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Samkele Maseko rejects Kanthan Pillay’s apology

“After recent disturbing events, we’ve met with eNCA management and made it clear we stand for independent journalism. We’ll protect the sanctity of our credibility. We won’t allow the integrity of our news profession to be made a mockery of. #CredibilityFirst #NoToCensorship” – a tweet read from several eNCA staffers. Picture: Twitter

Johannesburg – Former eNCA political journalist Samkele Maseko has rejected Kanthan Pillay’s apology over a controversial tweet.

The tweet followed Maseko’s departure from the news channel. Pillay took to Twitter to publish a cryptic message where he referred to Maseko as a rat and his new employers, the SABC, as a sinking ship.

He has since deleted his Twitter account after resounding social media backlash.  Pillay apologised to Maseko, the SABC and his employers in a statement issued by eNCA on Thursday.

“Pillay says he has retracted the tweet in its entirety adding that his actions were irresponsible and unbecoming of a senior manager.

“Pillay’s actions are being thoroughly investigated by exco members of eNCA’s parent company e-Media Investments,” said the channel.

Taking to Twitter on Friday after appearing on Talk Radio 702 with Eusebius McKaiser, Maseko said he rejected Pillay’s apology and said he was in solidarity with Khayelihle Khumalo, another eNCA journalist who has been suspended for live tweeting the EFF’s conference at the weekend despite his channel pulling out from the event.

“I note and reject Mr Kanthan Pillay’s apology. We can no longer accept apologies for racial and corporate abuse. It would be inhumane of me to accept an apology while another black child still faces the abuse of power by the same man. #JusticeforKhayakhumalo,” said Maseko on Twitter.A leaked letter published on social media showed that Khumalo had been suspended and instructed not to return to work until his disciplinary hearing had concluded.

On Friday, eNCA journalists wore black in support of Khumalo and Maseko. The journalists are also calling on eNCA to remove Pillay from his position as head of news.
Pillay joined the channel after his failed voyage to politics with the Capitalist Party of South Africa, also known as the purple cow party. The political party failed to make an impact in the 2019 general elections, securing no seats in Parliament nor in any of the provincial legislatures around the country.
eNCA has been criticised widely for appointing a politician into the senior role in the newsroom.
The South African National Editors Forum said on Thursday it would request a meeting with eNCA to discuss allegations made against Pillay, which include unethical journalistic behaviour and censorship.

Youngest team taking part in Cape2Rio sailing race ready for action

The group of scouts who will be sailing for 25 days from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro in the Cape2Rio next month received their vaccination for the race at Medicross Travel Clinic in Tokai on Thursday. Picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town – Six members of the group of scouts that will participate in the Cape2Rio 2020 edition offshore sailing race attended the Medicross Travel Clinic in Tokai for vaccination against yellow fever as part of the preparation for the race that will start on January 4.
Daniel Skriker, Rotary Scout and co-skipper of the boat, said there has been and there would be a lot of work in preparation during the weeks.

“Saturday is two weeks before we leave,” said the scout.

“It’s been busy, but we are really looking forward to it and everyone’s been working hard.”

They will be the youngest team taking part in the Cape2Rio 2020 edition and one of the youngest in its history, with a crew of two 21-year-old co-skippers and six crew members aged between 15 and 18.

Deconstructing perceptions and ensuring a seat at the table for all

So he began teaming up with people who don’t fit the standard, people with stories to tell. His collaborations allow a person’s individuality to inform aesthetics. The result is a deconstruction not just of perceptions, but societal beliefs.
Dingwall seeks to bring deliberately ignored topics to the surface. “It is important to have a message within my work,” he says. When Thando Hopa approached him to do a shoot, Dingwall turned his camera to the narrow ideas of beauty. The series Albus portrays Hopa and Sanele Xaba, both models with albinism, in a selection of metaphoric images that confront discrimination. In light of migration challenges, Dingwall focused his attention on xenophobia in Fly by night, using the figure of the black swan to symbolise marginalisation and the fight for acceptance.
With his latest series,  A seat at the table, Dingwall captures Moostapha Saidi, a model with vitiligo. Bejewelled and covered in googly eyes, Saidi is a spectacle gazing back at other’s perceptions of him. Dingwall’s work both interrogates the viewer and celebrates difference.
 
As a counter-narrative to pervasive and harmful views, his images illustrate the humanity of people. “Society needs to open up their eyes,” Dingwall says. Neither objectifying nor simply displaying his subjects, he tells stories that are compelling and empowering. “It’s important that we’re able and allowed to see things differently,” Dingwall says. 
 
When we expose ourselves to the intricacies of the world, we discover beauty beyond what meets the eye.
 

 

PODCAST | A serial killer like no other – Cedric Maake

In 1997, Captain Piet Byleveld arrested the man who had been hunting young couples at Wemmer Pan for a year.True Crime

LISTEN TO THE CHILLING TALE: 

The country heaved a sigh of relief that at least one active serial killer had been caught.

There was another maniac stalking the streets of Johannesburg though, attacking and killing tailors with a hammer. Byleveld would soon discover that the Wemmer Pan serial killer, 32-year-old Cedric Maake, was actually also the Hammer Killer, and there were many more horrendous crimes to be added to his list.

Maake rewrote the textbooks on serial killers using five different methods of killing, had no clear victim profile and the ability to adapt his viciousness to any situation.

In episode 15, True Crime South Africa delves into the complex crimes that Maake committed and probes the possibility that, perhaps, we don’t know as much about these predators as we think we do.

For more episodes, click here.

Community Intervention Centre (24-hour trauma helpline: 082 821 3447).

Join the conversation on Twitter at #TrueCrimeSA.

SA yacht wants to win Cape2Rio — and help save the environment

Love Water in Portimao, Portugal.

The team behind an SA racing vessel have set their sights on winning the Cape2Rio race — and help save the environment at the same time.

WWF South Africa and racing trimaran, Love Water, have joined forces to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the world’s oceans before the Cape2Rio yacht race in January 2020.

The 80-foot French trimaran, skippered by Craig Sutherland, arrived in Cape Town on December 12 after a 14 000km delivery voyage from Portimao, Portugal, via Brazil.

It will be docked at the V&A Waterfront until January 11 2020 while preparations are being made for the sailing event — the trans-Atlantic crossing from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro.

The #LoveWater team has set itself two goals — to break the Cape2Rio record of 11 days set by rival vessel Maserati, and to promote environmental awareness about the impact of plastic pollution on marine life while doing so.

The eight crew member team will take part in the record-breaking eight-day race, and they plan to share eight stories about plastic pollution during their voyage.

“We were thrilled when Love Water approached us to suggest that we join forces to bring home a relevant environmental message during this popular yacht race. With an estimated eight million tons of plastic entering our oceans each year from land-based sources, we couldn’t think of a more important issue to tackle together,” said Pavitray Pillay, environmental behaviour change manager with WWF South Africa.

Rick Garratt, sponsor of Love Water and Founder of HomeChoice International Ltd, said: “We are excited to be participating in this record attempt and in so doing to highlight the pollution of our oceans and water. Our collaboration with WWF South Africa brings home the urgent need to do something to change the way people think about the ocean and the use of plastics. As a company, with the help of WWF, we are committed to reducing our use of plastics in 2020 by signing the SA Plastics Pact and we urge other companies to follow suit”.