Indice dei contenuti per 2023-02-14 in Mercury

The eThekwini Municipality says its plan to procure about 400 megawatts of electricity from independent power producers is forging ahead. The City said the Municipal Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (MIPPPP) was in the final stages of the concurrence process. It said it had obtained approval from the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) and Treasury to proceed with procurement of new generation capacity. In addition, it said the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council resolution resolved that applications for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for Independent Power Producer (IPP) projects would be fast-tracked to ensure rapid development of the energy industry in KZN. It was not immediately clear when the power might be available on the City’s grid. In a recent opinion piece, mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the 400MW…

Packing for the journey – be it a short or extended one – preparation pays off. Through contemplation (reading, prayer, meditation) build your reserves of kindness, goodness and patience. While you are at it, find Grace for yourself and for others, then, with humility venture out with courage. You’re topped up with every good thing and ready to enrich the world around you. Keep in mind that everyone has a story to tell. If you have the patience and listen, you may make someone’s day. Being willing to listen will distinguish you from the bulk of humanity, who seem committed to wanting to talk. I’d suggest that your willingness to listen may indeed save someone’s life. I know this to be true. Increase your awareness. There will always be people…

Once again, we endured a babble of hot air by President Cyril Ramaphosa, with various new promises made. He should have apologised to the nation for the failure of his various ministers to effectively carry out their duties, which has resulted in the decline of most state-owned entities and, ultimately, a state of disaster being declared. He did make a concession of sorts – that 163 out of 257 municipalities were dysfunctional. The municipalities are all ANC run, and again it highlights the principle of cadre deployment, where cadres who have no education are put into positions of authority. It makes no sense. Evidence of this can also be applied to the many ministers who have failed in their portfolios, such as Eskom and Transnet. If they did not fail,…

Imagine a South Africa without the ogre of apartheid and its consequences. No Verwoerds. And a Parliament made up of experienced, professional and competent MPs of all hues. See, colour isn’t the criteria and cadre deployment as an enabler of corruption and a contributor to blurred party-state lines is non-existent. This exemplary situation exists in a dream I had in a hospital bed. It’s probably the medicine running through two drips that carried me to a truly rainbow country run by a prime minister in the ’50s called Jannie Smuts. He must’ve impressed me so much that his name and face lodged in the recesses of a young brain. He is a visionary and foresees the future and what the country can become if he didn’t take drastic steps to…

South African National Parks (SANParks) has temporarily closed some remote camps in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and evacuated staff to nearer, safer camps following flooding in Mpumalanga. The decision comes as parts of the KNP are expected to receive more rain in the coming week. KNP managing executive, Oscar Mthimkhulu said gravel roads and remote camps had been temporarily closed. Guests were evacuated from Lower Sabie, Biyamiti and Crocodile Bridge out of the KNP as a precautionary measure. “We would like to advise guests to stick to the tar roads while driving inside the park. A disaster management team is in place and periodical updates will be released until the situation improves,” said Mthimkhulu. Mthimkhulu also said tar roads were open, although the teams had to temporarily close some…

The National Assembly is one step closer to finalising the bill that will allow independent candidates to contest parliamentary and provincial elections. This comes after the home affairs portfolio committee on Friday adopted the report and further amendments made to the Electoral Amendment Bill. The bill was sent back to the Assembly late last year after the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) came up with material amendments that required public consultation. The National Assembly initially passed the bill in October last year, however, the NCOP made amendments to address concerns raised by various parties and stakeholders during the public participation process. Hence the bill could not be passed by the December 10 deadline that was set. The move prompted the portfolio committee to ask the National Assembly to request the…

