Inhoudsopgave van 2022-10-03 - Mercury

Elon Musk is doing it again – this time with a humanoid robot called Optimus. On October 1 Elon Musk unveiled what could be considered the commercial world’s first attempt to make robots mainstream. Tesla started by unveiling Bumble C, which is the first version of the bot, developed with “semi-off-the-shelves and actuators”. It served as a testing bed for Tesla’s first robot developed with in-house parts. After Bumble C, Tesla has brought on stage the first-generation Optimus robot. The robot shares some AI software and sensors with Tesla cars’ autopilot assistance features. It has a 2.3kWh battery pack, runs on a Tesla SoC, and has wi-fi and LTE connectivity. Optimus appeared on stage at a Silicon Valley event where it waved to the audience and raised its knees. Tesla…

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube says significant progress has been made to house disaster victims, especially those still housed in community care centres since the April floods. Dube-Ncube was speaking yesterday from the Truro Hall in Westville, where there were cries of delight as flood victims were all packed up as they waited to go to their new accommodation. The 47 families who had been staying at the care centre since April moved to an accommodation building in Reservoir Hills. In her update, Dube-Ncube said the province was no longer building Temporary Residential Units (TRUs) but was opting for Temporary Emergency Accommodation (TEAs) instead. “The option of Temporary Emergency Accommodation where we do not build ‘lindelas’, but house people temporarily as we are building their permanent accommodation, is a dramatic…

A seven-year-old Palestinian boy, about to turn 8 next month, actually dies out of fear. Meanwhile, Putin unilaterally annexes certain provinces of Ukraine, which amount to 15% of the latter’s territory. What exactly is the connection? Israel just walked into Palestinian territory 75 years ago and simply “annexed” that land also, unilaterally. Nobody lost any sleep. Except the Palestinians, of course. Numerous representations to the UN to recognise Israel as the aggressor have fallen on deaf ears. The Statue of Liberty imprisons the diplomats of all other countries. The UN building itself stands majestically in New York. That just happens to be on happy hunting American ground. So everybody must dance to the tune of the local piper. Cross to Kashmir in India. A referendum was promised to the Kashmiri…

THE country is having an energy crisis like never before. Even during the evil days of apartheid we did not experience such darkness. Now thanks to the great men and women who run this country, load shedding like crime, corruption, murder and rape has become a common feature. The power stations built during the apartheid era provided adequate electricity for the country’s needs at that time. When the ANC removed the white minority government, they became drunk with power and embarked on a grandiose policy of change and transformation. One of them was electrification of the townships. They wanted to give lights to the poor who had lived all their lives in darkness. It was a wonderful gesture. But the plan had a major flaw. The ANC government extended the…

Ebrahim Essa has yet another complaint against India and Hindu culture (The Mercury, September 28). He complains about religious divisions and obviously believes that Hindus are responsible for them. Essa would do well to realise that India’s Hindu culture goes back several thousand years. If Islam had never “invaded” India, there would never have been the kind of divisions there of which history speaks. All we know is that people like Essa never stop complaining about Hindu culture.…

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) plans to fully introduce 38 new subjects by 2025. In a speech to Parliament, Minister Angie Motshekga said the plan included the “Three-Stream Curriculum Model” for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes coding and robotics for Grades R-3 and 7 and the CAPS for occupational subjects for Grades 8 and 9, which have been developed and submitted to Umalusi for appraisal and quality assurance. DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said some of the subjects were already being taught at some schools across the country. “These subjects have been taught since 2018. We are confident that the teachers who have been trained are up to the task. We will continue to train more educators as they enter the system and will be ready for the full…

The High Court in Makhanda has ruled that authorities in the Eastern Cape province must take positive steps to ensure that reasonable and effective measures are in place to provide safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers. The order comes after bus company, Intercape lodged the application against the Eastern Cape Transport MEC and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula at court after a series of attacks on its buses, drivers and passengers. Judge John Smith declared that the MEC and Mbalula had failed to take positive steps to ensure that measures were put in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape. Judge Smith said the MEC and minister had an obligation to do so. The judge also found…

