Category: General

MPUMALANGA – Belinda Swart (53) pleaded guilty in the Secunda Magistrate Court on Thursday, 26 May 2022 for possession of a dangerous dependent producing substance (methamphetamine).

The conviction followed the arrest of the accused on Thursday, 13 January 2022 by the Hawks Serious Organised Crime Investigation based in Secunda together with Crime Intelligence and K9 Unit when they promptly responded to information about a suspect allegedly dealing in drugs around Secunda on Tuesday, 11 January 2022.

A disruptive search and seizure operation was executed on the premises and the suspect was found in possession of drugs (crystal meth). Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect was previously arrested by the Hawks in 2018 for contravention of the Drugs and Drugs Trafficking Act. The accused was later in August 2018 found guilty and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment of which 1 year 6 months were suspended for 5 years, with the choice of acknowledgement of guilty of R12 000.00.

The accused was remanded in custody by the Secunda District Court on the first appearance on Thursday, the defense of the accused insisted to proceed with a formal bail application on schedule 5 hearing. The accused was denied bail and remanded in custody. The case was postponed to 4 April 2022 for further investigation.

On the 4 April 2022 the accused appeared in court and the court released her under strictest court order that she goes through a rehabilitation processes. After rehabilitation she should report to the Hawks offices in Secunda twice a week to be tested for drugs. The accused went through all the processes of rehabilitation and drugs test assisted by the investigating officer until she completed the order.

On Thursday, 26 May 2022 she was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment suspended for 5 years. The state made an application in terms of Sec 297 sub sec 9aii so that the previous conviction, dealing in drugs be put in operation. The Secunda Hawks also arrested the said accused for dealing in drugs in 2019. The accused also pleaded guilty on that occasion and was sentenced for dealing in drugs. Additional sentence was posed on the accused for a fine of R9 000-00 on her previous conviction.

The court made it clear to her that this was her final warning, that she should not be found guilty for similar crime.

The Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation Major General Zodwa Mokoena applauded the enormous effort by the investigating officer and further informed the community that arresting the perpetrators is not to punish them. She also appreciated the community for giving information about criminal activities within their midst”.

Source: South African Police Service

ZWELITSHA – Two SAPS members are to face disciplinary action after they were arrested on Thursday the 26 May 2022 on R58 road between Aliwal North and Lady Grey for drunkenness at approximately 20km from Lady grey.

The arrests followed after the members were reportedly involved in drunken driving which is presumed to have caused an accident at a stop and go. It is alleged that the officers failed to stop and as a result, they almost run over two female personnel working at the road construction works in that area.

On arrival at the scene, police immediately arrested one Constable aged 31 for Reckless and Negligent driving with a state vehicle and both of them including the Warrant Officer aged 56 for being under the influence of liquor whilst on duty. The officers are stationed at Maletswai Police Station.

The Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene wishes to thank the members of the public for their courage to report the unprofessional conduct of the SAPS members. “The conduct of these members goes against the spirit and letter of the SAPS Code of Conduct and is furthermore injurious to the image of the SAPS. Therefore, it cannot be forgiven. “The members concerned must deal with the consequences of their actions” said Lieutenant General Mene.

Source: South African Police Service

MELODING – The Provincial Organized Crime together with Illicit Mining Knock Out Team received information about suspects dealing in drugs at a house in Stiltepark Meloding, Virginia.

On the 27 May 2022 at about 17:30 the house was identified and searched. Drugs and cash amounting to R3870.00 were found on the premises.

A male aged 59 and a female aged 50 were arrested for dealing in drugs.

The two suspects will appear on 30 May 2022 in the Virginia Magistrate Court.

The Provincial Commissioner of the Free State, Lt Gen Baile Motswenyane praised the joint team work for their swift reaction in arresting the couple and confiscating the drugs.

Source: South African Police Service

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Western nations have sidelined a raft of Russian artists, dancers and musicians with links to President Vladimir Putin. That includes star opera singer Anna Netrebko, who was dropped by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Netrebko, however, is making a comeback of sorts with an appearance Wednesday night in Paris — underscoring a broader debate over the limits of cultural boycotts.

Soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska received a standing ovation starring earlier this month in Puccini’s Turandot. The Ukrainian singer took her curtain call at New York’s Metropolitan Opera draped in her country’s flag.

Celebrated Russian sorprano Anna Netrebko was originally tapped for the role. But the war in Ukraine changed that. Netrebko has condemned the conflict, but not Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She publicly endorsed Putin’s reelection in 2012, although not in 2018. In 2014, she was photographed alongside a Russian-backed separatist leader from Ukraine’s Donbas region. She recently told Le Monde newspaper her intentions hadn’t been political, and said she was uninformed about the area’s history.

Now Netrebko is back on stage — singing at the Paris Philharmonic with another Russian, mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova. Beyond a last-minute appearance in Monaco, the event is considered her formal return to the Western stage.

The Paris Philharmonic declined an interview request. But in a statement, it said that while it has canceled artists formally linked to the Russian government, it aims to keep ties whenever possible with those who are not. After Netrebko’s criticism of the war, it noted, Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, called her a traitor.

The Paris institution has a different position from the Metropolitan’s, where Netrebko will not be singing for the foreseeable future.

