Mercury的2022-08-26目录

ASSETS valued at millions of rand belonging to the eThekwini Municipality were attached by the Sheriff of the Court yesterday to satisfy a R30 million debt owed by the municipality to a private company. The assets were attached after a company called Daily Double Trading 479 CC, trading as Pholobas Projects, took the municipality to court. The matter stems from a case brought by the company against the city and a subsequent judgment that was handed down in April this year by the Durban High Court. In terms of that judgment, the city was ordered to pay the company the sum of R30m plus interest at the rate of 10.5% from February 2, 2018 to the date of final payment. The city was also ordered to pay the costs of…

Please, do not underestimate your power to spread goodwill and ensure for yourself, at least, a really good day. There are people who are committed to having a bad day no matter what, so leave them to it. Get out of their way. Allow them all the room in the world for their negativity, but, for you, a good day is really possible. Decide to serve others. Look for ways to ease the load others must carry and you will find yourself feeling remarkably free. Seek downward mobility and do the things you’ve somehow thought below your status, no matter how important you may think you are, or have led others to believe you are. Your importance is an illusion. Get used to it. Seek to listen to others and…

Former ANC MP turned state capture witness Vytjie Mentor, passed away after a long illness. It is sincerely hoped that the nation will mark her death by giving her the necessary honour she deserves. Our future should associate her name with those of other fearless whistle-blowers, who risked their fate to do the unpopular, hard and correct thing when it was needed most. In 2002, Time magazine made three whistle-blowers its “Persons Of The Year” in honour of their exposing scandals at Enron, the FBI and WorldCom. Many of our whistle-blowers have been harassed, demoted or dismissed. This has resulted in devastating consequences for these brave individuals. Many have been targeted and some killed. Speaking up about endemic corruption and exposing wrongdoers takes courage and tenacity to stand up for…

The front-page article (The Mercury, August 24) about contaminated tap water refers. This is a total disgrace and a shocking state of affairs. Those responsible should be fired but, alas, as we all know, those responsible for allowing this to happen will not even get a reprimand. It just boggles the brain that the municipality can even allow such a thing to happen, it boils down to a dereliction of duty by someone. If deaths were caused by the consumption of this water, parties should sue the municipality for millions. What municipality would allow contaminated water to flow through the taps for human consumption. Is the flow of drinkable water not monitored by someone? Probably worst of all these people are paying for this quality of water. Is it a…

THE growth and development of Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas will depend largely on the commitment by local communities to protect their assets, such as shopping malls, as this will go a long way towards creating and retaining jobs for locals. This is the view of Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business (PMCB) chief executive Melanie Veness, and comes following the opening of the first phase of the Greater Edendale Mall yesterday. The centre, along with Brookside Mall, was among the shopping centres gutted by fire during the looting in last year’s riots. “First, I want to wholeheartedly welcome the re-opening of both malls and to applaud and thank the investors for their courage and the loyalty shown to our city,” said Veness. She noted the devastating impact the looting had…

Stellar reputation as a fierce anti-corruption fighter remains intact Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s candidacy for the position of ANC president will, for a considerable period in the coming months, give the incumbent ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa, sleepless nights. Ramaphosa and his closest allies have been mired in serious allegations of corruption, criminal activities and sexual harassment allegations. Purely to ensure his own political survival, Ramaphosa is poised to unleash a well-orchestrated strategy to ensure that his political rivals are eliminated or seriously hobbled before the ANC elective conference in December. One target of that nefarious strategy is likely to be Sisulu, who has already been subjected to a defamatory campaign of vilification emanating from both within the ANC and reactionary right-wing forces hell-bent on maintaining the status quo. Surely Sisulu…

French President Emmanuel Macron hopes his three-day Algeria visit, which kicked off yesterday, will end a diplomatic row and allow him to develop his relationship with young Algerians, but the country’s leaders may prove hard to win over. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune wants solid investment commitments – which seem unlikely to be announced this week – and for Macron to atone for comments he made last year about Algeria’s history and its ruling elite. For France, better relations with its former colony are growing more important because an energy shortage due to Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised demand for North African gas, and because of growing migration across the Mediterranean. Algeria, meanwhile, wants to take advantage of high energy prices to secure big contracts and investment projects, as it has…

