80 ) T
A 226 AUGUST 2018 V
46
(inc R k
sidestep sidestep e Ivanka’s shoes shoes Ivanka’s
Trump’s tarif s
e Vodacom clients clients Vodacom fght on
Karoo farmers Karoo Muslim charity charity Muslim
rides in to rescue rescue to in rides ew
himself
Another resignation re: f Knysna probe – into into – probe
Who’s to blame? What’s to be done? to What’s blame? to Who’s Killer Toyota taxis Toyota Killer
NEWS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW
Bheki Cele heads heads Cele Bheki nos
Your favourite magazine is now ISSUE 226 • AUGUST 2018 available on your iPad and PC
R45) (inc VAT
NEWS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW
k218 ee DECEMBER ewThe spy at nos Nkosazana’s side Paedophile thief mining the 2017 Waterberg
Gift of the Givers saves the rhino
– and Karoo farmers Page 23
00218 104042
FEATURES 771025
9 9 Brakspears fall victim to the ‘Jersey Way’ Court dismisses case brought againstMakhosi Nedbank Khoza sinks 4 Letters her claws into Zuma’s ANC 10 The killer Toyota taxis on our roads 8 Editorial Manufacturer and authorities knew about jerry-rigged taxis, but did little to stop the carnage 27 Books 13 Knysna fire: now top man quits AVAILABLE 29 Letter from Municipal manager leaves ‘for personal reasons’ ON YOUR Umjindi 14 Frankel family resists paying up TABLET 30 Last Word Executors of serial paedophile’s estate want to put complainants in the dock to evade damages claim 31 Smalls 16 Bheki Cele heads probe – into himself Download your Police minister uses state-funded legal advisor in fight with own ministry digital edition today 19 Cash-hungry Tongaat beats pensioners both single issues and Company grabs pension fund money to prop up subscriptions available balance sheet, but court says it was legal
20 Digging deep to save lives PLUS never miss a copy – A charity better known for work in the Middle East with back issues available to has recently gone to the rescue of Karoo farmers download and store 24 The media legacy of Iqbal Survé Cape Times still at its vendetta against UCT DOWNLOAD YOUR DIGITAL and former vice chancellor Max Price EDITION AT 26 Magistrate battles on with judiciary www.noseweek.co.za Phumelele Hole of Kimberley turns his or % 021 686 0570 guns on new target 28 Ivanka’s shoes sidestep Trump’s tariffs It’s always handy to have parents in high places
NOSEWEEK August 2018 3 Letters
Bravo at 25! Jooste stands out as a rare profes- generous unemployment benefits, sional in a sea of amateurs. to take up short-term jobs. I will SO, MR WELZ, NOT FAREWELL, IT SEEMS, Piglet happily write a comprehensive over- but onward and upward! (With a Elandsbaai view of Finland’s experiment when I nod to Private Eye – and poet E J return from my visit in August. Thribb (17½) which I subscribed to n HOW UP-TO-DATE WAS YOUR ARTICLE for years – until the demise of the “How to defuse SA’s ticking time Shade to the Berggruen picture rand. bomb” thesis (nose225)? In it Karen Congratulations and accolades are Jooste told us how essential it is to ANNE SUSSKIND’S COLUMN ON HER VISIT definitely due to yourself and your have a liveable basic income grant in to Berlin (nose224) was a sensitive committed writers, cartoonists and South Africa and that she was going piece of writing that resonates. Just advertisers. And for having outlasted to present her “ground-breaking one correction: as Heinz Berggruen the notorious Scope. document” to an international confer- himself emphasised, he did not actu- Bravo to you all! ence in Finland in August. ally flee the Nazis. He left Germany Your content, always so bare to the I can’t see how it could be described precipitously for other reasons. bone and precise as any crime scene as ground breaking but that’s not Thanks to the Nazis (with whom he or murder autopsy, has sometimes my real point. What I didn’t see rather sympathised) and his Jewish driven me to the bottle after trolling mentioned, unless I could not see roots (which he spent a lifetime repu- through the misery that infests this for looking, was that in April this diating, except when it was financially unfortunate yet beautiful and oppor- year Finland ended its basic income advantageous to acknowledge them), tunity filled country. trial with 2,000 unemployed people, I sympathise with your despair at he had a visa to the US and a schol- presumably because it didn’t work. the South African psyche’s inability arship to Berkeley University in his So this blew a huge hole in her entire to discern satire from news, but pocket. case which, ironically, she is going to please do not give up entirely. Allow He never fought with the Allies: he promote in Finland. those of us endowed with a bit of held a comfortable desk job in America Jon Abbott, intellect, cynicism and quirkiness while the fighting lasted, arrived in Cape Town to get to the back cover with a smile Europe when it was over and plunged Karen Jooste’s response: and some hope instead of feeling the straight into the lucrative Black NOBLE AS THE AIM MAY BE, MY knife turning in our guts. Market. suggestion is not simply about I will drink a glass of decent His main aspiration was accu- chenin blanc to the next 25 years, paying a liveable, additional grant mulating vast wealth (gladly at the after nose225, which was an excel- as a form of poverty alleviation expense of others) and without paying lent read. through increased taxes. My taxes. In terms of residence and taxes, Robert de Vos proposal goes much deeper into he never returned to Germany, and Simon’s Town creating a socially just society in as the Jewish Aufbau newspaper which socio-economic policy improves remarked, his “gesture of reconcilia- n CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU AND YOUR the security of the least secure tion”, ie the tax-free, overpriced sale team for 25 years of publishing groups; does not impose controls on of his stock to the German govern- Noseweek, which I have long enjoyed. some groups that are not imposed ment, was more accurately a “business I wish you luck for the next 25 years on the most free; focuses on rights opportunity”. – and may your readership grow! as opposed to charity and promotes The rest, I’m afraid, is hype, an early dignified work. This entails a exercise in fake truth. Philip Strachan complete restructuring and re-prior- Vivien Stein, Cape Town itisation of government’s budget, Yale University, USA including but not limited to policies Proposed basic income grant such as BEE. Turning tables from Down Under DA MP KAREN JOOSTE EXEMPLIFIES As far as Finland is concerned Stephen Covey’s basic requirement there has unfortunately been much THANK YOU HAROLD STRACHAN FOR A for getting something done: knowing incorrect and uninformed reporting you-too, me-too view of Down Under what to do, how to do it and why. As on the pilot. The project is continuing (nose225). A marriage to an Australian in the three-legged stool, if one is as planned till the end of the year. and visits to children in “Seednee” missing it falls over. The aim of this project is primarily and elsewhere have allowed many In today’s amateur society how to test the effect of unconditional observations of that nation’s notions of often do you wonder if politicians payments on job incentives particu- “maitehood”. know what they are doing, how to do larly whether it will encourage Highest on the list was reading it and why. Finns, who are afraid of losing their Sally Morgan’s “My Place in 1988”,
4 Letters
charting the personal discovery of her and Aborigines are the First Peoples, to their Professional Services section, grandmother and mother’s “forced right? Nah, Malcolm Turnbull and the Complaints Division and FICA Division removals” from their mothers. boys aren’t coming to that party just in addition to writing lengthy emails “Apartheid South Africa could have yet, maite! to the small business manager. Three learned from this lot,” I thought. Yet PS: Congratulations on your 25th! emails to their complaints division I met not a few pleasant and friendly Yvette Worrall went unanswered until after the pale Australians who, like your Plettenberg Bay account had been cleared. nephew’s MP, believed that “all that” The fact that they effectively shut was best left in the past, y’know? Nedbank’s abuse down, at month-end, a small business A rich irony is that I was unaware that has financial and VAT commit- while reading the book of another ON 29 MARCH THIS YEAR, OUR SMALL ments, without the courtesy of a revealing event of 26 January 1988. business account with Nedbank was phone call or email, is disgraceful and While pale Australia was tan-ta- frozen without any communication amounts to abuse. rahing over the bicentennial of Cook’s from the bank. The account has been Even after establishing that the fault dropping anchor in Botany Bay, a dark with them for 27 years. was on their side they refused to clear citizen was raising the Aboriginal flag When I contacted their call centre, I the account. on Dover Beach, declaring that “I, was told that we had not complied with It is apparent that they have a small Burnum Burnum, being a nobleman their FICA requirements. army of very polite staff where no one of ancient Australia, do hereby take I pointed out that we had been has the authority to make a decision or possession of England on behalf of the dealing with their small business take effective action. Aboriginal Peoples.” manager since 5 March 2018 and had To add insult to injury, three days after I only discovered his speech in submitted all documents requested. It the account was cleared it was again 2011 but re-read it regularly – the then transpired that two further docu- frozen as they had discovered a further most poignantly punchy yet gently ments were required which they had document missing – again, one that had humorous history lesson I know. omitted to mention. (One of these had not been requested. After four days it is Forward to 2018 – where the in fact been handed to them 9 months still frozen. majority of Australians it seems are prior!) Have others experienced the incom- in favour of amending the constitu- The account was eventually cleared petence and abuse of this bank? tion to actually mention the “A” word. after 12 days. During that time I spent C Murray “A” is the first letter of the alphabet well over two hours on telephone calls Cape Town Stent FINDING DUDU
NOSEWEEK August 2018 5 Letters John Binns writes to Vodacom – and the fun begins… Correspondence with Vodacom about unauthorised Vodafone VLive charges
ON FACEBOOK YOU SAY I DIDN’T SEND YOU We have a contract and under no Vodacom is putting measures in an email; well here is proof of the two circumstances can extras be charged place to curtail all new WASP activa- that I sent you… without my authorisation – Vodacom tions. We apologise for any inconven- I was charged for a fraudulent is in breach of contract and legal ience this may cause. transaction on my account in action is an option being investi- Buzwe Bonga, February and the subscription was gated. Social Media Consultant meant to be cancelled. I was cred- These subscriptions are fraudulent ited with the amount and assured and a class action lawsuit is being Response: this subscription had been removed. considered. I DON’T CARE WHAT OTHER PLATFORMS Rubbish! Another subscription have to offer! I have a contract with appeared on my March account. Vodacom replies: Vodacom and you cannot fraudu- Pass a credit on my account imme- SIMILAR SERVICES AROUND THE WORLD, lently charge me for something I did diately and remove all subscriptions. such as Apple iStore and Google Play, not subscribe to. These WASPs, that Legal action will be taken, since are active by default and customers Vodacom are part of, are illegal and you cannot charge anything against have the convenience of paying for cannot be allowed to continue. my account that I have not author- content services and subscriptions Don’t give me your pathetic story – ised. A class action lawsuit will be without having to continuously I want to know how Vodacom allows the only way you will learn not to re-enter credit card/payment details. these subscriptions on my account steal from your clients. Get your act Through Vodacom payment plat- without my authorisation. Give me together once and for all. form, customers can subscribe to the an answer. Show me you are making likes of Showmax, Deezer, and Office an effort to be an ethical company. Vodacom replies: 365 as well as games, sport, and Noseweek in copy, as they have THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMAIL. WE HAVE small business services. been exposing Vodacom’s fraudulent tried calling you today on 082… but For customers that prefer not to activity for some time and they will the call was routed to voicemail. have or use credit cards, this continue to do so until you desist with Protection of your account against means they can access and stealing from your customers. fraud is critical to us so we need to subscribe to services that they might John Binns verify that you have permission to otherwise not have access to. Chartered Marketer request information on this account Vodacom reiterates that it has a Cape Town by asking you a few security ques- zero-tolerance approach to any type tions: ID Number; address where of illegal activity on our network and monthly statement is received; we take a hard line if a third-party When Harry writes to Vodacom, bank name and account type. Once contravenes any agreement they may things quickly turn nasty we receive this, we will be able to have with Vodacom or the likes of assist with your query. WASPA’s code of conduct. We have On 7 June 2018 Harry Nelissen of Nadeem Jacobs and continue to suspend and termi- Fourways wrote an email to Saki Social-media@Vodacom nate the services of WASPs and their Macozoma who, besides being chairman affiliate content aggregators and of Safika Holdings, is also a director Mr Binns provided the requested will continue to investigate reported of Vodacom and head of its ethics information within the hour, where- transgressions and then ensure that committee. (His telephone number: upon he received the following: we take appropriate action. 083-2001300). The subject line of his We also seek to ensure that affected email reads: No problems at Vodacom? THE ACCOUNT WAS CREDITED ON 14 customers are fully refunded on first March for the invoice of March contact with Customer Care DEAR MR MACOZOMA, (see statement attached). I have …standard practice is to refund the I gather that it is your understanding now logged a new request for the customer first and then investigate there are no problems at Vodacom. subscription in April to be credited. the query/allegation later. Beginning three days ago I am Your SR reference number is… You We continuously enhance our being charged daily with R8.70 in will be contacted with feedback systems and processes to eliminate respect of “Winsports” and R8.70 in within 24-48 hours. fraudulent activity… [and] make respect of “Zaplium”. I have no idea Ashwin Abdurahman, regular improvements to our double- who they are and certainly have never Vodacom Customer Care opt-in processes to make it clear to given permission for these charges. customers what they are subscribing I have sent a letter of complaint Binns responds: to, the term [length] and the amount but, of course, Vodacom being what PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY VODACOM ALLOWS they will pay. We actively upgrade they are have not even acknowledged unauthorised charges to my account? anti-fraud detection software. receipt.
