My Cradock

Cradock News Classifieds and Directory

You are here: Home / Archives for news

news

28 new Covid-19 cases bring Western Cape’s total to 446, says Winde

“I used the opportunity to raise concerns regarding incidents of police brutality. These incidents must be condemned, and we urge all those with complaints to please report these to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate as soon as possible,” he said. “On the discussion on regulations, I requested a common-sense approach that would allow, for example, …

“I used the opportunity to raise concerns regarding incidents of police brutality. These incidents must be condemned, and we urge all those with complaints to please report these to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate as soon as possible,” he said.

“On the discussion on regulations, I requested a common-sense approach that would allow, for example, equipment needed for e-learning for students to be purchased during the lockdown.

“We have officially sent a list of issues that would require clarification to [co-operative governance and tradition affairs minister] Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and we are looking forward to further discussions so that clarity can be provided.”

Winde said the first repatriation flight for foreigners left Cape Town International Airport on Friday afternoon, taking 277 Germans to Frankfurt. A flight to Munich was due to leave on Saturday.

Category: Tag: , , , ,

South Africa: Today’s latest news and headlines, Friday 3 April

If you’re looking for all the latest news in South Africa, you’ve come to the right place; here are the major headlines on Friday 3 April. The revision of lockdown regulations, affecting public transport and inter-provincial movement, has been met with mixed reactions. In an attempt to curb the coronavirus’ spread, the health department has …

If you’re looking for all the latest news in South Africa, you’ve come to the right place; here are the major headlines on Friday 3 April.

The revision of lockdown regulations, affecting public transport and inter-provincial movement, has been met with mixed reactions. In an attempt to curb the coronavirus’ spread, the health department has begun to roll-out its ‘COVID Home Visits Programme’ during the window of opportunity presented by the national lockdown.

Today’s latest news in South Africa, Friday 3 April

Further amendments to lockdown regulations

Following in the wake of Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s decision to ‘relax’ capacity protocols concerning the taxi industry, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, added to the ever-evolving regulatory gazette on Thursday afternoon.

Dlamini-Zuma’s amendments deal with three main areas of concern:

  1. The rights of movement afforded to mourners within the context of a burial
  2. The prohibition of inter-provincial travel (with exceptions for essential workers, freight and funeral services)
  3. The rights of repatriation flights ordered to evacuate foreign nationals from within South Africa’s borders (to be overseen by the Department of Home Affairs)
  4. The creation of a COVID-19 tracing database and associated reports

Dlamini-Zuma attached, together with the gazetted amendments, an example of a permit required ‘to travel to another metropolitan area, district or province’, adding that law enforcement agencies conducting roadblocks and vehicle checkpoints had been instructed to verify documentation while conducting operations.

Number of coronavirus cases rise to 1 462

The number of positive coronavirus cases in South Africa has risen to 1 462 — an increase of 82 from Wednesday 1 April. Fortunately, Mkhize noted that the death toll had not risen since Wednesday.

‘COVID Home Visits Program’ focuses on 993 strategic priority wards

Government’s newest initiative to combat the coronavirus’ spread is aimed at early detection by way of the ‘COVID Home Visits Programme’. In conjunction with the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the health department has embarked on a vigorous door-to-door testing campaign.

The operation, which will initially focus on ‘993 strategic priority wards’, will make use of 10 000 field workers and more than 60 mobile COVID-19 testing facilities.

Health minister Zweli Mkhize added that the programme would also use technological advancements to trace primary points of contact in an attempt to mitigate secondary-infections.

German tourists to be repatriated from South Africa

Kerstin Bittiger, spokeswoman of the German Embassy in South Africa, has confirmed that repatriation efforts would begin today, following a plea from citizens ‘trapped’ in the country. According to Bittiger, over 5 000 German tourists are currently stuck under lockdown in South Africa.

The closing of borders and almost all air traffic has made the prospect of traditional fare back to Germany almost impossible, leading the German government to step in with a repatriation program. Bittiger noted that the flights would be operated by South African Airways (SAA), adding:

“For the coming days and weeks, we have an enormous logistical challenge ahead of us in order to get our compatriots home.

We are grateful for the cooperation with the South African government. And we are glad to join forces with SAA as a reliable partner. We hope our compatriots will be back with their friends and families in Germany very soon.”

Bittiger did, however, note that any tourists displaying symptoms associated with the deadly coronavirus would not be repatriated back to Germany. Those left behind would need to follow the South African government’s instructions regarding lockdown, quarantine and treatment.

Zwelinzima Vavi in good spirits despite COVID-19 diagnosis

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, has tested positive for COVID-19. During a live interview, Vavi revealed his positive status, adding that he had no idea how he’d contracted the virus. Vavi announced:

“I am fine in good spirits at home and have started to follow instructions of self-isolating!  Have to get everyone tested at home! Family, friends comrades in obvious panic but I am fine and I will win again! Just overwhelmed by media interests which is natural but I can’t cope.”

Vavi said that he underwent the COVID-19 test after developing flu-like symptoms.

Labour inspectors crack-down on uncooperative businesses  

A Department of Employment and Labour blitz inspection in Standerton, Mpumalanga, has led to the closure of Pax Agricultural Primary Co-operation Limited.

The employer was found to be non-compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act standards and also not adhering to COVID-19 regulations.                                                                                             

The blitz inspections were triggered by a number of anonymous complaints, which were reported to the department.

The inspection found that the employer failed to conduct a risk assessment in order to implement precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Among other findings, employees were not trained on the precautionary measures to be taken in order to protect themselves against any harm to their well-being, particularly on the risks caused by exposure to hazardous biological agents like COVID-19.

Employees were also not given sanitisers, water and soap for basic personal hygiene, and were not furnished with personal protective equipment, as per the OHS standards. (Source: SAnews)

Fish River Canoe Marathon organisers expect paddling festival to go ahead

With the current uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak worldwide, organisers of the 39th edition of the Fish River Canoe Marathon are confident that they will be able to put on another exciting instalment of the race from 25-26 September.

This year the world has been thrown into limbo as this virus spreads through every country around the world and South Africa is currently in the grips of a nationwide lockdown to try and curb the spread locally.

All sporting events and gatherings have been cancelled or postponed for the next few months, but with five months until the Cradock classic, organisers are hopeful that we will be back to some sort of normality by then.

Latest weather forecast, Friday 3 April

Take a look at weather forecasts for all nine provinces here.

Live traffic updates for Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban

Stay one step ahead of the traffic by viewing our live traffic updates here.

Horoscope today

Free daily horoscope, celeb gossip and lucky numbers for Friday 3 April.

DMCA.com Protection Status

Category: Tag: , , ,

Radical Economic Transformation is upon us — but it is not what you thought it would be

At first glance, it would seem that the Covid-19 crisis has won some major concessions for ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule and his Radical Economic Transformers — policy changes that just a month ago would have taken place over the Establishment’s mass grave. And yet, there has been no crowing. It appears that neither the RET …

At first glance, it would seem that the Covid-19 crisis has won some major concessions for ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule and his Radical Economic Transformers — policy changes that just a month ago would have taken place over the Establishment’s mass grave. And yet, there has been no crowing. It appears that neither the RET crew nor Team Ramaphosa have grasped the implications: the status quo is finished, and ‘radical’ will soon become another of the ANC’s meaningless dust-covered anachronisms.

If radically transformative economic policy falls in a forest of morons, does anyone tweet?

The answer, apparently, is no.

Perhaps this is why a universe-altering policy tweak, made just days before last Friday’s inevitable Moody’s downgrade, was met without comment from the people who had long demanded its implementation. On 25 March, Lesetja Kganyago, governor of the Reserve Bank, announced that his institution would be buying government securities in order to keep the market for South African debt on a ventilator. (This was shortly after he had lowered interest rates by 100 basis points, another milestone moment for the Reserve Bank.) The technical term for this practice is “quantitative easing”, or QE — a neologism for printing money in the digital age. Nevertheless, the jargon was carefully elided from the SARB’s official statement.

