Innholdsfortegnelse for CA-2021-04-07 i Cape Argus

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za RANDOM gang shootings continue unabated in different parts of the Cape Flats, with the latest incident being a 13-year-old boy from Hanover Park who was hit by a stray bullet. Deckly Wippenaar, a Grade 8 pupil, was playing soccer in Philippi when a stray bullet struck him in the back on Monday afternoon. This happened while an 8-year-old boy from Manenberg was recovering at Red Cross Memorial Hospital after he was struck in the head by a stray bullet on Saturday. Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said Philippi police were investigating an attempted murder case after a shooting incident at a farm in Olieboom Road, Philippi, at 4.30pm on Monday. Van Wyk said the boy sustained a single gunshot wound to his back and was taken…

Thabo Makwakwa thabo.makwakwa@inl.co.za KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube has called for that provincial government to make procurement services accessible so that people can benefit from the allocated provincial budget of R133 billion. Dube-Ncube spoke yesterday during the KwaZulu-Natal Public Sector Procurement Forum, co-ordinated by Brand SA and Proudly SA. She said the event outlined a programme of action on how to use public and private procurement to rebuild and transform the economy while benefiting ordinary people. According to Dube-Ncube, the provincial treasury was determined to improve procurement spend through the roll-out of the Economic Reconstruction and Transformation Plan. She presented key strategic areas in which her department planned to make an immediate impact. These included: • The creation of jobs through unleashing agricultural potential. • Enhancing industrial development through investment…

IN RESPONSE to Rob Johnston “ANC has failed us” (March 31). According to the epistemology of the Abrahamic faiths, before human souls were sent to Earth we made a contract with our Creator. Humans agreed to worship and obey the Creator. In return, the Creator gave humans automatic rights to water, food, shelter, safety and such basic human needs. This divine contract has many qualifying conditions. Example, humans are not allowed to oppress each other by denying another creation water, food, shelter and safety. This includes animals and plants. That is why we cannot just ruin the natural environment since animals and nature also have a right to exist. Thus, those in authority have a duty to ensure that nobody experiences undue hardship. The problem arises when those in authority…

MOHAMED SAEED | Pietermaritzburg The violence in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado and the attack on Palma again brings the terms Islamist extremists or Islamic radicalism to the forefront. Adding the word Islamic to such devious groups as Islamic State (Isis) or al-Shabaab is not only offensive and unacceptable to practising Muslims, it is also disingenuous. Islam as a way of life is against all forms of violence like suicide bombings and the senseless killing of human beings. Muslims are taught to promote spirituality, compassion and empathy, universal and human values and avoid sin and mischief. Indeed, extremist philosophies and behaviour in all its different appearances, shapes and colours must be effectively addressed. The reasons for fascist ideas which multiply among individuals or groups should be effectually…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za Corruption in the private and public sector can often hinder opportunities for young people to enter the jobs market. These are some of the views contained in the government’s 2030 National Youth Policy released recently by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disability. The document has recommended the introduction of a national basic income grant to help tackle the youth unemployment issue amid the country's youth unemployment rate sitting firmly at 55.75%. Dominic Brown from the Budget Justice Coalition, a think tank that focuses on South Africa’s budget process, said there were many reasons why youth unemployment remained high. One was the structural and systematic barriers that often hindered opportunities for young people. Brown was speaking at a webinar hosted by Corruption Watch, which focused…

Mark Lorch Transitioning to working from home and barred from his lab, you might expect the reasearch of organic chemist Vittorio Saggiomo, from the Bio- nanotechnology group at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, to have come to a grinding halt. But Saggiomo wondered if he could turn common household appliances to good use in the Covid-19 fight. More specifically, could he create a cheap, highly sensitive home test for the virus? It turns out he could. At the moment, there are two main types of Covid-19 test: the PCR test and lateral flow test (LFT). The gold-standard PCR test checks for the presence of the virus by detecting its genetic material, RNA. But the material has to be con- verted into DNA and amplified before it…

