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>>31161 How to Report CP: >>9045, >>9049 How to report shill posts
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NOTICE TO SHILLS: muh joos, muh girl, spam, anti-boomer & other BS will be DELETED

>>73084
o7 Baker

Bringing over from Bunker General

QR Bunker #234 >>80868

There are more connections which I wanted post in 8Kun related to;

>>17694298, >>17694300, >>17694317, >>17694319, >>17694321, >>17694325, >>17694328, >>17694331, >>17694335, >>17694338, >>17694345, >>17694348, >>17694353, >>17694360, >>17694364, >>17694366, >>17694370, >>17694374, >>17694376, >>17694378, >>17694382 Unleashing Communism/Socialism into the World; Case Study of South Africa [Q Research General #21647: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Jan.]

Here is a taster.

”What happened in SA [South Africa] will happen here, Asia, and EU.” – Q Post 95

What HAPPENED IN SA will happen here, Asia, and EU.
Keep digging and keep organizing the info into graphics (critical).
God bless.
Hillary & Saudi Arabia
Snow White
Godfather III
Q

>>83203 (me)

--“OPPENHEIMER OF SOUTH AFRICA" - Chester Crocker stated that South Africa is the Saudi Arabia of minerals. He later became a Director of Minorco--

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/08/magazine/oppenheimer-of-south-africa.html
May 8, 1983

--Of course, it might also be said to be by its nature a part of Africa. But then the Reagan Administration's man on Africa [Chester A. Crocker] didn't mean to be talking race; he was talking power, economics and ideology. He was talking of a South Africa that deserves to be called, as he elsewhere noted, the Saudi Arabia of minerals.--

Despite South Africa's exchange controls, the group has managed in recent years to build up large holdings in the United States and Canada through the Bermuda-based Minerals and Resources Corporation, known as Minorco, whose board includes such American business eminences as Citicorp's Walter B. Wriston and Lazard Freres' Felix Rohatyn. Forbes magazine claimed a few years ago that Minorco was the largest foreign investor in the United States. Anglo American modestly says Forbes's calculations were ridiculously inflated, but Minorco's lengthening list of interests includes coal in Appalachia, copper in Arizona, fertilizer in Iowa and investment banking on Wall Street through Salomon Brothers.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2655201

--Lastly, that edition of Optima commented on the “valiant efforts” (Barber 1987a, p. 68) of Dr. Chester Crocker, the then American Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. Both De Beers and Anglo American were obviously enormously enamored with Crocker. By 1990 [the year Mandela was released], they had appointed him as a director of Minorco, which was based in Luxembourg and “the main overseas investor for Oppenheimer funds” (Kanfer 1993, p. 362). A high-profile appointment to such an entity suggests a very different imperative to that which Oppenheimer voiced in his interview with Nielsen (1985) regarding investing beyond South Africa.--

QR Bunker #234 >>80875

“Plot for Peace [Coup] Official US Release Trailer 1 (2014) - Documentary HD”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0nfiGHHViQg [Embed] [Embed]

A documentary that reveals the untold story of apartheid's fall, and the mysterious French businessman who was instrumental in Nelson Mandela's release from jail.

0:48 – “I think Jean-Yves Ollivier belonged to the French secret services.”

0:52 – “The chance of being a double agent, we didn’t care about this.”

QR Bunker #234 >>80883

“Making South Africa’s National Development Plan a reality” – Anglo American Article
Part One

https://www.angloamerican.com/about-us/our-stories/making-south-africas-national-development-plan-a-reality
18 Jul, 2014

In August 2012, the South African government launched its first National Development Plan (NDP). Developed with the South African people at its heart, the NDP takes into consideration the inputs and perspectives of thousands of individuals, communities, businesses, government and more. From this collective feedback came a clear direction for the country and a range of goals that aim to create an improved, positive and sustainable future for the South African people.

The two key objectives of the NDP have been identified as the elimination of poverty and the reduction of inequality by 2030.

The National Planning Commission – the body responsible for the NDP – has been clear that this bold ambition will only be achieved through collaboration and shared responsibility. As such, the NDP makes recommendations on the role different sectors of society – including that of big business – need to play.

No one person, organisation or institution will deliver this transformation alone but as one of the biggest private companies in South Africa, and one of the largest mining companies in the world, Anglo American recognises that it has an important part to play.

The mining industry has been, and remains, integral to South Africa’s economic development – accounting for approximately 17 percent of GDP in 2012. However, the impact of the industry, and Anglo American in particular, goes far beyond GDP.

Part Two
In the mid-1950s Anglo American founder Ernest Oppenheimer made the memorable observation that it was the responsibility of the business to create a “real and lasting contribution” to the communities in which it operates. These words remain at the heart of the way Anglo American conducts its business today.

One of the most enduring examples of Anglo American’s commitment to community development and poverty alleviation is its Chairman’s Fund. Launched in the late 1950s, the Chairman’s Fund was established as a dedicated vehicle through which Anglo American could drive its social investment spend. Over the years, investments have ranged from small grassroots initiatives to major capital-building projects and large-scale service delivery programmes in partnership with provincial and national authorities. Focus areas include HIV/AIDS, healthcare, education, and entrepreneurial development.

Since 2010, when the NDP was established, the Chairman’s Fund has partnered with more than 1,000 projects and invested more than ZAR 350 million. Today, the Chairman’s Fund is the leading corporate donor in South Africa and in 2013 it was named the top corporate social investment grant-maker in South Africa for the eighth time.

It is no accident that the approach and ethos of the Chairman’s Fund very much aligns to the expectations of ‘big business’ set out in the NDP. Anglo American has long partnered with government and host communities to ensure effective and sustainable investment opportunities and it is this collective approach that has been highlighted in the NDP.

The Chairman’s Fund is proof that with shared ambition, shared responsibility and a collaborative spirit, South Africa can make its plan a reality.


“The_Diamond_Empire_Oppenheimer_family_s_cartel_Artificial_sc.avi” - https://youtube.com/watch?v=DOXp1iUvYvE [Embed] [Embed]

2:46 – “What I learned was that the diamond business wasn’t a business about extracting as I originally expected. Something of enormous value and then simply seeing how much of this object you could get out of the ground and selling it. That was what the business appeared to be when I started my venture, but --their real business was restricting what came out of the ground, restricting what was discovered, restricting what got cut, restricting what actually find its way into the retail market and at the same time through movies, through advertising, through Hollywood, through the manipulation of perceptions creating the idea that there was this enormous demand for these shiny little objects that they seem to have an abundance supply--. So I wound up on this voyage of discovery, starting off with the idea that there was this object of great value and it was just a question of how many you could get out and what I wound up discovering was just the opposite.”

QR Bunker #234 >>80923

“Dangerous Diamonds” – Ernst Oppenheimer, Anglo American, De Beers

https://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/scandals/diamonds.html

However, South African forces occupied the colony in the First World War, cutting off Germany's main supply of industrial diamonds, and it remained under South African administration until Namibia became independent in 1990 [Remember Bernt Carlsson who died in the Lockerbie bombing]. Ernest Oppenheimer, a German Jew with British citizenship resident in South Africa, acquired the German diamond interests which he formed into the Consolidated Diamond Mines which he then offered to De Beers in exchange for that company's stock.

Diamonds can add glamour to the most beautiful woman; they also finance the cruellest of civil wars. Ever since Cecil Rhodes imperial adventures in the late 19th century, a single company has stealthily extended its influence on the global market for diamonds until it achieved almost total control.

After World War II that company even set up its own intelligence service. It also controlled the supply of diamonds from most of the other major producers through its Central Selling Organisation (CSO). The firm is De Beers. It was supported both by the White government of South Africa and the Soviet Union, yet it survived the ending of Apartheid and the collapse of Communism. At the start of the new millennium it faces its gravest challenges yet and has radically changed tactics to ensure its continued success

The Million Carat Network, the name given to the illegal trade, is another indication of its size of the traffic and as national police services seemed incapable of ending it, in November 1953 Ernest Oppenheimer turned to Sir Percy Sillitoe, the former head of MI5. During the war MI5's record in capturing and turning German spies had been outstanding. In effect, through its double-agent system it actively ran and controlled the German espionage system in Britain (Masterman, p. xii).

Sir Percy agreed and in March 1954 undertook a 6-week tour of diamond mines all over Africa at the end of which he set up the International Diamond Security Organization which had the twin aims of increasing security at the mines and discovering the major channels of smuggling to Europe, the Middle East, and the Iron Curtain. Because London was the main international centre for diamond sales the trade was a huge dollar earner for Britain and hence IDSO had no difficulty in getting support from the highest in the land.

By the spring of 1957 these attempts to encourage sales through official channels and the efforts of Sillitoe's agents in targetting some of the brains behind the smuggling rings had proved so successful that the IDSO was disbanded, its mission having been accomplished. Some of its men went back to intelligence or security work and others took jobs with De Beers and the Anglo-American Corporation. (Smillie, Gberie & Hazleton, 2000)

QR Bunker #234 >>80934

“British-South Africa company, De Beers, a privately run corporation that would manage the colony in South Africa.”

https://www.fbcoverup.com/docs/library/2020-02-29-Her-Royal-Bioweapon-Exposed-by-Gabriel-McKibben-American-Intelligence-Media-Americans-for-Innovation-Feb-29-2020.mp4

1:15 - “You basically found the source of what we could call white supremacists/fascists hegemony planned the Brits.”
8:15 – “What we call the deep state or the shadow government is this Pilgrim Society to this present day.”
29:31 – “In those [Privy Council] meetings, one of the things they did is they cleared the way for the establishment of the British-South Africa company, De Beers, a privately run corporation that would manage the colony in South Africa.”
cd5a2a

QR Bunker #234 >>80966

“Anglo [American] 'expended huge resources' to influence ANC, transition, former exec says”

https://twitter.com/PieterDuToit/status/1586968400039116800
https://www.news24.com/news24/investigations/anglo-expended-huge-resources-to-influence-anc-transition-former-exec-says-20221031-2

Anglo American bosses spent vast resources to influence returning ANC leaders, and alongside covert intelligence gathering networks

“The ANC Billionaires: Big Capital's Gambit And The Rise Of The Few”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62687848-the-anc-billionaires

--In September 1985 a group of white South African business leaders travelled to a game lodge in Zambia to meet with the exiled ANC leadership under Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki. The group wanted to establish for themselves who and what the ANC was, and they were led by Gavin Relly, executive chairperson of Anglo American. The Zambian visit set in motion a coordinated and well-resourced plan by big business to influence political change in South Africa.-- After the ANC was unbanned, their goal was to ensure the party did not turn the country into a last outpost of socialism [only spreading it world wide].

In The ANC Billionaires top-selling author Pieter du Toit investigates whether secret deals were struck between capital and the liberation movement to ensure the status quo remains in terms of economic policy. He also shows how the ANC was completely unprepared to navigate the intersection between business and politics. The book draws on first-hand accounts by major role players about the contentious relationship between capital and the ANC before, during and after the country’s transition to democracy. It also sheds light on the millionaires and billionaires who have benefited from their relationship to the party, and with business.

After 1994, a cadre of politically connected businessmen, such as Tokyo Sexwale [was first on the scene of Chris Hani’s assassination in 1993 - https://youtube.com/watch?v=mcOjx45FYLI [Embed] [Embed] (Gill Marcus stands next to him in the video and she became the Governor of the SA Reserve Bank.)], Cyril Ramaphosa [he is now president], Saki Macozoma [Saki threatened Kebble that he would use the scorpions to take him to the cleaners if Saki was not made the president of SA – Mbeki president of ANC and Phumzile deputy pres of SA. https://serve.mg.co.za/content/documents/2013/08/29/npacorrespondencekeyexcerptslongversion.pdf >>17694345] and Patrice Motsepe [Cyril Ramaphosa married his sister and his other sister, Bridgette Radebe - the wife of former minister of energy, Jeff Radebe. https://briefly.co.za/102211-dr-tshepo-motsepe-a-life-president-cyril-ramaphosas-wife.html], emerged who had access to preferential empowerment deals brokered by companies like Anglo American – all became very wealthy.

The one thing these individuals have in common is the ANC - the party of government and patronage.

QR Bunker #235 >>80985

“ANGLO AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CHANGES – DE BEERS” - Al Cook “most recently leading Equinor’s multi-billion dollar global E&P business”
https://southafrica.angloamerican.com/media/press-releases/2022/10-10-2022
10 October, 2022

Anglo American plc (“Anglo American”) announces the appointment of Al Cook as CEO of De Beers Group and Bruce Cleaver, current CEO of De Beers Group, as Co-Chairman of De Beers Group, both with effect from early 2023.

Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive of Anglo American and Chairman of De Beers Group, said: "Together with our partners in De Beers, we congratulate Al Cook on his appointment as CEO of De Beers Group following Bruce Cleaver’s decision to step back after six years to a non-executive role. --Al Cook brings more than 25 years of international leadership experience, gained predominantly at BP and Equinor, most recently leading Equinor’s multi-billion dollar global E&P business across Africa, the Americas and Europe. He previously led Equinor's global strategy and business development, developing the company’s net zero strategy. I believe Al’s multi-disciplinary strategic skillset and strong personal conviction and values are ideally suited to the nature of De Beers, a global business that spans much of the spectrum from exploration and mining to Bond Street and Madison Avenue.--”

Al Cook commented: “I am honoured to have the opportunity to lead the company behind the world’s leading diamond brand – De Beers. I look forward to working closely with De Beers’ people, customers, governments and other stakeholders to ensure that De Beers continues to lead the industry and deliver sustainable and purpose-driven value. Throughout my career, I have been passionate about bringing enduring economic, social and environmental value to host countries and communities. I deeply recognise the importance of De Beers' approach to responsible mining – most notably in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. It is our responsibility to work with the industry on continuing to fulfil the true promise of diamonds.”

Duncan Wanblad added: “Bruce has led De Beers with distinction, evolving the Company’s strategic vision to ensure that consumers’ desire for diamond jewellery is at the very heart of decision making across the diamond pipeline, while leading a safety transformation to ensure employee safety and wellbeing are recognised as the first priority and a shared responsibility. He has successfully steered De Beers through a period of considerable change over the last six years, including leading the way through technology to provide consumers with absolute assurance of the ethical provenance of their diamonds. Bruce has successfully expanded De Beers’ horizons for the longer term and reinforced the company’s unquestioned leadership position, exemplified by De Beers’ Building Forever sustainability framework to ensure an enduring positive diamond legacy. I look forward to his contribution as Co-Chairman, ensuring the greatest continuity for the business and our partners and stakeholders.”

Bruce Cleaver said: “It has been a tremendous privilege for me to lead such an iconic company as De Beers with its rich history, great people and culture, and truly unique product offering. I would like to pay tribute to all those who have supported me along the way – including all my De Beers Group and Anglo American colleagues, the representatives of our partner governments, the De Beers Sightholder community and countless others within and outside the diamond trade. I am proud of all that we have achieved together during this period, despite the major challenges we have faced along the way. I believe the diamond industry in general, and De Beers Group in particular, have a hugely exciting future ahead and I look forward to working closely with Al and the leadership team to ensure we continue to take the business and the industry to new heights.”

>>80985, >>81030, >>81046, >>81053, >>81066, >>81071 >>81078 “ANGLO AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CHANGES – DE BEERS”/Rand Corp/Africom

UK BREAD anon looking for an unlocked bred to post in. Looks like this bred was important enuf to unlock. Ours not so much. It’s okay. We don’t have many posters yet.

Thank you for unlocking, I have plenty to post.

“FULL SPEECH: Former president Jacob Zuma's address” – “Gloves are off” [Worth Watching] – Part 1

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fW2Wh6TgatQ [Embed]
Below are excerpts

Former president Jacob Zuma spoke on various issues including the allegations against President Cyril Ramaphosa, his relationship with Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and the commission of inquiry into state capture.

2:59 – “Therefore while I am relieved about the ending of my prison sentence, I still remain exposed to the injustice visited upon me by the justice system of this country. When we fought to liberate this country from the unjust laws of Apartheid, we did not know those who supported and defended Apartheid would infiltrate the justice system to continue the agenda of their colonial ancestors against the leaders of the people. People have, in recent years, been blinded by the fact that we now have democracy and democratically elected black governments from seeing that are elected governments are still expected to serve the commercial interests of colonial powers ahead of those of the people who elect them.”

7:26 – “My imprisonment came as part of a long campaign aimed at removing me as president and punishing me for having not been a darling of the commercial interests that seek to profit at the expense of our poor people.”

9:00 – “I know, I’m correct in my resolve to fight such injustices and the abuse of power. If I should be imprisoned for these beliefs, so be it.”

11:02 – “I must say, it remains a shock that a democratic state arrest and imprison his own system without a trial. [Referring to himself]… This action made me to remember the old Apartheid days where people were arrested and kept in prison without a trial.”

13:21 – “The irony is that during my 90 day detention [in 1963], I was arrested for fighting for my rights. In the democratic South Africa, I was imprisoned without a trial for defending my rights which is enshrined in the Constitution. What a coincidence.”

18:30 – “The State Capture Commission was never about uncovering the truth about the commercial interests that have been influencing government policies and decisions ever since the establishment of our democracy in 1994. It had no interests on how some former leaders and their families, spouses have amassed billions in wealth from being give shares for free in big companies. It was not interested in understanding why and how so many leaders of the liberation movement became super wealthy overnight through the few wealthy families who control the economy of this country.”

20:05 - “Instead, the Commission was only interested in pursuing targeted individuals that had been pronounced guilty of State Capture by the media. Certain leaders were declared saints in the media and the State Capture Commission was not interested in anything that implicated them.”

*22:58 – “We see more and more of how our constitution is being manipulated to advance colonial interests at the expense of the ambitions of the democracy and the need for an equal society.”

