Sommaire pour 2022-05-09 de Cape Times

WESTERN Cape High Court Judge President John Hlophe’s attorney, Barnabus Xulu says they would appeal the Gauteng High Court’s decision to reject their application to set aside the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) ruling that Judge Hlophe had committed gross misconduct and recommended an impeachment. Xulu said they would appeal this decision “for the public’s confidence in the judiciary”. “Fundamentally, the judgment does not reflect the established jurisprudence on the constitutional and legal issues raised by the parties, and the public is entitled to a judgment that accurately interprets the law, faithfully adheres to the established constitutional principles including judicial precedence and the correct approach to interpreting the Constitution. “As this case is important for the public’s confidence in the judiciary and the rule of law, we have accordingly received instructions…

THERE is no getting out of a pre-existing maintenance court order, a father who fell into arrears with his maintenance payment has discovered. In fact, the man learnt the hard way when he found out his former wife had obtained an order to recover the arrears from his pension fund. The businessman turned to the South Gauteng High Court for an order directing his ex-wife to notify him in the event that she intended to apply for another warrant of execution against his pension fund. He said he should be told at least 10 days prior to her heading to court again, so that he would be able to defend such an application. The couple, parents of three children, divorced in 2019. In terms of the divorce settlement, the man…

THE annual Table Mountain Cableway Challenge kicked off at the weekend, seeing athletes once again tackle one of Cape Town’s most iconic landmarks to raise money for local charities. A group of 135 athletes will climb Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge over nine days. Each participant is required to raise a minimum of R3 000, of which proceeds will be handed over to Nature Connect, Home from Home, Ons Plek, and 10% of the funds will go to Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR). This year organisers hope to raise R1 million. So far they have managed to bring in R700 000. “We are off to a great start so far, events like these are very important. I think the environment for fundraising for NGO’s is incredibly difficult and trying at…

MORE than 9 000 police vehicles were booked in for repairs and service at workshops across the country during the Easter weekend. The number decreased slightly from the number of vehicles at the workshops two months ago. Police Minister Bheki Cele said this to EFF MP Andries Shembeni, who wrote to Cele asking about the total number of vehicles that were out of service in each province after 1 168 were recorded in Gauteng. In his written reply, Cele said 9 731 police vehicles were booked in for repairs and servicing as at April 21. Gauteng had a total of 2 187 vehicles at the workshops, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 1 777, SAPS head office 1 174 and Eastern Cape 1 009. The Western Cape had a total of 868…

I hate to officially burst our bubble, but the app business is local business. The above statement may bring disappointment to many, especially those of us who operate globally oriented apps like Facebook, Twitter and Open Letter. That the apps are globally accessible creates the impression and expectation that a global business model should naturally follow. However, this is not the case. Below are five reasons for this. The first is that that there are sometimes physical components to be used in conjunction with the app for its enjoyment. For the digital shooting range experience of the Aim Game, you need the digitally enhanced pistol, the rifle and the target. For Uber, you need the actual vehicles that do the picking up and dropping off of the app users. These…

World Health Organization (WHO) member states will consider a resolution against Russia this week for its invasion of Ukraine, including the possible closure of a major regional office in Moscow, a document obtained by Reuters showed. The resolution, which is to be considered tomorrow, stopped short of harsher sanctions such as suspending Russia from the UN global health agency’s board as well as a temporary freeze of its voting rights, three diplomatic and political sources said. The draft, prepared largely by EU diplomats and submitted to the WHO’s regional office for Europe, follows a request by Ukraine, signed by at least 38 other members including Turkey, France and Germany. The move is seen as a political step that would further isolate Moscow, rather than having any significant health consequences for…

Manila: The son of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters on Saturday on the last day of presidential election campaigning, as polls showed him heading towards a landslide win. Victory in today’s election that secures a six-year term as president would cap a decades-long effort to rehabilitate the Marcos legacy after the patriarch was deposed and the disgraced clan chased into exile in the US. But the prospect of Ferdinand Marcos jr moving back into the presidential palace has alarmed rights activists, church leaders and political analysts who fear he could rule “without constraint”. The Marcoses’ remarkable return from pariahs to the peak of political power has been fuelled by public anger over corruption and poverty that persisted under the governments that followed the dictatorship.…

Kabul: The Taliban has imposed one of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan’s women since seizing power, ordering them to wear the all-covering burqa in public. The supreme leader and Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada announced the strict dress code for women when they appear in public at the weekend in Kabul. The militants took control of the country in August last year, promising a softer rule than their last stint in power between 1996 and 2001, but they have already imposed a slew of restrictions on women. The order is expected to spark a flurry of condemnation abroad. |…

