Table of contents for 2025-02-21 in Cape Times

DEFENCE and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga has raised concerns about weaknesses in the state arms manufacturer, Denel, that are impacting on the performance of the country’s military. The minister said as a result of the problems at Denel, army personnel are having to wait long periods to receive new vehicles or have their existing vehicles repaired. Motshekga revealed this during a meeting with the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) this week, where she outlined the challenges faced by her department. She also disclosed that it is not only Denel causing headaches with delivery of projects; other companies tasked with providing infrastructure to the department are falling behind, with some projects being ten years behind schedule. “I had gone to Denel to talk to them about the vehicles we…

THE DA-led Swellendam council has voted in favour of blocking public access to a damning report which details alleged tender irregularities within the municipality. The decision was made during a council meeting where the DA together with the FF Plus voted in favour of a recommendation by the municipal manager Anneleen Vorster, who was named in the report, for it not to be made public. In her recommendation Vorster claims she had solicited a legal opinion which recommended that it should not be made public, citing financial risks because implicated parties had threatened legal action, among others. Advocate Ettiene Vermaak’s report found “discrepancies in bid scoring, with unexplained adjustments favouring a certain bidder during the evaluation phase”. “Municipal officials have misrepresented to council the idea of a competitive bidding process…

AT JUST 10 years old, Duanne Parson from Eerste River faced the daunting challenge of spastic paraplegia and stunted growth due to TB of the spine. Because of these setbacks, he was only in Grade 1. On admission to St Joseph’s Intermediate Paediatric Care on October 17, 2023, he could barely walk 20 steps and was dependent on the nursing team for most of his daily activities. Duanne’s initial days were filled with difficulty - adjusting to a Halo pelvic frame, taking TB medication, and overcoming physical discomfort. He found it difficult to wear clothes that fitted over the frame and often wore a hospital gown. Duanne did not interact much with the other children and his appetite waned. After a while, things started to improve. He started becoming more…

Libraries have an essential role in creating safe spaces for the youth, and they are needed on the gang-riddled Cape Flats now more than ever, the GOOD Party said in calling for better resources in previously disadvantaged communities. The party raised concern after a well-stocked Tokai public library had R15 000 allocated to it for gaming equipment while they said the Gugulethu Library has received very little funding since 2013. The City has since said the purchase of the gaming equipment was at the ward councillor’s discretion. GOOD councillor, Siyabulela Mamkeli said: “Recent site visits to Cape Town Libraries highlight the blatant disparity of resources between the southern suburbs and the city’s informal settlements. While my fellow councillor, Roscoe Palm saw a well-stocked Tokai public library that had R15 000…

Song of the Slave girl Ashraf Kagee Loot.co.za (R219) Jacana SET in the Cape Colony during the brutal era of slavery, Song of the Slave Girl is a gripping tale of love, resilience, and survival. Meraj and Djameela, two young slaves, are bound by a love so powerful that it defies the cruelty of their masters. When Djameela is sold to a distant farmer, Meraj is consumed by grief, spiraling into madness. His anguish turns to fury after one final act of abuse, leading him to kill his master and flee to Zandvliet, a refuge for runaway slaves. Djameela, now in a new home, faces her own battles as she fends off the advances of her new master’s son. Guided by the wisdom of enslaved women versed in ancient magic…

One Life – Short stories Loot.co.za (R260) Tattoo Press A FRAUDSTER cashes out of a life of crime, a mother has a splendid affair, a brave woman never gives up, a graffiti artist spray-paints the city; a poignant friendship comes to a climax in a retirement home, a storyteller understands his true power, a friend delivers a heart-rending eulogy; a young South African searches for belonging in Hong Kong, while another takes a risk assisting a local artist; a photographer explores eroticism through the lens and the body, a group of reggae fans cross borders to seek freedom with Bob Marley, a drummer is haunted by the jazz of Sophiatown; a book on slavery offers a troubled woman a way out, a student faces an impossible choice, the blood moon…

LIKE most South Africans, I was looking forward to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tabling his much-awaited 2025/26 National Budget to parliament on Wednesday. At the same time, I was equally keen to see the outcome of the First Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on February 20-21, under the 2025 South African Presidency of the G20. As such, the last-minute announcement by the Minister in The Presidency and the Minister of Finance a few minutes after the scheduled time of 2 pm, that “the tabling of the 2025/26 annual budget, scheduled for 19 February 2025, is postponed to 12 March 2025,” took everybody by surprise, let alone a packed and bustling National Assembly. The postponement in tabling the Budget was at best unprecedented. To some it was an incredulous, bizarre and embarrassing moment…

