Table of contents for 2021-05-13 in Star

| Bang Showbiz Dua Lipa was the big winner at the 2021 BRIT Awards, taking home two trophies for British Female Artist and Album of the Year. The Levitating hitmaker took home two awards at the annual ceremony on Tuesday, as she was named the winner of both British Female Artist and Album of the Year for her 2020 hit, Future Nostalgia. This year’s ceremony saw the winners get two gongs for each award, as bosses were keen for them to give their spare accolades to people who have made a difference to the world over the past year. And after dedicating her first award to nurse Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, Dua chose to present her second win to the family of Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, who died last month when he…

Classes suspended at Krugersdorp High and St John’s College following infections Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za THE Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has suspended academic activities at two Gauteng schools following the discovery of several cases of coronavirus at each school. The department confirmed yesterday that a decision has been made, in consultation with the Gauteng Department of Health (DoH), district directors and GDE management, to suspend academic activities at Krugersdorp High School in Krugersdorp and St John’s College in Houghton as a means of managing the discovery of several Covid-19 cases in each school. The suspension of activities came amid a time where the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is mulling over the decision to return primary school learners full time. The Gauteng Provincial Command Council has also raised concerns around…

BONGANI NKOSI bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za A JOBURG man is taking on the justice system over a practice he finds discriminatory against self-representing litigants like himself. Molefe Rufaro Mthulisi Dlodlo has waged a dragging legal battle at the South Gauteng High Court, Joburg, and in the process learnt with shock that self-represented litigants were not entitled to legal costs when they win. On the contrary, loss to lawyer-represented opponents meant legal costs would be awarded against self-represented litigants. An aggrieved Dlodlo has launched an application at the South Gauteng High Court against the practice that judges spelled out to him whenever he triumphed. He was slapped with costs following losses. His application cited the “presiding officer” of the court as a respondent, as well the two respondents in his original matter. According to…

Morgan Bolton morgan.bolton@inl.co.za LOVE ’em, or hate ’em, but there can be no denying the achievement of Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side. For the fifth time in 10 years – the third in four years – the blue half of the city have been crowned champions of England. Of those handful of championships, this season's triumph might be the most impressive. It is easy to forget that on December 21 last year the Sky Blues were sitting seventh on the English Premier League standings, and had won only six of their 13 matches to rack up 23 points. All of Southampton, Tottenham, Everton, Manchester U, Leicester and Liverpool were above them, while the rest of the top 11, which included Chelsea, Aston Villa, West Ham and Wolves, were…

Colin Bundy and William Beinart There are two widely available views of Nelson Mandela, the first post-apartheid president of South Africa. The first is a reverential and uncritical celebration of his life and achievements. It resonated in the obituaries and eulogies when Mandela died in December 2013. Madiba (his clan name) was “sent by God”, said Irish newspaper magnate Tony O’Reilly, who’s said to have been a friend of Mandela’s. His purchase of South Africa’s then-largest newspaper company, Argus Newspapers, was made possible by Mandela’s support. Former American president Barack Obama declared that Mandela “changed the arc of history, transforming his country, the continent and the world.” A second prevailing view is hostile and dismissive. By 2015, a reputation that had appeared invincible was being shredded in some media…

AFGHAN security forces mounted an operation to recapture a Taliban-held district outside the capital Kabul yesterday just before the start of a three-day ceasefire at midnight. Taliban insurgents had killed or captured some government soldiers and forced others to retreat after storming the district centre, which lies in Wardak province less than an hour’s drive from Kabul. Government forces have been struggling against stepped-up attacks by the insurgents as US troops withdraw after two decades of fighting in the country. Wardak mayor Zarifa Ghafari said that if the district was not taken soon, fighting would reach the gates of Kabul in a few days. The defence ministry said special forces have been deployed in the area to retake the district after troops made a “tactical retreat” on Tuesday.…

NEW DELHI: India’s coronavirus death toll passed 250 000 yesterday but comparisons of official data with those from people on the frontlines suggested the true number is several times higher. The devastating Covid-19 wave has overwhelmed hospitals with patients and crematoriums with bodies, and many coronavirus deaths are not being properly recorded as such. Experts say the official quarter-million death count is hugely underreported. “Even three to four times would be an underestimate,” Anant Bhan, an independent health policy and bioethics researcher, told AFP. Harrowing images from overwhelmed crematoriums and makeshift funeral pyres highlighted the scale of the crisis.…

