JOHANNESBURG – Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, says struggle stalwarts, including the late Chris Hani would be disappointed with the current state of the country.
Ramaphosa was paying tribute to the late SACP leader at a memorial lecture in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.
The deputy President also called for a commission of inquiry into state capture to be established.
“That is a league in which Chris Hani operated and he walked in that league and I’m sure wherever he is now. He is with those giants of our revolution conversing and looking at our situation and wondering what we have done. Why are we messing up this movement and why are we messing up this country.”
Ramaphosa said that Zuma’s latest cabinet reshuffle has deepened existing divisions in the governing party.
“Over many years the unity of the democratic movement has been gradually eroded as the politics of patronage, factionalism, vote buying, gate keeping has become widespread. We are now in an era and comrades don’t want us to talk about this but hey the ANC is the parliament of the people and we must talk about these things we cannot keep quiet.”
Cape Town – The researcher who faked his way onto The Huffington Post’s blog platform, to make a point about the media, did not want to talk about the resignation of its editor Verashni Pillay on Saturday, following a damning Press Ombudsman finding against her.
“I have no comment at this time,” said political science graduate Marius Roodt, when Pillay resigned after the ombudsman found her guilty of publishing hate speech and breaching several sections of the Press Code.
Roodt submitted a piece, “Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise”, pretending to be a scholar of feminism named Shelley Garland.
It was published by The Huffington Post on April 13, 2017, under that pseudonym and touched a nerve among some readers.
It also became evident that Shelley Garland did not exisit.
Pillay initially defended the piece as being in line with feminist thinking, but eventually pulled it on discovering that Garland did not exist.
Roodt was tracked down by the publication, through his email address, to the Centre for Development and Enterprise in Johannesburg.
He has since resigned, and said he was sorry, but explained that he was motivated by his belief that there was a lack of fact checking in South African journalism.
“I just thought you can say almost anything you want… not necessarily attacking white men. I think there is a lack of fact checking in South African journalism. I thought, would it work? And it worked. In hindsight ,I wouldn’t have done it, I didn’t think it would get this big,” Roodt was quoted as saying.
‘I respect the office of the press ombudsman’
DA MP John Steenhuisen had been among those who had called for Pillay’s head.
“I think she’s done the honourable thing and I give her full credit for that,” said Steenhuisen on her resignation.
Ernst Roets, CEO of lobby group AfriForum, was one of the complainants to the Press Ombudsman.
He said he welcomed the ombudsman’s findings because AfriForum believed that white men could be accused of anything in national discussions and debate, and that this was regarded as acceptable.
On Pillay’s resignation he said: “I can’t say that it makes me happy or sad, but I think it is the most appropriate thing to do.”
Pillay’s phone was off, but her resignation was announced by Andreij Horn, head of 24.com.
“Her resignation followed immediately on the release earlier today of the findings of the press ombudsman that a blog published on the site was ‘malicious’ and ‘discriminatory’,” Horn said in a statement.
Editorial control over the site has been reassigned, with Ferial Haffajee, The Huffington Post SA’s editor-at-large, and Pieter du Toit, the site’s deputy editor, taking over editorial management of the site immediately until a new editor is appointed.
According to Horn, Pillay said: “I respect the office of the press ombudsman and have decided to tender my resignation. Thank you to Media24 for this opportunity and all the best to the team at HuffPost SA going forward.”
Andreij Horn, head of 24.com, announced that the company has accepted the resignation of Verashni Pillay from her position as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post SA.
Her resignation followed immediately on the release earlier today of the findings of the press ombudsman that a blog published on the site was “malicious” and “discriminatory”.
Horn said editorial control over the site has been reassigned: “With immediate effect, Ferial Haffajee, The Huffington Post SA’s editor-at-large, and Pieter du Toit, the site’s deputy editor, will take over the editorial management of the site until we have appointed a new editor. We have the utmost faith in their ability to lead the site through both the changes we are making to address the internal issues that made this situation possible in the first place, and the impact it had on society at large, the company, and its staff.”
Pillay said: “I respect the office of the press ombudsman and have decided to tender my resignation. Thank you to Media24 for this opportunity and all the best to the team at HuffPost SA going forward.”
BRONKHORSTSPRUIT – Fourteen-year-old school pupil Lindokuhle Khumalo, one of the seven survivors of the minibus taxi crash that claimed 20 lives near Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng, appealed on Saturday to motorists in general to drive carefully to prevent deaths on the roads.
The accident occurred on Friday afternoon on the R25 road near Bronkhorstspruit on the border of Gauteng and Mpumalanga when a minibus taxi collided with a truck, killing 19 pupils and the minibus driver. Lindokuhle and six other pupils were admitted to various hospitals for treatment.
