Tabla de contenidos para 2023-01-19 en Mercury

THE DA looks set to engage the ANC in a three-day battle next week over the governing party’s policy of cadre deployment and Eskom’s rolling blackouts. The initial battle is set for two days in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in which the DA is asking the court to declare the ANC’s cadre deployment unlawful and unconstitutional. Leaders for both parties, Cyril Ramaphosa of the ANC and John Steenhuisen of the DA, have submitted affidavits to the court, and lawyers for both parties will be representing their individual clients in court on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, Steenhuisen is expected to lead his supporters to the ANC headquarters, Luthuli House – to demand that the ANC ensures that power utility Eskom keeps the lights on. Outlining the DA plans yesterday,…

I WAS on my way to a dinner engagement with fellow-scribbler the lovely Wanda Hennig and a couple I had not seen for years. I was at Botha’s Hill. Then suddenly a sickening jolt as I encountered a pothole with the dimensions of the Grand Canyon, only slightly in miniature, that had suddenly appeared in the otherwise smooth tarmac of the roadway. Kajung! A hissing of escaping air. And a whole lot of clanking from below as I limped in to the roadside beside a collection of buildings – the Pot & Kettle Restaurant, and some shops and stalls. Horrors! I was in a situation which our Australian friends would metaphorically describe as “up sewage creek in a barbed-wire canoe, without a paddle, sport”! I went inside the little complex,…

The world is in absolute chaos as planners of the Next World Order meet in Davos. Demonstrations are taking place across the entire world, as citizens of the planet display their anger and frustration at the current global status quo. The unaware are unaware that they are unaware. The architects of regime change, meeting in Davos, are stealthily implementing a master plan for the Next World Order. Orchestrating and directing chaos is their potent weapon to implement a strategy that seeks complete global control of the planet and its immense resources. Currencies are being debased. Crisis conditions are worsening. Democracy is being subverted, social justice has ceased to exist. The ongoing energy crisis is a well-orchestrated master plan to swindle trillions of dollars from many developing countries. The next World…

Sheba, the female tiger that had been missing in Walkerville, south of Joburg, was euthanised yesterday. Gresham Mandy, of the Walkerville CPF, who was part of the massive search aimed at capturing the big cat, confirmed that it was put down. He said the feline was killed after it had entered a farm where families were living. It attacked and killed a domestic animal. “On Wednesday morning at around 1.55am, reports were received of activity on the Arboretum Farm in Walkers Fruit Farms. This location is 2km from where the tiger Sheba was last known to be roaming,” Mandy said. “She had entered a farm area with six dwellings, with families living there. Sheba attacked and killed one of the domestic animals and a call was made for urgent assistance.”…

A strong message has been sent to rhino-poaching syndicates in the country after three poachers were sentenced to lengthy jail terms by the Skukuza Regional Court this week. Mozambican nationals Lawrence Makamu, 28, George Miyanga, 48 and Nulo Burro, 31, were convicted of trespassing, contravention of the Immigration Act, possession of a firearm, conspiracy to commit illegal poaching, killing of a black rhino, two counts of the killing of a white rhino, possession of ammunition and possession of two hunting knives. Monica Nyuswa, spokesperson for the Director of Public Prosecutions in Mpumalanga, said that on June 30 last year, the trio entered Skukuza National Park using the Malelane section and killed a black rhino. They did not exit the park until the next day, and rangers heard gunshots around the…

The ongoing power outages across Durban have led to sporadic and violent protests in various communities. On Monday, residents in Phoenix were protesting over a 40-hour outage over the weekend. The residents are expected to meet with the municipality’s leadership tomorrow to discuss their grievances. Yesterday residents in Cato Crest took to the streets to protest after being without electricity for three days. According to community sources, disgruntled groups blocked off Mary Thiphe Road on Tuesday night. They placed tyres and trees along the roadway and set them alight. By yesterday morning, parents were forced to find an alternative route to the two schools in the neighbouring Manor Gardens community. The roadway was opened just before 4.30pm after the Manor Gardens Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association, Public Order Policing and private…

