Indholdsfortegnelse for 2022-05-23 i Cape Argus

Cape Town construction firm Good Hope Construction (GHC) has served papers on the City alleging fraud and tender corruption. The company is owned by businessman Ismail Rajah, 69, who was kidnapped in March this year from his company’s offices by armed men. Police have said the search for Rajah continues. The issue surrounding the court case goes back to May 2019 when the City advertised a tender for the repair, maintenance and upgrade of rental stock staircases across the Cape Flats. In its affidavit, signed by Muhammed Rajah, GHC said the company complied with all the tender requirements and submitted its tender documents to the City by the closing date of June 18, 2019. On November 25, 2019, the supply chain management bid adjudication committee, the BAC, adopted a resolution…

The trial of Jeremy Sias, the man accused of killing Meghan Cremer, is set to start at the Western Cape High Court today where the State will aim to prove that he was responsible for her murder. Sias, 29, has been charged with four counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, theft and defeating the administration of justice for his alleged involvement in Cremer’s murder and attempts at discarding the evidence. Cremer’s body was found on a sand mine in Philippi with a blue ribbon tied around her neck, hands and feet on August 8, 2019, after she had been reported missing five days earlier. It is the State’s case that Sias, a general worker at Vaderlandsche Rietvlei farm, entered Cremer’s home on August 3, 2019, where he allegedly assaulted…

Three armed men allegedly hijacked a motorist and held him hostage before dropping him off at a cemetery in Pietermaritzburg. Magma Security said a Toyota Avanza was hijacked in the Imbali area. “The driver was held hostage while the suspects were looking for the tracking device. The victim was dropped at Azalea Cemetery at 8pm from where he made his way to Plessislaer SAPS. “The vehicle was tracked to the Sweetwaters area where it was recovered and handed over to the SAPS.”…

THE ANC has expressed disappointment at the poor turnout in George during public hearings on the Western Cape Provincial Transport Infrastructure Bill organised by the legislature’s standing committee on transport and public works last week. Tomorrow evening residents of the Western Cape will get another chance at public participation in the bill when the standing committee meets. The purpose of the bill is to provide for the planning, declaration, design, construction, maintenance, control, management, regulation, upgrading and rehabilitation of roads, railway lines and related transport infrastructure. Provincial ANC Transport spokesperson Lulama Mvimbi said: “The public hearing attendance and participation was disappointingly poor as there were not more than 15 people including MPLs, support staff and government officials.” Mvimbi said they were concerned by the poor attendance from the public even…

Dr Danisa Baloyi, the former head of the Black Business Council (BBC), has been acquitted of the theft and money laundering charges she faced. Cape Argus sister paper The Star has confirmed that Baloyi and her co-accused, namely Dominic Ntsele, Hawa Khan and Abubaker Khan, walked free on Friday at the Palm Ridge Commercial Crimes Court. The four were accused of stealing R5.7 million from the coffers of the BBC. The business lobby group received the money as a sponsorship from the Airports Company SA (Acsa). Ntsele, as a BBC fundraiser, approached Acsa. It was paid into the bank account of Merit Energy, a private company in which Hawa and Abubaker were directors. Baloyi asked then Acsa chief executive Bongani Maseko to deposit the R5.7m into Merit Energy’s account…

THE City’s Water and Sanitation department is doing its best to keep its services going as the country battles load shedding. The City has had to find means to ensure that water and sanitation infrastructure, such as water and sewage pump stations and wastewater treatment works, continue to function. Water and sanitation Mayco member Zahid Badroodien said the City wanted to ensure that, at least, its water and sanitation services continued to operate as optimally as possible and the impact on the environment was prevented or reduced to a minimum. The measures include permanent generators at all wastewater treatment plants. Smaller sewer pump stations have been fitted with early warning alarm systems to prevent overflows. The City is also planning to upgrade its top 20 critical pump stations and…

