WARNING: May contain strong language
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23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond.
Beware of the water
Thumbs down for water quality... Lakeside resident David Coombe had to have the tip of his thumb amputated following an infection caused by bacteria in Zandvlei after he put his hand in the water to haul out rubbish. The City’s inland water quality report, released last month, reveals the extent of the pollution of our rivers, vleis, and estuaries. Photo: Steve Kretzmann
• Inland water quality report finally released • City recommends no swimming in any inland water bodies due to pollution levels Steve Kretzmann
Lakeside resident David Coombe has discovered just how contaminated Cape Town’s water bodies have become. He had to have his thumb amputated
following an infection from the polluted water in Zandvlei. Having spent much of his adult life living in the vicinity of the vlei, 57-yearold Coombe spent his childhood sailing and mucking about on the vlei and says he is “an instinctual environmentalist”.
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He is aware the water has become too polluted to swim in would not advise anyone to even sail on the vlei due to it being visibly polluted. But Coombe, who lives near the water’s edge in Lakeside, regularly picks up litter on the edge of what is actually an estuary, one of
the most ecologically sensitive, and important water bodies there are. Over this past Christmas period, he says he had a splinter that had lodged deep in his right thumb which he couldn’t remove. More on Page 2
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Mother City News
23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
From Page 1
Scouts regularly sail on Zandvlei despite high pollution levels. Photo: Steve Kretzmann
But he carried on picking up litter and put his hand in the water to fish out some garbage. “I had an immediate and obvious response,” he says, with “throbbing and swelling of the thumb”. Like many people, he is unemployed and has no medical aid, and so he tried to ignore the pain. He says it receded to a “low level”, but a few days later he – “like a flipping bloody idiot” – again put his hand in the water to fish out some rubbish. He says within about 40 minutes he felt a white-hot pain shooting “straight up the arm”. He went to False Bay Hospital where he was referred to Victoria Hospital hand clinic where they operated on his thumb. “I thought it would be a simple removal of the splinter but when they removed the bandages about four days later it was black and necrotic.” He was then sent to Groote Schuur hospital where they performed what the doctors told him was a “radical debridement” in which they remove all the dead flesh. But again, when the bandages came off four or five days later, the results were not as expected. He said there was “no flesh from the joint up”. “It was just a black claw.” He realised then that the top half of his thumb above the joint would have to be amputated. The surgeon told him he had been infected with an aggressive necrotic bacteria and after seven rounds of antibiotics the stump is still purple and swollen but is finally healing. In time and with some rehabilitation he will be able to use the lower half of his thumb. Cape Town’s polluted rivers and vleis Coombe’s experience reveals that the pollution of our waterways has a direct and serious impact on our health, particularly given that less than 20% of our population belong to a medical aid scheme and have easy access to private healthcare. And although Cape Town is world renowned for its natural beauty, its
rivers, vleis, and estuaries are so polluted that the City of Cape Town does not recommend swimming in any of them. This warning, which takes the form of a disclaimer, appears as a footnote in small type at the bottom of page 22 of the 88page 2019 Inland Water Quality Report summary which was released last month. The long-awaited report was released on 9 February, having been finalised by the City after being delivered by the consultants in July last year, according to previous communication with City water and waste mayco member Xanthea Limberg. It has been released as a 235-page technical report and an 88-page summary, providing an overview of water quality testing data up to March 2020. The last inland water quality data made publicly available was from 2016 and was contained in the 2018 State of the Environment Report. The latest report shows that only 55% of our river systems are in an “acceptable” state when it comes to microbiological contamination. Microbiological contamination is determined by measuring how much E.coli is in the water. The City considers up to 2,500 colony forming units (cfu) of E.coli per 100ml is an acceptable risk for “intermediate contact recreation” such as canoeing, windsurfing, sailing, or fishing. This is two-and-a-half times the amount of E.coli that is allowed to be released back into the environment by sewage treatment works. The graph in the report which shows the overall health of Cape Town’s rivers and vleis does not even show acceptable risk for full-contact recreational activities such as swimming or wading. The best level on offer is acceptable risk for intermediate contact recreation. Thus, on the bottom of page 22 where the City defines the calculation of its six risk levels, including what it considers acceptable risk for fullcontact recreation (400 E.coli cfu or
less per 100ml), it puts the disclaimer: “Note, however, that the City does not generally recommend full-contact use in any of its inland waterbodies.” What is being measured The City’s water quality report measures E.coli and phosphorous levels which indicate nutrient enrichment. While aquatic plants require some nutrients, an oversupply of nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen lead to blooms of blue-green algae which release microcystin toxins which, if ingested can cause liver failure and death, depending on the quantity swallowed. The rapid algal growth from high nutrient levels also leads to algae dying off and decomposing, which removes oxygen from the water and can cause fish die-offs. Fish die-offs are semiregular occurrences in water bodies such as Zandvlei, as witnessed by this reporter and attested to on community chat forums. The report reveals data going back to 1980 for some catchments, but averages it over five-year periods. Thus, while declining water quality in all catchments is visible over time, the results are also averaged over five years. This has the effect of hiding pollution spikes or even grossly unacceptable pollution levels for periods as long as a year. The state of our rivers Measuring water quality using these E.coli and phosphorous levels, the report states there is only one river in Cape Town which may be clean enough to take a chance swimming or wading in, and that is the Silvermine River. This is one of the shorter rivers in the city. Originating in the peak behind Elephant’s Eye and running south, it passes through only about a kilometre of urban area as it runs past Clovelly and Fish Hoek before entering the sea. All the other rivers pose an unacceptable risk level even for intermediate contact recreation, especially in their lower reaches as they run through urban areas.
