Indholdsfortegnelse for 2021-08-18 i Cape Argus

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za THE gag order application, sought by the man accused of rape by Anglican Church Reverend June Dolley-Major, was heard in Western Cape High Court yesterday. Judgement has been reserved. An urgent application was brought against Dolley-Major by her alleged rapist, whom she had revealed in social media posts. Dolley-Major said the alleged rape occurred at the Grahamstown Seminary, nearly 19 years ago. Advocate for the complainant, Lynette Myburgh said, “… a number of people accused of rape were lynched, were assaulted, by members of the community … a possible consequence of posting on places like social media.” The application against Dolley-Major was lodged in March soon after the applicant was made aware of it. But Dolley-Major said the posts had gone years back. The complainant’s name was…

THE Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) said it had made contact with South African citizens in Afghanistan to ensure their safety amid instability after Taliban militants took control of the capital Kabul following the withdrawal of US troops. Dirco spokesperson Clayson Monyela said yesterday: “The department has established via the South African High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan … contact with a number of South African nationals based in Afghanistan to ensure their safety and provide consular assistance. “Any South African nationals currently in Afghanistan and in need of assistance should kindly contact the consular section of the department at (+27) 012 351 100, islamabad.consular@dirco.gov.za or the South African High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, at (+92) 304 371 1869.” The government said it had taken note of the deepening…

Themba Khoza | Communication Services Department of Water and Sanitation IT IS Women’s Month and this year the month is celebrated under the theme: “The year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: Realising Women’s Rights”. This theme is so crucial as it emphasises the importance of women’s rights for the development and empowerment of women. One such important right is access to water and sanitation. Water is life and central to all aspects of life while proper sanitation provides dignity, especially for women. Access to reliable water supply and proper sanitation is a critical right as it also ensures the right to safety for women. Women are then forced to fetch water from rivers and streams, thereby exposing themselves to dangerous animals and having to deal with rapists who prey…

AS ARTSCAPE Theatre continues to celebrate its 50th milestone, one of its longest running flagship programmes, the Schools Arts Festival returns with an innovative twist through a splendid hairdressing and fashion exhibition. The joint partnership between Artscape and the Western Cape School of Skills, Hairdressing and Beauty Department, with funding from the City, will have more than 20 schools descend on the Theatre Foyer. Here they will exhibit their creative, colourful designs in hair, make-up and art, as opposed to previous presentations which were in the form of, among others, music, dance and instruments. The schools taking part in the exhibition themed the “Western Cape School of Skills Hair Extravaganza”, are from different socio-economic backgrounds, some of which would never have been exposed to the arts. The platform is also…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za THE SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) has authorised a City biotechnology company, CapeBio, to manufacture Covid-19 rapid test kits locally. The Covid-19 test kits, co-developed by CapeBio and the CSIR, will help to reduce the country’s reliance on imports, making it easier access to test kits not just for South Africa but the rest of the continent. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande said that as the highly infectious Delta variant continues to drive South Africa’s third wave of Covid-19 infections, testing has become increasingly important. “The more testing is done, the easier it is for a country to track the virus, identify clusters, and act accordingly. “This latest development is part of a concerted effort by the department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and…

Kenneth Mokgatlhe THE recent decision by the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to resume primary school classes at a full-scale was short-sighted. For a very long time, our education system has been characterised by deteriorating infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, increasing inequalities, and poor outcomes or results. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the long-standing problems within our education system; there are absolutely no new challenges. Had there been the political will to resolve these problems, the education system could have been a model for many other countries, especially in the Third World. In one of the primary schools where I am doing my teaching practicals in the rural North West, the classrooms have more than 55 learners. A teacher can barely walk around the classroom because the buildings are so tiny.…

HERMAN GIBBS After weeks of unanswered controversy and a flurry of litigation, the Premier Soccer League yesterday finally stepped into the public domain at a media conference to explain the expeditious sale of beleaguered Bloemfontein Celtic’s Premiership franchise to Royal AM. The transaction drew widescale derision and disbelief since Royal AM are in bad standing with the PSL. They are awaiting a disciplinary committee outcome after they were found guilty of no-shows at four PSL promotion/relegation play-off matches last month. It was hard to stomach that the PSL was willing to do business with a club that called for the PSL’s acting CEO Mato Madlala to be sent to prison if she is found to be in contempt of court after the play-offs took place. Two days before the…

