Innehållsförteckning för 2024-06-04 från Mercury

ATTEMPTS by the ANC, DA, IFP and the NFP to elbow out uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP) from forming a government in KwaZulu-Natal despite getting the lion’s share of the votes have been slammed, with political analysts describing the move as “undermining the will of the people”. The MKP, which is disputing the outcome of last week’s elections, told The Mercury yesterday that it will “not negotiate with the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa and the DA”. The MKP won the majority of the votes in KZN and consequently, the most seats in the province in the general elections held last week. It won 37 seats, with the IFP getting 15, the ANC 14, the DA 11, the EFF 2 and the NFP won 1 seat in the provincial legislature. With…

Misgivings of the micro-parties about the IEC’s handling of their votes are risible. (The Mercury, June 3). The clutter of these micro, pop-up parties generated confusion which needs to be avoided in future. There were 34 of them that failed to achieve even a 0.25% vote tally. Their presence on the ballot sheets was not a tribute to multi-party democracy, but an indictment of the absence of regulations needed to provide sensible guidelines so as to eliminate opportunistic adventurers. Elections are won by working on a presence and profile between elections. Popping up out of nowhere just before an election and plastering posters on poles is not how votes are garnered. To be successful at the polls requires having done the hard yards in the years between elections. In future,…

The ANC has reached its sell-by date. A once-powerful political force has been buckled by a relentless tsunami of anger, disappointment and resentment. What could have been a much longer love affair with all South Africans has turned out to be like the end of a bad marriage between two people who at one time had loved each other with passion. Dynasties and empires have come and gone throughout the ages, yet in hindsight 30 years should have been better used by the ANC to cement a much longer-term relationship with its millions of supporters. It’s too late. My South African compatriots have finally realised that the ANC is not omnipotent. It is fallible. The 2024 elections are proof of this. Our future is not guaranteed. However, competent men and…

Legal practitioners have been warned not to fall prey to a tender scam by a person masquerading as a City of Tshwane official soliciting money from them to assist with submission of their outstanding bid documents. Municipal spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the warning was for legal service providers who have submitted bids to be listed in the procurement of the Panel of Attorneys of the City. He cautioned the legal firms about fraudulent activities committed by a scammer impersonating an official within the municipality. Mashigo said: “The scammer calls bidders pretending to be a legal officer from the City, informing them that certain documents are missing from their bid documents. “The scammer carries on by soliciting money in order to assist them in submitting the outstanding bid documents even beyond…

THE spectre of a convicted felon – the maverick ex-US President Donald Trump, after being found guilty by a 12-strong jury in the Manhattan District Court last Thursday on all the 34 counts relating to falsification of business records – as a presidential candidate shows to what extent US democracy has declined and the once progressive Grand Old Party of Abe Lincoln fallen from grace. Is America the new ‘sick man of liberal democracy’, and since Trump has confirmed that he will appeal his criminal conviction, and seek re-election to the White House in November’s Presidential Poll against his arch enemy President Joe Biden, whom he lost no time in accusing of rigging the trial, what are the implications for global democratic polity, especially in countries where gratuitous populism has…

A group of UN experts called yesterday for all countries to recognise a Palestinian state to ensure peace in the Middle East. The call came less than a week after Spain, Ireland and Norway officially recognised a Palestinian state, prompting anger from Israel, which has found itself increasingly isolated after nearly eight months of war in Gaza. The experts, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said recognition of a Palestinian state was an important acknowledgement of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle towards freedom and independence. “A two-state solution remains the only internationally agreed path to peace and security for both Palestine and Israel and a way out of generational cycles of violence and resentment,” they said in a…

Nigerian unions began an indefinite strike yesterday, closing schools and public offices, impacting airports and shutting down the national power grid after talks with the government failed to agree to a new minimum wage. The worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation in Africa’s most populous country has left many Nigerians struggling to afford food. The main Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) urged workers to down tools after the government refused to increase its minimum wage offer beyond 60 000 naira (R737) a month. Since coming to office a year ago, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ended a fuel subsidy and currency controls, leading to a tripling of petrol prices and a spike in living costs as the naira has slid against the dollar. The unions…

