Indice dei contenuti per 2021-05-06 in Mercury

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za RMB HOLDINGS (RMH) share price declined by more than 38 percent on the JSE yesterday morning after the investment holding company’s shares went ex-dividend yesterday. This comes after the group was given approval by the exchange control to declare a special dividend of 80 cents a share, which equals to R1.13 billion out of income reserves, on April 21. The group also announced that the special dividend would be subject to a dividend withholding tax at a rate of 20 percent, which would result in a net special dividend of 64c a share. The shareholders are expected to receive a total of R903.49 million after tax. RMH announced on April 21 that the last day to trade in order to parti- cipate in…

SUPPLIES of critical minerals essential for key clean energy technologies, like electric vehicles, need to pick up sharply over the coming decades to meet the world’s climate goals, creating potential energy security hazards that governments must act now to address, a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. The special report, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, is the most comprehensive global study to date on the central importance of minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements in a secure and rapid transformation of the global energy sector. Building on the IEA’s longstanding leadership role in energy security, the report recommends six key areas of action for policymakers to ensure that critical minerals enable an accelerated transition to clean energy…

Vernon Mchunu vernon.mchunu@inl.co.za THE KwaZulu-Natal ANC’s financial administration came under the spotlight yesterday when former provincial treasurer Mike Mabuyakhulu gave testimony before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. Mabuyakhulu, who has heeded the party’s step-aside policy by leaving his position as deputy provincial chairperson as he is facing pending criminal charges, appeared before the commission after testimony by forensic auditor Trevor White regarding a R1 million donation which had allegedly been paid by an Uruguayan businessman, through former Ithala Bank boss Sipho Shabalala, to the ANC, allegedly in exchange for a water-purification provincial tender. In his testimony, Mabuyakhulu lashed out at White and questioned how he could link the R1m donation received by him in cash on behalf of the ANC which was delivered by Shabalala, with…

EBRAHIM “EBKOYBIE” ESSA | Durban AS A part-time alchemist, I have studied oxygen molecules, and recently discovered that, apart from the ozone molecule which has three temporary oxygen atoms, there is no other mutation that has an extra “M” atom for a Muslim-type oxygen, an extra “H” addition for a Hindu version or a “C” type that is exclusively breathed by Christians. Intensive, very costly research assisted by self-styled scientists (also known as fully-qualified charlatans) has proved beyond a doubt that the non-discriminatory, life-giving, life-sustaining, invisible abstraction does not differentiate among Catholics, Presbyterians, Sunnis, Tabliqi, or black, white or green people. There will always be mad Mullahs intent on converting every Tom, Dick and O’Grady. Some to get a short detour to heaven. Others continue existing and making…

| Isaac Asimov AN AMAZING blast from the past. Who should I encounter the other evening at the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties but my favourite barmaid who, in days of yore, used to preside and maintain order at a pub in Florida Road called The Filler, which was also HQ of the Durban Press Club. Maintaining order there was no mean feat. Here again was this lady, lovely and entertaining as ever. From behind, I recognised her mane of blonde hair. For the sake of anonymity and to spare possible embarrassment, let us refer to her by the code name “Theresa”. We reminisced about some of the desperate characters of those days. Did I remember the terrible argument she and I once had, she asked? Terrible argument? I…

MY NEIGHBOUR, a mother of two, wrote this and gave me permission to publish it: One of the best gifts you can give your child is the opportunity to manage conflict. In our “throw-away society” it is easy to discard relationships to avoid conflict. When your child says he or she was wronged, do you tell your child to stay away from that kid or help him to resolve differences? Do you encourage contact or avoidance? Wouldn’t your child achieve more with coaching about how to work through differences? When they get older, can they avoid bosses or co-workers who might have wronged them? If we throw away people who have hurt us, we will have a lonely existence. Encourage contact over avoidance, self-reflection over pointing fingers, understanding over judgement.…

