Suspicious car death in "War Zone" South Africa

CEO Gavin Watson Dies in Car Smash Day Before Testifying

August 26, 2019

Following from: https://gumshoenews.com/2019/08/26/ceo-gavin-watson-dies-in-car-smash-day-before-testifying/#more-22433

by Dee McLachlan

Do you remember Michael Hastings’ bizarre “accident”?

Hastings had written “The Runaway General,” (2010), an article about America’s commander in Afghanistan for Rolling Stone – and was working on another big story on the CIA director. The day before he was killed he voiced concern that he was being monitored, and contacted Wikileak’s lawyer. He had also become paranoid about his car, and even tried to borrow a friend’s Volvo.

Then, at 4:20am (or was it 5.00am) on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, Hastings’s silver Mercedes C250 coupe speed south on Highland Avenue (in Los Angeles), jumped the median, hit a palm tree, and exploded. Many believe the car had been hacked and controlled.

Another Almighty Smash

Now South Africa’s Bosasa CEO Gavin Watson has been killed in a horrific cash smash at 5.00am — while on his way to the airport this morning. As you can see above (in the lead photo), the car was totalled by smashing into the overpass pillar.But first a little background.

South Africa, as my brother from cape Town keeps telling me, has a different kind of corruption. It’s widespread, pervasive, and is almost flaunted.

The former South African president Jacob Zuma was accused of fostering a culture of corruption during his nine-year reign before he was ousted in 2018 and replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa. It was back in April 2016 that South Africa’s High Court declared that Zuma “should” be charged with 783 counts of alleged corruption, fraud and racketeering.

In 2018, a Judicial Commission of Inquiry was appointed to investigate the allegations of “state capture” (by families like the Guptas) — plus general corruption, and fraud. Essentially private interests had “bought” the government, and one of the players seems to have been 71 year old Gavin Watson.

And guess who was about to appear in front of a tax inquiry? Watson. (I’m still determining the connection between the commission and the tax inquiry, but there is a cross-over.)

In February this year an article entitled, “Gavin Watson in his BMW: ‘Let them rant and rave as much as they want’.”  Times Live reported (6/2/2019):

“A glib Watson… would not be drawn to comment further…

“The state capture commission last month saw damning evidence in a video submitted, and heard how Bosasa [Watson being the CEO] kept cash in vaults and delivered them in grey security bags to bribe officials for contracts. Ex-Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi, the inquiry’s star witness, was testifying about a video he presented as part of his evidence which shows Bosasa employee Andries van Tonder taking money from one vault to another vault.

“The video of Watson’s vault showed piles of money stacked up and counted for bribes… “

And here’s the whistle-blower’s “What is the Order of Chicken” video. You couldn’t have scripted such a cast of characters.

https://youtu.be/ERj1JM5f4i4

It seems CEO Watson was to testify tomorrow — Tuesday (27/8/2019). The inquiry is an investigation by the South African Revenue Services (Sars) which flowed from testimony at the commission of inquiry into allegations of State capture. And they were about to hear from Watson regarding his tax compliance.

The “Accident”

Watson died in the car crash near OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg this morning, but “We do not know why he was driving to the airport, if it was to catch a flight or if it was to collect someone,” said Papa Leshabane.

Strangely he was not driving his own metallic blue BMW X6 (or X5). He had parked his car at the company’s Krugersdorp office before signing out a company Toyota Corolla for the weekend. Apparently his personal car had mechanical problems, but some former colleagues are still puzzled.

He had switched the cars after a Sunday prayer meeting, but had not chosen one of the automatic models. Former Bosasa fleet manager Frans Vorster told News24 that the Corolla in which Watson was killed “had a manual gearbox, whereas Watson could only drive automatic cars.” (But I don’t know any South African over 55 that can’t drive a manual.)

So Watson collided with a bridge pillar near the R21 at high speed at 5.00am in the morning — travelling towards the airport. One has to wonder what he was doing there at the time. (I still wonder what Michael Hastings was doing driving around at 4.30am.)  It is unclear exactly how the accident occurred, but as one person said, “Nobody goes into that airport there at full speed, you can’t, because of the curved road.”

One has to consider that a man about to be grilled about possible tax fraud might commit suicide, but wouldn’t you want to ‘pass’ in your luxury car? (Maybe the BMW has too many safety features.)

