Indice dei contenuti per 2021-07-22 in Star

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa faces a shortage of business rescue experts as financially distressed companies are on the brink of collapse from the double whammy of Covid-19 exacerbated by last week’s looting and unrest. Analysts said yesterday that the ripple effects of the looting would continue to be felt for years to come. The civil unrest South Africa experienced last week has placed 50 000 jobs at risk, according to research published by PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC), and it indicated that national gross domestic product growth could be 0.4 percentage points lower this year. Kylene Weyera, a senior associate in dispute resolution at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said yesterday that there were 361 licensed business practitioners in the country by October 2020. Only 85 of those were senior practitioners…

Alyssia Birjalal alyssia.birjalal@inl.co.za RAPPER Cassper Nyovest took to social media to respond to a host of friends and fans who’ve been asking him how he managed to turn negative energy into success and was able to push his products with so much confidence and hype. Without any hesitation, he said that, over the years, he had noticed that people didn’t really know what they wanted and would rather follow a trend than be a trendsetter. “This is what I’ve noticed. People don’t know what they want. “We live in a world of followers, the most popular thing in the world right now is social media and what is the currency? Followers. “So anything that is popular right now that is pushed on social media is just pushed to the mentality…

Thami Zwane | Edenvale Once again, gullible victims of a former defunct system of atrocity, oppression and suppression are inoculated with a euphoric mood. The pernicious lie of a non-existent unity has been set in motion. We are singing the national anthem and are reminded of the fictitious rainbow nation, of the 1995 Rugby World Cup and of the 2010 World Cup football tournament. After the poo brigade at the Cape Town International Airport, people of low nobility were called to do operation clean-up. The so-called poo war arose out of anger and frustration regarding poor sanitation services in the townships. And now after the latest unrest, blacks armed with God-gifted limbs and a throw-in of food parcels here and there, are at it again. In March 2018,…

Samaoen Osman | Cape Town Praying for our beautiful country. Heavenly Father God, please keep the people of South Africa safe in these uncertain times. Almighty Lord, please calm the situation and help the leaders make the correct decisions to calm the situation and restore peace, Ameen. Praying for South Africa. Globally, there is a consciousness and prayers are being said everywhere. Praying for those who seek to divide and those who are somehow caught up in it. Praying for healing. Praying for peace. Praying for stability. Praying for the innocent who are suffering. Praying for every person who is hurting, in pain, traumatised, afraid, abandoned and alone. Praying for the brave and courageous people who are standing up, standing together and protecting the helpless and those caught…

ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za FOR eight years, a Joburg gynaecologist faced a multimillion-rand claim after one of his patients gave birth to a baby with Down syndrome. However, the now retired Dr Piet Engelbrecht will be able to put all that behind him. The parents of the girl, who will turn 10 in November, persisted with a string of court applications to try to obtain damages from the specialist. The mother, who is not identified in order to protect the identity of the child, said that if she had known she was carrying a baby with Down syndrome, she would have opted for an abortion. She said Engelbrecht was negligent for not establishing, during her pregnancy, that her child would have the disability. She and her husband blamed the doctor for…

In South Africa it is against the law to abandon a child – specifically an infant – in such a way that the baby is likely to die. But people are rarely prosecuted for this crime. This is usually because the perpetrator – often the mother – cannot be located. When found, individuals are usually charged with murder. Quantifying the number of infants who die as a result of abandonment is challenging, according to a National Child Homicide Study that found it difficult to distinguish between the different causes of death during infancy. This study found that in 2009, more than half of the 454 under-5 victims of child homicide in the country were killed in the first month of life. Abandonment accounted for 84.9% of these deaths. My doctoral…

Rome: The leader of Italy’s far-right League, Matteo Salvini, yesterday defended a local politician from his party who had shot and killed a Moroccan man during a fight. Councillor Massimo Adriatici was put under house arrest after a scuffle in a public square on Tuesday night in the northern city of Voghera, according to local news media. The politician, who was holding a pistol, claimed he was shoved by the man and a shot – which hit the victim in the chest – went off as he fell to the ground. Italian news agency Ansa said Adriatici had been arrested on suspicion of murder, but prosecutors were also looking into a potential charge of excessive self-defence. Local media said the victim, a 39-year-old Moroccan, had been harassing people outside a…