MEXICO CITY: Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first woman president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph. Sheinbaum won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority. That is set to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico’s democratic history. Victory for Sheinbaum is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world’s second-biggest Catholic population, which for years. | LReuters…

STOCKHOLM: Microsoft has not seen significant use of artificial intelligence in the European Parliamentary elections for creating disinformation campaigns, the company’s president said. Brad Smith was in Stockholm to announce Microsoft’s plan to invest 33.7 billion Swedish crowns (R60bn) to expand its cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Sweden over a two-year period. AI and AI-generated fakes, or deepfakes, are being used in elections elsewhere in the world, including in India, the US, Pakistan and Indonesia. The European Parliament election for the bloc will be held on June 6-9. | Reuters…

RAISING a child is a rewarding journey, marked by milestones and memories that are cherished for a lifetime. However, beneath the surface of these joyful experiences lies a financial reality that can be daunting for many parents and prospective parents. The financial responsibility is wide-ranging and it’s important to consider the costs of care during both the pregnancy and after delivery. Lee Hancox, who leads Channel and Segment Marketing at Sanlam, has some essential advice for future parents on managing finances before, during and after having a baby. She stresses the importance of coming up with a detailed financial plan early on. This involves talking things through with your partner, checking in with your employer, understanding what your medical aid covers and getting advice from a financial expert. Hancox explains…

Experts have weighed in on how the Central Energy Fund (CEF) will handle operations at Sapref, including funding and private partner options. Last week, Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe said he welcomed the conclusion of the sale purchase agreement between BP Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd (BPSA) and Shell Downstream South Africa (Pty) Ltd (SDSA) assets located at the Sapref precinct to the South African state-owned entity, the CEF. Reggie Sibiya, CEO for the Fuel Retailers Association, said time would tell if this was a wise move by the CEF. “This is an interesting buy in many aspects; first, the increasing levels of importing finished product versus crude oil still to be refined; second, the competitiveness of global refineries against local refineries.” Sibiya said the funding aspect…

WHAT was so special about yesterday’s date, June 3, way back in 1944? It’s the day an Irish postmistress sent out a weather report that almost certainly saved the D-Day landings in Normandy in World War II from disaster. Maureen Sweeney filed her hourly weather report: “Force Six wind and a rapidly falling barometer,” according to Sky News. In reply, she got an urgent message from a woman with a cut-glass English accent: “Please repeat”. She checked her calculations. Had she made an error? No, it was a Force Six wind all right and the weather was deteriorating badly. The Allies had earmarked June 5 for the D-Day landings, involving 5 000 ships 1 000 aircraft and 156 000 men. It was a massive operation. Bad weather would have been…

SLOWLY but surely, the ANC is losing its grip on the country. Bit by bit, it is being toppled from he pedestal it once occupied so smugly and arrogantly, without any fear of a threat from another party. From a peak of 70% of the electoral votes in 2009 to a paltry 40% in 2024, the writing is clearly on the wall. Only its tunnel-vision supporters cannot see it. But in its dismal performance it has made history. For the first time ever in the country’s history a governing party has lost its majority and will have to form a coalition with another party to stay in power. Political analysts were spot on in their predictions. A new era has begun in South African politics – coalition government. Interesting times…

Let’s not destroy our country with greed. This is perhaps the most critical and challenging time in the lives of South Africans; a time that calls for every one of us to remember that we have no other home but South Africa. A time when patriotism should reign supreme, ruling over everything else, because we have known no other country but South Africa, to which we owe absolute allegiance. So, we must approach whatever we feel about the outcome of the elections with clear minds, especially because the results themselves prove that all the political parties have just managed to scrape hugely disappointing percentages. And that must be interpreted to mean that the voters of our country are convinced that almost all of the parties who had hoped to form…

HAVING to decide a family feud over the body of a father and husband, a judge said he hoped that the family would find peace in the tragic situation and remember their strength in one another as a whole. The widow and her son came to loggerheads about who should bury him, as both wanted to assume the responsibility but at different locations. As they could not see eye-to-eye and the body could no longer remain in the morgue, the widow turned to the Eastern Cape High Court, sitting in Bisho, for an order that she could resume the burial duties. The body had remained unburied since March, until the court spoke the last word. The woman and man were married in 1979 and had four children. He had been…

