Índice para 2024-02-22 em Mercury

Political parties said that the Budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana yesterday didn’t offer a clear plan to grow the economy. IFP deputy leader and finance spokesperson Mzamo Buthelezi said that he didn’t expect much from the Budget speech. “Government departments have failed to put plans in place to grow the economy. At the end of the day it’s the people of South Africa who are suffering. “All the government departments are under-performing and the budget they are getting is not being used to benefit us all.” Buthelezi added that economic growth was very low. “We are also concerned that public servants will be allowed to access their pension fund before retirement. If they use that money how will they survive? “We are also concerned about the withdrawal…

The big boys from about 50 countries are pouring out their sentiments, at the Hague, inter-relating the selfish, horrendous shenanigans of Israel over the last hundred years. Most of them are acting like they never knew anything about the occupation. Nothing about the atrocities. Each diplomat virtually said the same thing: “Israel has been very naughty. Really, very, very naughty! They must be punished.” The bullheaded Bomb Supplier-Biden — born with a golden spoon sponsored by Tel Aviv — to be used exclusively to stir local politics always in a clockwise, kosher direction, also happens to hold the ultimate weapon, far more powerful than voting power. It’s termed “vetoing” power. Inherited from the good old days just after the second world war, when the Allies kicked the…

A parent cannot reasonably expect a baby or child not to become dependent on a cellphone or tech device if the parent is also similarly dependent. Want to know if you’re dependent? You have to decide. I’d suggest you are if you feel lost without it, if you feel left out or desperate if you can’t find it, if you feel as if you cannot function, at least for a few whole days and nights, without it. If the device is used as a pacifier or comforter for the infant or child, it’s possible that the parent is using it for similar reasons. A parent has to decide what’s important and stick with it. I hear excuses hurled all the time: it’s my job, it’s bringing in our living, get…

THE international community’s unwillingness to hold Israel to account for its failure to ensure the immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza has emboldened Israel to cross a further threshold to commit crimes of genocide. These were the words of South Africa’s ambassador to The Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, in front of a bench of 15 judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday. South Africa is among about 52 states and three international organisations scheduled to participate in public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion to examine the legality of Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine. The hearings relate to the request for an advisory opinion on “The Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including…

Police at Thabazimbi, in the Waterberg District of Limpopo, have launched a manhunt for people involved in a rhino poaching incident which took place at a local game reserve. Limpopo police spokesperson, Colonel Malesela Ledwaba, said two rhinos were killed and dehorned at the game reserve. “According to preliminary reports, one of the rangers was patrolling the area on Tuesday morning, February 20, when he discovered two rhinos that had been shot and dehorned,” said Ledwaba. The case was transferred to the stock theft and endangered species unit (Stesu) for further investigation. Meanwhile, provincial commissioner of police in Limpopo, Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe has called upon police to leave no stone unturned in tracking down the poachers, to face the might of the law. According to statistics released by the…

The Council for the Advancement of the Constitution (Casac) has again written to Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to raise concerns over his appointment of retired Constitutional Court justices to assist with new applications in the apex court. Casac said it had written to Zondo again as his clarification letter last week only compounded their concerns. Two other legal NGOs – Freedom Under Law (FUL) and the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel) – wrote to Zondo this week, with the latter calling on him to reconsider his decision, saying that it reserves its right to challenge the decision by way of judicial review. Last week, Zondo said that Justices Zak Yacoob and Johan Froneman would be fulfilling a support service to the Concourt justices because of the huge workload faced…

South Africa’s young democracy was a culmination of years of sweat, blood and revolution against the apartheid regime. In the early 1960s, after decades of “non-violence” as a policy of resistance, the ANC and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) formed military wings to fight the apartheid regime. Based on the living record and popular discourse, it would be easy to assume that the struggle against apartheid was almost entirely the domain of men. But women played a crucial role – one which is only really coming to light today. In her book Guerrillas and Combative Mothers, political and international studies academic Siphokazi Magadla uses life history interviews to offer first-hand insight into women’s participation in the armed struggle against apartheid from 1961 until 1994. She also examines the texture of their…

