Índex per 2023-01-25 a Mercury

UNFINISHED business from the festive season … A young American girl with a bent for scientific inquiry has given her local police department something to think about. The unnamed girl of Cumberland, Rhode Island, decided that the way to establish once and for all whether or not Santa Claus is real is to get his DNA, according to the Associated Press. So she sent the local police a partially eaten cookie as well as a couple of gnawed-on carrot sticks , asking for them to be tested for DNA. “I took a sample of a cookie and carrots that I left for Santa and the reindeer on Christmas Eve and I was wondering if you could take a sample of DNA and see if Santa is real?” she wrote. Police…

The Russian Foreign Minister Mr Sergey Lavrov has just visited South Africa and had a meeting with South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naledi Pandor. Two statements were issued: 1. Ukraine was not prepared to negotiate a peace settlement. 2. South Africa was in favour of a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war. In both instances, the statements were basically half-truths or intentions of half-truths. What Lavrov did not say, or want to say, is that the Ukraine was not prepared to negotiate on the pre-acceptance of the Russian terms, namely that the territories which have been invaded by Russia should become part of the Russian state. Pandor’s offer concealed the fact that neither side is prepared to accept a so-called diplomatic solution on the basis of Russia’s demands that…

Like the politician he is, Visvin Reddy is skimpy and selective with the truth. His message on social media doesn’t back up what he says in his letter. (“Durban’s tap water should be tested on a daily basis”, January 23). I quote from his social media message: “The Doctor that treated told me something that I have to share. She said that I must stop drinking water from the tap … I have decided to write this message and share my experience with you so as to prevent you from getting sick … Until such time as this is done I urge you to boil water from the taps before drinking it or use bottled water.” What is the inference from this message? Isn’t he saying that tap water is…

The murder case against ANC MP Sibusiso Kula is back in court on Friday. Kula, 34, is facing a murder charge in the Orkney Magistrate’s Court in North West following the death of his wife, Jennifer Motlhomi. He has been remanded in custody. Henry Mamothame, National Prosecuting Authority North West regional spokesperson, said the State intended opposing bail, owing to the seriousness of the case. “Police reports reveal Kula’s wife was found murdered on November 27, 2022, in what seemed like a robbery. “She was found with a stab wound on her back but the object used has not been recovered. “The matter was reported by the accused (Kula), who indicated he was not at the house when the incident occurred,” Mamothame said. “Following thorough investigations by the police which…

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) in the Western Cape protested at the gates of Parliament on Monday over the possible decriminalisation of prostitution. About 100 members were part of the demonstration and carried posters which read: “God created women that are Fearfully and Wonderfully made”, “ACDP condemns moral degradation”. In a notice circulated ahead of the gathering, members were told to join the “vital protest” with the dress code being ACDP T-shirts or golf shirts. ACDP Western Cape communications officer Mongezi Mabungane said: “On November 30, 2022, the Cabinet approved the publishing of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill, 2022 (the draft bill) by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, for public comments until January 30, 2023. The bill seeks to repeal the Sexual…

In a ground-breaking judgment, which will have a devastating effect on the pockets of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo and the fund’s board members, the Mpumalanga High Court has ruled that they were personally liable to pay the legal costs in two RAF matters which came before the court. The disarray at the RAF – especially after it fired its panel of lawyers with no workable plan in place – and the disregard for the rules of court to try to avoid chaos in dealing with RAF matters, were some of the reasons cited by Judge Francis Legodi, when he made the ruling yesterday. In a strongly worded 97-page judgment, he made it clear that if the fund did not get its house in order, chaos regarding…

The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, said a luxury tourist bus from Mozambique and a delivery truck were torched during a public protest in the Mnqobokazi area in Hluhluwe yesterday. The department said the protest took place in ward 1, under the Big Five Hlabisa Local Municipality on the R22 in the uMkhanyakude District. “According to preliminary reports, irate community members took to the streets to vent their frustrations following a sharp surge in the number of hijackings on the route between Hluhluwe and uMhlabuyalingana. “Police reports have revealed that last night a motor vehicle was hijacked in the area, but fortunately it was recovered today in Manguzi,” it said. Hlomuka strongly condemned the torching of the vehicles by residents. “We understand the frustration of…

