Indice dei contenuti per 2022-12-05 in Cape Times

THE RICHEST man in the world has delivered on his promise to enable free speech on Twitter. Elon unleashed a bombshell over the weekend with the release of the Twitter files. Essentially, the files are communications within Twitter (before Elon’s time) that show how the social media platform influenced the US elections. One of the major highlights from the files reveal how Twitter tried to hide embarrassing information about the US President’s son, Hunter Biden. The files also show how the US mainstream media colluded with Twitter to control the narrative during the US election period. On the other hand, the files also show the kind of environment Elon Musk walked into when he bought Twitter. Chances are he did not know the kind of operations that took place in…

AN ID Mkhize High School teacher in Gugulethu has been dismissed after the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) found him guilty of sexual misconduct. The teacher faced allegations that included grabbing a 14-year-old girl by the waist, hoisting her up against a wall and placing his hand underneath her buttocks. According to the ELRC arbitration award, the teacher was friends with the pupil’s uncle. He represented himself and pleaded not guilty to the allegations. The teacher had emailed ELRC commissioner Jacques Buitendag, indicating that criminal charges against him were withdrawn. However, Buitendag said this had no bearing on the misconduct charge he was required to determine. The pupil testified that on February 28, 2022, her older sister, uncle and some friends including the teacher were drinking alcohol at her home.…

PARLIAMENT will ask for yet another extension from the Constitutional Court in order to finalise the bill that provides for independent candidates to contest elections in Parliament and provincial legislatures. This comes after the home affairs portfolio committee decided on Friday to ask the National Assembly to request an extension to finalise the Electoral Amendment Bill. The move comes after the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) passed the bill last week, with substantive amendments that require public participation. The amendments include the establishment of an electoral reform consultation panel. Such a panel would look into the country’s electoral system after the 2024 elections. The bill is a sequel to a Constitutional Court judgment delivered in June 2020, which found the Electoral Act unconstitutional because it required candidates to be members…

The beautiful game? Where? Watching the contestants taking part in the football games in Qatar, I am shocked at the tactics of the players. The shoving, pushing, pulling, elbowing an opponent, often right off the ball, even out of the playing field. There seems to be no consistent rules governing these incidents. The refs, who are accosted, too, cannot see everything, but the looming camera lenses show the TV audiences close-ups of these disgusting bullying encounters. Then there are the falling to the ground, rolling, writhing in agony, clutching a lower limb “chancers” hoping for a free kick ‒ and when the ref does not oblige, they are up and running as before. It appears to me that as long as you do not trip up your opponent by foot,…

IT COSTS twice as much to make sobriety a pre-condition to receiving shelter for a homeless person than housing them right away. From lived experience, making a homeless person sweat their substance addiction out is unrealistic and costly. It’s like putting the cart before the horse. Frankly, that approach is not working and solutions that provide accommodation first, linked to personal development that creates long-term pathways out of homelessness, need to be prioritised. A homeless person currently has only two accommodation options: (i) sleeping rough on the street or (ii) overcome addiction and gain temporary accommodation in the oversubscribed shelter system. These options are either inadequate, unavailable, or at best, stop-gap measures that have proven to slash your pocket, deeply. According to the Cost of Homelessness: Cape Town study, the…

THE awarding of multi-million rand tender to a security company by the Beaufort West Municipality in 2020 has resulted in fruitful and wasteful expenditure. In the investigation by the municipality’s top management, it was recommended that the allegations be investigated to determine whether any officials should be held accountable. The company was awarded the tender in 2020 for the provision of security services for a period of three years, according to a report on the investigation. “The budget for the tender was said to be R8 million for the period of three years, but the appointed service provider has tendered for R14m, R6m above the budgeted amount and this surely will result in an unauthorised expenditure for the said expenditure item,” read the report. The service provider was also accused…

Will state of the economy or stain of graft seal his fate? AS PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is set to face his comrades at the 55th National Conference of the ANC from December 16-20 in Gauteng, one wonders whether it will it be the state of the economy or the stain of politics and corruption – the bane of the party over the past decade – that seals the president’s fate? What sort of mandate will he get from the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), assuming he is reinstated as the party’s president? Will he suffer the same fate of his predecessor, president Thabo Mbeki, who was ousted by Jacob Zuma and his supporters on the NEC in 2008? That episode led the nascent democracy to its darkest post-apartheid era of…

