Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-01-08 i Mercury

THE thousands of Durban residents affected by a water billing error will not have their services cut if they “default” on the additional amounts they have been asked to pay in order to settle the bill that accrued as a result of the error. The City gave the assurance during a meeting convened with ratepayers led by the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) to address the issue of the billing error on Friday. In a statement, the municipality said the engagement was aimed at finding amicable solutions for ratepayers affected by the water billing adjustment. But other ratepayers’ organisations expressed dissatisfaction with the meeting and distanced themselves from it. The City recently announced that thousands of houses that don’t qualify for free basic services as they are valued at…

Reader letters often express how they feel as if they know my sons. This is to be expected. I have been in your paper since the boys were infants and have often written about them. Now, I am more than delighted for you to know that both sons are in committed relationships with delightful women. When Nate, the younger of my sons, announced he was bringing a young woman home to meet me, and that it was she who requested I take the two of them out for dinner, I was more than thrilled. Of course, I dressed for the occasion. I chose a tie I had made when the boys were about 11 and 7. The tie is a collage using a photograph of Thulani resting his chin on…

THE South African Local Government Association (Salga) in KwaZulu-Natal notes with concern that there are no concrete plans to address the high drop-out rate uncovered by the Census results released in 2023 by Statistics SA. The association calls on municipalities to proactively facilitate the production of school uniforms locally to stimulate local economic development. KwaZulu-Natal is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, with a high unemployment rate and a large informal sector. This poverty is a major social challenge that contributes to high school drop-out rates. The most recent Census found this drop-out rate to be especially high for girl children beyond the age of 15 years. Only 49% of all 15-year-old girls are attending school in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal, over 1 million children attend…

Three law enforcement officers have been praised for their quick response in assisting a woman who went into labour on a gravel road near Sunningdale in Cape Town on Friday morning. “I’m very happy to hear of the exploits of three of our officers who helped deliver a baby yesterday morning,” City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said. “The officers were conducting operations in Rivergate near Sunningdale at about 10.45am yesterday (Friday) morning, when they came across a heavily pregnant lady laying on a gravel road in the area,” he said. “They soon discovered that she was in labour, and jumped into action, with Officer Clinton Bonke leading from the front. “With his encouragement, he managed to calm the distraught mother to be,…

Two people have started off their 2024 on a great note after winning the Lotto and Lotto Plus 2 jackpots from the December 30 draw. Both jackpots were won via a banking app. According to National Lottery operator, Ithuba, the Lotto jackpot worth R8 939 771 was won via the Standard Bank online platform and the R30 million Lotto Plus 2 jackpot was won via the Capitec banking app. The R30m jackpot winner has come forward to claim her prize after expressing initial disbelief at the unexpected stroke of luck, said Ithuba. “As an infrequent lottery participant, she initially questioned the authenticity of the notification, suspecting it might be a digital scam.” She previously won R60 000. “With plans to renovate her grandmother’s house, she encourages fellow South Africans to…

THE KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Siboniso Duma, says there are signs that the tourism industry had a remarkable recovery over the festive season. “We continue to receive reports from mayors and tourism stakeholders about clear signs of extraordinary recovery. The influx of holidaymakers to different parts of the province has ensured the stimulation of local economies, with jobs created in the process.” At the peak of the festive season, he said, there were 2 000 vehicles per hour entering the province, according to the N3 Toll Concession. Other statistics included: The supply of bed-nights for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day increased by 4% compared with last year. On average, occupancy increased by about 2% from the beginning of December, putting it…

The biggest election year in history will be under scrutiny WHO says elections are passé, a cyclical pastime of largely Western democratic polity as the cliché goes? The standout feature of 2024 indeed is that the year is poised to be the biggest election year in world history, with 64 presidential and/or general elections, warts and all, scheduled around the globe, excluding the European Parliament elections. Lest anyone gets carried away with a misplaced euphoria that democracy is alive and kicking, despite the disconcerting rise in geopolitical tensions, conflict and socio-economic uncertainties, this mass exercise in vote casting, assuming they are free and fair, is poised to be the acid test as to the efficacy of the democratic process in delivering tangible benefits to citizens in terms of the various…

