There is mounting evidence that political pressure lay behind the arrest this week of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, despite furious denials from police top brass. A senior police official close to the case admitted yesterday that police were feeling the heat from ANC politicians to crack down on wa Afrika, because of his reporting. "Ja - it's political pressure," he told the Sunday Times.
Yesterday, Mabutho Sithole, a spokesman for Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza, confirmed the premier had laid the initial complaint, at the Kabokweni police station in Nelspruit, which culminated in wa Afrika's arrest. Mabuza, a controversial figure in Mpumalanga, has been the subject of various articles in the Sunday Times and other publications.
The complaint was sparked by a letter faxed to the Sunday Times, in which Mabuza supposedly states his intention to resign as premier. Mabuza insisted the letter was a forgery and that he had no intention of resigning. "He (Mabuza) complained to the police here at Kabokweni after we got a copy of the letter and received information that there were people in possession of a letter bearing his name and signature," said Sithole.
Wa Afrika was arrested at 11.15am on Wednesday outside the Sunday Times building in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Minutes earlier Sunday Times lawyer Renier Spies had been negotiating with Kabokweni station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Mabasa at Rosebank police station not to arrest wa Afrika at his office, but rather to allow the journalist to hand himself over at the station. "In the meantime (Mabasa) contacted a 'general' whose further particulars are unknown to me, via his cellphone," said Spies. "According to (Mabasa), the general he spoke to was on his way to the station and wanted to join us." Minutes later, several police vehicles with sirens blaring pulled up alongside wa Afrika outside the Sunday Times building while he was walking to the police station. Police bundled him into an unmarked vehicle and drove off at high speed.
At 7pm on Thursday night, the Sunday Times went to the High Court in Pretoria to bring an urgent application for wa Afrika's release. Just before 10pm, acting Judge Johan Kruger ordered his immediate release following an agreement with the state. Wa Afrika was released at 10:30pm on Thursday night. He appeared in Nelspruit Regional Court on Friday on charges of fraud, forgery and uttering. He was released on bail of R5000 and is scheduled to appear again on November 8.
Spies said he was convinced there was "political pressure on (Mabasa) to effect an arrest". This is borne out by the line of questioning police adopted when interrogating wa Afrika and fellow suspect Victor Mlimi, a senior provincial government official, at the Nelspruit office of the police's provincial Organised Crime Unit on Thursday. "I was asked whether I was directly or indirectly involved in discrediting senior ANC office bearers in Mpumalanga," said wa Afrika. "That made me wonder whether the police were investigating a criminal or a political case. "They also wanted to know who are the big politicians I'm working with behind the scenes. This made me conclude the police were sent by politicians to harass and intimidate me."
Mlimi's lawyer, Daniel Mabunda, said his client was questioned for two hours about the ANC's provincial leadership succession battles, and which political camp he supported. "I was present when my client was asked, Are you destroying the image and integrity of the ANC in Mpumalanga? I advised my client not to answer that question. It struck me that this has more to do with politics than a criminal case."
The day before the arrest, police chief General Bheki Cele had referred to wa Afrika as a "shady journalist", in response to an article he co-authored about the police chief's involvement in clinching a R500-million lease agreement, without going to tender, with billionaire businessman Roux Shabangu. The vigour police used to pursue wa Afrika also raised eyebrows. The case was opened at Kabokweni police station on Monday and wa Afrika was arrested two days later. Police have yet to arrest anyone connected to the deaths of Mbombela speaker Jimmy Mohlala and provincial arts and culture spokesman Sammy Mpatlanyane - both of whom appeared on an alleged hit list that emerged last year . Mohlala was gunned down outside his house by three masked men in January 2009 in Kanyamazane township outside Nelspruit. Mpatlanyane was shot in his Nelspruit home in January 2010. "Those murders are still under investigation," Hawks spokesman Musa Zondi told the Sunday Times yesterday.
The visible lack of progress in these cases contrasts with the swift action taken against wa Afrika, one of the journalists who exposed the alleged hit list. Cele's spokesman, Nonkululeko Mbatha, told the Sunday Times yesterday "the semblance and impressions you have are not factual". "Police have instituted a probe which is ongoing and appealed to members of the public who might have information ... to come to the fore." Asked about the negative impression created by the police's heavy-handed action against wa Afrika, she said: "I cannot undo that impression but the fact of the matter is no one is immune from investigation of what is suspicious of criminal nature. Lastly, insinuations about a directive issued by the general (Cele) to apprehend or intimidate the journalist are incorrect and a figment of imagination."
Mabuza's spokesman also denied exerting any political pressure on police, or that the arrest was an attempt to intimidate wa Afrika and derail his investigative reporting on the murders.
