Day: November 30, 2022

A few weeks shy of 43 years in the City of Cape Town’s Fire & Rescue Service, Chief Fire Officer Ian Schnetler has retired. He reflects on a career which started in December 1979 as a rookie, only a few days after writing his final Matric exam.

 

Rookie firefighter, Ian Schnetler, was deployed to Roeland Street Fire Station and attend to his first big fire on New Year’s Eve in 1979 – a double storey dwelling in Tamboerskloof.

 

Schnetler served at a number of fire stations, before being promoted to Fire Officer in January 1985 – at the time the youngest ranking officer in the service.

 

 

‘Firefighting is a calling and it was my motivation for remaining in the profession for more than four decades. The different emergencies and challenges inspired me to continue to develop ways of helping and enabling staff to overcome them.

 

‘The love of actual firefighting, and the opportunities taken to “put the wet stuff on the hot stuff” and beat the beast, will always remain with me,’ said Schnetler.

 

Even when his title changed in 1990 to Chief Fire Officer where he had to put out administrative fires, he missed being on the ground.

 

 

‘With the training that you receive and the experience you build up over time, firefighting is much simpler, easier, more exciting and fun to do than sitting behind a desk. If and when an opportunity arises, I try and get involved with actual firefighting just to once again experience the feeling of being an operational firefighter,’ he said.

 

One of the highlights of his career is ‘the privilege of managing one of the proudest and best fire services in the country’.

 

‘This can only be credited to the diligent and hard work of the team of firefighters, administrative staff and senior management who make it possible. Without them we may not have been in the same position we are now,’ added CFO Schnetler.

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith, lauded Schnetler’s contribution to building Cape Town’s Fire Service.

 

‘Firefighters run into danger and there is no doubt that it is a calling. CFO Schnetler comes from a family of uniform personnel and he has continued the proud and noble tradition of serving the city. He has stayed true to his calling, has shown courage under literal fire and has done the hard yards. His time in bunker gear may be over, but his time in the service will always be remembered. We wish him well on this next part of his journey,’ said Alderman Smith.

 

 

Source: City Of Cape Town

The City of Cape Town’s Edward Avenue affordable housing project in Grassy Park, is on track and will provide homes for 126 beneficiaries. The installation of civil works is under way and the construction of the Breaking New Ground (BNG) homes will commence once the civil work is completed.

 

Today, 30 November 2022, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi visited the housing project to check on the progress being made.

­­’We are encouraged by the progress being made by City staff and contractors on site and the construction of the units is expected to start as soon as the civil works is completed. This project will be completed toward the end of 2023, if all goes as planned.

 

‘This project in the Grassy Park area is an example of our commitment to providing affordable housing opportunities to residents in all areas in the metro. The Edward Avenue housing project will cost R 30 million to complete and will provide homes to 126 beneficiaries and their families.

 

‘This BNG project comprises State-subsidised houses, which will empower many beneficiaries as first-time homeowners. The City thanks the community, City teams, contractors and project steering committees for the hard work and dedication to this project and we look forward to seeing progress over the coming months,’ said Councillor Booi.

Beneficiaries for this project will be selected in accordance with the City’s Housing Allocation Policy and Housing Needs Register to ensure housing opportunities are made available in a fair and transparent manner that prevents queue jumping and to those who qualify for housing as per the South African legislation.

Anonymous tip-offs are welcomed to help the City protect its projects and operations:

 

Residents can give anonymous tip offs if they are aware of illegal activity that is taking place; that has happened or is still to happen. Please call 112 from a cell phone (toll free) and 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 for emergencies.

 

 

Source: City Of Cape Town

The City of Cape Town is committed to working with the Cape Metro Initiation Forums to ensure this season’s initiates have a safe and healthy rite of passage into manhood, with special emphasis on compliance with the Customary Initiation Act.

 

As part of its commitment to ensuring the safety of initiates, the City will continue to supplement basic services at identified sites that have obtained the necessary permit to operate an Initiation School.

All Initiation Schools must comply with the Customary Initiation Act of 2021, which seeks to regulate Initiation Schools, and safeguard initiates.

During the previous initiation season, 36 initiates died in the Eastern Cape, and already this year, another young life has been lost in that province.

‘I am working closely with Minister Anroux Marais, the Cape Metro Initiation Forums and all spheres of government to ensure initiates go through this rite of passage safely. I’ve requested the City’s Health Department to do all it can to help mitigate the risks to our young people. I also want to encourage initiation school principals to acquire permits for initiation sites ,and ensure that their sites are compliant with the legislation.

I will also be working with the provincial department of Cultural Affairs and Sport in the new year to help address concerns raised by the Cape Metro Sotho and Hlubi Forums about not having sites for their initiation practices,’ said Proportional Representation (PR) Councillor for Subcouncil 17, Councillor Anda Ntsodo.