THE Children’s Literature Festival was a celebration of children’s literature and also an opportunity to see the wonderful work the Heartlands Sanctuary does in caring for unwanted babies and young children. The event took place at the sanctuary’s home in Somerset West. Heartlands’ main priority is to provide basic needs to children emotionally, physically and financially. The event celebrated so many authors and illustrators’ respective work dedicated to children’s literature, with ticket proceeds, donations and funds going towards the sanctuary’s maintenance. The Heartlands Baby Sanctuary CEO, Monica Buitendag, said: “It’s an expensive service that we provide because it’s not just a place of safety for the children, it’s a lot more than that. It’s not just about maintaining the facility, but it’s the nappies, toiletries and formula we need to…

remarkably bright creatures Shelby Van Pelt Ecco Press Review: Alexis Burling, Washington Post HUMANS love a good, old-fashioned morality tale told from the perspective of an animal. Watership Down, Animal Farm, The One and Only Ivan. These beloved books, and so many others like them, take life’s toughest challenges – death, belonging, fear, loneliness – and make them a little easier to swallow. Joining the menagerie is Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures, an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut about what it feels like to have love taken from you, only to find it again in the most unexpected places. The best part? It’s narrated by Marcellus McSquiddles, a giant Pacific octopus who cannot only think and feel as humans do but also picks locks, squeezes out of his…

AS more rains continue to wreak havoc in KwaZulu-Natal, the national government needs to urgently remove red tape impeding the immediate release of emergency funds reserved for disasters. Our sister title the Daily News learnt that the National Treasury and KwaZulu-Natal government were sitting on R10 billion and R300 million respectively in their contingency funds reserves which were solely budgeted for unforeseeable disasters like the one we saw last month. If that is true, surely there is no reasonable justification why the people – after a month – were still trapped in community halls and churches waiting to be relocated to temporary structures which the government had promised. The accusations and counter-accusations between the government and the DA on this matter are not helping the frustrated poor people still trapped…

Sylhet: Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in parts of Bangladesh and India, leaving millions stranded and at least 57 dead, officials said at the weekend. In Bangladesh, about two million people have been marooned by the worst floods in the country’s northeast for nearly two decades. Floodwater rushing from India’s north-east breached a major embankment on the Barak River, inundating at least 100 villages at Zakiganj in Bangladesh, said Mosharraf Hossain, the chief government administrator of the Sylhet region. |…

ROME: Charities running migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean faced a pre-trial hearing in Sicily on Saturday over alleged collusion with people traffickers after a controversial investigation. Twenty-one suspects, including crew members of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and German NGO Jugend Rettet rescue ships, are accused of “aiding and abetting unauthorised entry into Italy” in 2016 and 2017. “Our crews rescued over 14 000 people in distress from unseaworthy and overcrowded boats… and are now facing 20 years in prison,” said Kathrin Schmidt, who sailed with Jugend Rettet’s ship Iuventa. The Iuventa was impounded in 2017 after Jugend Rettet and others refused to sign a contentious interior ministry “code of conduct” accord, and as the EU scaled up surveillance and policing in the Mediterranean. Save the Children…

AFTER Cape Town City came unstuck at the hands of Stellenbosch FC in the Mother City derby in the Winelands at the weekend, Orlando Pirates are holding the whip hand in the battle for places in the two Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions next season. Had City come away with a win, the 52 points would have cemented their place in the upper reaches of the Premiership standings. Instead, they ended the season with 49 points, and it leaves them exposed to Pirates and Royal AM, who have matches in hand. Pirates, with 40 points, have three matches outstanding, and should they win all three, the nine-point surge will see them end the season with 49 points. It will be a tall order for Pirates because the three matches…

