Table of contents for 2023-03-27 in Star

NEWLY-appointed Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has assured South Africans they will not have to suffer power cuts higher than stage 6 load shedding. This comes as Ramokgopa continued with his visits to all 14 Eskom power stations across the country to engage with the management, workers and unions on solutions to the ongoing energy crisis. The minister on Friday and Saturday visited the Ankerlig open-cycle gas turbines, the Koeberg Nuclear Power station, and the Palmiet pump station in the Western Cape. The Palmiet storage is a hydro-electric pump storage scheme which contributes 400MW to the national grid. “I want to give the South African public the assurance that I don’t foresee us moving to higher stages of load shedding,” Ramokgopa said. “When I say higher I mean…

THE BATTLE between the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and AYO Technology Solutions Limited (AYO) has come to an end, after the companies announced on Friday that they have reached a settlement. This follows the PIC heading to court, looking to dissolve and recoup its R4.3 billion investment in AYO. The PIC is the custodian of more than 80% of the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF’s) portfolio. The GEPF describes itself as Africa’s largest pension fund, with more than 1.2 million active members, more than 450 000 pensioners and beneficiaries, and assets valued at more than R1.61 trillion. On Friday, in a joint statement, AYO and the PIC said they settled the proceedings instituted by the PIC against AYO in the Western Cape Division of the High…

SOUTH Africa’s agriculture is currently faced with an array of challenges ranging from the high cost of production as inputs costs are high, lower output prices for many horticultural commodities, failing local infrastructure, high shipping and freight costs and recently continued accelerated load shedding. Land Bank, the agricultural industry and key stakeholders are particularly concerned about the extent to which the country has been experiencing power cuts recently. Productivity is negatively affected across the value chain. There is, however, an opportunity for farmers who may not have alternative energy sources such as solar energy to consider the financing of these alternative energy solutions to mitigate the risks and keep businesses running. The recently launched Blended Finance Programme by Land Bank in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and…

TV AND radio personality Dineo Ranaka has returned to social media after taking a brief break. Ranaka has cleared her Instagram account of all her old posts, and began sharing a new three-part video series titled Find Your Feet, explaining her silence. In the first clip, Ranaka acknowledged that she has been away and silent and she proceeded to explain why. “I have been thinking quite a lot, I’ll be honest. I’ve been thinking about ... how I’ve been feeling, life experiences in the past three years, how they have made me feel and how they’ve changed me,” she said. The interviewer then asked Ranaka how she is navigating the new challenges that have surfaced. Before responding, she opened up about the state she has been in. “I’ve been in…

THE recent figures from Statistics SA show that unemployment remains unacceptable and above 30%, and the high unemployment rate is even higher among young people. The Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA), as part of celebrating its 35th anniversary, is implementing a range of measures to address the issue. According to Luthando Brukwe, MDA head of strategy and special projects, they are focusing on four key project interventions, and the first one includes food security and poverty alleviation. He said that these included more than 10 000 home food gardens and livestock programmes, which included goats, where they provided up-and-coming goat farmers with funds to produce pure-bred goats. “We also have wool grower support, whereby we support 365 wool growers with facilities and the transportation of the wool to various markets.…

The newly created Electricity Ministry will cost R100 million to set up new appointments. Electricity Minister Kgosientso Ramakgopa is preparing a “significant” number of officials to be appointed to his ministry in the next few weeks, he said at the weekend. Ramakgopa disclosed his plans for the new ministry at the Koeberg nuclear power plant over the weekend. He is tasked by President Cyril Ramaphosa to put an end to the country’s crippling blackouts. The new minister is on a countrywide tour to visit Eskom power plants. Responding to a question regarding his ministry’s capabilities from The Star’s sister publication, Cape Argus, Ramakgopa said the private sector will help with recruitment. He referred to the R100m Resource Mobilisation Fund (RMF) which he helped launch two days after he was appointed…

She is only 6 years old, but little Hailey Lindemann is already a force to be reckoned with. She has her own business called Hailey’s Handmade Goodies. This little entrepreneur’s fingers do the talking when she makes her range of beaded jewellery fit for a princess. Hailey, who lives in Theresa Park, north of Pretoria, is probably one of the country’s youngest entrepreneurs. She is assisted in her business by her mother, Martie Lindemann. The talented girl told The Star’s sister paper, the Pretoria News, that her love for beadwork affords her the opportunity to earn her own money. “I love working for my own pocket money. In doing so, I don’t have to worry about asking my mother for money. In having my own money, I know that what…

