Table of contents for 2021-06-17 in Cape Times

Sihle Makhowana sihle.makhowana@inl.co.za THE DIRECTORS of Africrypt investment company are alleged to have made off with about $3.6 billion (R49.6bn) of unsuspecting South Africans’ crypto investments, according to papers seen by Independent Media’s investigations unit. The directors, Ameer Cajee and his brother Raees Cajee, allegedly transferred Africrypt’s pooled funds from its South African account(s) through Bitcoin on the blockchain in April 2021 after claiming that there was a breach in the company’s system, compromising client accounts, wallets and nodes. Notably, FNB, which banked Afri- crypt according to documents seen by Independent Media’s investigations unit, allegedly enabled the investment company’s transactions, although the bank has vehemently denied this. FNB risk spokesperson Nadiah Maharaj adamantly refused to acknowledge any relationship with the fraud-accused company. And when probed further FNB opted to…

Estate duty is a material death tax that few people take cognisance of. Luckily, in terms of section 4(q) of the Estate Duty Act, but subject to its strict requirements, relief is provided to surviving “spouses” who may have contributed to the accumulation of their assets, by allowing a deduction of the value of all property that accrues to the surviving spouse from the gross estate of the deceased. No estate duty is therefore payable on qualifying assets. This provides some relief for surviving “spouses” who may end up having to part with assets they used to share with their spouses, just to pay the tax bill to the South African Revenue Service (Sars). The definition of “spouse” for this purpose includes a permanent life partner and not only a…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za AS primary school learners were expected to return to their traditional timetables amid the increase in Covid-19 infections, talks were under way to see if there should be a new cohort of teacher assistants for the large incoming group next month. Department of Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga said the success of phase 1 of the Education Employment Initiative ignited talks of phase two and discussions were at an advanced stage with the treasury. Speaking at a dialogue on the Teacher Appreciation and Support Programme, Motshekga said: “As part of a battery of measures to draw young people into the economy, we have, through the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI), employed 320 000 unemployed youth as education and general education assistants. These young people were…

Francesca Villette francesca.villette@inl.co.za YOUTH Day was marked yesterday amid unprecedented unemployment rates that have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Statistics SA recently released its Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which showed young people are still struggling in the labour market. The official unemployment rate is 32.6%, but 46.3% of young people aged 15 to 34 years are unemployed, which means almost one in every two young people in the labour force did not have a job in the first quarter of 2021. About a quarter (24.4%) of the youth have jobs and 45.3% participate in the labour market. Within the youth, those 15 to 24 are more vulnerable in the labour market, with an unemployment rate of over 63%, an absorption rate of about 7.6% and a labour force participation…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za THE Kasi Angels Foundation has joined forces with the Cape Times to provide school shoes to disadvantaged pupils on the Cape Flats and further afield. The foundation – established in 2017 with the mission of working with individuals impacted by life’s adversities, inspiring them to become better people and integrating them back into society – has donated shoes and made pledges to assist in seven provinces. Founder Gerald Nomlala said the organisation had already donated 23 000 pairs of school shoes around the country with the broader goal of helping to build classrooms and toilets and distribute sanitary towels and personal protective equipment, among others. “We travel around the country spotting and responding to calls of children who are in dire need of school shoes to…

Okuhle Hlati okhule.hlati@inl.co.za VREDEBES residents in Ceres came out in their numbers yesterday for the memorial service of the five Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) operators who were recently shot and killed. Four died on the scene and one at a hospital when three gunmen last Tuesday opened fire “indiscriminately” at a local taxi. The memorial service held outside the Nduli township came just a day after another bloody shooting where a taxi driver was shot dead and a four-year-old boy wounded by a stray bullet. Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said the circumstances leading to a murder and attempted murder were being investigated following an incident on Tuesday morning at about 7am in Eluxolweni Street, Nduli. According to residents, about three men approached the taxi which carried schoolchildren, and one…

Len Walker | Somerset West 1994 was annus horribilis. Other than the South African democratic elections, 1994 was not a good year for this country. The Electricity Supply Commission (Eskom – Afrikaans translation for Escom) was handed over to the new regime and the first task that they undertook was to retrench all their white engineers who packed their bags and left for greener pastures in Australia, New Zealand and Canada and with their departure Eskom lost all their technical skills and competence. Twenty seven years later, those skills have never been replaced and the competence levels have reduced to zero. At the time that Eskom was handed over that utility company was cash flush , everything functioned, there were no outages and electricity was produced at…

