Tabla de contenidos para 2021-07-09 en Cape Times

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za GRASSY Park-born Ashwin Reynolds, owner of Vodacom Durban July winner Kommetdieding, has thanked supporting fans for shouting for his horse over the finish line at the 125th edition of the race on Saturday. The 48-year-old is the first black person to own a Durban July winner. “For me, the dream was just to win a Group One race, so winning the VDJ and making history was the absolute cherry on top. “I am over the moon. I have no words to describe this feeling and my gratitude to everyone who has supported Kommetdieding,” he said. The win also gave trainer Michelle Rix a Vodacom Durban July title on her debut at the event, making her the second female trainer after Candice Bass-Robinson to scoop the title. Rix,…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za Having shared a cell with former president Jacob Zuma for 10 years, Struggle stalwart Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim said Zuma’s return to prison may bring back awful memories of the past. The former International Relations and Co-operation deputy minister said it was a “sad day” to see a former president be jailed. “But, in the end, he did the correct thing to abide by the court ruling and hand himself over at the prison,” Ebrahim said. Speaking to Independent Media hours after Zuma was jailed, Ebrahim said it was upsetting to see what had become of his friend who “played an important role in the liberation Struggle”. He said Zuma’s deteriorating health and old age were causes of concern for someone going to prison, “especially during a time…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE Matzikama Municipality has lashed out at DA councillor Kallie Louw, saying he has been spreading “lies” about the municipality’s funds to the public. Council Speaker Patric Bok said Louw posted information as factual on the DA’s website for the public to see. He said Louw posted that when the DA took over the municipality in 2016, they inherited R60 million in debt and an empty current account. “The factual information for that specific period is that the ANC- governed municipality left a current account with R22m and an unspent donation fund for projects of R8.3m. “This means that the DA, when they took over the administration in 2016, received a positive bank account of R13.7m from the ANC-governed municipality. “With regards to the R60m debt, the…

Zanele Mvana zanele.mvana@inl.co.za THE family of 36-year-old Nwabisa Ndobe from Nyanga has breathed a sigh of relief after she was found alive yesterday after having been missing for two months. Ndobe, who is also nine months pregnant, was last seen by her family two months ago. She lived with her boyfriend in Philippi, and neighbours had told her family that on the night of her “disappearance”, the two got into an altercation. The family got a break yesterday when a cousin received information that someone had withdrawn cash using Ndobe’s bank card, which gave them hope that she was alive. They said after viewing CCTV footage with police, they were shocked to discover that the person who had made the withdrawal was not Ndobe. At their wits end, they…

KING Mswati III set the tone for his reign as king when he ascended the throne in 1986 at the age of 18, and did not continue his father’s active support for the ANC’s liberation struggle. In 1986, Swaziland was a dangerous place as apartheid death squads were using the country as a hunting ground to murder ANC operatives in the country. The ANC had always been able to rely on the support of Mswati’s father King Sobhuza II. The king used to say that he once told ANC comrade Moses Mabhida “if ANC cadres cross through Swaziland on the right, I will ask my police to look to the left”. After the king’s death in 1982, the Great Swazi Council of State had selected the 14-year-old prince to be…

IT remains to be seen whether England will win Euro 2020, but if one thing is certain, Gareth Southgate’s side troops have shown more mental strength than the generations that came before them. Prior to every tournament, there is always hype surrounding the Three Lions squad, with many speculating that they will be the victors. They usually tend to wilt in the knockout stages and bomb out before receiving a barrage of criticism upon returning home. Even if Southgate’s charges do end up losing the final against Italy at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, they have surely proven that they are better than the other England sides that came before them. The 2002 England World Cup squad is widely regarded as one of the best in living memory, having boasted the…

Mexico’s Supreme Court opened the door this week to legal abortion after more than three months for rape victims, in a ruling in the case of a minor with cerebral palsy. The top court declared unconstitutional an article of the penal code of the southern state of Chiapas that prevented the victim having an abortion. The director of a public hospital in the city of Tapachula had refused to carry out the procedure because the minor was more than 90 days’ pregnant, the court said. The time limit “implies a total ignorance of human dignity” and women’s rights, it said. A district judge in Chiapas failed to take into account the victim’s circumstances and the fact that she was a minor, the court ruled. While the ruling only applies to…

