Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-03-17 i Cape Argus

After months of preparation, over 40 groups representing various communities from across Cape Town, will march, dance and sing their way down Green Point’s Somerset Road tomorrow. Prepare to be amazed by large floats and an array of colourful entertainers conjuring up the unique spirit of “Afr’energy”– this year’s theme. Tracey Carter, Cape Town Carnival’s performance director, said: “I’m so excited to see these young people take to the streets because they’ve been working so hard. “It’s been a busy few months but I know it’s going to pay off. “It’s going to be amazing to see the city come to life in such a vibrant way and to share some hope and joy. “We want the audience to enjoy themselves and to be inspired about what our city and…

SOUTH Africa’s very own national treasure, comedian, author, political commentator and former TV host Trevor Noah has become the first South African to be awarded the prestigious 2023 Erasmus Prize. The Dutch prize awarded by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, of which King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is patron, is awarded annually to an individual or organisation who has made significant efforts and contributions in the humanities, social sciences and the arts. The foundation said Noah, 39, the youngest award recipient in its 65-year history, had been chosen for his “inspired contribution to the theme ‘In Praise of Folly’, named after Erasmus’s most famous book, which is filled with humour, social criticism and political satire. “With his sharp-minded, mocking yet inclusive political comedy, Noah, in the eyes of the jury, upholds…

OFFICERS based at Athlone police station have come under fire for alleged intimidation and verbal abuse of members of the public, leaving a Cape Town family shaken. The alleged incident occurred at about 10.25pm on Wednesday on the corner of Belgravia and St Athan roads. After returning from a birthday celebration dinner, Muslim community leader Shaykh Sayed Noor Mohamed said they returned to Belgravia Road, where his son, 4, had requested sweets from a nearby shop. While Mohamed’s son went in to make the purchase, he received a video call from a friend. Turning and lifting his phone for a better view in the direction of the police vehicle, an officer proceeded to hurl abuses at Mohamed and others nearby, as they were under the impression that the arrest…

Rating agency S&P Global has placed Eskom on credit watch positive, after the announcement by the National Treasury of debt relief measures for Eskom in February. Eskom said this was an indication to the market that the agency could improve Eskom’s CCC+ credit rating, based on its expectation that Eskom’s liquidity position would be strengthened by the debt relief. Acting CEO Calib Cassim said: “The announcement … endorses the positive impact of the debt relief on Eskom’s financial position and overall liquidity,” |…

The City will be welcoming back Africa Travel Week (ATW), its biggest and most important travel trade event, between April 3 and April 5. The event is expected to attract crowds of visitors with top exhibitors, conferences and buyers from across the world. Since becoming the official host city of Africa Travel Week in 2014, Cape Town has continued to bring together and host the world’s top travel professionals, buyers, exhibitors and media, offering a space for idea sharing and innovation in the tourism space. Pre-pandemic, the event sealed deals worth about $451 000 million and led to the creation of more than 3 000 jobs. With last year’s event seeing 6 200 visitors, hosting roughly about 7 000 meetings, 384 exhibiting companies and 500 buyers, this year the City…

The news yesterday that police had raided the office of the City of Cape Town’s Mayco member for Human Settlements came like the proverbial bolt out of the blue. In a statement, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said, “The SAPS informed me this morning that the investigation is at an early stage but is potentially serious and relates to alleged fraud and corruption, and that further details cannot be disclosed at this time. “As a result, I have suspended councillor (Malusi) Booi from his position on the Mayoral Committee. In the interim, I have appointed Alderman James Vos as acting Mayco member for Human Settlements. I have further assured the SAPS of the City’s full support in the ongoing investigation. “The City has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and corruption…

DESPITE the Blue Bulls’ thrashing at the hands of the Pumas, Western Province coach John Dobson feels there is still “a bit of a buzz” around tonight’s Currie Cup north-south derby at Loftus Versfeld (7.05pm). The 63-15 loss at the hands of the Currie Cup champions last Sunday was a bitter pill to swallow for Edgar Marutlulle in his first encounter as the Bulls’ head coach, and they will be determined to produce a performance worthy of the light-blue jersey against WP. Dobson is adamant that there won’t be a repeat of the Pumas game tonight as the Pretoria side are “far too good” for that to happen. The WP boss selected a strong side yesterday that included several United Rugby Championship players like Clayton Blommetjies and Ruhan Nel in…

