Innholdsfortegnelse for 2023-01-06 i Pretoria News

The scourge of gender-based violence and femicide reared its ugly head once again on the first day of the new year, with the murder of a Police Academy graduate who was brutally killed, allegedly by her husband. After having successfully completed months of training and graduating from the SA Police Academy in November, Phenderia Botshelo Phora, 31, from Mamelodi was looking forward to starting her new career. Her dreams were cut short, however, after she was found strangled with a cable, allegedly by her husband, Thuso Phora, on January 1. Her body was discovered on January 2, and the husband was arrested by the police after he was discharged from hospital after apparently attempted to commit suicide. Thuso Phora, who was apparently attached to the K9-Unit at Kgosi Mampuru II…

A KWAZULU-NATAL family are mourning the loss of 5-year-old Mvelo Gumede, who was found dead in a neighbour's swimming pool in Verulam yesterday. Mvelo went missing on Wednesday after he was last seen playing outside his father’s Verulam home. Security company Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) searched for him with no results. A neighbour contacted them yesterday to report that a child had been found floating in a pool. Paternal grandmother Nomusa Gumede said the family were struggling to come to terms with Mvelo’s death. “The whole family is shattered, I can’t explain how I feel,” she said. Gumede, who also stays with her son, said her grandson lived with his mother but was visiting his father for the holidays. “Mvelo spent Christmas with his mother in Ndwedwe and he…

Pope Francis led the funeral of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, yesterday in front of tens of thousands of mourners in St Peter’s Square, an event unprecedented in modern times. Scarlet-clad cardinals, dignitaries and thousands of priests and nuns from around the world gathered to say goodbye to the German theologian, who stunned the Catholic church in 2013 by becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to resign. For the first time in modern history, the papal funeral was led by a sitting pope, Francis, who delivered the homily in Italian as part of a multi- lingual service with a Latin mass. “Benedict ... may your joy be complete as you hear His (God’s) voice, now and forever!” the pontiff said in tribute to his predecessor, who died on Saturday aged…

The race to overthrow Vladimir Putin is under way, said Russian war analyst and former loyalist Igor Strelkov, according to a media report. “The fight for the political Olympus has begun between the groupings that surround Putin,” Strelkov said. Strelkov, a former FSB colonel key to Putin’s annexation of Crimea and subjugation of the Donetsk region of Ukraine in 2014, is now a staunch critic of the Kremlin’s war strategy. An immediate mass mobilisation of 500 000 men is the only way for Putin to avoid defeat and ignominy in the war in Ukraine, he claimed. He spoke amid claims that Putin has approved in principle a new mobilisation drive. The fight at the top of the Kremlin focuses on insurgent Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private…

PARIS: France continues to back its envoy in Burkina Faso despite a request by the Burkinabe government to replace him amid growing anti-French sentiment likely fuelled by Russian mercenaries, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said yesterday. The government requested the departure of France’s ambassador last month – a move the French described as “not standard practice.” Relations between France and the former French colony in West Africa have deteriorated after repeated military coups. A French diplomatic source said the request was being assessed, and there was no plan to withdraw its envoy at this stage. | Reuters…

London: Extinction Rebellion climate campaigners have announced a temporary halt to public disruption in the UK as they seek broader support, even as other activist groups vow to maintain radical tactics. XR, as it is also known, has spawned more radical groups such as Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, whose recent stunts include throwing soup at the glass covering Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in London’s National Gallery. But in a surprise twist on New Year’s Eve, Extinction Rebellion announced in a post: “We quit”. It said it was trying a different approach and would “temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic”. | AFP…

Jurie Roux has stepped down as SA Rugby CEO “in the best interests of the game and the organisation”, president Mark Alexander has told Independent Media. Roux completed a 12-year stint at the local rugby governing body on December 31, and has been rumoured to be on the move to sport investors CVC Capital Partners, who are believed to be in discussions with SA Rugby on a private equity deal. The 52-year-old Roux’s departure from SA Rugby comes on the back of the controversy around his corruption case with previous employers Stellenbosch University. He was ordered by an arbitrator to repay R37-million to the university for misappropriating funds while working at their finance department between 2002 and 2010 – while he was also the chairman of the university’s Maties rugby…

The City of Tshwane has assured residents that there was currently no measles outbreak in the city, expressing concern about the National Institute for Communicable Diseases’ (NICD) recent declaration of a measles outbreak in South Africa. This follows the reporting of cases in the five provinces of Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West. Since May last year, 14 laboratory-confirmed cases have been recorded in Pretoria. By June, four cases of measles had been detected in the province, and, according to Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale, three of these cases were from individuals living in Pretoria, while the fourth case was from a person in the West Rand. He said the four had been notified after ultimate confirmation through laboratory testing conducted by the NICD. The NICD said…

