Índice para 2021-11-24 em Cape Times

Thobile Mazibuko thobile.mazibuko@inl.co.za Certified personal trainer Bongs Ndima has been crowned Mr Gay World South Africa. Ndima is the first black man to win the title. He succeeds Louw Breytenbach, who has been recently crowned Mr Gay World. Breytenbach was initially crowned Mr Gay World SA in May. He won Mr Gay World this month and handed over his reign to Ndima, who was Mr Gay World SA first runner up. Ndima says he entered the competition because he felt there weren’t enough men of colour to represent people who looked like him. He also wanted to push his organisation, Bongs Ndima Foundation, which focuses on male mental health. “Being the first black man to carry the title, in over 10 years of the competition running, it can’t be right.…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za | POLITICAL BUREAU FORMER president Jacob Zuma yesterday complained about being disrespected by the three organisations that want to revoke his medical parole. The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), AfriForum and the DA asked the North Gauteng High Court to overturn the decision by former correctional services national commissioner Arthur Fraser to grant Zuma parole. Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu SC said the case was clearly a politically motivated application, and that the HSF, AfriForum and DA application was a mighty waste of judicial processes. Mpofu described the organisations as right wing and “racist”. ”Our courts cannot be used for this thing,” he said, adding that the matter was full of falsities and that the parties involved were propping up a case that was non-existent. According to Mpofu, the…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE under-fire Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Icosa) leadership has poured cold water on mounting calls for its Kannaland child rapist mayor Jeffrey Donson to step down after he was elected to the municipality’s top post with the help of the ANC. The coalition between the party and the ANC also saw Icosa fraudster Werner Meshoa elected as his deputy. In a statement yesterday, the party came to Donson’s defence, saying that forcing his removal as executive mayor would be tantamount to double jeopardy as he had already been ‘punished’. The party’s provincial chairperson, David Kamfer, said Donson had paid his dues as deemed fit by the courts. “Icosa emphasises that he (alderman Jeffrey Donson) has never hidden parts of his life from the public. “He…

Ingredients Method 400–600g skinless deboned chicken thighs 1 tsp dried thyme salt and pepper to taste 1 tsp olive oil ¼ cup water, or as needed 2 cups mixed salad leaves ½ red onion, thinly sliced ½ cup sliced chives ½ cup torn fresh parsley ½ cup torn fresh dill ¼ cup crumbled blue cheese DRESSING 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar ¼ cup olive oil ¾ cup dried cranberries, plus extra for garnishing 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 3–4 Tbsp water salt and pepper to taste Season the chicken thighs with the thyme, salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken thighs on all sides. Cook the chicken until done, adding the water if the pan gets dry. Remove from…

Hanif A Patel | India INDIAN Prime Minister Modi has taken the right step by announcing to repeal three contentious farmer laws that are the centre of confrontation between the farmers and the government. Finally, farmers have compelled the government to bow down after the widespread agitation and scarification of 700 farmers. The decision to repeal them is a triumph of the power of the people of Indian democracy. It can be dubbed a petrifying victory for the farmers who protested patiently against draconian laws which are against the interest of farmers. Adversely affecting producers and consumers. In spite of overseas Indians joining to support the farmers and several countries’ dignitaries who had shown empathy towards Indian farmers’ plight, the problem remained unsolved. The contribution of farmers…

As an absolute minimum, the metro must rename streets honouring high-profile racists KOERT Meyer’s article urges Cape Town’s new mayor to change offensive street names (Cape Times, November 23). There have been controversies about the current renaming of towns and roads – but quite forgotten are the controversies about how they originally acquired their old names. This article briefly looks at how three road names were imposed upon the City of Cape Town. Under apartheid, municipal elections in Cape Town were not officially fought on party lines, but unofficially, everyone understood that the City Council was dominated by supporters of Jan Smuts’s United Party, and by the 1980s, control had slipped to the Progressive Party, the first name of today’s DA. Not once did the English-speaking, white-dominated municipal…

Stockholm: A former Iranian prison official accused of handing out death sentences during a 1988 purge of dissidents yesterday slammed as “lies” the charges brought against him in a landmark trial in Sweden. Hamid Noury, 60, has been on trial in Stockholm’s district court since August on charges including murder, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They stem from the period between July 30 and August 16, 1988, when he was allegedly assistant to the deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Karaj, near Tehran. Human rights groups say about 5 000 prisoners were killed across Iran, allegedly under the orders of supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini in reprisal for attacks carried out by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) at the end of the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. Noury took…