Kganyago’s coyness can be attributed to a deft little piece of politicking: the governor wanted to avoid alerting Ace Magashule and his cohort of looters to the fact that they had, however inadvertently, won from the Reserve Bank the most significant advancement in monetary policy since 1994.

Indeed, the SARB has been under siege since the ANC’s 54th National Conference in 2017, when the RETers used the bank as a cudgel in their leadership tussle with Team Ramaphosa and the financial establishment. The Transformers were at the time led by former President Jacob Zuma; in the ensuing years, the supergroup has (d)evolved to include, among many others, Ace, Lindiwe Sisulu and Julius Malema (EFF leader and wannabe acting president of the ANC). Their most vocal surrogates come and go — howzit Carl Niehaus! — but at the moment they’re represented by Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Mzwandile Masina, who once swore he’d never serve under President Cyril Ramaphosa, and who now spends his government-purchased data plan punting a “Cuban vaccine” for Covid-19. (Masina is a walking, talking 85-year-old’s WhatsApp group.)

We should take a moment to note that, while ostensibly radical, these people share no coherent ideology. They want the forces of economic power to rebalance in their favour, and they don’t really care how that happens, or who goes hungry in the process.

Back in the good old days, the faction insisted that the SARB should be nationalised — it is one of the few reserve banks in the world to have a private ownership component — and that it expand its Constitutional mandate beyond ensuring price and currency stability “to include [boosting] growth and employment.” This is code for lowering interest rates and flushing more money into the economy, which most economists believe would automatically drive up prices — a no-no for the SARB. In short, the RET faction was selling anti-austerity, developmental state cheap-money boilerplate — the only thing radical about it was that it risked undermining the SARB’s “independence”, a happy fiction that maintains the faux-trust in any country’s economic system. (They also demanded the establishment of a state bank, among a number of other measures that would have nudged the levers of the economy closer to the ruling class in the ANC.)

In 2019, Ace and his cronies went even further. In a press briefing following the National Executive Committee’s mid-year Lekgotla, the Secretary-General announced that, “[We have] directed the ANC Government to consider constituting a task team to explore quantity easing (sic) measures to address intergovernmental debts to make funds available for developmental purposes.”

As is often the case, Ace was roundly mocked for not knowing what the fuck he was talking about — “quantity easing”, hombre? QE, the experts agreed, was impossible in South Africa, laughable, a fantasy barely worth discussing. Nevertheless, Ace’s statement further undermined confidence in Cyril Ramaphosa’s rickety regime, and the ZAR swooned accordingly.

On Facebook, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni posted an exasperated rant entitled, “WHAT IS THIS OBSESSION WITH THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK?” He followed up on Twitter, saying, “Government sets the mandate for the SARB. There is no quantitative easing thing here. The primary mandate of the SA Reserve Bank is to ‘protect the value of the currency in the interest of balanced economic growth and development’.”

Ace’s faction contended that, since the 2008 financial crash, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank had both “quantity eased” with abandon, spurring the recovery and sending stock markets to vertiginous highs. Staggering amounts of wealth were created, which certainly hadn’t passed notice in Luthuli House. “[QE] is a consistent practice by developed countries to save their economies,” lectured Ace, failing to observe that South Africa, which he’d helped rob to the point of destruction, shared zero corollaries with the United States, Europe, Japan or the UK. He also neglected to mention that QE was being blamed for pumping empty calories into equity markets, further fattening the rich on sugar-high stock prices, widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots to levels unseen since the gilded age — an economy so fake that now the QE bailout itself is being bailed out.

With mantic clarity, Nicholas Macpherson, a former permanent secretary to the UK Treasury, once tweeted, “QE [is] like heroin – [you] need ever-increasing fixes to create a high. Meanwhile, negative side effects increase. Time to move on.”

Not in South Africa, the Fanonian post-colony impervious to progression.

***

Leaving aside Ace’s populist flim-flam (much of which he barely seems to understand), there have long been calls from the left for the Reserve Bank to expand its mandate. Progressives faced off against the early architects of South Africa’s monetary policy, who were hoping to discourage the country from becoming another failed African republic, where after a few decades of financial mismanagement the mint starts churning out cash, the currency plummets, inflation sky-rockets, and the International Monetary Fund walks in with a sjambok and a red pen.

Cheaper money and a devalued currency, the left argued, could help local borrowers and boost local exports — Mzansi could become a nation of makers as opposed to a guild of subsistence shoppers. Instead, imposed on South Africa, right from the very beginning, was a weird blend of neoliberalism and socialism-lite, governed by an austere National Treasury that has been as parsimonious as it has been subservient to foreign finger-wagging.

It hasn’t worked.

Austerity in the age of globalisation has always been about a race to the bottom: lowering corporate taxes, smashing organised labour, befouling the environment and then, behold! — we are bequeathed the Holy Grail of foreign investment.

Well, we’ve raced to the bottom, and we’ve won. The Holy Grail is empty: South Africans produce almost nothing except raw commodities, and instead mostly work for the state or fill gaps where the state has been rendered incapable — securing, cleaning, teaching, wiping, driving. The corporate sector is its own ring-fenced entity, closed to new entrants, as white as Donald Trump’s dream America. The only sliver of the economy with any energy is the informal sector, and according to most of our financial modelling, it hasn’t really existed until Covid-19 lockdown revealed how indispensable are spaza shops and other under-the-official-radar economic activities.

So what happens next?

Well, if we peer a little closer at what the Reserve Bank is doing, we find that the Ace-istas run into immediate trouble. In fact, the radical measures currently being undertaken are in order for the SARB to maintain its price stability mandate — the extra cash sloshing around the economy should encourage spending, and therefore keep prices from cratering completely.

Next, if Tito Mboweni gets his way, we kick off another round of self-imposed structural adjustment — scaling back the size of the state payroll, shaving down corporate taxes even further, re-introducing fiscal and monetary discipline at the nearest possible convenience. The idea is that this will appease the rating agencies who, when things “return to normal”, will like spurned lovers realise that we really really love them, and restore to us our investment-grade rating.

This is charmingly, if pathetically, naive. For one thing, you can’t appease the monsters in the metropole. Yes, South Africa has been appallingly governed, with corruption and stupidity draining, best guess, R1.5-trillion from the fiscus over the course of Zuma’s second term alone. This is unforgivable. But South Africa’s spectacularly failed economy — 29% official unemployment before the Covid-19 Depression — was not just a result of kleptocratic governance, as so many commentators would have us believe.

It was also a side-effect of inflexible establishment economics.

After all, we stole only from our own larder. Owning South African government securities has paid foreign investors handsomely: in emerging market terms, only Pakistan and Turkey have offered higher rates of return. (As a consolation prize, South Africa’s will be one of the sexiest, best-behaved bonds in the junk grade category.) Nor are South African securities insecure: the last time the country defaulted was during the 1985 “debt standstill”, when PW Botha ran out of forex for the purchase of bondage gear and decent Namibian braai wood. Sixteen years later, a democratic South Africa finally settled that debt, a staggeringly unjust arrangement that, according to the Financial Mail, “[signalled ] improvements to South Africa’s credit outlook by rating agencies like Standard Poor’s and Moody’s.”

You see who we’re dealing with here?

Let’s not forget that the rating agencies provided the matches for the last global economic conflagration in 2008 — they awarded world-class credit ratings for the mortgage-backed securities that ended up collapsing the financial system. Somehow, these privateering ghouls escaped with their corner offices unmolested; avoiding all meaningful censure, they were sent back into the world to provide neo-colonial oversight on emerging market economies. One by one, they have deemed us unworthy. (I’d argue Zuma’s greatest sin was debasing us before these ethically bankrupt savages.)

In downgrading South Africa on the first day of the lockdown — the equivalent of firing an employee on Christmas Eve — Moody’s reminded us of their malevolence. These are not human beings in the traditional sense of the term. That said, they hate a deficit. As Marianne Merten noted in these pages, “debt service costs are South Africa’s biggest increasing Budget item: R202.2-billion in debt repayments in 2019, up from R147.7-billion debt service costs in 2016.” Much of that is garbage corruption bailout money hosed into state-owned companies that should be triaged in ICU units with the sickest Covid-19 patients, and for which everyone in the ANC should go to jail.

