Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-03-08 i Mercury

TRELLIDOR Holdings faced two major challenges during the six months to December 31: falling revenue in its domestic market, South Africa and higher levels of debt at high interest rates. Revenue increased by 6.9% to R292.2 million. Headline earnings per share fell by 16.1% to 21.4 cents, from 25.5c in the prior corresponding period. The dividend was passed, and would only resume once borrowings and gearing normalised, the directors said. Revenue from international markets increased to R82.4m, driven by a strong performance by the Trellidor UK division, representing 28.2% of the group’s revenue. Net debt was reduced 16.8% to R116.8m from R140.3m, driven by improvements in the investment in working capital. Cash generated from operations of R39.5m (R7m) was a feature of the period. This substantially strengthened the…

KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Penny Nkonyeni delivered the provincial budget yesterday with the bulk of the allocation going to the health, education and the transport departments. Nkonyeni again announced a budget in line with National Treasury’s austerity measures meaning the province will receive R4 billion less in the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) 2024/25, R4.2bn less in 2025/26 and R4.3bn less in 2026/27. The MEC said the Provincial Equitable Share will increase by R2.3bn in 2024/25 and conditional grants by R501.3 million. Nkonyeni said education will get R63bn, the biggest slice of the budget pie, to be used towards 5 785 public ordinary schools with 2 651 922 learners, 75 public special schools with 21 286 learners, as well as 119 independent schools with 31 018 learners. “The budget also provides…

FORMER director-general in the Department of Public Enterprises Kgathatso Tlhakudi, who was instrumental in providing information to the National Assembly’s public enterprises committee on anomalies in the SAA/Takatso Consortium deal, said he doubts the authenticity of some of the documents. Tlhakudi said he was unaware of the Molisane memorandum cited by parliamentary legal adviser Andile Tetyana that was purported to have been signed by him in 2021. Tetyana told Parliament that it was a proposal made by Harith and Global, which later became the Takatso Consortium, to the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and that it had satisfied the DPE’s requirements. The Molisane Memorandum is in reference to a document referred to by Tetyana reported to have been drafted by Jacky Molisane, a deputy director-general in the department at the…

Enriched is the woman who does not lose herself in her marriage, motherhood or taking care of her family. She is able to develop a strong sense of herself and hold on to herself, even while being a loving wife, mother and friend. Enriched is the woman who does not tolerate poor manners, being taken for granted or being sworn at or being victimised verbally and physically by her husband, children, in-laws, siblings, parents or anyone else. She appropriately and sufficiently values herself so that she does not accommodate those who do not treat her well. Enriched is the woman who is aware that she never has to participate in sexual activity that she herself does not want, who knows that her body is her own and a private temple…

CLARENS is a beautiful, small town in the Free State that is a popular tourist spot, lying at the foothills of the majestic sandstone Maluti Mountains. Well done to this jewel of the eastern Free State on being the first town/city in South Africa to introduce energy curtailment. This unique intervention ensures that rolling blackouts and the dreaded load shedding of Eskom are a thing of the past in this town. With the co-operation of the town, residents and businesses, curtailment has become a reality, to the envy of the greater country. Tourism continues as normal to the town’s benefit and generates much finance for local businesses. Surely if Clarens can introduce the brilliant innovation of electricity curtailment, other areas, especially small towns and villages, can replicate this good thing…

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) is gearing up for a different role in the nuclear space, being directly involved with the manufacture of small modular reactors (SMRs) and other components as discussions with the government on the change of its mandate to operate nuclear power plants fell through. Necsa chairperson Dave Nicholls confirmed that the state entity was keen to take on the role with a joint venture partner with the roll-out of the devices by Eskom, or “other capable entities”. “We have had discussions on the mandate and with the recognition that it would be difficult to change our mandate, we are comfortable seeing ourselves as the procurer. We are already involved with the research and development of nuclear technology,” Nicholls said. Necsa had formally requested Mineral…

