Inhoudsopgave van 2022-05-30 - Star

Cash generation across budget retail operator Pepkor was robust in spite of economic headwinds and the group – which also benefited from a Streinhoff settlement payment – reported a sharp 93 percent rise in cash sales to R4.1 billion in the half-year to March 31. The non-recurring settlement payment by Steinhoff, which has a 50.6 percent stake in the budget retailer, emanated from an accounting scam unearthed in 2017. This drove down the share price in Steinhoff, with the company sub- sequently deciding to pay a settle- ment to shareholders for the share losses. The settlement from Steinhoff benefited Pepkor by R429 million or 12 cents per share, the company said on Friday, highlighting that it was “pleased to honour its commitment to shareholders…

African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI), the black owned and controlled investment holding company, said on Friday net asset value per share fell 11.49 percent to 1 058.40 cents in the six months to February 28. No interim dividend was declared, so cash could be used to reduce debt. The company has interests in fishing, events and tourism, technology, health and beauty, biotherapeutics and it holds other strategic investments. Directors said they were confident strategies were in place to yield positive shareholder gains in the long term. In the six months, the basic loss per share increased to the equivalent of 23.71c from 12.33c, mostly due to a reduction in operating profits from the technology division due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and a restructuring. Technology…

FORMER Eskom chief executive Matshela Koko said he was consulting lawyers about igniting fresh investigations into President Cyril Ramaphosa-linked Glencore and its dirty deals at the power utility. This comes after the international company made headlines around the world for corruption and a bribery network that sought to advance the company’s international influence. Glencore International has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1 186 billion (about R18 460bn) in fines and penalties for corrupt practices in dealing with foreign governments. Former Eskom bosses Brian Molefe and Koko both testified that there had been an adversarial relationship between the power utility and Glencore. Ramaphosa, who was then head of government business and overseeing Eskom, was also chairperson of Glencore at the same time. He has been widely accused of…

TRANSPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula has labelled SA FM and Newzroom Afrika journalist Stephen Grootes “a latter-day Joseph Goebbels” following his recent opinion piece accusing the minister of “lying and weird behaviour unbecoming of a Cabinet minister”. “Mr Grootes behaves like a latter day Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi chief son doctor and propagandist who believed that if a lie is repeated frequently enough, the people will eventually believe it’s gospel truth. “That is how he defended fascism. He is not raising any public discourse but a spurious attack disguised as objective criticism,” Mbalula wrote after Grootes’ recent opinion piece in the Daily Maverick. Mbalula accused Grootes of being an embedded journalist who has sacrificed his journalistic ethos to the gutter and narrow political interests. “The diatribe meted out by Grootes demonstrates…

A BLIND resident of a block of flats in Johannesburg turned to the high court after the body corporate refused him permission to install his washing machine and make other alterations to the communal washing area. Melusi Ncala told the court that the Park Avenue Body Corporate was violating his constitutional rights, including his dignity as a blind person, as it ignored the fact that he was visually impaired with certain specific needs. Ncala is the owner of a ground floor unit in this sectional title block of flats. Shortly after he had moved in he made modifications to cater for an outside washing machine to accommodate his safety in light of his disability. This was, however, erected on the common property, along with other modifications, such as a roof…

ONE of the characters of Ernest Hemingway was asked how he got bankrupt and he answered, “slowly and suddenly”. This is exactly the dynamics of all our crisis in South Africa; in other words, our problems start small, grow slowly and erupt suddenly and violently. Unemployment, poverty, crime, inequality, poor public service delivery, corruption …. etc are all rising and going from bad to worse. This is not a healthy environment for our economy to grow at a high and sustainable rate as we wish. Despite all of the above, our president and his finance minister hint from time to time that the R350 social relief grant will be discontinued after a few months because of lack of funds. This grant is given to the poorest of the poor who…

There is a strong temptation of taking advantage of our crumbled justice system and law enforcement to those who are on a killing and raping spree. As you advance in your tricks on how to get away with crime, forget at your own peril that technology is also advancing. Over the history, technology has a tendency of evolving to the level where it catches the most guileful off guard at the time when they are ultimately sure that the evidence to their crime has faded away with time. People have committed suicide in prisons because they were given life sentences at the most unexpected times. The choice is yours. You either choose to endure hustling for a better life in legal ways and enjoy in peace later on, or go…

It is a sad reality that South Africa has become a very dangerous place and it is too often our young people who find themselves bearing the brunt. An event such as Youth Day should therefore serve as a rallying call for parents and caregivers to re-commit themselves to doing more about the safety of our youth. As much as we would like, we cannot protect our children from every single danger that is out there. But what we can do, is prepare and equip them with the skills they need to avoid any potentially dangerous situations while also teaching them what to do in case something goes wrong. Considering the fact that crime seems to continue to increase, it becomes clear that we as caregivers need to do more.…

