Table of contents for 2022-01-14 in Cape Times

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za A NON-profit organisation for families of prisoners serving life sentences eligible for parole but still imprisoned has joined Struggle icon Chris Hani’s assassin Janusz Walus’s latest attempt to be freed after 29 years in jail. Families for Lifers has been admitted as an intervening party in the matter along with Tebogo Modise, who is the second intervening party, by the Constitutional Court. Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has given the non-profit organisation until today to make its written submission in Walus’s bid to overturn the June 2021 Supreme Court of Appeal judgment dismissing his application for leave to appeal in an earlier North Gauteng High Court ruling denying him parole. Families for Lifers is a group of concerned relatives of offenders falling under judgments delivered in matters…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE joys of motherhood have to take a back seat for women in gangs who feel trapped in a lifestyle that demands absolute loyalty and prioritisation, even over one’s children. Denying this largely unwritten expectation is also not an option – it is “all or nothing“ when you are a part of a gang, with the risk of harm or death always looming because of what you know. While direct female gang membership is not typical, their romantic relationships with a particular gangster is their entry into the gang life. A 42-year-old unemployed mother of four from the Cape Flats who has been dating a gangster for 20 years says her children not living with her is a consequence of gang life. “I have four children, two…

BETTY MOLEYA betty.moleya@inl.co.za AS THE new academic year begins and prospective students rush to get places at higher education institutions, they often fall prey to unregistered private colleges. Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande has warned students and parents to be vigilant and not become victims of these illegal institutions. “These institutions lure and mislead future students into believing that they offer qualifications that are recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority,” said Nzimande. He said students often realised when it was too late that they had been scammed, more especially after they had paid registration and tuition fees, and even gone to other lengths like paying for accommodation and applying for jobs. Bogus colleges are not registered as institutions of learning with the correct Sector Education…

James Tannenberger THE article “Date set for River Club interdict hearing brought by Khoi Council” (Cape Times, January 13 2022) reports on a number of mistruths being spread by two applicants trying to stop the already approved River Club redevelopment in Observatory, Cape Town, and a small group of activists who support them (calling themselves the Liesbeek Action Campaign). This group, led by Prof London and Mr Jenkins, has been driving a misinformation campaign about the project for a number of years and their interdict application is just the latest opportunistic attempt to try and halt a project that will bring numerous benefits to the people of Cape Town, and which is supported by the majority of First Nations leaders in the Peninsula. While the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT),…

WEF risks perception survey predicts countries like SA face greater social erosion As we start the new year, it is worth looking at the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Perception Survey for 2022, but the outlook is not one that bodes well for the developing world – it forecasts consistent volatility. According to global experts and world leaders, what we can expect in the next three years is a world that more sharply defines the winners and losers as a result of the lingering global pandemic. The global income gap between the developed and developing world is growing ever wider. In the next two years developing economies will have fallen 5.5% below pre-pandemic expected GDP growth, while advanced economies will have surpassed it by 0.9%. The widening disparities between…

BERLIN: A German court convicted a former Syrian regime intelligence officer for crimes against humanity yesterday, in the first trial in the world related to state-sponsored torture under President Bashar Assad, according to German media. He was sentenced to life in prison. Anwar Raslan, 58, was charged with crimes, including 58 counts of murder, rape and torture in connection with his work as head of investigations at a branch of Syria’s General Intelligence Directorate during the country’s civil war. The proceedings against Raslan began with a chance encounter at an asylum centre in Berlin seven years ago, when Anwar al-Bunni, a prominent Syrian human rights lawyer, recognised Raslan as the man who had detained him in Damascus. The trial marked the first time Syrian victims had the chance to face…

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss yesterday hosted her first face-to-face meeting with European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, aiming to break months of deadlock over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland. Truss, who was appointed to take over from Brexit minister David Frost after his resignation last month, welcomed Sefcovic at the government country residence Chevening in southeast England. The two sides are set to focus on Northern Ireland, which has the UK’s only land border with the EU and has been a major stumbling block in the entire Brexit process since the 2016 referendum. The Northern Ireland Protocol was signed separately from the wider 2020 Brexit trade deal between the UK and the EU and aims to avoid a “hard” border on the island of Ireland. But to keep the…

