Indice dei contenuti per 2022-05-31 in Mercury

NEWS that a sitting ANC councillor was arrested for the murder of his “colleague” has sparked outrage in the eThekwini Municipality, with councillors on the opposition benches calling for the man to be suspended from his position. DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said they had written to the Office of the Speaker, Thabani Nyawose, calling for action following the arrest. The ANC in the eThekwini region confirmed that one of its councillors had been arrested, along with other suspects. It said this was in connection with the murder of ward ANC candidate Siyabonga Mkhize and his associate and ANC member Mzukisi Nyanga in Cato Crest last November. The two were shot dead shortly before the local government elections. Mkhize had been standing for the position of councillor in the ward, and…

Despite attempts by Minister of Police Bheki Cele to disarm law-abiding honest gun owners under the pretext of them being responsible for the shootings all over the country including during cash-in-transit heists, attacks on bus drivers and the proliferation of shootings on the Cape Flats, these heinous crimes continue unabated. In fact, shootings all over the country have never been as bad as they are today despite the fact that tens of thousands of privately owned firearms have been decommissioned via absurd and unworkable time-wasting amnesties and relicensing procedures. Thousands of law-abiding private firearm owners with expired licences have their guns locked up in safes across the country as well as in police stations awaiting relicensing whilst the carnage continues. The reissue of expired gun licences under the amnesty following…

ALCOHOL stings and stings deeply. And, it does so for generations. It poisons. It sets children on edge often for a life-time of adult-living on edge. I know too well. The memories may be distant, yet my emotions still react or erupt and I often still feel the anxious pain even though it’s been well over 55 years since my enduring exposure to incessant drinking of close relatives. Revisiting the energy I spent as a boy trying to maintain order in the family and reliving my futile efforts to steer adults away from drinking, the twisting and turning in bed while people raged with drunkenness, refreshes the emotional exhaustion that remains ever ready to awaken in my body, despite the years. It doesn’t have to be this way. If you…

Last Thursday I had occasion to visit the Skin Clinic at King Edward VIII Hospital, where I was privileged to consult a Dr Govender. What a charming, kind and caring young woman Dr Govender is, with such a sunny disposition. Only on leaving the hospital did I discover that she had lost her beloved father the previous week. In spite of her grief and great loss, Dr Govender was back at the hospital attending to her many patients. Thank you, Dr Govender, for your dedication, compassion and professionalism. I pray that in the love that surrounds you, you will find strength and in the memories you cherish you will find peace.…

THE Western Cape’s Bergrivier municipal manager has defended the temporary appointment of a 73-year-old senior manager, saying there were no other suitable candidates to fill the position. Residents have been up in arms over the temporary appointment of Johan le Roux as the head of facilities in the municipality earlier this month. Rural and Farmworker Development Organisation executive director Billy Claasen said residents were “upset because there were a lot of young people in Bergrivier communities who were sitting at home without jobs”. “Residents are upset, they feel that the municipality has neglected them, they feel that to appoint such an old white male is a slap in the face to our young people. But this shows how this DA-led municipality’s mayor, municipal manager, directors and councillors are spitting on…

The refusal by some political parties to obey the Political Party Funding Act has become more blatant as only two parties – the ANC and DA – have made declarations in the latest disclosure report. The Independed Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) issued the party funding’s fourth-quarter Disclosure Report, covering all qualifying donations declared by political parties for the three-month period between January and March this year. The ANC declared R10 million, while the DA declared a little over R2.5m. While the IEC has not raised serious concern over the lack of declarations, chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo observed that the fourth quarter declarations were – by far – the least, both in terms of the value of donations and the number of parties making declarations. “For the…

