Innehållsförteckning för 2022-11-04 från Mercury

Transnet says it is working with four transport logistics associations that represent more than 300 trucking companies to clear the current backlog at the Durban Container Terminals (DCT). This follows Transnet announcing earlier this week that it had lifted the force majeure at the DCT following the strike by workers last month. Managing executive at the Durban Terminals Earle Peters said the associations were open to working within the confines of the truck booking system and the new import storage rule. Peters said the DCT had managed to reduce the number of vessels at anchor from 15 to eight two weeks after the strike. “There has been an improvement in the availability of straddle carriers. We have also been monitoring trucks with high dwell times and transactions every hour,” he…

The first complete ichthyosaur skeleton, believed to have been found by the fossil hunter Mary Anning, was thought to have been lost forever when German bombs rained down on London in World War II. But two plaster casts of the distinctive dolphin-like reptile have now been unearthed, even though there was no record of them being made. Researchers Dean Lomax, from the University of Manchester in north-west England, and Judy Massare, from New York State University, described the finds as “historically important”. “The specimen was the first skeleton of an extinct marine reptile in the scientific literature and the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton known at the time,” they said. One cast, found at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University in the US, is likely to be a…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is riled by the fact Uncle Sam has snubbed him. He expected US officials to have a tête-à-tête with him or his government officials on the suspected terrorist attack. Instead, the US ignored diplomatic protocol, by-passed the South African government and announced publicly that there is a possible terrorist threat in Sandton. As it turned out, it was a hoax call and only created panic among the people. The US is a super power with naval and air force bases all around the world. It has an elaborate network of sophisticated intelligence services which keep a beady eye on developments, especially in hostile nations and extremist organisations that may threaten its hegemony. After 9/11 it has become more vigilant. But in the pretext it’s defending, it is,…

Wherever the term “narrative” is applied, it is intended to stifle divergent discussion of critical issues. But if those who adhere to “the narrative” would link it to the agenda of its proponents, they would discern motives that have everything to do with power and control. Dr Mahmood Youssef Baker’s adherence to the narrative on global warming is a case in point (The Mercury, November 2). Contrary to his claim that temperatures are rising dangerously, Dr Steven Koonin, professor of engineering at NY University, who was under-secretary for science in Obama’s administration, has emphasised that temperatures have been consistent for the past 60 years. He notes that heatwaves, hurricanes and droughts have been just as common as they were more than a century ago. History exposes the fallacy that global…

Forward-thinking South African companies are signing up for the first-ever four-day work week experiment in the country. The pioneering trial, which starts in February of 2023, will be conducted by the non-profit organisation 4 Day Week SA, which advocates for this type of work structure. The testing will last for six months and include academic research by Boston College and Stellenbosch Business School. According to Karen Lowe, director of 4 Day Week SA, the organisation’s goal is to change the conversation about work because the country has been focusing on time-based output rather than productivity-based output. “The prescribed five-day week is not necessarily the best way to deliver the best level of productivity. We have seen this time and again in organisations across the private sector and the government who…

WORKERS’ unions say their members are concerned about the financial state of the South African Post Office (Sapo). Sapo has recently revealed that it owed R4.9 billion to creditors. The post office appeared before the Select Committee on Public Enterprises and Communication on Wednesday to brief the committee on its financial viability and measures it has put in place to mitigate its position. General manager of strategic planning at Sapo, Geert Bataille, stated that to date employee compensation costs stood at R1.7bn, accounting for 62% of its total accumulated expenditure of R2.6bn and against collected revenue of R1.3bn in the current financial year. Reacting to the amount of debt that Sapo was in, the South African Postal Workers’ Union (Sapwu) said the debt was impacting workers’ daily operations in the…

The funeral service for a couple killed in a horrific multi-vehicle crash on the N3 earlier this week, will take place today. Pradhil Koblall Thakur and his fiancée, Priyanka Nunkumar, were travelling from Pietermaritzburg to Durban when tragedy struck. Another person was also killed in the crash. Truck driver 44-year-old Vuso Tego has appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court on charges of culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving. It is alleged that his truck crashed into the other vehicles during the accident. He is expected back in court today. Koblall Thakur was the son of Minority Front leader, Shameen Thakur Rajbansi. The funeral is set to take place today at the GVS Hall in Mountain Rise. Tributes have poured in for the couple who were active within MF politics.…