LOS ANGELES: Mariah Carey is set to release her first children’s book, The Christmas Princess. The 52-year-old superstar – often dubbed The Queen of Christmas thanks to the enduring love for her Yuletide mega-hit All I Want For Christmas Is You – has announced she is releasing “a fairy tale for holiday lovers of all ages” later this year. Alongside the cover, which features a mini Mariah, the Hero hitmaker wrote on Instagram: “The Christmas Princess is a fairy tale for holiday lovers of all ages! Little Mariah represents my inner child believing in her own vision, she represents all children, especially those who feel like outsiders or ‘others’, striving to believe in themselves. It was empowering to transform my childhood turmoil into a modern classic fairy tale full…

BRUSSELS:The EU’s top court yesterday dismissed a complaint brought by the cities of Brussels, Madrid and Paris against the European Commission in which they accused it of setting car emissions limits for nitrogen oxides too high. The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) thereby overruled an earlier judgment in favour of the cities from the General Court, the EU’s second-highest chamber, which prompted an appeal by Germany, Hungary and the Commission. The case revolves around the EC’s introduction after the 2015 Dieselgate scandal of real driving emissions testing to complement laboratory procedures.…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE RAND strengthened to a two-month high yesterday amid positive investor sentiment following dovish comments from US Federal Reserve chairperson Jerome Powell. Powell on Wednesday said that it would take a few more meetings for the US central bank to further tighten its monetary policy. This disappointed market speculators who had expected the Fed would return to a more hawkish policy and begin hiking interest rates immediately as inflation in the US rose further to a 40-year high in December. As a result, the dollar lost some ground to other major currencies, including the rand. The rand was trading at R15.27 against the greenback in the early morning trade and by 5pm it was bid at R15.38, its highest since November 15th amid a subdued dollar and…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za ULTIMATE Sports Nutrition (USN), a fast-growing locally developed global sports nutrition brand, is partnering with investment company Fledge Capital to drive its international expansion. Fledge Capital, previous investors in We Buy Cars and Dis-Chem, has acquired a 25 percent direct shareholding in USN which has turnover approaching R2 billion, a statement said yesterday. Founded by Albé Geldenhuys in 1999, USN is a 100- percent South African business launched from the entrepreneur’s Pretoria home and then outsourced to local pharmaceutical manufacturers in their aim to meet a gap in the market between superior but costly international sports nutrition products and cheaper but inferior local counter- parts, with reasonably priced quality products. Over two decades, USN claims to have become South Africa’s dominant market leader in sports…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za LATE Worcester sports pioneer, Ben Saunders was celebrated at a memorial service this week as a passionate sportsman who continued to give back to his community. Saunders, who died on Monday aged 87, was honoured at a memorial service at the Calvyns Protestant Church on Wednesday. He will be laid to rest following a funeral service at the Esselenpark Stadium on Sunday. Overcoming the odds during apartheid, Saunders competed in competitive cycling in the 1960s and 1970s, and was crowned the national sprint champion. He was the only cyclist in Worcester to compete at the A-Games in Pretoria in 1964. Saunders was honoured as a Provincial Sport Legend in 2018 by the Department of Cultural Affairs in Sport in recognition of his contribution to the sporting landscape…

Mashudu Sadike and Chevon Booysen POLITICAL interference is suspected to be the reason why the probe into alleged corruption involving Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane is dragging on, according to a legal expert. Mabuyane found himself under fire after Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane made damning findings in her report, that he irregularly benefited from a R1.1-million tender.This was for the memorial service of Struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Mkhwebane ordered the Hawks to investigate allegations that Mabuyane received up to R450 000 in relation to the tender. The money is alleged to have been used to renovate his house while he was MEC for economic development. In her findings, Mkhwebane also found that Eastern Cape Public Works MEC Babalo Madikizela and the provincial ANC itself benefited to the tune of R350…

