Table of contents for 2021-08-06 in Cape Times

Sappi loses R220m production due to riots in KwaZulu-Natal EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za Sappi, the wood fibre product group, had suffered a more than R220 million loss of production after having to close paper and pulp mills due to the recent riots in KwaZulu-Natal, chief executive Steve Binnie said yesterday. He said during an interview on the group’s third quarter results to June 2021 that this figure might rise further due to the impact of the cyberattack on Transnet and ongoing Covid-19 related global supply chain issues. The civil unrest in July caused disruptions to raw material supplies and forced the temporary closure of the Saiccor, Tugela and Stanger mills in KwaZulu-Natal. A combined total of 28 000 tons of dissolving pulp (DP) and 7 000 tons of paper…

From page 1 They additionally want certain sections of the Divorce Act to apply in the interim until laws are enacted. Muslim Judicial Council SA (MJC) first deputy president, Abdul Khaliq Allie, said the remarks were undignified and unacceptable. “The MJC condemns out of hand any acts of discrimination, which are distinctly contrary to the tenets of Islam, which supports the dignity of all people. In this light, the bigoted remarks made in the Concourt today by a member of the legal profession against another colleague are regarded as undignified and unacceptable,” he said. The Legal Resources Centre said yesterday that they stand in solidarity with the WLC and endorse their statement that Omar’s utterances were not only hurtful but undermine Bawa’s professionalism. WLC director, Seeham Samaai, said the…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za GRADE 7 Generation Schools pupil Latita Liebenberg is over the moon after being selected to feature in an educational animated series about environmental conservation. CapeNature in partnership with Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will today launch the new series LoveNature with Mbali starring Latita as 13-year-old nature lover Mbali. The entertaining series has been aligned with the Grade 4 to 7 Natural Sciences and Technology lesson plans, and will effectively support pupils whose home language is English, Xhosa and Afrikaans. It includes environment, water, waste, species conservation and energy themes. “When I got the phone call to say that I would be taking the role of Mbali I was extremely excited. Going through the different episodes it became clear that our planet was in real trouble. “I…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za THE Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) has dismissed, with immediate effect a former Mount View Secondary School teacher found guilty of misconduct, for having a sexual relationship with a former learner, impregnating the girl, and later facilitating an abortion. The Hanover Park teacher, identified as H Jabaar in the ELRC arbitration award, did not attend proceedings. The former learner was subpoenaed but it became apparent that she would not attend the hearing and was not willing or able to testify but, in light of the history and circumstances of the matter, arbitrator Arthi Singh-Bhoopchand was requested to proceed with the inquiry. The teacher, currently employed at another school, was accused of having a relationship with the learner in 2019, when she was a minor. A copy of…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za IT WAS an eerie feeling walking through the park with no visitors – the feeling even affecting the animals, who craved their daily “fix” in the form of visitors, one park owner said. “We could see some becoming more vocal and some becoming more withdrawn.” In speaking about the crisis the Covid pandemic has thrown local conservation and rehabilitation organisations into, World of Birds facility manager and co-owner Hendrik Louw said the effects spanned beyond a struggle to feed and care for animals and now included impacts on the mental health of animals, along with staff who have had to pull together to ensure the survival of their facilities. Many are on their last legs, more than a year and half into the pandemic. “Pre-Covid we were…