Montreal: Canada’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that life sentences without the possibility of parole for mass murderers are unconstitutional, as they violate the right not to be subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment”. The landmark ruling strikes down a criminal code provision enacted in 2011 that allowed for such sentences. “Such a sentence is degrading in nature and thus incompatible with human dignity, as it eliminates any possibility of reintegration into society,” the highest Canadian court ruled, paving the way for a series of judicial reviews. The highly anticipated and unanimous decision came during the review of the case of Alexandre Bissonnette, prosecuted for the murder of six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque in 2017. The ruling means that Bissonnette will now have a chance at parole after…

Sydney: Vanuatu’s parliament has declared a climate emergency, with the low-lying island nation’s prime minister flagging a $1.2 billion (R18.6bn) cost to cushion climate change’s impacts on his country. Speaking in parliament in Port Vila on Friday, Prime Minister Bob Loughman said rising sea levels and severe weather were affecting the Pacific. “The Earth is already too hot and unsafe,” Loughman said. “We are in danger now, not just in the future.” The parliament unanimously supported the motion. |…

Pope Francis is set to make a gruelling trip to two African countries in July despite knee problems that have forced him to use a cane and use a wheelchair in recent weeks. The Vatican has issued a full programme for the July 2-7 trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan. There had been speculation the pope’s visit to Africa might be postponed, as was a trip to Lebanon scheduled for next month. The 85-year-old pope has been having treatment for knee pain, believed to be caused by a torn ligament. The trip’s pace suggests the Vatican expects the pope’s condition to improve in the next month, although officials say privately that he likely will use a wheelchair at least some of the time. Francis will…

Proteas Women’s coach Hilton Moreeng hopes his players can transfer their recent good performances in T20 leagues to the international stage as they embark on a lengthy tour of Ireland and England. Those players based in South Africa recently headed for Ireland yesterday ahead of six-match tour that includes three T20 internationals, the first of which will be played on Friday. While the squad lacks household names like Marizanne Kapp, Dane van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee, it is still a strong one, with Sune Luus, Laura Wolvaardt and Ayabonga Khaka fresh from playing in the Women’s T20 Challenge in India. The only new face is Delmi Tucker, for whom there are big expectations. “She has been training with the squad when the players have been in South Africa,” said Moreeng.…

THERE are four days to go until residents in a number of Joburg areas will be affected by 24 hours of planned maintenance by Rand Water. The water utility announced that it has scheduled the planned maintenance work at the Vereeniging Water Treatment Plant and Weltevreden to connect the newly installed F46 pipeline to the existing F34 pipeline and the installation of a new non-return valve on pumps at the Vereeniging Water Treatment Plant. “The City of Joburg will further advise consumers whether they will be impacted by the maintenance work and where to access the water tanks, if necessary,” said Rand Water’s spokesperson, Judith Khoza. Among areas to be affected are Corriemoor, Cornelius Street, Weltevreden high pressure, Weltevreden high pressure bypass, Honeydew, Commando, Little Falls, Randpark Ridge, parts of…

THOUGH Africa was the cradle of civilisation, it did not shine as a leading continent. It was known as the dark continent. Steeped in tradition, culture and patriarchy the people led a laid-back life of contentment, counting their wealth in cattle, a little subsistence farming and hunting. When the white settlers arrived, they went about “civilising” the population by imposing their religion and western lifestyle and culture on them. With their skills, expertise and the innovations of the industrial revolution, they built towns and cities, roads and bridges, dams and tap water and lights which lit up the night sky. When the ANC came to power in South Africa, euphoria gripped the country. At last the people were free. Surely, a black government ought to be better than the apartheid…

South Africa’s ex-president, Thabo Mbeki prefers to present himself as a thinker and a messiah. He pretends to know all the problems inflicted on the country and his party, the ANC, as well as possible solutions. We are talking about the only man in the ANC who had a chance to amend the Constitution with the majority that the party obtained in 2004. This man, whom others mistook to be sagacious, failed to stop the electricity crisis (power cuts) by refusing to listen to Eskom and energy experts when they were told to invest more in electricity. What he did instead, as he waited until it was too late, he then offered his futile apology to South Africans. “Eskom was right, and the government was wrong,” Mbeki said these words…

NESCAFÉ Made Strong campaign has partnered with some of the country's well-known stars who have shown strength in their own lives and inspired others to follow suit. The star-studded list includes gold medal swimmer Natalie du Toit, musician Nhlanhla Mafu, activist Zulaikha Patel and Israel Matseke Zulu. Granted a full platform, they took their time to candidly share their personal stories. The Made Strong campaign celebrates individuals who do not give themselves enough credit for their immeasurable strength. Asked what this campaign meant to her, Natalie du Toit shared, “I am made strong through my tribe, who love me, push me and remind me always who I am.” Mafu detailed: “When all else seems not enough to keep you going, look inside you for inner-strength, because you too are made…