Load shedding here to stay while politically connected people benefit from it While Eskom is contributing to the destruction of the economy through unending load shedding, it had the nerve to approach the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for an above-inflation 18.65% electricity tariff increase. It escaped Eskom that load shedding means the reduction of service delivery and the disruption of households and industries. Load shedding pushes the cost of production higher, without a corresponding increase in the quality and quantity of the product. The unfortunate result is that industries either close or pass the production costs on to consumers. That causes a rise in unemployment and poverty, as well as worsening inequality between the haves and have-nots. While Eskom and Nersa are not blameless for the…

France yesterday repatriated 15 women and 32 children held in a prison camp for suspected jihadists in Syria, the foreign ministry said, in the third major return of French citizens from the country. Rights groups have been pressing for years for France to take back the wives and children of alleged Islamic State group fighters held in the camps, since the jihadist movement was ousted from its self-declared “caliphate” in 2019. But the government refused a blanket repatriation, saying the return of potentially radicalised IS family members would pose security risks in France, which has seen a wave of jihadist attacks since 2015. Instead it said individual cases would be examined, leading to the first group repatriation of 16 mothers and 35 children from Syria in July 2022, and a…

LONDON: Britain’s Princess Eugenie, a niece of King Charles, is expecting her second child with her husband Jack Brooksbank later this year, Buckingham Palace said yesterday. Eugenie married Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in 2018 and their first child, a son named August, was born in February 2021. Eugenie, 11th in line to the British throne, is the younger daughter of the king’s brother Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. “We’re so excited to share that there will be a new addition to our family this summer,” Eugenie said on her Instagram page. | Reuters…

CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new restrictions yesterday to curb a crime crisis in central Australia. Albanese met with community leaders in Alice Springs, the largest city in the Australian Outback, to discuss a spike of alcohol-fuelled violence in the region. The visit came after days of intense pressure from the opposition for the federal government to intervene in the crisis. According to police, assaults in Alice Springs have increased by 43% over the past year. Alcohol sales will now be limited to one transaction per person per day. Monday and Tuesday will be “takeaway alcohol-free days”. | Xinhua…

ROME: Italy is mourning the death in a road accident of a rare brown bear that made international headlines when it broke into a bakery and feasted on biscuits. The Marsican bear, which had been named Juan Carrito, was hit by an Opel Corsa car on a mountain road near Castel di Sangro, in central Italy, on Monday evening. The 150kg bear was captured last year and taken to a more remote region after his bakery break-in but the 4-year-old liked to return to his old haunts in search of food. Before the accident, he had been seen at a ski resort at the weekend. There are believed to be only about 50 Marsican bears left in Italy. | Reuters…

The African Transformation Movement (ATM) says it welcomes the news that Acting Public Protector (PP) advocate Kholeka Gcaleka has completed her investigation into the Phala Phala matter. In June 2022, the ATM reported its complaint to suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in relation to Ramaphosa’s alleged conduct regarding the matter. Leader of ATM Vuyo Zungula compelled the public protector to investigate possible violations of the law after former State Security Agency head Arthur Fraser opened a criminal case against Ramaphosa. It was reported that more than $4 million was allegedly stolen from Ramaphosa’s Limpopo farm in 2020 and that the alleged robbers were subsequently kidnapped, interrogated and paid to stay silent. While Ramaphosa admitted that money was stolen, he said it was far less than $4m and he denied any…

Encouraging a strong sense of self and of identity will serve all well. Such inner-strength is the antidote for victim-thinking and living lives full of blame and denial. A strong sense of self will develop naturally in a child who is encouraged to speak up for himself or herself, whose opinions are listened to and affirmed and challenged, and when the child is encouraged to be seen and heard. A strong sense of self will naturally develop in a person whose innate gifts and skills are acknowledged and allowed to flourish within a community of family, friends and community. A strong sense of self can be established, and regained if necessary when a man or woman thinks he or she may have lost a sense of self, by finding a…

