Tabla de contenidos para 2023-03-06 en Mercury

CONFIDENCE in South Africa’s private sector regarding the year ahead has declined for the fifth month running to the weakest level since May 2022, in spite of activity rebounding. The S&P Global on Friday released the South Africa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). The PMI returned to growth territory in February, printing at 50.5 points after falling to a 13-month low of 48.7 points in January, signalling a slight pick-up in the health of the private sector economy. The latest reading showed that the improvement came as output levels stabilised in February, thereby ending a prior five-month sequence of contraction. S&P said some panellists saw an increase in activity linked to new contracts and higher sales, but others saw a decline amid demand weakness and load shedding. Upturns in the…

Regulations combined with debt relief programme will release funds for critical spares needed ESKOM has expressed hope that the recently gazetted regulations governing the National State of Disaster on energy will enable the power utility to fast-track the end of load shedding. Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim said on Friday that the regulations, combined with the debt-relief programme, will release funds for critical spares needed to fix generation units much quicker than normal. Last month, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced that Eskom will not be spending capital on any greenfield projects for the next three years but will focus on maintenance of the existing generation fleet. This forms part of the conditions attached to the R254 billion debt relief intervention provided by the government in a bid to turn…

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) technology is making headlines all over the world, in particular the powerful chatbot, ChatGPT. The strategic importance of AI technology has been growing exponentially across industries and businesses and created numerous new opportunities. In addition to enhancing decision-making, AI has also increased the efficiency of businesses. Many businesses are exploring and investing in AI solutions, because AI has the ability to automate tasks and processes and achieve cost efficiencies, productivity advantages, and product or service quality that would otherwise not be possible. Currently AI business tools are rolled out at a pace never experienced before. Some of these can without doubt add value to a business. Jasper the writing assistant Writing is an important part of any business such as the writing of documents, blog posts, reports,…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa, I am not certain if any political parties in Parliament have raised this issue, but I believe that the public has a right to know, as it may very well be that their monies could be involved unnecessarily and unjustly: Who exactly will be footing the legal bills for the matter that you brought before the Constitutional Court challenging Parliament’s Section 89 Phala Phala Report to be declared unlawful? This case relates to a matter of your personal monies “hidden” in the proverbial mattress on your farm, which was “inexplicably stolen”, and that which earns you an income outside that of any state gratuity or salary. A case that has been dismissed and set aside by the Concourt. Will it be the taxpayer who would be footing…

THE Downing Street saga takes a somewhat comic turn. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak waxes lyrical about the benefits to Northern Ireland in the deal he has negotiated with the EU as a replacement for the unworkable Northern Ireland Protocol. No other place in the world has the benefits Northern Ireland would get – access to the European market as well as to the British market, he enthuses. Er, yes. But the entire UK had access to those benefits until Brexit. Is Sunak no longer a Brexiteer? It begins to look a bit like tragi-comedy. One thinks of the post-war years when successive British prime ministers sought membership of the EU but were thwarted by General de Gaulle, then President of France, who seemed to have some sort of psychological hang-up…

A HUSBAND who started his married life by making sexual advances on one of the bridesmaids on their wedding day – his wife’s cousin – and continued on this path during their 12-year marriage got a rude awakening when the court ruled that he forfeit half of their joint estate. “It strikes me to be exceedingly unfair that the defendant (husband), having shown no regard for his role as husband and father, and having made no contribution of any kind to the common home, neither financially nor emotionally, should benefit from plaintiff’s (wife) work. Consequently, I am of the view that the claim for forfeiture should succeed,” Gauteng High Court Judge Jan Swanepoel said. The parties were married in April 2011 in terms of the accrual system by virtue…

