Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-07-18 i Star

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has given a glimpse into the mooted plan by govern- ment to resolve the ongoing energy crisis through the creation of another state-owned power utility. This comes after Eskom plunged the country into Stage 6 power cuts last month, with power gen- eration deteriorating to its worst levels since December 2019, due to plant break- downs that were worsened by a lack of maintenance during a strike by workers. Ramaphosa said on Friday that Eskom’s monopoly of electricity supply was posing a “risk” to South Africa’s econo- my amid its years-long failures to meet energy demand. He said the Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe had proposed a second state-owned power utility be established. “It is a risk to have one electricity (provider) owned by…

THE NATIONAL Treasury says it is taking steps to strengthen public participation in the drafting of the national Budget in a bid to further improve transparency. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in January invited South Africans to share their suggestions about what the government should be spending on, how to address a large Budget deficit, new sources of tax revenues and other Budget-relevant information. This is usually a normal pre-Budget process to encourage public interest as the finance minister strives to strike a balance between competing national spending priorities. However, the Treasury on Friday said South Africa wanted to strengthen its commitment to a transparent budget system after maintaining its reputation as a global leader in this sphere. This comes as South Africa came second in transparency in the 2021 Open…

Awards season is upon us and we finally get to honour and celebrate our silver-screen favourites who entertain us daily. The eagerly anticipated 16th South African Film & Television Awards (Saftas) nominations were announced last week across all its digital platforms, under the theme “Frame the Future”, which is a call for the industry to work together in crafting a new path forward. This year, 1Magic telenovela The River, Showmax’s DAM and Tali’s Baby Diary landed an impressive 11 nominations each, while Mzansi Magic’s DiepCity and Showmax’s Suidooster were right behind with 10 nominations each, and kykNET’s G.I.L received nine nods, making the MultiChoice Group dominate the nominations board. As for the SABC, it received six nods for Skeem Saam, three for 7de Laan and S3’s Murder in Paris received…

Struggle stalwart was a champion of the oppressed ANC deputy secretary general Yasmin “Jessie” Duarte was buried in a special official funeral service yesterday afternoon. Duarte, 68, passed away in the early hours yesterday after battling with cancer for eight months. She was buried at Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg. She was undergoing treatment for cancer, and had been on medical leave from November last year. Duarte became actively involved in politics at a younger age and developed a reputation as an activist and an advocate for equality over the years. She worked closely with the late Struggle stalwart Albertina Sisulu to establish women’s structures throughout the country, while serving as the provincial secretary of the Federation of Transvaal Women, which was a United Democratic Front affiliate. At the time of…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana has named and shamed four municipalities in the Free State and Northern Cape that failed to pay salaries to their employees from the beginning of April to date. Godongwana said his hands were tied and he could not intervene when councils did not honour their financial obligations. He revealed this while responding to Parliamentary questions from Freedom Front Plus MP Ignatius Michael Groenewald, who asked about the total number of municipalities in each province that did not pay salaries in the past five financial years Groenewald also enquired about municipalities that only partly paid salaries for one month, two to six months, and for more than six months. In his written response, Godongwana named Renosterberg Municipality in the Northern Cape as well as Tokogo, Mantsopa and…

When a tenant continues to occupy the dwelling after the fixed period lease ends, the occupation becomes a monthly periodic lease. Section 5 of the Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999 relates to the provisions of leases and subsection 5 deals with an expired lease. Under this paragraph, if the tenant remains in the dwelling, with the express or tacit consent of the landlord, a periodic lease is created. In the absence of a further written lease, parties are bound by the same terms and conditions of the expired lease, except that at least one month’s written notice must be given of the intention to terminate the lease. What would be the tenancy period if parties begin to negotiate a new lease after the fixed lease expired? Let us take…

NGOs are vital in strengthening democracy and community development. On this year’s Mandela Day, we should take the opportunity to applaud their work. NGOs have a fine track record in terms of community development and strengthening our democracy. The government would not have made an impact without the help of NGOs, whether during Covid-19, the July 2021 unrest, the 2022 KZN floods, droughts or other catastrophes. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is one of many organisations helping communities. In May 2020, during the peak of Covid-19, with the assistance of generous donors in the Jewish community, it established the SAJBD Food Relief Fund, which has provided R30 million in food and essential supplies to communities in distress. The board partners with The Angel Network. Before the Covid-19 lockdowns,…

