Indholdsfortegnelse for 2021-06-15 i Mercury

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za 4AX-LISTED Heartwood Properties lifted net asset growth per share of 25 percent for the year to end-February 2021, the company said in a statement yesterday. Since listing on the stock exchange in March 2018, it has grown net assets by 93 percent. Commercial property has been under the most pressure in the sector over the past year, but “the fact that we know all our tenants well and have a hands-on approach to the management of our portfolio assisted us immensely in navigating the past year,” said Heartwood chief executive John Whall. “We have had to endure a lot this past year. We offered rental relief of R2.5 million, but are now back on track with tenants all paying rent as per their lease…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za MUNICIPAL workers in all 257 municipal councils in South Africa may down tools if the government goes ahead with the implementation of a 4% salary increase, which has been proposed by the wage negotiations facilitator at the bargaining council. While municipal unions are yet to make such a pronouncement, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) has urged its members to prepare for a protest against employers following a breakdown in negotiations over wage increases. Samwu and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) have been involved in protracted wage negotiations that resulted in the appointment of a facilitator to oversee the process, which was marred by serious disputes. Now, it appears these negotiations will stall again after the facilitator tabled the 4% salary increase for workers.…

THINGS are going well for you when: Old hurts and painful memories become less powerful in their capacity to shape your life. Some members of your family say you are meddling, others call you selfish, when all you want is to occupy the driver’s seat of your life. As you have assumed appropriate responsibility for yourself, you’ve experienced a growing and deeper connection with others but now it’s by choice, not obligation or guilt. You have growing insights into what you can and cannot control, can and cannot change. To your own surprise you have stopped thinking, feeling, speaking on behalf of other adults, all of whom do not need your help to accomplish these fundamental adult human callings. You resist the urge to tell others what they need, should…

JEAN MICHEL BOUVIER Bryanston COMBATING climate change was top of the agenda for the G7 leaders last weekend. But it is laughable that China which is the world’s biggest polluter due to its carbon intensive industries and its heavy dependence/reliance on coal-fired power generation, with 30% of the world’s pollution, has been excluded. The same with Russia with 5%. This exclusion is purely on political grounds. Do these fools of the G7 talk shop/club think that any agreement/resolution taken by them will be successful without the participation and commitment of those two countries who count for more than 35% of the world’s pollution? Especially when all the ones participating don’t even come up to 35%. What do they try to achieve except their photo opportunity and taking a break/holiday with…

Baldwin Ndaba baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za VARIOUS national government departments and provincial governments have been ordered by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to immediately reverse a number of irregular appointments and discipline officials who were responsible for the transgressions. These government departments were also ordered to pay their service providers. This is contained in the PSC quarterly report, covering the period from January until March this year, released by commissioner Mike Seloane. According to Seloane, the PSC received 334 complaints during the fourth quarter of the 2020/2021, saying that 185 related to alleged irregularities in personnel practices, such as appointments, transfers, and “other career management” in the departments. The remaining 149 related to alleged irregularities related to public administration practices, such as financial management, personnel provisioning and administration, supply chain management and lack…

A 24-year-old woman was to appear in the Middelburg Magistrate’s Court, Mpumalanga, yesterday, after she allegedly murdered her 3-month-old daughter on Friday following an argument with the baby’s father. The woman visited the father at the farm where he works but he refused to let her in, leading her to threaten to kill the infant, said a Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Brigadier Leonard Hlathi. The woman then threw the infant on the ground. “When police arrived with paramedics they certified the child as dead. “Police opened a murder case and immediately arrested the suspect,” said Hlathi. The woman, originally from Zimbabwe, is not in possession of legal documents to be in South Africa, therefore she also faces a charge of contravention of the Immigration Act in addition to the murder charge.…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za SOCIAL gatherings and lack of restraint from South Africans to adhere to the lockdown restrictions have added to the worrying surge in Covid-19 cases, with the head of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC), Professor Koleka Mlisana, calling for tighter restrictions. Mlisana said she was concerned about the steep increase in cases. “If we really don’t manage it, it will spill over to the health-care facilities which we cannot have right now. “At an individual level, people are not adhering to the regulations of social distancing and not wearing masks. We need to be accountable citizens,” she said. Mlisana also called for more discussions around the sale of alcohol. “There are always concerns about liquor, so there definitely has to be close interactions and discussions about that. We…