Minister of Health Joe Phaahla says they have already employed 270 out of 800 doctors who have not been absorbed by the department after they completed their community service. Phaahla said provinces have already advertised 1 100 posts and the process to employ hundreds of doctors will continue until the end of March. He said they will get a clear picture once it was concluded, but they have been working with medical associations to identify doctors who still needed to be taken in by the department. The department came under fire a few weeks ago after it emerged that there were 800 doctors who have not been employed. The doctors also took to the streets to protest. Phaahla, who was part of Ministers in the Social Services Cluster who…

THREE husbands and two children born from surrogacy and an application to have contact with the children pending a divorce is the complex issue with which the Western Cape was confronted. DR (the applicant) turned to court in a bid to have contact with his now estranged husband’s (identified only as NM) children – a girl turning 6 this year and a 2-year-old boy. The issue is that the girl was born via surrogacy during a previous marriage of NM to another man. They have a parenting plan in place for the previous husband to have contact with the girl. After NM’s divorce from his first husband and prior to his marriage to his second husband (the applicant), NM had another child via surrogacy. While the applicant at the time…

A Kaizer Chiefs-Orlando Pirates Soweto Derby always gets the juices flowing for soccer fans. It is mainly about bragging rights for supporters, as the two arch-rivals are the most popular clubs in South Africa – despite their lack of success in recent seasons compared to that of Mamelodi Sundowns, who are the undoubted kings of local football. But for Chiefs coach Cavin Johnson and his Pirates counterpart José Riveiro, it’s all about the three points in tomorrow’s league encounter at the FNB Stadium. Chiefs are sixth on the log with 29 points, one ahead of fifth-placed Pirates, who both trail leaders Sundowns, who are on a whopping 42 points – and have played three fewer matches than both Soweto giants. Chiefs had enjoyed a recent five-match winning streak, until Pirates…

Namibian communities whose ancestors were massacred by German colonial forces and had their property seized more than a century ago are calling for fresh talks with Berlin to negotiate the return of ancestral land. Germany agreed in May 2021 to fund projects worth €1.1 billion (R23bn) over 30 years to make up for the property seizures and killings by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908, after the tribes rebelled against German rule. Germany also apologised for its role in the slaughter, officially describing the massacre of some 65 000 Herero and 10 000 Nama people as genocide for the first time. But critics have said Germany should not have directed its apology to the Namibian state, which did not exist at the time of the genocide and had no…

BRUSSELS: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen yesterday won the backing of the EU’s leading political group, the centre-right European People’s Party, to head the bloc’s powerful executive for another five years. Von der Leyen listed the war in Ukraine, the crisis in Gaza destabilising the Middle East, and the rise of China as key challenges for the 27-nation EU. She won with 400 votes in favour and 89 against. She is seen as a clear favourite to lead the commission again after the EU parliamentary election in June. She vowed to advance economies, police smugglers, boost business and support farmers. | Reuters…

Barcelona: Police in Spain said yesterday they had smashed a ring which allegedly falsified works by British street artist Banksy which it sold around the world for up to €1 500 (about R30 000) a piece. Officers arrested two people in the north-eastern city of Zaragoza where the forgeries were allegedly made and two others with “knowledge of the art world” suspected of having put the works on sale, Catalonia’s regional police force said. Police suspect the ring sold at least 25 works, which were made with spray paint on cardboard, in specialised shops, Barcelona auction houses and online to customers in Germany, Spain and the US. | AFP…

Lewis Hamilton said Formula One is facing a “pivotal moment” as it battles a series of off-track controversies. The build-up to last weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix was overshadowed by the fallout caused by Red Bull’s investigation into alleged inappropriate behaviour by its team boss, Christian Horner. On Tuesday, motorsport’s governing body, the FIA said its compliance department was “assessing” reports that its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem told officials not to certify the track used for last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. “It doesn’t look good from the outside and it doesn’t look good from within,” seven-time world champion Hamilton told reporters ahead of tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “I think it’s a really important time for the sport to show and to stick to their values, holding ourselves accountable…

