Sommaire pour 2022-07-22 de Mercury

LEGAL and political experts have called for a parliamentary inquiry over concerns about bank accounts being closed without client consultation – concerns that were raised by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in the final part of the state capture report. Justice Zondo raised the concerns as the commission made various findings regarding the unfair elements of unilateral bank terminations. “In Bredenkamp and Others v Standard Bank of SA Ltd the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decided that a bank was not obliged to hear its client’s side of the story before the bank could terminate the relationship. It seems that the SCA’s basis for this decision was that the relationship between a bank and a client is a contractual one,” he said. Justice Zondo said it was unacceptable that banks, which…

A woman was embarking on the final return leg of a trip of several weeks to family in England. She’s a petite lass – short and trim – and was lugging about a massive box containing gifts and things for family in this country. Arrived in Johannesburg, she asked for an aisle seat on the Durban leg. She was told she was guaranteed an aisle seat if she classified herself as a passenger needing special care. She agreed. She certainly would need assistance from somebody to get her box of gifts into and out of the luggage racks. As mentioned, she’s a shortie. The flight went well. Another woman on the flight was wearing a black mask as a precaution against Covid. She offered one to our little lady. She…

SADLY, the common thread manifested in the remarks of Kim Weir and Gabi Marais (The Mercury, July 20) is the extent to which they adhere to the globalist narrative regarding Covid, Trump and Ukraine. Concerning Kim Weir: while the violation of democratic freedoms in Russia is reprehensible, why does that critical narrative not extend to: The purpose of 46 bio-labs in Ukraine built and financed by the US government. The existence of massive child trafficking and money laundering in Ukraine. Recognising Covid is not under control. In every highly vaxxed country, fresh cases are rife. Worse still, the negative effects of the drug erroneously called a vaccine, are manifested in increasing death rates, miscarriages, cardiac cases among the fit and healthy, diminishing fertility rates among women. Recognising that vaxxing has…

NEW DELHI: When Meta Platforms reported Facebook’s first-ever quarterly drop in daily users on February 2, its finance chief identified higher mobile data costs as a unique obstacle slowing growth in India, its biggest market. On the same day, the US tech group posted the findings of its own research into Facebook’s business in India on an internal employee forum. The study, conducted over the two years to the end of last year, identified different problems. Many women have shunned the male-dominated social network, because they’re worried about their safety and privacy, according to the Meta research. It hadn’t been previously reported. “Concerns about content safety and unwanted contact impede women’s FB use,” said the study, reviewed by Reuters, as it detailed the platform’s main challenges. “Meta cannot succeed in…

TRANSPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula said a culture of corruption was rife at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa). “Once people get into Prasa they focus on a project to steal. The rail agency does not need a commission of inquiry, we need an immediate focus and to get people arrested, we need people in jail,” said Mbalula. Mbalula was speaking at a press briefing held in Johannesburg this week. Mbalula together with the Prasa board and executive management gave a comprehensive account of interventions made to help the entity recover following years of mismanagement and allegations of corruption. The meeting forms part of Mbalula’s oversight visit to track progress by the board to meet its targets to turn Prasa around as mandated through the Shareholders’ Compact. Mbalula and the…

A Munich pub has found a novel way to beat Europe’s cooking oil shortages – letting customers pay for their beer with sunflower oil to ensure plentiful stocks for frying schnitzels. With Ukraine and Russia accounting for about 80% of global exports of sunflower seed oil, many European countries including Germany have seen supplies dwindle since Russia invaded its neighbour in February. Managers at the Giesinger Brewery, a brewhouse and pub in the southern city of Munich, think they may have the answer: offering beer lovers a litre of their favourite brew for the same quantity of sunflower oil. “The whole thing came up because we simply ran out of oil in the kitchen and that’s why we have to be inventive,” the pub manager, Erik Hoffmann, told Reuters TV.…

FORMER SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng says he will petition the Supreme Court of Appeal after the Gauteng High Court refused him leave to appeal its ruling which ordered that he pay back R11 million to the public broadcaster. In terms of the ruling, he had to pay within seven days or lose his R8m pension fund. Motsoeneng filed for leave to appeal the high court’s December 2021 ruling that he must “pay back the money”, after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the SABC took him to court over what has been described as a “success fee”. The previous SABC board decided that Motsoeneng was deserving of an R11m success fee after he sourced funding to establish the now famous 24-hour SABC news channel 404 on the DStv…

Established to facilitate legal and legitimate cross-border movement of people, goods The deployment of border guards as part of building capacity for the newly established Border Management Authority (BMA) marks a watershed moment in the new drive to enforce our country’s immigration laws. At the Beitbridge border post in Musina in Limpopo, Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, deployed 200 border guards and went on to hand over vehicles that will patrol our country’s porous borders. This significant step is a breath of fresh air in the midst of brazen lawlessness and criminality by, mainly, undocumented immigrants. Alarmingly, many of these foreigners are assisted and abetted by unpatriotic Home Affairs officials, police officers, army personnel and, worse still, ordinary South Africans. As one proudly South African tweeted about that…