JAKE White has called in the heavy artillery to arrest a slump in form as he has selected a near full-strength United Rugby Championship (URC) side for the Blue Bulls’ Currie Cup clash against Western Province tonight. Most of the available big guns have been chosen, except for Springbok stars Kurt-Lee Arendse and Canan Moodie, who are still continuing their return-to-play protocols following their three-week national team training camp in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. But Bulls director of rugby White has responded to last Sunday’s 63-15 thrashing at the hands of the Pumas by including senior captain Ruan Nortjé to lead the side against Province at Loftus Versfeld tonight (7.05pm kick-off). Nortjé will be surrounded by many of his teammates who helped the Bulls reach the URC final last season.…

Langa residents are at their wits’ end with abandoned buildings at Bhunga Avenue and Harlem Street (single men’s quarters) harbouring criminals who constantly terrorise the residents. Police were called yesterday after a robbery, after renewed calls by the residents, who have been demanding that the City demolish the buildings. One of the residents close to the buildings, Thandi Gqiba, said their pleas had fallen on deaf ears and that no one wanted to take responsibility for the derelict structures. Gqiba said the buildings had become a place where stolen items from around the area were kept, and was also a dumping site where criminals would burn stolen cables. “What’s most worrying is that the kids always play near the buildings. It’s a matter of time before a body is dumped.…

Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane yesterday addressed the parliamentary committee investigating her fitness for office on what her lawyer, Senior Counsel Dali Mpofu, described as the “meatier issues” of her evidence. Mpofu, who set the scene for Mkhwebane’s evidence when her testimony began on Wednesday, immediately got into the issue of the CR17 report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2017 campaign bank statements involving state prisons contractor Bosasa. Mkhwebane gave the background of how the complaint got to her desk. She said she received two complaints on the issue, one from then-DA leader Mmusi Maimane and another from EFF MP Floyd Shivambu. The complainants claimed that the president had misled Parliament and had breached the Ethics Code when he told it that Bosasa (later Africa Global Operations, AGO) made a payment…

Eskom has been granted an exemption from complying with air quality regulations in order to speedily begin temporary repairs of the collapsed chimney system at Kusile power station, which Eskom admitted has been the major cause of elevated load shedding stages since October 2022. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) announced on Wednesday that it had granted Eskom the exemption to amend its atmospheric emission licence, and temporarily bypass pollution regulations at Kusile, but this was subject to certain strict conditions. In October 2022, electricity supply from Eskom’s coal-fired fleets suffered a massive blow when a flue duct (chimney) at Unit 1 failed and the duct bend collapsed due to excessive weight of slurry deposited in the flue, owing to design defects in the boiler and subsequent…

HUGO Broos says it’s not good for South African football to only have one team from the traditional big three clubs producing players for Bafana Bafana. These sentiments came after the Bafana coach yesterday named his final 23-man squad that will face Liberia in back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers this month. Mamelodi Sundowns have eight players in the squad compared to arch-rivals Orlando Pirates (four) and Kaizer Chiefs (none). “When you have players from one team, that’s not working against me. But like I said, when you have players from the same team, that means you don’t find the quality somewhere else,” Broos said. “And that’s not good for South African football. It’s not good that teams such as Pirates and Chiefs, who are big teams in this…

MAX Verstappen may start as favourite, but Fernando Alonso will have widespread popular support this weekend when the Formula One season resumes at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. After his dashing and surprising podium finish behind the two Red Bulls at the season-opening Bahrain GP two weeks ago, the 41-year-old Spaniard has played down high expectations of a repeat in his sleek new Aston Martin. But he knows that the high-speed Jeddah Street Circuit – a thin hair-clip of asphalt squeezed above a lagoon on the a 12 kilometres north of the city – offers a very different challenge to man and machine. “I think that we found, in Bahrain, that we were strong in things that maybe we won’t have in Jeddah, or in Melbourne,” he explained. “So, if…

