Sommaire pour 2022-02-09 de Cape Times

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE AGITATED waters of KwaZulu- Natal’s biggest bulk water supplier, Umgeni Water, with its board woes, were somewhat calmer yesterday after the entity appointed Thamsanqa Mkhwanazi as its chief financial officer (CFO) and debt officer. “The board confirms it has considered and is satisfied with the competence, qualifications and experience of the newly appointed debt officer. “Mkhwanazi is an experienced chartered accountant and has extensive experience in leading finance teams. He is the executive responsible for interacting with stakeholders going forward on all finance related matters,” the board said. Mkhwanazi takes over the position from Kajal Singh, who was appointed the acting CFO in November 2020. The entity has had tumultuous times recently with apparent political fights between former KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu reversing fiery initiatives of…

Marchelle Abrahams marchelle.abrahams@inl.co.za When it comes to family planning, the onus is usually on women to get the job done. After all, we are the vessels anatomically created to carry precious cargo. But it takes two for conception to take place. Why aren’t men doing their part in taking preventative measures? When Johannesburg photographer Jag, 29, announced on social media last week that he had undergone the “Big Snip”, he had not anticipated the knee-jerk reaction it elicited. Posting photos of himself during recovery, he wrote: “I did it. I just got my irreversible vasectomy done. “I’m 29. Unmarried. No children and no intention of ever having any. I’ve wanted this for years. It’s surreal.” The pinned post immediately went viral on Twitter, with more than 900 likes and 5.3K…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za FOSKOR has said a suspected gas leak, which saw schoolchildren from Richards Bay being hospitalised on Monday, had not emanated from its plant. The company released a statement yesterday after a local councillor and residents said they had suspected the foul air came from the plant. Paramedics said on Monday that pupils and some residents experienced nausea, vomiting, difficulties in breathing after breathing in the noxious air. Hulisani Nemaxwi, group manager for corporate affairs at Foskor, said in the statement that they received a complaint of a possible gas leak at their acid plant from the uMhlathuze Municipality. “Foskor received a complaint from the uMhlathuze Local Municipality regarding a possible gas leak from our acid plant at a localised area of Richards Bay High School. “A detailed…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za OPPOSITION parties have welcomed the decision by the Hessequa Municipality Council to withdraw the appointment of sexual harassment-accused Thys Giliomee from the position of municipal manager, following outrage after it emerged that he was being recommended for the position. The DA mayor of the Hessequa Municipality, Grant Riddles, initially said Giliomee was appointed as municipal manager with effect from January 1 following all legal procedures. Giliomee was accused of sexually assaulting a junior employee during his tenure as municipal manager at the Mossel Bay Municipality. He was placed on special, full-paid leave pending an investigation into the alleged misconduct. His contract was later terminated before he could face a disciplinary hearing. The EFF in the Western Cape wrote to the mayor, opposing Giliomee’s appointment and saying it was…

IF THE country appoints people to senior, very influential positions for reasons other than their being the most competent and most appropriately experienced candidates, we are doomed to failure on a grand scale. Similarly, if we continue to entrust such appointments – or recommendations for such appointments – to committees that include people with ulterior motives and who themselves are under clouds of suspicion, we shall fall even harder. Having fired my opening salvo, let me turn from such people to those whose story should be compulsory reading for everyone, especially for folks steeped in the demand culture of our time. For his exceptional bravery, loyalty to his team and his personal endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton stands apart from several current leaders for whom expediency and their own devious agendas…

Staff writer CAPE Town independent curator, artist and sociologist Khanyisile Mbongwa says she is looking forward to curating the UK’s largest contemporary visual arts festival in 2023, the Liverpool Biennial. Previously chief curator of the Stellenbosch Triennale 2020, Mbongwa has been appointed curator of the 12th edition of the Liverpool Biennial, which will take place between June and September 2023. “I am excited to work with the Liverpool Biennial team on the 12th edition and am curious to find out what the city will show me about my curatorial processes during my time there. “I’m looking forward to co-creating with individuals, collectives and organisations within Liverpool and beyond and am interested to see how the city has established itself historically, how it sustains itself in this moment and how it…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za THE Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) says it will meet to “try to get a sense of what is going on, and why” after a man, believed to be one of their members, was shot and killed in Langa yesterday. “As an organisation, we are shocked to hear that there has been a shooting where one operator was killed,” Cata secretary Mandla Hermanus said. “We don't know what is going on there but it seems there is a problem with the association in Langa. “The executive committee of Cata is currently out of town. We are at a conference but we are coming back this evening. “We will try to get to the bottom of what is going on but we condemn the killing in the strongest…

