Brits, North West – Johannesburg businessman Zunaid Moti appeared in the Brits Regional Court on Tuesday on charges of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit murder, said North West police.

He was granted bail of R40 000 said Brigadier Thulani Ngubane.

Moti’s co-accused Carlos de Sousa, who appeared on charges of assault, armed robbery and kidnapping, was released on bail of R30 000, he said.

The case was postponed until July 20, and Moti and De Sousa were instructed to not contact State witnesses.

FORMORE DETAILS GO TO http://www.iol.co.za

BY Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg- Police were called to the scene where a 33 year-old man
being assaulted by the community members.

Ntamo Mbuyiseli,33 was accused of spate of thefts and crime that left
the community rather worried about their safety.

The community decided to take the law their own hands and let
Mbuyiseli face its wrath.

Police acted swiftly to rescue him before he was further assaulted.
Ntamo Mbuyiseli was rescued by Police, however arrested for theft
after a complainant point out at him as the suspect.
He appeared briefly before magistrate and reminded in custody.
” A 33 year-old man, Ntamo Mbuyiseli will appear again in court for
bail application after his case was postponed. He will appear on the
27 of July” captain Maku said.

By Karabo Seanego

South Africans seem to be losing faith in police officers tasked with protecting them from the onslaught of criminals and thugs.

Residents of Ekangala are livid about the time the local police station takes to respond to their calls. A ward councillor in the area was hopping mad after community members burnt a Putco bus and made their way to the house of the Tshwane Metropolitan Council chief whip Jabu Mabona and vandalised it earlier in the week.

According to the ward councillor, the police only responded after three hours. “We called them (at about) 7pm, but they only arrived after 10pm. When they got there they told us they had a staff shortage,” said the councillor. The house in question is not even five minutes away from the police station.

He said another Putco bus was burnt during protests a month ago. He said it happened next to the police station, but no one was arrested. “We are concerned about their reaction time, because people might die as a result of their slow response. This issue has to be dealt with immediately,” he said.

The councillor said when they went to the police station, the officers were reluctant to help until one of Mabona’s bodyguards introduced himself as a member of the VIP Protection Unit. “This was when they became a bit helpful and started talking to us. We called two senior members of that station, One was asleep and his wife answered the phone, but he never woke up. Another officer said he was on leave and couldn’t help us,” he said.

Police spokesman Johannes Japhta said they were looking into the matter and the station commissioner was willing to meet the complainants to address the problem. “We would like those people to come forward and supply us with more information and the names of those officers they spoke to,” said Japhta.

Actions such as those of the police officers at the Ekangala police station do not do much to encourage people to report crimes.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) has released figures stating that 40 percent of South Africans who fell victim to violent crimes did not report them as they did not have faith in the police. SAARF asked a sample of just more than 25 000 adults, aged from 15 years, if they had been victims of crime in 2011 and if so, if they had reported it.

SAARF CEO Dr Paul Haupt said their latest statistics showed that fewer than six out of 10 violent crime victims would see the inside of a police station. “While these figures are encouraging, there remains a significant gap between the number of people who say they have been a victim of crime and the number of people who will actually report that crime,” said Haupt.

The study found that out of the 1.8 million people who lived to tell the tale after experiencing a violent crime in 2011, 44.3 percent did not report it to the police. A total of 44.2 percent of people didn’t bother reporting non-violent crimes they had witnessed in the same period.

The head of crime and justice at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Gareth Newham, said the issue of people not reporting violent crimes to police wasn’t unique to SA. “Across the world, there is always some degree of under-reporting which varies according to several factors. The type of community and culture influences a person whether to report or not,” said Newham.

Newham said the different types of crime also had different reporting rates. According to him, almost all car hijackings are reported while only 60 percent of house burglaries are reported, and street robberies have the lowest reporting ratio.

“Sometimes people don’t report the crimes because they feel police will not catch the perpetrators or even if they do, they will not be able to identify them. Others fear reprisals from their attackers and if the crime happened while they were walking at night, they feel embarrassed and blame themselves for walking at night,” he said.

Newham added that as much as people might be reluctant to report crimes or view them as not being serious, police were not able to plan or know which crimes were prevalent in certain areas and what action should be taken to combat them.

That was echoed by Gauteng provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini. He said every crime, no matter how small, should be reported to the police so that they knew what crimes were on the increase and in what areas those crimes were mostly committed.

