Starの 2022-07-15 の目次

FINANCIAL resilience among South African households had improved consistently since 2019, but was threatened by higher interest rates, according to a key index that measures data on household wealth. The Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index (AFHRI) for the first quarter of 2022, released yesterday, showed there had been a steady improvement of South African households’ ability to repay debt since 2019. However, “although the ratio of household income to debt costs has improved considerably since 2019, a negative reading has been recorded since the fourth quarter of last year. With interest rates on the rise, this could weigh on the AFHRI for the rest of the year,” said economist Dr Roelof Botha, who compiles the index on a quarterly basis. The AFHRI is commissioned by Altron FinTech to provide more…

THE BANKSERVAfrica Economic Transactions Index (Beti) moderated in June 2022, after a strong equivalent reading the month before, which could be an early sign of further and impending strain in the economy, Shergeran Naidoo, BankservAfrica’s head of stakeholder engagements said yesterday. The Beti for June 2022 moderated to 5.3 percent higher than a year ago, which was down significantly from the 9.4 percent increase in May 2022. Following revisions for seasonal factors, the actual index level moderated to 136.7 points in June, after an all-time high of 143 points (revised lower from 143.5 points) reached in May. Independent economist Elize Kruger said the moderation was not unexpected in light of the many headwinds in the local economy in recent weeks – from recurring load shedding…

Pan African Resources achieved record annual gold production while strengthening its balance sheet in its year to June 30. In an operational update for the period, the JSE-listed company said yesterday that gold output increased by 2 percent to 205 459 ounces compared to 201 777 ounces in the prior year. The 2023 annual production guidance was revised to 200 000 ounces, 5 percent higher than the initial guidance of 195 000 ounces. Net senior debt was lowered by 71.5 percent to $9.6 million (R165.8m) compared to the previous year’s $33.7m. Pan African Resources said it also strengthened its balance sheet, despite the payment of a record dividend, incurring significant growth and sustaining capital expenditure. Chief executive Cobus Loots said: “We are…

Old Mutual is on a quest to assist matriculants as they step closer to their final exams by providing them with online revision resources and a good study schedule that can help contribute to their success. The insurance company believes that making a good schedule starts now and is committed to helping learners to stay ahead in their studies. Senior project manager at Old Mutual, Kanyisa Diamond, said though the July holiday break was almost over, the free online tools supplied by Matric Live, Velle, and the Department of Education were still available to give the learners’ exam preparations that extra boost they may still need. Learners can download the Matric Live App from the Apple App Store and Android Play Store where they can access previous matric exam papers…

JUNE Yang thinks her recent string of bad luck might never end. The 11-year-old’s dad died because of a biking accident. In the six months since then, her mom has barely spoken a word. Then, after missing work for three weeks, her mom is fired and the family is evicted from their flat. June, her six-year-old sister, Maybelle, and her mom must find another place to live. When June arrives at the Huey House with her family, she is confused. She puts on a brave and happy face for her younger sister, but she doesn’t understand why the building has so many rules, such as a curfew and guidelines on what they can and cannot have in their rooms. Turns out it’s because the Huey House is a homeless shelter.…

The Shadow Child is a book of hope and reconciliation, of coming to terms with trauma and learning to love again. Most of all, it’s about how you can never quite escape from the shadows of your past – especially when one of those shadows is a child. Eighteen-year-old Emma has loving parents, a happy home life, and a promising future ahead of her. So why, one morning, does she leave home without a trace? Her parents Cath and Jim are devastated. They have no idea why Emma left, where she is – or even whether she is still alive. A year passes, and the couple are still coping with Emma’s absence, not to mention all of the unanswered questions she left behind. What Cath and Jim cannot know is…

Like a city whose walls are broken down, where the thieves and robbers go in and out as they please, so is South Africa. Whatever the government officials gain out of such a state of this country, is at the expense of the lives of South Africans. It becomes harder to find the perpetrators of the killing sprees that we see our country going through with so many undocumented immigrants scattered all over the country. The temptation of misbehaving is also too high for any illegal immigrant. Are we going sit back and watch our country transforming into a war zone where we are not safe anywhere at any time? Yes, the government we entrusted with our lives seems to have taken the back seat. Nevertheless, it is advisable for…

Our ever-crying beloved country will never experience a rapturous interlude in our lifetime. Said simply, there has not been a definite spring in our step since time immemorial. When those women warriors embarked on a peaceful protest march to the Union Buildings in 1956, our beloved country cried for racial and gender equality and human rights. When the youth of 1976 challenged the status quo, our beloved country grieved over the lack of social justice and human dignity. When our people were told by their leaders the nectar of their freedom would be free services for the poor such as health care, housing, education, water and electricity, our beloved country cried because those promises defied all economic laws and pure logic. Someone people must pay for these services now or…

