Tabla de contenidos para 2021-12-13 en Mercury

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za RMB Holdings (RMH) has rejected offers to buy its last remaining major assets in RMB Properties, the group said Friday. It said it would continued to try to monetise its last major investments in RMH Properties, but weak property fundamentals in South Africa might affect the timing, the company said in its interim results for the six months to September 30. RMH unbundled its investment in FirstRand in June 2020. Its subsidiary Rand Merchant Investment Holdings also recently announced the unbundling of interests in Discovery and Momentum Metropolitan, in line with a strategy to liberate investments at the appropriate stage, and to achieve the best value reflection. In October, RMH was approached to sell various property assets but its board said on Friday that these approaches had…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za THE Competition Commission has announced an agreement with two of the three major pathology laboratory companies, Ampath and Lancet, to reduce with, immediate effect, the price of Covid-19 PCR tests to R500 from R850 following a three-month probe that revealed excessive profiteering. Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said at a briefing the investigation started in October – following a complaint from the Council for Medical Schemes that the price of PCR tests – widely used by doctors and other institutions, and which are also becoming a requirement for international travel, was “unfairly inflated, exorbitant and unjustifiable”. He said the commission had not yet reached agreement with the third of the large pathology laboratory companies Pathcare. Bonakele described their negations with Pathcare as full of “legalese”, but hoped a…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-Leigh.solomons@iinl.co.za PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has described last apartheid president FW de Klerk as courteous, respectful and committed. While he said the injustices of the past should not be forgotten, Ramaphosa emphasised that De Klerk played a role in the democratic transition of the country. Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy at De Klerk’s state memorial service at the Groote Kerk in Cape Town yesterday. He reflected on the day that the democratic Constitution was signed into law by former president Nelson Mandela in Sharpeville on December 10, 1996 and shared that De Klerk was seated not too far from Mandela. “His presence on that day, to bear witness to the signing of the Constitution that would be the foundation of a free South Africa, was deeply significant. His presence was…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za ANC PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa should be removed from his position if the ruling party wants to improve its political fortunes. This is the view of Edward Zuma, the son of former ruling party president Jacob Zuma, who spoke to The Mercury last week when ANC councillors from eThekwini and uMhlathuze municipalities visited his father. Edward charged that the ANC’s poor showing at the local government elections last month showed poor leadership under Ramaphosa. He added that failure to act against the president would be disastrous for the ANC. “You know that when companies are performing badly, the board and the chief executive officer are booted out. The same thing should happen to Ramaphosa because he has done nothing while in office. You saw what happened in the…

MOHAMED SAEED | Pietermaritzburg THE Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance (Saapa) has called for the restriction of numbers at gatherings and not a total ban on alcohol sales. While I support Saapa’s idea of restricting numbers at gatherings, banning alcohol at public gatherings will also help curb the spread of the virus and reduce road fatalities. Drunk driving is a major problem on South African roads and there needs to be stricter laws implemented to prevent driving a motor vehicle, truck or bus while under the influence of alcohol. Why should lives be lost due to someone else’s recklessness? Drunk drivers are irresponsible about their actions, are murderers and they should be sentenced to life imprisonment if found guilty of drunken driving that causes loss of life. The…

ROLAND FISHER | Durban Hypothetically, I can’t work because I have not had a vaccine shot, whatever my moral or religious view might be. Desperate times befall me and I take up the offer for R100 worth of groceries on proof of vaccine. The effects of the R100 are very short, but the effect of the vaccine long term is unknown. I have then sold my moral, ethical, religious, bodily integrity stand, my soul, for two days of food, as simplistic as it sounds. This has to stand up there as morally reprehensible, surely?…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za THE assumption that farmers have large amounts of cash with them in the run-up to the festive season has been blamed for the rise in farm attacks. Agricultural organisation TLU SA said that since November there had been a number of reported attacks on farms across the country . TLU SA’s deputy general manager Chris van Wyk said that one of the main reasons for the increase was that there was a perception that there was a lot of cash, firearms and tradeable goods on every farm. “This time of year sees increased farm attacks and crime on farms. There are those who commit robbery and theft to get something for the festive season.” Agri SA recently decried the high crime levels, especially farm attacks, which it…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The Cross Border Road Transport Agency (C-BRTA) says it is working with the Mozambican authorities to deal with delays at the Lebombo Border post. Last week The Mercury reported that the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) and the Minerals Council of South Africa (Minerals Council) had raised concerns about the severe congestion at the Lebombo/Ressano Garcia border post on the Maputo Corridor between South Africa and Mozambique. The two organisations had said that congestion at the Maputo Corridor had cost trucking companies R1.3bn in lost revenue so far this year. Mmenyane Seoposengwe from the C-BRTA said yesterday that it was working with its counterparts in Mozambique to resolve the situation. The interstate operations agency was formed to reduce mobility constraints for road transport operators. “We…

