Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021-05-06 i Star

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za RMB HOLDINGS (RMH) share price declined by more than 38 percent on the JSE yesterday morning after the investment holding company’s shares went ex-dividend yesterday. This comes after the group was given approval by the exchange control to declare a special dividend of 80 cents a share, which equals to R1.13 billion out of income reserves, on April 21. The group also announced that the special dividend would be subject to a dividend withholding tax at a rate of 20 percent, which would result in a net special dividend of 64c a share. The shareholders are expected to receive a total of R903.49 million after tax. RMH announced on April 21 that the last day to trade in order to parti- cipate in…

SUPPLIES of critical minerals essential for key clean energy technologies, like electric vehicles, need to pick up sharply over the coming decades to meet the world’s climate goals, creating potential energy security hazards that governments must act now to address, a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. The special report, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, is the most comprehensive global study to date on the central importance of minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements in a secure and rapid transformation of the global energy sector. Building on the IEA’s longstanding leadership role in energy security, the report recommends six key areas of action for policymakers to ensure that critical minerals enable an accelerated transition to clean energy…

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's romance is getting serious as the pair are believed to have talked about taking their future to the next level. The Poosh founder and the Blink-182 rocker first started dating in December after being friends for years, and things seem to be getting serious for the loved-up pair as they have considered taking their romance to the next level. An insider claimed: “Kourtney hasn’t felt this strongly about anyone in a while and can see a forever with Travis.” The 42-year-old TV personality and the 45-year-old musician have also won the seal of approval of their children from previous relationships. The source added to Entertainment Tonight: “Although the couple hasn’t been together for a while, they’ve known each other for years and have a strong…

Zintle Mahlati zintle.mahlati@inl.co.za CONCERNS about a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic remain high, despite assurances from Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize that the government had upped surveillance on possible new variants. The growing fear over a possible rise in Covid-19 cases has been driven by reports of individuals, who had travelled to India, testing positive on arrival in South Africa. The number of case has been rising in the past week. A shipping vessel that landed in KwaZulu-Natal has fuelled concerns, as some passengers have tested positive and were in isolation. India is experiencing rising Covid-19 cases, suspected to be driven by a variant first identified in the country. Mkhize said the government remained concerned about coronavirus cases being detected at border posts. However, the government has yet…

Peter Bachtis | Benoni THE frightening explosion of Covid-19 deaths in India has exposed its façade of being rated as a superpower. India has a space programme costing billions of dollars … advanced technological and pharmaceutical structures, yet is unable to offer meaningful medical care … is running out of oxygen … highlighting the fact that their leaders have dropped the ball. In a country of 1.3 billion people, this kind of disarray has placed Prime Minister Modi’s government under scrutiny from its citizens and governments across the globe. It begs the question: Do the so-called superpowers have the best interests of their citizens at heart? The Indian catastrophe has shown that its priorities are screwed up. Worrying, indeed, as millions of Indian bodies are committed to funeral…

MEGADEATH (originally denoting a million dead) was coined in the context of strategic terms used to anticipate mass death in the event of a nuclear holocaust. The term “holocaust”, which originally meant “a whole animal sacrifice” has in the course of the past century been semantically extended to denote “a great slaughter or massacre”, especially that of the Jewish people by the Nazis in World War II. Although genocide has historically been practised by many nations and organisations, the term itself was coined only in 1944 by an American jurist. Whereas the horrors of the death camps were politically covert and largely hidden, the current Covid megadeath is in the open, with victims dying in the street. You can see Armageddon in progress. It is like Hell on Earth, as…

Willem van de Putte THERE’S a myriad of options for people looking to get behind the wheel of a new car and as buyers leave traditional saloon cars in droves for more SUV-type vehicles, manufacturers have obviously stepped up their variations on the theme to cover every niche within that market. As the world’s largest automaker, Volkswagen has covered that segment well – too well according to some commentators, including the T-Roc 2.0 4Motion R line on test here. The T-Roc sits between the hugely popular T-Cross and the Tiguan and has two engine variations with a 1.4-litre turbo-petrol and the 2.0-litre turbocharged one we drove which is a “detuned” version of the one found in the GTI, delivering 140kW and 320Nm to all four wheels with VW’s 4Motion…

