Índice para 2021-05-07 em Cape Times

THE RAND strengthened to a one-week high yesterday, rising 0.73 percent to R14.25 against the dollar, its highest level since April 29, before closing at R14.23, up 13 cents. The ANC on Wednesday suspended its secretary-general, Ace Magashule, which is seen as a sign of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s growing control over the fight against corruption. The US government decided to support South Africa and India’s proposal to waive intellectual property right protections for Covid-19 vaccines. The Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Waiver is one critical element in the toolbox to boost supplies of vaccines in the shortest possible time. It can enable the use of unused manufacturing capacity across the world and speed up the expansion of production facilities. The rand also made gains after the dollar fell from…

From page 1 he was taking long leave from May 1 after informing President Cyril Ramaphosa and Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola. The judiciary’s spokesperson, Nathi Mncube, said regulations promulgated in terms of the Judges’ Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act 2001 provided for judges to take leave of three-and-a-half months for every period of four years’ actual service. “This leave is referred to as ‘long leave’ within the judiciary. The Chief Justice’s four-year cycle to take his long leave commenced on July 1, 2018, but he was unable to take it due to his judicial and extra-judicial commitments,” Mncube said. He added that because judges’ leave is not cumulative, Chief Justice Mogoeng would have forfeited it as it has happened on previous occasions and that it was…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za THE storm that made landfall over the province this week killed two people, trapped children under a bridge, forced residents in Cape Agulhas to evacuate their homes, and badly damaged several roads. Two people are also missing and 30 farmworkers were evacuated yesterday undertaken in Riviersonderend. Up to 115mm of rainfall fell in some parts of the province over the past two days, leaving emergency services rushing to save lives and properties. Tragedy struck Bonnievale in the Cape Winelands when two people died in flood waters when they became trapped in an overturned bakkie owing to the storm. Emergency humanitarian relief organisation Gift of the Givers has since arrived in Struisbaai in Cape Agulhas where they have put out a call for donations following residents’ evacuation to…

IN SUPPORT of Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann who has been taken into a disciplinary hearing by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), close to 50 academic staff from 10 SA higher education institutions have added their voices in an urgent appeal to the new WCED head, Brent Walters. The global Covid-19 pandemic has confronted us with numerous daunting challenges that we have never encountered before. School education has been at the forefront of responses to the pandemic. The school sector has had to make hard life-and-death decisions about the health and safety of our school communities – our students, staff, and parents. In mid-2020, after an initial period of complete lockdown, schools and school authorities in the Western Cape and other provinces were grappling with the question of…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A DURBAN man will have to serve his prison sentence for the murder of his friend who he believed had an extramarital affair with his wife, despite his attempts to appeal against his conviction and sentence. Rajivee Soni was found guilty by the Kwazulu-Natal High Court on six charges including murder. He appealed against this in the Supreme Court of Appeal which then upheld in part and dismissed in part the convictions and sentences, which included acquitting him of two of the charges he was found guilty of. According to court documents, Soni had conspired to murder his friend Bhavish Sewram, a medical doctor, having hired hit men and paid a self-confessed drug addict and police officer to kill him as he left his surgery in Pietermaritzburg…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA (Seri) has written to the Compensation Commissioner, questioning the “unreasonably short” 12-month cut-off date for domestic workers injured at the workplace – as far back as April, 1994 – to submit claims. Domestic workers were included in the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (Coida) in November last year when the Constitutional Court handed down judgment in the Mahlangu v Minister of Labour matter declaring their exclusion unconstitutional. The court also ruled that domestic workers who had experienced work- related injuries, diseases or death as far back as April 27, 1994, or their dependants, were able to submit claims. In March this year, a notice was issued that claims must be brought to the attention of the commissioner or the…

