Table of contents for 2024-01-03 in Star

Award-winning Liberian Afropop sensation JZyNO has unleashed another summer banger. His recently released track, Yakunay which translates to “Hello” or “Good morning”, is a vibrant amapiano single that embodies JZyNo’s warm embrace of the global music scene. According to a statement sent to media, this sets the stage for a “lively and immersive experience”. “Yakunay emerges as the perfect soundtrack for the festive season, delivering an electrifying combination of rhythms that is set to captivate listeners worldwide. It reaffirms his relentless pursuit of musical excellence, solidifying his take-off within the Afrobeat landscape.” The song is produced by South African producer, Nhlonipho Lihle Dlamini, famous for working with award-winning artists like Robot Boii, Mörda, Black Coffee and Heavy-K. JYzNo shared that making the song was special and he hoped it would…

AN EFF ward councillor from Polokwane has appeared in court on charges of possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition and the possession of illegal explosives. It is alleged that the councillor is one of seven people who were arrested last week for allegedly breaking into a SAPS Stock Theft Unit office and stealing weapons along with 400 rounds of live ammunition. The suspects, who have been remanded in custody, appeared before the Seshego Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Their bail hearing was postponed to Friday, January 12. It is alleged that a member within the police unit helped the suspects execute their mission. IOL reported last week that, according to community members, one of the arrested men is an EFF ward councillor. This has also been confirmed by ActionSA in the province,…

WHAT will it take to convince Israeli government supporters and backers that the conflict between Israel and Hamas has become a project to ethnically cleanse Gaza? This is considering the recent comments by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, that residents of Gaza should be “encouraged to peacefully migrate from Gaza and most probably go to Egypt”. After that, he said Israelis would occupy Gaza and turn it into a “beautiful place”. What a grotesque statement! It is devoid of humanity and laced with blatant sarcasm. Smotrich, in his logic, believes the “final solution” for Gazans will be to their benefit because they are living in poverty and suffering, conditions that exist because of the Israeli occupation. This is an insult of the highest order and it continues to perpetuate the…

Burial societies, stokvels, individuals, particularly the elderly, and municipalities continue to count their losses five years after the brazen looting of nearly R2.3 billion of the hard-earned money they had invested in VBS Mutual Bank. The scandal, which could be branded “The Great Bank Heist”, was exposed in 2018 by advocate Terry Motau, who was appointed to investigate it. He penned a report that blew the lid off the scandal. The bank, meant to benefit black people who were looking to borrow money to buy houses, was started in 1982 by the Venda homeland government. Its sole mandate was to help deserving residents of Venda buy houses. However, the bank was not widely known except for a few who took advantage of it. That all changed in 2016 when the…

The controversy surrounding Ukhozi FM’s Song of the Year feature has once again left South Africans divided on its legitimacy, on social media platforms. This come after Khuzani once again managed to “steal the polls” with his Umjolo Lowo amassing an incredible 934 000 votes, while second-placed Mthandeni, whose song Paris was also tipped for the coveted spot, came in second with just over 733 000 votes, and third-placed Dlala Thukzin, whose song iPlan was South Africa’s firm favourite heading into the new year, only managed 90 000-odd votes. For more than three days, social media discourse has been dominated by the legitimacy of Ukhozi FM’s Song of the Year feature. If judged based on the accuracy of numbers and the fact that it has always been clear merit…

TOKYO: Five people aboard a Japan coast guard aircraft died yesterday when it hit a Japan Airlines passenger plane on the ground in a fiery collision at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. All 379 passengers and crew on board the passenger plane which burst into flames were safely evacuated, Japanese transport minister Tetsuo Saito said. But five of the six crew members from the smaller plane, bound for central Japan after Monday’s huge earthquake, died, Saito said. The captain survived but was injured. Those on board the plane, an Airbus 350, included eight children. | AFP…

Nairobi: Two suspects appeared in a Kenyan court yesterday over the murder of Ugandan Olympic athlete Benjamin Kiplagat who was found dead at the weekend with a stab wound to his neck. The two men were ordered detained for 21 days by a magistrate’s court in the Rift Valley town of Eldoret to enable police to continue investigations into the killing of the 34-year-old steeplechase runner. The suspects, identified in court documents as David Ekhai Lokere, aged 25, and Peter Ushuru Khalumi, 30, were arrested on Monday. Kiplagat’s body was discovered on a road on the outskirts of town. | AFP…

Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has seemingly divided the club’s fan base ahead of a lengthy international break due to the Africa Cup of Nations. The Afcon hiatus, which started this past Monday and will continue until mid-February, has handed football supporters of the domestic game an opportunity for perspective as they analyse a possible way forward for their respective clubs. They say a week is a long time in football, which means three months must feel like an eternity, and that’s the time it took a section of The Ghost to forget Riveiro’s MTN8 cup tactical masterclass, which saw the club win back-to-back titles. Now with Pirates missing out on the lucrative Carling Knockout Cup and in fifth spot in the DStv Premiership standings, the jury is out…

Media personality, influencer and DJ, Cyan Boujee has confessed that last month was the first time she paid her own rent. This was only because the DJ recently lost her “sugar daddy”, who used to pay for “everything”. On her YouTube vlog recently, Boujee spoke about their relationship. “I have been crying and crying. I am so grateful for every single thing I have achieved. I’m grateful for everything I have, but I think I’m crying the most because I have someone really, really close to me that passed away. “It’s been 24 days since he passed away ... It’s really not the best time for me right now ... I am grieving. I am so happy that I got to this point because I was not emotional, I didn’t…

TWO weeks from now, a former alleged askari and security police member is to have his pre-trial heard in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. He is to be charged with the 1991 murder of an Umlazi ANC activist. Elliot Mfanozi Ninela, 62, is alleged to have shot and killed Mthunzi Velemseni Njakazi, who was 21 at the time. Ninela was served his indictment by the National Prosecuting Authority in the Durban Magistrate’s Court last year. Njakazi was a former bodyguard of the then-ANC president, Oliver Tambo. Yesterday, Njakazi’s brother, Siyabonga, said the family hoped that the trial would give them answers they have been looking for. “As a family, we are waiting to hear the truth as to what led the alleged accused to assassinate my brother because the Truth and…

There is an unsettling feeling about President Cyril Ramaphosa; in most cases, he takes the side of the powerful. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and philosopher, in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, wrote: “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral”. This echoed Ramaphosa’s opening address on November 21, 2023, in the virtual extraordinary meeting of BRICS leaders when he said Hamas and Israel violated international law and were both wrong. This brought me back to what happened on August 16, 2012, after Ramaphosa sent a message that the protests at Lonmin deserve “concomitant action” and protesters were massacred. It was then said that the police had acted in self defence; but between the police…

DRAMATIC starts to the year are a common affair in South Africa owing to the never-ending squabbles over the “Song of the Year”. This year was no different as everyone tuned in to Ukhozi FM, one of the largest radio stations in the country, to see which artist would take home the coveted title of Song of the Year 2023. Leading the pack with 993 667 votes against other much-loved songs, Umjolo Lowo by Khuzani ft Luve won. The announcement received a clamour as people voiced their disapproval of the song that won the most votes. In a video shared widely on social media, Maskandi artist Khuzani can be seen being booed on stage by scores of fans after the #SongOfTheYear2023 announcement by Ukhozi FM. While comments continue to pour…

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has reported almost 3 million registrations for the 2024 national and provincial elections, with youth between the ages of 16 and 29 amounting to 70% of the new registrations. This comes after several social media trends in the form of hashtags were circulating on all platforms, where young people expressed their hopes for change, as they feel 2024 is the new 1994. This has given rise to debates on whether or not there is still hope to consolidate South Africa’s democracy, since more people are willing to participate in the upcoming elections, as compared to the 2019 elections. In as much as the youth are willing to partake in the elections, there is still scepticism on whether there is a suitable party that…

Moscow: Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine yesterday but stressed there were no casualties. The accident occurred the same day as Russia hit Ukraine with a large-scale missile attack. It is not the first such incident during Moscow’s almost two-year-long Ukraine offensive. The ministry said six private houses were damaged in the accident in the village of Petropavlovka, Russian news agencies reported. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident was under way. | AFP…

WASHINGTON: A growing number of Americans, or more than one-third of US adults believe that US President Joe Biden’s 2020 election was not legitimate, a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll revealed yesterday. While most US adults (62%) still consider Biden’s 2020 win legitimate, 36% have an opposite view. This represents a 7% increase compared with poll results for the same question in December 2021, when only 29% said Biden’s election victory was not legitimate. Republicans who consider Biden’s election victory legitimate have shrunk from 39% to 31%. | Sputnik…

HUGO Broos was speaking for the entire country when he said, “if we do not go past the group stages, we will not be happy”. What the Belgian coach of South Africa’s senior national team that will be contesting the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) set to take place in the Ivory Coast from mid-January to early February should be made aware of is that unhappiness will not be the only outcome of Bafana Bafana’s failure to reach the knockout phase. Surely Broos must swell the ranks of the unemployed should he fail to steer the team into the round of 16. Granted he has the requisite experience to know that the biennial continental tournament is one of the toughest competitions out there. “You know, going past the group stages…

