Innholdsfortegnelse for CA-2021-04-20 i Cape Argus

Sonia Rao Imperiled, then postponed, the 93rd Academy Awards are finally set to take place this month – on April 25. Not many know what to expect, save for the dissonance of glitz and glamour against the backdrop of a world decimated by illness and economic downturn. Perhaps the Oscars will serve as a reprieve; they are, after all, the most extravagant of award shows. Sceptics wonder whether they’re worth the big to-do. Now tack on to this the logistical nightmare of organising the show during a pandemic and the telecast’s declining ratings. Several Hollywood insiders noted that the Academy Awards still serve a few explicit purposes. There’s the honour of peer recognition. But the Oscars are also a moneymaker for studios to leverage prestige to boost ticket sales…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za THE governing party has been warned that it could find itself facing an internal revolt when members who have to vacate their positions because of the step-aside resolution refuse to abide by the decision. Xolani Dube, a political analyst from the Xubera Institute for Research and Development, says the resolution has been drafted in such a way that it is unenforceable. Dube’s warning comes as supporters of corruption-indicted Zandile Gumede, the former eThekwini mayor and KZN legislature MPL, yesterday told her to stay put. Gumede’s supporters say that she has suffered enough and point out that she was cleared by the KZN provincial integrity commission to resume her party duties. The senior KZN leaders and 20 others are facing corruption, money laundering and fraud charges emanating…

Cllr Yagyah Adams | Cape Muslim Congress AFGHANISTAN has once again proved to be a graveyard for an empire. Three modern empires have failed to conquer Afghanistan, land of the mythical Pathan people. Since my paternal ancestry is Pathan, what transpires in my ancestral homeland, matters. The US is exiting Afghanistan after twenty years, its longest war that cost trillions of dollars. More than 2 000 Americans were killed and at least 100 000 Afghan civilians were injured or killed. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in America, Osama bin Laden, a former CIA operative, and al-Qaeda leader, was blamed. The Taliban, who governed Afghanistan and protected Bin Laden, refused to give Bin Laden to the US based on a lack of evidence and the arrogant way in…

ORGANISED charity, begging, handouts, special government grants during emergencies like Covid and normal government grants for the elderly, infirm and disabled, all collectively boggle and confuse the average mind. Mainly for two reasons – greed and dishonesty. Donating to well-known, established organisations is the least problematic. Many of these traditionally take care of the deaf and blind who should be taken care of completely by the government. Some well-known agencies go out of their way, risking life and limb. They and many others certainly deserve full support from both private people and the government. Unfortunately, of late more and more charitable institutions have sprung up and not all of them can be checked for authenticity. The main subject of this letter is not organisations that formally ask for help, but…

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za POLICE are investigating the murder, and alleged rape, of a 22-year-old gay man after his body was found with stab wounds in Mau-Mau, Nyanga East, on Sunday. Lonwabo Jack was apparently killed on his birthday, after he had gone out with friends. His killing follows a protest by the LGBTQIA+ community on Friday at Parliament, demanding that the government take tangible action to stem the escalating number of hate crimes against gay people in South Africa. Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said the circumstances surrounding the incident were being investigated and no arrests had been made yet. Rwexana said allegations of rape formed part of the investigation. Lonwabo’s father, Mzwabantu, said the family had last seen him on Saturday, his birthday. He said the family believed that…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za THE National Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) have challenged ANC veteran and businessman Tokyo Sexwale to provide them with proof that he deposited billions of rand with the central bank. Sexwale made the claims on eNCA talk show Truth to Power hosted by JJ Tabane on Sunday night. During the interview, Sexwale indicated that he had raised billions of rand and that the funds were channelled to the central bank in 2016. He also alleged that former president Jacob Zuma and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa were aware of the funds, saying it was for those reasons that Zuma had announced free education during the first day of the ANC elective conference in December 2017. Sexwale also said that the funds were meant to assist…

THE Cape Town-based Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), an activist organisation and law centre for the poor, spearheaded a petition campaign with 28 civil society organisations for rental relief. The petition called on Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu to honour her commitment for rental relief (“Why hasn’t promised R600m for tenant rental relief been paid out,” Daily News, April 6, 2021). Last week, NU ramped up the campaign after Sisulu’s spokesperson, Steve Motale, told GroundUp that during the budget vote, Sisulu “did not promise” but was merely detailing plans to submit to the Treasury and National Command Council. Was it merely a plan intended for Treasury and the National Command Council or did the minister make such a promise, or did NU and other organisations misinterpret her good intentions? On July…