Israel stepped up its bombardment of the southern city of Rafah, residents said yesterday, as the death toll in the war across the devastated Palestinian strip rose to 29 313, according to the Gaza health ministry. In its daily summary of events in Gaza, the Israeli army said it had intensified its operations in Khan Younis, a city just north of Rafah. It did not mention any attacks on Rafah itself, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. About 1.5 million people are said to be crammed into Rafah, on the southernmost fringe of the enclave close to the boundary with Egypt, most of them having fled their homes further north to escape Israel’s military onslaught. Israel has said it was preparing for a ground assault on…

Lawyers for the US yesterday urged a UK court to block a last-ditch bid by Julian Assange to appeal his extradition there to face espionage charges. Washington indicted the WikiLeaks founder multiple times between 2018 and 2020 over its publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic files on the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The long-running legal saga in Britain’s courts is now nearing a conclusion, Assange having lost successive rulings in recent years. On the first of two days of evidence before two High Court judges, the Australian’s lawyers argued those previous decisions contained “errors of law”. The US charges against him were “political”, they insisted – he was being prosecuted “for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information”. Assange’s lawyers…

Washington: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN and former governor of South Carolina, has said that she is not dropping out of the race. “When the country’s future is on the line, you don’t drop out. You keep fighting,” she said. “South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president.” Haley, who is trying to challenge Donald Trump on her home turf, said that just three states had voted in presidential primaries. | IANS…

LONDON: Britain yesterday imposed sanctions on six individuals in charge of the Arctic penal colony where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died last week. Western leaders have expressed outrage at the news from Russian authorities that Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent domestic critic, had fallen unconscious and died in prison on Friday. Those sanctioned, including the head and five deputy heads of the penal colony, would be banned from the UK and have their assets frozen, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said. Germany, Lithuania and Sweden also called for new penalties against Russia over Navalny’s death. | Reuters…

THE ANC’s cadre deployment records provide insight into how the committee dealt with appointments to key positions at boards of state-owned enterprises and in appointing directors-general, although the details of the applicants have been redacted. Following a lengthy court battle, the Constitutional Court ordered the ANC to hand over its deployment records from 2013 onwards to the DA by Monday. Both the ANC and the DA made the documents publicly available yesterday, although they only cover the period from 2018, with President Cyril Ramaphosa telling the Zondo Commission into State Capture that it has no records of its deployment committee meetings and decisions between 2013 and 2018 because no minutes were taken. The only records available were the incomplete minutes the ANC provided to the state capture commission during former…

In reply to Mahomed Saeed’s letter, “Cutting of UNRWA funds in collusion with Israel”. Palestine is also funded by countries in the Middle East. Unfortunately, the money usually lands up in the pockets of Hamas. Saeed rails against the West as if it is obligated to support a state that harbours a terrorist organisation. Aid is voluntary, not obligatory. Palestine should be grateful for Western aid. The Palestinians “face hunger, starvation, imminent famine and … diseases” simply because Hamas instigated the war that Palestinians certainly did not want. Hamas has blood on its hands. Israel’s war is not a “terror campaign” but a war against an aggressor, Hamas, that cares little about its own people. Could Saeed give readers his factual opinion on why he believes Israel is an “apartheid…

We all thought former president Jacob Zuma would disappear into oblivion, spending his remaining years quietly in Nkandla. But he had other plans. Politics was his passion and he wasn’t going to go away so easily. No one expected Zuma to make a dramatic comeback to politics in the twilight years of his life. Once the face of the ANC, he has become the face of his new party, the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, and threatens to derail the ANC in the elections. Although Zuma has a large Zulu following in the Eastern Cape and KZN, the name “Zuma” remains a popular brand name across the social and political spectrum, with a strong pulling power in various sectors of society – political, traditional and tribal leaders, business executives, community…

The country is in a sorry state. The fact that we now have more than 621 political parties registered with the IEC is proof that most people don’t understand the enormous demands that governments around the world have to grapple with. Hence every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to start their own party, promising voters to expect nothing else but an abundance of milk and honey if they are voted into government. Many countries must be wondering what is wrong with South Africans. Our biggest problem is that we don’t learn from the past or from countries who gained independence from colonialism ages ago. The fundamental objective for all liberation movements was to achieve socio-economic transformation, reversing injustices of the past. The one late president who really tried to aggressively…

