Table of contents for 2024-02-29 in Cape Times

Artscape will be marking the centenary celebrations of one of South Africa’s greatest writers who was born in District Six, Alex La Guma, with a “back-by-popular-demand” return of the play Dance of the La Gumas: Revolution Rumba & Romance, in March. Starring Rehane Abrahams, Elton Landrew and Jacques Theron, and directed by Basil Appollis and Sylvia Vollenhoven, it tells the gripping story of a heritage that was buried by the brutality of the apartheid state. In March, Jazzart Dance’s triumphant 50th birthday finale, Encore, will pay homage to artists who have contributed to the history and longevity of Jazzart, including a special headline appearance by Alfred Hinkel and John Linden’s Garage Dance Ensemble to honour their invaluable contribution to the phenomenal dance institution. Once homeless, Kenyan immigrant Annie Akinyi Kamya…

Some DA councillors joined forces with opposition parties in the Drakenstein Municipality to ensure the removal of their mayor, Conrad Poole, through a motion of no confidence yesterday. Poole had been investigated following a complaint by the GOOD Party that he was allegedly involved in a pay-for-jobs scheme. At the time, GOOD Party Drakenstein councillor Keagen Gertse said the DA had failed to be transparent on the allegations against Poole. He claimed members of Poole’s executive were reportedly paying a monthly kickback to the mayor himself. One of the mayoral committee members was accused of spending thousands of rand to fund a private wedding for Poole’s family. ANC chairperson in the Boland region, Thembekile Mangena, said yesterday 34 members voted in favour of the motion, while 26 voted against and…

100g chickpea flour 1 tsp turmeric 1 tsp ground cumin small bunch coriander, finely chopped (optional) oil, for shallow frying 150g natural yoghurt 1 garlic clove, crushed 75g vegetarian feta, mashed 2 tbs finely chopped mint pita bread and salad, to serve For the roast cauliflower & squash base 1 cauliflower, split into florets, the stalk cut into cubes ½ a large butternut squash, cut into cubes 1 tbs oil Heat oven to 180C. Toss the cauliflower and squash in oil and spread it out on a large oven tray. Roast for 25 minutes or until tender. If you're making the base ahead of time, you can leave it to cool at this stage, then freeze it in an airtight container for up to a month. (Defrost fully before using…

A children’s advocacy group says the case of a former Muizenberg lawyer who paid disadvantaged teenage boys R100 and R50 for sex showed how perpetrators exploited the vulnerability of homeless children or those from poor households. Theo Hartzenberg was found guilty on one charge of statutory rape, and one count of exploitation and paying an adult male for sex. Hartzenberg faced more than 20 charges at the Wynberg Regional Court and was found guilty on three. He pleaded not guilty to all of them. According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila, the first witness to testify during the trail was a 21-year-old who has been homeless since he was 18. He got to know about the lawyer who resided in a block of flats near Muizenberg Beach from…

POLICE Minister Bheki Cele’s grand entrance at the ANC manifesto launch, using an SAPS chopper paid for by the squeezed taxpayer, comes as no surprise if one looks at his track record. The saga at the weekend also comes at the “wrong” time for the ANC, which wants to project itself as a caring government, in the hope of trying to convince citizens before the crucial May 29 election. Although the SAPS maintains there was nothing wrong with the stunt, it does not help the ANC’s cause. The SAPS response that Cele was “conducting his constitutional responsibility as a minister of police where he also advised and guided operations”, makes matters more interesting. It means Cele “conducts his constitutional responsibility” only when the ANC is involved. He spectacularly failed to…

US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden yesterday testified behind closed doors at the impeachment inquiry into his father, which House Republicans are pushing ahead with even after the person who provided accusations at the heart of their case was charged with lying to the FBI. House of Representatives Republicans for months had sought the younger Biden’s testimony, requests that he first rebuffed and then belittled by making surprise public appearances at the Capitol. The hearing came just before the US government will run out of money to keep all agencies open if Congress fails to act by week’s end. Investigators are expected to ask Hunter Biden, 54, about his business activities, including his role with Chinese firm CEFC and on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. House Republicans…

