Table of contents for 2023-02-18 in Saturday Star

AKA, South Africa’s most recognisable name in hip hop, was gunned down with his friend, celebrity chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, outside a restaurant on Durban’s nightlife hub, Florida Road last Friday night. It’s reported that AKA was killed in a cold-blooded shooting, a recurring theme of gangsta rap culture. The manner of his death, apparently an orchestrated hit as captured by CCTV footage, is a first in the South African music industry and has had international reverberations. The 35-year-old AKA was born in Cape Town as Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, and would later also tag himself as Supa Mega or Bhova. He was based in the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, where he hunkered down atop the hip-hop food chain for more than a decade. From the start, with his 2011 breakout…

When times are dark and full of trouble, many people will take solace from the lyrics of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s anthemic Let it be. When the pawpaw really hits the fan though, they will be hoping for the Gift of the Givers instead. In typical fashion, The Gift of the Givers is already at the world’s latest catastrophe – the earthquake that devastated swathes of Türkiye and Syria. They have taken a detachment from the SAPS K-9 unit – and they are already finding people alive after days trapped in the rubble. It’s amazing, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman not only manages yet again to fly our flag high in foreign countries, stepping in where the government isn’t just scared to go but probably doesn’t care because it isn’t Russia,…

l ‘Particularly alarming is increase in violence levels’ – ISS criminologist l ‘We are on the brink of a mafia state’ – activist Yusuf Abramjee South Africa’s murder rate is back to the high levels last seen 20 years ago, leaving experts and commentators concerned. Just two months into the year, South Africans already have to navigate debilitating load shedding, which was recently declared a national disaster, high food prices, heavy rainfall and flooding – and now a 10% increase in murder cases. Police Minister Bheki Cele released the latest crime stats which show that all contact crimes increased by 11.6%. Despite the alarming figures, Cele said “the calls by South Africans on the police to decisively deal with crime are loud and they are clear”. From October to December…

DENEL Land Systems was correct in firing one of its managers for the sexual harassment of one of the woman employees working in his department, the Labour Court has said. It turned down an application by the former senior officer, only identified as Mr N, to have the ruling made by an arbitrator in this regard reviewed and set aside. The court confirmed the ruling made on arbitration, where it was found that the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively fair. A junior employee who worked in Mr N’s department claimed that he had on multiple occasions asked her on dates, which she politely rebuffed. She also claimed that he gave her looks that made her uncomfortable and commented about her physical appearance. The last straw, she said, was when…

A Polish mother of seven has successfully given birth to premature quintuplets, hospital officials in southern Poland said this week. The two boys and three girls were born through Caesarean section on Sunday, in the pregnancy’s 28th week, at the University Hospital in Krakow. Weighing 710-1 400 grams, they were all put in incubators and given breathing support, but doctors said they are all doing fine, given their premature birth. The quintuplets’ mother, Dominika Clarke, 37, told a news conference in Krakow on Tuesday that she was feeling “much better than I had expected”. “If you have a system, a calm approach and a positive attitude, then it is possible to have a really cool life with such a large bunch of children,” Clarke said. Clarke and her British husband’s…

THE Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) members Mvuselelo Mkhabela, 21, and Bongi Mamba, 28, who were allegedly arrested and tortured by the police last week, have resumed their campaign against the eSwatini parliamentary election scheduled for August in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. “The parliament does not have any real power,” CPS international secretary Pius Vilakati told Peoples Dispatch. “It does not make policy. It is only a tool used by the absolute monarchy to sanctify King Mswati’s decision. It does not even have the power to hold to account the executive, which is appointed directly by the king. So it is a futile exercise to elect a puppet parliament.” Members for 10 of the 59 seats in the parliament’s House of Assembly, will be appointed by the king. The remaining…

Payton Gendron, 19, a white supremacist who murdered 10 black people during a live-streamed supermarket rampage in New York state last year, was sentenced to life in prison this week. He had pleaded guilty to a state charge of domestic terrorism motivated by hate in the mass shooting in Buffalo in May, which carries a mandatory penalty of life without parole. On May 14, he drove from his hometown of Conklin, more than 322km away, intending to kill as many black people as possible, prosecutors said. |…

The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (Asisa) has confirmed that the Fundisa education fund will be closed by the end of March. The fund stopped taking new investments at the end of September last year; it had been closed to new investors since February 2018. Fundisa is a legacy project launched in 2007 by the former Association of Collective Investments (ACI) in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme to help fund the tertiary education of learners from lower-income families. When Asisa was formed in October 2008, the association assumed the ACI’s responsibility for Fundisa According to Janete Nel, senior policy adviser at Asisa, it is important for existing investors who had been saving on the behalf of…

