Table of contents for 2022-02-04 in Mercury

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za CRITICS yesterday poked holes in South Africa’s ambitious gas masterplan base case report released by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) this week. The report, which is open for public scrutiny and response up to February 15, is meant to facilitate liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas as alternatives to power Eskom’s Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGT), revive mothballed coal stations, ignite the public transport system and facilitate industry. The masterplan outlines a fledging industry which, though largely with foundations on a 2004 bilateral agreement with war-torn Mozambique, has the potential to ease South Africa’s Just Transition as the grease in the shifting of gears from fossil to renewable energy, a factor counter-argued by the high levels of carbon emissions from gas…

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za JUNIOR helium miner Renergen yesterday announced it had inked a lique- fied natural gas (LNG) supply deal to Italtile subsidiary, Ceramic Industries. This is the second such deal for the South African company that does not involve the supply of gas to trucks to substitute diesel. Renergen last year in August landed a deal with Consol Glass for 14 tons a day, starting in January and spanning five years. Yesterday’s announced deal is to start in the first quarter of 2022 from its Phase 1 operations at its Virginia gas plant in the Free State. The Phase 1 agreement spans five years, with Renergen supplying up to 800 gigajoules of LNG daily at a fixed price with annual escalation linked to the consumer price index. Renergen…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za FORMER chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has issued a public apology after the Judicial Conduct Appeals Committee found against him regarding his remarks on Israel. The committee gave him 10 days in which to submit his apology and this came late yesterday afternoon, as the 10-day period was about to end. Justice Mogoeng roused controversy two years ago when he made pro-Israel comments during a webinar hosted by The Jerusalem Post. He then refused to back down when political parties and others asked him to do so. Pro-Palestinian groups had lodged a complaint against him and asked the Judicial Service Commission to investigate him. Justice Mogoeng had appealed the earlier decision by Judge Phineas Mojapelo, ordering him to apologise for his pro-Israel comments in 2020, but…

A rare painting by German expressionist Franz Marc – returned last year from a museum to the descendants of a Jewish collector who fled the Nazis – is expected to set a new world record for the artist when it is offered for sale at an auction next month. The Foxes (Die Füchse), featuring two brightly coloured, intertwined foxes, is expected to fetch around £35 million (R727.5m) when it goes on sale at Christie’s in London on March 1. “It’ll be an amazing moment for the art world because Franz Marc’s important pictures are incredibly rare,” Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s global president, told Reuters as the artwork went on display. Marc, a leading figure of the German expressionist movement, was born in Munich in 1880 and died in the World…

GLEN CHRISTIE | Durban North WITH the second edition of the Zondo commission report having been handed over, I wonder what action has been taken against all those fingered in the first report? This brings me to the level of the efficiency of our government, which it seems is corrupt and tainted to the core, and to this day, still harbours people accused of corruption. The bottom line is that the state has allowed itself to be plundered of its finances by many, who now sit in very plush homes and no doubt have stashed millions abroad. This brings us to the point about the finances of this country. It was reported on Money Web on March 1 last year that out of a total population of 60…

Yugen Moodley | Community Activist-ADeC I WISH to place on record that there are three officials who we want to personally thank for improving the lives of our people. Firstly, Jarrod Maistry went beyond his call of duty by getting the Bayview Swimming Pool operational again after about two years, even though he faced numerous challenges to achieve this. His passion for the communities of Bayview and Chatsworth, drove him to work after hours in order to get all systems going. Among the challenges he faced was vandalism and theft. Together with his motivation, he managed to organise security for the pool and he also engaged with the community to be vigilant and report any wrongdoing to the relevant authorities. Mr Maistry is the supervisor for the pools…

Marsha Dean marsha.dean@inl.co.za A STUDENT debt stokvel has helped 102 South African graduates to pay off their existing academic debt. The pilot phase of the Wesolve4x Student Debt Stokvel has been described as a resounding success, having raised R1.3 million, with its founders now calling on more people to contribute towards decreasing debt that oppresses many youth. The initiative was established in November last year. Founder and chief executive Tsietsi Ngobese said he was familiar with the struggle of not being able to pay tuition fees and had experienced the uprising of the Fees Must Fall movement while studying at the University of the Free State in 2015. “I understand the pain and frustration of not knowing whether you are going to return to campus the following year.” Ngobese said…