The Israel-Hamas war raging in Gaza entered its fourth month yesterday as the army again pounded the besieged Palestinian territory and US top diplomat Antony Blinken was back in the region seeking to avoid a wider escalation. Israeli airstrikes overnight and early yesterday killed at least 113 people in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory, said its health ministry. It said two journalists were killed when their car was struck. The ministry, medics and witnesses identified them as Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for Agence France-Presse, and Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, who earlier lost his wife and two other children in an Israeli strike. Israeli bombardment also claimed other civilian lives in the southern city of Khan Yunis and in the Rafah area near…

Two fighters from Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi alliance have been killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, the pro-Iranian Hashed and an Iraqi security source said yesterday. The two fighters “succumbed after having been wounded while they were confronting an attack” by jihadists late Saturday in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, the Hashed said in a statement carried by Iraqi state media. A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death toll and said that IS attacked a Hashed “(military) post on Saturday night” in the area of Al-Zarka in the province’s north. Hashed al-Shaabi is a coalition of mainly pro-Iranian former paramilitary units that have been integrated into the regular armed forces. Iraqi troops have been heavily involved in the fight against IS, also…

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday entrusted a former environment minister to run for mayor of Istanbul and avenge the worst political defeat of the Turkish leader’s two-decade rule. Murat Kurum will represent Erdogan’s Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 31 municipal elections in which control of Türkiye’s main cities will be up for grabs. The secular opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) seized back control of Istanbul for the first time since Erdogan ruled the city as mayor in the 1990s in watershed 2019 polls. Erdogan bounced back last year to win a tough re-election that came in the throes of an economic crisis. Kurum, a civil engineer, became a MP representing one of Istanbul’s districts last year for the AKP. | AFP…

Cox’s Bazar: About 4 000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been left without shelter after a suspected arson attack ripped through their camp, burning nearly 800 homes, an official said yesterday. Bangladesh is home to around a million Rohingya, many of whom fled a 2017 military crackdown on the mainly Muslim minority in Myanmar that is now subject to a UN genocide probe. The blaze tore through the tightly packed complex of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters at a camp in the country’s south-east, refugee commissioner Mizanur Rahman said. Rahman said the fire left 4 000 people homeless. There were no casualties, and the fire had been brought under control, he said. | AFP…

MI CAPE Town will have a new leadership team when their Betway SA20 season 2 campaign gets under way this week. The hugely popular team underperformed in the inaugural season last year, where they finished bottom of the six-team table. It was particularly disappointing because the team was loaded with superstars such as Proteas fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan and England all-rounder Sam Curran. It has not taken MI Cape Town long to ring the changes with former Proteas all-rounder Robin Peterson taking over the head-coaching duties from Australian Simon Katich. Peterson is well-versed in the local conditions, having spent the latter part of his playing career at Newlands. He also recently led MI New York to the inaugural Major League Cricket championship title in Texas. Peterson’s…

OUR TV screens have brought us wonderful footage in recent days of the Royal Air Force Red Arrows performing their astonishing aerobatics trailing smoke trails of red, white and blue. Reason: Certain of the Arrows pilots are accused of sexual exploitation of female members of the squadron. Certain Arrows officers are also accused of not taking their complaints seriously. The footage is background stuff. But the shenanigans are not the reason I raise this matter. I raise it because of the footage we see. One clip shows the Arrows apparently flying toward each other at high speed. Then they whirl away in all directions, trailing their coloured smoke. Then something else whirls away from the mêlée. It’s a large bird – it must be an eagle. It’s trailing no smoke.…

