Inhoudsopgave van 2021-07-14 - Mercury

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za TONGAAT Hulett’s share price leapt by 8 percent on the JSE yesterday morning after the agriculture and agri-processing group reduced its net debt by 42 percent for the year to the end of March, despite a huge fall in earnings. The group reported net debt of R6.57 billion at the end of the period, down from R11.35bn compared to last year. Chief financial officer Rob Aitken said Tongaat was pleased with the 42 percent reduction in its debt during the financial year. “We want to continue reducing the debt in the next coming months, and we are targeting a sustainable debt level of R3bn. We hope that we would be able to slash it by a further R3bn in the next nine months-to-three-year…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za FINANCIAL services, retail and telecommunications stocks yesterday bore the brunt of the mayhem and unrest that has swept through KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng for the fourth day. Nedbank declined by 5.45 percent to R164.21, First Rand was down 5.36 percent to R53.19 a share, Standard Bank fell by 4.79 percent to R124.55 a share, while Absa fell by 0.64 percent to R581 a share. Africa’s retail giant Shoprite was down 4.07 percent to R153.15 a share, Spar was 3.77 percent lower to R175.87 and Pick n Pay weakened by 1.94 percent to R51.58 a share. Beauty and fashion retailers were not spared. Truworths fell by 5.49 percent to R57.49 a share, The Foschini Group (TFG) fell by 3.07 percent to R154.51 a share, and Woolworths fell by 3.63…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za PAN African Resources, the JSE-listed mid-tier gold producer, pushed through its degearing plan and surpassed its output target for the year ended June 2021 on the back of an improvement at the Barberton Underground Mines, the group said yesterday. Pan African said senior debt had declined by 45.5 percent to $33.8 million (R482m), from $62m at the end of June last year. The company said that in dollar terms, this represented a reduction in net senior debt of 43.6 percent rela- tive to the debt levels at December 31, 2020, of $59.9m (R880.5m at an exchange rate of rand/dollar of 14.78). “We have now largely achieved the degearing of our balance sheet, and current debt levels are very manage- able, enabling the group…

SA businesses count cost of the frenzied looting Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za South African businesses yesterday continued to count the costs of property as the frenzied looting and vandalism of shopping malls and industrial parks went up a few notches. The ongoing violent protests taking place across KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng since the weekend escalated further with the looting of distribution warehouses yesterday, with more than 700 looters arrested. Market observers have warned that the volatile situation may now lead to breakdowns of supply chains, leading to food insecurity as some customers go on panic buying amid the emptying of shelves during the unrest. Intellidex’s Peter Attard Montalto said the situation will not be solved by community engagement kumbaya, but by the breaking of a cycle of impunity…

HOW to help someone who is grieving a significant loss: Do not talk about your own losses and pains, no matter how significant they have been. These are important to you and your life, not to the person who is suffering. Resist the urge to resort to meaningless clichés even if you think they are meaningful. Clichés about break-ups, death and dying abound. Please, resist. It’s better to say nothing than succumb to the discomfort of silence with uncomfortable rambling. Trust silence. Let the person who is grieving choose the content of conversation, if there is to be any. Resist referring to the future. Try to understand the grieving person probably doesn’t think there will be one. Allow the grieving person all the room they may need for despondency. Your…

DR BARLOW GOVENDER | Morningside AS WE undoubtedly face challenging and disturbing times in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that go with it, we are burdened with the civil uprising and unrest that is engulfing our cities, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. There seems to be an error of judgement, strategy as well as political leadership in dealing with the unrest and looting taking place. If there was proper crime intelligence, the state may have been better prepared to deal with the uprising. It all started in KZN on Thursday and surely your intelligence agencies should have alerted you to the possibility of more violence? It seems that this was not the case. The looting and destruction of property and belongings is unacceptable. What is more worrying…

VA VOLKER | Pietermaritzburg THE local government elections will probably to be held within less than 100 days and, come to think of it, it will be, to a large extent, the same people who ran amok to loot shops and destroy essential infrastructure, and burn shopping centres and trucks who will vote to elect the councillors to run the affairs of Pietermaritzburg and local authorities in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. It is unlikely that the people consider their, and the communities’ future beyond the day to day. On paper, South Africa has a commendable Constitution. We also have a limited number of selfless, responsible and community-oriented people in the government, business and social society. However, it would appear that we collectively also lack the ability to ensure that…

