Table of contents for 2021-11-02 in Mercury

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za THE STATE logistics utility Transnet has had to scale up investment in its security systems, including the use of drones and additional boots on the ground to counter the escalating theft of fuel from pipelines, which have also brought the additional cost of environmental resuscitation of the areas of spillage after leakages seeped into the ground. At the group’s financial results presentation for March 2021 on Friday, chief executive Portia Derby said the theft of fuel, copper and coal had a telling effect on group finances, particularly as it felt compelled to mitigate the environmental impact of fuel seeping into the ground after thieves had left the pipes leaking. This is an issue likely to escalate with the impending rise of fuel later this month after the…

Yogashen Pillay and Sibusiso Mboto FIVE people were killed in a fire in Phoenix yesterday. A 57-year-old man was arrested for allegedly setting fire to the flat in Kidstone Place. Among those who died were four children between the ages of 3 and 13 and a woman in her thirties. Phoenix resident Pam Pillay, who has lived in the area for 30 years, said the couple had been fighting. Pillay also said she heard screams and then saw fire in the early hours of yesterday. “Many people tried to get help from the police, making phone calls, but there was no response. If they had come this tragedy could have been avoided.” Pillay said it was alleged that the suspect got hold of petrol from a brush cutter. Another…

THERE’S a common denominator in all of your relationships – you. I am the common denominator in all my relationships. This obvious truth is hidden from some, and an even startling truth when discovered for others. “I’ve never thought of it that way,” a client might say. “Are you sure?” another may question, as if this is some form of heresy. Yes. I’m sure. And, the realisation and embracing of this fundamental truth – and doing something about it – is yet another means of taking personal responsibility for our lives. I have no doubt that this is a monumental burden for some when understood, and, nothing within me wants to “blame the victim”. There are groups and individuals so downtrodden and so “owned”, that such thinking seems impossible and…

PAKS PAKIRIY | Durban North THE election for the ANC and for President Cyril Ramaphosa hangs like the sword of Damocles over his head. Ramaphosa has made himself the “poster boy” for the ANC campaign. His face looms large on all posters across the length and breadth of the country. He couldn’t trust the sitting mayors to deliver the vote, anyway many of them won’t be returning to their jobs. So he took on the mantle of being the face of the party. If Ramaphosa’s ANC doesn’t fare well at the polls, his leadership will be in jeopardy at the next ANC NGC meeting. The rogues gallery in that council might toss him out. Many of the smaller parties are also feeling the heat. Will they…

| Mercury Correspondent THREE children have died after recently contracting rabies, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has confirmed. In its monthly communique, the NICD said two new cases of human rabies were reported in the Eastern Cape and one more in KwaZulu-Natal since last month. This brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed human rabies cases in South Africa for the year, to 11. “These cases originate from the Eastern Cape (5), KZN (3) and Limpopo province (3). In addition, three probable cases were reported from KZN,” the NICD stated. Probable cases are defined by the World Health Organization as cases that present with a clinical disease and outcome compatible with a diagnosis of rabies and an epidemiological link constituting exposure to a possibly rabid animal, for example…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za Clean-up operations are under way in Clairwood after a botched attempt to steal fuel from a Transnet pipeline resulted in a fire in which three people died. The blaze alongside Horseshoe Road in Clairwood was brought under control on Sunday, Transnet confirmed yesterday. Transnet spokesperson Saret Knoetze said yesterday that Transnet Pipelines and emergency personnel had worked hard to extinguish the fire. “Transnet Pipelines, the eThekwini Disaster Management team and other emergency response teams worked tirelessly yesterday (Sunday) and throughout the night to bring the raging fire on the 24-inch multi-product pipeline in Horseshoe Road under control. “The attempted theft incident resulted in an explosion of a fuel tanker and the death of three people. Transnet extends its condolences to the families of the deceased.” Knoetze said…

