Innehållsförteckning för 2024-03-14 från Cape Argus

Scores of fans were thrilled about Tol Ass Mo and Mome Mahlangu’s reconciliation. This development came five months after the comedian, also known as Mongezi Mahlangu, publicly declared the dissolution of his marriage with Mome. In the past, Tol Ass Mo stirred up controversy with a comment that caught the attention of Mzansi. During an episode of Showmax's Unfollowed, he stated: “We’re separated and we’re in the process of filing for divorce. I mean, people grow. We grew apart. We went through so many different struggles in our relationship.” But fans and his detractors were gobsmacked when Mo added: “I am f****** traumatised. Traumatised by black women”. The South African comedian is now ready to make things right and released a statement: “It is with great regret that I acknowledge…

FORMAL admissions, including evidence that is not being disputed by alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack, have been submitted to the Western Cape High Court. After weeks of delays, legal teams yesterday overcame yet another hurdle before all the evidence could finally be heard. After hours of delays to obtain signatures by Modack and 14 other accused, legal representatives emerged later in the day to read the admissions into the record. The admissions included police reports, medical reports and bank statements. The group face a slew of charges in the mammoth underworld trial centred on the murder of slain Anti-Gang Unit detective, Charl Kinnear, who was shot and killed outside his Bishop Lavis home in September 2020. According to the State’s case, Modack and his co-accused were behind the murder of…

MURDER accused Sifiso Mkhwanazi, 21, who confessed to the killings of six female sex workers spanning from April to October 2022, has been found guilty on six counts of murder, six counts of rape, six counts of defeating the ends of justice, one of possession of ammunition, one of illegal possession of a firearm and one of theft. Mkhwanazi appeared yesterday in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, sitting in Palm Ridge. His matter was postponed to May 8 for sentencing. Last month, Mkhwanazi, who had confessed to the murder charges, denied that he had planned the murders as part of a “revenge plot” against an earlier rape charge that saw him spend a brief stint in prison. In October of 2022, news of six bodies found at his father Mark…

The charter consists of 11 political parties, including the DA, ActionSA, Inkatha Freedom Party, ACDP and others, formed specifically for the elections to kick out the ANC. The parties met at the Mfuleni police station yesterday to table a plan they believed would transform the criminal justice system. They said the plan focused on four priorities – professionalising the police service, improving the criminal justice system, addressing the nation’s drug problem, and tackling corruption and state capture. “A charter government will make it a priority to hold all criminals to account and prevent future crime by addressing its root causes,” the charter members jointly said. “Through a focused, evidence-based strategy, we will build a safer future for all South Africans. We will be tough on crime and even tougher on…

WITH more than 20 fires started with malicious intent, Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) has said it would be working with police to apprehend the suspects. At the Newlands Fire Base yesterday, TMNP manager Megan Taplin said that the park had seen more fires this year compared to previous years, with 26 fires in December and 36 in January. “We are working with the SAPS to try and investigate this and see if we can get a handle on the person or persons that are starting fires – and those fires have mainly been in the south of the park.” From April last year to date, the park recorded 106 fires compared to the 77 recorded for the same period the previous year. One of the more severe fires was…

I REMEMBER John Smit telling me a story of the time he shared a room with Richie McCaw in the week of a Barbarians game in London. The pair were rival captains of South Africa and New Zealand at the time, but in the friendly atmosphere of a BaaBaas week, they shared notes on leadership. By the end of the week, McCaw said to Smit: “Mate, I’ve listened to some the calls you’ve had... I can’t believe the stuff you have to deal with. I thought captaining the All Blacks was pressure, but you have it far worse.” Smit used to say that the leadership during a match was the easier bit, but being all things to all people off the pitch was challenging. Rassie Erasmus has understood this since…

DEFENDING champion Carlos Alcaraz and Italian rival Jannik Sinner remained on course for a semi-final showdown after cruising into the last eight of the ATP-WTA Indian Wells Masters on Tuesday night. Alcaraz sailed into the last eight as he took revenge on Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan with a 6-3 6-3 victory. In-form Sinner, meanwhile, booked his last eight berth with a 7-6, (7/4) 6-1 defeat of Ben Shelton. Sinner’s win was his 18th straight victory dating to late last season, leaving him three wins away from his third title of the season after winning the Australian Open and Rotterdam. “I played really well in the tight moments,” the 22-year-old World No 3 said as he lines up against Czech Jiri Lehecka in the quarters. “I knew I would not get much…