THE IFP believes that the number of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops deployed to KwaZulu-Natal – in particular to Pietermaritzburg and surrounds – will be woefully ineffective to support the South African Police Service (SAPS) in quelling the violence, looting and destruction of property in the province. We are extremely concerned that nothing has changed overnight since the president addressed the nation. While we have issued a statement on the president’s hollow response to the violence gripping our country, it appears that the SANDF is nowhere to be found. Furthermore, the IFP strongly believes that the mere deployment of the SANDF is not enough to contain the situation, as we stand on the precipice of a national crisis. A contingent of only 2 500 troops deployed nationwide, versus…

The death toll from a fire that tore through a Covid-19 hospital in southern Iraq rose to 92, health officials said yesterday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there. Twelve people were still missing, two health sources said, suggesting the toll from Monday night’s fire in Nassirya could climb higher still. More than 100 others were injured in the blaze, which an investigation showed began when sparks from faulty wiring spread to an oxygen tank that then exploded, police and civil defence authorities said. It was Iraq’s second such tragedy in three months, and yesterday the country’s president blamed corruption for both. Rescue teams were using a heavy crane to remove the charred and melted remains of the part of the city’s…

Thailand defended mixing two different Covid-19 vaccines to battle a surge in infections, after the World Health Organisation’s top scientist warned it was a “dangerous trend” not backed by evidence. The kingdom is struggling to contain its latest outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, with cases and deaths rocketing and the health-care system stretched thin. Authorities said they would mix a first dose of the Chinese-made Sinovac jab with a second dose of AstraZeneca to try to achieve a “booster” effect in six weeks instead of 12. Thailand’s chief virologist Yong Poovorawan said this would be possible by combining an inactivated virus vaccine, Sinovac, with a viral vector vaccine such as AstraZeneca. His comments come a day after the WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan called the strategy a…

JERUSALEM: Israel wants foreign aid to Gaza disbursed through a voucher system, as a safeguard against donations being diverted to bolster the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers and their arsenal, a government minister said yesterday. Humanitarian agencies put the latest reconstruction costs for the impoverished Gaza Strip at $500 million following 11 days of cross-border fighting in May. Qatar bankrolled more than $1 billion worth of construction and other projects in Gaza, some of it in cash, after a war in 2014. The payments were monitored and approved by Israel, and Doha pledged another $500 million in late May. | Reuters…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE WORLD Bank has warned of continued social unrest in South Africa if the government does not speed up the implementation of economic reforms to address inequality. The country has been engulfed by unprecedented unrest, accompanied by the destruction of industrial parks and shopping malls, since the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma. The 13th edition of the bank’s South Africa Economic Update released on Monday said the Covid-19 crisis was widening inequality by contribut- ing to severe and unequal job losses. The report has a special focus on South Africa’s employment performance, particularly as impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. It found that low-wage workers suffered almost four times more job losses than high-wage earners. At least 1.4 million people had lost their jobs by the end…

A trust CAN hold and distribute trust funds at any time, but this must be done in accordance with both the terms of the trust instrument and the purpose for which the trust was created. This may involve distributing the income of the trust among family members in a tax-effective way over many years, or providing capital from the trust at a time when it will most benefit the beneficiaries in the future, for example when purchasing a home. In practice, often trustees disregard the purpose for which the trust was set up, as reflected in its objective in the trust instrument, and blindly allocate all income and capital gains to beneficiaries (without making any payment to them) in an attempt to avoid or save tax. Little do they realise…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s mining production grew 21.9 percent year-on-year in May following the record 117.4 percent growth a month earlier, but fell by 3.5 percent month-on-month, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) said. The year-on-year growth in mining output was propelled by platinum group metals (PGMs), gold, iron ore and manganese ore, said StatsSA. Production in May was lower than the 31.5 percent year-on-year consensus forecast by Bloomberg. In May last year, production fell 21.7 percent because of the lockdown. Bloomberg said output was up 5.6 percent during the three months to the end of May, driven by a 12.9 percent increase in PGMs, a 9.1 percent increase in gold and a 13.5 percent improvement in manganese. Mineral sales grew 88.2…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo and Sibusiso Mboto POLICE Minister Bheki Cele urged communities in KwaZulu-Natal, especially in Durban, to refrain from taking the law into their own hands, saying this had sparked racial tensions. This follows reports that some community members, acting to protect their properties, had started attacking other racial groups alleging that they were responsible for the damage or theft of their belongings. Authorities have reported several racially motivated attacks in areas such as Phoenix, Chatsworth and parts of Pietermaritzburg. The scramble for food and other household items has allegedly triggered racial tensions in different parts of KZN, with claims that some stores were turning away black customers. Cele was speaking during the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster media briefing yesterday, on the containment of looting taking place in…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za DEFENCE and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula will today face members of Parliament amid the violence raging in some cities with calls for more soldiers to be deployed. This comes after it was announced that soldiers would be sent to volatile areas in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. However, in KZN yesterday looting continued with large warehouses in industrial areas in Springfield Park, Queen Nandi Drive and other areas being targeted despite the deployment. The chairperson of the joint standing committee on defence, Cyril Xaba, said it wanted to meet the minister. “The committee has considered it urgent to interact with the minister and the top brass of the military to receive a briefing on the internal security situation following the outbreak of unrest. “It is calling for calm…

