gummibear

A Helicopter belonging to alleged underworld tycoon and businessman Frikkie Lutzkie mysteriously crashed in Northern Cape, near the border with Botswana.


The multimillion-rand Augusta A119, piloted by Lutzkie, was found on Friday camouflaged with branches and smeared with mud.
Several large-calibre cartridges were found inside the aircraft.
The helicopter's tail rotor, blades and skids had been sawn off and hidden nearby.
The crash occurred near the McCarthy's Rest border post, near which several rhino farms are situated.
Though Lutzkie, a renowned boxer and cage-fighter, claimed the sawing off of the rotor blades and skids was to avoid vandalism, The Times has learned that the crash is being investigated by the Northern Cape Organised Crime Unit and the Green Scorpions.
Lutzkie, a director of the Lutzkie group of companies, has been linked to several dubious property deals and was fingered in last year's disappearance of Gauteng underworld boss Ralph Haynes.
Lutzkie, who survived an attempted assassination two years ago, yesterday said he was flying low while searching for a farm to purchase.
"There is nothing untoward about what I was doing. People are blowing this out of proportion," he said.
"It was not an accident but an incident. I deliberately put my helicopter on the ground when things went wrong."
He said the disassembly was his prerogative.
"It was to stop vandalism so that the helicopter can be put on a salvage truck," he said.
Police spokesman Captain Cherell Ehlers said detectives had gone to the scene.
"On Friday we discovered the helicopter hidden beneath bushes. The circumstances around the crash are unknown. No arrests have been made. The investigation is now being conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority," she said.
She refused to say what was found in the helicopter.
CAA spokesman Phindiwe Gwebu confirmed the investigation.
She said the crash, if such it was, was not reported until several days after it had happened.
She described this as "strange".
"This will form part of the investigation.
"Our investigators will also look at why the helicopter was camouflaged," Gwebu said.







http://www.timeslive...-mystery-crash#

Johannesburg - Western investors have to realise South Africa does not need their money since it can turn increasingly to fellow Brics members India and China to fund its economic development, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.

"There is a dynamic that Western investors must wake up to," Mantashe, day-to-day head of the ANC, told Reuters in an interview.
"If they are still sulking regularly, there is a growing 'look East' tendency that is emerging throughout the continent, the developing world."

I find this very interesting as the deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and his entourage were over here in Europe a few weeks back and he was begging German investors to invest in SA.Then he asked investors in Finland to invest in SA and told them how good and stable the country was for investment.
Now Gwede Mantashe says SA doesn't need investors from the west.
Does he know how many millions of euros go towards funding projects in SA?

http://www.fin24.com...e-West-20120523

One of the Pro team cyclists has a kid in my sons class and we chat at school and have been for coffee a few times.I have always taken it for granted that he is a good cyclist and looked up to him as a Pro rider.
He is out of town at the Tour of Norway and a few of us parents were invited to a BBQ at their house,by his wife,as it's a public holiday here today.
I was having a look at his medals and trophies in his study when a Gold Cobble stone caught my eye.That's when i realized he isn't one of us mere mortals he is a machine.It takes a machine to win a Paris-Roubaix.

David Cameron's plans to allow British ships travelling around Africa to carry private armed guards to combat the threat of piracy have been dealt a blow after South Africa insisted they be military.

http://www.telegraph...its-a-snag.html

To all the guys doing Ironman on Sunday good luck and have a great race.
I am off to take the new Trek Domane for a test ride.....it has been fitted with the new Campagnolo EPS on my request

LBS has over 200 bikes with different groupsets for the weekend to test ride.