KwaZulu-Natal Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza has called on law enforcement agencies to work around the clock to ensure the perpetrators of violence against women are brought to book after two shocking incidents took place over the weekend in the province. A woman was raped and brutally murdered in Nseleni near Empangeni, and an elderly woman was attacked in her home in Ndwedwe. On Sunday morning, a 24-year-old woman was found naked and with her throat slit near the Nseleni Library. In Ndwedwe, 64-year-old Fikile Magwaza was attacked in her home in the middle of the night and was beaten and strangled by her attacker. She managed to fight him off, and her neighbours came to her assistance. The suspect was taken into custody by the police. MEC Khoza said…

The recent devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have highlighted the dire need for all municipalities to build climate-resilient infrastructure and to focus on human settlements, especially for vulnerable communities. Climatologists have warned that climate change will result in an increase in the frequency of floods and their intensity on the eastern part of the country, while drought will impact the western part. The onus is on municipalities to start planning now for these future events, to mitigate the loss of life and the damage to vital infrastructure. They need to tap into national government infrastructure funds and make changes to how they view climate change and its impact, or this will be a vicious cycle that continues to repeat itself. The investment conferences that have been held…

RED light districts. No, not those sleazy areas, I mean those far more dangerous places: traffic lights. Some weeks ago, after narrowly avoiding a driver who had run a red light, I did an informal survey at various traffic lights around Cape Town. As expected, it depends on traffic density. When traffic is light, drivers are less im- patient, and the ratio seems to be about one red light runner per three cycles. Things are different during peak times. Then the number of drivers running a red light is almost 100%. We have generally blamed the minibus taxis for bad driving, and with good reason, but South Africans have slowly embraced the lower standard of driving on the principle of “if they can do it/get away with it, so can…

A small charity broke ground this year on a clinic in northern Burkina Faso to care for thousands of women and children who have fled Islamist insurgents wreaking havoc along the fringes of the Sahara. But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, global supply chains buckled and the cost of building materials, fuel and food spiked in West Africa. The charity’s founder, Boukary Ouedraogo, was forced to make a tough decision: he halted construction of the clinic with only the foundations laid. Similar calls are being made across sub-Saharan Africa, where aid projects are threatened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, potentially putting millions of lives at risk. Humanitarian agencies already struggling with widespread price increases under the pandemic say the crisis in Europe has made things worse.…

Pope Francis, 85, is set to make a gruelling trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan in July despite knee problems that have forced him to use a cane and wheelchair. There had been speculation the pope’s visit to Africa might be postponed, as was a trip to Lebanon scheduled for June. The trip’s pace suggests the Vatican expects the pope’s condition to improve in the next month, although officials say he likely will use a wheelchair. Francis will spend four days in the DRC, visiting the capital Kinshasa and Goma in the restive eastern region. The Italian ambassador, his bodyguard and driver were killed in an ambush north of Goma last year. The programme includes a meeting with victims of violence in the eastern area.…

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards yesterday accused “Zionists” of assassinating a colonel in Tehran earlier this month, the Guards’ official website reported. Colonel Sayyad Khodai, 50, was fatally shot on May 22 outside his home in the east of the Iranian capital by assailants on motorcycles. He was hit with five bullets, according to official media. The colonel was killed “by the most vicious people, the Zionists, and God willing, we will avenge his death”, Major General Hossein Salami said. The general did not, however, use the term “Zionist regime”, routinely used by the Islamic republic as a direct reference to its enemy Israel. | AFP…

University of Pretoria defender Keegan Allan made the most of the opportunities given to him last season as he won the Nedbank Cup’s Most Promising Player of the Tournament at the PSL Awards on Sunday. “It is a great achievement for myself, my family and the club. I’m excited and it’s a good feeling but I still have a lot of hard work to do. I can’t let it get to my head,” Allan told Independent Media. AmaTuks was one of the biggest surprise packages of the Nedbank Cup that was won by Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday. The GladAfrica Championship side reached the quarter-finals before they were beaten 3-2 by Royal AM. Allan was especially impressive in his team’s Round of 32 elimination of Chippa United, a game in which…

