Indice dei contenuti per 2023-05-11 in Mercury

There has been a mixed response to the announcement that former municipal manager and now local government consultant Michael Sutcliffe and former director-general in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, are to assist eThekwini Municipality to deal with several challenges. The City failed to spend R322 million it received in grant funding, city manager Musa Mbhele is being probed for allegedly failing to disclose an investigation against him during the interview for the job and there are general infrastructure challenges. The provincial Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Department confirmed on Tuesday that experts would be sent to assist the metro under Section 154 of the Constitution. The ANC’s national working committee (NWC) is expected to meet provincial party leaders this weekend to discuss issues including the state of the…

A golden key to leadership resides in the wisdom to know how to handle anxiety-provoking events in any community. There are people in your business, church, school, any workplace, who tend to step up or amplify anxiety. They react to any circumstance provoking stress or worry. Their reactions exaggerate matters and tend to make things worse. They overreact at stressful times and spread anxiety to all and sundry, even to those who can do nothing about it. They apparently cannot be anxious alone and must be sure all in their environment – and beyond – are as anxious as they are. These people act as step-up transformers when it comes to stressful times that come to any community. There are people – wherever people gather – who step down anxiety.…

The arrest of former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan is an act of political brinkmanship that defies logic. As the fractured country lurches towards a civil war, the scene is set for a catastrophic showdown that could result in the dismembering of this nuclear-armed nation. A nation of 232 million people possessing more than 160 nuclear weapons is on the brink of a catastrophic implosion that will cause seismic political tremors across Asia and the Muslim world. Pakistan’s Inter-services Intelligence and its 30 agencies and elements of the armed forces are playing a dangerous game by prosecuting and persecuting Khan. If he should die in custody, the conflict to follow will result in military intervention by outside powers that could result in the generals of the Pakistani army unleashing all…

During a recent KwaZulu-Natal Public Works portfolio meeting, the committee received a briefing on the Expropriation Bill ahead of it being taken to various communities for their input. As the province’s most effective opposition, the DA proposed that there be full public participation – involving numerous communities – to allow residents and stakeholders the best possible chance to familiarise themselves with the proposed legislation and provide input. For those who may be unable to attend these public hearings, the DA proposed that there be an opportunity to submit written comments. Residents need to look out for these notices to ensure their participation. The DA has also called for a debate in the provincial legislature on this bill. We have further requested that the portfolio committee consider the National Council of…

Bulgarian ultra-marathon runner Krasse Gueorguiev will live in a glass box for 15 days in a park in Sofia, to raise money to help young people fight addictions. Gueorguiev, a motivational speaker and charity ambassador, has run 30 ultra-marathons, from the Arctic to Cambodia, and a 217km race in California’s Death Valley. “I want to challenge myself,” Gueorguiev said. The funds raised will be used for projects to prevent addictions among children under 18. A box with three glass walls has been put on a pedestal in front of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. Gueorguiev, who began his experiment last week, will have a bed and a treadmill and no access to books, a computer or phone, only speaking to members of the public for 30 minutes every…

The eThekwini Municipality has introduced a set of electric bikes to the Metro Police Department vehicle fleet. According to metro police spokesperson, Boysie Zungu, the bikes were added to the fleet in December last year. They use a conventional three-pin plug and can charge from a normal wall socket. Speaking about tackling crime, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said he had been in talks with community policing forums around the City. “We are starting to work with our neighbourhood watch programmes. We are still looking for ways of supporting them because they are already there on the ground and how we are going to incentivise them and give them the necessary tools to do their work. “This is going to be a partnership between the City and them. We also have…

EThekwini Municipality’s head of human resources Kim Makhathini is being probed for allegedly interfering with a police investigation into her alleged faked qualifications, used when she applied for her position. A City Integrity & Investigations Unit (CIIU) investigation report, dated March 1, 2023, had made findings against Makhathini that she had allegedly “misrepresented, lied, and defrauded” the City when she claimed to have obtained a social science degree from the University of Glasgow and a national diploma in human resources from Damelin. According to the report, after an anonymous source reported fraud allegations to the Hawks, they launched an investigation and liaised with the City’s Human Capital Unit manager. However, Makhathini contacted the investigating officer, Detective Warrant-Officer Dlamini, to enquire why she was being probed and subsequently visited her at…

