Table of contents for 2022-11-15 in Mercury

THE independent panel of experts tasked to determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala farm scandal is expected to hand over their report to Parliament on Thursday. The panel was formed after the ATM submitted a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa. The move came after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal charge against Ramaphosa and former head of the Presidential Protection Unit, Wally Rhoode, for allegedly kidnapping and torturing five men and a woman to reveal where they had hidden millions in foreign currency stolen from the president’s farm. ATM leader Vuyo Zungula submitted the motion for the National Assembly to initiate a Section 89 inquiry into Ramaphosa’s removal on the grounds of serious violation of the Constitution or the…

A KOREAN shipping company is suing the South African Weather Service for not issuing a warning of severe weather in time. The bad weather resulted in the company’s vessel breaking loose from where it was moored at Durban harbour and colliding with another vessel. In papers issued in the Durban High Court, the Korea Shipping Corporation is claiming millions in damages, following the damage to both vessels. It was in 2017 when there was severe weather in the Port of Durban and the vessel, SM New York, broke free of her mooring at her berth at the container terminal. The other vessel, MSC Ines, also broke free of its mooring and the ships collided. The plaintiffs are Korea Shipping Corporation, the bareboat charterer of SM New York and the owner…

MATRIC pupils, who complained that there was a problem with a question on Maths Paper 2 which was written last week, say the exam papers should be properly checked before they are released for the exams. An apparent error in Maths Paper 2 has sparked an outcry as teachers and pupils allege something was wrong with question 5, which was a trigonometry question for seven marks. Sifiso Kubeka, a maths teacher in one of the top-performing schools in KwaZulu- Natal, Menzi High School in uMlazi, said he also found there was something wrong with the question. “Generally, the trigonometry question is easy. But many pupils were complaining, in fact all of them came to me about the question. But I heard that Umalusi will do something about it. I am…

An electric helicopter with multiple rotors took its first flight in conventional air traffic near Paris last week as it prepares for commercial flights from 2024. The Volocopter test aircraft – resembling a large drone with eight rotors – took off with a passenger on board from the Pontoise-Cormeilles airfield outside Paris and circled around while other aircraft were in the vicinity. German company Volocopter CEO Dirk Hoke said that in the next 18 months it will prepare its craft for certification. He hopes to launch short commercial flights by 2024, when Paris holds the Summer Olympic Games. The company wants its two-seater aircraft to eventually take to the skies fully automated, with only passengers aboard, but says a lot of work is still needed in terms of infrastructure, airspace…

When I returned from Mecca in 1993, I felt so lucky that I had saved a $100 bill. Wow! I had paid a whopping 2.98 South African rand as an exchange rate per US dollar in those economically challenged times. I hid it straight away inside my single-ply choir mattress. (I had sold half my furniture and my Toyota Cressida – Automatic to pay for this “compulsory if affordable” pilgrimage to the Holy Land!). My cousin, who is a big-mouth attorney, however, warned me: “It’s a criminal act to hoard foreign exchange. You are supposed to return that bill to the country. It belongs to the Reserve Bank. And how can you already begin to start committing a new sin after asking for forgiveness abroad, eh?” I looked at him…

It is a terrible reality that KwaZulu-Natal has become synonymous with road carnage, with hardly a week going by without yet another horrific crash and the loss of multiple lives. In most cases, these incidents involve heavy vehicles or public transport vehicles. The question is: what is KZN’s Department of Transport doing to mitigate this? Sadly, it appears the answer is “not much”. In most cases, immediate intervention is not taken by the authorities, while trucks continue to use roads unsuitable for heavy vehicles and reckless driving without legal consequence has become the norm. It is no longer enough for MEC Sipho Hlomuka and his department to extend condolences to bereaved families. Nor is it enough to simply condemn those who place other road users lives at risk. The time…

Following the release of the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry report into racism at Stellenbosch University (SU), the university in partnership with Nelson Mandela University and Bath University will host a Race and Transformation in Higher Education Conference this week. The conference will take place from today until Thursday. The Khampepe Commission, led by retired Justice Sisi Khampepe, released its 184-page report last week. SU rector and vice-chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers requested the independent, external commission of inquiry following two incidents in May, with the commission formally commencing its work on June 13. SU said the conference would look at how race intersects with notions of class, gender, sexuality, language and other markers of difference to provide the basis for universities’ institutional culture and operations. Today’s keynote address by Bath…

