Indholdsfortegnelse for 2023-11-28 i Mercury

The leadership of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has been urged to expedite the nomination of candidates for next year’s election, which is expected to be one of the closest since the first democratic vote in 1994. A Sunday newspaper, citing a report by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, the party’s electoral committee chief, reported that more than a third of the party’s branches had not nominated candidates for next year’s general elections. Motlanthe’s report stated that 2 533 branches submitted lists leaving 1 000 outstanding. The report, discussed at a special national executive committee (NEC) meeting last week, said only 37% of KZN ANC branches participated in the nomination process of candidates to Parliament. The meeting also was told that in some areas party volunteers had failed to show…

The supermarket industry is saturated. One on every corner bombarding prospective shoppers with price reduc tions reflected on glossy pamphlets. The only loyalty that exists today is that as a customer, maximise your buying power by seeking specials. As things stand, supermarkets are amorphous, unfriendly places where the owners are nowhere to be seen. It is prudent then to gather all the pamphlets you can. Decide on what you want. Then, go from supermarket to supermarket and conclude your monthly purchases, picking the “eyes” out of their offerings. If you are diligent, you will probably save as much as 35%. The days of loyalty are dead. Just look after the pennies in your pocket.…

It was with dismay and disappointment that I read an article, scribed by Zelda Venter, announcing the release of Oscar Pistorius after he has served just half of his sentence for murdering Reeva Steenkamp. Despite the fact that in the eyes of some, justice has been served, the reality is that the sentence was a slap on the wrist for Pistorius who walks out of prison a young man with his whole life ahead of him, while Reeva’s mother is left alone in her twilight years to fend for herself after the passing of her husband and the loss of her beloved daughter. Justice? I beg to differ. To rub salt in June Steenkamp’s wounds, your writer suggests that his release was “good news“. Good news for whom? Certainly not…

Former president Thabo Mbeki has called for the elections to be held in August because the Electoral Amendment Bill was still part of a legal dispute in the Constitutional Court. The court heard an application by Mmusi Maimane’s Build One South Africa and the Independent Candidate Association South Africa, who are challenging certain provisions of the law. They argue that the playing fields were not levelled for independent candidates and political parties. The apex court has not yet delivered a judgment on this application. Mbeki said due to the fact that there was still an ongoing court application, the elections should be held in August. President Cyril Ramaphosa has not declared the date for the elections. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) was last weekend conducting its first voter…

NO MAJOR incidents of cheating have been reported during the current 2023 matric exams, said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. The exams started on October 30 and will end on December 6. “So far a few incidents of candidates having crib notes or cellphones in their possession during the exams have been reported, but no major incidents of cheating,” Motshekga said. Responding to questions from IFP MP Siphosethu Ngcobo, Motshekga said all incidents of irregularities would be dealt with by provincial exam irregularities committees and then presented to the national examirregularities committee for ratification in January 2024, prior to the release of results. “This will ensure that cases are speedily dealt with and candidates’ results are not withheld unnecessarily,” she said. Asked about plans to prepare for the 2023 exams,…

THE Department of Correctional Services has confiscated a total of 20 933 cellphones that were smuggled into prisons across the country over the past seven months. Five officials from three provinces were implicated in the smuggling of the cellphones. This was revealed by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola in reply to parliamentary questions from ANC MP Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen. Newhoudt-Druchen asked the minister about steps his department has taken to curb the unlawful possession of mobile devices by prisoners beyond just confiscation of the devices. Lamola said the total number of cellphones that were confiscated from April to October this year was 20 933. Gauteng led the pack with 5 381 confiscations, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 4 433, the Eastern Cape with 3 228, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North…

IFP DEPUTY president Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi believes that the national council of the party should not overlook King Cetshwayo district mayor Thami Ntuli when it makes a decision on the party’s premier candidate for KwaZulu-Natal. Buthelezi, speaking at the recent Princess Magogo choral festival, said the party must elect leaders of substance, including Ntuli, whom he described as “possessing the vision and dedication to guide us forward”. Addressing Ntuli at the event he said: “I was almost tempted to say something in this regard, because in politics regardless of how much a person does, in the main we are driven by personal interest and personal ambitions, to an extent that we deliberately overlook talent to the detriment of citizens of this country. “So when I’m talking about leaders of substance…

