Inhoudsopgave van 2021-12-15 - Mercury

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za MTN NIGERIA, a unit of the MTN Group, cemented its position as a leading mobile operator in that country, after securing the 100MHZ spectrum licences in the 3.5GHz spectrum band that will be used for the fifth generation (5G) network during an auction by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the company said yesterday. The licence was awarded a month after MTN Nigeria received an in-principle approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate mobile money services, with the aim of driving financial inclusion. Commenting on the award, MTN Nigeria chief executive Karl Toriola said 5G was the future of technology and offered the possibility of new and advanced services for customers. “Our successful bid represents an opportunity to be at the forefront of these technological advancements…

Lutho Pasiya lutho.pasiya@inl.co.za The holiday season has finally arrived! The holidays tend to be a busy time for shopping, family get-togethers, and a lot of cooking. If your holiday schedule involves hosting large parties, a small family dinner, or anything in between, you need some smart cooking tips to help save you time in the kitchen so you can also enjoy the holiday gatherings. And below we have some cooking hacks that can save you time this season: Softening cold butter An ingredient that frequently trips me up is softened butter. I cannot ever seem to remember to take the butter out of the refrigerator in time to bring it to room temperature. A quick remedy I have recently learned is to cut the butter into chunks and place it…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za THE spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, said it should not be surprising that the former president’s tell-all book sold out within hours of being released on Monday. He said this was a demonstration that there had been a huge appetite from many people across the country to hear Zuma’s side of the story about what happened during his term in office. “This book removes this nonsensical narrative of the so-called ‘wasted years’ under former president Zuma, and gives a factual account of his achievements while still in office. So it comes as no surprise that it did so well on the day of its release,” said Manyi. According to Manyi, some of the achievements by Zuma addressed in the book included: Building two universities…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za WATER boards should provide quarterly reports so that governance challenges can be identified early and resolved quickly, water and sanitation portfolio committee chairperson Robert Mashego said yesterday. He was speaking on the sidelines of a visit by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and his deputy, David Mahlobo, in KwaZulu-Natal as part of a stakeholder engagement meeting. The minister and his deputy visited uMkhanyakude and Richards Bay on Monday and yesterday, just a week after one of KZN’s water entities, Mhlathuze Water, announced that it was placing on special leave its two top executives, chief executive Mthokozisi Duze and chief financial officer Babongile Mnyandu. This pending an investigation into allegations received by the organisation. The board had stressed that placing the duo on special leave did not…

I HAVE noticed a theme emerging: adult sons and daughters dominating and being severely unkind to elderly parents. If you are an adult son or daughter inflicting this kind of pain on your parents, I beseech you to stop. You’re doing yourself no favours, never mind the pain you are inflicting on a parent or parents. I have heard this behaviour excused with, “she was a terrible mother and she deserves it” or “he worked all the time when I was a child, I can’t be available whenever he wants”. I’ve also heard things like, “you have no idea what I have put up with, he’s lucky I talk to him at all”. I implore you, please stop. Unkindness now will fix nothing of a painful past. If it’s humanly…

PATRICK PILLAY | DLC Leader I reply to the letter to the Editor by the former DA, Freedom Front Plus and Mosa member Duncan du Bois’s attack on the DLC that smacks of narcissism (The Mercury, December 8). It is very clear that Du Bois has lost the plot and is poised to make himself relevant in the political area coming from a background whereby all of his former bosses booted him out from their political parties for reasons of absolute incompetence, irrelevance and non-performance. I am not surprised that Du Bois and Robin Naidoo have attacked the DLC after we exposed the DA for selling the Indian votes to the EFF. This clearly confirms that the DA is getting a major backlash from the Indian voters and…

Jehran Naidoo Jehran.Naidoo@africannewsagency.com Women are still under-represented in the South African judiciary, according to acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who presented the annual judiciary report yesterday via a live-stream. The report, which measured the judiciary’s performance indicators and targets of functions and mandates between April 2020 and March 2021, found that out of 234 judges and 1 726 magistrates, less than 50% were women. Eleven judges were discharged from their duties in the period in review, while 10 judges died. No new appointments were made in the period, as interviews could not be conducted because of Covid-19 regulations. “We have made substantial progress in the gender-transformation of the judiciary, but we have not reached the right level of representation of women in the judiciary. “At the end of the reporting…

Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appear to have given 70% protection against hospitalisation in South Africa in recent weeks, according to a major real-world study. The study released yesterday by Discovery Health, was based on more than 211 000 positive Covid-19 test results. Around 78 000 of those results from November 15 to December 7 were attributed to Omicron. However, the 78 000 results are not confirmed Omicron cases, meaning the study cannot offer conclusive findings about the variant labelled “of concern” by the World Health Organization and reported in more than 60 countries. Based on analysis by Discovery’s clinical research and actuarial teams, in collaboration with the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the study calculated that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech offered 70% protection against hos- pitalisation compared…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za SCHOOL reports are coming out this week and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has reminded parents and guardians that by law no school may withhold a pupil’s report. Following a year disrupted by school closures and the rotational timetable, the 2021 academic year comes to an end this week. Pupils from across the country will this week receive their final school reports and the DBE has reminded parents and guardians that no school is allowed to withhold a learner’s report for any reason. This is informed by Section 29 (12) of the National Protocol for Assessment Grades R to 12, which prohibits both public and private schools from withholding report cards. The directive states that a report card is issued as the only official document that…

Hundreds of dinosaur footprints, so well-preserved that even the scaly skin can be seen, have been found in Poland, giving an insight into a complex ecosystem around 200 million years ago, geologists said. Described by the Polish Geological Institute-National Research Institute as a treasure trove, the fossilised tracks and bones were found in an opencast clay mine in Borkowice, 130km south of Warsaw. “In the traces left by dinosaurs, you can read their behaviour and habits ... we have traces left by dinosaurs running, swimming, resting and sitting,” said geologist Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki. The largest footprints of carnivorous dinosaurs are 40cm long and in many cases the skin can be seen in detail. | Reuters…

Nomonde Zondi nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za TWO suspects are expected to appear in the Richmond Magistrate’s Court soon for allegedly kidnapping and killing a family of five, including a 1-month-old baby. The two suspects, who are 25 and 27, were caught and arrested by the police at KwaZinqamu in Elandskop on Saturday. Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said the deceased were Sizwe Mauris Ngcobo, 64, Thandazile Zondi, 41, Bonokwakhe Khuboni, 40, Sibongile Fanelesibonge, 2, and 1-month-old baby Libra Ngcobo. “On November 16, the victims were kidnapped from their farm in Boston, and their vehicle was also missing. On November 19, the Boston SAPS opened a docket for missing persons,” said Naicker. He added that a joint operation was conducted on Monday, and the team went to Byrne in Richmond where the family’s vehicle…

The images were stark: plumes of smoke billowed as more than 25 trucks stood burning on the N3 highway. Road users looked on, aghast, at the traffic gridlock that ensued. The impact was severe. For days, if not weeks, the supply of food and other necessities between Durban and Johannesburg was affected. If there was ever any doubt regarding the importance of the N2 and the N3 for South Africa’s economy, all uncertainty was dispelled on the weekend of July 9 and the days thereafter, as the significance of that particular stretch of road was laid bare for all to see. The disruption of the N2 and N3 meant goods could not be moved between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, or to and from countries to the north of South Africa. This…

ISTANBUL: Four foreign children were killed and two people wounded when a fire erupted in the early hours of yesterday at a block of flats in Istanbul, the Governor’s office announced. The office said the fire broke out at around 2.50am local time in the basement of a five-storey building in the Esenyurt district located on the European side of the city. Four children lost their lives in the blaze. Their mother and another child were rescued and rushed to a nearby hospital, it added. “A judicial and administrative investigation has been initiated regarding the issue,” the statement noted.…

More than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group which is quashing women’s rights, the UN said yesterday. Nada al-Nashif, UN deputy high commissioner for Human Rights, said that in addition, at least 50 suspected members of a local affiliate of Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan – an ideological foe of the Taliban – died by hanging and beheading. In a speech to the Human Rights Council, she described Taliban rule as being marked by extrajudicial killings and restrictions on women’s and girls’ basic rights. Families faced “severe poverty and hunger” this northern winter amid reports of child labour, early marriages and “even the sale of children”. At least 72 of…