THE court ruling against the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) that the lease agreements between it and the residents was unlawful and invalid, is a victory for people who reside on traditional land. In a landmark ruling, the high court in Pietermaritzburg ordered the ITB to pay back millions of rand it has collected from residents since 2012. The court has also given Land Reform Minister Thoko Didiza, under whose department the ITB falls, three months to rectify the situation, through which thousands of residents on ITB land in rural KwaZulu-Natal have been forced to pay leases. The ITB administers around 3 million hectares of KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the Zulu monarch, and in 2012 a controversial decision was taken to introduce the residential lease programme to replace the permission to…

US President Joe Biden has told fellow Nato leaders that the defence of Europe, Turkey and Canada was a “sacred obligation” for the US, a marked shift from his predecessor Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from the military alliance. Arriving in Brussels from the weekend’s G7 summit in England, Biden again sought to rally Western allies to support a US strategy to contain China’s military rise as well as showing unity in the face of Russian aggression. “Article Five is a sacred obligation,” Biden said, referring to the transatlantic alliance’s collective defence pledge. “I want all Europe to know that the United States is there. “Nato is critically important to us,” said Biden, who is seeking to mend ties after Trump’s denigration of the nuclear-armed alliance and what the…

Mike Greenaway mike.greenaway@inl.co.za SLOWLY but surely the Springbok squad is taking shape in Bloemfontein, with 26 of the 46 players now in training for the international season kick-off against Georgia on 2 July. First it was the Japan-based players that set-up the camp in the Free State capital and now they have been joined by most of the South Africa-based players – there are still a few stragglers on the way – and then the overseas-based Boks will soon complete the picture. The Boks play Georgia on successive weekends and then the first Test against the British & Irish Lions is on July 24. Springbok forwards coach Deon Davids said that every training session has to count given that the Boks have not been together on a match footing since…

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za THE COMPETITION Tribunal has given Sasol the go-ahead to sell its 16 air separation units in Secunda, Mpumalanga, to Air Liquide Large Industries South Africa, paving the way for the conclusion of the R5.525 billion transaction. Approval from the Competition Tribunal was the final hurdle for the transaction. Sasol said the transaction would close within 10 business days with the total proceeds of the aggregate of R5.525bn and ¤148.75 million (to be settled in US dollars) settled at closing. Thereafter, Air Liquide will officially own and operate the 16 air separation units, which are located in Secunda, Mpumalanga. Sasol chief executive Fleetwood Grobler said the group was pleased to officially welcome Air Liquide as one of Sasol’s partners in Sasol’s decarbonisation journey. “This transaction is…

True privatisation requires that the major shareholder is independent politically and ideologically of Government. The SAA deal announced by minister Pravin Gordhan falls 100 percent short of those criteria. The Takatso Consortium which is to have a 51% holding in SAA comprises two groups: Harith General Partners and Global Aviation. The chairman of Harith, Jabu Moleketi, was deputy Finance minister in Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet. His wife, Geraldine Fraser was also a Cabinet minister. So, not only is half the Takatso Consortium ANC-aligned, but the chairman of Takatso Consortium, Tshepo Mahloele, is similarly aligned having previously headed the corporate finance and Isibaya division of the state-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC). The main shareholder in Harith is the PIC. So the R3 billion that Harith is putting into the Consortium is actually…

