Table of contents for 2022-03-09 in Cape Times

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za INTERNATIONAL oil and commodity prices continued rising yesterday as Western countries mulled stricter bans of Russian oil and gas imports over its invasion of Ukraine. The UK yesterday announced plans to phase out Russian oil imports in the coming months while the EU would reduce Russian gas imports by almost 80 percent this year. The US is also hinting at the possibility of banning imports of Russian oil, with Moscow threatening to retaliate by suspending gas exports to Europe. Brent oil prices touched $130 (R2000) per barrel as concerns grew over the disruption of Russian oil exports. Total Energies was the first big oil company to announce its traders will no longer buy Russian crude and most buyers are already shunning its supplies. Shell yesterday followed suit,…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za AS R200 million is expected to be injected into Community Education and Training (CET) at the start of the new financial year, Minister Blade Nzimande has warned against corruption. CETs were former adult education centres which previously focused on people who wanted to improve their schooling because they were no longer at school. Now CET offers skills beyond just improving former education. Nzimande announced yesterday that R200m had been allocated from the National Skills Fund (NSF) for CET colleges to drive the massification of skills provision through offerings in the sector. He was speaking at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This first ever two-day summit, which concludes today, brought together the Post-School Education and Training sector, other government departments, community organisations, labour and business to share…

MICHAEL BAGRAIM | Highlands Estate “TIME to end the state of disaster” in your March 7 edition refers. This editorial is a heartfelt plea, and correct. We know that the president has to reassess the situation on March 15. It is high time to scrap the state of disaster and the useless command council. Many of us will remember the time when we could go shopping to buy winter wear but couldn’t buy a T-shirt. We also remember that we could go to the shops to buy shoes but not open sandals. This genius command council forced everyone to walk together on the beachfront in a two-hour slot and closed the beaches. The command council members were experts on some of the most laughable regulations we’ve seen. This…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za ACCUSED fraudster Martin Korver’s attempt to have his prosecution permanently stayed was recently unsuccessful in the Western Cape High Court. Korver, who had applied to the high court to have the charges against him dismissed, faces two counts of fraud/theft amounting to R6.8 million, and five counts of forgery amounting to R5.5m, including one count of money laundering. The director of a company, Cobow, that owns Albourne Guest House in Somerset West, he is yet to plead while he remains out on bail of R100 000. Korver, who holds dual citizenship in South Africa and Netherlands, is accused of forging his business partners’ signatures on documents for the purposes of mortgaging the business’s immovable property in favour of a foreign registered bank, and appropriating the proceeds into…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za DEFUNCT audio and visual equipment at Parow Magistrate’s Court and the subsequent delay of justice to GBV victims prompted a protest by activists on International Womens Day yesterday. In commemoration of the day, a group of protesters picketed outside the Parow Magistrate’s Court to highlight their concerns that victims were subjected to further trauma as “about 200” cases were delayed due to technical issues. A memorandum handover was done by Reverend June Dolley-Major, supported by a number of activists. However, while picketing, it was communicated to the group that a technician had been on-site yesterday to attend to the audio and visual equipment. “The recording equipment has not been working since September last year, which means cases are being postponed numerous times. “Some cases are just being…

THE first casualty of war is truth, as US Senator Hiram Johnson once said. When Johnson coined this phrase, he may have been merely referring to distortions or the manipulation of data about the war, including the numbers of soldiers killed, captured, wounded and missing. His phrase, however, encapsulates the ongoing war on journalism and the acts of MultiChoice and others, who shut down Russian 24-hour news channel Russia Today (RT) last week. The decision to remove RT from the DStv platform was taken just days after America and the EU imposed sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine. In a statement, MultiChoice said: “MultiChoice confirms that as of today (March 2) Russia Today (channel 407) shall not be carried on the DStv platform until further notice. Sanctions imposed on Russia…

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that the responsibility for the deaths in Ukraine lies with Western countries, as they refuse to close the airspace over the country and provide planes. Zelensky said in a video address that for 13 days, Ukraine has been hearing “only promises” from the West to send planes to provide assistance in the sky. The blame for the death of people in Ukraine lies with Russia, and the responsibility for this lies with Western countries as well. Meanwhile, a representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic told Sputnik yesterday that militants have been blocking civilians from escaping battlegrounds in of Mariupol and Volnovakha. “People cannot escape at the moment for reasons attributable to nationalists,” the representative said. Earlier in the day, Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Igor…

