Tabla de contenidos para 2022-10-21 en Mercury

THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have questioned the recent spate of load shedding, suggesting that a “coal mafia” was sabotaging the supply of coal and diesel to milk more money from Eskom. The two provinces have now called for law-enforcement agencies to investigate the alleged supply of low-quality coal to Eskom power stations, which has been cited by some as being among the reasons behind the breakdowns that have plunged the country into darkness. The call was made during a joint press briefing addressed by ANC KZN secretary Bheki Mtolo and his Limpopo counterpart, Reuben Madadzhe, yesterday. The two provincial leaders also questioned embattled Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter’s leadership of the power utility. Madadzhe said the country had enough police and intelligence officers that should investigate allegations…

The woman who checked me into South Africa at passport control in Cape Town last week could not have been warmer or more welcoming. Seeing in my US passport that I was born in Durban, she added as she stamped my passport: “Welcome home.” I was really tired and probably somewhat emotional, but her welcome touched me very deeply, especially as I juxtaposed it with many harsh, confrontational experiences I’ve endured in several other countries, including harsh encounters I have occasionally known on return to the US. I have spent a huge percentage of my free time at a bank. This is in an effort to update my chequeing account opened over 50 years ago. The complexities of living in the US, generating a limited income in South Africa, and…

Do you know that the packages of retirement, bonuses, housing allowance, sick leave and holiday pay were mostly invented by the British. Governments were very generous to all government workers. The trend was imported into this country by the viceroys. The admirals. Not Voortrekkers. Why? Were they trying to be generous to their fellow humans? Not a chance. These ideas, like the modern, conniving invention termed the “credit card” was a self-serving scam. The top brass in parliament, the councillors at metro meetings, the politicians – all invented this ingenious contraption to firstly serve themselves. And to make sure, in those days of relative transparency, that nobody pointed an accusing finger for plugging and playing, grabbing and going and me me me, these sly foxes offered similar packages to everybody…

Proposed amendments to the Ministerial Handbook that would give Cabinet members free water, lights and rent were stopped in its tracks by President Ramaphosa only after a massive outcry from furious South Africans from all walks of life. Citizens took to social media to express their disgust at free services for ministers and their deputies because most South Africans are “gatvol” of the constant outages as well as the exorbitant cost of basic services, such as water and lights. In addition, our parliamentarians earn extremely well, and are therefore able to pay for these services. All MPs earn in excess of R1 million per annum and enjoy perks, such as free air travel, housing and meals with compliments from the taxpayer. As we watch the country implode while our…

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has announced that South Africa’s last functioning printing machine for driving licences is now back in service, and the race is on to clear the backlog. In a tweet, Mbalula said the machine’s latest hiccups were linked to power outages. “Drivers Licence Machine Update. The machine is up and running on the 24/h shifts cycle. We planned to meet the demand and kill the backlog. The machine had challenges due to power outages,” said Mbalula. In January, Mbalula confirmed that the “old and outdated” machine had broken down and was undergoing repairs in Germany. The machine’s absence from service caused a major backlog for driving licences. Last month, Mbalula said the Driving Licence Centre Account (DLCA) had produced more than two million driving licence cards to…

Are you over 50 and getting five hours or less of sleep a night? This could be a problem for your long-term health, warns a study published this week. Researchers in Europe found that getting five or fewer hours sleep a night could put individuals at a higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases such as heart disease, depression, cancer or diabetes. The peer-reviewed study looked at almost 8 000 British civil service workers over an average 25-year period, at the ages of 50, 60 and 70, and found “short sleep duration to be associated with the onset of chronic disease and multimorbidity”, that is, two or more chronic diseases at the same time. The study was published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine, by research teams from University…

More than 100 KwaZulu-Natal mortuary workers from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union protested outside the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health’s offices in Natalia in Pietermaritzburg this week over poor working conditions at the Fort Napier and Phoenix mortuaries. Nehawu’s Harry Gwala secretary, Mazwi Ngubane, said the union was concerned about the salary disparity issue and working conditions. “Our members used to be in the forensic department with the police. They are now with the Department of Health, and since they have been moved, that is where we are finding the salary disparity, where it is not matching the salary they had when they were with the police. “We have been communicating with the Health Department, but they have not yet addressed the issue.” Ngubane said conditions workers were…