MARANELLO: Food by triple Michelin starred chef Massimo Bottura will be served next to Ferrari engines when the car company relaunches the restaurant in Maranello where founder Enzo Ferrari once dined with friends and Formula 1 stars. Il Cavallino will open again today across from Ferrari's headquarters at the heart of a region known around the world for fast cars and slow food. The restaurant, closed in 2019 by previous owners, is now a cornerstone of Ferrari’s new brand enhancement strategy, aimed at offering affluent customers and new clients more than just super cars. A new women’s and men’s clothing collection, designed by Ferrari’s creative director and former Armani designer Rocco Iannone and launched on Sunday, is also part of this new strategy. “It looks good, it looks beautiful,” Bottura…

On a daily basis, death knocks on our doorsteps, snatching away our loved ones under the shadow of a raging pandemic. Our sense of remoteness is intensified by a pall of unease we cannot define. We empathise with all families because we all share that fear of losing someone we love. We know how dreadful it is to even imagine such loss, and how we go through our lives imagining ourselves far from such tragedy and yet it strikes so close to home, and so often. The ongoing pandemic has turned our lives inside out. It has rebooted our existence as we knew it. It has coerced mankind into a cowering huddle. All of us are huddled behind the protection of the four walls of our homes. We are facing…

Sisonke Mlamla sisonke.mlamla@inl.co.za ADVOCACY group Action Society is calling for the immediate dismissal of Police Minister Bheki Cele, accusing him of, among other things, a lack of interest in solving the DNA backlog crisis. Action Society spokesperson Dr Rineé Pretorius said Cele has failed to serve the public or to help protect the most vulnerable. Pretorius said although Cele had detailed the steps that the police would be taking to clear the massive backlog at the national forensic science laboratories, his response was too little too late. Pretorius said that Cele, during last month’s plenary debate on the DNA crisis, confirmed that the police were already implementing overtime to clear up the backlog. Last week, however, he said they were negotiating with unions about the introduction of a shift system.…

Sakhiseni Nxumalo sakhiseni.nxumalo@inl.co.za THE STUDENT Representative Council (SRC) at the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) is aggrieved after the university suspended 10 students over the weekend. According to the MUT acting vice-chancellor, Professor Marcus Ramogale, the suspended students were allegedly linked to unlawful and disruptive protests at the university earlier this year. Between April and May, the institution was crippled by several violent protests, during which students allegedly blocked the main campus gate. This prevented staff and students from entering or leaving the university. The protesting students had called for historical debt to be written off, for registration to take place on campus and for the institution do away with online learning. In a letter issued to staff and students, Ramogale confirmed the suspensions of the 10 and said two…

It is with a strange sense of irony that in 1976 minister Andries Treurnicht imposed a ruling that a Dutch/African dialect called Afrikaans would be the medium of instruction at Bantu schools with immediate effect. The net result was the opening of fire on a peaceful protest by scholars in South Western Township (Soweto) which sparked the June 16 riots which again highlighted the atrocities of the then national party and its apartheid regime of both grand and petty apartheid; a similar fate suffered by many Palestinians under Israeli occupation today. The June 16 protests sent the currency plummeting and drew international condemnation which intensified South Africa’s polecat status; especially among Third World countries. Fortunately and rather lately South Africa passed that phase however an interesting irony is being…

The trial of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi got under way yesterday, more than four months after a military coup, with junta witnesses testifying that the Nobel laureate flouted coronavirus restrictions and illegally imported walkie-talkies. Near daily protests have rocked Myanmar since the generals’ February 1 putsch. A mass uprising has been met with a brutal military crackdown that has killed more than 850 civilians, according to a local monitoring group. The junta has brought an eclectic raft of charges against the Nobel laureate, including claims that she accepted illegal payments of gold and violated a colonial-era secrecy law. Yesterday the court heard a police force major testify that Suu Kyi broke coronavirus restrictions during last year’s elections that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won…