“Crimes reported become part of the official crime statistics and this helps us plan our strategies accordingly,” said Dlamini.

Newham said police should also make it easy for people to report crimes. He said one of the things that demoralised people when they went to report petty crimes, such as a stolen car stereo, was the fact that it took more than an hour to finish the paperwork.

“Government should also make information on the importance of reporting cases readily available to members of the public to encourage them to lay charges,” said Newham.

Pretoria News

South Africans seem to be losing faith in police officers tasked with protecting them from the onslaught of criminals and thugs.

Residents of Ekangala are livid about the time the local police station takes to respond to their calls. A ward councillor in the area was hopping mad after community members burnt a Putco bus and made their way to the house of the Tshwane Metropolitan Council chief whip Jabu Mabona and vandalised it earlier in the week.

According to the ward councillor, the police only responded after three hours. “We called them (at about) 7pm, but they only arrived after 10pm. When they got there they told us they had a staff shortage,” said the councillor. The house in question is not even five minutes away from the police station.

He said another Putco bus was burnt during protests a month ago. He said it happened next to the police station, but no one was arrested. “We are concerned about their reaction time, because people might die as a result of their slow response. This issue has to be dealt with immediately,” he said.

The councillor said when they went to the police station, the officers were reluctant to help until one of Mabona’s bodyguards introduced himself as a member of the VIP Protection Unit. “This was when they became a bit helpful and started talking to us. We called two senior members of that station, One was asleep and his wife answered the phone, but he never woke up. Another officer said he was on leave and couldn’t help us,” he said.

Police spokesman Johannes Japhta said they were looking into the matter and the station commissioner was willing to meet the complainants to address the problem. “We would like those people to come forward and supply us with more information and the names of those officers they spoke to,” said Japhta.

Actions such as those of the police officers at the Ekangala police station do not do much to encourage people to report crimes.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) has released figures stating that 40 percent of South Africans who fell victim to violent crimes did not report them as they did not have faith in the police. SAARF asked a sample of just more than 25 000 adults, aged from 15 years, if they had been victims of crime in 2011 and if so, if they had reported it.

SAARF CEO Dr Paul Haupt said their latest statistics showed that fewer than six out of 10 violent crime victims would see the inside of a police station. “While these figures are encouraging, there remains a significant gap between the number of people who say they have been a victim of crime and the number of people who will actually report that crime,” said Haupt.

The study found that out of the 1.8 million people who lived to tell the tale after experiencing a violent crime in 2011, 44.3 percent did not report it to the police. A total of 44.2 percent of people didn’t bother reporting non-violent crimes they had witnessed in the same period.

The head of crime and justice at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Gareth Newham, said the issue of people not reporting violent crimes to police wasn’t unique to SA. “Across the world, there is always some degree of under-reporting which varies according to several factors. The type of community and culture influences a person whether to report or not,” said Newham.

Newham said the different types of crime also had different reporting rates. According to him, almost all car hijackings are reported while only 60 percent of house burglaries are reported, and street robberies have the lowest reporting ratio.

“Sometimes people don’t report the crimes because they feel police will not catch the perpetrators or even if they do, they will not be able to identify them. Others fear reprisals from their attackers and if the crime happened while they were walking at night, they feel embarrassed and blame themselves for walking at night,” he said.

Newham added that as much as people might be reluctant to report crimes or view them as not being serious, police were not able to plan or know which crimes were prevalent in certain areas and what action should be taken to combat them.

That was echoed by Gauteng provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini. He said every crime, no matter how small, should be reported to the police so that they knew what crimes were on the increase and in what areas those crimes were mostly committed.

“Crimes reported become part of the official crime statistics and this helps us plan our strategies accordingly,” said Dlamini.

Newham said police should also make it easy for people to report crimes. He said one of the things that demoralised people when they went to report petty crimes, such as a stolen car stereo, was the fact that it took more than an hour to finish the paperwork.

“Government should also make information on the importance of reporting cases readily available to members of the public to encourage them to lay charges,” said Newham.

Pretoria News

South Africans seem to be losing faith in police officers tasked with protecting them from the onslaught of criminals and thugs.

Residents of Ekangala are livid about the time the local police station takes to respond to their calls. A ward councillor in the area was hopping mad after community members burnt a Putco bus and made their way to the house of the Tshwane Metropolitan Council chief whip Jabu Mabona and vandalised it earlier in the week.

