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A 29-year-old security guard has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a two-year-old boy while he was shopping with his grandmother in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal.
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon, police said in a statement released on Sunday.
It’s alleged the man took the young child out of the trolley he was in while his grandmother was making a purchase.
When the woman realised her grandson was missing she ran through the mall screaming his name, said the police’s Brigadier Jay Naicker in the statement.
“She then spotted the man attired in a security guards uniform walking into one of the shops with her grandson,” said Naicker.
“She grabbed the child from the man’s arms and reported the incident to the mall management who contacted police. Police officers from the Durban North police station arrived at the scene and viewed the CCTV footage at the mall. The suspect was immediately identified as a security guard who was on duty at the mall and he was promptly arrested.”
A case of kidnapping was opened and the man will appear in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
KZN police commissioner Lieutenant General Khombinkosi Jula said investigators don’t know what the suspect’s motive was at this stage.
“We wish to applaud the grandmother for taking immediate action and informing authorities of the incident,” said Jula.
He urged parents and guardians to remain vigilant during the festive season.
Cape Town – When you look at the latest World Rugby rankings, with South Africa firmly ensconced at No 1 and rightly so after a year where they achieved better results than any other international team and won the sport’s Holy Grail, it is hard to believe that it was just two years ago that the Springboks were assumed to be in crisis.
The 2017 international season did produce better results for the South African national team than the first year of the World Cup cycle did, at least in terms of wins and losses. The ultimate humiliation of a 57-0 defeat suffered to the All Blacks in Albany, less than two and a half years ago, at least came in an away match. In 2016 the Boks also conceded 57 points while scoring 15, but that annihilation came at Durban’s King’s Park, and it came ahead of an end of year tour that featured losses to England, Italy and Wales.
It was probably at that point that the South African rugby bosses started to think that change was needed. And the determination to make the necessary change was not deflected by the marginal improvements that were shown in the Bok performances at the start of 2017. Even if Allister Coetzee was going to carry on as Bok coach, a change was needed to to the structure.
Roux and Alexander’s intervention
The trip made by chief executive Jurie Roux and SARU president Mark Alexander to Ireland to convince Rassie Erasmus to come back to fill the position of national director of rugby preceded the 2017 end of year tour, which featured a 38-3 no-show against Ireland and another loss to Wales.
Getting Erasmus to come back would not have been an easy sell for the two administrators. Erasmus was happy coaching Munster, and so was his long-serving right hand man, Jacques Nienaber. But then perhaps Erasmus’ position of strength was a positive in the sense that he could insist on the powers that had stymied the ambitions of his predecessors.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Erasmus to make, but his heart was still with the Bok team he represented so illustriously as a player and he reckoned that it was now or never. In other words, if he left his return to South Africa any later, Springbok rugby would be beyond redemption.
Erasmus was initially going to work with Coetzee, effectively be his boss, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t possible to return to the formula of the two working together that was for a time successful at the Stormers.
Faced with that reality, Erasmus decided to take on the coaching reins himself for the first two years, in other words building up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, and then appoint a head coach to work with him. Those words are important, for there are still many who are misunderstanding Erasmus’ switch next year to being more focused on the directorship – it does not mean he is surrendering ultimate control of the team.
And by winning the World Cup and effectively saving South African rugby he has also earned the right to do what a director of rugby, almost by the role’s definition, has the authority to do, which is appoint his coach. There isn’t any kind of due process, as some have suggested should be the case, necessary in this instance. Erasmus has to have a coach who he has such a close understanding with that he is effectively like an extra limb. Which is why Nienaber is the likely head coach going forward.
The gambles of 2018 paid off
By Erasmus’ own admission though it could have turned out so differently. He is the first to acknowledge that he took some very brave gambles in 2018, his first year in charge, that paid off but could easily have gone the other way.
In addition to the necessary selection experimentation that gave him a better understanding of his resource base after starting late on the World Cup build-up, there was his calculated gamble to bank everything on achieving an away win over the All Blacks. When his team lost narrowly away to Argentina and Australia in his first Rugby Championship it upped the ante for a win in Wellington.
Erasmus insists now that he was being serious when he spoke at the time about that match being a make or break one for him and the team, and one that could effectively be the death-knell to his stint as Bok coach. But the pressure that was on him and his team going into that game at the Westpac Stadium was a good rehearsal for the pressure he faced 14 months later at the World Cup.
