MAB GT INCENTIVE AWARDS

Rianette Leibowitz, Catherine Constantindes, Gen Norman Taioe & Lizel van Eden

At the second Incentive Awards for the year, we were proud to honour the following members:

Best Performers:

1st Officer Sergeant S Duister Tsakane FCS:

This member shows exceptional dedication, perseverance and investigation skills. She has had several complicated cases and received good sentences for the accused. Sgt Duister investigated a rape case of a young victim in Reigerpark and exceptional long hours to support the victim and to obtain witness statements. The trial was successful and the suspect sentenced to two life imprisonments and 10 years for indecent assault. Sgt Duister‘s commitment and hard work ensured that justice was served.
2nd - Warrant Officers: P.H. Botha and A.N.J.D. Nel of Sunnyside Cluster FCS:
They were assigned to an armed robbery and rape case. The armed suspect burgled the home and raped one female. The members traced the stolen cell phone in Melville with Sec 205 application and identified the suspect. DNA samples linked him to the rape and his fingerprints linked him to 16 other housebreaking cases. The suspect was denied bail he is an illegal immigrant from Lesotho. The case is on trial in September 2012. These members were thanked by the father of the victim and commended for their quick response and thorough investigation. These two members are always willing to help and are respected by the community and their colleagues.
Outstanding Achievements:

1 st. Constable Molefe of Moroka Cluster FCS:
The member investigated a serial rape case whereby several victims were raped by a suspect who was active around Avalon cemetery, Soweto. The modus operandi in all the cases was almost the same. Victims visited the cemetery where they were approached by one unknown black male; he introduced him as a security guard. He helped to clean the graves and escorted the victims to the railway station. On the way he assaulted the victims, robbed them and raped the female victims. Constable Molefe left no stone unturned to solve the case and ensured a fare trial. This takes exceptional detective skills to investigate, as it is always very traumatic for the victims. He ensured the following sentences:
17 life imprisonment sentences on the charge of rape and additional 162 years.

2nd. Constable Mekgwe Orlando Cluster FCS:
This member investigated several cases of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. This dedicated detective has ensured many good convictions of life imprisonment and more. She is a persevering person and the community and her commander appreciate her hard work.
Best FCS Commander: Capt Mathikge of Garankuwa Cluster FCS was awarded for showing exceptional leadership skills in the fight against women and child abuse.
Best Unit: Garankuwa Cluster FCS for impacting a whole community through teamwork to ensure several life imprisonment sentences and always promoting the image of the FCS in their Cluster by serving and protecting the community.

Best FCS Officer: Lieutenant M R Ranthago of JHB CENTRAL FCS was assigned to a case of kidnapping, robbery and rape on a 16 year old girl. This girl was on a school excursion when the incident happened, which made this a high profile case. The officer was assigned to the case as it was withdrawn from the court roll. He ensured that the bail was opposed; the victim felt safe and was escorted to court to prevent intimidation. The officer even ensured the victim’s court attendance whilst he was on leave. The three suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment each on rape, five years on kidnapping each and 15 years on robbery. Lieutenant Ranthago has shown exceptional leadership, diligence and was also commended by the Public Prosecutor.
Service Excellence:
This special award is given to individuals who impacts the community and makes a difference in the lives of women and children.

Matla a Bana awarded Deputy National Commissioner Magda Stander for her assistance to ensure the establishment of an MOU between SAPS on a National level and Matla a Bana. She has also been instrumental in several of the country’s initiatives focussing on women and children.

Terry Volkwyn of LEAD SA has also been awarded for the positive impact she is making through LEAD SA, which focuses on rights, responsibilities and taking action to make our country safe for our women, children and other citizens.

Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters: Massmart, Clearwater Mall, Grayston Townlodge, Katherine str City Lodge, LEAP Training, Owitz Communications, Servamus, Alice Art Gallery, Rosebank Union Church, Roman’s Pizza and Rays of Hope.

MAB Projects in Finals

Two projects motivated by the Roman's Pizza Double Up Challenge and done by the community, reached the finals for the challenge. They are the comfort packs project done by Little Miss World (see below) and the comfort packs efforts by Old Mutual and Media 24. Hold thumbs for our two projects!

Miss Snow Queen sets example

Kayleigh Victor started hosting miss Snow Queen in 2011 as part of her charity work after winning Little miss World 2010 in Turkey. Last year the beneficary was CANSA and she raised over R 23 000 for them. She vowed that she would make this a yearly event and this year Miss Snow Queen was held on the 28th of July. She decided that Matla A Bana would be this years Beneficary. She asked all the models to bring along items to make up comfort packs for Matla a Bana. She made up over 350 complete comfort packs and got a lot of loose items aswell. Her modelling friends promised that although the competition is over they would still collect more items to make up even more packs. If you take into considiration that to make 1 pack cost about R 115.00 it amounts to a donation of about R 40,250. What makes this more remarkable is that Kayleigh just had her 12th birthday last month.

