Innehållsförteckning för 2023-03-20 från Mercury

SOME BIG businesses have cautiously caved in to the pressure exerted by calls for the “National Shutdown” and have voluntarily closed until Wednesday, in spite of assurances by the government that Monday is a normal operating day. The National Shutdown is a nationwide protest called by South Africa’s third largest political party, the EFF, supported by a variety of civil society and organised labour to demand the resignation of President Ramaphosa and to highlight the scourge of load shedding, unemployment, crime, high cost of living, among other issues. The protest is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of disgruntled citizens to the streets and fears of violent looting similar to July 2021 riots have escalated. The protest is likely to bring economic activity and movement to a halt by blocking…

MORE THAN 100 years ago, a group of Afrikaner men met in Stellenbosch to form a publishing entity that would support their cause. After many years of operating as a publishing company it transitioned into being a technology company. Throughout the process of operating as a publishing company it committed many sins for which it later apologised. As part of an apology process the company committed to do good and correct some wrongs of the past. When Phuti Mahanyele, the CEO of the company, announced during the Presidential Investment Summit, a technology fund (Naspers Foundry) she was partly paying for sins of the past. She was also paying for a new sin that the company had committed (more on that later). This week the company announced that Foundry would close…

EFF protest comes after calls from party for Ramaphosa to step down, an end to load shedding and high unemployment PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has instructed law-enforcement agencies to be on high alert to ensure that the country does not see a repeat of the scenes experienced during the July 2021 unrest at today’s EFF’s planned national shutdown. The EFF’s planned protest comes after calls from the party for Ramaphosa to step down, an end to load shedding and high unemployment rates to be addressed. National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints), which consists of various ministers, including the SANDF and SAPS assured members of the public that they would be in full force during the protest. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, speaking on behalf of Ramaphosa yesterday, said the state had…

March is a very special month in the South African calendar, as it is both National Water Month and Human Rights Month. We celebrate Human Rights Day tomorrow, and on Wednesday we join the world in celebrating World Water Day. As the Department of Water and Sanitation leads the celebration of National Water Week from today to March 26, let us all make it a time to reflect on water issues in our country. There is a major challenge that is taking the country backwards and denying people their basic human right to water supply, and this challenge is infrastructure vandalism. This year’s National Water Month theme is Accelerating Change, but how can we accelerate change to people’s lives by accelerating water supply services when the available infrastructure is vandalised?…

Middle-class liberals in South Africa – a predominantly white group in the colonial and apartheid periods – have for a long time, even as far back as the period of the defiance campaigns when the Freedom Charter was drafted in the 1950s, interposed themselves as those best placed to articulate black struggles. It could be argued that this racialised bourgeois gaze persists in the treatment of the poorest people by the state long after the negotiated settlement of 1994. One may even argue that contemporary liberals are enabled by blacks masquerading as progressives who still imagine that white people must be consulted and considered in strategising against the oppression of black people in the later apartheid period. And now, in the post-apartheid period, this is mirrored by the insertion of…

Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt yesterday for talks aimed at calming surging violence that has stoked fears of further escalation once the Muslim holy month of Ramadaan begins this week. The meeting follows a February 26 US-brokered conference in Aqaba, Jordan that secured Israeli and Palestinian pledges to de-escalate but was challenged by factions on both sides and failed to halt violence on the ground. The meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh “aims to support dialogue between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to work to stop unilateral actions and escalation, and break the existing cycle of violence and achieve calm”, a statement from Egypt’s foreign ministry said. This could “facilitate the creation of a climate suitable for the resumption of the peace process”, it added. In previous years, clashes have…

A day after being accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, scene of some of the worst devastation of his year-old invasion. State television showed extended footage of Putin being shown around the city on Saturday night, meeting rehoused residents and being briefed on reconstruction efforts by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. The port city of Mariupol became known around the world as a byword for death and destruction as much of it was reduced to ruins in the first months of the war, eventually falling to Russian forces in May. Hundreds were killed in the bombing of a theatre where families with children were sheltering. The Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe…

Podgorica: Montenegrins cast ballots yesterday in a presidential contest pitting the Adriatic nation’s longest serving leader Milo Djukanovic against a range of rivals hoping to shake up the country’s political scene. The election follows months of deadlock after the government was hit with a no-confidence vote in August but continued to rule, kicking off a wave of protests and calls for snap polls for the parliament. Elections were called for June 11 by Djukanovic on Friday after he had dissolved parliament as a three-month deadline expired for the prime minister-designate to form a new government. A loss at the polls for Djukanovic would signal a new era for the country as it pursues EU membership. | AFP…

