Table of contents for 2021-06-09 in Mercury

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za THE BLACK Business Chamber (BBC) yesterday said it was dismayed by how British telecoms firm BT had treated its long-standing black economic empowerment partner (BEE), African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) based on unfounded media reports. The BBC called on the Black Economic Empowerment Commission to investigate the UK firm’s conduct. “This decision goes against the spirit of BEE, especially considering that, according to media reports, AEEI has been a shareholder in BT since 2008, with a 30 percent shareholding in the multinational group. “While the BBC acknowledges BT’s commitment to BEE, we are extremely disappointed that they have terminated their relationship with AEEI, which has an excellent track record of both business and empowerment success,” the organisation said. BT intends to exercise a call…

Minister ‘given time to attend to probe, allegations of corruption’ Sihle Mavuso and Baldwin Ndaba IN a dramatic turn of events, President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday placed his health minister and senior Cabinet member, Dr Zweli Mkhize, on special leave, saying that would be the case until the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had concluded its investigation into the R150 million Digital Vibes contract. This follows calls for Mkhize to voluntarily step aside to avoid forcing the president’s hand – and potentially split the ruling party. Recent revelations in the media detailed how Digital Vibes allegedly paid for maintenance work at the Mkhizes’ “family property” north of Joburg, and the alleged transfer of money into the company account of Mkhize’s son, Dedani Mkhize. It was also revealed that Digital Vibes in…

“For months my wife has had an ‘emotional relationship’ with a woman at work who needed ‘special support’ during a ‘trying time’. I am all for caring and helping each other out but it is an all-consuming relationship for my wife, creating huge stress in our marriage. “The amount of time spent talking and texting outside of work and on weekends is ridiculous and getting worse. I can’t meet the woman because of ‘reasons of confidentiality and privacy’. “I was okay with all this early on because something about it took some pressure off me but this has gone beyond a ‘supportive relationship’. My wife is not a trained counsellor and this is a relationship with a colleague at work. It has become much more than a friendship but I…

PAUL THOMAS | Glenwood I AM mystified by the failure of DSW (Durban solid waste) to render a reliable service. First, they seem to have given up on the recycling programme. A while ago I complained about the lack of orange bags. Now we have the bags, but they are no longer collected separately – instead they are thrown in the back of the truck with the black bags. So, what is the point of collecting the considerable amount of paper and plastic generated by a block of flats in orange bags? Second, the refuse removal service is erratic. We can’t leave our bins out on the pavement for two days on the off chance that the garbage truck will appear. If we leave the bins outside the property, some…

KEN CRITCHLOW Kloof Roger Federer has always been the shining light of tennis throughout the world. Never any scandals, always a role model. Sadly I have lost a lot of respect for his actions at Roland Garros. To reach the fourth round of a grand slam and then to pull out sighting Wimbledon as more important to his future … I think it shows a lot of disrespect to not only the organisers of the French Open, but also to the players he has beaten to reach the fourth round. Sorry Roger, this has tarnished your image for me.…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za THIRTY nine of the country’s 257 municipalities are in a critical state, Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo has revealed. One is the troubled Lekwa Local Municipality in Standerton, Mpumalanga. On Monday, Masondo introduced the municipality’s new administrator Johann Mettler, to replace its former councillors. They were paid until the end of last month. Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has also ordered that the pending by-elections be stood over until the local government elections on October 27, Masondo said. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni dissolved the Lekwa council last month and appointed Mettler to take over after being forced by the North Gauteng High Court to intervene and prepare a financial recovery plan. Masondo said 163 municipalities were in financial distress and another 108…

Sputnik Ratau | Spokesperson, Department of Water and Sanitation The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has opened its doors to young minds who plan to pursue water and sanitation-related qualifications next year. The department calls on learners who are in Grade 12 or have been accepted at mainstream South African institutions of higher learning within water-related qualifications to apply for bursaries made available by the department. The applications opened on June 1 and will close on October 31. The bursaries cover full tuition fees, accommodation and food, books and stationery and a monthly stipend. Bursaries will be allocated on the basis of a balanced consideration of outstanding academic performance, financial need and the relevant skills set for the water and sanitation sector. The department will provide employment…

