Table of contents for 2022-10-05 in Mercury

DIVERSIFIED miner Anglo American will establish a new renewable energy business in SA in collaboration with Électricité de France (EDF) Renewables, a global leader in renewable energy. The companies will form a new jointly-owned company, Envusa Energy, to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa, they said in a statement yesterday. According to Anglo American, as part of the agreement, Envusa Energy would launch a mature pipeline of more than 600 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar projects in South Africa, a major first step towards the development of an ecosystem that is expected to generate 3 to 5 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy by 2030. “This first phase of Envusa Energy’s renewables projects is expected to be fully funded – including by attracting debt financing that…

CONSUMER spending in South Africa is expected to remain depressed due to the elevated cost of living in spite of the drop in fuel prices this month. Analysts said yesterday that while the petrol price cut would bring some relief to motorists food prices were still at unaffordable levels. The Department of Mineral Re- sources and Energy (DMRE) announced the fuel price adjustment for October on Monday, decreasing the petrol price for three consecutive months. The DMRE said the price of 93-octane petrol would drop by 89 cents a litre and 95-octane petrol by R1.02 a litre. The petrol price drops to R23.36 a litre from a record high of R26.74 a litre in July. The wholesale price for illuminating paraffin will fall 61c a litre. Diesel will…

MERGENCE Industrial Group (MIG) has increased its stake to 100% in Lasercraft, a precision sheet-metal and plate engineering company, as part of the group’s growth and expansion into the South African industrial sector, a statement said yesterday. Previously MIG had a 60% stake in Lasercraft, of which 51% is owned by black women, making MIG one of the largest, black-owned and managed diversified industrial groups in South Africa. MIG chairperson Masimo Magerman said the 100% shareholding would enable the group to expand its footprint in the South African and rest of Africa industrial sectors through an organic and acquisition growth strategy. The move also allowed Mergence to diversify to other sectors of the South African economy toward its vision of being an investment holding company, with direct interests in assets…

Star Wars villain Darth Vader’s gloves will be among the famous and familiar items from films, TV and the world of music up for grabs in British memorabilia company Propstore’s annual live auction in London next month. This year’s auction boasts an extended catalogue of over 1 500 lots with an estimated total worth of £11 million (about R221m). Highlights include the complete Superman costume worn by Christopher Reeve in the 1978-1987 Superman franchise, Vader’s black gloves from the first Star Wars movie in 1977 and a Bible that concealed a rock hammer in 1994’s Shawshank Redemption. There is also a first-edition hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from 2001 and the Little Nellie pilot helmet worn by Sean Connery in the 1967 James Bond film You…

In this time of fake news and misinformation, how does the ordinary citizen know who to believe? As an example of this syndrome, your front-page headline on October 4 states “Grim findings on KZN infrastructure”. The report goes on to state that most municipalities, including eThekwini, according to a report prepared by professionals in the field, are failing to maintain ageing infrastructure. It goes on to say that developers and private homeowners are having to carry the cost of maintaining and upgrading infrastructure in their cities. There is nothing to say that eThekwini is excluded from this survey. Yet in the same article, you quote an eThekwini spokesperson as saying that the municipality was proud of its comprehensive programme of action to rehabilitate infrastructure. Who is speaking the truth here,…

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dube-Ncube tells us that 19 buildings are earmarked to house communities left homeless by the floods this year. She proudly tells us that the former student complexes have wonderful facilities with two or three beds per room, CCTV, hot water, a kitchen with stoves, and a guardhouse, among other amenities, which sounds all grand and dandy, but she is rather reticent how all this will be sustainable in the long term and where the money is coming from to finance the project. Sheer common sense tells us that all these amenities come at a cost – maintenance, water, electricity, wages for cleaners, guards. But exactly how will the poor homeless people be able to sustain their existence for an indefinite period of time without contributing to the expenses…

