Monday, 27 July - DAILY NEWS SUMMARY
Pretoria News (www.pretorianews.co.za) Page 1 – Covid-19 survivor’s advice
Page 2 – City curb on Plastic View homes
The Star (www.iol.co.za)
Page 1 – AFU swoops on ‘UIF looter’
Page 2 – Sadtu seeks answers on PPEs, safety
Business Day (www.businesslive.co.za) Page 2 – Closure of schools is to ‘pacify unions’
Page 3 – Turkish firm confident power ships the answer to SA’s energy woes
Citizen (www.citizen.co.za)
Page 3 – Terrified teen takes on Facebook Page 7 – Learning language issue
Page 9 – N Korean town is locked down
연합뉴스 (www.yonhapnews.co.kr) 남아공 교민 2명 확진 속 잇단 귀국길
Covid-19 survivor’s advice
She says that contracting virus is not all doom and gloom and that the stigma must be avoided
Pretoria News
27 Jul 2020
ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za
ERIKA BASSON with her husband Christiaan, Juan, 6, Ruben, 4, and twins Christopher and William, 16 months.
AN EDUCATIONAL psychologist who has recovered from Covid-19 along with her husband and four children has warned people that the virus is a reality and they should not regard it lightly
But it is not all doom and gloom, she said, and emphasised that people must not feel stigmatised.
If they were to test positive, they should stay calm and take a few moments to process the information before phoning anyone.
Erika Basson said one of the main challenges was to break the stigma behind testing positive for the virus.
“There is some stigmatisation around Covid-19. Some of these are ‘you were not careful, or you broke the rules’. This makes you feel like a criminal; the fact that you need to contact people you had direct contact with makes it even worse.
“Then you need to isolate yourself, which goes against our human nature and makes you feel even worse emotionally while you are physically not feeling good.”
Basson said it was important to break the stigma. “Everyone wants to know how you got it, as if they want to know what you did wrong. The reality is that this is a virus that spreads and it is really spreading fast.”
She said people should realise that there is nothing to be ashamed of when you test positive.
“I have read so many things about Covid-19… the emotional impact of isolation on our children, and the financial impact of this pandemic worldwide. A lot has been said and written about how to prevent getting it, about how to support our children returning to schools and about this ‘new normal’. What I was not prepared for was what to do if you test positive.
“I am a mother of beautiful boys aged between 16 months and 6 years. My mother tested positive for Covid-19 a week ago. When she told us about her test results, I was shocked because she is obviously older and more at risk.
“My children and I were in contact with her a few days before that, so I was also scared for my own family. I work at a school, so I decided that I need to get tested.”
Basson said that at the time of going for the test she had no symptoms. “But that evening I started feeling sick.
“My doctor phoned the following morning with the news that I had tested positive and that I needed to isolate for 14 days.
“Anxiety started as I knew I must now make numerous calls to everyone I was in close contact with. I was scared and anxious that my kids and my husband were also going to get sick.”
She felt like a criminal and it was horrible to phone everyone and answer 10 000 questions without having time to pause and process the news first.
“This was my biggest mistake in handling the news. First pause and take a moment for yourself to process and then you can react,” Basson said.
“My children and my husband also started with symptoms and I had to deal with them not feeling well. The worst part of it all was that no one could come and help us. It was a logistical nightmare… we couldn’t go to the shops and get food or medicine.
“We were vulnerable and scared not knowing what we should do next. I got very sick and felt horrible. Luckily the kids and my husband had light symptoms and recovered within a few days.”
Basson’s advice is to stock up on vitamins, eat healthily and ensure your immune system is healthy to fight the virus. “The reality is most of us will get it and hopefully recover.”
She advised people to prepare mentally for possible Covid-19 infection. “We need to be prepared for when and if you do get sick.”
if they did not play a progressive role.
Malema also lambasted the theft of Covid-19 relief funds. “It is worse in the Eastern Cape where R4.8 million is used to conduct door-to-door campaigns and R10m is spent on embarrassing scooters that serve no purpose,” he said.
