Table of contents for 2022-10-07 in Mercury

THE price of petrol in South Africa could remain above R20 a litre for a prolonged period as the global oil supply is set to contract by a significant margin in November. This comes as Opec and its allies (Opec+) agreed on Wednesday to further tighten global crude supply. Opec+ agreed to a deal to reduce oil production by about 2 million barrels per day beginning in November, the largest reduction since 2020. The move is designed to shore up a recovery in oil prices, which had fallen to roughly $80 (R1 420) a barrel from more than $120 per barrel three months ago. As a direct result of the Opec+ decision, the price of Brent crude oil rose above $93 per barrel yesterday having rallied about 10% so…

EMBATTLED parastatal Transnet yesterday outlined its progress to fix its rail and logistics lines for the mining industry and said it has increased its transport of commodities despite unprecedented disruptions related to natural disasters. Recently, a host of companies in the mining industry, and other sectors blamed it for their financial losses due to its inefficiencies in supply chain infrastructure, railway network, cargo trains, and ports. Transnet Ports Terminals yesterday evening declared force majeur due to the current strike. Transnet said the main impediments to rail capacity were the rampant theft and vandalism of infrastructure and equipment, a shortage of locomotives due to the refusal of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to sell spares to Transnet over the last two years, deteriorating infrastructure, and reduced income as a direct result of…

IT’S A TOUGH time for entrepre- neurs, between interest rate hikes affecting the bottom line and eating into cash flow and fuel price hikes that push the costs of doing business even higher. Add inflation, skills shortages, load shedding, and the onerous administration that’s synonymous with running a small or medium enterprise (SME) in South Africa, and it’s easy to see why the country’s emerging companies need all the support they can get. Business owners need to consider the impact that future interest rate hikes will have on their business, the knock-on effect on their ability to service their debt, and find ways to stay sustainable. Working capital management is a crucial focus for small business leaders during this time when macro-economical factors make for a complex operating environment, with…

There were disruptions at Durban and Richards Bay ports and to train operations north of Durban yesterday as some Transnet workers embarked on a strike. The strike comes after wage negotiations between Transnet and the United National Transport Union (Untu) and the South African Transport Workers’ Union (Satawu) deadlocked. While Untu said it was embarking on a protected strike, Transnet said it believed the strike was unprotected. Satawu said it had served Transnet with a 48-hour notice and planned for workers to start striking on Monday, According to the Durban metro police, access to the Durban port was blocked by striking workers yesterday morning, but police dispersed the workers and the route was reopened. In Richards Bay, uMhlathuze Municipality ward 2 councillor Christo Botha said striking workers tried to block…

So we want to get rid of one Eskom board and replace it with another. How many times will this be done? Let’s look at some numbers for a change. Population of South Africa in 1994 = 40.561 million. Population of South Africa in 2022 = 60.6 million. That is an increase of 20.039 million over 28 years which averages 715 678.57 per annum. The increases put more strain on the system and in all theory, the system should be increased to deal with this. However, has anything been done? Regardless of who was in charge, nobody looked at the elephant in the room. Promises are made but never carried out. Once upon a time South Africa had a very efficient railway system, but what has happened to it? Now,…

The unprovoked attack on Mr Reddy, leader of African Democratic Change (ADeC) by one T Markandan, “Why did seasoned politician help ANC?”(The Mercury, October 4) begs a response. I have followed Reddy since he entered politics through the Minority Front and can say, without a shadow of doubt, that he is an exemplary leader. I have yet to find another like him who walks the talk. Reddy correctly pointed out his role in fighting exorbitant fuel prices in this country (The Mercury, October 5). He was a lone voice, speaking out for South Africans when fuel prices hit the roof. He led marches throughout the country, held meetings with senior officials and made intelligent proposals that not many even thought of. During the riots and looting, Reddy was on the…

Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that thrived during the age of dinosaurs, achieved great size – some with wingspans like a fighter jet – and displayed striking anatomy, including exotic head crests and a hugely elongated finger to support their wings. While the ancestry and early evolution of these creatures have long puzzled scientists, a fresh examination of remains found in Scotland of a small reptile that lived about 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period is helping to shed light on the humble origins of pterosaurs, researchers said this week. They found that the reptile, called Scleromochlus taylori, is a close cousin of pterosaurs. It is a member of a group called lagerpetids, considered the nearest relatives of pterosaurs. Though not a direct ancestor, the researchers said Scleromochlus may…