With the relegation axe looming large for clubs languishing at the foot end of the Premiership, it remains a lottery as to which five teams will suffer the dreadful fate of automatic relegation. After this weekend’s results, all five of those clubs remain in line for the dreaded drop with 16th place a possibility for all involved. The club finishing 15th, meanwhile, will play in the three-team promotion/relegation playoffs with the two GladAfrica Championship teams, who finish the season as runners-up and in third place. Unlike the Premiership, which was won by Mamelodi Sundowns two weeks ago, it is not clear who will win the GladAfrica Championship with two rounds of matches remaining. Any of three teams - Richards Bay, the University of Pretoria and Cape Town All Stars -…

A New Somerset Hospital nurse with over two decades of experience used her psychiatric expertise to avert a possible mass killing in the surgery ward of more than 20 people. She did this on Saturday by approaching and sedating a gun-toting man who allegedly shot and killed two patients aged 42 and 48 and wounding 32-year-old police constable Donay Phillips who was later confirmed dead. One of the patients has since been identified as Jerit Carolus from Laingville in St Helena Bay, while the family of the second patient is still being traced as he is believed to have been homeless. Just after 7pm on Saturday an altercation between the alleged 40-year-old shooter who had just been discharged and another patient had apparently erupted in the surgical ward on the…

THE final goodbyes for Intercape bus driver Bangikhaya Machana, who was shot and killed, were tainted by seemingly another attack on the long distance coach company on Friday. A bus of mourners was stopped, allegedly by taxi operators who refused to let them proceed to his hometown for the burial service. Machana, 35, was shot outside the Intercape depot in Cape Town on April 25. He died in Tygerberg Hospital three days later and leaves behind his widow and two daughters aged 3 and 6. Major taxi associations have remained mum on the alleged attacks while Intercape alleges they have suffered various attacks over the past 13 months. They say there have been more than 150 violent incidents, a number of which have led to serious injuries to employees and…

A TAXI fare increase is on the cards as the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) meets for a three-day national conference at Sun City this week. Commuters said an increase would force them to explore alternative affordable transport. Mzolisi Nkomo, a commuter from Site B Khayelitsha, said taxi associations should sympathise with citizens who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic. “This is unfair because during the Covid-19 pandemic, taxi fares were abnormally increased and now things are getting back to normality but still there is a hike. Most of us use taxis and we have no choice because trains are not operating in our areas. We hoped that matters would get better because things are back to normal, but it’s the opposite. Taxis are expensive and unreliable because…

Praise for Godongwana for addressing realities surrounding SA’s transformation agenda FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana is a brave man! He threw down the gauntlet to black professionals and managers, challenging them to get their act together in “helping the democratic state (South Africa) as it carries forward its transformation agenda”. That Godongwana beckoned this soul-searching at a gala dinner of the Black Management Forum recently, is revealing and remarkable for an ANC government minister tasked with the difficult challenge of steering the economy from the ravages of internal and external factors that are defined by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the fallout of the Ukraine war, which has also affected every country on earth. While SMEs are generally regarded as the backbone of an economy, Godongwana sees black professionals as the…

Emmanuel Macron was sworn in for a second term as France’s president on Saturday in a ceremony at the Élysée Palace, followed by the firing of cannons at the Invalides gardens. In a country where presidents rarely get re-elected, Macron won 58.5% of the votes in the second round against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, despite strong opposition to his pro-business policies and a proposal to raise the retirement age. In a short speech, he spoke of the need to innovate at a time of unprecedented challenges for the world and for France, and said his second term would be “new” and not merely a continuation of the first. “We need to invent a new method together, far from tired traditions and routines, with which we can build a…

In addition to the regional assembly elections in Northern Ireland, there were council and mayoral elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The main UK opposition Labour party of Keir Starmer won in Tory “crown jewels” in the capital, including Margaret Thatcher’s “favourite” council Wandsworth, and Westminster for the first time since it was created in 1964. The general election isn’t until 2024 but these midterms are often an indicator of how the main political parties are doing. This was the first big test for Johnson’s Conservatives since the emergence of a cost-of-living crisis and a “Partygate” scandal. The government faces three investigations into boozy gatherings that flouted Covid-19 pandemic lockdown rules. The party is hoping to extend its 12 years in power for…

Havana: The death toll after an explosion ripped through a luxury hotel in Havana on Friday climbed to 32 people, state television reported at the weekend. Rescuers were still combing through what remained of the prestigious Saratoga Hotel looking for survivors. The death toll has risen to 32, with 19 people missing, Sputnik reported, citing a state news Prensa Latina report. More than 60 people were injured and taken to hospital. Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos Garcia said the explosion happened during the unloading of a tanker truck carrying about 10 000 litres of liquefied gas. |…

