Indholdsfortegnelse for 2022-01-27 i Cape Times

Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za IN AN EFFORT to reduce costs and maximise existing cash reserved for its Spanish Toral project, Europa Metals has announced that it has cut the salaries of three directors. The JSE-listed company said yesterday that the cost reduction programme started on January 1. “The company’s existing directors Myles Campion, Laurence Read and Evan Kirby have agreed to the deferral/accrual of 50 percent of their director remuneration (comprising consulting fees and/or salaries) in respect of the 2022 calendar year, with such accrued remuneration to then be settled via the issue of new ordinary shares,” Europa Metals said. Europa Metals chief executive Laurence Read said: “Our cost-cutting programme aims to ensure that our resources are directed as far as possible on project-related expenditure and existing operations, as well…

John Legend recently announced his forthcoming skincare line and spoke about the same in a recent interview, reported People magazine. He shared with Fortune that while his career gives him a vested interest in having healthy skin, it was the notion that “everybody cares about presenting themselves well,” that served as inspiration for his latest venture, which is currently unnamed. “Of course, I’m in the public eye, and so there’s a bit more of a premium placed on making sure we take care of ourselves,” he shared. “But everybody has skin, and everybody cares about their skin, and everybody cares about presenting themselves well in every situation, whether it’s family, community, or wherever they are.” Legend has teamed up with Los Angeles holding company A-Frame Brands, founded by actor and…

Odwa Mkentane and Lisa Isaacs THE devastated mother of four-year-old Ophayo Tukushe, who was electrocuted as a result of illegal power connections, has laid the blame at the feet of the George municipality for not attending to the issue. Another family member was electrocuted at the same fence the next day but survived. Siyanda Tukushe said her son was playing with other children in the backyard of their Thembalethu home on Saturday when she heard screaming and crying. Ophayo had touched an energised fence that ran past her home to nearby informal settlements. “When I went outside my child was already dead. Later, I found out that the child was electrocuted by the fence. I was told that people from the informal settlement illegally connected their wires on our fence,”…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za DESPITE a decrease in incidents, the December school holidays provided cover for criminals to target schools, with 41 incidents of burglary and vandalism, affecting 34 schools, being reported, the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) said. “This is a significant decrease in comparison to the 59 incidents reported during the December 2020/January 2021 holidays (bearing in mind that the 2020/21 holiday was much longer), but nonetheless remains a serious concern,” said Education MEC Debbie Schäfer. Items stolen included IT and audio-visual equipment, electrical cables and fixtures, fencing, water pipes and ablution fixtures, air-conditioning units, gas tanks, stationery, kitchen equipment, Covid-19 safety supplies, bicycles, and workshop tools. There were also incidents of vandalism, particularly the smashing of windows, as well as damage to school buildings during burglaries, the…

THE suspension of ANC MP Mervyn Dirks for demanding accountability on the part of President Cyril Ramaphosa is problematic for three reasons. It breaks the law, undermines the role of Parliament in holding the executive accountable, and rips through the foundation of our constitutional democracy. ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina suspended Dirks last week, removing him from his position as the party’s whip on the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), and stripping him of all party roles in the National Assembly. Dirks’ sin was to write to Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa asking the committee to summon Ramaphosa to explain his utterances at an ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting in which he said that he was aware of people who abused public funds for party political purposes, but would…

A BENT-toed gecko and a Cardamom leaf-litter frog in Cambodia are among the 224 newly discovered species in the Greater Mekong subregion in 2020, said a World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) report released yesterday. A total of 155 plants, 16 fishes, 17 amphibians, 35 reptiles and one mammal were discovered in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, the report said, adding that this brought the total number of vascular plants, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals described in the Greater Mekong since 1997 to 3 007. “With over 3 000 new species in the past 24 years, the Greater Mekong region is no doubt a world heavyweight contender for species discoveries,” Xinhua news agency reported, citing K Yoganand, WWF-Greater Mekong’s regional lead for wildlife. “These species are extraordinary, beautiful…

Despite political promises made for deportations to be carried out, Sweden has been struggling to clear up its growing shadow society. 2021 became at least the fifth year in a row when over 10 000 people with rejected resident permits avoided deportation and are wanted by the police, according to national broadcaster SVT. “We have people in our society that we don’t know and that no one has control over,” Cajsa Velden, the head of the National Border Police, told SVT. Neither the Swedish Migration Board nor the police can answer how many people are actually involved in the shadow society as undocumented residents. “I believe many of those who move in Sweden also move very quickly across several borders within Europe. It is difficult to have control over how…