Palestinian workers in the Israel-occupied West Bank are putting the final touches on a decommissioned Boeing 707 aircraft to ready it for a new kind of take-off: as a restaurant. Its enterprising owners, 60-year-old twin brothers Ata and Khamis al-Sairafi, expect to welcome their first customers within weeks at the site in an isolated mountain area near Nablus. Inside the old jet’s cabin, the seats have been stripped out and the window panes removed. Tables will soon be fitted in the fuselage, which has been painted white with laminate wooden floors. The brothers plan to call their aviation-themed eatery – which is decorated with Palestinian and Jordanian flags – “the Palestinian-Jordanian Airline Restaurant and Coffee Shop Al-Sairafi Nablus”. “We will start by providing hookahs,” said Khamis, for people who enjoy…

Berlin: Turkish journalist Erk Acarer, one of several reporters critical of Ankara living in exile in Berlin, said yesterday he was attacked and injured outside his home and told to stop writing. Acarer said in a video posted to Twitter that three armed assailants ambushed him in the courtyard of his building late on Wednesday in an account confirmed by police. A unit that investigates political crimes has taken over the probe. The reporter said he was treated in hospital and released. Acarer, who has lived in Germany since 2017, said he recognised the attackers and that one warned him against continuing to write.…

TEHRAN: Iran’s President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has told Indian Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar that “extensive economic interactions” between New Delhi and Tehran as well as “collective security” with the participation of regional powers were the key priorities in bilateral ties. Jaishankar met Iran’s incoming president during a stopover in Tehran on Wednesday, while on his way for a two-day working visit to Moscow. Raisi also told the visiting Indian foreign minister that “stable and lasting” ties between the two Asian nations should serve their “own interests”.…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za IMPERIAL Logistics, which yesterday received a R12.7 billion buy-out offer from Dubai’s DP World, has made a strong recovery in the 12 months to end-June 2021, although the business is not yet fully operating at pre-Covid-19 levels. The transport and mobility group told its shareholders in a business update that it had performed better than expected, despite a significant overhang of Covid-19 in many of its key markets. Imperial said that its revenue for the year was expected to increase 10-15 percent to between R51.02bnand R53.33bn, while operating profit was likely to increase 52-64 percent to between R2.22bn and R2.39bn. It said headline earnings per share of continuing operations were projected to rise to between 300-335 cents versus 156c the previous year. “The key financial…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za The Breede Valley Municipality is adamant that only the road and not the Hex River Bridge (also known as the Zwelethemba Bridge) itself has been damaged by recent heavy rains. The EFF has rejected the finding, saying the municipality simply does not care about those affected by the bridge, the only entry and exit point from the Zwelethemba township into the greater Worcester area. Municipal spokesperson Hannelie Botha said while the engineering review report of the bridge’s structural integrity is outstanding, they have in the interim ascertained that “damage was not to the bridge itself”. EFF’s provincial spokesperson, Wandile Kasibe, said: “(We are) disgusted by the ridiculous response from this useless DA-led Breede Valley Municipality. “Concerns over the cracks on bridge which carries the road were raised…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za DOCTORS have given him a month to live without chemotherapy. To make matters worse after being diagnosed with colon cancer, 38-year-old Dale Benson from Somerset West is stuck in Vietnam. His family are now desperately trying to raise funds to get him home. Benson, who is currently admitted to the provincial hospital in Hanoi with stage 4 cancer, has been teaching English abroad for the past three years. His mother, Inge Bosman, said: “I haven’t seen him for three years and before that he lived in America. I haven’t had enough time with him, he has been away for so long in his life. We just want to get him home.” It all started with back ache and fatigue, she said. “For the last month he had…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za ON A day filled with drama, police stationed outside Estcourt prison yesterday arrested suspended Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) spokesperson Carl Niehaus while he was doing a live TV interview. Before his arrest, Niehaus had addressed a small group of ANC supporters showing solidarity with Jacob Zuma. Niehaus and Nkosentsha Shezi of RET Champions were in the area to launch #FreeJacobZuma, a nationwide campaign aimed at forcing authorities to release Zuma who started serving his 15-month sentence at the prison. It was during that address to about 80 people, including some in MKMVA uniform, that police started circling him. After the arrest, Niehaus was taken to Estcourt central police station. Shezi and other MK leaders from Gauteng followed the police convoy to seek clarity on…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za TRADITIONAL surgeons and initiation forums in the Western Cape are keeping close watch following rumours that there could be some cultural schools proceeding to circumcise boys, flouting Covid-19 lockdown regulations. The government suspended the practice across the country after the announcement of adjusted lockdown level 4. However, schools that already had initiates, which some do, were permitted to continue to the end. Langa Embo Initiation Forum spokesperson Mandla Mlambo said it would be disappointing if the unconfirmed rumours of flouted regulations were true. “All traditional surgeons in the province were trained and educated about Covid-19 by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport. As the committee, we had no choice, but decided to adhere to the regulations because more than 60 initiates registered before lockdown,”…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za THE pupil drop-out rate in the country has tripled to about 750 000 throughout the pandemic – the highest in 20 years. This was according to data in the latest National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey presented by researchers yesterday, which looked into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown on South African households. It further found children in the foundation phase, particularly at no-fee schools, lost between 70% to 100% of learning time, meaning a Grade 3 pupil in 2021 will be at the same learning level as a Grade 2 pupil in 2019. About 1.5 million children had not received a daily meal, which impacted the ability of pupils from low-income households to access and take advantage of quality basic education. The…

