Inhoudsopgave van 2022-05-11 - Mercury

SOUTH Africa’s sovereign debt and economic growth have excited considerable attention in the recent past and continues. The received narrative is that the country has a debt and growth problem. The narrative presumes that fiscal, monetary and related macroeconomic policies are sound, therefore, the high debt of about 80 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) and the decade and half sluggish growth of about 1 percent are a consequence of misguided spending and state entities’ inefficiencies? Can it be this simple? In responding to a parliamentary written question from the Economic Freedom Fighters, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana lamented that gross debt had grown to R4.3 trillion from R2.5 trillion in the past five years. At a Public Service Summit in March, Godongwana said debt service costs were…

FIVE KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, including Msunduzi Municipality in Pietermaritzburg, have continued to battle to pay for electricity and they owe the power utility Eskom several hundred million rand. This is according to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Sipho Hlomuka who presented the department’s budget at the KZN Legislature yesterday. The MEC indicated that his department had sought to mediate between the municipalities and Eskom to avoid the disconnection of electricity supply. He cited the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the reasons some municipalities were battling to pay. The lockdown, noted Hlomuka, had seen some people lose their jobs and being unable to manage their bills. “While we were able to settle Eskom debt in full at the eDumbe, Mthonjaneni, Abaqulusi and Inkosi Langalibalele local municipalities in…

There’s a new hospital in town. It’s called Capital Heart Hospital. While it deals mainly with cardiac problems, it also deals with blood disorders – haematology. As we are all aware, heart disease has become the scourge of modern society largely because of our sedentary, unhealthy lifestyles. Even though there is so much information on the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle, we still binge on junk foods, red meat and alcohol, which inevitably clog our arteries and cause heart attacks. Hence the need for another state-of-the art cardiac hospital in Durban to deal with the increasing incidence of patients. People tend to ignore the symptoms of a heart attack, and only when they collapse do they seek medical help. Luckily for us, heart surgery has come a long way…

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal is deeply saddened by the murder of 25-year-old Musa Xulu, who was gunned down on Freedom Day simply because of his sexual orientation, in yet another LGBTQI-related death in our province this year. During the recent KZN Legislature Social Development Budget Debate, the DA stated that not enough is being done to assist this often vulnerable community and the discrimination they face daily. We also said that there is still not enough focus on educating our communities about same-sex relationships and gender issues and that serious discussions around sexuality and understanding need to begin. We also raised the very real issue of under-reporting of such heinous crimes due to fear of further discrimination and even death. During the debate, the DA also called on KZN’s Departments…

Four men’s dreams to be enlisted in the SANDF as air force cadets were dashed when they were kicked off of the training programme after cannabis was detected in their blood. However, the four took the SANDF to court, claiming that the minister and the department did not “respect” their right to use the substance in the privacy of their homes. The four launched an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to overturn the SANDF’s refusal to admit them to the training programme. They claimed that they were called at short notice to report to the air force base, prior to each of them having consumed some cannabis at home. While some said it was done for recreational purposes, others claimed they had consumed the cannabis for medical…

A 52-year-old mother and her 33-year-old son are expected back in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court this week on fraud and theft charges. According to Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu, between 2016 and 2020 the mother, Petronella Stander, allegedly swindled her former employer of about R1 million. The money was meant to be paid to suppliers, but instead was allegedly diverted to her bank account. “In April last year, the investigation team arrested and charged Stander with fraud and theft. The court later released her on R10 000 bail,” said Mulamu. “A warrant of arrest was issued against Stander’s son, Orrin Stander. The Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigation in Johannesburg arrested Orrin on Wednesday, May 4, accompanied by his attorney.” During Orrin’s court appearance the following day, the…

CUSTOMS officials seized 6.75kg of heroin from a South African woman at the Hyderabad International Airport in India on Friday. The passenger arrived from Johannesburg via Doha, authorities said. “The contraband was seized from a packet concealed in the false bottom of a bag. The passenger has been arrested and further investigation is ongoing,” an official said. This is the fifth seizure of heroin at Hyderabad Airport in less than two weeks. On May 4, customs officials announced that they had seized heroin from a Tanzanian national. A customs official also said 1 389g of heroin was seized from a male passenger who arrived from Johannesburg via Abu Dhabi on April 26. The passenger had purged 108 capsules containing the contraband heroin over a period of six days. A total…

