The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) recently welcomed the arrest of seven suspects linked to an intelligence-based rhino horn trafficking syndicate in Mpumalanga.
Earlier this year, the DEA reported back on the Integrated Strategic Management of Rhinoceros, which places an emphasis on the government’s anti-poaching efforts.
These efforts are supported by the departments of defence, correctional services, the Hawks, the South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority.
Here are 10 things you should know about rhino poaching in South Africa:
400 – The number of suspects charged with various related crimes, including rhino poaching, since January 2018.
145 – The number of weapons seized in rhino-related incidents both inside and outside the Kruger National Park since January 2018. A total of 83 rhino horns were confiscated in the same period.
60.92kg – The weight of the rhino horn confiscated and linked to poaching incidents in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.
530 – The number of poaching-related cases on the court roll involving 750 accused and 1 738 charges.
R200 000 – The donation received from the Chinese embassy and the Chinese community in South Africa for the fight against wildlife crime.
2 000 – The number of officials trained on matters pertaining to the illegal trade in wildlife at the country’s ports of entry and exit from 2017.
28 – The total number of permits issued for the trade of rhinoceros horns, since the Constitutional Court lifted the moratorium on the domestic trade of rhino horn.
11 – The number community rhino hotspots identified and monitored by SANParks.
501 – The number of rhino poached between January 1, 2018 to August 31, 2018.
361 – The number of live rhino translocated to Botswana, Chad, Namibia, Rwanda and Zambia with the intention of establishing new rhino populations within the continent.
A former South African Revenue Service (SARS) executive confronted journalist Stephan Hofstatter at the launch of his book, License to Loot, demanding an apology from him for his role in the so-called SARS “rogue unit” saga on Thursday.
Pete Richer, who resigned as group executive for strategic planning and risk in May 2015, angrily confronted Hofstatter at the event at Love Books in Melville, saying that Hofstatter and his colleagues at the Sunday Times caused enormous damage to people’s lives, careers and families.
Hofstatter was part of a team of journalists that published numerous stories about the existence of a “rogue unit” between October 2014 and October 2015.
The stories were later found to be baseless and the newspaper apologised for its reporting. The rogue unit narrative was used as the pretext for Tom Moyane, who was appointed SARS commissioner in September 2014, closing down the taxman’s specialist enforcement units.
It led to an exodus of expert and senior staff. Moyane is suspended and acting SARS commissioner Mark Kingon has said he is resurrecting the specialist units.
Richer told Hofstatter that his reputation as a risk specialist had been destroyed and that he was forced to leave SARS because of the Sunday Times’ reporting.
“Not only me, but good people like Ivan Pillay, Johann van Loggerenberg, Adrian Lackay…” Richer said the modus operandi when destroying an institution such as SARS was to disseminate false information that is then used to force an investigation and discredit individuals.
“It happened at SARS, at the Hawks, at IPID (Independent Police Investigative Directorate) and at the police,” he said and accused Hofstatter and his colleagues of playing into the hands of state capture.
He said no one at the Sunday Times had ever asked him for comment about the rogue unit stories and that journalists relied on information given to them by a smuggler of rhino horns.
“I lost my job at SARS. You set up scurrilous unethical journalists to set up a fiction to get rid of hard-working civic servants,” Richer told Hofstatter.
SARS investigative capabilities have been broken down. OECD rated SARS top in the world. Its decimated, along with Hawks, Ipid, police, through complicit unethical journalists, says ex-SARS exec Pete Richer. @TeamNews24pic.twitter.com/MVdixrt3zr
“SARS’ investigative capabilities have been broken down. We were highly rated by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)…the British came to see how we do things…it’s now decimated.”
Hofstatter, who listened intently to Richer, apologised that Richer was never approached for comment.
“I apologise if anything I did hurt you personally. That was never my intention. I always tried to stand up for the downtrodden and expose corruption.”
