Zimbabwe’s Consul-General in South Africa, Henry Mukonoweshuro, says diplomatic ties between South Africa and Zimbabwe will not be affected by the on-going xenophobic attacks in the greater eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Hundreds of foreign nationals from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia and Somalia have been displaced after xenophobic attacks in Durban. Close to 2000 foreign nationals are being housed in three temporary makeshift camps.
Mukonoweshuro says they will be working closely with their South African counterparts to find a solution and put an end to the on-going violence.
“It is just a question of a few misguided individuals. To some extent I think some vagrants who think if they create chaos people will run away from their homes. Then they can vandalise and steal but my president was here a few days ago and met with President Jacob Zuma and elevated political and economic relations, our people are here.”
Mukonoweshuro says talks with Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba are continuing to address the issue.
“This is a dent but I mean look, these problems are never at any one time planned.”
There’ve been reports of attacks in Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda and Siyanda
Meanwhile, eThekwini Metro police say about five shops owned by foreign nationals were set alight and several others looted in townships in the Durban area Sunday night.
More than a dozen foreign owned businesses have been looted since the violence began, Somali Hassan Ali says all his shops in KwaMashu, north of Durban, have been looted and burnt.
A corpse fell out of the back of a moving mortuary vehicle on a busy Pinetown road at the weekend.
The vehicle was travelling on Josiah Gumede (Old Main) Road in Durban on Saturday morning when local car dealer, Mike Mears, said he heard a clattering sound.
He was standing on the roadside chatting to a friend at the time.
“The noise caught my attention and when I looked back I saw a steel tray lying on the road. In a split second, a body came hurtling out from the back of the van on a stretcher. We realised it was a mortuary van when it reversed to fetch the corpse,” Mears said.
“There was blood splattered on the floor from the tray. It looked like a body was wrapped in a body bag and tied to the stretcher.”
The driver stopped after motorists started hooting to get his attention.
Mears said two occupants of the van got out and hastily picked up the body and fallen items.
Another bystander, Ian Neil, who stared in disbelief as the incident unfolded, said it appeared that the mortuary van’s back door was broken.
There was no lock, bolt or any other way to secure the door, he said.
“The van pulled off fast enough for the entire back to swing open and out came the body, including the drip tray,” he said.
Neil was unable to confirm if the body was that of an adult or child.
But the drip tray made it gruesome, he said.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health said it was investigating the incident and would respond later.
The South African Sunday Times has done a “snap survey” and found that “a quarter of a century after beach apartheid was scrapped, South Africa’s bathing spots are still mainly segregated”. The newspaper says that “most lovers still flock to beaches “assigned” to them during apartheid, when the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act decreed separate beaches for “whites” and “nonwhites”.
No whites enjoying the sea, sun and surf in Durban.
Self-segregation has now become the norm and whites, especially, carefully select their swimming spots so as to avoid other races. “I just don’t enjoy it when there are blacks or coloureds around,” said one beachgoer in Cape Town. “Too much noise, no manners, and even hygiene issues.”
Property values in the Strand, on the outskirts of Cape Town, have dropped because the beach is now perceived as a “coloured” (mixed-race) beach while it was previously frequently mainly by white Afrikaners.
In Cape Town, while Clifton’s trendy Clifton 3rd and 4th beaches remain largely white, beaches at Camps Bay, Muizenberg and Noordhoek are “well integrated”, according to the Sunday Times.
This picture was captioned with the hashtag #KryDieDoom (get the Doom), referring to the insecticide.
Comments under this photograph included Annemarie Booysen’s “Ek wens ek was ‘n haai! [I wish I were a shark].”
“Waar is ‘n tsunami as jy hom nodig het? [Where is a tsunami when you need it?]…. Lol,” wrote Janine Crous.
However, not all beachgoers believe South Africa is still mired in the past. Visits to several top beaches revealed a variety of opinions on the subject.
At Umhlanga Rocks north of Durban, Shelley Mzobe said people on the beach were “nicely mixed”.
