Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-12-19 i Pretoria News

Sun, sea and surf, that’s what the summer holidays are all about. Any beach can become dangerous, so extra precautions should be taken when at the beach, especially when travelling with little ones. South Africa has a beautiful coastline with pristine beaches all the way from the white sandy beaches of the Western Cape to the golden coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Wherever you choose to go, Clifton, Mossel Bay, Umzumbe, Gqeberha or Sodwana Bay, make sure that you follow the rules and swim in designated areas. Here are beach safety tips from Rocky Bay Resorts’ Manager Annien Koulountis. Blue Flag Blue Flag Beaches are best because they meet international standards for accessibility, facilities and amenities, safety, cleanliness and responsibility towards the environment, so they are a great option if you can.…

THE owner of a building in Doornfontein, Joburg, had to turn to court to obtain an order to enter its own premises to, among others, empty and clean the sewage-filled basement. Mayfin Ltd, which owns the property known as Industry House, has been embroiled in legal proceedings for years in a bid to evict the non-paying residents in the building. In the latest application before the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, Mayfin said the building was filthy and unsafe and urgently needed a clean-up and renovations. The problem, however, is that the occupants will not allow the contractors to enter the building. The court was told that the toilets, bathrooms and kitchens in the building had to be upgraded, sewage pipes and fire extinguishers had to be installed and running water…

Critical policy decisions need to be made immediately in regard to Eskom, Phala Phala and our state-owned entities (SOEs). The current state of our country has me thinking about what to do and wondering what will be next? First, we have all witnessed the country’s infrastructure failures in recent months or years, which is a cause for concern. We need a new business model to help us advance as a country. We can only move into a new era if we move to a new business model. In this respect, the old one failed us. There is a greater need to change with the times to achieve what can help the country meet its objective of eliminating the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment. The idea of a disciplined…

Streets in major Chinese cities were eerily quiet yesterday as people stayed home to protect themselves from a surge in Covid-19 cases that has hit urban centres from north to south. China is currently in the first of an expected three waves of Covid-19 cases this winter, according to the country’s chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou. Cases could multiply across the country if people follow typical travel patterns of returning to their home areas in a mass transit movement for the Lunar New Year holiday next month. China is also yet to officially report any Covid-19 deaths since December 7, when the country abruptly ended most restrictions key to a zero-Covid tolerance policy following unprecedented public protests against the protocol. The strategy had been championed by President Xi Jinping. As part…

Malaysian police have called in staff members from an unlicensed campsite to assist in an investigation into a landslide that flattened the camp grounds and killed at least 24 people, as the search for missing people continued for a third day. The victims, including seven children, died after a landslide tore through the campsite while they slept in tents at Batang Kali, a popular hilly area about 50km north of capital Kuala Lumpur. Of the 94 people caught in the landslide, 61 were safe and nine still missing, the Selangor state fire and rescue department said. Search and rescue teams have increased the number of excavators and rescue dogs to find campers who may be trapped under mud and debris, with heavy rain raising concern of further landslides. Hulu Selangor…

Megastar Rihanna has for the first time shared a video of her baby son, who was born to her and boyfriend rapper A$AP Rocky in May. The 45-second video on TikTok, the singer’s first on the social media platform, has already attracted 11.5 million views and 3.4 million likes since it was posted on Saturday. In the video titled “hacked”, the baby boy smiles and gurgles and makes a grab for her phone as Rihanna says, “You’re trying to get mommy’s phone?” The 34-year-old entertainment and fashion mogul behind the hits Diamonds and Umbrella gave birth in May but no other details, including the child’s name, had been made public. The Barbadian-born singer, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, in recent years has become a billionaire, parlaying her music…

Qatar yesterday condemned a corruption investigation by Belgium and the suspension of its access to the EU parliament, saying it could “negatively” impact relations and natural gas supplies. A Qatari diplomat singled out Belgian authorities for criticism, insisting “inaccurate” information had been used. Eva Kaili, a Greek MEP, is one of six people arrested after raids that uncovered at least €1.5 million (about R28 million) in cash. The money was allegedly linked to a Gulf state, and the EU parliament last week suspended Qatar’s access to the institution. Belgium said it had been investigating EU parliament corruption for more than a year before the raids and arrests. | AFP…