Mario Draghi, credited with helping save the eurozone as head of the European Central Bank, presided over a remarkable period of unity as Italy’s premier before falling foul of its notoriously unstable political system. The star economist was never directly elected but won the backing of almost all political parties when he took office in February 2021 and raised Italy’s profile on the international stage as a respected leader in the EU and G7. He was tasked with battling the coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath of a recession in Europe’s third-largest economy just as Italy was awarded a vast part of an unprecedented EU recovery package worth billions of euros to boost growth. Enjoying soaring personal popularity and the trust of Brussels and the financial markets, Draghi was seen as…

Russian gas began flowing to Europe via a major pipeline yesterday after a 10-day pause, but fears of broader supply cuts remained, and Russian forces in Ukraine were seen eyeing the capture of the country’s second-biggest power plant. Russian troops shelled cities across eastern and southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, and hit two schools as Moscow’s forces carried out limited ground operations in preparation for what is seen as a wider offensive. The resumption of gas flows via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany ended a nerve-jangling 10 days for Europe in which politicians expressed concern Russia might not restart them at a time when alternative energy supplies are tight and prices high. The pipeline has traditionally carried more than one third of Russia’s gas exports to Europe, but…

GOODMAN Mosele cut a playful figure during the unveiling of Orlando Pirates’ home and away kits ahead of the new season, but spoke with pride and regret. Mosele had a breakthrough season to remember at Pirates last term after playing 31 games, including the CAF Confederation Cup final. He controlled traffic in the engine room, covering up for the defenders, while he was influential going forward as well as he racked up four goals and three assists. His impact, though, couldn’t inspire the Bucs to glory on the local or continental fronts as they also lost out the Confederation Cup final against RS Berkane of Morocco. Speaking at Pirates’ kit launch, which commemorated the club’s 85th anniversary, in Sandton, yesterday, Mosele looked back at his first season at Pirates…

THE KwaZulu-Natal ANC elective conference, one of the most eagerly awaited political gatherings of the party in the province, will begin today, with party members converging at the Olive Convention Centre. While the ruling party’s top brass have always emphasised that such gatherings are about policy matters, much attention has been placed on who emerges as the ANC chairperson in KZN for the next five years. Optimistic provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli told the media yesterday that they were hoping for an early start in order to ensure that party delegates had sufficient time to discuss policy documents that would probably shape the ANC’s future. Ntuli said they were aware of the dangers of delegates getting preoccupied with electing new leaders without paying much attention to the governing party’s discussion documents.…

“My mother-in-law is constantly anxious about our family, even though she is thousands of kilometres from us and living in another country. “She reads all the bad news about South Africa and thinks something bad is going to happen. “This means she tries to check up on us almost every day – often in the middle of her night. “How do I tell her that it is draining on us and that we are doing well? “I really don’t want to offend her or make her more worried by not responding to her many questions. “We are her only family and we try to see her at least every 18 months.” (Edited) While I do not know your mother-in-law, I think I know something about what she experiences. I…

In the past couple of days, there seem to have gathered several new gainsayers of Duncan Du Bois’s dogmatic “World Affairs Solutions Inc.” marketing platforms – the more the merrier. If only Durban’s very own self-appointed doyen omnium would focus just a teeny weeny bit of his unsurpassed wisdom on more pressing matters closer to home, rather than swanning about in Washington DC, Ukraine and all the laboratories of organisations specialising in pathology and medical research, maybe he could come up with workable programmes to remedy the hideous problems which are stifling us here at home? Question: Where do this person’s affections and priorities lie? I mean outside his own ego which seems to have no space for anything but itself?…

Tavern deaths: who exactly must take responsibility? The tavern owners? The young people that lost their lives? Breweries? Irresponsible parents? Are we all, as individuals collectively contributing to our own woes, or is it a case of man-made, inanimate mechanisms that are becoming cannibalistic and biting us in our own butts? We, as parents, advise our children to be careful when crossing the street. So one does not generally see a child playing hop-scotch in the centre of the middle lane of any national freeway, even on a very quiet Sunday morning. The big question carrying a very small answer is: did we create alcohol or did alcohol, like any common virus, attack us anyway? Common synonyms for ‘taverns’ is bars – also known as “brawls”. Inns – also known…

