Indice dei contenuti per 2021-04-29 in Mercury

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za MANGO will today resume flying, albeit for only a couple of days, after hundreds of passengers were left stranded yesterday after the airline’s flights were abruptly grounded. Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) yesterday suspended the low-cost carrier from using its airports countrywide due to outstanding debt. Acsa spokesperson Gopolang Peme said Mango’s suspension had since been lifted with immediate effect following the negotiations between the two entities. Peme did not disclose how much Mango owed to the airports operator, saying the details of the terms and conditions “remain confidential” as per their contracts. “The airline has made part payment today (yesterday) towards the amount owed to Acsa for landing fees, parking fees and passenger service charges,” Peme said. “The airline has made further undertakings to settle the…

I AM a parent, sometimes father, sometimes mother, often both at once. I am not a detective or a policeman. My children need a parent not a live-in law-enforcement officer. I’m a protector, provider, encourager and guide. I am a person who is also a parent. Parenting is a role I am more than willing to play. It is very much part of who I am, but it does not define me. I have interests, passions, parts of my life that do not necessarily include my children. I love my children enough to maintain strong friendships that pre-exist being a parent. I am a parent but I’m also a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, and a friend to many. I love my children enough to keep…

PRO VERITAS | Durban YES, unmute freedom as you proclaim on the front page of The Mercury on April 26. It’s the boldest statement of intent manifested 27 years into our freedom, which as you rightly alluded to is a misnomer. Here is my intent. I am serving a six months’ notice that the mandate to the ANC is hereby revoked. This notice terminates on October 27. On this Freedom Day let’s all continue to appreciate that the struggles and sacrifices of the people did not end. April 27, 1994 was the portal through which we had to pass to mark the day break with the past. Let us all resolve to make that point now six months ahead of the local government elections. Every one of us,…

JOHN NAIDU | Springfield The law under capitalism talks about minimum wages for workers, but it does not talk about the maximum profit the capitalist can make. It is limitless, yet they talk about partnership between capital and labour. Marx and Engels wrote: “Workers of the world, unite. “You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win.” We workers have no country – the planet is our home. Workers are restricted when they try to migrate or immigrate in search of better living conditions, as opposed to capital moving easily throughout the world. In so doing, by raping and plundering Mother Earth’s resources for their own profit, which is their almighty god. Humanity’s most precious commodity on Earth is water, and the capitalist…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za The latest audit outcomes of the Msunduzi Municipality paint a damning picture of a municipality that is struggling to move forward, failing to follow regulations and whose financial viability is a pressing concern. Members of the Office of the Auditor-General tabled the municipality’s audit outcomes for the 2019/20 financial year during a full council meeting yesterday. The audit outcomes, said the A-G’s office, showed stagnation as the municipality received a qualified audit with findings, similar to what it received in the previous audit. Opposition parties said the AG’s reports only served to confirm what they had already stated – that putting the municipality under administration had not worked. In his presentation, Hlanganani Makhanyela, a senior manager in the A-G’s office, stated that the financial health of…

Lorna Charles lorna.charles@inl.co.za DOZENS of South African families have been living apart for more than a year after initiating immigration procedures to live in New Zealand. When the families started the immigration process, the Covid-19 pandemic had not yet affected South Africa or New Zealand. But as South Africa went into lockdown last March, New Zealand also closed its borders. For Richards Bay couple Darryn and Christene Mitchell, an attempted hijacking late in 2019 was what pushed them to look abroad for a safer life for their family in New Zealand. “Darryn left on 1 January 2020. We were supposed to follow after he secured employment and checked that the place was a good fit for our family. I resigned from my dream job, got our visas ready and packed…

“GOVERNMENT supplies power, but it comes and goes,” says Vishnu, a micro-grid operator in the hamlet of Vanvasi, 100km north of Mumbai in India. “We lived with darkness, but now there is light.” People lived without electricity and, until 2016, life came to a halt after sunset. Vanvasi is now able to meet the demands of its 265 residents’ daily energy needs through an uninterrupted supply of power generated through a solar micro-grid. Women are involved in the upkeep of the grid, ensuring its smooth operation through management that also enables maintenance and repair. At first, the people of Vanvasi were not sure whether a renewable system would work, but having endured the many unfulfilled promises of the government, they decided to take the power issue into their own hands.…

