Table of contents for CT-2021-04-09 in Cape Times

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s ambitious job creation drive spearheaded by President Cyril Ramaphosa has received a $1 billion (R14.5bn) cash injection from the BRICS Bank to help the country fight rising unemployment levels. The New Development Bank (NDB) yesterday approved a $1bn second Covid-19 emergency loan to South Africa in less than a year to support economic recovery. The NDB said the loan would finance the creation of employment opportunities in South Africa, in particular the first phase of the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES). “The loan will finance creation of employment opportunities in South Africa, in particular the first phase of the PES, together with social protection measures for active labour market participants that temporarily lost their jobs, in order to help them remain in the labour market,”…

THE MANUFACTURING industry in South Africa continues to struggle to recover from the Covid-19 induced depression as factory output fell more than expected in February. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that manufacturing production remained in contractionary territory as it fell by 2.1 percent in February from a year ago. February followed an upwardly revised 4.2 percent slump in January and was significantly weaker than market expectations of a 0.4 percent fall. StatsSA said output was dragged down largely by declines in petroleum and chemical products, rubber and plastic, decreasing by 8.4 percent. The food and beverages division slid by 0.7 percent in February, much slower than the 6.1 decline in January. Textiles, clothing, leather and footwear grouping experienced a marginal 0.1…

From page 1 They allegedly demanded R500 000 from the man’s family. A Palestinian national who owns a spaza shop said he lost a family member who refused to pay extortion money. “People behind this extortion thing send their boys to come and collect money and once you refuse they deal with you immediately, and if you have an excuse on the day of collection they give you just a day or two, and after that, they take no excuses. “These people are known people in the community and well respected, that is why we fear to report them because some of them work closely with police officers,” he said. A Somali national said he has paid extortion fees for years. “My boss came here and told me…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has appealed, together with other religious leaders, to President Cyril Ramaphosa to ease some of the existing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions ahead of the holy month of Ramadaan. The religious occasion will be marked in the midst of the pandemic for the second year and is expected to begin between April 13 and 14, subject to the sighting of the new moon. MJC President Sheikh Riad Fataar said the council was awaiting a response to their plea. “The community that is now facing the third wave is not the same community that faced the first wave of the pandemic. It is now a community that is empowered, a community that wears masks, sanitises and social distances in the mosques. On top of that…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE Theewaterskloof municipality has “missed an opportunity for a young woman to lead a government entity” after the appointment of a new municipal manager. So said the region’s opposition after the DA’s Daniel Lubbe was appointed over Dr Vuyiwe Tsako. The previous municipal manager, Gerrit Matthyse, resigned in April 2020 and the municipality’s chief financial officer, Davy Louw, held the acting municipal manager position until Lubbe’s appointment. ANC regional secretary Derick Appel said they also disputed whether the decision was made following the correct procedures. “The assessments and the test come out that this lady is the best suitable candidate to be the municipal manager. Whether it was a legitimate council meeting or not, the chief whip will be writing a letter asking for the recordings of…

Staff writer PERSONAL growth is among the biggest achievements for Phumla Nyathikazi, who completed an innovative leadership course through the African Intergenerational Leadership Hub Programme at the Southern African Wildlife College. “I found this was important in understanding strengths when attempting to find solutions to challenges. Solutions would need a culture change and fresh approaches to work with a wide array of stakeholders.” Nyathikazi is a socio-economic officer for SANParks’s wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park. Funded by the Swiss-based Mava Foundation, the programme is a collaboration between the Southern African Wildlife College, Common Purpose and the Environmental Sustainability Agency to support better conservation practices and outcomes. Dr Elsbeth Dixon, chief executive of Common Purpose, a non-profit organisation that aims to create better leaders, said it was also…

Zintle Mahlati and Karen Singh THE lack of equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed. This is according to World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who was speaking at the World Health Day event hosted by Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Wednesday. More than 400 million vaccine shots have been administered worldwide, with only about 11 million administered in Africa. In South Africa, more than 250 000 health-care workers have been vaccinated. Moeti said that to ensure the safety of the world, vaccination access had to be broadened and everyone should get a vaccine. She said the pandemic had brought into sharp focus the health inequalities prevalent globally. She cited examples of a shortage of personal protective…

