Sommaire pour 2023-03-13 de Cape Times

FUTUREGROWTH Asset Management is running out of patience over the slow progress made to the Land Bank’s liability solution as the bank’s default position approaches its third year now. The leading creditor for the Land Bank on Friday said the continued default position posed significant risks to its clients and did not bode well for the other solutions that may be needed for other State-owned enterprises. In April 2020, the Land Bank experienced serious liquidity challenges after failing to repay about R50 billion maturing loans. The bank’s entire debt portfolio of about R45bn, of which R5.2bn is guaranteed, was considered to be in default due to cross-default clauses. FutureGrowth head of credit Olga Constantatos on Friday said three years was a long time to negotiate and resolve what is…

AUDITOR-GENERAL Tsakani Maluleke said actions taken by government institutions on material irregularities picked up by her office during audits prevented R626 million in losses from taking place in the 2022/23 financial year. Maluleke said R506 million in financial losses were in the process of being recovered and R14 million had been recovered during the financial year. “We have been able through actions of those who got material irregularities to prevent financial losses from taking place to the value of R636 million. “Our aim is not to issue certificates of death but to enable corrective action so that material irregularities are resolved and we can prevent similar ones in the future,” Maluleke said. She made the statement when she was briefing the standing committee on the auditor-general on Friday. The Public…

IN ANOTHER blow for Karpowership SA, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has issued a record of refusal on one of the applications for environmental authorisation (EA). Karpowership SA had proposed to locate three powership projects at the ports of Richards Bay, Ngqura and Saldanha to generate electricity from natural gas to be sent through transmission lines to substations linked to the national grid. Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy issued appeal decisions for all three projects in August last year and the EIA reports for all three projects were resubmitted on January 9 for decision-making. In terms of its decision for the Port of Ngqura, DFFE said the application for EA was refused on March 7. The application for the second project has been…

A 22-YEAR-old woman believed to be among a group of university students visiting the Wilderness drowned at the weekend, while the search for another who attempted to rescue her continues. The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said it received reports of a drowning in progress at the beach in front of Views Hotel at 4.09pm on Friday. According to NSRI Wilderness station commander Mike Vonk, the group of students were swimming when rip currents developed. Some of the students exited the water, but the 22-year-old got caught in the current. An 18-year-old who tried to save her is still missing. The 22-year-old’s body was found by NSRI rescue swimmers past the backline of the waves. “She was unresponsive,” said Vonk. “The rescue swimmers initiated chest compressions while swimming towards the…

AGED plant infrastructure, low-quality coal, internal sabotage and years of mismanagement may very well be among the reasons the country suffered its worst load shedding recently. But what will take us out? The nexus of South Africa’s energy crisis lies in the existence of two extremes on discussions of energy future in South Africa. At face value, these extremes may seem merely administrative and governance-related. However, they are ideological in nature. The battle of the ideological direction of the energy future in South Africa plunges this country further into darkness such that no man or woman, however qualified, would bring light on it any time soon. On the one hand, you have those who want South Africa’s energy provision in private hands. They cite clean energy as a necessary direction,…

Tehran: Iran’s judiciary yesterday confirmed the death sentence of a Swedish-Iranian dissident for “terrorism” over two years since his disappearance at an airport in Türkiye, the judiciary’s Mizan website reported. Habib Chaab has been held in Iran since October 2020 after he vanished during a visit to Türkiye and was tried in Tehran – which does not recognise dual nationality. Chaab, who was found guilty of “corruption on earth” and the formation of a rebel group, was sentenced to death on December 6. Yesterday, it was confirmed that Iran’s Supreme Court had upheld the ruling. Chaab is the latest person to be sentenced to death for membership of Harakat al-Nidal, which Tehran calls a “terrorist group”. | AFP…

The Ukrainian military was preparing yesterday for an upcoming counteroffensive, with a top commander saying his forces’ ongoing defence of Bakhmut in the face of fierce and sustained Russian attacks was necessary to “buy time” for that push. The remarks came as British intelligence said the front line had shifted in the fight for Bakhmut – the longest and bloodiest battle of Moscow’s year-long invasion – but that any further Russian advance in the devastated town would be “highly challenging”. Some military experts have questioned the sense of continuing to hold the city, but the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, said that it helped win time in preparation for the coming counteroffensive. “The real heroes now are the defenders who are holding the eastern front on their…

People gathered across the Tohoku region to remember victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on Saturday, the 12th anniversary of a disaster that left more than 22 000 people dead or missing. From early in the morning, people offered prayers along parts of the coast devastated by the tsunami, while others pressed their hands together in front of cenotaphs. People also gathered at an elementary school to mourn students who died while attempting to evacuate. Disaster drills were held in the early hours of the morning in some coastal areas, in which people practised evacuating to higher ground on foot and by car. Through such drills, the lessons of the disaster are being passed on to future generations. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking at a…