RESILIENCE can best describe the matric Class of 2022, who had the odds heavily stacked against them. They first had to navigate the challenges presented by the onset of Covid-19 when it was declared a pandemic in 2020. They were in Grade 10 and, like all of us, knew little of what the future had in store for them. Many were forced out of their schools as parents could not keep up with fees, transport and other costs. Adding more pressure to this crop was the fact that schooling, as they knew it, was turned upside down, having to shift to virtual classes and social distancing in classes when they were finally allowed to return to in-person learning. Along the way, some contracted and recovered from Covid-19, while others were…

AT LEAST 16 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and three children, were killed in a helicopter crash outside Kyiv yesterday. The helicopter slammed down next to a kindergarten and a residential building in Brovary, a commuter town for the capital Kyiv that was the scene of fierce fighting early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amateur footage circulating on social media showed what appeared to be the charred remains of the aircraft mixed with debris from nearby buildings and a car crushed by large shards of metal. Cries could be heard at the scene which was consumed by a fire. “A helicopter of the state emergency service crashed in Brovary. As a result of the crash, the leadership of the interior ministry died,” the head of Ukraine’s police service, Igor Klymenko,…

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow would be forced to take unspecified measures on its border with Finland if that nation joined the Nato military alliance. Finland and Sweden have applied to join the bloc and are in advanced negotiations over their accession. Lavrov said Finland had long been a model of friendly relations, but had quickly changed its rhetoric towards Moscow. He said Russia would have to take “appropriate measures on our borders”, if Finland, which shares a 1 300km border with Russia, did become a Nato member. |…

COCO Gauff won the battle of tennis prodigies yesterday at the Australian Open – then said she “got lucky” on the way to defeating Emma Raducanu in straight sets. The seventh seed won 6-3 7-6(4) to reach the third round in Melbourne. There were 70 places separating Gauff and 2021 US Open champion Raducanu in the rankings, but you wouldn’t have known it as the pair tussled for an hour and 42 minutes on Rod Laver Arena. It was a highly anticipated first tour-level match between the young talents and they did not disappoint. The good friends went toe-to-toe throughout, exchanging service breaks, but the turning point came in the second set when Gauff grittily saved two set points serving at 4-5. “I think I did a good job not…

AmaZulu's Thabo Qalinge has opened up about his dark times with the club as he shares how being honest with himself helped him cope with arguably the toughest period of his career. The flying winger delivered yet another splendid performance as Usuthu demolished Kaizer Chiefs last week and appears to be working his way back to his best form. Qalinge and teammate Pule Ekstein were deemed surplus to requirements by previous head coach Brandon Truter and were relegated to training with the Usuthu DStv Diski Challenge (DDC) side, a new low for the experienced duo. However, both of them have since bounced back and have started forging decent runs under coach Romain Folz and Qalinge believes his respect for the game and general attitude aided him during the period…

THE first day of the 2023 school year got off to a smooth start yesterday, with Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga visiting some KwaZulu- Natal schools to monitor operations. She was accompanied by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube and Education MEC Mbali Frazer on visits to schools in uMlazi, Parlock and La Mercy. The provincial government said more than 2.8 million pupils across KZN went back to school yesterday. The minister watched the Grade 1 pupils as they got ready for their first day at Kwazikumnandi Pre-school and was greeted with joy and excitement at Nkonkoni Primary School. Both schools are in uMlazi V section. Nkonkoni Primary School principal Sthembiso Gwala said: “Today was a very busy day, but I feel very happy about the visit by the education leadership and the…

We seem to deserve all the bad things that happen to us regularly. Petrol prices fluctuate ad nauseam, causing basic food items to go only one way – up, up and up. But the fuel price is fixed, albeit temporarily, by Government Gazette. Why this difference? Why cannot essential food items be frozen by the manufacturer for at least six months at a time? MRP (max retail price) was the name of the game for umpteen years, for instance, in India, installed by an erstwhile government that cared for the common man. With the upsurge of blatant capitalism that created a sudden middle class and which, as the economic equation goes, caused increasing poverty in the majority, the once-rigid idea of fixed prices is now automatically becoming a thing of…