Viwe Ndongeni-Ntlebi viwe.ndongeni@inl.co.za MISSING school or carrying a sense of shame will be a thing of the past for young girls at Zola Secondary School in Khayelitsha after a donation and commitment to support them with sanitary pads for the rest of the year. Imbumba Foundation, together with Fourways Acon, visited the school yesterday to hand over six months’ worth of sanitary pads and promised to boost this even further to last for a year. The foundation runs the Caring4Girls programme to highlight the importance of hygiene and education. It is estimated that about 3.7 million girls are unable to afford sanitary pads in the country and according to research conducted by Stellenbosch, University about 30% of learners miss school while having their period. A learner at the school, Sinovuyo…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za A WOMAN has thanked an Eastridge good Samaritan for always helping her 92-year-old mother collect her medication at the hospital, all out of the kindness of his heart. Gerome Hendriks uses his Red Nissan Sentra to help several elderly people whenever they need a hand with getting somewhere. He says he wakes up as early as 4.30am for his daily pick ups. “I get contacted through calls, SMSes or WhatsApp messages. I don’t just take the elderly to get their tablets, but also for their dialysis appointments, doctors’ appointments and also non-appointments at the hospitals in Mitchells Plain,” he said. Joan Pietersen said they used to struggle to find a lift to transport her mother to the hospital. “My mother has ulcers and heart problems. He takes…

IT HAS been a year since South Africa and the world embarked on the unprecedented path of imposing far-reaching lockdowns of many aspects of social, economic and political life. For the first time in modern history, borders were closed, forcing a shutdown not only of international travel but also of domestic movement. Not since war times have societies had to endure curfews, prohibition of social gatherings and other measures that have drastically curtailed socio-economic activity. Such has been the impact of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The pandemic has put the best of health systems under severe strain, and decimated economies. The loss of life has been heartbreaking, to say the least, with over 2 million deaths worldwide, and over 52 000 South Africans having succumbed to…

Mark Keohane GO TO Google and type in: “Social media racial abuse towards soccer players.” This is what you will find: l Police investigating racist social media abuse of Manchester United star – January 31, 2021. l Facebook horrified by footballers’ racist abuse received on social media – February 10, 2021. l English soccer at breaking point over abuse on social media – February 13, 2021. l Racism in football: Footballers still facing racist abuse online – February 17, 2021. l Football racism: Premier League and EFL asked to help tackle social media racism – March 5, 2021 These are just five entries and they are random from the first three months of this year. To describe it as “horrific” doesn’t do justice to the degree of disgust one…

Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government put aside factional differences yesterday to appeal for calm after more than a week of nightly violence, partly fuelled by frustration among pro-British unionists over post-Brexit trade barriers. Hundreds of youths in the British province’s capital Belfast set a hijacked bus on fire and attacked police with stones on Wednesday in scenes reminiscent of decades of sectarian and political strife that claimed some 3 600 lives prior to a 1998 peace deal. The latest eruption of violence has left 55 police officers injured and seen boys as young as 13 and 14 arrested on rioting charges. “We are gravely concerned by the scenes we have all witnessed on our streets,” said the compulsory coalition, led by rival pro-Irish Catholic nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists.…

A backlog of container ships carrying consumer goods has grown in some key strategic ports after a near week-long blockage in the Suez Canal, adding to ongoing disruptions to global trade, industry sources say. Dozens of container ships were stuck when the 400m-long Ever Given ran aground in the canal last month, with specialist rescue teams taking almost a week to free the vessel. Container shipping companies have been contending for months with disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a demand for retail goods. While some transporters of goods have turned to rail, that option has barely made a dent as about 90% of world trade is transported by sea. Port officials in Europe’s leading gateways say the impact on global supply chains was expected to last for several…