6 Unless these charges are cancelled dealer. There the following was and refunded there will be another discovered: I was being charged for letter in the next issue of Noseweek. something called “HIA SPECIAL” and HP Nelissen “GAMES” services. I have no idea who these people are and certainly never Reply from: Saki Macozoma (mail to: gave my permission for these charges. [email protected]) How much money has been diverted Sent: 08 June 2018 and over what time span? I would suggest this certainly is a YOU GATHER FROM WHAT? THERE IS NO case for Vodacom’s ethics committee to company without challenges. Please investigate, but won’t hold my breath proceed and publish as you see fit. It waiting for a possible refund. is a free country. If you are serious in Note to editor: I am nearly 87 years following [up] and resolving whatever of age and most of my working life concerns you have, please follow the was spent in a corporate environment, procedures of the company. where we would never have dreamt of Saki Macozoma treating a customer as dismissively as Vodacom routinely does its customers. Harry to Saki on 25 June (copied to Noseweek): Macozoma responds (cc Noseweek) on 27 June (at 6.24am): I REFER TO YOUR LETTER OF 8 JUNE in reply to mine of 7 June. At the PLEASE FOLLOW THE PROCESSES AS SET OUT outset let me advise you that I don’t by company protocols. If you are not like the tone of your response and, happy with that, you have recourse as suggested by you, I will copy to consumer protection bodies. If you Noseweek in on this. are not happy with their response you For the past two years I have tried have recourse to legal remedies. to do exactly what you suggested ie IF YOU RENT PROPERTY follow the procedures of the company, Nelissen replies on 29 June: without much success. It was not until KEEP THIS NUMBER recently that I happened to spot some I’M SORRY THAT YOU STILL DO NOT APPEAR blatant diversion from my data, which to appreciate the problem. It is not a was acknowledged by Vodacom and a question of going through all the right I CAN HELP YOU WITH refund arranged. Then it occurred to channels and protocols at Vodacom or PROBLEM TENANTS me that if data could be diverted why approaching other bodies. All these not airtime? So I decided not to use should not be necessary if Vodacom I CAN ASSIST YOU WITH THE my telephone function for a week and did the right things in the first place. RENTAL HOUSING TRIBUNAL check my daily balance at the same Do not charge your customers with time every morning. Lo and behold, an items to which they have not agreed IF YOU DON’T NEED ME NOW, amount of R14 was diverted every day in the first place. Do not divert funds YOU WILL LATER (R5,110 per annum). (I could think of use another word for From previous experience I know this) from customers’ data or airtime JOHN: 082 901 0824 there’s not much point in going to without their consent. Vodacom’s shop in Fourways Mall, Yours sincerely so decided to go to an independent HP Nelissen
“Now we’ll all close our eyes and cover our ears, and the person who took the R428 billion will put it back.”
NOSEWEEK August 2018 7 C
Editor Editorial Martin Welz [email protected] Assistant Editor Jonathan Erasmus Special Correspondent Jack Lundin Because there was no more storage space, Designer Farewell to a founder Cape Town stopped shunting mail up north. Tony Pinchuck IT IS WITH SADNESS THAT WE RECORD THAT When Noseweek went to investigate, Sub-editor Maureen Barnes, co-founder of this maga- acres of pallets of unsorted Gauteng-bound Fiona Harrison zine in 1993 and author of many of its early mail covered the entire sorting hall floor, investigations, died at Halesworth, Suffolk, including mass mailings from Sanlam and Contributors England on 24 June, weeks following a Old Mutual as well as tons of magazines Rob de Wet, Ed Herbst, Michiel Heyns, stroke. from Media 24 and EE Publishers. Nose’s Mitzi Kaplanski, Bheki Mashile, A buouyant, straight-talking personality Gauteng subscribers could count them- Gilbert Mwanza, Susan Puren, Susan Segar, Harold Strachan who loved cooking for friends – many of selves lucky to receive theirs five weeks whom will picture her with a dog on her lap late. Cartoonists and a green parrot perched on her shoulder, Two-and-a-half months on, and still no Stacey Stent, Dr Jack lovingly nibbling her ear. change. Hundreds of expired Noseweek Accounts After her retirement in 1998, Barnes subscribers have yet to renew. We have Nicci van Doesburgh moved to England where she was born and dropped everything to cope with the crisis. [email protected] grew up. She is survived by her son, Andrew, If you haven’t received your June and July Subscriptions daughter Nicola and a grandson. issues, call us and we will try to arrange an Maud August alternative method of delivery. [email protected] Post Office strikes again Advertising MOST SOUTH AFRICANS AND MEDIA APPEAR NOT Covering for overpriced briefs 021 686 0570 to have noticed that the Post Office manage- IN MARCH, (NOSE223) WE REPORTED THAT THE [email protected] ment and many of its thousands of workers fee bills of three senior Johannesburg advo- are determined to do their bit to finally sink cates who represented Investec in opposing
All material in this issue is copyright, and belongs the postal service – and in the process cause a court action against the bank by various to Chaucer Publications (Pty) Ltd, unless otherwise further damage to the national economy. Randgold minority shareholders, had been indicated. No part of the material may be quoted, Unannounced, they have been on some form found by the court’s Taxing Master to have photocopied, reproduced or be stored by any of strike since May. Is their ambition to charged eight times more than was reason- electronic system without prior written permission. Disclaimer: While every reasonable effort is taken to join the social grants queues now forming able. He reduced their total fee bills from ensure the accuracy and soundness of the contents of outside what once were post offices? R2.4 million to just R305,550. this publication, neither the authors nor the publisher In 2009 PO workers launched flash strikes Noseweek named the three as A P “Tony” will bear any responsibility for the consequences of any actions based on information contained. Printed that crippled the entire postal system for Rubens SC, Shanee Stein SC and Jonathan and Published by Chaucer Publications (Pty) Ltd. months (Christmas cards and gifts were Blou SC. All were briefed by Werksmans delivered the following June, if at all, Attorneys (who had charged only R69,000). remember?). In the process, the Post Office Subsequently, in March, Korbers Inc lost a significant percentage of its already acting for the Randgold shareholders diminished client base. Noseweek lost many who had stood to pay these fees, lodged a of its subscribers. The remainder were asked complaint of excessive charging against to provide PO box addresses as the easier the three advocates with the disciplinary and speedier route and things stabilised. officer of the Johannesburg Society of In recent months, with the financial help Advocates (the Johannesburg Bar). On 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES of many friends, we made important steps June the chairman of the Professional and Print towards implementing plans to update and Fees committee, P F Rossouw SC, advised upgrade both our content and presentation. the complainants that on 30 May the SA only R420 While much of this is planned to enhance committee had resolved that “the complaint Neighbouring states (airmail) R620 our online presence, Noseweek remains does not sustain a case of unprofessional Europe, Americas and Australasia R760 predominantly a print magazine: most of our conduct” and “accordingly, the committee Internet edition 1 year R305 readers prefer our long-form, plotted-out, has closed its inquiry”. fact-based sort of journalism in print. The complainants, who plan an appeal to Combined We had hardly taken the first step when the General Bar Council of South Africa, Print+Internet (SA only) R520 the Post Office once again sabotaged every- asked for the reasons for the Johannesburg To subscribe thing. Early in May, unannounced, postal Bar’s decision. The answer, on 5 June, came By phone (021) 686 0570 workers at the country’s two biggest sorting in one sentence: “The Committee does not Online (pay by credit card): hubs, Witspos, which serves the greater furnish reasons for its decisions.” So much www.noseweek.co.za Johannesburg region and overseas mail, for those nationally treasured values of Email [email protected] and Tshwane, which covers Pretoria and transparency and accountability. surrounds as well as all towns to the north, One thing the Johannesburg Bar Council (Note: cheques no longer accepted) went on a go-slow. By the end of May, there can be relied upon to do is look after its own. was a five-week pileup of unsorted mail. The Editor. Further information Call (021) 686 0570; fax 021 686 0573 or email [email protected] The Brakspears fall victim to ‘The Jersey Way’
HE ROYAL COURT OF JERSEY HAS fact follow – where the same buyer 100,000,) Jersey trusts are reported dismissed outright the case again bought the farm, for just R18m. to control an estimated £1 trillion brought against Nedbank’s Jer- Nedbank representatives admitted (R17,000,000,000,000) in assets, with sey bank and trust management that their trustee had been recklessly £400 billion in private trusts… divisions by 84-year-old widow negligent, but argued that Brakspear Anecdotally, Jersey practitioners are DorothyT Brakspear and her two adult should have sued for the R19m on record as having said that “over children, Ian and Alison, in their ca- damages suffered as a consequence 90% of their business concerns discre- pacity as beneficiaries of two offshore within three years of the event. tionary trusts” – recognised as highly trusts set up and managed by the The court agrees, ignoring all the problematic and open to abuse. banking group. evidence produced by the Brakspears Six of the nine offshore law firms In a shocking judgment that seem- to show that the damages claim identified as being members of the ingly shamelessly ignores the facts accrued to the company that owned so-called “offshore magic circle” operate and covers and condones the banking the farm, not the Brakspears directly. in Jersey… group’s misdeeds and mismanage- And that the trustees had contrived, With its oversized financial services ment, the Jersey court granted the by means of a false claim, to fraudu- sector, Jersey is politically captured by banking group’s application to have lently put the farm company into liqui- offshore finance. The island’s political the Brakspears’ Order of Justice dation, thus disabling it from claiming and judicial arrangements are pecu- (Jersey’s equivalent of a summons the damages in time. (The liquidator liarly unsuited to hosting an offshore with particulars of claim) struck out, was beholden to the Nedbank trustee financial centre, lacking the necessary without the case having to go to trial – fraudulently set up as the largest separation of authority between judi- for the hearing of evidence. creditor.) ciary and legislature, and with wholly The facts are so elaborate and the While the Brakspears already had inadequate independent political over- arguments so convoluted that it would several reasons in 2008 to believe that sight of the financial services sector. In have taken more time than was avail- the claim advanced by the Nedbank 2017 an inquiry into child abuse going able to compile an intelligible report trustees to justify the liquidation back over 50 years revealed a culture for this issue of Noseweek. was false, incontrovertible proof only – known locally as “the Jersey Way” Suffice to say, at this stage, the became available earlier this year – that inhibits independent thought, Jersey court struck out all the when they were granted access (by scrutiny and accountability. Brakespears’ claims either because another judge) to the Jersey trust’s This is an island culture with little they had allegedly prescribed (were banking records – and when they respect for the laws and mores of other out of time) or the issues had already found relevant documents amongst countries and generally subservient to been adjudicated upon by a South the leaked so-called Panama Papers. ‘enterprising merchants’ engaged in African court – which found the The Jersey court chooses to ignore all criminal activities. Nedbank trustees and bankers’ this evidence. In 1998, then New York assis- actions to have been truthful and Many readers might find my nega- tant district attorney John Moscow correct. The Jersey court ignores all tive assessment of the Jersey court was quoted saying: ‘The Isle of Man the evidence that the Brakspears outrageous. Why would a Jersey court authorities see their job as keeping produced which supports their claim brazenly want to cover for a bank over the bad guys out. Jersey sees its job as that Nedbank repeatedly produced a plaintiff who has so clearly suffered co-operating with the criminal authori- false evidence under oath to achieve a great injustice? ties when the law requires it – without fraudulent outcome. Some passages from the Tax necessarily keeping the bad guys out.’ A central example involving both Justice Network’s recently published There is little indication that the these legal issues: Financial Secrecy Index 2018, and in authorities are willing to require basic Readers will recall that Ian particular the section titled “Narrative information about settlor and trustee Brakspear sold the farm – which had Report on Jersey” should explain why information to be made public. been partially funded with money that might be, and help clarify some of “…the revelations in 2017 on child originating from the family’s offshore the issues at stake. abuse… at a more profound level… trusts – in a very profitable deal, for Jersey is ranked at 18 position on shines a spotlight on an island culture R37 million. But the deal fell through the 2018 Financial secrecy Index. [It] that enforces conformity, tolerates offi- when the Nedbank Jersey trustee has been assessed with 65.45 secrecy cial perjury, ignores the perversion carelessly let the buyer know that it points out of a potential 100, which of the course of justice, allows exten- was a distressed sale. Taking advan- places it at the lower level of what sive conflicts of interest throughout tage of this information, the buyer might regarded as the ‘extreme danger the judicial and political systems…. pulled out and waited for the inevi- zone’ for offshore secrecy. This culture flies under the name the table emergency auction that did in Despite its tiny size (population “Jersey Way”. – Martin Welz
NOSEWEEK August 2018 9 The killer Quantums stalking SA’s roads
Toyota and authorities knew for three years about unsafe jerry-rigged taxis, but did nothing to stop the carnage. By Susan Puren
F YOU KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR YOU dangers they posed. Sadly, many did website for a copy of Toyota’s official will spot them all over South not complete their journeys. notification). Africa: Toyota Quantum fake mini- The chief culprit is the South African Then there are the banks that put up bus taxis which are actually ille- government along with the Department the money for the taxi recapitalisation gally converted Toyota Quantum of Transport’s vehicle licensing programme and then opportunistically panelI vans that were designed to carry authority – and multi-national cong- funded the scam-taxis as well. goods, not passengers. lomerate Toyota, the world’s third- The owners of the converted taxis Somehow, with official sanction, biggest motor manufacturer. believed they were buying safe, recapi- these vans have bypassed the safety Aware that the illegal conversions talised Quantum taxis. standards and specifications that broke the law, Toyota South Africa, The immense regulatory failure of are compulsory for any passenger while warning their dealers about this, oversight would have gone unnoticed vehicles licensed to drive on South nevertheless told them how they might or been swept under the carpet were it Africa’s roads. Since 2005 millions of get around the problem and continue not for one man’s perseverance. commuters have used these death-trap selling vans for conversion to taxis Hennie de Beer, a former banker who taxis for transport, oblivious to the while avoiding liability (See Noseweek’s was once ABSA’s national manager
10 A case history
BENNET HLUNGWANE (POLICE CASE number 223/10/2013) was the owner and driver of an illegal conversion. He was identified as a first-time taxi owner by SA Taxi Finance, and supplied with an SA Taxi Finance repossession through I&S Motors in Vereenig- ing and given a taxi permit for R5,000. The vehicle was grossly over- priced and Hlungwane was fully exploited by the bank and the dealer as an unsophisticated person. Hlungwane twice complained in person to the motor dealer that there was something wrong with the vehicle’s road holding but was chased away. Eight months later the vehicle rolled while travelling at a low speed, killing a child and severely injuring five passengers. As a result Hlungwane lost everything, is now unemployed and suffers emotionally. n
None of Toyota Japan’s high interna- tional safety standards were adhered Spot the diference: A genuine Toyota Toyota SA had become aware of to in the conversion process. Quantum taxi (top) and a panel van the illegal conversions, they finally In South Africa, the relevant compul- that has been converted illegally to deemed it necessary to inform the sory specifications are described in carry passengers SA authorities. In a letter signed by regulation SANS 10267 and admin- four senior executives, they wrote istered by the National Regulator for to the Department of Transport, the Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), the for taxi financing, resigned in 2009 South African Bureau of Standards inspectorate responsible for ensuring because he could no longer ignore the (SABS) and the National Regulator for the compliance. A vehicle model is fact that the panel-van conversions Compulsory Specifications stating: subjected to a process called homologa- were putting people’s lives at risk. For “Toyota SA have not and will not tion to approve, confirm and certify its De Beer, the last straw was the banks issue letters of approval for conver- conformity with relevant compulsory and taxi financiers’ outright refusal to sions of Toyota Quantum panel vans specifications. This must be completed assist any of the affected taxi owners into passenger carrying vehicles… the successfully before an eNaTIS (elec- they had financed when they were panel van is …designed to carry goods” tronic national administration traffic subsequently taken off the road. In 2013 De Beer laid a complaint information system) number is allo- De Beer compiled evidence of no about the illegally converted Quantum cated to the specific vehicle model. This fewer than 165 major road accidents panel-van taxis with the office of the number permits the manufacturer, involving illegal Quantum panel-van Public Protector. Release of their long- importer or builder (MIB) to offer the taxis between 2007 and 2013 which overdue report is imminent. vehicle for sale. have resulted in as many as 350 deaths It is expected to recommend the No vehicle may be sold or registered (research indicates that the average impounding and scrapping of thou- and licensed unless an eNaTIS number death rate is 2.4 people killed in each sands of these converted Quantum vans has been allocated to it. In the case of such accident) until he was blocked – which is likely to result in immense the panel-van conversions, the homolo- from accessing the website on which financial losses for owners and cause gation was not done. Yet an estimated the accidents are recorded. significant disruption to minibus taxi 6,000 of these vehicles were somehow In 2009, almost four years after services around the country. registered to eNaTIS.
