Table of contents for 2022-07-26 in Cape Times

South Africa’s power utility Eskom will procure surplus electricity capacity from its neighbouring countries and independent power producers (IPPs) in a bid to stabilise the energy crisis. President Cyril Ramaphosa last night said South Africa needed to urgently add much, much more capacity to the grid to end load shedding as Eskom has an electricity shortage of up to 6 000MW. The plan to import electricity from countries such as Zambia and Botswana was among the measures he presented. Last month, a combination of factors resulted in 18 000 MW of generation capacity being lost and forced Eskom to implement stage 6 load shedding. Ramaphosa said the country’s challenge in adding capacity to the grid was the time that it took for any energy project to receive the necessary approvals…

A significant honour was bestowed on Professor Thuli Madonsela, the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice at Stellenbosch University when she was elected as the chairperson of the management board of the Cities Alliance during the Assembly meeting earlier this month. The new management board is composed of 15 members. At the same event Anibal Gaviria of Colombia was re-elected president of the Assembly. The Cities Alliance is a global partnership fighting urban poverty and supporting cities to deliver sustainable development. The Cities Alliance is hosted by UNOPS (UN Office for Project Services), an agency dedicated to implementing infrastructure and procurement projects for the UN System, international financial institutions, governments and other partners around the world. Madonsela is the former public protector of South Africa and law commissioner, and a…

THE homeless community in Muizenberg is mourning the loss of two of its members, Rasta and Chantel, who passed away suddenly days apart last week from chronic illnesses. Rasta, who lived under a bridge, is said to have had a mental breakdown and struggled to breathe. He ended up in hospital, where he died on July 19. Chantel, who lived on the mountain, lost her battle with cancer on July 21. Both died during a bitterly cold winter in Cape Town. Rea Thusana Foundation founder Phinius Sebatsane said it was a difficult time for all. “Rasta was the first person that made me feel welcome in Muizenberg. He was labelled crazy by some but he was a genius. He was very wise. Job was his favourite person in the Bible,…

Africans must stand up and defend the legacy of their leaders There is a vendetta against black people around the world, the aim of which is to discredit them as having contributed nothing to life, even in their freedom. It is not a coincidence that white supremacists have been pushing the narrative that it was FW de Klerk’s change of heart that led to South Africa achieving democracy. Quite interesting, it is the very same De Klerk under whose government the massacre of black people took place, even during the era of negotiations he is credited for. White supremacists say nothing about the slaughtering of black people in the country and beyond its borders. Some of the people those butchers from Pretoria killed were 6-month-old children suffocated by tear gas.…

Myanmar’s junta had executed four prisoners including a former MP from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a prominent activist, state media said yesterday, in the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades. The executions sparked widespread condemnation, heightened fears that more death sentences will follow, and prompted calls for the international community to take sterner measures against the already isolated junta. The four were executed for leading “brutal and inhumane terror acts”, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said, without saying when or how the men were killed. The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissent after seizing power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution for decades. Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former lawmaker from…

China’s latest launch of a huge rocket is, once again, raising alarm that the debris will crash into the Earth’s surface in an uncertain location and at great speed. At the weekend, the Long March 5B blasted off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island province of Hainan, carrying a solar-powered new lab, the Wentian experiment module, to be added to China’s Tiangong Space Station. But the size of the heavy-lift rocket – it stands 53.6m tall and weighs 837 500kg – and the risky design of its launch process have led experts to fear that some debris from its core stage could fail to burn up as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. As with two previous launches, the rocket shed its empty 23-ton first stage in orbit, meaning…

Copenhagen: The European Commission has approved a smallpox vaccine for use against monkeypox after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, the Danish drugmaker that developed the jab said yesterday. At the weekend the WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 16 000 people in 72 countries, to be a global health emergency, the highest alarm it can sound. Imvanex has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox. It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox and smallpox viruses. | AFP…

