Cape Timesの 2021-04-29 の目次

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za MANGO will today resume flying, albeit for only a couple of days, after hundreds of passengers were left stranded yesterday after the airline’s flights were abruptly grounded. Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) yesterday suspended the low-cost carrier from using its airports countrywide due to outstanding debt. Acsa spokesperson Gopolang Peme said Mango’s suspension had since been lifted with immediate effect following the negotiations between the two entities. Peme did not disclose how much Mango owed to the airports operator, saying the details of the terms and conditions “remain confidential” as per their contracts. “The airline has made part payment today (yesterday) towards the amount owed to Acsa for landing fees, parking fees and passenger service charges,” Peme said. “The airline has made further undertakings to settle the…

Viwe Ndongeni-Ntlebi viwe.ndongeni@inl.co.za If you love low-volume High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or trying to love this form of exercise, you may just have another reason to commit to it regularly. A new review paper published in The Journal of Physiology collates a decade’s worth of research on the topic. The current World Health Organisation (WHO) physical activity guidelines call for 150-300 min of moderate activity/week or 75-100 min of vigorous activity/week. It may be unattainable for a large portion of the population who are time poor due to family or work commitments. This hypothesis is supported by the increasing rates of physical inactivity amongs adults in high income countries. The findings of this study show low-volume HIIT (typically involving less than 20 mins total exercise time – inclusive of…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za THE Health Department has said the modelling for the third wave was indicating that it would not be worse than the second wave. Briefing the health portfolio committee yesterday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the work on modelling for the third wave was under way. “Everything about it remains uncertain – basically when it is to arise, how bad it is – although there are indications it is unlikely to be worse than the second wave,” Mkhize said. “Nevertheless, what we would like is a situation where we vaccinate as many people as possible without really being troubled, worrying about the next wave.” Responding to questions from MPs, Mkhize warned that although the department did not have the exact timing for the third wave, it could happen…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za DA SENIOR member Dr Nomafrench Mbombo became the latest to resign as Federal Leader of the DA Women's Network (DAWN) after Bonginkosi Madikizela quit as the Western Cape party leader and Transport and Public Works MEC. While Mbombo would only confirm that she had resigned, Madikizela said he would not be talking to the media. Madikizela was suspended two weeks ago by Premier Alan Winde. This was after it emerged that he had not completed the BCom degree in human resources listed on his CV, something Madikizela claimed was an error. DA provincial chairperson, Jaco Londt said: “We wish to thank Bonginkosi for his service as party leader since his election to the position of DA Leader in the Western Cape in 2018. Bonginkosi served as the…

Staff writer THE suspension of South Africa’s low-cost carrier Mango Airlines’ flights yesterday was lifted after the airline made a payment towards debt owed to Airports Company South Africa (Acsa). According to Mango, none of yesterday morning’s flights had departed. Videos and pictures circulating on social media showed passengers queueing up at check-in points at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Passengers who attempted to visit the Mango office there were stopped in their tracks by security. “Mango Airlines apologises for today’s flight interruptions and delays. We can confirm that our services and all flights are temporarily suspended for today only, due to outstanding payments to Acsa,” Mango tweeted. “Senior management and our shareholders are locked in emergency discussions to find an amicable solution to this impasse. We ask for…

Keith Gottschalk | Claremont THE tragic loss of the library and archives at UCT once again warns all who will see that pine trees are highly flammable; their resins are like a petrol bomb once ignited. There is a vociferous pine tree lobby in Cape Town that fought tooth and nail against removing pine trees and other alien vegetation from the Table Mountain park. Two decades ago, the Cape Peninsula had days of fire which turned the sky grey, and had ash flakes fluttering down in Rondebosch Main Road. Some supporters dropped out of the pine tree lobby after that, but it still continues. The grounds between the Rhodes memorial and UCT's border fence are crammed with pine trees. Between them, a thick carpet of pine needles is more…

THE supposition that epistemic knowledge production is neutral and not biased has been rigorously debunked and further critically engaged. Epistemic knowledge production is situated and has locality, and the knower situation is evident in the known. The same is true and can be said about the South African negotiation discourse; it is situated and has locality. The public discourse about the South African negotiations is situated in polarising the “ethnic” violence between AmaZulu and AmaXhosa. During the violence that erupted in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg during the negotiations for a democratic South Africa, our media largely portrayed the IFP and ANC political conflict as if it was ethnic violence between AmaZulu and AmaXhosa instead of it being a political war between the IFP and the ANC. To understand that the political…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za A BUTCHER at a processed meat manufacturer, who went to work after testing positive for Covid-19 and even hugged a colleague who suffered from comorbidities, was dismissed fairly. This is according to the Labour Court after a dismissal dispute between Stuurman Mogotsi and the company where he was employed as an assistant butchery manager. The case raised the issue surrounding the fairness of the dismissal of an employee for gross misconduct and related negligence related to his failure to observe Covid-19-related health and safety protocols at the workplace. Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje, in the opening to his judgment, remarked: “The facts of this case are indeed extraordinary. “They are indicative of the need for more to be done at both the workplace and in communities, in ensuring that…

