Monday, December 29, 2014

ACDP WELCOMES NKANDLA SUSPENSION

No Fear No Favour No Corruption.......



The 58-year-old official signed a deal last week informing the dept of his intention to plead guilty.










President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead. Picture: City Press.






CAPE TOWN – The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has welcomed the admission of guilt from a senior Public Works Department employee over irregularities involving upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home.

The department's Director of Projects, Itumeleng Molosi, was suspended for two months without pay for irregularly appointing contractors and flouting procurement procedures.

Molosi was further instructed to undergo retraining on the Public Finance Management Act.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe says the party welcomes Molosi’s admissions.

“He needs to be punished because when a person is guilty of contravening the rules and procedures, there has to be sanctions imposed.”
Molosi reportedly blamed himself and several other officials, saying they felt pressured into cutting corners, as the project involved Zuma’s home. 
The 58-year-old senior official signed the deal last week after informing the department of his intention to plead guilty.
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in March released her Nkandla report and found that Zuma and his family unduly benefited from the R246 million upgrades to his private KwaZulu-Natal home.
But in November, the Nkandla ad-hoc committee officially absolved the president of any wrongdoing in relation to the massive overspending.
(Edited by Tamsin Wort)

EWN

CAPE TOWN - A senior Public Works Department employee has been suspended for two months without pay for his involvement in the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.
The Department’s Director of Projects, Itumeleng Molosi, pleaded guilty to irregularly appointing contractors and flouting procurement procedures.
The City Press reported earlier today that Molosi is the first official to accept blame for the more than R200 million project.
The 58-year-old senior official signed the plea deal last week after informing the department he intended to plead guilty.
He reportedly blamed himself and other officials, saying they felt pressured in to taking short cuts as the project involved the president’s home.
The report says Molosi has also been instructed to undergo retraining on the Public Finance Management Act.
In March, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released her Nkandla report and found that Zuma and his family unduly benefited from the upgrades at his KwaZulu-Natal home.
But in November the Nkandla ad-hoc committee officially absolved the president of any wrongdoing in relation to the massive overspending.
Public Works officials accused of wrongdoing are facing disciplinary hearings for their alleged role in the scandal.

EWN

COMMENTS BY SONNY



No wonder the NPA loses all their High Profile cases.
They use a plea Bargain with all the pawns and the Kingpin normally walks Scott free!!
There are numerous cases on record to prove this point.
THOSE WHO GET CONVICTED GET A MEDICAL DISCHARGE FROM PRISON AT THE PRESIDENTS BEHEST!!
Where is Justice in South Africa?
CORRUPTION RULES FROM THE TOP!!
CORRUPTION GETS DUPLICATED!!





re





Monday, December 15, 2014

Insiders Looted Gold Worth $200b from South African Reserve Bank

Insiders Looted Gold Worth $200b from South African Reserve Bank

2014

goodson.jpg


Stephen Goodson has written a hair raising account
of criminal activities at the South African equivalent
of the Federal Reserve.
As a former Director, he is in a position to know !



by the New Economic Rights Alliance (of South Africa)
(henrymakow.com)

A whistle-blower has revealed the truth about the South African Reserve Bank.

"Inside the South African Reserve Bank - It's Origins and Secrets Exposed" is a fascinating and must-read book.
Most people have no idea what the purpose of the Reserve Bank is. It's high time they learned the truth. Author, Stephen Goodson, paints the South African Reserve Bank as an insidious institution full of back-handing, back-stabbing, corrupt, power hungry psychopaths... (pretty much like any other bank!)

Goodson is a former Director of the Reserve Bank and, according to his book:

It is absolutely clear that the Board of the Reserve Bank has absolutely no idea how the money creation process works. In other words, they do not actually understand that, when a commercial bank creates a loan or an overdraft, the customer spends the money into existence. In other words, a bank loan creates brand new money.

Gill+Marcus+XXX+high+res.jpgThe scandal of Gill Marcus, a Jew, left, the former Governor of the SARB, is both alarming and disturbing. After selling sandwiches in London, she studied economics and went to work for our Reserve Bank. She was so awful, that she was instructed to clear her desk in 2004 and leave the building. She was fired. However after secretly following [her predecessor] Tito Mboweni around, she created a black-list of all his ill-deeds. Later, she reappeared as Governor of SARB under mysterious circumstances.

Gill Marcus immediately removed the requirement that all Reserve Bank meetings must be transcribed and recorded. She shredded documents and changed the voting rights of shareholders. Then she introduced changes that would phase out the "old guard" and amended the rules to allow only herself to appoint new candidates.

Finally, she secretly allowed a Swedish company to print South Africa's banknotes, while the local printing facility stood idle. This was a disaster. R800,000m worth of bank notes were put into circulation that did not even come close to meeting the required printing standards.

Shortly afterwards, R360million worth of banknotes had to be destroyed because they were "accidentally" printed with the same serial numbers. Since then, for secrecy reasons, the same company is still responsible for producing many of South Africa's banknotes.

Kruger Rands have been found to be 5% short of the stated gold content. SilverDoctors.com stated that this was likely to be a skimming operation by the South African Reserve Bank. If you purchased Kruger Rands after 2010, we suggest that you have them tested.

300 tonnes of gold valued at over R300 billion was stolen from the SARB, with the help of insiders as part of a bigger looting exercise valued at a massive R2.25 trillion.

