Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-09-08 i Mercury

THE PROPOSED amendment to section 162 of the Companies Act (Act 17 of 2008) is one of several amendments proposed by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) in the Companies Amendment Bills. It follows on from a recommendation made by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture to extend the time period during which application could be made to declare a director delinquent. The current law states that an application to declare a director delinquent can be made if the person is currently a director of the company, or was one in the preceding 24 months. The latest proposal is to extend this time bar to five years, and further to give the courts discretion to extend it still further if they see cause. The statute of…

Kourtney Kardashian had to have “urgent foetal surgery” to save her baby’s life. The 44-year-old reality TV star – who has three children with her former partner Scott Disick – is expecting her first child with husband Travis Barker and suffered a scare last week when she was rushed into surgery. She shared on Instagram: “I will be forever grateful to my incredible doctors for saving our baby’s life. I am eternally grateful to my husband who rushed to my side from tour to be with me in the hospital and take care of me afterwards, my rock. And to my mom, thank you for holding my hand through this. “As someone who has had three really easy pregnancies in the past, I wasn’t prepared for the fear of rushing…

“SEEING the leaves” – a lesson about seeing opportunities, where others saw problems – involved paging through newspapers with an innovative eye and an entrepreneurial mindset to provide solutions to the nation’s problems. This was one of many inspiring lessons taught to over a thousand young people, who came through the doors of the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development. As the life of the pioneering South African is remembered, his vision to create a generation of resilient entrepreneurial leaders stands out among his many philanthropic endeavours. Tributes and condolences came pouring in when news of his death broke early yesterday. Ackerman established the Raymond Ackerman Academy for Entrepreneurial Development in partnership with UCT in 2004, which was later joined by the University of Johannesburg. Well over 1 000 graduates…

eThekwini Municipality has taken a proactive approach to effectively deal with hijacked and derelict buildings to prevent tragic loss of lives. The eradication of problem buildings is part of the municipality’s inner-city regeneration programme to ensure that we have a vibrant, safe and attractive city, in line with our ambition to be Africa’s most liveable city by 2030. Our overarching vision is to improve the public realm and create a more pleasant environment to live, play and work in. This includes implementing practical interventions to reduce crime, improve market value of properties, attract investment, retain businesses, and promote tourism. The recent fire that killed at least 77 people in a rundown building in Johannesburg has not only sharpened the focus on strategies to rejuvenate the inner city but further exposed…

PARLIAMENT has told the National Student Aid Financial Scheme (NSFAS) to get its house in order and gave it two weeks to report on a date for the conclusion of all appeals. The portfolio committee on higher education slammed the board members led by chairperson Ernest Khosa over appeal responses still being outstanding. During a briefing this week MPs expressed disappointment that thousands of eligible students were wrongly defunded, leading to chaos in the sector. NSFAS received a total of 2 142 888 funding applications for both new and continuing students. “It has been identified that there were 45 927 records that were funded and later unfunded because of processing gaps. Hybrid applications affected 14 703 records where continuing students applied erroneously because of migrating from the old to the…

The Health Department has defended agreements to secure Covid-19 vaccines after a multi-group analysis found South Africa was “bullied” into signing away sovereignty and agreeing to terms for vaccine contracts that were one-sided and unethical. The department said it had to agree to the terms and conditions of the contracts, or more than 200 000 people would have died. A multi-stakeholder group led by the Health Justice Initiative, which succeeded in court action to have access to the vaccine contracts, said its review of four contracts handed over to them revealed “punitive, one-sided conditions that forced South Africa to hand over sovereignty”, with none of the contracts agreed under South African legal jurisdiction. The review found the agreement between US-based Johnson & Johnson and the SA government was conducted under…

