Índex per 2022-06-06 a Mercury

Financially stricken Tongaat Hulett’s (THL) future will likely rest with either its lenders converting debt into equity or with a recapitalisation by a major stakeholder, sources said on Friday. This was after plans for a R5 billion right issue were dented on Friday. The rights issue was to have been underwritten by Mauritius based Magister, which is owned by the controversial Rudland family of Zimbabwe, but a Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) investigation ruled against a key shareholder resolution necessary for the deal, THL said in a statement on Friday. THL is in dire financial straits and said in April already that the rights issue may need to have been increased to R5bn from R4bn as its debt had risen to R6.8bn from R5.8bn a year before, owing to cash flow…

DRAMATIC changes may be on the cards in eThekwini Metro, if “proposals” put forward for the City to cut overtime and invest in hiring more staff, employing its own security, and buying its own water-tankers are implemented. The eThekwini human settlements and infrastructure cluster wants these changes to be implemented in the coming financial year. It wants overtime costs halved; for the City to stop hiring water-tankers and use the money to instead buy its own water-tankers; in-source security; as it is concerned that the current crop of security guards are not effectively dealing with crime. Several incidents of vandalism of infrastructure and the murder of municipal staff have been reported this year. The changes to the cluster’s budget were proposed during a special committee meeting last week, and…

THE men accused of stealing millions of unexplained US dollars kept in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm went on a shopping spree in Cape Town, spending their loot on high-performance luxury vehicles, according to former State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser’s affidavit. Fraser lodged a criminal complaint against Ramaphosa at Rosebank police station last week over the money allegedly stolen by five Namibians who conspired with his domestic worker in February 2020. Ramaphosa allegedly kept large sums of money in foreign currency, estimated to be between $4 million and $8m (R62m and R120m), “concealed” under a mattress and couches at his farm in Bela-Bela, Limpopo. Fraser in his affidavit said: “The mere fact that President Ramaphosa had large undisclosed sums of foreign currency in the form of US…

AFTER interviewing 27 candidates, eThekwini municipality’s bid to appoint a new metro manager seems to have run out of road (The Mercury, June 2). A survey last June showed that of the 257 municipalities, only 27 received a clean bill of financial health. Thus, finding a worthy applicant for the eThekwini post is very slim. How many of the 27 applicants already inter- viewed hail from failed municipalities? The most recent one was from the failed Ray Nkonyeni municipality which for two years could not provide reliable water supply to the lower South Coast. Given the declining state of eThekwini, perhaps the best prospect is to re-employ Dr Michael Sutcliffe. At least he was competent.…

The letter from David Cartwright in your June 3 edition about pedestrians being killed while crossing busy freeways brings back interesting memories from my career in the roads field of this particularly unique South African phenomenon. Pedestrians wandering around on busy roads has been a decades-long problem for roads engineers, and today we uniquely in the world are forced to even provide pedestrian facilities on ‘system interchanges’ which connect freeways to each other. I cite only three of many examples to illustrate the issue. For me the problem first came to light as long ago as in the late 1970s when we were upgrading the then existing gravel N2 road in “northern Zululand” into a high speed surfaced road. While the road was not originally constructed as a freeway and…

SOUTH Africa now has a legal services ombud. Members of the public who are unhappy with the services of a lawyer or have fallen victim to injustices within the legal profession can now turn to this office for intervention. It is headed by retired Judge Siraj Desai and will be operational from June 15. Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola this week launched this new office. He urged the office to “vigorously” investigate complaints against legal practitioners, whose conduct is “unbecoming of the legal profession”. Speaking at the launch, Lamola said: “Legal professionals interact with and represent members of the public before the legal system regularly. In their interactions with legal practitioners, the public must never have a sense of powerlessness, moreover when their rights are grossly violated.” The…

A CHESTERVILLE mother of two, who has leukaemia, is making a desperate plea for stem cell donors to come forward to help her get well again. Gugulethu Ximba, 38, is searching for a stem cell donor match and her best chance of finding one is likely to be from among Africans. This is because blood stem cell matches are based on tissue type and not blood type, which means her genetic match is most likely to come from someone of the same ethnic background. Ximba has two children, a 14-year-old daughter and a 19-month-old boy, who is currently staying with one of her sisters while she fights cancer. Leukaemia is not foreign to Ximba and her family. In 2008, her mother was diagnosed with the same disorder and lost the…

