Tabla de contenidos para 2021-11-08 en Mercury

Marchelle Abrahams marchelle.abrahams@inl.co.za Oh the joys of parenthood. It seems like time goes by in a blink of an eye and before you know it, the kids are grown and have flown the nest. It’s no wonder celebrities want to savour every moment and milestone. Lucky for us, in the age of social media, we get to be included in those precious moments. Murdah Bongz is relishing his role as father to little Asante and wants to share it with the world. The Black Motion star just recently welcomed the birth of his baby girl with fellow muso DJ Zinhle, real name Zinhle Jiyane. Baby Asante is now two months old and the couple are as smitten as ever with the new addition to the family. Taking to Instagram, Bongz…

JUSTIN MOODLEY | Phoenix SOUTH Africa’s 10-run win over England can be best described as a hollow victory. To put it another way, the win can be called “bitter-sweet”. Bitter because they failed to skittle England for under 131 runs to enhance their run rate to have a chance and a place in the semifinals of the 2021 CWC. And sweet because they beat an England team who are CWC champions in waiting. But the long and short of it all is that the Proteas have failed to qualify either for the semis or the finals of the CWC. They are heading home this week with their tails between their legs and must take full responsibility for their failings and humiliation. Before the CWC tournament started the Proteas…

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban NOW, another new word for the overworked South African grey brain to fathom: “Coalition”! Do you know what it really means? I am uncertain. Except it hints, by its word construction, of some sort of “getting together for a common cause”. Especially if there is no option. No alternative. No side-road. Take it or self-destruct. Familiar, now, eh? Actually it’s always been that way from the time of Genesis, or even earlier. The fight for exclusive power by dinosaurs, à la Godzilla and company. Tyno-Rex thought he was king of the mountainous castle. But he out-fought himself, didn’t he? Pushed all his first cousins, brothers and half-sisters off that high cliff. Then finally pursued them to his own fall-out, creating yet, one more crater.…

DUNCAN DU BOIS | Bluff AS expected, the mainstream media has spared no effort in amplifying the doomsday rhetoric of the UN COP26 meeting in Glasgow, as exemplified by Boris Johnson’s warning that the future of the environment is on the cusp of disaster (The Mercury, November 2). But what is not reported is how the contrived fanfare about climate change is an integral part of the World Economic Forum’s agenda known as the “Great Re-Set”. Climate change is a natural process as old as history itself. Droughts, floods, heatwaves and hurricanes have occurred throughout recorded history. There were two warming periods in the past 2 000 years which were unrelated to carbon emissions – the Roman warming period which ended around 300AD and the medieval one which…

Sameer Naik sameer.naik@inl.co.za As frustrated South Africans battle with Stage 2 load shedding, experts predict not only are we facing a possible threat of a Covid-19 fourth wave in December, we could be in for a dark and gloomy festive period of rolling blackouts this year. Eskom announced yesterday that stage 2 load shedding would continue throughout the week until 5am on Saturday. It also said that due to the volatile state of the grid, higher stages may be required. “We are especially vulnerable to load shedding from September to April. We can expect a constrained system for the first two weeks of December, and as people start taking their holidays and industry shuts down, there will be less demand in the second half of December,” said energy expert Lungile…

WORK-related diseases and injuries were responsible for the deaths of 1.9 million people in 2016, according to the first joint estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO). According to the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury, 2000-2016: Global Monitoring Report, the majority of work-related deaths were ascribable to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. “It’s shocking to see so many people literally being killed by their jobs,” said WHO director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Our report is a wake-up call to countries and businesses to improve and protect the health and safety of workers by honouring their commitments to provide universal coverage of occupational health and safety services.” The study considered 19 occupational risk factors, including exposure to long working hours and…

Bongani Nkosi bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za SERIAL killer ex-cop Rosemary Ndlovu “seduced” her relatives into believing she loved them, while in actual fact she was a “cruel” woman who waited like a vulture to pounce on them. Judge Ramarumo Monama said this to describe Ndlovu and her puzzling crimes on Friday during sentencing proceedings. The judge sentenced Ndlovu, a former police officer who was stationed in Tembisa, to life imprisonment for each count of murder. She was also sentenced to 5 years for defeating the ends of justice and 10 years for each count of fraud. Her sentences will run concurrently, meaning she would serve just one life imprisonment term. She will be eligible for release after 25 years. Ndlovu was found guilty of six murder counts. Ndlovu, 43, killed her relatives and…