THE recent spate of school bullying incidents has left the country in shock, with parents and teachers grappling to understand the root causes of these unacceptable actions, especially among learners in our schools. The incidents of bullying are not only limited to the school environment but manifest in the broader society. This begs the question: why the desire to inflict pain and harm on another person? In light of the latest incidents of bullying, cellphone recordings and social media platforms have brought home the reality that on a daily basis children encounter various forms of harassment. These include but are not limited to social media harassment, sexual assault, physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and cyberbullying. While bullying in schools has always been present, technology has exposed the severity of this…

Facebook’s independent oversight board yesterday upheld a ban on former US president Donald Trump while ordering further review of the case, in a decision with a potentially far-reaching impact on the regulation of online speech. The board, whose decisions are binding on the leading social network, said Trump “created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible” with his comments regarding the January 6 rampage by his supporters at the US Capitol. “Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending Mr Trump’s accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7,” the board said after its review. Trump, whose political influence has arguably been severely curtailed by the loss of his social media presence,…

Kirkuk: Jihadists yesterday killed a policeman before blowing up two oil wells in Kirkuk, a northern province claimed by both Iraq’s federal government and the Kurds. A security official said that “Islamic State (IS) group assailants” killed a policeman and “wounded two”. The attackers then “blew up wells 177 and 183 at the Bay Hassan field,” the oil ministry said. The first fire was “brought under control in record time”, but firemen were still active at the second well several hours after the attack. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces took control of Kirkuk, home to key oilfields, in June 2014 after federal forces withdrew in the face of an IS offensive. In 2017, Baghdad claimed victory against IS, supported by a US-led coalition. But the Kurds and the federal government dispute…

GENEVA: Excessive salt in food and beverages is putting people at greater risk of heart disease and strokes, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. An estimated 11 million deaths a year globally are associated with poor diet, including 3 million attributable to high sodium intake, it said in a report. A significant proportion of sodium in the diet comes from foods such as bread, cereal, processed meats and dairy products, including cheese, the WHO said. The new WHO benchmarks, for 64 food and drink categories, are aimed at guiding health authorities in its 194 member states in talks with the food and beverage industry. WHO recommends that people consume less than 5g of salt (or less than 2g of sodium) a day | Reuters…

Who will don the captain’s armband? Wynona Louw wynona.louw@inl.co.za What will the Lions class of 2021 look like? Now that the trophy for the three-Test series between the Springboks and the British & Irish Lions has been unveiled, the excitement will continue to build, with Warren Gatland naming his squad for their tour of South Africa today (12.45pm SA time). The Lions’ trip to South Africa will see the tourists attempt to repeat the heroics of 1997 as they battle it out for the “first perpetual trophy in the history of the British & Irish Lions”, as SA Rugby proudly trumpeted on Monday. So, with less than two months to go before the quadrennial blockbuster kicks off, here are three points of interest ahead of coach Gatland’s squad announcement. While…

Sandile Mchunu sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za STEINHOFF International’s share price leapt by more than six percent on the JSE yesterday morning after its subsidiary Pepco Group published its prospectus, which paves the way for its separate listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange later this month valued at up to R100 billion. Steinhoff said it had decided to launch the initial public offering of Pepco Group of up to 102.72 million ordinary shares, which represents approximately 17.9 percent of the company’s total issued share capital. Steinhoff holds 98.8 percent of the shares that are up for an offering that will be made available to retail and institutional investors in Poland, at an offer price of between 38 Polish zloty a share (R143.69) and 46 zloty, valuing it between €4.8 billion (R83bn)…