Blitzboks coach Sandile Ngcobo has fallen on his sword in response to the team’s poor run of form in the World Sevens Series. Ngcobo’s assistant, Philip Snyman, steps up into the head coach role and will take the team to the Hong Kong Sevens in the first week of April. The Blitzboks have been desperately poor for some time, and a pale shadow of the side that won world titles under former coach Neil Powell. The heat has been cranked up on the coaching staff following lowly finishes in the Canada and USA legs of the Series, and Ngcobo has pleaded mea culpa. He returns to the role of coaching the next generation of sevens players at the SA Sevens Academy. The Blitzboks, who had finished in the top two…

A WOMAN accused of kidnapping missing Joshlin Smith has fled the community while her family has said her life was turned upside down. This came after Phumza Sigaqa was arrested alongside the 6-year-old girl’s mother, Kelly Smith, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn. Sigaqa was arrested last week and made her first appearance on Thursday. Her husband, Silindokuhle Bekameva, said he was surprised by the arrest and the rumour that his wife was a sangoma. Yesterday morning, chaos erupted outside the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court as the police refused to let politician Ashley Sauls, also known as Oom Biza, inside the courtroom. Hundreds of Saldanha Bay residents outside the court were pushed to the other side of the road and a barbed wire barrier was placed in front of them. Many…

The recently announced ActionSA “fix South Africa” member Dereleen James has laid a criminal case against a notorious gang at Eldorado Park police station on Tuesday. This happened after James received threats from the gang, after one of its members was arrested by the police. James said the group had published a post on Facebook which sought to single out her and her family for the recent arrest of its members when police embarked on law enforcement operations this past weekend. The ActionSA member has been one of the key figures in fighting drugs and substance abuse in Eldorado Park. For her role in fighting substance abuse, Sports Minister Zizi Kodwa appointed her as a board member of the South African Institute for Drug-free Sports. “The impunity with which these…

The Road Accident Fuund (RAF) has rubbished allegations of the entity’s mismanagement and defended its CEO Collins Letsoalo in the wake of a threat of a national shutdown of its offices by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). The response comes after Numsa issued a 48-hour notice to mobilise its members for a shutdown of all the RAF’s offices as of today, over the alleged continuous mismanagement of the entity by the CEO. The union said it would also march to the offices of the National Department of Transport in Pretoria, to deliver a memorandum of demands to Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga. Their chief demand will be for the removal of Letsoalo, as the union blamed the CEO’s arrogance and poor decision making for having led to…

The announcement by Pravin Gordhan that he would be retiring after the elections could not have come at a more opportune moment. He has reached the nadir of his career and has lost his lustre. And I will agree with the DA that he was a “lackey” of the ANC, losing all credibility, in my view, when he betrayed Eskom’s former CEO, André de Ruyter. The members of the EFF will be jubilant; they were always circling over Gordhan like vultures, waiting for his end. Notwithstanding Gordhan’s perceived failures, what I will not countenance are the comments by Numsa, that he and he alone collapsed SOEs. Did Gordhan and his Gugerati-speaking relatives sing, dance, toyi-toyi and disrupt work at the Medupi power station with strike action over several years, hindering…

For decades, humans have focused their additional effort on finding the correct behaviour to live as a social species. In our current scene, the word “sorry” has become a Band-Aid word. Saying “sorry” has become ineffective. There is a pressing need for wrongdoers to change their behaviour to truly correct their mistakes. By saying “I’ll fix what’s wrong”, you agree to take deliberate measures to correct the mistake. Most people would agree that a good apology consists of acknowledgement, acceptance and amends. The intention of an apology is to magnify the trust in relationships by nurturing, restoring and rebuilding it. In some way, individuals rely on their intuition to sense whether an apology is sincere. Credibility is most likely given to your apology when your actions match your words. Initially,…