IT’S ALMOST time for the prestigious Raging Bull Awards, which will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on March 11. Independent Media’s Personal Finance publication hosts the awards to honour the leaders of the South African collective investment industry. The winners of the awards are determined by ProfileData, using its PlexCrown Ratings methodology. The Raging Bull trophies and certificates are awarded for straight performance over three years and for risk-adjusted performance over five years to the end of 2023. A nominated list of the winners was published last week on Saturday in Independent’s publication and on its online platform. Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Independent Media, said: “The Raging Bull Awards carry huge prestige for not only the winning funds and the managers – which…

WORKERS in the eThekwini Municipality who embarked on an illegal strike that brought the city to its knees have 10 days to save their jobs. The municipality said it had issued 79 workers with notices of misconduct relating to their participation in the strike and they are required to make submissions within 10 days stating why they should not be dismissed. The workers, from the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) have been on strike since last week demanding to be paid the same wages as paid by other metros. However, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) has said the wage increase being demanded was the subject of negotiations at the bargaining council and no metros had implemented the increases. The strike has been characterised by a disruption…

THE Department of Basic Education continues to ignore the leadership vacuum at Triandra Farm School, a primary school in uMngeni Municipality. The school has been without a competent principal for over two years. Previous attempts by the DA in uMngeni, ward 5, to engage the department have been ignored. Yesterday the DA conducted an oversight visit at the school and found the situation has worsened. The principal continues to be away often due to ill health. This has negatively impacted the quality of learning, with parents opting to pull out their children and enrol them elsewhere. The result has been that the number of pupils between Grade RR and Grade 6 has dropped from 60 to 23. Parents who cannot afford to enrol their children elsewhere have been forced to…

YOU don’t mess with the police Swat teams in Colarado, in the US. Seventy-eight-year-old Ruby Johnson had just stepped out of the shower when a Swat team demanded she come out of her home with her hands in the air. After pulling on a dressing gown, she did just that. She opened her front door, according to Sky News, to see an armoured vehicle parked in her front garden, police vehicles along her street and men in full military-style gear carrying rifles. They were searching for a stolen vehicle containing four semi-automatic handguns, a rifle, a revolver, two drones, $40 000 (R751 000) in cash and an iPhone. Swat police had obtained a search warrant for her home after the owner of the vehicle tracked the phone to her…

Appalling and unbelievable! No other country in the world has medical negligence claims reaching a whopping R30 billion in just over 20 years. This is scandalous! Under the previous government, during our training, most of the information we gathered about medical negligence claims was from medical textbooks. It was a rare occurrence in those years. For the many years since 1994, the budget allocated for national health services was far less than what was allocated for the Department of Education. It didn’t help that health-care practitioners complained about the extremely deficient budget; nothing was ever changed. For instance, at Tembisa Hospital, we would receive about R7 million for 11 theatres in May. By August, it would be depleted because part of the meagre allocation would be used to settle accruals…

The Border Management Authority (BMA) is procuring specialised law enforcement equipment in its fight against the illegal movement of people and goods through South Africa’s borders. This comes as the BMA has reported some successes since it was established in April 2023 to enforce port health, immigration control, access control, biosecurity, food safety and phyto- sanitary control, land border infrastructure development and maintenance, and border information and risk management. Responding to parliamentary questions from ANC MP Anthea Ramolobeng, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the BMA made notable strides to better manage border control and the effective enforcement of immigration laws. Motsoaledi said some of the achievements in the effort to implement one of the mandates of facilitating and managing legitimate movement of people at ports of entry and border…

