Table of contents for 2022-07-06 in Mercury

Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has warned about the dangers of political figures meddling in the administrative affairs at municipalities. Delivering the keynote address at the Local Government Indaba held at the Durban International Convention Centre yesterday, the minister said the interface between the administrative and political wings was leading to questionable appointments at councils and compromising service delivery in parts of the country because many officials were not suitably qualified. The end result of this, Dlamini Zuma warned, were service-delivery protests by communities which underlined that public trust in municipalities had been eroded. “There is room for interface between the political and administrative wings at municipalities, but there is a point when it becomes unhealthy when politicians insist on certain appointments. “If you…

Let me be among those who without equivocation applaud the Women’s Legal Centre Trust for perseverance and determination in ensuring social justice as well as giving the Bill of Rights in our Constitution a human face. I was not surprised by the outcome. The judgment was inevitable and a long time coming in the evolution and realisation of the rights of women and children in a Muslim marriage. It did so by declaring certain provisions of the Marriage and Divorce acts unconstitutional and therefore invalid because they discriminated against married or divorced Muslim women and their children. It was not an indictment on the Shariah but on men not being assertive enough in ensuring that the rights of Muslim women and children were afforded the fullest recognition and protection. While…

A recently written unpublished book by the writer of this letter on “lost opportunities” in some aspects of transport in South Africa concludes that there is a need for a widespread change-oriented approach to effective and efficient public passenger transport in South Africa’s metropolitan areas to meet the needs of the public. At the least, some of the “lost opportunities” during past decades need to be revisited and some fundamental issues need to be addressed. Of importance is to address the element of destructive competition both within the taxi industry and between it and the other modes of transport. The problem of restructuring public transport and creating an urban form supporting public transport as well as removing the dominance of the private car needs to be addressed on several fronts.…

A scam artist who pretended to be an Italian man on social media and allegedly swindled a woman of R1.2 million is expected to appear in the Bellville Regional Court in Cape Town this week for fraud, theft and money laundering. The police said its Commercial Crime Investigations Unit arrested a 57-year-old foreign national in Maitland who was allegedly involved in the romance scam wherein he pretended to be an Italian national seeking a partner in South Africa. Over a few months he allegedly secured R1.2 million from the victim. Communication with the victim was done on various social media platforms. “The suspect was detained at Bellville SAPS for fraud, theft and (money laundering) and will appear in the Bellville Regional Court on the charges,” SAPS spokesperson FC van Wyk…

A Pietermaritzburg woman whose mother and sister were killed by a family friend said she was unable to comprehend why they were killed. Shane Steven Boucher, 38, pleaded guilty to murdering Rita Westfahl, 76, and her 58-year-old daughter, Carol Lesley Westfahl, on May 25 this year. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years behind bars in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by Judge Piet Koen on Monday. Boucher also pleaded guilty to one count of theft. In his Section 105A sentence and plea agreement, Boucher, represented by legal aid attorney Amanda Hulley, said he had known Rita for more than 15 years because she had been neighbours with his mother. On the day of the murder, he went to visit Rita and they had a few drinks. Boucher said he…

More than 2 000 stolen artworks from DRC remain in the museums of Europe Patrice Lumumba is the hero of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s truncated bid for complete independence. He was assassinated by local counter-revolutionary forces with the help of the CIA and Belgian authorities in 1961. Since then, all over the developing world, Lumumba’s name has come to stand for defiance against colonialism and imperialism. The manner of his death was particularly distressing. He was humiliated and tortured before he was murdered. His body was then doused with acid to facilitate decomposition. A Belgian official reportedly kept his teeth as mementos as if to add another grisly and macabre dimension to the entire sordid affair. The return of Lumumba’s tooth after 61 years leaves many questions unanswered and…

Colombo: Sri Lanka is bankrupt and the acute pain of its unprecedented economic crisis will linger until at least the end of next year, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday. The nation’s 22 million people have endured months of galloping inflation and lengthy power cuts after the government ran out of foreign currency to import vital goods. The prime minister said Sri Lanka’s ongoing bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund depended on finalising a debt restructuring plan by August. | AFP…

