Table of contents for 2022-03-16 in Cape Times

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za ABSA, FirstRand, Nedbank and Standard Bank delivered better-than-expected financial performances in 2021 and might reach 2019 pre-pandemic earnings level this year, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Financial Services Industry Leader Costa Natsas said yesterday. Interviewed at the release of PwC’s 2021 Major Banks Analysis, Natsas said if you were to ask him a year ago when he expected bank earnings to recover to 2019 levels, he would have said in 2023, perhaps. Combined headline earnings of the major banks at R86.8 billion had increased 99 percent in 2021 compared with 2020 and came in only slightly below the 2019 level, he said. The main contributor to the rise in earnings was a 60 percent decrease in credit impairment charges after economies started recovering as Covid restrictions eased.…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za AFTER being admitted as a “friend of the court”, public interest law centre Section27 has filed its heads of argument at the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in support of the government’s roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines for children aged between 12 and 17. Section27 joined in the case of African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) vs Minister of the National Department of Health on February 22 after the ACDP and other organisations took the Health Department and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority to court in an effort to stop children being vaccinated. The organisation said after schools have fully reopened “it is crucial that the adolescent vaccination programme be permitted to continue so that learners in overcrowded classrooms are protected from the worst effects of Covid-19”.…

Kevin Meineke | Hout Bay AS ONE one watches the continuing horror in Ukraine, the question arises as to what it is really all about. One of the theories put forward is that Putin would not accept that Ukraine wanted to or was asked to become part of Nato. However, the response of Nato to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, whatever the reason, has been rather pathetic. While they may have supplied arms and ammunition to Ukraine, they have done very little else except to make rhetorical statements, pontificate and just dither around. While the ghosts of Vietnam and Afghanistan are still very much alive, just to watch your neighbour being pillaged and terrorised is a sad reflection of the current crippled state of Nato, even with…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za Hailed for showing that courage is not the absence of fear but pushing on despite that fear, Manenberg community and anti-crime activist Roegshanda Pascoe has been honoured with the Women of Courage Award at the 16th US International Women of Courage award ceremony on Monday night. The virtual event hailed women around the globe for their “tireless work and advocacy to advance the rights of women and girls in the face of serious risk and their unforgettable sacrifice”. Pascoe, who survived three gang assassination attempts and now lives in hiding, said the award meant a lot to her. “I want to thank the American Embassy for recognising my work on the Cape Flats against crime and violence and the femicide against women and children. “I think this…

The importance of whistle-blowers was highlighted again recently in South Africa. In one of the reports released by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who headed up the commission of inquiry into state capture, he recommended that whistle-blowers should be protected. He also recommended that they should be given an incentive to make disclosures – a monetary reward based on a percentage of the proceeds recovered on the strength of such information. Whistle-blowers play a role in exposing corruption. In addition, they can expose those who evade paying their fair share of taxes. In the 2020/2021 fiscal year, South Africa’s tax revenue collections declined by 7.8%. This was due to a number of factors, including tax evasion. Exposing tax evaders would be welcomed as it could lead to more tax revenue collections.…

A series of powerful explosions rocked residential districts of Kyiv early yesterday, killing two people, just hours before talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to resume. The airport in the eastern city of Dnipro also came under heavy bombardment overnight, as the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia travelled to the besieged capital Kyiv in a sign of EU support for Ukraine. Nearly three weeks into Russia’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour, the human toll of the deadly conflict was increasingly laid bare, with more than three million forced to flee to neighbouring countries. The UN said yesterday that nearly 1.4 million children have fled Ukraine since the conflict began on February 24 – nearly one child per second. Ukraine’s capital has been transformed into a war…

LOS ANGELES: Tyrese Gibson is to star in Hard Matter. The 43-year-old star has been cast alongside Harvey Keitel and Frank Grillo in the new movie that is being written and directed by Justin Price. It’s set in a new America that is divided by quadrants and where a power-hungry corporation takes over the prison system, with the new law enforcers inflicting capital punishment to get back into society. Tyrese has previously hit out at “colourism” in Hollywood and claims he’s lost out on roles to Terrence Howard because his friend is “lighter-skinned”.…

It has not rained on Habiba Maow Iman’s farm in southern Somalia for two years. Her animals are dead; her crops failed. Wrapped in a shawl stamped with rows of white flowers, the 61-year-old is one of tens of thousands seeking aid on the outskirts of Baardheere town. The Horn of Africa region is facing the driest conditions in more than four decades after three consecutive rainy seasons failed, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). More than four million Somalis like Iman will struggle to find food if the rains don’t come in April, WFP said. “We fled from the drought,” she said, surrounded by domed huts built with a patchwork of cloth and plastic sheeting. “Every day I go out and knock every house in the…

