Table of contents for 2022-04-07 in Cape Times

STELLENBOSCH University (SU) graduate Dr Obvious Mapiye believes his passion for farming from a young age is finally reaping the rewards for him, including a PhD in AgriSciences specialising in Sustainable Agriculture at SU’s autumn graduation this week. His achievements also include conceptualising the creation of a software solution to enhance small-hold farming systems. His PhD studies led to the development of digital advisory software called the Livestock Management Database System (LMDS). This system is designed to help farmers access useful and data-driven agricultural information and guidance according to their specific farming activities. The system, which can be accessed from any smart device, recently earned Mapiye a 2022 translational fellowship from Innovus, a division of the university that is responsible for technology transfer, entrepreneurial support and development, and innovation. In…

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has made damning findings against the Road Accident Fund (RAF), which has obtained a disclaimer of audit opinion for the 2020-2021 financial year. The report was released despite the RAF taking Maluleke’s audit report on judicial review after it failed in its bid to interdict its publication. In her report published last week Thursday, Maluleke said she was unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence for claims liabilities totalling R27.8 billion and claims expenditure amounting to R37.1bn, as disclosed in the financial statements. “The entity has amended the accounting policy to recognise claims liabilities and claims expenditure in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) 42, Social benefits,” she said. Maluleke said the use of IPSAS 42 was not appropriate as the timing of recognising the…

AN ACCIDENT near Rietvlei Nature Reserve in Pretoria claimed the life of a hippo which had escaped from the facility at the weekend. Tshwane Environment and Agriculture MMC Katlego Mathebe said that during the early hours of Sunday a young hippo male managed to escape from Rietvlei Nature Reserve. He was run over by a vehicle along the M57 near Nellmapius Drive. Nature conservation officials responded to the scene and the carcass was removed by 11am on Sunday. The young male was run off from the breeding herd by a dominant male and gained access to the resort area of the reserve through the dam. Mathebe said that being a nocturnal feeder, the hippo would enter the overnight chalets area at night and graze there. During the investigation, nature conservation…

TOURISM Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has revealed that two more investigations are to be instituted into her predecessor’s two-hour ministerial cook-off with media personality Somizi Mhlongo. This emerged when DA MP Hannah Shameema Winkler wrote to Sisulu asking for details of the progress into irregular expenditure, non-compliance with supply chain processes and a lack of oversight as indicated by the Auditor-General in the 2020-2021 financial year. Winkler also enquired about the consequence management that has been implemented for those identified as responsible for the irregular expenditure. In May 2021, former tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi held a ministerial cook-off event ahead of the department’s budget vote. Independent Media reported soon after the event that it was dubbed as showcasing the work of the skills and innovative entrepreneurial ventures critical in growing and…

THE election of murder accused Mandla Msibi as ANC Mpumalanga treasurer is the clearest indication yet that the party’s much-hyped renewal is nothing but wishful thinking. It demonstrates that ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa’s message of renewal has not been fully embraced by the branches and provinces, and is only repeated by those close to him. If anything, Msibi’s election says the opposite of what the Ramaphosa camp has been preaching. The party may have subsequently asked him to step aside as he has been charged, but it was the branches in Mpumalanga that showed their confidence in him. Of course, this is not to say that Msibi is guilty of the crime, far from it. He still enjoys his constitutional rights of being presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a…

Artillery pounded key cities in Ukraine yesterday, as its president urged the West to act decisively in imposing new and tougher sanctions being readied against Russia in response to civilian killings widely condemned as war crimes. Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion have gained new impetus this week after dead civilians shot at close range were found in the town of Bucha after it was retaken from Russian forces. As Pope Francis described the killings there as a “massacre”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the West needed to act decisively in taking “more rigid” steps. “When we are hearing new rhetoric about sanctions … I can’t tolerate any indecisiveness after everything that Russian troops have done,” Zelenskiy told Irish MPs by videolink. The US yesterday targeted Russian banks and elites with…

Sri Lanka’s crippling economic crisis risks starvation across the island nation of 22 million while acute shortages and blackouts will get worse, the speaker of parliament warned yesterday. Scarce supplies of food and fuel, record inflation and blackouts have inflicted widespread misery in the country’s most painful downturn since independence from Britain in 1948. Public anger is at fever pitch, with crowds attempting to storm the homes of several government figures, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and large demonstrations elsewhere. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said more hardships were to come. “We are told this is the worst crisis, but I think this is just the beginning,” Abeywardana said at the start of a two-day debate on the economic woes. “The food, gas and electricity shortages will get worse. There will be very…