‘All our clinics offer a range of primary healthcare services, and we urge would-be initiates to visit their nearest facility to check for, and treat any sexually transmitted infections before undergoing traditional circumcision. The City is committed to finding a balance between a very important custom, and the health of our young men attending the Initiation Schools,’ added Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Patricia Van der Ross.

The City has also committed, along with the Western Cape Government Health and Wellness Department,

Initiation Schools are reminded that they need to obtain registration before the start of the initiation season, from the provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.

Anyone who has knowledge of an illegal initiation school or practices, or any emergency linked to initiation season, can call the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre on 021 480 7700 from a cellphone or 107 from a landline.

 

 

 

If parents have any questions or concerns about initiation schools, they can contact Cllr. Ntsodo on 083 589 8260.

 

 

 

Source: City Of Cape Town

144 burial plots have been surveyed and received the blessing of the Muslim Judicial Council for allocation as a small Muslim allotment in the Rusthof Cemetery. The area will be demarcated for use by the Muslim community as it facilitates the religious requirement for the orientation of each grave to be towards the Qibla.

 

An official opening ceremony took place earlier this week when representatives from the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) visited the site to check Qibla for the graves. The Qibla is the direction facing towards the Kaaba in the sacred mosque in Mecca. This orientation is widely used by Muslims for their religious rites and rituals, particularly for the direction of prayer.

 

 

Among those in attendance were representatives from the Gordon’s Bay Islamic Society, Boland Islamic Council, Strand Muslim Council, the Nurul Islam Mosque and Majlisush Shura Al-Islami.

 

 

The new development was welcomed as it will alleviate pressure on many residents looking for affordable, public cemetery options to bury their loved ones in a manner that respects their religious practices. In the Helderberg area, there are no other cemeteries that accommodate Muslim burials, except for the privately-owned Strand Muslim Cemetery, which has reached full capacity and only offers the re-opening of family graves for further burials.

 

Before the Rusthof allotment, families would have to commute to Welmoed or Wallacedene cemeteries, being the nearest City Cemetery with available allotments for Muslim burials. This has brought some relief to those living in Gordon’s Bay and Strand as they can now bury their loved ones closer to home.

 

 

 

 

 

Event attendees also received an information pack with reading materials, to help them understand how to book grave plots in compliance with the City’s booking system. The City is legally required to have a list of mandatory documents on hand before any burial can take place.

 

Understanding the unique requirements for Muslim burial practices, booking co-ordinators have been assigned to assist with managing the process. For bookings at Rusthof Cemetery, the MJC along with the relevant Muslim burial societies, will nominate a co-ordinator.

 

A legally binding service agreement is also in place between the City and the MJC, which was entered into in 2015. It recognises that Muslims have select requirements for burial for religious reasons, and allows for them to exercise their religious right to bury as soon as possible after death.

 

 

As part of the day’s activities, the first grave was mechanically dug. The soil at Rusthof cemetery is particularly rich in clay, making the surface very hard. The impact on operations is that it is extremely difficult to prepare graves quickly, within a short period of time.

 

‘We will have to monitor the burial demand and potentially prepare two to three graves in advance per day. Also, digging may take place in a grave plot adjacent to an occupied one to ensure that the space afforded is filled systematically. If the need for more graves to be prepared increases, the City can provide for this, but it will be important to allow for some lead-time to make arrangements for staff to be at the premises with the necessary skills and equipment. Under no circumstances would a burial be able to take place without a facility staff member being present,’ said the Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Patricia Van der Ross.

 

 

The Recreation and Parks Department is exploring the possibility of extending Rusthof and Sir Lowry’s Pass cemeteries. This require extensive planning and authorisation in the long term as inputs are required from various practitioners including environmentalists, land use authorities, landscapers and bio-diversity experts.

 

 

Source: City Of Cape Town

South Africa’s free press has been largely successful at resisting efforts by the Chinese government to influence its content, say analysts, affirming a recent study by the U.S.-based think tank Freedom House.

 

“In South Africa, we have a deep historical suspicion of state media,” said Anton Harber, professor of journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

 

South Africa’s wariness of state media, he said, stems from the country’s legacy of apartheid, the former state policy of racial segregation and discrimination that ended in 1994. Under apartheid, the media was censored.

 

“SA’s media is resilient and will always be skeptical when it comes to certain issues being shaped in a certain line of thought,” said Reggy Moalusi, executive director of the South African National Editors’ Forum.

 

The Freedom House report, titled “Beijing’s Global Media Influence 2022,” said South Africans as a whole, including journalists, are highly skeptical of Chinese state narratives. It said that, despite success by the Chinese government in building ties with the ruling African National Congress party, “coverage of China in South African media remains overall diverse … and often critical of the Chinese government.”

 

Areas of concern

 

Even with a democratic government and free press, the Chinese government still attempts to influence South Africa’s media environment, according to the2022 findings by Freedom House, which studied China’s media influence in 30 countries around the world from January 2019 to December 2021.

 

A private Chinese company with links to the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), StarTimes Group has invested 20 percent in local satellite provider StarSat, which offers Chinese state media television channels, the report said.

