Table of contents for 2023-04-28 in Mercury

THUNGELA Resources’ board has opted to maintain a large liquidity buffer in case of further impacts from South Africa’s crumbling rail and power infrastructure. The cash portion came to R5 billion following the R40 per share final dividend declared last month. In addition, the board decided to increase the overall liquidity buffer to R8.2bn through the securing of facilities amounting to R3.2bn, Sango Ntsaluba, chairperson of the thermal coal mining group said in the annual report released yesterday. “Four months into 2023, we are concerned by the challenges that abound, including Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) performance, softening of coal prices and volatility of coal demand worldwide,” he said, adding it was also clear coal prices could not be expected to be as strong this year as they were in 2022,…

The appointment of the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) chairperson rests solely with Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, who is empowered by the Constitution. Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza, confirmed this yesterday. The position of ITB chairperson has become a talking point recently, especially in political circles, with some questioning whether Inkosi Thanda Mzimela is in fact the chairperson while the long-standing chairperson Jerome Ngwenya is still around. The confusion over the position has prompted a meeting between King Misuzulu and the Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, which The Mercury has reliably learnt will take place in Ulundi today. Speaking to The Mercury, Ngcobo said there was no confusion on their part over the ITB chairperson as the law…

Come Mr Tallyman, tally me banana, Daylight come and me wanna go home … THE Banana Boat Song singer Harry Belafonte, America’s iconic jazz/calypso singer, has died at the remarkable age of 96. He lived through several eras in music. Now, our own musician David Marks, who these days lives (appropriately enough) at Banana Beach on the South Coast, brings us some fascinating information about the relationship between Belafonte and South African singers Miriam Makeba (The Click Song) and Jeremy Taylor (Ag Pleez Deddy). Belafonte heard Miriam Makeba singing in London in 1962. He took her back to the US, where she had previously appeared in King Kong on Broadway in 1961, for a series of concerts, including one at the legendary Carnegie Hall, and for an address…

AFTER reading former history tutor and teacher Thembile Ndabeni’s paean for Stalin for delivering development to Russia and bringing peace and liberation (The Mercury, April 25), there must be many readers awaiting his enlightened views on how good Hitler was as he built autobahns, developed oil from coal technology and gave the world the Volkswagen. While it is for every generation to review history, it needs to be recognised that when context and objectivity are ignored for the sake of advancing ideology, history becomes propaganda. Tyranny cannot be sanitised, which is what Ndabeni attempts to do. The murder of at least 30 million people, the brutal use of slave labour, the abolition of religion and the atmosphere of constant fear that was Stalin’s Russia, cannot be consigned to the sidelines…

A South African police officer has been recognised for her rescue efforts in Türkiye after the deadly earthquake that claimed thousands of lives earlier this year. Brigadier Vimla Moodley, head of the SAPS K9 unit that went to Türkiye, led a team of five sniffer dogs and their handlers. They were part of the 60-strong group, along with the Gift of the Givers, who volunteered their services to help when Türkiye made an international plea. Moodley spent nearly nine days in Türkiye with her team: Warrant Officer Tinalia Gouws, Warrant Officer Martin Bann, Warrant Officer Keagan Naidoo, Warrant Officer Len Willemse and Sergeant Jennifer Seleka. One of their remarkable feats was finding an 80-year-old Turkish woman alive in rubble, eight days after the earthquake. It was SAPS K9 dogs Donna…

Experts have predicted a mixed outlook for the fuel price for the month of May, with data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) indicating a decrease in the price of diesel but an increase in the petrol price. According to experts, a diesel price decrease would benefit the economy, while a minor fuel price increase could leave already battling consumers with less money in the pocket. Layton Beard, AA spokesperson, said unaudited data from CEF has indicated significant increases to the prices of both grades of petrol, pushing the prices above R23 for the first time this year. “According to the latest data from the CEF, ULP (unleaded petrol) 95 is expected to climb by around 52 cents a litre, and ULP93 by around 56 cents. The wholesale price of…

The dramatic eviction of refugees over the past few days outside the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Brooklyn, Pretoria, was marked by some tense stand-offs between police and foreign nationals. However, in the middle of all this chaos was a brave fighter for the marginalised, who stood her ground. She is Deborah Raduba, an attorney at the Land and Housing Programme of Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. Small in stature but with the heart of a lion, Deborah Raduba fought for the rights and dignity of those who have camped on the pavement since 2019. They were removed on Friday following a court order obtained by resident associations in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. The court order stated arrangements had been made for them to be taken…

