Justin Hartman

Posts Tagged ‘Crime’


Posted on November 13, 2007 - by

Sometimes I Hate South Africa

Last Friday morning Rian Kerkhof (53) died in hospital after being robbed earlier that Thursday evening. Rian was a good family friend and news of his murder only made its way to our household early yesterday evening.

Rian was shot in the right side of his body and was then tied to his daughter while the four scum rummaged through his fridge, ate some dinner, cleaned his cottage out and left him there to die. His daughter Helene was visiting him from Thailand and was beaten and taunted all the while watching her father slip away.

“I looked forward to returning to South Africa, but I cannot live in a place where such pigs are terrorising the community. Nobody is safe. It’s not enough to rob. They want to kill.” — Helene Kerkhof (21)

Rian used to own a Sneakers store in Cape Town before he lost his business and it was during this time that he gave me my very first pair of Nike shoes at age 13 and I will always remember him for this – he was my hero.

After he lost his business Rian struggled through the years and I really felt for the man as no human being should ever go through the hardships he went through. The fact that he was so brutally murdered just sickens me to the stomach and this whole incident just makes me furious.

I can’t help but feel absolutely powerless when I witness the events that take place in South Africa. I love my country, have contributed on occasion to SA Rocks to prove my cause and have even tried to make a small difference with my localised web applications yet at moments like these I just want to run far far away.

When is this lack of respect for life ever going to change? We’re a savage nation that cares nothing for the value of life and I’m struggling to come to terms with these brutal murders that take place every day in this country.

I am often fearful for the safety of my family but when it hits home like this I am completely hopeless.

My deepest condolences go out to Rian’s wife and four children – words can not describe the sadness I feel for them right now…

 

Posted on September 19, 2007 - by

Mother’s tears for her stabbed son

This whole stabbing incident just makes me sick. I honestly hope these kids spend a long time in jail. The Times spoke to Nonhlanhla Ntshangase, the mother of murdered schoolboy Mfundo Ntshangase.



Brought to you by: The Times Multimedia

 

Posted on May 24, 2007 - by

The big Cameroon domain conspiracy

People say that this blogosphere is boring and to an extent I agree however I must admit I am finding some serious value in reading all the African blogs on Afrigator. Africa as a continent are really good writers and I particularly love North & West African political blogging views. My eyes have certainly opened to a whole new world.

Tonight on Afrigator I found this article written by Cameroonian blogger Dibussi Tande which highlights the gory details of how Internet Mogul, Kevin Ham, worked with Cameroonian officials to make millions off domain typo-squatting.

You can read the full article here but I have to say I’m amazed at the white-collar crime involved in the Internet domain space.

According to Dibussi the plot was a simple yet effective one:

In layman’s terms, Cameroon Internet authorities were redirecting all misspelled .com addressed (e.g. www.dibussi.cm instead of www.dibussi.com ) to an advert-based website (agoga.com), where they were making millions of dollars in pay-per-click advert revenue (Pay-per-click is an advertising system where advertisers pay an agreed amount for each click delivered to their site).

I, like The Techie, also thought this domain squatting business was a thing of the past but apparently where there is money to be made there will always be someone government who’ll capitalise.

Ham, dubbed The man who owns the Internet, is estimated to be worth in excess of $300 million and his Cameroonian counter-parts are alleged to have received up to $3 million for their part in the conspiracy.