SA union welcomes Rademeyer arrest

ONCE extradited to South Africa, right-winger Louis George Rademeyer will have to face the music alone, as all his accomplices were released on parole last year.

After more than four years on the run, Rademeyer (60) was arrested at Cape Cross on the Namibian coast on New Year’s Eve.The former businessman from Kuruman in the Northern Cape and seven others were convicted on charges of culpable homicide and public violence in 2004.This came after Gaoretelwe Adam Brown, a South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) member, died during a clash between Samwu members and Rademeyer and his gang.Colonel McIntosh Polela, spokesperson for the South African Police Service’s special investigation division, the Hawks, earlier said that Rademeyer’s ‘brush with the law began when members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) marched in Kuruman in 1995. A group of white citizens of the town decided to hold their own march, resulting in clashes with Samwu members. The clashes resulted in the death of a Samwu member.’After a brief appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Rademeyer was taken to the Windhoek Central Prison where he will be detained until his next court appearance on Monday, January 31.Chief Inspector Immanuel Sam, head of Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Namibia, yesterday said they were still waiting for the extradition documents from their SA counterparts. ‘It should be here before the next court date. Significant ground has been created already. We are in constant contact with our colleagues.’According to Samwu spokesperson Tahir Sema, Rademeyer’s arrest ‘certainly brings to an end a nasty chapter in the country’s history. The killing of our member in Kuruman, an innocent South African, is completely unacceptable and was indeed a sad day for the union. At the time of the incident, the union detested the racially motivated act and called for the law to deliver an appropriate punishment for the heinous crime.’Sema referred to Rademeyer and his accomplices as a ‘mob who killed, injured and attacked respected fathers, mothers and brothers of the community’.Rademeyer fled six days before he was scheduled to begin serving a 10-year prison term after an appeal failed.He is suspected to have hidden in the United States before entering Namibia via Cape Town on December 3 last year.Regarding parole for Rademeyer, Samwu said it would fight this possibility tooth and nail. Sema said: ‘We will mobilise our membership in defence of those who had been murdered and injured in Kuruman. We want the court to send out a strong message to the country that crime does not pay and that you cannot hide from the long arm of the law. It is about time that we deal with criminals and murderers using the full extent of the law.’