Flood victim Nosipho Mtshali, who lost her home in the April floods and is staying at the Royal Hotel in Durban, says her ultimate dream is to be moved back to her community. Mtshali, who has a disability, was one of more than 50 people who were moved to a building earmarked for temporary emergency accommodation on Sunday in Reservoir Hills after they had stayed at the Truro Hall in Westville for five months. The flood victims’ homes in Reservoir Hills were destroyed in the floods. When the emergency accommodation plan fell through due to a dispute between the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and the landlord of the building, the residents were moved to the Royal Hotel in Durban. According to Mtshali, they were told that they would be staying at…

Despite not being initially invited to speak or introduce Zulu King Misuzulu during his official meeting with Deputy President David Mabuza, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi eventually got the platform yesterday. According to an official order of proceedings sent to invited parties on Wednesday night, Buthelezi was not included at all. Instead, the king was to be introduced in a routine way by the acting premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Nomagugu Simelane. Thereafter, Mabuza would speak and the king would be given a platform to respond to the remarks and mark the end of the programme. But that would have been contrary to established protocol where Buthelezi in his capacity as the traditional prime minister of the monarch and the Zulu nation, always makes remarks and introduces the king to speak. Independent Media learnt…

Twelve officials in the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure are in hot water after they failed to subject themselves to lifestyle audits. This emerged in Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille’s response to parliamentary questions from IFP MP Sanele Zondo about the outcomes of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) lifestyle audits of senior officials in her department. Compulsory lifestyle audits for officials were introduced in April 2021. De Lille said the final report was being compiled for the Phase One SIU lifestyle audit project, which focused on senior management personnel such as the director-general, deputy directors-general, chief directors and chief financial officers. She said 66 of the department’s senior management personnel had been subjected to lifestyle audits. De Lille also said several people had been red-flagged and…

Pitch invasions and Qatar World Cup under the spotlight It is often said that modern football is all about money, greed and egos. Gone is the innocence of yesteryear when the football club was firmly embedded in local communities and values. Nostalgia like hindsight can be beguiling and expedient. In the modern game, talent seems often lost in translation, consumed by an obsession to win at any cost, driven by an unscrupulous club ownership structure of hedge fund managers, private equity purveyors, oligarchs, princes and wealthy businessmen, and a global, regional and national administrative aristocracy whose taxonomies are grossly unfit for purpose. The long shadow of commercialisation which is pricing swathes of fans out of watching their clubs, let alone the overpriced and poor-quality merchandise, the proliferation of sports betting…

ESKOM chief executive Andre de Ruyter yesterday announced that next Friday the parastatal is set to sign some land lease agreements to renewable power producers as part of its turn-around strategy. Speaking at the Joburg Indaba yesterday, De Ruyter said there were a couple of other things Eskom has launched. “We are leasing land, close to our power stations with grid access. We were delighted by the first responders, and we will be signing those agreements on the October 14, that’s about 2 000 megawatts. It was three times oversubscribed, by highly capable investors.“ “Why do we lease the land? Why don’t we sell the land? Because we want to retain control. If you don’t use the land to erect renewable generation capacity. We want to kick you…

A DECLINE in the household financial resilience in the second quarter is cause for concern considering the rise in gross domestic product (GDP) over the period, the Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index (AFHRI) released yesterday showed. It reveals consumers were less able to take on credit in spite of an improving economy over the period. The latest quarterly reading of 109.2 points is marginally lower than 109.9 points in the first quarter of 2022, but 1.3% lower than a year ago. “The quarter-on-quarter decline of 0.6% in index value is a cause for concern, as this is substantially worse than GDP, which increased almost 4% in real terms between the first and second quarters, deflated of course by the consumer price index,” said the compiler of the index,…

