Indice dei contenuti per 2023-10-13 in Cape Times

DESCRIBED as a milestone that will bring stability and enable rights holders to invest, modernise and protect jobs in fishery, the SA Deep-Sea Trawling Industry Association (Sadstia) has welcomed the allocation of long-term, 15-year rights in the deep-sea trawl fishery for hake. Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Minister Barbara Creecy announced her appeal decisions in the sector on October 4, with her decisions confirming the allocation of rights to 37 fishing companies. “The announcement of the appeal decisions has finalised an extremely lengthy and demanding rights allocation process,” said Sadstia chairperson, Innocent Dwayi. “We are confident that this milestone will usher in a period of stability that will enable rights holders to invest, modernise and protect jobs in our fishery. The hake deep-sea trawling industry catches about 84% of…

THE Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said while court escapes by inmates awaiting trial were rare, recent incidents could be a red flag that more resources were needed to curb them. Two of the five awaiting trial prisoners who overpowered a police officer and escaped from the Athlone Magistrate’s Court holding cells on Wednesday have been rearrested. The accused face charges for serious offences such as murder, attempted murder, assault and aggravated robberies, as well as the possession of stolen property. They were about to be transported to a correctional holding facility after their respective court appearances when they escaped on foot. The Anti-Gang Unit spearheaded a search on Wednesday. “Preliminary investigation suggests that the detainees overpowered one of the police officials and disarmed him. Several shots were…

THE sobs of slain Chantell Matthyssen’s mother echoed through the Western Cape High Court yesterday, as she relived the memory of being shown an evidence bag containing her daughter’s necklace. Carol Petersen told the court of her unrelenting search for her 21-year-old daughter, after she had been lured to Wellington in June 2018 under the auspices of getting a job, and never returned. The job scam was allegedly arranged by triple murder and six-time rape-accused Johan Williams, who is on trial for Matthyssen’s murder, as well as that of Natalie Jonkers in 2012 and Maria Isaacs in 2018. Williams is alleged to have lured Jonkers to Ongegund Farm by promising her assistance with obtaining a loan, while Isaacs was strangled or killed “in violence unknown to the State”. Williams faces…

THE impending eviction of more than 100 homeless people living in seven encampment sites across the City centre will come to finality later this year. A final eviction application was heard for two days in the Western Cape High Court this week, where judgment was reserved on Wednesday. The City was granted an application in February to serve eviction notices at the various locations, including Buitengracht Street, Helen Suzman Boulevard and Strand Street. The matter was due to be heard again in April for final eviction, but it was postponed after the Socio- Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (Seri) filed notice of intention to oppose the eviction. According to the rights organisation representing the homeless people, the court heard the City’s submission where it contended that the eviction order…

A little Ray of sunshine Kristan Higgins Loot.co.za (R185) Penguin An emotional novel from the author of TikTok sensation Pack up the Moon. A teenager walks into your bookstore and ... guess what? He’s your son. The one you put up for adoption 18 years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise! It’s a huge surprise to his adoptive mother, Monica, who thought she had a close relationship with Matthew, her nearly adult son. Until he secretly arranged a holiday to Cape Cod so he could meet his birth mother, without a word to her. It’s also a surprise to Harlow, the woman who secretly placed him for adoption so many years ago. She has built a quiet life, running a bookstore with her grandfather, and is happily…

When We Were Bright And Beautiful Jillian Medoff Loot.co.za (R249) HarperPaper- backs Jillian Medoff returns with her biggest novel yet – an electrifying, twisty, and deeply emotional family drama, set on Manhattan’s glittering Upper East Side, that explores the dark side of love, the limits of loyalty, and the high cost of truth. Cassie Quinn may be only 23, but she knows a few things. One: money can’t buy happiness, but it’s certainly better to have it. Two: family matters most. Three: her younger brother Billy is not a rapist. When Billy, a junior at Princeton, is arrested for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie races home to Manhattan to join forces with her big brother Nate and their parents, Lawrence and Eleanor. The Quinns scramble to hire the best legal…

THE ANC manifesto review process launched at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto on September 4 is a listening exercise in a markedly different place 29 years after the first democratic elections. Disapproving community voices say the ANC has not transformed the economy enough to serve the people, and has not sufficiently advanced social transformation to build safer communities. Many ANC leaders appear to have embraced the spirit of critical introspection with the arrogance of a party that used to be in government. Their engagement with the people on the successive election mandates is underwhelming in the face of a festival of complaints about the conditions of South Africa today undisturbed by the lack of contrition for having presided over its decline. The ANC leaders do not like a country shaped by…

