Inhaltsverzeichnis für 2021-11-05 in Cape Times

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za EMPLOYMENT levels worsened for the second month running in October as industrial activity in South Africa was severely affected by the metalworkers’ three-week strike. The IHS Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) published yesterday showed a sharp decline in activity across the private sector in October, largely caused by the strike that disrupted output and sales. IHS said the PMI fell to contractionary levels to 48.6 points in October from 50.7 points in September, a third deterioration in business conditions in the past four months. The index was the second-lowest in more than a year after July’s reading. However, after recording the first uplift in four months in September, output at South African businesses fell sharply at the start of the fourth quarter. The National Union…

Loyiso Sidimba, Sihle Mavuso, Tarryn-Leigh Solomons, Ntombi Nkosi and Sithandiwe Velaphi SOUTH AFRICA can bid farewell to the days when a single political party held a majority of votes in municipalities. Election specialist and political analyst Terry Tselane says where there are many councils, and there is no outright winner, this means that political parties must make those councils work. “In 2016 when we had the results the majority of political parties had not really understood what it means to be in a coalition and it was an emotional decision to be in that relationship. It produced what I referred to as a vat n’ set arrangement where there were marriages not based on principle and the person or party would walk in and out of the relationship,”…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za HALF OF the sale proceeds of a Constantia property are at the centre of a divorce settlement between a couple who now currently live in different countries in West Africa. The applicant – not named in court papers and who currently lives in Senegal – had applied for the recognition in the Western Cape High Court of an order that she obtained in the Senegalese courts dissolving the marriage between herself and the respondent, who currently lives in Nigeria. Presiding Judge, Ashley Binns-Ward said: “The order directed that an equal division of the parties’ property should follow in accordance with what the Senegalese court apparently accepted had been the parties’ marriage in community of property. The local significance of the order concerns its bearing on the proceeds…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za MEMBERS of the Trots DF Malan group have filed an application in the Western Cape High Court in a bid to prevent the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) from approving the Hoërskool DF Malan name change. The school’s name originated from Daniël François Malan, National Party prime minister from 1948 to 1954. During his term, the foundations for apartheid were laid. Debates around the name change at the Bellville school have persisted over the years with the current school governing body (SGB) working with staff, parents, learners and alumni to finally start a process to rethink all aspects of the school’s identity. However, not all parents and alumni supported the idea and a group “Trots DF Malan” was started on Facebook. Last month two new names were…

| OWN Correspondent Cathy Raubenheimer Loot.co.za (R215) LAVENDER PUBLISHING “BECOMING a mother has been my deepest desire. But it’s not happening. Now what?” Through her very open and honest first-hand account of her seven-year struggle to conceive, titled Abundantly Empty, Cathy hopes to help remove the stigma, improve understanding and provide inspiration to others on how to cope and keep moving forward. Abundantly Empty delves deep into the world of infertility and offers an insightful 360-degree perspective, with informative contributions from leading fertility specialists. They include Professor Thabo Matsaseng, and her clinical psychologist, as well as input from her husband Julian, family and friends. The egg donors and surrogates share their experiences too. In clear, direct “journal” language, the book traces the highs and lows, the elation and intense grief…

Methane measures and funding are welcome but coal reliance proves difficult The COP26 climate conference, one of the most important in history, is at a critical juncture after one week of negotiations. The rubber will really hit the road, politically, in the second week of the Glasgow COP, with ministers engaging directly in the final deal. The good news is the landmark methane slashing deal, in which leaders have committed to lower their emissions of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – by at least 30% this decade. The other positive development is the agreement to finally provide $100 billion (about R1.5 trillion) a year in climate financing to emerging economies to make the conversion to green energy more affordable, and to assist those nations struggling to recover from disasters…

Frankfurt: The World Health Organization yesterday expressed “grave concern” over the rising pace of coronavirus infections in Europe, as Germany registered its biggest daily increase since the start of the pandemic. “We are, once again, at the epicentre,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference. He warned that according to “one reliable projection”, the current trajectory would mean “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February. Alarm bells were ringing especially in Germany, where the number of new cases over the past 24 hours soared to almost 34 000 on Thursday – an all-time high, according to the Robert Koch Institute health agency. Meanwhile Britain yesterday became the first country in the world to approve the use of Merck’s anti-Covid pill to treat patients suffering from mild to…

LOS Angeles: Hollywood star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson pledged to never again use real guns in his films after friend and fellow actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on a set last month. Johnson said he was “heartbroken” to learn of the death of Halyna Hutchins on Baldwin’s film Rust, and that the tragedy made him reassess the use of firearms during the making of films through his company Seven Bucks Productions. “We lost a life,” the popular 49-year-old actor said.…