A third of our foreign currency reserves are looked after by a single bank: JP Morgan, a bank who's reputation and skulduggery goes sickeningly deep.

90% of our gold reserves are kept at the Bank of England. When Germany asked the Federal Reserve bank of the US for their gold back, they only returned a very small portion of what was agreed - and it turned out that the gold returned was fake.

The story seems almost too incredible to be true, could it be the same with our gold reserves? This is just another day at the office for the banksters. The question is... where is South Africa's gold now? Not in the hands of the people that mine it, that's for sure.

[Author] Stephen Goodson left SARB under claims that he was a "holocaust denier" with bad press associated with him. He dedicates an entire chapter to this topic in his book, which does not interest NewERA at all. We are far more interested in the research and insight behind the banking system. It is greatly sad that such a topic is brought up, as we feel it is completely unnecessary and inconsequential to the real message behind the book.

According to Goodson, the solution to this problem, at least in part, is the creation of a People's Bank. This bank does not allow money to be created out of nothing by a bank then loaned to the government at interest. Instead, the government issues its own currency based on our ability and requirements to develop.

This kind of bank is not new. It has been created several times in the past with incredible success. However, each time such a bank was created, either the bank was mysteriously closed down, or its country was bombed. When a conventional Central Banking system is put in place, economic hell soon follows.

Until the people of South Africa understand the history and lies behind the banking system, and have the humility to admit that we have been misinformed by a skewed economic education system, then we will never see economic freedom.

Order the book on Amazon, but don't expect delivery from our current postal system. Rather contact the author directly here: abolishusury@sonicmail.co.za. [The book is also available online from alibris]
----
Thanks to "AB" for sending this!

Related- Marcus Stepped Down Nov. 14 at end of her Five Year Term

White Luciferians Still Run South Africa

Also by Stephen Goodson: A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind

First Comment from JG:

The Bank of England ( House of Rothschild) is the world's Central Bank of all Reserve Banks around the globe that are actively involved in international trade.This is why the British Pound will always have more value than any other currency on the commercial world markets regardless of the state of England's economy.The Bank of England is a sovereign entity that is not under the British Parliament's jurisdiction or control.

In plain English, " YOU CAN'T BEAT THESE PEOPLE"!

There are too many nations today like India, China, and Russia that think the Bank of England and it's Reserve Bank conglomerates don't believe in gold. This is a laughable assumption because they own majority of the world's gold. Who do you think owns the gold and diamond mines in South Africa? And where, and by whom, is the price of gold set? Go ahead and stock up on silver and gold as a hedge.They can crash the price of metals also as you are witnessing right now.

If you think you're going to escape their stranglehold on your currency by going with an independent nationalized currency good luck with that also. What happens when the foreign Reserve Banks banks don't recognize your currency as a viable exchange for goods? A nationalized "debt free" currency today can only be successful if your nation is not dependent on foreign imports to survive. And, in the high tech global economy that would almost be impossible.

Dan replies to JG:

The older I get the more it irritates me to see comments such as this JG who screams, "YOU CAN'T BEAT THESE PEOPLE!" Of course you can't if that's your attitude. There has never been a power on earth that didn't meet its match. Plus, bankers, more than anyone else, use bluff constantly. For the simple reason that they do not run a legitimate business, they run a criminal scam, a confidence game, which is a conveyor belt of all wealth in the world into their pockets leaving nothing for the rest of the world's people.

Simply put, a con only works as long as enough people are conned.

How long does JG think these never-lift-a-finger-except-to-count-money, fat ass do-nothings will last when enough have-nothings, just above starving, get the picture? The world's not far off from that at this moment. JG needs to go to some non "western" web sites and take a look at the real world. Even westerners are fed up. Western Europeans are, en mass, on the verge of getting rid of those controlling their U.S. serving, on-the-take governments. All the hundred dollar bills in the world are not going to keep the criminal banker-owned west going much longer. Bribery doesn't work forever. Especially when the bribes only go to those in political office.

Already, in Ukraine, there are soldiers who quit killing other Ukrainians for the criminals running Kiev and changed sides. The business people of all Europe want the U.S. and the totally stupid sanctions, which hurt Europe much more than Russia, gone. The U.S. and its NATO are no match militarily for any nation bigger than Iraq. Queers and women make a lousy army. Putin has flat out told the U.S. that they are not getting novorussia. That Russia will never allow their attempted genocide of the Russian speaking Ukrainians. The U.S. has no clue what to do next. They are NOT going to get the eastern Ukraine's minerals so Biden's son might as well forget that fortune.

The western elites everywhere outside the U.S., Canada and maybe a few others, are hanging on by their teeth.

Anyone who doesn't see that the big western bankers, Rothschilds included, are shitting their pants over BRICS and the deals being made, one after the other, leaving them and the dollar on the outside looking in, isn't looking. The dream world in the west is about to turn into a nightmare and, frankly, it can't happen soon enough. A Rothschild agent for every lamp post sounds good to me.

Some years back, when Putin jailed the Jewish crook who had stolen Russia's oil resources and took back the resources he was told by the criminal that he couldn't do that because they had been given to Rothschild. Does Rothschild have them or does Russia? - See more at: http://henrymakow.com/2014/11/insider-exposes-south-african-central-bank.html#sthash.3KBnCrgf.dpuf

Cops end Sydney siege-three people were killed — the gunman and two of the hostages — and four others were wounded.





