The Destruction of Our Heritage at Mapungubwe

Some disturbing news has recently surfaced around one of South Africa’s eight Heritage Sites, The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape which lies on the open savannah of the Mapungubwe National Park.

The South African Department of Mineral Resources has awarded an Australian mining company called Coal of Africa (CoAL) unconditional new order mining rights for the Mapungubwe area.

A stakeholder group consisting of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the Mapungubwe Action Group, the Office of the International Coordinator for the Greater Mapungubwe Trans-frontier Conservation Area (GMTFCA), the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists, World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa, BirdLife South Africa, the Wilderness Foundation South Africa and Peace Parks Foundation objects to all industrial activity in that part of the very sensitive Limpopo Valley without an approved Integrated Regional Development Plan. No replies by the relevant authorities have been received thus far.

Even before having obtained the necessary water license or any other kind of environmental approval, large-scale destruction is already underway on the bank of the Limpopo River, just a kilometre or two from Mapungubwe. CoAl has already cleared many hectares of indigenous forest in order to start building its controversial Vele coal mine on the bank of the Limpopo River.

Mapungubwe's famous gold-foil rhinoceros

Mapungubwe was home to an advanced culture of people. The civilization thrived as a sophisticated trading center from around 1200 to 1300 AD. It was the center of the largest kingdom in the sub-continent, where a highly sophisticated people traded gold and ivory with China, India, Persia and Egypt. According to the archaeology department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Mapungubwe represents “the most complex (historical) society in southern Africa”.

Gold was mined in haematite at Ngwenya, and iron ore and copper at Phalaborwa. Virtually all the copper and tin deposits of the Northern Transvaal were worked, and hundreds of workings remain.

Although the University of Pretoria excavated the site when it was discovered in 1932 it was kept top secret. The findings provided evidence contrary to the racist ideology of black inferiority that underpinned apartheid. The apartheid regime remained tight lipped for more than 40 years. The evidence was only made public a few years after the first democratically elected government came into power in 1994.

Additional gold artifacts found at Mapungubwe

The mine has the potential to bring all this to an end, threatening the World Heritage Site, the transfrontier conservation area and the tremendous tourism potential.

The presence of heavy industry in the area will impact enormously on its tourism and conservation, to such a degree that these activities will have to be reconsidered for the future. South Africa signed a binding document whereby it agreed to be a partner in a trilateral conservation development. By allowing that same conservation area to become part of an industrial area, it is not adhering to the spirit of that agreement.

To add insult to injury, the Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa’s highest honor that can only be granted by the president of South Africa, for achievements in the international arena, which have served South Africa’s interests. How can this honor maintain its prestige when the government that claims to hold it in high esteem is systematically destroying that proud heritage?

UFO Crash Lands on Botswana/South Africa Border

7th May 1989. A South African Air Force Mirage Jet allegedly shot down an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in The Kalahari Desert, somewhere between the border of South Africa and Botswana. A well-known UK magazine called Quest International printed a Special Edition regarding this incident. According to their reporter a joint operation between the South African Air Force (S.A.A.F.) and the United States Air Force (U.S.A.F.) was mounted. The operation was dubbed Operation Silver Diamond; its aim was to recover the occupants and the debris resulting from the crash.

Unidentified Flying Object

A former United States Lieutenant Colonel is even quoted explaining how one of his informants told him that the UFO would be exchanged for advanced technology that would be given to the South African government by the United States government. Physical evidence of the crash is in the form of a printed photocopy of a response to a query from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that refers to a satellite re-entry on 7th May 1989 and a confirmation of a ‘fireball or satellite re-entry’ in the same area on 7th May 1989.

Two independent researchers, Dr. J.J. Hurtak (American ufologist and Professor of Science) and J. Von Buttlara (a German researcher) conducted their own enquiries and both came to the conclusion that a crash landing had indeed taken place in the Kalahari Desert. The incident was also confirmed by Dithoko Seiso, Botswana’s Environment Minister in a 1993 report in the Cape Town daily newspaper called ‘The Argus”. The report also brought attention to the alleged ‘cover-up’ and ‘disinformation exercise’ coming from international forces. Researchers attempting to uncover the truth have been met with ‘missing’ pieces of information.

The incident has also sparked interest around a South African underground military research base simply called Camp 13. The camp is said to be located in the Kalahari Desert and the rumor is that it is used as a laser weapons research facility. Some researchers have attributed responsibility of the UFO shooting to this camp adding that the Mirage jet fighters were simply used to “herd” the craft in the camps general direction.

