Table of contents for 2024-02-13 in Cape Times

WITH THE RACE to electric vehicles hotting up, Anglo American is broadening its exposure into electric battery manufacturing after signing a memorandum of understanding to explore opportunities with the Finnish government. The diversified resources group believes that “low carbon technologies, such as renewable power generation infrastructure and electric vehicles (EVs) powered by batteries and fuel cells (will) generate additional demand for many metals”, including battery metals. While prices of some metals used in the manufacture of vehicles such as platinum have been volatile, spelling uncertainty for PGM producers such as Anglo American, Impala Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater, the uptake of hybrid vehicles has provided some respite. Anglo American and Sibanye-Stillwater have also started to bump up their exposure in lithium mining. This has led to Anglo American and Finnish Minerals Group…

‘The ANC must now expose the secrets it was so desperate to hide’ THE ANC has reached the end of the road in its attempt to withhold the records of its cadre deployment committee from the DA. It has five working days to submit the minutes of meetings, CVs, email threads, WhatsApp discussions and all other documents of the cadre deployment committee. This follows a Constitutional Court decision yesterday, dismissing with costs an appeal by the ANC. The apex court ruled that it was not in the interests of justice for leave to appeal to be granted. The party had approached the Constitutional Court after the Supreme Court of Appeal found last September that the ANC could not appeal against an earlier high court loss on the matter. The Gauteng…

A woman who obtained the services of a psychic on social media, to contact her dead mother so that she could find closure after her mother’s death, claimed millions from the psychic after the latter allegedly blackmailed her by threatening to divulge certain intimate details if she was not paid. The plaintiff, only identified as KA, turned to the Pietermaritzburg High Court in a bid to retrieve the more than R5 million which she paid to the psychic over months. Her father also instituted a claim for R540 000. This is money that he paid over to his daughter in the belief that she was setting up a beauty shop and needed the money. His daughter, without telling him at the time, used the money as part of the blackmail…

“NO STRUGGLE can come to an end without casualties. It is only through determination, absolute commitment and self-assertion that we shall overcome,” Abram Ramothibi Onkgopotse Tiro once said. South Africa’s history is not only written in ink but also in tears and blood. This means it is with pleasure and pain. Tiro is among those whose history is written in blood. Since we cannot change the part written in blood, it would have been better if all the truth came out and remorse was shown. It is unfortunate that the cold-blooded killers who ruthlessly murdered unarmed people hid until their deaths. Others did not want to show remorse but went scot-free. By the way, history is repeating itself as their offspring are racially discriminating, beating up and killing the same…

YAOUNDE: At least two people died and 20 were injured in an explosion on Sunday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region, according to witnesses and local police. The blast occurred in Nkambe, a town in the region, as schoolchildren were taking part in activities to mark National Youth Day, which has been celebrated in the country on February 11 since 1966. Many of those affected were schoolchildren. Health workers were “working very hard” to treat many of the children who sustained “very serious” injuries, a security source in the region told Xinhua. “The death roll could increase. It is a disturbing situation.”…

The Durban duel in the United Rugby Championship (URC) between the Sharks and Stormers will cap off a weekend of South African derbies on Saturday. It promises to be another nail-biter at Kings Park (kick-off 5.05pm) like it was at the DHL Stadium at the end of December when the Cape side took the spoils 16-15. Leighton Koopman takes a look at five areas of play where the contest could be decided. The scrums The Sharks owe the Stormers a good showing in the tight battle after the inaugural URC champions out-scrummed them in December, despite Ox Nche being part of the front row. With no Springboks playing in this match due to their resting protocol, it should provide for a decent scrum battle between the so-called second-stringers of the…

Sapa says it will co-operate with the envisaged inquiry, but is surprised that it is necessary FALLOUT from the Competition Commission’s decision to probe allegations of anti-competitive practices in the poultry sector continued to pour in, with, for instance, the South African Poultry Association (Sapa) yesterday expressing its concern and surprise at the move. Sapa said it would co-operate with the envisaged Poultry Market Inquiry, even though it was “surprised that the inquiry is considered necessary,” and was “concerned at some of the statements and assumptions” in the commission’s announcement. “Central to the inquiry will be the issue of the concentration of large companies in both the broiler and egg industries. There seems to be an underlying suspicion this is bad for the industry and for consumers. We will provide…

THERE are two critical numbers to watch in the upcoming Budget Speech, as the government, the National Treasury, and Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana seek to successfully chart a narrow path for the country’s fiscus through difficult terrain. Following significant shortfalls in expected public income from tax revenue, these are the country’s budget deficit and its debt-to-GDP ratio. Notably, both were revised upwards in the November 2023 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, as a weak global environment, and energy and infrastructure challenges weighed heavily upon the economy. Consequently, the Treasury estimated that tax revenue would total R56.8 billion in 2023/2024, with a further R121.1bn shortfall over the next two years. As a result, the forecast budget deficit has been revised from 4% in the 2023 Budget to 4.9%, while public…