LONDON: Jemima Goldsmith, the former wife of Pakistani PM Imran Khan has taken to Twitter to quote the holy book of Islam, the Qur’an – to slam her ex-husband’s recent remarks on how women’s “vulgar” dressing entices men to rape them leading to a rise in such cases. “’Say to the believing men that they restrain their eyes and guard their private parts,’ Qur’an 24:31. The onus is on men,” read the tweet by the 47-year old British screenwriter who divorced Khan after nine years of marriage in 2004 owing to his hectic political life. “World history tells when you increase fahashi (vulgarity) in society, two things happen: sex crimes increase and the family system breaks down. This entire concept of pardah (covering up) is to avoid temptation,”, Khan said…

Jerusalem: Israel yesterday said it had formally decided not to co-operate with an International Criminal Court (ICC) war crimes investigation into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The ICC’s chief prosecutor said last month she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which is not a member of The Hague-based court. The ICC sent a deferral notice, which gave Israel and the Palestinian Authority a month to tell judges whether they were probing crimes. Israel said it would “reiterate Israel position that The Hague tribunal has no authority to open an investigation against it”. | AFP…

From page 1 Both Lubbe and Tsako could not be reached for comment yesterday. Theewaterskloof municipal spokesperson Hugo Geldenhuys defended the appointment, saying Lubbe was appointed after a “thorough and transparent” process. “The process of appointing the municipal manager was done in accordance with relevant legislation, requirements, policies and practises. The outcome of the process resulted in the appointment of the municipal manager,” he said. DA East Region chairperson Tertuis Simmers said the allegations made by the ANC were not backed by the municipal administration and documentation. “Mister Lubbe was appointed after a process that complied with the relevant legislation, requirements, policies and practices. The process was transparent, and based on the interviews, tests and other criteria, Mister Lubbe was the best applicant. “The Theewaterskloof council duly appointed Mister…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za THE newly appointed ANC Youth League (ANCYL) national youth task team says it will not be drawn into the politics of the party’s mother body and that its focus will be on holding a “credible” national conference this year. In an attempt to rebuild the ANCYL, the task team, led by Nonceba Mhlauli and Joy Maimela, said it planned to lead collectively and to be transparent. ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule introduced the “35 under 35” team during a media briefing at Luthuli House yesterday. The ANCYL had been out of action for a few years after the ANCYL national executive committee that was elected in 2015 was disbanded in 2019. A task team was subsequently appointed to oversee the running of the youth league and to convene…

Okuhle Hlati Odwa Mkentane okuhle.hlati@inl.co.za odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za A DEPUTY minister’s bodyguard, police officers and other law enforcement agencies are among more than 100 suspects arrested in relation to extortion as the crime continues to run deep across the City, not just in the townships and Cape Flats. Since January last year, 105 extortion-related cases have been opened and 67 cases are still under investigation. Acting police commissioner Thembisile Patekile yesterday said different (extortion) groups were fighting over terrain which had led to mass shootings. “Chinese and Somalian nationalities are the most targeted in kidnappings, that then leads to extortion and we are still probing the reasons behind this if maybe they have…

OWN Correspondent VIOLENT attacks that broke out in the city of Palma in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, forced thousands of people to flee into the bush and to other parts of the province, while many sought refuge in hotels. While Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) teams are active in Cabo Delgado province, they do not run medical activities in Palma. At the end of March they sent a team to the Afungi peninsula, with the primary goal of saving lives. “We have cared for one baby with a bullet wound,” says Sylvie Kaczmarczyk, MSF emergency co-ordinator in Cabo Delgado. “Pregnant women are also coming in terrible condition – one woman, who appeared to be seven months pregnant, had intense bleeding, her baby already dead. “Mothers arrived with their newborns, some…

african news agency Facebook will not notify those who were affected in a massive data breach involving 533 million users. The company, however, said that it had “made changes to the contact importer” to stop the scraping of the data which is old. “We have teams dedicated to addressing these kinds of issues and understand the impact they can have on the people who use our services. “It is important to understand that malicious actors obtained this data not through hacking our systems but by scraping it from our platform prior to September 2019,” Facebook said in a statement this week. “As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists.”…