Russian singers aren’t the only ones under Western scrutiny. Dancers and other Russian artists are being boycotted for their ties to Moscow. It’s a very different situation from Cold War days, when artists from the United States and the former Soviet Union were often welcomed on each other’s stages.

“The two superpowers were in a competition for hearts and minds the world over, and they were attempting to demonstrate to the world and to one another’s populations that theirs was the superior system,” said Kevin Platt, a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. “So from the perspective of each of the superpowers, it was their interest to showcase their culture and to engage their cultural exchanges.”

Today, it will be hard for Russia to overcome Western revulsion over its reported atrocities in Ukraine. Still, Platt is one who does not support a blanket boycott of Russian artists.

“My basic position on canceling and national identities is if you want to cancel people, cancel them because they are in support of the war, or aligned with this inimical Russian state or because their books and films are pro-war. Not because they are Russians, or their books are Russian,” he said.

That’s also the position of Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, who spoke to France 24 TV at the Cannes Film Festival going on now. The festival has banned Russians with official ties to the Kremlin and slotted time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak at the venue via video link.

“Yet I do not agree with excluding those Russian authors, artists, filmmakers who are against this war, who are just like the rest of the civilized world — just trying to fight against the evil,” he said.

Loznitsa is not in lockstep with some of his compatriots who back a broader ban of Russian artists.

Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania’s Platt has his doubts about Netrebko’s operatic return.

“I think Ms. Netrebko has a prominent public voice,” he said. “I would want her to see her using that voice far more vociferously to condemn this war and Putin’s dictatorial regime in the strongest possible terms — much more so than she has done — before welcoming her back into the limelight.”

The Paris Philharmonic has also welcomed Ukrainian musicians who fled the war in their homeland, It’s working with the head of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra to place them in various French orchestras. Some have already performed in concerts in recent weeks.

Source: Voice of America

EDEN CLUSTER – Various police units in the Garden Route clamped down on drug outlets and conducted targeted operations to rid communities of drugs since Thursday, 19 May 2022. These operations yielded excellent results with the confiscation of tik, mandrax and dagga.

Heidelberg police arrested a 22-year-old man following a sting operation in Dollo Square, Heidelberg on Thursday, 19 May 2022 at about 21:20. Upon searching the premises the team found 71,31 gram of tik and 74 mandrax tablets with a combined estimated street value of R28 000. Police confiscated the drugs as well as two pocket scales and arrested the man on a charge of dealing in drugs.

In Oudtshoorn the Eden Cluster Crime Combating Team and Oudtshoorn police members, armed with a search warrant, conducted an operation at a residence at Norah Pott Street, Bridgeton. The team confiscated 160 Mandrax tablets and 36 bankies of dagga. Three suspects were arrested on charges of possession of drugs.

The same team, also embarked on an operation at a premises at Bongulethu, Oudtshoorn where they confiscated 1, 64 kilogram of dagga and 20 packets of tik. They arrested two more suspects on charges of possession of drugs.

Furthermore, Pacaltsdorp police conducted various operations on Friday, 20 May 2022, where they arrested ten suspects. The vigilant members confiscated small quantities of drugs, cables and two dangerous weapons.

Meanwhile, Uniondale police arrested a suspect and confiscated 187 mandrax tablets, 10 half tablets (mandrax), 5 quarters (mandrax) and a small bag with Tik.

Other than these arrests, Rural Flying Squad members also confiscated tik with an estimated street value of R3 million on the N1 at Prince Albert just after 14:00 on Friday afternoon, 20 May 2022. This confiscation subsequently led to the arrest of a 36-year-old suspect.

All the arrested suspects, aged between 22 and 38, are expected to appear in various courts tomorrow, Monday, 23 May 2022.

These confiscations and arrests form part of concerted efforts by police to eradicate substance abuse which remains one of the contributors to serious and violent crimes in this region.

Source: South African Police Service

Over the past few days the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture has followed and taken note of public discourse that has unfolded in respect of the envisaged Monumental Flag.

The diversity of voices around this important heritage project are a welcome celebration of our country’s vibrant constitutional democracy and the freedoms that must be upheld beyond posterity. It also bodes well for one of the pillars of social cohesion which is an active citizenry.

In upholding these ethos and the inalienable rights of citizens to be heard, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture has directed his department to review the process related to the Monumental Flag in its totality.

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture is entrusted with the mandate to transform South Africa’s heritage landscape by building monuments, memorials, museums, changing colonial and apartheid names as well as the overarching injunction heal the divisions of the past.

It does so informed by national aspirations and international best practice which appreciates that heritage is among the bedrock of value systems that must drive national pride, social cohesiveness and unity.

The World Heritage Convention makes the point that “cultural and natural heritage is not only an irreplaceable source of identity and inspiration, but also a key driving force for sustainable development”.

In striving to transform the cultural and heritage landscape of our democratic society, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture will continue to be driven by the pursuit of the socio-economic dividend for the country, as well as the historical, symbolic, spiritual and aesthetic values and identity of a democratic South Africa and its people.

As we pursue this path, it is hoped that discourse will reflect deeper around these factors.

Source: Government of South Africa