So, South Africa is taking Israel to the International Court of Justice to face stiff charges of genocide. Shameful for a country deemed to be so wealthy, so advanced technologically, but suffering a sheer deficit of morality. But brief research will show that genocide did not happen only when that State was initiated, but was predicted even during the early fifties with many Jews leaving their newborn country for fear of violence on all sides. Violence as a result of oppression. It’s the only ending possible. The present genocide in Gaza could well have been totally avoided years ago if some common sense prevailed. But nobody learns from history: India’s right-wing government, for instance, has already begun the rotation of a similar wheel. Not the wheel of progress as depicted…

MORE than two decades ago Nkosana Makate came up with a “brilliant idea” which was rated as “a world first – the concept behind the Please Call Me service while he was working as a trainee accountant at Vodacom. Makate’s idea was eventually developed by Vodacom. At the time, the cellphone giant was Makate’s employer, and his idea was developed into one of Vodacom’s most successful products. It has over the years generated billions of rand in revenue for Vodacom. But this brilliant concept has been the subject of many legal battles – from the high court to the Supreme Court of Appeal. It even made it to the Constitutional Court and a judgment is now awaited from the appeal court. Meanwhile, Makate is a very patient man. Vodacom reckons…

THE death toll in KwaZulu-Natal has risen to at least 40 following storms in December and early January that left a trail of death and destruction in various parts of the province. This is according to the KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta). Cogta spokesperson Siboniso Mngadi said the death toll had increased as the department’s teams continue with assessments in different areas. “As our teams continue with assessments, the number of people who have tragically passed away has increased to 40, with five still reported as missing,” he said. In recent incidents, Mngadi said, three drownings were reported in the Harry Gwala District, while two farmworkers were killed when they were struck by lightning in Bergville. “We also confirm that two people have been discovered by…

SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Edward Kieswetter has praised the vigilance of customs officers after drugs concealed as artwork was seized at the OR Tambo International Airport. The drugs, which included crystal meth and fentanyl, were seized at the airport last week. In a statement, Sars said its customs officers seized 23kg of narcotics disguised as moulded artwork, with an estimated street value of R37 million, at the airport’s cargo sheds. It said the customs officers were doing inspection rounds when they came across a box headed for New Zealand. The box contained moulded artwork, which looked suspicious. The officers used a narcotics test kit and some of the items tested positive for crystal meth, which weighed 10kg. Sars also said that a test by the SAPS on other items…

A woman in her 90s trapped for five days under rubble caused by a huge earthquake in central Japan was rescued against the odds, but snow and storms were further complicating relief efforts yesterday. At least 128 people have died since the 7.5-magnitude tremor on New Year’s Day and its aftershocks – a toll sure to rise, with 195 others reported missing, according to local authorities. The shockwaves toppled buildings, sparked a major fire and triggered tsunami waves over a metre high on the Sea of Japan side of the main island of Honshu. Hope of finding survivors usually fades three days after a destructive quake. But an elderly woman spent five days under the wreckage of a collapsed house in the city of Suzu on the Noto Peninsula before…

Voting for the 12th parliamentary elections in Bangladesh ended yesterday and counting had started, the Election Commission said. The counting began across 42 000 polling centres for 299 parliamentary seats. The polls were marred by sporadic incidents of violence, clashes and rigging, local media reported. A clash broke out between opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) men and police in Chattogram city’s Chandgaon area. Eight candidates in different constituencies boycotted the polls, alleging vote rigging. Four people were injured after unidentified people exploded two crude bombs near a polling centre in Hazaribagh near Dhaka. Voting at Narsingdi-4 was cancelled over ballot stuffing claims. The main opposition BNP called a strike, seeking the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is set to win a fourth straight term with the BNP boycotting…

Chicago: Chicago-based United Airlines (UA) has announced that it has temporarily grounded all of its Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft as required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The grounding comes after a piece of the fuselage blew out on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 at an elevation of 16 000 feet on Friday, leaving a large hole and decompressing the passenger cabin. The plane made an emergency landing back in Portland 20 minutes after taking off. The FAA placed an emergency order on the 737 MAX model line on Saturday, grounding 171 of the planes on an international level. Boeing said that it was investigating the incident. | IANS…