Mandela Day - After thought

Three days after celebrating Mandela Day, we are still suffering from blisters, stiff legs and sore backs - but all with big smiles! MAB was extremely blessed this year with great support from some of the biggest companies in South Africa.

Thank you to Media 24, Old Mutual, RamsayMedia for believing in us and what we do. Thank you for the thousands of comfort packs, snack packs and the unexpected container that was donated. Thank you to each and every staff member who packed and every member of the public who donated goods towards these drives. Thank you also to Spar for supporting.

Please know that these efforts will change the lives of thousands of abused children!

Mandela Day - Media 24

Staff at Media 24 offices nationwide and On the Dot packed 6000 snack packs for child abuse victims on Mandela Day. These packs were received by Matla A Bana, who handed it over to the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units. 

One great surprise of the day was the donation of a container to be used as an medical examination room for rape victims at West Fleur Hospital in Atlantis. 

MANDELA DAY - Old Mutual

OLD MUTUAL EMPLOYEES GIVE 67 MINUTES FOR MADIBA IN 2012!

Wednesday 18th July 2012. Presentation Room, Old Mutual Business School, Mutual Park, Pinelands, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. OLD MUTUAL EMPLOYEES GIVE 67 MINUTES FOR MADIBA IN 2012! Old Mutual Employees give 67 minutes of their time in honour of Nelson Mandela who celebrated his 94th birthday today, Wednesday 18th July 2012 at Mutual Park in Pinelands near Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Employees spent time making, decorating, painting and packing special comfort packs for girls between the ages of 4 - 8 and 9 - 12 who have been abused. These comfort packs are given to Non Government Organization (NGO) Matla A Bana - A Voice Against Abuse. Matla A Bana is the only legally affiliated NGO to the South African Police Service who has a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU). Old Mutual Employees also spent time making emergency, waterproof sleeping bags for homeless and destitute people. The bags are made from newspaper and plastic. The day's events were hosted by The Old Mutual Foundation. Special Guests attending were Monique Strydom from Matla A Bana and Brigadier Joseph Makhura from the SAPS along with Helene Africa from Old Mutual.
PICTURE: MARK WESSELS. 18/07/2012. +27 (0)21 551 5527. +27 (0)78 222 8777.

Mandela Day - RamsayMedia

RamsayMedia’s ’67 minutes’ to benefit boy rape survivors

It’s hard to comprehend that an increasing number of rape survivors are boys under the age of 10. Yet the ordeal these youngsters have been through was top of mind for RamsayMedia staff when they put together comfort bags for Matla a Bana: A Voice against Child Abuse, for Mandela Day.

The NGO asked the media house to focus on this group when they bag facecloths, toothpaste and brushes, pencils and notebooks, juice, biscuits, underwear, balls – and teddy bears; some of the items intended to provide comfort to the young recipients as they go through the bewildering process of reporting the rape.

“The requests that we are getting from the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences units show that the rape of young boys is becoming more of a problem every year,” commented Monique Strydom, national manager of Matla a Bana. “In one area the number is as high as 40%. What is even more shocking is that the average age of the perpetrator is coming down – at one of the units it is 12 years old, which is frightening!”

It is the third year RamsayMedia has adopted Matla a Bana for its Mandela Day initiative. Teams at the Cape Town and Sandton offices spent their ’67 minutes for Mandela Day’ assembling 275 packs for boys aged 4 – 8 and 9 – 12, which were handed over to Matla a Bana and SAPS representatives on Friday, 13 July.

The packs are a real comfort to the children and make it easier for them to open up to police about what they had gone through, said Strydom.

The staff raised almost R4 000 – an amount matched by the company – to buy the items for the comfort packs. The underwear was once again donated by Easywear, which has supported the initiative for the past three years.

TMO Reporter
Media Mecca

THANK YOU!

A very bit thank you to all the individuals and companies who so generously collected and donated items for our comfort pack project. We would not have made the target without you! A very special thank you to Marlene Mostert, who mobilised the whole Western Cape!

Matla a Bana would like to thank Massmart Holdings for the Donation of three fridges and playroom equipment to the value of R17 984.58. This donation will be used to equip the SAPS Provincial Office of the FCS unit in Gauteng and to create child-friendly reporting rooms at the Sunnyside FCS in Pretoria and the Krugersdorp FCS unit on the West Rand.

Watch this space for more news...! 