Malema said the EFF’s successful campaign against the continued honouring of FW de Klerk, its fight against racism, corruption and its contribution in the fight for equality and free higher education were among the credentials earned by his party since its founding.
He maintained that the party had influenced legislation in all spheres it was represented in.
the company that the funds had not reflected in its bank account.
It was discovered that the funds went into Mchunu’s account. He is said to be a private individual who is neither employed by the UIF nor the National Adhesive Distributors CC.
Following this discovery, the matter was reported to the police, who acted swiftly and alerted the Financial Intelligence Centre. They intervened promptly in terms of the Financial
Intelligence Centre Act and froze the relevant accounts, Ngwema said.
After receiving the funds, Mchunu allegedly transferred portions of the money into other bank accounts held by himself, various stokvel accounts and numerous bank accounts of other individuals.
The transfer of the funds into the accounts was done in an attempt to disguise the origin of the funds, it is claimed.
“The SAPS is continuing with its investigations into allegations of fraud, and or theft as well as money laundering. The Assets Forfeiture Unit applied for the preservation order to
permanently forfeit the money to the state,” said Ngwema.
The operation is a direct product of the “Fusion Centre” that was established, among other things, as an urgent intervention to address unlawful activities related to Covid-19 relief funds.
The court also recently sent out a strong message that fraud pertaining to these funds would not be tolerated when it froze millions in another account into which UIF funds were allegedly fraudulently paid.
City curb on Plastic View homes
By-laws bar permanent structures, but residents erecting formal lodgings after fire
Pretoria News
27 Jul 2020
JAMES MAHLOKWANE james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za
JACQUES NAUDE African News Agency
(ANA)FOLLOWING a fire last week, residents of Plastic View have opted to replace the
shacks with formal structures. |
RESIDENTS of Plastic View informal settlement are not allowed to build permanent structures as this would be against the City of Tshwane by-laws and building regulations.
Part of the settlement was gutted by fire last week after which the residents started building formal houses.
Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the metro still had plans to develop a mixed residential development for residents of the settlement east of the capital, most of them foreign nationals who do not qualify for government-subsidised housing.
However, he said: “Those who will not be accommodated through subsidised low-cost houses will be considered for low rental options. The City will also work with the Department of Home Affairs to address the issue of undocumented foreign nationals.”
He said the City appointed the service provider to establish a mixed residential township to be known as Pretorius Park Extension 40, which would accommodate 853 families from Plastic View.
The development will be at a remainder of portion 284 of the Farm Garsfontein 374-JR, measuring 6.4ha and located in Region 6, just east of the Woodlands Shopping Centre.
The site is located 900m from the informal settlement.
“The development site has among other things been identified as a resettlement area to accommodate the beneficiaries from Plastic View and the nearby Cemetery View. This development will contribute much to the objective of the City to dismantle the apartheid spatial patterns.
“The development conforms to the principles of the National Development Plan, Gauteng Spatial Development Framework and Regional Spatial Development Framework.
“All of the above plans spearhead the principles of spatial justice, spatial resilience, spatial sustainability and spatial quality.”
Following the recent fire, community leaders said they were intentionally no longer using plastic sheets to build shelters because “these will burn again”.
Benjamin Sithole and John Mayiwa said the City and provincial government had not been able to relocate the informal settlement since 2009. They said the people were tired of losing their homes again and again.
Sithole said: “To be honest I don’t think the City knows what to do with Plastic View. They should just allow those who have money to build permanent structures.
“The City is frustrated by Plastic View and I can understand. There are more than 15 000 people living here and only about 800 are registered. The rest are in the country illegally and cannot qualify for housing. That’s why nothing will happen here.”
Human rights lawyer Louise du Plessis said she could understand why the people would build such structures to protect themselves against fires and crime. However, legally the land belonged to the City and they did not have permission to build; anything to the contrary would be a contravention of town planning laws.
Du Plessis said there was also going to be an issue of complaints from the homeowners associations in the affluent neighbourhoods who did not want the informal settlement there.
“The City really does not know what to do with this place because they also do not want to deal with the issue of what happens to the many residents who are not South African citizens.
