According to Stats SA 30% of children aged seven to 18 in the Western Cape are not attending school.

Cape Town - Just over 30 percent of children aged seven to 18 in the Western Cape who are not attending school gave “education is useless” as the reason for not being in class. The figure nationally was 11.3 percent.

This was one of the findings of the 2012 General Household Survey, which was recently released by Stats SA.

Other reasons given for Western Cape children not attending school include:

* Financial difficulties: 15.4 percent

* Working: 8.6 percent

* Family commitment: 9.7 percent

* Completed education: 13. 6 percent

* Unable to perform: 3.9 percent

* Not accepted for enrolment: 3. 8 percent

The survey shows that in terms of attendance by province, 93.9 percent of seven-to-18-year-olds in the Western Cape were attending school, compared with 97.8 percent in Limpopo, 96 percent in the Free State, and 95.7 percent in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.

In the Western Cape 100 percent of Indian/Asian pupils were attending educational institutions, compared to 98.4 percent white, 95 percent black African and 92.3 percent coloured.

Paddy Attwell, spokesman for the Western Cape Education Department, said the department was concerned about the percentage of children who felt that education was useless.

“The finding needs further research, but it is not difficult to understand in context. Youth employment is higher in three of our four rural districts compared to Cape Town, and significantly higher than national youth employment figures. This suggests that many youths in rural areas are working on farms.”

Attwell said the department was implementing strategies to ensure pupil retention.

“Our first priority is to ensure that primary school children acquire a solid foundation in literacy and numeracy. We are implementing a comprehensive literacy and numeracy strategy that is making a difference and will contribute to improving the retention rate in high schools in the long term.”

Attwell said the department employed safety fieldworkers in each district who deal with truancy, among other issues.

“They visit truants and their families and help to develop appropriate support. Our officials, including social workers, work with colleagues in Social Development and Health (department) on other issues identified by the survey, including family responsibilities and illness that prevent learners from attending school.”

He said education was free in schools in quintiles 1 to 3, the three poorest categories of schools. Parents who could not afford school fees in fee-paying schools could apply for exemption or partial exemption, based on their annual income.

ilse.fredericks@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The City of Cape Town says it will not replace portable toilets with a solar-powered model because it would not work in winter.

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town says it will not replace portable toilets with a solar-powered model presented by Khayelitsha activists because it would not work in the city’s winter and smacks of a money-making venture.

Mayco member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said the SmartSan recycle toilet unit could be problematic because the lack of winter sun would not provide sufficient energy for the system.

The manufacturer, New World Sanitation, denies it.

The Cape Town Informal Settlements Leaders group said it would end poo-flinging protests if mayor Patricia de Lille started installing SmartSan units before the end of the month.

Sonnenberg dismissed the ultimatum as a publicity stunt for “political point scoring”.

“There is a very real scepticism that the reason for the sudden enthusiasm for this system is for financial gain. The city has a tender process that is followed according to legislation.

“They should leave the experts to do their jobs and stop putting politics over the needs of communities.”

He said New World Sanitation had not received approval from the city to install the system at the BM-Section in Khayelitsha, where it has been tested by three families since February.

The system has a 300-litre water tank and two other tanks for ventilation and waste storage. It is fitted with a solar-powered pump and can connect up to four flush toilets.

Bacteria is used to dissolve waste, toilet paper and newspapers into liquid.

New World Sanitation owner Jürgen Graupe said that contrary to previous reports, the unit in Khayelitsha had not been piloted by his company, but had been bought by one Lwandile Baba and a partner for testing ahead of a possible mass roll-out.

The media was shown the system by former ANC councillor Andile Lili, city councillor Loyiso Nkohla and others as an alternative to portable toilets.

Sonnenberg said the company had approached the city late last year to provide the toilet service but had failed to provide test results which the city requested.

Sonnenberg said the system’s R20 000 price tag was not affordable.

There was also the question of density at informal settlements in the metro, which would make it impossible to install.

Sonnenberg said the city had experimented with similar technology, but it had failed.

Graupe denied that the product would cause problems in winter. “The system has been working properly for the last seven months, through winter, in Khayelitsha. People are satisfied with it. The city must say if it has a problem with the price. To try and discredit the product is wrong.”

He said the company was seeking approval for SmartSan from the South African Bureau of Standards.

xolani.koyana@inl.co.za

Cape Times

The Cape High Court is expected to hear an application for the provisional liquidation of the popular ZAR Lounge.

Cape Town - An application by Cape Royale The Residence for the provisional liquidation of ZAR Lounge is to be heard in the Western Cape High Court next month.

Cape Royale The Residence took Gayton McKenzie, trading as ZAR Lounge, to court over unpaid rent, levies and electricity totalling nearly R1 million.

McKenzie had leased the ground floor of the building from Cape Royale The Residence to run ZAR Lounge, a popular upmarket nightclub on Somerset Road, Green Point.

The company’s financial manager, Jacques Janse van Rensburg, said in an affidavit that the matter should be regarded as urgent because ZAR Lounge was still trading from the premises without paying rent.

“(This) effectively amounts to ‘squatting’ and thus constitutes grounds that this matter be heard on an urgent basis,” Janse van Rensburg said in court papers.

An initial provisional liquidation application was heard before Judge Owen Rogers on April 10 in which the company alleged that McKenzie owed it R849 000 as of March 1.

But the application was withdrawn because the rental was ceded to the bond holder, Absa, and R126 800 for unpaid levies and electricity was paid five days before the court hearing.

The company has since taken cession from the bank.

McKenzie rented the ground floor of the building in February 2011 for five years, for a monthly rent of R71 500.

According to Janse van Rensburg, McKenzie was in arrears with rental, levies and electricity amounting to R1.2m.

McKenzie, however, held a damages deposit of nearly R250 000 and if it was applied, the total arrears were listed at R954 000.

