Innehållsförteckning för 2021-11-17 från Mercury

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za AFRICA is positioning itself as the next hub for the multibillion-dollar automotive industry as a number of countries look to start implementing the continental free-trade agreement. The secretary general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Wamkele Mene yesterday urged African countries to show strong political commitment to the agreement. Speaking during the Automotive Forum at the second day of the Intra-Africa Trade Fair (IATF 2021) yesterday, Mene said the successful implementation of the AfCFTA would significantly reduce costs for business and make continental companies more competitive. Currently, South Africa is host to the largest multinationals assembly plants in the continent. “We should not forget that the automotive industry is a hyper competitive global industry which strives on efficiency and the elimination of waste,” Mene said.…

Nomonde Zondi nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za ARTS, Culture, Sport and Recreation MEC Hlengiwe Mavimbela said the design of the monument to commemorate the arrival of the 1860 indentured Indians was complete and by this time next year the monument would have been built. The MEC said this yesterday at the commemoration of the 161st anniversary of the arrival of indentured workers in South Africa. In commemorating the arrival of indentured workers on November 16, 1860, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture and the 1860 Heritage Centre, an agency museum of the department, marked the occasion with a landing ceremony and prayer yesterday. “We are pleased that the consultative engagements with stakeholders to finalise the design of the monument to commemorate the arrival of the 1860 indentured Indians is complete, as announced by…

In a tin shed in the back streets of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, a barefoot 61-year old Jean-Luther Misoko Nzalayala, aka Socklo, hacks with a machete at a lump of wood that is starting to resemble the neck of a guitar. Later, he hammers bits of white plastic chair into it as inlay to help guide players around the fret board, and fixes threads of motorbike brake cable as strings. Socklo’s passion began in his village in Kikwit, south-western Congo, in 1975, when he dismantled and copied a guitar a friend had given him. Three years later, he moved to Kinshasa, where he sold his first guitar to his cousin. “I couldn’t imagine that people in a city like Kinshasa could like a guitar like this. It…

FAROUK ARAIE | Johannesburg As the festive season draws closer, a fourth wave of viral infections becomes an absolute certainty. We are now under adjusted lockdown 1. Hesitancy and fake news about vaccines will undo all the magnificent results we achieved in combating and containing Covid-19 in the three deadly waves we had to endure. A possible new variant will not threaten the existence of humanity on Earth, but it certainly has the potential to kill a lot of people and threaten our way of life. Dense social events during the festive season will propel the fourth wave into a menacing trajectory. South Africa is an inherently high-risk country for any epidemic due to our social and economic imbalance. Some 27 years of democracy failed to rectify these…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof REMEMBER the famous lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, “Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink”? Well, residents in Durban, Gqeberha and Johannesburg find themselves in a similar plight. Their taps have run dry. Though we are not blessed with an abundance of this vital resource, we – at least those of us who are fortunate enough to live comfortable lives in the cities and towns – have never faced a water crisis in our lives. Just like when we press the switch we expect to see the lights come on, we expect to have water when we turn on the tap. Water and electricity are basic rights of modern living which we take for granted.…

Three more people have been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the VBS Bank scandal. Police said a 57-year-old former municipal manager of Fetakgomo-Greater Tubatse Municipality, a 39-year-old former chief financial officer and the 41-year-old owner of a private business were arrested yesterday at their Pretoria residences. “The allegations in this matter were reported in connection with the contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (Act No. 56 of 2003), for investing municipal funds with VBS Mutual Bank,” said police spokesperson Brigadier Nomthandazo Mbambo. She said the investigation had revealed that Fetakgomo-Greater Tubatse Local Municipality invested an amount of R230 million, which was paid in five tranches from November 15, 2016 to February 19, 2018. According to SAPS, the whole amount invested was never paid back to…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za UPL South Africa (Pty) Ltd yesterday said it had engaged the services of a former prosecutor to assist the police to apprehend those responsible for arson at the company’s leased warehouse in Cornubia during the July unrest. Japhet Ncube, spokesperson for UPL South Africa, said they were closely following the police’s investigation into the arson attack. “To date no arrests have been made in relation to the looting and arson attack on the warehouse, which formed part of the widespread criminality and violence that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.” Ncube said that UPL was committed to doing everything possible to deal with the fallout of this “unprecedented and unpredictable attack”. He said the company had spent R267 million (to date) to deal with the chemical…

