Indholdsfortegnelse for 2022-04-21 i Cape Argus

DESPITE being mostly semi-arid, South Africa exported some $12.4 billion (about R184.4 billion) of agricultural output last year – a record, and about half of what it produces in value terms a year, according to the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz). The organisation’s chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said the export products were diverse and included wine, maize, citrus, nuts, berries, grapes, wool, fruit juices, beef, apples and pears. Export markets were also diverse, spreading across Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. “We have achieved this progress in part due to the openness of South African policymakers, agribusinesses and farmers to technological advancements, mechanical and biological, which have been instrumental in driving productivity,” Sihlobo said. He said, however, that the sector could not produce all the products that the…

The family of award-winning musician Lira has released a statement announcing that she has been hospitalised after suffering a stroke. Lira, born Lerato Molapo, was in Germany for a performance when she suffered a stroke. It has affected her speech and ability to communicate. The Feel Good singer, who is a world-renowned performer and has performed on some of the biggest stages around the globe, is back in South Africa and is being seen to by medical personnel to nurse her back to full health. In the family’s statement, which was also posted on her social media platforms, the family said Lira will not be able to perform any time soon. “Her medical team has advised that her journey to recovery will require patience and therefore it is unlikely…

OXFORD University Press has donated 86 000 books valued at R7 million to the AVBOB Foundation. This is part of the new Road to Literacy initiative where the public can support primary school learners. It also serves as a way to encourage community involvement through radio and social media. The public are encouraged to nominate resource-challenged and deserving schools or non-profit organisations that cater for learners in Grade R to Grade 7. The trolley library will go towards improving education and providing valuable resources to the learners. The two organisations decided to create a public campaign that will enable schools nationwide to be nominated to receive trolley libraries to boost literacy development among learners. Hanri Pieterse, the managing director of Oxford University Press Southern Africa, said their vision was to…

A NATIONWIDE blackout is an unlikely scenario, despite the frequency of load shedding. So said Eskom officials yesterday as they provided an update. From the Duvha Power Station in Mpumalanga, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said he would be visiting power stations during the day to assess the situation and to remove any obstacles, if possible, inhibiting performance. On Tuesday, the power utility increased load shedding to Stage 4 until Friday as a result of the failure of generation units. “We’ve recovered about 900 odd megawatts, but it’s still not nearly where we need to be in order for us to lift load shedding,” De Ruyter said. “We are expecting a number of large units to return during the course of tomorrow (today), and if those units stay online…

THE Cape Town Tigers basketball team continue to go from strength to strength in their quest for continental glory as they progressed to the play-offs of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in Kigali, Rwanda, in May. The team fought hard to get to the competition, first emerging as South African champions before navigating a tricky qualifying tournament to qualify for the 2022 BAL season. They played in the Nile Conference, which took place in Egypt, against six other African sides that qualified for the competition, and managed to finish third in their conference by winning two out of five games – enough to qualify for the play-offs. The team’s shooting guard, Ben Myburgh, said: “The BAL was a great experience for us. The organisation took great care of us, fitting…

The corruption case against former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli has been postponed to May 11, 2022. Mdluli and his two co-accused, former SAPS supply chain manager Heine Barnard, as well as chief financial officer Solomon Lazarus, appeared briefly in the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday. The trio are face charges of corruption, fraud and theft. The charges against them stem from the time that they were employed by the state – between 2008 and 2012 – and were at the helm of the police crime intelligence services. All three accused face charges related to the alleged abuse of the police’s secret slush fund. The allegations include the payment of private trips to China and Singapore, the private use of witness protection houses and the leasing of Mdluli’s private…

AS THE Palestine-Zionist Occupied Israel crisis deepens and widens: casualties mount, smoke from destroyed buildings blacken the sky over Gaza. There’s rioting on the streets of many Israeli and West Bank towns; Israeli police disrupt worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque while protecting extremist Jewish settlers shouting genocidal slogans – “death to the Arabs”, and there are marches through Palestinian neighbourhoods. The entire eruption of tensions between the oppressor and the oppressed was the flimsy legalised eviction of six Palestinian families long resident in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem. These evictions epitomised the long Palestinian ordeal of persecution and banishment in what remains their homeland. Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the century-long struggle by the Palestinian people to defend their homeland against the unfolding Zionist…

