Mercury2023-06-07的目錄

A R127 million newly constructed tug boat jetty that will increase the space for the berthing of tugs was unveiled yesterday by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) at the port of Durban. TNPA said the construction was initiated in line with the KwaZulu-Natal Port Master Plan, a programme that is set to position the Durban port as an international container hub. “The completion of the project means the draft limitations and berthing space constraints have been eliminated – the port will now have sufficient berthing space and be able to consolidate the berthing of its marine fleet, which will increase operational efficiencies.” Malefetsane Setaka, a port engineer at the Port of Durban, said: “We started the project in 2021 and are pleased that we can unveil it today.” Setaka added…

There is not much that makes us proud to be South African these days, as we see our country slip away from us. But Musa Motha, even if only for a while, made me proud to be South African as he wooed, bedazzled and enthralled a worldwide audience glued to Britain’s Got Talent. I was not only in awe and mesmerised, but the young man bedevilled by cancer who took on the world tugged at my heartstrings – even if he didn’t win. Diagnosed with cancer and having his left leg amputated, this young man from South Africa, now living in England, did not let his lot in life diminish his zest and passion for life, music and dance. He proved that any disability can be overcome if the mind…

I agree wholeheartedly with your editorial (June 5). I serve on the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence – overseeing Crime and Defence Intelligence and the State Security Agency. What you had to say about, for example, the Glebelands murders, was absolutely true. Billions of rand are spent on policing, defence and the State Security Agency (SSA) – yet here we are – no better off than we were during the 2021 July riots, when the security cluster was caught with its pants down. Every person with even a passing interest in social media saw the dozens of claims that the riots were going to take place – and where. The cluster swore that the situation would be turned around. However, today we have a National Police Commissioner without Top Secret…

There were 32 of us from 14 countries. Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Zambia, and several other African countries were well represented. Three were from the US. One was from the UK and one from Canada. We were a collection of pastors and counsellors, writers, journalists and artists. Two were television journalists who covered little-known wars. I was aware of at least one engineer. I heard people speaking English, Portuguese, Xhosa and several languages I could not identify. While I have no way of knowing anyone’s net worth, it became clear from multiple conversations that some lived on very, very little while others had all they would ever need. Several people among us had buried their children, faced wars, famine and experienced violence first-hand. Some…

The urgent application brought by Dr Nandipha Magudumana to declare her arrest in Tanzania unlawful has been dismissed. On Monday, Bloemfontein High Court Judge Phillip Loubser dismissed her application with costs. Magudumana claimed she had been brought back to South Africa by authorities who, according to her, colluded with their Tanzanian counterparts, and in her view and that of the legal team who represented her, this was an extradition disguised as a deportation. Magudumana was arrested in Arusha, Tanzania, with her boyfriend, convicted killer and rapist Thabo Bester, in April. Bester escaped from the Mangaung Correctional Facility in May last year after faking his death. Judge Loubser disagreed with Magudumana’s assertion. He said she had acquiesced to being transported to South Africa. “I am dismissing this application with costs, including…

A northern KwaZulu-Natal principal has described how she woke up on Sunday to find that her home was on fire. Barbie Mbatha-Mazeka, principal of KwaNogcoyi Primary School, said that before the fire there had been many threats sent to her directly. She said that, in February, the school administration area was burnt and a part of the principal’s office was torched – private security had to be hired to ensure the safety of the pupils and school property. “Just after 9.30 on Sunday night, our helper screamed for help as she could see smoke in the house. When my husband and I woke up, the house was full of smoke. When we tried looking outside, we saw that our two cars were burning as well,’’ she said. She said they…

Two suspects charged with the murder of Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) lecturer Chanlall Shan Dwarika made their first appearance in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Sihle Mkhize, 25, and Siyabonga Maye, 35, appeared in connection with the kidnapping and murder of 61-year-old Dwarika, an electrical engineering lecturer. Dwarika was kidnapped on May 28 and his body was found in Inanda at the weekend. National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the duo were charged with kidnapping, murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. She said the matter was adjourned to June 13 for bail information. KZN police said the two men were arrested and then Dwarika’s body was found near Mafuya Road, in Inanda, on June 3. Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said: “The victim, who was…

