Table of contents for 2021-09-09 in Mercury

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za CONSTRUCTION sector activity was up a solid 4 percent in the second quarter over the first three months of 2021, and rebounded swiftly and in a big way over the same quarter in 2020 due to the Covid-induced low base effect, renowned economist Dr Roelof Botha said yesterday. Speaking at the release of the Afrimat Construction Index (ACI), and on behalf of Afrimat, he said the ACI came to 110.3 points in the second half of 2021, a rebound of 55 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The construction industry continues to improve, he said in a telephone interview. The quarter-on-quarter improvement was fuelled by strong increases in construction sector employment, as well as building material sales. Some 156 000 jobs…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za THE mother of a 10-year-old boy who died after being struck by lightning on Monday in Ofafa, near Ixopo, has described the horror of watching the tragedy unfold. The incident took place when inclement weather struck KwaZulu- Natal. Nhlanzeko Mthembu was walking with a group of pupils from the area to attend school at Lufafa Primary, when the incident occurred. He died on the scene. His mother, Babongile Mthembu, said that Nhlanzeko left the house when it was not raining hard. She said while he crossed the river with the other children, the weather worsened. “I was standing outside the house watching them. Lighting struck directly at them, and he just fell on the ground. I felt like my heart stopped and I screamed. “The other children…

CHRIS PAPPAS | DA KZN Spokesperson on CoGTA EVERY week there is another report of an induna getting killed somewhere in KwaZulu-Natal. And, every week the premier or the provinces’ Co-operative Governance MEC makes yet another outlandish statement about how they plan on intervening. While there are many opinions about the role and relevance of traditional leaders and the monarchy in KZN, those who work in outlying parts of our province – or engage with these communities on a regular basis – will understand that these leaders play a significant role in the lives of many rural communities. It is, therefore, very important that traditional leaders and the monarchy are supported and that the debate around how this should happen be equally important. Despite this, it is increasingly…

Want to improve the quality of your life and your relationships? Begin, or continue, by: Practising the art of self-definition. This is exercising your capacity to make choices that are good for you even if they are unpopular with the people to whom you are closest. This art may have very small and quiet beginnings within a person who has been dominated by others, but the rewards (and sometimes the punishments) are usually immediate. Understanding that you can forgive and trust and restore relationships in degrees. Forgiving a little, learning to trust again, being ready for increasing degrees of restoration, are all movements in a helpful direction. Healthy relationships are not usually all-or-nothing contracts. You can test the waters after you have been hurt and after your heart has been…

FAROUK ARAIE | Gauteng Like the annual sardine run, election fever has engulfed the country in a crazy frenzy, as the fishermen (politicians) cast the nets to scoop as many fish (the voters) as they can, chasing the shoals are the primitive predators (EFF, DA and the ANC) hoping to swallow as many shoals as their greedy stomachs can digest. They hope to breed as many offspring as they can before they become extinct. Political climate change and educated voter warming, is a dire and mortal threat to them. Exercising our right to vote is our sacred duty. No matter what you believe or whom you support, it is your right to exercise your vote. Registering to vote is a legal obligation, exercising your moral obligation to vote is…

| Mercury Correspondent Disgraced Bellville attorney Brian Baumann’s name was struck off the roll of attorneys this week, after Western Cape High Court Judge Patrick Gamble ruled that the convicted fraudster’s swindling of clients who had lodged claims for compensation with the Road Accident Fund (RAF), was “scandalous, to say the least”. Baumann, 53, is imprisoned in Goodwood after he, in November last year was convicted on 16 counts of fraud and sentenced to 12 years’ direct imprisonment. The high court noted that Baumann misled his clients as to the extent of their respective settlements, telling them that they were entitled to only a fraction of what was owed to them. The charge sheet showed the prejudice suffered by the 16 clients was R14.8 million. The Legal Practice Council…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE DA will not put up a mayoral candidate as a face of its campaign in the eThekwini Municipality in the upcoming local government elections. Instead, the official opposition said it would focus its attention on “vulnerable” wards in its quest to grow its support base in Durban. The party acknowledged that taking the whole municipality would be a bonus, adding that it would focus its attention on bringing down the number of wards under the control of the ANC. The party said it had identified a number of wards it felt were within its grasp. The announcement has received mixed reaction from political analysts. While some political observers described the decision as contrary to public sentiments that the party should announce its mayoral candidate before the…

Now let’s all work together to deliver free and fair elections THE infinite ticking of a clock can go from a soothing background noise to a terrifying reminder of your situation; especially if you are an unregistered voter, an unregistered candidate, or a hesitant election management body. But the latter may be more helpful for all in our democracy as the election deadline draws closer. Now that the Constitutional Court has dismissed the application for election postponement and opened another window for voter and candidate registration, everyone is urging people not to miss the voter registration deadline on September 19. But why so much enthusiasm at the last minute when it has always been as important to aggressively register voters in a year in which millions of people have been…

