Indice dei contenuti per 2023-05-19 in Mercury

“My sisters both have children and are happily married. I am the youngest of three (I am 25) and the only one not married, nor do I have any children. I am expected to take care of our mother and to stay home with her when I am not working. “This is a lot of pressure on me and when I say anything to my sisters about helping me, they say they have families to care for and that it is my job to take care of our mother because I have no one else to take care of. I know this is not altogether true or the reason because they do a lot together outside of their homes just as sisters and I am hardly ever included. Please help…

Minister of Health Mathume Joeseph Phaahla, please be open, frank and honest to all South Africans – why do we still have doctors unemployed? I am constrained by the fact that I am just a citizen, like millions of others, who have to scream from the sidelines to elicit even an iota of response from the people who once boasted about being a “People’s Government’’. Had I been in Parliament, I would have exercised my parliamentary privilege to badger you to the point of exhaustion for answers. Be that as it may, why is it that so many South African doctors who have qualified, completed their requisite internship, and their community service are still sitting at home? Why is it that so many doctors, who have qualified at overseas institutions,…

In 1963, the apartheid regime enforced a hideous law called the Job Reservation Act, which protected white workers and excluded non-whites from important employment opportunities. In 1958, the ILO (International Labour Organisation) passed a resolution that clearly laid down that all member countries should promote equal opportunity and treatment in respect of employment and occupation, for all persons, without discrimination or preference on the basis of race, colour, political opinion, sex, religion, national extraction or social origin. The Employment Equity Amendment Act is the ANC’s version of the Job Reservation Act. What a travesty of justice, for us minorities, who were the leaders of the Struggle against apartheid, to once again become the victims of grotesque racism. Apartheid was a crime against humanity, this new bill is a crime against…

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has shot down suggestions that DNA tests must be conducted on Thabo Bester, saying the hospital records prove he was born in Soweto. He said there was no need for DNA tests on Bester as proposed by the official opposition. Only in extreme cases would Home Affairs make use of DNA to determine the identity of a person. Motsoaledi said it was not possible for Home Affairs to conduct DNA tests on everyone because there were records to prove their identity. If records at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital showed that Maria Meisie Mabaso gave birth to Bester in 1986, there was no need to prove that with DNA tests, he said. Motsoaledi, who was replying during the Budget vote debate of his department in…

LAWYERS representing Thembinkosi Ngcobo, the former head of the Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) unit in eThekwini Municipality, are pressing the State to act against individuals implicated in the alleged acts of corruption that led to Ngcobo’s dismissal from his job in the City. Ngcobo was fired by the municipality in 2021 because of allegations that he had failed to report corruption. At the centre of the allegations was that two, now former, employees that worked with Ngcobo had allegedly paid a supplier of the municipality who had not done any work. One of the employees allegedly involved in this alleged corrupt transaction was a former senior government official. She was in the employ of the municipality at the time of the alleged acts. The supplier had laid a…

Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams said her department and its agencies were considering interventions to support SMMEs and co-operatives affected by load shedding. Ndabeni made the undertaking when she was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Babalwa Mathulelwa, who asked whether her department has undertaken any assessment on the impact of electricity blackouts on small businesses. Mathulelwa also wanted to know how Ndabeni-Abrahams planned to provide support to small businesses so that they continued operating. In her written response, Ndabeni-Abrahams said her department, through the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa), conducted a research study in August 2022 on the impact of load shedding on its funded clients. The study was commissioned as a survey to 1 500 Sefa clients, but only 214 clients responded. Ndabeni-Abrahams said the SMMEs…

A former captain in the SAPS, attached to the dog unit, and who was deployed to the Kruger National Park, Skukuza, will have to serve a five-year jail sentence after he shot a visitor to the park in the leg. Quentin Arlow was earlier convicted of attempted murder and sentenced. However, he turned to the Mpumalanga High Court, sitting in Mbombela, where he appealed against both his conviction and sentence. Arlow conducted searches with sniffer dogs on vehicles leaving the park in an attempt to curb rhino poaching. He was conducting these services at the Kruger Gate on the day of the incident when a visitor, Last Nkosi, the complainant, left the park. Almost immediately, Arlow got into a marked police vehicle and chased after Nkosi. Arlow walked to Nkosi’s…

AS ONE who watches international news and developments closely, it would be interesting to see what South Africa will be missing out on in the upcoming G7 summit. If the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting is anything to go by, South Africa will not be missing much. Maybe the odd photo opportunity. The G7 summit is scheduled for May 19 to 21 in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It will be the first G7 summit for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Leaders of the US, Canada, France and Germany will also be present. Russia was expelled from the group, then the G8, in 2014. In 2019, the US-based Council on Foreign Relations opened its article, “Trump Kills the G7’s Legitimacy”, with the words: “The Group…

