Posted on August 9, 2004

Terror Trail

SCA News, Aug. 6

(Please note that official Azanian (New SA) crime statistics and -releases are censored. Johannesburg police spokeswoman Inspector Amanda Roestoff admitted, on 20/5/03, that the SAPS ‘uses discretion in terms of crimes committed and media statements issued’. So the terror and crime reported here is probably only part of what is really happening, as the official manipulation makes it difficult for an independent news service to ferret out all the facts.)

And yet another white has been brutally slain by blacks. A northern Transvaal farmer, Koos Potgieter, 50, has been found murdered last week. The former parrot breeder’s body was found by his wife behind a shed on Friday afternoon after he had gone missing the previous day. He had been attacked with a spade. His legs had been tied to a birdcage with a nylon cord while a second cord was wrapped around his neck and tied to a tree opposite the cage. A heavy iron spare part had been placed on the cord and a tree trunk on his legs. He seems to have died from strangulation. When his body was found, his fingers were hooked into the cord — which led police to believe he had tried to loosen it from around his neck.

A black 19-year-old Grade 12 pupil, Zwelakhe Leeba, has been stabbed to death by black killers during a robbery in Welkom in the Orange Free State. Only R10 was stolen, said northern Free State police. The victim and his girlfriend were on the premises of Welkom High School when they were approached by three blacks on Monday about 15:30. The robbers produced knives and demanded cash. Leeba’s girlfriend handed over R10 to one of the attackers. However, the other two robbers grabbed Leeba, stabbed him in the chest and fled. When he tried to walk away from the scene, he fell to the ground and died.

A 40-year-old Chinese businessman was abducted and held for a R500 000 ransom by armed blacks. The man had arrived at his home in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, shortly after midnight on Sunday when four black men forced him into a car, called his wife and demanded that she hand over R500 000. She alerted the police, however, and they immediately began searching for the man. Eventually, he was found walking and hitchhiking along a road early on Monday morning. He was in shock and had been badly beaten, police said.

An off-duty soldier and his girlfriend, presumably white, were kidnapped and assaulted by armed blacks at Naval Hill in Bloemfontein. The couple were sitting in their car in Naval Hill nature reserve about 23:00 when four men in a red car approached them. They stole the soldier’s wallet, cellphone, car radio and speakers before hitting him on the head with a bottle and putting him in the boot of his car. After driving to another park, the blacks took turns raping the woman. They then took the soldier out of the boot and hit him on the head with a rock before walking off. The soldier was admitted to the Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein in a serious condition.

Four black gunmen held up over 50 terrified pensioners and disabled people in Delmas in the eastern Transvaal. Screaming victims fell to the floor or scrambled for safety when the armed blacks held up the Delmas post office at 08:00 on Wednesday, shortly after security guards delivered the pension grants. “Some fell on top of each other when the robbers leaped onto a counter, shouted insults and threatened to kill them,” said police. They apparently ordered everyone, including officials, to lie on the floor while they loaded money into a bag and then fled in a bakkie. For a change, no shots were fired in the hold-up and no one was injured, although some victims had to be treated at the nearby clinic for shock.

Two unidentified Grade 9 pupils from Hoërskool Vorentoe have appeared in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court on Wednesday after allegedly spiking a white teacher’s coffee with a potentially deadly concoction of poison. They have been charged with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. One of the poisoners is facing a second assault charge after allegedly punching a girl student who warned the teacher.

The poisonous mixture comprised pills that had been finely crushed. Mary-Anne Williams, the teacher, apparently always kept a flask of coffee in her classroom, and she noticed a “grey deposit” in the coffee after a Grade 7 pupil warned her about it. Soon afterwards, she collapsed in the staffroom. Since formerly white schools have been forced to take in black students, assaults, intimidation and even killings have become more and more common, with black students attacking white fellow-students and even teachers with guns, knives, scissors and, now, poison. Many teachers have begun to speak out against the climate of violence they now have to put up with, and have indicated that they are leaving the profession because of this.

A Phalaborwa woman has been shot and wounded on Wednesday afternoon, allegedly by a sacked black employee. The man reportedly had been fired on Monday, but returned to the company’s premises on Wednesday afternoon. The owner of Fire and General Appliances and his wife were leaving the premises about 13:30 when the man started shooting at them with a rifle. He hit the woman, who was airlifted to a private hospital.