“The City does not want to look at the option of decamping the settlement around in a very organised way around some of the land they own there. They wanted to move them around the Mamelodi and Cullinan side, but I don’t know what happened to that plan. They said they don’t want to continue building informal settlements because of the history of the country.
Also, we know they could make a lot of money from the land from taxis that decamp around the Plastic View area because that land is worth a lot,” Du Plessis said.
“People are starting to build with bricks to protect their families,” resident Munyaradzi Dika said:
Patience Mashaba said: “I lost all my clothes, furniture and tuck shop in a 2018 fire. A formal building will mean I am safe against fires, cold and crime.”
AFU swoops on ‘UIF looter’
Unit gets court order to freeze bank account of businessman suspected of stealing R700 000 meant for 150 workers
The Star Early Edition
27 Jul 2020
ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za
THE Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has moved swiftly to freeze the bank account of a businessman accused of looting almost R700 000 from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) that was meant to bring relief to more than 150 Covid-19 hit workers.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted the AFU of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) a preservation order to freeze a bank account linked to businessman Thokozani Mchunu. This followed suspicions that he fraudulently received funds from the UIF.
NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said R692 185.55 was fraudulently, or mistakenly, paid into a bank account in Durban, which is registered in Mchunu’s name.
According to him, a Durban company called National Adhesive Distributors successfully applied to the Covid-19 relief fund on April 15 for R692 185.55. This was on behalf of its employees and their dependants.
These funds were to be paid to more than 150 employees and their dependants.
The UIF was alerted by the company on June 12 that the funds had not reflected in its bank account.
It was discovered that the funds went into Mchunu’s account.
He is said to be a private individual who wasn’t employed by the UIF or by National Adhesive Distributors.
Following this discovery, the matter was reported to the police which acted swiftly and alerted the Financial Intelligence Centre.
They intervened promptly in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and froze the relevant accounts, Ngwema said.
After receiving the funds, Mchunu allegedly transferred portions of the money into other bank accounts held by himself, various stokvel accounts and numerous bank accounts of other individuals.
The transfer of the funds into the accounts was done in an attempt to disguise the origin of the funds, it is claimed.
“Police are continuing with investigations into allegations of fraud, and or theft, as well as money laundering.
“The Asset Forfeiture Unit applied for the preservation order to permanently forfeit the money to the State,” added Ngwema.
The operation was a direct product of the “Fusion Centre”, which was established, among other things, as an urgent intervention to address unlawful activities related to Covid-19 relief funds.
Last month, the court also recently sent out a strong message that that fraud pertaining to these funds would not be tolerated when it froze millions in another account into which UIF funds were allegedly fraudulently paid into.
The AFU obtained a preservation order for R5.7 million in relation to money paid
fraudulently, or alternatively, mistakenly, into the bank account of Tshepang Phohole, who worked as a packer in a warehouse in Pretoria.
The money was earmarked for 1 400 workers from the company, CSG Resourcing, but was paid into Phohole’s account.
It was claimed that he went on a shopping spree and gave millions of rand to his family.
Phohole and four others linked to this alleged fraud or theft, were arrested and released on bail.
The case was postponed to September 7 for further investigation.
This came as President Ramaphosa signed a proclamation last week authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe allegations of fraud, corruption and inflated pricing related to the R500 billion Covid-19 relief fund.
“We are determined that every instance of alleged corruption must be thoroughly
investigated, that those responsible for wrongdoing should be prosecuted and that all monies stolen or overpriced are recovered.
“In order to speed up and strengthen the process of dealing with corruption, I have today signed a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit to investigate any unlawful or improper conduct in the procurement of any goods, works and services during or related to the national state of disaster in any state institution.
“This empowers the SIU to probe any allegations relating to the misuse of Covid-19 funds across all spheres of the state.
“If the SIU finds evidence that a criminal offence has been committed, it is obliged to refer such evidence to the prosecuting authority,” Ramaphosa said.
Sadtu seeks answers on PPEs, safety
The Star Early Edition
27 Jul 2020
BALDWIN NDABA
MINISTER of Basic Education Angie Motshekga.
THE SA Teachers Democratic Union (Sadtu) and Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga are set to meet over allegations of fraud and corruption in the acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and the safety of teachers and learners at schools.
