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Last Update: Feb. 26, 2001 |
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American KKK continue support to farmers
REVEREND Jeffery Berry, Imperial Wizard of the Church of the American Knights the Ku Klux Klan, confirmed his offer to defend the rights of white farmers this week.“What makes you think we don’t already have guns over there?” Berry told African Eye News on Thursday. The proposed Ku Klux Klan ‘peace corps’ plan to protect the property of white farmers in South Africa, has focused international attention on the increase in farm killings. The Indiana Star newspaper, the United Press and Reuters have reported on the Klan’s proposal. Berry believes the international community are still “not aware as much as they should be about the fate of South African farmers.” Although Agri South Africa and Carel Bosshoff, leader of the white volksstaat Orania, have publicly rejected the Klan’s offer, Berry confirmed that the offer still stands. “Some skinhead groups, other white pride groups and Christian Identity groups have also said they are willing to go to South Africa,” Berry said. Berry also expressed his associates’ interest in South Africa as a viable option for the Klan “when the US goes down.” “If Africans are taking over the United States, we are willing to live in a white state in South Africa,” Berry said. He has expressed his dissatisfaction with the US government’s failure to support the white race in South Africa. “They were giving money to get Mandela out of jail, but now the white race is getting killed and no-one does anything” Berry said. “What kind of justice is that?” Strong reactions has followed Berry’s claim that the Klan has invisible contacts in the military who could “get 4 000 people over real quick” to protect the property of white farmers. “The proposal doesn’t surprise me,” said Chris Freeman, from the Center for Democratic Renewal, a resource institute that provides information on hate groups while being a watchdog to keep track of their activities. “One thing I know, is the situation of farmers is being discussed by several rightwing groups” Freeman reckons these groups have taken interest in South African because it was the last bastion of complete white supremacy.” According to Freeman several neo-nazi- and white supremacist groups as well as other Klans, discuss the current situation in South Africa, host forums or publish articles on farm killings in South Africa on their websites. “Apartheid in South Africa, represents something to these people, something to strive for,” Freeman said. He reckons the Klan feels solidarity with the whites of South Africa. A spokesperson from the South African Embassy in Washington D.C. declined to comment on the Klan’s offer, but reassured the commitment of the current government to this “complicated South African issue.” "The South African Government has clearly demonstrated its determination to give special attention to the problem of attacks on farms,” the spokesperson said. “To this end, the Government has increased the police and military deployment in rural areas and is seeking to work in partnership with the farming community. The South African Government has proper mechanisms in place to deal with our socio-economic problems.” The spokesperson also emphasised the fact that the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, in his budget speech, announced that an extra R4 billion will be allocated over the next three years for the expansion of the criminal justice sector. Freeman reckons the American Knights would not have the resources to go through with the proposed ‘peace corps.’ “I’d have to see it to believe it,” he said. “I think Reverend Berry is just blowing a lot of smoke.” He reckons the Klan is just bluffing about their “invisible people”, although he confirmed that the Church of the American Knights is one of the largest Klans in the United States. “They have taken a different route by using inflammatory strategies and harsh language, and they also incite the crowd to act in a violent way to attract media attention,” he said. He ascribed the popularity of the American Knights as opposed to other Klans, to their inflammatory strategies. “They attract people who are fed-up with the timidness of the other Klans, the American Knights don’t mess around. Rev Berry will scream in nasty language, and he gets media attention,” Freeman said. “The US system is based on racist policies, and there are many sympathizers with the Klan.” Research at the Center for Democratic Renewal has proven that there has been a shift from joining organised hate groups in the States to either going underground, or to become members of legitimate groups such as Council of Conservative Citizens. Thanks to Matheson Communication [ Top ]  Kytie Koekblik ColumnKytie Koekblik