Former Public Protector and EFF MP, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, has announced her decision to sue her former deputy, Kholeka Gcaleka, over the refusal to pay a R10 million gratuity. The Office of the Public Protector previously said its refusal to pay Mkhwebane’s gratuity was informed by a legal opinion stating that she was not entitled to it due to her impeachment. In a statement released on social media, Mkhwebane confirmed her next move, saying she regrets the move but has no choice but to fight the only way she knows how – which is through the courts. “It is with great regret that I announce the necessity of pursuing legal action against the office of the Public Protector. Despite numerous attempts by my legal representatives to engage with the Office of…

CORPORAL punishment will once again be under the spotlight when Section27 – representing the Centre for Child Law and the parents of two learners who were assaulted by their teachers – argues the topic before the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday. Despite corporal punishment being banned from South African schools since 1996, it is said to still be rife in some areas. The parties are partially appealing an earlier high court judgment following the actions of two teachers who meted out corporal punishment against two primary school learners in the classroom. Both teachers received lenient sanctions from the SA Council for Educators (Sace), based on its internal “mandatory sanctions policy”. Sace, the custodian of the teaching profession, fined both teachers R15 000 each, of which R5 000…

Some Durban University of Technology (DUT) students protested yesterday at Durban campuses over National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances not being paid, accommodation issues and the looming closure of registration this week. DUT confirmed that there was protest action yesterday on the Steve Biko, ML Sultan, Ritson and City campuses. There are videos circulating on social media of the protest action. In one video, dozens of students, many of them wearing red T-shirts, push open a gate and storm one of the campuses. In another, students are seen running through campus. A first-year student, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said she saw around 15 students throwing rocks at windows yesterday, resulting in classes being suspended for the day at the City campus. DUT…

An infrastructure fund to deal with backlogs and aid transition to sustainable energy is key DURING the final State of the Nation address (Sona) to Parliament on February 8, 2024, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, presented an assessment of the 30 years of democracy under the governing party. The Sona is a prelude to the forthcoming elections amid many socio-economic challenges due to South Africa’s failing logistics and infrastructure for electricity, transport, roads and freight rail services that negatively impact manufacturing and exports. The president characterised challenges as a crisis placing the most important constraints on economic growth. However, in an election year, the same constraints also impact negatively on the country as a whole, creating a mood of disillusionment and despondency as the electorate deals with unemployment,…

Pregnant women had C-sections cancelled and cancer treatments were postponed yesterday as the number of South Korean trainee doctors to walk off the job over proposed reforms swelled, officials and local reports said. More than 8 800 junior doctors – 71% of the trainee workforce – have now quit, said Seoul’s Second Vice- Health Minister Park Min-soo, part of a spiralling protest against government plans to sharply increase medical school admissions. Seoul says the reforms are essential, citing the country’s low doctor numbers and rapidly ageing population, but doctors claim the changes will hurt service provision and education quality. Critics say doctors are mainly concerned the reform could erode their salaries and social prestige, and the plan enjoys broad public support among South Koreans, especially those in remote areas where…

Pakistan’s two dynastic parties have reached a power-sharing agreement that will return Shehbaz Sharif to the premiership, leaving out politicians loyal to jailed former leader Imran Khan despite them winning the most seats in this month’s vote. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said they will form a coalition government that will also include several smaller parties, after the February 8 polls returned no clear winner. Candidates loyal to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won the most seats but were forced to stand as independents following a sweeping crackdown on the party in the lead-up to the election, which was marred by allegations of vote rigging. PML-N and PPP formed an opposition coalition in 2022 before seizing power from Khan, overseeing a period of massive inflation…

HONG KONG: China is one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child, relative to its GDP per capita, a prominent Chinese think tank said yesterday as it detailed the time and opportunity costs for women who opt to have children in the country. The cost of raising a child until they are 18 relative to per capita GDP is around 6.3 times in China versus 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 4.11 times in the US and 4.26 times in Japan. This is according to a report by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute. Raising children also leads to a reduction in women’s paid work hours and wage rates. | Reuters…

BERKELEY: Artificial intelligence experts and industry executives have signed an open letter calling for more regulation around the creation of deepfakes, citing potential risks to society. “Today, deepfakes often involve sexual imagery, fraud, or political disinformation. Since AI is progressing rapidly and making deepfakes much easier to create, safeguards are needed,” the group said in the letter, put together at UC Berkeley. Deepfakes are realistic yet fabricated images, audios and videos created by AI algorithms. Yesterday, more than 400 individuals from various industries had signed the letter. | Reuters…