THE JURY is still out on whether certain clauses of the 2018 Mining Charter will be reviewed and set aside. The Pretoria High Court reserved judgment on the issue yesterday following a three-day hearing held virtually. The Minerals Council South Africa approached the court for a judicial review and the setting aside of the 2018 Mining Charter, saying the document did not recognise past empowerment deals. Among the elements of the charter is that new mining rights require a minimum 30 percent black economic empowerment (BEE) shareholding, distributed to qualifying employees, communities, host communities and BEE entrepreneurs. Advocate Christopher Loxton, representing the Minerals Council, told the court yesterday that the charter was not the sole source of community rights and did not operate in isolation. “It is wrong to see…

Jamal Grootboom jamald.grootboom@inl.co.za Prince Kaybee has admitted to cheating after a direct message conversation leaked along with a nude picture. Twitter was set ablaze on Tuesday when DMs were leaked on the Hot and Served Instagram page from a woman named Eurica detailing a conversation between her and the Fetch Your Life hitmaker. Prince Kaybee initially denied the claims in now-deleted tweets and said: “But this isn't fair, wheres the rest of the screenshot, this is Eurica mos, a costume designer that came for costume measurements for videos to be shot in Capetown, there's a part where I tell her to hurry up I'm playing at 11, ai bo Eurica, sies. (sic)” He continued: “Lesson learned today, do not entertain anyone even if they looking for work. Whether you guys…

Frans Cronje | CEO Institute of Race Relations The IOL report, “Police budget cut by R11bn due to Covid”, refers. In fact, the police budget was not cut due to Covid-19. It was cut because more than a decade of economic mismanagement, state capture, and anti-investment policy brought the economy to its knees before Covid-19 struck. Even now policies such as expropriation without compensation and various race-based empowerment edicts continue to undermine the investment attractiveness of South Africa. For this, all South Africans pay a price and there could not be a better example of that than the police budget being cut in a country that continues to demonstrate a murder rate that is a multiple of global norms.…

Morgan Bolton morgan.bolton@inl.co.za AFTER a week of being led to believe that Benni McCarthy would coach Bafana Bafana, we can safely say that we were duped, hoodwinked, sucker-punched, led down the garden path, misdirected and hilariously misled. Wow, either Safa just played the best game of Who is it? ever, or the Benni deal fell through completely, and the association still managed to bamboozle us all. Instead, yesterday morning the rumour that Hugo Broos was to be the new man in charge of the men’s senior national team started to circulate – and proved to be true later at the official announcement. Now, I don’t think his appointment on a five-year contract is a bad move. Broos has won with an African team, Cameroon, at the 2017 Africa Cup of…

Motoring Correspondent It’s bad news for prospective car buyers: new vehicle prices rose by almost three times the current inflation rate in the first quarter of the year, and is expected to continue to increase in the coming months. At the same time, the prices of used vehicles increased in real terms for the first time since 2010, which suggests ongoing hardship for consumers and a motor industry struggling to recover from the financial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the latest TransUnion SA Vehicle Pricing Index (VPI), total financial agreement volumes in the passenger vehicle market increased marginally (3%) in Q1 2021 over the same period in 2020, with new vehicle finance deals down 5% and used vehicles up by 7.4%. At the same time, vehicle prices rose…

JOAO Roderiques is scheduled to appear before the Gauteng High Court today for his role in the murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol. This will be his 18th appearance, following his indictment by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on July 30, 2018 as an accessory to murder and defeating the ends of justice, in accordance with Judge Billy Mothle’s ruling on October 12, 2017, in the reopened inquest into Timol’s death. Judge Mothle overturned the 45-year-old apartheid inquest court finding that Timol had committed suicide by jumping from the notorious 10th floor of John Vorster Square. Timol was one of 77 people who died in the custody of the apartheid Security Branch between 1960 and 1994. Judge Mothle found that Timol had been tortured, and that the Security Branch was…

A missing French journalist said he was kidnapped in Mali by a jihadist group with links to Al-Qaeda, according to a video circulating on social media yesterday, the latest foreigner to be taken hostage in the West African country. The video of Olivier Dubois, who worked with several French media, could not be immediately verified independently, although Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the French government confirmed he was missing. In the undated video, which lasts about 20 seconds, Dubois, 46, said he was abducted on April 8 in Gao, northern Mali, by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, the biggest jihadist alliance in the Sahel. He is seen seated on the ground on a green sheet, in what could be a tent, dressed in a light pink traditional gown,…