GOOD COMPANY Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney Loot.co.za (R528) ECCO AFTER more than a year of social distancing, who isn't craving some good company? If that's still a few months away for you, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney has the next best thing: Her new novel, Good Company, is a story about the profound joy (and heartache) of family and friends. It's a reminder that no matter how comfortable and settled things feel, life is always about change – changing places, changing careers and even changing loyalties. In the opening pages of Good Company, Flora is looking for an old photo that captures a cherished summer in Upstate New York. Her daughter is about to graduate from high school in Los Angeles, and Flora knows the snapshot, nicely framed, would make a perfect present.…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za ACCELERATING the delivery of vaccines from the third quarter to the second could soften the blow of the third wave by saving up to 40 000 lives and result in up to 200 000 fewer hospitalisations. This was an estimate presented at the latest Covid-19 digicon for the province yesterday. “The first band of people that will be immunised are people over the age of 60. We are planning for 36 000 vaccinations per day, using small, medium and large sites across geographic areas in the province,” head of health Dr Keith Cloete said. Health officials said the national target was 250 000 to 300 000 vaccinations a day. It is currently estimated that small sites will complete up to 110…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za AHEAD of a planned pro-Afrikaans protest at Stellenbosch University (SU) today, the Open Stellenbosch Collective says critically needed progressive steps at the institution may be reversed if action is not taken. Afrikaans lobby group the DAK Network will today protest for the inclusion of Afrikaans as a language of instruction after SU announced that it was revising its 2016 language policy this year as part of the five-year revision cycle prescribed in the policy itself. Interested parties have been invited to submit comments on the first draft of the revised policy up until Monday. A second public participation process is planned for later this year. While the DA has started a petition to reject the first draft of the policy, Afrikaans lobby group the DAK Network said…

Few countries will want to antagonise the rising superpower over political issues Global geopolitics have certainly changed. The world used to be divided into Cold War alliances, of which Nato is one of the lasting relics, but today it is economic and not military pacts that have the most relevance. Strategic security alliances in Asia such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, comprising the US, Australia, Japan and India are not the overriding concern in the region. What will determine the future of Asia is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which will build economies of scale, and enable the region to be an engine of economic growth. Representing two thirds of the world’s population, the RCEP is one of the most important developments in global trade. China’s Belt…

Britain yesterday condemned “bullying” by the Myanmar junta after the country’s ambassador to London was ousted in an extraordinary diplomatic coup after calling for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Diplomats loyal to the Myanmar military authorities seized control of the embassy on Wednesday, leaving ambassador Kyaw Zwar Minn locked out in the street. The ambassador said the defence attache had taken over the mission in “a kind of coup”, two months after the military seized power in Myanmar. Daily protests demanding a return of democracy have rocked the country and brought a brutal response from the armed forces, with almost 600 civilians killed according to a local monitoring group. The coup prompted several high-profile diplomatic defections, including the country’s ambassador to the UN. The junta recalled…

Beijing has surpassed New York City (NYC) as the city with the most billionaires after gaining 33 billionaires last year, taking its total to 100 and topping NYC for the first time. According to Forbes’ 35th Annual World’s Billionaires List, the Big Apple added just seven new billionaires to bring its total to 99, with NYC’s richest resident, Michael Bloomberg, a former mayor and co-founder of Bloomberg LP, with a fortune worth $59 billion (R856bn). Meanwhile, the founder of social media video-sharing app TikTok and chief executive of ByteDance tech company, Zhang Yiming, accumulated a net worth of $35.6bn. “The number of billionaires exploded to an unprecedented 2 755 … 660 more than a year ago,” Forbes said. Technology giants grew as people spent more time online. “The US still…

