8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (2)
#15295781 at 2022-01-02 17:03:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #19347: Dinner Reservations for 22? Edition
Fire ravages South Africa's historic Parliament complex
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - A major fire ripped through South Africa's 138-year-old Parliament complex on Sunday, gutting offices and causing some ceilings to collapse at a site that has hosted some of the country's pivotal moments. As firefighters struggled to tame the blaze, a dark plume of smoke and flames rose high into the air above the southern city of Cape Town.
Around 70 firefighters were still battling the fire hours after it started in the early morning, Cape Town's Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Jermaine Carelse said. Some were lifted up on a crane to spray water on the blaze from above. No injuries have been reported and Parliament itself had been closed for the holidays.
Visiting the scene, South African PresiDent Cyril Ramaphosa said a person was "being held and is being questioned" by police in connection with the blaze. Police later confirmed a 51-year-old man had been Detained.
"The fire is currently in the National Assembly chambers," Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia De Lille told reporters as smoke billowed behind her from the roof of the historic white building with grand entrance columns. "This is a very sad day for Democracy, for Parliament is the home of our Democracy."
"We have not been able to contain the fire in the National Assembly," she adDed. "Part of the ceilings have collapsed."
Officials said the fire started in the Old Assembly building, which was built in 1884 and originally housed the South African Parliament but is now used for offices. It spread to the newer National Assembly building, built in the 1980s, which is where the Parliament now sits.
Authorities feared extensive damage to both buildings, which have stark white facaDes, elaborate roof linings and majestic columns, now all obscured by flames and smoke. There were also fears that priceless artifacts insiDe, including a manuscript where the composer first wrote some lyrics for South Africa's national anthem, would be lost forever.
Carelse warned that both buildings were at risk of collapsing.
"The bitumen on the roof is even melting, an indication of the intense heat. There have been reports of some walls showing cracks, which could indicate a collapse," the News24 website quoted Carelse as saying.
J.P. Smith, the Cape Town official in charge of safety and security, said at least one floor of the Old Assembly building was "gutted" and its entire roof had collapsed. The firefighters were now focusing efforts toward saving the National Assembly building, he said.
While the Old Assembly building was closely connected to South Africa's colonial and apartheid history, the National Assembly building was where former PresiDent F.W. De Klerk stood up at the opening of Parliament in 1990 and announced he was freeing Nelson ManDela from prison and effectively ending the apartheid system of white minority rule. The news electrified the country and reverberated around the world.
Security guards first reported the fire at around 6 a.m. Sunday, Carelse said, and the 35 firefighters initially on the scene quickly called for reinforcements. Cape Town activated its Disaster Coordinating Team, which reacts to major emergencies. Police cordoned off the complex and closed nearby roads.
De Lille said an investigation was unDerway into the cause of the blaze. Authorities were reviewing viDeo camera footage and questioning the man arrested at the precinct.
Parliament speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula cautioned against speculation that it was a Deliberate attack on South Africa's seat of Democracy.
"Until such a time that a report has been furnished that there was arson, we have to be careful not to make suggestions that there was an attack," she said.
Ramaphosa and many of South Africa's top politicians were in Cape Town for the funeral Saturday of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu at St. George's Cathedral, about a block away from the Parliament.
South Africans viewed the fire as a double blow on the first two days of the new year, after saying farewell to Tutu and then seeing their Parliament burn.
"It's just really a terrible setback," Ramaphosa said. "The Arch (Tutu) would've been Devastated as well. This is a place he supported and prayed for."
South Africa has three capital cities. Cape Town is the legislative capital, as Parliament is located there. Pretoria is the administrative capital where government offices are and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital and hosts the Supreme Court.
Cape Town has seen arson attacks before. A huge wildfire on the slopes of Cape Town's famed Table Mountain last year spread to buildings below and Destroyed part of a historic library at the University of Cape Town as well as other structures. A report concluDed that fire was started Deliberately.
https://apnews.com/article/africa-fires-cape-town-south-africa-5a368fd054f15cc74ed9b88b0bd969c6
#11031686 at 2020-10-12 01:12:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14110: No Censorship Version - Where Are Biden's Boundaries? Edition
South Africa Sets Rules for Confiscating Land without Compensation from White Farmers
In December 2018 South African lawmakers passed a proposal to change the country's constitution to make land grabs legal.
The government voted in agreement to take land from white farmers without compensation.
This same plan turned South Africa's neighbor Zimbabwe from a state of plenty to a starving failed state.
The parliament sang before voting to take white-owned land without compensation.
The Star reported:
The country's National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77.
This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation.
And now lawmakers have agreed to set up a committee that will write and introduce a new bill for land expropriations.
A Deadline of the end of March next year for the committee to present its first report to parliament has also been agreed.
But there were heated scenes in the House when politicians clashed over the plans.
According to local reports, Economic Freedom Fighters MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued land grabs must go ahead as she Declared: "Your time is up, white people".
This came as the IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the plans unDermine South Africa's position as a Democratic state.
According to the Daily Maverick, he said: "To achieve real and effective land reform is (possible) unDer the existing Constitution, not your (ANC) populist agenda.
Now this...
On Sunday the South African government laid out rules for confiscating land without reimbursement.
This will likely cause a huge economic panic in the region.