The union, in its meeting to take place this week, wants to raise several complaints of
corruption following accusations by its members that tenders to provide PPEs at schools were given to companies and individuals without any procurement procedures.
Sadtu deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi said: “The union will engage the department to finalise all the issues affecting the substitution of teachers and education personnel
including the provision of quality PPEs from the week of July 27.
“Any intransigence by the department which is informed by the prerogative instead of genuine consultations will be brutally challenged. The unions are not spectators… they are required by law to be consulted.”
He reiterated their call for members to stop the alleged looting of equipment which,
according to the union, was taking place under the guise of ensuring the safety of learners and teachers.
“We are calling on all our structures to unapologetically disrupt the plans of these ‘disaster capitalists’ who see our collective suffering as an opportunity to accumulate wealth by exposing and reporting them to the authorities.”
He added that Sadtu “welcomed the attempts” by President Cyril Ramaphosa to ensure that looters are brought to book through the presidential proclamation to authorise the Special Investigating Unit to investigate corruption allegations in any state body during the state of disaster.
Dolopi emphasised that civil action to recover the stolen funds should be a priority of government.
Meanwhile, government has made a call for unemployed education graduates to apply for Covid-19 posts at various schools in the country.
Motshekga made the job offers after more than 16 000 teachers with comorbidities applied and were granted permission to work from home.
Her spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga had earlier said that the auditor-general had been asked to probe irregularities in the acquisition of PPEs in schools.
Closure of schools is to ‘pacify unions’
• DA to take state to court over concerns about detrimental effects on child development
Business Day
27 Jul 2020
Genevieve Quintal and Lynley Donnelly
The government will be taken to court after accusations that it pacified unions by deciding to close all public schools for four weeks, less than a month after it won a legal challenge to its decision to reopen the country’s economy along with it schools.
But things seemed to have changed and after intense pressure from teachers’ unions, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week that public schools would be closed until August 24, a move that will push the academic year beyond the end of 2020.
Concerns have been raised about the effect on child development in an already substantially unequal country, and the economic effect of closing schools.
The DA on Friday said it would lodge a court application on the grounds that the decision was not based on scientific evidence, and was not in the interest of SA’s 14-million school- children. DA leader John Steenhuisen said the cost of closing schools was profound and would be borne by children and families for many years.
“Many children will drop out of school never to return, and many more will fall so far behind that they are never able to catch up. Inequality in our society will increase, as poorer families are not able to provide any at-home learning, while more resourced families will naturally do whatever is possible to continue their children’s education even while schools are closed,” he said.
The decision to close schools is unlikely to have immediate fiscal ramifications — as the annual R173.6bn to pay state teachers has already been budgeted. But it is the long-term consequences of the additional school closure that will cost SA, according to Servaas van der Berg, professor in economics at Stellenbosch University and the SA national research chair in the economics of social policy.
These include problems such as lost learning time for children, felt most keenly by the poorest learners, who do not have the resources — such as ready access to the internet — to supplement learning, which deepens inequality within the school system and, ultimately, the wider economy, he said.
In a paper co-authored with economist Nic Spaull, written before the latest school closure, they referenced assessment data from the US, which showed that Covid-19 could result in a Editorial: Page 6
SA’s largest short-term insurer, Santam, pledged R1bn in relief for small and medium-sized leisure, hospitality and nonessential retail businesses as the insurance industry pushes back against paying out claims related to Covid-19 business disruptions.
Santam is embroiled in a legal battle with Western Capebased hotel group Ma-Afrika Hotels, which is claiming payments for business interruptions due to the lockdown. Earlier in July,
Santam opposed an application brought against it in the high court in Cape Town, with a court case set for September 1.
Santam’s decision to make the payment came after an agreement between insurers and regulatory authorities to make interim relief payments amid a rise in business interruption cover claims as a result of the lockdown.
Santam said in a statement on Sunday that it would pay up to R1bn in relief to policyholders who have the contingent business interruption (CBI) extension in their policy cover, with payments expected to start in the first week of August.