ROME: Dozens of people were arrested yesterday, including an oil heiress, as Italian police disrupted a massive fuel fraud by mafia groups. “Operation PetrolMafias” nabbed over 50 suspects as police seized nearly 1 billion euros in assets linked to mafia money laundering and tax fraud through oil products. Over 1 000 police participated in the operation early Thursday, seizing property, businesses and cash worth nearly 1 billion euros. Through fraudulently mislabelling imports or transports of petroleum products, suspects were able to avoid taxes, while a series of paper companies issuing fake payments for non-existent supplies allowed the clans to launder money. | AFP…

MOSCOW: A Russian court handed week-long sentences to several supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after they travelled to his penal colony to demand he receive proper medical treatment. Police detained nine Navalny supporters outside his prison in the town of Pokrov for violating public order. The supporters had gathered outside the colony to demand access to Navalny, who is on hunger strike and demanding medical treatment for back pain and numbness in his legs and hands. Navalny, 44, was arrested in January after returning from Germany where he was recovering from a nerve agent poisoning. | AFP…

Stuart Hess looks at some Proteas who shone, others whose light dimmed and some who need to turn the light back on again after Pakistan series OUTSTANDING Rassie van der Dussen: Showed two different sides of his batting in the opening matches of the series; on the first occasion he steadied the ship and made a classy century after a top order collapse; in the second game, he attacked early and often to propel the Proteas to a big total. One of the first names on the teamsheet. Kyle Verrynne: Must have moved ahead of Heinrich Klassen now and, given his recent form he should have played the first two games. Excellent acceleration in the third ODI with the bat, and he can hit big, worthy of more than a…

BENNI McCarthy and his high-flying AmaZulu team will be in the "18-yard area" this evening when they face Stellenbosch FC at the Danie Craven Stadium. It will be the first time McCarthy will be back in the Mother City after parting ways with Cape Town City last year. He has certainly bounced back after that disappointment by transforming "the sleeping giant" of KwaZulu-Natal into a genuine DStv Premiership title contender with Usuthu potentially moving up into second place on the log should they overcome Stellies. Furthermore, McCarthy is being heavily touted to take over from Molefi Ntseki, who was fired last week, as the new Bafana Bafana coach. Although wherever Bafana's leading marksman goes he is bound to be the headline act, plenty of credit should be afforded…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za THE SA Revenue Service (Sars) has won in part in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) against Levi Strauss & Co after being locked in a dispute over custom duties and VAT payable on branded clothing for sale in South Africa. The successful appeals related to the determination of transaction value of imported clothing in terms of the Customs and Excise Act, which provides for the inclusion of transaction value of all commissions except buyer’s commission. The SCA upheld in part the appeal by Sars from the Pretoria high court. According to court documents, Levi Strauss argued that commission paid to an associated company in the group, Levi Strauss Asia Pacific Division (APD), which is based in Singapore, was buyer’s commission paid to an agent for the…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za A SHOWDOWN between estranged couple Norma Mngoma and Malusi Gigaba is expected to take place at the Zondo Commission today. The inquiry will hear evidence from Mngoma regarding Gupta-related matters. The commission said in a statement yesterday that Gigaba would apply to cross-examine Mngoma. Gigaba would also reportedly apply to have Mngoma’s evidence be suppressed and deemed inadmissible or be heard privately. The couple are reportedly separated and undergoing divorce procedures. Mngoma had long promised to testify at the inquiry to reveal what she knew about Gigaba’s alleged relationship with the Gupta family. She started speaking about some of the issues related to Gigaba after her arrest by the Hawks almost a year ago. She was accused of damaging a R3 million Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon. But the charges…

Zanele Mvana zanele.mvana@inl.co.za FORENSIC services have collected food samples from a house in Samora Machel where Elias Vedala lost his two young children in what is suspected to be food poisoning. On Tuesday, Mzwandile, aged one, and Maria, four, had eaten pap with sour milk, meat and Easter eggs before they died, while their 11-year-old brother Tshepo had a narrow escape. Vedala said from the moment he, his wife and their children fell ill, it was “all surreal”. "I'm still in disbelief and disheartened that I've lost my children; why did God allow them to die at such a young age?. My wife cooked supper on Tuesday which was pap with sour milk, and we also ate Easter eggs that she brought from work. “I noticed that my four-year-old daughter…

