GoSouthOnline

02/01/2024

The SAJBD’s (South African Jewish Board of Deputies) response to the SA Government taking Israel to the International Court of Justice - 31 December 2023

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies mourns the loss of innocent life on both sides of the current Israel – Hamas conflict. The situation in Gaza is dire. During the meeting that the SAJBD had with President Cyril Ramaphosa in December (and not November as stated in their case), we expressed these views. We urged our government to play a role in talking to both sides, and in using their influence to ensure Hamas release the hostages, following their deadly raid on Israel on 7 October.

Rather than play a positive role, South Africa has chosen to expend its time and energy in filing a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The Government’s inclusion of the meeting it held with the SAJBD in making its case against Israel is deeply concerning for this community. The SAJBD met with the President to express its concerns about rising antisemitism in SA and about the lack of consular services to SA citizens in Israel. The SAJBD made it clear that we are not the representatives of the state of Israel nor go betweens of the two countries. We are South African citizens like any other, with valid concerns about our human rights as citizens of this country. That the SA legal case against Israel twisted the meeting in this way, shows the depths to which the government will sink in doing the bidding of its friends Hamas.

South Africa continues to humiliate itself in the international arena. It has no shame in using international organisations like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the IJC when it suits their political purpose but shuns them when it doesn’t.

Judges in the Hague ruled that SA had flouted its duties to the ICC by failing to arrest Omar al-Bashir who was wanted by the ICC. It further made a mockery of their international responsibilities by inviting President Putin to attend the BRICS Summit this year, only evading further sanctions when Putin himself pulled out.

This latest media-seeking stunt lacks credibility and is evident that they have no real understanding of the current conflict, international law or interest in finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

18/12/2023

SOUTH AFRICANS LIVING ABROAD can register to vote in the 2024 Elections on 26, 27 & 28 January 2024 by visiting any of the South African Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates to register and/or update details. Or register online at https://online.elections.org.za/voterportal/voter/registration/abroad

12/12/2023

Google has launched Gemini, a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that can seemingly understand and talk intelligently about almost any kind of prompt – pictures, text, speech, music, computer code and much more. This type of AI system is known as a multimodal model and it provides a strong hint of where AI may be going next: being able to analyse and respond to real-time information coming from the outside world.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

07/12/2023

A new report by South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation paints a grim picture of the quality of the country’s drinking water, and its water infrastructure.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

28/09/2023

In late 2021 Gideon Lombaard, a farmer in the Northern Cape province, reached out to Professor Roger Lawrence Gibson at Wits as he suspected that he had found two meteorite fragments - the first meteorite discoverie, and unrelated, in South Africa in over 40 years.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

10/09/2023

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was a history maker. Born on 27 August 1928 into a tumultuous global century, he was a man of singular political talent and among the country’s most influential black leaders for the majority of his long and remarkable life.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

06/09/2023

There are around 9 million species on Earth, from the simplest single-celled organisms to humans. It’s reassuring to imagine that complex bodies and brains like ours are the inevitable consequence of evolution, as if evolution had a goal. Unfortunately for human egos, a recent study comparing over a thousand mammals – the group we belong to – painted a less gratifying picture.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

23/08/2023

Download your Fish Hoek Heritage Educational Poster from the Heritage Portal https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/ at
https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/notice/free-fish-hoek-heritage-education-poster

22/08/2023

RIP DEREK. An honour and a privilege to work together all those years ago - your first MNet studio sound engineer - SIMONE.

21/08/2023

Bhaso Ndzendze, Associate Professor, UJ

Some three decades since the end of the Cold War, the world order is undergoing a structural transformation. At the heart of it is the challenge posed to the hegemony of the US. The African continent is an obvious contender for major power courting as this realignment takes place. This is for at least four reasons.

gosouth.co.za/africa-is-being-courted-by-china-russia-and-the-us-why-the-continent-shouldnt-pick-sides/

14/08/2023

There are several parallel projects running across the world to save the northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum), one of Africa’s captivating and iconic wildlife species. With the death of last male in 2018 and with only two females alive, the species is functionally extinct.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

10/08/2023

Neurotechnologies – devices that interact directly with the brain or nervous system – were once dismissed as the stuff of science fiction. Not anymore. Several companies are trying to develop brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, in hopes of helping patients with severe paralysis or other neurological disorders.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

07/08/2023

Eager to escape perceived western domination, several countries – mostly in the global south – are looking to join the Brics bloc. The five-country bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is also looking to grow its global partnerships.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

03/08/2023

The Namibian and Botswana governments may be risking their water resources for oil and gas revenue. They have licensed a Canadian firm, ReconAfrica, to prospect for oil in the Cubango Okavango River Basin, in an area covering 34,000km².

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

27/07/2023

An international team of researchers have uncovered the incredible genetic diversity hidden within the ancient remains of those who once called 15th-century marvel of the Inca empire, Machu Picchu, home.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

08/06/2023

ARE THE RUSSIANS PROSPECTING IN ANTARCTICA?