Soccer boots signed and worn by late Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona during his 1983-84 season with Barcelona, and a jersey he wore during a 1990 World Cup match against Brazil, will, among 500 other pieces of sports memorabilia, go on auction in July, Julien’s Auctions said. The items are expected to fetch between $40 000 and $60 000 each. Also up for sale is a high-school basketball jersey worn by LeBron James, when he was 17, on a famous Sports Illustrated cover in 2002. The green-and-white jersey is expected to sell for between $400 000 and $600 000. | Reuters…

MIGUEL Louw’s killer will serve an effective sentence of 25 years in prison after he was sentenced in the Durban High Court yesterday. Mohamed Ebrahim Vahed, 43, of Phoenix, was convicted for the murder and kidnapping of 9-year-old Miguel and theft in December 2020 by Durban High Court Judge Jacqueline Henriques. Yesterday, Judge Henriques handed down the sentences for the three offences: for the murder he was sentenced to 25 years, eight years for kidnapping and 18 months for the theft. She ordered that the sentences for the kidnapping and theft charges run concurrently with the sentence for murder and he would therefore serve an effective 25-year jail term. During the trial, the court heard that Vahed occasionally stayed with Miguel and his family in Sydenham because he sometimes did…

Saul Cobbing ARE you a member of Durban’s Point Water Sports Club? Or any other club with exclusive membership? If so, do you know what the requirements are for new members to join your club? About six months ago, a young architect called Wandile Mthiyane, wanted to get a bite to eat at the Point Water Sports Club’s premises under the recently-opened extension to Durban’s beautiful beachfront promenade. He was told he could not because he was not a member. Later enquiries revealed that to become a member, he would (among other things) need to submit a photo of himself and have his request for membership supported by two members “in good standing”. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when my wife sent me an advert for the…

IF THERE were South Africans worthy of global recognition, it would be the Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman and his team. Time after time, Sooliman and his humanitarian organisation have reminded the nation about the meaning of Ubuntu. It would be an understatement to say that Gift of the Givers has gone beyond the call of duty. Very often, they are the first to respond to a crisis, sometimes in the middle of the most dangerous disasters. We have often used our news pages to highlight the incredible work that these people, mostly volunteers, continue to do in assisting those in desperate need. Just a few weeks ago, they led the humanitarian relief efforts when a fire destroyed iconic buildings at UCT, with thousands of students…

A journalist who disappeared last month in Mali’s northern city of Gao appeared in a video yesterday, appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from Islamist militants holding him. “I’m Olivier Dubois. I’m French. I’m a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM (al-Qaeda North Africa). “I’m speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me,” Dubois said in a 21-second video shared on social media. French civilians have long been favoured targets for kidnapping by criminal and Islamist groups in West Africa’s arid Sahel region, partly because of perceptions that the French government is prepared to pay ransoms to secure their release. “We confirm the disappearance in Mali…

BAMAKO: The sheriff of the court is set to attach the property of former Malawian president Peter Mutharika to pay legal costs. In a seizure and sale order by the registrar of the high court, the sheriff was ordered to seize and sell property belonging to Mutharika due to his failure to pay legal costs amounting to 69 million Malawian kwacha (about R1.3 million). Mutharika was found to have abused his office by attempting to force Chief Justice and Justice of Appeal Edward to go on leave pending retirement. Meanwhile, police arrested one of Mutharika’s former bodyguards on allegations of theft of a government car. | African News Agency (ANA)…

ANTWERP: An Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison for planning a bomb attack in France has dropped an appeal in Belgium and will serve his sentence, his representative said. Belgian authorities have said they will oppose any potential swop deal with Western prisoners, lawyers said. Assadolah Assadi was found guilty of attempted terrorism in February after a foiled plot to bomb a 2018 rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French-based dissident group. The Belgian court said he ran a state intelligence network. Assadi bought explosives for the Paris plot with him on a commercial flight to Austria from Iran, it said. | Reuters…