Staff writer WHILE immunisation services have started to recover from disruptions caused by Covid-19, millions of children remain vulnerable to deadly diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO), Unicef and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have warned. Marking World Immunisation Week from April 24-30, the organisations highlighted the urgent need for a renewed global commitment to improve vaccination access and uptake. “Vaccines will help us end the Covid-19 pandemic but only if we ensure fair access for all countries, and build strong systems to deliver them,” said WHO’s director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “If we’re to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must ensure routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world.” A WHO survey found that, despite progress when compared…

“GOVERNMENT supplies power, but it comes and goes,” says Vishnu, a micro-grid operator in the hamlet of Vanvasi, 100km north of Mumbai in India. “We lived with darkness, but now there is light.” People lived without electricity and, until 2016, life came to a halt after sunset. Vanvasi is now able to meet the demands of its 265 residents’ daily energy needs through an uninterrupted supply of power generated through a solar micro-grid. Women are involved in the upkeep of the grid, ensuring its smooth operation through management that also enables maintenance and repair. At first, the people of Vanvasi were not sure whether a renewable system would work, but having endured the many unfulfilled promises of the government, they decided to take the power issue into their own hands.…

WHETHER ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and other criminally-charged senior party members refuse to vacate their offices or step aside, will most certainly determine how serious the governing party is in implementing its own policies. Magashule, who holds the ANC’s most powerful administrative office, and other members charged with serious crimes have until tomorrow to step aside, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who himself will continue to answer questions at the Zondo Commission. The party’s Integrity Committee had recommended to the National Executive Committee (NEC), the ANC’s highest decision-making body, to suspend Magashule and other members if they refused to step aside. The charges against him are related to a R255 million asbestos contract while he was premier of the Free State. Some of Magashule’s supporters, such as party veteran…

The young widow of an aging Japanese real estate mogul was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murdering the self-described “Don Juan” just months into their marriage, local media said, citing police sources. Kosuke Nozaki, who boasted in his autobiography of spending millions of dollars on young, beautiful women, died in 2018 of poisoning, aged 77. His widow Saki Sudo, now 25, is suspected of killing Nozaki by making him take a large amount of a stimulant drug orally, as there were no needle marks on his body, the reports said. Local police declined to confirm the arrest. In one of his books Nozaki, the president of a liquor sales company and real estate business in western Japan, wrote that he spent three billion yen (R394 million) on wooing 4…

MOSCOW: The team of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “tying itself into knots” to reverse Minsk agreements while the West, which backed the agreements at their inception, is showing its powerlessness, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “The moral truth and the international laws’ truth is on our side and on the side of the (Eastern Ukrainian) militias.” Lavrov recalled when Zelensky became “desperate to turn Minsk agreements around” and said the treaty “is no longer good for us, but we need it because preserving Minsk agreements is the guarantee sanctions against Russia remain”.…

Poorer countries were set to see their access to HIV self-tests increase dramatically after a deal to slash prices in half and boost production, Unitaid said yesterday. The international health agency said it had closed a deal with US-based global health-care company Viatris that would see blood-based HIV self-tests made available for under $2 across 135 low and middle-income countries. HIV self-tests are seen as vital tools to help people more easily discover their status and move towards the treatment they need, and thus also to reducing the HIV burden globally. This is particularly relevant in poorer countries, where concerns around stigma and difficulties accessing health-care can create significant barriers, said Unitaid, which works on innovations on major diseases. “Access to self-tests has been recognised as a key factor in…

MIHLALI BALEKA KAIZER Chiefs were brought down to earth by strugglers Chippa United who beat them 1-0 in a DStv Premiership tussle at the FNB Stadium yesterday afternoon as they failed to build on their winning momentum over the weekend. After ending leaders Mamelodi Sundowns’ 21-game unbeaten run on Sunday, Chiefs came into this match high on confidence. They dominated proceedings for the better part of the game, but Chippa grabbed three points away from home. A mix-up at the back five minutes before stoppage time saw Eric Mathoho flick the ball towards his own goal. But the ball was intercepted by substitute Bienvenu Eva Nga who beat goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune with a high-flying lobbed effort. Despite their turmoil in domestic football this season, Chiefs have had no troubles…

