Table of contents for 2021-12-14 in Mercury

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za THE residential property is set for another year of robust activity and shifting home-ownership trends following 18 months of unexpected recovery and rebound in the market, BetterBond chief executive Carl Coetzee said yesterday. He said semigration is back in full swing with the Western Cape once again being the go-to destination; especially for middle-class Gautengers looking to relocate. Recent data from Lightstone suggested that 35 percent of people moving provinces were going to the Western Cape, up from the 31 percent in 2020. BetterBond’s application volumes for the 12 months ending November increased 27 percent in terms of applications from the Western Cape. Four percent of semigration buyers were moving to smaller but more expensive properties in the province, Lightstone reported. According to BetterBond’s November applications, the…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za AS several councils go on festive season recess, there are concerns that the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast could be rendered chaotic if office-bearers, including the mayor and executive committee members, are not elected swiftly. The leadership vacuum was sparked by a group of ANC supporters from the Lower South Coast Region who barged into a council sitting, bringing an abrupt end to proceedings before office bearers could be elected last week. ANC members are divided over who should be the mayor, with some calling for Skhumbuzo “Zero” Mqadi to lead the municipality, while others want Sibusiso Shange to be at the helm. This means that the last time the municipality had a mayor was during Nomusa Mqwebu’s era, before last month’s local government…

WHAT a tonic it has been to watch the first Ashes Test between England and Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane! Test cricket again instead of imitation baseball … strokeplay instead of sheer slogging … a proper wicket instead of a plumb wicket … movement in the air by the shiny red ball instead of the inert, matt white ball … and unpredictability. Okay, the Aussies won comfortably in the end but there were swings in both directions in the run-up. Great stuff! Test cricket is real cricket, the purest form of the game. Many disagree with me, I know, but T20 just doesn’t compare. We might as well be playing and watching baseball. The Gabba last week underlined it again. If Test cricket is the equivalent of chess and…

MALCOLM MITCHELL | Hillcrest We live in a strange world today – one where it is difficult for the “ordinary man” to know what to believe. This I feel is because the various forms and “houses” of media often peddle completely dichotomous views on many subjects generally expressed by so-called experts or analysts. The end result is that the views of the “man in the street” are often the results of emotional influence as a result of “smooth talk” by persons pursuing a particular objective. In academia the situation is generally more rational since hypotheses are subject to stringent peer review and often statistical probability analyses of the published results supporting the hypothesis – but for the “common world” such reality checks by the media are not the…

| Reuters NASA has announced that it has awarded $415.6 million (roughly R6.6bn) to billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, stalwart contractor Northrop Grumman Corp and venture-backed Nanoracks to develop privately-owned and operated commercial space stations. The trio of awards are emblematic of the US space agency’s efforts to tap private companies to enable an American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit (LEO) as the iconic International Space Station potentially retires at the end of the decade. Nasa awarded $130m to Blue Origin to help develop its Orbital Reef space station, unveiled some five weeks ago, in partnership with Sierra Space and Boeing Co. Blue aims to launch the spacecraft in the second half of this decade. Blue Origin sees Orbital Reef as a hub for commercial industries such as manufacturing,…

Sonri Naidoo sonri.naidoo@inl.co.za THE Department of Social Development, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) launched a report on basic income support for 18-year-olds to 59-year-olds. The Expert Panel was made up of a mix of economic and related disciplines, including specialist expertise in the field of social protection. Panel chair Alex van der Heever announced that a recommendation was made to the government to institutionalise the social relief of distress grant with a Basic Income Support of R1 500 monthly, aimed at those aged 18 to 59 years who are unemployed. Van der Heever said research had shown that more than half of the households in South Africa live in poverty. “Nearly 12 million people and 4 million households fall below the…

Tarryn-Leigh Solomons tarryn-leigh.solomons@iinl.co.za PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s Covid-19 diagnosis has led him to delay his vaccine booster shot which he was scheduled to receive this week. Despite this, the president is said to be in good spirits while fighting his mild coronavirus symptoms, said Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele. The country had been waiting with bated breath this week to hear whether the next “family meeting” could see stricter restrictions as the fourth wave looms. Ramaphosa was expected to meet with the National Coronavirus Command Council this week. Independent Media followed up with the Office of the Presidency numerous times yesterday regarding whether there would be a briefing this week regarding the pandemic, but had not received confirmation at the time of publication. Deputy President David Mabuza has in the…

