LALI VAN ZUYDAM

IT WAS like walking into thepast, with people dressed likesoldiers from the former Rhode-sian Army, German AfrikaKorps and World War II.

On display were militaryhardware and historic itemssuch as Volkswagen Beetlesdating back to the time of NaziGermany.

Yesterday, hundreds of mili-tary and military history enthu-siasts spent the day at theVoortrekker Monument for thethird annual Military and His-tory Fair.

“There are pieces here fromas far back as the Anglo-BoerWar but also pieces used by themilitary now,” said the fair’sorganiser, Geraldine Paulsen.

More than 40 stalls exhibitedeverything from military tanks,guns and ammunition, collec-tors’ items to military historybooks. One stall sold miniaturekit models of tanks.

Milkor, a South African wea-pons manufacturer, fired one ofits latest grenade launchers.

Several military re-enactorsattended the event in their his-torical uniforms.

“They are living history.People don’t know what thewars of the past were like,” saidPaulsen, “so people will travelfar to see re-enactments offamous battles.” The event was away to teach children about mil-itary history, he said.

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AFRICA EDITION

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Elderly couple robbed at gunpointTWO MEN were arrested after allegedly robbing an elderlycouple on their farm near Hermanus, Western Cape police saidyesterday. A group of four men broke into the couple’s house byclimbing through the window and robbed them at gunpoint onWednesday night, Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said. The 77-year-old man and his wife were not injured. The four took cash,cellphones and bank cards and fled in the couple’s VolkswagenPolo, which they crashed in Hemel en Aarde Valley. Two of themwere seriously injured and arrested. The other two fled. Thearrested pair were expected to appear in court today. – Sapa

Woman raped after car stallsA COUPLE were robbed, and the woman raped, when their carbroke down along the R80 in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria,police said yesterday. They were approached by two men, one ofwhom was armed, and who robbed them of bank cards andcash in block XX on Wednesday night, spokeswoman CaptainRheineth Motlana said. “One of the men asked the boyfriend toaccompany him to the ATM to withdraw money, while the otherone remained behind with the woman.” When the boyfriendcame back from the ATM he found his girlfriend had been raped.Both men fled the scene. – Sapa

Political activists to be reburiedTHE REMAINS of 10 people killed during political violence inBergville would be reburied, the KwaZulu-Natal government saidyesterday. “KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu and membersof his cabinet will pay the final respects to the victims of the1993/4 political violence in Bergville, when 10 of those killedduring that period will be reburied this weekend,” spokesmanNdabezinhle Sibiya said. The area around Bergville was at thecentre of political violence that erupted between the ANC andIFP in the 1990s. – Sapa

Collision claims one lifeONE PERSON died and three others were injured when two carscollided near Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal paramedics said yesterday.One of the injured was trapped and had to be extricated fromthe wreckage, Emergency Medical Services spokesman RobertMcKenzie said. “The patient was freed, and together with theother two patients who had sustained serious injuries, weretransported to Christ the King Hospital in Ixopo for continuedmedical care.” The cause of Wednesday night’s accident on theR612 was unknown. – Sapa

MPILETSO MOTUMImpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za

MYSTERY still surrounds the missingbronze bust of Sir James Percy Fitz-Patrick at Johannesburg Zoo.

The bust wall allegedly stolen in 2010and has yet to be found.

FitzPatrick was the author of thefamous children’s book Jock of theBushveld.

The wild animals he brought backfrom hunting trips formed part of thefirst group of animals at JohannesburgZoo.

Flo Bird, of the Johannesburg Heri-tage Foundation, recently spoke to the

North Eastern Tribune about how shenoticed a few weeks ago that the bust wasmissing, and found it odd that nothinghad been done in all these years.

The newspaper said the bust hadbeen erected in 1984 for the zoo’s 80thbirthday.

In March, the zoo celebrated its 110thanniversary with a big party. The cele-brations will continue with more activi-ties until March next year.

When the zoo opened in 1904, it had10 animals, but now boasts more than2 000.

These include lions, tigers, hippos,elephants, monkeys, chimpanzees andantelopes, among many others.

The bronze bust was situated in anenclosure at the zoo.

Johannesburg City Parks and zoospokeswoman Jenny Moodley said: “Ithas been missing since 2010, before CityParks took over the zoo.