Janse van Rensburg said no further payments were made after April.

“I would submit that the only inference that can be drawn is that McKenzie is not in a position to make payments of its debts as and when such debts fall due for payment.”

High Court Judge James Yekiso ordered by agreement on Thursday that the application be heard on October 24. ZAR Lounge will then have an opportunity to show why the company should not be placed under final liquidation.

Cape Argus

Some patients are being treated in passages because of a dire shortage of beds at certain Western Cape hospitals.

Cape Town - A shortage of beds in some provincial hospitals is so dire that patients are treated in passages and on trolleys.

This situation has been described by some medics as disastrous for clinical governance and quality care.

In some units, such as Tygerberg Hospital’s medical emergency unit, also known as F1, overcrowding is so bad that critically ill patients spend up to three days lying on trolleys with no adequate access to emergency equipment such as drips, or nebulisers to help them breathe.

Patients in the new Khayelitsha Hospital, GF Jooste and Somerset Hospital also reported overcrowding, which meant many patients spent their nights on hard benches waiting for beds. In Khayelitsha Hospital, patients had to bring their own blankets because of a shortage of bedding.

And the South African Medical Association has warned that things will get worse, especially when GF Jooste Hospital closes by the end of the year.

Dr Mark Sonderup, vice-chairman of the medical association, said although the province’s population was growing, “unfortunately the reality is that health services are not keeping up with the population growth we are experiencing”.

This meant that elective procedures - essentially non-emergency procedures - including surgery and investigations, tended to be postponed.

“Given our bed shortages I’m not sure if we will improve the patient experience that the Health MEC (Theuns Botha) so desperately wants,” he said.

Sonderup said although patient numbers usually increased in winter because of respiratory infections, putting pressure on the public health system, poor management of beds was “the reason we are bursting at the seams”.

During the Cape Argus visit to Tygerberg’s 27-bed emergency unit this week, more than 60 patients had been admitted, resulting in scores slumping in chairs and trolleys, hoping to get a bed. Some said they had been sitting on chairs, still waiting to see a doctor, almost 24 hours after being admitted.

Medical staff complained that they were often overwhelmed by the workload and could barely cope. The ward’s high care unit, meant to accommodate only five beds, had admitted 12 patients.

At least 17 patients, some with high blood pressure, diabetes and blood disorders, were on trolleys in the passage. Among them was a TB patient wearing a mask. A few metres from him an asthmatic patient, gasping for air, couldn’t be given a nebuliser because there was no oxygen supply for connection in the passage.

Leah Blaauw of Ravensmead, who had come to the hospital after her blood pressure became uncontrollable, sat in a small room with a swollen hand where a drip needle had been inserted. She had been put on the drip 17 hours earlier, but because it was not suspended from a stand, the liquid was pooling under her skin.

“My hand is all swollen up because I’ve had a needle stuck in my vein for so long. I’ve told nurses that this drip is not functioning, but they didn’t remove it. They said there’s nothing they can do as there is no drip stand. I am tired and hungry. All I want is to get a bed so that I can get proper care and get well. But I don’t know if I will be able to get that in this chaos.”

Another patient, Charmaine, said she had asked nurses for an oxygen mask to help with her breathing, but the high care unit with this equipment was full.

“The service is not great... The staff just look too overwhelmed by their work. They are running up and down and look so helpless.”

She said the worst part of her experience was having to walk to the X-ray department as there were no porters to wheel her there. “It’s difficult enough sitting on this hard chair with a swollen tummy, let alone having to walk to the X-ray department. I was already dizzy then… what if I fell on the way? Is this what we must call medical care?”

Patient Amanda Maganisa said she had lost confidence in Khayelitsha Hospital after she took her four-year-old daughter there for burns, only to be told after a 20-hour wait that the hospital did not treat burns.

“I spent the night on the chair with my child on the floor. It was so full that children with infections such as diarrhoea were mixed together with the rest… it was so chaotic.”

Faiza Steyn, spokeswoman for the provincial Department of Health said the bed shortages were because of demands on the service.

“It is true that public health services are under pressure at various facilities and at varying times. The emergency centres are the entry point into the public hospitals, and therefore face the brunt of the pressure.

“The department is therefore systematically improving the infrastructure within emergency centres over recent times. New Somerset Hospital, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain Hospital are cases in point.”

Steyn said emergency medicine specialists had been permanently placed within the centres to strengthen clinical governance.

Botha attributed the overflowing of hospitals to the growing burden of diseases in the province. He also blamed migration to the Western Cape as contributory factor, saying the province would approach the National Treasury for compensation so it could deal with the pressures.

sipokazi.fokazi@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Documents in the possession of the Cape Times raise questions about the events that left Flippie Engelbrecht blind.

Cape Town - Documents in the possession of the Cape Times raise questions about the sequence of events that left 18-year-old Flippie Engelbrecht blind, and his subsequent injuries after an alleged assault by a farmer and farm manager.

Carina Papenfus, the secretary of The Freedom Trust, a farmworkers’ rights NGO, has been advising the family and filed a complaint with the Sea Point police on Engelbrecht’s behalf earlier this year.

Papenfus has said Engelbrecht was assaulted on Friday, January 25, 2008.

On the Sunday, she said, he was “in and out of consciousness” and was taken to a doctor in Robertson on Monday, January 28, and, later that day, in an ambulance to Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, for “emergency surgery” that left him blind.

Engelbrecht, who was born on December 28, 1994, according to records, was 13 at the time.

Papenfus has also said Engelbrecht fell into a fire, leaving him with severe burns, in September 2009.

Subsequently his hands were amputated.

Robertson wine farmer Johnny Burger and his manager, Wilhelm Treurnicht, appeared in the Ashton Magistrate’s Court last week, and the case was postponed to September 13.

On Tuesday morning, Burger, who owned the Rietvallei farm on which the assault allegedly took place, was found dead at home. It is suspected he took his own life.

