Table of contents for 2022-06-23 in Mercury

EFFORTS to combat corruption in the eThekwini Municipality are bearing fruit, with millions of rand having been recovered from contractors who had benefited illegally from fraudulent payments. This was said by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who said the city had recovered close to R12 million from service providers. Opposition parties praised the municipality for its actions, calling it a step in the right direction, but cautioned that the city needed to do more when it came to combating corruption and wrongdoing. Kaunda said recently: “As part of dealing with the cancer of corruption, we made a commitment to recoup from culprits funds gained through malfeasance. We are pleased to report that the municipality, through the City’s Integrity and Investigations Unit, has been able to recover close to R12m in fraudulent payments…

Readers responded to my request and, in doing so, bring me much joy. “Not only do I remember your dad and his tea room in Blackburn Road, I remember you very clearly. We attended school together and went through rather harrowing teachers. As we grew up, you and I attended Greenwood Park Methodist. Your column has given me inspiration often. I sometimes use what you write in meetings and in morning prayers. “My dad knew your dad. When he got off the bus from work, he would stop at your dad’s shop for a chat and buy his children your dad‘s coffee toffees. All such a long time ago, but memories I hold dear.” “This morning I read with interest regarding your dad, and you asked for anyone who knew…

Without admitting there never was any science in wearing masks, the long overdue decision of the health ministry (The Mercury, June 22) to consider abandoning the wearing of masks, five months after the practice was scrapped in the UK, merits no praise whatsoever. On the contrary, what needs to be appreciated is the extent to which science was ignored over the past two years by power-hungry politicians and the extent to which freedom of association and of choice was unscientifically curtailed and dictated. Be that as it may, the statistics presented by the health ministry on the alleged “spike” in Covid infections begs a basic question: were the recent nine deaths cited the result of Covid or were there comorbidities? Failure to make that distinction has been central to the…

AS PART of any contingency plan during any disaster, a municipality should have a budget and a plan to minimise its effects. So, given that main Umgeni Water pipes have been damaged and it will a take a year to repair them, the munic ipality should provide every ratepayer with a free or subsidised JoJo tank connected to the first toilet of every household. If there is no such plan or budget for this, then the majority of the management that was or is tasked with this responsibility within the municipality should be dismissed, arrested and funds recovered from their pensions. Also if these management officials can prove that there was political interference that prevented them from carrying out their legal obligations, then these officials need to name these politicians.…

A total of 8 547 young people, between the ages of 21 and 34, died on the country’s roads over three years (2019 to 2021), according to statistics collated by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). The worst affected age category is people aged between 30 and 34 with 3 661 of them dying due to road crashes in the three-year period. RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane said the “alarming statistics” served as a clarion call to young people to prioritise road safety as they engage in Youth Month festivities this month. “Factors that contribute to the high number of road fatalities among the youth include persistent risk-taking behaviour such as reluctance to use safety belts, driving at speeds that are too high for the circumstances and driving under the influence…

The constitutional right to access health care is not a reality for many, with health-system reforms urgently needed to see this realised. This was said this week at the virtual launch of a new research report by Concentric Alliance and Section27 on health reform. During 2020, Concentric Alliance and Section27 interviewed 33 representatives from the national and provincial health departments, health regulators, medical schemes, healthcare workers, trade unions, private hospital groups, public health academia, health civil society organisations, the pharmaceutical industry and the government. The report found that health-system reform efforts appear to have stagnated, with dire consequences. Section27’s head of health, Sasha Stevenson, said: “We have real stagnation of health-reform efforts while we’re waiting on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill. “The NHI Bill has been a topic of…

Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs will work throughout the recess period in order to complete its work on the Electoral Amendment Bill aimed at allowing independent candidates to contest future national and provincial elections. Parliament is working to meet the tight December 10 deadline given by the Constitutional Court to pass the bill into law. The Constitutional Court granted an extension on June 10 after a request in April from the National Assembly, which had said in its court papers that it needed more time, at least six months, to undertake an “extensive and meaningful” public participation process. The matter dates back to June 11, 2020 when the Constitutional Court ruled that Section 19 of the Electoral Act was unconstitutional for not allowing independent candidates to contest provincial and…