DISCOVERY Bank has launched a share trading platform in partnership with EasyEquities. Clients can open a new EasyEquities account, or link an existing one, through the Discovery Bank app, with the aim of making investing in local and global brands and other asset classes simpler and more accessible. “The platform is transparent, easy-to-use and makes equity trading cost-effective and intuitive for all kinds of investors, from first-timers all the way through to seasoned traders,” Hylton Kallner, chief executive of Discovery Bank said yesterday. Discovery Bank clients can now buy, hold and sell shares on local and international stock exchanges and access a range of ETFs, ETNs, as well as cryptocurrency. Clients were able to transfer funds between their Discovery Bank accounts and their EasyEquities ZAR account in real time, at…

One of the greatest casualties of moving out of a reasonably-sized, free-standing house to a high-rise apartment is memories. Photo albums collected over donkey’s years. Thousands of pictures. Black and white poses of great-granny and greater-grandfather. Pictures rang ing from Adam’s days in the Garden. Colour photos of our babies. Birthday parties. School awards. Graduation. Sports honours. Overseas holidays. All priceless albums. Only one small problem: There’s no space available after tearfully moving out of that “mansion” to the next down-sized, first-step to the final destination, two-roomed, minuscule apartment. A smart friend with an equally smart phone would advise, without even being asked: “Download all those tiny treasures into tinier electronics micro data!” And I consider this advice silently as the dumbest council since creation. I know that is the…

THE world begins to look increasingly topsy-turvy. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin “annexes” parts of Ukraine where Ukrainian forces appear to be steadily driving the Russians back. The Ukrainian government claims that thousands of Russians have contacted a “surrender hotline” it has set up. This is according to Sky News. And a book just published in America makes all kinds of extraordinary claims about the presidency of Donald Trump, including that he routinely tore up official documents and flushed them down the toilet. It’s not clear from this BBC account whether in her book, Confidence Man, New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman explores Trump’s early description of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius” – something on which he seems lately to have gone rather quiet. Included in what Haberman does cover…

No one is healthy and highly functional all of the time. It’s a sign of health and wellness to recognise when you are not doing well and you allow yourself a little room to recover and to mend. That’s what weekends are for. Most people have a tough time learning from their mistakes and sometimes it takes a few similar errors and a lot of pain – and sometimes expense – before we get the message and resist making the same mistakes again and again. Learn from your pain, it is worth it. The healthiest people and families are low functioning in some ways and at some times. The lowest functioning people and families are highly functioning in some ways and at some times. Embrace who you are. Grief is…

WORK on fixing some of eThekwini Municipality’s infrastructure ravaged by the April storms is about to start after the city received R184 million in funding from the National Treasury. Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda announced the receipt of the funds during a joint media briefing with the business community at the Durban City Hall yesterday. The briefing was attended by city manager Musa Mbhele, the president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Prasheen Maharaj, chairperson of the DCCI Tourism Forum Samantha Croft, and the DCCI chief executive, Palesa Phili. The briefing was meant to showcase the partnership between government and business, with the two parties calling for a joint approach in tackling the city’s challenges. “We are happy to announce that work to repair the sanitation infrastructure is about…

Cigarette smokers and vapers are set to face tougher restrictions as government is pressing ahead with new legislation that includes a proposed ban on advertising and a 100% ban on smoking indoors. The Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill of 2018 was given the green light for submission to Parliament last month and if the new bill comes into play, smoking indoors, in a car or at home in the presence of a non-smoker will be illegal. The bill is designed to address key areas relating to indoor public areas, display of tobacco products at point of sale, use of electronic devices and the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products. Should it be passed, smokers will have to be more considerate of non-smokers, and it will also…

Where did it go wrong with Mikhail Gorbachev after a wonderful contribution in his country and the countries the Soviet Union was assisting, especially in their liberation struggles? In supporting other countries, he was carrying on where his predecessors left off. In the eyes of many, all of Gorbachev’s predecessors were conservative. Maybe Nikita Khrushchev was better. That is, of course, in the eyes of the West, capitalists, imperialists, and reactionaries, retrogressive oppressors and their surrogates. One might have differed with the approach of the Eastern bloc, especially its leader, and the Soviet Union’s approach in international politics. But one needs to know that there was a Cold War. Both sides, West and East, had interests to protect. Those differences were centred on ideology, West (imperialism) and East (communism). Varied…

