Table of contents for 2022-07-01 in Mercury

After a two-year wait, the tents are up at the Greyville racecourse and the stage is being set for the Hollywoodbets Durban July tomorrow. The weather gods have also come through for punters, fashionistas and celebrities with clear blue skies expected on raceday. South African Weather Service forecaster Wisani Maluleke said blue skies and sunny weather were expected, with the midday temperature expected to peak at 23°C. “We are expecting clear weather across the province this week. Cool temperatures, but cold over the western parts of the province. No rain is expected this week in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said. The racing event got a boost when the government announced the lifting of the last remaining Covid-19 restrictions, paving the way for more attendees at the Hollywoodbets Greyville Racecourse. Sadly, apprentice jockey…

Two weeks ago, at the Mangosuthu University, there were more than R2 million in damages resulting in more financial loss. Our places of learning have become war zones. Universities are meant to be education institutions. If urgent action is not taken soon to stop this sickening surge in violence and ill discipline, they will easily degenerate into crime zones in the near future. Hardly a month passes without students damaging education institutions. What will South Africa look like with regard to education in a decade if this type of mayhem carries on? We are facing our darkest hour with this destruction. The government is failing our young people. There has to be a no-nonsense approach to the students who are arrested for destroying university property. To demand, among other things,…

IN April, an SAA Airbus A330-300 preparing to take off from Accra to OR Tambo Airport with more than 200 passengers and crew, apparently became aware that the loaded aviation fuel was mixed with water. A refuel was done. A fuel contamination can lead to catastrophic consequences if not timeously detected and corrected. No plane should be released for flight if it has dangerous levels of fuel contamination. Many accidents have occurred due to low-grade fuel, involving dirty, and the incorrect grade of fuel. It is of critical importance that fuel taken is not contaminated since the effects are likely to affect all the engines. This may not be evident until after an aircraft has become airborne. On April 13, 2010, Cathay Pacific Airways flight CPA780, an Airbus 330,…

There was something strangely reassuring about the statement by General Patrick Sanders, head of the British Army, that Europe and Nato face their “1937 moment” with the war in Ukraine. This was not military bombast. He was talking about urgent mobilisation to prevent a spread of the war. “Let me be clear, the British Army is not mobilising to provoke war – it is mobilising to prevent war.” His words were almost immediately echoed by Ben Wallace, Minister of Defence and himself a former officer in the British Army. It suggests a clarity of thought. No more costly blunders such as the shambolic and tragic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Yet, oddly enough, Prime Minister Boris Johnson – in Europe for the G7 and Nato summits – seemed to be not quite…

The June 2022 Household Affordability Index in June shows that the average cost of the household food basket is R4 688. The index tracks food price data from 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries, in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Springbok. The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group (PMBEJD) compiles the household affordability index each month and is a civil society initiative founded in July 2018. According to the group: “Month-on-month the average cost of the household food basket increased by R78.92 (1.7%), from R4 609.89 in May 2022 to R4 688.81 in June 2022. “Year-on-year, the average cost of the household food basket increased by R560.57 (13.6%), from R4 128.23 in June 2021 to R4 688.81 in June 2022.” Food baskets increased in all areas, according to the group:…

An Umvoti traffic official who was found guilty of corruption has been jailed for two years. Dumisani Mchunu, 45, was convicted and sentenced in the Greytown Regional Court this week. He worked as a traffic officer at the Umvoti Municipality. According to the Hawks, Mchunu had demanded a R10 000 bribe after he claimed that the licence disc of the complainant’s vehicle was fraudulent. “The complainant reported the matter to the Hawks members from Durban Serious Corruption Investigation unit and an undercover operation was conducted on March 3, 2022,” Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said. Mchunu was arrested at work and charged with corruption. Mchunu was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, half of which will be served under correctional supervision. | Mercury Correspondent…

Selected Home Affairs branches in KwaZulu-Natal and other parts of the country will close at 6pm until July 15 to meet the expected demand over the school holidays. The extended operating hours were approved by Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Ministerial spokesperson Siya Qoza said the extension of operating hours for the application and collection of Smart ID Cards and passports excluded weekends. He said the extension was to meet the anticipated increase in the demand for IDs and passport services during the winter school holidays. He said during holidays the Department of Home Affairs usually experienced an increase in demand for its products, especially parents applying for documents for their children. “Parents are encouraged to use the Branch Appointment Booking System to schedule their visits to Home…

The aberration and othering of fellow Africans in the South African migration and immigration discourse is the manifestation of the state (un)-holy trinity; market libidinal desire of Africa’s cheap labour, state docility to the market desires, and populist migration and immigration public discourse. All three factors combine and intersect in an undistinguishable factor that fuels violent attacks on migrants that has been conceptualised to be xenophobic and Afrophobic attacks. Since the discovery of mineral resources in South Africa in the 1800s, the market colluded with the then “state” to source cheap African labour throughout the country and from the southern African region for circular migration work in the mining industry. The then “state” was complicit with the mining industry sourcing migrant labourers. The silence was informed by the then “state’s”…

