Weekend Argus Saturday Saturday, June 27, 2020

GNARLY BRU COVID-19 ‘Boycott’ if schools reopen Parents, principals ‘terrified’ of infection CHELSEA GEACH AND BONGANI HANS BRENDAN MAGAAR African News Agency (ANA) PRINCIPALS, teachers and parents across the province are pleading with the government not to further reopen schools on July 6 as more than 700 teachers and almost 90 pupils in the Western Cape have already contracted Covid-19. Late last night tributes poured in for Gregory Klink, 58, a Grade 7 teacher at Montevideo Primary School who died of the virus. “The latest count we had (shows that) over 700 teachers who had tested positive since the time we started,” Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schäfer told the National Council of Provinces this week. “It’s an accumulative figure; obviously some of them would have recovered but we don’t keep…

ISRAEL Mogoeng slammed for ‘support’ LOYISO SIDIMBA CHIEF Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has come under fire for supporting Israel as it moves to permanently seize Palestinian territory by annexing parts of the occupied West Bank. His former colleague, retired Constitutional Court Justice Zak Yacoob, has called for a Judicial Services Commission (JSC) investigation. Yacoob said: “We call on the JSC to investigate the chief justice’s statements with the possibility of censuring him for breaching the official code of conduct by appearing in public in his capacity as chief justice and making comments that are in contradiction with South African foreign policy.” The ANC expressed its concern about Justice Mogoeng’s statements and demanded high-level talks with him regarding his political commentary and wants National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise to talk to the…

TABLE FOR TWO INITIATIVE Crowdfund to help pay SGB teachers CHEGOFATSO MODIKA chegofatso.modik@inl.co.za TRACEY ADAMS African News Agency (ANA) THE Western Cape has as many as 8000 school governing body-appointed teachers, some of whom have not been paid in months. But at Sunnyside Primary School in Athlone, an initiative has been started to help raise money to pay their SGB teachers. Physical distancing restrictions prohibit the school from hosting fund-raising activities, so it has established a crowd fund on BackaBuddy to raise as much as R70000 by month-end. As of yesterday, almost R20000 had been raised. Grade 3 teacher Chantal Bredenkamp said: “We at Sunnyside Primary School have teachers who are paid by the school, and because of the pandemic, we cannot raise funds and we could lose our teachers and…

COVID-19 Dead-end for licence applicants Centres closed for sanitising KEAGAN MITCHELL keagan.mitchell@inl.co.za LEARNER’S and driver’s licence testing has ground to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nine of city’s 18 testing centres – Bellville, Brackenfell, Fish Hoek, Gallows Hill, Gordon’s Bay, Hillstar, Kuils River, Somerset West and Lingelethu West – have closed after positive cases of the virus. Kim van der Walt, 21, from Mandalay had a driver’s test scheduled for April 14 at Gallows Hill that had to be postponed due to lockdown. At the beginning of May she was contacted to reschedule for May 27 but that was also postponed. She received another call to make an appointment for either June 11 or 12 but her learner’s licence expired on June 6. Van der Walt was told…

MUSIC Trying to make a dope living UK-based Cape queer muso gains local fame AMBER COURT amber.court@inl.co.za SUPPLIED CAPE TOWN musician Dope Saint Jude tackles life as a queer black woman in the music industry, through self reflection and working on a debut album during lockdown in the UK. Born Catherine Pretorius, the artist grew up in Elsies River. The 30-year-old’s song Grrl Like was used in the trailers for the South African Netflix series Blood & Water, which she said has helped sustain her financially during lockdown. “I am very grateful to them for using my song as the main promotion song. I am happy that I am getting acknowledgement back home. My songs are being picked up by major brands, but it is always happening in other countries…

TELEVISION Fantasy series about witches a ‘dream job’ for SA actress SAM SPILLER sam.spiller@inl.co.za SUPPLIED IMAGINE a world where witches took up arms in service of their country. That is the premise of the new fantasy TV series Motherland: Fort Salem. South African-born actress Jessica Sutton plays witch cadet Tally Craven. She stars alongside Taylor Hickson and Ashley Nicole Williams. The series was created by Eliot Laurence, who also produced the show with actor Will Ferrell. It was directed by Adam McKay. The actress said: “It was a dream job to work with incredible talent and people of such substance and skill – from actors to directors to crew to support teams. The feeling that everyone had each others’ backs and we are all just bringing our bit to the…