Innehållsförteckning för 2024-01-31 från Cape Argus

Fill your February with laughter at Wayne McKay’s AfriSnaaks! comedy show. This satirical production, in association with Vulture Productions, will see the renowned comedian and Bush Radio presenter re-live the “funny” perspective of growing up on the Cape Flats. Born and raised in Kensington in the Mother City and relocating to Mitchells Plain as a youngster, Mckay found it an effortless exercise as he acclimated to the distinctive Cape Flats environment. The humour in this colourful community, continually scripting its narrative each day, became a profound influence on his comedic material. Through his razor-sharp, witty and sometimes outrageously satirical comedic performance, McKay now invites you to experience Afrikaans as seen by those living in Mzansi. “The theme I’ll be exploring is gratitude that I’ve encountered over the years with my…

As the regulator of banks charged with issuing, suspending and revoking bank licences, the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) and Prudential Authority (PA) have a legal interest in how the institutions conduct themselves with their customers. This is according to the Sekunjalo Group, its chairman Dr Iqbal Survé, and among 100 other respondents, who yesterday presented its case over why the Sarb and PA should be part of the legal process involving the group’s challenge of alleged discrimination by banks. The matter before the high court yesterday ran parallel to an interlocutory application heard on Monday in the Equality Court, also sitting in the high court, in which the Sarb and PA sought interim relief for the dismissal of a complaint brought against them by Sekunjalo relating to allegations of…

This week I shall visit a phenomenon with which we are all familiar. It is called “Time”. It cannot be altered, reversed, or held down to linger. The inexplicable sense of motion and existence which defies semantic corralling. As the redoubtable maxim reminds us: “Time and tide wait for no man.” But do not imagine that I am going to inflict a philosophical or scientific treatise on this most enigmatic of human experiences. The dictionary meaning says that time is a non-spatial continuum in which events occur in irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. That is quite a notion to get one’s brain around because it has no concrete properties that will help us to say exactly what it is. There is some relief in…

Straight out of matric, I was very fortunate and blessed to land a job with a South African food manufacturer in 1983. My managing director was Jewish. He was the ultimate mensch who shaped and moulded my career. Thus began the start of a 23-year journey that would take me to the pinnacle of business society, ending in 2006 when I was retrenched due to the business being sold to a major conglomerate. Over those years I was exposed to Jewish tradition and had the opportunity of meeting Clive Weil (Checkers) and Raymond Ackerman, both doyens of the SA retailing industry. I never worked on a Saturday (Jewish Day of Sabbath) and enjoyed the perks of Jewish holidays. The Jewish influence rubbed off easily on me and over the years…

Protests by angry farmers spread across the EU yesterday as the French government scrambled to placate agriculture workers who have been moving towards Paris in long convoys of tractors, blocking key motorways along the way. Their litany of complaints range from rising costs to meet carbon-cutting targets, fuel prices, inflation, bureaucracy and Ukrainian grain imports. The French mobilisation has blown up into a serious crisis for Prime Minister Gabriel Attal only weeks into the job. Addressing parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Attal promised that his government stood ready to resolve the crisis “without ambiguity” and praised the agriculture sector as “our force and our pride”. President Emmanuel Macron, speaking during a state visit to Sweden, said he was opposed to a trade deal between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur,…

Tributes have poured in for the legendary musician Tony Cedras. Born and raised in Elsies River, Tony, born Anthony Andrew Cedras, 71, was a much-loved musician who was also an activist for Khoi culture and music. His wife Tania Kleinhans-Cedras, 60, said the talented musician passed away after a battle with chronic emphysema, on January 29. Tania said Tony grew up in a strict Christian household where he played the accordion during open-air church services while his friends played in the street. She described the iconic instrumentalist’s death as a big loss to the music industry. “He used to stand on the corners when his family did open-air church services and he played the accordion, he played instruments from a very young age. “He lived in District 6 but was…