DUBAI: Iran has executed four men convicted of co-operating with Israel’s spy agency Mossad, Iranian state media reported. The Islamic Republic has long accused arch-enemy Israel of covert operations on its soil. Tehran has recently accused Israeli and Western intelligence services of plotting a civil war in Iran, now in the grip of anti-government protests. The Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence handed to the four men “for co-operating with the intelligence services of the Zionist regime and for kidnapping”. Three other people were handed jail terms of between five and 10 years for acting against national security, aiding in kidnapping, and possessing illegal weapons. | Reuters…

MAIDUGURI: Gunmen in Nigeria killed a dozen worshippers, including an imam, and kidnapped several others from a mosque, local residents said yesterday, in the latest attack by armed gangs in the north of the country. Armed gangs, known as bandits, attack communities where security is stretched, killing people or kidnapping them for ransom. The gangs also demand villagers pay protection fees to be allowed to farm and harvest their crops. Katsina state police spokesperson Gambo Isah confirmed the attack and said state-backed vigilantes, with the support of some residents, had managed to rescue some worshippers. | Reuters…

The commander-in-chief of the Tigray rebel forces said that 65% of his forces had “disengaged”, a month after a ceasefire agreement over Ethiopia’s war-torn northern region. “We have started disengagement and relocation of our forces from battlelines ... out of our forces, 65 percent of them have passed through this process, disengaging from battlelines and moved to designated places,” said General Tadesse Worede, chief of staff of Tigray’s fighters. Tigray’s authorities had been resisting central rule for months when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused their leadership of attacking federal army camps and sent troops into the region in 2020. The conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and pro-Abiy forces – which include regional militias – has caused an untold number of deaths, forced more than 2…

Trailblazing blogger Yoani Sanchez said on Saturday that the Cuban regime has hit any sign of discontent with “repressive fury” and warned that a new penal code seeks to stifle independent journalists. Sanchez, who lives in Havana, said a flareup of street protests in 2021 jolted Cuba’s ruling party and led to strict controls. “Repressive fury was unleashed. We have more than 1 000 political prisoners,” Sanchez said during a panel at the International Book Fair of Guadalajara, a major annual trade and ideas forum. Sanchez said she was worried about the impact of a new penal code approved by Cuba’s parliament last May that went into effect last week. “The most harmed, the main victim (of this code) is independent journalism, information and the free flow of news,”…

No doubt the Springbok coaching staff would have shared Jake White’s elation at the performances of Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, and Johan Goosen in the Bulls’ impressive 45-9 victory over a plucky Cardiff team on Saturday. And quite often the three Boks worked in tandem and off each other as the backs cashed in on quality ball provided by the hard-working forwards. The eyes of SA director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and Bok coach Jacques Nienaber would have lit up as they saw an outstanding performance at flyhalf from Goosen, the player they earmarked at the beginning of the year as a candidate for the national No 10 jersey only for injury to remove Goosen from the equation for much of the season. Even with Damian Willemse coming through at…

After six days of action at the North West University in Potchefstroom, Ireland and South Africa were the last two standing with an opportunity to win the inaugural FIH Hockey Nations Cup, and earn an invite to the FIH Hockey Pro League for next season. And after some nervy moments, it was the Proteas men who weathered the pressure to claim a thrilling 4-3 victory yesterday. South Africa couldn’t have asked for a better start as they took the lead through a wonderful strike from Dayaan Cassiem which the delighted crowd something to cheer. They almost had a second moment to cheer when the ball got through to Senzwesihle Ngubane, but his snatched shot produced nothing. As South Africa pulled back slightly, Ireland filled the vacated space and almost found…

Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow looms large over Portugal at the World Cup, but away from the flash of camera phones and rolling headlines, Bruno Fernandes has taken the reins. Fernando Santos’ team are synonymous with their leading man, a black hole for media attention and fan admiration, reducing his colleagues to a supporting cast, inadvertently or not. However, in Qatar, playmaker Fernandes is emerging as the team’s true creative leader, sealing qualification for the last 16 with a game to spare. With several changes but Ronaldo still leading the team, Portugal fell to a 2-1 defeat by South Korea on Friday but finished top of their group and face Switzerland. Fernandes was rested, wrapped in cotton wool, and without him Portugal failed to create many clear chances. Still, supporters swooned over…

SOUTH Africa’s largest asset manager, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), has invested over R1.6 trillion on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In 2022, nearly 30 years after democracy opened the country to business, less than 1% of this magnificent sum (it’s a lot of zeroes), has been invested in black-owned companies. It’s not because there are not enough black-owned or managed organisations out there though, to my mind, it’s because the more things change, the more they stay the same. The outcry over the PIC’s investment into Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC) and Ayo Technology Solutions (AYO) is a case in point. Especially that of AYO, of whom reams of articles have been written, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt by the “establishment” media to undermine the…