A convicted murderer who escaped Chester County Prison in Pennsylvania, in the US, seven days ago did so by scrambling up the prison yard walls, diving through barbed wire and bolting across the roof of the facility, authorities said Wednesday, adding that a similar escape method was used by another inmate to flee the prison earlier this year. An officer in the guard tower overlooking the exercise yard, where the escape occurred, “did not observe nor report the escape,” and is a “key part” of an ongoing internal investigation, acting Chester County Prison warden Howard Holland said during a news conference. In the meantime, the facility will increase its security measures by enclosing its yards and adding more razor wire “to block access to the roof,” Holland said. There…

Early one August evening in 1954, a Brazilian plane was tracked by an unidentified object of “strong luminosity” that didn’t appear on radar. Two decades later, a river community in the northern Amazon jungle was repeatedly visited by glowing orbs that beamed lights down onto the inhabitants. In 1986, more than 20 unidentified aerial phenomena lit up the skies over Brazil’s most populous states, sending the Brazilian air force out in pursuit. The stories are not the ravings of a UFO buff. They are official assessments by Brazilian pilots and military officers – who often struggled to put into words what they’d seen – and can be found in Brazil’s remarkable historical archive of reported UFO visitations. And it’s all public record. There are no security clearances. No heavily redacted…

INADEQUATE grazing land, lack of conducive farming conditions and continued incidents of abuse of farm dwellers at the hands of farm owners were some of the issues that took centre stage during the public hearings on the Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Bill in Pietermaritzburg yesterday. The hearings were conducted by Parliament’s Agricultural portfolio committee chaired by iNkosi Mandla Mandela. Farm dwellers, individual farmers and organised farming communities said that the government was not attentive to their plight, and appeared to care only when elections were looming. Magagu Mkhize, a farm dweller from New Hanover, spoke of the difficulty of living on a small plot at a farm where he shared a two-bedroom house with his wife and eight children. He appealed to the government for more consideration for…

It feels like just the other day that Siya Kolisi lifted the Webb Ellis Cup. November 2, 2019 in Yokohama, Japan, was one of the most memorable nights for any Springbok fan – in fact, any South African – as Kolisi’s team went toe-to-toe with an in-form England side and triumphed 32-12 in the final to clinch the Rugby World Cup title for the third time in their history. Talking about history, Kolisi’s team wrote themselves into the record books that night. Makazole Mapimpi became the first South African to score a try in a World Cup final, the 20-point victory margin was the Boks’ biggest in a title decider, and of course, the skipper himself was the first black player to lead Mzansi to glory. But now Kolisi’s bunch…

At least four people have died and more than six were still missing yesterday after storm Daniel swept across central Greece, triggering landslides, destroying roads and bridges and carrying away dozens of cars. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed an annual economic speech scheduled for this weekend and will instead visit areas hit since Monday by torrential rain that has flooded homes and destroyed key infrastructure, including power poles. “The state mechanism’s absolute priority right now is the rescue and evacuation of people from the areas affected,” said government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis. “Our country is facing for the third day a phenomenon unlike any other we have seen in the past,” Marinakis said, before announcing that the recently re-elected leader’s main economic policy speech would be held in the middle of…

Britain is to rejoin the Horizon Europe science research programme, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office and the EU said yesterday, after UK scientists were frozen out in a post-Brexit row. Scientists welcomed the agreement as “a great day for researchers in the UK and across Europe” and a relief after two-and-a-half years of “uncertainty”, raising hopes among anti-Brexit campaigners of further closer collaboration with the EU. London had said it had been excluded from the scheme that funds research projects due to wrangling with Brussels over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland. But following a call this week, Sunak and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that Britain was rejoining under what was billed as a “bespoke deal”. The government said rejoining would give the country’s scientists “unrivalled…

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that he would offer proposals to widen referendums in France to allow a possible ballot on immigration demanded by conservatives and the far right. His promise in a letter to party leaders comes after a 12-hour meeting last week designed to break deadlock in the National Assembly, or lower house, where Macron’s supporters have no majority but no alternative bloc exists. The president promised a detailed proposal, which would mean changing referendum rules laid out in France’s constitution, soon. Immigration has been top of the agenda as Macron’s camp have failed to bring aboard conservatives for a proposed reform. | AFP…