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games have begun in earnest featuring nearly 3 000 athletes from more than 90 countries. These Olympics, running from February 4 to 20, are hosted under the motto: “Together for a Shared Future”. This motto is not an empty meaningless slogan, but has, undoubtedly, rich resonance with the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In its full expression of “promote a sense of community of shared future for mankind”, it was pronounced and propagated by President Xi Jinping, in November 2013, at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. What did President Xi mean by this phrase, and how can it possibly be relevant, inarguably, for the present global community beset by the colliding pandemics of Covid-19, economic uncertainty and…

TUNIS: Tunisia’s main Western donors voiced “deep concern” yesterday at the president’s move to dissolve a body tasked with ensuring judicial independence after he seized wide powers last year in a move critics call a coup. President Kais Saied declared the abolition of the Supreme Judicial Council on Sunday, a move the body rejected as illegal and an attempt to undermine judges’ independence. Ambassadors to Tunisia from the G7 group said “a transparent, independent and efficient judiciary and the separation of powers are essential for a functioning democracy”. Tunisia faces a massive crisis in public finances, with Tunisians complaining of shortages of some goods and with the central bank governor warning of an economic collapse like in Venezuela or Lebanon. Tunisia has started talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)…

George Crumb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who challenged musicians and listeners with his unconventional scores – incorporating curiosities from whale calls to thimbles – that epitomised the originality of the avant-garde, died on Sunday at his home in Media, Pennsylvania. He was 92. Crumb was one of the most prominent American composers of his generation, at times ranked alongside John Cage and Henry Cowell in his place in contemporary classical music. He was most active in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in music for his orchestral suite Echoes of Time and the River. In 2001, he received a Grammy Award for best classical contemporary composition for Star-Child, his most ambitious work. Crumb was influenced by Eastern music as well as by late 19th and early 20th-century…

WARSAW: More than 150 non-governmental organisations are asking the European Commission to intervene to halt the construction of a wall on the Polish-Belarusian border running through protected areas, including one of Europe’s last primeval forests. Poland started building a 186km metal barrier in January to deter migrants after nearly 40 000 people from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa tried to cross from Belarus last year. The barrier is to run through several protected Natura 2000 areas, including the Bialowieza Forest, a Unesco World Natural Heritage site and home to the European bison, lynx and other endangered species. | Reuters…

JERUSALEM: Israeli security forces killed three Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank yesterday, Israel’s domestic security service said. The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the killing as a “field execution”. The armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah group claimed the three men as members. A Palestinian source had earlier said the men belonged to the Islamic Jihad group, but a source in the group later denied that. The Shin Bet security service described the men as a “terrorist squad” that had carried out shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the area over the past few weeks. There were no casualties reported in those attacks. | Reuters…

Lutho Pasiya lutho.pasiya@inl.co.za Nando’s South Africa has got Mzansi laughing again, this time with a tweet to Big Brother Mzansi’s ex-contestant Rethabile Potsane, aka Dinky Bliss. On Sunday, Big Brother Mzansi season three housemates Rethabile Potsane and Mvelo Ntuli got evicted from the reality television show as they received the least number of votes from the public. Potsane’s eviction did not sit well with many viewers as she was more entertaining than most housemates and created a lot of content. Having hugged everyone, she twerked at the exit door before going to meet Lawrence Maleka, the host, on stage. Potsane’s fans are sad about her eviction, some saying Saturday parties will never be the same without her. Among the tweeps who have taken to social media to express the “shocking…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za A BLACK contractor who believes the Stellenbosch Municipality discriminated against his company, Beatrice Nina Group (Pty), is struggling to get answers as he has still not received any of the documents requested through a Promotion of Access to Information (Paia) application. On November 25, Willyford Halala filed a Paia application to the Stellenbosch Municipality, to which he only received approval on January 6. Halala’s application requested bid documents from himself and other bidders, bid adjudication committee minutes and reports, and any other documentation “evidencing the adjudication of the bids in Bid B/SM69/21”. The approval letter, seen by the Cape Times, signed by the information officer in relation to the documents, was for 1 532 pages. Halala said: “On or about 27 January 2022, we paid an access…