But why there? And what was he doing on the road at 5.00am? TheSouthafrican.comwrites:

“With Watson’s death, there are secrets he will take to the grave with him… South Africans are ultimately frustrated that this could close several avenues into a forensic analysis of their own, personal state capture. Conspiracies will circulate, but ultimately, the police are keen to pursue any inquiries through the culpable homicide investigation.”

In the back of my mind I have to wonder whether Watson could’ve opened a giant can of worms exposing many influential people — and “loose lips sink ships.” The car could’ve been hacked and controlled — and who knows — he might have already been dead at the wheel.

Anything is possible these days.

South Africa crime: Can the country be compared to a 'war zone'?

By Reality Check teamBBC News 18 September 2018
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45547975

South Africa's police minister Bheki Cele has said a surge in murders has turned his country into a place that "borders on a war zone."

Crime statistics released by the government show there were more than 20,000 murders in 2017, a 7% increase over the previous year.

The minister highlighted that this was 57 murders every day.

According to ISS' Crime Hub, several precincts have a murder rate estimated at more than 100 per 100,000. That's higher than in most of the war zones considered above.

In Philippi East, a township of Cape Town, the rate was estimated at 323.4 per 100,000. It was 214.52 in Madeira in the Eastern Cape province and 177.3 at Pietermaritzburg's central city station in KwaZulu-Natal.

Following from: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/cape-town-has-highest-murder-robbery-rates-in-new-safety-report-where-does-your-city-rank-20190413

Here's what the report says about these nine major cities in South Africa:

• City of Johannesburg: Joburg's crime rates are low to moderate, except for assault (295) and especially robbery (435). It has the second-lowest recorded rate of murder (31) and levels of non-violent property-related (941) crime have declined significantly so that the city ranks second best. The City of Johannesburg has the highest level of police activity (320) targeting people driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

• City of Cape Town: According to the report ''the City of Cape Town has very high rates of almost all crime types''. It has the highest recorded rates of the nine cities for murder (69), robbery (484), and non-violent property-related crimes (1475). For this year, the city moved into third place for sexual offences (98). The city’s murder rate (69) has increased by 60% since 2009/10 and by 13% in the last year alone, which is more than twice the increase in any of the other eight cities.

• eThekwini: eThekwini has the second-lowest rates of assault (235) and third lowest rates of non-violent property-related crime (961). The city has overtaken Buffalo City to rank third highest of the nine cities in murder rates.

• Ekurhuleni: Ekurhuleni continues to show relatively low recorded rates of most crime types. It has the lowest rates of non-violent property-related crimes (856), second-lowest rates of sexual offences (66) and third-lowest rates of both murder (32) and robbery (296).

• City of Tshwane: has relatively low recorded rates of interpersonal violent crimes, with the lowest rates of murder, assault and sexual offences of all nine cities – its murder rate is almost half that in neighbouring Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. However, non-violent property-related crimes are slightly higher than neighbouring Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, while robbery rates are far lower than in Johannesburg and slightly higher than in Ekurhuleni.

• Nelson Mandela Bay: Despite lower levels of non-violent property-related crimes (1036), Nelson Mandela Bay has the second-highest murder rate (54), the third-highest robbery rate (440) of all nine cities. This suggests that its ''middling'' recorded rates of assault (295) may be due to low levels of reporting of these crimes.

• Mangaung: Mangaung’s ''relative crime profile is strongly dominated by violent interpersonal crimes''. Ranked second only to Buffalo City in recorded rates of both assault (402) and sexual offences (130). However, it records the lowest rate of robbery (232) among the nine cities. Unlike most of the cities, its murder rate (39) has not changed significantly over the last 10 years.

• Buffalo City:  Buffalo City has high levels of violent interpersonal crimes, ranking worst among the cities in recorded rates of both assault (507) and sexual offences (131. Compared to the other cities, Buffalo City has shown the longest and most sustained decrease in its murder rate (43): down 40% over the last 10 years and 9% in the last year. However, aggravated robbery has increased, by 38% over the last 10 years and 4% in the last year.

• Msunduzi: Msunduzi displays ''middling to low recorded rates of most crime types''. It has the second-to-lowest rates of robbery (253) and fairly low rates of non-violent property-related crimes (985). The city's trend in aggravated robbery has been ''unsteady but slightly upwards'', increasing by 22% over the last 10 years and by 10% in the last year – the largest increase among the cities.