Table of contents for 2023-04-19 in Cape Times

Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Mosotho Moepya said the signing into law of the Electoral Amendment Bill provided the necessary legal certainty required to prepare for the 2024 elections. “Such certainty in the legal framework can only augur well for the Electoral Commission, the voting public, possible contestants, observers and other interested stakeholders,” Moepya said when addressing the media. President Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the bill following its passing by the National Assembly in February after the Constitutional Court found that the Electoral Act was unconstitutional. This was because it only allowed members of political parties to stand for election in Parliament and provincial legislatures. Moepya said now that the policy choices for the coming elections had been made, the IEC would move with deliberate speed to finalise…

THE Department of Basic Education has come under fire from MPs who say it is not being fully transparent in its data on learner drop-outs following a briefing to the portfolio committee on basic education. The department’s data showed that 400 000 children who started Grade 1 in 2011 (1 177 089) did not make it to Grade 12 (775 630) in 2022. Delivering the DBE presentation, researcher and adviser to the department, Martin Gustafsson, said: “Why can’t we say that for example 100 000 learners drop out between Grades 1 and 2, or that 400 000 youths did not reach Grade 12? Because repetition, which is especially high in Grade 1, inflates the denominator. “Imagine if all Grade 1 learners repeated that grade, and no one repeated Grade 2.…

THE register of members’ interests for 2022 has shown that some MPs are moonlighting to supplement their income during the tough economic times. Parliamentarians are required to declare any remuneration or employment outside of Parliament, and it should be sanctioned by their political parties. A look at the register, released on Monday night, showed that ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe is a preacher at Hope of Glory Tabernacle. Meshoe’s deputy Wayne Thring is also a preacher at Kingdom Connect Ministries. ANC MP Giovanni Heinrich receives an extra income from gospel music CD sales. Former EFF MP Mgcini Tshwaku, who is now an MMC in the Joburg Metro, was an online tutor at Unisa’s chemical engineering department. Musician and EFF MP Ringo Madlingozi performs for Ristar Music records while his colleague Khanya…

The ambassador of the de facto Republic of Ireland and the US president have been justifying the Easter Accord’s anniversary at the Kelvin Grove, the natural habitat of Anglo-Irish ascendancy. This is contrary to the principles that motivated Patrick Pearse and the hundreds who laid down their lives at Easter 1916 for a united Republican country for the men and women of Ireland and which are, sadly, overlooked. Let us never forget that in 1623, the British government planted foreigners in six of the nine counties of Ulster: and for a decided purpose. Let us never forget, too, that in 1820 the British government planted foreigners in a country similar to the six counties, for the same purpose. While those planted in 1820 have been abandoned by successive British governments:…

A WEST COAST family is still trying to come to terms with the loss of their 11-year old son who died in hospital after being taken there to treat a cut sustained at a birthday party. Luka Strydom is believed to have fallen against a pile of braai wood while playing with friends at a birthday party recently. He reportedly suffered a cut that required stitches and was rushed to hospital where he later died. He was in Grade 6. Luka’s bereaved mother, Eldre Strydom, said she was struggling to make sense of her son’s death. “My heart is in a thousand pieces. He had a silly fall on Sunday against a pile of barbecue wood. There was an ugly cut (from) one piece of wood and we immediately…

Explosions rocked the Sudanese capital Khartoum yesterday, the fourth day of fighting that has claimed nearly 200 lives despite growing international calls for an end to hostilities that have spawned increasing lawlessness. A weeks-long power struggle erupted into deadly violence Saturday between the forces of two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Underscoring the chaos, the US said one of its diplomatic convoys was fired upon, and the EU said its ambassador was attacked at home. Aid groups have reported looting of medical and other supplies. Battles have taken place throughout the vast northeast African country and there are fears of regional spillover of the conflict that has seen…

The number of Afghans in poverty nearly doubled to 34 million as the nation was racked by the collapse of the US-backed government and the Taliban takeover, the UN said yesterday. After the US-backed republic fell in 2021, vast foreign subsidies were halted and aid programmes dramatically cut back as many countries refused to deal with the Taliban authorities in Kabul. In December, those NGOs still providing vital help were dealt a further blow by a Taliban government order barring Afghan women from working for them. This month the curb was extended to the UN’s Afghan female employees and the organisation said it now faces an “appalling choice” over whether to continue its aid schemes. Yesterday, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) released a stark new assessment of 2022 data estimating…