Ethiopian lawmakers yesterday endorsed a state of emergency after rebels advanced on the capital, sparking a US warning that an aid crisis that has already plunged hundreds of thousands into hunger could worsen further. A year to the day since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed deployed troops in the northernmost region of Tigray, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel fighters are now just a few hundred kilometres from Addis Ababa. Abiy’s government has been locked in a war for the past year with the TPLF, which dominated national politics before he took office in 2018. The 2019 Nobel Peace laureate promised a swift victory, but by late June the rebels had retaken most of Tigray and expanded into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara. The TPLF announced late on…

TOKYO: Shikoku Electric Power Co Inc is free to restart the No 3 reactor at its Ikata nuclear power station after the Hiroshima District Court rejected an injunction sought by local residents, the company said yesterday. The residents had said the reactor was vulnerable to major earthquakes, but Shikoku Electric said the court accepted the company’s safety assurances. The 890MW reactor has been shut since December 2019, first for maintenance and then because of another court case in January last year. Last March a court ruling on the case was overturned but the restart of the reactor was pushed back again after a violation of security regulations.…

THE increased number of hung municipalities and the resulting coalition governments on the South African political scene have further complicated the political landscape of the country, to an extent unseen for over 20 years. Elections can no longer be counted on to produce straightforward and immediate shifts in partisan control of local government. The election results reflect voters who are determined to do away with the dominant party system by choosing public representatives in a manner that broadens the scope and content of our multiparty democracy. And this trend, if managed properly over the next five years to the satisfaction of the citizens, will be consistently chosen in the hope that it will eventually spread out to national and provincial elections. Independent candidates will be allowed to contest national…

Ntombi Nkosi, Noni Mokati and Kailene Pillay DESPITE a looming court challenge over a recount in the eDumbe Local Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) declared the local government elections free and fair last night, saying it was satisfied that it had delivered quality elections. Just over 26.1 million South Africans registered to vote, with 12.3 million actually casting their votes. IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini congratulated the 10 461 incoming councils and reminded them that they should work hard to better the lives of South Africans. “The fact that we are here today, having delivered these elections, is an achievement we should all be proud of as a nation. Our thriving, vibrant and maturing democracy has indeed withstood the test thrown at it.” The IEC forged ahead with…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za THE CONSTIUTIONAL Court has reserved judgment in an application for the right to bury the remains of a foetus. The application was brought by the Voice of the Unborn Baby and the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban after some provisions of the Births and Deaths Registration Act were earlier declared unconstitutional. The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in April granted bereaved parents the right to bury the remains of a foetus caused by a spontaneous pregnancy loss of less than 26 weeks. In terms of act, remains younger than 26 weeks are discarded as medical waste. As the high court declared the provisions of the legislation unconstitutional, where it prevented parents from burying their foetuses (younger than 26 week) following events such as a miscarriage, the Concourt first has…

Julian Richfield REYNOLD Poernomo is a master of creativity in crafting imaginative food. He has a knack for delivering a feast for the senses. Alongside his family, he owns and runs the KOI Dessert Bars in Sydney, Australia (www.koidessertbar.com.au). We know Poernomo best from his two seasons (7 and 12) on MasterChef Australia. Cape Times book reviewer, Julian Richfield asked this dessert chef about his interesting culinary life and times. Q: Most South Africans know you from MasterChef Australia. How has the TV series affected your life? A: MasterChef was able to push me into a career direction that I can pursue for the rest of my life, whereas before I was studying nutrition and not really going anywhere. Pursuing my passion and finding purpose in my career also…

THE WISH Nicholas Sparks Loot.co.za (R235) GRAND CENTRAL IN 1996 everything changed for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at 16, to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind … until she met Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce showed her how much there was to love about the wind-swept beach town. He introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life. By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on…

FORMER All Blacks prop Carl Hayman, at 41 years of age, has confirmed he has early onset of dementia, and he is the latest among 150 former professional players preparing a landmark suit against World Rugby and its affiliates. Hayman said that the 450 professional games he played took an irreversible toll on his brain, as did all the contact training sessions in the weeks leading up to the games over a career that lasted close to 20 years. Hayman, like the other 150 players, according to reports, is claiming that rugby’s governing bodies, including World Rugby, failed to protect players from the risks caused by concussions and sub-concussions. The suit will argue that World Rugby and its affiliates were armed with the knowledge and evidence to do so. But…