Gunmen have attacked a mine in central Nigeria, killing some security personnel and kidnapping four Chinese nationals and other workers, a state security official said yesterday. Kidnapping for ransom has become a major problem in north-west and central Nigeria, where heavily-armed criminal gangs known as bandits target communities, schools and businesses for abductions. Chinese employees working on mines and large infrastructure projects in remote areas are often targeted for kidnapping, and usually released after a short period in captivity. Gunmen attacked the mine in Ajata Aboki village in Shiroro region of Niger state on Wednesday afternoon, the local commissioner for security, Emmanuel Umar, said in a statement. “A yet to be ascertained number of workers in the mining site, including four Chinese nationals, were reported to have been abducted,” the…

A quarter of all climate change- related legal cases since the 1980s were filed in the last two years, according to new research yesterday showing surging litigation targeting governments, fossil fuel firms and a growing array of other companies. The report, which underscores the rising importance of the courts in climate action, comes on the same day the US Supreme Court ruled that the government’s key environmental agency cannot issue broad limits on greenhouse gases, in a blow to climate policy and environment protections. From legal efforts to steer governments to do more to curb emissions, to court action over companies’ misleading green claims, the number, scope and ambitions of climate litigation is expanding, say experts from the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. Their report found…

The sardines have done a vanishing act. They are still here but the dirty water is keeping them hidden. The fishing has remained on a high and with the holidays upon us, now is the time to wet a line. With the fishing spots getting an influx of fishermen and women from all over, there are bound to be times when lines get crossed or cast over. Remember a few simple rules and we will all have a fantastic holiday relaxing and catching fish. Be respectful to the locals in the area and remember that the spots are first come first serve. There is plenty of area to fish and plenty of fish in the sea, you do not have to fish in the crowd. Fishing folk are generally a…

SIBANYE-Stillwater has followed up on chief executive Neal Froneman’s stated strategy to make a big play in electric battery metals after announcing plans to raise its interest in Finland-based Keliber, a battery metals and chemicals company. Keliber owns a lithium hydroxide project in the Kaustinen region of Finland. The project is gearing up production of battery grade lithium hydroxide from its own ore. After an initial 30.2 percent investment into Keliber last year, Sibanye has now revealed plans to ramp up its interests in the Finnish battery metals company to 50 percent by way “of a phased equity investment”, the company said. The new investment is subject to approvals from the South African Reserve Bank and minority shareholders in the Finnish company. In March this year, Froneman said…

“Make your words soft and sweet,” my dad would often say, “for when you have to eat them.” He had many such sayings. When I was a younger man I thought his wisdom was clever, things he read in books. Now I know that these were truths he knew through experience, often bitter, often very painful experience. Dad’s truths were clear to me even as a much younger man, but the full meaning of the wisdom he shared has taken years to find its way into my heart and into my experience. Perhaps I was simply not ready to learn. Perhaps this is what he meant when he’d repeat: “Youth is wasted on the young”. But, dad was right about making words soft and sweet. It’s easy to mouth off…

THE system we adopted in South Africa produces politicians in name only, not leaders. They know little to nothing about leadership, yet they are leading us. They steadfastly refuse to be held to account for their failures. They don’t attempt to bring out the best in the people they serve. They are certainly not leaders and we ought not to refer to them as political leaders. Like the voters who put them there, we should hold them to account. We should have a right to see them whenever we want to and discuss what we need to bring to their attention. This is not leadership. Nor is it democracy. It is instead insatiable greed and uncontrolled deception practised by incompetents. Leaders shouldn’t wear crowns. True leaders serve those they are…

The murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms as it is contrary to conscience. It is unacceptable, cruel and inhuman and there is no room for justifi cation for such violence According to reports, the victim was brutally killed in retaliation for the victim’s support for remarks made by a politician about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The gruesome murder is deplorable evil that cannot be supported and it is definitely against the Islamic, as well as the Indian, law. No one is entitled to take the law into their own hands, as law implementation is the responsibility of the police and judicial process – not ordinary citizens. Just as I condemn this brutality, I strongly believe world leaders must publicly…

Civil society organisations have called on the Department of Social Development to withdraw its draft Non-Profit Amendment Bill 2021 and demanded that it engages with the sector and stakeholders. The public participation period for the bill ended two weeks ago. The bill seeks to amend the current Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) Act, 1997 which according to the department was meant to create an enabling environment in which NPOs could be formed and function optimally. The proposed amendment aims to address the challenges faced by smaller NPOs, deals with abuse of NPOs and simplifies accessibility procedures. It also proposes the setting up of the NPO Registrar to strengthen the servicing, monitoring, and promotion of transparency and accountability of the NPOs. Following the release of the draft in 2021, non-governmental organisation Inyathelo called…