Two people, who allegedly defrauded the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society of R12 million, have been denied bail. Ruvanya Ramiah, 30, and Ayush Rambally, 31, appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court yesterday. National Prosecuting Authority KZN spokesperson, Natasha Kara, said the pair had been denied bail and would be back in court on Tuesday next week. The duo face charges of fraud, theft and money laundering, in connection with money that was allegedly stolen over some years. Ramiah had been an employee at the KZN Blind and Deaf Society. The NPA said the pair were arrested in Estcourt in mid-April, after evading authorities for some time. It is alleged that Ramiah, while working for the society as its finance officer, allegedly stole money from its bank accounts by…

Fresh protests erupted in Sri Lanka’s capital yesterday, defying a government curfew after five people died in the worst violence in weeks of demonstrations over a dire economic crisis. Demonstrators showed no sign they would back down, even after scores were injured when government supporters were bussed into Colombo this week and attacked protesters with sticks and clubs. As outrage over the incident soared, prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned – but even that has failed to calm public anger, with his brother Gotabaya still president with widespread powers and command over the security forces. Thousands of angry protesters stormed Mahinda’s official residence overnight, and the former premier had to be rescued in a pre-dawn military operation yesterday, firing tear gas and warning shots. “At least 10 petrol bombs were thrown…

The son of the disgraced late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos vowed yesterday to work for all people after his stunning election victory, and told the world to judge him by his presidency, not his family’s past. Ferdinand Marcos Jr, better known as “Bongbong”, became the first candidate in recent history to win an outright majority in a Philippines presidential election, paving the way for a once unimaginable return to rule for the country’s most notorious political dynasty. “Judge me not by my ancestors, but by my actions,” Marcos said. Marcos fled into exile in Hawaii with his family during a 1986 “people power” uprising that ended his father’s autocratic 20-year rule, and has served in congress and the senate since his return to the Philippines in 1991. Marcos’s runaway…

NEW YORK: Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez pleaded not guilty to US drug and weapons charges in a Manhattan federal court yesterday following his extradition last month from the Central American country. US prosecutors have accused Hernandez, a former US ally, of receiving millions of dollars from drug traffickers in exchange for protection from arrest while leading Honduras from 2014 until January this year. Hernandez used the money to enrich himself and finance his political campaigns, prosecutors said. Hernandez denied the allegations, accusing traffickers of smearing him to get revenge and lighten their sentences. | Reuters…

THIS needs to be very carefully phrased. An American collector who has the signature of celebrities on his balls … er, no, that won’t do at all. An American collector is to use a baseball signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to assist the Ukrainian war effort. Renowned collector Randy Kaplan (yes, that’s the correct name) has a collection of balls signed by world leaders. In 2019, President Zelenskiy autographed a Rawlings Major League baseball for him, according to Huffington Post. Kaplan is now about to auction the baseball and give the proceeds to Ukraine to help fund its war effort. The ball was expected to fetch about $15 000 (R241 000), but the auctioneers say advance offers already far exceed that. The ball is signed with black felt tip both…

It is a very sad day in South African history when our once beloved liber ation movement has created a culture of greed, corruption and criminals who are prepared to kill for a tender. What went wrong? Mandela, to quote an article he wrote on March 2, 2001, said: “Little did we suspect that our own people, when they got a chance, would be as corrupt as the apartheid regime. That is one of the things that has really hurt us.” I, together with many others, lost many friends and family members in the Struggle in which they fought for equality and the improvement of the lives of the poorest of the poor. Sadly, it seems our Struggle stalwarts died in vain because the present leaders have no vision or…

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon surged to record levels for the month of April, nearly doubling the area of forest removed compared to the same period last year, preliminary government data showed, alarming environmental campaigners. In the first 29 days of April, deforestation in the region totalled 1 012.5km², according to data from national space research agency Inpe. The agency, which has compiled the monthly DETER-B data series since 2015/2016, will report data for the final day of April next week. April is the third monthly record this year, after new highs were also observed in January and February. Destruction of the Brazilian Amazon in the first four months of the year also hit a record for the period of 1 954 km², an increase of 69% compared to the same…