But in the midst of the pandemic pandemonium, obsessing over the balance sheet, and how we’re viewed by the Patrick Batemans in the rating agencies, seems like a waste of precious time. I mean, why even bother fretting when global government debt sat at $70-trillion toward the end of 2019?

According to the IMF, if corporate and personal debt is included, there is more red spilled ink at the present moment than there has been since the dawn of our species.

If debt is the measure, we are screwed beyond all human comprehension.

***

Tito Mboweni, Team Ramaphosa, the SARB, the financial elite (and probably even Ace Magashule) — all of them just want normality to resume so we can keep screwing ourselves over like good post-colonial patsies.

But even a blue-chip hack like Wolfgang Munchau has noted in his Eurointelligence newsletter that, “It seems extremely implausible to us that life will return to the status-quo-ante, which is the underlying presumption of virtually all the forecasts right now.”

So if normal is now abnormal, then surely structural adjustment — or rather the old school practice thereof — will not get us through this mess. The crisis certainly offers the government the opportunity to punt zombie workers off the government payroll and to change the nature of state employment from patronage to productivity. And it’s a beautiful time to start thinking about how to get money flowing to real South Africans who aren’t in the equity or debt markets.

Indeed, this is the moment for the government and the financial establishment to move on — to head into the Karoo with a Jojo tank full of ayahuasca and to tap into the Universal Consciousness, which will likely not treat them kindly. It’s time to tweak the policies that have made us one of the most divided nations on earth. It’s time to go crazy.

After all, nothing that we’ve done to date has worked.

For years we’ve been well-behaved little austerity monks, undercutting our own policies by corruption and crap implementation. But even if we’d left money in the Treasury for a rainy day, this pandemic would still be a country-changing phenomenon. The final reckoning may reveal a South Africa far more radical in its policies than the radicals could ever have imagined. The bad news for them is there’ll be nothing left to steal. DM

GalleryGallery

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Fish River Canoe Marathon organisers expect paddling festival to go ahead

Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment. South Africa– Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican Number: 2005/028472/07. Address: Regus Business Centre 1st Floor, Block B, North Park, Black River Park, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa Postal: Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A …

Our offices are for administrative purposes only, no visitors will be accepted without an appointment.

South Africa– Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican Number: 2005/028472/07.
Address: Regus Business Centre
1st Floor, Block B, North Park, Black River Park, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa
Postal: Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican, PO Box 44354, Claremont, 7735, South Africa

United Kingdom– Blue Sky Publications Ltd – Company Registration Number: 04683692.
Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ

Category: Tag: , , ,

Samara Private Game Reserve employs nature’s smallest guards

By Travel reporter 22h ago Share this article: ShareTweetShareShareShareEmail Bees will save key tree species at a South African game reserve. The move by Samara Private Game Reserve will help animals from tearing down trees.  The game reserve in the Eastern Cape will use “nature’s smallest guards”, which is a widely used weapon in the conservation …

By Travel reporter 22h ago

Share this article:

Bees will save key tree species at a South African game reserve. The move by Samara Private Game Reserve will help animals from tearing down trees. 

The game reserve in the Eastern Cape will use “nature’s smallest guards”, which is a widely used weapon in the conservation arsenal. 

One may ask, how exactly does a bee stop a hungry animal from tearing down a tree? The reserve revealed that many animal species were known to avoid beehives because of the danger of being stung. This concept has been put to the test many times with great success. 

In Kenya, Dr Lucy King erected a 400m beehive fence in Gazini in 2016, the first of its kind. The erection kept a community safe from elephant invasions. While a beesting can’t do much to an elephant’s thick hide, it can when it hits sensitive parts like the elephant’s trunk, eyes and mouth. 

“At Samara, the practice is going to be used to protect the reserve’s iconic tree species. The first two beehives will be planted at Wolwekloof, where they protect two witgat (Boscia Oleiodes) trees. One of these trees is a magnificent specimen, estimated to be around 800 years old,” the statement revealed.  

Samara expects between 33 000 and 40 000 bees in each swarm, with a population comprising the queen, the male drones which are responsible for breeding, and the workers, who guard the hive. As each hive grows, a new queen will emerge after fighting the reigning monarch, taking part of the swarm with her to establish a new hive. This is how Samara’s bee population will grow. 

Reserve Manager Alan Feldon, who has extensive experience in beekeeping, will oversee the project. 

The reserve also wants to produce their honey, which will be around 10 kilograms of honey produced from each hiveSamara Private Game Reserve is located on 70 000 acres of wilderness in the Great Karoo, offering breathtaking views over the Plains of Camdeboo. 

Situated approximately 270km from Port Elizabeth and 53km from the nearest town of Graaff Reinet, Samara offers easy access to visitors on excellent roads.

                               

 

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Tazne van Wyk: Main suspect arrested in Eastern Cape

A 54-year-old man by the name of Pangaker Moyhdian, believed to know the whereabouts of missing Tazne van Wyk, has been arrested in the Eastern Cape following a two-week search by Western Cape police.  Eight-year-old Van Wyk went missing on Friday 7 February. She was last seen by her father in Claire Street, Connaught Estate, …

A 54-year-old man by the name of Pangaker Moyhdian, believed to know the whereabouts of missing Tazne van Wyk, has been arrested in the Eastern Cape following a two-week search by Western Cape police. 

Eight-year-old Van Wyk went missing on Friday 7 February. She was last seen by her father in Claire Street, Connaught Estate, in Elsies River, on her way to a nearby tuck shop. 

According to witnesses, the child was last seen with a man who is known to them, but who has since disappeared.

Man accused of abducting Van Wyk arrested in Eastern Cape  

The investigation led Cape Town-based detectives to the Eastern Cape, where they later found the suspect in Cradock, northeast of Port Elizabeth. 

Cradock police arrested Moyhdian in the Cradock policing precinct on Monday 17 February at about 22:15. He is expected to appear in the Cradock Magistrate’s Court soon. 

Van Wyk has still not been found. 

“Tazne was last seen wearing a red-and-white top and red shorts. She can further be identified by the scar on her left hand from a prior operation, a missing tooth in her upper jaw, brown eyes and black hair. She is roughly 20kgs and is 1.5m in height.” 

Western Cape Minister of Community Safety Albert Fritz 

According to EWN, Van Wyk’s mother, Carmen, alleged that Moyhdian was recently released from prison after allegedly kidnapping and murdering his two-year-old son.

According to her, Moyhdian was also stalking eight-year-old Van Wyk. Moyhdian was allegedly staying at a family home situated on the same premises as the tuck shop where Van Wyk was last seen.

‘Our innocent children are under attack’

Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General, Liziwe Ntshinga commended the police for the speedy arrest of the suspect and added that the Eastern Cape will not allow criminal elements to use it as a springboard for their nefarious activities. She appealed to anyone who has information that can help find the missing minor to share the information with the police. 

“Our innocent and unsuspecting children are under attack from merciless adults and police are their only hope in tracking down those who harm them. We would like the community to heighten their awareness and immediately report any missing person without wasting time,” she said. 

Anyone with any information should immediately come forward and report to Sergeant Dale Franks from the SAPS Delft’s family violence, children protection and sexual offences unit on 082-334-8772. Reports can also be made to Crime Stop on 086-001-0111. Alternatively, the Pink Ladies can be contacted on 072-214-7439 or 083-378-4882.

DMCA.com Protection Status

Category: Tag: , , ,

Central Karoo still clear as Western Cape Covid-19 cases rise to 348

Winde praised the community of the Bo-Kaap, on the edge of Cape Town city centre, for setting up its own Covid-19 response team. “This team, together with proactive and open family of a patient, was able to alert the community to a positive test in a way that was informative and did not stigmatise the …

Winde praised the community of the Bo-Kaap, on the edge of Cape Town city centre, for setting up its own Covid-19 response team.