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin yesterday called for strengthened military ties with Kyrgyzstan in a trip to the Central Asian country, his first foreign visit since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March. Putin is wanted by the court over the deportation of Ukrainian children. Its ruling requires members of the ICC, which does not include Kyrgyzstan, to make the arrest if he sets foot on their territory. Televised footage showed Putin greeting Kyrgyz counterpart Sadyr Japarov in the capital Bishkek for a summit of the post-Soviet group Commonwealth of Independent States. “I would like to thank the president for the invitation. We have good reasons (to be here), but even without reasons this visit is long overdue,” Putin said in talks with Japarov. “I expect…

Australians are set to overwhelmingly say “No” to a proposal to constitutionally recognise the country’s Indigenous people in a referendum tomorrow, one of the final opinion polls ahead of the vote showed. Australians have to vote “Yes” or “No” to a question asking whether they agree to alter the 122-year-old constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, and create a body, called the Voice to Parliament, that can provide advice to the government. More than 4 million people have already cast their ballot after early voting began on October 2. Those opposed to the proposal lead the “Yes” camp by 56% to 38%, according to the final poll by YouGov published yesterday. Some 6% of those polled were undecided. Yougov polled 1 519 voters for the survey. Australia’s…

SAN FRANCISCO: The X social media platform has removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since the militant group’s attack on Israel, its chief executive Linda Yaccarino said yesterday. The move came in response to EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s 24-hour ultimatum to Elon Musk to tackle the spread of disinformation on his X platform, since the Hamas assault, to comply with new EU online content rules. X has responded to more than 80 take-down requests received in the EU within the required timeline, and has not received notices from Europol regarding illegal content, the platform says. | Reuters…

Gibraltar: Gibraltar voted yesterday in a tight election which could affect talks on a deal settling the tiny British overseas territory’s ties with the EU following Brexit. Around 25 000 people are eligible to cast ballots for candidates from two parties, as well as an independent, who are vying for representation in parliament in the enclave on Spain’s southern tip. Polls have put the ruling centre-left Socialist-Liberal alliance neck-and-neck with the opposition centre-right Gibraltar Social Democrats. Gibraltar, which has a land border with Spain, has been in limbo since Britain’s withdrawal from the EU in 2020 left it outside the bloc’s customs union. | AFP…

AS WORLD Sight Day was observed yesterday, frustrated pensioners living with blindness, supported by the League of Friends of the Blind (Lofob), took to the streets in protest, calling on the government to bring their social grants on par with the R3 500 minimum wage, amid the rising living costs. The demonstration was held outside the Lofob building in Klip Road, Grassy Park, yesterday, where placards were held reading “R10, increase blind pension, robbing us blind” and “R10 pension increase is a shame”. The demonstration followed disappointment as their pension grants will only increase by R10 this month, bringing their total monthly allowance to R2 090, in spite of mounting expenses for a pensioner living with blindness to get by. For 63-year-old Isaac Fischer, half of the R2…

Council takes control of R100m in trust account IN YET another blow for embattled advocate Zuko Nonxuba, the Legal Practice Council (LPC) has taken control of the last remaining R100 million in his trust account. However, the council’s investigations showed that the trust balance should have been substantially more. Nonxuba is alleged to have misappropriated hundreds of millions of rand paid into his trust account that was due to his former clients after successfully litigating against the Department of Health in matters relating to medical malpractice. Nonxuba was ordered by the courts in all cases where minors were involved to set up trusts on behalf of the claimants in the medical malpractice suits, and to ensure that they received compensation as beneficiaries of the trusts. However, according to the LPC,…

THE launch of a 24-hour hotline and reward system to encourage residents to report extortion at construction sites across the metro has been widely welcomed. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said demands for protection fees from local extortionists were impeding both basic service delivery and major infrastructure projects, as the City launched the anti-extortion campaign at the construction sites of new MyCiTi depots in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain yesterday. Interference with multiple contractors and extortion attempts have set the project back by several weeks, he said. “We are determined to prevent disruptions to services by partnering with communities as our eyes and ears to root out local extortionists, and paying out cash rewards for valuable tip-offs leading to arrest and prosecution. “With a record R11bn infrastructure budget in 23/24 – 73% of…

Mother- Daughter Murder Night Nina Simon Loot.co.za (R245) Collins Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door. High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the LA real estate empire she has built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage - and hoping boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does. Then Jack - tiny in stature but fiercely independent - happens upon a body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on…

