Tabla de contenidos para 2023-09-27 en Cape Times

THE Western Cape High Court has reserved judgement in the matter in which the Independent Media Consortium (IMC), formerly the Sekunjalo Independent Media Consortium (SIM), is defending itself against the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) investment arm. Yesterday, the two parties delivered closing arguments before Acting Judge Michelle O’Sullivan, who will determine whether Sactwu’s general-secretary, Andre Kriel, had the authority to sign a subordination agreement, among other things. In his closing argument, IMC counsel advocate Eduard Fagan, SC, said Sactwu was suing because it was trying to avoid the consequence that eventuated in the non-listing of Sagarmatha. “It is based on hindsight. It is based on regret,” he said. Fagan said it was not an issue that Sactwu’s loan claim against SIM would have passed to Sagarmatha…

4 boys aged between 12 and 13 died on scene The four children killed when they were electrocuted while playing in water at Klipfontein Mission Station in Philippi were apparently returning from a sleepover at the weekend. They had just accompanied two of their friends home when they decided to jump into a dam caused by flooding on Monday. “They were not aware that a live electricity wire had fallen into the water. They died instantly from electrocution. The wire had fallen due to the wind over the weekend and it killed them,” said ward councillor Mboniswa Chitha. “They were on their way home from a sleepover when this happened. There were six children in total. They (the four) first accompanied two of their friends home, and on their…

DO THE Springboks not have a kicking coach? If so, who is he and does he watch rugby on TV? The TV shows the view between the ball on the tee and the posts (from behind the kicker) as is the custom. Our kicker places the ball on the tee pointing to the right of the posts – every time. When struck, the ball veers to the left – every time. The kicker can only hope (as he does) that the ball will go between the posts. Consider the kickers from other countries who can direct the ball in a straight line – every time. What is the difference? Clearly one of technique, Mr Kicking Coach. If, when you kick with your right foot, you are leaning to your left…

THE trivialisation of the Sassa grant fiasco by ministers Mondli Gungubele and Lindiwe Zulu is appalling. It indicates how far the ANC has drifted away from the expectations of the populace in general and the needs of the less privileged, in particular. Surely, heads must roll, and someone be held responsible for such a failure. A great error of the current ANC philosophy is that no one is accountable for their incorrect actions. The ruling party is like a tragic circus of the absurd and can be equated to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The great leaders of the ANC, such as Olivier Tambo, Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela, must be turning in their graves. Will we ever have a government that is governed by its obligations? Quo Vadis, South…

THE Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has called on poultry farmers to intensify their biosecurity measures as the country is dealing with a number of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 and H7 outbreaks. As of September 21, a total of 50 HPAI H7 outbreaks and 10 HPAI H5 outbreaks were reported. More than 2.4 million chickens have been culled due to the outbreaks. Gauteng and the Western Cape are the hardest hit, recording the highest loss of chickens. Department spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said the number of newly detected H7 and H5 PCR positive farms are increasing, and the industry is requested to ensure the utmost biosecurity on poultry farms to reduce the risk of introduction. “The department has facilitated the importation of fertile eggs for…

Judiciary and other pillars of society are under threat LET US be under no illusion about the divisive political game in Parliament as it starts a parallel impeachment process for Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and retired Judge Nkola Motata. The Portfolio Committee on Justice chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said Parliament will conduct the process in terms of Section 177 of the Constitution and highlighted the importance of adopting the steps, as he said it will be the first time since 1910 that MPs investigate and vote on the impeachment of a judge. What is unsaid in the media statements, but streaming through it like shafts of light through a broken roof, is clearly that in our divided society, there will be those who say they will not forgive MPs…

The US House and Senate yesterday planned to take sharply divergent paths in a high-stakes spending battle, with just five days remaining until a deadline that could force wide swaths of the government to shut down for the fourth time in a decade. The Democratic-controlled Senate plans to vote on a stopgap funding bill with bipartisan support that would keep the federal government operating after current money runs out at midnight on Saturday, giving negotiators more time to agree on full-year spending numbers. Meanwhile Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, aiming to hold off a rebellion by hardline members of his own caucus, will push ahead with four full-year spending bills that reflect conservative priorities and stand no chance of becoming law. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will…

