Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021-07-03 i Pretoria News Weekend

Sacha van Niekerk sacha.vanniekerk@inl.co.za THE second-hand luxury goods market was popular long before the pandemic struck, but lockdown has created the perfect environment for it to thrive. Since March last year, it has been a tumultuous time for various sectors of the economy, with establishments closing their doors, travel bans, limits on the international shipping of goods and online stores only able to sell essential items. As a result, people across the globe have had to readjust their spending habits. For the average consumer, these times offered the opportunity to save money on takeaways, weekend outings, petrol and occasional splurges like concert tickets or flights. But the affluent – who’d normally spend their leisure time browsing luxury boutiques, attending art auctions and travelling internationally – began looking for new ways…

James Mahlokwane james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za THE ADMINISTRATIVE Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (Aarto) demerit systems that kicked in on Thursday will hit employers hard. Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula’s announcement of the new system will see licences of offending drivers suspended and cancelled. Mbalula said the implementation was going ahead despite criticism. He said the department was ready to defend it in court. However, McDonald Makata, speaking for the taxi industry in Tshwane, said the system roll-out exposed the government’s failure to consult relevant stakeholders. He said: “The taxis are registered in the names of the owners and not the drivers. “Drivers come and go, but owners remain the same. Did they think about the hefty administration to move the penalties from the owners to the drivers for when they will…

Rapula Moatshe rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za THERE are no plans to open field hospitals in Gauteng despite both public and private facilities across the province buckling under pressure. At least 600 Covid-19 positive patients are admitted in hospitals in the province every day. This emerged during a virtual media briefing hosted by the Department of Health yesterday in the light of Covid-19 Delta variant, which continued to wreak havoc in Gauteng. On Thursday, the province accounted for more than 12 000 daily virus infections of the 21 584 reported in the country. Deputy Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said there was enormous pressure on health facilities due to the increased daily hospitalisation of Covid-19 patients. Phaahla also warned that the other provinces would soon experience their fair share of the pandemic bite. “The…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za IT WILL take Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s special adviser Lawrence Venkile three years to repay nearly R500 000 after being overpaid following his irregular appointment in 2019. This follows Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report released this week which found that Mbalula irregularly appointed special advisers Venkile and Bongisizwe Mpondo as well as legal adviser Kaiser Khoza without Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu’s approval. Venkile has agreed to pay R460 000 he was overpaid after joining Mbalula’s office. Mkhwebane has been informed by Mbalula’s office that Venkile has agreed that he is indebted to the department to the amount of R460 000. The amount is the result of calculations done from the period of June 1, 2019, the date of his irregular appointment, to August 2019,…

Kailene Pillay kailene.pillay@inl.co.za In a last ditch effort to stay out of jail, former president Jacob Zuma has made an urgent application to the Constitutional Court to rescind and reconsider its decision to send him to prison for 15 months. In an affidavit filed to the Concourt on Friday afternoon, Zuma said his ill-health and the fact that he was 79 years old should be taken into consideration, especially as he was considered high-risk during this Covid-19 pandemic. In his founding affidavit, Zuma said his imprisonment would not serve constitutional value but may be a political statement. Earlier, the ANC said it had postponed its NEC meeting scheduled for the weekend and had deployed a delegation of NEC members, including Jeff Radebe, Fikile Mbalula, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Thabang Makwetla, Tony…

KENNEDY MUDZULI kennedy.mudzuli@inl.co.za On a rainy day at Ga-Mashashane Ga-Madiba outside Polokwane 30 years ago, a star was born. His parents named him Modupe Pergecious Madiba – but that rain that was pouring down would become a defining factor later in his life. Modupe’s interest in music began in 1998, adopting the stage name “Lil Rain” as homage to the weather on the day he was born. Today, Madiba is a rapper and on a roadshow promoting his new single, Thobela. He is known as Lil Rain SA and has since relocated to Pretoria to seek fame and fortune under the bright lights of the nation’s capital city. “I used to rap at a young age, and as I grew older, I realised I loved writing music. However, I…