Since the news of Mbongeni Ngema’s death, fellow celebrities have taken to their social media accounts to pay tribute to the playwright. One of them was Somizi Mhlongo. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Mhlongo shared an alleged WhatsApp message that had been “sent” to him by the Sarafina! star. Ngema thanked the former Idols SA judge for always being there for him “without any provocation or me asking for help”. He also made mention of Mhlongo being the “only one of all the hundreds of my children who stepped forward for me”. It didn’t take long for online sleuths to take a deeper dive and discover that the text message wasn’t sent from the late singer and theatre producer. Soon, Mhlongo’s comments section was inundated with people calling him out,…

The ANC in eThekwini says it has managed to counter the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party’s surge among its branches in the region. In an effort to counter support for the party backed by former president Jacob Zuma, the ANC in eThekwini last week directed its branches to compile reports on the impact the new party was having on its members. Yesterday, the party said the preliminary report from branches suggested MK had had very little impact as few members have left the ANC for it. ANC regional spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said although the branches were given until today to submit assessment reports, the preliminary findings revealed no major shift except for a couple of members who have left. Mkhize said although losing one member was concerning for the ANC,…

Lebanon, under the influence of the terror group, Hezbollah, is playing with fire, and is surely going to get burnt. Hezbollah, since its creation, has used terror to achieve its goals – the “destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Shia theocracy in Lebanon”. Hezbollah has strong support among Lebanese Shia Muslims, but Sunnis have disagreed with its agenda. It is also a powerful political force in Lebanon. Southern Lebanon is a Hezbollah stronghold, from where it continues to serve the interests of Iran and Syria. In 2006, the UN brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that resulted in UN Resolution 1701. This after Israel had severely damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure in 34 days of military conflict. Hezbollah has, however, blatantly disregarded all resolutions and agreements since then.…

Our country is in the throes of election fever as new parties, with their new agendas, are spewing to a gullible audience. Recycled politicians wearing new garbs and making false promises that cannot be implemented. Honest politicians have become a rare commodity. It was US President Theodore Roosevelt who offered the profound words of wisdom: “We cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure. Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity.” When a society loses sight of distinction between fact and fiction, truth-telling and lying, what happens is that…

City of Tshwane residents have been mobilised to defy the payment of rates and services this month, in solidarity with defaulting customers whose prepaid cards were blocked in December. The Lotus Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association (Lasca) had made the call in order to express its intention to defy the municipality in 2024. Lasca chairperson Tshepo Mahlangu slammed the City for releasing a media statement last month indicating that it would block prepaid cards of defaulting customers. Mahlangu said: “City of Tshwane blocked customers’ prepaid cards and vowed to intensify their notorious Tshwane ya Tima campaign, but the residents have vowed to defy the municipality come January 2024.” He said Lasca had invited the municipality to meetings but its representatives had not attended them. “They refuse to engage in…

There are three dogmatic and dangerous groups of people in modern-day South Africa: religious, traditional/cultural and ideological fundamentalists. The common thread among the groups is that they would not accept that there is no culture, tradition, custom and practice throughout the whole world that is static. This explains partly why black boys in the Eastern Cape are sacrificed annually in the name of tradition and/or cultural ritual, and that few of us see that there is something wrong and criminal about the practice. The traditional and/or cultural passage to become a man in the Eastern Cape is becoming too extreme and dangerous for many black boys. It looks like the traditional and/or cultural beast’s lust for the blood of more black boys in the Eastern Cape will never be satisfied.…

Japanese rescuers battled the clock and powerful aftershocks yesterday to find survivors of a New Year’s Day earthquake that killed at least 48 people and caused widespread destruction. The 7.5 magnitude quake that rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, caused a major fire and tore apart roads. On the Noto Peninsula, the destruction included buildings damaged by fire, houses flattened, fishing boats sunk or washed ashore, and highways hit by landslides. “I’m amazed the house is this broken and everyone in my family managed to come out of it unscathed,” said Akiko, standing outside her parents’ tilting home in the badly hit city of Wajima. The way 2024 started “will be etched into my memory forever”, she said, after…

JAKARTA: More than 2 000 residents have been evacuated to temporary shelters amid heightened volcanic activities in a volcano in eastern Indonesia, officials said yesterday. Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki in East Nusa Tenggara province has erupted several times in recent weeks, including an eruption on Monday that spewed volcanic ash 1.5km above its peak, according to the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. The agency recorded another eruption from Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday but ash clouds were not observed. Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes. | AFP…