The epic victory over the All Blacks in Wellington, coming just a year after that annihilation in Albany, provided a timely boost to the confidence of not just the players but the South African rugby public. The narrow defeat to the Kiwis in Pretoria in the return match, one that the Boks dominated until the final minutes, did not dent that confidence.
However, it could still have gone pear-shaped for Erasmus after that. He will look back at the last gasp win scored by his team in Paris on the 2017 November tour, coming as it did just a week after a disappointing loss to England, as another decisive moment in his first year. Had the Boks lost that game to France they would have ended the year with a negative balance and Erasmus might have found it hard to argue the case for progress.
But history reflects that both the close games in Wellington and Paris did go his way, thus providing the necessary building block for a World Cup year that surely even exceeded his own expectations.
A hugely successful year
The Boks played 12 games in 2019, they lost just once, they won 10 and drew one, the draw coming in the follow up Wellington test against the All Blacks, when the hosts would have been desperate to avenge their defeat at the same stadium in 2018.
At the World Cup they scored the most points, the most tries and conceded the least points and the least tries. When they clinched the World Cup trophy by beating England so handsomely in the final in Yokohama, they became the first team to win the Rugby Championship and the Webb Ellis trophy in the same year.
Yes, let’s not forget that Rugby Championship win – although the competition was played over just one round this year, the Boks were comprehensive enough winners of the southern hemisphere version of the Six Nations for many overseas scribes to install them as World Cup favourites ahead of the tournament.
Indeed, one of the most bizarre features of the build-up to the final was how so many of the English scribes and television pundits who rated South Africa’s chances ahead of the World Cup wrote them off as no-hopers for the final. It beggared belief, for the statistics heading into the final, not just from the tournament itself but from what preceded it, were such that they had to have at the very least a 50/50 chance of success.
The rugby year started off for the Boks with Erasmus doing for the opening Championship clash with Australia in Johannesburg what he had done so often in 2018 – going in with what looked to most people as a second string selection in a quest to have a fresh team for the clash with the All Blacks on New Zealand soil just a week later.
But if it was a gamble it paid off and Erasmus probably knew the history that reflects that Ellis Park is a venue that appears to strike mortal fear into any Wallaby player. Not that the Australians played particularly poorly that day, and there were a few opportunities that they wasted in the first half that, had they been taken, could have turned it into a different game.
The match though proved the launch board for one of the new players, scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, and his two tries, followed up a week later with the score that secured the draw in Wellington, confirmed depth in a position where previously Erasmus was struggling.
Right decision to target Championship trophy
There were two weeks between the All Black game and the final Championship test against Argentina, and Erasmus made the right decision in selecting his best team and going all out for the trophy. Not only did the decider status given to that game give the Boks another dress rehearsal opportunity for the World Cup play-off phase, winning a trophy, their first in the southern hemisphere competition since 2009, increased the Bok confidence.
The warm-up game organised for two weeks ahead of the World Cup was another masterstroke on the part of Erasmus and the SARU management. Not only did it give the Boks the opportunity to get an early taste of Japanese conditions, it also removed any potential unknown quantity, and exorcised any ghosts lingering after the infamous defeat in Brighton in 2015, from the hosts, Japan.
The Boks weren’t to know it then, but this became particularly useful when they ended up facing the World Cup hosts in the quarterfinal.
Learning from mistakes
At the time, everything was being done in preparation for the seismic World Cup opener against the reigning champions, the All Blacks, in Yokohama. Erasmus acknowledges he got a few things wrong in the build-up to that game which he rectified later in the tournament, and had the All Blacks made it to the World Cup final, the Boks were confident they would have beaten them.
Certainly for much of that opening game in Yokohama the Boks showed they had the firepower. They were undone by a seven minute patch where they appeared to lose concentration, as well as some rather dubious refereeing calls from Frenchman Jerome Garces, who was a different animal in the Pool game to the one the Boks encountered when he refereed their semi-final and the final.
The Boks were never going to be troubled by any other team in their Pool, but what the rest of the phase did do was settle a few things for Erasmus, perhaps the most notable being his decision to place a strong emphasis on sustained forward power and intensity in every match by going for a six/two split between forwards and backs on the bench.
It was against Italy, a game he was worried about just because it was effectively a knock-out game for his team, that he first tried it, and the sight of the Bok forwards, with Lood de Jager in the vanguard, marching the Italians back several metres with their driving mauls will long linger in the memory.