Washington: Former US vice-president Mike Pence said that history would hold former president Donald Trump “accountable” for his role in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, US media reported. The remarks are likely to widen the rift between the former running mates, who have been at loggerheads since Pence refused to go along with Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and remain in power. “President Trump was wrong,” Pence said in a speech at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington, a white-tie gala put on by journalists that draws top politicians. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” Pence was quoted as…

Bulls (8) 15 Tries: Mosi, Hendricks; Conversion: Steyn; Penalty: Steyn Pumas (27) 63 Tries: Swart, Snyman, De Klerk, Stighling, Williams, Fouche, Appollis (2), Kleinhans; Conversions: De Beer (4), Snyman, Thomson; Penalties: De Beer (2) THE defending Currie Cup champions demolished their hosts – the Bulls – as they opened their 2023 campaign in emphatic fashion at Loftus yesterday. The Pumas ran in nine brilliant tries to the hapless two the Bulls could muster in a crushing 63-15 win that will set the alarm sirens blaring across the competition. The victory will certainly enforce the belief that the Pumas’ unexpected but fantastic triumph in the tournament last season was no fluke. The Bulls team that suffered the heavy defeat had some notable names attached…

STOCKS on the JSE suffered one of the worst weeks this year, plunging for the fourth day in a row on Friday to another two-month low, as the latest US non-farm payrolls report triggered further rate-hike worries. The JSE All Share index plunged 1.6% to end Friday at 76 454 index points, its biggest daily decline since early January, bringing the bourse’s losses to about 2.3% for the week. Almost all sectors were trading in the red on Friday, led by logistics, property, renewables, tech, industrials, financials stocks, and resource-linked stocks. Equities were already under pressure amid lingering concerns that higher interest rates would trigger a global recession. This as investors were digesting the US jobs data and the possibility of faster interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve…

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) said they would from today intensify their strike. This as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health said they had increased security at health facilities. Nehawu’s statement comes despite a judgment pending today over the union’s appeal to the Labour Court against a court interdict from the Department of Public Service and Administration against their strike. Nehawu said their determination would demonstrate the gravity with which they viewed the government’s effort to “underplay the role and significance of public servants, who are at the coalface of service delivery”. Nehawu said they remained resolute in their fight for a 10% wage increase. “We met with the employer on March 10-11 ... where we presented our issues, and the employer replied by saying that they…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana said his department was not aware about non-compliance regarding the business rescue practitioners at the national carrier, SAA. “The National Treasury is not aware of any non-compliance to any legal prescripts in relation to SAA’s business rescue process as regulated by the Companies Act and the Public Finance Management Act,” Godongwana said. Godongwana was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Alf Lees, who enquired whether he had found that all legal prescripts were followed by the Department of Public Enterprises, the board and executives of the SAA and the business rescue practitioners in the business rescue process that SAA was subjected to since December 2019. Godongwana said the purpose of the business rescue process in terms of the Companies Act was to provide for the…

A special education school teacher has been acquitted of multiple charges including the alleged sexual grooming of a pupil with severe intellectual disabilities. The teacher was cleared by the Education Labour Relations Council after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old pupil during her Grade 4 schooling in 2021. It was noted that the teacher, who has taught at the school since April 2014, had a clean disciplinary record. The pupil, identified as “Learner A”, testified before arbitrator advocate DP van Tonder for three days. On the first day she said she was in her class with her friends when the teacher found she had drawn a flower on her hand. He took her to a teacher who he usually referred pupils to for disciplinary matters. After she entered…

Acting Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka’s preliminary report on the Phala Phala farm scandal – which found there is no basis to conclude that President Cyril Ramaphosa contravened the Executive Ethics Code in the manner in which he handled the housebreaking at his Phala Phala farm – leaves more questions than answers. The report clears Ramaphosa, while the lion’s share of the debacle is placed at the head of protection services, Major-General Wally Rhoode. It is believed that Gcaleka has not touched on how much was stolen and how much was recovered. Crucially, it does not explain if the stolen money was the proceeds of a game auction, or why those animals are still at the farm almost three years later. Instead, Gcaleka wants the president’s adviser, Bejani Chauke, Rhoode…

Tehran: Iran has announced more than 100 arrests over the mystery poisoning of thousands of schoolgirls, charging that the unidentified perpetrators may have links with “hostile” groups. In the wave of cases since November, schoolgirls have suffered fainting, nausea, shortness of breath and other symptoms after reporting “unpleasant” odours on school premises, with some being treated in hospital. State media reported that the interior ministry had announced the arrest over the suspected poison attacks at more than 200 schools. “More than 100 people who were responsible for the recent school incidents were identified, arrested and investigated,” the ministry said in a statement. | AFP…

