Table of contents for 2023-09-22 in Cape Times

LAST WEEK, the Cabinet approved a new State-owned Enterprise (SOE) plan, which will lay the basis for private equity investment in state companies and listings on the stock exchange. It has already stirred significant debate and discussion – and rightly so, because full or partial privatisation by countries around the world has been met with mixed success. SOEs have long been a cornerstone of South Africa’s economic landscape. These entities play a pivotal role in driving economic growth, infrastructure development, and service delivery throughout the nation. But, over the last few decades, they have posed significant financial and operational challenges for government. With mandates encompassing a diverse range of industries, from energy and transportation to telecommunications and healthcare, SOEs have a far-reaching impact on the daily lives of South Africans…

AS THE Springboks gear up for a blockbuster match against Ireland in Paris tomorrow, captain Siya Kolisi says that facing the world’s number one team at the Rugby World Cup is “as big as it gets”. But Bok fans hoping to see their side in green and gold against the Irish will have to make peace with the fact that South Africa will wear their alternate white strip, with Ireland in their emerald green for the Stade de France showdown (9pm kick-off). But that hasn’t distracted the team from their goal, and become the first side to win the tournament four times. The sides square up at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, the north of Paris, in what is the likely the Pool B decider. Both are unbeaten after…

A SWELLENDAM mother’s boyfriend and his two friends have been sentenced to life and 15 years’ imprisonment respectively for the rape and sexual exploitation of her minor child. The boyfriend, 30, was charged with four counts of rape and three counts of sexual exploitation of a child, while his friends, aged 26 and 28, were each charged with a count of rape. “This (boyfriend) violated the trust most unimaginably,” said State prosecutor Heinrich Koert. “Not only did he rape the complainant repeatedly, but he also facilitated her rape by two of his friends. She fell pregnant and gave birth to a boy. This is the plight of young women and girls in this area. If there was ever a case for the maximum sentence to be imposed, this would be…

The situation remained tense at Noluthando School for the Deaf in Khayelitsha yesterday, after clashes ensued between pupils and the principal on Wednesday. Parents and the pupils want the principal removed for several reasons, including that he allegedly cannot communicate in Sign language, which resulted in a communication barrier. The children and parents also allege physical abuse on the part of the principal, as well as physical and verbal abuse by one of the teachers, adding that the principal did nothing to address their concerns. “Our children have been coming here since they were small babies, so we know how it used to be before he started coming here,” said one parent on condition of anonymity. “Since he started in 2017 everything has changed, he cannot speak Sign language. “He…

What Happens on Vacation Jo Watson Loot.co.za (R219) Headline Eternal As frothy and sweet as a strawberry milkshake, this gentle and funny tale of what happens when two arch rivals at work are forced to go on holiday together will leave you smiling at the end. Jo Watson is the author of a plethora of romance novels and with her injection of innocent humour, her latest makes for reading that is delightfully feel-good and will leave you with a warm heart when you close the last page. Jagger and Margaret sit opposite each other at work but there appears to be very little bonhomie between the two colleagues. Margaret is divorced and a little bitter and seems to find Jagger's surname Villain perfectly fitting as she conjures up a slew…

Autoimmune Survival Guide Malvina Bartmanski Autoimmune disease is often explained as an overactive immune system which attacks the body, but many chronic conditions are rooted in stress, according to integrative clinical psychologist Malvina Bartmanski. In her book, Autoimmune Survival Guide: Support for people suffering from autoimmune and other trauma-driven conditions, she draws on allopathic, natural medicine and psychological therapies that can complement conventional Western medicine to chart a pathway for those wanting to improve their health. In her practice, Bartmanski has witnessed an increasing number of patients who have been diagnosed with complex trauma and autoimmune conditions, especially women, and in the book she explains the link between body, mind and spirit, drawing on the works of experts in several fields. “People don’t know where to turn to with these…

Siya Kolisi is one of the biggest sports stars in the world – so much so that some of his fans think he can even become the president one day. But he is thriving as the captain of the Springboks, and is leading the side in the defence of their World Cup title in France. The Boks are facing a massive showdown with Ireland in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, tomorrow night. A victory will ensure that South Africa will finish on top of their group and avoid host nation France in the quarter-finals. Ireland are ranked No 1 in the world, but Bok bosses Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have come up with a left-field strategy to stop them in their tracks by selecting seven forwards among the reserves, which…

