Inhoudsopgave van 2021-10-12 - Mercury

The most ironic fact about intuitive eating, is it is not very intuitive for most. It takes intentional effort to get to that point. Eighty percent of women in the US alone are dissatisfied with their bodies. The impact of diet culture is rippling across the world. Here are some of the top characteristics to consider: l It demonises certain groups of food. l It makes dieters feel unworthy of enjoying the good moments in life. l It puts a lot of pressure on women, especially brides and new mothers, to lose weight. l It can lead to excessive emotional eating behaviours if weight loss is not achieved within the set time frame. The list is endless. The by-products of dieting are feelings of lethargy, eating disorders, mood swings, guilt,…

FAROUK ARAIE | Benoni With characteristic grace, Dr Makhosi Khoza is to contest the eThekwini mayor’s post for ActionSA. As a former ANC member of Parliament, she used the corridors of Parliament to report the truth as she saw it. She left the ANC because it became a movement that dispenses patronage to convert a once noble mass movement into a feudal oligarchy. The elite are enmeshing the living body of the ANC in their net of avarice. In her quest for the truth, she was persecuted, lied to, lied against, betrayed and slandered as much as she is honoured, respected, revered, feared, loved and adored. Makhosi was not afraid to speak truth to power. Her frequent encomiums on the virtues of honesty, resonate like a church bell…

MOHAMED SAEED | Pietermaritzburg I was watching an advocate being interviewed for positions on the Constitutional Court. I could not believe how the aspiring advocate could not give a clear reply to the question on the Plascon-Evans rule. According to an attorney friend of mine, the Plascon Evans Rule is 101 compulsory for acting and permanent judges. Sadly, this advocate could not really answer the question. What was even more amazing and concerning is that the advocate who displayed a lack of judicial knowledge with indecisive answers was even nominated for selection by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). Regrettably, due to dumbing down of our educational system, standards and quality are compromised. The present learning and teaching system is in drastic need of “reform”. The selection process for…

THE war years (World War II) were deeply impactful to say the least. Some men survived the sinking of their ships by enemy fire. They floated for hours in the ocean before rescue. When the war was over, many continued to live productive and successful lives. But, in some ways, many never left the war, the water and especially the friends who never made it, behind them. Some things you cannot shake, no matter how many years pass. Generally, and there are wild exceptions, people do not wake up in the morning and intend to inflict damage on themselves or others. We are all carrying around loads of unfinished business, of unsettled scores, of dreams dashed and ideals broken. Do not be surprised when pain and hurt are the only…

Police have made no arrests in the murder of an oThongathi businessman who was killed in a drive-by shooting on Saturday morning. KZN police spokesperson Captain Noqbile Gwala said it was alleged that at about 9am on Saturday, Kishore Sathanlal, 55, was found inside his vehicle with gunshot wounds to the head and body. The incident took place on Vanrova Road in oTongathi. Gwala said oThongathi police were investigating a case of murder. Prem Balram, from Reaction Unit SA, said they received a call about shots being fired. “As reaction officers approached the scene, they were flagged down by the occupants of a mini-bus taxi. (They) approached the bullet-riddled bakkie and located the driver lying across the front seats. He was declared deceased on arrival.” | Jolene…

With KwaZulu-Natal’s hotel occupancy rates at an all-time high of 86% over the Heritage Day long weekend, the province is expecting a bumper summer season. The SA Tourism Annual Report said KZN was the number one domestic tourism destination in 2020, with 3.8 million trips. Tourism KwaZulu-Natal acting chief executive Phindile Makwakwa said the government and tourism trade partners had been working hard to turn the sector around in the past few months. “We are delighted to see that the tides are finally turning in our favour and the numbers are showing positive growth. While the world, South Africa and KZN are not where we were before the Covid-19 pandemic, the long weekend (Heritage Day weekend) performance shows holidaymakers are slowly making their way back to KZN.” Speaking…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has taken major steps to deal with the ransomware attack that occurred in September. The information technology (IT)attack affected several services, with child maintenance payments one of the main concerns. The DOJ said in a recent statement that the payment of child maintenance was prioritised to ensure as little disruption as possible. The department also confirmed that a number of services have been reactivated in a secure manner. It said court recordings were given priority so courts were able to operate as normal. Where courts still face challenges, “a special capacity had been deployed” to deal with queries on a case-by-case basis. The DOJ also said the integrated case management system (ICMS) had not yet fully been restored. “Parts of…