The emotional outburst in the letter “Bring back the death penalty”, of April 13 cannot go unchallenged. The same lovers of this cruellest form of punishment, a crime against humanity, are constantly trying their luck by repeating their hackneyed hunger for this dastardly thing called the death penalty. Fortunately, there are “good” men like Edmund Burke that warn us we shouldn’t remain silent when evil, in this case fighting fire with fire, prevails. The writer bestows on himself the title of “adviser” when he says “he repeatedly advised in the past”. These letters will be sniffed out wherever and whenever they appear. He and his cohorts must wake up and smell the coffee. Their so-called solution, sometimes claiming to be the “only solution” to stop our rapidly growing murder rate,…

IF you’ve ever lived in or worked in Soweto, power cuts are almost par for the course, and many residents have begrudgingly come to accept this. But of late, these occasional breaks in the electricity supply have become ridiculous, notwithstanding Eskom’s load shedding. At the time of writing, residents in Pimville, Soweto, have been without power for five days, not because of Eskom, but due to the fact that rampant cable theft has crippled the township’s electricity supply. Frustrated with this state of affairs, some brave residents marched to a nearby informal settlement to protect Eskom workers who had been sent to replace the cable. They were not greeted with hugs and kisses; instead, guns were drawn, and in the ensuing chaos Kgomotso Diale, 44, was killed after a bullet…

Some prominent politicians from the ANC recently questioned the role of the courts in the Constitution. In January, Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu insulted the judges as “colonised” for enforcing the Constitution, which she blamed for continued black deprivation 28 years into democracy. Later, Sihle Zikalala, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal, called for a return to parliamentary democracy. He accused the (“unelected”) judiciary of frustrating the government’s transformation agenda. They both sit on the ANC’s national executive committee, its highest decision-making body, between national elective conferences. They may well be testing the waters ahead of the next elective conference in December. But nothing excuses the short-sighted irresponsibility of such utterances and the ghastly consequences that may ensue. If South Africa is tempted by these options, it will be discarding centuries of struggle…

A Russian ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to surrender or die expired yesterday afternoon with no mass capitulation, but the commander of a unit believed to be holding out in the besieged city said his forces could survive just days or hours. Thousands of Russian troops backed by artillery and rocket barrages were attempting to advance elsewhere in what Ukrainian officials call the Battle of the Donbas – a push by Moscow to seize two eastern provinces it claims on behalf of separatists. In a video, the commander of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, one of the last units believed to be holding out in Mariupol, asked for international help to escape the siege. “This is our appeal to the world. It may be our last. We may have…

Mamelodi Sundowns defender Grant Kekana is confident that they’ll be able overturn their 2-1 deficit in the second leg of their CAF Champions League quarter-final against Petro de Luanda and progress to the semi-finals. Last Saturday, the Brazilians got a reality check in the continental showpiece as they lost to the Angolans away from home. This was their first loss in the competition this season, after going undefeated in the group stage. However, Sundowns didn’t go down due to lack of effort. They took the lead from a well-taken set-piece by Lyle Lakay, before Petro responded through goals from Tiago Azulao and Yano in the first half. Sundowns were also unlucky as Neo Maema had a well taken strike ruled out by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), while Themba Zwane…

Hotel revenues in February reflected strong year-on-year growth off a low base, but were unlikely to reach pre-lockdown levels this year, said FNB Commercial Property Finance property strategist John Loos. Statistics SA’s monthly tourism statistics showed the sector to really be battling to recover from the Covid-19 lockdown shock in 2020, even though year-on-year growth appears impressive. Total hotel sector income grew a strong 175 percent year-on-year in February, slightly slower than 177.6 percent for January, but these rates had limited significance given the low base compared with 2020/early-2021 “lockdown” levels. Lockdown restrictions over the 2020/21 summer period were still quite severe during the “2nd wave”. When compared with the same month in early-2020, a pre-Covid- 19 month, a more accurate picture emerged. Total hotel industry income in February was…

