Innholdsfortegnelse for Saturday, June 6, 2020 i Pretoria News Weekend

CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN DAY 72 Lockdown: appeal is ‘surprising’ ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za THE lawyer who represented Liberty Fighters Network (LFN) – the group which scored a victory when it had some of the lockdown regulations declared invalid this week – said he was surprised by the fact that the government wanted to appeal the judgment. Zahir Omar yesterday said he had not yet received anything official from the government, thus did not know what the grounds for appeal would be. “The first I knew about it was when I read it in the media,” he said. Government has two weeks grace from the date of the judgment to note their intention to ask for leave to appeal. “Until they note their intention to appeal, the judgment stands.” The North Gauteng High…

ENVIRONMENT River drowning in pollution LIAM NGOBENI liam.ngobeni@inl.co.za THE Hennops River, which has been completely overrun by polystyrene, plastic and upstream sewage, has seen fewer clean-ups since the lockdown began. Tarryn Johnston of the Hennops Revival organisation, told the Pretoria News the lockdown had reversed the progress that had been made in recent months by clean-ups as these were not allowed under level 5. “Under level 5 we were completely locked down and couldn’t do any river cleaning, and under level 4 we managed to do just one clean-up – on my birthday! – after I applied for permission, as it fell under the regulations for waste picking. “At this point, water quality seems extremely bad, you can see the raw sewage even more,” she said. “It’s so disgusting, you…

TRAVEL Airlines prepare for take-off Only available for people doing business SAFAIR and Airlink have reopened for bookings for domestic business travel from Monday. Airlink plans to be first to lift off with flights from Monday and Safair will follow from Wednesday next week. Mango also hopes to resume flights next week while SAA plans to restart flights on the Joburg-Cape Town route mid-month. Comair, which is under bankruptcy protection, plans to restart later in the year. SAA, which offered a number of international repatriation charters, cancelled all planned scheduled flights on regional and international services until the end of June 2020, said it would continue to review the situation. Flights in level three of lockdown are limited to the Joburg, Cape Town, and Durban routes, and are only…

SA’s international tourism operations set to resume in 2021 SOUTH Africa’s international tourism industry is likely to only begin operations again next year. Speaking at a briefing on May 27, Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said domestic tourism would likely fully recover by December of this year, while international tourism was expected to resume only in February next year. “Although we will be gradually opening up the (tourism) sector in the coming months, depending on how the virus is spreading, we expect that the sector will only fully recover towards the end of this year,” she said. “The first phase of the recovery for the sector will be driven by domestic tourism, followed by regional tourism and international tourism next year.” However there is widespread hope of a slowdown in the…

Sweden admits to its mistakes SWEDEN’S state epidemiologist has for the first time admitted he made the wrong call on the country’s Covid-19 lockdown. Anders Tegnell, who was behind the decision to shun full lockdown in favour of voluntary physical distancing measures, now admits that too many people have died under his strategy. Asked to battle the same disease again with the benefit of hindsight, Tegnell said he would bring in tougher measures to slow the spread. However, he still believes full lockdowns of the kind seen in other European countries during the outbreak were unnecessary. Speaking to Sveriges Radio on Wednesday, he said: “Should we encounter the same disease, with exactly what we know about it today, I think we would land in doing midway between what Sweden did…

PETS Leash warning for dog owners OWNERS who yank at their dog’s leash when out walking risk injuring the animal or causing it breathing difficulties, according to new research. Even the lightest tug exerts a force on the animal’s neck that is double the pressure felt from a tourniquet used to prevent bleeding, say scientists. And when a dog on a leash suddenly lunges after a squirrel or its owner jerks the lead to correct the pet, the force can be six times greater. Anne Carter, a canine scientist at Nottingham Trent University and co-author of the study, wants dogs to be trained to walk on a loose lead or in a harness to prevent choking, breathing problems and neck damage. Laboratory tests were conducted on seven types of dog…