East Africa’s worst drought in at least 40 years, which has displaced more than a million people and pushed millions more to the brink of famine, would not have happened if not for human-caused climate change, a network of extreme weather scientists said yesterday. Rising global temperatures – largely from burning fossil fuels – have disrupted the weather patterns that typically bring rainfall to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, the scientists found. Last autumn, the once-dependable rains failed for a record-setting fifth season in a row. Hotter conditions have also caused more moisture to evaporate from the landscape, desiccating croplands and causing millions of livestock to starve. With global temperatures about 1.2°C higher than the pre-industrial average, the scientists say, droughts like this one are 100 times more likely than they…

New York: Long-time US talk show host Jerry Springer, whose programme became a symbol of low brow television with its on-air fights, swearing and infidelity revelations, has died at the age of 79, US media reported yesterday. Springer, whose show became an international hit that ran for 27 years, died peacefully at his home in Chicago after “a brief illness”, a family spokesperson said. Springer had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago. In the late 1990s, The Jerry Springer Show topped the daytime television ratings in the US. | AFP…

LONDON: The British government yesterday succeeded in limiting the length of an upcoming strike by nurses, after the health department took legal action against a trade union over the dispute. The Royal College of Nursing had called a 48-hour strike from the evening of April 30, which for the first time would involve staff from emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempt. However, Britain’s health department said that industrial action on May 2 would be unlawful because a vote to strike is only valid for six months after a ballot of trade union members. | Reuters…

KYIV: Ukraine’s prime minister said yesterday he had invited Pope Francis to visit Ukraine and had asked for help in repatriating thousands of children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied land since Moscow’s invasion. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a news conference in Rome that he had held talks at the Vatican and discussed Kyiv’s peace formula to end the 14-month-old war. “We discussed the peace formula, and a potential path and assistance from his holiness and the Vatican,” Shmyhal said. Pope Francis, 86, has said previously that he wanted to visit Kyiv and also Moscow on a peace mission. | Reuters…

A TOP official from the office of the KwaZulu-Natal Premier will lead an investigation into the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), which has teetered on the brink of collapse. Addressing the community of uThukela District during the commemoration of Freedom Day yesterday, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said her office wanted to know what had gone wrong with the programme to avoid a similar occurrence in the future. “What we want to assure the public is that this leadership of the province is doing all it can to restore normality in this situation. We have assigned advocate Linda Zama to do a thorough investigation of what went wrong, where did this project derail so that we never make any similar mistake,” she said. She added that they would work with the Department…

Love is seeking another person’s highest good, every time, day in and day out. It’s holding nothing back if it’s in the highest interests of whomever you love. Love is being willing to be unpopular because some truth is tough to hear and receive. It is being willing to be corrected by the people you love when they think you are wrong or need correction. Love is finding legitimate ways to earn the extra money needed to protect, educate and serve the people you love. Love is thousands of loads of laundry for the baby and then, the toddler and a boy or girl. Thereafter, it’s teaching the teenager to do their own. Love is dealing with men and women who will tell you that you are a bad…

INNOCENT people are being massacred across the US heartland because an ambiguous outdated constitutional law empowers citizens to own guns. It is a sad reality, because politicians are beholden to the gun lobby. The latest racial murder has turned the US into the land of the deranged and the home of the fearful. Violence is now part of the American way of life. The US was conceived and nurtured by violence, they are entertained by it, with 200 million guns at their disposal. It was DH Lawrence who said: “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer.” In its relations with the outside world, the gun has become the drone, the bullet has become the cruise missile. With elections looming in 2024, prominent politicians are crawling…

ANC MPs have agreed that the re- established Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME), housed in the Presidency, will account to its own portfolio committee. ANC MPs were responding to a National Assembly proposal about the PME. Meanwhile, the rules committee will decide on whether Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramakgopa’s department should be treated as a normal programme or have a portfolio committee like other departments, according to National Assembly secretary Masibulele Xaso. The proposal is for the PME to answer to an oversight committee, Xaso said in his report to MPs. He tabled a presentation with proposals on the parliamentary management of recent Cabinet changes, which saw the announcement of an electricity ministry. “The information we have is that this ministry doesn’t yet have a budget, but draws…