The death toll from an air strike on a train station in central Ukraine rose to 25 yesterday, as the EU warned those “responsible for Russian rocket terror will be held accountable”. The warning came as Russia issued a counter-claim saying it targeted soldiers and killed 200 Ukrainian servicemen in the attack on Wednesday on a rail hub in Chaplyne city of the Dnipropetrovsk region. The attack struck six months to the day since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Railways said the toll had risen from 22 to 25, with a further 31 people injured. Moscow claimed to have slain more than 200 Ukrainian troops and 10 units of military equipment in the attack. The defence ministry said the train was “en route to combat zones” in…

Sydney: Australia’s catastrophic bushfires significantly affected the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, according to a new report published yesterday. The report, which appeared in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, traced a link from the unprecedented smoke released by the fires to the ozone hole above Antarctica. The fires, which burned through 5.8 million hectares of Australia’s east in 2019 and 2020 caused dozens of smoke-infused pyrocumulonimbus clouds to form that shot millions of tons of smoke and associated gases into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. This is more than the previous record, set by the 2017 North American wildfires. | AFP…

THE eThekwini Municipality is set to announce a new municipal manager during a full council meeting scheduled for today. The position has been vacant for more than a year, following the premature departure of Sipho Nzuza. The Mercury recently reported on three names said to be the front runners for the city’s top job. Among those mentioned was Musa Mbhele, who is the current acting city manager. The road to fill the vacancy has been rough, as this is the second time in a matter of months that the city is attempting to fill the vacancy. Earlier this year, the interview panel, then led by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, had recommended Max Mbili for the city manager post. However, the appointment was blocked by the executive committee and council after allegations…

Traditional Indian cooking requires a lot of oil. Curries, fries, snacks, chilli bites, pickles and even sweetmeats all require gallons of oil. The mutton or chicken curry must float in oil or it is not a good curry. Have you eaten Durban’s famous bunny chow? The mutton bunny is finger lickin’, but it’s just fatty meat and white bread soaking with oil and gravy. Some people actually like fatty meat. They say the fat gives the curry flavour. Take-aways are also guilty of cooking fatty foods. They do not trim off the fat. Not only does the fat give flavour to the mutton curry but it also adds to the profit margin. But the fatty meat and oil are a deadly combination. Although our mothers and wives have been warned…

Citizens and ratepayers who contribute towards the salaries of law-enforcement departments are demanding to know what has happened to these once effective organisations. Previously when one drove around eThekwini, and especially in Chatsworth, we would see random police roadblocks during the day and night and we would also see the stop-and-search of suspicious vehicles. There is a serious lack of proactive policing which makes us, the law-abiding citizens, targets for criminals. If one looks at the physical size of some of these law-enforcement officers, one wonders how on earth they are able to chase criminals. I remember in the past, police officers would go for physical assessments every six months so that we had a lean and mean police force. Is it because of weak management at the top who…

A 55-year-old man was arrested for an online dating scam while in court for a similar matter. According to Zinzi Hani, the Western Cape spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the suspect is alleged to have defrauded a former SAPS senior manager out of R3.3 million. Hani said the suspect was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering. “The 55-year-old suspect was arrested in the Bellville District Court on Wednesday while appearing on a similar matter,” Hani said. The suspect found his victim on Facebook and claimed to be a civil engineer from Norway. He is alleged to have used the tactics of the infamous “Tinder Swindler”, Simon Leviev. “He repeatedly borrowed money from his victim,” Hani said. | Mercury Correspondent…