Netcare, a private healthcare provider, again warned against the shortage of nurses and has called for the government to urgently address the situation. In its 2022 integrated report, the group said the critical shortage of nurses, coupled with the low output from nursing education institutions, must be urgently addressed to meet current and future healthcare demand. According to Netcare, there was a current shortage of between 26 000 and 62 000 nurses in SA, both public and private, with the gap expected to grow to between 131 000 and 166 000 by 20301. “SA’s Human Resources for Health Strategy 2030 predicts a shortage of around 34 000 registered nurses in primary healthcare by 2025. “The supply-demand mismatch is driven primarily by increased demand from population growth, an ageing population, the…

The National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit and the Hawks are cracking the whip on vehicle fleet owners and representatives of companies who conspired with officials to commit a R60 million vehicle licence registration fraud. They first busted 14 government officials who included officials from the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison based at the Natis helpdesk and staff from various registering authorities including Mbombela, Piet Retief, Lydenburg and Delmas. The anti-corruption unit and the Hawks are set to arrest fleet owners and company representatives who allegedly conspired with the officials to have vehicle licence fees and arrears, worth millions of rand, written off. Vehicles discs indicating zero amounts owed would be issued to owners. In exchange, the owners or repre- sentatives would deposit 50% of the amounts owing into…

THE chaotic scenes and delays at the ANC’s elective conference this weekend make it quite easy to understand the sorry state our country finds itself in. The party can barely get its house in order, as South Africans and the world have observed this weekend. The scenes at the conference confirm, among other things, that the outgoing ANC national executive committee (NEC) has fallen far short in renewing and rebuilding the ANC as was mandated by the conference of 2017. The visible factional divisions that are on full display at this gathering, which has been touted as a watershed moment for the party, suggest these are the last kicks of a dying horse. To say the political report that President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered, while being occasionally heckled, was underwhelming…

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles towards the sea off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast yesterday, said South Korea and Japan, prompting South Korea’s presidential office to “strongly condemn” Pyongyang for escalating tensions. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the two medium-range missiles flew about 500km. Japan’s Vice-Defence Minister Toshiro Ino said the missiles landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and there had been no report of damages. “South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting a thorough analysis, factoring recent trends related to North Korea’s missile development,” South Korea said. It convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting over North Korea’s missile launch and “strongly condemned” escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s presidential office said. The North’s provocations and development of nuclear weapons and…

The political crisis roiling Peru has deepened as President Dina Boluarte’s new government edged toward collapse and protesters across the country refused to back down despite the military enforcing a state of emergency. A total of 20 demonstrators are reported to have been killed in clashes with security forces, including eight allegedly shot on Thursday by soldiers using live ammunition in the southern mountain region of Ayacucho. Protesters have stormed several regional airports, looted businesses and blocked roads, primarily in the impoverished mountain regions of the Andean nation. Last year, those areas voted heavily for Pedro Castillo, a rural schoolteacher and former wildcat-strike leader, who was impeached as president last week after he attempted to dissolve Congress and restructure the judiciary. The violence prompted two ministers to resign on Friday…

Charikar: An oil tanker overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan’s high-altitude Salang pass, killing 12 people and injuring dozens, officials said yesterday. The incident happened late on Saturday in the province of Parwan, north of Kabul. At least 12 people were killed and 37 others were injured in the incident, said Hamidullah Misbah, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Works, adding the toll was expected to rise. “An oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the Salang tunnel, which then set several other vehicles on fire,” Misbah said. The pass was closed for traffic as rescue teams in helicopters were deployed at the site. | AFP…

kirKUK: At least nine members of Iraq’s federal police were killed during an attack near Kirkuk in the country’s north, where remnants of Islamic State group jihadists are active, police and government sources told AFP. A bomb blast initially targeted a truck transporting the men. It was followed by “a direct attack with small arms”, near the village of Chalal al-Matar, a federal police officer who attributed the assault to IS, told AFP on condition of anonymity. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. “An assailant has been killed and we are looking for the others,” the officer said, adding that two policemen were wounded. | AFP…

Morocco coach Walid Regragui said he believes an African team will win the World Cup in the next “15 to 20 years” after his team finished fourth in Qatar. The Atlas Lions, who became the first African World Cup semi-finalists in history, lost Saturday’s third place playoff 2-1 against 2018 runners-up Croatia but captured the imagination in Qatar. The next World Cup in 2026, held across the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be expanded to 48 teams and Africa will have at least nine slots - up from five at present. “With nine participants, we’re going to learn. In 15, 20 years, I’m sure an African team will win the World Cup because we’ll have learned,” said Regragui. “We have a stage to get past. We need to build…

