Índex per 2021-07-21 a Mercury

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za AN EFF Member of Parliament has accused the government of not paying enough attention to the racially motivated assaults and killings that took place in Phoenix at the height of civil unrest, saying this has led to increased racial tensions in Durban. Sibongile Khawula, who has been helping families to find their missing relatives, was speaking at a meeting of the joint standing committee on defence and the portfolio committee on police, in Chatsworth yesterday. The meeting was also attended by Police Minister Bheki Cele and Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. The visit follows the outbreak of violence, looting and destruction of infrastructure, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng last week. As the violence escalated in the city, communities in different parts of Durban took…

Vernon Mchunu vernon.mchunu@inl.co.za AS THE eThekwini Municipality counts the costs of last week’s unrest with billions of rand in lost revenue, looted goods and damaged property, authorities are seeking to declare the city a disaster area. In a move aimed at unlocking urgent financial bailouts and enabling budget adjustments, the city’s multi-party executive committee (exco) resolved to apply to the national government for the municipality to be declared a disaster area in terms of sections 23, 41 and 55 of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002. A preliminary report presented to the committee yesterday shows that in the first four days since the outbreak of violence, the city lost at least R1 billion in respect of looted stock and there was damaged property and equipment estimated at R15bn. While…

PAKS PAKIRIY | Durban North THIS past week was about violence, looting and shattered lives. A walk and drive through Durban North shows things are returning to normal. Most shops are open, no queues in sight, just shoppers going about their business. Banks are closed. There are some horrible reminders of the violence here and there, like the remains of burnt tyres and broken paving and bricks. Chris Hani (North Coast) Road took the brunt of the damage, as did Nandi Drive. Nandi Drive had the most number of looters per square metre running with their ill-gotten gains such as chest freezers, fridges, stoves and TVs. It was a looting frenzy! Today life is returning to some form of normalcy. There is a talk of a second wave…

VISVIN REDDY | ADeC chief activist THE uprising of poor South Africans, as witnessed recently through acts of violence, looting and destruction of property, was expected. Some will argue that poverty is no excuse to engage in criminality, but when you have a growing urban population living in squalor, any spark will trigger an uprising. The spark could have been the incarceration of Jacob Zuma, or it may well have been a soccer match. More than 55% of South Africans live below the bread line. With increasing unemployment and the lockdown from the Covid-19 pandemic, we should not be surprised that people have resorted to mass destruction and looting. The events of the past week should be a wake-up call to our government. I have been calling on…

Francesca Villette francesca.villette@inl.co.za TRAVEL restrictions due to Covid-19 saw an unprecedented decline in migrations globally, with South Africa experiencing 88.8% fewer arrivals of foreigners in February compared with last year. Releasing the 2021 mid-year population estimates yesterday, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) said that between March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and February 22, 2021, nearly 105 000 movement restrictions were implemented globally. StatsSA noted that migration to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, which includes South Africa, is estimated to have fallen by an unprecedented 46% in the first half of 2020. It noted that the latest Home Affairs data, which is used to develop migration estimates, showed that foreign travellers arriving in SA decreased by 88.8% in February 2021 compared…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za Former president Jacob Zuma and his legal team celebrated a legal victory after the Pietermaritzburg High Court granted a three-week delay in the arms deal trial. Presiding Judge Piet Koen said the directive for a virtual sitting to be held for the hearing of the special plea remained in effect unless it was revoked or reviewed. The special plea application brought by Zuma seeks to have State advocate Billy Downer removed from the case. The judge invited the lawyers, the NPA and the Department of Correctional Services to provide a list of any considerations or prejudice which they considered relevant to his decision to hold the proceedings virtually. Judge Koen handed down his judgment yesterday morning via virtual proceedings. “The directive of 15 July, 2021, that the…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za Zulu King, Misuzulu kaZwelithini and his traditional prime minister, Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, are digging in, insisting that the new king is on the throne and anyone challenging him is deliberately getting it wrong. Yesterday, on the instruction of King Misuzulu, Buthelezi called a press conference in Ulundi and announced that the king had resolved to call an urgent family meeting as soon as the Covid-19 regulation which bars large gatherings is eased, and address the issue of members calling themselves “core royal family members”. This stems from a recent press statement signed by Prince Mbonisi Zulu, a senior royal family member and brother of the late king. In the statement, the prince said he was the rightful royal spokesperson and anything not coming from him or that…