“All the people are here, black, white, Indian and coloured. There are no problems. We are all having fun.”
A Phoenix resident on North Beach said: “You see different colours of people here. Fifty years ago, this wasn’t the case. We’ve come a long way.”
But while people of various race groups walked the promenade, a sun lover from Cato Manor said he preferred to visit beaches further out where there were fewer people. “If we go to the beach it’s mainly in Umhlanga or La Mercy because it’s cleaner. I don’t see much of a mix here [central Durban]. It feels very one-sided being here now. In the past it was the whites who came here, now it’s the blacks. We don’t fit in.”
At Clifton, one of the few black people soaking up the sun was Vusi Mkhatshwa from Mpumalanga. He said he chose Clifton because “it’s safe, there are no sharks and it’s not that busy”.
Conny Maphagela from Johannesburg was also happy with the beach, but said that she was the only black person.
“I’ve been to Dolphin beach at Blouberg [Table View]. I like it here. It’s mainly white, mainly men. But I don’t have a problem with it.”
Ebrahim Essop from Johannesburg said the beach was “a nice place to relax”, but there was not much diversity.
“I look around, and I’m the only person who looks like me. Durban is more mixed,” he said.
Whites also complain about lifeguards, where affirmative-action has seen to it that most lifeguards are now black. “They just sit around and do nothing. It isn’t like in the old days when lifeguards were constantly on the look-out for swimmers that might get into trouble, or who issued shark warnings when necessary,” said one Durbanite who “would not be caught dead going to the main beaches”.
Jim Scown, a lifeguard from the UK, who has been in Cape Town for four weeks, said the lack of diversity could be for economic reasons. “There are wealthy people here. And you’ve got the expensive property around. Most people here are tourists,” he said.
On the other side of the city, at Monwabisi beach on False Bay, Khayelitsha mother of three Sindi Pakade said she loved visiting the beach.
“It’s safe. There’s the pool for the kids. And it’s close by. Last week, I was in Muizenberg and there was no parking,” she said.
Khaya Nyenga said he chose Monwabisi for its convenience – it was closer to his home and had more parking.
But Monwabisi was mainly black, and he preferred the diversity at other beaches.
“In Strand there’s a big mix. That’s why I like it. You see different people. For me, that’s good.”
Nathi Sotsepo and friend Ruza Sasanti said they were happy with the diversity at Monwabisi.
“There are more blacks than coloureds. There’s no problem for us. It’s between the whites and the blacks that there’s a problem,” she said.
The City of Cape Town’s director of sports, recreation and amenities, Gert Bam, said the city was committed to connecting communities through a reliable, affordable and safe public transport system.
“Cape Town is home to over 240km of coastline, which means that most communities are situated in close proximity to beaches. However, it is important to consider the relative proximity to poorer communities of those beaches that boast amenities and enhanced service provision, such as lifesaving services,” Bam said.
Lifeguards were deployed at sites with the most beach users. “The city relies on aerial photography to gain a sense of which beaches are most popular and on which days,” Bam said.
South African Institute of Race Relations spokeswoman Mienke Steytler blamed continued segregation on apartheid spatial planning.
“When cities were developed back in the day when all these [apartheid] laws were in place, they were developed specifically to separate people,” she said.
The black eThekwini Municipality in Durban has set aside R12.8 million to pay mostly white lawyers, even though it has its own black legal department with 28 legal advisers.
This comes as the city faces a barrage of civil lawsuits ranging from potholes to libel.
A report tabled before the finance and procurement committee meeting laid out plans to brief 22 law firms, costing more than R580 000 each.
The cases include litigation, conveyancing, commercial law, labour law and town planning.
The city’s legal bills have escalated from R600 000 in 2012 to R5.9 million last year after an increase in insurance claims against the municipality that were handed to private attorneys to resolve.
Advocates were briefed to handle “complex matters” ranging from urgent applications to interdicts, claims of more than R300 000, evictions and others.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said they had complained about the capability of the city’s legal department for a long time.