Documents in the possession of the Cape Times indicate that Engelbrecht was taken to a doctor on August 15, 2009, complaining of “swelling on the side of his face”. This was 19 months after the alleged assault.

Another report, compiled from Worcester Hospital medical records, states that he was referred from Robertson to Worcester Hospital on August 19, 2009 “for possible brain abscess”. He was seen and then sent to Tygerberg Hospital the next day for a brain scan.

In October 2009, he was evaluated by the Pioneer School for the Visually Impaired in Worcester with a view to placing him in the school.

Records from the Pioneer School say that: “According to the parents he became blind in a strange way, after a boil on his cheek, and was taken to a local doctor.

“Swelling occurred and his condition worsened, whereafter he was taken to Worcester Hospital.

“According to the mother he was there for about six weeks, and on release he was blind.”

A Worcester Hospital report also states that Engelbrecht was referred from Robertson on August 19 last year with burns.

Engelbrecht was treated for burns and 10 days later had to have his hands amputated in Worcester. After this he was referred to Tygerberg for more treatment.

An occupational therapy report from Tygerberg Hospital from September last year confirms that Engelbrecht had suffered burns on August 19.

This was almost three years after the date given by Papenfus.

jan.cronje@inl.co.za

Cape Times

The chief of the Stellenbosch municipal fire service appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court, in Cape Town, on a charge of corruption.

Cape Town - The chief of the Stellenbosch municipal fire service appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court, in Cape Town, on Friday, on a charge of corruption.

Lizaan Morta, 44, who was arrested on Thursday, was granted bail of R1000 and the case was postponed until October 7 for further investigation and to enable Morta to obtain legal representation.

Prosecutor Jannie Knipe, of the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, told the court Morta was arrested in an undercover operation, for allegedly receiving R14 000 from a Stellenbosch fire department service provider.

The charge sheet gave no details of what led to the undercover operation. - Sapa

Woollen knits are cropping up in the strangest places in Cape Town, with street poles being kept warm by snuggly wool covers.

Cape Town - Woollen knits are cropping up in the strangest places in Cape Town.

There are street poles in the city centre kept warm by snuggly wool covers and even statues have been brought to life by colourful leg warmers.

It’s a craze called yarn bombing, where people dress and cover objects in a knitted woollen outfit.

Yarn bomber Isabeau Peep is one of the Cape Town enthusiasts and has been anonymously knitting all winter.

She even knitted a pair of proudly South African woollen socks for the Jan van Riebeeck statue on Heerengracht.

On her blog, Isabeau details why she is a yarn bomber.

She says she loves the contrast between soft, bright knits and the coldness of the city.

“It’s a way of expressing your creativity in the public environment of the city,” she says.

It brightened up everyone’s day when the Bart Simpson heads on a statue in St George’s Mall were suddenly wearing beanies.

“My goal is to change how we see Cape Town as a living city,” she says.

“This city is mine, yours and ours. Go outside, enjoy it, touch it, use it - support your city by truly being in it and contributing a bit of your own personality to its colourful landscape.”

The knitting craze is not unique to SA and has seen colourful woollen outfits appear in public spaces across the USA and UK.

Isabaeu says in Cape Town it’s a special craft: “While doing yarn graffiti, I’ve always enjoyed how many people stop and ask about what I’m doing and why.

“I love the fact that the simple activity of wrapping a street pole with knitting gives people the excuse to chat to me.”

Daily Voice

A former policeman was sentenced to 18 months' correctional supervision for culpable homicide, said the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.

Johannesburg - A former policeman was sentenced to 18 months' correctional supervision for culpable homicide by the Kempton Park Regional Court on Friday, said the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).

Manape Phineas Kgoale also received a five year suspended sentence for shooting dead 45-year-old Jeanette Odendaal after she crashed into a stationary police car outside the Kempton Park station in 2011, said Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini.

He was declared unfit to possess a firearm.

Kgoale, who was initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide.

In an affidavit, he said he had thought Odendaal was a hijacker or a car thief.

He was fired from the police after being found guilty by a disciplinary committee in August 2011. - Sapa

Kenny Kunene has left Julius Malema's EFF party - but he could return to the political arena on his own terms.

Cape Town - Sushi King Kenny Kunene says he may have hung up his beret, but this does not mean he won’t start his own political party.

But for now the flamboyant Kenny says he is focusing on the important things in life, like his new granddaughter.

The Daily Voice caught up with the entertainer and businessman at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday evening before he jetted off to Johannesburg.

Wearing black jeans, a blue jacket and dark sunglasses, Kenny says he has no regrets about leaving politics, but that he may be back soon.

He left Julius Malema’s newly-launched Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) recently after less than two months with the new party.

“People thought my political career was over after I left the organisation [EFF], but I’m not out of politics,” Kenny tells the Daily Voice.

“I’m going to continue with being a businessman, so that when I come back to politics, I use my own money.

“Right now I have not decided which political party I’m going to join, but forming my own has not occurred to me until now.

“The focus is no longer on the finer things in life. I have lived, enjoyed the finest things life had to offer, I drank the most expensive whiskys and travelled around the world.

“I have been selfish, I can’t spend R100 000 on a bottle of whisky or Champagne anymore.

“But I still believe when you have worked hard you must also bless yourself nevertheless - don’t let not enjoying these things consume you.”

Kenny adds: “The change came over a long period of time, it started with my daughter’s pregnancy.

“I’m at a point where the cars, the Lamborghini (which I still own) don’t matter anymore. I still DJ a bit when people ask me to, I love music.

“But these days I always look forward to going home to my granddaughter who is about 14 days old.”

Kenny made headlines in the Daily Voice last month when he revealed he was working on a gangland peace plan with jailed former Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie and other role players.

“What I’m doing in the Western Cape with the gangs is my way of trying to help find the root of the problem - but I don’t have a briefcase full of solutions,” Kenny says.

