Table of contents for 2023-03-24 in Cape Times

from page 1 to pull off this outcome,“ Mtsweni said. DA provincial leader Tertuis Simmers said they respected the choice of voters and congratulated the winning candidate. “As a party that believes in effective governance and accountability, we will now allocate a DA PR councillor to the ward to fulfil that role. The DA will reflect on the outcome, and what led up to this result and aim to correct it going forward,” he said. Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is investigating allegations of a violation of the Electoral Act by DA councillor Sammy Fredericks. Fredericks was seen on video, standing with a voter who was ripping apart his GOOD party T-shirt during the by-election. In the complaint brought by the GOOD party, Fredericks is accused of…

TWO MEN have been released from prison after the Western Cape High Court set aside their convictions and sentences as Acting Judge Nontuthuzelo Ralarala said she was “not satisfied that the proceedings were in accordance with justice”. The men – Royston Bergman and Mpho Matume – both pleaded guilty to offences in the Cape Town and Athlone magistrate’s courts respectively. Bergman was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment while Matume was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. They were both unrepresented and in both cases pleaded guilty to the charges of robbery and contravention of the National Road Traffic Act, respectively. “When both matters came before me, I was not satisfied that the proceedings were in accordance with justice. “Consequently, in both matters the convictions and the sentences were set aside.…

WHILE the South African government is yet to confirm what it will do following the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin, some experts say South Africa should have long withdrawn its membership from the “Eurocentric” institution. This comes as the EFF yesterday vowed to protect Putin if necessary. South Africa will host the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China at the 15th BRICS Summit from August 22 to 24 this year, raising questions around whether or not the government should act, if Putin attends. International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Naledi Pandor said discussions were still needed. “Many countries that should sign on are not members of it. We had hoped other forms of warrants would be issued by the ICC because there are…

LGBTQ+ organisation OUT is calling for prominent scientist, Professor Tim Noakes to publicly apologise for sharing what they described as a “harmful and homophobic” cartoon with thousands of his followers on social media recently. The cartoon, which depicts a Trojan horse being wheeled towards ‘social acceptance’, is harmful and homophobic and amounts to hate speech, said the organisation. But Noakes maintained he had simply retweeted the cartoon, and immediately removed it when members of the LBGTQ+ community expressed concerns. Human rights manager at OUT, Lerato Phalakatshela said: “While the horse is labelled LGBTQ+ from the outside, the interior of the horse is labelled ‘paedophile’. The implication that the LGBTQ+ community is linked with or inclusive of paedophiles, and that society’s acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community is a first step…

Hello Beautiful Ann Napolitano Loot.co.za (R604) Dial Press Inc ANN Napolitano’s latest novel Hello Beautiful encapsulates the multitudes of love and hurt that families contain, and lays bare their powers to both damage and heal. Hello Beautiful will make you weep buckets because you come to care so deeply about the characters and their fates. At its centre is another ailing soul, the emotionally hobbled William Waters. He grows up with no memory of his sister, Caroline, a lovable redhead who died at the age of three when he was a mere six days old. Her absence engulfs his early years, her death having left his parents emotionally frozen and unable, or unwilling, to forge a connection with their remaining child. Overlooked and neglected at home, William's only solace becomes…

LIVING close to green spaces like parks and greenhouses has been proven to improve health and quality of life. Our interdisciplinary research on Integrative Green Infrastructure Planning (Grip), which is aimed at improving green and open space planning in Pretoria, revealed that staying close to green areas, practising urban agriculture or house/community gardening, relaxing in park areas and planting trees can provide several benefits to human health and social well-being. However, our cities keep expanding daily, with green areas shrinking in size. This contention between green spaces and the need for shelter – one of our basic human rights – is one of the challenges faced by local authorities. Everyone deserves a roof over their heads and, at the same time, access to green spaces is good for our health.…

An Indian court yesterday found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation for a 2019 campaign trail remark implying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a criminal. Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics, and the case in the premier’s home state of Gujarat is one of several lodged against his chief opponent in recent years. Gandhi, the leading face of the opposition Congress party, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment but immediately granted bail after his lawyers announced their intention to appeal. The case stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which the 52-year-old had asked why “all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname”. His comments were seen as a slur against the prime minister, who…