ONE in every nine new cars sold in Europe last year was an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, with low-emission car sales surging even as the COVID-19 pandemic knocked overall vehicle sales, the European Environment Agency said on Tuesday. The uptick in electric car sales caused a 12% drop in average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in Europe last year compared with 2019, reversing a trend that had seen such emissions increase for three consecutive years. It was the biggest annual drop in emissions since the EU introduced its car CO2 standards in 2010.…

THE 2021 tax filing season opened on Thursday, July 1, with an address by the Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars), Edward Kieswetter. Salaried taxpayers have until November 23 to file their returns, while provisional taxpayers have until January 31 next year. Like last year, the auto-assessment system will be in place, whereby Sars automatically assesses your tax liability for the 2020/21 tax year. Your electronic return will be automatically filled in, and then it is up to you to verify that your return is correct and approve it, or make the necessary changes before submitting it. This year there is a single deadline for all non-provisional taxpayers, and all returns must be filed electronically, either from your own device or from a branch. However, if you need…

IN LIGHT of the recent Africrypt scandal, in which cryptocurrency investors appear to have lost billions of rand, Personal Finance asked Marius Reitz, general manager in Africa for international cryptocurrency exchange Luno, what investors need to do to ensure that their cryptocurrency is safe. PF: Please clarify the difference between a cryptocurrency exchange, where one can legitimately buy and store crypto, and a cryptocurrency investment/trading platform such as Africrypt. MR: A legitimate cryptocurrency exchange does not trade on anyone’s behalf, nor does it offer trading tips or advice. Luno, for example, allows you to easily and safely buy, sell and learn about cryptocurrency. We are focused on making it safe and really easy for people to buy cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin with their local currency, such as rands. Africrypt…

US 100m star to miss sprint after cannabis test AMERICAN sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson has accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for cannabis, the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) said yesterday, ruling her out of the 100m in Tokyo although she may yet be able to run in later relay events. The positive test came at the US Olympic trials last month where Richardson established herself as a gold medal contender by winning the 100m in 10.86 seconds. “The rules are clear, but this is heartbreaking on many levels,” Usada chief executive Travis Tygart said. “Hopefully, her acceptance of responsibility and apology will be an important example to us all that we can successfully overcome our regrettable decisions, despite the costly consequences of this one to her.” Richardson said in an…

Rapula Moatshe rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za RENOWNED African scholar His Excellency Professor Ambassador Tal Edgars has challenged the governments on the continent to do away with borders in the interest of advancing the continent’s economic growth in the world. Edgars was speaking during the first lecture of the Africa Intellectual Scholar series hosted this week by Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Puleng LenkaBula. The topic was “The new frontier – Africa: where do we stand?” According to him, the talk about the rise of Africa’s economy has been going on since the 1980s without tangible actions. “We speak of privatisation. Russia and Europe have finished and they did that well over 30 years ago. We take a lot of time to do things,” he said. Edgars said the continent has the capacity…

Mashudu Sadike mashudu.sadike@inl.co.za THE WORLD’S best principal grew up in the remote village of Sekhiming outside Giyani in Limpopo in the 1960s, where neighbours lived in a 1km radius from his father’s house. His father was a teacher and a principal, and everyone in the community looked up to him for help, such as writing letters to loved ones and solving community problems. “You are bound to make a success of yourself,” said 61-year-old Dr Ngwako Stephen Sebopetsa, winner of the Global Principal Award. Sebopetsa, principal at Rathaga Primary School in Rakwadu, Modjadjiskloof, outside Polokwane, beat more than 200 other talented principals from across the world to win the prestigious award. The award was presented to him through a live Facebook broadcast. Speaking to Pretoria News Weekend yesterday, Sebopetsa said…