“I never wanted to cause harm, do ill. Worked on SOEs since 2010, stand up for downtrodden. Made mistakes, apologised, serious errors. Stories were used to attack institutions. Never our intention. I’m very sorry, Peter,” says Hofstatter. @TeamNews24
He admitted that there were “gaps in my knowledge” and that, in hindsight, he should have stepped back to look at the story he and his colleagues were investigating.
“It was a chaotic, upside down time. We were under pressure for scoops. We should have stood back,” he said, but explained that as many as nine reporters and editors were involved in investigating the story.
“I cannot speak on behalf of the Sunday Times… we have apologised extensively and it is available for everyone to read.”
In response to a question on whether he would be willing to testify in front of the Nugent commission of inquiry into tax administration, Hofstatter said he wanted to move on from the episode.
He did not address the SARS matter in his book, which is focused on Eskom, because “frankly, I’m not ready yet”, he said.
Richer said afterwards that if Hofstatter believed what he said during the event and if he was remorseful, he should make a submission to the Nugent commission.
“He should write about what happened with their reporting. They don’t understand what the impact of their stories were. We had to bail out our friends with mortgage payments because they lost their jobs, because of this.”
Also present at the launch were protesting members of a group called Johannesburg Against Injustice.
“We are here to protest against Stephan Hofstatter for his role in state capture, in particular what he wrote to undermine the SARS rogue unit, as it was called, general dishonesty and trash,” said the organisation’s David Lydall.
“As an active organisation we have been around for two years. We actively fought against state capture. We are part of Future South Africa and the Save South Africa coalition,” Lydall said.
“We are very much aware of this sort of thing. Obviously, we have read Jacques Pauw’s book, and Johann van Loggerenberg’s book which reference him (Hofstatter) directly and the sort of things he did. So when we heard that this was happening today we decided to make sure that the story is told,” he said.
South African entrepreneur Wendy Luhabe has been slammed on social media as the “black Helen Zille” for posting a tweet in which she says people who studied and worked during the apartheid regime have a better work ethic than the current generation.
In the tweet, posted on Wednesday, Luhabe says under apartheid “we had a much better work ethic, we were responsible for our lives understandably” and then adds that such attributes “have been replaced by a culture of entitlement and dependency” since South Africa became a democracy.
#Reflections I grew up and started my career under Apartheid and we had a much better work ethic,we were responsible for our lives understandably…these attributes have been replaced by a culture of Entitlement and dependency since we became a Democracy.
Labelling citizens as “entitled” rubbed actress Nokuthula Ledwaba up the wrong way, prompting her to point out the system black people have to fight daily.
“That time we’re trying to work hard in a system that spits in our faces all the damn time. Still we get up and try. Before you label us, come to our side of town. Your tweet cut so deep. It’s cruel too,” Ledwaba responded.
That time we’re trying to work hard in a system that spits in our faces all the damn time. Still we get up and try. Before you label us, come to our side of town. Your tweet cut so deep. It’s cruel too.
Some commented on how connections, and not hard work, had led Luhabe to where she was today.
“I think the problem is the lie that their success was gained from hard work as an individual’s effort instead of contacts, community support, and loads of luck. Those investment deals Mam Wendy got are not as a result of hard work but her connections. I won’t go further…” Pinky Khoabane tweeted.
I think the problem is the lie that their success was gained from hard work as an individual’s effort instead of contacts, community support, and loads of luck. Those investment deals Mam Wendy got are not as a result of hard work but her connections. I wont go further…
One of the men arrested for the murder of an ANC ward councillor in Knysna, Western Cape, appeared in court on Wednesday, police said.
Ward 8 councillor Victor Molosi, who is also the leader of the ANC in the council, died after he was gunned down metres from his house in Knysna in the Southern Cape in July.
News24 previously reported that Molosi had apparently been on his way from a school governing body meeting at Concordia High School when a gunman approached him.
The gunman fired several shots at him. He sustained a gunshot wound to the head and died on his way to hospital.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the decision not to stand as the party’s candidate for the Western Cape premiership “wasn’t anybody’s decision, it was Mmusi Maimane’s decision”.
