Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-02-20 i Cape Argus

STAGE 4 load shedding was costing the Western Cape economy around R43 million a day, Premier Alan Winde declared as he delivered his State of the Province Address (Sopa) in Paarl yesterday. He said the province was estimated to have lost between R48.6 billion and R61.2bn in real GDP since load shedding first started more than 15 years ago. “The Western Cape is well on its way to becoming the first load shedding-free province in the country. “Just under R7bn in total is being spent over the next three years to make the Western Cape energy-resilient. “This amount is made up of just over R1bn from the province, R3.9bn from the City of Cape Town, and R1.9bn being spent by other municipalities across the province to enable the private…

Ndifuna Ukwazi has welcomed the upgrade of Chapel Street in District Six ahead of the City of Cape Town’s open day on Saturday, where the Urban Planning and Design Department will present the draft detailed design for the upgrading of the historical site. The City said this project builds on the District Six Public Realm Strategy that was finalised in 2022 in collaboration with the District Six community, stakeholders, and interested parties, and one of the projects identified in collaboration with the District Six community was the upgrade of Chapel Street to facilitate movement between Trafalgar Park, New Hanover Street, and the CBD. “We are now ready to present the draft detailed design for the upgrade of Chapel Street to the local community, other residents, stakeholders, and interested parties. This…

Across the City of Cape Town, the ever-growing homeless crisis is being exacerbated by misinformation from politicians and some irresponsible elements of the mainstream media. According to the latest data, there are more homeless people in Cape Town now than ever before. This translates to thousands of people being identified as homeless on any given night. But a more profound story unfolds once you look past the statistics and scan the city streets. These are not just numbers crunched in a computer system, circulating through cyberspace. Instead, the numbers represent real people facing unimaginable circumstances. As you read this, people are living their lives in tents, struggling to survive in the sewers beneath our streets, washing n rivers and public toilets, shuffling their children through the shelter system and, heartbreakingly,…

The untimely death of hero Alexei Navalny at the hands of weak warlord Vladimir Putin, who lacked the guts to face Navalny in an open and fair election campaign, will be condemned in the strongest terms by all democratic countries in the world, with the exception of other dictatorial despotic rulers. What a loss to the free world in losing this dynamic fearless warrior and activist for Russian freedom. Putin alone stands responsible for this despicable death that was nothing short of murder. In his final days of life, Navalny laughed and joked in court which must have infuriated his captors. The next day, he was dead. Shame on his cowardly captors and shame on the Russian people who stand by and accept the death of an innocent man who…

THERE is a big outcry over the 800 fully qualified but unemployed doctors languishing at home without hope that they will find work any time soon – apparently because the health minister cannot do anything due to a lack of funds. This is a problem that has been going on for years, affecting our health services, which are on the brink of collapse. What is really mind-boggling is that patients’ lives are put at risk. While the many ministers and their deputies continue to get exorbitant salaries and other benefits, the public are not even receiving the standard of services they deserve. The medical negligence claims bill is already running into billions and, if patient care is compromised, it will keep on rising, because along with the shortage of health…

South Africa has long struggled to reconcile its history of exclusion and inequality with its aspirations for equality and democracy. However, as the country approaches its next election cycle, a more insidious threat to democracy has emerged: the undue influence of big business over the political system. A handful of wealthy individuals and corporations have come to dominate the funding of political parties, essentially becoming their handlers in the process. The result is a political landscape that prioritises the interests of corporate elites at the expense of the people. The story of how big business captured the state in South Africa began with the Oppenheimers, who wielded immense political power during the apartheid era. Realising that the ANC was on the cusp of taking power, the family began holding secret…

Simone Inzaghi is on the verge of a major breakthrough at Inter Milan as the Serie A leaders push towards the first Serie A title of his coaching career and eye another deep run in the Champions League. Inter are in red-hot form as they await the visit of Atletico Madrid tonight, eight wins from eight matches this year giving them the Italian Super Cup and a nine-point lead over Juventus in Italy’s top flight, with a game in hand. Inzaghi has long been viewed as a cup coach, one who can win the domestic knockout baubles but isn’t capable of challenging for football’s biggest prizes. But last year’s run to the Champions League final and their imperious current campaign in Serie A suggests that Inzaghi belongs at the top…

DJ Black Coffee has become the latest celebrity to embrace his faith and commit his life to God. He joins the likes of fellow musicians Cassper Nyovest and Puerto Rican star Daddy Yankee, who have recently embraced their Christian faiths. The Doc Shebeleza hitmaker made headlines last month when he decided to step away from the limelight to prioritise his spiritual journey. In 2023, the award-winning rapper had a “transformative encounter with God”, leading him to embrace Christianity and he got baptised. Meanwhile, in December Daddy Yankee announced he was retiring from music and devoting his life to serving Jesus Christ. Now, the award-winning DJ, record producer and songwriter – whose real name is Nkosinathi Maphumulo – has been cast into the spotlight, following a viral video in which he…