One of the worst is the Diep River which forms the Milnerton Lagoon before flowing into the sea at Lagoon Beach. The Diep River is so polluted that the Environmental Management Inspectorate, or Green Scorpions, last year issued a directive to the City to prevent the ongoing pollution and clean it up. The Diep River also runs through the City-run Table Bay Nature Reserve but contributing to the pollution has been the City-run Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) which was so dysfunctional that the effluent it is supposed to treat before releasing it into the river was in 2019 so polluted the adjacent Astron oil refinery could not use it for its industrial cooling processes as it had in previous years. Equally polluted is the Black River which runs past the King David Mowbray and Rondebosch Golf Clubs before being canalised and running into the sea at Paarden Eiland. A 2015 Masters thesis by Lucy Gilbert in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT revealed the Black River contains toxic levels of heavy metals. These include chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc emanating from stormwater drains and industry. The Black River also receives sewage effluent from the Athlone and Borchards Quarry WWTWs, both of which failed to treat effluent to minimum national standards during 2020 according to the Department of Water and Sanitation’s Integrated Regulatory Information System dashboard. The 2019 Inland Water Quality Report shows that tests within the Salt River catchment, of which the Black River forms part, returned unnacceptable levels of E.coli almost 80% of the time between 2015 and March 2020. Other highly polluted rivers of concern highlighted in the report are the Big and Little Lotus Rivers which flow into Zeekoevlei, the Eerste and Kuils River catchment which flows into False Bay at Macassar, The Sir Lowry’s Pass River and Soet system, and the Hout Bay River.
23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
Mother City News
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From Page 2 The state of our vleis Although rivers such as the Liesbeek (at unacceptable risk levels in its lower reaches according to the report), the Black River and particularly the Diep River are potentially attractive recreational areas, Cape Town’s vleis are the most popular recreational areas for residents. Rietvlei in Milnerton, Zandvlei in Muizenberg, and Zeekoevlei adjacent to Grassy Park are all the sites of sailing or rowing clubs, with Zeekoevlei being the site of the UCT rowing club. While the vleis do not seem to normally have high levels of E.coli – despite mayco member for environment Marian Nieuwoudt confirming Zandvlei was closed or partially closed for a total of 42 days in 2019 due to sewage spills flowing into the vlei – they all contain unacceptable levels of phosphorous. The high nutrient level did result in one algal bloom forcing the closure of Rietvlei for a week in November 2019 according to Nieuwoudt. She confirmed Rietvlei was also closed from March to June 2017 due to a blue-green algal bloom. The report reveals that over 90% of all water quality tests in Rietvlei over the 2015 to 2020 period showed unacceptable phosphate levels. For Zandvlei and Westlake wetland, phosphate levels were unacceptable in 70% of all tests over the same period, and the Edith Stephens detention pond, Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei returned unacceptable levels of phosphates in over 95% of all tests over the 2015 to 2020 period. Environmental degradation Beyond risks to human health posed by E.coli levels and algae blooms, a number of residents who have lived near to Zandvlei say biodiversity in and around the vlei has decreased over the years. Long term Marina da Gama resident Greg Higgins has started documenting the sewage spills into Zandvlei from the Sand River canal after he approached authorities such as Cape Nature and “got a hand in my face”. He believes that while the inland water quality report shows there’s “a lot wrong”, it doesn’t reveal “how bad it actually is”. He said sewage spills into the vlei were recurring to the point they were almost constant. Higgins says there are no more swallows visiting the vlei, which he believes can only be due to the pollution. Geckos and insects have also all but disappeared. He said he lives alongside the water and in summer he used to be inundated with insects at night if he left his door open and his lights on. Now, he says, almost no insects fly into his house, and neither are there any frogs. “All the creatures have been killed,” he says, and clean-up drives reveal that the banks of the vlei are about 50% plastic waste and 50% mud. Avid birdwatcher and Lakeside resident Robin Burnett said he’s observed fewer birds on the vlei. “There used to be thousands of coots and used to be swallows and even whitebacked ducks and other things,” says Burnett. He wouldn’t speculate on the reasons for the depletion of birdlife but “there is a sort of gathering of dirty looking muck along the shore, a sort of slime”. “The vlei looks lifeless.” E.coli is the least of it Dr Jo Barnes, Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the Division of Community Health at Stellenbosch University, explains
The water flowing out of the Diep River catchment, which forms the Milnerton Lagoon, have become so polluted the Green Scorpions have ordered the City to institute a clean-up plan or face criminal litigation. The City’s recently released inland water quality report reveals the extent of the pollution of Cape Town’s water bodies.