RAPE and murder accused Abraham Mtsweni appeared in the Western Cape High Court yesterday, where arguments were heard following allegations of the matter being delayed by the defence. Mtsweni was charged with the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend Sesi Sibanyoni after she was found dead in her Maitland flat on July 29, 2019, three days after Mtsweni visited her. He was arrested after being involved in a car crash while on his way to Pretoria. Before closing his case, Mtsweni’s lawyer, Tebogo Sebogodi, attempted to bring an application for a special entry to be made stating how the proceedings were irregular or not according to law but later abandoned the application. Advocate Carine Teunissen told the court that Mtsweni should be found guilty for both rape and murder based…

FOLLOWING the recent fire in the Joe Slovo settlement and in light of the continuous informal settlement infernos coupled with a lack of service delivery, the City has been criticised for allocating an “inadequate” budget for the upgrade of informal settlements. ANC city council chief Whip Xolani Sotashe has taken a swipe at the City’s allocation of informal settlement upgrading projects in its 2022/23 draft budget, describing it as a “mess”. Of the human settlement department’s total budget of R2.8 billion, the City had set aside R370 million for upgrading projects in informal settlements. Sotashe, who committed to submitting a proposal to the City for to reconsider the budget, called for a deliberate programme of action for informal settlements. “Our approach currently as a City is reactive, we don't avert…

Has Xolisa Mabhongo, SA representative at the UN General Assembly, lost his mind, or is he simply a ja broer of team ANC and toeing the party line? How is it possible, given the facts, that Mabhongo can suggest that suspending the Russian Federation’s membership from the UN Human rights body is premature and the vote should be delayed until a commission of inquiry has been completed as to the merits of the vote? This “commission of inquiry” belongs in a Monty Python sketch. The Putin regime has all but obliterated Ukraine, destroyed countless cities, killed thousands of innocent Ukrainian citizens, amid irrevocable proof via independent satellite images that Russian troops have cold-bloodedly murdered Ukrainian citizens. Millions of homes have been destroyed and millions of people have fled Ukraine, yet…

South Africans are devastated by the terrible floods in KwaZulu-Natal. Can any country plan for natural disasters? Yes, certain measures can be taken to cope with floods throughout the year. The United Nations (UN) has worked hard at trying to develop strategies in countries across the world to cope with flooding. Ecology is a topic that is widely discussed in schools. I remember being introduced to a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (published September 1962) in 1969 by one of the best biology teachers in South Africa, Fred Coker. He told us this is a must-read. In the book, Carson warns the world about what can happen if we ignore what we are doing to the environment. Media today is filled with stories of how we have polluted…

With global attention focused on the plight of people fleeing Ukraine, the British government has announced a new pay-for-processing programme with Rwanda. The policy would further close already heavily restricted British borders by allowing British officials to target people arriving via the English Channel and send some of them 6400km away. It is a response to ongoing debates in a post-Brexit context about how to stem arrivals to British shores – and, ultimately, how to limit who obtains asylum in the UK. The agreement’s official end goal is that Britain-bound asylum seekers would voluntarily resettle in Rwanda or a third country or return to their home countries. Rwanda has a relatively integrative policy toward social inclusion, public services and economic opportunities. However, Rwanda’s domestic record of stifling human rights means…

IT certainly is an “awesome position to be in” for the Stormers. Heading into the United Rugby Championship (URC) clash against Glasgow Warriors tomorrow (kick-off 18:30), John Dobson’s side are fifth on the overall log and lead the South African shield on 47 points. The Cape outfit are on a run of five consecutive wins and have been boosted by the return of a number of key players as they prepare for their penultimate league-stage game at home. Co-captain Salmaan Moerat (medial collateral ligament) and loose forward Ernst van Rhyn (elbow injury) are both back at training after lengthy injury lay-offs. Warrick Gelant, who was a late withdrawal for the game against the Bulls, is available for selection after struggling with a thumb injury. Moerat and Van Rhyn will be…