Baghdad: Four Islamic State (IS) operatives were killed in airstrikes in Iraq’s Diyala province, the Iraqi military said yesterday. As per the Security Media Cell, a media outlet affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, acting on intelligence reports, Iraqi warplanes carried out airstrikes late on Saturday night on IS hideouts in the Hawdh al-Waqf area. Yesterday a security force team was dispatched to search the bombed hideouts and found the bodies of four IS operatives, along with destroyed weapons and other equipment, the statement said. It added that Majeed Mayouf, the leader of the group in the area, was among those killed. | IANS…

THE GOVERNMENT has proposed delaying shutting down coal-fired power plants beyond 2030 where technically and commercially feasible, including Tutuka power station, in a bid to retain dispatchable electricity capacity amid the dwindling Energy Available Factor (EAF). This is one of the proposed interventions contained in the draft document of the revised Integrated Resource Plan 2023 (IRP 2023) published at the end of last week. Tutuka power station, with 3 654MW installed capacity, was scheduled to be decommissioned between 2030 and 2041 and be repurposed into a renewable energy power station after the US joined Britain, France, Germany and the EU to provide $8.5 billion (R159bn) in funding to accelerate South Africa’s shift away from coal and towards renewable energy sources. The IRP 2023, an electricity generation plan that seeks to…

THERE are growing calls for Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board chairperson Ernest Khosa to resign following allegations, made by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), that they received millions of rand in kickback payments from service providers. Outa last week said it had leaked voice recordings containing “damning allegations about a patronage network in the Department of Higher Education, implicating the minister, NSFAS chair and several others”. Calling for Nzimande and Khosa to resign, Rudie Heyneke, Outa’s investigations manager, said it had released voice recordings of two meetings between Khosa and a representative of a service provider which revealed how service providers allegedly paid millions of rand in kickbacks to Nzimande and Khosa, and at least R1 million to the SACP. NSFAS…

The Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (Dawn) welcomes developments at the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court where murder accused Sugandran Rodney Naicker was denied bail and remanded in custody. This after Naicker charged with bludgeoning his 35-year-old girlfriend Vyaksha Sookdew to death last month before Christmas. During court proceedings – attended by Dawn’s Chatsworth constituency chairperson, Langanayagee Hurriparsad, and South Durban constituency leader, Mergan Chetty, along with South Durban councillors and Dawn KZN provincial chairperson Remona McKenzie – it emerged that Naicker had been arrested after the intervention of a local petrol attendant. Naicker had filled up with petrol at a garage and left without paying. He returned days later, this time using the deceased’s vehicle, and was recognised by one of the attendants, who alerted police. This led to Naicker’s alleged confession…

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s corruption has caused poverty to the Zimbabwean nation. It’s horrendous and unspeakable. For past 43 years the ordinary Zimbabwean citizens have become poorer due to the rising cost of living and increasingly tough economic situation caused by Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF thugs. Thousands of people are forced to migrate to neighbouring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Namibia as it has become difficult to feed their families in an environment marred by high inflation punctuated by heightened hyperinflation, which has eroded people’s earnings and accelerated the collapse of service delivery in both rural and urban areas. This is also putting too much pressure on our neighbouring countries as they have their own problems to sort out, especially South Africa, where Zimbabweans are jumping the border via…

Members of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) rescued 24 crew members from a grounded 29 metre fishing vessel at St Francis Bay in Eastern Cape on Saturday. Sarah Smith, NSRI St Francis Bay station commander, said: “At 10.36pm, Saturday, NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were activated following a call to NSRI Emergency Operations Centre from MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) reporting a local 29 metre stern trawler fishing vessel, with 24 crew onboard, running aground at Shark Point, St Francis Bay. “The NSRI St Francis Bay rescue craft Rescue 21 was launched while NSRI rescue swimmers responded to the shoreline. “The SA Police Services and Relay ambulance services were activated while additional emergency services were placed on alert. “NSRI EOC, TNPA (Transnet National Ports Authority) Port of St…