Lindokuhle made the appeal for safe driving while speaking to the African News Agency at the KwaMhlanga Hospital in Mpumalanga where she is recovering from the injuries she sustained in the crash. She said she did not remember anything related to the accident and even asked her sister Nonhlanhla Khumalo, 20, who was visiting her at the hospital, to explain to her why she was in hospital.
“Why am I here,” asked Lindokuhle shortly after Nonhlanhla woke her up on her hospital bed. “What happened to me? Why am I feeling such a lot of pain on my body and neck?”
When Nonhlanhla told her she was injured in an accident while travelling home from school, she reacted with shock and cried a little. Lindokuhle then repeatedly asked Nonhlanhla where her friend Mimi Mathibela was.
The minibus taxi burst into flame after colliding with the truck, burning some of the occupants. But there were no visible burns on Lindokuhle’s body. She wore a neck brace and the only visible injuries on her body were three abrasions on her face and two on her back below her neck.
Lindokuhle, of Verena village near KwaMhlanga, told ANA one of the things she remembered from Friday was an unnamed pastor who prayed for them in the morning at the Mahlenga Secondary School in Sokhulumi village near Bronkhorstspruit. She said she also recalled chatting to one of her friends, whom she identified only as Melusi, while they were sitting on the back seat of the minibus travelling home from school.
“I don’t know what happened after that. Drivers must drive carefully on the roads and save lives. I want to go back to school. I want to finish school and become a lawyer one day,” said the grade nine pupil.
Lindokuhle had never felt uncomfortable or scared while travelling in the same minibus taxi in the past, she said.
Nonhlanhla said she was grateful for Lindokuhle’s survival but felt sorry for everyone who was involved in or affected by the accident. “Lindokuhle is an intelligent, ambitious pupil and she has won several excellence awards at her school,” she said.
“This accident came as a big shock to us as a family. We have never had any worries about the safety of Lindokuhle when travelling to school in that taxi in the past,” she said.
Other people expressed relief at the survival of their children and loved ones shortly after visiting them at the KwaMhlanga Hospital.
“I have just checked on my sister’s son. He seemed to be seriously injured but I hope he will speedily recover,” said Mamsy Mthombeni of Verena village.
Cape Town – A relieved Professor Tim Noakes put his head in his hands and struggled to hold back tears on Friday when he was found not guilty of unprofessional conduct after being charged by the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
“What happened was people tried to demonise me as being some unconventional freak who had suddenly gone from being one of the best scientists in SA to a complete idiot,” he said after numerous congratulatory hugs and handshakes from loyal banters who attended proceedings.
“My wife and I decided we weren’t going to allow my legacy to get lost because of that and we would fight it as best we could.”
Noakes – whose book The Real Meal Revolution promotes a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet – was charged with unprofessional conduct for giving unconventional medical advice via Twitter three years ago after he advised a breastfeeding mother to wean her baby onto LCHF.
The independent committee made its finding following a protracted hearing into a complaint by the former president of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa, Claire Julsing-Strydom.
Not guilty
The mother’s tweet on February 3, 2014 read: “@ProfTimNoakes @SalCreed is LCHF eating ok for breastfeeding mums? Worried about all the dairy + cauliflower = wind for babies?? [sic]”
Noakes advised her to wean her child onto LCHF foods, which he described as “real” foods.
His tweet read: “Baby doesn’t eat the dairy and cauliflower. Just very healthy high-fat breast milk. Key is to ween [sic] baby onto LCHF.”
Committee chairperson Joan Adams said four of the five members found him not guilty.
She said the HPCSA – the pro forma complainant – had not proven on a balance of probabilities that Noakes had been acting in his capacity as a medical practitioner – his Twitter bio does not list him as one – when he sent the tweet as he was presumably acting as an author and proponent of the LCHF diet.
The council had also failed to prove that he had been giving Leenstra medical advice, that they had had a doctor-patient relationship, or that the advice was potentially harmful.
Noakes was also found to not have contravened any law, regulation or ethical rule or that the advice given was unconventional or not evidence based.
The outcome was met with thunderous applause from his loyal supporters, who had attended proceedings in their numbers since the start of the hearing.
Legacy
The A1-rated scientist said he was elated with the outcome following hard work by his advocates Michael van der Nest and advocate Ravin “Rocky” Ramdass, who represented him for free.
“This is the moment we’ve worked for three years so it’s really exciting. The fact is that Advocate Adams read 10 rulings – she gave 10 different decisions and they all were in our favour. So she found us guilty of absolutely nothing.”
He said he and his wife had decided to fight the charge against him and “do whatever it took” to protect his legacy.