Edibles and inedibles aplenty for our shore anglers. There are finally some decent inedibles for those looking for a fight as well as plenty of fish of the edible variety. The north coast has seen the most of the inedible action with the areas around Richards Bay seeing the most activity. There have been some big diamonds and a good number of sharks hooked along the far north. All these fish can be targeted using an FMJ trace and a 9/0-10/0 circle hook. Big fleshy baits with a lot of smell is the way to go. The central coast has not seen as much fishing for the same reason as the offshore fishing. That being said, some have gone against the laws and/or advice and have caught fish in the…

TRANSNET is taking a hard line on the strike begun by majority labour, the United National Transport Union (Untu), yesterday, as it is expected today to meet with both unions over picketing rules of the protest expected to escalate on Monday, when the South African Transport Workers Union (Satawu) enters the fray. Addressing delegates at the Mining Indaba in Johannesburg yesterday, chief executive Portia Derby insisted that the strike was protected and that Untu in particular had not adhered to all requirements legitimising its rights to strike after negotiations started in May reached a stalemate. “It is an unfortunate moment for the rest of our workers in particular, because as you know, if you are in this room and you are a black person, or there is a black woman…

PAN AFRICAN Resources has closed its R50 million cash deal to acquire Mogale Gold and Mintails SA Soweto Cluster, both of which are 100% owned by Mintails Mining SA, a company that was placed in provisional liquidation in 2018. Pan African did a feasibility study on the Mogale Gold tailings storage facilities and announced the results demonstrated “compelling economics and the potential to significantly increase group gold production – an increase in excess of 25% compared to current annual production – over an initial life of mine of 13 years. Re-mining of the MSC tailings storage facilities has the potential to add further production upside and extend the life of mine to 21 years. Pan African Resources had secured funding with FirstRand Bank, acting through its Rand Merchant…

DURBAN mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said eThekwini Municipality is standing firm on its decision not to privatise public transport and wants the buses under the GO!Durban banner to remain under the control of the city. Kaunda said the city could not outsource 100% of public transport. He reiterated the city’s stance on the matter during a media briefing yesterday on the work being done by the city to address the myriad challenges that had disrupted service delivery. “On the issue of GO!Durban, we are working hard to expedite these negotiations (with taxi operators), but our position remains clear, we cannot outsource 100% of public transport. We want to remain with 51% and the other sector must remain with 49%,” said Kaunda. The municipality is at loggerheads with the taxi operators on…

A DURBAN pensioner has questioned the logic behind the SA Revenue Service’s (Sars) decision to impose a further tax on pensioners, and has described the latest move by the revenue service as cold and inhumane. Dr Ben Singh was one of many former government employees who made their way to the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) offices this week to question the massive cuts to their monthly stipends. A civil servant for more than 40 years, Singh said he was shocked when he saw that more than a third of his pension income was gone last month. “When I went to the GEPF offices, it became evident that I was not the only one having such a problem, and what was more frustrating was the casual manner of the officials…

Cable theft is a major problem in our country. It negatively affects all aspects of our lives, and it must be stopped before it’s too late. The cable thieves or syndicates do not care about the impact of their bad deeds on South Africa. They are just hell-bent on destruction. They destroy infrastructure and leave communities in limbo. They vandalise and destroy electricity, rail, road, water, and sanitation infrastructure without taking into consideration the impact on the economy and the environment. Cable theft also has a negative effect on water resources. The vandalism and destruction of wastewater treatment plants renders the plants dysfunctional, leading to raw sewage flowing into and polluting our water resources. Pollution threatens the health of our rivers, streams, dams, wetlands and other ecosystems. It negatively…

The right to clean drinking water and sanitation is enshrined in our Constitution. Yet KwaZulu-Natal’s ANC-run government does not seem to support this basic human right. The current situation in eThekwini is a case in point, with residents left at the mercy of a government that does not care and which has left them drowning in sewage. This ongoing crisis is set to have an enormous impact on KZN’s already strained economy and job market. This, while the inability to put food on the table will result in a spike in crime – something we are already witnessing. Then there are the many KZN schoolchildren who walk miles and cross rivers to get to school as the government continues to fail them with proper transport. Daily exposure to dirty rivers…