I would like to share the profound truth with the leader of the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and his comrades-in-arms. Man is made up of body, mind and spirit. The body dies and is buried in earthly graves or cremated while the human spirit (our true self) lives on (eternal). The five senses of touch, hearing, sight, taste and smell remain with us. However, our functionality ceases here on Earth when we are no more. Gushing eulogies of our loved ones are short-lived and end at memorials and funerals. The slogan of “a better life for all” has not materialised for most of South Africa. Many who died were buried as paupers. If the departed comrades would come back to Earth, they would tell a new story. The story of…

Was it a “sick joke”, as one commentator suggested, for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant of arrest against Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq? And what does it mean for South Africa and the BRICS formation? It certainly raises justifiable questions about the partiality of the ICC, given that it was able to conclude and determine Putin’s culpability as a war criminal within a year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While two decades later, and despite overwhelming evidence of gross human rights violations leading to the deaths of millions in Iraq, two of the arch-villains, George W Bush and Tony Blair, remain untouched by the ICC. Bias of this type has given rise to public perception of the ICC…

Bafana Bafana’s profligacy was once again laid bare in Friday's Africa Cup of Nations clash against lowly Liberia at Orlando Stadium, where the 2-2 stalemate proved heart-wrenching for the 70-year-old Belgian tactician Hugo Broos. Moments after Liberia snatched the injury-time (91st minute) equaliser, Broos stormed out of his technical area like a man who needed an urgent bathroom break while the match was still in progress. Reportedly seething with anger, Broos could not muster the courage to move in for the post-match on-field media interview. The match again showed Bafana’s worrying issues in the final third where the marksmen needed to pull the trigger or settle on other options, depending on their positions. Burnley’s Lyle Foster scored two early goals and South Africa’s efforts in the opening hour garnered a…

New Delhi: Indian authorities have summoned Canada’s top diplomat in New Delhi after Sikhs protested outside India’s diplomatic mission in Vancouver, Canada. Canadian media reported the protest on Saturday was because of India’s hunt for fugitive Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh. The Indian foreign ministry said it summoned Canada’s high commissioner “to convey our strong concern about the actions of separatist and extremist elements against our diplomatic Mission and Consulates in Canada”. Singh, a radical Sikh preacher, demands the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland. | AFP…

Despite having a five-year contract in place, Hugo Broos’ tenure as Bafana Bafana coach hangs by a thread after the team’s disastrous Africa Cup of Nation (Afcon) qualifying outing at Orlando Stadium on Friday. The 2-2 stalemate against Liberia was a hammer blow for the 70-year-old Belgian, and for several moments after Friday’s match, the media thought he had resigned his post when he did not pitch up for the post-match interview with the SABC. Broos was an emotional mess and only after he was told by the Safa hierarchy to face the media rather than his assistant Helman Mkhalele, did he share his feelings. His behaviour on Friday is a pointer to what will happen if Bafana lose in Monrovia tomorrow (6pm kick-off). Broos will surely resign on the…

Local actress and singer Simphiwe Ngema recently took to Instagram and penned a reflective note about how hectic the past three months had been for her. The Abomkhulu actress shared with her 2.3 million followers that she had been involved in four productions, shooting two simultaneously. During this time, her son Tiyani Chinyani, with model and actor Tino Chinyani, also started school and had a hospital visit. “The past three months have been really hectic, to say the least. I shot four productions, two of them simultaneously. Bhuka started school and had two hospital visits, had two weddings of close friends and campaigns in between,” she wrote. The actress said the past few months had days when she felt as though she was drowning, but she kept it together. She…

WHILE Eskom yesterday announced lower load shedding stages over the next few days, energy experts have warned that the public should not be lulled into a false sense of security as the winter demand for electricity would see power cuts being ramped up. Energy expert Clyde Mallinson said that one of the reasons for the current lower stages of load shedding was a lower demand for electricity. “According to data we have also seen an improvement in the coal fleet capacity factor which is another reason we are seeing lower stages of load shedding.” Mallinson added that the winter months remained a concern as there would be a higher demand for electricity. “During the summer months, Eskom has performed maintenance at power stations – load shedding is implemented to perform…

THE DA in the City of Joburg is considering legal action over ex gratia payments that fixed-term workers were supposed to receive after ex-mayor Mpho Phalatse left office. The political staff members were supposed to receive the equivalent of three months of their salaries after the collapse of the multiparty coalition. But the decision had been voted against in a council sitting last week. Phalatse’s former chief of staff, Mike Moriarty, said the DA was considering legal action over the matter. He said the DA would exhaust other avenues before approaching the courts. “The one place that we are looking at going to is the SA Local Government Bargaining Council. A letter of intent has been issued by one of the unions, Imatu. This is not just a DA matter;…