Strasbourg: Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said yesterday that she feared disruption and arrests at her husband’s funeral, set to take place tomorrow in Moscow. Addressing the European Parliament, Navalnaya assailed Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “mobster” responsible for her husband’s death. She also urged European politicians to investigate financial flows in the West linked to Putin and his allies. “The political innovation here is to apply the methods of fighting organised crime, not political competition,” she said. | AFP and Reuters…

Warsaw: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday the government was mulling a “temporary” closure of the border with Ukraine for goods, amid tensions over low-priced Ukrainian grain. Polish farmers have been blocking border crossings with Ukraine and other highways to protest at what they say is unfair competition from goods entering the Polish market from their war-torn neighbour. Russia has blocked crucial Black Sea trade routes used by Ukraine to export its farm produce. In a bid to help Kyiv economically after the Russian invasion, the EU decided in 2022 to drop tariffs. | AFP…

Now that Banyana Banyana have reached the final round of the 2024 CAF Women’s Olympic qualifying, the sole focus will be attaining an aggregate win over traditional foes Nigeria in April. Banyana hardly had time to savour their 1-0 win over Tanzania, thanks to Thembi Kgatlana’s 58th-minute goal, in Tuesday night’s third round, second leg qualifying tie at Mbombela Stadium – which saw them advance 4-0 on aggregate – when national team coach Desiree Ellis dealt with the cloud of expectation hanging over the camp. During their qualifying campaign in the past few days, Banyana were continually reminded that the team failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the reminders do not sit well with the players. Ellis said the technical team will meet in the next day…

THE Philippi Community Arts Festival, hosted by the Philippi Arts Centre in partnership with Cape Town Arts Festival, aims to change the perception of the Philippi community by showcasing their artistic talents. At at Philippi Arts Centre on March 9 and 10, the festival will focus on enhancing community well-being by highlighting artists. People living and working in the community can enjoy a range of multigenre arts including music, poetry, dance, visual arts exhibition, street art, craft traders and a food market. Emphasis will be placed on the promotion of youth, women and people living with disabilities. Children’s activities will include face painting and jumping castles and edutainment activities. The Philippi Community Arts Festival is a culmination of the PESP Events Management Training Programme by the Cape Town Arts Festival…

INTERNATIONAL Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor confirmed yesterday that the Cabinet has yet to deliberate on the closure of the Israeli embassy in South Africa and the proposed suspension of all diplomatic ties. “Until Cabinet has made a decision, there would be no action on the resolution that Madam Speaker alerted Cabinet to,” Pandor said. When asked why South Africa took long to cut diplomatic ties with Israel whereas Brazil was the latest to do so, Pandor said Brazilians had made an indication to cut ties. She also said South Africa had approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to complain that Israel had not responded positively to the court judgment delivered earlier this year. Pandor also said South Africa was in constant communication with various stakeholders and leaders…

THE much frowned-upon p-word, often used in Afrikaans in the context of referring to one’s “mother”, has come under judicial scrutiny in the Western Cape High Court, as it landed its user with a suspended jail sentence. The accused, only identified in the judgment as BL, was charged with two counts of contravention of the Domestic Violence Act. It is alleged that he had contravened the terms of a protection order granted in June 2023 last year when he uttered these words aimed at his sister. She obtained the protection order against him, in terms of which he was interdicted from being violent towards her, and which prohibited him from swearing at her. So, when armed with the protection order, he again swore at her, she obtained an…

IN WHAT could be precedent-setting, a training interventions company could face a fine of R10 million after contravening sections of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). The Information Regulator said they issued their first Enforcement Notice against the company for harassing a data subject with direct marketing messages despite opting out of receiving such information. After issuing the notice to FT Rams Consulting, the regulator said the action comes at a time “when the public is highly frustrated with the influx of direct marketing messages”. The notice was issued following findings of the contravention to various sections of POPIA. The company indicated they are seeking legal advice. “The Regulator received a complaint from a data subject (a person about whom the personal information relates) following countless direct marketing messages…