AROUND the globe, the severe restrictions imposed on people as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns have resulted in a backlash against authorities as infections rise and new variants emerge. The infringing on civil liberties for the greater good can be frustrating. And two years since the virus was detected, dealing with the long-lasting effects of a voracious pandemic was expected to test the resilience of the scientists and front-line workers who are fighting the pandemic, but also the people whose way of life has changed so dramatically in that time. Images of groups of people gathering are becoming more commonplace, even in the face of new threats in the form of new variants or a spike in infection numbers. Health Minister Joe Phaahla said early data showed patients admitted during…

IN HIS address at a central conference in October this year, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned and elaborated on what he terms China’s “whole-process people’s democracy”. To the untrained eye, juxtaposing democracy and communism in relation to China may seem like an anachronism. After all, “democracy” is largely associated with Western countries where people, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, choose their leaders, decide on policies and programmes. The experience and practice of China since the 1978 opening up and reform period, turns this understanding on its head and exposes its evident structural shortcomings. Chinese democracy is markedly different from that of Western countries. President Xi defines Chinese whole-process people’s democracy as orientated to “safeguard social fairness and justice and resolve the imbalances and inadequacies in development”. Above all, whole-process people’s…

Kentucky residents, many without power, gas or even a roof over their heads, woke yesterday to a landscape scarred by a string of powerful tornadoes that officials fear killed at least 100 people while obliterating buildings, homes and anything else in their way. Authorities said they had little hope of finding survivors beneath the rubble. Instead rescue workers, volunteers and residents were due to begin the long process of recovering what they could and clearing out fields of debris. At least 100 people were believed to have been killed in Kentucky alone after the tornadoes tore a 320km path through the US Midwest and South on Friday night. Six workers were killed at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois. A nursing home was struck in Missouri. More than 70 000 people…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE ANC in the eThekwini Municipality have no choice but to work with the smaller opposition parties that have the ruling party over a barrel, demanding key positions in exchange for their support. That is the reaction from ANC councillors in camps affiliated with President Cyril Ramaphosa and disgraced former mayor Zandile Gumede. They told The Mercury yesterday that while this was an uncomfortable situation, it was a by-product of losing votes in the municipal elections. Several smaller parties and independent candidates have become king makers in eThekwini after helping the ANC retain control of the biggest municipality and only metro in the province. The party was on the verge of losing control of eThekwini after its vote tally fell below the 51% threshold. However, support…

RICHARD HERBERT | Kloof THE gross ignorance of the masses in this country is being manifested with these protests (against Eskom). They rightfully must redirect their protests towards the government, under whose watch Eskom has been allowed to self-destruct. This is the truth of the matter and it has nothing to do with the recently appointed chief executive and his immediate staff. Deputy President David Mabuza yesterday reiterated the government’s faith in Eskom’s management, but in vain because “ignorance is bliss”.…

FAROUK ARAIE | Johannesburg MANKIND watches in anguish and trepidation as a dramatic and virus-infested, both digital and biological, 2021 comes to an end. A global disaster such as a full-scale nuclear conflict, a new pandemic in 2022 or a new generation of artificial intelligence could have grave consequences for the well-being of humanity in the years ahead. Man’s quest for superiority has made this era of Earth’s history the most perilous ever. 2021 was a brutal year for humanity. Covid-19 snatched the lives of 5.3 million people globally. We lost our loved ones under harrowing circumstances. Livelihoods were lost, economies were shattered, poverty enveloped the world. The weapons of war continued to dismember innocent civilians in an orgy of destruction that graphically displayed man’s savagery. 2021…

HEINZ DE BOER | DA spokesperson on economic development, tourism and environmental affairs THE July unrest and recent blockade of the N3 will, in time, pale in comparison to the economic losses our country will face if the Durban Harbour capacity issues are not swiftly dealt with. Whereas the N3 blockade is economic sabotage – the ongoing failure to deal with the port congestion is already crippling the KwaZulu-Natal economy. New information from various logistics stakeholders points to the government dragging its feet in expanding and modernising the container terminal. This has led to container ships now skipping Durban Harbour. Fed up with constant delays at anchorage, a lack of working modern infrastructure and a road network unable to accommodate the logistics sector – KZN is now being…

