Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-03-22 i Cape Argus

Cape Town attorney Gary Trappler has lost his long-running defamation court battle over comments posted on social media against him by Green Point Neighbourhood Watch chairperson Peter Flentov. Trappler had applied for an interdict against Flentov, urging the court to order him to “cease and desist” from making allegations against him relating to a February 2020 malicious damage to property incident in which Trappler was alleged to have slashed a neighbour’s tyres. Western Cape High Court Judge Hayley Slingers said Trappler had not established a reasonable apprehension of irreparable harm if the interdict was not granted. She said Trappler had cited historical publications by Flentov, but had presented no facts to show that Flentov was continuing to post defamatory statements about him, or that he was threatening to do so…

As STAGE 3 load shedding reality returns today, it has emerged that universities spend more than R2 million daily on generator diesel for Stage 3 rolling power outages – and the institutions collectively have shelled out R7.4m since 2020, MPs were told. Figures presented by Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande, in a written Parliamentary reply to DA MP Nomsa Tarabella-Marchesi, show UCT and Stellenbosch universities are among institutions of higher learning that spend the most on diesel and generators. Tarabella-Marchesi asked Nzimande for the amount institutions of higher learning spent daily on diesel every time the country experienced stages 3 to 6 load shedding. Nzimande provided only Stage 3 amounts. Yesterday, Eskom announced a “slight” improvement…

When discussing SA’s future it is inevitable that ways to harvest our potential come to the fore. Any country’s education leads it to performance and excellence. It is now time to start “Managing our Diversity” so it can contribute to excellent performance. Barriers to this include: • B-BBEE on an output basis, where certain parts of the population are repeatedly enriched because of their racial grouping and business connections. • Collective bargaining labour laws which encourage unproductivity. This ensures systematic economic suicide. • A poor education system where teachers set poor examples and perpetuate a culture of destruction through poor social discipline and mass action. • A weak government without strategic goals and accomplishments. My plea is that the above issues be addressed as follow: B-BBEE abolished in total,…

As Muslims await the sighting of the new moon that will herald the beginning of Ramadaan, it is important to remember the essence of the blessed month. To Muslims no month is more spiritual, pleasing and peaceful than Ramadaan, mostly because Muslims are generally more non-materialistic and unworldly during Ramadaan. Ramadaan is not only a month to stay away from food, drink, smoking and sexual relationship from early dawn to sunset; it is also a month to recognise the hunger and thirst felt by the less privileged human beings. True worship during Ramadaan is not satisfied just by breaking fasts on savouries and sumptuous meals but by growing spiritually, and becoming closer to the Almighty. May this Ramadaan remove the fog and open the path of self-control, promoting good and…

The primary human rights watchdog in Africa recently made a decision that departed from its practice. The African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, an independent expert body within the AU framework, used sexual or gender identity as the reason it rejected applications for observer status from three NGOs. The commission said “sexual orientation” was not an “expressly recognised right” in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It said that protecting and promoting sexual and gender minority rights was “contrary to the virtues of African values”. The decision casts a shadow over its commitment to advancing the rights of all Africans. It also erodes its independence from AU states. One of the commission’s competences is to grant observer status to NGOs. This entitles an NGO to participate in…

‘Majority exercised human right not to protest’ PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa took a veiled dig at the EFF and emphasised the importance of democracy at the Human Rights Day commemoration event in De Aar, Northern Cape. The EFF, in calling for an end to load shedding and for Ramaphosa’s resignation, held a national shutdown a day before the commemoration of the March 21, 1960, massacre in Sharpeville. At that tragic event, 69 people were murdered and 180 wounded by the apartheid regime when police fired a volley of bullets into a peaceful crowd that had been protesting against pass laws. This year’s commemoration event, however, was themed “Consolidating and sustaining human rights culture into the future”. Speaking off the cuff, Ramaphosa said: “It is quite an important day for all of…

A grieving foster mother was left shattered after the principal of the school her foster son attended refused to let them hold his memorial service on the school premises. Emmanuel Aphelele Jordaan, 9, who attended Heinz Park Primary, was gunned down on March 11 by gang members. Rosaleen Classen, 78, and her family are among a number of residents who have fallen victim to gang brutality in the area after one of their own, Emmanuel, was gunned down while travelling with his older sister and two other children. According to Raquel Masemola, a daughter to Rosaleen, her bakkie was targeted by gang members who shot at them, killing the 9-year-old. Speaking on behalf of her mother, Raquel said as the family, they went to Heinz Park Primary to ask the…

The Competition Commission has set its sights on technology giants such as Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) after its findings that they had distorted competition with paid search results. To tackle the issue, the commission has launched a Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI) to focus on search engines, social media sites, video-sharing platforms, and news aggregation platforms. The MDPMI comes after a year-long provisional investigation of online markets, and follows several similar investigations led by competition authorities, globally, on the impact of digital platforms on news media publishers that use these platforms to distribute their content online. Spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga said the commission felt there might exist market features on digital platforms which distributed news media content that impeded, distorted or restricted competition, and which might have adverse…

The government is going ahead with the hearing into the Department of Public Enterprises’s (DPE) suspended director-general Kgathatso Tlhakudi, despite him being in hospital, his lawyer says. Tlhakudi, whose term ends in July, was suspended last year after allegations that he failed to follow due process in appointing a candidate for a vacancy and pushed for a preferred candidate. Tlhakudi is on record as saying his suspension came about after he spoke out against alleged corruption by DPE Minister Pravin Gordhan and the contentious sale of SA Airways. Tlhakudi is in hospital. His lawyer, Tshepo Matlala, told the Cape Argus an internal inquiry, said to be headed by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola, had been briefed that Tlhakudi could not attend due to ill-health. DPE spokesperson Richard Mantu…