JOHN Steenhuisen is quite right. There is only one ANC – the corrupt one. We’ve been led to believe there’s a bad Zuma-led ANC and a good one, led by Ramaphosa. Indications are that the so-called good president has a lot to account for, but whatever the outcome, he’s been tainted as so many of his fellow comrades have. Not a day passes without some exposure of corruption in most, if not all, government institutions and departments. The party is rotten to the core, and it’s up to us voters to rid ourselves of it. And the only means is through the ballot box and a vote for the DA. This presupposes that the Steenhuisens and Zilles hit the streets, especially in the rural areas where the ANC has hopelessly…

AS THE matric exams have come to an end, I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to all who have contributed to the matric class of 2022. According to the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the class of 2022 has been the most negatively affected by learning disruptions to the schooling programme due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides the interruptions, amended assessment programme in Grade 10 and 11, and the adjustment of the school day and curriculum, these learners also experienced the brunt of the hard lockdown when the pandemic began in March 2020. Hence, the teachers of the Class of 2022 need special praise, recognition and a big thank you for their efforts to help these disadvantaged cohort of matric learners. To the learners, it is only through…

OCCUPIERS at a farmland in Joostenbergvlakte, just outside Paarl, have been evicted after a Western Cape High Court judge ruled they should vacate the property, which is under new management. Judge James Lekhuleni said despite the eviction order also affecting minors, the occupiers “would have to depend on family and friends to assist them”, after the new land owner tried to amicably evict them since he bought the farmland on auction in 2020. According to the judgment, Judge Lekhuleni said the application was rightfully brought before the court in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE Act), despite the respondents relying on the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta), arguing they had been living on the farm for a number…

SECTION27 is heading back to court to challenge the South African Council of Educators’ (SACE) “lenient” sanctions issued to teachers found guilty of corporal punishment. The public interest law centre has applied for leave to appeal an earlier Gauteng High Court judgment, concerning a review of the decisions by SACE in disciplinary proceedings against two teachers, who both pleaded guilty to corporal punishment. They had previously also sought systemic relief directing SACE to reconsider and revise its 2020 “Mandatory Sanctions on Contravention of the Code of Professional Ethics (Towards a robust SAGE Sanctioning Philosophy)” (“Revised Mandatory Sanctions). The court dismissed the review application on the basis that it was “unreasonably delayed”, but granted the systemic relief. The organisation now argued: “The question of delay in the absence of reasons raises…

IN SOUTH Africa there are two major white ethnic groups, the Afrikaners and the English. As much as the English were once in charge, the Afrikaners were the last white group to govern South Africa. From both groups there were people who were against the oppression of people of colour. From the Afrikaners, who were perceived as being the most conservative, there were wonderful people. Antjie Krog was one rose among the thorns from an early age, a thorn from the most conservative Afrikaner province, the Orange Free State. Krog’s background and what she became were very much in contradiction, especially at the age she started to “drift away” from the way her community shaped the young. In terms of Afrikanerdom, she was an apple that fell far from the…

Yangon: Seventy Rohingya people hiding in a truck transporting ginger were arrested north of Yangon after the vehicle crashed into a roadside canal, the Myanmar junta said yesterday. Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state are regarded as illegal immigrants in the Buddhist-majority country and have faced discrimination, restrictions on travel and denied citizenship, health care and education. The arrests took place a week ago. The group of mostly men were hiding under ginger bags in the truck when it crashed. A Bangladeshi citizen was also arrested and authorities were searching for two Myanmar nationals who were driving the truck. Rohingya convicted of violating immigration laws can face two years in jail. | AFP…

More Chinese cities including Urumqi in the far west announced an easing of coronavirus curbs yesterday as China tries to make its zero-Covid policy more targeted and less onerous after unprecedented protests against restrictions last weekend. Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region and where the protests first erupted, will reopen malls, markets, restaurants and other venues from today, authorities said, ending strict lockdowns after months. There was no sign of any significant unrest this weekend, although police were out in force in the Liangmaqiao area of Beijing and in Shanghai around Wulumuqi Road, which is named after Urumqi. Both sites saw protests a week ago. A deadly fire last month in Urumqi sparked dozens of protests against Covid-19 curbs in over 20 cities after some social media users said…

