Table of contents for 2021-08-10 in Mercury

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za All eyes will be on the Pietermaritzburg High Court today to see what information – if any – is revealed to the court by the legal team of former president Jacob Zuma regarding his stay in hospital. While the case was set to be heard in open court for arguments regarding the application made by Zuma for the removal of State advocate Billy Downer from his arms deal corruption trial, the matter is expected to be adjourned due to the former president being in hospital. Last Wednesday, Zuma scored a victory in the same court when presiding Judge Piet Koen ruled that the hearing should be heard in person, which was what Zuma’s legal team had argued for. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was opposed to an…

HOW I regard you, treat you, view you and value you is of paramount importance. It says nothing about you, but exposes volumes about me. This is a hard one for some people, even very intelligent people, to grasp. I think this is because even if you are very bright and have an arm’s length of degrees, walls of trophies, an endless lists of glowing accomplishments and you may be richer than Solomon at his peak of wealth, if you are angry, bitter, vengeful or crude, it comes out of you (and me) no matter how much you try to dress it up into something decent or acceptable. How we treat all others (no exceptions) is about who and what we are no matter who “they” are or what kind…

DUNCAN DU BOIS | Bluff The Mercury’s report of August 6 on the EFF march in Phoenix revealed the extent to which law and order is shamed and why communities need to be vigilant and self-protecting. Although under current regulations, gatherings of more than 100 people are not permitted, the number of those involved in the march grossly exceeded that figure. So why did the SAPS not apply the law? Instead, by accompanying the marchers, the SAPS not only abetted an illegal gathering but actually lent credibility to it. The report notes that police personnel scattered when some marchers threw stones at an Indian-owned building and that it required some EFF bigwigs to intervene to prevent the situation becoming volatile. Why did the police not intervene? Aside from…

I SAY Uncle Cyril missed a trick when he reshuffled his Cabinet. Why didn’t he make Rassie Erasmus Minister of Foreign Affairs? Rassie has plenty of international experience. Four Tests already this year – highly successful in three. He’s boxing clever with World Rugby. He’s got great financial and other contacts in New York. He’d moer them in the UN Security Council and the General Assembly. He’d confuse them, sometimes coming on as coach, sometimes as waterboy. He’d sort out the off-the-ball incidents in the AU parliament in Midrand. He’d tell the ratings agencies and the International Monetary Fund to just voetsek! Here’s a man who understands and revels in the hurly-burly of international contact. A great opportunity has been missed, I say. Not bragging … OVERHEARD in the Street…

THE rolling blackouts implemented by Eskom last year were the worst to hit the country since 2015, according to a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) report released this week. While the report captured power sector statistics for the first half of 2021, it also drew comparisons with load shedding previously experienced by millions of South Africans. According to the report, the country experienced power cuts for 650 hours in the first half of 2021, from January to June. During that period an estimated 963 gigawatts of energy was shed, mostly during stage 2 load shedding. The report noted that the amount of power shed in the first half of the year was 76% of the total load shedding experienced during 2020, wherein a total of 859 hours of…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za THE ANC caucus has refused to be drawn on the name of the new Speaker of the National Assembly, with the announcement to be made this week. ANC caucus acting spokesperson Nomfanelo Kota said at the weekend that the decision would be taken this week after internal party processes were carried out. President Cyril Ramaphosa last week appointed former Speaker Thandi Modise as the minister of defence and military veterans after the removal of Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula from the position. Parliament said in a statement that Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli would be acting as Speaker until Modise’s successor had been elected by the House. The ANC has a majority in the national legislature. “My assumption is that after the announcement by the president (to appoint Modise as Defence…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za THE Department of Health has said that more than 400 medical students who were studying in Cuba have returned to South Africa. The department said the first group returned on August 5, while the second group arrived yesterday. About 15 students had to remain in Cuba, after they tested positive for Covid-19. The department’s comments come after the SA Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) said the group of fifth-year students had been left stranded in Cuba, with no money to purchase basic goods for months. According to the department, the 469 students, who had completed their fifth year studies in Cuba, will now complete their final year of clinical training at local universities. General secretary of Samatu Dr Cedric Sihlangu told The Mercury yesterday the group had…

The Basic Education Department needs to send a strong message to school principals that the temporary closure of schools due to Covid-19 infections should not mean an abrupt stop of the learning process. Every week, schools all over the country are forced to close their doors due to the ever increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases. In KwaZulu-Natal, six schools had to be closed due to Covid-19 last week. The Department of Education in KZN confirmed 10 Covid-19 cases had been detected, prompting the closure of the schools. While the infections have not led to the death of learners, it is causing serious disruption to teaching and learning, especially in township and rural schools. In order to ensure that these learners are not sent home to twiddle their thumbs, principals and…

