Índex per 2021-09-23 a Mercury

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SEVERAL South African banks have come forward to indicate that their customers’ data may have been exposed in the latest massive cyberattack in the South African financial services industry. This comes after debt collector, Debt-IN Consultants, yesterday announced that a ransomware attack by cybercriminals had resulted in a significant data breach of consumer and employee personal information. Debt-IN said data of more than 1.4 million South Africans was illegally accessed from its servers in April this year but the data breach only came to light last week. Confidential consumer data and voice recordings of calls between Debt-IN debt recovery agents and financial services customers have been posted on the dark web. Debt-IN chief executive Mark Essey said they deeply regretted this cyberattack, and “we apologise unreservedly for…

It’s a tired refrain: “I don’t want much; I just want to be happy.” This is said as if someone somewhere has the secret to happiness and is withholding it from some people but not others. Or it’s expressed as if happiness is the luck of the draw. Here are a few ways to enhance your level of happiness, which I prefer to call fulfilment, usefulness or a sense of belonging. Love a few people (usually your family) very well and be faithful to them for many years. Forgive people who hurt you, betray you, deceive you, whether they deserve it or ask for it or not, or own up to it or not. Forgive them because you deserve it. Ask people you have hurt, betrayed, or deceived to forgive…

MOORTON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FORUM | Chatsworth THE date for the local government elections has been announced. Registrations for the election took place from September 18 to 19. The local government elections are the only elections where you, as an ordinary citizen, are afforded an opportunity, in part, to vote directly for a candidate (councillor) of your choice and a political party of your choice. Remember though, that the party has the right, without your consent, to also appoint a candidate to represent you in local affairs. That councillor appointed by the party is called a PR (proportional representative) councillor. The latter, is not true democracy in the classical sense – it is democracy by proxy. Voting in the next local government elections requires careful introspection and intelligence. One…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za MOTORISTS have been advised to remain vigilant on the roads as high traffic volumes are expected to start heading towards KwaZulu-Natal from today. This comes as the country heads towards the Heritage Day long weekend, with many people gearing up for leisure travel under the less restrictive adjusted alert level 2 lockdown. The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) advised road users across the province to familiarise themselves with the route and prevailing travel conditions before their departures. N3TC spokesperson Anita Heyl said that starting from today, visible policing, strict law enforcement and zero tolerance of traffic offenders would be the order of the day. Heyl said that satellite stations and traffic checkpoints would also be operated at key locations along the N3 toll route. She issued a stern…

TIGHT security measures, including the use of technology, should be put in place to prevent the killing of teachers in our country, the latest being a maths teacher at a Cape Town primary school on Tuesday. The attack on Thulani Manqoyi while sitting in his parked vehicle at Heinz Park Primary school demonstrates that teachers have become soft targets for criminals, even at their places of work. The two suspects behind the brutal murder allegedly held security guards at gunpoint before approaching the father of three and shooting him in the head and shoulder, which has led his family to believe the attack may have been planned. The incident happened three months after Buyani Primary School principal Lazarous Baloyi in Finetown, Gauteng, was shot dead, also on school premises, becoming…

Melbourne: A rare quake rattled south-eastern Australia yesterday, shaking buildings, knocking down walls and sending panicked Melbourne residents running into the streets. The 5.9 magnitude tremor hit east of the country’s second-largest city and was one of the largest to hit the country in decades. With Melbourne beginning its eighth week of pandemic lockdown and braced for a third straight day of violent anti-vaccine protests, most residents were at home when the quake struck. Zume Phim, 33, owner of Melbourne’s Oppen cafe, said he rushed on to the street as the tremor hit. “The whole building was shaking. All the windows, the glass, was shaking – like a wave of shaking,” he told AFP. “I have never experienced that before. It was a little bit scary.” Geoscience Australia reported the…

EUROPEAN football’s governing body Uefa has urged Fifa to stop pushing its plan for a two-year World Cup and instead to engage in “genuine consultation” over reform of the international match calendar. Fifa is conducting a feasibility study into holding the World Cup on a biennial basis, a change from the current four-yearly cycle, but has made no secret of its desire to switch to such a format. Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who is now Fifa’s head of Global Football Development, said this month he was “100% convinced” of the switch. “Uefa is disappointed with the methodology adopted, which has so far led to radical reform projects being communicated and openly promoted before having been given, together with other stakeholders, the chance to participate in any consultation meeting,"…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE GREEN light by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to controversial Turkish floating power generator Karpowership for licences in Coega, Richards Bay and Saldanha Bay faces hurdles including environmental approval, power producer agreements with Eskom, fuel agreements and legal challenges, energy experts said yesterday. This comes as Nersa has this far reserved its reasons for granting the long overdue licences, which at some point were rejected by South Africa’s environmental authorities who needed to clear the impact of the project on South Africa’s marine life. Karpowership has faced numerous challenges since the South African government in March granted it the biggest share of a 2 000 megawatt em- ergency power tender to provide the cheapest and quickest option for electricity. Its plan to…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za PROPERTY owners could receive property rebates if they construct their buildings in accordance with the eThekwini Municipality’s new green building incentive policy. The draft policy released recently for public comment encouraged developers of new properties to build with the objective of combating climate change. The city said if the buildings fully complied with the provisions of the policy, a formal decision would be taken by the eThekwini council on each application to give rebates. It said the policy was part of the municipality’s plan to set a pathway for all new buildings within the municipal area to be “net zero carbon” by 2030. This policy is planned to come into effect in the first quarter of next year. It does not target existing buildings as they would…