THE NAVEL-gazing at the ANC’s Luthuli House is fast having far-reaching ramifications for the country. By now South Africans have come to realise that when the ANC sneezes, the whole country catches pneumonia. After all, the 109-year-old liberation-turned-political party is the government of the day. Since coming to power in 1994 the party has not known peace. The party of John Langalibalele Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Reginald Tambo and Nelson Mandela has been reduced to a battle ground. The once-glorious movement, unbanned by the erstwhile apartheid government in 1990, was voted in overwhelmingly by the majority of South Africans in the first democratic elections on April 27, 1994. From the onset, what looked like a fight between those from exile and those who remained fighting apartheid…

Sleeping by their makeshift barricades, knots of young men at Tahan in the western Myanmar town of Kale had not expected an attack in the pre-dawn darkness. Armed with a few hunting guns made by village blacksmiths, catapults, some airguns and Molotov cocktails, they were no match for forces hardened by decades of conflict and equipped with combat weapons. The first barrage of shots and rocket propelled grenades from Myanmar’s army, known as the Tatmadaw, came at around 5am on April 7, the protesters and residents of Kale said. By evening, the one-sided battle was over, and 13 people were dead, three people involved with the armed group said. “So many people on our side were wounded that we … had to retreat,” Aung Myat Thu, one 20-year-old protester in…

SYDNEY: Australia and New Zealand have agreed to a quarantine-free travel bubble between the two countries, which opened yesterday. According to the BBC, the trans-Tasman bubble comes more than a year after New Zealand’s borders were closed due to the global pandemic and both nations contained their Covid-19 outbreaks to keep infection rates low. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison agreed that the travel bubble will stay intact, provided both countries keep their Covid-19 outbreaks under control. The two nations closed their borders in March 2020 and introduced strict quarantine measures for returning nationals. | African News Agency (ANA)…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za Stormers coach John Dobson says having the calibre of players like Steven Kitshoff and Salmaan Moerat leading the team “will provide a rock-solid foundation” for the Stormers going forward. Kitshoff, who signed a contract extension with Western Province Professional Rugby for three more years, has led the team regularly and has been appointed Stormers captain, with Moerat vice-captain. “Steven is a world-class player on top of his game who has the respect of everyone in the rugby world. To have a person of his calibre and deep connection to this team as our talisman going forward is immense,” Dobson said. “‘Both Steven and Salmaan are proud products of our youth system and are inspirational figures both in our squad and for our faithful supporters. Their decision to…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za South Africa’s cricketers have apologised to the sport’s sponsors for the actions of Cricket SA’s administrators, saying officials have “undermined and betrayed your commitment to the sport”. In a statement released through the SA Cricketers’ Association – the players’ union – and signed by Saca president Khaya Zondo, and the three Proteas captains, Dané van Niekerk, Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma, the players also admonished CSA’s Members’ Council for not acting in the best interests of the sport in SA. Players around the country are understood to be very concerned following Sunday’s pronouncement by Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa that he could ban CSA as the official governing entity for cricket, thus jeopardising the players’ opportunity to represent South Africa. Yesterday’s statement outlines how government intervention would…

For the Springboks, the build-up to the British & Irish Lions Series has had its fair share of hiccups. There have been the logistical issues, which have since been sorted with the confirmation that the Lions will in fact be touring South Africa. There is the ongoing push to have fans in attendance. And most recently, the talks of the Rainbow Cup not going ahead as planned with SA Super teams emerged as a stumbling block. But there have also been some positives, one of which being the recent performances of some overseas-based South Africans. And Dillyn Leyds has shone. The former Stormers fullback continued his solid form for French Top 14 side La Rochelle at the weekend as he scored a stunning try in an impressive 80-minute performance. It…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za THE second week of interviews for the country's top courts was dominated by questions about judges’ temperaments, transformation and issues at the tax courts. The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) set its task of interviewing dozens of candidates for a second week yesterday. It recommended Judge Roland Sutherland to be appointed as deputy judge president (DJP) for Gauteng, a division with the most demanding case load. Judge Sutherland was the only candidate to stand for the role. He has been a judge since 2012 and has acted in the DJP role since 2019. In his most notable case recently, he denied former Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku's bid to challenge a Special Investigating Unit PPE probe against him. .Commissioner Thamsanqa Dodovu questioned Judge Sutherland as to whether…