IN the face of a looming water shortage crisis, South Africa finds itself standing at the edge of a precipice, staring down a challenge that, if left unattended, could be far worse than the current load shedding. As major cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban grapple with diminishing water supplies, it is imperative that the nation acts with unprecedented speed to avert an impending catastrophe. The roots of this crisis lie in the ageing infrastructure, rampant illegal connections, and pervasive corruption within local municipalities. Shockingly, eThekwini Municipality is bleeding just over 50% of its water through leaks, emphasising the urgent need for comprehensive infrastructure rejuvenation. Compounding the urgency is the recent directive from the national Department of Water and Sanitation instructing the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board to curtail its…

New Zealand’s plans for world-leading anti-smoking laws will be revoked, Christopher Luxon confirmed yesterday after being sworn in as prime minister, in a move described as a “huge win for the tobacco industry”. Former airline boss Luxon took over six weeks after his conservative National Party won national elections, ending a six-year Labour Party reign ushered in by Jacinda Ardern. Luxon, 53, was sworn in as head of a new coalition government by New Zealand’s governor-general in a ceremony in the capital Wellington. “It is an honour and an awesome responsibility,” Luxon said. The conservative said he would prioritise taming inflation and bringing down interest rates, and also confirmed he would scrap a so-called “generational smoking ban” adopted last year that stops sales of tobacco to anyone born after 2008.…

New York: Former US President Donald Trump is moving “closer and closer” to “losing his own liberty” over his attacks on New York Judge Arthur Engoron and his staff on his $250 million (about R4.7bn) civil fraud trials case in lower Manhattan courts, reports said. Trump is losing his advantage of being the frontrunner in Republican Party nominations as polls predict he is ahead in five swing states. In the absence of a jury, as Trump’s legal team has demanded, Judge Engoron has ruled that Trump had orchestrated a tax and insurance fraud over 10 years and that his business licences in New York be cancelled. Trump said he was a Democrat launching a witch hunt. Engoron twice fined him for violating a gag order but both that ruling and…

LONDON: UK public health officials yesterday said they had confirmed a first human case of a swine flu strain similar to one that has been circulating in pigs. The variant of the H1N2 virus was confirmed in an individual who had been tested by their doctor after experiencing respiratory symptoms. It has not previously been detected in humans in the country, the UK Health Security Agency said. The individual experienced a mild illness and had fully recovered, the agency said. The source of their infection, however, was undetermined and was being investigated. Influenza A(H1) viruses are endemic in swine populations in most regions of the world. | AFP…

ONISMOR Bhasera acknowledges the difficulty of the demands placed on him and his SuperSport United teammates as professional footballers and says it is what they signed up for. Matsatsantsa a Pirtori host Mameldoi Sundowns at the Lucas Moripe Stadium tomorrow evening, just days after returning from an unsuccessful CAF Confederation Cup trip to Egypt where they lost 1-0 to Future FC. “They are difficult times, but we are gonna have to go through it. It is what it is. We know what we signed up for to be on top. Sundowns have been doing it (playing continental and local football) for the past four or five years, so we are going to have to do it. “Our tour squad is a bit thin, while Sundowns have about 40 quality players.…

Rubber-stamping the NHI Bill would have damaging consequences for South Africa for generations and present a material risk to the economy, the business sector said yesterday as 25 000 doctors also voiced their concern. Business Unity South Africa (Busa) and B4SA called on the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the deputy president to defer the bill for the NCOP to properly consider concerns raised by the provinces and many stakeholders. Busa and B4SA said: “No consideration was given by the select committee to the many constitutional issues, both procedural and substantive, in the bill, which were raised by four provinces and a wide range of stakeholders. “This amounts to a serious and significant procedural lapse and a violation and disregard of Parliament’s own public participation model, fundamentally…

Tourism organisations have voiced their concern about the impact of load shedding during the festive season. This comes after Eskom implemented Stage 6 power cuts on Friday. It has since dropped it to Stage 4 cuts for the rest of the week until Saturday. While Minister in The Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said there would be lower loadshedding stages during December due to lower demand, tourism bodies said the power cuts brought significant added costs. Jeannie Sarno, the chairperson of uMhlanga Tourism, said that load shedding has become an unwanted part of everyday South African life. “Over the years we have had to accept it because for us right now level one (Stage 1) is as if we have won the national lottery. The fact is that…