THE National Department of Health says it is working with provinces to address the issue of post-community service on behalf of unemployed doctors. This comes after the SA Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) revealed that data from a recent survey indicated that more than 800 qualified doctors remain unemployed following the completion of their two years of medical internship and one year of community service. Samatu general secretary Cedric Sihlangu said despite the department overseeing a rigorous three-year practicum for medical graduates, there was a lack of strategy to keep these skilled doctors on board, post-training. “Annually, the department cites budget constraints as a barrier to hiring qualified medical doctors, yet no substantial measures are evident to solve the funding dilemma,” said Sihlangu. He said this contributed to the continuous…

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s absence from some of the ANC activities in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, where the party has been preparing for its upcoming January 8 statement event has set tongues wagging. This comes after the ANC announced that Ramaphosa has been excused from taking part in the weekend activities in Mbombela due to an unexplained “emergency”. The ANC reported that deputy president Paul Mashatile will be standing in for Ramaphosa while he dealt with the emergency. The news resulted in rumours and speculation, with many assuming that the president had taken ill, while many others had attributed his absence to an emergency meeting dedicated to discussing the emergence of the MK Party which has been hosting its own election campaigns across the country. Yesterday, presidential spokespersonVincent Magwenya took to social media…

BY CHALLENGING a judgment that seeks to compel the government to do its job by exempting key institutions from load shedding, the administration of President Cyril Ramaphosa is effectively saying to hell with patients either on or in need of critical life support. It also sends a worrying message that the lives of Cabinet ministers matter more than the people who are unable to contact police when there is load shedding; that they matter more than learners whose studies get disrupted when there are power cuts, and importantly the government does not seem concerned that health facilities are unable to perform critical and life-saving duties during load shedding. For the record, load shedding is foreign to Cabinet ministers. Their state houses are exempt as they’re “national key points”. It’s also…

North Korea conducted live-fire drills on its western coast, Seoul’s military said yesterday, the third consecutive day of military exercises near its contested maritime border with the South. Seoul’s military said that North Korea had “conducted artillery fire with over 90 rounds north of Yeonpyeong island”. It accused the North of “repeated artillery fire” within a buffer zone created in 2018 under a now-defunct tension-reducing deal, saying the bombardment posed “a threat to the peace on the Korean Peninsula”. North Korea’s military said it had carried out “maritime live-fire training” with 88 rounds of artillery but said the drills were “directionally unrelated” to the maritime border. The exercises “did not pose any intentional threat” to South Korea and were part of the North’s “normal training system of our military,” it…

Brussels: Belgian politician Charles Michel has announced he will step down as European Council president after running in the European Parliament elections set for June. The surprise move will heighten speculation about who will be the next EU leaders as negotiations begin for a new round of top jobs in November. The parliament elections set for June 6-9 across the 27 EU members will pick 720 deputies in total and prompt fierce horse-trading for the leadership of European institutions. | AFP…

Geneva: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk voiced alarm yesterday about rising ethnic tension and calls to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo following disputed elections. Delays and bureaucratic chaos marred the December 20 ballots to choose the president, MPs for national and provincial assemblies, and local councillors. So far the election commission has only announced the result of the presidential vote, a landslide victory for incumbent Felix Tshisekedi that the opposition has rejected. Turk said the post-election calls for violence were particularly concerning in the eastern provinces. | AFP…

Semarang: Indonesian police have intercepted a truck carrying more than 200 dogs shackled and bound for the slaughterhouse, authorities said, in the latest victory for activists who oppose eating dog meat. The vehicle was detained late on Saturday in Semarang city on the island of Java, where the dogs were discovered in the bed of the truck with their legs and mouths bound. Authorities arrested five truck crew members, who will be charged under an animal welfare regulation and could face up to five years in prison. Police said the dogs were on their way to the neighbouring city of Surakarta, where they would have been slaughtered and their meat sold for consumption. | AFP…