LALI VAN ZUYDAM
IT WAS like walking into thepast, with people dressed
likesoldiers from the former Rhode-sian Army, German AfrikaKorps
and World War II.
On display were militaryhardware and historic itemssuch as
Volkswagen Beetlesdating back to the time of NaziGermany.
Yesterday, hundreds of mili-tary and military history
enthu-siasts spent the day at theVoortrekker Monument for thethird
annual Military and His-tory Fair.
“There are pieces here fromas far back as the Anglo-BoerWar but
also pieces used by themilitary now,” said the fair’sorganiser,
Geraldine Paulsen.
More than 40 stalls exhibitedeverything from military tanks,guns
and ammunition, collec-tors’ items to military historybooks. One
stall sold miniaturekit models of tanks.
Milkor, a South African wea-pons manufacturer, fired one ofits
latest grenade launchers.
Several military re-enactorsattended the event in their
his-torical uniforms.
“They are living history.People don’t know what thewars of the
past were like,” saidPaulsen, “so people will travelfar to see
re-enactments offamous battles.” The event was away to teach
children about mil-itary history, he said.
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AFRICA EDITION
GET ACOPYTODAY
QUICKTAKE
QUICKTAKE
Elderly couple robbed at gunpointTWO MEN were arrested after
allegedly robbing an elderlycouple on their farm near Hermanus,
Western Cape police saidyesterday. A group of four men broke into
the couple’s house byclimbing through the window and robbed them at
gunpoint onWednesday night, Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said. The
77-year-old man and his wife were not injured. The four took
cash,cellphones and bank cards and fled in the couple’s
VolkswagenPolo, which they crashed in Hemel en Aarde Valley. Two of
themwere seriously injured and arrested. The other two fled.
Thearrested pair were expected to appear in court today. – Sapa
Woman raped after car stallsA COUPLE were robbed, and the woman
raped, when their carbroke down along the R80 in Soshanguve, north
of Pretoria,police said yesterday. They were approached by two men,
one ofwhom was armed, and who robbed them of bank cards andcash in
block XX on Wednesday night, spokeswoman CaptainRheineth Motlana
said. “One of the men asked the boyfriend toaccompany him to the
ATM to withdraw money, while the otherone remained behind with the
woman.” When the boyfriendcame back from the ATM he found his
girlfriend had been raped.Both men fled the scene. – Sapa
Political activists to be reburiedTHE REMAINS of 10 people
killed during political violence inBergville would be reburied, the
KwaZulu-Natal government saidyesterday. “KwaZulu-Natal Premier
Senzo Mchunu and membersof his cabinet will pay the final respects
to the victims of the1993/4 political violence in Bergville, when
10 of those killedduring that period will be reburied this
weekend,” spokesmanNdabezinhle Sibiya said. The area around
Bergville was at thecentre of political violence that erupted
between the ANC andIFP in the 1990s. – Sapa
Collision claims one lifeONE PERSON died and three others were
injured when two carscollided near Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal paramedics
said yesterday.One of the injured was trapped and had to be
extricated fromthe wreckage, Emergency Medical Services spokesman
RobertMcKenzie said. “The patient was freed, and together with
theother two patients who had sustained serious injuries,
weretransported to Christ the King Hospital in Ixopo for
continuedmedical care.” The cause of Wednesday night’s accident on
theR612 was unknown. – Sapa
MPILETSO [email protected]
MYSTERY still surrounds the missingbronze bust of Sir James
Percy Fitz-Patrick at Johannesburg Zoo.
The bust wall allegedly stolen in 2010and has yet to be
found.
FitzPatrick was the author of thefamous children’s book Jock of
theBushveld.
The wild animals he brought backfrom hunting trips formed part
of thefirst group of animals at JohannesburgZoo.
Flo Bird, of the Johannesburg Heri-tage Foundation, recently
spoke to the
North Eastern Tribune about how shenoticed a few weeks ago that
the bust wasmissing, and found it odd that nothinghad been done in
all these years.
The newspaper said the bust hadbeen erected in 1984 for the
zoo’s 80thbirthday.
In March, the zoo celebrated its 110thanniversary with a big
party. The cele-brations will continue with more activi-ties until
March next year.
When the zoo opened in 1904, it had10 animals, but now boasts
more than2 000.
These include lions, tigers, hippos,elephants, monkeys,
chimpanzees andantelopes, among many others.
The bronze bust was situated in anenclosure at the zoo.
