Sommaire pour 2022-06-29 de Cape Times

WHILE striking Eskom workers are expected to return to work, parties to the dispute which was blamed for yesterday’s stage 6 blackout, have yet to reach an agreement, with negotiations headed to the Central Bargaining Forum (CBF) on Friday. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said there was no agreement over the pay rise across the board, and a new offer was expected to be tabled at the CBF. The country was plunged into stage six load shedding yesterday which Eskom attributed to the strike after failed wage negotiations between the power utility and unions. This brought production at Eskom plants to a halt through alleged intimidation of employees who were unable to show up to work as a result. In a joint statement,…

UNTIL we know what caused the deaths in the tavern, we will speculate. Students said it smelt like pepper spray had been sprayed in the air. This could have caused a stampede. Once again, with so many deaths, how many people were in the tavern? Obviously far too many if a stampede killed them. If it was something else, surely we would have heard what it was? We see that children as young as 13 died. Why were they there? How could their parents allow them out so late at night? They really need to take responsibility, as do the tavern owners. I know it is sometimes difficult to tell the age of teenagers but surely they have a system of identification? I see the tavern has been shut. Good!…

YOUR ‘CT airport best in Africa’ refers: The judges got it wrong again. First, being the ‘best’ in an environment which is a very low standard of comparison is not a win. Secondly, isn’t Nelspruit better? The judges thought they were scoring a shopping mall, not an airport. The lines of empty shops – whooo! Then, the toilets to the international arrivals are 55m away from the meet and greet area. That’s wonderful. And the parking is not contiguous with the terminals. Were the architects from Jhb and didn’t know that CT rain can come horizontal. Or was it a trainee in charge?…

A PROCESS is underway to sell the Tiger Brands Langeberg and Ashton canning plant in an effort to save more than 4000 jobs, and engagement with interested parties is ongoing. Premier Alan Winde, Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer, Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger, along with other stakeholders including Wesgro, met with executives from Tiger Brands on Monday to receive an update on the future of the company’s canning plant. The facility – one of the largest of its kind in Africa - is facing possible closure in which more than 4000 jobs would be lost. In a joint statement, the parties said during the meeting the Western Cape Government learned that a process was underway to sell the business so that its operations could continue, and that there were…

Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthiest democracies said they would urgently explore price caps on Russian oil and gas “to prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression”. However, they did not impose any new energy sanctions as their summit concluded in Germany. Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine dominated discussions, with intense discussions between the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan over how to curb Moscow’s ability to finance the war through selling fossil fuels. The G7 leaders also agreed to contribute $4.5 billion (about R72bn) to address global food security, with over half the money coming from the US. “We have a period of uncertainty before us, it will be challenging, and that’s why decisiveness is important,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in closing remarks,…

A Sri Lankan government minister was in Qatar yesterday and another will travel to Russia at the weekend in search of energy deals to alleviate a severe fuel shortage that is crippling the economy of the island nation and forcing many schools to close. The South Asian country of 22 million people is in the grip of a financial crisis that has left currency reserves perilously low, making imports of essential goods including food, medicine, petrol and diesel increasingly difficult. Protests, some violent, have erupted in recent months and key ministers have resigned, leaving President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe fighting to stabilise the nation. In a step aimed at getting more fuel into Sri Lanka, the power and energy minister said that the duopoly controlling imports…

Paris: He starred in one of the most iconic musicals in film history, but his wife said that Gene Kelly also had a cameo in the Cold War. Patricia Kelly (nee Ward) was 26 when she was sent to make a documentary about the dancer, then 73. She soon became his biographer, and his third and final wife. Among the tales she gathered about Kelly’s eventful life was his time as a cultural ambassador to Africa at the peak of the Cold War. Kelly was close to US president John F Kennedy. “Gene used to sing Irish rebel songs with him in the White House,” Patricia said. After performing at Kennedy’s inauguration in 1964, he fell into conversation in fluent French with singer Yves Montand and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.…