NOSEWEEK August 2018 11 The purpose of the Recapitalisation about the fake taxis flooding the Programme that was introduced by market. At the time, Japan’s Toyota the government in 1999 was to replace Motor Corporation (TMCJ) was the old, run-down and unsafe taxis with a majority shareholder in its South new standardised fleet of “safe, effec- African franchise, with Wesco Group tive, reliable, affordable and acces- Unsuspecting holding 25% of the shares. In 2008 sible” taxis. The state paid taxi owners Wesco was bought out and TMCJ has a R50,000 scrapping fee for their old wholly owned Toyota South Africa ever vehicles – money they could use as a taxi owners since. deposit for a new one. Two months after the Wesco sale in The scheme came into effect in 2004 2008 the South African Banking Risk but a scourge of fraud and corrup- Information Centre (SABRIC) got tion was soon to follow. Perceived paid exorbitant wind of the illegal conversions and stock shortages of the new purpose- alerted its partners to the scam. The built taxis created an opportunity to banks were warned not to finance any generate substantial profits and this Quantum panel vans that could be motivated unscrupulous manufac- prices for these used as taxis. An easy indicator was turers, importers and builders (MIBs) the VIN-number, which has different to illegally convert cheaper but similar- prefixes for purpose-built taxis and looking Toyota panel vans into taxis illegally adapted panel vans. for huge profit. Naamsa figures show that sales of The conversions were not under- Quantum panel vans dropped by more taken by Toyota dealerships but by than 50% that year after banks stopped outside workshops that had cut back- vehicles financing the illegally converted room deals with official dealerships. Quantum panel-van taxis. Noseweek obtained a list of 45 used- The banks allegedly also refused to car dealers who had Toyota buyer assist the taxi owners who had already numbers. This enabled them to buy Toyota SA. Toyota dealers allegedly bought converted panel vans with panel vans in bulk even though they ignored these suggestions because bank finance but instead repossessed were not franchised dealerships. there was no evidence that any taxi their vehicles, only to refinance them Unsuspecting taxi owners paid exorbi- owner was ever warned about the to other unsuspecting taxi owners. tant prices for these illegally adapted adverse implications of buying a Illegal conversions are fitted with up vehicles. conversion. to 16 seats that are bolted to the thin In October 2005 Toyota South Africa Only in 2009 did Toyota SA formally floor. Seatbelts are only connected to Motors (TSAM) sent a notice to its inform the South African authori- the seats and not the vehicle struc- dealer principals and sales managers ties that the conversions were illegal ture. The roof pillars are not reinforced warning them that they were contra- “due to the fact that the panel van is and the windows are cut into the side vening the homologation regulations a commercial vehicle and designed to panels, weakening the structure. by converting panel vans into taxis. carry goods”. Accident reports and pictures show “You could be placing passengers Elsewhere in 2009, confusion that when these conversions are at risk of injury or death should crit- still reigned: SA Taxi Finance chief involved in road accidents, the rigged ical safety points not withstand the executive Martin Bezuidenhout, whose windows often pop out, the seats break impact in case of an accident. You are company handled 584 converted taxis away from the floor and the passengers not only placing yourself and Toyota between 2005 and 2008, told IOL: “We become projectiles ejected from the SA Motors in a situation where the conducted our own investigation in vehicle. Since the back roof holds no client could sue us but you are also in partnership with our vehicle identifi- support structure it poses a further risk contravention of the South Africa (sic) cation desk and found that the legal of head injuries. And fatal accidents road ordinance laws.” documents only stated that they were have been reported in which drivers The notice nevertheless then put recapitalisation taxis and nothing lost consciousness as a possible result forward a plan to clinch a sale: “If a about being converted panel vans.” of exhaust fumes that had seeped into client requires such a conversion we The cost of the conversion was the vehicle through the bolted connec- suggest that you explain the situation usually included in the total price tions on the floor. and consequences to the client.” and then financed without question To convert vehicles on such a scale The client had to agree that: by the major banks and specialist requires the approval of the original l the vehicle be licensed and regis- taxi financiers. Statistics from the manufacturer – in this case, Toyota tered before the conversion was done; National Association of Automobile Motor Corp Japan. l Toyota would not be liable or Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) show Noseweek asked Toyota SA when accountable for any failures – mechan- an increase of almost 85% in sales of that approval was obtained, but they ical or other; and Quantum vans from 2005 to 2007. declined to comment, saying the Public l the warranty would be affected. While business was booming Toyota Protector was addressing the matter. This notice could now come to haunt South Africa reportedly kept quiet Toyota SA also declined to respond to
12 ten questions Noseweek sent them. So, what steps did the South African authorities take to protect Knysna fre: now top man quits taxi commuters once Toyota SA had informed them of the scam in 2009? Absolutely nothing! UST EIGHT DAYS AFTER THE COUNCIL in his professional ability.” Suitably The Transport department did for Scientific and Industrial impressed, the nation’s press dutifully embark on a retro-fitment programme Research (CSIR) published its swallowed the pine-cone bait. that was again without the approval of disgracefully long-delayed re- The CSIR report dates the light- the manufacturer, Toyota Japan. port into the cause of Knysna’s ning strike that caused the smoulder Taxi owners were afforded the oppor- GreatJ Fire, Kam Chetty submitted his as 22 March, 11 weeks before the tunity – for a period of six months resignation as the town’s municipal underground fire ignited to become – to make their vehicles safer, but manager. a runaway inferno. In those weeks only 436 took up the offer. But again, His surprise July 6 resignation, Manuel’s fire department received these “safer” versions were still non- citing personal reasons, came just many requests from Elandskraal resi- compliant. weeks after the equally unexpected dents to put it out, to no avail. Now Sadly several of the 436 illegally departure of Knysna fire chief Clinton that the pine-cone theory is finally approved retro-fitted panel-van taxis Manuel who, as reported in Nose225, debunked, the municipality faces were later involved in fatal accidents. has returned to Cape Town to become negligence claims that could total R4 One of the few actions taken by head of training for the city’s Fire and billion. But municipal manager Kam the government since 2009 was to Rescue Service. Chetty and fire chief Clinton Manuel prevent the illegal Quantums from The arrogant municipal manager will be long gone, leaving their succes- transporting spectators during the has been a staunch supporter of fire sors to carry the can. 2010 World Cup. In November 2009 chief Manuel’s “scientific” theory Gauteng’s Public Transport, Roads and that the Great Fire that engulfed the a a a Works department held a presentation tourist town last year was started by and produced a brochure to inform taxi someone lighting a pine cone in the KAM CHETTY, 59, BARELY COMPLETED one owners about the vehicle criteria for forests of Elandskraal. The nation’s year in the Knysna Municipality’s top taxi transport during the soccer event: media dutifully swallowed this bizarre job. He was previously briefly admin- Only vehicles compliant with the 2006 explanation at the duo’s press briefing istrator at Oudtshoorn, tasked with Taxi Recapitalised Programme should held last August, two months after the restoring proper governance and de- apply for permits, it read, then under- tragedy which claimed seven lives and veloping a turnaround strategy for neath: “(NO PANEL VANS)”. No such destroyed at least 1,000 homes. that crisis-riven town. safety consideration was afforded ordi- Both Chetty and Manuel ridiculed At Knysna, Chetty raked in the big nary South African commuters. Noseweek’s revelation in January this bucks; his precise wage packet is not Around 2,000 Quantum panel-van year (nose219) of the still-under-wraps known but in 2014 the municipal taxis were recently identified and red- finding of the then-secret CSIR report manager was pulling in R1,395,113 flagged on eNaTIS. Their owners won’t – that the real cause of the runaway p/a – R203,633 more than the amount be able to renew their licences when western inferno was a smouldering recommended by national government. the current ones expire. However, the fire caused by a lightning strike. It was Chetty also supported largesse for Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found only on June 28, a full year after the Knysna’s 21 councillors – R798,913 that close to 6,000 illegally converted fire, that the CSIR finally released its p/a for his pine-cone ally and also now- Quantum panel-van taxis are regis- report with its extensive corroborating departed executive mayor Eleanore tered on the eNaTIS system. scientific evidence approved by an Bouw-Spies; R596,936 for council- Asked to comment, Mandla Mzelemu, international peer review. lors gracing the mayoral committee. head of the Ugu Taxi Association, KZN At the August 2017 media briefing Even part-time councillors now get South Coast, said that at one stage held to “foster transparency” (as he put R251,877. These included maximum taxi associations had no issue with it), Kam Chetty appealed to the assem- increases, approved by the council- the converted panel vans as they were bled hacks: “We desperately need your lors in February and backdated to 1 cheaper than regular taxis. assistance to dispel any myths that are July 2017. Cellphone cash stipends “We now ask for documents at our around.” (ie the “myth” already doing were increased from R1,900/month association, such as log book, details the rounds regarding the smoulder). to R3,400, with no requirement to of the seller and vehicle registration. I Chetty assured the press that fire account for the amount actually spent don’t think it is happening on a large chief Manuel “has been involved in a on calls. Plus, of course, new cellphones scale in KZN,” he said. number of forensic investigations on and iPads for everyone. Noseweek has learned that affected fires. All of those have gone unchal- As befitting his position, Chetty taxi owners and family members of lenged, or where they were chal- sought approval for his own office those who died in accidents caused by lenged, his version was sustainable. staff to be increased from 23 to a stag- the negligence of Toyota SA and the His conclusions have been verified gering 37. Pretty lavish for a small South African authorities are consid- and stood the test of a lot of interro- coastal town (population: 73,835) with ering a class action against them. n gation and we have utmost confidence a municipal income of R713m. n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 13 Frankel family goes on ofensive against sex assault complainants
Executors of serial paedophile’s estate want to put victims in the dock to avoid paying them damages. By Mitzi Kaplansky
ESIDES BEING A TRUSTED TAX are his widow Carolyn Frankel, his advisor on tax matters to sister Babette Katz, tax specialist and President Cyril Ramaphosa, advocate Beric John Croome and a Michael Katz is the chairman director at ENSafrica’s private client at Africa’s largest law firm department Deon Beachen. ENSafrica,B an honorary professor and (The unusually large number of a trustee of various trusts including executors appointed lends credence to the South African Holocaust and Gen- rumours that it is a particularly large ocide Foundation, the Nelson Mande- estate.) la Children’s Trust and the Constitu- Initially Frankel was himself the tional Court Trust. defendant but when he died in 2017, The illustrious Professor Katz is his executors stepped in to defend the also executor of the deceased estate case. They are represented by celeb- of his fabulously wealthy paedo- rity lawyer Billy Gundelfinger who phile brother-in-law Sidney Frankel, has filed a plea by the defendants in in which capacity he is vigorously which “each and every allegation… is opposing the claims for damages denied”. brought against the estate by eight Well-known Sandton attorney Ian of Frankel’s child victims (all now Levitt has taken up the cause of the adult) who have testified to having victims – the group being referred to been sexually assaulted by him and as “the Frankel 8”. to have suffered serious psychological Noseweek was the first to publicly damage into adulthood as a result. Chairman of ENSafrica Michael Katz identify Frankel as a peodophile in Katz, who is currently an advisor on 2014 (nose180). the Nugent Commission investigating ference, for the better part of their Levitt told Noseweek he now knows SARS, is one of five executors of lives they have battled depression, of “at least two dozen” victims, some Frankel’s estate who are determined an inability to form meaningful rela- of whom are still young adults, to oppose a R40-million claim – R5m tionships, been subdued, felt dirty, suggesting that Frankel continued per plaintiff – against the estate by shame, humiliation, and psycholog- with his paedophile practices until the eight victims who have had the ical trauma, having had their child- late in life. courage to openly declare that they hood and sexual innocence ripped “Through the courageous persis- were sexually molested by Frankel as away from them. tence of these eight, the Constitutional children – some, when as young as six The victims are hoping the civil Court has already been persuaded to years old – over a 40-year period. trial will take place either later this remove the prescription period after They were the children of friends year or early next year. which such cases could no longer be and neighbours, children from the The other executors who, with Prof prosecuted – a clear signal to the Jewish orphanage of which Frankel Katz, appear determined to force the world that South Africa has entered was a patron and in later years, even complainants into the witness box to an era of zero tolerance for child the children of trusted employees. prove they were sexually assaulted abusers. In court papers the victims relate as children by Sidney Frankel and It is known from the case that “the that, as a result of Frankel’s inter- suffered damages as a consequence, abuse was not just confined to chil-
