Table of contents for 2024-06-03 in Cape Times

FURNITURE retailer Lewis Group has done well to unlock value for shareholders in the tough economic environment in the year to March 31, CEO Johan Enslin said. He said in an interview on Friday that shareholders had benefited from the buybacks of 4.2 million shares during the year at a cost of R170 million. Earnings per share increased by 15.9% to 806 cents and the dividend had increased 21.1% to 500c a share. Additional buybacks would take place in the new financial year, with 3.3% already repurchased since October, of the 10% that the shareholders approved to be bought back, since the annual meeting in October. The group has returned R1.3 billion to shareholders since the start of its buyback programme in 2017. Enslin said…

INSIMBI Holdings on Friday said that South Africa had made little progress in resolving key infrastructure challenges hobbling mining and industrial sectors, with these critical gaps worsening an operating framework characterised by a dip in prices for some commodities. This comes as the company’s operating profit fell by 38% to R123.2 million for the year ended February 29, 2024, largely affected by the government’s decision to curb exports of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap and waste metal. Insimbi sources, processes, beneficiates and recycles ferrous and non-ferrous metals. “The South African government allowed the ban on exports of ferrous and non-ferrous waste and scrap metal to expire in December 2023. For Insimbi, the ban primarily impacted our ferrous division,” Insimbi said on Friday. The company said that it had been able…

THE Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) declared the 2024 national and provincial elections as free and fair when it released the final results last night. The ANC is the leading party with a reduced majority, followed by the DA, the uMkonto weSizwe Party (MKP)and the EFF. The results showed that the voter turnout stood at 58.61% as 16.2 million voters cast their ballots on election day last Wednesday. There were 212 518 spoilt ballots, which translates to 1.31% of the vote. Speaking at the release of the results, chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the country’s people had spoken and the results represented their political choices. “In an election, the choice of the voter is sovereign. It may not be negated in whatever form,” he said. IEC chairperson Mosotho…

DESPITE the obvious logistic complexities and the almost overwhelming number of political parties participating in our extraordinary general election, one cannot help but feel a deep sense of gratitude to all involved in the enormity of organising the daunting undertaking. This, along with a profound hope that the real possibility of some courteous way of those elected working together can evolve, despite ideological differences, in the governing of our common and beloved homeland.…

The provincial Health Department says challenges may arise from the deployment of new security companies at its facilities amid concerns that they were not adequately resourced to service 36 provincial health facilities. The three companies, Phangela Private Security Services, Golden Security Services, and Amazim-Zim Security and Private Investigators, officially took over the facilities on Friday. This followed a protracted legal battle by Sechaba Protection Services, Silver Solutions, Star Project Management, All 4 Security Services and Helios Security and Risk Management against the department and the three companies. They had turned to the Western Cape High Court on an urgent basis to interdict the department from giving effect to a tender awarded to the three security companies, pending the outcome of a review application in which the tender was awarded to…

The recent announcement of the planned shutdown of the Lesotho Highlands transfer system and tunnels for maintenance has generated a flurry of media attention, fuelled by several alarmist opinions from various experts and panic among communities, and intertwined in this narrative is the conflation of issues. It is true that Gauteng has several challenges with the sustainable supply of drinking water related to the effectiveness of the several municipal supply systems, compounded by power outages that disrupt the pumping and treatment of water. These problems are, however, different from the management of the resource. Gauteng receives most of its water from the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS), which is a complicated network of reservoirs, pipelines and tunnels. This system is augmented by a number of large inter-basin transfer schemes, which…

Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskiy’s unscheduled appearance at Asia’s biggest security conference dominated proceedings yesterday after China’s defence chief slammed “separatists” in Taiwan, drawing a sharp response from the government in Taipei. Dressed in his trademark olive green T-shirt, Zelenskiy addressed the last day of the Shangri-La Dialogue forum in Singapore, asking for support and participation at a summit in Switzerland later this month aimed at bringing peace to his war-ravaged nation. “We are convinced that our world wants to be united and be capable of acting in complete harmony,” he said to a ballroom packed full of delegates in formal business wear and military uniforms. Reuters was first to report that Zelenskiy would make an unscripted appearance at the conference, his second visit to Asia since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…