Durban University of Technology (DUT) vice-chancellor Professor Thandwa Mthembu welcomed first-year students at the first-year orientation week programme held at Curries Fountain stadium yesterday. DUT accepted 8 564 first-year students for the 2023 academic year. Mthembu congratulated the first-year students for being accepted into programmes at DUT and said they were now entering a new phase of their lives. “University is a place of facts and evidence, where reason and rationality, where deliberation and debate reign supreme. “Here misunderstandings, disputes, and conflicts are settled intellectually, not by force of gate crashing and shouting,” he said. Mthembu cautioned students about exercising their right to join political student movements at the institution and said it could distract them from studying. “When they come to mobilise you, ask them to show their bank…

President Cyril Ramaphosa once again tried his hardest during his seventh State of the Nation address to rekindle hope in us long-suffering South Africans. He also invoked the much overused and misused aphorism that we are a resilient lot. Whether or not, or to what degree he succeeded we can’t say. Ramaphosa was correct in stating that hope had sustained us through those dark days of apartheid and that we have proven ourselves to be strong, resilient people over the years. Indeed, we need to stay strong and resolute during these trying times. But our economy and nation, still nursing the deep scars of apartheid, need much more than hope. And reliance on our being tough people has to have a limit. The president told us that he saw hope…

LISBON: At least 4 815 children were sexually abused by members of the Portuguese Catholic Church, mostly priests, over the past 70 years, a report by the commission investigating the issue said yesterday, adding that the findings are the tip of the iceberg. The majority of the sexual abuses took place when the children were aged 10-14, with the youngest victim being just 2 years old. The Portuguese commission started its work in January 2022 after a report in France revealed about 3 000 priests and religious officials sexually abused more than 200 000 children. The abuse allegations have come from every region of the country. | Reuters…

CARACAS: credit cards are becoming increasingly useless in Venezuela because of high inflation and government restrictions, hurting people already struggling to meet daily needs on low salaries, banking industry sources said. The government imposed strict lending requirements during Venezuela’s economic collapse, allowing banks to lend a maximum of 27% of their cash flow, sending local business owners abroad to seek loans. President Nicolas Maduro loosened currency controls in 2019 and let local banks open dollar-denominated accounts, but many credit restrictions remain. Cards account for 2% of the credit portfolio of Venezuelan banks. | Reuters…

Israeli MPs traded insults yesterday over government plans to overhaul the judiciary while tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament as President Isaac Herzog warned the country risked tipping into “constitutional collapse”. The plans, which would give right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greater control of appointments to the Bench and weaken the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down legislation or rule against the executive, have triggered angry protests across Israel for weeks. Yesterday, the Knesset Constitution Committee voted to send the first chapter of the plan to the plenum for a first reading, after a rowdy start to the meeting in which several MPs were thrown out forcibly. “You will burn up the country!” Idan Roll of the centrist Yesh Atid party told Simcha Rothman, the panel chairperson from…

An Italian court has declared unlawful a decree imposed by Rome’s right-wing government last year allowing only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from a rescue ship, a charity said yesterday. The verdict relates to restrictions imposed in November on the German- flagged Humanity 1, which had picked up 179 people in distress in the Central Mediterranean, the world’s deadliest crossing. It was given permission to dock in the Sicilian port of Catania, but only for enough time to disembark its most vulnerable passengers. While 144 people were allowed off, another 35 adult male migrants were refused, leaving them stranded. Similar restrictions were imposed on the Geo Barents, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders, while a third vessel, the Ocean Viking, decided to head to France rather than face…

Manchester City may have the threat of being stripped of league titles in the courts hanging over them, but the champions are back in the race to win another Premier League crown on the pitch. City closed to within three points of Arsenal at the top of the table after beating Aston Villa 3-1 on Sunday. The Gunners dropped points for the second consecutive game in a 1-1 draw at Brentford, but had a right to feel aggrieved as referee’s body PGMOL admitted the Bees’ equaliser was wrongly allowed to stand by the VAR officials. VAR-cical scenes The PGMOL publicly apologised to both Arsenal and Brighton after a shocking Saturday for officials on the field and in the VAR room. Brentford’s equaliser at the Emirates did go through a lengthy…

EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda announced yesterday that there would be more visible policing at popular spots in Durban and said the metro police would be boosted by 400 new recruits this year. He was speaking at a prayer held in Florida Road yesterday by the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa in KwaZulu- Natal to remember slain hip-hop artist Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, popularly known as AKA. Forbes and his friend, Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, were shot dead on Friday night outside a Florida Road restaurant. The ceremony was attended by local artists, including Mthokozisi Khathi, who is known as DJ Tira, and rappers Ntokozo Zakwe and Duncan Mbambo. Kaunda said that while investigations into the murder were ongoing, the City would work to ensure visible policing was increased in…

WHAT’S the difference between indoor hockey – as played in Pretoria contesting for the Word Cup – and ice hockey? To an outsider, the main difference seems to be that in ice hockey, they wear skates and chase a puck, not a ball. It’s a puzzle. What is that indoor hockey pitch in Pretoria made of? It looks like ice. It’s reflective of light and of its surroundings – again, just like ice. The players flick the ball instead of hitting it – just like in ice hockey. Our TV screens have been full of indoor hockey in recent days as the World Cup was contested. It’s a beautiful game. I was not even aware such a game existed, although there was a time when I played regular field…

SONA 2023 was a damp squib, an undeclared natural disaster, a political circus replete with trapeze artists and wild animals and a ringmaster living in cuckoo land. Parliament became a theatre of the absurd. In an article in Nature magazine of 2016, the report stated corruption not only harms a nation’s prosperity, but also shapes the moral behaviour of its citizens. We are morally bankrupt, economically a failed state and a nation of looters, embezzlers and pathological destroyers. Embedded in our political genealogy is the thrust for shameless greed. Entitlement has become our password as we stalk the corridors of power to become millionaires without an atom of honesty. We are, as citizens of our beloved rainbow nation, a consortium of shameless and dishonest predators. The sad truth is honesty…

A deeply compromised president of the decaying ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared on our TV screens last week delivering his empty promises speech to the nation. South Africans should remember his previous statement made in 2018, when he told the country that “load shedding is a thing of the past, and it’s over”. Other lies were told in his 2022 State of the Nation Address. Ramaphosa said “restoring Eskom to operational and financial health is my government’s top priority”. Today we all know none of these promises have been fulfilled. We live in the dark, while ministers have generators in their private homes at taxpayers’ expense. Ramaphosa will go down in history as the president who said a lot, but delivered very little. A man with no backbone. His presidency has…

While the EFF has given National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula an ultimatum to apologise or face court action over her handling of their ejection from Parliament last week, the institution wants the party disciplined Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo said they have referred the conduct of the EFF MPs to the joint rules committee. They communicated their decision via the parliamentary communication service known as ATC (Announcements, Tablings and Committees) reports. “The circumstances of the physical removal of members from the Chamber during the State of the Nation address (Sona) on February 9, together with the relevant parliamentary records, are referred to the Joint Rules Committee for consideration,” read the ATC. This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Sona was delayed by almost 45 minutes…

The trial of former Eskom senior executive France Hlakudi has been postponed due to Hlakudi’s attorney stating that he has not been furnished with written instructions. Hlakudi was due to appear in the Pretoria Regional Court in connection with a R30 million tax fraud case which pertains to his personal and business tax affairs, but it was adjourned to Thursday. Investigating Directorate spokesperson, Sindisiwe Seboka, said Hlakudi is facing tax fraud charges to the value of R30 million. The charges relate to his personal tax affairs and that of his companies, Hlakudi Translation and Interpretation CC, Coxinel Chicken (Pty) Ltd, and Bon Services Telcom CC for the period between 2015 and 2018. The matter was postponed in November last year for Hlakudi to obtain new legal representation. Hlakudi is one…