Amman: Energy ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon yesterday agreed on a plan to bring gas and electricity to crisis-hit Lebanon at a meeting in Amman. Egypt’s minister for oil and mines Tarek al-Molla said that his country would “be ready to transfer gas (to Lebanon) as soon as possible” via the transnational Arab Gas Pipeline. But damage to the pipeline and electricity lines during the decade of civil war in Syria means that energy supplies cannot start flowing before repairs are carried out. In the push to help revive the Lebanese economy, the US has given rare approval for the Arab neighbours to escape punishment under sanctions targeting the Syrian regime.…

A FIRE killed 41 inmates in an overcrowded prison block in Indonesia’s Banten province yesterday, a government minister said, injuring scores more in a blaze that police said may have been caused by an electrical fault. The fire, the country’s most deadly since 47 perished in a firework factory disaster in 2017, broke out at 1.45am local time in a Tangerang Prison block, said Indonesian law and human rights minister Yasonna Laoly, after visiting the scene. “We’re working together with the authorities to look into the causes of the fire and formulating prevention strategies so that severe catastrophes like this won’t happen again,” the minister said in a statement. The minister said two of the dead were foreign nationals, one each from South Africa and Portugal, and confirmed the prison…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa needs to recalibrate its debt management strategy as the finance costs on the government’s more than R400 billion debt are steadily gathering momentum, SA Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said yesterday. At a discussion on South Africa’s inflation targeting strategy, Kganyago said the State had this far only been able to adequately manage its debt servicing strategy due to low inflation costs, but the horse was fast bolting, with inflation ticking up. “Over the past 12 months or so, we have noticed that National Treasury borrowed over the short end of the yield cap, and because South Africa has such a steep yield cap, we have benefited from borrowing over the short end of the yield cap, but that must be telling us something…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za After surging by 15 points to 50 points in the second quarter, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) retreated to 43 points in the third quarter and is back in net negative terrain, where respondents unsatisfied with business conditions outnumber those that are satisfied. Given the variety of negative factors that affected sentiment in the quarter, this outcome is unsurprising. But things could easily have turned out worse. Although it is not unusual for the RMB/BER BCI to decline after a strong surge, several confidence-sapping developments did aggravate the third-quarter decline. Standouts included the third wave of Covid-19 infections and resultant stricter lockdown restrictions, as well as the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng. Additionally, respondents had to deal with transport disruptions, first…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za POLITICAL parties and independent candidates planning on campaigning for the local government elections must follow Covid-19 protocols, as the country prepares for the polls on November 1. Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma announced the new date for the election during a media briefing yesterday. She said the government could have chosen the originally proclaimed day of October 27, but the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) indicated that it would need as much time as possible to prepare. The Concourt last week ordered the IEC to hold local government elections on any day between October 27 and November 1 this year. The Concourt dismissed the urgent application made by the IEC seeking to postpone the 2021 local government elections last month.…

PETER WORMAN | Bluff IN RESPONSE to Saber Ahmed Jazbhay’s letter (The Mercury, September 7), calling for a ban on alcohol to stop the scourge of drunk driving. Although I share his outrage I would, however, respectfully like to raise a few salient points. First, one thing that the lockdown has shown us is that alcohol bans are ineffectual. People who want to drink alcohol will find alternatives and as the American prohibition demonstrated, this could give rise to people imbibing dangerous concoctions like moonshine, etc. Second, our high rate of road deaths has more to do with poor and reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles than alcohol. Alcohol might be a contributing factor, but certainly not the main cause. Third, his suggestion to charge drunk drivers involved in…

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban Death, it appears, has again robbed us of possibly getting to know exactly how activist Ahmed Timol lost his life in that dark room at John Vorster Square nearly half a century ago. Like most people, at a guess, I have also always advocated the death penalty for crimes that ended in taking innocent people’s lives. But this particular event of Joao Rodrigues’s sudden death has set me thinking in another direction. The fear of death for any prisoner condemned to die is greatest just before the actual execution. Meantime the pain is most likely abstract, even far-fetched and not easily conceptualised. So the actual suffering occurs only a very short while before death by lethal injection, hanging or high-voltage electricity. A short duration…

GLEN CHRISTIE | Durban I must confess that I could not believe my eyes after having read the article on the plan to give performance bonuses to senior eThekwini managers (The Mercury, September 8). This is just another form of corruption that the ANC thinks it is entitled to. How can anyone even think of approving such bonuses when service delivery is probably at its lowest level, coupled with the fact that the municipality is basically bankrupt? This can only mean one thing in every normal person’s mind, that those making or considering these decisions are just plain helping themselves to the coffers as per the ANC culture of corruption. This is totally ludicrous and truly is a sad indictment of the levels of the so-called “educated” people…

