Índex per 2022-05-24 a Star

It’s been seven years since singer-songwriter Moonchild Sanelly released her debut album, Rabulapha. Despite its experimental nature, Rabulapha helped launch the singer’s career over the subsequent years and sparked her trajectory into one of the most prominent artists around. Having honed her craft while enjoying the success that came with a feature with Beyoncé and Wizkid on The Lion King soundtrack album, Moonchild is gearing up to release her long-awaited second album Phases on June 10. Before the album’s release, she shared a new single titled Cute featuring Trillary Banks, with a music video. “The song is about bad boss b****** with big d*** energy who look fly while they’re running their s***,” the singer said. “We can be cute, so our power might look unthreatening, but don't be fooled,…

THE CITY of Joburg has committed itself to finding sustainable and innovative solutions to its power challenges as its first Energy Indaba kicked off. The city is hosting the first Joburg Energy Indaba, which started yesterday and will conclude today, to find sustainable and innovative solutions to Johannesburg’s most pressing power challenges. “While we believe that we are in a position to overcome our energy challenges as a city, this will take time. In the meantime, how do we respond to the ensuing supply shortages and load shedding? Energy efficiency is a very effective response,” said Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse in her keynote address. She highlighted that the volume of electricity produced by Eskom in 2020 fell below the level produced in 2004 and that tariff increases were imposed on…

LOCAL rising artist Sphelele Sabelo Dube, who is fondly known as Kheso, returns with a single titled Temperature after being in the studio for some time. Following various collaborations with well-known artists, he decided to take his own path and base his focus on creating his own music. Dube has also hopped into the most dominating genre of Amapiano, where he showcases his flair in music. Speaking about his music journey, Kheso said that he caught the music bug at a young age and has never looked back since. Asked about his new song, he said: “The track is called Temperature because when people experience life pressure, their body temperature naturally increases. “For example, when you see your ex hotter than when you dated her, or you see your peers…

The battle royal between Thabo Makwakwa and the State Security Agency (SSA) promises to rip wide open the hitherto well guarded and tightly sealed apartheid files. Makwakwa, a journalist from the Daily News, an Independent Media publication, is being dragged to court by the Minister of State Security for being in possession of a secret report from the Embassy of America in our country. The document allegedly makes startling, if not damning, claims about certain leading figures in the ANC clandestinely collaborating with American intelligence officials to weaken and exterminate the ANC. We are told that the document identifies these ANC leaders who supply the Americans with information about the organisation and, by extension, our country. Treasonous stuff! The news of a collaboration between ANC leaders and the enemy of…

A UKRAINIAN court found a young Russian soldier guilty of war crimes yesterday for killing a civilian and handed him a life sentence, in the first verdict of its kind since Russia’s invasion three months ago. The judgment came in as President Volodymyr Zelensky urged political and business elites at the World Economic Forum to end all trade with Russia and keep supplying his country with weapons. Russian attacks are pummelling eastern Ukraine, but all eyes yesterday were on the capital Kyiv, in the landmark trial against 21-year-old Russian serviceman Vadim Shishimarin. The sergeant from Siberia had admitted in court to killing a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov, in the village of Chupakhivka in north-east Ukraine. He claimed he shot Shelipov under pressure from another soldier as they tried to retreat…

MOSCOW: US President Joe Biden launched a new regional economic initiative together with 12 Indo-Pacific countries – Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – yesterday with a view to tackling global inflation and containing China’s regional economic influence, the US said. The initiative aimed at increasing co-operation between the Indo-Pacific nations and delivering solid benefits for the people of the region. Biden is in Tokyo for the Quadri-lateral Security Summit. | Sputnik…

MPUMALANGA Premier Refilwe Mtsweni says he is shocked to learn that the alleged mastermind behind the muti murder of six-year-old Bontle Mashiyane is a woman. On Monday, three suspects – ex-convict Collen Hlongwane, 36, Ntombikayise Ngwenya, 40, and Thapelo Ngomane, 25 – appeared in the KaBokweni Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga on charges of rape, murder, kidnapping and dealing in human tissue. Mashiyane was reported missing on April 3; her body was discovered on May 21 at Mganduzweni, near White River. Mashiyane went missing the same weekend as Hillary Gardee, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general, Godrich Gardee. Her murder, too, is believed to have been linked to a muti-killing and the two bodies were recovered in areas not too far from each other. Mashiyane’s body was found decomposed, with…

After Germany lost World War I, World War II was born out of the frustration of the German nation with the restrictions imposed on them by the Versailles Peace Treaty. It took only 20 years to find the person in the form of Adolf Hitler to get the following of the nation that brought about the war. Russia lost the Cold War. Russia’s war against the Ukraine is not the first time it attacked its former Warsaw Pact and Soviet colonies. Czecho-Slovakia, Poland and the Caucasian countries were quickly overrun. The Ukraine war is taking longer. What makes the Ukraine war different from WWII is that the loss of the Cold War was due to Russia's mishandling of the economy. It is possible to get out of a country's problems…

