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CALLS GROW FOR CLASS ACTION SUITS AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN BANKS OVER SECURITISATION

Disgruntled bank customers are calling for a class action suit against the banks after new evidence suggests banks are concealing their securitisation activities from customers, the courts and investors, in what could turn out to be the largest banking fraud in South African history. Scores of South Africans have added their voices to the growing clamor for a class action suit against the major banks in response to what may turn out to be the biggest fraud in South African history. This follows publication of research coordinated by Advocate Douglas Shaw suggesting that banks are securitising home loans but hiding this fact from the courts when seeking judgment against customers allegedly in default. Securitisation is the banks' practice of bundling loans together and on-selling them investors who buy and sell these assets on the JSE and other stock markets. Once a loan is securitised, the bank loses legal title to the loan. Adv Shaw argues that this deception allows the banks to pretend they are still the registered owners of the mortgage bonds when they are not. The law requires a securitised mortgage bond to be ceded to the new owner at the Deeds registry. Adv Shaw instructed a team of researchers to randomly sample several hundred mortgage bonds. Based on the banks' own figures on securitisation, at least 20% of these should have new owners reflected on the Deeds registry, but the research yielded a result of 0%. Not a single one of the bonds was reflected as having a new owner. An expert statistician says the possibilities of this occurring are "a million to one".

The researchers say this points to massive and systematic fraud by the banks. They say not only are home owners being stripped of their houses through legal fraud, the securitisation vehicles traded on the JSE may be "empty shells" with under-reported or no underlying assets. Says Shaw: "The banks stand in court with a copy of the title deed showing no cession (or transfer of rights) has taken place, and they claim this as proof that the mortgage bond is not securitised. Now we know why. It is now perfectly clear that many of these loans have indeed been securitised, but the banks have not completed the transaction which they are required by law to do, by ceding the bonds to the new owners on the Deeds register. They have been deceiving the courts and the courts have been letting them get away with this." Acts Online spoke to Fabrice Toka, senior director at Fitch Southern Africa, which provides investment ratings on securitisation vehicles and for the banks. He said the agency did not conduct legal due diligence on securitisations as this was not part of the ratings service they were required to provide. The JSE replied that while the exchange ensures "adequate disclosure is made in respect of the securitisation scheme, it does not authenticate the underlying securities in the scheme. However agreements required in order to list these structures on the JSE include detail of the relevant assets, as well as security provided by the originator. That being said, if specific information is provided to the JSE demonstrating that there are no "assets" within a particular structure, then we will certainly take this up with the issuer concerned. However, we do not believe this to be the case." No-one, it seems, knows who is responsible for doing the legal due diligence where securitisation is concerned.

Adv Shaw wrote back to the JSE this week: "With respect to the specific information requested, we have done three studies (of randomly selected bonds) in South Africa. There are another few currently underway. None of them showed the securitised entities to be listed as holders of the bonds. We would have expected about 20% based on the published accounts of the big four banks and the securitised listing documents. Our expert statistical opinion calculates that the probability of (finding no securitised bonds), if they banks had listed them, is a million to one. "In other words there is unequivocal evidence no bonds have in fact been transferred to the new entities. Without registration in the Deeds Registry, there is legally no transfer and the entities bought by investors are empty shells. The asset backed securities are in fact not backed by any assets. "On the face of it, this is a huge fraud and both myself as an officer of the court and yourselves would have an obligation to report it properly to the police so they can investigate fully (which is why I include the Commercial Crimes Unit in this email). "Note that some of these securitisations appear to have been listed overseas and so as these entities become aware of this, there are sure to be enquiries from these markets as to whether these issues are backed by assets or not. "There has been considerable interest from the press in this matter, so you may get enquiries from them as well."