Indonesia’s Mount Semeru erupted yesterday spewing hot ash clouds 1.6km into the sky and sending rivers of lava down its side, prompting officials to raise the alert status to the highest level. The eruption of the highest mountain on Indonesia’s main island of Java, about 800km south-east of the capital, Jakarta, sparked evacuations of nearby villages exactly one year after its last major eruption killed dozens of people. The increased threat level “means the danger has threatened the people’s settlement and the volcano’s activity has escalated”, Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center (PVMBG) spokesperson Hendra Gunawan told broadcaster Kompas TV. “Hot avalanches” caused by piles of lava at the tip of the 3 676-metre volcano slid down after the eruption, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. No…

Spain will be favourites to beat Morocco in the World Cup last 16 today, but the teams’ experiences in the group phase were a reminder of the unpredictability of tournament football. Spain, who humbled Costa Rica 7-0 in their opening game, finished second in Group E behind Japan while Morocco defied the odds to win Group F ahead of Croatia and Belgium. The Spanish, world champions in 2010, lost their last group match to Japan and face a difficult test from a Moroccan side growing in confidence under coach Walid Regragui. After Morocco had beaten Canada 2-1 to reach the last 16 for only the second time and first since 1986, Fifa posted a photo of Regragui holding an avocado with a soccer ball inside it and pointing his finger…

HEALTHCARE heavyweight Afrocentric is being accused of using a black doctor to support their black economic empowerment (BEE) status, and are now allegedly harassing her after she refused to be part of the scheme. South African born doctor Nomteto Belinda Ogundipe allegedly approached UDM leader and member of Parliament Bantu Holomisa with a complaint to the effect that Afrocentric had embarked on a scheme to use her as a BEE front. In a letter seen by the Cape Times’ sister newspaper, Pretoria News, Holomisa on a parliamentary letterhead requests the intervention of Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Pate. The letter reads in part: “I was recently approached by Dr Nomteto Belinda Ogundipe with a complex self-explanatory recount of what happened to her in a BEE fronting scheme. “From what…

IN THE ABSENCE of affidavits from Phala Phala farm managers Hendrik von Wielligh and Sylvester Ndlovu, the legitimacy of the sale of 20 rare buffalo has come under scrutiny in the Phala Phala Section 89 report. According to the report, there were too many unanswered questions around the cash sale of the buffaloes to Sudanese national, Mustafa Mohamed Hazim. The report, compiled by an independent panel and headed by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, raised questions relating to the sale and why the large amount of money had not been banked sooner. “There are a number of questions that arise from the money that Mr Hazim carried. How did he get this huge amount of cash into South Africa? When he entered the country, did he declare to the South…

IT IS unfortunate for Janusz Walus that he isn’t a politician, or a friend of one, because in jail he could then have acquired that mysterious disease. You know; the life-threatening one that affects jailed politicians and their friends yet still allows them to lead an active and healthy life on the outside. The other problem for him is that he wasn’t part of the ANC, unlike Robert McBride, who planted a bomb that claimed at least 72 victims, three of whom – white women – were killed. He was freed after six years. The other problem for Janusz Walus is that he killed Chris Hani. Politically motivated or not, that’s almost as bad as if he’d killed Nelson Mandela, and because of that, despite him having served 30 years…

WE ARE now entering the season of giving. I write on behalf of New Contrast, South Africa's longest-lived literary journal. Founded in 1960 as Contrast, we publish both new and established writers. We are multilingual, publishing poems and short stories in English, Afrikaans, Afrikaaps, isiXhosa, etc. We are South Africa's leading literary journal. The two decades of the internet era has hurt us, with declining subscriptions, notwithstanding that we offer a digital subscription option, and have a website and social media presence. We face bankruptcy and closing down. Sadly, all our funding applications to the National Arts Council, and the Western Cape culture department have been rejected. We appeal for Cape Times readers to both subscribe, and donate, so we can continue to serve South African literature…

I REFER to the picture of Jews mourning the death of their fellow Jews following a bomb blast at a bus stop in Jerusalem (Cape Times November 24). Why is it that when terrorists kill and injure people in Israel, the world is silent? We even have the terrorist group, Hamas, openly gloating about what the bomb explosion achieved. The mind boggles at such brazenness. Imagine the explosive reaction from the world if the reverse happened and Jews had planted a fatal bomb in Gaza. Israel would have been condemned by the UN, the EU, the AU, the South African government, the BDS movement, several Christian leaders and terrorist groups eg Hamas. Why the deafening silence when bombs explode in Israel? I am reminded of when terrorists…