Police detained protesters yesterday in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru after one attempted suicide and another was injured while demonstrating against the sharing of water from a river that flows through two states, officials said. Farmers’ groups called the protest, which forced employees of multinationals such as Walmart and Alphabet’s Google to work from home. Police said emergency orders had been imposed. Schools and colleges were shut in the capital of Karnataka state, home to more than 3 500 tech companies. Farmers and politicians from Karnataka and the adjoining state of Tamil Nadu have been locked in a legal dispute over sharing the waters of the Cauvery River for decades. The Supreme Court recently ordered the release of water by Karnataka to Tamil Nadu for 15 days from September 13,…

New York: JPMorgan Chase announced yesterday that it will pay $75 million to settle a US Virgin Islands lawsuit that accused the bank of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. The Virgin Islands had originally sought $190m in damages for the bank’s role in enabling Epstein’s sex crimes, including in the Virgin Islands, where he had a residence. The ongoing litigation has yielded myriad disclosures that have raised questions over why JPMorgan did not act more quickly to cut off Epstein after bank officials became aware of his conduct. JPMorgan began its banking services with Epstein as early as 1998, but did not cut him off until 2013. | AFP…

AN Acting judge has warned people who feel aggrieved from simply rushing to court in an emotional state to obtain orders without thinking through the applications. Sitting in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, Acting Judge AW Pullinger warned against the proverbial “hot pen”. “There are certain sayings that may fairly be described as proverbs pertinent to litigation that have developed over time and are apposite to this application. One is that where one litigates in haste, one repents at leisure.” “This proverb underlines the importance of properly considering one’s case before the launching of an application, especially an urgent one, to ensure that a proper case for relief is made out. “Another is to avoid drafting with the proverbial hot pen". This leads ineluctably to emotive and sometimes incorrect statements…

THE recent killings of councillors in Kwazulu-Natal is a concern that necessitates a thorough investigation of the root causes of such violence. While, perhaps, power politics, factional struggles or inter-party and intra-party jealousies are at the centre of some of the murders, it is the worst form of violent extremism, intimidation and the most destructive of human behaviours. The killing of political office bearers or political party members or any human for that matter is truly unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Suspected political killings will not help deepen South Africa’s democracy and bring about progressive change. Violence is not the means to resolve conflicts, win tenders or a political seat or space, or even family or business disputes. Negotiation, arbitration, mediation and round table dialogues…

I HAVE read an article by Pravin Gordhan on the fact that our National carrier SAA is firmly on course to reclaim its position as a formidable player in the global aviation sector. Of course there is nothing in the article saying why we dropped from number one to zero. But I can tell Mr Gordhan. Corruption at every level, cadre deployment, with cadres who knew absolutely nothing about aviation entering in really stupid deals. One of them sold our direct route to England. Will we ever get that back again is debatable. He says a new Dawn for SAA has arrived. I wonder if anyone will trust it again? They have found other airlines that have not let them down. Who says they will now change? It’s all very…

A FATHER has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his 4-year-old son by stabbing the boy to death in the street about a year ago. The South Gauteng High Court recently sentenced 34-year-old Nhlanhla Buthelezi for the brutal murder of Bafana Ntuli. On the morning of September 2 last year, a drunk Buthelezi went to his girlfriend Zamokuhle Ntuli’s house in Snake Park. “The couple had a verbal fight, and the accused uttered, ‘There will be a movie today’ and left. Later that day, Bafana was home with his aunt and siblings. The accused came back to his girlfriend’s house around 7pm in the evening, asked the deceased’s aunt about the whereabouts of his girlfriend and left again. He shortly returned and took the deceased with him,” the NPA…

SOUTH African Sign Language (SASL) is now the 12th official language of the country. While it has taken quite some time to get to this point, SASL has finally received the recognition it deserves. This was indeed something to celebrate on the International Day of Sign Languages (23 September) and the International Week of the Deaf being observed during the last week of September, which is also Deaf Awareness Month. Now that SASL is an official language, the hope is that more resources will be directed towards promoting its development in all spheres of society. Very often, when people hear “sign language”, they think there must be one “universal” sign language.This belief is wrong, however. SASL is a fully-fledged language unique to our country. Just as particular spoken languages are…

Azerbaijani border guards yesterday sought out “war crime” suspects in a sea of Armenian refugees flooding out of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku claimed control of the separatist statelet in a lightning offensive last week. The number of people who entered Armenia along the so-called Lachin Corridor following the operation has now surpassed 19 000, and was growing one day after the death toll from a massive fuel blast on the edge of the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert rose to 20. The toll threatened to rise because dozens were being treated in critical condition and many remained unaccounted for. Most of the victims were stocking up on fuel for the trip down the only road connecting the impoverished and historically disputed region with Armenia. Yerevan has warned of possible “ethnic cleansing” by…

