Missing SANDF weapons 'alarming'

In another worrying loss of armaments from a major power, six rocket launchers and four mortars are among weaponry that has gone missing from South African National Defence Force (SANDF) arsenals over the past year, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu revealed on Monday. The missing launchers include three 88mm anti-tank weapons, which can be used to knock out armoured vehicles. In a written response to a parliamentary question, Sisulu gave details of weapons that had "been stolen or gone missing" from the SANDF over the past three years.

According to a table included in the reply -- titled "Firearm losses of the DOD -- weapon losses during 2009 included:

• five 9mm pistols;
• six 5.56mm rifles;
• seven 7.62mm rifles;
• one 7.70mm rifle;
• six 0.22 (inch) rifles;
• four 60mm mortars;
• one 81mm mortar;
• three 88mm rocket launchers;
• two 40mm rocket launchers; and
• one 70mm rocket launcher.

The table did not indicate whether the stolen or missing launchers and mortars included rockets and shells. The losses were "alarming", Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald, who posed the question to Sisulu, said on Monday. "It is alarming to see these figures. The fact that 88mm rocket launchers, which can be used against tanks and vehicles, have been stolen is quite disturbing. "The question is: What do those who have these weapons want to use them for? What will people do with these rocket launchers?" Groenewald said the reply also showed a total of 87 7.62mm rifles and 47 5.56mm rifles had been stolen from the SANDF since 2007. "If we look at cash-in-transit heists, these are exactly the sort of weapons criminals use." Terrorists could also find practical use throughout Africa for such weaponry.

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White extremists linked to World Cup terrorism plot

South African police have charged five white extremists connected to an alleged terrorism plot to target next month's World Cup. Police made a series of raids on properties across the country last month and seized a haul of firearms and explosives. Seven people were initially arrested, but five have been charged with conspiring to engage in terrorist activities. It is alleged the white extremists were planning to detonate bombs in black townships ahead of the World Cup football tournament which kicks off in a month.

Revelations of the plot and the subsequent arrests come in the wake of last month's murder of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche. Meanwhile, the World Cup trophy has begun the final leg of its world tour in the host country South Africa. Thousands of residents queued for hours to catch a glimpse of the trophy at a local sports centre. The 32 teams competing in the World Cup, including Australia, will begin arriving in South Africa later this month. The tournament kicks off on June 11.

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Qaeda Group Threatens to Attack World Cup

The North African terror group al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has threatened to attack this summer's World Cup games in South Africa. "How amazing could the match United States vs. Britain be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the number of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, Allah willing," reads a statement the group published in a recent issue of the Jihadi online magazine Mushtaqun Lel Jannah (Longing to Paradise). The statement also highlights recent actions by the terrorism group such as the December suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian agent at a base in Eastern Afghanistan last December and the Christmas Day bombing attempt that resulted in the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who has been cooperating with the FBI and providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al Qaeda affiliate that operates there.

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Fear and anger at killing of South African far-right leader Eugene Terre'Blanche

Far-right supporters of white supremacist leader Eugene Terre'Blanche flocked Sunday to the farm where he was hacked to death, and wept, laid flowers and displayed separatist flags. Grief-stricken and angry followers of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) leader also exchanged heated words with police as they tried to enter the farm where Terre'Blanche was murdered Saturday in a killing that heightens racial tensions ahead of the World Cup.

AWB commandant Pieter Steyn rejected suggestions that the 69-year-old Terre'Blanche, who campaigned for a separate white state, and others in the organisation were racists. "We're not racists. We just believe that you should stick to your race," he said, wearing a shirt on which was emblazoned "100 per cent boer", a reference to the Afrikaans word for "farmer". But in the quiet streets of Terre'Blanche's stronghold Ventersdorp on Easter Sunday, ugly white-black incidents were being played out. "A black guy killed a white guy. Obviously it's going to stir a lot of trouble," Kgomotso Kgamanyane, 20, a cashier at a petrol station, told AFP.

• "Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging", NationMaster, 4/6/10.
• "Eugene Terreblanche", The Telegrapgh, 4/4/10.
  

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Sizing up 2010 terror threat in South Africa

South Africa's intelligence agencies have jacked up their investigations into possible terrorist threats, specifically emanating from Somalia, according to a top intelligence analyst. But Mark Schroeder, director of sub-Saharan Africa for the United States intelligence company Strategic Forecasting, insisted that crime, rather than terrorism, remains the major threat for tourists traveling to South Africa for the Fifa World Cup. Schroeder said that although an al-Qaeda-linked Somali militant group, al-Shabaab, had allegedly established a network in the Cape Flats that had led to South African spooks visiting Somalia and Kenya, it was unlikely that Muslim extremists would launch attacks in South Africa, as it was their "logistical hub".