“His overall performance was truly outstanding. Beyond his exceptional bowling skills and unwavering determination that significantly influenced the team’s success, his demeanour and etiquette were noteworthy. He proved to be a valuable asset to the team in every aspect.” These were the words used by Ken Fann, the convener of PNB Men’s selectors, to describe Bonga Ngcaka’s success at the Quadrangular Tournament earlier this month. In 2019, Ngcaka started his employment as a barman at Durban Collegians Bowling Club, unaware that his life was about to take an unexpected turn. Little did he know that the challenges brought on by the 2020 lockdown would lead him to discover, and excel in, the world of lawn bowls. As the lockdown forced the closure of bowling clubs, Ngcaka found himself facing a…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana yesterday delivered a fiscally responsible election Budget, which will see the government lessening its borrowing requirements this year through a R150 billion drawdown from the contingency reserves for the first time in 20 years. Tapping into the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account (GFECRA) had been a dominant theme ahead of the Budget speech. According to the Treasury, the last settlement of this kind was done in 2003. Tabling the 2024 Budget yesterday, Godongwana announced that the National Treasury would dip into the GFECRA, which had a balance of R507.3bn last month, in a bid to reduce the country’s ballooning debt service costs. He said they could do so because the GFECRA was “now larger than any plausible losses on foreign exchange reserves from rand…

The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal commends the SAPS for their swift action in apprehending a suspect linked to the murder of the IFP Mbabazane interim district secretary, Mthokozisi Sithole. Last Thursday, February 15, 2024, one suspect was arrested by SAPS in Weenen in connection with the heinous crime. The suspect briefly appeared at the Estcourt Magistrate’s Court yesterday and is scheduled to appear again on Friday February 23, 2024. IFP applauds the work of the police in this case. However, the IFP in KZN has urged investigators to ensure that a thorough investigation is done, so that all those responsible for Sithole’s murder – including the mastermind behind the heinous act – are brought to justice. In the wake of this tragedy, the IFP once more calls for peace, unity, and…

US CONGRESSWOMAN Nancy Pelosi accuses Donald Trump of quietly giving Republican congressmen the “green light” to hold up a $6 billion (R113bn) aid package to Ukraine, according to Sky News and a lot of other sources. The congressmen say they want funds to be used to combat illegal immigration. But if Congresswoman Pelosi is anywhere near correct, the implications are surely enormous. A former president undermining the current president? And if the former president should again become president, does he switch sides on the Ukraine? One recalls his description of the Russian invasion two years ago as “an act of genius”. What then becomes of Nato? Are we headed for wider war? As the old Chinese curse goes: “Ma you live in interesting times.” Maggot mayhem YOU’RE sitting on a…

THE latest unemployment figures once again confirm that South Africa is trapped in an economic growth crisis with devastating impacts, especially for young and black South Africans, hoping to find decent work. Unless we are able to achieve a sustained economic growth rate of 5% to 6% per annum, South Africa will not be able to meaningfully reduce unemployment. In the Q4: 2023 figures released by StatsSA, 32.1% of South Africans, or 7.9 million people, are without a job or proper income. In terms of the expanded definition, which includes the people who have given up looking for jobs, unemployment decreased by 0.1% but still sits at a socially unsustainable 41.1% or 11.7 million people. These statistics have human faces and empty stomachs behind them – millions of them. Despite…

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has warned that the Spy Bill that was currently being processed by Parliament was seeking to relegate the role of Inspector-General of Intelligence to hold spies accountable. Cosatu acting national spokesperson and parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks told members of Parliament this week that the Inspector-General of Intelligence must be given more powers to execute his duties of oversight against intelligence agencies. The ad hoc committee in the National Assembly was receiving submissions from various stakeholders on the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, known as the Spy Bill. Parks said the Inspector-General of Intelligence, Imtiaz Fazel, must be allowed to do his work with greater powers. “The Bill is largely silent on the powers of the Inspector-General of Intelligence. We feel the bill…

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has expressed its readiness to deliver a successful 2024 general election on May 29, saying the announcement of the date provided it with an “unambiguous motivation” to pull out all the stops in the intensification of preparations for election day. South African citizens who have not yet registered or who have not yet updated registration details, such as a change of address, have tomorrow to do so on the online voter portal at www.elections.org.za or at IEC offices during office hours. The voters’ roll now stands at 27.6 million voters. “Following the proclamation of the election date, the Electoral Commission will publish the Election Timetable in the Government Gazette after consultation with the National Party Liaison Committee. The Election Timetable will outline the…

