Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-08-21 i Mercury

Emotional wellness, but for the severely unwell, is something you can monitor, much like you can take your own blood pressure. Most of us have good and not-so-good days. May this column lead you to private reflection and a day of greater joy and emotional health. Please don’t use the list to classify others; use it only to reflect on your own behaviour and habits. Nobody is healthy all the time; few are unhealthy all the time. Healthy people Promote freedom and discovery. Are open and clear about expectations. Move on efficiently after disappointment. Forgive others after consideration. Are aware they can be misguided and are open to correction. Are steered and guided from inner values and ambitions. Are grateful to others and know how much they need others. Try…

Posting online is a valuable way to connect with others, and sharing photos helps maintain bonds with family and friends. However, it is essential to strike a balance between staying connected and oversharing. In honour of World Photography Day, Kaspersky experts have compiled some essential tips on what to consider before posting photos to ensure that privacy and safety are maintained. With the increasing rise of social media and photo-sharing platforms, it is easier than ever to overlook the potential risks associated with revealing too much personal information. Posting without careful consideration can have unintended outcomes, such as identity scams, receiving unwanted attention or “doxing”, which is the collection of personal information for the purpose of gaining benefit. Luckily, such risks can be significantly reduced by ensuring that sensitive information…

THE SA Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has revealed there are severe levels of food insecurity in the KwaZulu- Natal municipal districts of Zululand, uMkhanyakude, and uMzinyathi. The report was released yesterday at the KZN Agricultural Extension Indaba 2024 at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban, and attended by KZN Premier Thami Ntuli, and agriculture and rural development MEC Thembeni Madlopha- Mthethwa. According to Professor Thokozani Simelane of the HSRC, who was also the chief researcher of the report, severe food insecurity was more prevalent in the Zululand district where 35% of households were severely food insecure; uMkhanyakude with 17.1%; and uMzinyathi with 4.3%. “Our report shows the situation in a household-level is very severe due to the high unemployment rate in the province and the country. As a result…

HOME Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said yesterday that his department should urgently embrace technology otherwise South Africa’s national security will be under threat. Schreiber said the problems in the issuance of fraudulent visas pointed the department towards a solution that lay in embracing digital transformation in all its facets and across the department. “It would frankly be a dereliction of duty if we do not move with urgency to digitally transform Home Affairs. “If we collectively fail to do so, the repercussions for national security will be on all of our hands,” he said. Schreiber made the statement when the department briefed the portfolio committee on the 95 Libyans arrested during a police raid at a training camp in Mpumalanga, and the citizenship of former Miss SA contestant Chidimma Vanessa…

Business owners in the Eastern Cape are living in fear following a surge in syndicates demanding protection fees and threatening owners. Last week, an ophthalmologist shut down his practice after being threatened by syndicates. “Dear clients, patients, relatives and colleagues. This is to inform you of the permanent closure of this ophthalmology practice as of 13 August 2024. This is due to hostile criminal activities that have threatened my life and well-being and have forced the the closure of this practice permanently. “I will miss my staff, colleagues and my patients, whom I have treated with the utmost care since I opened the practice in 2019, as the first specialist ophthalmologist that originates in this town,” the doctor wrote. UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said he too was concerned about the…

This Women’s Month the SAPS paid tribute to Sergeant Silindile Njilo, stationed at the Ntuzuma police station in KwaZulu-Natal, for the care and support she continues to provide for an abandoned baby. On May 5, Njilo reported for duty to find an abandoned baby girl at the Client Service Centre (CSC). “The baby was brought to the police station during the previous shift by the owner of a local tavern after the biological mother had left the baby at his establishment,” said police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Amanda Van Wyk. Van Wyk said as the child’s identity had been withheld, the child was named “Tholakele” by Sergeant Njilo, which means being found. She said Njilo wasted no time and quickly went home to get a wash basin and returned to the police…