Dhaka: At least 19 people were killed and up to 25 injured yesterday in Bangladesh after a bus smashed through a highway fence and plunged into a roadside ditch. Police suspected the driver lost control at 8am local time and hit the railing of a recently built major expressway, sending the bus tumbling 9m into the ditch. “The death toll has risen to 19. At least 12 people were critically injured. They have been sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the capital,” said police chief Masud Alam after the crash in the southern district of Shibchar. The Bangladeshi passengers’ welfare association said a record 9 951 people were killed in road accidents in Bangladesh last year. | AFP…

Kaizer Chiefs’ three-pronged attack of Ashley du Preez, Keagan Dolly and Congolese striker Christian Saile Basomboli strengthened their team’s winning claims as Maritzburg United’s gallant fightback to came to no avail at a packed Harry Gwala Stadium on Saturday. Dolly and Saile made a huge impact at the start, and each managed a goal in the opening 10 minutes for an early 2-0 lead. Against all expectations, Maritzburg drew level before halftime. However, Dolly and Du Preez’s runs down the flanks caused problems all evening for Maritzburg’s fullbacks. Late in the match, Du Preez wormed his way into the opposition’s penalty area after some deft footwork and was brought down. From the resultant penalty, midfielder Yusuf Maart scored the eventual match-winner. Du Preez was the provider for Dolly’s goal, but…

Griquas (14) 48 Tries: Penalty try, Stephan Smit, Luther Obi, Hanru Sirgel, Johan Mulder, Janco Uys; Conversions: Lubabalo Dobela (5); Penalties: Dobela (2) Sharks (28) 40 Tries: Francois Venter, Fez Mbatha, Cameron Wright, Yaw Penxe, Dylan Richardson (2); Conversions: Fred Zeilina (4), Lionel Cronje A blitzkrieg of tries shortly after the second half started, propelled Griquas to a 48-40 bonus-point win over the Sharks in the Currie Cup yesterday in Kimberley. It was the Northern Cape side’s first win in the competition after they lost last weekend but they scored this win in style as they put the Sharks ‘B-team’ to the sword. The Sharks led comfortably at half-time after scoring four tries in an opening half where they had to weather a Griquas onslaught…

Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) and its parent company Rio Tinto leadership say in spite of their executives travelling under armed guard in armour-plated vehicles, they remain committed to operating in Richards Bay because of the expectation from their clients. Eleven people linked to the company, including Nico Swart, the general manager of operations, have been killed and tensions in the area have seen the company’s executives forced to enlist the services of security companies amid growing concerns over their safety and criminal activity in the mining area. The tensions have heightened fears that the multimillion-rand operation, which generates thousands of direct jobs and pumps millions into the local economy, could close and affect the region’s economy. However, Rio Tinto’s top brass allayed such fears, stressing its commitment to the…

EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda says the City is upping its game to prevent events similar to the July 2021 riots which the KwaZulu-Natal economic hub is still recovering from. As Durban and the rest of the country’s major centres prepares itself for the national shutdown organised by the EFF today, the mayor told members of the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee on Friday that the City was putting in place all measures to ensure safety and order. This was as the municipality appeared before the portfolio committee to give an update on its performance and recovery plans since the floods in April last year. Kaunda told committee members that owing to the City being the only metro in KwaZulu-Natal, there was a huge influx of people who…

FOR thousands of patients needing daily care – and thousands more needing urgent medical attention – the resumption of services after the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) strike could not have come sooner. The termination of protest action comes after the government capitulated to their demands after acts of intimidation and unlawful conduct while striking illegally. This raises serious questions around the norms that this ANC-run government have established namely: The way to get what you want is to behave unlawfully and violently. This is anarchy. It is damaging our society and quality of life in ways that go far beyond the immediate impacts of disrespect for the law. There is always going to be collateral damage when anarchy becomes a norm – and it is always…

In a memorial service yesterday, former colleagues and comrades described Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) operative Rafiq Rohan as a compassionate and committed South African who dedicated his life to fight for justice. Born in Overport, Durban, Rohan was found dead in his Morningside apartment last month, aged 60. He was a former journalist at Independent Media in the 1980s and 2000s, and later worked for other media including The Sowetan, Al Jazeera and the Government Communications and Information System. He was recruited to the ranks of the MK while covering the funeral of ANC and SACP leader Moses Mabhida in Mozambique in 1986 and became part of special operations known only by top leaders, including ANC president Oliver Tambo. Rohan was one of the last group of political prisoners to…

