Índice para 2022-11-22 em Mercury

THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal should make sure that it does not emerge a loser when the governing party holds its elective conference at Nasrec next month, ANC NEC (national executive committee) member Bathabile Dlamini has cautioned party members. With KZN having Dr Zweli Mkhize, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Senzo Mchunu, Mdumiseni Ntuli and Malusi Gigaba vying for office-bearer positions, Dlamini said it was important for all delegates to rally behind an individual with strong prospects of winning next month. There are fears that lobbying for KZN will be more difficult as other provinces also seek representation in the top six positions of the governing party. In a contest similar to the one in 2017 at Nasrec, Dlamini Zuma and Mkhize have been endorsed by some branches as presidential candidates in…

I have had a lot of responses to my column, “How do we work together to care for ageing parents?” which was published last week. Several lengthy letters have expressed enormous love for ageing parents and years and years of commitment to parents, along with the frustrations of feeling as if all the onus and responsibility is placed on the son or daughter who is nearest and most available. There is much frustration expressed about the sons and daughters who have moved away and appear to have abdicated from all sense of shared responsibility. Here is a letter received from reader Bev Dyer: “I have this to contribute regarding care for ageing parents: For the virtual meetings, come prepared with all the relevant information so that the discussion can be…

The Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) proposal of unisex school bathrooms that can be used by all regardless of gender will lead to unnecessary challenges for the teenage years when values, morals and best practices are needed the most. Where has this idea about having mixed-gender toilets in public spaces come from? I would really urge everyone to speak out against such an illogical proposal. This ill-advised move will endanger the well-being, health and privacy of pupils who will feel unsafe using mixed-sex toilets. This not in the best interest of pupils as it can create an uncomfortable situation for them and increase social ills. For example, in schools where urinals are placed for boys, girls will feel awkward to walk past the boys while they are on their way…

One of South Africa’s big impediments to economic progress is the apparent inability of Transnet to provide a goods service to replace the massive goods transport from Johannesburg to Durban to efficient rail. There is hardly a commuter who is not concerned by the increasing number of large trucks on the main roads. These have become essential for South Africa’s economic development, but only essential because of Transnet’s inability to provide the service. The investment in the logistics industry is massive and runs into many billions. These investors’ participation in sharing in the upgrading of the rail service could play an important part in a public/private partnership to achieve a vast improvement in South Africa’s economic development. The transport service cost could become cheaper and quicker. Steel on steel is…

THOUSANDS of public sector unions affiliated to Cosatu, Fedusa and Saftu are set to descend on the National Treasury headquarters in Pretoria today to demand the government’s reversal of its unilateral 3% salary increases. The marchers are expected to gather at the Burgers Park in Pretoria in their thousands, while other members hold various protest actions in the nine provinces. In the capital, the protesters will march to the National Treasury offices on Madiba Street to hand over a list of demands to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana or any other designated official. During the Public Servants’ Association (PSA) march on November 10, thousands of its members had expected President Cyril Ramaphosa to accept the memorandum, but he and Godongwana were reportedly in Kenya. Their absence outraged the scores of PSA…

POLICE Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that over a third of rape cases that were investigated by the SAPS were concluded in the 2021-22 financial year. Cele revealed this when he was responding to parliamentary questions from GOOD Party MP Brett Herron. Herron also enquired about the concluded investigations that were referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for prosecution, cases that were closed without referral to the NPA and cases still that are under investigation. “In respect of the stipulated number of 41 695 charges of rape in 2021-22, a total number of 15 824 case docket investigations were concluded by the SAPS,” Cele said. “A total number of 9 068 cases were closed without referring them to the NPA,” he said. Cele also said cases that were concluded…

THE arrests involving international criminal syndicates and wanted fugitives are a welcome development that sends a clear message that South Africa is not a playground for criminals. However, the same effort being placed on nabbing international fugitives operating in the country should also be extended to flushing out local gangsters and drug syndicates that are operating in our communities with impunity. The Hawks, SA Interpol and police crime intelligence arrested Yaniv Ben Simon, the Israel fugitive, and seven others in the upmarket northern Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston last week. Ben Simon, who has allegedly been dealing in drugs and illegal weapons sales, has been hiding in South Africa for 15 years and managed to evade law enforcement for a long time. The police were also instrumental in tracking down an…

