Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-02-18 i Star

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za ASSURANCES by the board of Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), a state-owned producer of vaccines for the livestock industry, that it was putting its house in order comes as cold comfort for red meat producers and equestrian sectors as a crippling shortage of vaccines, some unavailable for over a year now, is already resulting in some animal deaths. The industry is apprehensive about the shortage of vaccines, especially for waterborne diseases, which are escalating after a strong rainy season raised the presence of mosquitoes and other insect carriers. An official of the National Animal Health Forum, which comprises the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO), the African Farmers Association of South Africa, AgriSA and the South African Poultry Association, said reports emerged at a liaison meeting yesterday that horses…

Dieketseng Maleke dieketseng.maleke@inl.co.za SOUTH32 achieved a record operating margin and a significant improvement in its underlying earnings for the six months to end-December, its results showed yesterday. The diversified miner said net profit came to just over $1 billion (R14.9bn), an increase from $53 million in the previous six months. The Australian-headquartered South32 reported an operating margin of 44 percent and an outstanding 638 percent, improvement in its underlying earnings, following a broad recovery in commodity prices. The company said its board resolved to pay a record $405m ordinary dividend for the period. “The board has also resolved to expand our capital management programme by $110m to $2.1bn, leaving $302m to be returned,” it said. Guidance for the financial year 2022 had been revised higher at the majority of its…

I dedicate my final column as Group Foreign Editor to my late husband Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, who passed away two months ago. Over the past weeks, I have spent hours reading through letters he wrote from Robben Island to his “political mother” Phyllis Naidoo that span from 1964 through to 1979, and then during his second incarceration from 1989-1991. He was one of the very few political prisoners to have been sentenced twice to that torturous prison colony. His stories of deprivation and struggle have evoked a sense of urgency to ensure that our next generation understands the full extent of the suffering that our Struggle stalwarts endured. We cannot let these stories die, and places like Robben Island need to be supported as living museums, so that they do…

Staff Reporter SET in Alexandra, Johannesburg, this is a charming coming-of-age story. A car has collided with a Coca-Cola truck in Alexandra. The overturned trailer is spilling its contents, which residents are carrying off in their plastic “Shangaan Gucci” bags. With two other bystanders, 14-year-old Lerato Morolong helps the injured truck driver. The woman who drives them to hospital is Professor Ngobese, matriarch of the family at No 80, the only house in the neighbourhood with a street address, aka Those White People. Here begins Lerato’s relationship with the Ngobeses – Auntie Gugu and her daughter Janine, who becomes Lerato’s BF and one half of the dancing duo, Two Tons o’ Fun (because life’s too short to spend in a tent dress). As Lerato’s story unfolds, you’ll meet her quick-fingered,…

Julian Richfield julianrichfield2@gmail.com HAVE you gone into a room and momentarily forgotten why you went there? How often have you forgotten where you left your cell phone? These memory lapses only become more and more frequent as we get older. In his new book, The Memory Bible, Dr Gary Small says that these moments don’t have to happen, and he suggests that one’s memory and mental capacity can be improved. The book is a guide to improving memory loss and keeping the brain young. “The scientific research described in this book revealed that initiating certain lifestyle habits, including regular exercise, healthy diet, stress management and mental stimulation can not only slow or stop memory loss in its tracks, it can help restore prior losses.” The Memory Bible is in parts…

T Markandan | Kloof FORMER president Jacob Zuma must be rubbing his hands and grinning from ear to ear. “He he hee, they said I was bad. Now (EFF leader Julius) Malema tells President Cyril Ramaphosa to his face that he is the worst president the country has ever had.” Should we believe Malema? Ramaphosa has done nothing to halt the country plunging into the yawning chasm below. It’s frightening. Unemployment is at a record high. Inequality, poverty, crime, corruption, ineptitude and mismanagement show no sign of easing. Towns and cities run by the ANC are in a deplorable state. Eskom is crippling business, trains don’t run and education is a mess. Even Sars has been infiltrated by the thieves. Is there any government department or state…

Will the socio-economic problems in Cabo Delgado, arising from decades of neglect by the Mozambican government and which contributed to enormous poverty, be resolved by war? Since the unrest began and displayed unmistakable signs of dismay and dissatisfaction with the lack of social services and the absence of political will by the authorities to redress justified demands for equitable distribution of state resources, legitimacy of grievances have yet to be acknowledged. And the failure by SADC to hold leaders of Mozambique to account for neglecting their responsibilities towards the underdeveloped and poverty-stricken population of Cabo Delgado before jumping into a war is questionable. Similar questions should also be raised about the offshore gas project by a French multinational oil company and whether the deal necessitated further violent repression of the…