A group of foreign nationals who were caught boarding a flight with fake passports were found guilty of fraud and contravention of the Immigration Act. Two Congolese nationals, Tausi Majani Kahwere, 25, and John Majani Kahwere, 44, were convicted by the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The following day, Bangladeshi nationals Morshed Alam, 25, and Saiful Islam Sujon, 43, were also convicted, together with 42-year-old South African Oliver Whendle Hurriparsad. “The foreign nationals were arrested between 2021 and 2023 as they were boarding flights to different destinations,” said Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation Unit (Hawks) spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale. “It was reported that during 2021, a Department of Home Affairs official, Judy Zuma, operating with a foreign nationals syndicate, colluded with South African citizens to assist foreign nationals from Pakistan,…

The Office of KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said it had not reneged on an agreement to pay the legal fees of King Misuzulu kaZweli- thini, saying the king’s lawyers must first provide details of the services they undertook. However, the king’s traditional prime minister, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, said yesterday that this was contrary to a commitment made by the premier on February 20 that all the legal bills had been paid. The legal bill is related to several cases Misuzulu is involved in over his ascension to the throne and related matters. The king’s lawyers on March 1 said they would act on the letter of demand that was sent on January 3 if the premier did not make payment within 30 days. “It is common cause that we rendered legal…

Most political parties are not, and never have been fully pro-transparency WITH hotly-contested elections around the corner, there was a lot of breathless speculation before the February 29 Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC’s) latest Party Funding Disclosure Report on donation declarations for the third quarter of 2023/24 (October – December), but the actual figures did not clarify the two most important questions. How reliable are the declarations of sources of income given the ANC’s rushed adoption last week of the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill in the Home Affairs Committee that will provide it with a more significant share of the available funding for political parties and independent representatives than previously provided. As well as the controversial candidate list compilation process across parties meant to exclude the same fund-raisers…

India’s navy evacuated all 20 crew from a stricken vessel in the Red Sea yesterday, after a Houthi attack killed three seafarers in the first civilian fatalities from the Yemeni group’s campaign in the key shipping route. The Iran-aligned militants fired a missile at the Barbados-flagged, Greek-operated True Confidence on Wednesday about 50 nautical miles off the port of Aden, setting it ablaze. In a statement, the owners and manager said all 20 crew and three armed guards on board were taken to hospital in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa by an Indian warship. Two of the dead were Filipino nationals, while the third was Vietnamese, the owners and managers said, expressing condolences to the families. Two other Filipinos were also severely injured. Images released by the Indian Navy…

Former US president Donald Trump will have to pay at least £300 000 (about R7 million) in costs after losing a UK court action against a former spy who compiled a salacious dossier about him, according to a court order publicised yesterday. Trump took legal action against Christopher Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, but High Court Judge Karen Steyn ruled last month that there were “no compelling reasons” to allow the claim to proceed to trial. The data protection claim was “bound to fail” she wrote. The judge also threw out Trump’s claim for compensation, stating that he had “chosen to allow many years to elapse – without any attempt to vindicate his reputation” in the UK courts since the dossier came out. In an order, the judge said Trump…

SRINAGAR: Just weeks before national elections. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday held his first rally in the main city of Kashmir since his government revoked the region’s special status nearly five years ago. Kashmir hasn’t held local elections since the government scrapped Article 370 of the constitution. The region is India’s only Muslim-majority one and removing its special status had been a long-held campaign promise of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Kashmir has seen decades of separatist violence and been a source of the dispute between India and neighbouring Pakistan since the two gained independence in 1947. | The Washington Post…

Stockholm: The EU health agency yesterday reported a “troubling” surge in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) across Europe, which could be just “the tip of the iceberg”. In 2022, gonorrhoea cases rose by 48%, with 70 881 reported around the EU and EEA area, compared to a year earlier. Cases of syphilis rose by 34% to over 35 391, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Cases of chlamydia rose 16%, reaching 216 508 across 27 countries. The agency also warned that while chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis, were treatable, they can lead to serious health complications. | AFP…