Four suspected poachers, including one who is believed to be injured, are being sought after a shoot-out with rangers last week near Lake St Lucia in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. ISimangaliso Wetland Park said in a statement that field rangers at an observation post at Mfabeni Game Reserve reported hearing a gunshot fired to the north of Tewate Wilderness Area on the eastern shores of Lake St Lucia in the park last week. The field rangers called for back-up and a helicopter with four additional field rangers was immediately dispatched. As the helicopter flew above the area, two boats at the bank of the lake were spotted. “A field ranger cautioned the poachers to surrender,” said iSimangaliso. The park authority said one of the suspected poachers allegedly started shooting towards…

Riyadh: Saudi authorities this week released Abdullah al-Zaher, a citizen from the Shia minority whose death sentence was commuted to a jail term, after years in prison for participating in anti-government protests, human rights groups said. He was arrested as a minor in 2012 on terrorism-related charges after he took part in the demonstrations during the Arab Spring uprisings. “Abdullah al-Zaher was released yesterday following the expiry of his sentence,” ALQST for Human Rights said on Twitter on Monday. Amnesty International has welcomed Zaher’s release, calling also for that of Dawood al-Marhoon, who was arrested in 2012. |…

KAMPALA: A triple suicide bombing killed at least six people in the heart of Uganda’s capital yesterday, sending members of parliament and others rushing for cover as cars burst into flames in the latest in a wave of bomb attacks. The blasts in Kampala shocked a nation that is known as a bulwark against violent Islamist militants in East Africa, and whose leader has spent years cultivating Western security support. At least 33 people were being treated in hospital, including five who were in critical condition, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said. The death toll including the three bombers was six, Enanga said. A diplomat said two police officials were among the victims. Enanga confirmed the death toll included police but declined to give further details. There was no immediate claim…

Paris Hilton enjoyed a third night of wedding celebrations on Saturday. The 40-year-old socialite tied the knot with Carter Reum, also 40, on Thursday and the pair have enjoyed a lavish few days of partying since exchanging their vows, capping off their nuptials with a star-studded bash at her family’s Bel Air estate over the weekend. Hilton, who donned a dress adorned with stars for the occasion, and Reum were joined on Saturday by family members and celebrity friends, among them Kim Kardashian West, Kate Beckinsale, and Nicole Richie, for dinner and dancing. The couple had married at the family home on Thursday. On Friday, the pair held a bash on Santa Monica Pier with a neon-theme and Diplo spinning the decks. Hilton and Reum sported co-ordinated bubble-gum pink looks…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za A controversial proposal by the eThekwini Municipality to build social housing on a prime beachfront site has been slammed by a political party and a hospitality organisation, saying the move will impact on tourism and accelerate the flight of businesses to the north of the city. The site identified for the project is the building called the Star Seaside Children’s Home which is near the Elangeni Hotel. The city wants to partially demolish the building to make way for a proposed social housing project that aims to accommodate residents in need of affordable housing. The site is among several in the CBD under consideration by the municipality for refurbishment into social housing facilities to make affordable rental accommodation available to households with monthly incomes in the range…

A wedding is a confluence of tribes, a melding of lives, a meeting of minds. It’s the healing of wounds, the dressing of scars in absolute beauty. It’s a convergence of histories, some shared, some not. It’s a binding, a bonding more powerful than reason, escaping reason. It’s a covering; it’s an uncovering. It’s hide and seek – for a while – until hide and seek is no longer necessary. Because wherever you hide you find love, wherever you seek you find it again. You find love that is holy and grounded, deliberate and determined. A wedding is a miracle in itself and the continuation of an unfolding miracle. It is a foundation for a small and intimate cottage for two in the woods at the end of a long…

Lots of good people with softness in their hearts have cried for forgiveness for former president FW de Klerk. EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban It’s a primitive, genetic, delicate state of our humanity, probably. Some drunk person drives very badly and knocks off, forever, a close relative of yours. Initial anger and hatred, most times, dissolve over time into psychic forgetfulness, even final forgiveness. Original disdain, and an urge to kill, are most likely finally overtaken, just before execution, to put the crime behind us. Hatred is not going to bring your innocent cousin back, right? And so the Hitlers of the world continue exercising world-domineering traits. Our forgiving nature encourages the evil (“These stupid donkeys will forgive me before my final hour. It happens all the time!”). Never mind…

Mwangi Githahu mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za The Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) has applied to be a friend of the court in the case of the same-sex couple whose plan to hold their wedding at the Beloftebos Wedding Venue was rejected in January last year. The owners of the venue in Stanford, near Hermanus, refused to host Sasha-Lee Heekes’s and Megan Watling’s wedding because of a religious conviction that “marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God”. The refusal led Heekes and Watling to complain to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) which undertook to pursue legal action against the venue at the Equality Court of the Western Cape High Court. WLC spokesperson Ru du Toit said human rights actors continued to stand firm against…

