Indice dei contenuti per 2023-02-28 in Cape Times

UNIVERSITY of Fort Hare (UFH) bigwigs finally got the meeting they had been calling for with President Cyril Ramaphosa to address safety and security concerns at the institution that have claimed the lives of two staff members. Ramaphosa has committed to engage with the security cluster to explore security measures in efforts to deal with safety and criminal elements in the higher education sector. UFH vice-chancellor and principal Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, chancellor, Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, and deputy chair of its council Dr Siphokazi Koyana met Ramaphosa in Cape Town, last Thursday. This, after nearly three months of publicly calling for a meeting with Ramaphosa to assist with providing protection and support. Last month Buhlungu’s executive protection officer Mboneli Vesele was shot dead outside the professor’s house, in an alleged hit…

Chantal Kisoon accused of calling staff ‘black babies’ THE SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) was locked in meetings last night amid calls for the sacking of acting chief executive officer, Chantal Kisoon, for referring to staff as “black babies” during a strategic planning session last week. The incident was captured on camera and has since gone viral on social media. In the clip, a person identified as her, is heard saying: “They are going to look at the truthful number of 300 KPIs and assess and they’ll call each of you out as black babies and then to do the same thing we can't expect to be spoon fed, we can’t. It’s different if somebody is new, they’re reaching out, we guide, we induct…” The staff reportedly forced her out…

WHO among us has not done something brutishly silly in our lives – more often than not when we were young and cheerfully irresponsible – something that we have very much regretted afterwards? Chances that such things may happen in a varsity environment are as great as anywhere where youngsters are living it up trying to be part of their crowd. Dealing with someone hopelessly stoned or plastered (or whatever the slang expression for totally under the influence may be at that time) may also not be such a socially pleasant experience for many people in their company. But such things happen so frequently that they are seldom the “great news of the decade”. Unless, it seems, when students are perceived to have wee-weed across the “racial divide”. Then, as…

THE narrative of two siblings who find themselves navigating a child-headed home, a current reality for many South-African children, comes to life in Mandla Mbothwe’s iKrele leChiza…the sermon, at the Baxter Flipside Theatre stage next month. iKrele leChiza…the sermon, is part of a six-year research project called Re-Imagining Tragedy in Africa and the Global South (ReTAGS). It tells the story of brother and sister named Luphawo and Mesuli, whose parents are stuck in respective spaces between life and death. Their mother in an ancestral orientation room because she refused death until her body could no longer go on, and their father is in a spiritual exile. Luphawo seeks ways of finding their father as well defending and restoring humanity in their home while Mesuli (wiper of tears/comforter) has to prematurely…

DESPERATE to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives after three years of trauma, the family of slain Tazne van Wyk said they looked forward to their journey of healing after their daughter’s murderer was recently sentenced. Carmen van Wyk, Tazne’s mother, said while the hurt and sorrow of losing their eight-year-old daughter would always stay with them, they had hope for healing, with Van Wyk having also recently birthed a girl. Moyhdian Pangkaeker was recently convicted in the Western Cape High Court for the rape, murder and kidnapping of Tazne in February 2020. The court case ran for three years. Pangkaeker recently started serving nine life terms behind bars for the 21 criminal charges he was convicted of earlier this year by Judge Alan Maher. “I have no…

The alarming number of violent incidents at schools across the country since the start of the year has demonstrated that teaching and learning institutions are no longer safe spaces for pupils and teachers. The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said recently that the incidents of violence included bullying, suicide, stabbings and shootings. Last week, there were serious incidents in KwaZulu-Natal schools. The deputy principal of Sandakahle Primary School in uMlazi, Durban, was injured in a shooting during an alleged botched hijacking. At Sarasvati Primary School in oThongathi, a teacher was allegedly assaulted by her colleagues, and the principal of the same school was attacked by a gunman. There were several other incidents earlier this year, including the murder of a Grade 10 pupil who was stabbed to death, allegedly…

Nigeria’s outsider candidate Peter Obi has won the key state of Lagos, according to provisional results yesterday from the tight race for the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation. The Lagos State win by Labour Party’s Obi underscored his surprise challenge to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which have governed Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999. Nearly 90 million were eligible to vote on Saturday for a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, many hoping a new leader can bring real change to tackle insecurity, economic malaise and widening poverty. The closely fought race pits Obi against two old-guard rivals, APC’s Bola Tinubu, 70, a former Lagos governor, and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president on his sixth bid at…