THE nation continues to wait for President Cyril Ramaphosa to announce changes to the national executive. Yesterday, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya confirmed that the reconfiguration of Cabinet would happen tonight. While the rest of the changes are left to the public and political analysts to guess, what is certain is that Paul Mashatile, as the ANC’s number two, will succeed David Mabuza as deputy president. Mabuza, meanwhile, will go down in history as the only deputy president to not ascend to the highest office in the land. Another change that is guaranteed is that Fikile Mbalula will be removed as transport minister, because his new role as ANC secretary-general is a full time one. It had been reported that Ramaphosa met ANC officials last Thursday to finalise the changes, but…

Ouagadougou: Burkina Faso has put the North and parts of the Centre East region under curfew to aid the fight against jihadists, according to official documents seen by AFP. The long-running insurgency in the impoverished Sahel nation has left thousands of civilians, police and soldiers dead and forced more than two million people to flee their homes. “In the framework of the fight against terrorism, a curfew is established from 10pm to 5am across all the regional territory from Friday March 3 to Friday March 31,” said a note from the secretary general of the governorate for the North, Kouilga Albert Zongo. The curfews ban the movement overnight of people and the use of two and four-wheeled vehicles | AFP…

Lahore: Police in Pakistan said officers yesterday attempted to arrest former prime minister Imran Khan, who is battling several legal cases as he pressures the government for early elections. Officers arrived at Khan’s home in Lahore, which was surrounded by hundreds of his supporters, but were unable to find him. “A team of Islamabad police has arrived in Lahore to arrest Imran Khan to comply with the court orders,” Islamabad police said in a tweet. “Imran Khan is reluctant to surrender – the Superintendent of Police had gone into the room but Imran Khan was not present there.” The arrest warrant was issued after Khan failed to appear in court. | AFP…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought yesterday to soften international outcry over a call by a far-right member of his cabinet for a flashpoint Palestinian village to be “erased”, saying those remarks were “inappropriate”. But Netanyahu also pushed back against censure of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing foreign powers of playing down Palestinian violence like the February 26 killing of two Israeli brothers in Huwara village that sparked a settler rampage there. Smotrich said last week while he opposed vigilantism, he believed “that Huwara needs to be erased” by Israel. The US State Department called the comments “irresponsible”, “repugnant” and “disgusting” and said Netanyahu should reject them. The UN human rights chief said Smotrich had made “an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence”. With Israeli media speculating that Smotrich,…

South Korea and Japan may be near resolving a dispute over colonial-era forced labour that has overshadowed political and trade relations between the two neighbours, with media reports saying Seoul could announce plans today. The South Korean government plans to announce its solution to the historical and legal dispute over compensating people forced to work under Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, Japan’s Kyodo news reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. The labour dispute and one over women forced into Japanese military brothels have bedevilled ties between the two pivotal US allies for years. South Korea’s foreign ministry, asked about the reported agreement, said negotiations were ongoing. “The government is continuing to consult in various ways between diplomatic authorities at all levels in order to come up with a reasonable solution that…

SUN INTERNATIONAL said successful execution of its strategy last year yielded excellent results, resulting in strong growth in revenue, earnings and signifi- cant reduction in group debt, boosted by casino income. In a trading statement released on Friday, the group said basic earnings per share for the financial year was expected to be a profit of between 211 cents and 234c, which equates to an improvement of more than 100% when compared to the prior year’s profit of 105c per share. Headline earnings per share were expected to be between 213c and 237c, which equates to an improvement of more than 100% when compared to the prior year’s headline earnings profit of 106c per share. Adjusted headline earnings per share were expected to be a profit of between 415c…

MTN RWANDA, the biggest telecoms operator in the East African nation, on Friday said investment in its network and platforms remained a key priority supporting its strategy to achieve 100% population coverage in 2023. In its results for the year to December 31, 2022, the group, which is also known as MTN Rwandacell, said it planned to ensure connectivity across Rwanda’s rural communities to further drive digital inclusion, as well as to grow its subscriber base. Service revenue grew 19.9% to 221.7 billion Rwandan Francs (Rwf) (R3.68bn) last year, but profit fell 12.8%. Mobile subscribers increased by 5.9% year-on-year to 6.8 million, while MoMo subscribers were up by 16.3% to 4.3 million, and the number of merchants rose by 192.6% to 141 222 at period end.…

