Indholdsfortegnelse for 2022-10-27 i Cape Argus

Dangling a new cash windfall from unexpected tax collections, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced an extension of the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant, partial takeover of Eskom’s debt, and bailouts for three state-owned companies. Furthermore, SAPS will get 15 000 constables to help combat crime as it threatens to bring the economy to its knees. Delivering his mini-budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the aim of the 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement was to secure the country’s “future, stability and prosperity”. The policy statement comes amid expectations that he would significantly cull troubled power utility Eskom’s overbearing R400 billion debt, but Godongwana omitted the finer details. Freeing Eskom partially from its R400 billion debt would allow it to implement its unbundling process and avail money for…

The City has responded to concerns after the massive sewage spill at Zeekoevlei and the resulting high levels of E coli confirmed in the water body that forced the temporary closure of a portion of Zeekoevlei for public recreational use, from Pelican Lodge to Pelican View. The source of the spill was traced to the Vukuzenzela pump station in Philippi, which was unable to operate due to the mechanical failure of pumps and an electrical failure caused by wiring in the panel that had burnt. The Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei (FOZR) group was dismayed by the latest sewage spill into Zeekoevlei, especially considering how the continued spillage of untreated effluent affected the rehabilitation of the water body. Siseko Mbandezi, the acting mayoral committee (Mayco) member for water and…

South Africa’s youth unemployment has grown to a state of such dysfunction that it will be a key constraint in any future path that is taken, and it could destroy the fabric of our democratic dream, unless sufficiently large interventions are taken immediately. The only rational mandate Cabinet can give the finance minister for the MTBPS is to make the R350 permanent and universal and create a real employment policy. South African youth unemployment sits at a staggering 72% of people aged 15 to 24 who are not in education. The global rate is 13.6%, while the African rate is 10.6%. And each year, according to the presidency, about 67% of 1 million youth enter the labour market detached from any learning or work. Unemployment is a corrosive cancer that…

Nairobi: The body of a British woman who died at the house of a controversial cult leader while on holiday in Kenya was to be exhumed yesterday, the family’s lawyer said. Luftunisa Kwandwalla, 44, was visiting the coastal city of Mombasa when she met her death in August 2020, and was buried a day later, but her family has claimed foul play. At the time, the cult leader Arif Mohamed Iqbal – a self-styled healer – said the “devil” had killed the woman as he tried to exorcise something from her, according to court papers filed by the family. Her initial cause of death was listed as cardiopulmonary arrest, according to a government-issued death certificate in 2020. | AFP…

South African rapper Nasty C joined YouTube vlog The Episode to chat about his growing success, travelling the world to work with some of the biggest artists and sharing his opinion on a host of music- related topics. During the vlog, the Born To Win hitmaker also shared his list of the best South African rappers of all-time after Darryl Nyamz, one of the show’s hosts, put him on the spot. “I’m not gonna be biased (with my list), none of that,” he said. “This is purely based off the people I grew up on and the people that when they drop songs, I listen to them and go, ‘f***, I need to go back and write’. “It’s people like AKA, of course. Maggz, at a point. Definitely Proverb, 100%.…

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) funded by the Department of Social Development are concerned that the possible cuts in funding allocation next year will have a detrimental impact on an already struggling sector and the services they render. The organisations recently received a letter from the provincial department’s Children and Family Directorate warning them of a possible cut in budget allocation for its programmes in the 2023/24 financial year. In the letter, the department said that there had been a significant impact on budgets across the government departments as a result of the economic slump, with the ongoing energy crisis requiring the government to reprioritise services and budgets. Molo Songololo director Patric Solomons said a cut in the social budget would further hinder the organisation’s ability to provide vital support services, care…

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) said measures have been put in place to ensure that no dubious health products find their way into the country, as the death toll of children in The Gambia and Indonesia rises due to contaminated cough syrups. Earlier this month, the drug regulatory authority for all health products in the country issued an alert to the public, following the deaths of dozens of children in The Gambia due to kidney-related illness caused by health products from Indian company Maiden Pharmaceuticals. Laboratory tests conducted by the World Health Organization had linked the 69 deaths of children to cough syrups manufactured by the company. Sahpra spokesperson Yuven Gounden said these products have not yet been identified in the country, to their knowledge. “Medicines have…

It was a Thursday morning in Gordon’s Bay. Walking on Beach Road and browsing through some books in an old bookstore, I grabbed a pamphlet called The Mandela Document. On the first page, was written “... it was during the years of the Second World War that a small group of young Africans, members of the ANC, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R Tambo, Ashby P Mda and Nelson Mandela. Their strategy, these Young Turks contended, rested on a misconception of the actual power relations in South African Society, consequently the tactics they had evolved failed to galvanise the masses of black oppressed.” In fact, this was the ANC Youth League, founded in 1944. Mandela became the Youth League…

Core public services – basic education, health care and criminal justice – account for a large share of the consumption basket of poor South Africans. They are provided largely free to any user. The public provision of these services is widely recognised as a cornerstone of social and economic development in any society. Together, they account for three quarters of the government’s wage bill and half of spending on goods and services – the medicine, books and cars that doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers need to do the job. Over the last decade, there has been a chronic and deepening erosion of the resource base on which public services depend. Users of these public services have been caught in the middle of the government’s need to consolidate the fiscus…

TEHRAN: Iran expanded its sanctions against the EU by adding eight legal entities to the list, including the Persian editions of Deutsche Welle and French radio RFI, the Iranian foreign ministry said yesterday. Individuals include members of the European Parliament, the French National Assembly, a head of a French commune, editors-in-chief of German newspaper Bild, and heads of non-governmental organisations. On October 17, the EU imposed sanctions on 11 Iranian individuals and four entities, including Iran’s controversial morality police, due to the violent crackdown on mass protests in the country over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September. | Sputnik…

