Sommaire pour 2023-01-17 de Mercury

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government should expect a wave of protests and court action as the country grapples with indefinite stage 6 load shedding while an 18.65% electricity tariff hike has been granted to power utility Eskom. This is the view of political parties who yesterday said the government needed to account for the crisis. Last week there was outrage when the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced it had approved an 18.65% tariff increase. Ramaphosa cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos to deal with the electricity crisis, but delegates who will go to the meeting will be hard pressed to convince others to invest as the country experiences a precarious period of energy insecurity. Eskom offered a slight reprieve for consumers yesterday…

THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Basic Education is optimistic about its state of readiness for the 2023 academic school year, which kicks off tomorrow. While teachers’ unions have raised concerns about some Grade 1 and 8 pupils finding placements, the department said a directive had been issued to ensure all pupils were placed. Thirona Moodley, KZN chief executive of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, said that they believed schools were ready to open on time. “Teachers reported to schools today (yesterday). We are concerned that there may be a large number of parents who have not registered their children for the academic year. Parents who are turned away ... due to the school having reached its capacity must report to the department’s district office for assistance.” SA Democratic Teachers…

PRINCE Harry the outcast has hit the headlines with his controversial book, Spare. In his tell-all, no-holds-barred memoir, he lashes out at the British royalty, hanging out their dirty linen for all to see. The eagerly-anticipated book became an instant success, flying off the shelves with record sales of 1.43 million on its debut publication. How the tabloids and the gossip-loving public relished Harry’s tantalising morsels on the royalty. Hollywood had come to Buckingham Palace. Harry’s marriage to Meghan had been controversial from the very start. Meghan is an American actress of mixed race. We all know how vain American actresses can be. It was the clash of two cultures, the old world versus the new, conformity against non-conformity, the strict manners and decorum of royalty against the free American…

I refer to the interesting letter from Ebrahim Essa (The Mercury January 13) which brought back many nostalgic memories for me. I too am saddened at the demise of cinema – as it used to be. I remember the splendid Shah Jehan cinema which he mentions, as my husband and I were invited to a grand function there in the 1960s by Mr Rajab. In the late 1940s early 1950s, when I was 12 and my brother 10, we would be put on a train to Durban from Manor’s Halt between Kloof and Pinetown, with a word to the train conductor from my mom to keep an eye on us. We would get off the train at the old Durban station and walk to the Princes Theatre (now part of…

A suspected ATM bomber is due in the Randfontein Magistrate’s Court this week, Gauteng police said. The man was arrested on Friday and found in possession of partially burnt bank notes and detonators. He is suspected to be involved in ATM bomb- ings around Thokoza, police said. Last week, Mpumalanga police made a massive breakthrough in ATM bombings and cash in transit heists, when they arrested two people linked to a spate of robberies. And in KwaZulu- Natal, a man, 26, hitch-hiking with explosives he intended to sell to ATM bombers was arrested. He was travelling from Sikame to Vryheid and inter- cepted on the R69. | Mercury Correspondent…

The Hillary Gardee murder trial is expected to start in three months’ time, despite legal wrangling that has complicated the matter. In early May last year Gardee, 28, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, was found murdered near a plantation outside Mpumalanga’s capital city, Nelspruit. She had been reported missing after she had been last seen on April 29, at the local Nelspruit Plaza Super Spar just after 5pm. Last week, accused 2, Philemon Lukhele, was finally granted bail after spending seven months in prison awaiting trial. Lukhele, 47, is facing charges of kidnapping, rape, and murder, along with three other accused. He previously abandoned his bail bid, but later changed his mind following the arrest of a fourth suspect, Rassie Nkuna. Lukhele was granted R20 000 bail…

Energy tariff hikes will make life hard for most, and impossible for the poor THE scale and damage of the body blow to South Africa are suddenly and shockingly real. South African consumers face an enormous rise in their energy bills from April 1, following the National Energy Regulator of SA’s (Nersa) approval of an electricity tariff increase of 18.65% for 2023/2024. Nersa also approved a 12.74% increase for 2024/2025, effective from April 1 of next year, which seemed spectacular when I listened to the announcement. This development means hardship for all and misery for millions. It is an insufferable event, and no decent society can allow it to happen. No wonder President Cyril Ramaphosa cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos this week due to…