According to the ward councillor, the police only responded after three hours. “We called them (at about) 7pm, but they only arrived after 10pm. When they got there they told us they had a staff shortage,” said the councillor. The house in question is not even five minutes away from the police station.

He said another Putco bus was burnt during protests a month ago. He said it happened next to the police station, but no one was arrested. “We are concerned about their reaction time, because people might die as a result of their slow response. This issue has to be dealt with immediately,” he said.

The councillor said when they went to the police station, the officers were reluctant to help until one of Mabona’s bodyguards introduced himself as a member of the VIP Protection Unit. “This was when they became a bit helpful and started talking to us. We called two senior members of that station, One was asleep and his wife answered the phone, but he never woke up. Another officer said he was on leave and couldn’t help us,” he said.

Police spokesman Johannes Japhta said they were looking into the matter and the station commissioner was willing to meet the complainants to address the problem. “We would like those people to come forward and supply us with more information and the names of those officers they spoke to,” said Japhta.

Actions such as those of the police officers at the Ekangala police station do not do much to encourage people to report crimes.

The South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) has released figures stating that 40 percent of South Africans who fell victim to violent crimes did not report them as they did not have faith in the police. SAARF asked a sample of just more than 25 000 adults, aged from 15 years, if they had been victims of crime in 2011 and if so, if they had reported it.

SAARF CEO Dr Paul Haupt said their latest statistics showed that fewer than six out of 10 violent crime victims would see the inside of a police station. “While these figures are encouraging, there remains a significant gap between the number of people who say they have been a victim of crime and the number of people who will actually report that crime,” said Haupt.

The study found that out of the 1.8 million people who lived to tell the tale after experiencing a violent crime in 2011, 44.3 percent did not report it to the police. A total of 44.2 percent of people didn’t bother reporting non-violent crimes they had witnessed in the same period.

The head of crime and justice at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Gareth Newham, said the issue of people not reporting violent crimes to police wasn’t unique to SA. “Across the world, there is always some degree of under-reporting which varies according to several factors. The type of community and culture influences a person whether to report or not,” said Newham.

Newham said the different types of crime also had different reporting rates. According to him, almost all car hijackings are reported while only 60 percent of house burglaries are reported, and street robberies have the lowest reporting ratio.

“Sometimes people don’t report the crimes because they feel police will not catch the perpetrators or even if they do, they will not be able to identify them. Others fear reprisals from their attackers and if the crime happened while they were walking at night, they feel embarrassed and blame themselves for walking at night,” he said.

Newham added that as much as people might be reluctant to report crimes or view them as not being serious, police were not able to plan or know which crimes were prevalent in certain areas and what action should be taken to combat them.

That was echoed by Gauteng provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini. He said every crime, no matter how small, should be reported to the police so that they knew what crimes were on the increase and in what areas those crimes were mostly committed.

“Crimes reported become part of the official crime statistics and this helps us plan our strategies accordingly,” said Dlamini.

Newham said police should also make it easy for people to report crimes. He said one of the things that demoralised people when they went to report petty crimes, such as a stolen car stereo, was the fact that it took more than an hour to finish the paperwork.

“Government should also make information on the importance of reporting cases readily available to members of the public to encourage them to lay charges,” said Newham.

Pretoria News

Mpumalanga police were still searching on Thursday for those responsible for the murder of a day-mother and a five-month-old baby boy in Delmas.

“We have no information, and there have been no arrests. We are still looking for possible leads,” Lt-Col Leonard Hlathi said.

The woman and the child were found strangled in her home in Delmas on Wednesday. The baby’s mother repeatedly phoned the 66-year-old woman’s house on Wednesday, and became concerned when there was no answer.

The day-mother’s body was found under a carpet in an outside room. The baby was found under a bed in the main house.

The motive for the murders was not known.

Beeld newspaper on Thursday named the day-mother as Margrietha de Goede.

It said Rieta and Wiets Botes, the parents of the slain baby, Wiehan, had waited eight years to have a child.

According to Beeld another baby, 18 months old, who was also in De Goede’s care, was found crying but unharmed in the house. – Sapa

BY Obakeng Maje

MAHIKENG: On Friday, 18 May 2012 Police conducted a crime prevention operation in Mahikeng, Mmabatho, Lomanyaneng and surrounding villages. 