Estate agents expect a better 2024 in terms of house sales and prices after a disappointing 2023, where less than 40% of those surveyed said they had achieved volume or value sales targets. A survey of estate agents by Lightstone released yesterday showed that estate agents were aware of the challenges facing the country this year, from various government interventions such as the repo rate, the national Budget and the State of the Nation Address, the general elections and a host of other factors that affected sales last year. Sale values were driven down last year due to a cocktail of instability, including rising interest rates, load shedding, overpriced stock, a paucity of new developments, failing municipalities and the deterioration of areas, and rising crime and lack of safety and…

DESPITE a steady decline in the successful processing of DNA by the SAPS forensic laboratory services over the years, the country’s four laboratories completed 525 538 cases during the 2022-23 financial year. The number of completed cases increased from the 298 439 registered during the prior financial year. “The total number of cases finalised is higher than those registered because it included the backlog carried over from the previous financial year. The set target of 90% was achieved,” reads the annual report of the DNA board. The report, which was tabled recently in Parliament, detailed that the analysis of data for 2022-23 showed an improvement in the reduction of the backlog by 63.8% from 154 204 cases at the end of 2021-22 to 55 681 at the end of 2022-23.…

The DA has upped the ante in its push for Deputy President Paul Mashatile to be held accountable in connection with reports implicating him in corruption dating back more than two decades. Yesterday, party leader John Steenhuisen lodged a complaint at the Cape Town police station after President Cyril Ramaphosa did not heed their deadline to take action against Mashatile when they handed over a purported dossier at the Union Buildings. Speaking to the media, Steenhuisen said his party had given Ramaphosa until last week’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) to announce what he intended to do about the serious allegations against Mashatile. He charged that Ramaphosa had remained completely non-responsive to any of the allegations and refused to answer questions about the suitability or otherwise of his appointment…

Sabotage cannot be ruled out for the nation suddenly being thrown into stages 5 and 6 load shedding, when Kusile and Medupi are new power stations but experience the most breakdowns in the world, an expert says. This comes after ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula came under fire for citing sabotage as the reason for higher stages of load shedding, just as President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the worst was behind the country during his State of the Nation Address. “Stage 6 load shedding clear sabotage. Strong extra security measures are needed,” Mbalula posted on social media. At an energy action plan briefing on Sunday, when asked if there were security issues, Eskom Head of Generation, Bheki Nxumalo, said investigations within the coal space were ongoing. “The security cluster is within…

If one’s image – physical image, voice, signature, likeness, etc. – has been used without their consent for commercial purposes, especially in the absence of a contract, proving the case in court would be difficult because South African law does not recognise the existence of a distinct image right. This is according to legal expert Dr Layckan van Gensen, who recently obtained her doctorate in Mercantile Law at Stellenbosch University. Van Gensen, a consultant for Sefume Attorneys and a junior lecturer in the Department of Mercantile Law at SU, examined all the areas of South African law: common law of delict, intellectual property law, constitutional property law, unjustified enrichment, and Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), that provide potential protection against the misappropriation of people’s images. She found that they…

More than 100 unemployed KZN doctors who have completed their community service marched to the Department of Health offices in Pietermaritzburg yesterday. The group handed over a memorandum with their grievances as well as their Curriculum Vitaes (CVs). Independent Media spoke to Dr Siyaneliswa Shozi, the spokesperson for the unemployed doctors, who said the memorandum was addressed to provincial and national government officials. The memorandum called for an end to health-care budget cuts and an additional budget to accommodate all qualified medical practitioners including nurses, optometrists and pharmacists, among others. It called for all bursary holders and doctors with contracts to be immediately reinstated once the medical officer contracts are completed. The doctors asked for resources such as medicine and vaccines for rural areas. “No doctor must work without the…

As the United States Congress deliberates over the fate of the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa), South Africa finds itself at a crossroads in its trade relations. The recent bill filed by US Republican congressman John James and Democrat congressman Jared Moskowitz in the House of Representatives seeking a comprehensive review of the bilateral relationship between the two nations comes as no surprise to many international relations experts. South Africa’s bold decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice for its bombardment of Palestine was always likely to carry economic consequences, and now those consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. It is understandable that America, like any nation, prioritises its own interests. However, turning a blind eye to atrocities and human rights violations in the name of national interest…

Athens: A man shot three people dead at the premises of a shipping company in Athens, Greece before killing himself, police said yesterday. He broke into a European Product Carriers building and killed two men and a woman before barricading himself inside. It was reported that the gunman was an Egyptian employee of the company who had been made redundant and that he was found dead in the basement with his weapon next to him. A police source said preliminary findings pointed to a suicide. Police earlier said officers had entered the building and evacuated two women the shooter had locked in the toilets.…