Chevon Booysen Chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A MITCHELL’S Plain pensioner is expected to appear in court on charges of animal cruelty after Animal Welfare Society (AWS) confiscated three “grossly abused and neglected dogs living at a proverbial house of horrors”. The 67-year-old woman, a resident in New Woodlands, near Lentegeur, was formally charged after her granddaughter reported the case of cruelty to the AWS. The granddaughter alleged that her grandmother had said: “All the dogs must die and nobody must give them food or water.” SAPS spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said the three dogs were removed after establishing who they belonged to. “Lentegeur Police are investigating a case of cruelty to animals. “According to reports, the incident occurred on Friday, January 6. “The 34-year-old complainant visited the address in New Woodlands and found two…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za THE Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve team has been hailed for saving more than 100 animals during the devastating Overstrand fire. Seventy tortoises, 16 chameleons, 50 skinks, lizards and snakes were removed out of harm’s way by the reserve, South Africa’s oldest biosphere. The reserve has urged members of the public who find dead animals to contact reserve authorities. “We're devastated about the damage that the runaway fire has caused. If (people) walk in or close to burnt areas, please safely help us log the wildlife we've lost in this fire. Make a note of the area or route that you are walking and the animals that you spot along the way that did not make it,” they said. The cause of the blaze, which started on Saturday, is…

Orielle Berry orielle.berry@inl.co.za From thrillers to books about migrants in alien lands struggling to survive, to love that blossomed on a war-fractured island, these six books made it onto our top list for 2021 for several reasons: their topicality and urgency of the issues covered; their unique styles and all-round mesmerising qualities. Loot.co.za (R284) • Omar El Akkad’s beautifully written book, What Strange Paradise (Picador) reads like a thriller, seen largely through the prism of an 8-year old refugee boy. Amir Utu is fleeing the horrors of the war in Syria. He boards a boat packed with people of diverse nationalities, all of whom have paid a high price for a trip out of hell, seeking greener pastures elsewhere. On the high seas, on a well-appointed vessel, the human…

BRAZIL has consistently set the standard in international football, but if you asked the national team to do it without their foreign-based players, they’d struggle to win the matches they do and be the force they are in the Copa America and World Cup. In Brazil’s most recent matches, eight UK-based Premier League players were selected in Alisson, Ederson, Emerson, Thiago Silva, Fabinho, Fred, Raphinha and Gabriel Jesus. Then there are also others playing in the top leagues of Europe. It would be short-sighted madness if the Brazilian national team restricted the quality of its squad to just locally-based players. Brazil’s local currency cannot compete with the salaries and contracts of their very best players who play club football outside of Brazil. It is simply the economics of professional football.…

Russia will have to take measures if the US and Nato fail to provide a constructive response on Russian-requested security guarantees within a reasonable time, Russian permanent representative to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Alexander Lukashevich, said this week. “If we do not hear a constructive response to the proposals we made within reasonable time, and the aggressive policy towards Russia continues, (we) will have to draw corresponding conclusions and take all necessary measures to maintain strategic balance of powers and prevent unacceptable threats to our national security,” Lukashevich said at the OSCE permanent council. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated yesterday that Nato’s door would remain open to new members, despite a demand by Russia that the bloc bar Ukraine from membership at talks…

In a macabre development, the police have dug up a “graveyard” of illegally- aborted foetuses in the compound of a private maternity hospital in Arvi town of Maharashtra’s Wardha district, pointing to a massive racket of secret unauthorised abortions, officials said. The mortifying revelations came up during the investigations of an illegal abortion of a 13-year-old girl, who became pregnant after an alleged affair with a 17-year-old boy living in the vicinity. The probe led the police to the premises of the private Kadam Hospital where a dozen skulls and over four dozen bones of illegally aborted foetuses were found buried in a biogas plant. Police also recovered stained clothes, bags, some spades used for digging and dumped there, and other evidence which has been collected and sent for forensic…

BRUSSELS: Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme Covax, mainly due to their rapid expiry date, a Unicef official said on Thursday. “More than a 100 million have been rejected just in December alone,” Etleva Kadilli, director of supply division at UN agency Unicef, told lawmakers at the European Parliament. The main reason for rejection was the delivery of doses with a short shelf-life, she said. Poorer nations have also been forced to delay supplies because they have insufficient storage facilities, Kadilli said, including a lack of fridges for vaccines.…