HERMAN GIBBS MAMELODI Sundowns opened up a four-point lead at the top of the Premiership standings after a 2-0 win over a highly competitive Maritzburg United side at Loftus yesterday. Sundowns led 1-0 at half-time but on numerous occasions in the first half, Maritzburg looked the more likely to score but they failed to convert their opportunities. Sundowns served early notice of their attacking threat and had the ball in the net in the fifth minute, but the effort was ruled offside. In the 16th minute, Sundowns were foiled by the woodwork twice in quick succession. Ace striker Peter Shalulile produced both efforts via a low drive and a header from a corner. Once Maritzburg absorbed the pressure without conceding a goal, they produced several assertive passages of play…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za STEINHOFF International’s share price leapt by more than six percent on the JSE yesterday morning after its subsidiary Pepco Group published its prospectus, which paves the way for its separate listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange later this month valued at up to R100 billion. Steinhoff said it had decided to launch the initial public offering of Pepco Group of up to 102.72 million ordinary shares, which represents approximately 17.9 percent of the company’s total issued share capital. Steinhoff holds 98.8 percent of the shares that are up for an offering that will be made available to retail and institutional investors in Poland, at an offer price of between 38 Polish zloty a share (R143.69) and 46 zloty, valuing it between €4.8 billion (R83bn)…

THE JURY is still out on whether certain clauses of the 2018 Mining Charter will be reviewed and set aside. The Pretoria High Court reserved judgment on the issue yesterday following a three-day hearing held virtually. The Minerals Council South Africa approached the court for a judicial review and the setting aside of the 2018 Mining Charter, saying the document did not recognise past empowerment deals. Among the elements of the charter is that new mining rights require a minimum 30 percent black economic empowerment (BEE) shareholding, distributed to qualifying employees, communities, host communities and BEE entrepreneurs. Advocate Christopher Loxton, representing the Minerals Council, told the court yesterday that the charter was not the sole source of community rights and did not operate in isolation. “It is wrong to see…

MOHAMED SAEED | Pietermaritzburg INDIA is being overwhelmed by a second wave of the new strain of the coronavirus. The images of hospital services collapsing due to the influx of patients, overflowing crematorium areas and oxygen being administered to patients on the streets, are petrifying. India must flatten the curve by vaccinating a large percentage of the population to stop the transmission chain. Moreover, the current safety measures, such as social distancing, wearing masks, sanitising and minimising unnecessary exposure of vulnerable people, must continue. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to the people of India, and to all those around the globe who are affected by this pandemic.…

JEAN MICHEL BOUVIER | Bryanston LISTENING to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s testimony at the Zondo Commission last week, I was shocked and troubled when, with a straight face, he tried to deflect and gloss over any blame with his sanitised explanations and to justify the ills that his loving ANC has brought to this country. It all started through poor governance, mismanagement, cadre deployment, corruption, incompetence and looting, and culminated at the fire-sale of this country to the Guptas. Then he said that “all his ministers know exactly what they’re doing” when just the same week it was revealed that 35% of the top managers in government are incompetent and not even qualified to do their job. All these due to cadre deployment. If he was covering up…

Excessive salt in food and beverages is putting people at more risk of potentially fatal heart disease and strokes, the World Health Organisation (WHO)said yesterday, issuing fresh guidelines for limiting sodium content. An estimated 11 million deaths globally are associated with poor diet each year, including 3 million attributable to high sodium intake, it said in a report. Authorities must establish policies to reduce salt intake and provide people with information to make the right food choices, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “We also need the food and beverage industry to cut sodium levels in processed food,” Tedros said. The new WHO benchmarks, for 64 food and drink categories, are aimed at guiding health authorities in its 194 member states in talks with the food and beverage industry. For…

