South Africa P.I.G.

'Moe, the spy'

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaOWftXFB-DiboWPq5XkcTj2A4_0h4Ye2njw0np1NoVOxVSgrX4XdoIuD1-lEldDzEwZmz33LZoJzdLzp1I-ixq9OZb1BPa_Zb4UrBmz606YFgOYTn78RuooEugHJS_DXE8nA9T6W4ZhU/s1600-h/moe.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378450781549339602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaOWftXFB-DiboWPq5XkcTj2A4_0h4Ye2njw0np1NoVOxVSgrX4XdoIuD1-lEldDzEwZmz33LZoJzdLzp1I-ixq9OZb1BPa_Zb4UrBmz606YFgOYTn78RuooEugHJS_DXE8nA9T6W4ZhU/s400/moe.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 167px" /></a>Should Moe Shaik get the nod as the country's top spook, his appointment will be part of a pattern of handpicked allies from KwaZulu-Natal who manage President Jacob Zuma's most sensitive security jobs. These securocrats are largely Zulu-speaking and have close ties to the president. Moe Shaik is a personal friend of Zuma and a former comrade in the ANC's intelligence wing. Seen as clever, shrewd and manipulative, Moe is described as someone who gets in an opponent's face - good qualities for a spy. His critics describe him as arrogant. Soon he could be running the country's state security apparatus. Moe, real name Riaz, refused to speak to the Sunday Tribune about his rumoured appointment. "I really don't know where it comes from; no one has talked to me about it. I will therefore reserve my comment," he said. But those in the know say he expects to get the job. Moe is not generally known for reticence and keeping a low profile. Part of a well-known "struggle" family, he shares the media spotlight with brothers Younis, Shamin (Chippy) and the infamous Schabir. The brothers rallied around Schabir, a former financial adviser to Zuma, who was found guilty of soliciting a bribe on Zuma's behalf and went to jail. He was paroled earlier this year on medical grounds after serving a fraction of his sentence. Moe acted as the family's spokesman, strongly defending his brother's conduct. In the early 2000s Moe served as democratic South Africa's ambassador to Algeria. While ambassador to the north African country, he is believed to have struck deals with that country about the prospect of buying arms from South Africa. But he really came under the media spotlight in 2003 when he and former transport minister Mac Maharaj openly accused the then director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka of being an apartheid spy. At the time Ngcuka was overseeing fraud and corruption investigations into Schabir Shaik and Zuma. Both Moe and Maharaj were prime drivers of Operation Vula, a clandestine ANC operation which sought to deliver classified information as well as smuggle weapons into the country in the run-up to the country's first democratic elections in 1994. His recruitment into intelligence work started in 1980 when Moe and Younis both attended the University of Durban-Westville, where they were reportedly influenced politically by the likes of Pravin Gordan of the Natal Indian Congress. Gordan is now minister of finance. Moe qualified as a optometrist. He first ingratiated himself with ANC covert operations in 1981 when he sneaked into Swaziland to make contact with the banned party's underground movement. It proved to be a turning point for Moe and the Shaik family. He quickly recruited Younis and they both set up a new ANC intelligence network. The recruitment expanded as the Shaiks enlisted more people. In 1985 Moe and Younis were detained by the Security Police and in later years Moe tearfully told of how he had been tortured. Following the dismal failure of the initial project, Moe embarked on one of the most famous and clandestine ANC projects in 1988. It was code-named "Vula", and this time it was Chippy's turn to take the big stage. The brother infiltrated various apartheid government defence projects and passed the critical information to the ANC. Chippy's wife, Zerena, apparently worked as a personnel clerk. When the ANC was unbanned, Moe landed various security roles within the ruling party. Favour His brother Schabir steered the economic interests of the Shaiks and was soon rubbing shoulders with cabinet ministers and foreign corporate executives, keen to do business with the ANC. Out of favour during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, Moe was often asked by the media to interpret the strategies of the Zuma camp in the run-up to the ANC's 52nd national conference in Polokwane, where Mbeki was ousted by Zuma as the party's leader. On several occasions he has angered party and alliance leaders by making comments about issues ahead of the ANC's own attempts to stage-manage events. This year, ahead of the general election, he predicted charges against Zuma would be withdrawn, earning a rebuke from the ANC Youth League and from ANC stalwart Lindiwe Sisulu, who was liaising with prosecutors to get Zuma off the hook. In hindsight, it is thought he may have had a role in gaining access to tape recordings made by the NIA, that showed Ngcuka, now a private citizen, was still playing a role in the prosecution of Zuma. This evidence led to the fraud and corruption charges against Zuma being dropped and smoothed his path to becoming president. During the Polokwane battle, he surprised many by predicting Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni's demise in the Zuma administration and the survival of then finance minister Trevor Manuel, owing to the latter's willingness to go along with the new policy direction of the ANC and its alliance partners. Moe's possible appointment to the top NIA job has drawn a negative reaction from the Democratic Alliance, which asks if he can distinguish between being a senior civil servant acting on behalf of the country and being an ANC functionary serving the interests of the Zuma faction. The DA's Theo Coetzee said: "Moe Shaik is deeply involved in faction fights within the ruling party, and we must therefore assume that his appointment will further politicise the NIA." Zuma, a former ANC spymaster, would know that in appointing Moe he would have an ally. This could be useful in the political battles that lie ahead.