KADUNA: Kidnappers have released the remaining 29 students they were holding captive after abducting them in March from a forestry college in Nigeria’s Kaduna state. Gunmen took 39 students from the school in northwest Nigeria on March 11 and later released 10 of them. The released students were with police and en route back to Kaduna city, Abdullahi Usman, the chairperson of the parents’ association, said. More than 700 people have been abducted from schools in north-west Nigeria since December for ransom in the volatile region. Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai has said his state government will not negotiate with bandits or pay ransoms. Usman said a ransom was paid for the students’ release, but refused to say who had paid. | Reuters…

Brussels: The EU’s pointman on Brexit, Michel Barnier, releases a book today recounting the insider track on Britain’s acrimonious departure and teasing his ambition to become France’s next president. The Grand Illusion: A Secret Diary of Brexit describes clandestine manoeuvrings during the EU-British talks as well as some stab-in-the-back politics in Brussels. He writes of leaked information, secretive meetings organised with 15 minutes’ notice, surprise phone calls from the other side and sealed anonymous missives, while in public gifts and friendly words were exchanged. | AFP…

MEME-BASED virtual currency Dogecoin soared to an all-time high yesterday, extending its 2021 rally to become the fourth-biggest digital coin. Dogecoin, launched as a satirical critique of 2013’s cryptocurrency frenzy, climbed 41 percent in 24 hours to a record $0.68 (about R9.82), according to CoinMarketCap. This year alone, it has soared more than 14 000 percent, from $0.00468 on December 31, taking it past more widely used cryptocurrencies, such as the Tether stablecoin and XRP, to become the fourth-largest by market capitalisation. Dogecoin – whose logo features a Shiba Inu dog at the centre of the meme – remains little used in commerce or payments. Like other digital coins, it is highly volatile, and its price is heavily influenced by social media users. On Tuesday, the New York…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE MANUFACTURING industry in South Africa soared to nine-year high in April as new business and output grew strongly as a result of a sharp rebound from the Covid-19 impact. The IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI), released yesterday, rose from 50.3 in March to 53.7 in April as demand begins to recover, indicating the strongest expansion since March 2012. As a result, IHS Markit said businesses were now much more optimistic about the year-ahead outlook, with the degree of sentiment linked to future activity at its highest since mid-2015. It said they attributed this to greater hopes that the Covid-19 pandemic will end and that business conditions will improve. IHS Markit said South Africa enjoyed a strong bounce in economic performance in April as output growth…

METROBUS workers are expected back at work today. The Star understands drivers remained at the city depot’s yesterday and did not drive the buses following reports of intimidation on working drivers. Metrobus officials were locked in a meeting with police yesterday trying to come up with a safety plan that would ensure drivers are safe. A spokesperson for Metrobus, Goodwill Shiburi said the buses would get back on the road today accompanied by police inside and behind the buses. Metrobus had received several reports of threats and intimidating calls to workers. “The drivers are at the depot as early as 5am but they are getting calls that are intimidating and want assurance of safety,” said Shiburi. The Metrobus strike was started on Monday by rival union Democratic Municipal and Allied…

Chulumanco Mahamba chulumanco.mahamba@inl.co.za NON-GOVERNMENT organisation Reach For A Dream reflects on the generosity of South Africans as the organisation celebrates 10 years of Slipper Day tomorrow. Slipper Day is Reach For A Dream’s most celebrated fund-raiser, and this year Slipper Day will be taking place under the theme, “Not all Heroes Wear Capes.” The organisation said the theme was a fitting reminder that all the brave children fighting life-threatening illnesses, doctors, nurses and their families are the true heroes of this time. “This Slipper Day promises to echo the hearts of all our heroes, and why it is so important for South Africans to come together and believe in the power of dreams and more so, what this means for a child sick in hospital,” Reach For A Dream chief…

