Sommaire pour 2022-11-02 de Cape Times

WHEN it comes to violent crimes against women and children, the Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) needs to look at what is working, what is not working and what is needed to make a difference. These were the words of president Cyril Ramaphosa, as he admitted that despite numerous plans put in place by the government and civil society to end the scourge, brutal acts of violence against women and children continue. The meeting at the Gallagher Convention Centre yesterday was exactly four years to the day since a pledge was made to work together to end the violence that men perpetrate against women and children in South Africa. Ramaphosa said: “We agreed to develop a National Strategic Plan to guide our national response, to co-ordinate the…

The City of Cape Town’s Coastal Management Branch has installed signage at the Dalebrook tidal pool between St James beach and Kalk Bay, warning visitors to keep a respectful distance from wildlife – especially the Cape clawless otter. This signage follows posts on social media where visitors were cuddling and handling a Cape clawless otter at the tidal pool. The signage warns visitors to keep a respectful distance from marine wildlife at all times as habituating animals holds dire consequences, and places both the public and animals at risk. Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said: “We were disturbed to see these posts showing multiple bathers holding and cuddling a Cape clawless otter at the Dalebrook tidal pool. “The posts surfaced on social media platforms on…

THE Bellville Commercial Crimes Court has sentenced an already disbarred lawyer, Ninnette Annelize Crous, to direct imprisonment for fraud following a dodgy property transaction. Earlier, Crous was convicted on two counts of fraud, and two of forgery and uttering. The court heard that the 36-year-old lawyer practised at Schliemann Inc in Somerset West. In 2013 she received an instruction to assist Lize-Marie Te Roller to buy a flat from her father-in-law, Willem-Anne Te Roller for R900 000. However, by January 2014, the transfer was still not finalised. Te Roller lost patience and Crous felt under pressure to finalise the transaction. At the time, a client of Schliemann Inc, Pia Luzia Haflinger had R900 000 in the law firm’s trust account for an unrelated property transaction. These funds were only due…

POLICE oversight and community safety MEC Reagen Allen has blamed budget cuts for discontinuing the School Safety Ambassador’s programme leaving 1 000 young people out of jobs. The School Safety Ambassador Programme was an initiative by the Department of Community Safety (DoCS), which provided training to school safety ambassadors on personal mastery, leadership and peacebuilding. The programme trained 83 interns last year, who were placed at primary schools in the Mitchells Plain and Klipfontein areas, where they assisted in the day-to-day running and safety of the schools. Allen said they did not receive a budgetary allocation from Provincial Treasury to continue with the Safety Ambassadors programme. “This is due to the continued fiscal constraints at National level and their insistence on prioritising the bailout of failed SOEs.” Western Cape…

CAIRO: Global events may temporarily affect Egypt’s wheat supply but the country can adjust to them, Egypt’s supply minister Ali Moselhy told Reuters yesterday when asked whether Russia’s decision to freeze its participation in a UN-brokered grain export deal would affect its supply. The global supply of wheat available is sufficient to meet the world’s needs, Moselhy added. Egypt, one of the world’s largest wheat importers, has not issued international purchasing tenders since mid-July, opting to buy directly from trading houses instead. Wheat prices have rocketed amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two countries from which Egypt used to buy most of its wheat. | Reuters…

HELSINKI: Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin yesterday urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership of the Nato defence alliance. Hungary and Turkey are the only two remaining Nato members to not yet have ratified the applications. “All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later,” Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders. Finland and Sweden last week reiterated they would join Nato at the same time, presenting a united front to Turkey. | Reuters…

Algeria aims to demonstrate diplomatic clout this week as it hosts the first Arab League summit since before the Covid-19 pandemic, but political divisions mean any show of unity among the club’s members is likely to be paper thin. Arab states are split over issues ranging from support for the Palestinian cause, to the regional roles of Iran and Turkey and the rehabilitation of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, while Algeria’s own bitter feud with Morocco continues to fester. In Algeria, largely absent from Arab affairs for several years following the 2019 mass protests that led to the ousting of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the meeting has been portrayed as a mark of its return to front-line diplomacy. “The summit shows Algeria is back in international affairs after years of isolation due…