“I visited Rashied Staggie and we spoke. All I know is that I met a man who wants to go back to his family.

“I spent six years in prison, this month marks 10 years since my release, and a few days before I got out I remember my brother came to me, looked me in the eye and asked me if I was ready [to be released].

“And that is what I did for Rashied.”

He also agrees with the national government’s view that they must not deploy the army in gang hotspots, as requested by Premier Helen Zille.

“That is the most ridiculous request,” he says.

“We are saying our children must go through the trauma of tanks in the townships as if there are wars – this is not a war, what is happening in Syria is a war.

“The army is a temporary solution, what happens when they leave?

“Because they can’t be deployed here forever.”

Daily Voice

Mitchells Plain is on a knife-edge, its panicked residents searching frantically for missing Shaskia Michaels.

Cape Town - Mitchells Plain is on a knife-edge, its panicked residents searching frantically for missing four-year-old Shaskia Michaels and silently asking each other how this could have happened again. And daring not to think the worst - that a monster who preys on little children walks among them.

Two houses side by side in Munich Street in Freedom Park. Two young children just vanished. Last October it was five-year-old Kauthar Bobbs. On Thursday it was Shaskia.

“Kauthar grew up in front us, and when she disappeared it was like a member of our family was taken,” Shaskia’s devastated grandmother, Roslyn Faroa, said last night. “It was hard on us all. I tried not to think about how easily Shaskia could have been the one missing, but now that nightmare is a reality.”

As the search for the missing toddler enters its third day on Saturday, fear, disbelief and anguish coats every pore of this sprawling working-class area built on the sands of the False Bay coast. Memories and mention of the infamous Station Strangler killings from the 1980s and ’90s are never too far away.

On Friday police said they are searching for a man from Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, who they believe can help them with their investigations. The man, whose name is known to Weekend Argus, is widely known by residents, who have said it is unusual for him not be around. However, they had not seen him since Shaskia went missing.

Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut appealed to the community to keep searching for any sign of the child.

Police ground patrol and helicopters, as well as neighbourhood watch volunteers, have been combing the area since Thursday afternoon, but had not turned up any sign of the missing child by the time of going to press last night. A police dog unit joined the search yesterday and a helicopter searched the Wolfgat Nature Reserve near Tafelsig.

The air in Freedom Park is thick with despair and conspiracy theories. And through it all the families of Shaskia and Kauthar cling to hope. “It’s been almost a year now and we still haven’t found Kauthar.”

“I pray that both of them will be found soon,” Faroa said.

“Words can’t explain how we feel. Her mother Anthea has taken it very badly. We’re on edge all the time, waiting for any news.

“When we see the police we don’t know if we should be happy because they will tell us they found her, or scared that they’ve found her dead.”

Nazley Bobbs, grandmother of missing Kauthar, has been supporting Shaskia’s family.

No one could have imagined this nightmare.

“Nazley helped raise Shaskia when she was a baby and knows exactly what we are going through,” Faroa added.

The coincidence is almost all anyone can talk about.

“It’s too strange for two girls who live next to each other to disappear like this,” resident Nadia Brandt ventures. “Someone must have taken them, and it has to be someone from the area, or who knows it well.

“None of our children are safe now,” she said.

Lynn Phillips, spokeswoman for the community policing forum, said they followed up several leads which took them to Heinz Park, also in Mitchells Plain, but that had proved to be a dead-end.

“We’ve conducted door-to-door searches and posted flyers… We’ll continue the search until we find Shaskia.”

- Anyone with information can call Warrant Officer Charles Julies on 079 894 1548, Crime Stop on 0860 01011 or SMS the Crime Line on 32211.

kowthar.solomons@inl.co.za

Prosecuting authorities have attached a car and cash believed to be linked to a Nigerian man arrested twice for allegedly dealing in tik.

Prosecuting authorities have attached a red Mercedes-Benz and more than R700 000 cash believed to be linked to a Nigerian man arrested twice for allegedly dealing in tik from a clothing shop on the Cape Town Station Deck and a liquor store in Maitland.

While the drug-dealing charges relating to the clothing shop were withdrawn for technical reasons, the man, 46-year-old Paul Kingsley, now risks losing his car and cash after Goodwood police found 1kg of tik stashed underneath the counter of a bottle store he operates in Voortrekker Road, Maitland.

In an affidavit before the Western Cape High Court, deputy director of public prosecutions Gcobani Bam said there were reasonable grounds to believe that the money and the car represented the proceeds of drug dealing, tax evasion and money laundering.

Bam said that Goodwood detective Jonathan Amon had stated in an affidavit an informant had told him Kingsley had been dealing in drugs from his Liquormait Bottle Store.

Police seized nearly 1kg tik with a street value of about R300 000 during a raid on the bottle store premises on June 14 last year.

They also seized around R744 000 in cash stored in three safes.

Amon said Kingsley had told police the tik belonged to his friend Anachebe Ndubisi, but Ndubisi denied the allegation.

Kingsley also claimed that the large amount of cash came from money he accumulated trading cars, and from his liquor store business.

The police later searched Kingsley’s residence, in Burgundy Estate, Richwood, but found nothing illegal there. The Mercedes-Benz, which was parked outside the house, was seized.

Amon said he had established that the car had been registered in Ndubisi’s name, but added that he believed Kingsley had bought it.

Kingsley, his brother Innocent Obi Ekwu and employee Anachebe Ndubisi had been arrested and later appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on drug-dealing charges.

The case had been struck from the court roll because of an outstanding forensic report. However, Amon said the report had since become available, and the charges would be reinstated.

Amon referred to the previous case in which Kingsley was accused of selling drugs from the station deck. However, he added that the charges in that case had been withdrawn due to missing statements.

In that case, Kingsley was arrested after an undercover police operation.