THE Rassie Erasmus movie currently on television includes a clip of the glory days of the Cheetahs when they won the full-strength Currie Cup three years in a row under Rassie and current Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber. In fact, last Saturday I watched the movie, replete with a gleeful Ollie le Roux famously smoking a cigar minutes after the final whistle of the 2005 triumph, and that made it all the more startling to read in Rapport the next day that the Cheetahs are in such a parlous state that they are battling to pay their electricity bills and some players’ salaries have been paid late. The Cheetahs are now looking at moving their home games in the Currie Cup from the Free State Stadium to club venues such as…

Actor Priyanka Chopra is having a fun time with her popstar husband Nick Jonas, daughter Malti and friends. She recently took the internet by storm by revealing her daughter’s face. The “Desi Girl” took to Instagram and posted a video montage of photos where she can be seen enjoying their holiday with Jonas, Malti and friends on their ski holiday in Aspen, Colorado. She also shared a picture of Malti sitting inside a hotel room, playing on the floor. The actor attended an event in Los Angeles where Jonas, along with his singer siblings, Kevin and Joe Jonas, revealed their Hollywood Walk of Fame star. As the Jonas Brothers took the centre stage, Chopra sat in the first row with daughter Malti Marie, cheering for them. Chopra and Jonas tied…

African entrepreneur Vimbai Masiyiwa is taking African fashion to the world one outfit at a time. Masiyiwa is a 28-year-old businesswoman and the executive director of Batoka Hospitality Limited, a purpose-driven hospitality company and the first black female-owned safari lodge group in Africa. In 2022, the entrepreneur was voted by the UK’s Tatler magazine, alongside Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, as one of the 2022’s best-dressed women. The magazine described her style as “All-out glamour”. She is an avid supporter of African couture and is a fierce promoter of fashion inspired by and produced in Africa. We spoke to Masiyiwa to find out more about her love for African fashion. What do you love most about African fashion? I love how some African designers have started incorporating their own…

A KwaZulu-Natal pastor who allegedly preyed on churchgoers by relieving them of their money, could soon be extradited to the US where he is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Lavish living South African, Dennis Mbongeni Jali, originally from Umlazi, was out on bail in South Africa, in a matter related to the extradition, when he was arrested again on another criminal charge. Jali, whose LinkedIn page describes him as the CEO of the Forex Billionaires Club, with risk management as one of his top skills, and his two alleged accomplices, John Frimpong and Arley Johnson, apparently posed as men of the cloth in the US, encouraging people to invest in a business by convincing them the money would help churches and congregants attain personal wealth and financial…

A man who prosecutors said broke into a UK industrial park to steal almost 200 000 chocolate Easter eggs has pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage. Prosecutors said that Joby Pool, 32, used a metal grinder to break through a gate at the park in Telford, central England, last Saturday, then used a stolen semi truck to tow away a trailer loaded with Cadbury Creme Eggs and other chocolate goods worth more than £31 000 (R675 000). West Mercia police tweeted that shortly after the break-in, officers stopped a vehicle “presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny” on a highway and arrested a man on suspicion of theft. Prosecutor Owen Beale said Pool gave up when he realised police were after him. Pool “walked towards the police with his…

Peggy the mutt may have a face which only a mother could love. However, in a beauty contest with a twist, she was crowned the 2023 winner of the ugliest dog in the UK contest – but it is believed that she could take the crown for the ugliest mutt in the world. It was from rags to riches for little Peggy, who has made news globally. The contest was organised by photo company ParrotPrint.com. Since she was named the ugliest dog in Britain, the organisers are considering launching a worldwide ugly dog competition, to see if any canine can be as bad looking. Peggy is a 4-year-old cross-breed, and organisers believe she might just be the Queen of Ugly. She is believed to be a pug/Chinese crested mix. She…

Candice Chirwa knows the importance of holding an important title such as the “Minister of Menstruation” in the country. It comes with exceedingly hard work. “Being the Minister of Menstruation has been an incredible journey, advocating for the right of so many menstruators in South Africa to have access to period dignity,” Chirwa told the Saturday Star. “Approximately seven million South African girls do not have access to period products whilst an estimated 30% of school girls can not go to school due to their period. “If girls are not in school, they are most likely going to experience a set of devastating circumstances such as teenage pregnancy and child marriage. “And if they do go to school they often have to use unhygienic materials such as leaves, newspaper, sand,…