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) presented its Annual Performance Plan for 2022/2023 to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services yesterday. When Shamila Batohi took over as the national director of public prosecutions in February 2019, she announced a five-year plan to reinvigorate the NPA. Midway through the five-year plan, the NPA has said its primary focus is getting seminal corruption cases to court, using the evidence on hand to guide the process. The NPA also noted its committed to delivering on the mandate to prosecute serious crimes in an effort to deliver justice to all, especially victims of gender-based violence. Noting how high-level corruption had torn the country apart, the NPA said it was intensifying efforts to deal with the scourge. In doing so, it said it would…

ETHEKWINI mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has been accused of being an “absent leader” following his failure to call for the sitting of executive committee (exco) meetings which are key to the functioning and oversight of the municipality. Opposition parties said they were concerned that there had been no exco meetings since April 26 despite the city still reeling from its worst natural disaster in decades. EThekwini and the rest of KwaZulu-Natal are recovering from devastating floods that left hundreds of people dead and thousands of homes destroyed. Mayoral spokesperson Mluleki Mntungwa rubbished the accusations, saying since the disaster the mayor had called at least three special exco meetings to deal with the floods. DA councillor Nicole Graham said thousands of people were in difficult situations and were not receiving the answers…

Moves to counter climate change must centre on people’s rights CLIMATE change is an emergency that demands rapid and far-reaching action. We must transform African societies to lead them away from their reliance on polluting fossil fuels in order to avoid some of their worst impacts. Simultaneously, we have to recognise that the climate crisis is deeply embedded within a global context of growing inequality, deep poverty and significant unemployment. While Africa has contributed negligibly to changing climate, with just about 2% to 3% of global emissions, it stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. This vulnerability is driven by the low levels of socio-economic growth on the continent. In Africa, climate change has led to human rights violations on a massive scale: millions of individuals…

The port city of Odessa reeled yesterday from Russian missile strikes as Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock became the highest-ranking official from Berlin to visit Ukraine since Moscow’s invasion. Fresh fighting raged in the east and south of Ukraine, with officials saying over 1 000 Ukrainian fighters including hundreds of injured remain holed up in the besieged Azovstal plant in the devastated city of Mariupol. The series of missile strikes in Odessa destroyed buildings, set ablaze a shopping centre and killed one person, just hours after a visit by European Council President Charles Michel. He had warned that vital supplies of wheat and grain that were ready for export from Ukraine, were stuck in Odessa because of the conflict. Meanwhile, Members of the World Health Organization’s European region passed a…

The UK’s desire to rewrite the Northern Ireland protocol was absent in detail from the Queen’s Speech yesterday, amid reports that domestic legislation is being prepared to override large chunks of the Brexit deal. While the UK repeated its warning that it will take necessary steps to address problems caused by the protocol, no named bill or signal of future legislation was included in the speech, which sets out the government’s agenda for the next parliamentary session. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party said yesterday it won’t join a new government with the nationalists Sinn Fein following last week’s election until decisive action is taken by the UK on the protocol. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement the posts of first minister and deputy first minister – effectively one…

Jerusalem: Israeli authorities demolished a residential building in annexed east Jerusalem yesterday, leaving 35 people, the majority of them children, homeless. The demolition of the three-storey building in the area of Silwan was carried out because the owners lacked the required permits, the authorities said. Israel regularly razes homes built by Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank if they lack the relevant construction permits. According to a UN study, such permits are “virtually impossible” to obtain, and the result is a chronic housing shortage. Silwan is adjacent to Jerusalem’s Old City. | AFP…

IN MARCH, Judge Patricia Goliath of the Cape High Court granted an interim interdict, in a case brought by several groups of objectors, stopping a development at The River Club in Observatory, Cape Town which had been given the green light by the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town. In doing so, Judge Goliath stated, inter alia, that “the fact that the development has substantial economic, infrastructural and public benefits can never override the fundamental rights of indigenous people”. This has caused a huge brouhaha for a multitude of reasons. First, the development has the active support of a substantial segment of the Khoisan community, which seriously undermines the argument that the site is “sacred” in the eyes of the Khoisan community. Second, the site has operated…

I was amazed to read in The Mercury dated May 9 that the city council plans to erect a Ferris wheel, dubbed the Durban Eye, at a cost of R450 million at the harbour entrance. The report stated that a developer had been appointed, but no detail is given as to who this might be and how the appointment was made. Given the phenomenal damage caused by the recent floods and the suffering and loss of life it has caused to hundreds of families, spending such a large amount of money on what is essentially a vanity project would appear to me to border on the obscene. I would suggest that citizens be provided with more information and told who the developer is and how he or she was appointed.…