THE NOTE accompanied by a bullet sent to Presidency Director-General Phindile Baleni is a veiled threat to whistle-blowers and by extension accountability and transparency, said a crime analyst. On Saturday the Presidency issued a statement saying that security agencies had been asked to investigate after Baleni received an anonymous threat aimed at the Presidency’s processing of the findings of the state capture inquiry into allegations of fraud and corruption in the public sector, including organs of state. Among the threats was a reference to slain whistle-blower and senior official with the Gauteng Department of Health, Babita Deokaran, who was gunned down outside her home in south Joburg. KwaZulu-Natal based violence monitor Mary de Haas said all the odds were stacked against whistle-blowers and the content of the letter sent to…

THE WORLD Health Organization (WHO) last week said the less lethal nature of the Omicron variant in relation to the Delta strain and the protection people have from prior infections and vaccination may lead to a drastic drop in the number of deaths from Covid-19 in Africa. At least 350 000 people lost their lives on the continent due to the pandemic in 2021, and WHO modelling shows that 22 563 will succumb to the pandemic in 2022 if current variants and transmission rates remain the same. The continent was ravaged by the coronavirus in 2020 and 2021, and the fact that it has many of the world’s weakest national health systems meant that many cases went undetected and the cause of death was often not identified. This remains the…

DHAKA: At least 49 people died and hundreds were injured after a fire sparked a huge chemical explosion at a shipping container depot in Bangladesh, officials said yesterday. The toll was expected to rise, with some of the more than 300 people injured in serious condition, officials said, while volunteers reported that there were more bodies inside the smouldering, wreckage-strewn facility. The fire started late on Saturday at the depot in Sitakunda, which stores around 4 000 containers, many filled with garments destined for Western retailers. The facility is about 40km from the major southern port of Chittagong. The blaze caused containers holding chemicals to explode, engulfing firefighters, volunteers and journalists in an inferno, hurtling people and debris through the air, and turning the night sky a blazing orange.…

A volcano in the eastern Philippines spewed a huge, dark cloud yesterday, prompting evacuations from ash-covered towns while authorities warned of possible further eruptions. The blast from Bulusan volcano in rural Sorsogon province lasted about 17 minutes, shooting a grey plume up at least one kilometre, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. No casualties were reported, but authorities raised the alert level to one on the five-level system, indicating “low-level unrest”. A group of 14 hikers and four local guides were midway down the 1 565-metre mountain, unaware that an ash cloud was shooting up on the other side of the mountain, a civil defence official said. “All of them got down safe and sound.” The local government of Sorsogon, about 500km south of Manila, said 10…

TOKYO: Yachtsman Kenichi Horie has become the world’s oldest person to sail solo across the Pacific Ocean without making stops when he entered the Kii Channel off Wakayama Prefecture on Saturday. Horie, 83, began his voyage on March 27. The crossing took 69 days. Sixty years ago, he became the first person in the world to complete a solo sea voyage across the Pacific, sailing from Japan to the United States in 1962, at the age of 23. This time, the journey was in the other direction, with him setting off from San Francisco aboard the almost 6m long Suntory Mermaid III. Horie crossed the finish line between the Kii Hinomisaki Lighthouse in Wakayama Prefecture and the Ishima Lighthouse in Tokushima Prefecture at 2.39am on Saturday after sailing about 8…

PYONGYANG: The eight short-range ballistic missiles launched by North Korea yesterday towards the Sea of Japan flew 110-670km with a maximum altitude from 25-90km, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The launches were carried out from the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, the city of Kaechon in the South Pyongan province, the Tongchang-ri test site in the North Pyongan province, and from the city of Hamhung in the South Hamgyong province, the South Korean military said. “The US and South Korean intelligence agencies are carefully analysing additional information,” the militaryadded.…

RECENTLY there have been several articles and reports, across the media, decrying banks’ practices and behaviour. Society’s disquiet about banks is not new, but appears to be on the increase, yet has received little or no attention from authorities. Tito Mboweni’s recent revelations, carried in the local media, blaming banks for the collapse of the government’s Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Scheme, added to the already negative perceptions about banks. Such news isn’t shocking to most citizens, perhaps only to President Cyril Ramaphosa who is said to have joined one of the meetings, only to have his plea for more lending rejected. His own organ of state, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), party to this guarantee scheme, is said to have instructed banks to lend as usual despite the once-in-a-century crisis.…