Bogotá: Two more people have been arrested in Colombia on suspicion of involvement in the murder of Paraguayan anti-Mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, the attorney-general’s office said on Sunday. Their arrests bring to eight the number of people detained in connection with the hit last year. “These two people were apparently responsible for ... logistics” of the murder on May 10, 2022, in Colombia, Attorney-General Francisco Barbosa told journalists. Pecci was in Colombia with his wife on their honeymoon when he was gunned down on the island of Baru, near the tourist port of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast. | AFP…

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned yesterday after coming under months of heavy criticism over Berlin’s stuttering response to the war in Ukraine. Her decision came just days ahead of a crucial meeting of defence ministers from Ukraine’s allies, and as Berlin was once again under intense pressure to provide battle tanks to Kyiv. But government sources told AFP no decision was expected yesterday on her successor. Lambrecht, 57, said in a statement she had asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz to relieve her of her duties. “The months-long media focus on my person hardly allows for objective reporting and discussion about servicemen and women ... and security policy decisions in the interest of the citizens of Germany,” she said. The politician from Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) had faced criticism for months…

PALERMO: Italian police said yesterday they had arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, the country’s most wanted mafia boss who had been on the run for three decades, swooping on a private hospital in the Sicilian capital Palermo where he had gone for treatment. Prosecutors say Messina Denaro is a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia. He has been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. He also faces a life sentence for his role in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan. | Reuters…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa will not be forced to appear before the Gauteng High Court this week after his application to block the private prosecution instituted by former president Jacob Zuma was granted by a full Bench of judges. Zuma had wanted his successor prosecuted, accusing him of being an “accessory after the fact” following advocate Billy Downer SC and journalist Karyn Maughan allegedly leaking Zuma’s confidential medical information during his arms deal trial. Downer and Maughan are being privately prosecuted by Zuma for allegedly violating the National Prosecuting Authority Act. Last week Ramaphosa applied to the court seeking an urgent interdict to prevent Zuma’s matter from proceeding against him. In addition, Ramaphosa has brought an application in which he has argued that Zuma’s case against him is an abuse of…

PLEASE, take a few minutes to write something beautiful today – and, if you wish, send it to me. Such writing shifts things within us, sets our heart on seeing beauty. I discovered this in a moment of desperation. My sons were preteens when multiple pressures demanded I land a part-time job teaching writing at a local community college. Mostly, it was a pleasant, inspiring experience. The adult students were often late, arriving after work by public transportation, sometimes after a second job. One evening a married couple entered the room while engaging in a raging, vicious domestic argument. Once the couple was seated, I knew I had to do something to ease the tension. “Welcome,” I said, “I am glad you are here. Everybody, please, take a blank sheet…

At a time when it has become an article of faith to cite renewables as the best form of energy in terms of the environment and cost, it is ironic to note that those tasked with researching the decarbonisation process calculate its cost at R6 trillion (Business Report, January 12). In a paper published in June last year, the late John Kane-Berman cited the Canadian Centre of Science and Education’s Journal of Management and Sustainability with reference to the generation of green energy. Among Kane-Berman’s findings were: Mining lithium for energy storage batteries requires excavation equipment powered by fossil fuels since wind and solar power is too intermittent to be reliable for mining operations. The intermittency of wind and solar sources makes the task of providing energy stability on the…

Semigration is no longer just a buzzword – it has become an economic reality in the property market in Cape Town and the Western Cape. Property market intelligence provider Lightstone’s average transfer values show the province is now home to nine out of 10 of the country’s top suburbs, according to Lightstone’s average transfer values. More people moved to the Western Cape (3 317) last year than to Gauteng (1 639) and KZN (822) combined, and the province is now home to nine out of 10 of SA’s top suburbs. The data shows most people moving are in the 49 to 64-age group, and most of that group are moving to the Western Cape. The 36-49 age group makes up the second-largest category, and again the Western Cape is their…

A 28-year-old man is due in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court in connection with the murder of his son. It is alleged that the man strangled the 9-year-old boy following a domestic dispute with the boy’s mother. Police said the victim’s body was found on January 13 at Shongweni Dam. “It is alleged that the victim was strangled with a string and his body was dumped in the bushes,” said police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda. The suspect is expected to make his first appearance in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court soon. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development has sent its condolences to the family. “It is a tragedy that such a young child has lost his life. But we find solace in the fact that the alleged perpetrator has been arrested,” said…