WHETHER ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and other criminally-charged senior party members refuse to vacate their offices or step aside, will most certainly determine how serious the governing party is in implementing its own policies. Magashule, who holds the ANC’s most powerful administrative office, and other members charged with serious crimes have until tomorrow to step aside, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who himself will continue to answer questions at the Zondo Commission. The party’s Integrity Committee had recommended to the National Executive Committee (NEC), the ANC’s highest decision-making body, to suspend Magashule and other members if they refused to step aside. The charges against him are related to a R255 million asbestos contract while he was premier of the Free State. Some of Magashule’s supporters, such as party veteran…

The young widow of an aging Japanese real estate mogul was arrested yesterday on suspicion of murdering the self-described “Don Juan” just months into their marriage, local media said, citing police sources. Kosuke Nozaki, who boasted in his autobiography of spending millions of dollars on young, beautiful women, died in 2018 of poisoning, aged 77. His widow Saki Sudo, now 25, is suspected of killing Nozaki by making him take a large amount of a stimulant drug orally, as there were no needle marks on his body, the reports said. Local police declined to confirm the arrest. In one of his books Nozaki, the president of a liquor sales company and real estate business in western Japan, wrote that he spent three billion yen (R394 million) on wooing 4…

Eshlin Vedan Mamelodi Sundowns increased the pressure on themselves by playing out a 0-0 stalemate against high-flyers Golden Arrows at Loftus yesterday. Sundowns’ lack of finesse in front of goal was again on display in the first half, particularly as they were without the presence of star men Peter Shalulile and Gaston Sirino. Sundowns did not have a single shot on target in the first half whilst Arrows had just one, a tame effort from Knox Mutizwa in the 42nd minute after Seth Parusnath produced a turnover which was easily collected by Sundowns keeper Dennis Onyango. Arrows appeared to lose their defensive footing in the 56th minute as Kermit Erasmus exploited their defence, setting up and opportunity for teammate Themba Zwane to test Arrows goalkeeper Sifiso Mlungwana. Searching for…

THE British and Irish Lions tour is regarded as the big carrot for South African rugby, considering the knocks taken during the Covid-19 pandemic over the last year. About R1.2-billion was shaved off local rugby’s expenses last year, with salary cuts and competitions abandoned, while contracts were also affected. So, the fact that the Lions tour will take place is a huge relief to SA Rugby. Now the nitty-gritty of that trip is being worked out, with the latest report from the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK stating that, to maximise profit, two of the three Tests could be played at the FNB Stadium, which is the biggest arena in South Africa at 95 000 capacity. The report said that this plan of action comes as Lions…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za ALLIED Electronics Corporation (Altron) yesterday warned that its full-year earnings were likely to fall as much as 29 percent, partly because of poor economic activity and the trading restrictions put in place to limit the impact of Covid-19. As a result, Altron said in a trading update, it expected its headline earnings per share (Heps) for the year to the end of February to decline by between 21 percent and 29 percent, to between 124 cents and 137c a share, down from the restated figure of 174c reported a year earlier. However, its basic earnings per share (Eps) were likely to reflect an increase of more than 100 percent, to between 3 256c and 3 270c, compared with the restated Eps…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za VIVO Energy maintained the positive momentum achieved in the second half of 2020 by reporting a strong first quarter to end March, with gross cash profit up by 9 percent in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. The first quar- ter gross cash profit rose to $195 million (R2.79 billion), up from $179m com- pared with the first quarter of 2020. The group’s unit margins increased by 14 percent during the first quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2020, which was knocked by Covid-19 inventory impacts. Vivo Energy, a Pan-African retailer and distributor of Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants, said its performance was aided by the positive supply and pricing environment from the second half of 2020 continuing…

SOUTH African wine grape producers, cellars and other wine-related businesses representative body Vinpro said yesterday that it was disappointed by the postponement of a case set to be heard in the Western Cape High Court yesterday and today. The legal challenge was brought by Vinpro against South Africa’s national government, where it said it was accordingly contesting specific aspects of decision-making in respect of liquor bans. It was postponed to August. Vinpro managing director Rico Basson said they were extremely disappointed by the postponement of this court case, forced by the late filing and incorporation of additional affidavits that it said were not related to the main thrust of Vinpro’s challenge, effectively a forced the postponement. “Because the case was to be postponed, new available dates for the legal teams…

DR PETER Quantock, of Empangeni (aka Taffy Zulu) explains something in the natural world that has always been a great puzzlement. Long ago, the doggies held a huge convention, he says. They came from near and far. Some came by motorbike and some by car. (He’s a budding poet is Taffy Zulu). As each dog passed the entrance to the convention, it signed the members book and then removed its bottom and hung it on a hook in the cloakroom. But one dog that had not been invited took umbrage. He rushed into the convention and loudly barked: “Fire!” The dogs rushed out in a panic, each without a second look, grabbing the nearest bottom off the nearest hook. “And that's why a dog will leave a bone to sniff…