Girls of Little Hope Sam Beckbessinger and Dale Halvorsen Loot.co.za (R224) Jonathan Ball FOR lovers of the horror genre, this is one that will certainly have you up at night and push all the right buttons. I have to say at the outset that this is not a genre that I look for, so I was not really prepared for the monsters, blood and gore that evolved. Yes, it did give me nightmares! I have, however, read some of Lauren Beukes’s novels and enjoyed them, so seeing her shout-out on the cover gave me the confidence to wade in. And I waded in deep. At first there is a sense that this is a thriller – close friends Rae, Kat and Donna disappear into the woods around the town…

What a tremendous sporting week this is for the people of South Africa. The Springboks are gearing up for Sunday night’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against France in Paris, the Proteas took on Australia at the Cricket World Cup in Lucknow, India yesterday and Bafana Bafana will face Eswatini in an international friendly in Johannesburg this evening. At the moment, the biggest game of them all is the Boks’ showdown with the French. Siya Kolisi’s team have not reached their absolute best form yet, although it was a titanic tussle in the 13-8 defeat to Ireland a few weeks ago. The Boks are doing things the hard way again – like they did at Japan 2019 – in bidding to become the only team to win the Webb Ellis Cup…

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg yesterday joined indigenous Sami activists protesting in Oslo against wind turbines still operating on reindeer herding land two years after a court ruled them illegal. Norway’s Supreme Court this week found that two wind farms in the Fosen region of western Norway – on land used by Sami reindeer herders – violated the rights of the indigenous people, guaranteed by the UN, to practise their culture of reindeer husbandry. Two years later, the 151 turbines are still operating. To mark the anniversary on Wednesday, dozens of environment activists and Samis began a series of protests in the Norwegian capital, expected to last several days, demanding the demolition of the turbines. Yesterday, Thunberg joined the activists to block the entrance to the headquarters of state-owned energy…

WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed at least 1 200 people in Israel. Trump, the front runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Netanyahu “has been hurt very badly” due to the attack. “Israel was not prepared. And under Trump, they wouldn’t have had to be prepared,” he said. On Israel’s security, he added: “They’ve gotta straighten it out because they’re fighting, potentially … with Iran.” | Reuters…

Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan said he was “stronger and fitter than ever” since being jailed two months ago, according to a statement released by his family yesterday. Khan was convicted of graft in August and jailed for three years, with the election commission subsequently banning him from contesting polls scheduled for January next year. Khan said he had spent his time in jail reading the Qur’an. Although his prison term for graft was overturned, he was kept in custody over a fresh arrest for leaking state documents, with his lawyers expecting he will be formally indicted next week. | AFP…

Stockholm: A Swedish court yesterday convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Qu’ran burning, the first time the country’s courts have tried the charge for desecrating Islam’s holy book. The conviction comes after a wave of Qu’ran burnings earlier this year that stoked international outrage and made Sweden a “prioritised target”, prompting the country’s intelligence agency to heighten its terror alert level. The Linkoping district court in central Sweden found the 27-year-old man guilty of “agitation against an ethnic group”, saying his action had “targeted Muslims, and not Islam as a religion”. | AFP…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday promised a crackdown on the construction mafia and other gangs involved in the extortion of businesses across the country. “We are to go after these gangs. We are to go after those people who hijack building sites,” he said. “All of those, whether they are in the taxi industry or construction industry, who do wrong things, they will have to pay and be accountable for their wrong activities.” He made the undertaking when responding to oral questions posed by DA MP Tim Brauteseth in the National Council of Provinces about the personnel and resources allocated to the special units Ramaphosa mentioned in his State-of-the-Nation address as having been established in every province to combat the scourge. Ramaphosa said the SAPS had established 20 economic infrastructure task…

BEING motivated to solve future problems now earned Kabelo Sekoere, 19, and Simthembile Hlehliso, 18, from Senakangwedi Secondary School in Botshabelo, Free State, a gold medal for their research project, “Solar power stand”. Their award at the 2023 Eskom Expo International Science Fair will enable the aspiring scientist to receive more than R1 million in funding for their tertiary education. They were among 330 bright minds standing shoulder-to-shoulder with 20 international peers representing Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Türkiye competing in the 43rd expo from October 3-6 in Boksburg. The full bursaries from Siemens- Energy will allow the two to study towards a BSc in Engineering at South African universities of their choice. For Sekoere this was another step in…

