Inhoudsopgave van 2022-10-14 - Mercury

ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Siboniso Duma has called on party members, especially those deployed in government positions, to go all out in serving members of the public as this will convince the electorate to keep them in power. Duma made the remarks when he addressed members of the caucus at the party’s offices in Durban yesterday, a day after the party emerged from a by-election in uMuziwabantu Municipality in Ugu District, with a bloody nose. The by-election was won by the IFP. “Comrades, the electoral decline of the ANC should be a worry and concern to all of us here,” he said. Duma said the decline in electoral support meant that the ruling party was staring at the possibility of a coalition government in the 2024 general elections, adding that everything…

NEW British Prime Minister Liz Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, have kicked off the post-Johnson era with a policy blitz – Thatcherism on steroids – that has shaken the international financial system, the Bank of England and the Tory party itself. The turmoil, the denunciations, the denials, the U-turns and the shiver-shakes remind former Durban wordsmith, Wordsworth, aka John MacDonald, of the Beatles number Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Wordsworth once wrote a regular column in The Mercury on the foibles of the English language. Today he does much the same in Bulgaria. Here goes: Kwasi puts the frighteners on the marketplace, Lizzie is the leader of his band. Kwasi says to Lizzie: “Girl, we’ve lost the place,” And Liz says this as she slaps him on the hand: Tweedle-dum-Tori-da, strife goes…

It’s obscene, it’s scandalous, it’s disgusting, it’s diabolical, it’s outrageous. Oh, I could go on! How utterly selfish and insensitive could Ramaphosa and his merry ministers be? In the midst of the worst economic crisis ever in the country, they live in the lap of luxury, in their ivory towers. While millions of South Africans are unemployed and live in poverty, government ministers and their deputies are having a jolly ride for free. Two free homes, free water and electricity, no rates, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicles, free fuel, travel and accommodation. How well-cushioned they are from the rigours of life millions of South Africans face every day of their lives. Such abuse of power will not go unnoticed and without dire consequences. We could overlook all their perks if they were…

IN stating that the West is experiencing challenges (The Mercury, October 12), Ebrahim Essa’s observation falls short of who in the West is accountable for those challenges. Mass discontent with the policies of elected leaders across Europe should indicate that the narrative they are pursuing is not what the people want. Already in Sweden and Italy, election outcomes have shown a sharp push-back against the political establishment. Significantly, those whose policies are being rejected all belong to the World Economic Forum, which is a globalist cabal committed to destroying national sovereignty. These are the same people who were complicit in shutting down the global economy for a virus with a mortality rate of 0.04%, yet are now willing to risk a thermonuclear holocaust with Russia. They are the same people…

STAFF members in eThekwini Municipality responsible for cutting grass have become the latest targets for criminals who rob them of their brush cutters at gunpoint while they out working in communities. Dr Simphiwe Ndlovu, the head of the eThekwini Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) unit in the municipality, has urged communities to protect the unit’s staff. He revealed that he had received distressing reports detailing the attacks on staff members. The city warned that such criminal acts traumatised their staff and might make them reluctant to work in wards where they have been attacked. The Mercury has learnt that staff at the Phoenix depot had been victims a month ago. The PRC unit is the latest city department to face a threat from criminals. The municipality is spending millions on…

A 69-year-old man is expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court today following a bust at OR Tambo International Airport yesterday. According to Gauteng police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Netshiunda, the man was found in possession of 8kg of heroin, with a street value of about R1.2 million concealed in his travelling bag. “Counter Narcotics Intelligence head office, Organised Crime Narcotics head office and K9 Unit West Rand operationalised intelligence information and intercepted the suspect as he attempted to board a flight for India,” Netshiunda said. | Se-Anne Rall…

FISHING has been good on all fronts with the weather being the only limiting factor. The summer fish are starting to make an appearance so get ready for sweat, heat and drag screaming. Much like a good surf and turf, a combination bait can actually be more effective than either one of the baits by themselves. Examples of good mixes are as follows: chokka and prawn for edibles, chokka and sardine (redeye or Natal) for everything. If you want bigger inedibles then a mix of meaty baits like sardine and mackerel or bonito will be the best. Remember that there are no rules in fishing so experiment and have fun. Please remember that the shad season is closed. This means you are not allowed to catch and/or keep shad. The…

Calls are growing for Parliament to be in charge of oversight of the Ministerial Handbook after “secret changes” were made, meaning taxpayers must pay for all the power and water bills for ministers and their deputies at official residences. This week it emerged that President Cyril Ramaphosa had made changes to the handbook which had removed the R5 000 cap on utilities for members of the executive. Civil society and opposition parties have slammed the move, saying millions of South Africans struggle to eke out a living while ministers earn in excess of R2 million a year. The Office of the Public Protector has been asked to investigate the legality of such an amendment, although her office has yet to confirm receipt of the complaint. But Minister in the Presidency…