“We’d like to find it but have beenunsuccessful since we found out it wasmissing.”

She said the bust was stolen whileDr Stephen van der Spuy was the execu-tive officer of the zoo.

“If anybody has information, pleaselet us know,” said Moodley.

She said members of the public couldcall the zoo’s direct line if they had anyinformation.

Limpopo: January 2014

A 3-year-old was found deadin a car belonging to a localbusinessman, near Relela inLimpopo. The boy had gonemissing earlier that day withtwo other children. The post-mortem showed the boy died ofsuffocation, but the others wereunharmed. Police said itappeared that they had climbedinto the car to play when thedoors locked and trapped them.

Gauteng: November 2012

A four-month-old baby was res-cued in Springs after she wasleft alone in a parked car in 30ºC

heat. Someone saw her andcalled the police, who broke awindow. She was taken to hospi-tal. Police arrested the motherand said she would face neglectcharges.

Free State: January 2012

A 4-year-old girl was foundlocked in a car in a mall park-ing lot in Welkom. Paramedicsbroke the window to free her.Temperatures were in theupper 30ºC range. Two menwere arrested. The girl’smother said the men had takenher daughter without her per-mission. – Ally Mutnick

JOYCE LEEjoyce.lee@inl.co.za

POLICE found the burnt body of a man in an openfield in Lakeside, Vereeniging, on Wednesdaymorning.

He was missing his genitals, and the back ofhis skull was cut “like a doctor (was) going to openit”, said police spokesman Captain Fikile Funda.

Funda added that he did not know whether thevictim’s brain had been taken out.

Police suspect the unknown man, in his latetwenties, was the victim of a ritualistic murder,and the perpetrators burnt his body to cover upthe crime, Funda said.

Ritualistic killings and organ trafficking arecommon across South Africa. There are anywherebetween 150 and 300 muti murders in SouthAfrica annually, according to a 2006 US Depart-ment of State Trafficking in Persons Report.

In a mutimurder, bodyparts are re-moved from a liv-ing person, sold,and used formedicinal pur-

poses. Bodies are sold for as little as R10 000,according to a 2010 probe conducted by Mozam-bique’s Human Rights League.

Male genitals, breasts, hearts, fingers andtongues are the most commonly trafficked bodyparts for muti, according to the league.

In South Africa, there is no distinct charge fora muti killing. Perpetrators are put in jail for mur-der, sometimes abduction, and are often given lifesentences.

Police have asked anyone with information tocome forward.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Vereenigingpolice are seeking help in identifying the body ofa white man in his early thirties found in the VaalRiver near Spider Valley on Tuesday. His body,wrapped in plastic, was in a badly decomposedstate. He was wearing a jacket, jeans and sneakersand had a Nokia cellphone in his jacket.

Mutilated andburnt corpsefound in field

He was missinghis genitals, andhis skull was cut

Percy FitzPatrick’s zoo bust still missing

ALLY MUTNICKally.mutnick@inl.co.za

THREE South African sol-diers have been injuredin the Democratic Repub-

lic of the Congo following anattack by an armed group.

The soldiers, who had beenserving in the DRC for sixmonths as part of the UN force,were all stable and being treatedat a hospital in Goma, theSANDF confirmed yesterday.

One was seriously woundedwhile the other two sustainedminor injuries.

The SANDF could not providedetails of Wednesday’s attack,but confirmed the Alliance ofPatriots for a Free and SovereignCongo (APCLS) rebel group hadlaunched the assault.

The UN’s Monusco missionhad launched a counter-strikewith attack helicopters.

South Africa has about 1 000

soldiers serving with Monuscoand its forces have been in theregion for the past 12 years, saidSANDF spokesman Captain JacoTheunissen.

He said the attack had notspecifically targeted South Afri-can forces and that SANDFtroops would remain in theregion.

“We’ve fought bravely,” Theu-nissen said. “We don’t have anyserious casualties.”

President Jacob Zuma hadbeen briefed on the incident bythe minister of defence, saidZuma’s spokesman Mac Maha-raj. The mission “remains firmlyon course”, he wrote in an e-mail.

Violence from armed rebelgroups is common in the easternregion of the DRC where theSANDF soldiers were attacked.

Monusco works with the Congo-lese army to quell violence in theregion.