SOUTH Africa generates an annual 41kg of plastic waste per capita, significantly higher than the global average of 29kg a year. There is also evidence of an increase in marine plastic debris from land-based sources, suggesting this problem is likely to grow. These are among the findings of a WWF International commissioned report released this week, titled “Plastics: The cost to society, environment and the economy”. The release of the report coincides with discussions at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress over the importance of a global solution to the plastic pollution crisis. In a case study of South Africa, the report found the country had a weak and strained waste management system supported by a growing but marginalised informal waste sector. In 2018, 35%…

The world’s largest plant that sucks carbon dioxide directly from the air and deposits it underground is due to start operating, the company behind the nascent green technology said. Swiss start-up Climeworks which specialises in capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air, has partnered with Icelandic carbon storage company Carbfix to develop a plant that sucks out up to 4 000 tons of CO2 per year. That’s the equivalent of the annual emissions from about 790 cars. Last year, global CO2 emissions totalled 31.5 billion tons, according to the International Energy Agency. Direct air capture is one of the few technologies extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and is viewed by scientists as vital to limit global warming, blamed for causing more heatwaves, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels.…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@inl.co.za Many seasoned criminals make use of the youth to commit violent crimes because they are easily influenced. This is according the SA National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (Nicro) following Justice Minister Ronald Lamola’s revelation that 12 542 offenders between the ages of 16 and 25 are in prison, with 2 453 serving time for murder. In a written parliamentary question, EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi asked Lamola to provide details of the total number of people between the ages of 16 and 25 incarcerated in correctional services facilities and how many had been convicted of murder and grievous bodily harm. Lamola’s figures indicate that the youth of the Western Cape top the list with 3 320 inmates. This is followed by the Eastern…

COMMEMORATING and celebrating this Heritage Month is rather difficult, especially in light of the disgraceful manner in which the government has treated our artists struggling from the impact of the lockdown. As if the closure of some of our iconic arts facilities, including theatres, was not enough, the Department of Arts and Culture under Minister Nathi Mthethwa should hang its head in shame that artists are still fighting for financial assistance. Arts forms part of our rich heritage and has proven over and over again to be key in healing the divisions of the past. It is the arts sector that most of us turn to in times of great difficulty. When this industry struggles, there is no social cohesion. Remember how the music of legendary Hugh Masekela, mama Miriam…

Irvine: Scientists have claimed a strong solar storm could see the internet go down for days or even months. A new study – which comes from Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, an assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine – has explored how a strong enough storm with less than a day’s notice could wipe out internet access for entire continents. Jyothi noted that undersea cables were vulnerable to a huge solar flare similar to those which hit the Earth in both the 1800s and early 1990s. She said: “Our infrastructure is not prepared for a large-scale solar event. We have very limited understanding of what the extent of the damage would be.”…

SUDAN summoned Ethiopia’s ambassador to Khartoum recently to inform him that 29 corpses found on the banks of a river abutting Ethiopia were those of Ethiopian citizens from the Tigray ethnic group, Sudan’s foreign ministry said. Since late July, dozens of bodies have been recovered from the Setit River which runs through its northern Tigray region, according to residents from Wad al-Hiliou in Sudan’s eastern Kassala state It said the ambassador had been summoned on August 30 and was told that the bodies had been found between July 26 and August 8 on the Sudanese side of the Setit River, known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze. The corpses were identified by Ethiopians residing in the Wad al Hulaywah area of eastern Sudan, it said. The statement did not say how…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE “irrational and unlawful” decision by the eThekwini Municipality to promote almost 50 Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) veterans, who are employed in its water and sanitation unit, to new positions with double their salaries has been set aside by the Durban Labour Court. In a recent judgment, the court set aside the decision of the municipality to employ 53 workers in the position of “water service officers at task grade 9 or 10 or 11”, as it found that it was “irrational and unlawful”. The court ordered that the workers revert to the positions they held in the municipality prior to the decision taken in April 2019. The court also ordered that the ruling take effect from last month. However, the law firm representing the…

Spring is sprung, Da sun is riz, I wonder where da boidies is? Da boids is on da wing, Or so I hoid, But dat’s absoid – Da wings is on da boid. SPRING has indeed sprung, but you could have fooled us at the St Clement’s arts soirée the other night as an icy rain swirled, the wind howled and the organisers were hard put to move the event indoors, at the same time complying with the Covid-19 physical distancing requirements. But cope they did, some of us perched out on the verandah, noses pressed to the window pane, taking in cabernet against the cold and listening to raconteur Spyker Koekemoer (aka Pat Smythe) with his latest take on the absurdities of life about us. Spyker is a fellow…