University of Fort Hare (UFH) vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu has given the national multidisciplinary team deployed in the Eastern Cape to investigate a spate of attacks on university staff, which has claimed two lives, until the end of this week to announce arrests. “This coming week will be a test. If the killers are not found and arrested, we will be immensely disappointed. It will mean all of the engagements and promises made were not taken seriously,” said Buhlungu. He was speaking at the funeral of his executive protector, Mboneli Vesele, on Saturday at UFH Bisho Campus. Vesele was killed on January 6 outside Buhlungu’s Alice residence. The attack happened after the bodyguard had dropped off the vice-chancellor. Last year UFH fleet manager Petrus Roets was killed in broad daylight…

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has paid out R14.5 million to 3 259 former teaching and general assistants after resuming with its campaign in KwaZulu-Natal last week. The fund said the former teaching and general assistants were employed as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, which was implemented as part of the Basic Education Employment Initiative in all nine provinces, to reduce youth unemployment in the country. “When their contracts ended, the former employees qualified to claim unemployment insurance benefits from the UIF.” The fund said due to the large volume of claims anticipated and to prevent long queues at Labour Centres, the UIF team in KZN met the provincial Department of Education and agreed on a consolidated approach. “This included the department availing venues, while the fund…

The eThekwini Municipality has streamlined its response to power outages to ensure quick restoration of electricity supply. This is according to Maxwell Mthembu, the head of the electricity unit in the city council. He said the strategy was aimed at avoiding an incident similar to that which occurred in the Phoenix area where residents were left without power for an extended period at the weekend. Mthembu explained that previously there was one team which would detect the fault and another would then be brought in to fix that fault. He said that in future the teams deployed to detect faults would be tasked with fixing these faults to ensure there was no delay in restoring power to affected areas. He announced the changes yesterday following a more than 40-hour power…

DAKAR: Nineteen people were killed and 24 wounded in a road accident in Senegal early yesterday, President Macky Sall said – the second major crash this month highlighting poor driving conditions in the country. The accident took place between the northern towns of Saint-Louis and Louga, Sall said on Twitter. It followed a crash that killed 40 people and wounded about 80 on January 8, one of the deadliest in Senegal’s recent memory. That incident occurred after the tyre of a passenger bus burst, sending it into the path of an oncoming bus. It spurred anger about dangerous driving conditions in Senegal, where overloaded and run-down trucks contend with potholed roads. | Reuters…

BUCHAREST: Romania has extradited the suspected leader of the country’s Hell’s Angels chapter to the US to face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and complicity in attempted murder, police said yesterday. Romanian media identified the man as the biker club’s country branch leader, Marius Lazar, who is wanted for being a member of an international group of drug traffickers and for negotiating the attempted killing of two rivals. Lazar, 49, was arrested in Bucharest in December. He was met yesterday by US marshals with face coverings as he was led to a plane, according to a witness. | Reuters…

Belarus said yesterday that joint air force drills with Russia began on its territory, amid concerns Minsk was being dragged into the Ukraine conflict to fight alongside Moscow. Minsk’s defence ministry said “joint tactical flight drills of aviation units” from Belarus and Russia had started. The drills will last until February 1. “The main goal of the exercise is to increase operational compatibility in the joint performance of combat training missions,” the ministry said. The exercises will involve training in aerial reconnaissance, joint patrolling of the state border, tactical air assault landing, the delivery of goods and evacuation of wounded. “The exercise is purely defensive,” said Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarus’s Security Council. The Belarus border with Ukraine was “not very calm” but Minsk is ready for…

BANGKOK: The daughter of Thailand’s self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra has declared her readiness to run for prime minister in an election this year, as the main opposition seeks to regain power after being ousted in a coup eight years ago. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, whose father Thaksin and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra both led governments toppled by the army, will run under the Pheu Thai Party, the latest incarnation of a populist movement founded by her billionaire family two decades ago. “Yes, I am ready,” she told reporters late on Sunday in northeast Thailand, the rural stronghold of the Shinawatras that delivered them unprecedented majorities in five elections since 2001. “We want the party to win the election by a landslide so the promises we made to the people can be realised.”…