WESLEY SEALE MEETING at a quiet coffee shop at Peking University, the university professor being interviewed was an expert on Sino-South African relations. As we sat down, she requested that she be excused at some stage because she had to attend the local branch meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC). When the time came, she reminded me with the words: hopefully you’ll understand how important these branch meetings are. It was one of the many moments that one came face to face with the confidence and legitimacy that ordinary and extraordinary Chinese people have in the Communist Party. My friends and I once asked a DiDi driver, the equivalent of Uber in China, why Chinese people respected President Xi Jinping so much. The Didi driver’s answer was…

High inflation driven by soaring food prices has pushed 7 million Nigerians into poverty, the World Bank said. In a new report, it commended Nigeria for buttressing its economy from fallout from the coronavirus pandemic but called for urgent measures to brake inflation and protect livelihoods. A major crude exporter, Africa’s largest and most populous economy again slipped into a recession in late 2020 hurt by lower oil prices and the pandemic, but unexpectedly emerged from the slump in February. In May, year-on-year inflation dipped to 17.93%, just below the four-year high of 18.17% registered in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The food price increase in May was at 22.28%. “Food prices accounted for over 60% of the total increase in inflation. Rising prices have pushed an…

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at a “pragmatic” first summit yesterday to resume arms control talks and to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals after they were withdrawn earlier this year. The summit at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva lasted less than four hours – far less than Biden’s advisers had expected. Putin called Biden, 78, a constructive, experienced partner, and said they spoke “the same language”, but added that there had been no friendship, rather a pragmatic dialogue about their two countries’ interests. He said it was “hard to say” if relations with the US would improve, but that there was a “glimpse of hope” regarding mutual trust. Putin also said Russia and the US shared a responsibility for nuclear stability, and…

BESIDES putting the stamp on the final adoption of its new constitution, Cricket South Africa’s Annual General Meeting, which started on Saturday and finished last night, didn’t inspire much enthusiasm. The juvenile jokes among provincial presidents - and really poor jokes they were - along with the petty questioning and the fact that one president didn’t bother reading the financial statements sent to all of them before the AGM, illustrated an organisation that’s going to need much more than a new Memorandum of Incorporation in order to drag itself from the doldrums. Any sponsor watching events from Saturday would be seriously questioning whether to get involved with South African cricket. What was clear is that the new group of independent directors that will serve on the Board truly have their…

HERMAN GIBBS THE mighty PSL have been driven into a corner by lower-tier club Royal AM whose daring legal ploy has sent shock waves through national football's corridors of power. Royal AM have proved that they are no small fries and have defiantly brought the PSL relegation/promotion playoffs to a screeching halt. Numerous social media posts show that Royal AM co-owner Shauwn Mkhize, a wealthy Durban businesswoman, has vowed to stop the playoffs unless her team were declared GladAfrica Championship winners. Royal AM, a NFD outfit playing in the GladAfrica Championship, have now managed to stop the playoffs, which were scheduled to start on Tuesday. Royal AM approached the Gauteng Supreme Court after a recent arbitration ruling that resulted in them being declared NFD runners-up. On Monday, acting judge…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za ANALYSTS have warned that South Africa’s delayed vaccine roll-out could halt the country’s economic recovery in spite of the government imposing stricter restrictions to curb further spread of Covid-19 infections. Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop said the slow roll-out had reduced the positive sentiment towards the economic outlook and vaccine roll-out that had been growing this year. Bishop said while this and the last month had seen a quickening in the roll-out, the pace was still too slow and South Africa risked substantially more Covid-19 deaths. “The extremely slow roll-out of vaccines means that the country will most likely not reach two-thirds immunity by year end as originally planned,” Bishop said. “Globally, economic recovery remains strong, as are vaccine roll-outs in key economies. (But) South Africa’s weak…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za AGGRIEVED residents in the Northern Cape are planning to approach the court to have the mining right granted to JSE- and Australian-listed Orion Minerals Prieska Copper Zinc revoked amid allegations that the company failed to consult the community on the development of the mine. Ronald Februarie, organiser of the Siyathemba Business and Community Forum, said that Orion failed to lead a thorough consultation process with the community on its plans to develop the mine and how it would uplift Siyathemba. Februarie said the Siyathemba community had not participated in the con- struction of solar energy projects in the Siyathemba Local Municipality and did not want to again be sidelined in the construction of the Copperton mine. Orion was granted a right over its portion of the…

