Table of contents for 2023-09-26 in Mercury

THE DA’s Chris Pappas is set to negotiate the political dynamics of KwaZulu-Natal after the party announced that he is the party’s Premier candidate for the province ahead of next year’s national general election. DA federal leader John Steenhuisen said Pappas had a track record of getting things done. “He leads a municipality, uMngeni Municipality, which is a shining beacon. People are getting jobs and the economy is moving forward (there). None of this would be possible unless it was led by an individual of the highest integrity, who is able to transcend race, language barriers and move South Africans together as one.” Pappas, addressing supporters on the steps of the Durban City Hall yesterday, said he would prioritise revitalising the economy, job creation, the rule of law, and dealing…

I BRING you this day the spine-chilling account of how a wild pig took up residence in the retirement village of Amberglen, just outside Howick, and how he was eventually evicted. (I must explain that these days I hang my hat at Amberglen, where the residents are very sociable and I am the only person who still works.) It was last month that people noticed the wild pig – let’s call him Henry – lurking about. This was problematic because a wild pig’s behaviour is unpredictable and potentially dangerous. Worse, what if we are wrong in calling the pig Henry? What if Henrietta is appropriate? And what if Henrietta gives birth to a litter of wild piglets? Suddenly a multiplicity, led by a ferociously protective mother. It does not bear…

The week-long water crisis affecting more than 100 000 residents north of Durban has had a disastrous impact on the prime tourism region. Known for some of KwaZulu-Natal’s premier hotels and hundreds of guest houses, the north of Durban has borne the brunt of further economic losses. Admissions by the eThekwini Municipality that sabotage and tampering may be behind large parts of uMhlanga, Durban North, Redhill and Effingham not receiving water is adequate proof of a dysfunctional City. KZN’s tourism sector simply cannot afford to carry the impact of these catastrophic water interruptions. Alarmingly, the ANC-run provincial government and its economic development cluster remain silent on the crisis and its potential impact on business and tourism. Moreover, the provincial government appears unconcerned about schools being closed for days and the…

The recent killings of councillors in the KwaZulu-Natal province are a concern and necessitate a thorough investigation of the root causes of such violence. While perhaps power politics, factional struggles or inter-party and intra-party jealousies are at the centre of some of the murders, it is the worst form of violent extremism, intimidation and the most destructive of human behaviours. The killing of political office-bearers or political party members or any human, for that matter, is truly unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Suspected political killings will not help deepen South Africa’s democracy and bring about progressive change. Violence is not the means to resolve conflicts, win tenders or a political seat or space or even family or business disputes. Negotiation, arbitration, mediation and round-table dialogues…

TIGER Brands lost its application against an earlier finding that it had unfairly dismissed a worker who twice tested positive for alcohol when he reported for duty. The court found that the company only held a disciplinary hearing months after the incidents. The food manufacturing giant turned to the Labour Court, sitting in Johannesburg, following a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling that the worker was unfairly dismissed. The commissioner at the time found that dismissal was too harsh and that a final warning would have sufficed Tiger Brands approached the court to ask for that ruling to be reviewed and overturned. The worker, Ben Mabizela, started working for the company in 2006 and was dismissed in 2019. He worked as a heavy machine operator at the company’s…

POLICE unions and crime experts have raised concern after reports that a leaking roof at Port Shepstone SAPS has forced staff to work out of a container. The roof has not been repaired since last year. Approached for comment, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure said it was aware of the situation and plans were under way to renovate and repair the facility. KwaZulu-Natal’s permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) had concerns about the slow progress in addressing various administrative issues at the Port Shepstone police station during a recent visit to the facility. The committee said it would ask the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to fast-track the repairs. The police station has, meanwhile, been provided with a container which staff currently work from.…

THE legal dispute involving the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) and the Independent Media Consortium (IMC); take note of the facts. Back in 2013, the Independent Media Consortium (IMC) was established to acquire Independent Media from its Irish owners. At the time of its formation, IMC was known as Sekunjalo Independent Media (SIM). SIM/IMC functioned as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), entirely distinct from Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (SIH/Sekunjalo), and had no association with Sekunjalo. The SPV’s purpose was to hold a 55% stake in Independent Media in exchange for the consortium’s financial contribution. This ownership in Independent Media represented the sole asset of the consortium. IMC comprised various union groups, including Cosatu’s investment arm, Kopano, the military veterans’ association MKVA, several women’s groups, black business groups, and…