POLICE and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday confirmed the arrest of eThekwini ANC regional secretary Bongumusa Nciki and his bodyguard. The duo were charged with reckless driving, alternatively, disregard for a road traffic signal (a red traffic signal) and operating an unlicensed vehicle. Nciki and his bodyguard, Ivan Khoza, appeared briefly in the Durban Magistrate’s Court yesterday and were granted R5 000 bail each. Police initially stated there was a charge of possession of firearms without a permit, but this charge was not among those the duo were charged with in court. NPA regional spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the State alleged that the men were driving along Lighthouse Road in uMhlanga on Wednesday when they committed the offences. “They were released on bail of R5 000 each…

MY MENTION of having served an apprenticeship at a small, mostly forgotten railway station on the North Coast half a century ago, in a recent letter to The Mercury, prompted some readers to contact me to know more about this experience. I have therefore embarked on writing a book that documents my four years at a famous, giant woodboard factory there. Tentatively titled “Canelands”, it endeavours to describe some interesting, bizarre, comical, tragic, human episodes that actually happened, all eerily enshrouded by the abuse and oppression of apartheid at its height. It was an era (the seventies) without mobile phones, the internet and Google, so understandably, much of the narration will depend on pure memory. So, this is an appeal to anybody out there who may have some information,…

NO MORE do Man United rule the roost in Manchester, but it is their arch-rivals – noisy Manchester City. The Manchester derby made it clear over the weekend as to who holds the bragging rights to the best team in the world. Man United were a former shadow of themselves, playing like schoolboys. Though Marcus Rashford’s thunderous first-half goal stunned the Ethiad Stadium, City struck back with a superb Phil Foden goal. After they equalised, Foden scored again and Erling Haaland rounded it off to give his team a 3-1 win. What was significant about the match was the great gulf between the two teams. While City had over 70% possession, Man United hardly got the ball. The fortunes of the two clubs are all too plain to see. Since…

Looks like some of the ANC cadres who were implicated in graft and other nefarious activities, including state capture, are about to be given the cold shoulder by the party elders. Cynics will tell you that this turn of events holds only until the ANC is voted back into power after which, the miscreants will be forgiven and brought back into the bosom of the questionable party. Face it, the ANC is as cunning a fox and as swift as a cheetah as it plots its pre-May 29 strategy. The cadre rot began in 1994 and gathered momentum as the inner circle milked the coffers of the country to such an extent that the milk has dried up. These are professional skelms and trying to shut them down is just…

The woman involved in the brutal abduction, rape and killing of an 8-year-old girl will have to face two life terms behind bars after the court turned down her application for leave to appeal against her conviction and sentence. Lerato Kgitsane turned to the Bloemfontein High Court following her conviction and sentencing last year after the gruesome death of Bokamoso Shabe, who was abducted from Mmantshebo Primary School in Thabong in the Free State. Her boyfriend, Motsika Rapuleng, was convicted prior to her and he was also given two life sentences. He spilt the beans on her after his conviction and told the court that she was an accomplice in the abduction, rape and killing of the child. Kgitsane, however, maintained that while she assisted in the child’s abduction, she…

HIGHER Education Minister Blade Nzimande said the leave of absence by National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) board chairperson Ernest Khosa has resulted in vacancies within the board and some of its sub-committees. “The board has taken proactive measures to address this situation by reallocating existing members to fill these vacancies, ensuring the continuity of leadership and preventing any void in governance,” Nzimande said in response to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Naledi Chirwa. Khosa took 30 days’ leave to provide an opportunity to NSFAS to deal with allegations levelled against him by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). Professor Lourens van Staden is the current acting chairperson of the board of NSFAS. The civil society organisation shared a report containing recordings and transcripts of recordings of two meetings allegedly…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned those threatening violence ahead of the elections that they will be arrested by law enforcement agencies. This follows threats made by uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (MKP) which is led by former president Jacob Zuma that there would be violence if it was not allowed to contest the elections. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has warned the MKP against threats of violence. The ANC also warned against threats by African Democratic Change leader Visvin Reddy, who has aligned with the MKP, who had commented that there would be “anarchy” if the MKP was not allowed to contest the elections. The ANC is involved in a legal battle with the MKP over the name and logo. Ramaphosa said yesterday that the law would take its course…