Advertisers are seeking any assurances from TikTok, the viral app that helped usher in a wave of short-form video across social media, as the Chinese-owned company again faces a potential ban in the US over national security concerns. TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was to testify before Congress yesterday, and advertisers would be watching closely, several ad agencies said. TikTok’s US ad revenue was expected to reach $6.83 billion this year, from $780 million in 2020. The app, which is owned by China’s ByteDance and is popular among younger users, now has 150 million monthly users in the US, it said. The company faces growing calls from lawmakers who are pressuring the Joe Biden administration to ban the app over concerns that Americans’ user data could fall into the hands…

JERUSALEM: Israeli MPs yesterday passed a law to make it harder to declare Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit to serve, the first in a series of laws comprising the far-right government’s controversial judicial overhaul plan. The bill was approved despite warnings from Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who said the law would shield Netanyahu from being ousted over his graft trial. Under the new law, a prime minister can only be forced to step down if three-quarters of ministers confirm so due to physical or psychological incapacity. The vote came hours before Israelis launched another day of nationwide protests against the judicial overhaul. | Xinhua…

ADDIS ABABA: The Ethiopian government said yesterday that it had appointed a senior official in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as head of an interim government for Tigray after a peace deal ended a brutal two-year conflict. The announcement comes a day after parliament removed the TPLF from an official list of terrorist organisations, a move it said would help bolster the November 2022 agreement between the rebels and the federal government. There was no immediate response to the announcement from the TPLF. The agreement had stipulated the establishment of an “inclusive” interim regional administration until elections could be held. | AFP…

from page 1 international relations lecturer, Dr Pumlani Majavu said South Africa should have long withdrawn its membership from the Western and eurocentric ICC. “The ICC has repeatedly proven that its purpose is to punish people that the West has identified as its political enemies. “Allies of the West, on the other hand, have a political licence to commit all sorts of atrocities with impunity. “Hence, the so-called court has yet to issue any form of arrest warrant for crimes committed by the West and or its political allies. “The crimes that Putin is committing in Ukraine are no different to the crimes committed by George W Bush and Tony Blair in Iraq – as Bush unintendedly admitted. “And of course, Putin’s crime is no different to that committed by…

Party calls urgent meeting after Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis removes him from Mayco THE DA was last night locked in an urgent meeting to discuss “possible remedial action” after Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis sacked Malusi Booi as the Mayco Member of Human Settlements with immediate effect. Hill-Lewis said he made the decision after he received an update from police regarding progress on their investigation into alleged fraud and corruption involving Booi. He was suspended last week after police raided his office and seized documents, phone, along with those of his PA and another person who works in his portfolio. “I have received an updated briefing from the SAPS regarding their investigation, and on this basis, have decided to remove Councillor Malusi Booi from his position on the Mayoral Committee with immediate…

Encore In Death JD Robb. Loot.co.za (R224) Piatkus The homicide cop with a passion for justice returns in the captivating crime thriller by JD Robb. It was a glittering event full of A-listers, hosted by Eliza Lane and Brant Fitzhugh, a celebrity couple who’d conquered both Hollywood and Broadway. And now Eve Dallas has made her entrance — but not as a guest. After raising a toast, Fitzhugh fell to the floor and died, with physical symptoms pointing to cyanide, and the police have crashed the party. From all accounts, he wasn’t the kind of star who made enemies. Everyone loved him — even his ex-wife. And since the champagne cocktail that killed him was originally intended for Eliza, it’s possible she was the real target, with a recently fired…

The Veil of Maya Chantal Stewart minimalpressbooks.co.za (R310) Minimal Press Chantal Stewart’s The Veil of Maya provides the reader with a total experience. This is a novel which goes beyond mere storytelling to probe deeply into the mysteries underlying so much of human experience, and which foregrounds the sheer fragility of our relationships and interactions with one another. Main character Lena Brown is a geneticist who finds herself called on to investigate an “outbreak of madness” among villagers in rural Swaziland (eSwatini). This conjures memories of her childhood, when her family from Cape Town would frequently spend time visiting her grandfather on his farm in Swaziland. She also finds herself confronted with the power of traditional philosophies vis-à-vis her modern “scientific” medical training, and realises that there is no automatic…