Maimane was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday where he announced that Western Cape MEC for economic opportunities Alan Winde will be the DA’s premier candidate in the province that the party has governed since 2009, with Helen Zille at the helm.
There has been much intrigue surrounding the process of appointing this candidate, as the initial announcement which was planned for Sunday was postponed on Saturday. It then emerged that Maimane was considering standing, taking many within the party by surprise as the DA had already embarked on a search for a premier candidate, interviewing potential candidates.
Winde, DA MP and spokesperson on finance David Maynier and Western Cape DA leader and MEC for human settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela were the frontrunners.
After meetings of the DA’s federal executive council, Maimane on Tuesday announced that he “decided to decline” the request for him to stand as the DA’s candidate for premier of the Western Cape.
On Wednesday he said a “request” was made for him to stand, but he did not say who made this request.
“In part, the request to me was to increase our vote in the Western Cape,” he said.
He said what persuaded him not to stand in the end was the DA’s “national project”.
Madikizela was one of those opposed to Maimane being the Western Cape’s candidate for premier.
Madikizela said he was not upset by a Maimane candidacy, but disagreed with it and told Maimane so.
‘Full confidence in Winde’
“We have a national project. We cannot have a situation where our most prized possession is only in the Western Cape,” Madikizela said.
“I don’t want to be arrogant, but we don’t have an opposition in the Western Cape.”
He said Maimane was the best person to drive the national project.
Maimane dismissed the notion that he considered standing for the premiership because the other candidates were not strong enough.
“I have full confidence in the candidates. I have full confidence in Alan Winde.”
He said the DA had the luxury that its candidates were all excellent.
Separation of party and state
He said Winde emerged at the top after a “rigorous process” where each candidate had to present a plan for the province. According to Maimane, Winde, Maynier and Madikizela each provided an “incredible” plan.
“We were spoilt for choice.”
He said fulfilling a certain role within the party did not automatically mean one would get a certain position in government.
“We want to separate party and state.”
Maimane said Winde had the full support of the DA’s national leadership team, his fellow candidates, and the provincial leadership team in the province.
“Our colleague, Bonginkosi Madikizela, was also a candidate for the position and is the provincial leader of the Western Cape. He has pledged his unequivocal support to Alan, and his graciousness is a testament to his calibre as a leader, and to the strength of the DA’s processes,” Maimane said.
‘We must put the party first’
Madikizela said it was human nature to be disappointed, and that he would have voted for himself. Following the announcement, he said he would support Winde.
“Alan is a friend and colleague,” he said.
“He needs my support. We must put the party first.”
He said the province faced certain challenges for which the leadership needed to take responsibility.
Winde said he and Madikizela had a discussion before the outcome of the selection process and decided that they would support each other. He pointed out that he supported Madikizela in his successful bid to become the provincial leader last year.
Maynier was also in the audience at the announcement. He tweeted his support to Winde.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused former president Jacob Zuma of confusing people with his recent comments on state capture.
Last week Zuma hit out at the state capture commission of inquiry, insisting that no arm of state in SA had been captured and that it was just a “politically-decorated expression”.
“A state is composed of three elements: The legislature, executive and judiciary… that constitutes the state,” Zuma told students toward the end of his address on free education at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape last Wednesday.
“Does it mean that these three arms are captured? Is it true?” he asked.
“My view, and I am not disagreeing with anyone, [is that] these are politically-decorated expressions. There is no state that is captured. Some people were doing things with [other] people,” said Zuma.
But, during his address at Cosatu’s 13th national congress on Tuesday, Nzimande described the former president’s comments as a “liberal analysis” of a state.
“You can’t say: ‘If one arm of the state or one component of the state is corrupted, therefore there is no state capture and we must wait until the totality of the entire state is corrupted,'” Nzimande said.
“As the SACP, we are saying you are not going to help by confusing young people with things that are wrong.”
Nzimande also noted recent claims of an alleged campaign to unseat current ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and said the SACP had already made pronouncements about this in May.
He described the alleged plot as a “false version of radical economic transformation” and said it was synonymous with a campaign to defend parasitic networks and all those attached to them.