JAKARTA: Indonesian investigators will need another year to determine the cause of last year’s crash of a Sriwijaya Air jet that killed all 62 people on board, according to an interim report released yesterday. A final report would have normally been issued within a year of the January 9, 2021 crash, but Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee said the pandemic had made it harder for its team to travel. “Because data has just been gathered, we’re compiling a final report, including an analysis and a conclusion,” it said. The plane had an imbalance in engine thrust that led it into a sharp roll and then a final dive into the sea, the interim report said.…

TS Galaxy goalkeeper Marlon Heugh is enthusiastic after his side was drawn to play against Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup round of 32 following the draw on Wednesday. Galaxy’s draw against Chiefs means that fans will witness a repeat of the 2019 Nedbank Cup final which produced one of the biggest upsets in South African football history as the Rockets, who were then playing in the GladAfrica Championship, took down Amakhosi. “I know we played against Chiefs in the cup final a few years ago. You have to play against the best in the cup to win. It’s good to have a good opponent early on in order to push yourself. “You have to beat the best in order to win the cup,” said Heugh. Heugh reiterated…

THE 2007/8 CRISIS, whose negative persistent effects on output, productivity, employment etc lingered in South Africa until met by the 2020 coronavirus economic crisis, was as much a financial crisis as a crisis of macroeconomics. The crisis not only shook the consensus on macroeconomic policy, but exposed the severe limitations of monetary policy, especially the key tenets of its intellectual foundations. As a consequence, in Europe, Japan, the US and in developing countries like China, Bangladesh, Brazil and many others, the crisis caused swift changes in the operational conduct of macroeconomic policy, especially monetary policy. In South Africa, it was, sadly, business as usual, despite critical plodding from careful economists. It had to take one-and-a-half decades of suffering for the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to recognise that the conduct…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s (DALRRD) announcement to suspend the implementation of the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) for subsistence farmers has been criticised by some as a “blanket” approach, as there were emerging farmers desperately in need of the funds. The department had previously issued production input vouchers valued around R50 000 in support of subsistence producers, as part of the PES in South Africa. “The department wishes to inform subsistence farmers who are beneficiaries of the PES vouchers of the decision to suspend all PES implementation with immediate effect until further notice,” the DALRRD said yesterday. The aim of the suspension was to “review, re-engineer and redesign” PES implementation following “endless complaints” regarding challenges. “These implementation challenges cannot be left unattended,…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za IN A FIRST for South Africa’s space industry, three locally produced nanosatellites were launched into space yesterday as part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Transporter-3 mission. The first Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite constellation (MDASat-1) was launched from Cape Canaveral in the US, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 5.25pm. South Africa’s satellites will be deployed in low earth orbit at an altitude of 525 kilometres. Transporter-3, SpaceX’s third dedicated rideshare mission, carried a total of 105 spacecraft, including CubeSats, microsats, PocketQubes and orbital transfer vehicles. The MDASat-1 launch is a significant milestone for South Africa, marking the first launch of a satellite constellation developed entirely on the continent. The full MDASat constellation will be an operational constellation of nine cube satellites that will detect, identify and monitor vessels…

Chevon Booysen Chevon.booysen@inl.co.za MURDER accused Piketberg police officer Richard Smit has halted his bail application after changing legal representatives at his second court appearance yesterday. Charges have mounted against the cop and he now faces seven as the investigation continues. Smit is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Natasha Booise, while she was visiting her family on January 2. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Smit arrived at the court yesterday for a scheduled bail application. “The bail application did not take place as Smit changed his legal representative and hired Cape Town-based lawyer William Booth. “Booth was not present in court today and the case was postponed until Monday, January 17, for him to come on record and for a new date to be set for a formal…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za “I HAD slept on the floor since Saturday night. It was only yesterday (Wednesday) that I got a bed to sleep on. My body is in pain and my feet are swollen.” Those are the words of a Khayelitsha District Hospital (KDH) patient, who was admitted to the Asthma Room on Saturday night, but due to a shortage of beds, had to sleep on the floor. Following a Cape Times’ story yesterday highlighting the appalling conditions at the hospital that led to the elderly being ventilated while laying on the floor, the patient said the elderly were suffering while receiving treatment. “I got sick on Saturday night and we called an ambulance. “Bad service started at the ambulance. They would not allow my brother to accompany me…