IN SOUTH Africa, barely a day goes by without reported treasonous revelations of fraud and corruption, wastage,infrastructure deterioration and sometimes violent “service delivery” protests. The latest report by the Auditor-General (A-G) confirms that some municipalities have become dysfunctional as unbridled looting and incompetence abound. The District Development Model (DDM) is the government’s latest response to arrest the governance collapse of municipalities. The DDM is built on a set of principles advocating a joint “One Plan” effected through collaborative, integrated planning sessions reflecting on research, evidence, solution and innovation-oriented dialogues based on each district/metro's own dynamics. It’s not about ticking boxes but identifying strategies and interventions that will enable change and impact. One of the challenges is the absence of an automated system to manage DDM operations, reporting, monitoring…

THE Israeli army said yesterday that it had fired artillery shells at the southern region of Lebanon in response to what the army said was the two rockets fired from the territory. According to a statement, the two rockets triggered sirens throughout the northern Galilee region of Israel but caused no injuries or damage. The Iron Dome Air Defence System intercepted one rocket, and the other fell in an open area, the statement said. Earlier Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Lebanon was responsible for the missile attack on the Jewish state. “The State of Lebanon is responsible for the missiles launched last night (Monday) as it allows terrorists to act on its territory. “Israel will repel any threat to its sovereignty and its citizens and react, proceeding from…

AHEAD OF SOUTH AFRICA’S opening match against Japan at the Tokyo Olympics tomorrow, South African Football Journalist of the Year Matshelane Mamabolo reflects on the historical clash between the two countries that he covered 21 years ago at the Sydney Olympics. THE BRUCE STADIUM in Canberra was nearly full that night – with about 17 000 people inside the 25 000-seater arena – when Siyabonga Nomvethe got us South Africans all giddy as we dreamt of glory. Bhele scored the opening goal in our maiden appearance at the Olympics soccer tournament to put Shakes Mashaba’s Amaglug-glug (the national under-23 side) 1-0 up against Japan. It was a beautiful goal, Nomvethe managing to get his head onto the ball while seemingly falling the other way to beat the flailing Japanese goalkeeper…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za MORE than 300 Shoprite Holdings and Pick n Pay stores were hit by looters and burnt in last week’s civil unrest and riots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the companies said yesterday in separate statements. Shoprite and Pick n Pay are the latest retailers to tally the damage to their stores after Woolworths, Spar, Mr Price, Massmart, The Foschini Group and Pepkor announced that several of their outlets and distribution centres had been badly damaged. Shoprite, Africa’s retail giant, said of the 1 189 supermarkets trading under the Shoprite, Usave, Checkers and Checkers Hyper brands, 119 stores – including 64 Shoprite, 44 Usave, six Checkers and one Checkers Hyper – had been severely affected as a result of looting and fire damage. Out of the 537-store…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za THE Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said yesterday it would study the Moseneke inquiry report to understand not only its recommendations but the holistic aspects of the report. Judge Dikgang Moseneke yesterday released the report, which recommended the postponement of the local government elections until February when there was likely to be a high level of herd immunity to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We noted it is a report on a weighty matter that would require weighty consideration on our part, and over the coming days it is the intention of the commission to study the inquiry report and engage with stakeholders, with the findings and recommendations,” the electoral body’s chairperson, Glen Mashinini, said. He said their interaction would include political parties represented in the party liaison…