| julian richfield MEAT – The Ultimate Guide Annelien Pienaar Loot.co.za (R289) HUMAN & ROUSSEAU Notwithstanding the growth of vegan and vegetarian diets here and abroad, for many South Africans “even ordinary week-night meals are not considered complete without meat”. In her new book, Meat – The Inside Guide, Annelien Pienaar provides the reader with over 100 recipes, useful information about the different cuts and types of meat, advice about how to prepare meat and tips to add flavour and ensure tenderness. The recipes are a tempting mixture of the more exotic and the expected. The first recipe in the book is an intriguing eye-catcher: Biltong-cured Picanha; it uses the rump cap or top part of the loin. Other saliva-inducers I found include Noisettes with Sicilian Caponata, and…

On July 6, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and President of China Xi Jinping, President of the ANC and President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande – and other leaders of more than 500 political parties and organisations from over 160 countries as well as 10 000 and more representatives of political parties and representatives of various communities, participated in the cloud event of the CPC and World Political Parties Summit with “Working for the People’s Well-being and the Responsibility of Political Parties” as the theme. In the context of profound transformations…

TOKYO: The Olympics will take place without spectators in host city Tokyo, organisers said yesterday, as a resurgence of Covid-19 cases forced Japan to declare a state of emergency in the capital that will run throughout the event. Although widely expected, the move marked a sharp turnabout from just weeks ago, when organisers said they aimed to hold the global sporting showpiece with some spectators, and all but robs the July 23 to August 8 Games of their last vestige of pomp and public spectacle. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it was essential to prevent Tokyo, where the highly infectious Delta Covid-19 variant was spreading, from becoming the source of another wave of infections. Venues outside the greater Tokyo metropolitan area would allow small numbers of spectators, and the policy…

PYONGYANG: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lost up to 20kg but has no major health issues affecting his rule, according to a South Korean lawmaker briefed by a spy agency. The National Intelligence Service estimated that Kim recently lost between 10 and 20 kilograms, Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker briefed by the spy agency, told reporters yesterday. “If there is an abnormality in his health, there should be signs that drugs are being imported to the clinic that’s in charge of Kim’s health, but that was not detected,” the lawmaker said.…

GLOBAL efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic are under threat because women are being excluded from critical decision-making roles, the UN said yesterday. Only 6% of coronavirus task forces, which are responsible for co-ordinating government responses to the deadly virus, have equal numbers of men and women, while 11% have no women at all, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) found. “The pivotal decisions being made today will affect the well-being of people and planet for generations to come,” Achim Steiner, UNDP’s administrator, said. “Sustainable recovery is only possible when women are able to play a full role in shaping a post-Covid-19 world that works for all of us.” New data by the UNDP and the Gender Inequality Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh found that women hold fewer…

MADRID: Spanish police said yesterday that they had detained a fourth suspect over the killing of Samuel Luiz, who was beaten to death in the northern city of A Coruna on Saturday in a suspected anti-gay hate crime that sparked mass protests across the country. “He is a man between 20 and 25 years old and he is accused of homicide and undue appropriation,” Spanish national police said on its twitter account yesterday. The man is a friend of the three other suspects, who were detained earlier this week, a police officer said. He is suspected of taking Luiz’s cellphone. Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was killed outside a nightclub.…

MIHLALI BALEKA mihlali.baleka@inl.co.za FORTUNE favours the brave, so goes the adage. That Kaizer Chiefs had to depend on youngsters to plug the holes in their senior team after being banned from signing players for a year has paid dividends. The young guns are now being credited for inspiring Amakhosi to their first ever CAF Champions League final. Darrel Matsheke and Sabelo Radebe made their breakthrough in the senior team this season. But perhaps, it’s the trio of Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, Happy Mashiane and Njabulo Blom who finally established themselves as professionals in Chiefs’ colours. Mashiane, 23, became the youngest Chiefs player to score in the group stage, after his goal against Petro de Luanda at home. Blom was colossal in Chiefs’ midfield, with former coach Gavin Hunt, saying “he’s got everything:…