Schroeder was interviewed in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack on the Togolese national football team in Angola that left three people dead and eight injured. Additionally, in September last year the US government closed its embassy in Pretoria and all other US government offices for two days after intelligence reports that al-Shabaab was planning to bomb American interests in South Africa. It is believed that Al-Shabaab are established in South Africa and are using the Somali diaspora for fundraising. But after the September threats against US facilities in South Africa, the South African Secret Service (Sass) sent agents to Kenya and Somalia to gather their own intelligence. In reality, crime in South Africa is the "primary concern" for tourists -- "not just making them aware of the problem, but explaining the do's and don'ts of traveling in South Africa, where they should go and where they shouldn't".

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SA woman survives carjack fall

South Africa police say a woman is lucky to be alive after she was pushed off a 60m bridge by car hijackers. Her near-death experience in the coastal city of Durban has left her with several fractured ribs, pelvis and lower spine injuries, police said. The 26-year-old woman was rescued by a passer-by who spotted her on the sand bank below the bridge.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world with fears of an increase before the festive season. In the last year there has been a 5% increase in car hijackings. The latest statistics show 14,915 incidents between April 2008 and March 2009. Durban is one of the cities to host the 2010 football World Cup, but officials insist that security will not be a problem.

Kavisha Seevnarain is recovering at a Durban hospital after three men threw her off a bridge before making off with her car. She told her parents that she was followed by a car on Friday evening between 2100 and 2200 local time.

When she stopped at an intersection, a man jumped out of the car, smashed her driver's door window and pulled her out. She was forced into their car at gunpoint and the robbers took her to various ATMs to make withdrawals from her bank cards, police said.

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US Closes Facilities in S. Africa Over Security Concerns

South Africa's top crime fighter says police are in control of the situation after the United States closed all its facilities in the country on security concerns.

Police Commissioner Bheki Cele told a media briefing in Cape Town the national police service is working closely with the US Embassy after all US facilities were closed Tuesday.

"Our intelligence has had meetings...with American personnel...and we are working on it. It happen[ed] [a] few hours, less than 24 [hours ago]. There are things that have happened, there are things that are happening and we are in constant contact with them, so we cannot begin to release, what have we done, and what is happening, as we are seated here," Cele said.

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Rising SA gold theft funding 'terrorism, human trafficking'

Increasing gold theft from South African mines was funding international terrorism and human trafficking and amounted to a global money-laundering operation of huge magnitude, Pan African Resources CEO Jan Nelson said yesterday.

"Dirty money is coming in and clean gold is going out," Nelson stated during the company's annual results presentation, where Pan African reported a 15% increase in underground gold production and 30% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. “It's a money-laundering operation on a huge scale. We have to attack this problem at various levels and the role players are interacting and there is assistance from government," he said.

Pan African's security costs have risen to close to 3%, which represents a total of $15/oz of gold produced. Of that $15/oz, $7/oz goes directly towards fighting criminal miners. "Interpol is involved, because the money leaves South Africa and it's funding international terrorism and it's also funding human trafficking."

"Organised crime and terrorism: Observations from Southern Africa", Institute for Security Studies, March, 2005.

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The number of people smuggling drugs into South Africa is "staggering"

The number of people smuggling drugs into South Africa is "staggering", an Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) manager said on Wednesday.

The company's head of security, Jason Tshabalala, told Parliament's portfolio committee on transport that many smugglers were able to pass through European airports on their way to South Africa.

"The number is staggering," he said during the presentation on the state of readiness of airports for the 2010 [Soccer] World Cup. "The number of people carrying drugs into South Africa is increasing tremendously."

He said, however, that drug smuggling was "a global problem", not confined to South Africa. Airports around the world were experiencing the same problem. "The security is not foolproof. At the end of the day it is a global problem and we have to deal with it."

• “International drug syndicates target South African mules”, The Times, Mar 22, 2009.
• "Drug Smugglers Targeting SAA":, News24.com, 2/18/09.
• “Drug smuggling and border control at Johannesburg International Airport and Durban Harbour”, Jonny Steinberg, Occasional Paper 104, Institute for Security Studies, April 2005.

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