HOW often does one have a double whammy like this? Within two days, a proclamation continuing 1920s America-style Prohibition – abolition of the demon booze – then a calling in of the army to help restore order? Okay, much of the disorder did involve liquor stores, but that’s coincidental and partial. The big thing is that few, if any of us, could have experienced two such developments in just a matter of days. I’d been having some dealings with my local Postnet branch that helped me by getting a legal document off my laptop, printing it out for me to sign, then scanning it back into another email. It worked like a charm. Lovely, helpful ladies at Postnet Windermere. But then when I got home the mouse of my laptop…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof JACOB Zuma must be smiling from his prison cell, watching KwaZulu-Natal go up in flames in his name. We see violent protests spread like wildfire all over KZN, even spilling over to Gauteng. Zuma supporters have created mayhem, looting and vandalising private property. They blocked roads, stoned motorists and torched several vehicles. Millions of rand went up in smoke. What mindless destruction. It is obvious the police were caught off guard. Instead of imposing their authority in Nkandla, they let Zuma protesters gather in numbers – in open defiance of the lockdown regulations. And so, we are paying a heavy price for poor, ineffective law enforcement. Outnumbered and overpowered, the police struggled to quell the rioting. And all the leaders could do in this…

MARY DE HAAS | Durban THE government was far too slow in taking preventive action after clear threats of destabilisation had been made by, among others, Edward and Duduzane Zuma, and widely advertised on social media. Given the number of ANC cadres with grievances about being suspended and side-lined and denied the opportunity to carry on looting state coffers, it should have been obvious that their threats would probably be carried out, using Jacob Zuma’s incarceration as a pretext. It was also likely that the unrest would spread to Gauteng, since criminals, including hit men, regularly vanish into hostels when sought by the police in this province. The Zuma faction and their radical economic transformation allies know that it is very easy to recruit hungry people to loot…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za GUN OWNERS have welcomed the extension of the deadline to make submissions on the Firearms Amendment Bill, granted by Police Minister Bheki Cele. The deadline of the bill, which has courted controversy due to some of the amendments, has been extended. Gun law expert lawyer Martin Hood said they had to go to court to get an extension for the bill. Earlier this year, Hood said proposals in the bill, including the removal of the right to own a firearm for self-protection, which accounted for about 50% of licences, was inappropriate in light of the rising crime rate in South Africa and the declining ability of the SAPS to fulfil its mandate. Hood also said at the time that not only did the bill eliminate the right…

Vernon Mchunu vernon.mchunu@inl.co.za AS KWAZULU-NATAL Premier Sihle Zikalala estimated that this week’s looting and sabotage will cost more than R1 billion in repairs, the state-owned insurer for private and public entities said it was all geared up to assist with claims. While the eThekwini municipal bus and refuse collection services remained suspended for safety reasons, Zikalala said most municipalities in the province were affected by the looting, with the destruction of infrastructure and service delivery disruptions. “We estimate that the destruction to both private and public infrastructure will amount to not less than R1bn, and that is a very conservative estimate,” said Zikalala, who delivered a State of the Province update yesterday morning following a night of continued looting of supermarkets and small businesses. The SA Special Risk Insurance Association…

