Table of contents for 2022-09-19 in Star

The State-owned entity is facing an emergency to fix broken coal plants, replenish diesel for its generators ESKOM, which resorted to load shedding Stage 6 early yesterday morning, faces an emergency to fix broken coal plants and replenish diesel and pumped storage water emergency capacity, and will go to the market, possibly this week, to source up to 1 000MW of existing capacity. This was according to Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter, who said in a briefing yesterday that the additional 1 000MW would likely be sourced from companies who already have their own installed capacity, such as some mining groups and Sappi. He said the intention was to bring the capacitThe Stat-owned entityy online as quickly as possible, based on the price of Eskom’s most…

QUEEN Elizabeth II embraced techno- logy over her long reign of 70 years. When she delivered her Christmas message in 1957, she was the first British monarch to use television in her Christmas broadcast. In 1997 Buckingham Palace established a website and later started using social media, such as an official You Tube channel in 2007, Twitter in 2009, and Instagram in 2013. Unlike former president Trump, a prolific Tweeter, it is doubtful whether the Queen ever in her personal capacity sent a Tweet or uploaded any media to You Tube or Instagram. However, the Queen’s greatest contribution to technological innovation lies in the various honours she bestowed on leaders in technology – her own knights of the technology table. To commemorate her prodigious contribution to technology it is worthwhile…

RECENTLY, the technology community gathered with public sector technology leaders at the GovTech summit to focus on the government’s technology plans. According to those who attended, Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni outlined the South African government’s paperless vision. About 2 500 delegates were told that digitisation programme aims to have 80% of citizen-facing services to be online by 2025. Whenever people dream about a paperless world it reminds some of a period when this was a wish of many in tech and those in the know understand that the opposite has happened. The introduction of technology in many spheres of our lives has instead of reducing the use of paper increased it. One can therefore understand the gasps in the GovTech Durban gathering when this government…

AFRICAN scientists have shown that most of Africa’s Covid-19 variants came from abroad, even though African countries were the ones slapped with travel bans, in a new report. The scientific report from Africa was featured in the journal Science and includes more than 300 authors from Africa and abroad who worked together to describe and analyse more than 100 000 genomes and characterise SARS-CoV-2 variants in real time. The study was led by two labs that set up the network for genomics surveillance in South Africa at the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (Ceri) at Stellenbosch University and the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform (Krisp) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “The enormous leap Africa made in genomic surveillance during the past two years is the silver lining in…

I live at a retirement village with a care centre. There are about 130 residents in the village and 30 in our care centre, a total of 160 persons all over the age of 65, and many with chronic health problems. Just the demographics of persons at risk from Covid-19. During the second South African Covid wave in early 2021 and pre-vaccine times, the virus got into our care centre. All local hospitals were being overwhelmed. Eleven residents contracted Covid and nine of them died. In the same period, my daughter, a front line health-care worker at a local hospital, sent me a message saying, “we have had seven deaths today, including two of my colleagues and I don’t think I can take much more.” Unfortunately, she had no choice…

In Mogale City, the DA-led coalition government is doing very well under mayor Tyrone Gray. The coalition government is yet to experience problems. In other municipalities such as Johannesburg and Tshwane, the coalition governments are struggling to keep the centre holding. Gray is accessible and readily available. (I wonder if he will remain like that for the rest of his term). Early this year, I had an hour interview with him, asking him about service delivery issues and his plans for the city. He answered the questions satisfactorily. Gray has energy and stamina to run around and solve service delivery issues. When there are social and service delivery issues, he is always there in person to listen and solve them. When residents request to see him, his door is always…

While teenage pregnancy has always been a cause for concern in South Africa, the past few years have seen a rapid and alarming increase in these statistics. A national study by Barron et al, published in the SA Medical Journal in 2022, showed the rate of pregnancies among girls aged 10-14 had increased by 48.7% from 2017-2021. Statistics SA also revealed that the country had recorded 34 587 teenage pregnancies by the 2020/21 financial year-end. Minister Angie Motshekga said schools had been encouraged to create an environment that supports pregnant girls. This would include counselling, information, referrals, treatment and support. The girls must be linked to social services, and the pregnancies reported to the SAPS. With the alarming rate of these teenage pregnancies, is this the best response our government…

Astana: Kazakhstan’s president has signed a law limiting presidential terms and reverting to the old name of the Central Asian country’s capital, in the latest step of breaking with the legacy of his predecessor. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a bill limiting presidential mandates to a single seven-year term, a day after parliament approved it. The bill also reinstated the capital’s name to Astana. The name was changed to Nur-sultan in March 2019, in honour of outgoing president Nursultan Nazarbayev The change is effective immediately, according to the presidential decree. |…

