Innehållsförteckning för 2022-10-28 från Cape Argus

A crack team of SANDF soldiers has seized a massive R223 million haul of erectile dysfunction tablets being smuggled into South Africa through the Lebombo border post crossing in Mpumalanga. Joint Operations Tactical Headquarters Mpumalanga spokesperson Major Lerato Endrew Maluleka said the bust was made on October 17 by the Bravo Company of 15 South African Infantry Battalion who were participating in an intelligence-driven operation. The SANDF said in a statement that the soldiers deployed under Operation Corona border protection duty intercepted a cargo truck carrying maize bran that was travelling from Mozambique. “On searching the vehicle, soldiers initially found it to be transporting maize bran, but further investigation revealed 107 boxes containing Cobra 120 and Cobra 200 erectile dysfunction tablets.” Joint Operations Chief Lieutenant-General Siphiwe Lucky Sangweni said…

THE supposed targets of a planned terrorist attack in Joburg have downplayed a US embassy warning of a terrorist threat – that media reports said was possibly aimed at their events. The US warned on Wednesday that Sandton, a hive of activity this weekend, could be the target of an attack in the coming days, while the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office published a travel alert warning to supplement the US’ statement. While the Department of International Relations and Co-operation and the State Security Agency remained tight-lipped about the warnings, the UK reiterated its message yesterday. News24 reported that the Johannesburg Pride 2022 and Cape Town comic Nik Rabinowitz were potential targets of the terror attack, but organisers of the Pride and Rabinowitz took to social media to say…

I have said it before, and I say it again, politics is the art of hypocrisy. Accruing wealth using politics supersedes nearly any religion, or values or ethical standard, etc. Example, Saudi Arabia is giving the US and its allies the middle finger for the first time in 50 years. The decision by Opec to cut oil production will hurt the US, Britain and Europe since they are engaged in a proxy war with Russia, using Ukraine. Europe is unsafe as right-wing political parties that do not have a problem with Russia are gaining ground. Europeans do not want high energy prices and prefer negotiations with Russia. The idea that Nato’s strategy to surround Russia is supported by all Europeans and limitless European support of Ukraine is not really true.…

‘Salute the warrior Motionless on the battlefield Shorn of life Yet living evermore He who gave his last Gave his sacred best That we might be free Carrying our load He wrote our destiny’ THIS extract is taken from the poem Salute The Warrior, by the Azanian poet and elder freedom fighter, Ntate Donato (Don) Mattera. Even though this poem may not have been written with Ntate Hlaku Rachidi in mind, this extract nevertheless encapsulates the essence of his life and meaning to us as a black people. For my generation of black consciousness activists, Ntate Rachidi is a legend. An icon. A source of inspiration. A man among men and freedom fighter of the highest calibre. For this reason, his passing constitutes a monumental loss to those of us…

La Paz: Bolivia has suspended several exports to avoid possible food shortages after strikes paralysed the country’s economic hub. Authorities decided to “temporarily suspend the export of soybean, soybean cake, soy flour, sugar, oil and beef” because “there is a risk of shortage” and price increases, productive development minister Nestor Huanca said in a press conference on Wednesday. In the Santa Cruz region, Bolivia’s economic engine, protesters have blocked roads and shut their businesses as they demand a census to increase the opposition stronghold’s legislative representation and state funds. | AFP…

Australia’s football team has condemned human rights abuses in Qatar, ahead the World Cup, becoming the first participant to collectively criticise the host. Sixteen members of the men’s team – the Socceroos – appeared in a short video yesterday, explaining their position. Jackson Irvine, a one-time Celtic midfielder, said: “We have learnt that the decision to host the World Cup in Qatar has resulted in the suffering and harm of countless of our fellow workers.” The World Cup, beginning on November 20, has been marred by controversy since Qatar was awarded the tournament 12 years ago. Before making the statement, the Australian players spoke to labour organisations and advocacy groups such as Amnesty International. Socceroos captain Maty Ryan, a former Arsenal goalkeeper, said: “Over the last two years, we have…

