Inhaltsverzeichnis für 2022-03-11 in Mercury

DHAYALAN MOODLEY | Chatsworth IT IS sad to drive on the Higginson Highway and see the state of deep decline of our once beautiful Chats- worth. Being a disgruntled ratepayer, I have become very disillusioned. We as a community are tired of trying to build an environmentally healthy and sustainable community. It is shocking to note the overgrown grass, unsightly objects and garbage in the streets. It seems we are being short-changed by the municipality that has failed to deliver services. There is definitely a lack of leadership at the top, and in the process we are suffering. These employees are showing contempt for the municipal motto, “Batho Pele” – “we serve”. The municipality needs to employ unemployed people on a temporary basis to keep the streets clean…

Items from the birth of Apple, home computing and video gaming are up for grabs at an auction, which will conclude on March 17. The top lot from “The Steve Jobs Revolution: Engelbart, Atari, and Apple” auction is a July 1976 check to pay $3 430 for parts for the Apple 1 computer, signed by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. “This is before they had any investors,” explained Bobby Livingston, executive vice-president at RR Auction, which is conducting the sale. “The reason it’s signed by both of them is in their charter. Any expenses over $1 000, they both had to agree and here’s the evidence.” The auction includes many items relating to Jobs, including high school photos and an application he had filled out for a job…

The EU has taken in two million refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and millions more will follow, the bloc’s top migration official said this week. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said the number of people to have fled Ukraine in eastern and central Europe reached two million on Tuesday, amid renewed efforts to create safe evacuation corridors from cities under attack. With virtually all of them arriving in the EU, it has let in over the course of 12 days more people than in 2015 and 2016 combined, when Syria’s war triggered the previous large immigration wave to Europe, dividing the 27-nation bloc. Since 2015, the EU has suffered bitter internal divisions over how to share out migrants and refugees fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and…

Jonisayi Maromo and Reuters Scores of Zambian students who were stranded in war-ravaged Ukraine have arrived back home. Last week, there were several complaints from nationals of African countries who said they were being prevented from fleeing Ukraine by enforcement authorities at the borders. Africans said they were pushed back in the queue and were subjected to racism. Yesterday, there were scenes of jubilation after a group of 79 students was reunited with their families in Zambia’s capital Lusaka. According to reports, the government facilitated their evacuation through Warsaw, Poland. The relieved students were welcomed on the airport tarmac by Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stanley Kakubo as well as Information and Media Minister Chushi Kasanda. “In a war, things are complicated, fragile, situations can change at any moment. But…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za Two suspects, who were arrested for a Camperdown farm robbery this week, have been linked to the theft of a firearm in Mpumalanga township, outside Hammarsdale, nine years ago. Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said in the incident on Wednesday, an 80-year-old farm owner and his employee were tied up by two suspects at his farm on Umlaas Road in Camperdown while the farm house was robbed. The arrests come after an incident in Paulpietersburg on Saturday, where a farmer and his wife were attacked. The suspect shot at them and fled on foot. Police are investigating an attempted house robbery. In Wednesday’s incident, Shaheen Suleiman from Magma Security said an officer went to the scene. “The farm owner had been busy with his employee fixing the…

Nomonde Zondi nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za A Khoisan man from Gauteng said he felt humiliated when he went shopping at Pick n Pay in Scottburgh on Wednesday and was turned away. Shane Plaatjies said while he was not given a reason for why he was being turned away, he believed it was because he was wearing his Khoisan attire. Plaatjies and his wife Irma Oosthuizen went back to the store yesterday to speak to the store’s management. A manager apologised to the couple and said he was off-duty when the incident took place. He told The Mercury that he was not sure what transpired on Wednesday but he would take it up with the security company. He said the Pick n Pay national office would provide a response about the incident to The…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za THE National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI) said this week they would not be negotiating with All Truck Drivers’ Forum and Allied SA (ATDF ASA) and that the forum is not recognised as a union. The statement came following last week’s announcement by ATDF ASA that they would be putting their planned national protest on hold pending meetings with the Department of Employment and Labour and the National Bargaining Council. Musawenkhosi Ndlovu, national secretary of NBCRFLI, said that the council and parties to the council were perturbed by the protest marches and shutdown that took place at its offices last week. He said the organisers of these marches and shutdown had been interdicted from taking such action in terms of a “court…