PUBLIC Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane pleaded in vain to have the impeachment inquiry into her fitness to hold office halted in the absence of her legal counsel. She had been given until Monday to sort out her legal representation issues after her team, led by advocate Dali Mpofu SC, walked out of the inquiry. This was after their application for a postponement pending her review application was declined. Mkhwebane told the inquiry yesterday she had tried everything in her power to determine, clarify and reconfirm the situation of her constitutionally enshrined right to legal representation in the Section 194 inquiry and position of her current legal team of attorney and advocates. “As stated, it was never the case that any of my legal representatives withdrew from representing me…

ANY pupil caught smoking e-cigarrettes on school premises could find themselves in hot water, as the principal at Marine Primary School in Ocean View cautioned parents that incidents will be dealt with in the same manner as bringing an illegal substance to the school. Pupils are buying “vapes” (e-cigarettes) in the community and bringing them to school premises, according to the school. In a letter to parents last week, the principal of the school, Wayne Lawrence, said although vapes were not tobacco cigarettes, they were not allowed on school premises. Pupils at the school are said to be paying between R85 and R100 to buy the vapes from the community. “Should any learner be caught in possession and/or using vapes on the school premises, it will be dealt with in…

The Ukraine regime – infiltrated by neo-Nazis – is used by West as a tool against Russia DESPITE the dominating trend in the West to root out Russian culture and pretend that it never existed, we keep coming back as we are reminded how vast and versatile it is. One of the key works of prominent Russian writer, philosopher and thinker Fyodor Dostoevsky is titled Crime and Punishment. But we are not going to present a review of the novel here. What we would rather do is to highlight one of its main ideas: a crime is always followed by a punishment, even if the perpetrator believes that they successfully got away with it. Let this idea serve as an epigraph for this Alternative Viewpoint entry, as we discuss the…

Tokyo: The Japanese capital began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples who live and work in the city yesterday, a long-awaited move in a country without marriage equality. The certificates allow LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for public services in areas such as housing, medicine and welfare. More than 200 smaller local authorities in Japan have already made moves to recognise same-sex partnerships since Tokyo’s Shibuya district pioneered the system in 2015. While the status does not carry the same legal rights as marriage, it represents a welcome change. Recent years have seen Japan, run by a conservative ruling party, take small steps towards embracing sexual diversity. | AFP…

Rome: The opposition in Italy has condemned the naming to government of a far-right deputy once photographed wearing a Nazi armband with a swastika. Galeazzo Bignami, elected to parliament on the list of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), was on Monday named as deputy infrastructure minister. The attorney, 47, was photographed in 2005 wearing a Nazi armband at a party. On Twitter, opposition MP Marco Furfaro denounced his nomination as “an offence, an indecency against the constitution, history and victims of the swastika”. Bignami said the 2005 photo was taken “in a private context” and “I’ve apologised more than once”. | AFP…

Israelis yesterday began voting for the fifth time in less than four years, with former premier Benjamin Netanyahu bidding for a comeback in a race likely to turn on a far-right party that has risen from the fringe to become a potential coalition kingmaker. After years of deadlock, voter exasperation may hurt turnout, but surging support for the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism bloc and firebrand co-leader Itamar Ben-Gvir has galvanized the campaign. Israel’s longest-serving premier, Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges, which he denies, but his rightist Likud party is still expected to finish as the largest in parliament. However, the final opinion polls from last week showed him still short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, opening the prospect of weeks of coalition…

The culture within the team environment and an opportunity to work with Jake White again convinced Nizaam Carr to rejoin the Bulls yesterday. The 31-year-old former Springbok loose forward returns to Loftus Versfeld today, having left Wasps after the English club went into administration recently. That meant Carr was without a team, and he has decided to go back to Pretoria after his year-long spell with the team during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa. Carr played his last game for the Bulls in the 2021 Rainbow Cup final against Benetton in Treviso, where after he rejoined Wasps again after two previous stints with the club. “I have obviously had a few offers, but what came to mind for me was the culture at the Bulls, and the obvious quality…

Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has admitted that Hangwani Morgan Maumela – a relative of President Cyril Ramaphosa – was a beneficiary of multimillion tenders issued illegally at Tembisa Hospital and various other hospitals in the province. Nkomo-Ralehoko gave the shocking details in her written reply to questions by the DA’s provincial health spokesperson Jack Bloom in the provincial legislature. In his questions to Nkomo-Ralehoko, Bloom was under the impression that Maumela’s 12 companies only benefited by a mere R36 million, but was shocked after she revealed that contracts worth R381m in the last three years from Gauteng public hospitals were involved. Bloom had asked her about contracts awarded to 12 companies that received R36m from Tembisa Hospital last year, contracts that murdered whistle-blower Babita Deokaran had identified as “possibly…

