Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-06-27 i Cape Argus

An Independent Media photographer has stolen the show at the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards 2023 and brought back the Journalist of the Year award. Photojournalist Phandulwazi Jikelo, 39, is no stranger to winning awards for his amazing work, however, at the weekend he was hit for a six when he was named Journalist of the Year at The Venue in Melrose Arch. The Sikuvile Journalism Awards is hosted annually by the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), and sponsored by Standard Bank. Jikelo won the News Photographs category for his incredible snaps of Parliament named “Parly Fire as Questions Mount”, which was published in the Cape Times and Weekend Argus newspapers. This was the second year in a row Jikelo has won the category. Sanef said the winner of…

It is indeed a grim and sad reality that a decline in political trust is gravely undermining our fractured democracy. Scandals and sleaze have taken a massive toll on public confidence in our battered politics and compromised politicians. It is a strange paradox of our diluted democracy that we have the conditions and tools to enable our political system to work better than ever before. Yet all that is glaringly today’s utter dysfunction is evident, a prelude to complete chaos and anarchy. As our battered economy impacts on the masses, we hover on the brink of collapse, we have in the process become a fully failed state of critical geopolitical concern. Trust is an essential elixir for public life and community relations, and when the masses think about trust these…

Millions of Muslims rising above colour, language, class, gender, race, nationality, level of knowledge and practice and social barriers have converged in Makkah and the valleys of Saudi Arabia in unity to perform the annual pilgrimage known as the Hajj. Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam, the other four being the declaration of faith, the five daily prayers, fasting during Ramadaan and the compulsory charity known as Zakaat. Hajj pilgrims over the next five days will retrace the events from the lives of famous prophets such as, Muhammed, Ibrahim and his wife Hajar and their son Ismail. Hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime journey, is an experience that is difficult to express as each pilgrim will have a unique story to tell. Hajj is more than just carrying out rituals, it captures…

The Northern Cape has expressed its pride and excitement that learners from two local schools, Kimberley Boys High and Technical High, did exceptionally well in representing South Africa in Growing Beyond Earth 2022/23 (GBE). Growing Beyond Earth is an international competition, held annually in the US, where learners present their research findings to Nasa scientists. These two schools were the first from South Africa, and Africa, to participate in the competition. A total of 372 schools, across six continents, started Trial 1 of the GBE competition last year in September, and only 58 schools – including Kimberley Boys High and Technical High – made it through to Trial 2, which culminated in a Student Research Symposium where schools were to present and showcase their scientific research. Through a local programme…

Ilkay Gundogan has signed for Barcelona on a free transfer at the end of his Manchester City contract, the Catalan club said yesterday. The 32-year-old German midfielder has agreed a two-year deal with the option for a year’s extension and a release clause of €400-million (about R8.1-billion). “He is bringing his presence, nose for goal and reading of the game which has made him one of the best midfielders of the past decade,” said Barcelona in a statement. Gundogan has been an influential presence for Pep Guardiola’s City side since joining in 2016, captaining the team to a stunning treble this season. The midfielder netted twice in the FA Cup final win over Manchester United and Guardiola admitted City were trying to renew his deal. Manchester City are poised to…

South Africans are feeling the impact of continued load shedding and it extends further than inconvenience and delays. It hits them, and South African insurers right in the wallet. Dialdirect Insurance says there has been an 80% increase in power surge claims in 2022/2023 when compared to the three years before. This coincides with a 970% GWH (gigawatt hours) increase in load shedding. Most South Africans are in the dark about whether they’ll be covered for damages caused by power surges. Dialdirect head Anneli Retief,says: “While grid failure was never stipulated as an insured event and has never featured in policy terms and conditions, load-shedding-related power surge damage is still a grey area. Some insurers have capped power surge payouts, some say ‘we’ve got you covered, but at a…

Tshego Manche, known as Ms Manche, a businesswoman and one of South Africa’s first influencers, boasts an Instagram following of 205 000 followers. Manche’s account is filled with pictures of herself living a glamorous lifestyle and at the same time juggling motherhood. Now her followers will get an inside look at how she does it all on Showmax’s newest reality show, The Mommy Club. The Mommy Club follows five glamorous Jozi momfluencers as they navigate the challenges of parenting and the cut-throat world of “it moms”. It is set to debut tonight. “I’m excited,” she told IOL Entertainment. On the show, viewers will see how she handles friendships and, judging from the trailer, she does not play when it comes to her children. “Viewers will definitely see that I’m not…