Mayibongwe Maqhina mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za DEPUTY Finance Minister David Masondo said the country’s economic future would be firmed up when Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables his main Budget policy in February. Addressing a joint meeting of parliamentary finance and appropriation committees yesterday, Masondo said last week’s medium-term budget policy statement was meant to give the nation an update on some fiscal framework implementation. He also said it was aimed to report on revenue, debt levels and, more importantly, economic growth. “It was to present the immediate future – how it looks and how we intend to position the government. “That future will be firmed up in February when the minister comes back,” he said. Masondo said between now and February, the government would deliberate on the most appropriate priorities that would be…

Zama Ngcoya zama.ngcoya@inl.co.za Water shortages are being experienced at reservoirs across the eThekwini Municipality after an emergency shaft pump that conveys raw water from Inanda Dam to the Durban Heights Water Treatment Works failed. Umgeni Water said the pump failure had caused water shortages in eThekwini’s central, southern and northern systems. Explaining the problem, Umgeni Water said raw water is treated at Durban Heights Water Treatment Works and supplied as potable water to eThekwini Water and Sanitation. As a result of the pump failure, there had been a reduction in water supply to eThekwini Water and Sanitation of 50 megalitres per day, leading to the shortages at the reservoirs. Umgeni Water said it was working with the municipality to resolve the problem in the shortest possible time. It said it…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za WITH smaller parties in eThekwini resisting the advances of the ANC for a coalition government, the ruling party’s bid to regain control in KwaZulu-Natal’s only metro hangs in the balance. The party could also fail to retain control of the uMhlathuze Local Municipality which was also a hung municipality. ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe said they had no appetite to work with the ANC because of the ruling party’s association with fraud and corruption. He said the recent abstinence from voting by ruling party members and supporters was a signal that they did not want the ANC in power. “If we enter into a coalition with the ANC, we would be acting against our principles and commitment to good and clean governance. The move would amount to…

Sydney: A family of four stranded for four days in the harsh Australian outback was airlifted to safety yesterday, police said, after floods stalled initial rescue efforts. The family – identified as Perth couple Ori and Lindsey Zavros and their two young children – was travelling through the Simpson Desert in central Australia when their campervan got stuck after torrential rain. They activated an emergency beacon, alerting the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to their location on Friday. After waiting for days in the desert, police confirmed the family had been winched to safety by a helicopter.…

Polish security forces turned water cannon on migrants who threw rocks from across the Belarusian border, where thousands have gathered in chaotic attempts to reach the EU, video footage shared by authorities showed yesterday. The crisis has led the EU to prepare further sanctions against Belarus, which it accuses of attempting to destabilise the bloc by pushing migrants across the border illegally. Footage shared by a Polish government spokesperson and the Ministry of Defence showed a further escalation of the crisis at the border, where migrants have assembled in growing numbers on the Belarusian side in the last week. “Attention, attention, if you don’t follow orders, force will be used against you,” said a loudspeaker message directed at migrants throwing objects, according to the footage. Migrants were also shown throwing…

Liam Karabo Joyce liam.joyce@inl.co.za Media personality Somizi Mhlongo has revealed he is pansexual. The star, who has identified himself as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, made the revelation on The Braai Show with Cassper Nyovest. Mhlongo was a guest on the show where the duo, who are good friends, prepared a meal together and chatted about life. Their conversation turned to the public’s interest in his sexuality. When Nyovest asked Mhlongo how he, as a gay man, had fathered a child, Mhlongo said he was not gay. “I am a pansexual, I am attracted to whoever I’m attracted to at the time. So, even if I meet a beautiful woman now, I’d date her.”…

SIHLE MAVUSO and SIBUSISO MBOTO De facto Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, whose ascendancy to the throne is being hotly disputed by some Zulu royal family members, is set to marry a second wife, according to sources. He is to wed a Swati banking executive who spent most of her time studying at the University of Stellenbosch, where she obtained an MBA. Prior to that, she obtained a law qualification from Rhodes University. On Sunday, the king, who is married to Queen Ntokozo Mayisela of Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal, was in the kingdom of eSwatini to kick off the first process to officially marry Nozizwe Mulela (she is regarded as a commoner), who is the managing director of the state-owned eSwatini Bank. Critics of King Mswati and the government he indirectly appoints…