Southern African countries yesterday inaugurated a regional military mission to help Mozambique take back control of its gas-rich northern province from jihadists who have been rampaging across towns and villages for nearly four years. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi launched the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) at an event in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province. “We reaffirm our joint commitment to fight against violent extremism together with the Rwandan forces,” said Nyusi. He mentioned “news in recent days of the success of Rwanda’s mission and our forces”, referring to the recapture of Awasse and Mocimboa da Praia towns from the insurgents, just weeks after the East African troops arrived. Mozambican forces, backed by Rwandan troops, on Sunday said they had…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za PARENTS have a responsibility to their children to allow the law to take its course and not to attempt to resolve their disputes by resorting to “self-help”. Any attempt to do so inevitably increases the tension between the parents, and that regrettably adds to the suffering of the children. This is according to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which once again warned that the country’s courts were bound by the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Only in extreme cases, where it was clear that the lives of children would be in danger if returned to the country where they lived, would a court intervene. The best interests of a child who has been removed from the jurisdiction of a court in…

The colourful tins piled high around Belgian collector Yvette Dardenne used to contain goods ranging from chocolates, toffees, coffee and rice to tobacco, talc and shoe polish, and come from as far away as India. Yvette Dardenne, 83, has accumulated almost 60 000 vintage tin boxes from all over the world since starting her collection 30 years ago. The collection, which now occupies four houses, all began with a Cote d’Or chocolate box illustrated with a painting of a blonde girl in a blue hat, Dardenne told Reuters, standing amid the carefully arranged tin boxes in the medieval watermill she owns next to her home. Later, the tins just came to her, she said. “I haven’t been anywhere. I was not travelling. People still think I have travelled a lot.…

K CRITCHLOW | Kloof What a total and utterly disastrous Games this has been for South Africa. In the team games – hockey, football and water polo – we were well out of our depth. Sevens Rugby, where we should have picked up a medal, we were as your sports writer Ashfak Mohamed quite rightly said, the team that has become a team of individuals, each making his own errors, and to lose to a six-men Argentina was a disgrace. It was so depressing watching the result come through and seeing “DNF” at the side of each South African contestant. And what a shambles our 4 x 100m relay was. A team that have trained for years together could not get past the first baton change. Thank goodness…

KEVIN GOVENDER | Shallcross TODAY I am going to reverberate with nostalgic yearnings of the past and genuflect in the aura of another time, as I take a melancholic meander into my days growing up in Phoenix. My family was one of the first batch that moved into Phoenix in 1977. At a callow 11 years of age, the huge swathes of land with sugar cane plantations were a paradise for boys my age. My parents who are both blithe and very much alive, were community activists and sports administrators – my dad being the founding treasurer of the Phoenix Football Association and my mom being the founding member of the Phoenix Netball Association. At the time, Phoenix boasted a pantheon of civic and sports leaders in the…

Bulelwa Payi bulelwa.payi@inl.co.za REVEREND June Major told a tribunal, set up by the Anglican church to hear sexual assault allegations against a priest, that on the night of the alleged rape, she felt something in her had died. The accused faces charges including sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual immorality and violation of the church’s constitution. He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The tribunal is set to resume this week as the Western Cape High Court was scheduled to finalise his application to interdict Major from publicly naming him. However, his name was made public in the tribunal, held under the church’s canon law. Major told the tribunal that in 2002 she, the accused whom she regarded as a family friend, and another priest, Mark Andrews, drove to…

Mashudu Sadike mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za JUDGMENT has been reserved in the court battle by Section 27 and Equal Education to force the Department of Basic Education to eradicate pit toilets in Limpopo. Presiding Judge Gerrit Muller said on Friday in the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo he would soon announce the date at which he would hand down judgment. The two lobby groups are petitioning for the provincial department to draft a new plan to eradicate pit latrines at schools. According to them, the plan should outline how the department intended to address the urgent school sanitation problems in the province. The lengthy court battle dates from 2016 and was triggered by the 2014 incident of Grade R pupil Michael Komape, who fell into a pit toilet at his primary school in…