But, like an old grass broom, he was beginning to lose his parts IT’S farewell to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, but what has been his celebrated impact on the administration of justice on the national stage? As Justice Mogoeng retires, Mogoengologists have been busy again, ruminating about the deeper reasons for his style of stewardship of the judiciary: attentive, oriented towards consensus, and pragmatic, sometimes overreaching, sprinkled with Christian fundamentalism – the list is, by now, well known, if not outright clichéd. While future historians are likely to marvel at his tactical skills in micropolitics of asserting the independence of the judiciary and the interpretation of the Constitution and the law, they may also conclude that he was well placed to have done more on the transformation of our courts…

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa admitted his government was failing its people as shortages of food, medicines and other essential items persisted because of a dire foreign exchange squeeze. “The people may have a sense of displeasure towards me and the government for not delivering as they expected,” Rajapaksa’s office quoted him as saying. A shortage of foreign currency has hindered the nation’s efforts to import goods, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency and impose rationing. Last week, the government removed price restrictions on essential foods in a desperate bid to end the hoarding of staples. Within hours of Rajapaksa’s remarks on Sunday, the government also announced an 85% hike in the price of liquefied petroleum gas used in cooking stoves, starting yesterday. The prices of…

LONDON: Paul McCartney has said he wanted to continue performing with the Beatles when the band famously split in 1970 and that John Lennon instigated the breakup. Speculation about what caused the demise of the world’s most famous pop group has ranged from artistic differences and legal disputes, to Lennon’s marriage to artist Yoko Ono. In a forthcoming episode of BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life, McCartney, 79, discusses what he called the most difficult period of his life. “I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny,” he said. “This was my band, this was my job, this was my life, so I wanted it to continue.” Asked about his decision to strike out on his own, McCartney told the interviewer to “stop right there” before setting out…

AMSTERDAM: Dutch judges yesterday convicted two men for the 2019 killing of a lawyer who was acting in a high-profile drugs case later taken on by celebrity crime reporter Peter R de Vries, who was shot and killed earlier this year. The two defendants, who judges say acted as hired assassins, were sentenced to 30 years in prison because the murder of someone “in service of the rule of law” shocked Dutch society. The case did not focus on who ordered the hit, the judges added. Lawyer Derk Wiersum was acting for a suspect-turned-state witness identified as Nabil B, in a case against alleged drug lord Ridouan Taghi.…

England cricketers will be able to go to the beach and play golf under protocols agreed for the upcoming Ashes tour, which Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley said yesterday was never seriously in doubt. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) gave “conditional approval” to the trip late last week after months of negotiations over concerns around tough Covid-19 rules for players and their families. Hockley said both teams should be able to live normal lives in public, within reason, during the five-Test series that is due to start in Brisbane on December 8. “Our protocols are very measured to ensure people have a really great experience and a good quality of life,” he told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “In a large part, it comes down to just people using…

Zaahier Adams zaahier.adams@inl.co.za Aiden Markram is a rare South African cricket specimen. The 27-year-old is the only Proteas captain - male or female - to lift an ICC World Cup trophy above his head when he led the SA Under-19 team to the title in Dubai in 2014. Markram is back in the United Arab Emirates desert seven years later with the Proteas men's team now looking to challenge for the ICC T20 World Cup. Considering the senior team's misfortunes at ICC events over the years, the pressure to bring home the coveted holy grail is immense. Markram has had a taste of an ICC World Cup before with the 50-overs squad in the UK two years ago, and unfortunately that was a horrible experience for a young cricketer…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za As Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng leaves the pinnacle of the judiciary, messages of congratulations poured in, but his tenure was not without controversy. Mogoeng, whose last day was yesterday, rose through the courts rapidly and after three years as part of the apex court, his name was flagged by then-president Jacob Zuma as the sole candidate for the chief justice position. He became a Constitutional Court judge in 2009 and in 2011, Mogoeng was appointed as chief justice. President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his appreciation to Mogoeng for his service to the nation during his tenure. “Following a decade of outstanding service and leadership, Chief Justice Mogoeng leaves a rich legacy for our democratic culture, our judiciary, the legal profession and ordinary South Africans,” Ramaphosa said. One of…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof Every day, East Cost Radio gives away thousands of rand to its listeners. It’s so easy. Just a phone call, you get a thousand rand, and if you answer some simple question, you get another couple of thousand. Not only hard cash, you also can win prizes, a gift, meal and cinema vouchers. Last week, the radio station was celebrating its 25 birthday and, to mark this occasion, it was giving away R10 000 to 30 listeners who make the call. That’s a whopping R300 000 for one day – a lot of money to give away. But it’s a publicity stunt to woo its listeners and remain the “number one hit station” in KwaZulu-Natal. But to be fair, it also has a programme…