European intermediaries began shuttling between Iranian and US officials in Vienna yesterday, seeking to bring both countries back into full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that Washington abandoned three years ago. Iran has steadily overstepped the accord’s limits on its nuclear programme after the US withdrew from the accord under then-President Donald Trump in 2018 and its reimposition of sanctions that have crippled the Islamic Republic’s economy. Tehran has repeatedly rebuffed “direct and indirect negotiations” with its old foe, but Washington earlier said it expected the discussions to be difficult. Neither side expected any early breakthrough. Even without face-to-face talks, the presence of both Iran and the US in the same location marks a step forward. “We are confident that we are on the right track, and if…

Myanmar activists daubed roadways with red paint yesterday to protest against the junta’s bloody crackdown on protests, as an online fundraising drive to support the movement neared the $10 million (R145m) mark. The country has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, rocked by daily clashes between protestors and authorities that have left at least 570 people dead. Ten of Myanmar’s ethnic rebel armies voiced support for the protest movement at the weekend, stoking fears that the country could slide into broader civil conflict, while the UN has warned of a looming “bloodbath”. Yesterday, in the commercial capital Yangon, people smeared red paint on bus stops and pavements in protest against the military’s violence. The “bleeding dye strike” is the latest…

THE announcement of the dates for the Fifa World Cup qualifiers last week would normally bring great excitement for any football fan, but it had the opposite effect on me. As a proud South African, I will never forget the 2010 tournament in this country. I can still hear the slogan ‘Feel it, it is here!’, and how the crowds streamed through the Fan Walks to the Cape Town Stadium. But here we sit, Mzansi, in ‘sak en as’ (sackcloth and ashes) as they say, after Bafana Bafana failed to even qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. So, to even contemplate another qualifying campaign is tough for an SA fan. Bafana have now missed out on three of the last four Afcon tournaments, with 2019 in Egypt…

WALLABIES backs James O'Connor and Matt Toomua have welcomed the imminent opening of a travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand that has cleared the way for a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition in May and June. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday the country would allow quarantine-free visits by Australians from April 19, raising the likelihood that the six-week competition will go ahead. The five Super Rugby teams from each country have been restricted to domestic competitions since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the 25th season of the inter-continental version last March. O'Connor, whose Queensland Reds are flying high at the top of the Super Rugby AU standings, said his team were desperate to test their mettle against the Super Rugby Aotearoa teams in a competition scheduled to…

Jean Michel Bouvier | Bryanston I remember reading Julius Caesar in high school. It looks like our president has reached the Ides of March. The knives are really out this time. During the recent national executive committee meeting in March, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, after countermanding and reversing his pronouncements many times last year, had the nerve to hold him to account about speaking to Johan Rupert. This is the modern version of a Shakespearean tragedy unfolding before our eyes. I wonder when the “stab” will come.…

A mistake we make is to categorise nursery rhymes as either lullabies or rhythmic songs that are aids to memorisation. Lately, TV pumps them out as surrogate nannies while mommy does housework. There isn’t much wrong with this for the very young, because it employs the potent didactic agencies of colour, rhyme, rhythm and music. Modern psychologists recognise these modalities as excellent tools to increase a child’s spatial reasoning and aids in the development of mathemat ical skills. Thinks of numbers songs, counting songs and matching colours, supplying missing words and so forth. It promotes aural discrimination combined with visual input. Nursery rhymes have a close affinity with lullabies. The universal soothing sounds of lu-lu and by-by probably combine to give us the term lullaby. This explanation is limited in…

