Here's the actual (edited to fit) article from Die nuweSuid-Africa
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Date Posted: Monday 23-Jul-2007
Submitted by Adriana Stuijt:
Did the SA regime know about the gold/uranium veins beneath Koesterfontein smallholdingsin the Magaliesburg where a couple was lynched in June 2004?
New information has recently come to light about valuable gold anduranium-deposits beneath the soil of Koesterfontein -- a fact which might shedsome light on this mysterious lynching three years previously.
Earlier this year, alarmed residents of Koesterfontein all had to hurriedlyform an action group to protest against the government's secret plans to allowuranium and gold-mining on their land. It usually takes several years ofprospecting before such licences are even granted.
In South Africa, landowners do not ever own any mineral rights -- these rightsare always held by the SA government and once licences for prospecting havebeen issued by the regime, private landowners cannot refuse mining companiesaccess to the land - even if they totally destroy it in the process.
On 13 February 2007 the local residents all had unexpectedly pitched up at avery poorly-advertised 'information meeting' at the local Swallows Inn, calledby Koesterfontein Mining Consultants, who had apparently applied for licencesfrom the SA government to prospect for uranium and gold in the area withoutanybody knowing about it.
The only advertising for the meeting had been on a sign board, well-hidden inthe long grass on the corner of the Koesterfontein & Carletonville Roads,and placed there just a week before the meeting. It was only at this meetingthat the landowners actually found out that the government had already grantedtwo other mining companies prospecting licenses a year earlier. One landownerwas shocked to discover that one licence was already issued for prospecting onhis own land.
Mining is planned to cover a substantial area of the Magaliesburg. Somelicenses already issued are within 15 kilometres of Maropeng - the Cradle ofHumankind Heritage Site - and within 3.6 kilometres of Magaliesburg town. Butbusiness owners in Magaliesburg seem to be largely unaware of this.
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Date Posted: Monday 23-Jul-2007
Submitted by Adriana Stuijt:
Did the SA regime know about the gold/uranium veins beneath Koesterfontein smallholdingsin the Magaliesburg where a couple was lynched in June 2004?
New information has recently come to light about valuable gold anduranium-deposits beneath the soil of Koesterfontein -- a fact which might shedsome light on this mysterious lynching three years previously.
Earlier this year, alarmed residents of Koesterfontein all had to hurriedlyform an action group to protest against the government's secret plans to allowuranium and gold-mining on their land. It usually takes several years ofprospecting before such licences are even granted.
In South Africa, landowners do not ever own any mineral rights -- these rightsare always held by the SA government and once licences for prospecting havebeen issued by the regime, private landowners cannot refuse mining companiesaccess to the land - even if they totally destroy it in the process.
On 13 February 2007 the local residents all had unexpectedly pitched up at avery poorly-advertised 'information meeting' at the local Swallows Inn, calledby Koesterfontein Mining Consultants, who had apparently applied for licencesfrom the SA government to prospect for uranium and gold in the area withoutanybody knowing about it.
The only advertising for the meeting had been on a sign board, well-hidden inthe long grass on the corner of the Koesterfontein & Carletonville Roads,and placed there just a week before the meeting. It was only at this meetingthat the landowners actually found out that the government had already grantedtwo other mining companies prospecting licenses a year earlier. One landownerwas shocked to discover that one licence was already issued for prospecting onhis own land.
Mining is planned to cover a substantial area of the Magaliesburg. Somelicenses already issued are within 15 kilometres of Maropeng - the Cradle ofHumankind Heritage Site - and within 3.6 kilometres of Magaliesburg town. Butbusiness owners in Magaliesburg seem to be largely unaware of this.
(Bert Oosthuizen)
IT-specialist Ben (sic) Oosthuizen of Randburg retrieved documents from themurdered Richard Theron's personal computer. The 59-year old Theron, a forensicauditor, was murdered on June 5, 2004, together with his partner Estelle vanDyk, 58 - a dedicated 'horse whisperer' -- an animal psychologist whorehabiliated abused horses. The wounds on their mutilated bodies revealed thatthe couple was hacked with machetes and also shot.
Oosthuizen, who had done work for Theron, said the documents, dating fromNovember 5 to January 30, sketched a picture of two increasingly desperate,frightened people whose urgent pleas for protection to the police and theirlocal political representatives, had all fallen on deaf ears. Oosthuizen saidthe retrieved computer documents were addressed to the Magaliesburg police, thepolice commissioner and the Democratic Alliance MP, as well as otherpoliticians.
In one letter, Van Dyk wrote that she and her black worker had received deaththreats from illegal squatters on the smallholding. "The illegal occupantshave threatened that they will kill me, my horses and my dogs. They alsothreatened to kill Tshepo, who works for me," it reads. The letter claimsthe police were notified of the threats, but "they cannot do anythingbefore anything really happens"...
Police inspector Pikkie Fourie of the West Rand unit against serious violentcrime, asked to comment by Beeld newspaper, said that he 'was aware of pastproblems with squatters on the farm, but these have been sorted out..We arefollowing up on a good number of clues," he said. Nobody has ever beenarrested or charged for this lynching.
IT-specialist Ben (sic) Oosthuizen of Randburg retrieved documents from themurdered Richard Theron's personal computer. The 59-year old Theron, a forensicauditor, was murdered on June 5, 2004, together with his partner Estelle vanDyk, 58 - a dedicated 'horse whisperer' -- an animal psychologist whorehabiliated abused horses. The wounds on their mutilated bodies revealed thatthe couple was hacked with machetes and also shot.
Oosthuizen, who had done work for Theron, said the documents, dating fromNovember 5 to January 30, sketched a picture of two increasingly desperate,frightened people whose urgent pleas for protection to the police and theirlocal political representatives, had all fallen on deaf ears. Oosthuizen saidthe retrieved computer documents were addressed to the Magaliesburg police, thepolice commissioner and the Democratic Alliance MP, as well as otherpoliticians.
In one letter, Van Dyk wrote that she and her black worker had received deaththreats from illegal squatters on the smallholding. "The illegal occupantshave threatened that they will kill me, my horses and my dogs. They alsothreatened to kill Tshepo, who works for me," it reads. The letter claimsthe police were notified of the threats, but "they cannot do anythingbefore anything really happens"...
Police inspector Pikkie Fourie of the West Rand unit against serious violentcrime, asked to comment by Beeld newspaper, said that he 'was aware of pastproblems with squatters on the farm, but these have been sorted out..We arefollowing up on a good number of clues," he said. Nobody has ever beenarrested or charged for this lynching.
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