Iran’s hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday registered his candidacy for a presidential election this month. The Islamic republic goes to the polls on June 28 to replace ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. Ahmadinejad, 67, held the post for two terms from 2005 to 2013, a period marked by a stand-off with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme and his incendiary remarks on Israel. His bid is pending the approval of the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated body of 12 jurists. Ahmadinejad was disqualified from entering the presidential race in the 2021 and 2017 elections. In 2005, he gained notoriety when he said Iran’s arch foe Israel was doomed to be “wiped off the map” and also asserted that the Holocaust was a…

BEIJING: China landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon yesterday, overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world’s first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The landing elevates China’s space power status in a global rush to the moon, where countries including the US are hoping to exploit lunar minerals to sustain long-term astronaut missions and moon bases within the next decade. The Chang’e-6 craft, equipped with an array of tools and its own launcher, touched down in a gigantic impact crater called the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s space-facing side. | Reuters…

MEXICO CITY: Mexicans voted yesterday in a presidential election dominated by two women – a historic first in a country with a history of gender-based violence. Thousands of troops were expected to be deployed to protect voters, following a bloody electoral process that has seen more than two dozen aspiring local politicians murdered. Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist, had a 17-percentage point lead over her main opposition rival, Xochitl Galvez. Sheinbaum, 61, owes much of her popularity to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has an approval rating of more than 60% but is only allowed to serve one term. | AFP…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the long-debated Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill into law this week. This has been a product of much engagement and one of the most extensive parliamentary public participation processes in recent times. The result is a good foundation act that legalises an emerging sector. Further supplementary work will need to follow down the road. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has supported the government’s efforts to shift South Africa to a new legal regime with regard to cannabis. The act is a welcome step forward to decriminalise cannabis for private purposes as required by the Constitutional Court judgment finding the existing criminalisation of personal use to be unconstitutional. Key provisions of the act and the basis for Cosatu’s support for it, include: ■…

THE eight-month-old uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) flipped the majority of ANC strongholds in eThekwini and almost single-handedly annihilated the party as it surged to victory in KwaZulu-Natal in last Wednesday’s national and provincial elections. A deep dive into the election results details how ANC supporters in eThekwini, the province's most populous region, switched allegiance in these elections from being largely an ANC safe haven in 2019 to the MKP, led by former president Jacob Zuma. Two maps by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as well as another one published by the media showing voting patterns give a glimpse of the key areas that switched to the MKP and ensured its victory. The map also shows that the DA largely held on to voting districts it had won…

THE article “45 Tshwane workers fired for going on strike want jobs back” (Cape Times, May 31) refers. It is about time that workers and their trade unions fully understood that a strike protects workers if the strike is a legal one. Second, even if the strike is legal but they commit a crime during the strike, then a dismissal is inevitable. To take others out on strike to fight for a cause that has no hope means the workers are being used as “cannon fodder.” We regularly read of how trade union officials convince workers to go out on strike knowing full well that the strike will be of no force and effect. Workers do not receive pay during their strikes and the trade union officials merrily carry on…

ALTHOUGH the tally of votes had not been finalised, the situation on May 31 showed clearly that South Africa is on the cusp of political change. In that respect it is significant how May 31 has marked turning points in our history. On May 31, 1844, Natal was officially annexed as a district of the Cape Colony. On May 31, 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed, concluding the Anglo-Boer War. On May 31, 1910, the four British colonies united to become the Union of South Africa. On May 31, 1961, South Africa became a Republic. Given the final outcome of the election, it is clear that without an outright national winner, political change has to occur. In that respect there are two coalition options: one in which the ANC…

While traditional marketing initiatives such as above-the-line advertising play an important role in creating brand awareness for a new business, public relations (PR) can play an important role in shaping and sustaining brand identity, fostering credibility and building trusted consumer relationships. This is according to the founder and group chief executive of Johannesburg reputation management company The Allure Group (TAG), Bonnke Shipalana. Shipalana is a seasoned marketer and PR practitioner who recently partnered with Independent Media to launch the first-of-its-kind event dubbed Building a Brand Through PR Masterclass. The pioneering initiative seeks to give fledgling small and medium-sized businesses the tools on how to effectively utilise PR to craft their brand narrative, ignite excitement about their brand, create a brand following and hopefully drive sales. The day-long masterclass, which will…