MIHLALI BALEKA @Mihlalibaleka HUGO Broos is an ambitious man, but the new Bafana Bafana coach is also realistic, saying yesterday that inspiring the senior national men’s team to the 2022 Fifa World Cup might be impossible as it might take time to rebuild the team. “If there’s something that I want from you, it’s patience,” Broos said in his first media briefing yesterday. “We’ll do everything to qualify for the World Cup, but you have to be realistic also – it’s not an easy (African qualifying) group. We have Ghana, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. “Africa is not at the top level but it’s tough. “On the other side, I also said before, we’ll try to rebuild a successful team, and there can be moments of weaknesses. It can happen that we…

Sizwe Dlamini sizwe.dlamini@inl.co.za DEPUTY Finance Minister David Masondo said yesterday that the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) should be allowed to do what it was mandated to do by its investors and stakeholders, and that no other entity could tell the asset manager how to act. Masondo said this while making his submissions to the meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance (Scof) with the PIC, the Sekunjalo Group, Matome Maponya Investments and the National Treasury on the Mpati Commission of Inquiry Report yesterday. Masondo said there seemed to be huge discontent over the findings of the PIC Commission of Inquiry report by Justice Lex Mpati, as well as serious issues and disputes over transactions between the PIC and parties involved. He strongly recommended that those entities that were unhappy with…

Liam Karabo Joyce liam.joyce@inl.co.za Internationally renowned South African DJ, Black Coffee, has lashed out at his estranged wife, Enhle Mbali, over claims she made on social media this week. Mbali took to social media after her application for a protection order against Black Coffee was set aside. This comes after the actress detailed how she was allegedly abused by the DJ. Black Coffee has denied assaulting Mbali. After the court’s decision to set aside her application, Mbali released a video on social media in which she said she would not be protecting the father of her two sons anymore. In the four-and-a-half-minute video she posted on her Instagram page, she said that she had been “harassed” and “intimidated” for the longest time, and did not feel safe. The Rockville actress…

bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za THE revenue collector plans to propose a special corporate income tax regime for the taxi industry, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has revealed. It is an open secret that taxi owners barely pay corporate taxes to the SA Revenue Service (Sars). The National Taxi Association (NTA) defended the tax non-payment yesterday, saying it enabled the industry to charge commuters “charity fares”. Replying to written questions in Parliament, Mboweni said the government was concerned about tax avoidance in the taxi industry. Sars collected about R5 million in corporate income tax and employment income tax from the taxi operators, revealed Mboweni. This was clearly a pittance from an industry that generated a turnover of R35 billion annually. The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) divulged this figure to Parliament in 2017. Mboweni…

ITUMELENG MAFISA THE OWNER of Bellagio restaurant in Illovo, north of Johannesburg, has threatened to approach the South Gauteng High Court to stop police from coming to the up-market restaurant. A lawyer representing the owner of the restaurant, Lesedi Mphahlele, said his client had been harassed, badgered and threatened over the past two weeks by Bramley police claiming to be investigating a fight that had taken place at the restaurant a few weeks ago. The fight involved a prominent businessman, who was allegedly drunk and misbehaving. Bellagio would be approaching the court seeking an interdict to stop police from coming to the restaurant. “My client told the police that none of her employees witnessed the fight, but despite the police being told that the owner of the restaurant could…

MASHUDU SADIKE THE MEETING between the family of the late bullying victim Lufuno Mavhunga and the mother of the 14-year-old accused of assaulting her is almost organised, prominent Venda Chief Livhuni Matsila has said. This comes after the mother of the 14-year-old issued a public apology on live television last week. Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, Matsila, who is acting as mediator between the two families, said the meeting of reconciliation was supposed to have taken place last month, but the Mavhunga family needed more time to grieve. He said: “The meeting is inevitable. It has only been prolonged because the Mavhunga family needed more time to grieve for their child. “But the meeting is almost a done deal because of the mother’s public apology last week. The…