Laura-Stella Enonchong THE RECENT spate of military coups in Africa, which were intended to be transitional, might be a risk for democracy in the long term. There might be a short-term need to maintain security, but the military may not necessarily be a credible partner to build democratic governance. Military intervention could mean that people might continue to be in a state of stagnant democracy. Chad is the most recent example of this. Soon after the death of President Idriss Deby, the military swiftly took over power. They immediately installed his 37-year-old son Mahamat, a military commander, as interim president. He will lead an 18-month transitional military council. Parliament and the government have been dissolved and the constitution has been suspended. Upon the death of the president, the constitution…

President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected today to provide Parliament with an update on SA’s Covid-19 vaccination programme, economic recovery plan and efforts to end gender-based violence and femicide. However, when coming to the latter, the country and the world has failed to protect its women and children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence inflicted on women and girls in the world. During his address to the nation last year, Ramaphosa referred to the surge of violence against women in the country as a “pandemic”. And as with Covid-19, there does not appear to be an end in sight. In KwaZulu-Natal this week, a 28-year-old man appeared in court for allegedly raping his 89-year-old grandmother. The young man’s mother, who…

Israel’s president yesterday chose Yair Lapid, a centrist politician and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, to try to form a new government. Israel’s longest serving leader, Netanyahu, 71, has been fighting to hold on to office through four inconclusive elections since 2019 and corruption allegations that he denies. President Reuven Rivlin said the former finance minister had the pledged support of 56 of parliament’s 120 members, still short of a majority. Lapid, who heads the Yesh Atid party, said he aimed to establish a government of the left, right and centre “that will reflect the fact that we don’t hate one another”. But Lapid, 57, has ruled out serving in a government with Netanyahu, citing the criminal indictment against the prime minister. Netanyahu appealed to ultra- nationalist Naftali Bennett…

Addis Ababa: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) yesterday described “alarming” malnutrition in parts of Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region and said the situation was likely to worsen with the coming rainy season. MSF said residents were struggling to access food distribution points and lamented that the aid response “hardly ever extends beyond larger towns” to Tigray’s rural areas. Among 309 children screened at remote clinics in recent weeks, 26.6% were malnourished and 6% were severely, acutely malnourished. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last year to detain and disarm leaders of the TPLF, the regional ruling party, in response to attacks on army camps. Fighting in Tigray disrupted the harvest in a region that was already food insecure. | AFP…

LOS ANGELES: Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has denied smuggling an ancient Roman sculpture into the US, her spokesperson said. “We believe it may have been purchased using her name without authorisation,” he said. Reports said US authorities had asked Kardashian to forfeit the ancient sculpture, bought in 2016. An Italian archaeologist said the sculpture was a work known as Fragment of Myron’s Samian Athena. Made of limestone, it dates back to the 1st or 2nd century and is believed to have been looted and illegally exported from Italy. | Sputnik…

HERMAN GIBBS MAMELODI Sundowns opened a four-point lead at the top of the Premiership standings after a 2-0 win over a highly competitive Maritzburg United side at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria yesterday. Sundowns led 1-0 at half-time but on numerous occasions in the first half Maritzburg looked the likelier to score, but they failed to convert their opportunities. In the end, Maritzburg came away empty-handed and dropped down a notch into 12th place. Sundowns served early notice of their attacking threat and had the ball in the net in the fifth minute, but the effort was ruled offside. In the 16th minute, Sundowns were foiled by the woodwork twice in quick succession. Ace striker Peter Shalulile produced both efforts via a low drive and a header from a corner.…

The South African cricket season is over but it’s still a very busy period for the sport. Cricket SA have ensured that through dragging their feet over the administrative restructure, they brought the federation to the brink of collapse. Thankfully, that is behind us now. The mechanisms for choosing a new board are in place and a date for the AGM has been set. And then the work begins. In and among an overflowing in-box later this year will be feedback in the shape of a report or otherwise from advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza, the Transformation Ombudsman, heading up the Social Justice and National (SJN) building project. The project started inaus-piciously. Perhaps the attachment of former CSA director Eugenia Kula-Ameyaw, whose brainchild the SJN product was, made many sceptical. Kula-Ameyaw’s time…