Indice dei contenuti per 2023-12-22 in Cape Times

MORE than 25 600 cases of domestic violence were recorded at police stations visited by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service over a six-month period ending in March 2023. This is according to a report by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, which is mandated to monitor and evaluate SAPS compliance with the Domestic Violence Act, tabled in Parliament. In the report, covering the period between October 2022 and March 2023, the secretariat detailed its findings for stations across the country to assess compliance and implementation of the Domestic Violence Act at a station level, with a focus on the top 30 police stations for GBV-related crimes. The visits covered a greater number of stations in Gauteng, while the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape covered fewer. The report notes…

WHILE the Simon’s Town wildfire has not claimed any human life or destroyed homes, it has left a trail of destruction for animal wildlife. Firefighter efforts entered the third day yesterday with flare ups reported and more than 400 hectares of veld burned. A single derelict building was damaged on the grounds of the SA Navy and five firefighters were injured. Authorities conducted precautionary evacuations on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning but residents had returned back to their homes by yesterday. City Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson Jermaine Carelse said five aerial support craft were activated as of first light, including the Black Hawk that can fly in very high winds. In a further update yesterday afternoon Carelse said three aerial support craft were still busy with active water…

Western Cape detectives from the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit are investigating the murders of three people who were shot and killed in Delft. Two men, aged 28 and 30, and a 27-year-old woman were killed yesterday morning by suspects who allegedly used a vehicle to flee the scene. “Information at our disposal suggests that the suspects fled the murder scene in Beethoven Street in a silver Opel Astra sedan after opening fire at the victims with an assault rifle and a pistol around 1am while they were walking in the street,” police spokesperson Andrè Traut said. The motive for the attack is yet to be determined. The serious and violent crimes unit is now appealing to the public to come forward with any information that can assist them in…

The Miracle Morning Hal Elrod Loot.co.za (R385) Jonathan Murray Getting everything you want out of life isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming more. Hal Elrod and The Miracle Morning have reportedly helped millions of people become the person they need to be to create the life they want. Elrod’s S.A.V.E.R.S. method is a step-by-step process said to transform your life in as little as six minutes a day, through: Silence: reduce stress and improve mental clarity. Affirmations: reprogramme your mind. Visualisation: experience the power of mentally rehearsing yourself showing up at your best each day. Exercise: boost your mental and physical energy. Reading: acquire knowledge and expand your abilities by learning from experts. Scribing: Keep a journal.…

The Ghost of Sam Webster Craig Higginson Picador Africa I’m tempted to make this the shortest review you’ll ever read! Buy this book, The Ghost of Sam Webster by Craig Higginson, and relish it. It is a rare gem. On the other hand, you’ll probably want to know a little more. So ... The place of battle at Isandlwana in 1879 remains a site of ghostly memories, of massacre, of triumph for the Zulus and humiliating defeat for the British, who lost their first invasion of Zululand against a foe equipped with vastly inferior weapons. More than a century after iSandlwana, the body of a young woman is found rolling in the nearby Buffalo River. The daughter of the Webster’s luxury lodge on this historic site is missing – is…

The festive season is here, but one man who is not celebrating at the moment is Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos. The 71-year-old Belgian would have been hoping that most of his players will be able to take a quick break over the Christmas period before joining the national team camp to prepare for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament in Ivory Coast. Instead, the local Premier Soccer League, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to schedule a number of Premiership matches right up to December 30. Even if there wasn’t an Afcon event coming up, that is asking a lot from the players to keep grinding up until the New Year. But the situation is particularly galling as it means that players from a club like Mamelodi…

Argentina’s new leader Javier Milei has unveiled a series of measures to deregulate the country’s struggling economy, eliminating or changing more than 300 rules via presidential decree, including on rent and labour practices. “The goal is to start rebuilding the country ... and to undo the huge number of regulations that have held back and prevented economic growth,” he said. Latin America’s third-biggest economy is on its knees after decades of debt and financial mismanagement, with inflation surpassing 160% year-on-year and 40% of Argentines living in poverty. Milei, who was elected last month and took office 10 days ago, has pledged to curb inflation, but warned that economic “shock” treatment is the only solution and that the situation will get worse before it improves. Among the changes announced this week…

