Police scour Middelpos settlement after new information in Joshlin Smith case
Joshlin's mother, Racquel 'Kelly' Smith, Smith's boyfriend Jacquin 'Boeta' Appollis, 33, and Steveno van Rhyn, 28, received life sentences for the kidnapping and trafficking of Joshlin in May.
An eight-week trial revealed how the trio planned to sell the green-eyed grade 1 pupil with fair skin to a sangoma for R20,000 from their home in the settlement in February last year.
'SAPS teams led by detectives with K-9 members, search and rescue teams and local police have been scouring an identified area in Saldanha Bay. Whether the ongoing search will yield any success remains to be seen. It is worth reiterating that police have an obligation to follow up and test all information that is brought to their attention,' Western Cape police said on Saturday.
'A humble plea is hereby made that the search teams be afforded space to perform their duties as the investigation continues.'
Police said on Saturday, even though the three were sentenced for kidnapping and human trafficking, the disappearance without trace of the child remained a priority for police and the investigation was never closed.
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eNCA
5 hours ago
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Drunk KZN taxi driver sought after causing accident and fleeing
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The South African
6 hours ago
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Was the Butler 'assassination attempt' on Donald Trump staged?
Is it remotely possible that showman, actor, TV producer and all-round heavyweight bullsh*tter Donald J. Trump was involved in staging the alleged 'assassination attempt' on him in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July last year? Because as many analysts, investigators and internet sleuths are pointing out…the 'official explanation' is riddled with weird and confounding inconsistencies. In a recent episode of his talk show, MOATS, British MP and political analyst, George Galloway, raised an interesting, important and pertinent question: 'Whatever happened to the guy…who came so close to murdering Donald Trump at Butler, PA?' Galloway asked. 'Why do I know less about him than I know about the latest K-pop star singing, You're My Little Soda Pop ? Why do I know more about Little Soda Pop than I do about the guy who drew blood, in broad daylight, by firing a bullet into the face of the man who was about to be the president of the United States?' 'I know nothing about him,' Galloway said. 'Haven't seen his manifesto. Know nothing about his motives, his associates, or who he was in touch with in the minutes, hours and days…before he came so close to changing the entire course of world history. 'Is that not a bit suspicious? Just saying…' Good question. Suspicious indeed. And it gets even more suspicious. On the anniversary of the Butler assassination attempt this year, Congress released a report detailing failures by the United States Secret Service (USSS) that allowed the 13 July 2024 attempted assassination of presidential candidate Donald J. Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, to nearly succeed. The report unveiled by US Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, exposes a disturbing pattern of denials, mismanagement, and missed warning signs – some occurring just minutes before shots were fired. Among the failures by the USSS documented in the report are 'inexcusable negligence, communication breakdowns, systemic weaknesses, and limited accountability'. The report states (summary): 'On July 13, 2024, a gunman climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research building near the Butler Farm Show rally and opened fire, striking four individuals, including President Trump, and killing firefighter Corey Comperatore. The shooter had been reported to the Secret Service as suspicious and with a rangefinder at least 25 minutes earlier.' 'What happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, was not just a tragedy—it was a scandal. The United States Secret Service failed to act on credible intelligence, failed to coordinate with local law enforcement, and failed to prevent an attack that nearly took the life of a then-former president,' said chairman Paul. 'Despite those failures, no one has been fired. That's unacceptable. This was not a single lapse in judgment. 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The description in the post says, 'Footage of the attempted Trump assassination in Butler, PA shows a man lining up photographers at the precise moment the most effective campaign photo in US history was captured.' After the shooter fired on Trump, Keaton Weiss pointed out how bizarre it was that the Secret Service agent was concerned about coordinating the photographers. 'Your job is to protect the president, not the photographers, right?' Weiss said. 'Why are you corralling them? It's weird.' Dobular, a self-admitted 'theatre dork', questioned the strange decision by the SS to bring Trump 'downstage centre' (the part of a stage that's closest to the audience). 'This is an active shooter situation,' Dobular said. 