Brussels: The general secretary of the international trade union ITUC has been dismissed from his post, the confederation said, over his links to a European Parliament graft scandal implicating Qatar. Luca Visentini was arrested in December as part of the investigation into suspected corruption among MEPs involving Qatar and Morocco. The 54-year Italian – who was detained for two days then released, but remained a suspect – was suspended by the board of the International Trade Union Confederation in December. The board has decided he “no longer had the confidence of the General Council” and would be removed from his post. | AFP…

Cyclone Freddy battered central Mozambique yesterday after making landfall for a second time in a month and breaking records for duration and strength of tropical storms in the southern hemisphere. More than 171 000 people were affected after the cyclone swept through southern Mozambique last month, killing 27 people in Mozambique and Madagascar. More than half a million people are at risk of being affected in Mozambique this time, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. After passing by the port town of Quelimane, the storm was continuing on inland towards the southern tip of neighbouring Malawi, satellite data showed. Communications and electricity to Quelimane have been cut. “The wind was very strong into the night ... There is a lot of destruction, trees fallen…

Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian gunmen after they fired at troops in the occupied northern West Bank, the army said yesterday, as violence in the region continued. The military said “gunmen opened fire” at an army position near the Jit junction west of Nablus, with the soldiers responding with “live fire”. “Three armed gunmen were neutralised during the exchange of fire. An additional armed gunman surrendered,” the army said, noting none of the Israeli forces were wounded. The soldiers, members of the elite infantry Golani reconnaissance unit, grabbed three M-16 rifles and a pistol used by the Palestinians, the army said. The Palestinian health ministry said it was informed about the deaths of three men killed near Nablus. The incident took place a short distance from an Israeli settlement,…

The Western Province coaching staff will be smiling after their team showed similar traits to the Stormers in their convincing Currie Cup win of 44-28 over the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday. A massive defensive display when they were under the pump, in tandem with some brilliant touches on the attack, allowed the Cape side to win with a bonus point in their Currie Cup opener in Johannesburg. They scored five tries and kept the Lions at bay with solid tackles when the home side kept hammering at the door, looking for a way back into the game. WP led 24-7 at half-time and was cruising at one stage before the Lions fought back. Despite this, it was a convincing WP victory against a strong Lions side that should’ve…

Arsenal powered five points clear at the top of the Premier League with a stylish 3-0 win at Fulham, while Casemiro was sent off in Manchester United’s 0-0 draw against struggling Southampton yesterday. Mikel Arteta’s side had seen second-placed Manchester City close the gap with victory at Crystal Palace on Saturday. The Gunners responded with the kind of composed display that has been the hallmark of their unexpected title charge. First-half goals from Gabriel Magalhaes, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard - all set up by the influential Leandro Trossard - put Arsenal on course for a fifth consecutive league win. With 11 league games left, the north Londoners have the title in their sights. Since being knocked out of pole position after a defeat against City, which came during a…

AT LEAST 300 arrests have been made in efforts by business and the South African Police (SAPS) to stem extortion and attacks on projects by the “construction mafia”, although there remains some concern that the SAPS is reluctant to open some cases. According to the The National Priority Committee, there were encouraging convictions and recorded sentences as it prioritises advocacy for the business community to put an end to the scourge. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime said there were no less than 183 infrastructure and construction projects worth more than R63billion ($3.9bn) struggling with protection rackets. “We are concerned regarding SAPS Customer Support Centres not being ready to record extortion cases. Victims allege that cases are not opened against high profile perpetrators. “Operational support in rural areas is…

IN THE CUT-THROAT world of technology, diversity and innovation can be hard to come by. That is why AYO Technology Solutions (AYO) stands out as a true trailblazer in the field. With its majority black ownership and 26-year track record of success, AYO has made waves on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since going public in 2017. However, despite the technology company’s commitment to digital transformation and customer service, AYO has been unfairly maligned by several media outlets over recent years – causing major setbacks for both the company and its valued customers. The investment in AYO by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) was welcomed by both the JSE and Africa’s largest asset manager. But due to malicious media coverage, the PIC is seemingly suffering from a bout of regret.…

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa kicked off his 2024 election campaign in KwaZulu-Natal and apologised to people for the damaging effects of load shedding. KZN is one of the provinces where an internal poll suggested that the governing party could lose the elections. Ramaphosa’s visit was seen as either him listening to the internal research or going all out to keep the province away from the IFP. Ramaphosa faced a blockade of burning tyres in Dambuza, Pietermaritzburg, yesterday, but by the time he left the Sakhumuzi community, an area known for its volatility, he had locals singing his praises after a pit stop visit that formed part of his campaign trail yesterday. Coming days after the ANC lost a ward in Msunduzi Municipality, which saw the ruling party’s control of the…