SAO PAULO: Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s lead over President Jair Bolsonaro has widened to six percentage points less than one week ahead of a run-off vote, a poll by Genial/Quaest showed yesterday. Former president Lula has 48% of voter support, up from last week’s 47%. Bolsonaro remains at 42%. The second round of Brazil’s presidential election is scheduled to happen on Sunday. The survey interviewed 2 000 people between October 23 and 25 and has a margin of error of two percentage points. | Reuters…

Paris: Over-reliance on fossil fuels is worsening the health impacts of global crises such as climate change, pandemics and food security, an international team of experts said yesterday in a dire assessment of humanity’s energy strategy. As health systems deal with the fallout of Covid-19, the analysis found that the vast majority of countries still allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to fossil fuel subsidies, often amounting to sums comparable to or greater than their health budgets. The annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change found that extreme heat – made likelier by the global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions – was now leaving nearly 100 million additional people facing severe food insecurity, compared with the period of 2010-1981. It said that the global land area affected by…

The popular Cape Town International Jazz Festival will return to the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 17 and 18 next year. South Africa’s premier jazz event will continue its 21st anniversary celebrations after an enforced three-year interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with a line-up, look and feel that celebrate its roots, but with a nod to the future. The announcement was made by Afrojazz queen Judith Sephuma, who is thrilled to be returning to the festival stage. “The Cape Town International Jazz Festival holds a special place in my heart. I performed at the very first one and am happy to be at this, the 21st event, to share my music with festinos again. “There has been a definite gap in the music festival calendar without the…

The United States embassy in Pretoria has doubled down on its terror warning, saying there was “specific, credible, non-counterable threat information” of a potential attack in Sandton, Johannesburg this weekend. “The US government has received information that terrorists may be planning to conduct an attack targeting large gatherings of people at an unspecified location in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg, South Africa, on 29 October 2022,” the Embassy said in an alert on its website. Yesterday, the South African government said it was displeased with the “disingenuous” way some countries had issued alerts to their nationals in South Africa about possible attacks on upscale venues where these nationals might congregate in South Africa, especially shopping malls, in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Pretoria announced that it had “demarched” the countries…

THE South African government was not obliged to deny entry to a super-yacht owned by a Russian billionaire who has been subject to sanctions imposed by Western nations, according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. This follows calls by Cape Town mayor Geordin-Hill Lewis and Western Cape Premier Alan Winde at the weekend to block the arrival of the $500 million (more than R9 billion) vessel belonging to Alexey Mordashov – an iron and steel mining magnate and known ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The 142m superyacht, Nord, left Hong Kong last Thursday and is expected to arrive in Cape Town on November 9, according to tracking data. Mordashov is among a number of Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the US and EU – but not the UN – for links to…

An analyst and business organisations found Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s mini-budget unsurprising and lacking in some areas. Economist Dr Azar Jammine said: “It was very much what was expected – that Godongwana would maintain fiscal discipline. There is nothing in the policy to excite.” He noted that Godongwana stuck to his guns on the 3% wage offer to unions. Business Unity SA CEO Cas Coovadia, however, felt there were numerous positives from Godongwana’s speech. “The allocation of R5.8 billion to Transnet is good, but we look forward to Transnet being serious about a genuine partnership with the private sector to make private involvement the norm instead of the exception.” He said the increases in allocations to the police, NPA, SIU and FIC send out a clear message that there…

When I reflect on the struggle for an excellent educational system in South Africa one asks the question: Where are we in education? Government ignores the fact that for every two primary schools we have in South Africa we only have one high school. As you can deduce we have too few high schools. What happens to the 50% of students who leave grade 9 or are 15 years old? This is a major problem which government does not want to address. This should be a concern for all to all of us. What happens to the children who cannot get into school for grade 10. Government must address this issue immediately. The role of the teachers is to see that our children receive the best education possible. The teacher’s…

THREE years ago, former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni stood at the podium of the National Assembly and flagged Eskom as South Africa’s biggest economic risk. Three years later Eskom’s inability to deliver on its basic function –the provision of electricity – still hobbles South Africa’s economy as ordinary citizens and industry have to make alternative plans to keep the lights on. Government should be lauded for its response to the Covid pandemic despite the fact that criminals sought to loot funds through tender corruption. Delivering his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement yesterday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana conceded that despite billions spent on reversing Eskom’s fortunes, there’s hardly been any improvement in the utility’s ability to supply electricity and its financial health. For this reason, Godongwana said government would take on…

LONDON: The British government delayed the announcement of its plan to repair the country’s public finances by more than two weeks to November 17, saying yesterday it wanted to ensure the programme reflected the latest and most accurate economic forecasts. “Our number one priority is economic stability and restoring confidence that the UK is a country that pays its way,” said Jeremy Hunt, retained as finance minister by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Hunt said the fiscal plan, which was previously scheduled for release on October 31, would show debt falling over the medium term. | Reuters…

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for lunch yesterday, with the leaders hoping to pare back differences on energy and defence. Both leaders were all smiles as Scholz climbed out of his Mercedes in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace to shake hands, although the German appeared to sidestep Macron’s attempts to put an arm around him. Hackles have been raised on both sides since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – less than three months after Scholz took office last December – prompted crisis decisions taken under the pressure of the war and its knock-on effects. Berlin’s move to spend up to $200 billion subsidising gas prices and refusal to consider an EU-wide energy price cap nettled Paris and other European capitals, which fear the effect on their…