NEW Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has given himself and the incoming executive less than 18 months to change the living conditions of people in the townships, informal settlements and apartheid-era hostels. Lesufi revealed his dramatic and ambitious plans minutes after he was elected as the premier of Gauteng in the provincial legislature yesterday following the resignation of David Makhura on Tuesday. He defeated the DA’s provincial leader, Solly Msimanga, by a huge margin. Lesufi secured 38 votes, while Msimanga only managed to secure 22 of the 73 seats in the legislature. Adding to Msimanga’s woes, one of the opposition parties voted for Lesufi to bring his number to 38, adding to the ANC’s 37 members who also voted for party’s provincial chairperson and long-serving MEC for Education. One opposition party…

South Africans can now download a spelling and hyphenation checker tool for 10 of South Africa’s official languages, excluding English. The spellchecker tool, which was developed by the Centre for Text Technology (CTexT) at North-West University, has been made available for the public to download free of charge from the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR). The spellchecker tool offers an extensive word list for Afrikaans, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, Sotho, Sesotho sa Leboa, Tswana, Venda and Tsonga. The project was funded by the Department of Science and Innovation as part of its South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap. CTexT head Dr Martin Puttkamer said the tool was developed by working in close collaboration with linguists at South African universities and the national language bodies. Puttkamer said: “We developed…

Cassidy Hartzenberg, the 18-year-old charged with the murder of his aunt magistrate Romay van Rooyen, made a second appearance in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court yesterday. He has also been charged with theft for allegedly stealing her vehicle. A relative found Van Rooyen, 50, dead in her home in Red Roman Street, Marina Da Gama, on September 10. She had reportedly been strangled. Hartzenberg was arrested in Mitchells Plain and Van Rooyen’s vehicle was recovered on Highland’s Road, Mitchells Plain. According to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila the accused abandoned his bail application. “The case has been postponed to 8 November 2022 for further investigation. The accused has been remanded in custody.” Last week police minister Bheki Cele attended the court proceedings. Cele said at the time that police…

The fraud trial of former MEC for Economic Development and Tourism in KwaZulu-Natal Mike Mabuyakhulu and others was postponed to January next year. Mabuyakhulu, and several others (persons and entities), face charges related to the North Sea Jazz Festival, which had been set to take place in Durban in 2012. At the time Mabuyakhulu was KZN MEC for Economic Development and Tourism. The accused appeared in the Durban High Court this week for a provisional hearing and new trial dates are expected to be set next year. The trial began last year and all of the accused have pleaded not guilty. Earlier this year, an attempt to have the matter struck from the roll failed. The application was made by one of the other accused in terms of Section…

I REFER to the article “Fuel prices falling, but food prices remain high”, Business Report, October 5. Other than the international price of oil and the rand/dollar exchange, the cost of fuel to me, as a layman, always seems to involve some sort of “smoke and mirrors” approach. One can only hope that someone in government isn’t siphoning funds from the sale of fuel. While the recent decrease in the petrol price is welcome, the increase in the diesel price is not. Does the food chain not depend almost entirely on diesel as fuel? From the farmers’ tractors to the lorries that transport both raw and processed food to markets, shops, etc to the generators needed at present to keep refrigerators operating, are almost entirely diesel-fuelled. With the recent adjustment…

SOUTHAMPTON’S biggest challenge, and maybe mission impossible, will be to keep Erling Haaland off the scoresheet when they visit Premier League champions Manchester City tomorrow. Short of slipping a sedative into the Norwegian goal machine's lasagne, prepared by dad Alf-Inge before the last three home games, the chances of Ralph Hasenhuttl's struggling team succeeding look slim. Unbeaten City have scored more goals than any team in Europe's leading five leagues this season and will go top if they win or draw, with leaders Arsenal hosting Liverpool on Sunday only a point clear with an inferior goal difference. Haaland has bagged 14 of City's 29 league goals - with hat-tricks in his last three home matches and more scoring records beckoning. "It's not just his numbers, it's the impact he's having…