The gruesome Odisha train disaster in India reminds all of humanity of life’s fragility. Disasters continue to rock the world – a few months ago the earthquakes in Türkiye graphically revealed mankind’s vulnerability to catastrophic events that change the course of history in 30 seconds. One is the obvious, but profoundly disruptive, nature of natural and man-made disasters like the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Over the past 100 years, we lived under the illusion of being immune to the suffering and severe loss that accompany these monumental disasters. Many of us live in denial. As graphic events unfold before us, we witness the changing course of global history in the comfort of our insulated homes, ignoring the reality of life-altering changes that are affecting humanity on…

Battles raged in Sudan’s war-torn capital of Khartoum yesterday, witnesses said, and the residents of an island in the Nile reported being “under siege” amid desperate shortages. Eight weeks of fighting have pitted army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A number of broken ceasefires have offered brief lulls but no respite for residents of the city, where witnesses again reported “the sound of heavy artillery fire” in northern Khartoum. Witnesses also said there were “clashes with various types of weapons” in south Khartoum, where “the sound of explosions shook our walls”. In the city centre, at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers, the island of Tuti is “under total seige” by…

Kenyan police fired tear gas at hundreds of people protesting near parliament yesterday against a proposed finance bill that would hike taxes on fuel and housing. President William Ruto, who won elections in August on a platform of helping the poor, is under pressure to raise revenues in East Africa’s economic powerhouse amid rising government debt repayments. But his proposals have drawn sharp criticism from public servants and political opponents, who say that the cost of living is already too high. Police fired tear gas to disperse about 500 protesters who marched to parliament to present a petition against the bill, a witness said. Eleven protesters were detained by police. Ruto has defended the bill, saying it will ensure financial stability and create jobs for the youth by building new…

BALASORE: Indian authorities made fervent appeals to families yesterday to help identify 83 unclaimed bodies kept in hospitals and mortuaries after the death toll in the country’s deadliest rail crash in over two decades rose to 288. The disaster struck on Friday, when a passenger train hit a stationary freight train, jumped the tracks and hit another passenger train passing in the opposite direction near the district of Balasore in the eastern state of Odisha. Bijay Kumar Mohapatra, health director of Odisha, said authorities were trying to source iced containers to preserve the unclaimed bodies. Under state regulations no autopsy can be done on an unclaimed body until 96 hours have passed. | Reuters…

Tehran: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled an intermediate range ballistic missile yesterday capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds of up to 15 times the speed of sound, state television reported. President Ebrahim Raisi hailed the new missile’s hypersonic capability, saying it would boost Iran’s “power of deterrence”. “The range of the Fattah missile is 1 400km and its speed before hitting its target” is between 13 and 15 times the speed of sound, the official IRNA news agency said. Talks between Tehran and major powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, left in tatters when Washington abandoned it in 2018 and imposed renewed sanctions, are stalled. | AFP…

RESIDENTS of uMngeni Local Municipality have filed thousands of written submissions with the demarcation board on its proposal to amalgamate uMngeni with two other municipalities. Mayor Chris Pappas said there had been about 29 000 written submissions made to the board to date, and about 17 000 of these came from uMngeni residents. Pappas revealed this during a business engagement meeting in Pietermaritzburg yesterday where he gave a detailed assessment of what he found when the DA took over the council in 2021 and the plans for its future. The Midlands council was won by the DA in the 2021 local government elections, and has been seen by some as a model of good governance and service delivery under Pappas. Among the proposals before the demarcation board is to have…

COMMUNICATIONS and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele said yesterday government was focusing on the merits of the South African Post Office (Sapo) business rescue application and being geared to respond to the two court cases that were under way. “We believe there are a number of options to turn around the Post Office and we are all crossing our fingers that the court responds to our prayer favourably,” Gungubele said regarding the business rescue application. He made the statement while responding to questions from MPs during the meeting of the communications and digital technologies portfolio committee. Gungubele was briefing the committee on the provisional liquidation of Sapo and broadcast digital migration. The High Court, Pretoria granted the provisional liquidation in February after two creditors lodged an application. Gungubele said the…

