Sommaire pour 2023-05-18 de Mercury

THE announcement that the load-shedding exemption granted by Eskom to eThekwini Municipality is to come to an end has triggered panic among residents, who fear this could destroy local businesses. The business sector, ratepayers organisations and opposition parties in the council said the city’s infrastructure was too fragile to cope. The municipality announced this week that Durban would return to the national load-shedding schedule later this month. Residents in the metro are currently only affected by load shedding once it reaches Stage 4 and higher. Janus Horn, the chairperson of the Manor Garden Ratepayers’ Association and a business owner, said: “As a business I will not be able to afford the additional diesel costs. Many times after we go off, we only come back hours later due to overload problems.…

COMMUNICATIONS and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele said yesterday his department was engaging extensively with stakeholders regarding the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. Delivering his 2023-24 budget speech, Gungubele said they were in the meantime continuing to install set-top boxes for outstanding households. “Once this consultation process is completed, we will announce the final date for analogue switch-off, which will free up much-needed spectrum in accordance with the president’s directive,” he said. However, Gungubele said they had decided to switch off the remaining 151 transmitters in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal, and Gauteng during the course of this year. “The department aims to conclude the distribution of available set-top boxes to registered indigent households as soon as possible.” The minister also said he would be issuing the final…

The Employment Equity Amendment Act signed by President Ramaphosa is a draconian piece of legislation that will do more harm than good. While the aim of the act is to promote diversity and equality in the workplace, it will effectively impact all minority communities in South Africa, further alienating them from the governing party. At a time when the country is plagued with high unemployment and a massive skills drain, this law is not only unconstitutional, but it is also an unnecessary burden on businesses and job seekers alike. The implementation of this act will cause employers to prioritise race over qualifications, potentially leading to less skilled individuals being hired for certain roles. Moreover, the act will disproportionately affect non-designated South African groups, including coloured, Indian and white communities.…

The Tamil Federation of KwaZulu Natal has elected new leaders – this is definitely good news. The newly elected executive board marks a momentous day for the Tamil community. Tamil culture has been an important characteristic that embodies our rich cultural heritage. I extend my heartiest congratulations to its newly elected president, Mr Gan Moodley, and his team. The newly elected board has people with a reputation for making significant contributions towards reaffirming Tamil values, as this is important so it can be passed down to the next generation. I have observed in many organisations that leaders do not practise what they preach. There are also destructive elements within the community who will always find fault with whatever is done for the good. These members must be rooted out…

KWAZULU-NATAL voters should brace themselves for a bigger ballot paper as the number of political parties and independent candidates participating in next year’s elections is expected to increase. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in KZN said this eventuality means that a massive voter education drive needs to be undertaken in order to avoid confusion during voting. Electoral operations manager at the IEC Scelo Duma gave a snapshot of the elections when addressing members of the provincial legislature last week. He conceded that the 2024 elections would be very challenging for a number of reasons. “The ballot paper is going to be an A3 size or beyond, which will present a host of challenges.” He said one of the challenges with a larger ballot paper would be the need…

Crimson flares dyed the evening sky a blazing red as South African Kirsten Neuschafer guided her sailboat into the French port of Les Sables-d’Olonne on April 27. Eight months earlier, she had left this harbour as the lone woman in a 16-entrant, around-the-world race in which solo competitors were required to use 54-year-old technology and prohibited from making stops. During 235 days at sea, Neuschafer had only a vague knowledge of her place in the standings of the Golden Globe Race. When told by event organisers that she had won, all she could do was stare in surprise and blurt, “Really?” Since leaving her family farm outside Pretoria, as a teenager, Neuschafer, 41, has led a life of endless adventure: hitchhiking on ships to the Arctic, training huskies in the…

Details on the Section 154 intervention into the eThekwini Municipality by the KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Department are expected to be provided soon. The department confirmed last week that experts, including former director-general in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, and the City’s former municipal manager and now local government consultant, Michael Sutcliffe, would be sent to assist the metro under Section 154 of the Constitution, which allows for the provincial or national government to provide help to municipalities where there are concerns. The City faces general decay and infrastructure challenges, and has failed to spend R322 million it received in grant funding, while city manager Musa Mbhele is being probed for allegedly failing to disclose an investigation against him during the interview for the job. It is…