MAHMOOD Mamdani’s seminal work navigates the complex terrain of humanitarian intervention and condemns the international community’s selective implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. Drawing on Mamdani’s astute observations, it is critical to look at Israel’s actions in its ongoing war with Palestine through the lens of R2P. By doing so, we can expose the flagrant violations of human rights and systemic injustices carried out against the Palestinian people. Central to Mamdani’s argument is the distinction between the Responsibility to Protect and the Right to Punish. He critiques the instrumentalisation of R2P by powerful Western nations to justify military interventions in the Global South, often under the guise of humanitarian intervention. Mamdani contends that such interventions are driven not by a genuine commitment to protect populations from harm, but…

A New Mexico jury yesterday found Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez guilty of involuntary manslaughter, ending a trial over Hollywood’s first on-set fatal shooting in nearly 30 years. Ten days of testimony had focused on whether the relatively inexperienced armourer endangered fellow crew and cast members in her handling and supervision of firearms on the low-budget production set in New Mexico. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ordered that Gutierrez be taken into custody immediately. She faces up to 18 months in state prison. As deputies led her from the courtroom, Gutierrez told her distraught mother, “I’ll be okay”. Jurors, who reached their decision in just three hours, acquitted Gutierrez on a second charge of evidence tampering. Just after lunch on October 21, 2021, Gutierrez mistakenly loaded a live round into a reproduction…

Mozambican authorities yesterday were scrambling to find survivors of a shipwreck that left at least one person dead and eight missing south of the capital, Maputo. Mozambique’s National Maritime Institute (Inamar) said an illegal fishing vessel carrying 12 people ran into trouble navigating the waters off the southern Matutuine region on Wednesday morning. The causes of the incident were not immediately clear, but officials said they believed the crew panicked after the vessel started taking on water, eventually causing it to capsize.Wreckage washed up on a beach in the area. Odete Muianga of Inamar said rescuers found two survivors on Wednesday and pulled a third from the waters the following day. Eight more crew members were missing at sea but hopes of finding them alive were fading. The boat was…

HONG KONG: The Hong Kong government will send a national security bill to the legislature today, possibly cracking down further on dissent in the former British colony, with city leader John Lee calling for it to be passed “at full speed”. The move to enact new laws encompassing espionage, state secrets and sedition comes a week after a month-long public consultation period for the bill ended. The law targets crimes including treason, theft of state secrets, espionage, sabotage, sedition and external interference. It will also have “extraterritorial” effect, giving rise to fears it could be used to intimidate and restrict free speech of residents outside Hong Kong. | Reuters…

VILNIUS: High oil prices, sanctions evasion and state investment are providing Russia with enough resources to fight on in Ukraine at the current intensity for at least two more years, Lithuanian intelligence agencies said yesterday. Russia reformed and strengthened its battle-torn army in Ukraine in 2023 and is on track to expand its military capabilities along its border with Nato, including next to Finland, which joined the alliance last year, the agencies said. While Russia is openly supplied with weapons by Iran and North Korea, China has become its largest supplier of microchips and the yuan the main currency for Russia’s international transactions. | Reuters…

The north-east winds and the summer heat have turned the fishing on. Whether you are on the shore or in a boat, the fish are biting. The couta and tuna have been keeping the offshore anglers very busy. The north has been the place to go, but the local waters have held some giants. The North Coast has been the place to be if you are looking for couta. Cape Vidal has come alive with fish and although most of the fish have been on the smaller side, the big fish are there. The shallower areas have held most of the smaller fish, so if the giants are what you are after and you don’t mind waiting it out, head to the deeper water. The bait of choice has been…