VIJAY SEWTAHAL | Clare Estate AFTER being confined at home for 18 months due to the Covid-19 lockdown, we took a break at the Drakensberg recently. Our destination was the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Giant’s Castle camp. It indeed was a pleasant stay. Just being among the snow-capped mountains was a refreshing experience. What marred our stay was travelling to our destination. We took the Nottingham Road route and the road was riddled with pot holes all the way from Rosetta, past Kamberg and up to the entrance gate of Giant’s Castle. This route does not bode well for the ailing tourism industry. Fortunately, our return trip to Durban was via an alternative route – getting to the N3 via Estcourt – as advised by the helpful staff at…

FAROUK ARAIE | Johannesburg As we head for the most crucial local government election in our history, it becomes a moral obligation on all of us to cast our vote, which will decide the fate of our beleaguered nation. The stench of corruption is so pungent that it has poisoned the political atmosphere. Accountability requires that those who have been unmasked must be permanently banned from entering the political arena. The acrid smoke of brazen corruption has enveloped our entire land in a deadly haze, under a fog of deception, that has emasculated our hard-worn democracy. After riding high on the waves of democracy that began with freedom in 1994, recent disturbing and painful events in governance unsettle those whose dreams of a country free of rampant and…

LAST weekend’s Test against Australia continues to haunt … an account comes this way of an interview with Frik du Preez, former Springbok lock and rugby hero. He was asked how the Bok team from his playing days would shape against the current Boks if a match were possible. He replied: “We’d win by at least 10 points.” “Only 10 points?” “Ja, but you must remember – we’re all in our eighties now.” Wally’s wanderings WALLY the wandering Arctic walrus has now turned up in Iceland, having been spotted previously in Ireland, France, Spain and Britain, according to the BBC. The 800kg bruiser is thought to have swum more than 4 000km in his wanderings. He appears now to have veered northward. Speculation had been strong that he…

In the past 11 months that I have been in office, I have sought to continuously communicate on the City’s financial position. We must always seek to promote transparency and openness when it comes to the management of public finances. When I was elected to office in November 2020, we inherited a deficit on the operating account that exceeded R4.3 billion from the ANC provincial administrators for the 2019/20 financial year. I was frank about this; we cannot deny what was reported in our financial statements. To put this into perspective, when the ANC provincial administrators took office in March 2020, they inherited a surplus of R296 million. After their eight-month tenure, they left us with a deficit that exceeded R4bn. Simply put, in a period of eight months (March…

NEW YORK: China will stop funding coal projects overseas, President Xi Jinping announced this week, all but ending the flow of public aid for the dirty energy contributing to the climate crisis. Xi made his announcement at the UN General Assembly where US President Joe Biden, seeking to show leadership in a growing competition with China, promised to double Washington’s contribution to countries hardest hit by climate change. China is still investing in coal, reducing the impact of Xi’s commitment, but it is by far the largest funder of coal projects in developing countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh as it goes on a global infrastructure-building blitz with its Belt and Road Initiative. Xi vowed to accelerate efforts for China, the world’s largest emitter, to go carbon neutral by…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za THE GAUTENG High Court, Pretoria, has ruled that certain aspects of the Mining Charter 2018 are not enforceable and once a mining company is empowered, it is always empowered. The court said the continuing consequences of previous black economic empowerment deals should be recognised and that the specific challenged provisions in the document should be removed. In response to the ruling, Minerals Council South Africa said yesterday it and its members remained fully committed to the transformational objectives of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). It added that the objectives must create policy and regulatory certainty for long term investment and inclusive growth in the sector. “The judgment removes the clauses dealing with the renewals of existing mining rights and the transfers of mining…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za Small and micro businesses that have been affected by the looting and unrest are set to get a helping hand thanks to a donation from a non-profit organisation, African SAP User Group (Afsug). The NPO turned to Gift of the Givers, the largest disaster response non-governmental organisation of African origin on the continent, to provide a R100 000 donation. The donation is aimed at small and micro businesses that were hit hard during the looting and unrest, and are finding it difficult to recover because they were not insured. Since its inception in 1992, Gift of the Givers has been responsible for delivering life-saving goods and on-the-ground support for innumerable people in more than 44 countries across the globe. “The essence of our presence is to bring…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE city’s firefighting unit is experiencing a severe shortage of staff, raising fears that the unit could be ill-prepared to deal with disasters and emergencies similar to the violent uprising that rocked KwaZulu-Natal in July. The situation in the city’s firefighting unit is so bad that unit firefighters are forced to continuously work overtime to avoid the closure of some fire stations. A report tabled before members of the executive committee (Exco) this week revealed that the unit had almost half of the staff complement needed to function optimally. It also revealed that the fire and emergency unit needed close to R30 million in additional funds for overtime pay. The report was, however, withdrawn from Exco without discussion, and will be taken back to committees. No…

