smoking taxi

Editorial cartoon People's Post 14 april 2009

The smoky road trip

"I AM sick and tired of their nonsense; they smoke as they please and couldn't care less whether there are passengers or not in the taxi."
These are the words of an angry Nelisiwe Grootbom about taxi drivers who smoke while transporting passengers.
Grootbom catches a taxi from Waterfall to Retreat on a daily basis. She says her frustration on this matter has gone beyond boiling point. She adds that some drivers will go as far as to light a cigarette while transporting school children.
"I am a parent and it bothers me greatly that they smoke in front of my seven-year-old; they are also placing his health at risk."
Demetre Horn from Strandfontein says he also uses a taxi, and according to him, the Retreat Taxi Association's drivers are notorious for smoking while transporting commuters.
Dr Ivan Bromfield, executive director of Health in the City of Cape Town, says it is a contravention of the Tobacco Products Control Act for a taxi driver to be smoking while transporting passengers; taxi drivers who commit this offence are dealt with by Law Enforcement officers.
Dr Bromfield adds that commuters who observe such an act can lay a charge against the taxi operator at any police station.
When laying a charge, commuters need to relate all the details of the incident, including the date, time of the offence, vehicle registration number and description.
Alternatively, commuters can hand a sworn affidavit, specifying all details of the incident, to the police or Traffic Services.
The maximum fine for contravening the Tobacco Products Control Act currently stands at R200, but Dr Bromfield anticipates harsher amendments to the legislation.
In Johannesburg, taxi associations offer far sharper penalties to their members.
Mdumiso Twala, spokesperson for the Johannesburg and Tembisa Taxi Association, says drivers who are found guilty of smoking while transporting passengers by the association�s disciplinary committee are dismissed immediately and blacklisted from driving in the association.
Twala adds that the association has its own inspectors, who drive around the city and check taxis at random. The inspectors also ask passengers about their grievances during the inspection.
With well over 200 taxis under the Retreat Taxi Association (RETA) management, one would perhaps expect to see many such inspections. But Grootbom, who uses a taxi daily, says she has yet to travel in a taxi that has been inspected en route.
Basi Nagel, Chairperson of RETA, says it is difficult for the association to catch culprits as commuters don't come forward to address their grievances.
"We have an office and a rank manager at every interchange and junction," says Nagel. "We are willing to listen and bring to book the drivers that shame the entire organisation.
"We are well aware that there are drivers who smoke on duty, but without full details of the driver and the vehicle he was driving, it is just beyond our control." (extract from article by Gopolang Peme People's Post)

The Great Trek net

burning issues

Parish Profile

drugs

Cambridge University Press

computer rage

Cambridge University Press

odd energy

Cambridge University Press

tough customer

" Always turn off electrical equipment before doing repairs or checks" Engen Pump Pages

ye olde gum tree

Editorial cartoon for the People's Post 31st March 2009

Wheels come off for stolen goods trader
christelle wiese

A LANSDOWNE thief recently found an innovative way of acquiring stock for a lucrative new trade – without any capital.
When searching local advertising website www.gumtree.co.za, a Claremont resident was quite surprised to find his own custom bicycle for sale. The bicycle had been stolen from his Alphina Road flat in January.
According to Captain Angie Latchman, Claremont police spokesperson, the bicycle had been reported as stolen when the man opened a case of housebreaking and theft on 26 January.
When the man saw the advertisement for his bicycle on the website, he immediately contacted Inspector Daniel Geneke, the sector manager for sector one policing in the Lynfrae area.
Latchman says: “Acting on this information, Inspector Geneke and his team proceeded to a residence in Armstrong Road in Lansdowne, under the pretext of being potential buyers.”
The stolen bicycle, as well as several other bicycles, were found on the premises, and the man who posted the advertisement was arrested.

7 Wonders of Table Mountain

Table Mountain has been short listed in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, which will see the top natural sites of 223 countries being whittled down to 21 finalists and ultimately to seven winners in an exercise in global democracy expected to draw over a billion participants.

The race is now on - with internet voting reopened until 7 July 2009 - to determine the top 77 nominees, from which 21 finalists will be select.

The finalists will be announced on 21 July, after which a final round of voting - running through 2010 and into 2011 - will decide the New 7 Wonders of Nature, to be announced in 2011.