Here's how the banks do it

Two South Africans currently embroiled in litigation with the banks plan to use this new information to force the bank to disclose their securitisation register, which is in any event required in terms of Section 69 of the National Credit Act. Kevin Radford of Johannesburg is involved in litigation with Nedbank, which is seeking judgment against him for allegedly being in default on his home loan. What is interesting about this case is that Nedbank attached a copy of Radford's mortgage bond, "from which it is clear that there is no endorsement to the effect that the Applicant's rights in terms of same have been ceded and/or made over to another party," according to the bank's senior manager, Reshmi Singh, in an affidavit. In other words, the bank confirms a securitised loan must be endorsed at the Deeds registry. Singh then goes on to say that "in the absence of an endorsement appearing upon the mortgage bond registered over (Radford's) immovable property, it is apparent that same has not been securitised as contended by (Radford)." Radford, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, is asserting that his loan has been securitised and has called on the bank to prove him wrong. Adv Shaw, who is representing Radford, says the new research information makes it far more difficult for the banks to stand in court waving a title deed without any evidence of endorsement as proof that the bank is still the owner. At least Nedbank is being fairly upfront about it (in this case). Nedbank at least went to the trouble of presenting a mortgage bond apparently clean of endorsement.

Other banks simply demand the customer provide proof of securitisation, which is a virtual impossibility because the evidence – according to Adv Shaw – is hidden by the banks themselves. If the JSE nor Fitch Ratings have access to this information, what chance does the bank customer have to find out if his loan has been securitised? "If the glove does not fit, you must acquit," to quote OJ Simpson's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, the famous line that helped get his client off a murder charge. In this case, the banks are relying on the absence of endorsement on the deeds registry as evidence that securitisation has not taken place. In another case, Jonathan Buckley of Pretoria is defending himself against an attempt by Standard Bank to obtain judgment on a home loan allegedly in arrears. Here's what the bank said in its affidavit: "No details whatsoever are provided about the alleged 'securitisation program.' The allegations in the summons are uncontested. The Applicants are clearly embarking on a fishing expedition. (The bank) confirms that the loan/debt owing to the Respondent and the Mortgage Bonds registered to secure the debt, have not been 'securitized' as insinuated .... The bank then refers to a Windeed search (Windeed is an online deed search facility) that apparently shows Standard Bank is still the registered owner of the mortgage bond.

Deeds register

Let's break this down. When a bank securitises a loan, it must be reflected as a cession to the new owner on the deeds registry. So what is going on here ? Fraud, according to Advocate Douglas Shaw.

Let's look at what the Government Gazette on Securitisation Schemes says about this. In Paragraph 4 of the circular it says :

A traditional securitisation scheme is likely to involve
a. The legal and economic transfer of assets to; or
b. Assets legally and economically acquired by,

A special purpose institution that issues commercial paper that are claims against the said assets transferred or acquired. And, "The transfer of assets to or acquisition of assets by a special-purpose institution shall totally divest the transferring institution and all its associated companies and, when the transferring institution is a bank, divest any other institution within the banking group of which such a bank is a member, of all rights and obligations originating from the underlying transactions and all risks in connection with the assets transferred or acquired : Provided that :

The transferring institution may in terms of a separate transaction act in a secondary role..."

A "secondary role" is defined as providing a credit-enhancement facility using derivative instruments, or in various other ways to facilitate the transaction.

A class action suit against the major banks is now being considered, according to Adv Shaw. The Commercial Crimes Unit is also requesting further information on this alleged fraud by the banks before deciding whether to brief the Public Prosecutor.

To contact Adv Shaw's research group, please write to appointments@bankinglawadvisor.co.za.

EDITOR'S FOOTNOTE:

( THIS IS MEGA SH*T! This factually means thousands of home owners that lost their homes due to banks foreclosing their homes- can now sue the banks for fraud as the banks were not supposed to be the owners of that property- but fraudulently took back those homes! THIS is quite INTERESTING!! Here is going to be a LOT of lawsuits coming once this tin of worms get opened up! Now all Adv. Shaw must request from the Public Prosecutor- is to launch a full audit on all the banks AND the Reserve Bank – as it is supposed to be foreclosed since December 25 2012- but STILL operates in it's same capacity. We suspect there is no backing for the loans they hand out to the public as well- but only shift fictitious numbers- which in turn are exchanged for your hard earned cash. It's high time this scrupulous vultures are brought to justice for racketeering!

