Indice dei contenuti per 2022-06-13 in Mercury

CLOSE to 8 000 ratepayers in Durban have filed objections to the valuation of their properties by eThekwini Municipality. Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said: “We are in the process of capturing the objections and to date we have counted 7 786.” The number has more than doubled from the 2 769 objections that had been received as at April 14. The new valuation roll has sparked outrage in some communities, who said the valuations had pushed up the valuation of their homes to astronomical levels, forcing them to pay much higher rates. Many claimed the valuations did not take into account critical factors, including that their houses had no improvements to justify the increase, but had attracted higher rates because other houses in the area had been sold at certain…

FORMER minister Zweli Mkhize’s lobbyists believe that delays by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in transcribing key interviews that informed its findings against him in the Digital Vibes contract, could prevent him from standing for election at the ANC conference in December. Mkhize resigned as minister of health last August, when he was implicated in the irregular awarding of contracts to Digital Vibes. The SIU found the department irregularly awarded the R141 million media awareness campaign contract for the National Health Insurance (NHI) and another R125m contract for Covid-19 when Mkhize was the health minister. An SIU report tabled before Scopa (the Standing Committee on Public Accounts) said the former minister approved two budget applications for Digital Vibes for the NHI communication. Mkhize has gone to court to have…

IT JUST doesn’t come more dramatic and tense than Saturday in Cape Town. The Stormers five points down yet on the Ulster line as the full-time hooter sounds. But still a scrum to come – an interminable scrum. The knuckles are white. Ulster defending like demons. But the Stormers attacking like demons. A long pass to the winger and he’s over! Even Stevens. But the kick is far out. Will it be extra time? The Stormers are one man down after a red card. One recalls that in the Sharks’ quarter-final against the Bulls, they did go into extra time. Ding-dong stuff, back and forth. Also drama and tension. And with only minutes remaining it was that Bulls drop goal that decided it. The fortunes of war. The Stormers’ conversion…

Racial, religious and political hatred is spreading across the world at an alarming pace. With multiple crises in the world, and with millions being displaced, humanity should be concerned about volatile statements made by office bearers in conflict-ridden countries. These prejudicial statements recall the falsehoods, lies and bigotry vented by the Nazis. Humanity has a solemn duty to oppose demagogues spewing fear and hatred under the cloak of freedom of opinion. Politicians deepen existing divides when they use inflammatory language, such as hate speech. These remarks are not just empty rhetoric or political theatre. They are in essence high-octane incendiary venom capable of escalating out of control. Demagoguery has replaced decency and civility. It waxes and wanes in different countries, it is now intense in some parts of the world…

THE decision by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to fire its panel of attorneys in order to save money has come back to haunt the embattled entity. The RAF has now asked the court to develop a law so that it can overturn an uncontested claim in which it was ordered to pay R6.7 million to a car accident victim. The Western Cape High Court earlier ordered the RAF to pay this amount to a woman who suffered injuries in an accident. The RAF disputed the claim, but it had meanwhile fired its panel of attorneys. Therefore no one pitched up on its behalf during the court hearing. The court thus granted default judgment (uncontested) in the amount of R6.7m for the plaintiff. But when it became aware of…

Four officials from the Maponya Home Affairs branch in Soweto have been suspended after they were allegedly linked to a recently arrested Pakistani national who is facing charges of identity fraud, theft and corruption. The suspension of the four officials follows several arrests in connection with identity fraud and corruption. ​Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi has indicated that more arrests will be taking place in the coming weeks as locals, officials and foreign nationals are involved in acts of identity fraud, theft and incidents of corruption in the department. The minister has since urged South Africans to refrain from selling their identities to foreign nationals and identity thieves as this renders them foreigners in their own country. “We continue to be concerned about those South Africans who are willing…