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Ariel Henry, 71, who was appointed as Haiti’s prime minister two days before President Jovenel Moise was assassinated, has been formally sworn in to assume office. “The country is experiencing a crisis situation in all senses. We must restore the credibility and authority of the state … There is severe polarisation between different sectors of society. However, we need a durable solution for this multifaceted crisis,” Henry said shortly after the swearing-in ceremony. All those responsible for Moise’s assassination must be found and brought to justice, the prime minister added. Moise was shot dead at his residence on July 7. His wife Martine was wounded and airlifted to a US hospital.…

THE Philippines’ top judges have ruled that the International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute “government actors” for alleged crimes committed before the country withdrew from the tribunal – contradicting President Rodrigo Duterte’s assertion it has no jurisdiction. The Supreme Court ruling – made in March but released in full to the public yesterday – comes as prosecutors at the world’s only permanent war crimes court seek a full-blown investigation into Duterte’s drug war that activists estimate has killed tens of thousands of people. Duterte was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the country’s drug problem, and he openly ordered police to kill suspects if their lives were in danger. The president has said he would never co-operate with an ICC probe, claiming the tribunal has…

MIHLALI BALEKA @Mihlalibaleka AMAZULU coach Benni McCarthy has lambasted the random change of formations by his Orlando Pirates counterpart Josef Zinnbauer, saying: “I don’t even think he knows the strength that he has in his team because he changes formations week in and week out”. In May last season, AmaZulu and Pirates crossed paths for the last time in the Premiership, where the teams were gunning for a second-place finish. But that battle didn’t end on the pitch, with the Buccaneers earning the spoils in Soweto. Instead, it escalated into a fierce post-match interaction between former Pirates striker McCarthy and Zinnbauer, and it now appears that the former has lost respect for the German’s style of play and team organisation. Speaking ahead of the Carling Black Label Cup match between…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za PFIZER and Nasdaq-listed BioNTech SE have signed an agreement with the Cape Town-based-Biovac Institute to make up to 100 million doses a year of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for distribution across Africa. Pfizer said in a statement yesterday the agreement with Biovac meant its global vaccine supply chain and manu- facturing network would span three continents and include more than 20 manufacturing facilities. Africa has only so far received about 38 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines on a continent of 1.2 billion people, according to WHO estimates. “To facilitate Biovac’s involvement in the process, technical transfer, on-site development and equipment installation activities will begin immediately,” the group said. Biovac’s manufacturing of the Pfizer vaccine will be the second production plant of Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa – Aspen…

Reinet Investments says net asset EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za Reinet Investments, a R90 billion investment vehicle chaired by Johann Rupert, said yesterday that the net asset value (NAV) per share of its Reinet Fund had fallen slightly to €30.11 (R517.25) as of June 30 from €31.44 at the end of March 2021. Reinet Investments holds the entire share capital of the Reinet Fund of 171.3m shares. In addition, Reinet Fund Manager holds 1 000 management shares in Reinet Fund. Reinet Fund’s net asset value amounted to €5.16 billion as of June 30, a decrease of €228 million from March 31, 2021. Its net asset value per share represented about a 45 percent discount to Reinet Investments’ share price, trading 0.6 percent higher at R283.64 on the…

Demi Lovato felt a “burst of confidence” after filming their first-ever sex scene for the upcoming NBC comedy series Hungry. They said they were left feeling “sexy” after the scene was over, despite initially having anxiety about filming. In a post on Instagram, they wrote: “I had a little anxiety going into it but the cast and crew were so professional and easy to work with, it calmed me down immediately. “I don't always feel good in my skin, so when I do, AND I feel sexy enough to post - I do just that! It's important to celebrate the little wins. Yay for this random burst of body confidence and yay for awkward hilarious sex.” Lovato has previously spoken about their battle with body image and self-confidence, especially in…

Rapula Moatshe rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za THE FLEDGING political party ActionSA will not challenge the call to postpone the municipal elections as recommended by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke on Tuesday. This was pronounced yesterday by ActionSA’s national chairperson Michael Beaumont during the announcement of the party’s mayoral candidates for the Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni. The stance by the party was made a day after Justice Moseneke released a report following an inquiry into whether the current environment beset by Covid-19 would be conducive for the country to host free and fair elections. In releasing the report, Justice Moseneke recommended that the elections be postponed to February 2022. Prior to the inquiry, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had announced that it was ready to conduct the local government elections on…

