Índice para 2022-11-01 em Mercury

FORMER State Security Agency (SSA) boss Arthur Fraser has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of lying about the origin of the stolen US dollars at his Phala Phala farm. Fraser said his (Ramaphosa’s) business records should be submitted to prove the assertion that the money came from game farm proceeds. Ramaphosa, in June, said the stolen money came from the proceeds of his game farming. In May, Fraser opened a case against Ramaphosa, accusing him of concealing a crime at his Phala Phala farm where about $4 million (R73.4m) was stolen. He has since challenged Ramaphosa’s statement that the money came from business proceeds. A letter detailing a meeting between Fraser’s legal advisers and the Hawks, with a June date and believed to be written by the ex-spy boss, alleges Ramaphosa…

INVESTMENT analyst Dr James Greener pays tribute, in his latest grumpy newsletter, to the piquant sense of humour of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. “The front cover of the glossy pamphlet publication containing the Medium-Term Budget speech he delivered carries a picture of a young man peering over a precipice into a large canyon probably caused by the unusual rains in KwaZulu-Natal six months ago. “’Its message is clear. ‘Stand Back – The government is coming to Help’. “Citizens who live in nations where there is a risk of this kind of message wisely put large distances between themselves and the sleek car-load of ribbon-cutters who materialise in unsuitable footwear to waft platitudes and wolf down wafers and wine. “Filling canyons and repairing pumps have no need for politicians smiling for…

An alternative and less disruptive proposal to the suggestion that the Mooi River Toll Plaza be relocated, because of the frequent burnings of trucks, would be to have an effective and well-manned police station close to the Wimpy and filling station. If truckers are frequently subjected to criminality, then deal with the criminality. According to the Medium-Term Budget speech by the finance minister, it would appear that the government is aware of the problem of excessive criminality and is planning on dealing with it. All that is necessary is for effective action to be taken by the authorities.…

I watched the dialogue on our ailing health-care system on eNCA, and wondered how the audience, after pointing out the many serious problems and challenges that have brought our health service to its knees, could conclude that the only solution would be the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) and universal health-care coverage. To highlight a few problems that were raised in the dialogue: lack of resources such as equipment and medication, mismanagement of health facilities, underfunding of all health institutions, procurement problems and corruption. Staff shortages, with the South African Nursing Council statistics at the bottom of the TV screen showing that the nurse-to-patient ratio is one nurse to 218 patients. This is unheard of and a recipe for medical negligence claims. In ICU, the correct ratio is 1:2…

The sad reality of divorce is that in most cases, people who get divorced will be compelled to reduce their standard of living. Where the available means of support is not adequate to maintain both people according to their former scale of living, each person has to scale down his or her budget, a judge has said during divorce proceedings before him. In this case, the wife, who had hardly worked before and had few qualifications, told a Northern Cape High Court judge that she had applied for at least 45 different working opportunities, but had not been invited to a single interview. The judge commented that, by no fault of her own, it was unlikely given her age and working experience that she would ever find work. He ordered…

Security in Inanda township will receive a boost as the eThekwini metro police unit is set to open a new base of operations there. Councillors were informed recently that the new station will be opened in a building near the new Octavia Hotel in Inanda. It is understood the building is owned by the hotel. The announcement was widely welcomed,with councillors saying they were hopeful this would kick-start the beefing up of security in rural areas which would encourage business people to invest in these areas. While the move was eventually supported by all parties, some parties initially expressed concern over whether placing the station close to the hotel was tantamount to providing free security for the establishment. A report on the matter called for the eThekwini Municipality to enter…

‘I will develop the country and economy, promote peace and reconciliation’ You only had to watch a few minutes of the coronation ceremony of King Misuzulu kaZwelithini at Moses Mabhida stadium on Saturday to notice that, in South Africa, an old order is passing. In its place, something new is emerging, propelled by the younger generation. Most prominent public comments have naturally focused on the number of dignitaries in attendance and the royal family succession squabbles. But the process of change we are witnessing is not just about individuals, but also about our governance in a constitutional democracy as people observe traditional customs. It is about our politics – and it is even about our nation. While the new monarch’s first name means “strengthening the Zulus”, his path to the…

