Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-02-07 i Cape Argus

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za A WOMAN who turned to court to evict her former boyfriend from an informal settlement dwelling on a plot of land that neither of them owned, left the corridors of justice empty-handed after a Western Cape High Court judge ruled she had no right to lodge the action. The court heard that Rochelle Adams, a single mother, and Sharief Manuel became romantically involved in June 2018. In June 2019, a friend, Rukaya Davids, granted Adams “permission” to erect a home on an empty plot in the area where she and her husband had lived for some years, before they dismantled their dwelling and moved elsewhere. Adams set about building in stages, relying on loans and money she was able to scrape together. Meanwhile, she invited Manuel to…

Staff reporter AN INNOVATIVE project by the City’s public emergency call centre, in partnership with the provincial health department’s emergency medical services is proving to be a successful tool in timeously responding to emergency incidents across Cape Town. The initiative works to ensure that when a service request is logged on the City’s emergency policing incident command system, the details are sent to the medical service instantly and accurately. The City’s safety and security directorate said that since its inception last year, the integrated emergency medical response system had to date transferred more than 25 000 incidents electronically from the City’s emergency call centre to the province’s emergency medical services. Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said: “The City and province decided to embark on the integration project…

HOUSING group Ndifuna Ukwazi and the opposition have welcomed the official handover of the first 66 social-housing units at Conradie Park mixed-use development, but have decried the slow pace of the delivery of various forms of affordable and social housing. The R3 billion project on the site of the 22-hectare old Conradie Hospital in Pinelands is one of the City’s joint central social-housing projects with the provincial government, and was first mooted as a “game-changing project” back in 2015. The 66 apartments are the first of 432 social-housing apartments that form part of the development. Ndifuna Ukwazi researcher Michael Clark said: “Sixty-six new social housing apartments is a start, but the province still has a long way to go.” He said they were encouraged that 66 social-housing apartments were made…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za FOLLOWING a growing number of objections, the City met with representatives of Primrose Cricket Club in Claremont and has confirmed that a section of the land used by the club is to be withdrawn from its upcoming auction. The property is one of 18 to be auctioned off during a live and virtual property auction by the High Street Auction Company on Thursday at the Cape Town Stadium. The properties are located in areas of Claremont, the Strand, Mitchells Plain, Blue Downs, Belhar, Kleinvlei, Durbanville, Atlantis Industrial, and include a heritage site in Newlands. “The City can confirm that the mayor met with the Primrose Sports Club and that processes have been initiated for the property to be withdrawn from auction to allow for further consideration of…

the happiest man on earth The beautiful life of an auschwitz survivor Eddie Jaku Review: Orielle Berry EDDIE Jaku, at the time of penning this work at 100 years of age, has documented his experiences of surviving the Nazi Holocaust. His book may be harrowing, but is also heart-warming – demonstrating man’s remarkable resilience and, in his case, the incredible gift of remaining positive and grateful despite indelible scars. Jaku grew up in Leipzig and graduated from high school in 1933 but history had other plans for him as Hitler ascended to power. Under a false name, he was enrolled at a mechanical engineering college out of town, where acquired an apprenticeship. In 1938, as a graduate, he paid a visit to his parents in Leipzig amid the darkening cloud…

Chinese President Xi Jinping met the leaders of Serbia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan at the weekend as Beijing used the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics to seize the diplomatic initiative amid simmering tensions with the US. Following an agreement with Russia on Friday over Taiwan and against Nato’s expansion, Xi met with leaders amid a Lunar New Year-themed banquet in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. More 30 international leaders attended the opening ceremony of the Olympics, although the US and other Western countries have subjected the event to a diplomatic boycott amid rising geopolitical tensions. Around 15 000 people attended the opening ceremony on Saturday, Chang Yu, the director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the organising committee, said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured, was among…

The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine produced at the World Health Organization-backed vaccine hub in South Africa could take up to three years to get approval if companies do not share their technology and data, a WHO official hassaid. The WHO-backed tech transfer hub in South Africa was set up in June to give poorer nations the know-how to produce Covid-19 vaccines, after the market leaders of the mRNA Covid vaccine, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, declined a WHO request to share their technology and expertise. Martin Friede, the co-ordinator of the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research, said at the weekend that if companies with approved Covid vaccines or late-stage clinical data shared their technology and data with the consortium, the vaccine produced in South Africa could be approved in 12 to 18…