The mayor of a small Brazilian city took polarising politics to another level when he fought a cage match to settle a score with an ex-councilman. Simao Peixoto, mayor of the Brazilian Amazon municipality of Borba, has had a long-running beef with former city councilman Erineu “Mirico” da Silva. The final straw, media reports said, came when Da Silva posted a video criticising Peixoto’s management of the Balneario do Lira, a river-beach resort that is the municipality’s main tourist attraction. When Da Silva made a video threatening the mayor with a “beat-down”, Peixoto, 39, fired back with a challenge: a mixed martial arts fight in a regulation octagon, complete with referee and fans. The three-round bout was held in the early hours of Sunday in the town’s sports centre, with…

LA PALMA: Volcanic ash and lumps of lava blasted out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma have become part of a Christmas nativity scene in a nearby church. Domingo Guerra, the priest at Tajuya church, and Ruben Lopez, a geologist, wanted to use volcanic debris for the nativity to mark the near three-month long eruption that has caused havoc for local residents. “We are doing it with lava, ashes and rock fragments,” said Lopez. The eruption, which has sent rivers of molten lava running down the slopes of Cumbre Vieja for weeks, is the longest-running on the Spanish Canary Island since records began in 1500.…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za Most of the 31 largest asset managers in South Africa perform poorly in their climate integration initiatives when assessed against international best practice standards, a survey by the shareholder activism group, Just Share, shows. Asset managers’ portfolios and their engagement with asset owners and investee companies have a crucial role to play in greenhouse gas emission reduction and climate-resilient development required by the Paris Agreement, and the Just Share survey is the first time stakeholders such as retail investors, pension fund trustees, foundations, university endowments, and civil society organisations can assess the extent that the local asset management community is meeting international best practice in integrating climate risk into investment decision-making. Just Share’s director of Climate Change Engagement, Robyn Hugo, said the findings showed that there were…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za A report from the select committee on security and justice has revealed resources and capacity challenges in the SAPS that need to be urgently addressed. The report was based on the committee’s visit to KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng following the public violence, looting and destruction of property in July. The police have been accused of being largely absent during the unrest and failing to maintain law and order. In its report, the select committee said there were issues with the Public Order Policing (POP) unit as the number of officers has been decreasing over the years while the South African population was growing and currently stands at 59 million. “The committee noted that there is a need for more police stations as the population in communities is growing,”…

An Arctic temperature record of more than (38°C) was reached in a Siberian town last year during a prolonged heatwave that caused widespread alarm about the intensity of global warming, a UN agency confirmed yesterday. Verkhoyansk, where the record temperature was hit on June 20, 2020, is 115km north of the Arctic Circle – a region warming at more than double the global average. The extreme heat fanned wildfires across northern Russia’s forests and tundra, even igniting normally waterlogged peatlands, and releasing carbon emissions. “It is possible, indeed likely, that greater extremes will occur in the Arctic region in the future,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said. The probe was one of a record number of investigations the UN agency had opened into weather extremes as climate change unleashes unrivalled…

VIVIENNE VAN STADEN | Sheffield I am a South African. My adoptive parents made me get a British passport in the event that I wanted to move to Britain. Why would I want to do that? I love being South African, and I love Africa, no matter what. Despite its disadvantages, South Africa as a whole has everything I could ever want. Britain has red-listed South Africa twice. We have not red-listed Britain, but maybe we should? I am going to work with fellow South Africans to make this the best country it can be. I am proud to be a South African and I do not think we should be ashamed. God bless Africa, guard her children, guide her people and lead her in the right paths.…