Mirage Fighter Jet

The fact that information regarding the crash was found to be either missing or destroyed creates a strong atmosphere of suspicion. Nonetheless, the printed photocopy that points to the evidence of a satellite entering the airspace is still out there. If there was indeed a crash in the Kalahari Desert, do the public not deserve to know about it? Unidentified aircrafts and underground military bases point to a lot of secret activity being undertaken by the government. How many of these still exist and at which point will the public begin to have access to a more in-depth report about government activities?

Underground Military Base

These types of revelations hint as to how much more strange things may be going on that we know nothing about. Secret South Africa will continue to strive to reveal the hidden truths out there in society waiting to be laid bare.

Additional: Still in Southern Africa, in 1994, Ruwa, Zimbabwe, sixty-two schoolchildren witnessed the landing of a UFO, see the video here and here.

South Africa’s Secret Nuclear History

When you think of nuclear weapons, you probably think of America, Russia, China or Iran. But you might be shocked to discover that South Africa had its very own secret nuclear programme that was developed during apartheid.

While sources disagree about the exact date that the Apartheid Government initiated their nuclear arms programme, many believe that the decision “develop a limited nuclear deterrent capabilities” can be traced back to as as early as 1974.

In order to achieve this goal, the government stepped up the production at their uranium enrichment plant at Valindaba, known as the “Y-plant”. Numerous nuclear tests were also performed at the Somerset West explosives installation near Cape Town.
While the Apartheid Government’s activities during the 70’s were mainly secret, their actions did alarm leaders in the Soviet Union and the U.S. The Soviets allegedly considered a pre-emptive strike on the Y-plant, an option that U.S. officials reportedly rejected.
In 1977, South Africa successfully managed first full-scale nuclear explosive device based on a gun-type design.

According to reports, a U.S. Vela surveillance satellite detected a distinct light event off of Africa’s southern coast in 1979. U.S. officials believed that the source of the light was a nuclear test performed by the Apartheid Government, producing an intense double flash of light. The Apartheid Government denied all knowledge of the event. Later, representatives from the government stated that South Africa could not have been responsible for the double flash as it did not possess a complete nuclear device until November 1979.

According to reports, the Apartheid Government managed to produce a total of six nuclear devices by the 1980’s. The Apartheid Government was able to do so by mastering the uranium production and enrichment process in order to develop a complete nuclear fuel cycle with advanced waste management techniques.

But while South Africa was able to produce a number of nuclear weapons, by the late 1980’s, the Apartheid Government was facing incredible political pressure, both locally and abroad.

One of the government’s strongest bargaining chips was the ability to negotiate with regards to their nuclear weapons programme. Under great international pressure, South Africa begun nuclear disarmament in 1989.

What happened to all of South Africa’s nuclear scientists? Where did they go and what have they been doing for the past twenty years? Some might be driven by money, some by ideology…but it’s hard to imagine that they have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs…There must be plenty of rouge nations or extremist groups that would the skills that only nuclear scientists could provide. Could nuclear experiments still be secretly going on in South Africa?

What do you think?

For a more detailed overview of South Africa’s secret nuclear history, click here

For more information about the South Africa’s disarmament process, click here

Orania’s Secret Water Supply

After various posts about Project Coast and Wouter Basson’s plan to poison South Africa’s water, a reader of the Secret South Africa blog sent me an intersting article about Orania.

Orania is a secluded town in the bleak landscape of the Northern Cape Province inhabited by a group of highly nationalistic white Afrikaners. Orania was founded by Carel Boshoff, a former Afrikaner Broederbond member and someone who would definitely identify with the beliefs of someone like Wouter Basson.

According to its founders, the purpose of Orania is to create a town where the preservation of Afrikanerdom’s cultural heritage is strictly observed and the town has been designed to be entirely self-reliant.

Orania manages its own electricity, sewerage and water systems, which are separate to the rest of South Africa’s. What is intriguing is that Orania is an old water town. Does this mean that Orania residents would not be affected if something had to happen to South Africa’s water supply? Orania was founded in 1990, when there were no serious concerns over the future of South Africa’s water supply. Did Boshoff know something that we didn’t?

Orania recently got its own currency. Could this be the beginning of another independent state within South Africa’s borders? Just something to think about…