Indholdsfortegnelse for 2024-12-12 i Mercury

Often, in this column, I write about what you already know. I do it for several reasons: Writing acts as a reminder for me – and I am always my first reader. I need the reminder and stimulation to put my words and beliefs into action. I detest the idea of not “walking my talk.” Reading what you already know may stir some encouragement within you. There is little more rewarding to me than knowing my treasured readers are living a smidgen more powerfully as a result of reading and following my work. Today I remind you and me that people want to be recognised, known, acknowledged. People want to engage with others, be heard, be included and be part of a group or team. With this in mind, if…

As we reflect on the state of our nation, it's imperative that we address the silent epidemic of gender-based violence (GBV) in our schools. The alarming statistic that one in five children in South Africa has experienced sexual abuse is a clarion call for us to intervene decisively. The Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation’s Thari Programme offers a proven model to help address this crisis effectively. By providing psychosocial support, Safe Parks and a multisectoral approach, Thari tackles both the symptoms and root causes of violence and abuse against vulnerable children and women. Thari’s innovative Safe Parks have created environments where vulnerable children and women can find refuge, support and opportunities to thrive. These hubs promote dialogue, workshops and awareness campaigns addressing issues like domestic violence, and the role of men and…

ATTEMPTS by the MEC for Cogta Thulasizwe Buthelezi to open his offices in Ulundi were thwarted by the IFP’s coalition partners in the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) who view his actions in recent months as a threat to the stability of their working relationship. Buthelezi is also the prime minister of the Zulu nation. An opening ceremony for Buthelezi’s Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) office was scheduled for last week and was set to be presided over by Zulu King Misuzulu KaZwelithini. However, Premier Thami Ntuli, who is also the IFP provincial chairperson, announced that the move had been postponed as it was not in accordance with the ministerial handbook. The IFP’s coalition partners are understood to have raised Buthelezi’s decision with Ntuli, quoting political and financial…

Christmas delicacies such as pap, egg salad, baked goods and cooldrinks will be more affordable this year as food inflation has plunged to its lowest level in 14 years. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) yesterday showed that the annual inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) witnessed another sharp decline in November, slowing to 2.3% from 3.6% in October. The moderation came mainly from food prices, which slowed to 1.6% year-on-year in November, its lowest level since 2010. Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), said the sharp deceleration was partly attributed to base effects as food price inflation was particularly high a year ago. “In November 2023, vegetable prices surged due to supply constraints from load-shedding disruptions, while the avian…

A 15-year-old boy who raped a four-year-old received a lifeline after the high court overturned his sentence of 10 years' compulsory residence in a youth facility and reduced it to five years. This as the magistrate who had sentenced him was not empowered to force him to spend 10 years at the centre, the high court said. The Bloemfontein High Court also criticised the magistrate for forgetting that she was dealing with a child offender, who was 16 when he was sentenced, as she, during her comments, said although he was still at school, she felt he should make a financial contribution towards the victim’s family. The matter landed before the high court on an automatic review of the lower courts’ proceedings, as it involved a child offender. The teenager…

Minister of Correctional Services Pieter Groenewald has disclosed that South Africa needs R36 billion to build new prisons to address the issue of overcrowding in correctional facilities. Groenewald made the revelation in a written parliamentary response to a question posed by the Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Member of Parliament (MP) Marlon Vivienne Daniels. Daniels asked what other measures, particularly relating to building more prisons, were being put in place to address the overcrowding crisis. In response, Groenewald emphasised the urgent need to address the issue of overcrowding and the need for additional beds at prisons despite recent efforts to increase capacity. He said the need to increase national bed capacity remains a priority, adding that plans are underway to build new corrections facilities. This included the upgrade of outmoded facilities, regaining…

Zuko Nonxuba and Heinrich Francisco Gonzales being struck off the roll of attorneys goes a long way in restoring the public trust the legal fraternity should always enjoy. It’s a significant statement that courts will not hesitate to protect the most vulnerable against legal practitioners who may regard themselves as above the law. More than anything, the striking orders against the two assure victims that there is a place they can turn to when confronted with situations similar to the cases we have cited in this editorial. Our news pages have aptly highlighted the impact of such actions, especially in Road Accident Fund matters where claimants are only given a small portion of the millions due to them. In the worst scenarios, they are left to languish in poverty while…

