Table of contents for 2023-06-05 in Cape Times

SOUTH Africa’s leading economists are forecasting that gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2023 will reflect the fragile economic environment characterised by intensified power cuts and rising cost of living. This comes as Statistics South African (StatsSA) will tomorrow release the data for after growth contracted by 1.3% quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2022. The decline in growth over the quarter was largely broad-based, with only the transport, construction and personal services sectors increasing over the quarter. Bloomberg consensus expectations are for GDP to have expanded by just a tad over 0% in the first quarter, generally underpinned by the unexpected expansion in the electricity-intensive sectors, even as load shedding intensified in the first quarter of 2023 relative to the fourth quarter of 2022. FNB…

The BRICS summit is to go ahead in South Africa, with ongoing discussions over the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to be finalised this week. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s interministerial committee (IMC), led by Deputy President Paul Mashatile, is expected to meet today to consider the state’s options after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest for the Russian leader. Last Thursday, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor, speaking after a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers, insisted the summit will be held in Johannesburg. Yesterday, Professor Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS said Pandor was at pains during the meeting with foreign ministers last week to point out that the August 22-24 summit will take place in the country. The summit was…

JUST over a month into the 2023/24 financial year, Eskom has spent R3 billion to burn diesel to keep the lights on during load shedding as at the first week of May. It is almost triple the amount spent in the first three months of 2022 when R1.3bn was incurred to buy diesel. DA MP Farhat Essack wrote to Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, asking about the total amount that Eskom set aside in its budget for the current financial year to buy diesel for the open-cycle gas turbines (OCGT) and the amount that has been spent to date. Ramakgopa said that Eskom has spent R3bn of the budgeted R19.6bn. “The budget available for the Eskom open-cycle gas turbines for the 2023/24 financial year is R19.6bn, including…

THE number of overseas tourists to Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) in April 2023 reached full recovery when compared to pre-pandemic levels in April 2019. In April 2023, CTIA recorded a total of 67 747 tourist arrivals via air, 87% of which originated from overseas markets and 13% from the African continent, according to a monthly tourism report compiled by Wesgro. “I am very pleased that we have reached pre-pandemic levels of tourists to the Western Cape. “Our focus now is to move beyond recovery and to focus all efforts on growing the tourism and hospitality sector, because more tourists mean more jobs in the Western Cape,” Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger said. “I am very excited to be welcoming the first direct flight from eSwatini to…

ANOTHER body was found dumped in Macassar on Saturday, making it the fourth body discovered in the community in about a week. While police have launched an investigation, the community believes prolonged power outages in the area are to blame. In the first incident, the body of a woman was discovered floating in shallow water at Macassar beach last Saturday. A man’s body was also found in bushes with stab wounds to the face and neck last week. A third body was found alongside the road by residents, and a fourth body was believed to have been discovered by a fisherman on Saturday. Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, said an inquest docket was opened for investigation. “On Saturday, 3 June 2023 at about 5.30pm, Macassar police attended to a crime scene…

Foreign policy inimical to principles of Ubuntu IN A master stroke of deflection diplomacy, Dr Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), took much of the awkwardness out of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs indaba last Friday in Cape Town over the controversy whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will be arrested under an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes against Ukraine if he attends the 15th BRICS Heads of Government summit in August in South Africa. Never mind that Pretoria is seemingly “neutralising” the arrest threat by extending a blanket “standard” diplomatic immunity for the summit and its attendees from any legal provisions of the jurisdiction of the host country for the duration of the conference – perhaps a desperate yet stunning act of Rome Statute casuistry.…

Clashes are continuing around the devastated city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and Moscow is still suffering “significant losses” despite a relative easing of combat operations in recent days, Kyiv’s armed forces said yesterday. Russia claimed late last month to have captured Bakhmut following what had become the war’s longest and bloodiest battle, but Ukraine says its forces still retain a small foothold and denies that Moscow is in full control of the city. Ukraine’s top military command said in its daily report yesterday that Russian forces had carried out two unsuccessful operations around Bakhmut and launched a number of air strikes and artillery shelling on nearby villages. It said about 23 combat clashes had taken place over the past 24 hours in the Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located,…