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken was in Egypt yesterday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire after saying Israel had accepted a US “bridging proposal” for a deal and urging Hamas to do the same. Blinken, on his ninth visit to the Middle East since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered the war with Israel, flew to El Alamein, the Mediterranean city famous for a World War II battle, and began talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at his summer palace. Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week. Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the US to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict. Washington put forward the latest…

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries could start vaccinating against mpox within days, Africa’s top public health agency said yesterday. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has been working with countries experiencing mpox outbreaks on logistics and communication strategies to roll out vaccine doses that are due to arrive following pledges by the EU, vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic, the US and Japan. The World Health Organization last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as a new variant of the disease spread rapidly in Africa. “End of next week, vaccines will start to arrive in DRC and other countries,” Africa CDC director general Jean Kaseya said. “We need to make sure that the supply…

BERLIN: A 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary yesterday lost an appeal against her conviction for complicity in the murder of more than 10 000 people, in what could be the last judgement of its kind. Irmgard Furchner was handed a two-year suspended sentence in December 2022 for her role in what prosecutors called the “cruel and malicious murder” of prisoners at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland. Her defence appealed, but the ruling was upheld. An estimated 65 000 people died at the camp near Gdansk. Between June 1943 and April 1945, Furchner was secretary to camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe while her husband was a fellow SS officer. | AFP…

ACCRA: Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has broken ground on the construction of a 300 000 barrel-per-day oil refinery that the government hopes will turn the West African country into the region’s petroleum hub, but critics say the project is flawed. Ghana became an oil producer in 2010. Output is currently around 132 000 bpd of crude oil and about 325 million standard cubic feet a day of natural gas. The petroleum hub aims to supply the region by 2036. Some residents at the proposed 20 000-acre site have protested the plans, demanding the project’s footprint be reduced to 5 000 acres. | Reuters…

I QUITE enjoy the mixing and matching of the Springbok team this year. Outside of World Cups and dead-rubber games, you seldom see Bok coaches changing their teams for the ‘big Tests’ during an international season. Perhaps Rassie Erasmus learnt a valuable lesson from the second Test against Ireland in Durban, where the world champions went down 25-24 after winning the first encounter 27-20 in Pretoria. The South Africans lost the physical battle in the first half of the second Test, having kept the exact match-day 23 from the first match. They rallied to lead in the second half, only for Ciaran Frawley to break their hearts with two late drop goals. A similar thing happened at last year’s World Cup, where the Boks saw off France in dramatic fashion…

Cities, as social and economic hubs, are major impact zones of climate change and as such need to be earmarked as critical spaces in which to build climate resilience. Historically, climate change has been regarded primarily as an environmental issue, and there has been minimal effort to incorporate effective planning responses into essential delivery areas within municipalities. With the onslaught of disastrous events, which South Africa has experienced over recent years, particularly in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, the economic and social implications of climate change on local government have become unequivocal. There is an urgent need for physical adaptation measures that include strategies and interventions to modify infrastructure and enhance resilience. Additionally, it is essential to strengthen the capacity of local government officials and policymakers to promote more informed…

A JOKE by veteran Mark Simmons has been named the funniest of the lot at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Comedy Festival, according to Sky News. A vote by 2 000 people found the joke by Simmons the funniest during this month’s event: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.” Simmons says he is “really chuffed” with the win – which comes a decade on from his first appearance at the event. Some of the leading comedy critics and comedians in the UK were on the judging panel for the Funniest Joke Of The Fringe award, which celebrates “the art of joke writing” and making people laugh. Panellists attended hundreds of shows during the Fringe, listening out for jokes that make…

WHAT is the Department of Education (DOE) doing about the lives of learners and teachers that have been lost due to criminality on school premises? Over the past eight months, more than 10 learners and educators have lost their lives inside school premises. The tragic loss of lives within school premises is an issue that demands urgent attention from the DOE. Schools, traditionally seen as safe havens for learners and teachers, have become sites of violence and insecurity, challenging the foundation of our education system. First, the Department of Education must acknowledge the severity of the problem. These incidents are not isolated but part of a disturbing pattern of violence that permeates our schools. Whether due to gang violence, bullying or inadequate security measures, the fact remains that learners and…