'Why would you bring him downstage centre? That to me is the most suspicious part of this footage.' The video clip got to the part where shots have just rung out, and the SS have Trump on the ground and covered. And then, they again do something that was bewilderingly strange and reckless. They pick Trump up, exposing him to the shooter. Dobular paused the clip and asked the obvious question. 'So they got him down, which is what you'd expect. Why would you lift him up? Why would you expose him like that?' THE WAPO BODYCAM POV – TRUMP PAUSES FOR A PHOTO OP Russell then ran a clip of another angle – from the Washington Post; the POV of a photographer wearing a GoPro or body cam. 'This was definitely one of the photographers that the Secret Service guy was corralling', Weiss indicated. To which Dobular responded, 'Again, why would you position him like that in an active shooter situation? That is really the most suspicious thing in all of this.' In the POV clip, Trump can be seen forcing his SS guards to pause his rapid exit, as he raised his fist for that iconic photo-op moment, and shouted to the crowd, 'Fight!'. Dobular brought up another X post, by alt news/media platform, RAWSALERTS. 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On 8 August 2024, less than a month after the shooting – and the Republican National Convention where Trump was seen wearing a bandage on his ear – Trump was interviewed by the media at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, without the ear bandage. When a reporter asked about the absence of the bandage, in true narcissistic Trump fashion, The Don answered: 'I'm a fast healer. It's a helluva shot, but I'm a fast healer. Yeah, pretty much recovered.' 'I got very lucky. It just hit the lobe – as they call it,' he added. On 28 February, Elon Musk made another appearance on the Joe Rogan show. The subject of Trump's near-assassination came up. Along with some good questions about some very strange inconsistencies. As Rogan pointed out, the house of the (alleged) shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, had been 'professionally' scrubbed, and Crooks had no internet or social media footprint. Here Musk interjected, 'Yeah, there's zero per cent chance that he has no social media footprint.' Rogan continued, 'With this kid, we don't know anything, right? And everyone's stopped asking questions. There was never a formal report or press conference where they detailed all the information we know currently and where the investigation stands. At the moment, what we know is you have a very young kid who was filmed, they knew he was there – with a rangefinder – half an hour before the event.' He pointed out, 'You also know that CNN streamed it live – which I do not believe they did for any other rally and certainly not for a rally that's in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania.' Among the other anomalies in the case, Rogan also brought up 'the kid had 5 phones, that's a lot of phones for a 20-year-old kid. One of them was tracked to outside FBI offices several times.' 'There's a lot of weird shit', Rogan added. 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He also wrote that 'similar to scrubbing crime scene biological evidence … this action by the FBI can only be described as an obstruction to any investigative effort.' 'THE 'OFFICIAL STORY' IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED' In the course of the deep dive by Dissidence , Russell Dobular said, 'In my entire life, there has never been a would-be assassin as invisibilized as this assassin. I didn't know his name until I did the research for this.' Wrapping up their video, Dobular made his position and personal opinion on the 'assassination attempt' clear. 'Given how things have evolved since Trump became president…I believe this was staged to ensure that he would become president', he said. 'Nobody could ever prove that – but that's my opinion based on the evidence.' 'There's a lot of weird stuff. I think we can say, conclusively, that the story we're being told is not the truth. Clearly, there is a cover-up here. Whatever you believe about that, there's a cover-up.' He added, 'What the nature of it is, we don't know.' Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
IOL News
12 hours ago
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Public Works Minister takes action against alleged political abuse in Matjhabeng's EPWP
EPWP payments frozen in Matjhabeng amid claims of councillors receiving over R31,000 monthly; Minister vows to root out corruption and restore the programme's core purpose. Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson has halted all Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) fund transfers to the Matjhabeng Local Municipality. This comes after a City Press investigation revealed that the municipality's EPWP payroll is allegedly being used to pay inflated salaries, over R31,000 per month , to former councillors and current political office bearers, more than ten times the average EPWP stipend. Macpherson said the EPWP was never meant to serve as a vehicle for political patronage, but rather to provide short-term, skills-based work opportunities to unemployed South Africans. He has now instructed the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to suspend all transfers to the municipality until a formal investigation is completed.