Time and death are “on pause” for some people in Scottsdale, Arizona in the US. Inside tanks filled with liquid nitrogen are the bodies and heads of 199 humans who opted to be cryopreserved in hopes of being revived in the future when science has advanced beyond what it is capable of today. Many of the “patients,” as Alcor Life Extension Foundation calls them, were terminally ill with cancer, ALS or other diseases with no present-day cure. Matheryn Naovaratpong, a Thai girl with brain cancer, is the youngest person to be cryopreserved, at age 2 in 2015. “Both her parents were doctors and she had multiple brain surgeries and nothing worked. So they contacted us,” said Max More, chief executive of Alcor, a non-profit which claims to be the world…

The DA has called for a full probe into the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture’s allegedly dodgy procurement of R7.8 million worth of magazines for libraries in the province. The move comes five months after the DA first exposed that despite millions being paid by the department, the magazines had not been delivered to libraries. To date, the department has failed to provide any explanation for this. It has also not explained how the tender was awarded to a company that is not a magazine supplier. Documents confirming payments to the company in question show that the company address is a residential flat and not a business capable of manufacturing and supplying a vast number of magazines. Interestingly, the same company also supplied plant seeds to KZN’s Department of…

The football that was at the feet – and hand – of Diego Maradona as he shocked the world with acts of both brazen gamesmanship and breathtaking skill in Mexico 36 years ago has been put up for auction and is expected to sell for at least £2.5 million (about R50 million). The ball in question is from the 1986 World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and England, in which Maradona scored six minutes into the second half by sneakily punching the ball over England goalkeeper Peter Shilton into the net, a goal he said afterwards had been helped by the “Hand of God”. Just four minutes later he dribbled from his own half past a number of England players to score a sublime second that regularly tops polls as…

Independent Media’s editor-in-chief Aziz Hartley has described News24’s so-called exclusive report on a leaked document detailing Independent Media’s plan on how the organisation is going to cover the upcoming ANC elections, as a sensational piece of misdirection. Hartley yesterday said the News24 article “EXCLUSIVE | Inside ‘Operation Hlanza’: Independent Media’s plan to topple Ramaphosa”, was pure conjecture, highly divisive, and meant to deliberately mislead the South African public and the country’s executive. Hartley said this was not a “secret” plan, as it had been shared widely in September within the Independent Media Group as a proposal inviting input. “I am sure News24 and every other media house in the country has done likewise. We would like to remind News24 that Indy is not a delegate at the conference, it has…

A forensic investigation into the spending of funds at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) is one of the first orders of business for the newly appointed administrator, Professor Lourens van Staden, Higher Education and Training spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi revealed yesterday. In addition to this, the administrator will drive the process for the appointment of the vice-chancellor and other senior officials, within 12 to 18 months of his two-year term at the institution. Van Staden’s appointment as administrator at MUT was published in the Government Gazette on Monday, and comes after Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande had written to the MUT council a few days ago informing it of his decision to dissolve it and appoint an administrator. The latest appointment comes after the intervention of three independent assessors…

THE South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) said it had been alerted to dubious health products being traded by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals. It said while the products were not registered for use in South Africa, they had been identified in Gambia, and there was a possibility they may be distributed to other countries. It said the four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals. About 69 children in Gambia died of kidney-related illness and the World Health Organization conducted laboratory tests which linked the medication to those deaths. “The four products contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol which are toxic substances and can prove to be fatal. “Toxic effects…

A local government advocacy organisation has called on municipalities to increase spending on infrastructure budgets, warning that failure to do this may result in communities getting frustrated, leading to civil unrest. SA Cities Network observes developments in the country’s eight metros and Msunduzi Municipality, and has been monitoring the spending patterns by municipalities. The organisation presented a snapshot on the patterns at the Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit & Risk Officers (CIGFARO) conference yesterday, which showed that municipal spending on infrastructure for the previous five-year term had slowed towards the term end. SA Cities’ Danga Mughogho told CIGFARO delegates that over the years municipalities had increased their spending on human resources. However, there had been a notable decline in infrastructure spending by many of the country’s leading…