| Julian Richfield AMAZON UNBOUND Brad Stone Loot.co.za (R265) Simon & Schuster Jeff Bezos and Amazon, two names known globally and hardly needing introduction. Bezos, believed to be worth over $195 billion (about R2.8 trillion) and Amazon, the company he founded and until July 5, was its chief executive. Amazon’s market capitalisation is about $1.7 trillion. If those numbers have you goshing and wowing and excited, Brad Stone’s new book, Amazon Unbound, will be a fascinating and compelling read. The book is “a vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became on of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy and how seismic changes inside the company led to dramatic innovations, as well as costly missteps”. Even with its phenomenal success, Amazon has received constant…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za BABY T’s mother says she has no idea how her child ended up the way she did. The child is said to have been critically ill and emaciated. And she had at least 31 fractures across her body when she landed in hospital, aged just 5 months. The mother took the stand yesterday in the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where she and the baby’s father are facing an array of charges, among them attempted murder and child neglect. Baby T, who was born prematurely at 31 weeks in February last year, was first admitted to hospital in April last year, when she was 2 months old. The now-estranged couple took her to hospital after she had stopped breathing. X-rays done on the baby showed multiple rib…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za HEALTH officials are hard at work to figure out why residents in Mitchells Plain are hesitant to take the vaccine. This as registration numbers for the area were lowest in the province at 24.9% overall. “The Mitchells Plain phenomenon is actually something we are examining to try and find out exactly what the drivers are. “There are factors which are mitigating to people coming forward for vaccination. “A lot of those has got to do with who the opinion leaders are and how that information is distributed to people to either discourage them or make them very unsure about taking the vaccine,” health head Dr Keith Cloete said as he addressed the media at the latest Covid-19 digicon briefing yesterday. Cloete said he participated in a meeting…

Ilse Haas | Bothasig WAKE up South Africa, before good honest citizens have enough and take law and order into their own hands. After all those years of talking, we are still sitting with corrupt and dysfunctional politicians in all fields. The latest a woman being a health minister, with no medical background. All people who had the best knowledge, just because they have the wrong skin colour have been replaced by the new elite, people who do not know what they are doing. End results, nothing is functioning right any more. South Africa urgently needs strong leadership, no “hip-hops” like Zuma, or nice people like Ramaphosa. The economy in South Africa is on “ice” busy skating into disaster. Crime is getting out of hand, and this with…

W Harding | Noordhoek I SEE the deputy president is on his way back to SA after some two months “receiving treatment” in Russia. Could someone please explain why he found it necessary to go to Russia when South Africa’s medical services are amongst the best in the world. This man is notorious for ducking and diving, and appears to make little or no contribution to the “affairs of state”. Perhaps we could also be informed of all the costs involved in this trip. Are we expected to treat the present deputy president with respect? You have to be joking!…

OWN Correspondent THE Men in Black Doeks will be speaking out for change at various events, while wearing their black doeks, to raise awareness of gender-based violence (GBV) on Women’s Day and during Women’s Month. NGO, ACTIVATE! Change Drivers will be exploring the significance of including boys in conversations which seek to alter dysfunctional patterns of behaviour within societies. The campaign is in collaboration with Generation Equality Forum and #MenInBlackDoeks. Activities which will mostly be in the form of a Twitter Spaces Series @ActivateZA, begin today, with a representative from UN Women unpacking the theme and setting the context. There will also be a #SelfieChallenge from August 9, which will continue for the remainder of the month. In solidarity with women, Activate asks men to take a selfie of…

Investigations reveal its government had identified 3 500 phone numbers THE extensive use of Pegasus spyware by governments to spy on other heads of state has sent shock waves across the world, but it has also lifted a lid on what governments like Rwanda are doing covertly. While Rwanda has denied using Pegasus spyware, the Pegasus Project – a consortium of international media and NGOs – investigated how Pegasus spyware, of the Israeli company NSO Group, was abused by governments to spy on their perceived enemies. Pegasus spyware allows the client to record phone calls, read texts and emails, access photographs and passwords, and secretly activate microphones and cameras to make audio and video recordings. The investigations of the Pegasus Project reveal the Rwandan government had identified more than 3…

