Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021-08-02 i Cape Argus

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za PARLIAMENT’S portfolio committee on police as well as police unions have slammed the structure of the police service, saying its top-heavy structure was unsustainable and impeded operational requirements on the ground. They said that an effective and agile police service required adequate human resources, especially at the police station level, to render services to the public. This came in the wake of the police’s inability to prevent widespread looting and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma. Last week the committee, as part of its oversight role grilled police management on stability and restructuring. Committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson said that for policing to be effective, the institution needed to be stable from its senior management level. Leon Rabie, the police’s…

Nomalanga Tshuma nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za POLICE are investigating a string of separate murders in different areas across Cape Town over the past weekend. In Scottsdene, Kraaifontein, a 20-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded, while two other people, including a9-year-old girl, were shot and injured in an incident believed to be related to the ongoing gang violence in the community. Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said that on Friday afternoon a 20-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded, while two other people, a 9-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman, were shot and wounded in a violent incident believed to be linked to gangs in Scottsdene. “Kraaifontein police are investigating a case of murder and two attempted murder cases following a shooting incident at Ashley Court, Park Avenue, Scottsdene, Kraaifontein. “A young man…

Ntando Makhubu ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za POLICE are searching for a doctor who allegedly raped women at two different Pretoria hospitals, while civil rights organisations have called on hospitals and other health professionals to safeguard women in their care. After opening a case against the man, police said he had disappeared, and have asked anyone who knew him or of his whereabouts to assist in his apprehension. “A case has been opened against him at the Pretoria Central police station, for rape, but we cannot find him,” police said yesterday. The case involves a gynaecologist hired by a doctor to examine patients at rooms at Louis Pasteur hospital. He is alleged to have raped a patient when she went for an examination in July. The same gynaecologist is alleged to have raped…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za THE South African TV and film industry was struck with a huge blow on Friday when Ferguson Films confirmed in a statement that media mogul Shona “Uncle Sho” Ferguson had died due to Covid-19-related complications. The 47-year-old award-winning star died in hospital in Joburg. Following the eminent producer’s passing, social media was flooded with tributes from industry colleagues, friends and fans. But the most heartbreaking tribute came from the star’s other half and business partner, Connie Ferguson. On what would have been the 20th anniversary of their meeting each other on Saturday, Connie wrote to her husband: “You and I will meet again when God decides it’s time. In the meantime, you live on in our hearts. You’ve owned my heart from the day we met 20…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za CIVIL society organisations widely welcomed the return of the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant, but the focus has now moved to whether the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) will be able to deliver it. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week that the grant would be reintroduced, and paid out until March next year. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said R27 billion had been allocated for the reintroduction of the grant, which was introduced in March last year. The monthly grant had benefited more than five million unemployed individuals. There were concerns about how the Department of Social Development and Sassa had paid out the grant and the extensive application process. Long lines were seen outside post offices as citizens sought to receive their payments. A study,…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@iinl.co.za ANALYSTS say suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule will do everything he can to save his political career within the ANC. This was the opinion of legal expert Nthabiseng Dubazane and political analyst Professor Tinyiko Maluleke in reaction to Magashule’s notice to appeal against the Gauteng High Court judgment that upheld his suspension. About two months ago, Magashule approached the courts in an attempt to set aside his suspension and to have the ANC’s “step-aside regime” declared unconstitutional. This court bid was, however, dismissed with costs, but a defiant Magashule remains determined to hold onto his position within the ruling party. Commenting on the matter, Dubazane said when a rule had been in place and an employee ought to have knowledge of it, then the individual can be…

The Op-Ed by Basil Nagel (Cape Argus 27 July) refers: The point I made during the interview in question is a position that I have consistently held over many years, and have previously tabled in meetings and in public. Mr Nagel is one of several role-players who share this sentiment – however, it is not possible for all of them to take that position publicly. I agree with him that the problem sits with the National Land Transportation Act (NLTA), but I do wish to point out that this is national legislation and not something that the provincial government or the City can amend. On the enforcement side, I will say that this municipality is achieving something that no other municipality in the country is attempting to do, and…

Nicola Deghaye South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out programme got off to a shaky start in February 2021. It encountered a number of setbacks such as supply, logistics and governance issues, but has gained momentum in recent weeks. As many as 200 000 doses are being administered daily. By the end of July 2021, almost 2.9% of the South African population had been fully vaccinated and 7.5% had their first of the two Pfizer doses. Despite this uptake, many South Africans are still hesitant to take the vaccine. The circulation of misinformation about it poses the danger of hampering efforts to control the pandemic. In this article, we aim to dispel some of the myths surrounding the Covid-19 vaccines. Myth 1: The Covid-19 vaccine will affect a woman’s fertility This…

