Indice dei contenuti per 2024-02-28 in Cape Times

POPULAR global premium beer maker Heineken yesterday announced that it has invested R2.3 billion in its returnable bottling programme in South Africa, more than doubling its share of returnable beer bottles. The company’s move aims to align to the beer maker’s global ambition of net zero carbon by 2040 as per the Dutch brewer’s Brew a Better World strategy. “Heineken beer, which has the same bottle design in 190 countries worldwide, will break with tradition, unveiling a bold new design for its returnable bottle in South Africa, a change not made anywhere else in the world. “The 650ml returnable bottle, dubbed the ‘Star Bottle’, features the iconic Heineken star on its body with the Heineken name deep-etched into the glass,“ the company said in a statement. The move comes…

Have you ever thought about how exercise affects men and women differently? Well, a recent study has shed some light on the topic, and the findings are quite fascinating. The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, revealed that women might benefit more from exercise than men. Dr Susan Cheng, the senior study author and director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging at Cedars-Sinai, explained that women needed less exercise to gain the same benefits as men. In other words, for the same amount of time and effort put into exercise, women had more to gain than men. Cheng also highlighted that most adults were not meeting the recommended amounts of exercise, which is 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of…

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said it has accumulated enough surpluses to fund anticipated shortfalls for the upcoming May 29 general and provincial elections. Briefing the home affairs port- folio committee yesterday, CFO Dawn Mbatha said the electoral body had received a R2.3 billion allocation for 2024-25. She said R30 million was cut from the Budget by the National Treasury. This was far less than the R281m cut projected by the medium-term expenditure framework in November last year. “We have absorbed R281m in terms of cuts, including the current R30m cut by the National Treasury,” Mbatha said. Deputy electoral officer Masego Sheburi said the National Treasury made money available to deliver a decent election despite the difficult fiscus. “We have on our part created savings that will help…

The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has called on manufacturers of peanut butter and peanut butter-based products to immediately test their products after a number of suppliers recalled their goods due to heightened levels of aflatoxin. Woolworths and Eat Naked became the latest suppliers to recall their products. Woolworths last week confirmed the recall of their 2-litre Peanut Butter Dairy Ice cream with barcode: 6009211273436, while Eat Naked is recalling various products including their Peanut Butter Sachet, Peanut Butter Seeded, Dark Chocolate Peanut Cup and Peanut Butter Jar. The risk of consuming products with higher than acceptable levels of aflatoxin may lead to health complications like nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Manufacturers of peanut butter, peanut butter-based products and products with peanuts, including but not limited to chocolates, sweets, cookies, ice…

THE sudden death of Russian lawyer and activist Alexei Navalny reminds me of Russian and American foreign policy ”one death is a tragedy, 30 000 deaths are statistics”. Russia is a land of intrigue and has been for centuries. From The House Of Romanov, The Czars, The Bolsheviks and today’s elitists. The Kremlin is a dangerous and foreboding place. Leaders vanish mysteriously, journalists are killed under the cloak of secrecy, businessmen fall off buildings in controlled suicides and enemies perish in mysterious air crashes. The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was eliminated in a well-planned and co-ordinated air crash. Boris Nemtsov, the deputy prime minister, under Boris Yeltsin, was assassinated within sight of the Kremlin, by trained killers of the FSB (Russian Secret Service).It was Winston Churchill who…

Parts of the Vaal River system, 40km of the river spanning from the Taaibosch Spruit to the Vaal Barrage, have become carpeted by water lettuce and water hyacinth due to decades of inaction and mismanagement. The two weeds are South American plants, with the water hyacinth first documented in South Africa in the early 1900s in the Cape Flats. It spread from there to various parts of the country, through our river systems or by people who took alien invasive plants and planted them or put them into rivers. Both are classified in our environmental legislation as invasive plant species which require removal due to the associated problems. The plants spread naturally by producing flowers and seeds. They also reproduce by branching and thrive on high nutrient levels in water.…