Food prices are soaring and the sharp rise in inflation to a record high of 7.8% is expected to put more pressure on consumers. This is according to experts who spoke to The Mercury yesterday about the spiralling costs of living, particularly with regard to food. In a report this week, the Competition Commission South Africa said South African consumers may be facing opportunistic price increases of sunflower oil as processor prices have increased by far more than sunflower seed prices; this has also caused an increase in the price of margarine. The commission said increases of sunflower oil prices had come at a time when there was widespread concern over food price inflation faced by already struggling consumers. “To date, the commission’s work in food price monitoring has revealed…

Vuthela in Zulu means to blow to rekindle a fire. After a litany of serious setbacks – state capture, load shedding, the Covid-19 pandemic, the July 2021 civil unrest, and the recent floods – economic actors in the iLembe District are determined to move forward to a period of rebuilding and recovery. The Swiss government-supported Vuthela iLembe LED Support Programme is committed to supporting inclusive economic growth, an enabling business environment and inclusive employment and income-generating opportunities in the district. The Vuthela Programme has been supporting various initiatives by the three municipal partners (iLembe District, Mandeni and KwaDukuza), and other key local economic role players in iLembe to improve the business environment by strengthening the financial management of the municipalities, improving technical planning to address municipal infrastructure constraints, improving the…

Britain has experienced severe heatwaves this summer like never before, with temperatures hitting a record high and droughts threatening the public water supply. Experts expect to see more such extreme weather events due to climate change. They warn that one spell after another of hot and dry weather could take a grim economic toll. During the summer, infrastructure in Britain was put under mounting pressure amid the heat, with agriculture disrupted by a lack of water. Britain baked in its hottest day ever on July 19 as a village in the East Midlands of England saw air temperature reach 40.3°C, beating the previous record of 38.7°C in July 2019. Before that, the national weather service Met Office had issued its first-ever red extreme heat warning. Amid the sweltering heat, wildfires…

SOFIA: Mack Rutherford, 17, landed in Bulgaria this week after he broke the world record for the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world. His achievement was recognised by the Guinness World Records, which handed him two certificates after landing – for the youngest (male) person to circumnavigate the world by aircraft solo, and the youngest (male) person to circumnavigate the world in a microlight plane solo. Rutherford took off from Sofia in March and flew through 52 countries, logging up about 250 hours of flying time. There were several “hairy” moments during his journey, he said, but he never gave up. | Xinhua…

MADRID: Authorities in Spain euthanised a paraplegic man this week who faced trial for shooting and wounding three people at his former workplace, as well as a police officer. The case has cast light on Spain’s controversial euthanasia law, which allows patients suffering from chronic pain to undergo assisted suicide regardless of their legal standing. Police say Marin Eugen Sabau, 46, stormed the offices of the security company from which he had been fired in Tarragona and opened fire in December. Before he could stand trial for attempted murder, Sabau asked to be considered for doctor-assisted suicide. | Washington Post…

THE World Sevens Series reaches a climax in Los Angeles this weekend and there are permutations galore as to who will be crowned champions but the Blitzboks have left their calculators in South Africa and will simply play their best possible rugby. And if the red-hot Blitzboks finish the last tournament in the same great form as they did the first one in Dubai way back in December — they will be victorious. But captain Siviwe Soyizwapi knows that if this is to happen, they have to play to those same high standards. “We have to keep our own standards and not worry about our opponents,” he said. “We had an up and down season, but we learned from all those mishaps and came back stronger. There is one more…

Day 1 of 5: South Africa 151 England 111/3 DEAN Elgar is by his own admission a ‘bat first’ captain. He wanted to bat at Lord’s last week after winning the toss, and said despite advice from the coaching staff to bowl, he still had to fight with himself before following their advice. Having won the toss again yesterday, Elgar went with his first instinct, despite the cloudy overhead conditions, and the fact that his team’s strength is its fast bowling and England’s top order is fragile. The South African captain’s mind was in part also made up by the composition of his team, that included Simon Harmer, in place of Marco Jansen, with the brainstrust determining that the Old Trafford surface was dry and would aid spin. However, the…