In December 2022, the world’s longest river voyage, an epic 51-day cruise along the Ganges and Brahmaputra, will be launched by Antara Luxury River Cruises. From Kashi (Uttar Pradesh) to Dibrugarh (Assam) via the Sunderbans and Bangladesh, you can sail on 27 small rivers, in five states and two countries. The 51-day cruise aboard Antara’s newest Art Deco boutique ship, Antara Ganga Vilas, offers a hop-on, hop-off option for those who only wish to travel on certain segments. Commenting on its unique itinerary, Raj Singh, pioneer in luxury river tourism and founding president of Antara Luxury River Cruises, said: “Each experience has been personally reviewed by me and designed for fellow avid travellers.” The historic route has been completed with the backing, support and co-operation of the governments of India…

OThongathi residents burnt tyres, and dumped rubbish on roads around the town yesterday amid frustration over the lack of water supply. The area has been without water since the Tongaat Water Treatment Plant was washed away in the April floods. Provincial police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo said yesterday’s protest started at 6am after a group of people blockaded Hambanathi Road with burning tyres and stones. “No damage or injuries have been reported. “The police are monitoring the situation,” she said. DA member of the eThekwini Municipality executive committee, councillor Yogis Govender, said protesting residents also blocked the R102 at the Gopalall Hurbans Road and Walter Reid intersection near Gandhi’s Hill. “The anger and frustration from disgruntled residents are manifesting in a series of protests in the last month,” she said.…

Financial statements are the responsibility of management, not of auditors “Zondo report: Auditors have to answer for ‘schoolboy errors’ that ‘enabled’ state capture.” “Raymond Zondo censures PWC for turning a blind eye to state capture.” “Zondo hits out at PwC and Nkonki over SAA woes.” “Zondo to question if auditors facilitated state capture at SAA.” “State capture report slams PWC for failing to identify corruption during SAA looting spree.” Such headlines remind me of the conversation between the White Queen and Alice in the novel written by Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. The Queen remarked: “Now I’ll give you something to believe. I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.” “I can’t believe that!” said Alice. “Can’t you?” the Queen said…

Nigerian troops had found two former schoolgirls who were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists eight years ago, the military said this week. The two women each carried babies on their laps as they were presented by the military, after captivity with militants who stormed their school in April 2014 in north-east Nigeria in a mass kidnapping that sparked international outrage. Major-General Christopher Musa, the military commander of troops in the region, said the women were found on June 12 and 14. Dozens of Boko Haram militants stormed the Chibok girls’ boarding school in 2014 and packed 276 pupils, aged 12-17, into trucks in the jihadist group’s first mass school abduction. Fifty-seven girls escaped by jumping from the trucks shortly after their abduction while 80 were released in exchange for some…

Kigali: Prince Charles laid a wreath yesterday at a memorial to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda during the first visit to the country by a British royal. The Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, paused in silent tribute at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for more than 250 000 victims of the massacres almost three decades ago. The couple signed a note of remembrance to accompany a wreath. They also spoke with survivors of the genocide in which some 800 000 mainly Tutsi people were murdered by Hutu extremist forces over about 100 days between April and July 1994. They also toured the memorial museum where they viewed photos of the victims and their possessions, and heard personal testimonials. The prince is representing his mother, Queen…

EDITORS of newspapers wield considerable power and influence. Presidents, prime ministers and politicians tread warily of them. Tyrants and despots regard them as their enemies and feel they pose a threat to their autocratic regimes. So they enact laws to restrict press freedom and even silence them by closing down their newspapers. But there are many brave, fearless editors around the world who value their independence and will not compromise their principles and the press code. They see themselves as the guardians and friends of freedom, free speech and democracy and will not be bullied or cower down to pressure from authoritarian regimes. Press freedom is one of the pillars of democracy and is enshrined in the constitution of many democracies around the world. So it was with a mixture…

Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and the editor of one of Russia’s last major independent newspapers, auctioned off his Nobel medal for a record $103.5 million to aid children displaced by the war in Ukraine. All proceeds from the auction, which coincided with the World Refugee Day on Monday, will benefit Unicef’s humanitarian response for Ukraine’s displaced children, Heritage Auctions,which conducted the sale in New York, said in a statement. Muratov’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, fiercely critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government, suspended operations in Russia in March after warnings from the state over its coverage of the war in Ukraine. Pressure against liberal Russian media outlets has been continual under Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since 1999, but it has mounted after Moscow sent…

It’s painful that patients are dying in Zimbabwean hospitals because the government refuses to pay health workers better salaries. It’s a shame that the health system is plagued by a lack of medicines and basic supplies such as gloves. Health workers in Zimbabwe want to be paid in US dollars because salaries in a local currency are being eroded by inflation. Most health workers are taking home less than $200 (about R8 000) a month. Health workers are walking to work because they can’t afford bus fare and everything is benchmarked in US dollars except health workers’ salaries. People will die because of the strike at various hospitals across the country. Zimbabwe is returning to the hyperinflation of 2008. President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zanu-PF must be removed from power…

The sharp eye of a judge has picked up a suspicious claim lodged against the Road Accident Fund (RAF). A R4 million claim instituted after an alleged road accident did not make sense given the facts before the court. The RAF terminated the services of its attorneys at the end of 2019, and these days most cases before the courts are not being contested by the entity, as in this case. This places a huge burden on judges as they have to ensure that everything is in accordance with justice before they make an order because these matters involve public funds. A Limpopo High Court judge, sitting in Polokwane, smelled a rat when he looked at the court file. He referred the matter of a woman claiming damages from the…

Health Minister Joe Phaahla is set to hold a media briefing today to update the country on whether the remaining Covid-19 restrictions will remain in place or be scrapped. The Cabinet was to meet yesterday to make “new decisions” on Covid-19 restrictions which could see an end to indoor mask-wearing, a cap on gatherings and travel requirements. Health Ministry media liaison officer Doctor Tshwale said the briefing would be at 10am, immediately after the Cabinet briefing. In a letter to MECs this week, Phaahla proposed changes to current regulations. He said the country had seen a decline in Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths since a slight uptick recorded in May. The previous regulations were intended as a temporary stop-gap to deal with an increase of Covid-19 infections. “At the time,…

African Airlines are only likely to recover to pre-Covid levels a year or more behind the global market for a variety of reasons. International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Willie Walsh said this to the media at a press briefing at the close of the World Transport summit and AGM in Doha, Qatar. He said one of the reasons was for this was the low level of vaccination – some 15% of adults on the continent. A second issue, Walsh said, was that of blocked funds. “This also plays a huge role in the recovery of the aviation industry,” he said. The issue of blocked funds is when African governments hold back foreign currency payments to international airlines. Globally, airlines are owed $1.6 billion (about R25.5 billion),…

THE eThekwini Municipality’s participation in the South African Local Government Association (Salga) Games has come under scrutiny following revelations that it will cost the city millions of rand to take part. The metro revealed during the executive committee on Tuesday that it needed R7.05 million to fund the city’s participation in the games. As things stand, eThekwini will be sending a team of more than 300 people to the games that will take place in the Amajuba District Municipality at the end of the year. Part of the team includes 40 councillors. While the participation in these games was supported across party lines, the parties baulked at the price tag and called for it to at least be halved. A report on the matter requested that authority be granted to…

A 34-year-old man from Wakkerstroom, a town in Mpumalanga, has been charged with murder after an SAPS administrative clerk was found dead in her home. The 43-year-old clerk was reportedly found at about 8am on Monday morning by her teenage neighbour, SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala confirmed. It is believed that the suspect and the victim were in a relationship. Mohlala said that the clerk’s 13 year-old neighbour found her body in her bedroom. Mohlala said the body had signs of strangulation and that there was also blood on the bed where she was found. Investigations into the murder so far have revealed that the suspect was reportedly last seen with the victim at her home. | Mercury Correspondent…