Maputo: A convoy of Mozambican officials inspecting damage from tropical storm Ana was swept away by a swollen river yesterday, leaving one person dead and one missing. The cars were trying to cross the Revuboe River, after a bridge had collapsed when Ana tore through the region earlier this week, the Tete provincial governor said on Radio Mozambique. The team wasn’t able to retrieve one car. A radio journalist was rescued from it but provincial administrator Jose Maria Mandere was found dead, the governor said. A third person remains missing. The death brought to 47 the number of people killed in Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi as a result of floods across the region.…

Montreal: An Indigenous community in Canada has identified nearly 100 “potential” graves at a residential school site, months after the discovery of hundreds of children’s remains at former boarding schools rocked the country. The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) community said on Tuesday that a geophysical survey revealed “93 reflections” with characteristics “indicative of potential human burials” at the former St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. Investigators “surveyed approximately 14 hectares of the broader 480-hectare site,” WLFN said.…

Lutho Pasiya lutho.pasiya@inl.co.za Summer’s fruit harvest is so bountiful, it’s hard to choose a favourite. But juicy, sweet mangoes are our pick – maybe because they taste like vacation, or maybe because they work in any dish, from chicken to fish to frozen yoghurt. If you’re new to the savoury mango scene, start with a fresh salsa – it will change the way you eat your braai meat forever. Small cubes of fresh mango, tomato, cucumber, corn, red onion, coriander or parsley, fresh chilli, you name it. Then a squeeze of lemon or lime and a splash of olive oil, salt and you’ve made mango magic. Mangoes also love to be baked – with chicken, with fish, even with feta and lentils. Their balance of sweetness and acidity, together with…

Chevon Booysen Chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A SOMERSET West mother says she is at her wits’ end and fears the longer-term impacts on her 11-year-old daughter’s schooling career as she has been struggling to get her placement for nearly eight months. Vaneena Ruiters, an unemployed single mother, says this experience has made her even more anxious, thinking of having her 4-year-old placed for Grade R. Ruiters, who had moved to the area last year due to a housing matter, said her daughter had travelled between Bellville and Somerset West for a month before the arrangement became “financially strenuous”. “I feel the basic right to education for my child and many other children in South Africa has been denied, as there are not enough schools where learners can be placed. “Since relocating to Somerset…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has set its sights on reviewing and setting aside the R54.3 million contract the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) awarded to service provider, Masiqhame Trading 1057 CC for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). This was contained in the final SIU report on its investigation into procurement by all spheres of government of goods, works and services associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. The SIU was alerted by a member of the public regarding concerns about the award of contracts by the WCED to Masiqhame. The payments to Masiqhame amounted to R111 826 721, according to the SIU report. The SIU said its investigation focused on the procurement of hand sanitisers and related items amounting to R73 724 348, and the procurement…

Staff writer MULTI-AWARD-WINNING actress and doyenne of the South African stage Fiona Ramsay takes on the iconic part of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire at the Artscape Theatre next month. Ramsay is no stranger to the Williams oeuvre, having recently picked up a Fleur du Cap nomination for her sensational portrayal of Princess Kosmonopolis in Sweet Bird of Youth (2018) and winning the 2020 best actress award for her interpretation of Amanda Wingfield ins The Glass Menagerie. She now adds Williams’s greatest female character, to this distinguished list. “A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway in 1947 and became an instant classic. Streetcar is regarded as one of the most influential plays of the 20th century. The 1951 film version, starring Vivien Leigh…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za REPEAT offender Jakobus Petoors will today face a minimum sentence of life imprisonment after he pleaded guilty in the Western Cape High Court yesterday to the murder and rape of 8-year-old Reagan Gertse, from Tulbagh. Petoors admitted to the crime during plea proceedings yesterday, said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila. Petoors, who had been out on parole for the rape of a 5-year-old boy from Paarl, faced charges of kidnapping, rape and murder. According to court documents, Petoors was serving a 12-year sentence for the previous rape matter when he was released on parole in 2019 after he had fallen ill. He is currently serving the remainder of his 12-year sentence, which is 1 604 days, said Ntabazalila. Petoors, 55, pleaded guilty to the three…