DISEASES such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and tuberculosis are among illnesses that may have been suppressed during the hard Covid-19 lockdown restrictions worldwide and the wearing of masks. However, there are reports that those diseases are now re-emerging. According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the 2022 influenza season started in week 17 – the week starting April 25 – when the influenza detection rate among patients in a pneumonia surveillance breached the epidemic threshold as determined by the Moving Epidemic Method. The NICD weekly respiratory pathogens surveillance report, which was based on data collected up to May 28, showed that this year, 192 influenza cases had been detected. “And there have been increasing numbers of cases reported in the past four weeks.” Most of those…

A 34-year-old taxi driver was shot in his minibus taxi at the Mslasini Taxi Rank in the Everest Heights area of Verulam on Saturday. Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said it was alleged that the man was seated alone in the minibus when he was approached by the shooter. “The victim attempted to flee by jumping from his seat to the rear and exiting through the sliding door when two shots were fired. He collapsed a few metres away from the vehicle.” A person known to the man drove him to Rusa offices, where medics found he had been fatally injured. Provincial police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo said a case of murder was being investigated by the Verulam police. | Karen Singh…

A 28-year-old former bank employee has been arrested by the Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation unit for allegedly stealing almost R37 million belonging to a deceased client of First National Bank (FNB). “It is alleged that on April 25, the suspect who was an FNB consultant at Makhado branch, opened the profile of the client who had just died in a vehicle accident a day before (April 24, 2022) without any authorisation,” said Hawks spokesperson in Limpopo, Captain Matimba Maluleke. “It is further alleged that the suspect connived with his accomplice to open a new bank account and linked it to the deceased’s account and started spending all the money from the deceased’s account.” The Hawks said a total of R36.9m was looted from the deceased client’s account. Maluleke said…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa can barely claim to be helping to fight crime when he failed to have the robbery at his Phala Phala farm reported to the SAPS, but instead reported it to his head of security. He can hardly claim that he presides over a government that champions transparency and accountability when he quickly hides behind a police investigation opened against him. If there was no such investigation, he would not have voluntarily disclosed that millions of dollars allegedly concealed on his farm were stolen in 2020. His continued refusal to come clean about the events during and after the robbery, including alleged kidnapping, torture and bribery of the suspects, reverses whatever little gains were made in his administration. Telling the recent Limpopo ANC elective conference that he had…

Some 1 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank region of Masafer Yatta face the risk of forced removal to make way for an army firing zone after a decades-long legal battle that ended last month in Israel’s highest court. The ruling opened the way for one of the largest displacements since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war. Howeever, residents are refusing to leave, hoping their resilience and international pressure will keep Israel from carrying out the evictions. “They want to take this land from us to build settlements,” said Wadha Ayoub Abu Sabha, a resident of al-Fakheit, one of a group of hamlets where Palestinian shepherds and farmers claim a historic connection to the land. “We’re not leaving,” she said. In the 1980s, Israel…

TUNIS: Tunisian military prosecutors said on Saturday they had begun investigating a journalist on suspicion of “harming public order” for saying the president had asked the army to close a powerful labour union’s headquarters, and a witness said the reporter had been arrested. The journalist, Salah Attia, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that President Kais Saied had asked the army to close the headquarters of the UGTT union and put political leaders under house arrest, but that the army had refused. ”Police arrested Attia in a cafe in the suburb of Ibn Khaldoun,” the witness, who was with Attia, told Reuters by phone.…

SUSPENDED Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has broken her silence about her suspension from the position she held for six years, saying President Cyril Ramaphosa pre-empted a High Court judgment which he knew was going to be delivered the following morning. Mkhwebane, who was suspended by Ramaphosa on Thursday, questioned the “wisdom” and “legality” of her suspension. She said in a statement: “President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended me in the late afternoon of June 9, 2022 pre-empting the High Court judgment which he knew was going to be delivered on the following morning at 8.30am. “The judgment was to decide on the legal entitlement of President Ramaphosa to suspend me. Various independent commentators have correctly questioned the wisdom and legality of such conduct, and pointed out that the rational and respectful thing…

