Table of contents for 2022-08-01 in Mercury

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s energy plan got a passive nod from the ANC’s policy conference while a resolution to continue with the use of coal as the bedrock of the energy mix received a resounding response. However, the governing party also spoke of sticking to commitments made at COP 27 on a Just Transition programme that had received at least $8 billion in an endowment. Briefing the media at the weekend, ANC head of transformation and Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said the retirement of coal should be “at a pace and scale the country could afford”, which explained why Mineral Reources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was adamant that the abundant supply of the coal resource would be a folly to let go of. “There is a strong feeling…

SOUTH Africa’s immigration system and laws need an overhaul, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and State Security Deputy Minister Zizi Kodwa have said. This follows a rise in tension between locals and foreign nationals in several communities, with the main issue being unhappiness about undocumented immigrants taking up jobs and others being implicated in crimes. In the most recent incident, illegal miners, who are believed to be foreign nationals, allegedly raped eight women while they were shooting a music video near a mining dump in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg. Discussions on policies, including immigration, were expected to take place at the ANC’s 6th National Policy Conference at Nasrec. Calling for an overhaul of South Africa’s immigration system, Motsoaledi said he had presented a document on the matter via…

I am very curious to know what eThekwini Municipality procurement policies are in respect of renting office space for elected ward councillors. It beggars belief that people are expected to work from their dining room tables. Sadly, the cynic in me makes me wonder if the landlords have not offered a brown envelope to the relevant inspectors to ease the passage of approval. Given that this sort of modus operandi is like a cancer, it sounds fairly plausible. A friend has years of unpaid rental from the council, who refuse to offset his electricity bill, which confirms that accepted business morals are completely absent in our municipality.…

HOW do you face Mondays? I hope you know you have a choice in the matter. It is up to you if it’s going to be a blue Monday or a beautiful Monday. It’ll be blue if you see the people around you as a hindrance or as obstacles to your happiness. They are certainly not. It’ll be blue if you see your work as a hardship to endure. It’s probably not. It’ll be a really blue Monday if you carry a load of resentments and grudges and anger from last week or from years ago into the week. It’ll be a blue Monday full of harsh surprises if you feel the world owes you something. It doesn’t. Your Monday and your week and, in fact, your entire life will…

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) said while it was pleased that justice had been served in the Tshegofatso Pule murder case, it was concerned about how long it took the courts to finalise gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) cases. On Friday, Acting Judge Stuart Wilson sentenced Ntuthuko Shoba to life imprisonment for being the mastermind behind the June 2020 murder of the heavily pregnant Pule and her unborn child. Shoba, who was engaged to another woman and had been having an affair with Pule, hired Muzikayise Malephane to kill Pule. “The life sentence handed to Ntuthuko Shoba for the murder of Tshegofatso Pule is a welcome step that signals the willingness of the judicial system to combat GBVF,” said the CGE. The commission said although it was pleased that…

DA and allies don’t have right formula for successful partnerships LET us not mince words. The new coalition agreement signed in the Nelson Mandela Bay to unseat the ANC-led government is doomed to fail. Pointing this out now is essential, given its anticipated significance as a precursor to whispered similar agreements currently under negotiation in various municipalities across the country. The odds that it will improve governance and service delivery and attract more than a token amount of support from the public, not to mention political elites that have long strangled this and other local municipalities in the past 10 years, are slim to none. It will wither on the vine as the latest in a long history of vanity multiparty coalition agreements. The parties involved are the DA, the…

Conakry: Fresh clashes between Guinea’s security forces and protesters unhappy with plans for transitioning back to democracy left one person dead in the capital, authorities said, although the protest organisers put the death toll at four. The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution said the clashes at the weekend had left “four dead and several wounded by bullets, with five being between life and death”. In addition, four journalists were “attacked by protesters” on Friday, a local press union said, strongly condemning the acts. Guinea’s ruling junta took power in a coup last September. |…