LONDON: British singer Ed Sheeran said baseless copyright claims were damaging the music industry after he won a case at the High Court in London yesterday over whether a refrain in his 2017 mega-hit Shape Of You had been lifted from another artist. Sheeran had been involved in a legal battle with grime artist Sami Chokri, who performs as Sami Switch, and music producer Ross O’Donoghue, who had argued the hook from Shape of You had been copied from their 2015 song Oh Why. “It’s become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking them to court, even if there’s no basis for the claim,” Sheeran said. “It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.” The judge concluded there was no…

LONDON: Britain is set to abandon plans to hold a flagship conference designed to promote LGBT+ rights around the world following a row over conversion therapy that has prompted charities and organisations to boycott it. Britain had been due to host the Safe to Be Me conference in London in June to urge governments to tackle inequality and discrimination, and enable people to live free from prejudice. But a decision to ban conversion therapy for gay or bisexual people, and not for transgender people, has prompted charities to withdraw from the event and the country’s first LGBT+ business champion, Iain Anderson, to quit.. | Reuters…

CASTER Semenya cruised to victory in the 2 000m, while Carina Horn made a successful return to the track at the Athletics South Africa Grand Prix 3 event at NWU McArthur Stadium in Potchefstroom last night. Youngster Danielle Verster did an admirable job of the pace-making duties over the first two laps, but it was difficult for Semenya to maintain the SA record pace running on her own afterwards, and she claimed victory in a time of 5:50.39. SA 100m record-holder Horn made a fine return to the track with victory in a time of 11.50 seconds. The 33-year-old, in her first competitive race in her comeback after a drugs ban, was a bit sluggish out of the blocks, but once she reached the 50-metre mark, that trademark high-leg running…

THE apartheid regime did not kill Solomon Mahlangu because his spirit continued to live on, ANC senior official Dr Gwen Ramokgopa said yesterday. The party’s co-ordinator in the secretary-general’s office was speaking during the 43rd commemoration of Mahlangu’s death at age 22. The commemoration included wreath-laying at Mahlangu’s final resting place at Mamelodi West Cemetery and retracing the 52 steps that led to the gallows at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria, where the Struggle icon was hanged. “When we walked those footsteps that Mahlangu walked when going to his death, it was just unbelievable that such a young man went through what he did,” Ramokgopa said. “We should live and honour the lives of those who paid the ultimate price.” Ramokgopa described Mahlangu as a passionate, dependable…

YET ANOTHER energy company appears to be exploring for offshore oil and gas, this time in the Northern Cape, merely a few months after two seismic surveys were banned by the courts on the shores of the Eastern and Western Cape provinces. Privately-owned energy company, Tosaco Energy, based in Johannesburg, is alleged to have recently obtained an authorisation to conduct a seismic survey in Block 1, which starts from Alexander Bay to Hondeklipbaai in the Northern Cape. However fisherfolk and environmentalists have raised concerns that proper consultation processes with the communities were not followed. Green Connection’s community outreach co-ordinator, Neville van Rooy, said they were also concerned about the impacts of the authorisation on affected communities. “It is unbelievable and shocking that Tosaco has now been given the green light…

8 tbs/100g gram flour 4 tbs/50g cornflour or rice flour (or a mix of both) 1 tsp salt (or to taste) 1 tsp red chilli powder 1 tsp chilli flakes 1½ tsp cumin powder 1½ tsp coriander powder ¼ tsp turmeric 1 tsp dried fenugreek 2 tbs lemon juice ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda 2½ tbs freshly chopped coriander leaf 1 tbs minced garlic 2 green chillies, finely sliced 500g raw chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces Oil, for deep frying In a bowl, combine all the ingredients except for the oil and chicken. Add in cold water, a very small amount at a time, mixing each time until the mixture becomes thick and resembles wood glue. If in doubt, keep things on the drier side. Mix in the chicken pieces…

AS TENSION continues between workers from Zimbabwe and Lesotho in Robertson, an inspection is expected to be held to look into ways to resolve it. The Department of Employment and Labour will conduct a four-day blitz inspection on farms next week following the eruption of tension between Lesotho and Zimbabwean nationals. EFF MP Constance Nonhlanhla Mkhonto wrote to Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, asking about the department’s intervention in the ongoing battle. In his response, Nxesi said his department was aware of the tension, and engagements with the municipality and law enforcement agencies revealed that employers were using unregistered labour brokers to recruit workers from Zimbabwe and Lesotho. Nxesi said the department had met some of the employers through the assistance of the municipality, and informed them that they…