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the decision by the government to allow United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and more than 600 people to land at Bhisho Airport in the Eastern Cape. The ruler, other members of the UAE royal family, staff and top artists who were to perform for the family to mark the end of Ramadaan, landed in the Eastern Cape last Wednesday on a runway he reportedly built with his money, without any security clearance. Motsoaledi said he is allowed to designate any place as a point of entry into the country if necessary. He said the assigned point of entry was legal, according to Section 9(a) of the Immigration Act. Motsoaledi confirmed that the UAE president arrived at the airport with…

TWO friends, believed to be 10 and 13, are presumed to have drowned after they got into difficulty while fishing in the uMdloti River near Mount Moreland, which falls under the eThekwini region, yesterday. Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) spokesperson Prem Balram said members of Rusa were still at the scene at 2.44pm. “It was established that a group of minors from Waterloo, KwaZulu-Natal, walked to the river and were fishing,” he said. He said the two friends decided to enter the water to cool off from the high temperatures. “While swimming, they experienced difficulty and disappeared under water. Their friends witnessed the incident and attempted to rescue them but were unsuccessful.” Balram said reaction officers were awaiting the arrival of the SAPS Search and Rescue Unit to recover the…

THE council in Tshwane eventually passed the 2022/2023 adjustment budget on Wednesday at a dramatic ordinary council sitting which saw EFF councillors staging a walk-out following a fallout with speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana. EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu was unimpressed with Ndzwanana’s decision to allow the council sitting at Tshwane House to continue beyond 5pm, denouncing it as keeping with “council principle”. Previously, Ndzwanana had adjourned a council sitting on account of a “standing principle” to end meetings at 5pm. This, despite protest from the multi- party coalition partners, including ActionSA, the DA, FF-plus, IFP and ACDP, that council never took such a resolution. On Wednesday, Ndzwanana found himself on a collision course with the EFF when he insisted the adjustment budget report be entertained after 5pm. He reasoned that deliberations…

The Sudanese army pounded paramilitaries in the capital Khartoum with air strikes yesterday while deadly fighting flared in Darfur, as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire entered its final hours. Ahead of the expiry of a three-day truce at midnight, the army said late on Wednesday that it had agreed to talks in neighbouring South Sudan on extending it “at the initiative of IGAD”, the East African regional bloc. There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed. The fighting has continued despite the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday, with warplanes patrolling the skies over the capital’s northern…

A Kenyan church leader was arrested yesterday over the “mass killing of his followers”, the interior minister said, just days after a cult leader in the same region was detained. Authorities evacuated more than 100 people who had been “holed up” in Ezekiel Odero’s New Life Prayer Centre and Church in the town of Mavueni, minister Kithure Kindiki said on Twitter. Mavueni is about 66km from the Shakahola forest where another pastor, Paul Mackenzie, is accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death ahead of what he predicted would be the end of the world on April 15. At least 98 members of Mackenzie’s Good News International Church have died and the death toll has been steadily rising since authorities started exhuming mass graves on Friday. Odero was…

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Angelina Jolie and son Maddox, 21, made it to Washington for a state dinner at the White House, where President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee. A source close to Jolie said: “Asia-America relations are important to Angelina’s family. She and the children have had close ties to the region, including South Korea, for many years. Maddox studied at Yonsei University in Seoul. “Angelina has visited South Korea many times for her humanitarian and refugee advocacy over the past two decades, and as an artist. Angelina and Maddox are honoured to attend this State Dinner.” Jolie last visited Seoul in 2019, when Maddox started at Yonsei University, and in 2018, when she…

STOCKHOLM: Spotify Technology said yesterday it was investigating some issues with its web page, following reports the audio streaming platform was down for thousands of users. There were more than 15 000 incidents of people reporting issues with Spotify, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports. Earlier this month, the company had experienced a brief outage, which impacted more than 20 000 people in the US and over 8 000 in the UK at the peak of the service disruption. Spotify in April crossed the half-billion mark for monthly active users for the first time. | Reuters…