OUR national football team has had its fair share of problems, mostly due to poor planning and a lack of vision by the federation – the South African Football Association (Safa). While some major football nations are celebrating how they fared in the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations, and others are fighting for the places up for grabs in the Fifa World Cup to be held in Qatar later this year, our Bafana Bafana are licking their wounds. The question is whether the administrators of the beautiful game in South Africa have learnt anything from their past mistakes. In Belgian coach Hugo Broos, Bafana may have found someone with a long-term vision, a mentor who recognises that qualifying for major tournaments takes careful preparation and a thick skin. Broos…

Mali said it would investigate the disappearance of several Mauritanians on its territory, which has caused a diplomatic row between the two West African countries. Mauritania summoned Mali’s ambassador this week “to protest the recent criminal acts perpetrated by regular Malian forces against our defenceless and innocent citizens in Malian territory”, according to a foreign ministry statement. The statement did not further lay out its allegations against Malian forces or say how many people were missing. Audio recordings on social media, attributed to eyewitnesses who have not been authenticated, say 30 people have disappeared, and blame Malian soldiers. In a statement late on Wednesday, Malian government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga confirmed that “murders” had occurred. Junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita had spoken with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani,…

CHERYL WATERMAN THIS weekend sees the start of the Port Natal Mixed Pairs Championship (traditionally referred to as the Oppenheimer Championship) sponsored by Amanzimtoti Bowling Club and Acacia Operations Services. On Sunday 187 teams will travel to various venues in the district to compete in three games of round robin play to determine section winners. The mixed pairs championship is more than a Port Natal district competition because the winners of the final, which is scheduled for Sunday March 27 at Amanzimtoti Bowling Club, will travel to Kowie Bowling Club in Port Alfred (Eastern Province Bowls) to compete in the Bowls South Africa Mixed Pairs Championship. This competition will run from June 16-19 and will involve the championship winners from the 20 districts affiliated to Bowls South Africa. Further to…

CRYSTAL Palace's physical attributes and the quality of their forward Wilfried Zaha will pose a difficult challenge for Manchester City when the teams meet in the Premier League on Monday, City manager Pep Guardiola said. Palace, who beat City 2-0 away in October with goals from Zaha and Conor Gallagher, and have lost one of their last eight games in all competitions. "Seeing their run, the physicality, organisation, quality up front especially with Zaha. When they defend deep, they're so difficult to break down," Guardiola told reporters yesterday. "Selhurst Park is always a difficult place to go. It's like a final for us, we know it." The City manager also heaped praise on Palace boss Patrick Vieira, who captained Arsenal to three league titles and four FA Cup triumphs as…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za MANUFACTURING output in South Africa rebounded sharply in January following three consecutive months of declines as the industry battled to recover from the July unrest. However, the ongoing war in eastern Europe could severely affect material prices and South Africa’s energy crisis could dampen this recovery in the coming months. Statistics South Africa (StatSA) yesterday said manufacturing production rose 2.9 percent year-on-year in January, and was almost in line with market forecasts of a 2.85 percent increase. This was the strongest increase in factory activity since last June, helped by an 11.5 percent rise in the production of food and beverages. Wood and wood products, paper, publishing, and printing categories grew 11.5 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively. The basic iron and steel,…