Mamelodi Sundowns increased the pressure on themselves by playing out a 0-0 stalemate against high-flyers Golden Arrows at Loftus Versfeld this evening. Sundowns entered the game on the back of losing three games on the trot in all competitions, something unusual by their standards and which must be a cause for concern to their die-hard fans. Downs’ lack of finesse in front of goal was again on display in the first half, particularly as they were without the presence of star men Peter Shalulile and Gaston Sirino. Sundowns did not have a single shot on target in the first half whilst Arrows had just one, a tame effort from Knox Mutizwa in the 42nd minute after Seth Parusnath produced a turnover which was easily collected by Sundowns keeper…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za ALLIED Electronics Corporation (Altron) yesterday warned that its full-year earnings were likely to fall as much as 29 percent, partly because of poor economic activity and the trading restrictions put in place to limit the impact of Covid-19. As a result, Altron said in a trading update, it expected its headline earnings per share (Heps) for the year to the end of February to decline by between 21 percent and 29 percent, to between 124 cents and 137c a share, down from the restated figure of 174c reported a year earlier. However, its basic earnings per share (Eps) were likely to reflect an increase of more than 100 percent, to between 3 256c and 3 270c, compared with the restated Eps…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za VIVO Energy maintained the positive momentum achieved in the second half of 2020 by reporting a strong first quarter to end March, with gross cash profit up by 9 percent in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. The first quar- ter gross cash profit rose to $195 million (R2.79 billion), up from $179m com- pared with the first quarter of 2020. The group’s unit margins increased by 14 percent during the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020, which was knocked by Covid-19 inventory impacts. Vivo Energy, a Pan-African retailer and distributor of Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants, said its performance was aided by the positive supply and pricing environment from the second half of 2020 continuing…

SOUTH African wine grape producers, cellars and other wine-related businesses representative body Vinpro said yesterday that it was disappointed by the postponement of a case set to be heard in the Western Cape High Court yesterday and today. The legal challenge was brought by Vinpro against South Africa’s national government, where it said it was accordingly contesting specific aspects of decision-making in respect of liquor bans. It was postponed to August. Vinpro managing director Rico Basson said they were extremely disappointed by the postponement of this court case, forced by the late filing and incorporation of additional affidavits that it said were not related to the main thrust of Vinpro’s challenge, effectively a forced the postponement. “Because the case was to be postponed, new available dates for the legal teams…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za THE ANC regional executive committee (REC) in the Dullah Omar region has vowed to crack the whip on members bringing the party into disrepute after a video clip circulated of councillor Khaya Yozi calling some leaders wheelbarrows. ANC Dullah Omar region secretary Vuyiso Thyalisisu said a special REC meeting was held on Tuesday following utterances by some party members in public forums regarding leadership in the region, as well as councillors deployed in the City. Thyalisisu said the comments made had cast aspersions on the previous regional conference, which was ruled as legitimate by the Western Cape High Court. This comes after Yozi addressed the party’s youth members at a Khayelitsha Heritage Council event last Saturday. In a clip, Yozi is heard saying: “The ANC in…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za FIREARM owners whose licences have expired may reapply without waiting for another amnesty period, the Supreme Court of Appeal has said. The SAPS initially refused to consider new applications for firearm owners who for some reason did not renew their licences in time. The SAPS’s refusal to accept these applications was based on a letter from Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole issued in February 2016. The letter stated that these applications should not be accepted by the SAPS and that people should be informed to hand in their firearms at their nearest police station so that they could be destroyed. This left one of the biggest security companies in the country – Fidelity Security Services – in a predicament at the time as it had about 600…

Mfezeko Bunu | Khayelitsha APRIL 27 is annually celebrated as Freedom Day in South Africa because this was the day the previously disenfranchised black people got to vote for the first time in their lives. Much thanks needs to be given to all former liberation movements and freedom fighters for standing up to the most dehumanising, totalitarian regime ever to exist in the world. Perhaps we should consider changing the name given to this day, because to associate it with freedom when the status quo still remains the same does not make sense – unless this freedom means political freedom only. But as countless service delivery protests clearly demonstrate, black people are still where they were before 1994. They don't have land, they live in abject poverty, they still live…