The Life Esidimeni inquest into the deaths of 144 psychiatric patients has been postponed to tomorrow due to legal representation concerns of potentially implicated officials. A formal inquest started on Monday, and it will be determined whether officials involved could be criminally liable for the deaths of the patients. Judge Mmonoa Teffo, who is chairing the virtual hearing at the Pretoria High Court, said those implicated have until Friday to secure legal representation. State advocate Tebogo Hutamo told the court he was representing several former and current government officials, and this could lead to conflicts of interest. “There is a potential that these witnesses may give conflicting evidence and in that regard this might be a challenge on our part to be able to represent them at the same time,…

Khotso K.D. Moleko | Bloemfontein What is more worrying about our society and how it reacts to continued government blunders is the tendency to miss the mark – deliberately. Again and again, the public chooses to accommodate incompetence, provided it is due to a sweetheart of the moment. It is convenient to assert that the politicians are no longer trying very hard to fool the public, but themselves choose to be foolish. When so-called analysts and alert citizens suddenly did not know why there were violent lootings and protests recently in our country. These protests are usually excused as “poor people” venting their frustrations, but when they gain strength and advancement it now is a state security matter. But the basis of all our problems in SA is…

“THE violence and looting have been orchestrated” is a phrase which is heard from everyone from the president down these days. Pedants would obviously quibble over the opposition between evident chaos on the ground and the semantic history of “orchestra”, which stands out as an obviously foreign word borrowed into English, 500 years ago. But as the set phrase “organised chaos” shows, the opposition, or oxymoron of starkly contrasting ideas is not so absurd. The distant roots of “orchestra” in ancient Greek theatre should not detain us: “orchestrate” as a musical term surfaced in the 1880s and continued to thrive in harmonious contexts, until the emergence of modern or “atonal” music. The shift from musical to political contexts surfaced in the 1970s meaning “to organise and arrange with a political…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za A MUSIC blackout looms for SABC as the SA Music Performance Rights Association (Sampra) takes the public broadcaster to court to compel it to pay needle-time royalties. Sampra issued a statement on Monday accusing the public broadcaster of “taking food out of artists’ mouths” in recording artists and record companies’ legal battle over the non-payment of needletime royalties. The association announced it would be applying for the courts to compel the SABC to pay for the use of their artists’ music. “Failure by the SABC to pay will inevitably lead to an interdict prohibiting the SABC from playing tracks from Sampra’s repertoire – which is 99% of all tracks in South Africa,” Sampra said. These include the music of award-winning artists such as singer-songwriter Donald, rapper Nasty…

IT IS important to fully understand the implication of the closure of the various businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Clearly this will affect employment and will have an enormous dampener on job creation. Those who have jobs with the affected businesses will find many of these jobs will not come back on stream and many people who’ve been told to stay at home will not earn during this period. The real punishment of this situation will lie at the feet of the previously disadvantaged. I have spoken to dozens of business owners who have been affected and who have advised staff there will be no work until future notice, and others have said they probably won’t open again. This has enormous implications for workers. Alternative jobs are hard to come…

Division has been created between those favouring arrest of ‘corrupt’ and their supporters With the recent chaos, specifically in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, and the media focus on these areas pertaining to the violent riots and looting, it is easy to get wrapped up in some tunnel vision, focusing exclusively on these events. The danger of this, of course, is that one runs the risk of trying to make sense of these events in isolation. The events happening now have a historical context, particularly if we relate them to the prevailing political, economic, and social conditions. I will highlight, in particular, the following key factors: u The Covid-19 pandemic. u The political tumult emanating from the Zondo Commission, corruption allegations against high-profile political leaders, and the arrest and sentencing of Jacob…

IT WAS exactly two weeks ago that we called for those clamouring for violence, bloodshed and authoritarianism to read the room. Well, the room was not read, and two weeks later the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng economies have been set back by decades through massive losses as a result of the civil unrest that shook the country recently. Also, the loss of life has yet to be measured, with unconfirmed reports that the death toll is sitting in the hundreds. While the trails of fear, death and destruction are fresh in our minds, then comes, wait for it … the theatrics of a “coup attempt” and “insurrection”. How, for the life of us, did we get to this point? Alas, we did not expect anything new. The comedy of errors regarding…

