Table of contents for 2021-08-03 in Star

Absa PMI plunges to a 14-month low but is expected to rebound Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za INDUSTRIAL activity in the South African manufacturing sector is expected to rebound to a respectable level this month after plunging to a shocking 14-month low in July. The Absa Purchasing Manufacturers Index (PMI) fell sharply to 43.5 index points in July, from 57.4 points in June, weighed down by the lockdown restrictions and civil unrest. This PMI reading below 50 index points was down to the lowest level since May 2020. This was a setback to manufacturing output recovery at the start of the third quarter of 2021. It also signalled the steepest deterioration in business conditions since the beginning of the lockdown. Absa said that July was a particularly challenging month, with the broader…

Liam Karabo Joyce liam.joyce@inl.co.za Media personality Somizi Mhlongo-Motaung has responded to abuse allegations allegedly made by his estranged husband Mohale Motaung-Mhlongo. Over the weekend, allegations of abuse came to light as the Sunday World reported that Mohale had accused the Idols SA judge of abuse in an interview Mohale apparently did with producers of the reality show Living the Dream with Somizi. The weekly tabloid reported that Mohale told producers Somizi tried to kill him with a kitchen knife and pushed him off the road with his car while he tried to flee. The couple had been arguing about Mohale’s alleged cheating. Confirming that there was trouble in paradise, Somizi’s management said he was aware of the allegations of abuse against him. However, the star said he would refer the…

Liam Karabo Joyce liam.joyce@inl.co.za While Blaq Diamond made history as the first outfit to ever be crowned Artist of the Year at the SA Music Awards (Samas), Kabza De Small walked away as the biggest winner. The 27th edition of the annual awards aired on SABC1 on Saturday. Matthew Mole’s Keep It Together took Record of the Year award while Miss Pru’s Price To Pay featuring Blaq Diamond and Malome Vector won the Music Video of the Year award. From king of amapiano to king of SAMA27, De Small reigned supreme. He bagged four awards, the biggest number by a single artist this year followed by DJ Maphorisa with three. De Small’s collaboration with DJ Maphorisa as Scorpion Kings earned them Album of the Year, Duo or Group of the…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za AFTER more than a year of attending school on a rotational basis, primary school learners are back to full-time attendance this week. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) yesterday reverted to full-time attendance after projections of the NIDS-CRAM Wave 5 report indicated that between March 2020 and June 2021, most primary school learners lost 70-100% of learning. DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga visited Kabelo Primary School in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, yesterday to monitor the first day of the return at full capacity. “It’s a complex environment and we know there are some concerns around social distancing and what will happen. This is big because we haven’t seen all learners in class since March last year, so we needed to create an environment where schools that are able to return…

SONRI NAIDOO sonri.naidoo@inl.co.za THE SHORTAGE of staff at the Gauteng Department of Community and Safety has become a concern for many residents in the province. They now feel they are vulnerable to violent crime. The Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko says the reason for the shortage of students and officers to fill the vacancies was due to the Covid-19 pandemic as colleges were closed. According to the department’s fourth quarterly report for the 2020/21 financial year, the department had 236 vacant posts. Most of these vacancies typically occured due to retirement, leaving the department with an institutional knowledge and expertise vacuum as these positions were not filled. “What is especially concerning is that the department system automatically locks out the employee at the beginning of the month where they…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za THE LIFTING of lockdown regulations has resulted in an increase in rhino poaching in South Africa in the first six months of this year. This weekend on World Ranger Day, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy revealed that from January to the end of June, about 249 rhinos were poached for their horn in South Africa. “While this is higher than the number of rhino killed for their horns in the same period last year – at 166 – it is fewer than the 318 rhino that were poached in the first six months of 2019,” the department said. South African National Parks (SANParks) recorded the most rhinos poached (132), while KwaZulu-Natal had 33 rhino poaching incidents and Limpopo had 30. Mpumalanga recorded about 20…

FAROUK ARAIE | Gauteng My beloved brothers and sisters, in 1981 by unanimous resolution the UN declared September 21 as the International Day Of Peace. The goal was to create a worldwide Culture of Peace in which the inevitable conflicts between nations and communities would be solved peacefully. “Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.” We hear this phrase quite often, but in our land it appears to be evaporating before our eyes. Sadly our beloved country was rocked, mutilated and decimated by mindless violence, devoured by destruction unprecedented in our recorded history. We wonder how our people have been able to weather the storm despite the severity of the issues at stake. Irrespective of your colour or political affiliation. Do not relent in your quest for the continuous…