PUBLIC service is the heart of the strategic and operational compass of any country. Sadly, in recent times there is very little good news regarding the performance of the public service in South Africa. Service and delivery are not seen as two missions that can benefit from quality execution. Since their conflation into “service delivery”, the phrase is more of a political statement exemplifying point scoring. Whether it is at municipal or provincial level, routine maintenance of roads, robots and servicing drainage systems is a difficult task for the South African public service. Tasks once done directly by government departments for reasons to do with regular service routine are now thrown into the outsourcing culture. South Africa is seen aspiring to and punting 4IR-aligned ways of doing things, including acquiring…

The death toll from an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan has hit 1 000, according to a local official in Paktika province, one of the hardest-hit areas. “1 000 dead, 1 500 injured, and this number might go up, many families have been lost. Injured people have been taken to Kabul and Gardez,” said Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, the information and culture director of Paktika. Officially, disaster management officials still put the number of injured at 600 and the toll was expected to grow as information trickles in from remote mountain villages. Houses were reduced to rubble, with bodies swathed in blankets lying on the ground. Helicopters were deployed to rescue the injured and fly in medical supplies and food, said an interior ministry official, Salahuddin Ayubi. Yesterday’s quake was the deadliest…

BRITAIN’S railways are on strike again. Are the Brits back with the bad old days of gouging trade unions? To listen to Minister of Transport Grant Shapps, you might think so. But I’m not so sure. I was there in those bad old days of long ago when the trade union leaders were mean critters. In Dagenham, where I worked for a time, the threat of strike action at the huge Ford plant was almost constant, if they were not on strike. Spearheading the whole left-wing gouging thing – with the Labour Party leadership itself also often a target – seemed to be a fellow named “Red Ken” Livingstone, who was called “Leninspart” by Private Eye magazine – a combination of “Vladimir Lenin” and the German left-wing group, the…

The war in Ukraine intensifies with deadly consequences as Russia digs in and Nato pours in arms. China prepares for ultimate combat over Taiwan. North Korea continues to brandish her limited nuclear weapons. Iran prepares for war in the Persian Gulf that could set the entire region ablaze. Across the world military conflicts are raging unabated, while the UN is powerless to intervene. When you read the news, it seems mankind is always at war somewhere. Throughout world history, nations, alliances and imperial empires have battled one another. Mankind has practised warfare as a way of life. In the past 3 428 years of recorded history, only 268 have seen no war. This amounts to nearly 13 years of war for every year without war. To anyone who views life…

I read with a considerable amount of concern, the daily reports on the impact of the loss of two of the aqueducts bringing water to the eThekwini metro. Communities face regular water outages and the impact on businesses struggling to recover from the riots, floods and electricity load shedding is not good for the local economy as well as for the creation of desperately-needed employment. The negative impact of daily water outages on infrastructure is also a worry. If pipes in the distribution network are allowed to stand empty for long periods then the frequency of pipe bursts increases, meters lose accuracy and there is a risk of polluted water entering through the joints between each length of pipe. I cannot understand why Umgeni Water requires more than a year…

OUTGOING DA leader in eThekwini Nicole Graham has been described as a worthy leader of the opposition. Members of the Executive Committee paid homage this week to Graham who is leaving the council next month to pursue her studies in Australia. Her departure, opposition parties said, was a big loss for the council. They said her direct, upfront, sometimes abrasive style of leadership made for fierce discussions and kept the staff in the council on their toes. Graham announced last week that she would be moving to Australia as she had been accepted at one of the universities there to further her studies. Councillors across party lines wished Graham well. ANC councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said Graham had been an effective leader in the opposition party benches. “You brought the kind…