South Africa is facing an increase in gun violence and, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), there are about 3.8 million unregistered, illegal firearms in circulation in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The GI-TOC said while the exact figure for the number of illicit firearms in circulation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is not readily available, it is estimated that there are about 3.8 million unregistered illegal firearms in circulation in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The past weekend was a bloody one, with hip-hop maestro AKA, real name Kiernan Forbes, and his friend and former manager Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane gunned down outside a popular eatery on Durban’s Florida Road on Friday evening. That same night, a traditional healer was also shot and…

IGNORE the ANC government’s grand claims in the State of the Nation Address (Sona) that today our economy is larger than before the pandemic, as this will be another year of hardship. Even if the president says he has ended the economic growth freeze, many South Africans are still deep in a poverty squeeze. The president came into the chamber with great optimism. Still, he needed to do several things to ensure his optimism is more than just hot air. The first should have been to shore up the economic recovery with a significant investment package to double or triple the one-and-a-half million new jobs created between the third quarters of 2021 and 2022. The second should have been to announce clear plans to involve ordinary people in overcoming the…

BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry yesterday said the US had sent at least 10 unsanctioned balloons into Chinese airspace since last year, as the two countries feud over a Chinese airship discovered and shot down by the US military earlier this month. Hitting back at allegations that Beijing had used the balloon, discovered floating over the central US, for surveillance, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that it was common for US high-altitude balloons to fly into other countries’ airspace. Beijing has said that the balloon discovered over the US in late January was a civilian Chinese airship for scientific research. | The Washington Post…

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia will send its first ever woman astronaut on a space mission later this year, state media has reported, in the latest move to revamp the kingdom’s ultra-conservative image. Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi male astronaut Ali Al-Qarni on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) “during the second quarter of 2023”, reports said. The astronauts “will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission” and the space flight will “launch from the USA”, the agency said. The country will be following in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates which in 2019 became the first Arab country to send one of its citizens into space. | AFP…

Pakistan business chiefs are clamouring for the cash-strapped government to allow manufacturing materials stuck at the key port of Karachi into the country, warning that a failure to lift a ban on imports will leave millions jobless. Faced with critically low US-dollar reserves, the government has banned all but essential food and medicine imports until a lifeline bailout is agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Industries such as steel, textiles and pharmaceuticals are barely functioning, forcing thousands of factories to close and deepening unemployment. The steel industry has warned of severe supply-chain issues caused by a shortage of scrap metal, which is melted down and turned into steel bars. In the past few weeks, the bars have reached record prices. “We directly feed materials to the construction industry which…

NEW YORK; Rihanna made her long-awaited return to the stage at the Super Bowl with a career-spanning medley of pop bangers, but it was her baby bump that dominated the conversation. She appeared in the stadium midair on a floating stage, donning a clingy, all-red ensemble featuring a molded bustier, and a belt below what many viewers deduced was another mini-RiRi in the making. Representatives for the singer confirmed that she is pregnant with her second child. The 34-year-old welcomed her first child, a son, with rapper A$AP Rocky in May. | AFP…

Humbled by Tottenham's trashing at Leicester, Antonio Conte's future looks more uncertain than ever as the Italian leads his spluttering side into today's Champions League clash against AC Milan. Conte is back in Italy for the last-16 first leg tie just two weeks after undergoing gallbladder surgery in his homeland and his return is likely to be just as uncomfortable as his previous visit. The Tottenham boss has looked increasingly unsettled this season and, with his contract expiring at the end of the campaign, it would be little surprise if he decided to quit the Premier League club in May. Conte has expressed unhappiness at Tottenham's transfer dealings, while repeatedly making it clear he believes it is unrealistic to expect his side to compete with their big-spending Premier League rivals.…

