Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-05-09 i Cape Argus

Tiffany Barbuzano believes her role in the entertainment industry is to zoom into the complexities of human nature and to then narrate her findings in a way that inspires change. And while her several highly successful movie and television projects have been a source of entertainment for so many over the years, she believes her sole purpose is to touch the lives of those who consume her content. “I’m inspired to tell stories that people can relate to and while inspiration can be fickle, when you look around, there are constantly stories waiting in the wings that are demanding to be told,” she told Independent Media Lifestyle. Together, she and her husband, Johnny, also run BBZEE FILMS, a television and film production company that was the brains behind the likes…

NEARLY seven years after the assassination of “Steroid King” Brian Wainstein, the State is preparing to release audio recordings of conversations between those who allegedly plotted his murder. This comes amid testimony in the Western Cape High Court by his former bodyguard who has fingered various suspects including Mark Lifman, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen and international fugitive Kishor “Kamal” Naidoo as being behind the hit. In his testimony in the murder trial of the alleged underworld accused, the witness told the court in detail of meetings and calls where the plans to murder Wainstein were discussed, and admitted to betraying his former boss by helping to plan his murder. He later took over the steroid trade, but failed. Issues regarding the audio…

THE SPECIAL Investigating Unit (SIU) has made another breakthrough after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, granted them an application to recover R53 million worth of stolen land in Ekurhuleni this week. Farm 33 Zuurfontein, measuring 8 2842 hectares, which was meant for the development of low-income housing and a school, was ordered to be given back to the government. This comes after the SIU announced last month, in a separate case, that former Athletics SA acting CEO Terrence Magogodela had paid nearly R400 000 of money he unduly benefited from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) grant funding for a sports facility development in the Northern Cape. Also in April, the unit obtained an interdict to stop the sale of a farm in Limpopo believed to be associated with former NLC…

SPEAKERS at the Western Cape Property Development Forum’s 11th annual conference said Monday’s tragedy in which an apartment building under construction collapsed, killing several workers and trapping many others, did not suggest there was a crisis in the province’s property industry. Deon van Zyl, the forum’s chairperson, said it was too early to throw stones and place blame on anyone at this stage as to what unfolded in George. “We have to just hold our horses on that one and find out exactly what went wrong. “We don’t know at this stage. I don’t think the building plans for that project were approved for the sake of development. “That project would have been scrutinised by a structural engineer; there would have been professional architectural involvement; there would have been quantity…

The Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority (PPRA) seems to be hell-bent on destroying real estate agencies in South Africa. The regulatory authority wants to pressure the property industry into bending over backwards to ensure Broad-based BEE requirements. This will be the wholesale destruction of the entire industry. We must understand that all real estate agencies have to apply for a valid Fidelity Fund Certificate (FFC). The certificates enable estate agents to practise their trade and profession in South Africa. Without the certificate, the business is illegal and will be closed. What is now happening is that our over-restrictive negative government is trying to look like it is doing something to improve the employability of black South Africans. The reality is that the further restrictions on an industry that is under…

Dr DUNCAN Du Bois wrongly blames the protocols of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the banning of alcohol and cigarettes during our Covid lockdown (The Star, May 7). My friends in the US and Canada would not have enjoyed their daily tipple during their lockdown if their government had been implementing WHO protocols. Du Bois is a fervent critic of the pharmaceutical industry, the WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is also an ardent anti-vaxxer, in the company of tennis star Novak Djokovic and rock guitar god Eric Clapton (notorious for his drunken racist outburst). The culprit who cruelly denied South Africans alcohol and cigarettes was in fact co-operative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. She has always had a vendetta against smokers. As the former wife…

Hamas said it was battling Israeli troops on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip’s crowded southern city of Rafah yesterday after a US official said Washington had halted a shipment of powerful bombs that Israel could use in a full-scale assault. The US, which is seeking to stave off an Israeli invasion of Rafah, said it believes a revised Hamas ceasefire proposal may lead to a breakthrough in an impasse in negotiations, with talks resuming in Cairo yesterday. Israel has threatened a major assault on Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are holed up there, but Western nations and the UN have warned a full-scale attack on the city would be a humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli forces in the east of Rafah,…