GLEN CHRISTIE | Durban North The comments by the executive officer of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry concerning the filthy and disgusting state of our city refer (The Mercury, March 9). Yes, it is a justified reflection on how dysfunctional our municipality is, and in particular the leadership. On the same page, we read about the antics of the Gumede faction within the municipality. When looking at the greater picture we have on one hand a leaderless dysfunctional municipality coupled with factions within this municipality vying and jockeying for political power to get their greedy paws on the money, so to speak. This also confirms that those employed have no priority about supplying reasonable service delivery but are more interested in what they can gain…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof Howzit bra? How’s your SUV? It’s lekker bro. It goes like a bomb. I feel like a king sitting high up and looking down at all the little motorists below me. And when you go to the petrol station? Do you still feel like a king when you have to fill its enormous tank? That’s another matter. The petrol price is killing me. It cost me R1 750 to fill the tank the other day. With all the running around I have to do every day, the petrol will only last me a week. You do a helluva lot of running around then? Yah bro, I have so many errands to do. Drop the kids off at school and pick them up, go to…

Ebrahim Essa | Durban Co-authored by Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, the epic effort Colour, Class and Community – The Natal Indian Congress, 1971–1994 again reminds us all that final freedom was a joint effort by black people, white people and, yes, guess what? Indian people. Has anybody, especially politicians whose surnames begin with an “M”, ever heard of other Indian freedom fighters besides Pravin Gordhan? So who can blame the average Indian, who cares to remember our past heroes from screaming “foul” when Indians in this country are being victimised? Indian intellectuals and Indians who can read, rightfully point to “our” sacrifices and complain about the dismal days of “1949” and “Inanda” riots in the mid-80s, when even the peace-exuding Gandhi Settlement was razed to the ground.…

| The Washington Post An 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who fled to Slovakia alone – with a plastic bag, a passport and a telephone number scrawled on his hand – was hailed by authorities. But it was not the first time fighting had uprooted the child, whose family fled Syria’s war about a decade ago. His safe escape from Ukraine, travelling hundreds of kilometres by train on his own, marked a bright moment this week in a conflict that has escalated since Russian troops marched into the country. It showed “fearlessness and determination worthy of a real hero” from a boy whose smile has “won everybody’s hearts” Slovakia’s Interior Ministry wrote on Facebook as the minister met with the child he called “Little Hassan”. Once the boy crossed the border,…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za THE battle over the secret ballot in Parliament on the motion of no confidence against President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Cabinet at the end of the month is not over yet. This was after Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula called on all parties to make formal submissions on whether they wanted an open ballot or a secret ballot. Opposition parties had rejected a suggestion by Mapisa-Nqakula that the motion against Ramaphosa on March 30 be done through an open ballot. This followed a request by the ATM that the vote be done via a secret ballot. However, Mapisa-Nqakula rejected the secret ballot, saying the political environment “was not toxic” in Parliament. The DA, the UDM and Freedom Front Plus called for a secret ballot. The ATM had tabled a…

The Klerksdorp Magistrate’s Court, in North West, has sentenced a 40-year-old woman to five years’ imprisonment, or alternatively a fine of R100 000 after she was arrested for possession of unprocessed gold worth approximately R650 000. North West spokesperson for the Hawks, Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso, said Agrinath Maluli was arrested at her home in Khuma on June 24 last year. “The illicit mining task team was following up on information when her house was searched and unwrought gold found. She made a series of court appearances and later pleaded guilty resulting in her sentence of a fine of R100 000 or five years’ imprisonment, and a further five years wholly suspended for five years,” said Rikhotso. Last month, a 40-year-old man arrested for allegedly selling uncut diamonds for R3.5 million…

Reuters and Mercury Reporter The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship “Endurance”, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank some 3 000m to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found. The three-masted sailing ship was lost in November 1915 during Shackleton’s failed attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. Previous attempts to locate the 144-foot-long wooden wreck, whose location was logged by its captain Frank Worsley, had failed due to the hostile conditions of the ice-covered Weddell Sea under which it lies. However, the Endurance22 mission, organised by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and using advanced underwater vehicles called Sabertooths fitted with high-definition cameras and scanners, tracked down the vessel’s remains. Footage showed the ship in a remarkably good condition, with its…

