Innehållsförteckning för 2024-05-20 från Cape Argus

RICHARD Gregory and his team were determined to bring the new M-Net documentary series School Ties to life because, as parents, they felt a sense of responsibility to address the sexual abuse scandals which have rocked the nation’s school system. “For the team working on this, being parents ourselves, we realised that we have many challenges in the South African education landscape, one of these being the uncomfortable and sensitive matter of abuse that many would prefer to shy away from,” the director told Independent Media’s Lifestyle. “However, it is specifically this that motivated us to get on board, to challenge the status quo by unpacking a few cases in South African schools.” School Ties, which premiered on M-Net on Thursday, is a harrowing four-part documentary series that centres on…

The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS), led by the South African Police Service (SAPS), the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the State Security Agency (SSA), said they have sufficient measures in place to ensure that the upcoming elections proceed without any incidents of crime and disruption. NATJOINTS chairperson, Lieutenant General Tebello Mosikili said they conducted a national security assessment and they are satisfied with the operational plan that is being implemented. “We can assure South Africans that a conducive environment for a peaceful election has been prepared,” she said. Mosikili said SAPS executive management recently visited each province. “This was to assess their state of readiness and they can confirm that all provinces are ready and have put the necessary measures in place to prevent and…

The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) has left some of its critics in awe as it demonstrated its ability to fill a 40 000-person stadium in Orlando at the weekend. According to the spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela, the five-month-old party achieved this feat in spite of allegedly being sabotaged by people who feared the gigantic growth of the movement. “We were expecting about 25 buses in Newcastle but only four arrived. In the North West, we had a similar situation. We are happy with the turnout, even though a considerable number of our members were deprived the opportunity to come listen to president Jacob Zuma live at the stadium,” Ndhlela said. Musa Mdlalose, from Chersteville in KwaZulu-Natal, told The Star that some members in their ward were left behind as the buses…

An extraordinary 15 minutes is all it took for the Lions to keep their push for a United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final alive on Saturday night by setting up an almighty clash against the Stormers in a fortnight. Down to 14 men and trailing 14-8 to an explosive Glasgow Warriors side at Ellis Park this past weekend, the immediate assessment would have been a grim one in the 47th minute of the clash. The visitors had just scored their second try with Euan Ferrie muscling his way over the whitewash. The introduction of Sanele Nohamba, replacing Gianni Lombard in the 48th minute, however, seemed to galvanise the hosts. It kicked off a truly outrageous period of play where the Lions scored four unanswered tries, completed by an intercept by Nohamba…

Heavyweight Tyson Fury said sympathy for Ukraine was behind the judges awarding a split-decision victory to Oleksandr Usyk in their heavyweight title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, yesterday, with the Briton calling for an immediate rematch. After cruising through the middle of the fight, Fury never recovered from a standing eight count in the ninth round, and the judges gave the fight to Usyk, making him the first undisputed heavyweight champion in almost 25 years. “I believe I won that fight. I believe he won a few of the rounds but I won the majority of them … His country’s at war and people are siding with the country at war but, make no mistake, I won that fight,” Fury said in a post-fight interview in the ring. Ukraine has…

NEVER has a 1-1 draw been as roundly celebrated as it was at the Tuks Stadium yesterday afternoon. But with the result meaning that both the University of Pretoria and Baroka FC will make it to the promotion/relegation play-offs, most probably against Richards Bay United, the excitement with which the two teams greeted the final whistle was understandable. AmaTuks finished the season as runners-up to champions Magesi FC, who drew their final match of the season 1-1 against Venda FC, while Baroka occupied the third position – leaving the door open for either side to return to big time football. While the university side knew that their 49 points left them in an unassailable position, and thus assured them of another crack at elite league football, Baroka could not celebrate…

DEBRIS is all that rescuers found near the sunken MFV Lepanto as the search for 11 missing fishermen was called off yesterday, though rescuers were still expected to keep watch for bodies. The Sea Harvest hake deep-sea trawl vessel carried 20 crew members, of whom nine were rescued on Friday night after a Mayday distress call was relayed to vessels in the area that responded to assist. Sea Harvest Group communications manager Anthea Abraham said the MFV Lepanto, one of the vessels within the group’s Viking Fishing Division, sank around 35 nautical miles offshore from Hout Bay on Friday afternoon. She said last night that the search had been called off due to the significant amount of�time elapsed and, tragically, the missing crewmen were now presumed drowned. “Nine of the…