The Springboks will throughout the next couple of seasons ensure they have sufficient depth in most positions as they start building towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. Under coach Rassie Erasmus, the Boks will look to win a third successive title Down Under. And with a handful of double world champions already in their 30s and most likely not making it to Australia, the Bok management want to have players in place who can step in when they are needed at a big tournament. For a big part of 2023, ahead of the World Cup in France, South Africa under former coach Jacques Nienaber tried Faf de Klerk at flyhalf for instance, and Grant Williams on the wing – even though both are at home behind the scrum…

DAVID Raya was the hero as Arsenal beat Porto 4-2 on penalties on Tuesday night to reach the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010. The teams were locked at 1-1 on aggregate after an absorbing second leg at the Emirates Stadium in London, but Raya saved twice in the shootout to break the hearts of the two-time champions. The goalkeeper dived full stretch to deny Wendell and repeated the feat against Galeno, while the home side converted all four of their penalties as the decibel count soared. It is the first time a Champions League match has been decided by penalties since the 2016 final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. “You are very nervous, you are hoping for the best – but you know that it…

Tourism Minister and former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has been announced as the GOOD Party’s candidate for premier of the Western Cape. Making the announcement yesterday, the party said De Lille, or Aunty Pat as she is fondly known, offered voters a “tried and tested leader”. “With De Lille, voters can rest assured that she will not stop fighting until the work is done. “Aunty Pat is the kind of leader that voters deserve to have in their corner. “Her fight for a fairer South Africa started long before 1994 and it will continue long after 2024,” the party said. De Lille has served as a Member of Parliament and chairperson of the portfolio committee on transport, and as MEC for Social Development in the Western Cape. She…

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced that the sale of South African Airways to the Takatso consortium has been called off. Gordhan said he presented this to the Cabinet yesterday, saying it was due to new valuations that have emerged and put SAA at R1 billion and its properties at R5.5bn. The announcement comes after months of drama and fights with the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on public enterprises, which has been demanding answers from Gordhan after former director-general of public enterprises Kgathatso Tlhlakudi accused him of corruption. Gordhan announced yesterday that the deal was off because they decided to cut their losses with Takatso after valuations from reputable firms. They were convinced SAA could sustain itself for the next year to 18 months. At no stage will SAA…

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said yesterday that the return of Michael Edwards as Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive of football would have no bearing on his decision to leave Anfield at the end of the season. The German has spoken to Edwards, with whom he had a successful relationship as the club’s sporting director until he left in 2022, but there will be no dramatic U-turn. Edwards spent more a decade at Anfield in a variety of roles, and owners FSG targeted him for a new position to oversee the huge transition that will take place when Klopp leaves. Asked whether Edwards has asked him about reversing his decision, Klopp told reporters: “No, because – and it’s very important in his job – he’s not dumb. “That was not a…

Much like Amakhosi supporters this week, South African football legend Lucas Radebe will be watching the Nedbank Cup round of 16 with a degree of interest, but ultimately more with a sense of sadness. The former Kaizer Chiefs great watched his beloved Glamour Boys lose to bitter rivals Orlando Pirates this past weekend, and a failure to end their 10-year-long wait for silverware brings another wretched barren season nearer to a conclusion. Chiefs fell at the first hurdle of the Nedbank Cup in late February, suffering a humiliating exit to NFD side Milford – who face Stellenbosch FC tomorrow – in the the round of 32. Earlier this season, they were also knocked out of the lucrative MTN8 by Mamelodi Sundowns in the semi-finals and then dropped out of the…

The encouraging news from Kings Park is that big boys Trevor Nyakane and Jason Jenkins are officially Sharks, but the disappointing news is that popular wing Werner Kok is moving on. Kok has been a consistently good performer since joining the Sharks in 2020, and his outstanding work ethic and never-say-die attitude have made him a crowd favourite. It is a pity he is not part of the plans going forward, as the Blitzbok legend seems ideal for the culture of hard work the coaching staff are looking for. Ironically, the Sharks’ next fixture is against Kok’s new employers, Ulster, in Durban on March 23. Kok told the Ulster website yesterday about his two-year deal, which he will start next season: “I am looking forward to starting a new adventure…