WYNBERG brought Bishops’ purple patch of 10 unbeaten games to a halt with a well-deserved 20-14 win in a pulsating encounter on Saturday. The opening quarter was a tentative affair with both defences on top. However, in the 20th minute all this changed when Wynberg launched a counter-attack with flank Cayno February and wing Xolela Hoyi enabling scrumhalf Asad Moos to race over for a try in the corner. Fullback Ryan Coetzer was on target with the conversion. Stung by this reversal, Bishops had the visitors’ defence under enormous pressure but it was Coetzer who put Wynberg further ahead with a penalty. Wynberg suffered a setback when captain Moos was yellow carded shortly before the interval and not surprisingly Bishops, with their numerical advantage, reduced the deficit. It was from…

World champion Max Verstappen overcame a sequence of problems to lead his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez home and claim the lead in the title race on a bad day for Ferrari in yesterday’s sizzling Spanish Grand Prix. His victory in a crushing Red Bull one-two was the 24th of his career and third in succession this season as he came home ahead of his Mexican partner with George Russell confirming Mercedes’ revival by finishing third. Charles Leclerc, who had led the championship and dominated practice, set off well from pole until he was forced to retire his Ferrari with engine failure. Beaten at the start, Verstappen was blown off the circuit and had technical problems, but overcame them to produce a furious drive aided by his teammate’s generosity for…

Corruption allegations handed to Hawks legislature speaker Masizole Mnqasela (DA), who has been fingered by whistle-blowers in allegations of corruption relating to travel and entertainment allowance claims, has said he will not be stepping down in the face of calls to do so from his own party, the DA. This follows the handover on Friday to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) by the DA of documents containing protected disclosures by the whistle-blowers. On Saturday it emerged that the anonymous whistle-blowers had last week approached Premier Alan Winde in his capacity as the leader of the DA provincial caucus to report the allegations and that Winde requested them to make formal submissions, backed by supporting evidence. Apart from escalating the matter to the Hawks, the DA has also…

LEONARD Mzingeli, the man who admitted to killing Amahle Quku, has made further admissions in the Western Cape High Court as to how he murdered the 17-year-old after he became angry. At the outset Mzingeli pleaded guilty to Quku’s murder but denied the rape allegation. He failed to give a plea explanation and chose to remain silent. However, recent admissions handed over to the court have provided some insight into why Quku was murdered that night. In his admissions, Mzingeli said he had sex with Quku but does not clarify whether it was consensual or not. He said they had been coming from a party on June 19, 2020, when they started arguing. “It started as a verbal argument and turned physical. I became very angry with her and grabbed…

Police have confirmed they are probing the cause of a bus crash on Saturday evening in which a 2-year-old child died and several other people were injured. They were later discharged from hospitals in George and Knysna. The bus was carrying 35 people, including a rugby team, staff, supporters and family members when it crashed down an embankment in the Wilderness area, outside George. Emergency Medical Service spokesperson Ross Campbell said: “It is believed the bus was travelling back to Wittedrift close to Plettenberg Bay after playing rugby at NMMU Saasveld, near George. They had apparently taken this road through the back of Wilderness to connect to the N2 as the Saasveld road was closed due to flood damage.” Elsewhere, several suspects are due to appear in Athlone Magistrate’s Court…

In a game-changer of a proposition, Sekunjalo Group of Companies’ (Sekunjalo) chairman Dr Iqbal Survé has issued a challenge to the Black Business Council (BBC): organise and mobilise black businesses to work with the National Union of Mineworkers to retain UBank. In a special address to the Black Business Council’s (BBC) Black Business Summit on Friday, Dr Survé said that UBank, which was recently placed under curatorship, could be an excellent opportunity for the formation of a black-owned bank. Dr Survé urged the assembled participants to create a consortium of black businesses and entrepreneurs who could take on the challenge. “As the Sekunjalo Group, we are willing to be part of such a consortium of black entrepreneurs and companies. We will fund R250 million, on agreed conditions, towards UBank. Additionally,…