Canada imposed sanctions on eight former and current senior Chinese officials this week, citing alleged state-led human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and against Falun Gong followers. “Canada is deeply concerned over reports that China has arbitrarily detained more than one million people in Xinjiang since 2017, many of whom were held in camps and faced psychological, physical and sexual violence,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. A 2022 report by the then UN human rights chief said China’s treatment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang, in the country’s far west, could constitute crimes against humanity. Beijing denies the allegations. Canada’s targets include Chen Quanguo, former Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region, and Wu Yingjie, Communist Party head in Tibet between 2016 and…

MOSCOW: Russian gas exports to Europe through Ukraine remained stable yesterday, data from Kremlin-controlled Gazprom and a European pipeline network operator showed. Russia halted gas supplies to Austria’s OMV in mid-November amid a contractual dispute and legal wranglings related to interrupted gas supplies in 2022. Despite the stoppage, overall Russian gas exports via Ukraine, which account for just under half of Moscow’s total gas flows to the continent, have remained stable as other buyers stepped in. | Reuters…

Following in the footsteps of her mother, Qawekazi Fadana, is breaking barriers in the farming sector. Fadana, 37, told Business Report that she aims for her diversified free-range poultry and stock farming operation, Mhlelisa Farm in Haga Haga 70km north of East London, to build on existing commercial success and catalyse growth and innovation in the rural Wild Coast. She was one of the 28 entrepreneurs and small business owners who enrolled in the first intake of the Stellenbosch Business School’s Small Business Academy (SBA) in East London, and, after just a few weeks on the programme, believed it was the key to unlocking her business vision. Fadana said, “When my farmworkers can buy their own cars and I can sit around the table in my shorts, just like the…

British American Tobacco (BAT) is expecting its operating cash flow conversion for the 2024 full year to be above 90% and gross capital expenditure to top £600 million (R13.6 billion) despite a projected 2% lowering in global tobacco volumes. BAT had this year intensified “targeted investments in the US combustible business, with early signs” of improvement. This was set to translate to a “low-single figure organic constant currency revenue growth” for the year to December 2024 while adjusted profits from operations is are also likely to grow by around similar margins. BAT yesterday said it was expecting to take a knock from translational foreign currency headwinds to a margin of about 4.5% on its full-year adjusted profit from operations. Shares in the company traded 1.16% firmer in afternoon trade on…

After 54 years of oppressive rule, the Assad dynasty has fallen, igniting celebrations among Syrians and a call for a new beginning. The Assad dynasty has fallen. Fifty-four years of brutal Assad dynasty rule has come to an end and is an encouraging and long-awaited yearning of not only Syrians but also of conscientious people around the globe. Syrians living in Syria, exiled Syrians and Syrian refugees have all expressed their joy and happiness. Dictator Bashar al-Assad has fled the country, and the country has fallen to multiple revolutionary groups that control different parts of the country. Seeing Syrians pouring into the streets, echoing the praises of Almighty God and with celebratory songs The Fall of the Pharaoh of contemporary times, whose father was also regarded as a warlord and…

THE ruthless and bloody slaughter of innocent civilians in battered Syria by 20 organisations wanting control of this ancient land lays the foundation for the world to see the true nature of foreign interference and intervention in a sovereign land. About 500 000 civilians lost their lives in this gruesome civil war over the past 30 years. Millions are refugees in neighbouring countries. The stomach-churning photographs and the gruesome details exposed the double standards and hypocrisy of the outside world. The reaction of the world community is truly astonishing in its feeble response. It symbolises and embodies the horrors of brute force. We must honour the memories of those who perished and those who survived. It is our moral obligation. How can refugees survive and progress when they live under…

