🇿🇦 Violent Crime in South Africa Spawns a Booming Business -- Bloomberg

As night falls on the streets of Johannesburg’s richest district, the darkness is broken by strobe lights coming from the high-powered vehicles patrolling them. Inside are armed men looking out for anything untoward.

They aren’t from the police, army or any other officialdom, though. They’re representatives of what’s become a growth industry in South Africa: private security filling the void of a state struggling to maintain basic services.

With carjackings, armed robberies and one of the highest recorded murder rates in the world, violent crime has plagued the country for decades. But with homicides at a 20-year-high and a spate of ransom kidnappings targeting liquid businesses, those who can afford it are increasingly employing their own people while more police officers are quitting for private firms.

The ratio makes South Africa an anomaly and reflects a decline in the state’s monopoly over law enforcement, said Ziyanda Stuurman, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group in Cape Town and author of a book on policing in South Africa.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-03/south-africa-s-private-security-firms-thrive-as-murders-kidnappings-rise

https://archive.is/7CKso

Continued:

▫There are 2.7 million registered private security personnel - 5 times more than in 2017 - versus 150 thousand police personnel

▫Private security companies are tasked with everything from policing land to close-protection services.

▫Wealthy clients are willing to part with more than 100,000 rand ($5,535) a month for bodyguards, more than three times the average national salary

▫Johannesburg's Rand Water hires private security companies to protect their pipelines from illegal gold miners

“Some of these companies have got more firearms per person than the police, more firearms per person than the South African military.”

🇿🇦 Private Security Training

▫️ Outside of private security services themselves, private companies have redeveloped themselves in instances entirely to offer training to either private security companies or individuals around the world from their position in South Africa.

▫️These institutions, while demanding extravagant prices, sport better equipment and modern doctrine, while the SAPS and SANDF still wallows around in the Cold War era.

▫️The private security industry is to a large extent the saving grace of South Africans, and the government can't afford to tighten regulation or shrink the industry as it is becoming a key part of the South African economy.

@SANU

☄ From preliminary examination of the sample, which weighs less than 100g and has a pre-fragmentation diameter of less than 5cm, the researchers suspect that the meteorite is an extremely rare type of meteorite. The specimen has a dark black glassy coating (fusion crust) with a light grey interior, peppered with dark-green and light-green grains.

This meteorite is preliminarily considered to be a brecciated achondrite from the Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) group.

“Achondritic meteorites are less common than other meteorites and are analogous to some of Earth’s rocks. Achondrites are of great interest to geoscientists, as they give us a glimpse into the inner workings of other planetary bodies,” says Vonopartis. “They also demonstrate that processes that formed the rocks of Earth occur elsewhere in the solar system, and analysis of these meteorites help us better understand the formation of other rocky planets and asteroids.”

https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/research-news/2024/2024-09/eastern-cape-meteorite-find-revealed.html

"Addressing Orania"

White Papers takes a look at Orania, the Afrikaner nationalist town in South Africa seeking to preserve the unique culture and way of life of the Afrikaner nation.

The piece goes over the history of the town, the constitutional acts that enable its existence, visits by post-apartheid South African presidents, and the demographics of South Africa.

White Papers also briefly examines the potential for more 'Oranias' in other Western states and where this model fits into the larger struggle for demographic survival among Western peoples.

Read the full piece here on our Substack:

Hello all

Thank you to all the subs we've gained so far. We have been managing this unofficial channel for Kaaplander since he restarted his Youtube Channel. We have now offered to reliquish control of the channel to Kaaplander so it can be adminned by him personally as his official Telegram channel. To align more with what Kaaplander wants this channel to be some posts have been altered or removed. There will still be memes but the channel will now be more closely focused on South African and other African news as well as some geopolitical stuff in general.

Kaaplander: Looking forward to using a Telegram channel again to post news and share thoughts about topics concerning Boere as well as issues relating to the wider white community in other countries. I will try to be concise rather than cryptid in my messaging, and I will encourage working together rather than burning bridges. Special thanks to associated channels:

https://www.tg-me.com/South Africa Reports/com.SouthAfricaReports
https://www.tg-me.com/ZA_future_of_the_West
https://www.tg-me.com/sanu_za
https://www.tg-me.com/BittereindersZA
https://www.tg-me.com/CIG_telegram

-for keeping this giant network of information and communication alive and assisting each other with making sure all our subscribers have access to useful knowledge and news.