After embarking on a four-year journey to South Africa by foot from Rwanda and finally entering South Africa through Mozambique, Hesron Mukize said he saw the face of human rights. Mukize has been living in South Africa for the last 20 years, he is married with three children, and survives through informal trading and what he describes as “hustling” in Hillbrow. He told the panel discussion on Human Rights on the continent, hosted by the Higher Education Media Services, that for those living in war-torn countries on the continent, human rights were an unimaginable ideal. Mukize said he went through several countries to get to South Africa. These included Uganda, Congo, Tanzania and Mozambique. “While today people take a four-hour plane to come to South Africa from Rwanda, I took…

BRACE yourselves for the eagerly-awaited South African tour of the American R&B vocal band, Boyz II Men, later this year. The internationally-acclaimed group is set to make stops in four major cities of the country. Their tour will kick-off on October 31 at the Grand Arena, GrandWest in Cape town, then moves to the SunBet Arena in Time Square, Pretoria on November 2; the Sun City Superbowl in the North West on November 4 and closes in a grand finale at the Durban ICC in KwaZulu-Natal on November 5. After receiving their big break in 1989 when they met Bell Biv Devoe member, Michael Bivins, formerly of New Edition, backstage during a concert, the group has since been dominating the music charts. Known to boast a long list of their…

THOSE in the know say there is nothing as impossible to do as trying to collect the intestines of a swine, even using both of your hands. Collecting a swine’s intestines is one of the most difficult tasks one can be asked to do. For as you pick up some on one side, the other parts of the intestines are falling over on the other side, an impossible task to accomplish. This is exactly what the City of Cape Town is grappling with when it comes to the spillover of people into the streets with no homes or places of safety to live in. Resorting to litigating against the homeless is an act of desperation that will bear no fruit, it amounts to rocking a chair, believing that you are…

TUNIS: At least 29 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died when their boat sank off the Tunisia coast as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, a human rights group said yesterday, the latest migrant boat disaster off Tunisia. In the last four days, five migrant boats have sunk off the southern city of Sfax, leaving 67 missing and many dead, after a significant increase in boats heading towards Italy. The Tunisian coast guard rescued five people from the boat off the coast of Mahdia after a journey that started from Sfax beaches, Romadan ben Omar, an official at the Forum for Social and Economic Rights, said. | Reuters…

Lahore: Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq says the tussle between the Pakistan Democratic Movement and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf could result in imposition of martial law in the country. Proposing nationwide elections, he condemned the government’s attempts to “suppress” protests, adding that the same parties had been protesting against inflation before coming to power. “Free wheat flour lines are selling deaths,” he said, as “five poor people had already been martyred in the race to collect the basic necessity”. | IANS…

Former South Africa women’s national team captain Janine Van Wyk has expressed her views following her recent snubbing from the set-up. Van Wyk, now 35, is the highest-capped player in South Africa with over 180 appearances and is also the highest-capped female in African football. Following her brief but successful stint in Scotland with Glasgow City, Van Wyk is now playing for Greek club Ergotelis Women FC. Nevertheless, she has found it hard to reclaim her place in the national squad. The Alberton-born defender was an integral part of Banyana’s remarkable 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations success but has since been left out in the cold as the team prepares for this year’s World Cup. Van Wyk has, on her social media, expressed her displeasure at not being part…

Natal Sharks (13) 20 Tries: Penxe (2), Sobahle Conversion: Zeilinga Penalty: Zeilinga Western Province (7) 7 Try: Robertson Conversion: Wolhuter It was like enduring root canal treatment for long periods, but the Sharks eventually prevailed over both WP and the gusty conditions in Durban to win this Currie Cup game yesterday. It was a strange old encounter. The home team enjoyed a mountain of possession but found the Province defence and spiteful wind difficult to overcome, with the second and third quarters of the game delivering perplexing rugby as both teams did their best not to score. The Sharks started well enough when fullback Yaw Penxe scored from a play set up by a very good tactical kick by scrumhalf Bradley Davids. Veteran flyhalf Fred Zeilinga missed the conversion, but…

ALMOST all people experienced a time in their lives when they wished they could turn back the clock. Sometimes it is to change certain poor decisions that have been made, fix a mistake in the past, to relive special moments of joy, or to properly say goodbye to a loved one. Although the ability to turn back the clock has long been embraced by science fiction and debated by theoretical physicists, it is impossible in the classical physical world. We are all too familiar with the directionality of time and that all events follow a unidirectional path. Once an event has occurred, it cannot be reversed because we are not able to manipulate time as an entity. However, an international team of scientists claim that they have succeeded in speeding…

