Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-08-29 i Pretoria News

REBOSIS Property Fund was suspended on the JSE on Friday after it went into business rescue because of provincial government and municipal delays in rent payments and the impact of rising interest rates on its debt. The share was suspended at 16 cents, after falling from 29c a year ago and after plunging from as high as R10.95 five years ago. It’s management had always cited its “sovereign tenants”, which make up more than 50 percent of its turnover, as a defensive aspect to its portfolio – as government tenants were once considered reliable – even in times of economic hardship. Its portfolio includes Baywest and Hemmingway Mall, office block 11 Diagonal Street in Johannesburg, Sunnypark Mall and Grand Central in Cape Town. Rebosis was established in…

MOTSHEGOFADIWA Primary School in Stinkwater, Hammanskraal has been named the 2022 winner of a competition encouraging learners from disadvantaged areas to excel in maths. The competition was hosted by non-profit community organisation Make A Difference, and seven schools entered the competition. Make A Difference member Solly Marima said each school sent only two learners, from grades 4 to 7. “The tournament will be held annually. We want to see a 100% pass rate in mathematics in our local schools. Hence we encourage them by awarding them with trophies, medals, school bags, maths instruments, tablets and calculators,” Marima said during an award ceremony at Marotola Primary School on Friday. He expressed satisfaction with the tournament, adding that there would be another one next year that would include high schools in the…

THE SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is investigating the death of PJ Simelane Secondary School pupil, Tiro Moalusi. Moalusi, 15, committed suicide by ingesting rat poison following a homophobic slur by a student teacher on Tuesday, August 16. Provincial manager at the SAHRC, Buang Jones, said it is in the public interest and the interest of the affected family to establish the circumstances that led to the death of the Grade 9 pupil. The SAHRC investigation follows hot on the heels of another investigation by the Gauteng Department of Education. “The probe will also ascertain if the curriculum responds to the issues of homophobia and unfair discrimination against members of the LGBTQI community,” he said. Social intolerance in communities has contributed to discrimination against the LGBTQI community, an there…

LIZ TRUSS, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the UK, is aspiring to become Britain’s third woman prime minister. Truss is the worst Foreign Minister the UK has had in more than 100 years. She is ill-equipped and most certainly ill-informed about the role of being the premier of a nuclear power. She told a Tory event in Birmingham that she is willing to hit Britain’s nuclear button if necessary, even if it meant “global annihilation”; ironically, it would be Birmingham that would be wiped out. In a nuclear counter-strike Liz Truss cannot be trusted to issue such orders. Love her or loathe her, Margaret Thatcher was a formidable stateswoman. Liz Truss is a third-rate under-educated Tory politician. A secret report drawn up in 1955 by Sir Keith…

HE WAS the scion of the political aristocracy – son of the respected second prime minister of post-independence Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Razak, and nephew to its third prime minister Hussein Onn. That Najib Abdul Razak hailed from one of the most powerful families in the country is an irrelevance, seemingly untouchable given that as Malaysia’s sixth prime minister he exercised immense control over the levers of power, including the judiciary, the anti-corruption agency and, crucially, the Treasury in his capacity also as Finance Minister in an anachronistic autocratic democracy. Last week, Najib started a 12-year prison sentence after the country’s chief justice, Tun Maimun Tuan Mat, dismissed a final appeal by the disgraced ex-premier. He was found guilty in 2020 by a lower court on seven charges of corruption and…

Clashes between backers of Libya’s rival governments killed at least 23 people and damaged six hospitals in Tripoli on Saturday, sparking fears that a political crisis could spiral into a major new armed conflict. Small arms fire and explosions rocked several districts of the capital, when smoke could be seen rising from damaged buildings. The health ministry in Tripoli said 23 people had been killed and 140 wounded in the fighting. Six hospitals were hit and ambulances were unable to reach areas affected by the clashes, the ministry had said earlier, condemning “war crimes”. The two rival administrations vying for control of the country and its vast oil resources – one based in the capital, the other approved by a parliament in the country’s east – exchanged blame. The head…