A 2 000-year-old Roman cemetery containing at least 20 ornately decorated graves has been uncovered near the shoreline in the northern Gaza Strip, with the antiquities ministry calling it the most important local discovery of the past decade. Gaza is rich with antiquities, having been an important trading spot for many civilisations. Ruins there include the remains of a siege by Alexander the Great as well as a Mongol invasion. Twenty Roman graves have been found so far and the team expect to unearth 80. | Reuters…

I will admit that the recently released Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power teaser trailer initially had me distressed. Beloved are the works of JRR Tolkien to me, so to see so many liberties taken with his classic work had me quite alarmed that the series – quite possibly the most expensive ever produced for TV – would not live up to the legacy of what has come before, despite the fact that I have not even seen an episode. With the insertion of modern sensibilities, it is often difficult to put aside one’s own preconceived ideas and prejudices. Tolkien’s works were mostly written in the first half of the 20th century, and exposed the societal norms of those times, but the world has moved on, it has…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za GRINDROD Shipping Holdings, the Nasdaq and JSE-listed global provider of mainly dry-bulk maritime transport services, has declared an interim quarterly cash dividend of $0.72 (R10.76) per ordinary share, the results for the three months and year to December 31, 2021 showed yesterday. Some $10.2 million of shares were repurchased in the quarter, equivalent to $0.55 a share, which means the company will return capital equivalent to a total of $1.27 per ordinary share to shareholders. For the full 2021, cash dividends totalling $1.44 per ordinary share were declared, and shares worth $11.9m were repurchased. Chief executive Martyn Wade said 2021 was a transformational year for Grindrod Shipping, as it recorded financial results in the fourth quarter and full year overall, while concluding several important initiatives. “We…

Itumeleng Mafisa itumeleng.mafisa@inl.co.za THE SA Medical Association (Sama) said it was concerned that doctors and health-care workers would start looking for work in other countries if security in public hospitals was not improved. This comes after the attempted rape and hijacking of a Mpumalanga doctor this week and the killing of nursing assistant Lebo Monene at the Tembisa Hospital last week. “On Tuesday night, a doctor at the Mapulaneng Hospital in Mpumalanga was attacked while on her way to the doctor’s residential quarters after her shift. She was hijacked, robbed at gunpoint, and the perpetrators attempted to rape her,” said Sama’s spokesperson, Dr Simonia Magardie. Sama's vice-chairperson Mvuyisi Mzukwa told The Star that doctors were frustrated because their safety was not guaranteed in public hospitals. Mzukwa said Sama had sent…

Itumeleng Mafisa itumeleng.mafisa@inl.co.za A PRETORIA father is trying to raise funds for his 8-year-old daughter to go to the US and compete in an international ballet competition. Thabang Senekal, who is originally from the Free State, said he planned on raising about R100 000 for his daughter, Remoabetswe, to fly to the US and represent South Africa in a junior ballet competition. Senekal was so adamant in wanting to ensure that his daughter’s dreams come true that he was even planning some fund-raisers, including an opera concert featuring himself. “I am a father and we fathers will stop at nothing to ensure that our children’s futures are bright. All I want to do is see her smile,” said Senekal. Senekal said he and his wife, Neo, spotted their daughter’s love…

JOBURG mayor Mpho Phalatse kicked off a service delivery blitz this week in Region E, which encompasses Alexandra, Marlboro, Sandton, Orange Grove and surrounds as part of the re-launch of the A Re Sebetseng (Let’s Work) campaign. Accompanied by Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC Michael Sun and Transport MMC Funzela Ngobeni, Phalatse was also joined by ward councillors and the city officials to fix potholes along 1st Avenue outside Pan African Mall in Alexandra. The blitz tackles service delivery backlogs such as illegal dumping, leaking pipes, fixing potholes, broken traffic lights, fixing street lights on a block by block, region by region approach. Phalatse said: “While A Re Sebetseng has previously been focused on communities working with the city to keep our parks and streets clean, we are today launching…

Anita Nkonki anita.nkonki@inl.co.za LOCAL singer-songwriter Vuyo Mbita has given a nod of appreciation to all those who continually support him in his music craft as he rises up. The music star says he was delighted to know that more than 40 community radio stations across the country played his single, Emaweni. “I am so happy that they play my music in most radio stations especially my single called Emaweni. “I am more thrilled by the opportunity to do interviews on local radio stations because with the interviews I am able to talk about my music journey,” he said. Mbita shared his journey to being a star which originates from his late grandmother who was also fond of music and was a well-known entertainer in many villages back home. He told…