THE EFF in Limpopo has called for the suspension of Great North Transport (GNT) CEO Dr Matata Mokoele, while the DA vowed to approach the public protector over the parastatal’s R300 million pension fund scandal. The Pretoria News reported last week that more than 800 current and former employees of the provincial government-owned bus company were counting their losses after R300m of their pension fund vanished. GNT, which is a subsidiary company of the Limpopo Department of Economic Development and Tourism, failed to pay their contributions to pension fund administrators, or made short payments, for 17 years, even though it had made monthly deductions from employee salaries, in breach of the Pension Fund Act (PFA). The money was evidently used as cash flow by the cash-strapped bus company. Despite holding…

AFTER 28 years, as the party tasked with the sound governance and collective prosperity of South Africa, the ANC leadership seems to have run out of leaders. There appears to be no one across the many government leadership platforms with the competencies to use effective leadership to build a transformative culture of good governance and prosperity for all South Africans. The ANC politicians look a tired bunch. They just can’t seem to move the levers of state to unlock the safety and prosperity South Africans need at this point. Our growing indebtedness to China and Russia has littered any independent policy pathway with debt trap conditions that undermine the stimulation of the South African economy. On key global human rights positions, we take our cue from the positions China and…

hooked – how we became addicted to processed food Michael Moss W H Allen & Co Ltd Reviews: Orielle Berry The best-selling writer of Salt Sugar Fat has now come up with the revelations (some, or many of which we already know – consciously or subconsciously) of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and the legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health. We are all aware of how difficult it can be to keep up a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to put in our bodies are beyond our control? Is food addictive, just like drugs or alcohol? And the literally million-dollar question – how far does the food industry…

AGAINST the backdrop of ongoing load shedding in recent days, homeowners and business owners should test their alarms and security systems to ensure they are working properly and for their own safety. Test these systems on a regular basis, but this has become more important as battery back-up is crucial to ensure your security service provider is still monitoring and providing protection when the power goes out. If you have a stable and correctly programmed security system coupled with a battery that is in good condition, it will protect your home and workplace during power outages. The increased occurrence of load shedding means that there are more alarm activation signals received by armed response companies. If the alarm is triggered because of a power surge or because of load shedding,…

MOSCOW: About 18 million people will face severe food insecurity in the next three months in Africa’s Sahel region, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday. The UN has allocated funds to the four African countries with worst food insecurity – $6 million for Burkina Faso and $8m each for Chad, Mali, and Niger. These countries are forecast to experience “emergency levels of food insecurity during the lean season between June and August,” the UN agency said. |…

US President Joe Biden had a short message for North Korea’s Kim Jong Un: “Hello. Period.” he told reporters yesterday in Seoul, before heading to Japan for the second leg of his Asia trip which has been overshadowed by fears of a nuclear test by Pyongyang. Biden is leaving South Korea, after spending two days with newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol, with the pair discussing possibly expanding joint military exercises. His goal to reinforce US leadership across Asia has been dogged by fears the unpredictable, nuclear-armed North could conduct a weapons test while Biden is in the region, but on his last day in Seoul, he told reporters he had a short message for Kim: “Hello. Period.” The US president said he was “not concerned” about Pyongyang’s possible weapons test,…

According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), unemployment in Q4 last year rose to 35.3% from 34.9% in the previous quarter. This is the highest level since the start of the QLFS in 2008. Analysts have described the country’s economy as “producing jobless growth” and believe that even with upward economic growth in the medium term, South Africa will still have an overall unemployment figure of about 30%. Youth unemployment is a global issue, even more acutely pronounced in South Africa, where the most recent figures are sounding critical alarm bells. According to the QLFS report, of the 7.9 million unemployed persons in the fourth quarter of 2021, as many as 51.6% had education levels below matric. Astron Energy’s organisational capability, learning and development manager Lindiwe Ncongwane said: “It…

FOLLOWING last week’s anti-racism and gender-based violence protests, Stellenbosch University (SU) has postponed its exams. Deputy vice-chancellor of Learning and Teaching Professor Deresh Ramjugernath said the decision to postpone the exams for a week followed an unprecedented, unified request from all student leadership structures, and was overwhelmingly supported by faculties. The exams were expected to commence today but were rescheduled to start on Monday, May 30. Assessments with deadlines for this week will be extended by one week, with the normal university schedule to resume after the exams. The university has been shook by recent events, including two racially discriminatory incidents and an alleged rape that took place on its campus. An 18-year-old SU student was arrested on Wednesday over the alleged rape of a 19-year-old student. It is alleged…