As Iranians head to the polls for legislative and other elections on Friday, candidates have promised them on campaign posters to “fight corruption” and “fix the economy”. In the minds of many voters, economic hardship is indeed the most burning issue as the Islamic republic suffers under punishing international sanctions and rapid inflation. At Tehran’s storied Grand Bazaar, many shoppers are simply wandering the aisles without buying anything, as prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Many doubt that a quick solution is in sight, among them 62-year-old retiree Aliasghari, who said he wished the politicians would “stop the empty slogans”. Citizens “are hearing a lot of fabrications and they have lost their trust in voting”, he said. Voters are due to pick new members of Iran’s 290-seat legislature and the…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday toasted the four astronauts preparing for the nation’s first crewed orbital mission, saying the latest advance in spacefaring would inspire the next generation. The Gaganyaan, or “Skycraft”, mission is slated to launch the astronauts into Earth’s orbit in 2025, an important measure of the technical capability of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Visiting the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in the southern state of Kerala, Modi presented “astronaut wings” to the four men: Ajit Krishnan, Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Pratap and Shubhanshu Shukla. Gaganyaan is the first mission of its kind for India and comes with an estimated price tag of $1.08 billion (R20.6bn), according to ISRO. India plans to send the quartet beyond the reaches of Earth’s atmosphere for three days before bringing…

AMSTERDAM: One of the largest criminal trials in Dutch history ended yesterday with the main defendant, Ridouan Taghi, sentenced to life in prison for ordering a series of gangland killings. Taghi, 46, is seen as the mastermind of what is thought to be one of the Netherlands’ largest drug cartels. He was the Netherlands’ most wanted man before his 2019 extradition from Dubai. In the mega trial that lasted around six years including its preparatory phases, Taghi and 16 other men were accused of six murders, four attempted murders and the preparation of several other attacks. | Reuters…

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court indicted jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his third wife Bushra Bibi yesterday on charges they accepted the “gift” of land from a property tycoon in exchange for favours during his premiership, his party said. The couple pleaded not guilty to the latest charges, which follow a string of convictions against Khan ahead of the the February 8 elections, where his supporters won the most seats. Khan, 71 has been in jail since August over other cases and had already been convicted in four cases, including two on graft charges that disqualified him from politics for 10 years. | Reuters…

A ray of light in an otherwise gloomy South African Sevens challenge in Vancouver last week, was the unusual feat of Bok Womens’ flyhalf Nadine Roos scoring all her team's points in the Canada Sevens. Roos scored a try in all five matches they played (including a brace against Brazil) and kicked two conversions for a tournament tally of 34 points. She was also amongst the team's leading tacklers over all three days. Unfortunately, it could nor prevent Roos’ team from finishing in 12th place and the Bok Women have dropped to last on the series log. “Nadine is a true professional and her value to our team is immense,” said coach Renfred Dazel. “Her personality is such that she wants to be a winner and always gives her best,…

After three years of transforming Vogue China, Margaret Zhang is putting down the tools. The 30-year creative who became the youngest editor when she was appointed in February 2021, released a statement to announce her resignation. She highlighted all the groundbreaking work she and her team had done over the years, including giving a platform to talented creatives. “I am immensely proud of the radical evolution that we have driven at Vogue China over the past three years, expanding its impact from its print beginnings to becoming a multimedia bridge for creative culture – China to the world, the world to China. “We have celebrated record growth in Vogue video, award-winning audio programming and the highest engagement events in the history of Vogue China,” wrote Zhang. “But more importantly, we…

HOME Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has undertaken to consult the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) by next week on the nominations of a panel of experts who will review and make recommendations on the electoral system to be used post-2024 elections. Motsoaledi made the undertaking yesterday at a briefing to the home affairs portfolio committee on the establishment of the panel after the committee ordered him last December to reopen the nominations. The committee had rejected the 12 names he had submitted from a list of 20 shortlisted candidates after raising issues of gender, demographics and geographic spread of those nominated, among other things. Three IEC personnel who were nominated were removed from the list after the electoral body resolved that its commissioners and staff should not be part of the…

