Innehållsförteckning för 2022-05-31 från Cape Argus

A REPORT by the Department of Basic Education has confirmed that over 40% of the million pupils who start public school in the country each year drop out before reaching matric. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga faces criticism each year that the national matric results she announces hide the real performance of the public school system. The report that the department released last week denied that Motshekga hides the data illustrating the figure of pupils who do not reach matric. “It is sometimes claimed that the fact that almost half of youths do not obtain a qualification at the Grade 12 level is something that the government does not report on,” it said. “This is not the case. The annual reports on the National Senior Certificate (NSC) are very clear…

Former Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko says he is consulting lawyers about igniting fresh investigations into President Cyril Ramaphosa-linked Glencore and its dirty deals at the power utility. This comes after the international company made headlines around the world for corruption and a bribery network that sought to advance the company’s international influence. Glencore International has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1.186 billion (R18 461bn) in fines and penalties for corrupt practices in dealing with foreign governments. Former Eskom bosses Brian Molefe and Koko both testified that there had been an adversarial relationship between the power utility and Glencore. Ramaphosa, who was then head of government business and overseeing Eskom, was also chair of Glencore at the same time. He has been widely accused of facilitating deals for Glencore…

World Running Day is celebrated on June 1 and, for the second year in a row, Under Armour (UA) will host its UA “All Out Mile” event, at Green Point Stadium. The event will take place live and virtually in 14 countries around the world. Elite athletes, celebrities and the general public are invited to participate and strive for new personal bests across one mile (1.6km). All proceeds will be donated to charity. Managing director at Under Armour SA, Darren Cooke, said: “We are thrilled to have launched the Under Armour “All Out Mile” in SA for the second year running. “In an ode to celebrate one of the toughest distances, UA will further equip runners with invaluable training recommendations and tips to help athletes measure their runs and gauge…

BEIJING: A Chinese research team has found that continued global warming may lead to shorter floral life of plants, according to the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Using published data on floral longevity from 818 angiosperm species, researchers from the institute present the first global quantification of the latitudinal pattern of floral longevity and the relationships between floral longevity and a range of biotic and abiotic factors. According to the study, the environmental temperature during the flowering season showed the highest influence on the longevity of flowers. In areas of high temperature, drought and strong solar radiation, plants tend to have shorter floral lives. Continuous global warming and extreme high-temperature events may shorten the flower life of plants and aggravate the insufficient pollination of plants,…

KAMPALA: Ugandan researchers have developed low-cost air quality monitoring sensors that work in extreme conditions and will allow Uganda to switch from expensive imported monitors in its bid to tackle rising air pollution. Kampala, Uganda’s capital home to 2 million people, ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, with pollution levels up to seven times higher than the World Health Organization’s safety standards, according to the 2021 World Air Quality Report. Engineer Bainomugisha, who leads the research at Makerere University in Kampala, said the team had been motivated by the growing death toll caused by air pollution around the world. Pollution remains the world’s largest environmental threat to human health, and in 2017 was responsible for 15% of all deaths globally, according to a report by the Global Alliance…

It’s awful that the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established for nothing on May 25, 1963. It’s now 59 years later and Africa is still in shambles since that time when 32 countries joined the OAU institute to help African countries. The African continent produces 51% of minerals in the world but is still poor. The OAU failed Zimbabwe which used to be called the breadbasket of Africa. Africa is not poor but it is poorly managed because of corrupt, brutal, careless leaders who are failing to rebuild their nations. African leaders are leaving nations to loot their resources. A good example is Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF government allowing Chinese people to destroy Zim markets and take minerals. Instead of helping Zimbabwe to rise,…

Despite attempts by Minister of Police Bheki Cele to disarm law-abiding honest gun owners under the pretext of them being responsible for the shootings all over the country – including cash-in-transit heists, attacks on bus drivers and the proliferation of shootings on the Cape flats – these heinous crimes continue unabated. In fact, shootings all over the country have never been as bad as they are today despite the fact that tens of thousands of privately owned firearms have been decommissioned via absurd and unworkable time-wasting amnesties and relicensing procedures. Thousands of law-abiding private firearm owners with expired licences have their guns locked up in safes across the country as well as in police stations awaiting relicensing whilst the carnage continues. The reissue of expired gun licences under the amnesty,…

The adage “out of sight, out of mind” has long summed up humans’ attitude to dumping personal and industrial waste. In a 1974 Scientific American article, oceanographer Willard Bascom wrote, “the ocean is the plausible place for a man to dispose of some of his wastes”. If done “thoughtfully”, he continued, “it will do no damage to marine life”. But it hasn’t been done thoughtfully. Our oceans are not only full of plastics, they’re also clogged with dumped medications, antibiotics, disinfectants, household chemicals and pesticides, among other pollutants. This isn’t just bad news for the environment and marine life. It harms humans, too. The compounds in some dumped products cause feminisation and lower the quality of sperm. They can also lead to sexual abnormalities and reproductive impairments in both sea…

