With Muslims in the final phase of Ramadan, VOC now prepares for the annual moon sighting on Sunday 27th July at Three Anchor Bay. VOC is the official broadcaster, after having received a special events license to broadcast from the iconic viewing point in Sea Point.
Hundreds of Capetonians will participate in the age-old cultural tradition, which brings the community together. The event is held annually under the auspices of the Crescent Observers Society, also known as ‘die Maankykers’.
Traffic, police and Metro police officials will be on alert in the highly congested area and have warned motorists to obey traffic and road regulations. The City of Cape Traffic Department has said any vehicle found to be double parking will be towed away, the driver fined R100 and the vehicle will only be returned on Monday.
There should be no parking of vehicles in restricted areas, obstructing private driveways and on the sidewalks. Pavements must be kept clear so that pedestrians are not forced to walk in the road and endanger themselves.
The first 10 parking bays will be cordoned off and used for official purposes. However, public parking will be available at the Putt-Putt in Mouille Point, Sea Point Civic Centre and in Beach road. Melomed ambulance services will be on standby and toilet facilities will be available at the SABC.
“We urge the public to observe the security, police and city officials at the event,” said VOC’s outside broadcast coordinator Nazeem Petersen.
Sunday’s weather forecast is cloudy with 47% chance of rain. Families planning to break their fast at the event should bring along rain jackets and umbrellas, in case of a downpour. Also bring along musallahs and plastic carrier bags to clean up after iftaar.
Organisers have urged the public to get to the lawns early to avoid the rush. The programme is expected to get underway at 5pm and this year’s dignitary will be Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel.
The formal announcement of the moon sighting will be made at 18.45pm.
Meanwhile, VOC listeners can tune into VOC Drivetime on Friday at 16.14pm when the Crescent Observers Society speaks about the conditions for the moon sighting. VOC
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etc etc etc, but the problem was not with officialdom etc and not with our maankykers who knew capetown had a chance to see the crescent with optical help and less chance with the naked eye. we also, together with astronomers worldwide, knew that areas north and east had even less chance to see it with the naked eye
we also all knew that other counties east and north of us had NO chance of sighting the crescent
my previous post elsewhere said that it was good that the saudis had decided to go with naked eye sighting and indeed they did so with the new crescent for ramadhaan. but i cautioned that the would possibly as in the past get some 2 or 3 persons to swear to a qadi that they “saw” the crescent
hey presto!! thats exactly what happened, one dr im in contact with from saudi said it was impossible to see from saudia and they were surprised to hear and see the announcement of sighting, another saudi astronomer said he approached the court not to allow the testimony of those who said they sighted etc, to no avail
hey presto 2 , the salafi wahabis got upto 26 folk to say they sighted the crescent, our local maankykers are not so stupid and when the announcement was made the sheikh was clearly troubled with a looong explanation, eventually saying that “for the sake of unity” we will abide by the claimed sighting from up north
many people in all centres did not go with the false information
many arabic speaking countries lifted the error
in the uk those who normally go with makka have apologised for the error and asked folk to fast another day
how long will we be dictated to by the saudis and their minions?