German scientists plan to clone and then breed genetically modified pigs to serve as heart donors for humans, based on a simpler version of a US-engineered animal used last month in the world’s first pig-to-human transplant. Eckhard Wolf, a scientist at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, said his team aimed to have the new species,modified from the Auckland Island breed, ready for transplant trials by 2025. In the first surgery of its kind, a team at the University of Maryland Medicine last month transplanted a heart from a pig with 10 modifications into a terminally ill man. His doctors say he is responding well, though risks of infection and organ rejection remain. “Our concept is to proceed with a simpler model, namely with five genetic modifications,” said Wolf, whose work has…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za A petition to #ReviewTheFuel price model, which was started by the AA, is gaining momentum after another hefty fuel price hike this week. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced that both grades of petrol had increased by 53 cents a litre, while diesel 0.05% increased by 80 cents a litre and diesel 0.005% increased by 79 cents a litre. The price of illuminating paraffin went up by 101 cents a litre. Layton Beard, AA spokesperson, said that “ominous oil price data” was the main cause of the increased fuel prices. “The February increases will push fuel prices in South Africa close to the record highs experienced in December 2021. The large increase in illuminating paraffin in particular will hit poor people hard, as many rely…

LONDON: Britain’s Royal Mail said yesterday that it has launched an investigation after a viral social media video showed postal workers worse for wear after eating cannabis brownies from an unclaimed package. “Today almost all the posties in Clapham (south London) accidentally ate hash brownies, and I had to pick them up one by one cause they were so high,” read a message on the now-deleted video. The short film shows a postman having difficulty pushing his mail trolley with a colleague saying “you’re just really high” after eating the brownies from a package labelled “Edibles by Pablo Chocobar”. What appears to be the same postman is then shown sitting down inside the collection office where a colleague says: “He had two of them.” But the seated man corrects her.…

THE Proteas Test team left for New Zealand on Wednesday, and there appeared to be an air of self-belief among the players. After all, this is the same group that humbled the No 1 Test team in the world, India, a couple of weeks ago. Against the Kiwis, the South Africans will be up against solid opponents who have quietly gone about their business in the past few years, winning the first Test World Cup in the process against England in the final. Our national cricket team is the pride of the nation, and it has been painful to see their form taking a nosedive as boardroom battles and shenanigans ensued at Cricket South Africa (CSA) in recent years. It didn’t help that the world was hit by the Covid-19…

With only 11% of the population fully vaccinated in Africa, the vaccination rate on the continent needs to increase six times to meet the 70% target set for mid-2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday. “The world has finally heard our calls. Africa is now accessing the vaccines it has demanded for far too long. This is a dose of hope for this year,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa. As Africa has received more than 587 million vaccine doses, 58% of these through the Covax Facility, 36% from bilateral deals and 6% through the Africa Vaccines Acquisition Trust (Avat) of the AU, increasing deliveries have eased shortages and turned the spotlight on the need for Africa to rapidly ramp up vaccine roll-out programmes. However,…

There is oil in the water, on the rocks and in the sand where children normally play on the banks of the Coca River in Ecuador. Residents of Puerto Maderos make no effort to hide their anger at the latest crude spill to hit the Ecuadoran Amazon. “This damage is not for a month, two months ... it will be 20 years before things return to normal,” said Bolivia Buenano, a merchant from the area some 120km from where the spill occurred. Buenano joined a clean-up crew put together by oil transport company OCP, whose pipeline was responsible for the leak, to bring some relief to the community of 700-odd people. No one can “bathe normally in the river, nor drink from here, there is no fish, there is nothing”,…