The brutal death of Mangosuthu University lecturer Shan Dwarika is shocking, cruel and inhuman. This murder will be a talking point for many years to come and is a grim reminder that crime is hard to overcome. I am utterly ashamed of being a South African. Our country has become a war zone. These criminals who place no value on human life have left the people of South Africa frustrated and shocked with their aggressive and violent behaviour. Crime has escalated rapidly, with little or no anti-crime prevention strategies. These criminals have wreaked havoc and with the granting of minimum bail, they are allowed to roam freely while the families are in pain. The justice system has failed us, it is clear our government has lost the plot with regard…

ProfESSOR Taole Mokoena in his acceptance speech of his position as the new health ombudsman taking over from Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, clarified a few things about the mandate of the health ombudsman, according to the Department of Health. An inspection of 696 health facilities in the financial year 2016/2017 found that only five facilities were compliant. A whopping 691 had failed the inspection. One would have expected that those results would have been followed by aggressive measures to establish the cause of such hopeless failures in our public health-care system, and implementation of positive changes. But none of that followed. In one such inspection, while I was still working at Tembisa Hospital where it was impossible to achieve the health-care standards that we all knew were necessary to achieve high…

THE Water and Sanitation Department is strengthening its regulatory role over municipal water and sanitation services to mitigate the risk of total collapse of services and infrastructure. This follows the deaths of 26 people after an outbreak of cholera in Hammanskraal. Responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Rebecca Mohlala, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu said the reliability of municipal water and sanitation services was generally deteriorating as evidenced by the Green Drop and Blue Drop assessments. “During this financial year we will be consulting on updated and more comprehensive norms and standards for water and sanitation services, in terms of the Water Services Act. “We will also publish a National Regulatory Dashboard showing the extent of compliance with the national norms and standards for water services for all…

Pupils from St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School in Greyville, Durban, returned to school on Monday, after sitting at home for over two weeks due to sewage spilling into the school from a blocked sewerage line. The Mercury reported that the issue began on May 11 when raw sewage began seeping from school drains, on to the assembly area, netball court, front lawn and into the school hall. The situation worsened the next day when pupils and teachers started getting sick and parents were called to fetch their children from school. In an update, eThekwini Municipality’s head of communications Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the sewer overflow at the school has been cleared. Khuzwayo said eThekwini Water and Sanitation worked around the clock to unblock the major sewer line that resulted in the…

TWO contracts awarded by Umgeni Water Board (UWB) have triggered a second investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the affairs of the entity. One contract is related to the provision of security and another related to a social facilitation and community engagement programme. The SIU investigation was gazetted this past Friday. An initial investigation by the SIU into the affairs of UWB, is already under way. According to media reports about the first investigation, the SIU investigators were probing the procurement and contracting for goods, works and services by Umgeni Water. Board members, officials and employees of Umgeni Water were also investigated for possible fraudulent or corrupt activities. Unauthorised, irregular, or fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by Umgeni Water also came under the spotlight. In this latest probe,…

South Africans have this week been hit with a double dose of good news for a change, something that has been few and far between for several months. While fuel prices remain stubbornly high in historical terms, motorists are paying less for petrol and diesel from this morning. Were it not for the significantly weaker rand, which depreciated to an average of R18.98 from R18.13 the previous month, there could have been larger decreases for petrol and diesel. But still, it is better than nothing, especially after the prices had been on an upward trend for a while. And after Eskom lowered the load shedding stages at the weekend, the power utility yesterday suspended the rolling blackouts due to lower demand and improved available generation capacity. Stage 3 load shedding…

An attack on a major Russian-held dam in southern Ukraine yesterday unleashed a torrent of water that flooded a small city, two dozen villages and sent hundreds fleeing. Moscow and Kyiv traded blame for ripping a gaping hole in the Kakhovka dam in what Kyiv said was an attempt by Russia to hamper Ukraine’s long-awaited offensive. People in the city of Kherson headed for higher ground as water, which had been held back by the dam and a hydroelectric plant, rose in the Dnipro River. “There is shooting, now there is flooding,” said Lyudmyla, who had loaded a washing machine on to a cart that was attached to an old Soviet car. Ukraine’s interior ministry said 650 people had been evacuated and 420 more had left the area, with a…