THE pain of death and destruction brought on by the floods in April last year dominated the third leg of the public hearings into the Climate Change Bill held in Durban yesterday. Hearings were also held in Pietermaritzburg and Stanger. Residents lined up to tell members of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, who visited KwaZulu-Natal to conduct the hearings, of the impact the floods continued to have on their lives. Others spoke of the extensive damage caused to infrastructure that has yet to be repaired. Those who spoke on the content of the bill said the government should do more to hold offending companies responsible for pollution. The bill seeks to ensure the effective management of climate-change impacts and has been in the making for the past…

It was fascinating to read UKZN Associate Professor Vannie Naidoo’s fervent discourse on climate change (The Mercury, February 28) and ponder whether those views are her own or whether she is a proxy of the globalists’ “go green and save the planet” narrative. There is no excuse for those who call themselves educated and researchers to ascribe the floods in KwaZulu-Natal last year to climate change which is being exacerbated by fossil fuel emissions. How does Professor Naidoo explain the major flood of April 1856 when over 600mm fell over five days in Natal? What about the flood of August 1868 when 425mm fell in two days and swept away the newly erected bridge over the Umgeni River? How about the devastating rain, hail and snow storm which swept the…

A MINORITY of students are destroying the livelihoods of others, simply because they can’t pay their outstanding debts and they’re demanding more in the way of government give-aways. They’re saying: “If we don’t get a free golden egg, we’ll kill the goose.” It’s an age-old mantra, but there are basic rules that apply to family planning, and nothing much has changed. We should stick to them. Firstly, if we want to feed, clothe, house and educate our children, we cannot ignore the costs implied; we must plan accordingly, and live within our means. We cannot ignore the financial implications of non-compliance. Secondly, we must accept the fact that a university degree is not a badge of honour or the pinnacle of our children’s lives. There’s more to life than that.…

“Yes” is a powerful word if it comes from the power centre of your life, which, of course, not every “yes” does. If your “yes” comes from the power others have over you – by your complicity or their seductive complexity into which you may have surrendered, your “yes” may land you in hot water. Let your “yes” to opportunities come from the unique you, a person who is not pushed or pulled to please or appease, but speaks from a solid sense of who you are and what you want and who also tabulates your history of good and not-too-wise choices into your deeply considered “yes”. “No” is a powerful choice, a definer of limits and setter of boundaries, but it, too, can emanate from fear of displeasing…

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said that the KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has established the early morning farmers’ markets programme. She said this during the Agriculture Indaba that was held in Mandeni on Saturday. Dube-Ncube said the programme was established after they had witnessed the challenges associated with food distribution during the Covid-19 lockdowns and social unrest. The programme has developed a concept for the establishment of early morning farmers’ markets for co-operatives (including vulnerable groups) as a complementary strategy to existing municipal fresh produce and radical agrarian socio-economic transformation (Raset) markets. The premier said this initiative offered alternative distribution methods to reduce reliance on the middleman and distributors who sometimes exploited small-holder farmers by buying their produce at low prices and selling the produce at higher prices.…

ANC having its cake and eating it flies in the face of Madiba’s vision The year 2023 is fast becoming a defining year for democratic South Africa’s foreign policy and the future direction of its international relations. In February, South Africa, in its capacity as chair of BRICS for 2023, hosted the first meeting of the group in Bela Bela, while on March 2 the country assumed its seat on the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva for the period 2023 to 2025. Whether by choice or forced geopolitical circumstances or driven by the ideological factionalism and contradictions within the governing ANC government’s stance, especially relating to the US, EU, Russia and China, it is too early to say whether this is merely the product of a confused and perceived…

Sydney: Tens of thousands of people marched over Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday as part of the WorldPride festival advocating global LGBTQ equality. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined about 50 000 marchers for the event on the last day of the international festival, which Sydney hosted for the first time. Marchers in festive gear carried LGBTQ flags across the bridge, which was closed to traffic for several hours. The bumper crowd then moved to a city centre park where a concert brought down the curtain on the 17-day festival, which partnered with Sydney’s famed annual Mardi Gras parade this year. | AFP…