Singapore: South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project has formally asked Singapore to indict Sri Lanka’s deposed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for crimes against humanity during his country’s decades-long civil war. Rajapaksa fled his country after his official residence was stormed by thousands of protesters infuriated by the nation’s economic crisis. He went to the Maldives; then to Singapore. Rajapaksa helmed Sri Lanka’s defence ministry while his brother Mahinda was president when the country’s Tamil separatist conflict ended in 2009. Government forces are accused of killing 40 000 Tamil civilians during the war’s final weeks. | AFP…

Fraud amounting to approximately R3.5 billion, racketeering and contravention of the Financial Markets Act and Companies Act are among the charges that seven former Tongaat Hulett executives are facing. This is according to the State final’s indictment which was served on them yesterday. The seven accused Peter Staude, Murray Hector Munro, Michael Edward Deighton, Rory Edward Wilkinson, Kamlasagrie Singh, Samantha Shukla and Gavin Dykes Kruger made a brief court appearance in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. According to the summary of substantial facts in the indictment, the matter relates to how revenue from the sale of land was allegedly misrepresented in Tongaat Hulett Limited’s (THL) Consolidated Annual Financial Statements. THL’s subsidiary Tongaat Hulett Developments (Proprietary) (THD) was a property development company with a major part of its business being…

In a global first, health workers in South Sudan have carried out a vaccination campaign in response to an outbreak of hepatitis E, raising hopes in the fight against a disease that is especially fatal for pregnant women. Hepatitis E is the most common cause of acute viral hepatitis, causing about 20 million infections and 44 000 deaths a year. It is transmitted through faecal contamination of food and water. Large-scale outbreaks typically occur when water and sanitation are inadequate, such as in mass displacement camps. There is no specific treatment for hepatitis E, which has a fatality rate of up to 25% among pregnant women. It also increases risk of spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. “The fight against hepatitis E has been long and frustrating,” said Dr Monica Rull, medical…

THE City has revealed that the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has applied for a portion of the Khayelitsha Kuyasa building, two days before the closure of their offices. It has been nearly two weeks since grant recipients from Khayelitsha were left in the lurch after the Sassa branch in the township closed suddenly due to renovations at the building they share with the Department of Social Development (DSD). DSD has made alternative arrangements to continue providing services to the residents. Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab said they were “still sorting out alternative sites with the City of Cape Town” to enable services to continue. Sassa had said town halls that had been identified were found to be non-compliant and their officials had previously been robbed at a number of…

LANGEBAAN small-scale fishers have claimed victory after asserting their rights and demanding access to traditional fishing grounds. This after they were restricted from fishing in a particular zone following issues with their permit allocations. “The biggest issue was when the park declared the area a Marine Protected Area (MPA), and we could no longer fish where we had been fishing for generations. We won the case in court… They said we can fish because it’s our customary right, our birth right. It was working well, then all of a sudden they said we were only allowed three boats on the permit. That was not acceptable,” said Coastal Links chairperson in Langebaan, Solene Smith. “Three boat owners would have got rich and there are 30 fishers on the permit. Fishers here…

AS UK prime minister Boris Johnson exits Downing Street, a recent poll suggested that Democrats don’t want incumbent US leader Joe Biden to run again in 2024. The New York Times-Siena College poll pointed out that only a quarter of Democrats support Biden for a second term, whereas a Harvard-Harris poll found that fewer than a third of party members want him to run again as president. A whopping 71% of Americans, the poll found, did not want the president to run again. Some of the reasons provided by respondents were that the US president was either too old, or his job performance was appalling. While the results were being released, Biden was taking a trip to the Middle East to shore up US support in the region amid rising…

Ukraine said yesterday it hoped a UN-brokered deal aimed at easing global food shortages by resuming grain exports from the Black Sea region would start to be implemented this week. Moscow brushed aside concerns that the deal could be derailed by a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s port of Odesa on Saturday, saying it targeted only military infrastructure. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has denounced the attack as “barbarism” that shows Moscow cannot be trusted. A global wheat shortage and soaring European energy prices are some of the most far-reaching effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, threatening millions in poorer countries with hunger and prompting fears in Europe over heating supplies this winter. Officials from Ukraine, Russia, the UN and Turkey agreed that there would be no attacks on merchant ships…