DA leader Steenhuisen pokes holes in ‘number of inherent contradictions’ in clearing Ramaphosa of wrongdoing ACTING public protector Kholeka Gcaleka’s preliminary report apparently clearing President Cyril Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing over the farmgate scandal has ignited a political storm, with the DA and EFF being among the first to poke holes in it. In the leaked report, Gcaleka has instead found that the head of presidential protection services, General Wally Rhoode, and others have a case to answer. “The allegation that the president improperly and in violation of the provisions of the executive ethics code exposed himself to any risk of a conflict between his constitutional duties and obligations and his private interests arising from or affected by his alleged paid work in Phala farm is not substantiated,” states the…

Double defending champion Kim le Court, of Mauritius, completed a hat trick of Cape Town Cycle Tour wins yesterday. The Efficient Infiniti Insure rider had to work hard for her title after Candice Lill broke up a select group who had entered the finale together with an audacious attack in the final kilometre. For the men, Chris Jooste won the 2023 race in emphatic fashion. The TufoBMC rider showed his class to outsprint Andries Nigrini (TEG), Jaedon Terlouw (Honeycomb), and Daniel Loubser to claim the title in a time of 02:36:14 Le Court and her fellow sprinters had reeled Lill in before the winner out-sprinted Vera Looser, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Hayley Preen, and Cherise Willeit to take the 2023 title. Since 2018 the elite women have enjoyed their own start group.…

AS the University of Cape Town (UCT) is expected to announce its interim vice-chancellor this week, the university could not state with any confidence that there would be no further disruptive student protest action in the weeks ahead. The university’s council met on Tuesday over the issue of the institution’s Student Representative Council’s (SRC’s) call to lift all fee blocks and the vacant position of vice-chancellor after Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng left office on March 3 being high on the agenda. Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation Professor Sue Harrison was appointed to act as the vice-chancellor. Council chairperson Babalwa Ngonyama said this state of affairs would remain in place until an interim vice-chancellor had been appointed. “We are following the process as prescribed by the UCT statute. “This requires that,…

Largest failure of a US bank since since 2008 meltdown FIFTEEN years since the 2008 global financial crisis that brought the international financial system to near collapse, banking regulators in key global markets last week were once again dealing with the fallout of the largest failure of a US bank since then. As if the lessons of the collapse of Lehman Bros that precipitated the 2008 crash have fallen on deaf ears despite the protestations of the G7 countries, the two gatekeepers of the international financial system – the Basle Committee for Banking Regulation and Supervision and its associated Bank for International Settlements, and the Financial Stability Forum of the International Monetary Fund – have failed to make definitive progress made since then. This despite the emergence of new threats…

NEW DELHI: The Indian government opposes recognising same-sex marriages, it said in a filing to the Supreme Court yesterday, urging the court to reject challenges to the current legal framework lodged by LGBT couples. The Ministry of Law believes there may be various forms of relationships in society, but the legal recognition of marriage is for heterosexual relationships. The state has a legitimate interest in maintaining this. Existing legislation “was limited to the recognition of a marriage between a man and a woman, represented as a husband and wife”. Four gay couples have asked the court to recognise same-sex marriages, setting the stage for the legal face-off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. | Reuters…

Seoul: North Korea has decided to take “important practical” war deterrence measures, state media reported yesterday, a day before Seoul and Washington begin their largest joint military drills in five years. The decision was made at a meeting of the ruling party’s military commission presided over by leader Kim Jong-Un. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the move was aimed at “coping with the war provocations of the US and south Korea that are reaching the red-line”, but did not elaborate on the measures. South Korea and the US are scheduled to start the “Freedom Shield” exercises today. | AFP…

Another powerful storm pummeled California overnight, forcing thousands to evacuate and resulting in at least two deaths, while causing a levee to give way in coastal Monterey County. “We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” Luis Alejo, a Monterey County supervisor, said on Twitter. Residents told AFP they were alerted by local fire officials in the middle of the night that they needed to evacuate. “Their sirens and all – woke us up,” said Moses, a resident of the area for around 20 years. He said officials later came and knocked on his door multiple times, but that he decided to wait until 5am to make a decision. After returning…

GENEVA: Discovering the origins of Covid-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization said on Twitter, in the clearest indication yet that the UN body remains committed to finding how the virus arose. A US agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by an unintended Chinese laboratory leak, raising pressure on the WHO to come up with answers. Beijing denies the assessment which could soon become public after the US House of Representatives voted to declassify it. The first human cases were reported in Wuhan, China. | Reuters…