THE time has come for National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi to take the country into her confidence about her department’s failure to successfully prosecute high-profile and state capture-related crimes. The failure of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to extradite the Guptas from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the discharge of the accused in the Nulane case have led to increased public anger, and frustration among ordinary people. The charges against the five accused in the Nulane case were dismissed in the Bloemfontein High Court last month, with Acting Judge Nompumelelo Gusha criticising the State’s handling of the case. The NPA has since filed an appeal against that judgment. In the Guptas matter, the UAE said the South African government had failed to meet strict standards for…

Tunisian authorities were yesterday investigating a shooting spree by a police officer that claimed five lives and sparked mass panic during a Jewish pilgrimage at Africa’s oldest synagogue. Security forces threw a tight cordon around the site on Djerba island as officials probed whether Tuesday’s shootings were a random killing spree or an anti-Semitic terrorist attack. The police officer first killed a colleague and took his ammunition, then went to the Ghriba synagogue and opened fire. Wearing his uniform and a bulletproof vest, he shot dead two visitors and injured two more. In the ensuing gun battle, he also wounded six police officers, two of whom later died, hospital sources said. The assailant was then shot dead himself, the interior ministry said. The killing spree was Tunisia’s first deadly attack…

London: The Church of England’s most senior cleric, Justin Welby, yesterday renewed his attacks on the UK government’s contentious plans to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda, branding the policy “morally unacceptable”. Speaking in his role as a MP in the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber which is scrutinising the proposals, Welby urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government to U-turn. If passed, the draft law would outlaw asylum claims by all arrivals via the Channel and other “illegal” routes, and transfer them to “safe” third countries, such as Rwanda. “It risks great damage to the UK’s interests and reputation at home and abroad, let alone the interests of those in need of protection, or the nations who together face this challenge,” Welby said. “I urge the government to reconsider much…

BEIJING: A man in China’s Gansu province has been detained for allegedly using ChatGPT to generate a fake story about a train crash, marking China’s first arrest in an AI-related probe as Beijing tightens deepfake technology. The story, which claimed the crash killed nine construction workers in a city in China’s north-western Gansu, gained more than 15 000 clicks after being published on social media, police said. China’s new deepfake rules bar service providers and users from using such technology to produce, release and fabricate untrue information. | Reuters…

A brutal winter is on the horizon for South Africa as 2023 becomes the worst year of load shedding. Numerous stakeholders predicted load shedding in 2023 would far surpass the record-breaking levels experienced last year, but in just more than four months the country has already had more power cuts than the whole of last year. South Africans are being warned to prepare for a winter like never before as the country continues to reach record-breaking levels of load shedding with a likelihood of continuous Stage 6 between May and July, and an even more strained system that may force Eskom to officially announce Stage 8 very soon, according to the CSIR. Monique le Roux, a senior energy researcher at the CSIR, said: “On a number of occasions this year…

From young lover to mistress, from wife to consort, from the shadow of Diana to the spectacle of the coronation, from the most hated woman in Britain to the queen of the nation, Camilla had come a long way in making her fairytale come true. She had never dreamt that one day she would achieve the ultimate dream of any woman – to be a queen. Even though Charles was married to Diana, he never let go of his childhood sweetheart. Camilla’s persistence and patience have now paid off. Which woman wouldn’t want to go from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, sitting next to King Charles in the Gold State Coach driven by six horses dressed in resplendent royal blue to the cheer of thousands of well-wishers? Camilla’s lifelong dream…