Interviewer: Jennifer Crocker Suitcase of Memory A’Eysha Kassiem Loot.co.za (R205) KWELA BOOKS How books are written is one of those fascinating things – whether it takes weeks or years in some cases is what makes it worth the read. Years and years is how long it took A’Eysha Kassiem to write her first novel. Q: You have had an impressive career in hard news journalism, and now a novel? A: The truth is that I first started writing this novel around the same time I started studying journalism almost 20 years ago. I was living in the Netherlands at the time – my first time away from home, scared, confused and utterly overwhelmed. Writing helped me to feel less alone then. But over the years, I eventually abandoned the…

SURFACING: ON BEING BLACK AND FEMINIST IN SOUTH AFRICA Desiree Lewis, Gabeba Baderoon Loot.co.za (R270) WITS UNIVERSITY PRESS THIS book is touted as the first collection of voices offering their perspectives as black South African feminists. Desiree Lewis is a feminist theorist and Gabeba Baderoon a poet and feminist scholar and, between them, have curated the thoughts and perspectives of some of our top writers and thinkers, making this an essential resource on the subject. In this collection, radical polemic sits side by side with highly personal essays, critical theory coexists with rich and inspirational life histories. Among the contributors are Patricia McFadden, Panashe Chigumadzi, Sisonke Msimang, Zukiswa Wanner, Yewande Omotoso, Zoë Wicomb and Pumla Dineo Gqola. For anyone interested in feminism here and now, the book offers vivid and…

The move to halt the hunting of captive big cats is a victory for our wildlife FOUR winters ago, my family and I were in the Kruger National Park, mesmerised by the sighting of five black-maned male lions lying in wait on a sandy bank overlooking the Crocodile River. There they were – Africa’s Apex predator in all their glory, and nothing could compare with coming so close to such majestic beasts. That day in the Kruger store we found a DVD called Blood Lions, which piqued my curiosity, only to be horrified by the story it told. The renowned conservationist and director of Blood Lions, Ian Michler, narrated the award-winning documentary film which exposed the horrors that captive bred lions endure on farms across South Africa – lions just…

The US’s sudden support for a waiver of patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines is headed to the World Trade Organization (WTO), setting the stage for potentially thorny negotiations over sharing the proprietary know-how needed to boost global supplies of the life-saving shots. “In terms of how soon the WTO can deliver – that literally depends on the WTO members, collectively, being able to deliver,” US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said. With the EU and China signalling a willingness to take part in the debate after the Biden administration’s shock announcement, pharmaceutical executives reacted with anger and their stock prices tumbled worldwide. BioNTech’s depository receipts dropped as much as 19% in Germany while shares in Pfizer were down 2.5% in US premarket trading in New York, after closing little changed. Together,…

The EU will consider sending a military training mission to Mozambique to help the government withstand a growing insurgency, and Portugal is already sending troops, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday. Mozambique’s government has been facing an Islamist insurgency since 2017, and rebels have stepped up attacks in the past year, threatening natural gas projects that are aimed at transforming the impoverished country’s economy. Mozambique wrote to the EU last year to ask for help in training its armed forces to battle the insurgency, and Borrell said it was important for the bloc to make up its mind quickly. EU defence ministers discussed the possibility of a mission in Brussels yesterday, but took no decision. He also clarified that the mission to Mozambique, if agreed, would be…

Comment by Mike Greenaway ALL Black great Sean Fitzpatrick was the biggest thorn in the side of the Springboks for over a decade, so when he suggested Warren Gatland pick the fiercest players he could for the British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa, he was talking from experience. Fitzpatrick captained the All Blacks to a historic series win in SA in 1996, so he knows what it takes to win a series in this country, and that’s why I believe Gatland has picked a squad that won’t beat the Boks. Fitzpatrick suggested Gatland pick the biggest beasts possible if he hoped to beat a Bok team that showed in the World Cup final that they had “even stronger players off the bench than they had started.”…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za KAROOOOO, which owns 100 percent of Cartrack Holdings, added 59 percent or 59 911 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter to February 28, 2021, year-on-year, chief executive Zak Calisto said yesterday. He said the fourth quarter was traditionally the weakest of their financial year, but the group, which makes and distributes fleet asset management software in 23 countries, had the best fourth quarter in its history, and the first quarter of the new financial year was also looking strong. “We are feeling good about the business at this stage,” he said in an interview. “We are committed to our mission, to build the leading mobility Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that maximises the value of data, which drove our strong fourth quarter and full year…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za OUTGOING Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng will face off with the three organisations that lodged complaints against him with the Judicial Conduct Committee for his pro-Israel comments during his long leave. Chief Justice Mogoeng’s appeal of retired Gauteng Judge President Phineas Mojapelo’s sanction that he apologises for the comments will be considered by the committee next month in the Constitutional Court. Judge Mojapelo ordered Mogoeng to publicly apologise and issue a retraction of the statements he made last year during a Jerusalem Post webinar at which he claimed to be under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel and pray for Jerusalem’s peace, which he said meant the Middle Eastern country’s peace. “If I curse Abraham and Israel the almighty God will curse me too,” he said.…