As artificial intelligence transforms jobs around the world and workers fear for their future, Italy plans to spend nearly $30 million (R580m) to help people boost their digital skills, particularly for positions at risk from automation and technological advances. Regulators and MPs in Europe and elsewhere are grappling with how to handle AI as it becomes more accessible across industries. While experts say the technology will not replace humans any time soon, its rise into the mainstream, including through ChatGPT, has fuelled concerns about the impact on the job market. AI can power robots that help with warehouse inventory, speed up vaccine production and re-create voices, raising questions for a wide range of workers, including grocery store employees and voice actors. In Italy, an array of jobs could be at…

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk defended his remarks accusing Holocaust survivor and liberal donor George Soros of trying to weaken human civilisation after the Israeli government condemned his rhetoric as antisemitic. “I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said. Musk used the social media platform he owns, Twitter, to compare Soros, 92, to a Marvel supervillain who also survived the Holocaust, underlining theories that the Hungarian American Jew uses his billions to undermine society. | Washington Post…

Moscow: Russia said yesterday that its forces hit all targets in a series of strikes on Ukraine overnight, but Kyiv said it had downed all, but one of 30 missiles. “All assigned targets have been destroyed,” the Russian defence ministry said, adding that its forces hit “a significant stock of weapons and ammunition of the Ukrainian armed forces”. Russia did not specify which targets had been hit, only saying it aimed at “large depots of foreign weapons and equipment, as well as enemy reserves”. Ukraine said that Russian forces had launched 30 cruise missiles from land, sea and air, targeting several regions and killing one person in the southern port city of Odessa. | AFP…

Mexico City: Mexican authorities have rescued around 40 migrants who were briefly kidnapped this week while traveling on a bus, officials said yesterday. Thousands of migrants fleeing violence and poverty in their countries risk abduction and exploitation at the hands of criminal gangs while crossing Mexico on the way to the US border. These 40-odd people and two drivers were abducted Monday while traveling on a highway in north-eastern Mexico. Nine others from the same group – which set off from southern Mexico near the Guatemalan border – were rescued after managing to flee, officials said.| AFP…

Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet … A comedy troupe in China has been slapped with a 14.7 million yuan (about R40 521 500) penalty over a joke about the military that involved a slogan coined by President Xi Jinping. The quip, which likened the behaviour of a comedian’s dogs to military conduct, irked the authorities. They said Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Co and comedian Li Haoshi had “humiliated the people’s army”. The company accepted the penalty and terminated Li’s contract, according to the BBC. The offending remark was made during a stand-up performance in Beijing when Li alluded to two dogs he had adopted which were chasing a squirrel. “Other dogs you see would make you think they are adorable. These…

The president’s visit to Chatsworth as part of a by-election campaign did not go well with the residents. The electricity crisis is posing a catastrophe that the ANC government itself does not have any viable solu tions for. We want action, not words. Scores of members swopped their shirts and donned black, green and gold T-shirts. Seeing the president was all an election tactic. It seems some people can’t see beyond their noses. Load shedding is here to stay for a very long time. Despite the president trying to address the issue of the power crisis in Chatsworth, it was only an update of his old empty promises – he did not discuss any pertinent specific action steps, for example time schedules for implementation. With the possibility of facing higher…

The ANC has said the party’s secretary- general, Fikile Mbalula, met with US ambassador to South Africa Reuben E Brigety on Wednesday. This comes after Brigety caused a stir when he told the media in Pretoria last week that weapons were loaded on to the Russian ship Lady R at Simon’s Town Naval Base in Cape Town. No evidence to support this claim was provided and Brigety has apparently apologised after having been summoned by International Relations and Co-operation Minister Naledi Pandor. Defence Minister Thandi Modise has also said no arms were shipped to Russia. She criticised the narrative that South Africa had chosen sides in the Russia-Ukraine war. ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said Mbalula met with Brigety. “The ambassador reiterated his apology as conveyed by comrade Naledi Pandor,…

Calls continue to grow for embattled Unisa vice-chancellor and principal Puleng LenkaBula to resign following damning findings made against her since she took over the leadership of the institution in 2021. Independent assessor Professor Themba Mosia has released a scathing report on LenkaBula and the state of the institution following months of investigation. Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande appointed Mosia to investigate all affairs at the university. The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has called for LenkaBula’s removal from her position as vice-chancellor, while the former head of legal services at Unisa, advocate Modidima Mannya, added his voice to those calling for law enforcement action to be taken. Mannya said he hoped that the minister of higher education would act on the recommendations and the findings made…