Sihle Mavuso and Jehran Naidoo Political party bigwigs who voted in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday were optimistic about their parties’ chances at the polls. After voting at Mahlabathini in Ulundi yesterday, the founder of the IFP and president emeritus of the party, Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the IFP had done all it could to woo voters to back them. Buthelezi said he could not tell how the vote would go, but was hopeful for better results than in the last local government elections in 2016, when his party did well. Ulundi, the traditional capital of the Zulu kingdom, is a stronghold of the IFP. The municipality is also key to the IFP as securing the most votes there gives it an upper hand by enabling it to send more councillors to the…

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) recently released Global Tuberculosis Report for 2021 paints a dismal picture of the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the fight against TB across the globe. Progress against TB has long been inadequate to reach the target of elimination by 2030. But before the pandemic, the world was making steady progress in diagnosing and treating TB, and deaths from TB had steadily decreased every year since 2005. This year, the report contains very worrying news about the Covid-19 pandemic’s wide-ranging and longer-term effects on TB services. For the first time since 2005, the number of deaths due to TB increased from one year to the next. Mathematical modelling projections for the 16 worst-affected countries, including South Africa, suggest the knock-on effect will be…

Lebanon’s foreign minister yesterday called for talks with Saudi Arabia to ease a spiralling diplomatic row sparked by remarks made by the Lebanese information minister on the Yemen war. “Lebanon invites Saudi Arabia to engage in dialogue to solve all outstanding problems and not just the latest spat,” Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said. On Friday, Saudi Arabia gave Lebanon’s ambassador 48 hours to leave the country, recalled its envoy from Beirut and suspended all imports from Lebanon. The Saudi foreign ministry said the measures were taken after “insulting” remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war, but also due to the influence of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shia movement Hezbollah, which is viewed by Saudi Arabia as a terrorist group. In an interview aired last week, Information Minister Georges…

TOKYO: Following the victory of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in coalition with the Komeito ty in the lower parliamentary house elections, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday that his government would work hard on restoring Japan’s economy, following the aftermath of the pandemic. Kishida’s government will formulate an economic stimulus package by the middle of the month that will provide monetary help to businesses and people who were severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding for the stimulus package would be provided by an extra budget the government aimed to pass this year, the prime minister said.…

Tottenham announced yesterday they had sacked manager Nuno Espirito Santo after just four months in charge following their fifth defeat in 10 Premier League games. Spurs gave an insipid display in their 3-0 defeat at home by Manchester United on Saturday, with fans booing and chanting “You don’t know what you’re doing” at the former Wolverhampton boss. Spurs chairperson Daniel Levy and managing director of football Fabio Paratici are understood to have met on Sunday to discuss the Portuguese manager’s fate. Tottenham have lost five of their past seven Premier League matches and are eighth in the table, 10 points behind leaders Chelsea. Nuno, 47, was announced as the new boss of the north London club on June 30, replacing Jose Mourinho, who was sacked in April. Tottenham’s 17 games…

Herman Gibbs herman.gibbs@africannewsagency.com It is Soweto derby week and protagonists Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates will lay down their markers in Premiership matches today as part of the week-long process of plotting each other’s downfall on Saturday. Chiefs warm-up against unbeaten Stellenbosch FC at FNB Stadium in what could be a “perfect” clash given the visitors’ all-conquering run in the opening eight rounds. Later today, 10km away at Orlando Stadium, Pirates host Sekhukhune United who are cock-a-hoop after their 10-man team beat AmaZulu 2-0 recently. The outcomes at the FNB and Orlando stadiums will determine the mood in the camps ahead of the derby. According to Chiefs midfielder, Anthony Akumu, the Kenyan international, the squad is upbeat after a miserable start to the season. “The team has been doing well…