Johannesburg City Parks and zoospokeswoman Jenny Moodley said:
“Ithas been missing since 2010, before CityParks took over the
zoo.
“We’d like to find it but have beenunsuccessful since we found
out it wasmissing.”
She said the bust was stolen whileDr Stephen van der Spuy was
the execu-tive officer of the zoo.
“If anybody has information, pleaselet us know,” said
Moodley.
She said members of the public couldcall the zoo’s direct line
if they had anyinformation.
Limpopo: January 2014
A 3-year-old was found deadin a car belonging to a
localbusinessman, near Relela inLimpopo. The boy had gonemissing
earlier that day withtwo other children. The post-mortem showed the
boy died ofsuffocation, but the others wereunharmed. Police said
itappeared that they had climbedinto the car to play when thedoors
locked and trapped them.
Gauteng: November 2012
A four-month-old baby was res-cued in Springs after she wasleft
alone in a parked car in 30ºC
heat. Someone saw her andcalled the police, who broke awindow.
She was taken to hospi-tal. Police arrested the motherand said she
would face neglectcharges.
Free State: January 2012
A 4-year-old girl was foundlocked in a car in a mall park-ing
lot in Welkom. Paramedicsbroke the window to free her.Temperatures
were in theupper 30ºC range. Two menwere arrested. The girl’smother
said the men had takenher daughter without her per-mission. – Ally
Mutnick
JOYCE [email protected]
POLICE found the burnt body of a man in an openfield in
Lakeside, Vereeniging, on Wednesdaymorning.
He was missing his genitals, and the back ofhis skull was cut
“like a doctor (was) going to openit”, said police spokesman
Captain Fikile Funda.
Funda added that he did not know whether thevictim’s brain had
been taken out.
Police suspect the unknown man, in his latetwenties, was the
victim of a ritualistic murder,and the perpetrators burnt his body
to cover upthe crime, Funda said.
Ritualistic killings and organ trafficking arecommon across
South Africa. There are anywherebetween 150 and 300 muti murders in
SouthAfrica annually, according to a 2006 US Depart-ment of State
Trafficking in Persons Report.
In a mutimurder, bodyparts are re-moved from a liv-ing person,
sold,and used formedicinal pur-
poses. Bodies are sold for as little as R10 000,according to a
2010 probe conducted by Mozam-bique’s Human Rights League.
Male genitals, breasts, hearts, fingers andtongues are the most
commonly trafficked bodyparts for muti, according to the
league.
In South Africa, there is no distinct charge fora muti killing.
Perpetrators are put in jail for mur-der, sometimes abduction, and
are often given lifesentences.
Police have asked anyone with information tocome forward.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Vereenigingpolice are seeking
help in identifying the body ofa white man in his early thirties
found in the VaalRiver near Spider Valley on Tuesday. His
body,wrapped in plastic, was in a badly decomposedstate. He was
wearing a jacket, jeans and sneakersand had a Nokia cellphone in
his jacket.
Mutilated andburnt corpsefound in field
He was missinghis genitals, andhis skull was cut
Percy FitzPatrick’s zoo bust still missing
ALLY [email protected]
THREE South African sol-diers have been injuredin the Democratic
Repub-
lic of the Congo following anattack by an armed group.
The soldiers, who had beenserving in the DRC for sixmonths as
part of the UN force,were all stable and being treatedat a hospital
in Goma, theSANDF confirmed yesterday.
One was seriously woundedwhile the other two sustainedminor
injuries.
The SANDF could not providedetails of Wednesday’s attack,but
confirmed the Alliance ofPatriots for a Free and SovereignCongo
(APCLS) rebel group hadlaunched the assault.
The UN’s Monusco missionhad launched a counter-strikewith attack
helicopters.
South Africa has about 1 000
soldiers serving with Monuscoand its forces have been in
theregion for the past 12 years, saidSANDF spokesman Captain
JacoTheunissen.
He said the attack had notspecifically targeted South Afri-can
forces and that SANDFtroops would remain in theregion.
“We’ve fought bravely,” Theu-nissen said. “We don’t have
anyserious casualties.”
President Jacob Zuma hadbeen briefed on the incident bythe
minister of defence, saidZuma’s spokesman Mac Maha-raj. The mission
“remains firmlyon course”, he wrote in an e-mail.
Violence from armed rebelgroups is common in the easternregion
of the DRC where theSANDF soldiers were attacked.
Monusco works with the Congo-lese army to quell violence in
theregion.