LOS ANGELES: Around 500 ex-Playboy employees and Playmates have shot to Hugh Hefner’s defence following accusations of misconduct. The Playboy founder – who died in September 2017 aged 91 – has come under fire in A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, but now a number of people formerly associated with him, including his ex-wife Kimberly Hefner, and former girlfriends Brande Roderick and Sandy Kauffman Bentley, have come out in support of the late magazine publisher. More than 270 Playboy Bunnies – who worked in Playboy Clubs – and around 80 former Playmates, who appeared in the magazine’s pages, are said to have come out in support of Hefner.…

OWN Correspondent THE summer fish are here and the rock and surf fishing has been good when the weather allows. There have been edibles and drag-peeling inedibles. The North Coast has seen a lot of fish, even though they have been patchy. Try to fish and move to find the fish. Bloody and fleshy baits are the way to go. The banks have produced diamonds recently but you need to find them. Most of the North Coast has seen good fishing off the points with sandies and honeycombs being the main bigger fish caught. There have been plenty of grey sharks on the lighter tackle. There has been an influx of reports of pompano caught recently, so get your sealice and smaller prawn/chokka baits out. The central coast has also…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za The second half of the PSL season gets under way today with two Nedbank Cup round of 32 games. Runaway Premiership leaders Mamelodi Sundowns face off against Richards Bay in the evening game at Princess Magogo Stadium, while the University of Pretoria host Chippa United in the afternoon…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za WESBANK and Toyota Financial Services face the possibility of being fined up to 10 percent of their turnovers if the Competition Tribunal concurs with allegations of collusion stacked against them by the Competition Commission. The commission said yesterday it has referred motor vehicle finance institutions, FirstRand Bank, Wesbank, and Toyota Financial Services South Africa (TFS) to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution on allegations of dividing the market by allocating customers or suppliers. “This type of collusive conduct is harmful to the consumers as it deprives them of the benefits which arise from competition. The commission has asked the Tribunal to fine the companies 10 percent of their turnover,” the commission said. The commission said its investigation revealed that Wesbank and TFS had entered into an…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za AMID ONGOING load shedding, the controversial Karpowership floating power plants project, which had been delayed by a court application against it, has been approved by the High Court, a statement from the Turkey-based Kar- powership said yesterday. The three Karpowership SA projects in Saldanha, Coega and Richards Bay aim to provide 1 220MW of electricity directly to the power grid. DNG Energy, which was seeking to supply power from gas plants for the government’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, had its application to halt the process dismissed by the High Court on Sunday. DNG had demanded its bids replace those of Karpowership. Karpowership said its floating power plants could deploy to South Africa immediately upon approvals and provide power to South Africa within one year…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za ABSA BANK has made an optimistic forecast for South Africa’s economic growth in 2022, but warned that this could be constrained by headwinds emerging from geopolitical tensions. Absa senior economist Peter Worthington yesterday said that the bank forecast gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.1 percent this year and 1.7 percent next year. However, Worthington said they also saw some rise in fixed investment spending and exports being offset by higher imports, fiscal consolidation, and limited household income growth. He said the Omicron-driven fourth wave raging globally was generating downside risks for global growth in 2022. “Although South Africa is emerging from the pandemic, growth prospects remain constrained in the face of a more hostile global environment,” Worthington said. “Another factor weighing on the prospects…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE future of the multibillion-rand Go!Durban project remains uncertain as the eThekwini Municipality and taxi operators square up for a fight over who should own the buses that will operate on the new routes. The municipality wants to take ownership of the project, insisting that it cannot allow public transport to be privatised. However, taxi operators have warned the city against that, saying it should relinquish control or the project would never see the light of day. The operators said the stalemate over the ownership of the buses was the last and final step to the agreement, adding that the city’s position would be opposed. They vowed that there would be no launch of the Go!Durban project until the city acceded to the industry’s demand. EThekwini mayor…