A man in the Australian city of Perth escaped mandatory quarantine in a hotel by scaling down a rope made of tied-together bedsheets from a fourth-floor window, police said. After arriving in the West Coast city on an interstate flight from Brisbane, the man had his application for entry refused under the state’s tough border entry rules intended to stop the coronavirus spreading in the country. The man was told to leave the state within 48 hours and taken to a hotel for temporary quarantine, but just before 1am yesterday, “he climbed out a window of the fourth floor room using a rope made of bed sheets and fled the area”, Western Australia Police said in a Facebook post. They also posted photos of the makeshift rope hanging from a…

| James Thurber ANOTHER day in the Land of PLL – Prohibition, Lockdown and Looting, the triple whammy. Whatever comes next? Are there any glimmers? Take Prohibition – the total ban on alcohol. Any chance Uncle Cyril will ease this next Sunday, making it possible for one to relax with a few snifters while watching TV at home, causing no harm? Lockdown – Is it possible this will be eased, also next Sunday, opening up jobs and livelihoods for all kinds of people? Looting – that’s the great unknown. On the SABC news the other morning, the top four items were all international Covid-19 news – Boris Johnson having to self-isolate in the UK; Covid-19 in France, in Myanmar and in Germany. Then the floods in Europe. Had the…

BEVERLY TSITSI MUTANDIRO | Zimbabwean Human Rights Activist SOUTH Africa is the envy of African countries, with excellent infrastructure. It is far more developed than most African countries. I am totally disappointed that this beautiful and prosperous country is being ruined like what has happened in Zimbabwe for the past two decades. South Africans should learn from the catastrophic failures of the Zimbabwean government and instil the rule of law and order. We do not want South Africans crossing rivers full of crocodiles to go to other countries looking for better opportunities. Look what happened to Zimbabweans. The ANC is a better political party than the Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe. President Ramaphosa should stop acting cluelessly and carelessly. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to turn around Zimbabwe into a…

A ban on the sale of alcohol under current Covid-19 restrictions continues to fuel illicit trade, with police in Limpopo arresting several people trying to smuggle sorghum beer into the country. Alcohol manufactured in neighbouring countries, including sorghum beer, has become readily available in cities, including Johannesburg. Police officers attached to the Polokwane airport were on a routine patrol along the N1 highway when they arrested nine undocumented foreign nationals travelling in a bus and confiscated packs of sorghum beer in the trailer, Limpopo police spokesperson Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said. “The liquor is valued at R175 800. A 31-year-old driver was immediately arrested,” he said. Mojapelo said weekly police operations in Limpopo had led to the arrest of at least 926 suspects from July 11 to Monday. In another incident,…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za GAUTENG Health Department officials were warned that their “marathon project” to transfer 2 600 mentally ill patients from Life Esidimeni could have disastrous consequences. Dr Basuku Morgan Makhatshwa, who was managing director of Life Esidimeni at the time of the tragedy, testified that he repeatedly told the department that the hasty transfer of the patients could cause serious problems. Makhatshwa was the second witness to take the stand on the second day of the inquest following the deaths of 144 psychiatric patients in 2016. The hearing is taking place in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, via a virtual hearing. It aims to establish whether anyone can be held criminally liable for any of the deaths. Makhatshwa testified that the department held a trial run in 2007…

FORMER president Thabo Mbeki once warned that a problem must be correctly diagnosed and understood for any effective solution to be found and implemented. “Let us understand what is happening to the South African capitalist economy so we can intervene to do the right thing. If we misdiagnose the problem, the cure is going to be wrong,” Mbeki said in 2017 at the height of political infighting within the ANC over the country’s economic trajectory. His warning found more substance during the recent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The unrest evolved into violence, deaths and a looting spree which raised broader concerns about poverty, unemployment and inequality. As if the failure of our overwhelmed law enforcement agencies to deal with damage to public infrastructure was not bad enough, senior ANC…

AN outbreak of cholera has killed 30 people in Nigeria’s northern state of Jigawa since May, an official said. More than 2 000 people have been hospitalised in the state in the past two months, said Salisu Mu’azu, a state ministry of health official, who confirmed the outbreak in Dutse, the state capital, on Monday. Mu’azu said the majority of the affected people were minors in the state. Some of the 2 000 affected people had been discharged, while others were still being treated in government hospitals. According to the official, the state government is currently on top of the situation and is giving required support to citizens in the impacted areas. Cholera is a very virulent disease marked by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea, which can cause…