A royal warship that sank off the east coast of Britain more than 300 years ago while carrying a future king was unveiled by researchers on Friday who kept the discovery secret for 15 years to protect the wreck from damage. In 1682, King James II of England, who was the Duke of York at the time, managed to narrowly escape the sinking ship named “The Gloucester” which went down off the coast of eastern England after hitting a sandbank. He became king of England, and King James VII of Scotland three years later. “The discovery promises to fundamentally change understanding of 17th-century social, maritime and political history,” said Claire Jowitt, Professor of Early Modern Cultural History at University of East Anglia. “It is an outstanding example of underwater cultural…

THE violence that has now overtaken India was not unexpected, even if there were valid grouses against Christian, Dalit and Muslim invasions, aristocracy, autocracy, conversions, taxation, persecution and execution in the past. But to invent another ideal which takes its cue from fascists such as Hitler and Mussolini and now punish the innocent offspring of past Christians, Macedonians, Portuguese, Moghuls, Mongols and Muslims and to shunt them out of the country, or alternatively force them to revert to Hindu culture, was just not going to go unheeded. Not for too long, anyway. For 30 long years, India continued punishing all these “others”. This was not much of a secret and the world stood by, but still. Trade was king. Look the other way. Mind your own business. Modi, who? Right-wingers?…

The abominable remarks on Prophet Muhammad and his family by two Bharatiya Janata Party members is truly unacceptable to all Muslims, and must be condemned in the strongest terms. The insulting comments also go against many principles in the Indian Penal Code, the official criminal code of India. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi cares about religious freedoms, principles of diversity, pluralism, democracy, and multiculturalism that are enshrined in the Indian constitution, individuals such as Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal would have been immediately expelled and not after international pressure. Muslims who are descendants from peoples of India, have been part of India’s freedom struggle and living in India for many centuries, have continuously expressed the increase in anti-Muslim brutality in the country and the abuse of their basic human and…

Two experimental male contraceptive pills appear to effectively lower testosterone without causing unacceptable side effects, says a new study. The drugs, called DMAU and 11 beta-MNTDC, are part of a class of drugs called progestogenic androgens. These drugs suppress testosterone, which lowers sperm count. “Male contraception options are currently restricted to vasectomy and condoms, and are thus extremely limited as compared to female options,” said lead researcher Tamar Jacobsohn of the Contraceptive Development Program at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “Development of an effective, reversible male contraceptive method will improve reproductive options for men and women, have a major impact on public health by decreasing unintended pregnancy, and allow men to have an increasingly active role in family planning,” Jacobsohn added. For the…

Frustrated census field workers have complained of delays and partial or non-payment after Stats SA experienced issues with paying the workers. In a petition – with more than 1 000 signatures – petitioners call on Stats SA to treat the matter with urgency as field workers are in financial limbo, with several awaiting payment since April. ​​The petition, started by Zakhele Nongalo, said that from the first payments, a lot of employees were underpaid, and some not paid at all. Census field worker Mathapelo Ramalamola said there was an extension to the census because not enough staff were hired, and they were forced to work extra hours. “The salary for field workers is a national issue. Stats SA extended the months of enumeration … because we were short-staffed. At some…

LONDON: Adele’s boyfriend, Rich Paul, is looking forward to being “an older dad”. The 40-year-old sports agent already has three children but suggested he would be a “different” type of parent if he has more kids at this stage in his life. He said: “As a young dad, growing a business, it was pretty tough.“But now looking as an older dad, if I was to have more kids, I’m looking forward to being a different dad. “You know, I have a daughter that’s a junior in college so I was a very young dad, but now, different age, different time in my life. I’m really looking forward to being an older dad.” The businessman, who has been dating the Easy on Me hitmaker since last summer, admitted his kids don’t…

