Índex per 2021-05-05 a Star

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za Public finances could come under further pressure this year due to the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, but economists have remained optimistic that there was plenty of room to absorb the extra spending. The National Treasury yesterday allocated more than R4 billion extra to purchase Covid-19 vaccines and to extend the special distress grant (SRD). Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane yesterday tabled a Special Appropriation Bill to Parliament which would be enacted if passed by Members of Parliament. The Bill allocates an additional R1.25bn to the Department of Health to procure vaccines, and implement a related Covid-19 research project. Another R2.83bn was appropriated to the Department of Social Development to fund the extension of the special Covid-19 SRD R350 grant. Mogajane said the National Treasury was “on track” to…

FBI: MOST WANTED S2, M-NET, DSTV CHANNEL 101, 8.30PM The pulsating crime drama from executive producer Dick Wolf. A division of the FBI that is tasked with tracking and capturing the notorious criminals on their Most Wanted list. A CONFESSION, M-NET CITY, DSTV CHANNEL 115, 9.45PM Sian O'Callaghan goes missing after a Friday night out in Swindon Old Town. As the family desperately waits for news, the police search for any clues to where she could be. LAW & ORDER: SVU S22 UNIVERSAL CHANNEL, DSTV CHANNEL 117, 8PM It’s 22 seasons and counting for Captain Olivia Benson and her squad, but from corrupt cops to Covid-19, there are always surprises in store. This season has already seen appearances from Law & Order alumni Rafael Barba (Raul Esparza), Lt Carolyn…

Sihle Mavuso AFTER days of heated exchanges and accusations, there are internal attempts by members of the Zulu royal court to reconcile and give Queen Mantfombi Dlamini-Zulu a dignified burial identical to the one given to the King Goodwill Zwelithini. Yesterday, senior members of the royal court, Princess Thembi Ndlovu (nee Zulu), Princess Mbonisi Zulu and Prince Mathuba Zulu, among others, attended an evening meeting at Khangela palace in Nongoma, where the mourning for Dlamini-Zulu was taking place. Royal insiders said the meeting was about trying to calm the raging storm in the royal house. “They want to face each other and resolve the ongoing impasse because they are tainting the royal house … That is what I know for now,” said a trusted source within the royal court.…

Mpiletso Motumi mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za AFROFUSION artist, Manu WorldStar, launched his debut tour series, My World Tour this month. This six date tour is the first volume of many upcoming Manu WorldStar tours that are set to take over southern Africa in the near future and the first one is just a glimpse into what the rising act has in store for us. “Since lockdown started, I have been cocooned in my crib making music. I am working on how I want to represent myself in the next couple of years, how I want to look and sound. All these ideas were in my head and I couldn’t let anyone know these ideas because I couldn’t execute them. “When we got to Level 1, I had all these things that I…

Workers’ Day should be changed from May 1 to August 16 to reflect Marikana massacre ON TUESDAY May 4, 1886 a bombing took place at a labour demonstration at the Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, and led to the death of seven workers whose sin was fighting against slave working hours. The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre or Haymarket riot) began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour day and in reaction to the killing of several workers the previous day by the police. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they acted to disperse the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; scores of…

Thousands of Afghans were forced to flee their homes as fierce fighting erupted between government forces and the Taliban in a southern province after the US military began withdrawing its remaining troops from Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. Afghan forces pushed back insurgent attacks on multiple checkpoints in the past 24 hours in the province of Helmand where the US military on Sunday handed over a base to government forces as part of its formal pullout that began on May 1. About 1 000 families have fled their homes to escape the fighting that erupted on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and some other parts of the province, said Sayed Mohammad Ramin, the region’s director for refugees. He said the families had taken refuge in Lashkar Gah…

