Kimberley – praag.org

EFF attack with brics, machetes, pangas

Chaos erupted on Sunday afternoon during the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Northern Cape conference, as members armed with bricks, machetes and pangas tore into each other, trashing the venue and leaving a trail of blood.

The conference, which saw EFF members from across the province gather at the Savoy Hotel in Kimberley to elect the provincial leadership, spiralled out of control after an apparent jostling for the leadership position between the party’s incumbent provincial leader, Aubrey Baartman, and a delegate at the conference, Ronald Februarie.

On Saturday a charge of assault was laid with the police following an apparent incident between Baartman and Februarie. On Sunday the police confirmed that a case had been opened and they were investigating it, but referred all queries to the party itself.

Chaos, however, erupted at around 3pm on Sunday afternoon as a group of around 50 people stormed the Savoy Hotel in the CBD. Other EFF members fled the hotel, running into the Old De Beers Road.

One person, wearing a camouflage uniform and armed with a stun gun, was trying to “shoot” as many people as possible as they fled in all directions.

The fleeing members then armed themselves with machetes, pangas, bricks and even beer bottles and returned to the hotel premises.

The front doors of the hotel were forced open and bricks flew between the two EFF factions, with members running backwards and forwards, trying to hide behind vehicles parked in the road.

The front windscreen of a bus, which was used to ferry members to the conference, was also smashed.

At one stage, Februarie himself came running out of the building with blood pouring from his mouth and down his arm. He too ducked for cover behind cars in the road.

Inside the venue there was even more chaos, with delegates running up and down the stairs and through the passages.

Tables and chairs were smashed, as well as interior doors. Blood was smeared on the carpets and on the tiles in the passages. Both doors to the conference centre were broken and the one entrance was barricaded closed with around 10 to 15 chairs which had been stacked on top of each other.

EFF members hurled insults, slating delegates as traitors and accused each other of supporting fraudulent members.

Around 10 minutes after the chaos erupted, several police vehicles as well as security guards arrived and managed to restore order.

A journalist was forced to take cover and call to the police for assistance after delegates attempted to forcefully take his camera to prevent him from taking photographs inside the venue. The police eventually took his camera to diffuse the situation.

Baartman told journalists after the incident that the instigators behind the violence that erupted needed to be disciplined and warned that they would face disciplinary action.

“One of the heads of security was injured after a brick was thrown at him and he might even lose his eyesight,” said Baartman.

He accused a faction of hiring gangsters from Galeshewe to disrupt the proceedings.

“The entire disruption was orchestrated as all delegates were searched,” Baartman said. “There was strict security and no weapons were allowed inside the premises.”

He added that he only learnt during the course of the conference that Februarie had his sights set on the leadership position.

“Ronald comes from Gauteng and doesn’t know the people here in the province. I will not be held hostage and will continue to defend the organisation. This group are agents working for the ANC,” said Baartman.

He said the fighting broke out when a faction of members realised that they did not have enough support to oust him as provincial leader and replace him with Februarie.

Meanwhile, EFF co-ordinator, Mabatho Mokause, who herself was hit on the head with a chair, accused Baartman of being corrupt and bribing delegates with R10 000 to vote for him.

“Security guards were sent from the national office for the conference. They were supposed to have searched all the delegates but they only searched the supporters of Februarie, forcing them to strip all the way down to their underwear,” said Mokause.

She called for Baartman to be removed as the provincial leader. “The national leadership must intervene now. This conference cannot go on – none of the votes cast here are valid.”

Mokause also accused Baartman of having several cases against him.

“We cannot have a leader who has so many cases against him. We are trying to teach our youngsters about politics. We cannot have a leadership that is corrupt. Baartman must go!”

Source: Diamond Fields Advertiser

Black mother speaks out against monster father rapist

A black Kimberley mother blames herself after her black husband allegedly fathered two children with their eldest daughter and also raped the youngest one.

Speaking to the media for the first time about the daily trauma her family endured at the hands of the man who was supposed to protect them, the woman said on Tuesday that she was still haunted by the memories of her husband raping the children.

“I can still see him sneaking into the bed where my daughters were sleeping and forcing himself on both of them.

“At times he would alternate the girls, while the other would wait in silence, knowing that she is next,” the mother said. I sat there in the dark… watching my husband raping my children.”