Mavys Alvarez, a Cuban woman who had a relationship with late soccer star Diego Maradona two decades ago, said yesterday that the Argentine player had raped her when she was a teenager and “stolen her childhood”. Alvarez, now 37, gave testimony last week to an Argentine Ministry of Justice court that is investigating her allegations of trafficking against Maradona’s former entourage, linked to events when she was 16. Maradona, widely considered one of the greatest ever soccer stars, died a year ago on November 25, 2020. The complaint relates to a journey Alvarez took to Argentina with Maradona in 2001, when he was around 40 and she was 16. Alvarez said she first met the soccer star shortly before the trip, when he was in Cuba to undergo drug addiction…

Quito: Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso has granted a pardon to inmates with serious illnesses and those jailed for traffic violations to alleviate overcrowding in the country’s prisons after recent riots left more than 300 dead. The pardons will benefit seriously or terminally ill prisoners and those involved in traffic offences that did not cause injury or death, the communications ministry said, without specifying how many would be released. It was announced after bloody clashes between rival gangs left at least 68 dead at a prison in the city of Guayaquil, with inmates attacking each other with guns, machetes and explosives.…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za CORONATION Fund Managers lifted fund management earnings per share by 22.9 percent to 470.9 cents in the year to September 30 supported by stronger markets and an out-performance of client mandates. Fund management earnings are used by Coronation’s management to measure operating financial performance – it excludes fair value gains and losses, and related foreign exchange, on investment securities held. Dividends for the company that is 25 percent staff-owned increased 22.7 percent to 470c per share, from 383c in the prior corresponding period. A final dividend of 226c (205c) was declared. Revenue and earnings from fund management were up 17 percent and 23 percent respectively. Markets had performed strongly, after coming off the low base of March 2020. The MSCI All…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za POWER utility Eskom was rapped on the knuckles yesterday over its failure to provide audit evidence for auditing of its finances during the 2020-21 financial year, and for not disciplining its personnel. This happened when the entity’s bosses appeared before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), where it was asked about R11 billion incurred in irregular expenditure. Eskom was qualified on the basis of material misstatements in its financial statements, expenditure management, procurement and contract management, consequence management and revenue generation. ANC MP Bheki Hadebe said the auditors had found that the audit outcomes were stagnant with lots of repeat findings and there was poor record-keeping. “Annual financial statements are submitted for audit with material misstatement. This is the same finding highlighted in the previous financial…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za THE National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) in the province has given the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE) until Friday to respond to their demand for the immediate dismissal of a senior government official who the high court found was unlawfully appointed. Last Friday union members protested outside the DFFE offices in Cape Town demanding action. They have also alleged the DFFE’s former director-general had been abusing the section 40 provision of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), and allegedly continually appointed certain senior managers without subjecting them to an open and fair recruitment process, whether an appointment was made under section 40 of the NEMA or not. On October 26, two employees won a case in the Western Cape High…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za POLICE have opened an inquest docket after the body of a 70-year-old man was retrieved from his vehicle in Mossel Bay, along the Garden Route, which has been left devastated due to heavy rains and flooding. “Reports available indicate that a driver of a double-cab bakkie attempted to cross a low-water bridge when the vehicle was washed down stream. The police’s Rural Sector manager responded and had to dive into the water, where he forced open a window to get access to the cabin of the vehicle,” police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said. After the body was retrieved, CPR was performed, however the victim had already succumbed to possible drowning, said Pojie. “An autopsy will be performed during the week to determine the exact cause of his…

Neil Veitch | Kenilworth THE final fiery seconds of SAA Flight 295, en route from Taipei to Johannesburg on November 28, 1987, continues to torment the relatives of the 159 passengers and crew who died in the explosion as the Boeing hit the waves of the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius. Brave Captain Dawie Uys, forced to fly his burning aircraft to destruction on orders from PW Botha who, terrified lest his illegal cargo of jet fuel be revealed in some foreign airport, threatened the veteran pilot with the loss of his pension. Flying a cargo, as it is alleged, of highly unstable war material on a passenger airliner, is a contravention of Civilian Aviation Authority's most stringent regulation but one PW Botha was happy not only to…

At the turn of the 21st century, China and Africa established what would become one of the world’s most vibrant and successful multilateral platforms for international co-operation – the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac). Since the establishment of Focac, China has become Africa’s biggest economic partner. There is no other country with such depth and breadth of engagement across trade, investment and infrastructure financing in Africa. In recent months, riots, coups and elections across Africa have once again put the spotlight on China's role on the continent, where it has accumulative investments of about $120 billion (about R1.9 trillion). This has prompted some commentators and politicians to suggest that the Sino-African relationship is one-sided and needs re-balancing to assuage public fears, fuelled by relentless Western misinformation campaigns claiming that China’s…