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled yesterday that then Correctional Services commissioner Arthur Fraser’s decision to release Jacob Zuma on medical parole was unlawful and unconstitutional, however, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to more jail time for the former president. The SCA in its ruling found that when the Medical Parole Advisory Board decided against recommending medical parole, Fraser should not have granted it. “If the board’s recommendation is negative, that is the end of the matter – the commissioner cannot lawfully grant medical parole. The commissioner’s decision was therefore unlawful and unconstitutional.” It added that even if the argument that the commissioner was empowered to override the board’s decision was accepted, he had taken into account factors which were irrelevant in the enquiry of…

IN HIS latest grumpy newsletter, investment analyst Dr James Greener suggests a draining of the gene pool of politicians. “In Britain, whoever is in charge this week, has firmly seized on the utterly false idea that leaving people to decide how best to spend their own money is very foolish. Just weeks after a previous chancellor (minister of finance to us) tried to achieve the exact opposite, the present one has decided to tax citizens into prosperity! “Really, parents who produce offspring that turn out to be politicians should be dealt with firmly. We really need to drain that gene pool.” This was in the context of Old Blighty. In South Africa, Greener notes “the dreadful insistence never to stop flogging a dead horse”. “The SAA rescue saga has reappeared…

I was in Gauteng over the weekend and I saw this headline splashed across the front page of the Sunday Times: “Beaches fail poo tests” (November 20). My heart sank. Has my once proud city come to this – a stinking city with raw sewage flowing all over it? In fact, Durban has been making headline news all over the country, in the papers and on television, not for the right reasons but for the wrong ones: its prime attraction – the beaches – are polluted with raw sewage. So important are Durban’s beaches to the holidaymakers in Gauteng that the Sunday paper got an accredited independent testing company, Talbot, to test the water quality at six Durban beaches and found that two of them, Toti Main and Durban Country…

An 80-year-old farmer is savagely murdered in what appears to be a robbery. The mind boggles at the mentality of the perpetrators of this vile deed on a man of advanced age who presents no threat whatsoever to these bloodthirsty murderers. One can maybe link the statements of a red beret-wearing “leader” who speaks of not being afraid to “kill the farmer”, and is never sanctioned for it, since those words are apparently liberation and political words and songs and part of the Struggle, which sayings are sucked in by members who thrive on destruction and mayhem. If one would believe that, then one would also believe in the tooth fairy and also question the likes of the courts which believe words of this kind are not a problem.…

The decision by the Constitutional Court to release former SACP leader Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, on parole, has angered his widow, Limpho Hani, and the SACP. Hani called the judgment diabolical, while the SACP reacted with fury over the decision. Yesterday, the Constitutional Court ordered the Department of Justice to free Walus on parole. In a unanimous judgment delivered by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, the Concourt found that the decision by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola not to grant Walus parole in 2020 was irrational. Lamola has been ordered to release Walus within 10 days of the judgment. Speaking after the judgment was handed down, a livid and visibly upset Hani said the judgment by Zondo was indirectly implying that Walus did well to kill her husband. “If my husband…

South Africa took its place in the family of nations yesterday when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first democratically elected president. To the acclaim of hundreds of foreign dignitaries and a jubilant crowd of about 50 000 he took the oath of office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, pledging himself to be faithful to the Republic. The country’s return to full international status was announced by UN secretary-general Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, who said to applause: “Today, SA regained its rightful place in Africa, in the UN and the family of nations. “South Africa has earned the respect and admiration of all – tireless in search of understanding and vigorous in pursuit of peace. In his address to the crowd, Mr Mandela switching briefly to Afrikaans, urged…

