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| << April04, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 127 dated 4th April 2005 |
April18, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 129 dated 18th April 2005 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 128 dated 11th April 2005 ** Love to Travel? Find out how to make your money go further! Get your copy of ???The Travel Secrets Guide??? and start saving today! http://hop.clickbank.net/?Brerrabbit/infodawg ** In this edition: Editors Blurb Earthquake warnings for Cape Town South African prisons ** Editor's Blurb Hi there folks! Welcome to all my new and regular readers. This week a subject which could be of grave concern to Cape Town showed up in the local newspapers. That concern is earthquakes, and the Milnerton Fault, which could be the cause of them, becoming active again. With the population in the Cape increasing on a daily basis the authorities should sit up and take note. Their inaction could become another disaster like that of the Tsunami in Indonesia. We hope not. A second problem are the conditions inside South Africas' prisons. Our second article takes a look at that. I hope you enjoy them. See you all soon. Geoff Fairman ** Earthquake warnings for Cape Town Way back in 1809 a large earthquake hit Cape Town. The reason for the quake is thought to have been the Milnerton Fault which runs along the Table Bay coastline. The fault runs in a south-easterly direction from about eight kilometres offshore of the Koeberg nuclear power station, beneath the Milnerton area and across the Cape Flats and forms the centre of the earthquake belt in Cape Town. On the the 4th of December 1809 the area of greatest structural damage was at the site of the old Ascot racecourse on the outskirts of Milnerton. The farmhouse that stood on the site was almost completely destroyed. When Von Buchenroder a naturalist visited the area 5 days after the quake in 1809 he found rents and fissures in the ground, one of which was more than a mile long. When he chatted to the locals they reported that some of the fissures opened up to about 4 inches in width and were in excess of about 10 feet deep. It has been calculated by experts that the 1809 earthquake must have registerd about 6.5 on the Richter scale. That is a large quake and if it occurred today could cause much damage. Over time people forget about earthquakes and build housing in areas that the old timers knew to be dangerous and avoided. One such place was the farm Jan Biesjes Kraal, which was the epicentre of the 1809 earthquake. The farm became the Ascot Racecourse and today is the site of a new business park and housing estate. Approximately 800 metres away is the Rietvlei Centre which is a tower block of flats and offices about 20 storeys high. It is so close to the epicentre of the 1809 quake that it is possible that it could straddle the fault. I am not sure of the building requirements when the flats were erected but it is a possibility that they could be very badly effected should another large quake hit the area. What is really amazing however is that the authorities saw fit to build a nuclear electricity plant just eight kilometres from a known fault. At the time nothing was mentioned to the public about the fault. Even more amazing is the fact that there is serious talk of erecting another reactor on the Koeberg site. We have been assured by authorities that the present reactor is earthquake proof and is built to withstand large quakes. The only other building in Cape Town which is said to be earthquake proof is situated on the foreshore in Cape Town. Over the last few years a number of multi-storeyed hotels have also been built on the foreshore and according to building codes should withstand a large quake if they were built to the laid down quake standards. Before and since 1809 a number of earthquakes have hit the Cape with varying degrees of damage. On 29th September 1969 an earthquake hit theTulbach /Ceres area. I remember it well as I was in the middle of an ice skating rink when the building shook and all the lights went out. The quake followed an enormous rumbling noise which was really scary. Apart from the 1969 event, significant earthquakes have occurred in earlier centuries closer to Cape Town. Three are recorded and they occurred in April 1620, September 1695 and June 1811. Recently on the 19th May 2004 another smaller quake was felt which was almost certainly caused by renewed movement on the fault. The scariest of all is the report in this weekend's newspapers where it is stated that the Milnerton Fault is once again showing signs of becoming active. It was last blast tested a 130 million years ago. Should another large quake hit Cape Town it could cause large scale damage and possible loss of life. The Cape Flats which are on the fault line, today house many thousands of people where before there was bush. The population in Cape Town is increasing by about 40000 people per month and most of them are crowding onto the Cape Flats and housing estates near Milnerton and Table View. Surely authorities should start taking heed of some of the warnings and start limiting the influx of people into Cape Town to avoid large scale deaths in the event of an earthquake. In my experience however this will only be done after the horse has bolted. ** Prisons in South Arica When you visit Cape Town tour the Peninsula you will notice that there are a number of prisons scattered about near residential areas. The main prison in the southern peninsula is situated near Tokai and although from the outside it looks pleasing to the eye the conditions on the inside are far from satisfactory. Pollsmoor is overcrowded with many more people in a cell than was originally planned for. Because of the overcrowding prisoners sometimes get lost in the system and stay in prison as awaiting trial people for years. Crime in prisons is rife, with gang rapes, fights and murders. Most of the problems are caused by the gangs that have formed over the years . Gangs dominate and intimidate prisoners and prison staff The problem is so huge that it is not unknown for gangs in the townships to be run by ganglords who are in prison. In the past few months legislation has been promulgated to make being a member of a gang a crime. Police had their hands tied as gangsters could not be arrested if they could not be linked to a crime. Hopefully this new law will break up the gangs that rule some areas of the Cape Flats. Whether gangsterism in prisons will ever be stopped is an open question. It appears that one of the opposition political parties is trying to do something about the prison situation. They have drawn up a list of proposals and have aired them in parliament and in the press in an effort to get something done to alleviate the prison time bomb. One of the proposals is to put prisoners to work. At present only one out of every five prisoners works. That means that in all the prisons in South Africa there are only 27732 prisoners who have something to do each day. The balance of the 188000 people behind bars just eat and sleep their lives away. It costs Government a fortune each month to maintain the prisons as well as to feed and clothe and see to the medical requirements of prisoners. If the able bodied prisoners could be taught skills that could be used on Government projects it could save the taxpayer millions of Rand each year. The benefit would be that the prisoners would regain some of their self esteem which would assist in the rehabilitation process. As matters stand at the moment South African prisons are Universities of Crime. Most offenders when they leave prison just go back to their old lives and the whole crime cycle starts again. The feeling of some prisoners is that in prison they get fed and have somewhere to sleep whereas on the streets they have to fend for themselves. Life is just too much for them so they revert to crime to get back into prison. It's sad that people have to be so desperate. At present its a free for all on the streets with only 3% of serious offenders ever being caught and punished. With prisons 370% overcrowded it appears that the police are not interested in investigating the more serious crimes. When they do manage to get a conviction the offender is back on the streets before the ink on his sentencing record has dried. Maybe the police should do what the traffic authorities do, "Outsource the investigation and capture of criminals". It will cost the taxpayer less in the long run as maybe some of the criminals would in fact end up behind bars and long extended court cases which cost milions and are eventually thrown out of court might actually result in the criminal being sentenced. ** Turtle Travels new blog is online now. http://turtleessays.blogspot.com There are some interesting new articles being posted today. Be sure not to miss them. * Like to have your own rose garden. Find out how to do it from an expert. Here is his link: http://hop.clickbank.net/?brerrabbit/mcplants ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html See you all soon Geoff Fairman ** |
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| << April04, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 127 dated 4th April 2005 |
April18, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 129 dated 18th April 2005 >> |
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