Twitter Inc will partner with the Associated Press and Reuters to more quickly provide credible information on the social networking site to fight the spread of misinformation, it said. Like other social media companies, the San Francisco-based firm has been under pressure to remove misleading or false information on its site. Earlier this year Twitter launched Birdwatch, asking its users to help identify and fact-check misleading tweets. Twitter said it would collaborate with the news wires during breaking news events to add accurate context, which could appear in various places on Twitter, such as a label attached to tweets about the event or as a “Moment”, which curates information about trending topics on Twitter. The partnerships mark the first time Twitter will formally collaborate with news organisations to elevate accurate…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za A DA councillor is in hot water over a remark he made at the city’s full council meeting about an ANC politician. At the meeting last week, DA councillor Samier Singh told ANC councillor Stanley Moonsamy of Phoenix that “Indians were looking for him”. Singh was tabling a motion when he said: “My colleague on the other side, councillor Moonsamy, I am not sure if he is still here because I know the Indian community is still looking for him.” The remark triggered outrage from the ANC benches, with calls for Singh to be investigated by council and for criminal charges to be laid against him. “We do not want to speculate on what was the reason councillor Singh said what he said. We have said councillor…

Urgent need to develop effective vaccine education to counter misinformation INITIALLY, it was understood that the only reason South Africa was struggling to vaccinate its population was due to a lack of vaccines. Over the past month, the vaccine roll-out drive has improved immensely, owing to good collaboration between government and various business sectors in administering vaccinations. The government has also managed to acquire more vaccines, like the 5.8 million doses recently received from Pfizer USA, and improved its vaccine management and administration. In his first address, new Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla also told the nation that 20 million new vaccine deliveries would be made over August. In all, the government’s assumption has been that more vaccines will lead to more vaccinations – this, however, is…

EU countries are stepping up their help to Greece to fight forest fires devastating its mainland and some islands, the European Commission said yesterday as it co-ordinated the assistance. There are now nine planes, 1 000 firefighters and 200 vehicles deployed by EU states, a statement said. France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia added resources and were sending extra fire fighting units, adding to ones already in Greece from France and other EU nations. In addition, EU help has gone to battle fires in Italy as well as in non-EU countries North Macedonia, Albania and Turkey, the commission said. “We are mobilising one of Europe’s biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously,” the EU commission for crisis management’s Janez Lenarcic said. “I am very thankful…

new york: The United Nations panel on climate change yesterday told the world global warming was dangerously close to being out of control – and that humans were “unequivocally” to blame. Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries, the report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned. In other words, the deadly heat waves, gargantuan hurricanes and other weather extremes which are already happening will only become more severe. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a “code red for humanity”. “The alarm bells are deafening,” he said. “This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.” In three months’ time, the UN COP26…

Joining OnlyFans has been “life changing” for Jessica Alves. The 37-year-old reality TV star says the X-rated subscription site has been a surprise as it has shown her how popular she is and she is hoping to find a hot date among her subscribers. She told MailOnline: “OnlyFans has been a life-changing platform for me. I never knew that I had so many adoring male fans.” Alves previously explained that she set up the account because she had been inundated with messages on her other social media profiles. And the transgender star explained that the platform was helpful for those who are curious about her sex change surgery. She said: “I’ve set up an OnlyFans account due to the high volume of emails and direct messages on Instagram. “I get…

ITUMELENG MAFISA QUESTIONS are being raised about the level of paranoia of the state after the unrest last month, with the military being seen hovering around the SABC’S headquarters. The Mercury’s sister newspaper, The Star, understands that the SANDF was deployed at the offices of the public broadcaster weeks ago. But there have been complaints from freedom of expression groups and other movements about the soldiers being seen inside the SABC. It is still unclear whether the large introduction of the army for enforcement duties and the absorption of State Security into the president’s office is linked to political issues in the ANC. SANDF spokesperson Brigadier-General Mafi Mgobozi said soldiers would remain at the SABC buildings in Joburg and Durban until they were told to withdraw. “When the violence…

THILLAY NAIDOO | Durban North DR Pravine Naidoo’s letter in The Mercury on August 5 draws attention to the fact that Imraan Buccus is at work again spewing venom against the ruling party in India. Apparently he has written elsewhere about the happenings in Phoenix in Durban and compared them with the Nazi ideology and draws a nexus that reflects his immature political prejudices. Imraan Buccus holds his anti-Hindutva views, conveniently forgetting that India has been a Hindu country for millennia. He most certainly reflects his own religious background and the prejudices that stem from it. India has been ravaged by the presence within its borders of foreign ideologies that contribute not one iota of mature religious thought. So it is inevitable that views like Buccus’s would fail…