At a time when millions of children in our country are malnourished, leading to irreversible mental and physical stunting, when thousands of them are starving and when many are dying of hunger, the national attention is again on race. A loutish 18-year-old white student at the University of Stellenbosch, Theuns du Toit, urinated on the computer and the books of a black student. He compounded the malicious damage to dignity and property by stating: “This is what white men do, boy.” It may be news to him, but white men do not do that. The arrogance and the ignorance, as well as the bravado, of the student are beyond belief. Does he realise that his criminal action has led to many black people feeling that white people are all racists?…

The Reserve Bank last week announced a further interest rate hike of 50bp to 4.75%, its largest incremental hike since 2016. The increase will likely see a rise in the 66% of South African credit seekers already getting rejected. South Africans are battling with not only trying to make ends meet, but with keeping their credit records in good shape. As one of the main determinants of whether your credit application will be approved or rejected, a credit record is undoubtedly the most important aspect of any credit transaction. It is not surprising that when contemplating debt review as a solution to a debt problem, many of us worry about the implications that the process will have on our credit records. If you have ever taken up credit, whether it…

Islamabad: Amid rising oil consumption and a growing import bill owing to higher international prices, the Pakistan government is weighing the possibility of fuel conservation with reduced working days a week, hoping to save on an estimated annual foreign exchange of up to $2.7 billion (R42.3bn). Pakistan’s total oil import during the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year has shown a 96% growth compared with the same period last fiscal year. Estimates suggest 90% of oil consumption is for working days and the remaining 10% for holidays in a month.| IANS…

Baghdad: Iraq closed public buildings and temporarily shut airports yesterday as another sandstorm – the ninth since mid-April – hit the country. More than 1 000 people were hospitalised across the nation with respiratory problems, health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr said. Flights were also grounded in neighbouring Kuwait for a second time this month, as the region grapples with the increasingly frequent weather phenomenon. The Iraqi capital Baghdad was enveloped in a giant dust cloud that left usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted. | AFP…

South Africa has three sides in the United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-finals, which confirms our players are more than up to the challenge of mixing it with Europe at provincial level. In fact, I reckon a Springbok team picked solely from South Africa’s URC players would beat Wales in June. Here is my team in the hypothetical situation of the overseas Boks not being available – and my team is picked on form not reputation, so some World Cup heroes don’t make it. 15 Warrick Gelant: Back to his best after injury and has sparked many a Stormers attack. Aphelele Fassi won’t be in the frame until he improves his tackling. 14 Madosh Tambwe: Scored the fastest hat-trick in Super Rugby history (13 minutes) for the Lions against the Stormers…

A pep talk from his caddy made all the difference for Justin Thomas as he collected his second Major title after staging an incredible comeback to win the PGA Championship on Sunday. The American was seven shots back at the start of the final round in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but clawed his way up the leaderboard before besting compatriot Will Zalatoris in a three-hole play-off. Thomas, who also won the tournament in 2017, said his caddy Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay put him back on track after carding a frustrating four-over-par 74 in the Saturday’s third round. “I’m fully confident in saying that I wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t give me that - wasn’t necessarily a speech, but a talk, if you will,” said Thomas. “I felt like I’d played terrible.…

Civil society organisations and political parties have raised the alarm over attempts by the State Security Agency (SSA) to silence Independent Media and undermine media freedom through its court action, which will be heard in a closed session at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria today. The outcry denouncing the SSA came after the agency dragged Independent Media, The Star’s sister paper Daily News and its journalist Thabo Makwakwa to court for publishing a story around a leaked intelligence report whose contents cannot be made public as there is an ex parte interdict in place. Freedom Under Law (FUL) hit out at the SSA and deplored the State Security authorities for approaching the court to impair media freedom. “Freedom Under Law believes that the rule of law and media…

The Pothole Patrol, a partnership between the City of Joburg, Discovery Insure and Dialdirect Insurance, launched an app to simplify the reporting of potholes in October last year. “The unprecedented wet weather exacerbated the already dire pothole situation, and an unexpected bitumen shortage caused delays, but we managed to exceed our mandated repair target by 25%, month-on-month,” said Anneli Retief, head of Dialdirect. The partners also increased their repair fleet and employed additional resources to help manage the increased number of reports. Anton Ossip, chief executive of Discovery Insure, said the introduction of the Pothole Patrol has paid dividends in the form of reduced pothole-related insurance claims in Johannesburg. “In March, Discovery Insure data, showed a 26% reduction in pothole-related claims in Johannesburg, compared to an increase of 45% across…

