Table of contents for 2023-09-28 in Cape Times

IRMA Stern once again affirmed her magnetism, with three paintings by the leading African modernist appearing in the list of top five works sold at Strauss & Co’s premier auction of modern and contemporary art. The top-selling lot of last week’s event was Stern’s important portrait, Praying Arab, from her second visit to the East African island of Zanzibar in 1945, which sold for R18.5 million. Stern’s Praying Arab, the cover lot for the auction, was initially passed over when it was offered but sold to a buyer in the room before the auction was completed. The sale was announced by the auctioneer to buyers viewing the auction. Strauss & Co chairperson Frank Kilbourn said: “The selling price of R18.5m ($965 415) is the fourth-highest price achieved for…

THE Road Accident Fund (RAF) will have to pay nearly R13 million in damages to a woman who suffered severe brain damage in a car accident that had put an end to her ambitions to become an actuary. The RAF had never opposed the claim, resulting in the court issuing a default judgment in favour of the victim. Under the order, the fund had to pay her just short of R13m. Subsequently, it appeared that the RAF knew nothing about the order against it. It became aware of it only when the victim’s counsel turned to court to compel the RAF to pay. The RAF opposed that application and said it would turn to court to have the order rescinded. This was never done and now the RAF had launched…

THE Public Service Commission (PSC) has expressed its frustration at what it described as the National Treasury’s alleged concealment of information in relation to government departments' failures to pay service providers. Over the years there has been a trend of either late or non-payment of invoices, with provinces and national departments owing billions of rand. Commissioner Anele Gxoyiya has now urged small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) with unpaid government invoices exceeding 30 days to approach the PSC with their grievances. Gxoyiya was speaking at a media briefing yesterday where he released a Quarterly Bulletin titled “The Pulse of the Public Service”, which covered the overall number of complaints and grievances handled from April 1 to June 30. Gxoyiya emphasised they were troubled that once again they could not reflect…

Drug kingpin Fadwaan “Vet” Murphy will have to wait to hear his sentencing fate as arguments set to be heard in court this week were postponed. Murphy became the first drug dealer to be convicted under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) in July when he was found guilty on 229 crime-related charges at the Western Cape High Court. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the matter was postponed to November 20 and 21 with no arguments taking place for mitigation and aggravation. Murphy was convicted alongside his ex-wife, Shariefa, after the duo were found to have operated a drug enterprise dating back to 2015. Their trial stretched over five years where they faced charges in terms of Poca and contravening the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act by…

Restitution crucial to addressing imbablances of the past THIS month, we commemorate and celebrate South Africa’s multifaceted diversity and heritage, mindful of the complexities of the struggle for land. Notably, the pain and inhumanity of forced removals by the apartheid regime propelled the democratic government to work towards moving the country from a culture of human wrongs to a culture of human rights and social justice. This was underscored by the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994 (Act No. 22 of 1994), as amended, which recognises the need for the restitution of land rights to the victims of forced removals, also expressed in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996). Every person, family, community and society has a history marked by experiences that come from relations that exist…

A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that survived Islamic State occupation as authorities announced an investigation into the blaze. Firefighters searched the charred skeleton of the building in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniya, yesterday and bereaved relatives gathered outside a morgue in the nearby city of Mosul. “This was not a wedding. This was hell,” said Mariam Khedr, crying and hitting herself as she waited for officials to return the bodies of her daughter, Rana Yakoub, 27, and three young grandchildren, the youngest aged just eight months. Survivors said hundreds of people were at the wedding celebration, which followed an earlier church service, and the fire began about an hour into the event…

A group of Catholic Church abuse victims and their advocates yesterday called on Pope Francis to enforce “zero tolerance” against clerical sex abuse, after completing a six-day pilgrimage to Rome carrying a large wooden cross. The 10 men and women walked 130km along the last stretch of the Via Francigena, a medieval trail that connects Canterbury, England, to Rome, ahead of a major Vatican summit on the future of the Church, starting next week. The pilgrimage “shows the determination of survivors to come to deliver their message to Pope Francis ... that there must be a universal law of the church of zero tolerance,” said US attorney Timothy Law, co-founder of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA). ECA activists came to Rome in the run-up to the synod, an October 4-29 Vatican…

Baku: Azerbaijan said yesterday that it had detained a former separatist leader of Nagorno-Karabakh while he was trying to enter Armenia in the wake of Baku’s offensive last week. The state border service said Ruben Vardanyan, a businessman who headed the Armenian separatist government from November 2022 until February, had been handed to officials in Baku after being detained on the road to Armenia. It also released a photograph of Vardanyan, who was born in 1968, flanked by two security officers. Azerbaijan has agreed to allow separatists who lay down weapons to leave for Armenia under the terms but border guards were also looking for “war crime” suspects. | AFP…