Zaahier Adams zaahier.adams@inl.co.za Tabraiz Shamsi probably appreciates playing for the Proteas more than most. That is not intended to be a slight on his teammates’ commitment and dedication to the national team, but rather an understanding of what Shamsi has endured in rising to the pinnacle of his profession. The 31-year-old was not a teenage prodigy that gained automatic selection into a franchise team. Initially, he had to be content on being a journeyman within the amateur set up hoping for a professional contract to be thrown his way. He was forced to switch between the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal in his early years before eventually settling in Benoni where Easterns and the Titans became home. And yet still it was only after his exploits in far off St Kitts…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za The GOVERNMENT will soon announce a social and economic relief package to aid businesses and employees affected by the recent civil unrest to get back on their feet. This was a promise made by Presi- dent Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday in a meeting with about 90 captains of industry that had been impacted by last week’s unrest, largely in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The recent unrest is estimated to have impacted 40 000 formal businesses and 55 000 informal traders in KZN alone, with 160 000 people at risk of joining the unemployed queues. Ramaphosa said the government had been working with social partners to finalise an extensive social and economic relief package that would support poor households and provide assistance to affected businesses and employees.…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za KAROOOOO, the New York- and JSE-listed group that owns 100 percent of Cartrack Holdings, continued to report strong subscriber and subscription revenue growth in the three months to May 31, despite ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, chief executive Zak Calisto said yesterday. “Our 2022 financial year commenced on a solid note. New customer additions across a broad base of industries are at historical highs, demonstrating our ability to innovate and to provide a differentiated fleet management platform,” he said. The company operates in a growing and under-penetrated global automotive market, coupled with a growing vehicle parc (or vehicle population) and customers seek digitalised software solutions to address higher operating costs, unproductive use of resources and inefficient workflows. “We believe Karooooo remains well positioned for growth,” Calisto said. He…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za A group of children were saved from a fire that broke out in a building in the Durban CBD yesterday afternoon. EThekwini Municipality fire fighters attended to the fire at the United building. Residents living nearby reported seeing smoke coming from the building, which houses the Heavenly Kings Creche. Creche principal Ruth Kurwaifimba said she realised a part of the building was on fire at about 2pm when she could smell smoke. She said she immediately grabbed the children – about 10 – and ran towards the lifts. “There were people running all around us but no one was stopping to help me with the children. There was no way I was going to leave my children behind,” she said while paramedics treated her. She said she…

Begin, or continue, by: Practising the art of and finding the courage for self-definition. This is exercising your capacity to make choices that are good for you, even if they are unpopular with the people to whom you are closest. The art may have very small and quiet beginnings within a person who has been dominated by others, but the rewards, and sometimes the punishments, are usually immediate. Understanding that you can forgive, trust and restore relationships in degrees. Forgiving a little, learning to trust again, being ready for increasing degrees of restoration, are all movements in a helpful direction. Healthy relationships are not usually all-or-nothing contracts. You can test the waters after you have been hurt and after your heart has been broken. While there is breath there is…

KEVIN GOVENDER | Shallcross THERE are times when I think that the patina of civilisation and culture that we all confess to share is cracking – we are returning to the time of the barbarians. What happened last week was something out of a macabre dream. A colloid of brigands, corsairs and scallywags were manipulated and lovingly coaxed to go on a spree of destruction. Now every time I put the television on, I am reminded of what happened, not to mention the sanitised excuses and explanations that are floating around in pandemic-thick air. They are all singing from the same hymn sheet that it was a well co-ordinated ambush, well-orchestrated and daringly choreographed with deadly precision. Those thugs were nothing but the grand delusion of the weak,…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof I was in two minds whether to listen to the president’s address at the weekend. In his previous address at the height of the turmoil that gripped KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, President Cyril Ramaphosa struck me as a lame-duck president, incapable of taking decisive action. His speech was useless platitudes and uninspiring. It is in moments like these, when a nation faces a crisis, that great men emerge to lead the country. Although I don’t care for him, there was Churchill, who helped to save Britain from Hitler. And, of course, there was Gandhi who drove out the British from India, and our very own iconic Mandela, the father of the nation. Ramaphosa had an ideal opportunity to rise above all of us and write…

