Innehållsförteckning för 2025-08-26 från Cape Argus

In the spirit of Women’s Month, let’s explore your financial planning through the lens of a capsule wardrobe, a timeless collection of essentials that can be adapted as your needs evolve. Just as your clothing staples form the foundation of your style, financial basics form the backbone of a secure and confident life. Once you have these in place, you can accessorise with additional products and strategies as circumstances change. Start with the basics: underwear and your emergency fund This safety net could be cash in a bank account, an available credit facility, or extra funds in your access bond. The key is accessibility at short notice. While retirement funds now allow a limited once-off withdrawal from a “Savings Pot,” this should not be mistaken for a true emergency fund.…

ON AUGUST 25, 2005, and August 25, 2010, several families' lives changed forever following two tragic accidents in Cape Town. Yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the tragic Blackheath train tragedy, which claimed the lives of 10 school children in 2010. School transport driver, Jacob Humphreys, illegally overtook several cars and drove through a closed boom at Buttskop Level Crossing in Blackheath. Humphreys was convicted of 10 counts of murder and four of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011. Later, the Supreme Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to eight years and the charges were changed to culpable homicide and he was granted parole in 2018. Liesl Augis, 11, Jody Phillips, 13, Reece Smith, 7, Nolan February, 13, Michaelin de Koker, 11, Jason Pedro,…

THE Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has confirmed that unlawfully obtained contracts at the Tembisa Tertiary Hospital will be cancelled after the discovery of more than 111 officials implicated in four corruption syndicates. SIU head Advocate Andy Mothibi said there are disciplinary processes currently under way where several syndicates linked to the corruption at the hospital have been uncovered by its probe. The probe follows the murder of whistle-blower and employee of the Gauteng Health Department, Babita Deokaran, in August 2021. Mothibi added that assets worth billions will be seized and recovered in the process. “Our investigation has uncovered more than 111 officials who have been colluding with these syndicates. There might still be more. We have sent all these to the Department of Health. We expect that action will be…

CAPE Town’s Castle of Good Hope is hopefully about to step into a brighter chapter. Built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, the Castle is South Africa’s oldest surviving colonial building and one of the city’s most important historical landmarks. Once guarding the original shoreline of Table Bay, it has stood for centuries as a symbol of the Cape’s layered past. But time has not been kind. A recent visit revealed a structure that has lost much of its lustre – peeling paint, overgrown gardens, and outdated facilities reminding visitors that even national treasures need care. The art gallery shows signs of neglect, the restaurant has a damp, mouldy smell despite serving decent meals, and the public toilets are in urgent need of upgrading. Now, with…

The Springboks will be at full strength for their two-match trip to New Zealand, with Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Willie le Roux medically cleared. Kolisi has recovered quicker than expected from a knee knock that ruled him out of last week’s second Test against the Wallabies, while flank Du Toit has been passed fit after a concussion. The Boks depart for New Zealand on Tuesday, giving them time to recover from jet lag before facing the All Blacks in Auckland on 6 September and in Wellington a week later. The matches will be pivotal as the team seeks to defend the Rugby Championship title they won last season for the first time since 2019. Coach Rassie Erasmus has stuck largely with the squad that faced Australia.…

Springbok Women’s coach Swys de Bruin could not have asked for a more impressive start to their Women’s Rugby World Cup campaign than the record-breaking 66-6 victory over Brazil in Northampton on Sunday. The win in their opening match pushed the Bok Women to the top of Pool D after the first round of the tournament concluded at Franklin’s Gardens. De Bruin was understandably happy after the 10-try romp handed the South Africans the only try bonus-point win in Pool D, as France failed to score four tries in their 24-0 victory over Italy on Saturday. “We have to reset now, and all our focus will move to Italy,” De Bruin said of the second pool match, next Sunday in York. “We wanted a strong start to the tournament and…

The way in which your assets are divided at divorce depends entirely on the nature of your marriage contract. While most people are aware that protracted, acrimonious divorces are expensive and emotionally exhausting, far fewer appreciate the profound impact their matrimonial property regime will have on the eventual settlement. Marriage in community of property If you are married in community of property, all assets and liabilities, whether accumulated before or during the marriage, form a joint estate. On divorce, this joint estate is divided equally between the spouses. Although this principle appears straightforward, in practice, many couples negotiate settlement agreements tailored to their circumstances. In our experience, a divorce mediator can be invaluable in facilitating these negotiations, particularly where communication has broken down. Remember, if the parties cannot reach an…