Mpiletso Motumi mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za THE Music in Africa Foundation (Miaf) has launched a multi-faceted initiative aimed at guiding African music creators to earn more income from their works. Songwriters, performers, producers, and all creatives are invited to participate in the Revenue Streams for African Musicians (RSFAM) survey. Since 2012, Miaf has been a source of reliable African music content. “We aim to create an environment where we have musicians and the music sector able to find a way to connect, and allow for growth in music markets and accessibility through artist bookings etc,” said project manager Violet Maila. She said Miaf started as an online portal where content around African music is promoted. “We try to create a point of accessibility and information and give musicians and artists tools they can…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za With fresh promises from Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on the resolution of the e-tolls matter, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) insists the government has no alternative but to abandon the user payment option. Mbalula made the undertaking in Parliament last week, saying the e-toll matter would be addressed by the Cabinet over the next two weeks. “We are at the tail end of our processes. The decision is on the table. We expect that, in the next two weeks, we should be back to the Cabinet before tabling our budget vote speeches. “We should have gone to you (the NCOP) and the public to announce the Cabinet decision on the e-tolls,” he said. This was the latest in a series of promises by Mbalula that the…

THE world’s fourth largest military power launches a full onslaught against civilians and worshippers during the holy month of Ramadaan. Palestinian resistance is often criticised as futile, given the grotesque power imbalance between the two sides. War continues in Palestine on a scale that is truly shocking. The global community looks on while the savagery continues. The battle for the heart and soul of Palestine rages on unabated. This is the story of a courageous people who face horrors beyond belief, a people whose story is seldom told in the West and a story about war and its consequences. When blood is spilled on such a massive scale, there are no winners, only various kinds of pain. The combination of revelations about the scale and intensity of the killings, the…

There is no other continent as rich with diversity and an ever-expanding potential as the African continent regarding arts, culture and heritage. The AU has declared the theme of 2021 the year of the arts, culture and heritage. Art is the conduit through which we can imagine possibilities, invent and re-invent the African nation as part of Agenda 2063. Art is an expression of culture, and culture embodies norms, attitudes and social behaviours of members of society. Ani Marimba (1994) stated that “culture is ideological… it possesses the force and power to direct activity, to mould personalities, and to pattern behaviour… culture and ideology are extremely political in nature… they are about the definition of group interest… the determination of group destiny and common goals”. Given the impact of the…

WHILE grieving the late king of the Zulu nation, his majesty Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, the province of KwaZulu-Natal found itself once again in mourning with the death of the late queen regent, Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu. The whirlwind of events that have taken place since then have thrust the Zulu royal family further into the spotlight, especially when it came to who was the rightful heir to the throne. At a time when the family had been dealt a double blow in terms of loss, one would have expected a heartbroken, but also united, royal family. However, media reports soon after the deaths painted a picture of a family divided, where we saw the king’s first wife, Queen Sibongile Zulu, as well as her daughters, Princesses Ntandoyenkosi Zulu and Ntombizosuthu Zulu-Duma,…

Hong Kong’s opposition-devoid legislature approved new powers yesterday allowing the government to sack public office holders and bar election candidates from standing if they are deemed “disloyal” to local authorities or China. The new laws are part of sweeping changes that Beijing has ordered for Hong Kong’s already limited electoral system. The system will dramatically reduce the number of directly elected politicians and ensure only “staunch patriots” enter politics. Along with a sweeping national security law, the political changes are part of a broad campaign to quash dissent after huge and often violent democracy protests rocked the finance hub in 2019. Forty legislators approved the new law with just one dissenting vote in a chamber cleared of opposition members late last year ahead of the current political overhaul. Under the…

A Minnesota judge has ruled that aggravating factors were involved in the death of George Floyd, opening the possibility of a longer sentence for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin – the former officer convicted in Minnesota state court of murdering Floyd, a black man – is scheduled to be sentenced on multiple murder and manslaughter convictions on June 25. In a six-page ruling dated Tuesday, District Court Judge Peter Cahill found that prosecutors had proven Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority, treated Floyd with particular cruelty, committed the crime as a group and did so with children present, all aggravating factors. “The slow death of Floyd was particularly cruel.”…

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his third Premier League title, secured on Tuesday after a lockdown-impacted campaign, was the toughest he had won so far. City, who could complete a rare domestic and European treble if they beat Chelsea in the May 29 Champions League final, ended their wait to be confirmed as league winners when second-placed Manchester United lost at home to Leicester City. “This has been a season and a Premier League title like no other,” the Spaniard said. “This was the hardest one. We will always remember this season for the way that we won. I am so proud to be the manager here, and of this group of players. “They are so special. To come through this season – with all the restrictions and difficulties…

