JOHANNESBURG -- A man in racially charged South Africa who became famous a decade ago for claiming to be a white slave for a black family has been slain.

Happy Sindane was found dead in a ditch on Monday in the town of Tweefontain, about 80 miles from Johannesburg.

A 58-year-old suspect, Khuwana Simon Mthimunye, was charged with murder and will be kept in custody for an April 11 bail hearing, Col. Leonard Hlathi, a police spokesman for the area, said Tuesday.

Though happy by name, Sindane led a life, probably less than 30 years long, that was plagued by tragedy.

The Star newspaper in South Africa reported an interview with police Capt. Vusi Mahlangu saying that a fight broke out between Sindane and the suspect over a bottle of brandy at a tavern the night before Sindane's body was found.

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The fight was broken up and the two left the tavern together. Later, an empty bottle of brandy and a hat belonging to the suspect were found next to Sindane's body, the paper reported. NBC News could not independently confirm the account. Calls to Mahlangu went unanswered.

"The post-mortem reads that Mr. Sindane died of head injuries. A stone was found by officers at the scene that suggests he was hit in the head with it until death," Hlathi said.

"His body was identified by relatives, community members and police. He was a well-known person. He was found about not far, about 300 meters (328 yards) from his home."

Sindane became a household name in South Africa in 2003 when he claimed to police that he was white and was being enslaved by a black community. A court found that Sindane, then thought to be between 16 and 20 years old, was probably the son of Henry Nick, a white man, and a black domestic worker employed by him named Rina Mzayiya. His birth name was found to have been Abbey Mziyaye, and he had been brought up by the Sindane family after being given up by his birth parents.

In 2004, Sindane was run over by a minivan and a car while lying in a road in his village. He also appeared later that year in Pretoria Magistrate's Court for allegedly breaking a taxi's windows with stones. The charges were dropped the following year.

Sindane was awarded a settlement payout by the Dulux paint company after they used an image of him in an advertisement with the slogan "any color you can think of." Sindane said he never gave permission for the company to use his picture.

The Pretoria News quoted Father Charles Kuppelwieser, who often tried to help Sindane, as saying: "He had the opportunity to study to become a carpenter, electrician or get involved with computers, but he did not have the basic skills," adding, "to us, Happy was always well-mannered and a good boy, but when the weekend came he would get drunk."

The newspaper reported that Thomas Kabini, a cousin of Sindane's, said he had seen the deceased in the week before his death. "He was in good spirits and happy," Kabini said, according to the paper.

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The father of "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius — the Olympic star accused of murdering his girlfriend — has been accused of racism after he claimed the family needed guns to protect themselves because they could not rely on South Africa's police.

Speaking to the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper, Henke Pistorius criticized the government over crime rates in the country. His comments were attacked by the ruling ANC party and quickly disowned by the rest of the Pistorius family.

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Police say they register more than 15,000 murders a year in South Africa, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, according to the United Nations.

"Some of the [family’s] guns are for hunting and some are for protection, the handguns," Henke Pistorius told The Telegraph. "It speaks to the ANC government, look at white crime levels, why protection is so poor in this country, it's an aspect of our society." 

He added: "You can't rely on the police, not because they are inefficient always but because crime is so rife."

Oscar Pistorius, famous for becoming the first person to run in both the Paralympics and Olympics, said in a written statement read to a court last month that he had fatally shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day after mistaking her for an intruder.

His father’s mention of "white crime levels" and the lack of protection from the government sparked an angry reaction from the ANC, which has been in power since the country’s first democractic elections in 1994, following the fall of apartheid.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu told The Associated Press that it "rejects with contempt" any suggestion that the government doesn't adequately protect white South Africans against crime.

"Not only is this statement devoid of truth, it is also racist," Mthembu said in a statement. "It is sad that he has chosen to politicize a tragic incident that is still fresh in the minds of those affected and the public."

Oscar Pistorius and the rest of his family issued a statement headlined "Pistorius family distances itself from Henke Pistorius’s comments in U.K. newspaper."

The statement said the sports star’s family were "deeply concerned about the comments made by Oscar’s father, Henke Pistorius" about the family using guns to defend themselves and "especially about his comments that the ANC government is not willing to protect white South Africans."

Arnold Pistorius, the Olympian's uncle, was quoted as saying "the Pistorius family own weapons purely for sport and hunting purposes."

"Henke’s interview with the newspaper was unapproved by our media liaison team," he said. "The comments doesn’t [sic] represent the views of Oscar or the rest of the Pistorius family."

However, in his February statement to the court, Pistorius said he slept with his 9 mm handgun under his bed because "I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before."

The South African Police Service's National Firearms Center said Pistorius registered the 9 mm for self-defense. Police issued him with his gun license on Sept. 10, 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Oscar Pistorius granted bail ahead of murder trial

Lawyer: Pistorius' brother facing homicide charge

'Nobody saw it coming,' Reeva Steenkamp's uncle says

 

DUESSELDORF, Germany — Nearly 1,000 police officers raided clubhouses and apartments of known neo-Nazis in western Germany on Thursday after a ban was placed on three violent far-right groups in the country's most populous state.