President needs to urgently address ex-combatants’ discontent over prescribed benefits President Cyril Ramaphosa must address the question of military veterans’ benefits if he wants peace and stability. In October last year, a group of military veterans held two government ministers and a deputy minister hostage. They demanded government jobs, R4.2 million compensation each, land for housing, and free education for their dependants. The group, which called itself the Liberation Struggle War Veterans, consists of former members of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla) and the Azanian National Liberation Army (Azanla), allied to the Black Consciousness Movement. In 2011, the Military Veterans Act was promulgated and obliges the state to provide military veterans access to health care, subsidised public transport, education, skills and job training as well…

BEIRUT: A decision by Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri to step away from Lebanese politics opens the way for Shia Hezbollah to extend its already deep sway over the country, rendering it ever more a bastion of Iranian influence on the Mediterranean. Three times prime minister Hariri declared on Monday he would suspend his role in public life and boycott a general election in May, citing Iranian influence as one of the reasons he saw little hope of positive change. It opens a new phase in Lebanon’s sectarian politics, governed by a system of power-sharing among its sects, and adds to the uncertainties facing a country suffering a financial meltdown that marks the biggest threat to stability since a 1975-90 civil war. Hariri’s move will accelerate the fragmentation of the…

LONDON: Britain cannot delay its decision on whether to allow the extradition of tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch to the US until the impending judgment in a civil claim against him is made public, the High Court in London said yesterday. US prosecutors want the 56-year-old to stand trial in the US on fraud charges connected to the sale of Autonomy, the software company he founded and led, to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in an $11 billion deal in 2011. Lynch had sought to delay extradition proceedings pending the outcome of HP’s civil case against him.…

THE US Coast Guard said yesterday that rescue teams had found one body in their search for 39 people reported missing after their boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida in what is being called a human smuggling attempt gone awry. US Coast Guard Commander Jo-Ann Burdian said during a news conference that the search for survivors would continue throughout the day, a day after a good Samaritan found a man perched on the mostly submerged hull of the overturned boat and rescued him. The good Samaritan rescued a man clinging to the hull of a boat about 72km east of Fort Pierce Inlet, according to the Coast Guard. The man told authorities that the boat encountered severe weather on its voyage from Bimini in the Bahamas and capsized,…

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday said it was assessing risks that funds for banned weapons could be funnelled through the regional commercial and trade hub, part of its efforts to avoid making a dirty money watchlist before a review in March. The UAE and the Financial Action Task Force, a global financial crime monitoring group, will hold meetings in Paris next month before the watchdog in March updates its list of high-risk jurisdictions. “The risk assessment will cover how financial resources may be used to develop nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and dual-use goods used in their delivery,” said a media statement.…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za HARMONY Gold Mining said yesterday that production of the yellow metal had remained steady in the six months to end-December 2021 at 22 355kg (718 726 ounces) compared with 22 031kg produced during the previous six months period ended June 30, 2021. The mining group said in an update ahead of the interim results to be announced on February 28 that gold production over these specific periods was compared because they included a full six months’ production from Mponeng and related assets, whereas the same six-month period a year before included only three months’ production from Mponeng. Rand per kilogram costs for the South African operations remain broadly in line with what was originally guided at about R765 000/kg to R800 000/kg.…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed an appeal by a logistics company who tried to escape liability for SA Revenue Service (Sars) penalties of over R30 million in relation to consignments of alcohol in a customs warehouse in Cape Town. The case concerned the interpretation of contractual provisions intended to indemnify the licensee of a customs warehouse against liability for customs duty, VAT, and other charges or whether surety liability was limited to charges in respect of storage. The court found in the favour of the licensee, Zacpak Cape Town Depot, and dismissed the appeals of Cornerstone Logistics and Preston Aitken with costs, ordering them to pay Zacpack the money owed to Sars. The matter dates back to September 2017, when Cornerstone Logistics, represented by…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-Leigh.Solomons@iinl.co.za Investigations into the sexual assault allegations against Western Cape Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz are officially under way as Premier Alan Winde confirmed that an advocate has been appointed to probe the matter. Advocate Jennifer Williams will be conducting the investigations after it emerged that young employees in Fritz’s department had allegedly fallen victim to sexual assault by the MEC. One of the employees in a post on social media wrote: “With regards to this post and a lot of questions and calls I have been receiving concerning MEC Albert Fritz. It’s a sensitive matter. “I have also been receiving legal advice on this matter from my lawyer. “I have decided not to make any statements to the media at this time. If there are legal proceedings…