‘The police version given in 1969 is unashamedly a pack of lies’ Say: Truth Has (Now) Arrived and Falsehood Has Vanished, for Falsehood is Bound to Perish. (Qur’an 17:81) The above verse of the Muslim sacred scripture, the Qur’an, fittingly describes the testimony heard from Monday, November 7, to Wednesday, November 16, at the Western Cape High Court during the reopened inquest into the death of Imam Abdullah Haron in an apartheid prison cell in September 1969. The expert testimonies of, in particular, aeronautical engineer Dr Thivash Moodley, and forensic pathologists Dr Itumeleng Molefe and Dr Segeran Naidoo, make it unequivocally clear that the apartheid police version that Imam Haron died as a result of injuries sustained during a “fall from a staircase at the Cape Town police…

SOUTH African Poultry producers (Sapa) will have to continue to “take one for the team” at least for the next 18 months as the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) takes on a sunset review of US anti-dumping tariffs, which expire tomorrow. Itac earlier this month begun a sunset review of the US’s tariffs on concerns by the Sapa and poultry producers in the SA Customs Union area. Itac decided the application had “sufficient evidence and a prima facie case” to justify an investigation on concerns that the expiry of the tariff period without a new one in place could lead to percentage-based, or ad valorem, anti-dumping duties such as apply to other countries. “This was a last-minute condition imposed by the US for its agreement to an extension of…

KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) says the pressure of completing the race and having the most finishes could be the main motivation that leads to cheating in the Comrades Marathon. KZNA vice-president Mandla Mngomezulu was commenting after the completion of initial investigations into misdemeanours and cheating in this year’s race that may lead to nine runners being disqualified from this year’s event. KZNA announced yesterday that it had completed initial investigations into alleged cheating and the implicated athletes were being sent official communication and would be given seven days to respond to the KZNA’s notification. Mngomezulu said should the athletes dispute the findings, KZNA would undertake a formal disciplinary hearing. “The majority of misdemeanours relate to athletes not running the entire 90km course, but also allowing other athletes to run with their…

AN additional R50 million is required by the eThekwini Municipality’s water services for overtime pay to end the labour dispute that has led to crippling water shortages across the city. In just four months of the 2022/23 financial year, the unit exhausted its estimated budget of R60m and needs more for the next six months. The head of water and sanitation in eThekwini, Ednick Msweli, told The Mercury yesterday that the municipality was engaging with unions on the issue of overtime, and he hoped a solution would soon be found. “A solution has to be found because service delivery has to continue,” said Msweli in light of the shortages that were first experienced in oThongathi and spread across the city. “I can say that the labour dispute is only about…

I don’t ever doubt Qatar and other Arab states need a serious wake-up call when it comes to simple basic human rights. Underpaid foreign labour from the Far East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines and India is just one example. There are plenty of others. Foreign labourers are not permitted to leave the country or switch jobs without the express permission of their bosses, even if the bosses are abusing them. They cannot report anything to the police. And plenty more. But in spite of all that, no foreign spectators at the current World Cup tournament at Doha have any rights to grouse at some of the strict rules of alcohol consumption and Islamic prayer times and other religious and cultural habits that are rightfully or wrongfully practised in Arab countries. Alcohol…

The DA notes the prayer meeting for flood victims – hosted by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube on November 17 – seven months after the devastating downpours. While it is hoped that the initiative will bring some comfort to those who have lost everything, it is simply not enough. What will bring true relief to the thousands of people who remain destitute are homes of their own so they can rebuild their lives with dignity and stability. Instead, they are still living in poor conditions in community halls. According to a recent update, there are 3 809 families – an estimated 15 500 people – still living in halls and with relatives. This while KZN’s Department of Human Settlements has only spent 24% of its allocated budget for flood victims. This…

A SMALL, unassuming road-cutting is producing thousands of exquisitely preserved fossils in the Sutherland District of the Northern Cape. In research recently published in the Nature journal, experts from the Albany Museum in Makhanda, Rhodes University; the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University; UCT; and the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History in Germany among others, explain how these tiny fossils of plants and insects, many of them only millimetres long, reveal a previously unknown ecosystem on the quiet shores of a pool 266 million years ago. The authors, in a statement by GENUS, a collective knowledge hub and an inclusive network for Palaeosciences in Africa at Wits University, said plants, insects and small things tend not to share the limelight with dinosaur and hominid discoveries, but the stories they…