MOSCOW: After Hillary Clinton sought to needle President Vladimir Putin over Nato enlargement, the Kremlin yesterday reminded her of her gaffe when she sought to “reset” relations with Russia with a button mislabelled as “overload”. Returning to the State Department for the unveiling of her official portrait, Clinton said: “Too bad, Vladimir. You brought it on yourself.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Clinton was known in Russia for her 2009 gaffe when a symbolic button designed to mark a “reset” of US-Russia ties, was instead labelled “overload” in Russian. At the time, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told her the Russian verb used was incorrect but said the button would be put on his desk. “It is probably necessary to remind Mrs Clinton of the numerous waves of Nato expansion and…

ABOUT 600 primary school learners from 17 primary schools have been hard at work preparing for the e’Bosch School Choir Festival 2023 at the Coetzenburg Sports Centre in Stellenbosch today. The e’Bosch School Choir Festival 2023 is the largest gathering of school learners for this type of event in the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek districts. Today’s event is the second instalment of the e’Bosch School Choir Festival which, due to its magnitude, was split into two with the secondary schools’ performance already concluded earlier this month. “For this event, we divided the 17 primary schools into three clusters who will start off and perform in their respective groups. This will be followed by all 17 schools performing the mass choir item United Light specially composed for e’Bosch by Xander Kritzinger,” said…

ADVOCATE Norman Arendse yesterday withdrew as an initiator in a disciplinary hearing involving EFF MPs charged for disrupting parliamentary proceedings in August 2022. The recusal of Arendse took place as the attorney of EFF MPs asked for further documents and a postponement of a hearing planned for yesterday and another involving others that refused to be addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa during a budget debate in June last year. Arendse was appointed early in June to draft the charges and initiate the complaint for the powers and privileges committee, which disciplines MPs. “Since the date of my appointment by Parliament to do this job, I was appointed as chairperson of the UCT council. “It is an unpaid job but involves a lot of work and interaction with constituencies,” he…

Fallen officers were all special in their own way “STAY together. Help is coming.” These were the words Commander Moses Mekhoe recalled having shouted to the crew who were washed overboard, in an attempt to manoeuvre and shelter them from winds and high waves. The tragic incident claimed the lives of three South African Navy submariners who dedicated a large part of their lives to the service in the South African National Defence Force. Naval officers and colleagues of executive officer Lieutenant Commander Gillian Hector, coxswain Master Warrant Officer William Mathipa and coxswain under training Warrant Officer class one Mokwapa Mojela, held back their tears as they shared fond memories of their fallen colleagues. This was during a combined public memorial service held in their honour yesterday - exactly a…

FOR a small-scale farmer in Knysna who relies on agriculture as his livelihood, the government vouchers roll-out programme for subsistence farmers came when he was on the verge of losing hope. Mbulelo Khalankomo from Dinangwe was one of the farmers, including other households farming in backyards and food gardens, who have benefited from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Initiative (PESI). This was aimed to support recovery and sustain livelihoods following the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, about 154 farmers in the Garden Route were supported with funding amounting to R1.6 million. About 35 farmers were aided in the Bitou Region. Department spokesperson Vuyani Nkasayi said farming played a big role in the country's economy hence its recovery was paramount.…

A TRAIN commuter who lost his legs after he fell out of a crowded train while trying to disembark at Johannesburg Station, claimed more than R8.6 million from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). Khathutshelo Mogano turned to the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, where he blamed Prasa for the fact that he now uses a wheelchair. His legal action arose from an incident that took place 10 years ago. He told the court that on the day, he had boarded a train from Soweto, where he lived, heading to Johannesburg Station. The train had arrived safely but had been crowded. He told the court that because of the overcrowding, the passengers in the train had jostled to get off the train before it pulled off from the platform.…

Police say the SAPS language policy does not prevent a complainant from deposing a statement in his or her mother tongue, and arrangements to accommodate the complainant will be made. This comes after the DA called on the Malmesbury police station to immediately withdraw what they said was an unlawful order mandating that complainants’ statements must be taken exclusively in English. The directive is invalid to the extent that it contradicts the directive issued by the national police commissioner, who instructed all provincial commissioners to withdraw any provincial language instruction that conflicts with national policy, the party said. DA shadow deputy MEC of Police Okkie Terblanche said language should not be a barrier for victims to get justice. “To ensure that justice is not compromised and that the rights of…

