Table of contents for 2023-01-19 in Cape Times

WHILE Hanover Park pupils excitedly made their way to school yesterday morning, the reality of gang violence in the community tainted the day when a suspect was arrested for the possession of a firearm. A shooting occurred at Oribi Court, Hanover Park Avenue, on the doorsteps of a number of primary schools in the area. A parent who did not want to be named and who had just seen their child off at one of the primary schools said the community was fed up with gang violence in the area. “We can’t even have peace taking our children to school then these gangsters still show no remorse, wanting to carry out their criminal deeds in the community. We bring our children to school with hopes of a better future for…

FRUSTRATED parents whose children have yet to be placed in schools have blamed the Western Cape Education Department’s online system for leaving them scrambling. More than a million pupils returned to school benches yesterday eager to kick off the 2023 academic year. But some parents were left frustrated and panicked when their children were turned away at the school gates due to placement and registration issues. At Aberdare and Gateway primary schools, dozens of parents were hopeful for their children to start the school year but had to turn around, advised to visit their nearest district office for assistance. An emotional Tamara Venge said she felt hopeless after applying online for her son who is to start Grade R this year, but was told he was not accepted at Leiden…

THE early morning air is chilly, but already queues are forming along a section of railway track in the small town of Darling, a farming community about 75km from Cape Town. They come from all over the town and the neighbouring communities – a class of primary schoolchildren, mothers, teenagers, and farmers from the surrounding farms. Nthombi Pukwana, a clinical psychologist and acting train manager for the day and weekend, is host and guide and her passion and belief in the Phelophepa mission is tangible. The Phelophepa Healthcare train, one of two owned and run by Transnet, is on its last but one stop before services shut down for overhauling and rest for the staff. The trains travel from January to October, 35 to 36 weeks each year, visiting a…

THE killing of Sheba, the female tiger that escaped from its enclosure in Gauteng has re-ignited calls for a change in legislation, with animal welfare organisations expressing their concerns over wild animals being kept in captivity. The National Council of SPCA has launched an investigation into the circumstances leading up to the shooting and killing of the animal. Sheba had escaped from her enclosure over the weekend at Walkers Fruit Farm in the south of Johannesburg. Safety concerns were raised as she roamed the streets of Walkerville and was reported to have attacked a 39-year-old man, a pig and two dogs. She was located and then euthanised early yesterday. The NSPCA yesterday confirmed they were investigating the shooting. “Neither the local SPCA nor the NSPCA…

It’s hard to imagine that the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the fourth industrial revolution can be part of the same conversation. But, as a briefing paper by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), points out: more than 70% of the 136 SDG targets could be enabled by technology applications already in deployment. The fourth industrial revolution is defined by many as a period of rapid evolution caused by digitalisation, globalisation and technological innovation. The UN’s development goals present an ambitious roadmap for a sustainable future for everyone on the planet. Some of the 17 goals include ending extreme poverty, ensuring free and quality education, and providing equal universal access to safe drinking water by 2030. We argue that achieving the development goals will require a fundamental…

LONDON: The Church of England will refuse to allow same-sex couples to get married in its churches under proposals set out yesterday in which the institution said it would stick to its teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman. The proposals were developed by bishops, who form one of three parts of the Church’s governing body known as the General Synod, after a six-year consultation on sexuality and marriage – among other subjects – and will be put to the General Synod at a meeting next month. The Church of England is central to the Anglican Communion, which represents millions of people in more than 165 countries, including South Africa. |…

L’AQUILA: Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was being held yesterday in a high-security jail in central Italy, subject to special restrictions applied to the country’s most dangerous prisoners. He was arrested on Monday after 30 years on the run and admitted to the Costarelle prison close to the city of L’Aquila, Italian media reported. Messina Denaro had been sentenced in absentia to multiple life terms for an array of crimes, including for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The killings sparked a crackdown on Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. |…

UNITED States elder statesman Henry Kissinger said that Russia’s invasion shows there is no longer a point to keeping Ukraine out of Nato, the long-held aspiration of Kyiv that he had opposed. The 99-year-old former secretary of state and apostle of realpolitik has for months advocated a ceasefire in the Ukraine war that would in effect accept some military gains by Russia. But speaking virtually to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Kissinger said that Nato membership for Ukraine would be an “appropriate outcome”. “Before this war, I was opposed to membership of Ukraine in Nato because I feared that it would start exactly the process that we have seen now,” Kissinger said. “Now that this process has reached this level, the idea of a neutral Ukraine under…