Nonhlanhla Hlatshwayo nozizwe.hlatshwayo@inl.co.za The Sharks launched a state-of-the-art business centre that is aimed at assisting graduates, small start-up businesses and SMEs. The launch took place on Tuesday at the newly built centre during a small, intimate event that was attended by the stakeholders, sponsors, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, as well as Springbok captain, Siya Kolisi who has recently joined the Sharks. The centre is based at the Jonsson Kings Park Stadium. The Sharks chief executive Eduard Coetzee said the vision for the centre stemmed from the challenges of unemployment faced by the community, and therefore the aim of the business centre was to empower graduates and entrepreneurs by supplying them with necessary equipment. The centre is equipped with desktop computers, TV screens, office space, meeting rooms, board and brainstorming rooms,…

Sihle Mavuso and Ntombi Nkosi AMID flaring tensions and pending litigation in the royal court, the mortal remains of the late Zulu nation’s Queen Regent, Mantfombi Dlamini-Zulu, arrived yesterday at the KwaKhangelamankengane palace in Nongoma to rest for the last time before burial. The 65-year-old would be buried according to the Swati royal culture of wrapping one in a cow’s hide, and as per her wish, she did not go to the Zulu royal graveyard of Makhosini near Ulundi. Proceedings started in Johannesburg yesterday when a delegation comprising of Zulu and Swati royals fetched her body from Hillbrow mortuary in Johannesburg. After performing royal rituals at the mortuary, her body was transported in a convoy. The convoy became the centre of attraction in the city centre of Johannesburg because three…

Modibe Modiba SOUTH Africa is a country of two halves, a place divided into portions of the rich and elites as well as that of the displaced, marginalised, poor and exploited majority of the country. Our land is where financial institutions exploit the black majority and where banks have been allowed to operate in a rogue manner. It cannot be that 27 years into our democracy, we have black businesses and SMMEs that struggle to get finance and assistance from banks that make a lot of money from the suffering and poor black majority. We cannot sit back and watch how many of the banks have stood against the transformation of this country and how they have, without shame, closed the accounts of black businesses. #RacistBanksMustFall is a continuous reminder…

The advent of Instagram in recent years has helped create an international black market for migrant workers, in particular women recruited in Africa and Asia who are sold into servitude as maids in Persian Gulf countries. Unlicensed agents have exploited the social media platform to place these women into jobs that often lack documentation or assurances of proper pay and working conditions. Several women who were marketed via Instagram described being treated essentially as captives and forced to work gruelling hours for far less money than they had been promised. “They advertise us on social media, then the employer picks. Then we are delivered to their house. We are not told anything about the employers. You’re just told to take your stuff and a driver takes you there,” said Vivian,…

Facebook Inc’s oversight board yesterday upheld the company’s suspension of former US president Donald Trump but said the company was wrong to make the suspension indefinite and gave it six months to determine a “proportionate response.” Trump called the decision and his banning across tech platforms “a total disgrace” and said the companies would “pay a political price”. The board’s verdict has been watched for signals on how the world’s largest social media company will treat rule-breaking political leaders in the future. The board said the company was right to ban Trump following the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters. But it said Facebook inappropriately imposed a suspension without clear standards and that the company should determine a response consistent with rules applied to other users…

WASHINGTON: Jared Kushner is forming a group to promote relations between four Arab states and Israel, which were normalised under agreements he helped broker as a top adviser to his father-in-law, former president Donald Trump, the group said yesterday. Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, is founding the Abraham Accords Institute for Peace, to work on deepening agreements Israel reached last year with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Kushner is writing a book about his experience in helping broker the deals. He will be joined in the new group by former US envoy Avi Berkowitz and ambassadors to the US from Bahrain, the UAE and Israel. The group describes itself as non-partisan. The founders “intend to add additional Democrats to the group as…

LONDON: A British woman is facing bankruptcy after losing more than $150 000 through an online dating scam. Rachel Elwell, from the UK’s West Midlands, said the man claimed he lived nearby and that he had gone abroad for an engineering contract in Ukraine. Elwell, 50, said the man convinced her with documents and pictures that he needed money for issues he was facing and said he had been taken captive by loan sharks. Elwell has now created a Go Fund Me page and has already received a little over $319. Her target is to raise $138 975. According to Forbes, many online dating scams originate in Nigeria. | African News Agency (ANA)…

