Indholdsfortegnelse for 2021-12-30 i Cape Argus

A MAN, 29, is expected to appear in the Piketberg Magistrate’s Court today after he was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl at a farm in the area. The suspect allegedly filmed himself raping the child and has been kept in the Piketberg police holding cells. Police spokesperson Frederick Van Wyk confirmed the investigation. Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation executive director Billy Claasen has condemned the crime and has asked the state to oppose bail. “He should remain in custody. The safety of children and women should be high on the agenda of the government,” said Claasen. Claasen said the organisation has called on the Department of Social Development and other state entities to give the necessary support to the 10-year-old victim and her family. “We call…

Rafieka Williams rafieka.williams@inl.co.za STUDENTS from UWC’s Hector Pieterson Residence have rejected Judge Nathan Erasmus as a mediator following a Western Cape High Court order. As part of the rulings by Judge Deidré Kusevitsky, mediation was ordered to start on Tuesday. In a statement, the students said: “The leadership of the Hector Pieterson Residence, who were unlawfully evicted on December 24, rejected Judge Nathan Erasmus, a mediator in this interim court order … “Judge Erasmus is the chairperson of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Council, the head of the perpetrating institution that committed unlawful acts against the students and violated our human rights.” Since the release of the statement, UWC has denied the claims by students, referring to their statement as “fake news”. “The University of the Western Cape…

AS TRIBUTES continue to pour in from across the globe for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, quotes from the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate will continue to inspire for years to come. Tutu died on Sunday in Cape Town at the age of 90 after a long battle with prostate cancer. Heart-warming tributes have come in from far and wide. Meanwhile, Tutu was also known for his excellent public speaking in his non-violent work towards racial justice, most notably the leading role he played in the Struggle against apartheid in South Africa, as well as his support for Palestine. Some of his quotes included: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse,…

Samaoen Osman | Crawford ONE of the most important questions of our time is what went wrong in the relationship between Muslims and the West. Global violence in the name of Islam reflects the deepest fears by certain Muslim factions of Western political, cultural and economic encroachment. The solution requires finding common ground upon which to build mutual respect and understanding. Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim Abraham as their patriarch and common ancestor, and the ethic that this forebear imparted is still shared by all three religions. One also has to trace the evolution of foundational beliefs through the golden age of Islam in Córdoba, Spain, and 12th century Baghdad as well as the development of democracy and capitalism in the West. Let us boldly challenge members…

Rob Johnston | Tokai Thanks for another very insightful article by Lorenzo Davids (Stop applauding mediocrity, Cape Argus, December 29). Standards have been allowed to drop appallingly, and we are all to blame for not objecting enough. And it’s not only the politicians and officials – as Brian Isaacs has repeatedly warned, it’s also our education system. I wonder if that’s partly due to the trending idea that All learners must get recognition, even if their academic skills are lacking? Or have teachers just embraced mediocrity, along with a unionised approach of regarding teaching as a job, not a calling? If we aren’t satisfied with a shopping experience, we vote with our feet, and take our business elsewhere – the same has to be done with politicians, but…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za THERE is a mixed bag of news for the Western Cape on the Covid-19 front as the province continues to witness high case numbers, driven by the Omicron variant, but is also anticipating a plateauing of cases in the fourth wave. Addressing the final provincial update of the year on the Covid-19 situation and the vaccination programme, provincial head of Health Dr Keith Cloete said that overall the number of new cases remained high at 4 000 new cases a day on average. “However, we are starting to see the plateauing of new cases with the proportion of tests coming back positive starting to decline. This points to a slowing down of the fourth wave in the Western Cape, as we approach our peak. “Given the…

Vincent Hendricks ATHLONE High School is turning 75 next year. The oldest high school on the Cape Flats was opened on January 22, 1947. Athlone High celebrates excellence in its diamond jubilee year. The school’s vision is excellence through a holistic, principled and values-based education which accentuates critical thinking. At Athlone High we believe that education ought to make people more human and that boys and girls should model adults who are hard-working, respectful and unselfish. Mr SV Petersen, our first principal, hailed from Riversdale. He attended Trafalgar High and was one of the first people of colour to graduate from UCT. Mr Petersen, or “SV” as many would call him, took the colours of UCT of midnight blue and sky blue to the Battswood Teacher Training College in Wynberg…

Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be remembered as an architect of South African democracy, despite being neither a party negotiator nor an author of the post-apartheid Constitution. His conviction that reconciliation should be the cornerstone of liberation, a conviction shared by Nelson Mandela, helped define the foundational compromise of the transition. But he was not the pliant supplier of absolution that the now-naked shortcomings of that negotiated settlement may imply. The jettisoning of fundamental economic justice as a feature of the democratic era was a betrayal beyond his remit – Tutu dealt in symbols and hopes, not shares and wages. Similarly, the failure to bring apartheid criminals to justice cannot be laid at his door, or that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) he chaired. The decision to grant immunity…

Rebels from Ethiopia’s Tigray region are drawing on early Islamic history in an Arabic-language propaganda push to rally solidarity among Muslims online for their battle against the government. Thousands of people have been killed since the conflict erupted last year between the government in Addis Ababa and its foes, the rebel Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The overwhelmingly Christian Tigrayan people account for less than 6% of Ethiopia’s 110 million people, and the media-savvy TPLF rebels may hope to win over Muslim allies among anti-government forces in the country’s complex multi- ethnic population – as well as generate sympathy abroad. Among Tigray’s 5% Muslim- minority, Tigrinya speakers writing in Arabic have sought to remind people about the role the region played as one of the first Islamic settlements and as…

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have officially divorced. The 74-year-old actor and Maria, 66, split in 2011 – but a judge only recently signed off on their divorce and their official separation has now been entered into the court system at Los Angeles Superior Court, TMZ reports. Shriver filed for a divorce more than a decade ago after it emerged that the Hollywood star had fathered a child, Joseph Baena, with their housekeeper. However, their high-profile split was complicated by a property settlement agreement.…

Shakirah Thebus shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za THE provincial government and the City want the national government to end the Covid-19 curfew. Mayco member for economic growth James Vos joined the growing call for the termination of the curfew to allow businesses and informal traders to resume trading in full due to the high levels of Covid-19 vaccinations already administered. “We cannot let the economy, and in particular our hospitality and tourism sectors, small businesses and informal traders, endure further losses due to restricted trading hours. “As it is, the joblessness rate is at a shocking 46.6%. As a nation, we are all too sadly aware of the knock-on socio-economic effects of a high unemployment rate,” Vos said. He would engage with other sectoral leaders and organisations to join the call to end the…

A KwaZulu-Natal councillor is among three suspects arrested for alleged involvment in three murders and seven attempted murders over the past five months. The arrests came as police gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of the three suspects in a mission dubbed “Project Izimpisi 3”. The men were arrested at uMlazi, Isipingo and Mid-Illovo. “An intelligence-driven operation was conducted on Tuesday by the eThekwini District Task Team, Crime Intelligence and other law enforcement agencies which produced positive results when they arrested three wanted suspects,” police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said, adding that one suspect was still on the run. Those arrested face seven counts of attempted murder, three counts of murder and three counts of malicious damage to property. Mbele said the suspects allegedly attacked a Mid-Illovo family, one of whom…

Michael Rolfe | Rondebosch Daniel Trogoff (“Letter writer has it all wrong”, Friday, December 24, 2021,) takes to task Ebrahim Wydeman for using an anti-Zionist trope, “Zionist descent” (what he really meant is Jewish descent). I disagree. A Zionist is someone who subscribes to the proposition that the Jews, having suffered so much persecution for so long in so many places and from so many people, deserve their own independent homeland where their own writ runs and where, supposedly, they can be left in peace. This is a very old idea that seems to me to be completely reasonable to the point of being obvious. Before 1948, many possible places were considered for a Jewish homeland. I know of Uganda, Russia, Australia and Alaska, and I know there…

I had the opportunity to visit the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and had an interesting discussion with one of the arbitrators about the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popi). This act influences what information can be accessed even if the information is needed for an arbitration. The legislation which became effective in July 2021 promotes the protection of personal information by all public and private entities and all businesses have to comply. Records relating to personal information of all employees are protected. When the employee needs to be subpoenaed to the CCMA to give evidence it becomes very difficult to obtain their personal telephone number, email address and home address. This protection of personal information is said to be a fundamental right, but there is no such thing…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za CALLS are growing for President Cyril Ramaphosa to end the curfew before New Year’s Eve, for the economy and to boost national morale. A #NoCurfewOnNewYearsEve petition has gone viral with over 4 000 signatures urging Ramaphosa to drop the midnight to 4am curfew ahead of New Year’s Eve. The petition was initiated by Beerhouse founder Randolf Jorberg and the Hospitality Leadership group, a nationwide interest group for the hospitality industry. “For the last 21 months, we’ve been living with a curfew that has not shown to have any effect on the transmission of the Covid-19 virus that is not known to keep working hours. Instead, it has introduced an element against our very democracy that infringes on our basic rights enshrined in the Constitution. It goes…