With a pack like that of course the Boks were going to rely on it to overcome Japan in the quarter-final, and perhaps a lot of overseas critics misunderstood Erasmus’ method. Even back home the Boks were being criticised for being one-dimensional, scrumhalf Faf du Plessis for kicking too much, but they were the tactics required against those specific opponents.
He was pilloried for his team’s tactics in the semi-final against Wales in particular, but again he was taking flak for what was effectively a masterstroke. With so much kicking in the game, the Welsh defence was never allowed to be a factor in the game, and that counted positively for the Boks when they had to assess the physical cost during their short six day turn-around ahead of the final.
They fired when it really mattered
Had the Boks been caught up in a physical, bruising semi-final they may not have been quite as effective as they were when it really mattered – in the World Cup final at Yokohama’s International Stadium.
And what a day that was for the Boks and for all of South Africa. England had shocked the All Blacks a week earlier with the strength of their game but it didn’t take long for it to become clear that it wouldn’t be the case against the highly physical Boks.
Although Bongi Mbonambi and Lood de Jager were both off injured before the game reached the 20th minute, the damage had already been done by the juggernaut Bok scrum. With Erasmus bringing in several little innovations that surprised England, it was quintessential subdue and penetrate rugby, with the penetration coming through the skill with which Lukhanyo Am set up Makazole Mapimpi’s try, the first ever try scored by the Boks in a World Cup final (the late Ruben Kruger did score one in 1995 but it was disallowed by the referee).
Then just to rub salt into English wounds up popped Cheslin Kolbe, one of Erasmus’ most inspired selections, to cross for the second try and push the Bok lead to 20 points, one of the biggest winning margins in a World Cup final.
It meant that the South African celebrations could start a good few minutes ahead of the final whistle, and boy did those celebrations continue into that night in Tokyo and when the Boks arrived home to complete their trophy tour.
Individual recognition
Pieter-Steph du Toit was rightly anointed as the World Player of the Year at the World Rugby awards ceremony in Tokyo the night after the final, and Erasmus was confirmed as the Coach of the Year, and in the weeks that have followed the World Cup all sorts of accolades have been heaped on the skipper, Siya Kolisi.
It was all a far cry from what would have been expected when Bok rugby was threatening to implode in the latter half of 2016 and into 2017. If there was an administrator of the four year World Cup cycle award given, or an acknowledgement of the best decision made by a rugby boss, the two men who flew to Ireland to speak to Erasmus in 2017 would surely be the leading candidates. The Springbok renaissance started then.
SPRINGBOK RESULTS FROM 2019
South Africa 35 Australia 17
New Zealand 16 South Africa 16
Argentina 13 South Africa 46
South Africa 24 Argentina 18
Japan 7 South Africa 41
South Africa 13 New Zealand 23
South Africa 57 Namibia 3
South Africa 49 Italy 3
South Africa 66 Canada 7
Japan 3 South Africa 26
South Africa 19 Wales 16
South Africa 32 England 12
Read this story on SuperSport.com
Sudden cardiac death is terrifying because it’s exactly that – one minute you’re fine and the next you’re facing death, with no warning and no prior symptoms.
Now, new research shows the secret to who’s at risk for cardiac arrest and who isn’t could lie in people’s genes. And a gene test might someday help predict who’s most endangered, according to a study presented this weekend at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Important mutations
Researchers said they have identified a group of 14 gene variants that appear to be linked to sudden cardiac death.
People carrying any of these variants had a more than triple the risk of dying from cardiac arrest, said lead researcher Dr Amit Khera. He’s associate director of the Precision Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Genomic Medicine.
“This really lays the groundwork to say these are important mutations, and what’s exciting is if we can identify them, we have treatments for the conditions to which they are tied,” Khera explained. “My goal now is to use genetic variation as a tool to empower people to overcome whatever risk they might have been born with.”
Sudden cardiac arrest is responsible for 325 000 adult deaths in the United States each year – about half of all heart disease deaths, the Cleveland Clinic says. It strikes most often in adults in their mid-30s to mid-40s, and affects men twice as often as women.
There are four major reasons a person might fall prey to sudden cardiac death, Khera said: a weakened heart muscle, a heart attack, an abnormal heart rhythm, or a dilation or tear in the aorta (the main artery leading out from the heart).