Americans broadly back striking workers in the auto industry and Hollywood, according to a two-day Reuters/Ipsos poll completed this week that found significant support among both Democrats and Republicans. The poll found that 58% of Americans support the first-ever simultaneous strike by the United Auto Workers union against Ford Motors, General Motors and Chrysler parent Stellantis to win better pay and benefits, while 32% oppose the action and 10% were unsure. Similarly, 60% of Americans support the dual strikes by screenwriters and actors to win better pay and protections in the entertainment industry, while 27% oppose it and 13% were unsure. The poll found especially strong support among Democrats, who have traditionally allied with labour unions. Some 72% of self-identified Democrats said they backed the auto workers strike and 79%…

PARIS: King Charles underscored the importance of the relationship between Britain and France on the second day of a state visit to France, which both nations hope will help ease tensions since Britain’s exit from the EU. Charles told French MPs yesterday that the two countries had a shared responsibility on Ukraine and climate change, calling for an extension of the “Entente Cordiale” of the early 20th century. Meanwhile, Queen Camilla and President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, played table tennis as youngsters watched. | Reuters…

ATHENS: Thousands of Greek public sector workers, including teachers, doctors and transport staff, marched in Athens yesterday during a strike against planned labour law changes by the conservative government, which was re-elected in June. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government says the overhaul would eliminate undeclared work and boost employment overall, but labour unions and the opposition say it is an assault on workers’ rights and would create barbaric conditions. The bill would allow full-time employees to get a part-time second job and work up to 13 hours a day unless certain terms apply, such as a conflict of interest. | Reuters…

MILAN: The wealthy coastal town of Portofino will become the first place in Italy to name a street after the late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died in June, after local authorities fast tracked approval. In Italy, 10 years must normally pass after a death before anyone gets such an honour but in this case an exception was applied as Berlusconi was judged to be one of those “people who have particularly served the nation”, reports said yesterday. The street – where Berlusconi used to walk when he visited his own villa in the town – is set to be renamed next month a couple of weeks after what would have been the billionaire Berlusconi’s 87th birthday. | Reuters…

UNHYGIENIC prison conditions for inmates came under the spotlight after the North West High Court, Mahikeng awarded R175 000 in damages to a man held for assault. The complainant claimed victory this week when he was awarded the money for damages suffered when he was imprisoned for 16 days in 2016. Aged 27 years at the time he was arrested, the man sought R500 000 for damages suffered as a result of an unlawful arrest through which he experienced “pain, suffering, discomfort and embarrassment, loss of amenities of life, contumelia (indignity) and deprivation of freedom”. According to the judgment, the minister of police conceded that the complainant was held unlawfully and was detained in unhygienic and unfavourable conditions. The exact conditions and circumstances were not made clear in court documents,…

An inquiry will be established to determine circumstances leading to the incident “THE world is filled with nay-sayers and negativity but no one can take away your dreams. If you truly want something, do everything in your power to make it happen. ” These words are attributed to Lieutenant Commander Gillian Elizabeth Hector (executive officer) who was confirmed to be among the three SA Navy members who died at sea in Kommetjie earlier this week. Hector’s colleagues, Master Warrant Officer William Masela Mathipa (Coxswain) and Warrant Officer Class One Mmokwapa Lucas Mojela (Coxswain under training) also died at sea. Four other naval officers were injured during the incident when they were washed overboard. Hector, a mother of one and survived by her widower Romero Hector, was Africa’s first woman to…

WHILE volatile protest action ceased in Swellendam yesterday, many school pupils in Railton remained at home. The Western Cape High Court on Wednesday granted the municipality an interdict against several protesting residents, after violent demonstrations over subsidised municipal services erupted in the area. An essential R5 million municipal building along with a fire department vehicle was set alight. The residents have now been interdicted from conducting unlawful protest action. Recent protest action is said to have caused damage to property and intimidation. Education MEC David Maynier said the protesting impacted schools. “While school staff are in attendance, we still have high learner absenteeism at schools in the Railton area, with 72% of learners from the three schools staying at home (yesterday). “It is extremely disappointing that these learners are missing…

Fraud – How Prison Set Me Free Nikki Munitz Loot.co.za (R230) Melinda Ferguson After matriculating from a top Jewish school, Nikki Munitz finds herself in the clutches of a heroin addiction. She’s sent to a remote rehab, run by a pastor who brandishes a tattoo of Satan. She meets the son of a wealthy Afrikaans family. Lured by the illusion of “happy ever after” she marries him. But the façade soon crumbles. Money is in short supply. Nikki takes on a job at a reputable law firm. Encrypted passwords are entrusted to her. She begins to siphon small, undetectable amounts from trust funds of loyal clients. The amounts increase. Caught red-handed, she's fired. By the time the law catches up with her, Nikki is clean and sober. On the advice…