Former president Jacob Zuma will know whether or not he will serve in the National Assembly after the elections, when the Constitutional Court delivers judgment in the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party and Zuma matter today. This will take place in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, at 10am. The IEC had lodged an application to challenge Zuma’s inclusion in the MKP’s Parliament list. The commission stated that his candidacy should be barred due to his contempt of court conviction in 2021. This after the Electoral Court ruled that Zuma will be on the ballot on May 29. Zuma was released on medical parole on September 5, 2021, by the National Commissioner of Correctional Services. He only served three months of his 15-month sentence imposed by the Concourt for refusing to testify in the Zondo…

AT WHAT was once a place of colonial violence, hundreds of people gathered at the Castle of Good Hope to commemorate the Nakba “Catastrophe” of 1948, while highlighting the ongoing Nakba in Gaza, Palestine, and Israel’s settler-colonialism. On Saturday, the programme began with teach-ins consisting of creative and educational activities for children and adults, movie screenings, and talks on key issues related to Palestine. The Nakba Rally, hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), included musical performances, poetry readings and addresses from predominantly young activists joined by veteran anti-apartheid activists. Political parties agreed to sign a pledge in support of a draft on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel, for discussion in Parliament. Signatories included the ANC, Al Jama-ah, EFF, SUN and independent candidate Zackie Achmat. Writer, poet and post…

The Stormers will be sweating over the fitness of their two playmakers – Damian Willemse and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu – after both dislocated fingers and will be going for scans. Best-case scenario they’ll be ready for the Lions, but if scans come back and it’s worse than feared, they could miss the quarter-finals in a couple of weeks. But there is positivity in the camp that they’ll be ready by next Saturday. After beating Connacht 16-12 in a hard-fought clash in Galway on Saturday, and other results not going their way, the Cape side can not jump into the top four. They currently sit in fifth and can keep the spot should they beat the Lions in two weeks in Cape Town. John Dobson, Stormers coach, said after two seasons of…

Manchester City won an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title yesterday as Phil Foden’s double inspired a 3-1 victory over West Ham. No side in the history of the English top flight had ever won four successive titles, but City have become accustomed to rewriting the record books under Pep Guardiola. The Catalan coach has masterminded six Premier League wins in the past seven seasons. In four of those years, City have also surpassed 90 points. They were pushed this season to deny Arsenal a first title since 2003/04. The Gunners celebrated a 0-0 draw at the Etihad last month that kept them one point in front of City with nine games to play. But the champions were relentless in the run-in, winning their final nine league games, scoring 33…

Cavin Johnson is no fortune teller or magician. As such, he also can’t put his finger on what has gone wrong for Kaizer Chiefs this season. Chiefs’ campaign has gone from bad to worse as their hopes of finishing in the top eight of the Premiership continue to hang by a thread. The Amakhosi, incredibly, drew 0-0 with Polokwane City on Saturday, holding on to the coveted eight spot, albeit joint on points (36) with the ninth-placed AmaZulu, who trail on goal difference. The result from the penultimate game of the league leaves Amakhosi with just one choice in their final game: They must beat Cape Town Spurs or suffer their worst finish in the league since the 2018/19 season, when they finished in ninth. Despite facing the relegated Urban…

Relieved Red Bull team boss Christian Horner hailed the determination and talent of Max Verstappen yesterday after he resisted Lando Norris to claim a hard-earned triumph at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Horner admitted that it was Verstappen’s supreme ability that enabled him to hang on under great pressure from the McLaren driver and win by a mere 0.725 seconds. “It was a great, great job by Max to withstand all that pressure,” said Horner after the race at Imola. “It was massive pressure.” Verstappen had appeared to be cruising to victory with a controlled lead of more than six seconds until the closing laps when his friend and rival Norris, fresh from his maiden victory at the Miami Grand Prix two weeks earlier, mounted a charge. “I had Lando…

The Netflix series, Baby Reindeer, has kept viewers glued to their screens. Labelled as a “true story”, it has piqued the curiosity of couch potatoes eager to uncover the real-life characters behind the narrative. However, creator Richard Gadd has pleaded with internet sleuths to refrain from searching for the show’s real-life counterparts, emphasising that it is a work of fiction. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gadd said: “If I wanted the real-life people to be found, I would’ve made it a documentary.” Despite this plea, there have been countless speculations about the identities of the characters, leading to individuals like Fiona Harvey, who denies being the inspiration for the character Martha, threatening legal action against Netflix and Gadd. Gadd expressed concern for the people who have been…