Questions have been raised over the fairness of a probe into irregular spending and an investigation into the role of two senior officials at Mhlathuze Water. Tomorrow will mark six months since the utility’s chief executive, Mthokozisi Duze, and its chief financial officer, Babongile Mnyandu, were placed on special leave after the entity’s board said it had received allegations of wrongdoing. The investigation report was said to have been on the agenda of a board meeting held yesterday, which was confirmed by spokesperson Siyabonga Maphumulo. The pair were initially placed on special leave from December 8 to January 31, but the board extended this early this year. When announcing the action, the board had stressed that the move was not a presumption of wrongdoing on the part of…

WHILE the focus, quite rightly, is on the devastating floods and their aftermath, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, let us not forget last July’s unrest and looting. We were assured by police at the time that the ringleaders had been identified, and that the “insurrectionists” would be brought to book. To the best of my knowledge, bar one or two arrests, nothing further has happened, in so far as the perpetrators are concerned. The looters are still roaming around freely. Yes, there have been arrests in relation to the violent deaths in Phoenix, especially, and the law will take its course. The big question, though is: What about the rest, who planned, plotted and executed the rampant destruction of malls and other business outlets. Will they ever face the might…

GPS satellites orbiting the Earth may be more effective in detecting tsunamis, and much faster than the seismic sensors, finds a study. The method could serve as an effective warning system for countries worldwide, said the researchers at the University College London, UK. Tsunami waves are low in deep water but can travel at the speed of a jet, up to 800 kilometres an hour in a deep sea, and as they enter shallow waters, they slow down, growing in height. The wave cause a disturbance in the Earth’s upper atmosphere by pushing up air and creating an acoustic wave that is amplified as it goes higher This acoustic wave can reach 300 km high in the ionosphere, in about seven minutes, and the depression in electron density that occurs…

As Eskom’S woes continue – now with added sabotage – and the revival of SAA still a very dubious deal, let’s not forget the flag debacle. Really? R22 million on a flag? There are more floods in KwaZulu-Natal, more misery, more fuel to the ever-growing flames of discontent. Have relief funds for the very recent floods started reaching those in real need, or only the personal coffers of selected ANC “cadres”? Who will ever know? As the now-marginalised (white) middle class we watch, with daily horror, the ANC’s continued blundering and plundering. They (the ANC) are not accountable, but a law unto themselves. They have taken a well-established, efficient machine and broken it. After stripping all its valuable parts. Not a single aspect of the government has not been…

More than 50 000 people in the waste management sector lost their jobs because of the negative economic impacts of Covid-19 between 2020 and last year. This came to light following a parliamentary question by EFF MP Andrew Arnolds to Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy. Creecy said: “In a quest to protect South African citizens from the novel coronavirus, the lockdown resulted in a shock in the labour market and a big change in the way people went about doing their work. Due to Covid-19 lockdown and economic impacts, the sector has lost more than 51 000 jobs between 2020 and 2021, of which most jobs lost were accounted to the formal sector losing over 55 000 jobs, while the informal lost just…

Almost R280 million worth of jackpots from National Lottery games are set to expire if unclaimed. Ithuba urged players across the portfolio of the National Lottery games to check their tickets and to come forward to claim as soon as possible. “As at 30 April, 2022, there is an amount of R 279 451 903 in unclaimed jackpots across the portfolio of all our games, including the smaller prize winnings,” the operator said. It added that all National Lottery tickets remain valid for a period of up to 365 days from the date of the draw. Ithuba said all winning tickets that are not validated within that period would automatically expire, and any unclaimed winnings from expired tickets are transferred to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund for reallocation to…

The 2022 Eurovision winners, Kalush Orchestra, have raised $900 000 (about R14 million) for Ukraine’s military by auctioning their trophy. The Ukrainian rap group beat the UK’s entrant, Sam Ryder, to first place with their performance of Stefania. And they’ve now revealed they raised a mega-sum to help support the soldiers fighting on the front line amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a Facebook auction hosted on Sunday, they managed to flog the crystal microphone for the impressive amount, which will go towards buying a PD-2 drone system for Ukraine’s military, including three aircraft and a ground control station. |…