Government yet to take decisive action beyond analysing challenges facing our nation THE sudden loss of more than 2 million jobs and R50 billion due to the July unrest last year have created a social, political, and economic crisis that dwarfs anything South Africa has seen in recent history. On April 1, President Cyril Ramaphosa lamented this catastrophe while giving testimony before the Human Rights Commission, saying “for one week and one day in July 2021, we stared into the heart of darkness”, watched in horror “as parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were engulfed in violence, looting, and destruction” in what caused many of us to feel “the greatest sense of betrayal that there were among us those who would go so far as to plot to…

Security forces and their allies in a disputed part of conflict-hit northern Ethiopia committed abuses against Tigrayans that amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, two rights groups said yesterday. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tigrayan civilians had been targeted in “a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing” in the long-contested western Tigray region since the outbreak of Ethiopia’s war in November 2020. Over the ensuing months, several hundred thousand Tigrayans were forcibly expelled from western Tigray in a “co-ordinated” manner by security forces and civilian authorities through ethnically-motivated rape, murder, starvation, and other serious violations. “These widespread and systematic attacks against the Tigrayan civilian population amount to crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes,” Amnesty and HRW said in a report, “We Will Erase You…

Investigators swooped on suspected neo-Nazi militant cells across Germany yesterday and arrested four suspects as the country pursues a crackdown on far-right extremists. In what Der Spiegel magazine called “the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in the recent past”, the federal prosecutor’s office said polices staged dawn raids at the homes of 50 suspects in 11 states. “The four men arrested are accused of membership of a right-wing extremist criminal organisation,” it said, as well as charges including grievous bodily harm. Spiegel reported that one of the suspects was a non-commissioned officer in the military. More than 800 police officers were involved in operation. The targets are believed to belong to the far-right martial arts group Knockout 51, the banned Combat 18 named after the order in the…

BUCHAREST: A man died after ramming his car into the gates of the Russian embassy in Romania yesterday and setting himself on fire inside the vehicle, police said. Amateur footage posted on social media showed a vehicle in flames after it crashed into the gates of the diplomatic mission. Romanian media said the driver headed an NGO for fathers’ rights and was this week sentenced to 15 years’ prison for molesting his under-age daughter. In his last Facebook post, two days before his death, the man wrote that “I am also Ukrainian. “We should all consider ourselves Ukrainians until this horrible war ends.” | AFP…

OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaore was sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor ,Thomas Sankara, a military tribunal ruled yesterday. The charismatic Marxist revolutionary was gunned down in the West African nation’s capital Ouagadougou at the age of 37, four years after he took power. Compaore was charged in absentia along with his former head of security, Hyacinthe Kafando, who was also sentenced to life in prison. Both have previously denied any involvement in Sankara’s death. The former president was ousted in a coup in 2014 and fled to Ivory Coast. | Reuters…

THE FUEL RETAILERS Association explained that the retailer margin was at R2.28 per litre and remained fixed cents per litre (cpl) regardless of fuel prices going up. It was the basic fuel price that changed monthly, which drove prices up. Retailer margin breakdown: • R1.33 cents per litre: Opex to cover expenses. That is where the credit cards under recovery sits. (Opex operational expenditures are the on-going costs that businesses need to run, and for fleet managers, this includes expenses such as fuel, staff costs and expenses for supplies that are needed to keep machinery working.) • 31.1 cents per litre: Entrepreneurship compensation to cover for profit before tax. Fuel retailers don’t get or realise all of the full allocation as they get…

MARKING April 6 as “Land Day”, the EFF has given Remgro Limited 14 days to respond to their various demands including an immediate disclosure of the amount of property owned by Johann Rupert, and how it was acquired historically. This comes after hundreds of EFF supporters marched from the corners of Simmons Street and Koelenhof Road in Stellenbosch yesterday. Some of the EFF’s demands include an independently audited report of the tax records of Rupert, and public disclosure of all of his offshore accounts and foreign economic interests. EFF leader Julius Malema said the party wanted commercial land. “We are very happy that our people came today to mark this day as the Land Day. A group of people came to our country and stole everything, including the mineral resources.…

IN A LANDMARK judgment for gender-based violence (GBV) survivors who have been failed by the State, the Constitutional Court has held that police could have gone the extra mile to locate Andy Kawa, who was raped for several hours on a beach in Gqeberha. After a legal fight of nearly 12 years, Kawa scored a huge victory for survivors of gender-based violence when the apex court found that the police had a duty to perform their work with due diligence. The court upheld Kawa’s appeal and found that the police were negligent in their investigation regarding her case, and that they failed in their constitutional duty towards her. The landmark judgment was handed down on Tuesday. Kawa was abducted and repeatedly raped over nearly 15 hours near Kings Beach in…