Wildfires have reached Olympia, the ancient Greek birthplace of the Olympic Games, a famous archaeological site where the Games were held every four years from 776 BC for over a millennium. Photos and videos from the area, which is engulfed by a blaze, were shared online, showing firefighters battling the flames with assistance from helicopters and planes. ​In neighbouring Turkey, the Kemerkoy Thermal Power Plant in Mugla province was engulfed by a wildfire. ​According to authorities, all explosive chemicals – hydrogen tanks and coal – have been removed from the strategic site. The death toll from the wildfires which have ravaged almost the entire perimeter of Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts stands at eight. Some districts were declared “disaster areas”, prompting locals and tourists to flee. In Greece, over 100…

San Francisco: Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk says Walter Isaacson, biographer of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is writing a book about him. In a tweet, he said Isaacson had been shadowing him “for several days so far”. “If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography,” Musk tweeted. Musk added that he “particularly liked” Isaacson’s biography of US founding father Benjamin Franklin, and one day he would write his own autobiography. Musk has not been happy about other books written about him. Isaacson is the president and chief executive of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan policy studies organisation based in Washington, DC, the chairman and chief executive of CNN, and the editor of Time magazine. His book ‘Steve Jobs’ was…

BRUSSELS: The EU calls for end of violence in Afghanistan as fighting escalates, EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said yesterday in a joint statement. “This senseless violence is inflicting immense suffering upon Afghan citizens and is increasing the number of internally displaced persons in search of safety and shelter,” Borrell and Lenarcic stated. The EU officials decried the Taliban’s (a terror group banned in Russia) arbitrary killings of civilians, lashing of women and infrastructure destruction, adding that “some of these acts could amount to war crimes.”…

LAHORE: Pakistan deployed paramilitary forces in a central town yesterday to check communal unrest after a mob ransacked and set fire to a Hindu temple. Ahmad Nawaz, a spokesperson for the Rahimyar Khan district police, said the mob attacked the temple in the town of Bhong after reports that a Hindu boy had urinated in the library of an Islamic seminary. On July 24, a cleric at the seminary told police he found a young Hindu boy urinating. Police registered a case of blasphemy. Blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan. Although no executions have been carried out, suspects are often killed by vigilantes.…

ASHFAK MOHAMED ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za IT is one thing not qualifying for an Olympic final. But in the case of Chederick van Wyk, he didn’t even get to run at the Tokyo Stadium yesterday following Team South Africa’s misfortune in the men’s 4x100m relay heat. Considered one of the last medal hopes for Mzansi in athletics, the relay team were confident of at least making today’s final, having won the World Athletics Relays title in Poland in May. SA relays coach Paul Gorries had worked long and hard to prepare the squad for Tokyo, including a number of camps ahead of the World Athletics Relays and the Olympics – including one in Gemona, Italy, in July. They went through great lengths to travel to Poland in late April for the May 1-2…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za The MANUFACTURING sector is expected to continue ramping-up its production capacity after showing significant improvement in May from last year’s record plunge during the level 5 lockdown. However, the recent civil unrest that disrupted supply chains in July could hamper the manufacturing capacity and have a prolonged effect on the industry well into 2022. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the utilisation of production capacity by large manufacturers rose to 78.6 percent in May from 59.8 percent a year ago. This was an increase of 18.8 percentage points as all of the manufacturing divisions experienced increases in utilisation of production capacity during the month. The May print was also higher than February’s reading of 76.3 percent as manufacturers used more…