Washington D.C. - Ek dag dis nuclearwar wat uitbreek. Of election-fever sonder dat daar ‘n election was in Washington D.C. Die nuusspanne staan gereed met verslaggewers oraloor die interstate en kort-kort onderbreek nuusflitse die kinderprogramme. “Alert” flits ook gereeld oor die tv-skermpie. Ek luister mos nooit na die weervoorspellings nie, ten spyte van die feit dat Amerika se weer-celebrity, Bob Ryan, se seun saam met my in die huis bly. Bob Ryan het selfs ‘n boek met tips vir Weer 2001 en ‘n pragtige foto van sy blonde postuur daarop, wat op elke toonbank in die Safeway in Washington verkoop word. Vra vir sy seun, hoe lykie weer, en jy kry ‘n doodkyk en ‘n taai klap.Van kleins af noem hulle hom Weather Boy. Bob se aanhangers wat hom herken op straat, wil altyd weet hoe die winde gaan draai. Maar ek moes maar vir Bob Ryan se seun gevra het oor die weer gister. Woensdag oggend was die weer pragtig, omtrent vyftig grade Kaapse winterweer hier in DC. Ek trek nogal ewe my klein t-hempie aan, en vat vir voorsorg my windbreaker. Dis nou een ding van ‘n Suid-afrikaner aan die Oos-Kus, as die weer goed lyk, smile ons EN ONS BRAAI definitief. Om die waarheid te se, my Baas se braais word net gestop deur storm alerts. Lunch time is ek die enigste crazy African wat met kaal arms op straat stap met ‘n groot glimlag. Ek trek in my verbeeling parallelle met die weer op die Strand, as daar so ‘n koel luggie blaas en jy met jou wit arms ‘n bietjie son soek by die see. En ek glimlag heeldag. Ek hoor al in my kop daai tunetjie, dis heerlike lente, die winters verby, dis groen in die velde vir jou en vir my… Ek los my serp, handskoene en mus by die huis in ‘n vlaag van optimisme en stupidgeit. Dis nou wel nog steeds grys en doodbruin in DC, maar ek op en sien die mooiste blouste lug en voel sommer gelukkig. Woensdag-nag daag ek by my buitelug ysskaats baan op met blou vingers. Die goedhartige ysskaats-mannetjie bied aan om my huis toe te neem, want ewe skielik is dit onder vriespunt en ek voel so half belaglik met my kort mou hempie en dun baadjie aan. Woensdag-nag is die verwarmers aan in my klein dakkamertjie, ewe skielik besef ek hier is onweer in die lug. STORM ALERT, verkondig die Washington Post. Ja, ja, die vorige keer is daar ook sneeu voorspel en toe mis die storm ons en dump New York in six inches. Dit sneeu toe wel gister. En dis vrek, vrek koud. Natuurlik loop ek in elk geval met ‘n glimlag rond op my gesig terwyl die stad leeg loop en die strate vol word van die mooiste, witste sneeu. Ek en my baas sit oor lunchtyd in ‘n lee restaurant en lag te lekker oor die paniek-aanvalle rondom ons. Die highways is vol karre, die skole sluit vroeer, dis soos ‘n grootskaalse uittog uit die stad uit. “Dis bad vir business” se die baas en die restaurant owner, terwyl die fyn wit poeier neersif rondom ons in ‘n twee inch laag. Ek voel weereens happy, gee my sonskyn of gee my sneeu…die hele wereld kry sommer kleur rondom my. Ek stap rond met my kamera om my nek en snap shots van die donsige ys vingers En die wit lagies oraloor die grys takke wat gloei, ek neem fotos van sneeumanne en lag As ek onder ‘n tak deurloop en die koue sneeu oor my gesig val. Maar niemand in DC het gisteraand gelag nie. Dalk was al die storm alerts en die paniek wat die media gesaai het, toe tog vir ‘n goeie rede. Ry veilig, or ry liewers glad nie. Gisteraand was daar ‘n pile-up van 120 motors, talle is beseer, een is dood. As sneeu ys, is dit geen pragtige grappie nie. Klaarblyklik het mense paniekbevange in die woude ingehardloop, te bang vir verdere pile-ups. Ander insidente het ook plaasgevind, elke metro stasie het waarskuwings uitgestuur, dit strate was vol van glad, grys gemors wat moes skoongemaak word. Heel duidelik was die Capitol City nie voorbereid op sneeu nie, al was dit dan ook ‘n onbeduidende twee inches en nie die dikke laag wat ons verwag het nie. Die grocery stores is leeg, vanoggend is landscrapers aan die skraap in die strate, en die lug is weer blou. Dit was dan my kennismaking met sneeu, en my eerste regtige winter. Die eerste maal dat dele van my lyf wit en blou geraak het; dit eerste maal dat ek vier lae klere sou drae en steeds nie sweet nie… Dit dan, Kytie Koekblik vir die Weers Rubriek uit Washington D.C. Kytie K. Kytie Koekblik would like you to respond to her tongue-in-cheek running commentary on suburban life in America in this editorial. Fresh off the boat, she is ready to explore and experiment with American bath plugs and to drive on the other side of the road. You can contact her here. © RSA-Overseas & Matheson Communications [ Top ] US throw lifelife to illegal aliens Before former president Bill Clinton left office, he gave illegal aliens a new option to change their status with the LIFE act of December 21, 2000. Persons who were in the USA on Dec. 21 and who file for green card benefits by April 30, 