DR IMRAN KEEKA | DA KZN spokesperson on education With several parents raising complaints with the DA over the withholding of report cards due to non-payment of school fees – or not returning textbooks or both – school principals should immediately be notified by KZN Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu’s office that such a practice is deemed illegal. This much should already be known by principals and there should be no need for annual repetition. This kind of peremptory action must be condemned in the strongest of terms. While the DA understands that there has to be a balance between arranging to pay school fees by parents and the school’s responsibility to collect these, parents cannot be strong-armed into doing so, particularly since it is unlawful to do so.…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@inl.co.za DEFENCE and Military Veterans Minister Thandi Modise says her department and the Presidential Task Team (PTT) on Military Veterans remain committed to resolving issues with military veterans following the hostage drama in Irene, Pretoria, recently. In October, 56 veterans held Modise, her deputy Thabang Makwetla and Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, against their will at the St George Hotel and Conference Centre. This followed a meeting with the veterans who had demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President David Mabuza address the disgruntled Liberation Struggle War Veterans (LSWV) group, which consists of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Azanian People’s Liberation Army and Azanian National Liberation Army members. In a written Parliamentary reply to the ANC’s Thabo Mmutle on what steps Modise’s department have taken to deal with…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za It is likely that Oscar Pistorius will have to spend yet another Christmas in jail as he has not yet met with June and Barry Steenkamp – the parents of murdered Reeva Steenkamp – as part of his victim/offender dialogue in view of his possible parole. Both Tania Koen, lawyer and spokesperson for the Steenkamps, as well as Julian Knight, Pistorius’s lawyer, confirmed that the parties have not yet seen each other. This is in spite of Pistorius having been moved to a prison in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape about two weeks ago, the purpose of which was to meet the Steenkamps. The Correctional Services Department said the meeting was for the parties to speak to each other as part of Pistorius’s parole hearing. This comes…

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi yesterday clarified that the Cabinet decision which resolved that Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP), which expire on December 31, would not be renewed still stands. “Absolutely, that Cabinet decision stands. Absolutely,” Motsoaledi said in an interview with Independent Media yesterday. Numerous media outlets yesterday incorrectly stated that the Cabinet decision had been revoked and that the permits would be renewed – sparking a frenzy on social media platforms, particularly Twitter. Motsoaledi said his department takes the blame for the confusion. “It is true, the confusion erupted from the department, from officials in the department. They issued a circular purporting to clarify a Cabinet decision. The Cabinet decision is very clear: it does not need any circular to clarify it. What has been withdrawn, and I…

The Pretoria North Regional Court has sentenced a 57-year-old woman to 10 years in prison for stealing two pairs of leggings. Desiree Williams has been caught and convicted of shoplifting more than 30 times and has 31 pending cases. Williams ran out of luck when she stole leggings worth R798.40 from the Cotton On retail store in Montana on September 25. Williams told the court that she first tried them on and then hid them in her bag. The accused said she tried to leave the shop without paying for the items, but was stopped by the store manager. When her bag was searched the leggings were found and police were called. Williams was arrested and has been in custody since. The prosecutor, Rabia Ebrahim, told the court that it…

THE drop in PCR test prices imposed by the Competition Commission over the weekend is not only long overdue, but also a case of too little too late. Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele announced that private laboratory companies, which faced accusations of price inflation and profiteering during the pandemic, would reduce their fees from R850 to R500 with immediate effect. This followed an agreement between the commission and private laboratories Du Buisson Kramer Swart Bouwer Incorporated (Ampath), and Drs Mauff AC & Partners t/a Lancet Laboratories. It came after the regulatory body probed a complaint from the Council for Medical Schemes that PCR tests for Covid-19 were “unfairly inflated, exorbitant and/or unjustifiable”. Part of the complaint was that the private pathology laboratories had experienced substantial cost reductions in conducting Covid-19 PCR…

WASHINGTON: Omicron has led to a rush in wealthy nations for boosters. Earlier, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country would aim to offer all eligible adults a booster shot by the end of the year, citing the exponential spread of the new variant. “A tidal wave of Omicron is coming,” Johnson told the nation, “And I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need.” Other high-income countries are also pushing ahead with boosters, overcoming earlier hesitation about offering extra doses outside of the standard one- or two-dose regimen initially approved, depending on the manufacturer. “We are getting booster shots to 1.1 million Americans a day, more people boosted per day than ever before,”…