Siphokazi Vuso siphokazi.vuso@inl.co.za THE Department of Human Settlements in the province has come under fire for housing government officials paying “far less” than market-related rental fees in its stock of properties. This follows written questions to Human Settlements MEC Tertuis Simmers by ANC spokesperson on human settlements Andile Lili on whether the department and/or municipalities in the province own properties that have been rented out to government officials, and, if so, to provide rental fees per month, addresses, erf numbers and tenants who occupied each property. In the annexure provided by Simmers in his written reply, of the 68 properties listed, rental amounts per month range from between R1 000 to R4 500 during the years from 2014 to this year. Simmers omitted the names of the government officials who…

Francesca Villette francesca.villette@inl.co.za | SEE LEADER PAGE 6 A SPIKE in trauma-related admissions in hospitals across the province have once again put more pressure on the already stretched health-care systems, with only about 7% of patients being there for Covid-19 treatment. As the country moved to lockdown alert level 3, the provincial Health Department noted a spike in trauma-related hospital admissions. Trauma cases included road crashes, and over the past four weeks the 17 emergency centres have consistently seen in excess of 9 000 cases across the province. The bed occupancy rate for all hospitals across the province has been hovering between 85 and 90%, with about 7% being Covid-19 patients. Between June 7 and 13, a total of 23 crashes were recorded leading to 29 deaths. The provincial…

Zanele Mvana zanele.mvana@inl.co.za RELIGIOUS leaders and Khayelitsha residents held a prayer session and demonstration against gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide which they said was engulfing the community. The residents said that in commemorating June 16 they were calling on the youth, in particular young men, to stand up and fight femicide. Ward councillor Xolisa Ngwekazi said: “As men of Khayelitsha, we have previously marched to the police station regarding gender-based violence. “There are many cases that have recently been reported, so we decided that today we should have a prayer session to pray for GBV and those committing these crimes. “We are also praying for the youth, as today we are commemorating June 16, and most victims are the youth. Women and children must be protected and perpetrators must be…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za YOUTH Day celebrations, which coincided with the Day of the African Child, yesterday shone a spotlight on mounting challenges faced by young people, including poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, violence and youth detention – and ignited the call for young people to stand up and hold government accountable. “South Africa has endorsed Africa’s Agenda for Children 2040. In so doing, the country has committed, along with the rest of Africa, to direct its collective resources to eradicate poverty and inequality from the bottom up,” the SA Human Rights Commission said. The Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (Jics) said it was becoming increasingly difficult for young people to fulfil their dreams and end the cycle of poverty they were trapped in, due to crime and violence, gangs, vigilantism and…

Odwa Mkentane odwa.mkentane@inl.co.za A GROUP of Langa residents held a peaceful march to their local police station yesterday, calling for its closure amid allegations that their cases were being neglected. This, as residents said they no longer turned to their police station for help as they felt that Langa Safety Patrol did a better job. SACP provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu commended the community patrol and the community's confidence in their response to crime. “As the SACP we fully support the community initiative to ensure safer communities. “We share their frustration at police efficacy as well as the fact that some rotten police are colluding with criminals and are therefore complicit in criminality which leads to declining public confidence. However, we discourage the approach of closing the police station. “We must…

Bill Constantine | Oranjezicht I WAS disappointed, reading Arn Franzsen’s letter, “Beware, nature will certainly push back” , Cape Times, June 15, which is in response to my earlier letter, faulting Mr Farouk Araie, for his sensational hyperbole, in stating that Covid-19 is Mother Nature’s retribution for mankind polluting the oceans, producing weapons of war, raising and killing animals for their meat, etc. I know Mr Franzsen only through his letters to the Cape Times, which I’ve always found to be thoughtful, cogent and well-written. But in this case – just as with Mr Araie – he’s missed the point and his comment is off the mark. There is plenty of evidence of nature pushing back, as a result of, for example, man’s wasteful, all-consuming depletion of the ocean’s resources…