San Francisco: Tens of thousands of global users of X yesterday reported problems using the Elon Musk-owned social network. Reports of the platform’s troubles began spiking just before 0600 GMT on monitoring site Downdetector. Timelines on the platform were emptied and no new posts visible, although the twitter.com site was available. With no way to post on X, social media users published updates about the outage on rivals including Facebook, Threads, and Reddit. The platform resumed service for users in multiple countries shortly after 0640 GMT. At the outage’s peak, Downdetector indicated that about 67 000 US users reported problems. The outage also affected X Pro, formerly known as TweetDeck. | AFP…

Seoul: South Korea’s highest court yesterday upheld rulings ordering Japanese companies to compensate Korean victims of wartime forced labour, although Seoul had already agreed to foot the bill. Relations between the two US allies have long been testy due to bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. However, ties have been improving as the conservative government of President Yoon Suk Yeol has sought to bury the historical hatchet and confront growing military threats from North Korea jointly with Japan. Around 780 000 Koreans were conscripted into forced wartime labour by Japan. | AFP…

Whatever it is that the Proteas have in mind to become a crack one-day unit is lacking a certain something. Indeed, on the basis of what happened at Boland Park in Paarl last night, there is still some way to go. India claimed the one-day series 2-1 on a picturesque evening in the Cape Winelands, gaining a crushing 78-run win with superior batting, bowling and fielding. At the moment, it is difficult to offer up any reason why the Proteas’ fortunes swing so wildly from game to game, having bounced back so magnificently in Gqeberha after their Wanderers ‘Pink Day’ capitulation, and now crashing back down the earth again. Everything went wrong from the moment Aiden Markram opted to bowl in 40-degree midday heat. Sanju Samson scored his first century…

TO MAKE Christmas special for a mother – who nearly lost her life last month, allegedly at the hands of her estranged husband – and her children, non-profit organisation Hope for the Future has called on the public to help make a difference by assisting with donations, be it, food, clothes or monetary. The 40-year-old woman, a domestic worker from Heideveld, had been separated from her husband for two years. However, she said the abuse continued daily. “He would knock on the doors loudly at all hours, hit the windows, broke them, shout and swear at me in the block of flats, humiliating me even though I am the mother of our child. “On Tuesday morning, I was at the shop, getting porridge for my son. Then he attacked…

THE V&A Waterfront is appealing a City decision that could prevent the popular destination from ushering in the New Year with a fireworks display. Animal welfare organisations have been voicing their concern about the negative impact of fireworks on the welfare of animals in the area, including seabird species and the protected Cape Fur seals. V&A Waterfront spokesperson Donald Kau said they had received all necessary permits from the City and police. “The City has subsequently withdrawn the Noise Exemption permit, without which the V&A Waterfront cannot proceed with the fireworks. We are currently in correspondence with the City to understand this withdrawal. We can also confirm that we have received a letter from attorneys representing the Animal Welfare Society. We cannot comment on the Animal Welfare Society’s rights to…

LEGAL practitioners say they are in the dark about what the Master’s Office turn-around plan entails and that there is no communication forthcoming about a month after the Justice and Correctional Services Ministry and the Master’s Office made a presentation to Parliament about the plan. “I am not aware of the progress made,” said Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) chairperson for deceased estates committee chairperson, Hussan Goga, when contacted for comment. Goga referred the Cape Times to LSSA’s professional affairs manager Lizette Burger, who put the paper in touch with a Pretoria attorney, Francois Bouwer. He serves on the LSSA estate and trust planning committee. Bouwer said that since the rescue plan was announced, there had been no proper communication. “We have not seen a big difference, to be…

THE Sekunjalo Group has welcomed the Competition Tribunal decision to dismiss Absa Bank’s application for variation in the ongoing matter involving Sekunjalo and various banks. The Tribunal yesterday said it had dismissed an application by Absa to vary the Tribunal’s reasons and order in an interim relief application which was brought by the Sekunjalo Group, comprising 36 applicants, against nine banks including Absa. In the interim relief application, the Tribunal ordered Absa to reinstate/restore the bank accounts of all the Sekunjalo entities that banked with Absa, except for nine entities that had voluntarily agreed to the closure of their Absa bank accounts. “In the variation application, Absa sought to add five other Sekunjalo entities, bringing to 14 the number of entities whose bank accounts Absa need not reinstate/restore and who,…

First lie wins Ashley Elston Loot.co.za (R390) Headline Evie Porter has everything a girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a picket fence, a fun group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist. First comes the identity. Once she’s given a name and location by her employer, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. For Evie, this job feels different. Ryan has got under her skin and she’s started to picture another kind of life for herself, one where her boss doesn’t pull the strings. But Evie can’t make any mistakes. A woman who looks just like her has stolen her name and she…