Jan Braai Junior Jan Braai Loot.co.za (R180) Penguin Books Jan Braai Junior is a book for the next generation of braai masters in South Africa. Filled with a collection of Jan Braai’s very best recipes, simplified with easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance, Jan Braai Junior can be enjoyed by kids and the whole family. Jan Braai is the most interviewed person in the world on the topic of braai, and therefore a good judge of what people want to know about braaing. As a television presenter and head of the National Braai Day initiative, he has travelled extensively in southern Africa and the world, braaied often and with diverse people, in various beautiful places, using different techniques. This user-friendly book covers all the fundamental braai knowledge every South African should have, using…

We all need to be able to tolerate, embrace and cherish our diversity as South Africans As we celebrate our rich and varied cultural heritage on Sunday, we also should remind one another that we are not there yet. What could help us get there is non-racialism. It would be fair to say that almost all South Africans share the vision of non-racialism and hunger for the day when it is fully materialised. But how should we understand non-racialism within the context of heritage? Non-racialism means we accept that there is only one human race with a rich diversity of classes, colours, cultures, creeds, confessions, genders, orientations and ability. Non-racialism means we respect and revere, acknowledge and accept, celebrate and enjoy every human being as a member of one human…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with lawmakers at the US Capitol yesterday as Republican sceptics question whether Congress should approve a new round of aid for his country despite slow progress fighting Russian invaders. After seeking to shore up international support at the UN, Zelenskiy came to Washington on a crosstown blitz that includes meetings with US President Joe Biden and military leaders at the Pentagon and an address in the evening at the National Archives museum. While Biden and most congressional leaders still support aid to Ukraine, and Biden’s Democrats control the Senate, Zelenskiy will face a tougher crowd than when he visited Washington nine months ago. Dressed in military green to reflect his status as a wartime leader, Zelenskiy met with leaders of the Republican-led House of Representatives…

Filipino activists accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s government of carrying out a “witch-hunt” against rights defenders as they held rallies for the 51st anniversary of the imposition of martial law yesterday. Hundreds of people marched in Manila calling for the release of victims of forced disappearances and the abolishment of an anti-communist task force, set up by former president Rodrigo Duterte, that has been accused of targeting government critics. Rights group Karapatan said the Marcos Jr administration was using the task force to “witch-hunt activists, human rights defenders and other dissenters”, while enabling the military and police to “perpetuate repression reminiscent of the martial law era”. Marcos Jr’s dictator father, Ferdinand Marcos, imposed martial law in 1972, unleashing his security forces on rivals, critics and dissidents. Amnesty International estimates that…

New York: Rupert Murdoch will step down as chairman of his media empire, a conservative behemoth that helped shape politics around the world, and hand control to his son, Lachlan, Fox Corp and News Corp announced yesterday. The Australian-born 92-year-old will shift into an emeritus status at both companies in mid-November, the companies said. “I am writing to let you all know that I have decided to transition to the role of chairman emeritus,” Murdoch said in a letter to colleagues. “Neither excessive pride nor false humility are admirable qualities. But I am truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through the decades.” The transition of leadership to Murdoch’s son Lachlan, executive chair and chief executive officer at Fox Corporation, follows a period of intense speculation about the media…

San Francisco: Game of Thrones author George RR Martin and other best-selling fiction writers have filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the tech start-up of violating their copyrights to fuel its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT. The Authors Guild, an organisation representing writers, and several novelists including Martin, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, accused the California-based company of using their books “without permission” to train ChatGPT’s “large language models”, algorithms capable of producing human-sounding text responses based on simple queries. Numerous other lawsuits have been filed by artists and others. | AFP…

Anyone who saw Andile Phehlukwayo smash the Australian attack to all parts of the Wanderers in the closing overs of the ODI series decider last week would have sworn they had seen it all before – because they have. In just his second chance with the bat in international cricket, aged 20 at the time, Phehlukwayo took hold of the self-same Australians to close out a series win with a similar swashbuckling innings back in 2016. On both occasions, Phehlukwayo looked like a world-beater – a player with the all-round game and confidence that could potentially be the “X-factor” the Proteas have been missing since Lance Klusener’s retirement. Unfortunately for Phehlukwayo, and of course the Proteas, there has not been much in between those glistening knocks. Instead, it has been…

EDUCATION experts have called for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to investigate whether the decline in the intake of subjects for the 2023 matric cohort meant the overall number of registered candidates has decreased. They also want to know whether the missing learners dropped out, failed or were pursuing education through other means. Maths literacy saw the biggest decline nationally of pupils dropping the subject from 2022 to 2023, with 23 763 no longer taking it, followed by geography at 21 643 and life science at 16 507. Maths saw a decline of 4 944 in the 2023 matric cohort, with Physics the least affected with 142 learners no longer participating in it. DBE chief director for public examinations and national assessments, Dr Rufus Poliah, said they were concerned…