Across the world, innocent civilians are being killed and massacred on a weekly basis in an orgy of violence that defies description. These politically and religiously motivated brutalities are unprecedented in the annals of human relations. Savagery is condoned, bloodshed is accepted, discrimination is sanctioned by those in power, humiliation is undertaken with glee, destruc tion of property becomes enshrined in law, displacement of innocent civilians becomes an edict. Horrific acts of slaughter, mutilation and butchery are covered up by pliant media. These grotesque acts are not only a violation of international law, but are tantamount to war crimes under International Criminal Court laws. No important participants are punished for these heinous crimes. The ruthless slaughter of innocent civilians lays the foundation for the world to see the true nature…

In the latest of a series of legal battles emanating from the ongoing energy crisis in the country, trade union Solidarity has served legal documents on the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) in a bid to increase private power generation. Solidarity said Eskom’s inability to alleviate the country’s power crisis meant that South Africa needed to head towards private generation supply. It initiated legal action against Nersa to remove all bottlenecks in the way of private energy suppliers. “The first step is to force Nersa, to disclose information about why so few licences have been awarded to private generators of power and so few private generation licenses have been granted,” said Dirk Hermann, Solidarity CEO. In the application, Solidarity demands, that it be furnished with information about the number…

The pioneering four-day work week pilot is set to start in South Africa next month. The new work model aims to increase productivity and boost workers’ well-being. This is according to 4 Day Week SA, the organisation spearheading the experiment. The organisation cites a report by Gallup that claims only 24% of South African workers are engaged at work and only 29% are thriving in their overall well-being. However, the financial director of Keegor Group SA, Michelle Austin, said such a work structure was not feasible for all sectors. “In general I think it can work, but there are limitations. There are some sectors where it might not work very well. These might include the health-care system, the police, construction, manufacturing and mining.’’ Austin points to the manufacturing sector, where…

THE Life Esidimeni inquest will resume on Monday, during a virtual sitting of the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, when the cross-examination of Dr Makgabo Manamela continues. Manamela was the director of the Mental Health Directorate at the Gauteng Department of Health during the transfer of mental health-care patients from Life Esidimeni to unprepared and unlicensed NGOs in 2016. She is expected to be further questioned about her role in the deaths of 141 mental health-care users. Manamela gave evidence for several weeks towards the end of last year, before the court adjourned for the December recess. She was due to take the stand before Dr Barney Selebano, who was the head of the department at the time of the transfer of the patients. Her evidence was, however, delayed as she…

Gift of the Givers yesterday officially unveiled the refurbished Port Natal School in Umbilo in Durban. Four of the school’s six blocks were extensively damaged in last year’s April floods. The non-profit organisation was approached last year by the Education Department circuit office in Durban for assistance to fix flood-damaged schools. The work at the Umbilo school was carried out by Altacon Projects led by Altaaf Essop. Essop said the project was a success and while it was expected that the rebuilding would take 12 months, they had finished the job in just four months. He added that since the school is a building registered with Amafa, the heritage conservation agency, they had to follow strict regulations to ensure the heritage of the building was maintained. Gift of the Givers…

THE eThekwini Municipality funeral assistance policy has again come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that financial assistance had yet to be provided to the family of a late city councillor, months after the death. The municipality has been tasked by opposition parties to urgently finalise the review of its policy, which is meant to standardise the assistance it offers in the event of a funeral of one of its residents, amid concerns that it is being applied unfairly. The matter came up as the city’s executive committee processed a report regarding the assistance that it offered for the funeral of prominent Durban artist Mandla “Mampintsha” Maphumulo who died late last year. The municipality offers burial assistance to residents who are indigent or are prominent individuals who have contributed positively…

Ukraine dismissed more than a dozen senior officials including governors of several major battlefield provinces yesterday in the biggest shake-up of its wartime leadership since Russia’s invasion last year. Separately yesterday, a long-awaited decision on whether allies could send German-made heavy tanks to Ukraine finally confronted Berlin, after Poland said it had formally sent its request to the German government. Among Ukrainian officials who resigned or were dismissed yesterday were the governors of the Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and adjacent Dnipropetrovsk are front-line provinces now; Kyiv and Sumy were major battlefields earlier in the war. A deputy defence minister, a deputy prosecutor, a deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office and two deputy ministers responsible for regional development were among the others who left. Some,…