Often the city appealed in cases which it lost again, which indicated that it was not being properly advised.
“The conditions-of-service debacle is a perfect example of this. The legal department is supposed to ensure that money in the city is spent well, but they still spend the most,” he said.
“We can’t have a team of lawyers that cannot even advise the city properly. We need capable people in this department.”
The municipality has 22 attorneys at Shell House, who cannot represent the city in court.
Answers on reasons for the lack of representation from the city have not been forthcoming.
The continuous surge in legal fees has prompted many questions. “What is our own legal department doing if the number of external consultants keeps increasing? We have long questioned the competency of our legal department,” a councillor remarked.
The department has eight litigation legal advisers, four labour advisers, seven legislative drafting advisers and nine legal support advisers.
The budget for the department in the last financial year was R17 546 680.
On 11 January 2014, the Durban Flying Squad, Durban Tactical Response Team and Public Order Police made a breakthrough when they arrested five suspects for car hijackings that occurred in various Durban suburbs. The suspects were arrested for crimes committed in Merebank, Wentworth, Westville and Verulam. The five men were arrested in Umlazi and four vehicles were recovered in the Umlazi Township.
On 7 January 2014 at about 21:30, a 35-year-old female was threatened with a firearm and a knife while entering her house in Merebank and hijacked of her Toyota Conquest. A 25-year-old woman was hijacked of her VW Polo at knifepoint in Merewent on 10 January 2014 and another 25-year-old was threatened with high calibre firearms and robbed of her Renault Clio and handbag. The men have also been accused of stealing a Toyota Avanza in Verulam on 11 January 2014. Police seized a 9mm firearm with its serial number filed off from one of the suspects as well as toy gun that they allegedly used in the hijackings. Five suspects aged between 19 and 22 will be charged for three counts of hijacking, possession of unlicensed firearm and theft of motor vehicle. They will appear in Durban Magistrates Court soon. We are still looking for one other member of the gang who is from Umlazi and we believe that these men will be linked to other hijacking cases in the Durban area.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni commended police for the breakthrough. “The arrest of these criminals is a massive achievement for police and we believe it will contribute to our efforts in reducing the incidents of hijacking in Durban and surrounding areas,” she said. – SAPS news service
On Thursday, 9 January 2014 members of the Durban Flying Squad Narcotics Task Team brought down another two drug dealers in the Durban area. The two were arrested in two separate busts in different suburbs and police seized rock cocaine, ecstasy and dagga from both men to the street value of more than R46 500-00. They are expected to appear in court soon.
At 13:15 the members were patrolling at Seaview area in Bellair when they followed up information about drugs in the area. The members proceeded to Bridge road where they searched a house and found rock cocaine and 600 ecstasy tablets to the street value of more than R44 000. The suspect (37) was immediately arrested and detained for possession of drugs.
After officers from the Narcotics Task Team had completed their duties at Montclair they proceeded to Westcliff area in Chatsworth. At 16:30 they searched another house at Domino street, Westcliff and recovered 512 grams of dagga. The suspect(44) was also arrested and detained on charges of possession of drugs. The value of the drugs seized is estimated at R2 500-00.
The Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni congratulated the Narcotics Task Team for the arrest of these notorious drug dealers. “I am pleased that the Flying Squad Narcotics Task Team has once again proved that reports in certain media that we are not serious about dealing with drug peddlers was rash and unfounded. We have the most committed individuals that are in the forefront of the fight against drugs and their results have been consistent over the years. In the absence of any interventions by other role-players, police still remain committed to fighting this battle” she said. – SA Police Media Service
The Chinese, investing heavily in Africa to secure its oil and other raw materials for their expanding economy, are spearheading a new era of railroad building to unlock the continent’s interior.
This is an echo of the long-gone colonial empires when a century ago British and French engineers first opened up Africa to plunder its riches.