Canberra: Australia’s Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek yesterday declared war on feral cats in a bid to protect iconic native species from extinction. Plibersek launched a new action plan to stop feral cats from decimating wildlife and pushing native species to the brink of extinction, removing them from key areas and expanding cat-free fenced havens. The Australian National University said cats killed more than 2 billion reptiles, birds and mammals in Australia every year. Plibersek said feral cats have played a role in two-thirds of Australian mammal extinctions over 200 years and were a threat to 200 listed threatened species. | IANS…

It’s been more than a week since Uncle Waffles officially launched a new campaign with KFC around her new burger, which is now available in selected stores. While the burger seems to be moving units across the country, with various stores reporting that it’s temporarily sold out, some who tried the burger were not happy with its flavour. Many of the videos making the rounds online have seen fans criticising the burger’s taste. One TikToker, @reabetswemoloto.5 recorded a video of herself having the new burger for the first time in a video that’s since been viewed over 2 million times. “I got the Uncle Waffles Burger, I’m excited,” she said as she started eating the chips. “I love trying out new things.” As she unwraps the burger, she begins to…

The Springboks begin the defence of their World Cup title on Sunday when they tackle Scotland in sunny Marseilles in the south of France, and rugby fever is gripping South Africa in anticipation. Siya Kolisi’s team are attempting to go where no Springbok team has gone before by winning back-to-back world cups, and excited South Africans are loving the fact that their team are tipped for the top – most sports betting bookies have the Boks as favourites. Better news still for Bok fans is that all South Africans have an opportunity to watch the boys in green and gold, after broadcasters SABC and SuperSport yesterday reached a last-minute compromise on the television coverage of the tournament. Earlier this week, it had been reported that the SABC would not be…

IT’S a huge ’un tonight. France are before a home crowd. Will the All Blacks have shaken off the setback of the drubbing our Boks gave them in the warm-up? Come Sunday, will our guys perform against Scotland as they did against the Kiwis? Never underestimate the Scotties. A video has been doing the rounds showing a team of kilted Scots totally spooking the All Blacks as they perform the Haka – simply by raising their kilts. I’m not suggesting that will actually happen to our boys, but on the other hand the stakes are high and anything can happen. What a weekend lies ahead. The damsels of The Pub With No Name, in Florida Road, are already strumming at their knickers in anticipation of supplying elastic for a fashioning…

President Cyril Ramaphosa, is your minister of electricity a bright spark or a dark phantom living off the people’s lard? When you announced a new ministry of electricity there was much trepidation – even anger – as for the exact need for such an unwarranted taxpayer expense. It seems such trepidation has been vindicated. What has the so-called minister of electricity done thus far in terms of alleviating the electricity crisis? What exactly has this newly appointed minister of electricity significantly done that the previous minister in the public enterprises portfolio had not done? I, together with the rest of South Africa, would like to know. Load shedding is going on unabated without any hope on the near horizon of its cessation – on the contrary, it has been exacerbated…

THE ANC this week rammed through the processing of the bill that will give Police Minister Bheki Cele more powers over the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), including the power to appoint the executive director. The governing party said the police portfolio committee should adopt the motion of desirability on the Ipid Amendment Bill despite the chief state law adviser refusing to certify it and the parliamentary legal adviser and an independent senior counsel finding the amendment bill unconstitutional. The amendment bill provides that the minister, with the concurrence of Cabinet, shall appoint the Ipid executive director. This is a departure from the current act that makes a provision for the minister to nominate to Parliament a new Ipid head and that MPs either approve or reject the nomination. The…

The piano Queen frontman Freddie Mercury used to compose almost all of his greatest songs and the original manuscript for Bohemian Rhapsody were snapped up for over £3 million (about R71.6m) this week when they went under the hammer in London. The Sotheby’s auction room echoed to the sound of the track We Will Rock You before bidding began at the black-tie evening auction. The items were among over 1 400 lots of Mercury memorabilia up for grabs over the next week, with the famous auction house’s facade decorated with a huge moustache for the occasion. The 59 lots sold on Wednesday brought in £12 172 290, Sotheby’s said, adding that each one went for more than double the estimated price. Mercury’s Yamaha quarter-tail piano went for…