STORMERS centre Dan du Plessis says he won’t be out to prove anything when he goes up against the Lions’ Henco van Wyk in their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash tomorrow. The Stormers will look to bounce back from their defeat to Cardiff when they face the Lions at Ellis Park. “I don’t think there’s anything I need to prove. It’s always nice to go up against a quality player and it’s a breath of fresh air seeing the youngsters come through,“ Du Plessis said. “I will be reviewing the Lions games and will obviously watch more of him (Van Wyk), but from what I’ve seen he’s a very talented player and I’m looking forward to the match-up with him.” Du Plessis spent a chunk of last season on the…

The man accused of killing 26-year-old Clanwilliam teacher Allison Plaatjies was yesterday convicted for premeditated murder in the Western Cape High Court. Phillip April was in a relationship with Plaatjies but they had broken up by the time he killed her in her apartment and drove away with her car on October 26, 2019. He pleaded guilty to a charge of murder but disputed theft of her car. From the outset, April admitted to killing Plaatjies and gave the court his version of what happened, but State advocate Renee Uys rejected his plea, arguing instead that April had planned the murder. Acting Judge Nonthuthuzelo Ralarala said in her judgment that based on the evidence, the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that April had committed premeditated murder and…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana has been criticised for omitting the broke SA Post Office (Sapo) in his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement speech. On Wednesday, Godongwana delivered his policy statement – in which he announced bailouts for Eskom, Transnet, Denel and Sanral – against a backdrop of a growing number of post offices shutting down, and as the company struggles to pay workers’ medical aid. DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, who sits on the communications and digital technologies portfolio committee, spoke to the Cape Argus. “Sapo owes its creditors R4.3 billion. We waited to see (if Godongwana would address Sapo), but not even a mention of the Post Office. No sign of any bailout there. It doesn’t mean it’s completely off the table. They’ve already received a massive bailout of R6bn…

IN A piece published in the Daily Maverick, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan appears to respond to an earlier piece written by myself and published in it and the Cape Argus. The example of Telkom deregulation, which I have raised on more than one occasion, is most certainly taken verbatim, and it is no coincidence Gordhan’s response occurred on the day my piece was published by IOL. Electricity may be a public good, but when the only source of electricity for the majority of South African households is a government department or city billing system, the results will always favour the producers not the consumers. Peter Fabricius reports that Gordhan responded to a question put to the Financial Times Africa Summit on Tuesday on “why South Africa needed Eskom at…

Thousands of National Senior Certificate (NSC) candidates will sit for the first written examinations on Monday. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said 73 846 candidates would write the exams, of which 62 361 were full-time candidates and 11 485 part-time. On Monday, English Home Language, First Additional Language, and Second Additional Language papers will be written. A total of 124 papers will be written over the exam period. Education MEC David Maynier said Mathematical Literacy was the subject with the most candidates at 49 672. Seven subjects have a single candidate writing. They are Hebrew Second Additional Language, Zulu Home Language, Latin Second Additional Language, Sepedi First Additional Language, Sepedi Home Language, Sesotho First Additional Language, and Sport and Exercise Science. The department has contracted 1 889 invigilators for…

While the R350 Social Relief of Distress Grant has been extended until March 2024, civil society remains concerned and has called for it to be turned into a Universal Basic Income Grant. Civil organisations are also concerned about the recurring challenges plaguing the disbursement of the grant. Millions of applicants still await approval while some beneficiaries are waiting for payouts. The civil society organisations said while the SRD grant provided a mere pittance, the hoops that applicants had been required to jump through to access it have been well documented and resulted in millions of unjust exclusions. The organisation reiterated its call for the grant to be extended by writing it into the Social Assistance Act as a permanent social assistance grant before March 2023, with an initial value indexed…