KWAZULU-NATAL police stations notoriously topped crime statistics released by Minister of Police, Bheki Cele on Friday for the highest numbers of murders and house robberies. UMlazi, Inanda and Plessislaer police stations were in the top three nationally for the highest number of murder cases reported between January and March this year, while Plessislaer, Inanda and KwaDukuza were in the top three for house robberies. KwaZulu-Natal violence researcher and analyst, Mary de Haas said the crime stats came as no surprise to her as these areas especially UMlazi and Inanda had been crime hot spots for a long time. De Haas said crime in these areas remained high because of poor management, bad crime intelligence and poor detective work. “It’s a historic problem and most of these areas…

HAVE you ever thought that your marital status may be good for your overall health? The study found that being married was associated with a 15% overall lower risk of death from all causes compared with unmarried people. And those who tied the knot also had a 20% lower risk of dying from accidents, injuries and heart disease. The “protective effect” of marriage could be due to partners encouraging their spouses to seek medical help and adhere to treatment. Better financial circumstances and healthier lifestyles come with marriage, the researchers from Japan’s National Cancer Centre, said. In 2010, the World Health Organization found that being in wedlock reduced the risk of depression and anxiety compared with single people. US experts have also suggested single people are more likely to face…

DURING a sitting of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature the DA took the opportunity to officially thank the many NGOs, NPOs and community groups that assisted residents in the province, both during the devastating floods and in the aftermath. There can be no doubt that KZN’s people have suffered greatly as a result of both the recent downpours. Then there is the lasting trauma from July last year when violent looting took place as a result of ANC internal factions. While the provincial and national governments were overwhelmed on both occasions, it is the NGO and NPO sector – aided by community groups – who stepped in during a time of great need to assist residents, rescue citizens in danger and provide support, safety, shelter and food. This while Premier Sihle Zikalala…

IF YOU read this and you retain any comprehension of its contents and if you detect a smidgeon of desire for greater emotional health, there are things I know about you. No matter how confused you may feel or how complex your relationships or how “down” your deepest lows or “bad” your worst mistakes and choices have been, there are aspects of your life that are already healthy, successful, and highly functional. And if you work at it, I know things can improve. How do I know? You are reading this! You’ve got this far in your life. This means you have had to have had many successes along the way. To be able to open the paper and read you have already struggled and succeeded at so many challenges.…

ANC provincial chairperson Stan Mathabatha has kept his position after defeating his rival Dickson Masemola for the top job in Limpopo. Mathabatha, Premier of Limpopo, retained the position of provincial chairperson after he won by a huge majority against Masemola. The two men were in the race for the position after months of campaigning. Mathabatha won by 781 votes against 389 votes for Masemola. Mathabatha told the ANC conference that Masemola and other comrades who were contesting, had not lost. “I commit to this leadership of the NEC that those comrades who were contesting have not lost, because it is not about position,” said Mathabatha. It was no longer easy to hold ANC conferences without problems, but the Limpopo conference has gone well without disruption, he said. Mathabatha is the…

Retired Constitutional Court Justice Sisi Khampepe has been appointed as commissioner of the independent commission of inquiry that will begin mid-month to look into allegations of racism at Stellenbosch University(SU). This inquiry comes weeks after a white student, Theuns du Toit was suspended from the university for urinating on the belongings of a black first-year student Babalo Ndwayana at a student residence. Du Toit is also facing a criminal complaint over the alleged racist incident. The incident further pushed students to speak out about many other racial issues within the institution. The Rector and Vice-Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, Professor Wim de Villiers announced the appointment of Justice Khampepe as the commissioner for the inquiry on Friday. She is also expected to play a vital role in the university’s attempt to…

THE DEPARTMENT of Social Development says it is close to finalising a contract with banks that will see R350 grant beneficiaries subjected to a means test to determine whether they qualify for the grant. The department said the newly-introduced means test, which requires beneficiaries to not have an income of more than R350 a month, will be implemented for the April and May payments. The means testing for April and May was planned to be finalised by June 3 and payments to be made mid-June. Applications will be considered every month and it would be confirmed every three months whether a beneficiary still qualifies, according to the new regulations. The department was allocated R44 billion for the R350 social relief of distress grant in the 2022/23 financial year. The new…