VATICAN: Pope Francis said on Saturday he needed to slow down, telling reporters on board the papal plane after a six-day Canada trip he could no longer maintain his hectic international schedule – while acknowledging he could also retire. “I don’t think I can go at the same pace as I used to travel,” the 85-year-old pope, who relies on a wheelchair, told reporters. “I think that at my age and with this (knee) limitation, I have to save myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church. Or, alternatively, to think about the possibility of stepping aside.” In 2014, a year into his papacy, Francis said if his health got in the way of his functions as pope he would consider stepping down. The comments come after…

Pushback by some against this decision, fearing it could hobble party’s political mandate South Africa’s governing party, the ANC, has reaffirmed its commitment to allow for greater private sector participation in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in a bid to attract investment and boost economic growth. However, some within the ANC tried to push back against this, fearing it could encroach on the party’s political mandate to advance the state’s developmental agenda. But this ideological wrangling could possibly rub the wrong way with some within the government, who are pushing for the disposal of underperforming SOEs that continue draining the fiscus. Closing the ANC’s 6th National Policy Conference yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the delegates discussed the respective and complementary roles that both the public and private sectors should play in the…

The current era of social networking began with MySpace which enabled the creation of communities. Facebook scaled it to a global community and now the big blue is redesigning again. This redesign which is partly influenced by the TikTok design of short videos is the subject of a challenge by Kylie Jenner and her famous family members. For now it seems they are winning the battle for the current Facebook design. But the reality is completely different. It’s not the first time Facebook is being challenged for changing its design. Ever since the platform has existed, every change of its website or app infuriates some and excites others. The backlash, however, has never really stopped Facebook from pushing ahead. Mark Zuckerberg will find another way of achieving his objective of…

DEPUTY mayor Philani Mavundla says the eThekwini Municipality is on the verge of striking a deal with taxi operators that will see the GO!Durban project finally taking off after years of delays. Speaking of the negotiations in a recent council meeting, Mavundla said he believed there was finally “light at the end of the tunnel”. The city has been embroiled in protracted and fraught negotiations with taxi operators whose livelihoods would be affected by the GO!Durban project that could obliterate part of their business. One of the main contentious issues is who will own the buses that will operate these routes. The Mercury has previously reported that the taxi operators want control, while the city, which will buy the buses, also wants control of them. The operators have argued that…

A small city in southern Brazil has found a way to attract more homeless people to one of its shelters on chilly winter nights: they now also take in people’s pets. Canoas – a city with an estimated population of 348 000 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul – came to the realisation that many people living on the streets avoided staying at the city’s 14 shelters during the winter because their pets were not welcome, said the city’s animal welfare special secretary, Fabiane Tomazi Borba. “Many times, they prefer not to stay in a shelter, so as not to abandon their pets,” the animal care specialist said. Homeless people and their pets can now sleep under a roof and find shelter from the low temperatures at the…

The Farnborough Airshow ended on July 22. It made a four-year comeback due to Covid-19. Indeed, it showcased man’s progress in aviation over a 100-year period. The invention of the airplane shook the planet and it never looked the same again. Airborne powered flight enhanced our power of movement and gave us the awesome vision to observe the earth from high altitudes. From 1908 to 2022, man has traversed the skies above and sent his aerial machines into the cosmos and to our vast planetary neighbours clocking millions of kilometres. Today and every day the ability to travel anywhere has opened up a level of globalisation unheard of in the previous century. Space flights became a reality as a result of the aeroplane invention over 114 years ago, since then…

The Commonwealth Games are in full swing in Birmingham, England. I’m sure all of us wish our athletes well, whether they are sprinting, hurdling, high-jumping or whacking them in the boxing ring. The Games are a wonderful drawing together of societies which make up a significant proportion of the world’s population; a wonderful drawing together of a huge medley of ethnicities and cultures, yet with some overriding common values that can be summed up as playing the game and being true sportsmen and women. We look forward to the day when the traditional South African field sport of bokdrolspoeg – spitting buck droppings from a mouthful of mampoer – gets recognised as a Commonwealth Games sport, binding together these disparate nations of the world. Also bok-bok, with its exhilarating flying…