“This team, together with proactive and open family of a patient, was able to alert the community to a positive test in a way that was informative and did not stigmatise the illness,” he said.

“Their efforts could also support us to trace close contacts and ensure they self-isolate.

“This kind of response team can only work if the messaging is responsible, caring and shared voluntarily — and we would like to thank them for this.”

Category: Tag: , , , ,

PAN AFRICAN RESOURCES PLC – Update regarding the 21-Day Covid-19 Lockdown and impact on Group operations – SENS

Update regarding the 21-Day Covid-19 Lockdown and impact on Group operations: Update regarding the 21-Day Covid-19 Lockdown and impact on Group operations Pan African Resources PLC (Incorporated and registered in England and Wales under Companies Act 1985 with registered number 3937466 on 25 February 2000) Share code on AIM: PAF Share code on JSE: PAN …

                            
Update regarding the 21-Day Covid-19 Lockdown and impact on Group operations:

Update regarding the 21-Day Covid-19 Lockdown and impact on Group operations


Pan African Resources PLC

(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales

under Companies Act 1985 with registered number

3937466 on 25 February 2000)

Share code on AIM: PAF

Share code on JSE: PAN

ISIN: GB0004300496

(‘Pan African Resources’ or ‘the Company’ or ‘the Group’)


UPDATE REGARDING THE 21-DAY COVID-19 LOCKDOWN AND IMPACT ON GROUP OPERATIONS


Further to the Company’s announcement on 24 March 2020, Pan African Resources informs

shareholders that the Company has implemented the necessary measures at all its operations

to conduct essential services during the 21-day lockdown period (the “National Lockdown”).


The Group’s actions are consistent with the regulations announced by President Cyril

Ramaphosa on Monday 23 March 2020, and enacted in terms of the South African Disaster

Management Act (“the Regulations”), as well as with additional applicable regulations and

requirements pertinent to the National Lockdown. The Regulations are effective midnight 26

March 2020 to midnight 16 April 2020, in an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19

(coronavirus) pandemic.


Essential services specific to affected Pan African Resources’ operations include security

services, pumping and ventilation activities, metallurgical plant maintenance, inspection of

underground workings, management and monitoring of tailings deposition facilities, waste

management and water treatment facilities and other health and safety related services.


As part of essential services, the Group is also currently conducting limited surface re-mining

and processing activities at its Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant and at its Barberton Tailings

Retreatment Plant (collectively the “Group surface operations”). The Group surface

operations are currently operating at approximately 70 per cent of normal capacity. Barberton

Mines will, in the next few days, endeavour to resume limited operations at certain high-grade

sections of its Fairview operation to ensure the required minimum feed for its BIOX ®

processing plant.


Pan African Resources supports and is committed to all government efforts to contain the

spread of COVID-19. Of the Group’s total staff and contractor complement, only 20 per cent

(excluding security staff) are involved in the essential services detailed above. Employees

and contractors not required for essential services will remain at home for the duration of the

National Lockdown, as required by the Regulations.


Further measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 contamination of essential service personnel

include the following:


          –   Where possible, relevant staff members are housed in dedicated, restricted-access

              housing facilities for the duration of the lockdown;

          –   Continuous screening and monitoring, including thermal temperature monitoring, of

              staff members for COVID-19 symptoms have been implemented;

          –   Standby medical support; and

          –   Rigorous social distancing and sterilisation/hygiene protocols, which are in place.


The South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has approved the Group’s

planned activities during the National Lockdown, subject to compliance with and adherence to

all relevant Regulations and applicable legislation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a severe adverse economic and social impact

on stakeholders involved in the Group’s operations. The Group will, in the coming weeks,

embark upon initiatives to assist stakeholders in this regard in the areas in which we operate.


Updated guidance for the 2020 financial year will be communicated to shareholders after the

National Lockdown has concluded, once the Group is in a position to quantify the extent and

duration of the operational disruptions during this time.


Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African Resources, commented: ‘In this time of crisis, we are

heartened by the manner in which all stakeholders in the mining industry are collaborating.

Pan African Resources recognises that the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be

severe and far reaching. The impact will be even more pronounced in areas with limited

resources and poverty. Recognising the economic and social hardship that communities and

employees will experience during the National Lockdown, the Company will embark on

support programmes, in addition to our existing initiatives, to alleviate this hardship.


Pan African Resources will continue to provide shareholders with regular updates regarding

developments at Group operations.”


Rosebank

30 March 2020


For further information on Pan African Resources, please visit the Company’s website at

www.panafricanresources.com


Contact information

Corporate Office                                   Registered Office

The Firs Office Building                           Suite 31

2nd Floor, Office 204                              Second Floor

Cnr. Cradock and Biermann Avenues                  107 Cheapside

Rosebank, Johannesburg                             London

South Africa                                       EC2V 6DN

Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                        United Kingdom

info@paf.co.za                                     Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644

Cobus Loots                                        Deon Louw

Pan African Resources PLC                          Pan African Resources PLC

Chief Executive Officer                            Financial Director

Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                        Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900

Phil Dexter/Jane Kirton                            John Prior

St James’s Corporate Services Limited              Numis Securities Limited

Company Secretary                                  Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker

Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644                       Office: +44 (0)20 7260 1000

Ciska Kloppers                                     Ross Allister/David McKeown

Questco Corporate Advisory Proprietary Limited     Peel Hunt LLP

JSE Sponsor                                        Joint Broker

Office: + 27 (0)11 011 9200                        Office: +44 (0)20 7418 8900

Julian Gwillim                                     Thomas Rider/Neil Elliot

Aprio Strategic Communications                     BMO Capital Markets Limited

Public  Investor Relations SA                     Joint Broker

Office: +27 (0)11 880 0037                         Office: +44 (0)20 7236 1010

Website: www.panafricanresources.com


Date: 30-03-2020 09:00:00

Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (‘JSE’).

The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of

 the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct,

indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,

 information disseminated through SENS.
Category: Tag: , , ,

Koppie Loskop, Karoo Basin [image]

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system. Click here to Book Accommodation in Cradock, Graaf Reinett, Hofmeyer or surrounds. Article source: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/227975.php

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Koppie Loskop, Karoo Basin [image]

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system. Click here to Book Accommodation in Cradock, Graaf Reinett, Hofmeyer or surrounds. Article source: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/227975.php

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Tazne murder: Alleged killer’s family getting death threats, one relative doused in petrol – report

A relative of alleged child killer Moyhdian Pangarker, who gave him a place to sleep shortly before murdered Tazne van Wyk went missing, has said he is getting death threats and was attacked by someone who tried to set him alight, a Cape Town publication reported on Friday. According to the Daily Voice, Stanley Adams, 67, …

A relative of alleged child killer Moyhdian Pangarker, who gave him a place to sleep shortly before murdered Tazne van Wyk went missing, has said he is getting death threats and was attacked by someone who tried to set him alight, a Cape Town publication reported on Friday.

According to the Daily Voice, Stanley Adams, 67, found a man pouring petrol against his door on Sunday. The man reportedly doused him with it when he opened the door, but before the assailant could set it alight, relatives came to the elderly man’s aid after hearing him scream.

The attacker fled.

Pangarker is Adams’ brother-in-law. He said locals have threatened to kill anyone related to the murder accused.

He told the publication he had told the police Pangarker had disappeared on the same day Tazne was last seen.

The parolee had been sleeping on Adams’ couch after looking for a place to stay a week before the eight-year-old went missing.

 WATCH | President Cyril Ramaphosa apologises to Tazne van Wyk’s family  

Pangarker was cornered in Cradock last Monday after being on the run for almost two weeks following his identification as a person of interest in Tazne’s kidnapping.

After being transported back to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape town, Pangarker led the police to a stormwater drain outside Worcester where her body was found.

Tazne was last seen on February 7 walking to a tuckshop across the street from her home.

Pangarker, the Van Wyk family’s neighbour, has been charged with Tazne’s murder and appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

His criminal record dates to the 1980s and he had absconded from parole a year ago.

