Índice para 2023-05-22 em Mercury

The DA and civil society organisations have accused the Department of Labour of trying to amend the Employment Equity Act (EEA) to sideline Indian, coloured and white workers, while the ANC and Cosatu have dismissed the claims, saying that the official opposition is misrepresenting the proposals. DA leader John Steenhuisen, while speaking to residents in Chatsworth ahead of by-elections in the area, called for a defiance campaign that would see communities reject the amendment while the party prepares to escalate the issue to the Constitutional Court. President Cyril Ramaphosa assented to the amendment bill last month after Parliament approved it last year. On May 12, Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi published a gazette, calling for comments on the EEA sectoral targets. Companies have been given 30 days to offer…

SOUTH Africa is being decimated by Stage 6 rolling power blackouts. Our rand is in free-fall at R19.35 to the US dollar, which means another rates hike. Food costs and inflation spiral ever upwards. Unemployment is more than 40%. The Johannesburg Metro, Eskom grid and City Power are close to collapse – as are the post office and numerous other SOEs. In Durban, the eThekwini Metro has brought in two “experts” to rescue the city. Drive-by shootings and public executions become the norm. The list is endless. But Cyril Ramaphosa remains invisible and silent. Cyril the Silent. Where is The Hollow Man?…

THERE are significant parallels between the findings of the Zondo Commission and the Durham Report in the US. Both implicate the ruling parties and both are mired in inaction as a result. The erudite and objective article by Nkosikhulule Nyembezi (The Mercury, May 19), details the multiplicity of elements impeding the implementation of the 11 recommendations of the Zondo Commission. In so doing, Nyembezi’s analysis exposes the ANC for what it is: a faction-ridden, criminal syndicate. To expect it to arraign those within its ranks whom Zondo specifically singled out, is a non-starter for the simple reason that each of those individuals will implicate others. As such, there is no structure within the ANC that is untainted. And, of course, since a fish rots from its head, Ramaphosa is inevitably…

Got Leadership? Who’s got it? Who hasn’t? Can it be learnt or is it innate? Who tries hard but just doesn’t have it? Somehow we know what “she’s a ‘real’ leader” means. Somehow we know if a coach or a captain “has it” or doesn’t. There’s a lot of pressure on “recognised” leaders. Men and women who are elected to lead and those who are paid to lead are often subject to pressures they had no idea they were signing up for. A lot of expectation is placed on those whose names are at the top of the letterhead, on principals, on head administrators – and they can be plagued with expectations that have nothing to do with their actual roles or jobs. While there are many misunderstandings about what…

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has said that instead of being condemned, her department should be commended for being courageous for participating in the survey on the reading comprehension skills of Grade 4 pupils. Motshekga said South Africa, Morocco and Egypt were part of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) that found that only 19% of South Africa’s Grade 4 pupils can read for meaning. “We are the only three countries on the continent that participated in Pirls. The question is, why?” She was responding during a recent debate on the department’s 2023-24 budget in the National Assembly. Motshekga was adamant that her department would bounce back and fare better in the study in the future. She insisted that South African children could read. “I want to…

THE report investigating the allegations of over-expenditure on a contract to install street lights in Durban is complete and has been sent to the Financial Misconduct Board to be considered. ANC councillor Nkosenhle Madlala confirmed that the investigation was complete but refused to elaborate on what was found, saying the matter was still “technically” sub judice. The DA in the eThekwini Municipality said it would take on the mayor Mxolisi Kaunda this week on the delay in releasing the report. Madlala said: “As the ANC we are awaiting the finalisation of the internal processes, but we are clear that where there is evidence of wrongdoing, heads will roll.” Giving the background to the contract, Madlala said the previous contract started around April 2019 and was stopped by the head of…

President’s star has waned dramatically ONE OF the conspicuous absentees at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, over the past few days, was President Cyril Ramaphosa. In the recent past G7 summits, Ramaphosa was the go-to African leader who was high on the guest list of invitees – a prerogative of the summit host. Not so any more. The South African leader’s star has waned dramatically thanks to a mix, inter alia, of alleged corruption-linked scandals, foreign policy awkwardness, which has seen the Ramaphosa administration reluctant to condemn Russia for its invasion of and ongoing attack on Ukraine to the chagrin of the industrialised economies; and an economy teetering on the brink of collapse thanks to seemingly never-ending power cuts. The symbolism of Hiroshima as the host city can never…

Voters in East Timor flocked to polling stations yesterday to cast their ballots in parliamentary elections, hoping for an end to years of political deadlock in Asia’s youngest country. This is the fifth parliamentary poll since East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a 24-year occupation, with 65 national lawmakers to be elected to a five-year mandate. Voters formed long queues, carrying umbrellas for shade as they patiently waited for their turn until polling stations closed at 3pm. “All people came to give their voices, because one voice can make a change,” 61-year-old Cesar dos Santos de Carvalho told AFP at a polling station in the capital Dili. | AFP…

