Table of contents for 2021-08-27 in Mercury

Group’s half -year profit surges 160% to R25.32.m surpassing its record Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SIBANYE-STILLWATER yesterday declared a R8.54 billion interim dividend for the six months to the end of June after another record financial performance on the back of bumper precious metal prices. Sibanye follows in the footsteps of other mining companies which have reported record profits this year, buoyed by the commodity super-cycle on rising global demand following intermittent lockdowns last year. Platinum group metals (PGM) prices rose to an average R53 629 per ounce in the six-month period compared with R33 375 per ounce in the interim period last year. The world’s largest precious metals producer said that during the period it had seen a sustained recovery in production from the Covid-19 disruptions last…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za BLUE LABEL Telecoms (BLT), which lifted core headline earnings from continuing operations 16 percent to 81.50 cents a share in the year to May 31, was looking forward to another strong performance in the 2022 financial year, the group’s management said yesterday. BLT also said that its associate, Cell C, had turned in a taxed profit from a massive loss previously, and that the amount due for its recapitalisation – the quantum of which was not yet disclosed – had been secured. On August 2, 2017, Blue Label, through subsidiary The Prepaid Company, acquired 45 percent of Cell C for R5.5 billion. As at May 2019, the group’s investment in Cell C was impaired to nil, where it remained as at May 31…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THOUSANDS of eThekwini Municipality employees will receive performance rewards that include salary increases and bonuses – despite a lack of evidence proving that they deserve them. Performance rewards, which were due back in the 2019-2020 financial year, would be paid to 24 987 municipal workers. However, performance appraisal scores of 5 000 workers have not been submitted, and they were given a flat score. This has raised concerns that there was no evidence proving these workers deserved the rewards. A report on the matter titled “payments of performance rewards 2019-2020” stated that the city would need R186 million, but was short R90m. These rewards include notch increases, overtime and bonuses. The proposal breaks the rewards into two categories: a lump-sum payment valued at R66.9m that would go…

THE political face of eThekwini Municipality is set for a dramatic change as more than half of the serving ANC councillors have not made it on to the list of candidates submitted to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) this week. The list consists of those who will serve as ward councillors and proportional representation (PR) candidates. The ruling party’s PR list features eThekwini municipal official Thabani Nyawose at No 1 position, a development that has fuelled speculation that he could be the next eThekwini mayor. Current mayor Mxolisi Khaunda features at No 9 and ANC Youth League leader and current executive committee member Thanduxolo Sabelo is at No 7. Former mayor Zandile Gumede does not feature in any of the lists. “This is going to make it…

FAROUK ARAIE | Benoni THE painful revelations at the inquest of Dr Hoosen Mia Haffejee serve as a grim reminder that those who took part in his brutal torture were sadistic beasts. Our freedom was a long struggle which claimed countless lives, including the precious life of Dr Haffejee. We honour the sacrifices he made in the spirit of democracy and freedom. He was an immortal fighter of our Struggle whose bravery this country can never forget. The claim that he committed suicide was a predetermined plan of deception. It was an orchestrated litany of lies. However, when we sift through the disinformation and misinformation, and look at verifiable facts, we have no reason to believe the official information released at that time. It is obvious that a…

JOHN GARDENER | Howick THAT the Jacob Zuma Foundation has appealed to members of the pub lic for donations towards the former president’s legal fees comes as no surprise, given the sheer reckless abandon with which public funds were squandered on this dubious cause in the first place. The public purse was plundered without mercy on appeals, applications, motions and all manner of delaying tactics. All paid for by long-suffering citizens, many of whom lacked even the most basic services and suffered the indignity of having to use bucket toilets. The injustice was corrected, however, with the ruling that not only must Zuma fund his own actions but he must also reimburse the amount – estimated at R18 million – spent. The irony is that Zuma is begging…

Readers have been telling me friendship stories. I think it is a good thing to reflect on goodness. There are two men, Keith Jamieson and Adam Bergesen, who I want to write about this morning. They were neighbours; men who came almost daily to my mom and dad’s shop at 161 Blackburn Road in Red Hill. In those days customers stood in front of the counters. Shopkeepers would have to get everything the customer wanted, place it on the counter, wrap items in a brown paper bag, total up prices on scrap paper, “ring it up” on the till and then cash would change hands. Sometimes the shop was very busy and so Adam and Keith began to help themselves. They’d come behind the counter, get what they needed,…