IF found guilty- the PP must push for the arrest of ALL the board members /Directors of these banks- as that is what will happen if me and you are caught for the same offenses. This is only the proverbial "Hippo's ears"- as these scrupulous banksters have so many dubious scams running- but when YOU apply for a loan- YOU are "scrutinized" with a magnifying glass before they even will consider giving you one of that fictitious loans- meanwhile THEY are rotten with corruption! For too long they have been getting away while sucking an already impoverish clientelle dry. Shall we request Adv. Shaw to request this from the PP? Let those e-mails roll and report all you know about these banksters and their racketeering scams. You can start with the banking costs they charge you and those "hidden" deductions from your bank statements.

The next they can take to the cleaners- is the illegal Credit Bureaus that ALSO operate in contravention with the constitution. They are not allowed to hand your name or details to any company.It is an infringement of your privacy.I am not even allowed to give your personal details to my neighbor- that is an infringement of your personal privacy and safety- thus- who gave THEM the mandate to do that UNLESS you signed for it- or they are gazetted by government to have a mandate...which I doubt is the case! They are not even allowed to have your name on their database- unless you are a direct customer of them- which most are not. -Ed)

http://www.whitenationnetwork.com/paper/?p=39425

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was the Prime Minister of South Africa and is known for his push towards Apartheid. The Liberal media hate him and only tell you what a "bad guy" he was. Despite his high profile, you'll find that a lot of his history is vague. There is a lot left out about this man.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd

What is of interest to us here are the two assassination attempts on him. The one in 1960, and the one in 1966.

During this period of time between the two assassinations you will see that the Jews were playing a prominent role in assisting Nelson Mandela and the communist cause. In this article the Jews are delighted and proud of this involvement of theirs: The JEWS are proud of Nelson Mandela the Communist Revolutionary and These Jews Made Common Cause With Him

Although Verwoerd became a Boere-Afrikaner leader, he was born in Holland. In his earlier life Verwoerd had a promising medical career. He studied in the UK, USA and also in Germany in 1925. He became a Professor. He was probably the most highly educated leader the Boers or South Africa ever had.

But the Liberals hate him for his role as "the Architect of Apartheid". But Apartheid was not his own idea. Many others gave input into it. Books were written about it all before Verwoerd became the PM. Verwoerd was a Professor of Sociology - which makes him even more interesting.

It states there that Verwoerd studied in Germany in 1925 and returned to South Africa where he later became a professor. Then in 1936 he drew some bad publicity by commenting on the Jews coming into South Africa (from Europe I presume). It does not state what he said, but it says he drew a lot of attention.

He later became the editor of Die Transvaler, which supported the National Party and in this way he helped them to win and come to power in 1948, thereby officially beginning the period of Apartheid.

So that's the basic background. In 1960, a "wealthy white farmer" named David Pratt tried to kill him. Here is film footage of the 1960 attempt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrJP_EZVSWE

Verwoerd's assassination has got many bizarre twists to it, perhaps even more bizarre than the JFK assassination. The JFK and Kennedy family assassinations have some parallels and occurred during a similar time period. The Jewish links to the JFK assassination get little attention. Here were some attempts by us to dig a bit because it appears there was a multi-decade long feud going on between the Kennedys and the Jews which began with JFK's father Joe: The War between the Jews and the Kennedy Family: Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. - Irish Americans and Irish supported Hitler and The Crime that Joe Kennedy committed that irritated the Jews - Why the Jews went after the Kennedy family and Praise for Jewish War on the Kennedys

The twists in Verwoerd's assassination have certain elements in common and in other aspects are very bizarre.

Pratt fired 2 shots into Verwoerd in 1960 but Verwoerd was extremely lucky and recovered within a month. Pratt was not going to get the death penalty because he was judged to be insane due to his epileptic fits. He spent some time in jail and then later commit suicides by hanging himself. The author we will refer to below did not find that suspicious, but I find it curious. Its a lot like Jack Ruby (Rubenstein), and keep in mind, this man who "hangs himself" is under treatment for depression.

Then in 1966, a coloured guy (Greek father, black mother), called Tsafendas who is also a communist and on a blacklist of people NOT to be allowed into South Africa because he is dangerous ... not only manages to get into South Africa but gets a job in parliament as a messenger. Tsafendas goes out, buys a dagger, walks into parliament right up to Verwoerd and stabs him multiple times and he dies within a short while.

