See the news highlights for November 2013
From kidnappings and torture to a mini war in our timber forests - November was an eventful month in the Lowveld.
• November 1: A Mozambican boy was tortured to death by his kidnappers because his parents couldn’t afford to pay the demanded ransom of $1 million. Thousands of community members protested about this horrific ordeal.
• November 5: Armed men put a gun to a child’s head during an attack at their house in Alkmaar. The assailants took the family’s cell phones, some money and jewellery.
• November 5: Mr Thabo Lubisi survived a 90 meters fall down a cliff at God’s Window. He hadn’t sustained a single fracture during his fall.
• November 8: The fourth skeleton of the day what seemed like the remains of a baby monkey was found by landowners at Burnside. It seemed like a possible bush-meat trade in the area and tenants on smallholding have been terrorized, and their pets attacked.
• November 12: Const Sifiso Michael Mabuza was shot in his bed. Seven people, including a law-enforcement colleague were arrested for his murder.
• November 15: Members of the community were scared to walk the streets in protest against the infamous police unit, the Tactical Response Team, better known as amaBeret. This comes after the so-called elite police unit, joined by regular members of the SAPS and of the Community Policing Forum, raided local taverns where they assaulted patrons for no apparent reason.
• November 19: Two teens were kidnapped in a West Acres park. This follows after the kidnappings in Mozambique.
• November 22: A mini-war broke out in a plantation at Graskop in what seems to have been an ambush of security manager of a forestry company. At least one alleged timber thief was shot and killed in the incident. A case of murder was opened.
• November 26: A Barberton couple appeared in court after they were caught with an alleged explicit pornographic video of their own seven-year-old daughter. The parents were in the process of selling a cell phone when the shop assistant noticed a video on the phone.
• November 29: The man responsible for the mutilation of Mr. Brian Barnard’s has not yet been apprehended. This despite the fact that Barnard identified his attacker on a photograph. Barnard lost half of his nose in the attack.