A FAMILY said they were disappointed after they had to watch a loved one die while waiting for an ambulance. Craig van der Ventel, 23, was walking home from a street party in Bellville South early on Sunday morning, when he was attacked by unknown suspects. He tried to run back to the party, but was shot. Van der Ventel ran to Nick Kearns Avenue where he waited for an ambulance and the police to arrive. His aunt, Jennowene Jonkers, said: “There was a street bash where young people got together and everyone was there. At about 4am he was walking home when he saw the suspects walking towards him. “He ran back to the side where the bash was, and they started shooting. It wasn’t a robbery because he…

Companies will face more pressure to disclose how climate change affects their business under a new set of G20-backed global rules aimed at helping regulators crack down on greenwashing. The norms, published yesterday, were written by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), as trillions of dollars flow into investments that tout their environmental, social and governance credentials. It would be up to individual countries to decide whether to require listed companies to apply the standards, ISSB chairman Emmanuel Faber said, adding that the standards can be used for annual reports from next year. Canada, Britain, Japan, Singapore, Nigeria, Chile, Malaysia, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa are considering their use, Faber said. The standards build on voluntary ones from the G20’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Britain was…

It’s gratifying to see that you give everybody a chance to have their say – your edition of the Cape Argus on Friday, June 23 had interesting, opposing comments on our premier’s trip to the US. On your front page, Daniel Silke’s view was that it was unusual, but probably necessary for the Western Cape’s economy. Also on your front page was the doubt about the ANC’s future here, which might cause them to try to harm our province (the proposed changes to the Employment Equity laws seem to prove this), so some action is probably necessary. Then your Opinion Page carried a comment by Peter de Villiers, who was trying to draw a parallel between international rugby and world politics. Heads up, Peter – world politics is played at…

Can you imagine a philharmonic orchestra playing a symphony without a conductor? It would be very chaotic. This is precisely how the ANC government manages the affairs of our country, where the ministers, in the absence of the president, apply their discretion and do as they please without any co-ordination, plans or accountability. However, the party to blame for this odd style of governance is the president, who has started to pay heavily for this. This letter will focus on some of the disastrous mistakes in South Africa’s foreign policy. A few days ago, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe refused to sign an agreement concluded after a meeting hosted by President Ramaphosa in Pretoria with prominent European leaders to launch a European-funded green energy initiative. Mantashe claimed…

AS ANC party structures hold their last conferences before the national elections next year, the Western Cape is a cautionary tale about how factionalism cost the party the province. These conferences’ outcomes will be telling. The ANC lost power to the DA in the Western Cape back in 2009 and is the only province where the ANC sits in the opposition benches. The party finally hosted its provincial conference this past weekend to elect new leaders to revive its electoral chances. The conference was repeatedly postponed over the past few years as the requirement to hold 70% of branch general meetings could not be met. Outgoing ANC Interim Western Cape Committee convenor Lerumo Kalako told delegates the province had the highest levels of factionalism. Factionalism is a serious problem that…

The ‘Bomb Squad’ will certainly play an important role later this year at the Rugby World Cup in France, but in last year’s Rugby Championship, the All Blacks found a counter to this Springboks weapon and that could cause a rethink of exactly how the unit will be used in this season’s southern hemisphere competition. Despite forwards like captain Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth being on the injury list, there are still plenty of forwards who can slot into positions to easily allow Bok coach Jacques Nienaber to go ahead with fielding a replacements’ bench of six forwards and two backs. But the exploits of New Zealand, and Ireland in the November Tests against the Bomb Squad, could force Nienaber and his brainstrust to use the much-talked-about replacements strategy sparingly…

OVER the next week, Boland Rugby Union (BRU) has to convince its clubs why the proposed deal with Johann Rupert and Patrice Motsepe is a step in the right direction for the region and their professional arm. Rupert and Motsepe, who also own a controlling stake in the Blue Bulls, tabled an offer to buy a controlling 74% interest in the company of the provincial union. The Boland Cavaliers, the franchise’s professional team, this past weekend won the Currie Cup First Division at Boland Stadium in Wellington, and it is their goal to reach the Premier Division next season. The financial injection that they will receive from the sale of the commercial arm will provide them the opportunity to bulk up their squad ahead of next season. But, the clubs,…

Earlier this year, South Africa was greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to comply with international standards concerning the prevention of terrorist funding, money laundering, and proliferation financing. The decision, which came despite a last-minute scramble by the government to return to compliance, was a body blow to a struggling economy. In addition to increasing the cost of doing business in South Africa, greylisting means additional layers of due diligence for any company wanting to invest in South Africa and increased levels of difficulty for any South African wanting to take money offshore or transact with international banks. It could also result in lower levels of foreign direct investment and portfolio inflows. Since the greylisting decision, South Africa has made significant strides in addressing the FATF’s…