LAWYERS tasked with challenging National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s decision to refuse a secret ballot during the Phala Phala parliamentary debate last year were grilled when the matter came before Western Cape High Court judges yesterday. In an application brought before the court by the African Transformation Movement (ATM), party leader Vuyo Zungula wanted the court to review the Speaker’s decision, set it aside and declare it unconstitutional and invalid. This would see the Phala Phala matter returning to Parliament for another vote. However, the ATM faced a mammoth task trying to convince the Western Cape High Court. Justices Ashley Binns-Ward, Daniel Thulare and Andre le Grange demanded to know what was wrong with the Speaker’s decision to exercise an open democratic process, where MPs were forced to openly vote…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned an incident where protesters targeted the private home of Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, labelling the move as intimidatory. In a statement issued yesterday, the presidency also welcomed the investigation that has been undertaken into the incident, in which a group of people made their way to the premier’s private home at the weekend. The investigation was announced by KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, on Sunday. Hlomuka had said the group had hurled insults and made intimidating gestures which traumatised and scared family members. The statement by the presidency added that Ramaphosa wished the premier and her family well in the aftermath of the incident and condemned the protest action in the strongest terms. “We must condemn and resist any and all…

The article, “Alarm over poor child literacy rates” (The Mercury, February 9), refers: Anyone who knows anything about Grade 1 teaching will know that a child who has not grasped a basic reading ability should not be promoted to the next grade. This makes sense in anyone’s language. If you are unable to read the language you are being taught in, you might just as well stay at home. It was reported that 82% of Grade 4 pupils could not read for meaning, up from 78% pre-pandemic. (Hardly a difference?) It can only be presumed that these children are not being taught properly. As a retired Grade 1 teacher I can assure anyone who cares to ask that teaching children to read is not an easy task. It involves a…

Unisa’s claim to be 150 years old is historically tenuous, given the year its name originated (The Mercury, February 13). In 1873, the Cape Parliament approved the establishment of the University of the Cape of Good Hope, which was renamed the University of South Africa in 1916. In 1918, Unisa came to be located in Pretoria. On that basis, Unisa’s direct vintage amounts to 107 years. Nonetheless, the willingness of those who administer Unisa to acknowledge its roots is commendable in the wake of the denigrating of Eurocentric roots and crusades to “decolonise” by trashing and vandalising historical monuments on various campuses. Celebrating the founding of an institution like Unisa is also a reminder that not all the legacies of the past are disreputable. It also reflects the exhortation…

Four people were gunned down in Kwazakhele, in the Eastern Cape, yesterday morning. According to police, a patrolling police vehicle was stopped by a woman who alleged that she and other people were shot at in Nomjila Street. It is further alleged that about 11 people – six women and five men – were drinking and enjoying themselves at the house when three unknown men entered and started shooting. “Four people, three females and a male were shot dead, while three others, two males and a female, sustained gunshot wounds. Four other people escaped unhurt. The 28-year-old owner of the house died in the incident,” police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said. She said the motive for the shooting was unknown at this stage. Naidu said the next of kin of…

Following several violent and deadly incidents reported at schools in just five weeks since the start of the new school year, Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said such incidents could be avoided if parents and community members got involved in their communities. “Without parents and members of the community taking charge, nothing else will work. The perpetrators are either children or adults that live in the same area as the schools,” he said. He said it was common knowledge that pupils were found with knives, scissors and other sharp objects at schools daily. While Mhlanga agreed it was the police who were allowed to conduct searches at schools in collaboration with school management, he raised a question about the parents of the pupils who brought the weapons and…

EFF leader Julius Malema said the party would bring South Africa to a standstill with their planned national shutdown on March 20, despite opposition to their action from some quarters. Malema said his party did not need permission to embark on its planned action. “Fighters, the militancy and protest character of the EFF, the fearless character, the ground forces of the EFF, your determination to liberate the people of South Africa is going to be seen on March 20 when you bring South Africa to a standstill,” he told members at the weekend. “On 20 March there is no work or school. No trucks will be moving,” he said, adding that the taxi associations and bus operators should “know now”. “South Africa must come to a standstill. We must challenge…