14 dren associated with his family. We sordid ways at the age of 25 and have people calling on a regular basis, continued until only a few years before pledging their support. For many of his death. Some of his most recently them it’s still just too raw and in most identified victims are still minors. cases their husband or wife is still The plaintiffs in the case all state unaware of the trauma they experi- that they “only gained a full apprecia- enced as a child,” continued Levitt. tion of the criminal acts committed” Besides preying on his young rela- by Frankel as they reached middle tions as well as their friends, children age. of friends and even his employees’ “The plaintiffs experienced trau- offspring, he would regularly appear matic sexualisation as a result of the at the Arcadia Jewish Children’s sexual assaults and/or violations at Home to collect one of his “favourites” the hands of the defendant. This trau- for a weekend stay at his farm. No matic sexualisation developed and questions were asked by any of the shaped the plaintiffs’ sexuality inap- home’s management despite at least propriately and dysfunctionally at an one of the victims raising the alarm – interpersonal level.” only to be dismissed as a liar. The catalogue of assaults is spelled “A victim from the orphanage said out by each of the victims in graphic abused children told orphanage offi- detail in court papers. cials at the time but they did nothing," In his responding papers filed said Levitt. before his death, Frankel admitted The victims who have found the having the children swim in the courage to bring the current case are pool, admitted that the Rosenbergs Nicole Levenstein, Paul Diamond, were cousins and that Smith lived on George Rosenberg, Katherine the farm next door – but he denied Rosenberg, Daniela McNally, Lisa “every deviant act”. While this point Wegner, Shane Rothquel and Marinda is now moot due to the subsequent Smith. Constitutional Court ruling (see The particulars of claim filed in nose224), at the time Frankel pleaded the case paint a horrific picture of that their damages claims had in any the perverse “grooming” and sexual Sidney Frankel event prescribed (lapsed through the assaults Frankel unleashed on them. passage of time). He made inappropriate sexually Frankel died before either his crim- suggestive conversation with them Besides preying on inal trial or the civil court proceedings and sexually abused them, touched could commence. their private parts, masturbated The criminal trial has fallen away as young boys, masturbated himself his young relations a result of his death, but the civil case while touching the children, made for damages is proceeding against his them bleed when he penetrated them estate. with his finger and then offered them and their friends; on “For the plaintiffs, where there was a “Rolo” when he was done, telling once fear, they now want to get going. them it was “their secret” and that Some are still receiving counselling. they “enjoyed” the experience. children of friends and They are ready. Of the eight plaintiffs, “The defendant sexually assaulted five live abroad and are willing to the plaintiffs when they were children travel to South Africa to testify,” says and at a time when they were between even his employees’ Levitt. the ages of six and 15 years old at six “I have consulted with several more different locations,” reads the claim. victims who, for whatever reason, are He is alleged to have committed offspring, he would not comfortable with sharing their these acts at his horse farm Ballifarm, story in a public space. However they Kyalami; at 19 2nd Street, Abbotsford, have provided support. Johannesburg where his cousins regularly appear at the “At this stage no offer of settlement lived; at Baobab Ridge Game Farm, has been made. If they decided to pay Buffelshoek; at the Jewish Children’s Arcadia Jewish Children’s our clients’ however, that would be a Home in Arcadia; at his home at 81 different matter,” said Levitt. East Avenue, Athol and even at It is anticipated that the expert his office, known as Sidney Isaacs Home to collect one of psychological reports relating to the Stockbrokers, Fourth Floor, Diagonal claims made by the victims will be Street, Johannesburg. filed in August. Only then will a trial It appears Frankel started his his ‘favourites’ date be set. n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 15 Bheki Cele heads investigation – of himself
Police minister uses state-funded legal advisor in fght with own ministry. By Rob de Wet
INISTER OF POLICE BHEKI CELE nessman Roux Shabangu between Police Commissioner, the Minister has sacked his private March and July 2010. of Police and the President of South attorney and instead is The deal, said Moloi and the Africa. using his state-funded legal Protector, had signs of interference But since then his fortunes have advisor to help him fight his by Cele who had purposely guided changed. Six years on and with no ownM ministry in a private civil matter the deals in Shabangu’s favour. Moloi movement on his review application in which – given his new position – he called for an immediate investigation entirely by his own making, he is both is also a respondent. by “competent authorities,” saying the applicant and the fifth respondent It is no doubt a conundrum for his the evidence “proved abundantly that (Minster of Police). He has authority new legal advisor Advocate Simo there was a questionable relation- over the fourth respondent (National Chamane; more so because he denies ship between the national commis- Police Commissioner) and he was providing advice to Cele-the-applicant sioner and Shabangu on one hand and appointed to his position in early despite court documents stating the between Shabangu and Public Works 2018 by the sixth respondent – the contrary. Chamane should only be officials who facilitated the lease Presidency. giving Cele-the-minister advice, as agreements on the other” as well as However a state advocate told his mandate is to protect the ministry, between the national commissioner Noseweek that until the Moloi findings not fight it. Chamane is faced with a and some members of the SAPS. are set aside, they stand. clear conflict of interest – although he That “competent authority” is the Cele, his sacked law firm Strauss doesn’t see it. SAPS. A criminal investigation was Daly, and Cele’s various spokespeople Cele, who previously served as opened by the DA shortly after the have refused to answer any questions national commissioner of SAPS, findings were made public but the put to them by Noseweek over a period was appointed Minister of Police charges have only gathered dust in the of weeks as to the reason for the delay in February this year by President past six years. With Cele now back at in the review application, whether Cyril Ramaphosa. Although he has the helm the investigation is unlikely they accept the Moloi findings and been lauded for his stance towards to progress. whether Cele is now abusing his office. crime, in 2012 he was certified by Cele’s move to use his legal advisor Ministry spokesperson Reneilwe the Presidency-commissioned Moloi as his personal lawyer is directly Serero eventually sent Noseweek Commission of Inquiry as “dishonest” related to the review application Cele the following response from Cele: and “conflicted” and “not fit to hold launched in August 2012 in the North “Advocate Chamane is my legal advisor office and… unable to execute his offi- Gauteng High Court. His founding in my official capacity as the Minister cial duties efficiently”. papers said he wanted all the Moloi of Police, and he is not involved in The late Judge Jake Moloi’s find- Inquiry’s “findings, conclusions and this matter, save to say the notice of ings resulted in Cele’s being fired by recommendations… reviewed and set withdrawal was sent by Strauss Daly former president Jacob Zuma in June aside,” along with the former presi- and any questions relating to that I 2012. This came after two damning dent’s reasons for sacking him. suggest that you contact them.” Public Protector reports against Cele The record stands at 546 pages “Regarding the status of my titled “Against the Rules” and “Against including a replying affidavit from the review application, the matter is still the Rules Too” which concerned two Presidency defending the Moloi find- pending before the Court and I will lease agreements in Pretoria and ings. Cele cited as respondents Moloi respect those processes till they are Durban worth more than R1,7 billion and his assistants Terry Motau SC concluded.” that SAPS wanted to sign with busi- and Anthea Platt SC, the National Up until 6 July 2018 Cele was repre-
16 sented by Andile Khoza Strauss Daly rance when contacted by Noseweek, personal matters. However, as in the in Umhlanga, Durban. The review stating he had no idea why Strauss case of Zuma’s current legal woes, if application was launched by Cele in Daly had elected him to receive corre- the executive using the legal counsel his private capacity. spondence for Cele. loses a personal case, they could be In mid-July after several unsuc- “I only deal with the state matters liable for the costs, she said. From cessful attempts by Noseweek to and official matters. I don’t deal with her understanding of Cele’s matter, as get comment from Khoza, Dinesha personal matters with the minister,” discussed with Noseweek, there could Deeplal a director at the law firm, said Chamane. be grounds for a conflict-of- replied unexpectedly: “Herewith our Not wanting to commit on whether interest, as Chamane Notice of Withdrawal as Attorney of he would be conflicted in providing was contracted Record, which we are in the process advice to Cele-the-applicant he said to the Minister of serving and filing. In the circum- he was not the “personal attorney of Police, a stances you are to liaise directly [with for the minister”. “I don’t know why respondent in Cele] and not through our offices.” Strauss Daly wrote my name in the the matter, The notice of withdrawal said: notice of withdraw,” said Chamane. and not “Kindly take further notice that, the Asked if Cele-the-minister had Cele-the- Applicant, Bheki Hamilton Cele, ever mentioned the review applica- applicant. appoints Advocate S Chamane, as his tion to him and asked for advice on The contact person.” Chamane was copied how to defend it as a respondent, he Moloi into Deeplal’s email. It said Cele would said: “The discussions between me findings “accept service of all documents” at the and the minister are private and I are address of Simo Chamane, his “special can’t disclose them to you. It would be advisor” in the “police ministry”. unethical and unprofessional of me to But Chamane tried to feign igno- do so.” Andile Khoza would later confirm that the appointment of Chamane to receive service for Cele was “proper” and no doubt Not wanting on the authority of Cele. According to the Department of to commit on Water and Sanitation, Chamane, who sits on Mhlathuze Water Board’s whether he would finance and remuneration committees, “is a legal expert and holds senior positions in the public be conflicted in and freight sector”. He also worked for the KZN Department of Community Safety when Cele was MEC of the providing advice to department, as well as having been President of University of Zululand Convocation. He has spent a large Cele-the-applicant part of his career in the public service. Alison Lee, the CEO of the Corporate Counsel Association of SA, a non-stat- he said he was utory body that has developed guide- lines and rules for legal counsel in both the private and public sectors, says a not the ‘personal legal advisor can provide private legal advice to their employer providing it is not in conflict with their contract and attorney for the if there is no clear conflict of interest. “Legal advisors can provide support and assistance minister’ providing there is no conflict,” said Lee, citing former president Zuma’s use of legal advisors Bheki Cele paid by the state for his
NOSEWEEK August 2018 17 technically the property of the as being dishonest”. But his witnesses Zuma said the board had found Presidency. Questions sent to did lack moral authority. They were “five” instances where Cele had Ramaphosa’s office also went unan- his since-demoted CEO Lt General been dishonest, among them his swered. These included whether any Bonang Mgwenya who was hand- not disclosing his relationship with investigation, as called for by Moloi, picked by Cele without advertising Shabangu. The affidavit said that in took place; and whether Ramaphosa the post, contrary to policy; the now deciding whether to sack Cele, the considered the report before suspended KZN provincial commis- president had to consider the severity appointing Cele to the ministry. sioner Lt Gen Mmamonnye Ngobeni of the misconduct and Cele’s role as The DA’s shadow minister of and legal advisor Lt Gen Julius police commissioner. police Dianne Kohler-Barnard told Molefe whose appointment was also “For this reason the President took Noseweek she has religiously asked clouded in controversy. the view that a punitive sanction short for an update of the criminal charges Ngobeni is embroiled in her own of removal would not be appropriate.” laid against Cele on the strength of lease-for-pals scandal about police However it is clear there was never the Moloi findings. accommodation during the 2010 World any desire to pursue Cele, neither by “The police haven’t even said they Cup, involving Durban businessman the Zuma or Ramaphosa administra- will not investigate. Now no policeman Thoshan Panday who reportedly paid tions and that South Africa’s security is going to risk his career and inves- nearly R20,000 for Ngobeni’s husband and justice apparatus is still a polit- tigate the minister. Cele has enjoyed Brig Lucas Ngobeni’s birthday party ical tool. political protection on this matter. My in 2010 while Panday was being inves- When Zuma fired him as the top questions to the ministry are simply tigated by the provincial Hawks unit. cop, he gave Cele a glowing send- ignored. All institutions meant to Cele said in his review applica- off and said: “I would in particular, investigate Cele fall under Cele. The tion that he wanted the findings of like to extend my personal gratitude defunct Scorpions would have looked dishonesty, conflict-of-interest and to General Cele for his unquestion- into it but that is why they no longer contraventions of various pieces of able commitment to his work as exist,” she said. legislation reviewed as well as the National Commissioner. Leading from In Cele’s founding affidavit he president’s decision overturned. the front, he brought much needed accused the board of ignoring his In Zuma’s answering affidavit filed passion, energy, expertise and focus successes in his “primary functions in September 2012 by legal advisor that boosted the morale of the police.” and duties of combat, prevent and Bonisiwe Makhene on behalf of Zuma, In 2014 Zuma appointed Cele deputy prosecute crime”. He called the board it said Cele had failed to “demonstrate minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. “biased” and said Moloi was “intent that the President’s decision was In 2017, Cele changed political on finding me wrong and guilty at all irrational or arbitrary” nor could he camp – backing Ramaphosa and costs”. He denied knowing Shabangu provide evidence to “substantiate his attacking Zuma in the run-up to the prior to the lease agreement or inter- bald assertion that the President’s ANC’s December 2017 national elec- fering in the agreements which in the decision was actuated by ulterior tive conference. He was promptly end were not finalised. motives”. rewarded with the ministerial post He said he was not an “evasive and Zuma dismissed Cele’s claim that where he can manipulate the inves- vague witness”. he didn’t know Shabangu prior to the tigation into himself. The wolf is in He said Moloi and his advocate lease agreement debacle: “Even if this charge of the hen house. Motau had received his submissions court were itself to assess the evidence The “New Dawn” promised by with “open disdain” while accepting anew, I submit that it would, as the Ramaphosa is, it appears, simply the submissions from the evidence leaders board did, find that on the probabili- continuation of the old kleptocracy of with “laughing and glee”. He said ties, the applicant knew Shabangu the ANC where political allegiance his witnesses were unfairly “criticised before 5 July 2010”. trumps principal and rule of law. n