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) report on challenges of the roll-out of the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) and the Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) left MPS unimpressed and requesting a quarterly update moving forward. The BMCS system is replacing the 2010 Movement Control System (eMCS) and enables the capturing of fingerprint and facial biometric data of all travellers who enter or exit South Africa. According to the department, in the 2022/23 financial year the system was rolled out to 34 Ports of Entry and up to 30% of immigration counters. The department’s deputy director- general for institutional planning and support, Thulani Mavuso, who presented to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs this week, said they envisaged 100% deployment of BMCS to 72 ports by March 31 next year.…

Counterfeit goods valued at R400 million were seized by police officers stationed at Durban harbour yesterday. KwaZulu-Natal provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said vigilant police officers at the harbour had been conducting routine duties when they identified a cold storage container whose details looked suspicious. “The container was searched at a depot in Isipingo and tons of counterfeit items of well-known clothing brands worth approximately R400 million were recovered,” he said. According to Netshiunda, the container came from an Asian country. “The police have already started with the process to establish the intended destination and the possible recipients,” he said. Some of the items seen in the pictures include Springbok rugby T-shirts, spectacles and various branded items. Earlier this month, Independent Media reported that the Mbombela Specialised Commercial…

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was remanded in custody for eight days yesterday by an anti-graft court as violent nationwide protests over his arrest erupted for a second day. Khan was arrested on Tuesday during a routine hearing in the capital Islamabad and whisked away to an unknown location overnight before appearing behind closed doors in a specially convened court at police headquarters. The drama follows months of political crisis during which Khan, who was ousted in April last year, has waged an unprecedented campaign against the country’s powerful military. “If they think that the arrest of Imran Khan will demoralise us, then they are hugely mistaken,” said Niaz Ali in Peshawar, where several monuments and government buildings have been torched. “We stand with Imran Khan and will support…

Donald Trump must pay $5 million (about R94m) in damages for sexually abusing magazine writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her by branding her a liar, a jury decided this week. “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed,” Carroll said in a statement. The former US president, campaigning to retake the White House in 2024, will appeal, his lawyer Joseph Tacopina said outside the Manhattan federal courthouse. Carroll, 79, testified during the civil trial that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in either 1995 or 1996, then harmed her reputation by writing in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform that her claims were…

BELGRADE: Serbians have surrendered more than 3 000 illegal weapons and parts in the first two days of a gun amnesty introduced after two mass shootings in which 17 people were killed, President Aleksandar Vucic said yesterday. The amnesty was launched after a schoolboy, 13, with two handguns this week allegedly killed eight pupils and a security guard. Six other pupils and a teacher were wounded. He is in custody but cannot be held criminally responsible due to his age. He had confessed to the shooting. Last week, a man brandishing an assault rifle and a pistol killed eight and wounded 14 people in two villages. A 21-year-old suspect is now in custody. | Reuters…

A LONG list of government officials not working for the eThekwini Municipality are doing business with the City. This has contributed to a hefty “cost” of R427 million in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFW) over the past few years that the municipality has had to write off as irrecoverable. The Municipal Public Accounts Committee (Mpac) tabled a report before full council recently that recommended the writing off of the expenditure. The report also contained details of government officials said to be doing business with the municipality. Mpac revealed that the City did not have power to discipline people who were not its staff members. Among those mentioned are members of the SAPS and staff members from the Department of Health. Mpac councillor Barbara Fontein presented…

ZULU King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has criticised the KwaZulu-Natal government’s involvement in the day-to-day running of his life and the royal household. The king reportedly made the remarks in a private meeting with amakhosi in Ulundi on Tuesday, where he also updated the traditional leaders on the new chairperson of Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB). Regarding the king’s office being located in the office of the premier which manages his diary and movements, King Misuzulu said the situation had rendered him powerless. He said even his late father, King Goodwill Zwelithini, used to complain about the office and the restrictions it imposed on him. “Even my father passed away while complaining about this office. Unfortunately, I inherited the same office which my father used to complain about. “My traditional leaders, I am…

Under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa is defined as a country of organised crime, corruption, mismanagement, load shedding, high unemployment, low economic growth, but also as a country with a serious leadership crisis. In the last episode of the leadership crisis show, Ramaphosa said recently that the ANC had decided South Africa would withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), because of its unfair attitude towards African countries and the warrant issued by the court to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin. The next day, it was funny that the president reversed his story to say that the ANC didn’t decide to leave the ICC, without saying anything about the merits of this decision. For him, and as usual, it’s enough that the ANC made the decision irrespective…