A FORMER Caledon police officer will serve two years’ direct jail for trying to blackmail and extort R50 000 from a dentist. Brendill Davids, 44, was sentenced on Wednesday after his conviction on Monday in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on a charge of corruption and attempted extortion. Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said Davids was arrested on October 27, 2016, following an operation that was conducted by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team at a surgery in Grabouw. The former cop allegedly suggested to the dentist that he submitted higher than usual claims to the SA Police Service Medical Scheme. “It is further reported that Davids blackmailed the doctor and demanded money. “The doctor informed the Hawks and Serious Corruption Investigation team members conducted an intelligence operation. “The victim…

The Further Adventures of Jim Slater – Last days in old Parktown Peter Strangeways Square Sail Publishing To anyone who lived through the turbulent 60s in South Africa, the word “Parktown” has resonance. Conceived as an exclusive suburb for the nouveaux-elite, Parktown sprang into existence as an uber-exuberant expression of wealth. On large stands the “Rand Lords” rivalled one another to build huge mansions set in manicured gardens, each with a tennis court, orchards, fish ponds, stables and outhouses for the hoards of servants required. Parktown became an eclectic mix of styles: Gothic, Tudor, Baronial, Cape Dutch, Art Nouveaux, and more, but declined as swiftly as it arose. By the early sixties the suburb was in decay, many of the properties bought by the land hungry city council and slated…

Stitched Up Michael Clower Independently published The book was dropped on my desk and a review requested. A quick look at the cover and I responded “pleasure.” I thought I could do with a good read and a week later, after boarding a flight to Johannesburg, I quickly clicked my safety belt before sitting back to open Stitched Up by Michael Clower and read the first line. “‘Hi Rod.’ The man stopped me in my tracks as I made my way from the Newbury winner’s enclosure to the press room.” By the second page I was hooked. I can’t say I heard the air hostess make her customary announcements and simply nodded as she came by with refreshments. Amateur jump jockey and racing journalist Rod Hutchinson was set up…

‘No amount of human resilience can stave off the impacts of such a cornucopia of adversities’ WORLD Mental Health Day 2023, observed on Tuesday this week all over the world, could not have come at a more poignant time with the increased incidence of mental health converging into a perfect storm due to the manifold impacts over the past three years of global, regional and national events. As if the effects of Covid-19 since its declaration in March 2020 as a global “once in a century” pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO); its socio-economic, health and loss of life and livelihood effects; the food and fuel supply chain disruptions caused by the Ukraine conflict, catastrophic climate-related events, natural disasters and a stubborn global cost-of-living crisis, are not enough. These…

As Israel cuts off electricity to the Gaza Strip, hospitals are at risk of being turned into morgues while civilians are struggling to access drinking water, Fabrizio Carboni, the regional director for the Near and Middle East for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said yesterday. “As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk, kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Carboni said. He said Palestinians in Gaza were already having difficulty accessing clean drinking water. Meanwhile, Israelis were worried about their loved ones being taken hostage, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law, he added. The ICRC was in contact with both sides to help resolve the situation, and…

Kenya warned yesterday of the risk that groups such as al-Shabaab could carry out attacks in “solidarity” with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group’s bloody assault on Israel. The country has suffered a number of attacks carried out by the Somalia-based al-Shabaab since sending troops into its neighbour in 2011 to battle the al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists. “Conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza impacts global security,” Kenya’s counterterrorism police service said on X, formerly Twitter. “Terror groups like al-Shabaab may conduct attacks in solidarity with Hamas to remain relevant. “Kenyans need to be vigilant and report terror activities to police for action,” it added. Al-Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency for more than 15 years against Somalia’s fragile central government, issued a statement on Wednesday praising the surprise weekend…

LONDON: Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone was spared an immediate prison sentence yesterday after he pleaded guilty in a London court to misleading Britain’s tax authority about overseas assets worth over £400 million (R9.2 billion). Ecclestone, 92, agreed a civil settlement with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), under which he will pay £652.6m covering tax, interest and penalties for 18 tax years between 1994 and 2022. Ecclestone appeared at Southwark Crown Court and admitted one count of fraud by false representation, just over a month before he was due to stand trial. He admitted giving a misleading answer to HMRC at a 2015 meeting, when he said he had established only a single trust in favour of his daughters. Judge Simon Bryan gave Ecclestone a 17-month prison sentence suspended for…

BEIJING: The number of births in China tumbled 10% last year to hit their lowest level on record – a drop that comes despite a slew of government efforts to support parents and amid increasing alarm that the country may become demographically imbalanced. China had just 9.56 million births in 2022, according to a report published by the National Health Commission. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1949. The high costs of childcare and education, growing unemployment and job insecurity as well as gender discrimination have prevented many young couples from having children. | Reuters…