In a separate affidavit, reservist constable Patrick Madolo, who was involved in the operation, said police handed him R7 000 in cash. The serial number on every note was recorded.

Madolo then went into a clothing shop on the station deck where he asked a Nigerian man, Kingsley, for tik and ecstasy to the value of R7 000.

Kingsley told him he would fetch the drugs from his home.

Kingsley eventually arrived with the drugs. It was then that Madolo announced that the transaction was part of an undercover operation, and Kingsley was arrested.

The High Court granted the application for a preservation order, which allows the Asset Forfeiture Unit to attach the car and cash.

The respondents have three months to oppose the granting of an order declaring the items forfeited to the State. - Saturday Argus

Gun Free South Africa is up in arms over newspaper advertisements for guns.

Gun Free South Africa is up in arms over newspaper advertisements for guns, including rifles which come complete with a payment plan, and is considering taking its complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Not only did the adverts appear in an Afrikaans weekend newspaper last Saturday, but they are also plastered in shop windows in Hout Street in the city centre, at the premises of the gunshop City Guns, and the indoor shooting range Guns4Africa.

Gun Free South Africa has also complained about the advertisements to the police.

Organisation spokeswoman Pam Crowsley called the advert “highly irresponsible”.

The advert showcases a range of guns, including an AK47 under the tag “red die renoster” (save the rhino), a pink 9mm Glock pistol under the tag “femme fatale”, and a .22 laser pistol under the tag “kinders red die wêreld” (children save the world).

Crowsley said the overall message was that “guns are fun”. “This is extremely dangerous… especially in South Africa where 18 people are shot and killed every day. There is no promotion of safe and responsible gun ownership anywhere in the advertisement, which is the founding principle of gun ownership as outlined in South Africa’s Firearms Control Act,” she added.

Crowsley also took issue with the section of the advert directed at children.

“It calls on kids to ‘save the world’. Since 2011 there has been a countrywide spike in gun violence, particularly in the Western Cape, and for a gun shop in the province to promote guns to kids as a way to save the world is ludicrous.

“It glamourises firearms to women accentuating the ‘pink’ colour as if they are a fashion accessory instead of a deadly weapon. It also promotes AK47s, which are illegal for civilians to purchase without special permission,” she said.

Mandi Jarman, spokeswoman for the Gun Fun Indoor Shooting Range, said the newspaper advert was for the shooting range, and that the guns were not for sale.

Other large advertisements for guns for sale are however pasted up in large on-street windows at the premises in Hout Street.

Gerhard Dreyer, manager of Gun Fun, reiterated that their advert did not promote selling or gun ownership, but “merely the use and training thereof”.

They were proud, he said, to offer training and an experience that empowered women and created “a safer environment by teaching those who already own firearms the safe use thereof”. They also believed that teaching gun safety to children was “imperative and will save lives”.

Jarman said anyone wanting to buy a gun had to undergo proficiency and police competency tests.

“You can buy your firearm at any time, but the police will not accept or grant you a licence until you have been found ‘fit and proper’, and have been awarded competency for that type of firearm you have purchased,” she said.

Dreyer said the range was opened after sport shooting was identified as a firm favourite pastime around the world. It offered a facility for the sports shooter, security and anti-poaching training industry, and for civilian gun owners to familiarise themselves with firearms.

“This is not a unique concept and has been practised throughout South Africa and internationally for many years.”

He added that the entertainment industry had for years flashed images of firearms on the big screen.

Their range allowed “guests to experience these without having to purchase their own guns”.

With their “ladies package”, they encouraged women to learn to handle firearms in a controlled environment, to “remove the element of ‘fear’ from their interaction with firearms”.

They also spent time with children at the range, teaching them responsibly to handle guns and “

remove the idea that a gun is a toy”.

“The children’s package has been well received by parents who own guns and want to make sure that their children are responsibly introduced to firearms,” Dreyer said.

Leon Grobler, manager for the dispute resolution unit of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa, said as the advertising authority’s code made no reference to advertising for guns or shooting ranges, they didn’t have an issue with such advertisements.

They would only investigate adverts that breached the code, “for example, condoning illegal or violent behaviour, or (if) the prices were wrong”.

- Saturday Argus

sibongakonke.mama@inl.co.za

Public institutions including the National Library, the Iziko National Gallery and Artscape could face imminent closure.

Public institutions including the National Library, the Iziko National Gallery and Artscape could face imminent closure because of changed funding priorities, according to the Department of Arts and Culture.

The spectre of such closures is mooted in the department’s new revised white paper on arts, culture and heritage.

On the other hand the department hopes to secure billions of rand to establish “in every ward in South Africa… a library, an arts centre and a sports field”, by next year, according to Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile.

The new policy directions came to light in a public outreach workshop at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre on Thursday, convened ahead of the Arts and Culture department’s presenting the new policy document to Parliament for endorsement.

The department’s director general, Sibusiso Xaba, would not confirm which public cultural and heritage institutions could be facing the funding axe but the white paper indicates the National Library, the stable of Iziko Museums, which includes the National Gallery as well as the Slave Lodge and the National Museum, along with institutions like Artscape, the Robben Island Museum, Johannesburg’s Market Theatre and the Playhouse in Durban, could have their funding withdrawn – if they were deemed not to “meet the moral, social and maximum economic demands of the new South Africa”.

Xaba and Mashatile did not elaborate, saying that these “matters needed substantial discussion”.

Xaba said in answers to questions at the workshop that he wouldn’t want to “get into individual institutions” which might fall foul of the new guidelines. He said “the bottom-line is this – that there isn’t sufficient funding for the sector”.

However, Mashatile said: “Cabinet would (not only) ensure that there would be significant investments in building of new museums and theatres, but also significant investments to the maintenance of existing infrastructure.”

He said this year “the Treasury had earmarked R500 million to build new libraries in communities”, and that in 2014/2015, R1.2bn had been allocated. Localised cultural initiatives were urgently needed.