NEW DELHI: India’s first president from a marginalised tribal community, Droupadi Murmu, said yesterday after being sworn in that her election was an “achievement of every poor person in the country”. Murmu, a former teacher and state minister from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is the second woman to hold the largely ceremonial role of president. She was born into a poor family of the Santhal tribe from the eastern state of Odisha. Members of parliament and of state legislatures elected Murmu last week for a five-year term “My election is proof that the poor in India can have dreams and fulfil them too,” Murmu, 64, said. | Reuters…

NAIROBI: Thirty four people died in central Kenya when their bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a river valley, local media reported yesterday. The Daily Nation and Standard newspapers reported that the incident occurred on Sunday evening in Tharaka Nithi County, when the bus belonging to the Modern Coast company travelling from Meru to the port city of Mombasa veered off the Nithi Bridge, and fell into the valley 40m below. Initial investigations showed the bus’s brakes may have failed, preventing its driver from properly turning on a sharp bend at the bridge. | Reuters…

HAIFA: Ghostly swarms of jellyfish along Israel’s coast have banished summer bathers from the Mediterranean waters and raised warnings about the dangers of ecological imbalance due to climate change. Beyond stinging swimmers and costing the country some $10 million a year in lost tourism, the translucent invertebrates have also been clogging desalination plants and industrial fishing nets. “The water gets hotter and hotter and we can see more and more jellyfish,” said Guy Lavian, a marine ranger with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. “You can definitely say that global warming contributes to these massive swarms.” | Reuters…

England white-ball captain Jos Buttler expressed confidence over senior players in the team to step up as the one-day international team looks to cover for the absence of Ben Stokes, following his retirement from the 50-over format last week. England lost Stokes from ODIs after the first match against the Proteas, citing unsustainable workload. This is a second big blow for England after their talismanic skipper Eoin Morgan retired from all forms of international cricket in June. After taking over from Morgan, Buttler is still waiting for his first series win as England’s full-time white-ball captain, after the rain washed out the series-deciding third ODI against the Proteas at Headingley this past weekend. “We have to be realistic with where we are as a team in the ODI format,” said…

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has taken the fight against her suspension and the parliamentary process to remove her from office to the Western Cape High Court. This comes after her failed bid to interdict her suspension and the parliamentary process on grounds of incompetence and misconduct. In her Part B application, Mkhwebane wants the court to find the conduct of National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to write a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa on resumption of removal proceedings set aside. She also wants the court to find the conduct of Ramaphosa to suspend her to be invalid as well as the conduct of the Section 194 Committee to proceed with its work while she was appealing a Constitutional Court judgment, among others. Mkhwebane’s legal counsel advocate Dali Mpofu said once…

POLICE are investigating culpable homicide after two learners were killed and another injured and in hospital, after a police vehicle ploughed into them yesterday. The learners were coming from Mfuleni Technical Academy High School when they were knocked down on Old Faure Road between Mew Way and Spine Road, near Sanitiser informal settlement in Mfuleni. Residents said a fourth learner who was with the other three was also later hospitalised due to trauma. Police spokesperson André Traut said Mfuleni police were investigating a case of culpable homicide after the accident occurred at about 3.30pm. “Two youths were killed and a third injured when they were struck by a police vehicle. “The injured person was admitted to hospital for treatment. The circumstances surrounding the accident are yet to be determined,” Traut…

SOCIAL Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said her department was in the process of finalising a study on homelessness amid the absence of a national policy. DA MP Alexandra Abrahams wrote to Zulu, saying it was found that no national government policy existed on homelessness, a move that left affected individuals vulnerable. Abrahams asked what progress had been made by her department regarding the specified gap in government policy and legislation, and the envisaged date for the government policy. She also enquired about the responsibility of her department in the daily plight of homeless individuals, and the areas of co-operation between her department, provinces and municipalities on the issue. In her reply, Zulu said homelessness was a cross-cutting issue which required a collaborative effort in addressing it. She said the Department…