LONDON: Amy Winehouse’s family and friends look back on her life in a new documentary marking 10 years since the singer’s death, with accounts of her rise to global fame and struggles with addiction. Narrated by her mother Janis Winehouse-Collins, Reclaiming Amy features home footage, family pictures and interviews with close friends who recall the six-time Grammy Award winner’s happier as well as darker times. Winehouse-Collins, who has multiple sclerosis, has rarely spoken about her daughter publicly but shares her version of events in the revealing documentary,…

BEIJING: The US must allow the Investigation into Fort Detrick to trace the origin of the coronavirus, a foreign ministry spokesperson said yesterday. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing, as a joint open letter calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the Fort Detrick lab has gained about 5 million signatures from Chinese netizens as of yesterday afternoon. His comments came after an open letter by Chinese netizens on Saturday published by the Global Times asked the WHO to investigate the US’s Fort Detrick lab for Covid-19 origins, generating over 750 000 signatures as of Monday. “Why can’t an origin study be conducted in the US as in China?” it asked.…

At least 25 people have died in China’s flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital that was drenched by what weather officials called the heaviest rains for 1 000 years. About 100 000 people have been evacuated in Zhengzhou, the capital, where rail and road transport have been disrupted, while dams and reservoirs have swelled to warning levels while thousands of troops launched a rescue effort in the province. City authorities said more than 500 people were pulled to safety from the flooded subway. “The water reached my chest,” a survivor wrote on social media. “I was really scared, but the most terrifying thing was not the water, but the diminishing air supply in the carriage.” The rain halted bus services…

MIKE GREENAWAY mike.greenaway@inl.co.za SHUTTING down Springbok match-winner Cheslin Kolbe is a top priority for the Lions in Saturday’s first Test but the Boks face their own challenge in shutting down Kolbe’s opposite number Duhan van der Merwe. Lions boss Warren Gatland, speaking after naming Van der Merwe on the left wing in a strong Lions team, has warned his players to keep the ball away from Kolbe. “Stopping Cheslin is going to be a real challenge and the best way to do that is limit the possession he gets,” Gatland said. “Cheslin got one opportunity against us in that South Africa ’A’ game and made the most of it. We can’t afford to do what we did in that ’A’ game and kick the ball down his throat. So we…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za The BANK of Mozambique has appointed Zaitina Raul Chilaule as foreign exchange inspector at Standard Bank South Africa as part of a behind-the-scenes atonement for irregular foreign exchange activities that last week saw the bank in Mozambique fined R66 million, along with the fining and dismissal of two senior executives. Standard Bank has also been suspended for a year from the Mozambican Interbank Foreign Exchange Market. Chilaule’s appointment follows the appointment late last week by Standard Bank South Africa of an acting chief executive at its Mozambique operation following the stern censure by the Central Bank. Banco de Mocambique announced the opening of three “misdemeanour proceedings” against that bank and two of its employees, namely Adimohanma Chukwuma Nwokocha and Carlos Madeira, who were banned from holding…

Jamal Grootboom jamald.grootboom@inl.co.za Local actress and presenter Pearl Thusi pleaded with Nathi Mthethwa, the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, to support artists. The South African entertainment industry has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing lockdown. While it seemed that artists were getting on their feet following the second wave earlier this year, the recent move to lockdown level 4 has put a halt to most activity in the hospitality and entertainment industries. Taking the Twitter on Monday, the Behind The Story host pleaded with Mthethwa to offer support financially to the sector in the same way he offers messages of congratulations and condolences. Thusi said: “Dear Minister @NathiMthethwaSA, I say this in the sincerely way … artists are struggling … can you assist with actual…