KwaZulu-Natal Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza has condemned an incident in which a teenager was assaulted by her aunt for hours at her home in Hluhluwe in northern KZN on Wednesday night. The MEC described the incident as barbaric and a gross violation of the child’s rights. “It is alleged the prolonged assault took place for three hours, demonstrating a complete disregard for the child’s well-being and safety,” said the department. Khoza said no child should ever have to endure such a terrifying ordeal, let alone face the threat of abuse from a family member. “It is deeply disheartening to learn that a child who had already experienced the loss of her mother was subjected to such horrendous mistreatment by someone entrusted with her care,” she said. After the assault,…

Gauteng police have raided a refinery with gold-bearing material with an estimated value of R3 million illegally operating in Zuurbekom, Westonaria. Gauteng Hawks spokesperson Colonel Philani Nkwalase said: “Approximately 1 260 tons of gold-bearing material with an estimated value of R3m was found along with two generators, nearly 200kg of loaded carbon and a cellphone.” The operation was executed by an integrated team led by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) in collaboration with the Tactical Response Team and various divisions. Nkwalase said the operation resulted in the arrest of a 22-year-old suspect. He said the suspect was arrested on Tuesday, and all exhibits were seized for further investigation. Nkwalase added that the suspect was a foreign national without proper documentation. He will also be charged with contravening the…

Disbarred advocate Malesela Teffo could soon find himself behind bars if he continues with his antics to pose as an advocate, as the Legal Practice Council (LPC) is set on asking the court to hold him in contempt of court following last year’s order in which he was removed from the roll of advocates. Despite the fact that the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria in September last year, among others, ordered him to surrender his certificate of enrolment as an advocate, this had not been done. Teffo has apparently paid no heed to the fact that he may no longer practise. He was this week yet again seen, fully dressed in his court attire – as on previous occasions – in the Senzo Meyiwa murder trial. This week he once again…

Tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists marched through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City yesterday in an annual event that has drawn condemnation from the Palestinians and stirred fears of renewed violence. The parade is the main celebration on Jerusalem Day, when Israel marks its capture of Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The event has increasingly become a show of force for Jewish nationalists and, for Palestinians, a blatant provocation meant to undermine their ties to the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the event “a splendid day on which to celebrate our return to our eternal capital”. But just days after the end of the latest bout of cross-border fire with Gaza, the march drew fears of a repeat round of conflict with Hamas and…

An eight-year-old migrant girl died in US custody in Texas this week, a tragedy that tempered news of a sharp drop in attempted illegal crossings of the southern US border. The girl died in Harlingen, a Texas border city near the Gulf of Mexico. “The child and her family were in custody at the Harlingen Station where she experienced a medical emergency,” US Customs and Border Protection said. “Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead.” An investigation was opened into the death. The agency did not give the girl’s identity or nationality. A 17-year-old Honduran boy who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian died last week in government custody in Safety Harbor, Florida.…

London: Competing claims surfaced yesterday over Prince Harry and his wife Meghan’s purported involvement in a “near catastrophic car chase” with paparazzi in New York. A spokesperson for the couple said that they had endured a “relentless” two-hour pursuit that resulted in “multiple near collisions involving other drivers”. The account of Tuesday’s incident prompted comparisons to circumstances around the Paris car crash in 1997 that killed Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, which the prince blames on paparazzi pursuing her. However, New York police, the city’s mayor and a taxi driver have played down the danger of the reported pursuit. Yesterday, a photographer alleged that the couple’s vehicle entourage were to blame for any danger. He said Harry and Meghan’s driver “wanted to drive fast, cut through lanes”. Police said there…

ANKARA: Tayyip Erdogan’s challenger in Türkiye’s presidential race sharpened his tone on migrants yesterday, vowing to send all migrants back to their countries once elected in a May 28 run-off vote. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, won 45% support in Sunday’s vote while Erdogan got 49.5%, falling just short of the majority needed to avoid a run-off vote. A third candidate, Sinan Ogan, a nationalist politician endorsed by an anti-refugee party obtained 5.2%. Kilicdaroglu said: “Erdogan, you have deliberately allowed 10 million refugees to Turkey.” Turkey hosts the world’s largest refugee population of around 4 million. | Reuters…