The Canadian government has condemned the “targeted” killing of four members of a Muslim family by a pick-up driver in the city of London in Ontario province. Two women, one man and a teenager were killed when they were out for a walk when the pick-up truck hit them. A 9-year-old boy is in hospital with serious injuries. Police said the killings were premeditated as the 20-year-old driver, identified as Nathaniel Veltman, was wearing a vest that looked like body armour. Veltman could face terrorism charges even though he has already been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one attempted murder. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities. This hate is insidious and despicable and it must stop.” London city Mayor…

Thousands of police have been drafted in from across Britain to beef up security for what organisers promise will be disruptive and “annoying” protests when G7 leaders gather for a summit this week. The first in-person meeting of the leaders of major developed economies for nearly two years will take place in Cornwall, on the south-western tip of England, with the focus on the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. Police have closed off roads and coastal paths to Carbis Bay, the small seaside resort which is hosting the event, erecting steel fences and putting other restrictions in place. An extra 5 000 officers have been drafted in to help the operation, with about 6 500 officers and staff involved altogether, Devon and Cornwall Police said. “Everything that we do…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za THE youthful Bafana Bafana side that will take on Uganda tomorrow will give fans an indication of what to expect from the national team in future. New Bafana coach Hugo Broos is set to miss the game as he will be receiving a Covid-19 vaccine in his homeland of Belgium with assistant coaches Janevski Cedomir and Helman Mkhalele set to oversee the match. The national team were dealt a blow in their preparations for the game after it emerged that Percy Tau, Teboho Mokoena Sipho Mbule, Mosa Lebusa, Mothobi Mvala and Rivaldo Coetzee had to all be withdrawn from the side following positive Covid-19 tests and injuries. Denwin Farmer, Evidence Makgopa, Njabulo Ngcobo and TS Galaxy’s Ethan Brooks have since been called up to make up the…

siphelele dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE WORLD Bank has revised South Africa’s 2021 growth outlook upwards by 0.2 percentage points as the continuing commodity supercycle is expected to benefit from the strong growth and demand in China. In its June Global Economic Prospects report released yesterday, the World Bank said South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) would rise from a forecasted 3.3 percent to 3.5 percent. The World Bank’s forecast comes as Statistics South Africa revealed yesterday that the economy failed to expand at a quicker pace in the first three months of this year. Headline GDP in South Africa rose by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2021, translating into an annualised growth rate 4.6 percent. Investec’s chief economist Annabel Bishop said the lift in…

NICTUS expected headline earnings per share of between 17.33 cents and 18.71c for the year to the end of March, which was between 153 and 173 percent higher than the previous corresponding period. The retailer of household furniture, electrical appliances and home electronics said in a trading update that earnings per share (Eps) of between 17.33c and 18.69c per share were forecast, which was between 154 and 174 percent higher than the previous corresponding period’s Eps of 6.81c per share. The financial results for the year were expected to be published by June 30. | Edward West…

Sibusiso Mboto and Zintle Mahlati THE KwaZulu-Natal Health Department said it was ready to start vaccinating education employees, but unions yesterday raised questions about the vaccines that were available, saying they wanted to be sure that teachers were given proper doses. This was in reference to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) eagerly awaited decision on whether to approve and release Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine doses, some of which are destined for South Africa. Over the weekend, teacher unions reported on the Department of Health’s plan to administer about 500 000 J&J vaccines doses to educators and support staff. The US FDA had put a hold on the shipment and delivery of the vaccine because of contamination concerns found at a US manufacturing plant. According to national…

SPARE a thought as winter approaches with a vengeance for the furry victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many people can no longer afford to feed their cats and dogs and are dumping them with the SPCA, according to an appeal doing the rounds. The SPCA is short of beds and blankets to keep the poor animals warm at night. It needs donations of old blankets, towels, pillows – anything that can be used as bedding – no matter how tattered and torn. So, c’mon, folks, this is an emergency. Dump that tattered old stuff where it will be appreciated. Get a tail or two to wag! Name-change DRAMA continues unabated in the US. Donald Trump has changed the name of his company to that of one of his…

