Innholdsfortegnelse for CA-2021-04-16 i Cape Argus

Debashine Thangevelo debashine.thangevelo@inl.co.za Judas and the Black Messiah is without a doubt Shaka King’s magnum opus. Inspired by true-life events, the movie looks at the betrayal of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. At 41, King, a former student of Spike Lee – he enlisted in a graduate film programme at New York University Tisch School of the Arts – does his mentor proud with his second feature film, which has received six nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards. King, who shares the screenplay credit with Will Berson, established himself as a producer, director and writer with several TV shows, short films and his feature film debut, Newlyweeds (2013). Reflecting on what drew him to Hampton’s story, King said: “Really, it was when I…

DA accused of using bullying tactics Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za The DA and its ward councillor Nicola Jowell have been accused of bullying tactics, after they allegedly insisted that a community walking initiative, called the Yellow Bib Campaign, by the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl Action Group, be called a DA initiative or else risk losing support. The group said the councillor and the City influenced the Ratepayers’ Association not to promote the initiative and refused to provide the members with law enforcement and yellow bibs, and the City’s Social Development personnel did not arrive, despite their commitment in writing, putting participants’ lives at risk. Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl Action Group chairperson Paul Jacobson said this inefficiency by the two had put the community in extreme danger, as they argued…

Samkelo Mtshali and Ntombi Nkosi With only two weeks remaining for ANC leaders charged with corruption and other serious charges to step aside, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has gone on a charm offensive, encouraging even the religious sector to assist the ruling party in maintaining stability. Magashule yesterday paid a visit to Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead to seek advice from the former head of state.He also revealed he was in consultation with the clergy as he sought guidance on the party’s step-aside rule. The sitting of the party’s regular National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved late last month that leaders facing corruption charges and other serious charges needed to step aside or face suspension. On his list of those he would consult, Magashule mentioned former presidents Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za FOREIGN buyers and Gautengers are snapping up R40-million-plus Cape properties despite what estate agents are calling a “weak luxury market”. The chairperson of the Seeff Property Group, Samuel Seeff, said the company achieved a record R1.7 billion in sales in March, the highest in the group’s 57-year history. Seeff said: “We have seen increased activity from foreign buyers at the high-end price levels and clinched the R45m sale of a penthouse at the Waterfront to a German buyer, the highest price achieved here in close to eight years. “Overall sales to foreign buyers across Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl are a whopping 36% higher compared with 2019, and are the highest in the past three years. Almost one-third of all high-value sales have…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za A NEW hotel, the Cresta Grande, opened its doors yesterday, bucking a trend that has seen a number of businesses in the hospitality trade close as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cresta Hotels group executive, Chipo Mandela, said the hotel, which has taken up the building that until recently housed the Holiday Inn on the corner of Loop and Strand streets, was aimed at leisure and business travellers in the four-star market. Asked whether opening a new hotel at this time was not a risk, Mandela said: “It is the desire to grow. We know that the pandemic is still with us, but we are not in it for the short term, we are taking a long-term view on our investment in Cape Town.…

Nomalanga Tshuma nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za ABOUT 500 Taiwan informal settlement fire victims are still waiting for the government to activate disaster relief support after their shacks were destroyed in a fire that tore through the settlement earlier this year. According to the Cape Metro Human Settlements Forum, the community has been waiting for months for the government to initiate disaster relief measures. Spokesperson Kholekile Mwahla said: “The people of Taiwan, in Site C, have been left in limbo. For months they have been waiting for the government departments to begin rebuilding their homes, only for the departments to start denying that money was ever allocated to help them, whilst there was R30 million allocated for their relief. The City appears unwilling to help alleviate the plight of the people of Taiwan. “The…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za The one area in which the Proteas have been consistent this season has been fielding – whatever the format, whoever the players, South Africa’s fielding has been consistently bad. They know it too, as does the coaching staff. “We try not to be so bad in the field,” remarked stand-in captain Heinrich Klaasen following Wednesday’s third T20 international defeat against Pakistan. “At training we are brilliant. I think it's guys maybe trying too hard and not being calm enough in the field. It is something we will address again. It’s been a trend that we have to get rid of.” In a historical context, it is incredible that Pakistan would be deemed a better fielding unit than the Proteas, but that has been the case both in…