THE SHARE price of Purple Group, the owner of the EasyEquities trading platform, fell nearly 13% yesterday after it announced that it had received JSE approval to proceed with a R150 million rights offer. The share traded at R1.05 around midday, after falling consistently from R2.42 that it traded at a year before on the same day. It closed 8.47% lower at R1.08 on the JSE yesterday. CEO Charles Savage said in a telephone interview that he was happy the planned rights offer – to raise R105m for Purple Group and R45m for EasyEquities – had been well received by shareholders, some of whom had chosen to partially underwrite the offer. “We made the offer at a good discount to the share price. We chose to give the benefits…

DEPUTY President Paul Mashatile said yesterday that the government was hoping Eskom’s emergency procurement programmes would bring relief to South Africans who were suffering under the yoke of load shedding. Mashatile’s comment came shortly after Eskom issued a statement yesterday announcing that the country’s power system was severely constrained, with a high risk of increased stages of load shedding during winter. Mashatile, speaking on the sidelines of a two-day oversight visit in KwaZulu- Natal to eThekwini Metro and the uMgungundlovu District Municipality, said the government was determined to keep the lights on. “Apart from appointing the minister of electricity, we have announced we are now embarking on procuring emergency power. We have also indicated that in some instances we will use diesel to keep the lights on, but we are…

THE Msunduzi Municipality is to meet the department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to get clarity on its decisions to keep the municipality under administration for another six months. Municipal manager Lulamile Mapholoba said the mayor, Mzimkhulu Thebolla, had requested a meeting with the Cogta MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi. He said the municipality had been taken aback by the Cogta announcement as they believed that Msunduzi, which has been under administration for the past few years, was ready to govern itself. The announcement was made in a notice from the MEC to the speaker of the provincial legislature Nontembeko Boyce. The notice said several municipalities, including Msunduzi, Mpofana, Inkosi Langalibalele, Abaqulusi, Mtubatuba, uMzinyathi, uThukela and uMkhanyakude, should remain under administration until October 31. Mapholoba yesterday said: “We have…

The arrival of the ANC’s top brass, presumably deployed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, in KwaZulu-Natal this weekend to meet with the party’s so-called “Taliban faction”, is indeed of interest. Among the issues to be discussed, none can be more prominent than the party’s interference in a multibillion-rand contract to feed learners. Almost 2.5 million learners went hungry for days. Meanwhile, recent oversights show that schools are still receiving insufficient food, and cabbages delivered as part of Friday’s green vegetable menu are not fit for a piggery. Why are senior ANC members coming here when they are not known for holding their comrades to account? Before the National Schools Nutrition Programme saga, the last time the DA in KZN saw a systems collapse of this magnitude was during the oncology crisis.…

In typical American style, US Ambassador Reuben E Brigety pulled out his gun and fired wildly at South Africa, accusing it of supplying arms and ammunition to Russia. A fierce war of words then erupted. As calls for the expulsion of the US ambassador from South Africa grew, Brigety offered an apology for his rash, undiplomatic comments. But the damage had already been done. The rand tumbled, plunging the country deeper into the economic crisis. President Cyril Ramaphosa went on the defensive and denied South Africa was a supplier of arms to Russia and reiterated his country’s neutral position. Russia is a superpower, second only to the US. What arms would it need from a little power like South Africa? But it didn’t stop the diplomatic row with the US,…

There’s a race against the clock to find suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane a new legal team before the end of May. This is the deadline for Parliament’s Committee for the Section 194 Inquiry into her fitness to hold office. The committee was adjourned indefinitely this week after Mkhwebane again turned up without a lawyer to represent her and with a plea to the Office of the Public Protector (PPSA) to “speedily” appoint another attorney to represent her. Parliament’s legal adviser, Fatima Ebrahim, told the committee that Mkhwebane’s attorneys of record at the inquiry, Seanego Attorneys, had said that “for professional reasons” they no longer acted for Mkhwebane. Seanego said because Mkhwebane had not waived attorney client privilege with them, they were unable to tell the committee exactly what these…

Former president Jacob Zuma has raised an objection and complaint that his time to present his arguments at the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg has been unfairly cut short, in what he calls is the manifestation of “Zuma Law” where only he is prejudiced in court. This was his response, via his legal representative, advocate Dali Mpofu, to a full bench of judges Selby Baqwa, Lebogang Modiba and Mohammed Ismail when he was asked to conclude his arguments as he was well over the allocated time. The showdown between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Zuma is continuing at the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, with arguments in the matter involving a final interdict that is being sought by Ramaphosa. Judge Modiba told the court earlier that according to the practice notes, Mpofu will…