ZAAHIER ADAMS zaahier.adams@inl.co.za THE Proteas will play their first ODI on foreign soil since the 2019 World Cup when they take on Ireland in a three-match series starting on Sunday in Dublin, with Rassie van der Dussen claiming the hosts “are going to throw everything they have at us”. The focus has primarily been on Test cricket and T20 Internationals since the resumption after the enforced Covid-19 break, with the visitors arriving in the Emerald Isle fresh from a hugely-successful two-format tour of the West Indies. Van der Dussen, in particular, will be eager to lock horns with the Irish having been a regular in the local Belfast leagues close on six years ago now. “I have very fond memories of playing in Belfast … of the people at the…

TOP seed Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian woman to reach the Wimbledon singles final for 41 years after beating former champion Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) yesterday. The 25-year-old will now aim to emulate Evonne Goolagong who won the second of her two Wimbledon crowns in 1980. After saving a break point in a nervy opening game on a sunny Centre Court, world No 1 Barty was supreme in the first set as her all-court game flowed on the grass. The 33-year-old Kerber used all her experience on the surface to hit back in the second set and looked poised to take it into a decider when serving at 5-3. But Barty got back in the groove and broke to love. Kerber’s game went off in the tiebreak and…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za DESPITE a public outcry over the City’s 13.5% electricity tariff increase, there was nothing that could be done at this stage, activists and experts said. Stop CoCT founder Sandra Dickson said this was why public participation was so important before annual budgets were finalised. For lifeline customers, the increase went up by 17c for the first 350 units and 34c thereafter, amounting to R2.89, the highest rate for all users. For domestic customers, it went up 28c for the first 600 units, amounting to R2.37 and R2.89 thereafter. “Once a year the price is determined. However, then they nail us just as hard. During the public comment period it is important that people have their say against exorbitant price increases. “What typically happens is, after the increase…

Sizwe Dlamini sizwe.dlamini@inl.co.za MOLIEHI Maria Sithole, also known as Gosiame Thamara and her husband, Teboho Tsotetsi, have turned to the Johannesburg High Court for an order on an urgent basis to force the government to release her from a hospital where they say she is being held against her will. In court papers the couple’s lawyer, Refiloe Mokoena, of Refilwe Mokoena Attorneys, said that Sithole was being held illegally by the Gauteng Department of Social Development because she was detained by the police without a court order or any criminal case against her. Sithole, who is now being held involuntarily at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital, was admitted to Tembisa Hospital on June 18 for observation through an arrangement by social workers attached to the Gauteng Department of Social Development following…

Siyavuya Mzantsi siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za IT was meant to be a multimillion-rand bridge connecting two Khayelitsha communities. But more than a year later, it remains a dangerous walkway across a stormwater channel filled with dirt, posing a health risk to residents. The City had announced the extension of Welcome Zenzile Street on February 16 last year, saying the project would “commence next week”. It had said the new road link costing R4.6 million would cover about 280 metres, and be elevated by four metres. “Currently there is no formal access between the communities of Kuyasa West and Kuyasa East, only existing tracks across an open space. “Also, the two communities from ward 97 and 99 in Kuyasa in Khayelitsha are separated by a stormwater channel, which makes it very difficult and dangerous…

REVIEWER: unathi kondile A Nurse's Legacy: Lessons from a life of service Nomathemba Mazaleni Darren August “A NATIONAL lockdown does not help. We have to increase the number of vaccinations per day,” says retired nurse and author Nomathemba Mazaleni, as we meet at the new Joy’s Eatery in Vincent, East London. Mazaleni has just penned a book titled A Nurse's Legacy: Lessons from a life of service, and on June 22, 2021, her 69th birthday, she launched it at the Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg. To date, South Africa has vaccinated just over 3.3 million South Africans. More than 62 000 lives have perished. “Rarely is the role of nurses ever been acknowledged, yet so many health-care workers have died during this pandemic. Perhaps the acting Health Minister, Mmamoloko…

The Million Dollar Race Matthew Ross Smith Loot.co.za (R288) Aladdin Suitable for ages 8-12 HOW would you feel if the most embarrassing moment of your life was caught on video, posted online and then watched eight million times? At the beginning of The Million Dollar Race, 13-year-old Grant Falloon trips and falls right as he is about to win the 100m race at a major track competition. “I lie face-down on the track, a literal inch from the finish line," he says. He is rightfully annoyed when Franny, his 12-year-old brother, happily posts the video on his popular YouTube channel and it goes viral. But Grant's embarrassment doesn't keep him from racing again. He and his best friend, Jay Fa'atasi, learn about an international competition for children aged between 11…