THE INQUIRY into the fitness of public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to hold office had yet another delay yesterday as her legal team had not been paid outstanding legal fees. Appearing before the committee, Mkhwebane said her legal team would not consult with Public Protector South Africa (PPSA) investigator Bianca Mvuyana, whose appearance was postponed yesterday, until they were paid. “It is not a protest … The thing is they cannot work when they are not paid,” Mkhwebane said. She was responding to committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi after he gave her legal team time to consult with Mvuyana. It emerged at the meeting that there were still legal fees to be paid to her counsel by PPSA and her team had difficulties interacting with Mvuyana last week. Briefing the committee earlier,…

SA needs to go back to drawing board, where all things begin, and instil values As the debate continues to rage at the level of the World Economic Forum on the theme “co-operation in a fragmented world”, we in Africa, having regard to our history, ethnic and cultural diversity and geopolitical conditions, must choose now how to approach the matter. We want to suggest that as peoples of African descent we are more inclined to follow a bottom-up approach than top-down. The concept of “Ubuntu” that you find in most cultures in Africa has taught us that interdependence in human relations is an important virtue, as against the brazen spirit of independence that has always characterised relations in the West. However, to benefit from what the big role-players are busy…

KAMPALA: A move by Uganda’s government to close the UN’s local human rights office has drawn strong criticism from opposition leaders and activists, who say it highlights the country’s worsening record on civil liberties. The government told the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last week that it would not renew the mandate of its office. The government said the UN presence was no longer necessary because of the progress it made in developing domestic capacity to monitor human rights compliance. Critics of the government of President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, begged to differ. | Reuters…

The toll from last week’s earthquake in Türkiye and Syria rose above 35 000 yesterday, as rescue teams started to wind down the search for survivors and the aid effort shifted to hundreds of thousands of people made homeless. Eight days after the 7.8-magnitude tremor, Turkish media reported a handful of people were still being pulled from the rubble as excavators dug through ruined cities. The confirmed death toll rose to 35 224 as officials and medics said 31 643 people had died in Türkiye and 3 581 in Syria after the February 6 earthquake, the fifth deadliest since the start of the 21st century. The UN has decried the failure to ship aid to war-torn regions of Syria and warned the toll is set to rise…

A Somali court yesterday sentenced a freelance journalist to two months in jail on security-related charges, a press association said, in a case criticised by rights campaigners and media advocacy groups. The sentencing of Abdalle Ahmed Mumin was “a pure travesty of justice”, the president of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said on Twitter, vowing to appeal the ruling. Mumin, the secretary general of the SJS, was arrested in October last year on what authorities say are security-related charges. His detention came days after the government announced a crackdown on media outlets that publish what it deems propaganda for the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab. SJS and four other media advocacy groups had protested the directive, warning it clamped down on free speech. In the run-up to the sentencing, rights groups…

KYIV: Ukraine accused former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday of spreading Russian propaganda after he said he would not seek a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy if he were still head of government. Berlusconi, 86, often boasted of his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin before Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Berlusconi said all Zelenskiy had to do to prevent the war in Ukraine was to “stop attacking” territory held by Russia-backed separatists in the east and that he judged the president’s behaviour “very negatively”. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry accused Berlusconi of trying to show loyalty to “the Russian dictator”, and drew parallels with the former Italian prime minister’s relationship with late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, publishing a photograph of Berlusconi kissing Gaddafi’s hand in 2010. |…

Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has described Christian Saile as “a soldier of note” following his industrious performance against Maritzburg United in Friday’s Nedbank Cup clash in Durban. The Congolese striker scored a goal and had a hand in the other in the team’s morale-boosting 2-0 win. He had a telling impact in the game once it went in extra time. “(Saile) is a soldier of note, and we expect more from him,” said Zwane. “He has this never-say-die attitude, and that’s what we are looking for. He never stopped running and worked hard on and off the ball. That is the reason why he ended up scoring. “I always remind him that you create your own luck and you keep on working hard. You’ll always be rewarded, and he…