TBILISI: Mikhail Saakashvili, imprisoned Georgian ex-president, was allowed to return to his normal diet after his doctors removed food restrictions imposed on him due to his long-time hunger strike, Elena Giorgadze, a member of Georgian Ministry of Justice’s medical council, told journalists. “There will be no restrictions on food ... Albumin levels are normal. We are gradually removing medical additives prescribed before: potassium, magnesium, and other micro- and macroelements. Medical analyses are normal,” Giorgadze said.…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa’s tourism and hospitality industry will breathe a sigh of relief as international holidaymakers can now book their stays after the UK lifted travel restrictions. UK health secretary Sajid Javid yesterday announced that they will remove all 11 countries, including South Africa, from the controversial “red list” from 4am today. Javid said the UK would not keep restrictive measures in place for a moment longer than it needed to as Omicron had already spread far and wide. “Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK, and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad,” Javid said. Following the announcement, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said all current testing…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE public protector has found that the hiring of cars for official use by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education, Kwazi Mshengu, was improper and a waste of public funds. However, the report released by Public Protector (PP) Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Monday cleared Mshengu of any wrongdoing. The report was critical of the former head of department, Dr Enock Nzama, saying much of the information that led to the hiring of the cars was provided by Nzama or actioned on his request. The Department of Education said Nzama had retired and was not well. It said he therefore could not respond to some of the public protector’s notices during the investigation. The report found that there was no evidence that Mshengu had influenced the process for the…

It was finished years late at a cost far higher than planned, but Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope due for launch next week may usher in a new era in astronomy as it gathers information on the universe’s earliest stages, star formation, and whether planets beyond our solar system may be suitable for life. The orbiting infrared observatory, designed to be about 100 times more sensitive than its Hubble Space Telescope predecessor, is due for blast off on December 22 on an Ariane 5 rocket from a site in French Guiana on South America’s north-eastern coast. “We’re about to go on this amazing journey of discovery,” said astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The telescope, boasting four scientific instruments, is an…

SCANDAL! Botox injections and other artificial touch-ups in a beauty contest. Whatever next? Will these pageant participants stop at nothing to get ahead? But more than 40 entrants were, in the end, disqualified because of it. Er, this was a beauty contest for camels, according to Associated Press. At Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, breeders of the most beautiful camels compete for some $66 million (about R1 billion) in prize money. Botox injections, facelifts and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Judges decide the winner, based on the shape of the camels’ heads, necks, humps, dress and postures. Judges at the month-long festival in the desert north-east of Riyadh are clamping down on artificially enhanced camels, using specialised technology. This year, they discovered…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in deep trouble. While the rest of the country had battened down the hatches against the coronavirus, he is accused of having a Christmas party for his staff at 10 Downing Street on December 18 last year. He has repeatedly denied it. But after a video emerged of his adviser, Allegra Stratton, laughing and joking when questioned about the party, he has apologised unreservedly for the naughty, incriminating video. But the British public will have none of it. They don’t believe a word of it. Over 60% of the respondents of a survey carried out by Sky News don’t believe the prime minister is telling the truth. How could the leader of a nation expect the public to…

ROBIN NAIDOO | Phoenix The DA failed to field a mayoral candidate for the eThekwini Municipality in the recent elections. I wonder why? Is it because they were not confident in their Great White Hope, PR councillor Nicole Graham, who was unsuccessful in previous elections? Did it show in her inability or did they crunch their voter numbers and realise they were on the Titanic? So then, why did they pin their hopes to win with a coalition and punt Nicole Graham as mayor against the previous mayor and incumbent, Mxolisi Kaunda? Were the EFF, IFP and ActionSA going to throw in their lot with Graham, who is viewed as always representing white minority interests, above all else. I can now fully understand ADeC leader Visvin Reddy and…

US magazine Time has announced business tycoon and billionaire Elon Musk as its person of the year for 2021. The South African-born billionaire Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria to a South African father and Canadian mother. Musk immigrated to Canada at the age of 17. He landed in the US as a transfer student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The entrepreneur and business magnate is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, early-stage investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, founder of The Boring Company and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. According to the website Investopedia, a recent report showed that Musk is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $278 billion. In April, SpaceX won…