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child losing about half of their mathematics progress and about a third of their reading
progress. But these effects are likely to be drastically underestimated in SA’s case due to “the low levels of educational materials at home, the lack of educational technology such as computers and the internet, and the inability of most SA teachers to continue teaching while children are not at school”, Van der Berg and Spaull said.
They estimated for the poorest 80% of learners in SA virtually no curricular learning was taking place under lockdown.
SA is likely to see a considerable number of children falling back in their learning,
undermining what progress it has made in improving educational performance. This has the potential to worsen already deep inequalities in the economy.
“The school system is just so terribly unequal that the labour market reflects that and therefore you have a very high premium on highly educated people and a minimum wage floor for poorly educated people.”
The pandemic, the lockdown and now school closures would make the situation worse.
The decision is expected to have profound effects on the finances of many schools, according to Anthea Cereseto, the CEO of the Governing Body Foundation, which represents a range of public schools across all provinces. Many fee-paying schools have lost income, and are faced with being unable to afford school-funded teaching and support service posts, while
government-funded teachers are “entirely protected”.
Concern has been raised about allowing independent schools to remain open, but Mandla Mthembu, chair of the National Alliance of Independent Schools Associations, said that closing private schools would have had dire financial implications, especially when fee collection was low and some teachers had to take pay cuts.
Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said that after listening to more than 60 organisations with conflicting views, it became clear that a break was required. He said the insinuation that the state capitulated to politically aligned unions was “mischievous and downright” dangerous.
“South Africans are divided on this matter; whichever decision the government took, it would be equally criticised. The government listened to everyone. Scientists are not the only players in the environment.”
Turkish firm confident power ships the answer to SA’s
energy woes
Karpowership says it has available vessels that can offer the country the electricity it needs quickly and cheaply
Business Day
27 Jul 2020
Lisa Steyn steynl@businesslive.co.za
/Karpow
ershipPower on demand: Karpowership is the first company to build and contract power
ships. The Turkish firm has vessels in locations around the world that supply contracted power totalling 4,100MW. It is planning to be part of SA’s power purchase programme.
As the spectre of load-shedding continues to haunt the SA economy, the search for ways to plug the energy supply gap continues in earnest, and power ships want a seat at the table.
Power ships are vessels that can travel to any shore across the globe. With fuel and their own grid substation on board, they simply plug into the existing infrastructure onshore and feed power into the grid.
Karpowership, part of Turkey’s Karadeniz Energy Group and the first company to build and contract power ships, believes it can offer SA the power it needs very quickly.
That is because Karpowership already has a fleet on standby, says Patrick O’Driscoll, global sales director of the company.
In locations across the globe, 25 of its powerships supply contracted power totalling 4,100MW. There are also a handful of available vessels ready to be used with a moment’s notice. The ships making up the fleet vary in size, with generation capacity ranging from 36MW to 470MW per vessel.
Karpowership is vying to be part of SA’s risk mitigation power purchase programme, which looks to procure between 2,000MW and 3,000MW (10% of SA’s average energy demand) of emergency power. The request for information was put out early this year and called for information relating to options that can be up and running by December 2021 and which are workable with power purchase agreements as short as three years. The request for
information will inform the design of the tender document, which is expected to be released before the end of July.
Karpowership’s single largest customer is Malaysia, to which it supplies 1,000MW.
But O’Driscoll says Karpowership could provide vessels to provide 800MW of power to SA within eight weeks. A total 2,000MW of capacity could, as it stands, take less than nine months to deliver.
Because there are power ships ready to go, O’Driscoll says there is no construction risk. And Karpowership also has the ability to build additional power ships off its own balance sheet, if required, which means it will not depend on financiers to go ahead with a project in SA.
The ships are also redeployable. In Ghana, for example, Karpowership moved a vessel running on liquid fuel to another part of the country to instead take advantage of an
indigenous gas find. “These power ships are as flexible [commercially and technically] and as mobile as you want them to be,” O’Driscoll says.
Energy expert Anton Eberhard has previously said power ships were investigated by the Eskom “war room” in 2015 but nothing came of it. Prices were about $0.25 (R4.10) a kilowatt-hour at the time.