EDITORIAL It’s going to be tough, but we’ll get through it THE COVID-19 numbers started to rise, seriously, this week. The Western Cape, unfortunately, is the front runner with more than 65% of the reported coronavirus cases and 75% of the inflection-related deaths. The Eastern Cape, is catching up fast – frighteningly so. The rest of the country will not be far off. This is the reality of the pandemic – we have seen this trajectory play out in Asia, Europe and the US. There will be an understandable tendency to become alarmed by the spike in infections. We might even become despondent. We should not do either. On Monday, when South Africa went down to level 3 of the lockdown, this was not because the worst had passed, but…

CARPING POINT Schabir Shaik showed world playing golf can be fairway to health KEVIN RITCHIE @RitchKev WHAT A time to be alive! Virtual signalling on social media reached fever pitch this week: black squares signalling #BlackLivesMatter abounding; many by South Africans apparently deliriously new to the movement, but still resolutely mute to the realities beyond their own front door. Netizens have been rejoicing in the belated solidarity of “taking a knee” with NFL star player Colin Kaepernick, none of whom cared enough when his activism cost him his career. Few are awake to the awful irony of Derek Chauvin taking a knee to kill George Floyd – sparking the upheaval in the US. Here at home, the Mother Grundies had their work cut out on Monday, agog and aghast at…

PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD BLACK LIVES MATTER THE killing of George Floyd in the US has triggered worldwide protests against racism and brutality. Here are some of the latest demonstrations outside the US: YESTERDAY ◆ In Germany, people protested against racism in Frankfurt and Hamburg. ◆ In London, people gathered in Trafalgar Square in solidarity with protests in the US. ◆ In Mexico, people demonstrated outside the US Embassy in Mexico City. ◆ In Monrovia, Liberians showed their support for justice for Floyd. ◆ In Oslo, protesters gathered in front of US Embassy in Norway. ◆ In Canada, a demonstration called No Peace Until Justice was staged in front of US Embassy in Ottawa. ◆ In Italy, demonstrations against police brutality in solidarity with Floyd took place in Rome.…

Firefighters hurt in ship explosion JACKSONVILLE: Nine firefighters responding to a fire aboard a ship in Florida have been hospitalised after the ship exploded, injuring eight and sending one to a hospital for heat exhaustion, authorities said. The explosion happened nearly three hours after firefighters first responded to a ship at Blount Island after reports of a fire on Thursday afternoon, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department tweeted. The ship, a Norwegian vessel called Hoegh Xiamen was carrying old and used cars and had been scheduled to leave Jacksonville, First Coast News More than 20 crew members on the ship during the initial fire were able to safely get off before the explosion occurred, according to the US Coast Guard, and the blast happened with “crews inside fighting fire,” Jacksonville…

SERIES Portraits of grief with unplanned relevance HEART-THUMPING crushes, rivalries, unsupervised parties, a volcanic cocktail of hormones – we’ve all been there, and so has a whole subgenre of popular television series. The teen high school comedy-drama is comfort food for those of us willing to revisit the carnival of frights that is adolescence. Two recent Netflix series, Never Have I Ever and I’m Not Okay With This, provide a different kind of comfort, particularly in these times: complex and dynamic representations of grief. Though both shows are obviously oblivious to our current reality, of masks and Zoom calls, they serve as an apt metaphor for what we’re facing, with a pandemic causing widespread illness and death. The shows’ respective protagonists, already caught in the tangle of adolescence, itself a…

In the midst of despair, discovering a way to have hope DIANE COLE LATE in March, holed up in my flat in New York, I received the terrible news that the coronavirus pandemic had claimed the life of someone I knew. Just as shocking was the fact that it wasn’t Covid-19 that had overwhelmed her body. It was, instead, despair that had killed her spirit. We cannot know all the factors that played into the tragic logic that led her to suicide. But piecing the story together afterwards, her closest friends think that when New York shut down, she believed that so, too, had the possibility of continuing the full life she had created there. Before the pandemic, her calendar overflowed not just with work and volunteer activities, but with…