Afghan forces fought fierce street battles and bombed Taliban positions yesterday while insurgents swarmed major cities as they stepped up their nationwide offensive. Hundreds of commandos were deployed to the western city of Herat while authorities in the southern city of Lashkar Gah called for more troops to rein in the assaults even as Afghan air strikes left scores dead on the streets, residents said. Fighting has surged across Afghanistan since early May when US-led foreign forces began a final withdrawal that is now almost complete. After seizing large tracts of rural territory and capturing key border crossings, the Taliban have started assaulting provincial capitals. Flights out of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and the former stronghold of the insurgents, were suspended yesterday after two rockets hit the runway before dawn.…

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday denounced the painting of swastikas on a synagogue near Tel Aviv, calling it a “grave act of hatred”. Police said they had opened an investigation into the “suspected spraying of swastikas on the walls of two synagogues in the city of Bnei Brak” on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. “The vandalism at a synagogue in Bnei Brak is a very grave act of hatred and incitement,” Bennett said. “The police will deal with the criminals to the fullest extent of the law,” he added. Rabbi Asher Landau of the Young Israel synagogue told AFP that members of the congregation found swastikas sprayed on two doors of the place of worship on Saturday morning.…

Ashfak Mohamed ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za AKANI Simbine refused to blame a false start and disrupted preparations due to Covid-19 for missing out on a medal yet again in a 100 metres final at a major championship yesterday. Simbine qualified for the Tokyo Olympics final as one of the “fastest losers” from the semi-finals earlier in the day, with a quick time of 9.90 seconds as China’s Bingtian Su surprised everybody with a scorching 9.83sec to win the race. But then there was drama at the beginning of the final when Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for a false start – just like his compatriot Linford Christie at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Simbine was in lane two and Hughes in lane four, so the pressure would have been ramped up for the…

BRAVE NEW WORLD, M-NET, DSTV CHANNEL 101, 10.30PM A sci-fi drama series based on Aldous Huxley’s novel. THE EQUALIZER, M-NET CITY, DSTV CHANNEL 115, 8.50PM Robyn McCall, an enigmatic former CIA operative who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. She helps Jewel, who is on the run from criminals who framed her. LAW OF THE HEART 2, TELEMUNDO, DSTV CHANNEL 118, 9PM The judge puts Elías under house arrest. Meanwhile, Santiago and Emilia’s taxi driver alerts the police to their suspicious behaviour.…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za THIRTY-EIGHT schools across the Western Cape were affected by burglaries, attempted burglaries or vandalism during the July school holidays, according to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). The department said items reportedly stolen included sports equipment, gardening and maintenance equipment, fencing, building fixtures, lighting and electrical cables, IT equipment, stationery, kitchen equipment, and food for school meals. “I am extremely disappointed that our schools have once again been targeted by ruthless criminals while closed for the holidays. Our schools are already operating in difficult circumstances, and the last thing they need is to be further disrupted by damages and theft,” said Education MEC Debbie Schäfer. “In some cases, wanton vandalism appears to be the motive – instead of stealing anything, the perpetrators simply destroy anything, from furniture…

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has demanded that the City and provincial authorities provide proof that they were working to stop the ongoing sewage pollution in the Milnerton Lagoon. The organisation also demanded to know what the provincial and national authorities were doing to ensure the City’s compliance to a directive – to remedy the state of the Diep River and Milnerton Lagoon – which was issued in September last year. Outa senior legal project manager Andrea Korff said the organisation believed the ongoing sewage spills meant the City had not done enough to ensure compliance with the directive and protect the water system, while the provincial government had failed to oversee compliance adequately. “While progress has been made, the ongoing high level of sewage…

Gauteng’s acting Community Safety Department head Sipho Thanjekwayo, who died from Covid-19 complications, has been hailed for leading the fight against crime in the province. Gauteng Premier David Makhura described Thanjekwayo as a consummate professional and an exemplary public servant. “We are truly saddened by Mr Thanjekwayo’s untimely passing. He served with dedication and passion in all the programmes he led and implemented. He leaves behind an indelible footprint in the Gauteng provincial government,” Makhura said, extending condolences to Thanjekwayo’s family, friends and colleagues. The province said in a statement that Thanjekwayo died last week due to Covid-19 complications. Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko said the safety and security fraternity in Gauteng would miss his input in ensuring a safer environment for communities. “His selfless contribution in bettering the…