Vote for Table Mountain at www.new7wonders.com

aerosol squad

Editorial cartoon: People's Post 17/3/9

MEDIA RELEASE

FROM: The Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry
DATE: March 12, 2009

THE Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomes the City Council’s decision to form a unit similar to the “Copper Heads” to stamp out graffiti.
“We are delighted that there is at last to be a concerted effort to stamp out this form of recreational vandalism that defaces the City, dangerously obscures traffic and safety signage, projects an image of lawlessness and costs property owners millions of rands a year in cleaning and repainting bills,” said Mr Jeremy Wiley, President of the Chamber.
He said that until now the battle against the graffiti vandals had been localised and the crime had not been taken seriously enough by the SAPS or Metropolice.
“What the city plans to do is co-ordinate the fight, photograph the graffiti and set up a data bank so that the work of individuals can be identified. This should make for more effective prosecution. Hopefully the new unit will be able to pinpoint the worst offenders and we hope this leads to some hefty community service sentences and deters further vandalisation or sabotage of public and private property. ”
Mr Wiley also called upon local businesses, particularly the retailers of paint in spray cans to assist in the identification of customers or purchasing trends that indicated unusual purchases of the paint products used by vandals.
He said there was a clear correlation between the proliferation of graffiti and school or university holidays. “This trend indicates the lack of parental supervision and high levels of boredom experienced by our youth outside classrooms.”
Defacing buildings with graffiti was not a petty crime as it sometimes cost property owners large sums to clean and repaint and, as there were thousands of incidents throughout the municipal area, the annual bill would run into millions of rands.
Mr Wiley appealed to the city to never ever refer to the graffiti vandals as artists. “Artists are creative people who enrich our lives. These vandals are utterly destructive and do nothing but despoil the urban environment.”

Editorial cartoon for People's Post 10/03/09

Final preparations

out the window

illegal posters

Cape Town comes unstuck
Extract from article by Toyah Lord

NIGHTCLUBS in Cape Town are in for a rude awakening: the City of Cape Town will soon serve notices on club owners who paste posters on private properties in the city centre without consent.
The Central City Improvement District (CCID) – which says the problem has been going on for years – says it is being inundated with complaints from property owners in Cape Town, who say they “have had enough” of clubs and bars sticking illegal posters on buildings.
The result, says Tasso Evangelinos, CCID chief executive officer, is that cleaning teams have to go out and scrape the posters off the buildings, thus causing damage to their exteriors. This in labour alone costs the CCID between R2 500 and R3 000 a month to deploy people on the streets every second or third day to remove posters throughout the city centre, adds Evangelinos.

Derek Bock of Eurocape says many of the property development company’s buildings have long suffered the sticky problem. “We find it totally unacceptable and a disgrace that clubs and bars paste illegal posters on private property,” he says. “Will these clubs and bars now pay for the costs incurred by Eurocape to repeatedly remove these illegal posters?”

To let

"The City of Cape Town’s major programme to install and upgrade services in informal settlements is being destroyed by crime and vandalism. For every R3 that we spend on basic services in our 222 informal settlements, R2 is spent on repairs to vandalised and stolen infrastructure. Without this problem, we could deliver services at three times the speed we currently do.

Thieves and vandals have struck a large number of upgrade projects and have robbed local residents of water and sanitation. "

Extract from a statement by Helen Zille, Executive Mayor of Cape Town

"Vandalism and theft of service infrastructure in informal settlements"

electricity

" Always turn off electrical equipment before doing repairs or checks" Engen Pump Pages

argus triathlon tour

Cartoon for The People's Post 3rd Feb 2009

negative impact

editorial cartoon People's Post 27/01/08

CITY OF CAPE TOWN

MEDIA RELEASE

23 JANUARY 2009

Clarity on proposals in City’s Draft By-law on Liquor Trading Days and Hours

Reports that the City of Cape Town is proposing (in its Draft Liquor Trading Hours By-law) to give permission to liquor stores to open on Sundays are incorrect.

The only new addition to existing liquor sales allowed on Sundays that is proposed in the draft by-law is for supermarkets to sell wine on Sundays. This proposal is in line with the Western Cape Liquor Act, 2008 (Act No.4 of 2008), recently passed by the Western Cape Provincial Government.