WITH Standard Bank’s deadline to close Independent Media bank accounts just a week away, recent comments by EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi have come under the spotlight as he sounded the alarm about the urgent need for a state-owned bank. This as the Competition Commission’s Economy Concentration Tracker report revealed the sector was still dominated by “the big four”. Standard Bank last month indicated its intention to close banking accounts of Sekunjalo-related companies including Independent Media. This has sparked renewed calls for a state-owned bank, with unions citing Standard Bank’s move as an attack on media freedom and the livelihoods of ordinary employees. Standard Bank and other banks had approached the Competition Appeal Court (CAC) to appeal the Competition Tribunal finding which found that there was a prima facie case that…

AS WE join the rest of the world in celebrating another International Literacy Day today, we cannot ignore the reading crisis that we face. The latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) report released in May revealed that 81% of our Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning. And to make matters worse, our teachers continue to be hamstrung in their efforts to improve the literacy skills of learners. One thing that comes up regularly in my conversations with some teachers is their frustration resulting from many challenges, including overcrowded classrooms and inadequate access to resources, infrastructure, and support. These barriers do not only make it difficult for them to provide individualised attention to learners, but also impact their ability to deliver effective education and literacy instruction. Teachers also…

An award-winning Russian alpinist is feared dead after falling from one of the world’s tallest mountains in Pakistan, officials said yesterday, potentially the fourth fatality in the nation’s 2023 summiting season. Dmitry Golovchenko “suffered a likely lethal fall” from the 7 925m Gasherbrum IV – the world’s 17th tallest mountain – sometime last week, the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) said. His partner Sergey Nilov was injured but made it back to the peak’s basecamp on Pakistan’s northeast border with China and was helicoptered out on Wednesday, the ACP said. The pair had been “attempting a high-difficulty route”, the statement said. ACP secretary Karrar Haidri told AFP the alarm was raised by Golovchenko’s wife, whom he was in contact with during the climb, and that he suspected the veteran mountaineer…

KYIVl: Stephen Fry was rushed to a bomb shelter during his trip to Ukraine amid reports of a fresh Russian attack on Kyiv. The actor was in the city this week to give a speech at a conference on mental health organised by Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and said he was evacuated from his hotel room in the middle of the night and taken to a shelter after the alarm was raised over a possible bombing raid. He said he didn’t think to take his laptop to the shelter to keep himself entertained. | Bang Showbiz…

WASHINGTON: US Vice-President Kamala Harris said it would be a “huge mistake” for North Korea to exchange military support with Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. Harris, who is in Jakarta, Indonesia for an Asean summit, said yesterday that it would be a sign of desperation for Russia and it would further isolate both countries. US officials have warned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing, while a report said North Korea’s Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss supplying Moscow with weapons for its war effort. | Reuters…

London: The recent coup in Gabon was executed peacefully and appeared to be a “good coup”, with society and business operating as usual, a senior executive from the African Finance Corporation (AFC) said yesterday. “We have significant investments in Gabon and so far ... the assets are safe and everything is operating,” said the AFC’s executive director of financial services, Sanjeev Gupta. Unlike Niger, Gabon has not seen much anti-French, pro-Russian sentiment. Gabon’s military junta yesterday named a former prime minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, as the country’s new interim prime minister. | AFP…

THE offshore fishing has been a mix of bottom fishing when the game fish go quiet and chaos when the drags start screaming. The North Coast has been fishing well from Umdloti to Sodwana. The closer inshore reefs have seen amazing couta caught, mostly on live bait. Down rigging your live bait has been key to getting the bigger bites. Try and fish one bait close to the bottom and another slightly higher in the water column. The general rule is to start fishing closer to the surface and move deeper as the day goes on. The bottom fishing has been slow on the North Coast but some smaller reds and daga have been caught. The Durban section of KZN has produced good game fish and bottom fish catches. The…