SOUTH Africa’s producer prices in July tracked consumer prices and rose to a fresh peak, mainly driven by petroleum and chemical products, food and beverages as well as metals and machinery. This means that consumers will continue paying higher prices for goods and producers pass on the input costs to the end-users amid elevated headline inflation, which reached 7.8 percent in July. Data from Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the annual producer price inflation (PPI) at the factory gate reached a fresh record high of 18 percent in July, up from another record of 16.2 percent in June. This latest PPI print crept closer to the all-time high reached during the 2008 global financial crisis and was above market forecasts of 17.3 to 17.6…

The Comrades Marathon on Sunday is forecast to inject R248 million into the economy of KwaZulu-Natal. This is according to a statement from the KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Siboniso Duma. Duma said the 95th running of the “Ultimate Human Race” would bring a much-needed economic boost to the province, with accommodation occupancies reported to be peaking at 93% in Pietermaritzburg, and at 69% in Durban and uMhlanga for the weekend. “The event will be held amid much fanfare following a two-year break brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.” He added that the province was “ready to ensure that runners and spectators, both national and international, have an exceptional experience in the destination”. In a briefing yesterday, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) said it did…

A RETURN to pre-Covid normal for yet another tradition. The Comrades Marathon runners set off from Maritzburg on Sunday for the grinding run to Durban. And, oddly enough, the “down” run is just as punishing as the “up”, thanks to the province’s hilly topography. Yes, the Comrades, initially launched to re-create the camaraderie in adversity of World War I. It has produced a treasure trove of incident. There was Bill Payn, the Durban High School master, who did the “up” run in his rugby boots. Around Botha’s Hill, he and a fellow-runner chowed a curried chicken to keep their strength up. Then they dropped in at a pub and refreshed themselves with a few pints. Around Camperdown, an elderly lady at the roadside gave Payn a glass of her home-distilled…

In David Cartwright’s world, one swallow does make a summer. He is “alive and well,” he writes, even though he has been jabbed twice and had a booster. Dismissing the mounting reports of adverse effects caused by Covid vaxxing, he asks: “So where’s the peril?” (The Mercury, August 24). Unfortunately, presenting Cartwright with verified facts about the life- and health-threatening effects of the Covid vax, is as pointless as trying to pin a jelly to a wall. Therefore, on behalf of all those who differ from Cartwright’s authoritative vax experience and narrative, I wish him continued good health which, hopefully, was not disrupted by a bilious attack caused by Farouk Araie’s excellent letter on Wednesday exposing the treasonous efforts being made to stop Trump’s political return.…

Champagne grape pickers have had to start the harvest earlier this year, as climate change forces the makers of the French sparkling wine to rethink how they make the coveted bubbly. High temperatures and the worst drought on record have caused massive wildfires and led to restrictions on water usage across France. But they also boosted grape maturity. An August harvest, rather than in early September last year, used to be a once in a lifetime experience in Champagne in the past, said Charles Philipponnat, president of the family-owned Philipponnat Champagne winery that produces several hundred thousand bottles a year. Not any more. “It’s quite clear that global warming is having an effect now,” he said in his winery in northern France. Around him, pickers hired for the short harvesting…

After two-and-a-half years on the road, the all-South African cast of hit international tribute concert Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic is bringing the show home for two big arena gigs in Durban and Cape Town next month. Durban’s The Globe at Suncoast will host a performance on September 3 and the Grand Arena at GrandWest Cape Town will play host to the other on September 10. The show’s young South African stars include Cape Town’s Warren Vernon-Driscoll who performs as Freddie Mercury, Durban local Rusty Red on lead guitar as Brian May, Durbanville’s André van der Merwe as bass guitarist John Deacon, and Hilton-based drummer Michael Dickens as Roger Taylor. Tickets for both the Durban and Cape Town shows are now on sale. For Durban tickets visit Ticketpros.co.za…