It has long been intervening in the internal affairs of other countries At a time when the world is in turmoil and faced with numerous global challenges, the US has once again positioned itself as a “leader of democracy” by hosting the second “Summit for Democracy”. However, in the process of pushing for a single or absolute model of democracy and using democracy as an instrument or weapon in international relations, the US has purposefully stoked bloc politics and confrontation, which is none other than a breach of the spirit of what democracy stands for. The summit is essentially about creating division. The US, obsessed with power politics, stubbornly engages in zero-sum games and clings to a Cold War mentality. Since its birth, the “Summit for Democracy” has been nothing…

A London jury yesterday found Nigeria’s former deputy senate president guilty of plotting to harvest a street trader’s kidney for his sick daughter, in the first UK case of its kind. Ike Ekweremadu, 60, his wife Beatrice, 56, and a doctor, Obinna Obeta, 50, were found guilty at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, of conspiring to exploit the young man from Lagos for his body part. The Ekweremadus’ daughter Sonia, 25, shed tears as she was cleared of the same charge after jurors deliberated for nearly 14 hours. It was the first time organ harvesting conspiracy charges had been brought under the UK’s 2015 Modern Slavery Act. The maximum sentence is life. Sentencing was adjourned until May 5. In Britain, it is legal to donate a kidney but…

GENEVA: Twitter chief executive Elon Musk said yesterday that countries should not “cede authority” to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Countries should not cede authority to WHO,” wrote Musk, whose Twitter account has more than 132 million followers, in response to right-wing Australian senator Malcolm Roberts criticising the WHO. “Countries aren’t ceding sovereignty to @WHO,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted in response. “The #PandemicAccord won’t change that. The accord will help countries better guard against pandemics,” he said. | Reuters…

The Hague: Ukraine and the International Criminal Court yesterday signed a deal for a field office to probe war crimes, days after the tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin last week, saying he was allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine. Russia said the warrant was “void”, and that it was not a member of the court. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned this week that attempts to arrest Putin on the ICC warrant would be seen by Moscow as a “declaration of war”. Russia has opened a criminal probe into an ICC prosecutor and ICC judges. | AFP…

SHANGHAI: More than 400 people lost their billionaire status last year, most from China, as global monetary tightening, Covid-19 disruptions and Beijing’s crackdown on major tech companies hurt the super wealthy, a ranking of the world’s wealthiest showed. China lost 229 billionaires from the Hurun Global Rich List 2023, accounting for more than half of the 445 people who disappeared from the list, which ranks moguls with a minimum net worth of $1 billion, the Hurun Report said yesterday. The world’s second biggest economy also added 69 new billionaires to the list. The number of billionaires in the world was down by 8%, while their total wealth dropped 10%. | Reuters…

THE NATIONAL Treasury is preparing a Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) Circular dealing with the relief strategy regarding more than R50 billion debt owed to Eskom by municipalities. This was announced by Deputy President Paul Mashatile yesterday in Parliament during his maiden oral questions session in the National Assembly. This government intervention was first announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his Budget Speech last month when he said Eskom would provide incentivised relief to municipalities whose debt was unaffordable. Mashatile said the MFMA Circular was expected to be released later this month, with implementation expected to start on April 1. “Under the National Treasury, the Multidisciplinary Revenue Committee is continuing with its main task of ensuring that all municipal debts are co-ordinated, tracked and resolved on an ongoing…

ANTI- APARTHEID icon and human rights champion, Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been honoured with a life-size bronze statue by the National Heritage Project Company (NHPC). The statue was unveiled at the Long March to Freedom exhibition in Century City yesterday. National Speaker of Parliament Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula, Chief whip of the National Assembly Pemmy Majodina, Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture Nocawe Mafu, Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and former judge appointed to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa and activist, Albie Sachs, amongst others, were in attendance. Maphisa-Nqakula said the statue was in recognition of Tutu’s contribution to the Struggle. “The Archbishop played a huge role in liberating the people of South Africa. “I remember how he would cry during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission…

DEPUTY President Paul Mashatile yesterday said the fact that public institutions investigated President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala scandal spoke volumes about the strength of the country’s democracy. Mashatile said Phala Phala was being probed by more than one agency. This follows the break-in and theft of US dollars on Ramaphosa’s farm two years ago. “We take this opportunity to support these institutions concerned and emphasise that they must be allowed to complete their work,” he said. The deputy president said Ramaphosa had expressed his commitment to cooperate fully with all the investigations. “The government supports this position without reservation.” Mashatile made the statement while responding to oral questions in the National Assembly. This was after EFF MP Ntombovuyo Mente asked whether unanswered questions about Phala Phala served to…

