Humana People-to-People Alert in the US

  How does KNEC fit in to the Tvind     financial empire?  

KNEC is an integral part of the Teachers Group's $860m financial network of offshore companies:

  Argyll Smith properties  

The school is owned by Argyll Smith Properties of SA (PTY) Ltd . This South Africa-registered company is controlled by the Teachers Group, and is a subisdiary of an offshore company registered in the British tax haven of Jersey, Argyll Smith and Company.

Jersey-based Argyll Smith is itself controlled by the Teachers Group and is well known to Danish police and British charity officials. According to the 2001 Danish police report, the Jersey-registered Argyll Smith is one of several key Tvind holding companies.

It was also the offshore company implicated in alleged corruption discovered by the UK Charity Commission. In that case, a British Tvind school was paying inflated rents to the Teachers Group through the holding company.

A similar system seems to have been operating at KNEC where, according to Laszlo (see right), KNEC was paying R20,000 a month to the Teachers Group in rent through Argyll Smith PTY.

  Total Control of the Epidemic     (TCE)  

The school has a close relationship with Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE), the rapidly expanding anti-aids programme run by the TG in southern Africa. TCE is massively funded by international grant aid.

  Humana and DAPP  

KNEC is closely linked in South Africa with Humana, its offshoot DAPP (or ADPP), and with Humana and DAPP programmes in all the neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Malawi.

Humana and DAPP are controlled by Tvind. KNEC students may provide labour, helping collect and sort old clothes.

Humana is part of a large family of Teachers Group old-clothes companies worldwide. In Europe, journalists have alleged that the Teachers Group has been operating a financial scam for years, sending only a small proportion of the profits from donated clothes to Africa.

According to these reports, most of the profits from inter-company trading have been creamed off to Teachers Group offshore companies. For a clear explanation, read Michael Bjerre's article on Humana Holland in the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende (24th Aug 2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An investigative website into the Humana People-to-People organisation and the Tvind movement ... in South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News

 

 

Press reports

 

 

 

 

 

  Humana in South Africa  

July 2003:   A deal between the Pretoria News,  a daily newspaper, and Humana to promote clothes collections seems likely to be cancelled after the newspaper became aware of the controversy surrounding Humana  in Europe.

The Pretoria News initially reached an agreement with Humana to place clothes banks at the newspaper's offices.  There were rumours that Humana was trying to enter into similar agreements with several South African newspapers.    The newspapers seemed unaware of the poor reputation of Humana in Europe..

Tvind Alert was informed of the deal by South African officials.  However, following a quiet word from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the newspaper seems to have changed its mind.  The deal is now thought to be off.   " We hope that Tvind will be forced to leave South Africa and that the Kwa-Zulu College will be closed. The HIV/AIDS problem in South Africa is so serious that it certainly does not need Tvind's input," one official said.

Kwa-Zulu Natal Experimental College

 

 

 

In September 2001 South African police arrested the principal of Tvind's KwaZulu Natal Experimental College, Ester Boere, on suspicion of fraud after a complaint by students.     Although charges were subsequently dropped, several students say they believe the decision to stop proceedings was politically influenced, and intend to continue to campaign against the organisation.

Read an account of the case sent to Tvind Alert in Laszlo's story (Laszlo Fazekas  flevente@yahoo.co.uk )

Newspaper article (in Danish):  Lærere på Tvind-skole må tigge Jyllands-Posten 6 oktober 2001

Opened in 2001, the college's address is:  5/11 Richmond Rd., Pinetown 3605, Durban, South Africa.

One Rand University

This is another Tvind educational establishment said to be planned on the same site as KwaZulu Experimental College - not yet open.

Argyll Property

Believed to be a Teachers Group company in South Africa that owns KwaZulu Natal Experimental College.  The company has allegedly been handed the school property indefinitely by the SA government, in return for providing employment for a number of local people.   It is probably safe to assume Argyll Properties is a Tvind company and KNEC is paying rent to Tvind.  See below.

DAPP South Africa    ( 1996) .  The address of this Tvind subsidiary is given as:

Development Aid from People to People in South Africa
Box 3678, Kempton Park 1620, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 609 40 47
Fax: +27 11 452 0645
dapp@mweb.co.za

Send Information

Readers comments

Argyl's Property is a SA company, the govenrment gave the buildings of the school to them for an indefinite time for use, provided they give work and education to a certain amount of people. Some 35 SA people do work there on the buildings on repairs and things. They say they earn about 300 Rand (US$35)a month (there is no minimum wage limit in SA). That's all I know about them. The leader in charge is a Zim guy, his name is Madzeka. But I don't know who the real director is. The other man I saw there all the time was a Dane, his name is Sven Pedersen.  October 2001.

July 2003:   A deal between the Pretoria News,  a daily newspaper, and Humana to promote clothes collections seems likely to be cancelled after the newspaper became aware of the controversy surrounding Humana  in Europe.