CROWS are picking up stompies in Stockholm. No, not in the figurative sense of getting the wrong idea from snatches of overheard conversation. These crows, according to The Guardian, have been trained to pick up cigarette butts in the city centre of the Swedish capital, fly to a rubbish dump and there deposit them in a special receptor which, in return, then churns out a small amount of food as a reward. It’s not known if they take a puff or two on the way, but that’s a bit of a side issue. The main thing is that the crows and the city are in partnership and it’s working. How do the Swedes train these crows? New Caledonian crows – the type in question – are said to have the…

Listen closely when people talk to you. Most people are aching to tell you who they are. They will leave trails, sometimes crumbs for you to follow, and the trails and crumbs will lead you into the deepest, most beautiful and sometimes troubled recesses of their lives. But, go ahead and follow the leads. I assure you that you will end up in a place that is beautiful. You may have to turn a blind eye to some wrecks along the way, or hold your nose in some of the crevices. If you persist and hold on to the thought that indeed you are no better than any other human and follow without judgement, you will end up in a place more beautiful than the finest artwork. Yes, it is…

IAIN ROBERTSON | Durban North I have followed the discussion around Virginia Airport closely and am surprised that no one seems to have followed the “follow-the-money” mantra. First, Virginia needs a new, mixed private and hotel residential and retail site as much as a fish needs a bicycle. The area offers enough already with general retail, food and entertainment outlets one minute’s drive away on McKeurtan Avenue. There are easily accessible small and large malls close by at Glenore and La Lucia and further off at Gateway. There is ample guest house and boutique hotel accommodation in the area and a lively property market. One other point that is not discussed is the road infrastructure improvement needed. Today the M4 and Virginia on- and off-ramps are slow-moving at…

| Mercury Correspondent Three foals were among 35 wild horses rescued in Port Nolloth after the Orange River broke its banks due to excessive rain in the Northern Cape. The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said that on Wednesday morning its Port Nolloth crew headed to Richtersveld near Alexander Bay to assist Have a Heart Equine Sanctuary and Network for Animals to rescue horses trapped on islands. The horses were scattered in groups across a number of smaller islands. Members of the public also assisted, including four Namibian nationals, Jacques Kemp, Mark Kemp, Mauricio Smit and Dewald van Jaarsveld, who launched their two private boats. “As the islands were flooded the horses were forced to swim to the next island, causing the horses to be scattered over a large…

Karen Singh karen.singh@inl.co.za A report by the 2030 Reading Panel released this week raised concerns about a variety of challenges in the education sector. The inaugural 2030 Reading Panel is chaired by former South African deputy president Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and consists of 18 panellists. While the focus of the panel is to ensure that all children read for meaning by age 10 by 2030, the report said in primary school, teachers are required to be able to teach both languages and maths. In the Foundation Phase, it is the same teacher who teaches all subjects, it said. The report found that more recent research looking at initial teacher education for maths was especially concerning. In 2018, researchers tested a sample of Bachelor of Education (BEd) students – 488 first-year…

Parts of KwaZulu-Natal can expect up to 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms today. According to SA Weather Service (SAWS) forecaster Wiseman Dlamini, there was at least a 60% chance of showers and thundershowers expected tomorrow and on Sunday. “I would like to emphasise that the weather that we are expecting this weekend is not related to the tropical cyclone Batsirai,” he said. “There is no conclusive statement regarding the tropical cyclone Batsirai affecting KZN since it is still early to have accurate tracking of its movement. However, SAWS will continue to closely monitor its movement and issue official statements and warnings should the need arise,” Dlamini added. SAWS this week predicted disruptive rainfall over low-lying areas in the Northern Cape, the Free State and North West. It said…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) says it will take action against those who seek to “illegally benefit from state infrastructure projects”. The department was commenting after a group of armed men attempted to forcefully take over the Durban High Court construction site on Tuesday. It said in a statement that the men stormed the site at 8am on Tuesday. “A heavily armed group of men, allegedly from a local development forum, forced access on to the site, stopped workers and chased away contractors appointed by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure in an attempt to gain control of the construction site. “The acting director-general of the department, Imtiaz Fazel then issued an instruction for SAPS to be called for assistance and for charges…