Wynona Louw What will the Lions class of 2021 look like? Now that the trophy for the three-Test series between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions has been unveiled, the excitement will continue to build, with Warren Gatland naming his squad for their tour of South Africa today (12:45pm SA time). The B&I Lions' eagerly-awaited trip to South Africa will see the tourists attempt to repeat the heroics of 1997 as they battle it out for the ‘first perpetual trophy in the history of the British & Irish Lions’, as SA Rugby proudly said in a statement Monday. So, with less than two months to go before the quadrennial blockbuster kicks off, here are three points of interest ahead of Gatland’s squad announcement. 1 Who will don…

MEME-BASED virtual currency Dogecoin soared to an all-time high yesterday, extending its 2021 rally to become the fourth-biggest digital coin. Dogecoin, launched as a satirical critique of 2013’s cryptocurrency frenzy, climbed 41 percent in 24 hours to a record $0.68 (about R9.82), according to CoinMarketCap. This year alone, it has soared more than 14 000 percent, from $0.00468 on December 31, taking it past more widely used cryptocurrencies, such as the Tether stablecoin and XRP, to become the fourth-largest by market capitalisation. Dogecoin – whose logo features a Shiba Inu dog at the centre of the meme – remains little used in commerce or payments. Like other digital coins, it is highly volatile, and its price is heavily influenced by social media users. On Tuesday, the New York…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE MANUFACTURING industry in South Africa soared to nine-year high in April as new business and output grew strongly as a result of a sharp rebound from the Covid-19 impact. The IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI), released yesterday, rose from 50.3 in March to 53.7 in April as demand begins to recover, indicating the strongest expansion since March 2012. As a result, IHS Markit said businesses were now much more optimistic about the year-ahead outlook, with the degree of sentiment linked to future activity at its highest since mid-2015. It said they attributed this to greater hopes that the Covid-19 pandemic will end and that business conditions will improve. IHS Markit said South Africa enjoyed a strong bounce in economic performance in April as output growth…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za A HOWICK resident, who has opted to repair a pothole-riddled road near his home, says he stepped up to do the work because he wanted to be a responsible citizen. The UMngeni Municipality, under which the area falls, has been the subject of criticism, and there have been threats of reporting it to the president because of declining service delivery. Jonty Myhill opted to repair Curry’s Post Road himself, in a move that has created temporary work for some locals. “It is no use complaining and blaming others. In some instances, you just have to do the work yourself,” he said. He emphasised yesterday that he didn’t bear a grudge against the uMngeni Municipality over the state of disrepair of some of the roads in the area.…

PASTOR ROY NAIR | Bluff IN A crisis such as the one we are in, we cannot look at our own church denominations, or our religious and our academic differences for answers. We have a universal crisis, a Covid-19 pandemic, and our message should not be Christian, but we should look for a universal answer. Today tent evangelism and missionaries are irrelevant due to the restrictions. Millions of Christians don’t have the luxury of Zoom or Facebook etc, so they don’t hear a message of hope. We still see churches calling for prayer meetings. Hindus and Muslims are praying separately. But God is a God of the nations. Many Christians want to be caught up in the clouds in heaven but not be united on Earth. We are…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof INDIA is under heavy attack from Covid-19. The world’s second-most populous nation is reeling as the coronavirus squeezes the life out of its people and economy. With more than 20 million infections, it ranks only second to the US. Hospitals are overwhelmed and either turn away patients or leave them gasping for breath as there is not enough equipment and oxygen. There are also not enough beds. The figures are frightening. On Saturday alone there were a record 350 000 cases and, in the past three days, more than a million. The daily death rate has breached the 3 500 mark and keeps climbing as a second wave wreaks havoc on the nation of 2.4 billion people. The Covid-19 surge is so…