The Department of Health’s contentious dress code policy proposal, which forbids nurses from wearing headscarves, should be legally challenged due to its infringement on the country’s Constitution. A circular signed by Director-General Sandile Buthelezi and distributed to all provincial health department heads outlines the national nurses’ uniform policy, which explicitly prohibits the wearing of headscarves while on duty. Additionally, the policy requires moustaches and beards to be well-groomed in accordance with occupational health standards, and it mandates clean and neat hair that must be tied if longer than shoulder length. Wigs and extensions must fit under a theatre cap. While maintaining hygiene and preventing infections is crucial, serious concerns arise regarding the true motivations behind the prohibition of headscarves for nurses. Our Constitution upholds the freedom to practice one’s culture,…

Leaders of the BRICS countries reiterated their calls to evade the dollar and create a single currency that the group could use in joint transactions during their summit in August. BRICS is going ahead with efforts to achieve its goal of “ousting the US dollar as the dominant global currency”, a US newspaper has reported. The news outlet referred to the group’s summit in South Africa last month, when the alliance “took a major step toward flexing its communal currency muscle”. During the gathering, six new members were green-lit to join the organisation, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The group previously comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. As a result, the newspaper added, BRICS now brings together six of…

WASHINGTON: The US will recognise the independence of the Cook Islands and Niue, two small Pacific nations, President Joe Biden said yesterday, confirming an earlier announcement by officials. Biden spoke ahead of a summit with Pacific island leaders this week, part of a US charm offensive to block further Chinese inroads into a strategic region Washington has long considered its own backyard. Biden said the US had a long history of co-operation with the Cook Islands, dating back to World War II, when the US military built airport runways on one of the chain’s atolls. The White House said the summit will focus on priorities including climate change. | Reuters…

Tourism bodies say the extended water outage in areas north of Durban – including uMhlanga, La Lucia and Durban North suburbs – coupled with other matters, had dealt a fatal blow to the industry over the long weekend. More than 100 000 residents are said to be affected. City officials and councillors visited the area yesterday to address residents. They said three main reservoirs in uMhlanga were still empty or critically low. One reservoir in uMhlanga was almost full. As a short-term intervention, they added, tankers would continue to supply water to affected customers until the system fully recovered, and 61 tankers would be dispatched. A large group of frustrated residents protested outside the municipality’s Sizakala Centre in uMhlanga during the visit by the City officials. They held placards and…

A long-time reader wrote to me about his extended period of successful sobriety. In reply I commented on his obvious internal fortitude. He gave permission to publish his response: “Here are my thoughts around ‘fortitude’, whether internal or external, which are intertwined. “Why do I consider myself good at this ‘sober gig’ and at having had success? “The time spent working hard on staying sober early in my journey, laid the foundation. I still work at it. Time is the success indicator here. Even one month is a success. “The fear of failure: The thought of ‘going back’ is too ghastly to contemplate. I’m distinctly better off being sober. Life is not perfect, but it’s better being sober. “What would people say? ‘He failed again at something important!’. I’m accountable…

By resorting to gag orders in order to curtail freedom of information and expression about conditions in the metro, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda reveals that he is an adherent of globalist intolerance of narrative dissent (The Mercury, September 22). Whereas transparency and accountability are the indispensable cornerstones of good governance, those principles are obviously not in the globalist lexicon to which Kaunda subscribes. Instead, he pushes the narrative that only globalists are the source of truth. In March 2021, when she was New Zealand’s autocratic prime minister, Jacinda Ardern infamously declared that as an unassailable reality. The preamble of the Constitution projects an open society as fundamental to a democratic order. Section 16 (1) (b) upholds the right to receive and impart information as fundamental to freedom of expression. Section…

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has confirmed he will announce details on cost-cutting measures across the state when he delivers his Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS)in November. National Treasury instructed departments to reduce spending as part of cost-containment measures following lower than projected revenue collection. Unions have been up in arms against the decision of the government to cut spending. But Godongwana, who was replying to parliamentary questions from the National Freedom Party MP Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam and DA MP Dion George, said they were aware of the fiscal constraints. He said they wanted to achieve fiscal sustainability in the medium term. “Over the medium term, the fiscal strategy aims to achieve fiscal sustainability by reducing the budget deficit and stabilising the debt-to-GDP ratio. Further details on any adjustments…