The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that 5 322 laboratory confirmed cases of monkeypox had been reported to it in the current outbreak, 85% of which are in Europe. Though case numbers are rapidly increasing, the UN health agency has not set a date for its emergency committee on monkeypox to convene for a second meeting. The number has increased by 56% in eight days. The previous figure given by the WHO, for the period up to June 22, was 3 413 cases. A surge in monkeypox cases has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. The WHO said infections had now been reported in 53 countries. “Some 85% of cases are in Europe, followed by Africa,…

Wout van Aert extended his overall lead in the Tour de France when he finished off some sterling team work to win the fourth stage yesterday after three second places in the opening three race days. The Jumbo Visma rider left all his rivals gasping for air on the final hill of the 171.5km ride from Dunkirk after his Jumbo Visma team’s brutal acceleration blew apart the peloton. The Belgian jumped away from a skimmed pack with less than 12km left in the short ascent of the Cote du Cap Blanc Nez and never looked back to clinch his seventh individual stage win on the Tour. Overall, Van Aert leads compatriot Yves Lampaert (Quick Step Alpha Vinyl) by 25 seconds and defending champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) by 32. The…

SOUTH African businesses remained under considerable pressure from rising input costs, lifted by a surge in global fuel prices and supply-side challenges, despite activity climbing to a 13-month high in June. The S&P Global South Africa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), released yesterday inched higher to 52.5 points in June from 50.7 points in May, registering above the 50-point neutral threshold for the sixth month running. The reading was the highest recorded in just over a year. S&P said all five sub-components of the PMI had a positive directional influence in June, particularly the new orders index which signalled a solid upturn in sales. According to survey panellists, the expansion was often linked to a recovery in economic conditions, especially in KwaZulu-Natal following floods earlier this year. With sales…

Vegetable-based meat alternatives will no longer be able to label their products as steaks or sausages in France, according to an official ordinance. The ban, to take effect on October 1, has been keenly awaited by the meat industry as a growing number of vegetable-based products hit grocery shelves. “It will no longer be possible to use terms proper to sectors traditionally associated with meat and fish to designate products not belonging to the animal kingdom,” said the text. The measure is “an essential step in favour of the transparency of information for consumers, as well as the preservation of our products and know-how,” said Jean-François Guihard, head of the Interbev trade association of livestock ranchers and meatpackers. The ban will apply to products made in France, but not to…

One of the characters of novelist Ernest Hemingway was asked how he got bankrupt, and he answered, “slowly and suddenly”. This is exactly the dynamics of all our crises in South Africa, in other words, our problems start small, grow slowly and erupt suddenly and violently. It is shown in behavioural economics that our mind is designed in a way to underestimate small changes and we always wait for something big to act. The threat of climate change is a good example of this. Unemployment, poverty, crime, inequality, poor public service delivery, corruption, etc, are all rising and going from bad to worse. This is not a healthy environment for our economy to grow at a high and sustainable rate as we wish it to. Despite all of the above,…

“The Berlin Wall – Stalin and St Paul … ” the St Clement’s arts soiree sat enthralled this week as The Survivors (vocalists Rick and Jill Andrew and guitarist Alan Judd) put on a pulsating selection of the work of poet and songster Leonard Cohen. It was a blast from the past, the era of the Cold War when a rising generation challenged what they had inherited from the past. Cohen was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death and romantic relationships. What came across at St Clements was not just the anguish of the Cold War but a strong sense of prophecy. If the Cold War was bad, how much more so the war in Ukraine, Europe and…

Legal experts maintain that employers who have chosen to implement vaccine mandates should not be dissuaded from doing so amid debates around the future of these policies, as Covid-19 restriction levels have eased and society returns to life as before the virus. This comes as a Gauteng woman formerly employed as a senior inventory controller at Baroque Medical, won her case at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) against the company who retrenched her a year ago for not taking the Covid-19 vaccine. Senior commissioner Richard Byrne held that the dismissal was substantively unfair and awarded the employee, Kgomotso Tshatshu, the maximum compensation, a year’s pay amounting to R279 600. “When one considers the Equality Clause (section 9 of the Constitution), Freedom and security of the person (section…