Two dead as cops end Sydney siege

December 15 2014 at 07:12pm
By Lincoln Feast and Colin Packham

REUTERS
Police officers wearing armoured suits walk with a robot towards the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place in central Sydney. Photo: Jason Reed


Sydney - Australian security forces opened fire on Tuesday as they stormed the Sydney cafe where several hostages were being held at gunpoint, in a dramatic end to a standoff that had dragged on for more than 16 hours.

Media said that two people, including the gunman, had been killed. New South Wales police declined to comment on the reports, and it was not clear whether the fatalities occurred during the rescue operation itself.

Heavy gunfire and loud bangs from stun grenades filled the air shortly after 2 am local time (1500 GMT on Monday).

Moments earlier at least six people believed to have been held captive managed to flee the scene after several loud bangs were heard coming from the cafe.

Medics were seen trying to resuscitate one person after the raid and took away several injured people on stretchers, said a Reuters witness at the scene in downtown Sydney.

Copy of 04530054
A screengrab of the man believed to be the gunman inside the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place, Sydney. Screengrab: SEVEN NEWS TV CHANNEL
EPA
The operation began shortly after a police source named the gunman as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh facing multiple charges of sexual assault as well as being an accessory to murder.

He was also found guilty in 2012 of sending offensive and threatening letters to families of eight Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, as a protest against Australia's involvement in the conflict, according to local media reports.

Although he was well known to the authorities, security experts said preventing attacks by people acting alone could still be difficult.

”Today's crisis throws into sharp relief the dangers of lone wolf terrorism,” said Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin, speaking in New York.

“There are two areas of concern. The first is ISIS (Islamic State) fighters with foreign passports who return to their home countries to commit acts of terrorism.

“The second is ISIS sympathisers radicalised on the internet who take it upon themselves to commit terrorist attacks to fulfil their radical ideology.

“We are entering a new phase of terrorism that is far more dangerous, and more difficult to defeat, than al-Qaeda ever was.”

During the siege, hostages had been forced to display an Islamic flag, igniting fears of a jihadist attack.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States and its escalating action against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is on high alert for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East.

News footage showed hostages holding up a black and white flag displaying the Shahada - a testament to the faith of Muslims. The flag has been popular among Sunni Islamist militant groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda.

At least five hostages were released or escaped on Monday, with terrified cafe workers and customers running into the arms of paramilitary police.

A further 15 or so hostages were understood to have been holed up inside the cafe.

The incident forced the evacuation of nearby buildings and sent shockwaves around a country where many people were turning their attention to the Christmas holiday following earlier security scares.



In September, anti-terrorism police said they had thwarted an imminent threat to behead a random member of the public and days later, a teenager in the city of Melbourne was shot dead after attacking two anti-terrorism officers with a knife.

The siege cafe is in Martin Place, a pedestrian strip popular with workers on a lunch break, which was revealed as a potential location for the thwarted beheading.

In the biggest security operation in Sydney since a bombing at the Hilton Hotel killed two people in 1978, major banks closed their offices in the central business district and people were told to avoid the area.

Muslim leaders urged calm. The Australian National Imams Council condemned “this criminal act unequivocally” in a joint statement with the Grand Mufti of Australia.

Concerns about an attack in Australia by Islamists have been growing for more than a year, with the security agency raising its national terrorism public alert to “high” in September. - Reuters

Related Stories

Security forces storm Sydney hostage cafe
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Two more hostages escape Sydney cafe
Three escape Sydney hostage drama
Hostages held in Sydney cafe

SYDNEY (AP) — Amid a barrage of gunfire, police stormed a cafe in the heart of Sydney early Tuesday to end a 16-hour hostage siege by an Iranian-born gunman. Police said three people were killed — the gunman and two of the hostages — and four others were wounded.

Police raided the Lindt Chocolat Cafe after they heard a number of gunshots from inside, said New South Wales state police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.
"They made the call because they believed that at that time, if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost," he said.
The gunman was identified as Man Haron Monis, who once was prosecuted for sending offensive letters to families of Australian troops killed in Afghanistan.
Scipione wouldn't say whether the two hostages who were killed — a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman — were caught in crossfire, or shot by the gunman. Among the four wounded was a police officer shot in the face.

"Until we were involved in this emergency action, we believe that no one had been injured. That changed. We changed our tactic," he said, adding that there had been a total of 17 hostages taken in the cafe when the siege began.

The standoff ended when a loud bang was heard from the cafe and five people ran out. Shortly after, police swooped in, amid heavy gunfire, shouts and flashes. A police bomb disposal robot also was sent into the building, but no explosives were found.

Police said an investigation is underway because police were involved in an incident in which people died.

Local media identified the gunman as 50-year-old Monis, and a police official confirmed his identity. Under department rules, officials do not identify themselves unless speaking at a formal news conference.

Monis has long been on officials' radar. Last year, he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service for using the postal service to send what a judge called "grossly offensive" letters to families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009.

At the time, Monis said his letters were "flowers of advice," adding: "Always, I stand behind my beliefs."

He was later charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. Earlier this year, he was charged with the sexual assault of a woman in 2002. He has been out on bail on the charges.