Khartoum: Sudanese security forces yesterday fired tear gas at an anti-coup rally by a group of teachers at the start of a two-day civil disobedience call against last month’s military takeover. Dozens of teachers carried banners reading “no, no to military rule” and called for a transition to “full civilian rule” at a rally outside the education ministry in the capital Khartoum. Nationwide anti-coup protests – including by tens of thousands on October 30 – have occurred since the October 25 coup but have been met by a deadly crackdown. At least 14 demonstrators have been killed and about 300 wounded, according to the independent Central Committee of Sudan’s Doctors. “We organised a silent stand against the decisions by Burhan outside the ministry of education,” said Mohamed al-Amin, a geography…

London: Former vocalist and founding member of British reggae group UB40, who rose to fame in the 1980s with hits like Red Red Wine and Can’t Help Falling In Love has died at the age of 64, his band confirmed. Terence Wilson – who went by the stage name Astro, performed with UB40 until 2013, when he formed a breakaway band. “We are absolutely devastated and completely heartbroken to have to tell you that our beloved Astro has today passed away after a very short illness,” his current band, also called UB40 said on Twitter.…

At least two investigations, one of them criminal, were under way yesterday into the deadly stampede during rap star Travis Scott’s Astroworld music festival that killed at least eight people and injured dozens in Houston. Officials in Houston said autopsies on Friday’s victims were being performed as soon as possible so their bodies could be returned to family members, with the identities of some of the dead expected to be released yesterday. The dead were young, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said earlier: two were aged 14 and 16, two were 21, another two were 23, with a seventh aged 27. An eighth victim has yet to be identified, he added. Harris County Judge Lina Hildago called for an “objective, independent” investigation into the tragedy, as she spoke about the rap…

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government rejected fresh accusations of corruption yesterday after a newspaper investigation found major donors to his Conservative Party were offered seats in parliament’s upper chamber. The government has been embroiled in a corruption row over the past week, with Johnson forced to abandon plans pushed through parliament to protect one of his MPs found to have broken lobbying rules. The Sunday Times reported all but one of 16 Conservative treasurers over the past two decades had donated over £3 million (R60m) to the party and had then been offered a seat in the House of Lords.…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za Finance minister Enoch Godongwana will have to play open cards to convince investors and ratings agencies that South Africa’s finances are stable amid some of the worst economic indicators in decades. Unemployment has worsened to record levels, with more than 7.2 million people of working age officially jobless as the Covid-19 pandemic culled many businesses. Eskom’s ongoing power cuts are also constraining economic growth, which could possibly push South Africa’s sovereign debt deeper into sub-investment territory. Godongwana will on Thursday table his maiden Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) after his eccentric predecessor quit the post in a huff when trade unions shot down his austere budgets. The MTBPS sets the tone for the country’s fiscal policy and the government’s spending priorities for the next three years, and…

In many households, it is a ritual to step out for a walk after dinner before hitting the sheets. Many also take a quick walk after lunch. The goal? To improve digestion. But, is walking after eating really beneficial for digestion? Turns out it is, and here’s why: After you finish your meals, your body gets to work and breaks down and absorbs the nutrients. A significant portion of the food breakdown or digestion takes place in the small intestine. Research suggests walking after a meal can help in the faster transit of food from the stomach and into the small intestine. How does this help? The faster the food transits from your stomach into the small intestine, the likelihood of common complaints like bloating, gas, and acid reflux, lessens.…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE outgoing ANC councillor in KwaMashu’s ward 40 is living in fear after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt days before her term ends. Councillor Mamane Xulu said yesterday that she was alive thanks to her metro police protection detail who managed to hold off three men who had tried to force their way into her office on Friday. She is not returning to the council and her term is likely to officially end today. The attack on Xulu comes after at least three fatal attacks on candidate councillors across parties in the run-up to the local government elections last week. EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda recently revealed that the municipality spent R70 million in a matter of months on protection for councillors. A report tabled before an eThekwini…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@iinl.co.za THE Hawks have said that they are aware of a public statement by Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant Moroadi Cholota in which she alleged that she was intimidated by the directorate and the US’s FBI. In a public statement Cholota, who was in the US, said she was grilled by the FBI and Hawks to unpack the alleged corrupt affairs of her boss, in Washington DC. She shared that in September she was subsequently charged with corruption, money laundering and fraud and detained. Magashule and his 15 co-accused face charges relating to the R255 million asbestos roofs eradication project. In response to the claims, Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Thandi Mbambo said: “The Hawks are aware of the public statement made by Ms Cholota. The SAPS provides a…