Zanele Mvana zanele.mvana@inl.co.za AT LEAST 5 500 children in the province are still unable to find a school, stretching from Gugulethu to Strand. “The WCED is engaging with the province regarding alternative means to place the learners concerned as soon as possible,” provincial education spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said. “Every day we are placing learners. Catch-up programmes for learners are in place. “Each week is broken down in every subject for revision and learning,” she added. The application process for next year has, meanwhile, already closed. Hammond said applications closed on April 1, however, parents can still apply online. “Their application will be noted as a late application. “Over 130 000 parents registered on the site, with over 384 000 applications being uploaded to various schools across the province. “Schools will…

Staff writer UP TO 55 000 premature deaths can be prevented in Accra, one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities, through sustainable modes of transport. This was the finding of a new report by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Urban Health Initiative. This was achievable through greater access to greener vehicles, more walking and cycling road access, and more comprehensive and greener public transportation systems. Accra’s population grows by 2% every year. More than 4.5 million people live in its metropolitan area, with a daily influx of 2.5 million business commuters. The population is expected to grow to 9.6 million by 2050 with a threefold increase in demand for transport. Personal car ownership is projected to double and there will be greater use of the public transport system if no…

OF WOMEN AND SALT Gabriela Garcia Loot.co.za (R455) Flatiron DEBUT author Gabriela Garcia makes her intentions clear from the first page. Before she embarks on the shifting perspectives that guide Of Women and Salt through five generations and four countries, Garcia provides the diagrams of two matrilineal family trees. The novel begins with a plea from a Cuban-American woman named Carmen, who begs her daughter Jeanette to find the will to endure despite traumas, both inherited and experienced. For that, Garcia reaches back to 1866 in Camagüey, Cuba, where María Isabel becomes the first woman in her cane-cutting line to roll cigars and, soon thereafter, to read. Subjected to harassment, lesser wages and unwanted advances in a shadowy cigar factory, she becomes enraptured by books. The novel leaps forward…

Athandile Siyo athandile.siyo@inl.co.za IT IS not clear when the Weltevreden Valley Clinic in Samora Machel will be reopened following an armed robbery by unknown suspects eight days ago. Area councillor Sithembiso Mzobe said he was heartbroken about crime in the area, and people needed the clinic. The clinic was closed indefinitely last week, while City services to the area have also been suspended following a violent attack on council staff on Tuesday which left a supervisor hospitalised with a bullet wound. “We have been trying to fight crime for the past few months, and it’s sad that it has resulted in the closure of the clinic,” Mzobe said. “These criminals have no morals because they rob the very same people that are there to assist the community; now the City…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za CAPE Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) members have been urged to remain calm after their president, Victor Wiwi, was shot and killed along with another member. A third man, who was also in the vehicle that was ambushed at about 9.45pm on Wednesday along the Borcherds Quarry off-ramp in Nyanga, was wounded. Wiwi, 55, who had been Cata’s president since 2014, died in hospital. Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said Nyanga police were investigating a double murder and an attempted murder case. “According to reports, metro police came across the vehicle standing next to the road. They stopped and found a 48-year-old man inside a silver Toyota Fortuner, a 57-year-old man outside the vehicle injured, and another 57-year-old man was transported to a nearby hospital where he later…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za TWO former petrol attendants are serving suspended prison sentences after they were convicted for card fraud, while another alleged card cloner was nabbed when paying at a luxury hotel. Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said the pair, Thembalethu Jamani, 33, and Xolani Mbangi, 28, who worked as petrol attendants at a Sasol garage in Blue Downs were sentenced on Wednesday at the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court. “During July 2018 they colluded with and poured fuel for cash-paying customers using cloned bank cards. The pair were sentenced to 18 months imprisonment wholly suspended for five years on condition that they are not convicted of fraud during the period of suspension,” said Hani. Meanwhile, Oladimeji Ayodeii, 39, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for cloned bank card…