Accra: Ghana’s Supreme Court yesterday began a hearing on a bid seeking to overturn a contested law that severely curtails LGBTQ rights. Lawmakers approved the so-called Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill in February, drawing international condemnation. With elections in December to choose President Nana Akufo-Addo’s successor, gay rights has come to the fore. Ghanaian broadcaster Richard Dela-Sky has challenged the constitutionality of the law that proposes jail terms of six months to three years for engaging in LGBTQ sex and between three and five years in jail for promoting or sponsoring LGBTQ activities. | AFP…

THE man who hired Nafiz Modack’s “Hell’s Angels” to recover money he had lost in an investment deal has taken the stand against him in the Western Cape High Court. Shanil Maharaj testified from his home town of Durban as he confirmed the testimony of another witness who testified earlier this week, saying that he fled the country out of fear. During the explosive testimony, the witness, only known as Mr C, told the court he sought help from criminal lawyer William Booth as he came under attack by Modack’s alleged henchman, Jacques Cronje. The fearful witness, who fled to Dubai amid a string of incidents dating back to 2020, said in 2018 he met with Maharaj, who invested R545 000 in what was deemed a “high-risk investment”. He claims…

BEHIND its idyllic façade lies a history fraught with discomfort and pain, a history long overshadowed by its British naval heritage. While Simon’s Town’s ties to the British Royal Navy is well-documented, there is another narrative. This narrative has, sadly, been neglected. It is the story of enslaved people who once called the coastal town home. For centuries, their voices have been silenced, their lives reduced to mere entries in inventories, alongside household goods and livestock. Finally, their stories have surfaced through a recently published book, An Uncomfortable Paradise: A history of dispossession and slavery in Simon’s Town. Written by Joline Young who is a doctoral student of African Studies at the UCT, Young tells the human stories of enslaved people, shedding light on their struggles and resilience. Through meticulous…

Flag burning has a long and rich history as a form of political expression. From its beginnings in the Vietnam War protests, torching your nation’s flag is considered the most extreme way of telling your government to take a hike. Of course, seeing a national symbol go up in flames might evoke anger. But take a look around you. The ANC is fiddling while South Africa burns. Unemployment is through the roof, foreign investors are pulling out in droves, a convicted criminal is at the head of his party’s ballot and you can’t walk to the corner shop without fearing for your life. If there was ever a time in our country’s democratic history to go out and express the most extreme level of disdain for the government, even for…

South Africa’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been deemed one of the most effective schemes because it has supported more than five million students since its inception in 1996. However, its effectiveness can be understood only when we analyse its success rate. The success should be aligned with the number of students who graduate, their field of study and their capacity to be employed within the formal economy. Providing access to the much-required funding is the initial phase of the success story, but more information is required to determine how relevant the impact of the scheme has been in South Africa. In 2021, the scheme funded about 67% of all students registered at universities nationally and additional students registered at TVET colleges. About 60% of students at tertiary…

LONDON: Britain’s Home Office said yesterday that border control systems were operational after an outage that it deemed was not a cyber attack led to lengthy queues and chaotic scenes at airports nationwide. Britain’s biggest airport, Heathrow, said that it expected no issues when operations re-started in the morning. Long queues built up at British airports on Tuesday night after the Border Force suffered a nationwide technical issue. Border officials manually processed passport holders.…

LONDON: European countries have reported a surge in whooping cough cases in 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, with 10 times as many identified as in each of the previous two years. In total, nearly 60 000 cases were reported by EU and European Economic Area countries over the period, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said yesterday, with 11 deaths in infants and eight among older adults. It is a bacterial infection of the lungs and airways, and is endemic in Europe. The agency said many people had missed out on natural boosting of immunity to whooping cough because they had not been exposed to it during the pandemic. | Reuters…