that levels of E.coli are tested because it is an indicator organism indicating the presence of other pathogens in the water. “E.coli stands for all the pathogens, the whole book of micro-organisms,” says Barnes. These include Rotavirus, Hepatitis E, Norwalk virus, Salmonella, and the fungus Candida. But E.coli is a poor indicator, she says, as it dies off quickly so low E.coli levels do not mean the presence of other pathogens is low. Sewage spillages and the poor treatment of waste water is contributing to what she terms the “silent pandemic” of anti-biotic resistance. If waste water is poorly or inadequately treated with chemicals such as chlorine (one of the chemicals measured in the chemical compliance indicator) then it only
kills the weaker micro-organisms, and the stronger ones survive, creating generations that are increasingly more difficult to treat. “We are slowly running out of drugs for treatment,” Barnes warns. Then there are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), toxic compounds which do not break down easily and are increasingly polluting the environment and becoming more concentrated as they move up the food chain. Given that, particularly in large urban areas, waste water is not just domestic sewage but also includes industrial waste water and waste water from hospitals, even treatment that measures up to national minimum standards is almost guaranteed to be unable to eliminate these from the effluent released back into the environment.
The presence of POPs are not measured at all in South Africa at present and are a critical challenge in efforts to recycle waste water back into the drinking water supply, such as being piloted in Cape Town. “What keeps me awake at night,” says Barnes, “is when we mix industrial effluent with human sewage, what is going to happen to the pathogens as they mix with thousands of chemicals from factories? “We don’t know what happens when chemical cocktails hit microbiological cocktails.” The impact of poor waste water treatment is “grossly, grossly underrated” from both an economic and human health perspective.
Mother City News
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23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
Food review
New kid on the Atlantic strip Sadé Allcock Capetonians love nothing more than a hip new restaurant. Scratch that, there are no restaurants in the Mother City anymore, there are only ‘eatery’s’. And Capetonians love them. Every time a new one with glitzy décor and a smoothie bowl on the menu pops up, we flock in droves. So naturally I had to sample Lexi’s Eatery in Seapoint. This is not the first Lexi’s Eatery, but it is the first one in the Cape. Lexi’s is a mostly plant-based restaurant with only one meat dish (beef hamburger) and one fish dish (seared salmon) on the menu. Moreover, their menu is large, covering everything from breakfast to burgers, waffles to wraps. If a restaurant such as this can do well enough to franchise then a plant-based diet is clearly on the rise, and we’re not complaining. Best of all, the food was good. Not blowyour-hair-back amazing, but then I only tried two dishes from this very wide menu. It being a hot summer’s day, I went in for a juice and a falafel-style wrap. I managed to hide my surprise when the waiter told me there was only the choice between a glutenfree and a banting wrap. Apparently, hell hath no fury like a carbohydrate. Despite this initial confusion, the gluten free wrap was enjoyable but definitely not as soft in texture as a normal wrap. The fillings were lovely. Mine was stuffed with falafel, hummus, gherkins, raw cabbage slaw, mixed leaves and a tahini dressing. I also sampled the pulled mushroom wrap which I was sceptical of at first but ended up very much enjoying. The pulled mushroom wrap was served with a smoky beetroot sauce, cashew cream, African-style spinach, a touch of chilli and
cabbage slaw. I also had the sunshine juice
Lexi’s again. The wide plant-based menu is
with my meal – a zesty combination of
packed full of exciting food, the prices are
orange, ginger and carrot.