18 Cash-hungry Tongaat wins in court Company did surreptitiously grab pension fund money to prop up its ailing balance sheet, but court says it was within the law. By Jonathan Erasmus
LTHOUGH a GROUP OF TONGAAT- ending March 2018. Hulett pensioners may have “This is an appalling set of results. We lost their civil claim against think it is time for the CEO since 2002 the sugar company which they to step aside,” said Geard. accused of looting their pen- “…Property was disappointing and Asion fund to buoy the balance sheet Sugar was a disaster, especially in and inflate executive salaries, recent South Africa where output actually rose disclosures reveal they were not wrong 45%. The most frustrating aspect of in their supposition of what was hap- the [results] is the painfully slow pace pening to their money. of unlocking value from Tongaat’s land On 31 May the Supreme Court portfolio. Only 1,233 hectares have been of Appeal, in a full bench judgment sold during the past ten years out of a written by Judge Stevan Majiedt and portfolio that exceeded 8,000 ha at the supported by judges Carol Lewis, start of the period: the run-rate is barely Boissie Mbha, Nambitha Dambuza and 1% per annum,” said Geard. Ashton Schippers, upheld a December The group has massive property inter- 2016 judgment by Judge P Koen in the ests in KwaZulu-Natal and is the third- While pensioners were cheated to High Court, Durban, where he declared biggest landowner there after the Zulu shore up Tongaat, the company’s CEO that Tongaat-Hulett had legally taken King and the provincial government. Peter Staude took home a R6.6m bonus R363.2 million from the Tongaat-Hulett No allowance was made for the perhaps Defined Benefit Pension Fund when it more-obvious possible reasons for a destroyed over the past seven years, was wound up in 2012 and its members decline in Tongaat’s fortunes: the intro- with investors all pointing to the “over- were transferred to an Old Mutual duction of a sugar tax; the campaigns generous remuneration for its top brass”, Benefit Fund. encouraging people to consume less the fact that its share price tumbled 35% Approximately 80 pensioners sugar to curtail the diabetes epidemic; in a year while the JSE rose 12.9%, and supported the action, led by Bruce and the threat, greatest in KZN, of the failure of the overall strategy driven by Moor and Willem Hazewindus. They expropriation of land without compen- the board under Staude’s leadership. contended that their former employer sation Tongaat-Hulett saw it differently. systematically looted the Tongaat- Shortly afterwards Old Mutual In their commentary of the year-end Hulett Defined Benefit Pension Fund Investment Group weighed in, results, Staude and chairman Bahle (and its predecessor, the Tongaat-Hulett expressing concern about Tongaat’s Sibisi blamed the poor performance on Pension Fund). executive remuneration structure: “We imports of sugar into the local market, Valued at R1.8 billion, in 2012, the will be engaging management on this low global prices and drought – all fund had more than 2,500 members. issue in order to seek greater alignment factors outside the company’s control. They contended that the looting between company strategy and reward “Overall, Tongaat-Hulett’s earnings happened over the course of five years structure.” for the 2018/19 year will be impacted by by means of: opaque communiques; (Financial Mail reported that last year a wide-range of dynamics. The organi- withholding of information; a coopted Staude took home R16.7m, including sation is focused on driving improved board of trustees weighted in favour a R6.6m bonus for the previous year’s performance within its areas of influ- of the company; intimidation; delaying performance. This was 30% higher than ence and using its experience to navi- tactics; and “devious accounting” before the R12.8m he got in 2016.) gate influences outside its control,” said the fund was outsourced to Old Mutual’s But then, true to Investec form, the the top brass. Platinum 2003 Category A Benefit Fund bankers tossed their analyst Geard As indicated at the beginning of this which, on average, performed nearly 4% under the bus – much like its CEO Fani report, Tongaat’s management and poorer than the company’s own fund. Titi did with the friendship of former shareholders can expect little sympathy Just a day before the judgment, struggle and business partner Peter- from the pensioners who not only lost Investec Securities analyst Anthony Paul Ngwenya (nose224) – and then their appeal for redress but were Geard argued in a note to investors rushed into press with an apology to ordered to pay Tongaat’s legal costs in that Tongaat CEO Peter Staude should Staude. But the damage was done. addition to their own – in excess of R2 resign – shortly after the sugar-giant FM explained that at least R8.2bn million. released its audited results for the year in value at Tongaat-Hulett had been See Editorial. n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 19 Digging deep to save lives
A charity better known for its work in Middle-Eastern war zones, has recently gone to the rescue of Afrikaner farmers and their workers in the remote, drought-stricken town of Sutherland. By Susan Segar
T’S NINE O’CLOCK ON A WINTRY trucks are being loaded. Gift of the another 56 are about to suffer the Tuesday in June and Billy Joel’s Givers stores packs of bottled water, same fate. The knock-on effect is the Piano Man is playing loudly as I water tanks and other emergency loss of jobs of virtually the entire farm jump into the Gift of the Givers’ supplies here – enough to literally labourer population and the resultant four-by-four driven by Badrealam pave fields. This site, formerly the economic effect on their families. The “Badr”I Kazi, the relief organisation’s Maitland abattoir, is now owned by local schools are also in crisis. government and corporate relations the Department of Public Works. “Gift of the Givers is intervening manager. I’m joining him on a mis- A news update in June issued by Gift urgently to try and save Sutherland. sion to deliver emergency supplies of the Givers – also known as Waqful Generous Free State farmers have from Cape Town to drought-stricken Waqifin Foundation – warned that donated the first 500 bales of fodder. Sutherland in the Karoo. Sutherland was in serious trouble. It Our trucks will start distributing Following us will be two huge trucks reads: these in the next 48 hours. Our loaded with water tanks, food and “Man, animal and the environment hydrology team will be on site soon to blankets for the farmers and farm are in tremendous difficulty. The area drill deeper boreholes. workers of the Northern Cape town is experiencing its worst drought “Food parcels, blankets, warm – better-known for the deep-space in 100 years. All 200 boreholes that clothing, hygiene packs, special observatory sited in this remote loca- served the region have dried out. As the supplements for fodder, and school tion because of its clear, dark night water table has dropped substantially, items are all urgent requirements… skies and relative absence of human the total sheep count has dropped to Saving Sutherland is going to be a activity. 25%, [either] from urgent sell-off or mammoth task.” It is Ramadan, and although Kazi death of the animals. Grazing is non- The organisation’s founder, director is fasting, he offers me water and existent, pregnant sheep will lose and chairman Dr Imtiaz Sooliman points to a big bag of figs and dates, their new babies and more deaths (see profile in nose188) founded Gift my padkos for the trip. We stop briefly will follow unless there is an urgent of the Givers in 1992 after a Turkish to see that all is on track at the NGO’s intervention with fodder. In the past Sufi master instructed him to set up storage facility in Maitland where the year, 11 farmers have lost everything, a humanitarian organisation. Since
Cellar Door open After Hours Monday - Friday 09:00 - 17:00 tasting at Saturday 09:30 - 15:30 96 Winery Road
Cnr of R44 & Winery road, between Somerset West & Stellenbosch | GPS: 34° 1’ 39.06 “ S 18° 49’ 12.83” E Tel +27 (0)21 855 2374 | [email protected] | www.kenforresterwines.com
20 Gift of the Givers bringing supplies and digging for water in Sutherland; and (right) Andre ‘Smurfy’ Cilliers with his drilling team then it has grown to become Africa’s But more than 90% of their work is in water and no feed. We started with largest disaster relief group which South Africa. soft humanitarian aid – fodder, water, has helped people in distress around Gift of the Givers delivered five clothing and food. For months now the world, including in Haiti, Bosnia, truckloads of fodder to Sutherland last the community and other small Karoo Somalia and Pakistan and it has set week, another three trucks arrived towns have relied on aid from us.” up hospitals in Yemen, Syria and yesterday and five more consignments The area, traditionally part of the Gaza. will be delivered tomorrow from lucrative third-generation Karoo lamb The group helped after flooding in farmers in Fouriesburg and Cradock. and mohair region, has not had good Zimbabwe, with the outbreak of xeno- The food and blankets on their way rains since 2013 and boreholes have phobia in South Africa, the efforts to will help farmers and farm-workers dried up, making it increasingly diffi- rescue Stephen McGown when he alike. cult to keep sheep in the region alive. was held hostage in Mali, and it has Says Kazi: “We were rolling out It’s not only Gift of the Givers who negotiated in other hostage situa- the Free State drought programme have stepped in to help. Heartwarming tions including that of South Africans last year when we were contacted by stories abound of farmers from around Pierre and Yolande Korkie in Yemen. farmers who said Sutherland has no South Africa, coordinated by Somerset
NOSEWEEK August 2018 21 West resident Elizabeth Visagie, who We can then liaise with the different Muslim, we support Isis or are part have sent truckloads of donated fodder departments, like social development, of the Illuminati – you name it,” he and other goods. health, etc. jokes. “I just tell people that if there Coordinator Visagie’s own story is “We know that some of South Africa’s were a humanitarian crisis in Israel, worth recounting: after voluntarily municipalities are under-resourced, we wouldn’t hesitate to go and help. sourcing fodder for farmer-victims so we help. With corporates, they Human issues should be exempt from of the 2017 Knysna fire, she was need people to manage their contri- politics. What attracted me to Givers approached by Gift of the Givers to butions and put them to good use. in the first place was that it is all- help with drought logistics in the For foreign rescue missions, we deal embracing. You’re South African and Eastern Cape. Ever since she has been with the Department of International you need to help. Our immediate aim a full-time official volunteer for the Relations and Cooperation. Our rela- is to help South Africans. We first help organisation. It was in fact Visagie who tions with government are excellent. our own and then others.” sounded the alarm that Sutherland There’s a lot of appreciation for what The organisation’s volunteer base needed urgent assistance drilling for we do. We do the work that others comprises medics, dentists, fire- water. For nearly nine months she has don’t want to do.” fighters and others who drop every- been involved in drought and humani- For the mission to Sutherland, thing in an emergency. tarian aid there and, with Givers, has Givers has also dispatched a hydrology “Dr Sooliman and Dr Achmat Bhab arranged nearly 40 truckloads and team, led by Dr Gideon Groenewald, who is based at North West University two trainloads of fodder to the belea- to drill deeper boreholes. The drilling and heads up Emergency Response, guered town. team arrived in advance of us with two put together the teams. We then work As we drive along the N1, our Gift rigs. In addition, 40,000 litres of diesel on a roster system. We have Africans, of the Givers-branded vehicle elicits had been delivered – fuel required to Muslims and Jewish doctors and many supportive hoots from fellow establish 200 new boreholes. paramedics, fire, search and rescue road users. Kazi points to a site in Kazi tells me that a large portion teams. We make up a rainbow nation De Doorns where the Givers recently of the money donated to Gift of the of helpers. It is a real bonding experi- drilled a borehole to provide water Givers is from South African Muslims ence of people who might not normally for 20,000 people in the area. “They who “see it as a priority to contribute connect. were running dry so the Western Cape to charities, and though they will help “During the Haiti earthquake, our government asked us to help – then a hospital in Syria, they will not fund doctors were known as the Dream someone stole the pipes! I drove back a war there”. Kazi, who, like Sooliman, Team. The UK and US doctors were there, stormed straight to the commu- is also a Sufi, joined the Givers full- in awe of them. Whenever a difficult nity leaders and demanded we find time after volunteering for more than amputation or another complex opera- out who took them. If you show you’re a decade – “the most rewarding deci- tion was needed, they would say, “send weak, you’re dead. I am not a Mother sion of my life”. it to the Dream Team”. Our team are Theresa,” says Kazi. The thief was “Some people think because we are also always there to simply hug the found and the pipes were returned. victims of a disaster. Time after time Further along the lonely road, a they show these qualities – in Haiti, farmer turning out of his gate waves Yemen and Knysna…” down Kazi. “Please stop for coffee on Driving along the gravel road to your way back,” he says. “Things are The organisation’s Sutherland, the tell-tale signs of very bad in Sutherland. Thank you for the drought are evident. “For these what you do.” farmers,” says Kazi, “it is very humili- Dr Imtiaz Sooliman might be the volunteer base ating to receive aid. They do not like better-known face of the Givers, but to accept aid on a platter. There’s a lot it’s quite clear that the no-nonsense comprises medics, of Afrikaans pride there. But, when Kazi, although more of a behind-the- we come, you can see the gratitude on scenes manager, is an old hand when their faces.” it comes to organising assistance for dentists, Hydrologist Dr Groenewald is a the full range of disaster situations. legend. He is also a geologist and a In between directing trucks, making palaeontologist with 35 years’ expe- payments telephonically and fielding fire-fighters and rience. Sooliman says his water- a continual stream of phone calls, Kazi finding ability is uncanny. The two tells me what his job entails and what others who drop met in 2016 when Gift of the Givers drew him to Gift of the Givers. responded to the Free State drought. In essence, he liaises with govern- “It was an instant spiritual connec- ments and corporations when there is everything in tion. He understood my spirituality. I a disaster, to enable Gift of the Givers understood his. Ever since, it has been to do its work. “Because of all our expe- a magnificent relationship of mutual rience, we are able to give a very accu- an emergency respect and professional competency.” rate assessment of the situation and At a padstal near Sutherland we know how to roll out accordingly… bump into the Givers’ driller Andre