"This is a one-off random individual. It's not a concerted terrorism event or act. It's a damaged goods individual who's done something outrageous," his former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness," Conditsis said.
The siege began around 9:45 a.m. in Martin Place, a plaza in Sydney's financial and shopping district that is packed with holiday shoppers this time of year. Many of those inside the cafe would have been taken captive as they stopped in for their morning coffees.
Hundreds of police blanketed the city as streets were closed and offices evacuated. The public was told to stay away from Martin Place, site of the state premier's office, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the headquarters of two of the nation's largest banks. The state parliament house is a few blocks away, and the landmark Sydney Opera House also is nearby.

Throughout the day, several people were seen with their arms in the air and hands pressed against the window of the cafe, with two people holding up a black flag with the Shahada, or Islamic declaration of faith, written on it.
The Shahada translates as "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger." It is considered the first of Islam's five pillars of faith, and is similar to the Lord's Prayer in Christianity. It is pervasive throughout Islamic culture, including the green flag of Saudi Arabia. Jihadis have used the Shahada in their own black flag.

Channel 10 news said it received a video in which a hostage in the cafe had relayed the gunman's demands. The station said police requested they not broadcast it, and Scipione separately asked all media that might be contacted by the gunman to urge him instead to talk to police.
A number of Australian Muslim groups condemned the hostage-taking in a joint statement and said the flag's inscription was a "testimony of faith that has been misappropriated by misguided individuals."

In a show of solidarity, many Australians offered on Twitter to accompany people dressed in Muslim clothes who were afraid of a backlash from the cafe siege. The hashtag #IllRideWithYou was used more than 90,000 times by late Monday evening.
Seven Network television news staff watched the gunman and hostages for hours from a fourth floor window of their Sydney offices, opposite the cafe.
The gunman could be seen pacing back and forth past the cafe's windows. Reporter Chris Reason said the man carried what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun, was unshaven and wore a white shirt and a black cap.

Some of the hostages were forced up against the windows.
"The gunman seems to be sort of rotating these people through these positions on the windows with their hands and faces up against the glass," Reason said in a report from the vantage point. "One woman we've counted was there for at least two hours — an extraordinary, agonizing time for her surely having to stand on her feet for that long."

"When we saw that rush of escapees, we could see from up here in this vantage point the gunman got extremely agitated as he realized those five had got out. He started screaming orders at the people, the hostages who remain behind," he added.
Reason later reported that staff brought food from a kitchen at the rear of the cafe and the hostages were fed.
As night set in, the lights inside the cafe were switched off. Armed police guarding the area outside fitted their helmets with green-glowing night goggles.
"This is a very disturbing incident," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. "It is profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation."

Lindt Australia thanked the public for its support.
"We are deeply concerned over this serious incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the staff and customers involved and all their friends and families," the company wrote in a Facebook post.

Australia's government raised the country's terror warning level in September in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group. Counterterror law enforcement teams later conducted dozens of raids and made several arrests in Australia's three largest cities — Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. One man arrested during a series of raids in Sydney was charged with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person in downtown Sydney.
The Islamic State group, which now holds a third of Syria and Iraq, has threatened Australia in the past. In September, Islamic State group spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani issued an audio message urging so-called "lone wolf" attacks abroad, specifically mentioning Australia. Al-Adnani told Muslims to kill all "disbelievers," whether they be civilians or soldiers.

One terrorism expert said the situation appeared to be that of a "lone wolf" making his own demands, rather than an attack orchestrated by a foreign jihadist group.
"There haven't been statements from overseas linking this to extremist groups outside the country — that is quite positive," said Charles Knight, lecturer in the Department of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Australia's Macquarie University. "The individual or individuals involved didn't kill early, which is part of the pattern of some recent international attacks. ... It seems to be shifting more into the model of a traditional hostage situation, rather than the sort of brutal attacks we've seen overseas."
___

Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Cyber crooks target SMEs





Cyber crooks target SMEs
By Lwavela Jongilanga, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 11 Dec 2014

SMEs are usually a lot easier to target as many are still running legacy software, says Trend Micro's Gregory Anderson.

SMEs are usually a lot easier to target as many are still running legacy software, says Trend Micro's Gregory Anderson.
Cyber criminals have realised they have just as much to gain from SMEs as they do from big corporations, but with less effort required because security isn't as tight.

So says Gregory Anderson, country manager at Trend Micro SA, who explains cyber crooks are using the same spear phishing tactics used in large enterprises to target individuals in smaller businesses, which are less sophisticated and have seen pleasing gains.

Anderson explains SMEs are usually a lot easier to target as many are still running legacy software, and often lack the in-house security expertise needed to protect themselves from targeted attacks.
Click Here

"SMEs are also easy targets because they have an online presence, but they don't have dedicated IT security staff."

New research by Trend Micro, Predator Pain and Limitless, has found two sets of malware –predator pain and limitless keylogger – are being used by their operators to target corporate users in SMEs, usually spreading the malware through spam campaigns.

See also

SMEs more vulnerable to phishing
SA remains top cyber crime hotspot
Cyber crime
Trend Micro

Anderson explains a cyber criminal's end-goal has always been about easy money, and the remote access tools – predator pain and limitless keyloggers – make it incredibly easy to steal a large amount of information from victims' computers.

Online banking credentials, passwords and more are easily attainable and as the world relies increasingly on Web services, all it will take to ruin a business is a single compromised online account, he points out.

Anderson says educating employees with regard to what to look out for – in e-mail, on devices, in browsers – is key. An evaluation of IT security within an SME can help determine the most vulnerable areas, and an IT security provider can assist in the development of a tailored security solution.