Residents of Sudan’s capital Khartoum reported a sharp escalation in clashes in several areas of the capital yesterday after the expiry of a ceasefire deal between rival military factions brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US. Witnesses also said a military plane had crashed in Omdurman, one of three cities around the confluence of the Nile that make up the greater capital region. There was no comment from the army, which has been using fighter jets to target the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spread out in a conflict that erupted on April 15, triggering a major humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia and the US said they were continuing to engage daily with delegations from the army and the RSF, which had remained in Jeddah even though talks to extend the…

CAIRO: Egypt deployed three tugboats yesterday to tow away an oil tanker that had broken down and caused brief delays in the Suez Canal, authorities in charge of the vital waterway said. Traffic in both directions returned to normal after a brief disruption when the Malta-flagged Seavigour experienced a “machinery malfunction” while en route from Russia to China, the authority said. Three tugboats “successfully towed and moored the ship” at a shipyard where the technical fault will be fixed before the tanker “resumes its crossing”. Brief disruptions caused by ships breaking down are common in the waterway. | AFP…

LOS ANGELES: Taylor Swift kicked off Pride Month with a message of support for the LGBTQIA+ community. The 33-year-old musician was speaking during the Chicago, Illinois stop of her Eras tour when she told her fans that her concerts were a “safe space” for everyone. “Being with you during Pride Month, getting to sing the words to You Need To Calm Down where there are lyrics like, ‘Can you just not step on his gown?’ or, ‘Shade never made anybody less gay,’ and you guys are screaming those lyrics… Such support of one another and such encouraging, beautiful acceptance and peace and safety. And I wish that every place was safe and beautiful for people of the LGBTQ+ community.” She urged her fans to think carefully about their votes in…

GORDON Lesetedi has often started the Comrades Marathon as a serious contender for glory. But over the years, misfortune has befallen him, the runner who trains under the tutelage of the revered John Hamlett either suffering pre-race illness, injuries or just having an unfortunate race day. It is for that reason that he is yet to realise his dream and fulfil the potential his talent and through preparations have often deserved – a podium finish. He only has two gold medals. Lesetedi’s best at the Comrades was a sixth-place finish in the 2018 down run when he ran a 5hr 39min 32sec. It was a good 13 minutes slower than the time ran by winner Bongmusa Mthembu. Though pleased with the gold, Lesetedi was understandably disappointed given that he was…

LIMPOPO MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramathuba has failed in her urgent court bid to interdict the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) from proceeding with its misconduct inquiry against her for remarks to a foreign patient last year. Ramathuba turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to urgently stop the hearing scheduled for July 25 to July 27. She wanted this order pending a later application to overturn the decision by the HPCSA to hold an inquiry. The MEC made headlines in August last year when a video went viral in which she made remarks to a Zimbabwean patient during her visit to a Bela Bela hospital. In the clip posted on Twitter, Ramathuba said that only in South Africa did people come into the country and expect…

Indian rescue workers completed operations yesterday after the country’s deadliest rail crash in more than two decades, with signal failure emerging as the likely cause of an accident that killed at least 275 people. The death toll from Friday’s crash was revised down from 288 after it was found that some bodies had been counted twice, said Pradeep Jena, chief secretary of the eastern state of Odisha. The tally was unlikely to rise, he told reporters. “Now the rescue operation is complete.” Nearly 1 200 people were injured when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore. More than 900 people had been discharged from hospital while 260 were still being…

THE first team of about 200 local firefighters and management has been deployed to the Canadian province of Alberta to assist with firefighting efforts. This is the fifth deployment by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Working on Fire programme team to Canada. The request for urgent assistance came from the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in terms of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa. Alberta has already experienced more than 550 wildfires this season resulting in significant damage to property and infrastructure, and displacing thousands of people. Evacuation orders have been put in place in many areas. “I would like to extend my best wishes to the team as you embark on your deployment to Canada to help put out the…