AN IRANIAN refugee, 77, whose ordeal inspired the 2004 movie The Terminal died on Saturday inside the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he had lived for 18 years. Mehran Karimi Nasseri died at about noon of a heart attack, the Paris airport authority said. Nasseri was beloved by airport staff, who mourned his passing. “He was an iconic, charismatic character. There is a lot of emotion at the airport in the wake of his death.” The 2004 Steven Spielberg film, set at JFK International Airport in New York, starred Tom Hanks as an Eastern European man who gets stuck in the transit zone after a coup in his fictitious home country upends his legal status before he completes his father’s mission and then heads home. But Nasseri’s decades-long immigration…

Some police officers have to work in the dark and face the risk of attacks during load shedding as a total of 72 police stations across the country are without functioning emergency generators. This was revealed by Police Minister Bheki Cele when responding to written parliamentary questions from DA MP Okkie Terblanche. Terblanche wrote to Cele enquiring about the number of police stations in each province that were not equipped with emergency generators. He also wanted to know the impact this had on policing. Terblanche also enquired about the time frame set to equip all police stations with generators and physical access control measures. In his written response, Cele said a total of 72 fully fledged police stations were not equipped with emergency generators. His response showed that Gauteng had…

A LEGAL team has been established, composed of crime and civil litigation experts led by Lawyers for Human Rights and an Eastern Cape law firm to assist the families and survivors of the Enyobeni Tavern tragedy. South Africa was left grieving when 21 teenagers died during the tavern tragedy in June. The legal team will, in conjunction with the families and other stakeholders, decide whether to initiate litigation to ensure that justice is done, said Professor Lulama Ntshingwa of the South African Council of Churches in the Eastern Cape. The legal team is working with the South African Human Rights Commission and the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance in SA on preparations for leading evidence on behalf of the families. The families and survivors have also been given trauma counselling…

THE proposal by the Department of Basic Education that encourages schools to install unisex toilets fails to recognise that the priority for the majority of impoverished schools is to eliminate pit toilets. In an attempt to be more inclusive and move away from gender norms in order to accommodate transgender and non-binary children, the Education Department has made a controversial proposal that calls, among other things, for the building of “genderless or unisex toilets and change rooms”. The guidelines are not restricted to unisex toilets as they also seek to encourage teachers to avoid gender segregating, by splitting classes, lines, or groups into “boys and girls”. The department has also called for the provision of gender-neutral uniforms for all pupils who require them. There is no doubt that the proposals…

Britain and France yesterday signed an agreement worth 72.2 million euros over the coming year to ramp up efforts to stop illegal migrants from making perilous journeys across the Channel. So far this year more than 40 000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats, up from 28 526 last year, putting pressure on new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and interior minister Suella Braverman to do more to stem the flow. “This new arrangement will mean we can significantly increase the number of French gendarmes patrolling the beaches in northern France and ensure UK and French officers are working hand-in-hand to stop the people smugglers,” Braverman said, after meeting French interior minister Gerald Darmanin in Paris yesterday. Darmanin tweeted to say France and Britain were, with…

Ljubljana: Natasa Pirc Musar, a Slovenian lawyer who was hired by former US first lady Melania Trump in 2016 for a case, has been elected as Slovenia’s first female president. Musar will take office on December 23 when the second mandate of the incumbent President Borut Pahor expires. According to preliminary results, Musar received 54% of the ballots against 46% going to her rival Anze Logar, who is a former foreign minister and a member of the opposition centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party. Musar, 54, is a lawyer, former journalist and a former national information commissioner. She ran as an independent candidate but was in the second round supported by Prime Minister Robert Golob’s centre-left Freedom Movement and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democrats. In 2016, Musar and her…

Sydney: Rescuers plucked more than 100 people from their roofs yesterday after a flash flood swamped a small Australian town and sent residents scurrying for safety. A weekend downpour over much of the already-sodden eastern state of New South Wales sent waters rising overnight, isolating some towns and communities. Australia’s east coast has been swept by heavy rainfall in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina cycles. Many people in the town of Eugowra, with a population of about 800 people lying 350km west of Sydney, scrambled to their roofs to flee the latest flood. Stranded residents were taken to safety by boat and helicopter. | AFP…

PURPLE Group’s headline earnings a share fell by 74.3% to 1.14 cents in the year to August 31, after operating expenses increased 38.1% as it grew the business. The increase in overall costs was even though the cost to serve clients reduced by 16%. Group operating expenses came to R213 million. Chief executive Charles Savage said in a letter the costs included about R20m to integrate new partners such as Discovery Bank, Telkom and the new Southeast Asia partner. New clients onboarded were not yet profitable to the group, and accounted for around R31m of operating costs, while know your client (KYC) and associated onboarding costs, plus the consolidation of EasyCrypto, accounted for R9m of costs. All clients onboarded since launch in 2014 turned profitable in year two…