Ralf Jaeger, interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, announced the ban as part of an intensified crackdown on neo-Nazis in the industrial state. Police searched 146 premises, confiscating weapons, computer hard drives and election posters of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD).

"(The objects seized) expose the tight bonds within the far-right scene,'' Jaeger said, referring to the relationship between the NPD and groups of violent militants known as "Kameradschaften" -- or "comradeships."

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Jaeger called the groups affected by the ban "xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic,'' adding: "They employ fists and knives against their political opponents.''

Although no arrests were made, Jaeger said the seizures could bolster attempts to ban the NPD, which Germany's national intelligence agency says is racist, anti-Semitic, revisionist and inspired by Adolf Hitler's Nazi ideology.

Groups with explicit neo-Nazi ideology are prohibited in Germany, but the NPD has so far been able to skirt politicians' and security officials' attempts to ban it. One such attempt against the NPD failed in 2003 after witnesses in the case were exposed as intelligence agency informants.

"We will continue to crack down on these enemies of the state and tread on their black leather boots,'' Jaeger said, referring to the footwear popular among skinheads.

The NPD has representatives in two state assemblies — Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — but not in the federal parliament.

It blames immigrants for crime and unemployment and its voters are mostly unemployed young men with little education.

Last December, state authorities in North-Rhine Westphalia set up a new unit in Dusseldorf to police far-right players after shocking disclosures that a secretive neo-Nazi cell based in the eastern state of Thuringia had murdered 10 people — eight  of Turkish origin, one person of Greek origin, and a policewoman — between 2000 and 2007, according to a report by Deutsche-Welle. 

DW reported that the state also set up special investigative units in Aachen and Dortmund as well as the Rhine River city of Cologne, where Jäger banned another far-right comradeship last May.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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By Ron Allen, NBC News  

The anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela has pretty much completely withdrawn from public life. His health is a matter of constant speculation, rumor and mostly worry. There have been a couple of scares in recent years.  But on Wednesday, he celebrated his 94^th birthday, in a country where life expectancy is just 52: the latest remarkable accomplishment in one of the most remarkable lives of our times.

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We traveled to South Africa in late February for NBC News. There was word Mandela had been taken to the hospital, but not much detail beyond that.  Turned out it was what doctors described as a minimally invasive procedure for an enduring stomach ailment. You could almost feel the world let out a big sigh of relief.

 

The trip gave me a chance to explore a place I rarely visit.  It’s long been one of my favorite countries to explore: inspiring, intriguing, and one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see. 

South Africa's transformation

My first trip was almost 20 years ago, back in 1993. Apartheid was ending and soon segregation would no longer be mandated by law. I wanted to witness for myself what was left of such an incredible and notorious system of oppression.  Mandela was about to complete the journey from prisoner to president.  Fully democratic elections were about to happen. I’ll never forget that first morning when all South Africans were allowed to vote. The lines stretched for what seemed like miles into the morning haze. The “Rainbow Nation” was being born.

South Africa has come a very long way during the past couple of decades. But it certainly still has a long way to go. It is the largest economy in Africa, but not among the fastest growing on a continent talked about by economists as the next Asia, with many of the world’s top 10 fastest economies. About a third of South Africa’s 50 million people still live in poverty. Unemployment is about 25 percent, and double that for the black population, especially young people.   

We were especially curious about the so-called “Born Free” generation. Young people born since the early 1990s and the end of apartheid. Those born since Mandela became president are now young adults.  And they’re testing Mandela’s dream of equal opportunity for all against their own dreams. 

“The world is my stage. I can express myself the way I want to and have no limits,” said Tiisetso Lepelle, 17, a student from Wordsworth High School. She and her classmates were visiting Constitution Hill, near Johannesburg: a museum, court, and cultural center located in what used to be a prison notorious for its treatment of political prisoners.

'It's about me, and what I want'

Constitution Hill tells the story of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. But the next chapter of that story is all about Tiisetso and her classmates' generation. Many of them have expectations and a sense of optimism their parents, or even their older siblings, never dreamed of.

We asked what matters most in her country.  “It’s not about color. It’s about me, and what I want,” she said with confidence.

Over at Wits University in Johannesburg, we found a different take on things.

“I think there’s still a lot of racial tension,” said Alex Willis, an 18-year-old woman from a mixed race family. “I think that our children’s children, or our children’s children’s children might kind of get to see the day where that’s not an issue,” she added.  Alex, who is Caucasian and Indian, told us she doesn’t see a lot of mixing of people of various backgrounds and she sometimes feels like the odd person out.

Interestingly, her 20-year-old white classmate Michael Jordan, who she’s dating, saw things differently. 

"I think apartheid was terrible and I think we’re going to have the scars of those wounds for a long time," he speculated. "I think the majority of our attitude is, 'Let’s not dwell on the past because by doing that you can only stumble, you know, if you keep looking backward.'"   

South Africa is still a complicated and evolving society where race plays an enduring role in who gets what. For the most part, black South Africans control the government while whites control the country’s wealth and business.  It’s a stark divide that’s still so strikingly visible.  Whites live in the suburbs lined with high walls protesting their homes. Blacks live with much less. But there’s a small emerging black middle class: we saw one bustling shopping mall in the township of Soweto that could have been a small urban center with a large minority community in the U.S.  