Ntombi Nkosi ntombi.nkosi@inl.co.za About 9 113 teachers and support staff, some with comorbidities, are refusing to take the life-saving Covid-19 vaccination jabs. The Gauteng Department of Education has expressed alarm about the situation. The department urged those who are refusing to vaccinate to come forward. “We are very worried that nearly 10 000 of our personnel in the Gauteng education sector are, for one reason or the other, refusing to be vaccinated against this deadly virus which has wreaked havoc in our schools and communities by taking away our loved ones,” Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said. Although vaccination is voluntary, the World Health Organization (WHO) encourages people at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 such as health-care providers, teachers, older or elderly adults, and people with other medical…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu remains uncertain whether the government will approve their request to extend the R350 grant for the unemployed. Zulu said yesterday that they had predicted the third Covid wave and tried to determine if they could continue to provide the R350 grant as it helped many families when the lockdown started last year. She said the country’s finances were under strain but they wanted to continue with the financial support for those who are unemployed as many people had lost their jobs. “We did submit our request for continuation and we were basing ourselves on the fact that we are not only looking at Covid-19 from the point of view of what will happen in the future, we are looking at what had…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that South Africa was entering level 4 of the lockdown until July 11 was based on recent figures, as the country grapples with a third wave of the pandemic that threatens to be worse than the first two combined. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country was praised for its decisive leadership and strictness of the measures it imposed to limit the domestic spread of the virus. However, based on the current situation in the country, depending on who you ask, the answer to how well (or not) South Africa’s Covid-19 strategy has been differs. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the government has come under fire for its handling of the pandemic. From the widespread corruption, delays in procuring vaccines, lack of a clear strategy…

Martin Hesse MILLENNIALS have played a big role in the global trend towards more environmentally and socially supportive, sustainable ways of doing business, but there are now multiple drivers behind its increasing momentum. In a presentation on investing based on ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria at the recent Investment Forum 2021, Claire Hedley, executive director of the alternative investment and manager selection division of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said the trend towards sustainability was underpinned by humanity’s need to address two of the biggest challenges of our time: climate change and social inequality. Three sets of dynamics are at play, Hedley said. They are: 1. Changing preferences. The impetus came originally from millennials, she said, “who wanted to live, invest and purchase differently. But there is an increasingly…

ONE of the biggest unspoken burdens young professionals face is that of Black Tax. Not the simplified “I send some money home” rhetoric, but the true essence of having to consider your extended family with every financial decision you make. Considering that many South African households do not have generational wealth, the first ones from the house to “make it” cannot indulge in their income selfishly, but must share a portion of it with the family to keep them living sustainably. Nor can they make individualistic financial decisions, as these have a ripple effect on the family’s financial trajectory. Black Tax is a phrase you hear joked about by comedians and overlooked by people of privilege, but it truly is a real struggle for many, as they may need that…

FORGET about the ‘Three Wise Men’. Kaizer Chiefs are preparing to push the envelope in their own unique way with The Four Musketeers. The foursome tag, though, can only stick if the quartet of Molefi Ntseki, Stuart Baxter, Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard manage to inspire Amakhosi to their first ever Champions League crown this month in Casablanca, Morocco. A season ago, Mamelodi Sundowns continued with their trend of having three coaches, after the departure of Pitso Mosimane. They appointed Manqoba Mngqithi and Rhulani Mokwena as co-coaches, and Steve Komphela as a senior coach. Many deemed the arrangement as a recipe for confusion. But the coaching trio shut their critics up by winning the inaugural DStv Premiership title with a 13-point difference. Their only blemish in the league…

THE Senegalese national team head of delegation Sam Diatta says they’ll not be competing in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Championship as tourists or just to make up the numbers, instead they’ll be playing to win the tournament. After a two-year hiatus due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the Cosafa Championship will commence in the Nelson Mandela Bay district on Tuesday. There’ll be three groups, with hosts South Africa in Group A, alongside Lesotho, eSwatini and Botswana. Defending champions Zambia are in Group B, alongside Malawi, Madagascar and Comoros. In Group C, there’s invited guests Senegal, together with Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique. The group stage matches will be played in a round-robin format. But only the top finishers in each group and overall best runners-up…

