Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-04-26 i Cape Argus

There are fears for the life of an American woman who went missing in Higgovale after she went hiking. The police search and rescue team, with volunteers, are combing Table Mountain for Julie Goodness who was last seen by her friends on Tuesday morning at about 7.45am. A missing person’s docket has been opened at Cape Town Central police station. A friend of the 38-year-old said she was last seen at about 7.45am in Bellevue Street wearing a purple/pink long-sleeve sports top, blue jeans, colourful sneakers with pinkish soles, and a black oversized puffer jacket. She was carrying a cream/off-white canvas tote bag. Goodness’s friends said she has been in South Africa since 2010 and has been living in Gardens. They said she is an avid hiker. Her partner, Richard…

A Cape Town company director is set to know his fate next week after he was convicted on charges of theft and perjury in the Western Cape High Court on Monday. Ridwan Rajah, 42, will remain in custody until his sentencing. The provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Zinzi Hani said the Regional Bid Adjudication Committee of the Department of Public Works had awarded a contract to Good Hope Plasterers CC t/a Good Hope Construction to do internal and external renovations to the Parliamentary Precinct in Cape Town. Rajah represented Good Hope Construction. “Good Hope Construction subcontracted Winlite Aluminium Windows and Doors (Pty) Ltd (Winlite) to fabricate and erect aluminium curtain walls for the project, worth approximately R519 000. “After the work was certified complete, the…

The sounds of Struggle songs and ululations filled Mew Way Hall in Khayelitsha as the community and political leaders celebrated the life of former politician and activist-turned-businessman Loyiso Nkohla, who died in a hail of bullets last week. Family members, leaders from different political parties, and other speakers took turns in commemorating the life of Nkohla as an activist and champion of informal settlements. ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and academic and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele were some of the dignitaries that attended Nkohla’s memorial service. Nkohla, 40, was a City councillor and moved to join other political formations including the Land Party and the DA before championing the Ses’khona People’s Rights movement, where he used the platform to fight for the rights of those in informal settlements. It was through this…

The Friends of the Liesbeek (FoL), supported by the City, will soon begin a community-led seasonal wetland and indigenous plant reintroduction project along the Liesbeek River in Observatory. The first phase of the project involves mechanical scraping of the site, which may commence later this week or next week. The project will see the reintroduction of at least 26 different locally indigenous and appropriate wetland fynbos species into the floodplain connected to the Liesbeek River and within the Two Rivers Urban Park just north of the N2 and Liesbeek Parkway intersection. The City is assisting with the mechanical clearing of the site by providing a front-end loader and a scraper to clear invasive kikuyu grass. This will be followed by some foliar spraying to control the spread of the kikuyu…

High inflation, load shedding, increased electricity tariffs, kidnappings, mass shootings and crime are just the curtain-raiser to a raft of challenges facing South Africa. Meanwhile, as political instability continues to rock the country back and forth, we are constantly reminded about South Africa and what used to be like. What it was like before these woes befell this beloved country. Where did things go wrong? Daily, millions of citizens ignite conversations with each breaking story hitting the news, shaping our vision of what life will be like in the next ten years. In the past few weeks, the country has witnessed a gross failure of justice at play when Thabo Bester and Dr Nandipha Magudumana’s sordid tales surfaced. As the story continues to unfold, more red flags emerge. The…

A discussion facilitated by the Dullah Omar Institute as part of Africa Criminal Justice Reform project at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) made an attempt to communicate the complications associated with prison numbers gangs, the language of sabela and how street gangs were not conforming to prison ‘rules’. Focusing on the 26, 27 and 28 hierarchical structure, Heinrich Veloen made specific reference to the use of sabela, originally known as Sesfanakaloku, the lingua franca of South African mineworkers during the 19th century, which has now evolved into the primary language spoken by numbers gang members. “The existence of the numbers is widely associated with ongoing patterns of conflict and violence in South African prisons – between inmates and warders, between inmates, as well as between rival prison gangs.…

GIFT of the Givers has stepped in after a desperate principal from Msobomvu Educare Centre called them after heavy rains resulted in the ceiling collapsing in one of her classrooms. Connie Mase said she had to take out buckets full of water as the room was flooded after the rain over the weekend. Kids at Msobomvu Educare Centre in Khayelitsha had to either stay at home or be confined to a small space after the heavy rains destroyed the classroom. While mopping the floor, Mase had to also send texts to parents, asking them to keep the kids at home as there wasn’t enough space to keep all 39 of them. The centre that has been running since 2001 is registered with the Department of Social Development, but Mase is…

LAND rights movement Abahlali baseMjondolo will mark Freedom Day with “un-Freedom Day” marches in Durban today, in Vukuzakhe on April 28 and in Germiston on April 29. In a video posted on social media yesterday, deputy president Mqapheli Bonono said the movement intends to hand over a memorandum demanding an end to the strife. “The killings of activists, the killings of land rights, the killing of leaders and of politicians themselves – we feel that no one has the right to kill. So with all that, we will be taking our demands to the president of the country and say ‘it must come to an end’,” Bonono said. The movement, consisting of 5 000 members, said they have been opposing the idea of celebrating Freedom Day since 2008 by using…