Kuala Lumpur: Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh spoke up yesterday for diversity and women’s empowerment in the entertainment industry, saying “we should never allow somebody to put us in a box”. She was speaking at her first news conference in her home country since her historic best actress win – Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award – for the sci-fi action comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once – the Malaysian star said: “I don’t believe that just because we are women, we are a weaker sex.” | AFP…

LONDON: Britain has sanctioned an individual suspected of financing Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, as part of an effort to “disrupt an international terrorist-financing operation”, the British government said yesterday. The government said it had used domestic counter-terrorism powers for the first time to freeze all assets and economic resources belonging to Nazem Ahmad in the UK and barred anyone in the country from doing business with him or any of the companies he owns. Ahmad, who was sanctioned by the US in 2019, has an extensive art collection in the UK and conducts business with British artists, galleries and auction houses. | Reuters…

AFRIMAT’S headline earnings per share is expected to fall 13% to 18% for the year to February 28, but the mid-tier mining group remains debt free and well capitalised to be able to execute its growth strategy. The share price slipped 2.97% to close at R49 on the JSE yesterday, some 27% below the R66.60 that it traded at a year ago. The construction materials, industrial mineral and bulk commodities mining group said in a trading statement yesterday that earnings per share were expected to decrease by between 15% and 20% compared to 560.7 cents for the year ended February 28, 2022. Headline earnings per share were expected to be between 445.2c and 472.3c, representing a decline of between 13% and 18% compared to 542.9c for the last financial…

HOME Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the R1.4 million spent on bringing fugitives Thabo Bester and his “customary wife” Nandipha Magudumana back to South Africa was shared among the departments involved in the matter. The government came under fire after reports surfaced that the chartered flight was luxurious and the public felt they should have used a police or an army aircraft. Briefing the home affairs portfolio committee, Motsoaledi said the plane that went to Tanzania to fetch Bester and Magudumana was not hired by SAPS but by his department. He said the Tanzanians had opted for the deportation of Bester and Magudumana rather than extradition. At the time the government had sent a team from law enforcement agencies – the SAPS, Department of Correctional Services and the State…

ONE has to laugh at our government. In the newspaper, there was a statement from Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, who wants to take out a démarche with the UAE. This is because they set free the Guptas after South Africa had requested Interpol to arrest the brothers. I would just like to ask Mr Lamola what his stance is on handing back Russian President Vladimir Putin when he comes to a BRICS meeting in South Africa? Why is this any different? We have been asked by the International Criminal Court, of which we are a member, to arrest Mr Putin as he arrives on our soil, due to war atrocities. Will this be done, Mr Lamola? Methinks not! We had the same scenario with Sudanese president…

THE South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has only 11 assessment doctors in the Western Cape despite a backlog of more than 1 600 applications for temporary disability grants. This is according to a parliamentary response by Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, to a question from DA MP, Alexandra Abrahams. Abrahams wanted to know what the backlog status in each province was in relation to temporary disability grants as well as what number of temporary disability grants had lapsed due to the lack of Sassa assessment doctors, among others. According to Zulu, in the Western Cape there is a backlog of 1 693 cases, a further 7 297 beneficiaries waiting to be assessed while 7 083 grants had lapsed. “The total assessment backlog picture inclusive of…

Recent academic studies by Edson Leroy Meyer and Ochuko Kelvin Overen reported that in South Africa, more than 3.5 million households do not have access to modern energy for lighting, cooking and heating. By the government’s own admission, the electrification of a 5% to 10% annual rate is insufficient for the country to achieve universal access to the grid by 2030. The report by Meyer and Overen suggests a new energy policy that recommends supplying 50kWh/month of electricity through renewable energy sources. The most successful and comprehensive application of a renewable energy policy to address poverty in rural areas is the experience in China. As part of the poverty reduction programme, a solar photovoltaic poverty alleviation project was introduced that is easily accessed and maintained. China set up solar…

The Kremlin said yesterday that President Vladimir Putin had visited two front-line regions in Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to brand it a tour of the scenes of Russian “crimes”. Moscow portrayed the trip as a marker of its control in occupied Ukraine, but Russia does not fully hold those areas despite claiming them after a widely condemned annexation. Putin’s visit to Kherson and Lugansk, only made public a day after it happened, came as China’s Defence Minister, Li Shangfu, was in Moscow to demonstrate what he called Beijing’s “determination” to stronger Russia ties. Moscow has been seeking allies to confront the West as its war in Ukraine causes immense destruction and suffering but has not neared Putin’s goal of capturing control of the country. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was…