decent, and the portion sizes are ample. I can
Overall, I would most certainly return to
Wine
understand why this restaurant has been
such a hit in trendy Cape Town. Lexi’s Eatery is at 85A Regent Road, Seapoint. The meal was paid in full by Mother City News
Keeping the heat at bay Sadé Allcock It has been scorching hot in Darling lately. The kind of hot where you struggle to move, think or breathe. I cope with this heat by taking afternoon naps. When I wake at about 4:30pm, I feed my dogs, muse on what to have for dinner, and pour a chilled glass of wine. This last step it vital. There is nothing quite like sitting on the porch with your feet up, glass of wine in hand and watching the afternoon lull itself into evening. But it’s essential to have the right glass of wine for this daily ritual. Hands down one of the best wines I’ve had of late is the Old Vines Cinsault from Kruger Family Wines. Cinsault is a varietal that I love and don’t drink enough of. It has traditionally been used in red blends, often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, but of late winemakers have been experimenting with the varietal as a standalone wine. Of particular interest to Cape winemakers is that Cinsault is known to be very drought resistant, and with our rainfall as uncertain as it has been in the last ten years, this is a great benefit.
The Cinsault varietal does not create a heavy wine, but Kruger Family Wines have managed to keep it light and yet at the same time retain an amazingly complex palate. It has great minerality and hints of pomegranate, almonds, and rosewater. It could be perfectly paired with a stew or meaty ragù. This wine is well balanced and seems to slip effortlessly down the throat, but it’s not cheap at R195 a bottle. In my opinion, well worth it though. I have also been enjoying the Miss Lucy blend from Springfield Estate. This is a blend of Pinot Gris (43%), Sauvignon Blanc (37%) and Semillon (20%). Created by Springfield as an ode to the bounty of the sea, this wine is summery and full of body. An excellent wine to pack in a sundowners picnic or sample while you’re sitting on your stoep on a hot afternoon. Citrus-y with bold flavours of grapefruit and sweet melon, this is the perfect end of summer wine. Cheers to the last of the sweet summer evenings, for now. Miss Lucy – R120 @ Springfield Estate Old Vines Cinsault – R195 @ Kruger Family Wines
23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
Mother City News
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Book review
Girl A chooses the door with the question mark Steve Kretzmann Pre-meditated cruelty, the cruelty that oozes from a sense of power and entitlement, appears to be a uniquely human attribute. This may be because cruelty demands a set of justifications. Even psychopaths know they have to at least pretend their actions are in service of something else. The corporation works well, but the Bible can come in handy for the less successful looking for an excuse. It bestows a God-given patriarchal domestic hierarchy and men have been using and abusing it ever since Moses descended from Mount Sinai. Consider the drunken, dishevelled father, socially belittled in the world but believing himself king of all he surveys as sits at the kitchen table, his belligerence cowing his wife and children into silence. It is such a scene Abigail Dean sets in the opening collage of events establishing the harrowing context for her fascinating debut novel, Girl A. (Page 62) It is about Alex – dubbed Girl A in the press - the one who, amongst five siblings, escaped from being chained to a filthy bed in her father’s House of Horrors. What Dean gets right, light as a finely honed radio signal, is how normal the world looks from inside Alex’s head. Until it’s not, and even then, it seems almost rational.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro World wide release was on 2 March. A new book by Ish the Great is always an event. As he’s got older, he’s moved away from straight modernist narratives (Remains of the Day was the ultimate in conventional lit) and become increasingly interested in different elements of spec fic. I don’t read much spec fic, but will read anything Ishiguro writes as I’m a loyal fanboy. Klara of the title is an AF (Artificial Friend) and is the narrator of this fabulous novel. I haven’t read anything that has really impressed me for months until this. I found myself caring deeply about Klara, more deeply than any human character I’ve read for ages and this is either a reflection of the quality of his writing or my gatvolness with the vast majority of humanity. Maybe both. One of Ishiguro’s great strengths as a writer is to describe little things about the world (both real and imagined) in ways that make you look at your environment in different ways. I found Klara and the Sun to be almost unbearably sad which is appropriate for a story that is set in a world in which AI has advanced to the point where Artificial Friends are a thing but is
Given the make up of the human psyche, it never could be, which is why the character of the psychologist is fascinating, as is the mother. And the question is: at what stage did the wielding of power shift from benign to abusive, and then when did it become cruel? And did the descent into cruelty coincide, or precede the onset of becoming unhinged, insane? Bearing in mind, mentally ill people are not necessarily cruel. More often, they tend to make bad decisions, which is what separates Alex from her father. Rarely is mental illness treated with such sensitivity as in Dean’s hands. Many protagonists in novels are disturbed by a trauma – it is the pretext for the story – but the characters are usually making sane decisions in extreme circumstances. Few dare to wander deep into the territory of mental illness being the only sane reaction to a situation. In the rear of all our minds is a media story about a family found held prisoner by the patriarch, often wielding a gun and a bible, or drugs, or all three. Dean appears to have done her research, and steps through the bewilderment and betrayal inflicted on the children with a touch as light as breath. Alex is imbued with impressive believability that, if one didn’t know better, might want to call authentic. Madness, like a family’s descent into isolation and abuse, is not a single event, it is made up of accumulations and shifts, and so grounded in the present in terms of its themes and concerns. I’m not going to get into the plot - just to say that Ish has restored my faith in fiction, when it’s done well. I doubt there will be a better novel this year.
