Table of contents for 2024-09-23 in Cape Times

from page 1 “Given this, market forces have now become emboldened. That is why the president was able to concede to the demands of market forces on NHI and the Bela Bill. “The SACP is not opposed to the ANC but the government the ANC has formed called the GNU. The party is united behind what Solly has argued. “We are unhappy with attempts by some who have been bent to isolate our general secretary. We are going to defend Mapaila, and the pronouncements he is making, he is making on behalf of the SACP,” Ngqentsu said. On plans to contest in the 2026 local government elections, he said the SACP had made the decision in its last conference already and all structures had the responsibility to prepare for it.…

IF the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) fails to execute its duty of care and a passenger is injured as a result of negligence, it could be liable for damages, a legal expert said as details of a preliminary investigation into the derailment of two train coaches at Dal Josafat station in Paarl pointed to possible issues related to maintenance. Based on the extent of the damage, the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) said it is suspected that speed might have played a role in the derailment. Twenty-four passengers were injured in the incident on September 17. Three were critically injured. Legal expert Kirstie Haslam, a partner at DSC Attorneys, also noted that the volume of cases against the Prasa, which appear on court rolls on a weekly basis…

THIS is a plea to Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis: rename the streets honouring the three highest-profile racist prime ministers. The people of Cape Town never chose these roads’ names – they were named by a “Pretoria Foreshore Board”. Fifteen years ago the DA-majority Metro Council set up the Kadalie Commission to initiate the renaming of roads – but stopped implementing this soon after starting. So soon after it came into national power in 1948, the Afrikaner nationalists set up from Pretoria a hand-picked “Foreshore Board” of Broederbonders with power to choose road names on the Foreshore. Their three highest-profile examples: • Hertzog Boulevard honours Nationalist leader JBM Hertzog, the father of the statutory colour bar imposed relentlessly through the 1920s. His 1929 election manifesto made much use of the k-word, already…

IT’S unlikely that the average South African is aware of Ukraine’s massive contribution of wheat, corn and vegetable oil to the world. Records show that over 60 million metric tons of grain were harvested in 2023. Ukraine produces between 10% and 15% of world grain production ... that’s enough grain to feed the tens of millions of starving people in Africa. In 1932, as history records, the Soviet Union under dictator Joseph Stalin introduced an impossible grain quota procurement policy in Ukraine, which destroyed the grain industry. Translated, this was a “tax” introduced by Stalin in order to procure the vast majority of grain produced in Ukraine for consumption in the USSR (Russia). This was a death sentence to 5 million Ukrainians who died of starvation between 1932 and…

AN Eastern Cape primary school teacher has been fired for sexual misconduct involving a 13-year-old boy who she allegedly attempted to kiss and then offered R50 for his silence. The woman was employed as a teacher in Mahlabatheng, formerly known as Mount Fletcher. According to the Education Labour Relations Council, the teacher initially pleaded guilty but later changed her plea to not guilty. The council imposed the sanction of dismissal with immediate effect and ordered that the ruling be shared with the Department of Social Development for her name to be listed on the register of sexual offenders, as she was found unsuitable to work with children again. The learner, currently at another school, testified that during break time in 2023 he was about to leave the classroom when the…

THE National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate (ID) is sending a worrying message by refusing to disclose important information relating to the appointment of two senior advocates as “consultants”. The fact that Paul Pretorius and Matthew Chaskalson were recruited without security clearance certificates first being secured, has raised concerns. Especially now that they may be exposed to crucial information when advising the ID on prosecuting cases relating to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry, coincidentally, where they were also evidence leaders. It’s not enough for NPA boss Shamila Batohi to blame another government department, the State Security Agency for apparently delaying their vetting. Surely there are enough capable women and men within the body who could perform the same duties. It then raises the question: what was the rush in appointing…

Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa headed to a run-off for Sri Lanka’s presidency yesterday, the election body said, with a second round of counting to determine the winner using preferential votes. It is the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that the presidential race is to be decided by a second round of counting after the top two candidates failed to win the mandatory 50% of votes to be declared winner. All remaining candidates, including incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe, have been disqualified, the Election Commission told reporters. Dissanayake polled 39.5% of the counted ballots with Premadasa finishing second at 34%. Wickremesinghe, who led the heavily indebted nation’s fragile economic recovery from a debilitating crisis in 2022, trailed in third with 17%. This is Sri Lanka’s first…

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police said they have arrested hundreds of suspects in an investigation into child abuse at care homes run by an Islamic conglomerate. In what is believed to be the worst such case to hit the country in decades, police said on Saturday that they had arrested 355 people, including religious studies teachers and caregivers, and rescued more than 400 children. At the heart of the investigation is the Global Ikhwan Service and Business (GISB) group, controversial for its links to the banned Al-Arqam sect. Police said they had arrested GISB leader Nasiruddin Ali along with 30 other members of the group after carrying out raids. | AFP…