A REPORT by the Department of Basic Education has confirmed that over 40% of the million pupils who start public school in the country each year drop out before reaching matric. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga faces criticism each year that the national matric results she announces hide the real performance of the public school system. The report that the department released last week denied that Motshekga hides the data illustrating the number of pupils who do not reach matric. “It is sometimes claimed that the fact that almost half of youths do not obtain a qualification at the Grade 12 level is something that the government does not report on,” it said. “This is not the case. The annual reports on the National Senior Certificate (NSC) are very clear…

Rate at 66% is a ‘world record’, adding to national metric of shame SOUTH Africa’s 21 million or so youth (aged 15-34) have never had it so bad! They constitute a third of the national population of 59.3 million, projected to rise to 61.9 million this year, with the gender balance slightly in favour of men. Through no fault of their own, they have been persistently living with the blight of joblessness with its despair, sense of hopelessness and trapped in their very own “lost decade”, only to be clobbered, yet again, in the last two years by the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, and, since February, by the supply chain disruptions caused by the Ukraine conflict and its resultant inflationary pressures on energy and food prices, which have shocked…

IN A world ravaged by mindless and horrific violence, it is a remarkable fact that a possibly similar scenario has been quietly developing in the precinct of Kenilworth railway station. For several years following the removal of the metal booms guarding the level crossing, their ineffectually fore-shortened replacements have threatened the lives of all users, pedestrian or vehicular, of the roadway. With minimum effort even the widest of vehicles can navigate the opening between these new booms, pedestrians cross without hindrance and the new red warning lights flash or remain unlit, apparently unconnected with any approaching rail traffic. To introduce a note of tragi-comedy, an un-uniformed individual, presumably in the service of the South African railways, occasionally appears, waving a cloth to motorists inviting them to run the gauntlet, which…

Nepal: Authorities yesterday recovered or located the bodies of all but one of 22 people who were on board a plane that crashed into a Himalayan mountainside on Sunday, officials said, and the government has formed a panel to investigate the incident. Two Germans, four Indians and 16 Nepalis were on the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft which crashed 15 minutes after taking off from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125km west of Kathmandu on Sunday morning. “There is very little chance to find survivors,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. Nepali soldiers and rescue workers had retrieved 20 bodies from the wreckage, strewn across a steep slope at an altitude of about 4 400 metres. They were trying to…

LONDON: Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have renewed their lease on Frogmore Cottage in a bid to spend more time in England. The Duke and Duchess, who live in California, are set to stay at the Windsor residence with their children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, 11 months, during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this weekend to celebrate the 96-year-old monarch’s 70-year reign. Frogmore has been occupied by Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their son, August. However, they are spending time in Portugal, so Harry and Meghan are able to stay there.…

Bangkok: A record one billion methamphetamine pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year, the UN said yesterday, as crime gangs exploited the Covid-19 pandemic and instability in coup-hit Myanmar to boost their activities. Southeast Asia’s so-called Golden Triangle has long been an infamous hotspot for drug trafficking, with Myanmar, Laos and Thailand’s porous borders and lax local policing allowing illegal substances to slip across. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said law enforcement netted nearly 172 tonnes of methamphetamine – about seven times more than a decade ago. | AFP…

Cricket fans love statistics. Here’s one to chew on: David Miller faced just 33 balls in last year’s ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE. In the same competition, Kagiso Rabada faced 30 balls. If you were wondering the reason for Miller’s lack of balls was due to him getting out cheaply in the UAE that was simply not the case. He was only dismissed twice in three innings. He utilised 18 balls for 16 runs in the opening game against Australia in Abu Dhabi. Did not bat in the eight-wicket victory over the West Indies in Dubai. Collared Sri Lanka with a match-winning 26 not out off just 13 balls before taking just two balls to get the Proteas over the line against Bangladesh. His services were not…