THE SAPS statistics about officers charged with serious crimes, including rape, attempted rape, murder and hijacking, thwarts almost every effort to assure South Africans that they are in safe hands in the police’s presence. They make it hard for victims of crimes committed by officers, and South Africans in general, to draw inspiration from Police Minister Bheki Cele’s words that recent take-downs should renew our hope as a country, that officers in blue were gaining ground against crime and continuing to flush out criminality in affluent and impoverished areas. This is not to paint the entire SAPS entity with the same brush, far from it, and quite the opposite. Most of our women and men in blue do indeed have the interest of citizens and the country at heart. That…

US astronaut Frank Rubio, who broke the record for the longest continuous space flight by an American, and two Russian cosmonauts landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan yesterday after more than a year on the International Space Station (ISS). Their Soyuz MS-23 capsule undocked from the ISS a minute earlier than scheduled, and took around three and a half hours to make it down to Earth, landing southeast of the city of Zhezqazghan. “It’s good to be home,” Rubio, 47, said with a smile after landing with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, 48, and Dmitry Petelin, 40. Asked how his crew mates had been, Rubio said: “Fantastic, yeah, everybody did really well.” Rubio was given a Russian matryoshka doll while Prokopyev was shown smiling beside the capsule and holding a watermelon,…

Residents of Ireland and the UK were bracing yesterday for the arrival of Storm Agnes, the region’s first named storm of the season, which is expected to bring 120km/h wind gusts and15m- high seas and cause widespread damage. The UK’s Meteorological Office issued a yellow wind weather warning from noon yesterday through to this morning across a wide swath of Ireland and north-western Great Britain, including Scotland and northern England, as well as Wales and parts of the Midlands. “In terms of most impacted areas, we’re looking at the Irish Sea coasts, so south-eastern parts of Northern Ireland, west and north-western coasts of Wales, and the north-western coast of England,” the Met Office said. Authorities are warning of the likelihood of downed trees and power lines, as well flooding.…

Paris: France’s ambassador to Niger landed in Paris yesterday after leaving Niamey following weeks of tensions between Paris and the post-coup regime in the country, the foreign ministry said. The return of the ambassador, Sylvain Itte, comes two months after a coup in Niger ousted its pro-Paris president and prompted a souring in relations between France and its former colony, with Niger’s new rulers demanding his departure. The ministry said that Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had met with Itte “to thank him and his teams for his work in the service of our country under difficult conditions”. | AFP…

Los Angeles: Republican hopefuls held their second presidential debate yesterday in California but the party’s runaway frontrunner, scandal-plagued former president Donald Trump, 77, snubbed the event. Instead, he met with auto industry workers in the battleground state of Michigan, seeking to boost his down-to-earth, blue-collar message. Trump has remained the Republicans’ likely choice for a presidential candidate despite a court ruling that could see him ousted from management of the Trump Organization. | AFP…

Masabata Klaas has taken over the baton from Shabnim Ismail and is hoping to drive the Proteas Women’s team to an ODI series victory over New Zealand in Pietermaritzburg today. Laura Wolvaard’s team pulled off a brilliant chase to take a 1-0 lead in the first match in Potchefstroom last weekend. And now they have the opportunity to not only claim a successive ODI series victory - they also beat Pakistan last month - but to also pick up valuable ICC Women’s Championship points. Masabata Klaas claims the Proteas will not be resting on their laurels after the opening victory and will be hoping to be even better at Maritzburg Oval. “We went back to the drawing board and see where we can improve,” Klaas said. “It’s about adapting to…

from page 1 “Although there is an increase in the number of claims, there was a decrease in the claims amounts that were paid out in the current year. The reduction of payment is not an indication of a sustainable reduction as it was mainly due to a timing difference between the time the claim is received, and the time the claim is actually paid,” she said. She added that they were worried that money that was supposed to be used for service delivery was going towards medico-legal claims. The department’s medium-term strategic framework (MTSF) aimed to reduce the contingent liability of medico-legal cases by 80% – under R18bn in 2024 from the baseline of R70bn in 2018. Musisinyane said the balance of medico-legal claims, which should be read in…

THE ANC says it has asked the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to reverse its decision to register the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party as clarity has emerged about former ANC members who will likely contest next year’s national general elections. The uMkhonto we Sizwe party claims it is led by disgruntled members of the ANC and the uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA). The party, the African Congress for Transformation (ACT) – which is led by former ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule – and Carl Niehaus’s African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance (Areta), are among a host of political parties that were registered between June 29 and September 18 to contest the elections next year. A recently released official gazette of the IEC states that the M K party…