The judge probing the 2020 Beirut blast has charged Lebanon’s top public prosecutor, the then-premier and other senior current and former officials in connection with the devastating explosion that killed 220 people and shattered parts of Beirut, judicial sources said and court summons show. Judge Tarek Bitar unexpectedly resumed an inquiry this week after it was paralysed for more than a year by political resistance and legal complaints filed by top officials he was seeking to question. The explosion on August 4, 2020 was caused by hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port in poor conditions since it was unloaded in 2013. So far, no senior official has been held to account. Bitar has charged former prime minister Hassan Diab, former interior minister Nouhad…

Wellington: A teary-eyed Jacinda Ardern yesterday made her last speech as the Prime Minister of New Zealand with successor Chris Hipkins beside her. The outgoing Labour leader on her last day as prime minister said her departure should not be viewed as a negative commentary on New Zealand. “I have experienced such love, compassion, empathy and kindness when I’ve been in this job, that has been my predominant experience,” Ardern said while visiting the Ratana temple with Hipkins. Ardern said she would still be an MP for Mt Albert, but would be away from the centre of politics. Hipkins said he and Ardern had reflected on the past few years, adding “it’s a bittersweet moment”. Inflation and social inequality saw Ardern’s popularity fall to all-time lows, according to opinion polls.…

ADDIS ABABA: After five consecutive years of below-average rains, the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa is expanding and deepening, the UN World Food Program (WFP) has warned. The impact of the drought on food and nutrition security has been devastating, it said. Across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, an estimated 22 million people are now acutely food-insecure because of the drought. It warned of the critical malnutrition situation affecting some 5.1 million children across drought-hit areas of the three countries. The WFP appealed for $2.4 billion (R41.4bn) to help avert a major crisis across the Horn of Africa. | Xinhua…

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to unlock R2 billion that the eThekwini Municipality needs to deal with infrastructure challenges brought about by last year’s devastating floods. Ramaphosa had attended the final day of the party’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) meeting on Monday, and provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said they had had open and frank discussions with him on various issues facing the province and the country. Yesterday Mtolo said that analysis conducted by the municipality on last year’s floods found that the metro needed at least R5bn to fix and upgrade its infrastructure. “They must raise that money but we are glad we have raised the issue with the president, that he must find a way of injecting R2bn into eThekwini as quickly as possible, and…

This is not another letter bashing Ramaphosa or the ANC. I decided that it’s totally counter-productive for anyone, including political leaders, to just criticise without offering solutions. We have many leaders among us who are brilliant at identifying and articulating the problems our citizens encounter. But here is the challenge. Not many come up with solutions. Here I’m talking about the announcement by Nersa (the National Energy Regulator of South Africa) that a tariff increase of 18.65% has been approved for Eskom. The president, on receiving this news, from the media, got shocked. He then sympathised with South Africans and said the most bizarre thing I’ve ever heard coming from a president. He said these increases were out of his hands. But while delivering his closing speech at the ANC…

I wish to respond to the letter in The Mercury from Visvin Reddy in which he suggests that daily water samples be taken by the Health Department. I am pleased to see that he now accepts that the tap water in our municipality is safe to drink. I am informed by the Scientific Services branch of eThekwini Water and Sanitation that they took 5 428 water samples in 2022 and performed 55 369 different tests on those samples. Their laboratory is ISO17025 compliant and SANAS accredited, to ensure the accuracy and dependability of their test results. The role of the Health Department is one of oversight and they take far fewer samples. I have drunk our tap water all my life and it remains safe to do so. Bottled water…

The 42nd cohort of Peace Corps volunteers was officially sworn in this week in Pretoria, to resume the mission of building healthy relationships among countries across the globe. In March 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Peace Corps were forced to evacuate from countries across the world. The Peace Corps is an independent agency and programme of the US government. Country director for Peace Corps South Africa, James Ham, said he, alongside hundreds of volunteers, were forced to say goodbye to the communities in the various countries they had become fond of in 2020, not knowing what the future had in store for them. Ham said at the time when countries were closing international borders, there were roughly over 7 000 volunteers in 60 countries, with 140 volunteers stationed…