The body of a man was recovered by emergency services and police in a river by the Malende bridge in the Groutville area of KwaDukuza, north of Durban yesterday. Provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala said an inquest docket was being investigated by KwaDukuza SAPS in connection with the incident. Gwala said police were called to the scene after the decomposed body of an unidentified man was found floating in the river at the Malende bridge. “The deceased was clad in black shorts and a dark shirt. He is believed to be in his thirties,” said Gwala. She said the circumstances surrounding the man’s death would be investigated by the police and those who may have information about the man should contact the KwaDukuza SAPS. IPSS Medical Rescue spokesperson Dylan…

ON SATURDAY energy prices rose for millions of British households as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite and the country faces a bitterly cold winter exacerbated by the twin threat of a resurgent Omicron infection wave, and the competing seasonal flu virus trying to reclaim its winter pathogen pole position. The reality is that for consumers all over including South Africans, 2022 continues to be an annus horribilis, forcing households to make choices, some of which could be life threatening because they can’t afford the basic necessities of food and fuel due to the dramatic rises in prices caused by the disruptions of the lingering pandemic, the Ukraine conflict and global economic shocks such as rising inflation, subdued GDP growth and the economic slowdown in China. In the UK, the…

Russia was diplomatically isolated even more at the weekend after President Vladimir Putin annexed four Moscow-held areas of Ukraine with Kyiv condemning the move and vowing to retake the territories. Putin staged a grand ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday to celebrate the annexation, hours after shelling killed 30 people in Ukraine’s southern region of Zaporizhzhia. “I want to say this to the Kyiv regime and its masters in the West: People living in Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens forever,” Putin said. Washington announced “severe” new sanctions against Russian officials and the defence industry and said G7 allies support imposing “costs” on any nation that backs the annexation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the US-led military alliance Nato to grant his country fast-track membership. He…

MALANG: A stampede at a soccer stadium in Indonesia has killed at least 125 people and injured 180 after the police sought to quell violence on the pitch, local authorities said yesterday, in one of the world’s worst stadium disasters. Officers fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse agitated supporters of the losing home side who had invaded the pitch after the final whistle in Malang, East Java, on Saturday night, the region’s police chief, Nico Afinta, told reporters. “It had gotten anarchic. They started attacking officers, they damaged cars,” Nico said, adding that the crush occurred when fans fled for an exit gate. Some local officials had put the death toll at 174, but East Java Deputy Governor Emil Dardak said the number of fatalities had subsequently been…

A USUAL trip to my local gas stockist a week ago left me frustrated and disappointed. I had been used to experiencing localised gas stockouts over winter for the past few years, but my local gas stockist informed me that his supplier has told him that this would be resolved, as there will be multiple sources of supply of gas as a result of new import facilities coming online to resolve the supply issues. This year in particular, we relied heavily on gas for our cooking and heating needs, especially over winter. But this year my experience is that it has been exceptionally difficult to get gas, as a result of the continued supply issues that I was informed about from my local stockist. I even tried alternative stockists, but…

New eThekwini municipal manager Musa Mbhele has promised to institute disciplinary action and clamp down on the actions of some workers who embark on unprotected strikes and use municipal vehicles to block roads. This comes after protest action by Durban Solid Waste (DSW) workers in August and strikes by the city’s electricity unit and water and sanitation unit last month. It is understood that the strikes came after the city implemented a new overtime policy that imposed drastic cuts on overtime pay that workers could claim. Asked about the strike action, Mbhele, in an interview posted on the eThekwini Metro’s Facebook page, said: “Some of the reasons that we heard that workers are striking for include that they wanted to be paid overtime and that they are facing tough economic…

Retired justice Albie Sachs received a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by former US first lady Michelle Obama at a Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) event last week. The event was hosted by George and Amal Clooney, co-founders of The Clooney Foundation for Justice, and Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation. Revered for his heroic commitment to ending apartheid in South Africa, the foundation named its inaugural awards after Sachs. The “Albie Awards” honours courageous defenders of justice who were at great risk due to what they did. Sachs was honoured with a lifetime achievement award on September 29, while Filipino journalist Maria Ressa was honoured with the Justice for Journalists award, and iAct, an organisation that supports survivors of genocide in refugee camps, received the Justice for…