Some fun and interesting times ahead, this is only the beginning!

@saffercentral2

— 🇮🇱/🇺🇸/🇿🇦 NEW: Axios reports that Israel is lobbying U.S. Congress members to pressure South Africa to drop its legal proceedings against Israel in the International Court of Justice, and to communicate that there will be 'consequences' for continuing the case.

@Middle_East_Spectator

🇪🇺💶🇿🇦 EU Provides Grant Funding for Green Hydrogen in South Africa

The European Union will provide two grants totaling €32 million ($35 million) to help South Africa kick-start its green hydrogen industry, Kadri Simson, Europe’s energy commissioner, said.

The grants will help South Africa to take advantage of its abundant wind and solar resources to produce green hydrogen, which is seen as a potential clean alternative to the fossil fuels used to power ships and heavy industry. Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy to split water and release hydrogen, which can be burned without producing climate warming gases.

The money is from the European Union budget and is separate to the $9.3 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership, a climate finance pact between South Africa and some of the world’s richest countries. The EU has provided similar support to Namibia.

The first of the two grants, worth €25 million, is expected to act as a catalyst to attract 10 billion rand ($558 million) in public and private money to invest in hydrogen production, storage and transportation, the EU and South Africa said in a statement. It will be “channeled through an EU member state financial institution.”

🇿🇦📡 AfriForum challenges ICASA’s race criteria blocking Starlink in South Africa

The civil rights organisation AfriForum today submitted written comments to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in which the organisation calls on ICASA to drop its strict race criteria that currently encumber the granting of a South African license to the satellite internet service Starlink.

Starlink has already been launched in four of South Africa’s six neighbouring countries, namely Eswatini, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Starlink service is expected to be launched in Namibia and Zimbabwe later this year.

South Africa has serious problems with rural safety. A significant contributing factor to this crisis is the unreliable or absent cellphone signal. For example, a stable internet connection for emergency communication and the efficient functioning of security cameras are crucial for security in rural areas. Cellphone towers are also prone to weaker or non-existent signal during power outages.

https://afriforum.co.za/en/afriforum-challenges-icasas-race-criteria-blocking-starlink-in-south-africa/

Earlier this week it was announced that Starlink is now available in Zimbabwe.

Starlink is still unavailable in South Africa due to government regulations requiring the company to be at least 30% black-owned.

This disproportionately impacts white farmers who rely on expensive satellite or mobile network services for their safety and communication.

🖼 Paul Kruger Statue

📍Church Square, Pretoria

🎓🇿🇦 Ramaphosa delays full implementation of BELA Bill to allow for consultations on two clauses

President Cyril Ramaphosa has postponed the full implementation of the BELA Bill to allow for further engagements on two clauses over three months.

Speaking at the signing of the bill at the Union Buildings, Ramaphosa said he had agreed to pause the implementation of two clauses which deal with school admissions and language.

"I am willing to allow those who believe a solution will be found to the two clauses that they believe they have solutions for, to give them the opportunity and delay the implementation of clauses 4 and 5 for a period of three months. The rest of the act is implemented immediately. This will give the parties time to deliberate," he said.

However, Ramaphosa added that if no solution was found within three months, the bill would be implemented fully.

https://www.news24.com/news24/politics/ramaphosa-delays-full-implementation-of-bela-bill-to-allow-for-consultations-on-two-clauses-20240913

📚 What is the BELA Bill?

Two of the most contentious clauses in the BELA Bill seeks to 1) limit the rights granted to the governing bodies of public schools and 2) to apply stricter regulations on homeschooling

The Bill takes away the ability for a school's governing body to decide on and implement their own policies on language and admission. [Clause temporarily suspended]

This Bill also gives the government the power to stop you from homeschooling your own child unless the Dept. of Education's terms.