The Red Bull Box Cart Race judges will have their hands full as they judge participating teams according to creative design, team spirit, entertainment, performance and ability to get the cart across the finish line with speed and flair. The race challenges teams of drivers to create a uniquely designed non-motorised cart and race it on intricate slopes in an attempt to get it across the finish line in the fastest time. In 2000, Red Bull in Belgium kicked off this amusing competition in Brussels, where drivers of all levels were challenged to put their creativity and need for speed to the test. Since then more than 120 Red Bull Box Cart race events have taken place, with more than 4 million spectators from all parts of the world coming…

A DELFT family are desperate to find their missing 13-year-old, Melique Rooi, who they have been unable to trace since Saturday. Rooi, a resident of The Hague, Delft, had told her family she was visiting a friend to complete a school project at about 2pm on Saturday. She was wearing blue jeans, pink Crocs shoes, a Redbat branded crop-top and a black and white school backpack. “My dad told her that she was expected to be home by 5pm. When she did not arrive, my dad went to look for her, but both Melique and the friend were not home,” family spokesperson Charlene Rooi said. “My father then found her dad along the way. He confirmed that the girls had been together but said they were not at their home.…

THE Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) has described the City of Cape Town’s development plan to include a MyCiTi station in Nyanga as an insult to their business. The City shared the design of a proposed major revamp of the Nyanga public transport interchange (PTI) yesterday where public transport services like minibus taxis, the Golden Arrow Bus Service (Gabs) and MyCiTi buses will be located in one area. According to Mayco member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, the proposed new MyCiTi station was part of the roll-out of the service to the south-east of the metro. The station is expected to be located between the Gabs terminus and the minibus taxi facility. “Once operational, MyCiTi passengers will have a direct route to Wynberg, Claremont, Ottery and the Lansdowne area without…

It must be out of spiritual fate that the last president of the Black People’s Convention (BPC) chose to depart in October – the month in which the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) organisations were banned by the settler-colonial regime in 1977. Hlaku Kenny Rachidi, 78, had served as the BPC president from 1975 to 1977, which means that the June 16 uprising erupted under his overall leadership and direction. Rachidi was a man of few words. He chose to speak more through his actions. You could think he was not in the meeting until he raised his hand to make a direction-giving input through his soft voice and calm demeanour. Thoughtless speech and Rachidi were miles apart. He had such abundant compassion, which was reflected in his built-in smile that…

London: Beating off competition from the likes of “Kyiv”, “sportswashing” and “partygate”, the term “permacrisis” was named yesterday as Britain’s word of the year in recognition of a dismal 2022. The annual list compiled by Collins Dictionary defined the word as “an extended period of instability and insecurity”. Its entry into common usage reflected upheaval caused by Brexit, the Covid pandemic, severe weather, the war in Ukraine, political turmoil and a cost-of-living crisis. “Permacrisis sums up quite succinctly just how truly awful 2022 has been for many people,” said Collins Learning managing director Alex Beecroft. | AFP…

At least 14 people, including three children, were injured in a drive-by shooting in the US in Chicago’s west side on Halloween, police said. The youngest victim, a 3-year-old girl, was in a serious condition with gunshot wounds to both legs. There were no immediate reports of fatalities, though police said that could change as victims received medical care in various Chicago hospitals. Law enforcement authorities have opened a preliminary investigation and are searching for suspects, Chicago Police Superintendent David O’Neal Brown said at a news conference. The drive-by is one of eight mass shootings that have occurred across the US over Halloween weekend spanning Florida to California. These incidents meet the threshold for mass shootings as defined by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organisation that tracks casualties…

The resolution of the 20th CPC National Congress, held in October, points out that from now on, the CPC’s central task will be: to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realise the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation. The century-long history of the struggle of the CPC is a history of the exploration of a Chinese path to modernisation. Before the founding of the CPC, various forces in Chinese society had made multiple attempts at modernisation, all of which ended in failure. Over the past century, the CPC has united and led the Chinese people…