FOR many, the last paper of the matric exams is cause for great celebration – the end of an era and the start of new beginnings. It is the culmination of 12, and perhaps even more, years of schooling, dedication and parental involvement. It is a time of joy, comfort and pride for parents and extended family. It is also a time when pens-down parties and other celebrations are commonplace. In this regard, learners need to exercise great responsibility, care and caution to avoid any circumstance that would endanger their lives and well-being. This requires maturity and not recklessness. It cannot be that all of their effort ends in tragedy, as has happened in some instances. Parents and schools have the responsibility to ensure that matriculants do not place themselves…

Wow! We had a long wait for that URC win against the Welsh Dragons. But what a win. Ten tries! Coach John Plumtree must be a much-relieved man. And now the Bulls next weekend. At Loftus. Will the Bulls attract more than the handful of spectators they did last Saturday? I’ve never seen the place look so eerily empty. Kings Park, by contrast, had a good crowd. This URC competition surely needs some adjustment in approach. How can we be expected to play overseas sides without our internationals? Anyway, roll on Saturday and the old enemy! ’Erewego, ’erewego, ’erewego! In gratitude Christmas is coming, The geese are getting fat, Please to put a penny in the old man’s hat… WELL, in this case it’s not a penny it’s a Christmas…

Municipalities are not paying their water bills and owe the former Umgeni Water Board more than R1 billion. In June, Umgeni Water was amalgamated with uMhlathuze Water to form the uMngeni-uThukela Water Board. Last week the board of the amalgamated entities tabled a report on financial performance for the 2022/23 financial year. Due to the fact that the financial results pre-date the amalgamation, the board said it would table the results of Umgeni Water and the then-uMhlathuze Water Board separately. The results tabled were for the then-Umgeni Water Board for the 2022/23 financial year; those of Umhlathuze will be tabled in the near future. uMngeni-uThukela chief financial officer Thami Mkhwanazi said the municipal debt was a serious concern. He declined to name the municipalities in arrears, saying it was improper…

PUBLIC Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet says government was working to incentivise whistle-blowers who report corruption matters. Answering oral questions in the National Assembly, Kiviet said the Public Service Commission had requested that an environment be created which protects whistle-blowers. “We are busy in preparation for an international forum which discusses issues of anti-corruption. “We are discussing the issue of incentivising whistle-blowers whose cases get proven and there is recovery of either funds or if that case has been found to have an impact on the good of society. “We are discussing now, as I am speaking, about those measures of incentivising whistle-blowers,” she said. Kiviet said the National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH), which was established in September 2004, was the only hotline approved by Cabinet and housed at the…

The KZN Department of Transport says it is ready for the launch of the new licence numbering system for the province that will come into effect from December 1. Department spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said the department had tested the electronic traffic information system called eNatis and confirmed that it was now able to activate the new numbering system, supported by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). He said the first phase of the new numbering would cater for the registration of new vehicles, re-registration of vehicles to new owners, stolen vehicles that were recovered and re-licensed in the owner’s name, and government vehicles. “The first phase will commence from December 1 to February 28,” he said. The second phase would start on March 1, when all vehicle owners could migrate…

IN THE labyrinth of South Africa’s persistent challenges – where the threads of poverty, inequality and unemployment weave a complex tapestry – the Independent Philanthropy Association of South Africa (Ipasa) Symposium 2023 emerged as a crucible where collective vision and resolute leadership converged to tackle these entrenched societal fissures. The theme of the symposium, “Bold Philanthropy”, reverberated across every session, echoing as a unified call to action. The symposium encapsulated a roadmap for philanthropy to not just navigate but thrive amid the intricate tapestry of South Africa’s socio-economic challenges. Poverty deepens the fault lines of society. Inequality amplifies disparities, leaving countless marginalised voices unheard. Unemployment erects hurdles for countless aspiring individuals. Amid this intricate backdrop, the symposium stood as an oasis of transformative discourse, illuminating pathways toward inclusive solutions and…

International pressure mounted yesterday for Hamas and Israel to extend their truce, as the clock ticked on a pause in fighting that has allowed for the release of scores of hostages and prisoners. After US President Joe Biden said the pause should continue to allow humanitarian relief into Gaza and more Israeli hostages to return home to their families, senior EU and Nato officials added their voices to his call. If no extension is agreed the temporary truce is due to expire at 7am today, threatening a return to intense fighting after the four-day pause. As part of the truce deal, Hamas has so far released 39 Israeli hostages, including a 4-year-old girl orphaned by the group’s October 7 attack. Israel has freed 117 Palestinian prisoners in exchange under the…