World champions France open their Euro 2020 campaign today against an embattled Germany team eager to rediscover their best form in the first clash of two traditional European heavyweights in this year’s tournament. Didier Deschamps’ France head to Munich for the Group F game with a feud brewing between forwards Kylian Mbappe and Olivier Giroud but are still the title favourites, while the Germans are struggling and under pressure. After 15 years in charge, their coach Joachim Loew will step down after the European Championship and wants to forge a mentality “like 2014” when his squad “pulled together” to win the World Cup. Germany face a tough start to Euro 2020, with a match against holders Portugal four days after the France game before finishing their group campaign against Hungary.…

Herman Gibbs herman.gibbs@africannewsagency.com Royal AM’s sense of entitlement knows no bounds in their relentless pursuit of automatic promotion into the Premiership. Even though the ruling by the Gauteng deputy judge president Roland Sutherland dismissed their application to review the arbitration ruling, Royal AM were still in the running for promotion by their inclusion in the PSL promotion/relegation playoffs. The arbitration ruling was that Sekhukhune United be awarded three points from a fixture against Polokwane City who fell foul of the rules of the GladAfrica Championship. Polokwane were content with the initial penalty of a monetary fine and points deduction after they defaulted in their match against Sekhukhune. However, the gloves came off when Sekhukhune won the appeal for the match points. Sutherland’s ruling meant that Sekhukhune would end up…

Herman Gibbs South Africa’s Under-23 football side succumbed to back-to-back defeats in Egypt and that does not inspire confidence ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo next month. The strong Egypt line-up included a few players who ply their trade in Europe, and they are the reigning Under-23 Afcon champions. The SA team was depleted after some players were prevented from travelling by their European clubs and there was a raft of further withdrawals because of Covid-19. Coach David Notoane said the results served as a wake-up call for the players. As champions of Africa, Egypt will be a force to be reckoned with in Japan, and South Africa will come away wiser, knowing what to expect at international level. The team returned to Johannesburg yesterday afternoon, and Notoane said…

EDWARD WEST edward.west@inl.co.za YESTERDAY marked the official launch of Access Bank South Africa, and another step in furthering Access Bank Plc’s footprint across the continent. Access Bank chief executive Herbert Wigwe said in a statement that the Southern African Development Community represented the strongest economy in Africa. Nigeria-listed Access Bank is a leading full-service commercial bank operating through a network of more than 600 branches and service outlets, spanning three continents, 12 countries and 31 million customers. It employs 28 000 people in its operations in Nigeria and has subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK, with a branch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and representative offices in China, Lebanon and India. Following a merger with Diamond Bank in March 2019, Access Bank, with more than 900 000 shareholders, became…

LOST phones, handbags and spectacles … and now a runaway monkey. Scottish railway services found themselves custodians of a marmoset monkey that turned up at Cambuslang station near Glasgow, according to Sky News. ScotRail lost property section put out an appeal on social media: “If you’ve lost your monkey … it’s waiting on the next service from Cambuslang into the town.” A matter of hours later a family pitched at Cambuslang station to reclaim their runaway pet. “I’ve dealt with lost phones, handbags and glasses over the years, but this is a first,” the operator first tweeted. Then an update: “It’s good news. This wee fella (pictured) has been reunited with his family! Here he is one last time eating a tin of fruit. Cannae believe he had a tin…

NARENDH GANESH Durban North EFF leader Julius Malema, who believes he is a law unto himself, is skating on thin ice. At a press conference, the swaggering Malema unleashes a tirade against “Indian” South Africans, claiming that there is an “Indian cabal that is taking strategic positions in this country” – at the expense of “Africans”. What he meant was “Blacks”, as far as our racial classification goes, ironically, in a non-racial democracy. All South Africans are “Africans”. The term is not a delineation that is the preserve of Malema’s warped belief that only “Blacks” are considered African. What has set my teeth on edge is Malema is allowed to incite, inflame and disparage “Indians” at the drop of a hat, only to suit his political agenda, especially as vote-harvesting…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN Kloof Mamma mia! What a big stomach you have! And what a lot of babies. Not quintuplets, sextuplets or octuplets but a record decuplets. Proud Tembisa mother, Gosiame Thamara Sithole, has broken the Guinness World Record for giving birth to the most babies at one go, beating Halima Cissé who gave birth to nine babies in Morocco in May and the Californian Octomom, Nadya Suleman, who pleaded poverty in raising her octuplets and then spent the donations given through the generosity of the American public on plastic surgery because she wanted to look like Angelina Jolie. The big question on everybody’s minds is how will Sithole cope with so many babies. Every mother knows how hard it is to raise one child, but 10? What a handful the…