Stephen Devereux THE basic income grant debate has been rumbling in South Africa for two decades. The reintroduction of the “social relief of distress” grant by President Cyril Ramaphosa, for unemployed people and unpaid caregivers who don’t receive any other social grant or unemployment insurance, provides the ideal moment to introduce permanent basic income support for poor and unemployed adults. I prefer the argument for basic income support, rather than a universal basic income grant. That’s because South Africa already has social grants for poor children up to 18 years of age, poor older people over 60 and other vulnerable groups. What is needed is a social protection instrument that would address the country’s unemployment pandemic by assisting people aged 18 to 59 who are living in poverty –…

Dar es Salaam: When Samia Suluhu Hassan took up the reins of power in Tanzania four months ago, there was hope at home and abroad she would turn the page on the increasingly autocratic rule of her late predecessor. But with the arrest of a high-profile opposition leader on terrorism charges, critics are now openly brandishing the term “dictator” to describe Tanzania’s first woman president. Hassan, a stalwart in the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party who served as vice president throughout John Magufuli’s rule, was sworn in as head of state following his sudden death in March. Magufuli left a complex legacy. He was initially popular for his no-nonsense anti-graft stance and won praise for investing in infrastructure, expanding free education and clawing back taxes from foreign mining companies.…

Israel’s supreme court held a hearing yesterday on the case of Palestinian families facing expulsion by Israeli settlers in annexed east Jerusalem, an issue that sparked conflict in May. Dozens of people protested outside the Jerusalem court in support of the Palestinians from the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and against “Israeli settlement”. Violent clashes in May over the possible Sheikh Jarrah evictions spread to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, sparking a crackdown by Israeli security forces. That triggered an 11-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, which ended in a tense ceasefire. Four Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah have asked the supreme court to hear an appeal on their case, after the magistrate and district courts ruled their homes belong to Jewish settlers. The Israeli court system…

TOKYO: A state of emergency was yesterday imposed in Japan’s Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Osaka prefectures, joining Tokyo and Okinawa, due to a resurgence in Covid-19 cases. The emergency period in Tokyo and Okinawa was also extended to August 31 from the originally planned August 22. The Japanese government is planning to roll out standards for easing restrictions with the progress of vaccination of the population. Under the state of emergency, establishments serving alcohol or offering karaoke services are asked to suspend their business and those not serving liquor are requested to close at 8pm. The government would offer monetary compensation for compliance.…

MATSHELANE MAMABOLO PRECIOUS Mashele has previously raced against both Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo and should therefore not be too overawed when he lines up against the revered Ugandans in today’s 5 000m second heat at the Tokyo Olympics. The South African champion is the country’s sole representative in the 12-and-a-half-lap event and has made it known that he wants to make the final. But he faces stiff competition in his 20-man heat this afternoon – the Ugandan duo who have already bagged Tokyo 2020 medals being among them. Cheptegei and Kiplimo made Ugandan Olympics history last week when they became the east African country’s first podium finishers at the Games when they won silver and bronze respectively in the 10 000m. Mashele will know the two only too…

ITUMELENG MAFISA THE BATTLE for the survival of Mango Airlines will take place at the South Gauteng High Court today as unions fight for the low-cost airline company to be placed under business rescue. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the SA Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and the Mango Pilots Association had applied to the courts to have the state company placed under business rescue. The unions were expecting Mango to oppose the application. The unions say they would like Mango to join the business rescue application, which could see both labour and the employer overseeing the process. The chairperson of the Mango Pilots Association, Jordan Butler, accused Mango management of withholding the salaries of employees. He said this was part of a plan by management to…

THABILE MANGE | Krugersdorp IF PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa had his way, he wouldn’t have appointed certain ministers and deputy ministers to his Cabinet, especially those who are loyal to former president Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa appointed them in the name of unity. That said, the president has shown commitment to women empowerment. He also has a knack of identifying talented and competent females. When director-general in the presidency Dr Cassius Baloyi stepped down, Ramaphosa appointed Phindile Baleni to fill that position. Baleni, the former D-G in the office of the Gauteng premier, is a well-respected technocrat. Early this year, Covid-19 claimed the life of the Minister in the Presidency, Jackson Mthembu. The president elected the Minister of Small Business, Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, to act in that position, on which she…

Mark Zuckerberg wants to reinvent Facebook. He has been telling analysts that he wants the company to lead the way to a completely different internet. “In the coming years, people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company … In many ways the metaverse is the ultimate expression of social technology,” he said. So what does the Facebook chief executive mean by “metaverse company”? The term “metaverse” is used to describe the vision whereby the inter- net will evolve into a virtual world. The idea was first conceptualised in 1992 by the American novelist Neal Stephenson in his science fiction classic, Snow Crash. It foresees the internet as a 3D virtual living space, where individuals dip in and out, interacting…