Okuhle Hlati and Odwa Mkentane FULL-time schooling was delayed for pupils along the West Coast this week after scholar transport failed to pitch. This while in Khayelitsha, bus drivers’ apparent salary cuts left pupils from Noluthando School for the Deaf stranded as well. Affected pupils in the West Coast included those from Schoonspruit Secondary School and Steynville Secondary School. Disgruntled parents stood with their stranded children yesterday, calling for the problem to be addressed. Kerry Mauchline, spokesperson for Education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said the return to normal school timetabling required more transport. “Unfortunately, an administrative matter with one transport contractor resulted in a number of pupils in the Moorreesburg area not being transported to school on Monday and yesterday. “This matter has been resolved so that the contractor can transport the…

Ingredients Method 1/2 cup of raisins and sultanas ¼ cup full cream sherry 1 bay leaf (optional) 3 Tbsp Cherry preserve (or other good quality berry preserve) Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 tsp of thyme leaves roughly chopped 1/4 cup shelled pistachios 250gm puff pastry 250gm – 350gm wheel of Camembert or wedge of Brie Beaten egg Toasted slices of baguette to serve (or any cracker) Put the raisins, sherry, and bay leaf into a small pot and place it on low heat. Allow the raisins to heat through and the sherry to evaporate for about 3 minutes. Add the preserve, thyme, and a grind of black pepper and stir to combine. Cook for a further minute or two. Take the pot off the heat, add the pistachios, and allow the…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za “PLEASE Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate was happy yesterday after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ordered Vodacom to recalculate what his invention was worth. The court found he was short-changed by Vodacom and that the cellphone giant had to go back to the drawing board to come up with a suitable amount. Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub was given a month to recalculate what was owed to Makate, using the guidelines issued by the court. Judge Wendy Hughes made it clear that the earlier calculations Joosub used in offering Makate R47 million, for what she called a brilliant invention, was by far too conservative. Vodacom was in a better position than the court to calculate the true worth of the invention, she said, but gave certain directives of…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za BEAUTY retailer Clicks called the police to remove gender-based violence activist June Dolley Major yesterday, after she spent the night outside its head office in a bid to get someone to receive her memorandum calling for the company to stop doing business with Heart FM. Protesting outside the building with two other women, Celestea Pierang and Felicity Roland, Dolley Major said she would not leave until the company accepted her memorandum that Clicks stop spending money with Heart FM until a senior manager embroiled in sexual harassment allegation is removed from their employ. Instead, she said: “They sent the building manager to ask us to leave and he said he was not in the right capacity to accept the memorandum as he was not the public relations…

THE attacks on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for recommending the president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Judge Mandisa Maya, for appointment as chief justice are a threat to the judiciary and our constitutional democracy. After interviewing four candidates for the position of head of the judiciary last week, the JSC recommended Judge Maya for appointment by President Cyril Ramaphosa. They gave her the nod ahead of Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Constitutional Court Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga and Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo following an intense interview process. The JSC is an inclusive 23 member body – which includes the chief justice, heads of superior courts, MPs, legal practitioners, law academics and members designated by the president – which has been interviewing and recommending judges for more than 20…

Military prosecutors in Burkina Faso have requested 30 years in jail for former president Blaise Compaore over the 1987 murder of his predecessor, revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. It asked a court to find Compaore guilty in absentia of an “attack on state security”, “concealment of a corpse” and “complicity in a murder”, accusing him of being the main sponsor behind the killing. Sankara and 12 of his colleagues were gunned down by a hit squad on October 15, 1987, at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council. Their assassination coincided with a coup that brought Sankara’s former comrade-in-arms, Compaore, to power. He ruled for 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast. Fourteen people stand accused in the trial, 12…

The Kremlin denied yesterday that Vladimir Putin had promised French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia would stage no further manoeuvres near Ukraine for now, pouring cold water on a tentative French assertion of diplomatic progress. Macron, who visited Moscow on Monday, is the highest ranking Western leader to have met the Russian president since Moscow massed more than 100 000 troops near the Ukrainian frontier in what Nato countries fear is preparation for war. Putin and Macron announced no breakthroughs at a news conference on Monday but a French official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said overnight that Putin had promised to hold no new manoeuvres near Ukraine for now. The official also said Putin had promised to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus at the end of exercises there,…

