Sommaire pour 2023-03-29 de Cape Times

BUSINESS tycoon Zunaid Moti, the founder of the Moti Group, has stepped down from the business as its new CEO, the former director-general of the National Treasury, Dondo Mogajane, steers the company to greater growth. In a statement yesterday, the Moti Group said Mogajane, who was appointed as CEO in June last year, and Zunaid Moti’s son, executive chairperson Mikaeel Moti, would lead the firm as the group seeks to grow to become a major player on the African and international stage. The Moti Group is a multibillion-rand private family-owned investment group of companies, with wide interests in a wide range of industries such as property development, car financing, aviation, mining and bene- ficiation. The group is also a black-owned business, which employs more than 1 000 people across…

The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) is calling for George municipal manager Dr Michele Gratz to be held personally liable amid allegations of fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred while challenging losses in labour-related cases. The union said they were fed up with Gratz’s “iron-fist governance” and have called on political parties in George to take action. They are accusing Gratz of using hundreds of thousands of municipal resources “to remove workers who she disagrees with from the municipal payroll”. However, the municipality said they attempted a conciliation session with Samwu in January, but the union recused itself from the session without addressing any of their grievances. Samwu provincial secretary John Mcanjana said Gratz had “fruitlessly and wastefully spent municipal resources to purge workers”. “In the recent cases, Gratz has instructed…

Tuberculosis (TB) is a life-threatening bacterial infection that affects the health and well-being of people across the world. Due to disruptions in health services during the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 was the first time TB incidence increased in over a decade. An estimated 10.6 million people became ill with TB worldwide and about 1.6 million people died. African and South-East Asian regions have the highest incidences of TB globally because of high levels of poverty and poor access to health-care services. South Africa is among the 30 countries with the highest TB burden with 304 000 people diagnosed with TB in 2021, 30 000 of whom were children under 15 years of age. Over the past two decades there have been increased efforts to develop medication specifically for the treatment of…

THE NATIONAL Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has celebrated a Labour Appeals Court victory in which Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has been ordered to pay six months salary for the unfair dismissal of Marion Pike. Pike, a former senior media studies lecturer, who served as the chairperson of the university’s branch of the NTEU, could not be reinstated as she had reached the university’s mandatory retirement age by the time that the judgment was made. According to litigation history which went through an arbitration process, Pike was dismissed for allegedly bringing the institution’s name into disrepute after she “had committed serious misconduct for disclosing confidential information” relating to the short-listing of the vice chancellor and “leaked the psychometric results” of the candidate to the media. Court documents further detailed…

The homeless should be included by the Department of Health in its new national mental health policy framework and strategic plan. “The relationship between poverty and mental ill-health has been described as a ‘vicious cycle’”, is a statement made in the lapsed framework of 2013-2020. It says people living in poverty can fall into mental disorders through stress, whereas a person with mental illness can fall into poverty by losing income and experiencing social exclusion. But the previous framework does not mention homelessness directly. There are many causes that lead to mental disorders on the streets, like drug abuse, the trauma of unsuitable living conditions for a long period, or the fact that the person might have landed on the streets through their psychosocial disability. Mental health in relation to…

Investigators in Nashville yesterday pored over a “manifesto” written by a 28-year-old former pupil at a Christian school who shot to death three children and three adults a day earlier at the institution, hoping to learn what motivated the latest US mass shooting. Police killed the perpetrator of Monday’s shooting, identified by authorities as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, when they stormed the Covenant School within minutes of gunfire erupting in the private church-based academy. “In Nashville, this is our worst day, but it could have been worse without this great response. We are very grateful for that,” Nashville mayor John Cooper said yesterday, noting the attack was “clearly planned” by the assailant, based on the manifesto authorities found. Authorities did not immediately offer a motive. Monday’s violence marked the 90th school…

A fire started by migrants protesting against their expected deportation killed at least 39 people at a Mexican immigration detention centre near the US border, authorities said yesterday. The blaze broke out shortly before midnight at the National Migration Institute (INM) facility in Ciudad Juarez, prompting the mobilisation of firefighters and dozens of ambulances. At least 39 immigrants were killed and 29 injured, said the INM, which said the centre housed 68 adult men from Central and South America. The migrants started the blaze during a demonstration after they found out they would be deported, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. Numerous migrants have been detained in the facility in recent days after local authorities rounded up street vendors, some of whom were foreigners, from the area. A heavy military…

BERLIN: Boris Becker says there is going to be “another chapter” in his life. The three-time Wimbledon champion, 55, who was released from prison in December after he was convicted for hiding £2.5 million in assets during his bankruptcy, said even though he was blaming himself for his lavish spending, he was never guided carefully enough when he first shot to fame and fortune. Becker tells, on his upcoming Apple+ documentary, Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker, out April 7: “I wasn’t fulfilled in my personal life, I wasn’t with the right … girlfriend.” He says through tear-filled eyes: “That’s not the end yet – there’s going to be another chapter.” Becker is said to be lining up book and TV deals. Twice-divorced, he is still married to second…