“I AM forever grateful to Professor Chris Barnard for giving me an opportunity to live a long life.” These are the words of 68-year-old Joseph Jordaan, who recalled the first heart surgery he had that changed his life in 1962. Jordaan, from East London, recently had his second heart surgery, more than six decades after he embarked on a life-altering journey from his home town to Groote Schuur Hospital. He was born with a congenital heart defect, a condition that saw him and his mother, Sarah Jordaan, make the trip to Cape Town, searching for a normal life for him at a time when advances in heart surgery were limited. Recalling that period, Jordaan said that although he was a child, he knew the trip would change the course of…

Mere hours before children were meant to receive their breakfast yesterday, Arcadia Primary School in Bonteheuwel, which provides meals for between 200 and 300 learners, was burgled, with ingredients for the morning’s meal stolen. Teacher, Michael Williams, who runs the feeding programme from a classroom at the school, said when staff arrived, they found the gate and door had been broken open. “They (the thugs) entered and rummaged the place, so any stock we had to feed children for the morning they stole. “They even took the gas cylinder, two big pots, the urn and the kettle. They also broke small cupboards, where people kept their milk and coffee. It's one thing when they break into school and steal anything. “What is more distressing about this is taking food…

Holly Stephen King Loot.co.za (R275) Hodder & Stoughton In Stephen King’s new novel, Holly Gibney is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy recluse in Mr Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid-19. Her mother has just died, and Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared, live Professors Rodney…

These little cubes of melt-in-your-mouth meat can be basted with your favourite braai basting sauce, making them perfectly suited to your taste buds. About 600g rump steak braai salt 6 skewers your favourite basting sauce Cut the steak into little bite-sized cubes that will be very easy to chew. Rather cut too small than too big. Season the little cubes of steak with braai salt Divide the meat into four equal portions. Using one skewer for each portion, push little cubes of meat onto the stick. Make sure the sharp end of the skewer is pointed away from you, pushing down into the meat on your cutting board. Do not push the sharp end of the skewer towards your face or into your hand. Braai the sosaties in a grid…

As we approach Heritage Day, it is customary to reflect on the rich tapestry of cultures and histories that make up our nation and our world. This year, instead of dwelling on the challenges that often divide us, let us take a different path – one that celebrates the beauty of our shared humanity. I would like to encourage everyone to take just three minutes on Heritage Day to ponder what we all have in common with every other person on this planet. Whether they are friends, family, neighbours, business colleagues, or even just distant acquaintances on social media, we share a fundamental connection that transcends our differences. Society tends to emphasise our distinctions—be it in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, or wealth. These divisions are often seen…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday began his first official trip to China in almost two decades, with Beijing saying the visit would take ties to a “new level” as the Arab leader seeks financial support to help rebuild his devastated country. China is one of only a handful of countries outside the Middle East that Assad has visited since the 2011 start of a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more, and battered Syria’s infrastructure and industry. Assad is the latest in a string of leaders ostracised by the West to be feted by Beijing, with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi visiting this year, as well as top Russian officials. He arrived yesterday in the eastern city of Hangzhou,…

The International Criminal Court is operating with strong limitations on its digital systems after a hacking incident, sources and lawyers who work at the war crimes court said yesterday. Two lawyers at the court said it had disconnected most of its systems that can access the internet, that employees could not access e-mail and employees who were not working on site could not access documents. The ICC first disclosed a “cybersecurity incident” on Tuesday, saying it was trying to ensure the tribunal’s “core work” continued. Hearings in the trial of two men accused of leading militias that attacked Muslim civilians in the Central African Republic resumed yesterday. However the court’s livestream was unavailable and there was no sound in the galleries where the public and journalists can view proceedings, court…

BEIRUT: A gunman fired more than a dozen bullets at the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanese officials said yesterday, with the diplomatic mission reporting no casualties in the late evening incident. Lebanese forces have cordoned off the area of the highly secured embassy complex in the Beirut suburb of Awkar, a security official said. The official said the unknown assailant struck late on Wednesday, firing 15 bullets at the embassy entrance and leaving behind a bag full of ammunition, which was seized by authorities. A military court has begun investigating the incident. Authorities were reviewing surveillance footage. | AFP…

YEREVAN: Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists from the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh held their first direct peace talks yeterday, after Baku claimed to have regained control over the breakaway region in a lightning military operation. The separatists agreed to lay down their arms as part of a Russian-brokered ceasefire plan that halted Azerbaijan’s 24-hour offensive to retake land. The talks aimed at reintegrating the Armenian population of Karabakh into Azer-baijan ended after several hours. During the meeting, gunfire rang out in the separatist stronghold of Stepanakert yesterday. The break-away authorities accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire. | AFP…