FAROUK ARAIE | GAUTENG IS THE ANC sliding towards extinction? For most of the country’s history since the dawn of democracy more than 25 years ago, such a question verged on the preposterous. The ANC is on the verge of a cataclysmic split that could change the face of our politics for decades to come. Our politics today is dominated by leaders who are accomplished liars. How can lying demagogues find traction in a society with a proud history of democracy and empiricism? Are the masses in our corruption enmeshed country insensitive to falsehoods? The governing party needs to cleanse its contaminated soul. Toxic leaders who cling to power to evade accountability must be jettisoned into oblivion. These shameless populists, explicitly pit a mythical people against an equally…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education, science and technology has ordered the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) to immediately review its disciplinary policy to ensure it provides fairness. Committee chairperson Philly Mapulane said the committee was concerned about the outcry by the Student Representative Council (SRC) that the policy and processes the university employed to discipline them, particularly the student leaders, seemed to be unfair and targeted the leaders to discourage them from being critical of the university’s leadership. Mapulane said the students complained that too much power seemed to be vested in the vice-chancellor and the dean of students to suspend them. After a long engagement with the SRC, the committee summoned the university council last week, to immediately review its policy. “It’s important that…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za Gravesite vandalism – which includes theft, the homeless using them for sleeping quarters and litterbugs using them for dumping sites – is forcing devastated Cape Town families to call for help from the City. Oscar Jasman from Mitchells Plain went to visit his mother Adelaide Plato’s grave at the Klip Cemetery in Ottery over the weekend and made the horrifying discovery that her grave had been vandalised. Jasman said on approaching the grave, with his vehicle still in motion, he looked at it to his left. “I checked and rechecked, thinking we must be at the wrong row of graves as I noticed the grave was damaged,” he said. The Vanyaza family from Khayelitsha also found out that their loved ones’ graves had been destroyed and covered…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za MINERAL Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has revealed that entities in his department are facing a slew of litigation amounting to R50.1 million. Mantashe said the five entities are facing 23 cases, which are at various stages of litigation. He made public the details of litigation and costs when he responded in writing to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Phiwaba Madokwe, who had said the entities were stuck in litigation that was started by people who were no longer in the department and had never been held accountable. She enquired about the breakdown of all legal matters against the entities of the department and the cost to the taxpayer in each case. In his response, Mantashe said the Central Energy Fund (CEF) and its subsidiaries faced…

South Africa bottom of the class for safety? Here’s why this isn’t true IN AN average year, 1.35 million people die on the world’s roads and another 50 million are seriously injured. Most (93%) of the deaths happen in low- and middle-income countries, and sub-Saharan Africa is the global hot spot in the road death pandemic. In South Africa 26 out of every 100 000 people die on the roads – far higher than the global average of 18 per 100 000. My PhD research into bioethical aspects of minibus taxi crashes in Joburg pointed to some reasons for this. It also revealed certain strengths in the South African road safety landscape. Zutobi.com, a driver education online platform in high income countries, recently ranked South Africa 56th out of 56…

KINSHASA: A record 27.3 million people in Democratic Republic of Congo, or about one-third of its population, are suffering from acute hunger, largely because of conflict and the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN said yesterday. The figure makes Congo home to the most people needing urgent food assistance in the world, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement. Of the 27.3m going hungry, about 6.7m people were in the “emergency” phase, an analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found. | Reuters…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been moved to a prison sick ward with symptoms of a respiratory illness, alarming supporters who say he is being denied proper medical care and is being “slowly killed”. Navalny, 44, was tested for Covid-19 on Monday after exhibiting symptoms of a respiratory illness, the federal prison service said. Earlier, an Instagram post under his name said Navalny had a high temperature and a cough, adding that three people from his prison ward had been hospitalised with tuberculosis. Navalny’s worsening health comes after he declared a hunger strike last week, demanding proper medical care for his severe back pain and leg numbness. Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said he has lost 13kg in three weeks. Navalny, who survived a near-fatal poisoning last year, joked on…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za A SERIES decider is a heck of a time to be experimenting with your back-up bowlers, but South Africa have been forced into exactly that scenario for today’s third one-day international against Pakistan at SuperSport Park. Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje all touched down in Mumbai yesterday morning to go into quarantine ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League which starts on Friday. They’re joined by David Miller and Quinton de Kock, who with the bat played an influential role in getting South Africa back into the series at the Wanderers on Sunday. That’s half the team that played in the first two matches absent for the last match of the series, with Janneman Malan likely to open the batting alongside Aiden Markram in De…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za NINE months after its rather strange launch at Olympic House in Johannesburg, Cricket South Africa’s social justice and nation building (SJN) project will get down to some actual work at the start of May, with ombudsman Dumisa Ntsebeza stating that he would “act decisively” in dealing with racial discrimination within the sport. The project was the brainchild of former CSA director Dr Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw and was the result of several heart-breaking instances of discrimination in the sport described by a number of former players, coaches and administrators last year. The project didn’t get off the ground, because despite nine ambassadors – including Gary Kirsten, Lance Klusener and Geoffrey Toyana – being named, there was no clarity about what Ntsebeza would do or how the project would be…