MATRIC pupils, who complained that there was a problem with a question on Maths Paper 2 which was written last week, say the exam papers should be properly checked before they are released for the exams. An apparent error in Maths Paper 2 has sparked an outcry as teachers and pupils allege something was wrong with question 5, which was a trigonometry question for seven marks. Sifiso Kubeka, a maths teacher in one of the top-performing schools in KwaZulu- Natal, Menzi High School in uMlazi, said he also found there was something wrong with the question. “Generally, the trigonometry question is easy. But many pupils were complaining, in fact all of them came to me about the question. But I heard that Umalusi will do something about it. I am…

THE independent panel of experts tasked to determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has a case to answer regarding the Phala Phala farm scandal is expected to hand over their report to Parliament on Thursday. The panel was formed after the ATM submitted a motion of no confidence against Ramaphosa. The move came after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal charge against Ramaphosa and former head of the Presidential Protection Unit, Wally Rhoode, for allegedly kidnapping and torturing five men and a woman to reveal where they had hidden millions in foreign currency stolen from the president’s farm. ATM leader Vuyo Zungula submitted the motion for the National Assembly to initiate a Section 89 inquiry into Ramaphosa’s removal on the grounds of serious violation of the Constitution or the…

In my years of ministry I’ve seen a lot of death and attended many funerals. I’ve ridden in the hearse, often for kilometres, and chatted with funeral directors about all sorts of things and then arrived at a graveside to help a mom and dad remain steady to drop farewell petals into graves. I’ve buried students. My students. Just out of high school. I’ve spoken at the memorials of a handful more where fellow clergy officiated. Very sadly, as the cliché goes, all of this comes with the territory, not of leading a congregation, but of being human. If you live in a community. If you know people. If you try, even a little to love people, you will walk some distance on this path. While each death, anticipated or…

The front-page headline and article in The Mercury (November 11) paints a frightening picture of the current situation this country finds itself in, taking into consideration the state of our economy and the limited tax base that currently exists and also taking into consideration this tax base is diminishing with the exodus of some of the high tax payers in this country. The current government debt at present is estimated at R4.7 trillion – this is indeed a frightening figure. What is more frightening, however, and not included in this estimate, is what the South African government owes China in loans. Why was this not also included? Why is there so much secrecy around how much the SA government owes to China? If this figure is then added to the…

Just a few days to go and Fifa’s showpiece, the 2022 Qatar World Cup, is embroiled in controversy. Human-rights activists are painting a gloomy picture of the oil-rich island’s human rights record. According to Amnesty International, Qatar used forced labour in the construction of the infrastructure for the global event. But foreign companies involved in the construction of World Cup amenities are also guilty. A French construction company has been charged with using forced migrant labour in Qatar. The Guardian reported that as many as 6 500 migrant workers had died on the sites. Another bone of contention is the freedom of women. Although not as severe as Iran, women’s freedom of movement, the issue of marriage, child custody and inheritance are restricted to a certain extent in Qatar. But…

Guinness World Records has named South Africa as the world record holder for the longest parade of hearses by knocking out the Netherlands which held the record for 10 years. In a statement, Funerex Africa, a trade expo for the funeral industry on the African continent, said it was recently notified that they had broken the Guinness World Record for the largest parade of hearses, with a 122-strong procession of hearses. A statement issued on March 17 said hearses of every shape and size lined up on the 4.522km Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Midrand in an attempt to break the previously held record of 107 hearses, set by the Netherlands in 2012. Rachel Stead, Funerex Africa and FuneralCar CEO and founder, said leading up to the expo, the funeral…

FOR football fans across South Africa, the words “World Cup” conjure images of the 2010 Fifa World Cup and the dazzle of skill and flair. As the 2022 Federation of International Football Association’s (Fifa) World Cup is just a week away, no one doubts football can be a route to achieving goals. But it’s been 12 years since South Africa hosted the prestigious tournament. This begs the question: what has the country gained? The 2022 World Cup will take place in Qatar from November 20 to December 18. On numerous fronts, the question of a Fifa World Cup legacy is a pertinent one, especially considering the amount of money spent on hosting one. With the hosting of the 2010 showpiece, the government promised the people that social and…