But O’Driscoll counters that Karpowership can supply power to SA at an all-in cost of R1.70/kWh. That includes the cost of the fuel — in this case liquefied natural gas (LNG) — and the foreign exchange risk, because gas is priced in dollars.
Some experts are sceptical that power ships can come in at that price, but if it is so, it is higher than SA’s average cost of power of R1/kWh but lower than the cost of running dieselguzzling peaking plants at a cost of R3.52/kWh.
Renewable energy projects can come in at an average of R0.70/kWh, and possibly lower now. But they do not fit the bill because they cannot be built in the tight time frame. They require power purchase agreements of at least 10 years and they cannot be dispatched on demand, as the risk mitigation initiative requires.
Jarrad Wright at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) cautions about comparing prices at face value. That is because SA has a peaking power problem: the system struggles to supply power when demand surges at particular times. That means it is not optimal to contract power that, though it comes in at a better price per kilowatt-hour than diesel, will have run more often than is really required.
Karpowership could not provide more detail on the minimum capacity at this stage but confirmed any deal would include a minimum capacity charge. To procure electricity from a power ship when it is needed, “would be a very expensive undertaking for any
country”,O’Driscoll says.
Gary Rademeyer, a director at Norton Rose Fulbright specialising in energy, says power ships seem to be the quickest solution. And when it comes to a power purchase agreement spanning just three years, few others would be able to work within such parameters. There are, however, many other challenges for power ships to overcome, he says.
One is the environmental impact assessment, which allows for public comment.
Environmental groups have successfully used this process to stall — perhaps indefinitely — other fossil fuel projects in SA. Apart from the effect of mooring and connecting the ships, the LNG that the power ships will use remains a fossil fuel that emits carbon and sulphur, though less than what burning diesel and coal does.
O’Driscoll, however, says he is confident the LNG power ships are a good alternative. “We will be operating on fuel that is substantially cleaner than any coal power plant or any liquid fuel power plant that’s operating in SA today.”
Another regulatory hurdle that could cause delays is obtaining mooring rights. Rademeyer says it is likely that power ships would want to moor at Richards Bay, but it is contested space, especially as Transnet has its own ambitions to set up an LNG terminal there.
Another sticking point, Rademeyer notes, may be the Treasury’s preparedness to extend more guarantees to back the power purchase agreements, as it has done with renewable energy independent power producers (IPPs) previously.
Karpowership, however, says it will have lower guarantee requirements than the IPPs because the ships already exist and are able to unplug and leave if not paid.
That was not exactly the case in Pakistan where in 2011, after the Supreme Court declared all rental power plants illegal and in the midst of a dispute, Karpowership’s vessel was seized by the government and held for two years. Only in 2019 was the case settled through arbitration.
But O’Driscoll sees SA as a far more stable jurisdiction than many others Karpowership operates in.
Power ships and the risk mitigation power programme aside, there are other ways to plug the electricity supply gap that may be quicker and cheaper, if only the government would
progress them with more speed.
For example, about 2,000MW in demand could be alleviated from the grid if regulatory hurdles, which have prevented businesses from generating their own power, were removed.
Kevin Mileham, spokesperson on energy for the DA, says plans to take up excess generation capacity from existing IPPs also should have been prioritised months ago.
Ultimately, he says, the market must be urgently opened up to allow new entrants into the sector without Eskom as the “handbrake”.
In this scenario, the entrance of power ships would not be up for debate but would be determined by simple market economics.
Wright says public acceptance of new initiatives, such as power ships, comes down to transparency. “You need to be more transparent.”
Terrified teen takes on Facebook
ONLINE THREATS: NEED TO IDENTIFY PERPETRATOR
The Citizen (Gauteng)
27 Jul 2020
Bernadette Wicks bernadettew@citizen.co.za
Social media giant won’t hand over account information to terrified girl.
Alocal 13-year-old girl left fearing for her life after receiving a barrage of rape and murder threats over social media, is taking Facebook on in court in a bid to lift the veil of anonymity behind which her perpetrator has been hiding.