Source: Times Live
Showing posts with label Nelspruit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nelspruit. Show all posts
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Cost of Stadium Reveals Tensions in South Africa
Come June, soccer’s World Cup will be hosted by South Africa. Though only 4 of the 64 games are to be played here in Nelspruit, a $137 million stadium was built for the occasion. The arena’s 18 supporting pylons reach skyward in the shape of orange giraffes. At nightfall, their eyeballs blink with flashes of bewitching light.
The people who live nearby, proud as they are to host soccer’s greatest event, also wonder: How could there be money for a 46,000-seat stadium while many of them still fetch water from dirty puddles and live without electricity or toilets?
The 2010 World Cup is meant to display South Africa at its very best: a modern, prosperous nation friendly to commerce, tourists and democratic ideals. This is the first time the event will be held in Africa, and it was buoyantly suggested by the former President Thabo Mbeki that the competition was a milestone for the entire continent, “sending ripples of confidence from the Cape to Cairo.”
Such boasts may well turn out to be true, for South Africa has spent more than $6 billion on stadiums, roads, airports and other projects. But Nelspruit, in preparing for its own six hours of championship soccer, is instead an example of the nation at its worst, with distressing inequality — measured by some economists as the worst in the world — and an epidemic of local corruption that often leads the downtrodden to rise up in anger.
Simon Magagula lives in a mud house accessible by a dirt road whose cavities deepen with each rainfall. His doorway is a short jaunt to the new stadium. “Those who’ll benefit from this are the wealthy that already have plenty in their hand,” he said, not in resentment so much as weariness. And indeed, with the stadium project came an infusion of money, catnip to the corrupt who congregate at the junction of money and power. “No point in trying to hide it, there was a total collapse of good governance, primarily around the World Cup,” said Lassy Chiwayo, Nelspruit’s mayor, who was installed as an emergency caretaker in late 2008 after his predecessor was removed.
Independent investigators into the matter found that millions of dollars had been misspent on big contracts. Their final report calls for criminal charges against the former municipal manager and the directors of three companies managing the stadium project.
The Nelspruit area, which lies in the country’s east and has a population of 600,000, has been home to a long feud between rival members of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress. The antagonists want a bigger share of patronage and other spoils. Killings seem to have been used as a tactic. In the past month, three supposed hit lists landed in South African newspapers. One includes people to be shot, another those to be poisoned. The Sunday Times recently quoted a repentant Mozambican assassin who asserted that he was hired by top-level politicians and businessmen to kill their adversaries, describing his profession as the work of a “cleaner.”
Mayor Chiwayo appears on each list, and while he said he was unsure if any of the threats were genuine, he noted that several designees had died suspiciously. “I’m afraid mindless greed has eaten into the soul of the A.N.C.,” he said of his own party. In January 2009, the speaker of the municipal assembly, Jimmy Mohlala, was gunned down in front of his house. He had gathered evidence about stadium deals and declared that he was ready to name names and shame the shameless. This past January, another man on the lists, Sammy Mpatlanyane, the deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation, was shot as he lay in bed. He was “a very influential decision maker,” the mayor said.
When it comes to the World Cup, Nelspruit, well known as a gateway to Kruger National Park, seems to put its worst foot forward repeatedly. The acquisition of the stadium site itself seemed nefarious. The municipality persuaded the trustees of a huge tract of ancestral land to sell 173 acres for 1 rand, or 13 cents. Those intended to benefit from the trust objected, and a judge canceled the deal, likening it to when colonial powers robbed the naïve in return for “buttons and shiny mirrors.” The eventual price was about $1 million. “There has been nothing but duplicity, double dealings and double agendas,” said Richard Spoor, the lawyer who handled the case. “And what will we have after the World Cup is played? There’s no team to occupy the stadium. It will be a white elephant. Politicians will use it to make speeches.”
Two schools — John Mdluli Primary School and Cyril Clark High School — sat on the purchased land. They were bulldozed in 2007, and the students were transferred to hot and airless prefabricated classrooms. Parents and their children repeatedly staged protests. They blocked streets, burned tires and once even torched a police car. The police dispersed them with rubber bullets. This year construction began to replace the demolished schools. “The school problem made us furious, that and the need for jobs,” said Mr. Magagula, who lives near the new arena. “Some people were hired to work on the stadium, but not enough. We’ve been promised a better life, but look how we live. If you pour water into a glass, you can see things moving inside.” And yet he loves soccer, the favorite sport of black South Africans. He cannot wait for the World Cup to begin. He could afford only one ticket for one game, an $18 seat specially priced for the country’s residents.