Experts say the State’s inability to protect whistle-blowers has silenced those who want to speak out and is a threat to democracy. KwaZulu-Natal violence monitor Mary de Haas said very often whistle-blowers were victimised instead of supported. “There are also problems around support, as whistle-blowers often have jobs in the public sector, and even tertiary institutions, and when staff take a stand against and oppose corruption, they become targets.” While the country’s Protected Disclosures Act is meant to protect those reporting corruption, very often it is flouted. The act is meant to protect whistle-blowers from being subjected to disciplinary action, dismissed, suspended, demoted, harassed or intimidated, or being transferred against their will because of the disclosure. De Haas said many people were loath to reveal information out of fear for…

Attempt to reduce the day to banning of 2 newspapers is a mutilation of black history ONE of the most strategic projects to be undertaken by a nation post-independence is the rewriting of history from the perspective of the liberation struggle objectives. This has to be under-girded by transformational values and inclusive efforts towards nation-building. The temptation to degenerate into historical revisionism of which our erstwhile oppressors were guilty should be resisted. October 19 being the 45th anniversary of the banning of 17 Black Consciousness organisations and two newspapers on that Black Wednesday of 1977, one has noticed with a bleeding heart how Black Wednesday is increasingly stripped of its real historical and political essence. A desperate attempt is being made to reduce it to some “Media Freedom Day” –…

Shops, offices and schools were closed across the occupied West Bank yesterday as Palestinians went on strike to protest against the killing of a man suspected of a deadly attack against Israeli forces. Udai Tamimi, who had been on the run since the fatal shooting this month of military policewoman Noa Lazar at a checkpoint in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, was killed late Wednesday after he fired at Israelis on the edge of a settlement. With the West Bank largely shut down, the Palestinian health ministry also confirmed that Mohammad Fadi Nuri, 16, died from a gunshot wound sustained during clashes with Israeli forces near Ramallah last month. Omar Abed al-Latif Omar, a resident of the West Bank city of Tulkarem, told AFP the strike had been intended as “a message”…

LONDON: British actress Judi Dench has called on Netflix to add a disclaimer to royal drama The Crown, joining a chorus of voices criticising the series’ fictionalised storylines. In a letter to The Times yesterday, the 87-year-old veteran said as the award-winning show approached present times “the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism”. “While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true.” | Reuters…

Fishing has been fantastic if you choose your facet wisely. The sea has been a bit tricky at some launch sites, but the morning splash has been worth it. The offshore fishing has been good all around with a lot of game fish being caught. The dorado will be here soon … The North Coast has seen a few dorado and the excitement of their arrival is palpable. These are good fish to target as they are fast growing pelagics that fight hard and taste great. Live bait, lures and everything in between will work. The usual spots along the North Coast have been producing snoek and couta. The sharks have been a bit of a problem but beefing up the gear allows you to pull that little bit harder…

While eThekwini Municipality urges its customers to pay for services rendered, it has emerged that a good number of city councillors and staff members in arrears, are either having their salaries docked for far less than what is owed, or it is not docked at all. This was revealed by the city’s audit committee chairperson Siboniso Shabalala during an executive committee (Exco) meeting this week. Presenting the audit report for the final quarter of the 2021/2022 financial year, Shabalala cited a lack of proper oversight as one of the factors negatively contributing to the city’s financial controls. The final quarter covers the period from April to June 2022. The report said that there was ineffective management of staff and councillors who were in arrears in terms of deductions. Deductions are…

An Isipingo woman and her family are living in fear after the murder of her daughter and granddaughter on Sunday. The women, 30-year-old Lee-Ann Jaers and 17-year-old Ashleigh Jaers, were slain and dumped in the deserted parking lot of a warehouse near their home. The 60-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, told The Mercury she feared that her family would be harassed. According to her, the duo were inseparable and on Saturday night, they had left together to join friends. The family lives in a community rife with crime. “Many other families living in the same yard have packed up and left after some media outlets published our address,” she said, adding that they were visited by social workers who threatened to take the children away to a…