THE Mitchell's Plain Magistrate's Court staff and public were left in shock after gunshots rang outside the building, claiming the lives of two suspects following their court appearance yesterday. One died at the scene and the other at a medical facility. Mitchell's Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson, Norman Jantjies, said a bystander was wounded. Jantjies said: “Both men are members of the Fancy Boys gang.” Meanwhile, people inside the court said the gunshots were so loud, they thought they were being fired inside the court. The court was under lockdown and staff had to wait to leave the building after police secured the area. Mitchell's Plain CPF public relations officer, Linda Jones, told the Cape Argus’s sister paper, Daily Voice, that shooters are becoming more brazen. “It seems there…

EDUCATION MECs and representatives from all nine provinces gathered in Cape Town for the National G20 Basic Education Indaba yesterday, where they shared lessons from provincial izindaba and outlined the actions they plan to take forward. Held under the theme “Taking the G20 to the People – A National Indaba for Advancing Quality Foundational Learning through Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Education Professional Development”, the indaba aims to strengthen the sector’s drive to ensure South Africa’s G20 participation has an impact. Insights from the indaba will feed into the Ministerial Meeting of the Education Working Group, set for October. The panel discussion, themed “Quality Foundational Learning – From Dialogue to Impact in 2026 and beyond”, included Gauteng Deputy Director-General for Education Policy and Planning Albert Channe, Free State…

THE recent meeting between Thabo Mbeki Foundation (TMF) and the US Embassy could be a signal of disregard for President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet, with experts saying this is not a good sign for diplomatic clarity. The TMF on Friday announced on X that it had a meeting with a representative from the US Embassy to prepare for a visit from a delegation from the US. The foundation’s spokesperson Anga Jamela refused to comment and share details about the upcoming meeting. However, it is believed that the two had discussions about critical issues of mutual interest, including strengthening US-Africa relations, matters of governance and democracy, and continental peace and security challenges – likely touching on the conflict in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This also comes…

A NEW study on fossil antelope teeth from South Africa’s Cradle of Humankind challenges the long-held belief that the area transformed from woodland to grassland 1.7 million years ago, a shift thought to have influenced early human evolution. Published in international journal for the geo-sciences, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, the research by UCT and the University of Zürich suggests a stable environment for nearly 2 million years, remaining a mosaic of open and wooded areas. For years, scientists believed around 1.7 million years ago, the Cradle of Humankind – a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) World Heritage Site famed for its rich fossil record of our early pre-human relatives – transformed from a closed woodland into open grassland. According to UCT, this idea was based largely on the…

While South Africans have developed a healthy fear of breathalysers at roadblocks, a common belief has emerged that the system can be circumvented by using cannabis and other drugs, which elude detection by standard alcohol testing devices. Unfortunately, this assumption is correct - most standard police roadside checks can’t detect drugs, creating a serious problem as substance use increases nationwide. Quantifying drugged driving in South Africa is challenging due to the absence of systematic testing. Unlike alcohol, where breathalyser technology is common at roadblocks, there’s no routine drug screening. This extends to post-accident investigations, where comprehensive substance analysis isn’t consistently applied, leaving reliable data scarce. Even without exact figures, anecdotal evidence suggests a worrying situation. With widespread drug use and decriminalised private cannabis consumption, road safety is at risk. Given…

Ruben Amorim’s much-vaunted rebuild at Manchester United could be a false dawn for the former giants if he does not heed the lessons of the past. There is little to criticise in the Red Devils spending nearly £200 million on attacking reinforcements Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo this transfer window, given United’s paltry return of 44 goals in 38 league games last season. Fans should be concerned that United are signing new players before clearing out those who have underperformed, do not fit Amorim’s tactical system, or are simply not in his plans. Many supporters had hoped his arrival would bring a revival reminiscent of the Ferguson era. The Portuguese coach insists he cannot put his project on hold for players to leave. Fair enough. But this impatience…

With the 2025 annual tax filing season underway, many South Africans who have incurred significant out-of-pocket medical expenses during the year of assessment continue to enquire about how they can possibly claim an additional medical tax credit to lower their tax liability. Section 6B of the Income Tax Act permits an additional medical tax credit. This allows for an additional medical tax credit claim (AMTC) on the condition that the out-of-pocket expenses align with the definition of qualifying medical expenses, as set out in the Act. Taxpayers who incurred qualifying medical expenses and have been able to fully support their claims have seen the benefits. In practice, successful medical tax credit claims have amounted to additional medical tax credit claims between R2,000 and R100,000 per tax year, stemming from out-of-pocket…