A MOONING incident … forceful police intervention … and support apparently from a well-known graffiti artist. It happened in Kidderminster, in England, when Darrell Meekcom had an irresistible impulse to “moon” – drop his rods and show his bare buttocks – to a traffic camera set up to catch speedsters. But police failed to see the funny side. “It was on my bucket list to show my backside to the camera,” says Meekcom. “I got out the car and flashed my bum. I pulled my trousers up and got back in the car. I didn’t think anything of it”, he told local newspaper The Shuttle. “It was a good laugh.” He said onlookers also laughed at his antics which lasted a matter of seconds. However, police later turned up at…

JOHN FIELDING | Monteseel I note with surprise my good friend Tony Ball’s comments about Eskom and the Department of Transport (The Mercury, November 15). Whereas I wholeheartedly agree with the Eskom part, I have some good news about the vehicle-licensing saga. For years we have been fighting with our local licensing office in Camperdown about the stupid requirements of having proof of residence. For myself it wasn’t a problem as all our monthly accounts and bills are in my name. But my wife’s car was always a big bone of contention. As my wife has no store accounts or any other type of account in her name, every year we had to go to the local police station to obtain a sworn affidavit that my wife resided…

Se-Anne Rall se-anne.koopman@inl.co.za THE police have condemned the actions of shoppers at a Durban mall who allegedly helped themselves to items just minutes after heavily armed robbers stormed two jewellery stores. It is alleged that after the gang fled, bystanders who witnessed the robbery entered both stores and stole the remaining jewellery while threatening the highly traumatised staff. “While we have launched a manhunt for the gang who initially robbed the jewellery stores, we will spare no effort in ensuring that those bystanders who made themselves criminals by robbing both stores themselves, are also investigated fully for their actions,” said KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Reaction Unit SA (Rusa) reported that multiple shots were fired during the robberies. “The Rusa Phoenix Operations Centre received multiple calls from shoppers reporting…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za The South African Post Office has urged its customers to stop paying queue marshals in order to get preferential treatment, saying it was illegal. In a statement yesterday, the Post Office said it had been aware of instances where queue marshals asked customers who visited their branches for a fee in order to be taken to the front of the queue or to ensure that they would be served. “No Post Office employee or any other individual has the right to ask beneficiaries to pay any fee to be serviced and/or to receive preferential treatment by jumping a queue. Such practices are illegal. Customers are advised not to pay the fee demanded by any Post Office employee, queue marshals or any other person requesting such a payment,”…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni has condemned two incidents of violence that have rocked the transport industry in the province. In Pinetown, a taxi owner was killed after he was ambushed in his black Mercedes-Benz on Saturday. In a separate incident, two brothers who are bus drivers were shot and killed in Ndwedwe on Monday. Nkonyeni said that police investigations revealed that the taxi owner was driving up Bamboo Lane in Pinetown when occupants of another vehicle opened fire on him. She said two bus driver brothers were killed in a separate incident. “It was alleged that two bus drivers, aged 36 and 38, were shot and declared dead at the scene while injured passengers were taken to hospital.” Nkonyeni…

THE recent statements by Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa and his political party, the ANC, and others calling on Miss SA Lalela Mswane to withdraw, for political reasons, from the Miss Universe pageant, amount to bullying. They are also using her as a political pawn in our murky or non-existent foreign policy on Israel. Like her predecessors, Mswane is scheduled to compete against her peers for the coveted title at a ceremony in Israel next month. However, Mthethwa, the governing party, Cosatu and pressure group Africa4Palestine suddenly demanded her withdrawal, for moral and political reasons. For his part, and after failing to convince Miss SA organisers to withdraw Mswane’s candidacy, Mthethwa withdrew the government’s “support and that of South Africa for the Miss South Africa pageant following the…

SEOUL: The head of South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission has apologised for a leak of private data of 181 petitioners in the Facebook breach case, South Korean media reported yesterday. The commission, which has served as a mediator between the petitioners and Facebook over the platform’s unauthorised leak of their personal data, mistakenly sent private data of all 181 petitioners to 19 of them, early this month, Yonhap said. “For the information leak committed by the agency, I deeply apologise to the victims and the public,” Yoon Jong-in, head of the commission, said.…

The Taliban have arrested a man for allegedly selling dozens of women in northern Afghanistan after duping them into believing they would be marrying into money, officials said. The man was arrested in northern Jawzjan province late on Monday, said Damullah Seraj, the Taliban provincial police chief. “We are still in our initial stages of the investigation. We hope to find out more about this case later”. Mohammad Sardar Mubariz, a district police chief in Jawzjan, said the man would target desperate poor women. After saying he would find them a wealthy husband, he would move them to a different province where they were instead sold into servitude. He allegedly trafficked around 130 women this way. Crime, nepotism and corruption are not new in Afghanistan but rising poverty is undermining…