The Pretoria News initially reached an agreement with Humana to place clothes banks at the newspaper's offices.  There were rumours that Humana was trying to enter into similar agreements with several South African newspapers.    The newspapers seemed unaware of the poor reputation of Humana in Europe..

Tvind Alert was informed of the deal by South African officials.  However, following a quiet word from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the newspaper seems to have changed its mind.  The deal is now thought to be off.   " We hope that Tvind will be forced to leave South Africa and that the Kwa-Zulu College will be closed. The HIV/AIDS problem in South Africa is so serious that it certainly does not need Tvind's input," one official said.

Kwa-Zulu Natal Experimental College

 

 

 

In September 2001 South African police arrested the principal of Tvind's KwaZulu Natal Experimental College, Ester Boere, on suspicion of fraud after a complaint by students.     Although charges were subsequently dropped, several students say they believe the decision to stop proceedings was politically influenced, and intend to continue to campaign against the organisation.

Read an account of the case sent to Tvind Alert in Laszlo's story (Laszlo Fazekas  flevente@yahoo.co.uk )

Newspaper article (in Danish):  Lærere på Tvind-skole må tigge Jyllands-Posten 6 oktober 2001

Opened in 2001, the college's address is:  5/11 Richmond Rd., Pinetown 3605, Durban, South Africa.

One Rand University

This is another Tvind educational establishment said to be planned on the same site as KwaZulu Experimental College - not yet open.

Argyll Property

Believed to be a Teachers Group company in South Africa that owns KwaZulu Natal Experimental College.  The company has allegedly been handed the school property indefinitely by the SA government, in return for providing employment for a number of local people.   It is probably safe to assume Argyll Properties is a Tvind company and KNEC is paying rent to Tvind.  See below.

DAPP South Africa    ( 1996) .  The address of this Tvind subsidiary is given as:

Development Aid from People to People in South Africa
Box 3678, Kempton Park 1620, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 609 40 47
Fax: +27 11 452 0645
dapp@mweb.co.za

Send Information

Readers comments

Argyl's Property is a SA company, the govenrment gave the buildings of the school to them for an indefinite time for use, provided they give work and education to a certain amount of people. Some 35 SA people do work there on the buildings on repairs and things. They say they earn about 300 Rand (US$35)a month (there is no minimum wage limit in SA). That's all I know about them. The leader in charge is a Zim guy, his name is Madzeka. But I don't know who the real director is. The other man I saw there all the time was a Dane, his name is Sven Pedersen.  October 2001.

  KwaZulu Natal Experimental College (KNEC)  

KNEC, in Durban, capital of KwaZulu-Natal province, is a Tvind college.

It is one of the 15 so-called 'DRH movement' colleges run by the Teachers Group around the world.

There are many Tvind primary and vocational schools in Africa but KNEC is the only 'DRH college' on the continent - where so-called 'Development Instructors' are trained. As such it is an important centre for TG propaganda and recruitment as well as an integral part of the Teachers Group's $860m worldwide financial empire.

  NEWS  

 

 

Complaint to the police

In September 2001 South African police were called in by students at the college. Police briefly arrested the then principal, Ester Boere, on suspicion of fraud.

Five students, from Holland, Slovenia, China and Hungary, complained about poor standards of teaching, terrible facilities, a lack of organisation, a disregard for students' safety, and financial concerns.

Although the students had paid $2,500 each for the course, very little money seemed to be spent on school facilites. The students became suspicious, but were unable to discover where the money had really gone.

The group spoke of 'long and meaningless meetings about unrelevant topics'. For much of the time, the 'education' offered by the college involved fundraising trips to local towns, sometimes without proper permits or anywhere to stay the night.

Laszlo sent Tvind Alert a detailed and shocking account of the shabby and exploitative treatment, humiliation and threats he says were served out to participating students. Students asked for their money back, but were refused and threatened with being thrown onto the street.

Fraud charges were eventually dropped, and Ester Boere fled to Zimbabwe. Several students said they believed the decision to stop proceedings was politically influenced.

Laszlo's story

 

Laszlo's story (excerpt)

"....It happened many times that the whole school had to go on without any food for days. At the end of the week due to the delays it turns out that your food money a day was about R10. The only constant and basic feeling that you have there is hunger.

"After a few weeks of this kind of starvation your brains can't make or reluctant to make the right decisions. You don't feel like doing anything, going anywhere, reading anything, you just let things happen, give up thinking about the future, and start living day by day.

"After a while you think it is normal to live like this, begging for money on the streets or working for nothing. If you should realise that you want to change something, the best you can do is to go to a shop, buy food and eat. If you do this after a while you will fee like waking up from a bad dream...."

Read Laszlo's story in 'Our Stories'

  Johnson and Johnson  

Among the sponsors of TCE are US pharmacuetical company Johnson and Johnson - also a sponsor of one of Tvind's US colleges. In 2003, Johnson & Johnson was awarded a 'Stars of Africa Golden Award' for its financing of TCE. The award was sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in South Africa.