EXTREME weather events, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and affecting their health globally. In commemoration of World Health Day today, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted the findings of a new analysis found that 99% of people breathe unhealthy air mainly resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. The Heart and Stroke Foundation SA said that the heart and the vascular system is highly vulnerable to a number of environmental agents and air pollution is an invisible killer affecting both the young and the old, causing deaths from heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer. Foundation chief executive Professor Pamela Naidoo said that addressing air pollution will require a multi-sectoral response. “Supporting a healthy environment, making access to healthier food and clean water easier for…

AFTER being told she would never be able to walk, to walking 100 kilometres on her treadmill, Brittany McCormick is now determined to raise funds for those in need. McCormick, 25, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy quadriplegia at the age of one, and she was told that she would never be able to walk. To make her charitable dream come true, McCormick has launched a crowdfunding campaign on BackaBuddy with a goal of raising R75 000. The funds will be donated to benefit Paarl School in Brackenfell. “I understood first-hand how reliant I am on my wheelchair, and how limiting life can be if your mobility is taken away from you. “I began thinking of the people who aren’t in a financial position to afford a wheelchair, let alone…

A University of the Free State (UFS) student has been arrested on charges of arson after a fire that gutted the clinic and computer laboratory was found to have been started intentionally. The fire was allegedly started by disgruntled students who had not yet received funds from NSFAS due to them. The university said the preliminary finding of the urgent investigation into the fire on the Qwaqwa Campus of UFS on the evening of Monday, April 4, indicated the two buildings were intentionally set alight. UFS spokesperson, Lacea Loader, said: “This was established by the SAPS and the university’s Protection Services (Tuesday) morning. Since the outbreak of the fire, one person – who is a registered student – has been arrested by SAPS, and a process is under way to…

In developing countries, and the sub-Saharan region especially, the scale of unmet basic needs is enormous. It is estimated that 3 billion people in the developing world subsist on less than $2 (about R29) a person a day. About 2.37 billion people are without food or unable to eat a balanced diet on a regular basis. The prevalence of undernourishment is highest in sub-Saharan Africa: 24.1%. Out of the almost 60 million children not in school, 33.8 million are in this region. Revenues from taxation are fundamental to changing this dire situation. Taxes enable the state to redistribute wealth to alleviate poverty. They also provide education, health care, social security, pensions, efficient public transport, clean water and other public services taken for granted in developed economies.…

Two buyers of Covid-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income countries have declined options to purchase hundreds of millions of additional doses from Moderna, a sign of waning demand as the pandemic eases. The AU and Covax, the World Health Organization-backed group, decided not to obtain more of the vaccine as developing nations struggle to turn supplies into inoculations. Lower-income countries left behind in the global roll-out are now grappling with a lack of funds, hesitancy, supply- chain obstacles and other factors that are hampering distribution. For months, Moderna’s highly effective messenger RNA vaccine was out of reach for large parts of the world, and the company faced growing pressure to expand access. Now the tables have turned, even as health officials push to boost vaccination rates amid the risk of…

LONDON: Lewis Hamilton says he is open to a biopic being made about him in a similar vein to King Richard, the acclaimed film based on Venus and Serena Williams and their father. Britain’s seven-time world motor racing champion is producing a documentary about his life, but would be happy to see a feature film, too. Smith won the best actor Oscar for playing the Williams sisters’ father. Of the film, Hamilton said: “Behind everyone that’s successful there is always somebody, and I can relate to it because I have a very amazing family … without them, I would not be here today.” | AFP…

THESSALONIKI: One person died yesterday and at least four were hurt in an explosion at a Covid-19 ward in one of Greece’s main hospitals in the northern city of Thessaloniki, officials said. “A strong explosion was heard and everyone jumped out,” said a staff member at Papanikolaou hospital. Officials said two men had suffered major burns, while two other patients suffered smoke inhalation. Thirty-five people had to be evacuated. Local reports said a patient lit a cigarette in the ward, setting off an explosion through his oxygen supply. Television footage showed at least two windows blown out at the back of the building, and smoke. | AFP…

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s deputy leader, former police officer John Lee, announced yesterday he plans to run for the city’s top job, which could see Beijing signing off on the first security official to run the city Carrie Lam, the incumbent who has seen her popularity slide, said she would not seek a second term. Lee is a former Hong Kong security chief and deputy police commissioner known as an anglophile during British rule. In recent years, he has been forceful in enacting China’s strict security system, with civil society groups forced to disband and liberal media outlets raided by police. The election is scheduled for May 8. | Reuters…