The Financial Intelligence Centre’s (FIC’s) collaboration with law enforcement, revenue authorities, intelligence services and supervisory bodies has resulted in the recovery of more than R5 billion in criminal assets during the 2021/22 financial year. The FIC plays a pivotal role in the provision of financial intelligence to law enforcement and other authorities for their investigations and applications for asset forfeiture as the FIC does not conduct investigations. In a foreword to the FIC’s latest annual report, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the FIC’s partnerships and collaborative efforts were central to its mandate of identifying proceeds of crime and assisting in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. According to the report, 45 555 institutions registered with the FIC at year-end filed more than 5 million regulatory reports, including…

For most of China’s 1.4 billion people, regular Covid-19 tests have become a way of life. Siyuan Zhuji, 33, is turning them into a work of art. Since March, the multi-disciplinary artist has been filming his own nucleic acid tests with a thumb-sized camera in his mouth. His video clips show teeth and tongue and an approaching cotton bud. In some shots, a PPE-clad health worker can be seen through his teeth, administering the test. The idea for the videos came to him when he began considering the mouth, as an entry point for the virus and also for the repeated testing, he said. He has recorded about 40 tests and aims eventually to display the videos simultaneously on a big screen in a grid, a snapshot of pandemic life…

Motorists are no doubt relieved to see a decrease in the fuel price for October. However, the Road Freight Association and farming associations have raised concern about another increase in the price of diesel. The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, announced on Monday that the price of petrol would drop 89c a litre for 93 ULP and LRP; and decrease by R1.02 per litre for 95 ULP and LRP. For diesel, 0.05% sulphur has gone up by 10c per litre and 0.005% sulphur has increasd 15c per litre. The price of illuminating paraffin (wholesale) has decreased by 61c per litre. Mantashe said that the main reasons for the fuel price adjustments were due to a decrease in the crude oil price. He said the reason for the…

THE decision to extend the contracts of the employees under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) has come under fire from opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality, who described the project as costly when the city was faced with a lot of problems. Abantu Batho Congress (ABC), led by the city’s deputy mayor Philani Mavundla, has defended its decision to vote against the extension of the contracts during a council meeting last week, saying the money could be used to fix infrastructure that is crumbling or was damaged by the April storms. This view was supported by the DA, which described the programme as a national competency led by the Department of Public Works and as such all costs should be carried by the national department. However, the IFP said…

Under current archaic arrangement, citizens are neglected as elites tussle for top spot The dramatic scenes that characterised the ousting of the speaker and executive mayors of the City of Joburg and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in the past few weeks should act as a lesson in how not to configure government, especially at the local level. Instead of residents and service delivery being the preoccupation of parties and councillors, what South Africans have witnessed has been people offering themselves to the highest bidders in pursuance of selfish interests at the expense of those who elected them. The perceived hate against the ANC has been hyped up and then presented as a cover for small parties to gang up against the one that received the highest votes during the recent…

THE UPSIDE of the continued use of oil and gas by Africa far outweighs the risk to climate change, CEF Group chief executive Dr Ishmael Poolo said yesterday. Poking a stick at the headlong rush by developed countries into decarbonising their economies, he said in an address to the Africa Oil Week in Cape Town yesterday that instead of South Africa being rewarded for deploying 30% renewables as a percentage of its electricity-generating capacity, the country “is still chastised for its use of its natural endowment of natural resources,” such as the burning of coal. Poolo’s and comments by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe indicate that while renewable energy development may be galloping ahead elsewhere in the world, and will continue in South Africa, traditional fossil fuel energy…

SOUTH Africa’s mining sector delivered a sterling performance in the past year, despite several local and global challenges, and all stakeholders received much-welcomed value, according to the PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC’s) SA Miner 2022 report. The report released yesterday gives an analysis of the mining results, and other factors including the economic context, infrastructure-related challenges in the sector, and industry and market analysis. Minerals account for more than half of South Africa’s export revenue. In 2021, the two largest export categories – precious metals and stones as well as ores, slag and ash – contributed 43.2% of total export revenue. Mineral fuels, including coal, accounted for a further 8.3% of export revenue, the report said. According to the report, the industry’s financial performance exceeded expectations on most fronts. “Distributions to shareholders more…

PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the government have 20 days to provide both confidential and non-confidential records to the parties that hauled them to court over the controversial sale of SAA. This is according to a Western Cape High Court order after Toto Investment Holdings launched an application to interdict the implementation of the transaction with a strategic equity partner in SAA, pending a review application. It also wanted disclosure of all documents on a non-confidential basis in the SAA-Takatso Consortium share sale deal. The government sold 51% of shares in SAA to a strategic equity partner, Takatso consortium after the business rescue process. Last week, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who has refused to share details on the deal, told MPs that by the end of the year…

While the DA in KwaZulu-Natal welcomes the exemption of various hospitals in the province from load shedding, there are critical facilities that seem to have been left off the list. This includes the Amajuba-based Madadeni and Newcastle Regional Hospitals, the latter of which is also a mother-and-child facility. These two facilities serve as major referral centres, particularly for critically ill patients from neighbouring districts. The failure to exempt them from load shedding places a greater burden on their own back-up power supplies. Regrettably, this has already been witnessed at Madadeni Hospital with instances where the back-up power did not kick in, leaving the facility in darkness for hours on end. The DA will be taking this matter up with KZN’s Health MEC. We will request that an urgent assessment take…

The letter by Thyagaraj Markandan, “Why did seasoned politician support ANC?”, The Mercury, October 4, cannot be left unchallenged. Markandan is yet another armchair critic whose only acts of activism are confined to writing letters to the media. Rajbansi warned me about characters like this. He said they would always criticise those who did the work, and it was best to ignore them. Markandan is feigning ignorance of my contribution to society. I lead the charge against exorbitant fuel prices in this country. For the first time in our history, ordinary people challenged the government on its determination of fuel prices. I did not just write letters to the press, but actively led protests and marches that put the spotlight on fuel prices. But this is just one example of…

CHILD labour, especially in the agriculture sector, is on the rise. The Department of Labour said in a recent report that 70% of children engaged in child labour were in agriculture and that they had seen an increase in recent years. According to the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, International Labour Organization and the UN Children’s Fund, it was estimated that 160 million children, of whom 63 million were girls and 97 million boys, were caught in a form of child labour globally since the start of 2020. The Department of Labour said they were constantly monitoring children on farms and the legal age of employment was between the ages of 15 and 18. “The Department of Employment and Labour is conducting day-to-day inspections and embarking…

Police have arrested one suspect and detained three others for questioning following a spate of shootings which claimed nine lives in less than 48 hours in Vrygrond, near Muizenberg, Cape Town, at the weekend. The first incident on Friday night resulted in two suspected gangsters being killed. Hours later, a taxi driver was attacked on Drury Road. And at about 5pm on Saturday, two more were killed in Apple Road. After that shooting, when officers arrived at the hospital they were shown the body of another man, 28, allegedly shot at his residence in Apple Road. While responding to the Apple Road killing, police discovered the body of a man, 40, in the same street. Two more people were killed on Sunday, leading to a 72-hour activation plan. This deployment…

A taxi driver caught on video trying to drive away while a Durban metro police officer is writing a ticket and standing in front of his vehicle, is facing criminal charges. The driver, who cannot be named as he is yet to appear in court, is charged with attempted murder, reckless and negligent driving, threatening a member of the Durban metro police, assault, disregarding lawful instruction and defeating the ends of justice. Durban metro police spokesperson Geraldine Stevens said the case was opened at Hillcrest SAPS. She said the officer in the video was a traffic warden, not a police officer, and would undergo police training soon. “We found the officer, who is a traffic warden and not a cop. He was the one who showed us the driver and…