Paris: France will soon drop its requirement of a negative Covid test for vaccinated travellers from outside the European Union, This, as daily infection numbers continue to fall, Europe Minister Clement Beaune said yesterday. “We again required tests in December over the Omicron variant. “In the coming days we will announce that tests are no longer needed for vaccinated people,” Beaune told France 2 television. Currently anyone coming from outside the EU, including Britain, has to show a negative test result from the previous 48 hours, regardless of vaccination status. | AFP…

Vatican City: Former pope Benedict XVI asked for forgiveness yesterday over clerical sex abuse of children that occurred under his watch in the Catholic Church. “Once again I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness,” the 94-year-old said in a letter published by the Vatican. “I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. “All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.” | AFP…

DAY two of the Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge got under way at St George’s Park yesterday with the North West Dragons surprising the Lions, while the Dolphins crushed the Knights by eight wickets in the afternoon match. Cricket writer Zaahier Adams picks five “Plays of the Day’ from yesterday’s matches … 1. The “other” Jansen Part of Proteas rookie Marco Jansen’s claim to fame is that he has an identical twin brother, Duan, who is also a promising first-class cricketer. Well, they are indeed a spitting image of each other. Duan certainly has plenty of potential too, as he played a match-winning knock of 32 not out off just 18 balls, while also impressing with the ball at the death to spearhead the Dragons’ victory over the Lions. 2.…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za OUTGOING chief executive of the Land Bank Ayanda Kanana has vowed that the embattled financial institution will plug the holes that led to a qualified audit outcome this past year. Addressing the parliamentary standing committee on finance yesterday, Kanana said the Land Bank had been let down by one of its intermediaries that did not submit financial statements, resulting in a scope limitation. In December, the Land Bank received a qualified audit outcome from the Auditor-General (A-G) for the year ended March 31, 2021. Kanana said the qualified outcome was an “improvement” from a disclaimer the bank had received the previous year. “The qualification that we’ve got, sadly, is not a representation of where we should be. We should be sitting at an unqualified audit opinion with…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za IT’S ALL systems go for the State of the Nation Address (Sona) to be held at the Cape Town City Hall tomorrow, with a price tag of at least R4 million. Presiding Officers led by National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula and National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo briefed the media yesterday on preparations for the address. Acting secretary to Parliament, Penelope Baby Tyawa, said the venue had to be decked “wall to wall” in terms of “broadcast, ICT, catering, furniture and interpretation facilities”. “We have put aside R4m and that includes the debates up until the response from the president. “On the day, we are anticipating an expenditure of about R1.9m,” she added. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Parliament has adopted a hybrid working model in…

Siyavuya Mzantsi siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za AHEAD of the deadly July unrest, the executive largely ignored warnings by the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee (NICOC) about the dangers posed to the security of the State by not attending to a number of challenges gripping the country. It also ignored the dangers posed by neglecting human security, and not many members of the executive, at all levels of government, appreciated the meaning of the warnings raised in the different NICOC reports. This is according to the expert panel tasked with probing the events leading to the July unrest released this week. The cost of the unrest to the country was over 300 lives lost and damage to the economy of about R50 billion. The context in which the unrest occurred included: • The weakness of…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za HUMAN rights organisations have expressed mixed reaction to the new minimum wage (NMW) increase from R21.69 to R23.19 for an ordinary hour worked. Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi made the announcement of the increase yesterday, which comes into effect on March 1. The national minimum wage was first implemented in January 2019 at a level of R20 an hour. In March 2021, the minimum wage base rate was adjusted to R21.69 an hour. Farmworkers and domestic workers are entitled to R23.19 an hour, while workers employed on an expanded public works programme are entitled to a minimum wage of R12.75 an hour as part of the increase. The department added that it was illegal and unfair labour practice for an employer to unilaterally change working hours…