Sihle Mavuso and Kailene Pillay As some parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng burn, the Minister of State Security, Ayanda Dlodlo, said they are probing information that some intelligence operatives loyal to former president Jacob Zuma could be behind the unrest. Yesterday Dlodlo was part of a media briefing of the security cluster ministers and was asked about the matter. She said the State Security Agency was also looking into senior members of the ANC, who have been the public faces of support for the former president. She added that they did receive this piece of intelligence information. “Any information that comes through, we investigate, do analysis and sift fact from fiction. So we are in the process of doing that. That information you have, we also have,” Dlodlo told…

Mamongae Mahlare Recently Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza was accompanied by media and key stakeholders on a site visit to witness first-hand the development of 3 000 hectares of sugar cane on communal land by small-scale growers. The occasion was the celebration by sugar giant Illovo Sugar SA of the culmination of its R127 million life-changing Small-Scale Grower Cane Development Project, implemented in partnership with the National Treasury Jobs Fund, that has created more than 860 sustainable jobs in KwaZulu-Natal while empowering women and youth to participate in the rural economy. The minister had wet eyes when Nomanesi Ngcobo, a small-scale grower, related how the Illovo Small-Scale Grower Project moved her from despair to an independent grower filled with hope. Ngcobo said when she…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa continues to send a chilling message with his persistent stance of snubbing questions during his addresses on issues of national importance, especially for a president who came into power on a ticket of accountability. This was seen again most recently when he spoke to the nation on the unrest that threatens to delay vaccination roll-out and affect food security. It's only when briefing on the outcomes of the ANC’s NEC meeting that he takes questions, a responsibility that is often given to the party’s secretary general. In the absence of valid reasons for this bizarre approach, it’s easy to conclude that perhaps Ramaphosa sold South Africans a false hope when he was desperate to take over the country’s top office. Can this be a sign that he…

A Chinese man has been reunited with his kidnapped son after a 24-year search that saw him travel half a million kilometres across China on a motorbike, chasing tip-offs on the boy’s whereabouts. Guo Gangtang’s son was just two years and five months old when he was abducted from in front of the family home in eastern Shandong province, where he was playing unattended. Traffickers snatched the boy and sold him to a family in central China, the ministry of public security said yesterday. Kidnapping and child trafficking became widespread in China from the 1980s, when the draconian, one-child rule was enforced, and a cultural obsession with sons fuelled demand for abducted boys. After years of searching, police told Guo on Sunday that a DNA test had confirmed that a…

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden, under pressure from civil rights leaders, travelled to Philadelphia yesterday to issue a strong appeal for sweeping voting rights legislation that is stalled in Congress due largely to Republican opposition. A dozen Republican-controlled states have approved laws that restrict voting or change election rules in response to former president Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Biden calls these laws “authoritarian and anti-American”. Democrats have struggled to fight the spate of restrictions that critics say are aimed at black, Hispanic and younger voters. | Reuters…

PARIS: France’s antitrust watchdog yesterday slapped a €500 million (R8.6 billion) fine on Alphabet’s Google for failing to comply with the regulator’s orders on how to conduct talks with the country’s news publishers in a row over copyright. The fine comes amid increasing international pressure on Google and Facebook to share more revenue with news outlets. The US tech group must now come up with proposals within the next two months on how it would compensate news agencies and other publishers for the use of their news. If it does not do that, it would face additional fines of up to €900 000 (R15.5 million) a day. | Reuters…

Mozambique central bank fines Standard Bank for Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE CENTRAL bank of Mozambique has fined Africa’s biggest lender, Standard Bank, $4.6 million (about R67m) for engaging in fraudulent activities, the Bank of Mozambique said this week. The central bank also fined two of Standard Bank’s employees about $223 000 and $101 000 each, and barred the bank from engaging in some exchange-related activities for a year, it said in a statement. Standard Bank, which is based in South Africa, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The central bank said that following on-site inspections, “infringement proceedings were brought against that bank (Standard Bank) and two of its managers … for serious breaches of a prudential and exchange rate nature”. It alleged the bank…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za MPACT said yesterday it has been informed by the Competition Commission that Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers had not been granted a merger notification that would pave a way for it to acquire Mpact. This comes after Caxton informed the commission at the end of last month that it wanted to increase its stake from 32 percent to a majority controlling stake in Africa’s largest paper and plastics packaging business. Caxton also notified the commission that it sought to obtain merger approval in terms of the Competition Act in advance of triggering the mandatory offer in order to obtain regulatory certainty and to avoid any unnecessary delays in the implementation of the mandatory offer. However, Mpact informed its shareholders yesterday that the Competition Commission had…