With a new wave of COVID-19 infections fuelled by the Delta variant striking countries worldwide, disease experts are scrambling to learn whether the latest version of coronavirus is making people, mainly the unvaccinated, sicker than before. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that Delta, first identified in India and now dominant worldwide, is “likely more severe” than earlier variants, according to an internal report made public on Friday. The agency cited research in Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that people infected with the Delta variant were more likely to be hospitalised than earlier in the pandemic. In interviews, disease experts said the three papers suggest a greater risk from the variant, but the study populations are limited and the findings have not yet been reviewed by outside…

KABUL: Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has revealed a six-month security plan to change the security situation in the conflict-battered country. “We have a six-month security plan to change the situation on the battle ground and to stabilise the security situation. The security forces are capable enough to stabilize the security situation,” Ghani told a joint session of the parliament. The president, however, did not give details about the plan. He described the security situation as “critical” while calling on lawmakers to support security forces. After the president’s speech, the joint session of the parliament issued a statement, supporting the president’s suggestions and urging the Taliban to give up fighting.…

ABUJA: Resident doctors in Nigerian public hospitals began an indefinite strike yesterday over the delayed payment of salaries, the doctors’ union said, as the country faces rising Covid-19 infections. Nigerian doctors frequently strike over poor conditions of service. Last year they walked out on their jobs three times over demands for an allowance for treating Covid patients. Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, president of the National Association of Resident Doctors (Nard), said the government had not reached out to the union since the stike started. Asked whether the strike would affect the Covid vaccination drive, Uyilawa: “Hunger is worse than Covid-19. We have also lost 19 members to Covid-19, with no death-in-service insurance.”.…

Fairvest board proposes acquisition of New Star rather than renewing lease EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za FAIRVEST Property Holdings, which plans a share swop merger with Arrowhead Properties, has proposed the acquisition of its outsourced management company New Star Asset Management for R133 million, rather than renewing the term for five years. The 10-year agreement between Fairvest and New Star was approved in 2011 and expires on November 30, 2021, but it could be renewed for a further five years, subject to shareholder approval. Renewing the lease, however, would not be fair to shareholders, according to an appraisal by professional services firm Mazars Corporate Finance. If the asset management agreement was not renewed, Fairvest would become obliged to acquire the business conducted by the asset manager. Fairvest said in a statement yesterday…

Ariana Grande is encouraging people to get their Covid-19 vaccination, as she shared information on the delta variant that is spreading in several countries. The positions hitmaker took to Instagram on Sunday to offer a “gentle reminder” to those who are not yet vaccinated against the virus, as she also supplied links to information about the delta variant which is spreading throughout the US after having already been found in numerous countries including the UK. Alongside a picture of herself wearing a mask, she wrote: “vaxxed n masked. “This is your gentle reminder to please get your vaccines if you are eligible. this thing is not yet over! sharing some info because i care and if i can, i’d like to help anybody who is hesitant.”…

Ntando Makhubu ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za MANAGEMENT of Louis Pasteur Private Hospital in the Pretoria CBD has launched an investigation into the allegations that a gynaecologist raped a patient in the consultation rooms at the facility. The specialist had been hired by a resident doctor at Louis Pasteur to see patients in his rooms. The doctor also has rooms at Mediclinic Medforum. Louis Pasteur spokesperson Michael Sadiki said the hospital would start an internal investigation. “We are going to look into the allegations. We are going to engage with the owner of the practice to understand what really transpired. “We want these allegations to be taken seriously. We are also going to probe the matter from our side as well. As a hospital we value our clients and patients’ safety is our priority,”…

ITUMELENG MAFISA SPENDING several years as a homeless beggar in the Joburg CBD challenged Tshepo Mosala, 32, to reach for his dreams and become a symbol of hope for his community. Mosala moved to the cold streets of the city when he was 16. He was in Grade 11 and running away from a heavy-handed stepfather. He was able to find a new family on the streets where youngsters would travel in groups scavenging for food in rubbish bins, and in some cases on the side of the road. Mosala says all they did was remove the dirt from the food they picked up, and eat what looked good. “On the street we are a family, we would share food, but the only time we would fight was over…