THE word this week is “esoteric”, levelled at my column by an occasional reader. Let me respond by providing synonyms (words that mean more or less the same as) for esoteric: abstruse, arcane, cryptic, mystical, cabalistic, deep, heavy, hermetic, hidden, unfathomable, incomprehensible, recondite, enigmatic and ending with the worst one for me personally: vague. May I also point out that esotericism is accepted as a notion in a western context that cannot be proven to exist using exoteric or scientific methodology. It can only be identified and defined as acts of obfuscation for elitist or exclusivist purposes. For example, a medical doctor might say to a colleague: The patient evinces a pathology of discomfort in the northern hemisphere of his epigastrium. What the patient had, in fact, said was: I…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za HIGHER Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande said National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding has increased from R5.9 billion in 2014 to R34.7bn last year. He said in the current financial year NSFAS funding was expected to reach over R43bn, a further increase of close to R10bn in just two years from 2020. Nzimande said there had been a significant increase in the number of students and an increased budget allocation by the government to fund the children of the poor and the working class through the NSFAS. He said that was in line with the government’s commitment to fund university and TVET college students from poor and working-class backgrounds to attain at least the first undergraduate qualification or a TVET college qualification. “From 2018…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za A VREDEHOEK resident described how he had caught the man arrested in connection with the Table Mountain blaze, which wreaked havoc across the City. Yazeed Evans said, while having dinner with his family at their Devils Peak Estate residence on Saturday evening, he could see flames at the top of Table Mountain. With his son and two dogs, Evans went to investigate what was happening. Prior to leaving his home, he alerted the fire brigade and police to the incident. At Table Mountain, about a kilometre away, they found a man in the bushes, near the flames. The man was found above Philip Kgosana Drive, above the highway. “The flames were really starting to get big. They were probably six to eight meters high. I had my…

Dr Felicity Coughlan IT IS easy for middle- and upper-class South Africans with access to schools that can accommodate social distancing and Covid-19 protocols to begin to believe that, on the whole, except for the inconveniences of screening, masks and sanitation, education is returning to normal. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us with means are called to focus on the cost – the long-term cost and impact – to children in South Africa. It is not dramatic to say that “regular” schooling has yet to resume for most children. While schools and educators are doing the best they can, often with limited resources, many children, including those in reasonably well-resourced public schools, are still attending school on a rotation basis instead of full-time, because of…

Government’s agenda is on course to deny ownership to most vulnerable in society Melusi Ncala and Mashudu Masutha SOUTH Africa’s land reform and restoration system has proven, nearly three decades after apartheid ended, to be spectacularly ineffective and untrustworthy. The reasons are corruption, incompetence, and failure to adhere to the Constitutional requirements – and we must demand an end to this unacceptable situation. Land remains an emotive fault line in South Africa. Post-apartheid South Africa has unsuccessfully fiddled with land reform, through legal and politically charged principles of tenure, redistribution and restitution. Add to this failure a land governance regime blighted by corruption, and the frustration and impatience of those affected become clear. The recent legislative amendments throughout the South African land reform space have also failed to…

Eleven Pakistani police officers seized by supporters of a radical Islamist group campaigning to get the French ambassador expelled have been released, officials said yesterday. The officers were grabbed and taken as hostages during the latest violent clashes between police and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protesters in Lahore. A video circulating on social media, confirmed by a police source, showed some of them bloodied and bruised, with bandages around their heads. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the hostages had been released after talks with the TLP, which the government banned last week after effectively labelling it a terrorist organisation. “Negotiations have been started with TLP; the first round completed successfully,” said Rashid. Lahore police said one of the hostages was a ranger from the country’s paramilitary force. The officers had…

UN human rights experts have rejected a review commissioned by Britain’s government into race inequality as a bid to “normalise white supremacy despite considerable research and evidence of institutional racism”. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, issued on March 31, said Britain should be seen as a “model for other white-majority countries” – a conclusion that provoked fury from domestic critics who branded it a “whitewash”. “In 2021, it is stunning to read a report on race and ethnicity that repackages racist tropes and stereotypes into fact, twisting data and misapplying statistics and studies into conclusory findings and ad hominem attacks on people of African descent,” the UN working group of experts on people of African descent said. “The suggestion that family structure, rather than institutionalised and structural…