“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and enquiring without fear or favour. It must enjoy the protection of the Constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.” Nelson Mandela, February 1994. This Mandela Day, there is no better time to remember that media freedom and democracy are indivisible and inextricably linked. Yet, right now we stand on the edge of losing the protection of our rights, as the greed and power-hungry antics of a handful of corporates and financial institutions are the existentialist threat to our free press…

Los Angeles: Testimony from a key prosecutor in the statutory rape case against Roman Polanski must be unsealed, more than 40 years after the fugitive director was convicted, a California court has ruled. The Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby director was arrested in 1977 after 13-year-old Samantha Gailey accused him of plying her with drugs and champagne and forcibly sodomising her. In a plea deal Polanski accepted guilt for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, but fled to France when he learned the judge intended to reconsider handing down a much lengthier prison sentence. |…

BUENOS AIRES: An Argentine court has acquitted former Argentine president Mauricio Macri of all charges in the submarine sinking case, a judiciary source said on Saturday. Macri was accused of the alleged surveillance of the families of the dead sailors. He was charged 2021. “(The court) dismissed charges against Macri and others involved (in the case),” the source said. The submarine ARA San Juan disappeared off the coast of Argentine in 2017 with its crew of 44. The navy later said that there had been an explosion on board. The wreckage was found a year later. |…

Sudanese authorities have declared an overnight curfew in two towns in south-eastern Blue Nile state, close to the border with Ethiopia, after several days of tribal clashes that they said had left 31 people dead and 39 injured. Clashes spread in several towns from Wednesday after the killing of a farmer, before security forces made arrests and brought the situation under control, a statement from Blue Nile state’s regional government said. The statement said 16 shops had been destroyed and a night curfew was declared in the towns of Damazin and Roseires. There have been sporadic outbreaks of violence in several regions of Sudan, including eastern coastal regions and western Darfur, despite a nationwide peace deal signed by some rebel groups in 2020. The most powerful faction of the Sudan…

Lungi Ngidi 2.0. At only 26 years of age, that is quite a statement, but such has been Ngidi’s troubles that this England tour is a virtual rebirth for the hulking fast bowler. A former automatic selection for the South African senior men’s team in all formats, Ngidi has fallen down the pecking order over the past two years due to a combination of injury and illness. Now in the best physical shape he’s been in a long while, Ngidi has been tasked with leading the Proteas’ attack in the upcoming three-match one-day international series against world champions England, starting in Durham tomorrow. His good mate Kagiso Rabada has been rested for the first leg of the tour. It is a position Ngidi is familiar with, often thriving with the…

MTN’s ATTEMPT to buy Telkom is one of the most audacious bids that we have yet to see in the South African Information and Communications Technology (ICT) space, according to Arthur Goldstuck, the managing director of World Wide Worx. This follows mobile operators MTN and Telkom announcing that they have entered into a formal discussion about MTN buying Telkom. In similar statements released on the JSE on Friday, both companies said the discussions were about MTN acquiring the entire issued share capital of partially state-owned telecommunications provider, Telkom, in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. The companies said the discussions were at an early stage and there was no certainty that the transaction would be consummated. If the deal goes through, this means MTN…

INVESTORS are increasingly interested in sustainability issues as this pertains to all their investments, irrespective of whether they are large or small, equities or bonds, listed or unlisted, across all sectors. Different measurements are made to determine the condition of the atmosphere. The primary variables are barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction. Meteorologists study these readings to help forecast the weather. Most of the atmosphere is composed of nitrogen. In addition to 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent is oxygen. The remaining 1 percent is composed of argon, carbon dioxide, and other gases. The 99 percent of the atmosphere is found within 32km of the surface of the Earth. Half of the atmosphere’s weight is from the surface up to 5.5km in the…

The new season of Pastors’ Wives sees the return of season one fan favourite Innocent Sadiki. The popular Honey TV reality show follows the lives of seven pastors’ wives from different walks of life as each deals with the trials and tribulations of modern life as a religious woman. “I’m excited for the world to see the true and real Innocent Sadiki,” she says. “The preacher, influencer, actor, entrepreneur and mother. I’m excited to inspire all the young and old pastors’ wives out there.” On Instagram, Sadiki shared the trailer. “Inno: ‘But for you, O Lord, do I wait!’ I’m back, and it’s gonna be LIT,” she wrote. Season 3 premieres on July 31 at 9pm on Honey TV (DStv channel 173).…

