Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021-08-28 i Pretoria News Weekend

Skin complexion has been an issue for many people of colour, and not just for women. And according to a new local study, men are just as likely as women to use creams for their skin complexion. Around one in eight Black, Indian and Coloured students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) said they used skin lighteners, despite being aware of the dangers of some of the products. The study had 400 respondents from the university. Lead researcher Dr Farzana Rahiman, from the medical bioscience department, said these products are used by 10% of men and 12% of women in the study, which was published in the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology. “To my knowledge, this result (about men’s use) is one of the first to be reported…

NOKWANDA NCWANE SAPS vehicle accident reconstruction expert Lieutenant-Colonel Patricia Manganye, 41, has a rare ability to indicate how a crash took place by looking at the physical evidence at hand. Manganye looks at the evidence, including damage to the vehicle, gouge marks and tyre marks left on the tar road, pedestrians’ injuries, vehicle debris, as well as the final resting positions of the vehicles involved. She also examines the vehicle or photos taken at the accident scene to determine whether any component of the vehicle, such as poor tyre maintenance or poor vehicle maintenance, contributed to the accident. Manganye, upon further investigation, also determines if a motorist failed to indicate when changing lanes or whether or not the vehicle’s lights were on or off at the time when the…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za SOME government officials can be criticised when it comes to service delivery, but they definitely do not take the Covid-19 pandemic lightly. This is according to a frustrated advocate whose case before the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court could not go ahead. He is one of many who were confronted with a circular, signed by a regional court coordinator last month, making it clear that due to the pandemic which had hit this court, commercial civil court matters and divorces, among others, would not go ahead for the time being. But, after refusing to hear opposing cases for more than a month, the court is now hearing all cases again. Business rights organisation Sakeliga sent an urgent letter to the Office of the Chief Justice, Tshwane Chief Magistrate, Magistrate’s…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za WESTERN Cape Judge President John Hlophe made unfounded attack s on the judiciary of which he is a senior member, and this aggravated his misconduct. This is one of the findings of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC), which this week recommended Judge Hlophe’s suspension pending the finalisation of the matter by the National Assembly. Parliament has to decide on the action to take against Judge Hlophe in terms of the Constitution and President Cyril Ramaphosa has been asked to suspend the Western Cape’s top judicial officer. The JSC’s majority decision considered a number of factors before coming to the decision against Judge Hlophe, including that his conduct was in accordance with the values of impartiality and independence. “The public is entitled to require senior judges in the…

Marchelle Abrahams marchelle.abrahams@inl.co.za THERE were rumours and glimmers of an expanding bump, but never did anyone imagine DJ Zinhle would announce her baby news with a teaser clip for her new reality show to premier on BET Africa later this month. Taking to social media, Zinhle shared a promo video for Unexpected. Not giving much away, the Indlovu hitmaker teased fans with what to expect, but many were blown away with the final cut scene showing her gently rubbing what appears to be a growing baby bump. It was definitely unexpected. Many local celeb mamas who announced their pregnancies have pulled out all the stops, but Zinhle’s pregnancy reveal is probably the most spectacular witnessed so far. Coming completely out of left field, the notoriously private celeb decided to share…

GOVERNMENT has directed the higher education sector to prioritise gender-based violence (GBV) and adopt a zero tolerance approach to the problem. Guidelines have been provided in the Sexual and Gender-Related Misconduct Contextual, Procedural Guidelines and Protocols on Rape and Sexual Assault and Code of Ethics released yesterday by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. The protocols were released in commemoration of Women’s Month and in memory of murdered Fort Hare University student Nosicelo Mtebeni, and the anniversary of the rape and killing of University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana. Deputy Minister Buti Manamela said the protocol should be seen as a way of finally putting the gender-based violence framework for the sector into practice. Manamela said he hoped it would empower individual institutions to combat GBV. He…

TESLA chief executive Elon Musk said this week that the electric-car maker was working on improving the much-awaited update to its self-driving software “as fast as possible.” The billionaire entrepreneur tweeted that the Full Self-Driving Beta version 9.2 is “actually not great imo, but Autopilot/AI team is rallying to improve it as fast as possible.” Tesla had recently come under the scrutiny of US regulators, who opened an investigation into its driver assistant system because of accidents where its cars crashed.…

