Innholdsfortegnelse for 2023-12-15 i Star

WHILE further cuts in fuel prices have been predicted for the start of the new year, easing financial pressure, consumers have been urged to still spend wisely this festive season. According to the AA, motorists can expect a significant drop in both grades of petrol, diesel, and illuminating paraffin prices, data from the Central Energy Fund shows. “According to the data, ULP93 will decrease by around 68 cents/litre, and ULP95 will decrease by 82c/l. Diesel is set to decrease considerably by around R1.50/l with illuminating paraffin also decreasing by around R1.42/l. The forecast reductions in the wholesale price of diesel will bring this fuel cost down to around R20.32/l inland, coming in at a price lower than the same time last year,” the association said. They explained that the reductions…

Madly, Deeply – The Alan Rickman Diaries Edited by Alan Taylor Loot (R294) Canongate Books Ltd In HER short but on point foreword about this larger-than-life and hugely colourful stage and film actor, Emma Thompson astutely describes her dear friend as having been both profoundly nurturing and imperturbably distant; generous and challenging; dangerous and comical; sexy and androgynous; temperamental and languid; virile and peculiar. These are just a few of the opposing forces of the man who entertained, enthralled and endeared himself to audiences in a diverse range of plays and films from Die Hard to Sense & Sensibility, the Harry Potter series, Private Lives and more. Reading his tell-it-all, amusing, often heart-rending, bawdy, but mostly down-to-earth and completely blatant diaries, you’ll find a man who lived his life to…

The stress code Richard Sutton Loot (R250) Pan Macmillian Stress impacts all facets of our lives and has devastating effects on the global economy, including reduced productivity and placing a heavy burden on health-care systems. Decades of research shows that chronic stress severely compromises our physical and mental health. More recently, it has been revealed that stress can destabilise our DNA and affect our genetic integrity. This promotes many of the diseases that societies are currently grappling with and could potentially impact future generations. Yet stress has two faces: ongoing stress is one of the biggest challenges faced globally, but short intervals of stress can actually offer tremendous potential to grow, break personal barriers and excel.…

The Ghost of Sam Webster Craig Higginson Picador Africa I’m tempted to make this the shortest review you’ll ever read! Buy this book, The Ghost of Sam Webster by Craig Higginson, and relish it. It is a rare gem. On the other hand, you’ll probably want to know a little more. So ... The place of battle at iSandlwana in 1879, remains a site of ghostly memories, of massacre, of triumph for the Zulus, and humiliating defeat for the British who lost their first invasion of Zululand against a foe equipped with vastly inferior weapons. More than a century later, the body of a young woman is found rolling in the nearby Buffalo River. The daughter of the Webster’s luxury lodge on this historic site is missing – is the…

It is an indisputable fact that the fields are ripe for the harvest but, sometimes, the reapers are few. Most South Africans regard reading as something purgatorial and yet we are aspiring to be a developmental state. A motley crew of professionals, who believe in Kwame Nkrumah’s dictum that “it is not the heights to which a man climbs that matter, but the depths from whence he came”, have blazed the trail in launching a primary school foundation and are determined to rewrite a new script for an African child in the township. I once embarked on a ferry in New Zealand. To my surprise, everybody on board was reading either a book or a newspaper. I mused: “A reading society is a progressive society and a society that believes…

Mthandeni Manqele, an esteemed maskandi music artist, has expressed his excitement about the Rainbow Nation Fest set to take place on December 16 at The Bears Palace in Mpumalanga. Manqele joins a star-studded line-up of musicians who will celebrate the Day of Reconciliation through the love of music. In conversation with The Star, Manqele said his fans should expect nothing short of a memorable experience at the much-anticipated festival, which will bring together performers from all walks of life. “People should expect to have a good time. I’ll be singing a list of their favourite songs. The day will be exciting, from my attire to my performance on stage. We will sing and dance together,” he said. An all-star line-up that includes, among others, DJ Maphorisa and Kabza De Small…