>>84445

“FULL SPEECH: Former president Jacob Zuma's address” – “Gloves are off” [Worth Watching] – Part 2

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fW2Wh6TgatQ [Embed]
Below are excerpts

23:27 – “--I indicated to Chief Justice Zondo that the Commission which had been unlawfully established, was itself being used by unelected leadership of the country to remove the true leaders of the liberation and entrench a new political elite that would conform and be controlled by colonial economic interests.-- I told Chief Justice Zondo that those who supported the Zondo Commission, irrespective of its unlawful establishment, did not care about the Constitution and would use an unlawful device as the Zondo Commission to advance their interests in hijacking our Constitution to represent their greedy interest. I chased for Justice Zondo where the plan to replace the progressive group of the liberation movement with a new political elite that would --maintain the colonial and Apartheid infrastructure of economic control as to where the ownership was coming from. I referred to 2 intelligence reports that made it clear that there is a carefully chosen special layer of South African leaders whose role is to ensure that the resources of our country and its global influence on the continent is reorganized to serve this global agenda in which the interest of our people do not matter.--”

29:37 – “The fact is that the highest court in the land violated the law. What is the remedy to this? This is a serious matter that must not be left unattended to. We need to ensure that judges are not reduced to politicians… --Our key institutions are now intended to serve this global agenda. As we speak, there are moves to privatize strategic State assets and surrender key functions of the State to international global interests.” [Discusses Eskom, etc.]--

46:52 – --“Given that I had disclosed to him [Zondo] my knowledge and access to the reports of foreign intelligence agencies on how a new political allied would control the future of South Africa and the direction of our Constitutional development.”--

57:47 - --“We have seen the 30 pieces of silver with our own eyes. [Looking at someone with a smile and a chuckle. (Referring to the Jews in biblical terms?)]--”

1:15:52 – “It is clear that Justice Zondo completely misunderstood the constitutional role of this Commission of inquiry which he transformed into an agency of dictatorship… Our country cannot stand with dictatorship endorsed by the judicial system.”

1:27:27 – “The choices we as citizens make in the next 2 years will determine our destiny… We have a responsibility to unite all our people, both black and white South Africans. This responsibility is ultimately our final goal to make South Africa a real united rainbow nation.”

--“Zondo being chief justice ‘a matter of great concern’ – Zuma”--; https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-jacob-zuma-raymond-zondo-chief-justice-23-october/

--“Gloves are off: Zuma accuses Ramaphosa of treason, corruption”--; https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-jacob-zuma-cyril-ramaphosa-corruption-22-october/

>>17694319 - Remember

>>17694298
>This rabbit trail started with the first article I will post below. Take note; the former South African President, Jacob Zuma was an intelligence operative in the ANC when they were still regarded as terrorists. “'Zuma's self-survival rooted in being ex-ANC intelligence operative'”, https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/zumas-self-survival-rooted-in-being-ex-anc-intelligence-operative-11636924

“‘Dodgy’ diamond dealer pledges R500k for Jacob Zuma” – “prosecution of advocate Billy Downer and News24 journalist Karyn Maughan"
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-louis-liebenberg-jacob-zuma-11-october/
11-10-2022 15:47

Louis Liebenberg is reportedly so close with Jacob Zuma, he gifted him two Nguni cows and has been to Nkandla

Former president Jacob Zuma certainly has some friends in high places: Gauteng diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg has pledged R500 000 to fund his private prosecution of advocate Billy Downer and News24 journalist Karyn Maughan.

Here’s some background: Zuma opened a criminal case against Downer, the lead prosecutor in his arms deal corruption trial, claiming he leaked his medical records to Maughan. The High Court in Pietermaritzburg has postponed the matter to February 2023. Both Maughan and Downer, however, have approached the courts, to have the charges he has brought against them dismissed as an abuse of process. The matter will be heard on 8 and 9 December 2022.

ZUMA’S FRIENDSHIP WITH LIEBENBERG

According to reports, Louis Liebenberg deposited the funds into the the trust account of his own attorney, Walter Niedinger. This was revealed in an affidavit filed in response to Downer’s application that Jacob Zuma deposit R1 million to fund his defence.

Liebenberg is believed to enjoy a friendship with the former president. The businessman even gifted Zuma with two Nguni cows and has reportedly visited his Nkandla homestead on several occasions – and we know that honour isn’t extended to just anyone.

Surprisingly (or maybe not), Liebenberg, who has made his fortune in the mining industry, has been labelled a conman by some. Several Facebook groups have been set up, allegedly exposing the Northern Cape resident as a fraud. It’s believed he has been part of several Ponzi schemes, which have illegally taken money from investors.

It is interesting that the Daily Maverick made the following statement in their article;

“Deny, evade, lie – Zuma, Mkhwebane fixers imitate Trump’s original hatchetman, Roy Cohn”

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-10-17-deny-evade-lie-zuma-mkhwebane-fixers-imitate-trumps-original-hatchetman-roy-cohn/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1665962711

The R500k diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg popped to secure former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution of advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan is straight out of Roy Cohn’s playbook.

>>84490
>It is interesting that the Daily Maverick made the following statement in their article;
>
>“Deny, evade, lie – Zuma, Mkhwebane fixers imitate Trump’s original hatchetman, Roy Cohn”

>>16769666, >>16769680, >>16769696, >>16769705, >>16769724
>“Serbian Gangsters’ Deadly South African Connection” - https://balkaninsight.com/2018/11/12/serbian-gangsters-deadly-south-african-connection-11-08-2018/

>>16770214

“The Daily Maverick: Why it matters that they are funded with blood money” - Serbian owner and editor-in-chief, Branko Brkic, Oppenheimers, Naspers

https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/the-daily-maverick-why-it-matters-that-they-are-funded-with-blood-money-44860766
Published Mar 14, 2020

Over the past few weeks, it was revealed that online news portal, the Daily Maverick, has allegedly been paying students to purposefully write negative articles about a number of black South African businessmen, Dr Daniel Matjila and Dr Iqbal Survé among them.

The allegations were made by former contributor and student Modibe Modiba who, to absolve his conscience, took to Twitter last week to answer his followers as to why it was he no longer contributed to the news platform.

Over the past few months, Independent Media has sent questions to the Serbian owner and editor-in-chief of the Daily Maverick, Branko Brkic, requesting to know who was funding them, apart from the members of the public who "subscribe" to the portal. Independent Media considers it in the public’s interest to know just who funds media in South Africa.

We have previously confronted Brkic with the information at our disposal, that the Oppenheimer family, which amassed obscene amounts of wealth as a result of colonisation and apartheid, have funded the Daily Maverick with tens of millions of rands and continues to do so.

We should, therefore, not be surprised that we are seeing a coalition of apartheid-era Naspers, the Oppenheimer family and the Daily Maverick.

We should not be surprised when the very Oppenheimer family that benefited directly from apartheid, exploited black people, destroyed their lives and who also owned the media, are now funding the Daily Maverick.

To put it bluntly, the Daily Maverick is receiving blood money as a result of the millions of workers that were exploited by the Oppenheimers through Anglo-American and De Beers. Many of these workers were forced to work on the mines by the 1913 Land Act, they died of silicosis and other diseases deep and lived in inhumane conditions in the hostels.

On the face of it, it appears as though the publication is trying to propagate the myth of membership revenue to hide the fact that their funders are in fact the Oppenheimers, Afrikaner businessmen and other global funders.

>>84490
>>84516

“The long con: The Daily Maverick’s [Serbian] ’mafiaBrkic’ connections and currencies” – Part 1

https://falcons.org.za/insight/the-long-con-the-daily-mavericks-mafiabrkic-connections-and-currencies-bae160f2-fd40-4f10-9e35-53efaa97d6eb/
November 15, 2021

‘The Maverick Magazine advertisers, realising the sudden lack of value, pulled the plug and the wheels came off. When the liquidation was over, investors had lost millions of rand. This included millions of tax-payer funds, lost through an unpaid loan from the IDC.’

--ON THE face of it, publishing platform, The Daily Maverick, is a stronghold of independent reporting and South Africa’s (self-appointed) truth investigators. However, look under the hood and the picture is not quite as they would have us all believe, with a series of direct and indirect links to South Africa’s criminal underworld.-- These connections and cash flows have been heavily guarded and kept secret … until now.

According to a report by the NPO, Forensics For Justice, Branislav “Branko” Brkic’s previous misadventure into publishing, The Maverick Magazine, collapsed in ruins, after a low-cost airline stopped distributing its magazines, free of charge, to passengers. “This took the magazine’s circulation from above 20 000 per month to below 5 000 per month, making it the most expensive print advertising in South Africa.

“The Maverick Magazine advertisers, realising the sudden lack of value, pulled the plug and the wheels came off. When the liquidation was over, investors had lost millions of rand. This included millions of tax-payer funds, lost through an unpaid loan from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC),” reads the report.

On August 23, 2019 the chief executive of the IDC, Tshokolo Nchocho told Parliament that in 2006, IDC provided a funding amount of R4 million to Business Century Publishing, which owned The Maverick Magazine … Only R832 500 was repaid. The company ceased operation and was liquidated in or about October 2008.

Today, Brikic’s new baby, The Daily Maverick, is registered as a private (profit-making) company, which under the guise of altruistic reporting, encourages “members” “join” the platform at a cost of R200 a month. Apart from being able to comment on the published stories, it’s not clear what other benefits a “member” enjoys – if any.

Technology entrepreneur Alan Knott-Craig Jr is credited with being The Daily Maverick’s first investor. He also introduced Brkic to Charalambous, whose business connections include the likes of Varejes, and Stemmet, both of whom are closely linked to underworld characters Agliotti and corrupt (now deceased) former chief of police, Selebi.

The Daily Maverick regularly trumpets its moral high ground stance – to anyone who will listen and anyone it can convince to “support” them and the exposure of the “truth” – their version of it anyway.

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“The long con: The Daily Maverick’s [Serbian] ’mafiaBrkic’ connections and currencies” – Part 2

https://falcons.org.za/insight/the-long-con-the-daily-mavericks-mafiabrkic-connections-and-currencies-bae160f2-fd40-4f10-9e35-53efaa97d6eb/
November 15, 2021

In some ways, one must admire Daily Maverick’s ability to manipulate human psyche and gullibility, convincing us mere mortals that they are the trusted truth keepers, after all, as ordinary people, we all want to believe that the bad guys can be exposed, caught, and stopped. Except in the case of when the bad guys are feeding and controlling the narrative – the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred.

Take the case of “State Capture” for example. The Daily Maverick regularly indoctrinates its readers that it, and it alone, exposed the corruption that has brought South Africa to its knees. Wrong. They were not alone, and neither were they the first to blow the whistle on the wholesale thievery of the state coffers.

Yet, The Daily Maverick have been able to convince many a donor/funder/patron or two, to part with their wealth to help bolster their “efforts” and shore up a business Brkic tells his supporters is “running on fumes”. Add to that the monthly membership fees of about 16 000 paid-up members and that’s not an insubstantial amount of monthly revenue.

As to why it is anyone would “invest” in a business that is flagging in energy, purportedly on empty, and whose returns are somewhat questionable, is anyone’s guess, although the controlling of a country’s narrative some could argue, is priceless.

In 2018, The Daily Maverick raised a total of $842 700 (about R12.9 million at today’s exchange rates) in funding over two rounds. Their latest funding was raised on November 27, 2018, from a Grant round, according to crunchbase.com.

Some of the funders include Alan Knott-Craig Jr, Oppenheimer family, Wendy Appelbaum and Lauritz “Laurie” Dippenaar.

Perhaps Shakespeare said it best: “truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man’s son may, but at the length, truth will out.”

Looking at The Daily Maverick’s direct and indirect underworld links poses even more questions. Herewith are the findings by Forensics For Justice Daily Maverick’s links:

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>>84524
>>84516
>>84490

“The long con: The Daily Maverick’s [Serbian] ’mafiaBrkic’ connections and currencies” – Part 3

https://falcons.org.za/insight/the-long-con-the-daily-mavericks-mafiabrkic-connections-and-currencies-bae160f2-fd40-4f10-9e35-53efaa97d6eb/
November 15, 2021

Marcus Steyn – Gupta Lieutenant

Brkic’s co-director in the imploded Maverick Magazine business, Business Century Publishing (Pty) Limited was none other than Marcus Steyn, the now infamous Gupta Lieutenant who also sat on the board of Gupta company Sahara Holdings, along with Duduzane Zuma, Atul and Anil Gupta and another Gupta lieutenant Ashu Chawla. Jointly, they have all been accused of criminal capture of the State and wholesale looting of State-owned entities, to the tune of more than R500 billion.

Co-founder, Stylianos Charalambous

The Daily Maverick co-founder, Charalambous‘ business links include infamous names such as Varejes and Stemmet, both of whom are closely linked to underworld characters Glenn Agliotti and corrupt (now deceased) ex-chief of police Jackie Selebi.

While Stemmet has admitted planting bombs to extort his customers into paying for his security services, Varejes also admitted paying for holidays for a corrupt chief of police and Varejes’s business associate Pamensky is also an infamously close business associate of the Gupta family, Duduzane Zuma and Nazeem Howa.

Charalambous associates call for closer examination:
Gavin Varejes

Varejes first known involvement in infamy, comes in the largesse he provided in the form of a Mauritius family holiday and Christmas stop-overs at his Uvongo Falls holiday home, to the convicted corrupt chief of police Selebi.

When I started sniffing around the relationship between Varejes and Selebi, back in 2001 through 2007, I raised red flags with the Scorpions [Remember Leonard McCarthy in the series "Unleashing Communism/Socialism into the World; Case Study of South Africa" >>83203].Varejes through sleight of hand, kept giving the Scorpions the slip and thereby managed to evade becoming a state witness at the Selebi Trial. [Under Leonard McCarthy’s watch]

Not long after Varejes found out that I had been sniffing around, Selebi repaid Varejes for his Mauritius family holiday and Christmas stopovers in Uvongo Falls by sending him cheques for the cost of the holidays and stopovers. Needless Selebi benefited largely and repaid his debt using the proceeds of crime.

Apart from his association with self-admitted bomber Stemmet and paid holidays for Selebi, Varejes was also a close associate of a convicted drug trafficker, Agliotti.

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>>84516
>>84490

“The long con: The Daily Maverick’s [Serbian] ’mafiaBrkic’ connections and currencies” – Part 4

https://falcons.org.za/insight/the-long-con-the-daily-mavericks-mafiabrkic-connections-and-currencies-bae160f2-fd40-4f10-9e35-53efaa97d6eb/
November 15, 2021

Paulus (Paul) Stemmet

Stemmet was to have been a Section 204 state witness in the Selebi corruption trial. In 2009, he signed a series of detailed sworn statements where he admitted his role in a number of serious crimes. In one statement he confessed to planting a bomb at Microsoft’s South African headquarters so that they would increase, instead of decrease their spend on the security services he was providing.

Apart from his admitted links to serious crimes involving Selebi, Stemmet was also a close associate of a convicted drug trafficker, Agliotti. Stemmet confessed to planting 40g of cocaine at Tigon director Gary Porritt’s Pietermaritzburg home in 2000 or 2001.

He made it clear in his sworn statement that he was instructed to plant the cocaine by Varejes, who was an arch-enemy of Porrit, as the latter had exposed Porrit to a criminal investigation by the tax authorities.

Stemmet was to have been a state witness against Varejes. However, the State withdrew the charges in April 2013. A few weeks later, in what seems like a payback for the charges being dropped, Stemmet joined the board of one of Vareje’s companies, Card Holder Location Verification (Pty) Limited, a position he shared with The Daily Maverick co-founder Charalambous.

Varejes employee – Mark Pamensky

Pamensky spent a lot of time testifying at the Zondo Commission. However, his version of what he did or did not do to assist the Gupta underworld was in stark contrast with the reality of other testimony.

Pamensky’s affair with the infamous Gupta family, started when he attended the proceeds-of-crime funded Gupta wedding at Sun City, where a couple of hundred guests were illegally flown into an Air Force base in Pretoria and blue-light convoyed to Sun City.

Pamensky claimed the invitation was sent to his boss Varejes, but he elected to attend the wedding as he was single. Not long after, Pamensky was appointed as a director of Gupta front companies, Shiva Uranium and Oakbay Resources.

Whilst at Oakbay, Pamensky miraculously landed a non-executive director’s position at Eskom where he lost no time in pushing deals that benefited the Gupta’s, to the tune of more than two 2 billion rand. He also regularly shared confidential Eskom information with his Gupta puppet masters, in breach of his fiduciary duty to Eskom.

Brkic did not respond to questions sent to him. We contacted Forensics For Justice for comment, but at the time of writing, we had not received a response. – Research Credit: Forensics For Justice.

BRANKO BRKIC – Editor-in-Chief of Daily Maverick Biography

https://www.journalismfestival.com/speaker/branko-brkic

Branko Brkic is Editor-in-Chief of Daily Maverick.

Branko started his career by publishing science fiction books in 1984, in what was then Yugoslavia. In the following seven years he went from a project-based book publisher to starting what became Yugoslavia’s biggest privately-owned publishing house. He published in total 62 books, among them The complete works of William Shakespeare, Complete Greek Tragedies and Miroslav’s Gospel, the Serbian nation’s holiest book. He arrived to South Africa in 1991 where he started off in the reproduction business before working his way back to publishing, this time in magazines. In 1998 he launched Timbila, the South African National Parks magazine. In 2001 he launched Brainstorm, the magazine which still dominates the South African IT scene. In 2003 he left ITWeb to pursue other interests and in 2005 he launched the iconic Maverick magazine. In November 2007 he launched his fourth and final magazine, Empire, a media, arts and culture magazine. After Maverick and Empire folded in 2008, in late 2009 he launched Daily Maverick.

>>84524
>Branislav “Branko” Brkic

>>84555
>Miroslav’s Gospel, the Serbian nation’s holiest book


DOSIJE FACSIMILES; MEDIEVAL SLAVONIC AND SERBIAN MANUSCRIPTS

MIROSLAV'S GOSPEL; - FACSIMILE EDITION -

http://miroslavgospelfacsimile.com/

This FACSIMILE EDITION is the first real and thorough replica of the oldest Serbian book – Miroslav's Gospel - written in Cyrillic in the last quarter of the XII century. The press of the facsimiles and additional books was finalized on Vidovdan, June 28, --in Johannesburg, South Africa--, and the entire project is the result of seven years of hard work of a distinctive team of international experts: editors, historians, Byzantine scholars, preservers, technologists, press and graphic experts, artists, artisans and craftsmen.
Immediately after the print release, a number of the most significant national and university libraries bought the complete set of MIROSLAV’S GOSPEL – FACSIMILE EDITION, and some of them, among others, are:

The Library of Congress, The British Library, The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Art, Goethe’s Institute in Munich, The Austrian National Library, the Library in Alexandria
The university libraries in Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dumbarton Oaks, Oxford

On February 29, 2000, a gala promotion of this edition was held in Belgrade, in the great hall of the Serbian Academy of Science and Art (SANU). The speakers at the promotion were:
Academician Dejan Medakovic, president of the SANU,
Academician Miroslav Pantic, vice president of the SANU,
Academician Predrag Palavestra, secretary of the Language and Literature Department of the SANU,
Academician Niksa Stipcevic, the SANU library administrator, and, on behalf of the editors, Dusan Mrdjenovic, editor-in-chief AIZ DOSIJE.