FAROUK ARAIE Benoni Amid a raging pandemic, men and women in the corridors of power brazenly stole money that was earmarked to help the sick and destitute in our nation’s hour of mortal crisis. The nation is having a moral convulsion. Levels of trust in our elected leaders, our institutions and in our convoluted politics are in a decline. Our current crop of leaders are masters of the art of deception. Corruption is being unearthed every day, converging on the inescapable conclusion that our tainted politics is rotten to the core with naked thievery and monumental failure. Our leaders in governance are spineless politicians, rotten to the core, without virtue, without any level of human integrity, devoid of self-respect, self-reflection, without courage and vision and without the moral compass to…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za A pastor from Durbanville in Cape Town will now be able to prepare his sermons in peace and quiet after a court ordered the closure of a puppy and dog daycare centre in his neighbourhood. Reverend Mark Wayne Christopher had to endure the barking and yelping coming from his neighbours’ business, known as Puppy Town, for years. His complaints to Puppy Town owners Jolindi and Pieter Verster fell on deaf ears. Not even his complaints to the City of Cape Town that the Versters were, among other things, contravening the by-laws by looking after more than 17 dogs and puppies during the day, yielded any results. The Versters said that they were within their rights to operate their business and that Christopher could not expect to have…

Botho Molosankwe botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za Ten suspects alleged to have robbed a cash van of an undisclosed amount were arrested just after the robbery. Within hours of the cash-in-transit robbery taking place, police managed to locate and arrest 10 suspects and also confiscated a Lexus, an Audi, a Volkswagen Caravelle and Hyundai minibus that had been used in the incident. They also found stained cash as well as six rifles, six pistols and ammunition. Colonel Brenda Muridili of the national police said it was reported that a cash van was forced off the road by a Audi sedan on the Majakaneng Bridge, between Keya Rona Mall and Majakaneng in North West. She said the suspects then allegedly opened the back of the vehicle, but while they were taking the money, the escort…

IT DID not quite shoot people in the EFF headquarters or the Union Buildings yet, but it came pretty close. According to court papers filed by the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution (Casac), the shortlisting of five candidates sent by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his consideration must be set aside because the interviews were controversial for their openly political content. This follows what it terms an attack by JSC commissioner Julius Malema against Justice Dhaya Pillay for her friendship with Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan. And yet there are few signs that Malema and Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng will pay a price for the allegations of asking irrelevant and nonsensical questions that prejudiced candidates, at best and, at worst, for…

THE sight of Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago joining anti-racism protests by “disgruntled” parents at Cornwall Hill College, in Irene last week, was comical in the extreme. The powerful head of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) joined other parents outside the private school who staged a protest against racial discrimination. Joining the angry parents were past and present pupils, who called out Cornwall Hill College for obsessing about black hair while turning a blind eye to racism. They had earlier penned a 53-page petition and shared their own testimonials regarding the systematic racism experienced at the school. The parents held placards which demanded transformation and diversity at the Gauteng private school. They also complained that the school remained “lily-white”, with only five black teachers out of 66. This forced…

More than 60 al-Shabaab militants including foreign fighters were killed in an explosion at a village about 65km west of Qoryooley in southern Somalia, the army said in a brief statement yesterday. The Somali National Army (SNA) said that the al-Qaida-allied terrorists died in the blast, which took place at their compound in Ala-Futow village in the Lower Shabelle region after the bomb which was being assembled exploded. “The explosion took place at the al-Shabaab compound after explosive materials which were being prepared by terrorists exploded on Monday,” SNA said. Al-Shabab’s bomb experts and foreign terrorists were among those killed. SNA said its forces later conducted a special operation in Ala-Futow village in Kurtunwarey district, destroying a vehicle used by terrorists to detonate explosives intended to harm the Somali people.…