“We know each of these diseases tends to run in families and there are genetic variants that cause each of these conditions,” Khera said.
Genetic sequencing
To find out more, his team pulled together data on 600 people who’d been felled by sudden cardiac death and matched them against 600 “controls” who hadn’t.
They then performed genetic sequencing on the entire pool of 1 200 people to look for genes previously linked to heart or blood vessel disease, with no knowledge of which were victims of sudden cardiac death.
The researchers found 15 people who carried at least one of 14 different genetic mutations tied to heart health. After that, they took a step back to see which of the people had died of sudden cardiac death and which were controls.
“All 15 of these people had actually dropped dead [of cardiac arrest],” Khera said. “Zero of them were in the controls.”
As a next step, the researchers tracked a group of more than 4 500 healthy people for a median 14 years, to see whether those who carried one of these genetic variants would fall from sudden cardiac death.
The team identified 41 people – about 1% – as carrying one of these disease-causing genetic variants.
“We were able to show that from 2002 to 2017, they were at more than triple the risk for dying from sudden cardiac arrest,” Khera said.
Genetic screening in doctor’s office
Khera’s hope is that one day doctors will use these genes to screen for folks with hidden heart risk, and then treat them to lower the risk using therapies and drugs.
He’s already started this work, digging through Massachusetts General Hospital’s biobank of 100 000 patients to look for people carrying one of the 14 variants.
“We’ve already started calling them back, saying you have these variants, do you want to learn about it?” Khera said.
Still, Khera thinks it’s five to 10 years from the point where people could receive such genetic screening in their doctors office.
Dr Kim Eagle, a cardiologist with the University of Michigan Medicine, said such a test could be even further off.
“I think you have to view this as preliminary,” he said of the new study. “Clearly, we’re still grappling with the challenge of taking the human genome and what we know about it and applying it to day-to-day practice in a cost-effective method.”
Danger of false positives
There’s still so much unknown about genetic variants that they are easy to find but hard to judge, Eagle said.
“If you talk about screening the general population for rare but potentially important genetic defects, you’re going to find a lot of people that have a variant but you don’t know how important it is,” he said.
A test could result in a lot of false-positive results that scare patients to no good purpose, Eagle believes.
He shared the story of a male patient who’d frequently asked him for a genetic screen to find his potential risk factors. When Eagle demurred, the patient took the initiative to get a genetic screening from one of the new companies that have sprung up to provide this service.
He came back to Eagle very upset, pointing out that they found a couple of genes with important variants that could really affect his health.
“I said, ‘You know what’s really interesting? Both of these genes identify diseases that only happen in women,'” Eagle said. “Here’s an example of the result of a false-positive – a guy who doesn’t understand, who’s scared to death that he’s got a rare genetic disorder, and it only happens in women.”
The study was also published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Image credit: iStock
A little boy shot dead while playing in his yard in Lavender Hill will never get to wear the Christmas clothes his family bought, the chairperson of the local community policing forum said on Sunday.
“He was trying to get out of the way but was hit in the head,” Gavin Walbrugh said.
The child, 5, died at the scene in Drury Court on Saturday afternoon.
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Photos of his little body show him wearing shorts a size too big, his shoeless feet dirty from playing outside. In the pictures, in which a crying emoji cover his face and head, were circulated soon after the incident, as word of the tragedy was spread on Whatsapp groups.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said members of the Anti-Gang Unit, as well as Steenberg police, were “pursuing specific leads” following the shooting.
“It is alleged that a 22-year-old was also shot and seriously wounded in the same incident. He was transported to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.”
‘You’re not safe in your own yard’
Walbrugh told News24 men were said to have walked onto the property and had been followed by the gunmen, who had opened fire on them.
As the bullets flew, the child had fled and was caught in the crossfire.
Ten to 12 bullet casings are understood to have been found at the scene.
“Seeing photos of him lying there was very sad and traumatic. You’re not safe in your own yard,” Walbrugh said.
“That poor family. And just before Christmas. His clothes had been bought…”
Drugs and gangsterism is a major problem in the Steenberg policing precinct, Walbrugh said.
The area, however, wasn’t one of the 10 with the highest attempted murder rates and therefore didn’t make the list for the deployment of the army to deal with rampant violent crime in the city.
A vigil was scheduled to take place at the house on Sunday afternoon, Walbrugh said.
Suspects had been identified and police were working around the clock to trace and arrest them, he added.