Tsafendas, it turns out is also "insane", and he has a tape worm in his tummy which he claims talks to him and tells him things. He is booked into a psychiatric hospital where he remains for the rest of his life until he dies. In the BBC documentary they interview Tsafendas and he tells you that Verwoerd died when they pulled the dagger out.

The above is pretty much the story that we know and are familiar with.

However, a book, which appears to have been published privately by a South African neurologist, Dr Allan Bird contains some extremely interesting information. This is the book we will be looking at: Bird on the Wing - and here is its listing on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bird-wing-Autobiography...

Here on Amazon you can see that he wrote 2 books in his life: http://www.amazon.com/Allan-Bird/e/B001KE3ZUM

But his biography is this one:

Information: Title : Bird on the wing (Autobiography 1916-1992)
Author: Allan Bird
ISBN 0-620-17050-6
First Published in 1992 by A.V. Bird

What I am about to show you comes from this book. It was photocopied and circulated quietly for a very long time in certain circles. The pages of interest to us are pages 203-219. Below are scans of the pages. This has been doing the rounds for quite some time and the markings and underlines show the sentences which really drew the attention of the readers. There are some serious things in here, namely an allegation of Jews, one of whom was the partner of Dr Allan Bird. Bird is convinced that his former partner Solly Jacobson was deeply involved in, and probably instrumental in BOTH assassination attempts on Dr Verwoerd.

NB: These scanned pages here do not exist anywhere else on the Internet. You are most welcome to make copies of them and save them somewhere. They are important. This information has been available since 1992, and has even been referenced in one paper written about David Pratts's attempt to kill Verwoerd. This will be discussed at the end. So all this information is known, but has never before been put out in full, in public like this for all to see. You will see that Dr Bird was so convinced of Jacobson's links to the assassination attempts, that between 1964 and 1979 he tried again and again to speak to the top Police officers in South Africa asking them to please investigate this because he is convinced that Dr Solly Jacobson was behind BOTH attempts on Dr Verwoerd's life.

Before you read this, especially for non-South Africans, just let me clarify a few more things:

o Joe Slovo: Bird says he met Slovo. Slovo was the man who ran the South African Communist Party for much of its existence. In the History of Communism in South Africa by Pike it stated that he was a Colonel in the KGB.

o Bird also discusses his views on Nelson Mandela whom he met personally and he also got to know Dr Verwoerd personally and gives you a very rare close look at Verwoerd.

o The key character in the assassinations that Bird draws attention to is this guy: Solly Jacobson, a Jewish Psychiatrist. It is clear from the text he was an ardent communist with high level contacts and very politically active.

o Bird also mentions Issy Maisels - real name: Israel Maisels. He was the lead of Nelson Mandela's defence team. Bird says Maisels was a leading advocate and an acting judge at the time. Notice his close connections to Solly. In the narrative below Solly and Issy want to stay in the background and stay away from the Police and want Bird to go and find out what happened to the arrested David Pratt.

o "Rooinekke" - Red necks - a Boer term for the British.

o A Red note was delivered to Dr Verwoerd in parliament in 1960 telling him he would die. It read: "Today we kill Verwoerd". Notice the "we" - "we kill Verwoerd". Officially, in both assassination attempts, there was only one person involved - the actual assassin and nobody else. As you will see by the time you get to the end of this, that has to be complete nonsense. There had to have been multiple people involved in both attempts to kill Verwoerd.

o There are a number of fascinating things in here that others prefer not to mention but which were real. One of them is the assassination of Judge Kuper at the now very famous Rivonia trial.

Read through the pages, and at the bottom, you will find my notes and references. There is a lot of meat in here.

LOOSE ENDS; VARIOUS NOTES; REFERENCES & OBSERVATIONS

o Bird's book and accusations are known, not only in Police and academic circles. It is even quoted in Verwoerd's Wikipedia entry. Bird's book is reference 16 in Wikipedia.
oo 16. Allan Bird, Bird on a wing, 205 (1992).

o In Wikipedia, the 17th reference is about the Red Note telling Verwoerd he would die. Verwoerd received a note in parliament one day dropped by one of the messengers (not sure the details and whether it lay among other things). In Wikipedia it says: Verwoerd received a death threat with a red note reading, "Today we kill Verwoerd" It is listed at the 17th reference as coming from: "Verwoerd knew of threats but did not withdraw." The Star, 11 April 1960.