The set consists of:
• The facsimile
• Additional books
• Ownership agreement
• Luxurious safety boxes

Published by:
AIZ DOSIJE & JP SLUZBENI LIST SRJ
© by AIZ Dosije, 1998.


Publishers:
Dusan Mrdjenovic
Veljko Topalovic
Branislav Brkic

Daily Maverick Headlines concerning “QAnon”

“QAnon originated in South Africa – now that the global cult is back here we should all be afraid”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-26-qanon-originated-in-south-africa-now-that-the-global-cult-is-back-here-we-should-all-be-afraid/

“QAnon is an IQ test – and a sanity check”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-09-26-qanon-is-an-iq-test-and-a-sanity-check/

“QAnon according to Iqbal Survé: The myth of the Tembisa decuplets rises again — now with added human trafficking”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-10-28-qanon-according-to-iqbal-surve-the-myth-of-the-tembisa-decuplets-rises-again-now-with-added-human-trafficking/

“Could QAnon commit acts of the magnitude of 9/11?”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-04-could-qanon-commit-acts-of-the-magnitude-of-9-11/

“Conspiracy theories 101: Why you should be sceptical about QAnon, reptilian rulers and Pizzagate”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-10-conspiracy-theories-101-why-you-should-be-sceptic-about-qanon-reptilian-rulers-and-pizzagate/

“Lady Liberty hangs her head in shame as Trump shouts, screams and refuses to condemn Qanon and other extremists”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-30-lady-liberty-hangs-her-head-in-shame-as-trump-shouts-screams-and-refuses-to-condemn-qanon-and-other-extremists/

>>84477
>“Democratic Alliance Launches Legal action Against Zuma's Benefactor Louis Liebenberg for Alleged Racist Rant” – Naspers

Keep in mind

“Oppenheimers and Naspers are major donors to DA and ActionSA, as parties declare funding to the IEC”

https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/oppenheimers-and-naspers-are-major-donors-to-da-and-actionsa-as-parties-declare-funding-to-the-iec-cb3a02a6-22bc-41bd-826c-afd162de758e
Published Nov 18, 2021

Johannesburg - The Oppenheimer family, businessman Martin Moshal and Naspers collectively donated over R30 million to ActionSA and the Democratic Alliance ahead of this year's local government elections.

In the second quarter, the political party funding report released by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) earlier today indicated that Rebecca Oppenheimer contributed R3.3m and Victoria Freudenheim R3.3m and Jessica Slack-Jell R3.3m to ActionSA, while Moshal contributed R5m to the party's coffers.

According to the IEC report, Moshal also emerged as a key funder of the DA with a contribution of R15m while Naspers contributed R1m to the party.

Major contributors to the cash-strapped ANC was by African Rainbow Minerals owned by Patrice Motsepe, with a R5.8m contribution while the Chancellor House Trust contributed R15m and NEP Consulting R1m.

The party's president Cyril Ramaphosa also contributed a total of R366 000.

The donations received by the six political parties were for the November 1 municipal elections and were paid to the Electoral Commission (IEC) while more than 300 others who participated in the elections failed to make any disclosures.

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>>84551

“Tony Leon [former DA leader], Gavin Varejes and the Mercedes-Benz” – Marc Rich comes into the picture – Part 1

https://mg.co.za/article/2007-06-01-tony-leon-gavin-varejes-and-the-mercedes-benz/
1 Jun 2007

In his June 2001 declaration of interests to Parliament, Tony Leon noted under consultancies or retainerships: ‘Richmart (Pty) Ltd — investment holding company”. The value of benefits to be received, he wrote, was ‘nominal at this stage — to be negotiatedâ€.

In years to come, the then leader of the opposition left that space empty. Whatever transpired in his negotiations with Richmart, Leon may thank his lucky stars he did not become a director.

That would have been too visible, and Richmart co-founder Gavin Varejes could all too easily have become a public liability — his name popped up in the Tigon matter and a scandal over R100 000 ‘hush money” he had paid to a woman who accused cricketing bad boy Shane Warne of sending her inappropriate messages.

Richmart was later renamed Richmark Holdings. The reason may be an appropriate metaphor for the political liability associated with Varejes: he changed the name, it is claimed, because of his admiration for Mark Rich, the international commodity trader, sanctions buster and tax cheat who was controversially pardoned by Bill Clinton in the final hours of his presidency. Donations by Rich’s former wife to Clinton’s Democratic Party and his presidential library fanned the scandal.

Varejes, of course, has his own tax issues. And neither has he shied away from political donations.

When asked about Varejes, Leon said: ‘I’ve known him and been friendly with him since we were in high school in Durban together — It goes back to the 1970s in Durban.”

He volunteered that the relationship was ‘entirely personal and social, I’ve never had any business relationship with him”.

Asked about his 2001 parliamentary declaration, he said: ‘It was talked about [but] nothing ever happened.” Leon said he could not remember well, but his becoming ‘a director or member” had been discussed.

When asked about donations or sponsorships from Varejes, Leon gave the stock response: ‘We don’t disclose our political donations.”

Asked whether the Mercedes he drove as DA leader had been donated by Varejes to the party — which, in turn, had made it available to him — he said: ‘Yes, correct.”

Leon then admitted that Varejes had also made other donations, saying, ‘Gavin’s support to the DA probably comes from his relationship with me.”

>>84570

“Tony Leon [former DA leader], Gavin Varejes and the Mercedes-Benz” – Mar Rich comes into the picture – Part 2

https://mg.co.za/article/2007-06-01-tony-leon-gavin-varejes-and-the-mercedes-benz/
1 Jun 2007

The Mercedes was declared to Parliament — but not as coming from Varejes. As of 2001 and every subsequent year, Leon wrote under benefits: ‘Use of motor vehicle”. The source of the benefit was always indicated as the DA.

Of course, Leon’s declaration was technically true — the DA had made available to him, as its leader, the use of an asset donated to it, the party, by Varejes, who happened to be his friend.

Call this information laundering or not, the true source of the donation remained hidden.

Varejes, calling Leon a ‘lifelong” friend, told the Mail & Guardian that he had ‘made many donations to the DA over the years”. One of these, he said, was the Mercedes. ‘I made the donation of my own volition because of my friendship and regard for Mr Leon.”

Varejes said he did not understand the M&G‘s question whether donating the vehicle to the DA, while the intention all along was that Leon would use it, was a ‘sleight of hand”.

If the benefit was truly intended to be the DA’s, has new leader Helen Zille inherited the Mercedes? Not so, admitted DA CEO Ryan Coetzee, who said it was initially donated to the party, but that once it was paid for Varejes had asked that the party give it to Leon, which was recently done. The donation would be reflected in the next register of members’ interests, he said.

Coetzee and Varejes both denied that Varejes had been favoured by the DA in return.

Back to Louis Lieberman

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 1

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

In September 2014 Antonino Messicati Vitale, a Sicilian Mafia boss whose name is whispered with respect and more than a little fear in parts of Palermo, hatched a plan to flee Italy using a high-tech silicon mask to conceal his identity. But investigators were watching closely and on October 8 2014 they raided his home and arrested him. He is now awaiting trial.

“We aren’t certain about which country Antonino was going to fly to,” the head of the investigative section of the Carabinieri police in Palermo told reporters. “But it is very likely he was going to South Africa again.”

Messicati Vitale had visited family – in both the Mafia usage of the word and the more traditional blood-relations type – in South Africa before. He had also already helped to extend the family business – again, in both senses of that word – in this country.

This week a new investigation spanning Italy, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and countries far beyond can reveal parts of that Mafia business, and how Italian organised crime continues to build its footprint in Southern Africa, using South Africa as its base.

For the Mafia, South Africa has long proved to be a place where sanctuary can be found, where friends and family can easily shield a man from unwanted attention and provide a comfortable life. In the past 30 years, it has also become one of the most important foreign economies for the Cosa Nostra. The organisation deftly managed this country’s transition to democracy and, like other, more legitimate businesses, used it as a base from which to expand northwards.

--Today Mafia money reaches from rich diamond concessions on South Africa’s West Coast to the bloody Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe; from a bottled water plant in Franschhoek to an ostrich farm in Namibia. Much of that is the legacy of one man: Vito Roberto Palazzolo, aka Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko, for years the most valued banker of the Cosa Nostra and a resident of South Africa, with connections reaching deep into local business and politics.--

Now the reach and depth of those connections and business interests may finally start to emerge.

At the end of 2014, after a year-and-a-half in Milan’s Opera Prison, living under harsh conditions reserved for organised crime figures, Palazzolo decided to talk to Italian prosecutors.

To date, the content of what he has had to say over the past four months remains secret, and the extent to which he may be co-operating with authorities is not yet clear.

It is possible that his conversations could come to nothing; he steadfastly denied, dismissed and laughed off allegations against him for decades, even when a Palermo judge convicted him in absentia in 2006, and even after he was arrested on an Interpol warrant in 2012, while travelling from Thailand to South Africa.

Anything he does have to say will be of enormous interest to authorities not only in Italy but also in South Africa, where new investigations have found ample evidence of dirty money, sexual entrapment and blood diamonds, all woven together through family ties that reach back to the highest Mafia thrones of Sicily.

>>84658

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 2

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

Blood ties

Such ties, of loyalty if not blood, link Palazzolo – well-known in South Africa thanks to a series of run-ins with the law going back to the mid-1980s – to Messicati Vitale, who is as obscure in South Africa as he is notorious in his home country.

Both belong to the Corleonesi Mafia clan, today headed by one of the most wanted fugitives of the world, Matteo Messina Denaro, whose surname means “money” and who made the Cosa Nostra a successful capitalist venture. In a sense, Palazzolo and Messicati Vitale are the sons of the same godfather, as well as two of the Mafia’s biggest African investors.

Although Messicati Vitale’s fake-face attempt to flee Italy last year failed, Palazzolo succeeded in a not entirely dissimilar caper 28 years earlier. Sentenced in 1985 to three years in a Swiss prison for laundering heroin money, Palazzolo combined a 36-hour Christmas pass with a fake passport to escape to South Africa.

The same financial gymnastics that landed him in a Swiss prison had previously put Palazzolo in touch with South Africans looking to sidestep international sanctions on the apartheid regime through the use of underworld money channels. By the time of his escape, he already owned a Cape winelands farm. Though he arrived a fugitive, and supposedly broke, he almost immediately began buying assets and property – and legal status, first as a citizen of the Ciskei homeland and, by the end of 1995, as a South African citizen.

A short stint back in a Swiss prison, after he was traced by Swiss police and ejected from South Africa, barely slowed the pace of his acquisitions, or his wooing of, first, the National Party and subsequently those connected to the ANC during a time in which South Africa refused nine extradition requests from Italy. Nor did a Mandela-era inquiry into the extent of Mafia involvement in South Africa deter Palazzolo or, it seems, Messicati Vitale after him.

>>84658
>>84662

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 3

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

Political ties

--Over the years, Palazzolo’s cultivation of the likes of then defence minister Pik Botha and MP Peet de Pontes has been revealed, and allegations raised that Palazzolo helped, or attempted to help, the then South Africa Defence Force turn diamonds into military hardware. Palazzolo’s property has been raided, stories about him published and many hours spent in courts as he fought off attempts at prosecution. There is a veritable mountain of paperwork on Palazzolo’s connections with South Africa.--

The paper trail on Messicati Vitale is smaller and it begins with a single photograph.

--In 2011 the Italian Carabinieri noted that Messicati Vitale, who holds the Mafia throne of the Villabate borough of Palermo, had travelled to South Africa. He had met, they learned, the Ferrante family, which had been settled in South Africa since the late 1950s, and which turned out to be related to Messicati Vitale.--

Investigating the Ferrantes took Italian police as far as a company named African Dune. Looking into it, in turn, brought up a business venture named the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity.

And, there, in a photo of seven people involved in Opportunity, was Messicati Vitale, a man already convicted as a mafioso in 2000, and now charged with extortion, influencing public calls for tenders and armed Mafia association.

--In the picture, Messicati Vitale half hides behind his uncle, Salvatore Ferrante. In the centre, leading the negotiations, is a man who wears the widest smile of all: Louis Petrus Liebenberg.—

Liebenberg, at the time, was regarded both as a crucial business partner to the Ferrante family and a new “family” member. He was in a romantic relationship with Salvatore’s eldest daughter, Giuseppina, called Pina by friends and family.

Born in 1964 in Port Nolloth, 85km south of the Namibian border, Liebenberg is the son of a pastor.

One day, a wealthy member his father’s congregation, Johannes Huisamen, decided he wanted to help the young pastor’s son. At the time, Huisamen owned the mining rights to some the most exclusive marine diamond concessions along the West Coast close to the Orange River mouth, including those of concession 10.

Perhaps he wished to curry favour with the Lord but, whatever the reason, Huisamen passed Liebenberg the marine mining rights to the concession. It is one of a few privately owned marine concessions, according to which mined diamonds can be sold privately and do not have to pass through the state.

In 2005 Liebenberg opened Wealth4u Mining and Exploration to work concession 10, which “has at least 600-million tonnes of diamond gravel to work”, Liebenberg told the Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), one of the groups that collaborated in this investigation. “There are up to two million carats of diamonds laying there.”

Two years after opening Wealth4u, Liebenberg’s fate became intertwined with Ferrante’s.

“It was 2007 when I met Pina at a restaurant in Johannesburg,” Liebenberg said. “I did not know that [the Ferrante’s] work method was to send out the women to meet wealthy men in South Africa. Pina and a friend of hers attended several restaurants where rich men ate.”

Pina is a typical Sicilian beauty, dark-haired with dazzling blue eyes. She is charming and fun, and men like her.

“Pina and I started seeing each other on a regular basis,” Liebenberg said of a time when he was mainly concerned with raising money to exploit the concession.

Liebenberg said the two started a relationship in February 2008, at a time he was going through an expensive divorce.

“Pina said she could protect me against my wife’s claims and that I could put all my assets in her name.”

Liebenberg mulled over the proposition, and then Pina introduced him to her family, an important step for an Italian daughter, who told him how much they wanted to help.

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 4

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

“You know, being Afrikaans, we are not that close to family,” Lieben¬berg said. “I liked the fact they were very supportive of me going through my divorce. We were always having dinner and lunch together and it really felt like a family.”

Liebenberg accepted the offer, transferring all of his assets to the Ferrantes. Almost immediately, he employed three family members in key positions.

Although he kept his role as chief executive of all the diamond companies, he was now technically working for the Ferrante family.

And the deal was not limited to the companies: “They convinced me I must take all my animals, my cattle, boats, equipment, all of it, and put in Pina’s name,” he said, “and I did that.”

With the assets now Pina’s name, and Liebenberg’s wife heading to the courts, the family decided to liquidate Wealth4u, transferring its assets and rights to concession 10 into African Dune Ltd, owned outright by Pina.

Investors who poured more than R100-million into Wealth4U were concerned that the assets of a multimillion-rand company, including the valuable concession 10, were now the property of African Dune, officially bought on auction by Pina for the rock-bottom price of slightly more than R2-million.

But even with his legal position now shaky, Liebenberg remained excited at the future business possibilities. He thought he had taken all the necessary steps to protect himself.

“We wrote an agreement that was kept in the office safe,” he said. “If you get to know Afrikaners, we are very trusting. We believe you. We still do business with a handshake.”

Pushing north

He was confident of his contacts in the mining world, which Pina and the Ferrante family needed to enter the diamond trade.

From mid-2009 until the end of 2010, the Ferrante-Liebenberg partnership appeared only to expand. The Italian family wanted to trade diamonds with as many African countries as possible.

And so the South African trader decided it was time to open up his little black book of contacts and bring the Ferrantes properly into the business. Meetings were organised with key functionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola.

Preliminary deals were also struck in Zimbabwe, where the Marange diamond fields were still under a Kimberley Process sales ban because of violence there.

In January 2011 Messicati Vitale visited Zimbabwe with his cousin, Salvatore Ferrante Jnr, and a group of Swiss and Bulgarian bankers.

They were cementing connections for the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity venture, and scouting for other deals.

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 4

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

“You know, being Afrikaans, we are not that close to family,” Lieben¬berg said. “I liked the fact they were very supportive of me going through my divorce. We were always having dinner and lunch together and it really felt like a family.”

Liebenberg accepted the offer, transferring all of his assets to the Ferrantes. Almost immediately, he employed three family members in key positions.

Although he kept his role as chief executive of all the diamond companies, he was now technically working for the Ferrante family.

And the deal was not limited to the companies: “They convinced me I must take all my animals, my cattle, boats, equipment, all of it, and put in Pina’s name,” he said, “and I did that.”

With the assets now Pina’s name, and Liebenberg’s wife heading to the courts, the family decided to liquidate Wealth4u, transferring its assets and rights to concession 10 into African Dune Ltd, owned outright by Pina.

Investors who poured more than R100-million into Wealth4U were concerned that the assets of a multimillion-rand company, including the valuable concession 10, were now the property of African Dune, officially bought on auction by Pina for the rock-bottom price of slightly more than R2-million.

But even with his legal position now shaky, Liebenberg remained excited at the future business possibilities. He thought he had taken all the necessary steps to protect himself.

“We wrote an agreement that was kept in the office safe,” he said. “If you get to know Afrikaners, we are very trusting. We believe you. We still do business with a handshake.”

Pushing north

He was confident of his contacts in the mining world, which Pina and the Ferrante family needed to enter the diamond trade.

From mid-2009 until the end of 2010, the Ferrante-Liebenberg partnership appeared only to expand. The Italian family wanted to trade diamonds with as many African countries as possible.

And so the South African trader decided it was time to open up his little black book of contacts and bring the Ferrantes properly into the business. Meetings were organised with key functionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola.

Preliminary deals were also struck in Zimbabwe, where the Marange diamond fields were still under a Kimberley Process sales ban because of violence there.