Award-winning rapper YoungstaCPT and producer Shaney Jay have once again teamed up to deliver a pure hip hop classic with their project Suffer For Beauty. The two first teamed up on Dreams Don't Pay Bills, which YoungstaCPT describes as a pandemic project, and now, on their new project, they look at the aftermath of those years. “I’m happy we’re getting to flex a bit more and show people Dreams Don't Pay Bills wasn’t all we were able to create,” said YoungstaCPT. Jay has been working with the Y?GEN collective since 2020 and since then his sound has even scored him his first award nomination for producer of the year at the 2022 SA Hip Hop Awards. “It’s always great working with Young because at the end of every session I…

SOUTH African taxpayers coughed up R25 million for 167 suspended public servants where some have been sitting at home for nearly three years. Ideally, precautionary suspensions in national and provincial governments should be for a period not longer than 60 days, but the longest suspended official in departments like the Correctional Services, spent 883 days at home on full pay. These were findings in the latest Public Service Commission (PSC) Pulse of the Public Service Bulletin for the third quarter that covered the period from October 1 to December 31 last year. The addition included the focus on pre-hearing suspensions for the 2021/22 financial year and non-payment of suppliers by the departments which showed a bleak picture. “The scale of the problem needs the government to put robust measures…

Police in Mpumalanga have recovered several items which were stolen during a robbery, and arrested two suspects, a 17-year-old boy and man of 28, in connection with the crime. The business, at Marcia Trust in Calcutta, near Bushbuckridge, was targeted on Wednesday morning, according to Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala. “According to the information, three armed suspects stormed into the premises and held the female victim, the business owner, at gunpoint. “It is said the suspects robbed her of grocery items including sugar, cooking oils, peanuts, rice, washing powders and chicken meat, as well as a mobile phone,” Mohlala said. Afterwards, the assailants fled with the stolen items. Police were alerted and a business robbery case was opened and pursued. “The same day, two suspects were cornered at Marite…

Popular media personality Moshe Ndiki is beside himself with gratitude as he announces that, after praying for a miracle, he is going to be a father. The Gomora actor took to Instagram to share the news with his followers, revealing that his surrogate was expecting twins. “Today we went on our final ‘can we tell people’ scan, and I couldn’t be happier. What a journey; what a dream come true. Between keeping it a secret and getting our go-ahead, all, if not most, of my friends and family knew (be)cause the good news, iyandisinda ma. I’ve prayed for this miracle of just being a dad and also for this gift to myself on my 31st birthday, my mom, who is now a soon-to-be grandmother. I have no words for God’s…

The murder of Luyanda Cele and many others that are taking place daily must not be allowed to continue. Our nation cannot expect women groups alone to address the slaughter of women in our society. It is the collective responsibility of men to address the unacceptable scourge. Every man must be held responsible for the violence and murder of women. The East Rand has become a killing zone. The media has a tendency to sensationalise and make abstract the bodies of abused and murdered women. They are dehumanised by reports that decontextualise them from their day-to-day lives as daughters, students and friends. This often means that they are remembered through the limited lens the media places on them after death. We are a land dominated by savagery, our animalistic behaviour…

On everyone’s lips this past week was the exaggerated success of the national shutdown spearheaded by the EFF. All of a sudden, South Africa was aflood with coroners and post-mortem specialists as the political rigor mortis set in. But in an online blog, The Daily Maverick’s Tim Cohen questions the validity and success of the shutdown. He compared it to the march in Washington in 1863 in which Martin Luther King jr delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech before 200 000 supporters. That march led to the repealing of Kafka-esque laws. What did Malema’s party achieve besides garnering support ahead of next year’s general elections and maybe one or two more MPs to bolster its in-Parliament fighting squad? It was no match for the 2020 Indian farmers’…

BEIJING: Global financial stability is now facing greater risks, as the transition from low to high interest rates puts a strain on economic systems, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said yesterday. “Risks to financial stability have increased. Higher debt levels, the transition from low interest rates to higher rates – necessary to fight inflation – generate vulnerabilities, she told the 2023 China Development Forum in Beijing. She warned that 2023 is likely to be another challenging year, due to “scarring from the pandemic”, the Ukraine conflict and monetary tightening. | Sputnik…

ROLLING FORK (Mississippi): An entire town, flattened. Injured people staggering out of what was left of their homes, impaled with debris. And no tornado siren to be heard. That scene is what professional storm chaser Zachary Hall found driving into Rolling Fork after a tornado roared through. “There were people everywhere, too many to count,” Hall said. “We initially saw a group of seven or eight people with injuries.” More than a dozen tornadoes reportedly tore through Mississippi and Alabama on Friday night, leaving at least 26 dead and a swathe of devastation 160km wide as severe weather continues to threaten various parts of the US. There is utter destruction everywhere in Rolling Fork. Homes and businesses have been reduced to rubble. Mangled cars lay flipped. Massive trees were uprooted…