LONDON: Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman called yesterday for governments to consider rewriting global refugee rules so they are “fit for the modern age” and don’t deem being gay, or a woman, enough of a reason to qualify for asylum. Addressing the American Enterprise Institute think-tank, Braverman called for changes to the UN 1951 refugee convention. It enshrines the principle that states that have signed up to the convention must protect civilians fleeing conflict or persecution. Braverman argued that case law arising from the convention has lowered the threshold so that asylum seekers need only prove that they face “discrimination” instead of a real risk of torture or violence. | AFP…

London: Sick leave in the UK has hit its highest rate in 15 years and is well above pre-pandemic levels, a study showed yesterday. Employees took an average 7.8 sick days over the past year, according to the study published by human resources association CIPD and Simplyhealth. That was two days more than before the pandemic, the CIPD said. The jump in sick leave is contributing to a tight labour market, with employers struggling to recruit or retain existing employees due to worker shortages accentuated by the pandemic and Brexit. The study also finds that stress is one of the prevalent factors for both short- and long-term sick leave. | AFP…

THE Cape Town derby between Cape Town City and Cape Town Spurs could offer one of the two teams a change of fortunes after a poor run of results. Spurs’ return to the Premiership was met with so much delight this season, given their contribution to the growth of South African football over the years. And having been promoted via the gruelling PSL promotion/relegation play-offs, they were expected to make a seamless return to the top flight. But instead they’ve had the worst start ever. Spurs are yet to record a single point since the start of the season, having lost all six matches. However, club bosses have decided to exercise patience with coach Shaun Bartlett. Bartlett, though, must quickly turn things around at the Urban Warriors, given that the…

The toxic feud that consumed golf since the last Ryder Cup in 2021 means some familiar faces will be missing when the 44th edition of the contest begins in Rome on Friday. Thankfully, fears that the biennial clash between the United States and Europe had been irrevocably damaged by the 2022 exodus to Saudi-backed LIV Golf, have been allayed - for now at least. If anything, the troubles of the past 18 months have served to raise excitement levels for the three-day duel at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club just outside the ancient city. “The Ryder Cup is pure, pure sport, with all the other stuff kind of taken out. The Ryder Cup will always be above all that stuff,” said England’s Luke Donald, who replaced Henrik Stenson…

Proteas Test coach Shukri Conrad may currently be feasting on a diet of English Premiership football at Anfield and Old Trafford but he will be keeping a close eye on proceedings at the SA20 Season 2 auction back home today. Conrad is enjoying a break before the serious business of the summer gets underway with a much-anticipated India incoming tour. However, Conrad is also tasked with taking a Proteas team to New Zealand for a two-match Test series against the Black Caps in January next year. That tour, though, coincides with SA20 Season 2 and Cricket South Africa (CSA) have already stated that the domestic T20 tournament will take preference in terms of player availability. Test captain Temba Bavuma has already been ruled out of the tour to the Land…

WHILE police crime intelligence units are making some strides to combat organised crime, their own colleagues are also setting them back through gun smuggling or actively participating in such crimes, crime experts said. High calibre weapons and explosives continue to be found at crime scenes as organised crimes such as kidnapping and extortion have increased in recent years. Police officers have also been apprehended in connection with syndicates. According to Police Minister Bheki Cele two suspects were arrested in an upmarket estate in KwaZulu-Natal. Two rifles, two shot guns, four 9mm pistols, 58 rifle live ammunition, fourteen shotgun live ammunition and thirty nine live ammunition rounds were seized. In a cash-in-transit (CIT) heist, three Highway Patrol police members were arrested and six rifles, a 9mm pistol, 12 fully loaded magazines,…

YOUR September 21 edition, “Unisa mum on serious governance report”, refers: Unisa is the biggest university in Africa. Unisa was a success story. Now, we have an institution that seems to be denuded of any governance at all. The Higher Education Department, like the majority of our government departments, has completely fallen apart. To read that professor Mosiato called for “full administration of Unisa, where both counsel and management are relieved of their duties” is shocking to say the least. In essence, the recommendation tells us that the entire university is in complete disarray. Unisa seems to reflect the real nature of higher education in the country. Like all other government departments, Higher Education is falling apart.…