Ashfak Mohamed ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za THE SA Rugby executive council (Exco) will no longer be an “almost exclusively male preserve” following amendments made to the governing body’s constitution to ensure that more women are represented. SA Rugby held their annual general meeting on Tuesday, and made two constitutional amendments to boost women’s visibility in the sport. The first will see at least three women serving on a 12-14 person Exco from 2021 to 2025, after which the number of Exco members of one gender will not exceed the number of members of the other gender by more than three. In addition, each provincial union will have to have at least one female member among their three-person delegation that attends and votes at the General Council meetings. The organisation has been criticised in…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE UN HAS forecast that South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) will rebound less than 3 percent in 2021 due to a number of downside risks clouding Africa’s outlook. In its World Economic Situation and Prospects as of mid-2021 yesterday, the UN said South Africa’s GDP was projected to expand by 2.8 per cent in 2021. This is the lowest GDP forecast for South Africa this year after an upwards growth outlook of 3.8 percent by the SA Reserve Bank, 3.3 percent by the National Treasury, and 3 percent by the World Bank. The UN report also warned that medium-term prospects were constrained by lack of fiscal space, chronic high unemployment and lingering power shortages as Eskom fails to resolve the energy…

SOUTH African growth indicators for April saw the highest and fastest growth on record, signalling a strong economic bounce back to pre-Covid levels, according to the BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index (Beti) for April. The Beti increased by 25.9 percent year-on-year in real terms, boosted by current higher commodity prices. The headline Beti is a reflection of the economy’s recorded changes on an annual basis. However, with the lockdown impact from April 2020 distorting the number somewhat, the short-term variations were important to observe, BankservAfrica cautioned. Economist Mike Schüssler and BankservAfrica’s Head of Stakeholder Engagements Shergeran Naidoo said yesterday that while the index was encouraging, true growth still remained elusive. “On a monthly level, the Beti improved by 2.3 percent. This is the strongest since February 2021; the…

| Bang Showbiz Dave Bautista is set to star alongside Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel. The 52-year-old star looks set to appear alongside Daniel Craig – who will reprise his role as detective Benoit Blanc – in the coming film, according to sources. Rian Johnson will write and direct the motion picture and produce alongside Ram Bergman. Plot details for the sequel are being kept under wraps, but production is due to begin in Greece next month. The first movie’s plot centred on the detective, who was sent to investigate the murder of a renowned crime novelist, and the film featured an all-star ensemble cast that included Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Ana de Armas. Netflix has reportedly forked out $400 million (R5.6…

THERE is not a shred of evidence against controversial Mamelodi businessman Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela to link him to the assassination of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana, he contends. In 2015, Bozwana was gunned down on the N1 highway. Mathibela, dubbed Mamelodi’s No 1 Tsotsi, along with his three co-accused Sipho Hudla, Matamela Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo, yesterday asked the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to clear them of all charges relating to Bozwana’s killing and the attempted murder of his business partner Mpho Baloyi. The state has closed its case in the marathon trial which has been ongoing for more than three years. The four are supposed to begin stating their case, but they have brought an application for their discharge in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za THE Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) has called on the government to address the severe disruptions to the country’s health-care system as the world commemorates International Nurses Day. Yesterday marked International Nurses Day (IND), a day observed around the world to mark the contributions nurses make to society. As the country celebrated IND, Denosa called on the South African government to deliver a clear strategy to address the “gradual disruption” that Covid-19 is causing in the country’s health-care system. “At the core of this disruption in the health-care service is the under-utilisation of nursing skills and experience at the high, decision-making echelons of many countries’ health-care systems, despite the reality that health-care systems globally are driven by a majority of health-care professionals, nurses,” the union said…