CO-OPERATIVE Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has called for the integration of the task teams working to fix eThekwini Municipality. This follows a “directive“ from the National Treasury for one of the teams to be “disbanded“ fearing a duplication of work. Hlabisa, together with KZN-MEC for Cogta Thulasizwe Buthelezi, was briefed yesterday by the teams about the work that had been done so far. The teams, the Presidential Working Group, led by ANC heavyweight Mike Mabuyakhulu, and eThekwini Strategic Support Team (section 154) have been deployed to the municipality to address critical failures that have brought the City to the brink of collapse, triggering widespread dissatisfaction among residents. But the section 154 intervention led by Mike Sutcliffe and Dr Cassius Lubisi has been called into question by…

Experts say they are cautiously optimistic about a 25 basis point interest rate cut in September. Stats SA is expected to announce the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation for July later this week, and experts believe inflation will dip below 5% for the first time since August 2023. Economists said the rand has been stronger against the US dollar and the expectation is that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at their next meeting in September, just before the South African Reserve Bank meets to make its decision on interest rates. Johann Els, Old Mutual Group chief economist, said he expects inflation to be around 4.9% or 4.8% when Stats SA makes its announcement this week. “June inflation was 5.1%, and I expect inflation for July to drop…

THE government owes the nation more than merely announcing the deportation of the 95 Libyans arrested at a military camp in Mpumalanga. Concerns arose in July that national security may have been compromised after their secret military camp was discovered and the men arrested. Three court appearances later, prosecutors dropped charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them on claims that they had entered the country under false pretenses. In court, the men said they were receiving security training. We were told that the possibility of similar camps elsewhere in the country could not be ruled out. Before long, police said military-related training was being carried out on a farm in Modimolle, Limpopo, following the discovery of a cache of firearms and ammunition on the premises. Early this week,…

Divers scoured the wreck of a luxury yacht off Sicily’s coast yesterday to find six missing people, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter, following an intense storm that sank the vessel on Monday. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56m-long superyacht, was carrying 22 people and anchored off the port of Porticello when it was hit by the fierce, pre-dawn storm. Fifteen people escaped before it capsized. The body of one person who died was swiftly recovered. That left six passengers unaccounted for – Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah; Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo. “The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” said Salvatore Cocina, head of…

Uganda said yesterday that army commandos had destroyed camps belonging to Joseph Kony, the fugitive leader of the feared Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), in the Central African Republic (CAR). The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces said the operation was carried out jointly with armed forces from South Sudan and CAR against three camps in the east of the country near the Sudanese border. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity over the LRA’s long reign of terror across several African nations. The former altar boy founded the LRA in the 1980s to establish a regime based on the Ten Commandments, launching a rebellion against Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that spread to the CAR, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. It…

Panama City: Panama yesterday deported 29 Colombians with criminal records who had entered the country through the inhospitable Darien Gap, applying for the first time a deal on migrant repatriations signed with the US in July. The 29 deportees, who had no luggage, were handcuffed and climbed the plane’s stairs slowly. Vice Minister of Security Luis Felipe Icaza said the next flight could depart on Friday or Saturday under the deal that Panama signed with the US in July. Washington pledged $6 million in funding for migrant repatriations from the Central American nation in the hope of reducing irregular crossings. | AFP…

KABUL: The Taliban’s morality ministry has dismissed 281 members of the security force for failure to grow a beard and have detained more than 13 000 people in Afghanistan for “immoral acts” in the past year, officials said yesterday. The Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue said in its annual operations update that about half of those detained had been let go after 24 hours. Officials had destroyed 21 328 musical instruments and prevented thousands of computer operators from selling “immoral and unethical” films. The ministry has been criticised for restrictions on women and inhibiting freedom of expression. | Reuters…