BEIJING: Parts of China’s Long March 5B rocket – carrying the main module of its future orbital station and which was launched at the end of last month – were falling back to the Earth. It was feared some may land in an inhabited area, said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University. Although it was hard to predict where the debris would land, the impact could be the “equivalent of a small plane crash”, McDowell warned. “Last time they launched a Long March 5B rocket they ended up with rods of metal flying through the sky and damaging several buildings in the Ivory Coast.” It may hit the ground from May 10 from as far north as New York, Madrid and Beijing and to as far south as…

PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was acquitted yesterday of breaking hate speech laws in 2015 when she posted images of Islamic State atrocities on Twitter. Le Pen displayed three images, including one of the decapitated body of US journalist James Foley, after a TV interviewer compared her party to the Islamist militant group. She had said she tweeted the images to highlight the absurdity of the comparison. Her defence lawyers said that freedom of expression had been safeguarded. She will be President Emmanuel Macron’s main challenger in next year’s election. | Reuters…

MIHLALI BALEKA @Mihlalibaleka Former Bafana Bafana international Matthew Booth insists that Benni McCarthy should stay in the PSL for at least another season before accepting the role of being the national team’s new head coach. McCarthy is expected to be announced as the new Bafana coach today. His appointment comes after the dismissal of Molefi Ntseki, who failed to guide the team to the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after suffering a loss against Sudan in March. McCarthy was not the primary target of the SA Football Association after they were snubbed by Carlos Queiroz and Pitso Mosimane. McCarthy, though, finds himself on Safa’s radar after an impressive stint at Durban club AmaZulu. The 43-year-old has taken Usuthu from being perennial relegation candidates to serious title contenders as they are…

Ashfak Mohamed ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za Who will stand tallest between the four starting locks from the Bulls and Stormers at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday night? That is not only a pun on the second-rowers, but a very real question as Springbok places are up for grabs for the British and Irish Lions Test series. That is because yet another of the World Cup-winning locks have gone down injured – or in this case, has a different issue to deal with. RG Snyman has been making good progress from a serious knee injury, and was expected to return soon for Irish club Munster to prove his fitness to Bok coach Jacques Nienaber for the Lions tour. But yesterday, Munster announced that Snyman has picked up a new, unrelated knee injury, and will…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za THE COMPETITION Commission has proposed the Competition Tribunal impose a fine of 10 percent of turnover, with a possible 30 percent discount and negotiation of staggered payments for the alleged collusion by Elliott Mobility with other furniture removal companies. The Competition Tribunal yesterday heard closing arguments in a case where Elliott Mobility was alleged to have colluded with other furniture removal companies on tenders to a number of government departments, including the SANDF and Eskom. The commission accused Elliott of having entered into agreements, or conducted a concerted practice to collude on furniture removal tenders with JH Retief Transport and Cape Express Removals, from about 2008 until at least 2010. The collusion was alleged to have occurred through the provision of cover quotes between…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za EQUITES Property Fund had no defaults among the tenants of its logistics properties in the year to February 28, despite the devastating effects of Covid-19 lockdowns on the commercial property markets in the UK and South Africa. Equites chief executive Andrea Taverna-Turisan said yesterday in an interview the fact there were no rent defaults, and assistance was provided to tenants that occupied only a fraction of the gross letting area, indicated the defensiveness of the portfolio and the resilience of the company’s mainly blue-chip clients. The only vacancy related to a single logistics unit in the UK and the port- folio vacancy rate was 0.1 percent. The average collection rate over the past year was 99.3 percent in South Africa and 100 percent in the UK.…