APCLS is one of three mainrebel groups in the region. InMarch,
the intervention brigadeand the Congolese army forcedthe group out
of the town of Luk-weti, which the group was using
as a headquarters. The group isnow launching
counter-attacks.
The UN force posed a militarythreat to rebel groups as it
hadrecently focused on pushingthem out of control in the DRC,said
Darren Olivier, a senior cor-respondent for the AfricanDefence
Review.
“The attack (on Wednesday)was very bold,” he said.
“This may be a sign of desper-ation that they have lost
theirstronghold.”
The group, led by GeneralJanvier Karairi, is believed tohave
about 500 members, mostlyfrom the Hunde ethnic group.
SANDF soldiers wounded in DRC����������
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FROM March 22 until about 9pm onMarch 24 last year, 200
SouthAfrican soldiers fought a series ofrunning battles outside
Bangui inthe Central African Republic (CAR)against 3 000 or more
well-armedopponents.
They did so while the CAR armyevaporated and the
peacekeepingforces of the Central AfricanStandby Brigade
disappeared fromthe scene.
That series of running battlesclaimed 13 soldiers and left
27others wounded. The soldiers firedoff more than 12 000 rounds
of12.7mm machinegun ammunitionand 288 rockets from
armylaunchers.
South Africa lost the battle in the
end because the huge Seleka forceeventually overran them
andtoppled the country’s president,Francois Bozize, the next
day.
Estimates by French newsagencies placed the final SANDFdeath
toll at 36-50, although SANDFspokesman Brigadier-GeneralXolani
Mabanga dismissed thesestatements as “blue lies”.
“We have no missing soldiers orbodies,” he said. – Susie
Neilson
Injured trio in stable condition after attack by rebel group in
east of country
DA MISLEADINGPUBLIC – PAGE 15
KA-BOOM! Canon Susanna was fired during the Military and History
Fair at the Voortrekker Monument yesterday to commemorate the
attack onBritish forces during the Anglo-Boer War. PICTURE: THOBILE
MATHONSI
Battle disasterin the CAR
Blast fromthe pastat fair inPretoria
PALESA [email protected]
POST-MORTEM results willdetermine the cause of death ofthe three
children who died afterthey were left in a car for 20 min-utes in
Mmabatho.
The children were left in ablack car on Wednesday whiletheir
parents went to a chemistto get medication for theiryoungest
child.
The parents were with their2-year-old son, 6-year-old daugh-ter,
her 4-year-old cousin and aneighbour’s 10-year-old daugh-ter. The
couple took their 2-year-old son, and left the other chil-dren in
the car.
The 28-year-old mother wentback to the car after buying
fruitjuice for the three children andfound them very weak.
Yesterday, North West police
spokesman Captain MabelMosidi said it was difficult forthe
children to open the car fromthe inside as it was locked andthe
windows were closed.
A key is needed to open thecar’s electric windows and doors.
The parents had taken thekey with them when they went tothe
chemist.
The 34-year-old driver of thecar took the three children
toVictoria Hospital, where theywere certified dead on arrival.
SA Weather Service senior
forecaster Puseletso Mofokengsaid the weather was 27ºC
inMahikeng, and though this wasnot extreme, such temperaturecould
be dangerous in a station-ary car with no ventilation.“When the car
is not moving, thetemperature rises,” she said.
She said the fact that the carwas black made the situationworse,
as the vehicle wouldabsorb heat.
Mosidi said police were inves-tigating but no foul play
wassuspected.
The investigating officerwould hand the docket to a pros-ecutor
at the Mmabatho Magis-trate’s Court for a decision onwhether to
prosecute.
“The police would like to senda warning to all parents not
toleave children in cars withoutsupervision. It’s not safe, as
any-thing can happen,” she said.
Probe after kids’ deaths in carOther similar incidentsA MAN has
been arrested forstabbing a policeman with aspear at Freedom Park,
nearRustenburg.
Police were conducting a cor-don-and-search operation
onWednesday night when a manstabbed a policeman in the chest.The
policeman was saved by hisbulletproof vest.
The man was arrested andcharged with attempted murder,possession
of dangerous weaponand dagga and will appear incourt soon.
Provincial Commissioner Lt-Gen Zukiswa Mbombo saidcriminal
behaviour and unruli-ness would not be tolerated.
She said police were still look-ing for people behind the
torch-ing of a municipal building andtwo houses in Freedom Park
lastSunday. – Sapa
Man held forstabbing cop
Police would liketo send a warning
to all parents