Standard Chartered bank’s settlement deal has been confirmed. What next? Cartel conduct in South Africa is pervasive and has significant implications for the economy. It is against this backdrop that competition authorities and legislators have paid significant attention to combating and tackling cartel behaviour in South Africa. Most recently, the widely publicised case of the rand-fixing saga has broken the internet in South Africa. It was alleged that between 2007 and 2013, Standard Chartered bank and 26 other banks violated S 4(1)(b)(i) and (ii) of the Competition Act by fixing prices and allocating the market of the USD-ZAR currency pair. Consequently, the bank reached a settlement agreement with the Competition Commission. This settlement agreement has now been confirmed by the Competition Tribunal. In terms of this order, Standard Chartered bank…

The Israeli army said yesterday it bombed scores of targets in the Gaza Strip as diplomats pressed on with efforts to halt the fighting that Hamas says has killed 20 000 people in the Palestinian territory. UN relief chief Martin Griffiths called the surging death toll a “tragic and shameful milestone” as the UN Security Council was to again discuss a draft resolution calling for a pause in the bloodiest ever Gaza war. The army said its aircraft had struck another 230 targets in besieged Gaza over the past day, including a rocket launch site, while ground forces had found weapons inside a school in Jabalia, near Gaza City. Incoming rocket fire set off air raid sirens in southern Israel and Tel Aviv, where police reported falling shrapnel but no…

Chinese authorities were facing a “race against time” to ensure victims of the deadliest earthquake in years were sheltered from freezing winter temperatures, a local official said yesterday. The quake, which struck just before midnight on Monday on the border between Gansu and Qinghai provinces, killed at least 135 people. The December weather has made the aid operation even more challenging. Swathes of China are experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures, with authorities putting much of the country on alert. The government has issued thousands of blue tents to replace improvised shelters built by residents immediately after the quake. A huge logistics operation has unfolded over the past three days, AFP saw, with thousands of relief workers setting up shelter, food and other facilities for the displaced. Almost 1 000 were injured…

HOUSTON: US agricultural companies have jointly addressed US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a letter demanding an immediate reopening of two rail crossings on the border with Mexico due to heavy financial loses. The US Customs and Border Protection agency has temporarily closed the Eagle Pass and El Paso railroad crossings in Texas, citing an increase in illegal crossing attempts by undocumented migrants. “On behalf of the agriculture and food input supply chain, we request the immediate opening of the El Paso and Eagle Pass international rail crossings,” the letter read. | AFP…

Mexico City: The death toll from the category 5 hurricane Otis has risen to 52 while 32 are still missing in Mexico, sources in the government said yesterday. Searches on land and sea continue, said Guerrero state Governor Evelyn Salgado. A total of 31 people were missing at sea. The official update comes a month after families of missing sailors protested alleging that authorities appeared to have stopped looking for their loved ones. The hurricane hit Mexico’s southern Pacific coast on October 25, inflicting severe damage to hotels and housing of Acapulco and Coyuca de Benitez. ] | IANS…

Going into tomorrow’s series decider at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, the series is level at 1-1 as the Proteas Women followed up their loss in the first One-Day International in East London with a commanding eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in Potchefstroom. The batting improved significantly at the JB Marks Oval on Wednesday night as the top four, Tazmin Brits, Laura Wolvaardt, Anneke Bosch and Suné Luus, took responsibility and carried South Africa over the line. Bosch (65 not out) and Luus (47 not out) finished unbeaten in the successful 224-run chase, with Bosch earning the Player-of-the-Match award. However, it was the 106-run stand between openers Wolvaardt (54) and Brits (50) that set the game up for the hosts. “(Having a solid foundation from the openers) helps a lot. “You feel…

Electricity minister promises brighter festive season, but real test remains the new year ELECTRICITY Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is confident that there will be no load shedding in the next two weeks as South Africans enjoy the festive season. Ramokgopa was speaking yesterday during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan (EAP). He said the outlook in the short term between now and the next two weeks looked upbeat. “I am confident that we will have a festive season with the lights on, not the candle … we will have the proper lights to make sure we usher in 2024.” However, the minister conceded that the true test would come when the big industries, which have closed for the year-end break, come back online in January. “It’s about…