Her husband, who is charged with incest and rape, will appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

At the same time, the accused’s eldest daughter and her two children will be taken to Bloemfontein for paternity tests to prove that her father impregnated her.

It is alleged that the man, who is being held in police custody, sexually abused his two daughters for more than 10 years and one his daughters apparently gave birth to three of his children.

One of the children died.

Spokesman for the Free State National Prosecuting Authority, Phaladi Shuping, on Tuesday stated that the accused was arrested in April 2013 and was denied bail after he appeared in the Boshof Magistrate’s Court.

“We do not have the docket yet as the accused will be appearing for the first time in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court. The court is still waiting for the results of the paternity tests.”

The Roodepan girls are primary school dropouts and have no skills.

It is alleged their father’s alleged reign of terror prevented their mother from reporting any abuse, but the eldest daughter, 22, eventually managed to report the matter to a community leader earlier this year.

“I hate him and will never forgive him for violating my daughters and stealing their childhood. He would often assault me with a sjambok, which he made himself, when I tried to stand up for my girls,” the mother said.

She added that he held them hostage because he monitored their movements within the area, hence she could not share the nightmare.

“He would escort the girls to collect water from a nearby tap and threatened to kill them should they speak to anyone.

“My 26-year-old daughter only attended school up to Grade Four. Her 22-year-old sister has never been to school,” the mother added.

“Although my husband did not deny fathering the two children, aged three and four, with our eldest daughter, I refused that the children be given away for adoption.

“I accepted the young ones as my own and would never turn my back on them,” she said.

She added that she will support her daughters throughout the court case and hopes that her husband suffers the consequences for imprisoning them in their own home.

“He must experience the hardship and pain he brought into our lives.”

The 22-year-old, who was only 15 when her father started molesting her, also spoke about her gruelling ordeal.

“I don’t blame my mother for not being able to protect us from our wicked father.

“He was never a father but a monster and we often hoped that he would die,” the daughter said.

“Shame and fear kept us from seeking help because even his sister, who is my aunt, was aware of his horrendous acts, but kept quiet.

“My father robbed me of the experience of being a child. He treated me, first as his sex slave then as his daughter. I hate him and don’t wish to see him. To me he is dead and I want him to rot in jail.”

She pointed out that although they are relieved that a case has been opened and he was arrested, they would never be a normal family again because what he did to them would stay in their minds for the rest of their lives.

“We are not receiving any counselling at the moment. We stay indoors because neighbours are asking us questions about how we live at home,” she said.

“I wish we could find another house far away from Roodepan and probably start a new life away from the shame.

“Although we are free because he is in jail, the nightmares and living in this shanty still haunt us.

“God has granted us a second chance and my biggest dream is to go to school and become a police officer to arrest all those who molest and rape their children.”

According to the Media Liaison Officer for the Ministry of Social Development, Lesego Pule, a social worker has been assigned to the case, and is currently doing an assessment on the family.

“Her report will be completed before the end of this week. It is only after this report, that the department would be in a position to tell what sort of help will be provided. We can confirm though, that the two daughters will receive therapy and whatever help the report identifies as being necessary.” – Diamond Fields Advertiser

Hundreds flee ‘bewitched’ Kimberley military base

Mass hysteria among hundreds of young students participating in the National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec) saw them fleeing the 3SAI Army Base and seeking refuge at the Roodepan police station.

Only days after they arrived for their four-month character-building programme at the military base, the students swopped their beds at the “spooky military base” for the open space outside the Roodepan police station where they slept on Monday night.

“Hundreds of us have seen and experienced supernatural events taking place at the military base. Some have seen a snake that keeps on terrorising us, while others have lost consciousness for unexplained reasons. We have told officials about the events but they have done nothing to allay our fears.

“Even the chaplain at the base has been called to pray for us but when we told him about these supernatural events he laughed,” the terrified students said.

When the DFA arrived at the police station on Tuesday morning, close to 200 students were gathered in the station premises. Some were also walking from the military base to the station.

“There is about 700 of us who are involved in this programme, but only a few want to remain at the base. We have been told that more students are coming from the base to join us,” some of the students said.

They also pointed out that they had boycotted the meals at the base on Sunday morning after one of the students, who apparently uses witchcraft, had told them that she and six other students she was working with had poisoned the food.