Disciplinary action has been taken against three senior officials implicated in the Digital Vibes saga. The Department of Health said Dr Anban Pillay was found guilty on one of the four charges levelled against him, while Popo Maja was found guilty of two of the four charges against him. Shireen Pardesi was found guilty of one of the two charges against her. The department’s Foster Mohale said the three were suspended last year following investigations by an independent forensic audit firm and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the awarding of a communications contract to Digital Vibes. “As part of consultation, the presiding officer requested the Department of Health, through the Office of the State Attorney, to make submissions into possible sanctions and allowed the legal representatives of the employees…

A pre-owned Hermès Fjord Leather Birkin 35 in black, the most expensive handbag in South Africa, was sold for R280 000 in just eight minutes. The bag was sold through Luxity, South Africa’s first omnichannel boutique focused on buying and selling pre-owned, authentic luxury goods to consumers throughout the country. A new bag can only be obtained by a select group of VIP customers handpicked by Hermès. And the luxury reseller has also just listed a Hermès Swift Leather Kelly Pochette Étoupe at R250 000. Luxity explained that what makes the Hermès Fjord Leather Birkin 35 such an expensive item is that it is crafted from durable fjord leather and features rolled leather top handles, a cross-over flap and a strap closure with palladium silver clasps and a palladium silver…

TURKIYE’S minister of foreign affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, wrote an article, published in The Mercury on July 15, filled with the usual political rhetoric and baseless accusations, which have been disproven many times over. The current ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey (now officially known as Türkiye), was established in 2001 after a difficult period with promises of greater freedom, prosperity and clean governance. It all changed when they thought they had achieved enough power, following their election to government in 2002. During their 20-year reign democratic gains have regressed, the economy has all but collapsed, and the gap between rich and poor has grown. The country was once the hope where the East and the West could coexist harmoniously. It is now run by a populist who disseminates…

Major economies such as India, Brazil and Russia face “cascading” crises driven by climate change such as food insecurity, energy shortages and civil unrest, an industry analysis warned yesterday. While developing nations of Africa and Southeast Asia are predicted to be worst hit by higher temperatures, extreme weather and sea-level rise, some middle-income nations lack the infrastructure and legislative freedom to keep pace with the changing climate. And, as Europe counts the cost of another record-shattering heatwave, analysis showed how even nations with few climate-linked crises will need to adapt as global temperatures rise. The analysis looked at countries’ performances across 32 structural issues – including weather-related events, political stability, economic power, resource security, poverty and human rights – to assess each nations’ capacity to manage crises. It then divided…

Monkeypox experts were discussing yesterday whether the World Health Organization should classify the outbreak as a global health emergency – the highest alarm it can sound. A second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the virus was being held to examine the worsening situation, with nearly 15 400 cases reported from 71 countries, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the UN health agency’s highest alert level. But a majority advised the WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom…

LOCAL markets ended the day on a positive note yesterday in spite of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) delivering the biggest interest rate hike in 20 years, with the rand ending the day higher. The SARB yesterday delivered a hawkish 75 basis points hike in interest rates due to persistently elevated headline inflation and the rand’s weak exchange rate. This was the fifth hike in a row since and the SARB has now hiked rates by a cumulative 200 basis points since November 2021 in a bid to tame price pressures. In spite of this, the rand moderated to R17.06 to the US dollar at 5pm as speculators had already priced in the SARB’s hawkish monetary policy stance. Ashburton Investments fixed income strategist Michael Grobler said the SARB’s…

Alena Analeigh Wicker is like other 13-year-olds in that she enjoys going to the movies, playing soccer, baking and hanging out with friends. But very much unlike other teenagers, she just got accepted to medical school. “I’m still a normal 13-year-old,” said Alena, a student at both Arizona State University and Oakwood University, where she is simultaneously earning two separate undergraduate degrees in biological sciences. “I just have good time management skills and I’m very disciplined.” In May, Alena was offered a spot at the University of Alabama’s Heersink School of Medicine for 2024, as part of its Early Assurance Program – which offers early admission to applicants who meet specific requirements. Alena is more than 10 years younger than the average incoming medical student. When Alena was 3 years…

THE James Webb Space Telescope is all the craze among scientists and astronomers around the world. It’s a new toy and an expensive one, too. And like little children excited about their new toy, all the men and women who worked on it are overjoyed with the success of the world’s most advanced telescope. How powerful could it be that it can peer into the very beginning of time when the cosmos was merely an infant? It’s incredible! It’s beyond words and beyond our imagination. But I feel sorry for the Hubble. It’s place in the sky has been usurped by the newcomer, the bigger and more powerful James Webb. But even though the Hubble is much smaller, less powerful and less advanced than James Webb, it has surprised the…