Nonhlanhla Nozizwe Hlatshwayo nozizwe.hlatshwayo@inl.co.za The family of a 10-year-old child, who survived a brutal attack at her Umzumbe home in which her mother and sister were killed, are worried about her well-being. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala confirmed the incident, saying the police in Hibberdene are investigating charges of murder. “A 41-year-old woman and her 15-year-old daughter were hacked to death, at 9pm on August 18 by unknown suspects, while at their home in the Qoloqolo area. A 10-year-old girl, that was in the house, survived. The matter is still under investigation,” said Gwala. This incident took place in the same area where the decomposed bodies of four women, with stab wounds, were found in sugar cane fields last year. Two men were charged shortly after the bodies were…

THE Springboks arrive in Australia today to resume their participation in the Rugby Championship against New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, and we wish Siya Kolisi’s men luck as they endeavour to defend the title they won in 2019, which proved to be a precursor to winning the World Cup that year. Last year, the Rugby Championship could not be played in its entirety because South Africa was on lockdown and the Boks’ rivals contested a Tri-Nations instead, but at last the stars have aligned for our team to travel and play their first overseas matches since that epic final in Japan two years ago. And last week it seemed that the Championship would be called off because of spiralling Covid-19 cases in New Zealand and Australia, sparking speculation that it…

Edinburgh: A Scottish court yesterday dropped the extradition case of a Catalan separatist politician wanted by Spain for “sedition”, saying it did not have jurisdiction. Clara Ponsati, 64, is one of three Catalan members of the European Parliament wanted by Spain on allegations of sedition over their role in the failed Catalan independence bid of 2017. The extradition case of the former Catalan education minister was being heard in Scotland where she previously lived and taught at the University of St Andrews. She now lives in Belgium. The extradition hearing heard Sheriff Nigel Ross say Ponsati had indicated she will not move back to Scotland.…

Rights group Amnesty International yesterday called on 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar to do more to investigate worker deaths, alleging that a string of labourer fatalities had gone unexplained. As next year’s tournament approaches, Qatar has repeatedly come under the spotlight over worker welfare issues, including the death rate, prompting protests from European national sides including Germany. In February, the Gulf state fiercely denied reports in Britain’s Guardian newspaper of excessive worker fatalities, insisting the figure was unreliable but refusing to publish the actual number. Amnesty said it analysed 18 death certificates issued between 2017 and 2021 with 15 using vague terms including “heart failure unspecified” and “acute respiratory failure due to natural causes”. As well as promises that infrastructure will be ready for the tournament, Qatar has repeatedly given…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za FINANCIALLY-constrained consumers will be slightly relieved from paying higher prices for goods as producer prices eased in July, largely on the deceleration in fuel prices. Data by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) yesterday showed that the annual headline producer price inflation (PPI) for final manufactured goods was 7.1 percent in July from a year ago. This July producer inflation print eased from a 7.7 percent rise from a month earlier, and was slightly above market forecasts of 7 percent. Though producer prices slowed from a 5-year high in June, the July reading was the third biggest annual rise in headline PPI this year, and the third highest since February 2016. PPI for May and June recorded two consecutive highest jumps of 7.4 and 7.7…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za ONELOGIX Group, the niche logistics provider, said signs of recovery from the damaging effects of the Covid-19-induced economic environment only became evident well into the year to May 31. “The impact of Covid-19 should not be underestimated. The impacts included the knock-on effect of international component shortages in vehicle and truck production, with the latter affecting OneLogix TruckLogix and OneLogix VDS in particular,” chief executive Ian Lourens said yesterday. More conservative stock holdings by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had resulted in lower storage revenue of about R36 million, most of which was experienced in the second half of the financial year. Of current trading conditions he said “the vehicle market is tough” but operations were sound on the agricultural product and equipment side, and in liquid…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo and Nonhlanhla Nozizwe Hlatshwayo Slain senior Gauteng Health Department official Babita Deokaran was yesterday described as an honest, hard-working mother whose world revolved around her daughter. A memorial service for her was held at the Greenheights Primary school in Phoenix yesterday. Deokaran was shot several times outside her Mondeor, Joburg south, home after dropping off her child at school on Monday. She died in hospital. According to the Hawks, she was one of 300 key witnesses in one of the Special Investigating Unit’s investigations into corruption regarding the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE). Earlier this week, her family said they believed that she had been killed to silence her. Deokaran was the chief director of financial accounting in the department. Speaking on behalf of the family,…