A MOSSEL Bay electrician is among more than 20 people recovering in hospital after spending more than 24 hours trapped under rubble of the collapsed building in George. Delvin Safers, 28, is one of the 75 workers who were in the multi-storey building under construction on Victoria Street when it collapsed on Monday afternoon. Safers was on-site along with three of his colleagues when the building came down on them. After spending more than a day underneath the debris, Safers was rescued by emergency personnel shortly after a phone call with his father after 3pm on Tuesday. His father, Deon Safers, 62, said the family was overjoyed and thankful that he was found alive. “We are very happy. All of us are excited and we cannot stop talking about it,…

THE people involved in a brawl outside a church in Fish Hoek have spoken out about the clash between the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups. The incident, which happened on April 20, was recorded on video by several people. Nadine Bentley’s husband, Richard, and another man are seen holding a man with blond hair in a chokehold. A few seconds later, Salome Scott tries to intervene but is unsuccessful. On that Saturday, the Israeli group went to stand at the corner of Buller Louw Drive and Ou Kaapse Weg in Sun Valley, Fish Hoek. When the other group arrived, an altercation took place. According to Scott, the Deep South Palestine community had been meeting at the corner of the church for the last seven months, picketing on Fridays in solidarity with…

AN Athlone resident is preparing to introduce her debut poetry book to the public this weekend. Naahid Nakidien, from Surrey Estate, will be launching her first poetry book, Gifts from a Whispering Soul: A Poetic Journey of Transformation at 11am on Saturday at the Bo-Kaap Cultural Hub, where the self-publishing author originally hails from. Nakidien is a registered life coach, nursing sister and arts producer. She is also the founder of O’dacity Films with her late sister, Zulfah Otto- Sallies, contributing to film and theatre productions globally. The book explores themes of personal growth and empowerment, as she reflects on her journey as a coach, poet and artist. Nakidien started writing poetry in 2004 while residing in Dubai and while the idea for a book had been lingering for a…

South Africa is a democracy in which every citizen has an inalienable right to criticise the government of the day. No person or organisation has the right to burn and desecrate our national flag. Burning our flag is an act of treason. Many people risked their lives to protect the freedom that is represented by the South African flag. Our flag is a symbol of freedom and hope, not something that should be desecrated. We have democratic elections every 5 years. We should register our dissatisfaction at the voting booth and not by burning our symbol, for political showmanship. The DA committed the ultimate act of defilement of our precious symbol by burning our flag. The act alone will cost it thousands of votes on May 29. Our flag represents…

IF THE latest barbaric anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests in the US are anything to go by, then I think that we can all agree that dirty money, especially coming from a slimy source such as George Soros, was always going to get everybody’s attention! These kids, because that is all they are, have rocked up in eerily similar fashion in multiple states around the US, as well as in other Western countries, all chanting the same, cleverly co-ordinated, gut-punching slogans and anti-Israel, anti-American rhetoric, using the same tents, Palestinian regalia as well as Hamas and even Hezbollah flags! It is shameless! Of course, when these professional agitators, as Trump calls them, refuse to answer simple questions about why they are protesting or what it means when they yell “from the river…

The recent developments in the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), which saw expelled “leader” Jabulani Khumalo penning a letter to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) demanding the removal of the presidential candidate, Jacob Zuma, have sent shock waves across the country. The IEC, however, blocked Zuma’s removal and said he remained the registered leader of the party and only he could give it instructions on removing candidates from its list for the elections. It is unfathomable how someone in their right mind would call for removing the party’s presidential candidate, just three weeks before the general elections. A party that will contest the elections for the first time almost imploded before it took off. Khumalo is among the senior MKP members expelled for allegedly working with the…

Stockholm: A Stockholm court fined climate activist Greta Thunberg yesterday for disobeying police orders after blocking access to Sweden’s parliament during a protest in March. The court said it fined the activist 6 000 Swedish kronor (R10 200) and ordered her to pay 1 000 kronor in damages and interest. Asked by the judge why she had not obeyed police orders, she replied: “Because there was a climate emergency and there still is. And in an emergency, we all have a duty to act.” Thunberg has been fined twice before in Sweden for civil disobedience. | AFP…