Inquest no. 626/87

Heads of Argument presented by the South African Defence Force, Col. Lourens du Plessis, the South African Police, the Acting Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape and General Janse van Rensburg, 1993-1994

The Risk of Unexploded Ordnance on Construction Sites in London

Greater London, among many large cities, was subject to bombing by the German military in both the World Wars and was the target of many air raids during the Second World War (WW2). This was particularly the case during the Blitz, September 1940 – May 1941, when over 28,000 high explosive bombs and parachute mines were dropped on London. Post war research conducted in 1949 estimated that approximately 12,750 t of bombs, including V1 and V2 rockets, were dropped on London. The night of 16th – 17th April 1941 was one of the worst bombing raids, when 446 t of bombs were dropped on London and over 58 t did not detonate. Unexploded bombs remain buried underground today, as they were unidentified at the time or abandoned owing to difficulties in recovering them. Uncharted bombs continue to pose a potentially significant hazard for developments around London. This paper considers the probability of discovering unexploded ordnance (UXO), particularly WW2 ordnance, during intrusive groundworks in London. The prevalence of unexploded ordnance has been assessed using data obtained from governmental organisations to estimate the likelihood of discovery in London

Home as a Site of State-Corporate Violence: Grenfell Tower, Aetiologies and Aftermaths

Focusing on the aftermaths and consequences of the Grenfell Tower fire, this article reveals the factors which combined to produce a fire that could have such devastating effects. Further, it delineates the discrete ways in which distinct types of harms – physical, emotional and psychological, cultural and relational, and financial and economic – continue to be produced by a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions. Some of these harms are readily apparent, others are opaque and obscured. It concludes by showing how failures to mitigate these factors constitute one manifestation of the more general phenomenon of ‘social murder’

Penal Agnosis and Historical Denial: Problematising ‘Common Sense’ Understandings of Prison Officers and Violence in Prison

The aim of this chapter is to consider if the much-publicised ‘causal relationship’ between prison officer numbers and prisoner violence is a form of ‘penal agnosis’: the cultural production of penal ignorance (Proctor, Agnotology: a missing term to describe the cultural production of ignorance. In R. Proctor & L. Schiebinger (Eds.), Agnotology: the making and unmaking of ignorance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008). My use of penal agnosis draws directly from the writings of Cohen (States of denial. Cambridge: Polity, 2001) and Mathiesen (Silently silenced. Winchester: Waterside Press, 2004). Silencing techniques deployed in everyday life help to keep people quiet and neutralise criticism. Whilst these are varied, of particular concern here is when an event becomes “isolated in the present” (Mathiesen, Silently silenced. Winchester: Waterside Press, 2004: 42), specifically contemporary media and political discussions of prison officers and prison violence. This chapter provides a theoretical context to the invisibility of historical evidence regarding the deeply embedded harms and violence of penal confinement. It focuses on how the narrative of prison staffing levels is not only time-locked but also how the current understandings of the relationship with violence are derived primarily from the perspective of prison officers. Through critique of this approach an alternative space is opened for thinking differently about how to best respond to the current harms and violence of incarceration

Rolling back the prison estate: The pervasive impact of macroeconomic austerity on prisoner health in England

Prisons offer policymakers an opportunity to address the pre-existing high prevalence of physical and mental health issues among prisoners. This notion has been widely integrated into international and national prison health policies, including the Healthy Prisons Agenda, which calls for governments to address the health needs of prisoners and safeguard their health entitlement during imprisonment, and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 concerning reducing inequality among disadvantaged populations.However, the implementation of the austerity policy in the United Kingdom since the re-emergence of the global financial crisis in 2008 has impeded this aspiration. This interdisciplinary paper critically evaluates the impact of austerity on prison health. The aforementioned policy has obstructed prisoners’ access to healthcare, exacerbated the degradation of their living conditions, impeded their purposeful activities and subjected them to an increasing level of violence.This paper calls for alternatives to imprisonment, initiating a more informed economic recovery policy, and relying on transnational and national organizations to scrutinize prisoners’ entitlement to health. These systemic solutions could act as a springboard for political and policy discussions at national and international forums with regard to improving prisoners’ health and simultaneously meeting the aspirations of the Healthy Prisons Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals

Smoke toxicity of rainscreen façades

The toxic smoke production of four rainscreen façade systems were compared during large-scale fire performance testing on a reduced height BS 8414 test wall. Systems comprising 'non-combustible' aluminium composite material (ACM) with polyisocyanurate (PIR), phenolic foam (PF) and stone wool (SW) insulation, and polyethylene-filled ACM with PIR insulation were tested. Smoke toxicity was measured by sampling gases at two points - the exhaust duct of the main test room and an additional 'kitchen vent', which connects the rainscreen cavity to an occupied area. Although the toxicity of the smoke was similar for the three insulation products with non-combustible ACM, the toxicity of the smoke flowing from the burning cavity through the kitchen vent was greater by factors of 40 and 17 for PIR and PF insulation respectively, when compared to SW. Occupants sheltering in a room connected to the vent are predicted to collapse, and then inhale a lethal concentration of asphyxiant gases. This is the first report quantifying fire conditions within the cavity and assessing smoke toxicity within a rainscreen façade cavity. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inquest no. 626/87