Leaders of the world’s richest democracies said yesterday they would not back down from supporting Ukraine, in a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he claimed to have taken the eastern city of Bakhmut, something Kyiv denied. The Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima was electrified this weekend by the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who arrived on a French government plane to canvass for greater support against Russia’s invasion. Zelenskiy told reporters on the sidelines of the summit that the battered eastern city of Bakhmut, the focus of fighting in recent months, was destroyed. “It is tragedy,” Zelenskiy said. “There is nothing on this place” – what remained was “a lot of dead Russians”. There was confusion over whether he had been…

Manchester City celebrated their Premier League title success yesterday, beating Chelsea 1-0 with an early goal by Julian Alvarez in the team’s home finale at a sun-drenched Etihad Stadium. Treble-chasing City, who wrapped up the title when second-placed Arsenal were beaten at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, have won 12 successive games in the top flight. They have 88 points from 36 matches, seven more than Arsenal who have just one match remaining. Frank Lampard’s struggling Chelsea team are languishing in 12th spot with 43 points. Alvarez scored in the 12th minute for a largely second-string City side, slipping the ball under goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga from a pass by Kyle Walker. He also had another goal chalked off for a handball in the build-up. Alvarez’s winner meant City had scored 100…

KWAZULU-NATAL municipalities budgeted nearly R400 million within a six-month period to provide VIP security to councillors across the province. In a report recently presented to the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) portfolio committee, it emerged that R379m was budgeted for security from July 1 to December 31, 2022. For the 2022/23 financial year, the top three municipalities according to their budgets for security included eThekwini with R21.7m, followed by Amajuba District with R10.3m, and King Cetshwayo, budgeting R7.6m. According to the report, 36 municipalities approved the provision of personal security to council figures without a threat and risk analysis. Personal security was provided to 21 mayors, 31 deputy mayors, 10 speakers and 18 ordinary councillors, the report said. KZN violence monitor Mary de Haas questioned the rationale behind spending…

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala has vowed to probe lavish spending on refurbishments and maintenance at government-owned facilities. This comes as he appointed a team to investigate spending including R1.4 million on the refurbishment of a kitchen, curtain rails procured to the value of R54 000 and fumigation at a cost of R240 000. DA MP Dr Leon Schreiber said the R1.4m renovation of a kitchen at a house in Cape Town, the R240 000 to fumigate a house in Albert Street, Waterkloof to rid it of cockroaches and the replacement of a fallen curtain rail at a house in Waterkloof Ridge at a cost R54 000 were just some of the exorbitant expenses for government properties. Department spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said the panel would comprise a senior…

THERE is a saying, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them”. Could that possibly be the ANC’s approach in connection with the Eskom and the Russian ship in Simon’s Town issues? Whatever the case, there is no doubt whatsoever that there has been massive theft, sabotage and corruption in the Eskom saga. Who or what benefited financially? Was part of the loot siphoned off directly to the undisclosed funding of a political party? Officially it is the task of the Hawks to thoroughly investigate the whistle-blower’s “tip of the iceberg” information, but why the very deliberate, lethargic investigation at all official levels? With the issue of the Russian ship at Simon’s Town Naval Base, there has been a very “cloak-and-dagger” midnight secrecy about the whole matter, resulting in the now…

THE IFP in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature calls upon the government to declare war on drugs, as drug abuse is becoming an overwhelming problem in society. The gruesome killing of 10 people – who are alleged to be drug addicts – in KwaMpande, Pietermaritzburg, should be a wake-up call for relevant authorities. We want the government to ensure that all drug dens are eliminated. We need more resources and a concerted effort to fight this scourge. The IFP is of the view that substance-use-prevention programmes should be long-term and include booster sessions to prevent programme impacts from fading over time. When substance use is rampant within a community, school-based drug prevention programmes can be implemented, in conjunction with community-based strategies, to reduce risk factors such as the availability of drugs and…

Labour unions and political parties have blamed load shedding for the growing number of unemployed people and urged the government to create job opportunities. The call came after Stats SA revealed in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey, released last week, that unemployment has grown from 32.7% to 32.9% in the first quarter of this year. While the increase in unemployment was widespread, the North West was the worst affected. The DA in the North West said the ANC was to blame for the rise in unemployment, due to decades of failed governance, corruption, fraud, policy uncertainty, cadre deployment and load shedding. DA provincial leader Leon Basson said this destruction by the ANC had now yielded the fruits of their nefarious labour – mass unemployment of 54% as per the…

