Indice dei contenuti per 2023-12-07 in Cape Times

CONSULTING Engineers South Africa (Cesa), a voluntary association of about 600 consulting engineering member firms, said yesterday that it had elected David Leukes as its new president. He was elected at Cesa’s 70th Annual General Meeting on November 28. He succeeds Olu Soluade in the position, with Knight Piésold Africa regional manager Vishal Haripersad assuming the role of vice-president of the organisation, a position that was held by his predecessor Leukes. Leukes has served as a member of the Cesa board for several years and is managing director of BVi Consulting Engineers, a CESA member company. He completed his National Diploma in Civil Engineering at the Cape Technikon and subsequently attained his BTech Degree at the Free State Technikon. Leukes also has an MBA Degree from the University of Stellenbosch…

AWARD-WINNING children’s classic, Liewe Heksie Vang Vis, performed in Afrikaans by Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck, flies into the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio for a limited season this month. Based on the stories by the well-known writer, radio and television personality Verna Vels, the production won the Best Children’s Production Kanna award at the 2023 KKNK Festival in Oudtshoorn and is perfect entertainment for the whole family. The judges praised the show for the way the cast engages with young audiences while telling the story. The show was also nominated for a Fleur du Cap award. In Liewe Heksie Vang Vis, beloved character Liewe Heksie uses her broom as a fishing rod, but the fish just won’t bite. The nasty Yellow Witch offers to help and gets Levinia (Heksie) into trouble with…

“OUR dream is to live a fulfilling life of freedom, freedom of movement, of travel, to live safely and not to worry about leaving the house.” These were the words of 29-year-old Hanin Bargouti, a Gift of the Givers staff member who was born into a life of occupation on the West Bank. Bargouti manages the humanitarian projects implemented by the organisation in West Bank Jerusalem and Gaza, including the distribution of hot meals, food parcels, medical supplies and hygiene kits, among others. Speaking to the Cape Times yesterday Bargouti said the focus of their work had turned to Gaza. “We are trying to help with whatever we can. It is a humanitarian crisis, the suffering is widespread with a lack of basically everything in Gaza including clean water, food…

THE Fusion Centre has made some progress in securing 43 convictions against entities and 51 against individuals in relation to various crimes including corruption and fraud. The centre, a multidisciplinary corruption-fighting agency, was established in 2020 to deal mainly with Covid-19 crimes related to illegal procurement. It was expanded this year to include other crime categories such as organised crime, maladministration, terrorist financing and other serious financial crimes, both in public and private institutions. Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya provided an update yesterday on the work that has been done. He said a total of 556 cases were investigated relating to fraud, maladministration, tax evasion and cases of corruption involving 168 accused persons. “In these cases, 51 people and 43 entities were convicted for various crimes including corruption, fraud, tax evasion,…

The spark that led to the advancement of South Africa’s democracy The socio-political composition of a state necessitates change when that very state finds itself caught within a period of turbulence. This turbulence can emerge from any force that disrupts the healthy functioning of a country. South Africa has, unfortunately, been victim to much turbulence throughout its history. We need only examine apartheid rule, which crippled everyday life for the ordinary South African. It was a system based on racially oppressive, segregationist policies and high-level corruption. Change came at the hands of a triple transition – a political, economic and social one. For the outsider it appeared to be a miracle transition, though the situation on the ground was radically different, marred by spates of violence. Nevertheless, the transition did…

Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hamas in southern Gaza yesterday after reaching the heart of the city of Khan Younis, forcing Palestinian civilians to seek refuge elsewhere as the number of safe areas decreases. Israeli warplanes also bombarded targets across the densely populated coastal territory in one of the heaviest phases of fighting in the two months since Israel began its military campaign to eliminate the militant group. Palestinian medics said hospitals were overflowing with dead and wounded, many of them women and children, and supplies were running out. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people driven out of the north were seeking shelter in the dwindling number of places in the south designated as safe areas by Israel. In Geneva, the UN human rights chief said the situation was…

The EU sought to thrash out an agreement on sweeping rules to regulate artificial intelligence yesterday, following months of difficult negotiations, in particular on how to monitor generative AI applications like ChatGPT. The EU is racing to approve the world’s first comprehensive AI law after the issue took on greater urgency when the ChatGPT bot burst onto the scene last year, highlighting AI’s dizzying advances. ChatGPT wowed with its ability to produce poems and essays within seconds from simple user prompts. AI proponents say the technology will benefit humanity, transforming everything from work to health care, but others worry about the risks it poses to society, fearing it could thrust the world into unprecedented chaos. Brussels is bent on bringing big tech to heel with a powerful legal armoury to…