There have been numerous reports, especially on social media, of children going missing only to be discovered dead, raped or injured days after their disappearance. And with incidents of human and child trafficking being reported recently, children can never be too safe, especially at this time of the year. Shaheda Omar, the director of the Teddy Bear Foundation, an organisation that offers legal, counselling and social development support to children, says it’s important for parents to ensure the safety of their children at all times. She urges parents to ensure that their children know at least one of their phone numbers and their address off by heart to ensure they receive help, no matter the situation. “Teach your children to memorise your address and phone number. Talk to your children…

TS Galaxy have set their sights on crowning their Carling Knockout Cup journey with a trophy ahead of their showdown with Stellenbosch FC. The Rockets will collide with Stellies in tomorrow’s final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban (3pm kick-off), where they are looking to capture their second major cup title. The Mpumalanga-based side have had to overcome a major psychological setback to be able to continue their voyage in the tournament, having lost veteran Bernard Parker to a broken leg in the first round. Galaxy then went on to overcome Sekhukhune United, before sealing their place in the decider by edging a five-goal thriller against AmaZulu at the same venue as the final. Head coach Sead Ramovic has also seen his side struggle in league action, and as…

The Lions finish off 2023 with an EPCR Challenge Cup match against embattled English Premiership club Newcastle Falcons this weekend. Having previously secured an away win in the tournament against Perpignan with a second-string side, this match could be the perfect way to end the year on a high by stamping their authority in the six-team Pool 2. Here, Morgan Bolton looks at four things he would like to see in tomorrow’s match at Ellis Park (5.15pm kick-off) ... Ruthless aggression The Lions are expected to select a full-strength match-day 23 to face the Falcons. They are currently on a three-match winning streak in all competitions, having soundly beaten Zebre, Dragons and Perpignan. In the first two games, they showed a willingness to run the ball and take on the…

RECENT studies have revealed three surprising signs that indicate your brain may be staying youthful despite the passing years. If you’ve ever wondered whether your brain is keeping up with your youthful spirit, buckle up and get ready to uncover the mysterious clues that might just hold the secret to a youthful brain! Speaking more than one language According to a team of Canadian and Spanish researchers, being bilingual isn’t just about fluency; it’s about giving your brain a fantastic workout. It turns out bilingual folks have supercharged neural connections that work more efficiently, kind of like a turbo boost for your brain. This helps conserve precious brain energy and shields your noggin from wear and tear, lowering the risk of cognitive ageing and dementia. Feeling younger than your actual…

The Ball at Versailles Danielle Steele Loot (R279) Macmillan It’s the summer of 1959 and the Palace of Versailles is hosting an event that will make history. It is an exclusive dusk-to-dawn ball in which a select group of American and French débutantes will be presented to international society and royalty. Four young women, all with something to prove, receive what some see as the invitation of a lifetime. Amelia Alexander, who hopes to attend law school, hesitates to participate in what she sees as an archaic and privileged tradition. But her widowed mother, Jane, who’s struggled financially, encourages her to attend. Felicity Smith is equally uncertain about the ball. Although her family is prominent in the Dallas social scene, Felicity prefers to keep to herself, avoiding the older sister…

As PAC GP PEC, we want to pass our condolences to the family of our beloved Daughter of Afrika known as Zahara, and together to her colleagues within the music industry we are saying may her soul rest in peace. The music industry is one perfect example of how a product (song in this case) is alienated from the artist by law. An institutionalised, exploitative arrangement suffered by an artist (Zahara), whereby she gains less from her own labour while the company rakes millions as rationalised irrational profits. Alienation in this case occurs when the makers of things are separated from their ownership and furthermore enjoy not the surplus value. DJ Sbu being one variable in this raked 25% of millions while Zahara pocketed 10% of revenue. The company held…

Does the state of Israel really exist? This sounds like a ridiculous question but the Americans have let the cat out of the bag. America’s assistant ambassador, in a speech to the UN Security Council debating whether there should be a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said that would not be possible: “Not when our people have suffered as they did on October 7.” Such statements are vetted by the highest echelon of every government. No self-respecting state, no less the Americans, can allow their representatives to go to the UN and make a statement they have not sanctioned. All in all, the statement of “our people” from Americans when they address the world about Israel, is evidence that fortifies what many have always suspected – “Israel” is nothing but…