Athandile Siyo athandile.siyo@inl.co.za THE family of missing four-year-old Luphiwo Mbandazayo said they won’t stop searching and praying for his safe return. Family members and residents have been frantically searching for Luphiwo, who was last seen by his aunt Ncumisa Manana in Island, Philippi East, on Tuesday. Manana said the boy was visiting her from Gugulethu and she had last seen him playing with a toy scooter. “At around 6.30pm we started panicking when he wasn’t returning home as we initially thought he went to play at a nearby park,” the worried aunt said. “We started searching immediately and the children that he usually played with said they saw him with an unknown lady. We asked around, going door to door, but no one knew the woman that was described by…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za WHILE a new South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) online booking system for Temporary Disability Grant assessment has been welcomed, calls have been made for it also to function in other languages. In efforts to improve service delivery and eradicate long queues at Sassa offices, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu yesterday launched an online system that disability grant applicants can use to book their medical assessments. Once operational, applicants could cut down on transport costs as they won’t have to physically visit their local Sassa office for this part of the application process. At the end of last year, more than 200 000 clients were left stranded after grant payments lapsed, with the Western Cape mostly affected. This saw chaos erupt, especially in Bellville, where the pilot…

Mushtak Parker The SEEMING collapse of the proposed asinine European Super League (ESL) before it even started may have done the Beautiful Game that is football a huge favour. With money pouring into rugby and cricket, its implications are much wider. I say “seeming” because if Messrs Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid and Joan Laporta, his Barcelona counterpart, have their way, ESL is merely on “standby” and they will pursue it “to ensure the financial health of the game”. What poppycock! Perez and Laporta are the unacceptable faces of football capitalism, which in recent decades have served the greed of club owners, shareholders, “elite” footballers, broadcasters, sponsors and agents. This resulted in ever-increasing and unsustainable football inflation in the transfer market, elite player wages, shareholder dividends, ticket…

IINDIA’S coronavirus death toll crossed 200 000 yesterday as a relentless wave of new cases swamped hospitals and sent desperate families out into the streets of the capital in search of oxygen supplies and medicine. Infection and death rates are soaring in the vast country of 1.3 billion, in contrast with the US and some European nations taking tentative steps back towards normal life. The virus has now killed more than 3.1 million people worldwide, with India driving the latest surge, recording 360 000 new infections – a global record – and more than 3 000 deaths yesterday. In the capital New Delhi, car parks have been converted into crematoriums as the soaring body count sparked a shortage of wood for funeral pyres. Desperate relatives of the…

RIGA: EIGHT people were killed by a fire that broke out at a hostel in downtown Riga, Latvia yesterday, the fire and rescue service reported. At around 4.40am, firefighters were called to tackle the blaze in a six-floor building where flames had engulfed rooms on the upper floor and the roof. The building houses the Japanese Style Centrum hostel. Agrita Vitola, a representative of the state fire and rescue service, said on public radio that eight people were found dead in the burning building. Another six people were rushed to hospital and 20 were led out from the hostel to safety. A witness who had been living in the hostel said she had heard a blast before the fire started.…

SEOUL: South Korea’s childbirth logged the lowest February figure, fuelling worry about the so-called demographic cliff, statistical office data showed yesterday. The number of newborn babies was 21 461 in February, down 5.7% from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the lowest February reading since data began to be compiled in 1981. The number of marriages was 14 973 in February, down 21.6% from a year ago. It was lower than any February reading since 1981. The marriage fall came as the Covid-19 pandemic discouraged people from participating in social gatherings such as weddings.…

THE British and Irish Lions tour is regarded as the big carrot for South African rugby, considering the knocks taken during the Covid-19 pandemic over the last year. About R1.2-billion was shaved off local rugby’s expenses last year, with salary cuts and competitions abandoned, while contracts were also affected. So, the fact that the Lions tour will take place is a huge relief to SA Rugby. Now the nitty-gritty of that trip is being worked out, with the latest report from the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK stating that, to maximise profit, two of the three Tests could be played at the FNB Stadium, which is the biggest arena in South Africa at 95 000 capacity. The report said that this plan of action comes as Lions…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za SIX months after wheelchair-bound Zwelenkosi Ngidi was filmed being manhandled by two metro police officers, he says he is not satisfied with the City’s handling of the matter. The incident was caught in a two-minute video believed to be the same day that the Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement marched to the Cape Town Civic Centre to meet mayor Dan Plato to discuss its grievances about access to water, toilets, electricity and housing. Ngidi was among the protesters. In the video, he can be heard saying, “Then you must arrest me,” to the officers as they argued. One of the officers then tips the wheelchair over and Ngidi falls out. The City suspended the two officers at the time, and this week said an internal investigation was conducted and…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A MITCHELLS PLAIN woman said she is despondent about going ahead with a rape case after she was gang-raped by four suspects and sent from pillar to post by police in attempts to report the matter. The 31-year-old woman, who did not want to be named out of fear of retribution, said she was suffering further trauma after she was raped, assaulted and robbed when on her way to visit her brother in Netreg, Bishop Lavis. “I was on my way to my brother when the attack happened under the bridge near Kreefgat. It was dark under the bridge when four men approached me. I could not see their faces and was terrified. “The incident happened on a Saturday, and on the Monday, I went to…