MAPUTO: The Mozambique National Meteorology Institute (INAM) announced yesterday that it plans to install at least one weather station in each of the country’s 154 districts by 2030, an initiative that will cost around $11 million (about R166m). The announcement was made by the INAM’s general director, Aderito Aramuge, in an interview with the national Radio Mozambique. The “One District, One Weather Station” programme was launched by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi last week in Sofala, one of the provinces that are cyclically affected by meteorological disasters. At present, only 51 of the 154 districts in the country are covered by weather stations,…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za Former president Jacob Zuma was born on April 12, 1942, in Nkandla and he will turn 80 early next month. To show their appreciation to the man they proudly call the father of radical economic transformation (RET) ideology, his supporters want the day to be marked by much fanfare. A series of events have already started, with the grouping behind them known as “My President Group”. This is the same group that visited Zuma at his home in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal in December, to thank him for his “nine glorious years” as president. At that time, debate raged about Zuma’s legacy, with some prominent people like former finance minister Tito Mboweni calling his reign “nine wasted years” marred by corruption and state capture. But the group’s spokesperson…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za NATIONAL Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) members and Comair staff are calling for the removal of chief executive Glenn Orsmond. This comes as they picketed outside the grounded airline’s head offices in Kempton Park yesterday, describing the situation workers find themselves in a “catastrophe”, and placing the blame squarely on Orsmond’s shoulders. Numsa spokesperson, Phakamile Majola, said: “We believe that he is responsible for the grounding because the reasons stated by SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) are very serious. “Under his watch we have witnessed the decline of the airline to a shadow of its former glory. We have witnessed the haemorrhaging of jobs in the name of cost-cutting. The cost-cutting measures have resulted in an overworked, underpaid and understaffed workforce that spells disaster for an…

Okuhle Hlati and Marsha Dean IN JUST 12 months, 1 421 children died in the Western Cape; 185 were murdered; 380 killed in accidents, and 370 deaths were still under investigation. Of the total deaths, 486 were from natural causes. “It is quite shocking that 370 cases are unresolved now. This is a big problem in South Africa. There are many parents who don’t know where their children are or what happened to their children. It would be interesting to look at all the missing children and all the bodies that have not been found. We have been calling for years for more detailed analysis of murder and rape against children. From the health sector we know that some of the child deaths could have been prevented,” said Molo Songololo…

Barbie Sandler | Constantia I SETTLED down to read Monday’s article “Time to root out racism in schools once and for all” by Thembile Ndabeni. What he had to say was quite correct. We certainly still have this issue at a lot of our schools. But why did he have to spoil the article by calling Helen Zille a racist architect? He needs to go into her profile and see she is definitely not a racist. His remarks are racist. Why bring in Helen Zille into his diatribe without mentioning, for example, Julius Malema etc? In any event, this article was supposed to be about school racism, so why start picking on individuals whom he knows nothing about? He then says: “African people must fight their own struggle”.…

MICHAEL BAGRAIM | Highlands Estate YOUR Monday edition “Where are parents while young girls are abused by men” refers: In a very sad letter from Barbie Sandler, she asks where the parents of these young girls are. I venture a further question: “where are the employers of these truck drivers?” Modern trucks have electronic registers showing where trucks stop, how fast they are going and how much time it took to get to their destination. The employers need to be more effective in their control of these truck drivers. Truck drivers need to know that picking up anyone on the side of the road is a dismissible offence.…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za ACCUSED murderer and former cop, Richard Smit’s bail application hearing is still underway at the Piketberg Magistrate’s Court. Yesterday, investigating officer and senior investigator at police watchdog Ipid, Ronald Davids took the stand for cross examination, where the court heard Strandfontein residents would not accept Smit in their community. Smit is charged with the murder of his girlfriend Natasha Booise, two counts of attempted murder of Roslin Kaaiman and Erin Plaatjies, discharging a firearm in a built-up area, handling of a firearm while under the influence of a substance which has an intoxicating or narcotic effect and two counts of assault. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said Davids had told the court that if Smit were to be released on bail, “his life would be…

It is hard to call Zondo’s appointment a victory for the Ramaphosa administration IN CASE you weren’t paying attention, the Union Buildings and a chorus of public commentators on social media are claiming President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of Justice Raymond Zondo as the next chief justice with effect from April 1 as a vindication of his style of leading by consensus. Almost as soon as the announcement came out on March 11, the Presidency and these commentators began spinning to the media that Ramaphosa’s light footprint approach to the process was infinitely superior to that followed by former president Jacob Zuma. They fell over themselves to point out that the entire appointment process had not cost a single judiciary casualty. One commentator even crowed that (vulgarity excised) “Zuma embarrassed…