The wreck of Captain James Cook’s famed vessel the Endeavour has been found off the coast of the US state of Rhode Island, Australian researchers said yesterday. Their research partners in the US, however, have described the announcement as premature. The Endeavour, which the British explorer sailed in, in a historic voyage to Australia and New Zealand between 1768 and 1771, was scuttled in Newport Harbour during the American War of Independence. For more than two centuries, it lay forgotten. “Since 1999, we have been investigating several 18th-century shipwrecks in a two-square-mile area where we believed that Endeavour sank,” Kevin Sumption, director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, told a media briefing yesterday. “Based on archival and archaeological evidence, I’m convinced it’s the Endeavour.” But the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology…

Growing concern that unvaccinated are now being subjected to humiliation Unvaccinated Canadians are subject to some of the harshest government restrictions in the world, and public outrage is escalating. For months Canadians who could not produce a vaccine passport have been refused entry into restaurants of any kind, due to the stringent restrictions. Now unvaccinated people in the province of Quebec are banned from buying groceries at big stores like Walmart and Costco, and people wanting to access pharmacies in those stores require a store escort to ensure they don’t make other purchases. Walmart and Costco are among the top three places where Canadians get their groceries, and there is growing concern that the unvaccinated are now being subjected to humiliation. Calls for a boycott of the chains have led…

ACCRA: West African leaders began a key summit yesterday called to address the latest coup in a region struggling with poverty and a long history of turbulence. Emergency talks in the Ghanaian capital Accra were triggered after Burkina Faso on January 24 became the third member of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to be overtaken by the military in less than two years. Burkina Faso followed Mali, where a coup in August 2020 was followed by a second in May 2021, and Guinea, where elected president Alpha Conde was ousted last September. Adding to the region’s turmoil was a gun attack on Tuesday on the president of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, stoking fears that years of efforts to steer West Africa towards stability and democracy are…

WASHINGTON: Melinda French Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will no longer be pledging the majority of her wealth to the philanthropic organisation, The Guardian reported. The Wall Street Journal said French Gates still plans to distribute much of her fortune across philanthropic endeavours, but largely outside of the Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest. “I recognise the absurdity of so much wealth being concentrated in the hands of one person, and I believe the only responsible thing is to give it away,” she said.…

A new North Korean state media documentary made a rare mention of the country’s “food crisis,” a glimpse into the realities on the ground amid mounting reports of pressures caused by the country’s prolonged Covid-19 border lockdown. The two-hour documentary is an annual production recapping the previous year’s biggest achievements and praising leader Kim Jong Un. It showed Kim visiting housing complex projects in Pyongyang, holding leadership meetings and attending military parades. The theme of the film changes every year depending on the regime’s priorities. This year’s film, titled The Great Year of Victory 2021, aired on Tuesday and emphasised Kim’s work on the economy. The film acknowledged that “the country’s situation is more difficult than ever,” a sign that the country’s food shortage may now be a problem that…

MOSCOW: Russia accused the US of ignoring Moscow’s calls to ease a stand-off over Ukraine, a day after Washington announced it would deploy nearly 3 000 extra troops to Poland and Romania. Ukraine says Russia has built up 115 000 troops near its borders, stoking fears of a looming attack. Moscow denies any such plan, but Washington said it would send extra forces to shield eastern Europe from any crisis spillover. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denounced the US troop deployments. “It’s obvious that these are not steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, but are actions that lead to increasing tension,” he said.…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za TRANSPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula has stated that the printing of driving licence cards is back in full swing and work is under way to clear the backlog caused by a production machine breakdown late last year. Mbalula and the management of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) provided an update on the card licence production backlog. “As we approach the end of the grace period for the renewal of driving licences on March 31, 2022, we have paid particular attention to the challenges experienced by drivers in this regard. The previous extensions of the validity period were meant to address the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 restrictions,” Mbalula said. Kevin Kara-Vala, of the RTMC, said that the current…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za IN A SURPRISE move, Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo was asked about unsubstantiated rumours of sexual harassment involving him, during his interview for the position of Chief Justice yesterday. The judge faced tough questions from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) commissioners. He denied suggestions that he had a “judicial hit squad” at the North Gauteng High Court – including a junior judge – which was alleged he used to rig the outcomes of cases through the use of full Bench panels. Judge Mlambo, the third candidate to be interviewed this week, started off his interview by outlining his vision if he was chosen to lead the country’s judiciary. But things quickly became heated as by question time, Judge Mlambo was asked about rumours that he had sexually…