Warsaw: Poland has opened a canal that will allow vessels to sail from the Baltic Sea to its Elblag port without passing through Russian territorial waters. Elblag is separated from the Baltic Sea by a strip of land called an isthmus. Until now, the only way across was through an opening near the town of Baltiisk into Russia’s Kaliningrad Bay. The freshly dug canal is on Polish territory, about 5km west of the town of Krynica Morska. Work will continue on the canal until September next year when it will be large enough to accommodate vessels up to 100m long and 20m wide. |…

Edward West PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa met with US President Joe Biden in the White House on Friday, where relations with Russia, climate change and trade with South Africa’s third biggest trading partner after China and the EU were discussed. Biden has led an international coalition to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the near-seven month war in Ukraine, while South Africa has maintained warm diplomatic relations with Russia. Other topics discussed included trade, climate and energy, Reuters reported. A joint task force on trade and investment will be established to expand bilateral economic ties. The two leaders committed to addressing some of “the world’s most urgent challenges over which we both share concern, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its negative consequences for food security in Africa.” Reuters reported that Biden…

THE LOW PRODUCTIVITY growth (labour productivity and total factor productivity) particularly for the SMMEs, is hampering efforts to improve economic growth and the competitiveness of South Africa, according to Productivity SA board chairperson Professor Mthunzi Mdwaba. Speaking at the entity’s Annual General Meeting on Friday, he said it was an undisputed fact that productivity improvement was the most effective to ensure long-term competitiveness, long-term business success, economic growth and, should be addressed holistically if the country was to tackle the challenges of unemployment, poverty, inequality, and exclusion. Low competitiveness was cited as a fact, with SA’s global competitiveness ranking at a low 62nd place out of 64 countries last year, and 60th out of 63 countries this year. Infrastructure (including education and innovation systems) and business efficiency (including productivity…

From page 1 In its ruling, the tribunal found the group had established a prima facie case that the banks had engaged in a practice involving a concerted refusal to supply banking services to Sekunjalo, amounting to a restrictive horizontal practice in terms of Section 4(1)(a) of the Competition Act. “Banking plays a central role in the economic life of society, and no commercial transaction of substance and scale is possible without banking services,” the tribunal said. The Sekunjalo Group had established a prima facie case that the conduct of the banks impeded or prevented the Sekunjalo Group from participating in or expanding within the markets in which the group operated, thereby substantially lessening competition. According to the tribunal, the banks justified their conduct based on the reputational risk in…

A TALE of perseverance and good fortune has seen a young Cape fur seal relocate from the unfettered waters of the Eastern Cape to the neutering environment at the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria. The seal is now known as Captain-Z, having been given the name by the affectionate zoo staff. He was rescued twice off the coast near Gqebera, facing death. But he is now making good strides at the zoo in Pretoria after his harrowing ordeal of the past eight months. On December 18 last year, a one-year-old male Cape fur seal was taken in for rehabilitation at the Bayworld Aquarium in Gqebera. He came in with a damaged left eye and extremely poor body condition. He weighed only 11kg (Cape fur seal pups should weigh about 20kg…

MUSIC producer, DJ and podcaster Da Kilms has emphasised the importance of collaborating with other like-minded individuals in the industry. To practise what he preaches, Da Kilms singled out three collaborations off his upcoming project, Pure Sothofied II EP, where he collaborated with other producers. He teamed up with Pretoria-based producer DJ Edit SA and his Free State “home boy” LimmBeatz on Unity is Power, track number 4 on the EP. Likho Sen and Moscow join him on Hlakoana and Khotso-Ntso respectively. “What drew me to these guys was that they are all hard workers like me and bring out quality whenever they step into the studio. DJ Edit SA and LimmBeatz are my favourite producers. “The title of our joint-single Unity is Power is a message to every…

It’s a pity that the petroleum and minerals industry are haggling over the proposed carbon tax increases instead of confronting the government with the fact that climate change is not in any way affected by carbon emissions and, therefore, taxing emissions is totally unjustified (Business Report in The Star, September 14). There is no scientific basis to the parrot cry of the media and the Green lobby that carbon emissions pose “an existential threat” to the planet. History shows that warmer and colder periods occurred over the past 2 000 years when fossil fuels were not in use. Thus, climate change patterns have nothing to do with human activities. Despite that reality, the past 50 years has seen a variety of apocalyptic predictions, ranging from rising sea levels to scorching…