o Bird states that in effect Solly Jacobson was a revolutionary and one of the founders of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK - The Armed wing of the ANC - also referred to as "The Spear of the Nation"). Now here's the kicker: You won't find that mentioned anywhere on the Internet or in any document I know of. But he seems to have been very familiar with Jacobson and what Jacobson got up to. I think this deserves looking into a lot more closely.

o Bird tells us that Jacobson seems to have been lucky to miss being one of the communists arrested and ending up as one of the defendants in the Rivonia trial, along with Nelson Mandela. So Jacobson chose to flee the country. Again, this indicates that Jacobson was an important member of the South African Communist Party and the Military Wing of the ANC.

o The death of Judge Kuper is also something that is kept on a low profile. On page 211, Bird tells us about another mysterious murder: The presiding judge of the Rivonia trial, Justice Kuper, was SHOT DEAD AT HOME AT HIS DESK ON THE NIGHT SENTENCE WAS GIVEN. I did some quick searches and found no mention of this in the histories of the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela and the other communists. So who was behind this shooting?? On page 401 of "A History of Communism in South Africa" the CPSA (Communist Party of South Africa) convened a meeting to discuss the Rivonia trial and the many state witnesses against Nelson Mandela and others. They were concerned that the state was getting too many witnesses. So they discussed killing all the judges and magistrates in a terror campaign to paralyse the legal system. The sentence of importance is this one: "We must have one Justice Kuper a week ... this should be done until no magistrate or judge dare convict us". Also of interest is on page 403 of this book. It mentions something that is less well known. While the High Command of the CPSA was in that house in Rivonia, THE SECOND HIGH COMMAND of MK was at Wits University (University of the WitwatersRand) now called: "University of Johannesburg".

o Although histories tend to ignore it, there seems to have been a lot of stress between Afrikaners and Jews in the decades prior to these assassinations. Verwoerd made his views known in 1936, and this no doubt alerted the Jews that he would be a threat to their interests: In 1936 Malan's "purified" nationalists founded Die Transvaler, a daily published in Johannesburg, and asked Verwoerd to edit it. He campaigned for Afrikaner unity based on clearly defined principles and a Christian-National republic. He had no time for "British-Jewish" imperialism. Source: http://archive.is/IZdcP

o Even though Bird is not suspicious of Pratt's suicide. There are shades of "Jack Ruby" (Rubenstein) in this. I find it highly suspicious that Pratt, like Oswald, is suddenly gone - dead men tell no tales! Why kill Pratt? He might have cracked and later told the story of who helped him. So in order for us to never know who assisted him, he has to die. Ditto for Jack Rubenstein in the JFK case.

o Bird describes the interesting and pleasant associations of his British family entering the original Boer Republics and becoming citizens: "Burgers".

o Bird's viewpoints on page 215 about Israel and South Africa is a major accusation. Read it carefully. He is suggesting that while the Afrikaners are working with Israel, they might be deliberately stabbed in the back while Israel's worse crimes go unnoticed!

o Solly Jacobson's confession to Bird is fascinating and deserves closer study. He claimed Pratt tried to commit suicide because of the imposition of Apartheid and then came to him for anti-depressant drugs and psychotherapy. But after this treatment ... Pratt suddenly goes and tries to kill Verwoerd!! Was Jacobson actually able to talk him into assassination?? Jacobson confesses to having assisted in working out the plan to shoot Verwoerd. The full extent of collusion and ideas from Solly make for fascinating speculation. Was the idea of an "insane" alibi material in helping to convince Pratt to try?

o Was David Pratt Jewish? That is a question that does come up. The person who gave me this material says that its very possible that Pratt was indeed Jewish.

o What Bird says about his discussion with Coetzee is fascinating. So the Police did discover that Solly Jacobson had in fact "treated" Tsafendas just prior to his departure to South Africa where he carried out the assassination! Coetzee's evasiveness suggests that the Boere-Afrikaners at a high level did not want to pursue this. It appears to me, further pursuit of this matter would imperil Afrikaner/Israeli/Jewish relations. By the later 1980s the Afrikaners were co-operating militarily with Israel. Among their involvement was a failed Israeli fighter plane program which was moved to South Africa to be completed here. To my knowledge this also later bombed out and they preferred to turn the SAAF Mirage fighters into what later became known as the "Cheetah". So it seems that politics was getting in the way of the search for the truth about who killed Verwoerd.