Flood warnings stretched across Australia’s east coast yesterday and tens of thousands of Sydney residents fled their homes as torrential rains again pummelled the country’s largest city, flooding several big suburbs. Australia’s eastern rivers were already near capacity after record downpours in parts of Queensland and New South Wales over recent weeks, cutting off towns, and sweeping away farms, livestock and roads. A 67-year-old woman and her 34-year-old son were found dead near an abandoned car in a stormwater canal in western Sydney, authorities said, while Queensland police confirmed the death of a man missing in floods since February 27, taking the death tally to 20 since the deluge began. Most people were found dead in flooded homes or in cars attempting to cross flooded roads. Bureau of Meteorology forecaster…

TEHRAN: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has successfully put a second military satellite, the Noor 2, into orbit, the semi-official news agency Tasnim said. The announcement came as talks held in Vienna to revive an agreement restraining Iran’s nuclear programme have reached a critical stage. Noor 2 is orbiting at an altitude of 500km. The first military satellite, launched by the Islamic Republic in April 2020, placed the Noor, or “light” in Persian, at an orbit of 425km above the earth’s surface. Putting a second satellite in space would be a major advance for Iran’s military.…

Washington: A mentally-ill inmate from Guantanamo Bay has been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, the US Department of Defense announced on Monday. Suspected of being Al Qaeda’s intended 20th hijacker for the September 11, 2001, attacks against the US, Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured by interrogators at the US military base in Cuba, where he has been detained for since his capture in Afghanistan in December 2001. The government dropped its case against him in 2008 due to the abuse he experienced at the prison. In February this year, US authorities recommended he be released and repatriated.…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za SMALL business owners say the announcement by Eskom of stage 2 load shedding until Saturday will have dire consequences for their livelihoods. During a media briefing yesterday chief operating officer at Eskom, Jan Oberholzer, said generation unpredictability was among the reasons for the blackouts. “This, in addition to other units that tripped during the weekend, reduced available generation capacity, forcing Eskom to rely heavily on emergency generation reserves to keep the lights on,” said Oberholzer. Mfuleni fish and chips shop owner Patrick Blayi said the government needed to prioritise the country's economy by dealing with load shedding. “What worries me is that it affects mostly small business people, whether you are in the suburbs or townships. “The government talks about growing and supporting small businesses, but we…

Rapula Moatshe rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za SA’s MAJOR banks failed to demonstrate there was any irreparable harm to their businesses in their reasons why they could not restore Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (SIH) and its related entities’ (Sekunjalo Group) closed banking facilities. Instead, they relied on “ill-conceived reputational risk” as the reason for closing these accounts. This was the argument put forward by Sekunjalo’s legal representative, advocate Vuyani Ngalwana SC, during the conclusion of the two-day hearing into the banks’ alleged collusion brought by the group at the Competition Tribunal. SIH and 35 other applicants made an urgent application seeking interim relief to have their banking facilities restored and prevent their other accounts from being closed. The respondents were Access Bank, Nedbank, Investec Bank, Sasfin Bank, Absa Bank, First National Bank, Mercantile Bank and…

Owen Simons | Retreat I FULLY agree with Michael Bagraim in his letter of March 7: “Let’s help young pharmacy owner get back on his feet”. He writes: “Maybe we should look at putting together some sort of crowdfunding.” I agree with this, and will contribute in some way when this is set up. Mr Bagraim is a man of considerable means, being the owner of a long-standing legal practice. I would have thought that Mr Bagraim could have kicked off this crowdfunding effort, and then write to the Cape Times. That might have been a more constructive approach. A “maybe” from such an influential man is not good enough, in my view.…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za DELFT police are investigating the murder of a Bellville-based taxi boss who was shot and killed in front of his house. Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association, Bellville Taxi Association (CataBellta) chairperson Mandithini Ketye, 41, was shot while sitting inside his car at his Delft South home just before midnight on Monday by attackers. He had been talking to someone on the phone. Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said a murder case was opened for investigation. “The circumstances surrounding a shooting incident in Kamassie Street, Delft South, where a 41-year-old male was shot and fatally wounded is under investigation. Delft police were called to the crime scene where they found the victim with multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The victim was declared deceased on the scene by paramedics,” said…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za DRONE manufacturers and distributors are planning legal action against the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) following a notice prohibiting a variety of motorised devices, including but not limited to drones used for fishing. The notice, which circulated on social media, had many anglers who had spent thousands of rands on their drones up in arms, as they said there was no mention of the device in the Marine Living Resources Act. “Our offices not only believe that the interpretation advanced by the department is bad in law, but also that the minister acted ultra vires by publishing the notice,” lawyers for the manufacturers, Otto Krause Inc said. They had addressed correspondence to DFFE on March 2, calling for the withdrawal of the notice and…