MIHLALI BALEKA @Mihlalibaleka TSHAKHUMA TSHA MADZIVHANDILA (1) 1 Nevhulamba 17 MAMELODI SUNDOWNS (1) 3 Coetzee 46+2, Mkhulise 69, Vilakazi 82 STOP us if you can! That was a clear message from defending champions Sundowns, who extended their lead at the top of the Premiership to six points after beating TTM 3-1 at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium yesterday. This result ensured that the champions kept their title defence aspirations alive as they are unbeaten and have two games in hand compared to their challengers. TTM, meanwhile, dropped down to 15th on the standings, three points ahead of bottom-placed Black Leopards. After dropping points for the first time in the CAF Champions League in their last outing in Khartoum against Sudanese side Al Hilal, Sundowns were determined to bounce back…

Staff Reporter Social housing provider Communicare is celebrating a small victory in its fight to claim back 24 of its units in Brooklyn, that were violently hijacked last month. This after the organisation went to court to obtain an urgent court order to prevent the hijackers from once again gaining access to their building and terrorising their tenants. Communicare chief executive Anthea Houston said the organisation had been left with no other option than to approach the courts for assistance to protect the interests and well-being of its tenants, after failing to receive assistance from law enforcement. “Communicare applied for a spoliation order, a common law remedy to take back possession of the property, including regaining control of the access to the property. On March 30, the High Court…

THE City said that in the past week nearly 300 people had been arrested on various charges, such as drunk-driving, reckless and negligent driving and possession of drugs. In a statement yesterday, the mayoral committee member for safety and security, alderman JP Smith, said that of the 298 arrests, a third were for drunk-driving or reckless and negligent driving. The Traffic Services arrested 100 suspects, including 43 for driving under the influence of alcohol and 36 for reckless and negligent driving. A further 21 motorists were arrested on various charges. Officers also impounded 196 vehicles, confiscated 96 cellphones and issued 58 475 fines. Along Kromboom Parkway in Rondebosch, an 80km/h zone, officers recorded a motorist driving at 213km/h. On Erica Drive in Bishop Lavis, a 60km/h zone, a speed of…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure is expected to present a report to MPs detailing the work it has done over the past few years on land reform in the country. The department and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development were sent packing by MPs two weeks ago due to the fact that they were unprepared for their presentations. While the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development returned to the ad hoc committee on land expropriation last week to make its submissions, chairperson of the committee Mathole Motshekga said they were now ready for Public Works to brief MPs. He said the committee’s main objective was to finalise the bill on amendments to section 25 of the Constitution without delay. Motshekga…

Khotso KD Moleko | Mangaung, Bloemfontein THERE are many disgusting things that go unnoticed and unchallenged in South Africa, mainly because they are deemed unimportant for selling stories. But also because, in most cases, they involve the plight of black men who are taken for granted by the government who want to shine in the West. How dumbfounding it is when the disempowered black man, who was rendered landless and enslaved through colonialism and apartheid, is sacrificed for gender equality and women empowerment today. Surely this is a spiritual problem; when a government of black people sacrifices the economic standing and dignity of black men in order to empower women of all races? All this for what? So that the corrupt and incompetent ANC government must assure itself…