A COMMON theme that emerges from the surfeit of annual declarations of support from governments, international organisations, corporates, banks, NGOs, communities and activists marking International Women’s Day on March 8 is that progress towards gender equality remains elusive. To think that International Women’s Day has been observed for 111 years, with the first gathering in 1911 supported by more than a million people, merely attests to what extent patriarchy remains entrenched in the establishment psyche, dominated by a self-styled male paragon of the species. Political leadership, underpinned by a rise in populism in the last few years in the US, Europe, Australia, Philippines and elsewhere, has reinforced misogyny defined by the nauseating metrics of “p****-grabbing”, women dressed as “letter boxes”, and a lexicon of sexist vitriol across all cultures,…

Antalya (Turkey): Russia and Ukraine yesterday failed to find a breakthrough on a ceasefire and other humanitarian issues at the first high-level talks between the two sides since Moscow’s invasion. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba met on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in the Turkish resort city of Antalya for three-way talks joined by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Kuleba said “no progress” had been achieved on even a 24-hour ceasefire, expressing frustration that “it seems that there are other decision-makers for this matter in Russia”. He also repeated his vow that the country will not give in, saying “I want to repeat that Ukraine has not surrendered, does not surrender, and will not surrender”. He described the meeting as “difficult”, accusing his Russian counterpart…

AND then there was one for Orlando Pirates as they crashed out of yet another competition with defeat at the hands of Marumo Gallants in the Nedbank Cup via a penalty shoot-out. The Buccaneers have had a terrible last five days as defeat to arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs was followed by this disappointing elimination of the last available local knockout competition. Pirates co-coach Fadlu Davids feels his men don't have time to reflect on their shortfalls this season and he would rather have his team focus on their upcoming CAF Confederation Cup game this weekend. The former Maritzburg United coach spoke after his side's defeat at the Peter Mokaba Stadium and revealed his displeasure with his players failing to make the most of their opportunities. "We have ourselves to…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za GOVERNMENT departments have been given “powers” in the new finance budget to create employment opportunities through infrastructure projects. Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube tabled the budget on Wednesday for the 2022-23 financial year. It gave special attention to infrastructure projects, job creation, skills development and entrepreneurship. Delivering the province’s economic outlook, Dube-Ncube said between June and September last year, many people had lost their jobs. She said while KwaZulu-Natal’s economy had shown positive signs of a full recovery, provincial employment was unacceptably low. “The number of employed people dropped by 5.1% in the third quarter of 2021,” she said. Economists said infrastructure projects and tourism were the key to unlocking employment opportunities. Economist Professor Bonke Dumisa said infrastructure could be the catalyst for job creation, saying the province…

FAROUK ARAIE | Johannesburg The brutal conflict between Russia and Ukraine exposes the hypocrisy of the entire world. As a parent and a grandparent, I condemn any war that relegates diplomacy to a matter of last resort. The current conflict must be condemned for its savagery. The actions of the entire world in condemning the violence, is laudable, but very perplexing. Where was the entire world when Putin bombed and utterly destroyed Grozny, the Chechen capital in 1999, in a war that killed 80 000 people? The bombastic statements by Nato on the conflict in Europe are the epitome of blatant hypocrisy. When Nato bombed a hospital in Afghanistan, killing 22 people during the early stages of the war, it was classified as collateral damage. It was a clearly marked…

THE appearance, by Zoom, in a packed House of Commons, of beleaguered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, inevitably (and, of course, by design) echoed an equally beleaguered Winston Churchill. “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”: Churchill. Zelenskyy: “We will not give up, and we will not lose. We will fight to the end in the sea, in the air. We will fight…

RATCHET up your level of functioning, and watch your levels of happiness and fulfilment surge or at least improve. Allow the “when we” in you to meet its inevitable death. Your future will be brighter than your past only if you can successfully overcome the hurdles of wanting things to be the way things were, but are no longer. Have the difficult conversations you might have been avoiding. The only things that disappear if you ignore them are your teeth. And, please don’t credit me with this cute axiom – I saw it many years ago on a dentist’s billboard. I have used it ever since. Give up the search for a knight in shining armour to save you or a damsel in distress for you to save. Simply acknowledge…