o Bird's statement about the discussion with Coetzee that MOSSAD had a back door into every intelligence agency on the planet is staggering. So clearly the pariah Afrikaners of Apartheid were only too keen to be friends with Israel.

o Regarding why Afrikaners in the late 1970's would not be interested in raising the issue of Jewish implication in the assassination of Verwoerd you may want to see these photos: 2 Pics: Apartheid South Africa:Top Boer/Afrikaner Leaders and the Jews connived together - So how did this work out for the Boers?

o There is also a separate topic of Jewish assassinations and whether there is a link with Jewish holidays - as if Jews leave a "Calling Card". But that's a whole separate discussion and it may apply too in the case of Verwoerd.

Here is an obituary URL dealing with Solly Jacobson:-
http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/obituary/dr-solomon-sol...

Notice his background, but take special note of this part, because it ties in to what Bird said:-

November 1946 saw him leave for postgraduate studies in the UK, shortly joined by his wife and son, David. After passing his MRCP Edinburgh and London he studied under Professor Aubrey Lewis at the Maudsley Hospital, London and gained his DPM London. On returning to South Africa he pursued further studies in neurology and psychiatry, became a partner in a Johannesburg practice but came to feel that he could not live in his home country under Apartheid, something both he and his wife were vehemently opposed to.

Once again he went to England to be joined there by his wife and two children, taking up the position of consultant psychiatrist at St Francis Hospital in Haywards Heath, remaining there until he retired in 1973.

o Issy Maisels - Jewish Judge
Nelson Mandela's defence team at the Rivonia trial, where the South African Govt arrested Mandela and all the communists for terrorism, was led by Issy Maisels. Source: http://www.ask.com/wiki/1956_Treason_Trial

The Times of Israel says this about Issy: There were members of the predominately Jewish legal team defending Mandela at the infamous Treason and Rivonia trials led by great figures like Issy Maisels and Arthur Chaskalson. Source: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/finding-my-inn...

In another article it mentions that "Issy" was not his proper name. His real name was "Israel Maisels". Excerpt: In addition, when Mandela went on trial for "treason" in the 1950s and 1960s, his lead defense lawyers were Jews, Israel "Issy" Maisels and Arthur Chaskalson, according to Goldstone, who added that Mandela appointed Chaskalson to be the first president of South Africa's new Constitutional Court, in 1994. Source: http://ajwnews.com/archives/19150

You will also find Issy Maisels mentioned at this link where Jews defend the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and says that they were against the Apartheid struggle. It lists all the Jews fighting Apartheid including Issy Maisels. It makes for interesting reading. It also claims there's no documentation by likening the Apartheid situation to NAZI Germany and "Schindler's list": http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id356.html

You will find a far more interesting link here called: South African Jews against Apartheid: http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id27.html

You will find Issy Maisels and the SAJBD mentioned. Here is the quote: "The Board of Deputies. While the Board of Deputies has been taken to task for its failure to take a public stand in the name of the Jewish community, this was not an indicator of the private views or actions of its members.

Evaluating the Board s attitude to apartheid from minutes of meetings, as done by several historians is completely unrealistic. The board was as unlikely to leave incriminating evidence in writing, as was Oscar Schindler, of Schindler s Lists fame. The board included some very prominent anti-apartheid personalities such as Tony Bloom, advocate Harry Schwartz and advocate Issy Maisels. Rabbi Duchinsky of Cape Town was instrumental in influencing the Cape Board of Deputies in the mid- seventies to come out publicly against government policy."

Finally, I found one Academic paper was published in English and Afrikaans regarding the assassination of Verwoerd. It mentions the Solly Jacobson story and dismisses it quickly with:

Allan Bird published his memoirs many decades later. He based his suspicion that his colleague, Solly Jacobson, had conspired with Pratt to shoot Verwoerd on three incidents. None of them, however, can be linked causally to the assassination attempt. A conspiracy can be excluded due to the fact that Pratt refused to allow his lawyers to submit any reports on his medical condition to the court. He wanted to face the charges and go down in history as a hero. It was only after his daughter Susan intervened on his behalf and lodged an application to appoint a curator bonis as well as a curator ad litem to handle his matters that the court ordered the curator ad litem to present the criminal court with psychiatric reports on his condition.