From page 1 She handed over WhatsApp messages between the two, as well as pictures of them together. Fry further testified that, when asking the father why he wanted the matter to be withdrawn, the parent said he was trying to get the teacher to marry his daughter and that it was about “family honour”. Fry also consulted the teacher who admitted his actions. He said he had reneged on his agreement to marry the learner because he was already married and his wife was pregnant. “In the absence of the teacher, I am faced with only one version. It is trite that when a decision-maker proceeds with a matter in the absence of one party, he or she is nevertheless required to evaluate the evidence and arrive at…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za THE protest march staged by the EFF in Phoenix to voice anger over the killing of 36 people by alleged vigilante groups turned into a platform to call for confrontation with all racist people. The march, which was attended by about 6 000 people, became a platform for party leaders to slam the governing ANC and the armed forces for their alleged heavy-handedness when dealing with black people. The EFF marchers, who were bused in from various parts of Durban in the morning, convened at Phoenix park. Under the watchful eye of heavily armed SAPS and Durban metro police, who came in riot gear and armoured vehicles, they made their way to Phoenix police station to deliver their memorandum. EFF secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini, and KZN provincial leader,…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za WHILE the Constitutional Court yesterday reserved judgment on an application to have Muslim marriages recognised under common law, an attorney has come under fire for making a discriminatory remark during proceedings by saying the Women’s Legal Centre’s (WLC) lawyer’s hijab made her “look like a ninja”. Yasmeen Omar, an attorney who works for Zehir Omar Attorneys, was among the members of the virtual proceeding, and had her microphone unmuted when she was heard saying “Look how Nasreen Bawa came. She’s dressed like a ninja. Did she always dress like that? She didn’t. She’s putting on an act today, can you see?” In a statement yesterday, Bawa said it is most regrettable that the “discriminatory” comment was made by a woman while acting in her capacity as a…

OUGAT Shana Fife Loot.co.za (R180) Jonathan Ball Ougat is masterfully written, raw, unpretentious, unsettling. Ougat is Shana Fife’s story of survival: of surviving the social conditioning of her Cape Flats community, of surviving sexual violence and depression, and of ultimately escaping a cycle of abuse. By the time Shana Fife is 25 she has two kids from different fathers. To the coloured people she grew up around, she is a Jezebel, a woman with mileage on the p*ssy. She is alone, she has no job and, as she is constantly reminded by her family, she is pretty much worthless and unlovable. How did she become this woman, the epitome of everything she was conditioned to strive not to be? Exploring themes of sexuality, marriage and motherhood, rape, drugs and depression,…

INTO DARK WATER Jeremy Vearey Jeremy Vearey, ex-MK cadre and bodyguard to Nelson Mandela, is a former police major-general and deputy provincial commissioner of the Western Cape SAPS. His book “Into Dark Water” presents a wide-angle portrait of policing, politics and criminality in the Western Cape. In the excerpt below, he engages the enemy. MY NEXT encounter with the enemy was in December 1992, well within shooting and stabbing range. It was a heady time of Madiba magic and rainbow nation euphoria. Joe Nhlanhla, the national head of the ANC’s Department of Intelligence and Security, had just instructed our head in the Western Cape, Jacob Madikiza, to engage with the Security Branch to address the political and sectarian violence in the region jointly. Colonel Gordon Brookbanks, the commander of…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za REVEREND June Dolley-Major’s testimony was heard publicly for the first time as the Diocesan Tribunal into her alleged rape got under way yesterday. Giving testimony – 19 years after the alleged incident – Dolley-Major said she had been silenced by “canonical obedience” as she was told to “think of the church” when she had first spoken about her alleged rape incident at the theological seminary in Makhanda in 2002. Dolley-Major’s alleged rapist pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against him which include sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual immorality. An emotional Dolley-Major recounted her ordeal to the tribunal, with further proceedings expected to continue and a medical expert set to testify today. Dolley-Major said at the time of the incident, she and her now ex-husband were…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za THE case against accused murderer and alleged gun smuggler Anderson Padayachee is set to go ahead in the Western Cape High Court for pre-trial proceedings next month. Padayachee, whose matter was heard in the Worcester Magistrate’s Court yesterday, is accused of having supplied firearms and ammunition to the Terrible Josters gang in Bonteheuwel. He faces over 60 charges including the sale of firearms and ammunition, eight counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, as well as fraud and money laundering. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the matter was postponed to September 10. Padayachee is out on R60 000 bail and lives in Durban where his bail conditions prohibit him from leaving the magisterial district of Wentworth. According to his charge sheet, Padayachee, “modified firearms…

THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA WHEN Bafana Bafana travelled to African countries during the early days of South Africa’s readmission into international sport in 1992, our boys discovered how different the world could be, or in that case, the continent. Almost country after another would hand out three-star treatment for our soccer heroes. Of course, this was not just something done to South Africa. This was an endemic African football practice acted upon by other countries when hosting their continental counterparts. The practice was disturbing. From being accommodated in less than three-star hotels, the inferior standard of the soccer pitches provided for training, sometimes matches, and even the quality of food in the hotels, smacked with Idi Amin’s spirits. The SA Football Association had had enough and later stepped in and…

Len Walker | Somerset West IN THE UK, a Covid-19 passport has been introduced which confirms a person’s vaccination details and which no doubt will in the course of time become a requirement, particularly for purposes of travel. I made an enquiry through the toll-free Covid-19 vaccination centre as to how one can obtain such a passport or a certificate to this effect. I was told that I had to request such a certificate from the vaccination site where I received my Pfizer jabs, which was at the Helderberg Hospital in Somerset West. I duly made contact with that hospital to be told that they do not issue vaccination certificates and for travel purposes I should use the handwritten card that was issued to me. I was rather…

MICHAEL BAGRAIM | Highlands Estate EVERYONE seems to think that the countrywide looting is some sort of factional violence or issues arising out of the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma. I don’t believe it’s anything of the sort. I have been warning the Minister of Employment and Labour for over two years that the unemployment rates are completely unsustainable and will lead to our own “Arab spring”. When a man torched himself because they took away his means of earning a living, that incident sparked an entire uprising which spread all the way to Egypt. The unemployment situation in the north of Africa was the real cause of the uprising. Our government is fully aware of the situation and the precarious nature of mass unemployment. Our government…

THE long-awaited tour of the British and Irish Lions to South Africa has certainly delivered on its promise of great entertainment. There has not been a dull moment since the tourists arrived – on and off the field – and now the tour draws to a climax tomorrow with another thriller in prospect. After the Lions had swept South Africa’s provincial teams before them with ease, they proceeded to win the first Test match against the Springboks 22-17, before the Boks bounced back emphatically to win 27-9 to level the series at 1-1. Tomorrow is the third and final Test and the winner takes all. This means this last tour match has a Cup Final feel to it, and the tension has been building all week. The verbal sparring between…

Eleven people were arrested as part of the UK Football Policing Unit’s (UKFPU) countrywide hate crime inquiry into the racist messages addressed to England’s football players, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said yesterday. On July 11, the English team lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 final at the Wembley Stadium in London. After the game, England’s players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka — who failed to score in a penalty shoot-out — were subjected to a hate campaign on social media. A total of 207 social media accounts have sent the racist messages, and 123 of them were outside the UK. The UKFPU is now expecting the additional data to identify the rest of 50 account holders. Football Policing Lead Mark Roberts said that investigating social media…

Mohammad Masud braves Dhaka’s sweltering summer heat to pedal across the Bangladeshi capital in his rickshaw and queue at one of the last charities still feeding those left destitute by the pandemic. Nearby are hundreds of out-of-work or struggling security guards, transport workers, domestic servants and homeless children finishing their plates of rice and lentils at Mehmankhana, or the “dining place for guests”. “I have been hungry all day,” 28-year-old Masud told AFP. “I did not make enough to buy food.” When Bangladesh shut down for more than two months last year in its first Covid outbreak, hundreds of charities, civic groups and political parties gave out food, cash, masks and sanitiser to those who lost their jobs. But coronavirus fatigue has set in and people have become less willing…

CAIRO: A journalist for Middle East-headquartered news broadcaster Al Jazeera has been arrested by Egyptian authorities in Cairo on his return from visiting his family in Doha, Qatar. The Middle East Monitor reported on Wednesday that Rabee Al-Shaykh, a producer for Al Jazeera’s Mubasher channel, was transferred to the Egyptian National Security Agency and interrogated for many hours after being arrested on Sunday. The Middle East Eye reported that the producer’s arrest came after a leaked audio recording in which he invited an Egyptian columnist to speak in an interview about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis.…