Minister of Police Bheki Cele released the crime statistics on August 20. He stated that from April 1 to June 30, 10 000 rapes were recorded and 5 700 people were murdered. To this the minister said that sexual offences, aggravated robberies, contact-related and property-related crimes “have recorded never-seen- before double-digit increases”. He did however explain that the increase in crimes could be attributed to the skewed and abnormal trends created by lockdown. Cele further stated that the budget for the South African Police Services (SAPS), had been reduced by R11 billion to R96bn. And this prevented the SAPS from employing and training new recruits. Also, about 600 police officials died due to Covid-19. A 2019 survey by Global Corrup- tion Barometer Africa suggested that the SAPS is seen…

Jan Nyssen, Emnet Negash and Sofie Annys SINCE fighting broke out in November between the Tigrayan regional government and and the Ethiopian army, the conflict has wreaked havoc on the lives of people living in the Tigray state. More than 9 500 civilian deaths have been documented, with many more unrecorded. In addition about two million people have been displaced and at least 400 000 are now in famine. Situated in the northern periphery of Ethiopia, about 75% of the 5.7 million population of Tigray are farmers. Most people who live there depend on local yields for survival. It’s expected that there’ll be an even greater demand on local yields this year because millions cannot be reached with aid and last year’s harvest largely failed. Hence, we set out to…

SOUTH African life insurance companies are seeing a surge in fraudulent claims. According to statistics released this week by the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa), there was a 12% increase in fraudulent claims from 2019 to 2020. Last year, 3 186 such claims, totalling R587.3 million, were recorded, compared with 2 837 claims (R537.1m) in 2019. Megan Govender, convenor of Asisa’s forensics standing committee, says the increase is not surprising: the tough economic conditions have made it more tempting for dishonest policyholders and syndicates to try their luck in scoring insurance payouts. The highest incidence of fraud last year (2 282 claims) was in funeral policies. Govender says funeral insurance has always been a soft target for fraudsters, because these policies do not require blood tests and…

Angelina Jolie has criticised the US for the “chaotic” withdrawal from Afghanistan. The 46-year-old actress – who has completed humanitarian work as a Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees – has expressed anger at the decision to withdraw American troops from the country, which has led to the Afghan government falling to the Taliban. In an op-ed for Time magazine, Angelina wrote: “Whatever your views on the war in Afghanistan, we probably agree on one thing: it should not have ended this way. “Giving up the idea of a peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban, appearing to cut and run, and abandoning our allies and supporters in the most chaotic way imaginable, after so many years of effort and sacrifice, is a betrayal and…

Rapula Moatshe rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za THE proposed high-speed rail linking Pretoria, Joburg and Durban risks not having enough demand to support its operation. This was the view of MP James Brauteseth, who bemoaned the fact that currently, only 3.5% of freight in South Africa moved on rail, compared to 70% which was transported by trucks. Brauteseth expressed his concerns during the meeting of the select committee on transport, public service and administration and public works with Department of Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and his senior managers. Mbalula told the committee that the department had initiated a feasibility study on the high-speed rail between Pretoria, Joburg and Durban to cater for passengers and freight. “The national freight logistic strategy will pay attention to the futuristic evolution of our freight movement in our transport…

NOKWANDA NCWANE PUBLISHED author Samhridhy Gohain is no ordinary writer – she is just 10 yearsld and a pupil at Curro Academy Pretoria. It’s not only Samhridhy’s writing talent that is so extraordinary, but also her big heart: proceeds from the sale of her first book are being donated to Jakaranda Children’s Home in East Lynne, Pretoria. Her first book 3 Epic Adventures, is now available for purchase on Amazon or in hard copy on request. It is a collection of short stories, including Jupiter The Space Frog, Adventures of Blisa The Kitten and Are Aliens Real? Beautifully written and creatively executed, Samhridhy’s debut book combines her love of animals and passion for space. Inspiration for the young author – who started writing at just 7 years old – is…