It is unacceptable that Eskom staff demand salary increases when they also contributed to the present state of Eskom. According to social media reports, it is stated that these employees earn an average of R60 000 a month and Eskom is one of the highest paying employers in the country. Taking this into account, Eskom should be providing a world-class service. Although employees will argue that senior management were involved in corruption, it seems employees were also complicit in acts of wrongdoing. How many employees spoke out about the corruption? A lifestyle audit and polygraph testing will determine how many employees are involved with corruption as well. Also, take into account that Eskom has a bloated staff by about 16 000, according to international benchmarking. The board and the CEO…

A judge had harsh words for the police who refused to assist a mining community after protesters embarked on a violent strike. He said it was no wonder that residents rather looked to civil society to take over the functions of the SAPS to protect them. “The police have a constitutional mandate to prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property and uphold the law,” said Judge MJ Ramaepadi, sitting in the Northern Cape High Court. A community association in the area, on several occasions turned to the courts in a bid to stop the violent behaviour of the strikers who blockaded the road leading to a mine in the area. The Maremane Communal Property Association was successful in…

The Dis-Chem Foundation is once again running its Million Comforts Campaign, in collaboration with the Imbumba Foundation’s Caring4Girls project, to provide sanitary products every year to teenage girls in need. The foundation said the campaign, which has been running since 2015, is devoted to the empowerment of schoolgirls, raising awareness about women’s health, and giving these girls the opportunity to continue their education without the burden of hygiene risks, discomfort, embarrassment or the loss of dignity. In 2021, the Million Comforts Campaign reached a target of 10 million sanitary pads from donations, and the goal this year is to do the same. The foundation said that last week, at Cresta Mall in Johannesburg, the Dis-Chem Foundation and the Imbumba Foundation were joined by rapper and DJ ProVerb as they filled…

A former police officer and his wife have been arrested in Mpumalanga in connection with robberies at a Sterns jewellery shop where the woman worked. Benengi Simon Mgidi, 45, and his wife, Lindiwe Thandiwe Mgidi, 34, are accused of repeated robberies at the jewellery store where she worked. They were arrested during a sting operation and suspected stolen items were recovered. They appeared in court and the case was adjourned to August 11. Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said: “The crime intelligence structure in the province assisted members to have a breakthrough on two robberies which were carried out at Kwaggafontein recently. “One was carried out on July 8 while the other was carried out on July 12 at a Sterns jewellery shop in Phola Mall, Kwaggafontein.” During the…

A number of people were left homeless after several shacks caught fire at an informal settlement in the Effingham area, north Durban, yesterday It is unclear what caused the fire, but clouds of dark smoke could be seen billowing from a distance. Durban metro police spokesperson Geraldine Stevens confirmed that firefighters had responded to the scene. She said the team managed to safely prevent the fire from spreading to other shacks nearby. Three fire trucks from the Durban metro fire department were deployed to douse the blaze. Stevens said no injuries or deaths have been reported yet. “From what we know so far, about 100 shacks have been burnt, so a lot of families have been left destitute. “I have to commend the fire department for doing such a wonderful…

The minister of police has admitted publicly that the Alexandra police unit is under-resourced and its capabilities are less than acceptable. The police’s inability to respond promptly to the recent spate of murders, and apprehend the perpetrators, reflects that a sense of urgency has not been instilled in the officers. This is a national issue, as all police precincts face management missteps, unable to render high-quality policing. Ineffective policing is a reality in this country. Feeling safe has become a myth. No doubt Police Minister Bheki Cele and his top team need to do some serious soul-searching about whether they can stem the ineptitude across rank and file, or whether an experienced team of “top cops” should be brought in to sort out the mess afflicting the SAPS. Accepting failure…

The United Arab Emirates, home to the only foreign branch of the Louvre, has vowed to ensure a thorough investigation into the trafficking of artefacts linked to its parent museum in Paris. Hundreds of artefacts are believed to have been pillaged from Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries during a wave of protests from 2011, known as the Arab Spring. Investigators in France suspect the artefacts were then sold on to galleries and museums around the world. The probe was opened in 2018, two years after the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has become a civil party in the case, bought a rare pink granite stele depicting the pharaoh Tutankhamun and four other historic works for eight million euros (roughly R145m)). Antiquities trafficking has been linked to armed groups such…

Have you heard it yet? The KZN Angler News audio fishing report is South Africa's first fishing podcast series that focuses on the latest fishing reports of the East Coast, whether they’re hot or not! It delivers true and accurate content from the provinces most prominent anglers on a weekly basis on various facets of angling. This report is free and available on all major Podcast platforms including Apple Pods, Google Pods, Spotify and Deezer as well as SA’s most popular Facebook Pages. This show is proudly sponsored by The Kingfisher to ensure you get into the right feeding zones with bending rods for the upcoming weekend! https://ansapodcast.buzzsprout.com The weather has been a bit blustery, but the fishing has been great! Kob, garrick, shad and a host of others have…