Indholdsfortegnelse for 2021-11-12 i Mercury

Dineo Faku dineo.faku@inl.co.za THE NATIONAL Treasury yesterday flagged that the current year expenditure would breach the 2021 Budget Review ceiling of R1.51 trillion by R56 billion following the Covid-19 lockdowns and public violence, as well as wage bill adjustments. According to the 2021 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), revenue improvements since the 2021 Budget had made room for an increase in the spending ceiling over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period. It said the ceiling was raised by R30.5bn in 2022/23 and R28.1bn in 2023/24, compared with the 2021 Budget. Treasury said domestic risks identified in the 2021 Budget included the wage bill and the continued deterioration in the financial position of several major state-owned companies had materialised. As a result, spending increases in 2021/22 amounted to…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za MARKETS read some positives in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s maiden Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), with the rand firming more than 1.5 percent to R15.24 per dollar late yesterday afternoon. This is as economists pointed out that the sheer quantum of debt, however, is still projected to climb further, with 2024/25s R5.5 trillion double 2018/19s R2.8 trillion, while the country’s credit risk, which is the perceived risk of default, has slightly moderated. Investec economist Annabel Bishop said this is still a decline in fiscal health as borrowings continue to rise, and this will not allow for any credit rating upgrades, nor likely a removal of the negative outlooks that key agencies have SA on. “Debt service costs continue to climb, but are fractionally lower…

ANC FINANCE guru turned Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is a new sheriff in town. Godongwana, who has chaired the ANC’s sub-committee on economic transformation for many years, stepped into the shoes of his comrade Tito Mboweni in August after the latter left government. In a striking note yesterday, a few hours before he tabled his maiden Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), in the hybrid sitting of the National Assembly, Godongwana said he told Mboweni recently that they shared the same views on the eco-nomy. However, what makes them different from each other is that Mboweni has ugly shoes and Godongwana does not wear ugly shoes. This is one of the jokes Godongwana told the media before he delivered the MTBPS to drive home the point that nothing much would…

GERALD LEVIN | Rouxville John Whitlock asks Mandla Mandela about the origin of Palestine (October 28, The Star). Well, all land captured from Turkey during World War I was Palestine. So, after first partition (between France and Great Britain), Abdulla became king in French Palestine, but he was driven out. Then, after the second partition (of British Palestine), Abdulla became king of Trans-Jordan and Cis-Jordan was reserved for Israel. But the next year the League of Nations was established, which indecisively led to World War II. After WWII, the UN fabricated a third partition of Cis-Jordan for the establishment of Israel. Trans-Jordan invaded the West Bank, and became Jordan. Israel “liberated” the West Bank in 1967. The Black September Organisation (BSO) started in Jordan. BSO attempted to “liberate”…

NARENDH GANESH | Durban North If you voted for a party, be prepared to have your vote manipulated and used by party bosses to advance their own personal agendas and ambitions. That the local government elections yielded many hung councils (one with no outright majority), the looming spectre of coalition governments has become a reality. It is my view that South Africa is neither mature enough nor capable enough to sustain coalition governments at local level. Our polarised politics means that those parties who become coalition partners and are smaller than their political bed partners will be hard-pressed to concede positions in the bureaucratic hierarchy despite wanting senior positions in councils. There might be the occasional concession simply to prevent a hung council, but in essence, it will…

Xolile Bhengu xolile.bhengu@inl.co.za The Durban Chamber of Commerce, and Industry NPC, said they were very concerned about the future state of businesses in the city, province, and the country. Palesa Phili, chief executive of the chamber, said the stage 4 load shedding implemented this week was devastating. The power cuts, coupled with the hike in fuel prices and intermittent water outages due to maintenance or load shedding, is expected to have a severe impact on business. Regarding water outages the eThekwini Municipality announced two planned outages for this week which disrupted water supply in several parts of Durban for maintenance work. Phili said, as representatives of the business community, the chamber had been looking at alternative business solutions to help businesses be sustainable. She said they had come up with…