AS the Covid-19 pandemic demotivated and derailed many 2022 matric candidates in different ways, 18-year-old Kate Vineall believes ballet dance is what kept her sane in the midst of the stressful workload. The pupil at St Cyprian's School for Girls in Oranjezicht obtained 9 distinctions. Vineall along with three other fellow matrics, Gia Antoni, Emma-Beth Peters and Janneke van der Walt also made it to the Independent Examination Board’s (IEB) national top achievers list. Her school also celebrated a 100% bachelor’s degree pass rate and 256 subject distinctions. “I was very nervous to see my results. I didn't know what to expect and never anticipated that I would not only be among the top performers in my school but also nationally. “Because the year was very stressful due to…

Teaching involves the challenging work of developing future citizens This week sees coastal schools starting the 2023 academic year. The euphoria that accompanies this is just palpable. The start of the academic year is unprecedented, a moment weighted with far-reaching consequences for the future. The optimism on the ground is that the future can be bright through the lens of this cohort starting the 2023 academic year. This futuristic thinking offers a way of momentary escape from the menacing challenges before us, such as the energy crisis. We can borrow a leaf from the numbers being released, including the aspirational narratives of provincial governments. The effort here has been to tell a story of readiness and address those who may doubt the status quo in the education fraternity. For instance,…

TAIPEI: Taiwan Vice-President William Lai pledged yesterday to maintain the peaceful status quo with China but also to defend Taiwan, as he took the helm at the ruling party before an expected presidential run. Lai was elected the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) new chairman last Sunday after President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as chairwoman in November following the DPP’s trouncing at local elections. Lai is widely expected to be the party’s candidate for president in the early 2024 election, although he has not formally accepted the nomination. Tsai cannot run again as president due to constitutional term limits. |…

AT LEAST 16 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, were killed in a helicopter crash outside Kyiv yesterday. The helicopter slammed down next to a kindergarten and a residential building in Brovary, a commuter town for the capital Kyiv that was the scene of fierce fighting early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amateur footage circulating on social media showed what appeared to be the charred remains of the aircraft mixed with debris from nearby buildings and a car crushed by large shards of metal. Cries could be heard at the scene which was consumed by a fire. “A helicopter of the state emergency service crashed in Brovary. As a result of the crash, the leadership of the interior ministry died,” the head of Ukraine’s police service, Igor Klymenko,…

Nurses across England began two days of strikes over pay yesterday, threatening fresh disruption for patients in the state-run health service, as new figures showed inflation still surging. The walkout comes after nurses held their union’s first stoppage in more than a century last month, joining a wave of industrial action by UK public sector workers hit by a cost-of-living crisis driven by spiralling prices. The latest annual inflation statistics, released yesterday, showed they remained close to historically record levels, with rates easing slightly in December to 10.5%, compared with 10.7% the previous month. The main nursing union accuses the government of failing to negotiate seriously on improving their pay deal for the current year. Further strikes are planned for February 6 and 7 by the Royal College of Nursing…

ERIK ten Hag says Manchester United’s players have earned his trust after their blistering form reached nine successive victories. Ten Hag’s side extended their impressive run by fighting back from a goal down to beat arch rivals Manchester City 2-1 at Old Trafford on Saturday. A victory over leaders Arsenal on Sunday will be even more significant in terms of United closing the gap at the top. United’s impressive revival under Ten Hag comes after they suffered back-to-back defeats against Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford to start the season. The former Ajax coach has been delighted with the way his players have gradually adapted to his demands as the season has gone on. “The way they transferred the plan (against City) in the game, I think was brilliant,” Ten…

AS THE temperatures plummeted in Switzerland over the last day or two, I had the pleasure of attending The Davos Circle, an event hosted by Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that recognises veterans of WEF. What struck me forcefully this time round, is how few Africans were in attendance, suggesting that few of us have been part of the gathering for ten years or more. Over the past few decades, Africa has been a hot topic on many fronts. Usually, the narrative extends to wanting to ‘help’ us on the continent at our cost, oft with the misunderstanding that we are one single homogenous people and not 54 independent countries. This has led to an upswelling of calls for “Africa for Africans”…

from page 1 six distinctions said matrics were affected in terms of the technical and logical subjects. “Not only did I take maths but also physical sciences and online learning was truly not effective. We knew the structure of traditional learning so having to adapt to online learning was a bit of a struggle for many of us. “We also realised the importance of social interaction at school to effectively learn, having face-to-face interaction. Although our teachers and school did their best, Covid-19 was demotivating especially for those who lost loved ones or were severely sick. The impact was evident when we got to matric but we pushed and worked hard to get here.” Reddam House Cape Town schools in Constantia Valley, Atlantic Seaboard, and Durbanville also achieved a 100%…