Some of Mzansi’s favourite entertainers are set to grace the much-loved Jägermeister Night Embassy for the closing function at Moon Valley Studios in Bezuidenhout Valley, Joburg, tomorrow. Having brought people from all works of life for a memorable nightlife experience, they will be changing residences and wrapping it up full-blast with fun and entertainment. The Ambassadors, Unmuted, Other Village People, Kombonation and DormantYouth will perform on the night, as will leading acts Focalistic, Sizwe Alakine, Muzi, Gigi Lamayne, Gyre, House Of Diamonds by Vogue Nights Jozi, Moneybadoo and more. Ashley Moyo, Kooldrink, Nikki Newlands, RAMS Live Experience, Spontaneous, Omagoqa, That$hyHomie, Odyssey, Lubonk, Asante, Kaddy and Umgido complete the two-stage line-up. Lincoln Long, who is an ambassador, said: “We’ll see a change in nightlife where new collectives are able to…

The New Development Bank, which was formed in July, 2014 marks its eighth birthday this year. It was formed by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when they met in Fortaleza, Brazil, for the bloc’s summit. The bank was seen as a potential alternative to the World Bank. The New Development Bank has since approved 11 projects in South Africa and Lesotho. These involved sustainable energy, transportation, water resource management, and a Covid-19 emergency loan programme. Some of these projects, for instance the Environmental Protection Project for Medupi Thermal Power Plant, are of strategic importance to South Africa. This is in line with hopes that the bank would serve as a much-needed new source of financing for national and regional initiatives. Another hope was that it…

MAPUTO: Southern African countries agreed yesterday to extend their troop deployment in Mozambique for another month to help it fight an Islamic State-linked insurgency. The countries, linked in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), agreed last year to send troops to Mozambique. The mission’s mandate was set to end today but has been extended on an interim basis until an SADC heads of state summit in mid-August, when a more detailed report on the mission’s progress will be considered. The insurgency is concentrated in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. It has claimed thousands of lives. | Reuters…

Bangkok: A baby elephant was rescued from a manhole in central Thailand after its mother was sedated to allow the operation to proceed, wildlife officials said. The calf fell into the drainage trough on the outskirts of the Royal Hills golf course in Nakhon Nayok province this week. It’s distressed mother, believed to belong to an elephant herd travelling through the nearby jungle, stayed with the infant as it was unable to climb out of the steep pit. The pair were discovered by a resident, who alerted wildlife officials. The calf was eventually rescued from the pit and reunited with its mother. | AFP…

ANGLO American has partnered with Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation to accelerate the transition to lower-carbon steel-making to help drive emissions reduction. The group, which supplies coal and iron ore to steel customers around the world, said it signed a memorandum of understanding to work with Nippon Steel. Nippon Steel is engaged in steel manufacturing, engineering, chemical and materials, and system solutions. As part of this agreement, the two companies will research ways to optimise premium lump ore produced by Anglo American’s mines to decrease emissions via the traditional blast furnace steel-making process. The project will also focus on studying the use of Anglo Ameri- can’s iron ore in the more carbon-efficient direct reduction iron (DRI) steel-making method. “DRI is estimated to generate significantly lower emissions than the more prevalent steel-making…

PEPCO, the pan-European discount retailer and Steinhoff subsidiary, said its store expansion programme continued in the third quarter and it was on track to deliver on an upgraded target of 450 new stores in the 2022 financial year. Steinhoff International Holdings’ share price increased 4.03 percent to close at R2.58on the JSE yesterday – it is still a far cry from the R5.55 that it traded at on January 18, with the price having fell steadily since. The owner of the Pepco and Dealz brands in Europe and Poundland in the UK, said in a third quarter trading update that new store openings, the biggest driver of value creation in the group, had continued across all brands in the quarter to June 30, with 350 new stores added so…

ALTX-LISTED Kibo Energy, the renewable energy focused development company, has extended a power purchasing agreement (PPA) in Gauteng from 10 to 20 years. The agreement was first announced in February, 2022. It outlines the construction, commissioning, and operation of a 2.7MW plastic-to-syngas power plant to generate base-load electricity for an industrial business park developer in Gauteng. According to the company, the extended term to 20 years would improve the already compelling project highlights. It said the financials of the company would improve and that there would be an increase in projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation from R388 million to R953m of which R619m was attributable to the company. Kibo Energy said there would also be an improved Internal Rate of Return with a projected increase of…