The gender-based violence (GBV) experienced in almost all facets of life indicates that South Africa is a violence- prone country. The abuse and brutal killings of women, girls and LGBTQI+ people in the private space of the home and the public space at work, in places of worship, in the entertainment space and in learning institutions attest to the notion that South Africa is an unsafe country. Older people and people with disabilities are not excluded from these cruel experiences, as media coverage reports reveal cases of elderly women raped and sometimes killed at their homes. While GBV affects global communities, research demonstrates that South Africa bears the highest prevalence, where one in every three women and girls has experienced some form of GBV. Furthermore, research reveals that GBV…

In the days after the earthquakes, it was hard to tell which of the children here had parents. As officials tried to match survivors with their mothers and fathers, they found they had never known some of the families. After 12 years of civil war, this pocket of north-west Syria is home to millions of people from across the country, their names and histories often obscured by displacement and isolation. As aid workers scoured hospitals for the missing, families hoped and prayed. “We couldn’t check on databases, we couldn’t check on lists,” said Nour Agha, a relief worker in the shattered town of Jinderis. “Some of the children couldn’t even tell us their names, they were so shocked.” More than a week removed from the disaster, with the death toll…

Actress and businesswoman Raquel Welch died this week at the age of 82. Her family has confirmed to TMZ that she died on Wednesday after a brief illness. The Hollywood star rose to fame in the 1960s, when she appeared in the sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage and the film One Million Years BC. Welch became one of the most sought-after stars in the movie business and an international sex symbol. She is survived by her two children from her first marriage to James Welch – her daughter Tawnee, 61, and son Damon, 63. |…

The Advertising Regulatory Board recently introduced a section in its Code of Advertising Practice on the marketing of crypto assets. Strangely, the code does not have much to say on the marketing of regular financial products, but the section on crypto is quite detailed. It reflects another, broader, code, which marketers of all financial products need to take far more seriously, in my view, and which you, as a consumer of financial products, should be aware of: the General Code of Conduct for financial services providers under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (Fais) Act. If consumers were more active in complaining about misleading advertising, product providers would be far more circumspect about crossing the line, which, in my opinion, they do frequently. One example is the insurer’s boast, which…

Established in the 18th century as a small fishing village, who would’ve known that Dubai would become the most populated of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates and the “mecca of luxury”? The city has the second-highest number of five-star hotels in the world and the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, making it a window into the Arab world. If you want to know luxury, go to Dubai “Habibi”. Dubai is constantly evolving with new developments that push the envelope in luxury. The city has been ranked as one of the smartest cities in the Middle East and North Africa region in the “Smart City Index 2021”. Here are some of the most luxurious hotels in Dubai. Rixos The Palm Hotel & Suites If…

Lizzo “looks the happiest she’s ever been”. The 34-year-old singer is loving life with her boyfriend, Myke Wright, and she's been “glowing” over recent days. An insider told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “Lizzo and Myke are smitten. When she was being interviewed, Myke was grinning through the glass at her, and when she came out, they had a hug and a kiss.” The singer, real name Melissa Jefferson, recently attended the BRIT Awards in London before performing in the BBC Live Lounge, and Wright has been by her side throughout. By contrast, Lizzo previously revealed she felt “unlovable” when she met her boyfriend for the first time. The chart-topping singer met Wright in 2016 on the set of Wonderland, their MTV show – but Lizzo confessed that she didn’t…

From music to fashion, Rihanna really knows how to make a statement. While Rihanna fans could not wait to watch the mega-star perform for the first time in seven years at the Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday night, no one could possibly have predicted what she had in store for them. It was no surprise that the Barbados singer gave her fans exactly what they wanted with an incredible performance as she floated over the field. But what was a huge surprise was her revealing that she is pregnant with her second child as she danced and lovingly stroked her baby bump. Fashion-forward as always, the singer wore a bright red Alaïa puffer coat over a red Loewe jumpsuit with a glossy bustier. She finished off her look with…

LOVE, that most profound of all emotions, hovered over the couch briefly as all its many forms were weighed and considered. That is, when we weren’t dashing outside, scanning the skies and pleading with the next hovering balloon of aliens to take us with them. What on Earth is going on? What self-respecting alien, by definition a smart bunch who have overcome the space travel equations only grappled with by human scientists fairly recently, would pop into our world of quake catastrophes, floods, drought, war, famine, hatred and stupidity? Honestly, if I was an alien, one fly-by would have me scooting off in search of a saner sanctuary. They possibly thought Valentine’s Day was a positive for the bleak planet. That one day a year when (not all) humans swop…

