Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-06-13 i Pretoria News

DIGITAL start-up Tymebank is sustaining the acquisition of about 130 000 customers a month and is making headway on the number of customers with active accounts, which it admits is challenging in the tough economy. Tymebank’s parent, African Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC), in an update for the first three months of 2022, said that internationally, TymeBank’s subsidiary, Tyme Global, based in Singapore, will launch a digital bank called GOtyme in the Philippines in October, with local partners the Gokongwei family. An update by JSE-listed ARC Investments provides a window into the progress of the relatively new start-up online Tymebank, which otherwise would not have to make its details public. Last month, Tymebank assigned its chief executive Tauriq Keraan to a new international executive role and had contracted Coenraad…

RESIDENTS have praised the metro police who busted two alleged drug dealers in possession of drugs in Ga-Rankuwa, and two other suspects in possession of a firearm and dangerous weapons in Hammanskraal at the weekend. Spokesperson for the Department of Tshwane Metro Police Department Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said the officers were doing what they do every single day when they caught the suspects, therefore eradicating crime and protecting citizens. The Tshwane Metro Police drug unit members, working in Ga-Rankuwa, arrested the man and woman when they were responding to a complaint by community members about suspicious activities in a certain residence. “Upon arrival they found the two suspects with 500 ziplocks of heroine (nyaope), and they were arrested for dealing and possession of drugs. “In the other incident in…

SUSPENDED Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has broken her silence about her suspension at the position she held for six years, saying President Cyril Ramaphosa pre-empted a High Court judgment which he knew was going to be delivered on the following morning. Mkhwebane, who was suspended by Ramaphosa on Thursday last week, also questioned the “wisdom” and “legality” of her suspension and pointed out that the “rational” and “respectful” thing to do would have been to await the court’s decision rather than acting in contempt of court. She said: “President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended me in the late afternoon of June 9 2022 pre-empting the High Court judgment which he knew was going to be delivered the following morning at 8.30am. “The judgment was to decide on the legal entitlement of President…

It is not enough to simply not be a racist EVERY year on June 16, South Africans celebrate Youth Day to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising. But this day is not just about the Struggle of a generation past; it’s also about the challenges and dreams of today’s young people who are also eager for change. This desire for change was expressed vociferously at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently, when the urinating and alleged racist incident laid bare the fact that so many students of colour, specifically black students, still face racial discrimination on our campuses daily. Unsurprisingly, students from various SU societies and leadership groups arranged protest actions the following week to increase the pressure on management for change. This was not new pressure. This pressure was felt in 2015…

Gunmen have released 11 passengers who were abducted during a train attack in northern Nigeria at the end of March, a government minister said, though dozens others are thought to remain in captivity. Gbemisola Saraki, the minister of state for transportation, said the government was working to ensure all the kidnapped passengers were released. The freed passengers were taken to a hospital in Abuja. Saraki did not say how and where they were released, or if ransom was paid. Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, blew up the track on the Abuja-Kaduna route in the north of the country and opened fire on the night train on March 28, killing eight people. Nigeria’s state railway company initially said it could not account for 168 people who according to a passenger…

THE UK government yesterday came under pressure to also intervene in the matter of a Moroccan man who has been sentenced to death alongside two Britons by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine. The court in Donetsk, one of two self-proclaimed statelets in eastern Ukraine, last week ordered the death penalty for the trio after they were captured by Russian troops. Brahim Saadoun along with UK nationals Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were said to have surrendered in April after fighting with Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city of Mariupol. British cabinet minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News the government was “engaged” with Ukrainian authorities in trying to help Aslin and Pinner after their “sham trial”. The Britons were combatants serving with Ukraine’s armed forces and fully entitled to…

YAOUNDE: -The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has strongly condemned an attack on a hospital in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of the south-west. “Attacks on health-care workers, patients and facilities are serious violations of international human rights law,” Matthias Naab, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Cameroon, said on Saturday. “They must be investigated and perpetrators must be held to account,” he said last Wednesday when suspected separatists attacked and torched Mamfe District Hospital. According to OCHA, there have been five attacks against health-care providers since January. | (Xinhua…

ISLAMABAD: A soldier was killed in an exchange of fire between security forces and terrorists in Datta Khel area in North Waziristan district of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an army statement said yesterday. “The military personnel fought bravely and effectively engaged the terrorists’ location,” the military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the statement. During an intense exchange of fire, a 25-years-old soldier lost his life, the statement added. Area clearance was being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area, according to the ISPR.…

The 2022 Currie Cup semi-finalists have been determined after a weekend of drama in the last round of the competition, with the Cheetahs, Bulls, Griquas and Pumas confirming their spots. The Cheetahs secured the top spot after smashing the Bulls 35-5 on Saturday evening in Bloemfontein; Griquas edged the Pumas 45-44 in their Friday evening thriller in Nelspruit, and earlier on Friday WP dashed the Sharks’ play-off hopes with a 28-21 win in Stellenbosch. With the league phase of the Currie Cup now completed, the Cheetahs finished in first place with 48 points, followed by the Bulls on 47. Griquas follow in third (36 points), while the Pumas (29 points) complete this weekend’s semi-finalists. As a result of their defeat in Stellenbosch, the Sharks missed out on a top-four spot…