NEVER MIND THE PREMIER LEAGUE... Twelve of Europe's top football clubs announced late on Sunday that they were launching a breakaway Super League in the face of widespread opposition from within the game and beyond. WEST HAM SUDDENLY HAVE SOMETHING TO LOSE In the build-up to their away trip to Newcastle United on Saturday, West Ham United were finally being talked about not as imposters but the real deal for a top-four finish. Victory at Newcastle would have put them third with five games left to play and piled the pressure on the likes of Leicester City, Chelsea and Liverpool. But with something incredible seemingly within touching distance, the wheels came off as five calamitous minutes cost them in a 3-2 defeat. An own goal by Issa Diop, a red…

Laura Robinson THE Cape Town Heritage Trust is devastated to learn about the terrible mountain fire that has destroyed a large part of the cultural landscape of the Rhodes Estate, the historic tea room next to the Rhodes Memorial, several buildings on the main campus including the Jagger Library with its internationally significant collection of historic archival documents and books, and the Fuller Hall residence. As I write this, our office is enveloped in a pall of smoke and the sun is almost invisible. Other buildings that have been destroyed include Mostert’s Mill, the historic windmill that was the only restored working windmill in the country, a historic house, Cadboll, that served as student accommodation, and several other historic buildings. Updates on the fire damage continue to stream in. It…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za THE standing committee on cultural affairs and sport wants clarity from the provincial department on how R12.9 million, currently being distributed to various sport federations across the province was determined. Committee chairperson Reagen Allen said: “We welcome the R12.9 million currently being distributed to various sport federations across the province whilst the national department struggles to account for R300 million worth of funds meant for the industry role-players affected by lockdown.” Allen said he was curious from an oversight and accountability perspective, about how the allocations were determined and the effect that this funding will have on the sector in the province and would be writing to MEC Anroux Marais for answers. Last week, MEC Marais handed over four of six cheques that make up the…

Colin Bosman | Newlands HAVING just finished reading criminologist Mark Shaws new book entitled Give us more guns, it is an absolute revelation to finally understand where the problem of illicit guns on the Cape Flats actually lies. It appears that it is not in fact a handful of privately-owned stolen firearms that are fuelling the shootings on the Cape Flats, but the very system that is mandated to protect society that’s to blame. The system has failed. The gun registry, although in a mess, is not entirely to blame. The continued bleating by Gunfree SA is partially to blame, by them incorrectly pointing the finger at private gun ownership as being the source of the problem. As we now know, private gun ownership was never part of…

Asanda Madikane, Latita Development Trust | Qonce (King William’s Town) THE WINTER season is approaching, and the state of school infrastructure in South Africa is alarmingly poor. Poor families face the same dilemma every winter: to provide heat or food? If you add to that the need for winter school uniforms to keep the kids warm while they are away from home, studying, this becomes a three-way deadlock. Just like those parents or guardians, we are faced with a choice: either glorify the magnitude of the problem at the start of each academic year or propose practical solutions. The Competition Commission intervenes to regulate fair competitive behaviour and enforces guidelines, such as the accessibility of school uniforms through competitive and trans-bidding measures. However, the anti-competitiveness in the textile and…

TWO bottom outlets (BOs) of Ethiopia’s controversial Gerd dam have gone operational, a senior government official revealed over the weekend. They are believed to be on a test run after work on them were completed recently. Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Seleshi Bekele on Sunday announced that the BOs that release water to downstream countries along the River Nile have been completed, tested and become operational. According to Bekele, the two BOs have a capacity of passing the entire annual flow of the Abbay River in a year, providing assurances of water to downstream countries without fear of interruptions. Seleshi said Gerd removes flood risk in Sudan such as the one that occurred last season, prevents loss of water in flood plains, ensuring that the dam does not harm…