This is after attempts to engage the social networking giant directly, and a criminal complaint laid with local police, came to nought. Terrified the author of the threats could be one of her classmates, the girl, who cannot be named because she is a minor, refuses to return to school.
“I cannot face the prospect of knowing he might be there and I just don’t know that it is him,”
she said in papers filed in the High Court in Johannesburg last month.
This is part of an urgent application aimed at forcing Facebook to release the basic subscriber information for the anonymous account from which the threats were sent. The girl explained the graphic threats, which were included in the papers, were sent over Instagram, one of Facebook’s subsidiaries, from five different accounts in May. She said they had left her feeling “degraded and utterly terrified”.
“I fear this anonymous perpetrator has actually been formulating plans to harm me in these or similar ways,” she said.
“I could barely eat or sleep for about five days after receiving the messages. I am still traumatised, and I am afraid to leave the house or be left on my own.”
Leading social media law expert Emma Sadleir, who together with Andrew Miller &
Associates, is the instructing attorney in the case, was pushed from pillar to post when she tried to engage with Facebook directly.
In their heads of argument, the girl’s advocates, Kate Hofmeyr, Ben Winks and Carina du Toit, said the company had created “an impenetrable fortress around it which makes it almost impossible for users of Facebook or Instagram to obtain the basic subscriber information that would identify the perpetrators of crimes on these platforms”.
“Facebook Inc is the only party that possesses the basic subscriber information that the applicant needs to identify the perpetrator.
“She has pleaded with Facebook Inc for many weeks to obtain this information, but instead of assistance, she has been met with obfuscation,” they said.
Of the police investigation, the advocates said the girl had been visited by a detective only once since opening a case.
The case is expected to come before Judge Brian Spilg tomorrow.
Despite initially issuing a notice to oppose the application, Facebook has since agreed to abide by the court’s decision, but the girl’s legal team will argue for a costs order.
“Facebook Inc has played a game of cat and mouse with the applicant,” they said in their heads of argument. “The game is odious because the applicant is not a ‘cat’ and Facebook Inc
is certainly not a ‘mouse’. It is one of the largest, richest and most powerful corporations in the world.
“The applicant, on the other hand, is a 13-year-old girl who wants to protect herself from the most horrific harm imaginable.” –
Facebook has played a game of cat and mouse
Learning language issue
EXPERT: OPTIONS TO CRACK ENGLISH VS MOTHER-TONGUE PROBLEM
The Citizen (Gauteng)
27 Jul 2020
Nompumelelo Mohohlwane
In 2003, 55% were in favour of English, increasing to 65% in 2018 – survey.
In South Africa, mother-tongue instruction is maintained until the third year in most schools.
The language of teaching and learning changes to English from Grade 4 and then the mother tongue is taught as a subject.
However, the Language in Education Policy allows schools to extend the years of mother- tongue instruction until Grade 6. This shows an inconsistency between the language policy and the schooling experience.
Implementation and education researchers have been calling for the extension of mother- tongue instruction beyond the current status quo in line with the policy.
But parents seem to be requesting an even earlier transition to English.
When asked which language should be the main language of instruction in the first three years of school, respondents have increasingly favoured English in the South African Social Attitudes Survey.
In 2003, the response was 55% in favour of English, but this increased to 65% in 2018. This is incompatible with the demographics of South Africa. In the last census less than 10% of the population identified English as their home language.
The first policy option is maintaining the status quo and teaching in African mother tongues while introducing English, and then transitioning to English from Grade 4.
This is the most supported policy option in terms of teacher and pupil resources.
The curriculum statements, which set out what should be taught and when, are available in mother tongue only until Grade 3.
These are an important teacher resource used across the country. In addition, the educational culture of this option has been established.
But there are gaps which show that this option still needs further investment.
Firstly, few university courses adequately equip teachers with the skills to successfully teach home languages. Secondly, the education system needs to develop reading materials for successful home-language teaching.
Efforts towards this are under way but more resources and additional investments from universities, publishers, linguists and education specialists are needed.
The second policy option would be to delay moving to English as a medium of instruction until Grade 6, in line with the language policy. This option builds on the first.