MADRID: Spanish customs agents said yesterday they had seized eight tons of cocaine inside a container from the Latin American country of Suriname in one of the largest such shipments to date. The container arrived at the southern port of Algeciras and inside it was a metal structure made with a special alloy that was designed to confuse the customs agents’ scanning equipment, the Agencia Tributaria tax and customs authority said in a statement. Even so, the scanner managed to detect that the structure contained “a large quantity of merchandise” which turned out to be eight tons of “very high purity cocaine”. Police arrested three suspects, including the person who received the shipment.…

RABAT: Moroccan security services have seized over 3.25 tons of cannabis at the Tangier-Med Port and arrested one person, Moroccan police said in a statement yesterday. Police officers and customs personnel found the drugs, which were in the form of compressed resin, hidden inside the trailer of a truck transporting a shipment of fish heading toward Spain. The driver, a 32-year-old Moroccan man, was arrested and placed under investigative custody to determine all the possible links with local and international drug-trafficking networks, it said. Despite efforts to crack down on cannabis farming, Morocco remains one of the world’s largest producers of cannabis resin.…

THE ADVENT of artificial intelligence (AI) and impact of industrial automation has decimated a significant number of industries across the globe, in the process rendering certain skill-sets redundant in the new economic order and creating opportunities for new skill-sets. Could local mining become the next sector to face an existential threat in the wake of the global push for adoption of regulatory requirements some of which are aimed at supercharging the just energy transition? It’s a fact that local mining is a vastly transformed sector compared to the pre-1994 era. From how mining operations are run and measurably ensuring inclusive participation, the sector has evolved. During this period, new black-owned mining companies, including women- owned entities, have emerged, with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) playing a critical role in supporting…

SIRIUS Real Estate, the UK and Germany branded business and industrial park operator with listings on the JSE and London Stock Exchange, is acquiring two more properties in Germany for €40 million (R819m). The acquisition of two business parks had been notarised, one in Köln and the other in Göppingen. The acquisitions were made using proceeds of November’s £147m capital raise, Sirius said in a statement yesterday. The acquisitions followed the three acquisitions in North London, UK at the end of last year for £33.5m.The t wo business parks in Germany added just under 55 000 square metres of primarily light industrial and production space to the group’s 1.9 million square metre German portfolio. The Köln business park comprises 19 114 square metres of light industrial…

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has suspended seven councillors from the uMzumbe Local Municipality on the South Coast who abstained from a vote of no confidence that led to the removal of an ANC mayor last week. The abstention meant that the ANC’s mayor, Bongani Nyuswa, was removed from his position and replaced with IFP councillor Mlungisi Ndlovu. The ANC has 21 seats in the council, while the IFP has 14. Opposition parties such as the EFF, Apemo and ATM have one seat each. At least 25 of the 39 council members debated a motion of no-confidence against Nyuswa. ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said the party had suspended the membership of seven councillors who participated in “a circus purporting to be a special council meeting held last Friday”. The councillors…

A Home Affairs official, who was initially given a suspended sentence for selling identity documents and birth certificates to foreign nationals who were in the country illegally, has now been ordered to serve two years in jail. Kedibone Serumula in 2022 received a suspended sentence after she was found guilty in the trial court. The National Prosecuting Authority was not happy with this sentence and appealed it. They were successful, as the Polokwane High Court came to a new conclusion and ordered that Serumula serve an effective two years in jail. Provincial Hawks spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Matimba Maluleke said that between 2015 and 2016, Serumula, who was employed by the Department of Home Affairs in Lephalale as an Administration Officer, sold documents to foreign nationals who were in the…

Cape Town residential households can now earn cash for power from their solar PV generation systems. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis yesterday announced that a first round of applications is open until March 8 for households to earn cash from selling their excess solar power to the City, beyond the existing automatic crediting of municipal bills. Hill-Lewis was speaking at the launch of the City’s Energy Strategy at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The plan sets out a roadmap to 2050, including short-term plans to protect against the first four stages of Eskom load-shedding by 2026. “In the short-term, we are planning for four stages of load-shedding protection by 2026, as we make the great transition from unreliable, costly and fossil fuel based Eskom energy, to an increasingly decentralised supply of…

IT is an old saying that in disputes, there is your version, my version and the truth. In Rule 43 applications (interim maintenance pending final divorce), there are often many more versions a court has to consider; especially regarding children. There is seldom an objective truth. These were the words of an acting judge who was recently confronted with an interim maintenance issue between two divorcing parents. The wife, on the one hand, inflated her monthly expenses, and her husband, on the other hand, made offers towards her maintenance which were far below what she could survive on. The husband told the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, that his soon-to-be ex-wife could make attempts to obtain a job, as he could not be solely responsible for maintaining two households. Acting Judge…