Dave Bryant, DA Shadow Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment - 7 June 2023

The DA has noted the response from Minister Barbara Creecy confirming that the South African government is opposed to alleged Russian energy prospecting in Antarctica. The Minister has confirmed in her response that “no prospecting activities should be taking place in the Antarctic region” and reaffirmed that this longstanding ban also applies to Russia.

The Minister has further stated however that it is her opinion that no evidence exists of Russian prospecting in Antarctica and therefore South Africa was not obligated to raise the issue at the recent Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Helsinki, Finland. The question has to be asked though: what then is ROSGEO, a Russian geological exploration group doing in Antarctica and why are Russian exploration ships being allowed to dock in South African harbours?

The Antarctic region is a very delicate natural environment and any prospecting for energy resources in the area is completely banned. Any steps taken by Russia or any other country to prospect for resources in the area should be vehemently opposed by the South African government and should evidence emerge of prospecting by Russia, the ANC government would be compelled to take direct action, which would curtail the working relationships between South African and Russian scientists.

Well-known civic groups such as the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) have made numerous public pronouncements pointing the finger directly at Russia for seismic prospecting in the Antarctic region and they are confident of these claims. It is now essential that any evidence relating to illegal prospecting in the region be provided urgently so that action can be taken to prevent any illegal prospecting from taking place. The ban on prospecting in Antarctica has been in place since 1977 and no country should be exempt.

02/06/2023

WESTERN CAPE ON THE BRINK OF FULL FEDERAL AUTONOMY
Cape Independence Advocacy Group - 2 June 2023

The most radical challenge ever to the current South African constitutional order has been launched this week, almost unnoticed, in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP). The likely outcome is that South Africa will move from being a ‘Quasi-federal unitary state’ to a fully federal one.

Whilst this move has begun in the Western Cape, it is almost certain that post 2024, other provinces who reject a future national ANC or ANC coalition government, will also follow suit.

On 22 May, the VF Plus informed the speaker of the WCPP that they wished to table the ‘Western Cape Peoples Bill’. On 26 May, the DA tabled the ‘Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill’.

Both pieces of legislation have been channelled through the Western Cape Devolution Working Group (WCDWG) and together they will allow the Western Cape to claim full federal autonomy by right in accordance with international law.

Since 1994, South Africa has ratified three international treaties all of which guarantee the ‘undeniable and inalienable’ right of self-determination to all ‘peoples’. The Western Cape is the only province with its own constitution, and it begins with the words, “In humble submission to Almighty God, We, the people of the Western Cape”.

The DA’s ‘Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill’ imposes a legislative requirement upon the Western Cape Government to pursue provincial autonomy to the fullest extent possible and provides a framework for the province to table the necessary legislation in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

The VF Plus’ ‘Western Cape Peoples Bill’ affirms that a Western Cape people exist and formally claims the right to self-determination on their behalf, a right which South Africa is obliged by international law to grant, and where the authority of international law is established in s232 and s233 of the South African Constitution.

Both pieces of legislation have been tabled in the WCPP where the DA has an outright majority, as well as the support of the other political parties in the WCDWG. Federalism is therefore now a decision which rests firmly in the hands of the DA.

Provided that both bills are passed, a ‘Western Cape Federal Autonomy Bill’ will be tabled in the NCOP using the mechanism provided in the ‘Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill’. Were the NCOP or the National Parliament to then vote against the ‘Western Cape Federal Autonomy Bill’, they would be denying the Western Cape self-determination which is in direct contravention of the treaties South Africa has signed and would allow the Western Cape to petition the Constitutional Court and then, if necessary, the UN Court of Human Rights.

The ’Western Cape Federal Autonomy Bill’ is currently being written and it will allow the Western Cape to veto any changes to the South African Constitution which affect the province, to end racial classifications and race-based policy in the Western Cape, and to devolve control of policing, rail, ports, and taxation.

See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oAMFH0xVCuDHF1aOarCzgy58b-0dFrJH/view for a copy of the ‘Western Cape Peoples Bill’. The DA has not yet published the final version of the Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill’.

15/05/2023

The disappearing computer – and a world where you can take AI everywhere.
Witness a stunning vision of the next leap in device design in this TED Talk.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

15/05/2023

The DA maintains the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEA) is the most dangerous piece of racial engineering our country has seen since the dawn of democracy. Its effect will be to stunt social mobility and increase division as workers from certain communities are discouraged from moving to “no-go zones” where they are not welcome.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

14/03/2023

A song-filled, perky, shy, yet curious bird that bears an orange throat and a striking white speculum, which separates the blackish lores and ear coverts from the crown and has adapted well to living alongside humans in their gardens.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current

01/03/2023

ORCA, the world’s first large-scale direct air capture and storage plant built in Iceland is capable of removing 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Also developed is a method of permanent carbon storage through mineralization – the CO2 is mixed with water and injected into underground volcanic, so-called basalt rock formations (of the most abundant stone material on Earth). The CO2 binds with the rock, mineralizes, and turns into stone within two years, hundreds of meters underground.

South African News Magazine ~ Credible and Current