THE Department of Home Affairs has been successfully clamping down on sham marriages and the issuing of fraudulent passports since the beginning of this year. Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said this in response to a parliamentary questions. Motsoaledi said in his department a total of 185 passports were investigated and the passport numbers were blocked on the National Population Register, and also placed on the Movement Control Systems’ V-Stoplist since January. He also revealed that whistle-blowers’ allegations pertaining to fraudulent passports were followed up. “The department then conducted investigations on those allegations and also profiled the user IDs of the implicated officials, which uncovered that more passports were issued fraudulently.” Motsoaledi said 12 officials were charged with misconduct with eight dismissals, and the remainder were still to face disciplinary…

THE management of the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) said it is ready to work with the newly appointed administrator to stabilise the situation at the institution. Professor Lourens van Staden was appointed administrator by Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande. This followed the minister’s decision to dissolve the MUT council, a move which was announced in correspondence with the Registrar Dr Phumzile Masala on Saturday. Masala confirmed the announcement. Briefing the media yesterday, Masala said while correspondence was received on Saturday, it stated that the decision to dissolve the council would take effect on September 28. “On Saturday, I received correspondence in the form of an email addressed to the chairperson of council and it indicated that the minister had decided to appoint an administrator and…

If the emphasis of this series against India was more about finding answers ahead of the T20 World Cup later this month than actually winning it, then Rilee Rossouw has certainly nailed down the No 3 spot for the tournament in Australia. Such is the options South Africa have at their disposal at the top of the order, that Rossouw’s two ducks at the start of the series had left his place open to debate. But after a blitzkrieg yesterday where the powerful left-hander blasted, smashed and boomed a 100 not out from 48 balls with eight sixes and seven fours that discussion is now closed. Rossouw’s dynamism powered SA to a mammoth 227/3, and ultimately a comfortable 49-run consolation victory. It would be easy, perhaps valid, to suggest that…

THE SOUTH African Reserve Bank (SARB) will continue raising interest rates well into 2023 in a bid to stabilise monetary policy and restore price stability amid persistently high inflation. The SARB Governor Lesetja Kga-nyago yesterday said that domestic inflation outcomes have worsened as higher global food and Brent crude oil prices weighed on prices. Inflation in South Africa climbed to 7.6% in August, a slight moderation from the 7.8% hit in July, and a full 1.9 percentage points above the inflation outcome of January. Headline inflation is expected to average 6.5% in 2022, up from 4.5% in 2021, and to remain above the midpoint of the target range of 3 to 6% into 2024. As inflation and expectations of future inflation increased, the SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised…

OCEANA Group plans to sell off its cold storage business, Commercial Cold Storage Group, or CCS Logistics, for R760 millon, so that it can focus on new opportunities in the fish protein sector. The business would be sold to the minority interests in CCS Namibia, net of the value accruing to minority interests in the Namibian (CCS Namibia 31%) and Duncan Dock (CCS Ports 30%) operations. The implied 100% enterprise value including minorities of the transaction was R895m. Oceana said the purchaser was a special purpose vehicle owned by a consortium comprising Old Mutual Life Assurance Company, acting on behalf of the Infrastructural, Developmental and Environmental Assets Managed Fund (Ideas), and the African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 Partnership (AIIF4). The main beneficial owners of the consortium members are Ideas Fund,…

DISPLACED flood victims who were meant to be moved to new temporary accommodation were yesterday booked in to the Royal Hotel in the Durban CBD after a dispute between the KwaZulu-Natal government and the landlord. Amid much fanfare, the government announced on Sunday that 50 flood victims would be moved from the Truro Hall in Westville to temporary emergency accommodation more suitable for family living in comparison to the community hall which they had been staying in for the past five months. However, the premier’s office told The Mercury yesterday that shortly after the residents were transported to the building, which was previously used as student accommodation, the property owners wanted the government to buy the property, as opposed to leasing it. “The sudden about-turn and demand for the permanent…