The unsafe old Single Men’s Quarters in Langa, which residents wanted demolished due to criminal activity, is among the historic buildings that will be upgraded by the City as part of the township’s centenary celebrations. This was announced by mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis at the historic Guga S’thebe cultural centre yesterday as the City outlined its plans to commemorate Langa’s 100th anniversary this year. Hill-Lewis said the City was completing a study to turn the former men’s hostel into a multi-purpose space, with community consultations expected to follow on the best uses for the site. Plans include restoration of historical monuments, precinct improvements, public participation in new memorials, and community events, including a three-day open-air festival. Hill-Lewis said the City had already undertaken repairs and maintenance work on the historic Pass…

The remembrance of Human Rights Day in South Africa beckons once more. On March 21, 1960, history recorded a massacre of 69 people who were peacefully marching against the injustices of pass laws. The events of Sharpeville forever defined that the consciousness of ordinary citizens matters. In the year 2023, the plight of ordinary members of society is once more making headlines. The newly-qualified vet who was brutally murdered while defending his family, the child taken out by stray bullets on the streets of Lentegeur, and the pit toilet tragedy of the young child killed falling into this hole remain heinous crimes. Mentioning these incidents by no means diminishes the death and agony of many other families suffering similar fates. The 2023 South African Human Rights Day is, in essence,…

When my late wife Ruth and I went to a church service for blessings on our 50th wedding anniversary some years ago, the minister asked me: “Alex, in the 50 years you have been married to Ruth, have you ever thought of divorce?” Without a moment’s hesitation, I responded: “Divorce, Father? No! Murder? Yes.” This was typical of my brain-damaged sense of humour. The congregation erupted with laughter, clapped and cheered and my darling wife and I were celebrities for the rest of the two-hour service. Why am I telling you this? Because I had already learnt, by living a purposeful life as an educator, that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to the troubles of the world and reality. The slight irreverence of my retort could fly because we need…

THE Economic Freedom Fighters’ national shutdown. Success or failure? It depends on who you ask – the Red Berets themselves, ANC, rival political parties or the public. The EFF declared their campaign had single-handedly restored the country’s electricity supply to normal: “The success of the national shutdown so far proves that our people are sick and tired of load shedding, corruption, unemployment, crime, gender-based violence and a lack of service delivery. “One of the major successes of the national shutdown, before it even began, is that it has drastically decreased the stages of load shedding. Because of the national shutdown South Africa has moved from Stage 4 to Stage 1 … and it was even suspended.” Eskom, however, insisted on the morning of the shutdown that “due to significantly lower…

“WE want climate justice and we want it now!” That was the message of the youth and civil society in Cape Town who took to the streets yesterday to “March for System Change” to mark Human Rights Day and to stand in solidarity with the global climate strike. The march from Hanover Street to Parliament was organised by the African Climate Alliance, a youth-led climate justice group, and took place under the theme “Don’t Gas Africa” to highlight the Don’t Gas Africa campaign by African civil society to ensure Africa was not locked into fossil gas production. This year, the March for System Change also reiterated the demands made at its very first march in 2021 to call for urgent action over the need for energy, water, housing and food…

THE government and Eskom were lambasted in court on Monday for inadequate load shedding actions, ignoring alarm bells which had been ringing since 1998 over the energy crisis, their failure to provide South Africa with a stable energy supply and the subsequent infringement of human rights. The court action took place in the Pretoria High Court and was being pursued by 19 unions and political parties including ActionSA, the UDM, IFP, Build One SA (Bosa) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa). They sought to declare the government’s response to load shedding as unconstitutional and in breach of fundamental human rights, as well as to ask that certain sectors be exempted from load shedding. Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, representing the applicants, argued that in spite of knowing since…

With all due respect to the challenges we face regarding language preferences (“Commissioner’s language policy contravenes the Constitution, Cape Argus, March 17), from my own viewpoint, let’s face the reality of the fast-changing lifestyle worldwide. English is dominating the world, and what I have realised is that most people in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape know only Afrikaans. The reason being that they do all their subjects in Afrikaans at school, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the challenge is that 90% of job opportunities worldwide require English. My view is that I am not against Afrikaans, but if people want to stick to their language only, they are limiting their own life opportunities when it comes to finding better jobs or even better positions in…

Recently the government said we might buy power from Tanzania. For decades we heard politicians say many things and believed them. After turning 50 and doing a study, I grasped how uneducated many politicians really are. It is not conceit but years of experience and working inside “realpo litik” that gave rise to my mistrust. When you spend decades with politicians and witness them advising others and you know the person is uneducated and unqualified, it is hard not to be distrustful. For example, after 20 years in the government, I am invited to national meetings but only attend on Skype, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. I do not fly anywhere as I realised the wastage involved in going to meetings where nothing really happens. I suggest government holds all meetings…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have discussed Beijing’s proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in talks in Moscow, while displaying a warm friendship forged on a mutual rivalry with the West. Xi’s visit this week is a boost to Moscow as it struggles to make ground in its year-long war on Ukraine. It was criticised by Washington as providing “diplomatic cover” for Putin and for the war that has killed tens of thousands of people. While China has sought to cast itself as a potential peace-maker in the conflict, the visit underlined an ever-closer relationship between Moscow and Beijing. The two men spoke for more than four hours on Monday and enjoyed a state dinner at the Kremlin, warmly praising each other as a “dear friend”,…