The aim of this crime prevention operation was to give a clear signal that Police will maintain a zero tolerance approach for the weekend.

During the operation, 44 suspects were arrested for different crimes such as possession of stolen property, rape, drinking in public, possession of dagga and unlawful gambling.   

Raids were also conducted at different businesses, households and all kind of vehicles were stopped and searched during the operation.  During raids, police acted on a tip-off and the following property was recovered and confiscated: 11 Plasma Television screens, 1 water cylinder, 1 printing machine, 2 meter boxes, 1 television stand, 1 double bed and 1 plastic bag containing clothes.

Members of the community who might have lost any of the above mentioned items in the past, are advised to contact Captain Ezekiel Rakodi in person at Lomanyaneng SAPS to claim their property. Identity Document as well as proof of purchase are essential for claiming the property.

Captain Ezekiel Rakodi can be contacted on (018) 397 – 5201 during office hours or alternatively on 082 374 0269.

BY SHAIN GERMANER

His head was shoved between his legs, a handgun was jabbed into his ribs and another stuck against his temple – Ryan Pickford was convinced he was going to die.

The most recent victim of a blue-light gang, Pickford was held at gunpoint on Friday night for two hours by men claiming to be police officers – in full police uniform.

Pickford had just visited his wife and three-week-old son, who is in high care at the Morningside clinic, on Friday evening when the terrifying experience began that would see him lose his Porsche, his dignity and his trust in the police.

Driving past Leeuwkop Prison on Main Road in Bryanston just before 8pm, Pickford noticed a white Golf GTI following him. The vehicle’s blue lights began flashing, signalling him to pull over.

Two men dressed in police uniforms, wearing bullet-proof vests and wielding R5 rifles insisted on searching his car. During what the men called a “routine search”, another man wearing a police bib approached Pickford’s car from the side of the road.

Pickford, 35, then called his sister to tell her that the police were threatening to arrest him if he did not accompany them to the nearest roadblock for a breathalyser test.

When he agreed, but said he would drive his own car, Pickford was told he was going to be arrested. When he asked why, one of the “officers” handcuffed him and pushed him into the back seat of the Golf.

He watched helplessly as the man in the police bib climbed into his Porsche and drove off. Seated between two other men, who were not in police uniform but wielding handguns, his captors informed him that he was being hijacked. While the two men in the back seat pushed his head down with black-gloved hands, the two uniformed hijackers sat in the front. One started the car and began driving.

Pickford pleaded for his life, saying they could have his car. “I told them about my two kids and wife, and how I needed to be with them.”

At first, the men were reassuring, telling him he wouldn’t be hurt if he didn’t “f*** up”, and that their own children needed to survive as well. But when his sister began calling on his cellphone, the two handguns were pointed at his head and heart. He was told to tell his sister that he was with the police and that nothing was wrong.

After 30 minutes of driving, being interrogated about the cars he drove and his banking details, Pickford began to get anxious. The men were getting increasingly hostile, telling him he would be shoved into the car’s boot, dropped off in the centre of Alexandra, or killed, if he did not co-operate.

“I felt a strange calmness, and I just felt like this was going to be the end,” he said.

He asked why police officers would do this. Pickford remembers saying how he said they were meant to “serve and protect”, a statement that offended his hijackers.

“Who do you think we are? Your servants?” the driver asked.

At around 10pm, the men pulled over in the veld in Centurion, took his watch and cellphone, and told him to run deep into the veld and lie down. Pickford said he thought this would be the moment he would be killed, having seen his hijackers’ faces. But after lying down for several minutes, the men sped off.

Exhausted and trembling, Pickford made his way to a nearby warehouse, where he found security guards, who did their best to help him. It was after midnight by the time he had filed his case with the Midrand SAPS.

A traumatised Pickford is convinced it was police officers who committed the crime – not impersonators. Pickford said he recognised the face of one as a policeman at another roadblock.

“I swore to myself I wouldn’t just lie down and take this… If I can help to save another life (by reporting the case to police), then I will keep pushing this.

“You’re meant to trust them, like doctors or teachers. How will I ever stop at a roadblock again?”

Tracker investigators think a syndicate is at work in the northern suburbs targeting expensive cars. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an investigator said there had been eight high-end vehicle hijackings in the past three weeks.

Police spokesman Katlego Mogale was not available for comment.

* If you have been the victim of a blue-light gang – police impersonators or otherwise – please contact The Star.