Human Rights Watch yesterday said it was “highly unlikely” 81 men Saudi Arabia executed in a single day received a fair trial, calling it a “brutal show of its autocratic rule”. More than half of them, 41, belonged to the Shia minority “who have long suffered systemic discrimination and violence by the government”, the rights group said. The executions on Saturday were the most announced in a single day in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most prolific users of the death penalty, and outstripped its entire total last year. “Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men this weekend was a brutal show of its autocratic rule, and a justice system that puts the fairness of their trials and sentencing into serious doubt,” HRW’s deputy Middle East director Michael Page…

LONDON: UK-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran since 2016 on suspicion of plotting against the Iranian government, has had her British passport returned, UK lawmaker Tulip Siddiq announced yesterday. “I am very pleased to say that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been given her British passport back. She is still at her family home in Tehran,” Siddiq wrote on Twitter. “I also understand that there is a British negotiating team in Tehran right now. I will keep posting updates as I get them,” the Labour lawmaker, who is an MP for Zaghari-Ratcliffe´s London constituency, added. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a Thomson Reuters Foundation employee at the time, was arrested in Iran on suspicion of plotting against the Iranian government. Sentenced to five years behind bars, she was released from prison and…

DOHA: Three soldiers accompanying one of the separatist commanders were killed and seven guards injured in a suicide attack in Abyan governorate, southern Yemen, a source in the local government told Sputnik yesterday. “A suicide attacker in an explosives-laden vehicle rammed through the motorcade of one of the ‘Security Belt Forces’ commanders, General Abdullatif Al-Sayed, in Abyan, while driving through the central district of Zinjibar, which resulted in the death of three soldiers. Seven of his guards were injured,” the source said. “The general managed to escape with minor injuries,” the source added.…

DONETSK: Mine workers trapped underground at the Skochinsky coal mine in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian troops, were rescued and brought to the surface, the DPR Territorial Defence said yesterday. The DPR defence headquarters said that a ventilation shaft had been powered down at the Skochinsky coal mine, leaving 80 miners underground. Later in the day, the DPR Ministry of Coal and Energy said that 294 people had been stuck underground. “Thanks to the professionalism and operational work of specialists, all the miners were brought to the surface,” a statement read.…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za LUNGI Ngidi said he hopes the presence of even a small number of spectators will provide energy for the Proteas as they pursue World Cup qualification in the three match one-day international series with Bangladesh that starts on Friday. Sadly for Ngidi and the Proteas, neither Centurion, which hosts the first and third matches, nor the Wanderers, which hosts the “Pink ODI” on Sunday, will be full of spectators or even half-full. A limited number of vaccinated people were granted access for the start of the Cricket South Africa One-Day Cup matches that took place last weekend, with Ngidi saying yesterday how much he enjoyed their support. “It was great having some supporters there on Friday,” Ngidi said. “It makes a massive difference. For certain players, it…

From page 1 “To try and combat the high levels of child abuse in the Western Cape, health services and the educational sector have joined forces with the police, community safety, social services and NGOs,” he said. He said the department was in the process of expanding its implementation of the Eye on the Child Program, as well as deploying additional community-based child and youth care resources in high-risk communities, ANC spokesperson on social development, Gladys Bakubaku-Vos added: “The numbers prove that the province, especially the poor working class communities, are not safe for children. Those who live in gang-infested areas are recruited into gangs or fall victim to ongoing gang wars. Others, like the four children who died in a sinkhole in Nyanga, died because of lack of recreational…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za THE Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has made confiscations to the value of R1.7 billion since 2002 in 48 matters referred to it by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The unit has obtained 70 freezing orders to the value of R4.1bn. This is according to special director of public prosecutions Priya Biseswar when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was briefing the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) yesterday. Biseswar told MPs that in terms of the Criminal Assets Recovery Account (Cara) they had recovered R5.3 million from 28 SIU cases. The unit also made payments to victims of crime to the tune of R1.69bn. She said the total value of recoveries stood at R1.7bn. Reacting to comments from one MP that the recovered amount was not that big,…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za ANC MPs refused to take sides on the Russia- Ukraine conflict, with International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Candith Mashego-Dlamini calling for non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, saying both should find a solution to the conflict. Parliament yesterday debated the conflict in Ukraine after the country’s invasion by Russia on February 24. The DA called on the government to intervene. EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu, however, called on the government not to drop Russia but rather to strengthen bilateral relations. Shivambu said South Africa had strong blood ties with Russia from the time of the Soviet Union, which provided military and political support to South Africa’s liberation movements. Mashego-Dlamini said it was the government’s view that all efforts be channelled…