WASHINGTON: Enhanced background checks have blocked thousands of gun sales to people under the age of 21 and those convicted of misdemeanour domestic violence crimes in the past year, the White House said yesterday, a year after US President Joe Biden set up a new office to prevent gun violence. Homicides had dropped 17% in the period, building on the largest drop in homicides in 2023; while Gun Violence Archive data showed mass shootings were also down 20% to date in 2024 compared to a year earlier, it said. The FBI conducted 300 000 enhanced background checks of individuals under 21 and denied more than 3 500 of those transactions. | Reuters…

THE PAST THREE months has seen commodity prices and mining shares, excluding gold equities, under-perform versus the broader market as concerns around global growth re-emerged. In the past two weeks, three of the four large South African platinum group metals (PGM) equities have reported results. While the companies are driven by similar fundamentals – namely the US dollar prices of platinum, palladium and rhodium, mining efficiencies and grade – the market responded very differently to their reported earnings and outlook. Resurrection rising: Impala’s turnaround Impala was the first to report. Production was up 13% (in line with guidance), while unit costs (+5%) were below the low end of guidance. In the second half (H2) of 2024, Impala generated roughly R1 billion in free cash flow, a significant turnaround…

LAST WEEK, saw Cosatu host 150 trade union representatives from 20 different countries, including 15 from Africa, for the Just Transition Global South Exchange. Progressive NGOs, academics and activists also joined the gathering to discuss climate change and what it means for workers and communities in Africa and the Global South given the poor and the vulnerable bear the brunt of its impact. In the context of South Africa’s struggle for social justice, climate change presents both a challenge and an opportunity, particularly through the lens of a just transition. Cosatu as the country’s largest federation of trade unions plays a pivotal role in shaping policies that impact workers. This is seen in the Cosatu Policy on Climate Change, “a just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy” (2011) and…

SHE was stuck in a snow-enveloped car for almost three days without food and water, and now Thandi Bhengu lives to tell her harrowing tale. Bhengu was travelling alone from Johannesburg, where she works, en route to her home in Pietermaritzburg, when tragedy struck – she and scores of other motorists were trapped in the snow-lashed area near Montrose. The KwaZulu-Natal’s office of the premier said that two people have died due to hypothermia – a deadly condition caused by a significant drop in body temperature. Recounting her near-death ordeal, Bhengu said: “I couldn’t breathe properly. I was terribly cold, and I thought I was going to die. I did not think I would survive. I am glad that some other motorists risked their lives and started assisting others like…

THE public is urged to be on the lookout for pharmaceutical bottles containing pills that continue to wash ashore along the south-east coastline of South Africa between the Wild Coast and Mossel Bay. This as the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) said it was in the process of the clean-up and recovery of shipping containers lost at sea over the past six weeks, from at least three vessels. “Samsa is currently in the process of co-ordinating the clean-up and recovery of shipping containers, flotsam (floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo), associated pollutants, and products washing ashore along the south-east coastline of South Africa. This follows the loss of containers from at least three vessels over the past six weeks due to adverse weather conditions.” In addition to…

IT IS WITH great humility and respect that I write this piece. I hope to inspire readers by relating a few of my personal experiences and observations. Each day, as I make my way from home to work, I witness a multitude of social classes engaged in various activities. Some people are jogging, walking and cycling on the road, while others enjoy a cup of coffee with friends at the quaint coffee shops. When driving past Greys Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, nurses, medical personnel and professionals, who represent the upper middle class, are making their way to places of employment or their offices. Upon reaching the city centre, I notice masses of workers, loaded onto the back of vehicles being driven to different work sites. The route from home to the…

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire into yesterday, with Israeli warplanes carrying out the most intense bombardment in almost a year of conflict across Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah firing rockets deep into northern Israel. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said strikes would continue until it was safe for evacuated people in the north to return – setting the stage for a long conflict as Hezbollah has vowed to fight on until a ceasefire in the parallel Gaza war. “In recent days we have inflicted a series of blows on Hezbollah that it never imagined,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement. “If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message.” The conflict, which sharply escalated over the past week, has raged…

A legal team representing women alleging rape and sexual assault by the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed said at the weekend that it received over 150 new enquiries, including from women accusing the former Harrods owner. The BBC released a documentary and podcast last week in which Fayed is accused by multiple women who worked at the London luxury department store of sexual assault, including five accusing him of rape. The new enquiries included a “mix of survivors and individuals with evidence” about Fayed, the legal team said. This was after announcing that it was representing 37 women accusing Fayed of sex abuse. Comparing the scale and nature of the case to claims made against fallen figures like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, lawyers said the allegations included about girls…

BERLIN: Germany’s far-right AfD was hoping to win a tight race yesterday against Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in a regional election in the state of Brandenburg that could have repercussions for the government in Berlin. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has long railed against Scholz’s unpopular coalition government, which faces national elections in a year. In the state election in Brandenburg in former communist East Germany, the AfD aims to replicate the strong gains it made in the east three weeks ago, when it won a parliamentary vote in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony. | AFP…