The railroad frenzy is being accompanied by a massive push to build several major ports along the coast of East Africa to accelerate exports across the Indian Ocean, mostly to China, India and Japan, as well as lay down a network of oil and gas pipelines to these ports.
“Railways are key to increasing regional trade,” said Darlan Fabio de David, chief executive of Rift Valley Railways, a private equity-backed company rehabilitating the line between the Kenyan port of Mombasa and the inland Ugandan capital of Uganda that was built by the British between 1896 and 1901.
Kenya, which has found oil, is a key link in all this because it lies on the Indian Ocean. There are plans to build a huge deepwater port at Lamu which would act as a rail and pipeline hub for regional exports.
Further north, landlocked Ethiopia is another. It has no ports, but it has long been a pivotal economic player in the region, funneling goods from inland Africa to the continent’s ports through its rail lines.
Extending that network would stimulate economic activity further inland and export trade via the Red Sea port of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
In Tanzania, which with neighboring Mozambique is on the cusp of a major offshore gas boom, the main port of Dar es Salaam, the capital, could greatly enhance its importance as the main export center for copper and cobalt from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congo’s mineral-rich, and war-ravaged, Katanga province produces 580,000 metric tons of copper a year and about 60,000 metric tons of cobalt. Zambia produces 6,750,000 tons of copper annually.
Between them they account for 7 percent of the world’s copper output and roughly half the planet’s cobalt.
New rail lines, replacing the costly road system currently in use, would cut transportation costs. Hauling these products to the east coast rather than southward via Durban in South Africa would allow the DRC and Zambia to export larger volumes of minerals.
The Chinese have been making massive investments in Africa over the last decade in return for access to the continent’s mineral riches.
The recent oil and gas discoveries in East Africa, ideally located for direct shipment eastward across the Indian Ocean, and the prospect of more to come have accelerated Chinese investment in streamlining transportation systems to the planned megaports.
On Nov. 28, the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the fledgling state of South Sudan conducted the groundbreaking of Kenya’s $4 billion Mombasa-Nairobi line, financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, which will run parallel to the existing colonial-era line.
“The project will define my legacy as president of Kenya,” declared Uhuru Kenyatta.
The first section will link the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the capital, Nairobi, reducing the journey time from 15 hours to about four.
It is said to be the country’s biggest infrastructure project since independence 50 years ago.
The cost of the railway will be $5.2bn (£3.2bn) – mostly funded by China.
Some Kenyans have complained that the contract was given to the Chinese state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) without going to tender.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed the deal in August in Beijing.
There are now almost 1 million Chinese living in Africa. A decade ago, there only a few thousand.
China’s new president, Xi Jinping, visited Tanzania and the DRC in the summer, his first major foreign tour, underlining Africa’s importance in China’s economic strategy.
China recently overtook the United States as the world’s largest importer of oil. Almost 80 percent of Chinese imports from Africa are mineral products.
China is the continent’s leading business partner, with trade — which tripled over the last decades — exceeding $166 billion. That’s expected to soar over the next 10 years when the new railroads, pipelines and ports kick in.
Direct investment — usually building airports, highways, schools, factories and railroads — is more difficult to quantify because much of Beijing’s funding goes through tax shelters. But China’s ambassador to South Africa recently said it “exceeds $40 billion.”
Another major project is rehabilitating the rail link between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, and the port of Djibouti, a tiny former colony of France on the Red Sea, which links the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean.
The 475-mile, $3 billion line is being built largely by Chinese companies, as is the Mombasa-Nairobi track. China will also provide most of the locomotives and rolling stock. – UPI/BBC
There was still a place in the country where blacks were called bantus, delegates, and homelanders, the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal leader Senzo Mchunu said in Durban on Sunday.
“It is the same people in the Western Cape who call us refugees,” he told a rally marking the start of the party’s 2014 election campaign.
“They are calling us bantus. They refer to us as representatives. [They are] referring to us as delegates, referring to us as homelanders, natives,” he told thousands of African National Congress supporters at Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu.