Belgrade: Serbia said it would not host EuroPride – a pan-European LGBT event – next month as the country faced growing problems, but the organisers vowed to proceed with the parade. “The pride parade, however you call that thing, scheduled for September, will be postponed or cancelled,” President Aleksandar Vucic, pictured, said. He said Serbia was “pressured with all kinds of problems”, underlining recent tensions with its former province Kosovo, but also issues around energy and food. “Simply, at some point, you can’t handle everything (as in) another time, a happier one,” Vucic said. Organisers struck a defiant note. “The state cannot cancel EuroPride – it can only attempt to forbid it, which would be a clear breach of the constitution”, EuroPride 2022 co-ordinator Marko Mihailovic said on Twitter. “Pride…

NEW YORK: A US judge has recommended that victims of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban. US magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan said on Friday that Da Afghanistan Bank was immune from jurisdiction, and that allowing the seizures would effectively acknowledge the Islamist militant group as the Afghan government, something only the US president can do. |…

SOUTH African markets ended the week slightly weaker as investors were digesting hawkish comments from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to bring down inflation through further rate hikes. The JSE all share index reversed course and closed 0.2 percent down at 70 173 index points on Friday, as losses in retailers, tech stocks and industrials more than offset strength in financials. The rand eased 0.4 percent to R16.88 against the dollar on Friday as the greenback recovered and approached a 20-year high after the Fed’s comments spooked buyers of emerging markets currencies. Fed chairperson Jerome Powell on Friday reiterated that restoring price stability could require a sustained period of lower growth and that labour market conditions would likely soften. At the Jackson Hole symposium, Powell said the…

ANYONE disqualified from receiving the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant as a result of earning more than R350 can breathe a sigh of relief as the new regulations will allow more people to receive grants. The Department of Social Development and South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) announced that the low number of approved applications for the Covid-19 SRD and public outcry over regulations that unfairly excluded applicants prompted it to make the necessary changes. Last month, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu gazetted changes to be made concerning the R350 grant, effectively increasing the income threshold for the means test from R350 a month to R624, from the food poverty line. Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said this meant that applicants who had an inflow of funds in their…

ANC members who are legal practitioners have vowed to represent their cash-strapped party for free in the upcoming application by aggrieved members challenging the elections of the North West leadership in the Constitutional Court. This was revealed by Obed Bapela, ANC National Executive Committee member and party deployee in North West, when he delivered the opening address of the second leg of the provincial conference at the Rustenburg Civic Centre. Bapela said the lawyers represented the ANC at the Mahikeng High Court on Thursday when five of its aggrieved members applied for an urgent interdict to stop the conference from continuing. The aggrieved parties also wanted the high court to set aside the election of the incumbent provincial chairperson, Nono Maloyi, and his executive. The court, however, ruled against…

MOTORISTS who applied for new driving licences and or renewal of their licence cards last year risk having their cards defaced as they continue not to present themselves for collection. While new and old licensed drivers were frustrated by the backlog to attain secure appointments to renew their appointment cards online, scores of motorists whose cards were ready did not come to collect them. Meanwhile, the public was earlier this year putting the government under pressure to resolve the backlog to allow all motorists to obtain valid driver’s licence cards to avoid receiving traffic law infringement fines and losing insurance claims when the grace period to drive with expired cards ends. Moreover, scores of driving licence testing centres in Gauteng, particularly in Tshwane and Johannesburg metropolitans, were shut down because…

Omitted vital need to promote human rights and our shared humanity IN SOUTH Africa, over the past few days, the topic of Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba’s shunning of foreigners for draining the province’s limited health resources has induced an avalanche of outrage. In a video that surfaced online, Ramathuba reprimanded a Zimbabwean patient scheduled for a medical procedure at the Bela Bela Provincial Hospital. Opposition to Ramathuba’s conduct has united many, with more than 20 000 people of different ages and races taking to social media to express their contempt. In the kaleidoscope of disparate groups involved, the main unifying banner is the assertion that Ramathuba’s conduct infringes the South African Constitution’s tenet of respect for human rights. She deserves criticism for her stubborn handling of the…