Two men who were travelling in a white Toyota Quantum on the N1 north road in Polokwane on Friday have been arrested in connection with human trafficking after eight foreign nationals were found in the vehicle with them. They are from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to preliminary reports. At the time of their arrest, they were being transported to Gauteng from a house in Louis Trichardt. Police said the suspects were arrested through a joint operation by the provincial tracking team, Crime Intelligence Unit and private security after intelligence was received about foreign nationals being smuggled into the country through the Beitbridge border post outside Musina. Police said all 10 men, including the driver, were arrested when they failed to give a satisfactory explanation about the origin…

Msunduzi Municipality will conduct an audit on its councillors as it seeks to determine whether all of them are paying for municipal services. The move was agreed to in principle at an Executive Committee meeting last Thursday, where questions were raised about customers not paying for services. The proposal is set for presentation to a full council sitting this week, but the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC) has already expressed pessimism about the audit yielding any results. The move comes after the revenue-enhancement committee last week determined that speaker Eunice Majola should intervene to ensure that councillors paid for their services to ensure that the municipality remained financially viable. The move forms part of the City’s broader revenue-enhancement drive, which has seen it collecting millions of…

Following recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) reports on post-Covid 19 pandemic recovery in China’s economy, the second quarter of 2023 saw leadership debates and discussions on the economy in the country. The debates within the Communist Party of China (CPC) reflect an awareness in China of the fragility of the post-Covid pandemic economic recovery. The economic fragility has been further exacerbated by certain trade restrictions being imposed on China by the USA and countries in the European Union (EU). Some of the most recent restrictions imposed by the EU in September 2023 raised serious questions about the EU’s obligations under its World Trade Organization’s (WTO) obligations. Notwithstanding the recent US and EU trade restriction, the debates in China is raised by an awareness around the ease…

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday, queuing up for fuel and jamming the mountain road to Armenia after their fighters were defeated by Azerbaijan in a military operation. The leadership of the 120 000 Armenians who call Karabakh home told Reuters on Sunday that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia because they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing. In the Karabakh capital, known as Stepanakert by Armenia and Khankendi by Azerbaijan, crowds of people were loading belongings into buses and trucks as they left for Armenia. Refugees who reached Armenia told Reuters they believed the history of their breakaway state was finished. “No one is going back – that’s it,” said Anna Agopyan, who reached…

LONDON: British nurse Lucy Letby, jailed for life for murdering seven babies at the hospital where she worked, will face a re-trial over an accusation she had tried to kill another newborn, prosecutors said yesterday. Letby, 33, Britain’s most prolific serial child killer of modern times, was convicted in August of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at a hospital in northern England and attacking six others in 2015 and 2016. However, the jury were unable to agree on six charges of attempted murder involving five other infants. The Crown Prosecution Service announced they would now seek a new trial over one of those charges. | Reuters…

Economists say that consumers should brace themselves for a major increase in fuel prices next week. Professor Irrshad Kaseeram, a professor at the University of Zululand’s economics department, said it was bleak news for motorists, businesses and the transport industry. “The petrol price is expected to rise by R1.20, while diesel is expected to rise by close to R2 a litre.” Kaseeram added that this was due to global oil prices rising by 40% since June. Professor Bonke Dumisa, an independent economic analyst, said there would be a massive increase in fuel prices for October. “We can attribute this to the increase in the price of Brent Crude oil which is averaging about $90 a barrel in September, while in August the average price of Brent crude oil was about…

Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that 6 843 police officers and 323 administrative staff were charged with criminal offences over the past five years. In July, Cele came in for criticism when he refused to disclose the number of police officers that have been criminally charged when MPs from the EFF and Freedom Front Plus made enquiries. Cele had complained about the absence of meticulous and stringent validation of information, saying inaccurate data could harm the reputation of innocent police officers, and asked to provide the requested information this month. In his written response, Cele said the SAPS personnel were charged under 64 categories of offences including murder, robbery, bribery, corruption, defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping, rape, theft and hijacking, among others. The breakdown of members of SAPS…

We are in mourning at the loss of three brave officers who perished in an attempted “vertical transfer” on the SAS Manthatisi. Our debt to these heroic officers and valiant mariners of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. Our nation will never forget their sacrifices. We are, indeed, proud of our mariners, who were ordinary South Africans trained to undertake extraordinary missions. Serving in the Navy is an unselfish calling. Brave men and women stepped forward in defence of peace and freedom. As we grieve, we should remember those who died and those who were injured and the supreme price they paid in defence of our nation. A grateful nation will never forget your bravery in the face of adversity, in the face of…