RACISM and discrimination in schools have been condemned following an allegation that a Michaelhouse pupil made a racial slur towards a pupil from the Gauteng-based St John’s College on Friday. The incident allegedly took place towards the end of a hockey match during the schools’ annual derby day. The rest of the event’s matches were cancelled after the incident came to light. Michaelhouse, which is in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, said it was in the process of investigating the allegation, and both schools released a statement in which they said they condemned all forms of racism and discriminatory behaviour. Michaelhouse said it had immediately implemented a precautionary suspension in respect of the boy alleged to have made the racial slur, pending a formal disciplinary hearing. It said it was in the…

ACCUSED Parliament arsonist, Zandile Mafe, has once again been unsuccessful in his bid for bail. Mafe’s bail appeal was dismissed in the Western Cape High Court yesterday after three judges reached their decision. Judge James Lekhuleni and Judge Daniel Thulare previously heard marathon arguments in the bail appeal and yesterday, Judge Noluthando Nziweni, who had been appointed as the third judge, heard final arguments. The bail application arguments had to be reheard in the high court after a split decision between Judge Lekhuleni and Judge Thulare earlier this month. Mafe, 39, who has now been in jail for five months, faces charges of housebreaking with intent to commit terrorism, and arson, terrorism and theft. State prosecutor Mervyn Menigo said they would present CCTV footage allegedly showing Mafe going undetected inside…

HERE’S a man who takes local government really seriously. Many people would perhaps be gratified to be taken for a world-famous artist, but not William Gannon, of Pembroke Dock Town Council, in Wales. In fact, according to Sky News, Gannon has resigned from the council because people keep accusing him of being the world-famous street artist, Banksy. Gannon says the allegations are “undermining my ability to do the work of councillor”. Banksy, of course, is a pseudonymous street artist, political activist and film director in England, whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and…

IT’S midwinter but the “sleepy hollow” comes to life. There are several events taking place in Pietermaritzburg in the coming days and weeks which should give you a chance to get out of your homes. At the weekend, there was the start of the Royal Show, the biggest and oldest of its kind in the country, and the popular Cars in the Park was on Sunday. Coming in the weekend of July 2 to 3 is the Ashburton Aloe Festival. If you love the bush, then you should take a drive to this festival and see how the amazing aloes put on their fiery display. But the pick of them all has got to be the Hackland Aloe Garden in the Midlands. Femma, like many, was a rose lover, until…

THE ASSASSINATION of Colonel Saayad Khodae, a member of Unit 840 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, has all the hallmarks of a Mossad killing. The silent war of death and destruction between Iran and Israel continues unabated. According to intelligence sources, the Mossad hit three Iranian nuclear sites from July 2020 to June 2021, and cyber attacked other nuclear-related sites as well even as recently as September 2021. The Mossad has agents embedded in Iran’s security establishment. In the past decades, a number of Iran’s prominent nuclear scientists have been killed. In late January 2018, in the dead of night, 12 men broke into a storage facility in the industrial district 30km from the capital Tehran and raided 32 safes containing classified material in Farsi regarding Iran’s nuclear programme. Twenty seven…

The Gauteng Department of Health has confirmed that a fire broke out at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital (SBAH) in Pretoria, in the early hours of yesterday morning. “The fire, which affected temporary structures at the facility, was successfully put out by the SBAH hospital team, using the fire extinguishers on site,” said Gauteng Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana. “Thankfully, there were no patients or staff casualties. Eighteen patients close to where the fire broke out had to be moved to other areas of the hospital as a safety precaution.” Kekana said the fire broke out at around 01.20am at the wendy house used as a temporary storage area for Covid-19 medical waste and “an in-transit corpse area”. She said the cause of the fire was unknown. In August last year,…