At least 45 people, including a dozen minors, were killed after a bus caught fire south of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, early yesterday morning, officials said. A cause has yet to be determined but officials believe a fire broke out on board and the bus crashed into guardrails. No other vehicles were involved in the accident, which occurred at about 2am on a highway about 40km from Sofia, near the village of Bosnek. “Of the victims … 12 were under the age of 18,” national police chief Stanimir Stanev said. He added that 45 of the 52 people on the bus were killed. Nikolay Nikolov, head of the Fire Safety and Civil Protection department at the interior ministry, said “seven passengers survived”. They were taken to a hospital in…

COLOMBO: Six people, including four schoolchildren, were killed and 11 injured when a ferry they were travelling in capsized in east Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning, according to police. The police said several schoolchildren were on the ferry when it capsized in Kinniya, Trincomalee, and navy divers were conducting an immediate search-and-rescue mission. Witnesses said a large crowd had gathered in the area and some local volunteers were assisting the navy searching for the missing people. Some schoolchildren are also among those listed as missing. Police said the ferry had capsized due to overloading.…

SYDNEY: Millions of red crabs crawled across Christmas Island yesterday, part of their annual migration to the ocean on the island off the coast of Western Australia. “This year’s migration has just been absolutely epic,” said Christmas Island National Park natural resource manager Brendan Tiernan. “The roads have been a seething mass of red crabs and people are having to get out of their cars and rake them out the way.” Tiernan said the ecological phenomenon of crabs migrating to the sea to spawn occurs nowhere else on such a scale. The Christmas Island red crab is unique to the island and protected by Australian law.…

“I don’t want to sound political”, said Ryan Campbell on at least a few occasions during the Netherlands’ arrival press conference yesterday. Welcome to South Africa, Mr Campbell where everything is political, particularly cricket. Campbell may be the Netherlands coach on their first ever tour of SA and fairly assimilated into the Dutch culture, but he has certainly lost none of his straight-shooting ability ingrained during his formative years back in Perth. He wasn’t, though, being “political” in the SA sense, where it naturally migrates to race relations. He was referring more to cricket’s hierarchy and its treatment of associate nations, particularly in respect of the ICC’s curtailing of the World Super League after 2023 last week, when in fact it’s due to the WSL that the Netherlands are about…

ARNO Botha says playing for Munster was “one of the best times of my life”, and now he is excited about facing the Irish team for the Bulls in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash at Loftus. Botha, who turned 30 in October, had a tough time with injuries in his previous stint at the Bulls, and tried to make a fresh start in Europe. He first turned out for London Irish in early 2018, but then soon found himself at Munster, having been recruited by one of his former Bulls coaches, Johann van Graan, who had taken over the coaching duties from Rassie Erasmus – who left Ireland for the Springboks. He repaid the faith shown in him by Van Graan with a number of impressive displays, and…

Marchelle Abrahams marchelle.abrahams@inl.co.za Maps Maponyane can do no wrong. One of SA’s most eligible bachelors had women across Mzansi clutching their pearls over the weekend when he posted a series of snaps of himself sharing a special moment with his niece. The proud uncle managed to spend some quality time with his 8-month-old niece, Nova, and captioned the post on Instagram: “Happy 8 months Nova. Thanks for bringing so much joy into our lives and making me the happiest uncle.” Soon his comments section was flooded with responses to the adorable duo. One fan joked: “For a moment, I thought I would read dad somewhere.” Another said: “You with babies are my favourite content!” One thing we can all agree on is that it’s definitely the content we signed up…

Staff writer THE Department of Health has added the rapid antigen tests on the line of Covid-19 statistics, effective immediately. “As of 8 November 2021, we have identified approximately 75 000 antigen tests that need to be captured into the database. Of these tests, about 20 813 were diagnosed as positive for Sars-CoV-2,” the department said in a statement. Testing for Sars-CoV-2 in South Africa is based on the gold standard of a laboratory-confirmed PCR test. Initially all Covid-19 positive cases were diagnosed through this method. However in October 2020 rapid antigen tests were approved for use by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) and have been increasingly used by health-care professionals to diagnose Covid-19. The country’s Covid-19 surveillance data is premised on capturing laboratory-confirmed case data of…