The Cricket South Africa (CSA) T20 Challenge starts today in Gqberha. Here, Zaahier Adams previews the eight teams competing for honours. LIONS Star Player: Bjorn Fortuin The left-arm spinner is an experienced T20 campaigner having spent the past couple of seasons with the Proteas. He is a wily campaigner who thrives under the pressure. The conditions at St George’s Park should assist him too. X-factor: Sisanda Magala The burly seamer missed out on the last T20 World Cup through injury, but having tasted one-day international cricket this past summer, he will be desperate to get on the plane to Australia later this year. Bowls a heavy ball and is renowned for delivering yorkers at the death to close out the game. TITANS Star Player: Tabraiz Shamsi The world’s No 2…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za THE provincial Department of Human Settlement’s housing demand is currently sitting at 588 000, with most of the demand – 61% – in Cape Town. Acting department head Phila Mayisela told the legislature’s Standing Committee of Public Accounts (Scopa), that the city topped the list followed by the Garden Route and the Overberg at 11% and 12% respectively, the West Coast at 8% and Central Karoo at 1% as the region with the least demand. Mayisela spoke during deliberations on the Annual Report of the department for the 2020/21 financial year. She was answering questions from committee member Nomi Nkondlo (ANC), who also wanted to know the figures of actual housing delivered and details of how many informal settlements had been upgraded in the province. Mayisela said…

hard rain/ man down (ROGUE SERIES) Irma Venter Review: Beryl Eichenberger TRANSLATING from any language is what I consider a super skill. It’s vital not to lose anything in the translation to bring the authenticity of the writer to a new audience. There are a surprising number of contemporary Afrikaans writers who found global success when their novels were translated into English – Marita van der Vyver and Deon Meyer are just two of my favourites. So it was with interest that I discovered Irma Venter, journalist and author of eight thrillers, four of which have now been translated with more, I hear, on the way. I picked up two of the books from her Rogue series, Hard Rain (English version 2020) and Man Down (2021) – and rogue certainly…

Statistics SA has embarked on its once-a-decade process to count all people in the country – including non- citizens. Census 2022 is arguably the most important in the country since the first post-apartheid census in 1996. That census was the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 that all South Africans were counted. Under apartheid, fictitious “homelands” excluded millions of people from the count. Excluding them allowed the apartheid government to deny their rights and responsibility for meeting their needs – by not counting them, the apartheid government ensured that they did not count, for anything. Homelands or Bantustans were 10 mainly rural, underdeveloped areas where black South Africans were required to live and have nominal “self-rule” and “independence”, along ethnic group lines, separate from whites. They had…

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has urged the AU to withdraw Israel’s accreditation, bringing simmering tensions to a head as the 55-member bloc opened a 35th two-day summit in Addis Ababa at the weekend. Even as the continent reels from a spate of military coups and the coronavirus pandemic, the relationship with Israel featured prominently during the summit. The dispute was set in motion last July when Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the AU Commission, accepted Israel’s accreditation to the bloc, triggering a rare dispute within a body that values consensus. As heads of state gathered in Ethiopia’s capital and joined the meeting virtually on Saturday, Shtayyeh called on the AU to reject Faki’s move. “Israel should never be rewarded for its violation and for the apartheid regime it does…

The Indian Ocean island nation of Madagascar braced for Cyclone Batsirai at the weekend with the storm bringing powerful winds and torrential rains posing a “very serious threat” to millions. People hunkered down before the storm made landfall in an impoverished country still recovering from the deadly Tropical Storm Ana last month. The Meteo-France weather service warned of winds of up to 260km and waves as high as 15m. It said Batsirai drenched the French island of La Reunion for two days with torrential rain. Residents in the eastern coastal town of Vatomandry were stockpiling supplies in preparation for the storm. Gusts of winds of more than 50km/h began pummelling Vatomandry town in Madagascar at the weekend accompanied by intermittent rain. Residents have reinforced their corrugated iron roofs with sandbags.…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za THE recommendation of Supreme Court of Appeal president Mandisa Maya as the country’s next chief justice by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has been largely welcomed despite attacks on the conduct of the interviews. The JSC recommended Judge Maya following last week’s interviews, which also included unsuccessful candidates Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo and Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga. The EFF described Judge Maya as a well-qualified, competent and experienced judicial officer who showed immense vision, understanding of the law and was highly experienced. ”Judge Maya expressed a necessary lack of appetite to descend into the political arena and was honest and understanding of the law in our land and its relation to empowering women within and outside of the judiciary,” the…