Bill Constantine | Oranjezicht SHAME, shame, shame on South Africa’s president for watching Russia’s horrific illegal invasion and bombardment of Ukraine continue with devastating effect for 12 full days, before deciding to have a phone chat with President Putin, “...To gain an understanding of the situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine”. (“Ramaphosa thanks Putin in phone call over Russia-Ukraine conflict”; Cape Times, Friday, March 11). Nearly all the nations of the world have publicly condemned Russia’s aggression upon its sovereign neighbour, including 141 during a special session of the United Nations. (Shamefully, South Africa chose to abstain.) I’ve been thoroughly disgusted at how South Africa’s key policy-makers have routinely chosen to “suck up” to Russia and China in attempting to curry favour and some perceived economic benefit, despite…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za NEARLY 15 years after a then 5-year-old was raped by a man she called “oom” (uncle) that she had to receive reconstructive surgery to her private parts and learn to walk again, the court this week ordered that the government had to pay her more than R5 million. The payment is among other aspects of compensation for the pain and suffering she had to endure. This is believed to be the biggest award to date in a claim of this nature. The money includes general damages, loss of future income, and ongoing counselling sessions. Her mother, who more than a decade ago instituted a damages claim on behalf of her daughter and herself against the then ministers of Justice and Safety and Security, is set to receive…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za ANGRY residents fed up with crime took the law into their own when they allegedly attacked three suspected robbers accused of targeting people in different areas. One suspect died on the scene, another on the way to hospital, while the third was receiving medical treatment. The three men were attacked in Social Distance informal settlement in Mfuleni on Monday after they were allegedly found with several stolen items. Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said a double murder and attempted murder was being investigated but no arrests had been made. “Mfuleni police received a complaint of an assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm in progress at Mjikelo Street, Bardale Informal Settlement, in Mfuleni at about 3.30pm on Monday afternoon. Upon arrival the officers found…

THE failed and wasteful Gauteng Department of Health has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years. Since 2020, when it led the charge in the R15 billion personal protective equipment (PPE) tender corruption and irregularities, the department has limped from one scandal to the next. After the PPE scandal, the department incurred arrears of R3bn to its creditors. The majority of the affected service providers are black-owned small, medium and micro-enterprises. The non-payment forced some of the companies to retrench workers or close shop due to cash flow problems. Last week, we reported that Buhle Medical Waste stopped collecting waste from Gauteng medical facilities after the department failed to pay the service provider R27 million. Some of its invoices date back to 2015.…

The issue of change of power in Ukraine has not been raised at the talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Russian Ambassador to France Alexey Meshkov said yesterday. “Russia does not set an objective of changing power in Ukraine. The people must choose their future. This issue was not even raised at the talks between the two delegations,” Meshkov told a press conference in Paris. Beijing called on Washington to avoid damaging China’s interests when trying to settle its relations with Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said yesterday. On Monday, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price raised concerns over alleged attempts by China to use the Ukrainian crisis “to advance Beijing’s long-term interest in its competition with the US”. He warned Beijing that any support extended to…

The farmers’ union has announced that it will hold a nationwide protest on March 21 as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has not fulfilled promises that were made to end their 14-month protest. These assurances, farmers say, included setting up a panel to establish the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Atamjit Singh of farmers’ organisation, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), said: “On Monday the farmers’ union held a review meeting in Delhi to discuss the status of the assurances given by the federal government to end their year-long protest.” The SKM is an umbrella body of all farmers’ unions that co-ordinated the year-long protest at the three border points on the outskirts of Delhi. “So far no committee on the MSP has been formed. On February 4, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh…

WASHINGTON: Law enforcement authorities early yesterday morning arrested a suspect in connection with shootings of homeless people in Washington, DC, and New York, the police department in Washington said in a post on Twitter. “Early this morning, law enforcement arrested the suspect in Washington, DC. He is being interviewed at our Homicide Branch,” the Metropolitan Police Department wrote. It added more information would come. Authorities had been searching for a lone gunman they said was linked by forensic evidence to the shooting of five homeless men in the two cities.…

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government yesterday approved a proposal to grant an allowance of about $385 (about R600) to each family with a missing member in the 30-year conflict between government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels which ended in 2009. The government information department said that the proposal, submitted by the justice ministry, is aimed at providing financial support to the affected families in the South Asian country. The money will be given to the closest relative of the missing person, who possesses an authorised certificate of the missing person.…