According to Professor Koleka Mlisana, the co-chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, approximately 40% of the more than 7.7 million South Africans who are HIV-positive are not accessing government HIV services. This is up from just two million who were not yet receiving antiretroviral drugs – ARVS – three years ago. This portends a continuation of the Aids pandemic in South Africa because those who are not on ARVs and do not have their virus suppressed, are more likely to spread the disease. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a strategic retreat in the battle against HIV/Aids as the Ministry of Health has turned its attention to fighting the SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-2) virus that has officially killed more than 90 000 South Africans. Alternative calculations based on excess…

Khartoum: Sudanese police fired tear gas yesterday to disperse hundreds of protesters who rallied near the presidential palace in Khartoum demanding civilian rule, witnesses said. It was the latest rally in recent weeks by Sudanese opposed to a military-dominated government in the country where top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power in an October coup. Protesters in Khartoum waved Sudanese flags and chanted “civilian is the people’s choice” and “the people are stronger”. Witnesses said protests were also underway in parts of eastern Sudan, including Kassala and Gadaref states.…

Rescue workers resumed combing through debris yesterday in the scant hope of finding survivors from a battery of deadly tornadoes that tore through six states, with Kentucky officials trying to determine just how many people died. President Joe Biden on Sunday declared a major federal disaster in Kentucky, paving the way for additional federal aid, the White House said. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear formally requested the declaration earlier in the day. Beshear has estimated the death toll from the Friday disaster at 80 and likely to rise to more than 100 but held out hope the number of missing at a destroyed candle factory was much lower than believed. The factory was in Mayfield, a town of about 10 000 in the south-western corner of Kentucky, where a tornado…

Ugandan troops will spend no more time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) helping to fight rebels than “strictly necessary”, President Felix Tshisekedi pledged yesterday in his state of the nation address. The two neighbours launched artillery and air strikes on November 30 against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is accused of massacres in DRC and bombings in Uganda. The offensive against the deadliest militia in the east of the DRC has seen 34 rebels captured, 31 hostages freed and four enemy camps destroyed, the two armies said on Saturday. The situation on the ground remained calm since operations began, their statement said. “With our parliament duly informed, I will limit these operations, the presence of the Ugandan army on our territory, to the amount of time that…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za THE killing of seven people in Folweni has sent shockwaves through the community, with many residents saying the incident reflected the unacceptably high rate of violent crime in the area. According to the police, the victims, who are believed to be between the ages of 26 and 32, were found in a house with multiple gunshot wounds. A 27-year-old woman who had sustained serious injuries died at a local hospital yesterday, bringing the total number of those killed to seven. KwaZulu-Natal provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi condemned the killings, calling on community members with any information to assist the police. “While we are still investigating the motive, we suspect that it may be related to criminality in the area. We are appealing to the community to come…

In a small lab in California’s Silicon Valley in the US, Martin Janousek and Stu Aaron are making whisky. There are no oak barrels stacked floor to ceiling. In fact, there’s hardly any wood at all. Instead, they use syringes, beakers and vials to find a more sustainable way to distill whisky. “Modern consumers tend to care about causes like climate change,” said Aaron, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Bespoken Spirits. The spirit spends three to five days in a keg-like metal barrel. The company’s technology speeds up oxidation, thus changing the whisky’s flavour and extracting the colour, smell and flavour profile from a piece of oak about the size of a pinky finger. They char the oak in the lab before cutting it into small pieces known as…

IT IS not a new or unique revelation on my part that people in many parts of the world are facing unusual challenges and struggles. We become part of the healing in our communities when and if we: Exercise patience with others and try to understand what others are facing. This means admitting we may have something to learn. It means unloading ourselves of preconceived notions in the face of what we all must face. Offer a helping hand to make someone’s heavy load lighter, rather than pointing a finger to blame what may have gone wrong when things are difficult or challenging. When we are willing to lend a helping hand it is to help, not to teach or chastise. Try to understand the larger context of what is…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof Oh, what a dramatic finale to the Formula 1 season. Two fierce rivals going flat-out to wrest the title from each other in the most remarkable, controversial racing calendar ever in the history of Formula 1. The final race kept the hearts of racing fans thumping, all over the world, gripping their seats as the two rivals fought each other for the ultimate crown in motor racing. With nothing to separate the top two racing drivers for the entire year, the championship decider went right down to the wire in the final race of the year in Abu Dubai. And it did not disappoint. Max Verstappen had pole position and it seemed he had the advantage over seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. But right at the…