Ethekwini Municipality employees are under siege from brazen criminal syndicates who are hijacking council vehicles, putting the lives of workers at risk and compromising service delivery. The City yesterday acknowledged the problem, saying in the current financial year at least 95 vehicles had been hijacked from municipal staff and contractors. The latest incident took place on Wednesday when a municipal employee was accosted by two gunmen who demanded that she hand over a City vehicle that had been kept at her home overnight. Social media have been awash with posts from City employees, pleading for help after vehicles they were driving were stolen or hijacked at gunpoint. City councillors have warned this could have a serious impact on the City’s ability to deliver services. The Mercury has seen at least…

THE ongoing debate on whether South Africa will execute an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin could leave the country with an international trade dilemma. The country has an excellent trade position within BRICS and with its key trade partners, which are largely Western. Dr Noluthando Phungula, of the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg, said SA benefited from preferential trade agreements with the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) and with the EU. She said the US had recently used Agoa as a sanction against Ethiopia, Gambia and Mali. The ICC, of which South Africa is a full member, issued a warrant of arrest against Putin and urged 123 countries who are signatories to the…

THERE are so many modern abbreviations around that they are laughable. We once had the liberation movements in Mozambique – Frelimo, Renamo, which have meanings in Portuguese, the PMLA – a revolutionary organisation for getting rid, during those lovable Cuban days and nights, of everybody – genuine Portuguese, half Portuguese and fully fledged local factions, from Angola. Then some European smart Alec, running away from Renamo with REM (rapid eye movement), invented his own: “FNLA.” – “Flush(!) Now we leave Angola.” This brings us to the current “Now I see you. Now, I don’t!” The ICC. The biggest joke around since the other bigger joke – the UN – replaced the League of Nations. International Criminal Court (ICC) implies lots of big boys being affiliated. But guess what? No…

I recently attended the African Language Teachers Association (Alta) Conference in Washington DC, the US. The conference was attended by more than 30 universities from across the globe and 15 universities from the African continent. They presented their papers on the challenges faced by lecturers, students and language enthusiasts in teaching African languages abroad and locally. The theme of the conference was Navigating Current Challenges in the Teaching and Learning of African Languages. The Alta conference was jointly organised by the College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University; the Centre for African Studies, Howard University; the National African Language Resource Centre, Indiana University; the Department of World Languages and Cultures; the Office of the Provost; the School of Social Work, Howard University; the Louis Stokes Library and Ralph Bunche Centre…

ANC MP Sibusiso Kula, who is accused of killing his wife, appeared in the Orkney Magistrate’s Court with no legal representative after his attorney failed to arrive on Wednesday. Kula and his attorney were not present when the proceedings started and a warrant for his arrest was issued. However, he arrived moments later and the warrant was withdrawn. His matter had to be postponed as Kula could not account for the whereabouts of his attorney. On April 17, his attorney brought an application opposing a further postponement of the matter. However, the application could not be heard as recording devices at the court had technical glitches which led to the matter being postponed. Kula, 34, is currently out on R50 000 bail. Kula has been charged with the murder of…

KWAZULU-NATAL Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said the government was working very hard to address the unabated crime in the province. Dube-Ncube was speaking at the commemoration of the 29th anniversary of Freedom Day at Ephangweni Sports Field in Umtshezi, Loskop, yesterday. She said Freedom Day was commemorated annually to honour the unsung heroes and heroines who paved the way for an equal, representative, non-sexist and non-racial society. ‘’It is heartbreaking to learn that 10 family members in Pietermaritzburg have been murdered. We still have work to do as a province to reduce the crime. Our province has become a crime zone where you can die at any given moment. This has to stop,’’ she said. Dube-Ncube touched on gender-based violence, saying it was still a scourge that the government and the…

EFF leader Julius Malema said while there was no contestation that yesterday was Freedom Day, there were many with aspirations asking to what extent they should celebrate the day, without having achieved economic freedom in their lifetime. Malema said: “1994, on April 27, ushered political freedom. We still need economic freedom for total emancipation of our people.” He was addressing the funeral of EFF member Koketso Mojatau. The red berets said the declaration of Freedom Day was premature because the objectives of the Struggle against colonial dispossession and apartheid system had not yet been achieved. “Instead of the democratisation of wealth, the provision of free quality health care, education, housing and corrupt-free society, which were the core objectives of the revolution, South Africa is characterised by a false unity based…