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Türkiye yesterday, killing at least one person and wounding dozens while causing some damaged buildings to collapse, the government’s disaster agency said. The epicentre of the tremor was the Yesilyurt district in the Malatya province, which was hit by the February 6 earthquake that killed over 44 000 people in Türkiye and thousands more in neighbouring Syria. “One citizen lost his life. Some 69 were injured,” said Yunus Sezer, chairperson of Afad disaster agency. Afad tweeted that 29 buildings already damaged by a powerful February 6 earthquake had collapsed. “Our search-and-rescue teams were quickly dispatched to the region, and started to work,” it said. The local mayor, Mehmet Cinar, said a father and his daughter were trapped after they entered a damaged building to get…

OSLO: Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg and dozens of other activists yesterday blocked entrances to Norway’s energy ministry, protesting against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders. Thunberg, a vocal advocate for the ending the world’s reliance on carbon-based power, said the transition to green energy could not come at the expense of indigenous rights. Norway’s supreme court in 2021 ruled that two wind farms built in central Norway violated Sami rights under international conventions, but the turbines remain in operation more than 16 months later. Reindeer herders in the Nordic country say the sight and sound of the giant wind power machinery frighten their animals and disrupt age-old traditions. The ministry said the ultimate fate of the wind farms is a complex legal quandary despite…

GOMA: The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) suspended flights in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces following an attack on one of the service’s helicopters last Friday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said yesterday. Flights between the provincial capital Goma and eastern cities of Beni and Bunia were suspended. The helicopter was able to land in Goma and the three crew members and 10 passengers were unharmed. The armed group that attacked the helicopter has not been identified but flights would only resume after an assessment of the security situation. One UN peacekeeper was killed in eastern DRC on February 5. | Reuters…

The Stormers are gearing up to pelt the Sharks with rolling mauls and scrums in Saturday’s coastal derby (kick-off 2.30pm) at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. On Monday, Rito Hlungwani, Stormers forwards coach, didn’t mince his words when he made it clear that they’ll ruthlessly employ these two facets in play to try and get the better of the visitors. The Durban side was hammered with rolling mauls this past weekend in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash with Ulster and the Stormers have certainly taken note of that. So the Sharks, who lost 31-24 to the Irish side, can expect a bit of déjà vu this weekend. “The only teams we haven’t scored maul tries against are the Ospreys and Cardiff. We’ve scored against every other team we…

from page 1 “The societal demand for those of us who are progressives is to impose our standards and values on the racially prejudiced individuals instead of merely reacting to their actions,” Nyembezi said. “We must accept that the occasional flare-up is not just something to be extinguished, but rather an indication that there is a larger undiagnosed issue underneath. The demand on the government and the citizens is not to expect racism to vanquish overnight, but to collectively commit to the process of constantly finessing the progressive realisation of a non-racial society. Better as a nation to be a work in progress than a prematurely ended project to build and nurture our rainbow nation.”…

A SENIOR investigator at the Public Protector South Africa (PPSA) told the Section 194 inquiry that it was incorrect that a court judgment suggested that the institution relied on “other” reports when conducting an investigation into the so-called rogue unit. Bianca Mvuyana said it was also incorrect for a judgment to set aside the report on the unit as having transplanted and regurgitated information from discredited reports. “In investigations, you find that they conducted forensic investigations. That is submitted to us. We don’t take reports, or copy and paste them into the report. “We also request evidence and even an annexure that led to an investigation coming to a conclusion,” Mvuyana said. She was giving testimony while being led by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s legal counsel advocate Dali Mpofu SC…

THERE is always something one reads in the paper that stops you in your tracks. A gangster, who murdered a youth in Hanover Park, was given a sentence of 15 years (Cape Times, February 23). He, no doubt, will get out early on parole. Why was he not given life? As crime fighters say, this is a slap on the wrist for such a crime. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the sentence fitted the crime. He then goes on to say “gangsterism and organised crime continue to be one of our priorities in the province”. Pull the other one, Mr Ntabazalila. With pathetic sentences like 15 years for murder, I’m afraid you are not going to make a dent in organised crime.…

FOUR hospitals in the Western Cape have been exempted from load shedding, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said, as a warning has gone out by MECs that they were running out of funds to buy fuel for generators. Phaahla named Groote Schuur, Tygerberg, Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital and George Regional hospitals as part of the 76 health facilities exempted from load shedding since September 2022. He was responding to parliamentary questions from Freedom Front MP Philip van Staden, who asked whether all government hospitals and clinics in each province were exempt from load shedding in the current Eskom crisis. Phaahla said not all government facilities had been exempted from power cuts, as the Department of Health has provided Eskom with a total of 213 hospitals to be considered for…