IT IS NOT often that one gets inspiration from losing a loved one, but for Nhlanhla Mtshali, also known as DJ Nash, that was exactly what made him discover the love for music. Born and bred in Hospital View in Tembisa, DJ Nash lost his beloved mother in 2003, but unlike many who would mourn, he put on his headphones and mixed music to heal from his loss. The 37-year-old father of a son reckons he has never looked back from then, setting Tembisa’s nightclubs alive with his mellowed house music into the still of the night. “I think when my mother died it invoked something in me because that's where my love for music and being in front of the decks started … I used to heal when I…

The local reality TV show Tropika Island of Treasure All Stars gives viewers a peek at the current whereabouts of some of its celebrity contestants f ollowing a series of enthralling seasons. For over a decade, the show has maintained its consistency in giving viewers exciting episodes with fascinating challenges, stunning locations, and charming celebrity contestants. This won Tropika Island of Treasure All Stars a South African Film and Television Award this year for Best Competition Reality Show. Shashi Naidoo One of the most well-liked personalities was Shashi Naidoo, who has maintained her popularity as an entertainer in the years since the show. She is a singer, comedian, and actress who has showcased her talent in many projects. She also hosts shows on South African television and radio. It is…

With THE NUMBER of house break-ins on the rise, South Africans are being urged to be careful when it comes to home security over the holiday season. Figures show that most break-ins occur during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Insurer Auto & General’s claim figures show there are two significant spikes in house break-ins during the year; one in June and another in December, when there’s a startling 48% jump. Ricardo Coetzee, head of Auto & General Insurance, says this is likely due to people visiting family and friends and leaving homes vulnerable, but also thanks to more high-value goods being on offer due to people buying or receiving gifts. “The more precautions you take, the bigger the chances that your festive season will be drama-free, which…

Conversations about Zahara’s royalties have become a focal point on social media and in the news since her death on Monday. The controversy is centred on her initial record label, TS Records, who were responsible for recording her breakthrough album, Loliwe. In a series of candid discussions across various platforms, the 36-year-old singer had openly addressed the issue of being underpaid, despite the commercial success of her albums. Zahara has in the past pointed the finger at TS Records. However, DJ Sbu, associated with TS Records, is now refuting these accusations. Speaking to Newsroom Afrika, DJ Sbu said that Zahara was not working with them in the past few years. “We made sure that she owns her own publishing, which she does with Sheer music publishing. Sheer pays her royalties…

ANC veteran Mavuso Msimang is back in the ANC fold after he retracted his resignation from the party following a meeting with ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. Msimang’s withdrawal of his resignation followed a meeting that was facilitated by the ANC Veterans’ League. He resigned last week citing “endemic corruption, with devastating consequences on the governance of the country and the lives of poor people, of whom there continue to be so many”. Msimang had noted in his resignation letter the dramatic decline in the ANC’s popularity due to perceptions that its members and “deployees” were corrupt, and that the deployment of unsuitable people accounted for the government’s deplorable levels of service to the public. But he has since made a 360-degree about-turn. Mbalula had accused the party’s veterans of campaigning…

The FEMALE and Male Homicide and Injury Mortality Study (FAMHIS) funded by the SA Medical Research Council (MRC) found that men have far higher homicide rates than women in all age groups. Richard Matzopoulos from the MRC’s Burden of Disease Research Unit and his colleagues, published the study last month in the PLOS Global Public Health journal. The study titled: “South Africa’s male homicide epidemic hiding in plain sight: Exploring sex differences and patterns in homicide risk in a retrospective descriptive study of postmortem investigations”, highlights the high levels of homicide in South Africa, the disproportionate number of adult male murders, and the negligible evidence-based prevention response to date. The researchers compared 2017 male and female victim profiles for selected predictors against global average and previous estimates for 2009. Sixty-five…

THE Director of Public Prosecutions in Johannesburg, advocate Andrew Chauke, and a senior state advocate at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, advocate Hans Wolfaardt, have stopped the arrest of three directors of NJM Heat Treatment & NDE Services – Mark Smith, Alex Roditis and Vanessa Chungu – by the Hawks because the state advocate dealing with the matter failed to follow lawful procedure. The charges were opened by a previous director of NJM, Baleseng Zinyana, in September 2023 after civil litigation in the Johannesburg High Court. Central to allegations levelled by Zinyana were accusations of broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) fronting allegedly committed by the directors of the company. Last week the directors were contacted by the Hawks to surrender themselves, be arrested, processed, and taken to court where they…