I read a very interesting article about the make-up of the teams at the present rugby World Cup. Only South Africa and Argentina field 15 home-born players in their teams, while, as expected, New Zealand and Australia field nine and seven players, respectively, from South Sea islands. Ireland field eight foreign players, Wales 10, and Scotland 15 (three SA) players, and Japan have 18 foreigners. In the Solheim Cup, currently being played between Europe and the American ladies golfers, eight of America’s ladies are Asians. It’s time to change the rules regarding foreign players representing other countries. It is so easy now for sports men and women to be given passports.…

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) says the targeted poaching of lions for their body parts, including bones, has been increasing in some regions in southern Africa, and this, if unmitigated, could potentially cause future local population declines. Sam Nicholson, a lion expert at EWT, said lions had been directly targeted in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). A study by Pantera found that the targeted poaching of lions for body parts accounted for 61% of mortalities within Limpopo National Park and 35% of known human-caused mortalities across the greater landscape. He said the lions were either caught in wire snares or poisoned. “South African National Parks (SANParks) has confirmed that in the northern parts of Kruger National Park, this has increased for the period January 2020 up until the…

The SANDF has announced that a joint memorial service will be held for the three SA Navy crew members killed during an exercise near Kommetjie last week. The joint memorial service will be held tomorrow. Lieutenant Commander Gillian Elizabeth Hector (executive officer), Master Warrant Officer William Masela Mathipa (coxswain) and Warrant Officer Class One Mmokwapa Lucas Mojela (coxswain under training) were swept out to sea while standing on the SA Navy submarine SAS Manthatisi during an exercise. The crew were en route to Cape Town and conducting a vertical replenishment exercise (a VERTREP) using the SA Air Force Maritime Lynx helicopter. In a statement on Sunday, the SANDF called on the Simon’s Town community and the public to show solidarity with the SA Navy and pay their respects at the…

The unveiling of the statue of King Shaka at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport has yet to take place. The Mercury had reported that eThekwini deputy city manager Dr Musa Gumede had told executive committee members in a meeting last week that the statue would be unveiled this past Saturday, but this did not take place. Zulu royal house spokesperson Prince Simphiwe Zulu said the unveiling had been set for September, but the death of Traditional Prime Minister Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi early in the month forced a halt to the celebrations. “It had an effect on many events that have had to be put on ice, including the unveiling of the statue,” said Prince Zulu. He added that the unveiling would be a significant event, in line with the stature…

WHETHER you are a supporter or a critic of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy of President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose enabling NHI Bill was passed by Parliament in June, both cohorts can extract some succour from the launch of the 2023 Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Global Monitoring Report released ahead of the High-Level Meeting on UHC at the 78th UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York last week. At that meeting on September 21, attended by presidents Joe Biden of the US, Lula da Silva of Brazil and Ramaphosa, other heads of state and government and their representatives reviewed the gaps and solutions recommended “to accelerate progress towards the achievement of UHC by 2030”. The South African government is committed to moving the country towards the goal of UHC through…

Pakistan said yesterday it was investigating two local distributors of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche’s Avastin cancer drug after 12 diabetic patients injected with the drug went blind. The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) said the health authorities in Punjab had launched the investigation into local use of the drug Avastin, licensed for use in Pakistan. Javed Akram, the province’s Minister for Specialised Health, said police were questioning two men they believe to be the drug’s distributors in the state. Following the incidents, the Drap instructed the importer to recall the suspected batches of Avastin 100mg injection, which it said had been created illegally. On its website, Roche said Avastin was approved in more than 130 countries, including the US, to treat several types of cancer. Roche’s Pakistan spokesperson did…

Kampala: Uganda is investigating claims that a former senior ICC official was involved in funding the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the country’s attorney general said. Brigid Inder, a special adviser on gender to the former International Criminal Court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, denied the claims on X. A lawyer for former LRA child soldiers said, “numerous victims have alleged that between 2006 and 2017, Ms Inder … financed Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army”. Kony, still at large, staged a rebellion more than three decades ago, killing more than 100 000 people. Inder was involved in peace talks. In 2005, the ICC accused Kony of war crimes. | AFP…