WHAT defines a nation? Is it its geographic borders, its laws and Constitution, its people, or is it some cultural-historically binding set of values? In a week where we have seen the most gruelling, opportunistic and demeaning interview questions posed to candidates for Chief Justice of South Africa, it does seem a bit bizarre that, when selecting the president of South Africa, who will be the one making the final decision as to who will be Chief Justice, such a supreme appointment does not face a similar questioning by the people of the country they are attempting to lead. One of the key reasons for the decline of the ANC is that it is secretive as to who its office bearers will be during elections. During the recent local government…

Maurice Smithers The Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA (Saapa SA) is waiting to see if President Cyril Ramaphosa includes a concrete commitment to dealing with alcohol harm when he delivers the 2022 State of the Nation Address this week. However, we are not hopeful, following the ANC NEC’s January 8 statement this year which is markedly different on the issue of alcohol-related harm to the January message of 2021. Saapa SA and its Alliance Partners were encouraged when, while delivering the January 8 Statement last year, Ramaphosa said: “The temporary restrictions that were placed on the availability of alcohol under the state of disaster regulations (adopted to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic) have demonstrated the extent to which abuse of alcohol fuels violence (including gender-based violence), trauma and…

Mali could set a new date for elections after leader Assimi Goita asked lawmakers to review a transitional charter adopted after the first of two military coups that have upended the country’s regional standing and relationships. The transitional council met at the weekend for an extraordinary session to review the transitional charter, which expires this month. Adopted after the coup that ousted late former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, it was supposed to pave the way for a return to civilian rule. But the ruling junta led by Goita, who staged a second coup in May 2021 and installed himself as interim president, last month ditched a presidential election set for February 27, proposing that the poll instead be held in 2025. That prompted a barrage of sanctions…

Herman Gibbs herman.gibbs@africannewsagency.com CLOUDS of uncertainty hang over Kaizer Chiefs as they prepare to resume action against Cape Town City in a Premiership fixture in Cape Town tomorrow. Chiefs are patiently waiting for the outcome of the arbitration that will decide if they can play the two matches they failed to honour due to a Covid-19 outbreak at the club in December. That process has gone a step further with the appointment of advocate Nassir Cassim as the arbiter. The prospect of losing six points if the matches are not replayed is a daunting one since it effectively rules out Amakhosi’s chances of nailing down at least a runners-up spot in the league. At this stage, Mamelodi Sundowns are well on track for yet another championship. While most teams have…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za West Indies Women 174 (Knight 48, Dottin 36; Ismail 10-0-44-4, Tryon 6-2-12-2) South Africa Women 175/4 (Steyn 52, Luus 47; A Mohammed 9-0-31-2) SA won by six wickets, win four-match series 2-1 The Proteas gave their confidence a boost ahead of the World Cup by completing a come-from-behind series win against the West Indies at the Wanderers yesterday. It wasn’t a triumph without problems, with the fielding yesterday particularly poor. But having not played for four months, then the news that captain Dane van Niekerk would miss the World Cup with a broken foot, and the absence in this series of Lizelle Lee and Marizanne Kapp, it is a win worth celebrating. Sune Luus, who led the side here and will continue in that role in New…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za Stormers coach John Dobson says they’re sticking to their plan of how they intend on using Springboks Warrick Gelant and Damian Willemse. At the weekend, the Stormers beat the Sharks 20-10 in their return match at Cape Town Stadium after drawing 22-22 with the Durbanites the week before. It was a much improved performance from the Capetonians. Not only did they do better in one of their biggest flaws last weekend – the scrum – but they also got more done on attack, something that Dobson had spoken about at length in the past. Gelant started at fullback while Willemse was on the bench. In the second half, Dan du Plessis was taken off, which Dobson clarified was due to injury, and Willemse came on to fill…