Shaun Smillie shaun.smillie@inl.co.za This festive season many South African drivers will make a mental calculation and then decide if they are sober enough to get behind the wheel and drive home. The bad news is that new research has found that at least half of them will have underestimated how drunk they are and will drive off being well above the legal alcohol drink limit. The study was done by a team of researchers from the Witten/Herdecke University in Germany and the University of Cambridge, UK. To work out how accurately drunk drivers can estimate their fitness to get behind the wheel, the researchers turned to 90 students and 420 litres of beer. The two-day experiment was jointly run in the UK and Germany. The participants were split into two,…

Bongani Nkosi bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za TRANSPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula has shielded the taxi industry from blame for the “slow uptake” of the programme intended to scrap old and unsafe taxis. Data that Mbalula released showed that fewer taxis were scrapped during each of the last four financial years, while the Taxi Recapitalisation Programme (TRP) remained in place. The government launched the TRP in 2006, aiming to scrap 135 894 unroadworthy minibus taxis. Owners receive R124 000 for each old taxi dismantled. Only 766 old and unsafe taxis were scrapped across the country during 2018/19, while the number increased to 1 943 over 2019/20. The financial year 2020/21 saw 1 804 unsafe taxis scrapped. “There was no scrapping of vehicles during April and May 2020 due to the hard lockdown imposed during Covid,”…

A former Portuguese bank head who fled to escape a jail sentence for tax fraud and other crimes in his home country has been captured in KwaZulu-Natal three months after he disappeared, police said at the weekend. Portuguese criminal investigation agency PJ said Joao Rendeiro, the ex-president of the small private investment bank Banco Privado Português (BPP), was arrested in South Africa. Portugal does not have an extradition treaty with South Africa but there is a co-operation agreement between the two countries that would allow authorities to bring him back, PJ director Luis Neves said at a news conference. He said Rendeiro had spent time in luxury hotels in Johannesburg and other cities, and used pricey communication technologies to hide his location. The SAPS said Rendeiro was arrested in uMhlanga…

Edmond Phiri On November 29, Anton Harber, a Wits journalism professor, launched a vitriolic attack against Independent Media and its chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé. The Harber attacks are not new, but a continuation of long-waged acts of terror against Survé and his companies. History reveals that Harber’s attack has nothing to do with what he wrote. His primary aim is to inflict maximum reputational harm to Independent Media. The carefully co-ordinated attacks launched using opposition media are nothing but corporate sabotage and “corporate terrorism”. While some might argue that it is not terrorism, the effect is the same, except that corporate space is the arena where the acts of terror are conducted. The barrage of negative media reports against Dr Survé and his group of companies is meant…

Liverpool: The G7 yesterday said time was running out for Iran to agree on a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions, and warned Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine. Foreign ministers from the world’s richest nations have held a two-day meeting in Liverpool in north- west England seeking to present a strong, united front against global threats. On Iran, G7 host Britain said the resumed talks in Vienna were the Islamic Republic’s “last chance to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution”. “There is still time for Iran to come and agree this deal,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told a news conference as talks wrapped up. Negotiations restarted on Thursday to try to revive the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, which the US withdrew…

GENEVA: More than half a billion people globally were pushed into extreme poverty last year as they paid for health costs out of their own pockets during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization and the World Bank said yesterday. The pandemic disrupted health services globally and triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, making it even more difficult for people to pay for healthcare, the organizations said. “All governments must accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of financial consequences,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.…

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za AVI, the South African food producer and fashion retailer, took a beating on the JSE on Friday, which saw its shares tumble nearly 6 percent to R73.85 as the market booed the announcement that discussions with US snacks and confectionery giant Mondelez International had been terminated and it had withdrawn its trading cautionary. Last month AVI said discussions with US snacks and confectionery giant Mondelez International had progressed regarding the potential acquisition of its Snackworks division. AVI’s Snackworks division consists of popular brands such as Bakers, Baumann’s, Pyotts and Provita, which are an iconic part of South Africa’s biscuit history. The Mondelez portfolio of brands includes Cadbury Dairy Milk and Oreo cookies, among others. However, to add to the injury earlier in the day, AVI announced…

Goitsemang Tlhabye goitsemang.tlhabye@inl.co.za NOODLE supplier Grandisnyc cc may face an administrative fine of 10% of their total annual turnover or R1 million – whichever is the greater – if it is found guilty of contravening the Consumer Protection Act. This was said by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) when it announced on Friday that it had launched an investigation into the conduct of the company, which is the supplier of Howe Instant Noodles based in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape It said three children died in the Eastern Cape allegedly after consuming Howe noodles. Thezi Mabuza, the acting National Consumer Commissioner, said that based on information from other regulators and the supplier itself, they had reasonable suspicion to believe that the supplier had supplied unsafe goods that posed a potential…

