Innehållsförteckning för 2022-09-20 från Cape Argus

The move by the City to scrap a proposal to ban cyclists from the Sea Point Promenade and ultimately open it for all recreational activities has been welcomed. The City's decision follows public participation which saw 2 000 comments on proposals for the recreational use of the Promenade. Urban Mobility mayoral member Rob Quintas said the majority of submissions did not agree with the proposal to ban cyclists and motorised devices from the Promenade. He said the proposal that the Promenade be reserved for the exclusive use of pedestrians was now off the table. “The outcome of this public participation process and the City’s recommendations on the way forward confirm that we are eager to collaborate with our residents and that we take their comments and proposals seriously,” he said.…

Economists, academics and property specialists forecast that the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Thursday is set to increase the repo rate and speculated on the impact the rise is likely to have on the property market. At the previous meeting in July, the MPC increased rates by 75 basis points. A hike in the repo rate will also raise the prime lending rate, which will mean that the interest owed on any debt will automatically increase. It also means that any interest earned on savings will increase. RE/MAX Southern Africa chief executive Adrian Goslett said: “This is why it is so important for homeowners in particular to listen out for these announcements so that they can plan for the new instalment on their home…

I WAS a fairly regular visitor to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve for many years prior to 2020. As a local with a “Green Card”, the entrance fee was okay. Most overseas visitors to Cape Town look forward to, among others, Table Mountain, the Wine Route and the COGH Reserve. But for the owners of the COGH Reserve to charge R360 a person for overseas visitors seems ridiculously expensive and, frankly, unacceptable – extortion comes to mind. In the “old days” entrance was free. Clearly things have changed, (some game has been introduced) and change is good, but R360 seems exorbitant – taking advantage of a “captive audience” – having driven through Simon’s Town or Kommetjie, all the way to the gate and being charged R360. Needless to…

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s working visits to the United States and the United Kingdom could not have come at a worse time. As Ramaphosa was preparing to meet American counterpart Joe Biden last week, Eskom announced that it would be ramping up load shedding. Their high-level, bilateral Oval Office talks had top of the agenda: trade and investment, climate change, food security, peace and security – and of course energy. Biden has for some time been eyeing an energy deal with Ramaphosa, and has just announced millions of dollars in funding for a multinational venture aimed at phasing out coal-fired power in South Africa. With Eskom’s current capacity and liquidity woes, Ramaphosa would have felt tempted to take the money and run there and then. In the past five months, the…

Rapper AKA sat down for his first full-on interview in two years with the crew from The Sober Podcast, where he talked about hot topics like his beefs, growth, the losses in life and lawsuits. In his first-ever podcast interview, which lasted more than two hours, the hip hop artist said a lot has happened in his personal life in the last three years, but it was time for him to “drop the album”, hence appearing on the show. “It’s time for me to drop the album, I ain’t gonna lie. But seriously, it was music that got me through that time. I was able to triumph in many ways, and I can’t wait for people to hear my new music. “I’m in much better spirits since the last interview…

Calls for urgent ‘family meeting’ to be held PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has cut short his working visits to the US and the UK following growing calls for him to deal with South Africa’s power crisis. Ramaphosa met his American counterpart Joe Biden in Washington for bilateral talks last week, before flying to London to attend the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Ngwenya said yesterday morning: “The president will no longer be travelling to New York from London. Instead, he will head home to deal with the current Stage 6 load shedding.” Load shedding was downgraded to Stage 5 at midnight last night, Eskom said yesterday, after implementing Stage 6 on Sunday morning. Political analysts and politicians are in agreement that Ramaphosa’s decision to cut short…

NEDBANK came under fire after it barred a senior Independent Media journalist from an event it had invited her to attend. Business Report journalist Dieketseng Maleke has complained about her apparent snub after she was told she was no longer welcome at yesterday’s Nedbank event “In Conversation With Mark Rose”. Rose is the bank’s head of strategy and new business development. Nedbank and Independent Media shareholder, the Sekunjalo Group of Companies, are in the midst of a legal battle over its arbitrary closure of the group’s bank accounts. Last week, the Competition Tribunal ruled in favour of Sekunjalo against Nedbank, Absa, First Rand, Sasfin, Access Bank, Standard Bank, Mercantile, Bidvest and Investec, ordering the reopening of accounts that had already been shut. Nedbank has also been interdicted by the Equality…

As I prepare to launch a concept plan on ending chronic homelessness in Cape Town, I was this week again reminded of the challenges we face in trying to do just that. I am launching the plan, knowing full well that neither I nor anyone else can ever stop poverty and the other factors that contribute to homelessness. But it is possible to help prevent people from becoming chronically homeless. I know this because I have lived as a homeless man and I have dedicated the last two and a half years to helping those experiencing chronic homelessness to find pathways out of it. The systems that we currently employ and support are not adequate or conducive to ending chronic homelessness. Even those of us who transition out of it,…

When will Eskom management bite the bullet and have the courage of its convictions to deal with this load shedding crisis? It is very inconvenient that Eskom’s management is so indecisive and egg dancing regarding action on this matter. We are sick and tired of these unpredictable outages which disrupt our lives. We live our lives on tenterhooks, not knowing when they will be thrown into a tailspin for yet another round of load shedding. What is most galling is that Eskom has the answer, but is petrified to take the bull by the horns. That answer is introducing, in the interim, “permanent” load shedding, for say, a period of three years. During this time, management can knuckle down to resolve the problems of the utility, and if they fail,…