PROTEAS T20 captain Aiden Markram will be reunited with Dolphins batting all-rounder Jason Smith, who earned his maiden Proteas call-up for the three-match T20 series against the West Indies. Markram previously led Smith during the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, a tournament that South Africa won emphatically. Back in those days, Smith could certainly hold up an end with ball in hand. However, having since turned pro, the medium-pace bowler has had very few opportunities to put his bowling skills to the test, especially in T20 cricket where there is very little room for trial and error when putting together a bowling attack. Instead, it is his batting credentials that have seen the 29-year-old break into the T20 side and Markram aims not to tamper with Smith’s development. “You definitely want…

JSE-listed Kibo energy yesterday announced the official commencement of the second overhaul of its power-generating sets for its Pyebridge site under the company’s UK-based Mast Energy division. The company has also applied for increased capacity under the Pyebridge project in the UK. “Mast Energy Developments is pleased to announce the official commencement of the second genset overhaul, and application for an increased capacity market contract at its Pyebridge flexible power-generation asset,” the company said yesterday. The first refurbished gensets under Pyebridge achieved £57 000 (R1.3 million) in monthly revenue, paving the way for the second overhaul of the second power-generating set. Pyebridge had also signed up an engineering works contract for the second genset’s overhaul which will enable the UK site to apply for an enhanced capacity contract. “We are…

WITH so much being said about peace talks and efforts to bring about a ceasefire in the Middle East, one has to wonder, if you are honest with yourself, why during an election year, the US secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is trying so hard to be the peacemaker? For most informed people who have been actively following the war since October 7, it should be obvious by now that Israel will never stop being hated or attacked by Islamic terror groups from Iran. Israel must not let the Biden administration tie its hands any further, as its economy is on the brink of collapse in the North, with farm lands and precious vineyards being destroyed daily by the cowardly rocket fire by Hezbollah from Lebanon. The Biden/Harris administration and…

In an era where access to information and services defines the quality of governance, the eThekwini Municipality stands as a beacon of what local government should aspire to be accessible, efficient and responsive. To further bring services closer to the people, especially in previously underserviced areas, eThekwini Municipality established 37 Sizakala Customer Service centres strategically located across the City to ensure that key services are available to all residents. These Sizakala centres cater for the needs of residents from all walks of life and offer services such as the comprehensive one-stop-shops, to the more focused first stop shops and the multifunctional Thusong centres. The level of accessibility to these centres is not only convenient but it’s empowering, as access to municipal services is less complex. The one-stop-shops, the most…

The impact of the rampant theft of batteries from the country’s largest cellular network operators is bad news for consumers, an economist has said. In KwaZulu-Natal, MTN SA and Vodacom have invested heavily in adding batteries and security solutions to ensure that the network stays operational during power failures as criminals continue to target network infrastructure. MTN SA, responding to questions from The Mercury, said that 10 000 batteries had been installed over the past financial year with just more than 1 400 stolen over the period. MTN SA said although the incidents of battery theft and network infrastructure vandalism was still a reality, there has been a decline in these incidents. “This decline could be the result of various security measures introduced over the past years, these include…

Teacher unions on Monday welcomed moves by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to revive the school sport programme in partnership with the Department of Basic Education (DBE). This follows a written parliamentary reply in which Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie was quizzed about his plans to tackle the slow pace of transformation within rugby, cricket and other sporting codes, which were not a true reflection of the country’s demographics. In reply, he said he would like to change the approach of doing things, or there would be the same results. “What matters is ‘equality of access’, which speaks to young people being able to participate and train in various sports from an early age on.” He said equality of access was the critical challenge. “Already…