IN UNRELENTING attacks on staff working at City-owned infrastructure facilities, two security guards hired to protect workers came under attack in Athlone, with one succumbing to gunshot wounds. The guard was with his partner on Friday when they were attacked in The Vlei, Belgravia. They were at a shop when they were confronted by alleged gang members. The 26-year-old victim’s service pistol was stolen, while his partner was unharmed. The deceased and his partner have not been named. According to water and sanitation mayco member, Zahid Badroodien, the fatal shooting happened at 10am on Canal Road. “The exact details of the attack are still being established. “However, it would appear that the two security escorts were guarding the sewer pump station whilst an electrical contractor linked to the Water and…

KWAZULU-NATAL police are investigating the circumstances that led to the collapse of a wall that fell on five workers at a construction site on Zen Drive in Ballito on Saturday. Four of the five died on the scene while the fifth was taken to hospital in a critical condition, according to IPSS Search and Rescue. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said 14 construction workers were at the bottom of the escarpment building gabion retaining wall when the wall collapsed and buried five workers. Police had opened inquest dockets, he said. Yesterday, the Sunday Tribune, sister publication to the Cape Argus, reported that neighbours and some emergency workers said the disaster on Zen Drive could have been averted had more precautions been taken after the same embankment collapsed partially…

Irish media mogul and former CEO of Independent News & Media (INM), Tony O'Reilly, has died in Dublin following a short illness at the age of 88. In 1994, O’Reilly’s INM was hand-picked by the late former ANC President Nelson Mandela to purchase the Argus Group newspapers, according to his biographer Ivan Fallon. However in 2011, racked by debt, an ailing Irish economy, a lack of investment and downsizing, INM sold the iconic Newspaper House, which housed newspaper titles including the Cape Argus, Cape Times and Daily Voice, as well as its printing works. In 2013, INM agreed to sell its South African business, the country’s largest English-language newspaper group, for R2 billion to a consortium led by Dr Iqbal Survé. The Irish tycoon rose to fame as a British…

Twenty volunteers traded their warm beds and the safety of their homes for a Night on the Streets, in aid of raising R1 million for the work done by U-turn Homeless Ministries. As homelessness continues to grow in South Africa, it’s no secret that the coming winter will be harsh on those who have no shelter and have to sleep on the streets. In a bid to shed light on this burning issue, U-turn Homeless Ministries, Independent Media and BMW joined forces and launched the campaign to raise money to support U-turn’s work. On Saturday night, each person was given a cardboard box and a sleeping bag, some armed with pillows and an extra blanket, while others braced the cold hard ground along Claremont Main Road without a pillow or…

When Sekunjalo donated a sum of money to the ANC in the Western Cape in 2019, there was much hand wringing, wailing and gnashing of teeth in the liberal online media. A full news cycle of white noise ensued because of a donation from a company that they disliked, to an organisation that they detested. Will these champions of justice and democracy now comment on Naspers’ recent R2 million donation to the ANC and the main opposition party, the DA? I won’t hold my breath. The IEC’s fourth quarter publication of political donations for the 2023/24 financial year, the period up to the end of March this year, shows political activity was ramping up. During this period a record amount of more than R172 million was declared by political parties…

STEVE Barker and Jose Riveiro are feeling different sorts of pressure in their respective bids to guide their teams to a second-spot finish in the DStv Premiership. Barker’s Stellenbosch and Riveiro’s Orlando Pirates lost their penultimate league games at home and away to Mamelodi Sundowns and TS Galaxy respectively on Saturday. It continues a poor run of form for both teams, given that they had also lost their previous matches to Moroka Swallows and Richards Bay. Stellies continued to hold the advantage over the third-placed Pirates, as they sit in the coveted second place with a one-point lead. Stellies, though, have overachieved by being where they are in the league. As such, coach Barker hasn’t faulted his team for lack of effort in their last two games, particularly against the…

It WAS a dramatic penultimate league round of the United Rugby Championship, and it was almost a perfect outcome for the Bulls. While they did what they had to do in claiming a 56-35 bonus-point win over Benetton at Loftus Versfeld, several other results went their way too – and they now find themselves in second place on the log ahead of their last round-robin encounter against the Sharks in Durban on June 1. Neighbours the Lions did the Pretoria side a huge favour by knocking over the Glasgow Warriors 44-21 at Ellis Park in a sensational effort, after flank Ruan Venter was red-carded after 35 minutes. Then John Cooney kicked a late penalty to give Ulster a vital 23-21 victory over Leinster in Belfast, although the Dublin outfit managed…