FAIRHEADS OFFERS TRACING SERVICE TO RETIREMENT FUNDS FAIRHEADS Benefit Services, an administrator of beneficiary funds and umbrella trusts, now offers tracing services – which involve tracing missing beneficiaries – to the broader retirement fund industry. Nikki Jacobs, operations manager at Fairheads, says the tracing service is a logical progression from the tracing it has always done as part of its administration work. “Our fiduciary duty is to keep in touch with members or beneficiaries. It often happens that people change address or phone numbers and then we have gone out of our way to trace them, acting on a mandate from the board of trustees of the fund in question,” she says. “We go beyond the traditional ways of finding members, having gained a solid understanding of the community and…

WORDS ON WEALTH Heartbreaking stories from Ecsponent’s pensioner investors MARTIN HESSE | martin.hesse@inl.co.za LAST WEEK, troubled financial services group Ecsponent issued an extraordinarily positive press release. “Ecsponent Limited successfully restructures balance sheet”, it crowed. “Following extensive engagement and consultation with preference shareholders,” the release said, “R1.8 billion debt was converted to ordinary equity, greatly improving solvency and liquidity and R0.5bn debt was converted to hybrid preference shares, which will also qualify as equity.” The company is to be renamed and rebranded, and two new directors, representing the ordinary and hybrid shareholders, will be appointed. “This outcome repositions the company and its underlying investments to extract maximum value for its stakeholders going forward.” The release made no mention of the group’s share price: it was 6 cents at the time. Also…

Restrictions still in place in level 3 include ● No consumption of food and alcohol in restaurants, bars, shebeens and taverns ● Personal care services such as hairdressers and nail salons where social distancing is not possible ● Hotels and accommodation for leisure stays ● Domestic air travel, except for essential business travel ● Conferences, events and other gatherings ● Cinemas, theatres, museums, casinos and other entertainment venues ● Gyms and fitness centres ● Beaches, public parks, sports grounds and swimming pools…

Science boffins set to be honoured THE finalists in the 2019/2020 NSTF-South32 Awards have been announced and include individuals and organisations based in Pretoria. The awards – known as the Science Oscars – recognise excellence and outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation in South Africa. Nominees for the lifetime award include Professor Michael Wingfield of the Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria (UP). Others on the list are Professor William J Bond, Department of Biological Sciences, UCT; Professor Faizal Bux, Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology, DUT; Professor Raymond Durrheim, School of Geosciences, Wits; Professor Zakkie Pretorius, Department of Plant Sciences, University of the Free State; Professor Michèle Ramsay, director of the Sidney Brenner Institute of Molecular Bioscience; Professor Chrissie Rey, Department of Microbiology, Wits; Professor Leslie…

MOVIES Cinemas wait for green light to re-open SAMEER NAIK CUDDLING with your partner at the movies is likely to be a thing of the past. With new social distancing measures, movie-goers are likely to be separated from their partners by at least 1m when cinemas are given the green light to re-open. This is just one of the measures cinemas in South Africa are taking to ensure the safety of customers. Leading cinema chains Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro say they’ve already instituted precautionary measures of social distancing and increased sanitising regimes to ensure the safety of staff and customers once they are allowed to open. Ster Kinekor’s head of marketing, Lynne Wylie, said internationally, most cinema chains had adopted the one seat open, one seat booked approach, which it…

METRO Blackout Tuesday failed ROWS and rows of black squares populated Instagram feeds on Tuesday morning, and a quick search for the hashtag #blacklivesmatter showed a grid made up almost entirely of solid black backgrounds. The black squares were intended to show solidarity for the Black Lives Matter movement and for the protests that have swept the US and other countries after the death of George Floyd in police custody. But activists took to Twitter to beg others to stop posting the black photos with the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, saying it was drowning out real information about protests, bail funds and how to help the movement. Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri weighed in on the correct way to post, tweeting, “We’re hearing asks from the community that posts related to Blackout…