”Let us take the children away from the streets, away from the drugs. The children belong to the arts centres not to the streets.”

He said another billion rand could be got from the Lotto via a new oversight body designated as the Creative Industry Fund, envisaged to replace the National Arts Council (NAC).

According to Mashatile, the centralised body would pull together the arts, culture and heritage allocation from the Lotto as well as the funds going to the National Film and Video Foundation, the NAC and the National Heritage Council.

But this new funding initiative may come too late for Cape Town’s Association for Visual Arts (AVA) and Johannesburg’s Bag Factory, a studio complex which for the past two decades has provided working spaces for professional artists as well as programmes of community development.

Faced with drastic funding cuts, the Bag Factory will close, project administrator Sara Hallet recently confirmed, unless alternative funding can be secured. The AVA is three months away from closure.

According to Xaba, under the new dispensation, cultural institutions would have to sink or swim. He declared the department was not prepared to fund arts projects indefinitely. In future, projects could only expect to receive money in three-year cycles. The department had experienced “major problems with the arts companies that have protested quite a lot when the NAC began to change its funding strategy”.

Although the workshop was called to discuss the white paper, few people from the floor engaged with the document. Many instead drew attention to the plight of marginalised heritages in the Western and Northern Cape and highlighted their personal projects.

Professor Steve Townsend of UCT reiterated a sentiment that has also been expressed by the Arterial Network of South Africa that “there is not enough detail here about what the vision of the white paper will be”.

Mashatile said that “we will spend the following week writing in the various comments that have come from various consultations”. He said the document would be submitted to the cabinet at the end of this month. - Weekend Argus

Mitchells Plain police want to question a man called Robert Sylvester realted to the disappearance of 4-year old Shaskia Michaels.

Johannesburg - Mitchells Plain police want to question a man called Robert Sylvester who they believe can help with their investigation into the disappearance of 4-year old Shaskia Michaels from Tafelsig, Western Cape police spokesman Lt-Col Andre Traut said on Sunday.

“We are appealing to the community for information about his whereabouts. His last known address is in Freedom Park, Tafelsig.”

Anyone with information may contact Warrant officer Charles Julies or Mitchells Plain police on 021-370 1600 or Crime Stop on 08600 10 111.

Meanwhile, a reward of R50,000 was offered for an arrest in connection with the disappearance of Michaels, and Kauthar Bobbs, by Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.

“As a parent, I can only imagine what Shaskia's family is going through. I will continue to do everything I can to assist. I hope that the reward money will lead to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators,” said De Lille in a statement.

Michaels disappeared on Thursday morning in Mitchell's Plain and was last seen at her grandmother's house.

Kauthar Bobbs disappeared also in Mitchells Plain last October.

De Lille pledged the reward after joining the morning's search efforts for Michaels, which included police, the Mitchell's plain community police forum, disaster management volunteers and the child's family.

She said the city would this week dispatch disaster management volunteers and contracted workers under the city's Extended Public Works Programme to the area to continue with the search.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts can also contact the police's Crime Line on 10111 or 08600-10111 or the city's Disaster Operations Centre on 080-911-4357. - Sapa

Two men have been detained in connection with the disappearance of four-year-old Shaskia Michaels from Tafelsig.

Johannesburg - Two men have been detained in connection with the disappearance of four-year-old Shaskia Michaels from Tafelsig in the Western Cape, police said on Sunday.

“While the search for Shaskia Michaels continues, two males aged 41 and 21 are being detained for questioning on a charge of kidnapping relating to her disappearance,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut.

He said the men were detained on Sunday.

Shaskia was last seen outside her house in Mitchells Plain on Thursday.

“The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are being investigated as a high priority, and until our investigation has reached a more advanced stage, we will not be speculating on facts and possibilities.”

Earlier, Traut said Mitchells Plain police want to question a man called Robert Sylvester who they believed could help with their investigation into the disappearance of Michaels.

“We are appealing to the community for information about his whereabouts. His last known address is in Freedom Park, Tafelsig.”

Anyone with information may contact Warrant officer Charles Julies or Mitchells Plain police on 021 370 1600 or Crime Stop on 08600 10 111.

Meanwhile, a reward of R50 000 was offered for an arrest in connection with the disappearance of Michaels, and Kauthar Bobbs, by Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille.

“As a parent, I can only imagine what Shaskia's family is going through. I will continue to do everything I can to assist. I hope that the reward money will lead to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators,” said De Lille in a statement.

Michaels disappeared on Thursday morning in Mitchells Plain and was last seen at her grandmother's house.

Kauthar Bobbs disappeared also in Mitchells Plain last October.

De Lille pledged the reward after joining the morning's search efforts for Michaels, which included police, the Mitchells Plain community police forum, disaster management volunteers and the child's family.

She said the city would this week dispatch disaster management volunteers and contracted workers under the city's Extended Public Works Programme to the area to continue with the search. - Sapa

Cops have taken two men in for questioning, one of who is believed to be a neighbour of missing Shaskia Michaels.

Cape Town - Police have taken two men in for questioning, one of whom is believed to be a neighbour of four-year-old Shaskia Michaels, who has been missing for five days.

Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said: “I can confirm that the man who we believe can assist us with the investigation into her disappearance, is being questioned by Mitchells Plain police.”

The man, who lives a few houses away from Shaskia’s home in Bayern Munich Street, Freedom Park, Tafelsig, had been missing since Shaskia’s disappearance on Thursday, and neighbours said it was unusual for him not to be around.

Later Traut said two men, aged 21 and 41, were being held for questioning in connection with a charge of kidnapping.

Meanwhile, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has offered a reward of R50 000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in connection with the disappearance of Shaskia and five-year-old Kauthar Bobbs, Shaskia’s next-door neighbour who has been missing since October.

De Lille pledged the reward on Sunday after joining the morning’s search for Shaskia.