Staff writer LOCAL non-profit organisation (NPO) Freedom Riders Foundation and Cape Town NPO Sentinel Ocean Alliance (SOA) have launched a surf therapy and ocean education programme to make community-based mental health services accessible to vulnerable children from the under-resourced coastal communities of Jeffreys Bay. Developed by Waves For Change, the programme fuses the rush of surfing with mind-body therapy for children and young people who are exposed to high levels of trauma, violence and adversity. The Freedom Riders Surf Therapy Programme will focus on therapeutic and health outcomes rather than sports performance. By including ocean education and awareness in the curriculum, the children will broaden their knowledge about the oceans, the threats they face, as well as practical solutions to these problems, empowering and enabling them to become ocean activists…

Francesca Villette francesca.villette@inl.co.za THE wheels of justice are turning slowly for a Mitchells Plain teenager as outstanding DNA evidence again threatens to delay the case against her alleged rapists, one of whom she has to see at school every day. The now 16-year-old girl was 14 when she was raped in 2020, allegedly by two other minors who were released on warning. While one accused did not return to the school this year, the other still does, causing the teen to face secondary victimisation daily. The case is expected back in court for trial on March 16, but there is a high probability it will be postponed due to outstanding DNA evidence caused by a backlog at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL). Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said the senior public…

In our diverse nation these issues are essential to promote social cohesion PROGRESS can often be its own worst enemy. After a week in which the nation’s attention was diverted towards the inadequate understanding of the challenges women face, from numerous barriers to the judiciary and access to justice, what came of the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) interviews for the new chief justice reveal that South Africa has a long way to go to live up to expectations on gender and language equality. I enjoyed the interviews. Justice Mandisa Maya’s performance stood out, as the only female candidate and as the only candidate who wrote two of her important judgments in isi- Xhosa. Listening to her account on daily endeavours in promoting gender equality and indigenous languages in the Supreme…

VIENNA: Talks to revive a deal with Iran on its contested nuclear programme were set to resume in Vienna yesterday after both Washington and Tehran signalled their willingness to clinch an agreement as soon as possible. The negotiations – attended by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and indirectly the US – were halted at the end of last month. The resumption of talks comes after parties in recent weeks cited progress in seeking to revive the 2015 accord that was supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb, a goal it has always denied pursuing. “A deal that addresses all sides’ core concerns is in sight, but if it is not reached in the coming weeks, Iran’s ongoing nuclear advances will make it impossible for us to return…

Reverends, rabbis and other religious leaders urged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to permanently stop the company’s plan for an Instagram version aimed at young users yesterday, in a letter sent by advocacy group Fairplay and their Children’s Screen Time Action Network. Since last September, Instagram has paused its plans to introduce a version of the photo-sharing app for kids, as opposition to the project grew. “We assert that social media platforms that target immature brains, practise unethical data mining, and inspired by profit motives, are not a tool for the greater good of children,” said the letter. | Reuters…

GENEVA: The UN World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday said that 13 million people across the Horn of Africa face severe hunger, calling for immediate assistance to avoid a repeat of a famine a decade ago that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Three failed rainy seasons have created the driest conditions since the 1980s, with forecasts of below-average rainfall set to increase suffering in the coming months. “Harvests are ruined, livestock are dying, and hunger is growing as recurrent droughts affect the Horn of Africa,” said Michael Dunford, regional director in the WFP Regional Bureau for Eastern Africa. The conditions have decimated livestock, forcing thousands in a region where many are farmers into displacement camps. “We never experienced this before, we only see dust storms now. We are afraid that…

LONDON: Britain’s finance ministry will push ahead with implementing plans which require regulators to take into account the financial sector’s global competitiveness when writing rules. A group of campaigners last week warned that the plans could make regulators “cheerleaders” for finance. There is widespread backing in the sector for the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority to have a secondary objective of helping the City of London stay competitive globally. The finance ministry is expected to set out legislative proposals this year to replace “significant amounts” of EU financial laws with rules from UK regulators. | Reuters…

Mihlali Baleka mihlali.baleka@inl.co.za BANYANA Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says their friendly against Zambia on Saturday will help them to gauge their readiness for the back-to-back Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (Awcon) qualifiers against Algeria in the final round. After thrashing Mozambique 13-0 in the second round of the Awcon qualifier, away and at home, Banyana will be eager to book their ticket to the finals when they face Algeria at home on February 18, and away on the 23rd. Qualifying for the continental showpiece would ensure that the South Africans hit two birds with one stone: they’d upstage their male counterparts who failed to qualify for the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon. Moreover, qualifying for Awcon would mean that Banyana will get a chance to qualify…