Workshop - Why men rape babies

On 21 June,  MAB  hosted a workshop with the FCS detectives in Gauteng on why men rape babies. Thirty FCS delegates attended and the feedback was very positive!!

Matla aBana would like to thank Dr Amelia Kleijn a Registered Social Worker for sharing her Research with our Organisation!  Dr Amelia’s research was conducted with “baby rapists” or incarcerated men serving long sentences for the rape of children under the age of three years. The focus of the study were the men’s psychosocial histories and the possible factors in their lives that enabled them to act so violently and brutally towards particularly young children. To the best of her knowledge, her study is the first of its kind.

We would like to thank Eversheds International for your generous sponsorship of an immaculate venue and scrumptious snacks!

We dance for the kids!

On Saturday 16 June more than 300 dancers put their dancing shoes on, did their stretches, ran through some steps and then joined the Let's Go Shuffling Danceathon at Clearwater Mall. Although only a few danced the danceathon, many where there to show their style during 11 hours of non-stop dancing. They ranged from 2 years old to 70 years, from professional to "never danced before", from hip hop to the foxtrot - it was a great day of dance for children in need! Celebrities Eloise Cupido and Kyknet presenter Rianette Owitz joined in the fun. Roodepoort Round Table made a huge donation of good for the comfort pack project and Shellard Media joined the drive by donating an additional R2000. Clearwater Mall gave all the dancers a great gift and Roman's Pizza was there to keep the tummies full! We would like to thank all who participated, our sponsors for making this possible and the staff who worked (and danced!) for many hours!

MAB opens child-friendly rooms in Vredenburg

MAB is proud to announce the upgrading of two important rooms on the Cape West Coast. On 11 June we showed the victim room at Vredenburg Hospital and the room of the forensic social worker at Vredenburg FCS (based at Saldanha SAPS) to our sponsors and the press.

We would like to thank the St Helena Church and Old Mutual Foundation for your support and for making this possible.

The St Helena Church as well as Akkerdyk Church in Vredenburg will adopt the hospital and FCS unit and give support to officials and children.

WC Child Protection week radio campaign

MAB secured the broadcast of a series for tips called "Straat Slim vir kinders" and "Straat slim vir ouers" on Radio Tygerberg for 5 days during Child Protection Week. These tips were written by Matla A Bana and went out during the peak morning and afternoon shows. Thank you to Radio Tygerberg for partnering with us.
(You can download these tips from our website).

Gauteng Child Protection week activities

The Linden Bible study group invited the Tembisa FCS unit to spend some quality time with them! The theme of the message by Helene Wessels was “ Taste and see that the Lord is good”! The members were treated with a scrumptious breakfast and tea treats!  They were also blessed with a container of biscuits to take to their families! Tembisa FCS did not let the opportunity go by to bless the ladies with their singing talents!! Matla a Bana is proud of this long term Adoption relationship! (watch the video on our You tube site!).

We would like to than Roodepoort Townlodge for hosting a special breakfast for our volunteers and supporters during Child Protection week. Amongst our guests were our training partners SAPS and Mosaiek Church (sponsor of venue and catering for our Serial Rape training)

 Wednesday 30 May was the time to acknowledge more dedicated volunteers, police members, media and other loyal sponsors assisting us to make an impact in the field of Child Abuse.   Clearwater Mall Centre Management Treated everyone with a nice goodie bag, and a fabulous breakfast with hot drinks at Cappuccino’s!  All the guests were surprised and felt very special with this “treat” sponsored by Clearwater Mall! Thank you to Cecile at Clearwater Mall who made this possible.


Roodepoort SOCA visit on 1 June
Mosaic Church visited the court staff during tea time with snack platters and reminded them of their importance to protect our children! Thank you Embark Foundation of Mosaic for making this treat possible!

On Wednesday, 7 June, Christian Heritage Church treated their unit with a home made Breakfast at the church hall! Lt –Col Segotta thanked Past Pat & Yvonne for always helping them when they need motivation and also for the special breakfast! She handed over a beautiful plant and card from the unit as a token of their appreciation!

12 June 2012
Matla a Bana and Krugersdorp FCS unit visited Knikkies @ Kenmare Laerskool to educate them on the importance of the Green Ribbon and their rights to be protected! Knikkies theme of the year is GREEN and they proudly wore the Green Ribbons during Child Protection week!  The school enjoyed the puppet show and thanked the SAPS for their time with a decadent chocolate!

Our oldest volunteer!

Never too old to make a differnce and we have proof of that! Oom Koos Myburg has been a loyal supporter and MAB since our very first beginning. From packing to painintg - nothing is too difficult for oom Koos. Thank you very much for your dedication and the great example you have set for all the other people out there.