ETHEKWINI Municipality is investigating an incident where an employee from the Water and Sanitation Department is seen in a video, which has gone viral, hitting a water pipe with a tool moments before it bursts. In the video, after the pipe bursts, water rapidly starts flooding the rectangular hole and the employee is seen frantically climbing out. Moments before the pipe burst, another employee is heard warning him in Zulu to watch where he positions his face because the water would shoot out. Municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the City was aware of the video in which an employee was seen installing a new connection for an individual consumer, also known as a domestic pipeline. Sisilana said this was not a major pipeline that supplied water to thousands of residents…

SOUTH Africa’s Constitution is built on the strong foundation of accountability and transparency. The president of the country and the chief justice as the head of the judiciary are the first custodians of that important document. At all times, the expectation is that they are to fulfil this weighty responsibility without fail. And to a large extent the judiciary has withstood some of the great challenges before it. Much is being debated about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s legacy especially in light of the Phala Phala saga. That however is not the point of this editorial. Retired justice Zak Yacoob’s new Constitutional Court role has been shrouded in secrecy, raising a number of pertinent questions. It was only recently that Chief Justice Raymond Zondo confirmed that indeed Yacoob had been appointed to…

Members of California’s Legislative Black Caucus were due to detail a package of 14 reparations bills yesterday that they are introducing to right historic wrongs carried out against the black community. The bills are meant to be the first step in a multi-year effort. Among several issues, they would compensate people whose property was taken in race-based cases of eminent domain, seek an apology from the governor and legislature for human rights violations, and fund community-based programmes to decrease violence in black communities. But none of the bills being proposed call for cash reparations to be paid, which has garnered criticism from some members of the black community. “While many only associate direct cash payments with reparations the true meaning of the word, to repair, involves much more,” Assembly- person…

NEW YORK: Sam Bankman-Fried, the jailed founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was due back in court yesterday following his November fraud conviction for a hearing in Manhattan over his new lawyer’s possible conflict of interest. Bankman-Fried, 31, in January hired defence lawyer Marc Mukasey to help represent him. A federal court jury found the former billionaire guilty of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers. Mukasey is also representing the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Networks, Alex Mashinsky, on charges of artificially inflating the value of the company’s in-house crypto token. Prosecutors in Bankman-Fried’s case said Mukasey had possible conflicts of interest because Bankman-Fried used stolen FTX customer funds to repay money he had borrowed from Celsius. | Reuters…

Kinshasa: The prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo has tendered his and his government’s resignation two months after winning general elections, the presidency said yesterday. Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde offered his resignation after three years in office to President Felix Tshiseked. Sama Lukonde won a seat in parliament along with 27 other members of his government in the December 20 vote that also returned the president for a second five-year term with a large majority. The departing government will handle affairs until a new one is appointed. Security challenges are monumental, with violence between the army and M23 rebels, backed by neighbouring Rwanda. | AFP…

LONDON: London’s BT Tower is set to become a luxury hotel after the owner BT Group agreed to sell the 177m building in the capital’s West End to MCR Hotels for £275 million (R6.5 billion). The former telecommunications tower, a symbol of London’s 1960s post-war revival with a rotating restaurant on its 34th floor, was the city’s tallest building for 16 years until it was overtaken by a skyscraper in the City of London financial district in 1980. Opened by Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1965, its central role in communications has faded, and its microwave aerials were removed more than a decade ago. | Reuters…

The player roster at the Sharks is showing movement in both directions with the news that one-cap Springbok Jason Jenkins is coming to Durban, while current locks Hyron Andrews and Le Roux Roets are headed for England. Earlier this week, it was revealed that former Shark André Esterhuizen is set to return to Kings Park from Harlequins, and Bok veteran Trevor Nyakane is to have a swansong in Durban as well. Closer to home, two Lions players – Emmanuel Tshituka and Jordan Hendrikse – are en route to the Sharks, where they will have family reunions. Emmanuel is expected to move to No 8, with brother Vincent on the flank in the loose trio, while Jordan and Jaden Hendrikse will give the flyhalf-scrumhalf link a brotherly bond. Regarding the change…