In January 2011 Messicati Vitale visited Zimbabwe with his cousin, Salvatore Ferrante Jnr, and a group of Swiss and Bulgarian bankers.

They were cementing connections for the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity venture, and scouting for other deals.

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 5

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015


Back in South Africa, Messicati Vitale was introduced to Liebenberg by Pina, who referred to him as “our cousin, Tony”.

“He stayed with Pina and me for a whole month,” Liebenberg said. “He wasn’t fluent in English but could understand. He brought lots of expensive gifts from Italy to the family. I only got to know what Pina told me about him: that he was her cousin and had lots of money. I only discovered later, in the press, that he had been jailed for Mafia.”

It was during this month that Messicati Vitale returned to Zimbabwe, this time to Marange. He came back with one million carats of illegal diamonds, bought with cash.

Marange’s diamond prices vary significantly according to the gems’ quality, colour and purity. The minimum set price is $70 a carat, though it is possible to access the highest quality stones, costing up to $450 a carat, “if buyers specifically request it and get it direct from mines”, said a source familiar with the trade.

When Messicati Vitale left Zimbabwe in January 2011, he left with between $70-million to $450-million worth of illegal diamonds.

Where these diamonds are now is speculation, but many of them likely to have made it on to the fingers and around the necks of rich Europeans, who are unaware that their expensive purchase is tainted with blood and Mafia money.

Only a few years after joining Liebenberg, the Ferrante family was well-connected in the DRC, South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe. There was a steady flow of cash coming in from Europe. But the money, Liebenberg discovered, was not flowing into the African Dune company’s bank accounts as expected. Instead, the cash was funnelled into a new company, Mpreaso Mining, set up by the Ferrantes without Liebenberg’s knowledge.

That meant that the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity was now pretty much a dirty venture for the Cosa Nostra, whose own money originates from violence, drugs, extortion and other illegal activities.

On March 2 2011 a diver drowned during the preliminary exploration dives in the shallow waters of South Africa’s concession 10 site. Alberto Ferrante, one of Salvatore Ferrante jnr’s brothers, was in charge of the dive.

The investigation that followed stopped all further explorations on the concession site, and De Beers, which owned the land on the coastline where the ports and warehouses were based, locked African Dune out, effectively preventing the work from continuing.

Liebenberg fired Alberto, but this was, in his own words, “the biggest mistake of my life. I never thought if you fire one the whole family will turn against you.” From then on the Ferrante family’s main focus was to the get rid of Liebenberg.

“At this point, it seemed the Italians were not interested in working the concession,” he said. “They were, rather, only interested in buying and selling diamonds.” It was clear Liebenberg had been used as a gate to Zimbabwe, mainly, and that concession 10 was not their priority.

With enough time and money, the West Coast project could have been lucrative. But the Mafia is averse to risk, and most likely pushed the Ferrantes for quicker investments. Diamonds are commodities, bought and sold quickly as way to clean money. And, in this regard, Zimbabwe was far more important.

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>>84667
>>84669
>>84679

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 6

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

Open war

With the firing of Alberto from the concession 10 operation, it was soon open war between the Ferrante family and Liebenberg and, at the beginning of 2012, Pina’s and Liebenberg’s romance came to an end. But when Pina heard he was seeing other women, she convinced him she could not live without him, he claimed in an affidavit prepared for the tangled legal battle that would later follow.

On May 16 2012 Liebenberg agreed to let her visit him at the flat they had once shared, above the offices of their cutting shop in Johannesburg. The two had sex but, while Liebenberg showered, the police arrived. Pina had accused him of rape. “I was arrested and kept in jail for 11 days,” he said.

Liebenberg claims that, during that time, the Ferrantes took the diamonds and the written agreement on the real ownership of Liebenberg’s assets from the office’s safe. He was left with nothing and, at that point, he said, “they owned me”.

According to the affidavit, the Ferrantes also changed the registration numbers of all the cars that belonged to Liebenberg. “I had no control over my office, my papers, my videos,” he said. “I had filmed every meeting, but now I have no proof of anything; my computer is still there. And, in the meantime, they began selling all the assets.”

Liebenberg was found not guilty of rape. He claims that he was physically intimidated by Pina’s new man, the head of a private security firm in Pretoria.

In March 2013 Liebenberg decided to drag Pina into court to reclaim his assets. The legal battle is ongoing.

He reports he still receives death threats over the phone from people connected to the Ferrantes, who seem unperturbed by the Liebenberg lawsuit. The family’s business keeps on going, becoming more stable and profitable than ever, spreading over Zimbabwe, the DRC, Angola and Ghana – all of Africa’s most important diamond centres.

Both Pina and Salvatore Ferrante jnr refused to comment.

Silence has served the Mafia well in the past, but Messicati Vitale and the Ferrante family have a potentially huge headache: Palazzolo.

--Sicilian prosecutors consider the information locked in his head to be crucial, capable of implicating state officials and powerful business-people in Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and large swathes of the African continent where he worked his way to the top, acquiring political and economic power, in some cases at the very highest levels.--

In South Africa, Palazzolo could describe, if not the latest Mafia business ventures initiated since his arrest, then the structures and channels on which they were built.

Palazzolo is jailed under the infamous “41bis” regulations for Mafia bosses: isolated and alone in a cell of only a few square metres. He cannot correspond with the outside world and cannot receive visits. Even his “hour of air” is spent alone.

And this is how Palazzolo will face the next eight years – unless he talks. – Additional reporting by Khadija Sharife, Craig Shaw, John Grobler

This article draws on an investigation by the nonprofit Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI) and the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), with the collaboration of the data analysts of Quattrogatti and with the support of German nonprofit investigative centre Correct!V. The project was made possible by the Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme operated by the European Journalism Centre, with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [exposing their competition?] and a grant for investigative journalism from Journalism fund.

>>84658
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>>84667
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>>84685

“Married to the Mob: The diamond boer and the honeytrap” – Louis Lieberman - Part 7

https://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-16-married-to-the-mob-the-diamond-boer-and-the-honeytrap/
16 Apr 2015

Inside the Palazzolo empire

In Italy, after a Mafia boss gets convicted, the authorities trace and seize his assets because the only way to really have an effect on mafias is by getting at the money.

In the case of Vito Roberto Palazzolo, the task is particularly difficult.

He sits on an empire of diamonds, luxurious properties and billions stashed offshore.

And he has an army of proxies securing all assets from confiscation. These assets have been mapped for the first time in new research by a group of European and African investigative centres.

The picture that emerges, once the web is untangled, is of a thriving empire. Property owned or controlled by Palazzolo is typically owned by companies in countries such as South Africa and Namibia, with those companies in turn owned by trusts or offshore entities.

Through various mechanisms Palazzolo, his family and individuals that Italian police consider his proxies can be shown to control or to have previously controlled four farms in Namibia (totalling some 34 000 hectares worth about R24-million) and a web of 46 companies that control 70 properties worth just shy of R500-million.

The South African properties include:

• A Plettenberg Bay stud farm;
• The La Terra de Luc estate in Franschhoek, where La Vie de Luc branded spring water is bottled;
• The San Michele villa in Bantry Bay;
• Apartments on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, complete with private docks for yachts; and
• Properties on Shortmarket Square, a stone’s throw away from Parliament.

--The heart of the Palazzolo empire lies in the secretive corporate jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands.--

--Through five innocuously named companies registered there, Palazzolo obtained shares (since sold) in the largest diamond mine in Russia and controls Avila and Marbella, two Namibian diamond-cutting companies headed by his sons and his Namibian partner, a sightholder in De Beers and a son of a Namibian leader.-- – Additional reporting by John Grobler, Khadija Sharife and Craig Shaw. Data analysis by Stefano Gurciullo

>>84696

“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 2

https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015

Below are excerpts

The Ferrante Family

Antonino Messicati Vitale, or Tony as he is called in Africa, has a strong blood connection to the continent. His great-uncle Salvatore Ferrante Sr emigrated to South Africa at the end of 50s and immediately established a large family.

In the 60s Salvatore married a South African woman, Wilhelmina Marais, with whom he would have six children: Salvatore Jr, Giuseppina, Alberto, Anna Maria, Carmelo and Bianca. It is clear even from their social networking profiles that the Ferrantes are a tight, Italian style family, combining a love of family with a love of the good life. Posted on their Facebook pages are scores of pictures of expensive cars, luxury homes and racehorses. The family also have a pet tiger.

Little is known about Ferrante Sr’s first steps in South Africa. Perhaps Salvatore was just a young immigrant from poverty stricken Sicily, seeking to find his fortune in new surroundings. But this seems unlikely. Sources agree that Ferrante Sr moved quickly into the gold business, notably the mines of Springs, east of Johannesburg in the Gauteng region.

By 1977, he had become a director of BDO Nominees, the South African branch of BDO International, one of the largest accountancy and consultancy networks in the world.

But whatever the early fortunes of Salvatore Sr, the family was not rich.

Investigators from the Italian Carabinieri military police unit from Palermo had no reason to investigate the Ferrante family.

But in 2011, the Carabinieri added as a Post-it note to the wall of its offices. Antonino Messicati Vitale took trip to South Africa to visit the Ferrantes. And so the head of the investigative section of the Carabinieri in Palermo, began researching the Ferrante family business. On the website of one company, African Dune, was a copy of the drafted contract for the “Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity”, displaying a picture of the bargaining table and its seven conspirators. To the Carabinieri’s surprise, one of the faces among them belonged to Antonino Messicati Vitale.

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>>84699

>>84689
>a sightholder in De Beers

“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Part 3

https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015

Below are excerpts

The Colonisation

Liebenberg contacted two governors he knew from the Kasai-Occidental and Kasai-Oriental provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the best diamonds in the country are located. He had been trading with the politicians since 2007, buying diamonds and exporting them to India.

He organised a meeting with a key character in Johannesburg: Marius De Kock, son of the former governor of the South African Reserve Bank [Gerhard de Kock (sixth Governor of the South African Reserve Bank); 1981-1989 during Apartheid. Coincidentally, his father Dr. Michiel H. de Kock was the third Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, 1945-1962 (from British rule into Apartheid rule)], and a sight-holder for De Beers, one of the world’s leading diamond producers. Sight-holders are authorised to bulk-buy rough diamonds on behalf of De Beers [Mail & Guardian failed to mention this!]. And the Ferrantes were very interested in the kind of deals they could make through him.

--Marius De Kock proved to be a well-greased hinge on the door to Angola for the Ferrantes. Back in Springs, while the Ferrantes and Liebenberg made plans to grow their trade, talks took place in the sumptuous home of steel magnate, Franco D’Arrigo.--

D’Arrigo is a close friend to Salvatore Ferrante Sr. “His father and Pina’s father where very good friends,” said Liebenberg. “They came to South Africa together. D’arrigo is also friends with Isabela Dos Santos, the Angolan president’s daughter”.

--Liebenberg had an idea. “I sent Marius De Kock to Angola, so that the Ferrante and D’Arrigo could be linked to De Beers there”, he told us. This information could not be corroborated by a second source as D’Arrigo did not reply to a request for comment and Marius De Kock could not be reached.--

--But Marius De Kock was also instrumental in the push into Zimbabwe.--

Liebenberg made preliminary deals with the Zimbabwean government: “I made deals for 50.000 carats a month,” said Liebenberg. “My partners there were Billy Tanhira and Doctor Baatzi who introduced me to the Director General of the mining in the Marange province.” Marange is the most important diamond mining area of Zimbabwe, and Liebenberg had just struck a hell of a deal, for the Ferrante.

But Ferrante Jr wanted his hands in the deal. “Salvatore said he wanted to go and meet [Tanhira and Baatzi] and cement the deals, and so I asked Marius De Kock to take them to Zimbabwe.”

--In late 2010, De Kock travelled to Zimbabwe with a large delegation of investors from Italy and Europe, put together by Salvatore jr, who now divided his time between South Africa and Italy.--

--Salvatore seems accomplished at finding investors in Europe. While his uncle, the nameless dentist of Palermo, was collecting Cosa Nostra’s money, Salvatore hooked a group of shady Swiss, German and Bulgarian investors, demonstrating how a single venture could unite clean South African entrepreneurs, dubious European sponsors and the Italian mafia.--

According to Liebenberg, another investor scouted by Salvatore Jr. is Lorenzo Palazzo, from Bari, Italy. Palazzo is an active mining entrepreneur in Ghana, and offered to not only pour two million dollars into the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity, but also collaborate with the Ferrante in Ghana’s own gem mines. Palazzo refused to answer questions from journalists.

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>>84703

“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 4

https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015

Below are excerpts

Blood Diamonds? I Buy them cash.

Marange has the largest deposit of diamonds of Zimbabwe. After the prospecting rights expired for De Beers in 2006, President Mugabe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF, swooped in with the intention of extensively mining the valley.

To do so, ZANU first had to “liberate” Marange from thousand of poor civilians. With Zimbabwe suffering an economic crisis, civilians in their thousands flowed to the diamond fields, hoping to find a few gems.

Operation Hakudzokwi, or “You Will Not Return”, took place in late October 2008. Fifteen hundred Zimbabwean soldiers armed with automatic weapons and military choppers, trapped and then massacred hundreds of civilians.

Following the carnage, the Kimberley Process (KP), imposed a sales ban on Marange diamonds, lifted only in November 2011.

In January 2011, Antonino Messicati Vitale visited Zimbabwe with his cousin Salvatore Ferrante Jr and a group of Swiss and Bulgarian bankers. They were cementing connections for the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity, and scouting other deals.

Buying one million carats with cash is unimaginable to Europeans, but is daily life in Zimbabwe. “Significant parcels of diamonds are sold to dealers,” the source explained. “[Dealers] fly in, buy the diamonds in classified parcels and after transferring the funds, fly them out. They do not go through customs or immigration [control]. The Military are deeply involved.”

So when Messicati Vitale entered Zimbabwe in January 2011, he left with between $70m to $450m worth of illegal diamonds. Where these diamonds are now is speculation, but many of them likely made it onto the fingers or necks of rich Europeans, who are unaware that their expensive purchase is tainted with blood and mafia money.

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>>84704

“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 5

https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015

Below are excerpts

Marange Diamonds and the Zimbabwe Diamond Opportunity

But the bloodbath of Operation Hakudzokwi was not enough to shame the Mugabe government. With the blood barely dry, the Marange fields became an exploration ground for a new Sino-Zimbabwean partnership. And ZANU called in its three secret partners.

The first, Anjin, is a joint venture between China’s Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company (AFECC) and a shell company called Matt Bronze Pvt. According to Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire, the Zimbabwean Defense Industry (ZDI) was a 40% shareholder.

The second partner, Mbada, is a partnership between Grandwell Holdings and the state-owned Zimbabwean Minerals Development Corporation (ZMDC). Grandwell Holdings is registered in the Mauritius, and hides the same beneficiaries of Anjin: Zhang Shibin and Cheng Qins.

The third company, China International Fund (CIF), is a Hong Kong-based firm closely associated with China Sonangol, whose shareholders include Angola’s state-owned oil company Sonangol. An article published by 100 Reporters, a US-based investigative platform, detailed the use of a plane owned by Angola’s Sonangol, utilized for the smuggling of great quantities of diamonds.

In 2013, the three companies were found to be sponsoring Mugabe’s 2013 electoral campaign. The support, as suggested by the Chinese Communist Party itself, included the “absolute neutralization of the enemy”, carried out – according to Zimbabwean Intelligence (CIO) documents obtained by ANCIR - using “thousands of young men” armed with “assault rifles”.

Since 2009, the three companies have extracted from the Marange fields an incredible number of diamonds. These gems were either sold to India via Dubai, or to local acquirers such as Billy Tanhira, a Ferrante man.

The contract Liebenberg obtained for the Ferrantes allows them to purchase up to 30.000 carats per month in Marange diamonds, meaning they are purchased from Anijn, Mbada or CIF.

“I sent my cousin up to Ghana to help the Ferrante with the equipment in the new ventures with Lorenzo Palazzo,” said Liebenberg. “When Palazzo came down to Zimbabwe, he and Ferrantes also wanted to start buying diamonds directly from the Chinese of ANJIN, the largest mining company of the world with rights in Marange”.

The Ferrante picked the right time to buy Marange diamonds. A Zimbabwean Parliamentary source told journalists that at its peak in 2012, “Zimbabwe produced $3,5 billion in rough diamonds”. One can only guess at exactly how many millions of carats have been moved by the family since 2011, and at the enormity of the profits gained.



“At this point it seemed the Italians were not interested in working the concession,” Liebenberg said. “They were, rather, only interested in buying and selling diamonds”. It was clear Liebenberg had been used as a gate to Zimbabwe, mainly, and that Concession10 was not their priority.

Liebenberg should have smelled something fishy, but remained trusting.

At around this time the Italian investment attracted the attentions of high-ranking South African government officials, who asked him to be included in the deal.

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>>84706

“Cosa Nostra Diamonds” - Sicilian mafia – Louis Liebenberg - Part 6

https://mafiainafrica.investigativecenters.org/2015/04/16/cosa-nostra-diamonds.html
Apr 16, 2015

Below are excerpts

That family is flying

--The Ferrante seem unafraid of the North Gauteng High Court of Pretoria, and Liebenberg’s lawsuit. The family ‘s business keeps going, becoming more stable and more profitable than ever.--

Zimbabwe, DRC, Angola, South Africa, Ghana: the Ferrante are spread all over Africa’s most important diamond centres.

The Ferrante must also feel safe in regards to the Italian Justice. Antonino is jailed, awaiting trail, but they cannot be labelled as mafiosi, they have never been investigated for that, and South Africa does not recognise such a crime.

Italian history teaches the Mafia grew stronger because it learned how to go global, how to become a capitalist venture while not losing its cultural roots and its criminal strongholds. The Cosa Nostra is ruthless at home, controlling the Island of Sicily through extortion, corruption and violence and yet makes wide use of white-collars abroad, from the Italian peninsula to New York, from Germany to Africa. Its power comes from an army of people serving the aim, and because family ties are mostly regarded as sacred. Even if set apart from continents and years of silence, a Sicilian family might always be called upon for assistance. Whether to provide it, is a matter of choice. And the Ferrante’s decision to embark on a venture with Antonino Messicati Vitale, a convicted mafia boss, raises questions. Both Pina and Salvatore Ferrante refused answering to IRPI questions, which were exploring the issue. Pina only commented “I am not in the diamond industry”.