NB: The above paper only deals with the Pratt incident and does not include Bird's accusations against Tsafendas. Also, Bird mentions that Coetzee who was the head of the Security Police at the time confirmed to him that Jacobson had treated Tsafendas prior to him returning to South Africa. So this paper below seems to very quickly dismiss Bird's input while dashing off down all sorts of other angles. The full paper is here: http://www.litnet.co.za/Article/david-beresfo...

And here's the entire abstract of it:-
Abstract
David Beresford Pratt: the person behind the assassination attempt
This article investigates the motives of David Pratt s assassination attempt on the then prime minister, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, during the opening of the Union Show on 9 April, 1960. The assassination of Verwoerd by Demitrio Tsafendas has been covered well, but the circumstances which prompted Pratt to shoot Verwoerd have not yet been extensively explored.

Over the years three scenarios have been mooted in an attempt to explain Pratt s action. The first is that Pratt attacked Verwoerd out of revenge. Shortly after the attempted assassination a rumour spread that Pratt s Dutch wife might have had a relationship with the prime minister, who was also of Dutch descent. The attorney-general, Adv. Rein, took pains to prevent this fairy tale from surfacing in court. Unlikely as this lead might be to explain Pratt s motive for shooting Verwoerd, his wife may indeed have had an affair with another man, which could have contributed to Pratt s desperate state of mind. According to the second scenario, Pratt was suffering from epilepsy and serious depression. As the crisis in his personal life escalated, he found an escape mechanism to handle the crisis at a different level, in a political context. The third scenario postulates a conspiracy between Pratt and Dr Solly Jacobson, his psychiatrist, who was also a dedicated member of the underground Communist Party and a close friend of Joe Slovo. Jacobson s partner, Dr Allan Bird, contended that the two of them worked out a plan for Pratt to assassinate Verwoerd. Jacobson would then bail him out with medical evidence so that he could not be held criminally liable. Bird did not refer to the mysterious red note that was handed to the prime minister only weeks before the assassination attempt. The note contained a threat: Today we kill Verwoerd.
To determine which of these scenarios is the most probable, legal methodology that is typically applied in case studies is invoked.

Apart from considering the scenarios about a possible motive why Pratt attacked Verwoerd, the article also attempts to create a more comprehensive portrait of Pratt s life. Evidence presented in diverse court cases in which Pratt was involved, serves as a point of departure to illuminate his personal circumstances. The memoirs of persons who knew Pratt personally have also been consulted. Newspaper articles shed further light on the attempted assassination, the escalation of the political conflict and the prevailing Zeitgeist.

The picture that evolves is that Pratt, hailed as a hero by the anti-apartheid movement, is a rather unlikely hero. Pratt grew up amidst incredible wealth, but already suffered from epilepsy at a very young age. There is evidence that he was a loner from early on. He was probably ostracised and stigmatised at school due to epileptic convulsions. He went to the best private schools and qualified as a chartered accountant at Cambridge University. He was the designated heir to run the vast business empire of his father.

Although he could be kind and charming he also had another side. He could be difficult, peevish and unpredictable, at times even violent. It seems that his marriage with the British journalist Mary Hatrick was not easy for her. A pattern evolved which indicates that stress factors in his life initially gave rise only to epileptic attacks. His condition deteriorated considerably after the divorce from Mary, who left him shortly after the death of their little boy in March 1945. After the divorce he fell into serious depression and was treated in South Africa as well as the United States. The stress of the maintenance case which Mary brought against him, because he failed to meet his obligations towards their daughter Susan, aggravated his condition.

His second marriage, to Patty van Heijningen, was not successful either. She was the daughter of a famous Dutch radiologist. In 1954, shortly after the birth of their first child, Pratt claimed to have received a message which he should convey to South Africa. He was very concerned about Afrikaner nationalism and the apartheid system that was being put into place. He joined Alan Paton s newly founded Liberal Party. Apparently he wanted to form a coalition government with Klasie Havenga. Pratt was boarded and diagnosed with suffering from grandiose delusions of the political saviour type . He also suffered from stress-related tinnitus, hearing organ music in his head which he interpreted as heavenly messages.