However, if public comment calls for the City to continue to restrict the sale of wine from supermarkets on Sundays, the City does have the jurisdiction (in terms of the Constitution) to curb this in areas within the metro region.

Submission of comments:
We invite the public to provide us with their formal comments on or before 27 February 2009 to fax number: 021 400 1465, e-mailed to: liquor.bylaw@capetown.gov.za, or sub-council offices. For enquiries please call 021 400 1450.

Copies of the draft by-law are available at all sub-council offices and libraries, as well as on the
City of Cape Town’s website: www.capetown.gov.za

sunday races

Editorial cartoon for People's Post 2o/01/09

Happy New year

Habitat for Humanity build

Cartoon for the St Johns Parish Profile

Cartoon for Absa bank

right on the nose

holiday pinch

Editorial cartoon for the People's Post

9th Dec 2008

the right drugs

Testing device to nail drugged drivers on the spot Editorial cartoon for the People's Post
adri-ann peters

SOUTH AFRICA’s first mobile drug-testing device, which was launched last week, has been tasked with identifying drugged-up drivers abusing the roads.
The DrugAlyzer DrugWipe device, which is used internationally, was revealed to South Africans on Tuesday as a prelude to its use by the Western Cape Department of Community Safety.
Cheryl Roberts, spokesperson for Community Safety MEC Patrick McKenzie, could not confirm when exactly the department’s two drug testers, worth R25 000 each, would be put to work on regional roads.
But, at the launch event in Voortrekker Road, Salt River, McKenzie confirmed that authorities would make use of the devices at roadblocks during the department’s Safer Summer Season programme, which kicks off this month.
The drug testing device – a product of Trimega Diagnostics, a South African-based company that specialises in the procurement and development of diagnostic testing devices – will be used to determine whether or not a driver has used drugs. The instrument does this by testing a sample of the person’s saliva or sweat for the presence of various narcotic substances.
The test can be performed in less than six minutes. Should the candidate’s driving be hampered and his or her test prove positive, their blood can in future be sent for sampling, and the result presented as evidence in court.
Drugs detectable by the device include dagga, tik, cocaine, and numerous opiates.
Trimega Diagnostics, together with the department, carried out 22 research roadblocks across the country between April and November this year. Tests showed that 28% of those who took alcohol breath tests failed, and 14% of those who took drug tests also showed high blood-alcohol levels.
Of the candidates who tested positive for alcohol, 19% also tested positive for drugs, read the research report presented by the company.
Superintendent Pierre van der Riel, station commissioner of the Woodstock Police Station, highlighted drug testing as one of the challenges of policing. He said procedures currently in place rely mainly on the testimony of police officers, who must personally testify that a driver under the influence of alcohol or drugs had not been in full control of their vehicle while on the road.
Van der Riel said doing so is “not always easy”. The driver suspected of the crime would typically be taken to the nearest doctor to be tested. Van der Riel welcomed any tool that could assist officers in putting drugged drivers behind bars.
With the country heading towards the festive season, McKenzie said that hundreds of roadblocks are planned for the next few months. “We are aware of a significant number of accidents caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol, and although no official figures exist, drugged motorists are also guilty,” he said at the launch.
While the Department of Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions work towards adopting appropriate legislation to formally incorporate the use of the drug-testing device, its use will in the meantime help the department determine the extent of drugged driving in the province, and raise awareness of the wrongs of driving under the influence of drugs.
According to a comprehensive privately-funded report prepared by Trimega Diagnostics to accompany the launch, the current National Road Traffic Act of 1996 does not permit, among other things, equipment to be used to screen for drug-use on South African roads . Another section of the act also informs that a person may not refuse a blood or breath test to determine their alcohol intake. “Unfortunately this does not apply to any other type of test, e.g. a saliva or urine test,” the report continues.
Meanwhile, the department warns that motorists found to be “visibly affected by drugs” to the detriment of their driving will in the meanwhile be prosecuted on the basis of impaired driving, Roberts said. Should the test result prove that a candidate has administered an illegal substance, but driving has not necessarily been negatively affected, the person will be engaged on the dangers of drug use so that awareness can be raised around the issue.