The search team included the police, the Mitchells Plain community police forum, disaster management volunteers and the Special Investigating Unit.

“As a parent, I can only imagine what Shaskia’s family is going through,” she said.

“I will continue to do everything I can to assist. I hope that the reward money will lead to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.”

Mitchells Plain Community Police Forum chairman Abie Isaacs said the group had been carrying out extensive searches for the missing girl.

“The team is physically and mentally drained. We start our searches at 6am and end around 2am the following day. Shaskia’s been missing for more than 72 hours and information is pivotal at this stage.”

Scores of searchers gathered at 8am on Sunday to search a bushy area in the Wolfgat nature reserve near Swartklip. Later they debriefed and went back to Freedom Park to search the residential area.

Every home in Bayern Munich Road was entered and searched.

The search squad climbed on roof tops, searched bins and all possible hiding spots they could see. No leads were found.

Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons said: “We are taking this seriously and getting extra manpower so that the city will be visible at all times. Our first hope is to find the child alive or in the least bring closure to the family.”

Shaskia’s mother, Anthea Michaels, 26, said that her child had always been safe at the home of her mother, Roselyn Faroa, where the little girl was raised.

“I believe she is still alive and just want her to be brought back safely. I know she’s not with a stranger, because she never goes anywhere without someone she knows,” she said.

The four-year-old’s grandfather, William Faroa, who looked after Shaskia during the day, said he missed his granddaughter.

“She’s my baby, I raised her and she was very close to me.”

Shaskia was last seen playing outside her yard on Thursday morning with friends while her grandfather was inside the house. She was wearing a pink polo-necked T-shirt and black pump slippers.

Anyone with information should contact Warrant Officer Charles Julies or Mitchells Plain police at 021 370 1600 or Crime Stop at 08600 10 111.

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

A bureaucratic bungle has left many of Cape Town's pensioners wondering where their next meal will come from.

Cape Town -

Pensioners in Cape Town fear they are being left to starve because many have not received their monthly grant – thanks to a bureaucratic bungle.

A number of elderly people are without an income this month because the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) failed to perform the home visits needed to re-register pensioners over 75 for their social grants.

Home visits are for people who are unable to get to the Sassa offices.

Despite Sassa’s repeated assurances that social grants would not be stopped until home visits had been completed, pensions due on September 1 were not paid.

For 75-year-old Richard Benson, the R1 260 monthly grant is all that stands between him and his next meal.

He last received his pension at the end of July – and is sinking deeper and deeper into credit card debt as he struggles to pay for food.

“This is outrageous as people over 75 in particular are being left to starve,” Benson told the Cape Argus.

He was particularly angry at Sassa’s repeated assurances that the grant would not lapse until all home visits had been completed.

“They said not to worry. They promised people that they wouldn’t do this. The poor old pensioners can’t go on strike. Everybody is struggling and they’re getting no sympathy.”

However, Sassa regional manager Waldemar Terblanche said that 7 500 of the 9 000 beneficiaries needing home visits in the Western Cape had been visited. Terblanche said the process of re-registering all social grant beneficiaries was due to be concluded by the end of July, but lack of capacity caused the home visits to fail to meet this deadline.

“The arrangement was that the grants of the remaining beneficiaries would not be suspended until Sassa completed the re-registration through home visits,” Terblanche said. “We are currently investigating the matter.”

He said the situation would be rectified and arrangements would be made for those beneficiaries to be paid by no later than September 13.

When Benson went to the bank to collect his money at the beginning of this month, he found his account empty and was told that “numbers of social grant old-age pensions have not been paid this month”. Benson immediately alerted his attorneys because a previous re-registration error had left him without money for three months.

“A Sassa representative informed my attorneys that until pensioners in institutions have been re-registered, no home visits to persons over 75 can take place. He said they wouldn’t be able to pay us for two or three months or possibly longer.”

Benson said should the money not be in his account by Monday morning, he would instruct his attorneys to take further steps.

Kensington couple Edna Williams, 77, and her husband, Martin, 78, have run out of money.

Their last pension payment was on August 1, and now they have to phone their children for help when there is no food or light in their home. Their son, Herschel, phoned Sassa and was told beneficiaries would have to wait until next month to be paid.

“Sassa promised that they’re still coming, that there’s no need to panic, and yet they have not come,” he said.

“My parents don’t want to be dependent on me, but now there’s no income for them this month. That places a lot of stress on old people.”

Herschel bought his parents R200 electricity because they could not afford to buy it themselves. “It is not nice to open our hands and ask our children for help. We feel like beggars,” said Edna.

Arthritis has confined her to a wheelchair and she cannot support her own weight. Her husband of 50 years, Martin, has to wash her and dress her, despite struggling with arthritis himself. The couple can no longer make the trip to the city centre to re-register for their social grant, and were relying on a home visit to secure their R1 280 monthly pension each.

“We can’t survive without it,” said Edna.

In January, Sassa published a notice stating that all beneficiaries older than 75 who were in an institution or too frail to come to a registration centre in person were entitled to a home visit. They could ask for a visit by calling a toll-free number or by emailing Sassa.

The notice said: “Please do not panic. Sassa will definitely visit you at home to re-register you for your social grant. YOUR SOCIAL GRANT WILL NOT BE STOPPED UNTIL YOU ARE RE-REGISTERED.”

Arnold van Blerk, a concerned resident representing the Williams family and two other elderly couples in Kensington, said efforts to follow up with the agency had proved fruitless.

The home visits were scheduled to take place between mid-February and the end of March. Six months later, the pensioners Van Blerk represents still have not been visited, and their monthly grant payments have stopped.

Francis Jacobs, co-ordinator of the Western Cape Older Person’s Forum, said: “During the community meetings that we have held over the past month – everywhere from the Overberg, to Delft, Elsies River, Atlantis, Langa and Cape Town – all the people have the same complaints.”