NARENDH GANESH | Durban North THE heart-rending visuals out of India have captured the world’s attention. A catastrophic surge in the spread of the virus has led to devastating consequences, with death everywhere. This is a poignant but harrowing reminder that for over a year, the world was being held hostage by a microscopic enemy that is going nowhere soon. In fact, India, believing that it had turned the corner in terms of spread, had a rude awakening in the most tragic of ways. Having gone from 10 to 11 million infections in 66 days and then 11 to 12 million infections in 34 days, it currently sits at 12 to 13 million infections in about 15 days. Notwithstanding the population of India, this exponential rise exacerbates the…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@inl.co.za LABOUR federation Cosatu says it supports the call for Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu to step aside. This was after Mchunu on Monday called on the public to come forward with proposals that might assist in resolving the deadlock on the public service wage negotiations between the government and organised labour. The parties reached a stalemate on Friday. Last week Mchunu said the wage negotiations were the most difficult yet between the parties. This was based on several factors, among them the bad state of the economy; the Covid-19 pandemic; the outcome in the Labour Appeal Court which organised labour was appealing and had taken to the Constitutional Court; and the need for urgent reform in the public service. National Education, Health and Allied Workers’…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons Tarryn-Leigh.Solomons@iinl.co.za THE portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy has looked at interventions needed following presentations made relating to the Basic Fuel Price (BFP) and the state of refining in the country. The Department of Minerals and Energy has stated that the government cannot deregulate the fuel price because the market is not ready for deregulation. According to the department's director of fuel pricing mechanism, Robert Maake, various factors need to be considered before the market will be ready for such a deregulation. He also said fuel prices are lower in countries like Botswana and Lesotho because they buy from South Africa at a BFP, which doesn’t include the local factors. The Automobile Association (AA) proposed five key recommendations to the committee on measures to mitigate rising fuel…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Investigations detectives across the country have secured 356 life-imprisonment sentences for 266 sexual offences perpetrators following successful convictions. National police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said while the conviction of 1 733 accused would not bring back those who had died or erase the memories that still haunted survivors of these crimes, the convictions were a step in the right direction in arresting such forms of criminality. “These convictions will ensure that these perpetrators will no longer roam the streets freely, terrorising people on all levels of society, especially children.” The component, re-established in 2010, boasts 176 units across the country with nine serial and electronic crime investigation units. The units comprise dedicated officers who often go beyond the call of…

Mushtak Parker The SEEMING collapse of the proposed asinine European Super League (ESL) before it even started may have done the Beautiful Game that is football a huge favour. With money pouring into rugby and cricket, its implications are much wider. I say “seeming” because if Messrs Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid and Joan Laporta, his Barcelona counterpart, have their way, ESL is merely on “standby” and they will pursue it “to ensure the financial health of the game”. What poppycock! Perez and Laporta are the unacceptable faces of football capitalism, which in recent decades have served the greed of club owners, shareholders, “elite” footballers, broadcasters, sponsors and agents. This resulted in ever-increasing and unsustainable football inflation in the transfer market, elite player wages, shareholder dividends, ticket…

IINDIA’S coronavirus death toll crossed 200 000 yesterday as a relentless wave of new cases swamped hospitals and sent desperate families out into the streets of the capital in search of oxygen supplies and medicine. Infection and death rates are soaring in the vast country of 1.3 billion, in contrast with the US and some European nations taking tentative steps back towards normal life. The virus has now killed more than 3.1 million people worldwide, with India driving the latest surge, recording 360 000 new infections – a global record – and more than 3 000 deaths yesterday. In the capital New Delhi, car parks have been converted into crematoriums as the soaring body count sparked a shortage of wood for funeral pyres. Desperate relatives of the…

HERMAN GIBBS TITLE-CHASING AmaZulu, emphatic 5-1 winners, roared a championship challenge as they rubbed Cape Town City’s noses in the lush Cape Town Stadium turf in last night’s DStv Premiership clash. AmaZulu led 2-0 at the break and City’s first-half capitulation set the seal for a defeat which loomed large when the scoreboard read 3-0, just four minutes into second-half play. This victory will secure AmaZulu’s second place and take them to just one point behind pace-setters Mamelodi Sundowns who are on 48 points after 23 games. AmaZulu are on 25 games. City will remain in seventh position. After a tedious start, the game suddenly came to life in the ninth minute when visitors AmaZulu capitalised through a goal by Zambian Augustine Mulenga. Twice in the build-up play, AmaZulu…