A strike in the auto and motor sectors was a possibility, warned the president of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), Andrew Chirwa. He said workers would be left with no choice but to go on strike if employers did not come up with an offer. Numsa is one of the biggest unions to organise in the auto and motor sectors. Chirwa said workers in the auto sector were victims of the war between Ukraine and Russia as employers were using it to exploit workers. The increase in food and fuel prices was also a concern and the floods in KwaZulu-Natal had also affected workers in that part of the country. “The issue of a strike will be determined by the employers. Workers are victims of shortages…

SUSPENDED Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane intends to call President Cyril Ramaphosa to testify in the parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office. This was revealed by Mkhwebane’s legal representative, Dali Mpofu, when he addressed the inquiry before cross-examination of former SA Revenue Service executive Johann van Loggerenberg yesterday. “We are going to call the president. We are to write to him today or tomorrow to ask him, in line with the directives, if he is willing to come voluntarily. If not, we will initiate the process for him to be summoned.” The announcement came a day after Ramaphosa shot down a request by UDM leader Bantu Holomisa that he appear before the inquiry. Mpofu said the planned appearance of Ramaphosa would not be dealing with the suspension of Mkhwebane,…

WHAT happens when the person closest to you has led a life of deception? After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously. What does he hope to gain telling her this now, 30 years on? How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father? And why did her mother betray her so badly? She had accepted Sally’s many faults, and her reluctance to never speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother. Whatever the cost. Alice’s journey into her mother’s past is one of incredulity as she…

Amid evictions, raids, killings, the drug trade and fire, inner-city Johannesburg residents seek safety and a home. A grandmother struggles to keep her granddaughter as she is torn away from her. A mother seeks healing in the wake of her son’s murder. And displaced by a city’s drive for urban regeneration, a group of blind migrants try to carve out an existence. The Blinded City recounts the history of inner-city Johannesburg from 2010 to 2019, primarily from the perspectives of the unlawful occupiers of spaces known as hijacked buildings, bad buildings or dark buildings. Tens of thousands of residents, both South African and foreign national, live in these buildings in dire conditions. This book tells the story of these sites and the court cases around them, ones that strike at…

South Africans find themselves in an extremely difficult position where their lives are dominated by such a high degree of uncertainty that they never know what to expect from one moment to the next, leading to severe frustration. Load shedding, which has affected every aspect of our lives over a long period of time, has resulted in many people calling for Andre de Ruyter to resign. I admire him for his courage, resilience and strength in the face of so much challenge, criticism and complete lack of understanding by the public. It is a well-known fact that before 1994, electricity generation was not so demanding as only the privileged had access to it. With the promise that we would all have free water and electricity, more capacity for electricity generation…

As Nelson Mandela Day nears, people across the country have started making their mark to celebrate it by taking part in activities of great impact to others. To demonstrate support for the Caring4Girls initiative, a group of inspired individuals is summiting Mount Kilimanjaro for the Trek4Mandela annual expedition. The first climb will mark the official 10 years of the Trek4Mandela summit which will take place on July 18, the day marked as Mandela Day. This will include 19 climbers led by the Trek4Mandela Expedition leader, mountaineer and adventurer Sibusiso Vilane. One of the climbers, Lungelo Dlamini, who has been at the helm of the Trek4Mandela training programme, will be making his debut climb of the Mount Kilimanjaro training programme. Over the past five years, the Trek4Mandela has significantly contributed to…

RACISM continues to plague the nation, with complaints of discrimination, especially hate speech, among the most recorded by the South African Human Rights Commission (Sahrc) over the past financial year. The findings were part of the commission’s latest trend analysis report for 2020/2021 released yesterday. A total of 5 464 complaints were received by the commission in the past financial year alone, with equality complaints being the highest rights violation. “Violations of the right to equality on the grounds of race continue to be the highest reported ground of unfair discrimination, with a significant number of such complaints constituting race-based hate speech.” On average, the highest number of equality-related complaints were received in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape. The commission added that while Equality Courts had become increasingly accessible,…

For several months now the citizens of Sri Lanka, a small island nation south of the Indian subcontinent, have protested against a family dynasty which had until April seemed unassailable. But all things come to an end. On Saturday a planned demonstration finally tilted the scales of power, and Sri Lankans who are battling chronic shortages of food, fuel and medicines took over the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His brother, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, had overseen the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009 from a civil war which had dragged on since 1983. That defeat of the Tamil Tigers had cemented the dominance of the Rajapaksa clan, and after a short time out of power following an electoral loss, Gotabaya took over the reins in 2019 for…