Staff Reporter IF YOU paid a moment’s attention during high school history lessons, you probably know that 1910 brought about the Union of South Africa, that the 1948 general election ushered in apartheid, and that the Rainbow Nation was born when Madiba triumphed in the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. Spoilt Ballots dishes the dirt on these pivotal events in our history. But it also sheds light on a dozen lesser known contests, starting with the assassination of King Shaka in 1828 and ending with the anointing of President Cyril Ramaphosa at Nasrec in 2017. Spoilt Ballots is as much about the people who voted in some of our most decisive elections as it is about those who didn’t get to make their mark. It explains why a black…

Staff Reporter IMMEDIATELY in the aftermath of his wife Andrea’s death, Gerry Pelser began documenting his thoughts and feelings about his new life as a “reluctant” widower on social media as no one wants to be an “enthusiastic” widower. Semi-daily snippets of candid and raw expressions of grief, fear, and confusion – punctuated with unexpected humour – went up on Facebook for the world to see. Several posts went viral, and messages of support poured in from strangers as far away from India and New Zealand. Numerous of these encouraged Gerry to publish his posts as a book, simply because his posts helped people with their own healing and who wanted to share their recovery with other people. In a surprisingly funny and heartfelt manner, Gerry breaks the fourth wall…

Cometh Dube-Makholwa | Midrand IN RUSTENBURG, there were many foreigners from our neighbouring countries who were recruited by the previous government to work on the platinum mines. Obviously, they were not in the country illegally and they never bothered anyone. Instead, they were a blessing to the community as they peacefully supported their informal businesses. I couldn’t understand how a respected journalist like Fred Khumalo could compare two very different situations in his opposition to what is dubbed xenophobia, which is taking place in the country. Many South Africans have complained for many years about the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants into the country, and no one in their right mind can deny the accompanying hardships that have confronted our citizens, but who cares? All the complaints…

Duma Gqubule At the end of a meeting with social movements and grass-roots organisations on January 18 to discuss the basic income grant, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the unemployment crisis was an issue that gave him sleepless nights. Two weeks later, he called me to schedule a discussion so he could hear my views about the crisis. During the meeting, I said there had been a time – March 2003 to December 2008 – when we created 3.1 million jobs. There was no unemployment growth. The president wanted to hear about this and, two days before the State of the Nation Address (Sona) we met again. He had just had a meeting with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, during which he had asked him to fund his presidential employment stimulus,…

A dozen undocumented migrants on Mexico’s southern border sewed their mouths shut this week in a bid to convince the country’s immigration authority to grant them passage toward the US border. The migrants, mostly Central and South Americans, helped each other seal their lips using needles and plastic threads, leaving a small space to consume liquids. The protest took place in Tapachula, a border city with Guatemala, which for months has been filled with migrants waiting for papers. | Reuters…

MIKE GREENAWAY mike.greenaway@inl.co.za IN the biggest coup yet for the Sharks under CEO Ed Coetzee and the Sharks’ American partners, Springbok bruiser Eben Etzebeth has signed a five-year deal that will see him playing out his career at Durban’s Hollywoodbets Kings Park. The Sharks have lacked a genuine enforcer in their pack for many a year and the 30-year-old Etzebeth fills a significant gap in the Sharks’ engine room. Etzebeth, who has played 97 times for the Springboks, will play out the French season with Toulon and join up with the Sharks in July and will remain in their ranks until the end of 2027. Hot on the heels of the contracting of Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and Bok starting hooker Bongi Mbonambi, the signature of one of the most…

ZAAHIER ADAMS zaahier.adams@inl.co.za THE Proteas women’s team are in high spirits now that they can finally begin their preparations in earnest for the World Cup after serving their time in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) in New Zealand. The MIQ restrictions in New Zealand are among the most stringent in the world and it certainly takes a toll on the players’ physical and mental well being. “We have been in stuck in a room for quite a while,” Lara Goodall said. “It feels amazing actually (to be outside of a hotel room). If you include the travelling then it’s more than a week. “It was good to get out and have a bit of a refresher. I literally just wanted to take a walk. To walk wherever I wanted and…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za THE rand strengthened to a three-month high yesterday, dipping below the R15 mark to the US dollar and buoyed by a rally in global commodity prices on continued geopolitical risks. The domestic currency firmed to R14.96 against the greenback, the strongest it has been since October 26, as tensions between Russia and Ukraine re-escalated. The rand first broke below the R15/$1-level overnight after headline inflation for January was lower at 5.7 percent, while retail sales for December were up 3.7 percent. “A sustained break of this level could see further strength to the 200-day moving average at R14.90 levels,” said André Cilliers, a currency strategist at TreasuryONE. “Trading could, however, be choppy as the situation between Russia and Ukraine develops …” The markets were…