EMBATTLED former Bloekombos Secondary School principal Ntombi Goniwe has lost her appeal against the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) over financial mismanagement. She also walked away empty-handed as the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) ruled that she was not entitled to any relief. Goniwe was employed at the school in October 2018. However, the school faced many challenges from 2020, with feuds between the School Governing Body (SGB) and Goniwe over governance and maladministration. Parents also staged demonstrations at the school, demanding that safety be ensured, while Goniwe allegedly received death threats and had to be under police protection at some point. The WCED took the former principal to a disciplinary hearing in 2022, where she faced five charges. Initially, Goniwe pleaded guilty to one charge but changed her…

It will now be their duty to fix all those unfulfilled election promises EVERYONE must have had their moment when they concluded that things are broken in our current system of government and require a strong involvement of independent public representatives with no political party affiliation, and here is mine. The lack of improvement in municipal outcomes over many years was an indictment of the entire local government accountability ecosystem, which failed to act and arrest the decline characterised by poor service delivery. As South Africans welcome the adoption by the National Assembly on February 23 of the amendments to the Electoral Act that will allow independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections, I cannot shake the many stories of suffering communities. President Cyril Ramaphosa needs to have signed…

Egypt’s foreign minister met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday in the first visits to Syria and Türkiye by a top Egyptian diplomat in a decade. Assad has benefited from an outpouring of Arab support since devastating earthquakes hit his country and neighbouring Türkiye this month, helping to ease the diplomatic isolation he has faced over Syria’s civil war that began in 2011. “The goal of the visit is primarily humanitarian, and to pass on our solidarity – from the leadership, the government and the people of Egypt to the people of Syria,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in Damascus. Egypt was looking forward to providing more quake assistance “in full co-ordination with the Syrian government” after already having donated some 1 500 tons,…

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has struck a new deal on post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland, gambling that the reward of better ties with the EU is worth any discord it might cause within his own party. A government source said Sunak yesterday agreed the terms with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen west of London. The agreement marks a high-risk strategy for Sunak, looking to secure a compromise and improve relations with Brussels, and the US, without angering the wing of his party most wedded to Brexit. The deal seeks to resolve tensions caused by the 2020 post-Brexit arrangements governing Northern Ireland, a British province, and its open border with EU member Ireland. It remains to be seen whether it will go far enough to end political…

CROTONE: Rescuers recovered three more bodies yesterday, a day after a wooden sailboat carrying migrants to Europe smashed onto rocks in stormy weather off southern Italy, bringing the death toll to at least 62, including at least 14 children. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said more than two dozen Pakistanis were believed to have been among the vessel’s passengers. Rescuers said many Afghanis and some Iranians had also been aboard the boat. Many of the victims washed ashore close to where the vessel sank near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, while some of the bodies were recovered from the sea, which has started to calm as blustery winds die down. | Reuters…

Seoul: North Korea has convened a key party meeting to discuss agricultural issues, with its leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, Pyongyang’s state media reported yesterday, as the country is grappling with severe food shortages. Kim presided over the meeting to discuss agricultural development. The country’s food situation appears to have deteriorated amid deepening economic hardships caused by border lockdowns to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and global sanctions over the country’s nuclear and missile programmes. The North’s crop output is estimated to have fallen 3.8% year-on-year to 4.51 million tons last year. | IANS…

South Africans had the opportunity to drown their sorrows after the Proteas’ World Cup final defeat by tuning into the Siya Kolisi Story, Rise, which premiered on Sunday evening. It offered exclusive insights into the life of the Springbok World Cup-winning captain, both on and off the rugby field. However, if the producers had waited a couple of weeks though, they would have had another fascinating chapter to add. Kolisi has recently been spending time with the Proteas’ squad, and has been a very visible and vocal supporter of the team during the recently-completed ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. He was in the commentary box during the semi-final victory over England, and then out on the field embracing all the players after the match. During the final on Sunday, Kolisi…

from page 1 the biological father of the unborn baby. “The complainant was to all intents and purposes a young child. “She had lost her primary attachment figure less than a year before the rape. “She would thus have been even more emotionally and psychologically dependent on the appellant. “Given his flat denial of any involvement, and the fact that the pregnancy was only discovered, and the rape revealed, 17 weeks later, coupled with the complainant’s intellectual impairment, there is no basis from which an inference can be drawn that there was no physical injury to her, or that she was not threatened or subjected to some form of violence,” said Judge Cloete. “It was common cause during the trial that such is the complainant’s impairment that she was unable…

Your February 23 edition “Suspended judge secretive of Prasa job” refers. The judiciary in South Africa is normally beyond reproach. We do have individuals who turn out to be “bad eggs”. This is rare, and the judicial service commission are invariably quick to act and take disciplinary measures against recalcitrant judges. Every now and again, we see incredibly duplicitous behaviour which could lead to the judge being removed from his or her position. We have seen this here in the Western Cape province. Unfortunately, these hearings take a long time and bring the judiciary into disrepute.…