Mushtak Parker TO THE famous bespectacled Greek goddess of a singing star of the sixties and beyond, Nana Mouskouri, he was “my faithful Youssie”. That Yusuf Allie should be so endeared in Mouskouri’s autobiography, Memoirs, is testimony to his passion and skills as an accomplished classical guitarist in her accompanying band, The Athenians. Not bad for a self-taught guitarist – a boy hailing from the Bo-Kaap area in Cape Town forced to pursue his calling as a musician abroad like many of his compatriots of colour during the height of the apartheid era. As such Yusuf Allie’s peaceful passing in Langebaan on January 19 2022 at the age of 86 not surprisingly is deeply mourned by his multitude of family, friends, music fans and of course BoKaapenaars. Mouskouri’s Twitter post…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za CONDOLENCES have been pouring in for Shariefa Khan, the oldest District Six claimant who passed away at the age of 100 yesterday, unrestituted. Khan died in the early hours after experiencing breathing difficulties and was buried in accordance with Muslim rites in Elsies River. Khan had signed the papers to receive her new apartment in District Six last April, as part of Phase 3 of the restitution process and her family had spent some months making the unit more comfortable and disability-friendly for her. Khan, however, never received final permission to move in, as the national government is still in the process of addressing safety concerns and defects in the buildings. Speaking on behalf of the family yesterday, Karen Breytenbach of the District 6 Working Committee said…

Chinese president Xi Jinping speech at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) on 18 January highlighted that the policy of “common prosperity” was aimed at reducing income inequality within China by creating a larger cake to share rather than dividing up a small cake. “The common prosperity we desire is not egalitarianism,” Xi told WEF delegates via a video link. He said: “We will first make the pie bigger and then divide it properly through reasonable institutional arrangements. As a rising tide lifts all boats, everyone will get a fair share from development, and development gains will benefit all our people in a more substantial and equitable way.” The Chinese government has via its National Congresses and Five-Year Plans set out a phased approach of achieving modernisation and common moderate prosperity.…

Burkina Faso’s ousted president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, “is physically well” and is being held by the army in a villa, a source in his party said yesterday. Kabore’s state and whereabouts have been a key issue since he was overthrown by mutineering soldiers on Monday, with the UN leading calls for his release. “President Kabore is physically well, but I cannot say anything about his state of mind,” said a source in Kabore’s People’s Movement for Progress party. Kabore “is still in the hands of the army, not in a military camp, but in a presidential villa under house arrest”, the source said. “He has a doctor available... (and) access to his mobile phone, but under surveillance, obviously.” Kabore, 64, was elected in 2015 following a popular revolt that…

LOS ANGELES: Rihanna’s foundation has donated $15 million (about R227m) to climate justice. The 33-year-old singer has pledged the money to 18 climate justice organisations – including the Climate Justice Alliance and the Movement for Black Lives – through her Clara Lionel Foundation. A statement explained: “Climate disasters, which are growing in frequency and intensity, do not impact all communities equally, with communities of colour and island nations facing the brunt of climate change. “In this spirit, we are proud to commit $15m to 18 organisations working on climate justice across the US and Caribbean in partnership with #StartSmall, Jack Dorsey’s philanthropic initiative. “These grants support entities focused on and led by women, youth, black, indigenous, people of colour and LGBTQIA+ communities. “We invite others to join us in elevating,…

Moscow: The Kremlin said yesterday that imposing personal sanctions on President Vladimir Putin would have no effect and would be counterproductive in efforts to lower tensions over Ukraine. “Politically, it’s not painful, it’s destructive,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. This, after US President Joe Biden threatened personal measures against the Russian leader over the crisis. “US congressmen and senators who are not quite familiar with this topic are speaking about freezing the assets of representatives of Russia’s leadership,” Peskov said.…

OSLO: Afghan women’s rights activists have submitted a paper to the Taliban delegation visiting Norway demanding rights. Hoda Khamosh, one of the women’s rights representatives at the meeting, called for the release of two women activists who disappeared last week, reported Tolo News. Another Afghan activist Mahbouba Seraj, who attended the meeting, said the Islamic Emirate should fulfil whatever they promise at the meeting. “If they continue this way, to tell us something and do something else, that’s when trust is going to break, completely … they should remember what happened to the ex-government of Afghanistan. We lost trust with them too.”…