Table of contents for 2021-11-19 in DFA News

Sandi Kwon Hoo sandi.kwonhoo@inl.co.za A DELPORTSHOOP man, who is charged with beating his pregnant former girlfriend to death, was denied bail in the Barkly West Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Mojalefa Senokoatsane said the accused, Boikanyo Modisane, 34, was facing multiple charges including murder. “The suspect is accused of having killed his former girlfriend, Vannessa Lerato Matebus, 23, who was 13-weeks pregnant at the time,” said Senokoatsane yesterday. “It is alleged that on the day of the incident, he broke into the shack of the deceased, where he found her with her two children, who are between the ages of two and six years old. “The accused allegedly attacked and assaulted the deceased until she died.” Senokoatsane said that, following extensive investigations, Modisane was arrested…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE SOUTH African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria) estimates that damage in July’s looting and mayhem, the most expensive riots in the world, they said, cost more than R50 billion, for which the agency has received claims of up to R32bn, which it intends to fully settle by March 2022. Managing director Cedric Masondo and Fareedah Benjamin, the executive for operations, said this week that total claims for the looting and mayhem, confined to the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng provinces amounted to R32bn, R10bn more had been paid out by other insurance companies while the estimate for uninsured losses added another R10bn. “This was one of the most expensive riots in the whole world, surpassing Chile and US riots, the R32bn is not the final number, but…

Lance Fredericks SO HERE’S the thing gentlemen; that little label stitched to the sleeve of your jacket is not stylish. In fact, that little tag is not meant to be there after you get home from the store. The label on a jacket’s sleeve is put there so that a customer can see the brand of the item they are looking at without taking it off the hangar in the clothing store. You have to admit that looking at a few sleeves is much easier than taking jackets off their hangers. So this week’s fashion tip is for us to go home and carefully snip off those cuff labels. There is a funny story about how wearing sleeve labels became popular. One source tells how the labelled sleeve was a…

Into the unknown The Losail International Circuit was purpose-built for MotoGP, so no one really knows how it will play out this weekend. Mercedes’ telemetry expects a top speed of 260km/h, which will be reached around the high-speed corners of Sectors 2 and 3. The majority of overtaking is expected at Turn 1, but in general, it is believed that drivers will struggle to pass each other. On paper, the Silver Arrows should have a slight advantage in Qatar. With limited overtaking opportunities, pole position will be important and you can cue talk of “dirty air” right now. The track record at Losail is 1.54.491 for MotoGP, set this year; while the fastest open-wheel time, set in 2009 in GP2 Asia, is 1.38.699. You’d expect the F1 cars to…

Eshlin Vedan WHILE the debate about Fifa’s proposed biennial World Cup rages, the global football showpiece is about to experience another drastic transformation in format in 2026. Next year’s World Cup in Qatar will be the last to incorporate 32 teams. The 2026 event, set to be jointly hosted by Canada, USA and Mexico will be the first to be contested by a record 48 countries. There is little doubt about Fifa’s preference for co-hosted World Cups going forward. This will allow more nations to experience the World Cup while also reducing the costs of a nation hosting it individually. On the positive side, the new format brings more worldwide representation to the tournament as each continent will be represented. Even Oceania, the region which rarely features at any World…

Sandi Kwon Hoo sandi.kwonhoo@inl.co.za A MENTALLY ill man, who was allegedly assaulted by four men in Hartswater, has been left severely traumatised, while his health has also reportedly deteriorated following the incident. An eyewitness stated that the four men accused the man of stealing. “The incident took place on the N18 near Hartswater on November 12, while the complainant (the mentally ill man) was walking along the road. The men climbed out of a bakkie and beat him to a pulp, where he sustained injuries to his ribs, arm, wrist and head,” said the witness. “They tossed him into the bakkie and drove around with him, while one of the suspects sat on top of him, as we followed them to the police station. We had to take the complainant…

Boipelo Mere boipelo.mere@inl.co.za BENEFICIARIES of the special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant are up in arms because queue marshals at Mankurwane Post Office in Kimberley have been soliciting R50 from claimants to allow them to jump the queue. The beneficiaries have expressed outrage at the bribery, which they say post office staff know about and do nothing to address. Complaints were raised that these illegal activities had resulted in several beneficiaries, who went to the pay points early in the morning, having to return home without being paid their grant money because they never reached the front of the queue. One of the affected beneficiaries explained that she had started queueing at 5am, waited in the sun for most of the day, only to return home empty-handed. Another exasperated…