ITUMELENG MAFISA THE ANC in Joburg says it hopes the city will have a new mayor by the beginning of next month. Speaking to The Star, ANC Joburg spokesperson Sasa Manganye said the party was awaiting a meeting of the Gauteng provincial executive committee (PEC) in which the region would then present three candidates to the PEC. Manganye said regional politics in Joburg were matured and there would be careful consideration as to who would succeed the deceased mayor Geoff Makhubo. The Star understands that among the names being suggested were those of Speaker Nonceba Molwele, finance MMC Jolidee Matongo and health MMC Eunice Mgcina. There were also some throwing the name of former housing MMC Ruby Mathang into the hat. “All of us wish is to conclude this…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons Tarryn-Leigh.Solomons@iinl.co.za National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) head advocate Shamila Batohi says even though poverty may have driven the actions of some looters, it should never be a reason to commit crime. Last week saw the destruction of 161 malls and shopping centres, 11 warehouses, 8 factories and 161 liquor outlets and distributors in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Farms were torched. The National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure recorded over 118 incidents of public violence, arson, looting and other unrest-related instances. Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola and his department, together with the NPA, yesterday briefed the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services on the prosecution plans for looters. Lamola said to deal with the prosecution of those involved in recent acts of violence and looting,…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za NON-governmental organisation Health Justice Initiative (HJI) is calling for the government to prioritise people living with co-morbidities, despite their age, in the vaccine programme. The HJI has started a campaign and a petition calling on the government and private sector groups on the National Vaccine Roll Out Committee, as well as all members of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 and the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 vaccines, to immediately include all adults with a medically established co-morbidity, irrespective of age, in the national vaccine programme. “South Africa cannot base its public health policy and vaccine prioritisation response on political and vested business or commercial interests, otherwise, our vaccine programme will be in ethical and public health evidence ‘free fall’,” the organisation said. The HJI has further…

Professor W Bernard Carlson Oil AND gas pipelines have become flashpoints in discussions of climate change. From the US’s Atlantic coast to the Dakotas, pipelines that would deliver fossil fuels to customers have sparked protests and legal challenges. The Keystone XL pipeline, designed to carry oil from Alberta’s tar sands to refineries on the US Gulf Coast, roiled US-Canadian relations for a decade before it was finally cancelled in 2021. Amid these debates, it’s easy to forget how heavily the US economy relies on existing energy pipelines. In 2020 some 135 000km of long-distance pipelines carried crude oil, while another 103 000km of pipe moved refined products, including gasoline and jet fuel. These systems typically draw attention only when they leak or are damaged. Petroleum currently supplies…

THE European Commission will seek “creative solutions” to difficulties in trade between Britain and Northern Ireland caused by Brexit, but will not renegotiate the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic has said. Britain yesterday demanded a new deal from the EU to govern post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland, saying it already had cause to step away from parts of the deal that it struck with Brussels only last year. “We will continue to engage with the UK, also on the suggestions made today (yesterday),” Sefcovic said. “We are ready to continue to seek creative solutions, within the framework of the Protocol, in the interest of all communities in Northern Ireland. However, we will not agree to a renegotiation of the Protocol,” he said. The Northern Ireland Protocol,…

The Hague: Former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware, sentenced to 30 years for his role in the country’s genocide, will spend the rest of his term in Senegal, his judicial overseers announced in The Hague yesterday. Judge Carmel Agius of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals said he had instructed the court registrar “to transfer Ngirabatware to Senegal for enforcement of his sentence” after a separate case. Ngirabatware was planning minister at the time of the genocide, in which at least 800 000 people died between April and July 1994.…

LAGOS: Police and government authorities have secured the release of 100 people, including women, children and nursing mothers, who were kidnapped from their village in north-western Nigeria over a month ago, a local police spokesperson said. The released captives had been abducted on June 8 from Manawa village in Zamfara state, Mohammed Shehu, the state’s police spokesperson, said in a statement on Wednesday. He said their release had been secured “without giving any financial or material gain”. “They will be medically checked and debriefed before (being) reunited with their respective families,” the statement added. Over 200 students as are still being held captive.…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za NOLUBABALO Ndzundzu, the first black African woman to represent the South African women’s cricket side, said she felt humiliated after being told that if she spoke in her home language isiXhosa in front of her national teammates, she was being “rude”. Ndzundzu testified yesterday at Cricket SA’s Social Justice and Nation Building commission about her playing career that included making 16 appearances for South Africa in one-day internationals, and one in a Test against England in 2003. Ndundzu, who grew up in Masingata, near Qonce, described how she faced numerous challenges as a black woman, trying to play a game she first fell in love with as a youngster playing with her brothers. From the dangers of travelling late at night between her home town and East…