The ANC’s failure to secure an outright majority confirms that its much-hyped rebuilding and renewal project was nothing more than a flop. In fact, the toughest test yet for the renewal project may still come in the form of whether the party will hold its leadership accountable post-elections. A party renewing itself would have long foreseen the potential harm that the Jacob Zuma-led uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party would cause its support. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and two of his deputies, Nomvula Mokonyane and Maropene Ramokgopa, were caught napping when the MK Party quietly registered with the IEC. Collectively, the ANC NEC failed to deal with the MK Party question by suspending or expelling Zuma the moment he publicly announced on December 16 that he would not be campaigning for the…

Stormy Daniels, the pornography film actress, broke her silence after former US president Donald Trump’s conviction to say he should be jailed, in an interview published in British tabloid The Mirror at the weekend. “I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate, or being the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter,” Daniels said in the interview, published late on Saturday. A jury of 12 New Yorkers last week found Trump guilty on 34 counts of business fraud for trying to cover up hush money payments to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130 000 to keep silent and prevent scandal from breaking ahead of the election, in which…

FRANKFURT: A firefighter died while trying to rescue residents trapped by major flooding in southern Germany after heavy rain that was expected to continue throughout yesterday. The man, 42, was in a rescue boat carrying four firefighters that capsized late on Saturday. His body was recovered early yesterday, said a spokesperson for the Bavarian town of Pfaffenbach an der Ilm, around 50km north of Munich. While municipalities had days to prepare, rescue workers still had to evacuate hundreds of people as the water cut off some areas. Parts of Europe were hit by major flooding in 2021 that killed nearly 200, with Germany bearing the brunt. Climate change was blamed. | Reuters…

Lisbon: Two small planes collided midair yesterday during an air show performance in southern Portugal, the air force said, with reports that one of the pilots was killed. The the aircraft was reported to be two Yakovlev Yak-52, a Soviet-designed aerobatic training model. The air force said emergency services were at the scene and organisers of the show at Beja airport had suspended the event. A video filmed by a spectator showed a formation of six planes in flight, with one of them ascending, apparently touching one of the others and then crashing to the ground. Witnesses said that six aircraft were part of a civil aerobatics group that were said to be the biggest in southern Europe. | AFP…

Cricket may be coming to America with all the positive energy of a new dawn, but the Proteas begin yet another ICC World T20 Cup with a great deal of trepidation against Sri Lanka in Nassau County, New York today. Regardless of what they may say publicly, and even internally, the baggage of 32 years of disappointment at major ICC tournaments is a heavy burden to be carrying around. And even though the majority of this squad were not even born yet when this all began, they are quickly reminded that ICC tournaments cut just a little bit differently, especially for Proteas teams. “We are quietly confident,” Proteas captain Aiden Markram said yesterday. “Obviously, it’s a World Cup and there are some really good teams here, but we feel that…

EMERALD and ruby miner Gemfields bagged $35 million (R655.6m), at an average price of $167.51 per carat, from a gemstone auction conducted over the period May 13 to 30. About 46 lots were offered for sale, with 43 of these sold during its latest auction period. The company has generated as much as $1 billion in revenue from about 48 auctions of Kagem gemstones it has held since July 2009. “The rough emeralds sold were extracted by Kagem, which is 75% owned by Gemfields and 25% by the Industrial Development Corporation of Zambia,” the company said on Friday. “Proceeds of this auction will be fully repatriated to Kagem in Zambia with all royalties due to the Government of the Republic of Zambia being paid on the full sales…

There’s nobody we are not going to talk to - ANC WITH election results not producing an outright majority for any political party, all roads now lead to the behind-the-scenes coalition talks which are expected to intensify today as the scramble to form a government ensues. The ANC’s failure to garner enough votes to constitute a government has left the door wide open for a coalition government, which the party said must reflect the will of the people, be stable and able to govern effectively. At a press briefing yesterday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party was down but not out. “We suffered heavily but we are not out. We are talking to everybody, there’s nobody we are not going to talk to. “We’ve been approached by political parties,…

MANDISA Maya will be our next chief justice. A gender-diverse bench reflects a bias-free judiciary. Since democracy began, we have had a woman commissioner of police, women ministers, women judges of distinction, women in senior and pivotal Cabinet positions and in the corridors of Parliament. In long-established democracies, women have made inroads as judges during the past few decades. In our rainbow nation, women judges have significantly impacted our court’s jurisprudence. Unless the transformation routes involve women in top judicial posts, they will remain “recipients” of change rather than becoming “agents” of change. People equate a gender-diverse judiciary with more representative governance. Since the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1979, women in many countries are becoming leaders in…