Sasria urges SA to be vigilant and adequately insure against civil unrest Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za THE SOUTH African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria) said yesterday that South Africans need to be vigilant in safeguarding themselves and their possessions, and should ensure they have adequate cover against civil unrest. Sasria, the state-owned insurer, said an average of 2.26 protests a day have been reported in South Africa over the past seven years – for anything from labour issues to municipal services, corruption and governance – and South Africans were not strangers to protests and riots. However, the large-scale looting and burning of malls in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng has brought insurance cover to the fore once again. The insurer said although 62 percent of protests were peaceful, the recent protests in…

Xolile Bhengu, Karen Singh and Sibusiso Mboto Residents in several parts of Durban and Pietermaritzburg queued outside shops from the early hours of yesterday morning, anxious to get food and essentials. With shops looted and torched in several areas in both cities, residents flocked to stores that had not been affected, panic-buying whatever they could find. Glenwood and Umbilo ward councillor Mmabatho Tembe said: “Although we understand panic buying with all the uncertainty in the province at large, we are asking people to be considerate in their purchases. Old people who live alone and in old-age homes still need to buy the same milk, bread and toilet paper that people are buying in bulk.” Isipingo ward councillor Sunil Brijmohan said residents were mobilising to protect local shops to ensure…

The ashes of Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, renowned for her diamond-studded glamour, witty quips and nine marriages, were buried in Budapest yesterday almost five years after her death. Gabor’s ashes were laid to rest in a prominent cemetery in the capital city alongside other famous Hungarian actors, writers and poets, in a ceremony where a gypsy band played and her favourite yellow and pink roses were on display. Born Sari Gabor into a wealthy Hungarian family, she was named Miss Hungary in the 1930s. Her last husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, to whom she was married from 1986 until her death aged 99 in 2016, said that in her will she expressed a wish to end up in Hungary. Von Anhalt said he carried an urn with three-quarters of…

GABRIELE MARAIS | Gillitts WITH reference to the letter by Jeremy Gordon (The Mercury, July 8), one needs to look at the data cited and actualities, according to the World Health Organization. The countries that are mentioned, like Brazil, are at the top end of the infection scale. Mexico just recently announced that numerous contestants in the Miss Mexico Pageant tested positive for Covid-19. With reference to Nigeria and Egypt, one needs to look at the number of tests done per million of the population. The numbers are negligible. South Africa is way ahead in testing as far as numbers go. The so-called Bird group is also directly involved in promoting the usage of ivermectin, so can one really rely on scientific accuracy? Let’s listen to real scientists…

DUNCAN DU BOIS | Vice-chairperson, Bluff Ratepayers’ Association THE anarchic conditions of brazen looting and arson have alarmed all law-abiding people and raised the question of why the much-touted eThekwini Disaster Management Plan is not being implemented. In the past when oil storage tanks at Island View caught fire, there was immediate reaction by metro fire and police to protect ratepayers and their property. The Bluff Ratepayers’ Association asks why there is no metro reaction to the wanton destruction of its rates base as shopping centres are set on fire and looted by criminal mobs. When the lockdown was in progress and the beaches were closed, the SANDF accosted people on the beach and surfers in the water. Where is the SANDF now that there is an…

Xolile Bhengu xolile.bhengu@inl.co.za THE Covid-19 pandemic has not only impacted businesses and the economy but its wrath may have negative consequences for the health of women and children. Dr Norah Maitisa, medical director for Organon South Africa, said generally women tend to seek healthcare services readily compared to their male counterparts. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, access had been impacted directly by the lockdown measures imposed but also due to fear of contracting the virus in these high-risk facilities, therefore reducing utilisation of healthcare services. Maitisa said: “If women have no or limited access to healthcare facilities for whatever reason, it may result in poor access to sexual reproductive health services like accessing free condoms and contraceptives, leading to unintended pregnancies most of which may happen even among young schoolgoing…