Robin-Lee Francke robin.francke@inl.co.za The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) has said its latest review of recent traffic and crash data revealed that the high number of single-vehicle crashes on the N3 highway are directly linked to driver error. N3TC manages a 415km section of the N3 Toll Route between Cedara in KwaZulu-Natal and Heidelberg in Gauteng. The company has encouraged drivers to take the necessary steps to keep themselves and others safe on the road this festive season. The N3 Toll Route is one of South Africa’s key transport corridors for freight and logistics, but it is an equally important tourism route linking travellers from Gauteng to the many holiday destinations in Mpumalanga, the Free State and KZN. N3TC said a concerning high number of single-vehicle crashes had been recorded on…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) under the eThekwini Municipality continues to be plagued by challenges, including corruption where municipal employees are illegally benefiting from the programme. This is the observation made by the city’s audit committee while presenting the status of the municipality to the new executive committee yesterday. The chairperson of the committee, Siboniso Shabalala, said they had identified shortcomings in the EPWP programme, adding that the municipality should ensure that the right people benefited from the programme. “We have identified challenges in the programme, including that some of the people that should be benefiting from the programme cannot be identified, some of the people are benefiting from more than one programme and some of the people that are benefiting are city employees. “The city…

| Mercury Correspondent OPERATING times at home affairs front offices will be extended by two-and-a-half hours to deal with the high demand for services over the festive season. Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi approved a temporary extension of operating hours from 8am to 5.30pm which started yesterday and will be in place until December 30. The extension period excludes weekends, public holidays, and December 17 and 24. Motsoaledi also extended operating hours at some of the busiest ports of entry by between two and seven hours, making some of them operate for 24 hours. This is to enable a continuous processing of truck drivers. Other travellers will be processed during the hours outside the curfew. “Our offices and ports of entry usually receive high numbers of people during…

Jolene Marriah-Maharaj jolene.marriah@inl.co.za A 41-year-old woman, who pleaded guilty to defrauding her employer of R8 million over eight years, will spend Christmas behind bars. Yolandie Bartlett was convicted and sentenced in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Bartlett worked for Grindrod South Africa as a finance clerk. She committed the offences between May 2011 and May 2019. “In defrauding the company, she would create and process fictitious payments. The monies were deposited into her personal bank accounts, using four different accounts,” said NPA spokesperson Natasha Kara. “Bartlett was found out when she erroneously made a payment. “The company paid bursaries to employees at a certain time of the year, and she processed a fraudulent payment for herself at the wrong time (under the title…

Police Minister Bheki Cele kicked off his countrywide SAPS festive season inspection tour yesterday. Cele’s tour, which kicked off in Limpopo, will end in KwaZulu-Natal on December 22. Lirandzu Themba, spokesperson for the Ministry of Police, said Cele along with the management team of the SAPS, will be assessing the effectiveness of the police resources in areas across the country to ensure that officers are ready to deal with crime. Cele said: “We once again usher in the festive season. Police will continue to ensure maximum compliance of the regulations to minimise the spread of the virus.” | Mercury Correspondent…

GENEVA: The Omicron coronavirus variant, reported in more than 60 countries, poses a “very high” global risk, with some evidence that it evades vaccine protection but clinical data on its severity is limited, the World Health Organization says. Considerable uncertainties surround Omicron, first detected last month in southern Africa and Hong Kong, whose mutations may lead to higher transmissibility and more cases of Covid-19 disease, the WHO said in a technical brief issued on Sunday. “The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high for a number of reasons,” it said, reiterating its first assessment.…

NOUMEA (France): Pro-independence parties in New Caledonia yesterday rejected the result of a weekend referendum which overwhelmingly approved the Pacific territory remaining part of France, causing fears of political tension ahead. A statement from a coalition of pro-independence groups, which had boycotted the vote, said that they “do not recognise the legitimacy or the validity of this vote which was confiscated. “This referendum did not respect the spirit or the letter of the Noumea accords” – a reference to the agreement forming the legal basis of successive referendums on the island group’s future. A total of 96.49 percent of Sunday’s referendum votes were against independence, with only 3.51 percent in favour. But turnout was a mere 43.90 percent, with most of the archipelago’s indigenous Kanak population…

LONDON: Daniel Craig, 53, found the ending of his final James Bond movie to be “very satisfying”. The latest movie in the long-running spy franchise concluded with the apparent death of 007 in Daniel’s final film in the role as he sacrificed himself to save partner Madeleine (Lea Seydoux) and daughter Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet). The No Time To Die star said: “Lots of different ideas came and went; some stuck.” Bond producer Barbara Broccoli believes the ending was a “clever twist” as 007’s family dynamic changed the character’s approach.…