I was not surprised when I learnt the Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West would be placed under provincial administration because they have been failing to pay the salaries of their employees for more than five months. Ditsobotla is the municipality that led to the closure of cheese factory/giant, Clover, resulting in the loss of employment for many locals. It is, however, difficult not to talk about the ANC because they are running all municipalities in the North West, and all those municipalities are not in good shape. The collapse of municipalities throughout the country is a result of warring factions within the ruling ANC. The cashless and crippled North West municipality has failed to pay its 39 councillors (21 of them from the ANC) and all its employees…

The Springboks showed their world champion pedigree at the weekend when they overcame significant off-field distractions to overcome Argentina in a vitally important match in Buenos Aries. It was a key game for the Boks in that victory was necessary to keep alive their prospects of winning the Rugby Championship. Siya Kolisi’s team is in a duel with arch-rivals New Zealand for the 2022 title and they needed a bonus-point win in the Argentine capital to take the race to the title to the final round of matches, which on Saturday sees the Kiwis host Australia in Auckland and the Boks entertaining Argentina in Durban. But just hours before the Boks were to take the field in Buenos Aries, social media erupted with allegations of a fresh scandal involving Springbok…

Belgrade: Police detained several dozen people in Belgrade, in Serbia, on Saturday as LGBTQ activists gathered for a EuroPride march despite a government ban. Serbia’s interior ministry banned the march, citing security concerns after right-wing groups threatened to hold protests. The Balkan country, a candidate for EU membership, had been under intense international pressure to allow the march. More than 20 embassies issued a joint statement urging the authorities to lift the ban. Gay marriage is not legally recognised in Serbia. |…

A top adviser to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president Felix Tshisekedi has resigned after he was allegedly caught on tape negotiating a corrupt mineral deal, an allegation he denies. Tshisekedi took office in 2019 promising an end to the corruption that blighted the term of his predecessor, Joseph Kabila. But several corruption scandals have since been reported in the minerals-rich country. The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a non-profit media organisation, said in its report that Vidiye Tshimanga, the one-time spokesperson for Tshisekedi’s election campaign and top adviser in his cabinet, negotiated a “percentage” of what he thought to be an under-the-table mining deal. Tshimanga allegedly met with two individuals posing as mineral investors from Hong Kong. In his resignation letter Tshimanga said he had an “ethical obligation”…

SEKHUKHUNE United’s winless streak continued after being held to a 1-1 draw by Stellenbosch FC in the Premiership at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday. There was little to separate Sekhukhune and Stellenbosch during the early exchanges of the match, as both teams struggled to find passing rhythms. As the dust settled around the 10th-minute mark, it appeared that the visitors looked more comfortable on the ball. With 15 minutes on the clock, Sekhukhune managed to make way in the Stellenbosch penalty box and summoned goalkeeper Sage Stephens to make a save, which he nearly fumbled, but was quick to make amends after mishandling the ball. It was Sekhukhune’s turn to see more of the ball halfway through the first half and they settled by stringing several passes together. In response…

THE player auction for Cricket South Africa’s inaugural T20 league known as SA20 will be held today. Here’s what you need to know about the auction in Cape Town, which is due to start at 2pm Teams: Joburg Super Kings, Durban Super Giants, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, Mumbai Indians Cape Town (aka MI Cape Town), Pretoria Capitals, Paarl Royals Order: The order of who picks first will be determined by drawing balls from a bowl. Players: 316 players are on the list up for auction, including 159 from South Africa. The next highest representative is England with 52 players Squads: A total number of 17 players are allowed for each squad; 10 must be South African and seven overseas internationals are allowed. In the starting XI, the breakdown is seven South…

Teenager Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history as he came off the bench in Arsenal’s comfortable victory over Brentford yesterday, breaking the record previously held by midfielder Harvey Elliott. The record was previously held by Liverpool teenager Elliott, who was 16 years and 30 days old when he came on for Fulham in 2019. Young England underage international Nwaneri was introduced in the final moments and replaced goal scorer Fabio Vieira for Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Brentford. Nwaneri has featured at Under-18 and Under-21 levels for Arsenal this season and the attacking midfielder earned a spot in Mikel Arteta’s squad with the likes of Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith-Rowe unavailable due to injury. The schoolboy was promoted to first-team training this week having made his Under-21…

GOLDEN Gloves Promotions (GGP) boss Rodney Berman is going to approach the camps of both Lusanda Komanisi and Tshifhiwa Munyai to discuss a potential rematch of the South African Lightweight championship. Komanisi dethroned Munyai via a controversial unanimous points decision in the main undercard fight of GGP’s ‘Lights Out’ box and dine bill at Emperor’s Palace on Saturday night. “I would like to do a rematch of the Komanisi and Munyai fight. That judge who scored it 117-110 should be sanctioned because there’s no way that could have been the case. Komanisi was dropped, yet that scoring suggests he won nine of the 12 rounds, that’s just not possible,” Berman contested. And he was right, for even Komanisi himself expressed surprise at the outcome while Munyai collapsed to the canvass…