This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa, after meeting with Tazne’s parents Carmen and Terence, apologised to the residents of Connaught Estate that the alleged killer was released on parole, saying it was proof that there was “something wrong with our parole system”.

Meanwhile, social media reports that Pangarker had been “attacked” and was being treated at Karl Bremer Hospital has been rubbished by the Department of Correctional Services.

Spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo dismissed the claims as “fake news”.

– Compiled by Tammy Petersen

Category: Tag: , , ,

In Earth’s largest extinction, land animal die-offs began long before marine extinction: New dates for fossils indicate land animal turnover extended for hundreds of thousands of years

New ages for fossilized vertebrates that lived just after the demise of the fauna that dominated the late Permian show that the ecosystem changes began hundreds of thousands of years earlier on land than in the sea, eventually resulting in the demise of up to 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. The later marine extinction, in …

New ages for fossilized vertebrates that lived just after the demise of the fauna that dominated the late Permian show that the ecosystem changes began hundreds of thousands of years earlier on land than in the sea, eventually resulting in the demise of up to 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. The later marine extinction, in which nearly 95% of ocean species disappeared, may have occurred over the time span of tens of thousands of years.

Though most scientists believe that a series of volcanic eruptions, occurring in large pulses over a period of a million years in what is now Siberia, were the primary cause of the end-Permian extinction, the lag between the land extinction in the Southern Hemisphere and the marine extinction in the Northern Hemisphere suggests different immediate causes.

“Most people thought that the terrestrial collapse started at the same time as the marine collapse, and that it happened at the same time in the Southern Hemisphere and in the Northern Hemisphere,” said paleobotanist Cindy Looy, University of California, Berkeley, associate professor of integrative biology. “The fact that the big changes were not synchronous in the Northern and Southern hemispheres has a big effect on hypotheses for what caused the extinction. An extinction in the ocean does not, per se, have to have the same cause or mechanism as an extinction that happened on land.”

Members of Looy’s lab have conducted experiments on living plants to determine whether a collapse of Earth’s protective ozone layer may have irradiated and wiped out plant species. Other global changes — a warming climate, a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an increase in ocean acidification — also occurred around the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic and likely contributed.

On land, the end-Permian extinction of vertebrates is best documented in Gondwana, the southern half of the supercontinent known as Pangea that eventually separated into the continents we know today as Antarctica, Africa, South America and Australia. There, in the South African Karoo Basin, populations of large herbivores, or plant eaters, shifted from the Daptocephalus assemblage to the Lystrosaurus assemblage. These groups are now extinct.

In the ocean, the extinction is best documented in the Northern Hemisphere, in particular by Chinese fossils. The end-Permian extinction is perhaps best associated with the demise of trilobites.

To improve on previous dates for the land extinction, an international team of scientists, including Looy, conducted uranium-lead dating of zircon crystals in a well-preserved volcanic ash deposit from the Karoo Basin. Looy, who is also a curator of paleobotany at the campus’s Museum of Paleontology and curator of gymnosperms at the University and Jepson Herbaria, confirmed that sediments from several meters above the dated layer were devoid of Glossopteris pollen, evidence that these seed ferns, which used to dominate late Permian Gondwanan floras, became extinct around that time.

At 252.24 million years old, the zircons — microscopic silicate crystals that form in rising magma inside volcanoes and are spewed into the atmosphere during eruptions — are 300,000 years older than dates obtained for the confirmed Permian-Triassic (P-T) boundary in China. This means that the sediment layer assumed to contain the P-T boundary in South Africa was actually at least 300,000 years too old.

Dates for an ash deposit in Australia, just above the layers that document the initial plant extinction, similarly came in almost 400,000 years older than thought. That work was published in January by Christopher Fielding and colleagues at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.

“The Karoo Basin is the poster child for the end-Permian vertebrate turnover, but until recently, it was not well-dated,” Looy said. “Our new zircon date shows that the base of the Lystrosaurus zone predates the marine extinction with several hundred thousand years, similar to the pattern in Australia. This means that both the floral and faunal turnover in Gondwana is out of sync with the Northern Hemisphere marine biotic crisis.

“For some years now, we have known that — in contrast to the marine mass extinction — the pulses of disturbance of life on land continued deep into the Triassic Period. But that the start of the terrestrial turnover happened so long before the marine extinction was a surprise.”

In their paper, Looy and an international team of colleagues concluded “that greater consideration should be given to a more gradual, complex, and nuanced transition of terrestrial ecosystems during the Changhsingian (the last part of the Permian) and, possibly, the early Triassic.”

Looy and colleagues published their findings March 19 in the open access journal Nature Communications. Her co-authors are Robert Gastaldo of Colby College in Maine; Sandra Kamo of the University of Toronto in Ontario; Johann Neveling of the Council for Geosciences in Pretoria, South Africa; John Geissman of the University of Texas in Dallas and Anna Martini of Amherst College in Massachusetts. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Cops were scared to search house where Tazne murder accused was seen, Cele told

Police officers were allegedly too scared to search a property pointed out as a potential hiding place of Moyhdian Pangarker when he was sought for the disappearance of Tazne van Wyk, her grieving mother told Police Minister Bheki Cele on Wednesday. Carmen van Wyk said that after eight-year-old Tazne disappeared on February, 7, one of …

Police officers were allegedly too scared to search a property pointed out as a potential hiding place of Moyhdian Pangarker when he was sought for the disappearance of Tazne van Wyk, her grieving mother told Police Minister Bheki Cele on Wednesday.

Carmen van Wyk said that after eight-year-old Tazne disappeared on February, 7, one of the people searching for her reported a sighting of Pangarker. At the time, he was thought to have been the last person seen with Tazne at the tuck shop just outside their home.

Unsuccessful phone calls were made to police at first. When nobody answered, residents went to the police station to inform them that they might know where Pangarker was.

The mother said police sent just one van to the property where there had been a sighting of Pangarkar and the child.

“When they got in front of that house in that same street, the police told them: ‘I’m sorry, we’re not going in here because we were thrown with stones.’ Can it be that a policeman can refuse to go in where there was a possible lead?” asked Tazne’s mother, Carmen.

As tears welled in her eyes, she maintained an angry strength and told Cele what her family had been through.

With Cele squeezed on the couch between her and Tazne’s dad, Terence, Carmen said police officers should have brought back-up, or at the very least “one simple army van” to check out the house.

This was a reference to the army vehicles patrolling parts of the Cape Flats to assist police action against gangs.

She said after they complained about not getting enough information on the search for Pangarker and Tazne, the police became more active.

She added the family felt as if the police were relying on them for new information.

As they spoke, their voices were drowned out every few minutes by passenger jets flying metres above their corrugated iron roof, on their final descent to Cape Town International Airport.

Their home was hot from the summer sun, and behind the couch Tazne’s award for outstanding achievement in Grade 2 Mathematics hung on the wall. Home-crafted framed collages of family photographs filled the wall space, with inspirational quotes taking up the available shelf space.

Cele listened as the parents said that some people even accused them of being linked to their child’s disappearance.

He was stunned to see how close the front door of the family’s home was to the shop where Tazne was last seen.

The Van Wyks were upset that the media knew before them that Pangarker had been arrested in Cradock in the Eastern Cape, and that a body had been found on the side of the road near Worcester.

“Why does the media have to hear about everything that’s happening and afterwards they [police] come to us when we have already seen it on the phone in the news and heard about it in voice notes?” asked Carmen.

News24 asked Carmen for permission to report on their conversation with Cele, and she agreed.

In a short public address after his visit with the family, Cele said the “first prize” is to keep children safe; the “second prize” is to keep them alive; and, the “third prize” is to know what happened.

He said a task team, which included the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, will examine all aspects of Tazne’s murder, including how Pangarker absconded from parole and why he was released, given his long list of convictions.

“I have listened to the family. They have raised some few issues and these are issues that are going to be pursued and a report will go to the president,” he said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, also visited the family on Tuesday.

Amid calls outside the house by some neighbours for the death sentence, Cele said South Africa’s Constitution forbids it.