THE court has expressed its concern regarding the conduct of a firm of attorneys, who in six separate applications by foreigners against Home Affairs, used identical information in all six matters, apart from changing a few minor details such as names and dates. Judge President Dunstan Mlambo, sitting in the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, said it was clearly “a copy and paste effort, as all six applications contained exactly the same grammatical errors”. Judge Mlambo, in a judgment concurred by two other judges, ordered that the law firm and the advocate who appeared in the matters had to pay the legal fees from their own pocket. Judge Mlambo was so concerned about the conduct of the law firm, that he said this matter must be brought to the attention of…

On July 1, the 78th UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution “Enhancing International Co-operation on Capacity-building of Artificial Intelligence”. This China-led proposal was co-sponsored by over 140 UN member states and highlighted “capacity building” as the key in addressing the many issues surrounding AI in a tumultuous world. AI technology is advancing at dazzling speed, everyone can see it. Yet another noticeable trend is the ever-widening gap among countries in terms of stages or sophistication of applying AI. While some countries are already making great leaps in exploiting various “Large Language Models” and “Generative AIs”, there are still those yet to work on their readiness. Such is the seriousness of the “digital divide” that has been pinpointed by the China-led UN resolution. Ignorance of it will not only bring…

Red-faced Kenyan police yesterday arrested eight of their own officers and launched a manhunt after a man accused of murdering and dismembering 42 women escaped from a Nairobi police cell along with a dozen other people. The escapees include Collins Jumaisi, 33, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, who was arrested last month after the discovery of mutilated bodies in a dump in a slum of the Kenyan capital. Jumaisi and the 12 others, all Eritrean nationals, appeared to have escaped by cutting through a wire mesh roof at the police station. “Our preliminary investigations indicate that the escape was aided by insiders,” acting national police chief Gilbert Masengeli said in a statement. He said that eight officers on duty at the time have been suspended and “placed…

Chicago: Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris can break the glass ceiling and become the 47th president of America. Praising Harris, Clinton said, “As president, she (Kamala Harris) will always have our backs and she will be a fighter for us. Women fighting for health are asking us to keep going,” Clinton said. “Harris will fight to lower costs for hard-working families, open the doors wide for good paying jobs and, yes, she will restore abortion rights nationwide,” Clinton added. Criticising Republican candidate Donald Trump, Clinton said he “only thinks about himself”. | IANS…

MADRID: Maria Branyas, who was the world’s oldest person, has died peacefully in a Spanish nursing home at the age of 117, according to the home yesterday. She had turned 117 on March 4, according to Guinness World Records, and had become the oldest person in the world in January 2023. Born in San Francisco, California, in 1907, she moved with her Spanish family back to the northeastern region of Catalonia when she was seven. She spent the rest of her life there. Branyas was the 12th oldest verified person in history. The oldest was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days. | Reuters…

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has added at least four fresh faces to his squad after naming his 38-man preliminary squad for the coming Afcon qualifiers. The South African national team put in a tremendous, bronze-worthy showing in the last edition of the continental competition in Ivory Coast. Broos and his men will be eager to feature in the next one in Morocco with Uganda, Congo and South Sudan standing in their way in Group K. Bafana will battle Uganda’s Cranes first on September 6 at the Orlando Stadium at 6pm before flying out to South Sudan for their second match on September 10. Broos’ men are expected to still be on a high after they drew away to Nigeria and outclassed Zimbabwe four days later in…

The Proteas’ T20 side has already broken new ground this year by reaching a first World Cup final in Barbados. The Test side is now determined to stay in the hunt for next year’s World Test Championship (WTC) final after a 1-0 series win over the West Indies. It will undoubtedly be a remarkable achievement for the Proteas should they get to Lord’s next year as they will need to win half a dozen Test matches on the bounce. The current Test side is undergoing a transition with a host of young upstarts still finding their feet at the highest level. But that is not deterring Test coach Shukri Conrad from dreaming about the “nice pot of gold at the end of the rainbow”. “We’ve got a big couple of…