Maria Contreras and Monica Davis share many things – including a vital organ. The two Ohio women, who refer to themselves as “split-liver sisters”, received a liver transplant on July 1, 2020. But it wasn’t an ordinary transplant surgery: They had a split-liver transplantation, in which a donor’s liver was divided into two distinct portions, which were then implanted into each patient. “This is an extremely rare procedure,” said Koji Hashimoto, a surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, who performed Contreras’s operation using 40% of a deceased donor’s liver. The remaining 60% went to Davis, whose surgery was performed simultaneously by a different surgeon. The women shared the same diagnosis. Contreras – a Cleveland-based mother of four and a grandmother of two – was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in 2014.…

A survey by civil rights group Action Society has found that more than 90% of South African road users feel unsafe when pulled over by SAPS members. “The SAPS is becoming a trojan horse for criminals looking to neutralise any form of trust that citizens might have left in the country’s criminal justice system,” said Ian Cameron, the group’s community safety director. “Action Society’s latest police trust indicator survey has revealed that 92% of South African road users feel unsafe when the SAPS pulls them over. Furthermore, data showed that most drivers felt unsure whether they should trust the police members who had pulled them over.” He said approximately 50% of drivers indicated that they had been asked for bribe money by police members that pulled them over. “At a…

While it may sound like applauding fish for swimming, Central Karoo mayor Gayton McKenzie in the Western Cape and his uMngeni counterpart Christopher Pappas in KwaZulu-Natal have breathed new life into municipalities whose fates were following in the footsteps of hundreds of councils that have collapsed. One just has to look at their social media pages to see how these two mayors have taken the “bull” by the horns, and have their feet on the ground. While some see it as a PR exercise, it’s what many residents in the country have long been yearning for, especially under successive ANC administrations. But the results speak for themselves. For starters, McKenzie, who is not ashamed of being an ex-convict, has repeatedly indicated that he has not used a cent of the…

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler yesterday took another step out of his international isolation by paying his first visit to Türkiye since the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. The talks in Ankara between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Türkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan come one month before US President Joe Biden visits Riyadh for a regional summit focused on the energy crunch caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Erdogan’s decision to revive ties with one of his biggest rivals is also driven in large part by economics and trade. Turks’ living standards are imploding one year before a general election that poses one of the biggest challenges of Erdogan’s mercurial two-decade rule. Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted government released gruesome details of the murder that included…

Europe needs to prepare “immediately” for Russia to turn off all gas exports to the region this winter, according to the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), who has called on governments to work on reducing demand and keeping nuclear power plants open. Fatih Birol said that the reductions in supplies in recent weeks the Kremlin has attributed to maintenance work could, in fact, be the beginning of wider cuts designed to prevent the filling of storage facilities in preparation for winter, as Russia seeks to gain leverage over the region. “Europe should be ready in case Russian gas is completely cut off,” he said. “The nearer we are coming to winter, the more we understand Russia’s intentions. I believe the cuts are geared towards avoiding Europe filling storage,…

TRANSGENDER former rugby player Caroline Layt said she was assaulted by her teammates nearly two decades ago, and now she fears a new generation of players is being punished for being themselves. The Australian decried rugby league’s world governing body after it announced a ban on Tuesday on transgender players in international fixtures, while it undertakes research to finalise a new policy in 2023. Layt played rugby before and after her transition, a three-year process involving hormones and, finally, surgery in 1998. She went on to play successfully in top women’s sides, including representing New South Wales in rugby league, but her time in the sport was often tough. In 2005 people found out she was transgender, and perceptions of her changed. “I went from the penthouse to the outhouse,”…

THE weekend’s 2022 Junior Masters provided spectators with some excellent bowls and the talent on display bodes well for Port Natal Bowls in the future. The 12 selected players were divided into two sections with the two leaders in each section going through to the cross section play-offs. In Section A, Jarod Bauristhene proved to be too strong for the rest of the field and did not lose a game. Sixteen-year-old Travis Finestone finished second in this section, only losing the one game to Bauristhene. In Section B there was a good contest, with four bowlers in contention after four rounds. Wongi Somtseu, Gareth Bashford, Talia Russon and Troy Garland were all in with a chance to win the section. Eventually Somtseu won his last game and the section and…