Since November 2019, this website has been linked to a Channel on Telegram. Many people and clubs use whatsapp groups to communicate with members. Why do we not do the same?

Firstly, Telegram allows for “channels” where whatsapp does not have this feature. A Channel is different from a group in the sense that you can join it and read everything on it, but you cannot post your videos or forward your messages from grandma to everyone’s annoyance.

Secondly, the Channel can be linked to a group, which allows for up to 200 000 people to share information, where whatspp only allows 256 members in a group. And with Telegram, group admins can “restrict” users for a day, week or forever in a group from posting, where this feature is not available on whatsapp, a nice feature to control user-abuse without having to delete them entirely from the group like in whatsapp.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, your mobile number does not appear in a Telegram group, where as in whatsapp, all group users can see your number and use it for any purpose without your consent. This is of particular importance to members who values their privacy. Your number will remain hidden, even to your contacts, unless you chose to make it visible.

Now, the downside is that not all your friends are on Telegram, as most are following the masses and use facebook and whatsapp, the former being the owner of the latter. Have you ever wondered where people get your mobile number from to send you unwanted SMS marketing messages at 3AM? facebook sells your meta data for financial gain. To prove it, this website is linked to Google Adsense. Search for something on facebook, and come back to this site in a day or two. The very same thing you have searched for, will show up here in the ads. (Our paying members should not see any ads though).

Another downside is the historical belief that Russia, where the developers of Telegram came from, still poses a threat to the National Party and they will infiltrate your computer with malware and spyware to promote communism if you download Telegram. The truth is that Telegram’s coding is so secure that governments cannot spy on your messages and for this reason it has been banned in countries like Iran, Afghanisan and China. On 13 April 2018, Telegram was banned in Russia by a Moscow court, due to its refusal to grant the Federal Security Service (FSB) access to encryption keys needed to view user communications as required by federal anti-terrorism law. Wikipedia lists a whole group of governments blocking Telegram, and judging from the list, none of them are big on human rights and freedom.

Be that is it may, it remains your choice if you want to join our News Channel, but don’t blame us if your paranoia causes you to lose out on information just because you waited for our email newsletter. Not everything we share is on this website, as some news are pushed through our Channel only.

Our official Channel name is CapeWest MBC News with the link: https://t.me/capewest. It is a public channel and anyone can join it.

The channel is linked to this group: CapeWest Model Boat Club with its username @capewest.

We also have location based Telegram groups people can join when in the vicinity of Sonstraal Dam, Doordekraal Dam (Tygerberg Swamp Dawgs)  and the Kraaifontein Sport Complex. To find these groups, just go to your contacts in Telegram and search for “people nearby”.  A list of groups on Telegram will also be visible. These groups are however not linked to our news channel and don’t receive instant messages from this platform. All our official groups carry the logo below:

Our channel and groups are administered from the Windows app which has additional features not available on the Android and IOS mobile apps. This allows us to ban or restrict any person the moment we receive spam messages or pornography.

Also find us on Google Maps.