The provincial commissioner of police in Limpopo, Lieutenant-General Thembi Hadebe, has established a team of investigators to probe the brutal murder of the Waterberg TVET College facilitator, Sphiwe Patrick Zondo, after he was falsely accused of being a thief. The educator was killed during a mob attack at Mamaolo Village under the Lebowakgomo policing area at the weekend. Police said the slain man was accused of being a stock thief. “Preliminary police investigations revealed that the victim, who was a resident of Lebowakgomo but originates from Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, often buys goats from the surrounding villages and takes them home (KZN). “On this day, he was accosted by community members at Mamaolo when he was seen transporting several goats in a bakkie,” said Limpopo police spokesperson, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo. The…

A Durban policeman charged with the murder of his wife will remain behind bars until his next court appearance. He appeared briefly in the Camperdown Magistrate’s Court this week. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara confirmed that the accused, Mthokozisi Nene, would remain in custody. “The matter was adjourned to July 13 for bail consideration.” Nene, stationed at Hammarsdale SAPS, is accused of shooting his wife, Thobeka Nompilo Nene, 41, a teacher, last month. Nene also faces charges of defeating the ends of justice and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition. The murder took place at the couple’s home in Inchanga. Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza attended the court hearing and said support was being given to the couple’s children and at the school where the murdered woman taught.…

Khartoum: The chairperson of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council said the country’s military would not participate in talks facilitated by the international community to pave the way for the civil groups to form an independent government. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also pledged to dissolve the sovereign council after the formation of a new government. The UN, AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development is facilitating intra-Sudanese dialogue to end the country’s political crisis. The capital Khartoum and other cities have had protests demanding a return to civilian rule. | IANS…

Fighting raged yesterday in and around Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as Russian troops tried to build on recent battlefield gains, while Nato pressed ahead with Finland and Sweden’s momentous membership bids. With the war into its fifth month, Kyiv’s allies committed yesterday to supporting Ukraine through what is likely to be a lengthy and expensive recovery, agreeing on the need for broad reforms to boost transparency and tackle corruption. The two days of talks in the Swiss city of Lugano heard rebuilding the war-ravaged country is estimated to cost $750 billion (about R12.4 trillion). But on the battlefield the conflict continued to wreak devastation, with the Ukrainian president’s office reporting Russian shelling and missile strikes in several regions overnight. Kremlin forces were pounding their next key target, the city of…

Police arrested a suspect this week after a mass shooting left six dead at a US Independence Day parade in a wealthy Chicago suburb. Robert Crimo, 22, was identified as a “person of interest” and became the target of a massive manhunt across the town of Highland Park in Illinois, where a rooftop gunman with a high-powered rifle turned a family-focused July 4 parade celebration into a scene of death and trauma. Firing into the holiday crowd, the shooter caused scenes of chaos as panicked onlookers ran for their lives, leaving behind a parade route strewn with chairs, abandoned balloons and personal belongings. Emergency officials said about two dozen people, including children, were treated for gunshot injuries, with some in critical condition. After a brief car chase, Crimo was taken…

I fondly recall when my sons were born how the limited literature I read (newborns don’t permit much reading) expressed with some urgency that the new parent takes time to “bond” with the baby. This elusive concept was touted as of paramount importance – and yet the writers seemed to find it difficult to describe or to know when it had occurred. Within hours of being a parent, I knew what it meant. Each baby was but hours old and the connections were formed, we knew each other, and it continues to this day, 24 and 20 years later. I was immediately aware of the slightest shift in tone of whimper when each boy was days old, and it persists now when they call. I can hear distress or sadness…