GROOTE Schuur Hospital CEO Dr Bhavna Patel (pictured) will be laying down her stethoscope today after 23 years. Twenty-three years ago, Dr Patel started as a public health registrar at the hospital and served in various senior management positions. In 2013, she was appointed as the hospital’s CEO and steered it through its journey to where it has become a world-class facility over the past 10 years. Groote Schuur Hospital spokesperson Alaric Jacobs said Dr Patel’s role had been pivotal. “During her tenure, Dr Patel was pivotal in leading the hospital through a period of growth, innovation and challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, where Groote Schuur was a beacon of hope for many patients,” said Jacobs. “She was also instrumental in building many lasting relationships with donors, the private…

With a $1.60 trillion (about R30 trillion) market cap, the imminent intensification of Amazon’s operations in South Africa will shape the practices and standards that characterise and grow the domestic e-commerce landscape. Amazon’s decision to further penetrate the South African market should not, however, be regarded as an inevitable death knell for its many competitors (as initially feared). Instead, Amazon.co.za should rather be regarded as a pace car to be matched across different levels of engagement throughout the short-to-medium term. In light of this reality facing Amazon.co.za in South Africa, its competitors would benefit from exploiting the gaps in its business model that do not account for the domestic context and which it may previously have benefited from in other markets. Small to medium-sized businesses can combat the juggernaut…

As per usual, Adiel Ismail (Cape Argus, January 30) writes with aplomb, sincerity and accuracy in his article. However, the euphoria of the positive International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling regarding the Israel/Gaza conflict should be seen in context. The ICJ has no power of enforcement, which renders the ruling impotent other than it being a UN legal opinion. Let us not forget that two years ago the ICJ ruled against the Russian invasion of Ukraine with no effect. Putin ignored the ruling and went ahead anyway. The annals of history record that the UN, under which the ICJ falls, was once called a toothless bulldog as it could not prevent the constant violations of its covenant by the major European powers. It seems that nothing has changed and the…

Have you felt a sense of disappointment that you could not adequately express yourself? When a black professor who had an inflated sense of his own importance rejected my PhD application, I was disappointed but not devastated. I wrote back and impressed upon him that one did not need a PhD to contribute to the field of knowledge. I told him that before I applied, I had authored and presented many international conference papers on four continents on safety management, I was the co-author of Life Orientation Grade 11, I wrote for Sheqafrica.com on safety, health and the environment and I had written for The Thinker magazine, which is now a University of Johannesburg journal. Like Robert Mugabe’s message to Tony Blair, I told him to keep his PhD and…

Undercover Israeli agents, some disguised as medical staff, raided a West Bank hospital yesterday and shot dead three Palestinians the army alleged were Hamas militants, in the first such operation in eight years. An AFP photographer saw a bullet hole on a pillow covered in blood following the raid at Ibn Sina Hospital in the northern city of Jenin, where Palestinians gathered around the bodies of those killed. The Israeli military said forces entered the hospital – a major health facility serving Jenin city and its adjacent refugee camp – to target a “Hamas terrorist cell”. Announcing the killing by Israeli forces of three people inside the hospital, the Palestinian health ministry stressed healthcare facilities are granted special protection under international law. “The minister of health calls urgently on the…

The turf war between the 28s and the Nice Time Kids in Beacon Valley has resulted in the killing of a young girl who was in school. The Ieglaasi Nieyah School learner was outside her class when she was struck by a stray bullet yesterday morning. Parents rushed to fetch their children from neighbouring schools after the murder. The woman who would transport her to school said she was standing in front of the 12-year-old when she was shot. As the woman walked out of the school where the family of the victim were, she couldn’t hold back her tears. She had a bloody tracksuit top in her hands. She told Independent Media: “She was standing in front of me and then I saw her collapse. I was at the…

Alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack and his group of co-accused have denied all the charges against them in the Western Cape High Court. The second day of the mammoth trial, which centres on the murder of Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear, got under way yesterday, filled with commentary and courtroom antics. Modack, along with others, is facing an array of charges that include the murder of Kinnear, a grenade attack on his home, money laundering, racketeering and charges under the Prevention of Organised Crime (Poca) Act. Modack and three others remain unrepresented while the court awaits the appointment of Legal Aid representatives, but this did not deter the accused from stating his plea. During court proceedings, Judge Robert Henney said that while he was allowed to plead, he had to…

Frog Friends Helderberg, a group lobbying for the conservation of frogs, said more can be done when it comes to migration during rainfall. This is after thousands of Common Platanna frogs (Xenopus laevis) were flattened by motorists following a mass frog dispersal that occurred on Monday evening. The frogs crossed the R44 from Paardevlei towards the dam at The Sanctuary Shopping Centre in Somerset West. Don Marx, a volunteer at Frog Friends Helderberg and Marine Scientist, said that he, along with residents, saved thousands of frogs while thousands of them were killed by motorists. “When I arrived there I was quite shocked to see the amount of frogs. It seems to be all juvenile frogs trying to find their own ponds. “We were using makeshift buckets and scoops that…

The ANC seems determined to deceive the public with regards to a Western Cape provincial parliament appeals committee decision to conduct the appeal hearing for the deputy speaker of the provincial parliament in a closed meeting. I refer specifically to an opinion piece by Khaled Sayed that was published on Friday, January 26. The fact of the matter is that closed meetings for disciplinary matters are standard practice in the provincial legislatures across the country, as well as the National Assembly. This is because an individual is innocent until found guilty by the relevant committee, and as such has the right to privacy until proceedings are completed. The Western Cape conduct committee conducts hearings in-committee, and the appeals committee follows the same custom. The findings of the committees are always…

THE DA notes the release of a comprehensive report by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) into the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The report comes some two-and-a-half years after unprecedented violence hit KZN. The SAHRC findings vindicate the DA’s view on the motives behind the failed insurrection. This includes a culmination of factors – social inequality, ongoing political tensions and a severe lack of SAPS intelligence – a perfect storm. According to the report, in January 2021, SAPS intelligence received a red alert about the possibility of KZN being shut down by a criminal element to remove President Cyril Ramaphosa. This is a clear sign that ANC internal politics had a big role to play – today party interests still take preference over the people. The SAHRC has…

The US, China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and all the countries of the battle-devastated Middle East are a hairsbreadth away from full-out war and obliteration. Globally man rushes headlong into an epic confrontation that will reduce our planet to radioactive rubble. Powerful nations are deploying instruments of destruction that will result in the omnicide of the human race. The Asian sub-continent is on alert as nuclear missiles on the launch pads await orders. The Korean peninsula is bristling with weaponry that could be fired in minutes. The South China Sea is awash with warships. The Persian Gulf is seething with anger. One slight miscalculation could result in an inferno. Peace is balanced on a knife-edge. Today’s nuclear bombs are 4 600 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima…

If it is not labelling the killers of more than 35 black people who were murdered and slaughtered by Indians in Phoenix as “heroes”, it is calling young black South Africans “drunkards” while at the same time agitating for an independent Western Cape. These and many other sentiments have exposed the DA as a racist and divisive organisation that cares not for the interests of the majority of South Africans who are black, by the way. The racist agenda of the DA has grown in leaps and bounds in the past five years, precisely because the DA no longer cares about appearing to be an inclusive organisation. This is also demonstrated by the many black leaders who have left the party in droves in the last five years. There used…

It’s high time the Stormers take the load off Manie Libbok’s shoulders by entrusting the responsibilities to a second flyhalf. Over the next couple of weeks, while their World Cup-winning No 10 is forced to rest due to Springbok protocols, youngster Jurie Matthee should be given enough time to try settle in at flyhalf as the Stormers continue their charge into the top eight of the United Rugby Championship (URC). The inaugural URC champions are currently in seventh spot with a host of teams nipping at their heels to get into a play-off position as the second part of the season starts in the middle of February. The Stormers face the Sharks in Durban and it can provide the first opportunity for head coach John Dobson to test Matthee in…