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), has warned of “devastating outbreaks” caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19, saying that the new strain of the virus was infecting people “at a scorching pace”. “Last week marked the fourth consecutive week of increasing cases of Covid-19 globally,” Tedros said in a virtual press conference from Geneva. “After 10 weeks of declines, deaths are increasing again.” The virus variant first identified in India in October 2020 has now spread to 104 countries. “The Delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace, driving a new spike in cases and deaths,” he warned. | Xinhua…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za AT LEAST 102 claimants who lodged claims with the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and proposed settlements may approach the court if they are not paid within the agreed 120 days. Lawyer JP Rudd of Adams & Adams has written to RAF chief executive Collins Letsoalo demanding immediate action or they would head to court. Rudd said in the letter, to which he is still awaiting a response, that all these claims had been quantified in full. Settlement proposals have furthermore been directed to the RAF claims handlers, some of which date as far back as January 2019. Rudd said, despite this, the RAF failed and/or refused to settle the matters. “The taxpayers will now, as a result, be saddled with the costs of these matters proceeding to…

| Mercury Correspondent AS the vaccination roll-out programme in the Basic Education Department sector is expected to conclude today, the Department of Health has advised that education staff who missed their appointments due to the violent protests will get another opportunity to be vaccinated. The roll-out programme for the sector was extended from last week until today after additional doses for people became available. The initial target was 582 564. Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the department received reports of disruptions over the past days at their vaccination sites in Gauteng and KZN due to the unrest. National health spokesperson Popo Maja said the department was assessing the impact of affected vaccination sites. “The Electronic Vaccine Data System will automatically reschedule appointments for those unable to attend; it…

Without governing party’s support, Zuma’s bid to side-step law would be comical Siseko Maposa ADVOCATE Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s comments on Jacob Zuma will be remembered as one of the most definitive moments in articulating the legacy of the former president’s latter years. On July 6, in a case presented by Zuma’s legal team to have his Constitutional Court order of imprisonment put on hold pending the review of his sentencing application, Advocate Ngcukaitobi, acting for the state capture commission, told Judge Mnguni of the KZN High Court that Zuma was a “repetitive, recalcitrant lawbreaker”. Advocate Ngcukaitobi’s labelling of Zuma is startling, given that Zuma devoted years of his life fighting for the establishment of democracy and constitutional rule of law in South Africa. He is now old at…

The Taliban do not want to battle government forces inside Afghanistan’s cities and would rather see them surrender, a senior insurgent leader said yesterday, as the militants also warned Turkey against extending its troop presence. The hardline Islamist group has swept through much of the north as foreign troops complete their withdrawal, and the government now holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be resupplied by air. As security deteriorates, France yesterday became the latest country to call on its citizens to leave – offering them a last flight out of Kabul, free of charge, on Saturday. “The Embassy of France formally recommends to all French citizens to take this special flight or to leave the country immediately by their own means,” the embassy said.…

Rescuers in northern India were digging through rocks and mud searching for the missing yesterday, after heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and flash floods in two states, killing at least six people, officials said. TV footage and video on social media showed roads, cars and homes being washed away in Dharamshala in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, which has been lashed by torrential rains since the weekend. One body was recovered and five people were rescued at Boh village, where one of the landslides took place, officials said. Two more bodies were found in landslides and flash floods elsewhere in the state. In the neighbouring state of Uttarakhand, officials said that three members of a family were killed when their house collapsed during a landslide on Sunday. Dharamshala is…

Cannes: US director Oliver Stone presented his latest movie at Cannes yesterday, claiming that US president John F Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA because he stood up to the American military. Stone, whose new documentary on the killing was premiering at the Cannes film festival, also told reporters that he thought it was fear of being bumped off that kept Barack Obama from challenging the military and intelligence agencies during his time in office. “Obama, one of his biggest concerns when he was president, was being assassinated because he was the first black president,” Stone said. Stone’s new documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, pulls together evidence gathered in the three decades since his classic drama JFK. Stone said it was now known “for sure” that accused gunman…

Manila: Philippine police have won in a battle of the bulge after the force dropped a requirement for officers seeking promotion to meet body fat targets, an official document showed yesterday. Expanding waistlines have been a hefty problem among police in the Southeast Asian country for years. A 2019 study showed almost 35% of personnel were overweight and nearly 10% obese. Rules introduced at the start of the pandemic by former police chief Debold Sinas – who publicly acknowledged his own efforts to shed kilos through diet and exercise – made it compulsory for members of the force to work out daily. | AFP…