Reinvigorating the struggle for self-determination in Africa’s last colony As we celebrate Human Rights day tomorrow, it is an opportunity to express our solidarity with the people of Western Sahara who continue their struggle for self-determination and liberation from illegal occupation. Western Sahara has become known as the last remaining colony in Africa, and the world can no longer turn a blind eye to the suffering of its people. Despite several UN resolutions calling for a referendum on self-determination, Western Sahara has continued to be illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. The UN-sponsored process of negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front – the movement that seeks self-determination for Western Sahara – remains stalled. A ceasefire deal in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front was meant to lead to…

President Emanuel Macron faces a critical moment today when the National Assembly is due to vote on no-confidence motions filed after his government bypassed parliament on Thursday to push through an unpopular rise in the state pension age. The move, which followed weeks of protests against the pension overhaul, triggered three nights of unrest and demonstrations in Paris and throughout the country, reminiscent of the Yellow Vest protests that erupted in late 2018 over high fuel prices. Today’s votes may put on display anger at Macron’s government, but they are unlikely to bring it down. Opposition MPs filed two motions of no-confidence in parliament on Friday. Centrist group Liot proposed a multiparty no-confidence motion, co-signed by the far-left Nupes alliance. France’s far-right National Rally party, which has 88 National Assembly…

Mexico City: Mexico’s popular president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied more than 100 000 supporters on Saturday in Mexico City, attacking the country’s right, its “oligarchs” and the US. The rally marked the 85th anniversary of the nationalisation of the oil industry. Denouncing US Republican lawmakers’ push to send the US military to battle Mexican drug cartels, he said: “Co-operation yes, submission, no! Mexico is not a colony of the US.” He also accused the opposition conservative PAN party of being born out of “criticising the nationalisation of the oil industry”. | AFP…

Kuwait City: Kuwait’s constitutional court yesterday nullified last year’s legislative elections and ruled in favour of reinstating the previous parliament, state media said, as a political crisis roils the oil-rich Gulf state. The September polls gave opposition members a parliamentary majority. The vote marked a victory for opposition figures, many of whom had stayed out of elections in the past decade. This was over what they saw as alleged meddling by the executive authorities over parliament. “The Kuwaiti Constitutional Court issued a verdit yesterday annulling the results of the 2022 National Assembly elections,” the official KUNA news agency said. | AFP…

Qatar’s former finance minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi will face a criminal trial following his 2021 arrest over embezzlement allegations. Emadi and an unspecified number of others face charges of bribery, abuse of position and power, damage to public funds and money laundering, Qatar News Agency reported. Emadi was arrested in May 2021, stripped of his ministerial duties and removed from the boards of the Qatar Investment Agency and Qatar National Bank. He was finance minister from 2013 until his arrest and sat on the board of its $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority that owns 50% of Qatar National Bank. | Reuters…

TS Galaxy (2) 4 S Mahlangu 24; Mongae 26, 92; Traore 54 Richards Bay 0 TS Galaxy handed Richards Bay a sixth consecutive defeat in all competitions, with a 4-0 hammering at the Mbombela Stadium yesterday. The hosts weathered an early storm from the visitors, before being handed the opening goal by stand-in Richards Bay goalkeeper Neil Boshoff in the 24th minute. Sphiwe Mahlangu was the lucky recipient of the gift, his tame shot from the edge of the box seemed to deceive Boshoff with the bounce, and the 27-year-old keeper never recovered as the ball bounced through his hands, handing TS Galaxy the early advantage. Sead Ramovic’s players found themselves in dreamland as they doubled their advantage two minutes later through winger Orebotse Mongae, who combined well with Mahlangu.…

Crime experts believe South Africa is fast becoming a country with the highest rate of assassinations, amid reports that prominent people have been killed in suspected hits. Gauteng Police are investigating a double murder after Gupta and Bosasa liquidator Cloete Murray and his son Tom Murray were shot and killed in a suspected hit in Midrand, north of Joburg, at the weekend. Murray, a professional insolvency practitioner reported to have been working on high-profile cases, and his son, a legal adviser, were travelling together when their vehicle was shot at on Saturday afternoon. Tom died at the scene, while his father was transferred to a hospital in Sunninghill after being shot twice in the head. Murray died in the hospital yesterday morning after succumbing to his injuries. Crime activist Yusuf…