Willem Phungula willem.phungula@inl.co.za GLITCHES during the identification parade prevented the bail application of nine suspects linked to killings during last month’s unrest and looting incidents in Phoenix, north of Durban. The nine were expected to formally apply for bail in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court yesterday but the matter was postponed to Monday. Detectives handling the matter did not bring the accused to court. After a long meeting between the defence legal teams, the State prosecutors and Magistrate Irfaan Khalil the matter was postponed. Attorney Chris Gounden represented seven of the accused. He said he was ready to proceed with his clients’ bail application, but accepted the postponement. Gounden told the media that the accused where taken to Chatsworth SAPS for a formal ID parade. Police are believed to have CCTV…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za THE province has resolved to oppose the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) application to the Constitutional Court to postpone the local government elections. Premier Alan Winde said the provincial government would oppose the postponement of the elections because it risked setting a dangerous precedent whereby suffrage, and related rights, could be deferred without following the correct constitutional process. Winde said as per the Constitution, the matter must be brought before Parliament and not the judiciary. “We must ensure … elections continue ahead as planned as this is in the best interest of our democracy,” he said. The application is expected to be heard on Friday. The provincial government will oppose the application through Local Government MEC Anton Bredell, in his capacity as the 10th…

ONE of the great joys of a lecturer’s life is preparing teachers for the day their charges go home and substitute “Daddy/Mommy says …” for the magical “My teachers say …” We stress that, when that time comes, the teachers must be sure that what they say is relevant. May I start by saying that teachers do not always get it right. I could mention cases where many a teacher made dire and grim predictions for their learners and were proved to be completely wrong. Albert Einstein was told very early in his life (before he reached 7): “You will never amount to anything.” Thomas Alva Edison, possibly the most prolific inventor of all, was reported by his teacher in kindergarten as being “too stupid to learn anything”. So now…

Rianna Wentzel | Grassy Park IT’S been said countless times, but I’ll shall say it again: never cease to stand up against violence inflicted on our most vulnerable citizens. More so, against our women, mothers, sisters and daughters. Women’s Day has come and gone, with crimes against our most vulnerable still continuing at an alarming rate. Who are we actually honouring? And what does Women’s Day mean to people all over the world? Because violence is happening all over the world. Violent acts against our most vulnerable are yet to dissipate as we are faced with these crimes on a daily basis. Without fail, the newspapers and social media greet us with horror and sadness whenever we open those pages. So, with all that said, I am challenging…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za AN INAUGURAL exhibition by Mashurah Arts with Greatmore Studios aims to open up spaces for “consultation and advice” and dialogue in “the sphere of mostly exclusionary art practices and spaces”. Derived from the Arabic term, “mashurah” means “consultation” or “to seek advice” – in this case, on topics of public importance – said the London-born curator and writer based in Cape Town, Sara Bint Moneer Khan. Khan founded Mashurah Arts on July 24 as part of her current PhD study on visual literacy and art advocacy in Cape Town’s Muslim community. The exhibition will run until September 30, from 10am to 4pm, at 47 Greatmore Street, Woodstock. “It aims to create a space for collaboration, development, dialogue and dissemination of artistic practices, with a special focus…

An ecstatic Mohammed Siraj runs past a shell-shocked James Anderson, who is still holding his stance, to grab the stump he has just knocked over. The rest of the Indian players – bar captain Virat Kohli, who has sprinted off in any which way – converge on the Lord’s pitch in a manic dash to collect the remaining pieces of timber for their own piece of memorabilia. It is these crazy scenes that are cherished by everyone inside the hallowed old ground, especially during these Covid-19 times when just being a spectator at a live sports match is a privilege in its own right. In a time zone far away in Jamaica, there was nobody at Sabina Park, bar the ground staff and television crew who could appreciate an equally…

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za A FRANSCHHOEK man accused of attacking 37-year-old Andy Makoma with a chainsaw on August 7 made his second appearance in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court yesterday where the matter was postponed to tomorrow. Elroy Erasmus, 34, is facing an attempted murder charge after he allegedly attacked Makoma on his birthday in his house and in front of his wife and children, accusing him of insulting his wife earlier that Saturday. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the State would oppose Erasmus’s bail application. Mokoma’s wife Sizeka Busuku said she was praying that Erasmus was denied bail, as they couldn’t sleep peacefully after the incident. She said her in-laws were staying with them, as they felt vulnerable and scared of the place. Meanwhile a BackaBuddy Fundraiser account…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za TEACHER unions are up in arms over the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) alleged intention to cancel the October school holidays to compensate for five school days lost as a result of the earlier closure for the winter holidays. SA Democratic Teachers Union, SA Teachers’ Union (Satu), National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), Professional Educators’ Union and the National Teachers Union – have confronted the DBE, saying none of them were consulted. Satu spokesperson Stephan van den Berg said the DBE admitted that the Committee of Education Ministers and the Heads of Departments Committee (Hedcom) has already decided on the five days - from October 4 to 8. Van den Berg said the third and fourth terms would be separated by a long weekend by…