He said he had been on the phone daily during the search “pushing” police to find Tazne.

“Besides the few things that they might have done incorrectly, they [the police] put in a lot of effort.”

He would not use the word “happy” to describe his response to the investigation.

“Happy? I can’t be happy with a dead child. If the child was alive, I would be very, very happy. Unfortunately, our best has become the worst when we find a dead kid.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.

Category: Tag: , , ,

SANSA And SARAO To Commission The Digital Earth South Africa Data Cube

Data analysts have long encountered challenges in the interpretation of large datasets for use in decision-making. With the advent of data cubes in recent years, the burden on analysts has been alleviated through reliance on multidimensional arrays of values represented in the form of a data cube. In light of these developments, discussions are underway …

Data analysts have long encountered challenges in the interpretation of large datasets for use in decision-making. With the advent of data cubes in recent years, the burden on analysts has been alleviated through reliance on multidimensional arrays of values represented in the form of a data cube. In light of these developments, discussions are underway for a collaboration between the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) to commission the Digital Earth South Africa (DESA) platform.

“The Digital Earth South Africa platform is a data cube for ingesting analysis-ready satellite imagery from the national satellite archive, which will facilitate the development of earth observation products and services,” said SANSA CEO Valanathan Munsami.

SANSA has a legislative mandate to drive the promotion and use of space and cooperation in space-related activities and to this end, has partnered with The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), a facility of the National Research Foundation, to launch the DESA platform. SARAO is responsible for the administration of all radio astronomy initiatives and facilities in South Africa, including amongst others, the MeerKAT Radio Telescope in the Karoo, and the Geodesy and VLBI activities at the HartRao facility.

Space agencies and big data repositories globally are responding to the world’s challenges by leveraging Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies such as cloud computing services, machine learning and analysis-ready data standards to convert raw data into actionable insights for decision-making products, suited for local challenges and needs.

Tailoring its services to the South African and African market, SANSA and SARAO aim to leverage their expertise in these emerging technologies in the development of DESA.

According to SANSA records, “DESA will build on data cube technology and analysis-ready data standards to deliver a unique capability to store, manage, process, interrogate, and present Earth observation data in formats that further promote its usefulness to support information-based decision-making processes.” It will facilitate this process by translating over 30 years of Earth observation satellite imagery stored in SANSA’s archives, into actionable information and insights, with reliable, standardised and easily accessible products and services.

SANSA plans to integrate on-site measurements such as ground-based, airborne and ship observations and measurements as well as demographic data for comprehensive multi-level analysis.

The DESA solution will be based at the Earth Observation Data Centre (EODC) located at the Hartebeesthoek ground station, which is the primary location where storage and processing servers are hosted.

How would DESA work?

The data cube is a series of data structures and tools which organise and enable the analysis of large Earth Observation satellite data collections and uses the open-source code and application development provided by the Open Data Cube community.

Australia, Columbia, Switzerland, Vietnam and the United Kingdom have implemented this technology at scale with measurable success. Vital to this implementation is the standardisation and calibration of data, which has a positive impact on the value of the Earth Observation data and other large datasets. This is due to the fact that this process allows for the rapid development of information products that enable informed decision-making across government and private industry.

In the past, satellite imagery and geospatial datasets were downloaded, analysed, and provided to users on a custom basis. This was neither time nor cost-efficient, particularly for single-use purposes. By calibrating the entire data stream to the same standard in advance as well as making the data accessible in a High-Performance Data (HPD) structure co-located within a High-Performance Computing (HPC) facility, DESA provides enabling infrastructure for data-intensive science.

DESA will then organise this calibrated data into stacks of consistent, time-stamped geographic ‘tiles’ that can be rapidly manipulated in an HPC environment. For this purpose, a database will be used to track the data. Despite the platform containing trillions of individual observations, the database will have the capacity to track every observation back to the point of collection. Accordingly, DESA will synthesize satellite images collected over a 30-year basis over a continuous period, including future images, providing these images and derived products in a platform that is accessible to any user, and will deliver a unique capability to process, interrogate and present this data in response to specific issues, for example, crop yield, water quality, land use and forest cover.

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Our health is our humanity – Ginkgo Agency

Coronavirus has all but brought the world to its knees. Countries are under lockdown. People are being quarantined. Stock markets are falling. Life as we know it has been fundamentally altered, requiring a recalibration of actions and behaviours, both large and small. This global crisis has placed our human fragility into stark focus. Who are …

Coronavirus has all but brought the world to its knees. Countries are under lockdown. People are being quarantined. Stock markets are falling. Life as we know it has been fundamentally altered, requiring a recalibration of actions and behaviours, both large and small. This global crisis has placed our human fragility into stark focus. Who are we without our health?

When we think of our human rights, dignity, equality, and freedom are the obvious things that come to mind. Now more than ever, it is our right to health that we need to uphold. In order to defend the rights we are entitled to, we must protect our wellbeing and that of others.

It is within our constitutional right to have access to healthcare. But it is up to us to champion this right. The government can only provide treatments, medicines, and services within its available resources. Healthcare in South Africa is still reeling from the effects of apartheid. Although we are valiantly dealing with the outbreak of coronavirus, there’s no denying that we have some way to go in terms of our healthcare system. So it is up to all of us to contribute. Just as we have in the past, we must now stand together for our rights, particularly our right to be healthy. And that means being mindful of the role we can play.

Old divisions, new burdens

In South Africa, our healthcare system is divided between the public and private sector – that is, between the wealthy and poor, and between rural and urban areas. While strides have been made to redress the unequal healthcare system of apartheid, imbalances remain. Approximately only 16% of the population has medical aid coverage, granting them easier access to private facilities which have higher standards of care.

Our public health system, which serves the majority of the population, is inundated with challenges: a shortage of equipment, lack of personnel, an overburden of healthcare users. Many medical practitioners choose to enter the private sector or move overseas to better facilities. The effects of this inequality reflect in the state of our healthcare system in comparison to the rest of the world. In 2016, South Africa was ranked 127 out of 195 countries on the Healthcare Access and Quality Index.

The proposed introduction of the National Health Bill aims to address the deficiencies affecting our health services. Whether it will be effective is yet to be seen. We must all take collective responsibility for our wellbeing. And here is the good news. South Africans are demonstrating what it means to protect and care for one another. Even long before the outbreak, people have been quietly working behind the scenes to improve our healthcare, ensuring no one gets left behind. Our right to health is already in our hands.

The right to health requires action

Committed professionals are transforming healthcare services in their own way, defending the rights of people. Dr Paulo de Valdoleiros only became a doctor at the age of 51. While he always dreamed of helping people, he couldn’t afford to attend medical school until later in life. Recognising the need for accessible care, he allows his patients to pay what they can. “One of the problems in healthcare is that we depersonalise the patient,” he says. “I believe that healthcare is a calling and not a profession like any other.”

In the community of Atlantis, unabating gang-related casualties prevented healthcare workers from attending to the community. So in May 2019, nurse Olivia Pharo cashed in her pension and opened a clinic to assist those in need. She also offers house calls for patients who are bedridden or don’t have transport. In the first three months of opening, she helped over 700 people.

While completing her community service in the small town of Cradock, Dr Nosimphiwo Peni felt the strain of limited resources. She could have moved on to the private sector. Instead, she stayed, determined to fix the problem rather than ignore it. Dr Peni has since opened the first ever 24-hour clinic in Cradock. As the only doctor there, she lives above the facility, always on call.

It is not only doctors and nurses making the change. Optometrist Werner Fourie provides affordable eye tests and glasses to people in disadvantaged areas, while Sizwe Nzima delivers chronic medication to over 2 000 people in Khayelitsha who cannot easily get to the pharmacy. Then there’s Sthembiso Ngubo. After years working as a gardener, he qualified as a paramedic. Now he has his own ambulance service, going into communities that other emergency services refuse to out of fear of crime.