Exhibits G : other documents including affidavits, letters, press and other published material, police files, photographs, plans and diagrams. People involved include Col. J Jonker, Henri Fouche, Col L du Plessis, Gen A J M Joubert, Major-General B Holomisa and Lieut.-General C P van der Westhuizen.EXHIBITS - GONIWE Gl Diagram: Die Nasionale Veiligheidsbestuurstelsel (NBVS) G2 Opsomende diagrammatiese uiteensetting van die NBVS tot met die 1985 noodtoestand G3 Declaration of destruction of classified documents/material G4. Fraser: Lessons learnt from past revolutionary wars GS Kol J Jonker: Photo album - Strand Street G6 . Memorandum of the South West Africa Bar Council G7 Jacques Pauw In the Heart of the Whore, p113 G8 Accountability in Namibia (Africa Watch) G9 Goniwe’s Cradock File (ppl - 53) Aansoek vir in tamatie (p54) Extract from file (p55 - 58) G10 Goniwe’s telephone transcripts 1985/06/21 • 1985/06/28 G11 Affidavit of Henri Fouche G12 Annexures A- F: Fouche G13 Race Relations' Survey 1983, pp608 - 609 G14 Race Relations Survey 1985 pp482 - 483 G15 Race Relations Survey 1992/ 1993 p28 G16 Record and reasons for finding: S v Hamakali G17 Faku Inquest: Docket G18 Faku Inquest: Photo’s Gl9 EP Herald: 16 December 1989 G20 Faku Inquest: Investigation Diary G21 Description: Jetta Rear Axle G22 Beskadingsverslag: Staatsvoertuig G23 Map: Scene of explosion G24 Minutes: Inspection in loco G2S Photo’s: Inspection in loco G26 Registration of Jetta G27 Back of Faku investigation docket G28 Faku docket: Name en addresse van getuies G29 Druktelegram GONIWE EXHIBITS: FILE 2 G30 Letter from Wagenaar to Col Du 'Plessis, dated 5 February 1993 G31 Letter from Wagenaar to Col Du Plessis, dated 2 March 1993 G32 McCuen mimeo G33 Joubert affidavit and CCB document G34 Original damaged Katzen documents G35 Katzen: Glossary G36 Katzen: List of names G37 G38 Letter from Col Du Plessis to commanding officer, EP Command G39 Note regarding Du Plessis’ absence G40 Luus affidavit G41 Du Plessis evidence before commission G42 Letter from Maj-Gen Holomisa to State President G43 Du Plessis statement to New Nation G44 New Nation 8 - 14 May G4S Bank account: Du Plessis G46 'Verwyder’ documents G47 Diagram: Rewo oorlog G4S Bank document: Du Plessis G49 Letter from Col Du Plessis to Cyril Ramaphosa G50 Bevelskrif: Van der Westhuizen (Pligstaat) G51 Curriculum vitae: Van der Westhuizen G52 Plan: offices of EP Command G53 Verslag deur Botha Marais dated 3 February 1985 G54 Pauw: Heart of the whore extract G55 OPGBS minutes: 23 February 1984 G56 Dictionary of military terms G57 Heitman - article (Militaria) G58 Kort kursus in - strategie vir amptenare G59 Lesing 10 G60 Minutes of PE GIS meeting: 1985-05-30 G61 New Nation 30 April - 7 May 1985 G62 The Undeclared War G63 Verplasing Nr S163373E Sersant F.Z. Koni G64 Oor- en verplasing Nr S163373E Sersant F.Z. Koni : vanaf Veiligheidstak, Cradock (BP 1801) na die Uniformtak, Cradock (BP 1801) G65 Ontlsag weens mediese ongeskiktheid : NR S163373E Konstabel F.Z. Koni G66 Memo: Verplasing : W66950H Sers G.H. Lourentz G67 Diensbeeindiging rekord Konstabel Elizabeth van Zyl G68 Mediese iname verslag G69 Intydese Persal Verslag: W A Roux G70 Oor- en verplasing : W86689T Adjudant-offisier W A Roux : vanaf Uniformtak, Cradock (BP 1801) na die Veiligheidstak, Cradock (BP 1801) G71A Besonderhede van voertuig G71B Vervanging: motorcar SAP 48549N G71C Vervanging: motorcar SAP 48549N G72 Ondersoekdagboe

Racial discrimination and deaths in custody Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:98/06342 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

RETHINKING THE PEDIGREES OF AFRICAN CULTURAL WATERSHED: A POST-COLONIAL INQUEST NTO CHINUA ACHEBE’S ARROW OF GOD

The African cultural identities have undergone earth-shattering shifts from the precolonial epoch to the colonial and post-colonial periods. It is the colonial empire that advented in the African continent in the 15th century and attempted to erode and stigmatise African cultural practices as part of its mission to take control of Africa. Despite Africa being under a democratic administration today, African cultural identities are still marginalised, chiefly, by colonial remnants that have not yet been successfully uprooted. Thus, this paper aims to re-anatomise the African cultural identity-crisis in the present day from the onset of colonialism in the continent. It utilises a qualitative method to crystallise this African cultural watershed from a literary perspective. This noted, Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God is purposively sampled for this paper as a primary reference point by dint of its conformity to the main theme of the study. The paper, comprehensively, blames the enduring colonial fragments in the present day for the African cultural identity-crisis as they hinder decolonisation and peril African cultures. The colonial legacies in Africa today, like in the colonial times, are found to be championing Western identities at the expense of African cultural identities, hence, the latter is still menace