EFF president Julius Malema has accused singer Kelly Khumalo of knowing who killed Bafana Bafana captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa, saying he was more than convinced that Khumalo knew something. Malema also blasted advocate Malesela Teffo, formerly defence counsel for four of the men accused of killing Meyiwa. Last week Teffo withdrew from the case, citing harassment from the State and the court. Meyiwa was allegedly killed in an home invasion on October 26, 2014, at the home of Khumalo, who at the time was Meyiwa’s girlfriend. Addressing the media last week about several issues facing the country, including President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala scandal and crime, Malema said Khumalo had to be held accountable because of her knowledge of the murder. “We hold a view that Senzo was killed…

The absence of a permanent city manager in Tshwane for almost three years has been attributed to instability within the metro leadership, which might have bred the irregularly spent budget of R2.7 billion for the 2020/2021 financial period. This was a view expressed by the regional South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in the wake of the adverse finding by the Auditor-General that the metro was the worst performing municipality in Gauteng. The union expressed concerns that the municipality has been without a permanent city manager for two years, saying it contributed to low morale in the institution. The position of permanent municipal manager had been vacant since the departure of Dr Moeketsi Mosola in 2019. Acting municipal manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng was ushered into the post by former head administrator…

The community of Thembelihle in Lenasia is living in fear after a shooting claimed the lives of five people outside a tavern in the area. According to reports, gunmen shot and killed a group of people playing dice outside the tavern on Saturday at about 7.30pm. This is the third shooting in two weeks in Nomzamo and Katlehong last week. This incident, which is being investigated by police, happened a few minutes after a 20-year-old was shot in the area a few streets away from the tavern. The shooting on Saturday night outside the tavern has left the community shocked as it happened a few minutes after the shooting a few streets away of Thapelo Phiri while on his way to buy candles at a nearby shop. Phiri is…

Canoeist Andy Birkett made his return to the international marathon racing stage by winning a gold medal at the men’s 21km marathon event at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, on Tuesday. Birkett went toe-to-toe with the Danish world champion Mads Pedersen in extreme heat at the Oak Mountain State Park, and won a thrilling end-sprint to claim the title, said Canoeing South Africa spokesperson Dave Macleod. Birkett finished eighth in a short-course race where he battled asthma but bounced back to win. “The pace that Mads was setting down was insane! He took the race from a slow, strategic race with a big end-sprint to a fast race, and to be competitive in the end-sprint you have to be there,” Birkett said. “I had the goal of just trying…

CARING4Girls beneficiary under the Dis-Chem Foundation’s Million Comforts Campaign, Mendy Sibanyoni from Luphisi village in Mpumalanga comes full circle as she has started her internship at Dis-Chem during her term holidays while completing her studies in pharmacy. “My name is Mendy Sibanyoni from Luphisi village in Mpumalanga. I am presently a third-year pharmacy student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Westville campus. “I completed my matric in 2019 at Sidungeni Secondary School and I was one of the beneficiaries of Million Comforts Caring4Girls programme. Through the love and care of Dis-Chem Pharmacies and Imbumba Foundation, I was one of the fortunate girls to be supported throughout my high school days with sanitary pads every month.” Sibanyoni Caring4Girls is a programme, founded by the Imbumba Foundation, that addresses the harsh reality…

AS PER your headline for Thursday, that Minister Nathi Mthethwa wants to squander R30 million on a philharmonic orchestra programme, this man wants to justify his position as a minister by going big. After the terrible tavern shootings, I recall a parent saying his underage son and friends went to the beer hall to watch “soapies” as there was no electricity at home, and they played pool as their recreation. What a sad state of affairs that there is nowhere for children to go to enjoy themselves, make decent friends and learn new skills! Could Mthethwa rather spend his allocated budget to ensure that there are community halls for the youth to congregate? If he appoints honest and competent administrators to run the centres he can equip the premises with…

The pendulum of destiny swings, and you’d have to say that it has tilted towards the Northern Hemisphere … for now. With 417 days to go before the Springboks must defend their Rugby World Cup crown in France – on the evidence of this past month – one could argue that it is Ireland, France and England which hold the psychological edge as we build up to the sport’s showpiece event. All three of these nations stamped their names as pre-2023 favourites this month with stellar performances of growth and evolution. Ireland, in particular, was extraordinary in their 2-1 Test series victory over the All Blacks – their first such triumph over the Kiwis. Meanwhile, Eddie Jones’s England secured a consecutive series victory over Australia. France, arguably, had the easiest…