Britney Spears has taken aim at the documentaries about her personal life and insisted they should focus on the positive things in her life instead of her “traumatising past”. The Toxic hitmaker appeared to take aim at the latest documentary by the BBC, The Battle for Britney: Fans, Cash and a Conservatorship, which hit the broadcaster's streaming service at the weekend. And The New York Times’ Framing Britney Spears documentary about the conservatorship that she has been living under since 2008, which sparked the #FreeBritney movement. Although the singer, 39, was “deeply flattered” by the attention, she slammed such documentaries for doing the “same thing” as the media. She began in her lengthy Instagram rant in the caption of a video of her dancing: “geez ! ! ! ! “2021…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za HEALTH Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has called for calm as his department and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) closely monitor the surge in new coronavirus variants in different parts of the world. The minister’s call follows an allegedly reported case of the coronavirus found in a KwaZulu-Natal patient who had recently travelled to India. The reported infection sparked fears about the possibility of the B.1.617 variant, which is ravaging India, being found in South Africa. “We have not detected the B.1.617 variant as yet in South Africa. However, we have consulted members of the genomics team who have informed us that they have intensified their surveillance, not only to ensure that variant can be detected quickly, but also to understand what the implications are for…

BONGANI NKOSI bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za FUGITIVE attorneys Ronald and Darren Bobroff have failed to stop the State from seizing most of the millions in their Israeli bank accounts. In a judgment scathing of the two lawyers facing damning allegations that they defrauded road accident victims, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed their appeal against a 2019 Pretoria High Court ruling. Acting Judge of Appeal Jannie Eksteen ruled that the money currently frozen by Israeli authorities should be paid into the Criminal Assets Recovery Account of the SA Reserve Bank. The 2019 ruling enabled the State to attach about R103 million held in two Israeli bank accounts belonging to the Bobroffs. A respite for father and son in Judge Eksteen’s judgment was that they could keep about R8m held in their Bank…

JAMES MAHLOKWANE james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za RESEARCHERS at the University of Pretoria have come up with a solution to encourage safe listening and prevent hearing loss for many young people who rely on earphones. The university said the innovative research could change the lives of millions of people, by reducing the risk of hearing loss caused by personal audio systems. Professor De Wet Swanepoel, at the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, who led the study, said this was an applied solution to the real-world problem of hearing loss, for more than a billion young people at risk. He said: “This world-first technology includes high-quality earphones, with an in-ear microphone to measure personal sound exposure in a person’s ear canal. “Coupled with a tracking app that provides real-time feedback on sound levels when…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za WHAT Vodacom once labelled a brilliant idea led to the betrayal of its inventor, legal counsel acting for “Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate argued yesterday. In the saga spanning nearly 21 years, Makate again turned to court to get what he claimed was owed to him – not the R47 million as calculated by Vodacom, but rather closer to R10 billion, without interest. The North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is presiding over Makate’s review application over the next three days in which he is asking that the R47m which Vodacom claimed is owed to him be reviewed and set aside. While counsel are presenting their case from offices at Menlyn Corporate Park, Judge Wendy Hughes is hearing the matter virtually. Armed with a hefty team of…

FAROUK ARAIE | Gauteng EARTH-shattering new revelations continue to make headlines in our dysfunctional country. State capture in its ugliest manifestations and a nation on the edge as we anticipate a third wave, and the municipal election frenzy engulfs voters, with every political party promising them a new Shangri-La. The road to power is paved with hypocrisy and casualties. All the major political parties have lost their moral values to the affluence that comes with power and materialism. It’s a bane that has survived in our political arena, hence deserving the term “cronyism”. Its waters are murky, it is not for the faint-hearted. We are a nation in total disarray. Petrol price hikes, e-tolls, load shedding, corruption, the Covid-19 vaccine fiasco and Sassa grants debacle will…

EARLY last year, during the first thrashes of the pandemic, we were all talking about herd immunity. At that stage, many commentators were arguing that we should let Covid-19 rip through populations, so we could get enough people immune to the virus and that would stop it from spreading. As I argued at the time, this was a terrible idea that would overwhelm hospitals and kill many people. Now we have safe and effective vaccines, we can aim to reach herd immunity in a safer way. It’s possible we’ll be able to reach and maintain herd immunity in certain regions, states and countries. However the pandemic ends, it will involve this immunity to some extent. But it’s uncertain whether long-term, global herd immunity is achievable. The coronavirus could continue to…