Bram Hanekom AMID the collapse of Israel's reputation globally, based on the failure of Israel’s lobbyists to hide the truth, the Israeli lobby desperately continues its endless attempts to confuse the public. As seven different South African political parties have come out condemning the human rights violations committed by Israel, as over 300 South African hardware stores cancel over R200 million of contracts with pro-Israeli companies, as our president speaks openly about Israel’s apartheid, as our government considers a total closure of diplomatic relations with Israel and as the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng desperately attempts to win an appeal against a ruling by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) that he must apologise for bringing his office into disrepute – the Zionist Federation decided to lodge a complaint against retired…

THE slow vaccination roll-out is by far the biggest threat to the country’s initial response to the pandemic, which earned us global praise. We are reversing the early gains which saw South Africa recording fewer deaths and infections than initially anticipated. The country is now back to alert level 3 as a result of a huge spike in daily infections and deaths. While lives must be saved, the economic implications, especially for the hospitality industry, are severe. Our vaccine roll-out has suffered a third major setback in just a few months, meaning that the country is nowhere near achieving population immunity by the end of the year. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa is optimistic: “The pace of vaccinations has steadily picked up, and we are now vaccinating around 80 000 people…

A cocktail of synthetic antibodies reduces deaths among severe Covid patients who are unable to mount a strong immune response, results from a major clinical trial showed yesterday. The therapy, developed by the US biotech firm Regeneron and given to former US president Donald Trump during his brush with the virus, was previously only used to treat patients in the early stages of the disease. But the Recovery trial based in Britain has found the drug is effective in treating some patients with more acute cases of the virus. The treatment, called REGN-CoV2, “reduces the risk of death when given to patients hospitalised with severe Covid-19 who have not mounted a natural antibody response of their own”, the researchers said. The drug uses two synthetic antibodies to bind to sites…

Athens: Greece was hit by strikes yesterday for the second time in a week ahead of street protests over a controversial labour reform expected to be approved by parliament. No ferry services to Greek tourist islands were available and urban transport in the capital was disrupted by the 24-hour walkout. Over 7 000 people according to police demonstrated in Athens against the bill. Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas said the new system legalises a workplace “jungle” where employees will be “totally defenceless”. Public services were shut in opposition to the law which promotes working hour flexibility and sets tough strike rules. | AFP…

mihlali.baleka@inl.co.za BERNARD Parker is elated with the prospect of leading Kaizer Chiefs in the semi-finals of the Caf Champions League against Wydad AC during his 10th year at the club. He insists it will be important for them to step-up to the occasion in the back-to-back matches. After a two-and-a-half-year stint in Europe, which included spells in Serbia, the Netherlands and Greece, Parker heeded the call to return home in 2011 - to join Chiefs. At Amakhosi he won four trophies including two Premiership titles, the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup between 2013-2015. Parker & Co have set a record for all the wrong reasons in the past six seasons as they’ve failed to win a trophy. But they have a chance to rewrite the history books as they…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za LABOUR unions have issued an ultimatum to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to rescind the sale of SAA or face court action. The latest threat came after these labour unions in the transport sector told Independent Media they were snubbed in the negotiations which led to the conclusion of the deal to sell the national airliner last week. Unions, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), yesterday confirmed they were considering legal action following the government’s decision to sell a 51% of SAA stake to equity partner Takatso Consortium. In announcing the deal, Gordhan said the consortium would acquire a 51% stake of SAA as the preferred strategic equity partner while…

Piet Mahasha Rampedi piet.rampedi@inl.co.za DECUPLETS mother Gosiame Sithole gave birth at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital on Monday last week, but the whereabouts and state of her babies remain a mystery. An investigation by Independent Media, assisted by a private investigator, has uncovered that the woman who made international headlines when she gave birth to 10 children was admitted to the government hospital in Pretoria earlier that day and delivered her babies. It’s unclear what happened to the babies and what their state of health is. In a statement released yesterday, Independent Media, which initiated a private investigation into the birth of the decuplets, following denials by various government officials, said the story was not fake news but a cover-up of mammoth proportions. The Pretoria News reported on the birth…

Nicola Daniels nicola.daniels@inl.co.za A GROUP of four musically gifted young men from Manenberg are using their talent to give back in a unique way that sees them pay tribute to older community members who have passed on. Volunteering their time to play brass instruments like the trumpet and trombone at funerals, they are able to contribute to a special send-off by escorting the hearse down the street out of the community as the departed heads for the cemetery. To date, Keagan Adams, 23, Abdul Basit Gafoor, 24, Oswald Moses, 29, and Rudy Jacobs, 29, have played over 200 funerals over the past five years. They also play at community events across the Cape Flats, wherever their talents are requested, from Delft and Nyanga to Mitchells Plain and Kuils River. “I…