Any woman who has ever tried on shapewear understands the struggle of getting into it. And getting out of it can be just as challenging. The worst is when you’re in a hurry. Even worse when you have to use the bathroom! Actress and radio DJ, Thando Thabethe has just launched her own line of Thabooty shapewear which she says is more user friendly. While many are thrilled about the zipper, others are more concerned about how things could possibly go wrong while using it. However some social media users were not impressed with a zip design saying many things could go wrong and lead to injuries.…

SOUTH Africa is home to multinational corporations (MNCs) in Africa dating back to the colonial era when these corporations acted as agents of their home countries after colonial conquest at the expense of black people. While some of these MNCs came to repent of their ill-treatment of African people, Standard Bank South Africa appears to be one of the super-powerful financial institutions that have continued to operate uninterrupted despite many voices pointing out its racial profiling of black people. With total assets of more than R3 trillion and a market capitalisation of $14.5 billion (about R287bn) as of June 20 this year, it is shocking how Africa’s largest bank, even after rebranding, appears to continue its patterns and trends of oppression through the imminent economic exclusion of many black people…

It was a horrifying disaster, one of the worst South Africa has experienced. Over 70 people had an agonising death, trapped in a blazing building in Joburg’s CBD. Seasoned firemen who had witnessed many disasters in their lives and had become accustomed to seeing scenes of human tragedy, couldn’t believe what they saw before them: scenes of devastation and horror of the charred remains of human beings, which lay strewn all before them. They had never seen such horrible scenes before. They stood numb in disbelief. But there was one harrowing image in particular which stood out among the stark devastation and made the firemen cry: a mother clutching her baby. Both were burnt beyond recognition. You cannot take away this image from your heart. All the county’s media gave…

WAYS to know you’re still alive: You wake up most mornings (not all) with an urge for the adventure the days offer. You still find yourself planning fun and mischievous activities with and for the people you love. You plan for things years ahead with a sense of possibility and joy. You’re aware of the power you have to make someone’s day through simple acts of kindness and generosity. Ways to know you’re not: Your conversations are usually replays of a glorified past and are richly spiced with cynicism about the future. You are mean about people who are more successful than you are, and there’s a suggestion it was somehow at your expense. You spend energy blaming your parents, the government and your ex for the way you are,…

Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says disruptions caused by construction mafia groups were among the reasons why more than 3 000 housing projects were stalled in the country. She disclosed this when responding to oral questions in the National Assembly yesterday, saying 3 445 housing projects have been blocked. “In 2021, we took a decision as a sector to unblock projects. This was to be done in three financial years,” she said. According to Kubayi, they had planned to target 192 housing projects in the 2022-23 financial year. “When we monitored, out of the 192, 103 were activated and the implementation is ongoing and the remaining is 89 projects that were carried over to the next year,” she said. Among the reasons for the stalling of some of the housing…

A 98-year-old former guard at a Nazi camp has been charged in Germany for his role in the Holocaust. Authorities have not released the suspect’s name. The defendant is accused of having “supported the cruel and malicious killing” of more than 3 300 people while working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from July 1943 until February 1945, German prosecutors said in a statement. The indictment was filed at the state court in Hanau, which will decide whether to send the case to trial. If it does, the man, an adolescent at the time of the alleged crimes, will be tried under juvenile law. Prosecutors said the suspect had been deemed fit to stand trial at least on a limited basis after a psychiatric assessment in October. Hans-Jürgen Förster, a German…

As the US baked in summer’s record temperatures, Texas UPS driver Chris Begley started feeling unwell before collapsing at a customer’s premises. The 57-year-old’s death in hospital was announced in late August - just as his trade union was ratifying a deal with UPS on improved heat protections. “Chris Begley should still be alive to experience them,” the Teamsters union said in a statement of provisions such as a promise to include air conditioning in new delivery vans from next year and to retrofit existing vehicles. In a statement to local media, UPS said it was cooperating with the authorities as they investigated the cause of death. “We train our people to recognise the symptoms of heat stress, and we respond immediately to any request for help,” it said. As…