FOLLOWING taxi-related violence and shootings, a meeting held between MEC for Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie, the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has resulted in the implementation of a task force team that will solely deal with violence in the taxi industry. The Western Cape Mobility Department decided to involve other government entities to assist with the violence within the taxi industry. The department said that between 2019 and 2022, it registered about 555 taxi-related cases involving murders and attempted murders. Mackenzie said the implementation was an additional resort to his powers granted by the terms of Section 91 of the National Land Transport Act. “The ongoing taxi violence has resulted in the suspension and deregistration of taxi associations and members and the cancellation of several operating licences. As the…

For the foreseeable future, people will be unhoused in our midst – how we support them (and the policies we create or fail to create) is a reflection of the values we choose to uphold in response to this reality. Because certain groups of individuals are vastly over-represented in the unsheltered population, responses and policies put in place inevitably reflect our commitment to equity, racial justice and inclusion. A comprehensive, clearly articulated policy and action plan must be implemented to address the complex and varied circumstances experienced by those residing outside. There is not a single solution, but a mosaic of approaches is needed. One of the most urgent interventions is finding a solution to the hundreds of unmanaged, unserviced, unsightly, unsafe and unhygienic encampments littered all over Cape Town.…

OUTRAGE and demands for impeachment should be at blowtorch intensity at President Ramaphosa for subordinating South Africa to permanent indebtedness as a vassal of globalist WEF hegemony by requiring R2 trillion to finance the false “battle against climate change” (Business Report, June 23). The utter falsehood of the claim that climate change is man-made cannot be overstated. The proof that it is a natural, historical reality, unrelated to fossil fuel emissions, is apparent for anyone who bothers to read and research beyond the propaganda which dominates the issue. Ramaphosa’s complicity in what is euphemistically termed the “sustainable development goals” of the UN/WEF’s Environment Social Governance (ESG) strategy is easily explained. Like the other 39 so-called leaders who attended the New Global Financing summit in Paris last week, Ramaphosa…

The GRAND Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project on the Nile River started operating in February last year. It reinforced tensions between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The three countries rely most heavily on the Nile’s water. Sudan and Egypt consider the $4.6 billion (about R85.8bn) dam a threat to vital water supplies. Ethiopia sees it as essential for its development. This is just one example of how conflicts can arise between states that share river basins. And there’s a real risk such conflicts will become more common as global temperatures rise. Hundreds of rivers are shared between two or more countries. Sharing waters can be a source of co-operation or conflict. This depends on economic, cultural and institutional conditions. It also depends on historical relations between countries. Although co-operation prevails over conflict…

The boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group broke his silence yesterday, two days after leading an aborted mutiny, saying he had never intended to overthrow the government, while giving few clues about his own fate or the deal under which he stood down. In the first public remarks released since he was last seen on Saturday night smiling and high-fiving bystanders from the back of an SUV as he withdrew from a city occupied by his men, Yevgeny Prigozhin said his fighters had halted their campaign to avert bloodshed. “We went as a demonstration of protest, not to overthrow the government of the country,” Prigozhin said in an 11-minute audio message released on the Telegram messaging app. “Our march showed many things we discussed earlier: the serious problems with security…

The Blue Bulls Company has mutually terminated the contract of Springbok wing Sbu Nkosi with immediate effect, the union revealed via a statement yesterday. In the statement, chief executive Edgar Rathbone thanked Nkosi, who joined the Pretoria-based side last year, for his services to the team. “I would like to thank Sbu for all that he has contributed towards our campaigns during his time with us,” Rathbone said in the statement. “I know that it wasn’t an easy time for him personally, but I am confident that the support we provided to him was invaluable. “Having a Springbok wing of his calibre in our team has been a pleasure. “I know that he now feels as though it is the best time to move on and we respect his wishes.”…

The Currie Cup is far from dead, and the Free State Cheetahs showed their mettle on Saturday by defeating the Pumas to claim the crown. They picked up momentum at the right time in the competition to secure a seventh title in front of their fans in Bloemfontein. Here, Leighton Koopman looks at five moments from South Africa’s premier domestic rugby competition that shows it is still alive. Champagne Champions They had a slight hiccup with a few losses but when they finally hit their straps in the last couple of games, there was just no stopping the Cheetahs. It was their team effort that took them over the line with the evergreen Ruan Pienaar and captain Victor Sekekete leading from the front. They came up with some exciting running…