It is with sadness and embarrassment that we have to tell you that the whole country has ground to a halt. No, that is incorrect, implying that we have, over a measured period, slowed down then came to a complete stop. No, we have stopped like driving a car into a solid brick wall. Like flicking the wall switch and the lights go out, except it’s a much bigger breaker at Eskom, and everything is shut off at the speed of light. And the moving object, South Africa, has stopped because a diesel tanker is late. A fully fledged country with a seat at the UN (they had to give us one), well-defined borders (which don’t mean anything), an army (which has more generals than foot soldiers and couldn’t win…

Another shopping centre, another supermarket. The supermarket wars have begun in earnest as they scramble for another slice of the retail cake. Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths all going at one another’s jugulars, copying each other, presenting their target markets with the same boring specials week after week. The employees are poorly paid as the margins are squeezed to such an extent that franchisees claim a lack of meaningful profitability. They are expected to work long hours, earning a pittance. The holding companies of the brands and their distribution centres are coining it, as they squeeze manufacturers and suppliers on pricing, demanding extended payment terms and passing on paltry amounts by way of rebates to the franchisees of the branded stores. Supermarkets are becoming like the cafés of…

AT least 200 temporary job opportunities will be created through the establishment of the Thohoyandou National Botanical Garden. The facility became a reality following an injection of R20 million by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and another R20m from the Department of Tourism. Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy said at the weekend that the national botanical garden was the 11th in the country. Creecy said that it was a biodiversity centre for the province to showcase traditional botanical garden infrastructure, the role of indigenous knowledge, and practices in conservation and biodiversity research facilities that would be of benefit to the province. She said the presence of the community members at the launch was especially significant because of the cultural and historical value that this land held.…

In the last few weeks, you may have read about the outbreak of the monkeypox virus in 12 First World countries. While there has not been a single infection on the African continent, the Western media’s reporting on the outbreak has almost exclusively depicted diseased black bodies. This reporting of the disease even raised the hackles of the Foreign Press Association, Africa-based in Nairobi, Kenya. On Saturday, the association released a statement pointing out that monkeypox can occur in any region of the world regardless of race or skin complexion. Instead, Western media outlets have illustrated the latest outbreak with ominously bold headlines and stock images that do little to educate readers and viewers about monkeypox. These depictions serve only to reinforce long-held racist stereotypes of the African continent as…

Athens: Greece said yesterday it had prevented around 600 migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea into its territorial waters from neighbouring Turkey, in the largest attempted entry this year. The Greek coastguard said five sail boats and four dinghies had set off from the Turkish coast. It said its boats had used “visual and sound signals” to keep the asylum seekers out of Greek territorial waters. All the vessels either headed back or were intercepted by the Turkish coastguard. The migration ministry said migration flows to the Greek islands in the first four months of 2022 were nearly 30% higher than in the same period last year. Over 3 000 asylum seekers have arrived in Greece this year, including over 1 100 last month, according to the ministrdata. There is…

NEW DELHI: The prevailing heatwave in India might lead to a curb in the yield of wheat crops, besides contributing to inflation and adversely affecting the overall growth, Moody’s rating agency said. Over the past few weeks, major wheat-growing states has seen the mercury rise to over 45°C. Estimates of wheat production in the current season have fallen by over 5%., leading to a curb in wheat exports. Moody’s said: “In the longer term, India’s highly negative credit exposure to climate risks means its economic growth will likely become more volatile … ” | Xinhua…

THE Proteas Women’s team will get a glimpse into the future on their upcoming Tour of Ireland. It will be the first time the Proteas will be in action since their World Cup semi-final defeat to England at Hagley Oval on March 31. With the next World Cup cycle now starting, selection chief Clinton du Preez and coach Hilton Moreeng have already cast their eye towards the 2025 edition. Five members of the 15-player World Cup squad will not travel to Ireland, with wicket-keeper batter Sinalo Jafta, all-rounder Marizanne Kapp and 2021’s ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year Lizelle Lee, all ruled out as they recover from respiratory illness. Experienced seamer Masabata Klaas is also ruled out due to a right shoulder injury, while Mignon du Preez, of course,…

AFTER a blistering final round of the United Rugby Championship at the weekend, the Currie Cup is back in the spotlight this week and it will continue to do its best to shrug off its status as the poor relation of South African domestic rugby. With three rounds to go before the play-offs, the seven-team competition still has some intrigue as to who will make the semi-finals. There are two runaway teams at the top in the form of the Bulls and the Cheetahs and with the third-placed Sharks not only out of form but also out of action this weekend with a bye, there is an opportunity for teams like Griquas and the Pumas to make up ground on the log and consolidate themselves in the top four and…