In another victory for the Sekunjalo Group of companies, the Western Cape High Court yesterday dismissed – with costs – Standard Bank’s application for leave to appeal an interim interdict against the closure of the group’s bank accounts. Judge Judith Cloete heard Standard Bank’s appeal application last Thursday as to why her ruling in September 2023 should not stand. In an emphatic judgment yesterday, she denied Standard Bank on all five of its grounds for appeal. She also ruled that the Sekunjalo Group, which has had judgments in favour and against it since she heard the case in 2023, “should be afforded the opportunity to place them, and their respective views on their implications, properly before the court at the next hearing”. The 12-month interdict was handed down against Standard…

AFTER losing its Constitutional Court bid last week the ANC yesterday begrudgingly handed over its deployment records to the DA. But the governing party accused the DA of deliberate misrepresentation, threats and false expectations of what might be contained in them. DA spokesperson for public administration Leon Schreiber said the ANC had provided the documents by the 5pm deadline. “The DA will now study the records to ascertain whether the ANC has complied with the court order in full, which directed it to hand over complete meeting minutes, email correspondence, WhatsApp conversations, CVs and all other relevant documentation dating back to January 2013,” Schreiber said. ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said yesterday that the party had nothing to hide and that a number of the records for the period 2018…

THE City has called on shelters to apply for its winter readiness programme, as it planned to evict more homeless people from the streets in coming weeks. Last Wednesday, a group of around 100 people were evicted from the Three Anchor Bay Tennis Club following a Western Cape High Court order. The City has further been granted a final eviction order for unlawful occupants at various road reserves and bridges around the CBD. These areas are in the vicinity of the Nelson Mandela Boulevard intersection, Hertzog Boulevard, Old Marine Drive and Christiaan Barnard Bridge. The order includes a standing interdict against any further unlawful occupation of these sites. The order also permits the sheriff of the court to evict any remaining unlawful occupants if needed after March 14. The City…

I attended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s talk at the Kelvin Grove on last Thursday in Newlands, by invitation of the Cape Town Press Club. Ramaphosa had just concluded the Sona debate in Parliament and was in good spirits. He answered the tough questions by journalists most inspiringly, but failed to convince the audience that the ANC-led government had “created a better life for all”, as promised. He adeptly side-stepped and kept mum when quizzed on the date of the national and provincial elections. We are living in interesting times in the run-up to the general elections.…

George Washington said: “Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.” The media must ensure that their reporting is always true. With the start of the Israel-Gaza war, we saw Israeli propaganda laced with falsehoods, peddled by mainstream Western media. Most shocking was the retraction of the statement by US President Joe Biden of the 40 babies beheaded by Hamas. Closer to home, I was surprised to see an article in the Cape Argus on February 22, last year claiming that the kidney transplant – which did not require compatibility between the donor and recipient – was the first of its kind in South Africa, and in Africa. This was confusing since I remember reading about a similar pioneering medical procedure six years earlier in…

I have noticed, having read all the letters and articles in The Star (Cape Argus’s sister paper) regarding Israel, that practically all have the same content and seem to originate from the same Hamas propaganda school. Once you have read one, you have read them all, repeating the same lies and Hamas propaganda ad nauseam. Not one article or letter dares mention that it was Hamas that invaded Israel, committing terrible atrocities. Not one mentions that Hamas slaughtered 1 500 innocent civilians by raping, disembowelling, decapitating (and then trying to sell their victims’ head back to the Israelis), men, women and children. What about the innocent hostages? Those still alive are kept under inhumane conditions. Hamas began this war: the piper must be paid! Let the hostages be freed…

DRIVE down any city road in South Africa, whether in the suburbs or the townships, and you’re likely to see a lamp post billboard from Rise Mzansi, the upstart new political party of former newspaper editor Songezo Zibi. Before Sunday’s announcement that Rise Mzansi had received funding from a member of the Oppenheimer family, many political observers would have been left wondering: “How do they pay for this?” Other smaller political hopefuls would have looked at that R15 million Rise Mzansi received from Rebecca Oppenheimer with a sense of envy and trepidation – because there are no free lunches. Once in Parliament, what will be expected of Zibi in terms of the policies his party pursues, whether in government or on the opposition benches? In America we’ve seen the…

The Stormers will be happy to see Springbok Warrick Gelant thriving on the attack again after the fullback played an influential role in his side’s 25-21 victory over the Sharks this past weekend. Gelant returned with much fanfare after a season-long stint in France, and after playing an important role in the triumphant inaugural United Rugby Championship (URC) win two years ago, there was the expectation that he would slot in with ease and continue where he left off. But as with all good players, it takes time to adjust to an environment, and for new players who haven’t played with him before, to adjust to him. The likes of flyhalf Manie Libbok and utility back Damian Willemse were not at the Stormers when Gelant made his return, and although…