How would pianists cope with suddenly having two thumbs on one hand? Would their brains become scrambled or would the extra digit add a new dimension to their playing? Neuroscientist Adlo Faisal and the team he heads at Imperial College London developed a robot thumb to find out. Within an hour of being fitted with the artificial digit next to the little finger of their right hand, six players had learned to integrate it on the keyboard, steered by electrical signals generated when they move their foot. “It came out of my own passion for piano that I wondered what happens if I have an extra finger?” said Faisal, professor of artificial intelligence and neuroscience at the college’s bioengineering and computing departments. “There’s a dedicated area of your brain responsible…

THE elephant has a challenger in the category of never forgetting – the cuttlefish, a hitherto unprepossessing member of the octopus family, which whenever alarmed squirts into the water around it a cloud of dark fluid into which it disappears. People have tended to take cuttlefish somewhat for granted. But research in America now suggests that the cuttlefish could well be thinking, from inside that cloud of dark fluid, of the complicated permutations of the binomial theorem – so long as s/he’s been taught them. Unlike human beings and other creatures, the cuttlefish never forgets. Researchers at Cambridge University – the one in America – conducted memory tests on 24 cuttlefish, according to Sky News, discovering that their memory is excellent and virtually lifelong. Okay, they hadn’t got as far…

SABER JAZBHAY | Newlands West SOMEONE, I read online, is presenting an online webinar over the next few days on, wait for it, “compassionate leadership” in all this chaos, at a time when the unemployment rate is 34.4%, the country has been beset by looting and corruption is exacerbated by businesses shutting down during the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu. While this is confined to the business and work environment, I respectfully opine that this should be expanded to encompass the socio-political environment as well, and why ever not? Yes, compassion equals an aspect of an expanded ubuntu and yes, it is woefully deficient in the workplace. Like ubuntu, it has become that which connects us as humans, for we are all in this together. In my…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za In matters involving the custody of children, parents bad-mouth each other in court to try to prove that they are “good”. But “good” or “bad” parents should never be used as an argument, as it’s always only about the best interest of the child. This is according to a judge, who said the courts were tired of mothers and fathers (and their lawyers) each trying to paint a dark picture of the other in a bid to convince the courts that they were the best parent. Judge SJ Wilson, sitting in the Joburg High Court, said there was never a “winner” in these cases, as it was always the child who suffered. He suggested that lawyers stay away from climbing into the characters of the parent on…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za It is up to the National Assembly to decide the fate of Western Cape judge president John Hlophe. This comes after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) on Wednesday afternoon announced that it had recommended Hlophe’s impeachment following him being found guilty of gross misconduct as per section 177 of the Constitution by the Judicial Conduct Tribunal. The decision came after the JSC held a meeting earlier on Wednesday to discuss the report and recommendations of the Judicial Conduct Tribunal handed down on April 9. In a terse four-point statement, JSC spokesperson advocate Dali Mpofu outlined the commission’s reasons for its decision. Mpofu said that in line with the provisions of the Constitution, the matter of the impeachment would be referred to the National Assembly for its decision.…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za EFF councillors in the eThekwini council could land in hot water over allegations of absenteeism. The party councillors have allegedly missed council meetings, prompting calls that they should be sanctioned. Party caucus leader Tholithemba Mthiyane was, however, present for yesterday’s full council meeting. Councillors can be expelled if they have missed three consecutive meetings. IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the EFF councillor had missed several meetings without giving an explanation. He said the fact that the caucus leader was present for yesterday’s council meeting did not eliminate the possibility of sanctions and added that the councillors could still be investigated by the Ethics Committee. During the council meeting yesterday, he said: “Madam Speaker, I have noticed that the colleagues from the EFF have been absent from several…

hoosain padayachee THE Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) recently used self-proclaimed energy expert Chris Yelland to advance its agenda against Karpowership, a power-producing company that has been selected as a preferred bidder by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) to provide a gas-to-power energy solution. Should the contract go through, Karpowership SA will provide 1.2 GW of electricity to South Africa within 12 months – a solution no other independent power producer has the capacity to provide. This is the group that once called itself Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance. It has reinvented itself to oppose all progressive projects that do not benefit its funders. In a slanted presentation, Yelland talked down to the National Energy Regulator’s (Nersa’s) regulator members, instructing them on how to adjudicate Karpowership’s energy…