SA’s housing market The domestic housing market has begun to subside, most likely due to rising interest rates from November last year, following a season of unprecedented sales, RE/MAX of Southern Africa CEO Adrian Goslett said yesterday. According to Lightstone Property data, a total of 36 685 bond registrations were recorded at the Deeds Office from January to March 2022. RE/MAX’s National Housing Reports showed that this figure was down 33 percent when compared with the first quarter of 2021. The number of house transfers (both bonded and unbonded) recorded at the Deeds Office for the first quarter amounted to 52 241. This figure was down by 9 percent on the last three months of 2021, and by 30 percent, year-on-year. Of the transfers, 26 170 freehold properties and…

PRIMARY school maths teachers will receive extra support and development following the commencement of a unique online training programme run by the SA Mathematics Foundation (SAMF). This week, SAMF commenced the first of two primary teacher maths problem-solving courses for this year, with 399 participants from across the country. A non-profit company, SAMF was founded in 2004 by the Association for Mathematics Education of SA and the SA Mathematical Society. SAMF partnered with Limina Education Services, supported by Nestle Nespray for the free-to-attend programme. The course was developed by retired Stellenbosch University maths lecturer and academic and the co-ordinator of the programme, Alwyn Olivier, with Stellenbosch University lecturer Dr Erna Lampen. Teachers and students will be able to download the off-line packages from either cellphones or computers. “It is not…

The trial of Babsy Ntamehlo continued in the Western Cape High Court yesterday where Lukho Tsipa testified that his sister received threatening messages before she was murdered. Ntamehlo, 42, is charged with the murder of his 35-year-old wife Nosicelo Tsipa, who was strangled to death in September 2020. Ntamehlo was arrested after her partially burnt body was discovered in a shallow grave along the Mosselbank River. Tsipa yesterday took the stand to give details surrounding the strained relationship between Ntamehlo and his wife. He was questioned by State advocate Megan September and told the court that his sister was responsible for his maintenance after their parents died and she continued to care for him when he moved in with her in 2016. Tsipa told the court they moved to Greenville,…

COMPUTER scientist Professor Mmaki Jantjies received special recognition after having been added to the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022 Young Global Leaders list. Jantjies, who specialises in technology development, is among 109 young leaders to have made the list, joining a group of 1 400 global members since 2004, composed of Grammy Award and Nobel Prize recipients, UN Goodwill Ambassadors, heads of governments and Fortune 500 companies. Young Global Leaders seek to drive public-private co-operation in the global public interest. Jantjies was among 11 recipients from Africa and five from South Africa. The programme was started by WEF founder and executive Klaus Schwab in 1993 under the name “Global Leaders for Tomorrow” and renamed “Young Global Leaders” in 2004. Jantjies has contributed to the advancement of technology development, having…

Islam is the youngest of the Abrahamic religions and hence its accompanying text, the Qur’an, is the latest version of all God’s books. The Qur’an, like all newest editions, contains the most accurate facts. The following facts irrefutably prove the Qur’an contains the words of God and not that of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) since these facts were not known to scientists at the time when the statements were revealed in the Qur’an; * “And we created from water every living thing”; Qur’an 21:30 * That iron was not originally found on Earth but was sent down to Earth from outer space; Qur’an 57:25 * Mountains contain deep roots or pegs; Qur’an 78:7 * That the universe is expanding; Qur’an 51:47 * That the sun is not stationary…

Staff Reporter COME January 2023, students in and outside South Africa will be able to study various qualifications in building information modelling (BIM). BIM is a skill that is part of the future of digital transformation in the architecture, engineering, construction industry and facility management, a viable career option and in great demand globally. Next year students can take up BIM studies at the Trident Engineering Institute which will be launched at the V&A Waterfront on Tuesday. BIM involves the creation and management of digital mock-ups to assist in the design and building or construction process throughout its stages of development and maintenance. The institute’s establishment was made possible by the Nido Trust, a charitable trust focusing on introducing fully accredited industry-specific programmes and endorsed by professional bodies globally. The…