While the narrative in the mass media is anti-Putin, his intention to pursue a new global reserve currency backed by hard assets like gold is historically and financially sensible (Business Report, July 4). Putin is correct in noting that trust in the US dollar as the world’s dominant currency has been shredded. Mired in a $30 trillion (about R490 trillion) debt with inflation spiralling out of control and ruled by globalists bent on crippling the US economy through their green energy plans, there is no reasonable basis to adhere to what has been the international status quo as regards the dollar since 1944. Besides, there is a more fundamental reason to forsake the dollar and that is because it is a fiat currency that is not even owned by the…

At least 6 000 clothing workers in the woven-cotton textile sub-sector nationally are set to benefit from a new 7% wage increase following successful negotiations between unions and employers. The Cosatu-affiliated Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) announced this week that it has settled its 2022/2024 wage negotiations in the sub-sector. Effective from July 1, 2022, until June 30, 2024, the new two-year collective agreement was concluded under the auspices of the National Textile Bargaining Council, with employers represented by the South African Cotton & Textile Processing Employers’ Association. In the first year of the new two-year collective agreement ending in June 2023, employees will receive a 7% wage increase and in the second year wage increases will be pegged at the same rand value, Sactwu said. “The…

As South African motorists rushed to fill up before the fuel price increase, the DA handed its fuel price deregulation bill to Parliament. The party said the bill, which has been handed to Parliament’s legal services for processing, seeks to amend the Petroleum Products Act while giving Parliament the power to prescribe the price of petroleum products. The party’s mineral resources and energy spokesperson, Kevin Mileham, said the DA intended to publish its notice of intention to introduce the bill in the Government Gazette later this week, after which the public will be invited to provide input. Mileham blamed the governing party for the high fuel prices, saying the failure of fuel price regulation lay with the ANC. “Given that South Africans will wake up to another hefty fuel price…

KWAZULU-NATAL Premier Sihle Zikalala has announced plans to build temporary residential units alongside permanent high-rise flats for flood victims of the Annet Drive informal settlement in Reservoir Hills. Zikalala held a media briefing in Reservoir Hills to give an update on the rehousing of families staying in shelters due to the April and May floods. “We are today unveiling the parcels of land that have been secured and linked to each mass care centre as part of our programme to get the lives of the people back to normal and give them back their dignity,“ he said. The premier said the government was in the third stage of response to flood damage which is to focus on rehabilitation and reconstruction. According to Zikalala, there are eight sites identified to build…

Berlin: Police in five European countries launched a cross-border operation against people smuggling yesterday and made several arrests, German authorities said. Officers in Belgium, Britain, France and the Netherlands as well as Germany staged dawn raids with “hundreds of officers”, said police in the German city of Osnabrueck, a major hub for the networks. The operation was co-ordinated by Europol and EU judicial agency Eurojust, German police said. The operation targeted organised groups taking migrants to England. The network had smuggled up to 10 000 people via the Channel in the last 12 to 18 months in a highly lucrative scheme. | AFP…

Iran added demands unrelated to discussions on its nuclear program during the latest talks, and has made alarming progress on enriching uranium, the US envoy for talks on reinstating a nuclear deal said yesterday. US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said there was a proposal on the table for a timeline by which Iran could come back into compliance with the nuclear deal and Washington could ease sanctions on Tehran. Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at breaking an impasse over how to salvage Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact ended in Doha, Qatar, last week without the hoped-for progress. Malley said Iranian negotiators had added new demands. “They have added demands that anyone looking at this would view as having nothing to do with the nuclear deal; things they’ve…

In Kenya, a conservative country that has long restricted access to reproductive care, many women and girls resort to desperate measures – using knitting needles, drinking bleach, taking unidentified pills or ingesting traditional herbs – to terminate their pregnancies. Although Kenya has gradually liberalised its abortion laws in recent years, activists are concerned that the overturning of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court could set back their progress. But they are determined to continue their fight, drawing inspiration from Latin America, where three countries have expanded abortion rights in the past year. “The wave that started in Mexico, in Argentina, in Colombia, is catching fire in Africa,” said Tabitha Griffith Saoyo, a Kenyan lawyer working to expand reproductive rights. “There’s room for Africa to lead… to show that…