Focus on your responses, reactions, attitudes and thoughts in all of your many spheres of influence. Do this before you attempt to escape responsibility for your contribution to whatever dilemmas you face by aiming your energies and focusing on what others may or may not be doing or thinking. It all begins with you, for you. It all begins with me, for me. If and when we, you and I, become experts in our own behaviours, attitudes and reactions we will no longer need to worry about what others are doing or not doing. This is an essential shift for all who no longer want to be victims or regard themselves as victims. Victim living multiplies victims. Unearth within you your list of unresolved grievances, the things that happened to…

SOUTH Africa is truly a country of ironies. Much energy is expended on attempts to seek justice for human rights violations that occurred before 1994, while those currently involved in looting, corruption and state capture somehow evade justice. That same irony seems apparent regarding those complicit in propagating the Covid/vaccine medical fraud. For more than two years, the arrogant collusion between the medical acolytes of Big Pharma, their banking and insurance allies, totalitarian politicians and the subservient mass media sustained the fraudulent narrative of a pandemic. That involved the false positives of the PCR tests, incorporation of flu, pneumonia and comorbidity cases so as to inflate the Covid death rates while refusing use of the proven efficacy of Ivermectin. Moreover, they brazenly ignored Section 12 (2) of the Constitution regarding…

CALL it the Eskom blitz. I’m not sure whether Telkom are collaborators or victims in this offensive. It’s as complex a question as who blew up Russia’s gas pipelines in the Baltic? But back to Eskom. It was month-end. Time to pay the monthly rent. I fired up my computer. I went to internet banking. But the logo did not respond beyond brightening up momentarily, producing one dot on the screen then going back to somnolent status. I switched the computer off, then on again several times. Same result. It seems the offloads have blitzed communications. What now? I decided to phone the landlord. But his name and number had disappeared from my phone. A week or so ago the names of all my contacts had disappeared. I eventually…

Police are investigating a murder case, following the discovery of the body of a farmer, 53, at Sterkspruit farm outside Mbombela in Mpumalanga. This comes after another recent murder of a farmer in Mpumalanga. Colonel Donald Mdhluli, police spokesperson in Mpumalanga, said Etienne du Toit’s body was found with head injuries by his son last Thursday. He had gone to the farm to switch off water pumps when he came under attack. His son alerted the authorities. “Police and emergency medical personnel attended the scene and the man was certified dead. The victim’s cellphone was found in his possession. The motive for the killing is unknown. Police are investigating the murder as well as people who orchestrated his murder,” said Mdhluli. Last week, police at Delmas, Mpumalanga, opened an investigation…

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has been urged to keep an eye on new driving schools in the province, in addition to eliminating corruption in the issuing of driving licences. The IFP said some driving schools were established “overnight”. “Instead of their core mandate being to produce quality drivers, some of these driving schools are merely interested in making money,” said IFP KZN provincial spokesperson for Transport Steven Moodley. Transport Department spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said KZN was the first province to advance the process of regulating driving schools. “We have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with driving schools in the province to ensure they assist in ending fraud in the issuing of driver’s licences.” Ncalane said the department also had a database of all driving schools in the province…

THE government needs to come up with a workable solution in order to prevent the looming public service strike from going ahead. It is very clear for everyone to see that any strike action is likely to have a negative impact on the country’s already crippled economic outlook. Government workers believe that the 3% increase tabled by the employer is an “insult” considering how the cost of living has rocketed in recent years. Tomorrow could prove to be a decisive day in the government workers’ wage negotiations, as some unions have threatened to go on strike if their demands are not met. The 12 unions representing those employed by the state are expected to make their stance known to the Public Service Bargaining Council. It is true that the cost…