KYIV: Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is under investigation for possible treason, has been allowed to leave Ukraine at a border crossing with Poland to attend a political meeting, local media and his allies said yesterday. Poroshenko is being probed in connection with the financing of Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country through illegal coal sales in 2014-15. He denies any wrongdoing. In January, a Ukrainian judge rejected a prosecutor’s request to have Poroshenko arrested in connection with the case. | Reuters…

EU leaders were hoping yesterday to persuade Prime Minister Viktor Orban to back a watered-down oil embargo against Russia after a month of haggling over a blocked sanctions package. But the Hungarian leader, who has demanded an exemption from the ban and guarantees for his country’s energy supply, warned on arrival at the EU summit that no compromise had yet been reached. Orban confirmed that the proposal on the table would see Russian oil arriving in the EU and in Hungary by pipeline, rather than by sea, exempted from the sanctions. “For Hungary, this is a good solution, it means an atomic bomb won’t be thrown on the Hungarian economy,” he said. But he warned that this would not be enough to guarantee supply. “What causes us a problem is…

CAPE Town City coach Eric Tinkler believes his team “are going to be a target next season” and that they will have to work extra hard to maintain their status. City finished runners-up to champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the DStv Premiership, thereby earning qualification to the Champions League for the first time. They also lost narrowly to Sundowns in a penalty shoot-out in the MTN8 final at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Tinkler is extremely proud of his charges, especially as the club off-loaded a host of senior players during the January transfer period with relatively unknown youngsters from the African continent coming in. It has proved a masterstroke, as the likes of Cameroon youth international Brice Ambina joined in seamlessly with club veterans Taariq Fielies and Thamsanqa Mkhize, resulting…

Community activists and civil society organisations are calling for a holistic approach to ensure the safety of children, particularly those living in impoverished communities. Their calls coincide with the start of this year’s National Child Protection Week, observed annually from May 29 until Sunday, June 5, facilitated by the Department of Social Development, in partnership with other government departments and child safety-focused CSOs. Speaking on the impact ongoing gang violence has on children living on the Cape Flats, social activist Roegshanda Pascoe said government bodies need to initiate a multi-pronged plan, supported by various role-players, all working towards the same goal. “This means that the people and all government departments work together towards one goal, with politics and other matters set aside. All efforts need to be made together to…

An ANC councillor in the eThekwini region has been arrested for allegedly killing his predecessor. The identity of the councillor is known to Cape Argus sister paper the Daily News, but it will not be revealed until he has appeared in court. The councillor was one of the “chief mourners” at the funeral of the person he is accused of killing. He was also part of the ANC delegation that visited the family to mourn his killing. On Monday morning, after days of secrecy, the ANC in the region admitted the councillor had been arrested. Over the weekend, the Daily News was tipped off that the councillor had not been seen in public for days because the SAPS task team on political killings had taken him in for questioning. The…

ABIDJAN: Concerned about illegal logging and pollution in Banco National Park in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan, authorities are erecting a concrete perimeter wall that they hope will preserve its distinctive ecosystem. Banco spans more than 34 square kilometres of western Abidjan, making it the second biggest urban park in the world, behind only Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca National Park. Some of its wildlife, which includes monkeys, chimpanzees and 500-year-old trees, is considered sacred by locals, and its shady trails are a haven for hikers and bicycle riders from the city of five million’s traffic-clogged streets. But Banco is threatened by pressures from Abidjan’s rapid growth. Locals illegally chop down trees to build houses and dump their trash in the woods, officials say. Parks officials hope to put an end…

Rennes: A killer whale stranded for weeks in France’s River Seine was found dead yesterday after attempts to guide it back to sea failed and revealed it was severely sick, local authorities said. Regional officials had already decided to euthanise the whale – also known as an orca -- to end its suffering, but a sailor spotted the animal lying on its side yesterday morning. Sea Shepherd France, which went out to the animal and confirmed its death, said on Twitter they were watching over the orca’s body to prevent it from being hit by a ship, which would compromise the autopsy. The investigation will try to establish why the orca got stranded and how it died, as well as gather information on its illness, authorities said. A group of…

In a recent interview that was aired on YouTube, the leader of one of the two groups objecting to the development at the River Club in Observatory, Cape Town (Tauriq Jenkins of the Goringhaicono Khoi Khoin Traditional Indigenous Council) saw fit to point out in his concluding remarks that the developer (the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust) has an all-white board, is owned/funded by one of SA’s largest white-owned construction companies, Zenprop, and is doing the bidding of a company that is owned and run by a white male (Jeff Bezos of Amazon). Consequently, one could almost certainly be forgiven for concluding that Judge Patricia Goliath of the Western Cape High Court might have ruled differently (refused permission to challenge the authorisations granted by the City of Cape Town and the…