Much has been said in the media of late about the decommissioning of one of our better power stations, Camden, by taking units off line, in terms of reducing emissions. The target is for coal usage to be reduced by 2030, so it seems we need to do it now in terms of agreements signed and the R8.5 billion dangled as a carrot. The government wants to delay the decommissioning but some political parties are questioning that delay – why this should even be a question is totally beyond common sense, logic and economic consideration since we are in a rush to further reduce our power output when we have no replacement at this time and the country is staggering economically. Who is creating this urgency to reduce power when…

The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) has clarified that there is no spelling error on the new banknotes issued last week by the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb). This follows claims that a word was misspelt on the new R100 note. According to reports, the Xitsonga community noted that the wording on the previous R100 read “Bangi-Nkulu”. On the new R100 note, it reads “Bangikulu”. The PanSALB explained that “Bangikulu”, as reflected on the upgraded banknotes, was accurate, correct and consistent with the revised “Spelling & Orthography Rules” published by the Pan South African Language Board in May 2022. The chairperson of the Xitsonga National Language Body (NLB), Dr Arnold Mushwana, said there were consultations between the Sarb and PanSALB and the terms were verified and authenticated by the…

United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader General Bantu Holomisa has called for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi to resign over her “dismal” performance in the role. Alternatively, Holomisa has said if Batohi does not resign then a commission of inquiry into her fitness to hold office should be established and she should be provisionally suspended. Batohi was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in February 2019 to take over the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as the director of its public prosecutions. Among the reasons cited by the UDM are the failure to prosecute state capture crimes, including the failure to extradite the Guptas from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the discharge of the accused in the Nulane case. The charges against the five accused in the Nulane…

When I turned 19 years old, I went into a hospital for the 100th time. Something was wrong with me. I knew it, my family knew it, but the health-care providers in my community didn’t. To them, I was next to nothing, everything I said was a lie, and there was nothing wrong. This time was different. I was experiencing severe pain and needed immediate surgery, slicing me hip to hip before casually telling me I had stage 4 endometriosis, the most severe. It sounds astounding, but that is the way it is when, according to the Department of Health, only 16.1% of South Africans have access to medical aid. Within the 16.1% of South Africans with access to medical aid, the issue of access is further amplified, with 77.7%…

Israel’s air force hit Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza for a second day yesterday and Palestinian militants in the enclave began launching rockets across the border, setting off sirens and sending residents to shelter as far away as Tel Aviv. The military said it was trying to hit rocket sites pre-emptively as blasts rocked different points including what witnesses described as a training camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip and an open area in the south. At least one man was killed and one wounded, medical officials said. Minutes after the strikes, sirens sounded in Israel. There was no immediate word of casualties in Israel, though local media reported that a home was hit in the town of Sderot. In Gaza, multiple contrails could be seen…

A year after Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead during an Israeli army raid in the West Bank, likely by an Israeli soldier, no one has been charged, disciplined or otherwise held responsible. And no one is likely to be, according to a new analysis of the killings of journalists covering Israel and the West Bank over the past two decades. Despite the international uproar it provoked, Abu Akleh’s slaying has settled into a case study of Israel’s ability to sidestep accountability. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) focused on the cases of 20 reporters whose deaths it attributed to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) since 2001. The group found systemic similarities in Israel’s response, including the most fundamental one – no one has been…

WASHINGTON: The US rolled out a new regulation yesterday that will deny asylum to most migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally, a key part of President Joe Biden’s enforcement plan as Covid-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 end this week. The regulation, which becomes effective today, creates a new presumption that migrants arriving at the border are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations without seeking protection elsewhere first or if they failed to use legal pathways for US entry. The new restrictions will apply to the vast majority of non-Mexican migrants since they typically pass through multiple countries. | Reuters…