Foreign nationals whose applications for asylum in South Africa were rejected do not automatically have the right in law to reapply. If they did, this would allow for a never-ending cycle of asylum applications, according to a judgment by the Western Cape High Court. This followed an application by three Burundian nationals for asylum in South Africa. Their applications were rejected as manifestly unfounded in terms of the Refugees Act. The refusal was automatically reviewed by the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs, which confirmed the finding. The women subsequently turned to court to obtain an order directing Home Affairs and its arms dealing with asylum issues, to accept a second asylum seeker application made by each of them. Their main objective to remain in South Africa was because they wanted…

Civic organisation, Equal Education (EE), joined by pupils in their numbers, marched to Parliament yesterday in protest against proposed new changes to the school infrastructure law. They said their biggest concern is a proposal by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to remove deadlines imposed on government to fix schools. “The most scary change Minister Motshekga wants to make is to totally remove the deadlines that put the responsibility on the government to get rid of pit toilets – and provide basics such as water, electricity, classrooms, libraries, etc – by specific dates. “Her proposed changes, if passed, will mean learners and teachers will wait for many more years for safe and proper school infrastructure,” EE said. “She signed the Norms and Standards into law in 2013, following years of tireless…

The humanitarian damage caused by America’s stance cannot be measured LIKE ALL countries, Cuba is going through a difficult economic situation, influenced by the global crisis, the prices of fuel, food and transportation, in addition to the effects of more than two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. The attempts to establish opinion in the media that Cuba is facing a massive humanitarian crisis are unfounded. Falsehoods, fictitious legends and their propagation in the media are used to internationally generate the image of a country that is socially unstable and in political crisis. An attempt is being made to fabricate the pretext for humanitarian intervention, like what was tried in 2021. The media is spreading a campaign of political destabilisation to discredit Cuba with the use of millions of dollars and…

Formula One’s Alpine team said that physical ability was no barrier for women to compete in the sport as they launched a programme to have a female driver in the next eight years. Only two women have ever started world championship Grand Prix races, the Italian pair of Maria Teresa de Filippis, in 1958, and Lella Lombardi, between 1974 and 1976. There has since been a belief that physical strength was a drawback to the progress of women in the sport. Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, however, rejected that notion as the team launched a programme to mentor women drivers. “It’s something that society wanted to peddle for years, and is one of the cliches that needs to be eradicated,” he added. “There are women who fly fighter jets, who are…

Researchers in Italy who were first to identify the presence of monkeypox in semen are broadening their testing, saying early results suggest sperm can be a vehicle for infection. A team at Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases, revealed in a study that the virus DNA was detected in semen of three out of four men diagnosed with monkeypox. Researchers found presence of monkeypox in the sperm of 14 infected men out of 16 studied. Researchers at Spallanzani identified Italy’s first cases of monkeypox, found in two men who recently returned from the Canary Islands. Since early May, a surge of monkeypox cases has been detected outside of the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. Most of the new cases have been…

Richards Bay FC have shown their intent to compete in the DStv Premiership next season by signing 10 new players including former Orlando Pirates defensive midfielder Abel Mabaso and former Golden Arrows attacker Michael Gumede. Other players that have been signed by the KwaZulu-Natal side include Yanela Mbuthuma, Matome Mabeda, Thulani Gumede, Sibusiso Mthethwa, Sanele Barns, Siyanda Dlamini, Nkanyiso Zungu and Ndiviwe Mdabuka. By joining the KwaZulu-Natal Rich Boys, Mabaso returns to his home province following a four-year spell with Pirates. A former Maritzburg United, Sundowns and Chippa United player, Mabaso brings a wealth of experience to the top flight new boys and will be expected to play a key role for the club next season. The 29-year-old Gumede is also experienced and knows what it takes to score…

ETHEKWINI Municipality has issued a stern warning to lazy employees, saying their salaries and benefits should be commensurate with the quality of the services they deliver to the city’s residents. Councillors from across party lines agreed that the performance and number of workers employed by the city did not reflect in the quality of services delivered to communities. This emerged during a discussion about a review of the city’s Performance Management Policy, which aims to tighten controls and ensure that service delivery is improved in line with the city’s Intergrated Development Plan (IDP) objectives. DA councillor Nicole Graham said there was a disconnect between the services delivered to residents and the benefits employees got. The ANC’s Nkosenhle Madlala concurred, saying the benefits workers received from the city should be in…