Nigeria’s military killed eight suspected Islamic State-allied jihadists after repelling a raid on a military base in central Niger state, where hundreds of militants are being held, two military sources said yesterday. Dozens of Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) fighters tried to break into the Wawa military cantonment in the remote New Bussa village near the border with Benin Republic late on Saturday to free more than 1 000 of their comrades detained there, the military officers told AFP. The Wawa attack underscores the threat Iswap poses to Nigeria as the group expands outside its traditional north-east stronghold, where the army have battled jihadists for more than a decade. “The terrorists attacked the base around midnight in large numbers but they were pulverised with air support, leading to the…

Blasts were heard in Kyiv yesterday and Ukrainian authorities reported Russian missile strikes around the country, after Moscow blamed Kyiv for an attack on its Black Sea fleet and pulled out of a deal to allow Ukrainian grain shipments. Russia and Ukraine are both among the world’s biggest food exporters, and a Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain shipments caused a global food crisis earlier this year. Following Russia’s announcement that it would halt co-operation with grain exports, Chicago wheat futures jumped more than 5% yesterday. “Another batch of Russian missiles hits Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “Don’t justify these attacks by calling them a ‘response’. Russia does this because it still has the missiles and the…

DURBAN’S Moses Mabhida Stadium is set for a multimillion rand upgrade to ensure the stadium continues to be suitable to host high profile events. Councillors were briefed recently that an amount of R35 million has been set aside for the upgrade work. Four key priorities have been identified by the stadium management that need to be attended to. The stadium management recently revealed that they have to procure a new Skycar. The Skycar is one of the city’s tourist attractions but broke down a few years ago and it would be uneconomical and unsafe to fix it. A report on the matter of the upgrades requested that authority be granted for the “head of Stadia and Facilities” to incur expenditure in the amount of R35m to ensure that stadium maintenance…

Some are scrambling to get funds to pay wages, while others consider quitting A NORTH Coast sugar cane farmer, who also has a livestock business, says she will have to sell her livestock in order to pay her workers’ monthly wages for the next few months. This comes after sugar producer Tongaat Hulett was placed in business rescue last week. Lee Hlubi, who owns a farming operation at Nkwalini in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality which specialises in sugar cane and livestock, said she had been taken by surprise by the Tongaat Hulett announcement. “It was only after receiving a direct message informing me that I would not be paid for the sugar cane that had been sold to the mill in September that the reality set in,” she told…

All men in their late seventies and eighties, they have met six days a week for decades at the Early Bird, where all the waitresses know their names, orders and jokes. The five men have lost four wives to cancer and Alzheimer’s. Two have wives at home, one of whom is delighted her husband leaves the house every morning for breakfast. The other wife has not recognised her husband in many years and is comfortable being alone for an hour every morning until he returns to provide her with constant care. This breakfast ritual is much more than five men having breakfast; it’s about belonging, sharing and connection. Robbie lost the use of an arm in a work accident that forced his retirement decades ago. Charles sits to Robbie’s left…

The warning of a “terrorist” threat issued by the US Embassy about possible attacks targeting large gatherings at an unspecified location in Sandton refers. Without doubt, the human cost of terrorism in all its forms, shapes and colours has affected every human being. Hence, the prevention of terrorist attacks is the collective and joint responsibility of all stakeholders, such as government security agencies, communities, individuals, religious, political and community leaders and conscientious international allies. In order to tackle the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, issues of socio-economic side-lining, failure to respect human rights and human dignity, high levels of inequality, Western leaders’ double standards in applying foreign policies, imperialism, occupation of lands, illegal invasion of countries and a lack of sound and moral governance need to be attended…