STORMERS assistant coach Rito Hlungwani says Pieter-Steph du Toit is “ready to go” after recovering from the serious leg injury that kept him out for more than a year. The Springbok star suffered a serious, and what turned into a very complicated, leg injury in their Super Rugby meeting with the Blues at Newlands in February last year. The Stormers will kick off their Rainbow Cup South Africa campaign against the Sharks at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday, and Hlungwani confirmed that Du Toit is ready to hit the field again. “He is fit, he’s been training really well. He hasn’t played in a long time, so he would love to play and get going. He has obviously come back from a really bad injury, but you…

ATHLETES have a right to express their opinions and take a stance without being punished, Britain’s Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty said on Tuesday in response to a ban on protests during the Tokyo Games. The IOC said yesterday it was retaining Rule 50 forbidding any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” in venues and other Olympic areas. That means athletes risk punishment for taking a knee or raising a fist in support of racial equality. “I think that people do have the right to protest and have the right to do it where they want. “I don’t think we should fine them for expressing their opinions,” Peaty told reporters after a British swim team announcement. “It’s like me now … I wouldn’t want to be…

Viwe Ndongeni-Ntlebi viwe.ndongeni@inl.co.za If you love low-volume High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) or trying to love this form of exercise, you may just have another reason to commit to it regularly. A new review paper published in The Journal of Physiology collates a decade’s worth of research on the topic. The current World Health Organisation (WHO) physical activity guidelines call for 150-300 minutes of moderate activity/week or 75-100 minutes of vigorous activity/week. It may be unattainable for a large portion of the population who are time poor due to family or work commitments. This hypothesis is supported by the increasing rates of physical inactivity amongs adults in high income countries. The findings of this study show low-volume HIIT (typically involving less than 20 mins total exercise time – inclusive of…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za A BUTCHER at a processed meat manufacturer, who went to work after testing positive for Covid-19 and even hugged a colleague who suffered from comorbidities, was dismissed fairly. This is according to the Labour Court after a dismissal dispute arose between Stuurman Mogotsi and the company where he was employed as an assistant butchery manager. The case raised the issue surrounding the fairness of the dismissal of an employee for gross misconduct and related negligence, related to his failure to observe Covid-19-related health and safety protocols at the workplace. Judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje, in the opening to his judgment, remarked: “The facts of this case are indeed extraordinary. “They are indicative of the need for more to be done at both the workplace and in communities, in ensuring…

MAGGIE TAYLOR | Berea DESCRIBED as an upstanding man always willing to help anyone in the devastated Karkloof community, his friends and family, he was brutally and savagely stabbed to death. And this for cellphones, a firearm, a television and laptops before the murderers fled in the victim’s vehicle. Last week, hundreds of protesters toyi-toyed outside the Piet Retief Court over the bail application of five white farmers. The area had to be cordoned off with barbed wire to hold off the angry mob hurling rocks at the police, and burning tyres, before the evidence had been heard. When does innocent until proven guilty apply? The EFF held a protest outside the US Embassy in Tshwane against the death of Lindani Myeni in the US – before…

DS RAJAH | Musgrave A DEMOCRATIC system is an open one where there is free flow of information between the people and their government to ensure trust between the parties. It is this candidness that contributes to the smooth functioning of the government. Thousands of lives were lost precisely to gain the freedom of expression. Print and electronic media have a tremendous influence in shaping public opinion. The media must be unencumbered in its responsibility to report in an independent and impartial manner complying with accepted journalistic standards. In the circumstances of unethical standards of the government in the performance of its responsibilities, the report (The Mercury, April 26) that “Independent Media has committed to standing up to prevent the chasm of silence from growing any bigger than…

EBRAHIM “EBKOYBIE” ESSA | Durban RECKLESS advice seems to be the order of the day. Even new US President Biden advocates throwing the mask away if you have received your first vaccine, forgetting that even 12 months is too short an interval to monitor its possible ill-effects, let alone its full efficacy. What is the harm in continuing to wear masks as a legal requirement until further notice? Even the olden days anti-flu shot was known to fail more often than not. Our own President Ramaphosa throws caution to the wind when he happily announces, just before the Easter weekend, that there would not be any special further restrictions. Who is going to take his government to task if the repercussions of that weekend, which are…