new delhi: In a massive internet outage, several popular websites including leading news portals yesterday faced outage globally. These included Reddit, Spotify, Twitch, GitHub, Hulu, HBO Max, CNN, the Guardian, the New York Times, BBC, Financial Times and more. The technical glitch is likely to be from Fastly, a popular CDN provider. Fastly confirmed it was facing an outage on its status website. “Error 503 Service Unavailable,” was the message that appeared on the affected websites. It was unclear if the glitch was due to a cyber-attack. Other popular websites affected were gov.uk, Quora, PayPal, Shopify and others.…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za WEST Indies coach Phil Simmons expects the battle between his side’s fast bowlers, and South Africa’s potent set of quicks to be the deciding factor in the two Test series between the teams starting in St Lucia tomorrow. The conditions the teams will encounter seem unlikely to be what the tourists had anticipated when they departed Johannesburg last week. “There’s been a bit of bounce. It’s been different to what people thought it would be,” South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi said after the team’s two-day practice match. Last week Dean Elgar said the data the team had received prior to departure suggested a ‘slow and low,’ pitch at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, which will host both matches in the series. Perhaps no-one was listening to…

STATIONER CNA, which has fallen behind on payments to suppliers, is set to follow its former owner Edcon after it emerged yesterday that it had officially been placed into business rescue. Sources confirmed yesterday that Tashya Giyapersad and Simi Maharaj have been appointed as business rescue practitioners for the business, which has been in existence for over 100 years. The business rescue process is to help the group over the rough financial patch and possibly prevent strenuous legal action from its suppliers and landlords as it battles to keep its doors open. The retailer has been hard-hit by the extended lockdown period due to the Covid-19 pandemic as shoppers were scarce at malls and stores where it has a presence. The Edcon division was sold to investment group Astoria last…

THE BULK of South African investors’ assets still goes into a few large funds. At the same time, over the past decade, there has been an explosion of funds from which investors can choose. How then should investors select funds and how many is enough? The South African unit trust industry has well over 1 000 funds. According to the latest Morningstar Fund Observer, close to a quarter of all unit trust assets are held in the 20 largest funds, and the largest fund is bigger than the combined size of nine of the 15 Asisa categories. More than half of South African investors’ fund assets is spread across just three Asisa categories, reflecting the important historical role funds have played as a vehicle for retirement savings (in South…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za Gupta associate Iqbal Sharma, 54, has been denied bail after the court heard he had too many overseas connections and access to large sums of money abroad, and if released, may never be seen again. The court also heard that Sharma had R265 million in an offshore account linked to his business, ISSAR Global, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – an amount the State claims he never disclosed to the court. State prosecutor Peter Serunye told the court that Sharma’s assets in South Africa only amounted to 10% of his total assets and he was a serious flight risk considering his connections to over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, the United Kingdom and North and South America. He has made more than 100 flights to and…

In a break from his job teaching engineering to students in France’s Normandy region, Matthieu Pluvinage put the finishing touches on an application for a new job: astronaut. Pluvinage, 38, is taking advantage of a European Space Agency initiative to run an open recruitment drive for new astronauts for its manned flight programme. While he has never been a test pilot or served in the military – typical credentials for astronauts in the past – he ticks many of the boxes in the job description. He has a Masters degree in science, he speaks English and French, he reckons he is fit enough to pass the medical, and he has a passion for space. “There are things that make me think, ‘I want to do this! It’s cool!’,” said Pluvinage…

JEAN MICHEL BOUVIER Bryanston Back in March it was so disheartening listening to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola lamenting the non co-operation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the fact that they have been begging them now for over a year to assist with the extradition of the now infamous Gupta brothers who reside there. However, the UAE government has been refusing to ratify extradition treaties. Lamola said the department would now approach the UN for assistance. How pathetic. Thinking of what the Japanese managed to do in “zero time” after Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan who had managed to skip the country and who was accused of overstating his wedding expenses and sundries, the Japanese showed once more how efficient, capable, effective and competent they are, by…

ERIC SHIKOBELA Pretoria SOUTH Africa is at a breaking point … nothing so far is going right. Good news and progress have become a stranger to our ears, and the hope of many is dwindling rapidly. All joy is lost because nobody has confidence of a better South Africa anymore. The pain of witnessing my motherland drowning gives me sleepless nights because I know what great potential this diverse nation of ours has and I owe it to myself to ensure that I contribute towards unleashing all its potential to make our nation a better place for the next generation. Pride, ignorance and arrogance make our leaders say: “All is well in our nation, or soon things will be back to normal”, while we can see our country is like…