FOR the past two weeks as concern, or rather anxiety, has receded from our collective consciousness, news headlines and graphic footage from India have reminded us that Covid-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future. Just for context, India is a country of almost 1.4 billion people. On Monday it recorded more than 357 000 cases, in 24 hours, of new Covid-19 infections. On the same day, it recorded 3 449 deaths, with the seven-day average being 3 502. Even for a country of close to a billion-and-a-half people those are still a lot of, some would say unnecessary, deaths. When such a tragedy unfolds, our human nature seeks to apportion blame, and right now fingers are being pointed at the Indian government, specifically that country’s divisive Prime Minister…

Diplomatic moves to ease transatlantic air travel could unleash fierce competition to entice passengers back into near-empty cabins at a time when tottering airlines can ill afford a price war in the world’s richest aviation market. Talks between Brussels and Washington on resuming mass travel for vaccinated tourists have raised hopes of a summer rebound – further buoyed by new EU reopening proposals. Airlines are desperate for good news after a year of Covid-19 lockdowns. The US will reopen to Europeans in “a matter of the next two or three weeks”, Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr predicted last week. But the German airline boss also cautioned against any race to the bottom on fares. Air France-KLM said US sales twitched back to life last month after French President Emmanuel Macron…

Geneva: The UN rights office yesterday condemned the “excessive use of force” by security officers in Colombia, after numerous deaths during days of protests against a proposed tax reform. The UN voiced “profound shock” at a further incident overnight in the city of Cali, saying police “opened fire” on demonstrators, killing and injuring a number of people. The rights office called for calm on all sides ahead of a planned mass protest today, and stressed that security forces should only use firearms as a last resort. Protesters in Colombia called for a new mass rally after 19 people died and over 800 were wounded in clashes during five days of demonstrations. UN officials were trying to verify the casualty toll from Monday’s incident. | AFP…

London: The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann said they are still hoping to see their daughter again, in a message ahead of her 18th birthday next week. Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007. “Every May is tough … This year it is particularly poignant as we should be celebrating Madeleine’s 18th birthday,” Kate and Gerry McCann said. The couple were grateful for the support they had received from the public in one of Britain’s most high-profile missing person cases. German investigators have identified a prime suspect. | AFP…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za Cricket South Africa is hopeful that all the South Africans – players and support staff – who were participating in the Indian Premier League will be back in the country by tomorrow. A number of logistical hurdles need to be overcome, but CSA and the the SA Cricketers’ Association are confident that the 11 players, along with the support staff, contracted to various teams will be back in the country before the end of the week. They will all have to quarantine for between 10 and 14 days. CSA said yesterday it had “made contact with all the relevant franchises, to ensure the expedited travel of all South African players and support staff back to our shores”. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) indefinitely…

Morgan Bolton morgan.bolton@inl.co.za When it comes to loose forwards, the Lions have had it good for the last decade. Think of these players dating back to the 2011 season: Derick Minnie, Scotland international Joshua Strauss, Cobus Grobbelaar, Wikus van Heerden, former Springbok captain Warren Whiteley, Lions legend Jaco Kriel, Ruan Ackermann, Cyle Brink, the underrated Warwick Tecklenberg, and hard as nails Kwagga Smith. So it should come as no surprise that the Lions again have an impressive slew of loosies, the most exciting prospects of which are the three young men who were the incumbents against the Bulls last weekend: Vincent Tshituka and MJ Pelser are 22 years old, and Francke Horn 21. And that’s excluding Hacjivah Daymani, Roelof Smit, Sibusiso Sangweni, Kriel and a bevy of other flanks and…

JSE-LISTED IT service management company 4Sight Holdings yesterday entered into a strategic partnership with Cognius.AI in Africa and beyond to create solutions that leverage conversational AI platforms for the enterprise market. Cognius.AI is a highly innovative AI specialist developer based in Singapore. The group said Cognius.AI’s Sofia platform had the potential to revolutionise AI by modelling AI to human interaction more closely on how human-to-human conversations work. 4Sight entered the partnership after reporting a 6.7 percent decline in revenue to $31.7 million (R458m) for the year to end December and an increase of more than 100 percent increase in net profit to $1.8m, reversing a loss of $5.3m reported a year earlier. 4Sight chief business environment officer Rudi Dreyer said yesterday that conversational AI allowed Sofia to have a…