“This student told us that one of us would die if we ate breakfast on Sunday morning. As a result we have stopped eating at the base. This particular student confessed to senior officials that she and six other people were practising witchcraft but the officials did not believe her,” the students claimed.

Some of the students added that the student, who confessed to being a witch, had prophesied the death of a Narysec student at a facility in the Eastern Cape.

“We woke up today (on Tuesday) to reports that a Narysec student, who was supposed to travel from a facility in the Eastern Cape to 3SAI, had died. We know that people may not believe us or may think that we are not sane, but how can close to 700 of us be mad?

“There is something supernatural going on at that military base and the officials know about the ghosts there,” the students said.

They also raised complaints that, although they had gone to 3SAI Military Base for a character-building (non-military training) programme, they were in fact subjected to rigorous military training.

“Most of us have had to be transported to the sick bay to see a doctor after being taken through the stringent military training. We have a student who almost died at the hands of the instructors in charge of this training,” the students said.

Later on Tuesday, chaos erupted at the Roodepan police station when officials from the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, which is responsible for the Narysec programme, demanded that students who wanted to go home hand back the departmental clothing issued to them.

“This is madness… you (referring to the department officials) can go ahead and open cases against us but we will not leave the clothes that we are wearing,” the students said.

They said that the officials had instructed them to give back the department’s tracksuits, bags and toiletries if they wanted to drop out of the Narysec programme.

“These officials told us that if we leave the military base, we are effectively dropping out of the Narysec programme. But the officials have forced us out of the programme because we proposed that we be moved to a different venue or facility because of the supernatural things that are happening at the base.

“They refused to listen to us and, instead, have threatened to open cases of theft against us if we fail to return the items given to us,” the students said.

They pointed out that although they had not eaten for two days and had slept outside the police station, the officials of the department had not organised food for them or any alternative accommodation.

“We understand that the officials are forcing us out of the Narysec programme but they should have had the decency to organise food and alternative accommodation while we are waiting to be transported back to our homes. They know that we are not from around here and this attitude shows that they do not care,” the students added.

The students also complained about eating stale food at the military base.

They said that they came from across the country, including kwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, to attend the four-month programme.

“We arrived at the base on Friday. Some of the students from kwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga have already left Kimberley and are hitch-hiking back to their provinces,” they said.

The 2013 Narysec students added that the department had also not paid them their stipends.

By on Tuesday afternoon, students were still leaving the military base, some joining their counterparts at the police station while others were seen walking in groups along the Barkly West road, making their way to various hitch-hiking spots along the main roads out of the city.

Although the students said that the police had committed to arranging food and accommodation for them on Tuesday, Northern Cape police spokesman, Lieutenant Donald Mdlhuli, said that they could not comment on the matter and referred the DFA to the department and to the management of 3SAI military base.

Spokeswoman for the base, Melidie Tidbury, referred the media to the head of the base, Colonel Sipho Nziweni.

Nziweni denied claims of witchcraft at the military base.

“I do not know how the students, who believe in witchcraft, have experienced it but I have no knowledge of witchcraft at the base. But it is interesting that 105 of the 380 students who wanted to leave the base have come back,” Nziweni said.

He pointed out that only a fraction of the Narysec students wanted to leave the base.

“More than 500 students have remained and we now have this 105 that have came back,” he said.

He denied that the students were being given military training and that they were eating stale food.

“In fact this is not the first Narysec programme we have had at the base. The food they are eating is the food that our members are eating and it is not stale,” Nziweni added.

Although the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform promised to respond to media questions, it failed to do so at the time of going to press on Tuesday night.

Diamond Fields Advertiser

ANC names two new South African universities

The new university being built in Kimberley next year will be called the Sol Plaatje University, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

A new university in Nelspruit would be known as the University of Mpumalanga, he said.

“Our young people are hungry for education,” Zuma told reporters in Pretoria.

“We are establishing these institutions because we want every province in the country to provide an institution of higher learning.”

He said the universities would initially take in fewer than 200 students each.

Zuma and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande were giving an update on the progress made so far in establishing the two new universities.

During his state-of-the-nation address, Zuma announced that construction on the universities was expected to start this year.

He said that while the university’s would start operating next year, they would move into their new premises only in 2015. – Sapa