Israeli fighter jets struck Gaza following rocket launches from the Palestinian territory on Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden flew from Israel to Saudi Arabia on a Middle East trip aimed at deepening Israel’s integration into the region. The Israeli military said it hit two facilities belonging to Hamas, the Islamist militant group that governs the blockaded strip. One of the targets was an underground rocket-manufacturing plant, the military said. Gaza witnesses described the two sites struck as Hamas training camps. No injuries were reported. “The military site consists of an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets,” the Israel Defence Forces said, describing the facility as “one of the most significant” of its kind in the territory. “The strike on this site will significantly…

LONDON: About 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations last year that protect against life-threatening diseases, as the effects of Covid-19 continue to disrupt health care. That is two million more children than in 2020, when the pandemic caused lockdowns, and six million more than pre-pandemic in 2019, according to new figures released by the UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. Unicef described the drop as the largest backslide in childhood vaccination in a generation, taking coverage rates back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. |…

NUSA DUA: IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has warned the Group of 20 (G20) countries to take urgent action to combat inflation, warning that the “exceptionally uncertain” global economic outlook could turn worse if higher prices persisted. Speaking at a G20 finance meeting in Indonesia on Saturday, she said the war in Ukraine had increased prices, and global financial conditions were tightening more than expected in addition to pandemic-related disruptions. She said the situation in heavily-indebted countries was deteriorating fast. |…

Embattled Tongaat Hulett, which has had to scrap plans for a R5 billion rights issue, has asked the JSE for a temporary suspension of its shares while it undergoes a restructuring aimed at alleviating liquidity and debt problems at southern Africa’s biggest sugar producer. The share price fell 8.52 percent to R3.22 on Friday on the news, after the share price had risen sharply from R2.66 on June 1 up to R4.77 on news that a minority shareholder Artemis had upped its stake in the group to 10 percent, and that the controversial plans for a rights issue had been terminated. The group admitted on Friday that a longer-term financial solution is required for Tongaat Hulett’s audited annual financial statements to be finalised, and this was largely…

THE PUBLIC Investment Corporation (PIC), which is the guardian of 82 percent of the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF’s) R2.09 trillion portfolio, must get all dividends that are due to it as stated by former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni when addressing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF) in December 2020. AYO Technology Solutions (AYO) in which the PIC invested R4.3 billion of the GEPF’s funds has done just that. The black-owned tech firm paid Africa’s largest asset manager a total of R310 million in dividends from 2018 to now. By any standards, the asset manager getting R310m in dividends over a three-year period on a R4.3bn investment is a relatively good return given the state of the economy during a period when most companies were not even…

Dating reality show Love Is Blind season 2 star Jeremy Hartwell has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the series' producers, saying the cast was mistreated while filming the show. “They intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water and sleep, plied them with booze and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world. “This made them hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making,” Hartwell's attorney, Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, PC, of Los Angeles, said in a statement given to Page Six. “The contracts required contestants to agree that if they left the show before filming was done, they would be penalised by being required to pay $50 000 (about R860 000) in ‘liquidated damages’.” “With that being…

SUSPENDED ANC secretary general Ace Magashule has labelled the late deputy secretary general as a no-nonsense person who shared explosive secrets with him when they often secretly met former president Jacob Zuma. Magashule was speaking to the media outside the home of the late Jessie Duarte, who took ill around November last year, leaving the office of the secretary-general vacant since Magashule was under suspension. Duarte succumbed after an eight-month battle with cancer, resulting in a string of condolences coming from different sectors of society, including various political formations. “Our relationship dates back to the years of the Struggle. I always went to her home and we had one-on-one discussions. We would meet with Comrade Bathabile Dlamini, and when we had issues she would actually say Comrade Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma…

COVID-19 cases in Africa continue to decline slightly with the trend for a plateau persisting for yet another week. So announced the World Health Organization Africa, saying 41 540 new cases were reported in the week ending July 10 – a 9.4% decrease from the week before. This is relatively low as weekly cases have fluctuated from 19 500 to more than 300 000, it said. “Deaths rates are also relatively low – the average over the past month is a bit more than 130 each week. “Weekly deaths have fluctuated from less than 10 in the first few weeks of the pandemic to nearly 3 900. “Even as cases fall, it is important that countries remain vigilant and capitalise on the decline to beef up their…