Lisa Isaacs isa.isaacs@inl.co.za PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday welcomed the support of the US for a temporary and targeted waiver of intellectual property protections that apply to Covid-19 vaccines, a campaign led by South Africa and India on behalf of emerging economies. The US government on Wednesday announced that, in order to end the pandemic, it would at forthcoming negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) support the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines. The anticipated temporary waiver would provide a global response to Covid-19 and establish a global solution to enhance manufacturing and boost supply capacity, enabling co- ordination and access to information currently under patent protection. The Presidency said: “For countries that do not currently have manufacturing capacity on certain medical technologies, the waiver could open up more…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za THE Cango Wildlife Ranch (CWR) zoological team is abuzz with excitement as efforts are under way to prepare for the arrival of its newest residents – four Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths. CWR spokesperson Tammy Moult said the 35-year-old facility had to temporarily close its doors to the public when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and its fund-raising endeavours were drained. “At the time, we were in the planning stages of a new exhibit. Everything we had planned ground to an extreme halt,” Moult said. More than a year later, plans recommenced for the new Amazonia exhibit and its sloth residents. The four Choloepus didactylus, more commonly known as Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths, will join the CWR family on Monday. These sloths are found from Venezuela and Colombia to eastern Ecuador,…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A FARMWORKER who was allegedly assaulted by a father and son said although he was still fearful of his accused attackers, he was grateful for the community’s support at court this week. Anthony Koopman was supported by Murraysburg residents outside the local magistrate’s court this week, as the assault matter continued against his alleged attackers. Koopman, a freelance farmworker, said he was attacked by the father and son in February last year after the pair accused him of stealing and killing their sheep. Koopman said his ordeal started after he experienced trouble with his bicycle, when suddenly he was “accosted by a man who had jumped from behind bushes”. “He jumped out from behind the bushes and he shouted at me ‘staan stil, bliksem, of ek skiet…

FOOD tells us a lot about who we are, and has the ability both to entrench our identities and to comfort us. | Jennifer Crocker The Lockdown Recipe Storytelling Book Curated by Ingrid Jones ANNAKE MULLER PUBLISHING Enter the least comforting time, hard lockdown, and people started baking and cooking and sharing their recipes and stories on a private Facebook group. The conversation was intense and as people baked sourdough bread, reached back to their roots with comfort food and stories about their cultures, a book was born of the recipes. At first the group, which has over 3 000 members, shared their stories, and became a community. The plan to start curating the book set a deadline of June 2020, and asked people not to post their recipes and…

THE HEART IS THE SIZE OF A FIST P P Fourie Loot.co.za (R225) KWELA BOOKS BEAUTIFULLY written – at times tender, at times poignant and at times visceral, PP Fourie’s book tells of his coming of age, of a complicated relationship with his charismatic albeit alcoholic father and his dysfunctional family. Sometimes there were good times when his parents reconciled; followed by terrible bouts when his father went on the rampage and his mother took flight. It is also a coming-out story as the writer describes finding his sexuality and takes readers on a journey as to where this leads him. He relates how he tried to shelter his half brother from the wrath and anger and frustration of his father. Gripping, honest and sometimes harrowing, this moving story is…