We are entering the “election season” and much will be said by opposition parties this year about poor performance in the delivery of services by the government at all levels. Ministers will come in for the greatest criticism. Based on my professional career at deputy director-general and acting director-general level for nine years, leading up to 1998 in a department which regularly received an “A” rating for performance by the media, I suggest, however, that the primary reason for service excellence or, conversely, failure lies in the competence of the DG or CEO of SOEs, and his or her key personnel, not of the minister. A good minister can be let down by a poor department, while a good department can “paper over” a poor minister. Unfortunately, during the past…

DAYS after resigning from the ANC, the party he had been part of for 43 years, Carl Niehaus has set his eyes on recruiting former president Jacob Zuma, erstwhile party secretary-general Ace Magashule and Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to his new Radical Economic Transformation Movement. Niehaus announced the formation of the NPO earlier this month following his resignation from the ANC. The ANC national disciplinary committee had expelled Niehaus in December, days before the party’s 55th national elective conference after he was found guilty of six counts of misconduct for contravening the ANC’s constitution and bringing the party into disrepute. Yesterday, the former uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association national executive committee member said all was in order to officially launch his NPO to bring about unity, “especially” with the…

It’s hard to imagine that the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the fourth industrial revolution can be part of the same conversation. But, as a briefing paper by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), points out: more than 70% of the 136 SDG targets could be enabled by technology applications already in deployment. The fourth industrial revolution is defined by many as a period of rapid evolution caused by digitalisation, globalisation and technological innovation. The UN’s development goals present an ambitious roadmap for a sustainable future for everyone on the planet. Some of the 17 goals include ending extreme poverty, ensuring free and quality education, and providing equal universal access to safe drinking water by 2030. We argue that achieving the development goals will require a fundamental…

The head of Nigeria’s electoral commission said it would not postpone next month’s presidential vote despite attacks on election officials. Mahmood Yakubu, speaking at London’s Chatham House think tank, said the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) was well prepared to facilitate voting in Africa’s most populous nation despite the challenges. “The commission is not contemplating, let alone planning, to postpone the 2023 general election,” he said. “We are going ahead to conduct the election as scheduled.” Nigerians are set to vote for a new president on February 25. President Muhammadu Buhari is constitutionally limited after having served two terms. The country has some 200 million citizens and its battle against Islamist insurgents in the north-east of the country has led many to view the elections as crucial to regional stability…

LONDON: The Church of England will refuse to allow same-sex couples to get married in its churches under proposals set out yesterday in which the institution said it would stick to its teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman. The proposals were developed by bishops, who form one of three parts of the Church’s governing body known as the General Synod, after a six-year consultation on sexuality and marriage – among other subjects – and will be put to the General Synod at a meeting next month. The Church of England is central to the Anglican Communion, which represents millions of people in more than 165 countries, including South Africa. |…

AS THE temperatures plummeted in Switzerland over the last day or two, I had the pleasure of attending The Davos Circle, an event hosted by Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that recognises veterans of WEF. What struck me forcefully this time round, is how few Africans were in attendance, suggesting that few of us have been part of the gathering for ten years or more. Over the past few decades, Africa has been a hot topic on many fronts. Usually, the narrative extends to wanting to ‘help’ us on the continent at our cost, oft with the misunderstanding that we are one single homogenous people and not 54 independent countries. This has led to an upswelling of calls for “Africa for Africans”…

A CRIMINAL syndicate is operating within eThekwini Municipality, causing massive financial losses to the city through the theft of assets that include diesel and spare parts for motor vehicles. Evidence of the syndicate, which has sparked calls for a law-enforcement task team to be set up to put a stop to it, emerged following the arrest of a municipal truck driver who allegedly stole more than R200 000 worth of diesel from the municipality in two months. The employee was arrested this week near Adams Mission, south of Durban, in a joint operation by the SAPS and metro police. Metro police spokesperson Boysie Zungu said it was alleged that the truck driver would fill up the municipal truck with diesel and then drain the fuel tank and load the stolen…

Do you tend to be a responsive or reactive person? Responsive people can function within life’s many tensions without becoming too overwhelmed. They tend to take things in their stride. They can see possibilities within problems. They look for solutions rather than focus on how bad something may be. They are flexible and they can be very playful, knowing laughter can shift perspectives and ease tensions. Responsive people shape their emotional environment. They bring calm and creativity to their contexts, rather than “catch” or assume the anxieties of the reactive people around them. Responsive people try to see the whole picture and how the whole moves and changes; they do not see only parts, but also how parts influence and impact each other. They do not recruit others to be…