BEVERLY MUTANDIRO | United Kingdom It is shocking that many mothers in rural areas in Zimbabwe are dying during pregnancy and childbirth. There are few health-care facilities in most rural areas, and the government of Zimbabwe has shown no commitment to improve health-care facilities in rural areas, particularly to building clinics and hospitals. Some pregnant women have to walk more than 10km to reach their nearest clinic and hospital. Despite the Zanu-PF government getting more of its votes from the rural areas, they have abandoned the rural women whom they rely upon during election times. Some women are even crossing the borders to countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana to seek better health-care facilities. This is stretching the health facilities of neighbouring countries. President Emmerson Mnangagwa…

GLEN AND PETER BEHN | eManzimtoti Recently my husband, son and I stayed at iMfolozi tented camp. We found it to be in perfect order, everything smart and clean and comfortable. We went and had lunch at Hluhluwe and again found that resort in perfect condition, the service was great and the food good. I realised that some of the camps were not up to standard, but those two definitely were, and the inter- leading roads were also in a good condition. We do hope that Ezemvelo attends to the bad conditions at some camps, as it’s a favourite holiday destination for South Africans as well as tourists. We have had some lovely holidays there.…

A specialist engineer, Xolela Masebeni, and his girlfriend, Athembile Mpani, have been granted bail in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. The couple were released on bail on Wednesday. They have been charged with allegedly defrauding Absa bank of more than R100 million within the space of three months. Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority Phindi Mjonondwane said Masebeni, 30, and Mpani, 20, are facing charges of theft, fraud and money laundering. The charges emanate from allegations that Masebeni siphoned R103m from his employer, Absa bank, between September and December 2021, and transferred it into six accounts, including that of his co-accused and girlfriend, Mpani. The alleged fraudulent transactions were uncovered by Absa’s forensic division and they reported the matter to the law-enforcement authorities. Through their investigation, they alleged…

Leading South African scientists are set to investigate Covid-19 and HIV in tandem, amid mounting evidence that the collision of the two pandemics could be generating new coronavirus variants. The team at the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), which first alerted the world to the Covid-19 variant Omicron, said it was time for a “systematic” investigation of what happens when patients with untreated HIV get Covid-19. A number of studies, including one published by the team last week, have found that people with weakened immune systems – such as patients with untreated HIV – can suffer from persistent coronavirus infections, often for months. The virus remains in their systems and accumulates mutations, some of which may give it an advantage. Some researchers believe this could be how…

Zama Ngcoya zama.ngcoya@inl.co.za Sweets manufacturer Richester Foods says the specific batch of lollipops that came under scrutiny this week after pupils at a KwaZulu-Natal school fell sick after allegedly eating the sweets, has been sent for testing. This comes after pupils from uMzovane Primary School in kwaMaphumulo fell sick after allegedly consuming XPOP Energy Red Dragon lollipops they bought from a vendor on Monday. In a statement the company said it had identified the exact product batch in question which was manufactured on September 28, 2021. It said it had submitted the product samples of this specific batch of lollipops for independent chemical and microbiological testing, and the results of this testing were expected next Tuesday. The company said that according to the KZN Department of Health, the pupils were…

AMSTERDAM: The city of Rotterdam has agreed to remove a section of historic bridge in the Netherlands to make way for a superyacht, reportedly built for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. A spokesperson for the city said the mid-section of the century-old “Koningshavenbrug”, known by locals as “De Hef”, will be removed this summer to make way for a yacht with 40-metre masts, but declined to comment on who owns the vessel. Rotterdam broadcaster Rijnmond reported that the yacht is owned by Jeff Bezos. Officials at yacht builder Oceanco did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Jeff Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The vessel will measure 127 metres, making it the largest sailing yacht in the world. | Reuters…