2001, will be able to adjust their visas here without having to go back to their home countries. The new law waives the going home requirement for persons who normally have to return to their countries to change their visa status, says SA Immigration Attorney Ismail Laher, who is based in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. “There is significant hope surrounding the new immigration law that President Clinton has signed on Dec 21, 2000,” Laher said. He strongly recommend filing by April the 30th as a viable option to have your status changed Ordinarily, out of status persons leaving the US face a three or ten year bar but the new law requires them to pay a $1000 fine to take advantage of this benefit. Laher explained that persons who are currently out of status, can file for this green card benefit by getting a job sponsor. However, there is no automatic protection from deportation or immediate work authorization. Immediate family members can also file for this immigration benefit, and the law grants protection from deportation and work authorization to spouses and children of late legalization applicants. The application for a green card, normally takes 18-36 months. Thanks to Matheson Communication [ Top ] SA's Lewis boxing showdown draws major stars Hollywood's glitterati are expected to rub shoulders with millionaires and political heavyweights at South Africa's April boxing showdown between world champion Lennox Lewis and challenger Hasim Rahman. Academy award winners Jack Nicholson and Robert de Niro lead a host of megastars and the rich who are heading to Gauteng to witness the bout at Carnival City in Brakpan. Also making their way to Brakpan will be George Foreman, who last set foot in Africa when he was heavyweight champion of the world. Foreman, Nicholson and De Niro have places on the guest list, as does President Thabo Mbeki and Sport and Recreation Minister Ngconde Balfour. Boxing promoter Rodney Berman, who is behind the big fight, said: "It's still early days, but you can be sure that there will be enough stars here to make your head spin. "I have invited the president and his wife, and our minister of sport, as a matter of courtesy. "I am not sure if the president's schedule will allow him to attend the fight, but if he does come, it will be a huge boost, not only for the tournament but for the sport itself." Foreman will head the Home Box Office commentary team that will do duty at the Lewis-Rahman fight. Dion Basson, a spokesperson for Carnival City, said preparations were under way to make sure that everything, from the ring-girls to Lewis's changeroom, was in order. "His manager has told us that he is coming here to fight and will be concentrating on training more than anything else. "There will be a lot at stake if he loses," Basson said. The fight will be staged in the arena where a former Spice Girl, Mel C, will strut her stuff on Saturday night. "Our boxing ring is the best in the country and there won't be any changes to it. It will be in place by the first week of April," Basson said. The arena has a seating capacity of 5 000. Lewis's hectic schedule might include a walkabout in Brakpan so that locals can have a chance to shake the champ's hand. "We won't rule out a walkabout and it may be worked into his itinerary, but he is coming here first and foremost to fight," Basson emphasised. Tourism bosses are expecting a revenue surge for the industry in the run-up to the fight. Willem Fick, executive director of the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa), said the international audience drawn to the fight would "put the focus back on South Africa". "This fight is a major positive for international tourism in South Africa. The event will put South Africa on the tourism menu of boxing fans," he said, "who hopefully will visit the country again with their families". Fick did not think the pricey tickets would pose a problem to the domestic market because boxing was considered to be a "corporate game". "I am sure many companies will be looking to entertain their high-profile clients," he said. Fick said businesses and authorities in Brakpan should ensure they offer tourists a "good package". "The whole East Rand must get together and make a success of it." He added that, with the right marketing initiatives, other tourism services, such as the Soweto Shebeen Route, could also reap benefits from the bout. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] National Service looms for SA youth The South African government plans to annually call up at least 10 000 young peoiple for voluntary national service. The plan, announced by Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota on Friday, got the nod of the country's biggest youth organisation - the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). The ANCYL was previously vehemently opposed to any form of using the army to get the youth to work as it smacked of the forced white conscription programmes of the past. ANCYL president Malusi Gigaba said the national service plan was crucial, as the country's youth lacked the "sheer discipline" to make them conquer the job market. He said, unlike in the past, the plan was not for the training of "trigger-happy apartheid assassins". Instead, it was for volunteer corps who would defend the country, he said. He said that at the league's forthcoming congress, to be held in Bloemfontein in April, the issue of youth unemployment would feature prominently. He also revealed that at his meeting with President Thabo Mbeki this week, the President had shared the ANCYL's position. The PAC has also warmed to the idea. "Any attempts at empowering the African youth through voluntary national service is in keeping with the goal of making freedom a reality for our people," said spokesperson Wonder Masombuka. On Friday, the Democratic Alliance added its support. Radley Keys said it was "unfortunately a drop in the ocean", since youth unemployment was acute in the country. The National Business Initiative also endorsed the move. It said this would give South Africa's youth more skills and markedly contribute towards employment in the long term. Lekota said the national service programme would give unemployed youth military training and a wide range of essential professional skills. Call up would last for a minimum of one year. He said in future the defence force would assist more in social-delivery programmes such as bulk water delivery, public works programmes and housing. "I'd like to see them turning their guns into ploughshares," he said. They would also make bursaries available for studies in engineering, medicine or other skills required by a modern defence force. Those who chose not to pursue a career in the military could be "civilianised" after training, but would depart with new skills. But Lekota said people trained by the defence force would retain a "permanent link" with it and could be called up to assist in "desperate circumstances". Organisations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides and school cadets could also have an important role to play, as they would assist in recognising an "inclination" by youth towards military life. However, some analysts believe the plan was unwise as it contradicted recent job cuts in the army. Ian Liebenberg, a University of Pretoria's Unit for African Studies researcher, said government appeared not to have "carefully thought out the matter" as no clear policies had been developed. In 1999 the Ministry of Defence announced that close to 30 000 jobs would be lost as part of an ongoing rationalisation programme in the army. Thanks to IOL.co.za [ Top ] Gangster wars in Cape Affluent Hermanus is a holidaymakers' and whale watchers' paradise. But in the nearby villages of Hawston and Mount Pleasant, a bitter war is being waged. This week the villages were racked by violence as the battle for the lucrative drug and perlemoen poaching trade hots up. Saturday Argus spent the past few days in the seaside villages where the battles have already claimed three lives and left scores injured. "This is not a R5 or R10 game anymore. This is organised crime. The money to be made here is a lot easier than selling mandrax. This is organised crime at its best. You can see how many guys sit at home and if you ask them what they do they'll tell you they're poachers," says one policemen. The battle being fought is between the 28s-aligned Rooidakkies gang, based in Hawston, and the Naughty Angels from Mount Pleasant. Much of the warfare centres around the lucrative perlemoen (abalone) and drug trade where the 28s have firmly established themselves in coastal towns between Gansbaai to Hawston. Both gangs have a heavy Cape Flats membership, with many of the kingpins coming from gang-ravaged areas of Cape Town, having moved into the once sleepy coastal villages over the past couple of years. When we met him, police inspector Christo "Straatvalk" Ross had spent the past five hours in a kloof overlooking the small bays which are notorious for poaching. He radios his colleagues that five divers have just entered the water at a remote and rocky strip of coastline. "Once they're in the water they can come out just about anywhere along the coastline," says fellow inspector Walter Prins. He and his six colleagues who are with him on this day are part of the police's on-going Operation Neptune aimed at curbing the scourge of poachers who have depleted the natural resources for which the area is famous. And the most lucrative catch is perlemoen. Armed only with a diving suit and a spoon or screwdriver, the divers spend about three hours along the rocky outcrops in search of these treasures of the sea. Varying only