The standing committee on finance, economic opportunities and tourism has secured confirmation from the Department of Home Affairs that it will appear before the provincial legislature to explain the delays in implementing a remote working visa. Committee chairperson Cayla Murray (DA) said the briefing which is scheduled for 8am next Wednesday will be broadcast live on the legislature’s YouTube channel. The province has been campaigning for the introduction of the visa since May 2021 when it sent a comprehensive proposal to the government. The proposal was for a short-term remote work visa for an initial one-year period, with the option to renew it for an additional two years. During his 2022 State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the visa would be happening soon, and he…

When I wrote my first column for the Literary Yours byline, I could not have imagined that I would still be doing the same thing seven years on. The erstwhile David Biggs wrote for the Cape Argus daily for 38 years. The mind boggles. He must have been thoroughly exhausted by the time he hung up his boots. I am neither sage nor savant. At the same time, I do not tap into the stream of the doomsday prophets. I try to steer a course that uplifts, empowers and, hopefully, entertains. And it has become a difficult task, less satisfying than the first time I deliriously saw my name in print, accompanied by a flattering photograph of myself in my heyday. These days, I crawl to the computer once a…

A US-brokered ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals was largely holding in the capital yesterday as foreign nations stepped up efforts to evacuate their nationals from the chaos-torn nation. But security fears were compounded when the World Health Organization warned of an “extremely dangerous” risk after fighters occupied a Khartoum laboratory holding samples of polio, measles and other infectious diseases. Ten days of heavy fighting until Monday – including air strikes and artillery barrages – have killed hundreds of people, many of them civilians, and left some suburbs of greater Khartoum in ruins. Bewildered civilians were seen walking down one street in Khartoum North where almost all buildings were bombed out and smoke was rising from scorched ruins, in unverified video posted on social media. Much of the city of five…

DA quiet on leader’s transgender remarks DA leader Helen Zille has upset the LGBQTIA+ community by asking whether gay people had to be transgender for them to be regarded as “woke”. Zille, who finds woke culture a pet peeve, was weighing in on the controversy surrounding social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. She retweeted a post that misgendered Mulvaney. Mulvaney is at the centre of a sexuality and gender politics storm after appearing in an advert for a popular US beer, Bud Light. This enraged homophobic right-wing quarters in the US. “Is it now considered insufficiently ‘woke’ to be merely gay?” Zille, who was recently re-elected DA federal council chairperson, asked on Twitter. “Must you be transgender to gain access to the inner sanctum of the ‘tribe’? And must you, in…

POLICE are investigating a case of murder following a shooting incident in Tafelsig that left a 19-year-old man dead and others wounded. Taaieeque Williams died and three more were wounded after gunmen opened fire in Piketberg Street during a random shooting spree. Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said reports were that Williams was walking in the street when a group of men accosted him and opened fire, fatally wounding him. He died on the scene. Pojie said the assailants further opened fire randomly and hit three young men between the ages of 15 and 21 who were in the street at the time. The trio were transported to hospital privately, he said. Pojie said the Mitchells Plain police were investigating a case of murder as well as three attempted murder cases.…

Early yesterday morning a group of South African nationals and other foreign nationals safely arrived in Egypt after a delicate evacuation operation out of Khartoum, Sudan, following a deadly clash that broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on April 15. Some of the South Africans, and other nationalities, who missed Monday’s evacuation operation, were expected to leave Sudan’s capital city yesterday, thanks to an additional bus secured by Gift of the Givers (GOTG). However, according to GOTG founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, the second evacuation operation on Tuesday proved far more difficult with too many skirmishes and aerial bombings taking place, and the additional bus was unable to leave Sudan at the expected time. The joint evacuation operation to get South African expatriates out…

The NATIONAL Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has asked the Western Cape High Court to overturn the findings of the 1970 inquest into the death in police custody of anti-apartheid Struggle activist Imam Abdullah Haron and to “make right what was made wrong”. Making his closing arguments for the State’s case at the reopened inquest, NPA advocate Lifa Matyobeni said the court had heard enough compelling new evidence to make new findings. Matyobeni summarised his submissions, saying that as the NPA and the Haron family lawyers were singing from the same hymn sheet, there was no need to repeat many of the arguments presented in the closing argument of the Haron family’s advocate, Howard Varney. In his arguments, Matyobeni laid into the Security Branch of the apartheid South African Police for…

Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionally affected by malaria. The region accounts for 95% of the world’s malaria cases. The disease kills an African child every 60 seconds. These figures are alarming. But malaria is preventable and treatable. The progress between 2000 and 2015 is proof of what can be achieved. Support from global donors helped drive down malaria deaths among children under 5 from 723 000 to 306 000. Most of the deaths prevented were in sub-Saharan Africa. Fifty-five of the 106 malaria-endemic countries showed a 75% decrease in new malaria cases by 2015 compared to 2000. But in 2016, the global malaria response plateaued. In some regions it even backtracked. Malaria cases and deaths increased as national malaria control programmes competed with other health challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO)…