Shaun Smillie shaun.smillie@inl.co.za WHEN Neil Pieter van Zyl was stopped on the N1 highway, he became the latest apparent victim of a tool that has allowed law enforcement into the back pocket of organised crime. Van Zyl was allegedly towing a ski boat on June 2 when police pulled him over near the R24 flying saucer interchange in Pretoria. In the ski boat was 800kg of cocaine, and in his possession, say police, an encrypted cellphone that has become an accessory item for international criminals. The cellphone contained the messaging app Anom, which was considered undecipherable to law enforcement. Little did they know Anom was going to become a super snitch to criminal enterprises across the world. Criminals became so trusting of the app that they stopped using code words…

NOKWANDA NCWANE A GROUP of 114 participants have been selected to represent Team Tshwane in the upcoming indigenous provincial games. The indigenous games take place today after being started in 2001, following which they gained momentum. They are also part of the Department of Sport and Recreation’s Active Nation Programme. This focuses on vertical and horizontal sports development. Apart from indigenous games, it incorporates active recreation, community sports programmes and school sport. Last week, the Stanza Bopape Sport Centre and Rethabiseng Sport Complex were filled with excitement during the North Corridor regional indigenous games. Participants across the Tshwane region came together and competed in kgati (skipping), dibeke, morabaraba, ncuva, morula, josei, intonga (stick fighting), diketo and khokho, in order to make it into Team Tshwane. Team Tshwane will be competing…

Police Minister Bheki Cele says they have a shortage of 14 000 new recruits that they could not hire because of Covid-19. During the debate this week on the recent violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, he told the National Council of Provinces that while they would like to hire more officers they could not do so because of the pandemic. They were supposed to take in 7 000 recruits last year and another 7 000 this year. Cele said the police have been working hard during the outbreak of violence in the two provinces last month. |…

LAST month, TikTok was downloaded 63 million times globally, according to app intelligence and data company Sensor Tower. The app has close to 700 million monthly active users, who spend about 52 minutes a day scrolling through the stream of content churned out by the platform’s algorithm. This doesn’t sound like much compared to the hours some spend on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube, but considering that until recently, TikTok videos were capped at a minute long, that’s a lot of quick, punchy content browsed throughout any given day. The app is primarily designed to entertain, but a space is being etched out for advice-themed content, which is pretty innocuous for interests such as cooking, outfit styling and job interview tips. Where the lines become blurred is content purporting to…

ALONGSIDE employers, particularly in the hard-hit hospitality industry, retirement funds have been pummelled by the pandemic. Many funds had to offer contribution holidays while others had to shut down permanently when the employers they served went out of business. In a media briefing this week on the state of the retirement fund industry, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) produced sobering statistics on the extent to which the pandemic had negatively impacted funds and their members. Anton van Graan, a retirement fund analyst at the FSCA, reported on a survey of almost 800 retirement funds. Of these, almost half (47.5%) had been asked by employers and members to grant relief by allowing the temporary suspension of contributions. “We noted that larger employers managed to weather the effects of Covid-19 and…

Gerry Cupido geraldine.cupido@inl.co.za South Africa’s “King of Couture”, designer Jacques LaGrange, celebrates 22 years of haute couture excellence. this month. Born and raised in Paarl, LaGrange’s love for fashion was inspired by his mother’s love of beautiful clothes. “I loved shopping with her. Organza, lace and ribbons. I loved the feeling of satin against my skin. “I made miniature hats and decorated them with flowers. Made earrings and doll dresses that became dresses for my sisters. I loved anything and everything creative,” added LaGrange. He was the first boy who broke all the rules by opting to take needle work and home economics during high school at Paarl Gimnasium. Even though he’s enjoyed a successful career for over two decades, the couture designer said the years have gone in a…

Valerie Boje val.boje@inl.co.za THE University of Pretoria (UP) has mapped out a 3D “digital twin” for its main campus environment in Hatfield, setting it up to be one of the first future-fit local urban areas on the continent. Digital twins – a virtual scale model of physical space, process or system – were initially developed to visualise, aggregate and analyse complex information in the manufacturing and construction industries but are increasingly being used by forward-looking global cities such as Singapore and Shanghai. These cities seek to improve their management, facilities, business environment, and quality of life for residents by building efficient and sustainable futures resilient to challenges such as climate change and economic crises witnessed in the Covid-19 pandemic. The UP’s Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering, Built…