TIVAOUANE, Senegal: Three weeks ago, Ramata Gueye died after giving birth to a son, Mohamed, seven months into her pregnancy. On Thursday, her bereaved husband El Hadj Gueye learnt that Mohamed was one of 11 babies killed by a fire in a hospital neonatal ward. The couple had been trying for a baby for seven years, said Moustapha Cisse, a cousin of the father, who was among distraught family members of the dead infants gathered in front of the hospital in the Senegalese town of Tivaouane. “It is heartbreaking to see him lose his wife and now his child,” said Cisse. “I can’t even look him in the eyes. If he had other children, maybe, but it was his only child.” A short circuit caused the fire late on Wednesday…

South Africa is a crime mess, there is no debate about that. It is often, and correctly so, claimed that the country’s murder rate is even higher than that of countries in perennial wars. At the centre of the crime storm are townships where the majority of black people live. It has become normal to stumble upon a dead body riddled with bullets. Just recently, two security guards were shot and killed in the notorious township of KwaMashu in Durban. Their firearms were stolen. Similar cases are common in Soweto in Johannesburg, Langa in Cape Town and uMlazi in Durban. It appears that even the police and other law enforcement agencies have given up on townships as they are seemingly not prioritising township murder cases when compared to cases of…

Tokyo: Fusako Shigenobu, the 76-year-old female founder of the once-feared Japanese Red Army, walked free from prison on Saturday after completing a 20-year sentence for a 1974 embassy siege. Shigenobu was one of the world’s most notorious women during the 1970s and 1980s, when her radical leftist group carried out armed attacks worldwide in support of the Palestinian cause. Shigenobu left the prison in Tokyo in a black car with her daughter as several supporters held a banner saying “We love Fusako”. |…

WASHINGTON: The Emmy winner, actress and LGBTQ rights activist Laverne Cox has become the first transgender person to have a Barbie doll designed after her, at a time when transgender rights are coming under legislative attack. “I hope all the kids who are feeling stigmatised when their healthcare is being jeopardised, whose ability to play sports (is curtailed), I hope they can see this Barbie and feel a sense of hope and possibility,” she said while promoting the doll on NBC’s Today show. |…

Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen praised his team’s character in their 33-10 Currie Cup win over Western Province at Ellis Park at the weekend. Both sides were playing for pride in the bottom-of-the-log clash, with Province in sixth position and the Lions right at the bottom in seventh. The hosts finally secured a win after losing all 10 of their previous games, while the defeat marked yet another disappointment for Jerome Paarwater’s under-performing team. Speaking after the game, Van Rooyen explained why it was “extremely important” for them to claim the win. “It was extremely important for us to win the last game. Over the last two or three weeks we have been talking about laying the foundation for going forward,” Van Rooyen said. “It was important for us to…

n Seeks arrests in seven days or answers on Mufamadi, Jafta charges FORMER State Security Agency (SSA) director-general Arthur Fraser is demanding that the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) make several arrests in the next seven days or answer why the authority has not charged former safety and security minister Sydney Mufamadi, Loyiso Jafta and witnesses known as Mr Y and Mr W for perjury. Last year, Fraser told The Star that given the opportunity to appear at the Zondo Commission he would make revelations about President Cyril Ramaphosa, corruption and the judiciary. Although he applied to appear before the inquiry into state capture, it concluded its business before Frazer was given an opportunity. The ex-state security head opened opened a case at the Hillbrow police station last year. He…

A 76-YEAR-OLD pensioner has triumphed over a farm owner who wanted her out of his farm on grounds that no one in her family could no longer provide labour. Mothi Evelina Zuma launched an application at the Randburg-based Land Claims Court to be declared a labour tenant of farm Maritzdal 940, commonly known as Beinn Mheadhon, in Umgeni, KwaZulu-Natal. Such a declaration was critical to her resolve to rebuff farm owner Ian Sinclair’s threat to kick her out in spite of working for him since 1974. Zuma worked at the farm and for Sinclair’s family from 1957 when she was 12. She was born there in 1945. She testified that she was removed from school at 12 to perform domestic duties at the farm after her mother, Letta Zuma, got…

IT IS easy to call out former president Jacob Zuma for his alleged Stalingrad antics, but why not ask the difficult question of who entertains him and his ilk in their endless criminal pre-trial litigation? And why are they readily given that platform to abuse the legal system? The Constitutional Court and the judiciary have themselves to blame for this, they are chickening out of putting their judicial foot down and saying, “Enough is enough JZ, all of you politicians and the famously rich who are accused of crimes, you are abusing and straining the legal system with your frivolous, vexatious and endless pre-trial litigation.” If the two highest courts desist from stamping their judicial authority, then JZ’s strategy will continue ad nauseam. The undesirability of judges owing their mobility…