BOGOTA: At least 51 inmates died during an overnight riot in a prison in the south-western Colombian city of Tulua, the head of the national prisons agency said early yesterday, one of the worst incidents of recent prison violence in the country. The director of the Inpec prison agency told local radio a fire started during a protest by prisoners. “It is a tragic and disastrous event,” General Tito Castellanos, the head of Inpec, told local Caracol Radio. “There was a situation, apparently a riot, the prisoners lit some mattresses and a conflagration occurred.” Another 30 people were injured during the incident. | Reuters…

The Constitutional Court has declared that Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s decision to impose a deadline of October 31, 2021 to register for set-top boxes (STBs) was unconstitutional, invalid and was set aside. The court, upholding an application for leave to appeal, also found that the minister’s decision to determine the deadline for registration of set-top boxes to be October 31, 2021 without considering the number of people who would be adversely affected by the analogue switch-off tainted the process with irrationality. According to court documents, 7.5 million people would be left without access to television as at June 30, 2022 – the amended analogue switch-off date. Constitutional Court Justice Nonkosi Zoliswa Mhlantla yesterday handed down judgment in two consolidated applications for direct appeal against a judgment and…

The last time Ntombizonke Mgangala saw her niece, Sinothando was when she was begging the teenager not to go out because it was already so late. Hours later she was among the East London residents anxiously waiting to hear if their children were among the 21 mysteriously killed at the Enyobeni tavern in Scenery Park. Police said they received a report of the discovery of bodies of teenagers, the youngest aged 13, at 4am on Sunday. Mgangala told the Cape Times yesterday how she tried to stop the 17-year-old from going to the tavern party, but she went anyway. “On the day of the event I tried to stop her from going as it was already late, but that was in vain. “She promised me she would not be…

NEARLY four decades since the Soweto Uprising, South Africa still commemorates the day in various ways. This has encouraged the youth to take up spaces and make their voices heard like the youth of 1976. The struggles faced by the youth in 2022 are different from those of the class of 1976. In order for the youth of today to shape the future, they should take initiatives and every opportunity presented to them. For example, while we grapple with the issue of youth unemployment, more must be done to encourage the youth to participate in spaces that are created in agriculture and rural development. These spaces create a conducive environment for the youth not only to find work, but to become entrepreneurs. Though agriculture is not regarded as fashionable by…

THE coalition parties governing the Theewaterskloof Municipality say they inherited a dysfunctional administration under DA control. Theewaterskloof Municipality (TWK) is governed by a multi-party coalition between the ANC, Good Party and Patriotic Alliance. DA Theewaterskloof constituency chairperson Martie Koegelenberg yesterday claimed the municipal council had spent more than R4.3 million on VIP security, claiming their lives had been threatened. He said the unlawful expenditures were bleeding the municipality dry. “This expenditure was not authorised by the council. We do note that the matter is on the council agenda, but it has not yet been served in any council sitting, because an investigation into the matter must still be concluded. The DA will submit an urgent motion to ensure that the investigation is concluded swiftly. Service delivery is severely compromised when…

WHILE the eyes of South Africans have been and are firmly fixed on the developing scandal, dubbed Dollagate, about the burglary that took place on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo and its concealment, two major developments took place almost at the same time. An announcement was made that the “World Bank has approved a loan to the tune of R7.6 billion ($480 million) for South Africa’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Project”. The report continues to state that “the loan comes following a request by the Government of South Africa (GoSA) for assistance in financing vaccine procurement contracts. Specifically, this project will retroactively finance the procurement of 47 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by the GoSA”. A few days later, like a bolt from the sky, Minister of Health Dr…

Firefighters and soldiers searched yesterday for survivors in the rubble of a Ukrainian shopping mall, where authorities said 36 people were still missing after a Russian missile strike that had killed at least 18. Relatives of the missing were at a hotel across the street from the wreckage of the shopping centre, where rescue workers had set up a base. Exhausted firefighters had battled the blaze overnight and searched for survivors, mostly in vain. Heading the rescue team, Oleksandr (no surname given) said his team had worked all night. “We pulled out five bodies. We didn’t find anybody alive,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in the attack in the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, far from the frontline. He called it…