And that’s what so many of the “Born Free” generation who we met aspired to, and more importantly expected, in their lives: success and self-determination. As they become adults and set out to make their mark on their country and the world, they’re determined not to let South Africa’s history hold them back.

 

ENSENADA, Mexico - Eric Lamb was doing safety patrol on a 124-mile yacht race when he spotted a boat that appeared too close to Mexico's Coronado Islands. He never got there.

As his twin-engine boat neared the uninhabited islands just south of San Diego, he stumbled on sailboat shards that were mostly no more than six inches long strewn over about two square miles. He saw a small refrigerator, a white seat cushion and empty containers of yogurt and soy milk.

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Over several hours, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter directed him in his search and led him to two dead bodies floating with their backs up, badly scraped and bruised. The Coast Guard recovered a third body and the fourth member of the crew was missing early Monday in California's second deadly accident this month involving an ocean race.

Lamb, 62, said the 37-foot yacht looked like it "had gone through a blender."

"It was real obvious it had been hit just because the debris was so small," he said Sunday.

Three sailors were killed in the accident and a fourth was missing, officials said. The Coast Guard, Mexican navy and civilian vessels scoured the waters off the shore of both countries for the fourth sailor before suspending their search Sunday evening.

Hundreds of race participants held a moment of silence at the Newport Ocean Sailing Association's award ceremony, many of them stunned and puzzled. Skies were clear and winds were light when the boat went missing on the course from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada.

3 dead, 1 missing in accident during Newport-Ensenada sailing race

A GPS race tracking system indicated the Aegean disappeared about 1:30 a.m. PT (4:30 a.m. ET) Saturday, said Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the race organizer. Race organizers weren't closely monitoring the race at that hour but a disappearing signal is no cause for alarm because receivers occasionally suffer glitches, he said.

"Somebody may have thought the thing was broken," Roberts said.

Lamb, who has been patrolling the race for eight years as captain for a private company, saw the debris nine hours later, called the Coast Guard, and searched for identifying information. He and a partner found a life raft with a registration number and a panel with the ship's name.

'Horrified'
The Coast Guard said conditions were fine for sailing, with good visibility and moderate ocean swells of 6-to-8 feet. Officials have not determined the cause of the accident, and would not speculate on what ship, if any, might have collided with the sailboat.

Race officials said they had few explanations for what may have happened to the Aegean other than it must have collided with a ship like a freighter or tanker that did not see the smaller vessel.

The episode immediately sparked a debate over safety of ocean races.

"Quite honestly, I'm amazed it hasn't happened before," said Lamb. "You get 200 boats out there, they lose their way, and they're just bobbing around."

Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing Association, said his group will appoint an independent panel to investigate.

"I'm horrified. I've done a lot of sailboat racing and I've hit logs in the water, and I've seen a man go overboard, but this takes the whole thing to a new level," Jobson said. "We need to take a step back and take a deep breath with what we're doing. Something is going wrong here."

Chuck Iverson, commodore of the sailing association, said the collision was a "fluke," noting how common night races are along Mexico's Baja California coast.

Shipping lanes crossed
The race goes through shipping lanes and it's possible for a large ship to hit a sailboat and not even know it, especially at night, said Roberts, the race spokesman. Two race participants who were in the area at the time the Aegean vanished told The Associated Press they saw or heard a freighter.

The deaths are the first fatalities in the race's 65 years. The race attracted 675 boats at its peak in 1983 before falling on hard times several years ago amid fears of Mexico's drug-fueled violence.

Participation has picked up recently, reaching 213 boats this year. The winner, Robert Lane of Long Beach Yacht Club, finished Saturday in 23 hours, 26 minutes, 40 seconds.

The race attracts sailors of all skills, including some who are new to long distances. The Aegean competed in one of the lower categories, which allows participants to use their motors when winds drop to a certain level.

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Two of the dead were William Reed Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance, Calif., and Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla. The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office was withholding the name of the third sailor pending notification of relatives.

The Aegean is registered to Theo Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, Calif. The race sponsor didn't know if he was aboard but Gary Gilpin at Marina Sailing, which rents out the Aegean when Mavromatis isn't using it, said the 49-year-old skipper took the yacht out earlier in the week for the competition.

Gilpin said Mavromatis, an engineer, was an experienced sailor who had won the Newport to Ensenada race in the past.

The deaths come two weeks after five sailors died in the waters off Northern California when their 38-foot yacht was hit by powerful waves, smashed into rocks and capsized during a race. Three sailors survived the wreck and the body of another was quickly recovered. Four remained missing until one body was recovered Thursday.

The accident near the Farallon Islands, about 27 miles west of San Francisco, prompted the Coast Guard to temporarily stop races in ocean waters outside San Francisco Bay. The Coast Guard said the suspension will allow it and the offshore racing community to study the accident and race procedures to determine whether changes are needed to improve safety. U.S. Sailing, the governing body of yacht racing, is leading the safety review, which is expected to be completed within the next month.

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