Karen Singh karen.singh@inl.co.za The Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) has condemned the recent attacks on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel in the country. According to reports, the union, which has more than 60 000 members in the public and private health sectors, said attacks on EMS staff were on the rise, especially in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. “There have been close to 100 reported EMS attacks in South Africa this year, with fears that this number will increase during the festive season.” Hospersa general secretary Waheed Hoosen said the union was calling on the government to strengthen its efforts in providing a safe working environment for its EMS members. “Hospersa calls on government to provide a safe work environment which adheres to…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The National Institute For Communicable Diseases (NICD) has noted a spike in canine-specific rabies cases in KwaZulu-Natal particularly in the eThekwini region over the past few months. According to statistics for this year from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, up until yesterday 283 animal rabies cases had been reported. Most of these cases were from eThekwini and the King Cetshwayo district in northern KZN. The NICD and animal rescue organisations in Durban said that vaccination was key to curb the spread of rabies. Dr Jacqueline Weyer, a principal medical scientist from the NICD, said rabies is a viral infection of the brain. “The virus is found in the saliva of an infected animal. In South Africa, many species may be affected by rabies, but…

COME rain or sunshine, Bafana Bafana deserve all the support that they can get going forward. That they beat the script to reach the penultimate round of the Fifa World Cup qualifiers with their fate firmly in their hands was no easy feat. After roller-coaster campaigns in the qualifiers for previous major tournaments, Bafana were earmarked to rebuild under coach Hugo Broos. The Belgian-born coach infused more youngsters into the senior national team set-up. And, boy, have those youngsters grabbed the opportunity with both hands. They’ve embraced donning the yellow-and-green jersey of Bafana, defying the odds and beating records along the way. They’ve offered a breath of fresh air. It was in their game against Ghana at home that they proved they’ve got something going on as a group. The…

AN advantage of the game of lawn bowls in South Africa is the lack of an off-season. The game continues for 12 months, with district bowling competitions and leagues seeing completion at the end of October and generally bowlers using November and December for practise to tighten up their game and keep their eye in. A perfect opportunity to do this is by entering the sponsored competitions run by clubs in the KZN districts. Last weekend two tournaments were hosted by Port Natal Bowls affiliated clubs and, in both cases, did not restrict teams to be made up of bowlers from one club. Teams of men’s fours sides were invited to enter the Spar Classic which has been hosted by Westville Bowling for 10 years and attracts many…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THERE was no aloe ferox plant, no quoting of Bible verses or dead poets, nor casual mentioning of sorghum beer when Finance Minister Enoch Godong- wana delivered his maiden Budget speech in Parliament yesterday. But for those who thought this signalled a departure from structural reforms and fiscal consolidation championed by Godongwana’s predecessor, Tito Mboweni, they were in for a disappointment as the umbilical cord remained intact. “In so far as fiscal framework perspective and structural reforms, we are on the same page,” Godongwana said of Mboweni during a pre-Budget media briefing. “I always tell him that ‘the only difference between the two of us is your shoes. I wear better shoes than you. But maybe I’m not good at cooking as well.” Godongwana yesterday tabled…

NASA is extending its target date for sending astronauts back to the moon to 2025 at the earliest, the US space agency’s chief said this week, stretching out by at least a year the time line pronounced under former president Donald Trump. Trump’s administration had set the aggressive goal of returning humans to the lunar surface by 2024, in an initiative named “Artemis”, intended as a stepping stone toward the even more ambitious objective of sending astronauts to Mars. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson cited delays from legal wrangling over the SpaceX contract to build the Artemis lunar landing vehicle as a major reason for extending the target date. “We lost nearly seven months in litigation, and that has pushed the first human landing likely to no earlier than 2025,” Nelson…

VA VOLKER | Pietermaritzburg Top marks for the ANC NEC in refusing to budge to the EFF’s demands. That is a slight redeeming feature for the ANC. I say slight because the ANC is, for all practical purposes, a very discredited governing party in South Africa. As it is, the EFF, apart from also having their fingers in the cookie jar in the VBS matter, propose a policy that would guarantee the destruction of South Africa’s economy and the shaky international (junk) status. All the evidence that has been produced by the recent state capture investigations, as well as investigations by journalists, has confirmed that there were not just a few corrupt individuals, but that the state machinery at all levels of authority is basically corrupt. It is…