| Julian Richfield SURVIVING THE BEAST Angelo Agrizzi Loot.co.za (R215) TRUTH BE TOLD WITH the release of the first part of the Zondo commission’s report into state capture and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s praise for whistle-blowers in his speech at the handover, one is reminded of Angelo Agrizzi’s first testimony back in 2019. That testimony was dramatic, revealing, jaw-dropping stuff. Much has happened to Agrizzi since and his second book, Surviving the Beast “exposes the involvement of the highest echelons of power in dirty tricks, corruption, boardroom assassination, lies, deceit and cover-ups; murders and the swopping of cadavers”. Not only does the book make for fascinating and shocking reading, it is an unusual one. Agrizzi has used the novel devise of QR Codes throughout the book, thereby availing the reader…

ONE of the problems that has plagued the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for years is the accusation that the professional league body of football in the country is overly biased towards the well-resourced Gauteng clubs, particularly Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. When Chiefs failed to honour two league fixtures last month, many expected that the Amakhosi would not face any penalties. The manner in which the matter was dealt with was quite frankly embarrassing. It epitomised the reason that South African football has not made its desired mark outside the country. Due to its resources, South African football has the potential to be a respected top 20 league in world football, easily gaining a large following within Africa and perhaps even infiltrating other continents. Time will tell whether…

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said yesterday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the honour in 2019, bore special responsibility for ending the bloodshed in Tigray. “As Prime Minister and winner of the Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and contribute to peace,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairperson of the committee. Northern Ethiopia has been beset by conflict since November 2020 when Ahmed sent troops into Tigray after accusing the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of attacks on federal army camps. The fighting between forces loyal to Abiy and the TPLF and their allies has killed thousands of people and forced several million from their homes. Tigray is under what the UN calls a…

LONDON: Prince Andrew plans to pay £10 million (about R211m) from the sale of his Swiss chalet in an out-of-court settlement with sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre, The Sun has reported. The newspaper also quoted Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies as saying that he thinks Virginia “is determined to go to trial”, but that a “settlement is always a possibility”. The remarks come after US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the Duke of York to face a civil trial this autumn over claims he sexually abused Giuffre when she was 17.…

WASHINGTON: Only 37% of US interviewees name controlling the pandemic as one of their top five priorities for the government to work on in 2022, despite the Omicron surge across the country, a new poll has showed. The poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also revealed that 68% of respondents chose the economy as their priorities after the US consumer prices mounted 6.8% year-on-year by November, a nearly four-decade high. Covid-19 is overshadowed by concerns about the economy, according to the poll, citing the previous finding that 53% of interviewees named the virus.…

NAIROBI: Kenya yesterday launched an electronic platform that will boost food security in the country. Peter Munya, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives, said that the Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) will enable farmers to store their produce in exchange for a warehouse receipt (WR) which can be traded, sold, exchanged or used to source credit and inputs. “The use of a warehouse receipt system is expected to cut down on post-harvest losses from 40% to 10%,” Munya said. The WRS enables farmers to deposit storable goods,and coffee, in exchange for a WR.…

AMERICAN Coco Gauff said her loss to world No 1 Ash Barty in last week’s Adelaide International 1 WTA tournament was an important lesson on what she needs to do to raise her level ahead of the Australian Open. Gauff, ranked 19 in the world, took the opening set before Australian Barty rallied to seal a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory but the 17-year-old said there were plenty of things that she was encouraged by during the defeat. “That’s what I’ve been trying to work on ... taking more positives when I lose, not beat myself up,” Gauff said after beating Ana Konjuh 6-3, 6-4 in the Adelaide International 2 tournament yesterday. “It’s never good to lose. I will say if I’m going to lose, that’s how I want to, where…