BEIRUT: Lebanon said on Saturday that it had received a letter from US envoy Amos Hochstein containing an “offer” on a maritime border deal with Israel that could settle competing claims over offshore gas fields. Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea “who delivered a written offer from the US mediator”, the premier’s office said, without elaborating. President Michel Aoun contacted Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri to discuss ways to follow up on the “offer” and deliver Lebanon’s response “as quickly as possible”, the presidency said. Lebanon and Israel, whose border is UN-patrolled, have no diplomatic relations. They had resumed maritime border negotiations in 2020, but the process was stalled by Beirut’s claim that the map used by the UN in the talks needed…

The recent report that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has charged McKinsey South Africa with fraud, corruption and theft is set to draw the focus on the banks. Banks have recently been notorious for closing bank accounts of black companies and businessmen. How the banks treat the matter of McKinsey in the coming days or months would be telling. The McKinsey case puts a stern test on the banks’ conduct and integrity. The banking sector has been accused of bias, selective and racist conduct against black versus white companies. The Equality Court interdict concluded in June on the case of Dr Iqbal Survé’s group of companies versus Nedbank, delved into that. Dr Survé is a black industrialist, philanthropist and a media-house owner. The Sekunjalo group had turned to the Equality…

Experts say the emergence of lobbyists for people who stand no realistic chance of making it on to the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) are an indication of how the governing party has disintegrated over time. Branches are currently nominating members for leadership positions within the ANC’s top six and the 80 additional NEC members who will be announced when the party holds its elective conference in December. Some party members have turned to social media to lobby for nominations to be additional NEC members – an unprecedented move. An ANC insider said it was highly unusual for party members to offer themselves for nomination for one of the 80 NEC positions. “Normally, there are nominations for the top six, and not the 80 NEC members. This has become a…

Located at the tip of South America, where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet, Cape Horn in Chile is the closest land mass to Antarctica and home to a unique ecosystem that scientists say is a natural laboratory to study climate change. Ricardo Rozzi, director of the almost-completed Cape Horn International Center (Chic), said the area has at least 10 features – including the world’s southernmost forest – which make the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve ideal to monitor plant and animal life on a warming planet. Rozzi said the primary function of the centre is to be a “sentinel for climate change”. Aside from researching the under-studied sub antarctic region, Rozzi said the centre will observe plant and animal life, glacier retreat and give recommendations to the state for preservation…

It’s sad when there is a perception out there that the ANC is the master of disaster, but the biggest mistake now is that its members are nominating and recycling these same tainted and seemingly corrupt leaders for the post of president of the ANC. The ANC fails to realise that its members have no influence in voting for the president of the country. It is the 26 million voters that will determine which party or president will be elected in 2024. The ANC membership of about 1 million will have little or no impact if the other 25 million voters that are fed up of the ANC government vote for any other party except the ANC. I’m not sure if the ANC has taken this into consideration; not…

THE world is in turmoil, as events cascade out of control. The blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline, religious chaos in Iran, carnage in Ukraine, rise of deadly fascism, and confrontation in the South China seas are being choreographed by the demons of war who seek perpetual war as an instrument for global control. Peace efforts have been abandoned. Eyeball to eyeball stand-offs will lead humanity into extinction. About 3 000 powerful nuclear weapons are on alert to turn planet Earth into a radioactive wasteland for at least a thousand years. Every nuclear war exercise conducted over the past 75 years graphically reveals in 3D, that human life on Earth ceases to exist even in a limited nuclear exchange involving 100 nuclear warheads. We are being led by utterly…

MOTORISTS, already dealing with faulty traffic lights and dodging potholes, face yet another challenge on the country’s roads. Gauteng is once again South Africa’s vehicle crime hot spot, with national incidents back up to pre-Covid levels. Tracker’s latest Vehicle Crime Index, covering the period from January to June 2022, showed the increase can partly be attributed to more cars on the road as well as the ingenuity of criminals and crime syndicates. The Tracker Vehicle Crime Index aggregates information from its more than 1.1 million installed vehicle base. The latest index illustrates that crime continues to intensify in Gauteng, which accounts for 61% of national Tracker incidents, up from 58% recorded for the latter half of 2021, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 17% and the Western Cape at 8%. Chief operations…