HOW have we gone so wrong in South Africa? Here we are in the 21st century and still behaving like it’s the dark ages. On March 30, there was a shocking article on mob justice. How does anyone burn someone to death, beat them to death or stone them to death because they have presumably stolen from someone? We are not savages from the beginning of time, surely? Having worked in the operating theatres at Groote Schuur Hospital, I know man’s inhumanity to man. The things that were done to people didn’t bear thinking. Bicycle spokes put into necks to paralyse, choppers in heads, pangas taking off limbs, stabbings up to 20 or 30 times all over the body? Sickening!! In the same edition of the Cape Times, we have…

TEMBA Bavuma’s first series as captain of South Africa’s men’s One-Day International team was certainly exciting. Two matches went down to the last over, there was controversy about a run out, great batting – particularly from Pakistan – and fabulous fast bowling, especially by Anrich Nortje. The outcome of the series wasn’t one Bavuma, the players, coaches and the South African public would have wanted, but there was enough good play from the hosts, against an excellent Pakistan side, to suggest that under Bavuma’s guidance, the Proteas will be a competitive team. Of course, more than being competitive, what South Africans want is for the Proteas to be winners again. However a number of elements need to be put in place for that to happen. From his own perspective, Bavuma…

A 3 000-year-old “lost golden city” has been unearthed in the southern city of Luxor, a discovery that could be the most significant find in Egypt since the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen, an archaeological mission said yesterday in a statement. The lost city, known as Aten, is believed to have been founded by King Amenhotep III, the ninth king of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty who ruled the country from 1391 to 1352 BC, the mission’s statement said. It is believed to be that era’s largest administrative and industrial settlement, nestled on the western bank of Luxor. “The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamen,” Betsy Bryan, an Egyptology professor at Johns Hopkins University and member of the…

NEW YORK: Ghislaine Maxwell is not to blame for having a smelly, dirty jail cell and not flushing the toilet in it, her lawyer said. Bobbi Sternheim accused prosecutors of trying to “publicly embarrass” Maxwell, sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s former associate, jeopardising her right to a fair trial on charges that she enabled Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls. Prosecutors said jail staff ordered her to clean her cell. Sternheim said the stench resulted from toilets overflowing in a nearby cell block, and that inmates had to drink dirty tap water and were surrounded by mould and vermin. | Reuters…

NAIROBI: The AU has dropped plans to secure Covid-19 vaccines from the Serum Institute of India for African nations and is exploring options with Johnson & Johnson (J&J), the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The institute will still supply the AstraZeneca vaccine to Africa through the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, John Nkengasong said, but the African Union would seek additional supplies from J&J. The statement comes the day after European and British medicine regulators said they had found possible links between AstraZeneca’s vaccine and reports of very rare cases of brain blood clots. | Reuters…

BENI: Congolese police fired live rounds yesterday to disperse protesters demanding the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission from the city of Beni, its mayor and witnesses said. Hundreds of youths have been protesting in several cities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, angry that the UN mission, known as Monusco, has failed to prevent a wave of civilian killings by armed groups. About 330 people have been killed in ths year’s violence, an unresolved legacy of a civil war that officially ended in 2003. Monusco took over from a peacekeeping mission in 2010 with more than 12 000 troops. | Reuters…

SOME players are lucky, and some are just blessed. It is not every day that every player enjoys the splendour of being coached by the same person in two different ranks: academy and senior structures. But well, one can only hope that Njabulo Blom, Happy Mashiane, Nkosingiphile Ngcobo et al are counting their blessings. It’s an honour to play for Kaizer Chiefs. This is a club that has preserved its culture and history since their establishment in 1970. That’s why those who’ve been fortunate to don their famous gold and back jersey are bemused by their recent decline. Chiefs are the most successful club in local football with 93 trophies, official and unofficial. But they are on the brink of a sixth successive season without silverware. Unless, of course, they…