Who needs a school dictionary these days? It’s easier to just google it, right? Wrong! 1. Google or other internet search engines may have the facts you’re after, but chances are the language expressing those facts is not suitable for your child’s age group, education phase or literacy level (even less so after the educational backlogs created by the pandemic); and does not have the subject vocabulary as specified by the curriculum, the language used in the classroom, or the dialect unique to our country. Sometimes even simple objects or concepts, such as “fridge” or “rake”, are explained in language only adults will understand. 2. And that’s not even taking into account spelling and grammar … where the South African school system is the lowest performing in international literacy benchmark…

US President Joe Biden has issued forceful warnings to China and Russia and expressed optimism over the US economic rebound, but surprised many by hedging on whether he’ll seek re-election. In an interview with the CBS 60 Minutes programme, Biden went back on repeated assertions by the White House that he is sure to run in 2024. Biden, who turns 80 in November, told interviewer Scott Pelley that re- election is his “intention.” “But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen. It’s much too early,” Biden said, calling himself “a great respecter of fate.” Surveying the state of the world’s largest economy, Biden was optimistic. He declared the Covid-19 pandemic in the US “over” and predicted that his administration would tame inflation –…

A WITNESS, 19, yesterday shocked the court when she said “they shot my brother in front of me, so this is like nothing”, as she testified in the trial of four men accused of killing a 24-year-old Kensington man. Shannon Smith, 29, Aiden Petsersen, 21, Kyle Crouch, 23, and Melvin Filander, 26, appeared in the Cape Town Regional Court facing charges of murder and attempted murder after Wade Williams was stabbed to death on February 1, 2020, in Typhoon Street, Kensington. They pleaded not guilty but a fifth accused, Ashwin Landsman, is serving a 15-year sentence after he entered into a plea agreement with the State. The witness said she was on the scene when the incident happened. She had gone to a tavern with Williams’ mother, Wendy, when she…

Several road closures were brought into effect yesterday following service delivery protests in Kensington and Strand. At around 5.30am, Cape Town Traffic Services spokesperson Kevin Jacobs said officers attended to a scene in which Voortrekker Road was closed between 18th Avenue and Jakes Gerwel Drive. Voortrekker Road reopened at around 8.44am. Protests also took place in Strand, with Gordon’s Bay Road closed between Rusthof Street and Beach Road, and reopened after 6am. City Traffic Service spokesperson Maxine Bezuidenhout said City traffic officers, law enforcement and the police attended to the two scenes. Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said at 6am yesterday. “A group of 20 disgruntled community members staged a service delivery protest near the corners of 18th Avenue and Voortrekker Road. The group dispersed peacefully at around 8.30am,” he said.…

Already hamstrung by Eskom debt of more than R45 million, the Cederberg Municipality has been ordered by an arbitrator to pay the 4.9% salary increase that had been agreed to for its 345 employees. To add to the municipality’s woes, Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell has drawn up a plan for the municipality through section 154 of the Constitution, which often leads to administration of councils. Meanwhile, an arbitration order by Arthi Singh-Bhoopchand, seen by the Cape Argus, shows that the SA Local Government Bargaining Council oversaw a three-year wage deal entered into between the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) and the municipality. The municipality paid the wages last year, but reneged this year. It applied for exemption from the wage deal. Queries…

Saying “The Queen” depicts her as queen of all, including our own royals. There is no reason whatsoever that can make it right to celebrate the death of someone, regardless of whether the person concerned was a beneficiary of colonialism or segregation. When other humans are mourning the loss of life, it is something that we can relate to, even if we are not ourselves mourning. And that is precisely the situation regarding the death of the Queen of the United Kingdom, but that is where it ends. What should be crystal clear is the fact that we, as Africans, had no queen called Elizabeth and we will have no king called Charles. Maybe a few black people saw themselves as English subjects but certainly not the rest of us.…

Recently Republican governors transported hundreds of migrants and dumped them on the pavement outside the homes of Democratic Party leaders. While it may seem like a good idea, history suggests it was Republican Party leaders George Bush senior and junior who were guilty of the greatest human catastrophe in recent memory. The invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, which injured, killed and caused mass migration of millions were based on the deception that Iraq and Afghanistan were linked to the 9/11 attacks. To date, no evidence exists to prove the people of Iraq or Afghanistan were involved. The then Republican Party was led by the Bush family under the wickedness of Paul Wolfowitz, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Ari Fleischer, John Bolton, etc. Why is it…

The death of Queen Elizabeth II has moved me to revisit the expression, “history is in the making”. I would start off by asking “whose history is this expression referring to?” A plausible answer to this question will come after we have dealt with another question, “whose history have we been fed with all along?” I must declare upfront the difficulty of addressing the people of South Africa when they are divided into two fascinating dominant groups: l The first group consists of those former students who say, “I disliked history because it was concerned about events and prestigious people of Caucasian descent. It said little about the hegemony, ordinary lives and ethical leadership of the African people.” l The second group says, “history does not prepare anyone for exigencies…

Regardless of what happens in the final game, the Springboks should make it a point to chuck the calculator away as they head into their Rugby Championship finale against Argentina on Saturday. The Boks go up against the Pumas at 5.05pm at Kings Park, while the All Blacks fight it out against the Wallabies at Eden Park at 9.05am. Mathematically, all four countries can still win it, although Argentina’s chances are slim, while the Boks and All Blacks lead the charge. With the South Africans and New Zealanders both having one win over each this season (in Mbombela and Joburg), the winners could well be determined by points difference and – unless that is also a deadlock, in which case SA will reclaim the Rugby Championship title as they outscored…