A SIGNIFICANT finding in the recently released opinion of advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, SC, is that the public now has the assurance that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has adopted sufficient measures, checks and balances to deal with matters emanating from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The opinion was sourced by the NPA after it appointed Ntsebeza to consider and evaluate the measures instituted by the NPA’s TRC Component, a separate portfolio created specifically to prioritise TRC matters, in September 2021. In applications filed on behalf of the NPA, senior prosecutors Dr Torie Pretorius and advocate Chris Macadam alleged political interference prevented them from executing their duties. Surprisingly, both prosecutors, appointed before 1994, remained silent on the subject matter from 2003 until 2019 without raising this concern. In its scathing…

Fighting raged yesterday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the reported death toll neared 30 000 as mediators insisted a truce in the Israel-Hamas war could be just days away. The Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry reported another 91 deaths in overnight Israeli bombardment in Gaza, while UN agencies sounded the alarm on dire humanitarian conditions and food shortages. Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US have been trying to find a path to a ceasefire amid the bitter fighting, seeking a six-week pause in the nearly five-month war. Mediators said a deal could finally be within reach – reportedly including the release of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack in exchange for several hundred Palestinian detainees held by Israel. Qatar was “hopeful, not necessarily…

Tens of thousands of Mozambicans are fleeing their homes in the restive Cabo Delgado province amid a surge in deadly insurgent attacks since January. The attacks, despite a massive security clampdown, are continuing as French oil company TotalEnergies aims to restart a $20 billion (R384bn)liquefied natural gas terminal in Cabo Delgado in the coming months. The project was halted in 2021 after a deadly Islamic State-linked attack in a town near it. Recent attacks include a deadly skirmish on February 9 that claimed the lives of up to 25 Mozambique Defence Armed Force soldiers, according to local media reports, a significant blow to government efforts to quell violence during an election year. This week a senior government official said just more than 67 000 people had fled attacks in recent…

SEOUL: South Korea will send its military and community doctors to hospitals within the next few days as part of emergency measures to support the health-care system after a mass walkout by trainee doctors, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said yesterday. Han also pleaded with the young doctors to return to work by a deadline today. Two-thirds of the nation’s residents and intern doctors who are protesting say the government should first address pay and working conditions before trying to increase the number of physicians. The government has warned it could suspend the licences of the doctors who do not comply with the back-to-work order. | Reuters…

BELFAST: Belfast’s High Court ruled yesterday that a law introduced by Britain to offer conditional amnesties to ex-soldiers and militants involved in the region’s decades of violence is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The law sparked more than 20 legal challenges in Northern Ireland, mostly from victims’ families, who said it contravenes the ECHR and a 1998 peace deal that ended the three decades of bloodshed. The ruling can be challenged in Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal and should that fail, the UK Supreme Court. The more than 20 challenges were condensed down to lead cases that were ruled on yesterday. | Reuters…

LARA Foot’s highly anticipated Othello, by William Shakespeare, makes its South African premiere at The Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter, featuring a sterling creative team and cast. The hugely acclaimed production, adapted and directed by Foot, made its debut at the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus in September 2023, to celebrated praise and earned her the Gustaf Theatre Award 2023 for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for the direction of Othello. Foot teams up once again with a formidable award-winning creative team: designer Gerhard Marx, a fellow of the Eckhart Residency, the Sundance Film Institute, the Annenberg Fund and the Ampersand Foundation; Kyle Shepherd (music composition) and Patrick Curtis (lighting). She has assembled a stellar cast, led by Atandwa Kani in the title role of Othello, Albert Pretorius (Iago), Carla Smith (Desdemona), Fansiwa Yisa…