Angolans and foreign dignitaries gathered yesterday for the funeral of former president José Eduardo dos Santos on what would have been his 80th birthday. Dos Santos died in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, on July 8, but his funeral was delayed by a family request for an autopsy. It also took place days after an election appeared to have returned his Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party to power. The funeral was attended by about a dozen foreign leaders, including the presidents of Portugal, Mozambique and South Africa. A few family members attended but none of his children were present. Some of them were at loggerheads with the government and his estranged wife over where and when he was to be buried. A Spanish court ruled last week…

Some 300 people demonstrated on Saturday in the Central African Republic’s capital against changing the constitution after the president ordered a rewrite of the basic law. Opposition and civil society called the protest a day after President Faustin Archange Touadera ordered the creation of a committee to rewrite the constitution, sparking fears he was seeking a third term in office. The 65-year-old was first elected in 2016, then re-elected in a highly controversial poll in 2020, but the current constitution does not allow him to run for a third term. “No to manipulation,” “No to dictatorship,”, read protest banners at a rally called by the 20-party Republican Bloc coalition grouping opposition forces and civil society organisations. |…

Conakry: A political coalition in Guinea said it was calling off planned protests against the country’s ruling junta, at the request of a West African regional group. The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) had called for fresh demonstrations in the capital Conakry today and September 4, after accusing junta forces of killing two teenagers during previous protests. But on Saturday, the FNDC said it had “complied with a request from the heads of the Economic Community of West African States and Guinea Christians to suspend the peaceful citizen demonstrations”. The September 4 protest would also have fallen on a Sunday, “a day of prayer for our Christian compatriots”. |…

MOSCOW: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has filed an appeal with the UK High Court of Justice Administrative Court against the decision to extradite him to the US. On June 17 UK Home Secretary Priti Patel approved Assange’s extradition to the US, where he is facing a possible sentence of up to 175 years in prison. WikiLeaks called Patel’s decision a dark day for press freedom and for British democracy and promised to challenge the order. According to WikiLeak the appeal document will contain new evidence but there was no elaboration on what that might be. Assange is wanted on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published classified documents that shed light on US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. |…

Sometimes there can be a myriad of reasons for a loss as comprehensive as the one suffered by South Africa in the second Test against England at Old Trafford - sometimes there is just one. For the Proteas it was the latter. “First innings runs kind of stabilises your game,” said captain Dean Elgar. “I didn’t think we batted particularly well.” There you have it. Not selection, not the toss, not the fact he didn’t utilise his fast bowlers properly at a crucial stage after lunch on day two. The Proteas batted badly. There had been signs against New Zealand and then in the home series with Bangladesh that a corner had been turned. Batting collapses had been a regular feature when Ottis Gibson was coach and which continued through…

BEN LA GRANGE, the chief financial officer of what became South Africa’s biggest corporate fraud, Steinhoff, was censured on Friday by the JSE, fined R2 million and barred from holding a position in a listed company for 10 years. In October 2020, the JSE censured the European furniture retailer Steinhoff and imposed a R13.5m fine for its transgressions of listings requirements. Steinhoff first disclosed a hole in its accounts in December 2017, and subsequently more than R100 billion of accounting fraud between the 2009 and 2017 accounting years were discovered, involving a small group of top executives and outsiders. The JSE said La Grange should have known, for example, that a purported €23.5m (R395m) transaction between a Steinhoff subsidiary and some of its suppliers was not an actual…

RE-ELECTED national president of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Mzwanele Nyotsho says his party has set its sights on “boosting” its performance in the 2024 general elections through coalitions with other parties. Nyotsho was speaking on the sidelines of the party’s national congress in Seshego, outside Polokwane in Limpopo, this weekend. The congress saw hundreds of delegates across the country gather at the Ngoako Ramatlhodi hall to elect their preferred candidates, also re-elected secretary-general Apa Pooe. All the positions were unopposed in spite of assertions that Nyotsho would be contested by his deputy Lunga Mantashe. Victor Serakala was elected deputy president while Pooe’s deputy is Eddie Mfulwane. Jaki Seroke, Mbuyisilo Gantsu and Sbu Xaba will be treasurer, national organiser and national chairperson, respectively. Nyotsho said: “We plan to boost performance…