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason This is so good. It is a debut by a Kiwi author about mental illness written in a light, at times funny, but not disrespectful way. Martha Friel suffers from an extreme and debilitating form of depression, she gets a diagnosis relatively late in the novel but never reveals what the diagnosis actually is, I guess reflecting that her experience is more important than labels/boxes. The novel starts with the breakup of Martha’s second marriage and looks back over her life, in particular her relationships with her family and most importantly with herself. It’s the story of a woman trying to understand who she is, to understand why she spends weeks at a time unable to get out of bed, why at times she finds herself throwing stuff at her husband, at the wall, at anything. We’ve sold the four copies we’d ordered in a few days and I’ve ordered another 10. They’ll take a
we see this reflected superbly. Girl A is a stunning debut novel that goes behind the headlines and the spaces between the court transcripts to excavate the creeping systemic failures we bury beneath our headlong rush. And she goes further, beyond
the door we refuse to acknowledge: in what way would we go mad?
few weeks to get here because Jonathan Ball Publishers don’t have stock.
Sleep Well My Lady by Kwei Quartey
Published by Harper Collins, Girl A is distributed here by Jonathan Ball Publishers. You can get it at the Book Lounge.
By the Fading Light by Ashraf Kagee Ashraf’s first novel, Khalil’s Journey, was very good and won the EU Lit Award in 2013. This is his second, due out soon, and it’s also very good. It is set in Salt River in the 60s in a pretty tight Muslim community. Three young boys are struggling to deal with the disappearance of the fourth member of their group. One of the boy’s mother died in childbirth, the second’s father ran off years ago with another man, while the third’s life is suffocated by his mother’s anger at his father’s “taking” a second wife. A sensitive, well written novel about growing up in the midst of trauma. A line near the end of the novel, “when the abnormal is normal, how can anyone tell the difference?” reflects a dominant theme of this very good Cape Town novel. Salt River features very strongly, prompting the thought of how much has changed since the 1960s and how much hasn’t.
Short reviews by staff at The Book Lounge, the best indi bookstore in CapeTown
This is the second book by this Ghanian writer who now lives in the US. I started reading his first one, Missing Americans, and wasn’t mad about it but I remember that Unathi liked it. I read this quickly, the writing is nothing spectacular, but it’s got what you want from a decent thriller in terms of pacy plot, interesting characters and a strong sense of place (Accra, Ghana). Good read for someone looking for a decent thriller and the fact that it’s set in Ghana means that it broadens the horizons of the straight crime readers. Worth recommending. 7/10
Mother City News
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23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
About Forum Aboutthe theKoeberg Koeberg Public Public Safety Safety Information Information Forum About the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum
states that Section 26(4) of the NNR Act states that Section Section 26(4) of 26(4) the NNRthe Act NNR states Act that states that “The holder of a nuclear of installation license must “The holdersafety of a nuclear installation license must establish a public information forum asmust “The holder of a nuclear installation license establish a public safety information forum as prescribed to inform persons livingforum in the as establish ina order public safetytheinformation prescribed in order to inform the persons living in the prescribed in order to inform the persons living in the municipal area in respect of which an emergency municipal area in respect of which an emergency municipal area established in respect ofon which an emergency plan has been nuclear safety andplan plan has been established on nuclear safety and has beensafety established on nuclear safety and radiation radiation matters.” radiation safety matters.”
safety matters.”
What is the Public Information What is Safety theSafety Public Safety Information What is the Public Information
Forum (PSIF)? Forum (PSIF)? The PSIF(PSIF)? is a meeting takes place four times Forum The PSIF is awhich meeting which takes place four times a year. as a platform for residents a year. It is used Itasis aused platform for residents within within Themunicipal PSIF the is amunicipal meeting boundary which takes place four times a of Koeberg Nuclear Power the boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power year. It is used as a platform for residents within the enquire about and nuclear receive nuclear Station to Station enquiretoabout and receive safety safety municipalrelated boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station information from the facility. related information from the facility.
to enquire about and receive nuclear safety related information from the facility. Which topics are discussed?