WHAT is happening now within the ANC is like hearing the voice of the late Baba Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing Homeless. Hearing his loud and beautiful voice singing this verse, “somebody cry why, why, why?” Why now? What had happened? I think there was a time when the ANC was the model of the future, and everyone wanted to be associated with the organisation because of its profound history and its impeccable leaders. A change happened; we started seeing a different type of leadership and started seeing several corrupt elements within the party camouflaging as servants of the people. There was also a profound statement from a senior member of the ANC, Bathabile Dlamini, with the term smolanyana skeletons that everyone hides; this was a saying when this…

France and Britain deployed maritime patrol vessels to the waters off the Channel island of Jersey yesterday as a dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights escalated. The EU called for calm over the row, which yesterday saw a flotilla of French trawlers sail in protest to Jersey’s main harbour and a French minister suggest earlier in the week that Paris might cut electricity to the island. French fishermen say they are being unfairly deprived of access to rich fishing grounds off the coast of Jersey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency. Jersey says it is following the rules for issuing licences set out in Britain’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Talks between island officials and representatives of the fishermen were not positive, said Hugo Lehuby, spokesperson for the Normandy Regional Fisheries…

KAMPALA: The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday sentenced a former Ugandan child soldier who became a commander of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to 25 years in prison for crimes including rape, sexual enslavement, child abduction, torture and murder. Dominic Ongwen, who was taken into ICC custody in 2015, was convicted in February of 61 out of 70 alleged crimes. Presiding Judge Bertram Schmitt said the panel had considered sentencing Ongwen to life imprisonment. Prosecutors had demanded he get at least 20 years in prison, while his defence argued he should get no more than a 10-year sentence. | Reuters…

From page 1 following an increasing number of members who were defying the party’s step-aside resolution. Limpopo ANC treasurer Danny Msiza – implicated in the VBS scandal – is among those identified. ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe confirmed that the total number of people to be suspended would be announced after the NEC meeting. “We will be receiving reports at the NEC meeting and will make announcements on the total number of impacted people after the meeting,” Mabe said. Political analyst Keith Gottschalk said the recent developments showed that the reformist faction in the ANC was winning against the kleptocratic faction. “That it took Ramaphosa’s faction four years’ struggle to remove Ace Magashule from office shows the power of the secretary-general’s faction. The ANC’s constitution and procedures do give the…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za WHILE the issue of what is reasonable compensation for a brilliant idea is the essence of Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate’s case, it’s like asking what is the length of a piece of string – there is no obvious answer. This is the argument of advocate Wim Trengove SC, acting on behalf of Vodacom. The cellphone giant is adamant that the R47 million offered to Makate is “over generous”. The counsel acting for Vodacom argued on the third day of the proceedings in the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that Judge Wendy Hughes could only overturn this amount if she could find that Vodacom chief executive Shameel Joosub acted unreasonably when he decided that this was fair compensation. In determining the amount, Joosub made several…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has once again lashed out at DA leader John Steenhuisen, after the leader of the opposition party in Parliament accused him of being preoccupied with ANC factional battles, while the country was struggling. This was during Ramaphosa’s appearance before the National Assembly to answer questions, which opposition parties used this to seek clarity on a letter by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, suspending Ramaphosa as ANC president. Ramaphosa said Steenhuisen was also involved in DA factional politics, but the ANC did not comment on this. He called on Steenhuisen to stay away from ANC matters and focus on the DA. Ramaphosa faced MPs a day after the suspended Magashule rejected the party’s letter about his suspension and, in turn, said he was suspending Ramaphosa. In…