JUBA: South Sudan’s first Vice-President Riek Machar has accused rival military leaders who announced he had been deposed as party and armed forces leader of trying to block the country’s peace process. The military wing of his SPLM/A-IO movement said on Wednesday it had removed Machar, who helped push his partner, President Salva Kiir, to a peace deal in 2018 and the subsequent formation of a unity government, for undermining reforms. “The declaration was engineered and facilitated by peace spoilers,” Machar said in a statement issued after a meeting of his party’s Political Bureau.…

Momentum Investments revises South Africa’s Siphelele Dludla siphelele dludla@inl.co.za Momentum Investments is the latest institution to revise down South Africa’s growth prospects and has factored in the possibility of a fourth wave of Covid-19 into their forecast. The downward revision comes as the economy has been stymied by the impact of level 4 lockdown restrictions and the week-long disruption of supply chains in July, some of which is ongoing. Van Tonder said their forecast factored in the possibility of a fourth wave of Covid-19 later in the year. The National Institute of Communicable Disease predicted recently that the third wave would likely peak in most provinces by mid-August, while other health experts have said a fourth wave was possible as early as October. Momentum Investments yesterday lowered its 2021 gross…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za ADDRESSING the gender pay gap and environmental social and governance (ESG) issues had to be prioritised in South African boardrooms going forward, the latest remuneration report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said yesterday. The PwC’s 13th edition of the “Exe- cutive directors’: Practices and Remuneration Trends” report found that the pay gap was most pronounced in medium-cap companies, with a gender pay gap of 46 percent observed at the median and 51 percent at the upper quartile, with a smaller pay gap observed in small-cap companies with gaps of 27 percent and 30 percent observed respectively at the median and upper quartiles. Andreas Horak, PwC reward practice co-lead and director in PwC’s people and organisation department, told journalists that a more representative workforce, which includes…

Lisa Isaacs lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za THE Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has upheld an appeal against a Western Cape High Court decision to evict a Bantry Bay woman, her 83-year-old mother and their housekeeper. The issue before the SCA was whether any right that appellant Petra Davidan, her mother Helene Schonees and housekeeper Elizabeth Gunta may have had to occupy the property had been lawfully terminated. Davidan and the late Mercure Paizee met in March 2002 when Paizee was residing at the property and the pair soon began co-habiting. In March 2004, the Botany Bay Trust was created and Paizee transferred the property to the trust. A mortgage was registered over the property for 20 years. It was not disputed that on July 12, 2004, Davidan and the trustees entered into a…

Siyavuya Mzantsi siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za THE axe fell on Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who controversially gave a lift to an ANC delegation to Zimbabwe using government resources and recently contradicted President Cyril Ramaphosa on his comments that the unrest was an attempted insurrection. She, along with Finance Tito Mboweni and under-fire Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize are out of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet. While she will be deployed to a new position, other ministers in the security cluster, Bheki Cele (police) and Ayanda Dlodlo (State Security Agency), lived to see another day following speculation over their futures after the violence and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. National Assembly Speaker Thandi Mondise will replace Mapisa-Nqakula, while Enoch Godongwana will take over as Minister of Finance. Dr Joe Phaahla will replace Mkhize, who…

WHEN SECRETS BECOME STORIES Edited by Sue Nyathi Loot.co.za (R185) Jonathan Ball A YOUNG girl on the Cape Flats is gifted in exchange for a bottle of alcohol, a woman is beaten by her boyfriend and told to bezekela (persevere), a businesswoman is asked for sexual favours to secure a contract, while a child rapist is released on bail after three years. In sharing their experiences from girlhood to the boardroom, from Cape Town’s suburbs to the hills of KwaZulu-Natal, women from different walks of life show how chillingly common male violence against women is. Together, their voices form a deafening chorus. Gender-based violence feeds on shame and silence but in this extraordinary collection, brave women reclaim their power and summon the courage in others to do the same. In…