IT HAS been two decades since their heyday, but one bulk supplier of the iconic 3.5-inch floppy disks used to store data in 1990s says business is still booming. Tom Persky runs floppydisk.com, a California-based online disk recycling service that takes in new and used disks before sending them on to a reliable customer base. Who buys floppy disks in an age when more sophisticated storage devices like CD-ROMS, DVDs and USB flash drives have been made increasingly obsolete by internet and cloud storage? Those in the embroidery, tools and dye and the airline industry – especially those involved in aircraft maintenance – says Persky. “If you built a plane 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago, you would use a floppy disk to get information in and out…

The recent communication by Dis-Chem seems to have created a stir, regarding white staff not being employed in order to balance employment equity numbers, in the face of penalties should the ratios not be improved. When one considers the diminishing number of white citizens, bearing in mind that of the about 4 million whites, there are babies, scholars students, housewives, pensioners, those in institutions, incarcerated, etc, that would leave a not-so-large number of those actually employed, and if they all miraculously disappeared, and were replaced by people who were trained, one wonders what sort of dent that would make in the unemployment figures. This government would seem to believe that the whole white population is employed and taking up black workers’ jobs. The further galling situation is where family and…

The disputed status of Western Sahara – a former Spanish colony considered a “non-self-governing territory” by the UN – has pitted Morocco against the Algeria-backed pro-independence Polisario Front since the 1970s. “We are concerned about the silence that persists in the world about the struggle for self-determination for the people of Western Sahara,” Ramaphosa said during a visit to Pretoria by Polisario leader Brahim Ghali this week. “We find that other struggles are articulated at a higher decibel... and that is why as South Africans we are clear, we are firm and we are unapologetic in relation to our support for Sahrawi people. “It’s a just struggle, it’s a noble struggle, it’s an honourable struggle, a people who want to determine their own destiny though self-determination,” said Ramaphosa, drawing comparison…

Staff at the Reproduction Clinic of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital at the University of Pretoria (UP) Faculty of Veterinary Science joined the SA Guide-Dogs Association (SAGA) recently in celebrating the 100th guide-dog litter conceived via artificial insemination since the programme was launched in 2014. The special litter of eight puppies was born to a yellow Labrador named Petra on Friday at SAGA’s Puppy Centre in Joburg. She was inseminated with frozen semen collected from a dog named Murray. Of the 100 litters born since 2014, 98 have been successfully raised. Most of the puppies were trained as guide dogs for visually impaired people, as support to children on the autism spectrum, and as service dogs for people struggling with physical disabilities. Staff at the clinic say they feel…

The unexpected appearance of a live snake on a plane caused a stir among business-class passengers aboard a United Airlines jet at the end of a flight from Florida to New Jersey. The reptile stowaway, identified as a harmless garter snake, turned up on United Airlines Flight 2038 from Tampa shortly after landing on Monday afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As the plane taxied from the runway to the gate, passengers in the business-class cabin began shrieking and pulling their feet up off the floor, one passenger reported. Airport animal-control officers and Port Authority police officers were at the gate when the plane arrived, and removed the snake, which was later released into the wild, Port Authority spokesperson…

Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele said a neutral structure would be established to assess the benefits of members of the executive, following a public outcry in reaction to news that unlimited free water and electricity was being provided to ministers and deputy ministers. Another amendment included allowing for additional staff for Cabinet members at a cost of more than R80 million a year. Addressing a post-Cabinet media briefing at the GCIS centre in Pretoria, Gungubele said the withdrawal of the amendments in the ministerial handbook, which provided for unlimited utilities at state residences, was endorsed. “Cabinet endorsed the announcement made by the Presidency on Monday to withdraw the amendments,” he said. “The amendments that were made in April 2022 provided for additional capacity to some of the offices of…