LONDON: Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday he was deeply sorry for the loss of life during the Covid-19 pandemic as he appeared as a witness at the official inquiry into Britain’s handling of the pandemic. The hearing was disrupted by a protester, who was asked to leave by the inquiry’s chairperson. Johnson, prime minister between 2019 and 2022, resigned after a series of scandals including reports that he and other officials had been present at alcohol-fuelled gatherings in Downing Street during 2020 and 2021 when most people in Britain were forced to stay at home. The inquiry has already heard testimony about claims of incompetence, backstabbing and misogyny, his reluctance to lock down, and how he was confused by the science. | Reuters…

MANILA: Philippine police yesterday named two men suspected of being involved in a deadly blast that killed four people during a Catholic Mass in a southern city at the weekend. Those suspected of orchestrating the attack in Marawi were members of Daulah-Islamiyah Maute, a pro-Islamic State militant group that took control of the city in 2017 and held it through five months of ground offensives and air strikes by the military. The suspects were Kadapi Mimbesa, 35, and Arsani Membisa, whose age was not determined, police said. Both have outstanding arrest warrants for crimes such as murder and kidnapping. | Reuters…

The multi-arts Cape Town Arts Festival (CTAF), is this year, inspired by the Social Harmony through National Effort (SHiNE) of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Taking this a step further, CTAF has commissioned a gqom dance track for the upcoming SHiNE dance challenge on Saturday and Sunday at the Castle of Good Hope. The SHiNE song draws inspiration from the creative brilliance of both established and emerging stars and is the backing track for the dance-off finalists competing in the dance challenge on Sunday, who will have been selected from more than 100 local dance soloists and groups that entered the competition. The SHiNE Song is composed by creative director/composer, Lynne Holmes AKA Desert Rose of the Ariva Arts Foundation, and dynamic gqom beat sensation, Chustar. This unusual…

THE EFF has threatened to take Parliament to court over the month-long suspension of their leader Julius Malema and five other MPs after they were sanctioned for disrupting the State of the Nation Address (Sona) in February. Their suspensions will coincide with the delivery of next year’s Sona. On Tuesday, the National Assembly adopted a report of the powers and privileges committee which recommended the MPs’ suspension without pay in February, and that they apologise to President Cyril Ramaphosa, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and South Africans. Malema and his colleagues Floyd Shivambu, Marshall Dlamini, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, Sinawo Thambo and Vuyani Pambo were found guilty of contempt of Parliament during this year’s Sona for disobeying Mapisa-Nqakula’s authority and disrupting the joint sitting. After they were ordered to leave the House,…

250ml cake flour 125g brick margarine, softened 250ml grated cheddar cheese 500g pack ostrich mince ½ can Hot & Spicy Chakalaka 25ml cake flour 1 tub low-fat smooth plain cottage cheese 2 large eggs salt to taste In a food processor or by hand, combine the flour, margarine and cheese until an even, pliable ball of dough forms. Using your fingers, press the dough into the base and up the sides of a 23 to 25cm diameter tart plate. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Turn the mince in a frying pan over medium heat, until lightly browned all over. Remove from the heat and stir in the chakalaka and flour. Leave to cool slightly, then spoon the mixture into the pastry base. In a mixing bowl, lightly whisk the cottage…

TO MAINTAIN a lavish lifestyle or not was the question the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg had to decide. The matter at hand was an application where a wife, who is divorcing her husband, wanted more than R127 000 maintenance a month for herself, pending the divorce, as she said her shoes and clothes cost R20 000. Much of the maintenance the wife claimed for herself is for entertainment and luxury. She is claiming relatively little for their two children. She argued that her husband had introduced her to a lavish lifestyle and she wanted to maintain it. Apart from her shoes and clothes expenses, the wife said she needed R10 000 and an additional R35 000 pocket money a month for herself, as well as R20…

THE HIV community has a vision: zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero Aids-related deaths. But how do we get there while HIV continues to devastate the globe? By the time you have finished reading this article (let’s say it takes 10 minutes), 25 people around the world would have become newly infected with the virus, three of those being in South Africa. During that same time, 12 people would have died from HIV, one of them in South Africa. South Africa is of course one of the hardest-hit countries in the world. An estimated 7.6 million South Africans were living with HIV in 2022: this means one in every eight people in the general population and almost one in five people between the ages of 15 and 49…