Liverpool failed to overturn their first-leg collapse against Real Madrid, with a 0-0 draw at Anfield on Wednesday ensuring their exit from the Champions League, and manager Jurgen Klopp had no doubt where the blame lay. The deficit from the 3-1 defeat in Madrid could have been wiped out in the opening 20 minutes with the chances Klopp’s side created. Their first-leg performance gave them too much to do at Anfield, and their poor finishing wrecked any chance of a turnaround. “You always need the key moments. We didn’t lose the tie tonight, we lost in Madrid. It was uncomfortable for Madrid. We were good, aggressive, had chances,” he said. “We didn’t score, and then the experience of Real Madrid played the tie (out),” he said. Mohamed Salah missed early…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za While there is still a lot of uncertainty around the Rainbow Cup and South Africa’s part in the competition, one thing’s for sure – it is an opportunity for players to continue building their rugby repertoire. Despite the talks, SA Rugby president Mark Alexander earlier this week told Independent Media that the Rainbow Cup has not been cancelled and that South Africa are exploring every possible option to ensure the tournament happens. There have some reports stating that the quadrennial showpiece was set to be called off as the local teams wouldn’t be able to operate out of a bio-bubble in the UK. But SA still have hopes to partake in the competition, and if it happens, it’s another opportunity for those who showed some promise during…

Kedibone Modise kedibone.modise@inl.co.za After helping people feel good about themselves for close to two decades, beauty therapist Sue-Kelly Maneveld is planning to continue to spread her goodness – this time through music. Going by the moniker Shiny, this Cape Town-born star recently released her debut album, Medicine, which has been eight years in the making. “I recorded my first song eight years ago so it’s been a long time coming,” she explained. The 39-year old says she doesn’t want to be boxed into a genre and describes her sound as “poetic pop”. “I don’t want to be defined by a certain type of music. I love all sorts of music, if you listen to my album, it’s a mixture of all different types of music. “There’s a little bit of…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za THE death of a gay man, killed apparently because of his sexuality, has caused an outcry across the country, with a protest scheduled to take place today. The body of Andile “Lulu” Ntuthela, 40, from KwaNobuhle in the Eastern Cape, was found buried in a yard at a residence in Matana Street, on April 10. Regional police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu said a 28-year-old suspect was arrested after bloodstains were found in his home. The #JusticeForLulu campaign is gaining momentum – a clarion call for speedy justice after more recent killings of gay people. The protest is expected to start at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and finish at Parliament at noon today. Organiser Kamva Gwana said the protest was necessary because it demanded stronger actions…

Kristin Engel kristin.engel@inl.co.za THE SA National Zakah Fund (Sanzaf) is providing 1 million warm meals, 15 000 Ramadaan hampers and 27 000 Fitrah hampers to those in need across the country during Ramadaan. It has provided more than R10 million in food and aid across the country since the Covid-19 pandemic hit South African in March last year. While the organisation distributes food and aid throughout the year, the month of Ramadaan is particularly important as this project was started to ensure that no Muslim went hungry. “Despite the effects of Covid-19, social development and relief must continue and Sanzaf is doing its part by collaborating with over 150 mosques and small businesses throughout the country to see this project succeed,” said Sanzaf spokesperson Nazeer Vadia. Vadia said…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za CAPE Town’s Zip Zap Circus performers are all set to dazzle audiences with the launch of their first acrobatic art film on the weekend of April 24. To create a buzz about the film the acrobats spent most of Wednesday this week doing pop-up performances around the city centre. The performances were a return to public performances after a period of forced inactivity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Zip Zap spokesperson Roxy Mitchell said that with the easing of pandemic restrictions, audiences could expect more such performances as part the Central City Improvement District's (CCID) “Come Back To Town” campaign. “We plan to bring some magic back into the city centre. We’ve partnered with the CCID and this campaign is part of the CCID’s plans…

Kristin Engel kristin.engel@inl.co.za The annual Cableway Charity Challenge is going virtual, and aims to raise R1 million in funding to assist a number of charitable organisations. As many as 137 athletes are already participating in the nine-day challenge that began on April 10. The challenge urges locals in Cape Town to support and sponsor participants to do as many laps as possible up Platteklip Gorge, summiting Table Mountain and descending from the top using the cable car. To track their progress, participants are able to record their laps on the free-to-use mobile app, Strava. The organisations that will benefit from this fund-raiser include Wilderness Search and Rescue, Ons Plek (a child and youth care centre), Home from Home (an NPO which provides community-based foster homes in the Western Cape) and…

New York: As video calls are taking over people's work and personal lives amid the pandemic, new Stanford University research has found the feeling of exhaustion that comes from a day of back-to-back online meetings, also known as "Zoom fatigue", is greater for women than men. Researchers found that overall, one in seven women compared with one in 20 men reported feeling "very" to "extremely" fatigued after Zoom calls. What contributed most to the feeling of exhaustion among women was an increase in what social psychologists describe as "self-focused attention" triggered by the self-view in video conferencing, according to the study released on the Social Science Research Network. "Self-focused attention refers to a heightened awareness of how one comes across or how one appears in a conversation," said co-author of…