The murder trial of Eldorado Park teenager Nathaniel Julies will start afresh next month following the appointment of a new judge. Judge Ramarumo Monama, the former presiding judge, died in February. It is alleged that Julies, who was 16 and had Down Syndrome, was shot on August 26, 2020 by police officer Caylene Whiteboy. It is alleged that another officer, Simon Scorpion Ndyalvane, picked him up and he was taken to hospital. Another officer, Voster Netshiongolo, is being charged with accessory after the fact of murder. All three had pleaded not guilty to the murders in the initial trial. Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesperson Lizzy Suping confirmed that the trial would start anew in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court today. “The officers implicated will appear before a new judge and…

THERE are calls for the national health facilities load-shedding exemption list to be expanded to all hospitals, day clinics and community clinics. The Department of Health hosted a virtual media briefing on Friday on the impact of load shedding on the provision of health-care services, and intervention measures. Health Minister Joe Phaahla said that although most public health facilities had back-up power supply systems, including generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS), these alternative sources of energy were not designed to provide back-up electricity for a long period of time. “Some of these generators are old, while others have no necessary capacity to power the entire facility. Thus, generators have been proven not to adequately meet the increasing demands during load shedding in health facilities. Hence, some hospitals ... are forced…

Through activism they must find the tools to disrupt the dominant narrative I TAKE my academic stance and inspiration from the late UCT Professor Bongani Mayosi, who said: “There is no point in publishing papers if they cannot be translated into better treatments, better survival, better quality of life and longer life for the people of South Africa.” My intention is not to present yet another conference paper that will collect dust. But rather to put forward five governance implementation questions. You see, the problem in our country is not policy. Our problem is implementation. Political commentator Justice Malala said: “We are a nation of talkers, not doers, of politicians, not entrepreneurs. We analyse problems brilliantly; we solve them poorly. We are a nation of great policies, but of little…

DAKAR: France’s army has had no involvement in recent events in Burkina Faso, the French embassy in the capital Ouagadougou said on Saturday, a day after President Paul-Henri Damiba was ousted in a coup. The embassy said it was issuing its statement in response to reports circulating on social media. Burkina Faso army Captain Ibrahim Traore announced on national televison on Friday that he had ousted military leader Damiba in the second coup this year in the troubled nation. It marks the sixth military power grab in just over two years in West and Central Africa, a region that over the last decade had made strides to shed its reputation as a “coup belt”, only for persistent insecurity and corruption to open the door to military leaders. In January, Burkina…

KABUL: The death toll from a suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom has risen to 35 and 85 wounded, the UN said at the weekend, as Shia Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack staged a defiant protest against the “genocide” of their minority community. On Friday, a suicide attacker blew himself up in a Kabul study hall as hundreds of pupils were taking tests in preparation for university entrance exams in the city’s Dasht-e-Barchi area. The western neighbourhood is a predominantly Shia Muslim enclave and home to the minority Hazara community – a historically oppressed group that has been targeted in some of Afghanistan’s most brutal attacks in recent years. Meanwhile on Saturday, dozens of Hazara women defied a Taliban ban on rallies to protest the latest…

India 237/3 (Yadav 61, Rahul 57, Kohli 49*, Sharma 43, Maharaj 2/23) South Africa 221/3 (Miller 106*, De Kock 69*, Markram 33) India won by 16 runs and win three-match T20I series 2-0 The Proteas arrived in India as genuine contenders for the ICC T20 World Cup championship belt that will be up for grabs in Australia later this month. After going two rounds with Rohit Sharma’s heavyweights, the Proteas have been left with a nosebleed. David Miller, who became the South Africa’s highest-ever T20I run-scorer, did his best to lift them off the canvas with a marvellous 106 not out off 47 balls. Quinton de Kock also returned to form with 69 not out off 48 balls, but their undefeated 174-run partnership for the fourth wicket was just…