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za DESPITE the public outcry in January regarding the derelict City-owned land adjacent to the Johnston Road Cemetery, the cemetery board said the City has done nothing to secure the area or remove the illegal dwellers. The group of vagrants are allegedly using the planks supporting graves as firewood, and have been defecating and sleeping inside the cemetery. The board said it now has to contend with the “expensive and expansive responsibility” of acquiring land, while still faced with great levels of vandalism and criminality – without support from the authorities. Concerned resident Salima Modack said the number of illegal dwellers had increased exponentially. “Repeated calls for feedback from the City are met with the usual silence and protracted assurances of co- operation. “Crime in the area,…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za THE Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has extended the Basic Education Employment Initiative until the end of this month. It was scheduled to end on March 31. Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said over the past few months, 19 011 young people had been working in provincial schools as education assistants or general school assistants as part of the national Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI). Schäfer said education assistants supported teachers by carrying out administrative tasks, classroom management, sports coaching and cultural activities, while general school assistants helped with maintenance, cleaning, vegetable gardens, and general administration. She said despite the very short notice given when the initiative was announced by the Department of Basic Education, the WCED had managed to appoint nearly all of the assistants with…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za GAUTENG Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said yesterday that his reputation has been damaged because of allegations that he had held a secret tender meeting. The City Press had reported on April 4 that Lesufi had been recorded in a meeting, appearing to promise to fix tender issues experienced by certain people. The meeting where the recording took place was held in Tshwane, the newspaper said. The newspaper has since retracted the story and issued an apology to Lesufi. “City Press would like to apologise to Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi. City Press retracts the allegation that the meeting was a secret,” read the newspaper’s apology . The newspaper went on to explain that the meeting was held last year and not this year, as previously stated. “City…

Staff Reporter The International Peace and Youth Group (IPYG), an international NGO that fosters peace initiatives around the world, has invited South African learners to enter the IPYG Essay Writing Competition. The competition is open to Cape Town scholars between the ages of 12 and 19. Those under 18 should have the entry filled in by a legal guardian. Themed,“The Value of Education”, the competition wants to hear stories from scholars about their challenges and experiences of schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it has affected their outlook. Submissions can be emailed or Whatsapped to sa@ipyg.org or +27 68 1 51 7 735 Rules: ■ Essays should not exceed the word limits of their categories. ■ Essays should be typed or handwritten legibly, or in special…

Sarah-Jane Lennie WHEN you are a police officer, your emotions have to be hidden or pushed down. Officers work hard to detach themselves from their emotions as a way to cope in a culture that has an expectation of silence in the face of trauma. This culture contributes to the increase in mental health issues in police officers and staff. I should know. Policing is in my blood. I was a police officer for 18 years. I am a child of two police officers and my husband is a police officer. My dream was to become a detective chief Inspector, running murder enquiries. I made it to detective inspector. But then my world – and my mental health – came crashing down. I was constantly reliving my investigations in…

BALTIORE: More people were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the past seven days than any other week since the start of the pandemic – topping 5.2 million globally – with the worst outbreaks accelerating in many countries that are ill-equipped to deal with them. This comes days after the world surpassed 3 million deaths, with countries rolling out vaccinations. The data from Johns Hopkins University showing a 12% increase in infections from a week earlier casts doubt on the hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight. While infection rates have slowed in the US and UK, India and Brazil in particular are shouldering surging caseloads. Global atalities have increased for the past month and were about 82 000 last week, an average of almost 12 000 a…

MADRID television broadcasters won't break their contracts with Uefa and national leagues to join the breakaway European Super League project, the head of Spanish media company Mediapro said yesterday as furious fans also slammed the move. Jaume Roures, whose company broadcasts matches from Spanish top-flight La Liga and holds the TV licensing rights of the Uefa Champions League in the country, said he believed the new competition would not succeed. "International TV broadcasters have contracts (with Uefa) until 2024, nobody is going to break those contracts now. The only thing that the current move does is to create unease," Roures said. "It won't succeed. There is no other way out." "I think it is more despicable, it is more of a greedy power grab than we ever expected, and they…

Darren Keet Zaahier Adams zaahier.adams@inl.co.za Cape Town City confirmed the departure of their Dutch goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburgh to Eredivisie side FC Groningen last week. However, Leeuwenburgh will play out the season, giving City sufficient time to find a suitable replacement. Here we scout the land to find five possible replacements who could fill Leeuwenburgh's immense presence in goal for the Citizens. The former Bafana Bafana No 1 has seen a move to the Major Soccer League in the US fall through in recent weeks due to the travel restrictions imposed because of Covid-19 and is eager to restart his career in the DStv Premiership. Independent Media understands that Keet is top of The Citizens' shopping list due to the 31-year-old currently being a free agent and based in the Mother…