slightly from area to area, perlemoen fetches them between R200 and R250 per kilogram, which amounts to about four of the shellfish. About three hours after entering the water the divers are caught in a police trap as they return to their cars. But this time there are only four of them, even though Straatvalk insisted he saw five. Police find the divers in possession of eight small "akrikkels" and each gets fined R20 for their troubles. Police know that the real stash is with the fifth man who must still be hiding out amongst the reeds. Three hours later Straatvalk calls in again from his perch. He's spotted the missing member of the diving crew and within minutes police swoop on him to make the arrest. They also arrest two men who were among the four fined earlier. The two allegedly came back to fetch their stranded comrade. But the loot is nowhere to be found. After an intensive two hour search which includes calling in specialist sniffer dog Kaila, police find the bag with about thirty perlemoen hidden in the dense bush. There is elation in the group of police officers and the poachers heads hang low in dejection, having lost this round of the ongoing battle. Just about everybody in the fishing villages admits to being a poacher, a trade they find as natural a thing as breathing. "In a way we can't blame these people for poaching because they have nowhere else to go. But at the same time we have a good understanding with them that we have a job to do and they cannot continue to rape the sea," says Inspector Prins. "I've been doing this for about 20 years now. My dad used to be a commercial diver and back then there was only about eight of us who were poaching," says 32-year-old Cyril Swarts who along with friends Reginald Baaitjies and Carlo Lackay, both 21, readily admit to being poachers. But as unemployment in the area grew, more and more people from trades like building and carpentry looked to the sea to make a living. "In our place the fishermen are furious. The people with the money get the quotas but those who spent all their life on the sea walk around like bergies," he says. And it is these same people who sit with the quotas who buy the poachers' catch. "Those people who got quotas got it because they collected signatures from the community and are supposed to pay these people out for their part of the quota. "They did that in the first year and when the second year rolled around they just didn't bother to pay people anymore," says Lackay. The group also complain that the only other industry along the coast is building work with most of the contracts going to people from outside the area. And even then the pay of R300 a week is nothing compared to a day in the sea. They also allege local police complicity in the lucrative poaching activities with some police personnel apparently going so far as to use police bakkies to transport the poachers' haul. About 1am in the morning the crew from Operation Neptune are called out again as the relief team needs assistance to deal with nine carriers they have just caught. Among the nine is a 13-year-old boy - about the age that Swarts started poaching. He nervously explains that he runs the gauntlet of police custody because his father is too old to work and he needs to help put food on the table. Youngsters are obviously nothing new to the poaching business with police recently arresting a group of boys caught poaching, the youngest being nine-years-old, after they got bored at a Valentine's Day ball arranged by their school and decided to take the gamble. This time police find no trace of perlemoen on the carriers who were waiting to relieve another group of nine divers already in the water when police surprised them. Divers often leave their loot tied to a rock to collect it later the night or the following morning. "And we have to catch them before they get in the cars because the guys here drive BMWs and souped-up cars. Once they have their bag and they're in their car then it's over," says one policeman. From here the perlemoen gets sold to a local buyer who sends it to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and just about anywhere in the country. The buyers have adopted a more sophisticated approach, using scouts to find out if any police vehicles are lying in wait for them, and police seldom catch this link in the chain. Most of the catch is for export to the Far East and is either dried or frozen before being exported by ship or airplane, often hidden among other seafood. In the Far East the perlemoen sell for about six times the price poachers get paid for their trouble. "I've been arrested about ten times already and served jail time twice for poaching. But yes, tomorrow you'll probably find me here again. What else am I supposed to do? This is all we have," said Swarts. |
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