The delicate balance of South Africa’s ecosystem is reaching a tipping point following an increase in biodiversity crimes. From the smuggling of endangered plant species, to illegal wildlife trade, biodiversity crimes are said to be posing a severe threat to much of South Africa’s unique natural heritage. According to CapeNature, over a period of five years, 233 biodiversity criminal dockets were registered and 434 J534s (admission of guilt fines) were issued, with cases involving succulent plants seeing an increase of 14 to 66 cases from 2020 to 2022 so far. The culprits, according to the organisation, are individuals who do research without permits and the rise in syndicates with the groups funding the travel of recruiters to South Africa to collect certain species of plants or animals. CapeNature enforcement specialist…

Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said child malnutrition and hunger have reached crisis levels in South Africa due to food insecurity and vulnerability. Zulu made the statement when she was responding in writing to DA MP Alexandra Abrahams following a media report that at least 199 children under the age of five had died of malnutrition in the first two months of this year. In her response, Zulu said various factors had had a severe impact on child nutrition, thus contributing to heightened malnutrition. “Yes, child malnutrition and hunger have reached crisis levels in the republic,” she said. Zulu said the situation could be attributed to key drivers of food insecurity and vulnerability such as economic decline and unemployment, outbreak of Covid-19, food price inflation as well as climate change…

WOMEN continue to bear the brunt of a dysfunctional society in South Africa. The latest incident on Thursday night – in which about eight women were brutally attacked and raped repeatedly by a group of men at an abandoned mine in the west of Johannesburg – has shocked the nation. Police Minister Bheki Cele said besides the 67 people who were arrested – two died after exchanging fire with the police – about 17 more were arrested and would appear in court today. While the scale of the latest attack has left South Africans reeling, it is nothing new in a country plagued by gender-based violence (GBV). The latest quarterly crime statistics showed that January, February and March were especially brutal for women and children. Murder, attempted murder and assault…

Supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr who penetrated Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone to occupy parliament say they have no plans to leave. In a deepening political crisis, Sadr supporters forced their way into the legislative chamber on Saturday for the second time in weeks and only months after elections that failed to lead to formation of a government. “The demonstrators announce a sit-in until further notice,” Sadr’s movement said in a brief statement to journalists carried by state news agency INA. Supporters of Sadr, who once led a militia against US and Iraqi government forces, oppose the recently announced candidacy of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a pro-Iran bloc’s pick for prime minister. “We don’t want Mr Sudani,” said one protester, Sattar al-Aliawi, 47, in the parliamentary gardens. The civil…

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined a draft referendum question in a bid to change the constitution to set up an indigenous representative body in parliament. Australia’s constitution does not recognise indigenous peoples, and the move to enshrine a consultative body to advise the government on decisions that would impact the marginalised group would require a nationwide referendum. Speaking on Saturday at an indigenous festival in Arnhem Land – home to a majority indigenous population – centre-left leader Albanese proposed a draft referendum question to the Australian public: “Do you support an alteration to the Constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?” Albanese, who was elected in May, had promised a referendum vote to be held before the end of his term in 2025. He also recommitted…

ESKOM’s revival plans, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa, sound positive. It now depends on whether they can or will be implemented without being sabotaged by obstructive staff or delayed by departmental bureaucracy. Cosatu has raised concerns at the suggestion that numerous additional former engineers (including whites) could be employed to assist in the revival plan, because – they say – Eskom has many qualified black engineers. Nobody has queried the continued employment of all the qualified black engineers. It is, however, an obvious fact that, in spite of their input, Eskom has still not been able to overcome its shortfalls. The need to supplement the input by knowledgeable qualified additional staff is obvious. It has been estimated that with the recent stage 6 load shedding, R700 million per day…