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court yesterday sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners in the 1980s. Hamid Noury, 61, who was arrested at a Stockholm airport in 2019, was charged with war crimes for the mass execution and torture of political prisoners at the Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran, in 1988. Amnesty International has put the number executed on government orders at around 5 000, saying in a 2018 report that “the real number could be higher”. Iran has never acknowledged the killings. Noury has who denies the charges. | Reuters…

IRELAND coach Andy Farrell said yesterday his team will play by the rules in their series-deciding Test against New Zealand to avoid the red and yellow cards that mark modern rugby. Debate has raged over Test referees’ use of cards to improve player safety under a World Rugby framework designed to protect the head. In New Zealand’s 23-12 defeat to Ireland in Dunedin last Saturday, the hosts lost two players to yellow cards and replacement prop Angus Ta’avao to a red for a head clash with Garry Ringrose. The first-half incident appeared accidental, but contravened new expectations for defenders to lower their body position. All Black coach Ian Foster said on Sunday that international rugby risked becoming a “card festival” – echoing the views of his England counterpart Eddie Jones,…

THERE will be plenty of pre-season football action in KwaZulu-Natal this month as the Province prepares to host the KZN Premier’s Cup and the Prince Mangosuthu Legacy Cup. The Legacy Cup will be the first to get underway as it will be held for the first time since 2018 in Ulundi on July 23. The tournament which will honour amaZulu prime minister Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi is set to feature Mamelodi Sundowns, AmaZulu, Richards Bay and the Zululand Eleven team. The tournament started in 2017 and has been pioneered by AmaZulu, who are the oldest active professional football club in South Africa - having been formed in 1932. Tickets for the Legacy Cup are on sale at TicketPro from R20 and Zululand District mayor Thulasizwe Buthelezi has said that the…

THE MINING sector could be the Achilles heel to the expected economic recovery in South Africa this year as output remains sluggish, pressured by ongoing power cuts and a three-month strike in the gold sector. This comes as South African mining output struggled to fully recover in May, firmly remaining on a contractionary trajectory even though it fell less than expected. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) yesterday showed that mining production shrank by 7.8 percent year-on-year in May following a downwardly revised 14.8 percent slump in April. Though this production reading was better than market forecasts of a 10.8 percent plunge, it marked the fourth consecutive month of a downturn in mining activity. Stats SA’s principal survey statistician, Juan-Pierre Terblanche, said production was driven lower…

SOME YEARS ago, while the engine room of business continued to grind away, I found myself, working re- motely, enjoying a time of quiet reflection, which allowed me to take stock of certain realities. As one does in such times, grati- tude comes to the fore, not least of all for the incredible team at Business Report (BR) and Personal Finance (PF), that I have had the privilege of working with, for their dedication and quality reporting and being willing to face criticism and scepticism each time they broke a story. I also had the opportunity to reflect on some of the achievements and successes our publications have engendered, as it is so easy to lose sight of the good we have accomplished while deep in the trenches. There was,…

A BI-PROVINCIAL music festival aimed at celebrating the lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions has attracted guests who willingly are paying up to R50 000 to sit at tables that reflect President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farmgate scandal. The festival, involving KwaZulu-Natal’s Eyadini Lounge in Durban and Mpumalanga’s Ebukhosini Resort in Nkomazi near the Mozambican border, will be headlined by top performers including gospel artist Rebecca Malope, trio TKZee, Afro-soul maestro Samthing Soweto and amapiano international sensation Focalistic. “We named our tables accordingly because we wanted to be relevant to what is happening in our country today. As festival promoters who suffered during the hard lockdown, we felt we needed something that would attract guests. “That is why we came up with a VIP theme that speaks directly to what happened…

THE battle for the top leadership of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has turned ugly with allegations that the union had suspended its female national office-bearer to stop her from going to congress. On Wednesday, the union announced that it had suspended its second deputy president, Ruth Ntlokotse. Several reasons were given for the suspension, including allegations of sowing disunity in the union. Ntlokotse is also the president of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu). In an interview with The Star, Ntlokotse said she was being stopped from contesting in the upcoming congress. She said she believed her suspension was as a result of tensions between her and the union’s general secretary, Irvin Jim. The Star understands that Ntlokotse had not been given a suspension letter.…

“MIDLIFE” is one of those words that conjures all sorts of stereotypes that have to do with falling apart and acting out, but I was finding it a wonderful, fruitful time of my life. I was nowhere near perfect – nor am I now – but by the age of 45, I was feeling pretty confident about the choices I’d made, the things I’d learnt from my mistakes, and the way in which I had furnished my life and steered my career. Business was exciting. Travel was easy. My ideas were solid and workable. My client base was growing. My partners in business were enthusiastic. My friends and family were supportive. I had published four books and spoken to audiences across the world. And, despite a sharp eye forever trained…