Former Kaizer Chiefs public relations officer Louis “Sprinter” Tshakoane, his wife Suzan Tshakoane, and son Louis Tshakoane jr have been remanded in custody on fraud charges. Tshakoane, 74, his wife, 59, and son, 34, appeared at Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, Johannesburg, yesterday for running an investment scheme dubbed “Undercover Billionaires” worth R100 million. The trio will appear again in the same court on May 23 for a formal bail application. They are facing charges of fraud, theft, money laundering and contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act. The father was arrested after speaking at the funeral of Mamelodi Sundowns FC PRO Alex “Goldfingers” Shakoane in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, on Tuesday following the execution of a warrant of arrest by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation…

While chatting to a friend recently, he showed me an email he had again received from Jessie Duarte. The former deputy secretary-general (DSG) of the ANC died last July. “I’m still getting these emails,” he said. The DSG had been alerted some time before her death that her emails had been hacked. My response was to show him an email I had received earlier in the day, from “appel.com”, requesting me to update my mail or my account would be shut down. The infamous link was just below it. By now, all of us should know about phishing emails. Often, institutions such as our banks and Sars send us reminders about how we should be careful about being scammed. In the age of the internet, the small-scale incidents of what…

Former Pakistan prime minister and leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Imran Khan, yesterday claimed that the police had surrounded his house as he was addressing party workers via video link, and feared that the country was heading towards the path of destruction. In a major blow to the party, former federal minister and close aide of Khan, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, yesterday announced that he would be quitting politics after reports emerged that the party was involved in May 9 vandalism during which military installations were also attacked. The former health minister is the second PTI leader to jump ship after Member of the National Assembly, Mahmood Baqi Maulvi. Khan was arrested from the premises of the Islamabad High Court on May 9, after which the party’s supporters…

I RECENTLY watched Sex and the City again, and I couldn’t get enough of how Carrie always, ever so casually, walks around in heels all day. Every day! Slipping into a sexy pair of heels is an instant mood booster and can elevate just about any look. Unfortunately, wearing heels all day isn’t quite as easy as Carrie makes it look. Well, not for everyone, that is. In fact, it can be quite painful if you’re a first-timer or simply not used to wearing them. Here are some tips to help you wear high heels without experiencing too much pain. Is it the right size? Make sure you are wearing the right size of high heel shoe. Shoes that are too tight or too loose can cause pain and discomfort.…

EDUCATION stakeholders, including academics, teacher unions and lawmakers, have agreed that it would take a joint effort to address the challenges faced by South African pupils after an international literacy study revealed that 81% of pupils in Grade 4 were unable to read for comprehension. They have also warned that failing to act immediately could see an entire generation lacking the ability to read and write with comprehension. The report from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) was released on Tuesday. It showed that 81% of Grade 4 pupils cannot read for meaning in any language, up from 78% in 2016. The findings are based on a nationally-representative sample of more than 1.1 million pupils. University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Professor Labby Ramrathan said the report should not come…

TWO American fellows have been sent to jail for cheating in an angling competition. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky will spend only 10 days each in jail, it’s true, but jail is jail. Also, they have been fined $2 000 (about R47 548) each, according to the BBC. Their fishing licences have been suspended for three years; they are each on probation for a year and a half and Cominsky has to forfeit his boat worth $130 000. Their crime? They were disqualified last September from a contest in Ohio to catch the heaviest walleye in Lake Erie. In dramatic scenes caught on tape, the tournament director exposed the pair for stuffing their catch with lead weights and fish fillets. Prosecutors said the “two crooks” had probably also cheated in…

While recent employment statistics show a slight increase in KwaZulu- Natal’s employment rate, the desper- ation of the youth remains a real challenge in the province. A rotten education system, load shedding and a shrinking manufacturing sector are cited as contributing factors to the millions of young adults sitting at home, waiting for a miracle that may never happen. Recent DA canvassing in ward 11 (Newlands East) has been a stark reminder of how many of our province’s youth cannot find employment. Without hope or an opportunity to study further, many spend their days praying for a lucky break. They are among the staggering 10.2 million young people in South Africa who neither work, nor study. Simply put – 46.5% of our youth who have been touted as our country’s…