Jolene Marriah-Maharaj jolene.marriah@inl.co.za A KZN woman who killed her policeman husband in 2019 has been jailed for 22 years. Nonkululeko Ngwabe, 46, was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg High Court this week. She was found guilty of killing her husband, Warrant Officer Thulani Ngwabe, 51. Ngwabe had been stationed at the Margate Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit. Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said the police officer’s body was found on the railway lines near Port Shepstone beach on November 3, 2019. He had sustained multiple stab wounds to his body. Mhlongo said the murder case was assigned to the Hawks. “Hawks members left no stone unturned in their investigation and they first arrested his wife in December 2019. Mhlongo said Ngwabe had allegedly hired accomplices to kill her…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has warned that should circumstances, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, force the postponement of the local government elections, government will have to approach Parliament and the Constitutional Court. Dlamini Zuma, who was replying to a written question from the IFP, said the elections remained scheduled for October 27. She said the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) had indicated that it would deliver the elections in the prescribed period. The IEC has also appointed retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to determine if the conditions were conducive to hold the elections. It said Moseneke will undertake an urgent appraisal of all the relevant legal, socio-political, health, practical and other considerations and submit a report to the commission during…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za AS victims of sexual assault across KwaZulu-Natal wait for justice, evidence that could put their attackers in prison is sitting in cold storage rooms waiting to be processed, in some cases for more than a year. Statistics released by MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison Peggy Nkonyeni showed that KwaZulu-Natal has 8 388 DNA forensic cases dating back as far as February 2020. Nkonyeni provided the case numbers in a written parliamentary reply to questions posed by the DA. About 5 400 of the cases related to sexual assault. According to the May 2021 reply signed by Nkonyeni and Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, the DNA cases have not yet been analysed at the forensic services laboratory in KZN. Once analysed, the cases would then…

WESLEY SEALE STANDING in a Beijing skyscraper, one is often mesmerised by the mountains surrounding the “north capital”. As someone who hails from a mountain city, the mountains in Beijing often reminded me of OR Tambo’s description of the Engeli Mountains. “Looking out from my home,” Oliver Tambo wrote, “the site of it commanded a wide view of the terrain as it swept from the vicinity of my home and stretched away as far as the eye could see – the panorama bordered on a high range of mountains that faced me. “The Engeli Mountains were a huge wall that rolls in the distance to mark the end of a very broken landscape, a landscape of great variety and, looking back now, I would say of great beauty.” Beijing…

The Hague: Police have arrested more than 800 people worldwide in a global sting involving encrypted phones that were secretly planted by the FBI, law enforcement agencies said yesterday. Cops in 16 countries were able to read the messages of global underworld figures as they plotted drug deals, arms transfers and gangland hits on the compromised Anom devices. Mafia groups, Asian crime syndicates, motorcycle gangs and other organised crime syndicates across the world were all monitored using the spiked phones as part of Operation “Trojan Shield”. The sting, jointly conceived by Australia and the US FBI, prevented around 100 murders, foiled several large-scale narcotics shipments and led to seizures of weapons and cash, they added. “The results are staggering,” FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers said at the headquarters of…

LONDON: No witnesses from a birthday party, where black rights campaigner Sasha Johnson, pictured, was shot in the head on May 23, have come forward to give a statement, the Metropolitan Police said. Johnson, 27, remains in a critical condition in hospital. She suffered “profound life-changing injuries” during a “melee” after four armed men broke into a silent disco party in a back garden in Peckham, London, according to the police. Some people claim the BLM activist could have been targeted for her campaign work. The police said there was “nothing to suggest” this. Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard urged those who were at the party – around 30 people – “to make contact” with police to tell them what they know. Johnson’s mother Ellet Dalling made a…

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council voted yesterday to give secretary-general Antonio Guterres a second term, with conflict resolution set to top his agenda at the world body’s helm. The 72-year-old former prime minister of Portugal has held the office since 2017 and faced no competition for the next term in the job. Around 10 other people also sought the position, but they were not formal candidates because none of the 193 UN member states endorsed them. As he embarked on a new term, Guterres would need “a battle plan” for all the crises around the globe, one diplomat said.…