By Eleanor Momberg
The blogger-sphere was buzzing this week with claims that the South African police were clamping down on people critical of the government and crime.
This came after the arrest on Wednesday morning of Albert Oosthuizen who runs zasucks.com - a blog that has as its mission "to bring news to the outside world of the cr*p that has become of South Africa".
The confirmed arrest of the zasucks blogger and claimed arrest of two bloggers from the Boerevryheid website sparked fears of a renewed clampdown on rightwingers and rightwing groups critical of the government ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
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The police refused to answer questions about the arrests or these allegations.
Oosthuizen, who writes under the name Uhuru Guru, was arrested by members of the Linden police, organised crime and cyber crimes units at his Linden home on a warrant of arrest that was issued in 1993.
Gauteng police confirmed that the officers were also in possession of a seizure order permitting them to confiscate Oosthuizen's computers.
A 9mm pistol and two loaded magazines, for which he could not produce a permit, were also confiscated.
Captain Julia Claassen, police spokeswoman, said Oosthuizen had appeared in court on the 1993 warrant issued by the Randburg Magistrate's Court for a fraud charge.
She could not say why it had taken police 16 years to effect the arrest.
The arrest of the blogger saw a flurry of chatter on the internet when word spread that he had been arrested on "trumped-up charges".
According to the posting, Oosthuizen's door was "ripped off" and his wife was prevented from making any calls.
"His children's cellphones were confiscated, his little daughters were ripped out of their beds; you cannot believe the cruelty," the blog read. "This arrest is motivated ultimately by the state. No doubt it has to do with zasucks."
The blog alleged that Oosthuizen had been extensively questioned about his blogs, his rightwing affiliations, which rightwing meetings he had attended, and about Dan Roodt, author and Afrikaans activist.
According to the site, Oosthuizen was released from custody after the state prosecutor refused to place the 16-year-old case on the roll.
This could not be independently confirmed.
In another blog, Peter the News Guy, said zasucks had been targeted by various leftist groups and the South African government since its inception in 2004.
"It has been banned from Google and other search engines and hacked because of its controversial political content," he said.
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Sunday Independent on November 08, 2009
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