Each family imports its own set of norms and expectations into the new family configuration and these norms and expectations will inevitably clash. Each person, too, brings expectations into the new family quite apart from what the rest of what his or her original family brings to the party. There will also be remaining scars from the sequence of events that made blending two families possible in the first place. Blending families calls for super-maturity from the marrying or newly married adults. They are called to lead in such a manner that all the members of the newly constituted family’s voices are heard and opinions are respected, irrespective of age. The adults will be wise to avoid blaming others like a former spouse or former in-laws for the inevitable difficulties…

THE Church might as well be okay polygamy, (letter Friday, March 17th refers). Au contraire, Mr Moleko, it’s not just the gender inequality suffered by women – misogyny – but there are also problems for young men as well. The scarcity of marriageable women in polygamous cultures leads to increased competition among men for the remaining unmarried women. The greater competition increases the likelihood men will resort to criminal behaviour to gain resources and women. Men feel they need to be wealthier to attract the women and this leads to significantly higher levels of rape, kidnapping, murder, assault, robbery and fraud. World over-population is a serious problem, which will not only aggravate the worsening unemployment problem but may yet doom humanity and the entire ecology. Monogamous marriage has largely preceded…

COUNCILLORS and residents in eThekwini say the municipality is not replacing water meters that have been stolen for resale as scrap metal which has led to houses being fed through “bridged connections”, escalating water losses and sky-high bills as a result of usage being estimated. They said they had been informed by City officials in the unit that the municipality had no spare meters at its stores. IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the shortage of such a small but key component in the supply of water was a disgrace and DA councillor Yogis Govender said the shortage of water meters was an ongoing problem. Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the City was besieged by theft of meters but it always replaced them. One Durban resident Alan Tintinger said a water…

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile yesterday, Seoul’s military said, the fourth show of force in a week as South Korea and the US stage major military drills. Seoul and Washington have ramped up defence co-operations in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from the North, which has conducted a series of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests in recent months. South Korea and the US are in the middle of 11 days of joint drills known as Freedom Shield, their largest in five years. North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take “overwhelming” action in response. “Our military detected one short-range ballistic missile fired from around the Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan province at 11.05 am local time…

Vote counting was under way in Nigeria yesterday following local elections marred by reports of violence, bribery and signs of low turnout. Saturday’s election for more than 900 state assembly lawmakers and 28 governors in Africa’s most populous country took place three weeks after the governing party won a presidential race that opposition groups branded rigged. With President Muhammadu Buhari stepping down in May after two terms, many hoping for change were disappointed in the way the voting was conducted on February 25, a sentiment that could have affected the local contests. Both the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenged the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC), claiming that technical mishaps allowed for ballot manipulation, which the electoral commission has denied. After observing Saturday’s vote,…

DUBAI: Syrian President Bashar al Assad arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday for an official visit, accompanied by his wife Asma al Assad, at a time when more Arab states have signalled openness to easing the isolation of Damascus. The visit was marked with more ceremony than his previous trip to the UAE last year – his first to an Arab state since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, when Gulf states including the UAE backed rebels fighting to overthrow Assad. State media said he was met by President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on arrival in Abu Dhabi. The UAE, a US ally, has led a shift in the Middle East towards reviving ties with Assad. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, to a lesser extent the UAE,…

New Delhi: A manhunt for a radical Sikh preacher in India yesterday entered its second day, after authorities shut the internet in the Punjab state and arrested 78 of his supporters. Amritpal Singh rose to prominence in recent months demanding the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland, and with his hardline interpretation of Sikhism at rallies in rural pockets of the northern state of 30 million people. Last month Singh, 30, and his supporters armed with swords, knives and guns raided a police station after one of his aides was arrested for alleged assault and attempted kidnapping. The brazen raid in the outskirts of Amritsar left several police injured and put pressure on authorities to act. | AFP…

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a stunning long-range free kick but handed the task of converting the winning penalty to a teammate as a gesture of respect, as Al-Nassr came from behind to beat Abha 2-1 in the Saudi Pro League on Saturday. The Portuguese forward, who has now scored nine goals in his first season in Saudi Arabia, handed the ball to Brazilian Anderson Talisca, who had just returned from injury. Talisca converted the 86th-minute spot kick for his 14th goal of the season. Ronaldo’s 78th-minute goal was his first at Al-Nasr’s Marsool Park stadium since his move to Saudi Arabia. | Reuters…