The subject headline on the front page relating to R427 million in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure again highlights the thoughtless people who are employed at the eThekwini Municipality. What calibre of individuals are employed who cannot control budgets and who allow wasteful expenditure? If those involved do have the right qualifications, which one doubts based on their past record, the only other alternative is that they are involved in corruption, just like our main government. Why is it that these ANC comrades just do not have the ability to manage anything? They, by all accounts and based on what has been exposed, cannot control unauthorised expenditure, irregular expenditure, fruitless expenditure and wasteful expenditure or any other type of expenditure. Maybe the question that should be posed is,…

Emem Isong screamed in pain on a trolley outside a hospital accident and emergency department in Nigeria’s biggest city after a car ran over her foot and broke two of her toes. “Please hold on … there are just three of us on duty,” a nurse at the Ebute-Metta federal medical centre in Lagos told the 33-year-old. “The alternative is for you to go to another hospital.” After a five-hour wait, nurses tended to Isong’s wounds. “It was either I wait till it is my turn, or they refer me to another hospital that will turn me away,” said Isong. Nigeria, like many other African countries, is suffering a flight of talent from its fragile health-care sector as richer countries woo underpaid but skilled professionals – a situation its government…

The showdown between President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Jacob Zuma began at the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, yesterday with arguments in the matter involving a final interdict that is being sought by Ramaphosa. The interdict relates to the private prosecution Zuma has brought against State advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan. Zuma alleges Downer and Maughan both contravened the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act as Downer allegedly, as an accessory, leaked a report disclosing his confidential medical condition to Maughan. Zuma wants Ramaphosa to be charged as an accessory after the fact in this matter. In response to this, Ramaphosa brought an application and secured an interim interdict to prevent Zuma from charging him in the private prosecution. Ramaphosa is now seeking to have this interdict made final…

Tributes from friends and family continue to pour in for Delana Cader Rawlins who was allegedly gunned down by her estranged husband after a party in Ashburton outside Pietermaritzburg on Saturday night. Police said shortly after the incident, the suspect went to Alexandra Road police station with his legal team and handed himself in. This comes after a manhunt was launched for him. The Mercury reported on Monday that it was alleged that a family member of the 42-year-old victim, believed to be her brother-in-law, intervened during a dispute with her husband. The brother-in-law left with Cader in a vehicle and they were followed by the husband, who allegedly stopped the vehicle and shot her several times. National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the 46-year-old man appeared in…

THE Minister of Justice and Correctional Services is opposing the constitutional challenge launched by a non-profit organisation against the definitions of rape and consensual sex as contained in the law. The organisation in launching the case had said at present, the definition made it difficult for rape victims to obtain justice. The Embrace Project is challenging what it calls problematic definitions of consent and rape in the Sexual Offences Act, as recently amended. The NPO earlier filed papers in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, against the government. The organisation said as the law stood, it was insufficient to prove that an accused person committed an act of sexual penetration without the complainant’s consent. But in its opposing papers, the office of the minister said if the court ordered in favour…

Only a series of unlikely scenarios could have made it possible On May 11, 2023, the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, claimed that South Africa had secretly exported arms to Russia in December 2022. The announcement rapidly fed into a popular narrative that South Africa was increasingly siding with Russia in relation to Moscow’s aggressive war in Ukraine. Brigety’s statements made both South African and international news headlines, including in the Wall Street Journal, on CNN and in the Financial Times. He asserted that, based on US intelligence reports, ammunition and/or arms had been furtively loaded on to a Russian cargo vessel, the Lady R, at South Africa’s naval base in Simon’s Town. The vessel had earlier been sanctioned by the US government. In response, the South…