Antonino’s money is filthy, earned through drugs, extortion and violence but thanks to his family ties he can ensure Cosa Nostra’s hand in the diamond trade remains firmly clenched. For him, the family connection means he can exploit Africa’s resources following a new type of colonialism. Gangster capitalism is fascinating and profitable to others because of the ease and speed in which capital can be injected, laundered, and tripled in an endless circuit.

--Unfortunately, the entry of Mafioso, directly or indirectly, into the regions still emerging from apartheid, civil war and poverty far-reaching and unhappy consequences. For every already rich Liebenberg allegedly swindled out of his wealth, there are thousands of ordinary people who do not benefit from the properly taxed and distributed wealth their countries offer the world.--

The majority of the documents used for this story have been uploaded by IRPI-ANCIR and can be now read on sourceAFRICA, https://sourceafrica.net/public/search/tag:%20%22mafiaafrica%22.

>>84703
>He organised a meeting with a key character in Johannesburg: Marius De Kock, son of the former governor of the South African Reserve Bank [Gerhard de Kock (sixth Governor of the South African Reserve Bank); 1981-1989 during Apartheid. Coincidentally, his father Dr. Michiel H. de Kock was the third Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, 1945-1962 (from British rule into Apartheid rule)], and a sight-holder for De Beers, one of the world’s leading diamond producers. Sight-holders are authorised to bulk-buy rough diamonds on behalf of De Beers [Mail & Guardian failed to mention this!]

“Former finance minister on economic events of SA's past” - Former Finance Minister Barend du Plessis talks about Gerard De Kock

https://youtube.com/watch?v=N_sGdOfxWCg [Embed]

Former Finance Minister Barend du Plessis has wished current Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, well when he delivers his Medium-Term Budget Statement tomorrow. Du Plessis tells SABC News Economics Editor, Tshepo Mongoai, that it's a pity issues such as unemployment and inequality were not properly addressed during the Codesa negotiations. He has also lamented the fact that there were not enough experts involved to guide the 1991 transition talks.

6:04 – “I can truthfully say to you that the late Dr. Gerard De Kock, who was President and Governor of the Central Bank, before his death he undertook a ‘goodbye’ trip to say goodbye to his fellow workers at the World Bank years before. He came back and said to me that the way that we dealt with the debt standstill and the sanctions was a textbook way of dealing with it responsibly.”

His statement about Eskom

21:52 – “Before 1994, especially before 1992 while I was still there, we were proud of Eskom. Their finances were in order, they didn’t have any international problem to raise capital for any new ventures. It was recognized worldwide as one of the best organized and managed power generation corporations in the world supporting economic growth, actively. After ‘94, I remember my complete shock when I read that huge quantaties of prime quality coal was laying in reserve, all of a sudden, started being used or sold or it was just disappearing. It appeared apparently in the form of profits and accordingly huge bonuses were paid out for something that shouldn’t have happened at all… If there is one example of the mess that follows if you destroy the institutional values and the institutional memory built over decades by replacing skilled people, experienced people with unqualified, inexperienced cadres purely on political considerations. Eskom, being what it is today, arrived there by doing all the things wrong that can be done wrong in an organization of that kind as far as incompetence and bad management and hugely inflated numbers of staff and hugely inflated average of salaries and it will require some King Solomon coming from somewhere with a lot of gold in his back pocket to fix that disaster.”

“Notable faces influenced by Anglo American”

https://southafrica.angloamerican.com/about-us/history/our-centenary-hub/stories/notable-faces-influenced-by-anglo-american?catvalue=*
25 Sep, 2017

The company’s extensive bursary programme in the 1980s and 1990s produced the corporate elite we see in SA today, writes Dewald van Rensburg.

Anglo American people are everywhere. “Every other mining house globally, by default, has an executive who was groomed and trained by Anglo American,” says Mike Teke, former president of the Chamber of Mines. “It is a spectacular influence; it is amazing. Who does not come from Anglo American?”

Until the 1990s, the group, in a very real way, ran the region’s economy. After the company’s wholesale restructuring into a more focused mining company, those who grew up inside it can still be found throughout the corporate world in South Africa and beyond.

It is hard to overstate the role played by the company’s extensive bursary programme in the 1980s and 1990s in shaping South Africa’s corporate elite. Bursars run many Anglo American units, but also occupy a variety of positions outside the group.

Anglo American represented a major vein in South Africa’s business culture. Teke says: “The culture within Anglo American, from the Oppenheimers, was this culture of being a corporate, corporatised business. Everything is formal, everything is systematic. Everything has policies and procedures.”

*This content was extracted from the Anglo American Centenary City Press supplement. Click here to download the full supplement. https://southafrica.angloamerican.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/South-Africa/about-us/centenary-hub-docs/centenary-hub-city-press.pdf

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>>83204
>Minorco

“100 Years of Anglo American” – Part 1

https://southafrica.angloamerican.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/South-Africa/about-us/centenary-hub-docs/centenary-hub-city-press.pdf
Below are excerpts

A popular pamphlet distributed in mass democratic movement circles in the 1980s carried a graphic cartoon that demonstrated the influence of Anglo American on the lives of South Africans.

It showed how a worker would wake up in the morning and eat a breakfast containing ingredients supplied by an Anglo American-controlled company, get into a car, taxi or bus that contained components made by a firm in which the corporation had interests’ and work for a company with links to 44 Main Street. His lunch and supper would also contain elements of Anglo American, as would the beer he drank to wind down after work.

The corporation had a place in virtually every aspect of his day.

In those days, Anglo American was the stuff of myth and legend. To some, it was the face of the capitalist system that went hand in hand with apartheid.

-Anglo American was a major catalyst for the BEE project that helped to create a wave of black industrialists. The leadership and staff of Anglo American now reflects South Africa. Interventions in education, health, entrepreneurship and social housing have had a major impact on the development of the new society.

The Anglo American story is the South African story. It is a story that has traversed epochs of South African history: from colonialism and apartheid to the liberation struggle, civil uprisings and the birth of democracy to the cementing of a nonracial society. It is a story that can be told through the lens of two world wars, a cold war and civil conflict


[Gavin] Relly began to engage in serious political dialogue with the ANC leadership in exile and with Nelson Mandela while he was still incarcerated in Pollsmoor Prison. The undertaking for which Relly became most renowned was his leadership of a delegation of South African businessmen, in defiance of the orders of the National Party, to meet with the exiled ANC leadership in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1985

>>84730

“100 Years of Anglo American” – Part 2

https://southafrica.angloamerican.com/~/media/Files/A/Anglo-American-Group/South-Africa/about-us/centenary-hub-docs/centenary-hub-city-press.pdf
Below are excerpts

Thus, just weeks after Mandela’s release Relly resigned and announced that his deputy, Julian Ogilvie Thompson, would take over.

In naming JOT, as he is familiarly known, as his successor, the company was firmly sticking to its inherent South African-British aristocratic-esque character. Born in Cape Town and the son of a former chief justice, JOT was a Rhodes scholar and an Oxford politics, philosophy and economics graduate.

He joined the company in 1957 as Harry’s personal assistant, was moulded in the Oppenheimer business style, and climbed the executive ranks to become chair of the corporation’s international arm, Minorco, in 1982. He became deputy chair of the company in 1983, and chair of De Beers in 1985. JOT was an Anglo-De Beers man to his core.

-In fact, it was under his leadership that Anglo American underwent the most significant and irrevocable corporate transformation of its history. The merger with its offshore investment arm, Minorco, in 1998 catapulted the company from a proudly South African mining group to an international industrial powerhouse that was not only valued at £13 billion, but now a member of the elite FTSE 100 Index. Given the far more global character of the company and a desire to attract international investors, it was decided to switch the company’s primary listing and head office to London in 1999.

Many people, however, point out that Anglo American’s first empowerment deal actually occurred decades earlier with the creation of Gencor in the 1960s out of the Afrikaner-controlled Federale Mynbou and General Mining.

-Exxaro’s Nkosi says: “They (Gencor) were, in today’s language, an empowerment company for Anglo American. If you look at the laws of apartheid – the ways they ravaged the black community – there was always a feeling that corporate South Africa, particularly Anglo American, benefited from apartheid. You can see the pictures of how they were treated; the hostels; the whole migrant system,” says Nkosi.


Ben Magara, the CEO of Lonmin, has nothing but praise for Anglo American.

“I’m from Anglo American; our chief financial officer is from Anglo American; our head of project management is from Anglo American; our head of business support office is from Anglo American; a number of our general managers are from Anglo American. I did not bring them to Lonmin, I found them here – such is the impact of Anglo American.

“When I meet people who are ex-Anglo American, I expect them to do things in a certain way. I think that that certain way can benefit this whole country,” says Magara.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Magara was swept into his career by a bursary.

“If Anglo American sponsored you, you were one of the cream of the crop. You got a place in varsity because government (Zimbabwe) gave you a 50% bursary and a 50% loan. As you arrive, the companies flock in. They look at the list and say, ‘we want to see that one or that one’. There were other companies, but if you are not called by Anglo American, you are not ‘it’.

“At varsity, I promise you, the Anglo American bursars had all the money. If it wasn’t for the Zimbabwean government and then Anglo American, I would never have gone to university. My parents would not have afforded it.”

Magara worked at Anglo American for 26 years – seven years in Zimbabwe and then another 16 at Anglo American Coal SA, where, at the age of 38, he became CEO. Prior to becoming CEO of Lonmin, Magara was part of Anglo American Platinum’s management team.

Magara took that job expecting it to be a stepping stone to Anglo American. Instead, it qualified him for rival Lonmin – “school fees”, as he puts it – where he took the reins in July 2013, in the wake of the historic strike in 2012 that culminated in the Marikana massacre.

Even the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust boasts about the Oppenheimer’s involvement in politics.

“THE OPPENHEIMERS… AND THE MAKING OF MODERN SOUTH AFRICA”

https://www.omt.org.za/in-the-media/the-oppenheimer-family-and-the-making-of-modern-sa-by-bobby-godsell/

The Oppenheimers across three generations have played at least three significant roles in the history of SA.

The second dimension of this Oppenheimer African journey is that of active citizenship. Ernest Oppenheimer waited only a few years after his arrival on SA shores before exercising his civic duties, being elected to the Beaconsfield, and then Kimberley, town council in 1908. He spent 14 years in municipal government, rising to be mayor of Kimberley (no mean achievement for someone with German origins) before entering SA’s parliament in 1924 for a similar period. In his national politics Oppenheimer joined the SA Party, the party of Botha and Smuts – the party that sought to unite English- and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. A more conventional choice would have been the Unionist or Dominion parties, the parties of English capitalists.

Towards the end of his life Ernest became a strong supporter of the Federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This federation sought a cautious but, at least for the settler politics of the day, progressive political enfranchisement for the populations of these three countries (now Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi). The federation failed due to, among other reasons, the upwelling of white racism in then Southern Rhodesia which brought Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front to power, and led to that country’s unilateral declaration of independence .

Harry Oppenheimer entered parliament in 1948, echoing his father’s poor sense of timing (1924), each witnessing the installation of governments led by Afrikaner nationalists. He remained in parliament for a decade until Ernest’s death. Harry was as intensely interested in politics as his father. Though out of parliament by the late 1950s, Harry’s support for the 13 members of the United Party who broke away to form the timidly nonracial Progressive Party, was vital to that party’s survival through the long period from 1961 to 1974, when it had a single parliamentary representative, Helen Suzman.

Beyond his direct involvement in white party politics Oppenheimer, and the businesses he led, often provided support to South Africans who fell foul of the apartheid state. The list is a long one, from some of the accused in the Treason Trial of 1956 to Cosmas Desmond and David Adler in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, Anglo adopted a formal policy that where its employees disappeared without being charged (which usually meant political incarceration) they would remain on the payroll, with material support for their families and legal support to seek their release.

In more recent times Anglo, with leadership from Nicky Oppenheimer, has been involved in other instances of active citizenship. The decision by Anglo and De Beers companies to extend antiretroviral drug treatment to HIV/Aids- stricken employees occurred in the face of government’s refusal to do so.

__Nicky and his son, Jonathan, will continue their deep engagement in the politics of our continent, through the activities of the Brenthurst Foundation and through the quiet but influential conversations that take place at Tswalu in the Karoo. [Like “STABILISING FRAGILE STATES; The Tswalu Protocol Revisited” at https://www.thebrenthurstfoundation.org/downloads/2011-01-tswalu-paper-brenthurst-paper-.pdf]__

The Oppenheimer tradition will continue in both old and new ways through Nicky and Mary and the next generation.

>>84714
>Eskom

The World Bank’s ‘wisdom’ regarding Eskom – “World Bank Says South Africa Will Save It”

“World Bank approves Eskom loan” - Friday, April 9, 2010

https://www.sanews.gov.za/business/world-bank-approves-eskom-loan

Pretoria-The World Bank has approved --South Africa's US$3.75 billion loan to help the country achieve a reliable electricity supply.--

Eskom approached the Bank for funds to build the coal fired 4800 MW Medupi power station in Limpopo. The power station will help increase the country's generation capacity.

The Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved the loan that will go towards energy supply and the financing of solar and wind power plants on Thursday night.

This loan is one of the Bank's first major lending engagements with South Africa since the fall of apartheid. It aims to benefit the poor directly through jobs created as the economy recovers from the global financial meltdown.

"Without an increased energy supply, South Africans will face hardship for the poor and limited economic growth," said Obiageli K. Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region.


“World Bank says Eskom simply too big to fail” - 22 Jan 2019

https://www.news24.com/Fin24/world-bank-says-eskom-simply-too-big-to-fail-20190122

"It is just too big to allow it to disintegrate, and fixing all these pieces will be costlier than trying to reform it," the bank’s country director for SA, Paul Noumba Um, said at the launch of the bank's 12th SA economic update on Tuesday in Johannesburg.

A 2016 World Bank study found Eskom was potentially 66% overstaffed when compared to power utility’s worldwide. [But it created jobs! It does not matter that the rest of the country is suffering.] The power utility has tentatively started to overhaul its top management, but widespread job cuts will be fiercely resisted by unions.


“Good News for Eskom: World Bank Says South Africa Will Save It” - July 2, 2019

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/good-news-for-eskom-world-bank-says-south-africa-will-save-it?leadSource=uverify%20wall

The risk of South Africa’s struggling state power utility going bust doesn’t appear to faze one of its biggest creditors: the World Bank.

>>84755

“Government to bail out SOEs and ‘take over’ Eskom’s R400B debt”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/government-to-bail-out-eskom-denel-sanral-transnet-soes-26-october-2022/
26-10-2022 16:39

For almost a decade government has been bailing out Eskom and it will now take over the power supplier’s debt and bail out other SOEs.

Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana has blamed poor leadership and corruption as he announced yet another government bailout for State Owned Entities (SOEs), especially Eskom.

Godongwana delivered his Medium-Term Budget Speech Policy on Wednesday, 26 October.

GOVERNMENT TO BAIL OUT SOES ONCE AGAIN

During his speech, Godongwana said government is proposing to use higher-than-anticipated revenues in the current year to reduce risks from specific SOEs.

He said financial support to SOEs recognises their potential to contribute to our long-run growth prospects.

“We are thus tabling a Special Appropriation Bill to provide additional funding to Denel, Transnet and SANRAL. These allocations will allow these entities to adjust their business models and restore their long-term financial viability,” he said.

Godongwana added that fiscal support to SOEs remains a challenging balancing act given the many competing priorities and limited resources.

Funding to SOEs will now come with strict pre- and post-conditions. Pre-conditions mean that SOEs will need to comply with the conditions before they receive government support, not after. Non-compliance to conditions, means no funding.

This is how funding was allocated:

• Transnet was allocated R2.9 billion to ensure the return of out-of-service locomotives. This will be complemented by R2.9 billion from in year spending adjustments to deal with flood damage that affected its operations in eThekwini.
• Denel, was allocated R3.4 billion to support recent progress made to stabilise the entity. This allocation will be augmented by R1.8 billion in sale of non-core assets and will unlock a committed order book of R12 billion awaiting execution.
• SANRAL – To resolve the funding impasse for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (e-tolls) Godongwana said the Gauteng provincial government has agreed to contribute 30% to settling SANRAL’s debt and interest obligations, while the national government covers 70%.

Government has reportedly proposed to make an initial allocation of R23.7 billion from the national fiscus which will be disbursed on.

• Eskom – To ensure Eskom’s long-term financial viability, Godongwana said government will take over a significant portion of the utility’s R400 billion debt.

The method of effecting the relief is still to be determined, however government is expected to fork out between one-third and two-thirds of Eskom’s current debt.

Godongwana said once the debt takeover is finalised together with other reforms will ensure that Eskom is financially sustainable.

“The programme will allow Eskom to focus on plant performance and capital investment and ensure that it no longer relies on government bailouts. Importantly, the programme will include strict conditions required of Eskom and other stakeholders before and during the debt transfer,” he said.

These conditions will address Eskom’s structural challenges by managing its costs, addressing municipal and household arrears due to the utility, and providing greater clarity and transparency in tariff pricing.

>>84755
>>84714
>Gerhard de Kock (sixth Governor of the South African Reserve Bank); 1981-1989 during Apartheid
>he [Gerard De Kock] undertook a ‘goodbye’ trip to say goodbye to his fellow workers at the World Bank

The World Bank was proactive during Apartheid to start the Lesotho Highland Water Project

https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/711561468053954180/pdf/multi-page.pdf

The Bank supported Lesotho's efforts to develop, its water resources into export revenue by: (i) acting as executing agency for the UNDP-financed consultants who supervised the LHWP feasibility studies (1983); (ii) providing an IDA Credit of SDR 8 million (Credit 1747-LSO; 1986) for a Lesotho Highlands Water Engineering Project to assist in preparatory phase of LHWP; (iii) making an advance of US$750,000 under the Bank's Project Preparation Facility (PPF P356-LSO; 1988); (iv) and providing substantial supervision and technical expertise during the projecl's preparatory stage. In other parts of the water sector, an IDA Credit of US$6 million (Credit 887-LSO; 1979) supported a water supply project that involved seven srnall towns, and which was successfully completed in 1985.