Paris: Russia is directly targeting Ukraine’s nuclear facilities in a strategy to undermine Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion but the tactic carries grave risks, observers say. After advancing Russian forces seized Ukraine’s defunct nuclear plant at Chernobyl and the still-operational reactors at Zaporizhzhia, their sights could be on a third facility, Konstantinovka, in the south. French President Emmanuel Macron said a key priority of the West was to avoid “catastrophes” with Ukraine’s nuclear power plants in the Russian invasion. With 15 operational reactors, Ukraine is the seventh-largest producer of nuclear electricity in the world, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) figures for 2020. The country, which relies on nuclear energy for more than half of its power supply, has made significant improvements in safety over the years, experts…

KABUL: A well-known Afghan expert on international development has returned to Afghanistan, the Afghan caretaker government said yesterday. “Sultan Massoud Daqiq returned home following 37 years in exile” it said. Daqiq is a leading expert in the implementation of international humanitarian projects in Asia, Europe and Africa, and has been awarded the Medal of Merit by the president of Germany in 2006.” Many Afghan security forces and public servants left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in August, but recently, a minister, pilots and a mayor have also returned.…

Indigenous peoples of Alberta in Canada said that 169 potential graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school, according to a media report. The school, known as the St Bernard Mission School and situated about 370km northwest of Edmonton, was opened by the Roman Catholic Church in 1894 and operated until 1961, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying. More than 130 residential schools were operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996. Previously, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had heard testimony from survivors about serious sexual and physical abuse, manual labour and the spread of illness at the school, which had a large population of Metis children. The commission, which documented stories from survivors and issued a final report in 2015, has a record of…

Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the resumption of talks with the opposition, which were halted five months ago after the extradition of a presidential ally. In October, Maduro suspended the negotiations for the extradition to the US by Cape Verde of Alex Saab – a Colombian national accused of money launderering. The government had made Saab’s release a condition to resume negotiations. The US is one of almost 60 countries to have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s acting president, having rejected Maduro’s 2018 re-election in a poll widely viewed as fraudulent.…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za ONE of the country’s public universities is under fire for allowing its vice-chancellor to leave prematurely after an investigation recommended disciplinary action against him for failing to act on sexual harassment allegations against his deputy. A probe into Central University of Technology’s (CUT’s) erstwhile vice-chancellor, Professor Henk de Jager, recommended that he be subjected to disciplinary action for failing to act against its deputy vice-chancellor: resources and operations, Dr Gary Paul, after a sexual harassment complaint was lodged against him. CUT-commissioned lawyer Nomveliso Ntanjana’s firm, Ntanjana Attorneys, is set to investigate the allegations against Paul. In the report, which Independent Media has seen, Paul is accused of kissing a subordinate, whose name is known to the publication, but who has since left the institution, and flashing his…

Jill Burger | England ON FRIDAY, I listened attentively to the judgment prepared by Judge Makume in the Johannesburg High Court on the inquest into my brother Neil’s death in police custody at John Vorster Square police station. The police claimed that he had committed suicide, reaffirmed by the inquest conducted by (magistrate) Mr Kotze in 1982 in which the police were entirely exonerated. My family and I always firmly believed that he had been murdered and this conviction was asserted very clearly on Friday by the judge – that members of the Special Branch (SB) had severely tortured Neil and staged a hanging, when he was in an unconscious state or a conscious state. In his bold and thorough judgment, the judge named Stephen Whitehead and Arthur…