Jacobs said the biggest problem with people not receiving their pensions was that they were not able to get through to Sassa on its toll-free number, which caused more frustration.

“We had a big meeting in Cape Town last week and invited Sassa to send a representative to address the people’s concerns, but they did not respond to our requests.”

Anne van Niekerk, director of NOAH, an organisation that works with the elderly all over the city, said they too had invited Sassa to a meeting, but it did not respond.

Van Niekerk said the re-registration was good because it was a way for the department to curb fraud.

“Although the intention is good, the problem is capacity. I don’t think they have enough people and the toll-free number goes unanswered. So the frustration is about information. People need to have their questions answered.”

neo.maditla@inl.co.za

chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Criminals posing as homeless people have been “scoping out” homes to target in Goodwood, according to Cape Town police.

Cape Town - Residents of Goodwood and surrounding areas are concerned about a rash of home and vehicle break-ins by criminals posing as vagrants.

Residents voiced their concerns to Community Safety MEC Dan Plato last week during an annual policing needs and priorities meeting at the Goodwood Civic Centre.

Stories of break-ins, theft, vagrancy and a spike in foreigners moving into the area were some of the issues highlighted.

Goodwood community policing forum (CPF) chairman Brian Lawson said the biggest problem was the rise in homeless people in the area.

Lawson said that while the forum was unable to prove it, it appeared as if criminals were posing as homeless people to watch the patterns of homeowners in a bid to break into homes.

“It’s a new type of homeless person, they are far more aggressive and they are basically doing intelligence work before hitting a place,” he said.

Lawson said the CPF told Plato the area was in dire need of a new police station as the current facility was old and dilapidated.

Christo Theron, of the Goodwood Ratepayers Associations, said he himself was a victim of a break-in.

“Vagrancy is a massive problem. So-called homeless people are scoping out homes and breaking in. Several people have already been caught in the area,” he said.

Plato assured residents their concerns would be taken to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa – as the findings of the provincial needs and priority meeting would be presented to Mthethwa and provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer, to be included in the operational plan of SAPS for the following financial year.

Discussing the current state of affairs with the police, Plato said he was concerned about “political interference” in the operations of the police.

“Every time we try to improve policing in the province, there’s political interference in what we try to do.”

He asked parties to put politics aside and focus on the real issues plaguing the province.

Platorejected claims that the public spat between his department and police was bordering on political meddling, saying the province merely had an important oversight role to play.

“The Western Cape government has no control over the police, we only have an oversight and monitoring function… It is the political interference that I am worried about.”

Plato said policing had dominated headlines in recent weeks, from the information on poor police to population ratios, the lack of arrests being made at critical situations and the refusal to provide this province with a specialised drug and gang unit, especially since more than half of all drug crime happened in this province.

warda.meyer@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Cape Town police have arrested a 33-year-old man suspected of defrauding city hospitals by posing as a doctor.

Cape Town - Police have arrested Gabriel Junghänel, 33, the German suspected of defrauding hospitals in Cape Town by posing as a doctor.

He faces charges of fraud, and had been remanded, said police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut. Junghänel also used the surnames Mesko, Mesco and Maiwald.

Police said he allegedly impersonated a doctor and would deal with suppliers on behalf of hospitals and then disappear with newly delivered equipment.

“The suspect’s last-known address in central Cape Town was visited and a large quantity of medical equipment and doctors’ uniforms were confiscated in July,” said police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana.

His arrest came on the day that he contacted the Cape Argus to complain about news reports that identified him as the scamster being sought by Woodstock police.

“I was shocked and disgusted after being informed about your article… I have never stolen a thing in my life but I am and always was socially active from church to society involvement,” he wrote to the Cape Argus.

Andreas Sommer, of Sommer Engineering and Consulting in Somerset West, also originally from Germany, contacted the Cape Argus in August and alleged that Junghänel stole R50 000 from him by duping him into paying the money into a bank account as part of a business deal between the two countrymen.

“I spent more than R250 000 on legal fees and travelling… to put pressure on authorities to bring Junghänel to book,” Sommer said.

Junghänel is due back in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

The metro police beach braai incident is an "isolated exception" for the City of Cape Town, says mayco member JP Smith.

Cape Town - The “highly regrettable” incident of four metro cops who searched members of the public and then used the money they found to buy meat for a braai is an “isolated exception” for the City of Cape Town, says JP Smith, mayoral committee member of safety and security.

Responding to reports of gross misconduct, and minor penalties ranging from counselling to five days’ suspension without pay, Smith said an independent audit of all serious disciplinary matters was under way to strengthen the way these cases were dealt with.

“The City of Cape Town is determined to root out all forms of misconduct among its law enforcement officials. It must be borne in mind that this highly regrettable incident is an isolated exception for the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police Department as the overall the disciplinary record of the Cape Town metro police (and the other services) is exemplary, based on a number of independent studies conducted on the metro police forces across South Africa.”

He said that prior to the safety and security portfolio committee meeting, where the details of the various cases considered before the city’s tribunal were discussed, it had already been decided to re-open the investigation of the four metro cops involved in the braai incident.

“The fact that the case was picked up by both the portfolio committee as well as the civilian oversight committee is proof the checks and balances of the city work well and that no case is allowed to slip through.”

Smith said the city had shown it would remove senior officers and the metro police chief if found guilty of misconduct. Former metro police chief Bongani Jonas was axed in 2009 for alleged fraud.

“Cape Town remains the only metro which makes disciplinary findings public by presenting the outcomes in open forums such as the portfolio committee meetings. It is also one of only two cities that have a functioning civilian oversight committee to ensure that matters such as these are subjected to independent scrutiny.

“We are also the only metro which makes the disciplinary findings public on the city’s website, demonstrating this administration’s commitment to transparency, accountability and good practice - without which the report in the media would not have been possible.”

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

Cape Argus