Ebrahim Essa | Durban MANY of my letters to the press and even in my book make great reference to my parents and my teachers, especially at primary level. Parents, especially my dad, as formally semi-literate as he was, taught me basic hygiene and often watched over me to make certain that I was definitely washing my hands thoroughly after visiting the toilet, touching the dirt bin, and definitely before touching any food. He pursued this until it became ingrained in me and my brothers. Alcohol and cigarettes were downright taboo – and not for any religious reasons. Dad never used religious dogma to teach us any moral lesson. Charity and honesty were to be practised for their own abstract reward, not to go to any heavenly…

AS THE economy builds again, we find many employers struggling with timeous payment of salaries. I’m receiving many queries from employees, trade unions and advisers telling me their monthly or weekly payments are often paid late, leading to all sorts of problems. Payment of a salary is governed by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) and is outlined under Section 32. The legislation prescribes that an employer must pay an employee any remuneration in South African currency, daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly and in cash or by direct deposit into an account designated by the employee. If the remuneration is paid in cash, it must be personally given to each employee at the workplace or at an agreed place. Payment must take place during working hours and in a…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za AN organisation making the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses come true is gearing up for its annual Slipper Day next month. Reach For A Dream is appealing to the public to assist by supporting its campaign on May 7. It is the foundation’s most anticipated and celebrated fund-raising campaign. A supporter sticker can be bought for R20 at selected retailers and special slippers for the occasion via its website. For the past 33 years, the non-profit organisation has assisted children from the ages of three to 18. This year, the foundation aims to fulfil 1 200 dreams. Marketing manager Roxanne Manuel said: “Due to the pandemic, Slipper Day had to be cancelled in 2020, leaving many dream children more isolated than ever before. These brave children…

A RECENT survey has revealed that 51.5% of children in South Africa have been cyberbullied. “The reason for this is the increase in connected societies. More and more people are online, especially the youth. There is clearly a lack of good cyber education and defensive tools,” said Digimune co-founder Simon Campbell- Young, who offered some safety tips. l Education is the first awareness step. Most children have access to online devices – either shared, or their own device - from a young age. By age 10, 30.5% of children have their own smartphone and 41.5% have access to a shared smartphone. It is thus imperative to take time to go about exploring defensive tools that can help protect you and your family. It’s important to know about them and to…

ON MONDAY as everyone was enjoying the Easter holiday, and some were driving home from the long weekend, Eskom sent out a strange press statement, trying to calm our collective nerves. The beleaguered state-owned power utility wanted to assure the public that the lights would remain on despite it losing a legal challenge against Oracle Corporation, one of the world’s largest software companies. At the heart of the legal dispute was an initial claim from Oracle, which is contracted to Eskom, that it had been underpaid by about R7.3 billion. Eskom disputed that amount and it was reduced to under R400 million. Now Eskom contends that the amount due to Oracle is only R166m, and it applied to the high court to prevent the software giant from ending its technical…

Minneapolis: A key witness in the trial of the police officer accused of murdering George Floyd sought yesterday to avoid giving evidence as his lawyers said he could incriminate himself on separate charges. Morries Hall, who was with Floyd in his car shortly before his death, is in custody and appeared by video camera at the hearing after he was subpoenaed to testify. Hall’s lawyers argued that it was impossible for him to be cross-examined without incriminating himself. Hall is seen as a potentially important witness for the defence of police officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen in a phone video kneeling on the neck of Floyd for more than nine minutes. Prosecutors are seeking to prove that Floyd’s death was due to asphyxiation. | AFP…

ZAAHIER ADAMS zaahier.adams@inl.co.za Kaizer Chiefs (0) 2 Castro 77, Ngcobo 85 Stellenbosch FC (0) 2 Sinkala 72, Nange 80 STELLENBOSCH’s inexperience at this level continued to haunt them yesterday in their Premiership clash against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium. Not for the first time this season Stellenbosch held the advantage against a much-more fancied outfit only to surrender the lead in the dying stages yet again. The visitors were ahead on two occasions in the final 20 minutes, but allowed Chiefs to comeback twice to steal a share of the points in the 2-2 draw. “It is an area that we have identified and we are not managing the last 10 minutes better. If we can improve that area it will be crucial because we have shown we can…