Nineteen countries, including the US, yesterday vowed to end direct funding for all unabated overseas fossil fuel projects by 2022, though major coal, oil and gas funders China, Japan and South Korea were absent from the pledge. G20 nations last month agreed to end financial support for new unabated coal plants abroad, but yesterday’s commitment is the first of its kind to include oil and gas projects. The British-led initiative saw countries and financial institutions agree to “end new direct public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy sector by the end of 2022”. Unabated fossil fuel projects are those that do not deploy technology to absorb the carbon pollution they produce. Announcing the initiative, Britain’s business minister Greg Hands said: “We must put public finance on the right…

WASHINGTON: Bill Gates has called for a massive global effort in order to prepare the world for future pandemics, suggesting, among other things, the carrying out of so-called “germ games” and pouring more money into vaccine research. “It’ll take probably about a billion a year for a pandemic Task Force at the WHO level which is doing the surveillance and actually doing what I call ‘germ games’, where you practice”, Gates explained, speaking to the think tank Policy Exchange. “You say, OK, what if a terrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports? “You know, how would the world respond to that?” In a sit-down with former UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Gates grimly admitted that his predictions about the world’s readiness for pandemics several years ago turned out to be “a…

NEW DELHI: India’s capital was choked in a shroud of thick, toxic smog yesterday as millions gathered with family and friends to celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali. New Delhi is ranked as one of the most polluted mix of factory emissions, car exhaust and smoke from agricultural fires settling in the skies over its 20 million people each winter. People across the sprawling city woke to find themselves enveloped in a grey-yellow blanket of haze, with experts warning of worse to come in the days ahead. Levels of PM2.5 – the smallest and most harmful particles polluting the air – peaked at an average of 389 yesterday in readings.…

BEIJING: The trilateral security and defence deal that enables Australia to boost its military capacity by acquiring nuclear-powered submarines is “highly problematic”, a watchdog has warned. “Security and defence pacts today are about the Pacific Ocean – which is our home – but it has never been with Pacific people,” Maureen Penjueli, coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation, said recently in a statement. Australia, Britain and the United States in mid September announced the security partnership, in which Britain and the US will share highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia.…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za The APPOINTMENT of deputy finance minister David Masondo as the new chairperson of the Public Invest- ment Corporation (PIC) alongside labour stalwart Frans Baleni into the new look board has been hailed as positive by sectors of the economy. This appointment has become effective after amendments to the PIC statutes earlier this year provided for a deputy finance minister or any other deputy minister in the economic cluster to chair the PIC board. The State earlier this year has made an amendment to the PIC act to facilitate for a stronger transfor- mation role for the PIC to play in the economy in view of previous con- troversies of the State funder which holds a huge chunk of civil servants funds. This presents a slight, but important…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za POLICE are investigating a case of assault following a scuffle between a Patriotic Alliance (PA) and a DA candidate at the Da Gama Park voting station in Simon’s Town. Ward 61 PA candidate Aslam Richards has alleged that DA ward councillor Simon Liell-Cock “kicked him and hit him with both hands” at the voting station on Monday when he questioned him about wearing a DA T-shirt inside the facility. “I was attacked by the DA councillor during the special votes and told by a police officer to open a case. “The DA councillor was inside the boundaries of the IEC with his political T-shirt on. I was outside and I called him and I told him he’s breaking the rules. “I told the councillor if he does…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za WHETHER a pothole is reported in Gugulethu or Durbanville, the service from the City must be the same, says Cape Town Mayor Elect, Geordin Hill-Lewis. In an exclusive interview with the Cape Times yesterday, Hill-Lewis, 34, said he had been overwhelmed by hundreds of messages so far and did not have any staff yet so it was just himself and his laptop trying to get through everything. The Cape Times asked him a series of questions encompassing his vision for Cape Town, covering a range of areas including municipal services, affordable housing, homelessness and more. “I want Cape Town to be the most inclusive city in South Africa, to give hope to the whole country about what is possible,” he said. Addressing issues about different services being…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za Marsha Dean marsha.dean@inl.co.za DESPITE having lost his home and possessions in a fire in August, this did not stop 17-year-old Inga Phalaza from achieving his dream, as he was recently crowned Junior National Kickboxing champion. From Driftsands, Phalaza was triumphant at the provincial event held in Ottery last month, and travelled to compete in Pretoria on Saturday, where he won by knockout in the second round. The Grade 10 learner from Manzomthombo High School said he and his mother lost everything when their shack caught fire in August. They had to split up, and now live with relatives, but this did not deter him from fulfilling his dreams. He said he drew inspiration from Irish professional mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, and he now dreams of becoming…