Mark Keohane Type into Google “Ali’s last fight”, and this is what you will get: “Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a 10-round decision. By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed 200 000 hits.” That fight is on YouTube and if you love Muhammad Ali the boxer, as much as I did, and you haven’t watched it, please don’t go there. It is awful to watch and as a fan of boxing’s greatest, you will feel powerless and an emptiness. Cue tennis’s Roger Federer and Wednesday night’s Wimbledon quarter-final. If you love Roger Federer, the tennis player, as much as I do, and for some reason you missed that night’s defeat, never…

ASSASSINATED Haitian president’s opting for authoritarian policy during his term may now result in a period of transitional government, Ludovic Comeau, a US-based professor who in the past had received an offer to join Jovenel Moise’s team, told Sputnik. “He (Moise) wanted me to be his chief of staff … I did not expect him to move in the authoritarian direction he did,” Comeau, professor of economics at DePaul University, said. Several inquiries about Moise by rights groups and researchers found his administration allegedly took part in state-sponsored massacres by providing gangs with money, weapons, police uniforms, and government vehicles, all of which was then used in three large attacks in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince between 2018 and 2020. “Corruption is rampant. People are doing things with impunity and no…

London: A British parliamentary standards committee yesterday cleared Prime Minister Boris Johnson of breaching a MPs’ code of conduct over a luxury Caribbean holiday, but criticised his handling of the matter. After a months-long probe, the House of Commons committee on standards concluded that Johnson had accurately declared how he paid for the trip with his then fiancée, now wife, Carrie Symonds, to the privately owned island of Mustique in 2019. However, the cross-party panel of MPs said it was “regrettable” that a full explanation of the arrangements that saw a Conservative Party donor fund their holiday had not been provided earlier. It noted that he had been previously admonished over other financial interest declarations, and urged MPs “to avoid seeking or accepting gifts or hospitality on the…

TUNIS: Tunisia’s health care system is collapsing due to the coronavirus, with intensive care departments full and doctors overburdened by a rapid outbreak of cases and deaths, the health ministry said yesterday. Tunisia recorded near 10 000 new coronavirus cases and 134 deaths on Wednesday, a daily record since the start of the pandemic, as concerns grow that the country will not be able to control the pandemic. “We are in a catastrophic situation ... the health system collapsed,” ministry spokesperson Nisaf Ben Alaya said. The total number of cases has climbed to around 465 000 and there’s been more than 15 700 deaths.…

SINGAPORE: A court in Singapore sentenced a Canadian man to five years in jail for robbing a bank in 2016, but he will not receive an additional sentence of six strokes of a cane due to the terms of his extradition, the government said. Singapore has very low crime rates and the bank robbery had sparked debate about whether the wealthy Southeast Asian city state had become too complacent about security. David James Roach, now 31, fled Singapore on the same day as the robbery, but was later detained in Britain where authorities agreed to extradite him in March last year.…

HERMAN GIBBS herman.gibbs@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa's national team Bafana Bafana emerged slender 1-0 winners over neighbours Eswatini in a top-of-the-table Cosafa Cup Group A clash at the Wolfson Stadium in the Eastern Cape yesterday. The outcome allowed Bafana Bafana to retain a 100% win record against Eswatini's Sihlangu Semnikati in five Cosafa Cup games but Bafana's performance was far from convincing against gutsy opposition. A lively first half ended on a sour note when Mozambique referee Wilson Muianga red-carded Eswatini talisman and captain Felix Badenhorst after a second bookable offence. It was a huge blow for Eswatini because he was far and away the team's most influential player up to that stage. Moments earlier, Badenhorst unleashed a powerful shot from a free-kick about 15 metres outside the Bafana Bafana penalty area.…

Mike Greenaway mike.greenaway@inl.co.za It has already been dubbed the “tour like no other” and now the British & Irish Lions’ visit to South Africa has got a little crazier with the confirmation that there is to be a sequel to Wednesday’s Lions match against the Sharks, tomorrow at Loftus. The Lions versus the Sharks take two will replace the Lions’ scheduled match against the Bulls, which had to be called off because of Covid-19 cases in the ranks of the Bulls. That had left the Lions short of a precious warm-up opportunity – they have only five build-up matches before the Test series against the Springboks begins on 24 July – so now playing the Sharks a second time is a case of necessity being the mother of invention. “The…