TÜrkIYE’s main opposition party said yesterday that it had filed complaints over suspected irregularities with thousands of ballot boxes in Sunday’s landmark elections, in which President Tayyip Erdogan performed better than expected. However, opposition party officials said the objections were unlikely to alter the result of the presidential vote, which is headed for a run-off on May 28 between Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) said it had formally raised objections over 2 269 ballot boxes nationwide for the presidential election and 4 825 for the parliamentary vote, although they represent a tiny proportion of the total number. Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and its nationalist allies won a strong parliamentary majority, while in the presidential vote, Erdogan fell just shy of the 50% threshold…

With the Springboks’ first Test match of the year only two months away, the world champions made the big switch to Test mode yesterday when they gathered in Durban at the first of two preparation camps this month ahead of the July 8 kick-off against the Wallabies in Pretoria. This camp, which includes 15 players, will conclude tomorrow, while the second preparation camp — which will feature players from the Stormers who are preparing to face Munster in the United Rugby Championship final in Cape Town next weekend — will run from May 29-31. The group of players — which includes centre Lukhanyo Am, wing Makazole Mapimpi, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, utility forward Kwagga Smith and fullback Willie le Roux — assembled in Durban on Tuesday evening and got straight into…

DEPUTY Minister of Police Cassel Mathale has vowed that more power to fight crime will be given to Community Policing Forums (CPF) by providing them with “tools of the trade”. Mathale is leading a three-day round-table discussion between SAPS management and more than 350 CPF members from 1 156 police stations in all nine provinces, in Pretoria. According to the police, the discussions that started yesterday are aimed at enhancing community participation in the fight against crime. CPFs are structures consisting of ordinary community members who volunteer their time and expertise to assist the police in making communities safer. The role of the CPF is to, among others, make known the needs of the community to the police and to assist the police to meet those needs. They also hold…

Murder is evil enough. But to kill, and mutilate a body like a butcher slices a lamb and store it in the fridge is beyond words. Flavio Hlabanwane, 26 of Protea Glen, Soweto, got a life sentence for the brutal and gruesome murder in 2021 of his lover, Tshepang Pitse. Hlabanwane was a callous, cold-blooded killer who showed no remorse when sentence was passed. The body parts were found by his new girlfriend when she opened the fridge. Shocked, she ran to the neighbours who called the police. Investigators found the head and limbs but the torso was missing. How lucky the girlfriend must have felt that she, too, didn’t end up in the fridge like chunks of meat. A woman is killed every four hours in South Africa, very…

The drama, intrigue and diplomatic confrontation over the visit of the Russian vessel Lady R involves a plethora of role-players, who are acutely aware that concealment and deception will only complicate an already murky and evolving situation. International hypocrisy and double standards are glaringly evident as the US and South Africa shadow box before a global audience. The trade in armaments is a cloak-and-dagger operation that is conducted under stealth and denial. South Africa has vehemently denied supplying any arms to Russia. Captured arms by the Ukraine forces have revealed weapons from many parts of the world, none from South Africa. Our weapons do not have the capacity to change the battle order in this grim conflict. According to Sipri (the Stockholm Peace Research Institute), we ranked 21, accounting for…

BEFORE you go to battle, draw swords, break ties, refuse to further engage, walk out, block all future contact, plan retribution, exchange punches within an intimate, casual or business relationship, here are steps to consider. Time spent with some or all of these questions will save you and others much energy and pain. The questions are brutal, but not facing them before you enter conflict may be even more so. Honest preparation before conflict will almost always reduce long-term emotional and financial costs. Ask yourself these questions about this circumstance. Write your answers if you really mean business: What is my role in this? Whatever “this” is. What did I believe that was untrue? Have I been totally honest in all of these dealings? Have I trusted too much or…

President Cyril Ramaphosa will join a group of African leaders who will soon travel to Moscow and Kyiv to meet with Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine, to help resolve the conflict between their countries. Ramaphosa said he had spoken with both Zelenskiy and Putin at the weekend where they discussed a possible peaceful solution. He said the two leaders agreed to having a delegation of African leaders to mediate between the warring parties. Ramaphosa will join President Macky Sall of Senegal, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Both Putin and Zelenskiy said they were ready to receive the six African leaders. Preparations were at an advanced stage and the delegation will travel to…