Maritzburg United coach Fadlu Davids was happy with the way that his team played following their 3-1 win over KwaZulu-Natal rivals Royal AM, but did warn them that they should not “take it easy” going forward. Sunday’s victory lifted the Team of Choice from 16th to 15th on the Premiership standings. The win was also their second on the trot as they built upon their 1-0 away win against fellow strugglers Marumo Gallants last week. A win for Maritzburg in their next game, against KZN rivals Golden Arrows on Saturday will see them move out of the relegation zone. “It was a good performance and team effort,” said Davids. “What I don’t like is our mentality. We were 3-0 up and playing around. “We should have kept the clean…

Lloyd Harris, South Africa's lone entrant in this year's Australian Open, produced the upset of the day in Melbourne yesterday when he defeated 17th seed Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-1, 6-7(0/7), 2-6, 7-6(7/4) in their first round clash. At the end of the gruelling fifth set tie-break, Harris was unable to explain how he managed the feat against the world No 19, who had defeated him in their only other clash earlier in their careers. "I'm still trying to figure it out myself. "Obviously, I played a really good tie-breaker at the end. I think that's what it came down to. The set was dead even. "We both broke each other once, and I just said to myself ‘am I going to miss a ball here?’. "Give it my all, and…

AS the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) approved steep electricity tariff increases, eThekwini Municipality residents can expect a slightly smaller hike in their power costs. EThekwini Head of Electricity Maxwell Mthembu said the city was still to meet Nersa to determine the tariff for ratepayers. However, “we will pass the increase from Nersa to customers although this could be less than what Eskom would be charging us”. He said the tariff increase of 18.65% for the 2023/24 financial year, which is effective from April 1, would be added on to what the municipality would have to pay for electricity from Eskom. The municipality’s customers could expect to pay between 16 and 17% more for electricity. The tariff hike of 18.65% has been met with outrage by councillors, civil society…

IT WAS a cricket wipe-out the other day when, down in Oz, a team known as the Adelaide Strikers had Sydney Thunder all-out for 15. Will anything like this ever happen again? Also remarkable was that this was a T20 encounter, yet it looked nothing like the faux baseball to which we have become accustomed, the batsmen (I refuse to call them “batters”) slogging at the inert white ball with the crudest of strokes, getting it into the crowd. Two of the Thunder players were clean-bowled. The rest were caught in a series of close-in catches that were simply marvellous. Thunder had earlier got the Strikers all-out for a not very impressive 139. The margin didn’t last. No doubt the Proteas’ talent scouts will be heading for Australia. They must…

I am totally against racism, in any form, as evidenced in the media over the past many years irrespective of who the perpetrators are. The practice of racism or its outward exhibition is the very reason why we as a nation continue to stagnate in the cesspool of bigotry. It is true that in all communities there will be those who still dwell on differences and perceived “hate” of another, only because of their own inadequacies or their inability to comprehend that we are and should be a country of people – and not races. Until that notion is dispelled totally, we will always have the likes of Connie Hariram, the Newcastle DA councillor, who allegedly posted a racist voice note denigrating Thandeka Mhlanga, who was elected as a ward…

The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has issued an order dismissing Police Minister Bheki Cele’s application for leave to appeal against last year’s judgment which directed the SAPS to pay the legal fees of former police officers charged in the apartheid-era case of the Cosas 4. Presiding in the murder case against Thlomedi Mfalapitsa and Christiaan Rorich, Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng also dismissed the minister’s request for a pardon for the late filing of the application. Mfalapitsa and Rorich were charged with kidnapping and murder in August 2021, and charges of crimes against humanity were added in November 2021 in connection with the Cosas 4 case. The Cosas 4, so called because they were members of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), an organisation affiliated with the then-banned ANC,…

A Joburg resident who asked the court to overturn a judgment against him as he said he didn’t receive a summons because it was delivered to the security guard at the gate of the former complex where he lived, has lost his case. The Johannesburg High Court highlighted that there was an obligation on a person who changed their address to ensure that the new address was updated in accordance with the requirement for amending any agreement or contract that he or she has in place, as in this case, with the bank. Simply phoning and stating that one’s address cited in a contract had changed would not suffice, Judge Alyson Crutchfield said in her judgment. The man turned to the court after he fell behind with his car payments…