Will Smith, 52, has confessed he is in “the worst shape” of his life. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air star took to social media to be “real” with his fans about his current life status, admitting he is in the worst shape following the coronavirus pandemic. He wrote on Instagram: “I’m gonna be real wit y’all – I’m in the worst shape of my life. (sic)” He previously revealed he’s open to a political career: “For now I’ll let that office get cleaned up a little bit and then I’ll consider that at some point down the line. “I don’t know, I absolutely have an opinion, I’m optimistic, I’m hopeful, I believe in understanding between people and I believe in the possibility of harmony … So, I will certainly…

RAND Water has threatened to interdict a planned strike by the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) should the union not provide the entity with a contingency plan for essential workers. Workers have opted to go on strike on May 13 to voice their frustration over the withdrawal of an incentive benefit that has been part of workers’ contracts for years. This is the second strike threat by Samwu members in a short space of time. Rand Water had to go to court a few weeks ago to stop the previous plan to strike. Rand Water spokesperson Teboho Jwala said the principle of “no work, no pay” would apply. He reassured Rand Water customers that there would be no disruption to water supply during the strike. “We are preparing for the…

MASHUDU SADIKE ASSISTANT editor at Pretoria News Kennedy Mudzuli is dropping his long-awaited second EP as DJ Edit SA this Friday. You would think that all journalists and newspaper editors’ lives begin and end in the newsrooms where, on a daily basis, words like deadlines and copy are shouted across the corridors to put the paper to bed. But Mudzuli, who is a multi award-winning journalist, has widened his horizons to compete in one of the most gruelling industries in the world. On Friday, his birthday, the Afro House DJ will be launching his second offering. The self-titled project is a five-track EP that will be released on all major digital music platforms worldwide under the Mudzuli record label DJ Edit SA Music. Titled Kennedy Mudzuli EP, it is…

Mpiletso Motumi mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za WHILE THE lockdown made amateur chefs and bakers out of everyone, Khensani Peters saw this as an opportunity to help those people improve their skills. “Many businesses were birthed from that period and they realised that they could turn what was a hobby into an income stream. They started to invest in themselves more from there.” Peters’ services as a professional baker for her company, Ntshovelo Cakes, came in high demand. She saw a gap in the market for online teaching and took full advantage of it. While Peters is living her purpose, it took six years of working in the corporate world before she finally took the leap of faith. “I worked in information technology and it wasn’t my passion but because I didn’t know what…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za THE first Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) alumni to graduate with a PhD expresses her gratitude to the independent school and the “driver” of her dreams, Oprah Winfrey. Dr Lindiwe Tsope, who obtained a BA in social science, BA Honours, Master of Arts from Rhodes University (RU), completed her doctoral degree in 2020. Tsope matriculated from OWLAG in 2012 and was conferred with her PhD in philosophy during a virtual graduation ceremony last week. In a statement on Monday, the independent boarding school in Meyerton said the doctoral graduate served as the class representative for the class of 2012 on the OWLAG Alumnae Network. “Dr Tsope is a true role model for our OWLAG students. Congratulations Dr Tsope, the OWLAG community is proud of you!”…

The lockdown the government first imposed more than a year ago to try to contain the spread of Covid-19 has had the unintended consequence of a plumper population, a survey released on Monday shows. In the survey of almost 2 000 South African adults commissioned by pharmaceutical company Pharma Dynamics, 45% of respondents said lockdown regulations had impacted their eating and exercise habits for the worse, with 44% gaining 2-5 kg, 15% putting on 6-10 kg and 4% an extra 10kg or more. “Treats and calories are up, while exercise is down,” company spokeswoman Nicole Jennings said. “Limited access to daily grocery shopping may have led to reduced consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables in favour of highly processed food. In times of stress and uncertainty, people also find solace…