Mercury reporters The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) was projecting a low voter turn-out in KwaZulu-Natal as protests took place in different parts of the province yesterday. The province had 4 million registered voters and 4 940 voting stations, but after midday only 23% of the registered votes had been captured, although system glitches meant that the voting figures could increase. The low voter turn-out was evident at the two biggest voting stations in Camperdown, an area which had been affected by threats of violence and intimidation. The stations, located within the KwaNyavu Traditional Authority area, had been unable to operate fully because of threats from the community. By mid-afternoon yesterday, the voting stations at the Inkanyezini Primary School and Nobhala school had recorded poor turn-out numbers. But at the…

ANTHONY KRUGER | Glen Hills YOUR editorial opinion on Quinton de Kock, on October 29, refers. To pre-empt questions that may be posed in reading the below – yes, I would take the bow, because there is no place for racism in sport and in society. My comments and concerns are: Your failure to acknowledge De Kock’s reference to members of his family being black and coloured South African citizens is a loud omission. How can it be that black lives don’t matter to him? I wonder whether this is because it is an inconvenient truth that does not suit your narrative. Your use of the words “abide”, “directive”, “bosses”, “force”, in your opening paragraphs are filled, in the context they are written, with intolerant, authoritarian meaning. As…

STONE the flamin’ crows, mate! Starve the flamin’ lizards! Two giant pythons crashed through the ceiling on to a feller’s table near Brisbane, Australia. Then they headed for the bedroom and living room. The homeowner called a professional snake-catcher who managed to catch the two, one measuring 2.9m and the other 2.5m. Both were males and the catcher says they had been fighting over a lady python when the ceiling gave way, according to Sky News. Disconcertingly, he was unable to find the sheila python anywhere in the house. The homeowner could be in for another surprise. I bet he’s careful getting into bed. The two male pythons were released into a nearby forest. By now, they’ve probably found another lady python to fight over. Billygoat Gruff SHERIFFS’ deputies are…

Lehlohonolo Mashigo lehlohonolo.mashigo@inl.co.za NEWZROOM AFRIKA senior broadcast journalist Ziniko Mhlaba and his cameraman, colleague Muraga Mphaphuli, were arrested yesterday at an Orlando East, Soweto, polling station after it was alleged that they had interfered with the work of the station’s electoral presiding officer. Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) chairperson Glen Mashinini said they regretted the arrest of the journalist at a voting station in Soweto. “After intervention of the commission the journalist has been released and an investigation into his arrest will be instituted,” said Mashinini. “It is rather unfortunate that this situation resulted in a confrontation between police and the journalist,” said a police statement. The matter was escalated to the Gauteng provincial police commissioner, who ordered the release of the journalist. Newzroom Afrika condemned the arrest, saying Mhlaba…

Ten suspects, including a police officer intern stationed at Mitchells Plain police station, are to appear in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court for their involvement in a fuel fraud syndicate. The suspects, aged between 23 and 41, were arrested by police after an intensive investigation. Police spokesperson André Traut said: “Detectives attached to the Provincial Commercial Crimes Unit, in conjunction with investigators from financial institutions, were able to bust the fraud syndicate operating with cloned fuel cards. “The suspects were arrested in possession of 52 cloned fuel cards, mostly linked to government cars, three point-of-sale devices, 14 cellphones, 74 x 25-litre containers, four cars, fuel slips, and R32 000 cash. They are expected to appear in Paarl Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, November 2 to face the charges against them. “The female…

MASHUDU SADIKE mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za EFF leader Julius Malema is confident that his party will receive 65% of the votes when the results of the 2021 local government elections are declared. Speaking at his party’s stronghold at Zone 13 in Seshego outside Polokwane, Limpopo, where he cast his vote and was flanked by his wife yesterday, Malema was upbeat about the performance of the “fighters”. The red berets have led the area from which Malema hails since 2016, and yesterday he cast his vote at Mponagele Primary school. “We are going to get 65% in Polokwane and the whole of South Africa. We are aiming for a decisive victory. “We have done everything humanly possible to get this within all corners of South Africa, and are happy that our people have received…