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin was in the United Arab Emirates for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union yesterday, as Russia sought to reassert itself on the global stage. Isolated by the West over the Ukraine war, Putin is courting allies in the Middle East, where he will discuss oil, trade and the Israel-Hamas conflict. Putin was greeted on the runway by UAE officials, Russian television showed, before heading to the presidential palace under cavalry escort. “Today, thanks to your posture, our relations have reached unprecedented levels,” Putin told UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on his arrival, praising high trade between the countries. Putin was to travel to Saudi Arabia to meet the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This is only the…

Residents of the small Greek farming village of Metamorfosi have voted in favour of relocating their entire community after it was submerged by flood waters in September, seeking to protect themselves from future climate change-driven disasters. Metamorfosi, which also flooded in 1953 and 1994, nearly disappeared beneath the water when Storm Daniel, which brought devastation across the Mediterranean, struck the Thessaly region on September 4-7, turning it into an inland sea. Sixteen people were killed, including two who drowned in Metamorfosi. The village has resembled a ghost town since and residents said they had no choice but to relocate to a safer place. The proposal to erect new houses in the nearby village of Palamas some 8km away was approved by 142 residents against 14, via an informal vote in…

DUBAI: UN climate chief Simon Stiell told countries yesterday to agree on ambitious action to tackle global warming at the COP28 climate summit rather than fall into the trap of point scoring and “lowest common denominator politics”. At a summit where tension is growing over different visions for the future of fossil fuels, Stiell told a news conference: “We have a starting text on the table ... but it’s a grab bag of wish lists and heavy on posturing. The key now is to sort the wheat from the chaff.” Stiell’s remarks come as the two-week conference approaches its midpoint, which is the time when the opening flurry of pledges has died down and attention turns to progress behind-the-scenes. | Reuters…

SEOUL: South Korean police are investigating whether a North Korean hacker group, accused of stealing data from 14 entities, obtained information on defence technology including an anti-aircraft laser, Seoul police said yesterday. The probe, which is being carried out in conjunction with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, is trying to determine the extent of the data obtained by the group known as Andariel, said Jeong Jin-ho, who heads a team. The US Department of the Treasury in 2019 listed Andariel as a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group conducting malicious cyber operations on foreign businesses and agencies. | Reuters…

At almost 40 years old, Faf du Plessis is just as valuable to any side as any other top batter in the world. Interestingly, in the T20 format alone, the former Proteas skipper has proven to be more impactful in recent years than he ever was in the early stages of his career. A quick glance at his 730 runs at an average of 56 in the 2023 Indian Premier League with the Royal Challengers Bangalore tells the story of a player who has somehow found the right formula for himself in the shortest format of the game, at an age where most players would normally be long done with the sport. Captaining one of the biggest T20 franchises in the world in RCB, Du Plessis boasted a strike rate…

AT THE core of celebrated South African photographer David Goldblatt’s exhibition No Ulterior Motive, recently opened at the Art Institute Chicago, are the works spanning the seven decades of his illustrious career, demonstrating his commitment to showing the realities of daily life in his country without pretence. The ambitious project aims to be a fitting tribute to Goldblatt and the opening of a new chapter in studies of his work. Converging 140 works drawn from the collections of the Art Institute and Yale University Art Gallery, the exhibition also places Goldblatt within a global and intergenerational network of photographers, with a simultaneous presentation of about 40 works by international contemporaries including Josef Koudelka and Shomei Tomatsu, as well as fellow South Africans including Lebohang Kganye, Santu Mofokeng, Ruth Seopedi Motau…

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said the directors and executives of banks that manipulated the rand should face prosecution in their individual capacities for the damage they had inflicted upon the economy. “This act is nothing short of a crime against the South African people,” he said. Mbalula, speaking at a media briefing at the ANC headquarters Luthuli House in Johannesburg yesterday, said that rand manipulation was a crime akin to corruption. He reiterated the ANC’s call for law enforcement agencies to act decisively and expediently in bringing criminal charges against those individuals and banking institutions implicated in manipulating the rand. “The people of South Africa rightfully demand and deserve justice. We insist on accountability from those who have wilfully compromised our economy for their gains,” he said. He commended the…