IN SPITE of a heavy defeat in the 2024 elections, the ANC has demonstrated political maturity in the manner that it accepted the electoral results, civil society organisations have said. The elections concluded with no party receiving the outright majority of votes, as the leading party, the ANC, only scored just over 40%. In a 400-seat Parliament, the ANC acquired 159 seats, a decline of 71 seats from the 2019 elections. Defend Our Democracy’s Zaakirah Vadi said it was important in a democracy that a governing party which formerly had majority rule, accepts defeat. “I do not think it is an issue in emerging democracies but US president Donald Trump did not accept the electoral results and his supporters went out and stormed the US capital,” said Vadi. She…

In a remarkable turn of events, the ANC’s support has been significantly weakened, with its majority in the national assembly having plummeted from 58% in 2019 to 40.2% in last week’s polls. This unprecedented shift signals a potential end to the ANC’s 30-year dominance, as the party now faces the necessity of forming a coalition to govern. Despite this substantial setback, the manner in which the transition is being handled showcases the maturing nature of our democracy, setting an exemplary standard for both the continent and the world. This electoral outcome is undeniably a major blow for the ANC, a party synonymous with South Africa’s liberation and democratic journey. However, this moment also serves as a testament to the robustness of our democratic institutions and the political maturity that has…

The criminal trial of Hunter Biden kicked off yesterday in federal court in Delaware as President Joe Biden’s son faces gun charges in a historic case that begins four days after Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted. In the first trial of the child of a sitting president, Hunter Biden, 54, faces three felony charges stemming from his purchase and possession of a revolver in 2018. He has pleaded not guilty. It is one of two criminal cases he faces, with federal tax charges brought separately in California. The trial in Wilmington, with US District Judge Maryellen Noreika presiding, begins with the jury selection process. Trump was convicted by a jury in state court in New York on Thursday of 34 felony counts of falsifying…

Conakry: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Guinea yesterday on the first leg of an African tour aimed at buttressing Moscow’s influence in the world’s poorest continent. Russia, which has seen its relations with the West plummet after it sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, has sought to boost its influence in Africa in recent years. It was Lavrov’s first visit to Guinea since 2013. He was received by Guinean counterpart Morissanda Kouyate. Yesterday, Lavrov was due to meet Guinea’s junta leader Mamady Doumbouya, in power since a 2021 coup. Guinea is reported to be part of a tour of African countries. | AFP…

SEOUL: Africa’s rich mineral resources and its potential as a vast export market are at the top of South Korea’s agenda as it hosts a summit with the leaders of 48 nations this week with plans for aid on industrial infrastructure and digital transformation. At least 30 heads of state are attending the summit today, with delegations from 48 countries participating. Tomorrow, South Korean business leaders will discuss investment, industrial development and food security. South Korea is one of the world’s largest energy buyers and is home to leading semiconductor producers and the world’s fifth largest automaker. | Reuters…

MENTION the name Fikile Mbuthuma and the first thing that comes to mind is the Comrades Marathon. Such has been her involvement in the Ultimate Human Race. She is going for her 16th race this Sunday, the 43-year-old having first attempted the race back in 2005 but she did not finish. That DNF, though, is the only blot on an otherwise stellar Comrades Marathon career that has seen her become a role model for many a black female runner. A gold medallist in 2016 after she finished eighth, Mbuthuma admits that her competitive years are way behind her and she is now simply looking to complete the race 20 times before she quits. “I just hope to get the double green then I am done. I am getting older now…

NAMIBIA scored a nerve-shredding victory over Oman in their T20 World Cup Group B clash in Barbados early yesterday morning after a low-scoring thriller was decided by a super over. David Wiese was the hero for Namibia, contributing 13 runs in the Africans’ super over total of 21 before then restricting Oman to 10 runs with the ball in hand to seal a crucial win at Kensington Oval. The match had gone to a decisive extra over after a tense duel saw both teams finish with 109 runs from their allotted 20 overs. Oman had looked to be heading for defeat after a superb four-wicket bowling display from Ruben Trumpelmann saw them all out for 109 off 19.4 overs. But Oman’s bowlers responded with a disciplined performance to contain Namibia’s…