Gogo Cynthia | Camps Bay THE pall over our nation hangs heavily upon us. Our recent plunge into anarchy and mayhem seems surreal. How could this have happened so suddenly, and how could such suffering and devastation be inflicted by brother on brother? So many questions remain unanswered, however, one factor remains clear; violence begets violence and this is no way to resolve problems. Our relief at avoiding the crisis in the Western Cape was indeed short-lived as lo and behold another violent chapter has unfolded in our midst. The taxi confrontation, called in fact a war, is besetting our people with the same mayhem and lawlessness. Children are traumatised, commuters are extorted. But most tragic of all are the lives lost in the senseless shootings of one…

AFTER 493 days in lockdown, I am beginning to wonder what the new normal is? I have accepted that the world as we knew it back in January 2020 will never again return. Every reopening of the country leads to another spike in infections and then leads to another harsher lockdown. The Spanish Flu lasted from February 1918 to April 1920 – a total of 26 months, had four major waves and killed 50 million people. And we still have the flu today, which are essentially multiple variants of the 1918 flu pandemic, but now manageable because of progress made in scientific research and medication. The one major difference between 1918 and 2021 is that we live in a much fuller and more interconnected world. From the design…

SIYA Kolisi and his Springboks have risen to the occasion once more, this time putting a broad smile on South African faces by beating the British and Irish Lions against the odds. The Boks had been soundly beaten in the first match of the three-Test series, and the Lions seemed certain they would take an unbeatable 2-0 lead into this week’s finale at the Cape Town Stadium, but Kolisi’s warriors begged to differ. They knew they had been rusty going into the first Test because they had barely played since the 2019 World Cup, and that they would be better prepared for their second outing against the tourists. And so it transpired, with the captain himself in the vanguard of a stirring victory. Kolisi played superbly, and he was ably…

Goma: Six soldiers have been arrested over the shooting of a schoolgirl at a military checkpoint in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s conflict-plagued east, local sources said yesterday. The central African country’s government has placed the North Kivu and Ituri provinces under a state of siege since May 6 to try to stem militia violence. Local civil society leader Fabrice Munphirwa said that on Friday in the village of Loashi “the driver of a bus refused to stop at an army checkpoint, where a soldier fired, hitting a schoolgirl who died on the spot”. A provincial MP in North Kivu, Alexis Bahunga, pictured, said “for not having paid a tax of 500 Congolese francs (25 US cents) ,a schoolgirl was shot by soldiers”.…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za The police were investigating the origin of the “sweets” that allegedly intoxicated eight pupils from Murraysburg High School in Beaufort West last week. The eight girls were rushed to hospital on Thursday afternoon after consuming the “sweets”, leaving the community shocked. Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the matter was still under investigation and that they were awaiting feedback from the police and the medical authorities, as well as a report from the school. Hammond said it was alleged that eight pupils had consumed “sweets” that contained an intoxicating substance. They were admitted to hospital. She said four of them were discharged on Thursday night. “We await feedback before we know how to proceed. The allegations are concerning and we will co-operate with the…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za THE ANC and the SACP are adamant that the July violent protests in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were aimed at undermining the authority of President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government. Senior party leaders, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande expressed their complementary views when they addressed the SACP’s centenary celebrations rally in Joburg yesterday following the founding of the party in Cape Town 100 years ago. Visibly common in their virtual address was that the plotters of the alleged coup were within the ANC and had a “nefarious agenda”, as Mantashe described them, but Nzimande called them “ANC renegades”. Mantashe said it was the worst destruction in South Africa after apartheid, and the creators targeted the two provinces that between them controlled 50%…

Nomalanga Tshuma nomalanga.tshuma@inl.co.za NON-PROFIT organisation Save Our Schools, in partnership with Xylem’s Watermark project, has built more than 110 000 hand-washing stations and toilets for families in Bloekombos and Wallacedene in Kraaifontein. The initiative was part of a Covid-19 response campaign by the two organisations to give vulnerable residents living in disadvantaged communities access to hand-washing stations as well as sanitation and hygiene facilities. SOS chief executive Shelley Humphreys said the organisation’s focus was not only to install and provide physical usable water and sanitation facilities but also to promote hygiene safety and prevent infections and diseases from poor hygiene and sanitation habits. The NPO has seven active projects in local schools focused on supplying over 3 800 learners with hand-washing stations, upgrades of ablution structures, water tanks, taps,…