After becoming the second highest wicket taker in One-Day Internationals, Shabnim Ismail says she still has more to offer the Proteas ahead of a busy period for the national team, featuring a number of high profile events. Ismail, 33, is one of the veterans in a South African team that, for the Ireland portion of their tour to Europe, is starting to go through a rebuilding phase, which includes a few new faces in the squad. Ismail showed her value on Saturday in the opening ODI against Ireland, claiming 3/16 as the Proteas dismissed the home team for just 69 in 27.2 overs to set up dominant nine-wicket victory. In the process, the South Africans also picked up their first points in the International Women’s Championship, which will determine the…

AS EXPECTED, the budget vote delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa in parliament on Thursday was overshadowed by the revelations of the $4 million that was allegedly stolen at the president’s Phala Phala farm in Limpopo, the Citizen reported last week. Following his speech, opposition parties used the time to debate his budget speech to ask Ramaphosa to “come clean” about the events surrounding the large sum of money he kept on his Phala Phala farm and why he had not reported the theft to the police. This all became public after the former spy boss Arthur Fraser asked the police to investigate Ramaphosa, Presidential Protection Unit Head Major General Wally Rhoode and members of crime intelligence for money laundering, acting in contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act…

Lebogang “The Funny Chef'” Tlokana wears many hats – she’s a chef, actress, comedienne, social media sensation, television host and entrepreneur. Now the Pretoria-born star has recently added cookbook author to her already impressive resume. Whenever she posts her delicious dishes on social media, be it ting (sour porridge) le (and) maotwana (chicken feet) or malana (chicken intestine) or dumplings with stew or oxtail or farfalle pasta with mushrooms and spinach, fans flood her comments, asking for recipes, while others encourage her to open a restaurant. It seems “Aus Lebo”, as she’s fondly known, has heeded the call as she prepares to launch her first cookbook titled The Funny Chef’s Delicious Dishes. Giving her fans a sneak peek, into her upcoming book, on Thursday, the Our Perfect Wedding presenter wrote:…

THE LOTUS Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association (Lasca) has threatened to shut down Tshwane if the City does not solve the billing problems frustrating residents. Chairperson of the organisation Tshepo Mahlangu said although there was an agreement reached with senior managers and MMC for Finance Peter Sutton, officials at the bottom were not implementing it. He said several meetings yielded an agreement for the City to work with the community on a pilot project in Atteridgeville, where people living below the poverty line would be placed on the indigent list, and those with meagre earnings would prove how much they could afford to pay. This was subsequent to various engagements and protest action that resulted in the organisation stating that they would no longer allow the City to disconnect…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa can barely claim to be helping to fight crime when he failed to have the robbery at his Phala Phala farm reported to the SAPS, but instead to his head of security. He can hardly claim that he presides over a government that champions transparency and accountability when he quickly hides behind a police investigation opened against him. If there was no such investigation, he would not have voluntarily disclosed that millions of dollars allegedly concealed on his farm were stolen in 2020. His continued refusal to come clean about the events during and after the robbery, including alleged kidnapping, torture and bribery of the suspects, reverses whatever little gains were made in his administration. Telling the recent Limpopo ANC elective conference that he had not stolen…

Fiji faces its biggest threat from “devastating climate change” rather than conflict, the country’s defence minister warned yesterday at a high-level security summit that has been dominated by geopolitical tensions. This weekend’s Shangri-La Dialogue, which brings together defence ministers from around the world, has seen sparring between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan while delegates also voiced concern about the Ukraine war. It comes as Beijing jostles with Western powers for influence over Pacific island nations. But Fijian Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu sought instead to focus attention on the threat posed by climate change to his Pacific country, which is regularly hit by cyclones. “Machine guns, fighter jets, ships … are not our primary security concern,” he told hundreds of delegates at the event in Singapore. “The single greatest threat to…

New Delhi: More than a week after testing positive for the coronavirus, Congress president Sonia Gandhi was yesterday admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital for treatment. Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala tweeted, “Congress President Sonia Gandhi was admitted to hospital owing to Covid related issues. She is stable and will be kept for observation …” Sonia Gandhi on June 2 tested positive for Covid-19 infection, a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned her and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.…

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) has dissolved a 7 000-strong caravan of thousands of migrants that set off from southern Mexico last week, seeking to reach the US. The INM gave them a migration document that proves their regular stay in the country and provided food and water to them, it said. An international organisation monitoring the migrant situation said the US-bound caravan was not being deterred by any Mexican authorities. Most of the migrants in the caravan are reportedly from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua – three countries the US did not invite to the Summit of the Americas.…