The case of what is known as the River Club Development provides an insight into modern-day exploitation and disregard for indigenous peoples. Let’s divorce ourselves from any narrative which suggests indigenous peoples are anti-development. It is a narrative which reeks of ignorance, as it shows a lack of historical awareness about indigenous communities. Instead, I shall focus on the challenges which demand attention. There are multiple variables at play which now see the development at a standstill. As it’s best to always begin at home, the first focus point will be on the indigenous peoples directly involved and in support of this development, the First Nation Collective (FNC). To be frank, these were simply not the most adequate people to be negotiating an agreed settlement. One is able to surmise…

ELEVEN years ago, then-DA Member of Parliament Masizole Mnqasela stood in the dock, as an accused at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court. His 17-year-old girlfriend had accused the then 30-year-old high-flying DA MP of raping her after she had spent the night at his home. Then-DA leader Helen Zille was criticised for the party’s double standards, and its failure to suspend Mnqasela’s membership. Instead she stood by him, later insisting he had been framed. Mnqasela was eventually acquitted. What came after that acquittal should have given the DA leaders pause for thought. On the steps of the court, Mnqasela said: “Every day, everywhere, women long to be with me. There is no reason for me to criminalise myself.“ That was that, and Mnqasela’s star continued to rise inside the DA, so…

PARIS: The Mona Lisa was left shaken but unharmed at the weekend when a visitor to the Louvre tried to smash the glass protecting the world’s most famous painting before smearing cream across it in an apparent climate-related publicity stunt. The perpetrator, who was arrested, was a man disguised as an old woman who jumped out of a wheelchair before attacking the glass covering the Da Vinci masterpiece. ”People are destroying the Earth”, the man, wearing a wig, said a video that showed him being led away from the Paris gallery, indicating that the incident likely had an environmentalist motive. | Reuters…

Pakistan’s food import bill has been rising. Amid deepening economic crisis and lurking fear over a global food crisis, the country’s food imports in the current financial year increased by more than 15% compared to the previous year. The intense heat wave that gripped Pakistan along with India has multiplied Islamabad’s problems as several crops have been damaged. The immediate challenge for the Shehbaz Sharif government will be to contain the food import bill. According to reports, during the first three quarters of the current financial year – between July and March 2021-22, various food commodities worth about $7.067 billion (about R109bn) were imported compared to $6.121bn in the same period in the previous year. Soybean, palm oil, tea, spices and pulses were among the top items imported. Hit by…

Stuart Barnes’ concerns over the European Champions Cup becoming a “geographically sprawling switch-off” due to the involvement of South African teams are nothing more than fear of competition, not only in the Champions Cup but the Six Nations too. In a column for the Sunday Times, Barnes criticised SA featuring in next season’s Heineken Cup, warning that it’s only a matter of time before the Six Nations becomes the ‘Seven Nations’. The Stormers, the Sharks and the Bulls should enter the tournament next season after finishing in the top eight of the United Rugby Championship. South Africa’s entry into the Champions Cup should only strengthen their chances of getting into the Six Nations as well. Barnes, however, made it clear that he’s not a fan of the concept. “From its…

The trial of the three men accused of killing criminal lawyer Pete Mihalik will resume in the Western Cape High Court today after it was postponed yesterday. Judge Constance Nziweni apologised in court when the trial could not proceed due to her deliberating on another matter which took longer than expected. “Consequently we are forced to adjourn proceedings until tomorrow,” she said. Last week, the State revealed that it intended to play video footage of how Mihalik was shot and killed in front of Reddam House school on October 30, 2018, but the warrant officer had fallen ill and could not make it to court. Two more witnesses are expected to testify today and the State still intends to play the footage, but this is not guaranteed. Sizwe Biyela,…

Vredendal police are investigating a possible case of arson following a fire at the Vredendal Hospital during the early hours of Sunday morning. Hospital staff and patients were forced to temporarily evacuate the facility after a fire broke out at 3.45am on Sunday morning. Fire and Rescue Services arrived at the scene at approximately 3.50am and all wards and the emergency centre were evacuated. Patients in Wards A and C and the emergency centre returned to the wards once it was declared safe by service personnel. Ward B patients are being accommodated in a newly renovated ward at the hospital that was unaffected by the blaze. The provincial Health and Wellness Department said no injuries were reported and the cause of the fire was being investigated. The department said the…