IT IS always safe not to believe any politician during an election campaign. They underestimate the intelligence of the voters and make reckless statements and promises without any responsibility. Yet it can be dangerous to ignore everything they say. If there is no response to their promises, it is easy to mistake silence for consent. If trade unions and staff associations therefore do not respond to statements that affect their members, we are surely dealing with a lack of vigilance. Our organisation, the Association for the Monitoring and Advocacy of Government Pensions (AMAGP) is of the opinion that it would be short-sighted to ignore the announcement by President Ramaphosa regarding prescribed assets by pension funds and other financial institutions simply as election promises, which will never be carried out.…

THE Cape Agulhas Council is expected to elect a new mayor this week after the DA’s Paul Swart was ousted. Swart was removed on Friday following a motion of no confidence. Out of 10 councillors present, in a secret ballot vote, six voted in favour of the motion and four against. The motion was based on a disciplinary committee which found him guilty of misconduct on two charges, including failure to disclose interests in contravention of section 6 of the Code of Conduct for Councillors (Schedule 7, Municipal Structures Amendment Act, 3 of 2021). It also found him guilty of failure to disclose unauthorised expenditure in contravention of Section 2 of the Code of Conduct for Councillors (Schedule 7, Municipal Structures Amendment Act, 3 of 2021). Municipal manager Eben Phillips…

If problems cannot be solved at home, there’s no way they can be solved by school or society WHAT is happening, what is wrong with our communities? Most of us are confronted with this question as we go around meeting our compeers. We are thrown with this pervasive penetrating question that provokes our thinking while equally challenging us to evaluate our stance on issues affecting the life and development of our communities. It is a daunting question that raises more questions than answers – a discourse that leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the beholder. To ease this uncomfortable state, let me bring afore my little understanding of how we have landed where we are today, and how we have allowed this “little giant” roaming our streets to…

Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip yesterday and battled Hamas as mediators called on both sides to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden. Since Biden spoke at the White House on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israel will pursue the war, which now nears its ninth month, until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the captives. Palestinian militant group Hamas, meanwhile, has said it “views positively” what Biden described as an Israeli proposal. Netanyahu, a hawkish political veteran leading a fragile right-wing coalition government, is under intense domestic pressure from two sides. Protesters backing immediate hostage release, who rallied again on Saturday in their tens of thousands in Tel Aviv, are urging him to strike a truce deal, while the premier’s…

A top opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would return to jail yesterday as his bail conditions demand after elections that were widely expected to result in another landslide victory for the Hindu-nationalist leader. Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an alliance formed to compete against Modi, was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe but later given a limited release to allow him to campaign. He said he would hand himself to prison authorities in Delhi yesterday. Exit polls showed Modi was well on…

Jakarta: A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted yesterday spewing an ash cloud 7km into the sky as officials warned residents to shelter indoors. It is the latest of about 100 eruptions from the volcano since early this year. Mount Ibu, located on Halmahera island in North Maluku province, erupted, sending thick clouds of ash into the air, the Geology Agency said. Ash was carried by wind towards the volcano’s monitoring station and an evacuation shelter next to it but “there was no panic” among the evacuees, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said yesterday. It said Ibu recorded an average of 58 eruptions a day last year. | AFP…

SEOUL: North Korea said yesterday that it would stop sending balloons carrying trash over the border to South Korea but vowed to resume the practice if anti-North Korean leaflets were flown over again from the South. North Korea sent 15 tons of it using 3 500 balloons, said the North’s vice-minister of defence, Kim Kang Il. South Korea said it would take “unendurable” measures against North Korea for doing so, which could include blaring propaganda. The democratic South and the communist North remain at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice. | Reuters…

The Stormers got their wish and will travel to Scotstoun Stadium to take on the Glasgow Warriors in the quarter-final of the United Rugby Championship (URC) this weekend. “We will be up for it,” was the promise Stormers head coach John Dobson made after his side claimed another home derby win, beating the Lions 29-24 in Cape Town to seal fifth place in the competition. Although it will be the first time they will have to travel for a knockout match in the URC, the former champions have welcomed a change in their route to the final from the previous two seasons. Glasgow and Munster or the Ospreys (in the semifinal) will stand in the Stormers’ way of reaching the final for a third consecutive season. But the Stormers will…