THE southern tip of Israel is a rocky desert where solar panels are abundant and the sun, when shining, is the source of nearly all electricity. Once it sets, however, the grid shifts back to fossil fuels to generate power. Renewable energy from solar- and wind-powered systems cannot be stored without extra cost – a major obstacle in the world’s efforts to tear itself away from polluting fuels and avoid a climate catastrophe. But at Kibbutz Yahel, not far from the Red Sea, residents have started using a technology that can store solar energy cheaply and produce power well into the night. During the day, excess energy from solar panels drives a system where water is used to condense air in underground tanks. After sundown that air is released to…

Mike Greenaway mike.greenaway@inl.co.za The Shark Tank begins another chapter in its illustrious life on January 1 when it is renamed Hollywoodbets Kings Park, marking a significant growth in investment by the proudly Durban company in KZN rugby. Hollywoodbets is a flourishing Durban company that is boldly entering the European market — you will see the name on the jerseys of English Premiership club Brentford — and with the Sharks now competing in Europe in the United Rugby Championship, it makes sense for Hollywood to build on the associate sponsorship they have held until now — Hollywood has done a fine job of supporting club rugby in KZN. In a good omen for the marriage between the Sharks and Hollywood, two hours after the announcement function, the Hollywoodbets horse named after…

Gwyneth Paltrow has given Kim Kardashian West a sex toy for Christmas. The 49-year-old actress – who owns wellness and lifestyle brand Goop – can be seen in her new video, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Guide to the Holidays, gifting various celebrities with a toy from her brand, and Kardashian received a large claw addressed to herself and her rumoured partner, Pete Davidson, while a host of other stars received something from the Goop line. A voiceover said: “Gifting good gifts is an art. Rule of thumb – not all gifts fit into a box, but some of the best do!” Late Show host Stephen Colbert, 57, was set to receive a “This Smells Like My Orgasm” candle, a follow-up to Paltrow’s infamous candle, “This Smells Like My Vagina”. In keeping up…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THE ANC could be forced to give up a seat on a key committee in the eThekwini council to one of the smaller parties in order to keep its fragile alliance that has enabled it to stay at the helm of the municipality. Yesterday, the executive committee announced that the ANC, DA, EFF, IFP and ActionSA – the five biggest parties in the council – would form part of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (Mpac). The announcement has left very little room for the smaller parties that are in partnership with the ANC and who had expressed interest in chairing the committee. Mpac oversees many of the municipality’s functions and committees. The five parties are expected to provide a list of members who will serve on the…

FAROUK ARAIE | Benoni Our country is at a critical stage as the fourth wave positions itself to encircle us in the next few weeks as gatherings and festivities intensify. A fully-fledged fourth wave could have a debilitating effect on the country’s health, infrastructure and economy. As illustrated powerfully during the first three waves, the plague created fear and psychological reactions. In the face of these grim facts, we must not relax our guard; complacency will come at a deadly cost. We are in uncharted waters as far as Omicron is concerned, which makes it difficult to know the trajectory of this new viral beast, which has an insatiable thirst for harvesting human souls. Many are brazenly violating the provisions of the lockdown by deliberately leaving the sanctuary…

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban ONCE more the hypocrisy and double standards of the so-called advanced countries of the world, viz UK, Canada and the US are so clearly demonstrated in the latest attempt to boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing. China is a thorn in the backsides of the Western countries. Industrial advancement, custom-tariff disputes, political military and navy threats to other countries around the China Sea, and conspiracy theories regarding the origin of the Covid-19 virus all provide more than enough reasons for the Allies to show their combined strength by threatening the Games. Actually I have no problem with sport boycotts. It’s a lot of fun. But how about being a little consistent? Israel, where apartheid has been proven without a doubt by most international observers,…

Brad Hale was getting ready to leave his house on Saturday when he noticed something white in the backyard. It was a picture of an older woman, sitting in a folding chair. The back said “Ruby Tucker in August 1981”. The 36-year-old was stunned to find out the picture had travelled nearly 200km from a storage unit in Bremen, a tiny town in Kentucky in the US, devastated by last week’s tornadoes. He plans to return the picture to the woman’s great-granddaughter, who was scrolling through a Facebook group devoted to returning lost belongings and spotted his post. “It’s heart-wrenching to think everyone’s lives now are scattered across the state,” said Hale, a resident of Crestwood, Kentucky. The photograph was among dozens of personal items to turn up far from…