FORMER State Security Agency (SSA) and Correctional Services boss Arthur Fraser is believed to be mulling private prosecution against former state security minister Sydney Mufamadi and Zondo Commission advocates Paul Pretorius and Veruschka September. This was after Fraser, through his law firm Mabuza Attorney, wrote to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) asking what progress had been made in the case where he laid charges of perjury against Mufamadi and the former director-general of the spy agency, Loyiso Jafta. In the case which was opened last May at Hillbrow SAPS, Fraser said the two lied before the Zondo Commission by claiming that assets of the agency worth R9 billion were not accounted for. He said the correct figure is R9 million and Jafta should have corrected “the lie” started by Mufamadi,…

Coal-fired power plants to stay open Britain's government said some coal-fired power plants, that were due to close later this year, may need to stay open to help ensure electricity supply this winter. Countries across Europe are drawing up contingency plans in case of major disruptions to flows of Russian gas, following its invasion of Ukraine, with Russia typically supplying around 40% of Europe’s gas. “In light of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, it is only right that we explore a wide range of options to further bolster our energy security and domestic supply,” a government spokesperson said yesterday. Britain typically generates about 50% of its electricity from gas. Although Russia only meets about 4% of Britain's gas needs, a significant disruption in supply would affect prices in Europe and…

Kartepe: The number of fires breaking out in plastic recycling plants has soared in Turkey. Experts and activists suspect it’s not a coincidence, believing that some entrepreneurs want to get rid of unwanted rubbish sometimes imported from Europe. In Kartepe, an industrial town in the country’s north-west, one of these sites was closed by the authorities in December after the outbreak of three fires in less than a month. One burnt for more than 50 hours, spewing toxic black smoke over the area wedged between the mountains and the Sea of Marmara. “We don’t want our lakes and springs to be polluted,” said Beyhan Korkmaz, an environmental activist. She is concerned about the polluting dioxin emissions from a dozen similar fires within a 5km radius in less than two years.…

INNOCENT people are being massacred across the US heartland because an ambiguous outdated constitutional law empowers citizens to own guns. It is a sad reality, because politicians are beholden to the gun lobby. The latest massacre in Texas, where 19 children and others were brutally gunned down in an orgy of relentless firepower is a graphic display of American culture which is based on mindless violence. The latest mass killings have turned the US into, “the land of the deranged and the home of the fearful”. Violence is part of the American way of life, from womb to tomb. The US was conceived and nurtured by violence. It is entertained by it, with 200 million guns at its disposal. DH Lawrence once said: “The essential American soul is hard, isolate,…

Over the past few weeks some South African newspapers have published disturbing and horrific reports about the abysmal plight and extent of malnutrition among children. On April 4, Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now wrote: “Too corrupt to feed starving children – is this freedom?” In a country that has enough food to feed the entire nation and more to spare, children are dying of starvation or growing up severely stunted due to lack of food. Hoffman writes that nutritious food is being shovelled into landfills while children are dying of starvation. William Saunderson-Meyer recently wrote about the disturbing number of deaths from malnutrition in South Africa. These past three years 2 818 children under 5 have died of malnutrition in state hospitals. The UN Children’s Fund details chronic malnourishment accounts…

I REFER to recent events which illustrate that the phenomenon of racism rears its head in our society more often than not, precisely because collectively, we are not dealing with the systemic nature of the challenge, which renders the ideal of a unified South African nation as a distant notion. In an article published on News24, Carol Paton, reporting on the low results of the census project in the Western Cape, highlights the prevalence of racism by quoting Statistician General (SG) Risenga Maluleka, who claims that whites and coloureds in the Western Cape refuse to be interviewed by black enumerators. In this article, Maluleka is quoted as saying the following: “The white community does not want to be enumerated by coloureds and blacks. And coloureds and whites are afraid to…

SHANGHAI: Shanghai authorities will lift the city’s two-month long lockdown from midnight tomorrow, allowing private cars including taxis back on to the roads and people to freely move in and out of low-risk housing compounds. Bus and rail transport will also resume basic operations from June 1, including a ferry that connects districts separated by the city’s Huangpu river, the Shanghai city government said in a statement. “The epidemic in our city has been effectively controlled and the situation continues to improve,” it said. People are urged to wear masks and get vacccinated. | Reuters…

MADRID: Five Madrid hospitals started administering PCR tests for the monkeypox virus yesterday, as ordered by the regional department of public health to curb the outbreak, Spanish newspaper Vanguardia reported. On Friday, the head of public health in the Madrid region, Elena Andradas, announced that five hospitals in the Spanish capital would start monkeypox testing to “facilitate diagnosis and response at the earliest time possible”. Madrid has confirmed 75 cases of monkeypox and is studying another 46 suspected cases, the newspaper reported, citing health ministry sources. | Sputnik…