A volcano in the Philippines spewed a huge column of ash into the sky yesterday, blanketing a region still recovering from last week’s eruption. The blast from Bulusan volcano lasted 18 minutes, the Philippine seismological agency said, impairing road visibility and forcing airlines to cancel flights. On June 5, Mount Bulusan sent a grey plume shooting up at least 1km and covered 10 villages with ash. Residents of Juban town in Sorsogon province, still reeling from last week’s eruption, were woken up yesterday by the volcano’s thundering. “I thought it was just raining, but when I looked outside there was ash everywhere,” resident Antonio Habitan told AFP. “Our river was once clear but now it is ash-coloured.” No casualties were reported, but the seismological agency raised the alert level to…

ISLAMABAD: A soldier was killed in an exchange of fire between security forces and terrorists in Datta Khel area in North Waziristan district of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an army statement said yesterday. “The military personnel fought bravely and effectively engaged the terrorists’ location,” the military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement. During an intense exchange of fire, a 25-years-old soldier lost his life, the statement added. Area clearance was being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area, according to the ISPR.…

The deputy mayor of Inkosi Langalibalele Municipality (Estcourt), who was allegedly implicated in a cash-in-transit robbery, will present himself to the police today, according to a statement released by the IFP yesterday. This comes after the DA claimed on Saturday that Sthabiso Dladla was alleged to have been involved in the robbery last week. IFP chairperson Thami Ntuli said they had noted the allegations with serious concern, but cautioned against drawing conclusions. “The information before the party at this stage suggests that the allegations are baseless and without merit, as the Hawks have stated that they have not been able to positively link the deputy mayor to the alleged crime, however, the deputy mayor will present himself to the police tomorrow (Monday),” Ntuli said. He added that the party expected…

WHILE we understand the reasons for the increases and decreases in the fuel price, it appears that only the increases seem to be passed on to the general public in the form of increased public transport costs and general consumables that one finds in the supermarkets and retail stores. The masses are living from hand to mouth and with all the possible future cost-of-living price increases looming, one wonders when they will resort to riots and looting like in July last year. Our ANC government has been under pressure to find ways of reducing the fuel price for many years now and various organisations have recommended scrapping the bankrupt and inefficient Road Accident Fund (RAF), which despite getting regular bailout funding from the Treasury, has shown time and again the…

Your June 10 edition contains a Sanral brochure which includes a “Message from the Acting CEO”. I am concerned that the conjunction of various events, including this long period of the CEO acting in the post since the resignation of the previous chief executive, presages “bad news” for Sanral. We are all aware of, and have seen the importance of good roads in the development of a country, and the fact that national Sanral roads have for decades been a “jewel” in a very poor South African road system. We are also aware that government has eventually woken up and recognised the damage caused to state-owned entities (SOEs) as a result of inadequately qualified CEOs. I am worried that the same fate might occur within Sanral, should a permanent appointment…

“My son (36) has had a falling out with my daughter (a little younger than my son) and I recently found out they have not spoken in years. They both live overseas and it is over caring for me in my old age, or at least, that is what my son says started it. They are both married and have children. I am in South Africa and they are in different countries from each other. I am in very good health and visit them when I get the opportunity. This rift is unnecessary and has upset me.” I would suggest you ignore the rift. You only found out about it recently and it has been going on for years. Your son and daughter are apparently living with it and I’d…

The SA Revenue Service (Sars) has withdrawn part of its R500 million offer to increase its employees’ salaries this year, a move that has angered one of the unions representing the taxman’s staff. The Public Servants Association (PSA) has warned that if parties couldn’t find a way to break the deadlock, it would have no option but to reinstate notice and embark on further strike action. The PSA announced that it was finalising internal processes to mount a national strike to force Sars to present a reasonable salary increase offer that can be considered by its members. The union suspended its strike that commenced on May 25 after issuing a memorandum to Sars and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana. Last month, Sars informed unions that it had received approval from the…