Potelwa said deployments in the area “have been intensified in an effort to restore calm and safety”.
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This lovely ground floor apartment offers an open plan lounge and dining area that leads onto a covered patio with its own private garden.
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The property is in great condition and ready to move in at any time.
The property is located within walking distance from the Grove mall, Makro, Checkers Hyper, Chaimberlains, Silver Oaks shopping centre, Hazel Dean shopping centre, Wilgers Hospital, Churches and some of the best schools in Pretoria East.
The estate offers swimming pools, squash, tennis, basketball, netball, volley ball, yoga, boot camp fitness and a massive central park for your kids and pets to enjoy themselves in perfect safety.
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Are you a registered practitioner with the South African Council for Social Service Professionals and have minimum 5 years experience running and managing a department within this sector? Our client requires your expertise to fill this essential role within their organisation managing, supporting, educating and mentoring the professionals within their organisation.
REQUIREMENTS
3 year Degree in Health-/Social Sciences
Min of combined 5 years’ experience in a health care environment covering palliative care and bereavement
Team leadership exp, sustaining current relationships at executive level
Proven project management; interactive, effective verbal and written communication
Registered as a practitioner with the South African Council for Social Service Professionals (SACSSP)
Advanced admin and computer literacy with experience in database management / MS Office Suite & MS Project
Unendorsed driver’s licence
Fluency in at least 2 official languages – added advantage
International exposure in field of palliative care – added advantage
DUTIES
Develop, implement, manage and monitor internal and external interdisciplinary/palliative care, community hospice and volunteer’s service programs and initiatives
Develop, implement and manage education programs related to palliative care policies and procedures
Liaise, advise, educate/facilitate, mentor and support other professionals, health care workers, patients and families with regards to palliative care policies and procedures
Participate in the development and facilitation- of and implement continuing in-service training programs for professional staff and participate in teaching facility
Develop, implement, maintain and monitor relevant records
Develop and implement policies and procedures for areas of accountability
Create, maintain and enhance relationships with stakeholders
Manage team member/s and facilitate people development
Perform other duties, as and when so requested, in support of team goals
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Our client within the automotive manufacturing industry is seeking a Plant Development Engineer to join their team.
Open position : Plant Development Engineer
Location : Uitenhage
Salary : Market related
Type : Permanent position
Education and Experience :
• Relevant Degree / Diploma in Engineering or equivalent (e.g. IE, Electrical, Mechanical, Logistics)
• 3-4 years’ experience in industrial / automotive / consulting environment
Skills, Attributes & Other requirements :
• Proven analytical and problem solving skills
• Knowledge of project management principles and practices
• Knowledge of plant layout and basic vehicle build processes
• Working knowledge of the Automotive Manufacturing industry or related manufacturing field
• Sound knowledge of component and motor vehicle manufacturing processes
• Ability to communicate with all levels in the company (written and verbal)
• Good presentation skills
• Excellent insight into cross-divisional roles such as Product Engineering, Purchasing, Process and Mechanical Planning, Industrial Engineering, Logistics, Manufacturing, Pilot Hall, IS, Production Systems, etc.
• Financial / business case knowledge / skills and ability to understand environmental legislative content
• Computer literacy – MS Office – EXCEL, Word, Power Point, Outlook, Thinkcell, – Advanced skills
• Have initiative, be a self-starter with the ability to work independently
PREFERRED:
• Proficient / understanding in German language
• Extended network with external relevant stakeholders (government officials, consulting industry, other OEM’s, tertiary institutions, etc.)
• Digitalisation / Technology savvy
Duties :
• Key custodian of Production & Logistics Corporate Identity standards such as Workspaces of the Future, IT Standards, Basic Plant Infrastructure, Corporate Clothing and Branding & Communication standards.
• Plant development cross-divisional projects (e.g. vertical integration, new future model/component strategy, etc.) and key interface with finance, HR, new projects, MPE, QA, IE, Logistics, Pilot Hall, and Production Divisions related to the management of such.
• Overall responsibility for ensuring alignment, agreement and implementation of standard Brand indirect organisational structures within Production & Logistics.
• Preparations of agendas, minutes, reports, presentations and relevant administrative functions.
• Manage adhoc projects and tasks as required by the Manager.
Candidates meeting the above criteria are invited to apply for the position by emailing their CV to claire@kingrec.co.za
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