The SACP general secretary said the campaign was not just aimed at Ramaphosa and the ANC, but at the working class of SA.
“The alliance as a whole must look into this matter and also satisfy itself that such actions are exposed and defeated,” he said.
A high-ranking police officer previously accused incoming Cape Town mayor Dan Plato of using public funds to pay informants and of conducting intelligence operations in his capacity as MEC for Community Safety in the Western Cape.
The head of the Western Cape’s detectives, Major General Jeremy Vearey, believed Plato was using the informants to run a smear campaign against him, which Plato previously denied.
A criminal complaint, initiated by the ANC in the Western Cape, was also lodged against Plato in 2016.
Plato ‘prioritises residents’ safety interests’
Plato welcomed this at the time, saying his actions have always been aimed towards the best safety interests of Western Cape residents.
On Tuesday, Plato was announced as the new mayor of Cape Town. Plato will take over the position from Patricia de Lille, following extreme infighting, involving claims and counterclaims being exchanged among the City’s top tier officials, which has rocked the City of Cape Town.
However, Plato’s track record leading up to this is marked with several controversies.
In June 2016, Vearey was suddenly transferred from heading the province’s detectives and he believed that this may have been partially because of the tension between himself and Plato.
Vearey approached the Cape Town Labour Court to have his transfer reversed and in an affidavit in the matter, he said the tension related to “false allegations” made by three individuals: Pierre Mark Wyngaardt, Pierre Theron and Sylvano Hendricks, a transgender woman who calls herself Queeny Madikizela-Malema.
“The publication of their false allegations were facilitated by the Office of the MEC without any process being used to test the truth of the allegations,” Vearey’s affidavit said.
“It appeared to me that the MEC’s office was conducting intelligence operations in which informants were being paid from public funds for information they gathered and provided.
“I view the false statements as having been made by persons linked to gangs with a view of discrediting me.”
Vearey, who had approached the Labour Court with Lieutenant General Peter Jacobs, who is now the head of Crime Intelligence nationally and who was also transferred within the police at the time Vearey was, were both successful in their quest to be placed back in the positions they had been moved from.
Claims, which Vearey believed formed part of a smear campaign, were made against him as follows:
– In a September 2012 affidavit, which was later leaked to the media, Pierre Mark Wyngaardt claimed Vearey was working with a gang boss’ family alongside a politician.
However, when tracked down by the Weekend Argus publication in 2013, Wyngaardt told a reporter he was a prophet guided by angels.
In April 2016, following the surfacing of a voice clip of a conversation apparently between Plato and Wyngaardt, Plato confirmed to the Weekend Argus that he had had meetings with Wyngaardt.
– In an October 2015 affidavit, Pierre Theron claimed Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir had paid an array of high-profile individuals large sums of money.
Among these claims was that Vearey had received a total of R6m from Krejcir.
This affidavit was also leaked to the media.
Theron also had dealings with Plato and in an affidavit dated October 2013, he claimed that Plato had, between July 2012 and January 2013, paid him nine sums of money for information. But in May 2016, Netwerk24 reported that Plato said he had paid Theron money for medical care which Theron needed.
– In a February 2016 affidavit, Sylvano Hendricks alleged Vearey was in cahoots with an alleged Western Cape-based gang boss.
This affidavit was also leaked to the media.
A part of a stamp on the affidavit said “Department of Community Safety Western Cape”, implying that the document was linked to Plato’s department.
The affidavit by Hendricks related to the murder of Nathaniel Moses, the leader of a faction of the 28s gang called The Mobsters, who was fatally shot in Strand on January 15, 2016.
This affidavit resulted in Plato’s name being brought up in the bail application centring around suspected underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack and four of his co-accused who were charged with extortion relating to private security and a restaurant.
During the bail application, which ran in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court from December 2017 to February 2018, Bruce Hendricks, an attorney representing Modack’s co-accused Colin Booysen, said Vearey was implicated in a murder in a statement made by Hendricks and which was made to Plato. Colin Booysen is the brother of alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome “Donkie” Booysen.