He warned supporters of people trying to secure votes in the Lindelani area of neighbouring Ntuzuma. Mchunu did not name the Democratic Alliance or Zille. On Saturday, DA leader Helen Zille visited the area. She said she saw no reason why the DA could win control of the eThekwini municipality in 2016.
Mchunu urged supporters to not to resort to violence.
“There is no need for comrades to engage in violent activities, whether it comes from a comrade or a non-comrade.”
He received a rousing welcome when he arrived at the stadium and walked around greeting supporters. A sea of yellow T-shirts emblazoned with a photograph of President Jacob Zuma swayed to the rhythm of the music blaring across the venue.
Mchunu said: “Peace, political tolerance and delivery will be a part of our campaign to deepen democracy in our country.”
He urged the youth to be patient and grab every opportunity that came their way.
“In the near future we are going to succeed to create job opportunities.”
The party faithful were urged to make sure the ANC would be ruled by the “green, black, and gold”, the ruling party’s colours.
He said the party had delivered infrastructure, from houses to roads and water, and had freed the country from apartheid.
Officers from both the police and the eThekwini metro police kept watch outside the stadium while ANC marshals ensured order inside the venue.
Several buses and minibus taxis were used to ferry supporters to the event. The rally was the first led by Mchunu since he was elected premier of the province on September 26. His predecessor Zweli Mkhize resigned as premier of KwaZulu-Natal to become the party’s full-time treasurer general. – Sapa
The trial against Dr Genchen Rugnath, his wife Ravina and three others accused of charges related to human trafficking continues in the Durban Regional Court on Tuesday.
The SABC reported on Monday that the State had been granted an in-camera testimony for one of the witnesses.
The 18-year-old girl testified behind closed doors.
The accused were arrested after police conducted a raid on a lodge owned by the Rugnath couple in Durban’s Point area early last year.
The other three accused are Sandile Patrick Zweni, Nonduzo Dlamini and Bhabha Dubazini.
All five have pleaded not guilty to 156 charges, including assault, rape, sexual exploitation of a child, and racketeering. – Sapa
William (Bill) Daly – whose family founded the iconic fruit cordial company W. Daly & Son in 1881 – was most likely on his way to deposit money for his church when he was murdered in the garden of his Morningside home.
Daly, 89, the last surviving son of the company founder, was found on Monday by his long-time domestic worker, Maureen Ngema. He had a rag tied around his neck and stuffed in his mouth.
His ankles had been bound with his shoes laces and his wrists were tied together with a key chain he normally had clipped to his belt.
The murder has shocked his neighbourhood and the Durban business community.
Ngema, 67, said she made the grisly discovery after noticing that the house she lives in on the property in Maple Road had been burgled.
Ngema, who has worked for Daly since 1985, said she had left the house at 4.30am for a check-up at Addington Hospital after a foot operation.
She arrived back at the house at about midday with her youngest son, Mandla, who worked as Daly’s gardener.
After making their way along the path on the side of the house and passing the dense foliage, they saw that the door of her living quarters was open. “The windows were broken and the burglar bars were bent aside. Inside, it had been ransacked,” said Ngema.
As she made her way back to the main house to tell her employer, her son inspected the premises before running to inform his brothers who work nearby, she said.
“He (Daly) didn’t answer the doorbell so I turned back.”
It was then, she said, that she spotted his body lying face up in the pathway leading to the back door of the property.
“I screamed and cried, I did not even get close, I could see it was him.”
Her screams alerted neighbour Clive de Vos. “I pulled him by the arm and showed him,” said Ngema.
Police spokesman Captain Khephu Ndlovu, who was at the crime scene on Monday, said Daly usually deposited his church’s Sunday offerings at a bank on Monday mornings.
“An already written-out deposit slip was found on him. He must have been on his way to the bank,” Ndlovu said.