True to form the ANC government has crucified the departing CEO, blaming him for all Eskom’s problems; failing to acknowledge what we all know, namely that most power stations are trying to operate with obsolete equipment that has suffered from a lack of basic maintenance over many, many years. At this point in time, they are grossly unreliable well beyond redemption. If a realistic appraisal were to be made, the country is facing a monumental problem that will take many years, and a vast amount of money to overcome. This dire situation is further compounded by certain invested interests held by influential senior politicians who will cling to coal for all its worth, blocking all efforts to introduce alternative power sources. Hopefully, the identity of those ANC senior officials that…

OBTAINING court dates for trials involving Road Accident Fund (RAF) matters still remains an uphill battle. In this regard, Pretoria law firm Gert Nel Incorporated is still awaiting word from the Constitutional Court (Concourt) on whether it will entertain this constitutional challenge. It filed an application with the Concourt in December, in a bid to access the highest court in the country directly. The legal challenge involved the legality of court directives legal practitioners have to navigate to attain court dates for their clients in claims against the RAF. According to the head of the law firm, Gert Nel, the hurdles caused delays and in some cases, claimants had to wait years before their cases were dealt with by the court. He said in some cases lodged with the Gauteng…

THE Proteas Women’s Team has thanked fans who came out in their numbers to support them at the Women’s T20 World Cup final at Newlands on Sunday. The team, which lost to Australia, said they were grateful for the support. Sunday’s final saw over 14 000 fans in attendance. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who hosted the women’s team at City Hall yesterday, said their performance at the tournament put women’s cricket firmly on the map. The Proteas team is the first senior national cricket team to progress to an ICC World Cup final. “Many people have never watched a women’s cricket match before and I think now they will tune in regularly to see this cricket team playing,” he said. “Every single day, women’s sport is becoming a more…

There are several infrastructure mega-projects in South Africa, including the international Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, a dig-out port in Durban, the ongoing upgrade of the R573 (a regional route in South Africa), the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, and SA Connect (which aims to connect schools, health facilities, government offices and service centres in underserved rural districts). The costs of these projects may run into millions or billions of rand, and the average citizen may not see the value of making such enormous investments. However, the mega-project industry has contributed to increasing employment in the country over the years, and in the long term these projects are vital to sustain the country’s economy and business climate. As an emerging economy, South Africa needs infrastructure mega-projects to remain competitive and reinvent…

China said yesterday that it sought dialogue and peace for Ukraine despite US warnings that Beijing might be considering weapons supplies for its ally Russia’s bogged-down invasion. Air-raid sirens blared in the capital Kyiv and other cities overnight and a Russian missile killed one person in the western town of Khmelnitskyi, mayor Oleksandr Symshyshyn said on the Telegram messaging app. The all-clear sounded after daybreak. China, which declared a “no limits” alliance with Russia shortly before the invasion a year ago, has refused to condemn the onslaught and last week published a 12-point plan calling for a ceasefire and gradual de-escalation by both sides. Kyiv struck a receptive tone on some aspects of the plan while reiterating there could be no peace without a total Russian withdrawal – a non-starter…

JK Rowling “doesn’t care” if her controversial comments impact her “legacy”. The Harry Potter author, 57, has been accused of transphobia for a series of comments but has now insisted she isn’t bothered that her legacy will be tarnished because anyone who cares about their legacy is “pompous” in her eyes. “I care about now. I care about the living.” Rowling caused outrage after she liked a tweet that referred to trans women as “men in dresses”. She also faced online attacks and death threats since she bemoaned the loss of references to biological women. She said her comments were misunderstood. | Bang Showbiz…

CAPE CANAVERAL: Nasa and SpaceX yesterday postponed the launch of a capsule containing two US astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and a United Arab Emirates crewmate minutes before scheduled lift-off from Florida on a flight to the International Space Station. The US space agency and SpaceX, the private rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, cited a technical glitch concerning the ignition fluid used to start the spacecraft’s engines. The countdown had seemed to be progressing smoothly until about two-and-a-half minutes before blast-off, when Nasa said the launch of the crew members on a six-month science mission would be postponed. | Reuters…

HAWARA: Israel yesterday deployed extra troops in the occupied West Bank after a Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israelis and a Palestinian was killed when Jewish settlers rampaged through a village, setting fire to houses and cars. “We expect difficult days ahead of us,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said as he toured the largely empty streets of the village of Hawara with a heavy security detail. The mob violence on Sunday partially eclipsed the attack earlier in the day in which two brothers from a nearby Israeli settlement were gunned down in their car in Hawara, a Palestinian village north of Ramallah that often sees friction with settlers. | Reuters…