IF YOU have ever wondered what South Africa’s dismembered corpse would have looked like if it had spent many months getting bleached and bloated by a corruption river, it floated up to the Union Buildings and Parliament dispatch boxes on February 1 at 2.30pm. Upstream, the Presidency received the second part of the long-awaited state capture report, which makes explosive findings about state-owned enterprises Transnet and Denel. The handover comes almost a month after the first instalment was handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa, and about which decisive legal and political action to remove implicated individuals from positions of power has yet to be taken. Downstream in Cape Town, MPs lashed out at the Presidency over the backlog and inefficiencies in implementing the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) reports as Minister…

US Special Operations forces conducted a counterterrorism mission overnight in north-western Syria, the Pentagon said yesterday in a statement that did not specify the target but called the mission “successful.” Residents in the area described a thunderous early morning assault involving multiple helicopters and heavy machine gun fire. The White Helmets, a civil defence group that works in non-government controlled areas of Syria, said that they had retrieved 13 bodies so far, including those of six children and four women, from a house that appeared to be the target of the operation. They also said they treated a nearby resident and a young girl who lived in the house, whose entire family was killed. Residents in the northern Idlib province said they heard helicopters at about 1am local time, and…

SYDNEY: Months ahead of the federal elections, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is reeling after alleged leaked conversations show one of his cabinet ministers labelling him a “complete psycho” and “horrible, horrible person”. Local media has reported on an internal feud within the Liberal Party. Several party members believe Defence Minister Peter Dutton is in a strong position to dethrone Morrison in the upcoming election. Dutton lost to Morrison by only five votes in 2018 and lost the Liberal leadership contest after the party decided to end Malcolm Turnbull’s three-year stint as PM. However, Morrison tried to downplay talk of an “orchestrated hit”, saying he is confident the minister said to have made the “complete psycho” remarks is not in his cabinet, and therefore says there is no need to…

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian yesterday called for a “stable and reliable” nuclear agreement in the ongoing Vienna talks, which aimed at resolving disputes between the Islamic republic and the western countries over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. “Iran is ready to reach a good, stable and reliable agreement” in the talks under way in Vienna, Amir Abdollahian made the remarks with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website. The Japanese top diplomat expressed his country’s support for the Vienna talks.…

MIKE GREENAWAY mike.greenaway@inl.co.za IT would be pushing it to suggest the Sharks are pleased they have an away game tomorrow given the chronic humidity in Durban this week but they are certainly looking forward to playing the Stormers in cooler conditions that will suit their star-studded backline. On Wednesday night, the Sharks’ Currie Cup incarnation bravely fought both Western Province and conditions that head coach Sean Everitt described as “extreme”, and the senior Sharks sitting in the stands will be glad that they won’t encounter those sauna-like conditions at the Cape Town Stadium. Everitt said: “You always play the conditions you are dealt with.That Currie Cup match was as extreme as it can get — it made it very difficult to play attacking rugby. Going to a drier part of…

Mihlali Baleka mihlali.baleka@inl.co.za BRUCE Bvuma has described his two-year contract extension at Kaizer Chiefs early this week as a continuation “of living my dream”. Over the years, Chiefs have arguably unearthed the finest goalkeepers in South African football. As such, Bvuma was expected to quickly follow in those footsteps after he’s promotion to the senior team back in 2017. But with Itumeleng Khune the team’s undisputed No 1 then, Bvuma juggled between the senior and youth structures. And in the process, he's only made 28 appearances for Chiefs so far and got a handful of call-ups to the Bafana set-up. The return of coach Stuart Baxter has seen all the four keepers – Bvuma, Khune, Brandon Peterson and Daniel Akpeyi – get a shot between the sticks this season. But…