Charl Kinnear, the investigating officer in the extortion case, testified that he was aware of the allegation against Vearey, but said Vearey did not face arrest in the matter.
In 2013, Plato had approached the Public Protector with several allegations and these were then passed to the Hawks.
Dan Plato (Peter Abrahams, Son)
‘Source lacked credibility’
According to a July 2013 press release by Director of Public Prosecutions in the Western Cape, Rodney de Kock, these allegations were “that a senior politician and a SAPS (SA Police Service) officer have involved themselves in various alleged criminal activities”.
However, it was found that the source of the allegations could not be relied on.
“The source of the allegations is a witness who lacks credibility and whose version is unable to be corroborated in any respect,” De Kock found.
“The DPP considers that the enquiry contains insufficient evidence to suggest that he should take any further steps and he has declined to do so.”
In April 2016, the ANC in the Western Cape had issued a harsh-worded press release on the matter involving Plato and Vearey.
“Not only has Plato violated the rights of General Vearey by spewing forth vague and embarrassing untruths about him in public, but he has also violated the confidentiality of those who use him to peddle their agendas; no matter how untrue they may be,” it said.
“The danger is that Plato sets himself up, by his own misfortune, for citizens to mistrust him in future for fear of their identity being revealed to suit the DA’s narrow-minded political agenda.”
‘Welcome’ criminal complaint
In May 2016, the Western Cape ANC also lodged a complaint with police based on how it had viewed Plato’s actions.
It wanted to know whether anyone should be prosecuted for crimes including perjury or defeating the ends of justice.
Plato welcomed this and said the ANC’s “half-truth concocted conspiracies” were an attempt to divert attention from how much members featured in affidavits supplied to his office.
“I welcome the ANC Western Cape’s sudden interest in the rule of law, however misguided, through their actions today of opening up a docket for criminal investigation into me,” he said in a statement at the time.
“Through these legitimate investigative authorities, the truth regarding the content of information, allegations and affidavits handed to me will be determined and anyone responsible for any illegal activity will have to face the full might of the law.
“My actions in office have always been above board, transparent and in the best interest of the safety of communities in the Western Cape.”
No arrests were announced following the lodging of the criminal complaint by the Western Cape ANC.
An elderly man who was caught up in a row over parking at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) has died, police confirmed on Monday.
“The 71-year-old in the ORTIA assault incident has succumbed to his injuries yesterday [Sunday],” said police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale.
“It it is probable that the charge will be changed after the detective returns from court this morning,” she said.
The elderly man became involved in a row of parking with an Uber driver at ORTIA on Sunday September 9 and was injured when the argument escalated.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo said the driver was initially arrested for assault, and then when the severity of the old man’s injuries became evident, the charge was changed to attempted murder.
The driver was held in custody and is expected to apply for bail in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Comment from Uber and the airport’s spokespeople was not immediately available.
Uber spokesperson Samantha Allenberg said last week the driver had been removed from the ride-sharing app.
Four Eskom power plants have fewer than 10 days of coal, with the power utility planning on trucking and railing supplies from a facility in the Limpopo province to the stations in Mpumalanga that’s about 400 kilometers away.
The constraints at the plants in Mpumalanga are mainly because the company that supplies them is under business rescue, Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesperson for Eskom told SAFm radio Monday. The plants are supplied by mines owned by Tegeta Exploration and Resources, a company linked the Gupta family.
Eskom plans to transport coal from its delayed Medupi power plant in Limpopo to the facilities in Mpumalanga, and plans to build an alternative, dirt road to move the fuel so as not to compromise existing freeways, Phasiwe said. The utility is also in talks with state rail company Transnet to move the coal by train.
Oakbay said in August that it agreed to sell Tegeta for R2.97bn to Swiss company Charles King SA. The disposal was expected to be concluded in 12 months, Oakbay said at the time.
South Africans endured load shedding in 2008 and again in 2014 and 2015 due to insufficient coal supply and a lack of investment in new plants. The lack of electricity curbed growth, according to economists.
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