FAIRVEST Property Holdings, the JSE’s largest SA-focused real estate investment trust (Reit), lifted like-for-like property income 7% in the six months to March 31, well up from the 4.4% reported at the previous year-end and has also lifted its guidance for the full year. An interim distribution of 67.83 cents per A share and 21.24c per B share was declared, with the A share and B share up 5% and 1.38% compared with the same period in 2023. Fairvest has a R11.8 billion portfolio of 131 properties, comprising 74 retail, 29 office and 28 industrial properties countrywide. “Fairvest is operationally strong and agile in a very, very tough environment. We are very pleased with the performance in the past six months,” CEO Darren Wilder said. He said their…

Model and content creator Nara Smith is one of the best in the kitchen. The mother of three changed the game when she went viral for videos of herself not only cooking but making food from scratch. With over 7 million followers on TikTok, Smith is not your ordinary chef who wears an apron in the kitchen. Instead, she always dresses to the nines when preparing food for her family. In her recent video, which got over 6 million views, she made Nutella from scratch but that’s not what got people’s attention. It was the Chanel floral coat she wore. Smith wore look 26 of the Chanel Pre-Fall 2024 collection, including the white T-shirt and black mini skirt with pink flower detailing. What’s iconic about the collection is that…

I try to wake up in the morning and ask myself, “What kind of person will you be today?” This intimate exchange is crucial to my all-round well-being. It stops me from blaming others and helps me to be grateful for all I have and enjoy. I wish I’d started asking myself this and similar questions years ago. It might have saved others and myself a lot of hurt and pain. I am not always successful when it comes to living out my ideals, but I have to have them. I have to have railroad tracks to guide me into the new day, week, month, year, decade. I wonder what you do? I’d love to know. How do you keep yourself on track with your goals and align yourself with…

There are many stories eroding my peace of mind. The dreadful images and stories coming out of Rafah serve as yet more gruesome evidence of the genocide in the Gaza enclave. The news about the death of 10 teachers from Bochum cluster, Limpopo, who died in an accident on their way to work, and the headline, “Baby girl dies and several missing in Eastern Cape floods”, deeply distressed me. Then, of course, there was the biggest story of them all: the South African elections, the election results, the alleged vote-capture discrepancies and the governing party losing its parliamentary majority and needing coalition partners to surpass 50% of the votes to form a government. Most political analysts believe coalitions do not work and are unstable. I agree. The evidence is in…

THE watershed 2024 elections have come and gone, ending a generation of one party hegemony in South Africa. Here, in populous KwaZulu-Natal, the former governing party has been relegated to third place, following what has been described as a “protest vote” against the lack of service delivery. The people have indeed spoken. No sooner after the induction of the 7th South African Parliament within the next few weeks, we will again start to see the posturing by political parties and individuals with an eye on the local government elections expected to take place in the latter half of 2026 or early 2027. As local government is at the coalface of service delivery – and given the lack thereof in recent months, particularly in areas like Phoenix, Chatsworth, Verulam, Tongaat, etc…

WESTERN Cape Government: Health and Wellness (WCGHW) says challenges may arise from the deployment of new security companies at its facilities amid concerns that they were not adequately resourced to service 36 provincial health facilities. The three companies, Phangela Private Security Services, Golden Security Services, and Amazim-Zim Security and Private Investigators, officially took over the facilities on Friday. This followed a protracted legal battle by Sechaba Protection Services, Silver Solutions, Star Project Management, All 4 Security Services and Helios Security and Risk Management against the department and the three companies. They had turned to the Western Cape High Court on an urgent basis to interdict the department from giving effect to a tender awarded to the three security companies, pending the outcome of a review application in which the tender…

A FORMER McDonald’s employee who was two years ago sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment after spitting on a customer’s ice cream and using a video clip of the act to get money from his employer has now on appeal been shown some mercy when the court slightly reduced his sentence to an effective 13 years. Clement Othusitse Seothaeng was convicted in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court on charges of malicious damage to property and extortion. He received a 15-year effective sentence. On appeal to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, he complained the sentence meted out to him was shockingly high and he argued that as both charges were related, the magistrate should have ordered they run concurrently. His convictions followed after he spat in a McFlurry ice cream and used…