Five people were arrested after they were allegedly caught in the act printing birth certificates and identity documents from a flat in the Joburg CBD. The police pounced on the flat in Marshalltown after receiving intelligence-driven information this week. According to provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo, the suspects were found in possession of birth certificates, death certificates, university and college certificates and false identity documents. “The police received information about undocumented foreign nationals committing fraud and corruption together with Home Affairs officials by unlawfully producing various personal documents in a flat. These are allegedly being used to commit crimes.” Masondo said the police acted on the information and upon entering the premises, found five men working on laptops and desktops, printing some documents which were later identified as…

Protracted inaction in the wake of the Zondo Commission does not augur well THE eye of a hurricane can be astonishingly tranquil – an ominous serenity that presages a collision with another wall of storm. There is something of that eeriness about the current lull in implementing the 11 recommendations for Parliament made by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture reports. None will be implemented by May 23, as Parliament will probably miss its self-imposed target. The wind dropped last November after the National Assembly’s rules committee accepted President Cyril Ramaphosa’s implementation plan for the recommendations. Still, Parliament delayed the departure date by setting a deadline of May 23, and went into recess. In February, MPs came to Cape Town…

Both sides fighting in Sudan are targeting doctors and activists and silencing civilian voices seeking to document war crimes and provide services in the face of social collapse, their colleagues said this week. War engulfed the African nation on April 14 and shows little sign of abating after more than 1 million people fled their homes. The military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have pledged to respect cease-fires and humanitarian law, only to break those promises within minutes. Each side blames the other for sparking and continuing hostilities. Many Sudanese resist calling the conflict a civil war, pointing out that neither side enjoys wide public support. Instead, they describe it as a naked power struggle between the two men who jointly directed a 2021 coup against a civilian-military…

Floods that killed 11 people in Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region caused billions of euros’ worth of damage and hit agriculture particularly hard, the regional governor said yesterday. Torrential rains this week devastated the eastern side of the region, Romagna, with up to 300 landslides, 23 overflowing rivers, some 400 roads damaged or destroyed, and 42 flooded municipalities. According to the Coldiretti agricultural association, more than 5 000 farms were left under water in the region, which includes a so-called Fruit Valley, as well as corn and grain fields. The government has promised an extra 20 million euros (about R427) in emergency aid, on top of the 10 million euros allocated in response to previous floods two weeks ago, which killed at least two people. At least 10 000 people were…

Kathmandu: Two more climbers have died on Mt Everest, expedition organisers said yesterday, bringing the number of deaths on the world’s highest peak this year to seven. The latest fatalities were a 58-year-old Indian woman who had a pacemaker for her heart, and a Nepali member of a team clearing rubbish from the mountain. Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus died in hospital in the Nepalese town of Lukla after the Indian mountaineer was airlifted from base camp due to illness. A Nepalese rubbish collector, part of an annual mountain clean-up campaign, died while descending the mountain slopes. Nepal has issued 478 permits for Everest to foreign climbers this season, which runs until June. | AFP…

Xian: Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a summit with Central Asian leaders yesterday, seeking to build regional influence as G7 leaders hold a rival gathering in Japan at the weekend. Held in Xi’an, the historic eastern end of the Silk Road that linked China to Europe through Central Asia, it is the first of its kind since the establishment of formal relations 31 years ago. Beijing says trade with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reached $70 billion in 2022 and expanded 22% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. China has invested billions of dollars to tap natural gas reserves in Central Asia, and rail links to Europe. | AFP…

BOTH Marumo Gallants and Chippa United have to avoid defeat this weekend if they are to have any chance of saving their DStv Premiership lives. The curtain will fall on the elite league tomorrow, while relegation is still a huge possibility for three teams: Gallants, Chippa and Maritzburg United. The latter, though, bought themselves some breathing space during the week, holding champions Mamelodi Sundowns to a 1-1 draw as they bagged an invaluable point. The Team of Choice’s draw in Tshwane means that they reached the 30-point mark as they climbed up to 14th in the league standings - one point ahead of Gallants and Chippa. But with both Gallants and Chippa having a better goal difference and a game to play, they still have their fate in…

THE couta have been keeping the ski and boat anglers busy with most guys putting in a concerted effort to land a crocodile. The North Coast has seen most of the couta action. The smaller fish have made up the bulk of the catches. Rigging your baits at different depths has made it easy to find the depth the fish are feeding at. Rig one bait close to the surface (with only a bait swimmer) and rig the other bait with a 4oz sinker up the line. In deeper water, this can be switched out for heavier weight. Umdloti has been producing consistent results, but the shark tax has been high. Heavier tackle can help you get the fish in quicker, but this is sometimes not enough. If the sharks…