WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2009-03-04 Time: 22:00:01 Posted By: Jan
By Caroline Hooper-Box
Outrage has greeted the detention of the management of South Africa’s internationally renowned National Museum of Military History in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, and the confiscation of four armoured display vehicles.
The debacle threatens to cause South Africa untold international embarrassment – but military police say they may still commandeer the museum’s collection of small arms, many collector’s pieces, some of which date back to the 1840s.
Military intelligence and police raided the museum in Saxonwold on Thursday after receiving information that “war-capable weapons and vehicles” were being stored there.
| ‘This is not some Mickey Mouse operation’ |
The museum’s director, John Keene, and two curators, Richard Henry and Suzanne Blendulf, were led away in handcuffs from their workplace, accused of possession of “suspected stolen” military equipment.
They were jailed overnight – Keene and Henry in the Pretoria Central Prison and Blendulf in Johannesburg. Keene, who had eye surgery the day before his arrest, was admitted to the Pretoria Eye Hospital at 5am on Friday because his retina had completely detached, and was held there under armed guard. They were released on Friday without being charged.
Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan and departmental director-general Itumeleng Mosala arrived at the museum after hearing of the raid. Mosala and the department’s attorney, Barry Witter, made arrangements to pay the R20 000 per person bail, but the three were released before bail was posted.
Acting director Sandi Mackenzie said the department of arts and culture and Makgolo Makgolo, chief executive of the Northern Flagship Institution – the state body through which the department oversees the museum – had “been unceasing in their support of the staff members in this travesty”.
“This is a world-respected museum,” said advisory council member Deon Fourie. “Our former director was head of the International Association of Museums of Arms and Military History. We have had many visits from overseas military people and last year we had 68 000 visitors. This is not some Mickey Mouse operation.”
The museum, which has 40 400 exhibits – including some of the rarest aircraft in the world and the uniform worn by Joe Modise, the former commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe, who was minister of defence from 1994 to 1999 – is a member of the International Council of Museums, and is responsible for the provision of exhibits and their curation at the Delville Wood Commemorative Museum in France.
The defence force has not clarified whether the museum had legally or illegally confiscated an Eland 60, Eland 90, a Ferret and a Ratel infantry fighting vehicle last Thursday – worth an estimated R120-million.
“That forms part of our investigation,” said defence force spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Louis Kirstein.
Police apparently told museum staff that some of the arms and vehicles on display were shown on military records to have been destroyed.
Institute for Security Studies defence sector programme head, Len le Roux, said a disposal process existed through which the military got rid of its superfluous equipment. Applications to acquire such equipment were adjudicated by a disposal board.
Operations spokesperson Fani Molapo said last week that according to military records the vehicles, which were exhibited inside the museum, had been destroyed. But Kirstein could also not confirm that the confiscated weapons had been recorded as destroyed.
“All of this forms part of the investigation,” he said.
Mackenzie said that all the contested items were recorded on the museum’s acquisition books.
“We are not responsible for the military’s records, we are only responsible for our own.”
Kirstein said the fate of the confiscated vehicles, now in possession of the SANDF, would be determined by the outcome of a military police probe.
Two cannons would possibly be removed from the museum tomorrow, he said, and the small arms collection would be confiscated if the investigation so required. – Additional reporting from
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20050116100804623C397846