This is an open critical letter to our heads of departments including ministers and MECs and all public service personnel who have sworn to give us, the residents of South Africa, service delivery par excellence. What is a total disaster, an insult and disrespect and unforgivable is the present non-communication channels in many of our public services. Just recently there was media coverage of the low pick-up telephone ratings at our police stations, the lifeline of hope, safety and quick emergency response. If one goes on to Google and seeks out email addresses as stipulated by many state institutions, write down these email addresses and then write your issues, or service delivery problem (good or bad), they fail to respond. Instead, one is forced to revert to Plan B and…

APARTHEID victims have lost hope following alleged injustices and false promises from President Cyril Ramaphosa, that they would be compensated. This as more than 20 years after establishing the President’s Fund victims, survivors and their families remain poor and hopeless, saying the ANC-run government was uncaring. Khulumani Support Group national organiser Nomarussia Bonase said victims, survivors and their families had been having a sleep-in outside the Constitutional Court precinct since October 18. She said it was not their first sleep-in; they had another one in April. They did not leave until Justice Minister Ronald Lamola addressed them. For the current sleep-in, Bonase said no one had come to address them. In 2021, the group also camped at the Constitutional Court, and this is despite some of their members being part…

The troubled National Skills Fund (NSF) is failing to meet most of its basic mandates, according to its annual report. Out of 29 targets, the NSF, an entity of the Higher Education, Science and Innovation Department, achieved only seven. On skills development funding, the NSF achieved none of its 15 output indicators; on administration, it achieved only one target out of six possible achievements and on post-school education and training system improvement funding’s eight targets, only three were achieved. The annual report was discussed in the higher education, science and innovation portfolio committee on Friday against the backdrop of Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) head advocate Godfrey Lebeya’s announcement that they were probing how R2.5 billion went missing from the NSF. MPs recently slammed Higher Education, Science and Innovation…

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development said it would intervene and educate a 16-year-old mother on how to take care of and protect her 10-month-old baby after community members in Osindisweni, outside Verulam, found the baby dumped in a bush next to a tavern on Saturday. Department spokesperson Mhlaba Memela said the incident was “horrible” and expressed gratitude to the family that saved the child’s life. Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) reported that the 10-month-old baby girl was found dumped in bush while her parents were at different locations in the area. According to Rusa spokesperson Prem Balram, they received a call from residents on Sunday morning after the child’s mother showed up at their house to claim the baby. “Reaction officers were dispatched to the area and on arrival…

Thousands of matric pupils across the country put pen to paper yesterday at the start of their National Senior Certificate Examinations. While the matric Class of 2022 was not subjected to learning under Covid-19 pandemic restrictions this year, their Grade 10 and Grade 11 years, which are important for building foundational subject knowledge, were disrupted by lockdowns, restrictions, rotational classes and online learning. In KwaZulu-Natal, the cohort of pupils also had to contend with the impact of the July 2021 riots and the floods in April this year. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, in her briefing on Sunday, touched on the challenges for matric pupils, commenting that this year saw a return to normalcy following two tumultuous years disrupted by the pandemic, and the issue of over-crowding in schools saw…

Philippine rescuers yesterday waded through thigh-deep mud using long pieces of wood to search for bodies buried by a landslide, as the death toll from a powerful storm rose to 98. Just over half the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday. Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but storms that do reach the region tend to be deadlier than in Luzon and central parts of the country. There is little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas after the storm swept across the archipelago nation, inundating communities in and around the capital Manila over the weekend. The national disaster…

New York: The two men whose convictions for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X were overturned last year will receive $36 million (about R660m) from the city and state of New York, their lawyer has confirmed. “The tragedy of Malcolm X’s murder was felt all over the world, and compounded by the fact that it led to the convictions and imprisonment of two innocent, young, black men in America,” their lawyer David Shanies said. The two men, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, both spent more than 20 years in prison for Malcolm X’s murder, which they always maintained they did not commit. They were released in the mid-1980s. | AFP…