MEMBERS of the Effendi family commemorated the 109th anniversary of the death of Ottoman Professor of Theology; Mahmud Fakih Effendi, on Saturday. He died at 71 Wale Street, where the Bo-Kaap museum is today. Effendi served Cape Muslims at his school in Castle Street from 1892 until his death in 1913. He was the one who completed the mission that Shaikh Abubakr Effendi started upon the order of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1863. Mahmud Fakih Effendi’s father, Hadje Ghasanuddin, also known as Carel Pilgrim was the first Muslim who travelled to Mecca after the abolition of slavery in South Africa. Effendi followed in his father's footsteps and became an educator in his circle at the Cape. He was also one of the heroes who protested against the Cape Colonial government…

The Mughammadiyyah Masjied committee in Salt River has launched a petition demanding that mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis initiate the process of amending the noise and nuisance by-law of 2007 relating to places of worship. This followed a widespread outcry after the mosque received a notice from the City to turn down the volume of the call to prayer as a result of a complaint received in terms of the provincial noise control regulations. The petition was started on Friday after the meeting between the committee and Hill-Lewis and has garnered more than 6 500 signatures. The mosque aims to gather 100 000 signatures. Last month, Hill-Lewis announced that the “noise and nuisance” section of the streets, public spaces and prevention of noise and nuisances by-law was no longer applicable to designated…

The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab, published by William Morrow (fiction) Daughters of the Labyrinth by Ruth Padel published by Corsair (fiction) The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington published by Hodder & Stoughton (non-fiction) Reviews: Beryl Eichenberger YOM HaShoah or World Holocaust Day was commemorated recently on April 28, and in the light of those candles of memory here are three books read recently. Each has a special link to the Holocaust and these stories demonstrate the strength of the human spirit. In terms of fiction novelists may embroider their stories to make facts palatable, but the blend of fact, its accuracy and the extensive research required to marry it with fiction should never underplay reality. What is apparent, now that Holocaust survivors are passing on, is that…

THE University of KwaZulu-Natal graduation ceremonies are as much about celebrating academic excellence as they are about celebrating diversity and the triumph of the human spirit. It was on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, and day five of UKZN’s 2022 autumn graduation ceremonies. Hundreds of people had gathered at the university’s sports centre on its Westville campus for what promised to be another graduation ceremony characterised by impassioned celebrations, pomp and pageantry. Excitement was palpable outside the hall, and understandably so. For the past two years, the university could not hold in-person graduation ceremonies due to restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. A lot changed in those two years. Most notably, the economy was ravaged by Covid-19, and so too were lives with over 100 000 people losing their…

Canberra: Australia’s Labor Party will form the country’s next government today, as unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focused independents ended nearly a decade of rule by the conservative coalition. Labor leader Anthony Albanese, pictured, will be sworn in as the 31st prime minister, before heading to Tokyo to attend a regional summit tomorrow with US President Joe. Former prime minister Scott Morrison said he would stand down as leader of the Liberal Party, Sky News reported. |…

CAIRO: An Israeli “aggression” launched from the Golan Heights and targeting southern parts of the Syrian capital Damascus killed three people and caused some material damage, the Syrian ministry of defence said. Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli missiles near Damascus. A fire broke at one of the positions near the airport, where ambulances were seen rushing to the site of the strikes, according to the Observatory. “Our air defences stopped a number of hostile missiles in the airs- pace of the southern countryside of Damascus,” news agency Sana said. AFP correspondents in the Syrian capital said they heard very loud noises on Friday night. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the target of the Israeli strikes were Iranian bases near Damascus. For several years, Israel has…