22 Cilliers, nicknamed Smurfy, who has driven from Bethlehem. He leaps out of his vehicle with the good news that the team has already struck water at 54 metres on Willie de Lange’s farm Rhino rescue Verlatenkloof on the road to Klein Roggeveld. “I gather it’s producing more-or-less 10,000 litres an hour. And it’s drink- able. It was at 2pm yesterday, there were tears in the farmer’s eyes. I’ve seen true gratitude,” says Smurfy. On our arrival we are welcomed by Hester Obermeyer, liaison officer for the Sutherland district’s drought committee. She says that among the population of 2,500 there are 141 farming families and 293 farm-worker families affected by the drought. “We had 400,000 sheep in the area and are down to 130,000. Some died, others had to be sold. The veld was too drought-stricken to sustain them. Farmers are battling to pay their accounts. This drought has had a big knock-on effect on business in Sutherland,” she tells us. Obermeyer and her team will coordinate the offloading and allocation of fodder and other goods to farmers and farm workers in the next few days. As the cold evening settles in and Kazi prepares to drive back to Cape Town, he says goodbye to the people One of Gifts of the Givers’ many projects helps support a rhino sanctuary of Sutherland, gathered at the storage which nursed four-week-old orphan calf Arthur, who had his horn hacked point at the local sports club. Women of and was severely wounded in May by machete-wielding poachers in line up to hug Kazi. He shakes hands the Kruger National Park. with the farm workers and other appreciative locals. On Tuesday – the same day we are in Sutherland – Groenewald’s team and water will be tested for sustainability on such a mission without medita- a drilling company owned by Martyn and quality and the Givers assist with tion and exceptional planning for the Landmann drills for water on Hennie applications for licensing of water- unexpected. Greetings. Oom Gideon.” Visagie’s farm, Jakkalsfontein. On use as well as water treatment and Dr Sooliman gets this message from Wednesday it is on Andreas Muller’s distribution of water where farmers a local farmer: “Dear Dr Sooliman, I farm Gunsfontein, as well as Annes are not able to do so. The six-year-long hereby want to thank you and your Paulsen’s at Vinkekuil. The next day drought is expected to last another organisation, Gift of the Givers, from there’s a water strike at Kraairiver, three-and-a-half years. the bottom of my heart for your very then on Saturday it’s Klipdrif’s turn. A few days after my visit, Dr much needed help for the community The whole process is expected to Groenewald sends me this note: “It of Sutherland and more specifically cost the Givers around R15 million. is not possible to say what the final for me personally. Says chief driller Groenewald: “The project will include. All I can say is “The borehole produces a very good total project area is 1.4m hectares, that in my 40 years in the Karoo, I do flow of water and will be used for my involving the drilling of at least 200 not know of any disaster intervention house water, for the workers’ houses, successful boreholes. If unsuccessful of this magnitude ever attempted in my wife’s guest house, for sheep water we will not leave the farmer dry; we the history of South African farming. and the vegetable garden for the will keep trying until God shows us I lift my hat to Dr Sooliman and his workers. the spot where he will provide for the unbelievable trust in our almighty “You gave us hope in a hopeless situ- farmer.” God to convince us that this interven- ation. Thank you very much and may After ten days, they have had a 95% tion will be achieving its goal with God bless you and your organisation. success rate for boreholes drilled. The distinction. He would never embark Andreas Muller, Gunsfontein.” n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 23 The media legacy of Iqbal Survé Cape Times ramps up its vendetta against University of Cape Town and its former Vice Chancellor Max Price By Ed Herbst
HE VENDETTA BY THE CAPE TIMES was fired on grounds so specious that after another appeared in the news- as a proxy for its owner Iqbal Survé was not prepared to defend paper* including a year-long campaign Survé against the University his actions and chose instead to of falsehoods alleging that Helen Zille of Cape Town reached a new settle her multi-million-rand claim. had employed a “spook with a grabber”. low on 13 June. In that day’s is- Simultaneously, his new recruits, Another contained a claim by Survé and sue,T no fewer than three pages – one, Karima Brown and Vukani Mde wrote Salie that the Cape Times was routinely four and most of the op-ed page – were an article overtly threatening white victorious in an international competi- devoted to articles alleging that senior staff. tion run by the Newseum website for advocates Jeremy Gauntlett and Geoff Then, Gasant Abarder, the newly- front-page layouts – bizarre because all Budlender had colluded way back in appointed editor of the Cape Times, the newspaper’s senior subeditors had 2007 to ensure the ascendancy to the who had absconded from his previous been driven out. On inquiry, it emerged Vice-Chancellorship of UCT of the “woe- employer, started dismissing white that no such competition exists. fully underqualified” Dr Max Price. columnists in two-sentence emails – After the shameful dismissal of The front page article “Price appoint- not because they no longer had market Dasnois, Max Price asked Survé to ment rigged” referred to a Facebook value or because of reader objections, stand down from his UCT positions. piece, “A mediocre white man, the noble but because they were white. He agreed, reneged on his promise and savage and the not-so-good native”, Antipathy towards whites – also a pre-empted Price by announcing he was written by Lebogang Hoveka, a former characteristic of the Snuki Zikala and cutting ties with UCT because it was UCT student and the provincial secre- Jeffrey Twala eras at the SABC – was “a racist organisation”. When Rhoda tary of Sasco. It echoed previous openly expressed from the start of the Kadalie revealed he had been forced to Cape Times anti-UCT articles such Sekunjalo takeover, no more so than in resign, Survé sued her for R1m, then ‘‘‘Apartheid-style’ UCT lashed” (24 June an address by Survé on 7 April 2015 to a backed off when her lawyers said they 2015) and “‘Arrest Max Price’” (19 Feb meeting of the UCT Association of Black would meet him in court. 2016), but on 15 June a right-of-reply Alumni (UCTaba). (It is available on a The exodus of Indy staff under Survé article by Budlender showed it to have YouTube clip.) might be compared to the exodus of been devoid of truth. In this address he openly encouraged SARS staff under Tom Moyane. All the The country’s media fraternity had the Rhodes-Must-Fall members and people he brought on board in 2013 have been cautiously optimistic when in 2013 warned off those who were opposed to left – Gasant Abarder, Karima Brown it was announced that Iqbal Survé was their ethnic hatred and what Jonathan and Vukani Mde among them. In May, taking over the Independent Media Jansen justifiably described as fascist three editors, Abarder, Yunus Kemp and newspapers with an initially clandestine behaviour. The subsequent RMF Chiara Carter resigned within a fort- R1-billion loan from the PIC. I hoped his rampage did incalculable reputational night. staff would be well treated, that flagship harm to the country and resulted in More than a dozen editor-level news newspapers like the Cape Times would infrastructure damage that will cost staff have left in less than five years – prosper and that he would enhance the more than a billion rand to repair. dismissed, retrenched or resigned. standing of the Fourth Estate. In an Survé has allowed Aneez Salie, Also unprecedented has been the unfolding media horror story, all of these current Cape Times editor, to turn the uncouth verbal abuse that Salie dishes hopes have proven unrealistic. newspaper against its white readers out to white readers, something Zille Survé’s war on the group’s news staff and the word “racism” now appears complained about in an open letter to started immediately and was unprec- routinely in front page leads and head- Survé on 22 March 2015. I am told that edented in the country’s media history. lines. Two recent examples: “Sekunjalo, a de facto policy of not employing whites He instructed his lawyers to write Indy, Survé subjected to racism”, on at the Cape Times has created a media threatening letters to Chris Whitfield 23 April 2018, and “Ashwin: 4 more Orania-in-reverse. and Melanie Gosling because the Cape complain of racism” on 25 June. Survé, a confidante of the late Brett Times had dared to carry an article Former colleagues say this ethnic Kebble, tried unsuccessfully to link up accurately summarising the Public hatred stems from the time Salie and his with the Guptas and when that failed, Protector’s “Docked Vessels” report on a former wife Shirley Gunn were arrested linked up with “New Gupta” Kenny dodgy R800-million tender by his invest- as MK operatives by the apartheid secu- Kunene by hiring Kunene’s friend and ment company, Sekunjalo. rity police and mistreated. business partner Steve Motale to edit Now Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois After that, one fabricated news article the Sunday Independent. To do this he
24 first had to fire the incumbent editor, two beneficiaries, it emerges, are Survé’s Wally Mbhele. Survé then threw his children Sarah and Rayhaan. weight behind the Nkosazana Dlamini- Survé’s personal In December 2000 Survé became a Zuma campaign and Motale tried director on the Siemens SA board. In to undermine Cyril Ramaphosa by 2007 the two BEE partners increased publishing his now-notorious “Blesser” interests are their shareholding in Siemens SA to front-page lead. 15% each. In February, Motale suddenly resig- constantly promoted A similar BEE arrangement was ned and an article on the Africa News arrived at in another Siemens enter- 24/7 website claimed this was a result of prise: a 26% BEE stake in Nokia Ramaphosa’s warning Survé in Davos in his newspapers Siemens Networks Holdings RSA, was that if he did not fire Motale, his news- equally allotted to the same two BEE papers would not get state advertising. partners. The claim has not been denied and in contravention of Nokia Siemens Networks is a major Motale now works for Kunene. supplier to state-owned Broadband In a letter to staff published on News the SA Press Council’s Infraco, cellular operators Cell C and 24 on 12 December 2013 Survé wrote: Vodacom, and second national operator “I do not expect special favours or puff Neotel. The dividends these companies pieces to be written by any journal- code of conduct have generated are substantial. ists. All our stories must adhere to the In a press statement issued at the time, highest standards required.” Thereafter done nothing wrong. That sounds like Sigi Proebstl, CEO of Siemens SA, said between August 2013 and June 2015 hush money to me. * this reinforced the company’s “commit- his editors felt obliged to publish nine The UDM’s Bantu Holomisa, is justifi- ment to the transformation process … imbongi (praise-singer) interviews with ably calling for a probe into the PIC. and recognises the significant contribu- Survé, lauding him as an international Survé has undoubtedly brought the tion by the two partners in growing the business icon and philanthropist. Then, former Argus Group newspapers into regional Siemens company.” He added: in April this year he forced his editors to disrepute – a conclusion quickly reached “BEE is all about how our strategic carry articles denigrating Tim Cohen, by its own readers and then spelled out partners are able to add business and Sam Sole and Anne Crotty as “Stratcom in black and white by The Economist financial value to the organisation and journalists”, which Sanef decried, calling on 27 June 2015 in an article headlined contribute to our overall objectives as it “a sad day in South African jour- “Happy, patriotic news – freedom of the one of the region’s leading electronic and nalism”. press is being chipped away under an electrical engineering companies.” Survé’s personal interests are embattled ANC”. If that statement rings uncomfortably constantly promoted in his newspa- in the South African context, particu- pers in contravention of the SA Press a a a larly in the Gupta Age, read nose120 (of Council’s code of conduct. On 15 February October 2009) about Siemens’s decades this year, the day after President Zuma’s URVÉ’S SORRY HISTORY AS OWNER OF of international bribery and corruption resignation, Aneez Salie got in on the Independent Newspapers and his and the methods by which they achieved act. The Cape Times featured, as the recent dishonourable bid to pro- their dishonest ends (they claim to have only photograph on the front page, an mote and