Similarly, it would also need material development for reading. But in addition, it would require the development and reviewing of previous science, geography and maths textbooks into South Africa’s 11 official languages in line with the current curriculum for Grade 4 through to Grade 6.
A third policy option would be to take African languages further than Grade 6 and strengthen the path to enable tertiary education in African languages.
That would mean strengthened African language teaching and learning to create an environment where African languages are not only used as a bridge to English.
They become languages of society, education and formal work. The role of English to learn science, geography and other subjects in later grades would still recognised.
African languages warrant the pursuit of all of the three policy options in a careful and well planned manner with clear, well articulated, staggered implementation. This would recognise and strengthen education as itstands, while creating a path to a different policy direction.
Whichever option is pursued, there’s a need for language policy implementation in education with greater cognisance of the relationship between education and the economy. It’s not just a technocratic issue about writing the right policy.
Nompumelelo Mohohlwane is an education researcher at Stellenbosch University It’s not just a technocratic issue about writing the right policy
N Korean town is locked down
The Citizen (Gauteng)
27 Jul 2020
Seoul – North Korean authorities have imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong after discovering what they called the country’s first suspected case of the coronavirus, it was reported yesterday.
Leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting to implement a “maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert”, official news agency KCNA said.
It would be the first officially recognised Covid-19 case in the North.
북한의 한 마을 폐쇄되다
서울의 한 북한 관련 전문가는 어제 개성에서 코로나 관련 의심 환자가 발생한 이후 개성에 대한 폐쇄 조치가 나려진 것으로 보인다고 보도했다.
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 긴급 정치국 회의를 소집하여 ‘최대 비상체제’를 실시하고 최고위급 경보를 발령했다고 조선중앙통신이 전했다.
이번 사건은 북한에서 공식적으로 최초의 코로나-19 확진자가 발생한 것이다.
남아공 교민 2명 확진 속 잇단 귀국길
송고시간 2020-07-27 04:14
귀국길에 나선 남아공 교민 유학생
(요하네스버그=연합뉴스) 26 일 남아공 케이프타운에 유학 중인 한국 대학생 3 명이 귀국길에 나선 가운데 주남아공 대사관 이양호(왼쪽) 참사관이 김밥과 마스크를 담은 환송물품 종이가방을 전달하고 있다. 2020.7.26.[주남아공 한국대사관 제공, 재판매 및 DB 금지]
(요하네스버그=연합뉴스) 김성진 특파원 = 남아프리카공화국에 체류 중인 교민들 가운데도 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증(코로나 19) 확진자가 나온 가운데 이번 주말에도 교민 5 명이 귀국길에 올랐다.
주남아공 한국대사관(대사 박종대)에 따르면 지난 25 일 케이프타운에서 교민 2 명이 KLM 항공 598 편을 통해 네덜란드 암스테르담에 갔다가 다시
카타르항공편(QR858)을 이용해 도하를 거쳐 인천공항으로 가는 한국행에 나섰다.
26 일에는 케이프타운에서 유학 중인 대학생 3 명이 요하네스버그 공항까지 와서 KLM 592 편을 타고 암스테르담으로 간 다음 다시 28 일 KLM 855 편으로 갈아타 한국으로 들어가는 여로에 올랐다.
케이프타운 대학에 다니던 이들은 "국제선 운항이 언제 재개돼 학교에 복귀할지 기약할 수 없는 상황이 불안하다"고 말했다고 환송 나간 대사관 이양호 참사관이 전했다.
이런 가운데 요하네스버그에 거주하는 교민 2 명이 최근 코로나 19 에 확진돼 한 명은 자가격리 중이지만, 고령인 다른 한 명은 입원 치료 중인 것으로 전해졌다.
남아공은 세계에서 다섯번째로 감염자가 많은 국가이다. 25 일 기준 1 만 2 천 204 명이 새로 확진돼 누적 확진자는 43 만 4 천 200 명에 달한다.
한편 남아공 인접국 보츠와나에서는 교민 7 명이 오는 28 일 보츠와나 정부에서 마련한 에티오피아항공 송환기를 이용해 아디스아바바를 거쳐 귀국할 예정이다
