/ 9 June 2010

Arrests after foreign journo robbery

Arrests After Foreign Journo Robbery

A South African journalist was arrested for “interfering with police” at the Magaliesburg lodge where three foreign journalists were robbed on Wednesday, Gauteng police said.

“He was only detained for an hour and was released on a warning. He was not formally charged,” Colonel Charmaine Muller said.

She said she did not know which media house he was from.

Three journalists, two Portuguese and oneSpanish, in South Africa to cover the World Cup, were robbed at gunpoint at the lodge north-west of Johannesburg early on Wednesday morning.

Two robbers
Colonel Hangwani Mulaudzi said two robbers broke into a three-bedroom chalet at the Nutbush Boma lodge at around 4.00am.

“One of the journalists was awake and saw the men. One of the suspects pointed a gun at the journalist and told him to lie down. He obliged and the suspects ransacked the place, taking passports, clothes, laptops and cameras.”

Mulaudzi said the two other journalists slept through the attack.

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko appealed to the media to allow the police to do their job without interference.

“Government appreciates that the robbery of Portuguese journalists is of interest to the media. However, we appeal for responsibility and patience from the media,” he said in a statement.

Brought to book
Maseko said police were trying to ascertain the facts of the crime and said the perpetrators would be brought to book. “Systems are in place to deal with this, including activating 24-hour World Cup-specific courts.”

Maseko said media requests to accompany police to operational activities or control rooms would not be granted.

“Government urges the media to abide by the rule of law. Information will be made available to the media upon finalisation of the investigation.”

Portuguese photographer Antonio Simoes said he woke around 4.00am and found two men entering his room at the Nutbush Boma Lodge outside of Magaliesburg, 120km northwest of Johannesburg.

“One of the guys pointed a hand gun at my head, and then they took all my gear – cameras, lenses, laptop,” said Simoes, who works for the Portuguese daily O Jogo. “Then they told me to lie on the bed and they covered me with a blanket, pressed the gun against my head and told me to sleep.

‘Felt like hours’
“The whole thing took one or two minutes, but it felt like hours,” Simoes said.

Simoes said the three cameras and gear the thieves stole was worth about R280 000. They also took more than R30 000 in both Euros and South African rands, as well as his passport and some clothes.

The photographer said he stayed in bed for a while after being robbed, too scared to move and worrying about what was happening in
the other rooms.

Police recovered his World Cup accreditation — without which a journalist can’t cover the tournament — near the hotel. Simoes said
he plans to stay in South Africa and hopes to borrow cameras to work during the competition.
Spanish journalist Miguel Serrano, who works for the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, and Rui Gustavo Morais were also robbed, but they slept through it. The three were staying in a detached four-room lodge that looks out over the Magaliesburg Mountains.

Lt. Colonel Leon Engelbrecht of the South African Police Service confirmed that police were looking for two suspects, but would not say whether any arrests had been made. Mulaudzi told the M&G earlier that they were expecting to make arrests as they had a “strong lead”. Serrano said police had told him one suspect had already been arrested.

High-profile
“Two of the journalists slept through the robbery, but one was awake,” Engelbrecht said. “This is obviously high-profile, so we have to make sure we are on top of this. We are still waiting for detailed information from the scene.”

Serrano said about 20 journalists covering the Portugal team are staying at the Nutbush, and that they had previously raised concerns about hotel safety.

“We had already complained to the Portuguese federation that the security left a lot to be desired,” Serrano said, “but we never thought that something like this would happen.”

The owner of the hotel, Nick Mauerburger, called the robbery “an unfortunate incident” that “happened at absolutely the wrong time”. — AP and Sapa