launch his Sagarmatha radically reformed in recent years) then enigmatic, indeed macabre, picture Intergalactic Highway African ponder: what do we make of the fact that showing sculptures of headless men in UnicornS – which is as short on assets the detailed questions Noseweek put suits in a squatting position. By cosmic as it was long and fanciful in name – to Siemens SA in nose121 (November coincidence the sculptor turned out to prompts a closer look at two of his seem- 2009) still remain unanswered nearly be Salie’s son, Haroon Gunn-Salie; this, ingly more respectable and way more nine years later? on a day when the front pages of other profitable company connections. Given that context, what exactly local newspapers featured photographs German electronics giant Siemens could our Survé have done to advance of ex-President Zuma. Survé’s attempt has had a South African subsidiary Siemens’s businesses in South Africa to list his Sagarmatha Intergalactic since 1923, and in the apartheid years in order to deserve such fulsome praise Highway African Unicorn on the became one of the biggest suppliers and rewards from the German giant JSE failed when it was revealed that to state enterprises such as Spoornet, with a shady past? Sekunjalo Independent Media was Eskom, Telkom and the SABC. In 2000 technically insolvent. He was hurriedly it rushed to acquire BEE partners, allo- * See “Tiger Tiger Five” by Ed Herbst on Politics- bailed out by the Maserati-driving cating 13% of shares in Siemens SA to a web. CEO of the PIC, Dr Dan Matjila, with a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Africa * For further context on the Sekunjalo takeover of R4.3bn loan to Surve’s Ayo Technology Millennium Telecommunications (Afri- the Indy newspapers, read Terry Bell’s article, “Fact Solutions company. The PIC, according com) and – significant here – another checking Iqbal Survé’s bold bio leaves more ques- to Carol Paton of Business Day, also used 13% to Linacre Investments (Pty) Ltd, tions”, published on the Fin24 website two years R7.5m of civil servant pension money to a company 100% owned by Sekunjalo ago – so far, without the promised response – and pay off its chief IT executive Vuyokazi Investments (Pty) Ltd, which in turn Peter Flack’s Daily Maverick article: “The day I Menye, while acknowledging she had is 100% owned by Haraas Trust whose asked Mandela about Iqbal Survé.” n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 25 Magistrate battles on with judiciary Phumelele Hole of Kimberley turns his guns on new target. By Gilbert Mwanza
T’S BEEN SEVEN YEARS SINCE FORMER the inordinate delay… are what ap- Kimberley magistrate Phumelele pear to be lapses of honesty on the part Hole put his boss, Khandilizwe of Khumalo. Besides what appear to be Nqadala – then-president of the gross incompetence or lethargy… there Northern Cape Regional Court – in appears to be a pervasive disdain for Ithe dock, accusing him of interfering in litigants. a rape case. “This was no longer about handing And he is still not done with fighting down a long-outstanding judgment but his berobed kind. He is now accusing about salvaging what was left of her Judge NV Khumalo of the South Gaut- credibility and perhaps also abuse of her eng High Court of “gross incompetence office to exact revenge. or lethargy, bias, revenge” and lying. “It is inconceivable that she would It all follows from an ill-fated day on have found in my favour after having 7 June 2011 when Hole subpoenaed delayed for so long,” he wrote to the Ju- Regional Magistrate Nqadala and inter- dicial committee. rogated him as to why he had allegedly Hole then accused her of “bias” as her tried to derail a rape trial. Hole com- senior fellow judge of the same high plained that Nqadala had moved the court division, Judge Francis Legodi, case away from his court for no good and was the chairperson of the magistrate’s summarily arranged, without permis- commission that had previously found sion, to have the case back in his court against him. He complained that Judge where he then questioned his boss. He Former president of the Northern Cape Khumalo should have recused herself. also questioned Nqadala under oath Regional Court Khandilizwe Nqadala is In her response to his complaint, about his right to allocate or re-allocate a previous target of Phumelele Hole’s ire which she filed with the committee in cases (nose146), demanding that his May, Judge Khumalo admitted that dur- boss refer to him as “Your Worship” and ing that period she “was also busy with insinuating that he was ill-qualified for reinstated pending a review of the dis- other outstanding judgments…that his job. ciplinary proceedings, which he viewed equally required to be resolved speed- Nqadala and Hole had already been as flawed. But judgment came only 106 ily”. butting heads (noses130&131). Hole days later on 30 May 2017 – which be- Judge Khumalo confirmed she had would later make a submission to the came the reason for his next complaint planned to hand down judgment on 28 Magistrate’s Commission in which he – about Judge Khumalo to the Judicial April but that “on that day I was not sat- accused Nqadala of peddling influence Conduct Committee. isfied that it was ready to be delivered with his “braai buddies,” among them, After numerous letters via his law and therefore withheld its delivery”, John Block, then leader of the ANC in firm, Meyers Enzo Attorneys, request- while she also confirmed attending a the Northern Cape, who is now in jail ing a date for when judgment would be funeral “of a colleague in the Pretoria for fraud and corruption. Hole claimed delivered, Judge Khumalo’s registrar Division”. Nqadala protected his braai chums from (judicial secretary) Boitumelo Janu- She bemoaned her heavy workload, any form of judicial inquiry. ary confirmed that judgment would be on which she had to conduct her own re- The commission investigated Hole’s ready on 28 April 2017. search without help while continuing to claims but decided not to act (nose163) But on that morning his attorneys be allocated new cases. but did proceed with disciplinary pro- were told that judgment in the urgent “I never intended to deliberately cause ceedings against Hole over what he had application would not be handed down any inconvenience to any of the parties. done to his boss. as Khumalo was attending a funeral I do not understand the accusations After numerous delays Hole was even- that day. “We had reserved counsel for made by Hole on revenge and about tually removed as a magistrate and had no cause,” said Hole in his submission to bias. It would be ludicrous to infer that his salary stopped on 1 December 2016. the conduct committee. judges in Pretoria Division will decide He had been found guilty of 10 offences. He would later learn that Judge Khu- matters that involve the Magistrates Hole launched proceedings for an ur- malo was in fact still busy with the judg- Commission in favour of the commis- gent interim interdict which was heard ment. So a letter was sent to Deputy sioner, based on the fact that Legodi is in the South Gauteng High Court before Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba about the chairperson [which I was unaware of Judge Khumalo on 14 February 2017. the matter and on 30 May 2017 judg- at the time],” said Judge Khumalo. She reserved judgment. ment was handed down. The judicial conduct committee is still Hole had asked for his salary to be “Perhaps more shocking to me than to rule on the matter. n
26 Books MICHIEL HEYNS
American tribes. Lessons for South Africa
MY CHUA IS BEST KNOWN FOR HER 2011 best-seller, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a highly controversial mani- festo of zero-tolerance parenting, Chinese style. As a first generation AChinese American – her parents immigrat- ed from the Philippines – Chua was deter- mined that her two daughters were not go- ing to grow up in the American Way, with TV, play-dates, sleep-overs and suchlike decadent practices. They were offered in ex- change – not that there was a no-thank-you option – three hours of music practice a day and an insistence on straight As at school. Chua was reviled for what was seen as psychological abuse, but survived the in- sults and the death threats (and her daugh- ters survived to study at Yale and Harvard respectively), and returned to her other oc- cupation, as Professor of Law at Yale. This new book has nothing of the tiger mother about it, except perhaps in the stern conviction with which Chua anatomises what she sees as the failures of American POLITICAL TRIBES: Amy Chua foreign policy in particular and societies in GROUP INSTINCT AND general. THE FATE OF NATIONS In Chua’s view, most or all societies are by Amy Chua – were based on the mistaken assumption structured upon – or perilously balanced (Bloomsbury) that what was at issue was an ideological di- against – contending tribes, which can be vide (between capitalism and communism, actual tribes, such as the Hutu and Tutsi, or for instance), whereas what was really play- religious groupings, such as the Sunni and ing itself out were age-old tribal enmities: Shiite branches of Islam. To this, Chua ar- “it can be a catastrophic mistake to imagine gues, the US used to be a partial exception, in that through democratic elections, people that traditionally it formed a “super-group”, will suddenly rally around a national iden- that is, an American identity transcending tity and overcome their pre-existing ethnic, tribal loyalties – the famous melting pot: religious, sectarian and tribal divides.” “America was able to elect Barack Obama Complicating the transition to democracy, as president because this country is a su- such as it is, is often the existence of what per-group, a group in which membership is she calls a market dominant minority: “an open to individuals of any background but ethnic minority that tends, under market that at the same time binds its members conditions, to dominate economically, often together with a strong, overarching, group- to a startling extent, the poor ‘indigenous’ transcending collective identity.” majority around them, generating enor- Whereas this grouping worked well at mous resentment among the majority, who home – for a while, at any rate – it proved see themselves as the rightful owners under disastrous in terms of American foreign pol- threat from ‘greedy’ exploitative outsiders.” icy. Chua maintains that all America’s ca- It is not necessary, perhaps, to labour the lamitous interventions in foreign countries relevance of this observation to the South – Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela African situation, and Chua mentions
NOSEWEEK August 2018 27 Books
South Africa only in passing. She and class has split America’s whites.” Writing of her experience at Yale, anatomises the Vietnamese situation What Trump has managed to do is to Chua says “I have sometimes watched in terms of this model, showing that mobilise the discontents of the white with dismay as a tiny but highly vo- the US entirely under-estimated the tribe into a base: for all that he is im- cal handful of students use their privi- importance of the market-dominant mensely more rich than his followers, leged positions not to foster the free Chinese minority, hated by the indig- “Trump, in terms of taste, sensibili- exchange of ideas but to shame and enous Vietnamese that the Americans ties, and values, actually is similar to punish – almost invariably at no cost thought they were liberating: “In ef- the white working class. The tribal to themselves – tearing apart the stu- fect, the US-backed regime was ask- instinct is all about identification, and dent community and driving dissent- ing the South Vietnamese to fight and Trump’s base identifies with him at a ers underground.” die – and kill their northern brethren gut level.” Again South African readers will – in order to keep the Chinese rich.” As for the liberal “elite”, they form, make their own application of Chua’s She points out that in South Vietnam according to Chua, a tribe of their contention: we have always been a a million civilians died and another own: “what these elites don’t see is country of tribes, and she gives us a million were wounded owing mainly how tribal their cosmopolitanism is couple of new tribes to take into ac- to American “friendly fire”. … There is nothing more tribal than count, as we lament the passing of the By Chua’s account, the only thing the elite disdain for the provincial, Rainbow Nation, the super-group that worse than tribal warfare is American the plebeian, the patriotic.” The Left, was to have emerged from our fledg- intervention. But what about Amer- moving away from their traditional ling democracy. ica’s internal politics under the bale- emphasis on tolerance and inclusion, It is beyond the scope or competence ful rule of Donald Trump? Chua sees have become ever more exclusive and of this review to take issue with Chua’s here, too, the workings of the political intolerant, denying their perceived op- arguments. Suffice it to say that it is a tribe. The “supergroup”, she argues, ponents “platforms” and squabbling highly readable, intensely interesting has split into mutually distrustful among themselves about who is the overview, of extreme relevance to the tribes: “Race has split America’s poor, most politically correct. South African situation. n Ivanka’s shoe brand sidesteps Trump’s trade war tariffs
HEN THE US CONTENTIOUSLY of shoes. In the past, the imposed an additional company had fulfilled orders 25% tariff on $34 billion for at least 10,000 pairs for worth of Chinese goods in the brand. July, it was quickly noted A representative from that,W thanks to a major exemption for Hangzhou HS Fashion in Chinese garment and footwear in the Zhejiang province said it was tariffs dispute, the clothing industry also still taking orders for was likely to be left unscathed. Ivanka Trump’s brand. The About a third of the clothing and company reportedly manufac- 72% percent of the shoes sold in the tures for the brand through US are from China. intermediary G-III Apparel Group. shipments from either mainland One of those importers has long However, there could be some China or Hong Kong, noted as: “GIII been the fashion label of Ivanka changes in the brand’s supply chain, for Ivanka Trump”. Trump, President Donald Trump’s according to an industry analyst Interviewed by a Politico reporter, daughter and adviser. quoted by US online newsletter, Panjiva research director Chris Chengdu Kameido Shoes in Sichuan Politico. Rogers said it was likely that the province told a reporter for the South Ivanka Trump has distanced herself involved companies had changed China Morning Post that it had from the day-to-day operations of the how they referred to the product, for supplied shoes for the Ivanka Trump brand. example, by using a code name. brand in the past and was aiming to Shipment data from New York- The Associated Press has reported do so again. “We are trying to win a based “marketing intelligence” plat- that information about companies contract with one of our customers,” a form Panjiva, indicates that there importing Ivanka Trump goods to Kameido representative is reported to have been no records of “Ivanka the US has become difficult to track have said. “The entire order is for the Trump” shipments from China into because data that once routinely Ivanka brand.” the US since March. appeared, including information The representative said the company Prior to that date, a Panjiva search about the consignee and the shipper, was bidding to supply 140,000 pairs for “Ivanka Trump” pointed to regular could no longer be found. n
