company is alleged to award interest-free loans to a trust set up for this purpose, and is regulated by Ansbacher, a bank notorious for a fraud scandal uncovered in the 90s implicating Ansbacher Ireland. Duisberg Holdings Ltd. would not make any profit from this activity hence FirstRand clients would be exempt from declaring any income. The fraud scheme ultimately allows the client to reacquire all the money outside of the country. FirstRand invoked South African legislation via a pre-publication interdict. The bank attempted to hinder Noseweek from publishing the names of FirstRand’s clients implicated in the scheme, as announced by the article in the journal, and expected all related documents to be handed in. • ALERT Date: July 23 2007 Persons: Abel Mutsakani Violation: Beaten (attacked) Abel Mutsakani, the editor of ZimOnline and former managing editor of the banned Daily News, was battling for his life in a Johannesburg, South Africa hospital after he was shot and seriously injured by a gang of three assailants on July 23 2007. The motive behind the savage attack on Mutsakani remains unclear. Mutsakani’s wife Bianca reported that the three assailants struck at around 21h00 (local time) on July 23 as he was parking his car at their house in western Johannesburg. One of the assailants pulled a gun and fired at Mutsakani. The bullet went through his raised elbow and ricocheted into his chest. It ruptured his lung and remains lodged near his heart, according to a medical report. The three assailants fled after the attack, but did not rob Mutsakani of his possessions, raising questions about the motive of the attack. Mutsakani was the managing editor of Zimbabwe’s best-selling daily newspaper, “The Daily News”, when it was banned in September 2003. After the closure of The Daily News, Mutsakani moved to Johannesburg, where together with other Zimbabwean journalists he launched ZimOnline, an independent news service about Zimbabwe. • ALERT Date: February 2007 Persons: Patrick Seshea Violation: Threatened In February 2007, the Metsimaholo municipality instituted disciplinary proceedings against municipal employee and Cosatu chairperson for the Free State, Patrick Seshea, for - amongst other things - criticising the Municipality in the media. He was dismissed in May 2007. Seshea’s arbitration hearing is being conducted by the Local Government Bargaining Council. The disciplinary proceedings were instituted in terms of a Municipal Manager’s instruction, issued in November 2002, and ordering employees to refrain from communicating with the media about the Municipality’s affairs. This instruction does not seem to be reasonable and justifiable, and, in any event, if the Municipality intended to protect confidential information, there were less restrictive means to achieve the same ends than banning all contact with the media. • ALERT Date: January 2007 Persons: Bongani Ntuli Violation: Threatened A member of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (Giwusa), Bongani Ntuli, is being disciplined by his employer, Capacity Outsourcing, for distributing a pamphlet at a picket outside Johnnic Communications, which the company claims contains ‘information that is derogatory and offensive to the good name of the company’. The company is a labour broker So This Is Democracy? 2007 -81- Media Institute of Southern Africa