The Emirates Lions will hope that they have done enough in the EPCR Challenge Cup and United Rugby Championship (URC) in recent weeks at Emirates Airline Park to dictate their future as they begin a six week spell on the road. The Joburgers finished the year at home with an important 30-12 bonus point victory over Stade Francais in the Challenge Cup this past Friday, and are unbeaten in four matches in all competitions. In all they collected eight points in the Challenge Cup to sit comfortably second in Pool B, but will now pivot back to URC consideration in the coming weeks. Their first assignment away will be against the Sharks on Friday (kick-off 5pm) in Durban, followed by the Stormers a week later at Newlands, which will end…

Shoprite has asked the Competition Tribunal to modify its consent agreement regarding the phasing out of exclusive lease agreements citing that its competition, Pick n Pay’s agreement was more favourable than theirs. Shoprite had concluded the consent agreement following recommendations made by the Commission in the Grocery Retail Market Inquiry (GRMI) concerning long-term exclusive lease agreements with landlords of shopping centres. In 2019, the Competition Commission’s Grocery Retail Market Inquiry released a report which stated that exclusivity lease agreements were prevalent, anti-competitive, and harmful to consumers and smaller retailers. At the time, the commission decided that large retailers should co-operate on their own rather than immediately choosing litigation to get them to comply. According to the tribunal, the long-term exclusive lease agreements entered into between property developers and supermarkets, include…

QUESTIONS have been raised over the timing and effectiveness of the deployment of SANDF soldiers to protect power stations from theft and vandalism as the country experiences high stages of load shedding, despite December being a period of low demand. On Saturday, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said the Presidency and the Department of Public Enterprises requested the Minister of Defence to provide support to the increasing threat of sabotage, theft, vandalism and corruption at Eskom power stations. Soldiers have been deployed at some of Eskom’s power stations, including Camden, Majuba, Tutuka and Grootvlei. Speaking on the sidelines of the ANC’s elective conference at Nasrec, Magwenya said the announcement had nothing to do with the conference and was instead an ongoing process. “If you go back to the state of the…

A RESIDENT of Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, who was fed-up with the pitch-black streets in his area due to non-functioning streetlights, scored a legal victory over the local municipality when the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, ordered it to repair several non-functioning streetlights. Carlo Messina turned to the courts after several unsuccessful requests to the city to fix the streetlights. Judge Allyson Crutchfield ordered the City to fix the streetlights within a reasonable time, which she regarded to be three months. But Messina told the Pretoria News that the faulty streetlights have not yet been fixed. He expressed his hope that this would be done in the stipulated time set by the court. If the City did not adhere to the court order, he would be compelled to…

A CONTRACTOR hired by the City of Tshwane and a group of employees were last week robbed of tools at gunpoint by criminals in Eersterust. City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said employees of a contractor were accosted by criminals while on duty attending to service delivery in Eersterust, east of the city. They were robbed of tools of trade, which included six brush cutters, at gunpoint. “On December 8, the same modus operandi was carried out by criminals in Eersterust on personnel belonging to the same service provider contracted to the city,” Mashigo said. He said the City condemned the violence and thuggery directed at its employees as well as contractors in various parts of the city. “This aggression meted out on contractors and employees is reprehensible and has the potential…

A family member of mine took her baby girl to the doctor with a weeping birthmark. The treatment given made the birthmark a lot worse, and they went back to seek advice. The doctor became defensive, insisting that the correct treatment had been given. There was an attempt to shift the blame to the parents. They were troubled by the way they were treated and felt the doctor did not care. This episode made them cynical towards health-care professionals in general. This story caused me to reflect on the difficult conversations doctors regularly face and how to handle situations where treatment did not go to plan. Together with professors Mathys Labuschagne and Gina Joubert, I asked whether medical students were adequately prepared for the daunting task of disclosing medical errors.…