MUCH like the public interest is fundamental to the global accountancy profession, making a difference to the lives of citizens is a key driver in public sector auditing. When the heads of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) across the globe reflect on the impact of their audit work, the question whether the work of their institutions touches the lived realities of citizens is often top of mind. This notion is so central to the field of public sector auditing that the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (Intosai) published a specific auditing pronouncement on it: INTOSAI-P 12 The value and benefits of supreme audit institutions – making a difference to the lives of citizens. This very quickly became a blueprint for Intosai as it strives to build capacity and enhance the…

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed yesterday hailed the peace accord signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, describing it as “monumental”. “The agreement signed today in South Africa is monumental in moving Ethiopia forward on the path of the reforms,” Ahmed said in a statement. The two sides signed the peace accord in Pretoria – to end the two-year-long conflict – after days of negotiations led by the AU. The negotiations were facilitated by Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU high representative for the Horn of Africa and former president of Nigeria. | Xinhua…

One of the teams between Orlando Pirates and AmaZulu will soar to cloud nine after the MTN8 final at Moses Mabhida Stadium tomorrow. looks at three match-ups that could be key in delivering the first silverware of the season to one of the sides before the festive break. Nkosinathi Sibisi v Gabadinho Mhango Sibisi has been in fine form for Pirates since his move to the club before the start of the season, such that he’s the only ever-present player at the back. He’ll have to be at his best in his first cup final, having come short with Golden Arrows before, especially with Mhango looking to haunt Pirates. Mhango was a Buccaneer last season, but his relationship with the coaches saw him being in and out of the…

The bodies of 21 illegal miners have been recovered from a shaft at the Amatshe mine in West Village, Krugersdorp. On Wednesday, the police reported the discovery of the bodies of 19 zama zamas. Two more were found yesterday. Police have not ruled out the discovery of more bodies at the mine. Rescue workers and members of the forensic investigations team were still combing the open shaft mine yesterday. Gauteng police spokesperson Brenda Muridili said evidence suggested the bodies had been moved to where they were found. “The two bodies were retrieved this morning from an open mine shaft not far from where the other bodies were discovered on (Wednesday).” She said inquest dockets had been opened for investigation. “No foul play is suspected at this stage and post-mortems will…

ARE you going on a trip? Short or long, near or far, say goodbye well. Someone you love is leaving to go on a journey? Plan to say goodbye really well. Leaving, or staying while bidding another farewell, write a note to be found on the kitchen table once you have left. Hand write a letter to be opened on the plane. Tuck in cash and a poem, recall a beautiful memory and include all of it in your farewell gift. Prepare an envelope to be discovered once you’ve parted company. Be sure the content is empowering, freeing and affirming. Make it full of love and praise and thanks. Edit your content to be sure it is not in any manner tinged with negative innuendo or guilt or burden. Make…

I am at my wit’s end. Trying my best to explain to my wife why almost 18% of her monthly Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) has been removed from end October. “It’s to do with holding another job, love. “You are being punished for being unable to make that measly pension payout which looked great when you just retired, but cannot cope with your monthly expenses. “It’s all your fault.” Did you protest when local leaders continued stealing from our natural and unnatural resources to cause overflow of their already overloaded coffers? And now when the country is about to be auctioned off to the lowest foreign bidder (wealthy countries are not interested in purchasing a severely lame duck) and when Sars joins in the fun and games and withholds…

During a recent DStv programme on “Impossible Railways” they covered the San Francisco tram line system that has to negotiate the extremely hilly topography in the city. It emerged that the entire system was designed over 100 years ago with a system of cables and pulleys that operate underground but require regular and thorough maintenance. Yet, the incompetent people at eThekwini Council are unable to maintain the Moses Mabhida Skycar for longer than eight years and the tenderpreneurs are licking their lips at another lucrative source of looting the public coffers. I wonder what the mafia taxi organisations feel about having their bread and butter stolen from right under their noses, with R1.2 million going on hiring buses. But then again, they are coining it by ensuring that the train…