PJH TITLESTAD | Mtunzini Cyril Ramaphosa indeed deserves support and sympathy, but his statements on party discipline are somewhat remiss. The backbenchers in the House of Commons in both the Conservative and Labour parties can stage devastating rebellions. If one wants the ill-effects of conformity, see the Republicans under Trump. The ANC should remember with shame the example of Andrew Feinstein. Before the Guptas came along, in the time of the previous scandal, over armaments, he stood up and opposed his own party. He even wrote a book detailing the abuses. The ANC could not tolerate the voice of truth; he had to leave the party, and eventually the country. This was the time when a certain MP went to jail briefly on account of an expensive Mercedes…

| African News Agency (ANA) PARTS of the online economy have boomed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid widespread movement restrictions, while some pre-pandemic big-hitters have seen a reversal of fortunes in the past year, UN economists have found. Experts in trade and development at the UN Council on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said the e-commerce sector saw a “dramatic” rise in its share of all retail sales, from 16% to 19% in 2020. “These statistics show the growing importance of online activities,” said Shamika Sirimanne, UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics. “They also point to the need for countries, especially developing ones, to have such information as they rebuild their economies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.” The digital retail economy experienced most growth in…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za THE KwaZulu-Natal provincial police have begun evicting “illegal occupants” from state-owned residential buildings which were used as accommodation for police officers. Police management said the buildings on Stalwart Simelane Street and North Ridge Road, Durban, needed to be renovated. However, the renovation plans, which date back several years, have stalled as residents in the buildings have refused to leave. When the SAPS issued a final eviction notice in 2018, many police officers left the buildings, while others remained. In addition, civilian families also moved into the buildings. A police officer, who spoke to The Mercury on condition of anonymity, said the civilians were paying rent to police officers who had left the buildings. He alleged that the SAPS vandalised the windows and doors and…

More than a century of selfless service, contribution to family and Durban community MOTHER’S day this year should give some respite from our preoccupation with Covid-19. It’s a universal celebration of motherhood that is the backbone of stable societies. In South Africa, motherhood has been our primary source of stability in a society of absent fathers. Fiona Forde, in her book on Mandela titled An inconvenient truth, describes his caring tenderness towards his grandmother, for whom he built a solid brick and mortar house before her death. Thousands of South African men have enduring memories of their grandmothers, on whose backs they were raised whilst their mothers went to work to support the family. So it is apt to acknowledge this day with some meaningful celebration. In my indulgent world…

A shadow government of ousted Myanmar MPs said yesterday it has set up a “people’s defence force” to protect civilians, as the police and military deploy deadly arms against anti-coup protesters. The country has been in turmoil since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a mass uprising of daily protests and a nationwide boycott from public servants. So far, nearly 770 people have been killed in deadly crackdowns, according to a local monitoring group – although the junta has a far lower death toll which it blames on “rioters”. A group of ousted lawmakers who call themselves the National Unity Government (NUG) and are working underground to oppose the junta announced their own “people’s defence force” to “stop the use of violence against people”. It is…

Antarctic melting could cause a “dramatic” rise in sea levels if countries fail to keep global warming below 2°C, posing a serious threat to low- lying and coastal regions, researchers said yesterday. If the upper temperature goal set in the Paris Agreement is exceeded, the melting Antarctic ice sheet could cause annual average sea-level rise of 0.18cm globally in 2060 and beyond, said the study published in the journal Nature. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 190 countries agreed to hold global average temperature rise to “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial times and strive for a limit of 1.5°C. Warming of 3°C – a scenario that is more consistent with current policies – would push sea levels up by a “catastrophic” 0.5cm a year globally after 2060, the study…

LONDON: the Group of Seven wealthy democracies yesterday worked on plans to scale up global Covid-19 vaccinations, as calls mounted for a drastic increase in funding to help developing nations. The foreign minister of India, where Covid-19 cases have soared in recent weeks, participated in the London meeting virtually after potential exposure to the virus. More than 1.2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered globally, but fewer than 1% in the least developed countries. Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown urged the G7 to provide the bulk of $60 billion that is needed over the next two years to vaccinate the whole world. | Reuters…