Quinton Mtyala quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za Ahead of World Diabetes Day on Sunday, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has released new figures showing that 537 million adults are now living with diabetes worldwide – a rise of 16% (74 million) since the previous IDF estimates in 2019. These findings from the 10th Edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlas, which will be published on December 6, report that 4.2 million adults in South Africa are living with diabetes – one in nine adults. The diabetes prevalence in South Africa has reached 11.3%, the highest in Africa. The country will also register an estimated 96 000 deaths due to diabetes in 2021, while the cost of diabetes-related health expenditure has risen to $1 700 (R26 million) per person. Just under half (45.4%) of people living…

Zelda Venter zelda.venter@inl.co.za A “WIDOW” who challenged the constitutional validity of sections of the Intestate Succession Act has lost her legal bid to share in her “husband’s” estate. She had challenged the section of the act that excluded the widows in a polygamous marriage from inheriting maintenance following the death of their husbands. The Johannesburg High Court found that the woman was never married in the first place to the man. It found that he was already married at the time. Apart from that, there was also a court order issued in 2012 in place, which prohibited such a marriage taking place. The woman told the court that in February 2012 she entered into a polygamous religious marriage with the man following the religious rites of the International Pentecostal Holiness…

TEHRAN: Iran will adopt an uncompromising stance when it resumes nuclear talks with major powers, betting it has the leverage to win wide sanctions relief in return for curbs on its increasingly advanced atomic technology, officials and analysts say. The stakes are high, since failure in the negotiations resuming in Vienna on November 29 to revive a 2015 nuclear deal would carry the risk of a fresh regional war. Iran’s arch foe Israel has pushed for a tough policy if diplomacy fails to rein in Iran’s nuclear work, long seen by the West as a cover for developing atomic bombs. Tehran denies it has ever sought to develop nuclear weapons and says it is prepared for war in defence of its atomic programme. Iranian hardliners believe that a tough approach,…

Stuart Hess stuart.hess@inl.co.za WAYNE Parnell did not return to South Africa expecting the national selection convenor to call him asking if he’d like to have a go at international cricket again. “I didn’t set out my stall to come back into South African cricket, and play for the Proteas,” the 32-year-old said yesterday. “I was happy coming back to Western Province, to try and add value into this environment, and it led to these bigger things - being called up again.” Parnell was a surprising inclusion in the Proteas squad for the three match One-Day International series against the Netherlands later this month. He played the last of his 111 international matches in October 2017 - a Test against Bangladesh in Bloemfontein. Since then the English County circuit has been…

Baldwin Ndaba and Siyabonga Mkhwanazi POLITICAL parties yesterday expressed mixed feelings over Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s maiden Mid-Term Budget Policy statement (MTBPS) delivered in parliament. Prior to his maiden address, hundreds of people led by labour unions South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the Assembly of the Unemployed (AOU), Cry of the Xcluded and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) Cape Metro, marched to demand a basic income grant of R1 500 for those aged 18 to 59 who have no income. In their memorandum presented to Parliament, the parties said: “People are starving and without food, to end this, the state should look to progressively introduce an unconditional universal basic income grant. We need a basic income now for 18…

I love the way life on occasions taps me on the shoulder with moments of serendipitous joy. Yesterday I was editing pages of a book about my children’s early days, reflecting on their lives as newborns, and thinking about how small they were at birth and how fragile everything seemed. Then a message popped up on my computer screen. “Do you have accommodation – three nights – for a woman travelling through your city?” “Here for adoption,” the caption included. I checked the calendar and responded. “Thank you. Be there in an hour.” I had no idea who I would meet and what the circumstances would be when an out-of-state vehicle pulled up into the reserved parking space for our hospitality house. I greeted my guest and added: “The adoption…