Robben Island Rainbow Dreams: The making of democratic South Africa’s first national heritage institution Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi IN THE 1990s, a country freed and reinvented itself. After 342 years of colonialism and apartheid, the dispossessed and disenfranchised people in South Africa reclaimed their national sovereignty and established a democracy in one of the biggest turn-abouts in global politics in the 20th century. The establishment of the Robben Island Museum in the record-breaking time of under 120 days was an important part of this once-in-generations process of national rebirth. South Africa’s first democratic government decided that the notorious prison island should be converted into a national museum and a place of memory, learning and healing. In Robben Island, Rainbow Dreams, some of those involved in the complex task of taking…

Staff writer SCIENCE alone will not bring humpback dolphins back from the brink of extinction. With fewer than 500 Indian Ocean humpback dolphins remaining in South African waters, a multi-stakeholder conservation management plan is needed to boost their numbers. This is according to the SouSA Consortium, a novel and highly collaborative formalised network of 17 scientists and conservationists from 11 different institutions across South Africa focusing on the conservation status of the little-known humpback dolphins which can be found along the south and east coast from False Bay to Kosi Bay. For comparison, there are about 1 792 black rhinos and 700-1 050 cheetahs left at present. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Red List of Mammals of South Africa has listed the humpback dolphin as…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za AS FOOD insecurity deepens across the country, some Cape Flats feeding schemes are struggling amid dwindling donations due to the continued economic impact of Covid-19. One such organisation, marking its eighth birthday this weekend, is the Parkwood Community Upliftment (PCU) project. With a planned birthday celebration just a day away, they are still in need of 1 950 pieces of chicken and salad ingredients, as they plan to host a special lunch tomorrow with a target of feeding 2 000 people. Project founder, 24-year-old Max Swartz Amansure, said: “We are doing this call because my family and I have exhausted all our personal funds. The organisation is mostly funded by myself as I am employed and friends and family, but in the last three months, the impact…

Barbie Sandler | Constantia I SEE it is Women’s Month. An article by Mr Mgudlwa, Cape Times, August 4, caught my eye. He has written “look to the past so we can heal”. He mentions the Women’s March and the women who bravely marched to the Union Buildings against the pass laws. He mentions other stalwarts whose contributions towards a just society have mostly been forgotten. But he forgets Helen Suzman, who all through the bad days of apartheid, was fighting the Nationalist Party in Parliament as leader of the opposition. Not an easy task and it must have been a daily struggle going up against those Afrikaners everyday. She also kept in contact with the incarcerated Nelson Mandela and even visited him on Robben Island. So I…

Angela de Villiers | Hermanus YOUR regular correspondent from Somerset West, Len Walker posed two relevant questions (Cape Times, August 4). First, who will follow our eloquent, but ineffective president in two years’ time? I suggest Lindiwe Sisulu, NEC chairperson of the social transformation sub-committee. Next, he highlights the problem we have of far too many people needing essential services while our present qualified people are leaving the country. China, with its effective one-child policy, is carrying the unexpected consequences of having too many old people and too few workers. The only difficulty is that should we introduce a birth policy in South Africa, it may have an unfortunate racist undertone. Perhaps Sisulu, as next president, could solve this dilemma? Her father, the renowned Walter Sisulu, would have…

REMEMBERING the life and times of Charlotte Maxeke is opportune, once again, during this Women’s Month and a year which marks 150 years since her birthday. As the first African woman, from South Africa, to earn a university degree, Mam’ Charlotte was also an internationalist and had the great opportunity of studying under the supervision of great pan-Africanists such as WEB Du Bois. She was married to Dr Marshall Maxeke and prized politics as much as she would have appreciated the independence of the academia. While one cannot separate these two exclusively, politics and science, it is important that each allow the other to do their work and fulfil their respective roles in society. One is sure that Mam’ Maxeke would have advocated that scientists leave the realm of setting…