THE Municipal and Allied Trade Union of South Africa (Matusa) has launched a court application to have the eThekwini Municipality’s city manager, Musa Mbhele, removed from his post on the grounds that he was irregularly appointed. The union has filed court papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, seeking to have the city manager removed just two years into his tenure. At the heart of the case is the claim that the interview panel that selected and recommended the city manager for appointment was improperly constituted and did not comply with the regulations governing the appointment of municipal managers. The Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, is cited as the first respondent, Musa Mbhele as the second respondent, and the eThekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba, as the third respondent. Notably,…

Richards Bay Terminal says it has seen an increase in exports of magnetite and chrome, with the political unrest in Mozambique being one of the reasons for the increase. This follows an improvement in coal exports at the Port of Richards Bay, where 16 million tonnes have been exported internationally. Richards Bay Terminal said that magnetite and chrome are strategic commodities that are mainly mined in South Africa, and they want to have the lion's share of the export. Thulasizwe Dlamini, managing executive at the Richards Bay Terminal in northern KwaZulu-Natal, stated that there is a depot with a 70-metre depth now available for exporting commodities. “This means we can take bigger ships from countries and export chrome and magnetite. The improvement in efficiencies at the Port of Richards Bay…

HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has defended the Nelson Mandela-Fidel Castro (NMFC) programme, saying its costs were comparable to the cost of the medical programme in the country. Motsoaledi said the NMFC students’ interests were always protected with the programme attendees receiving support while in Cuba and on return to South Africa through provincial coordinators, local universities and alumni. He was responding to ActionSA Kgosi Letlape who questioned why R300 million was spent on the Cuban internship programme when 25% of the interns were being accepted into South African universities. Letlape also inquired about accountability measures to ensure taxpayers were not funding a wasteful programme in the midst of an increasingly constrained national fiscus, as each student cost R2.7m and most of the qualifications were not recognised. He had enquired whether…

China has expanded military drills around Taiwan aimed at drawing “a red line” for the next US president, Taipei authorities said yesterday, branding Beijing a “troublemaker”. Beijing’s biggest maritime drills in years involve about 60 warships and 30 coast guard vessels deployed from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea, a senior national security official said on the condition of anonymity. China has also ramped up military aircraft activity closer to Taiwan, with 100 sorties detected over the past two days, according to figures from the island’s defence ministry. There has been no announcement by Beijing’s army or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean. However, a recent Pacific tour by Taiwanese…

NEW YORK: Sudan has topped the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) 2025 watchlist of global humanitarian crises for the second consecutive year, followed by Gaza, the West Bank, Myanmar, Syria, and South Sudan. The IRC’s report highlights that 305.1 million people worldwide are in humanitarian need, a significant increase from 77.9 million in 2015. Sudan accounts for 10% of those in need, despite having just 1% of the global population. The crisis, described as the largest since records began, erupted in April 2023 due to a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, resulting in the world’s largest displacement crisis.…

BEIT LAHIYA: Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians yesterday, most of them in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, medics said. The Beit Lahiya strike killed at least 22 people, including women and children, health officials said. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media. More than 30 people were living in the multi-storey building before it was struck, and several family members were missing. The Israeli military said it had carried out a strike targeting Hamas militants near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, between Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, towns on the northern fringe. | Reuters…

YOU couldn’t make it up. The world is on a knife-edge after totally unexpected events. The nations are bracing themselves for what might follow the revolution in Syria. Israel is believed to be already attacking to destroy the former Syrian regime’s abandoned stockpile of chemical weaponry before anyone else takes them over. Meanwhile, amid all this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to appear in court, according to Sky News, for the first time in his long-running corruption trial. Can you beat it as a twist in the drama? The Israeli prime minister has been charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Judges have ruled that he must testify three times a week, despite the ongoing war in Gaza and new threats in neighbouring Syria. He was indicted…

Miners working on South Africa’s gold, diamond and other mines, from more than 100 years ago to the present, have made a large contribution to our economy. Money emanating from mining was used to develop cities and towns, to pay for infrastructure, and to start industries and businesses. All this would not have been possible if it had not been for the men (and more recently the women) who worked in our mines —people from South Africa, neighbouring countries, and further away. They worked in dangerous conditions — some getting killed or injured in mine accidents. Others developed serious lung diseases from mining. Today people are still working in our mines and benefiting our nation. In light of this, should we not consider honouring these miners by changing the name…