As the air raid siren sounded for a ballistic missile threat in Kyiv, dozens of eight-year-old children descended into their primary school’s basement with pencils and textbooks to continue class. Within moments the bomb shelter was teeming as one group of children practiced cursive writing, another one set about reading and a dance class erupted in the middle of the room. “It’s the war that has made them mature,” said Liudmyla Yaroslavtseva, their teacher at Kyiv’s Art Lyceum “Zmina”, remembering how the children used to cry and even panic when the siren blared in the first year of the war. Three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, that maturity has come at a cost as children have learnt to live with heightened anxiety and officials…

BEIRUT: Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed yesterday when leftover munitions exploded inside a house in north-west Syria, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deadly blast a day after another organisation said two-thirds of Syrians risked being killed or wounded by unexploded ordnance. “Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when leftover munitions stored inside a house” in Idlib province exploded, said the Observatory, adding the toll was provisional. A witness saw civil defence personnel working to remove rubble. Mohammed Ibrahim said they received a report “of an explosion of unknown provenance in Nayrab, and when teams headed to the site, they found unexploded ordnance”. | AFP…

BELGRADE: Rescuers in Serbia extracted the last worker who had been trapped after soil collapsed on a group of workers while they were digging a sewer pipeline trench, police said. “Rescued after eight hours. Endless thanks to the firefighter-rescuers,” Serbian minister of internal affairs Ivica Dacic said. The accident occurred in the village of Petka, near Lazarevac, about 65km from the capital, Belgrade, when earth buried the workers at a depth of about 3m. Twenty firefighter-rescuers participated in the operation after they received a call about three workers being buried. During the rescue operation, there was another soil collapse, which momentarily buried a member of the rescue unit as well. That rescuer was quickly extracted, along with two of the buried workers, but the search for the last worker lasted…

The Lions’ victory over the Stormers last week has given their supporters a glimmer of hope that a recall to the team’s glory days is possible. The Johannesburg team contested Super Rugby finals under coaches Johan Ackermann and Swys de Bruin between 2017 and 2019, only to fade away – but there are signs of revival in Johannesburg. Under current coach Ivan van Rooyen, the Lions are 12th on the United Rugby Championship table, but have a game in hand over the Bulls and Sharks, and their 30-23 defeat of the Stormers last week flattered the visitors. Assistant coach Barend Pieterse said that the Lions’ focus remains firmly focused on qualifying for the top eight. “Our motivation is still to reach the playoffs. At the end of the day,…

The most popular argument used against active management, the so-called zero-sum game argument, is also the most abused, misused, and misunderstood. Not only that, our new research into changes both in the structure and participants in stock markets suggests that there may be greater opportunities for active managers to outperform in the future than in the past. This is true even in the most challenging of markets, the US. What is the zero-sum game argument? It can be explained as follows. Two types of investors make up the market, active and passive. Passive investors earn the market return. It follows that active investors, in aggregate, must also earn the market return because, when you combine the two, they must equal the market. For any active investor to outperform, another has…

Ithala SOC Limited CEO, Dr. Thulani Vilakazi yesterday made a passionate plea to KwaZulu-Natal policymakers to save the bank from the South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority (PA) campaign to liquidate it. Vilakazi together with the bank’s COO Mohamed Gafoor appeared before the provincial Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) to explain the situation that led to the bank facing challenges and the PA applying for a liquidation order, and also for failing to secure an operating licence. In January, the PA stated that it believed its intervention was in the best interests of Ithala’s approximately 257 000 depositors. Vilakazi told Scopa that several attempts to get Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana, to intervene to help the bank obtain a banking licence so that it could continue to operate, fell…

Ingredients: For the pastry: 3 cups plain / cake flour (360gram) 3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine (170gram) 1/2 tsp salt Mix together until fine crumbs Add about 1/3 cup water Add 1 egg and mix into a soft dough, add more water if needed Method: Rest dough for 30 minutes Roll out with rolling pin into a thin layer cut out into circles ( like a small saucer ) and fill with mixture. Fold over and tightly secure edges by pressing it with your fingers and with a fork. Make sure it's tightly close. Egg wash optional Bake in oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes until golden brown. For the Spicy Chicken & Potato Filling: Sauté an onion in 2 TBSP oil Add teaspoon…