JOHN GARDENER | Howick Deena Pillay’s letter (The Mercury, August 5) refers and I agree with the contents. For my sins, I clatter around in a wheelchair which has to be laboriously assembled and dismantled each time I leave and return to my car. The process is a bit cumbersome and explains why disabled bays are generally wider than ordinary ones – you simply need the extra space! The sad reality is many able-bodied folk pinch these bays because they are conveniently situated close to the main retail outlets. Many have no wheelchair stickers on their windscreens, while others display stickers which have simply been printed from the internet. In many such instances, however, the drivers are robust beings, bursting with good health, who stride away purposefully, clearly…

VISVIN REDDY | ADeC leader There is overwhelming evidence that suggest that the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma was the cause of the mayhem, destruction, killings and racial tensions that followed. Analysts, politicians and Facebook activists can theorise all they want, but more than 300 lives were lost and over R50 billion of damage caused. If the root is not treated, the fruit will remain rotten. Zuma is an elderly man, he was not arrested for corruption but contempt charges. Contempt does not necessarily have to carry such a harsh sentence. Like him or not, he enjoys massive support in the ANC and among Africans in South Africa. Ramaphosa was caught with his pants down. He was given prior warnings of the attempted coup but failed to…

Xolile Bhengu xolile.bhengu@inl.co.za The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) chief executive Dr David Motau has been placed on precautionary suspension, two months after his appointment. Motau was last week placed on suspension by then acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi. The HPCSA is a state regulatory body with 12 professional boards under it that provides control over the education, training and registration of health professionals registered under the Health Professions Act. The council also investigates complaints made against any health practitioner and conducts investigations when necessary. HPCSA president Professor Simon Nemutandani said the cautionary suspension was due to Motau being criminally charged in connection with a matter relating to his former tenure as a head of the Free State Department of Health. He said the HPCSA had noted the…

Sameer Naik sameer.naik@inl.co.za Last month, US gymnast Simone Biles shocked the sporting world when she pulled out of almost all gymnastic events at the Tokyo Olympic Games to focus on her mental well-being. But Adrian McInman isn’t surprised by the increase in athletes who have withdrawn from sporting events to focus on their mental health. While mental health issues have been a long-standing problem in the sporting world, the Covid-19 pandemic has further exacerbated it, said the world-renowned sports psychologist. “The sporting world has been suffering for a very long time due to people in positions of power not having university sports science training and athletes performing sub-optimally due to not receiving comprehensive mental health skills training,” McInman said. “However, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation and made it…

Nonhlanhla Nozizwe Hlatshwayo nozizwe.hlatshwayo@inl.co.za NINE people, including an infant, died in two separate accidents over the long weekend. The Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison in KwaZulu-Natal said six people died in a crash on the P68/1, between Ixopo and St Faiths on Sunday. The department said in a statement that preliminary reports suggested that a Mazda 323 with three occupants was trying to overtake a minibus taxi on a sharp bend, when it collided head-on with an oncoming Toyota Corolla, also with three occupants “Sadly, all occupants of the two vehicles died at the scene, including a mother, father, and the infant. “The minibus taxi was also involved in the incident and its occupants sustained injuries. They were all treated at the scene and transported to Christ the…

DESPITE the devastating health and socio-economic consequences the Covid-19 pandemic has had across the world, including major disruptions in global trade, investment and supply chains, South African trade has shown remarkable resilience during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. The trend is projected to continue in 2021 and beyond. According to the latest edition of the flagship annual World Trade Statistical Review 2021 recently released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in co-operation with the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the International Trade Centre and UN Statistical Division, South Africa was the 37th largest exporter at $85.84 billion (about R1.3 trillion) and the 39th largest importer at $84.1bn in the world in 2020. The stark reality is the country accounted for a mere 0.5% of global exports and…

ROME: An envelope with three bullets addressed to Pope Francis has been found at a post office in Milan, Italy. According to a newspaper, it contained three 9-calibre Flobert-type pellets and was sent from France with no mention of the sender. The envelope contained writing in pen that Il Messagero said was barely legible: “The Pope – Vatican City, Piazza S Pietro in Rome”. Local police have started an investigation. The Pope’s untraditional views have often irked theological conservatives. He has been criticised for his promotion of ecumenism, a movement calling for co-operation and unity among Christian denominations. In 2016, he released a controversial exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, in which the pontiff changed Catholic doctrine and allowed civilly divorced and remarried Catholics to take communion.…