LETTER Mr President, do base your authority on reason Dear President Ramaphosa, I hope this letter finds you well, as you help SA navigate Covid-19 and the unintended social impact of the policies you and your colleagues designed to contain the virus. We appreciate your efforts and the goodwill underpinning them. In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic, The Little Prince, the prince narrates the story of a king he met on a tiny planet far away. Speaking of authority and public obedience, the king opined: “Authority rests first of all on reason. If you command your subjects to go and throw themselves into the sea, there will be a revolution. I have a right to demand obedience because my orders are reasonable.” Can our government demand obedience in respect of Covid-19…

6 quick hacks for reheating pizza perfectly I KNOW people who eat leftover pizza cold because they are too lazy to warm it up or that once reheated, it’s never quite the same as when it arrived. However, the experts at Domino’s Pizza recently shared quick hacks on its website for reheating pizza perfectly. The pizza chain’s Australian arm does admit it still will not be perfect, but notes that the results will be far better than the old ways. So, for the love of leftovers, they shared the best ways to give you a second run at that pizza which may even rival the fresh piping hot perfection itself. 1. Crust a la Churro Never one to shy away from a creative cooking solution, this culinary sensation originates from…

COMMENT America’s neck is broken But movement against injustice is still possible and silence is not complicity ERIC LUI AP EPA-EFE I HAVE been thinking about the neck – what a fragile thing it is. For more than a year now, my mother has been bearing the burden of cancer that began in her lungs and spread to many bones, most critically the cervical vertebrae in her neck. Today, the underlying cancer is being kept at bay by medication. But the equipment holding her corroded vertebrae together has slipped a bit, leaving her neck stiff, not quite straight and easily fatigued. Though her will is great, her body is drained continuously by the effort to hold up her head. I have been thinking about the neck – what a…

UNITED STATES ‘American Spring a seismic moment’ George Floyd’s death ‘a symbol of universal racial brutality’ US CIVIL rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton told mourners that George Floyd’s death in police custody and the nationwide protests it ignited marked a reckoning for America over race and justice, demanding, “Get your knee off our necks”. Memorial tributes to Floyd in Minneapolis, where he was killed on May 25, and in the New York borough of Brooklyn, a major flashpoint for demonstrations, came as protesters returned to the streets of several cities for a second week. The protests waned to peaceful memorials yesterday morning and emergency curfews in many cities including Los Angeles were lifted. Delivering the eulogy at a memorial service at a university chapel in Minneapolis on…

Twitter disables Trump’s tribute to Floyd WASHINGTON: Twitter has disabled US president Donald Trump’s campaign tribute video to George Floyd, citing a copyright complaint. The clip, which is a collation of photos and videos of protest marches and instances of violence in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, has Trump speaking in the background. Twitter said the video on the president’s campaign account was affected by its copyright policy. “We respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorised representatives,” a Twitter representative said. The three-minute 45-second video uploaded on Trump’s YouTube channel was tweeted by his campaign on June 3. | Reuters…

Couple suspected of killing child maid ISLAMABAD: Police arrested a Pakistani businessman and his wife who are suspected of beating to death their 8-year-old maid after she inadvertently opened a cage to feed the couple’s parrots and the birds flew away, an officer said yesterday. Ahmad Nawaz, a police chief in Rawalpindi, said the man – who employed the girl for 3000 rupees (about R336) a month – got so angry he beat the maid with his wife’s help after the parrots flew away on Sunday. The man, who police identified as Hassan Sidiqui, took the girl to a hospital but he fled after realising she could die, Nawaz said. The girl’s death has drawn condemnation on social media, with citizens, politicians and human rights activists demanding justice. Pakistani law…