RESPECTED guests and local household names gathered in an evening of celebration and commemoration at the Joburg Theatre’s Diamond Jubilee Evening of Celebration held at the theatre on Saturday. The night extended appreciation to directors, playwrights, musicians and choreographers who have largely contributed to their space and left a lasting mark in the past 60 years. The event to mark the theatre’s 60th anniversary saw some of the theatremakers honoured in the diamond walk of fame. These included popular personalities such as Patrick Mynhard, Mimi Coetzee, Des/Dawn Lindberg, Joan Brickhill, Janice Honeyman, Johnny Clegg, Athol Fugard, John Kani, Pieter Dirk-Uys, Mirriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Sibongile Khumalo, Gibson Kente, Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo, Tobie Cronje, Desmond Dube, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Brenda Fassie, Trevor Noah and Gregory Maqoma. Chief executive of Joburg…

IS OUR our government watching the events unfolding in Sri Lanka? The Sri Lankan masses, tired of their corrupt and inefficient leaders, have stormed the presidential palace, making President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flee the country. The Sri Lankan government was a family-run oligarchy. The president and his family had governed for nearly two decades. They turned a blind eye to their people’s economic woes. But when the economy collapsed, the masses drove them out of power. It could happen here. We are ripe for a people’s revolution. The ANC has been in power for far too long and has become arrogant and complacent. It has turned into a ravenous beast, bent on destroying the country’s wealth. The president and his Cabinet of nincompoops have no clue how to run a modern…

WE are faced daily with other challenges regarding food production and consumption – that is food safety and food fraud . Unbeknown to the average consumer and the uninformed, blatant disregard for the rules and regulations regarding the processing, manufacturing and packing of food products may pose serious health risks and even death for some. South Africa recently joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Food Safety Day. With an expanding world economy, globalisation of the food trade, growing consumer demand, developments in science and technology, improvements in distribution modes and communication channels, international trade in fresh and processed foods will continue to increase. Since the outbreak of listeriosis in 2018, polony manufacturers and marketers have embarked on an aggressive drive to highlight the purity of their product.…

PLANNED power cuts by South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, have left businesses and households without electricity for close to six hours daily. Eskom introduced the latest round of power cuts, commonly referred to as load shedding, in June after generation units in three power plants broke down. Then, to make matters worse, employees at several power stations downed tools. During the drawn-out industrial action, the utility increased the duration of the power cuts. In addition to frustrating households and businesses, the power cuts could be shaving billions of rand off the country’s economy daily. At The Conversation Africa, we have been working with academic experts to try to make sense of the structural and governance factors driving the power cuts and how to get the country out of this…

Gang violence killed or injured at least 234 people from July 8-12 in Haiti’s Cite Soleil, an impoverished and densely-populated neighbourhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the UN said on Saturday. The unrest erupted between two rival factions and the city’s ill-equipped and understaffed police failed to intervene, leaving residents trapped in their homes, unable to go out even for food and water. With many houses in the slums built of sheet metal, residents fell victim to stray bullets. Ambulances were unable to reach those in need. “Most of the victims were not directly involved in gangs, but were directly targeted by gang elements. We have also received new reports of sexual violence,” said UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence. Earlier this week, the National Human Rights Defense Network, a…

Paris: After registering nine cases of intimidation of journalists by army agencies in Pakistan since Shehbaz Sharif took over as prime minister in late April, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has cautioned against harassment of the media, which undermines the country’s democracy. “It is clear from the data that the armed forces have launched a major campaign to intimidate critical journalists,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. He said this kind of interference, which is intolerable, must stop to prevent the decline in press freedom in Pakistan. |…

Belgian Jasper Philipsen claimed his maiden victory on the Tour de France when he won a bunch sprint in the 15th stage as overall leader Jonas Vingegaard and his team suffered a bad day yesterday. Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Philipsen timed his effort to perfection to beat compatriot Wout van Aert and Dane Mads Pedersen, who were second and third, respectively. “It’s the biggest victory you can hope for. I came close a few times last year and our ambition was to win this year. There were very few opportunities for sprinters so we had to be patient,” said Philipsen. Vingegaard retained the yellow jersey, but hit the deck and lost two of his Jumbo-Visma teammates as Steven Kruijswijk crashed out and Primoz Roglic did not take the start of the 202.5km…