While the world devolves into a state of panic and prevention, these everyday heroes remind us that there is hope. Upholding our right to health depends on individuals dedicated to saving and improving lives. It depends on all of us. Our health is our humanity. So take care of yourself. Take care of your fellow human. We aren’t just bodies, or patients. We are people. And we must protect one another.

Category: Tag: , , ,

SOUTH AFRICA: Government releases ZAR25M for drought mitigation plan in Western Cape

By Inès Magoum – Published on March 25 2020 / Modified on March 25 2020 The Western Cape Province is benefiting from a South African government contingency plan to deal with drought. It consists of a 25 million rand ($1.42 million) package to support agriculture in the Central Karoo and Garden Route districts. The Western …

By Inès Magoum –
Published on
March 25 2020
/ Modified on
March 25 2020

SOUTH AFRICA: Drought contingency plan for Western Cape©Kobus Smit/Shutterstock

The Western Cape Province is benefiting from a South African government contingency plan to deal with drought. It consists of a 25 million rand ($1.42 million) package to support agriculture in the Central Karoo and Garden Route districts.

The Western Cape Province in south-western South Africa has been affected by drought for several years. The main cause is the increasing scarcity of rainfall, which provides water for people and animals. According to the South African Meteorological Services, during the months of September, October and November 2019 (Southern Spring), the region received 30 per cent less rainfall than normal and spring temperatures were abnormally high.

The capacity of the eight dams and reservoirs was reduced by 10%. In the face of these alarming statistics, the South African government urgently released 25 million rand ($1.42 million) on 20 March 2020. These funds will be used to set up some agricultural projects in Central Karoo and Garden Route, two districts of the Western Cape Province. “I welcome the news because climate change predictions have shown that the Western Cape will become drier with an even more erratic rainfall pattern. With these funds, we will intensify the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals. This will certainly help mitigate the drought,” said Ivan Meyer, Minister of Agriculture for the Western Cape Province.

Agricultural projects

Several projects will be implemented in the Western Cape Province. Fodder will be grown in areas that are extremely critical for livestock. A livestock watering system will also be established. In addition, the local government will be responsible for ensuring that people practise conservation agriculture. It is a farming system that can prevent the loss of arable land while regenerating degraded land. “Sustainable resource management will improve the economic viability of the agricultural sector in the Western Cape,” says Ivan Meyer.

Similar projects have already been carried out in the Western Cape.

On October 22, 2019, the South African Department of Finance and Economic Opportunity released 50 million rand ($2.83 million) to assist drought-affected farms in the Western Cape province. The request was made by the Western Cape’s Minister of Agriculture, Ivan Meyer. The funds provided forage support to farmers in the Central Karoo District, Matzikamma and Little Karoo regions.

Inès Magoum

Category: Tag: , , , ,

*PAN AFRICAN RESOURCES PLC – Announcement regarding South African 21-Day Lockdown and suspension of 2020 Production Guidance – SENS

Announcement regarding South African 21-Day Lockdown and suspension of 2020 Production Guidance Pan African Resources PLC (Incorporated and registered in England and Wales under Companies Act 1985 with registered number 3937466 on 25 February 2000) Share code on AIM: PAF Share code on JSE: PAN ISIN: GB0004300496 (“Pan African Resources” or “the Company” or “the …

                            
Announcement regarding South African 21-Day Lockdown and suspension of 2020 Production Guidance


Pan African Resources PLC

(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales

under Companies Act 1985 with registered number

3937466 on 25 February 2000)

Share code on AIM: PAF

Share code on JSE: PAN

ISIN: GB0004300496

(“Pan African Resources” or “the Company” or “the Group”)


ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING SOUTH AFRICAN 21-DAY LOCKDOWN AND SUSPENSION OF 2020 PRODUCTION GUIDANCE


    Shareholders are referred to the South African Government directive of Monday evening, 23

    March 2020, enacted in terms of the South African Disaster Management Act (the “Order”), which

    requires a 21-day national lockdown, effective midnight 26 March 2020 to midnight 16 April 2020

    (the “National Lockdown”), in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus)

    pandemic.       The     full   Government      announcement      can     be     found      at

    http://www.thepresidency.gov.za.


    The National Lockdown requires all non-essential businesses and activities to be suspended,

    with people confined to their homes. The lockdown will therefore impact all South African mining

    operations, including the operations of Pan African Resources. Under the Order, “companies

    whose operations require continuous processes such as furnaces or underground mine

    operations will be required to make arrangements for care and maintenance to avoid damage to

    their continuous operations”.


    The health and safety of its employees and communities are of paramount importance to Pan

    African and the Group has already implemented a number of measures to mitigate the risk of the

    Covid-19 virus spreading at its operations. The Group is implementing contingency plans to

    ensure that all operations are safeguarded and secured during the National Lockdown period.

    The Group is also engaging with all stakeholders, including the South African Government, to

    obtain further detail on permitted activities during the National Lockdown.


    The Group’s liquidity position is robust, with immediately available facilities of U$20m. In addition,

    Rand Merchant Bank has already agreed, subject to final credit approval, to defer the last three

    tranches of the existing gold loan’s redemption, constituting 5000 ounces (U$7.8m), to the first

    quarter of the 2021 financial year. Furthermore, the Group has access to an additional gold loan

    facilities of approximately U$11m, should it be required. In the event that the National Lockdown

    is extended for a prolonged period, the Company will look to reschedule its short term senior debt

    obligations. The Company’s banking Consortium has also confirmed its support for the Group

    should further liquidity be required during this period.


    In consideration of the National Lockdown and its impact on the Group’s operations, FY2020

    production guidance is suspended until the Company is in a better position to quantify the full

    impact of the lockdown. The Company will continue to monitor the situation, and will inform

    shareholders as new information becomes available.


    Cobus Loots, CEO of Pan African Resources, commented: “Pan African supports all measures

    to limit the impact of COVID-19 on the people of South Africa. Even though the National

    Lockdown will impact negatively on our operational performance in the short term, our Group is

    well positioned and our operations robust. In South African Rand terms, the gold price is now at

    a record level, and we look forward to resuming full-scale operations to the benefit of all of our

    stakeholders as soon as it is possible and safe to do so”.


Rosebank

24 March 2020


For further information on Pan African, please visit the Company’s website at

www.panafricanresources.com

Contact information

Corporate Office                                 Registered Office

The Firs Office Building                         Suite 31

2nd Floor, Office 204                            Second Floor

Cnr. Cradock and Biermann Avenues                107 Cheapside

Rosebank, Johannesburg                           London

South Africa                                     EC2V 6DN

Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                      United Kingdom

info@paf.co.za                                   Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644

Cobus Loots                                      Deon Louw

Pan African Resources PLC                        Pan African Resources PLC

Chief Executive Officer                          Financial Director

Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900                      Office: + 27 (0)11 243 2900

Phil Dexter/Jane Kirton                          John Prior

St James’s Corporate Services Limited            Numis Securities Limited

Company Secretary                                Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker

Office: + 44 (0)20 7796 8644                     Office: +44 (0)20 7260 1000

Ciska Kloppers                                   Ross Allister/David McKeown

Questco Corporate Advisory Proprietary Limited   Peel Hunt LLP

JSE Sponsor                                      Joint Broker

Office: + 27 (0)11 011 9200                      Office: +44 (0)20 7418 8900

Julian Gwillim                                   Thomas Rider/Neil Elliot

Aprio Strategic Communications                   BMO Capital Markets Limited

Public  Investor Relations SA                   Joint Broker

Office: +27 (0)11 880 0037                       Office: +44 (0)20 7236 1010

Website: www.panafricanresources.com


Date: 24-03-2020 09:28:00

Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (‘JSE’).

The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of

 the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct,

indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,

 information disseminated through SENS.
Category: Tag: , , ,

South African government declares national state of disaster due to drought

The declaration of a nation-wide state of disaster that appeared yesterday in the Government Gazette has taken agricultural organisations by surprise, given that large parts in the east of the country recently received good rains. In a statement Agri SA, an agricultural industry association said: “The rationale behind this national disaster declaration remains unclear due …

The declaration of a nation-wide state of disaster that appeared yesterday in the Government Gazette has taken agricultural organisations by surprise, given that large parts in the east of the country recently received good rains.