JAPANESE multi-billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has blasted off on a trip to the International Space Station, joining the growing list of the wealthy who have made it to space. But for Yusaku this is only a first step. He is booked to fly around the moon in 2023, according to the BBC. He took off in a Russian rocket from Kazakhstan for the ISS, and in 2023 will be in a craft of SpaceX, owned by fellow billionaire Elon Musk. He’s accompanied on the ISS jaunt by a video man who is recording the whole thing. On the trip to the moon, Yusaku will be accompanied by eight guests and he will be footing the entire $8 billion bill for the trip. Once a drummer in a punk rock band, he…

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban TOWARDS the end of every year, people reminiscence about the past 12 months and many ponder about even making changes to their present type of home. One of the major considerations is: “Where do we go from here?” Apartment dwellers – fed up with “bullying” body corporates, escalating normal levies and regular “specials” that remove dinosaur-sized bites from their life-savings every couple of years, begin to review whether it’s really worthwhile to continue living in a synthetic-cement concrete jungle that was initially deforested centuries ago by the corporate partners of Van Riebeeck and van der Stel, and still continue being land-filled by modern developers. On the flip-side, people living in free-standing homes, after enjoying many years of free, independent, care-free lives, minding their own…

REGULARLY relating to high-functioning people (intimate or casual): Will give you the lasting impression that life is an exciting adventure, filled with wonderful, endless possibilities. Will give you the impression that questions are more important than answers, and that ambiguity is an ally and not a foe. Will leave you feeling empowered and encouraged, and that if you apply yourself you can do just about anything you can dream of doing, and go anywhere on the planet that you would like to. Will leave you with the desire to read and discover more about areas of interest you did not even perhaps know you had. Will inspire you to become engaged in your own life, at least as deeply as they are engaged in theirs. Will engage you in…

James Mahlokwane james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za A RESEARCH study found that 54% of South African adults surveyed said they supported employers making Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory, and 51% supported providing proof of vaccination to enter public places. The survey was conducted by the Centre for Social Change at the University of Johannesburg in collaboration with the Developmental, Ethical and Capable State research division of the Human Sciences Research Council. However, it also identified that levels of support for compulsory workplace vaccination and vaccine passports to enter public spaces differed considerably based on the survey participants’ vaccination status and willingness to vaccinate. It was found that among the fully vaccinated, support for compulsory workplace vaccination and vaccine passports stood at 75% and 78%, respectively. However, among the unvaccinated and people who do not want to…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council says it is concerned about a report regarding the handling of incidents related to domestic violence by the police. In its final sitting last week, led by Premier Sihle Zikalala, the council noted with concern a report from KZN MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni on the state of policing in the province. The council said it was disappointed with the report’s findings which showed glaring weaknesses and ineffectiveness within police stations, especially when handling domestic violence cases. Other findings are that: Protection orders are not being enforced because of vehicle shortages. Particulars of complaints are not being detailed correctly. Victim friendly facilities lack resources; some are under-utilised. Most stations do not have Victim Friendly Rooms. The report…

WITH the holiday season not even in full swing, a string of car burglaries at Table Mountain National Parks (TMNP) has hikers and tour operators worried. Just before the weekend, several cars were broken into on Lion’s Head. Incidents were recorded by a resident, showing the state of the vehicles after the crimes occurred just before sunrise at 5.30am on Thursday. TMNP spokesperson Lauren Howard Clayton said: “We are aware of the car break-in incidents. They have been reported to the police.” | Mercury Correspondent…

Top officials in West arrogantly and irresponsibly speak of war as if it were trivial ONCE again, we witnessed the phenomenal ability of Western mainstream media to ignore the reality and pretend that some things never happened and some events never took place, regardless of how important those things and events might have been. We have already touched upon this phenomenon in one of the previous “Alternative Viewpoint” entries, and now we believe it is time to speak about it in more detail as recently we’ve seen a perfect reason to discuss it. What we are referring to is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at a plenary session of the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club – a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum, established in 2004.…

Thirteen people have been killed and 17 were rescued following a shipwreck overnight on the Congo River near the Ibali village, Mai-Ndombe province, in the Western Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to Crispin Ipondo Bonda, provincial minister in charge of the interior and security affairs, a boat from Kinshasa sailing for Inongo, capital of Mai-Ndombe, was shaken by a strong wind that led to the sinking. “According to the emergency report, 30 passengers were on board; 13 people died and 17 have been rescued,” the provicial minister of the interior and security affairs said, adding that the strong wind was the cause of the accident. Three shipwrecks have already taken place over the past two months on the Congo River in the Mai-Ndombe province. Shipwrecks are recurrent across the…