Jonisayi Maromo jonisayi.maromo@africannewsagency.com THE Department of Agriculture has announced four outbreaks of avian influenza – the latest at a commercial chicken farm in Randfontein on the West Rand in Gauteng. Department spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said three outbreaks have occurred in Gauteng and one in North West. All affected farms have been quarantined, with control measures being implemented. Ngcobo said it was essential for everyone across South Africa to remain on high alert and “treat any increase in mortalities of poultry and other bird species as potential avian influenza, until proven otherwise”. He said poultry consumers had no reason to worry as the risk of transmission of the avian flu to humans was very low. “It must be mentioned that no human infection, due to these circulating strains, had been reported…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za ONLY a quarter of the 752 475 people eligible for Phase 2a of the Covid-19 vaccine have so far registered to receive the jab, with just more than a week left before the process starts. By Wednesday, a total of 182 382, of those over 60 years of age had registered. “It has been a difficult year, now is our time to fight back through our vaccine programme. In 11 days we start the roll-out of the vaccination programme. We can only do this if we are all registered on the system,” Premier Alan Winde said. Phase 2 will start on May 17 and will overlap with the remainder of health-care workers who have not been vaccinated yet as part of the Sisonke programme, health head Dr…

Athandile Siyo and Zanele Mvana THE expansion of informal settlements near Brown’s Farm, Philippi, and in Dunoon have put pressure on residents’ sanitation and electricity services, they said, as overwhelmed systems have led to them living in sewage and without lights. Victoria Mxenge and Dunoon residents said the issue has been getting worse over the past five years. In Victoria Mxenge, residents said since the establishment of the Ramaphosa informal settlement, on an open field next to their homes in 2018, services have been burdened. Community activist Pat Mtholengwe said: “Our electricity was not working for nine months. We then informed the City of Cape Town, as the residents of Ramaphosa informal settlement had tampered with our electrical boxes because they wanted to connect their illegal electricity connections. The electricity…

The Big South African Hair Book Janine Jellars Loot.co.za (R224) KWELA BOOKS A BOOK about hair had to happen eventually – it’s talked about endlessly; historically how you wear your hair has always been a political/social commentary and, from Brazilians to Afros or natural hair, to creating your unique identity with your own style and your relationship with your hair, every one has had their own journey with their locks. Jellars’ book is a wonderfully compiled, chatty and informative one, affirming individuality and the fact that these days there is absolutely no pressure on individuals to do certain things to their hair. Wanna stand out in the crowd or wanna fit in? It's all your call … The Big South African Hair Book is thus a celebration of natural hair…

mark keohane As absurd as it was for the Indian Premier League to continue while most of India was burning because of a surge in Covid-19 burials, it is equally absurd that South African sports stadiums continue to operate in isolation without crowds when the Covid numbers in this country have never been lower. The British & Irish Lions in South Africa is the biggest rugby event of the year, and among the top sporting events in the world in 2021. It seems inconceivable that the Lions will play eight matches in South Africa, including three Test matches against the world champion Springboks, with barely a soul in attendance. Where is the rationale? Restaurants are packed. Shopping malls are packed, and social distancing in shopping malls throughout the country…

ONLY time will tell whether the South African Football Association (Safa), after much pussyfooting, made the right call by appointing Hugo Broos as the new Bafana Bafana coach. Benni McCarthy was the clear favourite among fans and pundits alike, and the choice of Belgian Broos has justifiably raised a degree of cynicism rather than optimism, given Safa's track record of hiring coaches who have been failures. The position became vacant after the unceremonious sacking of Molefi Ntseki, who was surprisingly appointed to the Bafana Bafana hot seat after a string of national team appointments at youth level. There remains a great deal of unnecessary secrecy about the selection process, but reports over the past few weeks from “insiders” indicated that Carlos Queiroz, who steered South Africa to the 2002 World…

The Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s second-biggest dam after months of fierce fighting in their former bastion of Kandahar, the insurgents and officials said yesterday. Dahla Dam, which provides irrigation to farmers via a network of canals as well as drinking water for the provincial capital, was now under Taliban control, local officials said. Haji Gulbuddin, governor of an adjacent district, confirmed the dam “is now in the control of the Taliban”. The dam’s capture comes after clashes erupted in neighbouring Helmand province this week, just days after the US military formally began withdrawing its remaining troops from Afghanistan. Kandahar water department chief Tooryalay Mahboobi said the Taliban recently warned Dahla employees not to go to work. Last month the insurgents blew up a bridge that connected the dam to adjacent…