THE Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department arrested a sangoma and two men after they were allegedly found digging up graves in Mabopane to get human bones for muti. The department said it received a complaint from security guards working night shift at a graveyard about people digging up graves. “The officers rushed to the graveyard. Upon arrival they found three people inside a grave. “When questioned, the three could not account for where they got permission to dig up the graves,” the department said. Among the three suspects was a sangoma. “They were allegedly looking for dead people’s bones for muti purposes.” The suspects tried to offer a bribe of R1 500. “They were then arrested for violation of graveyard regulations, malicious damage to property and bribery.” In a similar incident…

PARENTS of pupils at Siyabulela Primary School have vowed to close the school again today, demanding the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) announces it will probe allegations of corruption, maladministration of finance and staff conduct. Teaching and learning did not take place at the school yesterday as protesting parents locked the school gates and blocked anyone from entering the premises. They are calling for the dismissal of the deputy principal and two other teachers, alleging misuse of funds among others. According to one of the parents, the issues were first raised with the department last year. “We staged another demonstration last month but WCED has not come to the table to bring solutions to our concerns, hence the action today. The deputy took over after the principal went on sick…

The results of the ANC KZN conference may have taken many by surprise, but the outcomes were known to delegates on the eve of the event. Newly elected chairperson Sboniso Duma and the four other office bearers in the top leadership all have Youth League credentials, and some of them were students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Delegates at the conference called for change, and this is certainly what they received. There are massive challenges that need to be addressed in the province, including unemployment, inequality, poverty and voter apathy, and Duma will have to hit the ground running. The ANC has lost ground to the IFP and DA and will have to self-correct, or continue on the same trajectory and face the possibility of dismal results in the 2024…

Tunisians voted yesterday on a new constitution which critics of President Kais Saied fear will dismantle the democratic gains of the 2011 revolution by handing him nearly total power, with analysts expecting it to pass amid a low turnout. The divided opposition has urged a boycott, calling Saied’s moves a coup that risks flinging Tunisia back into the autocratic era from before the revolution and putting the final nail into the coffin of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Casting his vote, Saied hailed the referendum as the foundation of a new republic, a year to the day after he ousted an elected parliament, established emergency rule and began governing by decree. Western democracies which looked to Tunisia as the only success story of the Arab Spring have yet to comment…

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk refutes allegations he had an affair with Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wife. The Tesla founder and chief executive clapped back at the Wall Street Journal’s reporting he had slept with lawyer Nicole Shanahan, who is in the process of divorcing the 48-year-old billionaire, labelling the claims “total bs” and declaring there was “nothing romantic” between them. Elon wrote on Twitter: “This is total bs. Sergey and I are friends and were at a party together last night! I’ve only seen Nicole twice in three years, both times with many other people around. Nothing romantic.” Sources close to the couple say Nicole and Sergey were separated but cohabiting. In another tweet, the 50-year-old billionaire wrote that the “WSJ has run so many bs hit pieces on me…

Los Angeles: Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate after a fast-moving wildfire exploded to over 57.5km² near the Yosemite National Park in California. The wildfire, dubbed the Oak Fire, has destroyed at least 10 structures, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. A further 3 271 structures, both homes and businesses, are under threat. Driven by hot, dry weather and drought conditions, the blaze erupted on July 22 in Mariposa County. California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency there. More than 6 000 people have been evacuated. Another wildfire, the Washburn Fire, has burned over 19.6km² with 79% contained. | IANS…

While the main reason for the Rugby World Cup Sevens' sudden-death format is meritorious, it adds too much levity to such a major event. In Cape Town, from September 9 to 11, teams will have to win every game in order to have a chance of lifting the Melrose Cup. At the last RWC Sevens, the women's games were initially set to be played at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, a smaller Major League Soccer venue. That plan was dropped in order to treat the men and women equally and give the women's sides the same opportunity to play on the "big stage" at AT&T Park. A normal pool format over three days was considered unwieldy by organisers, so the knock-out format was introduced. Speed, skill and boss-level fitness are…