As a person who was adopted as a baby, I so identify with what you have written, Rod, about birth moms. I never had negative thoughts about being adopted, but did wonder what the circumstances were that led to my birth mother giving me up. I am in my mid-seventies and it was only after I found my birth family (two sisters and a brother) that I appreciated what it must have meant to my birth mother to give me up. I discovered that she got engaged, found she was pregnant, started making plans to get married, then lost her fiancé in an aircraft accident. She carried me to term, gave birth and then gave me over to adoptive parents. I strung all of that together and realised how incredibly…

The family of slain Tshegofatso Pule has expressed disappointment after the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, postponed the sentencing proceedings of convicted killer Ntuthuko Shoba. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the pre-sentencing proceedings, which were scheduled for yesterday, could not continue because Shoba had opted to bring in his own probation officer. “The report (from the private probation officer) is not yet ready. As the State, we are ready to proceed. The accused had to be provided with the opportunity to prepare a report in mitigation of sentence, hence the postponement of the matter to July 28,” she told reporters outside the court. Shoba’s team requested the lengthy postponement, submitting that the pre-sentencing report was not ready. In March, the court found Shoba guilty of murdering…

Two tugboats have moved a vast array of 12 000 solar panels, the size of four football pitches, to their mooring on Portugal’s Alqueva reservoir in preparation to start up Europe’s largest floating solar park in July. Built by the country’s main utility EDP on Western Europe’s biggest artificial lake, the shiny floating island is part of Portugal’s plan to cut reliance on imported fossil fuels whose prices have surged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Blessed with long hours of sunshine and Atlantic winds, Portugal has accelerated its shift to renewables. EDP said that electricity produced from the floating park would cost a third of that produced from a gas-fired plant. | Reuters…

THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has complained about incorrect billing for rates by municipalities, saying it has been billed millions of rand for properties that do not fall under its control. The department, which is the custodian of government property, said just this month, it received bills amounting to close to R24 million for buildings it was not tasked with managing including universities. Last month, it received more than R20m in such bills, it said. MEC Jomo Sibiya was speaking on the issue of rates following concerns that his department delayed payment of rates to municipalities, thereby compromising their finances. He also clarified the issue regarding the department wanting to reduce the property rates it paid to eThekwini Municipality. Yesterday, The Mercury reported that the department…

RUSHDA Desai’s gun licence was rejected by the Central Firearms Registry because of her religious attire. The rejection is a hurtful act of religious intolerance that should not be entertained in our democratic nation, whose supreme world-class Constitution guarantees freedom of religion in every aspect. The South African Constitution of 1996 includes a Bill Of Rights. For the first time, all religions in our Rainbow Nation were recognised. Religions, cultures and languages are entrenched under sections 9(3), 15(1) to (3), 30, 31, 185 and 234. Section 7(3) obliges the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill Of Rights. We fought a virtual civil war to eradicate intolerance. We will not allow anyone to codify us because of our religious convictions and practices. Religious intolerance…

South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, said yesterday that North Korea’s weapons programmes posed a threat but that he was ready to provide an “audacious” economic plan if the North was committed to denuclearisation. Yoon spoke during his inauguration after being sworn in at a ceremony in Seoul. He won a tight election in March for the main conservative People Power Party, less than a year after entering politics following a 26-year career as a prosecutor. Yoon, 61, has signalled a tougher line on North Korea, warning of a pre-emptive strike if there is a sign of an imminent attack and vowing to strengthen the South’s deterrent capability. But his speech was seen as focused more on his willingness to reopen stalled denuclearisation talks with Pyongyang. Yoon won the election…

ALGIERS: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited gas-producing ally Algeria for talks yesterday as European nations push to secure alternative energy supplies as they seek to cut their dependence on Russian oil and gas. Lavrov’s visit is the first since 2019 and comes as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Lavrov also laid a wreath at a memorial to fighters killed during Algeria’s war for independence from France. Algeria provides 11% of Europe’s gas imports, compared with 47% from Russia. But industry experts say Algeria lacks the capacity to raise gas exports to replace Russian supplies in the short term. | AFP…