Other nations from continent grab opportunity to step into breach One of the conspicuous absentees at the 2022 US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington DC a few days ago was President Cyril Ramaphosa. While his counterparts from the usual suspects in Africa were strutting their stuff and jockeying for US funds and patronage, it was left to Naledi Pandor, the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, to fly the flag at the most important annual gathering for African leaders at the nexus of global political, economic and security power. Ramaphosa’s absence, far from being a case of unintended consequences, was a calculated, if not forced, saving grace to spare the blushes of the Biden administration. After all, it could have been embarrassing for the White House to be seen hosting a…

The majority of Japanese people do not support raising taxes to fund military expansion, Kyodo reported yesterday, citing a survey the news agency conducted after the government announced Japan’s biggest military build-up since World War II. Japan on Friday announced a $320 billion (about R5.64 trillion) military spending plan to buy missiles capable of striking China and to ready the country for any sustained conflict, as missile tests by nearby North Korea, China’s claim over Taiwan and the invasion of Ukraine by Japan’s western neighbour Russia stoke fear of war. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this month said his government would not hike taxes for the next fiscal year beginning April 1 but would raise them in stages toward fiscal 2027. He said Japan was at a “turning point in…

JERUSALEM: Israel deported French-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri to France yesterday, accusing him of security offences. Hamouri, 37, a lifelong Jerusalem resident, was escorted to the airport where he boarded a flight to France with his supporters saying there was no legal recourse for him to take. Israel revoked Hamouri’s residency on December 1 on charges he was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, classified by Israel and its Western allies as a terror group. “He has organised, inspired and planned to commit terror acts.” | Reuters…

Heating has been fully restored to Kyiv after the latest Russian bombardment that targeted water and power infrastructure, the capital’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said yesterday. “The city is restoring all services after the latest shelling,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. “All sources of heat supply work normally.” Ukrainian officials said Russia fired more than 70 missiles on Friday in one of its heaviest barrages since the Kremlin’s February 24 invasion, forcing emergency blackouts nationwide. Temperatures in Kyiv and many places across Ukraine were below freezing yesterday morning, with forecasts expecting them to dip to minus 6ºC in the capital by the evening. | Reuters…

LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles area’s most famous mountain lion, an aged wild male feline sighted around the city’s Griffith Park, was euthanised Saturday, wildlife officials said. For years, it was known to prowl around the hillside “Hollywood” sign visible around much of Los Angeles, a fitting setting for a celebrity cat. It earned the nickname Hollywood Cat, but the mountain lion – estimated to be around 11 years old – is officially called P-22. State and federal wildlife officers decided earlier this month to capture it due to its erratic behavior, perhaps associated with being struck by a vehicle. | AFP…

Argentina won their third World Cup in extraordinary style last night, beating France 4-2 in a penalty shootout after Lionel Messi scored twice in a 3-3 draw that featured a hat-trick for Kylian Mbappe as the holders recovered from 2-0 down after 80 minutes. It was an incredible night of drama and fluctuating fortunes, delivering one of the all-time great finals to cap a wonderful tournament. Argentina had looked to be cruising to a one-sided victory after Messi's penalty and a brilliant goal by Angel di Maria in the first half put them in total control but Mbappe converted an 80th-minute penalty and volleyed in an equaliser a minute later to take the game to extra-time. Messi put Argentina ahead again but Mbappe levelled with another penalty, becoming the second…

Kaizer Chiefs are working around the clock to bolster their striking unit for the second half of the season after inviting Christian Saile for a trial this week. Most of the teams in the Premiership have returned to training as they start their preparations for the resumption of the league next week. It has been reported that Saile has been spotted training with Amakhosi after being given permission by Zambian top-flight outfit Nchanga Rangers to do so. The Congolese striker made a name for himself in the Zambian second division, after scoring 19 league goals to help Rangers gain promotion to the top flight. The left-footer hasn’t been at his sharpest in the top flight, though, as he has scored five league goals this season, with his team in 13th…

To rotate or not to rotate is not really the question for the modern-day rugby coach — it is when to make unforced changes that are the weekly conundrum, and for Sharks boss Neil Powell, you would imagine that he has to reshuffle his pack this week. The Sharks host the Lions on Friday night in a United Rugby Championship (URC) fixture and having just got home from a tough trip to the heart of France, where Bordeaux were beaten in the Heineken Cup, Powell surely is going to give a weekend pass to front-line Boks in Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi and Makazole Mapimpi. That foursome carried a heavy load for South Africa in the November internationals abroad, and indeed in the Rugby Championship before that, and then…