A World Bank report last month showed that the poorest countries which are eligible to borrow from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) are spending over a tenth of their export revenues to service their long-term public and publicly guaranteed external debt – the highest proportion since 2000. The International Debt Report highlighted rising debt-related risks for all developing economies – low- as well as middle-income economies. “At the end of 2021, the external debt of these economies totalled $9 trillion (about R154 trillion), more than double the amount a decade ago. During the same period, the total external debt of IDA countries, meanwhile, nearly tripled to $1 trillion. Rising interest rates and slowing global growth risk tipping a large number of countries into debt crises.…

A 54-year-old man has been handed two terms of life imprisonment, in the Madadeni Regional Court in Newcastle, for raping his niece in 2019 and 2020. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal said the man was sentenced last Thursday. NPA spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara, said the child, who was 11 at the time, and her family, lived in a communal homestead with other family members. She said the man raped his niece when there were no other adults around. “On the first occasion he raped her when she went to use the outside toilet. Her sister found them in the toilet and the child, who did not realise that she had been raped, told her sister that their uncle was trying to rape her. They reported the incident to their…

The police’s top brass, including Police Minister Bheki Cele, yesterday visited the family of a Port Edward police officer, who was gunned down along with his wife and children on Saturday. Warrant Officer Roger Mavundla, his wife and two children died while a third child, 7, is being treated in hospital. It is alleged that the officer was in a vehicle with his family travelling home when they came under fire in the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast town. Cele, National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, and provincial commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi were briefed on the murders yesterday before being taken to the crime scene. On its Facebook page, the police said during the visit to the family home, the relatives were informed that a Hawks team had been assigned to find the…

AFRICAN democracies have often battled with the concept of democracy and this is why I am particularly proud that the AU has a well-established principle of rejecting unconstitutional changes of government. It is this instrumental fact that sets the organisation apart from its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity. The principles of rejection are best captured through frameworks that are noted in the AU instrument. These include the Lomé Declaration of 2000, the constitutive act of the AU; the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance; the Ecowas Democracy and Good Governance Protocols; and the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, also referred to as the Malabo Protocol. The frameworks have been rigorously expanded in recent years, to…

Just two days after a gunman killed 11 people at a Los Angeles-area dance studio, seven more victims were shot dead in an agricultural area near San Francisco, as California suffered one of its bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades. Authorities said they had not identified the motive for either of the rampages. The attacks seemed especially baffling in part because the suspects in each were men of retirement age, much older than is typical for perpetrators of deadly mass shootings that have become numbingly routine in the US. California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was visiting wounded survivors from Saturday night’s massacre in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park when he was informed of Monday’s killings in northern California. “Tragedy upon tragedy,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.…

Russia’s top diplomat yesterday pledged security training to Eswatini, just days after the brutal murder of a leading human rights lawyer and opposition politician. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was speaking in Africa’s last absolute monarchy two days after Thulani Maseko was shot. “Russia is prepared to assist Eswatini in training of security personnel, improving food production and also assistance on other issues of mutual co-operation,” Lavrov said. After talks with Eswatini’s prime minister and other cabinet members, he said 50 Eswatini security personnel were studying at Russian defence universities. Responding to a question on the political crisis in Eswatini, the minister said: “As a matter of principle, we do not interfere with the political situations of any country.” | AFP…

Bangkok: Fighting has flared in recent days between Myanmar junta forces and rebels opposed to their rule, officials and locals said yesterday, with reports that large numbers of civilians have fled the violence. Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government was toppled in an army coup almost two years ago. Long-established ethnic rebel groups, as well as dozens of “People’s Defence Forces”, have emerged in opposition and clash frequently with the military. The last few days have seen intense clashes in south-east Karen state, around Kyonedoe and the border town of Payathonzu. | AFP…

London: Two hundred children who arrived in the UK seeking asylum without their parents in the past 18 months are missing, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said yesterday. Thirteen of them are under 16 and one is a girl, he told parliament, adding that they were mostly Albanian. The Observer newspaper said young asylum-seekers were being “kidnapped” by criminal gangs outside their hotel in Brighton in southern England. Jenrick acknowledged that since July 2021 there had been “440 missing occurrences”, where asylum seekers did not return to their hotels, where they are staying voluntarily. | AFP…