Prague: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute yesterday to Czechoslovak paratroopers who assassinated senior Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. By laying a wreath at a Prague church and visiting a crypt in which the paratroopers died after a gunfight with the Nazis, Steinmeier became the first German leader to recognise their sacrifice. Like his predecessor Joachim Gauck, Steinmeier also recalled two Czech villages razed to the ground by the Nazis in retaliation for the killing of Heydrich by the paratroopers trained in Britain. The destruction of the Lidice and Lezaky villages were part of a Nazi retaliatory sweep that saw 15 000 people detained, killed or taken to a concentration camp. “These villages were destroyed and there were so many victims,” said Steinmeier, who is paying a three-day visit…

SYDNEY: Australia’s police said yesterday it intercepted a cocaine syndicate in the city of Sydney and charged eight people, including a teenager, over their alleged role in supplying drugs. “Police have today charged five men, two women and a teenage boy over their alleged involvement in supplying cocaine and other drugs across Sydney,” police said. The police started investigating the supply of cocaine and prescription drugs by a syndicate operating across Sydney back in April of this year, the statement read. The adults are expected to appear at Bankstown Local Court today.…

As the world scrambles to inoculate people against Covid-19, one store owner in Malaysia is finding his paper vaccines have become popular prayer offering items during a religious festival to honour the dead. The Hungry Ghost festival, celebrated by Buddhists and Taoists across South-east Asia, centres on a belief that the spirits of the dead return to Earth during the seventh month of the Chinese Lunar calendar. During this time, people leave out food items for the dead and burn incense and intricate offerings made of paper resembling things the deceased may have wanted. This year, a box set of a syringe and two vaccine vials made of paper are among the fastest-selling items for the festival at Raymond Shieh Siow Leong’s religious goods store in the southern city of…

ZAAHIER ADAMS zaahier.adams@inl.co.za MAMELODI Sundowns are sweating over the fitness of influential trio Mosa Lebusa, Themba Zwane and Khuliso Mudau ahead of tomorrow’s MTN8 first leg semi-final away to Golden Arrows. Right-back Mudau suffered a hamstring injury in the mid-week Premiership draw against Chippa United, while captain Lebusa and playmaker Zwane did not even make the trip to Gqeberha. Lebusa suffered a quad strain last Friday in the season opener against AmaZulu, while Zwane is struggling with a knee injury. “They must still be assessed by our medical department and then closer to the match we’ll be able to make a decision,” co-coach Rhulani Mokwena said. Mokwena claimed Sundowns were still recovering from a disruptive pre-season, with players having to isolate on various occasions due to Covid-19. “At this…

Thobile Mazibuko thobile.mazibuko@inl.co.za Many people know her as a lady with short hair. However, the former Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi shook many when she revealed her new hairstyle. The longest-reigning Miss Universe, who handed over her crown to Andrea Meza in May this year, is living her best life in the Maldives and the hairstyle she has suits her. She is wearing long faux locks braids by Lajawi Midrand, the stylist that was the Miss South Africa pageant sponsor when she won the title in August 2019.…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za THE ANC is dashing to court today to force the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to allow all of its eligible candidates to contest the upcoming local government elections on October 27. This comes after the ruling party’s failure to provide the IEC with the full details of all its candidates in time on Monday. The aggrieved ANC is set to file an urgent application in the Electoral Court. In a surprise turn of events, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte admitted that her party failed to register all its candidates on time in compliance with the IEC registration deadline of 9pm on Monday this week. Duarte said they had experienced glitches with the IEC’s online registration which rejected the identity numbers of some of their candidates, most…

DAVID LAWSON | Durban Having read Ebrahim Essa’s rambling tirade on Biden, the US and the West in general (The Mercury, August 25), I ponder the following points: Many states worldwide carry baggage since the dawn of history, such as slavery, genocide, colonisation, misogyny and homophobia. Some have moved on, endeavouring to make amends, not always successfully, and others carry on causing pain and misery. Please tell me why the majority of world refugees desperately try to reach North America, Western Europe or Australia/New Zealand; rather than our BRIC partners, or Communist paradises like Cuba and North Korea?…

DUNCAN DU BOIS | Bluff IN THE past seven months, there has been a significant shift in the contents of The Mercury – from the relentless, critical scrutiny of the Trump presidency to virtual silence concerning the controversy of Joe Biden’s policies. Back in January, letter writers described Biden’s entry into the White House as a “breath of fresh air” and as the “restoration of democracy”. One wonders why they have not sallied forth to condemn Biden for embracing dictatorship by issuing 55 executive orders instead of subjecting his policies to congressional oversight. Or why the Democrats sent 73 lawyers to Arizona in an attempt to prevent the Maricopa County election audit. The unprecedented tidal wave of illegal aliens, the explosion of violent crime directly caused by the…

