian to fly abroad.

A “responsible person” signs the necessary forms on behalf of the minor and furnishes details of a “responsible adult” who will collect the minor at the destination, the airline says. A fee of $150 is payable by the “responsible adult”.

On Monday, State Security Minister David Mahlobo confirmed that a Cape Town teen that ran away from home to join the Islamic State was taken off a British Airways flight about to leave the city.

According to the Worldwide Visa Bureau, applicants from all countries require a visa to enter Saudi Arabia. Only transit passengers do not require visas.

Mahlobo says the investigation would centre around the “understanding the psyche of the child” however.

Meanwhile Gulf News has reported that NSA documents reveal the backers of ISIS:

The former employee at US National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, has revealed that the British and American intelligence and the Mossad worked together to create the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Snowden said intelligence services of three countries created a terrorist organisation that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”.

NSA documents refer to recent implementation of the hornet’s nest to protect the Zionist entity by creating religious and Islamic slogans.

According to documents released by Snowden, “The only solution for the protection of the Jewish state “is to create an enemy near its borders”.

Facts:

1) ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi was once a prisoner of the US government. Despite the fact that the US had offered a ten million dollar reward for him, the Obama regime ordered his release in 2009.

2) The Obama regime, with major support from Senate neo-cons John McCain and Lindsey Graham, gave hundreds of millions in military aid to Sunni Jihadists in Syria. Thousands of individuals receiving US aid are now members of ISIS. In fact, ISIS has even posted pictures of ISIS fighters with US Senator John McCain on the internet.

3) Israel has directly aided Sunni Jihadists in Syria by bombing Syrian military assets during Jihadist attacks.

4) The Israeli Prime Minister has reacted to the ISIS spearheaded Sunni/Shia Civil War in Iraq with borderline glee. The president of Israel has also suggested that a Sunni/Shia war is beneficial to the future of Israel.

5) The US and Britiain provided Sunni Jihadists with Toyota trucks in Syria. When, an army of ISIS fighters rolled over the Syria/Iraq border it looked like a commercial for Toyota.

Covering Cecil John Rhodes in black poo

Chumani Maxwele threw human faeces at the statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town on Monday in order to eradicate the white liberal scourge he says.

“It is not about me; it is about change. We as black students do not feel at home at UCT,” he said.

Maxwele says blacks want to end the divide between black and white students at UCT since the whites who come to black protests do not “ask us back to their big mansions”.

It appears that the ultra left-wing Max Price is not the most progressive vice chancellor UCT has ever had after all.

“We want whites to be more accommodating of us, to try to understand us,” Maxwele declared.

Maxwele, a 30-year-old political science student, said he threw faeces at the statue to highlight “our shame”.

“We want white people to know how we live – we live in poo.

“I am from a very poor family; we are using portaloos. Are you happy about that? In order for me to bring evidence, I have to give Cecil John Rhodes a poo shower and whites will have to see it.”

“Whose land was it in the first place? I have no problem with the history of Rhodes but it can stay in the books or in a museum.

“I don’t want him at UCT and I don’t want to sit in a hall named after [Leander] Starr Jameson, a brutal racist.”

Child’s mutilated body found

Five days after she went missing, 5-year-old Anovuyo Ndamase’s mutilated body was found wrapped in a plastic bag a stone’s throw from her Khayelitsha house.

Missing Children SA spokeswoman Nicky Rheeder confirmed that black children go unattended most of the time. Rheeder said: “Some people who grew up in a culture where neighbours and relatives would watch over a young child find it difficult to believe life is not as safe now.”

Anovuyo’s body was found behind a shack on Thursday morning. She was last seen at about 6pm on Sunday.

A 32-year-old man was arrested hours after the gruesome discovery, which had followed days of house-to-house searches by Enkanini residents.

Anovuyo was found 25m from her home shortly before refuse was to be collected in the area.

“Anovuyo was found by a resident. He was coming from work when he saw a blue plastic bag in the middle of a walkway and he wanted to put in on the side of the road to be collected.

“He said he realised it was heavy and there was something unusual inside. After he found it was Anovuyo’s body, he called for help,” Khothuka said. She said Anovuyo’s distraught parents were taken for counselling. “Her dress and underwear had blood. What I saw is something that will be in my mind for a very long time.”

For about R300 you can buy an African child – one of the tens of thousands of children snatched from their homes across the continent.

An alarming number of people, especially young adults, are kidnapped for organ trafficking. Some organs cost R1-million on the black market.

Fires in Cape Town not yet contained

Firefighters are continuing to battle a fire on the mountains and hills above several residential areas in the South Peninsula in Cape Town.

Cape Town Disaster Risk Management said on Tuesday that firefighters were battling three areas, on the Hout Bay side of Chapman’s Peak, Tokai Forest, and Noordhoek.

The fire started on Sunday, was contained, but flared up again just after 2am on Monday in Muizenberg above Boyes Drive.

It was fanned by strong winds and spread to Ou Kaapse Weg, Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay, and Tokai.

A source close to the Disaster Management Team battling the Cape fires has called for citizens to please stay off the roads in the south peninsula area.

Traffic is hampering firefighting efforts, with the blaze still burning in the Tokai and Fish Hoek areas.

The fire which razed at least seven homes in the Noordhoek area, as well as parts of Monkey Valley Resort, have since been contained, with evacuated residents returning to their homes, the Noordhoek Fire Department said.

300 people have also been evacuated to the Dutch Reformed Church in Noordhoek, Eyewitness News reports.

Fifty people have been evacuated to Tokai Community Church.