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK TUESDAY, JUNE 9 The Truth About Takeaways: BBC at 7pm This fascinating documentary uncovers the truth behind the tastes – how much do we know about our fast food, what is it really doing to our health, and can science help us make smarter takeaway choices? TUESDAY, JUNE 9 Billions S5: M-Net at 10pm Bobby Axelrod reaches a major milestone; Chuck struggles to get his bearings, and he and Wendy navigate a new normal; tensions are high at Axe Cap now that Taylor Mason is back; Axe faces off against new rival Mike Prince. MONDAY-FRIDAY JUNE 8-12 Gomora S1: Mzansi Magic at 7.30pm Thathi forces herself to come to terms with a terrible truth as she discovers a new suspect for Mbongeni’s death. The mission…

YOUR STARS Barbara Kiselev If today is your birthday: Come on, this new year you can, leave nothing to chance. So work on your outcomes, work on getting there. It was never going to be easy, however. So keep going, and you’ll be trending, and leaving hardship behind. Aries (21 March-20 April) If you think about it, you’re always the most confident one in the room. This week you need to work on it, because there will be challenges, to test your resolve. Visualise yourself getting there and it can happen. Sooner than you thought. Taurus (21 April-21 May) Sometimes you need positive energy to keep going. This week keep chipping away, lots of small triumphs add up to a lot. So go for it, nothing can hold you back,…

PLANNING POINTS When going gets tough remain calm and invested HARDI SWART WE’RE living through a crisis – there’s no way to sugarcoat it. The coronavirus lockdown has hammered the economy, state-owned enterprises are as wonky as ever, and our government seems incapable of doing anything to sort out the mess. And that’s just South Africa. The US is battling political incompetence and rising social unrest, China is reverting to increasingly authoritarian control, and in the UK it’s minister scandal after minister scandal. Don’t even get me started on climate change. With all that in mind, it’s tempting to cash out, put your money in a suitcase and live on a farm in the Karoo, as far away from everything as possible. I hear you, but experience has taught me…

EPL revised fixture list released LIVERPOOL will resume their quest for a first top-flight title in 30 years against city rivals Everton on June 21, as the Premier League released its revised fixture list for the first three weeks of the restarted season yesterday. Football in England has been suspended since mid-March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but clubs have voted to restart the season on June 17 when second-placed Manchester City host Arsenal and Sheffield United visit relegation-threatened Aston Villa. Liverpool are 25 points clear at the top and are two victories away from winning the Premier League, but will have a shot at securing the title by beating Everton if City lose to Arsenal. Other potential dates in the first three fixtures when Liverpool could clinch the title…

More than 8000 beds available as Gauteng prepares for increased infections STAFF REPORTER JOHANNESBURG has more than half the Covid-19 cases in Gauteng, and two districts of the city are among the province’s hot spots. Inner city and Joburg South – which saw the highest increase in the past week – and the Alexandra, Wynberg, Sandton districts each have above 400 cases, the highest in the province. Tshwane region 3, which includes Atteridgeville and the CBD, has the highest case load of the capital at 203. The province, which has the largest population in the country, had completed 267178 tests by June 4: one third of the tests done in South Africa. In terms of Covid-19 patients requiring medical care, of 308 in hospital, 228 are in private hospitals and…

HEALTH Winter flu complicates pandemic ZELDA VENTER zelda.venter@inl.co.za AS we have officially entered winter, with lower temperatures and the flu which is common during this time, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairperson of the Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee, said flu symptoms were very similar to those of Covid-19 and it was not always easy to differentiate between them. He spoke on the National Health Insurance Facebook page on how the flu affects our response and how we deal with Covid-19. Karim said a big challenge was that these two viral infections were initially similar. “They present in similar ways. Flu is generally more severe, however, Covid, in a small proportion of patients, becomes very severe and then often leads to death. “Our problem is going to be that if we simultaneously…