STRUGGLE icon and former deputy minister of foreign affairs, Aziz Pahad, has been hailed a brilliant diplomat and strategist following his passing in Johannesburg last night. A statement attributed to the family read: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Aziz Goolam Hoosein Pahad, during the evening of 27 September 2023, at the age of 82. “A patriot, freedom fighter and servant of the people throughout his life, former Deputy Minister Pahad was a dedicated member of the ANC, a brilliant diplomat and strategist who served as Member of Parliament and Deputy Minister for International Relations from 1994 to 2008.” Pahad’s death comes just two months after the passing of his elder brother Essop Pahad. He had served as deputy foreign minister under former…

ESKOM is predicting more than 110 days of load shedding between now and March next year if all goes to plan, but more than 200 days if its plans for summer fail. The power utility yesterday briefed the media on the current state of its system and the outlook for summer. “The immediate summer outlook indicates that load shedding can be contained within stage 4, if we manage our unplanned load losses within 14 500MW,” acting Eskom CEO Calib Cassim said. Eskom’s current summer outlook assumes between 14.5GW and 17.5GW unplanned losses. The best case scenario forecasts between 11 to 19 days of load shedding per month, up to stage 4. While the worst case scenario anticipates between 29 and 31 days of load shedding peaking at a possible stage…

IN AUGUST 2023, Equal Education, represented by the Equal Education Law Centre, received a disappointing outcome to our case challenging the inadequate legal framework governing the collaboration and donor-funded schools model introduced through the Western Cape Provincial School Education Amendment Act of 2018. The court’s findings were not only disappointing but flawed. For a long time, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has maintained that our application was without merit, which they believe has been confirmed by the court’s dismissal of our case. The most unfortunate part is that the WCED has clothed our challenge in the language of “opposing access to quality education for poor learners”. The narrative has been maintained as donors have contributed millions to public schools thus far. However, in true WCED fashion, it mischaracterisse our…

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) yesterday began hearing a case brought by six Portuguese youths against 32 nations for not doing enough to stop global warming, the latest bid to secure climate justice through the courts. “The case concerns... the impact of climate change,” said Siofra O’Leary, president of the Strasbourg-based court’s 17-judge Grand Chamber, “resulting among other things in heatwaves and wildfires affecting the applicants’ lives and health”. The youths, aged 11 to 24, say they are suffering from anxiety over their health and natural disasters. Their move to file a complaint with the Strasbourg-based court was sparked by the devastating wildfires that struck Portugal in 2017, killing more than 100 people and charring swathes of the country. Some plaintiffs claim allergies and breathing problems both…

PYONGYANG: North Korea has decided to expel US soldier Travis King, who was detained after crossing the border from the South in July, Pyongyang’s state news agency said yesterday. King ran across the border on July 18 after joining a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarised Zone between the two Koreas. Last month, Pyongyang confirmed it was holding the soldier, saying King had defected to North Korea to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the US Army”. But Pyongyang has “decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the US Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK …” the Korean Central News Agency said yesterday. | AFP…

GLASGOW: Britain’s first official supervised “drug consumption room” was approved yesterday, seeking to reduce infectious diseases and overdoses in Scotland, which suffers from the highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe. Following similar projects in Europe, Canada and Australia, Glasgow City Council approved plans for the facility that will allow people to legally take illicit drugs under the supervision of trained professionals and will provide them with clean equipment. Scotland’s drug deaths remain three times higher on a per capita basis than anywhere else in Europe. Last year, Scotland had 248 drug deaths per million people, against Finland’s 79. | Reuters…

Washington: US Border Patrol agents found an abandoned 2-month-old infant at the country’s border with Mexico near Rio Grande City, Texas, an official said. Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said yesterday: “This is a chilling reminder of how children are being exploited by human smugglers and criminal organisations every day.” Federal statistics show that there was a 73% rise in unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border compared to June. The latest development came as thousands of migrants have crossed the border into Texas. The mayor of Eagle Pass issued a local disaster declaration last week, seeking more resources. | IANS…

Italy are ready for New Zealand’s intimidation and bullying tactics, coach Kieran Crowley said yesterday after naming his team to face the All Blacks. The New Zealander made three changes and three positional shifts to the team that beat Uruguay 38-17 last week. “The players that have missed out are obviously disappointed, but it’s a World Cup Test match, it’s pretty bloody important, so it’s the strongest team that we can field,” said the straight-talking coach. The team he has picked for Friday’s clash in Lyon is almost the same as the one that started their opening 52-8 Pool A victory over Namibia. Given the history between the two teams - New Zealand have won all 15 previous Tests by an average of more than 50 points - Crowley is…