Reviewer: Julian Richfield THE DESSERT GAME Reynold Poernomo Loot.co.za (R390) MURDOCH BOOKS THE boy felt peckish. Home alone, he headed for the fridge and found a container of ice cream and put it on the kitchen counter. He had noticed some bottles of dark liquid on the fridge’s top shelf. He took one down and poured some of the liquid over his bowl of ice cream. The liquid was coffee liqueur, and it ignited a love for desserts that became life-changing. The family’s name is Poernomo, the boy’s name is Reynold. Today, Reynold Poernomo is the creative genius behind family business Koi Dessert Bars in Sydney, Australia. We in South Africa know him from his appearances in the iconic MasterChef Australia series and his jaw-dropping creations. His South African fans…

Orielle Berry orielle.berry@inl.co.za Damon Galgut has won this year’s prestigious Booker prize for his book The Promise. The announcement was made at a televised event held in London, and broadcast live to a global audience of millions by the BBC. This is third time lucky for the talented Cape Town-based writer, after he was shortlisted in 2003 and 2010 for The Good Doctor and In a Strange Room. Maya Jasanoff, chairperson of the 2021 Booker judges, made the announcement. Previous South Africans to win the prize are Nadine Gordimer in 1974 for The Conservationist, and JM Coetzee, who won it twice, for Life and Times of Michael K in 1983, and Disgrace in 1999. The Promise is Galgut’s ninth novel and his first in seven years. It’s the…

WHEN Temba Bavuma heads out to toss the coin alongside his England counterpart, Eoin Morgan, tomorrow afternoon, for the last Group 1 match at the T20 World Cup, he will know exactly what South Africa will need to do in order to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament. That can be good and bad. Good in that it provides clarity. Bad in that it could see the team not push the pedal to the metal and, instead, try to do just enough to ensure they get through. The latter happened to South Africa at the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, when the Proteas could afford a loss in the final group match. Instead, they ended up losing by too much – cue a bunch of jokes about South…

AUSTRALIAN police charged a 36-year-old man yesterday with abducting a 4-year-old girl from an outback campsite 18 days before she was found safe in a locked house. The man was twice taken to hospital for self-inflicted injuries before being interviewed and charged with various offences related to the abduction, police in Western Australia state said in a statement. The girl, Cleo Smith, had last been seen in her family’s tent in the early hours of October 16 at the remote Blowholes Shacks campsite in Macleod. Her disappearance triggered an extensive search by land and air, along with roadblocks and scouring of CCTV footage. She was found safe on Wednesday when police broke into a house in Carnarvon, a town about 100km south of the campsite on the far northwest coast…

Stepping out of a shared taxi in central Riyadh, Reham Al-Ahmed walked into the mall where she works four days a week selling cosmetics. Al-Ahmed, a high school graduate, is the first woman in her family to have a job. With steep new taxes and cuts to government subsidies, many families are increasingly relying on women to work. In so doing, women are negotiating a new place for themselves in their country’s delicate social fabric – a trend celebrated by some and watched suspiciously by others in a country still tethered to its conservative traditions. “I used to feel guilty asking my father for anything,” the 24-year-old said. “But since I started working, I’m proud I can help out my family.” Showing up to work across the country every day…

BUCHAREST: Authorities have arrested four people in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia on suspicion of forming a tax evasion crime ring in Germany, European prosecutors said yesterday, adding €23 million (R404m) worth of assets had been seized. “The main suspects organised a so-called value added tax carousel, which involved the repeated circulation of platinum coins through the same companies,” the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Luxembourg said in a statement. The arrests took place over the past two days, it said. Prosecutors said the tax loss resulting from these activities was at least €23m.…

LAGOS: The death toll from a building collapse in the city of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, rose to 36 yesterday after more bodies were retrieved from the debris by rescuers. Between Wednesday and yesterday morning, more than 10 bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the 21-storey building under construction in the Ikoyi area of Lagos which collapsed on Monday afternoon, according to Ibrahim Farinloye, co-ordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the Lagos state. Farinloye said the number of rescued people stood at nine so far. “Out of the nine survivors, one was a female, and eight were males,” he said.…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za AMAZULU’S frustrating home form continued as they were held to a 0-0 stalemate by a struggling Marumo Gallants in a rescheduled Premiership game at King Zwelithini Stadium yesterday. The match was originally set to be held on Wednesday, but was cancelled after 10 minutes owing to similarities in kit between the teams. AmaZulu donned their away kit for this game which put paid to the confusion. Boring accurately describes the first half of the game as neither team managed to exert their domination, with opportunities for either side being few and far between. It was the away team that carved the only real good opportunity of the first half as a shot from Junior Dion had to be parried onto the post by AmaZulu goalkeeper Veli Mothwa.…