Tabla de contenidos para 2022-10-26 en Cape Times

THE Knysna Municipality continues to be plagued by instability and now faces legal action due to appointments in the offices of political office bearers, along with the resignation of acting municipal manager Johannes Jonkers this week. The DA approached the Western Cape High Court on Friday for urgent relief to terminate alleged illegal employment contracts. Knysna Municipality returned to the ANC, which governs it with the Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI) and EFF, after the DA was ousted from power in August. The new executive included ANC mayor Aubrey Tsengwa, PBI deputy mayor Alberto Marbi, ANC Speaker Mncedisi Skosana and Jonkers. Knysna DA constituency head Dr Dion George said the sheriff also served papers to the seven “illegally appointed political cadres”. George said R3 million of ratepayer’s money could not be…

Decades ago, spouses under a customary marriage enjoyed no legal protection in South Africa, but things changed drastically over the years and such unions were recognised in law. A husband discovered this after he simply entered into a civil union with another woman while still being married to his first wife. The wife, who hails from rural Limpopo, had no idea her husband was married under her nose until her son by coincidence found the marriage certificate in his father’s bag. The woman turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where she was successful in an application to have her husband’s marriage to the second wife declared null and void. The applicant (who cannot be named as the matter involves their marriage) told the court that she was not going…

JUDGMENT in the case of accused child rapist and killer, Moyhdian Pangaerker, continued yesterday as acting Judge Alan Maher made his way through a lengthy judgment at the Western Cape High Court. During the trial, the court heard testimonies from several witnesses, painting a violent and sadistic picture of Pangaerker, who faces 27 criminal charges, one of them incest, where he fathers a son with his biological daughter. The court also heard how he had violently assaulted three minor children after getting romantically involved with their mother. In their testimony to court, the two brothers and their sister detailed how Pangaerker would assault them with a “genuine leather belt” and a wooden plank, giving them lashings over their buttocks and body as they lay across his lap. According to one…

Ordinary, struggling people are watching the game they should be playing THREE attempts have been made to bring South Africa’s democracy in sync with the will of the people, through an electoral system providing for their direct say in choosing leaders who have no difficulty accounting to them. From the Dr Van Zyl Slabbert report of 2002 through to the Motlanthe Foundation panel’s recommendations of 2017 and the ministerial advisory committee study headed by Vally Moosa this year, the matter is yet to be put to rest. The ruling by Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga on June 11, 2020, following legal action by the New Nation’s Movement highlighted the unfairness of party membership as a condition to elect or stand to be elected. The time for one person one vote, allowing for…

MESSAGING app WhatsApp suffered an international outage yesterday, but it was resolved with the company saying the issue has been fixed. At around 9.50am South African time, outage reporting site Downdetector had shown over 68 000 users had reported problems with the app in the UK. Problems were reported by 19 000 people in Singapore and 15 000 in South Africa. “We know people had trouble sending messages. We have fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience,” a spokesperson for WhatsApp parent company Meta Platforms META.O said. The company did not disclose the reason for the outage. | Reuters…

SOUTH Africa’s business cycle index fell for the second month in a row in August as slowing global growth, and higher interest rates suppressed the leading indicator. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said yesterday that the composite leading business cycle indicator declined by 2.3% month-on-month in August following a 1% fall in July. It was the second consecutive month of decreases in the index and the most in 13 months, as nine of the 10 available component time series were down, while only one component increased. The SARB said the largest negative contributors were a decline in the number of residential building plans approved and a narrowing of the interest rate spread. The positive contribution came from an increase in the volume of orders in manufacturing. Investec chief economist…

THE Public Service and Administration Department is set to unilaterally implement the 7.5% salary increase for public servants when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocates R42 billion for the salary bill in his medium term Budget policy statement (MTBPS) today. This emerged yesterday when Acting Minister for Public Service and Administration Thulas Nxesi addressed the media on the public service wage negotiations. Nxesi said the government was being accused of unilaterally imposing a wage settlement after no agreement was reached at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). “It is more complicated than that. It is not a unilateral action,” he said. Nxesi said the planned move was drawing from what Godongwana would table in his MTBPS today. “He asked whether he should include the government offer. I suggested yes. “This…

FISHERIES NPO Masifundise has put a spotlight on the challenges that women in small-scale inland fishing communities face as a result of the lack of recognition for their livelihoods. The organisation yesterday premiered its second inland fisheries report virtually, and a documentary which focused on the shortcomings of existing governance frameworks in supporting their livelihoods. The NPO said inland fishing has been an important livelihood activity for many people living close to freshwater bodies, such as rivers and dams, in South Africa. However, the sector has long been marginalised and undermined despite it being a “valuable socio-cultural and economic contributor to rural livelihoods and playing an important role in ensuring food and nutrition at local level”. Masifundise said freshwater bodies have remained the only natural resource whose management has not…

ACTING Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi denied yesterday that the government was trying to introduce a super director-general (DG) by centralising key government functions in the presidency. This comes after reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa has centralised key government functions in his office and has taken some responsibilities away from ministers. Last week, the Cabinet approved a framework that provides for the DG in the presidency to be designated as head of public administration (Hopa) and DG in the office of the premiers will play that role. “Are we forming a super DG? No. The practice is that the DG is the chair of the Forum of South Africa Directors-General (Fosad) and is already co-ordinating the other DGs. “It is a practice which has been there so she…

THE Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is engaging with Salt River Secondary School to address a complaint about pupils jumping the school fence and misbehaving. In a complaint to the WCED, a concerned resident said sometimes the pupils would smoke dagga and make a noise in the area. The resident said on the corner of Rochester and Campbell streets they have also noticed unsavoury characters approaching the pupils and handing over suspicious items. “We tried on numerous occasions to go chat with the principal or deputy principal, but neither seems to be available nor do they even get back,” the complainant said. WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the department became aware of the matter when the complainant emailed the Ministry and the media. “The complainant confirmed that they had not…