A MAN was killed while his alleged accomplices escaped following a foiled business robbery in Philippi East at the weekend. According to information, four suspects had attempted to rob a business on Saturday but they found a woman and a man inside the store and shots were fired, fatally wounding one suspect. Police said the incident happened at around 6pm. Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, said the circumstances leading to the shooting at the supermarket in Philippi East, are under investigation. “According to reports the owners of the shop were about to leave the premises when they were approached by unknown suspects who robbed them of a cellular telephone. “The unknown suspect was fatally wounded while his accomplices fled the scene. “The circumstances surrounding the incident are subject to a police…

MOSSEL Bay DA ward councillor Anco Barker who tendered her resignation from the party on Friday, has said she could no longer be silent about alleged illegal actions that could be detrimental to the residents of the town. Barker confirmed her resignation from the party and as councillor in a video on social media. “In November 2021 I took an oath that I will be faithful to the Republic of South Africa and I stood by that oath. “I have seen how the DA caucus in Mossel Bay have acted in an unfit, dishonest and untransparent manner, by means of willingly and knowingly withholding critical information from agenda items to mislead council. “A fraudulent action that I can no longer be silent about. “When I took the oath I meant…

MASS killings, like the murder of eight people at the notorious Glebelands Hostel in Durban, should never become the norm. Police reported that the men were shot on Saturday morning; seven were declared dead at the scene, while an eighth person died in hospital. Glebelands is notorious. Between 2014 and 2019, more than 120 people died as a result of violence allegedly at the hands of hitmen. Last year, nearly 30 people died in tavern shootings around the country. In July, 16 people were killed at Nomzamo tavern in Orlando East, with Police Minister Bheki Cele saying more than 137 cartridges were recovered from the scene of the shooting, and that an AK47 had been used. These mass shootings have again raised questions about the effectiveness of the Crime Intelligence…

ABOUT 54 Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an AU base in Somalia last week, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said, in one of the worst recent attacks by Al-Shabaab jihadists in the war-torn country. “We discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including a commander,” Museveni said at the weekend. The veteran leader was speaking during a meeting with members of his governing National Resistance Movement party, the presidency said yesterday. The toll is one of the heaviest yet since pro-government forces backed by the AU force known as ATMIS launched an offensive against Al-Shabaab last August. It was also a rare admission of a major military death toll by AU members. Al-Shabaab, which has been waging a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s fragile central government for more than a…

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called the killing of three soldiers by a member of the Egyptian security services a terrorist attack and demanded a full joint investigation with Cairo. Israel’s military said that two of its soldiers were shot dead early on Saturday by an Egyptian security services member who crossed through the border fence. Soldiers then made contact and during an exchange of fire the Egyptian guard and a third Israeli soldier were killed. The Egyptian military said the three Israelis and Egyptian guard had been killed in an exchange of fire as the guard chased smugglers across the frontier. | Reuters…

BANGKOK: The frontrunner to be Thailand’s next prime minister joined a Pride Parade in Bangkok yesterday, promising to pass a law that would allow same-sex marriage and gender identity rights if he becomes prime minister. Thousands of LGBTQ+ people, their allies and political leaders marched through Bangkok, marking Pride Month and promoting gender equality in the second official Pride parade to be held in the country. Political figures joining the Parade included Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the progressive Move Forward party, which is pushing to lead a coalition after winning the most seats in a May 14 general election. | Reuters…

Dewald Brevis laid down an early marker that he wants to be part of the conversation when the Proteas’ one-day international World Cup squad is selected later this year. Taking on a new middle-order role, the talented youngster blasted 98 not out off just 71 balls (6x4, 7x6) from No 7 to lead South Africa A to a comfortable four-wicket victory over their Sri Lankan counterparts in the first unofficial ODI in Pallekele yesterday. Brevis’ imposing innings carries even greater weight as he and fellow youngster Beyers Swanepoel were paired together with SA A in a spot of bother on 155/6 in pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 264/8. The situation did not, however, deter the former SA Under-19 star as he and Swanepoel tore into the hosts’ attack from thereon. The…

Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema will leave Real Madrid as a free agent in the close season after 14 trophy-laden years, the club said on Sunday, with the striker being linked with a move to Saudi Arabian side Al Ittihad. The 35-year-old Frenchman had looked set to stay at the Spanish club for one more year after a 2022-23 season in which he struggled with injuries and missed out on France’s World Cup campaign in Qatar due to another injury. However, an offer estimated by media to be worth more than €100 million (about R2.1 billion) from Saudi Arabia has reportedly made him reconsider his future. The Frenchman decided to void the one-year extension clause he had in his contract. “Real Madrid CF and our captain Benzema have agreed to…

Electricity Minister says risk of a national blackout was extremely low given the various control measures in place THE MINISTER in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has warned that the government will be ramping up Demand Side Management (DSM) programmes this winter as part of measures to prevent load shedding from exceeding stage 6. DSM is a strategy used by electricity utilities to control demand by encouraging consumers to modify their level and pattern of electricity usage, and typically includes monetary incentives to encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient equipment, or lower prices if they agree to reduce usage during peak times of demand. Ramokgopa on Friday presented an update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, saying that they were working tirelessly to avert a…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana said the National Treasury had stopped R2.7 billion in transfers in conditional grants to municipalities from the R7.4bn that was earmarked earlier this year. Godongwana revealed this while responding to parliamentary questions from GOOD Party MP Brett Herron when he enquired about the National Treasury’s announcement that conditional grant funding would be withheld from some municipalities due to non-performance. The minister said the withholding of transfers to municipalities was an annual practice that had been institutionalised over the past 10 years to maximise spending and the effectiveness of conditional grants. The National Treasury initiated the stopping and re-allocating the 2022/23 conditional grant allocations in terms of the Division of Revenue Act in February. “The National Treasury issued 171 letters to all under-performing municipalities on February 17,…

Advocate Jan Heunis voted out through a motion of no confidence Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Convocation president Advocate Jan Heunis became the first casualty of a power struggle in the institution when he was ousted from his position in the Convocation before he resigned from the university’s Council. Heunis was leading calls for SU rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers to resign over claims of nepotism. SU Council chairperson Dr Nicky Newton-King said Heunis had stepped down from Council with immediate effect. “Dr Heunis has given many years of service to the University, on Convocation and on Council, and I thank him for this. I wish him well,” said Newton-King. On Thursday night an extraordinary convocation meeting was held where two motions against executive members were debated and voted on.…

THE South African Nursing Council (SANC) has lost an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) related to a dispute over the commencement date of an approved programme for the Khanyisa Nursing School (Khanyisa). Khanyisa, located in Johannesburg, had for many years been accredited to train nurses and applied to SANC for accreditation to offer two nursing programmes: a diploma in nursing in the category ‘general nurse’; and a higher certificate in nursing in the category ‘auxiliary nurse’. The approval of these applications was long delayed. On April 22, 2022, the council notified Khanyisa that it had granted full accreditation to offer the programmes at four of its campuses. However, the letters of accreditation sent by the council reflected the date of accreditation as March 30-31, 2022. This was…

INFRASTRUCTURE MEC Tertuis Simmers claims some opposition political parties allegedly fronted as business forums “seeking to extort and gain possible funding.” Simmers made these comments during a debate in the Western Cape Legislature over a lack of access to land for the poor and marginalised. The debate also touched on challenges of land invasion and housing delays. DA MPL Derrick America enquired if Simmers’ department identified specific groups or organisations who were encouraging land grabs. “We have sadly learnt that since 2019 certain political parties were playing a very coordinated role in encouraging land grabs. “We have seen this at the Forest Village Housing Development project that is about 99% completed, where a specific political party encouraged people to occupy and there were intimidation and threats made. We were forced…