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said repairs to the middle and fast lanes on the northbound carriageway, on the N3, between Sanctuary and Link Road, in Pietermaritzburg will be completed in December. Thabiso Dladla, Sanral’s Eastern Region project manager, said the work to repair the slow lane, which had been under way for the past 18 months, is nearing completion. According to Dladla, the contractor had planned to undertake repairs on the other lanes on October 12, but due to circumstances beyond their control, the work started on October 24. “Due to the site conditions and safety concerns, this work will result in the road being reduced to only one lane at night. The work will be undertaken between 7.30pm and 4am daily for approximately five weeks.” Dladla…

An employee from Ugu District Municipality has told of his relief following his reinstatement after being dismissed in 2020. The employee from the South Coast municipality, who asked not to be named, said life had been difficult for him and his fellow workers, with many of them relying on friends, neighbours and relatives to make ends meet. He is among the 121 workers reinstated this week by the district municipality. “Many of us are married, so you can imagine how difficult life is when you have a wife and children to look after. There is sometimes a sense of being nothing when you cannot provide for your family,” he told The Mercury yesterday. He praised union leaders for standing by workers under difficult circumstances. Cosatu in KwaZulu-Natal said it was…

But many real risks remain to the government’s revenue and expenditure projections THE 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy (MTBP) Statement delivered by Minister Enoch Godongwana on October 26 offers hope for South Africans. Taxes are not expected to rise over the medium term. The social relief of distress grant was extended by another 12 months. More money was allocated to build, improve and replace infrastructure. More money was allocated to combat corruption and to hire more police officers to combat crime. And the balance sheets of some state-owned companies will improve, allowing them to focus on building and maintaining roads, generating and transmitting electricity, moving more people and goods by rail, and getting more goods through our ports quicker and cheaper. Government debt will likely not become unsustainable in the…

Paris: Europe must act immediately to prevent a shortage of natural gas next year as Russia slashes deliveries in the wake of the Ukraine war, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned yesterday. The region could lack 30 billion cubic metres that it needs “to fuel its economy and sufficiently refill storage sites during the summer of 2023, jeopardising its preparations for the winter of 2023-24,” the Paris-based agency said in a report. The IEA said that the shortfall would occur if Russia stops pipelines deliveries and China steps up its imports of liquefied natural gas, which Europe has relied upon to replace Russian supplies. | AFP…

SOUTH Africa’s new batting superstar will be the headline act in the CSA T20 Challenge final in Potchefstroom tomorrow in which the Multiply Titans, from Tshwane, face the HollywoodBets Dolphins from Durban. A tournament that had largely played out anonymously in front of only a few hundred spectators at the JB Marks Oval over the last three weeks suddenly captured the country’s and the cricket world’s attention on Monday thanks to 19-year-old Dewald Brevis. His 162 off 57 balls had social media aflutter and drew attention away from the T20 World Cup taking place Down Under. That match between the Titans and the Knights saw a world record aggregate of runs, and certainly Viacom18, the new investors into the SA20 League, would have been delighted about the product they now…

SUNRISE Energy said the Competition Commission’s recommendation this week that Vita Gas be fined for market dominance abuse would give other importers in the Western Cape an opportunity to utilise its terminal to import liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which might lead to better gas prices. Responding to further questions from Business Report following the commission’s referral of the matter to the Competition Tribunal, Sunrise chief executive Monde Tyusha said yesterday that the decision might not necessarily lead to increased throughput at Sunrise’s import terminal, but it would ensure competition within the market. “Better pricing might result in increased market demand,” he said. Sunrise owns and operates the terminal on an open access basis, meaning that capacity must be shared among all users and prospective users in proportion to their needs.…

HEAD of the ANC economic transformation committee Mmamoloko Kubayi’s assertion that President Cyril Ramaphosa should be uncontested for a second term as party president has been slammed as “undemocratic and dictatorial”. Kubayi appears to be involved in fierce contestation for the party deputy president’s position with other challengers including ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile, Oscar Mabuyane, Ronald Lamola and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. In an interview this week, Kubayi, who is Minister of Human Settlements, said she believed a president who was allowed a second term uncontested became immune from factional self-interests. Ramaphosa is being challenged by former Health minister Zweli Mkhize, Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in 2017. A senior party member said Kubayi’s suggestion flew in the…