Despite the resignation of the mayor of the City of Joburg, Thapelo Amad, service delivery would continue as normal, according to council speaker, Colleen Makhubele. Amad’s resignation was announced on Monday, meaning the mayoral committee has been dissolved. He faced criticism from the public and some of his coalition partners, who accused him of being unfit for the leadership of the country’s economic hub. Makhubele said the municipal administrators, the city manager and her office would all be working together to ensure that the city functioned properly, while political processes were under way to choose a new mayor from the ANC-led coalition. “Services will not be disrupted; those are run by the city manager and all the entities. The only thing that will be disrupted, perhaps, is council, and all…

Khanisuse eli xhego phambi komabonakude liyasisitha sifuna ukubukela! Lenza ntoni libe litaka-taka nje, alizukuwa? Phofu xa liwile lizakuba yimhemhe kabani? Ingathi liyazithanda nezinto nje ingakumbi amehlo? Lilidala nje? Lingayokuculela ootshomi noontanga balo eHom nje? Sincedeni thina sikhathele ngumadala, please! You can hide anything about yourself, but you cannot hide who you really are. Unfortunately, the worst part is to be surrounded by people who cannot alert you when you’re going to the peak. This could be because they fear you, hero-worship you, or are just pleasing you. Some are dependent on you. Be that as it may, any normal or sober-minded human being should seek to age gracefully, not disgracefully. But it is unfortunate that one of the things some people cannot control in them is greed. If one of…

The US this week pledged to give South Korea more insight into its nuclear planning over any conflict with North Korea amid anxiety over Pyongyang’s growing arsenal of missiles and bombs. The announcement, which included a renewed pledge by Seoul not to pursue a nuclear bomb of its own, emerged from White House talks between US President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol that covered issues including North Korea, semiconductor chips and trade, and the Ukraine war. Yoon said he and Biden had agreed on steps to strengthen South Korea’s defences in response to the threat posed by North Korea. “Our two countries have agreed to immediate bilateral presidential consultations in the event of North Korea’s nuclear attack and promised to respond swiftly, overwhelmingly and decisively using…

US officials have postponed a meeting in Uganda about an HIV/Aids programme in the East African country because they need time to assess the impact of an anti-LGBTQ bill soon expected to become law there, a US State Department spokesperson said. The bill was passed by Uganda’s parliament on March 21 and sent to President Yoweri Museveni for assent, but he sent it back asking for changes that would tone it down. The US President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (Pepfar), which spends $400 million (R7.3 billion) in Uganda annually, informed Ugandan partners that a meeting was being postponed in light of the potentially imminent signing of the law. The State Department spokesperson said yesterday that the decision did not amount to freezing or cutting Pepfar services in Uganda, but…

Abuja: Three humanitarian workers and two contractors have been abducted in north-east Nigeria where the military is fighting a jihadist insurgency, aid officials said yesterday. Both Boko Haram, which kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, and Iswap, linked to the Islamic State group, operate in the region. The Nigerian aid workers were with FHI 360, a US non-profit organisation. Ngala is in Borno State, near the border with Cameroon. Christy Delafield, an FHI 360 spokesperson, said the staff members were working to provide life-saving medical care in the region. “We are not sure who is responsible,” said another humanitarian official. | AFP…

MADRID: Police in Seville are investigating the death of a horse from apparent heatstroke as it pulled a carriage laden with tourists through the southern Spanish city during a record heatwave. Bystanders tried to revive the animal with water after it collapsed next to a busy road, a video posted on Instagram on Wednesday showed. The horse died during the city’s April Fair celebrations, which last year attracted an estimated 500 000 revellers to the hottest region in Spain. Temperatures in Seville were expected to hit 36°C yesterday, and the city has brought in extra healthcare workers to deal with heat exhaustion during the festival. | Reuters…

The rock and surf anglers have been catching some very decent size kob and bronze bream. This has kept the edible anglers happy while the inedible hunters have started to land a few sandies ... The north has seen some good edible catches with the reef areas of Sodwana and Vidal producing some proper fish. These reef areas are best fished with circle hooks and bigger baits for the speckled snapper/rockcod species while the other fish will scoff down a chokka bait. Most of these are hard-fighting fish that require heavy tackle to land them. On the lighter side, you can have days of fun targeting the open sandy areas with dropshots and small spoons. There are a myriad of species to be caught and they all put up a…