US President Joe Biden yesterday told Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping they were both responsible for preventing their superpower competition from turning into conflict, in rare talks aimed at thawing ties that are at their worst in decades. Ahead of their first in-person talks since Biden became president, the two leaders smiled and shook hands warmly in front of their national flags at a luxury hotel on Indonesia’s Bali island, a day before a Group of 20 (G20) summit set to be fraught with tension over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “It’s just great to see you,” Biden told Xi, as he put an arm around him, before a meeting of three hours. However, Biden brought up a number of difficult topics, according to a White House readout, including raising US objections…

The main opposition parties in the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland say they will no longer recognise the territory’s president after elections were postponed and his term extended. President Muse Bihi Abdi’s term of office has been extended to 2024 by the Guurti, a non-elected gathering of elders drawn from traditional tribes that is also the upper house of parliament. Elections should have taken place on Sunday, a month before Bihi was due to leave office, but were postponed by Somaliland’s electoral commission in September. The two parties, Waddani and the Justice and Welfare Party (UCID), urged supporters to show “restraint and calm”. The move has not been recognised by the international community. The Guurti announced on October 1 that Bihi’s tenure would be extended, despite opposition parties warning they…

Democrats in the US Congress aim to pass bills protecting same-sex marriage, clarifying lawmakers’ role in certifying presidential elections and raising the nation’s debt ceiling as they returned from the campaign trail yesterday. US President Joe Biden’s party got a boost at the weekend when it learnt it would keep control of the Senate for the next two years, while control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air as votes are counted after last week’s midterm election. But Democrats will look to make the most they can of their current thin majorities in both chambers before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, a period known as the “lame duck” session. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both signalled that addressing…

RICHMOND: Police were searching the University of Virginia campus and the area around the school yesterday for an “armed and dangerous” suspect who was wanted in a shooting that left three people dead and two wounded. University police identified student Christopher Darnell Jones as the suspect in the shooting that unfolded late on Sunday at the school in Charlottesville, Virginia, attended by 25 000 students. Yesterday, law enforcement teams conducted a search on and around the campus for the suspect, University of Virginia police said, telling students and staff to shelter in place until further notice. | Reuters…

A KOREAN shipping company is suing the South African Weather Service for not issuing a warning of severe weather in time. The bad weather resulted in the company’s vessel breaking loose from where it was moored at Durban harbour and colliding with another vessel. In papers issued in the Durban High Court, the Korea Shipping Corporation is claiming millions in damages, following the damage to both vessels. It was in 2017 when there was severe weather in the Port of Durban and the vessel, SM New York, broke free of her mooring at her berth at the container terminal. The other vessel, MSC Ines, also broke free of its mooring and the ships collided. The plaintiffs are Korea Shipping Corporation, the bareboat charterer of SM New York and the owner…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana has shot down a request to form a panel of experts to determine whether to increase the list of zero-rated food items. This comes after the DA made the request two months ago. The official opposition has been pushing for an extended basket of food items to be zero-rated from VAT and asked that the proposal be subjected to expert analysis. The DA proposed that the list should include chicken, beef, tin beef, margarine, peanuts, baby food, tea, coffee and soup powder. In September, Godongwana told the oral question session in the National Assembly that “if a proposal is ‘am I prepared to subject the items to an expert analysis, the answer will be yes’”. This prompted a DA MP to write to the minister asking…

IT WAS such a close thing at the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final between England and New Zealand, with the Kiwis winning 34-31 and England playing most of the match with only 14 players. Yet, why do so many of we fellows feel uncomfortable about women’s rugby? It’s not so with women’s football, which is very entertaining. Nor women’s cricket. Why do we flinch when we watch women’s rugby? Maybe it’s got something to do with the reason England had only 14 players for most of the game, winger Lydia Thompson having been sent off after a reckless tackle on Portia Woodman in the 18th minute. I don’t think it’s that we fellows are afraid of encountering rough stuff from the gals. I guess it’s – oh, let’s be honest…

The only way to describe the plunge into so-called renewable energy into which South Africa is being manoeuvred, is that it constitutes a reckless disregard for reality (Business Report, November 14). Besides the billions that this totally unnecessary direction will add to the existing and increasingly unserviceable debt, the blatant contradictions in the scheme expose the farce that it is. Development Bank of Southern Africa CEO Patrick Dlamini claims the “clear goal is to improve energy security because South Africa is suffering from climate change”. His assertions are absolute nonsense. In the first place, South Africa is not “suffering” from climate change because climate change is a natural, historical reality devoid of man’s influence. Dlamini’s projection that wind and solar energy will improve energy security is refuted by California and…