AN ALLEGED unregistered medical practitioner will remain behind bars after his bail appeal was denied in the Western Cape High Court this week. Rasheed Mahfouz, 65, who is facing fraud-related charges, was arrested in February while practising as a locum in Philippi. Mahfouz’s bail bid failed in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court and he took the matter on appeal to the Western Cape High Court. This after he was found to be practising without being registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as required by the Health Professions Act 56 of 1974 – he had been erased from the register in 2015, the HPCSA confirmed. According to court documents, the State alleged that Mahfouz wrongfully, unlawfully and with the intent to defraud, was working as a medical doctor…

The Grief House Rebecca Thorne Loot.co.za (R385) Bloomsbury A week-long grief retreat on a beautiful country estate with no phones and no wifi isn’t ex-tarot reader Blue’s usual getaway. But ever since her mother’s death she’s been carrying a secret. Could this finally help her let it go? When she arrives, it’s raining, and there’s something strange about the house. Only a few guests have made it through the weather. As the owners, Molly and Joshua Park, try desperately to cling to normality, the storm worsens until they’re stranded in the house, cut off from the outside world. And after one of the guests disappears in the night, Blue wonders who around her, the Parks and the guests, is telling the truth about why they’re there, and whose grief might…

Talking about sex and puberty with your children is never easy, even in the digital age. In some cultures, having your period is celebrated, in others you are regarded as unclean. Ob/gyn and sexologist Dr Mpume Zenda wants to change the experience for adults and children with her book Mommy, My Body’s Changing: A Girl in Bloom’s Trusty Handbook for Growing Up. “I would love to see the relationship between parents and teenagers just a little bit easier and not this dreaded phase in our children’s lives,” she said. Zenda said the “intrinsic purpose” of the book was to give information and make difficult conversations less awkward, fix intergenerational problems and dispel the myths and misinformation about puberty. When Zenda entered puberty her mom, a midwife, struggled to explain…

IT IS with great shock and sadness that we learnt about the three farm workers who lost their lives in a truck accident on the R304 in Philadelphia, Western Cape. Scores of others were injured in the crash. As a trade union representing farm workers, we wish to convey our sincere condolences to the bereaved families and loved ones of the deceased farm workers. The death of one farmworker on unsafe open transport is one too many. In the past, as part of a collective of trade unions, we made representations to the authorities as to why farmworker transport should be prioritised, and why they should be transported in vehicles such as buses and taxis or remodified trucks with roofs and windows, and fitted with seats and…

In the damp December cold, a blue bus stops near Weymouth town centre in south-west England. A few men get off, relieved to be spending a few hours away from what they call their “prison” – a barge housing asylum seekers. Hasan James, a 38-year-old Nigerian, is one of about 200 migrants staying on the Bibby Stockholm in the port of Portland, 20 minutes’ drive from Weymouth on the Dorset coast. “We have limited mobility. It is just like prison security,” James, wrapped in a warm parka jacket and hat, said of the controversial accommodation, detailing its detection scanners and searches. Before the UK authorities sent him to the facility a month ago, James, who arrived in Britain on a now-expired tourist visa, was living in a hotel in London.…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said yesterday that it was “extremely concerned” by the Amsterdam authorities’ proposal to move its red light district outside the city – and close to the EMA headquarters. Mayor Femke Halsema wants to uproot the inner-city red light district to clean up Amsterdam’s image as a “sin city” and respond to residents’ complaints about petty crime and rowdy tourists in the area. City leaders said they had chosen Europa Boulevard on the southern edge of Amsterdam’s main business district for a new “Erotic Centre” and would put the proposal to the local council early next year. The site is 800m from its headquarters and close to residential areas. The EMA, which moved from London to Amsterdam after the UK left the EU, has said…

Kyiv: Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said yesterday that he had met with his newly-appointed counterpart in Poland to discuss a cargo blockage on their shared border. Polish truckers have been blocking the border for over a month to demand the reintroduction of restrictions to enter the EU for their Ukrainian competitors. Kubrakov said the meeting had allowed for both parties to explain their positions and that the Ukrainian side had presented data that undermined Polish arguments. Ukraine relies heavily on road transport with EU member Poland for its exports and imports. | AFP…

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday faced accusations of siding with sexual aggressors after saying film icon Gerard Depardieu, charged with rape and facing a litany of sexual assault claims, was the target of “a manhunt”. Asked whether Depardieu should be stripped of France’s highest state award, which he received nearly three decades ago, Macron said: “You will never see me take part in a manhunt. I hate that kind of thing. “The presumption of innocence is part of our values.” Macron said he had “huge admiration” for Depardieu, whom he called “an immense actor”. But Generation.s Feministe, a feminist collective, said Macron’s comments were “an insult” to all women who had suffered sexual violence. | AFP…