Police statistics show that more than 3 400 elderly women and men aged 60 and beyond were criminally assaulted in the Western Cape and Gauteng alone in 2021. Police recorded 1 070 women pensioners above 60 years old as victims of assault in 12 months in the Western Cape in 2021 – second only to Gauteng’s 1 105. The province also had the second most assaults reported to police of men over 60, with 564 cases. Once again, Gauteng tops the provinces with 712 such cases. These statistics were presented in the form of replies by Police Minister Bheki Cele, sent this week, to parliamentary questions posed by IFP MP Zandile Majozi. She had asked for the number of assault cases opened by the elderly and the number of cases…

Pandemic remains generally controllable, economy in various regions recovering rapidly AT THE end of last year, the Chinese government announced it would relax entry and exit restrictions from January 8 and cancel most of the restrictions, such as health code application and quarantine measures. After the optimisation of the epidemic prevention policy, the economic and social order will be restored at an accelerated pace. The international community, overseas Chinese, investors and others generally welcome this policy, and all believe that it will play a positive role in boosting the global economy. However, some Western media said that China’s adjustment of epidemic prevention policies showed that China’s anti-epidemic concept had changed and no longer attached importance to people’s life safety. In this regard, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of…

China yesterday defended its handling of its raging Covid-19 outbreak after US president Joe Biden voiced concern and the World Health Organization (WHO) said Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths. The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts, some of the UN agency’s most critical remarks to date. China relaxed Covid-19 controls last month after protests against them, abandoning a policy that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular media briefing in Beijing that China had transparently and quickly shared Covid-19 data with the WHO and said China’s “epidemic situation is controllable”. China reported one new Covid-19 death in the mainland for Wednesday, compared with five a day…

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is to set out details this week of a planned law to curb strikes, and ministers want to make industrial action illegal if minimum service levels are not met. The legislation would enforce minimum service levels in six sectors, including the health service, rail, education, fire and border security, which would require a proportion of union members to continue working. Britain has had a wave of industrial action over the last few months, with strikes crippling various sectors including the rail network, which are set to continue as surging inflation follows 10 years of stagnant wage growth. The strikes would be deemed illegal if unions refused to provide the minimum level of service, a government source said. Employers would be able to sue unions and…

ARA: One of Israel’s longest-serving Palestinian prisoners was freed yesterday after completing a 40-year sentence, as members of the new right-wing government called for him to be stripped of his citizenship. Karim Younis, 60, was convicted of kidnapping and killing Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1983 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. He served the longest continuous sentence of any Palestinian, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association. In his hometown, the Israeli Arab village of Ara, Kounis received a hero’s welcome. On Tuesday, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri called for Younis to be stripped of his Israeli citizenship. | Reuters…

Islamabad: Pakistan senate chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani has written to the Norwegian Nobel Committee backing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the next Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. “The Russia-Ukraine war had quickly turned into a nuclear flashpoint that could have ended in catastrophe for the whole world. “Due to his untiring efforts, effective interventions with both sides, he single-handedly averted a global disaster,” Sanjrani wrote. He said that Erdogan was a true statesman and a leader, who always strived for the betterment and prosperity of not just his country, but the region and the world. The Senate chief underlined that the Turkish president carried the true message of the Prophet Muhammad and his teachings of peace, tolerance and love for all humanity, as he…

THE EFF in Tshwane wants a special council sitting to be convened with a view to discussing the auditor-general’s adverse audit opinion on the metro and to table a motion of no confidence against mayor Randall Williams. Regional party leader Obakeng Ramabodu said the EFF also wanted the Gauteng provincial government to intervene in the running of the municipality’s affairs. “We want to ask for a special sitting to discuss the report and to reiterate our call for mayor Randall to be taken out by a motion of no confidence,” he said. He believed the EFF was vindicated regarding its criticism that the DA-led multiparty coalition government had run the municipality into the ground. “This city is on auto-pilot. It has collapsed. The provincial government must intervene in the event…

EFF MP Naledi Chirwa has expressed annoyance over a newspaper article that sought to compare her party president, Julius Malema, with ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula. According to the article, Malema had finally met his match in the newly elected secretary-general because both were outspoken politicians. However, EFF supporters, including National Assembly member Naledi Nokukhanya Chirwa, disagree. “Literally, no comparison. We don’t think of Mbalula when whites are abusing workers and beating up black children at public pools. We don’t think of Mbalula when faced with worker issues, land issues. We think of Mbalula when we hit potholes. Put some respect on Julius Malema!" said Chirwa. Chirwa has asserted herself as a political fighter, often upsetting National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula with some of her radical utterances. Her stance on the…