THE visit by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Public Works and Human Settlements to some of the dilapidated buildings belonging to the department that are in Durban has laid bare the horrid living conditions in them. The Mercury accompanied MEC Sipho “KK” Nkosi when he visited five buildings that are owned by the department yesterday. Among the buildings visited were the Seamen’s Institute building, Westpoint, the Palm Beach Hotel, the Esplanade building, and the Castle building near the Mayville area. Three of these buildings were unoccupied and sealed off by the department with guards manning the entrances, but the Seamen’s Institute building and Westpoint were found to be illegally occupied. Nkosi visited the buildings following a devastating fire in a hijacked Johannesburg building that left more than 70 people dead.…

Team’s playbook must encompass respect, resilience and resolve WHEN Siya Kolisi leads out the Springboks at the Stade de Marseille on Sunday in South Africa’s opening match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup (RWC) against Scotland, it is not only in defence of the William Webb Ellis Cup as world champions. But equally importantly they will carry the expectations and aspirations of a 60 million plus rugby-mad nation clobbered in recent years by a seemingly endless cycle of economic doom and gloom, a cost of living crisis and the dark arts of near daily load shedding. For the next two months (the final is way ahead on October 28), rugby and the fortunes of the Bokke will be the respite default for most South Africans, happy to be distracted like…

US President Joe Biden arrives at this weekend’s Group of 20 (G20) meeting in India with an offer for the “Global South” – whatever happens to China’s economy, the US can help fund your development. Armed with cash for the World Bank and promises of sustained US engagement, Biden hopes to persuade fast-growing economies in Africa, Latin America and Asia that there is an alternative to China’s Belt and Road project, which has funnelled billions of dollars to developing countries but left many deeply in debt. He will have at least one advantage: Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be at the meetings. While Biden said he was “disappointed”, Xi’s absence as China’s economy wobbles creates a narrow opening for Washington to reshape the agenda of a political club it…

The remnants of Typhoon Haikui drenched southern China for a third day since making landfall, and airports in Guangdong province cancelled hundreds of flights due to stormy weather yesterday, though winds had weakened. Although storm clouds moved westward towards Guangdong, one of the country’s richest provinces, more downpours were still forecast for the south-eastern province of Fujian, where state media reported economic losses had reached 5.054 billion yuan (about R13bn) since the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday. Torrential rain reportedly led to rivers overflowing in the Guangdong town Tangxi, and some villages suffered severe waterlogging. Over 350 people, including the elderly, women and children were relocated from low-lying areas, said state media. The China Meteorological Administration forecast rainstorms in central and eastern Guangdong, the southern part of Jiangxi province, southern…

HELSINKI: Finland’s former prime minister Sanna Marin, who narrowly lost an election in April and stepped down from the leadership of her party last week, planned to leave parliament and join former British prime minister Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change, she said yesterday. Marin has formally asked permission to resign from parliament, her centre-left Social Democrats party said. The London-based policy think tank is led by Blair. “I feel that this assignment is such that it will benefit the whole of Finland as well,” Marin said. She did not rule out taking part in future elections or applying for top European jobs. Marin was the world’s youngest prime minister when she took office in 2019 aged 34, and led the country through Covid-19. She led Finland to end its…

Istanbul: Turkish rescuers raced yesterday to save an American who developed internal bleeding while exploring a cave more than 1 000m below ground level. Türkiye’s Caving Federation said 150 rescuers were trying to reach Mark Dickey, 40, who developed gastrointestinal bleeding while deep inside the Morca Cave, near Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast. “The operation is logistically and technically one of the largest cave rescues in the world,” the federation said. Dickey fell ill at a depth of 1 120m while with an international team of explorers. He was taken to a base camp 1 040m underground, where he was given a blood transfusion. The rescue operation is expected to take a few days. | AFP…