Book People Paige Nick Loot (R255) Pan Macmillan A COMEDY about a group of book lovers who literally lose the plot. Norma Jacobs is your average accountant, running a book club on Facebook and living quietly with her boyfriend in London. Except for the part where she’s being threatened by a deranged author and questioned by the police about attempted murder. All just as she’s started a new job as the only forty-two-year-old intern in the history of publishing. Harry Shields is a crime writer desperate to hit the big time when a negative review of his latest book on Norma’s page results in him having a spectacular public meltdown. He gets cancelled, his events get cancelled, and before you can say ‘author behaving badly’, he’s plotting revenge and stalking…

45 Things to do before you’re 45 Julia Tuffs Narrated by Isy Stuttie AUDIBLE ORIGINAL When Charlie decided to create a 45 Things Before 45 bucket list, she never expected it to threaten everything she held dear. Her new friend Dorret seemed like the perfect accomplice for her mid-life adventure, but as Charlie’s pursuit of fulfilment spiralled into late-night escapades and relationship therapy, she had to decide what truly matters – the life she dreamed of or the one she’s built. She met Dorret when she went to a spinning class – one of the items on her list. Through one of Dorret’s friends, Charlie re-entered the world of work but found it challenging to balance work life with motherhood and her personal ambitions. Her obsession with completing her to-do…

THE uncertainty sweeping across the country about mooted major tax increases could hinder employment and investment, and decade-long efforts to lift the poor out of desperation. So is the historical last-minute government postponement of Finance Minister Godongwana’s 2025 Budget speech on Wednesday after party disagreements on tax increases and other crucial fiscal policy details. We are battling between greater national optimism and greater national uncertainty. And they are opposing forces. Is it better to have a half-baked Budget on February 19 or an amended Budget in March? It is an axiom heard countless times in university lecture halls and corporate boardroom meetings: uncertainty is bad for business. The South African economy is about to test that proposition like never before in our 30 years of democracy. The speculation and growing…

Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has given up formal control of his Reform UK political party as he seeks to professionalise the structure to help him win the next general election. Reform has been registered as a private company, with Farage running it since 2018 as the majority shareholder, an arrangement that gave him unusual amount of control for a British party. This week, Farage and Richard Tice, the deputy party leader, gave up their more than 90% shareholding in Reform UK Party Limited. | Reuters…

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at identifying and eliminating federal funds being used for undocumented migrants, the White House said. The order “directs Federal departments and agencies to identify all federally funded programmes currently providing financial benefits to illegal aliens and take corrective action,” according to a White House fact sheet. “It ensures that Federal funds to states and localities will not be used to support ‘sanctuary’ policies or assist illegal immigration,” the document said. It also “mandates improvements in eligibility verification to prevent benefits from going to individuals unlawfully present in the US.” The order is to ensure that “taxpayer resources are not used to incentivise or support illegal immigration,” it added. | AFP…

Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services has urged the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to urgently implement strategies to curb the rising tide of contraband in prisons. Committee chairperson, Kgomotso Ramolobeng said it has heard that to date, more than 41 000 cellphones, over R200 000 proceeds of illicit drugs had been confiscated, and 64 correctional services officials have been implicated in these illegal acts. This information was revealed after a briefing from DCS on contraband found in correctional centres across the country and measures in place to prevent it. “Of these implicated officials, 16 were dismissed, 11 were criminally charged and their cases were handed over to South African Police Services (SAPS), while 37 are still under investigation. “The remainder could not be found guilty or charged due to…

IN a major policy shift, Minister of Higher Education and Training, Nobuhle Nkabane, has announced that the management of student accommodation will be transferred back to universities. The decision follows widespread complaints about safety, corruption, and substandard living conditions in private student residences. "I'm receiving a number of complaints about the learning and living environment. Safety issues, gender-based violence, and students exchanging accommodation for sex, this is unacceptable. “I have instructed the department to see how best we can transfer the responsibility of managing student accommodation back to universities because the current system is failing," Nkabane said during her visit to the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Concerns over safety and gender-based violence in student accommodations have been mounting. NSFAS Administrator Freeman Nomvalo condemned such incidents, calling for greater accountability. "We…