YESTERDAY, the distraught family, friends and fans of Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA, joined one another in their grief at the Sandton Convention Centre, remotely. Forbes was gunned down in one of the most brazen attacks imaginable last Friday, as he left a Durban restaurant on his way to perform at a local club. It was a tragic act in a country where tragedy is becoming commonplace. Forbes’s death hit hard, so much that Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi petitioned the government to grant the slain rapper a state funeral. This week there have been countless column centimetres and hours of airtime devoted to the lawlessness of this country, gun ownership and the plight of black men. They are important topics, but ultimately they are empty platitudes. There is a…

KAIRO cried but also danced as friends, family and musicians remembered and celebrated the remarkable life of her father Kiernan Jarryd Forbes, who everyone knew as AKA. The 7-year-old sat in the front row at the memorial service at the Sandton Convention Centre late yesterday afternoon, surrounded by Forbes’ family, one week after his murder in Durban. “Kairo was the apple of his eye,” rapper JR told the child before telling the packed convention centre about the genius of a man who thought nothing of phoning him at 3am to get him to listen to a track he was working on. Friends also remembered the rapper as loyal, a genius and who at times would push those around him hard to get the best out of them. He would spend…

THE HARMFUL effects of plastic on our oceans, the environment and marine life is the focus of Dainfern College’s annual Swimathon. This year’s event was given an environmental twist as the result of a collaboration between the Dainfern College Parents’ Association (PA) and Grade 12 pupil head of environmental affairs, Nicholas Petrovic. The Swimathon, a tradition driven by the Dainfern College PA for many years, involves Prep School pupils from Grades 2 to 7 swimming lengths to raise funds for the school and its outreach initiatives. In 2018, the Swimathon was used to raise awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution in the oceans. This year, Petrovic felt it was time to revisit this idea with the current Prep School pupils. Head of marketing at Dainfern College, Lindokuhle Maluleke, said…

A maxim says it is not enough to know that people have made mistakes; we need to understand why they made the mistakes if we hope to prevent them or others from making the same mistakes. While South Africans are still trying to make sense of the many lofty promises made about measures to deal with the catastrophic energy crisis over the past four years, unsurprisingly, the restoration of energy security also dominated the 2023 State of the Nation Address (Sona). Still, the reasons behind the failure of past intervention measures and the progress in restructuring the state’s energy utility, Eskom, remain a mystery. There is enough cause for concern over Eskom’s stance that an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations that consistently break down is one of the reasons…

An Italian court acquitted billionaire former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi this week of bribing witnesses to lie about his notorious “bunga bunga” parties, bringing closure to a years-long sex scandal. The media mogul, 86, stood accused of paying young starlets and others for “silence and lies” about his notoriously hedonistic soirées, which he has always insisted were elegant dinners. The senator, who did not attend Wednesday’s hearing in Milan, had already been acquitted in two other related cases of alleged bribery, in Siena in 2021 and Rome in 2022. |…

The pension fund industry could miss the proposed March 1 2024 deadline to be ready to implement the new two-pot pension fund system should the reforms not be finalised in the first half of 2023, according to commentators at Old Mutual. Retirement reform executive at Old Mutual, Michelle Acton, says the industry is hopeful that updated draft regulations would be released with the National Budget Speech next week on February 22. The 2022 Draft Revenue Laws Amendment Bill, which was released for public comment in July last year, proposed the two-pot system, which would allow pension and provident fund members, as well as retirement annuity policyholders, to access a portion of their retirement savings before retirement age. “We at Old Mutual wholeheartedly support the reforms as the most important regulations…

Due to the risk that South Africa may be greylisted this year, Treasury legislated measures on December 22 last year to demonstrate that the government is working to improve shortcomings identified by the Financial Action Task Force mutual evaluation report as threatening the international financial system. Amendments to the following Acts have been made: the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, Non-profit Organisations Act, Trust Property Control Act, Companies Act and Financial Sector Regulations Act. Trustees should be aware of the changes to the Trust Property Control Act, as non-compliance may lead to a fine not exceeding R10 million or imprisonment not exceeding five years or both. The following changes were introduced: ● New Section 1 definitions of “accountable institution” and “beneficial owner”. (Effective date: April 1, 2023.) ● New Section…