Benida Phillips benida.phillips@inl.co.za WATER purification businesses in Kimberley said that the nightly water interruptions implemented by Sol Plaatje Municipality on November 13 and the load shedding by Eskom made their preparations for the scheduled three-day city-wide water shutdown challenging. The municipality announced a planned water shutdown for the entire city, starting late on Thursday afternoon until Sunday, in order to conduct repair work on the Riverton pipeline. The spokesperson for Oasis Water in Kimberley, Donovan Cole, said they have made the necessary preparations and their business has been busy since Monday. “We have six stores in the city with a 100 000-litre capacity. We also have spare water, which is about 60 to 80 000 litres of capacity. Customers have been filling up their containers since they heard about the…

Neville Motlhabakwe THE VRYBURG Men’s Bowls Club along with the senior Women’s team from Hartswater Bowls Club took top honours in last weekend’s 2021 Intervaal Men’s and Women’s Bowls pairs championship tournament which was held in Vryburg. Tournament co-ordinator Jacques Swanepoel said several other teams from the sub district also took part in the event. In the end, the one men’s side from Vryburg and the women’s side from Hartswater took top honours and another top five teams from the tournament progressed to take part in Northern Cape Pairs Top 16 next week in Kimberley. The teams confirmed for the championship are: Schweizer-Reneke (Laura Fouché and Suzette van Wyk), Vryburg (Manda Schoon and Janetha Steyn), Harstwater (Anita Palmer, Suzette Visser, Bennie DuPlessis, Deon Keyser). Seniors – Hartswater (Elanie de Kock…

Wynona Louw SPRINGBOK Women’s coach Stanley Raubenheimer says their friendly against the England Under-20 side is an opportunity for players to “stake a claim for future selection” – including for next year’s World Cup in New Zealand. Raubenheimer has selected Catha Jacobs to captain a fresh Springbok Women’s side in Sunday’s clash and has opted to grow experience as he handed 12 players their first start of the November tour for the match in London. The Springbok Women lost their tour-opener 46-3 to France in Vannes, before going down 29-19 to Wales in Cardiff last week. The run-on side also includes two uncapped players in Blue Bulls Women’s scrumhalf Rumandi Potgieter and EP Queens prop Monica Mazibukwana. Among the replacements, Tanya Scholtz – the only uncapped player on the bench…

Vernon Pillay vernon.pillay@inl.co.za BUSINESS REPORT IN A STARTLING new survey, Sanlam found that 56% of South Africans polled saw their savings decrease since the advent of Covid-19. Conducted as part of Sanlam’s Letters to My Pre-Covid-19 Self campaign, the survey (1 200 respondents) further revealed that 57% of South Africans experienced an overall negative impact on their finances, with 59% saying they had to change their spending habits. Finances were also named as a serious stressor for relationships and mental health. The survey delved into three key areas: finances, relationships and health. It investigated the impact of the pandemic, through the lens of asking people what they wish they’d known or done differently before coronavirus struck. Farzana Botha, segment solutions manager at Sanlam Savings, says: “Findings from the survey were humbling…

FRESH from arguably his greatest triumph, Lewis Hamilton will be on the crest of a wave this weekend as he seeks another momentous victory over Max Verstappen at the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix. Just days after the most spectacular win of his career at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the 36-year-old, a keen surfer, will be powered by Mercedes’ fighting spirit and a sense of shifting momentum at the Losail International Circuit. Protests, controversies and stewards’ reviews aside, Hamilton knows that if he has the same clear speed advantage, courtesy of his new Mercedes power-unit, he can further trim Verstappen’s championship lead as they go forward into the unknown. The Dutchman held a 14-point advantage after Brazil, but that may be reduced if a review of his aggressive move to…

Dudley Carstens AFTER the blame game, it’s the waiting game. The South African Football Association (Safa) have put together a thorough complaint for Fifa to consider after their road to the World Cup was cut short by a dubious penalty for Ghana in Sunday’s final group-stage qualifying match. And the world governing body will only pass it on to their experts next week Tuesday, with no timeframe for a decision yet. But Safa pulled out all the stops after a heartbreaking loss in Ghana. On the face of it, they have a strong case – flagging irregular betting activity and a blow-by-blow analysis of Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye’s performance. I have to tell you that during Sunday night’s match, I did feel that we weren’t going to get a…