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban Why do people continue voting for the same party, even if not much good has been seen over the years? This puzzle exists all over the world. The ANC continues to grow despite so many failures, bringing the country to near insolvency. The BJP in India grows in popularity despite dividing the population by utilising basic communal differences. Democrats and Republicans are one of two bad choices as they push the world into continuous war to keep their army and armament factories in business. Yet, year after year, only one of them is a Hobson’s Choice. This mysterious riddle not only draws the common electorate to the same major party every time, but strangely also the politicians themselves. This syndrome can easily be explained…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za OFFICIALS from the Msunduzi Municipality could face disciplinary action after an investigation by the public protector (PP) found that they were “negligent” in their duties, and had failed to ensure that the municipality was only billed for services that had been provided. The PP’s investigation looked into the procurement of goods and services for community meetings, held between February and November 2017 in Copesville, Pietermaritzburg. The report titled, “Allegations of improper conduct and maladministration by the Msunduzi Local Municipality in relation to the procurement of goods and services”, was released last week. It found that officials had failed to ensure that the municipality paid only for goods and services that had been provided. There had also been serious discrepancies and misrepresentation of facts during the procurement…

Bongani Nkosi bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za MOST whistle-blower calls made to the National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) related to social grant fraud, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has revealed. Launched in 2004, the hotline is a toll-free platform where the public can report government fraud and corruption. It is operated by the PSC. The PSC stated in its newly published annual report that it received 61 490 calls through the NACH during the 2020/21 financial year. “Over 56% of the cases reported to the NACH in the 2020/21 financial year were reported by anonymous whistle-blowers,” the report said. “Most of the case reports related to social grant fraud involving pension, disability and child support grants committed by the public and officials.” The PSC did not detail the patterns of the reported social grant fraud.…

A US woman who got up close and personal with a grizzly bear so she could take a photo has been jailed for four days and fined $1 000 (about R15 000). Samantha Dehring got within a metre of the enormous animal and her three cubs so she could snap her picture in Yellowstone National Park in May. The 25-year-old was with a group of other tourists when the razor-clawed creature arrived. As other visitors backed away to the safety of their vehicles – following instructions from park rangers – Dehring went towards the bear and snapped away. “Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish,” said acting US attorney Bob Murray. | AFP…

Nomonde Zondi nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za THE Commission for Gender Equality has urged the public to work with the police to find those responsible for crimes against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) community. This comes after a LGBTQI+ member was attacked last week along with his friends by 11 men. Andile Zondi, from Chesterville, and his friends were attacked by unknown men at midnight while they were on their way home after a party. “When we left the party, we were walking and three men came and tried to rob one of my friends but there were five of us; they realised that they were outnumbered so they left us alone,” he said. He said as they continued walking the three men came back with eight…

HEALTH-CARE workers are the last line of defence against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, and it is a serious concern that more than 20 000 in KwaZulu-Natal are not yet vaccinated. This means that the number of unvaccinated health workers could be much higher throughout the country, taking into account that South Africa has nine provincial health departments. KZN Health Department head, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, said the department was concerned about the more than 20 000 health workers in the province who had not been vaccinated. He revealed that the department, which had a target of vaccinating 7.2 million people by December to reach herd immunity, had only managed 27% of the target so far. He said there was a renewed focus on front-line health workers. The high number of health…