Without mentioning common measures of wealth and stereotypical trophies of success, what kind of person do you want to be? What do you want your children and grandchildren to tell and retell about you years from now, after you have left this delightful planet? What is the difference between how you are now and how you’d like to be remembered? Is there anyone in your life, or on the fringes of your life, whom you find intimidating; and, what is it about you that you allow yourself to live with a sense of being intimidated by anyone? What will you do to get rid of this reaction to this person? While on this topic, is there anyone you are aware of who finds you intimidating and, if so, what are…

WHILE one would like to believe that the DA’s spokesperson on health, Michele Clark, is conscientious about her portfolio, it is disappointing to note from her interview in Biznews of October 4, that the DA strongly supports the Covid jab. In support of that, she cites the opinions of public health experts and plays down the extent to which complaints about adverse effects from the jab have been reported. From those submissions, however, it would appear that the DA’s research on the subject is somewhat deficient. There are three primary reasons why what are promoted as vaccines for Covid-19 should be critically considered: (1) none of them was subjected to the standard testing duration and their roll-out was hastened by political and Big Pharma pressure; (2) it is an admitted…

RING them bells … it was high voltage stuff at the St Clement’s arts soiree this week as veterans Rick and Gill Andrew and Alan Judd, of The Survivors, belted out what amounted to a combination of the best in North American folk music plus Nobel Prize-winning literature. Yes, that’s what happens when you sing a programme of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. It was Dylan who – much to his own surprise – won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for the lyrics of his music. I’m not sure what prize Rick and Gill deserve for their memorising of a lengthy stick of highly-complicated lyrics of some of the lesser-known American folk music – but succeed they did, and there was a storm of applause from a large and…

THE South African Council of Educators (Sace) said a third of all misconduct cases recorded in the past financial year involved corporal punishment and assault on pupils, The Sace’s 2021-22 annual report recently tabled in Parliament showed the Western Cape had 85 cases, followed by the Free State with 53 and Gauteng with 35. The Eastern Cape recorded 19 cases, both KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces recorded 17, North West 11, Mpumalanga eight and the Northern Cape three. The South African Schools Act outlawed the administering of corporal punishment at schools 26 years ago. The law as it stands makes anyone who contravenes it guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a sentence which could be imposed for assault. In its report, Sace said it received a total…

A 3-month-old infant was found abandoned with an apology note written by her mother, who explained in it that she felt she had no choice after failing to get assistance from social services. The baby was found near a stream, by a man who was picking mangoes in a soccer field in Dawncrest, Verulam. “I have spoken twice with social workers, they are delaying to assist. I know this looks bad but I had no option, the system is fragile and we can’t even abort safely any more, hospitals have strict rules,” the mother said in her letter. The letter, handwritten in English, expresses the writer’s guilt and failed efforts to reach out to social workers, and further goes on to explain the challenges of getting an abortion in hospitals.…

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has called on those caring for orphaned children to apply for a child support grant (CSG) top-up at their nearest South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) offices. The department said that the R240 top-up was added to the standard CSG amount of R480 and is specifically for orphans. “It is important to note that the CSG top-up is not a new grant, but an additional amount to the basic Child Support Grant,” it said. The same eligibility criteria applying to the CSG will also apply to the CSG top-up, but additional proof is required to show that the child in question is an orphan, the department said. To prove this, caregivers will need to submit the death certificates of the child’s parents. “If they only…

When Kaizer Chiefs and hosts Swallows renew their rivalry tonight (7.30pm kick-off), several players who failed to impress in Sunday’s MTN8 semi-final have a chance to make amends. Among those who underwhelmed were the Chiefs strikers Ashley du Preez and Burundian Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana. Du Preez came in for harsh criticism on social media after he fluffed an easy chance when one-on-one with AmaZulu keeper Veli Mothwa. Du Preez’s shot went high over the crossbar. On the eve of the Swallows clash at Dobsonville, Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane rushed to the striker’s defence. Du Preez has had a lean spell since joining Chiefs from Stellenbosch, and after eight matches, he has only scored once. Zwane is confident that Du Preez will bounce back and prove his worth. “He is a big…