Koeberg Koeberg PSIF KoebergPSIF Koeberg PSIF
Which topics are discussed? The forum will address any topic that the members The forum will address any topic that the members Which topics are discussed? feel could impact their health, environment, and Public Safety Information Forum feel could impact their health, environment, and Public Safety Information Forum Public Safety Information Forum safety from a nuclear emergency preparedness The forum will address any topic that the members Public Safety Information Forum safety from a nuclear emergency preparedness This is a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to receive and ask for nuclear point of view. This is a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to receive and ask for nuclear feel could impact their health, environment, and safety safety related from the facility. point of view. This isinformation asafety platform for residents within related information fromthe themunicipal facility. boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to receive and ask for nuclear
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Full Volume Siren Test 9 March 2021
safety related information from the facility.
Who should attend? Who should attend? Who should attend? All persons living within the municipal area around All persons living within the municipal area around Koeberg, all affected and interested organisations All persons living and within the municipal area around Koeberg, all affected and organisations or parties, anyinterested other persons concerned about all health affected interested organisations and and safety from a nuclear and radiation orKoeberg, parties,their and any other persons concerned about or parties, andsafety any other concerned aboutthe point of view are welcome to attend their healthsafety and from apersons nuclear and radiation their health and safety from a nuclear and radiation forum. Persons to attend are requested to safety point of view arewishing welcome to attend the safety point of view are welcome to attend the forum. register as a member. forum. Persons wishing to attend are requested to
Persons wishing to attend are requested to register as a member. How do I register?
register as a member.
This is a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to receive and ask for nuclear safety related information from the facility. All residents, interested parties and organisations are cordially invited to attend All residents, interested partiesInformation and organisations are cordially invited to attend the Koeberg Public Safety Forum (PSIF).
the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum (PSIF). ForumAll residents, interested parties and organisations are cordially invited to The details for the Forum are as follows: attend the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum (PSIF). The details foritems the Forum are as follows: Agenda
detailsNuclear for the Power Forum are as follows: • The Koeberg Station quarterly feedback items e-mail your details, i.e. full name, contact Agenda How do I register? How do Kindly I register? • number, organisation (if applicable) or indicate • National Radiation Disposal Institute (NRWDI) presentation • Koeberg Nuclear PowerWaste Station quarterly feedback Kindly e-mail your details, i.e. full name, contact whetheryour you details, are a resident, to Debbie Joshua, Agenda items Kindly e-mail i.e. full name, contact • number, organisation (if Stakeholder applicable) or indicate and • National • Koeberg Long Waste Term Operation (LTO) update Radiation Disposal Institute (NRWDI) presentation Senior Advisor Management • Koeberg Nuclear Power Station quarterly feedback number, you organisation (if applicable) or indicate whether are a resident, to Debbie Joshua, • Community Development (JoshuaD@eskom.co.za ). whether you are a resident, to Debbie Joshua, Senior • Koeberg Long Radiation Term Operation (LTO) update • National Waste Disposal Institute (NRWDI) presentation Senior Advisor Stakeholder Management and Date : Thursday, 25 March 2021 Advisor Stakeholder Management and Community • Koeberg Long Term Operation (LTO) update ). Community Development When are(JoshuaD@eskom.co.za the PSIF meetings held? Development (JoshuaD@eskom.co.za ). Time : 19:00 Date Date : Thursday, 25 March 2021 The PSIF meeting dates for this year are: Date : note Thursday, March 2021 are PSIF the PSIF meetings held? WhenWhen are the held? • Thursday, 25meetings March 2021; that25 this will be a virtual meeting. Kindly RSVP to Debbie Joshua Time Please : 19:00 • Thursday, 24 June 2021; Time : 19:00 The PSIF meeting dates for this year are: by sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za before 17:00 on Tuesday, PSIF meeting dates for this year2021; are: and • Thursday, 30 September •The Thursday, 25 March 2021; Please note that this will be a virtual meeting. Kindly RSVP to Debbie Joshua • Thursday, 25 November 2021. 23 March 2021. • Thursday, June 2021; Please note that this will be a virtual meeting. Kindly RSVP to Debbie Joshua by Thursday, 2524 March 2021; by sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za before 17:00 on Tuesday, • Thursday, 30 September 2021; and sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za before 17:00 on Tuesday, 23 March 2425 June 2021; Who •Thursday, Thursday, November 2021.to talk to 23 March 2021. 2021. For more information, contact Lewis Phidza,
Thursday,Koeberg 30 September 2021; and Stakeholder Management Manager, via Who to talk to
email (PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za). Alternatively, send