PARIS: French authorities yesterday searched the Paris offices of five banks, including Societé Générale, Paribas and HSBC, on suspicion of fiscal fraud, part of a broad European probe into the dodging of dividend tax payments. The French prosecutors’ actions are the latest to hit global banks over the dividend tax fraud scheme as similar investigations have been conducted in Germany and other European countries. The PNF financial prosecution office said the probe was linked to so-called “cum-ex” dividend stripping, a trading scheme whereby banks and investors swiftly trade shares of companies around their dividend payout day. | Reuters…

‘Money moved from one bank account to another’ PUBLIC Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane stuck by her recommendation in the CR17-Bosasa report that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should probe President Cyril Ramaphosa for possible money laundering. Continuing with her testimony, Mkhwebane said yesterday the complaint from former DA leader Mmusi Maimane had suspected money was transferred from one bank account to another. “During the investigation evidence before us was showing that indeed there was a lot of money from one account to another,” she said. Mkhwebane also said the Public Protector Act has provision that during or after completion of an investigation her office could refer a matter to another authority for investigation. “We referred the allegation that there might be an issue of money laundering and referred it to…

THE Public Servants Association (PSA) together with Department of Correctional Services (DCS) centre-based support staff, celebrated victory as they will not have to apply for leave on public holidays, following a recent labour court judgment. According to court documents, 23 DCS administrative staff situated at Modderbee Management Area in Benoni, won an arbitration award where the commissioner ruled that staff would not have to fill out leave application forms for public holidays. DCS disputed this and brought the matter before the labour court for review. The PSA challenged the move citing unfair labour practice. In their evidence before the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), the employees testified that they fell within the category of employees that work a 45-hour work-week, but they worked only from Mondays to Fridays, from…

A suspected retaliation attack saw yet another mass shooting in Khayelitsha, this time claiming the lives of four people and injuring five others. At about 12.40am on Sunday, gunmen opened fire on a bakkie near Y Block in Site B, killing four men aged between 33 and 42. Police spokesperson André Traut said officers believe this was a retaliation attack after accusations of a hijacking committed earlier in the area. “During that incident, five other men aged between 23 and 39 were shot and wounded and admitted to hospital.” A swift police operation led to the arrest of two suspects, aged 22 and 30, following the shooting. “SAPS detectives are in pursuit of more suspects who were possibly involved in the incident. “One of the victims, injured during the mass…

There is an argument that the end of apartheid ushered in a “new” era that marked the end of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. However, this perspective is not only inaccurate, it is also misleading. The point that is often avoided concerns the so-called internal colonialism that shaped South Africa from its early days. Referring to this phenomenon as “colonialism of a special type”, authors like Marxian scholar Harold Wolpe and American sociologist Robert Blauner describe it as a capitalist practice of oppression and exploitation of racial and ethnic minorities within the borders of the state. Colonialism is widely understood to mean oppression and exploitation of others for massive capital gain. South Africa has its own version of home-grown colonialism meant to benefit the white community by exploiting the…

US Vice-President Kamala Harris called yesterday for more investments in innovation in Africa in a speech underlining her optimism for the continent where she is on tour. Her visit to Ghana and later this week to Tanzania and Zambia follows a December summit hosted by President Joe Biden in Washington with African leaders to balance the rising influence of China and Russia on the continent. After a stop at a music recording studio in Ghana’s capital, Harris addressed a crowd of young entrepreneurs and leaders gathered at the Black Star Gate landmark. “African ideas and innovations will shape the future of the world, and so we must invest in African ingenuity and creativity which will unlock incredible economic growth and opportunities,” she said. She underlined three areas of focus that…

The World Health Organization has tailored its Covid-19 vaccination recommendations for a new phase of the pandemic, suggesting that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between six to 12 months after their last vaccine. The UN agency said the aim was to focus efforts on vaccinating those facing the greatest threat of severe disease and death from Covid-19, considering the high-level population immunity worldwide due to widespread infection and vaccination. The agency defined high-risk populations as older adults, as well as younger people with other significant risk factors. For this group, it recommends an additional shot of the vaccine either six or 12 months after the latest dose, based on age and immunocompromising conditions. The agency said that…