POLICE have appealed to the public to help them trace the three men linked to a triple murder, in which one of the victims was a LEAP officer in Old Crossroads, Nyanga, in May. Another LEAP officer was shot dead during the taxi violence protest in August 2023. In the May 18 incident, Nyanga police responded to a murder scene in Sonwabile Drive, Old Crossroads, where the bodies of three men were discovered. The three, including Siphelo Magwa, 25, an off-duty LEAP officer, came under fire while sitting in a VW Polo Vivo. In the August 4 incident, LEAP officer Zanikaya Kwinana, 33, and his colleagues were patrolling in a Law Enforcement vehicle when they came under attack during the taxi violence protest in Nyanga. Kwinana sustained a fatal gunshot…

Andile Lili, cleared of assault charges, is disappointed that the ANC, which swiftly took action against him when the allegations arose, has not reached out or welcomed him back following his acquittal. The Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court acquitted Lili on common assault charges on Tuesday. This was after he was accused of slapping the Enkanini Primary School principal on November 21 last year during an alleged argument. Lili was part of the school’s school governing body (SGB) which has since been disbanded. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila confirmed that the the politician had been acquitted. In February, the ANC in the Western Cape implemented a “step-aside” measure against Lili, preventing him from representing the party or participating in gatherings. The party stated that Lili would remain on step-aside until all…

Indeed, the bus drivers ferrying more than 443 unaccompanied children from Zimbabwe into South Africa at the weekend should have been arrested. The intercepted children under the age of 8 were allegedly brought to South Africa in what is believed to be human trafficking. The drivers were left to go scot-free, after the children were removed from the buses and sent back to Zimbabwe. The circumstances under which the children boarded the buses from Zimbabwe, as well as their destination in South Africa, remains unknown. But how did we get here? According to Statistics South Africa’s 2011 census, 6.2 million foreigners live in South Africa. A 2015 estimate placed the number of undocumented migrants between 8.2m and 10.2m. While the instability in Zimbabwe prompted many to migrate southwards to South…

Charities and NGOs supplying military aid to Ukraine’s armed forces are facing delays of weeks to critical supplies of drones, electronics and pickup trucks due to border protests by Polish truckers, three industry sources said. Thousands of trucks carrying commercial goods have been backed up for weeks at Poland’s border crossings with Ukraine because of the protests, which began on November 6. Hauliers in Slovakia began a similar blockade on December 1. The protesters want to end Ukrainian truckers’ permit-free access to the EU, saying Ukrainian drivers are undercutting their prices. Kyiv says the volume of wartime traffic makes a truck permit system impracticable. While the protesters say they allow humanitarian and military aid through, many resources required by Ukraine’s armed forces are bought by civilian organisations and transported on…

LOS ANGELES: Time magazine named US pop superstar Taylor Swift as its person of the year yesterday, calling the musician the “hero of her own story”. “Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light,” Time editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs wrote. The $92.8 million (R1.7billion) opening earlier this year of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour film set the tone. Advance ticket sales topped $100m worldwide, making it the best-selling feature-length concert film in history. | AFP…

TEHRAN: A Tehran court has ordered the US government to pay nearly $50 billion in damages for assassinating a top Iranian general nearly four years ago, the judiciary said yesterday. Then-US president Donald Trump ordered a drone strike near Baghdad airport that killed General Qasem Soleimani, 62, and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020. Days later, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at bases in Iraq housing American and other coalition troops. No US personnel were killed but Washington said dozens suffered traumatic brain injuries. A Tehran court had sentenced the US government to pay $49.7 billion in “material, moral and punitive damages. | Reuters…

Rome: Italy has formally withdrawn from China’s vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, more than four years after becoming the only G7 nation to sign up, a government source said yesterday. Before coming to power last year, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the decision by a previous government to join in 2019 was a “serious mistake”. Critics have denounced the trillion-dollar scheme as a predatory “Trojan horse” aimed at buying political influence. The deal was to automatically renew in 2024 unless Italy opts out by year-end. But Rome has been wary of provoking Beijing, risking retaliation against Italian companies. | AFP…

MANY young players make the mistake of focusing on the next step and not on what’s right in front of them. Even more so when they’ve had a taste of international cricket and are desperate to get back to that elite level as soon as possible. But that’s not how Nandre Burger, who was recalled to the Proteas’ limited-overs squads this week, has approached his career. The Western Province left-arm seamer had his first call-up to the Proteas team back in 2021 for the tour to Pakistan. Burger, though, had to be content with running the drinks for the duration of the tour without being afforded a debut. This situation would have broken the spirit of most players, and even more so Burger, after he was later struck down by…