"The gains may be less compared to those from bigger organisations, but the effort cyber criminals put into targeted attacks against SMEs are relative.

"SMEs may not be involved in multi-million-dollar deals, but they do conduct transactions worth tens of thousands of rands. What makes them more attractive is that their employees may not even be aware of general IT security best practices."

These are not scare tactics, he says. "Our researchers have found advancements in malware and cyber crime tactics have reached a point where targeted attack techniques are joining spam and phishing as an integral part of the cyber criminal's techniques."

Instead of shrugging their shoulders and continuing to insist these types of attacks only happen to large enterprises, SMEs should be proactive in securing their virtual environments, concludes Anderson.



Cyber criminals cash in

By Lwavela Jongilanga, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, December 2014

Buying malware is not a problem: they're easy to find, says Kaspersky Lab's Alexander Gostev.

Buying malware is not a problem: they're easy to find, says Kaspersky Lab's Alexander Gostev.
Cyber criminals could be raking in profits 20 times greater than the cost of their attacks, according to figures compiled by Kaspersky Lab experts.

The research compared the cost of the most frequently used hacker tools with the money stolen in a successful malicious operation.

According to Kaspersky, cyber criminal profits are calculated at the maximum likely yield based on 100 victims.
Click here

The study found the profits from such malicious attacks are high considering the ammunition used to launch these attacks is relatively cheap.

"Buying malware is currently not a problem – they're easy to find on various hacker forums, and they are relatively cheap, making them attractive," says Alexander Gostev, chief security expert at Kaspersky Lab.

See also

Internet of things is hackable
Media attacks blamed for e-toll woes
Kaspersky Lab
cyber crime profits

He says a cyber criminal following this illegal path doesn't even need any skills – for a fixed price, they can get an off-the-peg package to launch their attacks at will.

The study found of the banking Trojan, exploit and spam mass mailing attacks launched, the average user stands to lose $722 from their bank account with software costing the crook $3 000 and a gain of $72 200.

A mobile Trojan blocker is much more expensive, says the security solutions vendor, adding today it costs $1 000 on average to buy and distribute the malware. However, it explains, the "payoff" is also much higher. The prices the attackers set for unblocking a smartphone vary from $10 to $200, which means that from 100 potential victims they can get up to $20 000.

The same sum can be earned by using encrypting ransomware, but the "initial investment" will be twice as high – about $2 000. The users' losses will be also higher because the minimum sum of the ransom requested by the fraudsters for decrypting the data is usually $100.

Social media is also a lucrative business with hackers using $150 to set up phishing pages that pose as social media platforms linking mass spam to lure users into fraudulent Web sites.

Users need to be especially careful to ensure they don't lose their money or data, advises Gostev.

2014 South African Person of the Year: 2nd Runners-up, Oscar Pistorius and Shrien Dewani

No Fear No Favours No lies.......



REBECCA DAVIS SOUTH AFRICA 09 DECEMBER 2014 02:15








The Daily Maverick’s Person of the Year, decided on annually by Daily Maverick staff, does not constitute an endorsement of the individuals in question. It reflects those who have dominated headlines during the year and cast some kind of spotlight on an aspect of South African society or public life. In 2014, our second runner-ups are Oscar Pistorius and Shrien Dewani. By REBECCA DAVIS.