CRICKET It helps that he has got talent oozing from every pore, but Dewald Brevis is also a level-headed kid, who has used 21st century technology to learn and fuel a love of cricket that is set to make him millions of dollars. Brevis ripped the sport’s spotlight away from the T20 World Cup yesterday, with a remarkable performance for his home province the Titans, scoring 162 off only 57 balls in a Cricket South Africa T20 Challenge match against the Knights in Potchefstroom. Nevermind there were only a handful of students dotting the grass embankment at JB Marks Oval, the sound off the bat and the style with which he played was heard and captured by satellite, so was broadcast around the world. By mid afternoon, Brevis, still only…

END-OF-YEAR TOUR Cheslin Kolbe at fullback could be the bolter in the Springbok team to play Ireland on Saturday, as the Bok bosses look to balance winning on the November tour with exploring exciting options. SA Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus and coach Jacques Nienaber know what they have in Willie le Roux, and the veteran has shown this year that he can make a great impact off the bench as a utility-back. While Makazole Mapimpi is entrenched in the No 11 jersey, the options at No 14 are both exciting and undecided, and let’s not forget that Sbu Nkosi is staging a comeback after a difficult year. I say undecided, because Erasmus himself has said that Kolbe at No 15 could take the Boks’ attacking play to another level.…

Experts have warned that following the latest increase in petrol and diesel prices, which will come into effect tomorrow, there is a gloomy outlook for the festive season. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced on Friday that both grades of petrol will increase by 51 cents a litre, while the price of diesel 0.05% will increase by R1.43 a litre and diesel 0.005% will increase by R1.44 a litre tomorrow. Professor Bonke Dumisa, an independent economic analyst, said consumers should expect a hike in the price of goods. “Most goods on the roads are transported by trucks and trucks are powered by diesel. It is unquestionable that there will be a multiplier effect where we are going to find the increase in diesel filtering into the…

RESEARCHERS at Rockefeller University in New York found people who have higher levels of certain acids on their skin are 100 times more attractive to the female Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika. The findings, published in the journal Cell, could lead to new products that could mask or alter certain human odours, making it harder for mosquitoes to find human blood and potentially curbing the spread of disease. Leslie Vosshall, chief scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and lead researcher behind the new study, said female mosquitoes are built to bite for blood because without it they won’t have enough protein to reproduce. Scientists already knew these mosquitoes have a preference for some humans over…

Children are still the victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and other forms of violence. This abuse has no ethnic, religious, or cultural boundaries. The majority of the time the perpetrators are known to the children. The Covid-19 pandemic and the recent floods have caused adults to focus more on building the economy or seeking employment, leaving the children unattended; hence, they have become soft targets for traffickers. Traffickers view this vulnerability as an attractive resource for financial and personal gain; therefore they exploit children that are faced with disasters through the use of violence, deception, or coercion. According to the Department of International Relations and Co- operation, South Africa has recently been selected by the United Nations General Assembly as one of 14 countries to be a member of the…

I WOULD like to urge residents to double check their meter readings and compare them to their electricity accounts, especially if they have tenants on their property. A friend of mine recently received a bill of R180 000 because his tenants had not allowed the municipality to come on to the property to read the meter. They were paying only the average consumption for the past two years. This is after litigation to get the tenants off the property for not paying rent. Only later did they find out that they had also left him with the enormous bill. This was discovered when the municipality was allowed access to the property to read the meter after the non-paying tenants left. The municipality, none the wiser, had continued to bill for…

Seven of the country’s universities have maintained or improved their positions on the 2022/23 Best Global Universities ranking. The institutions managed to squeeze their way into the top 500 universities in the ninth annual US News & World Report Best Global Universities rankings. Since an increasing number of students end up enrolling in universities outside their own country, the Best Global Universities rankings were produced to provide insight into how universities compared globally, focusing specifically on institutions’ academic research and reputation overall and not on their separate undergraduate or graduate programmes. The report looked at 2 000 top institutions, up from 1 750 last year, spread across 95 countries, calculating the rankings using 13 indicators and weights that US News uses to measure global research performance. Furthermore, in…