Penitence opens with an act of incomprehensible violence: A 13-year-old girl, Nora Sheehan, shoots and kills her 14-year-old brother, Nico. As their small Colorado community reels in horror, their parents Angie and David hire Martine Dumont, a local lawyer, to defend Nora. Martine soon convinces her son Julian – Angie’s first love, now a criminal defense attorney in New York – to take the lead on the case. Koval’s evocative writing avoids melodrama, and her novel does far more than propel readers from shock. She draws especially vivid portraits of Angie, an artist whose younger sister, Diana, was killed in a skiing accident when Angie was a teenager. Penitence reflects the reality that self-understanding can be as elusive as “justice”: Nora insists that she cannot remember the night she…

The dating playbook Dudu Nhlabathi-Madonsela IN the chaotic and often unpredictable world of modern dating - known casually as mjolo in South Africa - navigating the complexities of love can feel akin to participating in an extreme sport. However, renowned dating coach and TikTok personality Dudu Nhlabathi-Madonsela brings a refreshing perspective with her latest offering, The Dating Playbook, a guide designed to equip readers with the tools needed to succeed in the dating arena. As an established figure in the realm of romance, Nhlabathi-Madonsela has dedicated her career to empowering individuals to find their footing in love. With a sobering and matter-of-fact approach, the book promises to reshape how we perceive and pursue romantic relationships. The book acknowledges the realities of contemporary dating scenarios, including everything from the rise of…

It would be easy to think that the Proteas should have an easy day of it when they take on Afghanistan in their opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan today. After all, the South Africans are one of the leading teams in the world – despite not winning many trophies – and have an established cricket culture for over a century. In contrast, Afghanistan have had to battle on many political fronts and even wars, so you wouldn’t think that they can even compete with the Proteas. But don’t be fooled: the Afghans will make life tough for captain Temba Bavuma and his team today at the National Stadium in Karachi. South Africa have faced Afghanistan in five one-day internationals since 2019, with the Proteas winning three…

Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho said he was proud of how his fellow South Koreans had overcome the fallout from impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law. The martial law that triggered South Korea’s biggest political crisis lasted about six hours before lawmakers scaled walls of the National Assembly to vote it down. Bong, who was holding a press event for his new sci-fi dark comedy Mickey 17, said that while legal proceedings needed to be completed, normal life could at least continue. | Reuters…

DARFUR: The AU expressed “deep concern” over the continued escalation of the war in Sudan and relentless “crimes against humanity”. The AU held a special meeting of its Peace and Security Council last Friday to discuss the conflict. In the statement, it expressed its “deep concern over the continued escalation of the conflict, between the two warring parties, particularly the non-stop perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity”. The statement highlighted “the ongoing siege and relentless fighting in El Fasher, the capital city of Sudan’s North Darfur State, with devastating impact on livelihood on a massive scale”. It also called on the warring parties – the Sudanese Armed Forces and rebel Rapid Support Forces – to observe a humanitarian truce during the Muslim holiday of Ramadaan starting next month.…

This time a year ago, rookie centre Jonathan Roche was busting his way through gaps and would-be defenders in the Varsity Cup. Fast-forward a year later, and he has busted his way into the virtual alignment camp of the Springboks next month after some stunning performances for the Stormers in the United Rugby Championship and European Champions Cup. The 22-year-old was a surprise inclusion when head coach Rassie Erasmus announced a virtual session with overseas players based in Japan and Europe, with a couple of local guys including Roche joining the contingent on March 27. But ever since he came in at centre from the injured Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ruhan Nel and Damian Willemse, he’s excelled in his first real run of games in the Stormers jersey. He’s partnered with Nel,…

Proteas left-arm pace bowler Kwena Maphaka spoke highly of fellow fast bowler and senior teammate Kagiso Rabada after a training session together in Pakistan ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy. The 18-year-old Johannesburg paceman is currently a reserve for the Proteas at the Champions Trophy tournament in Pakistan. But if lucky, he could be throwing down a good few overs with the new ball. That’s mainly because of the lack of options the South Africans have when it comes to pace at this moment, as injuries have bogged down the likes of Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortjé. Ngidi, who recovered from his groin injury, was also chosen for Pakistan, but his place in the side hasn’t been confirmed yet. Maphaka detailed how uplifting it was to have Rabada, who he…