Nelspruit is one of five cities to get new stadiums, including some arenas that are quite spectacular. It will host Honduras versus Chile; Italy versus New Zealand; Australia versus Serbia; North Korea versus Ivory Coast. “I chose the Italians,” Mr. Magagula said proudly. “I don’t really care who wins. But whatever happens, I’ll never forget it.”
Source: New York Times
The people who live nearby, proud as they are to host soccer’s greatest event, also wonder: How could there be money for a 46,000-seat stadium while many of them still fetch water from dirty puddles and live without electricity or toilets?
The 2010 World Cup is meant to display South Africa at its very best: a modern, prosperous nation friendly to commerce, tourists and democratic ideals. This is the first time the event will be held in Africa, and it was buoyantly suggested by the former President Thabo Mbeki that the competition was a milestone for the entire continent, “sending ripples of confidence from the Cape to Cairo.”
Such boasts may well turn out to be true, for South Africa has spent more than $6 billion on stadiums, roads, airports and other projects. But Nelspruit, in preparing for its own six hours of championship soccer, is instead an example of the nation at its worst, with distressing inequality — measured by some economists as the worst in the world — and an epidemic of local corruption that often leads the downtrodden to rise up in anger.
Simon Magagula lives in a mud house accessible by a dirt road whose cavities deepen with each rainfall. His doorway is a short jaunt to the new stadium. “Those who’ll benefit from this are the wealthy that already have plenty in their hand,” he said, not in resentment so much as weariness. And indeed, with the stadium project came an infusion of money, catnip to the corrupt who congregate at the junction of money and power. “No point in trying to hide it, there was a total collapse of good governance, primarily around the World Cup,” said Lassy Chiwayo, Nelspruit’s mayor, who was installed as an emergency caretaker in late 2008 after his predecessor was removed.
Independent investigators into the matter found that millions of dollars had been misspent on big contracts. Their final report calls for criminal charges against the former municipal manager and the directors of three companies managing the stadium project.
The Nelspruit area, which lies in the country’s east and has a population of 600,000, has been home to a long feud between rival members of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress. The antagonists want a bigger share of patronage and other spoils. Killings seem to have been used as a tactic. In the past month, three supposed hit lists landed in South African newspapers. One includes people to be shot, another those to be poisoned. The Sunday Times recently quoted a repentant Mozambican assassin who asserted that he was hired by top-level politicians and businessmen to kill their adversaries, describing his profession as the work of a “cleaner.”
Mayor Chiwayo appears on each list, and while he said he was unsure if any of the threats were genuine, he noted that several designees had died suspiciously. “I’m afraid mindless greed has eaten into the soul of the A.N.C.,” he said of his own party. In January 2009, the speaker of the municipal assembly, Jimmy Mohlala, was gunned down in front of his house. He had gathered evidence about stadium deals and declared that he was ready to name names and shame the shameless. This past January, another man on the lists, Sammy Mpatlanyane, the deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation, was shot as he lay in bed. He was “a very influential decision maker,” the mayor said.
When it comes to the World Cup, Nelspruit, well known as a gateway to Kruger National Park, seems to put its worst foot forward repeatedly. The acquisition of the stadium site itself seemed nefarious. The municipality persuaded the trustees of a huge tract of ancestral land to sell 173 acres for 1 rand, or 13 cents. Those intended to benefit from the trust objected, and a judge canceled the deal, likening it to when colonial powers robbed the naïve in return for “buttons and shiny mirrors.” The eventual price was about $1 million. “There has been nothing but duplicity, double dealings and double agendas,” said Richard Spoor, the lawyer who handled the case. “And what will we have after the World Cup is played? There’s no team to occupy the stadium. It will be a white elephant. Politicians will use it to make speeches.”
Two schools — John Mdluli Primary School and Cyril Clark High School — sat on the purchased land. They were bulldozed in 2007, and the students were transferred to hot and airless prefabricated classrooms. Parents and their children repeatedly staged protests. They blocked streets, burned tires and once even torched a police car. The police dispersed them with rubber bullets. This year construction began to replace the demolished schools. “The school problem made us furious, that and the need for jobs,” said Mr. Magagula, who lives near the new arena. “Some people were hired to work on the stadium, but not enough. We’ve been promised a better life, but look how we live. If you pour water into a glass, you can see things moving inside.” And yet he loves soccer, the favorite sport of black South Africans. He cannot wait for the World Cup to begin. He could afford only one ticket for one game, an $18 seat specially priced for the country’s residents.
Nelspruit is one of five cities to get new stadiums, including some arenas that are quite spectacular. It will host Honduras versus Chile; Italy versus New Zealand; Australia versus Serbia; North Korea versus Ivory Coast. “I chose the Italians,” Mr. Magagula said proudly. “I don’t really care who wins. But whatever happens, I’ll never forget it.”
Source: New York Times
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