Brookline (Massachusetts): The chair of a September 11, 2001, attacks victims’ families group says members are outraged by the “betrayal” of US golfers playing in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series. The comments from Terry Strada, the widow of a 9/11 victim, were made in a public letter Friday to agents of such major champions as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed. “Please rethink your membership in this Saudi enterprise,” Strada wrote. “We urge you to reconsider so that you can stand with us and send a message to the Kingdom.”…

DISEASES such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and tuberculosis, may have been suppressed during the hard Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide and the wearing of masks. However, there are reports internationally that those diseases are now re-emerging in new and different ways. The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the 2022 influenza season started in week 17 – April 25 – when the influenza detection rate among patients in a pneumonia surveillance breached the epidemic threshold as determined by the Moving Epidemic Method. The NICD weekly respiratory pathogens surveillance report, based on data collected up to May 28, showed that this year, 192 influenza cases have been detected with “increasing numbers of cases reported the past four weeks”. Most cases were reported in Gauteng (66), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (49), Mpumalanga…

SOUTH African authorities have denied the existence of monkeypox cases rumoured to be spreading in parts of the country. Yesterday, a concerned parent told the Pretoria News that he had spent Saturday night in and out of the Mediclinic in Mpumalanga’s capital city Mbombela, where his infant was being treated for the zoonotic virus. “My son started acting up at night and we found that he was a bit feverish and had a rash and bumps. We drove to the Mediclinic where we were told that chickenpox was ruled out. The medical staff said this was a definite case of monkeypox but they were not allowed to say it publicly,” said the parent, who asked not to be named for fear of vilification. The parent said he decided to take…

THE wheels of justice have a knack of turning frustratingly slowly. The victims, whether it is the state or individuals, are callously left to deal with the immediate consequences. When the alleged crime is state capture and corruption, and involves an international dimension, then justice has a tendency to drag on for years. South Africa’s polity has for the last decade been defined by state capture and corruption personified by the alleged antics of the administration of former president Jacob Zuma between 2009 and 2018 – a national metric of shame whose due process has been dragged kicking and screaming and hopefully finally heading towards some sort of closure. The real and opportunity costs of state capture will probably never be known, although one estimate puts the figure at a…

Some 1 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank region of Masafer Yatta face the risk of forced removal to make way for an army firing zone after a decades-long legal battle that ended last month in Israel’s highest court. The ruling opened the way for one of the largest displacements since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war. But residents are refusing to leave, hoping their resilience and international pressure will keep Israel from carrying out the evictions. “They want to take this land from us to build settlements,” said Wadha Ayoub Abu Sabha, a resident of al-Fakheit, one of a group of hamlets where Palestinian shepherds and farmers claim a historic connection to the land. “We’re not leaving,” she said. In the 1980s, Israel…

A volcano in the Philippines spewed a huge column of ash into the sky yesterday, blanketing a region still recovering from last week’s eruption. The blast from Bulusan volcano lasted 18 minutes, the Philippine seismological agency said, impairing road visibility and forcing airlines to cancel flights. On June 5, Mount Bulusan sent a grey plume shooting up at least 1km and covered 10 villages with ash. Residents of Juban town in Sorsogon province, still reeling from last week’s eruption, were woken up yesterday by the volcano’s thundering. “I thought it was just raining, but when I looked outside there was ash everywhere,” resident Antonio Habitan told AFP. “Our river was once clear but now it is ash-coloured.” No casualties were reported, but the seismological agency raised the alert level to…

LONDON: Adele’s boyfriend, Rich Paul, is looking forward to being “an older dad”. The 40-year-old sports agent already has three children but suggested he would be a “different” type of parent if he has more kids at this stage in his life. He told E! News: “As a young dad, growing a business, it was pretty tough.“But now looking as an older dad, if I was to have more kids, I’m looking forward to being a different dad. “You know, I have a daughter that’s a junior in college so I was a very young dad, but now, different age, different time in my life, different position in my life. I’m really looking forward to being an older dad.” Though Rich values his experiences as a younger parent, he pledged…

TUNIS: Tunisian military prosecutors said on Saturday they had begun investigating a journalist on suspicion of “harming public order” for saying the president had asked the army to close a powerful labour union’s headquarters, and a witness said the reporter had been arrested. The journalist, Salah Attia, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that President Kais Saied had asked the army to close the headquarters of the UGTT union and put political leaders under house arrest, but that the army had refused. ”Police arrested Attia in a cafe in the suburb of Ibn Khaldoun,” the witness, who was with Attia, told Reuters by phone.…

Ria Ledwaba says she’s confident that she’ll win the Safa presidential election later this month, and that’s why the camp of incumbent Danny Jordaan is in panic mode. A week ago, Ledwaba, Jordaan and the Safa president in Tshwane Solly Mohlabeng were cleared as the three candidates that will battle for the country’s top footballing seat at the election on June 25. Ledwaba didn’t waste time in airing her aims and visions for the association as she began with her manifesto at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday, while her counterparts are yet to begin with theirs. While Jordaan appears to be in pole position to lead for another term, after being endorsed by Safa in Limpopo already, Ledwaba has had unwavering support from ex-players and political parties as well. Former…