THE former Robbie Nurock Clinic, which it had been hoped would accommodate about 100 homeless people and provide support services, will no longer be revamped into a shelter. The clinic, which has been vacant for about six years, was anticipated to be operational by this month, however the building turned out to be unsuitable due to asbestos found there. According to Premier Alan Winde the Robbie Nurock building has now been earmarked to be used by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport as the Cape Town Museum. Social Department MEC Sharna Fernandez announced last year that about R4.5 million would be pumped into converting the building into a shelter that was going to be funded by the department but managed by an NPO. Winde said the old Tafelberg Crèche…

My Year Of Not Getting Sh*tfaced Pamela Power Loot.co.za (R189) Jonathan Ball After an exceptionally wild Mother’s Day where she danced like there was no tomorrow, picked a fight with a stranger and collided with the floor, Joburg scriptwriter and author Pamela Power is forced to take a hard look at her drinking habits. She realises that although she does not need to find an AA group immediately, she might be a serial binge drinker and needs to take back control. In this honest yet humorous account of her year of not getting sh*tfaced, Pamela examines her long, complicated relationship with alcohol. She is shocked to realise just how much of a crutch alcohol has been for her. There is always a bottle of wine or prosecco around her to…

First, Cream the butter and sugar Emelia Jackson Loot.co.za (R557) Murdoch Emelia Jackson finished in third place in the 2014 season of MasterChef Australia and in 2020 won MasterChef Australia: Back to Win. Since then, she has gone on to be one of Australia’s best-known pastry chefs. Emelia has just brought out her first cookbook, First, Cream the Butter and Sugar. “Baking was my happy place growing up; however I don’t think I realised how much I loved baking until I started writing this book. The book is your new best friend to help you become the best baker you can be. I am a lazy(ish) bake. I skip steps where I can, and I like to simplify methods to get the same end result.” Emelia has divided her book…

The BANK of England yesterday followed the Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank in hiking interest rates, as policymakers ploughed on with their fight against inflation in the face of the instability that rippled through the global banking system this month. Investors had questioned whether the central banks could press on with tightening policy after the collapse of two US lenders earlier this month triggered turmoil in banks around the globe, ensnaring one of Europe’s biggest banking names in 167-year-old Credit Suisse. After its eleventh straight hike, the BoE said it had noted the “large and volatile moves” in financial markets, but that Britain’s banking system remained resilient. “The (monetary policy committee) will continue to monitor closely any effect on the credit conditions faced by households and businesses, and…

French workers angry with President Emmanuel Macron and his plan to raise the pension age blocked access to a terminal at Paris’s main airport yesterday as part of a nationwide day of protests, forcing some travellers to get there on foot. At Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and across the country, wildcat actions by small groups of protesters blocked roads and access to schools and universities, while protesters gathered. Near Toulouse, in the south-west, plumes of smoke were seen rising from burning piles of debris blocking traffic on a highway. Union activists also blocked the train tracks at Paris’s Gare de Lyon station. Opinion polls have long shown that a majority of voters were opposed to delaying retirement age by two years to 64. Voters were further angered by the government’s…

PYONGYANG: What to wear to an intercontinental ballistic missile launch? For Kim Ju-ae, the daughter and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, it appears to be this season’s Christian Dior. The girl, who is about 10 or 11, was seen attending yet another missile launch with her father last week – a Hwasong-17, capable of reaching the US mainland, that Pyongyang said it fired to demonstrate a “tough response posture” to ongoing US-South Korea military drills. Kim Ju-ae wore a black quilted jacket. South Korean broadcaster TV Chosun reported that it looked exactly like one being sold by French luxury fashion house Christian Dior. It wasn’t clear if the jacket is real or a knock-off, but it’s a bold state-ment in an impoverished nation that is,…

London: A 28-year-old man was remanded in custody yesterday accused of attempting to murder two elderly men who were set on fire after leaving mosques in the UK. Mohammed Abbkr, 28, from Edgbaston in Birmingham, was placed in custody by the city’s magistrate’s court after the attacks last month and earlier this week. Abbkr, originally from Sudan, will next appear at Birmingham Crown Court on April 20. Abbkr allegedly sprayed a substance on the two men outside or near mosques they had attended and then set them alight, in west London on February 27 and Birmingham on Monday. Police are appealing for video footage for the investigation. | AFP…