Teaching others how to treat us is a lifetime joy and can be a formidable challenge. There are several fundamentals to get out of the way if we are to be successful in teaching others how to treat us. I want to highlight one. We are all vastly valuable. The value comes with our humanity. Yes, it is true that we have various roles and levels of education, but we are all, every one of us, vastly valuable. It is therefore acceptable to aim for mutuality in all our adult relationships, where no one is more important than another. Until we are able to see ourselves as equals, of equal value, we will either be intimidated by others or tend to try to intimidate others. If we see ourselves as…

Mr Wolman, your letter titled: “Indeed, human life has become cheap” (The Mercury, October 10), refers. I have over the past 60 years spoken out against the violations of human rights in every part of the world. My comments were published in most of our papers in South Africa and other parts of the word. I have denounced racism, fascism, Nazism, expansionism, military adventurism, illegal territorial expansionism, extremism and the killing of women and children in conflict areas, assassinations of scientists by the most feared secret service. I have always stressed that only diplomacy will solve the world’s immense problems. The Jewish people vowed after the Nazi Holocaust: “Never again.” Today’s Muslims are being persecuted by modern Nazi-type fascist doctrines in many parts of the word. Regarding the Iran situation,…

Your headline, “Fury over ministers deputies’ free ride” (The Mercury, October 11) is a sad reflection of where this country is heading. It only confirms that those in power have absolutely no idea how the rest of the population in this country is struggling with electricity and water problems. Our leaders live a very happy life with everything taken care of and have absolutely no hassles. On the flip side of the coin, these individuals were voted in by the people, thinking that they would be taken care of. Well, they have had nearly 30 years of going backwards while their leaders are all sitting pretty without a care in the world, except perhaps some factionalism rearing its head, as it seems that those not benefiting from the nice things…

AFTER the deaths of 20 people, including 18 schoolchildren, in an accident involving a truck and a bakkie last month near Pongola, the Zululand District Municipality held a day of prayer yesterday to remember the victims. The children, aged between 5 and 12, believed to have been pupils from various primary schools, were being transported on the back of a bakkie. At the prayer held at Pongola Academy, mayor of Zululand Thulasizwe Buthelezi reassured the community of Pongola that they were not forgotten and the municipality had their safety and well-being in mind. He said they had employed road-safety stewards in the municipality, some of whom are relatives of those who were killed in last month’s crash. “We asked ourselves as the municipality: ‘What can we do to restore hope…

The world’s wildlife populations have declined by more than two-thirds since 1970 as forests have been cleared and oceans polluted, according to an assessment released yesterday. This “serious drop … tells us that nature is unravelling and the natural world is emptying,” said Andrew Terry, director of conservation and policy at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, which used 2018 data from ZSL on the status of 32 000 wildlife populations covering more than 5 000 species, found that population sizes had declined by 69% on average. Deforestation, human exploitation, pollution, and climate change were the biggest drivers of the loss. Wildlife populations in Latin America and the Caribbean were hit especially hard, experiencing a 94% drop in just five decades, the report said.…

A tug-of-war between the parents of a boy aged 7 has resulted in a judge making a decision in the interests of the child. He appointed a parenting co-ordinator in a bid to get the fighting parents to try and find common ground. The Johannesburg judge said the High Court was the upper guardian of minors. In this capacity, the court had an obligation always to act in the best interests of children. Thus, in this case, if the parents could not see eye to eye regarding their child, a third party must be appointed to ensure the well-being of the child. The judge said at the heart of the matter was a little boy, C. His parents were never married and they separated after being together for six years.…

One of the five men arrested for the October 2014 murder of Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates ace goalkeeper Senzo Robert Meyiwa has applied for bail in the Pretoria High Court. Judgment was reserved yesterday. Bongani Sandiso Ntanzi, 32, accused number 2 in the high-profile murder case, was pointed out by Meyiwa’s friend, Tumelo Madlala, during his testimony as one of the intruders. Madlala had testified that Ntanzi was the person who wrestled with Meyiwa before the footballer was shot dead on October 26, 2014 in Vosloorus. Ntanzi, Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya, Mthobisi Mncube, Mthokoziseni Maphisa and Sifokuhle Ntuli are on trial for murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. The trial is set to resume on November 14. | Mercury Correspondent…

Robotics and coding will form part of the curriculum at public schools in South Africa to ensure that children can take part in the economy and meet the needs of global markets. The challenge now for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is to bring teachers up to speed to impart skills for the 21st century. Reforming the school curriculum is an essential and long-overdue aspect of ensuring that South Africa keeps up with the changing demands of the local and global labour market. Many question the relevance of certain subjects, but it is essential to ensure that children have choices and that what they are taught is relevant and gives them an edge in the world after school. Seven young people out of every 10 are unemployed, some with National…