IN EFFORTS to ensure the safety of municipal manager Lungile Ndabeni, the Mhlontlo Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape has resolved to provide two bodyguards after an attack on his home at the weekend. The small, Qumbu-based council made the deployment decision after shots were fired at Ndabeni’s house at about 10.30pm on Saturday. Provincial police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu said police were investigating a case of attempted murder and malicious damage to property. “It is alleged that the 49-year-old victim was at his home in Mbutho Location in Tsolo together with his wife when gunshots were heard outside the house. “He looked through the window and saw two males shooting at his house. Two of his vehicles, a VW Polo Vivo and a Ford Ranger double cab, were set alight,”…

A collective of French charities that has been a persistent critic of the Paris Olympics accused organisers yesterday of carrying out a “year of social cleansing” of the capital ahead of the start of the Games. A new report by “The Other Side of the Medal” group, which brings together 80 different charities, said Paris was following a playbook used by other Olympic host cities by cracking down on migrants, squatters, the homeless and sex workers. “We hoped that this edition would be different from previous ones and we made suggestions over a long period in this regard,” the report said. “Today ... we can state that Paris 2024 will be no different from previous editions and will truly accelerate the exclusion of the most vulnerable.” The report looked in…

Nine African countries are among the 10 “most neglected” crises of mass displacement in the world, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said yesterday. Burkina Faso tops the list for a second year amid a crisis sparked by years of conflict that has left about 2 million people internally displaced. Violence in the junta-led West African nation forced people to move more than 700 000 times last year, a jump of 60% from 2022, the NRC said. But media coverage has dropped off as access is difficult for journalists and humanitarian organisations. Cameroon is in second place, with nearly 1.1 million displaced and half a million refugees living in the Central African country. Behind it is the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than 25 million people face various emergencies, the…

LONDON: Britain’s Conservatives will clearly define sex as biological in the Equality Act if they win an election on July 4, to end an “ambiguity” that was putting women and girls’ safety at risk, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. Before the vote, the Conservatives are pressing issues aimed at securing its core vote. The Conservatives, who are around 20 percentage points behind the opposition Labour Party in the polls, said the confusion had left single-sex service providers vulnerable to legal action. The 2010 Equality Act already allows service providers to operate single-sex and separate sex services such as toilets, domestic abuse refuges and changing rooms where it is proportionate. | Reuters…

ISLAMABAD: A high court in Pakistan overturned jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party said yesterday, but Khan will remain in prison serving a seven-year sentence for now because of a conviction in another case. Khan, 71, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022. He has been in jail since August. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khan’s foreign minister from 2018 to 2022, was also acquitted of the charges. | Reuters…

WITH two gold medals to his name in the down run, Johannes Makgetla’s Comrades Marathon career will be complete should he get a top-10 position in the up run. Having finished fifth and sixth in the previous two editions of the world famous ultra-marathon that was run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, the Nedbank Running Club athlete is looking to be in the gold medal positions in Sunday’s race going the other way. “I really want to get gold for the up run because next year I am going to do my last down run and then I will stop racing Comrades,” the 42-year-old member of coach Dave Adams’s Happy Bunch, which includes winners of the last three editions, Tete Dijana (2022 and 2023) and Edward Mothibi (2019) said. “This thing…

Banyana Banyana will be looking to end their Senegal sojourn on a winning note this evening in the second international friendly match at Stade Lat Dior in Thiès, a city some 70km away from the capital, Dakar (kick-off 7pm). The South Africans are touring without seasoned campaigners like Jermaine Seoposenwe, Thembi Kgatlana, Refiloe Jane, Noko Matlou and Andile Dlamini. Their absence has allowed national women’s team coach Desiree Ellis to give several newcomers some game time in Senegal. Ellis has her eye on the future as she sets about rebuilding the national team after they failed to qualify for the coming Fifa World Cup. Sides like Senegal will help the South African newbies learn to cope with the physicality and mental pressures of international competition. The newcomers who impress in…