The last time global attention was focused so intently on a South African courtroom was during 1963 and 1964, when Nelson Mandela and nine other ANC leaders stood in the dock in the Rivonia Trial, charged with acts of conspiracy to bring down the Republic.
Fifty years later, Mandela is no more. The media landscape has been unrecognisably changed by the advent of 24-hour TV channels and social media. And the world’s eyes came to rest on South Africa’s legal system once again, and two young men charged with having knowingly caused the death of their female partners.
On paper, Oscar Pistorius and Shrien Dewani would appear to have little in common. The former is a white South African, a world-famous disabled athlete, his name a byword for inspiration and sporting achievement, showered with media attention and public adulation. The latter is a British-Asian businessman unknown outside of his personal networks: a former chartered accountant for Deloitte who ran his family’s chain of old-age homes.
If it had not been for the manner in which Dewani’s new bride Anni Hindocha met her death, his name would almost certainly still be unknown to us. If it had not been for the manner in which Pistorius’s girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp met her death, his face would still be plastering billboards.
But one thing the two men shared was access to money and influence. The day after Pistorius’ arrest, former UK tabloid editor Stuart Higgins – known as the‘Human Sponge’ for his PR work for high-profile clients in trouble – was already on his way to Pretoria from London to assist with a “communications strategy”.
Dewani’s family called in Max Clifford, the UK’s king of spin. It’s alleged that one of Clifford’s first moves was to plant a story in Britain’s ‘Mirror’ denying rumours that Dewani was having an affair with a female manager in the family firm, in order to counter the allegations that Dewani was secretly gay.
In a twist of fate, it is Clifford, and not Dewani, who has ended up in jail. Clifford is currently serving an eight-year prison term for indecent assault.
Both men had the necessary funds to hire crack legal teams, with the Pistorius camp allegedly even approaching a forensic scientist who testified for OJ Simpson. Pistorius’ legal bill was ultimately said to top R17 million, with his upcoming appeal presumably taking him well beyond this.
To fight his extradition, Dewani turned to the services of barristers at London’s Matrix Chambers, a chambers which features some of the UK’s leading human rights lawyers (including Tony Blair’s wife Cherie Booth). The barrister who acted for Dewani, Clare Montgomery, previously led the prosecution team in the Swedish attempt to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
For his South African trial Dewani procured one of the top legal minds in the country, Advocate Francois van Zyl, who defended Margaret Thatcher's son Mark when he was accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
In the cases of both men, lawyers argued that they would be especially “vulnerable” to life in prison. While Dewani fought extradition from the UK to stand trial in South Africa, his legal team said he had severe post-traumatic stress disorder and that his high profile, wealth and looks could see his human rights infringed behind bars.
Pistorius’s lawyers said that his disability and “psychological weakness” would make him a target in jail. Defence witness Annette Vergeer, a probation officer, testified to the court that “[Pistorius]’s disability and state of mind would cause his detention to be an excessive punishment”.
Dewani’s successful extradition actually served the state’s case in the Pistorius proceedings. State prosecutor Gerrie Nel and witness Zach Modise – the acting national correctional services commissioner – used the fact of Dewani’s extradition as evidence that South Africa’s prisons were fit for purpose even for those who feel “very vulnerable”, a category Modise put both Dewani and Pistorius into.
In both cases, it was the criminality of black South Africans that was ultimately pinpointed as being at the heart of the two crimes. Pistorius would never have shot through a door if he had not feared that a black intruder was breaking into his home to harm him. Dewani’s defence maintained that his wife’s death was a botched hijacking and robbery by the black men already convicted of Hindocha’s murder which had nothing to do with their client.
In both cases, the wheels of the South African justice system moved uncharacteristically swiftly. Dewani fought his extradition for four years, but once in South Africa was speedily brought to trial. The only major procedural delay in the Pistorius trial came when Judge Thokozile Masipa ordered an unavoidable 30-day period of mental observation mid-defence case based on the testimony of a witness.
To give just one contrasting example, there were over 50 postponements, spanning six years, in the case of the men charged with the 2006 murder of lesbian Zoliswa Nkonyana. Not all the nine men charged with Nkonyana’s murder were found guilty, after their years in jail awaiting trial. Four managed to escape from holding cells at one point and were later recaptured. The case was not as exceptional as one would hope.
In both the Dewani and Pistorius cases, the quality of police work in the investigations has come in for strong criticism. The original investigating officer in the Pistorius case, Hilton Botha, came under fire for his initial handling of the crime scene, including a failure to wear protective covers on his shoes. One vital piece of evidence – the toilet door through which Pistorius shot – was not treated with sufficient care. The defence alleged that police moved elements of the crime scene before they took photos. One of Pistorius’s watches was allegedly stolen by police attending to the scene.
In the Dewani case, we saw a flawed ballistics investigation, the fact that police only transcribed telephone discussions about the murder three months before trial, the fact that no investigations diary was kept, and allegations that investigating officer Paul Hendrickse took to Facebook to express anti-Dewani bias. State witnesses offered a plea bargain by the National Prosecuting Authority were found to be so unreliable on the stand that in one case an immunity deal has now been revoked.
Yet in both the Dewani and Pistorius investigations, the quality of police work was leagues ahead of that which less high-profile criminal matters can hope to achieve in South Africa. The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry into Policing, which took place this year and failed to receive a fraction of the publicity granted to the Dewani and Pistorius trials, heard endless evidence of police failing to respond to call-outs unless a personal contact was invoked; of police losing dockets and neglecting to communicate any case progress to the families of victims; of police abandoning vital evidence in rape cases in a field; of police letting onlookers contaminate crime-scenes.
While we wring our hands at the police handling of the Dewani and Pistorius investigations, we should acknowledge that even that defective work represents the top end of South Africa’s two-tier criminal justice system: one for the rich, one for the poor.
What, then, are we left with? Two men cleared of murder. One in jail, perhaps not for very long. One totally free. The verdict in the Pistorius trial attracted the charge that Judge Thokozile Masipa may have mis-applied the law: a charge which an appeal court may now have the chance to consider. The verdict in the Dewani case seems far less ambiguous: Judge Jeanette Traverso has said that the evidence brought before her was simply too flimsy to proceed.
They are two verdicts which have left many greatly unhappy: the families of both women, but also many ordinary South Africans. Some will argue that these verdicts give substance to the idea of a society where women can be killed with impunity; that they may even embolden those who beat, or rape, or murder women in South Africa. One journalist reported that after the Dewani case discharge on Monday, a man was seen “waving a note in the air, pleading: ‘Here’s R50 for someone to murder MY wife, please!’” A joke, of course, but not a very funny one.
But perhaps we can take comfort in the fact that the judges presiding over the trials were manifestly un-swayed by the court of public opinion – or, for that matter, by political pressure. In 2010, erstwhile police chief Bheki Cele – now a deputy minister – openly called Dewani a “monkey” who “came all the way from London to have his wife murdered here”.
When Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane attended the Pistorius trial, she made a point of seeking out state witnesses to thank them for their testimony against the athlete. The ANC Women’s League in both cases expressed disappointment with the verdicts.
But these politicians sounding off about the trials clearly made not a jot of difference. If there is a positive takeaway message here, it is that the independence of the South African judiciary has been tested and found to be resolute.
And as for Pistorius and Dewani, these men whose glum faces have been everywhere we turned this year? We’re not done with Pistorius: on Tuesday Judge Masipa will hear the arguments for whether the Supreme Court of Appeal should consider his sentence and conviction for culpable homicide anew.
By the time you read this, Dewani may be on a plane home to Bristol: at his own expense this time, hopefully, rather than ours. He’s never coming back.
The next time international journalists descend on our shores en masse, let’s hope it’s for neither the death of an icon, nor a murder trial. In 2015, can we have some good news, please? DM
Photo: A file picture dated 11 September 2014 shows South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius crying while the verdict is being read during the verdict in his murder trial, Pretoria, South Africa. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK / POOL //// A file photograph showing British businessman Shrien Dewani siting in the dock before the start of his trial at the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town, South Africa, 06 October 2014. EPA/MIKE HUTCHINGS / POOL