HAVE you ever wondered just what is packed into a big SUV towing an equally big caravan or offroad trailer when you pass them on a long weekend or going on holiday, never mind the cost of all the equipment, aftermarket accessories and fuel? I know I’m guilty, especially if I’m towing my bush wagon. Extra fuel, water, a fridge and freezer, solar panel, deep cycle batteries, food and drink to feed an army, gazebo and the list goes on and when you eventually come home you realise that perhaps it was all a little too much. The challenge is to be minimalist, which with intelligent planning and some thought isn’t that difficult. That much was clear when we recently got to spend three nights and four days in Botswana…

Hundreds of Europeans have crossed borders for the monkeypox vaccine, sparking calls to address a gaping inequality in access to doses between nations. The current outbreak began in Europe in May, when the virus began spreading rapidly outside areas in Africa where it has long been endemic. The virus, which is rarely fatal but can cause extremely painful lesions, has overwhelmingly affected men who have sex with men, some of whom have sought to swiftly get vaccinated. However some countries have had much larger and quicker rollouts of the only approved vaccine for monkeypox, a smallpox jab produced by Danish firm Bavarian Nordic and marketed in Europe as Imvanex. Belgium, for example, has just 3 000 doses, which are only available to LGBT sex workers, men who have sex with…

Angolan President Joao Lourenco was yesterday heading for likely victory over his charismatic rival after the country’s most hotly contested election in its democratic history, with most of the ballots counted. Vote counting began after polls closed on Wednesday in the oil-rich nation, where multiparty elections were introduced only in 1992. The election had been overshadowed by Angola’s many woes – a struggling economy, inflation, poverty and drought, compounded by the death of a former strongman president. Preliminary results published yesterday by Angola’s electoral commission gave the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) 52.08% of the vote with more than 86% of ballots counted. The main opposition group, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), led by Adalberto Costa Junior, 60, was at 42.98%.…

LONDON: Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of two candidates vying to be Britain’s next premier, criticised the way outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson handled the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it had been a mistake to “empower” scientists and that the downsides of lockdowns were suppressed. The ruling Conservative Party is choosing a new leader after Johnson was forced to quit after a series of scandals and missteps. Party members are voting to select either Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who will take over next month. Opinion polls show Sunak is behind in the race. The handling of the pandemic has become an issue, with Truss saying this month she would never again approve another lockdown. Sunak said the government had been “wrong to scare people” about Covid-19.…

Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday that a million people had died from Covid-19 in 2022, calling it a “tragic milestone” when all the tools existed to prevent deaths. Nearly 6.45 million deaths have been reported to the WHO since the virus was first detected in China in late 2019. But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioned whether the world was really on top of the pandemic. He wanted all countries to have vaccinated 70% of their populations by the end of June. But 136 countries failed to reach the target, of which 66 still had coverage below 40%. He said only 10 countries had less than 10% coverage. | AFP…

RAFAEL Nadal targets a fifth US Open and 23rd Grand Slam title in New York from next week as Novak Djokovic clings desperately onto a forlorn hope of even being allowed to set foot in New York. Nineteen years after making his debut, the 36-year-old Nadal drags his injury-prone body into a tournament he won in 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019, the year of his last appearance. The Spaniard has had to sit out the US Open four times in his career and there are again fresh doubts over his physical ability to survive a gruelling two weeks at Flushing Meadows. Since an abdomen injury forced him to hand Nick Kyrgios a walkover into the Wimbledon final, Nadal has played just once – a first-up loss to Borna Coric in…

THE offshore fishing has been great for most. The further north the better the bite but some locals have seen brilliant fish off Durban. The north coast has had it all this past week. The bigger seas have made it a bit tricky, but the bounty has been worth the discomfort. Tuna, snoek and couta have been the main species landed and a mix of techniques have accounted for the catches. A very well done to Rob Hamburger for his amazing 56kg tuna taken on a popper just off Durban. Everyone has seen the pictures. This shows that time and effort will give you the results. The central coast has been producing a good mix of species but, much like the shore angling, people have preferred to go south or…