METRO UK slow to react to coronavirus THE UK has the highest deaths in Europe from Covid-19, and the second-highest per million people, according to a Financial Times analysis. “I think it’s nothing short of a disgrace, and a dereliction of duty,” former UK chief scientific adviser David King said. King, who launched an independent alternative to the government’s scientific advisory group, said while differences in culture, demographics and data collection can make international comparisons difficult, they cannot explain the gap between the UK and other countries. “I don’t believe the reason is any other than the actions taken by the government very early on,” added King. “We have been playing catch-up from the start,” said Helen Ward at Imperial College London, who cites slowness on testing, tracing and isolating…

How to get involved in protest action Global Citizen has suggested seven ways in which one can show solidarity and support to protests around police brutality and racial injustice. 1. Support racial justice “Every day provides us with 1,000 different opportunities to choose racial justice,” Key Jackson of Race Forward, says. Start supporting institutional, structural change by examining choices around work and personal decisions such as which organizations or causes you support. 2. Educate yourself Education is an essential part of organizing for change, according to Shakti Butler of World Trust. Be willing to tell the truth to yourself, connect with other people who are doing the same and decide: How are we going to make this world a different place. 3. Donate money Make monetary donations to bail funds…

LAID BACK SHAGGY DOG TAILS AND EXERCISE UNDER LOCKDOWN JOUBERT MALHERBE IT REALLY has been bitterly cold during a couple of nights recently; real brass monkey stuff which made the early morning walks slightly challenging. The colder weather – along with strange, almost surreal atmosphere that has prevailed since lockdown began – seems to have gotten to the dogs as well. The other day, Ziggy, the chow-husky-Alsatian cross, had a rush of blood to the head while we were having tea and rusks outside. Both Ziggy and the tiny Jack-Russell-Chihuahua cross, Fudge, made a beeline for a few crumbs that fell off the table. Now Ziggy is more than 10 times the size of his little sister, but she does have a somewhat ferocious way of yapping at anything which…

Just who is this ‘eccentric Rocket Man’? GUY ADAMS EXCEPT for one sticky moment when US astronaut Doug Hurley appeared to clobber his head on an entry hatch of the International Space Station, it all went like a dream. A 19-hour flight followed by a flawless piece of zero-orbit parking last weekend saw the Space X capsule reach its destination. Watching was an audience of tens of millions. To some, the so-far-successful mission recalls the heyday of American space exploration, when the world gathered around television sets to watch the likes of Neil Armstrong take giant leaps for mankind. Yet the man behind this brave new era is no ordinary Nasa boffin. Space X is the brainchild of Elon Musk, an eccentric Silicon Valley tycoon who brought the world PayPal…

GERMANY Suspect linked to Madeleine McCann case GERMAN prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether a 43-year-old who has emerged as a possible suspect in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine (Maddie) McCann in Portugal may have been involved in a similar crime in Germany. Prosecutors in the northern town of Stendal, 100km west of Berlin, told the dpa news agency yesterday they had opened a preliminary investigation to determine whether there was anything to link the suspect to the 2015 disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from a nearby forest. The authorities have not released the suspect’s name, but he has been widely identified by the German media as Christian B. He reportedly had a property 100km southwest of Stendal in the town of Neuwegersleben when the 5-year-old girl disappeared.…

RUSSIA Putin chastises tycoon over Arctic oil spill RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday chastised the billionaire owner of a nickel giant for negligence over a massive fuel oil spill in a fragile Arctic region. An estimated 20 000 tons of diesel oil spilled into the Ambarnaya River last Friday from a broken tank at a power plant in Norilsk, 2 900km northeast of Moscow. Putin has declared a state of emergency in the region to help minimise the consequences of the spill. The power plant is operated by a division of Norilsk Nickel, whose plants in the area have made Norilsk one of the most heavily polluted places on the planet. During yesterday’s call with officials and environmental experts, Putin lashed out at Norilsk Nickel owner Vladimir Potanin, saying it…