Tsakani Maluleke is proving more than competent in a long line of distinguished Auditors General. She renders vital service to South Africa. Her reports on audits of all government agencies make shocking reading. The painful truth is that despite the interrogation of the report by the senior officials and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), little is done to hold departments and officials to account. How many are fired, how many are demoted, how many are made to refund illegal gains and how many are charged, tried, convicted and punished? Songezo Zibi, who now has a chance to shine and in so doing, make a big contribution to the success of the GNU chairs SCOPA. SCOPA must prove it is not a toothless body. It must make recommendations that…

While Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife awaits a roaming permit for the more than 30 Mawana Game Reserve elephants from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), should a threat to communities arise, the elephants will be destroyed. This is according to Vuyiswa Radebe, executive manager of biodiversity conservation operations at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, who was speaking during an update on the situation with the roaming elephants in Ulundi, northern KZN. The elephants were reportedly terrorising communities outside the reserve. In March, an elephant attacked a herdsman, and Radebe said that was a wake-up call. However, she said when they were ready to issue the reserve with a compliance notice in April, Mawana informed Ezemvelo that the elephants no longer belonged to the reserve. Radebe said Ezemvelo sought legal advice…

THE Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has found that a total of 7770 employers have defaulted on the payment of pension contributions as of December 2023. This was revealed by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana after the National Treasury was advised by the FSCA about the matter. This was as a result of questions posed by EFF MP Constance Nonhlanhla Mkhonto about the two-pot retirement system. Mkhonto said there have been many complaints from workers that they discovered through the implementation of the two-pot retirement system that some employers have not been consistent in paying the pension contributions into the relevant pension funds or have not been paying at all. She inquired about the total number of private and public institutions that were defaulting on paying over pension contributions of workers…

The Digital Forensic and Financial Analysis Centre (DFFAC), although still in its infancy at only one year old, has already analysed millions of bank statements for serious financial crimes and cases of corruption, Hawks head Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya said yesterday. The digital landscape within which the Hawks (the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations) operates is evolving at the speed of light, he said at a briefing to reflect on the successes of the DFFAC and the introduction of the Section 205 Digital Subpoena Project. Lebeya said that these projects, although still in their infancy, were already playing a key role in commercial and financial crime and corruption investigations. He said that the collection and analysis of electronic data for investigations comes across as a “costly exercise” and thus requires partnership…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic visit to Nigeria last month, highlights India’s commitment to strengthening global partnerships, signifying a renewed commitment to fortifying the long-standing partnership between the two countries. The visit was also significant for another reason – Modi’s visit to Nigeria at the invitation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Nigeria in 17 years. The two countries enjoy warm, friendly, and deep-rooted bilateral relations, with India establishing its Diplomatic House in Lagos in November 1958, two years before Nigeria became independent on October 1, 1960. At the moment India is Nigeria’s largest trading partner and Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa. In the financial period 21/22, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries has been…

Authorities in two Indian states that are driving its economic growth are drafting tighter workplace rules and inspections to protect white- collar employees after the death of a young executive at global consultancy Ernst & Young (EY), which her family blamed on overwork. India’s decades-old labour laws are largely focused on blue-collar workers, leaving others vulnerable to workplace abuse such as punishing work schedules and summary dismissals, unions say. Labour authorities in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka said they have stepped up scrutiny of office practices at private firms in an effort to protect white-collar workers after a string of complaints, four officials in the two states said. Maharashtra’s capital is India’s financial hub Mumbai and Karnataka is home to Bengaluru, India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ where there are hundreds of…

LONDON: There were about 11 million more cases of malaria in 2023 than in 2022, up to an estimated 263 million, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report, marking another year of negligible progress against the age-old killer. There were 597,000 deaths, a similar total to 2022, the vast majority among African children aged under 5 years old. Malaria cases and deaths fell between 2000 and 2015, but since then progress has stalled and even reversed. In 2015, there were 58 cases for every 1 000 people deemed to be at risk; in 2023, there were 60.4, nearly three times higher than the WHO’s target. | Reuters…