Martha Gayoye If parliament formally approves the nomination of Justice Martha Koome as the next Chief Justice of Kenya and president of the Supreme Court, as is widely expected, she will become the first woman to occupy the seat in Kenya’s history. Justice Koome topped nine other candidates – including two other women – for the job during interviews carried out by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) between April 10 and 23 this year. Koome will become the third chief justice under the 2010 constitution. She succeeds Chief Justice Maraga, who retired on January 12 after reaching the age of 70. Koome’s nomination is a historic moment for Kenyan women, who have been missing from higher ranking courts until recent years. Women in the judiciary were initially concentrated in…

It’s not just India. Fierce new Covid-19 waves are enveloping other developing countries across the world, placing severe strain on their health-care systems and prompting appeals for help. Nations ranging from Laos to Thailand in South-east Asia, and those bordering India such as Bhutan and Nepal, have been reporting significant surges in infections in the past few weeks. The increase is mainly because of more contagious virus variants, though complacency and a lack of resources to contain the spread have also been cited as reasons. In Laos last week, the health minister sought medical equipment, supplies and treatment, as cases jumped more than 200-fold in a month. Nepal is seeing hospitals quickly filling up and running out of oxygen supplies. Health facilities are under pressure in Thailand, where 98% of…

MEXICO CITY: A full investigation will be carried out into the causes of an overpass collapse that killed at least 23 people when one of Mexico City’s iconic orange metro trains plunged on to a busy road below, the city’s mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said yesterday. Two train carriages precariously hung from the damaged overpass after the accident late on Monday, and rescue efforts were suspended with authorities worried that more train parts and debris could slam down on to the road. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the investigation should be done quickly. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said it was the most “terrible” accident to have hit the local transport system. | Reuters…

BRUSSELS: The border between Belgium and France has been largely stable for 200 years – until a Belgian farmer annoyed with the placement of one of the stones marking the storied territorial divide shifted the border 2.3 metres so his tractor could more easily move. A historian walking along the demarcation line noticed the stone had migrated slightly into France. The Belgian village of Erquelinnes, which lies on the border with France, had as a result grown by 2.1m. The French town of Bousignies-sur-Roc in turn shed more than a few centimetres. Belgian authorities said they would ask the farmer to move the border back. If he doesn’t, they could seek help from the Franco-Belgian border commission. The farmer could also face a fine. | Washington Post…

HERMAN GIBBS Relegation-haunted Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila scored a smash-and-grab 2-1 win over 10-man Kaizer Chiefs with an injury-time penalty in their Premiership clash at Peter Mokaba Stadium last night. It looked like an injury-hit Chiefs, who played half the match a player down following Njabulo Blom’s red card just before half-time, would salvage a draw. But Chiefs central defender Siyabonga Ngezana lost his balance in a goalmouth melee and inadvertently handled the ball, and TTM’s Thabo Mnyamane scored from the resultant penalty. It was the perfect dress rehearsal for TTM, who will be playing in Saturday’s Nedbank Cup final. The final result remained a lottery until the whistle as both sets of defences looked decidedly vulnerable in the closing stages. Earlier, Chiefs midfielder Blom found the going tough and…

WHEN the IOC announced a few weeks ago that they will maintain their stance of forbidding demonstrations on the podium and pitch at the Tokyo Olympics, I was left flabbergasted. On the official Olympic website (olympics.com), it states that Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter is there to protect the neutrality of sport and the Games, adding: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas. “Rule 50 is in place to keep the field of play, the Olympic Village and the podium neutral and free from any form of political, religious or ethnic demonstrations. “We believe the focus at the Olympic Games must remain on athletes’ performances, sport and the international unity and harmony that the Olympic Movement…