Rescuers yesterday brought in “rat miners” to drill through a narrow pipe and help pull out 41 construction workers trapped in a tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for more than two weeks after high-powered machines failed, officials said. The men, low-wage workers from India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km tunnel in Uttarakhand state since it collapsed on November 12. The men have been getting food, water, light, oxygen and medicines through a pipe but efforts to dig a tunnel have run into a series of snags. Attempts to drill a tunnel horizontally through the debris trapping the men have been plagued by damage to machinery and rescuers will resort to drilling by hand, after clearing away the broken equipment inside the narrow evacuation pipe. The drilling from…

NAYPYIDAW: Ethnic minority rebels fighting Myanmar’s military junta said they had seized a key trading post on the northern frontier, across the border from where China’s military was conducting exercises to improve combat readiness and emergency response. A month of intense fighting between Myanmar’s ruling military and an alliance of ethnic minority insurgents has displaced tens of thousands of people in the border region, according to the UN, with concern growing in Beijing about instability and an influx of refugees. The rebellion has presented the biggest battlefield challenge to Myanmar’s military since it seized power in a coup in 2021. | AFP…

BEIJING: A Beijing court yesterday began compensation hearings for the Chinese relatives of passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared over the Indian Ocean almost a decade ago, the plaintiffs said. Over 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight which vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Malaysian investigators did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course, and debris confirmed or believed to be from the aircraft has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean. | Reuters…

Last week, three South African teams bounced back from tough URC tours with emphatic home wins, and Bulls flyhalf Jaco van der Walt says it must be a case of “cash in why while you can on home turf”. Early winter Europe became sizzling summer for the Bulls, Sharks, and Lions and all three turned up the heat on European teams to record scores well in excess of 50 points. “We felt the heat when we got back and clearly the visiting teams felt it even more,” Van der Walt said of Connacht, Zebre, and the Dragons, who were slaughtered by the Bulls, Lions, and Sharks. “100% you have to cash in and put away these teams,” said Van der Walt, who spent four seasons in Scotland with Edinburgh, so…

Hosts Richards Bay and Stellenbosch will raise the curtain on the weekend’s Carling Knockout semi-finals in KwaZulu-Natal. The Natal Rich Boyz and visiting Stellies meet on Saturday afternoon at the King Zwelithini Stadium in uMlazi. On Sunday afternoon the Carling Knockout focus remains in KZN where hosts AmaZulu will run out against TS Galaxy at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. On current form, Stellenbosch, who are the best-placed team in the DStv Premiership, will be the favourites in the semi-finals. For the first time in PSL knockout history, the semi- finals will not feature one of the PSL’s ‘big three’ teams. Stellenbosch got a feel for KZN on a Saturday afternoon when they defeated Richards Bay’s neighbours AmaZulu in Durban at the weekend. Steve Barker, the Stellenbosch coach, said…

A contact centre is going to be set up to help people follow up with queries with the Master’s Office. This comes after several concerns were raised by the public and attorneys over the backlogs and other challenges they were facing in dealing with deceased estates and other matters across the country. Issues raised included staff not being responsive to correspondence, telephones are not answered, long delays in responding to queries, emails not being properly utilised, officials can’t be reached when there are queries and files being misplaced. In response the Department of Justice (DOJ) had said it had come up with a rescue plan, with one of the initiatives being a toll-free “one-stop” contact centre. The rescue plan was approved by Minister Ronald Lamola earlier this month. “In terms…

Thank you for agreeing to this temporary “cease-fire” or whatever term one would like to call it. It was very kind of you to agree to this humane arrangement in spite of those “inhuman animals” cowardly attacking your sacrosanct country, on that fateful day. Most ungentlemanly of that terrorist organisation to just suddenly, without any normal, advance warning, climb over your fragile fences and attack all those civilians and kill even a few soldiers in the rush. It’s just unfortunate that your soldiers came in the way, and became part of the collateral murders. All our fault. We, on behalf of Palestinians who are still alive, must express sorrow and apologise in no hesitant terms that we had certainly jumped the gun and had become unreasonably impatient with…