THE South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) has attributed the 2022 matric pass rate which dropped from 76% to 72%, to the increased number of pupils received last year. Sacai, one of the three National Senior Certificate (NSC) assessment bodies which serves online educational institutions and Independent schools, released its results yesterday. The Sacai cohort managed to obtain 1 474 bachelors passes, 866 qualified to study towards a diploma and 343 achieved a pass that will enable them to study towards a higher certificate qualification. Sacai had 4 951 Grade 12 candidates who wrote the NSC exams, a 24% increase. “This is a slight decrease of 4% on the 2021 pass rate of 76% and can be attributed to the increase in learner numbers in 2022. “The Sacai candidates achieved…

THE Green Connection and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI) have initiated legal proceedings in efforts to force President Cyril Ramaphosa to bring Section 6 of the National Energy Act (NEA), 2008, into operation. The court application also calls on Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to develop an Integrated Energy Plan (IEP) in terms of that Section. The energy crisis is currently the subject of several court cases, as civil society organisations, unions and opposition parties also initiated legal proceedings against Eskom and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, seeking to put a stop to the 18.65% tariff increase by NERSA, put an end to load shedding, and hold the government accountable for its failure to provide electricity to the nation. While the DA said it was…

RESILIENCE can best describe the matric Class of 2022, who had the odds heavily stacked against them. They first had to navigate the challenges presented by the onset of Covid-19 when it was declared a pandemic in 2020. They were in Grade 10 and, like all of us, knew little of what the future had in store for them. Many were forced out of their schools as parents could not keep up with fees, transport and other costs. Adding more pressure to this crop was the fact that schooling, as they knew it, was turned upside down, having to shift to virtual classes and social distancing in classes when they were finally allowed to return to in-person learning. Along the way, some contracted and recovered from Covid-19, while others were…

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan indicated in a speech yesterday that parliamentary and presidential elections could be held on May 14, after he said the date should be brought forward from June 18. Speaking to lawmakers of his AK Party in parliament, Erdoğan said Turks would show their reaction to the main opposition alliance on the same date that elections were held in 1950. The announcement sets the stage for a vote that could either extend 68-year-old Erdoğan’s Islamic style of rule into a third decade, or turn the country on a sharply more secular course. |…

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow would be forced to take unspecified measures on its border with Finland if that nation joined the Nato military alliance. Finland and Sweden have applied to join the bloc and are in advanced negotiations over their accession. Lavrov said Finland had long been a model of friendly relations, but had quickly changed its rhetoric towards Moscow. He said Russia would have to take “appropriate measures on our borders”, if Finland, which shares a 1 300km border with Russia, did become a Nato member. |…

The head of Nigeria’s electoral commission said it would not postpone next month’s presidential vote despite attacks on election officials. Mahmood Yakubu, speaking at London’s Chatham House think tank, said the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) was well prepared to facilitate voting in Africa’s most populous nation despite the challenges. “The commission is not contemplating, let alone planning, to postpone the 2023 general election,” he said. “We are going ahead to conduct the election as scheduled.” Nigerians are set to vote for a new president on February 25. President Muhammadu Buhari is constitutionally limited after having served two terms. The country has some 200 million citizens and its battle against Islamist insurgents in the north-east of the country has led many to view the elections as crucial to regional stability…

UNITED Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on business leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday to follow the principles outlined by an expert group to make “credible”, accountable net-zero pledges. The UN and standard-setter, the International Organization for Standardization, launched the guidelines in November to become a reference text and help organisations come up with solid plans, avoiding slogans, hype and obfuscation. While companies are increasingly pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions to as close as possible to zero, the benchmarks and criteria they use “are often dubious or murky”, the Guterres told the delegates. “It leaves the door wide open to greenwashing,” he said, referring to unsubstantiated claims by some firms that their products are ecologically friendly… Put forward credible and transparent transition…

COCO Gauff won the battle of tennis prodigies yesterday at the Australian Open – then said she “got lucky” on the way to defeating Emma Raducanu in straight sets. The seventh seed won 6-3 7-6(4) to reach the third round in Melbourne. There were 70 places separating Gauff and 2021 US Open champion Raducanu in the rankings, but you wouldn’t have known it as the pair tussled for an hour and 42 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. It was a highly anticipated first tour-level match between the young talents and they did not disappoint. The good friends went toe-to-toe throughout, exchanging service breaks, but the turning point came in the second set when Gauff grittily saved two set points serving at 4-5. “I think I did a good job not…