Police suspect that robbery was the motive for the murder, as Daly’s pockets had been emptied and his bank cards, wallet, keys and ID were strewn on the floor, along with his panic button. It is unclear how the intruder/s entered the property, which is monitored by a security company, as the front and back entrances were locked.
Daly’s niece, Pat, arrived a few hours after the discovery of his body, from her home in Hilton, near Pietermaritzburg.
The narrow, secluded street was blocked by police cars and Pat was in tears as she walked into the house where her father, Dudley, who died in his sleep in December at the age of 98, had also grown up.
Neighbours and the police comforted Pat and Ngema as the two women sobbed. Mandla was also emotional.
“He (Daly) was like a father to me. Why did they have to kill him? He was an old man who did nothing bad to anyone,” he said.
De Vos said Daly was well liked in the neighbourhood.
“Everyone knew him, especially because of his vintage cars.”
He said Daly had stuck to a routine, doing certain things on certain days, which probably made him a “soft target”.
De Vos said crime was so rife in the area that after a year of living in Morningside, he had sold his house to move back to Johannesburg.
“I’ve had to hire a security guard. He comes in from six in the evening to six in the morning,” he said.
A few weeks ago criminals scaled his fence and told the guard he was interrupting their work, he said. “Luckily I came out and we were able to chase them away.”
Rose Boyle, who has lived in the area for almost 30 years, described Daly as “an absolute gentleman”. From her house in Anerley Road she would see Daly driving off in his vintage cars.
“Shocked does not begin to describe how I feel about what happened to him. I’m absolutely sick and horrified,” she said. “I can’t believe someone would do such a thing to an old gentleman.”
Another neighbour who did not want to be named said she was “gutted and angry” at the way Daly, whom she also described as a gentleman, had died.
“This is a horrible way for him to go. He was old and frail; there was no need to murder him,” she said.
Although she did not really know Daly, she, like many others in the neighbourhood, had noticed him because of his vintage cars which she said he kept “spick and span and was himself always smartly dressed”.
A case of murder and house robbery is being investigated by the Durban Central police. – Daily News
A Durban taxi driver was reportedly beaten to death by commuters after crashing his taxi, killing one person and injuring three others.
According to The Mercury, the out-of-control taxi knocked down two women as it approached a taxi rank on Monday afternoon. It then collided with a bus, injuring the conductor, before running down and killing rank manager James Bantu Khoza.
Police said that commuters attacked the driver with rocks and beer bottles after the crash. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
A witness told the newspaper that the taxi had been moving at a “very high speed”.
“We heard Bab’u Khoza say: ‘Slow down. What’s the rush?’ We then heard two loud bangs, only to realise that the taxi had crushed him,” said the unnamed witness.
A warning issued to tourists by the United States says Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town are “critical crime threat spots”, The New Age reported on Wednesday.
The warning was released in a document by the US state department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
It states: “Violent and confrontational crime is a major concern [in South Africa]. Such crimes include home invasion robberies, burglaries, car-jackings, street muggings, smash-and-grabs, organised attacks on commercial and retail centres, bombings of ATM’s, as well as attacks on cash-in-transit vehicles and personnel.”
The report warns visitors that South African criminals do not hesitate to use lethal weapons and that townships should be avoided.
“Foreigners are not specifically targeted, but several have been the victims of rape,” the report said, according to the newspaper.
US Embassy spokesman Jack Hillmeyer said safety and security reports were standard practice in all countries where the US foreign affairs department provided consular services to its citizens, and were not limited to South Africa.
“The majority of US citizens who travel to South Africa generally make it back without incident,” he told the publication.
US president Barack Obama is due to visit Pretoria and Cape Town at the end of June. – Sapa
Burning tyres, a regular occurrence in South Africa
About 200 people were protesting on Umgeni and Alpine Roads in Durban on Thursday morning, eThekwini metro police said.
The protesters were burning rubbish and tyres, spokesperson Eugene Msomi said.
“The roads have been closed as we are waiting for the fire department,” he said.
Msomi said it was believed the people were protesting over service delivery. – Sapa
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