| Stephen Colbert There where the hills are sleeping Feel how the blood’s a-leaping High as the spirits of the old Highland men … OCH aye the noo. Scotland tomorrow where the Boks will be beset by the wild clansmen Du Preez, Nel, Schoeman, Strauss, Van der Merwe and Van der Walt. They all go back a long way in Scottish history. The Du Preez, Nel and Schoeman clans were with Bonnie Prince Charlie. To this day they give tongue in the after-match celebrations: Fleet bonnie boat like a birrrd on the wing, Onward the sailors cry, Carrying the lad who’s born to be King, Over the seas to Skye … The Strausses, Van der Merwes and Van der Walts, on the other hand, were such a menace on…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za The auditor-general has flagged irregular expenditure of R25.9 billion in entities under the Department of Public Enterprises. The office of the A-G also found some of the entities, including SAA and SA Express (SAX), have failed to submit financial statements on time. The department has six state-owned entities reporting to it including Transnet, Eskom, SAA, SAX, Denel and Alexkor. Acting business unit leader in the office of the A-G, Phumlani Rabonda, was briefing the portfolio committee on public enterprises when he revealed the SOEs had serious problems. He said both Transnet and Eskom obtained qualified audit opinions. “The overall outcome of the portfolio remained stagnant and that is as a result of Transnet and Eskom obtaining a qualified audit opinion on the completeness and accuracy of irregular…

A sapphire-and-diamond brooch and matching ear clips which once belonged to Russia's Romanov imperial dynasty were snapped up at a Sotheby’s auction for nearly $900 000 (R14 million). The jewels, which belonged to grand duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder, the aunt of the last tsar, Nicholas II, were smuggled out of Russia for safekeeping during the 1917 revolution in which the tsar, his wife and their children were massacred. “The storied history of the Romanov jewels proved the power of provenance, with collectors vying for the winning bid,” Sotheby’s Olivier Wagner said. | AFP…

Zama Ngcoya Zama.Ngcoya@inl.co.za Police are investigating an incident at a Ladysmith school in which a pupil was stabbed yesterday. According the DA KZN spokesperson on Education, Dr Imran Keeka, the suspects allegedly barged through the school gates, past security guards and stabbed the pupil in the shoulder. Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said police were aware of the incident but said they were not able to provide further details yesterday. Keeka said the party condemned the incident. He said that in 2019, the DA made several recommendations at the discussion of the KZN’s school security programme. These included self-defence training for security personnel at schools, deterrents including pepper spray, a direct link to armed back-up support where schools use a security company, and CCTV cameras at so-called hot spot schools.…

WITH the rebel Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) advancing towards the capital Addis Ababa, the risk of Ethiopia descending into full-scale civil war is very real. The consequences of such an offensive on the densely populated capital where democratically elected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is immensely popular, would be bloody and devastating, and would probably plunge the country into war with itself. The TPLF (which represents only 6% of the population) never accepted losing power to Ahmed in 2018, after ruling the country with an iron fist for two-and-a-half decades with the backing of Western powers. The group is well resourced and its backers continue to pour money and arms into its coffers in the hope that it will overthrow Ahmed’s government. The TPLF has been accumulating a sophisticated arsenal…

Yaoundé, Cameroon: An explosion injured nine students in a lecture hall at the University of Buea in one of Cameroon’s western regions where English-speaking separatists are at war with government forces, a university official said yesterday. Two security sources said authorities were investigating it as a suspected attack. The official, who asked not to be named, said the injured students had been taken to hospital. The campus was sealed off and students were hurrying home. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. This is at least the second explosion in Buea, in South West region, this week after a taxi driver was killed on Monday by an explosive device.…

OWN Correspondent THE persistent easterly winds have not let up resulting in some very cold water along the coast. Nevertheless reports of good fishing are coming through. Mark Davis landed a kob of 30kg in the Umkomaas area. The Park Rynie area has also started fishing well with above average size yellowtail kingfish being reported. The Umdoni and Sezela areas are also producing a few of these fish. Garrick are being caught in these areas as well. There are also favourable reports of garrick and kob down at the Sandspit at Port Shepstone. Kob are also around and those anglers who can put in a couple of hours at night are being rewarded. Brusher and bronze bream are being targeted by most anglers. These fish can be caught in…