’ULLO, ‘ullo, ’ullo – wot’s goin’ on ’ere then? A watchdog inquiry into the quality of people being recruited into the police forces of England and Wales, that’s wot. Hundreds – if not thousands – of police officers who should have failed vetting checks could be serving in England and Wales, according to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. According to the Inspectorate, criminal behaviour has been dismissed as “one off”, applicants have been hired in spite of their families having criminal links. Officers have transferred between forces in spite having a history of misconduct and blunders. Some staff actually had criminal records, according to Sky News. Those of us who have spent time in Old Blighty are shocked by this. The bobby on the beat was…

The Mercury’s November 3 article with the headline “Stark warning over municipal finances amid ballooning staff costs” refers. The article under the above heading actually confirms what many have been saying for years now, that the management in all levels within the municipality do not have the necessary skills nor leadership abilities to control staff, nor do they know how to discipline staff. Very simply put, these so-called managers/supervisors on the ground level cannot discipline staff under them for fear of something happening to them. That is one of the reasons that we have such low productivity from the municipal teams. As a regular walker on the uMhlanga promenade, it can been seen on a daily basis, that the team of women that are supposed to clean the beach are…

Google says it wants to develop artificial intelligence using the world’s one thousand most spoken languages as tech giants compete to dominate the internet’s next battleground. Data is crucial to advances in AI, and Google and its big tech rivals want to tap information to help make products perform better and be more available to the widest possible audience. “Imagine a new internet user in Africa speaking Wolof... using their phone to ask where is the nearest pharmacy,” said Johan Schalkwyk, a researcher at Google. Such situations “we take for granted”, Schalkwyk told reporters, adding languages were “not available to everyone in the world”. According to Schalkwyk, there are more than 7 000 languages globally. However, Google only offers its translations for a little more than 130 of them. The…

R130 million is being spent on the salaries of 305 suspended public servants, among them 57 senior government officials. This was revealed in a parliamentary reply to DA MP Mimmy Gondwe, who posed the written question to Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi at the end of September. Nxesi’s reply showed R90m in salaries for suspended public officials was spent across the nine provinces, with KwaZulu-Natal having the biggest bill at R33.5m, for 75 suspended public servants. Added to the R90m spent on over 226 public servants in various departments in the public sector, Nxesi said R40.2m was being spent on 79 suspended public servants at national departments. One of the officials who had cost taxpayers the most in wages during their suspension, was a public servant from Nxesi’s…

The IFP, DA and EFF have welcomed the arrest of three people caught stealing diesel from Durban Solid Waste (DSW) vehicles. The men were arrested last Friday. IFP eThekwini exco member Mdu Nkosi said that the party welcomed the arrest of the suspects. “We hope that these culprits, if found guilty, will be punished to the full extent of the law. This is money from the taxpayer that is being stolen, not money from the municipality.” Nkosi said if the theft was found to be linked to municipal staff, they should be held accountable. “Not only should they be prosecuted, but they should not be allowed to come back to the institution they work for. Simply put, they don’t deserve to work for the eThekwini Municipality.” DA eThekwini deputy caucus…

JERUSALEM: A near-final tally of votes yesterday showed former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on track to re-election with a clear parliamentary majority, boosted by ultranationalists who want tougher crackdowns on Palestinians. In the latest violence, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad militant in the occupied West Bank and a Jerusalem man who police said had stabbed an officer. Tuesday’s ballot saw out the centrist incumbent, Yair Lapid, and his rare alliance of conservatives, liberals and Arab politicians which, over 18 months in power, had made diplomatic inroads with Türkiye and Lebanon and kept the economy humming. But with the conflict with the Palestinians surging anew and touching off Jewish-Arab tensions within Israel, Netanyahu’s rightist Likud and kindred parties took 65 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, according…

November is here already! The month of winds and sales. The fishing has been good on all fronts with most facets seeing good results in the weather gaps. Top tip: Fish light to get the bite. Often we fish far too heavy for our intended target species. There are exceptions where you want to go heavier and this is often the case when fish health trumps enjoying the fight. Sometimes scaling down a line class or two can not only increase your chance of catching a fish, it can also improve your enjoyment. So whether you are fishing for bass, trout or sharks, consider fishing a bit lighter to get the bite. The North Coast has been fishing well with most spots producing fish. There have been a few dorado…