Facing alarming biodiversity loss that is threatening the survival of humanity, the international community should take bold action to promote harmony between humans and nature. “The costs of our suicidal war against nature are growing at an alarming rate,” Inger Andersen, UN under-secretary-general and executive director of the UN Environment Programme, warned at a biodiversity meeting held in China. The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, COP15, kicked off yesterday in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan Province. Climate change, ecological conservation and a blueprint for biodiversity conservation for the next decade are on the agenda. Anderson called for global co-operation, especially financial and technology support for developing countries. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity,…

A military court in Ouagadougou yesterday began the long-awaited trial of 14 men, including the former president, accused in the assassination of Burkina Faso’s left-wing leader Thomas Sankara 34 years ago The slaying of Sankara, a pan-Africanist icon, has for years cast a shadow over the Sahel state, fuelling its reputation for turbulence and bloodshed. Sankara and 12 others were riddled with bullets by a hit squad on October 15, 1987 during a putsch that brought his friend and comrade-in-arms Blaise Compaore to power. Compaore ruled the country for 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast, which granted him citizenship. He and his former right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere, who once headed the elite Presidential Security Regiment, face charges of…

KABUL: Officials in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul have transferred some $18 million seized from the former government officials to the country’s central bank and then to the Ministry of Finance. The cash has been seized from officials of the former government in Kabul, Panjshir, Khost and Logar provinces and after transferring to the central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), was handed over to the finance ministry, a statement of the central bank said. “The officials of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by transferring the assets to the central bank and finance ministry have proved their commitment to the country,” the statement said.…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE eThekwini Municipality is said to be faced with a shortage of protective equipment for firefighters that has left many of them unable to perform key functions in their jobs. Speaking to The Mercury on condition of anonymity, a firefighter said an order was given recently to firefighters not to respond to emergencies if they did not have the proper safety equipment. In the context of the fire department, the protective equipment is also referred to as PPE (personal protective equipment). The municipality yesterday denied the shortage. But opposition parties and labour unions claimed to be aware of the issue. The Mercury has also seen correspondence said to be between union officials and officials in the fire unit, in which the unit’s officials state that they had…

From the door of the expedition base, a few small steps to the left, an autonomous rover passes by. A few giant leaps to the right is an array of solar panels. The landscape is rocky, hilly, tinged with red. It resembles Mars. Here, in the Ramon Crater in the desert of southern Israel, a team of 65 men and one woman have begun simulating what it will be like to live for about a month on the red planet. Their Amadee-20 habitat is tucked beneath a rocky outcrop. Inside they sleep, eat and conduct experiments. Outside they wear mock space suits fitted with cameras, microphones and self-contained breathing systems. “We have the motto of fail fast, fail cheap, and have a steep learning curve. Because for every mistake we…

JOHN FIELDING | Monteseel As we live out in the sticks at Monteseel, our electricity is supplied directly by Eskom and not via the municipality. We normally receive a monthly account, which gets paid by the due date. Years ago this was done by post, but as the postal service appears to have fallen into disrepair, some years back we changed to email for all our monthly bills. This usually worked flawlessly. However, after the new year Eskom accounts by email suddenly stopped. Telephoning to find out what the problem is, is a complete waste of time. Either you hang on for up to 45 minutes to get to speak to someone only to have the call dropped as it is transferred, or if you do happen to…

I RECEIVE an anguished communication from a gal. Her problem is finding a swimming costume designed to the natural shape of a woman, that provides comfort. Cozzie design has moved in the opposite direction, she says. “When I was a child, the bathing suit for the mature figure was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift and they did a good job. “Today’s stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip,” she relates. “What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the fitting room. The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material.” And trying to struggle into the suit…

| Mercury Correspondent THE SA Revenue Service (Sars) says it is focusing on 52 non-compliant companies that received R1 billion in contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other Covid-19-related services. To date, 11 companies have been convicted, seven cases are on the court roll, 29 cases are with the National Prosecuting Authority for the drafting of charge sheets and/or warrants of arrest, while five case dockets are being processed by the Hawks. Sars said it had recovered R170 million in unpaid taxes linked to PPE contracts and R500m in assets, including cash, are under preservation orders. It is also investigating 33 entities linked to politically exposed people. In addition, several companies that received government tenders totalling R50m for Covid-19-related services were recently sentenced for not…