Moscow: Several fires have broken out in southern Siberia, affecting about 200 buildings and causing at least five deaths, local authorities said at the weekend, adding they had placed the area under a state of emergency. The fires in the Krasnoyarsk region covered more than 16 zones, spreading to around 200 buildings, several sawmills and a children’s playground, the regional ministry for emergencies said on Telegram. Authorities said some 300 firefighters and 90 vehicles were battling the blazes. Last year, fires in Siberia belched 16 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere, according to an annual European climate report. |…

THE Tourism Department has taken on judicial review in the Labour Court the presiding officer’s not guilty verdict of two officials implicated in irregular expenditure involving R119.8 million. This was revealed by Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, replying to ANC MP Phumeza Mpushe, who asked about disciplinary action taken in poor implementation of the Working for Tourism Infrastructure projects. Mpushe said the Auditor-General found the department had over the years incurred R119.8m in fruitless and wasteful expenditure due to poor implementation of these projects. The management of these projects has since been moved to the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), as an implementing agent. In her reply, Sisulu said the department instituted consequence management after conclusion of investigations into the irregular expenditure. “Seven employees directly involved in the management of…

IT’S all systems go for the May/June exams which start today with a total of 290 682 registered candidates. Of these 165 993 will sit for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) and 124 689 for the Senior Certificate (SC) at 5 236 examination centres across the country. Department of Basic Education (DBE) spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the NSC candidates wrote their exam in 2021 and previous years but did not attain the full requirements of the qualification. “The Senior Certificate candidates are adult candidates that are over 21 years and have completed a minimum of Grade 7 or ABET Level IV. “The Department has learnt valuable lessons from the previous examinations and is therefore confident in administering this examination, successfully. “Candidates are requested to report any irregular practices that they…

SOME Mpumalanga ANC members were in shock after learning that one of their comrades, a former Wits SRC president, had allegedly been linked to the murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee. In messages posted on the governing party’s WhatsApp groups, they apparently defended the 39-year-old suspect, who has been arrested in connection with the abduction and subsequent murder of Gardee, which sent shock waves through the country. The man, described as an employee of the ANC caucus in the province and owner of student properties in Mbombela, was arrested in Schoemansdal on Friday. Police said he was the prime suspect in Gardee’s murder, and is one of three suspects arrested by the police since Friday. The man, who will only be named when he…

WHAT would happen to the UN should diplomacy fail to end Russia’s aggression against Ukraine? Such an outcome would mean that the UN would become increasingly irrelevant and eventually succumb to the fate of its predecessor, The League of Nations, with all the human losses and destruction that went with it. By the time the world stood on the verge of global conflict following the Nazi seizure of the Sudetenland (Northern Czechoslovakia) in 1938, the league had become irrelevant. As a desperate act to try to regain some credibility, the league expelled the Soviet Union in 1939, following its invasion of Finland. The Soviet Union is the only state to have been expelled outright from a global organisation dedicated to maintaining international peace and security. Perhaps the greatest indictment of…

Ukraine authorities have evacuated more civilians from a besieged Mariupol as Russian forces unleashed new bombardments before Victory Day festivities in Moscow today. The Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the port city and its fate has taken on a symbolic value in the battle unleashed by Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. They had been trapped in the tunnels beneath the plant, along with Ukrainian soldiers who are making their last stand. Deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said all the women, children and elderly people had been evacuated. “This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation is over,” she wrote on the Telegram. Zelenskiy said…

ABUJA: As a disabled child growing up in Nigeria, Joshua Anum, 15, did not see internet stardom in his future. He and his eight siblings, abandoned by their father, barely had enough to eat. Now the teen, who lost his left arm at the age of five after falling out of a tree, is part of a dance group called “The Incredible Kids” who have a growing Instagram following and a packed performance schedule. The group does dance routines to popular Nigerian songs and has performed in Abuja and Lagos. The proceeds cover their school fees. |…

Beirut: Lebanon’s parliamentary elections began with expatriates voting in parliamentary polls at the weekend, kick-starting a critical poll that comes amid an unprecedented financial crisis that has spurred a mass population exodus. While opposition figures have pinned their hopes on the diaspora, experts said the elections were expected to uphold the status quo, despite years of economic meltdown. Expatriates in nine Arab countries and in Iran cast their votes on Friday while those in 48 other countries voted yesterday. Citizens in Lebanon will vote on May 15 to elect new members of parliament. |…

washington: A bird flu virus that is sweeping across the US is becoming the country’s worst outbreak, having already killed more than 37 million chickens and turkeys. More deaths are expected through next month as farmers perform mass culls across the Midwest. The last time bird flu hit the US in 2015, 50 million birds had died by the end of the season and cost the federal government more than $1 billion. At the time, the industry beefed up its biosecurity around poultry houses, installing sound cannons to repel wild birds, or even carwashes so that farm trucks wouldn’t bring contamination from one farm to another, so that there wouldn’t be a repeat. |…