It is said that more than one journalist, especially Palestinian journalists, dies each day in Gaza, at times deliberately targeted by the apartheid Israeli military war machine. Apartheid Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine, the original sin, has to stop. Evidence indicates that apartheid Israel’s Zionist military forces repeatedly use lethal power against Palestinians, including journalists, in violation of international law. There are explicit obligations in international law to protect journalists and humanitarian aid workers during conflicts. The safety and protection of media representatives is important and essential as journalists report on lived realities in real time to reflect true accounts and stories, and to provide transparency and accountability. The intentional and calculated killing of journalists and, as witnessed in Gaza, of their families, amounts to extrajudicial…

You can allow background noise – like people talking loudly on cellphones, babies crying, children screaming, rushing crowds passing by – to be in the background and therefore not hijack your continued efforts to complete your immediate tasks and responsibilities. You can place your anxiety – whatever the source – in a “box” and place it to one side in your mind and focus your thinking and actions in order to deal with your “normal” routines. You notice you have grown in the art of knowing what to “let go” and what to challenge, when you hear or are told things you may consider misunderstandings, rumours or misconceptions, especially when it comes to political matters, matters of prejudice, racism and of “othering”. You are growing in your ability to discern…

AS EL Niño intensifies, the agriculture industry has warned of difficult times ahead due to hot weather. El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that comes with extreme weather patterns. Senior agricultural economist at the National Agricultural Marketing Council, Thabile Nkunjana, said the El Niño phenomenon was present in the country, and temperatures in certain parts of South Africa have reached 44ºC, which is concerning for farmers who are sowing summer grains for the 2023–24 season, as higher temperatures may result in lower harvests and higher food prices later for consumers. “As a result, while the El Niño phenomenon continues, changes in the global grain market will be critical. “Local grain and oilseed output, for example, will…

A veteran police officer in the field of electronic investigations has urged parents to monitor children’s online activities to prevent them from falling prey to child sexual predators. “Install parental software apps that will be able to block harmful content. Young children should not be in chat groups,” said Captain Bez Bezuidenhout. “Daily monitoring will ensure more children are saved from such predators. These predators even lure children through online computer games, parents must be extra vigilant.” Bezuidenhout is from the SAPS Serial and Electronic Investigations (Seci) Unit that has identified 27 active online child sexual predators in the country. The first four have already been arrested in Gauteng and in KwaZulu-Natal in the past three weeks, according to SAPS. The Seci is responsible for tracing and arresting serial rapists…

Polish truckers and farmers yesterday started a round-the-clock blockade of access to one of the busiest border crossings with Ukraine, extending a protest that has left over a thousand lorries stranded for days in queues that stretch for kilometres. The truckers, now blocking the Medyka crossing as well as three other border crossings, complain they are losing out to Ukrainian companies which offer cheaper prices for their services and which are transporting goods within the EU rather than just between the bloc and Ukraine. “I would like to end this protest as soon as possible, because it is as burdensome for us as for everyone around us,” said Tomasz Borkowski, leader of the Committee to Protect Transporters and Transport Employers, a Polish union. “We have no intention of giving up.”…

The spike in respiratory illnesses that China is currently suffering is not as high as before the Covid-19 pandemic, a World Health Organization official said, reiterating that no new or unusual pathogens had been found in the recent cases. Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that they had avoided during two years of Covid-19 restrictions. The spike became a global issue last week when the World Health Organization asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases. | Reuters…

PARIS: Six teenagers were on trial behind closed doors yesterday in connection with the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a murder that shocked the country. The teacher had shown his pupils caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression, angering some Muslim parents. Paty, 47, was killed outside his school in Paris by an 18-year-old assailant of Chechen origin, who was shot dead by police soon after the attack. The five other minors, aged between 14 and 15 at the time, will be charged with premeditated criminal conspiracy, or ambush. All six minors could face two-and-a-half years in prison. | Reuters…

MOSCOW: Fierce storms killed three people on the Russian and Crimean Black Sea coast yesterday, with hundreds evacuated. State news agency TASS reported that one person had been killed in the resort city of Sochi, another on the Russian-held Crimean peninsula, and a third person on board a vessel in the Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea from the Russian mainland. Storms have been raging in the Black Sea since Friday. The Russian-installed governors of Crimea and Sevastopol, both of which Moscow seized and unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, declared states of emergency. Russia’s Energy Ministry said bad weather had left about 1.9 million people without electricity yesterday in the south. | Reuters…