Sonri Naidoo sonri.naidoo@inl.co.za ESwatini’s King Mswati III and his government have relaxed nationwide restrictions on the movement of people by removing the 9pm curfew imposed early this year. The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) said it believed the reason for this decision was that the king was desperate to attract as many people as possible to an event known as Incwala. The cultural ceremony is about cleansing, renewal, and centred on the kingship. The SSN earlier this year was part of the pro-democracy protests across the country. King Mswati III has ruled the landlocked nation since 1986. Incwala is expected to take place around the last week of this month to the first week of January and thousands of poeple are expected to take part in the event. SSN spokesperson Lucky…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The Verulam Magistrate’s Court heard yesterday that a Portuguese national, who was arrested in uMhlanga on Sunday after he fled from his home country, had also been convicted of additional charges. João Manuel de Oliveira Rendeiro was expected to apply for bail yesterday, but the State said new information had come to light. The court heard yesterday that a warrant of arrest for Rendeiro was ordered by the Lisbon District Judicial Court in Lisbon, Portugal, after he absconded from the country. He had been convicted of tax fraud and money laundering and had been sentenced to 12 years in jail. A warrant of arrest was issued on November 26 in South Africa by a senior magistrate in Pretoria, and had been executed by Captain P…

| African News Agency (ANA). North West Transport MEC Sello Lehari has called on traffic officers to take extra measures to ensure that their safety comes first while on duty. This was after a traffic officer was killed last week when a car she was trying to stop allegedly hit her on the N4 in Zeerust. “The Provincial Inspector, Moeder Vuka passed away on Thursday morning while on her daily stop and check duties when she was allegedly hit by a car which she was trying to stop on the N4. “I plead with our law enforcement officers to practice extra safety measures while on duty,” he said. Vuka of Lichtenburg, was working as a Provincial Inspector at the Lehurutshe provincial traffic station. Lehari has sent his condolences to…

Two people who were found in possession of a lion’s head appeared briefly in the Zeerust Magistrate’s Court in North West on Monday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said. NPA spokesperson in the North West, Henry Mamothame said the case against Joseph Modime, 59, and Emily Mashaba, 54, was postponed to December 20 for the verification of their addresses. “They are facing a charge of contravention of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004, after they were caught in possession of a lion’s head,” he said. They were arrested following an intelligence tip-off that resulted in a sting operation carried out by the Mahikeng-based Serious Organised Crime Investigation team from the Hawks, Lehurutshe K9, Zeerust stock theft unit and members from the department of forestry, fisheries and environment.…

Indian police are probing a charity started by Mother Teresa, officials said yesterday, in the latest example of growing pressure on Christians under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. Authorities in the western state of Gujarat said they were investigating whether the Missionaries of Charity forced girls in its shelter home there to wear a cross and read the Bible. According to a complaint, 13 Bibles were found in the library of the institute and girls staying there were forced to read the religious text. The Missionaries of Charity have denied the allegations.…

The EU and Britain failed to reach agreement on how to divvy up post-Brexit fish quotas in shared waters from next year, officials said yesterday, meaning provisional quotas will apply. “Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts to conclude in a timely manner, consultations with the UK on fishing opportunities for 2022 are still ongoing,” EU fishing commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told a news conference. EU fishing ministers had approved quotas from January 1 next year in EU waters extending into the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Black Sea, he announced. But Brussels and London still remain apart on how to share fish stocks in areas plied by both EU and British trawlers, reflecting broader EU-UK tensions that have festered since Britain left the bloc. “We haven’t reached an…

LOS ANGELES: Britney Spears has slammed Diane Sawyer for “making her cry” in an interview in 2003. The 40-year-old pop star claimed she was “forced” to do the interview by her father, Jamie, and opened up about how she felt on Diane’s line of questioning. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she wrote: “Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago? What was with the ‘You’re in the wrong’ approach?? Geeze... and making me cry??? Seriously though... my manager put that woman in my home and made me talk to her on national television” The Toxic hitmaker – who recently regained control of her assets after she was released from a 13 year conservatorship – said “They forced me to talk !!! I was…

While the global commitments are to cut emissions, Namibia should not be discriminated against for new oil discovery projects, such as the Canadian oil company ReconAfrica’s exploration of oil in the Kavango East and West regions, National Planning Commission director-general Obeth Kandjoze has said. In an interview with Nampa, Kandjoze stressed that though the world aspires to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, developing countries discovering oil which will boost their economies should not be discriminated against, saying that developed economies continue to generate money from the oil industry despite its big climate impact. The recent UN climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, called for a global agreement to accelerate action on climate change by transitioning to green energy. Environmentalists and community leaders locally and further afield have also slammed the…