FROM PAGE 1 The Republican Conference of Tshwane, on the other hand, said the adverse findings were “an indictment on the mismanagement of the peoples’ money by the coalition government for which no degree of spin-doctoring will suffice”. Party councillor Lex Middelberg said: “What is, moreover, truly astonishing is the extent of the regression of the financial management by the coalition government since they were sworn into office during November 2021. It is a regression that would in normal circumstances in a real democracy have had the mayor, Randall Williams and his MMC for finance Peter Sutton tender their respective resignations with immediate effect. As much as they might try to pin the blame on the CFO alone they are, in the final analysis, responsible to the residents for this…

The station commander of Pretoria Central police station, Brigadier Moses Dladla, has applauded the bravery of officers who intervened and saved a man threatening to kill himself. “This comes after a man aged 57 threatened to take his life by jumping off a rooftop,” Pretoria Central police spokesperson, Constable Thabang Nkhumise, said. “An emergency call was dispatched to the police. External role players, the Tshwane Emergency Rescue Services, were also called to the scene at Obaro shop, at the corner of Pretorius and Sophie De Bruyn streets, on Monday ” On arrival the officers spotted the distressed man on the rooftop, threatening to jump off. He sipped from his beer can as police officers and emergency workers negotiated with him. “The man claimed that there were men trying to take…

Major and minor military powers have embarked on a military rearmament programme that is truly staggering. An arms race that could destabilise the geopolitics of the decades ahead. Indeed, evidence is steadily building that growth and the perverse deadly capabilities lie at the core, threatening to produce a serious imbalance in the projection of power. Many of the participants are already so affluent, powerful and technologically advanced in global terms. Coupled with these persisting images are stark new spectres of the future. Drone warfare linked to artificial intelligence is changing the balance of power on land, at sea, and in the air. The brutal conflict in Ukraine has witnessed drone and missile warfare unprecedented in a modern conflict.The infusion of these weapons in every sphere of attack and defence has…

Britain’s Prince Harry says brother and heir to the throne Prince William knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument over Harry’s wife Meghan in his much-awaited memoir which went on sale in Spain. The altercation between the sons of King Charles is detailed in Harry’s book Spare which was due to be published on January 10, but media have been able to obtain copies in Spain. Details of its contents also come as ITV released a clip of an interview with Harry in which he said he could not commit to attending his father’s coronation in May. In the book, Harry says the brawl with William took place at Harry’s London home. William had called Meghan “difficult”, “rude” and “abrasive”. “He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my…

LONDON: Britain experienced its hottest year on record in 2022, the national weather service confirmed yesterday, saying human-induced climate change had made what would normally be a once-in-500-year event likely to happen every three or four years. The Met Office said the average annual temperature was 10.03°C, topping 10°C for the first time and the highest in records dating back to 1884. The 2022 average was 0.15°C above the previous hottest year, set in 2014. The findings came as record-high winter temperatures swept across parts of Europe over the new year. | Reuters…

SAN FRANCISCO: The e-retail giant Amazon, which has a workforce of more than 1.5 million people all over the world, is to axe 17 000 jobs. It cited the “uncertain economy” as the reason for the shavings in its consumer retail and human resources departments. CEO Andy Jassey, who replaced founder Jeff Bezos, said he was alerting everyone of the plans due to an unapproved leak as he gave himself a deadline of January 18 to iron out all the details of the layoffs. The news follows the trend of other tech companies that have seen a dip in sales revenues and a weakening of consumer demand due to the increasing cost of living. | Bang Showbiz…

LONDON: Robbie Williams is building a hotel in Dubai to host his gigs. The singer, 48, said the construction has come about because he doesn’t want to return to Las Vegas to put on shows and is part of him “dreaming big”. “I have achieved everything I have achieved without even dreaming big,” he said. “I have an accessibility to people because of my name and if I have a good idea they will back me … there are loads of things that are taking my fancy now, to see if I can pull off something remarkable – and the hotel idea is one of them. | Bang Showbiz…

Chelsea signed France international defender Benoit Badiashile from Ligue 1 side Monaco yesterday for a fee believed to be just under €40 million (about R725m). The 21-year-old central defender signed a “seven-and-a-half-year contract”, according to a statement from Chelsea. Badiashile has been a pivotal figure at Monaco, helping the club finish third in Ligue 1 for the past two seasons. He was handed his international debut by Didier Deschamps last September, although he did not make the World Cup squad. “At 6ft 4in, Badiashile is a dominant defender in the air but equally comfortable with the ball at his feet, capable of playing short passes out from the back or switching the play with longer diagonals,” read the Chelsea statement. “His blistering speed is a key attribute and he has…