KIGALI: Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed as a hero in the film Hotel Rwanda about the 1994 genocide, has arrived in Doha, Qatar, after being released from prison in Rwanda last week, Rwanda’s government said yesterday Rusesabagina, a US permanent resident, was sentenced in September 2021 to 25 years over his ties to a group opposed to Rwandan President Paul Kagame that has an armed wing. He was released after his sentence was commuted following months of negotiations between Washington and Kigali. Washington’s ties with Rwanda have been strained by Rusesabagina’s detention and by US allegations, denied by Kigali, that Rwanda has sent troops into the DRC. | Reuters…

Ankara: Nearly 60 000 Syrian refugees in Türkiye have returned to their homeland after the February 6 earthquakes that killed more than 57 300 people in the two nations. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar refuted claims that there was an influx of refugees from Syria, stressing that the Turkish border was strictly protected against illegal crossings. Türkiye shelters over 3.6 million Syrians and is the world’s largest refugee-hosting country. Turkish authorities have begun to allow Syrian refugees residing in 11 quake-hit provinces to voluntarily return to northern Syria and then come back to Türkiye as long as they do not spend longer than six months away. | IANS…

EXPOSURE to toxic chemical compounds found in polluted seawater have the potential to cause the sperm of both humans and sea creatures to become incapable of fertilising an egg, say academics in a University of Western Cape (UWC) comparative spermatology group. Local and international scientists met in Durbanville last Friday where they presented their studies on health conditions of the marine environment in Cape Town as part of the SANOcean project. The release of sewage into a marine protected area has been a subject of controversy for years, with experts and activists slamming the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s decision to grant the City a 5-year permit to pump sewage into the ocean via marine outflows at Green Point, Camps Bay and Hout Bay. According to the academics,…

THE price of chicken has come into focus in the Competition Commission’s latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring (EFPM) report, which found that when chicken imports from the EU were banned in response to the avian flu outbreak, domestic producer prices increased. This is the eighth EFPM report since 2020, and it has a special focus on the feed-to-poultry value chain. The commission said food price monitoring remains a priority as poor consumers spend a significant portion of their income on essential food items. “The feed-to-poultry value chain is highly concentrated, with five firms making up 70% of total chicken production, and the top two firms making up 50% of the market. “Feed costs account for more than two-thirds of broiler production costs, and are therefore a source of upward cost…

‘Ayisafani,’ he said, and even ‘clever blacks’ chose not to vote for the governing party The past three decades were supposed to be the best of times. But the last 15 years, with load shedding, among others, have been the worst of times. Try as we might, we cannot find a more appropriate phrase or meaning for what the African majority, especially, has gone through in the past decade. When the ANC returned from exile following the unbanning of the liberation movement, it was the best of times. There was euphoria, and self-forgetfulness, for about a decade. Nobody could have imagined the liberation movement would be dead in less than two decades. Yet, the ANC died while it was still in power, like a drunken driver in a fatal accident.…

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brothers and the UN said yesterday. The Taliban government barred girls from attending secondary school and then university last year, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to issue such restrictions on education. Matiullah Wesa, the head of PenPath, was stopped by men outside a mosque after prayers on Monday evening, his brother Samiullah Wesa said. “When Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away,” he said. “He has been arrested for his activities in the education sector. He never worked with anybody else, neither with the previous government. He only worked for PenPath.” The UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed on Twitter…

MANILA: Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos jr yesterday said he would cut off contact with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it rejected an appeal asking it to stop investigating his predecessor’s lethal war on drugs. Thousands of Filipinos were killed by police during Rodrigo Duterte’s fierce crackdown on illicit drugs, with many more gunned down in mysterious circumstances. The ICC is investigating allegations of executions and cover-ups by police, who say they killed suspects only in self-defence. The Philippines says its own institutions are capable of prosecuting crimes. | Reuters…

Alausi: Rescuers searched yesterday for more than 60 people reported missing after a landslide triggered by months of heavy rain killed at least seven people in southern Ecuador. The mudslide buried dozens of homes and injured 23 people in the village of Alausi in Chimborazo province, 300km south of Quito, officials said. Crews with shovels, pick axes and sniffer dogs dug through the debris to get to survivors. Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso urged all citizens to evacuate the affected areas. Since the start of the year, heavy rains have caused 22 deaths, destroyed 72 homes, damaged 6 900 residences and caused close to 1 000 landslides and flooding. | AFP…

YANGON: The ousted ruling party of Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was among 40 political parties dissolved yesterday, after they failed to meet a registration deadline for an election set to perpetuate the military’s political dominance. The National League for Democracy (NLD) is among dozens of parties that held parliamentary seats in the past decade that were severely weakened by the military’s 2021 coup. Many of the parties are unable or unwilling to contest the election, which has widely been dismissed as a sham. Nobel laureate Suu Kyi is among scores of NLD officials in jail. She was found guilty of corruption, a breach of a state secrets law and incitement. | Reuters…