J Hotel debuted its inaugural property atop the Shanghai Tower, the tallest skyscraper in China and second-tallest in the world. Dubbed as the “world’s highest luxury hotel”, the hotel shines in experiences, art and design. The 165-room hotel is the height of luxury that showcases spectacular urban scenery, from the Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower to the expanses across Puxi and Pudong. The luxury rooms come kitted with multi-function iPads for in-room control and service requests, coffee and tea facilities, smart TV, pillow menu and free wi-fi, among others. Other attractive offerings include butler service, 24-hour in-room dining and laundry services, limousine and car rental and e-Shop Services. Not to mention the hotel’s seven restaurants, bars, 84th-floor swimming pool and spa facilities. According to AFP, the hotel’s special experience…

La La Anthony puts her son before her work. The 41-year-old actress – who has Kiyan, 14, with Carmelo Anthony – has made it clear that her teenager will always be her top priority, regardless of what she has planned for her career. Speaking on The Tamron Hall Show, she said: “As long as I prioritise him first, then kind of everything else falls into place after that. But Kiyan comes before any job or anything at all times, and everyone I work with or anyone who’s a part of what I’m doing knows that.” The Power star said she has had to raise her son differently because of her fame. “He just got an Instagram probably like a month ago, and he asked me every day for the last…

James Mahlokwane james.mahlokwane@inl.co.za POLICING authorities and taxi associations yesterday strengthened measures and actions to curb unnecessary and luxury inter-provincial travel. It was the beginning of the first weekend since President Cyril Ramaphosa moved the country to lockdown alert level 4 to curb the spread of the Covid-19. Gauteng Traffic Police spokesperson Sello Maremane said they had sites and operations at the borders of Gauteng with other provinces to ensure that passengers on long-distance trips carried valid permits. He said: “The permit has to be a form, in line with the National Disaster Management Act, to ensure that people have valid reasons to cross provinces as per the instructions of the president. “In Tshwane, our teams are deployed to areas such as the R101 where we are checking for these permits,…

SCIENCE and religion, faith and reason, have to be used together if we are to build a materially and spiritually prosperous world civilisation. But many people believe that science and religion are inherently antagonistic and that one has to choose between being a religious person and following God’s teachings, or being a scientist and be a follower of reason. In the Baháí view, science and religion are two complementary sources of knowledge and they provide the fundamental organising principles by which we as individuals, our communities and our institutions evolve and function. As stated in the Baháí Writings: “religion and science are the two indispensable knowledge systems through which the potentialities of consciousness develop”. “Far from being in conflict with one another, these fundamental modes of the mind’s exploration of…

Ntando Makhubu ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za WHILE the lockdown kept most people indoors during the past year, increasing use of the internet became the mode of communication. Those with an eye on the most-asked cyber questions found that these became weirder and stranger. A survey by Google uncovered the most popular and discovered that in one month, the most common search was "what is my IP address" at 4 090 000. "What is love" was second at 1 830 000, followed by "how to draw" 1 500 000, "where am I" with 1 220 000 searches, and "how many weeks in a year" at 823 000. Others were "early signs of pregnancy" with 673 000 searches on Google and "who called me". According to Google, other searches were "what we’d like to call",…

Mpiletso Motumi mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za Lindelani Mkhize, PJ Powers and Lebo M are this year’s recipients of the Sama27 Lifetime Achievement. Producer and anthem hitmaker, Master KG will be the recipient of the International Achievement Recognition Award. “There’s no doubt that the Sama27 honourees are worthy and deserving. It is our singular honour at the Samas to bestow these accolades on Lindelani Mkhize, PJ Powers, Lebo M and Master KG. Theirs are stories of inspiration and accomplishments that are unmatched. We salute them and wish them only the best further on in their careers,” said Recording Industry of South Africa chief executive Nhlanhla Sibisi. Mkhize has come a long way since his days as a drummer in the church in his hometown of uMlazi in Durban. He studied music at the University…