LEON DE VOS | La Lucia Why are the big trade unions not offering any financial support to the thousands of workers (many of which are their members) who have lost their work as a result of Covid-19 and the more recent looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng? These unions are sitting on tens of millions, some even have hundreds of millions of rand in their coffers, all from the contributions of workers over the past few decades. The unions claim to fight for the rights of the workers, yet, where are these unions now when these unemployed/retrenched workers need them most? What are the unions doing with those vast amounts of money in their coffers?…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof THE moment he reportedly refused to be examined by independent doctors appointed by the National Prosecuting Authority, you could have guessed that Correctional Services was up to its old tricks again. His business friend Schabir Shaik did it. Why can’t he, a former president, do it to get preferential treatment? Just two months into his incarceration for contempt of the Constitutional Court and he’s back home. While his supporters are celebrating, the opposition is fuming. It has slammed Zuma’s medical parole as “disgusting” and says that the Department of Correctional Services is making a mockery of the parole system. If we suspect that there is foul play in his medical parole, how ethical are the doctors who have complied with the medical report? Can’t…

| Sihle Mlambo Two suspects, aged 23 and 28, have been arrested after Gauteng police uncovered a warehouse in Johannesburg where hijacked high-performance car parts were being stored. Police officers, including from the Gauteng highway patrol, Crime Intelligence, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, the K9 dog unit and the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department specialised task team, were part of the operation. “Inside the warehouse, police found several parts of vehicles including 10 engines that have been linked to high performance vehicles that were reportedly hijacked around Gauteng,” Gauteng police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo said. “The police have also seized goods worth millions of rand that are suspected to have been stolen from hijacked trucks.” The 23-year-old suspect is believed to be…

Mercury Reporter Judge President Achmat Jappie of the KwaZulu-Natal division of the high court has paid tribute to Judge Bhekisisa Jerome Mnguni. Judge Mnguni died on Tuesday. Judge Jappie said the judges and staff of the KZN division were shocked to learn of the sudden and untimely passing of Judge Mnguni, who he said would be fondly remembered as a benevolent person. “Judge Mnguni was a dedicated and astute jurist, who was known for his dedication to the rule of law, and will be remembered fondly for his kind and welcoming spirit. His untimely death robs us of the opportunity to experience his future contribution to the judiciary.” Judge Mnguni was permanently appointed to the high court in January 2009. Prior to his elevation to the Bench he worked as…

MULTIPLE losses, anxieties and complications in the grieving process are affecting mental well-being worldwide as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Globally, awareness of mental ill-health has become more prevalent, and there is a better understanding of what it entails and the effect it has on individuals and societies. However, the understanding and conceptualisation of mental health and ill-health are generally deeply rooted in Western culture. As a result, the intersectionality of race, culture, gender and class from less economically developed countries (the Global South) is often ignored. According to Dr Suman Fernando, an expert on transcultural mental health approaches and an honorary professor at London Metropolitan University, the prioritisation of Western biomedicine and the way the richest and most industrialised countries inform how mental health and ill-health are perceived in the…

MEXICO CITY: Seventeen people died after a flood blacked out a Covid-19 hospital in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo and disrupted oxygen supply there, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said. “I am very saddened by the death of 17 patients at the IMSS hospital due to the Tula River flood in Hidalgo. There has been a lot of rainfall throughout the Mexico City Valley and the rain will continue. “Residents of low-lying areas should move to shelters or high ground, to the family or friends,” Obrador wrote on Telegram. The state was hit by torrential rains late on Monday, which led to a flood that left the hospital’s transformer without power. Evacuation was declared in 10 districts of the city of Tula.…

Marseille: Plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets bob in the tranquil waters of the Mediterranean, signs of the choking pollution that has stirred strong feelings at the world conservation congress in the French port city of Marseille this week. “The Mediterranean is the most beautiful sea in the world... and one of the most polluted,” said Danielle Milon, vice-president of the Calanques National Park on the edge of the city, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature is holding its congress. While the quantity of rubbish in the sea is well documented – the IUCN released a report on the issue last year entitled “Mare plasticum” – it is driving growing alarm among countries whose economies rely on tourism drawn to pristine beaches and sparkling waters. At the opening…

ZAAHIER ADAMS zaahier.adams@inl.co.za THE Proteas women’s team’s accomplished start to the one-day international series has put a spring in their step. If they can fashion a second win against the West Indies tomorrow they will be one step closer to breaking down yet another barrier this year. Hilton Moreeng’s team have already climbed their Mount Everest when they beat a strong Indian side in their own conditions for the first time earlier this year, but they are now battling the heat and humidity of the Caribbean for a maiden series win there too. “The team is in a very good place at the moment, but the conditions really are something else. Last night was one of the toughest experiences I’ve had on the field. The pitches were a bit low,…