Jacqui Canning | Parklands How interesting that both South African citizens and the ruling ANC government have found it necessary to condemn Multichoice for its suspension of Channel 407, Russia Today. The cry is that it offends citizens’ right of choice. While the government calls it a “draconian measure”. I feel that freedom of choice has been far more forcefully removed in Russia, where citizens have had most digital platforms silenced and most Western news broadcasters shut down. Now we are talking about my “right of choice”. As for “draconian measure” this generally relates to government actions going further than what is right or necessary. I was left numbed by the draconian measure from the South African Government at the United Nations with its “zipped lip” abstention when…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za THE Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in the Western Cape has expressed concerns over the persisting attacks on workers, which are hampering service delivery. Construction of the pre-treatment facility near Pelican Heights, which is expected to benefit the Cape Flats Aquifer Recharge project, resumed on Monday after operations were suspended on March 2 due to alleged violence. According to mayoral committee member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien, contractors who worked on the project were intimidated and threatened. He said the site has since received a security boost, but that would result in cost overruns and cost residents. “The main contractor is being pressured to appoint subcontracting companies from external forums and outside of the agreed wards/sub-council area. “The individuals are using threats like, ‘police should…

What is meant by high-quality development? Why is it relevant, for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and South Africa, as the world transitions to a post-Covid-19 new normal? In 2017, at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping, noted that the PRC was moving from a period of unprecedented fast economic growth to a stage of high-quality development. The shift from quantity to quality production has become evident in China’s ascendance in scientific advancements and high-end technological industries. High-quality development has seen the PRC claim its world status with the landings on Mars and the moon. Its technological rise is witnessing China leading in 5G wireless network and the development of electrical vehicles. In strategic policy terms, for President Xi, high-quality development speaks…

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a crackdown on motorcycle taxis after a group of riders attacked a female motorist in an incident that has shocked the nation. The young woman was assaulted by the taxi riders – commonly known as boda-boda – apparently after a traffic accident last week in the capital Nairobi, according to police. A viral video of the daytime incident showed the men grabbing at the woman’s clothing as she screamed from inside her car. “I have instructed the law enforcement officers to use the instruments within the law to punish these perpetrators,” Kenyatta said at an event to mark International Women’s Day. “There should never be a repeat of what we saw for this is a blight on the entire Kenyan society.” He ordered that all…

NASHVILLE: Dolly Parton dedicated this year’s Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards to the people of Ukraine. The country music legend hosted the 57th version of the spectacle at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Monday night, and opened the ceremony by paying tribute to “our brothers and sisters” in the country, which has been invaded by Russia. Dolly, 76, told the packed crowd: “I love to laugh, I love to joke, and we’re going to have a good time tonight, but I do want us before we get started with all our fun to take a serious moment. “Now I don’t want to be political and this is not. I’d rather pass a kidney stone than do that, but I want us to send our love and hope to our…

ABIDJAN: At least six people, including two children, died when a block of flats collapsed in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital of Abidjan early yesterday, the fire brigade said. Rescuers used torches to search through the mounds of broken concrete and carried out 36 people alive, officials said. “Everything was trembling,” said survivor Ladji Doumbia, who lived on the fourth floor. “I was stumbling from left to right and then, at the last minute, I heard a loud noise.” Prime Minister Patrick Achi visited the site and promised an investigation into the cause of the disaster.…

SEOUL: South Korea’s military seized a North Korean boat that crossed into its waters yesterday and fired a warning shot to see off a North Korean patrol vessel that tried to intervene, Seoul officials said. The vessel was described as a fishing boat, but officials said that had still to be determined. Seven unarmed sailors were aboard the vessel, but six appeared to be wearing uniforms, a South Korean military official said. A North Korean patrol boat that was tracking the seized vessel briefly crossed the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea boundary, but turned back after the South Korean military broadcast warnings and fired a warning shot.…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za SISANDA Magala’s international future hangs in the balance after he was omitted from the Proteas squad for the one-day international series against Bangladesh after failing a fitness test. It’s not the first time the 31-year-old all-rounder’s fitness has cost him international selection, with convenor of selectors Victor Mpitsang describing the latest omission as a “massive concern”. “This has been an issue that’s been there since before I started. He played two games against India ... He’s been getting exposure to international cricket, but we also need to have him around most of the time,” Mpitsang said yesterday. “It doesn’t help that he’s not passing his fitness tests. We want to start getting an XI that we can start building towards that World Cup next year.” The latest…