Pratt was almost constantly in psychiatric treatment. His wife feared for her safety because he threatened her. At the beginning of 1958 she decided to return to The Hague, taking their two children with her. Pratt followed her with a gun in his pocket, but was apprehended at the Amsterdam airport. It is possible that this incident was sparked off by the fact that Pratt found out that his wife had had an affair.

In August 1958 his psychiatrist, Dr Chesler, recommended that his sister, Peggy Ricketts, should apply for a curator bonis to be appointed to manage his affairs. Upon her refusal to do so, Dr Chesler requested that Pratt be treated by another specialist. Pratt s depression deteriorated and his condition became manic. Around this time he badly assaulted his cousin with whom he was in business. He was referred for treatment to the neurologist Dr Solly Jacobson.

Pratt desperately tried to win his wife back. He bought a posh property, Old Sillery , in the Cape, hoping that the climate would be more appealing and suited to her and that she would consider returning to South Africa. When that did not work out, he planned a kidnapping of their daughter in Switzerland during a skiing holiday in the hope that he could force Patty to return to South Africa. As he became more desperate about his marital problems, Pratt tried to commit suicide on three different occasions. In between he spent extensive periods in the United Kingdom, where he received psycho-analytical treatment.

It appears that Pratt s paranoid condition was reinforced by the escalation of the political conflict after the Sharpeville massacre. The court accepted the medical reports submitted to it by five different psychiatrists, all of which confirmed that Pratt lacked legal capacity and could not be held criminally liable for having shot the prime minister.
Allan Bird published his memoirs many decades later. He based his suspicion that his colleague, Solly Jacobson, had conspired with Pratt to shoot Verwoerd on three incidents. None of them, however, can be linked causally to the assassination attempt. A conspiracy can be excluded due to the fact that Pratt refused to allow his lawyers to submit any reports on his medical condition to the court. He wanted to face the charges and go down in history as a hero. It was only after his daughter Susan intervened on his behalf and lodged an application to appoint a curator bonis as well as a curator ad litem to handle his matters that the court ordered the curator ad litem to present the criminal court with psychiatric reports on his condition.

There are a number of similarities between Pratt and Verwoerd. Both were the children of immigrants who moved to South Africa when they were two years of age. Verwoerd arrived in the conquered post-Anglo-Boer War South Africa, whereas Pratt arrived in the newly formed Union of South Africa a few years later. It is often observed that immigrant children overcompensate to be accepted in their guest country. Whereas nationalism comes naturally to people living in a country, it is a conscious choice for immigrants, and it was no different with Pratt and Verwoerd. Each of them associated with the community closest to them. Pratt was part of a background that cherished the British Empire and the Commonwealth, whereas Verwoerd aspired to become a real Afrikaner.

Another common denominator was psychology. Verwoerd did a doctoral thesis on psychology and became a professor of applied psychology, whereas Pratt was in need of psychological treatment all his life, trying to face his personal problems. Both thought they knew what would be best for South Africa, and this became the symbolic cataclysm of the attempted assassination. Pratt wanted South Africa to take her place among the nations of the British Commonwealth and, as he put it to Dr Hurst and in his speech in the dock, wanted to lay Verwoerd up so that Verwoerd could rethink the apartheid policy. Verwoerd wanted a republic and was later instrumental in South Africa s leaving the Commonwealth. He envisaged a kind of internal decolonisation for black people because he was convinced that segregation would lead to conflict and that apartheid was necessary to prevent that. The whole idea was doomed from the beginning, however, because black urbanisation and an integrated economy could not be stopped.

The assassination attempt by Pratt was neither a conspiracy nor a lone wolf type of planning of the assassination. According to him he had acted impulsively andon the spur of the moment. However, other statements made by Pratt contradict this claim.

His suicide in a mental institution on his 52nd birthday, shortly before parole was due to be considered, marks the end of a tragic life.

http://www.historyreviewed.info/Article.php?ID=466258&

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