A YOUNG woman who was struck in the eye, probably by a ricocheted rubber bullet fired by the police during a protest, lost her R2.7 million lawsuit after the court found that the SAPS acted reasonably under the circumstances. A Western Cape high court judge noted that when Dibakiso Lehlehla left home early that morning for the college where she studied engineering, she must have noticed the crowds outside. Yet, she took the risk to walk to the bus stop. Lehlehla lived in an informal settlement in Grabouw in the Western Cape. The incident occurred in August 2011. Early that morning at around 3am, a group of people started gathering illegally in the area. The gathering grew progressively. By 6am the crowd had swelled to over 1 000 people. The…

Staff of two Durban stores were left traumatised after they were robbed on Sunday by a gang. In the aftermath of the robberies, a shooting between police, private security and the robbers left two security guards and a robber dead in Market Road in the CBD. It is understood that the armed robbers stormed two supermarkets at the same time, taking cellphones from staff and cash from tills. A manager at one of the stores, who didn’t want to be named for fear for his safety, said: “Everyone is shocked by this. They walked in here armed and took all the cash from the tills and all my staffs’ belongings. Security responded to the panic alarm and there was a shoot-out between security, SAPS and robbers.” The manager said staff…

MY interest in writing for newspapers is the birth child of recuperating from an unexpected heart attack – I was in my early forties. Warned not to walk or get too excited for at least three weeks following 5-stent surgery, out of desperation I studied local columnists in The Indianapolis Star and decided that there was every reason I could make a similar contribution to my immediate community. It was close to Christmas and so I penned a column about – Christmas, of course. “Wished I had gotten this a few days earlier,” responded the editor. “Write on issues of faith, church, and we will run you once a month on Sundays.” After a few years of monthly Sunday columns, rotating with a local rabbi, Catholic priest and an imam,…

Job creation initiatives in South Africa don’t usually get good press. We are constantly fed alarming figures from Statistics South Africa, which says that unemployment is around 36%, the majority of whom are youth. While the outlook does not look bright, even a glimmer of hope involving young people ought to be celebrated. One such recent example is making a concerted effort to shift the dial concerning tangible opportunities for young people in South Africa. Chieta, the Chemical Industries Sector Education Training Authority, in partnership with the University of Johannesburg Business School and Chemin, a not-for-profit South African technology incubator, held its first graduation ceremony for small businesses that completed their inaugural entrepreneurship programme on November 10. The impactful initiative represents a R2 million investment in the programme and…

It is not far-fetched to say that if the Springboks successfully defend their World Cup crown in France next year, they will look back to Genoa as the day they turned the corner. Never again do the Boks have to solely rely on box kicking and set-piece domination as the only way they can win rugby games. The nine tries they scored were beautifully crafted and then finished with deadly efficiency, and this surely has given them the confidence to take their game up a level, which they have to do because the suffocation game that worked in 2019 will not work in 2023. I hear the pessimists saying that Italy are weak but that is nonsense. Wales, Samoa and Australia — Italy’s last three (defeated) opponents will confirm they…

Cody Gakpo scored a late goal on his World Cup debut and Davy Klaassen added a second deep in stoppage time to give the Netherlands a 2-0 win over Senegal in their Group A clash at the Al Thumama Stadium yesterday. Coach Louis van Gaal handed goalkeeper Andries Noppert his first international cap and he had little to do as the Dutch defence stifled the African champions, though he did pull off a superb save in the 73rd minute to parry a stinging shot from Idrissa Gueye. The Netherlands attack had been wasteful throughout, until the 23-year-old Gakpo stole through the middle and beat Edouard Mendy to a cross from Frenkie de Jong to send a glancing header into the net in the 84th minute. Substitute Klaassen reacted quickest nine…