CHRIS PAPPAS | DA KZN spokesperson on CoGTA Once again, South Africa and the people of KwaZulu-Natal have been stunned by out of control unemployment statistics. This was revealed in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which saw the official unemployment statistics for KZN increase by 2%, from 30.5% in the first quarter of the year to 32.5% during the second quarter. The DA has long since held the belief that our towns and cities are key to driving economic growth and job creation. We have articulated this in a number of manifestos where we outline our vision for city-led economic growth. However, when one looks at the state of most KZN municipalities, it is hardly surprising that there is a stagnation or regression in economic development and job…

| African News Agency (ANA) Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has appointed a task team on animal biosecurity, with special emphasis on foot and mouth disease, African swine fever and the highly pathogenic avian influenza. The team will find mechanisms and provide recommendations for the government and the private sector to partner in tackling the country’s animal biosecurity issues, the department’s spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said. He said the team would also focus on the overall animal and public health system in a “one health” approach and liaise with technical task teams on African swine fever, foot and mouth disease and avian influenza. “It will consider the roles of provincial government laboratories and private sector laboratories in disease monitoring, residue tests, meat hygiene with emphasis on…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za THE National Assembly programme committee has agreed to grant a two-week extension to the lifespan of the committee mandated to deal with amending the Constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. The committee has to consider the presentations from the second round of submissions on the proposed bill and also hold consultations. At a meeting yesterday, DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone was the first to raise the matter, saying the committee’s term had been unanimously and automatically extended without consultation of parties and bringing the request to the House. Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso told the committee that in an interaction with ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina there was a concern that should the House not do anything yesterday on extending…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za “THOSE who are continuing to burn the country must continue to burn it until the former president, Jacob Zuma is released in prison.” These were the words uttered by Fees Must Fall activist, Bonginkosi Khanyile in a video played in the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday as part of the State’s evidence against him. The State is opposed to Khanyile being granted bail. The video of the 31-year-old Khanyile was taken while he was speaking at a taxi rank at Warwick Avenue in Durban during last month’s unrest. Khanyile is facing five charges relating to the unrest that took place in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The accused is facing one charge of inciting public violence, two counts of holding an illegal gathering and a further two counts of not…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za DEPUTY President David Mabuza has warned that the racial tensions in KwaZulu-Natal that saw a number of people killed during the unrest were a blow to the country and efforts to reconcile its people. He said this was not the time to point fingers, but to work to end racism and other forms of discrimination. Mabuza, who was answering questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) yesterday, said efforts by Police Minister Bheki Cele and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala to foster unity in the province were welcomed. He said as the government, they must avoid finger pointing. The government was investigating what had happened in Phoenix, and a report would be able to determine the cause of the racial tension and killings. He said all role-players…

Global warming necessitates urgent move to electric vehicles requiring lithium RARE earth elements (REEs) are the key to the industries of the future. Without them countries will lose their competitive industrial advantage, which is why the price of REEs have been rocketing and will continue to do so in the years ahead. It used to be that the great powers set their sights on oil as a strategic resource, which drove their foreign policy priorities, but oil is fast being eclipsed by the list of 17 critical elements in the periodic table, which are essential to a nation’s economy and national security. Rare earth elements are not actually rare and can be found around the world, but they are limited in volume, which makes a secure supply into the future…

SEOUL: The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged a protest with the Japanese Embassy in Seoul over Tokyo’s plan to discharge radioactive water from the disabled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean, the Yonhap news agency reported yesterday, citing the ministry. Earlier this week, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), unveiled plans to dig about a kilometre offshore tunnel that will be used to dump treated radioactive water farther into the ocean. Tepco needs the approval from the national nuclear regulator to begin the work.…

Kabul: Two explosions struck near the main gate of Kabul airport yesterday, causing multiple casualties in what the US military labelled a “complex attack” that took place as countries raced to complete evacuations from Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said there were “a number” of US and civilian casualties in the bombings, which came just hours after western officials said they had intelligence that suicide bombings were planned against the airport. “We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US and civilian casualties,” Kirby said in a tweeted statement. “We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate,” he said. The Baron Hotel,…