SOUTH Africa’s driving licence woes are far from over, but there could be light at the end of the tunnel, the Department of Transport (DOT) says. The country relies on a single machine to print licence cards. It has been operational since 1998 and is currently prone to breakdowns. The most recent of these took place in February, rendering the machine inoperable until May as it was being repaired by its original manufacturer in France. The effect of this printing backlog is still being felt today. Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi recently said that even though the Drivers’ Licence Card Agency (DLCA) has printed over 800 000 cards since operations resumed in May, there was still a backlog of 539 000 cards. However, the department remains confident that the…

THE National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said the search for missing SAA and aerobatic pilot Andrew Blackwood-Murray, 61, continues in Durban following an aeronautical accident. The light aircraft Blackwood-Murray was piloting crashed into the ocean at Battery Beach, in Durban, on August 14. Parts of the aircraft have been recovered; however, Blackwood-Murray remains missing. NSRI spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, said there is much discussion about when a search of this kind should be called off, or, conversely, why it continues for so long. “Any search for a missing person is regarded as an ongoing search. As much as from what we’ve seen, people would like to say the search has been called off, a search like this is never called off. It’s an ongoing investigation,” Lambinon said. “That to us is…

MARKING 32 years since the killing of Amy Biehl in Gugulethu, her mother Linda Biehl, along with Easy Nofemela, who was convicted for her murder, carried out a wreath-laying ceremony at the Amy Biehl Memorial Site yesterday, symbolising a bond of forgiveness. Biehl was a 26-year-old American Fulbright scholar whose life was tragically cut short when she was beaten and stabbed to death. Five years after her murder, the four youths convicted of killing her were granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) after serving five years of their sentence, a decision which was supported by Biehl's parents. A year after their release, two of the men – Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni, were interviewed by an anthropologist and sent a message to Biehl’s parents that they wanted to…

THE City of Cape Town said it’s addressing chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in its coastal environment. This comes as recent monitoring of marine outfalls at Camps Bay, Green Point, and Hout Bay showed operations largely within design and regulatory standards. The City presented their latest performance and environmental monitoring results for the marine outfalls at the Permit Advisory Forum (PAF) hosted on August 22. Professor Leslie Petrik from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) presented her latest research on the presence of CECs such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, and antibiotic-resistant microbes in the marine environment, noting the impact of CECs is a global challenge. During her session, Petrik highlighted her concerns about the gaps between the City’s wastewater treatment processes and international wastewater treatment standards, including levels of…

THE SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) announced it will introduce mandatory beneficiary biometric enrolment at all its offices from September 1. National spokesperson for Sassa, Paseka Letsatsi, said the move is expected to revolutionise the administration of social grants and detect potentially fraudulent activities in the Sassa grant system. Sassa CEO, Themba Matlou, said the implementation was supposed to take place earlier, but welcomed the progress made to ensure it is introduced. “Our plans were to commence with the biometric enrolment at the beginning of the 2025/26 financial year; however, we hit a snag, but we have ironed out the issues that delayed our plans, and it is all systems go for the implementation,” he said. The beneficiary biometric enrolment system is said to be coming at a time when…

SOUTH African learners consistently struggle with reading comprehension, performing poorly in both international and local assessments. A significant issue is that 81% of Grade 4 learners (aged 9 or 10) are unable to read for meaning: they can decode words, but do not necessarily understand them. While this problem has received considerable attention, no clear explanation has emerged. In my recent PhD thesis, I considered a crucial, but often overlooked, piece of the puzzle – the curriculum policy. My research sought to uncover and understand the gaps and contradictions in reading comprehension, especially between policy and practice, in a Grade 4 classroom. This research revealed a difference between curriculum policy and practice, and between what learners seemed to have understood and what they actually understood in a routine reading comprehension…

Australian tours are renowned for the birth of future superstars. West Indian legend Brian Lara announced his arrival on the world stage with his maiden Test century at the SCG back in 1993 when he struck a majestic 277 in the New Year Test. It was a seminal moment in Lara’s career, who later named his daughter Sydney. Thirty-two years later the cricketing world may yet have heralded the next global phenomenon in Dewald Brevis after the Proteas' recently completed white-ball tour Down Under. The 22-year-old has been touted as a prodigy ever since breaking the record for the most runs at the ICC Under-19 World Cup in the Caribbean three years ago. After a few years of finding his feet in the T20 Leagues around the world, Brevis shattered…