World Bank and Other Financing for Lesotho Highland Water Project (Phase 1A) – 1991

https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/193671626956032143/announcement-of-lesotho-highland-water-project-phase-1a-on-july-26-1991
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/193671626956032143/pdf/Announcement-of-Lesotho-Highland-Water-Project-Phase-1A-on-July-26-1991.pdf

WORLD BANK GROUP SUPPORT: World Bank loan: $110 million. The loan is for 18 years, including five years of grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 7.73 percent, linked to the cost of the Bank's borrowings. It also carries an annual commitment charge of 0.25 percent on the undisbursed balance.

TOTAL COST: $2.4 billion

OTHER FINANCING: African Development Bank (proposed), $50 million; European Development Fund (proposed), $57 million; European Investment Bank (proposed), $20 million; Commonwealth Development Corporation, $36.1 million; United Nations Development Programme, $300,000; Overseas Development Administration, $1.3 million; France, $8.7 million; Germany, $800,000; Ireland, $400,000; Other bilateral aid under discussion, $106.7 million; European export credit agencies, $411.0 million; European commercial banks, $67 million; Common Monetary Area (CMA), including Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, and South Africa, $1.5 billion

>>84767

Lesotho Highlands Water Project; “Engineering Achievement of the Century”

https://www.smec.com/70years/portfolio/lesotho-highlands-water-project/

“This project has been the dream of engineers since the 1940’s,” says Chris Viljoen, General Manager Major Civil Infrastructure Projects. “It will be a fundamental chain link in the continued growth of both Lesotho and South Africa, and in particular the industrial heartland of Gauteng.”

Chris has been closely involved with the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) since 1988. One of the world’s most successful regional water resources management schemes, the LHWP is both a technical marvel and a socio-economic feat. In 2006, the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) named the scheme the Most Outstanding Engineering Achievement of the Century.

Lesotho is a landlocked, mountainous country in southern Africa with an abundance of water. It is completely surrounded by South Africa – an economically much stronger but water scarce nation. Both countries signed a treaty in 1988 to establish the Lesotho Highlands Water Project – an ambitious scheme comprising a system of several large dams and tunnels throughout Lesotho that delivers water to the Vaal Dam in South Africa while generating hydroelectric power for Lesotho.

At inception, the LHWP was designed to include four phases which were to be implemented over a period of 30 years and expected to ultimately transfer about 70 cubic meters of water per second to the industrial province of Gauteng in South Africa. SMEC* has been involved with the design and construction of major works for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project since 1988 when designs for the Phase 1A Works commenced.

Project
Lesotho Highlands Water Project

Year
1986-Present

Location
Lesotho

Client
Lesotho Highlands Water Authority

>>84658
>>84662
>>84667
>>84669
>>84671
>>84679
>>84685
>>84689

My apologies

The last name should be Liebenberg and not Lieberman

“Keep Your Children Away from This Mayor (2022)” - Jeffrey Donson, convicted child rapist

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FdJnamCQ4Ik [Embed]

Disgraced Kannaland mayor, Jeffrey Donson, is back after regaining his position as mayor of the municipality, thanks to the success of several motions of no confidence in the current leadership. He is a convicted child rapist.

“WATCH: Learners flee burning tyres after zama zamas break into school”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=my1S_843WHU [Embed]
https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/protests/learners-flee-burning-tyres-zama-zama-protest-october-2022/
19 Oct 2022

A crowd of illegal miners broke into a school and threatened learners and teachers during intense protest action in Ermelo, Mpumalanga on Tuesday.

Highvelder received a video where a group of terrified Wesselton Primary School learners cried while fleeing the chaos.

It is believed the zama zamas broke into the school and intimidated teachers and learners in an attempt to get educators involved in the strike.

The Ermelo Taxi Association reportedly assisted in quelling the situation.

Highvelder reported that nearby Reggie Masuku Secondary School was also targeted by the protesters.

Although not confirmed, the protest action could be due to a significant breakthrough made by police which saw 217 illegal miners arrested last week.

The operation was led by the Saps Gert Sibande District Office and assisted by the Saps National Intervention Unit, Ermelo police and K9 units, the Saps Air Wing, the Department of Home Affairs and security companies, Highvelder reported.

Of the men arrested, 30 were from Zimbabwe, 92 from Mozambique and 11 from Swaziland.

In addition to illegal mining charges, the foreign nationals also did not have proper documentation to be in South Africa, and are facing additional charges.

“AfriForum launches comprehensive campaign against Expropriation Bill”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bXqZtqnDd7c [Embed]

AfriForum launched a comprehensive campaign against the Expropriation Bill that threatens private property rights, with a local, national and international component.

Nationally, it involves a manifesto signed by 13 organisations opposing the Bill. AfriForum’s legal team also wrote a letter to the President, which highlights the Bill’s unconstitutionality and dangers and on that basis requests the president to refer the bill back to the legislature and that it be referred to the Constitutional Court.

At local level, AfriForum is going to mobilize its branches to write to their provincial governments, demanding that they reject the Bill. As part of the international component of the campaign, AfriForum will address letters to the embassies, which request that they inform their home countries of the threat to private property rights in South Africa. AfriForum will also inform the network of contacts that has been built up abroad about the dangers of the Expropriation Bill.

AfriForum now urges our members and the public to also put their name behind this manifesto by visiting: www.onteiening.co.za/en/.

“Julius Malema charged with HIGH TREASON.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=t4dLkHNBPgY [Embed]

Wouter Wessels, MP for the VF+, joins us to discuss the charges of treason laid again Julius Malema.

>>84524
>Forensics For Justice

This is going to get very interesting.

“Paul O'Sullivan responds to his alleged involvement in the Phala Phala farm robbery saga”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sZCxIGZHTMw [Embed]

More developments about the Phala Phala saga have emerged following the leaked letter that was sent by former State Security Agency (SAA) Director General Arthur Fraser to the police in June 2022. In the letter, Fraser lists names of those he alleges were involved in the investigations of the theft that took place in president Cyril Ramaphosa's Phala Phala farm in February 2020. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the presidency is aware of the letter but will not comment on it as it forms part of the Hawks investigation. Meanwhile, Parliament has set up a panel to look into allegations made against Ramaphosa and the president is given until Thursday this week to respond. Paul O'Sullivan, Forensics Consultant, and the Founder of Forensic for Justice joins us on the line.

11:04 – [O’Sullivan]“Who do you think you are talking to?”

https://briefly.co.za/south-africa/143977-forensic-consultant-paul-osullivan-slams-frasers-phala-phala-allegations-s-complete-fiction/
Monday, October 31, 2022

A forensic consultant has rubbished being implicated in the Phala Phala saga in the aftermath of the new allegations
Paul O'Sullivan claims that former spy boss Arthur Fraser is spinning a web of lies to derail Ramaphosa's ANC presidency bid
O'Sullivan added that the Hawks should not be investigating claims that aren't made under oath

JOHANNESBURG - Private investigator Paul O'Sullivan has rubbished claims that he was part of the alleged cover-up of the Phala Phala burglary on February 2020.

O'Sullivan's comments come after a leaked letter from former spy boss Arthur Fraser uncovered fresh allegations and implicated new people in the Phala Phala scandal.

In the letter, Fraser claimed that the forensic consultant used his private investigation company, Paul O'Sullivan & Associates, to track down the suspects that burgled President Cyril Ramaphosa's Phala Phala farm.

The private investigator added that Fraser duped Presidential Protection Unit(PPU) head, Major general Wally Rhoode, into divulging information about the burglary in exchange for the settlement of the PPU's debts, Sunday Times reported.

O'Sullivan then alleged that the former spy boss used the information to sabotage President Ramaphosa's bid for ANC president ahead of the party's elective conference in December.

Mzansi isn't buying O'Sullivan's claims that Arthur Fraser made up the Phala Phala allegation.

>>84799

“Paul O’Sullivan: ‘I will NEVER rest until they have seen justice’” – Statement to the Zondo Commission – Part 1

https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2021/01/08/paul-osullivan-zondo
8th January 2021

Forensics for Justice founder Paul O’Sullivan is a South African crusader, fighting against the criminally corrupt. Not one to back down from a fight, O’Sullivan admits that his dedication to eradicating crime has resulted in plenty of backlash. Multiple attempts on his life and unlawful arrests were used to block his path, but none have succeeded. In the affidavit below, Paul O’Sullivan says that he believes that the Zondo Commission has only ‘revealed a tip of the iceberg of the rot in this country’. He adds, ‘All South Africans need to remain alert well into the future, to prevent South Africa from becoming a police state’. Here, O’Sullivan lists those individuals who he says will be put ‘on terms’, adding that he will ‘never rest, until they have seen justice’. – Jarryd Neves

Forensics for Justice – Statement to the Zondo Commission
By Paul O’Sullivan*

In August 2020, I filed my affidavit with the Zondo Commission.

The Commission rules, prohibit the publication of any affidavits filed, prior to same being made public by the Commission, without the consent of the Commission. It is now lawfully possible for the publication of the affidavit of Forensics for Justice.

In the 35 years that I have been in South Africa, I have spent more than 30 of those years serving my country, South Africa.

My three decades of service to South Africa has resulted in multiple attempts on my life, being shot at more than 10 times and wounded three times, unlawful raids on my offices, including unlawful arrests, detention and torture of myself and my staff, as well as the arraignment on no fewer than 60 trumped up charges all of which have been either thrown out of court, or I was acquitted of. In the acquittals, the presiding officers made scathing findings against the State. This did not stop them from lining up more trumped up charges against me.

I believe that the Zondo Commission testimony has only revealed the tip of the iceberg of the rot in this country. All South Africans need to remain alert well into the future, to prevent South Africa from becoming a police state.

I also believe that certain criminals have used the Zondo Commission to further insult the people of South Africa with their lies and criminal arrogance and I hope that, as the criminal justice system becomes freed of the corrupt bonds of the past, the wheels of justice will turn against those evil persons. Sadly many of the criminals parading in front of the Commission are doing so with tax-payer funded lawyers to help them add further crimes of perjury to their already long list of crimes. The cost of the Zondo Commission needs to have these tax-payer funded lawyers added to it.

South Africans must be asking themselves: How right is it that criminals in government service, or previously in government service get free lawyers to help them lie to the Zondo Commission?

It means that we as tax-payers are paying for the Commission AND paying to assist those appearing before it, to fabricate their testimony.

I will put the following persons on terms, that I will NEVER rest, until they have seen justice:

>>84805

“Paul O’Sullivan: ‘I will NEVER rest until they have seen justice’” – Statement to the Zondo Commission – Part 2

https://www.biznews.com/thought-leaders/2021/01/08/paul-osullivan-zondo
8th January 2021

GOVERNMENT / GOVERNMENT OWNED ENTERPRISES OR CONNECTED INDIVIDUALS

1. Jacob Zuma
2. Nkosinathi Nhleko
3. David Mahlobo
4. Dudu Myeni
5. Lucky Montana
6. Edward Zuma (product of statutory rape by his father on a schoolgirl in Swaziland)
7. Yusuf Kajee

IN THE NPA or EX NPA

1. Shawn Abrahams
2. Nomgcobo Jiba
3. Lawrence Mrwebi
4. Tori Pretorius
5. George Baloyi
6. Sello Maema
7. Sibongile Mzinyathi
8. Molatlhwa Mashuga
9. Jabulani Mlotshwa

IN THE SAPS or EX SAPS

1. Johannes Phahlane – on trial already
2. Vineshkumar Moonoo
3. Berning Ntlemeza
4. Prince Mokotedi
5. Jan Mabula – on trial already
6. Clifford Kgorane – on trial already
7. Pharasa Ncube
8. Ismail Dawood – on trial already
9. Amod Hoosen
10. Eugene Pitout
11. Sibonisile Mkupa
12. Thembikaya Mangqalaza
13. Jacobus Vlok – on trial already

CRIMINALS WHO ASSISTED BY MAKING FAKE CASES AGAINST ME AT THE INSTANCE OF DIRTY COPS

1. Dudu Myeni (again)
2. Johannes Phahlane & Jan Mabula (again)
3. Vineshkumar Moonoo (again)
4. Cora van der Merwe
5. Alice Johnston – since convicted of fraud and sentenced to 7 years in prison
6. Douglas Fliess
7. Neil Diamond

MEDIA QUISLINGS

1. Sunday Times
2. Carte Blanche
3. Poloko Tau
4. Anthony Beamish

Interestingly, SANEF who two years ago, appointed themselves to investigate the rotten journalism in South Africa, having protected it for many years, have yet to make public their findings.

LAWYERS

1. I won’t name them here.
2. They know who they are.
3. They are totally dishonest and have been knowingly living off the proceeds of crime for many years.
4. I will do what I can lawfully do to ensure they spend time in prison with their clients.
5. Without these dirty lawyers, the scourge of crime in South Africa would have been less.

The public should also be asking why the management of the Police is allowing tax-payers to fund lawyers to keep dirty cops out of prison?

I want all of the above people to know that I am and have always been a very patient man and will not rest until each and every one of them have atoned for their crimes. We will be calling for a judicial review of the waste of tax-payer funds, in trying to keep corrupt cops out of prison.

My new book – ‘Stop Me If You Can!’ is 99% finished and expected to be published during the second quarter of 2021. The book will expose the dark underbelly of the crime and grime that permeated government, government owned businesses and the criminal justice system. The book will expose the role of the above named.

I have no doubt there will be desperate attempts to stop publication of my book, by those that will be implicated therein.

>>83203

>>84799
>11:04 – [O’Sullivan]“Who do you think you are talking to?”

>>84805
>>84808

“The wrong guy: why Paul O’Sullivan won't back down” – “One of his [Paul’s] students in the late 1990s was a reservist called Cyril Ramaphosa” – Part 1

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2018-03-31-the-wrong-guy-why-paul-osullivan-wont-back-down/
01 April 2018 - 00:00

Paul O’Sullivan is staring down the police, yet again. He spoke to us about how to clean up the justice system — and how to e-mail your wannabe assassin

This is the man who took on Jackie Selebi [Was he a scapegoat? >>17694345, >>17694348, >>17694353, >>17694360] and won. He took on the notorious Czech gangster Radovan Krejcir. He's not a diplomat.

"I just sent an e-mail to a person this morning," he says. "And it's a tease, really. I said: 'I know who you are, I know where you are, I know what you're planning to do. But I'm going to be quicker than you. I'm coming to kill you!'

"Now that might sound terrible, to send an e-mail like that. But this is the game I have to play. The person has set up an anonymous e-mail address to do the things he's doing. So we don't even know who it is - whether it's a man, or a woman, or a Greek or a Chinese or a Yugoslavian. Actually, we do. It's a Serbian.

"So I sent an e-mail like this, and this guy thinks: 'F**k this, I'm heading to the airport.' Gone!"
The Serbian beef is not new, says the Irishman-turned-South African. "We had three Serbs come here the year before last to kill me. We found out who they were, got the hotel they were staying in. I arranged for somebody to go there at 3am and stand in front of them while they packed their bags and got the next flight out."

O'Sullivan has been accused of being a vigilante. He also has an abrupt, bombastic style which is not everybody's cup of tea. He claims he reserves his aggression for criminals, whom he is forced to threaten in self-defence - because the justice system is so captured, so rife with crooks, that it offers him no protection.

O'Sullivan grew up in a very poor family in rural Ireland. He made a mint in property in London in the 1980s, before moving to South Africa in 1990.

The journalist Marianne Thamm spent a long time with O'Sullivan to research her book about his exploits, To Catch A Cop (Jacana, 2014). But even she could extract few revelations about his pre-South African life. His father was a stern man - a former colonial policeman, stationed in Palestine and Malaya, who told his son: "If a country is worth living in, it is worth fighting for." That stayed with him.

O'Sullivan ran away from home at age 14, travelled to the UK, and joined the army. He trained as an engineer, and spent six years working for the British government in counter-espionage and counterterrorism. He does not discuss what that involved. But he probably wasn't a stationery clerk.

Later, --he saved some cash during a stint with IBM--, and invested in property during the mid-1980s housing boom. He nearly got caught up in a tempting tax dodge by a crooked property speculator, who then threatened him for pulling out of the deal. Jack Slipper, a renowned former Scotland Yard investigator, was an old friend of O'Sullivan's father; he intervened to drive off the conman.

>>84826

“The wrong guy: why Paul O’Sullivan won't back down” – “One of his [Paul’s] students in the late 1990s was a reservist called Cyril Ramaphosa” – Part 2

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2018-03-31-the-wrong-guy-why-paul-osullivan-wont-back-down/
01 April 2018 - 00:00

O'Sullivan's move to South Africa happened in stages. He visited Johannesburg to buy property in 1986, and began spending summers here with his wife and children.

The release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 swayed him, and he applied for permanent residence that year, as a person of independent means. "I brought in a few million pounds and started getting involved in business."But soon his work took a public turn: he became a police reservist, and in 1996 began training police officers and reservists on the Bill of Rights in the new constitution. One of his students in the late 1990s was a reservist called Cyril Ramaphosa, then a rising tycoon with an interest in community policing. Ramaphosa topped the class.

So he set up a war room in his Bedfordview home and burrowed deep into the Selebi network, feeding his information to the Scorpions, then the elite crime-fighting agency. The Scorpions distrusted him - almost everybody in power did, not least President Thabo Mbeki, who considered him a British spy - but the sources and statements that O'Sullivan supplied were consistently credible. His work stood up in court.


Long story short: Selebi fell. Then Krejcir fell. Another of O'Sullivan's adversaries, the former police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane, now facing charges of corruption, may or may not fall.

Take note…

>>17694353
https://mg.co.za/article/2008-07-03-browse-mole-report-a-mixture-of-fact-and-fiction/

One of the ”high profile” investigations that the DSO [the Scorpions] was working on was a corruption case against Zuma. The other was a corruption case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

When he read the final version in June/July he became angry and thought that ”if there was a time that Mr McCarthy was going to leave the DSO, it was going to be that time”

It had clearly been produced by someone who had contact with ”old apartheid structures of intelligence”, he said, and not a single member of the DSO had the capacity to produce it

>>84685
Anon, these Bunker breads have to be shorter. Is there any way I can get you to do excerpts and summaries? Seven Part posts are going to make things even harder

>>85729

Will try... Some links provide a lot of information.

>>84740
>[Ben Magara, the CEO of Lonmin] “I’m from Anglo American; our chief financial officer is from Anglo American; our head of project management is from Anglo American; our head of business support office is from Anglo American; a number of our general managers are from Anglo American. I did not bring them to Lonmin, I found them here – such is the impact of Anglo American.