SOMETHING has shifted in our home. I think I have finally put my finger on it. It’s a good shift, one that was surely unidentifiable to me as a necessity until it emerged. My youngest son, 19, is a pure athlete and has had very little interest in academics. He can read, write, count and all those important things, but he found very little of the classroom side of schooling attractive even though he never missed a day of school, ever. I think it was his love for his friends and his unwillingness to ever miss a sports practice that kept him going. Although I could not see it at the time, I became his at-home prefect, his at-home teacher and I was constantly on him about improving his grades,…

TONY BALL | Gillitts AFTER reading your editorial “Bright sparks needed at Eskom” (The Mercury, November 4), I feel it cannot go unchallenged and deserves some criticism. I specifically refer to your comment that blaming state capture for Eskom’s woes is “beating a dead horse”. Surely you must be aware that fixing what the ANC comrades have destroyed by corruption, nepotism, incompetence and plain theft, is not an overnight task? In fact you mention this later in the editorial, so your blame directed at Eskom management is completely misplaced. I do not believe Andre de Ruyter has carte blanche to implement tough medicine without having to bow and scrape to government lackeys. Malusi Gigaba threatened that heads would roll by December 2015 if Medupi and Kusile were not…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za A WOMAN caught at Monte Casino in Fourways more than nine years ago and arrested on suspicion of trespassing has now discovered she has a criminal record. Nila Milner was not allowed to visit Monte Casino or any other gambling institutions. Milner told the Johannesburg High Court that she had done nothing wrong and was only in the vicinity of the casino, yet was made to pay a R300 admission of guilt fine, without realising this. It is not clear from the judgment delivered by Judge LR Adams as to why exactly Milner was not allowed to visit casinos. But Milner asked the court to instruct the criminal record centre to remove her name from its records, as she is not a criminal. She is also demanding…

Damon Galgut has won this year’s prestigious Booker prize for his book The Promise. The announcement was made in London, and broadcast live to a global audience of millions by the BBC. This is third time lucky for the talented Cape Town-based writer, after he was shortlisted in 2003 and 2010 for The Good Doctor and In a Strange Room. Previous South Africans to win the prize are Nadine Gordimer for The Conservationist (1974), and JM Coetzee, who won it twice, for Life and Times of Michael K (1983), and Disgrace in 1999. The Promise is Galgut’s ninth novel and his first in seven years. It’s the story of a family, but also of a country, over 40 years. It’s related in four parts, each one centred on a family…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za A 13-YEAR-OLD girl was killed when she was struck by lightning in the Nquthu Local Municipality on Friday. The tragedy comes as the northern parts of KwaZulu-Natal experienced inclement weather from Friday. MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in KZN, Sipho Hlomuka, said disaster management teams had been dispatched to the area to provide support to the affected family and to be on standby. He sent his condolences to the family. “It is a tragic incident that took place in the Sibiya household in the Nquthu Local Municipality where their 13-year-old daughter, Akhona Sibiya, died of her injuries after being struck by lightning yesterday.” Hlomuka said: “I call upon residents to exercise extreme caution as the province is expected to experience inclement weather conditions…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za THE uMhlathuze Municipality has said that all municipal assets that were in possession of political officer bearers have been returned. The City of uMhlathuze is one of the municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal that will be run as a coalition government following the declaration of results for the local government elections by the Electoral Commission of South Africa. Yesterday, the City of uMhlathuze confirmed that all municipality assets had been returned to the city. City of uMhlathuze spokesperson Mdu Ncalane said the city had complied with local government legislation. “It is a principle that laptops, cars and other municipal assets are given to you for use for a certain period of time. Once that period is finished, all the assets must be returned. We have ensured that all municipal…

THE biggest vote at last week’s local government election was a no-vote, with millions of South Africans not registering, or those who registered not pitching up at the polls to participate in what is their democratic right. The statistics point to a dismal turnout at the polls, and it would be overly simplistic to describe this reluctance to vote as mere apathy. Close to 26.1 million South Africans registered to vote, with a total of 12.3 million people actually casting their votes. Overall, the ANC clinched 161 municipalities of the 213 councils that it was contesting, while the DA walked away with 13 municipalities, and the IFP 10. There are 66 hung councils, indicative of the nature of this election where in many municipalities there was majority by…

Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio says the country “must learn” from the deaths of almost 100 people, killed in a fuel tanker explosion in the capital Freetown late on Friday. “We are concentrating on helping those critically injured right now,” Bio said after returning from Britain, where he had been attending the COP26 climate conference. Reiterating the government’s promise of free treatment for the injured, the president added that the country “must learn from this incident”. The blast happened when a fuel tanker collided with another truck at a petrol station on Friday night. The flames then spread, burning people in cars and on roads nearby. Most of the victims were street vendors and motorcyclists, many caught in the blaze while trying to retrieve fuel leaking from the tanker…

BANJUL: Gambian President Adama Barrow will face five challengers in an election on December 4, the first vote in 27 years not to include exiled former leader Yahya Jammeh, who fled the country after refusing to accept his defeat five years ago. Barrow will be judged on his progress in dragging the country out of a Jammeh era characterised by harsh political crackdowns, fear and financial plunder. The election is being held under conditions of economic hardship after the Covid-19 pandemic kept European tourists away from Gambia’s beaches. Candidates include Barrow’s former political mentor Ousainou Darboe, 73, as well as Essa Mbye Faal, who served as chief counsel of Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that chronicled the abuses of Jammeh’s rule. Also running is Mama Kandeh, who came third…

London: More than 28 million years of life were lost in premature deaths in 2020 in 31 upper-middle and high-income countries, a new study has found. Except for Taiwan, New Zealand, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and South Korea, all other countries examined had more premature deaths than expected in 2020, with a higher rate in men than women, it said. The highest rates of excess premature deaths were in Russia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and the US. Excess years of life lost to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 were more than five times higher (2 510 per 100 000) than those associated with the seasonal influenza epidemic in 2015 (458 per 100 000).…

Sihle Mavuso and Thami Magubane EVEN before meeting the ruling party to discuss possible coalitions in the 18 hung local and district municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP says it will not form any agreement with the ANC in the province. The president of the IFP, Velenkosini Hlabisa, said yesterday the party had several outstanding issues with the ANC in the province and in the past, the ruling party had not been honest with them. Hlabisa said voters had rejected the ANC at the polls and they did not want to bring them in via the back door. The “dishonesty” in the past he was apparently referring to was the period between 1994 and 2004 when the IFP, as part of the national unity project, were compelled to have ANC MECs…

When Maribel Sotelo and her family bought a cute new puppy from a small shop in central Lima, they had little idea that they had just let a fox into the hen-house – quite literally. The family pet initially played happily with other dogs in the neighbourhood, but as it grew up, signs emerged that something wasn’t quite right. The “dog”, called “Run Run”, began to chase neighbourhood chickens and ducks to kill or eat them, provoking anger in the neighbourhood. It turned out that it was an Andean fox, which has thin legs and bushy tail. “We had thought he was a purebred puppy,” said Sotelo, who added that her teenage son bought the animal as a pet for the equivalent of $13 (R196) about six months ago. “A…

WHEN you’re reading a travel book set in Africa, the last thing you expect is to find yourself quoted on horseflies and their attraction toward the rear end of a horse. Yet that’s what happened as I paged through my old pal Philip Rodwell’s book, Travels With Nkwazi. A horsefly was buzzing about Phil’s face which, he writes, reminded him of my adage that horseflies buzz about the rear end of a horse. Does that mean that if they buzz about your face they’ve mistaken it for the rear end of a horse? Not at all – but you cain’t fool them hossflies! Fame at last! “Nkwazi” means “Fish Eagle” This fish eagle was a pretty ancient Toyota 4X4 in which he travelled for almost two months through Namibia (which…

SABER AHMED JAZBHAY | Newlands West PREMIER Sihle Zikalala is reported to have said that if the ANC dropped to below 50% in eThekwini, it would “destabilise” service delivery. If this is accurate, then I foresee more problems such as civil dissent in the form of rate boycotts if the ANC makes good on this threat. A hung council isn’t good for the eThekwini Metro, but the parties that are now represented in a 42% poll must put aside their dogs-in-a-manger approach and look after the interests of those constituents who pay for basic services and focus on service delivery for a change. The opposition would welcome such paralysis that follows a hung council for that would be grist for the mills for those looking towards the provincial…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za THE South African Revenue Service (Sars) has come to the aid of parents who send their children to private special needs schools. The parents will get increased tax rebates, making it more affordable for them to send their children to the schools. Sars agreed to the step after its earlier decision to reduce the tax rebates was challenged in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. The application was brought by the Equal Education Law Centre, represented by the Centre for Child Law. Johannesburg special needs school Glenoaks as well as a number of parents of the pupils at the school joined the proceedings. The application against Sars was aimed at enabling parents to financially provide their children with access to basic education by way of a reasonable rebate…