The president cannot even control the things within his influence WHEN assessing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address, it is all about perspective. For the glass-half-full crowd, it marks a celebration of the story of Tintswalo, a 30-year-old symbolic democracy baby who was an established woman with her own family whom the ANC government had supported since birth. Ramaphosa said Tintswalo has a job, aided by affirmative action and BEE policies, can earn a good income, has moved to a better house and can “live a better life” because she has benefited from free public health care, free housing, free schooling, nutritious meals at school, scholar transport, child support grant and funding through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to attain her university degree. Now, let us look…

MAJED al-Afifi was just 40 days old when he was killed, his uncle told AFP in Rafah where Israeli forces bombed multiple homes while rescuing two Gaza hostages. “We heard the bombing without warning,” said Said al-Hams, 26, in Rafah refugee camp. His nephew, a twin, “was born exactly 40 days ago and was killed”, while their mother was wounded. The newborn is among around 100 people killed by Israeli forces overnight in Rafah, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded Rafah, where some 1.4 million people have sought refuge during four months of war between Israel and Hamas militants. While there was jubilation in Israel over the liberation of the two hostages, in Rafah people recounted a fearful night. “The situation was hell,” said…

A plane carrying four Canadian skydivers made an emergency landing on a beach in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Sunday, the state civil defence’s office said, resulting in the death of a 62-year-old man who was on the beach. The plane was forced to land on a populated section of Bacocho beach in the popular Pacific resort town of Puerto Escondido. The victim’s wife, who was on the beach alongside him, was unharmed, it said. Footage from Puerto Global showed the damaged aircraft on the beach having crashed into what it said was a turtle rescue centre. Those on the aircraft, including the four Canadian skydivers aged 35 to 60 and a 40-year-old Mexican man, were removed from the plane and taken for medical treatment.…

The population of the Gaza Strip is suffering “unprecedented” levels of “near famine-like conditions” as the Israel- Hamas war drags on, the UN’s agriculture agency said yesterday. Some 550 000 people are now likely facing catastrophic food insecurity levels, while the whole population is in crisis mode, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. “There are unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, hunger, and near famine-like conditions in Gaza,” FAO Deputy Director General Beth Bechdol said in an interview published by the Rome-based agency. “We are seeing more and more people essentially on the brink of and moving into famine-like conditions every day,” she said. All 2.2 million people in Gaza are in the top three hunger categories, from level three, considered an emergency, to level five, or catastrophe,…

In two years of war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have lost their lives. The exact number of casualties is impossible to establish, with both sides giving little information about their losses, to avoid undermining morale among the troops and wider public. The UN’s human rights office said in mid-January it had confirmed the deaths of 10 382 civilians in Ukraine and a further 19 659 injured since Russia’s invasion but that the real number was likely higher. The number of civilian casualties increased significantly in December 2023 and January 2024 compared with previous months, reversing a trend of decreasing civilian casualties earlier in the year, it said. Nearly 8 000 of the deaths were in Ukraine-controlled territory…

The SA20 has once again thrilled for the past 30 days. Here, Zaahier Adams takes a closer look at the highs and lows of season 2. HIT 1: The score Runs, runs and more runs. It certainly overflowed in season 2 with Ryan Rickelton breaking the magical 500-run barrier for the first time. Heinrich Klaasen (447), Matthew Breetzke (416) and Jos Buttler (408) also passed 400 runs for the first time. MISS 1: Extra knockout The newly-formulated play-off structure allowed for an extra match to be played with the normal semi-finals being replaced with Qualifier 1, Eliminator and Qualifier 2. That wasn’t so much the problem, but rather the fact that the staging of Qualifier 1 between the top teams on the log was predetermined to be played at Newlands…

With the United Rugby Championship restarting this weekend with two South African derbies in Johannesburg and Durban, it will mark the start of the run-in to the play-offs and provide several players with the last chance to impress the Springbok coaches ahead of the international season starting in July. Tests against Ireland and New Zealand await, while an experimental side could feature in the one-off clash against Portugal and a possible friendly match with Wales. Independent Newspapers takes a look at the players who have been impressive enough so far to secure their place in the Bok squad for the 2024 Test season. Here, Leighton Koopman features the No 5 lock. The incumbent: Lood de Jager Despite missing the World Cup last year due to a heart condition, De…

The Proteas face the prospect of being on the wrong side of history this week after the second Test against New Zealand started in Hamilton last night. The tourists have never lost a Test series to the Black Caps since they first started competing back in 1932. They are currently 1-0 down in the two-match series after a 281-run thumping in Mount Maunganui last week. And despite suffering an even heavier defeat in the first Test the last time the Proteas toured Down Under in 2022 – they lost by an innings and 276 runs, before bouncing back in the second Test – the chances of history repeating itself now are slim. The circumstances are entirely different on this tour with the current Proteas squad missing virtually…