Don Oliver | Cape Town THE letter from Terence Grant in the Cape Times on April26 refers. Most of your readers would have realised that Erehwon, the place he refers to, is nowhere spelt backwards. Did he think it was clever to try to hoodwink us? And why do it in the first place? But his true colours are exposed for what they are in his assertion that “most of the wealth taken from whites had disappeared into the pockets of the black elite”. In my opinion a letter as insidious as this does nothing to help us find a better way out of the mess we are in.…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za RAPE-accused Glenville Marthinus is set for a pre-trial on June 8 following his brief appearance at the Atlantis Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Marthinus, a Mamre rugby coach, is accused of having groomed young girls from Atlantis and Mamre before raping them. He has been charged with four counts of rape. He allegedly posed as a model agent, doctor and online fitness instructor, and lured a number of girls by creating fake social media profiles, soliciting nude photos and videos from them, and then blackmailing them for sexual favours. According to court documents, Marthinus had been placed under house arrest during a previous court appearance, and this was subject to all the same bail conditions as before. He was granted R10 000 bail. “The accused is immediately placed under…

We took note of a letter, “Envoy not being diplomatic or gentlemanly”, from Bill Constantine published on April 14. Thank you for your interest in the Alternative Viewpoint series, Mr Constantine. We understand that you are dissatisfied with our analysis provided in the latest article. Nonetheless, it is with pleasure that we got from your letter that we nonetheless agree on our article’s very essence – that interventions and use of force are integral parts of Washington’s foreign policy. If US military interventions weren’t so “costly”, Washington would just carry on with them, US interventions have nothing to do with democracy because “promoting democracy” serves as a mere smokescreen to call those interventions “well intentioned”. In your letter, you haven’t refuted any of the aforesaid. We would rather write about…

At least 10 people were killed in a gun battle between police and rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, authorities said, in an apparent retaliation for the execution of a top intelligence chief. The hours-long shoot-out on Tuesday in the remote Puncak district ended with nine guerrillas and a police officer dead, while two more officers were wounded, police said. Police said they believed the dozens-strong rebel faction was responsible for the slaying on Sunday of a general who headed Papua’s intelligence agency. The rebel group dismissed the report of rebels being killed as a “big lie” and “propaganda”. Conflicting reports are common in Papua – a resource-rich but impoverished territory, which shares a border with Papua New Guinea – where a low-level insurgency aimed at breaking away from Indonesia…

MADRID: Spanish postal workers intercepted a death threat letter with two bullets enclosed that was mailed to the conservative head of the Madrid region, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday, just days after her rival in an election for the regional assembly received a similar threat. The ministry said the threat against regional chief Isabel Diaz Ayuso was discovered in a mail processing hub in Catalonia. Another letter, also containing bullets, was sent to the chief of the Guardia Civil police, the ministry’s statement said. Election front-runner Ayuso played down the threat saying: “These things must be faced with the importance they have: none”.…

BEIJING: China said yesterday that it is a positive step for the US to ease Covid-19 restrictions on Chinese students and other international students into the US this fall. China hoped the United States can make proper arrangements for Chinese people to go to the country, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a news briefing in Beijing. The Biden administration on Tuesday said it was easing travel restrictions on Chinese and other international students into the United States this autumn, a change that could provide financial help to some colleges whose enrolments declined during the coronavirus pandemic.…

Wynona Louw STORMERS assistant coach Rito Hlungwani says Pieter-Steph du Toit is “ready to go” after recovering from the serious leg injury that kept him out for more than a year. The Springbok star suffered a serious, and what turned into a very complicated, leg injury in their Super Rugby meeting with the Blues at Newlands in February last year. The Stormers will kick off their Rainbow Cup South Africa campaign against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday, and Hlungwani confirmed that Du Toit is ready to hit the field again. “He is fit, he’s been training really well. He hasn’t played in a long time, so he would love to play and get going. He has obviously come back from a really bad injury, but…