THE National Energy Regulator Of South Africa has raised its concerns about the tampering with the Transnet pipeline which led to a massive fire which left three people dead in Clairwood. Muzi Mkhize, regulator member primarily responsible for Petroleum Pipelines Regulation, praised emergency personnel for their speedy response to deal with the fire which occurred on October 31. “We commend the eThekwini Disaster Management Department, the SAPS and the eThekwini Fire Department for their sterling and speedy response to quell the fire. We also commend Transnet for immediately activating its emergency response plan,” he said. | Yogashen Pillay…

A man believed to be in his fifties died in an accident on the M7 westbound at the N2 interchange yesterday. According to ALS Paramedics Medical Services, the accident occurred just before 12 noon. “One person has been killed in a horrific accident involving a truck and a light delivery vehicle,” said paramedic Garrith Jamieson. Jamieson said paramedics arrived on the scene to find that a truck had collided with a light delivery vehicle before the truck came to rest a few kilometres ahead on the southbound on-ramp to the N2. “Paramedics quickly assessed the scene and found that the driver of the light delivery vehicle, a male in his fifties, had sustained major injuries and there was nothing more paramedics could do for him and he was declared deceased…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@iinl.co.za DA leader John Steenhuisen has emphasised that the aim of forming coalitions is to avoid extending the lifespan of corrupt organisations. However, coalition decisions would not be rushed, he stressed. The official opposition’s federal executive met yesterday at Nkululeko House to discuss various negotiations following last week’s local government elections. The party’s national spokesperson, Siviwe Gwarube, said the purpose of the meeting was for the party’s leadership to reflect on the election and make important decisions pertaining to the constitution of various governments in many parts of the country. The federal executive meeting comes as parties find themselves in a race against time to get coalition partners on board before the stipulated 14-day period in which municipalities must be constituted after the announcement of the election results.…

What message did SA’s 26.1 million voters send out on November 1? THE people have spoken. Long live democracy! But what message did South Africa’s 26.1 million registered voters send out at the nationwide local elections on November 1? The message at best was mixed! Voter turnout, confirmed by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), was at an all-time low of 47.1% which means that less than half of eligible voters – 12.3 million South Africans according to IEC chairperson Glen Mashinini – voted and a whopping 13.8 million did not bother to do so. Such a level of voter apathy for a nascent democracy in its 27th year is disconcerting. Whether this is an aberration or a new trend in South African electoral dynamics only time will tell. But…

The UN Mission in Iraq yesterday condemned the assassination attempt targeting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and called for calm and caution. “The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) condemns in the strongest terms the assassination attempt against Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. The mission expresses its relief that the prime minister was not hurt in the drone attack on his residence in Baghdad,” the mission said. Al-Kadhimi’s house in Baghdad was targeted by drone and rocket attacks early Sunday, Al Arabiya reported. The prime minister was taken to hospital for treatment from where he announced that he was doing fine. “Terrorism, violence and unlawful acts must not be allowed to undermine Iraq’s stability and derail its democratic process,” UNAMI stressed. The mission joined the prime minister in calling for…

Hakim Alileche left a successful career in graphic design and moved to the Algerian countryside to produce “magic potion” – organic olive oil that has won him international recognition. The 48-year-old says he chose the Ain Oussera plateau for its cheap land and water supply. His oil won first prize at the Dubai Olive Oil Competition in the Extra Virgin Early Harvest category in February 2021 and in May he won silver at the Japan Olive Oil Prize. “These honours really reassured us because it means we were right,” he said. The farm of some 40 hectares has over 15 000 olive trees, and so far 9 000 have started producing. “I started planting them bit by bit from 2005. I like farming and I’ve been fond of olive trees…

SYDNEY: A 25-year-old woman, Joanne Zhu, residing in Sydney became a millionaire overnight after winning the grand prize of $1 million (R15m) for the Million Dollar Vax Campaign in Australia. “Am I dreaming, is this real? I cannot believe it,” the winner said as quoted by Sky News Australia. She noted that she will use the money to treat her whole family to a nice trip in a five-star hotel for the Chinese New Year, if borders are open, and will invest the rest so that she can make more in the future. The Million Dollar Vax Campaign was started in October by a group of corporations and philanthropists as a means to boost vaccination rates in the country.…