Baldwin Ndaba, Ntombi Nkosi and Kailene Pillay VOTER turn-out figures in Gauteng will come under the spotlight today as the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) continues to detail the percentage of those registered voters who turned up at polls. While the IEC announced that up to 3.5 million people had voted by midday yesterday, figures up to 1pm had indicated that 14.3% of people had cast their ballots – a number that worried some political parties. It remains to be seen who will emerge victorious, and which political party, if any, will play kingmaker at the end of it all. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, who is intent on disrupting the status quo and making inroads into the City of Joburg’s political landscape, yesterday voted at the Sandton Fire station. The…

Ethical decisions based on moral conviction will stand the test of time Choices and decisions are as old as mankind itself. When Adam and Eve decided to commit the first sin, it spelt doom for all future generations. When their son Cain decided to commit the first murder when he killed his brother Abel and rudely asked God if he was his brother’s keeper, it plunged us all into a hopeless situation. History is replete with decisions, not only made by individuals but also nations when deciding to go to war with either their neighbours or their enemies. Choices and decisions are produced in our brains, but the crucial mistake we make is to fail to take into account the consequences that will follow. Many such decisions are fatal. The…

Secretary-general of the UN Antonio Guterres yesterday called for vaccine equity and continued vigilance against the coronavirus as global Covid-19 deaths exceeded 5 million. “Today the human family crosses a painful new threshold: 5 million lives lost to Covid-19,” he said in a statement. “This devastating milestone reminds us that we are failing much of the world.” While wealthy countries are rolling out third doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, only about 5 percent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated. This is a global shame, he said. The 5 million threshold should also stand as a clear warning: guard against the virus cannot be lowered, he said. There are still more deaths, overcrowded hospitals and exhausted health workers, and the risk of new variants claiming more…

BANGKOK: Thailand’s largest opposition party has called for a parliamentary review of the country’s use of security legislation, including a strict royal insults law, after a surge in arrests of opponents of the government. The Pheu Thai Party said the use of the laws to go after critics of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who has been in power since a coup he led in 2014, had diminished public trust in the justice system. The party is proposing parliament re-examine the ways in which the laws are used and amended, so that “prisoners of conscience” can be freed and trust in the system can be restored.…

Philippa Larkin philippa.larkin@inl.co.za LONDON-listed Grit Real Estate Income Group is taking steps to manage down its loan-to-value (LTV), which rose in the year ended June, said on Friday the potential sale of AnfaPlace Mall in Casablanca, Morocco, would contribute to this end. Grit is a pan-African real estate company that invests in and manages a portfolio of assets in carefully selected African countries. The company, which delisted from the JSE this year, but remains listed in Mauritius and in London, said its distributable earnings per share plummeted 37.7 percent to $5.97 (R90.75) per share from $9.58 per share the prior year. Group LTV increased to 53.1 percent from 50.2 percent in 2020 predominantly as a result of the decrease in the value of the group’s property portfolio,…

| African News Agency (ANA) Following decades of coral reef decline due to pollution and land reclamation, Singapore has turned to Lego blocks as part of its reef restoration programme at the St John’s island National Marine Lab. According to the BBC, Singapore boasts a third of the world’s diversity of coral species and a group of scientists from the National University of Singapore are on a mission to change the course of its depleting underwater ecosystem. Jani Tanzil, of the university, said they are taking loose bits of coral and attaching it to Lego blocks in order for them to safely grow into larger colonies. “If you consider that the total number of coral species around the world is about 800, we’re really very lucky to have almost…

DAVID BAKER | Durban Many of your readers will not be in the least surprised that your sports journalist, Zaahier Adams, was “asked numerous times by colleagues from all around the world whether other national sporting teams have taken the knee, and whether they too will be forced to follow suit after Cricket SA instructed the Proteas men’s team at the T20 World Cup”. (Article in your October 28 edition). Not long ago, considerable amazement was expressed in the international rugby world when it was pointed out that South Africa is the only nation in the world where – as in apartheid times – the ruling party influences the selection of its national rugby team. Accepting that the Black Lives Matters movement derived from what was an absolutely…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof CONTROVERSY rages over Quinton de Kock’s taking the knee gesture. The Proteas cricketer refused to take the knee before the T20 match against the West Indies and was subsequently left out of the squad that then went on to beat the West Indies. Cricket South Africa (CSA) had issued a directive that it was mandatory for all Proteas players to take the knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. So was De Kock right or wrong? Opinion is divided and could be split along racial lines. Black people would probably say De Kock was wrong, while white people would support him, saying that he was well within his rights not to take the knee. Let’s leave our prejudices aside and look at…