Swedish Radio has announced that it is quitting Twitter, the first major European public broadcaster to join three from North America that left the social media platform in the past week. Swedish Radio said Twitter had lost relevance for a Swedish audience, not blaming a new policy by Twitter, under owner Elon Musk, to label more public broadcasters as government funded. US broadcasters NPR and PBS and Canada’s CBC quit Twitter after it added new labels to its accounts, designating them “government-funded media”. That change appears to have been applied in North America but not in Western Europe, where they are labelled “publicly funded”. Gillinger said it was worrying that Twitter had reduced its workforce and that it could affect Twitter’s ability to handle bots, disinformation and hateful content. Twitter…

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities yesterday banned meetings at all offices of the opposition Ennahda Islamist party and police closed the headquarters of the Salvation Front main opposition coalition, party and official sources said. Ennahda fears the move will pave the way for banning the party and comes a day after police detained Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi, the most prominent critic of President Kais Saied and three senior officials, the party said. Police raided the party headquarters and evacuated all those present to start a search that will take days, party officials said. Police also prevented access to the headquarters of the Salvation Front party. | Reuters…

KATHMANDU: A mountaineer from Northern Ireland died while descending from the summit of the world’s 10th highest peak, and an Indian climber was missing on the same mountain, officials said yesterday. Noel Hanna, who had climbed Mount Everest 10 times, scaled the 8 091m Annapurna peak in west Nepal on Monday, but died overnight in Camp IV. The Department of Tourism said the circumstances of Hanna’s death were unclear. It said an Indian climber, who fell into a crevasse on Annapurna, had been missing since Monday. Two other Indian mountaineers, caught up in bad weather while climbing Annapurna, were being rescued. | Reuters…

PROTEAS white-ball coach Rob Walter may have been involved in robust discussions at Cricket South Africa’s annual coaches conference on Monday, but he no doubt would have been keeping one eye on Bangalore. At the conclusion of the international season, Walter proclaimed that he would be spending the off-season “mostly watching the IPL.” And if he did indeed tune into Monday’s action, Walter would have noticed that his burgeoning all-rounder Sisanda Magala was not able to take the field due to a hand injury and that Wayne Parnell (1/48) faced a baptism of fire on a batting paradise at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, he would have also received yet another strong message from former Proteas captain Faf du Plessis who he is by no means a spent force. In fact,…

Going aggressively after clients who owe it billions in outstanding loans THE LAND BANK has decided to approach the National Treasury and ask it to help with conducting a forensic investigation of third-party agents who were disbursing and managing more than R10 billion debt owed to it in bad loans. This comes after the Land Bank aggressively went after clients who are owing it billions of rand in outstanding loans after it resumed new lending activities to commercial farmers after a two-year hiatus. Non-performing loans are part of the reasons why the cash-strapped bank entered a serious liquidity crisis when it failed to make interest payments due on its R50bn borrowings in April 2020, triggering a cross default on substantially all of its borrowings. Land Bank chairperson Thabi Nkosi…

A motion of no confidence brought by the ANC against Kannaland Municipal Manager Morné Hoogbaard over allegations of corruption and maladministration was withdrawn yesterday. The motion follows a Section 106 report by Local Government MEC Anton Bredell, implicating Hoogbaard in serious allegations of corruption in the municipality. It was not adopted by council and was withdrawn. ANC Kannaland spokesperson Elvis Ntlebi said Hoogbaard has a long history of allegations of “shady dealings”. “He is currently appearing in the regional court on charges of R338 million corruption, fraud and theft. “Kannaland’s executive mayor Jeffrey Donson refuses to hold Hoogbaard accountable for his corrupt conduct as outlined in the Section 106 Report. The Section 106 Report recommends that Hoogbaard must be criminally charged, and further recommends internal disciplinary action against Hoogbaard and…

“He died doing what he loved, and what God had chosen him to do” THE widow of slain community activist and former ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla did not know how to break the news of her husband’s murder to their two young children, as he meant the world to them. Speaking to the Cape Times, Nyameka Nkohla said: “We are distraught. Beyond the Loyiso that you know, he was a loving, soft and humble family man who always put his family first. I will always love him. He loved me so much and my heart is at ease knowing how much he adored me. He died doing what he loved, and what God had chosen him to do. I take solace in that. “He would wake up and prepare his…