At least 13 people were killed and about 250 got sick when a crane loading gas tanks on to a ship in Jordan dropped one of them, sending plumes of toxic yellow smoke into the air. A video posted by state media, apparently captured by closed- circuit television cameras at the scene, showed the storage tank slipping from a hoist as it was lowered to the deck of a ship at the port of Aqaba and exploding, engulfing the area in toxic clouds. Dock workers were pictured fleeing the area on foot. A truck carrying a second gas tank had been slowly reversing towards the ship moments before the explosion, and quickly altered its course to escape the yellow gas clouds. According to authorities, the tank contained chlorine, a poisonous…

Mumbai: At least 19 people were killed after monsoon rains caused a four-storey building to collapse in Indian megacity Mumbai, authorities said yesterday. Officials said the building collapsed before midnight on Monday, trapping more than 20 residents. By yesterday afternoon 13 people had been rescued but emergency workers retrieved 14 bodies from the rubble. Heavy rainfall hampered operations as rescuers moved concrete slabs and sifted through mud and rubble searching for survivors. The monsoon rains are vital to replenish rivers and groundwater but the deluge also causes widespread destruction. | AFP…

The Hague: Armed robbers raided one of the world’s leading art fairs in the Dutch city of Maastricht yesterday, police said, with video showing them smashing a display case using a sledgehammer. Dramatic images on social media showed four smartly dressed suspects carrying out the raid and threatening people with handguns at The European Fine Art Fair. (Tefaf). Police arrested two people; two others are on the run. Dutch media said the display case the robbers targeted was from a London jeweller. Videos showed four men disguised with flat caps and glasses. Two brandished weapons at a bystander, who tried to intervene using a glass vase full of flowers. | AFP…

IN a major victory for Muslim women’s rights, the Constitutional Court has confirmed that the Marriage and Divorces Acts are inconsistent with a number of sections of the Constitution insofar as they fail to recognise Muslim marriages as being valid. In its judgement yesterday, it found sections 9, 10, 28, and 34 of the Constitution to be inconsistent and confirmed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA) order of constitutional invalidity. The President and Cabinet, together with Parliament have 24 months to remedy the defects so as to render the law constitutionally compliant. Similarly, the Departments of Home Affairs and of Justice and Constitutional Development have been ordered to publish a summary of the orders in newspapers and on radio stations, without delay. The court ruled that the Acts failed to…

THE huge earthquake that killed over 1 000 people in Afghanistan last week is a grim and graphic reminder that many parts of our planet are locked in a seismic grip that erupts without warning. The latest quake was felt as far as India and Pakistan. World class geologists and famous seismic institutions have over the past 20 years warned us of the approaching catastrophes awaiting mankind.The evidence is overwhelming. The Cascadia subduction zone and the Saint Andreas Fault line off America's west coast will rupture in a 9m mega quake.These long fault lines have the capacity to produce a mega quake. Remember San Francisco in 1906. Scientists from The National Research Institute of India and Stanford University analysed the fault that separates the Asian and Intercontinental plates. The report…

THE Animal Welfare Society (AWS) of South Africa has swooped on “dubious” pet shops in Mitchells Plain and issued stern warnings after being alerted to the alleged unlawful trade in indigenous wild animals, specifically chameleons. This led to the organisation conducting unannounced inspections in Lentegeur, where the pet shop owner allegedly bought chameleons for R5 each from local youngsters eager to earn a few rand then sold them for a small fortune. It was also claimed that the owner pays R1 for birds’ nests that are apparently removed from trees in Westridge garden. “I have a very big interest in fish and animals so I tend to wander into pet shops. It caught my eye on this specific day when I walked past the pet shop and discovered a…