Paris: French trade unions are heading for what is expected to be a decisive showdown with President Emmanuel Macron over pension reform, with massive strikes from tomorrow aiming to bring the country “to a standstill”. After five separate days of protests so far this year, this week’s stoppages herald a new phase in the battle between the centrist government and opponents of the changes. These opponents include an overwhelmingly majority of French voters. “We always said that we would go into a higher gear if necessary,” the head of the influential hard-left CGT union, Philippe Martinez, told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper yesterday. | AFP…

Iran has given sweeping assurances to the UN nuclear watchdog that it will finally assist a long-stalled investigation into uranium particles found at undeclared sites and even re-install removed monitoring equipment, the watchdog said. The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran issued a joint statement on IAEA chief Rafael Grossi’s return from a trip to Tehran just two days before a quarterly meeting of the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors. The possibility of a marked improvement in relations between the two is likely to stave off a Western push for another resolution ordering Iran to cooperate, diplomats said. Iran has, however, made similar promises before that have yielded little or nothing. “Iran expressed its readiness to ... provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues,” the statement…

Pamplona: Three people have been arrested over the murder of a Philippine provincial governor and eight others, authorities said yesterday. A fourth suspect died in a shoot-out. Another 17 people were wounded in the brazen attack in the Philippines. At least six gunmen armed with rifles and wearing military-style uniforms opened fire in the governor’s home in Pamplona municipality. Governor Roel Degamo, 56, became the latest victim of a recent string of assaults on Philippine politicians. Two of the three suspects arrested were former soldiers. Degamo, 56, was the third politician to be shot since last year’s general election. | afp…

SWEEPSOUTH, a leading home cleaning service company, wants those who refuse to play by the rules and pay the new national minimum wage to face legal consequences. SweepSouth managing director Luke Kannemeyer said in response to Business Report questions on Friday that the country would also need to guard against employers who may reduce days or hours of work, but then place unreasonable demands on their employees to still complete the same amount of work in a reduced time period. “This highlights the importance of not viewing the national minimum wage in isolation as a benchmark to improve the sector. Fair treatment is as important as fair pay,” Kannemeyer said. Last month, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi raised the minimum wage for farmworkers and domestic workers by a whopping…

AS the ANC eThekwini chairperson, Zandile Gumede, returns to the Durban High Court today, her backers have insisted that she remains politically strong, saying this was demonstrated by the warm reception she received. One key indicator of Gumede’s strength was her unanimous election to the position of chairperson at the ANC regional conference last year and instances of people who come to seek political advice from her. One of the former mayor’s staunch supporters, eThekwini councillor Ntando Khuzwayo, told The Mercury that they were eagerly awaiting the State to present evidence of fraud and corruption against Gumede, in order to prove that this was nothing but a plot aimed at discrediting her. He noted how over the past years the case had been characterised by delays and postponements in a…

I am saddened to learn that former US president Jimmy Carter, 98, has recently entered palliative or hospice care at his home town in Georgia. Carter, the 39th president of the US, is well known for his commitment to advancing democracy, promoting world diplomacy, human rights and reconciliation, and the alleviation of human suffering. These moral qualities were not only the guiding principles of his term as president, but the cornerstone of his philosophy statement, mission and vision. Carter is one of the first global leaders to speak up for the rights of Palestinians, the indigenous people of the Holy Land. He viewed the illegal Jewish settlements as a violation of international law, and Palestinian dispossession. He also regarded the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli regime as a form…