Mpiletso Motumi mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za THE multiaward-winning Afro Dancehall and reggae star Stonebwoy has teamed up with activist rapper Vic Mensa on a new anthemic song titled Blessing. The song speaks to manifesting blessings in one’s life, something Stonebwoy knows all too well. “Our thoughts manifest into our reality and often we sit and expect to be blessed without any carnal input. This song speaks about the things I’ll do this year which are very relatable to everyone. I hope the song motivates those aspiring to achieve these blessings,” he said. Describing his collaboration with rapper Vic Mensa as a “beautiful masterpiece”, Stonebwoy said it was like speaking into existence and working towards your blessings. “That’s the inspiration behind it. The best advice I ever got was to never give up in…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za VODACOM has partnered with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to place 20 psycho-social professionals across the country to reduce the scourge of violence plaguing schools. Vodacom announced this week that it partnered with DBE to place 20 psycho-social professionals in their Schools of Excellence with an aim to reduce the scourge of violence plaguing schools in the country. The network said that following a rigorous selection process, which started in 2020 with the participation of Stellenbosch University, so far, ten such professionals have been placed in KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces with effect from the 2021 academic year. “As a caring company that is committed to addressing societal challenges, Vodacom continues to collaborate with the public sector and non-government organisations to find long-lasting solutions to…

“To apologise is to lay the foundations for a future offence.” Ambrose Bierce’s cynical observation a century ago retains a grain of truth. The current political impasse between the ANC and Ace Magashule is instructive. From the start commentators objected that former president Jacob Zuma’s so-called apology after the damning judgment by the Constitutional Court was only for the “confusion and misunderstanding”, partly caused by the president himself in launching parallel processes. It was not a heartfelt mea culpa which the national scandal of Nkandla required, nor was it an apology for his own serious constitutional failures. The president’s words formed more of a political strategy. Consequently, not a day has passed without some ANC heavyweight announcing “the president has apologised”, or more arrogantly, “the ANC has accepted the apology”,…

Survey suggests most voters still support the party system in South Africa In response to the 2020 Constitutional Court judgment compelling Parliament to amend the Electoral Act to provide for independent candidates to stand for election to the national and provincial legislatures, the Inclusive Society Institute (ISI) recently released its proposals for electoral reform in South Africa. The main tenets of the institute’s proposal is the introduction of 66 Multi-Member Constituencies (MMCs) comprising between three and seven representatives per MMC, with a compensatory PR-list to ensure overall proportionality in the legislature. This will ensure multiparty representation across all geographic areas. Independent candidates and parties will compete for seats within each MMC. Through the introduction of MMCs, delineated along the current district and metropolitan council boundaries, accountability, representivity and representative responsiveness…

Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas military wing in a Gaza air strike yesterday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as global concern mounted over their most intense hostilities in years. At least 53 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Six people had been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Israel’s Shin Bet security service said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of Hamas who had been killed. “This is just the beginning. We’ll hit them like they’ve never dreamed possible,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod and Israeli media said the military…

MOSCOW: mourners laid flowers yesterday at the gates of a Russian school where a day earlier a lone gunman killed nine people, mostly children, in one of the country’s worst shooting incidents history. Flags were flown at half-mast on official buildings yesterday, an official day of mourning, while funerals were planned for some of the dead later in the day. Flowers were piled high outside School No. 175 in Kazan, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Tatarstan, where the shooting took place. “This is a huge and unexpected loss,” Irina Krasnikova, 42, told AFP. “We live in such a nice city. It’s hard to believe this happened to us… It didn’t happen to my children, but it is so painful, it’s hard to speak”.…

BRUSSELS: Amazon yesterday won its fight against an EU order to pay about 250 million euros (roughly R4.2bn) in back taxes to Luxembourg as Europe’s second highest court dealt a blow to the bloc’s efforts to make multinational corporations pay more tax. The Luxembourg-based General Court said Amazon had not enjoyed a selective advantage in its tax deal with the Grand Duchy. “The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group,” the judge said. Amazon in a statement welcomed the ruling, saying it was in line with its “long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws.…

HERMAN GIBBS Embattled Kaizer Chiefs were back in the trenches at FNB Stadium last night as they managed to keep their slender top eight hopes alive with a 1-all stalemate against Swallows FC. The outcome of this Soweto derby saw Amakhosi remain in 10th place as Swallows stayed fifth. Swallows were the first to draw blood after a freakish goal by striker Kagiso Malinga, who enjoyed a rare slot in the run-on XI after battling injury this season. Left-back Sifiso Hlanti booted the ball into Chiefs’ goalmouth from 30 metres out and Malinga deflected the ball from under the noses of two hesitant opposition defenders past Chiefs goalkeeper Bruce Bvuma in the eighth minute. The riposte by Chiefs came seven minutes later after a fine build-up. Midfielder Willard Katsande…