The National Department of Transport announced that it has approved Karpowership South Africa’s application to access the three ports of Ngqura, Durban and Saldanha Bay for 20 years. In a bid to alleviate the country’s worsening energy crisis, Karpowership has increasingly been hailed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe as a viable option to assist the country by providing emergency power from its gas-to-power ships. This comes after Karpowership SA faced extensive criticism and setbacks to all three of its projects to supply 1 220MW of emergency electricity to the country since it was named a preferred bidder in the the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme – a particular challenge was that the company had their environmental authorisation…

The Durban Regional Court has handed down lengthy jail terms to two men who were involved in a spate of business robberies in the Chatsworth and Bayview area. Bonginkosi Mkhwanazi, 51, and Mhlonipeni Zwane, 48, were sentenced to 40 and 50 years’ imprisonment respectively following their conviction on several counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances. The incidents took place between 2018 and 2019. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal said the court found that the two men lacked remorse, even though they were second-time offenders. The NPA also said the pair were previously convicted for robberies in the same area and were subsequently sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment and released on parole in 2016. The court sentenced Mkhwanazi to 20 years’ imprisonment for each of the eight counts of…

An uMlazi taxi driver has been sentenced to an effective 25-year jail term for theft and the murder of his girlfriend in Bergville in the KZN Midlands. The Ladysmith Regional Court sentenced Lungani Lloyd Hill, 46, last week. National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the taxi driver shared an acrimonious relationship with Thenjiwe Maphalala, 39. She said Maphalala worked as a security guard at Emmaus Hospital. “On the day of the murder, Hill drove from Durban to Bergville, in search of her. After going to the hospital early in the morning and not finding Maphalala there, he proceeded in the direction of her home. “Shortly after, Maphalala was found with deep stab wounds on her body. Her neighbour rushed her to the hospital where she was declared dead…

TBILISI: The founder of Georgia’s national airline Georgian Airways has banned the country’s president from using its services after she said she would boycott the airline over its resumption of flights to Russia, Russia’s TASS news agency reported yesterday. Russia announced this month it was lifting a four-year-old ban on direct flights with Georgia and removing a decades-old visa requirement for Georgians travelling to Russia. President Salome Zourabichvili urged Georgian authorities to thwart the Russian initiative, an appeal they ignored. Tamaz Gaiashvili, the founder of privately owned Georgian Airways, said Zourabichvili was now “persona non grata” and would be banned until she “apologises”. | Reuters…

JERUSALEM: Israel’s hard-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir yesterday visited a site in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews and declared Israel was “in charge”, drawing condemnation from Palestinians after months of escalating tension and violence. The comments, during an early morning visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, who know it as Temple Mount, came days after groups of Jewish youths scuffled with Palestinians and chanted racist slogans during a march through the Old City. In 2021, tensions around Al-Aqsa helped set off a 10-day war with the Islamist Hamas warning repeatedly that it would react to what it sees as Jewish incursions on the site. | Reuters…

At least 12 people died and an unspecified number were injured in a stampede at a soccer stadium in El Salvador on Saturday, the Central American country’s government said. Alianza FC and Club Deportivo FAS were playing the second leg of their playoff quarter-final game at the Cuscatlan stadium in San Salvador, the country’s capital, when play was suspended after a stampede broke out in the general section. The venue is one of the largest stadiums in Central America and has an official capacity of more than 44 000 fans. The Salvadoran Football Federation tweeted it “deeply regrets the events at the Cuscatlan Stadium” and would immediately request a report on the incident while also suspending the tournament after Saturday’s events, calling for a meeting with the Security Commission…

COUNCILLORS in eThekwini are concerned that the City’s return to a normal load-shedding schedule this week could prove disastrous for residents, with power outages lasting longer due to the fragility of the network. The councillors said the repairs to the infrastructure damaged by the storms more than a year ago would take years to complete, and that the two major substations in the City had not been repaired. They said this contributed to the electricity network being vulnerable and prone to outages. The councillors expressed their concerns in a special council meeting on Friday following the announcement that Eskom and eThekwini had reached an agreement for the City to return to the normal load-shedding schedule. The schedule has been released by the City which said it would come into effect…

DEAR Mr President. I won’t disrespect you like many other politicians. As this country’s democratically elected leader in apogee, I need to tell you that I had an awkward sense of déjà vù, while listening to a translated post-election speech of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who had recently won against the far-right and nepotist ex-president in the Brazilian presidential election. I realised that he was actually expressing a very familiar situation for us. May I explain? “The return of hunger,” he said, “is the greatest crime against the Brazilian people.” You see the close proximity of that statement vis-a-vis South Africa? He undertook to fight “any inequality in our country” in terms of income, gender, race, labour market, political representation, health and education. Your time is to act and…