“And we did that. It took us three years but we achieved it. It has been very demanding on us and on our lives. Financially, it has been huge, but the real concern was the emotional strain that it had on us. As my wife said [of] the people who laid the complaint: ‘Did they ever consider the consequences to my wife, myself and our family?’ I think that was the hardest bit for us to cope with.”
He was disappointed that the committee did not acknowledge the evidence he presented by saying that people had to change their diets if they wanted to be healthy, he said.
“However, I think that people will look at the judgment and say that [while I] was charged with giving unconventional advice, [the committee] never found that. They didn’t find that [I] gave unconventional advice, therefore the advice [I] gave was evidence based.
“Therefore, the question becomes [whether] the advice that is currently being given by dieticians and by many doctors could be unconventional, because it promotes the low-fat diet, which we proved is not evidence based.”
The question the HPCSA and medical schools in SA should be asking is whether they are teaching the most up to date dietary advice, Noakes said.
“And Advocate Adams raised that question: She said things change with time and what South Africans have to do now is to question. Are we giving everyone in SA the best dietary advice or not? Or has the time come that we should change it?”
Johannesburg – At least 20 pupils died after their minibus taxi was involved in an accident just after Bronkhorstspruit on Friday afternoon, the Gauteng education department said.
MEC Panyaza Lesufi was on the way to the scene, spokesperson Steve Mabona said in a statement.
Lesufi tweeted earlier that the vehicle had caught fire after the crash.
More information was not immediately available.
I am told a taxi full of learners was involved a fatal accident and caught fire. I am rushing to the scene around N4, Gauteng North
JOHANNESBURG – It’s believed all 20 school children on board a minibus taxi were killed when their vehicle collided head-on with a truck on the R25 between Verena and Bronkhorstpruit on Friday.
The taxi burst into flames, and most of the children were trapped inside.
ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said fire services had managed to extinguish the burning vehicle, which was found lying on its side.
“Unfortunately, nothing could be done for the children and they were declared dead on the scene,” Meiring said.
IMAGE CREDIT: ER24 EMS (Pty) Ltd
Meiring said several other children were found at the scene. It’s believed these children had been pulled out of the taxi by members of the community.
The cause of the collision is not yet known.
eNCA anchor, Shahan Ramkissoon spoke to Johan Pieterse of Tshwane EMS:
Further details will be published as they become available.
JOHANNESBURG – The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is looking at alternatives to e-tolls for billions of rand in needed road construction.
Sanral expected legal processes against motorists who did not pay e-tolls bills to start soon, with compliance ranging from 30% to 40%, Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project manager Alex van Niekerk said on Thursday.
Motorists owe Sanral more than R6bn in unpaid tolls.
But even if it succeeds, it said using tolling to fund future construction was inadequate. With the constraints on the fiscus, it could stifle the clearing of SA’s road infrastructure backlog, Van Niekerk said at a transport seminar at the University of Johannesburg.
Even if SA were to find a political or legal solution to its ongoing battle over the introduction of tolling, it may not be the best way of financing road infrastructure, Prof David Hensher, director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney, said at the forum. SA should consider alternatives, he said. Despite total compliance by motorists in the extensively tolled Sydney network, revenue in the first year of operation was 30%-50% less than projected.
Accumulated cost was a factor for motorists, but calculations could put too much weight on the relationship between cost and time saved, he said.
Attaching a price at point of use was still critical to ensuring management of demand and Australians were considering distance-based tolling instead, Hensher said.
This would use GPS technology to charge motorists per kilometre driven, with higher tariffs during peak periods.
It could price road use like electricity or water tariffs and it was technologically feasible, Hensher said.
Van Niekerk said Sanral was still in favour of e-tolling, which allowed proceeds to be fully ring-fenced.
“We are also looking at various other models. Distance-based tolling would be difficult, but it is the most fair manner,” Van Niekerk said.
“The chances of building huge freeways and infrastructure through the fiscus is limited,” said Van Niekerk.
The Institutional Sector Classification Guide for South Africa is designed to assist respondents to complete the returns or surveys, and classify the institutional sectors according to macroeconomic statistics principles. The guide further provides information on the institutional sector classification of transactors that engage in economic activity such as production, consumption, saving and investment, paying particular attention to the classification of issuers and holders of securities, recipients and suppliers of credit, and buyers and sellers of financial assets.
The Economic Research and Statistics Department of the SARB regularly collects financial data in respect of the major institutional sectors from financial institutions such as banks, insurers and pension funds; non-financial institutions; and other organisations in the public and the private sector. This information is used to compile macroeconomic accounts for the analysis of, inter alia, the sectoral balance sheets, the flow of funds between sectors, and establishing which sectors require which types of financing and which sectors provide in these needs.
IMAGE CREDIT: ER24 EMS (Pty) Ltd