Anthony Starkey’s latest assertion that it is “absurd to believe the US election of 2020 was fraudulent” and that Joe Biden was unquestionably the winner (The Mercury, July 30) is running out of road. Since February 2021 – when Time Magazine acknowledged that “a cabal of powerful people across a range of industries” collaborated to “shape the election outcome in the interests of democracy” – evidence has been dripping out confirming instances of election fraud. That is why in a recent US Rasmussen poll, 83% rated election fraud as their second major concern after spiralling inflation. Nonetheless, the bullhorns of the mass media have continued to insist that the 2020 election was the “most secure ever”. Dissent from that narrative was censured and banned by Big Tech platforms, thereby violating…

A recent two-day oversight of nine eThekwini community halls housing flood victims has exposed that the slow delivery of temporary housing and appalling living conditions are not the only problems being faced. The visits also revealed that many people are currently being housed far from their workplaces and schools and are having to spend huge sums on transport. In addition, they are extremely frustrated with the lack of communication from the government as to how long they will have to wait before receiving temporary housing. This includes no clear information or understanding as to how officials decide who will be housed first – or last – and the criteria used to decide this. In one hall visited by the DA, a disabled man was left to wait while an able-bodied…

Political parties in KwaDukuza Municipality are at each other’s throats following the collapse of the council meeting meant to unseat the mayor of the municipality. The meeting degenerated into a shouting match with clashes between councillors last Thursday. The ANC has accused opposition parties, that include ActionSA, the Independent Alliance (IA) and the IFP, of having armed supporters in the council meeting. ActionSA was meant to table a motion of no confidence against the mayor, deputy mayor and the speaker. However, the motion was not tabled as the meeting collapsed. The meeting descended into chaos while the council was discussing another matter. DA KwaDukuza councillor Tammy Colley expressed disappointment at how the meeting had collapsed. “The meeting degenerated into chaos after the council speaker, Councillor Dolly Govender, attempted to gerrymander…

SPARE a thought for the estimated 3.47 million children aged between 0 and 19 years living with HIV worldwide last year. They constitute just under 10% of the global children population of 38.4 million living with the disease. About 160 000 new paediatric HIV infections in the 0 to 9 age group occurred last year, bringing the total number of children living with HIV to 1.26 million. The tragedy is that nearly 86% of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially southern Africa. If you add the 10 to 19 cohort, then the total figure for new paediatric and adolescent infections alone rises to 530 000 infections last year. South Africa, with the highest incidence of HIV in the world, has made steady progress in its response, albeit largely…

San Cristobal: Venezuela and Colombia will re-establish diplomatic relations at an ambassadorial level when leftist president-elect Gustavo Petro takes office in Bogota on August 7, representatives of the South American neighbouring nations said. Relations between the two countries were broken in 2019 after Colombian President Ivan Duque refused to recognise the re-election of his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro. Colombia was one of around 60 countries to do so, having rejected Venezuela’s 2018 presidential election that was boycotted by the opposition. |…

Russia said it had invited UN and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Moscow-backed separatists. Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile strike or explosion on Friday that appeared to have killed dozens of prisoners in the front-line town of Olenivka in eastern Donetsk. A senior official in Russian- annexed Crimea accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet headquarters on Saturday a day before celebrations to mark Russia’s Navy Day. Five people were injured and the festivities there were cancelled. The accusation came hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to oversee Navy Day celebrations in his hometown of St Petersburg and approve Russia’s naval doctrine. Putin said yesterday that the…

The stellar achievements of Banyana Banyana has raised the bar for South Africa's national football teams and Bafana Bafana were the first to feel the pressure to grind out a match-winning performance. On Saturday, South Africa were held to a goalless draw by the Comoros Islands in their first-round, second-leg African Nations Championship (CHAN) match at Dobsonville Stadium, Soweto. However, the stalemate did not prevent South Africa from advancing to the final round of qualifying after their 1-0 first-leg win secured an aggregate win. South Africa will meet Angola in the next round, who eliminated Mauritius with a 2-0 aggregate win over the weekend. The final round of qualifying will also be played over two legs. South Africa will play in Angola at the end of August and the return…