Mark Gurman Apple has been a laggard in the smart-home space, but a versatile new device in early development could change that. The company is working on a product that will combine an Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker and include a camera for video conferencing through a connected TV and other smart-home functions, according to people familiar with the matter. The device’s other capabilities would include standard Apple TV box functions like watching video and gaming plus smart speaker uses such as playing music and using Apple’s Siri digital assistant. If launched, it would represent Apple’s most ambitious smart-home hardware offering to date. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is also mulling the launch of a high-end speaker with a touch screen to better compete with market…

MIHLALI BALEKA @Mihlalibaleka The national Under-23 team’s 40-man provisional squad which coach David Notoane named for the Tokyo Olympics looks good on paper, but the odds are stacked against him to have every player available for the preparations and tournament. Take nothing away from the fact that this is still a provisional squad, meaning that 18 players will be cut when Notoane announces his final squad, which will have four travelling reserves, a few weeks before the Games. But the U23s’ last preparation camp in June, where he would have hoped to see all 40 players before choosing his final Olympic squad, might not go according to plan, given that Bafana Bafana will also be in camp, playing in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Notoane has selected seven overage players…

Italy’s Imola circuit provides a fresh challenge for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and young pretender Max Verstappen as the pair prepare for round two of their Formula One battle this weekend. The circuit, with the Santerno river running alongside and a verdant backdrop of trees and parkland, is a marked contrast to Bahrain’s desert Sakhir track that hosted the opener won by Mercedes’ Hamilton. The fast and flowing anti-clockwise layout is also narrower and bumpier than Bahrain, and with fewer opportunities to overtake, which means track position and strategy will play a bigger part. Red Bull’s Verstappen has started the last two races – Abu Dhabi at the end of last season and then Bahrain in March – on pole position, and the 23-year-old will be looking to complete…

ZIMBABWE Cricket (ZC) chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani says the eight-year ban handed to former national team all-rounder and coach Heath Streak for corruption is the sport’s darkest day in the country. The 47-year-old Streak admitted five breaches of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption code, and agreed to the sanction that was revealed on Wednesday. “This is a very sad and shameful episode that might well go down in history as the darkest day in Zimbabwean cricket,” Mukuhlani said in a statement. “Streak was a powerful figure adored by many and held up as an idol for future generations of cricketers. “But, as we and the rest of the world now know, Streak was also a corrupt, greedy and selfish character, who abused his status and position in pursuit of dirty…

Zaahier Adams zaahier.adams@inl.co.za South African swimming legend Penny Heyns is backing current local sensation Tatjana Schoenmaker to “spoil the American party” at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Schoenmaker is looking to emulate Heyns’ amazing achievements of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games when she won the both the 100m and 200m breaststroke gold medals. Heyns remains the only female breaststroke swimmer to ever achieve the unique Olympic double. The Americans, though, will be willing on 24-year-old Lilly King in Japan. King is the current 100m breaststroke OIympic champion and world record holder and is being widely tipped to do the “double” back home. “I really do hope that Tatjana spoils the American party,” Heyns said exclusively on the weekly IOL Sport Show. “In an interview I did a while back they almost…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za OPPOSITION parties in the province are not satisfied with Premier Alan Winde’s two-week suspension of Bonginkosi Madikizela from the executive council after revelations that he lied on his CV about a degree he didn’t have. Until his suspension, Madikizela was Transport and Public Works MEC. For the time being, Human Settlements MEC Tertius Simmers will act in his place. “I have taken the decision to suspend MEC Madikizela for 14 days, while an investigation determines all the facts. Once I have all the facts, I will make a final decision regarding Minister Madikizela and his role in my cabinet,” said Winde. Welcoming news of the suspension, the ANC called for the legislature’s Code of Conduct Committee to launch an inquiry into Madikizela’s behaviour. Cameron Dugmore, leader…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za THE police are investigating the murder of a passenger who was shot and killed inside a minibus taxi in Site C, Khayelitsha, leaving other passengers in shock. Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said an unknown male passenger was shot and killed inside a taxi in Lansdowne Road in BT Block Khayelitsha by unknown suspects at about 3.10pm on Wednesday. Traut said that after the incident, the suspects fled on foot. He said the circumstances were being investigated and the suspects had yet to be arrested. SA National Taxi Council provincial spokesperson Gershon Geyer said it had come to their attention that the shooting was between two passengers. He condemned any form of violence in the taxi industry. Khayelitsha Community Policing Forum (CPF) provincial chairperson Fransina Lukas said…