'Moe, the spy'

Should Moe Shaik get the nod as the country's top spook, his appointment will be part of a pattern of handpicked allies from KwaZulu-Nat...

1:10 PM

Google's gift to thieves

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZMMzSYUAA6nnKgv82Hr-iqNuG9cLjQ1Yh5dNkyjxHxNv1Ijkc2RSk0Hdfias0nTuCsYw-E5k_OpVvZe4-mOzggUmuXAUez_qdY0242Pav6BlU9yJNHVGCIf20Nt6zx04SAAfysHN38U/s1600-h/googlevil-7042861.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378446397189313058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZMMzSYUAA6nnKgv82Hr-iqNuG9cLjQ1Yh5dNkyjxHxNv1Ijkc2RSk0Hdfias0nTuCsYw-E5k_OpVvZe4-mOzggUmuXAUez_qdY0242Pav6BlU9yJNHVGCIf20Nt6zx04SAAfysHN38U/s400/googlevil-7042861.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 77px" /></a>Close your curtains - Google's new Street View facility is coming to your suburb soon and security experts and civic leaders warn it is a potential tool for criminals and a gross invasion of privacy. Within months, images taken from the recently launched Google Maps' Street View drive across the country will be available online, where everyone - including criminals - can view them. While faces and number plates will be blurred, community organisations are worried that criminals will be able to scout suburbs and identify vulnerable properties, escape routes or hiding places. "This will only make the work of criminals easier. If they are going to target my house, I would want them to work much harder, not click on an image and know the security details," said Haden Searles, chairman of the Durban North and Umhlanga Community Policing Forum. He said this intelligence gathering tool would give criminal syndicates an advantage when targeting which homes to burgle. Bayview Ratepayers' Association and community policing forum spokesman, Devan Pillay, said he was concerned about what information would be available. "I would feel vulnerable knowing that a picture of my house and my address is posted on the internet. This would make it so easy for criminals to track down my house. My family and I would be exposed, I am not comfortable with that." Concern over the Google project has been quite widespread. Tasso Evangelinos, chief operations officer for the Central City Improvement District in Cape Town, said the Street View facility was extremely controversial. He said crooks could easily download information without having to worry about being spotted in a particular area. He said there were definite security risks, especially when it came to institutions such as banks and jewellery stores. "Imagine if they filmed the Reserve Bank in Cape Town. That's where all our bullion is. It's a lot of information you are giving away at a glance." Business Against Crime Western Cape managing director Annelie Rabie said the organisation was extremely concerned about the security implications. She said suspicious people who loitered at shopping malls were often picked up on surveillance cameras, but this facility would enable criminals to make detailed plans without the risk of being spotted. Tony Schreiber, co-founder of the Bergvliet Kreupelbosch Meadowridge neighbourhood watch said: "I don't think it is a good idea from a security, as well as an invasion of privacy, point of view for people to have free and unfettered access to up-to-date images of suburbs which would show easy access and exit points." He said the images would also show which properties had electric fences and security gates. Google last week announced it was expanding Street View to South Africa and would begin collecting images in metropolitan areas, which would enable browsers ta 360176 street-level view. The Street View cars are fitted with cameras that record images as they drive. Thousands of pictures are stitched together, a process that can take as long as three months. Launching the product, Google said this was a "hugely popular feature" of their mapping service, as it allowed users to check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, or get a helping hand with geography homework. It also had benefits for house hunters and tourism. But not everyone is convinced. Searles described this as an invasion of privacy. He said the imagery was intelligence gathering, and there might be criminals who could use this. Institute for Security Studies researcher Rudolph Zinn, who also works for the University of South Africa's School of Criminal Justice, said there was a definite risk that criminals could use the feature to determine which property to target, by checking, for example, access routes or the height of a fence. This included access to gated communities. Gauteng police spokesman Superintendent Eugene Opperman and KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Superintendent Vincent Mdunge believed that the threat was not that great. "The information collected is already in the public domain, so it is not a concern for us. The criminals already take their own pictures with their cellphones," said Opperman. Google spokesperson Rishon Chimboza emphasised that the images would be months old by the time they were published. "The imagery available on Street View is no different from what people can see when walking or driving down the street themselves, or when viewing images that are already available on a number of real estate and directory sites," said Chimboza. He said, "When the product is launched in South Africa, users who wish to remove images of their house or property, or who submit a request for additional blurring will report the image via our easy-to-use tool... by clicking on "report a problem" on the bottom left-hand corner of the image. "From here they complete a short form, in which they indicate the precise image to be removed." The Street View images have stirred controversy across the world. In Switzerland and Japan, calls were made to remove the images on the basis that they were an invasion of privacy. Residents of Milton Keynes in England blockaded their town in April and prevented a Google Street View car from taking photographs.