LIVERPOOL: British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said yesterday the government would introduce new legislation to give workers more rights next month. The government is trying to balance demands from trade unions, who traditionally fund the governing Labour Party, and business leaders. The Employment Rights Bill will include prohibiting zero-hour contracts, with about 1 million workers in Britain on contracts that do not specify a minimum number of hours they can work and pay only for the hours they are on shift. Labour also pledged to make parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from the first day on the job. | Reuters…

THE SACP is closing ranks in defence of its general secretary, Solly Mapaila, who has been at loggerheads with the ANC, its alliance partner, over its decision to enter into the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) with the DA. The SACP held a two-day conference in Khayelitsha at the weekend where it also marked its 103rd anniversary. Mapaila didn’t mince his words last month while addressing the Nehawu National Political School, calling the ANC out for “selling out” in the light of its decision to work with the “neo-liberal forces of the DA” instead of parties such as the EFF. SACP member Monde Nqulwana said the matter came up on Saturday and they were all in agreement that they were not happy about the way Mapaila had been treated…

Mushtak Parker FOLLOWING a routine chest infection in August and a sputum sample, I was surprised that the culture had confirmed a Klebsiella pneumoniae infection. But what was even more disconcerting is that the bug was resistant to the antibiotics Amoxicillin and Cotrimoxazole. The redeeming factor, at least for now, is that the bug is susceptible to Ciprofloxacin, Co-amoxiclav and Ceftriaxone. As an asthmatic with a touch of COPD and comorbidities, a bit immunosuppressed due to the steroids I take, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and surveillance is now of lived experience interest to me, as well as of my journalistic interest in public health issues such as universal health coverage, vaccine/drug accessibility and equality. Without being alarmist, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a Disease Outbreak News on 1 August on…

THE South African Policing Union (Sapu) has called for no further delays in justice following the re-arrest of the sister-in-law of slain police officer Sithembiso Mnatwana, who is alleged to have been behind his assassination. Babalwa Rulwa-Mnatwana was apprehended by the Hawks serious organised crime investigation team on Friday and was released on R10 000 bail following her appearance in court. The matter was remanded to September 25, for her to appear alongside her co-accused, Mihle Mngambi. Vispol police officer Mnatwana was gunned down in his uniform outside his home in 2022, just metres away from the local police station. According to Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani, he was returning home from a 12-hour shift at the Cape Town Central police station. Mnatwana’s body was riddled with bullets – he was…

As education minister, she prioritised early learning, literacy and numeracy WHEN Cadre Naledi Pandor was appointed Minister of Education, tertiary institutions as well as schools were located in her portfolio. She held a Master’s degree in linguistics and had been an educator and academic before being appointed as MP and then as Minister. She had first-hand knowledge of the autonomy and independence of universities and universities of technology and how they functioned. She was also well-versed in how schools functioned, as she had an added advantage being married to Mr Sharif Pandor, an experienced teacher, who would share his experiences with her as an educator. Much of the policy decisions she had taken and initiatives she had begun were continued by her successor, Cde Angie Motshekga, who at that time…

Floods and landslides killed one person and left at least 11 missing in central Japan, with recovery teams at work yesterday in a remote peninsula already devastated by a major earthquake this year. “Unprecedented” heavy rains that lashed the area from Saturday began to subside, leaving muddy scenes of destruction as the national weather agency urged people to stay vigilant for loose ground and other dangers. In Wajima, splintered branches and uprooted trees piled up at a bridge over a river whose raging brown waters almost reached ground level. People were seen wading into the mud to try to dig out half-buried cars, while elsewhere flood waters inundated emergency housing built for those who had lost their homes in the New Year’s Day earthquake that killed at least 318 people.…

US Vice-President Kamala Harris leads Republican rival Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in an NBC News poll yesterday that found that respondents had come to see her more favourably since she emerged as the Democratic candidate for president. Asked about their views of Harris since she became the nominee, 48% of 1 000 registered voters surveyed said it was positive compared to 32% in July. Asked about Trump, 40% of those polled said they viewed him positively compared to 38% in July, the news network said. The poll, conducted September 13-17, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. A separate CBS News poll also found Harris leading Trump, by 4 percentage points, 52% to 48%, among likely voters, with a margin of error rate of plus or…

TEHRAN: A gas explosion in a coal mine in Iran’s South Khorasan Province killed at least 51 people and injured 20, Iran’s state media said yesterday. The accident was caused by a methane gas explosion in two blocks, B and C, of the mine run by the Madanjoo company. “76% of the country’s coal is provided from this region and around 8 to 10 big companies are working in the region, including Madanjoo company,” the governor of South Khorasan Province, Ali Akbar Rahimi, said yesterday. There were 69 workers in the blocks at the time of the explosion, state TV reported. Twenty four people were are still missing. | AFP…

New York: Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a $120 million (R2bn) Global AI Opportunity Fund at the UN Summit of the Future in the US, on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly in New York. Pichai said that the initiative would invest “$120m to make AI education and training available in communities around the world. We’re providing this in local languages, in partnership with non-profits and NGOs”. Pichai said that Google had been investing in AI research, tools and infrastructure for two decades. Some studies show that AI could boost global labour productivity by 1.4 percentage points, and increase global GDP by 7% within the next decade. | IANS…