The Black Angels Maria Smilios Loot (R289) Virago Press Ltd THE REMARKABLE true story of the Black nurses who helped cure tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest plagues, is told alongside the often strange chronicle of the cure’s discovery. During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism, and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left…

The Mystery Guest Nita Prose Loot (R304) Ballantine Molly Gray, the heroine of The Mystery Guest, has inherited a trove of maxims from her late grandmother, but the one she repeats most often is this gem about making hasty assumptions: “When you assume, you make an A-S-S out of U and ME.” I thought of that wisdom after I read The Mystery Guest and, then, went back and read its prequel, The Maid, a novel by Nita Prose in which Molly made her debut. As someone whose tastes in mysteries skew towards the hard-boiled, I initially passed on The Maid because I assumed that a story featuring a hotel maid as an amateur detective was going to be stuffed with heartwarming fluff. The author’s fans already know Molly is a…

Congratulations to the Class of 2023 for finishing their 12-year journey of schooling. Twelve years is a long time. However, schooling is not just about reading and writing tests and exams. It also teaches life skills, which prepare learners for life after school. According to research, many learners, especially black learners, don’t reach matric or Grade 12, and this tends to condemn them to a life of poverty and misery. In South Africa, the quality of education is poor. This is a legacy problem. In the past, the apartheid regime implemented the system of Bantu education against black learners. The education system did not prepare them for leadership and management positions. Instead, it prepared them to serve whites. Interestingly, the same Bantu education has produced quality leaders such as Nelson…

It looks like the ANC hasn’t been to school. If it had, it would have learnt some good old English proverbs and idiomatic expressions like a stitch in time saves nine, prevention is better than cure and make hay while the sun shines. What a pity! For now, we see how the dunderheads in leadership positions are driving the country to the brink of collapse. A car needs regular maintenance or you could be left stranded on a lonely stretch of road and become an easy victim for trigger-happy criminals. And what about your health? Isn’t it wiser to maintain a healthy lifestyle rather than wait for a heart attack? It’s the same with the country’s infrastructures. Eskom and Transnet are having a devastating impact on the country’s economy. One…

SOME of the younger learners of Elturion Christian School, a select Pretoria private place of learning, have added their charming personalities and talents to a new and unique Christmas song “Clap Clap Clap for Father Christmas”. Principal of the school, Mandy Muller, heard about the invitation and innovative idea to sing and act out the song and saw the opportunity to video the performance for social media. She immediately willingly and cheerfully volunteered to involve the youngsters of her school. The enthusiasm and talents shown by the school and its students and their commitment towards the project appealed to the man behind the song, veteran music entertainment figure, Mike Fuller. The pupils’ drive and eagerness to spread the message of goodwill and cheer that the song epitomises was simply irresistible.…

A MULTIBILLION-rand investment in wind energy by a Chinese firm is poised to avert power outages faced by companies in the Northern Cape and eventually South Africa, as its electricity crisis continues. Longyuan South Africa Renewables is behind the innovations and has invested R5.18 billion towards the installation of wind energy solutions in the town of De Aar. This is feeding thousands of megawatts into the national grid run by Eskom. Sheng Bin, safety production and technology department manager of Longyuan South Africa Renewables, provided data pertaining to the De Aar wind power project’s output. The project has been generating an average of about 760 million kilowatt-hours annually over the past six years. “I’m confident that this production rate can be sustained moving forward,” he said in an exclusive interview…

After the heartbreaking Cricket World Cup semi-final defeat to Australia last month, is there still life in the Proteas One-Day International team? Well, we’ll find out on Sunday when they take on India in the first ODI of a three-match series at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Captain Temba Bavuma has been rested for the 50-over games ahead of the two five-day Test matches, the first of which starts on December 26 in Centurion before the famous New Year’s Test at Newlands, from January 3. Aiden Markram will take over the leadership role for the ODIs, like he did in the T20 International series that ended in Johannesburg yesterday. Markram will have a number of new faces in the squad, which can be viewed as a fresh start on the road…