Daily Maverick


COMMENTS BY SONNY


South Africa is one of the few countries where the State prosecution needs a second chance to prove a murder prosecution in Court.

Prosecutors are seen as persecutors and the police investigators as incompetent.

What can one expect from an incompetent government!

Cabinet launches scathing attack on Parliament

Cabinet launches scathing attack on Parliament
by Paul Vecchiatto, 11 December 2014, 13:45


A lawyer for the EFF has confirmed that the EFF’s Constitutional Court challenge against their fines and suspension will be filed on Thursday in Johannesburg.



Jacob Zuma. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO
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In this article

People: Jeff Radebe | Jacob Zuma

CABINET, the government’s highest decision-making body, launched a scathing attack on Parliament, and specifically opposition parties, saying that President Jacob Zuma has not refused to answer questions in the national legislature.


During Thursday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said: "The president has continuously fulfilled his role of accounting to Parliament. He has been answering written and oral questions posed to him in both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP)."


Opposition parties, in particular the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), have accused Mr Zuma of not honouring his constitutional obligations of appearing four times a year to orally answer questions.


Mr Zuma’s last appearance in the National Assembly was August 21. That session was interrupted when EFF MPs and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete started arguing heatedly over whether or not Mr Zuma had answered their questions on the R246m security upgrades at his private Nkandla residence.


Once Ms Mbete had suspended the sitting, the EFF MPs started chanting: "pay back the money."


An investigation by Parliament’s powers and privileges committee found the EFF MPs guilty of bringing Parliament into disrepute and some were fined up to a month’s salary and banned from the Parliamentary precinct until December 28.


Mr Radebe said in Thursday’s briefing: "Unfortunately, honourable members disrupted him (Zuma) while answering the third of six questions posed to him.


"It is the honourable members who, through their own disrespectful behaviour, disrupted the president as he was answering questions.


"Those who prevented the president from orally answering questions in the National Assembly have no moral grounds to twist the facts and suddenly claim that it is the president who does not want to orally reply to honourable members’ questions," Mr Radebe said.


He said the National Assembly had since dealt with those members who had disrupted Mr Zuma.

A lawyer for the EFF has confirmed that the EFF’s Constitutional Court challenge against their fines and suspension will be filed on Thursday in Johannesburg.

This follows the failure of the EFF earlier this week to convince the Western Cape High Court to hear the matter on an urgent basis.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Oscar: Staat doen aansoek om appèl teen vonnis (twiets)

No second chance for NPA........




Jeanne-Marié Versluis  8 Desember 2014  08:37




                                                 Barry Roux en sy span kom Dinsdagoggend by die hooggeregshof in Pretoria vir die hofverrigtinge aan. Foto: Theana Breugem




Adv. Gerrie Nel, vir die staat, doen Dinsdag in die hooggeregshof in Pretoria voor regter Tkokozile Masipa aansoek om teen Oscar Pistorius se vonnis te appelleer en om regsvrae oor Masipa se uitspraak in die Pistorius-saak aan die appèlhof te kan stel.
Masipa het Pistorius (28) op 21 Oktober vanjaar in die hooggeregshof in Pretoria ingevolge ’n bepaling van die Strafproseswet gevonnis tot vyf jaar tronkstraf, waarvan hy ’n sesde (tien maande) moet uitdien voordat hy moontlik op korrektiewe toesig vrygelaat kan word.
Sy het hom vroeër in haar uitspraak aan strafbare manslag skuldig bevind weens die skietdood van sy meisie, Reeva Steenkamp, op 14 Februarie verlede jaar.
Die staat meen Masipa het ’n regsfout begaan deur Pistorius aan strafbare manslag skuldig te bevind, pleks van moord (dolus eventualis).
Die staat meen ook Pistorius moes skuldig bevind word aan die onwettige besit van ammunisie in sy huis (wat Pistorius aanvoer sy pa se ammunisie was).
Die staat se kapsie teen die vonnis is dat dit “skokkend lig” is en nie deur enige redelike hof opgelê sou word nie.
(Volg die twiets onderaan hier bladsy).
​Wat gebeur vandag?
Die staat en verdediging moet voor die tyd hul skriftelike betooghoofde in ’n aansoek om verlof tot appèl by die hof indien. Die partye lig dit dan in die hof toe. Geen getuienis word vandag gelei nie.
Die argumente behoort binne ’n dag afgehandel te word, het Elzabe Brink, ’n strafregprokureur van Pretoria, gesê.
Pistorius hoef nie vandag in die hof te wees nie en dit is onwaarskynlik dat hy van die tronk hof toe gebring sal word.
Brink het gesê regter Thokozile Masipa behoort aan die staat verlof te gee om die regsvraag oor dolus eventualis te verken sodat daar uitklaring daaroor kan kom. Brink meen die skuldigbevinding aan strafbare manslag en Pistorius se vonnis is gepas.
Adv. Johann Engelbrecht SC meen die staat wil van feitebevindings regsvrae maak.
“Die kruks van die saak is of dit wel regsvrae is. Op die feite is bevind Pistorius was nalatig (dus skuldig aan strafbare manslag). Ek weet nie hoe die staat verby dié feite gaan kom nie.”
Volgens Engelbrecht het Masipa die begrip dolus eventualis behoorlik vertolk.
Hy het gesê indien die staat nie teen die meriete van die saak mag appelleer nie, mag hulle dalk steeds verlof kry om teen die vonnis te appelleer.