The number of nurses around the world is falling further just as the Omicron Covid-19 variant spreads, and there is also an imbalance as Western countries step up recruitment of healthcare workers from African and other poorer countries, the International Council of Nurses has said. Many nurses suffered burn-out from the Covid-19 pandemic and rates of “intention to leave” within a year have doubled to 20-30%, said Howard Catton, CEO of the Geneva-based group that represents 27 million nurses in 130 national associations. “We are at a tipping point … if those numbers continue the trend that we are seeing, it could be an exodus of people,” Catton told a news briefing. “I almost think that governments need to be thinking about the life support package of measures they need…

Keshia Africa keshia.africa@inl.co.za Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane, who was crowned second runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant on Sunday, told Israeli media that she would have “regretted it for the rest of her life” had she not made the controversial decision to participate in the competition. Mswane, who has graduated with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Pretoria, chose to participate in the international beauty pageant despite calls for her to withdraw. “If I had not come to Israel to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, I think I would have regretted it for the rest of my life,” Mswane told The Jerusalem Post after she defied the South African government that pressured her to boycott the contest, because it was being held in Israel. Last month…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za A soldier, who has been fighting the SANDF for more than a decade to scrap the requirement that a member completes a 25m freestyle swim before enrolling in its physical training instructor’s course, has vowed not to give up his fight. Strike Dzumba earlier turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to have this swimming component overturned, as he felt that it unfairly discriminated against participants who were able to master all the components, except this requirement. He approached the SA Military Ombud to have the requirement omitted. However, he lost his case before the ombud and subsequently went to court. To qualify for the course, a member is required to undergo a one-week pre-selection course. To do this, all attendees must be able to complete a…

WHILE the Competition Commission should be applauded for facilitating the reduction in the price of testing for Covid-19 from R850 to R500, we believe the price should be reduced even further to make the test affordable to everyone who needs it. The commissions’s announcement on Sunday was well received throughout the country. The commission reached an agreement with two of the major private pathology laboratories, Ampath and Lancet, to have the price reduced. The Competition Tribunal conducted an investigation after the Council for Medical Schemes complained about the excessively high cost of Covid-19 PCR tests. During the investigation, the commission discovered that laboratories had made a “substantial” cost reduction for the test, but concluded that the tests were highly priced, regardless of the decrease. The commission should be commended for…

Kabul: An Afghan reporter has claimed that he was beaten and detained for six hours by Taliban forces while covering a news story. The reporter Sayed Rashed Kashifi has worked at various Afghan media outlets for over nine years and is now a reporter for Kabul-based media. “They tied my hands and took me somewhere, I don’t know where. They started the investigation by saying ‘where are you working?’ and such questions,” Kashifi said. The Taliban forces on Saturday confiscated the equipment he was using, he said. The National Association of Journalists reported that “at least 30 cases of violations against journalists” were recorded since the Taliban’s takeover.…

The European Commission will propose a system for EU countries to voluntarily jointly buy gas to form strategic reserves of the fuel, a measure to counter soaring energy prices, according to a document shared with countries ahead of a summit this week. European gas prices surged to record highs in October amid tight supplies and high demand from global economies recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Prices have retreated from those peaks but crept back up in recent weeks amid cold winter weather and lower than expected imports from Russia. Soaring energy prices have left governments scrambling to use subsidies and tax breaks to shield consumers from high bills, prompting calls for an EU system of joint gas buying. A proposal to update EU gas market rules, which the Commission is…

London: Lewis Hamilton will receive his knighthood tomorrow as the British driver comes to terms with controversially losing the Formula One world title. Hamilton is due to attend an investiture at Windsor Castle to be honoured for services to motorsports. The 36-year-old was given his knighthood in the New Year Honours list in 2020 following pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to approve the accolade. Despite being one of the UK’s most successful sportsmen, Hamilton, who matched Michael Schumacher’s record seven world titles in 2020, had previously been overlooked. Hamilton’s knighthood was awarded in the overseas list as he relocated to Monaco in 2010. His royal appointment comes just days after he was denied a record eighth Formula One crown. Max Verstappen pipped the Mercedes star to the world title…

Zaahier Adams zaahier.adams@inl.co.za Cape Town City are preparing for an in-form Marumo Gallants today. After a dreadful start to the season, that saw Gallants pick up just four points from their first nine matches, Gallants have spectacularly turned the corner with 13 points from their last five matches to move within a point of City on the log table. The incredible run of form has included victories over SuperSport (2-1), TS Galaxy (3-1), Sekhukhune United (1-0) and Swallows FC (1-0). The Citizens, meanwhile, have endured an immensely frustrating period with their latest disappointment being a goalless draw against basement club Baroka FC on Saturday. In fact, Eric Tinkler's team were fortunate to walk away with a point with goalkeeper Hugo Marques called on to make a penalty save to keep…