Under normal circumstances, people in the free-market system or capitalist system countries believe that it is not the business of government to be involved in business. They believe that the primary role of government is to create a conducive economic and political environment for private businesses to thrive in. It is against this background that I ask if South Africa should still retain, offload or privatise most or all of our state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The concept of SOEs is currently a contentious matter in most “non- communist countries”. I have to start from that position, given that state ownership of the means of production and related processes forms the basis for the communist or socialist countries. The collapse of most communist or socialist countries has proven that the idealist notion…

The Palestinian liberation struggle against the settler colony of Israel is not confusingly “complex”. While Palestine’s history is long and detailed, the profound political and ethical dimensions of the so-called “conflict” are plain. It is important to say consistently Israel is a racist, ethno-supremacist, settler-colonial state set on ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian people are struggling for liberation and life. So we must act in solidarity with Palestinian struggles through international boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Israel’s Zionist "might-makes-right" (kragdadigheid) ideology was concisely articulated by a long-standing Israeli prime minister in 2018: “There is no place for the weak. The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and…

Martin Hesse THIS week saw the launch by the South African Savings Institute (Sasi) of the annual July National Savings Month. Supported by many of the country’s leading financial institutions, Sasi’s campaign brings together financial experts to provide insights on savings through the #waystosave financial education initiative. Many of the major institutions also have their own savings awareness and education programmes during the month. Sasi chief executive Gerald Mwandiambira says that this year the focus is on driving awareness around how savings knowledge must be understood and accessible in more South African languages. The core #waystosave theme for 2021 is “Saving in your language”. “To quote Nelson Mandela, if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in…

INVESTING in cryptocurrency is risky. If you are simply buying it and storing it, awaiting a chance to sell it at a profit, that is risky enough because the prices are so volatile. But if you use a platform with doubtful credentials that uses crypto it has bought on your behalf to trade or invest, that is so risky it is scary. And when such a scheme offers you a cloud-cuckoo-land return of 10% a month, and your greed completely overpowers your common sense, then, I’m sorry to say, you deserve to lose your money. The Africrypt scam, which has been in the news over the past week or so, follows on the heels of last year’s Mirror Trading International (MTI) debacle. In both, billions of rand of investors’ money…

Morgan Bolton morgan.bolton@inl.co.za PHYSICALITY has become a byword for South African rugby, an almost mystical and ritualistic mantra, a “love-thy-neighbour” commandment repeated by virtually every coach and player. On Thursday, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi spoke at length about how important it will be when they play Georgia, with assistant coach Mzwandile Stick declaring that it was deeply embedded within the ethos, “the DNA” in his words, of the national team’s playing style. The expression that physicality will play a big part when the Joburg Lions face the British and Irish Lions today at Emirates Airline Park (kick-off 7pm) was in play again later that evening. “It is the first game in almost a year-and-a-half that we are playing against overseas guys,” Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen mentioned at the team…

No escape from spotlight for Osaka at Tokyo Games AS one of Japan’s best gold medal prospects, Naomi Osaka can expect the spotlight to shine brightly on her for the duration of her stay at the Tokyo Olympics. There is, however, one big problem with that scenario. The soft spoken and self-confessed introvert does not particularly like being in the spotlight – hence how she copes with the intense pressure and all the fanfare that will no doubt surround her while she competes at a home Olympics remains to be seen. The 23-year-old has won a Grand Slam title every year since 2018 and gained accolades for her engaging personality and forthrightness on issues such as police brutality and racial inequality. But Osaka has also been open about her struggles…