Lonmin (formerly Lonrho) History/Connections from Previous South Africa Breads – Glencore/Xstrata (Marc Rich), British Royals, MI6, ANC, etc.

http://yamm.finance/wiki/Lonmin.html

Lonmin plc, formerly the mining division of Lonrho plc, is a British producer of platinum group metals operating in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa.

Lonmin rose to international attention following the Marikana miners' strike in August, 2012, in which over 100 striking Lonmin employees were shot (36 killed, 78 wounded) by South African Police Service officers. [At the time, Cyril (Ramaphosa) was a non-executive director of Lonmin. His company Shanduka was a minority shareholder in Lonmin, so this meant their profits were very much part of his business too. https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/marikana-what-did-cyril-ramaphosa-do/]


https://ebin.pub/tiny-rowland-the-ugly-face-of-neocolonialism-in-africa-0943235081-9780943235080.html

Sir Basil Smallpeice was taken on by Lonrho as deputy chairman in 1972, after the near-collapse of Lonrho in a criminal scandal... At the time of his appointment to Lonrho, Smallpeice was Administrative Adviser to the Queen’s Household, or, as Rowland later put it, “Comptroller of Buckingham Palace,” a position he held from 1964 until 1980.3 Gerald Percy played an essential role in Lonrho’s African business. Since the 1950s, he was an Africa operative of MI-6. Born in 1928, he is the son of Lord William Percy, 5th son of the 7th Duke of Northumberland, one of the most ancient and powerful families in Britain. His relative. Sir Algernon Percy, became Lord Steward of Her Majesty’s Household in 1973. Gerald Percy emigrated to South Africa in 1951, married the daughter of a prominent industrialist, and joined the British South Africa Company, Cecil Rhodes’ old firm, where he was personal assistant to the chairman. Lord Robins.


https://behind-the-news.com/the-changing-of-the-guard-part-4-of-a-4-part-series/

From the moment of the unbanning of the ANC, the whole organization was enveloped by the Anglo [American] complex. Between February 1990, and the elections of April 1994, Anglo poured the sum of R364 million rand ($180 million) into the coffers of the ANC.

At the same time, Tiny Rowland of the British multinational Lonrho was also funding the ANC. Lonrho is within the Rothschild orbit, and is a business partner of Anglo, with extensive interests in South Africa, covering gold, coal and platinum. The ANC was given $20 million by Lonrho to move their offices from Lusaka, Zambia to Johannesburg to consolidate their internal support. The idea was to set up a political machinery in South Africa, and that costs a lot of money.

[This is the same building where the Shell House massacre occurred – “South Africa March 28 1994 Pre-Election Zulu-ANC Violence in Johannesburg”, https://youtu.be/H18dCmjTlmo]


https://venturesafrica.com/glencore-to-divest-23-stake-in-lonmin/

Glencore inherited this stake when it acquired another resources firm, Xstrata plc, in May 2013. The divestment in Lonmin will be implemented by way of a distribution in specie to Glencore shareholders.



https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-02-06-ivan-glasenberg-obscure-billionaire-no-more/

Although Xstrata’s website talks about the company’s ‘small beginnings a decade ago’, the diversified mining giant was founded as an infrastructure and electrics company called Südelektra in Switzerland in 1926. In 1990 the company’s business changed dramatically when the man who started Glencore – namely [Marc] Rich – acquired the majority of the company’s shares, focused the business on mining and got rid of non-core interests.

“Ramaphosa asks US leaders to help fund THIS R1.5 trillion”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/ramaphosa-asks-us-leaders-assist-funding-energy-plan-6-november-2022/
06-11-2022 08:46

President Cyril Ramaphosa has asked for assistance from US leaders to fund the multi-trillion-rand energy transition plan for SA.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly reached out to leaders in the United States to help with the funding of the country’s Just Transition Plan.

OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, SA WOULD NEED R1.5 TRILLION TO FUND THE PLAN

The multi-trillion-rand plan is aiming to reduce the negative effect on society of transitioning to a zero-carbon economy.

During his address to the Presidential Climate Commission just before the weekend, Ramaphosa revealed that the plan would ensure that benefits were distributed fairly.

Over the next five years, the Just Transition Plan would cost R1.5 trillion to fund – says the president.

THE COUNTRY HAS ALREADY ENTERED INTO PARTNERSHIPS WITH OTHERS

South Africa has already entered into a partnership with a number of countries to see the plan through. They are as follows:

• France;
• Germany;
• The United Kingdon;
• The US and;
• The European Union.

EWN reports that Ramaphosa said that more money will be required AFTER the first five years.

AFTER THE FIRST FIVE YEARS, MORE MONEY WOULD BE NEEDED SAID RAMAPHOSA

He explained that the funds pledged by the aforementioned countries were simply not enough.

“I am currently communicating with the leaders of the United States, some of them to say we need much greater funding than what has been put on the table to support our plan,” said Ramaphosa.

If the Just Transition Plan is successfully implemented, South Africa would rely less on fossil fuels. The country would then depend more on renewable energy by the year 2050.

“Ramaphosa denies knowing ‘nephew’ who bagged R400m tender”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-ramaphosa-nephew-tender-4-november/
04-11-2022 05:06

“I don’t even know this gentleman,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said to DA leader John Steenhuisen in Parliament on Thursday

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he doesn’t know Hangwani Maumela, his alleged nephew who scored contracts worth a whopping R381 million in the past three years from public hospitals across Gauteng.

Ramaphosa appeared in the National Assembly on Thursday, 3 November 2022, where he answered questions from MPs.

It was Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, who made the revelation in a written reply to questions by the DA’s Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom in the provincial legislature.

RAMAPHOSA DENIES BEING RELATED TO ‘NEPHEW’

DA leader John Steenhuisen mentioned President Cyril Ramaphosa’s nephew in a question about broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) schemes and corruption.

“The Zondo Commission showed that BBBEE has been central to corruption in South Africa. Whether it is the R14 billion PPE corruption in Covid-19 or the billions stolen at Eskom. A recent example, one of your own nephew’s companies scored R381 million from Gauteng hospitals. You are right. It does not benefit the majority. It only benefits ANC-connected cronies,” Steenhuisen said.

Ramaphosa responded, saying in part: “You keep saying, my nephew. I don’t even know this gentleman. So, let’s not even get there. I don’t know him.”

Ramaphosa’s office has previously denied he was involved with Maumela in anyway, but Bloom disputes this.

__“The relationship is there. He’s a nephew by President Ramaphosa’s first wife but there is another connection according to News24 and that’s between Mr Maumela and Mr Bejani Chauke, who is the president’s chief of staff,” he is quoted as having told EWN [https://ewn.co.za/2022/11/03/da-questions-tender-process-for-contracts-awarded-to-ramaphosa-s-nephew].__

“‘Horrors’: Ramaphosa on increased murder of South African women”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/ramaphosa-declares-horror-on-increased-women-murders-breaking-3-november-2022/
03-11-2022 18:12

The number of women murdered in South Africa increased by more than 50 percent in a year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday, calling on the private sector to help tackle the violence.

He said official statistics showed a 52-percent increase in the murder of women during the first three months of this year compared with same time in 2021 when the country was under Covid-19 restrictions.

The number of children murdered spiked by 46 percent during the same period.

Speaking at a conference on gender-based violence in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said that despite government efforts, violence against women and children continued unabated.

“Not a day goes by without a story… about a woman or child that has lost their life or been abused in the most horrendous manner,”
he said.
“These horrors defy comprehension… They tell a story about our society that is deeply disturbing. It is a story of a nation at war with itself.”

‘LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO DO BETTER‘

South Africa has been rattled by a series of gruesome crimes, including the gang rape of eight women in July and the retrieval of half a dozen bodies, some believed to be missing sex workers, at a building in Johannesburg last month.

Ramaphosa faced a barrage of criticism and questions from women’s rights advocates as he addressed the conference organised by his office on gender-based violence and femicide, with some accusing the government of not doing enough.

“We as South Africa are the rape capital of the world,” said Lebogang Motau, of the Free World Initiative non-profit organisation. “Leadership needs to do better.”

The president said the government has passed laws to better protect women and hold perpetrators accountable and earmarked 21 billion rand ($1.1 billion) to advance women empowerment.

Funds have also been allocated to support survivors, strengthen the criminal justice system and undertake prevention programmes, he said.

But the process has sometimes been too slow, and the funding inadequate, he added.

Police data showed rapes and sexual offences went up by 13 percent [of reported cases] between 2017/18 and 2021/2022, Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa called on the private sector to “make more resources available” to help prevent violence.

“In every part of society… we need to be organising men’s dialogues,” he said. “We need to reach out to boys and young men to develop masculinities that value respect, understanding and accountability”.

>>84714
>Eskom
>>84755
>>84757

“Government departments, Municipalities owe Eskom R50 BILLION”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/government-municipalities-owe-eskom-r50-billion-4-november-2022/
04-11-2022 12:15

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Government departments and municipalities owe power utility Eskom over R50 billion.

On Thursday, 3 November, the President went through with his final quarterly question and answer session in the National Assembly for this year.

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY REVENUE COMMITTEE WAS ESTABLISHED

Ramaphosa stated that non-payment was unacceptable. He went on to state that a multi-disciplinary revenue committee was established.

According to the president, this committee will ensure that the money owed to Eskom is paid.

“The debt owed to Eskom by municipalities and government departments stands at more than R50 billion. Non-payment is unacceptable. The department of COGTA as part of consultations on the ongoing process hopes to gain traction, resulting in a situation where less and less municipalities and government departments owe less money to Eskom,” said Ramaphosa.

RAMAPHOSA ADDRESSED THE FREE ELECTRICITY FOR CABINET MEMBERS AND THE REPAYMENT

SABC News reports that Ramaphosa also spoke about a process to determine the amount of money cabinet members must repay.

This follows news that cabinet members were entitled to free electricity in accordance with the ministerial handbook.

In October, Ramaphosa withdrew the latest version of the handbook. He explained that a reconciliation process was underway.

Ramaphosa stated that when he withdrew the handbook, it was done so the process could be ‘properly investigated’.

“Salaries of public representatives are determined by an independent body and it occurred to me that an issue such as this one, once properly processed should be properly examined by an independent body,”
the President said.

from electricity issues to water supply issues…

“30-hour water outage hits Johannesburg TODAY: FULL list of affected areas”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/30-hour-water-outage-hits-johannesburg-today-full-list-of-affected-areas-breaking-4-november-2022/
04-11-2022 16:05

Johannesburg Water says bulk water supplier Rand Water has implemented a 30-hour emergency shutdown due to a major burst on the A6 pipeline.

Rand Water announced on Friday, 4 November an emergency shutdown due to a major burst on the A6 Pipeline which supplies water from Vereeniging purification works to Zwartkopjes pump station.

Joburg Water said in a media statement that the water shutdown would be in effect from 18:00 on Friday and last for about 30 hours.

That suggests water should be restored around midnight on Saturday.

According to BusinessTech, while Rand Water and Johannesburg Water infrastructure – including towers and reservoirs – will have maximum capacity during the shutdown, several reservoirs, towers and direct feeds will be affected – should the water level drop to critical levels.

The direct feeds affected include the Hector Norris pump station (Johannesburg CBD) and Turf Club direct feed (Turffontein Racecourse). The
“Johannesburg Water encourages residents to reduce consumption and use water for human and household needs, which will significantly assist in sustaining supply of affected systems,” said the water supplier.

ALL AREAS AFFECTED BY THE WATER SHUTDOWN:

Forest Hill Tower zone
• Oakdene
• parts of Rosettenville
• Kenilworth
• The Hill
• Towerby
• Linmeyer
• Southdale
• Foresthill
• Townsview
• Robertsham
• Gillview
• Winchester Hills
• Chrisville
• Turf Club
• Glenanda
• Turffontein
• Klipriviersberg estate

Yeoville reservoir zone
• Hillbrow
• Parktown
• Spes Bona
• Linksfield
• Observatory
• Jeppestown
• Bruma
• De Wetshof
• Cyrildene
• Forest Town
• Fellside, Highlands
• Kensington Fairwood
• Bezuidenhout Valley
• New Doornfontein
• Bertram
• Lorentzville
• Judith’s Paarl
• Troyeville
• Vrededorp
• Cottesloe
• Doornfontein
• Berea
• Yeoville
• Killarney
• Orange Grove
• Westcliff
• Constitution Hill

Berea reservoir zone
• De Wetshof
• Observatory
• Bruma
• Cyrildene
• Bezuidenhout Valley
• Bertrams
• Lorentzville
• Judith’s Paarl
• Troyeville

Parktown 1 reservoir zone
• Victoria
• Linksfield
• Glenhazel
• Linksfield North
• Rouxville
• Highlands North
• Sandringham,
• Fairmount
• Glensan
• Dunhill
• Raumarais Park
• Fairmount ridge
• Gresswold
• Fellside
• Bramley
• Bramley Park
• Orange Grove
• Oaklands
• Orchards
• Sydenham
• Norwood
• Waverly
• Savoy Estate
• Kew

Hursthill 1 and 2 reservoirs
• Montgomery Park
• Albertville
• Westbury
• Greymont
• Coronationville
• Hursthill
• Claremont
• Newlands
• Delarey
• Northcliff
• Melville
• Richmond
• Auckland Park
• Rossmore
• Westdene
• Greenside
• Parktown
• Parkhurst
• Parkview
• Emmarentia
• Westcliff
• Victory Park Estate.

Parktown 2 reservoir zone
• Saxonwold
• Hyde Park
• Dunkeld
• Park view
• Parktown North
• Greenside
• Riviera
• Melrose
• Oaklands
• Orchards
• Houghton Estate
• Parkwood
• Norwood
• Fairwood
• Highlands North
• Kew
• The Gardens
• Illovo
• Killarney
• Westcliff
• Rosebank
• Fairway

Crown Gardens reservoir zone
• Southdale
• Booysens Reserve
• Ormonde
• Mondeor
• Nasrec
• Ophirton
• Lake View
• Selby
• Evans Park
• Robertsham
• Winchester Hills
• Reuven
• Ridgeway
• Theta
• Selby South

>>86502

“Water shortage in Kariega becomes SERIOUS after pipe burst”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/water-shortage-in-kariega-due-to-pipe-burst-6-november-2022/
06-11-2022 00:35

Residents in wards 42 to 47 have been roaming streets looking for water trucks day in and day out, while the situation deteriorates.

KwaNobuhle township has had acute water shortages for the past week.

Thousands of residents in wards 42 to 47 have been roaming streets looking for water trucks day in and day out, while the situation deteriorates.

Public schools, township salons, thousands of households, funeral parlours and churches have been severely affected.

On Friday morning, residents were still carrying empty buckets looking for trucks in different areas. Some were searching in nearby bushes for water leaks.

Resident Bulelwa Williams from Area 10 in ward 45 in Gunguluza said: “I had six 20 litres of buckets in my yard filled with water.” She said she gave one of these buckets to her neighbour. “I assumed that water would be back but we are now seven days without water.”

“I don’t even have water to drink. All four buckets are now empty,”
she said.

She said the only place she has been drawing water from is at KwaNobuhle depot, a municipal property that never ran out of water. [Of course, the government is more important than the people.] She takes two of her buckets and hires a vehicle to take her to and from the depot daily. She spends R30 each time. People flock to this depot, she says.

Her children have not been able to go to school because of the shortage.

Blade Vandala from ward 44 also fetches water from the municipal depot. He says people go there by car, donkey, trolley or foot.

Ward 44 Councillor Luzuko Ndamse said that only part of his ward is affected. “We have been depending on trucks to provide water to use for cooking, bathing and drinking. This is a major concern but trucks are doing their best to defuse tension,” he said.

Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality spokesperson Mamela Ndamase said that KwaNobuhle has been affected by a “major burst” on the Summit-Chelsea pipeline. She said repairs should be completed on Friday. “We have water trucks and Jojo tanks as an emergency supply. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” she said.

According to a 1 November municipal notice, areas experiencing low water pressure include Parsons Vlei (Morning Side) and Hunters Retreat (Rowallan Park), while the areas experiencing “water disruption” include KwaNobuhle Areas (1, 5, 8, 10, and 11 Phase 2 and 1st Avenue), Joe Modise Peace, Jolobe Area 2 and Area 9 Gunguluza.

>>86502

“Gauteng's water system is COLLAPSING | Anthony Turton” - He provides a good history.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jqqpNUPjq1A [Embed]
Posted October 19, 2022

Taps are running dry across Gauteng. David Ansara of the CRA speaks with water scientist, Anthony Turton of the University of the Free State, about the dire state of Johannesburg's water infrastructure.

>>86435
Many thanks anon!
I know it's hard and you do post great info

Anon not interested in Proto on 8kun as it is less likely to remain anonymous.

>>17784282
>09./11.04.1989
>Representatives of SA, Angola and Cuba in the Joint Monitoring Commission, with US (Chester Crocker), Soviet (Anatoly Adamishin) [Before the Soviet Union’s ‘fall’], and UNTAG observation, meet at Mount Etjo to salvage the independence plan.

>>83204
>>17784293
>Both De Beers and Anglo American were obviously enormously enamored with Crocker. By 1990 [the year Mandela was released], they had appointed him as a director of Minorco, which was based in Luxembourg and “the main overseas investor for Oppenheimer funds”

“Memorandum of Conversation Between Assistant Secretary Chester Crocker and Anatoly Adamishin. Subject: Southern Africa”

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16874-document-02-memorandum-conversation-between

Below is an excerpt

Date: May 29, 1988
Place: Foreign Ministry Guest House, Moscow
Participants: Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary, US Dept. of State
Anatoly Adamishin, Deputy Ministre, USSR MFA
Priscilla Clapp, A/PolCouns, US Embassy, Moscow
Vasillen Vasev, Director, 3rd African Dept., USSR MFA
Soviet interpreter

In Fact, Admishin seaid, Luanda has asked Moscow to tell the U.S. during the Summit that Angola was ready for trilateral economic cooperation with the U.S. and Soviet Union in three specific areas: diamonds, gold, and ferrous metals. (Adamishin asked that Crocker keep this to himself until it had been raised at higher levels in the course of the Summit.)