HUSBANDS who don’t help at home tend to earn more than husbands who who do help, a study finds. The study, led by the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US, showed that “disagreeable” men in opposite-sex marriages are less helpful at home, which allows them to invest more time and energy into their work and earn more. Lead author Brittany Solomon, management professor at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Busines, said: “Across two studies we find evidence that disagreeable men tend to earn more money relative to their more agreeable male counterparts because they are more self-interested and less helpful to their wives at home, which allows for greater job involvement and, ultimately, higher pay.” | IANS…

Nonhlanhla Nozizwe Hlatshwayo nozizwe.hlatshwayo@inl.co.za A FAMILY in KwaMakhutha has been left shocked and confused by the brutal murder of 28-year-old Anele Bhengu. Bhengu had allegedly been raped, stabbed and there were cuts to her throat and stomach. KZN police spokesperson Nqobile Gwala said a case of murder was opened at KwaMakhutha police station for investigation. “The body of a 28-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds. The motive for the killing is unknown. The matter is still under investigation,” said Gwala. Bhengu’s aunt, Nonto Bhengu, said the family were alerted by Bhengu’s friend who told them a body had been found. “Her friend told us about the incident, and we confirmed that it was indeed our niece,” she said. Bhengu’s aunt said they were confused about the death…

Politicians will find it hard to woo voters in such a grim economic environment YOU can tell that South African youth will once more be betrayed by politicians, by the way they promise to look after them in the run-up to the local government elections scheduled for October 27. The election manifestos are not out yet. In this year that marks the 45th anniversary of the June 16, 1976 student uprising in Soweto, the vital question that will persist all the way to the inside of voting stations is: What strides has the ANC-led government and all other political parties in the various municipal councils made in ensuring the youth have better opportunities for employment in the face of glaring hardship resulting from chronic unemployment and poverty? With this…

BUYILE MATIWANE Waking up in Beijing today is very different to waking up in Beijing 72 years ago. Today the capital of the ‘middle country’ is bustling with activity of human development. Seventy-two years ago, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, poverty, deprivation and inequality were hallmarks of Chinese society. Today those hallmarks are history. Waking up in China today, poverty has been declared a thing of the past. In the face of natural catastrophes and Covid-19, the country was still able to manage to stick to its poverty alleviation goals. According to reports from the central government, China has spent over R3 trillion across all three spheres of their governments in the last eight years, alone, on reducing poverty. By the end of 2020, nearly 20…

NEW DELHI: A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the world’s largest family has died in north east India, the chief minister of his home state said. Ziona Chana, the head of a local Christian sect that allows polygamy, died on Sunday, Zoramthanga, the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name, said in a tweet. With 167 members, the family is the world’s largest, although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren, of whom Ziona has 33. Ziona lived with his family in a four-storey pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng, a remote village in Mizoram. | Reuters…

The Czechs have already authored some of the European Championship’s most iconic goals, but Patrik Schick’s audacious long-range effort against Scotland yesterday is right up there with the best. His second goal in the Group D clash at Hampden park was struck from some 45 metres out, just inside the Scottish half as he spotted goalkeeper off his line and hammered a left-footed lob downfield. It curled through the air with unerring precision into an empty net, stunning the raucous crowd into silence. Antonin Panenka and Karel Poborksy would have been proud. Panenka has his name written into the lexicon of the game for his cheeky penalty dink in the post-match shootout that saw the former Czechoslovakia crowned European champions in 1976. Poborksy lobbed Portugal goalkeeper Vitor Baia at Euro…