THE political discourse in South Africa is currently so dominated by a transformation agenda defined largely by Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), that other functions of development have been neglected, especially during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the multitudinous global shocks as scarce resources are “re-prioritised” to mitigate their effects. This includes cultural and sports transformation, which are equally important imperatives in the sports-mad South African psyche for a frontier nation that in the space of more than a century of straddling colonialism, apartheid and democracy, witnessed perhaps three of the most iconic incidents in sporting history. The first was the ludicrous hubris during the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899-1902 when a Boer general sent a letter to the leader of a besieged British garrison, offering a temporary truce so…

Three Chinese astronauts docked at the country’s space station yesterday, a state broadcaster said, marking a new milestone in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power. The trio blasted off in a Long March-2F rocket at 0244 GMT from the Jiuquan launch centre in north-western China’s Gobi desert, said broadcaster CCTV. The team is tasked with “completing in-orbit assembly and construction of the space station”, as well as “commissioning of equipment” and conducting scientific experiments, state-run CGTN said on Saturday. The spacecraft docked at the Tiangong station after about “seven hours of flight”, CCTV reported. Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, is expected to become fully operational by the end of the year. China’s heavily promoted space programme has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send…

President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that Moscow will strike new targets if the West supplies long-range missiles to Ukraine and said new arms deliveries to Kyiv were aimed at “prolonging the conflict”. If Kyiv is supplied with long-range missiles, “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms... to strike targets we haven’t hit before,” Putin said. In extracts of an interview on Rossiya-1 television, Putin did not specify exactly which targets could be hit nor the exact range of the missiles to which Moscow would react. But his comments came just days after the US announced it would supply Ukraine with Himars multiple launch rocket systems. Himars is a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometres away. Putin said that there was…

PARIS: About 5 000 people were left without electricity in France because of a thunderstorm, French power grid operator Enedis said. An orange alert level was issued for 65 departments in France on Saturday night amid heavy rains. Enedis said that 5 000 people were left without power across France on Saturday night. BFMTV reported that the Eiffel Tower was struck by lightning on Saturday night. French photographer Bertrand Kulik captured the moment and posted photos on social media. The official Eiffel Tower website said that since its birth in 1889, it has “attracted” lightning numerous times and there are on average five impacts every year. |…

THE grim reality for the Sharks is that they crashed out of the United Rugby Championship (URC) at the quarter-finals stage but the silver lining to that cloud is they played arguably their best rugby of the year in the process, and but for the odd error and misfortune, it would be them travelling to Leinster for the semi-finals. An irony going into the match is that it was the Sharks and not the Bulls, who were billed as a one-dimensional side over-reliant on their forwards, but at last we saw the Durbanites using their backs and I felt Curwin Bosch had his best game in ages. I have been one of his critics this season but in this game he was much better in engaging his backs. In…

Swallows FC failed to gain more ground in their quest to remain in the DStv Premiership by playing out to a goalless draw against the University of Pretoria at the Tuks Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The result left Dylan Kerr’s side level on points with Tuks, who lead the standings by virtue of having a superior goal difference at this stage. The race for the final spot in the top-flight now looks to be a two way race between the Dube Birds and the University of Pretoria. Cape Town All Stars have lost both of their games to date and are yet to score their first point. The University of Pretoria have a chance to further pile on the pressure on Swallows on Wednesday as they prepare to host struggling…

THE PREMIER of KwaZulu-Natal Sihle Zikalala and former Ukhozi FM DJ Ngizwe Mchunu look set to meet in court afer they opened criminal charges against each other following an altercation at the Ingoma kazwelonke competition held at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday. The KZN provincial government confirmed in a statement yesterday that Zikalala had opened a criminal case at the Durban Central police station against Mchunu for assault and crimen injuria. But Mchunu has said he was also assaulted and had also opened a case. In its statement, the provincial government said there had been a series of recent episodes during which Mchunu had allegedly hurled verbal abuse and invectives at the premier. “In continuation of this widely publicised mode of attack on the premier on Saturday, Mr Mchunu…