Vernon Mchunu vernon.mchunu@inl.co.za CIVIC bodies and labour unions are today due to announce drastic moves that seek to bolster their campaign for the extension and increase of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. The R350 grant, first announced in April last year when the effects of the Covid-19-related hard lockdown hit hard on livelihoods, is expected to end tomorrow. President Cyril Ramaphosa has extended it twice already, in July last year and later in January this year for a further three months. Veteran civic organisation Black Sash and the #PayTheGrants advocacy group said in a joint statement that they would be joined by faith-based organisations and trade unions to announce major action in an attempt to pressure the government to keep and increase the grant. “The grant should be…

KwaZulu-Natal police are searching for 18 prisoners who escaped when the police officers, who were transporting them to court came under attack in Pietermaritzburg yesterday. Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said at around 8am yesterday morning, two police officers were transporting prisoners from the PMB New Prison to the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court when the truck they were travelling in was blocked off by a double cab bakkie with five “heavily armed” gunmen. “The suspects pointed firearms at the police officers and forced open the rear of the truck. Awaiting trial prisoners escaped out of the truck.” Naicker said yesterday afternoon that 27 prisoners were back in custody while 18 were still on the run. “A manhunt is under way for the escapees,” said Naicker. In a voice note circulating on…

Mozambique’s government, which is facing a growing terrorist insurgency, will create a special unit in the attorney-general’s office to investigate and prosecute cases of terrorism, the attorney-general said yesterday. The insurgency broke out in the country’s north-east in 2017 and the rebels have stepped up attacks in the past year. Last month, they launched an assault on the coastal town of Palma, near natural gas projects worth $60 billion (R859bn) that are meant to transform Mozambique’s economy. Dozens of people were killed, the government said. Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili told parliament a new special unit would be dedicated to investigating and prosecuting complex crimes, including terrorism. “One cannot face the crimes of terrorism disassociated from other legal types of crime that are related to them, such as trafficking in weapons, drugs…

We took note of a letter, “Envoy not being diplomatic or gentlemanly”, from Bill Constantine published on April 14. Thank you for your interest in the Alternative Viewpoint series, Mr Constantine. We understand that you are dissatisfied with our analysis provided in the latest article. Nonetheless, it is with pleasure that we got from your letter that we nonetheless agree on our article’s very essence – that interventions and use of force are integral parts of Washington’s foreign policy. If US military interventions weren’t so “costly”, Washington would just carry on with them, US interventions have nothing to do with democracy because “promoting democracy” serves as a mere smokescreen to call those interventions “well intentioned”. In your letter, you haven’t refuted any of the aforesaid. We would rather write about…

At least 10 people were killed in a gun battle between police and rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, authorities said, in an apparent retaliation for the execution of a top intelligence chief. The hours-long shoot-out on Tuesday in the remote Puncak district ended with nine guerrillas and a police officer dead, while two more officers were wounded, police said. “We ambushed the area after confirming their whereabouts,” Papua police said yesterday. Police said they believed the dozens-strong rebel faction was responsible for the slaying on Sunday of a general who headed Papua’s intelligence agency. The rebel group dismissed the report of rebels being killed as a “big lie” and “propaganda”. Conflicting reports are common in Papua – a resource-rich but impoverished territory, which shares a border with Papua New…

AT an age when athletes from most sporting disciplines are dusting trophies and reminiscing over their glory days by browsing through old newspaper cuttings, Port Natal Bowls Mixed Pairs champions for 2021, John Connellan and Glenda Matthews (Stella Park BC) continue to add to their long list of achievements. In Sunday’s gripping final, runners-up Graham Schouten and Margaret Mignoll (Parkhill BC), trailing 12 to 21 after 19 ends, picked up six shots in the last two ends to close the gap on the champions, and end the match on 18 shots to 21. Presenting a formidable combination, Connellan and Matthews will represent Port Natal Bowls in the Bowls South Africa Mixed Pairs Championship at Stella Park BC in June. Matthews, who attributes her success to consistent practice of…

KAIZER Chiefs were brought down to earth by strugglers Chippa United who beat them 1-0 in a DStv Premiership tussle at the FNB Stadium yesterday afternoon as they failed to build on their winning momentum over the weekend. After ending leaders Mamelodi Sundowns’ 21-game unbeaten run on Sunday, Chiefs came into this match high on confidence. They dominated proceedings for the better part of the game, but Chippa grabbed three points away from home. A mix-up at the back five minutes before stoppage time saw Eric Mathoho flick the ball towards his own goal. But the ball was intercepted by substitute Bienvenu Eva Nga who beat goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune with a high-flying lobbed effort. Despite their turmoil in domestic football this season, Chiefs have had no troubles with…