The Mtunzini High Court recently sentenced a 27-year-old man to six terms of life and 142 years’ imprisonment for multiple rapes and robberies he committed in Nongoma and uMlazi. Lindokuhle Zungu was convicted of rape, housebreaking with intent to commit rape and robberies. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson in KZN, Natasha Kara, said Zungu was also convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition. “Between November 2014 and December 2018, Zungu preyed on his victims and would break into their homes and threaten them with either a knife, firearm or bush knife. “He robbed them of cash and/or cellphones and raped them,” she said. Kara said some of his victims were raped in the presence of their children, while one was pregnant at the time of the incident. Police…

Some voters across the country yesterday took pictures of their marked ballot papers, despite a stern warning from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), who said that it may hinder the election process. The images of the ballots were shared on Twitter by citizens who voted for the EFF and ActionSA. The Twitter handles do not immediately identify the voters and guarantees them some anonymity. Both party leaders, Julius Malema and Herman Mashaba, liked the tweets with their respective party’s marked on the ballot. The warning about taking pictures of ballots in the voting booth came from the IEC’s chairman Glen Mashinini. | JEHRAN NAIDOO…

THE Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) needs to strengthen its vetting process to ensure its employees don’t engage in practices that will compromise the integrity of the elections. The IEC announced yesterday that one of its employees based in KwaZulu-Natal was being investigated by the police for allegedly stuffing marked voting papers into a ballot box. According to the commission, the unnamed officer was allegedly caught in a voting station in Umbumbulu, south of Durban. It was not clear which party the officer was trying to aid. It should be remembered that this is not the first time this has happened in KZN. In 2009, another IEC electoral official, Sindisiwe Ncube of Ulundi, was convicted for five years for electoral fraud. Ncube was caught stuffing marked ballots, in favour of…

Glasgow: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed more than 120 world leaders to historic climate talks in Glasgow yesterday with the stark warning: “It’s one minute to midnight, and we need to act now.” Global heads of state and government were convening for a two-day summit at the start of the UN’s COP26 climate conference, with US President Joe Biden set to jet in from separate G20 talks in Rome. The G20 members, including China, India and Western nations, collectively emit nearly 80% of global carbon emissions, but campaigners’ hopes for more decisive action heading in to COP26 were dashed. The G20 economies committed on Sunday to limiting global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels – the most ambitious target of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. They also agreed to…

After being devastated by the coronavirus, Mexico City threw a coming-out party, featuring what might have been its biggest Day of the Dead parade ever. The parade was canceled last year amid one of the world’s worst outbreaks of Covid-19. But officials say 95% of the city’s adults are now fully vaccinated, and deaths across the country have dropped sharply. “This is the moment to reopen the city,” Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said. Maybe nothing seems more Mexican than the Día de los Muertos, a tradition that dates at least as far back as the Aztec empire. Yet the celebrations have changed drastically in the past 20 years. For that, you have a few people to thank. One is James Bond. The 2015 Bond movie “Spectre” featured an elaborate Day of…

PRISTINA: North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev resigned on Sunday after his party lost the second round of mayoral elections in several towns in the country, including the capital Skopje. “I take responsibility for these developments. I resign from the post of prime minister and party president,” Zaev, whose Social Democrats are leading the ruling coalition. The leader of the nationalist opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickoski, has called for a snap election. Last year in a vote a party alliance led by the Zaev’s Social Democrats squeaked to a narrow victory…