Tenants in areas like Hangberg, Sakkiesdorp in Lavender Hill, Diep River and Lotus River will now be able to own the properties they have been renting for decades, after the City agreed to transfer them at no cost to the occupants. The City owns about 7 500 saleable community rental units, 12 000 delayed transfer units and 1 500 serviced sites that can be sold and transferred to eligible tenants. As part of the approved No Cost Transfer Programme, the City said it would approach the provincial and national authorities to deviate from the national housing code provision forcing beneficiaries to settle outstanding debts on a property before ownership could be transferred. It said it would fund the payment of transfer fees on behalf of beneficiaries, and fix these…

THE silence around the origins of the millions of US dollars alleged to have been found hidden in a mattress at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm is deafening … and instead of it going away, more allegations around the matter keep sufacing. In a recent twist regarding the fiasco, the UDM’s Bantu Holomisa has requested that the independent panel probing the burglary incident at the president’s farm investigate allegations that Bejani Chauke, top adviser to the head of state, illegally brought millions of US dollars to South Africa. This week, Holomisa submitted to the panel a letter believed to have been written by Arthur Fraser as additional information to assist the Hawks with the probe. The letter names Chauke as the person who is responsible for smuggling large sums…

New York: Opening up for the first time since the gruesome killing of their son at Purdue University, the parents of Indian-American Varun Chheda said they are struggling to understand how it happened. Varun Chheda, 20, a data science student at the university in Indiana, was allegedly killed by his 22-year-old South Korean room-mate Ji Min Sha earlier this month. “I would believe that, you know, there could be a fire or … an earthquake… but never, never something like this,” Manish Chheda, Varun’s father, told ABC News. Sha, who faces a murder charge, allegedly stabbed Varun multiple times in the head and neck with a folding knife. | IANS…

IRAN’S president yesterday claimed “riots” sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death paved the way for “terrorist” attacks, a day after a gunman killed at least 15 people at a Muslim shrine. The bloody attack in the city of Shiraz came as thousands of mourners paid tribute to Amini on Wednesday in her western hometown, 40 days after her death in police custody. Ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the two tragedies yesterday, declaring that “the intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country’s progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts”. Raisi vowed “a severe response” over the mass killing at the Shia Muslim Shah Cheragh mausoleum during evening prayers – an attack claimed by Sunni extremist group Islamic State. Protests have gripped Iran since Amini,…

ARTHUR Zwane walked the talk yesterday, with his spread of grey hair, tired face and red eyes backing Kaizer Chiefs’ “need for divine intervention”. Zwane has endured four challenging months since his appointment as Chiefs coach. His team has failed to stamp their authority amid “project revival”, dropping points in the Premiership, while they crashed out of the MTN8 semi-finals in Durban last Sunday. But as if things couldn’t get worse for Zwane and his troops, they will face highly-charged rivals Orlando Pirates in the first Soweto derby of the season tomorrow. Zwane knows this fixture all too well, given the fact that he played and won the derby with both teams, using gospel music to calm his nerves on the day. “Some players find a way to ease the…

The fact that many South Africans take the terrorist alert from security agencies in the US seriously, speaks volumes. It shows exactly who is in control of the psyche and, perhaps, the human-willed destiny of South Africa. It also shows how much we adore what is white and that which can be said to be trustworthy. Not so long ago, the president of the US, alongside its allies like Britain, issued a bold and false statement that insisted that Russia would take the capital city of Ukraine, Kyiv in 24 hours. Since then, we have derived disturbing methods for the handling of information and security data by the West. As we should all know today, it is the Russians and their initial theories who have been proven right, because the…

The letter from Mr Adiel Ismail (Cape Argus, October 26) refers. The City’s cost of supply study shows that the Home User Charge is indeed roughly half of what it should be. The confusion around this may arise from a lack of understanding of costs involved in rendering electricity services. Some costs, such as salaries and wages, capital expenditure, and repair and maintenance costs are incurred whether any electricity is used or not. Those costs are recovered through a fixed charge (the Home User Charge), as this is the most cost reflective method of recovery. I’m not aware of any area that failed to receive any electricity for three months, as claimed by Mr Ismail. While we have had an excessive amount of load shedding, no one area is permanently…