For more 25information, contact Lewis Phidza, Thursday, November 2021. an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za. Koeberg Stakeholder Management Manager, via Who(PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za). to talk to email Alternatively, Due to COVID-19, the 2021 Koebergsend Emergency an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za. Plan Calendar will only be distributed For more information, contact Lewiselectronically. Phidza, and businesses 16km Koeberg Residents, Stakeholderschools, Management Manager, in viathe email Due to COVID-19, 2021 Koeberg Emergency radius of the Koeberg Nuclear Power (PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za). Alternatively, send Station are
Plan Calendar will only be distributed electronically. an email toschools, JoshuaD@eskom.co.za. Residents, and businesses in the 16km radius of Koeberg Power Station are Due to COVID-19,Nuclear the 2021 Koeberg Emergency
Koeberg Nuclear Power Station
Koeberg Nuclear PowerMelkbosstrand R27 Off West Coast Road StationR27 Off West Coast Road www.eskom.co.za
Melkbosstrandwww.eskom.co.za Koeberg Nuclear Power Station
R27 Off West Coast Road Melkbosstrand www.eskom.co.za
Plan Calendar will only be distributed electronically. Residents, schools, and businesses in the 16km radius of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station are reminded that the calendar contains important information about the Koeberg Emergency Plan. Should you require a copy of the Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar, kindly request one by sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd Reg No 2002/015527/30
2021 325
from a nuclear emergency preparedness point of view.
23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
Mother City News
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Court slams City of Cape Town for barring access to homeless camp Fighting to get out... The City of Cape Town moved about 2,000 homeless people from across the city to a site in Strandfontein during the hard national lockdown in March last year. Following outrage by the public over the conditions at the site, its closure was anounced in May. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Judge Desai found that South African Human Rights Commission monitors trying to enter the site were acting lawfully •
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The Western Cape High Court has criticised the City of Cape Town for its treatment of human rights monitors at its camp for homeless people in Strandfontein. The court also dismissed interdicts granted to the City last year which prevented the monitors and the South African Human Rights Commission from entering the site. In May 2020, the City announced the closure of the site just six weeks after it opened at a cost of R53 million. It is unclear if the City will appeal.
The Western Cape High Court has given the City of Cape Town a tongue-lashing for how it treated human rights monitors at its Strandfontein relocation site during the national lockdown. This comes nine months after judgment was reserved in the case between the City and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). On Wednesday, the City was also ordered to pay costs for the hearing. The judgment was handed down by Judge Siraj Desai on Wednesday morning. The judge delivered the judgment in court and it was streamed on the Internet. Judge Desai said that the City had sought to muzzle freedom of expression. Last year, the City was granted an interdict preventing the Commission and its appointed independent human rights observers from entering the Strandfontein relocation camp. The camp housed about 2,000 homeless people relocated from different parts of the city at the start of the national lockdown a year ago. The interdict followed a report released by
the SAHRC that brought to light disturbing conditions at the camp. In response the City went to court for an interdict, arguing that the Commission and its monitors had caused disruption at the camp, and were spreading “misinformation and lies.” The City, at the time, also argued that the SAHRC did not have the power to appoint independent monitors to supplement their staff, and that the monitors were in breach of lockdown regulations. Following public outrage over the conditions at the Strandfontein site, the City announced its closure on 21 May 2020. The site had only been open for six weeks at a cost of R53 million. When the case appeared before the High Court again in June 2020, the City withdrew its application. On Wednesday, Judge Desai dismissed the interdicts granted to the City, finding that the SAHRC had acted lawfully. He said that the Commission was allowed to appoint independent human rights monitors, and that the City should show proper respect to Chapter Nine bodies like the SAHRC. In fact, the City has a duty to assist the Commission, he said. In a statement, the City said that while it did not agree with Desai’s court ruling it will “consider our options once the written judgment is made available by the court”. The City criticised the SAHRC: “Unfortunately, known political opportunists were deployed by South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) provincial Commissioner Chris Nissen to play politics and tell outright lies about South Africa’s biggest effort to help people living on the street.“
- GroundUp
Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond
FREE COPY
23 MARCH TO 22 APRIL 2021
We interrupt our monthly gig guide to bring you news of the dire situation facing South African artists and how little support they receive from government, perhaps because they are the ones who tell the emperor he has no clothes.