28 Letter from Umjindi BHEKI MASHILE
Butt of a joke. Don’t do it
OR A FEW YEARS FOLLOWING MY So, I am at the bar with my fake ID return from a long journey of (legal age for booze then 18, and I was self-imposed exile in the States, only 17 – but because my father had I was constantly being remind- diplomatic immunity I could not be ed that this is not America. I busted anyway). All of a sudden I hear guessF some people did not find it ap- this girl with a very heavy Chinese ac- propriate that I would do things like cent saying: “You squeezed my butt!” wear tights while jogging or cycling. I’m like, “I did no such thing!” Yes, absurd as it may seem, there are Remember, I am the son of a dip- those who objected. lomat and Papa always said, “Watch Take a small town, mix it with the your language, that is what diplomacy machismo African-man mentality and is all about, despite the fact that most you have a perfect blend of ignorance of the time we are full of it.” and utter stupidity. However, that was Anyway, this girl spent the rest of in the late ’90s and that ignorance – the night chasing me around the club, sorry, stupidity – has fortunately gone yelling, “You squeezed my butt!”. I away. didn’t. Really. You know, there is something very I would discover later, with great wrong about this #MeToo movement laughter, that the culprit was my where people are being tried by popu- friend, who had been standing next to lar opinion. You can forget about in- me at the bar. nocent-until-proven-guilty – once you The Jackson Five Anyway, this night was supposed are exposed on social media your goose to be great. We were there to watch is cooked. What is wrong with this picture? the Jackson Five’s reunion concert How do you defend yourself against Yes, I will say it again and again: on their “Victory Tour” in 1984 after a score of accusers who seemingly do these buggers should be glad this is his loser brothers begged Michael to not know each other but share similar not America. Although, if truth be told, reunite because his solo career was stories about one’s touchy feely hab- the American influence in dealing taking off. its? You certainly cannot claim that with these pariahs is spreading like While everyone else is grooving to they are conspiring against you. wildfire throughout the world. And I want you back and Dancing machine, How will all this turn out here in of course Mzansi will not be shielded I am running away from the daughter Mzansi? Will those who are exposed from said influence. of Sun Yat Sen. Man she chased me in this country face the same wrath So, am I concerned about this touchy around the whole night. Well, I did fi- as the Americans? I mean let’s face feely exposure? You’re damn right I nally get upset and turned around and it, Harvey Weinstein has turned from am. said the f-word. I was fed up. Hollywood mogul to Hollywood pariah Here is a funny story for your read- “I did not grab your butt you crazy and, Bill Cosby could be facing up to ing pleasure: It was the night before b***, f-off!” So much for diplomacy. ten years in jail when he’s sentenced X-mas and all were sleeping, dream- So what is the moral of the story for sexual assault. But here in Mzan- ing about Santa. here? Well, I hope this girl, as old as si we have a habit of allowing these What? Wrong story? she is now, does not see my byline in abusers to get away with it after offer- No, I was in a nightclub in George- the Nose and decide to sue me for sex- ing a cheap apology. town, Washington DC. Now, mind ual harassment by butt-grabbing! A prominent Member of Parliament you, this was 1982 and I was a senior This is really scary stuff. is caught on camera beating up a in high school. (I was not in exile but For you guys who are doing this, woman in front of a night club. Is he accompanying Papa as he served his stop! You are giving those of us who disciplined by his party? No. Instead, Majesty King Sobhuza II in the Swazi are genuinely innocent of butt grab- he continues to serve in Parliament. kingdom’s diplomatic core.) bing sleepless nights. n
NOSEWEEK August 2018 29 Last Word HAROLD STRACHAN
Berea. Human nature
LONG MY FRONT GARDEN ON OUR solid brick wall, how do those ants lay of Strudel, who flings himself bodily Durban Berea hillside is a low down such a faint pheromone trail on at this hedge snarling hideously roar- brick wall, whereon in the sun such loose sand? Also I stop to gaze at ing and baring his fangs at passers-by lies a beaut big Golden Throat peoples’ gardens, and let me tell you fit to rip out their guts, but Jenny says lizard, storing energy for her dear readers if you’ve never seen a Col- he also is better than blade wire and I Aday as reptiles do. But why her day? villea Racemosa in full flower your life dare say she has a point. Other than Why female? Because she’s preggers- hasn’t started; but you’re not going to that all is polite and peaceful. fontein, that’s clear. And clearly needs see it from a car, your attention is fo- Up top of the cul de sac is a fine Brit- nourishment; I slam cockroaches with cused on the other cars or you’re dead, ish colonial house, facing outwards a rolled-up Noseweek and she takes such are our urban traffic skills. but having a rear entrance on Bonair them from my fingers, that’s how tame Also walking here of course, but just Road, and there dwells a fine mid-aged she’s become. It occurs to me that for a little bit, are the big bulbous beasts of upper-class French colonial gentle- wildlife I don’t need to go to Kruger our city habitat. From the upper park- man of refined presence, delicate, and and watch bloody crocodiles dragging ing level at the mall to the boutiques impeccable etiquette. He wears a colo- beasts into a river, here is a creature below, excluding time in the lift. Mon- nial light linen jacket and a tie and his of oh such dignity and elegance, her strous fat H. sapienses with golden trousers are well ironed. He has a trim ancestry going way back before the teeth and steatopygia, huge wads of moustache and a walking cane and a dinosaurs. blubber on bum and thigh; symbols, Panama hat which he raises to ladies. All this I tell you because of the scorn these, of new power. Your car plus your He takes short cuts down Bonair Road I have for motor cars. I agree with blubber, you see, make status. Virtue. to the Checkers over the way. David Attenborough, you see, who says (BMW+b=sv) And let me tell you, dear I pull in at the Jen and David if I deplore the damage done by ex- readers, if you’ve never seen a big bul- home one morning for a cuppa and haust gases to our environment then bous H. sapiens female paying R2,000 buzz the street intercom to be let in, I shouldn’t run a car. He doesn’t and for a pair of spiky high-heeled shoes in and as I stand there waiting M’sieur I don’t. Also I think the motor car is the Berea’s most appalling mall your comes along, Strudel threatens to tear death to urban culture. I walk, I see the life’s been lucky so far, now explore M’sieur’s throat open and M’sieur si- small living things of our city habitat. elsewhere. dles over to him and says: Fick eff. And Not just the wildlife, our fellow mon- Aha! Just up the way from this mall is e’en as he utters these words he espies keys and feral cats, raptors flying off a small calm community in a small cul Jenny in the garden. A lady! And she’s with the cats’ kittens, the cats prowl- de sac, Bonair Road, with its own quiet heard him speak such unspeakable ing the monkey babies, all that stuff of culture and modest drama. Here live filth! Aauuggh! He pulls his panama game rangers, according to whose 18th David and Jenny in a quiet cosy house over his eyes and scurries off to Check- Century bullshit Nature is in Balance. with a nice little pool at the back and ers and nevermore is seen in Bonair If nature were in balance there’d be a little garden in front, with a bamboo Road. no evolution. Indeed there’d be no uni- hedge. Bamboo is best because you can But where was I just now? Ummm… verse. see through it all right but it’s quite aah yes, with Liz. I’m watching her qui- I wonder at this universe, including impregnable, better than blade wire etly and carefully, waiting for the eggs. the minuscule world of it, see. How the any day. The only ugly round here is a Never to worry, readers will be kept up hell does that fern find nutrients in a grim Dobe type monstrous dog name to date with all developments. n
30 Smalls ads must be booked and paid for online. Book at: SMALLS www.noseweek.co.za
FOREIGN HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION Exclusive Golf Estates Timeshare to spend one LEGAL, INSURANCE & FINANCIAL week annually for life at many 5 star loca- Paris apartment Centrally located Montorgueil tions including Arabella, Fancourt, Zimbali, Lawyer.co.za is a new website for members of (2nd) Reasonable rates, internet, TV, etc; Champagne Sports. All lodge accommodation. the public with extensive information about [email protected]; +33 62 034 6710. R55,000 onco. Call 082 441 6149. lawyers and the law in SA. Research the law, or Bordeaux Self-cater in historic, river-side vil- find a law firm. Also available in Afrikaans at lage in wine lands. From €73/night. Go to FOR SALE www.Prokureur.co.za www.bordeauxwinelands.com or call Jurgens Bekker Attorneys, Alberton +27 (0)81 869 2325. Tinus & Gabriel de Jongh paintings bought, Commercial and litigation. Call 072 011 3670 sold and valued for estates and insurance; or email [email protected] LOCAL HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION 021 686 4141; [email protected]; Jurgens Bekker Attorneys, Bedfordview www.tinusdejongh.co.za Klein Bosheuwel Bishopscourt, Klaassens Road, Commercial and litigation. Call 083 294 9995 Plastic pallets bought & sold. (New interna- 200m from Kirstenbosch Gardens Rycroft gate. tional legislation for exporting on wooden or email [email protected] Tranquil B & B in an acre of gardens. Call pallets! ISPM15); www.premierpallets.co.za or Jurgens Bekker Attorneys, Cape Town 021 762 2323; www.kleinbosheuwel.co.za 083 756 6897. Commercial and litigation. Call 078 989 2957 Arniston Stunning seafront home perched on Ex-SANDF Military Surplus Clothing, Tents, or email [email protected] cliff top overlooking beach. Breathtaking posi- Vehicles, Camping Gear, etc. Go to Jurgens Bekker Attorneys, Kempton Park tion and panoramic sea views, 5 bedrooms, 3 www.southafricanmilitarysurplus.co.za Commercial and litigation. Call 072 424 3177 en-suite, serviced; 082 706 5902. South African Art Collection Including N Lewis, or email [email protected] Breede River Cottage with own jetty, 2 bed- Jurgens Bekker Attorneys, Pretoria rooms, sleeps 6. Call Priscilla 028 542 1345. A Krenz and T McCaw. Call 021 551 9917. Commercial and litigation. Call 082 776 8650 Serviced holiday apartments on Natal coast or Cape Town. Call 083 627 3253. WANTED or email [email protected] Keurbooms Beautiful home on beach avail- Alleged forgery? Questioned signatures? Docu- able for rentals of five days or more. Call Your unwanted frearms, left from deceased ment fraud? FDE/handwriting expert in Cape 082 600 7124. estates or simply a bother to keep? david. Town. Go to www.fdex.co.za [email protected] is looking for a variety of LOCAL PROPERTY FOR SALE weapons to add to a forensic collection used for research. HEALTH & FITNESS Nosing around for property in Langebaan or the Johannesburg area Moving or clearing out? Mars Morley Physiotherapists Musgrave, West Coast? Call Melanie Mouton-Creugnet; Hardback books wanted for charity distribu- 079 378 0000 or [email protected] tion. Will collect. Call Mike 082 920 5667. Durban. Treatment for backs, necks, headaches, Serviced holiday apartments at Natal coast or sports injuries and orthopaedic rehabilitation. Call 031 202 3172. Cape Town. Call 083 627 3253. SERVICES Marquard, Free State Former Station Master’s house professionally restored. R425,000. Pics French lessons (Jhb) or translations (country- PERSONAL available. Contact owner 084 876 8132. wide). Sorbonne-degreed native French speaker Cabana Beach Resort Luxury Timeshare Duplex from Paris. For more information call 071 356 Desperately poor school ‘learners’ need your for sale. This blue week unit, Week 35, available 8279; or email [email protected]. monetary support. Every Rand counts; this 01 September to 08 September 2018, is Get away from it all Come and learn to make www.asf.org.za located on the sunny extreme northern end of artisan bread in Wakkerstroom. Call Jeff on Please donate to organisations, such as the 7th floor. It has an enormous (10 x 8 metre) 082 900 2760 for details. www.outa.co.za, that fight against abuse of sea facing balcony, 3 bed and bathrooms, sleeps Ashley’s Home Valet, Cape Town The Spring taxpayers’ money. 8 and is fully equipped and serviced. R55,000 cleaning, home management specialists. Call Dearest Beth Lots of love, Iain. onco. Call 082 441 6149. 083 626 0827. Riaan skryf weer Epos: [email protected]
SMALLS ADS IT’S EASY TO SUBSCRIBE The deadline is the 24th of the month, two months prior to publication. Never miss an issue...Free delivery...Enjoy big savings Ads are prepaid at R200 plus VAT for up to 15 words, thereafter R15 per word plus VAT. ONLINE Subscribe at PHONE Call 021 686 0570 Please note that multiple (long-term bookings) are now www.noseweek.co.za or with your credit card or fax available online. email [email protected] 021 686 0573 or 0866 773 650 BOXED ADS Boxed ads are 6cm (1 column) wide, and are charged at R900 for the first 3cm and R250 per additional cm (length) plus VAT. PLEASE NOTE: Cheques are no longer accepted in payment. Payment is due within 30 days of invoicing. Please contact [email protected] to book or phone 021 686 0570. Apart from having SA’s top investigative magazine delivered to your door, you could also win one of five Ken Forrester wine packs. DISCLAIMER Subscribe now and stand in line to score. Although Noseweek does reject obviously questionable ads, it can’t run checks on every ad that appears in the magazine. The CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS MONTH’S WINNERS: magazine doesn’t endorse the products or services advertised Mrs Margaret Bonsall, Sandbaai; Mr Gordon Bunting, Port Alfred; and readers are urged to exercise normal caution when doing Mrs Samantha Guillaume, Bryanston; Dr Neil Hayward, Claremont; business with advertisers. Mr Mano Katsulis, Sandton
NOSEWEEK August 2018 31