JULY 13, 2022 is a very important day for the SACP and other political commentators. It is a day when the SACP commenced its 15th national congress and when the current general secretary is expected to step down as the leader. But is he really stepping down? This will be the wrong characterisation of the event because the party will be electing new leadership and if he is not available, that should not mean he is stepping down. However, the congress is important for the country as whole because we want to see what the new leadership is bringing to the table. The most important is expected to be that of giving us the direction and clarity on what the party is planning to achieve or fight for. We are…

It seems like empowering women and representing the country on bigger stages are great elements that bring out the best in the reigning queen of South Africa Lalela Mswane. The beauty queen is in Poland where she is set to contest with women from across the globe for the coveted title of Miss Supranational today. Mswane had already been dominating some parts of the competition after being identified as one of the favourites. Mswane has been voted into the contest’s coveted Top 10 Model of the Year slot and she has made it through to round two of the Miss Supra Influencer segment of the competition. Speaking from Poland, she said she was having a wonderful time. “I am having the time of my life. Making it into round 2…

SOMETIMES heroes don’t wear capes. They just donate much-needed blood regularly. Forty-five-year-old Elton May, a senior assistant librarian at the Joburg City Library, is one of hordes of city employees who have donated blood. May’s first blood donation was as an 18-year-old matriculant when the South African National Blood Service visited his school in 1996. May says after being told the importance of donating blood and how it helped people, he decided that he would continue to donate blood. “I was curious and young, so I thought let me just give it a try and see if I like it or not. “It was a bit scary because it was a first-time experience,” he says. “Surprisingly, it all went smoothly.” He says this was the start of something that became…

Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera journalist, died on May 11. She did not succumb to sickness, human frailty, a freak accident, or the modern Covid-related causes. Abu Akleh died a brutal and undeserving, nauseating death. Death in a hail of bullets at the hands of Israeli forces. Abu Akleh, a long-standing member of the press corps, was on duty. The evidence for such was that her identifiable media outfit, beyond any doubt, distinguished her and her team from others. Abu Akleh’s death was not ordinary, but the 51-year-old was callously gunned down with a head shot, and her blood flowed on the soil of occupied Palestine, where she worked despite her American citizenship. A complete human with a beautiful soul regrettably died not as the first journalist killed…

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has submitted a letter of resignation, two government sources said yesterday, after he fled to Singapore following mass protests over his country’s economic meltdown. Rajapaksa emailed a letter of resignation to the speaker of the country’s parliament, two sources said. It was not clear if the letter, sent soon after Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore, would be accepted in email form. In commercial capital Colombo, troops patrolled the streets to enforce a curfew. Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives to escape a popular uprising over his family’s role in a crippling economic crisis, headed on to Singapore on a Saudi Arabian airline flight, according to a person familiar with the situation. A passenger on the flight, who declined to be named, said Rajapaksa was met by…

SUVA: Pacific island leaders have agreed to take a united approach as the US and China vie for influence in the region, and to push developed nations for bolder action on climate change, which they say is the biggest threat they face. The leaders agreed to consult each other before entering into security arrangements, said forum secretary-general Henry Puna. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said a security deal struck with China in May, prompting concern from the US, Australia and New Zealand, would not allow a Chinese military base in his country because he didn’t want it to become a target. | Reuters…

WHY have Wales managed to push South Africa during the Incoming Series, and what will prove the difference in the deciding Test at Cape Town Stadium tomorrow? If you consider how Wales’ Six Nations campaign went, with them losing at home to Italy just four months ago, compared to South Africa, who came into this Series as world champions and Lions Series winners, you wouldn’t have needed a bookie to let you in on where the money’s at. The Springboks were the favourites by way more than a mile. But looking at the first two Tests, there wasn’t that much daylight between the two sides, in fact, the Springboks found themselves a few steps behind Wales at times. In the first Test, which was one that could have gone…

THE message to the South African players is clear – play with more intensity and aggression. Both elements were lacking in a dreadful defeat to England in the first One-Day International on Monday, and if they are to avoid further embarrassment in Bristol today, then they need those two aspects to work well. That doesn’t mean being reckless, it is simply to show England that they won’t be allowed to dictate terms, as was the case in the first match. The Proteas were too passive, attempting to play a version of the game that was long ago made defunct. It is not the way they’ll win a trophy but thankfully in the aftermath of that defeat, it is something of which they are aware. “We need to play positive cricket,…