A petition with more than 31 000 signatures against the R22 million flag project was formally submitted yesterday to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture. After the controversial news of the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s flag project broke, many artists, concerned citizens, political parties and civil organisations questioned the value of the monumental flag plan, saying the money should be used for building playgrounds or improving sports facilities. Amid the rising criticism, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa decided to review the project. One concerned citizen, Nadia Bantom, started a petition on Change.org against it proceeding. “South Africa is the most unequal country in the whole wide world. We believe there is so much more that can be done with this R22m. “Quite a few…

MSUNDUZI Municipality is being held hostage by syndicates of cable thieves who vandalise the city’s key power infrastructure, leaving many parts of the province’s capital in darkness. Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla made the startling admission as he tabled his budget statement yesterday and revealed the city’s new tariff structure that will come into effect in July. He said the issue of power outages was not just due to load shedding. “Our city has been held hostage by cable theft and infrastructure vandalism. Of late, some parts of the city were left in prolonged power outages for days, not because of load shedding, but pure network failure because of cable theft. “These syndicates have multiple players involved, from petty criminals on the ground who dig up the copper cables and extract them…

As we commemorate National Child Protection Week from May 29 to June 5, we should also create awareness about the continued vulnerability of South Africa’s children as incidents of child abuse increase alarmingly. Why are we failing so miserably? The answer may lie in an overemphasis on dealing with abuse after it has occurred, with a focus on remedial services, and not prevention. Service providers such as social workers often indicate that their caseloads are too high. Although our government acknowledges the shortage of social workers, it still blames them for failing at their duties, especially those related to child protection. Considering the lack of resources in social welfare, it seems evident that a change of focus is needed in how social ills such as child abuse are…

EU countries failed to agree on a Russian oil import ban despite last-minute haggling before a summit got under way in Brussels yesterday, exposing a struggle to widen sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine as the economic risk for Europe grows. The leaders of the 27 EU countries will agree in principle to an oil embargo, a draft of their summit conclusions showed, but they will leave the practical details and hard decisions until later. The EU has rolled out five packages of sanctions against Russia since the conflict began more than three months ago, demonstrating uncharacteristic speed and unity given the complexity of the measures. But an agreement on oil sanctions has proved elusive for weeks because so many countries depend on Russian crude. “There is no…

A Beijing man has landed thousands of his neighbours in quarantine after he ignored an order to stay at home and later tested positive for Covid-19, prompting a police investigation. The Chinese capital has ordered hundreds of thousands of residents to stay home over the last five weeks to curb its largest coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic. Officials said a man in his 40s surnamed Sun had failed to follow a requirement to isolate that he was given after he visited a shopping centre considered high risk. “During the home isolation period he ... went out many times and walked in the neighbourhood,” said Beijing public security official Pan Xuhong. Sun and his wife later tested positive, prompting authorities to lock down 5 000 of their neighbours…

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping met Hong Kong’s next leader in Beijing, telling John Lee (pictured) he has the full trust of the central government, state media said yesterday. Lee travelled to Beijing to receive the central government’s blessing as he prepares to take office in a month’s time. The 64-year-old former security chief, who oversaw the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy movement, was chosen as the next chief executive by a small committee of Beijing loyalists early this month. “I believe that the administration of the new government will bring forth a new atmosphere, and compose a new chapter in Hong Kong’s development,” Xi said. Lee will assume office on July 1, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s transfer from British to Chinese rule. Xi said…

Paris: A 36-year-old man has been arrested and placed in psychiatric care after he smeared a glass screen encasing the Mona Lisa with cake, prosecutors said yesterday, in a purported protest against artists not focusing enough on “the planet”. Officials at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where the enigmatic portrait holds pride of place, declined to comment on the bizarre incident on Sunday, which was captured on several phones and circulated widely on social media. The treasured work by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been the target of vandalism attempts in the past, was unharmed thanks to its bulletproof glass case. | AFP…