Reuters reported:
South Africa's government laid out conditions on Sunday for when land might be confiscated without reimbursement, saying a new law submitted to parliament would pass constitutional muster and reassure investors unnerved about property rights.
The law would allow land to be confiscated without reimbursement in certain cases if it is unused, abandoned or poses a safety risk, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia De Lille told a news conference.
But she emphasised that compensation would also be possible and final Decisions would be in the hands of the courts.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/south-africa-sets-rules-confiscating-land-without-compensation-white-farmers/
8chan/8kun QResearch SOUTH AFRICA Posts (2)
#16574546 at 2022-07-01 17:48:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #7: "TRUTH cannot be hidden forever" Edition
>>16409517
>Where others feared to do business with South Africa directly, Marc Rich was happy to step in as a middleman ?- along with characters such as Marino Chiavelli of Italy, John Deuss of the Netherlands, and the Greek shipping merchant Tony Georgiadis (who continued to find ways to do business with a Democratic South Africa).
>>16462506
>"The ANC's Oilgate" - Glencore, Iraq ties
"Mbeki, Chippy and the Greek lobbyist" - Imvume, Oilgate, Tony Georgiadis and his wife, FW De Klerk, Jacob Zuma, National Pary, etc. - (1 of 4)
https://mg.co.za/article/2007-02-09-mbeki-chippy-and-the-greek-lobbyist/
9 February 2007
Details emerging from the German corruption probe into Defence and steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp have thrown dramatic new light on two men named in the very first allegations concerning the South African arms Deal.
One is Shamin "Chippy" Shaik, former chief of acquisitions for the Defence Department, who came unDer suspicion almost from the start because of his brother Schabir's involvement in the arms Deal.
The other is Tony Georgiadis, who has remained largely in the shadows Despite being mentioned in the infamous "De Lille dossier", a memorandum drawn up by concerned African National Congress (ANC) intelligence operatives and released through Patricia De Lille in September 1999.
Shaik was at the centre of special Defence procurement and reported directly to former Defence minister Joe Modise, whose Death in 2001 stifled a Scorpions probe into Modise's own controversial role in the arms Deal.
GeorgiaDes, a Greek shipping tycoon and alleged key sanctions-buster unDer apartheid, reportedly had the ear of PresiDent Thabo Mbeki while acting as a lobbyist for Thyssen, lead partner in the German frigate consortium (GFC), and Ferrostaal, which led the German submarine consortium.
Two sources in touch with the German investigators told the Mail & Guardian that Georgiadis is a focus of the investigation of at least $22-million in commission payments maDe on the warship Deal.
Georgiadis was travelling this week and could not be contacted.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday that, in raids on Thyssen and related companies last year, the Dusseldorf prosecutor's office obtained internal company memos allegedly referring to a meeting between executives of the GFC and Chippy Shaik in July 1998.
Shaik allegedly DemanDed payment of $3-million to ensure the success of the German bid. He supposedly proposed a middleman: accountant Ian Pierce, a friend from his stuDent days at the University of Durban-Westville.
This week, Pierce refused to take media calls. Mo Shaik, speaking for his brother, dismissed the claims against Chippy.
Der Spiegel wrote that later in 1998 a lobby agreement for $3-million was signed with Merian Limited, in London, with Pierce acting as Merian's representative. The magazine said the first payments for the warships were maDe to the GFC in April 2000 and Merian received $3-million from the Germans in the same month.
#13765020 at 2021-05-27 13:01:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #5: RIP President Magufuli Edition
"'This is awkward': Dali Mpofu gets trolled for 'ironic' Defence of Zuma"- https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/dali-mpofu-gets-trolled-for-ironic-Defence-of-zuma/
It was confirmed that advocate Dali Mpofu would be the newest addition to former presiDent Jacob Zuma's legal team
It will likely go down as one of the most unforgettable ironies in recent memory - advocate Dali Mpofu joining former presiDent Jacob Zuma's Defence team in the arms Deal trial.
Having been chairperson of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which had been one of Zuma's most fiercest critics who'd called for him to be jailed (over several matters, including the Gupta leaks and the arms Deal), Mpofu may end up being the reason he never dons orange overalls.
While he no longer serves the EFF in Parliament, he remains in the party. For quite some time, Mpofu has extenDed his legal services to people he's had political differences with, or at least the EFF. The likes of Gareth Cliff (who isn't exactly an EFF favourite), Public Works Minister Patricia De Lille and Thandi Modise have all been represented by Mpofu in their respective court cases.
However Despite the aforementioned, nothing could have prepared South Africans for the big shocker that was Mpofu joining Zuma's legal team, something which the advocate confirmed in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, 26 May 2021.
SA TWITTER REACTS TO MPOFU JOINING ZUMA'S LEGAL TEAM
South African Twitter has been flooding the timeline, in reaction to advocate Dali Mpofu being the latest addition to former presiDent Jacob Zuma's lawyers, after some of then withdrew from the arms Deal trial at the eleventh hour.
The comments even prompted the EFF's own Deputy presiDent Floyd Shivambu to come to Mpofu's Defence.
"It is (advocate Dali Mpofu's) right to legally represent whoever he chooses to represent. He's represented CR17 factions, Thandi Modise, Supra Mahumapelo, Patricia De Lille, Bantu Holomisa's UDM, Ace Magashule. He's not doing so on behalf of the EFF. He's doing it as an Advocate SC," Shivambu said on Twitter.