When her refugee permit expired in June last year, Congolese nurse Marseline Buhoro started getting calls from her bank in Johannesburg, saying her account would be frozen. Then her children’s university told her they would not be able to graduate because her family was technically undocumented. Buhoro pleaded for a grace period, explaining she had finally figured out how to apply for a renewal using the government’s new online system but had been waiting months for confirmation that her application went through. “It’s like a second trauma,” said the 53-year-old nurse who came to South Africa in 2005 to escape a civil war that killed her husband and three of her children. “They freeze your account, your landlord is on your neck, you can’t buy food because you have no…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za THE DA has opened a criminal case against the head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture, Ntokozo Chonco, on allegations of tender fraud amounting to R5.1 million related to the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE). Bradley Singh, DA KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson on Arts and Culture, said the charges related to the procurement of PPE for eight KZN modular libraries located in KwaNzimakwe, Nibela, Kwankosi Khumalo, Kwakhetha, Mpembeni, Ntunjambili, Denny Dalton and Mfekayi districts. Singh said contracts with inflated pricing were awarded to modular library contractors, not only for PPE but also for tractor loader backhoes (TLBs) and roller and tipper trucks. This, with funding specifically allocated for Covid-19. “This took place during the country’s hard lockdown, which restricted work. As a result, the equipment paid…

Power utility Eskom announced it would be moving load shedding to Stage 3 from last night at 9pm. Thereafter, Stage 2 will be implemented from today at 5am until at least Monday. This comes after the country has been experiencing rolling Stage 4 load shedding blackouts since Wednesday. “Due to some recovery in generation capacity, load shedding will be reduced to Stage 3 from 9pm until 5am on Friday. Thereafter load shedding will be lowered to Stage 2 until 5am on Monday morning, as previously communicated,” said Eskom. | Mercury Correspondent…

Decisive plan needed to drag South Africa out of the mire before we all sink. HERE we are as ordinary citizens, in our ringside seats at a corruption-stinking circus, watching on TV and Twitter, trapped between infinite pity and rational self-interest. The tension between two opposing forces is unbearable. Pulling from one side, our horror at the senseless looting of state resources, our wonder at the resilience of our democracy-supporting institutions and the patriotic individuals keeping them running, the screaming civil society organisations mobbing our courts to seek vindication of human rights trampled on by corrupt politicians and their connections, or confronting government officials and state contract recipient companies implicated in one of the commissions of inquiry reports unearthing corruption as they continue to milk the public purse with impunity,…

Conservative Yoon Suk-yeol won South Korea’s presidential election yesterday, with the political novice and avowed anti-feminist immediately promising a more hawkish policy on the nuclear-armed North. After a bitter, hard-fought election campaign Yoon, formerly a top prosecutor who has never held elected office, was declared the winner as rival Lee Jae-myung from the incumbent Democratic party conceded defeat. His victory looks set to usher in a more muscular foreign policy for the world’s 10th largest economy after the dovish approach pursued by outgoing President Moon Jae-in during his five years in office. Yoon will immediately have to confront an assertive Pyongyang, which has embarked on a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year, including launch days before the election. He vowed to “sternly deal” with the threat posed by Kim…

THE rock and surf fishing has been hammered by the bigger seas, but the good weather patches have seen some fantastic fishing. The North Coast has had a lot of colour in the water. This can be a blessing and a curse. Too much colour and the fish don’t bite, too little and they are very finicky. Chokka has been one of the standouts on the bait side with most anglers reporting catches on either chokka alone or a mix of chokka and a fleshy bait. Tugela and the surrounds have seen a lot of smaller kob and a mix of other edibles. Chokka and redeye sardines have been the most productive baits along the North Coast. The bigger inedibles have been patchy with some fish being caught mainly off…