Op-ed
Government reveals its contempt for artists Although musicians, actors, directors, poets, writers, painters, printmakers, cartoonists, and journalists played a pivotal role in the struggle against apartheid which eventually saw the ANC coming to power, the ANC-led government has proved it has no respect for the creative sector.
At the time of writing (23 March), about 20 artists have been occupying the National Arts Council offices in Johannesburg for 20 days. Their sit-in started after the National Arts Council (NAC), which was tasked to disburse R300m to artists from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP), announced in late February that there wasn’t enough money for the 1,215 applicants who had already been approved. Most artists have had their income cancelled or severely over the last year due to the Covid-19 lockdown rules. Their loss of income happened overnight when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the start of the hard lockdown on 27 March last year. Those who work in theatre have been particularly hard hit as theatres around the country have been mothballed. Many have since closed permanently, including the much-loved The Fugard on Caledon Street in District Six which this month announced its closure. Musicians reliant on income from live gigs have also suffered badly. But after contracts were signed, the NAC baldly stated 600 of the approved PESP applicants would not receive the funds they had been promised, outraging artists and resulting in the sit-in. Artists in the Northern Cape followed suit, starting a sit-in at the office of the Northern Cape MEC for Sports, Arts and Culture in Kimberley on 15 March, with artists in the Free State joining in with a sit-in at the Performing Arts Centre in Bloemfontein. In solidarity with the ongoing protest against the lack of support shown to South African artists, colleagues have held performances on the street outside the NAC offices in Joburg, and donating food and toiletries to their colleagues occupying the building. Cape Town artists are planning a solidarity gathering and performances on a date to be
announced. Beside the call to reinstate the PESP funding in full, artists are calling for Department of Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa to be axed. As a signal of just how the uninterested the government is in supporting the arts sector, Mthethwa was demoted to minister of the DSAC after having been Minister of Police when the Marikana massacre took place. He is completely out touch, tweeting in January that “theatre is alive and well” while theatre practitioners were unable to work. This outraged artists and he subsequently apologised for the tweet. It took until 19 March before he addressed the protesters, but was unable to resolve the issues. Responding to the Zoom meeting that took place with the protesters, Ismail Mohamed, who has a long and distinguished career in the performing arts sector, having unflinchingly tackled corruption at the Market Theatre Foundation when he was CEO there from 2016 to 2020, addressed Mthethwa in an open letter published on Facebook. Mohamed said Mthethwa misled the arts and cultural sector about their rights and a matter of conflict and good governance. This was specifically about “the current tensions relating to the tenure of Dr Sipho Sithole as a council member of the National Arts Council and your interpretation of the law as advised by your legal team”, as, while artists were having their PESP funding cut after signing legally binding contracts, Sithole is a PESP beneficiary. Mthethwa argued there was no conflict of interest in Sithole receiving a PESP grant administered by the NAC while a board member of the NAC, as the grant had been approved by the previous council. But Mahomed drew his attention to the Companies Act, which states Sithole would
Dark days… The beloved Fugard Theatre in the east city precinct was mothballed a year ago when the Covid-19 lockdown was announced, but founder and producer Eric Abrahams announced earlier this month that he is closing it for good. The District Six Museum, which owns the building, has indicated it is going to approach theatre practitioners and see what can be done with the theatre.
have had to make full disclosure of his grant application when being interviewed for a position on the board. He notes Sithole appears not to have done so, and if he did, Mthethwa needs to produce the evidence. The artists have requested Mthethwa suspend Sithole from the board until the matter is cleared up, but Mthethwa has refused to do so. “This is not the first time that you have refused to accede to recuse a member of Council from discussions until such time that the alleged conflicts are investigated, resolved and an environment of harmony and mutual trust and respect begins to prevail,” stated Mohamed. He went on to refer to the conflict of interest in which, in 2017, the then Chairperson of the Council of the Market Theatre Foundation, Kwanele Gumbi, wanted material benefits for him, the Council and the Audit Committee in violation of the Public Finance Management Act. Mthethwa ignored all reports put to him,
resulting in a two-year battle which caused massive damage to the Market Theatre, resulting in Gumbi eventually being found guilty and dismissed. “Until such time that you cannot accede to such a simple request of recusing Dr Sithole from the Council while the tensions pertaining to the PESP grants are being discussed Dr Sithole is not the problem. You, dear Mr Minister, through your obstinate, reckless and uncaring attitude and your aloofness from the cultural sector once again is the real problem.” stated Mahomed. Bear in mind, dear reader, that what has helped get you through lockdown – the movies, series, books, music, even the design of the webpages you scroll – is all thanks to those artists and designers, producers, directors, writers and technicians working in the creative industries sector. They deserve your respect and support. #Nathimustgo
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