In a statement Agri SA, an agricultural industry association said: “The rationale behind this national disaster declaration remains unclear due to good rains and good production prospects in most provinces.”

However, the organisation points out that four of the country’s nine provinces (parts of Limpopo, the Northern Cape, parts of the Western and the Eastern Cape) have been experiencing a prolonged drought which are in dire need of drought relief.

“We appreciate the fact that provincial government can now access national resources to assist producers and communities affected by the drought,” says Agri SA’s disaster risk manager Andrea Campher. 

“We understand that four of the provinces really do need assistance but we don’t understand the rationale of including all provinces. We will be seeking clarity on how the funds will be allocated across all provinces to assist farmers especially those farmers and farm workers affected by the drought.” 

She adds that Agri SA is willing to work alongside government to mobilise affected communities.

Ivan Meyer, Western Cape Minister for Agriculture, welcomed the declaration, adding that the north and east of the Witzenberg regions in the Cape Winelands as well as the whole of the Central and Klein-Karoo are still very dry, with smaller areas critically dry. 

The declaration was signed by the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, on 26 February, the same day that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced the provisional allocation of R500 million [29.2 million euros] “to respond to the impact of recent floods and the ongoing drought.”

Precarious situation for farmers of Letsitele and Gamtoos
One of the areas of most concern for the fruit industry is Letsitele in Limpopo, important citrus-producing region in the country. Last season growers already had to get by with only 30% of their water allocation and hundreds of hectares of citrus orchards either removed or receiving a meagre ration of water, only enough to keep it alive.

Citrus orchard in Letsitele

To the great joy of citrus and vegetable growers, recent heavy rains in the catchment area have increased the level of the Tzaneen Dam from 4% to 18.55%, but the dam’s level needs to increase to at least 29% in order for the area to enter the new water year at the same level as the year before.

Farm dams in the area that were close to dry by the end of last year, are now between 50% to 100% full, but the expectation is that farmers will again receive only 30% of their water allocation from the provincial Tzaneen Dam.

Gamtoos Valley beautifully green but dam levels drop
In the Gamtoos Valley, Eastern Cape, the Kouga Dam stands at 17.5%, less than half of what it was last year. The dam level is better than it was this time two years ago (12%) but worryingly much lower than last year this time: 46.8%.

Since December until mid-February the area had around 150mm (more than its entire rainfall for 2019, producers note) but the concern is that it hasn’t been raining much over its catchment area, the Langkloof.

“We’ve been worrying about drought for the past nine years,” says a Gamtoos vegetable farmer. “At least we’ve been known to have a flood during every month of the year, so there’s still hope.”

 

 

 

Category: Tag: , , , ,

Our system failed Tazne, says Bheki Cele at young murder victim’s funeral

The criminal justice system failed murdered Tazne van Wyk, Police Minister Bheki Cele said at her funeral in Cape Town on Saturday. Addressing mourners in Elsies River, Cele said government needed to relook the country’s laws. “Our system failed Tazne van Wyk,” he said, metres away from her little white coffin. “Some laws are too …

The criminal justice system failed murdered Tazne van Wyk, Police Minister Bheki Cele said at her funeral in Cape Town on Saturday.

Addressing mourners in Elsies River, Cele said government needed to relook the country’s laws.

“Our system failed Tazne van Wyk,” he said, metres away from her little white coffin.

“Some laws are too kind to these perpetrators. These women cause no crimes – these men cause trouble, but we focus less and less on them. Maybe the time has come that the concentration and the calls move to men.”

Cele, Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo and Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato were among the mourners at Van Wyk’s funeral at the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa on Saturday.

Speakers at her final farewell charged that government had failed to keep the 8-year-old safe by releasing her alleged killer on parole.

Murder accused Moyhdian Pangarker was cornered in Cradock last Monday after he went on the run for nearly two weeks following his identification as a person of interest in Van Wyk’s kidnapping.

After being transported back to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape town, Pangarker led the police to a stormwater drain outside Worcester where her body was found.

Van Wyk was last seen on February 7, walking to a tuck shop across the street from her home.

Children are killed ‘by our own husbands, brothers and sons’

Pangarker, the Van Wyk family’s neighbour, has been charged with Tazne’s murder and appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court last Friday.

His criminal record dates back to the 1980s and he had absconded from parole a year ago.

This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa, after meeting with Tazne’s parents, Carmen and Terence, apologised to the residents of Connaught Estate, Elsies River, that the alleged killer was released on parole.

He said it was proof that there was “something wrong with our parole system”.

At the funeral, Mbombo said children were being killed “by our own husbands, brothers and sons”.

“We are bleeding inside, because these are our own relatives.”

Plato said the focus should shift to men.

“The issue is not the women anymore – the skirt she is wearing, the dress, what she looks like or how she walks,” he said.

“The issue must shift a little bit to the men in society.”

Van Wyk was buried at the Modderdam Cemetery.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.

Category: Tag: , , ,

SA telescope engineers submerge computers in oil to protect them from the sweltering Karoo heat

Radio telescopes are located in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, and their hardware systems need to survive the elements. IronHive, developed as part of SA’s giant MeerKAT telescope, is a collection of computer processors, each the size of a credit card, encased in an oil-filled container. This is one of a number …

MeerKATMeerKAT

  • Radio telescopes are located in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, and their hardware systems need to survive the elements.
  • IronHive, developed as part of SA’s giant MeerKAT telescope, is a collection of computer processors, each the size of a credit card, encased in an oil-filled container.
  • This is one of a number of technologies that South Africa’s radio astronomy observatory is looking to commercialise.
  • For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

In the middle of summer, the temperatures at South Africa’s radio astronomy site in the Karoo loiter above 30 degrees Celsius, but can drop to below freezing in Winter.

But the computers that process the telescope’s huge quantities of data need to be kept at a relatively stable temperature, while being far away from power sources. 

Most radio telescopes sites are in remote areas because they need to be far away from people and their technologies, which disrupt the relatively weak radio signals coming from other celestial objects in the universe. 

This is why South Africa’s telescope engineers designed Ironhive, a super-computer encased in an oil-filled stainless steel container. 

“Individual computing elements are getting very powerful and cheap,” says Simon Ratcliffe, the technical lead for scientific computing at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. It is possible to buy complete computers that are the size of credit cards, and connect these together to deliver massive computing power. 

Ironhive contains hundreds of these mini-computers, packaged in such a way that “we don’t have to build a traditional data centre”, explains Ratcliffe.  

Computers produce a lot of heat, and so cooling is an important part of traditional data centres.

 “In a normal data centre, a substantial part of both the capital and ongoing operational costs relate to the cooling system”, he says. In such a remote site these costs can become impractical. 

For Ironhive, they used a technique called“immersion cooling”.

“We made a big stainless-steel container, filled it with mineral oil, and dumped in a computer”, he says. Electric current does not flow in this special oil, and the heat capacity is thousands of times the heat capacity of air, he says. Also, removing heat from oil is “easy” – something which all car radiators are able to do. 

“Because it is in a sealed box, it is immune to the environment – there’s no air flow, no dust. You can put it on a block of concrete on the ground,” he says. While the observatory has use for Ironhive internally, they are also eyeing its possible uses in satellite ground stations across the continent. “It’s a way of parachuting in a sealed, high-performance computing unit that does not need large scale-infrastructure,” he says. 

Ironhive is one of a number of inventions patented by the SARAO team, which often needs novel solutions to its radio astronomy problems. For example, its engineers, in conjunction with local companies, developed Comrad, a passive radar solution to detect aircraft passing over head. 

South Africa’s 64-dish MeerKAT telescope “is a system that ingests, processes, stores, and analyses data”, says Pontsho Maruping, head of commercialisation at SARAO. “Through that value chain of receiving, transmitting, storing and analysing data, we’ve had to develop some innovative tools that help us with doing all of those things.”

Category: Tag: , , , ,