STELLENBOSCH University’s graduation last week ended on an extra high note for 166 graduates thanks to donations amounting to R8.1 million. A total of 82 postgraduate and 84 undergraduate Maties are now set to take on their next academic journey, or enter the world of work, debt-free. “We appealed to loyal donors of the university and have to date raised R8.1m towards student debt,” Karen Bruns, senior director for Development and Alumni Relations, the university’s division tasked with fund-raising, said. “We are immensely grateful for this support. “The portion of the funds that is allocated to postgraduate students will fill a large void created by NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) when earlier this year it stopped funding for among others, the postgraduate certificate in education and postgrad law students.”…

“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” are the words emblazoned at the entrance to the museum in the former concentration camp of Dachau. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the foreword he wrote to the report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), noted that “they are words we would do well to keep ever in mind. This is not to be obsessed with the past. It is to take care that the past is properly dealt with for the sake of the future.” President Nelso Mandela’s appointment of the Arch to chair the TRC was prescient, as it is unlikely that without his extraordinary grace and wise leadership, the commission would have been able to do its work. His political clarity and loving mentorship allowed…

Israel unveiled a package of “confidence-building measures” for the occupied West Bank, after Defence Minister Benny Gantz hosted talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Abbas, leading a high-ranking delegation on his first visit to Israel for an official meeting since 2010, met with Gantz at his home in the town of Rosh HaAyin, according to Israeli sources and media. “We discussed the implementation of economic and civilian measures, and emphasised the importance of deepening security co-ordination and preventing terror and violence – for the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians,” Gantz said after the meeting on Tuesday evening. Yesterday, Israel’s defence ministry announced the “confidence-building measures” with the Palestinian Authority (PA). These included a $32 million (R507m) advance payment to the PA in taxes collected on its behalf by…

Oluthando Keteyi Media personality Bonang Matheba has had an eventful year. It's been filled with moments she will treasure forever. She’s travelled around South Africa, Africa and made her move to New York City. Travel restrictions may have been a thing but Matheba has managed to clock her travel miles this year. She even managed to make her big move to the Big Apple happen, which has yet to yield results – in the public eye that is. Since she moved, there have been no major announcements about her landing jobs in Hollywood. However, timing is everything, so let’s hold our horses. This year was the one for Matheba to have fun and mingle and make connections. During all this, her career seems to have taken a back seat but…

A TWENTY-EIGHT-year-old woman has been arrested and detained on a case of child neglect after a 9-month-old victim was transported to a nearby hospital where medical personnel confirmed that she had been sexually abused. Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said Saron police attended to a complaint at a local clinic on Tuesday, where the baby had been admitted. Swartbooi said that the 53-year-old man was arrested on a charge of rape and once charged, both suspects are expected to appear at the Ceres Magistrate’s Court. Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation executive director Billy Claasen said that harsher sentences on these crimes should be imposed. “If needs be, the Department of Social Development should consider removing the child from the mother’s care. We will petition against both the suspects and they should…

Venue of special interfaith tribute to Archbishop Emeritus Tutu was where he held Mandela’s hand aloft Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za AN atmosphere of celebration filled Cape Town’s historic City Hall last night as the City hosted a special interfaith tribute in honour of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s commitment to religious inclusiveness and in celebration of his life. This was the same venue where in May 1994 he held the hand of another Struggle icon, Nelson Mandela, while introducing him to more than 30 000 people as democratic South Africa’s first president. Tutu’s family, led by his widow Mama Leah, were the guests of honour last night. Among the faiths represented were Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Brahma Kumaris, Bahá’í, African Traditional Religion and Khoisan. Various local and international artists…

MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za DESPITE the rampaging Covid-19 pandemic, Parliament continued to execute its constitutional mandate under different conditions. ATM’s no-confidence motion in the president The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled in favour of the African Transformation Movement (ATM) and directed that its request for a secret ballot on the vote of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa be referred back to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. The matter dates back to early last year when party leader Vuyo Zungula requested then speaker Thandi Modise to consider placing the motion of no confidence on the agenda without delay, but the request was turned down. This prompted the party to take the matter to the Cape Town court, which dismissed the application to review and set aside her decision. The…