 

Another example cited in the report is South Africa’s Independent Media group, which publishes some 20 newspapers in the country. Since 2013, the group has been 20 percent owned by a Chinese consortium whose shareholders include state media. Its digital version, Independent Online, is the second most-read news site in the country.

 

Independent Media regularly publishes content from Chinese newswire Xinhua as well as Chinese state perspectives. “None of its outlets carry much negative commentary on China,” Freedom House said.

 

The company’s outlets published 16 articles, interviews and speeches by the Chinese ambassador and consul generals between 2020 and 2021, the report found. It also gives print space to local South African academics and political figures who support Beijing’s line.

 

Its foreign editor wrote an op-ed during the pandemic with false claims about COVID-19’s origins. Independent Media journalists have attended media junkets to China and one freelancer told Freedom House researchers that topics for articles and related links are sometimes directly provided by the Chinese embassy.

 

One example of China’s apparent influence on independent media took place in 2018 when columnist Azad Essa was abruptly let go after writing an article condemning Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims.

 

When contacted by VOA for comment, the group’s editor-in-chief Aziz Hartley responded, “Editors have complete autonomy over their respective publications and their reporters are bound by the principles of unbiased, ethical and objective reporting.”

 

China’s efforts to influence the media landscape in South Africa were shown to have slowed in recent years, the report found.

 

The other side

 

Shao Hesong, second secretary at the Chinese embassy in Washington, referred questions to the Chinese embassy in South Africa, which did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

 

In a July op-ed published by state media China Daily, Dennis Munene, executive director of the Nairobi-based China-Africa Center at the Africa Policy Institute, made a case for more cooperation between China and African media.

 

Under the Chinese government’s China-Africa Vision 2035 program, he said, China and Africa “plan to strengthen cooperation in news coverage, creation of audiovisual content, training of media professionals and media technologies.” He argued there is the need for “more in-depth media exchanges’” and said Beijing “can develop technological tools for fact-checking on issues related to Sino-Africa relations.”

 

Africa findings

 

While South Africa has a high level of resilience against the Chinese government’s influence due to its diverse media landscape, the study found, the other African nations studied were a mixed bag.

 

“Our research found that Beijing is trying some of the same tactics in Africa as it does in Western countries, such as signing content-sharing agreements, paid advertorials, or placing ambassador op-eds,” Angeli Datt, a senior research analyst at Freedom House, told VOA.

 

In Nigeria, attempts at influence from China were “very high” — the fourth highest of all 30 countries surveyed — and while there was some resilience, it was less robust than in the other three. The Chinese embassy in Nigeria has reportedly contacted editors and even paid journalists not to cover negative stories, according to Freedom House.

 

In Kenya, there were “high” efforts by China to influence the media, but the East African country also had a “notable” level of resilience. For example, a Chinese state-owned company threatened to sue a Kenyan newspaper, The Standard, over its investigative reporting on abuses at a railway run by the firm. The paper refused to retract the story, and the Chinese embassy canceled its advertising with the paper.

 

Global media influence

 

Of the 30 countries studied from around the world, Beijing’s efforts at influencing the media were deemed “high” or “very high” in 16 of them, and only half of all those surveyed were found to be resilient to the messaging, the other half vulnerable.

 

“The Chinese government, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, is accelerating a massive campaign to influence media outlets and news consumers around the world,” the report said.

 

Source: Voice of America

Government welcomes the results of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for quarter three: 2022, which revealed that 204 000 jobs were gained between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2022. The Labour Force Survey also revealed that the total number of persons employed was 15,8 million in the third quarter of 2022.

This means that the official unemployment rate decreased by 1,0 percentage point from 33,9% in the second quarter to 32,9% in the third quarter of 2022. The unemployment rate according to the expanded definition of unemployment also decreased by 1,0 percentage point to 43,1% in Q3:2022 compared to Q2:2022.

The largest jobs gain were recorded in manufacturing (123 000), followed by trade (82 000), construction (46 000), transport (33 000) and community and social services (27 000).

Whilst this is welcomed news ahead of the festive season, government acknowledges that the country has a long way to go and more work needs to be done to address the challenge of unemployment in the country. Despite an increase of 25 000 in the number of employed youth during the third quarter, the results show that the youth (aged 15-34 years) remain vulnerable in the labour market.

Minister in The Presidency, Mondli Gungubele said: “Government is doing all within its power to attract and create a conducive environment for investment and business to thrive in South Africa. As a country, we are implementing the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan to build a sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy. We are pleased with the growth of the employment rate but more must be done.

Government together with the business sector, organised labour and other partners are committed to addressing the challenge of unemployment. Citizens are encouraged to support local businesses and embrace entrepreneurship. Let us work together to improve the employment rate of South Africa, leaving no one behind. But in short, we are very encouraged by these results and hope that these green shoots building upon previous quarters are starting to signify the turn in our economic outlook”.

 

 

 

Source: Government of South Africa