Economists have warned that a steep increase in the fuel price next week could well have an impact on inflation. The predicted fuel price increase would be the second consecutive increase. Layton Beard, spokesperson for the AA, said South Africans could expect a major upward shift in fuel prices in March. “From mid-month fuel data released by the Central Energy Fund, the AA notes that the current data is projecting fuel prices to jump the R24/litre mark for both grades of petrol, edging close to the R25/litre record high seen last year.” Beard added that mid-month data indicates that 95 octane petrol is set to increase by R1.35/litre, 93 octane by R1.31/litre, diesel by between R1.43/litre and R1.59/litre and illuminating paraffin by 96c/litre. Economist Dawie Roodt agreed that a significant…

A University of the Free State research fellow in public administration and management, Dr Harlan Cloete, believes the DA-run Western Cape will be a highly contested province in the upcoming elections. Cloete, also the founder of “Great Governance ZA Podcast” said he foresees some political parties, such as the Patriotic Alliance (PA), ActionSA and Rise Mzansi, snatching some of the disgruntled coloured and black voters. “The province will be highly contested and this will be very interesting. The DA should be a bit nervous this time around compared to the previous elections. There has been this perception that black people are not welcomed in leadership positions. Parties like the PA have now learnt how to win elections and from an organising political party they know how to mobilise as well.…

Why don’t Johannesburg citizens have enough water? The water allocation for each province is based on the amount available in the dams and the number of people in the province. The Vaal Dam is 70% full. Rand Water, the area’s bulk water supplier, buys the water from the Department of Water and Sanitation, which will sell only a certain amount. Rand Water takes water mainly from the Vaal Dam – the region’s biggest – and treats it to potable quality. It then sells the water to Johannesburg and Pretoria (and other cities and towns) in Gauteng. The cities sell the water to their residents through their distribution systems. Rand Water is not allowed to supply more than the amount set by the Department of Water and Sanitation. But there is…

Brazil called for a “new globalisation” to address poverty and climate change as it opened a meeting yesterday of finance ministers from the world’s top economies, but the Ukraine and Gaza wars risked overshadowing the appeal. The Ukraine war took centre stage even before finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations opened their first meeting of the year in Sao Paulo, as Western countries met on the sidelines to discuss shoring up their support against Russia’s invasion. Officials said the meeting of the Group of Seven countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, plus the EU – focused largely on plans to use frozen Russian assets to increase aid for Kyiv, which US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday was “necessary and urgent.” Yellen,…

Bitcoin surged for a fifth day yesterday to near $60 000 (about R1.15m), buoyed by flows into new US spot bitcoin exchange traded products that have driven it up nearly 40% this month, which would mark its largest monthly rally since December 2020. Bitcoin was last up 4.5% at $59 244, its highest since December 2021. Traders have poured into bitcoin ahead of April’s halving event to slow the release of the cryptocurrency. The value of all the bitcoin in circulation has topped $2 trillion this month for the first time in two years, says crypto platform CoinGecko, while the price of the token itself has doubled in four months. This week, around 110 million shares in the biggest three bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) changed hands – 51% of the…

Tokyo: Japan yesterday started the fourth-round of release of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Despite opposition from local fishermen, residents as well as backlash from the international community, Tokyo Electric Power Company started discharging the radioactive wastewater. Similar to the previous three rounds, about 7800 tons of the wastewater, which still contains tritium, a radioactive substance, will be discharged over about 17 days. Hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami in March 2011, the Fukushima nuclear plant suffered core meltdowns. | IANS…

Paris: The world generated 2.3 billion tons of municipal waste last year and the pile of trash is set to grow another two-thirds by 2050, the UN said yesterday, warning of devastating costs for health, economies and the environment. Pollution is set to escalate, according to new research by the UN Environment Programme, with projections suggesting the greatest growth in rubbish will be in regions that rely on open dumping and burning – practices that emit greenhouse gases, and leach toxic chemicals into soils, waterways and the air. Without urgent action, the waste mountain is expected to grow to 3.8 billion tons by the middle of the century. | AFP…