Chevon Booysen chevon.booysen@inl.co.za A NUMBER of civic organisations and heritage conservation groups participated in a resistance walk to Parliament on Youth Day yesterday, calling for the president to protect national sacred sites. The walk, during which a petition signed by 53 000 people who are against the R4 billion “outsized development” at the River Park site, moved between a number of sites, from the Bo-Kaap along the Salt River Heritage Society, down Adderley Street to the statue of Jan Smuts, before a memorandum was handed over to Parliament. This, after the City of Cape Town recently announced it had given the concept plan of the River Club Development the go-ahead, despite a massive outcry by indigenous groups, housing activists and civic organisations. The redevelopment of the Observatory site, on a…

Ingredients Instructions 800g butternut chopped 1 small red onion sliced 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil 4 tsp balsamic vinegar 1 tsp sugar Sprig of fresh rosemary finely chopped Sage leaves Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Preheat oven to 200C. Toss together the butternut cubes and sliced red onion with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and rosemary in a large dish. Sprinkle the sugar over the mix. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn the butternut cubes and bake for another 30 minutes, or until they are soft and caramelised. Remove from oven and add the grilled butternut mix to the baked feta pasta. Toss in the fresh sage leaves, and place back in the oven for a further 10 minutes. Serve hot with a side salad.…

Barbie Sandler | Constantia I READ Lynn Harding’s letter (Cape Times, June 15) with interest as I have written about this many times over the years. I have said let’s use the unemployed in the best way possible to clean their areas. Help one another. Help their communities. So It is with delight that I read this is being done in Gqeberha through M1M (Move One Million). I, like Lynn look forward to seeing if we can do something here in the Mother City. Having just had my vaccination in Khayelitsha it is a Tale of Two Cities. But there were so many healthy young men and women wandering around who could be put to good use in their areas which were literally piled high with…

Mbeki must take responsibility for planting seeds of exclusivity in ruling party’s politics Siseko Maposa In a leaked recording of an ANC NEC meeting, Stan Mathabatha asks party officials a critical question – does an organisation called the ANC still exist? It is startling to think that 26 years of majority rule has fundamentally limped South Africa’s most prominent and oldest liberation party. Mathabatha’s query is indicative of the fact that whatever was of the ANC is no more. Party interests are no longer understood as important by party members, officials, and leaders. In essence, the ANC is now a political vehicle used by its leaders to execute individual self-interested mandates. The current crisis that the ANC faces is not the sole consequence of Magashule-Zuma and lawless ANC factions.…

Israel carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip early yesterday after militants in the Palestinian territory sent incendiary balloons into the south of the country, in the first flare-up between the two sides since a major conflict killed hundreds last month. Tension spilled over to the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army said they shot a Palestinian woman after she attempted to attack soldiers. The Gaza strikes were the first under the new coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett, who took over on Sunday after ousting long-time prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The uptick in violence came after more than a thousand Jewish ultra- nationalist demonstrators bearing Israeli flags poured into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Old City on Tuesday, with scores of police deployed and international monitors urging calm. According to…

Astronauts blasting off today for China’s first crewed mission to its new space station will have a choice of 120 different types of food and “space treadmills” for exercise, China’s space agency said. The mission will be China’s longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years, as Beijing pushes forward with its ambitious programme to establish itself as a space power. The astronauts will spend three months on the Tiangong station, which has separate living modules for each of them as well as a shared bathroom, dining area, and a communication centre to send emails and allow video calls with ground control. The trio will be able to work off their range of dinner options -- which officials assured reporters were all nutritious and tasty…

THE HAGUE: British barrister Karim Khan took over as the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor yesterday with a pledge to improve its track record by taking only its strongest cases to trial. Khan faces many challenges at a time of fierce political pressure on the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal. The ICC is handling a number of sensitive cases, including in the Palestinian territories and Afghanistan, and members of the prosecutor’s office were personally targeted by financial sanctions while Donald Trump was US president. Khan, 51, said one of his main tasks would be improving the performance of the office. Since opening in 2002, the ICC has convicted five men for war crimes and crimes against humanity, all African militia leaders. Sentences ranged from nine to 30 years. Prosecutors dropped…