AN ONGOING investigation into the Finance Linked Individual Subsidies (FLISP) in the province has so far found irregular expenditure of over R9 million for 2021/2022. For the 2018/2019 year, a total of 113 subsidies also resulted in over R2m in irregular expenditure, and over 20 subsidies showed hundreds of thousands in underpayments. This came to light following parliamentary questions by ANC MP, Andile Lili, to Infrastructure MEC and provincial DA leader, Tertius Simmers. Citing the Infrastructure Department’s annual report for 2021/22, which read: “The Department is in the process to investigate all Finance Linked Individual Subsidies (FLISP) payments to quantify the expenditure incurred dating back from 2016/2017, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 to determine the full extent of the irregular expenditure incurred”, Lili wanted a progress update and the details of the…

WHILE police unions have welcomed the recent arrest of an alleged police killer, they reiterated calls for such cases to be treated equally as treason. This comes as a 42-year-old man was expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrates’ Court today in connection with the murder of 26-year-old Constable Ashwin Pedro. Pedro was shot and killed in Grassy Park on Thursday at about 5.45pm while on duty. He responded with his partner to information of an armed suspect in Blackbird Avenue. Police spokesperson, Andrè Traut, said the incident happened during an altercation with the suspect Pedro was shot in the chest. “The effective and rapid deployment of resources to hunt down the suspect who shot and killed a Grassy Park constable in cold blood led Anti-Gang Unit members to Ravensmead…

Melbourne: Australian police charged a high-profile Islamic State suspect with six terrorism-related offences yesterday, two days after he was extradited from Turkey, officials said. Neil Christopher Prakash, 31, was accused of offences including engaging in hostile activity overseas, supporting a terrorist organisation, and advocating terrorism, police said. He was charged in Melbourne by a counter-terrorism team after landing in Australia on Friday following his extradition, federal police said in a statement. He was sentenced in 2019 to seven years in prison by a Turkish court, which found him guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation. | AFP…

Gaza City: The Israeli air force said it had carried out overnight air strikes against sites of the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave towards Israeli territory. The Israeli army reported on Saturday evening that a rocket had been fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the first in a month. The attack came as one of Gaza’s larger armed factions, Islamic Jihad, threatened to retaliate after Israeli troops killed two of its leaders in the West Bank town of Jenin on Thursday. Israeli fighter jets targeted overnight “a weapons manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation”, the Israeli army said in a statement. | AFP…

Fifty-seven former hostages of a rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, some young women used as sex slaves, were reunited with their families on Saturday. They were freed last weekend after a large-scale Congolese-Ugandan military operation allowed them to escape the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of dozens of armed groups in the volatile region. The Ugandan and Congolese armies have led an offensive against the ADF in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri for more than a year. The former hostages, mostly women, were reunited with their families at a ceremony in Beni territory in North Kivu. “Kavira” – not her real name, 15, said the ADF kidnapped 25 people in her village of Kikingi, about 70km from Beni, in August last year. “Some were…

Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict female dress code, local media said yesterday. Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran. “Morality police have nothing to do with the judiciary” and have been abolished, Attorney-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a participant who asked “why the morality police were being shut down”, the report said. The morality police – known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad…

Aiden Markram has used the opening rounds of the One-Day Cup to soothe his wounds after South Africa’s T20 World Cup exit, and again illustrated what an important batter he is for the national team. Whether his international future still includes Test cricket, remains to be seen. Markram played no part for the Titans in the Cricket South Africa 4-Day Series, but that was understandable given his omission from the tour party for the trip to Australia. And while he had a poor World Cup, the first two matches in the One-Day Cup has shown that in the limited-overs formats, he remains a batter capable of destroying opposition attacks. Last Friday he top scored for the Titans making 80 in their defeat to the Lions in the competition’s opening fixture.…

Eddie Moore endeared himself to Newlands faithful yesterday with a battling 94 to take Western Province over the line by four wickets in their One-Day Cup encounter with the Dolphins. Moore was playing in his first List A game for his new province since moving from the Warriors during the off-season. The 29-year-old not only anchored the pursuit of 227 for victory, but also showed great courage to bat on after being struck on the ankle by a wayward Dolphins shy at the stumps. It was clear that Moore was in severe pain, particularly as he hobbled through for every single on one leg for the last five overs. And even though he was caught on the long-on boundary with Province still needing four runs to win, the gritty left-hander…