TWO suspects who were arrested last week for using fake R200 notes at a popular restaurant in Durban North are believed to be linked to other cases of fraud around Durban and Ballito. Marshall Security managing director Tyron Powell said that last Tuesday their emergency dispatch centre received a call from a client at a restaurant after noticing that they had been scammed by suspects who paid with fake R200 notes. “The suspects had purchased items from the eatery with a fake R200 note and then asked for change with yet another fake R200 note, earning themselves legitimate cash, before leaving the premises,” he said. He said the client supplied them with a description of the suspects and the details of their vehicle. A short while later the vehicle…

Debate is raging in the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal after the province criticised former presidents Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe and Thabo Mbeki for publicly lambasting President Cyril Ramaphosa. Zuma accused Ramaphosa of corruption and committing treason following a cash heist scandal at the president’s farm while Mbeki and Motlanthe also commented publicly on the controversial Phala Phala matter. On social media, Zuma’s daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has focused on the provincial ANC, saying: “KZN ANC must choose between the ANC and their supper, the criticism of the leadership is nothing new in the ANC, Mandela, TM and JZ all faced fierce criticism. “Cdes (Comrades) claim to know the ANC but fail to remember the Morogoro Conference in 1969: ‘A Moment Of Self-Reflection’, that president OR Tambo called after receiving criticism over his…

The death toll from a suspension bridge collapse in India rose to 134 yesterday, including many children, as authorities opened a criminal investigation into one of the deadliest accidents in the country in the past 10 years. Footage from just before the collapse showed a group of young men taking photos while others tried to rock the bridge from side to side, before they tumbled into the river below as the cables holding it together gave way. Police in the western state of Gujarat, where the disaster occurred, registered a criminal case against unnamed persons responsible for the renovation, maintenance and management of the bridge. Nine arrests have been made thus far. Local officials told Reuters that the manager of the bridge, a maker of clocks and electrical items, had…

Congratulations poured in from across the globe for Brazil’s leftist president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after his narrow victory over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro was announced. Shortly after Lula was declared the winner, US President Joe Biden said: “I send my congratulations to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections.” French leader Emmanuel Macron also offered his good wishes, saying the poll opened “a new page” in Brazil’s history. “Together, we will join forces to take up the many common challenges and renew the ties of friendship between our two countries,” the French president said minutes after the results announcement. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a hearty “Congratulations, Lula!” and said: “The people of…

JERUSALEM: Israelis vote for the fifth time in four years today in an election in which former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comeback bid may depend on a far-right party whose leaders call for those deemed disloyal to Israel to be expelled. Voter exasperation at the deadlock may hurt turnout but surging support for the ultranationalist Religious Zionism bloc and firebrand co-leader Itamar Ben-Gvir has galvanised the race. Israel’s longest-serving premier, Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges, which he denies. His rightist Likud party is still expected to finish as the largest in parliament. Final opinion polls published last week however showed him still short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, opening the prospect of weeks of coalition wrangling and possibly new elections. Security…

No-one doubts that the Proteas have an attack capable of winning a World Cup. In fact, the bowling stocks right now should make South Africa one of the best teams across all formats. In the Test arena, the batting’s been inconsistent and in one-day cricket, those bowlers haven’t played together often enough as a unit to aid automatic World Cup qualification. It’s an attack built on aggression with only Keshav Maharaj a defensive component. Importantly, the selectors know what they have at their disposal, and crucially how to utilise those tools. Victor Mpitsang said at the squad announcement in September, that factors like conditions and match-ups would determine the starting teams for each game, and in South Africa’s three group matches that strategy has been apparent. When it rained in…