| Mercury Correspondent THE wine industry will be in court today to argue an urgent for the reopening of alcohol trade specifically in the Western Cape. Vinpro, which presents about 2 600 local wine producers, said its legal team was ready for arguments in the Western Cape High Court to prevent further business closures and job losses. “Our legal team is ready to argue our urgent interim interdict application in the Western Cape High Court. This would allow the premier of the Western Cape the power to adopt deviations to the national ban to enable off- and on-consumption sale of liquor in the province. If successful, Vinpro will approach the court to seek similar relief for other provinces,” Vinpro’s Rico Basson said. While the industry stood in solidarity…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za The EFF failed to provide solid legal arguments to oblige the courts to unseal the CR17 bank statements. It also used the incorrect Act in its bid to ask the North Gauteng High Court to unseal the documents, including the identities of those who made financial contributions to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign to become ANC president in December 2017. This was the finding of Judge Cassim Sardiwalla when he dismissed the EFF’s application in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday. The judge said the EFF brought its application under the newly promulgated Party Political Funding Act, which compels political parties to disclose their funders to allow voters to make an informed choice. The Funding Act only came into effect in April this year, and the EFF’s court…

FOLLOWING the news recently has been a nightmare as updates of a long and growing list of companies quantifying the impact of the unrest on their operations kept coming fast and furiously. More than 30 Cash Build stores and 100 Famous Brand outlets were taken out of commission, 109 Mr Price stores were entirely looted and another 539 closed, and hundreds of ATMs were hit. In the middle of the chaos, problem-solvers have been getting on with solving some of the immediate short-term needs of the communities worst affected by the violence. A video of fuel trucks getting fuel to petrol stations under armed police escort flashes in my mind. As does oxygen suppliers being escorted to hospitals. Deeply uncomfortable scenes. But it’s necessary. The Department of Mineral Resources and…

Baghdad: Iraq was in mourning yesterday for at least 36 people killed when a bomb ripped through a crowded Baghdad market in what the Islamic State’s jihadists claimed was a suicide attack. The bloody carnage on Monday evening, one of the deadliest attacks in years in the war-scarred country, killed mostly women and children on the eve of Eid-ul-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. It sparked revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of IS, which lost its last territory in Iraq after a gruelling campaign that ended in late 2017, but retains sleeper cells in remote desert and mountain areas. The Sunni Muslim extremists claimed on the Telegram messenger service that an IS suicide bomber had detonated an explosives belt in the bustling Woheilat market of Baghdad’s Shia district…

PARIS: French prosecutors have charged a police commissioner over the death of a man killed when officers tried to shut down a rave concert in Nantes two years ago. The body of Steve Canico, 24, was found in the Loire River a month after the police raid in the early hours of June 22, after France’s national music celebration day. An analysis of Canico’s cellphone showed he fell into the river during clashes that saw concertgoers go into the water, prompting accusations that baton-wielding officers used excessive force to disperse the crowd. The police commissioner in charge of the intervention, Gregoire Chassaing, faces involuntary manslaughter charges.…

The isolation bubble system that Olympic organisers have set up at the Tokyo Games village to control Covid-19 is already broken, and there is a risk that infections could spread more widely from inside it, a prominent public health expert said yesterday. Games officials on Sunday reported the first Covid-19 case among competitors in the village in Tokyo where 11 000 athletes are expected to stay. There have been 67 cases detected among those accredited for the Games since July 1, organisers said yesterday. IOC president Thomas Bach said last week that testing and quarantine protocols would leave “zero” risk of Games participants infecting residents in Japan. Kenji Shibuya, the former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, said such declarations only served to confuse and…

The British & Irish Lions team for the first Test against the Springboks was internally named yesterday and the players disappointed to miss out will have to quickly pull themselves together for the common good, says kicking coach Neil Jenkins. Welshman Jenkins is a veteran of many a Lions tour as both player and a coach and he said the players were to be informed between training sessions, with the unlucky ones immediately having to form a team to train against the match-day squad for Saturday’s opening Test of the series. Unlike the Springboks, where the World Cup-winning team virtually picked itself, Lions coach Warren Gatland has quality options in every position and in some cases he would have been splitting hairs between world-class players.Jenkins said that the…