HOW the ANC and its buddy, Eskom, have fallen from grace! If they think it is business as usual, they are making a grave mistake. Corruption is endemic and like a vicious dog, it bites left, right and centre. The poor suffer because of this. To explain the ANC’s predicament, one should examine the party’s roots. Without a sound, healthy root system the ANC will wither and die. We are all aware of the ANC’s close ties with the Lenin/Stalinist axis of evil. In the halls of power, it is comrade here and comrade there, with the EEF’s hammer and sickle paraded all over the place. We can recall many ANC ministers with ties to the SACP. In what age are they living? Are they aware of the artificial famine…

The Stellenbosch University (SU) council has resolved that a council committee of three persons should investigate allegations levelled against the vice-chancellor, Professor Wim de Villiers, including a possible breach of rules in relation to rector’s discretionary placements (RDP). In a meeting that lasted about 10 hours on Monday, a motion of the SU Statute to dismiss Professor De Villiers was tabled for debate. The motion was placed on the agenda by Dr Leon Schreiber and seconded by Dr Jan Heunis. The council agreed that the matter should first be referred to a council committee to be established, which will include an independent legal professional person. It will probe the motion, allegations of nepotism, a possible breach of the RDP and placements of relatives of De Villiers. The vice-chancellor had…

WHILE everyone is excited about Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana, the story might go much deeper than this action-packed movie. The story behind the story could be much more than what meets the eye. The Thabo Bester saga concerns something that no journalist wants to talk about; profits and corporate power in the South African prison industrial complex. It also concerns the globalisation of production and entrenched corporate power that stand to collapse many developing countries worldwide. Tracy Chang and Douglas Thompkins argue that “the prison industrial complex comprises two major segments: prison privatisation and prison industrialisation”. Most prisons are run by the Department of Correctional Services. However, there are a few private prisons that have been contracted out to private companies. The privatisation of prisons is a controversial…

A suspected Palestinian gunman opened fire at a vehicle in Jerusalem yesterday, wounding two Israelis and at least six Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli forces during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, officials said. An Israeli military spokesperson said soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin, which has seen frequent Israeli raids over the past year, were apprehending suspected militants when they came under heavy fire. The Palestinian Health Ministry said six Palestinians were injured in the clashes and the military said there were no Israeli casualties. In Jerusalem, Israeli police said they were in search of a suspected Palestinian gunman who shot into a car wounding two in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, a site of serious friction in recent years between…

Moscow: Moscow has opened a new criminal case against Russia’s top opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, who is already serving a nine-year prison sentence, his spokesperson said yesterday. Kira Yarmysh said it was the 10th case against the Kremlin critic, who was already facing up to 35 years in prison. Yarmysh said the administration staged a “provocation” against Navalny by placing an inmate “with personal hygiene problems” in his cell. The smell was so bad, Navalny “refused to go in there”, she said. According to informal prison “rules”, Navalny was expected to use force to kick the inmate out of his cell. “He told the guards that he would not do it because this convict was not to blame.” After being “hit and dragged into the cell”, Navalny “grabbed (the inmate)…

Brussels: Environmental groups lodged a lawsuit against the European Commission yesterday to challenge its definition of natural gas as a “green” energy source. Another NGO, Greenpeace, sued the EU executive separately for deciding that nuclear energy was worthy of its sustainable investment label. The legal actions at the European Court of Justice come a year after the EU established its so-called “taxonomy”, a classification list of energy sources deemed sustainable as it seeks to shift to a carbon-neutral future. Nuclear power and natural gas were included, considered “trans-itional” sources worthy of breaks for green financing. | AFP…

Beijing: A fire in a Beijing hospital has killed 21 people, the state-run Beijing Daily said yesterday. Emergency response teams first received word that a fire had broken out at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital, the report said. The fire was extinguished about half an hour later and rescue efforts continued for about another two hours, by which time a total of 71 patients had been evacuated and taken to another location. The death toll was put at 21 by 6pm, it said. The cause of the accident was under investigation. Social media users posted videos of people sitting on external air conditioning units, while others, clinging to ropes, jumped from the building. | AFP…