Madonna admits auditioning for her upcoming biopic has been a “surreal experience”. She has been working on the upcoming movie based on her life and she’s given fans an update following reports she has been heading up the casting call for the project. She wrote on Instagram: “Auditions for my film are a surreal experience. “But I’m enjoying Dancing to the Classics!! #burningup (sic)” The Queen of Pop recently admitted she’s been finding it “really weird” delving back into her history for the project. Back in October 2021, Madonna gave fans an update alongside a series of selfies on social media as she revealed she had “almost finished” writing the screenplay for the biopic. She wrote at the time: “Grateful for the success of Madame X, that my script is…

Bongani Nkosi bongani.nkosi@inl.co.za AFTER the defence closed its case in Ntuthuko Shoba’s murder trial yesterday, the family of slain Tshegofatso Pule expressed confidence that the State had adequate evidence to fetch a life imprisonment sentence. The State closed its case last week, leaving Shoba’s legal team to lead its case this week. In a week that saw Shoba taking to the witness box in the high court in Joburg, to give his version of events that preceded the eight months pregnant Pule’s brutal killing, the defence concluded its case yesterday after calling a witness who was close to Muzikayise Malephane, a Soweto man who confessed that he killed Pule on June 4, 2020. The witness testified that Malephane did not sell cigarettes illicitly during the hard lockdown. This contradicted Shoba’s…

There’s well-known old white (because in an African village that rubbish won’t fly) tale about a naked emperor whose subjects had to pretend he was dressed when in fact he was naked. The same juxtaposition was used many times by media and satirists in the political space on politicians but when those politicians left office, the new era seemed to come with a new pair of eyes in the same critics. Black law firms are experiencing a deliberate effort to economically sideline them from government work. The efforts, which blatantly amount to capture, in a nutshell are done under the watch of an administration that has mainly shunned black businesses in general but ironically vowed to capture illegitimate capture of state resources. The result is an administration whose policy is…

Orielle Berry orielle.berry@inl.co.za WHEN a seemingly upstanding Danish citizen of Chicago has graffiti spray-painted on the outside wall of his restaurant with the words “liar; traitor; betrayer” and “Nazi collaborator” it sets off an unprecedented chain of events. Little does Ole Henryks know that in instituting legal proceedings against Britta Stein for emblazoning the defamatory words on his property he, the man who has made others believe he saved dozens of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, will open a hornet’s nest. Both protagonists involved are nonagenarians but are certainly feisty characters – Stein in unhesitatingly defending her case for writing these words, and Henryks in as vigorously, negating her claims. The story opens when Henryks, the popular and well-loved proprietor of The Melancholy Dane, is about to receive…

Staff REporter JOURNALIST Sarah Bullen and her film-maker husband Llewellyn seemed like a golden couple, with successful careers and two lovely children. But then Llewellyn discovers that he has a brain tumour. As he pursues a shamanic path to fight the cancer, they are catapulted into a world of ritual and ceremony. With hospitals, surgery and treatments comes a wilder journey of spiritual searching. Then the impossible happens: she falls ill. While in a coma, Sarah has a near-death experience. She comes back with a message – to choose joy over fear. It becomes a roadmap to allow her to write a new life story and call in a new way of living rooted in bliss, joy and love. Taking us from Hout Bay to the Mediterranean and back, Sarah’s…

Farouk Araie | Johannesburg WILL we ever witness peace in our lifetime? It is a chilling and grim fact that we, as the current generation, have been witnesses to more than 70 years of continued warfare in every corner of our poverty-stricken world. It seems the mystical Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride their fiery steeds across the lands. War, famine, pestilence and death are our companions. Military conflicts are raging while the UN is powerless to intervene. When you read the news, it seems mankind is always at war somewhere. Europe, Asia and The Middle East are about to explode in a fireball that could consume the entire area. Throughout world history, nations, alliances and imperial empires have battled one another. Mankind has practised warfare as a…

Through the centuries, the human dignity of indigenous peoples all over the world has been trampled upon by dominant nations and classes. In South Africa, relief for the majority of its citizens came in 1994 with the democratic dispensation being ushered in and in 1996, a new Constitution was signed into the supreme law of the land, with its Bill of Rights guaranteeing several fundamental human rights, one of these being the right to human dignity. I will discuss here two Constitutional Court judgments, which I believe bring clarity to this phenomenon of human dignity. The first of these is a brilliant judgment delivered by Madlanga J, in Daniels v Scribante, where the issue was about whether or not the notion of our common law understanding of ownership over property,…

For many countries, the hope is that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is over. Britain has announced it is planning the last of its domestic coronavirus rules – the legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive – by the end of the month, having already scrapped most measures for masks and vaccine passports. The decision by Britain followed a similar move last month from Denmark, where authorities went further and suggested they did not see the need to administer booster shots to children or a fourth shot to other residents. Other European countries, including Scandinavian neighbours Sweden and Norway as well as some federal states in Germany, have pulled back their own restrictions. In the US, mask requirements have already come off in many states. In Washington DC,…