Irrelevant – and to an extent, suicidal – bonus-point rules in the 4-Day Series are partly responsible for the struggling new crop of Test match batters, says former Proteas performance analyst Prasanna Agoram in reflection of his third season working in domestic cricket. South African Test batters have scored only four centuries in the ongoing World Test Championship courtesy of Sarel Erwee, Kyle Verreynne, Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma. As another domestic season comes to an end, Lions cricket performance analyst aired his frustration over the narrative that there’s no quality cricketers on show in domestic cricket. Agoram was involved with the Proteas for over a decade before joining the Lions. It was only a matter of time before Agoram decoded the root cause of the problem. “It’s the rules…

The SOUTHERN African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) is appealing to Capetonians to help raise funds to expand its Chick Rearing Unit (CRU) where they artificially incubate and hatch endangered African penguin eggs, then hand-rear them for release to bolster the declining population. The CRU is no longer suitable to accommodate the high volume of African penguin eggs rescued. The organisation said it was proud of its current release rate of hand-reared African penguin chicks, of 81%, but it was becoming harder to achieve due to the ageing infrastructure and lack of space. Over the past seven years Sanccob has seen an increase in the volume and frequency of African penguin eggs and chick admissions as a result of multiple factors that include food scarcity, sardines and…

IMAGINE waking up every day with the thought: “Today I choose to be happy.” This might seem impossible to achieve but the science of psychology proves that everything in life is possible. My hope is that all my readers will seek and find happiness at some stage of their lives. For now, think back to a time you were happy. After reading the article, revisit the memory, with new insight, using the advice given on how to shape your brain towards greater happiness. Well, what gave you this feeling of happiness during this time? Modern science indicates that the concept of happiness refers to a sense of deep contentment and satisfaction. Happiness is the state of an individual’s well-being that is not long-lasting. It changes in accordance with our state…

LIVERPOOL’S hopes of winning silverware were all but snuffed out by their Champions League elimination but manager Jurgen Klopp called on his side to “squeeze absolutely everything” from the remainder of the season as they chase a top-four finish. Karim Benzema’s second-half goal secured Real Madrid a comfortable 1-0 win over Liverpool in their last-16 second leg, wrapping up a 6-2 aggregate victory. “If you want to win the competition, you have to be outstanding. We weren’t tonight, so that’s why it’s then fair that we go out,” Klopp said after Wednesday night’s game. Liverpool have been eliminated from the League Cup and FA Cup and are sixth in the Premier League on 42 points after a 1-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Bournemouth on Saturday. “Our job is to squeeze absolutely…

ARSENAL’S defeat by Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round in January may turn out to be a blessing in disguise as on Sunday they have the chance to open an eight-point lead over City in the Premier League title race. City have gone on to reach the quarter-finals and will face Championship leaders Burnley tomorrow, then will be keeping their fingers crossed that Crystal Palace can do them a favour and halt Arsenal’s charge 24 hours later. Arsenal will host a Palace side without a win in any competition in 2023 and will see it as a gilt-edged chance to really turn up the heat on Pep Guardiola’s champions. Eight points ahead, albeit from one game more, would be a sizeable cushion for the Gunners to take into…

FORMER Wales fullback Lee Byrne said his former side face a “huge task” tomorrow as they head to defending champions France in the Six Nations. Les Bleus claimed a record 53-10 victory at Twickenham last weekend and can retain the trophy with a bonus-point win at Stade de France if Ireland fail to claim a point against England in Dublin later in the day. Wales’ only victory of the tournament in coach Warren Gatland’s second spell came last weekend in Italy. “A win’s a win, I bet Gatland’s relieved; the players are happy, no wooden spoon,” Byrne said on Tuesday. “There’s no pressure on us at all. The task ahead is huge and the players will know that.” Wales’ campaign, and Gatland’s return as coach, has been marred by off-field…

THIS year will be the first time in history that the All Blacks enter a World Cup as dark horses, but Springbok enforcer Eben Etzebeth says only a fool will discount the New Zealanders. The Kiwis have been favoured to win every World Cup since they hosted the first event in 1987 and while they have won three of the nine World Cups that have been played, they have flattered to deceive in six of them. That has been because the All Blacks are masters of peaking at the wrong time. They tend to blow everyone away between World Cups only to corpse on the big stage. This year, nobody can accuse them of having peaked too early and they will go to France on the back of their most…