AT A TIME when thousands of students across South Africa are under immense pressure and financial strain, a Stellenbosch University student, Shayen Gomis, has been awarded tuition funding for her fourth year. Shayen, who grew up in Rondeberg, near Philadelphia, has always had big dreams for her future. Her determination will not only help her complete her BA in humanities (psychology) but will also allow her to graduate later this year without crippling student debt thanks to Feenix and the V&A Waterfront. “My passion is to listen to and work with people, providing them with strategies and tools to improve their lives. I love empowering people through knowledge and helping them grow and evolve. Hence my choice of a degree in psychology.” When a lack of funds placed her degree…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za THE next two days will be “make or break” as the conciliation process between the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and unions is expected to conclude. Salary negotiations between Salga and the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) have deadlocked. The negotiations began in March and have dragged on with no resolution in sight as both parties refuse to budge. Even the intervention of a facilitator had not assisted the parties in reaching an agreement Samwu and Imatu have declared a dispute at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council. Samwu is demanding a minimum sectoral wage of R15 000, a R4 000 salary increase across the board, six months’ fully paid maternity leave, one month’s fully paid parental…

THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said the continued exportation of South Africa’s raw materials, particularly chrome ore, was leading to a crisis as the nation continued to lose jobs. NUM president Joseph Montisetse said given the bleak employment outlook during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government should implement urgent measures to protect the remaining jobs in mining, smelting and related industries. “We thank you for choosing to research into this matter, because if these issues can be followed up, maybe there will be a change of mind by business in the country. The issue of the (exportation of) chrome ore from this country is quite a headache, because in the Limpopo area where there is a lot of chrome, a lot of illegal mining is now happening in that area,”…

I GREW up in quite a sporting family. We had tennis courts and a golf course on the farm and often used to play a few holes, or sets, after a day’s farming or on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Maybe it was this leisurely approach that prevented me from ever taking sport too seriously. It was just something sociable you did to fill in some spare time and nobody really minded who won or lost. I suppose this is why I am constantly surprised by the passion displayed by many people in their attitude toward sport. People have really heated arguments in pubs about the relative merits of the goalkeepers of the Pretoria Porcupines and the Bloemfontein Boerbokke. They’re almost ready to come to blows over that goal that Doffie…

The non-racial tradition must be restored to prevent more incitement and hatred THE death toll in the recent riots and the campaign of sabotage that accompanied them is now said to be at more than 330. National attention has overwhelmingly focused on Phoenix, the largely Indian and working-class township in Durban where 16 deaths have now been recorded. This has generated considerable focus on the relationships between Indian and African people. There is a febrile atmosphere in which paranoia is escalating, the crudest racial language has been used and there appears to be impunity for openly circulating threats to murder people at random, even children. Much of this is wildly divergent from ordinary life in Durban, in which there are all kinds of everyday conviviality along with enduring divisions. It…

Myanmar’s junta chief said yesterday that elections would be held and a state of emergency lifted by August 2023, extending the military’s initial timeline given when it deposed Aung San Suu Kyi six months ago. The country has been in turmoil since the army ousted the civilian leader in February, launching a bloody crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 900 people, a local monitoring group says. A resurgent coronavirus wave has also amplified havoc, with many hospitals empty of pro-democracy medical staff, and the World Bank has forecast that the economy will contract by up to 18%. In a televised address junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said the military would “accomplish the provisions of the state of emergency by August 2023”. “I pledge to hold multi-party elections without…

ADEN: Unknown gunmen ambushed the motorcade of a senior security official in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan yesterday, a government official told Xinhua. “The soldiers of the convoy clashed with assailants during the ambush on the outskirts of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan Province, and managed to rescue the security leader,” the local government source said on condition of anonymity. Two bodyguards were killed and a number of soldiers were injured during the confrontation with the assailants, who fled after the attack, he added. The targeted security leader was leading a number of security units linked to the Southern Transitional Council, and had begun a campaign against terror elements in the area during the past days.…

Ashfak Mohamed ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za WAYDE van Niekerk says he hopes to be a “shining light” for South Africa after beginning the defence of his Olympic 400m title in Tokyo yesterday. The 29-year-old world record holder has had to deal with a number of injury problems in revent years but is determined to prove he can still compete at this level by winning a second gold. Van Niekerk sped into the lead in his heat but had to put on some pace on the home straight to secure the third automatic qualifying spot for the semi-finals in a time of 45.25 seconds. The two other South Africans in the event, Zakithi Nene (45.74sec) and Thapelo Phora (45.83) were unable to advance to the next round. The 400m semi-finals take place this afternoon,…