Google's gift to thieves

Close your curtains - Google's new Street View facility is coming to your suburb soon and security experts and civic leaders warn it is ...

12:54 PM

Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lSWKU1Ti-w50ILsdwPdix7AXx7rpeb_KE4a-6Yxz-TjCqTFy7pLMqPhEkPtooYptCTf1VZmNbjBmHtRxnvG3AM-uZUCrc5Yi6uj56IcST_YXZiIaW0z88S6B5ydzVa7mJlnmA9Yb0jo/s1600-h/black_school_violence.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378128313872010674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lSWKU1Ti-w50ILsdwPdix7AXx7rpeb_KE4a-6Yxz-TjCqTFy7pLMqPhEkPtooYptCTf1VZmNbjBmHtRxnvG3AM-uZUCrc5Yi6uj56IcST_YXZiIaW0z88S6B5ydzVa7mJlnmA9Yb0jo/s400/black_school_violence.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 324px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 243px" /></a>In a moment of terror frozen in time, the grainy CCTV picture shows a teenager, high on drugs, stabbing another young man in the head with a knife. The shots are all the more chilling for having been filmed in a classroom in one of Cape Town’s most notorious townships. In the corner of the frame, pupils as young as 12 look on as violence once again engulfs a South African school. In one of the biggest but least talked about challenges to President Jacob Zuma’s new government, schools have descended into a spiral of crime that has seen murder and rape in playgrounds and classrooms. As terrified teachers leave the profession in large numbers, security in schools is being beefed up to include police sniffer dog patrols and hand-held metal detectors. Psychologists are being drafted in to help staff to cope with trauma. A recent survey in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, revealed there were 11 murders, 280 rapes and more than 2,500 violent assaults in its schools last year. A further 3,000 cases of drug possession were recorded, a pattern repeated across the country. Alcohol and drug abuse are rampant. In the Free State, bars close to schools were reported to be selling alcohol and drugs to pupils who would often arrive drunk and armed with guns for their classes. The province also reported playground murders and the seizure of ammunition and knives. Throughout the country there are daily reports of shocking violence. Two 60-year-old women died after they were allegedly doused with petrol and set alight by pupils at Manhlenga high school in Manguzi, KwaZulu-Natal. Reports suggest the children believed the women had cast a spell on them. A teenager from Thornwood secondary school near Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, was sentenced in Durban for murdering a teacher who had “humiliated” him in front of his fellow pupils. A 14-year-old from the New Drift high school near Paarl, in the Western Cape, appeared in court after stabbing a fellow pupil in the heart after an argument on a school bus. Also in Durban, mobile phone videos showing the rape of a schoolgirl were circulated in playgrounds, leading to the arrest of three schoolboys. In Cape Town there have been at least 60 stabbings in schools in the past three months. The murder of a headmistress, shot in the head in her office, has led to calls for a permanent police presence in schools. According to Avril Knott-Craig, chairwoman of a Quaker campaign for nonviolent schools in Cape Town, the onslaught could leave its mark for generations. “Children learn from their environment and in particular that violence appears to be the most effective way to solve problems and so, when they are angry, they resort to fighting, bullying, stabbing, shooting and other forms of assault, just as their adult counterparts do,” she said. Teaching unions claim that depression and anxiety are becoming common among teachers. In township schools it is not uncommon for 30% of teachers to be off work with trauma-related stress. According to some critics, tough government measures, including head teachers given search-and-seize powers for guns, knives and drugs, do not seem to have had much impact. Some heads have admitted that they are afraid to use their powers for fear of retribution.

Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms

In a moment of terror frozen in time, the grainy CCTV picture shows a teenager, high on drugs, stabbing another young man in the head with a...

1:47 PM

South Africa P.I.G.

'Moe, the spy'

Google's gift to thieves

Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms

Popular Posts

Blog Archive