>>109703
>Priscilla Clapp, A/PolCouns, US Embassy, Moscow

“Priscilla Clapp: Senior Advisor to the US Institute of Peace and the Asia Society”

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Clapp%20Bio.pdf

Ms. Clapp is a retired Minister-Counselor in the U.S. Foreign Service. She currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Asia Society and the US Institute of Peace, where she is also a member of the International Advisory Board.

During her 30-year career with the U.S. Government, Ms. Clapp served as Chief of Mission and permanent Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Burma (1999-2002), Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in South Africa (1993-96), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Refugee Programs (1989-1993), Deputy Political Counselor in the US Embassy in Moscow (1986-88), and chief of politicalmilitary affairs in the US Embassy in Japan (1981-85). She also worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, in its East Asian, Political Military, and International Organizations Bureaus, and with the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She speaks Russian, Japanese, French, and some Burmese.

Prior to government service, Ms. Clapp spent ten years in foreign policy and arms control research, with the MIT Center for International Studies and as a Research Associate at the Brookings Institution. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Ms. Clapp’s books include: with Morton Halperin, Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (Brookings, 2006), with I.M.Destler et al., Managing an Alliance: the Politics of U.S.-Japanese Relations (Brookings, 1976), with Morton Halperin, U.S.-Japanese Relations in the 1970's (Harvard, 1974). She is a frequent media commentator and the author of numerous publications on Burma and U.S. Burma policy with USIP, the Brookings Institution, the East-West Center, Australia National University, Singapore's ISEAS, the National Bureau for Asian Research, National University of Singapore, the Asia Society and others

>>109714

I am unable to post the rest of the images so I will try later

“The Chinese and Soviets had a bigger role in supporting apartheid than we previously knew” – Part 2

https://qz.com/africa/1449906/china-soviets-backed-both-south-africa-apartheid-and-liberation
PublishedNovember 3, 2018

The tale begins with a top secret minute of a meeting between the head of the South African Defence Force, Jannie Geldenhuys, and his senior officials in connection with operation “Daisy”. This was an attempt to recover $20 million that Starckmann had allegedly swindled out of the South Africans.

The story is of mind-boggling complexity, but involves Starckmann doing a deal with an East German firm called IMES, run by the East German deputy foreign minister with Stasi employees—members of the East German secret service. The result was an arrangement which involved 60 shipments of weapons to South Africa via a Danish shipping company. The shipments were to be trailed half way around the world to disguise their final destination.

These shipments were for vital military equipment, including 1,400 anti-tank missiles. The weapons, which had Peruvian end-user certificates, ended up off the coast of Panama where the ruler, General Noriega, had apparently given the green light for the operation. In the end the dictator reneged on the deal. When the Pia Vesta arrived in Panama on 14 June 1986 its crew was arrested and the vessel impounded. In 1989 General Noriega was ousted by the Americans.

How the ship ended up sunk off Venezuela is a bit of a mystery, but then, as Van Vuuren points out, so is much of this story. He concludes that South Africa’s state arms dealer, Armscor, was involved:

But for all the smoke and mirrors, one thing is as clear as day. There is more than sufficient evidence that Armscor bought arms from IMES, a Stasi-run East German company operating behind the Iron Curtain. During the Cold War, much was not as it seemed.

Nor was this an isolated incident. Van Vuuren says he has evidence that Armscor had a team of military experts working inside the Soviet Union with an office in Leningrad. So close was the relationship that when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster took place in 1986, the Russians turned to South Africa for medical support.

The relationship with China

The relationship that the book portrays between South Africa and the Chinese is just as complex. It involves purchases of Chinese military equipment – everything from machine guns to missiles and rocket launchers – using Congolese companies as a front. Sometimes the shipments were destined for South Africa’s Angolan allies, UNITA, sometimes not.

Overall the book is a compelling and convincing narrative: our understanding of apartheid’s global supporters has been transformed.

>>109714
>>109816

“Apartheid Guns and Money: A tale of profit”

https://www.opensecrets.org.za/agm/
May 9, 2017

South Africa remains a deeply unequal society battling the legacy of apartheid and the persistence of corrupt networks that seek to ‘capture’ its democratically elected leaders. As Hennie van Vuuren of Open Secrets argues, in the absence of accountability, corrupt networks of the past stay in business. Rather than face justice, they invite members of the new elite to the table.

In over 600 pages, this meticulously researched book finally lifts the lid on some of the darkest secrets of apartheid’s economic crimes, weaving together a treasure trove of newly declassified documents and eyewitness accounts. This is an exposé of the machinery created in defence of apartheid and in support of sanctions busting and the people who profited: heads of states, arms dealers, aristocrats, plutocrats, senators, bankers, spies, journalists and members of secret lobby groups. In creating the apartheid arms money machine they were complicit in a crime against humanity. Whistleblowers were assassinated and ordinary people suffered. Finally, this network of profit is revealed.

In forging its future, a new generation of South Africans need to grapple with the baffling silence regarding apartheid-era economic crime and ask difficult questions of those who profited from it. This book provides the evidence and the motivation to do so.

Is someone picking for a fight?

Two court judgments with legal and political implications were handed down in two of South Africa's senior courts yesterday” – “Zuma loses appeal, Walus granted parole”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3mgK5caZoGA [Embed]
Nov 22, 2022

Two court judgments with legal and political implications were handed down in two of South Africa's senior courts yesterday.

__The Supreme Court of Appeal has upheld the December 2021 decision of the Pretoria High Court, which overturned former President Jacob Zuma's medical parole. The SCA ruled that former Department of Correctional Services Commissioner, Arthur Fraser was not supposed to overrule the parole board, and the SCA ruled that Zuma must return to prison. (Stopping his court case? 84461 https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-louis-liebenberg-jacob-zuma-11-october/)__

In another judgment, the Constitutional Court has granted Janusz Walus, medical parole. Walus is the surviving member of the duo that killed SACP leader Chris Hani. Handing down his judgment, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said Walus has complied with all the requirements.

Human rights lawyer, former CEO of SAHRC and Chair of Southern African Institute for Responsive and Accountable Governance, Advocate Tseliso Thipanyane, joins us on Zoom to unpack this for us.

>>110219

“Will Jacob Zuma be ARRESTED by the end of the week?”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-will-jacob-zuma-be-arrested-by-the-end-of-the-week-tuesday-22-november/
22-11-2022 14:13

For the second time in 16 months, Jacob Zuma could be forcibly taken back to jail – and the DA are demanding a swift arrest.

John Steenhuisen has issued an ultimatum to South Africa’s law enforcement officials. He is demanding that Jacob Zuma is arrested by 17:00 on Friday – and he’s set a 48-hour deadline for Correctional Services to confirm their intentions.

WHEN WILL JACOB ZUMA BE ARRESTED?

It was ruled yesterday that Msholozi would have to return to prison to complete a 15-month jail sentence, after he was irregularly granted medical parole. The DA leader, however, wants to see the verdict enacted as soon as possible:

“The DA has sent a lawyer’s letter to acting national Commissioner of Correctional Services, demanding that he confirms within 48 hours that he’ll ensure Jacob Zuma is returned by 17:00 on Friday 25 November to the Estcourt Correctional Centre to serve out the remainder of his sentence.”

“The DA’s legal letter points out that Mr. Zuma is obliged by order to immediately return to the Estcourt Correctional Centre and if he fails to do so within reasonable time, the Commissioner of Correctional Services must ensure he is returned – by arrest if necessary.” | John Steenhuisen

HOW JZ GOT HIMSELF IN THIS POSITION

The appeal was raised against a High Court decision setting aside a decision to release the former president on medical parole. Zuma’s lawyers argued that sending him back to jail would be tantamount to imposing a double sentence.

The Constitutional Court sentenced Zuma to 15 months imprisonment for being in contempt of court. This followed the former president breaching the apex court’s order for him to appear before the State Capture Commission after it summoned him.

Zuma was imprisoned at the Escourt Correctional Services Facility. He was expected to serve his 15 months behind bars – but didn’t. Zuma was released on medical parole by former Correctional Services commissioner Arthur Fraser.

This was under two months of Zuma in prison and went against the Medical Parole Advisory Board’s recommendation. Judge Elias Matojane stated that Zuma’s case needed the SCA’s attention.

>>84449
>1:27:27 – “The choices we as citizens make in the next 2 years will determine our destiny

Janusz Walus Parole | Chris Hani's wife Limpho Hani reacts – “The EFF says there will be serious consequences and repercussions if Janusz Walus is indeed released from prison”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TcqMUSzFirw [Embed]

4:29 – “Come to me after 2 years. Karma exists. All of them there sitting there from Zondo downwards. This judgement is diabolical… Let me give you free information. If my husband was not killed, we would never had elections. Mandela, after my husband was murdered, said to De Klerk, for us to stop this, give us an election date. That is how Zondo and his friends today are sitting in this court.”

“‘He must remain in prison until death’: EFF on Janusz Walus”

https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/eff-on-constitutional-court-decision-janusz-walus-22-november-2022/
22-11-2022 07:50

The EFF says there will be serious consequences and repercussions if Janusz Walus is indeed released from prison.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has slammed the Constitutional Court’s decision to grant Janusz Walus parole saying he must remain in prison until he dies.

On Monday, 21 November the Apex Court found that the decision by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola to deny Walus parole in 2020 was irrational and ordered that he be released on parole within ten days.

EFF SLAMS JANUSZ WALUS PAROLE

Janusz Walus, a Polish national, assassinated Hani outside his Boksburg home, shooting him four times on Easter Saturday 10 April 1993, on the eve of South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994. The freedom fighter was declared dead at the scene.

Following an investigation Walus was then arrested and sentenced to death. However that was later changed to life imprisonment after South Africa abolished the death penalty.

The EFF said the Constitutional Court undermined the sensitivities of South Africans and will invoke instability in the country, adding that Walus cannot be forgiven.

The party said there has been no resolution between Walus and the Hani family which has consistently opposed his release due to the trauma they suffered.

“It is a betrayal of all combatants who fought the forces of apartheid and colonialism and has reduced the Constitutional Court to an instrument that reinforces white supremacy and disrespects the memory of an icon,” the party said.

The EFF further said that there will be serious consequences and repercussions and the Constitutional Court will take responsibility over what will happen if Walus is released from prison.

Meanwhile, Chris Hani’s widow, Limpho, also slammed the Constitutional Court’s decision saying it is diabolical.

Speaking outside the court, Limpho couldn’t hide her anger and said that her family was never consulted on the decision. He also slammed Chief Justice Raymond Zondo saying he couldn’t be bothered.

The SACP also expressed disappointment with the decision and said the judgment has far-reaching implications that compel them to analyse it deeper and look for a new way forward under the circumstances.

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/constitutional-court-orders-release-of-chris-hani-e2-80-99s-killer-janusz-walus-on-parole/ar-AA14omNL
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo yesterday ordered Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola to take all the necessary steps to place Walus on parole within 10 days of the judgment. He left the conditions of parole to the minister to decide.

It is not clear at this stage whether the minister will allow Walus to return to Poland, his country of origin. Walus has previously said that once released, he would like to return home.

>>109714
>>109816
>>110195

Unable to post all the graphics, below are links to them which can be accessed through the Wayback Machine.

“Apartheid Guns and Money: Graphics”

https://www.opensecrets.org.za/agm/

This book is accompanied by a series of graphics, the treasure maps that help explain much of the content of the book. They were designed by Gaelen Pinnock of Scarlet Studio, http://www.scarletstudio.net/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=opensecrets.
Please note that the graphics are not available in the Kindle version and can be accessed here for ease of reference. Kindly attribute the publication if posted elsewhere.

1. The Tale of Profit in Numbers - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/01_The%20Tale%20of%20Profit%20in%20Numbers.pdf
2. An Atlas of Apartheid Allies - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/02_An%20Atlas%20of%20Apartheid%20Allies.pdf
3. Oiling Apartheid - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/03_Oiling%20Apartheid.pdf
4. The Secret State - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/04_The%20Secret%20State.pdf
5. The Arms Money Machine - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/05_The%20Arms%20Money%20Machine.pdf
6. The Paris Arms Bazaar - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/06_The%20Paris%20Arms%20Bazaar.pdf
7. Behind the Iron Curtain - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/07_Behind%20the%20Iron%20Curtain.pdf
8. The American Dream - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/08_The%20American%20Dream.pdf
9. The United Kingdom - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/09_The%20United%20Kingdom.pdf
10. On the Silk Road - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/10_On%20the%20Silk%20Road.pdf
11. Proxies, Players and Pariahs - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/11_Proxies,%20Players%20and%20Pariahs.pdf
12. The Tale of Profit Timeline - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/12_The%20Tale%20of%20Profit%20Timeline.pdf
13. The Long Shadow in Numbers - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/13_The%20Long%20Shadow%20in%20Numbers.pdf
14. ZIP File of all the graphics - https://www.opensecrets.org.za/downloads/AGM_AllGraphics.zip

Trafigura Charters Dual-Fuel Methanol-Powered Tanker
Mike Schuler December 8, 2022

British Columbia-based Waterfront Shipping has entered into a time-charter agreement with commodity trading giant Trafigura for the methanol-powered dual-fuel medium-range product tanker MT Mari Innovator.

Waterfront Shipping is a subsidiary of Methanex, the world’s largest producer and supplier of methanol, and is pioneering the use of methanol as a marine fuel. Out of Waterfront’s current 30-vessel fleet, 18 have methanol dual-fuel capability and have accumulated over 123,000 operating hours on methanol fuel. The company has a 19th dual fuel tanker on order with delivery expected next spring.

“Trafigura plays a vital leadership role in the energy transition and for it to recognize that methanol marine fuel offers a clear pathway towards a low carbon shipping industry will help build the platform to drive change,” said Paul Hexter, President of Waterfront Shipping.

Built in 2021, the 49,999 dwt Mari Innovator is co-owned by Waterfront Shipping and Clean Sea Transport.

Andrea Olivi, Head of Wet Freight for Trafigura, said the time-charter agreement aligns with Trafigura’s advocacy for industry-wide action to tackle shipping emissions.

“We’re excited about the cooperation with Waterfront Shipping and Clean Sea as we explore and learn also how methanol technology can integrate with our fleet to achieve our carbon intensity reduction goal of 25 per cent by 2030 across our entire chartering operation,” Olivi said.

Methanol, which can be produced from renewable sources, is drawing wide interest in shipping as a promising marine fuel for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, most notably carbon dioxide. As a cleaner-burning marine fuel, conventional methanol already meets the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) emissions regulations, significantly reducing sulphur oxides by 99 per cent, nitrogen oxides by up to 80 per cent, and particulate matter by 95 per cent compared to heavy fuel oil.

“Methanol is also liquid at ambient temperature, safe, easy to handle, widely available, fully compliant with IMO Tier III regulations and can be produced from renewable sources—offering a clear transition pathway to decarbonization,” explains Hexter.

Modi Mano, CEO at Clean Sea Transport, commented: “The Mari Innovator is our third-generation dual-fuel vessel and offers a number of advantages to Trafigura including the flexibility to diversify fuel options or consume methanol for potential cost savings. It is equipped with the latest technological innovations and fuel consumption is particularly low for a medium-range tanker.”

https://gcaptain.com/trafigura-charters-dual-fuel-methanol-powered-tanker/

Trafigura, anons know that name. Wonder how much influence they had at that last International Maritime Organisation meeting?

Load shedding is killing 5G in South Africa
The perfect storm of a power-crippled 5G roll-out will widen rather than narrow the digital divide in South Africa.
By Paul Colmer 6 March 2023

The South African telecommunications industry is in a state of flux.

On one hand, 5G network roll-outs are gathering pace, with the latest news that Nokia has won a major deal to expand MTN’s 5G network to more than 2 800 additional sites around the country.

On the other hand, there seems to be no eLoad shedding is killing 5G in South Africand in sight to the country’s power crisis, with storm clouds gathering around the key stakeholders following the explosive allegations levelled at Eskom and the governing ANC by ousted CEO André de Ruyter.

While 5G promises to bring many benefits to consumers, including faster download speeds, lower latency and better network capacity, it also comes with some challenges, one of the most significant being increased power consumption. One of the selling points of 5G is that it’s more “eco-friendly” than LTE, but even though 5G consumes less power per bit of data, because it transmits significantly more data than LTE the net result is also significantly higher power consumption.

While 5G in South Africa won’t be using millimetre-wave bands because the spectrum has not been made available to local operators, it will still be using more power to transmit signals in the available sub-6GHz spectrum.

This is why power – or rather the lack of it – can ultimately be a 5G killer.

As with fibre and LTE, 5G roll-out started in the wealthier areas, because it entails a big upfront investment and needs measurable return on investment to make it viable. So, the first stage of the 5G roll-out will naturally take place in high-LSM-income, high-density urban areas. In rural areas, where communities are poorer and less densely populated, not too many customers even have the phones to use it, and the investment required will be exponentially more because of the power issues mention

Invalidated

So, not only is the power crisis causing service disruptions across the board, it’s changing the dynamics and threatening the future plans for the vendors currently committing to the 5G roll-out in the first place. After all, there are many smart people that for years have been working on the strategy of rolling out national 5G networks, and almost overnight all those calculations are invalidated because they never took into account that we’d have power issues like this.

The bottom line? The energy crisis affects the cost of deployment, which affects ROI, and if ROI isn’t right deployment can’t happen from a business perspective.

The longer the power crisis continues, the more it will change the way we thought things would happen, development wise, on expanding and improving 5G network coverage and getting people connected. Everyone is talking about bridging the digital divide. The problem has never been the lack of Internet access, but rather the lack of affordable Internet access.

The perfect storm of a power-crippled 5G roll-out will only make things worse, and widen rather than narrow that divide.

The silver lining, if there is one, is the strong wireless Internet service provider (Wisp) community that has already accounted for and mitigated against many of the power issues we’re experiencing today, and as such has a head start on any 5G deployment in South Africa’s rural and remote areas.

Wisps have several advantages over 5G mobile networks when it comes to coverage, speed, cost, reliability and flexibility of internet access delivery. Ultimately, the choice between Wisps and 5G mobile networks will depend on the specific needs and requirements of the customer or organisation. But with the power crisis potentially putting a spoke in the 5G wheel, the obvious choice for many South Africans may ultimately be made for them.

https://techcentral.co.za/load-shedding-is-killing-5g-in-south-africa/222971/