A 34-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping his 62-year-old neighbour in the Osizweni area in Newcastle. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the accused was sentenced last week in the Madadeni Regional Court for the December 2019 rape. NPA regional spokesperson Natasha Kara said the 62-year-old was asleep in her home when the accused broke in. “He threatened her with a knife and raped her before leaving the scene,” she said. The victim reported the matter to the police and DNA samples were taken and the accused was arrested soon after the offence, she said. Kara said that during the trial the man denied raping the victim, but the DNA analysis linked him to the crime. Regional Court prosecutor Eddie Mbewu also led the evidence of…

UMGENI Water has its second acting chief executive in two years following the departure of Nomalungelo Mkhize. Mkhize, who had been acting in the position for a year, left the institution on Friday last week, and has been replaced by Sandile Bonga Dube, who was executive in charge of operations at Umgeni Water. Mkhize was seconded to the position of chief executive. She had been appointed as chief financial officer on a five-year contract, and had been with the institution for the past three years. The former chief executive, Thami Hlongwa resigned in October last year. In a statement, the board of Umgeni Water said Mkhize had cited personal reasons for her resignation. “The board thanks Mkhize for her loyal service to Umgeni Water, both as chief financial officer and…

THESE are the most interesting times our country, and the world, are experiencing. Our country is a political mess. Where on Earth did you hear about as many as 537 political parties vying for power? Every Dick, Tom and Harry now has a party with few women joining in as leaders. Fortunately, the IEC could bring it down to 325, the number that will contest the local elections. As the waters are heating up and becoming muddier as we move closer to our seventh general election in 2024, the so-called opposition in the form of the DA has become more desperate for power. One wonders, without a clear Plan B, and still far from halfway, how many elections did they foresee would be enough to seize power? One is never…

STOCKHOLM: Economists David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens won the 2021 Nobel economics prize yesterday for pioneering “natural experiments” to show real-world economic impacts in areas from the US fast-food sector to migration from Castro-era Cuba. Unlike in medicine or other sciences, economists cannot conduct rigidly controlled clinical trials. Instead, natural experiments use real-life situations to study impacts on the world, an approach that has spread to other social sciences. “Their research has substantially improved our ability to answer key causal questions, which has been of great benefit to society,” says Peter Fredriksson, chair of the Economic Sciences Prize Committee. Past Nobel Economics prizes have been dominated by US institutions and this was no exception. Canada-born Card currently works at the University of California, Berkeley; Angrist at Massachusetts Institute…

LOS ANGELES: George Clooney feels philosophical about growing old. The Hollywood star turned 60 in May and accepts his career has moved into a new phase. He explained: “The only thing you can do that’s dumb is try to hold on to things that you aren’t anymore, right? “You know, there was a picture, I was in Italy and somebody took a picture of me – I think it was a paparazzi picture on the boat, and I saw this old, grey-haired guy on the boat. “And I was like ‘who is that?’ “And it was me!”…

JERUSALEM: Israel will keep the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 war, even if international views on Damascus change, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said yesterday. In 2019, then US President Donald Trump broke with other world powers by recognising Israel as sovereign on the Golan Heights, which it annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally. Bennett’s remarks came as the current US administration hedges on the Golan’s legal status and some US-allied Arab states ease their shunning of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his handling of a decade-old civil war. Addressing a conference about the Golan’s future, Bennett said the internal Syrian strife had “persuaded many in the world that perhaps it is preferable that this beautiful and strategic territory be in the…

BEIRUT: Firefighters in Lebanon put out a huge blaze that raged at a key fuel storage depot yesterday to the relief of many in the country gripped by desperate energy shortages. There was no immediate report of casualties from the fire that sent large plumes of dark smoke into the sky. Ziyad al-Zein, head of facilities at Zahrani, said the fire broke out as a tank was being emptied. “We noticed an inclination in the reservoir’s roof yesterday and took immediate measures – this morning to transfer its contents,” he said, adding that “it would have been a disaster if the fire had spread to nearby tanks”.…