Itumeleng Mafisa MINERAL Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe said it was regrettable that the government was participating in Marikana commemorative events for the first time since 34 miners died at the hands of the police during a labour dispute in 2012. Mantashe was speaking at an online commemorative event held by Sibanye-Stillwater, the mining company that was at loggerheads with workers nine years ago. The company at the time was known as Lonmin. The government has been facing criticism over what some have called a denial of the tragedy of Marikana. There have also been growing calls to have August 16 declared a public holiday in honour of the those who died in the Marikana massacre, the first post-apartheid massacre the state carried out on workers. The EFF…

UNFORTUNATELY, we have had to live through the past 15 years of system failure, particularly the failure of employment. With the concerted effort of an entire group of people corrupting our government, the government has been left almost bankrupt, without resources to try to correct the system that has failed the workforce. We have heard from our president how the individuals involved in state capture are in very powerful political positions, and how they had to ensure that more and more people were employed by the state in order to enable them to control all the services to the state and the money spent by the state. The bloated civil service assisted the corrupt politicians and senior civil servants to divert enormous tranches of money to themselves as opposed to…

FORMER Ajax Cape Town youth coach and UWC Football head coach Stanton Smith has been appointed principal of Dryden Street Primary School in Salt River. This follows the retirement of Bayar Laattoe and the death of acting principal Cedric Joubert, and after Soraya Khan was acting principal for nearly a year. Stanton attended Settlers High School and participated in numerous sporting codes. Football was his passion and he was given the opportunity to play and study in the US, where he earned many awards in the sport. Academically, he was awarded the “Who’s Who among American Students Award”, which was given only to top academic/collegiate sport achievers. “I have a Bachelor’s degree in administration at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. This gave me an opportunity to pursue…

Kristin Engel kristin.engel@inl.co.za WITH Arbor Week around the corner, Wildlands Conservation Trust’s projects in Stellenbosch celebrated eight years of planting trees and other environmental initiatives to green communities and restore ecosystems, especially catchments and rivers in the area that were affected by the severe drought experienced in the province. Wildlands, a programme of the Wildtrust, launched and participated in a number of environmental projects in Stellenbosch from 2014 until this year. They include Leaf-a-Legacy; the Commemorative Trees Project, Trees-For-Life; and the ecological restoration of five major rivers, two conservancies and a nature reserve; as well as a dozen yearly environmental education outreach activities by the Wildlands’ Ubuntu Earth Ambassadors Programmes. Wildlands project manager Lydia van Rooyen said these projects would not have been able to achieve success without their key…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za Western Province head coach John Dobson has made seven changes to the team for their crucial Currie Cup encounter against the Lions at Newlands today (kick-off 7pm). Province will be looking to make the most of their last regular-season game at home after drawing 40-40 with the Pumas on Sunday. Following the short turnaround, there are four changes to the forward pack and three in the backline for the clash. Up front, Dian Bleuler and Neethling Fouche will start on either side of hooker Scarra Ntubeni, with Ernst van Rhyn back in the starting line-up to captain the team at lock after Juan de Jongh donned the armband in their last run-out. In the loose trio, the experienced Deon Fourie starts at openside flank, with Nama Xaba…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber says the sweeping changes they’ve made for their second Rugby Championship Test against Argentina is all about player welfare and not them underestimating the opposition. During the media conference yesterday to announce his line-up for Saturday’s match in Gqeberha (5pm kick-off), Nienaber listed 11 changes to the side that beat the same opposition 32-12 in their championship opener last week. The team for the second Test features six changes to the backline and five up front, with Nienaber bringing back a host of players who featured in the series win over the British & Irish Lions. Marvin Orie gets his first Test start, while Malcolm Marx and Trevor Nyakane have also been promoted to the starting team, where Thomas du Toit will also…