Peter Bachtis | Benoni Is the DA smelling blood, in anticipation of the culling that Ramaphosa is going to unleash on his Cabinet? Perhaps Steenhuisen is not wrong to offer himself for a position in the Cabinet … this could herald a new chapter in South Africa’s political landscape. Imagine Ramaphosa heading up a government of national unity. No longer a cabinet of “tjommies”, but rather a committed team of patriots, who will serve at the behest of the president, with the well being of all the people of this country foremost on their minds. Radical surgery, coupled to strong medicine, has to be dispensed on this critical care patient aka South Africa. Time for Ramaphosa to act with stealth and put this country first … 27 years…

It seems those of us entrusted with power by the people were not ready or willing to listen OVER the past few weeks, I have been in KwaZulu-Natal several times. I have heard some say: “That’s because it’s her duty. She’s deployed there by the ANC.” That is true, I am the NEC member deployed there. But for me, it is about so much more. KwaZulu-Natal’s communities are in extreme distress. And where our people are in distress, the government needs to be present. If the government is not, there is a vacuum, and such vacuums are always filled – sometimes with fake concern covering nefarious purposes, sometimes with the bombast of extremism, sometimes with violence, to “prove” something is being done about the situation. Or with the voices that…

AT THE beginning of the country’s vaccination roll-out on February 1, President Cyril Ramaphosa, in one of his many “family meetings”, told the nation that “nobody should be forced to take the vaccine”. He went on to say that “there will be no repercussions for those who choose not to take the Covid-19 vaccine”. Fast forward to today: a raging war is looming between some employers and employees over what is thought to be a life-saving jab. There have been 7 million vaccinations so far, out of a population of about 60 million. More than 72 000 South Africans have perished since the outbreak of Covid-19. The SA Human Rights Commission is reportedly inundated with complaints from workers and employers alike, seeking guidance on dealing…

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s rating among Conservative supporters plummeted 35 points to 3.4% after the attempt to avoid self-isolation, according to the Conservative Home survey. His approval rating is now the fourth lowest in the Conservative party, the Sunday poll shows. The poll found that 48% of the party’s members thought Johnson was coping badly with the pandemic. But some politicians said the poll was “unsurprising” due to “political wear-and-tear” and a scandal over vaccination passports. |…

NEW DELHI: A partially chewed body of a 9-month-old baby in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has been found near a pond on the outskirts of Mauzamabad Village in Lakhimpur Kheri District. The baby, Shivani, was sleeping with her mother in their home’s courtyard. When her mother woke up, her daughter was missing. She raised the alarm, seeking the help of police and fellow villagers. After a day-long search, police discovered the baby girl’s body on Sunday. Police suspect wild animals may have snatched the child. The autopsy report confirmed the baby was killed by an animal. “Shivani’s house is on the fringe of the village. Jackals, wolves and leopards lurk amid the cane crops,” police said. On July 29, a girl, 3, suffered the same fate.…

Mike Greenaway mike.greenaway@inl.co.za ENGLAND and British & Irish Lions legend Lawrence Dallaglio had an amusing summary of why the Springboks turned the tables on the Lions in the second Test on Saturday, comfortably won by the Boks 27-9 after they had lost comprehensively in the first Test. “My old teammate Martin Johnson said before the kick-off that the Springboks play with a Plan A and if that doesn’t work then they revert to Plan A but just try and do it better,” Dallaglio told Independent Media in an exclusive interview. “And that is what they did from the first Test to the second. “They were a whole lot better with their Plan A and substantially better than the Lions, who in the first Test stood up to the physical confrontation…

Herman Gibbs Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer was not underplaying his side’s defeat on Sunday when they surrendered the Carling Black Label Cup to arch rivals Kaizer Chiefs, but he was buoyed by the “good mood in the team” afterwards at Orlando Stadium. For the Pirates supporters, the outcome didn’t go down well, but Zinnbauer said the team was “finding more and more structure” in spite of fielding untried combinations on Sunday afternoon. “We had better chances than Chiefs,” said Zinnbauer. “It was a good performance. We needed the goal. “At the moment we have a good mood in the team. We are finding more and more structure. It was good to see us with the ball. Not our best, but it’s normal for this time of pre-season. “To…

FORTY-SEVEN years ago almost to the day, the British & Irish Lions defeated the Springboks 28-9 at Loftus Versfeld in what was the heaviest defeat in the history of the green and gold. Over 70 000 South Africans were crammed into a previously impregnable Bok citadel and in silent disbelief they witnessed the tourists score five tries to nil thanks to the wizardry of Phil Bennett, Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams, to mention a few of that team of invincibles. That Lions team razzled and dazzled across South Africa, winning 21 of 22 matches, including three consecutive Test matches before the Boks scrambled a draw in the fourth. I was reminded of that Loftus match, the second Test of that 1974 series, because I have been reading the most brilliant…