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande has been saddened by the deaths of University of Stellenbosch student, Ethan Kirkland and Leila Lees in a car crash in a disused quarry. Kirkland relocated to Stellenbosch from Pretoria and he was a first-year BSc student at Stellenbosch University. The couple were reported missing on Saturday after Lees failed to arrive for work. They were last seen on Friday, leaving The Niche apartment complex in Kirkland’s maroon Subaru Forester at about 5pm. On Monday, a resident saw the backside of a vehicle in a dam on Paul Kruger Street, and alerted authorities. Hours later, the car was dragged out of the dam by law enforcement officials. Police confirmed bodies were found inside. Nzimande called on law enforcement agencies to…

Pope Francis warned priests and nuns against watching pornography online and urged them to delete it from their cellphones to avoid falling into temptation. The 85-year-old pontiff told a Vatican session that porn on the internet was “a vice that so many people have … even priests and nuns,” in response to questions about using digital and social media responsibly. “The devil enters from there … It weakens the priestly heart,” he told seminarians and priests studying in Rome this week in remarks published by the Vatican on Wednesday. “Dear brothers, pay attention to this,” he said. “And if you can delete this from your mobile phone, delete it, so you won’t have the temptation in hand.” The head of the Roman Catholic Church recounted that he had once received…

A SEARCH and rescue mission has concluded after 63 hours with the recovery of the eighth and last body from a sand-laden dredger that sank off the coast of Bangladesh’s Chattogram district, some 242km southeast of capital Dhaka, in the wake of cyclone Sitrang. Eight workers out of nine onboard the dredger are now confirmed dead. According to an official, divers cut open several sections of the dredger to recover the bodies from inside. The dredger capsized in extremely rough waters due to the cyclone on Monday. Only one of the nine workers onboard the dredger heeded calls to return to shore, while the others reportedly decided to stay put. | Xinhua…

BRITISH King Charles III was yesterday reportedly planning to extend the pool of royals allowed to act for him in his absence, effectively sidelining non-working royals Prince Harry and the Duke of York. Charles is expected to amend the “Regency Act” to add his brother Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and his sister Anne, the Princess Royal, The Daily Telegraph and the BBC reported, quoting sources. The Telegraph reported the amendments could go before parliament “within weeks”, quoting “royal insiders” as saying it was a “logical step”. | AFP…

TENS of thousands of mourners attended the funeral yesterday of a Pakistani journalist shot dead by police in Kenya after he fled arrest in his home country. Arshad Sharif, a strident critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment and supporter of former premier Imran Khan, died when Kenyan police opened fire on his car at a roadblock outside the capital at the weekend. Sharif had fled the country in August to escape sedition charges, and his death triggered widespread speculation in Pakistan that he was targeted for his views. Kenyan officials say Sharif’s death was a case of mistaken identity as officers thought they were firing on a stolen car involved in an abduction. The funeral at Islamabad’s main mosque drew up to 40 000 mourners, according to police at the…

NINE games into the job, Graham Potter remains unbeaten as Chelsea manager. Tomorrow, he aims to extend that streak to double figures when he returns to his former club Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League. Potter, who Brighton lured from Swansea City in 2019, took over at Stamford Bridge after Thomas Tuchel's sacking. While Chelsea have not been spectacular since his arrival, the 47-year-old has taken little time to get his message across. Still, successive draws in their last two Premier League fixtures - away to Brentford and at home to Manchester United, games in which they struggled to create chances, leave them fifth in the table. Victory in Salzburg on Tuesday meant Chelsea reached the last-16 of the Champions League, but Potter will be anxious to get…

THE World Cup is the most watched event in the world every four years but the showpiece has never been short of controversy. ESHLIN VEDAN looks at some of the most controversial World Cup wins. DUE to its questioned record on human rights and geo-politics, the Fifa World Cup 2022 will most certainly be the window to what life is like in Qatar next month, especially due to the unusual logistics surrounding the event. Some have predicted that many of the big guns could wilt as a result of the event being played at the end of the year for the first time in history. Here are some on-field controversies of the past: England v West Germany (1966 final) England still celebrate their 1966 World Cup victory, which remains…