Members of the police and the Special Task Force have launched a search party to hunt for an eight-year-old female tiger that escaped from a private farm enclosure in Walkerville, Gauteng on Friday. The tiger, known as Sheba, is reported to have mauled a 39-year-old man and killed two dogs and one pig after it escaped. It is reported that the tiger escaped after the fence holding the enclosure was cut open by unknown people. Gresham Mandy, of the De Deur Community Policing Forum, said a search team had been dispatched to the scene to try to locate the tiger. Mandy urged members of the public to not approach the animal. “At the moment, we have a lot of teams on the ground who are on foot working with the…

Exam watchdog Umalusi has approved the release of the 2022 matric results. The Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training which is known as Umalusi, held a briefing yesterday in Pretoria on the 2022 national exam results of the public and private assessment bodies. The briefing addressed the results of the National Senior Certificate (NSC), National Certificate Vocational (NCV: L2 -L4), Nated report 190/191 (N2 - N3) and General Education and Training Certificate: Adult Basic Education and Training (GETC: Abet). More than 1.2 million candidates sat for the 2022 November exams. The NSC had 940 366 candidates and the NCV had 166 184 candidates. During his remarks, Umalusi CEO Mafu Rakometsi said the delay in releasing the results was due to Covid-19. He said…

THE new Chinese Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, who was previously the Chinese ambassador to the US and was made Foreign Minister on December 30, will visit Angola, Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia and Gabon. The visit to African countries at the start of the year is a tradition that dates back to January 1991, and is aimed at cementing ties between African countries and China. China’s support for the liberation Struggle in South Africa is even older as Mao Zedong met with South African Communist Party members Jusuf Dadoo and Vella Pillay on November 3, 1960. The AU headquarters is in Ethiopia, and the League of Arab States headquarters is in Egypt, making these countries the first and last stop shows China’s tribute to all African countries and Arab countries. China encourages…

Praia: Rescue teams in Cape Verde have saved 88 migrants adrift in a canoe, but two others aboard the vessel had died, it was reported. The motorised canoe, known as a pirogue, was spotted by a lighthouse keeper on Saturday on the coast of the northern island of Boa Vista, it said. The migrants come from Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone, police said. Six have been hospitalised with dehydration. Cape Verde is a former Portuguese archipelago, 600km off the coast of West Africa. It has previously picked up migrants in distress trying to make the crossing to the Spanish islands of Canaries – a gateway to the EU. The canoe had left The Gambia 25 days before but ran out of fuel. | AFP…

Athens: Dozens of European royals and hundreds of Greeks gathered in Athens yesterday for the funeral of Greece’s last king, Constantine II, who died last week aged 82. Royals from Britain, Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain flew in for the service, which has caused controversy. Constantine was a divisive figure in the country’s history and the government drew criticism from conservatives after deciding not to grant him the honour of a state funeral. Ex-prime minister Antonis Samaras was among those who said Constantine, a former Olympic gold medallist for Greece, deserved to be buried as a former head of state. | AFP…

Jerusalem: Major-General Herzi Halevi was appointed Israel’s new military chief of staff yesterday, in a ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We will prepare the army for war on fronts near and far,” Halevi vowed at the start of his three-year term. A former military intelligence chief, Halevi was serving as deputy to his predecessor, Aviv Kohavi, until taking the helm. Netanyahu said Israel will not be dragged into “pointless wars, but on decisive days we will fight”. The appointment of Halevi, who led forces along the Gaza border, comes as violence surges in the occupied West Bank. The army operates alongside other Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory, which has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Halevi’s nomination as Israel’s 23rd army chief has…

Searchers yesterday found both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from a passenger flight that crashed killing at least 68 people in Nepal’s worst plane accident in 30 years, officials said. The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft, carrying 72 people, to crash in clear weather on Sunday just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara. Both recorders were in good shape and would be sent for analysis based on the recommendation of the manufacturer. Rescuers were battling cloudy weather and poor visibility as they scoured a river gorge for passengers who are unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash. Sixty-eight bodies have been recovered. Footage from the crash site showed rescuers looking at the…

The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has established itself as an integral part of modern football and has become a support tool for officials to make informed decisions. The Premier League in England, the world's most popular league, first rolled out VAR in 2019 and since then many of the world's major leagues and competitions have followed suit. VAR is presently in use in Algeria where the African Nations Championship (CHAN) is in progress. VAR helps to show if a player is offside at the time a goal is scored. The replay on VAR can also establish whether a penalty should be awarded or not. A replay can also show whether the ball has crossed the goalline or byline. The DStv Premiership is one of the richest leagues in Africa and…