Only in South Africa - where the prosecution (NPA) demands a second chance at JUSTICE?

Hoe polisielede tussen 2007 en 2012 13 438 wapens verloor het

Geen drama sonder misdaad nie........



Word ál meer in misdaad gebruik





Leanne George  8 Desember 2014  00:50










‘Stel syfers beskikbaar’
Sedert die teenkorrupsieeenheid in 2003 ontbind is, is daar geen sentrale eenheid wat die omvang van polisie-korrupsie ondersoek nie.
“Die onafhanklike polisie-ondersoekdirektoraat (Opod) maak die afgelope twee jaar syfers bekend oor hoeveel ondersoeke teen polisielede gedoen is, maar dis nie ’n druppel in die emmer teenoor hoeveel korrupte polisielede daar waarskynlik werklik is nie,” sê dr. Johan Burger.
“Die polisieminister moet syfers beskikbaar stel oor hoeveel polisielede elke jaar aangekla of vervolg word weens die onwettige verkoop of verhuring van hul wapens.”
Die Valke ondersoek wel korrupsie in hul eie eenheid, asook onder hooggeplaaste lede in die res van die polisie, sê Burger.
Korrupte polisielede word ’n al hoe groter bron van wapens vir misdadigers.
’n Aanduiding van dié kommerwekkende neiging is die soort wapens wat tans gewild is onder misdadigers.
“Deesdae gebruik misdadigers R4- en R5-aanvalsgewere wat (onderskeidelik) deur die weermag en polisie gebruik word en nie deur private persone besit mag word nie. Dit dui daarop dat misdadigers toenemend op die polisie staatmaak om dié wapens in die hande te kry,” sê dr. Johan Burger, senior navorser van die Instituut vir Sekerheidstudie (ISS).
Burger sê gewapende rooftogte – soos bank- en transitorooftogte – is tot so tien tot 15 jaar gelede nog hoofsaaklik met AK47-aanvalsgewere uitgevoer.
Dié wapens was onder meer afkomstig van wapen­opslagplekke in Mosambiek.
Die beskikbaarheid daarvan het egter afgeneem vanweë operasies soos Operasie Rachel, waartydens die Suid-Afrikaanse en Mosambiekse polisie wapens wat in die burgeroorlog in Mosambiek naby die grens geberg is, vernietig het.
“Dit het al in hofsake aan die lig gekom dat sommige misdadigers wapens by polisielede huur. Polisielede wat self misdade pleeg, gebruik natuurlik ook hul eie wapens.”
Syfers wat Nkosinathi Nhleko, minister van polisie, op versoek van die VF+ in die parlement bekend gemaak het, dui daarop dat die getal wapens wat gesteel en verlore geraak het, afgeneem het.
Daarvolgens is 8 475 vuurwapens in die 2010-’11-boekjaar gesteel of verloor, terwyl 4 209 in 2013-’14 gesteel of verloor is.
Die probleem is dat net gemiddeld 10% van alle gesteelde of verlore wapens steeds teruggevind word, sê Burger.
“Dit beteken 90% daarvan beland stééds in misdadigers se hande.”
Nathi Mthetwa, Nhleko se voorganger, het maatreëls ingestel om strenger op te tree teen polisielede wat hul vuurwapens verloor.
Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA-woordvoerder oor polisie, sê daar word egter net teen een uit 100 polisielede opgetree wat hul wapens as verlore aanmeld.
“Polisielede het tussen 2007 en 2012 13 438 wapens verloor. Sommige verskaf as amptelike rede dat hulle hul wapens in die toilet ‘vergeet’ het.
“Ek wag steeds op ’n antwoord van die minister om te hoor of daar spesifieke lede is wat hul wapens telkemale verloor, want die vermoede bestaan dat sekere polisielede hul wapens aan misdadigers verkoop en dit dan bloot as verlore aanmeld.”
Burger sê daarom is daar eintlik geen afskrikmiddel vir polisielede wat wapens aan misdadigers verskaf nie.
Dr. Pieter Groenewald, die VF+ se woordvoerder oor polisie, sê: “Uitsprake dat daar te veel private vuurwapeneienaars is en dit geweldmisdaad in die land bevorder, is totaal onwaar.”

NETWERK 24



KOMMENTAAR DEUR SONNY


JA NEE DIE POLISIE MOET LEER OM TE BESKERM EN NIE KRIMINELE DADE TE PLEEG NIE!

AS DIE BAAS STEEL, STEEL ALMAL!!