THE Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) has changed its tune over supporting Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba following her controversial address to a foreign national who underwent surgery at Bela Bela Hospital earlier this month. Ramathuba’s filmed address went viral, sparking a heated debate on South Africa’s approach to illegal immigration. Some political parties have heavily lambasted her but some sections of society have rallied behind her. Last week, ZEF also trended after one of its members Tino Mambeu was interviewed on eNCA, where he fully supported Ramathuba on behalf of Zimbabweans. “It would be unfair to say Dr Ramathuba was xenophobic. She just highlighted the sentiments of many South African politicians and the general masses in that the influx of Zimbabweans has caused serious damage to the health situation…

THE Special Investigating Unit (SIU) should leave no stone unturned now that it has been authorised to unearth the rot that has plagued the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for years. The probe should also provide NSFAS with an opportunity to cleanse itself as the organisation has fallen short in fulfilling its mandate of providing poor tertiary-level students with much-needed funding. President Cyril Ramaphosa recently gave the green light for the SIU to investigate alleged corruption and maladministration at NSFAS and recover any financial losses. The first aspect of the investigation will focus on the scheme’s finances, while the other will zoom into the allocation of loans, bursaries and any other funding payable to students in terms of the provisions of NSFAS. Other issues on the unit’s radar are…

Turkey has lashed out at what it described as French President Emmanuel Macron’s “unacceptable” comments in Algeria on foreign powers spreading anti-French propaganda in Africa. On a visit to France’s former colony aimed at mending troubled ties, Macron on Friday appeared to warn young Algerians and Africans against manipulation by “networks” influenced by Turkey, Russia and China that present France as an “enemy”. “There is immense manipulation,” Macron told reporters. “Many political Islam activists have an enemy: France. Many of the networks that are covertly pushed – ... by Turkey... by Russia... by China – have an enemy: France.” Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic slammed what he described as the French leader’s “extremely unfortunate” comments. “It is unacceptable that ... Macron, who has difficulties in confronting his colonial past…

TUNIS: Japan pledged $30 billion (about R507 trillion) in aid for development in Africa on Saturday, saying it wanted to work more closely with the continent, with the rules-based international order under threat after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Addressing a Japan-Africa summit in Tunisia virtually, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo would work to ensure grain shipments to Africa amid a global shortage. Kishida said the $30bn would be delivered over three years in co-ordination with the African Development Bank. |…

KYIV: Merchant sailors will be allowed to leave Ukraine if they receive approval from their local military administrative body, the Ukrainian prime minister said on Saturday, a move that could ease the process of shipping grain from the country’s ports. Premier Denys Shmyhal said the decision had been approved by the cabinet on Saturday. The change would cover male crew members of sea and river vessels, as well as students who need to undertake practical training aboard ships, he added. The decision is likely to ease a shortage of sailors to crew ships coming into and out of Ukraine to export grain via an internationally brokered corridor. |…

WARSAW: In Poland vehicles line up at the Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka mine as householders fearful of coal rations and winter shortages wait for days and nights to stock up on heating fuel. Nearly 3.8 million households in Poland that rely on coal now face shortages and price hikes after the country and the EU imposed an embargo on Russian coal in February. While Poland produces more than 50 million tons of coal, imported coal from Russia is a household staple because of competitive prices and the fact that Russian coal is sold in lumps more suitable for home use. Last month Poland ordered the import of fuel from Indonesia, Colombia and Africa. |…

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag insists he wants Cristiano Ronaldo to stay at Old Trafford despite leaving out the unsettled star for a second successive Premier League game. Ronaldo started on the bench for United's 1-0 win at Southampton on Saturday before making a largely anonymous substitute appearance in the second half. The Portugal striker has been pushing for a transfer since the end of last term after United's failure to qualify for this season's Champions League. But Ronaldo has found it impossible to attract one of Europe's top clubs, with the latest reports linking him with the likes of his former team Sporting Lisbon, as well as Napoli and Marseille. With Thursday's transfer deadline looming, United remain adamant the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is not for sale in…