BEACHES in Plettenberg Bay were closed after a local man was killed in a shark attack yesterday. The NSRI said just after 2pm, its Plettenberg Bay duty crew were activated following witness reports of a shark incident involving a swimmer at Sanctuary Beach, on the Robberg side of Plettenberg Bay. Rescue swimmers responded directly to the scene, and two NSRI rescue craft were launched. “On arrival at the scene, the body of an adult male, believed to be a local man, was located and recovered from the water at the back surf line, and put on to an NSRI rescue craft,” the NSRI said. “The body was brought to the NSRI Plettenberg Bay rescue station, and a NSRI doctor, the Western Cape government health EMS and the SAPS responded. Unfortunately,…

THE endless squabbles and court cases involving ANC politicians and warring factions are a burden to our courts. They also underscore the level of instability in our body politics, as well as infighting within the governing party. As it has become the norm, ANC members rushed to courts once again in their never-ending political and leadership disputes on the eve of elective conferences. Members of the governing party in Ekurhuleni filed court papers seeking to interdict the Gauteng ANC conference at the weekend over the participation of disputed delegates. The court had to sit in the middle of the night to hear the matter. It was dismissed, paving the way for the election of Panyaza Lesufi as new provincial chairperson. The same thing played out in the Eastern Cape…

The UN called for a “final and courageous effort” to break the deadlock over the rules for long-awaited elections in war-torn Libya, as talks between rival institutions began in Geneva. Parliament speaker Aguila Saleh and President of the High Council of State Khaled al-Mishri are meeting at the UN’s Palais des Nations for two days of talks to discuss the draft constitutional framework for elections. Presidential and parliamentary elections, originally set for December last year, were meant to cap a UN-led peace process following the end of the last major round of violence in 2020. But the vote never took place due to several contentious candidacies and deep disagreements over the polls’ legal basis, between rival power centres in the east and west of the country. “Your presence here today…

NEW YORK: Howard Stern wants to run for president. The 68-year-old radio presenter explained that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling and therefore deny millions of women across various US states access to a legal and safe abortion had led him to consider launching a bid for the White House in the 2024 election in order to overhaul the voting process. He said: “I’m actually going to probably have to run for president now … I am going to do the very simple thing that’ll set the country straight: one vote, one person. No more Electoral College … I’m going to … appoint five more Supreme Court justices.” | Bang Showbiz…

Wellington: Nasa blasted a nanosatellite barely bigger than a microwave oven into outer space yesterday, part of a landmark mission to return humans to the moon. A rocket carrying the tiny Capstone module successfully launched from New Zealand’s eastern Mahia Peninsula to a deafening blast and a wash of fiery propulsion. All being well, in four months Capstone will be in a position to begin surfboard-shaped “near rectilinear halo orbits” around the moon. Weighing about as much as a suitcase, the satellite is trial-running an orbit for Nasa’s “Gateway” space station, which will travel around the moon and serve as a jumping off point for lunar exploration. | AFP…

London: A bill that overrides parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU, passed the first hurdle in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament. The bill, which contains measures to remove checks on goods moving to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, was passed 295 to 221. It must now go through line-by-line in-depth scrutiny by MPs and a further Commons vote and then pass to the House of Lords, the upper house, before becoming a law. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson expected the bill would come into force by the end of the year if the parliament co-operates. | IANS…

The United Rugby Championship-winning Stormers have been drawn in Pool B for the 2022-23 European Rugby Champions Cup. The draws for next season’s Champions and Challenge Cups took place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin yesterday. The South Africa Shield winners, the Stormers, Bulls and Sharks will feature in the Champions Cup for the first time after making the URC playoffs. The 24 qualified clubs were grouped in four tiers based on their rankings in the Top 14, Premiership, and URC. They were then drawn into two pools of 12 - Pool A and Pool B. Clubs from the same league in the same tier were not drawn in the same pools. The 2022-23 season will be played over eight weekends, with four rounds of matches in the pool stages,…