Our relationship with money is shaped from an early age. Growing up in a home with all the material comforts may lead us to take money for granted. Conversely, growing up where there is a lack can be the basis for a negative relationship with money. Whatever our upbringing, in adulthood most poor financial decisions indeed come from how we think about money. “To transform our financial fortunes, we first have to transform our thinking about money,” says Dr Khosi Jiyani, a clinical psychologist whose work focuses on transformative learning, accountability and change. The beginning of a new year is a time for new resolutions when we are easily convinced that we need to change our diet, or review our fitness regime, but rethinking our finances comes low down on…

WHILE the parents of Nurah and Nishaat Thomas prepared to commemorate a year since their deaths, they recently learnt that the tables were turning in the court case involving the man charged with causing them. On March 3 last year the lives of Raihaana and Abdurgamaan Thomas changed forever when when 22-year-old Likhona Mgidi unlawfully took the driver’s seat of a Quantum taxi which caused the deaths of their daughters, Nishaat, 6, and Nurah, 2. Mgidi slammed into the father’s Opel Corsa as they were driving home along Merrydale and Wespoort Avenue in Portlands, Mitchells Plain. Mgidi was later arrested and charged with two counts of culpable homicide and negligent driving after disappearing from the scene. After a string of postponements due to outstanding court documents, Mgidi applied to enter…

God the Creator of all that exists forbids injustice and cruelty and demands mercy and beauty. Thus a Palestinian victory over a Zionist genocide is inevitable because light will conquer darkness and justice will always prevail over injustice as this is ingrained and woven into the pattern of history. Zionists who migrated from Slavic Eastern Europe kill innocent Palestinian women and children and confirm this evil by celebrating their arrogance. The creator forbids cruelty as this action is pagan. Zionists kill and starve millions of innocent Palestinians and this cruelty is watched by heaven above. Those who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Ismail know the Palestinians are descendants of Abraham through the line of Jacob, whom God especially loved. God will not allow those who harm the offspring…

GUN violence has struck my family. My nephew Markham Moodley was a successful young man in the prime of his life, but his life was tragically cut short by ruthless robbers who left his body riddled with bullets at the weekend. Markham had come down from Gauteng and was with a friend at a bar in Phoenix late on Friday night, when four young robbers entered. Apparently, one held a gun on his friend. Markham instantly pulled out his gun and fired at the robber. Another robber pumped several bullets into his body and left him lying dead in a pool of blood. They took his gun and fled. Whether it was an act of bravado to defend his friend or an instant reaction, it’s hard to tell. But it…

Since early February, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, has been rocked by protests directed against western embassies. Protests took place in front of the British and French embassies, and in front of United Nations buildings. Throughout the city, American and Belgian flags were burned. The protesters are denouncing what they believed to be western complicity in the war in the east of the DRC. These protests were triggered by the renewed advance of the rebel movement M23. M23 is led by Congolese Tutsi, and is the latest in a history of Congolese rebel groups supported by Rwanda. It emerged in April 2012, took control of the eastern city of Goma in November 2012, and was defeated in 2013. In late 2021, the group re-emerged, fuelled by longstanding geopolitical…

Israel expects to continue full-scale military operations in Gaza for another six to eight weeks as it prepares to mount a ground invasion of the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah, four officials familiar with the strategy said. Military chiefs believe they can significantly damage Hamas’ remaining capabilities in that time, paving the way for a shift to a lower-intensity phase of targeted airstrikes and special forces operations, according to the two Israeli and two regional officials who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely. There is little chance that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will heed international criticism to call off a Rafah ground assault, said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and a negotiator in the first and second Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, in the 1980s and 2000s.…

Banyana Banyana’s coach Desiree Ellis says her players’ desire to improve with every passing game doesn’t allow them to rest on their laurels. Banyana have had an incredible run. They won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 and finished in the last 16 at the World Cup last year. And while those two achievements were a first, the pressure has mounted on the team to succeed whenever they compete. This includes qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games, especially after having missed out on the last edition in Tokyo four years ago. Banyana have done well in trying to achieve that feat so far, as they breezed through the first two rounds of the qualifiers, beating the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso. But the hard work doesn’t…

Kaizer Chiefs’ interim coach Cavin Johnson is not losing any sleep over his team’s bluntness in attack ahead of their Nedbank Cup last-32 clash this weekend. Chiefs have fallen on tough times in recent seasons as their trophy cabinet gathered nothing but dust. So, having missed out on the MTN8 and Carling Knockout already this season, while the DStv Premiership is out of reach, they want to save their season by winning the Nedbank Cup. But that’s easier said than done. Chiefs will open their Nedbank Cup campaign against first division outfit Milford FC at FNB Stadium on Sunday afternoon. History doesn’t back Chiefs to win easily, though, as they’ve struggled against the so-called minnows, including losing to then-NFD side TS Galaxy in the 2019 final. Despite enjoying a purple…