BRAZIL, Russia, India and China originally formed the bloc in 2009 after a series of meetings and understandings. The first BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16 of the same year. The following year, in Brasilia, Brazil, in April, the second summit was held, where the leaders of these countries emphasised the necessity of a multidimensional global intergovernmental system. Then, at their third meeting in New York in September 2010, BRIC agreed on the entry of South Africa. South Africa managed to join after a strong effort as a result of its active foreign policy, this coalition of states changing it from “BRIC” to “BRICS”. At the fourth summit in March 2012 in New Delhi, India, a first announcement was made of the establishment of a New…

Hong Kong police yesterday detained over a dozen people, including key pro-democracy figures trying to commemorate the anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, as hundreds in Taiwan mourned the dead with a vigil. For years, tens of thousands of Hong Kongers would converge on the city’s Victoria Park and its surrounding neighbourhood to commemorate the events of June 4, 1989 – taking part in candlelight vigils. But since Beijing’s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent, the annual vigil was banned and its organisers charged under the law. This weekend, scores of police were deployed in the area, stopping people to search their belongings and question them. People found with a candle, regarded as a symbol of the Victoria Park vigil, were…

Fourteen people were killed and five were missing following a landslide in southwestern China’s Sichuan province yesterday, the local government said. The “collapse took place high on a mountain” at a state-owned forestry station in Jinkouhe, near the city of Leshan, the local government said. Authorities sent more than 180 people and a dozen pieces of rescue and recovery equipment to the site. “Currently, search and rescue work is urgently under way,” it said. The site is in a mountainous region about 240km south of the provincial capital Chengdu. Landslides are a frequent danger in rural and mountainous parts of China, particularly during the rainy summer months. An official in Jinkouhe’s publicity department declined to give further comment on Sunday’s landslide. The settlement of around 40 000 people lies between…

Warsaw: Half a million protesters packed the streets of central Warsaw yesterday, Poland’s opposition organisers said claiming one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in the 30 years since the end of communism. Lech Walesa, a former Polish president and leader of the fight against communism, joined opposition figures at the head of the march ahead of legislative elections in the autumn. People travelled from across the country after former prime minister Donald Tusk, head of the centrist opposition party Civic Platform, called for the protest against “the high cost of living, swindling and lying”. | AFP…

LOS ANGELES: Twitter’s value has sunk by almost two-thirds since Elon Musk acquired the company. That is according to Fidelity, an asset manager that held a stake in Twitter worth around $20 million (R390m) after Musk acquired the micro-blogging platform in 2022. Fidelity has now claimed in a corporate filing that its stake in the company is worth just under $6.6m. As a result, Fidelity now values the social media platform at around $14.75 billion – even though Musk acquired the company for $44bn less than 12 months ago. The billionaire businessman introduced a wave of changes following his takeover of the company last year. | Bang Showbiz…

Western Province shot themselves in the foot by losing to Griquas in the Currie Cup and now need a few favours from different teams to make it to the semi-finals. And Province coach John Dobson admitted that it was probably not a good idea to pump his United Rugby Championship players into the Kimberley match so shortly after the final loss. The home team beat a URC-laden WP side 38-29 to leapfrog them on the Currie Cup standings and keep their hopes alive of making the semis. A win would’ve kept WP in full control to seal a semi-final spot after a young side carried the team to within reach with most of the URC players not available. They face the Sharks on Saturday and will have to win by…

Novak Djokovic swept into the French Open quarter-finals for the 14th straight year yesterday. Third seed Djokovic, who is chasing a record 23rd grand slam singles title at Roland Garros, ended the surprise run of Peruvian outsider Juan Pablo Varillas in straight sets. Djokovic, a two-time champion in Paris, won 6-3 6-2 6-2 against the 94th-ranked Varillas to book a meeting with Russia’s Karen Khachanov, the 11th seed who overcame Lorenzo Sonego in four sets. “I had never played my opponent before,” said Djokovic. “I knew he was a clay-court specialist and that I had to earn the victory. It was the best I played this week.” The 36-year-old Djokovic has yet to drop a set through four rounds. He is into a record 17th French Open quarter-final after making…