THE mind boggles at the priority of our president setting up a group of African leaders (and being the leader of the team) to go and have a chat with both presidents of the conflicting countries Ukraine and Russia, while our country is burning, so to speak, and we in Africa have a raging problem in Sudan. Are these African leaders not interested in sorting out an African problem like Sudan? One cannot understand how this prioritising where their efforts are needed is done. It really seems that Ramaphosa and maybe the other African leaders is/are more interested in cuddling up to Putin for handouts (more cash into the pocket of the ANC) than actually taking an active and direct involvement in sorting out our own country with its dysfunctional…

THERE’S a bit of a flap on over Artificial Intelligence (AI), that it’s getting a bit big for its boots, getting cleverer than humans and approaching a point where the robots could declare UDI and go on to dominate the entire world, out-thinking us all the way. And the people who are getting in a flap are the AI experts themselves. They’re calling on governments to act now, put limits on robotic thinking before it’s too late. And they’re the people who ought to know. At an admittedly lower level of concern, is it not possible also that unrestrained AI could lead to undue pomposity and other afflictions in human communications. Consider: Scintillate, scintillate globule vivivic, Fain would I fathom thy nature specific, Loftily poised in the ether capacious, Faintly…

A man was arrested in Limpopo for possession of a pangolin, valued at R150 000, while he was on his way to sell the endangered animal. Spokesperson for the Hawks in Limpopo, Captain Matimba Maluleke, said the 59-year-old “pangolin dealer” was arrested at Gravelotte, near Tzaneen. The operation involved several police units and the Hoedspruit Farmwatch. “The team received a tip-off about a suspect who was allegedly on the way to sell a pangolin in Hoedspruit. The team followed up on the information, and a suspicious vehicle was spotted in Gravelotte,” Maluleke narrated. “Upon stopping and searching the suspicious vehicle, the team found a pangolin valued at R150 000 hidden in the boot, inside a bag. “The suspect failed to produce a permit for being in possession of a pangolin,…

AFRICAN leaders should formulate an effective peace plan that could bring an end to the ongoing conflict in Sudan. In a statement released last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa would lead a team of six heads of state that will travel to Moscow and Kyiv to bring their leaders to the negotiating table. It is hoped that the African-led peace mission will go a long way toward ending the Ukraine/Russian war that has claimed the lives of many innocent people. Ramaphosa said both President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine welcomed the initiative – which includes Egypt, Zambia, Senegal, Uganda and the Republic of Congo. Ramaphosa’s announcement makes South Africa the latest in a string of outsiders aiming to step in as a…

Ulaanbaatar: Emmanuel Macron arrived in Mongolia yesterday for a symbolic visit, the first by a French president to the country nestled between China and Russia that is of growing strategic interest in the West. The French head of state landed in the capital Ulaanbaatar at around 6.30pm local time after participating at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was the star guest at the G7, where he addressed key Western allies but also leaders of non-aligned nations like Brazil and India. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, France has stepped up its efforts to speak with countries who have not explicitly condemned it. | AFP…

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday faced questions over interior minister Suella Braverman after reports that she asked civil servants to arrange for her penalty driving course for speeding to be done in private. Sunak said he did not know the “full details” of the case, but a spokesperson for his Downing Street office later said he “of course” had confidence in his controversial minister. The Sunday Times reported that Braverman asked Home Office officials to help set up a one-to-one driving awareness course. This, after she was caught speeding last year. Her request was refused. | AFP…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrived in South Korea yesterday for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol after attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima. Scholz, the first German chancellor to visit Seoul for a bilateral meeting in 30 years, will travel to the Demilitarised Zone dividing North and South Korea ahead of his summit with Yoon. The two leaders held a joint news conference before Scholz flew out late last night. The summit agenda was set to range widely from climate change to security policy in the Indo-Pacific region, with the two leaders also expected discuss the war in Ukraine, German officials said in a briefing last week. South Korea, the world’s ninth-largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland. However,…

Arthur Zwane has been in football long enough to know that he had to develop a thick skin to weather the abuse thrown at him. Zwane also knows that he’s skating on thin ice after enduring a tough maiden season with Kaizer Chiefs as they ended the season trophyless – for the eighth year in a row – and without a top three finish as they laboured to fifth position. It was a campaign that intensely scrutinised the appointment of Zwane as head coach as things didn’t go according to plan, with Zwane making more mistakes than victories, including guiding the team to a record 12th loss in a single league season. As the dark clouds gathered, a handful of fans didn’t take kindly to the impending calamity. They threw…