VISVIN REDDY | ADEC president THE article “Hope for foreign-trained doctors”, published in your online news platforms, highlights one of the worst forms of government incompetence in South Africa. Obsession with race has divided our country and has seen people placed in critical positions with no experience or expertise. Politicians must realise that South Africans, irrespective of their race, have had enough of appointments based on the colour of a person’s skin and not on the ability to deliver. Since the Department of Health introduced race quotas in medical school admissions, we have seen aspiring, dedicated and bright Indian South African students register at foreign institutions to qualify as doctors. The fact that they did this, at huge sacrifice and cost, is testament to their commitment to the…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za THE IFP has called for tolerance among supporters of political parties during the campaigning period building up to the local government polls, decrying the recent clashes between supporters of rival parties in KwaZulu-Natal. The call was made by Narend Singh, the party’s national campaign committee chairperson, during a media briefing at the IFP offices in Durban yesterday where he also announced the party’s readiness to contest the elections. Singh announced that the IFP would be fielding 2 570 candidates, of which 1 376 were ward candidates and 1 192 were proportional representative candidates in 105 municipalities nationwide. He expressed the party’s worry over episodes of election-related violence that had been reported recently. On Sunday, ANC supporters clashed with EFF supporters in Dambuza and Willowfountain near Pietermaritzburg,…

Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, Helene Maisonnave, Martin Henseler and Ramos Emmanuel Mabugu State-owned enterprises are companies in which government owns, directly or indirectly, more than 50% of the shares. Worldwide, states own 10% of the largest companies. In South Africa, state-owned enterprises play a significant role in the important sectors of mining, energy, communications, air and rail transport. Some state-owned entities loom large over the economy. Eskom, for example, accounts for about 95% of electricity generated in South Africa and is responsible for the transmission and distribution networks. Transnet controls the entire non-passenger rail transport system and the country’s ports and pipelines. State-owned enterprises were initially designed to promote effective and efficient service delivery in the country. They are a big part of South Africa’s economic growth and development strategy. The…

THE HAGUE: Lawyers for Colombia yesterday dismissed Nicaragua’s claims before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), insisting that Bogota did respect a 2012 ruling on their maritime boundaries in the western Caribbean by the same court. “All of Nicaragua’s claims are unsubstantiated and artificial. “They are founded on words, not actions,” lawyer Manuel Jose Cepeda said. On Monday, lawyers for Nicaragua said Colombia had violated a 2012 ruling by the ICJ, also known as the World Court, which drew a demarcation line in favour of Nicaragua in Caribbean waters, reducing the expanse of sea belonging to Colombia. The two sides will be able to respond to each other’s arguments in hearings planned to run until October 1.…

The pristine turquoise waters of Lake Geneva may appear serene, but lurking below are piles of bombs, cartridges and possibly even chemical weapons discarded decades ago. Long believed to be safely slumbering beneath thick layers of protective sediment, the munitions at the bottom of the biggest lake in the Alps have raised fresh safety and environmental concerns. “We believe there are bombs and shells, and probably rifle ammunition,” Jacques Martelain, the Geneva canton’s head geologist, told AFP. Some also fear there might also be phosgene bombs – deadly chemical weapons – sitting on the bottom of the lake, he said. For the first time, Swiss authorities will start mapping the piles of munitions in the lake to determine what kind of explosive debris is there, how much, and whether it…

Mihlali Baleka mihlali.baleka@inl.co.za BANYANA Banyana’s stroll in the Aisha Buhari Cup has painted an image of their readiness ahead of the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations and 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup qualifiers. Even though they rank among the heavyweights on the continent, Banyana are yet to be crowned the African Queens. Late in 2018, they reached the final of the continental showpiece and qualified for their first ever World Cup. In France, though, their novice status was exposed. They crashed out in the group stage, following losses to Spain, China and Germany. But their coach Desiree Ellis believed that that was a learning curve and they’d bounce back stronger. Fast track to 2021. Banyana appear to have grown in leaps and bounds. Following their failure to qualify for…