Bishkek: Twenty people accused of organising riots in Kyrgyzstan over a border demarcation deal will remain in detention for two months, authorities told AFP yesterday. The detainees are part of a group that is opposing a draft government deal with neighbouring Uzbekistan, arguing Kyrgyzstan would have to hand over control of a key dam. The people detained across several towns and cities include a military general, a former member of the constitutional court, a former public prosecutor, journalists and activists. “The twenty people detained have been charged with organising riots and were placed in detention for two months,” AFP learned from a representative for the court in Bishkek. | AFP…

GENEVA: The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) urged Malaysia yesterday to stop deporting refugees back to Myanmar, saying it had received reports of hundreds of such cases over the past two months. The deportations, which included former navy officers seeking asylum, expose those sent away to danger and are a violation of the international law on non-refoulement, according to UNHCR, referring to a law that protects refugees or asylum seekers from being deported. “In the last two months alone, hundreds of Myanmar nationals are reported to have been sent back against their will by the authorities,” UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a Geneva press briefing. | Reuters…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s adviser has once again been placed at the centre of the Farmgate scandal after UDM leader Bantu Holomisa asked the Section 89 independent panel to investigate allegations that Bejani Chauke illegally brought foreign currency to the country before it was stolen from Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm two years ago. Holomisa made the request in line with the panel’s invitation for members of the National Assembly to submit any information that could be relevant to the investigation. This week, he submitted a letter believed to have been written by former spy boss Arthur Fraser as additional information to assist the Hawks with their Phala Phala probe. The document names one of Ramaphosa’s advisers as a person responsible for smuggling large sums of US dollars into South Africa from…

THREE cash-in-transit robbers have been handed 12 years’ imprisonment each in the Khayelitsha Priority Court for a 2013 robbery where they made off with an undisclosed amount of cash after attacking a Fidelity armoured vehicle. Siyanda Xawuka, 34, Dumisani Ngudle, 39, and Yongama Ndolombo, 35, were convicted and sentenced on Monday for robbery with aggravating circumstances, unlawful possession of firearms and illegal possession of ammunition. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently, and all three convicted armed robbers will effectively serve 12 years’ direct imprisonment. They were among a group of men who overpowered armed Fidelity guards who were responsible for SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) payouts at a community hall in Nyanga on May 16, 2013. They disarmed the guards before fleeing in a stolen VW Golf…

THE Department of Home Affairs has revoked the marriage licence of DA councillor in the Bergrivier Municipality, Adam du Plooy, following allegations of fraud. Du Plooy, who also serves as a pastor, is accused of being involved in the issuing of fraudulent marriage licences. Executive director of the Rural and Farm Workers Development Organisation, Billy Claasen, said he escalated the matter to Home Affairs after the police had declined to proceed with the case. “It was reported to me last year after someone made a complaint, saying that there was a pastor who was fulfilling marriage processes without a marriage licence. It turned out that she was making use of Adam du Plooy’s marriage register. “We reported the matter to the police. The police investigated and then said they found…

RAMPANT corruption can no longer go unchallenged. Because of corruption and state capture, our country faces political and socio-economic threats as great as any I have seen in my lifetime. Our liberation movements and political parties representing us in legislative bodies are in peril of being branded as a generation that is divided, self-indulgent and indifferent to the nation’s needs. On Saturday, the president submitted a 76-page document to Parliament outlining the Cabinet’s response to the recommendations of the Zondo Commission on state capture. It comes six years to the month since then public protector Thuli Madonsela released her State of Capture report, which led to the establishment of the Zondo Commission. “Through the implementation of the actions contained in this report, we can start a new chapter and a…

The Kremlin yesterday repeated its claim that Ukraine plans to use a radioactive “dirty bomb”, warning the West it was dangerous to dismiss Moscow’s position. Ukraine, the US, Britain and France have all rejected Moscow’s claims – voiced by several officials in recent days – that Kyiv could be preparing to detonate a radioactive device in Ukraine. In a briefing call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this was a foolish approach given the gravity of the situation. Moscow has provided no evidence for its claims. “This is an approach that is far from serious,” Peskov said of the US’s dismissal of Moscow’s claims. | Reuters…

Berlin is nearing an agreement to allow a Chinese firm to take a smaller than planned stake in a Hamburg container terminal to overcome Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s opposition to an all-out ban, a government source said. Chinese shipping giant Cosco had sought a 35% stake and the deal would have automatically gone ahead despite opposition from several German ministries if an “emergency solution” was not found this week, the source said. Under the proposed compromise, the government would greenlight a 24.9% sale to deprive China’s state-owned Cosco of any voting rights. The fate of the Tollerort terminal at Hamburg’s port has sparked fierce debate in Germany. | AFP…

With Qatar 2022 less than a month away, Independent Media will take an in-depth look at the history of the Fifa World Cup – the stars, greatest matches and biggest controversies, while looking at the past, present and future. Here, football writers Herman Gibbs, Mihlali Baleka, Eshlin Vedan and Smiso Msomi – from different generations – look at their best players to ever play in the tournament… HERMAN GIBBS’ CHOICES Pele Such was the weight of Pele’s contribution to Brazil’s cause that he was part of three World Cup-winning teams in 1958, 1962 and 1970. No other player has enjoyed this distinction, and in 2000, he was voted World Player of the Century. Diego Maradona Maradona captained Argentina in the 1986 World Cup and led the team to victory after…