Having a good look around this whole aspect of electricity and the state of Eskom, one only has to look at the main role-players at the current time, all having a finger in the pie. When one looks at the overall picture, one does not see anything that gives confidence to the taxpayer. Mr President, you have surrounded yourself with incompetent people. From all the reports that are now surfacing, Minister (Pravin) Gordhan did nothing when (former Eskom CEO André) de Ruyter confided in him. What did Gordhan do? Sit back and watch the world go by, just like he is doing with SAA, spending taxpayers’ money on a dead duck. Gordhan should have taken the bull by the horns and instigated his own investigation if he was doing his…

Student protests at Wits University last week and at UCT last month over a R45 000 cap on student accommodation and other concerns have resulted in the Department of Higher Education setting up a committee to find solutions to the problem and stop the spread of disruptions. Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande said that, following a meeting with Universities SA on Saturday, the department had resolved to establish a committee comprising itself, Universities SA and the vice-chancellors from all the affected institutions to address student cases impacted by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS’s) R45 000 student accommodation cap. Nzimande said the committee would meet urgently this week to look at cases and practical solutions. “In doing so, we must take into account a…

More often than not, the instigators of political violence are insulated from the turmoil of their actions while ordinary people suffer from their self-centred interests masquerading as public interests. The same is true and can be said about the Russian-Ukraine war. Last year, a country in Europe, not particularly popular and not yielding global traction, made it to our TV screens with breaking news of being attacked by Russia. The Russia-Ukraine war could have been avoided had Volodymyr Zelensky not been apolitical and notwithstanding that Putin/Russia’s lack of diplomacy (was) justified. Russia attacked Ukraine for its intention of joining Nato. Russia justified the attack arguing that the West had deceived it for having the intention of expanding its military alliance eastward after the Cold War concluded. Nonetheless, it is important…

TUNIS: Hundreds of opposition supporters defied an official ban on their protest against Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday after some of their leaders were arrested, breaking through a police barrier in central Tunis to rally in the city’s main street. Earlier, police warned them that their demonstration was illegal but added that they would not stop them by force. Up to a thousand protesters then pushed through the cordon, chanting “Shut down the coup” and “We want the release of the arrested”. The National Salvation Front coalition combines Tunisia’s biggest party, the Islamist Ennahda, the Stop the Coup protest movement and some other political parties who demand that Saied step down. | Reuters…

China said yesterday that its military spending would rise at the fastest pace in four years, warning of “escalating” threats from abroad at a meeting of its parliament that will hand Xi Jinping a third term as president. The increase in the world’s second-largest defence budget came as Beijing announced an economic growth goal of around 5% for this year – one of its lowest in decades. The country’s planned budgets for the year put defence spending at 1.55 trillion yuan (R4 082 trillion), a 7.2% rise and the quickest rate of increase since 2019. It officially rose 7.1% last year. Outgoing Premier Li Keqiang told delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC) that “external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating”. “The armed forces should intensify…

The Greek prime minister yesterday asked for forgiveness from the families of the 57 dead in the nation’s worst rail disaster ahead of a major rally by students and rail workers in Athens. “As prime minister, I owe it to everyone, but especially to the victims’ relatives, (to ask for) forgiveness,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in a message addressed to the nation. The crash between passenger and freight trains has sparked widespread outrage across Greece. “For the Greece of 2023, two trains heading in different directions cannot run on the same line and no one notice,” Mitsotakis said in the message posted on his Facebook page. Relatives and loved ones of those killed in Tuesday’s devastating crash were expected to gather yesterday for a memorial outside Larissa station, central Greece, near…

Kuwait’s crown prince re-appointed Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf al-Sabah as prime minister and asked him to nominate a cabinet, state news agency KUNA reported yesterday, more than a month after the government resigned due to renewed friction with Parliament. A long-running stand-off between the government and the elected Parliament has hampered efforts by the wealthy Gulf Arab oil producer to push through fiscal reforms, including a debt law allowing Kuwait to tap international markets. Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah moved last year to end feuding by naming Sheikh Ahmad as premier, dissolving Parliament and calling early polls, in which opposition members made gains. Tensions resurfaced when lawmakers pressed the government sworn in last October for a debt relief bill, under which the state would buy Kuwaiti citizens’ personal loans, and…