Studying is a race against time for Reginald van Wyk, as he tries to finish his online course-work before load shedding makes learning impossible. A member of the Cape Town Society for the Blind (CTSB), the 43-year-old is studying computer skills through the charity, which offers support and training to about 120 blind and visually impaired people. “We don’t need light because we can’t see, but we need power to listen to our audio course-work on the computer,” Van Wyk said at CTSB’s computer lab. “Our studies have been impacted.” Individuals, organisations and private companies who can afford to do so are rushing to buy solar power systems to keep their homes and businesses running. The cost of solar installations puts constant power out of reach for many citizens and…

The KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital yesterday paid tribute to donors who have given their time and money to ensure the health facility is rebuilt. In a statement, the hospital, which specialises in children’s mental health and neuro development, said the donor-appreciation event was aimed at celebrating donors who had contributed to the renovations of the hospital, which was originally built and opened in 1931, but later shut down by the apartheid government for serving children of all races. “The project to reopen and renovate the hospital began 12 years ago with assistance from donors such as the Elton John Aids Foundation, Victor Daitz Foundation, Grindrod, Anglovaal Industries as well as the KZN Department of Health which is also the hospital’s key partner. “The donors have jointly donated more than R200 million…

The KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane, has been called on to explain an incident in which a woman claimed to have woken up at a Durban hospital mortuary. Constantia Junior Govender said that she woke up, naked and covered with a blanket, at the Phoenix mortuary. In an initial interview with Phoenix Tabloid, Govender recalled blacking out while walking to a friend’s house. The 52-year-old Clayfield woman said she could not remember being taken to the hospital. She said she woke up at the Phoenix mortuary “feeling cold and covered with a sheet from a corpse bed”. The DA’s Edwin Baptie said: “The people of this community deserve a clear and conclusive public statement from the MEC – one that puts paid to speculation and doubt arising from reports that…

The Home Affairs Department is drafting a bill that will clamp down on people who fraudulently manufacture IDs or are in unlawful possession of such documentation. In terms of the proposed National Identification Registration Bill, those found to be on the wrong side of the law may face fines of up to R100 000 or be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Those who make false representations will face a fine of R20 000. The public is now able to make written comments on the bill, which aims to come up with a single identification system for the country. The bill, when it becomes law, will apply to permanent residents and foreigners who sojourn temporarily for a period and also provide for the compilation and maintenance…

THE insistence by the government to remain neutral in the Russian/Ukraine war must be commended. South Africa has assumed the stance of neutrality despite mounting pressure from the US and its European allies to pick a side. There was a furore over the claims made by US Ambassador Reuben Brigety that a Russian ship, Lady R, which had been docked in Simon’s Town Navy Base, had been loaded with arms and ammunition. He made the claims without producing a shred of evidence, a move that led to a huge diplomatic fallout and saw the rand plummeting to its lowest levels. However, he has since said that he had met International Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor to “correct any misimpressions left by public remarks”. America does not appreciate South Africa’s…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to end his 12-year exile from the Arab League this week at a summit in Saudi Arabia, which championed his return over the objections of other regional leaders. Assad’s invitation to tomorrow’s summit in Jeddah signals his return to the fold after more than a decade of isolation since his government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 triggered a war that has killed more than 500 000 people. Analysts say it also shows the clout of Saudi Arabia, which is casting itself as a peacemaker and asserting itself in multiple crises across the Middle East. Beyond rekindling ties with the Assad government, the summit is expected to devote energy to two conflicts: the month-old showdown between two generals in Sudan and the eight-year-old…

Eight people died and thousands were evacuated from their homes after heavy rains caused devastation across Italy’s northern Emilia Romagna region, while this weekend’s Imola Grand Prix was cancelled, officials said yesterday. “The city is on its knees, devastated and in pain,” said Gian Luca Zattini, the mayor of Forli, a city near Bologna where three people were confirmed dead earlier yesterday. Emilia Romagna’s vice-president, Irene Priolo, later said that a total of eight people had died, with several others missing. Two of the bodies in Forli were recovered by divers yeterday, as part of a huge rescue effort involving the armed forces. Emilia Romagna, one of Italy’s richest regions, had already been hit by heavy rain just a fortnight ago, causing floods that left two dead. This time, around…