DRC border control over Ebola outbreak CAPE TOWN: The eastern Lunda Norte government is intensifying precautionary measures in the border areas with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to halt the spread of Ebola in Angolan territory. On Monday, the DRC announced a new Ebola outbreak in Wangata County, in the province of Ecuador. This epidemic is the worst in the history of the DRC and the second most serious worldwide. It hit West Africa between 2014 and 2016, with 3462 cases recorded and 2279 deaths, according to World Health Organization figures. Lunda Norte governor Ernesto Muangala said they had enough biosecurity material and drugs to prevent contagion, but the border police would stop the entry and exit of Angolan and Congolese citizens in both countries. | ANA…

YES TO LIFE In Spite of Everything SATURDAY | JUN 6 SABC1 06:00 Bonisanani 06:30 New Ben 10 07:00 Mvubu And Friends 07:30 Paws And Claws 08:00 YoTV Big Breakfast 09:00 Imizwilili 10:00 Mzansi Insider 11:00 Generations – The Legacy Omnibus 13:30 Sport magazine 14:00 Football Goes Retro 14:30 Laduma 17:30 Roots 18:00 World Of Dance 19:00 Xhosa/ Zulu News 19:30 Real Goboza 20:00 Soccer/Movie 22:00 Get2Gether Experience (Live) SABC2 06:00 Go Jetters 06:57 Op Pad 07:00 Morning Live 08:30 Muvhango Omnibus 11:00 Lithapo Omnibus 12:30 Relate 13:00 Life Begins After Coffee 13:30 Dijo Le Bophelo 14:00 Mother Of All Professions 14:30 Trendz Travel 15:00 TouchedBy An Angel 16:00 Movie TBC 18:00 Nuus 18:15 Setswana/seSotho News 18:30 Movie TBC 20:30 Supernatural 20:57 Lotto Live Draw 21:00 Supernatural 21:30 Catch My…

STRESS TEST SA banks ‘will withstand Covid-19 shocks’ STRESS testing of the largest South African banks has shown they are expected to remain resilient through the Covid-19 crisis, even under severe-stress scenarios. Financial stress testing involves the assessment of modelled outcomes under a range of adverse economic scenarios (called “stress scenarios”) – typically, mild, medium and severe. The high-level stress testing was done as part of postgraduate research by Corné Conradie, actuary and PwC partner in PwC’s actuarial, risk and quantitative team. It was done in collaboration with Professor Conrad Beyers, Absa chairperson in Actuarial Science at the University of Pretoria. The largest full-service banks, which include Absa, FirstRand, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec, were assessed. These banks account for 91% of bank deposits and 94% of loans granted by…

SOCCER Spotlight on red-hot Werner THE Bundesliga powers on this weekend as we enter the final five matchdays of what has been a quite extraordinary season. Bayern Munich are closing in on their eighth consecutive championship but there’s plenty still to play for as scramble for Champions League places hots up and the relegation battle rages on. Timo Werner has dominated headlines in the past 24 hours as the RB Leipzig forward moves closer to joining Chelsea for £53million. There will certainly be more English eyes than usual trained on the German striker as he takes to the field against Paderborn this afternoon. And with Leipzig’s opponents sitting bottom of the table, there’s every chance Werner will bang in a few more goals to excite Chelsea fans. Leipzig’s title chances…

World sprint champ runs into trouble WOMEN’S 400m world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain has been handed a provisional suspension for failing to make herself available for anti-doping tests, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said yesterday. Naser won gold at the World Championships in Doha last year with a time of 48.14 seconds, the third fastest in history, to become the first Asian to claim the women’s 400m world title. “The AIU has provisionally suspended Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain for whereabouts failures, a violation of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules,” the AIU said in a statement Naser, 22, was born in Nigeria before switching her allegiance to Bahrain in 2014. According to World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules, any combination of three missed tests or filing failures within a 12-month…