WHILE Jagersfontein Developments, the company that owns the tailings dam that collapsed in Jagersfontein, hasn’t said anything, it does appear as if this is the end of its operations, according to Richard Spoor, a public service lawyer. This follows the collapse of the tailings dam last week, leading to the death of one person and the displacement of many others. The cause of the collapse has yet to be determined. According to Spoor, Jagersfontein Developments produces vast quantities of tailings and needed a dam to dump them. Without the tailings dam, they won’t have anywhere to dump them. “I think they generate about 300 tons per hour of tailings, and you need a place to dump that. And they have stated previously that it is too expensive. It’s not economically…

Actress and reality TV star Khanyi Mbau left her fans and followers teary-eyed as she spoke of how proud she was for turning out the way she did despite all the world had thrown at her. In a video clip posted on her Instagram, the Young, Famous & African reality star reads aloud a letter she penned to her present self. She captioned the video: “This was emotional 🥹.. thank you Khanyisile… thank you.” In the letter, titled Dear Me, A Letter From Khanyi Mbau, she said, “Dear Khanyi Mbau, I look at you and wow! I mean it, wow! You are the very person that you had set out to become and even more... Honestly, dude, you’re dope! “You know you bring tears to my eyes just looking at…

A SENIOR member of the Osuthu royal council was killed on Saturday night shortly after returning home from taking part in the contested annual Zulu reed dance at eNyokeni palace in Nongoma. Preliminary information obtained by IOL shows that Khumalo, a retired school inspector, was shot at his home in Bethany, a village just outside the town of Nongoma in northern KwaZulu-Natal. It is said that he was shot by unknown men at about 11pm on Saturday. The suspects later fled. The assassinated council member, Dr Dumisani Khumalo, was a confidant of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini and he helped the current king, Misuzulu KaZwelithini, to take the throne from his rival, Prince Simakade. During the mourning for the passing of the late king at KwaKhethomthandayo palace in March last…

LOBBY group AfriForum has called for the arrest of University of Cape Town law professor Pierre de Vos after the constitutional law expert retweeted child pornography on social media. AfriForum Youth will file complaints against De Vos with the SAPS after he apparently retweeted the material on September 11 at about 5pm, in which a young boy could be seen being sexually abused by an adult man. Youth spokesperson Rene van der Vyver said De Vos’s actions were shocking and unbecoming of someone in his position. “It is beyond my understanding that anyone could be guilty of such atrocities … and share it on a public platform, try to erase it and get away with it scot-free. This while human trafficking, directly related to this type of sexual crime, is…

JAGERSFONTEIN, a small town in the middle of South Africa with over a century of mining history, awoke to a tragic failure of responsibility on September 11 when torrents of muddy water cascaded over the embankments that were meant to hold it back. The flood killed one person and devastated many homes. The muddy water was the residue left over from the extraction of diamonds. The Jagersfontein mine traces its origins to a 50-carat diamond discovery in 1870. Mining began in earnest shortly after that and continued until 1971. Notable diamonds uncovered included the Excelsior and Reitz diamonds.All mining operations produce residue or tailings. Consequently, there are over 200 active tailings facilities in South Africa. While initial extraction removes most of the sought minerals, tailings facilities can become resources once…

King Charles III and his eldest son Prince William were greeted by cheers on Saturday as they shook hands with people queueing for hours through London to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth lying in state before her funeral today. Cries of God Save the King came from the crowd as the new monarch and heir to the throne thanked members of the public before attention turns to the stream of world leaders arriving for the grand state send-off today. The day after his mother, Britain’s longest serving monarch, died, King Charles and his wife Camilla surprised well-wishers gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London by getting out of their car to greet them. The next day his two sons, princes William and Harry, staged their own walkabout with their…

MANILA: Hundreds of volunteers joined a mass clean-up drive along the coast of the polluted Manila Bay in the Philippines to mark International Coastal Clean-up Day on Saturday. Waters in the bay, a 60km semi-enclosed estuary that is famous for its idyllic sunsets, are heavily polluted by oil, grease and trash from nearby residential areas and ports. The country is the world’s top polluter of plastic waste, accounting for a third of the total amount released into the ocean, according to an April report by the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data, a scientific online publication. |…