YET another mass murder has rocked the Gugulethu community after five people were shot and killed while sitting in their vehicles on Monday. This as residents and authorities have raised alarm over the growing murder rate in the area. The first quarter crime statistics, from April to June 2023, revealed an increase of 37.2% in the murder rate compared to the same period of the previous year. In the latest shooting, the men were sitting in two vehicles when another vehicle with armed men emerged and fired at them, according to police. Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said five men between 46 and 52 were killed. “Provincial Organised Crime detectives have initiated a murder investigation following an incident where five individuals were shot and killed by yet-to-be identified gunmen. Local police…

A STEPFATHER who hit his 14-year-old stepdaughter with a buckle-belt failed in his bid to claim damages from the police for what he termed his unlawful arrest and incarceration over a weekend in a police cell. The man, who cannot be identified to safeguard the identity of the teenager, lost his initial bid against the SAPS for damages, as the court found the police did their job and were entitled to arrest and detain him. In a second bid to obtain damages, he appealed the matter before the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, which also turned down his appeal. While he was initially charged with assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, the man maintained that he merely “reprimanded” the girl. He was arrested by officers from the Family…

ZOLEKA Mandela has joined the likes of Hugh Masekela, Koyo Bala, Ray Phiri, Xolani Gwala, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley and many other famous people who have succumbed to cancer. To give an idea of how tough the battle against cancer can be, renowned Irish horse trainer Jessica Harrington is on record as saying, “I thought I had died”, and “it’s a big fright”. Mandela, author, activist and Madiba’s granddaughter, had bravely spoken about her death on various interviews and social media platforms in her final years on this planet. In one video, Mandela said: “there is a lot of pain. I mean, every day is different, so the form of treatment is different in the sense that in this regard they are doing a lot of trying to improve my…

Saudi Arabia’s first ambassador to the Palestinians described a decades-old Arab land-for-peace offer yesterday as a pillar of any normalisation of ties with Israel, an apparent attempt to signal that Riyadh has not abandoned the Palestinian cause. Expectations of a landmark US- brokered Saudi-Israeli deal have grown over the last week, though the timing and terms remain murky. Among complicating factors are calls by Riyadh and Washington for the Palestinians to make diplomatic inroads as part of any deal, a prospect unpalatable to Israel’s hardline coalition government. Saudi Arabia’s non-resident ambassador to the Palestinians, a role it unveiled last month, made a first visit to their seat of government in the occupied West Bank yesterday. Nayef Al-Sudairi said in Ramallah that his visit “reaffirms that the Palestinian cause and Palestine…

ANKARA: Türkiye’s parliament will keep its promise to ratify Sweden’s Nato bid if US President Joe Biden’s administration paves the way for F-16 jet sales to Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday. Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan, Erdogan said that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Sweden’s Nato membership bid in New York last week. The US administration is linking F-16 fighter jet sales to Türkiye with Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s bid, Erdogan said. “If they (the US) keep their promises, our parliament will keep its own promise as well,” he said.…

Bangkok: Myanmar’s military escalated its use of mass killings, air and artillery strikes in the past year as it struggles to crush resistance to its coup, the UN’s rights office said yesterday. The military’s ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 sparked a huge backlash and it is now battling opponents across swaths of the country. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had found a “seemingly endless spiral of military violence” between April 2022 and July 2023, it said in its latest report on Myanmar. Investigators documented 22 instances of mass killings of 10 or more people. | AFP…

It seems absurd to think that Kagiso Rabada is already 28-years-old and on the verge of playing his second World Cup. Only recently he was still the tall kid that won South Africa their only ever ICC World Cup - the Under-19 Men’s event back in 2014. It’s almost nine years since then and Rabada has been the centre focus ever since. Being able to bowl deliveries in excess of 145km/h tends to attract such attention. And even more so when the responsibility is placed on your broad shoulders to carry on the baton of South Africa’s great fast bowling tradition. For much of the time Rabada has performed this role with distinction. Particularly with red-ball while dressed in white flannels. He has had his moments when the red mist…

THE All Blacks may not be rugby’s dominant force as they once were but beating them remains more a fanciful dream than a realistic possibility, Italy’s defence coach Marius Goosen said yesterday. Italy have earned many plaudits recently for a marked upturn in performances and results. Last year, they beat Australia for the first time and also broke new ground in winning away to Wales. New Zealand, on the other hand, come into Friday’s Pool A clash in Lyon at an all-time low of fourth in the world rankings and having lost a pool stage match for the first time in their history, when hosts France beat them 27-13 in the tournament’s opening match. But South African Goosen said that does not make an Italy victory any more likely on…