Mayibongwe Maqhina Mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za THE striking ANC employees yesterday said they would still contribute to ensure that the governing party received a resounding victory in the upcoming municipal elections. “We are to do that as members of the ANC and that is we say we want a speedy resolution of the matter,” said the chairperson of the employee committee, Mvusi Mdala, at a media briefing. The employees embarked on the industrial action due to the non-payment of salaries, medical aid scheme and provident fund contributions for two months now. The party’s offices have been closed due to the industrial action sparked by its poor finances that have been worsening over the past few years. Mdala said the industrial action would affect the ANC performance in the elections. “We believe that it…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za ABOVE and beyond the call of duty – this is the motto of the team at the non-profit veterinary organisation Cluny Animal Trust. The team not only previously saved a cat’s life with a healthy dose of vodka, but it has now dived into a dumpster to save a stranded dog. Spokesperson for the organisation Imogen Tarita said Rocky the dumpster dog crossed the path of the team earlier this month on a cold morning in the Free State, where the organisation is based. “Imagine you are on your way to work when your phone rings and you are told that someone has spotted a dog in a dumpster in Clarens. In the world of welfare, it isn’t likely for anyone in the team to simply…

South Africa’s social security regime has taken another path, after many years of consultations and government interventions. The question of social transformation has taken root in a variety of ways in the country through the Ministry of Social Development, and the extensive work done by the government in prioritising social security. The choices that have been before the government since 1994 have not been simple to make, from the groundbreaking Constitution to socio- economic interventions. South Africa has reached another crossroad, where difficult choices need to be made in rebuilding the social fabric of the country, moving from social security to social equity. Green Paper On August 18, Minister Lindiwe Zulu released a Green Paper that outlines government’s thoughts around reforming the social security system. At the core of…

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has ruled that Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe face impeachment for gross misconduct. The JSC held a closed virtual hearing this week to deliberate on the future of the judge president. The impeachment follows the Judicial Conduct Tribunal’s finding Judge Hlophe guilty of trying to influence the outcome of former president Jacob Zuma’s corruption charges in 2008. The JSC has given Judge Hlophe and the Constitutional Court until September 3 to make submissions. |…

YOUR mental health is directly linked to the health of your finances, and vice versa. When we are in a sound frame of mind, we make healthier decisions and are better able to safeguard ourselves against bad financial decisions. In the same way, bad financial decisions can cause stress and hinder our mental state, making us unable to function in other constructs of our lives. That’s why “self-care” is no longer a buzzword for the wellness sector; it’s a vital part of Liberty’s financial advice philosophy. There are many demands on women: keeping their jobs, children in school, paying bills and staying safe. The responsibility of being the sole provider can take its toll. At the same time, we need to empower women to plan financially. They make up a…

Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za WHILE Western Province are ‘desperate to do well’ in their crucial Currie Cup clash against the Sharks in Durban today, head coach John Dobson says they also have to be cognisant of the United Rugby Championship. Province have to win their final regular-season game if they want a chance at cracking a semi-final spot. If the Cheetahs beat the Bulls at Loftus, the Durbanites can top the log. Both Griquas and the Pumas can qualify for the semis, regardless of the result in Kimberley, if the Sharks beat WP in the weekend’s final game. “In terms of the Currie Cup, those are giant players for us,” Dobson said. “We desperately want to do well on Saturday and win in Durban, but have to be pragmatic and responsible.…

Clinton Moodley clinton.moodley@inl.co.za Former Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi escaped to the Maldives this week – and judging by her stunning pictures, she had a beautiful time. Tunzi, who handed back her Miss Universe crown this year, is using her time to enjoy a much-needed break. And where better to put up her feet than the Maldives, with picturesque views and luxury all year round? The beauty checked into Cinnamon Velifushi Maldives, a 5-star property that’s home to nurse sharks, which are harmless. The over-water villas and suites have a curved walkway that forms a shape evocative of a stingray, where Tunzi enjoyed her strolls. The resort offers 90 spacious rooms with an airy, open Italian-styled interior, and its water villas offer an immersive sea experience. “The postcards didn’t lie. It’s…