Paris: The number of Covid-19 infections recorded worldwide passed 200 million yesterday, an AFP count showed, as the pandemic surges globally, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where the Australian city of Melbourne locked down again. The highly contagious Delta variant has driven the virus to return with a vengeance, the number of daily cases recorded worldwide rising by 68% since mid-June. But as more of the world gets vaccinated against Covid-19 – particularly in wealthy countries – the number of deaths has increased at a slower rate, up 20% since the start of July, according to AFP’s count. In Australia, which had initially fended off the virus by slamming shut its borders, almost two-thirds of the 25 million population were in lockdown yesterday as the country struggles to quash a…

TUNIS: Tunisia’s anti-corruption authority aired photographs dated yesterday of ex-prime minister Hichem Mechichi declaring his properties at the agency’s headquarters, his first public appearance since his July 25 dismissal by President Kais Saied. Saied invoked a national emergency in taking executive control of the government and freezing parliament in a move welcomed by protesters after years of disorder and stagnation but branded a coup by his political opponents. The photos dispelled claims he was under house arrest.…

Every year, thousands of migrants descend on the little coastal town of Necocli in northern Colombia, most with dreams of one day reaching the US. That influx dried up in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions and border closures – but Necocli was overwhelmed soon after Colombia opened its frontiers in May. The town of 45 000 has been flooded with some 10 000 migrants waiting for a route out, and who are rapidly running out of money. Haitian Remi Wilford arrived in Necocli from Chile, where he had saved up $1 200 (R17 000) over the past four years working as a baker. “I’ve only got $150 left … it’s going to be almost impossible to go any further,” he said. He has been waiting for two weeks to board…

MEXICO CITY: At least 10 people were injured when an irate bull went on the rampage during an illegal rodeo in central Mexico this week. The animal first threw the rider to the ground, then crushed a fence that separated the arena from the spectators and attacked bystanders. There was screaming and running as the crowd, which included women and children, panicked and some spectators hardly escaped the bull’s attack. A video of the incident was widely shared online. Finally, support staff managed to confine the bull and force it back into the arena. ​The rodeo took place despite an official ban on such gatherings because of the risk of catching the coronavirus.…

ASHFAK MOHAMED ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za IT got so hot in the shot put circle at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium yesterday that Kyle Blignaut needed a breather. But that’s not because he couldn’t handle the heat in the proverbial kitchen. In fact, Blignaut never took a backward step in finishing sixth in the shot put final with a best effort of 21.00m. That was one spot higher than the only other South African to reach an Olympic shot put final, Janus Robberts, who ended seventh at the Sydney Games with a distance of 20.32m . Now he is hoping to go even further in upcoming events, such as next year’s world championships and Commonwealth Games. “I think I am going to take two weeks off – spend time with loved ones back home…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za AMAZULU showed their intent by unveiling the signings of Keagan Buchanan, Mxolisi Kunene, Matarr Ceesay, Tercious Malepe, Tshepang Moremi, Lindani Shange and Philani Zulu at an elaborate ceremony which was held at Moses Mabhida Stadium and hosted by Robert Marawa yesterday. Thirty-year-old former Maritzburg United and Kaizer Chiefs player Buchanan arrives with experience and will bolster Usuthu’s attack. At 28-years-old, Zulu arrives in Durban at his peak. The left back’s prior experience in the Caf Champions League last season with Chiefs will be vital ahead of AmaZulu’s historic first appearance in Africa’s premier club competition. Malepe was last on the books of Ukrainian club FK Minaj and boasts the rare distinction of having competed for the Under-23 national team at two Olympic Games (2016 and 2020). Ceesay,…