Brasília: Astrud Gilberto, the Brazilian singer whose soft, beguiling voice made The Girl from Ipanema a worldwide sensation in the 1960s and provided a huge boost to the bossa nova genre, has died at age 83, her family said. The singer was born in Salvador, capital of Brazil’s north-eastern state of Bahia, in 1940 and was married to Joao Gilberto, a pioneer of the bossa nova genre who died in 2019. Astrud Gilberto recorded 19 albums in her career, and after singing The Girl from Ipanema was the first Brazilian to be nominated for a Grammy, an award she won for Song of the Year in 1965. | AFP…

Kabul: A leading international NGO’s Afghan women staff have resumed their work in some provinces, months after the Taliban government banned them from working. Several aid groups suspended operations in protest at the order that was announced at the end of December, and later extended to include Afghan women working for the UN. The Norwegian Refugee Council last month announced that officials had said they would consider a “temporary agreement” to allow women to return to work. Government officials claim the ban was imposed because women were not observing hijab rules. | AFP…

WASHINGTON: Ford Motor Co said yesterday it was expanding and issuing a new recall for 125 000 sport utility vehicles and trucks because engine failures may cause a fire. The recall covers various Escape and Lincoln Corsair SUVs and Maverick compact pickup trucks from the 2020-2023 model years with 2.5L hybrid or plug-in hybrid engines, a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated. Ford said isolated engine manufacturing issues could cause the engine to fail prematurely. In that event engine oil or fuel vapour may be released, risking fire and injury. Ford advised owners to shut off the engine if they saw smoke. | Reuters…

Calls are growing for the police to probe whether breakdowns are deliberately being planned at various Eskom power stations. The breakdowns ultimately lead to load shedding. The police are investigating claims that a senior executive at the power utility, with top-secret security clearance, allegedly appointed engineers to help ensure that there were breakdowns at certain power stations. The allegations, which were reported in a Sunday newspaper, relate to the executive and the engineers allegedly colluding and then profiting from the repair of the breakdowns. Last year, former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said the sabotage of Eskom equipment, and coal syndicates, were among the criminal activities that were adding to the load-shedding crisis. He said mysterious failures had been reported during the rolling blackouts. “The issue is quite pervasive…

The recent collapse of the eThekwini council meeting meant to receive a briefing from the MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs is a reminder of the sorry state of affairs in the municipality. It is clear that ANC councillors in the eThekwini municipality are highly compromised and are caught up in the battles that are taking place within the party. The intervention that was meant to address the issues in the municipality is much needed. Without a doubt, eThekwini is becoming a failed municipality and is heading for the dump heap. Residents are frustrated and are being fleeced to pay for the incompetence and corruption that is rife in the municipality. Investors are leaving the city, and Durban no longer attracts tourists as it used to. While the Section…

TENSION is close to breaking point in the Street Shelter for the Over- Forties. The damsels are anxiously waiting to find out who the Sharks’ opponents will be for the Currie Cup semi-final at King’s Park – an encounter which, they are confident, will lead to their supplying the elastic for the making of catapults for the time-honoured celebratory feu de joie in which the streetlights are shot out. And that would be but a build-up to the Currie Cup final – against whom? The tension is nerve-racking. But the boyos looked so good last Saturday in their traditional Currrie Cup colours against the traditional vyand from the north in their traditional colours – so much tradition – that the prospects are good. ’Erewego, ’erewego, ’erewego! Bengali wordsmiths An interesting…

FORMER BRICS Business Council chairman Dr Iqbal Survé was recently presented with the Russian Foreign Ministry’s medal for co-operation. The medal was presented by Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, who is currently in Cape Town for the meeting of the BRICS’s foreign affairs and international relations ministers. Dr Survé, a South African business leader, has been recognised by several countries for his contribution to peaceful co-operation, sustainability and international friendship, including by Spain, the US, Finland and Saudi Arabia. Dr Survé said it was important to emphasise: “the significance of non-alignment, the pursuit of peaceful co-operation, and the promotion of international friendship”. During the ceremony, in which Lavrov presented the medal, he remarked on the important part that the businessman played in the BRICS Business Council. Throughout the…