Ntombi Nkosi ntombi.nkosi@inl.co.za The Tshwane council re-elected Randall Williams as its mayor unopposed yesterday with the opposition ANC not submitting any candidate for the position and refusing to vote for the nominated candidates of its rivals. It was expected that the DA would get a clean sweep after parties like the EFF and ActionSA vowed to vote with the DA to get rid of the ANC. The inaugural council meeting of the City of Tshwane took place yesterday, the day after DA with the help of the EFF and ActionSA took over the metros of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg. All three councillors, Williams, speaker Katlego Mathebe and chief whip Christo van den Heever, were elected unopposed. “I would like to thank Pretoria’s residents for strengthening our country’s democracy. I accept the…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za A TEACHER who was seeking retrospective reinstatement, claiming that the correct procedure wasn’t followed after being placed on retirement due to ill health, has lost her application. Rosey Malamane claimed she was incorrectly dismissed in 2016 by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) during a period when she had been off on sick leave, and she was now fit for work. Malamane believed that she should have been receiving a monthly pension as this was the option she had chosen but instead had received a lump sum from the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and that the calculation type used was wrong. She approached the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) hoping to be reinstated, testifying that she lost her job without any valid reasons and that she…

Agnes Comrie | Noordhoek SOME years ago I was fortunate to own a “Hot Box” (also known as “Wonder Cushions”) which, on moving home, I donated to our domestic helper. This consisted of two large cushions filled with polystyrene beads and contained in a cardboard box. After bringing ingredients in a pot to a rapid boil on the stove, the pot with lid would be placed on the bottom cushion and then covered with the top cushion tucked in tightly. This method insulated the food and by the end of the day, voila, the meal would be cooked and ready to eat. I understand that this worked on the same principle as a “hay box” used during wartime. I have made extensive enquiries but, unfortunately, it appears “Hot Boxes” are…

Dr Willa Boezak | Member of the Afrikaans Language Board I DON’T know if it’s ignorance or warped politics. Honourable Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, has decided that the country’s oldest languages, namely, the Bushmen’s N/uu and Khoikhoigowab, are not indigenous. This is strange given the abundance of archaeological, historical and genetic evidence that these Southern African communities are the descendants of the first modern human beings, i.e. homo sapiens. It’s therefore not surprising that the protection of their languages are mentioned in the very first pages of our Constitution. Doesn’t he have knowledgeable researchers at his disposal? With one stroke of the pen he also dismisses Afrikaans as being “non-indigenous” while Prof GS Nienaber already highlighted its Khoi origin in the 1970s.…

IN recent weeks, at least five children were kidnapped in Limpopo and Gauteng for ransom in what appears to be the work of criminal gangs. This includes the Moti brothers – aged between 6 and 15 – who were kidnapped by seven gunmen in Polokwane while on their way to school. Zia, 15, Alaan, 13, Zayyad, 11, and Zidan, 6, were bundled into a vehicle after the gang intercepted their family car, according to police. Three weeks later, after the police failed to make a breakthrough, the boys resurfaced at Vuwani in Vhembe, more than 150km from their home, and were later reunited with their parents. National police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo said local police were informed by a Vuwani resident that the children had showed up at their house…

Africa is challenged to translate political commitments into concrete actions as the continent still faces enormous developmental challenges in the water and sanitation sectors, a Namibian minister said. The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the need for Africa to address investment in bulk water supplies and to initiate safety and hygiene protocols for all, Namibia’s Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform Calle Schlettwein said at the opening of the 6th Africa Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene, being held virtually. “The mobilisation of resources to finance the required investment outlay remains a difficult proposition. “Our aspirations for economic growth and social transformation in Agenda 2063 are tied in with ensuring equitable availability of water and sanitation for all purposes, hence the centrality of availability of the water resource as a utility…

SRINAGAR: Rights groups including the UN have criticised the arrest of a prominent activist in Indian-administered Kashmir on terror funding charges. Khurram Parvez was arrested late on Monday by India’s federal National Investigation Agency (NIA). His residence and office were searched and a mobile phone, laptop and books seized. A spokesperson for the NIA confirmed Parvez’s arrest yesterday. He is being held under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, that allows for detention of up to six months without trial. His lawyer, Parvez Imroz, could not immediately be reached for comment.…

SEOUL: Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan, harshly criticised for the brutal suppression of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, has died at the age of 90, media reported yesterday. The former strongman ruler passed away at his home in Seoul after combating chronic disease. The ex-president wanted his remains to be buried “on a frontline high ground overlooking North Korean territory”, Min Jeong-ki, a former presidential secretary, said. Chun ran South Korea from 1980 to 1988. He came to power in 1979 after leading a military coup after the assassination of then-President Park Chung-hee.…