MOHAN Bhagwat, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief – has condemned the idea of looking for a “Shivling” (Shiva statue) under every mosque in India. This news, if reported accurately, raises hope that India can yet be saved from falling into an irreversible abyss of religious intolerance. Bhagwat also reminds his audience that present Muslims were once Hindus, who converted out of circumstances prevailing at the time. I myself have seen Hindu idols that were defaced at the ruins of a temple, in the vicinity of the Qurab Minaar in Delhi, India and have made mention of this in my book, Ebkoybie – Shenanigans from Durban to Bombay. But this does not imply that every mosque was built on a temple! As new regimes enter the fray, old statues get torn…

I came across a painting by an 18th century German painter Friederich August Moritz Retzsch, titled Checkmate. It shows a chess game between the devil and a player with an angel watching anxiously over the game as the devil was winning. If you look intensely you would see beads of perspiration on the player’s face. That is life in reality, a chess game that brings out the best and the worst in humankind. With people feeling that evil was in ascendancy and winning. Let me fast forward to a tour by, among others, a world chess grandmaster, of the museum where that painting was housed. As they stopped at that spot there was a clearly palpable look of despair on the faces of everyone looking at the reality…

AN ITEM comes this way to illustrate the stupefying impact on our lives of the price of petrol. It’s headed: Staff Announcement: “Due to the price increase of petrol, all company cars will be replaced by bicycles. The allocation of bicycles is as follows: Representatives – three-speed with bell. Sales managers – three-speed with bell and pump. Branch managers – 10-speed, one mirror and choice of saddle. Directors – 10-speed, two mirrors and choice of saddle. Managing director – tandem bicycle with chauffeur.” Yes, it’s going to take a lot of getting used to. Tring, tiing! Jonny Depp case OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties: “Johnny Depp is the first man ever to win an argument with a woman.” Genteel put-downs SOME great put-downs without resorting to four-letter…

Two women and a man, who were found in possession of 50 SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) cards, are expected to appear in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court today. Provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala said that just after 8am on Friday, a security official at the ATM in the Roseneath area of Umkomaas noticed that the trio were acting suspiciously. Gwala said the official decided to join the ATM queue to monitor them. “The suspects were observed with numerous Sassa cards and bank cards that they were using to withdraw cash,” she said. She said when the trio realised that they were being watched, they fled in their vehicle. Police officers from Umkomaas SAPS were contacted and the vehicle was monitored, she said. Gwala said the suspects moved to another…

THE process of dehumanisation, degrading, discrimination, and disrespecting of black people has continued in this country after 1994. Even the democratically elected government could not be a safe haven for black people. Black people have been called names, beaten up, told they are useless, buried alive and killed. How ironic that the majority, oppressed under colonialism and apartheid, are still discriminated against under the democracy they achieved through their votes after the Struggle. Where is the government, the tormented people elected, relevant Chapter 9 institutions and the courts of law? The wrong precedent was set by not effectively and holistically punishing the white boys who beat up a black boy, Lindelani Khanyile, yet Andrew Babeile was sent to jail for defending himself against a gang of white racist boys and…

Cambodians voted in local elections yesterday as a fledgling opposition movement sought to claw back support and mount a challenge to the party of longtime leader Hun Sen. Authorities under the ruling Cambodian People’s Party have in recent years moved to crush dissent with more than 100 opposition members jailed under charges including treason, prompting international criticism of Hun Sen, who has ruled for 37 years. The new Candlelight Party, which largely regroups the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party that was dissolved by a court, hopes for a good showing at the commune level that will translate to national-level success in next year’s parliamentary elections. Lines of people queued in polling stations amid heightened security before polls closed at 3pm local time. “For our local governance, we want…

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday held developed nations responsible for large-scale carbon emissions. “India is making this effort while its role in climate change is negligible,” Modi said, marking World Environment Day. “Large modern countries of the world are not only exploiting more resources of the earth, but maximum carbon emission goes to their account.” Modi said the average carbon footprint of the world is about 4 tons per person per annum while the figure of India is about 0.5 ton per person per annum. |…

Rabat: Morocco yesterday began welcoming an influx of its citizens living in Europe after the pandemic led to a halt in what has been called one of the world’s biggest cross-continental migrations. The last such effort in the summer of 2019 saw 3.3 million people and more than three quarters of a million vehicles cross the Gibraltar Strait. The North African kingdom is just 14km from the coast of Spain. Spain has also announced it will put in place special measures for Moroccans from June 15 for two months. Spain’s government has called the seasonal migration “one of the biggest flows of people across continents”.…