As more South Africans are desperate to find jobs, scam artists are also finding more ways of getting even the last cent from vulnerable, unsuspecting job seekers. Scam artists are taking to social media to find victims. In one scam, which has emerged on TikTok, an account has been posting vacancies especially from retail stores and can at first glance look legitimate. *Lebogang Skhosana, 26, of Soshanguve, applied for an admin position posted on the same TikTok account. The advert was looking for 100 admin assistants at Imperial Logistics. “The process was so easy, I just went to the website they had provided on their short video. I filled in a form. After completing the form, they provided me with an email address to send my CV,” he said. Skhosana…

GOVERNMENT departments have to make plans to pay eThekwini Municipality for services or be disconnected. That is the directive contained in the recommendations discussed in part to pass the city’s budget for the 2022/2023 financial year. The directive recommended that government departments be told to pay up or make plans to pay and if they fail to, they must be disconnected. It called for “state-owned entities and government departments that have long-outstanding debt” to be sent disconnection letters and allowed seven days to make arrangements to pay. “If there are no arrangements, utilities must be disconnected,” stated the document. The city passed its budget for the 2022/2023 financial year last week. The government departments and state entities alone owe the municipality about R1 billion for rates and services. The municipality…

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala yesterday handed over Temporary Residential Units (TRUs) to flood victims in Ntshongweni as the province marked two months since floods wreaked havoc. Speaking yesterday, Zikalala said he had visited a number of families who were being housed in the TRUs to ascertain their living conditions. “While for many of us it is easy to speak about this disaster from the comfort of our homes and offices, the true test of its impact is in seeing and hearing from the victims and those worst affected.” He said the floods affected 85 280 people with 461 fatalities. There were 23 unidentified bodies with DNA not yet collected. A total of 87 people were missing, with 6 895 homeless and 50 injured. “In all, a total of 27 069…

EVERY year on June 16, South Africans celebrate Youth Day to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising. But this day is not just about the Struggle of a generation past; it’s also about the challenges and dreams of today’s young people who are also eager for change. This desire for change was expressed vociferously at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently, when the urinating and alleged racist incident laid bare the fact that so many students of colour, specifically black students, still face racial discrimination on our campuses daily. Unsurprisingly, students from various SU societies and leadership groups arranged protest actions the following week to increase the pressure on management for change. This was not new pressure. This pressure was felt in 2015 when Luister, a documentary highlighting the experiences of students of…

Brookline (Massachusetts): The chair of a September 11, 2001, attacks victims’ families group says members are outraged by the “betrayal” of US golfers playing in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series. The comments from Terry Strada, the widow of a 9/11 victim, were made in a public letter Friday to agents of such major champions as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed. “Please rethink your membership in this Saudi enterprise,” Strada wrote. “We urge you to reconsider so that you can stand with us and send a message to the Kingdom.”…

THE UK government yesterday came under pressure to also intervene in the matter of a Moroccan man who has been sentenced to death alongside two Britons by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine. The court in Donetsk, one of two self-proclaimed statelets in eastern Ukraine, last week ordered the death penalty for the trio after they were captured by Russian troops. Brahim Saadoun with UK nationals Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were said to have surrendered in April after fighting with Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city of Mariupol. British cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said the government was “engaged” with Ukrainian authorities in trying to help Aslin and Pinner after their “sham trial”. The Britons were combatants serving with Ukraine’s armed forces and fully entitled to protection for prisoners…

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) has dissolved a 7 000-strong caravan of thousands of migrants that set off from southern Mexico last week, seeking to reach the US. The INM gave them a migration document that proves their regular stay in the country and provided food and water to them, it said. An international organisation monitoring the migrant situation said the US-bound caravan was not being deterred by any Mexican authorities. Most of the migrants in the caravan are reportedly from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua – three countries the US did not invite to the Summit of the Americas.…