FAROUK ARAIE | BENONI THE death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu has gripped the nation with shock. As we grieve, we thank Almighty God for the memorable years he gave this beloved purveyor of justice and humility. His death gives us cause to ponder how he touched our lives. His commitment to social justice and reconciliation, to human rights and the dignity of the human person will be gratefully remembered. The world pays tribute to his immense contribution to peace and justice and his emphasis on the dignity and worth of every individual. His courage in denouncing international military intervention and his relentless fight against racism over the past 60 years will be remembered by many generations to come. We are devastated to lose our national symbol of truth,…

| SA BDS Coalition “Those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu at the 10th international Israeli Apartheid Week. This statement epitomises the commitment of the Arch to the Palestinian struggle and to fighting injustice around the world. Tutu’s public support for the BDS movement was inspirational to all in South Africa and internationally working to isolate apartheid Israel. The South African BDS Coalition, while mourning the loss of our dear friend and comrade, affectionately known by all of us as The Arch, will remain inspired by his exemplary life. The Arch always supported our campaigns against apartheid Israel and reiterated his support…

Mthuthuzeli Ntseku mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za THE fatal shooting of a two-year-old boy from Belhar and the drowning of a 10-year-old boy on Christmas Day have sparked concerns over child safety during this festive season. Uthmaan Taliep died after he was caught in gang crossfire on Monday evening while a 14-year-old from Lavender Hill died under the same circumstances. The 10-year-old boy drowned at the Camps Bay tidal pool on Saturday. Over the past weekend, City lifeguards attended to three non-fatal drownings involving children. ChildSafe executive director Thilda Nel said while the long school holiday was a time for children to enjoy the warm weather, the period often saw many children being injured and killed as they were likely to investigate new “risky” objects and areas. Child injuries prevalent during this period included…

It is amazing how time flies (tempus fugit). I thought I would visit some of the columns I wrote this year and see whether I reached people who are interested in education, especially the education authorities. I selected a few to reflect on where I considered progress had been made, and a few where little or no progress has been made. The stance taken by former Heathfield High principal Mr Wesley Neumann and the school’s governing body to allow parents to choose whether they wanted to keep students at home in July 2020 (due to the pandemic) and the subsequent kragdadig action of the Western Cape Education Department to charge him with serious misconduct must be one of the greatest travesties of justice against a school. The government closed the…

Kutlwano Tshetlhane STUDENTS and younger generations in South Africa have faced challenges when it comes to education, especially since the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing hurdles in the education space continued to pose a problem and were amplified by the pandemic. These include infrastructure, limited service delivery of learning material and stationery, poverty resulting in a lower ability to receive satisfactory education levels, and a major digital divide among the population. Like any other country, the Covid-19 pandemic also introduced new challenges to the education system in South Africa which added a burden on learners and teachers alike. Sporadic school closures, the introduction of online learning, and rotational school attendance are factors that have affected communities. The pandemic caused a loss of 54% of learning time and resulted in…

The world hit a record number of Covid infections in a seven-day period, with more than 935 000 cases detected on average each day between December 22-28, according to an AFP tally. The figures, the highest since the virus first emerged at the end of 2019, are based on tolls given daily by health authorities in each country. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday that Omicron still poses “very high” risk and could overwhelm healthcare systems as the highly transmissible coronavirus variant fuelled record outbreaks in many countries. Case numbers have shot up 11% globally in the past week, forcing governments from China to Germany and France to find a difficult balance between anti-virus restrictions and the need to keep economies and societies open. The Netherlands and Switzerland said…

Human rights campaigners in Senegal have called for an end to caste-based discrimination after elders in Pout Dagne village refused to bury a woman, reputedly to ward off misfortune. The woman, who belonged to the Griot caste of musicians and traditional storytellers, died on Christmas Day and was finally buried in a neighbouring village after days of tense argument, local media reported yesterday. In Western Africa, Griots are considered as guardians of oral tradition and knowledge. However, a belief persists that they are “impure”.…

Pierre Cardin will stage a runway tribute to its late founder after Paris Couture Week. The fashion house – whose creator (pictured) died a year ago, aged 98 – is postponing its broadcast of the fashion show, originally planned for yesterday, to January 28 at the National Air and Space Museum, near Le Bourget airport, north of Paris. The designer – who had his heyday in the latter half of the 20th century – was known for showcasing his collections in opulent locations, such as the Gobi Desert and the bubble-like Palais Bulles on the French Riviera.…