‘Major victory in combating the oldest form of corruption through land grab’ IN A victory for opposition parties in the DA-led Mossel Bay Municipality, the sale of council-owned beachfront land at Dana Bay to a private buyer will no longer go ahead after a public outcry. The property was reportedly to be sold for R980 000, with opposition parties saying surrounding properties were being sold for R2-R3 million. The Mossel Bay Municipality indicated its proposal to alienate the site and after a public participation process – in which a private buyer wanted to use the site for philanthropic purposes where he and his wife would act as security guards on site from a mobile condo – will be declined. Mossel Bay mayor Dirk Kotzé said the item will be heard…

The City came under fire from outraged MPs following its decision to slap the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) with a contravention notice, stating that the entity faced a potential fine of R800 000 or 20-year jail term over the temporary relocation at Stock Road in Philippi East. MPs also accused the DA-led municipality of sabotage and attempting to stall the project that will clear informal settlements on the tracks along the central railway line, all in the name of devolution of the passenger rail service in the metro. Prasa chief executive Hishaam Emeran told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) yesterday that they were taken aback by the City’s sudden action. A total of 1 206 Informal settlement residents relocated between Nyanga and Philippi. Of these, 856…

AS A regular visitor to your beautiful country, I have frequently turned to the pages of the Cape Times for informed comment about South African affairs written by professional journalists. However, I read the article, “BRICS countries can prevent Western-provoked catastrophe” by Aleksei Malenko (Cape Times, February 26) with dismay and sadness. This was not journalistic opinion but rather egregious propaganda by an official of the Russian state. We have come to expect the lies and half-truths produced by that state, and its predecessors, but I certainly did not expect to find them in the pages of what I have always regarded as a respectable newspaper. The truth about the Russian state is not to be found in the article, fuelled by Russian paranoia, but much more succinctly in the…

MUCH has been said about the May 29 general election being a watershed moment in the history of the country. Apart from this being the 30th year of democracy, the excitement emanates from the fact that there is no outright favourite this time around. The ANC is below 50% representation at local government and faces the prospect of losing control of Parliament for the first time. The EFF, ANC and DA have revealed their hands, with little fanfare. Don’t expect any miracle from the likes of the FF Plus, Umkhonto weSizwe Party, IFP, ATM, ActionSA and other smaller fish. Their only shot at glory is as part of a coalition arrangement. The Red Berets and the ANC chose Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban for their manifesto launch, while the DA…

South Korea granted nurses new powers and legal protections yesterday, and launched an investigation into a patient’s death, as hospital chaos caused by striking trainee doctors entered a second week. Major hospitals are struggling to provide services after thousands of junior medics handed in their resignations and stopped working last week to protest against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions in the face of a rapidly ageing society. The government said yesterday that it has launched an investigation after a patient died of a cardiac arrest in an ambulance after struggling to find a hospital. Emergency services contacted seven different hospitals but “were told there were no trainee doctors”, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported. “The government is conducting an on-site probe with related agencies into the death,” Health…

Brussels: Nato has no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine, an alliance official said yesterday, after French President Emmanuel Macron said the idea could not be ruled out. “Nato and allies are providing unprecedented military support to Ukraine,” said the Nato official. “But there are no plans for Nato combat troops on the ground in Ukraine. In terms of international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defence, and we have the right to support them.” Macron triggered a shockwave in Europe by refusing to rule out sending Western ground troops to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion. He had sought to rally greater European support for Kyiv, which faces battlefield challenges and dwindling munition stocks. | AFP…

Mexico City: Highlighting the importance of Mexican migrant workers to the US economy, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena has again urged Washington to regularise their legal status. Alicia Barcena said Mexicans working in the US contributed over $324 billion (about R6.2 trillion) annually to the nation’s economy in such essential sectors as agriculture, services and construction. “In 1986, 3 million Mexicans were regularised,” she said. Mexico is requesting the US to make “a similar and fair gesture” to regularise undocumented Mexicans who have worked there for more than five years, including half a million young people. | IANS…

Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife has unveiled a string of measures aimed at combating the scourge of rhino poaching which is threatening to decimate the animal’s population in its parks. For the second consecutive year, KZN recorded massive losses of rhinos with 325 rhinos poached in the province in the past year. About 11 of these were poached from private reserves. In 2022 , there were 244 rhinos poached in KZN with 16 on private land. One of the most affected reserves is the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy together with the the CEO of Ezemvelo, Sihle Mkhize, briefed the media in St Lucia yesterday on the rhino poaching statistics. The minister revealed that during 2023, 499 rhinos were poached across South Africa.…

DRIVECAM footage on the dashboard of a gas manufacturing company’s vehicle has contributed to one of its drivers being fired after he skipped a red traffic light and nearly caused an accident. The man was not fired for skipping the traffic light, but for not telling the truth about the incident. Air Products South Africa turned to the Johannesburg Labour Court after the National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry (NBCCI) ordered it to reinstate the fired worker. The company asked the court to set aside the order. The company manufactures, supplies and distributes various gas products and has its own transport service. The respondent, who was fired, was involved in a near-miss accident at a four-way intersection controlled by traffic lights. A DriveCam on the vehicle had recorded…

PROFESSIONALS Unity of South Africa (Profsa) has submitted a complaint letter to the Legal Practice Council (LPC) against advocate Johan Brand SC. The letter alleges that he did not respond to a directive from Pretoria High Court Judge Mandlenkosi Motha, who asked for heads of argument from the four white advocates regarding the lack of black counsel in legal teams arguing a Black Economic Empowerment matter. Advocate Brand did not file heads of argument but wrote a memorandum instead. Advocate Mashudu Tshivhase, president of Profsa, said they had sent a letter of complaint to the LPC to investigate Brand’s “misconduct”. “When you look at the memorandum, the senior counsel is clearly stating that he is not going to comply with the court order and he decided to go against the…

Israel, Hamas and Qatari mediators all expressed caution yesterday about progress for a truce in Gaza, after US President Joe Biden said he believed a ceasefire deal could be reached in less than a week that would halt the war for Ramadaan. Hamas is weighing a proposal, agreed to by Israel at talks with mediators in Paris last week, for a ceasefire that would suspend fighting for 40 days, the first extended truce of the five-month-old war. According to a source close to the talks, the proposal would see militants free some but not all of the hostages they are holding, in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees, humanitarian aid for Gaza and Israeli troops pulling out of populated areas in the enclave. However, it appears to…

A frozen Arctic vault built to preserve global agricultural crops from extinction received seeds yesterday from the largest number of new contributors, a custodian of the remote facility said. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set in permafrost caves on an island halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, was launched in 2008 as the ultimate backup for the world’s gene banks to protect plants from war, disease and climate change. The vault has received samples from across the world, and played an essential role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria. Yesterday, depositors carried crates of seeds into the vault’s entrance. Twenty-three seed banks took part, nine for the first time, the largest number of newcomers introduced at one single occasion, according…

TOKYO: The number of babies born in Japan fell for an eighth straight year to a record low in 2023, preliminary government data showed yesterday, underscoring the task the country faces in trying to stem depopulation. The number of births fell 5.1% from a year earlier to 758 631, while the number of marriages slid 5.9% to 489 281 – the first time in 90 years the number fell below 500 000. Japan’s population is expected to fall by 30% by 2070. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government would take “unprecedented steps” to try to reverse the trend, such as expanding childcare and promoting wage hikes for younger workers. | Reuters…

Strasbourg: Want to keep your driving licence in the EU? Get a clean bill of health, say European lawmakers, who yesterday debated whether to force drivers to pass medical exams. The proposal has sparked outrage in France, despite already being the case in more than half of all EU states. More than 20 000 people die every year on the EU’s roads, with 160 000 seriously injured. The lawmakers propose that motorcycle, car and tractor drivers get a medical check every 15 years; bus and truck users would have to seek a doctor’s green light every five years. But the French automotive association says the measure is “openly hostile” to drivers. | AFP…