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal extends its best wishes to teachers, staff and pupils in the province as schools officially reopen for the 2023 academic year. Regrettably, many will return to school infrastructure that remains dilapidated and which does not provide a conducive study environment. Despite this and other challenges, we urge them to do their very best and reiterate our commitment to maintaining the pressure on KZN Education MEC Mbali Frazer and her department to deal with these many issues. The DA is also aware of pupils who are unable to get into their schools of choice. This is an annual challenge, either because it was left until the last minute or schools inform parents at the 11th hour that there is no space. This issue requires the Department of…

Many years ago, when I was still in junior school, the class teacher said a very memorable thing. He said: “It takes three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves”, meaning the first generation rolls up their shirt sleeves and work hard to save and provide for the next generation. The next generation basks in the fruits of the previous generation (and generally doesn’t work as hard as the previous generation) thereby resulting in the third generation having to work hard again. While this may not necessarily be true for every case, there is a ring of truth in the saying. In many respects we now live in the era of the second generation. We expect that we have a divine right to enjoy all the fruits and benefits…

One more person has succumbed to their injuries following the Christmas Eve tanker explosion in Boksburg, Gauteng, bringing the death toll to 41. Yesterday Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi confirmed the increase in the death toll in a message on his Twitter. “Sadly the death toll in the #BoksburgExplosion now stands at 41. We extend our sincerest condolences to the family and relatives of the deceased,” the tweet said. He also said the investigation into the explosion was complete and that police were ready to take the matter back to court. The explosion took place when a tanker got stuck under a bridge, and its gas contents exploded. More than 100 people were treated at the scene. Among the dead were a number of nurses from Tambo Memorial Hospital. Last week,…

A security guard was killed and another was injured when they were hijacked while patrolling in their vehicle near King Shaka International Airport on Tuesday night. Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) confirmed that a hijacking took place near the airport on January 17 at about 11pm. “Armed men hijacked a vehicle driven by (officers from) the contracted security company after opening fire on the guards, fatally injuring one.” According to Acsa, the two security officers were on patrol. “The vehicle, riddled with bullets, has since been recovered after the hijackers abandoned it in Inanda, Durban,” said the company. Medi Response spokesperson Paul Herbst said when paramedics arrived it was established that two security guards had been conducting perimeter patrols in their vehicle when they were attacked by assailants and their…

While anxious matric pupils await the release of their results, they have been urged to remember that the word “fail” has no place in a post-modern society – “insufficient achievement” should do. The Education Department said the results would be released to candidates tomorrow. The focus would be on matrics who obtained university entrance, but educational experts assured pupils and parents that there was hope for those who did not. Professor Kobus Maree, of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria, urged pupils to remember that the results may determine whether they would be accepted into their preferred field of study, but not whether they would be successful in life. Not receiving the ideal marks would also not meaningfully limit their career-life prospects, Maree said. “Yes, it…

Teaching involves the challenging work of developing future citizens This week sees coastal schools starting the 2023 academic year. The euphoria that accompanies this is just palpable. The start of the academic year is unprecedented, a moment weighted with far-reaching consequences for the future. The optimism on the ground is that the future can be bright through the lens of this cohort starting the 2023 academic year. This futuristic thinking offers a way of momentary escape from the menacing challenges before us, such as the energy crisis. We can borrow a leaf from the numbers being released, including the aspirational narratives of provincial governments. The effort here has been to tell a story of readiness and address those who may doubt the status quo in the education fraternity. For instance,…

Nurses across England began two days of strikes over pay yesterday, threatening fresh disruption for patients in the state-run health service, as new figures showed inflation still surging. The walkout comes after nurses held their union’s first stoppage in more than a century last month, joining a wave of industrial action by UK public sector workers hit by a cost-of-living crisis driven by spiralling prices. The latest annual inflation statistics, released yesterday, showed they remained close to historically record levels, with rates easing slightly in December to 10.5%, compared with 10.7% the previous month. The main nursing union accuses the government of failing to negotiate seriously on improving their pay deal for the current year. |…