A hundred years ago, a pioneering surgeon was born. His name was Christiaan Barnard, a handsome surgeon who stunned the medical world by performing the first human heart transplant in 1967. His surgical skills were incomparable. He was an inspiration for many physicians and a trailblazer. A true giant among the top heart surgeons of the world. In his lifetime, Dr Barnard was renowned for his immense contributions to the progress of heart surgery. The global medical community honoured him profusely throughout his lifetime and he attained the status of a global film star.…

In the latest Infrastructure Report Card (IRC) by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice), the overall condition of South Africa’s infrastructure has scored a D. The scorecard is based on a five-point scale – A (world-class), B (fit for the future), C (satisfactory for now), D (at risk of failure), and E (unfit-for-purpose) – and features a snapshot of the current condition and performance of 32 sub-sectors of infrastructure. Saice said that 16 years ago, the first IRC gave South Africa’s infrastructure an overall grade of D+. By the 2011 report, it noted that the significant investments in new infrastructure for the 2010 Soccer World Cup had elevated the overall grade to C-. Now they say, the “poor attitude” to maintenance has resulted in a downturn, with South…

The eThekwini Municipality said 200 new metro police recruits joined the city this month, while a further 200 are expected to start early in 2023. Yesterday, the city said the new recruits would undergo a 10-week training programme. The city said the new recruits joined the metro police on November 1. “The new constables are part of the city’s long-standing commitment to increase police personnel to both improve the operational efficiencies at metro police and to ensure that the city is safer by beefing up police patrols,” it said. Steve Middleton, head of Durban metro police, said the 200 new recruits had started the peace officer 10-week training programme. “And we currently have approximately 500 trainees doing the one-year fully fledged constable course, which will be completed by June 30,…

UTHUKELA District Municipality in Ladysmith has revealed that it suspects its workers sabotaged its infrastructure, leaving thousands of people without water for days, in order to force the municipality to approve overtime work. The community of Ezakheni Township outside Ladysmith were without water for several days after the valves that allow water to be pumped into the township and other suburbs were closed and vandalised. The vandalism of infrastructure came to light a few months ago. UThukela mayor Inkosi Ntandoyenkosi Shabalala said they suspected that the vandalism was linked to demands for overtime. He warned that should it be confirmed that workers were behind the sabotage, they would face the consequences. In a brief virtual address to the media, Shabalala said: “The area of the Ezakheni had been without water…

‘It is indispensable for political parties of all countries to seek common ground’ ON THE occasion of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), the eyes of the world once again fall on China and the CPC. All communities in South Africa also paid great attention to this congress. A number of political leaders and dignitaries, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, former president Thabo Mbeki, former president Kgalema Motlanthe and the SACP’s general secretary Solly Mapaila have sent messages of support to warmly congratulate China on the success of the congress. They congratulated General Secretary Xi Jinping on his re-election and expressed readiness to deepen exchanges and co-operation with the CPC. This fully reflects the special bond of comrades plus brothers and the high level of China-South Africa’s…

Türkiye yesterday accused a Syrian woman of planting a bomb that killed six people in Istanbul, blaming the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of carrying out the attack. Two girls, aged nine and 15, were among those killed when the bomb exploded on Sunday in Istiklal Avenue, home to smart boutiques and European consulates. More than 80 other people were wounded. The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, has waged a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in south-eastern Türkiye since the 1980s. It denied any role in the latest attack. “Our people and the democratic public know closely that we are not related to this incident, that we will not directly target civilians and that we do not accept actions targeting civilians,” the…

WILMINGTON: A trial opened yesterday over shareholder allegations that Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package was rigged with easy performance targets and that investors were duped into approving it, with Musk slated to take the stand later this week. A Tesla shareholder hopes to prove during the five-day trial that Musk used his dominance over the electric vehicle maker’s board to dictate terms of the 2018 package, which did not even require him to work at Tesla full-time. Tesla’s directors argue that the pay package aimed to ensure Musk guided Tesla through a critical period. | Reuters…

BAGHDAD: At least one person was killed and 10 others were wounded yesterday after rockets hit the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish party in the city of Koye, near the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region Erbil. Iran’s semi-official Fars news said the country’s Revolutionary Guards had targeted the bases of “terrorist groups” in the Kurdish region of Iraq with missiles and drones. The Revolutionary Guards have launched attacks on Iranian Kurdish militant opposition bases in the Kurdish region since the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 triggered nationwide unrest. | Reuters…