More than a dozen goats journeyed to Riverside Park in New York City this week to feast on weeds, a chemical-free way to remove invasive species while adding to the joys of nature. The furry visitors arrived in Manhattan from Green Goats farm in Rhinebeck, New York, early in the day to gobble up overgrown brush – even species dangerous to humans, like poison ivy. “Have you seen this slope over here? I am told it’s the steepest river bank east of the Palisades,” said John Herrold, interim president and chief executive of the Riverside Park Conservancy. “Imagine trying to keep your balance while you’re pulling out invasive plants so you can plant native species that will better hold the soil and provide better habitat for the wildlife,” Herrold said,…

The most significant aspect of how China’s ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiadong, sees Africa’s future (The Mercury, June 29) is his implicit embrace of the role of fossil fuels as opposed to the green mania being imposed on the Western world. While one needs to be circumspect about China’s objectives in Africa, Ambassador Chen’s promotion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has merit. In that it involves the convergence of technologies and is tech-driven, electricity in abundance is clearly a prerequisite. Rich in coal and oil, it is logical to exploit Africa’s natural assets in the generation of electricity which is why, by refusing to finance coal mining and development, banks like Standard are wrong-footing themselves. In that respect, South Africa’s membership of BRICS provides a hedge against the unscientific,…

THIS is my enlightened view of the Hollywoodbets Durban July. Last year’s winner of the Durban July, Kommetdieding, from Hoedspruit in the Eastern Transvaal, is determined to Do It Again this July. Al Muthana, an import from Australia and winner of a previous Gold Challenge, will not play Second Base and is a strong contender. Not to be left in the dark is Jet Dark, who is looking for a Safe Passage to victory through Waterberry Lane. Sparkling Water is in sparkling form and promises to sparkle all the way to victory. Astrix will have to give up his comic ways. He hopes to fly past the winning post on his magic Flying Carpet but he must be careful not to break Airways Law. Linebacker will not back down and…

HEALTH Minister Joe Phaahla has revealed that about 6.5 million people needed care for common psychiatric conditions in South Africa. Phaahla also said there were only 19 000 beds in both public and private health facilities for psychiatric patients. The minister revealed this when responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Michéle Clarke, who asked about the number of psychiatric patients in need of care and the number of beds available in the public and private sectors. Clarke wanted to know about the number of psychiatric specialists in the public sector, as well as the vacancy rate. In his written reply, Phaahla said it was estimated that 6 566 703 people were in need of care for common mental health conditions. He said a total of 1 292 991 of…

With the Eastern Cape’s capital city of Gqeberha facing the threat of Day Zero – when taps run dry – a water expert from the University of the Free State (UFS) says other coastal cities in South Africa may face the same fate. Professor Anthony Turton of UFS’ Centre for Environmental Management said water scarcity was a reality for other cities as well, as eThekwini Municipality was already making use of water rationing in some areas. Turton said the water shortages would have a devastating effect on the economy, and in his opinion: “Gqeberha’s local economy will not survive as we once knew it.” The KwaZulu-Natal economy – which has suffered heavily under the might of the Covid-19 pandemic, civil unrest last year and most recently, the two flooding incidents…

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development has coughed up a whopping R19 billion to buy land for restitution purposes. This was revealed by Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza when she was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Sam Matiase. Matiase asked about the extent of the land that has been redistributed to black people as a result of the land redistribution programme, and the amount it has cost the department since April 1994. “Since 27 April 1994, an amount of R19.809 billion (was spent) to buy land for redistribution,” Didiza said. She said a total of 5 198 594 hectares had been redistributed. The breakdown of redistributed hectares is as follows: Eastern Cape: 569 189. Free State 434 799. Gauteng: 63 575.…

Russian forces say they have withdrawn from Ukraine’s Snake Island, a highly contested island in the Black Sea they captured soon after the start of the war – presenting a small but strategic win for Ukraine yesterday. Russia’s Defence Ministry framed the move as a “gesture of goodwill” and an effort to create a humanitarian corridor for the export of agricultural products such as grain from Ukraine. However, officials in the nearby southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa said Russian troops had evacuated only after protracted missile and artillery strikes by Ukrainian forces. Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, is about 40km off the southern coast and is a critical outpost for controlling shipping lanes for the export of Ukrainian grain and accessing the key port of Odessa. “On…

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court sided with US President Joe Biden yesterday as he seeks to end a hardline immigration policy begun under his predecessor Donald Trump that forced tens of thousands of migrants to stay in Mexico to await US hearings on their asylum claims. The justices, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned a federal appeals court decision requiring Biden to restart Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy after the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri sued to maintain the programme. The ruling is a victory for Biden, who appealed the lower court’s decision, and his plan is to implement a more “humane” approach at the border. | Reuters…