Rodrigues Chief executive – Biodx | Johannesburg THIS month celebrates freedom, but what exactly does freedom mean to you? Dictionary definitions say: Having the ability to act or change without constraint, the freedom to do things that won’t in theory or in practice, be prevented by other forces. So if you have the freedom to do things that won’t be prevented by other forces then the following lines from our Constitution make it all the more puzzling why 24 years after it was written, fresh, clean water is still not available to everyone. Chapter 2 of the Constitution of South Africa provides that: “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water.” The purpose of this act is to provide for the right to basic…

THERE are more than 723 000 people aged 18 to 35 that are unable to find work as the youth unemployment rate rose to 61.3% in the final quarter of 2020. The future of South Africa is unemployed and confined to their homes, turning to drugs, alcohol and gang violence as they struggle to support themselves and their families. To create lasting change to combat this, we need to provide more opportunities for youth to gain the vocational and personal skills needed to find work or start their own businesses. The Amy Foundation, formerly the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, was started in 1997 to continue the work of Amy Biehl, a brilliant young woman who dedicated her life to empowering and giving a voice to the people of South Africa.…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za EVEN though South Africa has vaccinated 500 000 health-care workers using the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine, with no blood clots registered as side-effects, pausing the vaccinations was the ethical thing to do, according to the provincial head of Health Dr Keith Cloete. Speaking during Premier Alan Winde’s regular weekly digicon, Dr Cloete said: “We understand such decisions have big implications for trust in the vaccine and create a disruption of the programme, but weighing all of these things up, we have to understand the reason behind the pause. “The big issue is that the J&J vaccine in this country has been made available through the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) for trial conditions and, as such, we are bound by ethics to be…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za CALLS are mounting for fraud and corruption-accused provincial ANC local government spokesperson Danville Smith to resign after his recent appearance in the Bellville specialised commercial crimes court. Smith’s court date came in the wake of a long-running Hawks investigation into irregularities at the Ceder- berg municipality where he served as Speaker until 2016. The investigation report alleges that Smith was involved in various corruption scandals, but Smith has denied the allegations. Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said: “The investigation is still ongoing. The matter has been remanded to May 19. Smith has been released on a warning.” Smith said: “This matter is in the public now after it was leaked by an opportunist in a deliberate attempt to damage my character. Meanwhile, this case will give…

SINGAPORE: Facebook has signed a deal to buy renewable energy in India from a local firm’s wind power project, the social media giant’s first such deal in the South Asian nation, the companies said on Thursday. The 32 megawatt wind power project, located in southern Karnataka state, is part of a larger portfolio of wind and solar projects that Facebook and Mumbai-based CleanMax are working together on for supplying renewable power into India’s electrical grid, they said in a joint statement. CleanMax will own and operate the projects, while Facebook will buy the power off the grid using environmental attribute certificates, or carbon credits, the companies said. Facebook’s head of renewable energy, Urvi Parekh, told Reuters the company typically doesn’t own the power plants but instead signs “long-term” electricity purchasing…

California: Tech giant Google has announced new features coming to Google Assistant yesterday, and the most essential feature is finding your lost iPhone. According to Mashable, for some time, iPhone users have been able to find their smartphones using the Find My service. To help find your lost iPhone, Siri integration is also on board, so you can just ask the assistant where your iPhone is and it will ping your device with an audible notification which even bypasses “Do Not Disturb”, even if it is enabled. The exact same feature is coming to Google Assistant, according to Google. In a blog post, Lilian Rincon, senior director of product management for Google Assistant, Rincon stated: “You can tell your Nest smart speaker or smart display, ‘Hey Google, find my phone,’…

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola wants even more success after his team reached the last four of the Champions League for only the second time with a 2-1 win at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday. The Spaniard, who has not won the trophy since his time at Barcelona 10 years ago, led City to quarter-final defeat in the last three seasons, and had said that another unsuccessful attempt to reach the last four would make him a “failure”. Guardiola was also unable to win the top European club title in his three years at Bayern Munich from 2013-16. “It feels incredible. This is the second time we have got to the semi-finals, so there is not much history for our club here,” he said after reaching the last four for the…

Empty stands have been the new normal for tennis since last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but top players like Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic say they still find it difficult to maintain their intensity during matches in the absence of fans. The professional circuit was shut down for several months last year before tournament organisers set up “biosecure bubbles” for players and support staff, while keeping fans away from stadiums. Barring the swing in Australia in February, tournaments continue to be played in front of a handful of fans at most. Nadal lost some of his intensity during Wednesday’s 6-1, 6-2 win over Argentine Federico Delbonis at the Monte Carlo Masters, and the Spaniard was in no doubt the absence of fans took something away from the game. “It’s…