British Prime Minister Liz Truss yesterday dramatically announced her resignation just six weeks after taking office. Truss bowed to the inevitable after her right-wing platform of tax cuts disintegrated and as many MPs among the ruling Conservatives revolted. Speaking in Downing Street, Truss said she would stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen to serve as Tory leader. “We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week,” she said, after senior backbench MP Graham Brady told her the game was up. “This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security. “I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen.” Labour leader Keir Starmer,…

Ukrainians conserved electricity and some went without running water to try to ease pressure on the grid and give engineers a chance to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by Russian strikes as Kyiv’s forces advanced towards the city of Kherson. Although Ukraine is successfully prosecuting counter-offensives against Russian forces in the east and the south, it is struggling to protect power generating facilities and other utilities from Russian air and drone strikes designed to disrupt lives and demoralise people as winter approaches. The Ukrainian government yesterday placed restrictions on electricity usage nationwide for the first time since Russia’s February 24 invasion following a barrage of attacks which President Volodymr Zelenskiy said had struck a third of all power plants. Under the new energy-saving regime, power supply across Ukraine was yesterday restricted between…

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said yesterday he would launch a drive this weekend to give government jobs to 1 million people, starting with 75 000 immediate appointments, as he tries to tackle criticism of widespread unemployment. Joblessness in the country of 1.4 billion people has stayed around 7% for months – something the opposition has regularly pointed out in the run-up to elections in several states starting next month. Modi’s office said the 75 000 new recruits would join 38 ministries or departments of the federal government at various levels of seniority. “As per the directions of the prime minister, all ministries and departments are working towards filling existing vacancies against sanctioned posts in mission mode,” it said. It was not immediately clear if…

VUNANI Capital Partners (VCP), the black-owned financial services company listed on the Equity Express Security Exchange, said yesterday that taxed profit increased strongly to R806 million in the six months to August 31 from R21.6m at the same time a year before. A 38c per share interim dividend was declared, well up on last year’s 3c interim payout. Directors said the improvement was largely been due to a strong performance from the resources and energy division and the Africa-focused businesses. Chief executive Mark Anderson said in a statement: “Although VCP is affected by challenging global and domestic economic conditions, the group has performed well, demonstrating a resilient investment portfolio and positive growth owed largely to the more than 50% increase in energy prices which impacted positively on…

There has been an increase in the price of basic food items of 12.3% in September compared with last year and 11.5% compared with the previous month. Foods that have been affected are bread and cereals, meat, milk, eggs, cheese and vegetables. This is according to chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, Wandile Sihlobo. He said that the general consumer food price increase mirrored the surge in agricultural commodity prices over the past few months. “The agricultural commodities price increase emanates from various factors such as the drought in South America, higher shipping costs, strong agricultural product demand in China, and, most recently, the Russia-Ukraine war. “Moreover, the higher fuel price inflation since the start of the war is an additional cost driver of food…

WHAT a game it was last Saturday, our guys versus Glasgow Warriors. What an underlining of the way the United Rugby Championship is strengthening our game, bringing an international dimension to provincial-level rugby – Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and Argentina. A measure of the improvement is the way the Sharks’ Springbok players spent the first half sitting on the reserves’ bench – and the way they decisively tipped the balance when they came on for the second half. Some wonderful play – adventurous three-quarters movements, great handling, storming forward play, terrific tackling … That final try by Werner Kok was poetry in motion. And it’s the Bulls this Sunday. ’Erewego, ’erewego, ’erewego! Home schooling SOME musings on “home schooling”: Mom taught me to appreciate a job well done –…

The Dis-Chem fiasco graphically reveals in 3D that we are a democracy enmeshed, entwined and entangled in a grotesque web of racism that continues unabated. It is sinister in nature and is practised by all the citizens of rainbow South Africa, regardless of political allegiance, religious affirmation or skin pigmentation. South Africa is not a non-racial country and will never be a tolerant, racially free society until we sincerely embrace equality for all. We are all guilty of racial prejudice, our rainbow colours seep with acts of racism that dominate discourse in our fragmented country, with everyone claiming to have become a victim of racially inspired attacks. Racial discrimination is a serious human rights problem in democratic South Africa. Accusing one section of society of being the instigators and architects…