IN the past few weeks, some South African newspapers have published disturbing and horrific reports about the abysmal plight and extent of malnutrition among children. On April 4, Paul Hoffman, of Accountability Now – Too corrupt to feed starving children: Is this freedom? gave a most chilling account of what the ANC is doing to their own children. In a country that has enough food to feed the entire nation and more to spare, children are dying of starvation, as well as growing up severely stunted due to lack of food. Hoffman wrote that nutritious food was being shovelled into landfills, while children were dying of starvation.! William Saunderson-Meyer recently wrote about the disturbing number of deaths from malnutrition in SA. These past three years, 2 818 children under five…

AFTER speculation and concerns were made surrounding his health on social media, Samkelo Mdolomba who is popularly known as Something Soweto, came out publicly to address his fans. The musical sensation clarified the rumours that he might be ill, claiming that he had made changes in his lifestyle. This came after the music talent shared a snap where he appeared to be thinner and different from his old self. As a result, people across social platforms questioned his health leading to topping trends with many eager to know more details. A few days later the Akulaleki hitmaker made a video to assure his fans that he was in good health and that he appreciated all the genuine love and care. “I just wanted to address the recent thing that is…

MAY 25, 2022, marked the beginning of the centennial year for the Young Communist League of SA; a league whose history is interwoven into the entire historical trajectory against colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. Yes, the Communist Party of SA (today’s SACP), the mother body, tactically dissolved itself on June 20, 1950, just a few days after the apartheid government banned it under the new law of Suppression of Communism Act. The YCL was simultaneously dissolved. The party was then relaunched in 1953 as the South African Communist Party (SACP). According to party leader Michael Harmel, it was convened under secrecy and attended by 25 delegates in an Indian merchant shop in the then Eastern Transvaal where Moses Kotane was elected general secretary and Dr Yusuf Dadoo was elected…

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of France and Germany that Moscow is ready to look for ways to ship grain stuck in Ukrainian ports, but he demanded that the West lift sanctions. Putin also warned President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz against ramping up arms supplies to Ukraine, saying they could further destabilise the situation in the pro-Western country. The talks on Saturday lasted 80 minutes, the German chancellor’s office said. Putin said the difficulties in supplying grain to world markets were the result of “erroneous economic and financial policies of Western countries”. “Russia is ready to help find options for the unhindered export of grain, including the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports,” Putin told Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said. “An increase…

Tehran: Iranian police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse protesters in the south-western city of Abadan where a tower block collapse killed 28 people, local media reported on Saturday. A large section of the 10-storey Metropol building that was under construction in Abadan, Khuzestan province, crumbled last Monday in one of Iran’s deadliest such disasters in years. It was the third night of protests in Abadan and other cities of the province which borders Iraq, local media reported. |…

Washington: Following the Texas school shooting last week, Disney+ has included a warning to the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi about an opening scene in the Star Wars series that may be disturbing to some viewers. “Although this fictional series is a continuation of the plot from Star Wars movies recorded many years ago,” a note in the show’s “details” section warns, “certain scenes may be upsetting to viewers in light of the recent tragic events”, reported The Hollywood Reporter. There is a scene in which Order 66, aka the abolition of the Jedi, is carried out. The scene begins with Force-sensitive younglings being instructed in the Jedi Temple before Clone Troopers storm the temple and fire on the Jedi and children. The blaster fire does not reach any children,…

Mamelodi Sundowns attacker Peter Shalulile has been rewarded for his good form by being named as the DStv Premiership Footballer of the Season and the Players’ Player of the Season. The Namibian international finished as the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot Award winner with 23 goals to his name and also scored two goals in the Nedbank Cup and a further two in the MTN8, helping his side win the domestic treble. The Golden Boot was the second of Shalulile’s career as he previously won the award during the 2019/20 season while he was on the books of Highlands Park. The 28-year-old became the first player from Sundowns to win the Golden Boot since Percy Tau’s 11 goals earned him the award at the end of the 2017/18 season. Shalulile’s 23…

Despite their recent struggles on the pitch, SuperSport United midfielder Jesse Donn insists his team are determined to beat Orlando Pirates in their final Premiership game at Lucas ‘Masterpieces’ Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville tonight. A win will be sufficient to see Matsatsantsa usurp Golden Arrows into eighth position and would earn them qualification to next season’s MTN8. “It gets difficult to remain motivated at the end of the season,” said Donn. “We are still fighting for a top-eight position. We know that we have to win because Arrows beat AmaZulu. We are determined to get a result because we want to finish in the top eight. They will be sharp because they have been playing regularly, but they have had a heavy schedule.” Pirates have had a frustrating season by…