THE issue of a breathalyser test for alcohol versus a blood test to determine any levels of alcohol came under the spotlight in the Johannesburg Labour Court after a worker at a mine was fired even though his blood test showed no traces of alcohol. Rickus Willemse had been working for Samancor Chrome, trading as Western Chrome Mines, for 19 years when he was fired. At arbitration, the mine was told to reinstate him, but unhappy with this finding, the mine turned to the Labour Court. The issue was that the mine has zero tolerance for alcohol and drug use by their workers when on duty. The policy deems a person unfit to enter the premises in the event that their breath alcohol level exceeds 0.000%. Willemse arrived at work…

Indigenous people need to undergo a journey of self and collective discovery SINCE 1994, South African universities have somewhat transformed in representation and personnel. Nonetheless, one could argue that the university spaces are still somewhat hostile to proper redress and transformation. The concept of decolonisation of the university entails the transformation of academia in line with the language and knowledge systems of the indigenous people, according to scholars such as Anye Nyamnjoh, Mahmood Mamdani and Savo Heleta. The concept of decolonising the university gained popularity during the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements of 2015 and 2016. In this, the concept of the African university came to the fore. What does an African university look like, and what should be on the curriculum? Firstly, it is important to note that the fight…

BRITAIN’S Prince Harry launched a fierce attack on the “vile” press yesterday, blaming tabloids for destroying his adolescence and later relationships, as he gave evidence against a tabloid publisher whose titles he accuses of unlawful activities. As he became the first senior British royal to appear in a witness box in more than a century, Harry also said the thought of people unlawfully intruding into the life of his late mother Princess Diana made him “feel physically sick”. The prince, fifth-in-line to the throne, and 100 others are suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, at the High Court in London over allegations of widespread unlawful information gathering between 1991 and 2011. In his 50-page written witness statement and during hours of…

Hundreds of migrants, including children and teenagers, tried to cross Mexico’s border to the US on Monday after a storm destroyed a makeshift camp where they had been staying, Mexican local media reported. The migrants, mainly from Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras, tried to reach the US from the northern Mexico town of Matamoros. It is the first incident of this size to occur at the border since the US ended in May its Title 42 migration policy, which allowed Washington to immediately expel undocumented migrants on public health grounds during the Covid-19 pandemic. In videos posted on social media, migrants tried to reach the US by crossing a narrow bridge leading to the US border town of Brownsville, Texas. Darly Mercado, a Venezuelan traveling with her family, said they…

COLLEVILLE: Leon Gautier, the last surviving member of the French commandos who stormed the Normandy beaches defended by Hitler’s troops in 1944, yesterday joined President Emmanuel Macron at a seafront ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Gautier, 100, presented a student marine commando with his green beret at a passing out parade at Colleville-Montgomery, near where a 17-year-old Gautier had landed on Sword Beach in a hail of enemy fire. Gautier was one of 177 French green berets under the command of Captain Philippe Kieffer who took part in the Normandy landings. More than 150 000 allied troops invaded France to drive out Nazi Germany forces. At yesterday’s ceremony, the young marine knelt down on one knee to allow Gautier, sitting in a wheelchair at Macron’s side,…

Paris: French trade unions organised another day of strikes and demonstrations yesterday to try to derail President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions overhaul, insisting that the fight to thwart the changes is not over even after it became law. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France for the 14th day of demonstrations since January to oppose the reform. Macron signed the legislation into law in April, raising the pension age to 64 from 62 after the government used a controversial but legal mechanism to avoid a vote in parliament on the bill. Between 400 000 to 600 000 people were expected to take to the streets. Police used tear gas. | AFP…

AMAZULU president Sandile Zungu has dismissed the suspected transfer of high-rated defender Riaan Hanamub following links with Orlando Pirates. The 28-year-old left back has had a sterling 2022/2023 campaign, and is currently one of the best in his position in the DStv Premiership. His awareness and ability to defend in one-on-one situations, combined with his attacking exploits, has seen him feature in 90% of Usuthu’s games this season – managing three assists in the process. It comes as no surprise that the Namibian international has attracted the attention of the likes of Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns as well. However, Zungu, who briefed the media this week, firmly waved away any assumptions of a possible move for Hanamub, and stated that he would like to build his side with such quality…