Twenty years ago the staple of opposition politics was floor crossing. Now it is party swopping, former DA KZN leader Zwakele Mncwango being the current case in point. Although The Mercury (October 18) provided a generous amount of space for Mncwango to justify his move from the DA to ActionSA, nowhere in that report did he define what ActionSA would do differently from what is DA policy. Being enamoured at the prospect of joining a party pledged to “save South Africa” is well and good, but real politics is about substance. To save South Africa requires cancelling the cancer of socialism, the Employment Equity Act and B-BBEE and enshrining merit in the constitution. It requires breaking the power of trade unions which not only sustain unemployment but stifle economic growth.…

Scientists have uncovered for the first time the remains of a closely related Neanderthal clan, including a family – a father and his daughter – in a Russian cave, offering a rare window into ancient times. The clan was discovered in one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date, published this week in the journal Nature. Scientists suspect they perished together about 54 000 years ago – perhaps from starvation or a big storm – in the mountains of southern Siberia. They were living on a rocky cliff top on the outer reaches of Neanderthals’ known range, which extended from the Atlantic regions of Europe to central Asia. The social organisation of Neanderthal populations is not well understood. The latest research suggests that in Siberia at…

The National Assembly yesterday shot down a request to seek an extension from the Constitutional Court for more time to propose amendments to the bill that will allow independent candidates to contest elections in Parliament and provincial legislatures. This after IFP chief whip Narend Singh yesterday asked the programme committee to make the application because the Home Affairs portfolio committee did not get enough time to consider the Electoral Amendment Bill. Singh made the request hours before the National Assembly voted to pass the bill to be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. He noted that the bill was introduced by the executive in January, six months before the court’s deadline. ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said the proposal was made to the chief whip’s forum and…

A three-member panel of experts has 30 days to determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has a case to answer to on his Phala Phala farm matter. The panel’s focus will centre on four charges in trying to determine whether he has violated the Constitution and breached the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. The African Transformation Movement (ATM) submitted the four charges to Parliament when it tabled its motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa four months ago. ATM leader Vuyo Zungula submitted his motion of no confidence in terms of Section 89 of the Constitution, and National Assembly rules, on June 14. This was after former State Security Agency head Arthur Fraser laid a charge at the Rosebank police station in Johannesburg. Fraser said in his affidavit that Ramaphosa…

Walking down Prince Alfred Road, in the city now called Makhanda, one spring morning in 2016, a black worker was painting over the name of Steve Biko which had been sprayed on one of the building walls of Rhodes University. The symbolism of that act, by that black worker, could not have made a greater impact on me. In the aftermath of the #FeesMustFall protests on our university campuses across the country, and its overarching call for decolonialisation, the message that the management of Rhodes University was sending to poor and working-class black students, the black worker as well as the black academic walking past was clear: the name of Steven Bantu Biko had no place at this university. At least, if it does emerge, then only on our terms.…

Türkiye’s defence ministry and top government officials yesterday firmly rejected allegations that the Turkish Armed Forces had used chemical weapons in their operations against Kurdish militants. Media close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group published videos this week which it said showed chemical weapons being used by the army against the PKK in northern Iraq. Separately, an international medical groups’ federation published a report this month seeking independent investigation of possible violations of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. “Allegations that ‘the Turkish Armed Forces used chemical weapons’ are completely baseless and untrue,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “All these disinformation efforts are the futile struggles of the terrorist organisation and its allies,” it said. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the EU and…

The Ethiopian government said yester- day that it would participate in peace talks next week led by the AU to try to resolve the nearly two-year war in Tigray. International calls for a halt to violence in northern Ethiopia have mounted since an AU bid failed earlier this month to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table. “AUC (the AU Commission) has informed us that the Peace Talks are set for October 24, to be held in South Africa. We have reconfirmed our commitment to participate,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein posted on Twitter. Asked by AFP if they would attend the talks, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda said in a message: “We have already announced that we will take part in…