APCLS is one of three mainrebel groups in the region. InMarch, the intervention brigadeand the Congolese army forcedthe group out of the town of Luk-weti, which the group was using

as a headquarters. The group isnow launching counter-attacks.

The UN force posed a militarythreat to rebel groups as it hadrecently focused on pushingthem out of control in the DRC,said Darren Olivier, a senior cor-respondent for the AfricanDefence Review.

“The attack (on Wednesday)was very bold,” he said.

“This may be a sign of desper-ation that they have lost theirstronghold.”

The group, led by GeneralJanvier Karairi, is believed tohave about 500 members, mostlyfrom the Hunde ethnic group.

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FROM March 22 until about 9pm onMarch 24 last year, 200 SouthAfrican soldiers fought a series ofrunning battles outside Bangui inthe Central African Republic (CAR)against 3 000 or more well-armedopponents.

They did so while the CAR armyevaporated and the peacekeepingforces of the Central AfricanStandby Brigade disappeared fromthe scene.

That series of running battlesclaimed 13 soldiers and left 27others wounded. The soldiers firedoff more than 12 000 rounds of12.7mm machinegun ammunitionand 288 rockets from armylaunchers.

South Africa lost the battle in the

end because the huge Seleka forceeventually overran them andtoppled the country’s president,Francois Bozize, the next day.

Estimates by French newsagencies placed the final SANDFdeath toll at 36-50, although SANDFspokesman Brigadier-GeneralXolani Mabanga dismissed thesestatements as “blue lies”.

“We have no missing soldiers orbodies,” he said. – Susie Neilson

Injured trio in stable condition after attack by rebel group in east of country

DA MISLEADINGPUBLIC – PAGE 15

KA-BOOM! Canon Susanna was fired during the Military and History Fair at the Voortrekker Monument yesterday to commemorate the attack onBritish forces during the Anglo-Boer War. PICTURE: THOBILE MATHONSI

Battle disasterin the CAR

Blast fromthe pastat fair inPretoria

PALESA RADEBEpalesa.radebe@inl.co.za

POST-MORTEM results willdetermine the cause of death ofthe three children who died afterthey were left in a car for 20 min-utes in Mmabatho.

The children were left in ablack car on Wednesday whiletheir parents went to a chemistto get medication for theiryoungest child.

The parents were with their2-year-old son, 6-year-old daugh-ter, her 4-year-old cousin and aneighbour’s 10-year-old daugh-ter. The couple took their 2-year-old son, and left the other chil-dren in the car.

The 28-year-old mother wentback to the car after buying fruitjuice for the three children andfound them very weak.

Yesterday, North West police

spokesman Captain MabelMosidi said it was difficult forthe children to open the car fromthe inside as it was locked andthe windows were closed.

A key is needed to open thecar’s electric windows and doors.

The parents had taken thekey with them when they went tothe chemist.

The 34-year-old driver of thecar took the three children toVictoria Hospital, where theywere certified dead on arrival.

SA Weather Service senior

forecaster Puseletso Mofokengsaid the weather was 27ºC inMahikeng, and though this wasnot extreme, such temperaturecould be dangerous in a station-ary car with no ventilation.“When the car is not moving, thetemperature rises,” she said.

She said the fact that the carwas black made the situationworse, as the vehicle wouldabsorb heat.

Mosidi said police were inves-tigating but no foul play wassuspected.

The investigating officerwould hand the docket to a pros-ecutor at the Mmabatho Magis-trate’s Court for a decision onwhether to prosecute.

“The police would like to senda warning to all parents not toleave children in cars withoutsupervision. It’s not safe, as any-thing can happen,” she said.

Probe after kids’ deaths in carOther similar incidentsA MAN has been arrested forstabbing a policeman with aspear at Freedom Park, nearRustenburg.

Police were conducting a cor-don-and-search operation onWednesday night when a manstabbed a policeman in the chest.The policeman was saved by hisbulletproof vest.

The man was arrested andcharged with attempted murder,possession of dangerous weaponand dagga and will appear incourt soon.

Provincial Commissioner Lt-Gen Zukiswa Mbombo saidcriminal behaviour and unruli-ness would not be tolerated.

She said police were still look-ing for people behind the torch-ing of a municipal building andtwo houses in Freedom Park lastSunday. – Sapa

Man held forstabbing cop

Police would liketo send a warning

to all parents