Innholdsfortegnelse for 2023-02-06 i Pretoria News

Over the years, there has been a surge of celebrities attaching their names to some of the popular and loved brands. Rappers, TV personalities, sports stars, and even fashion designers have gone from popping bottles to putting their names on them. Recently, it has been announced that Pholoso Masombuka, best known as Toss, has partnered with Billiato, a luxury liqueur brand owned by rapper Refiloe Phoolo, aka Cassper Nyovest, as the first brand ambassador for the liquor brand. In a statement, the uMlando hitmaker said he is so humbled to be the new brand ambassador. “I feel as though this is the beginning of many beautiful things for me and my career. “Thank you to Cassper Nyovest and the entire team at Billiato for this honour. “I am thrilled to…

RENOWNED human rights lawyer, advocate Gabriel Shumba has weighed-in on this week’s arrest of at least four Boksburg-based members of the SAPS on charges including assaulting and torturing a foreign national who could not produce his documents. On Friday, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which arrested the four at their workplace, said the accused were in court. Shumba said that in enforcing South Africa’s Immigration Act, police officers have the right “on reasonable grounds” to request to see identification from community members. “Section 41 of the Immigration Act gives the police and immigration officials the power to request identification on ‘reasonable grounds’ that a suspect is an illegal foreigner or a non-national. “What is reasonable or not reasonable depends on the circumstances of each case. There are exceptions in…

THE National Student Financial Aid Scheme’s (NSFAS) new policy to cap its student accommodation allowance at R45 000 is hurting poor students on the University of Pretoria’s geo-economical location. This frustration was expressed by the University of Pretoria SRC after engaging students who found themselves struggling to find accommodation because they could not afford topping up their monthly rent. Seeking to make student funding more easily accessible to qualifying applicants, NSFAS proposed a series of policy changes to how the bursary is disbursed, which include the accommodation allowance cap, to be applicable to university accommodation or accredited private accommodation. It also planned to enter lease negotiations on behalf of students, accredit student housing, without involving universities as is customary, and pay landlords directly. The bursary scheme has also introduced a…

South Africa-based Zimbabwean entrepreneur and author Keith Vilani is not only a youth leader, he has his sights on becoming one of the country’s most influential persons by the age of 25. Driven by his passion for change and exposing extraordinary capabilities, Vilani, 23, strives for better things in life. He is the founder and CEO of Leadxtra Group. Vilani has always been inspired by people who have made it. The communities around him have played a pivotal role in inspiring him because from their “daily life routine” he has learnt, observed, analysed and created a world he has imagined. He started writing in 2012, with a diary of poems. In five years he published three books – Spirit Filling & How Your Spirit is Filled, first and second…

The recent mass killings that claimed the lives of at least 18 people in one day last week are a grim reminder of the state of affairs in our communities, and that the fight against crime is long lost. The criminals are in charge while the government, in particular Police Minister Bheki Cele, is clueless as to what needs to be done. That no one has been arrested for Wednesday’s shootings in KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal, OR Tambo District, Eastern Cape and Mfuleni in Cape Town is indicative of the police’s lack of ability and capability to act with urgency in bringing ruthless criminals to book. Any murder, let alone mass killings where three people or more have been killed, should receive top priority, with those behind it arrested within hours…

Guatemala City: Thousands of motorcyclists on Saturday roared 225km across Guatemala in a rolling procession to venerate a religious crucifix, the Black Christ of Esquipulas. Thumping motorcycle engines roared to life at dawn in Guatemala City’s main Constitution Square, and riders soon sped off, resuming a practice begun in 1961 but suspended for two years by the pandemic. “This is the 12th time that God has allowed me to arrive in Esquipulas,” said Alberto Godines, 43, who wore a mask of a skull with horns. Other participants also wore masks of devils or characters from the movies, all to take part in what is known as the “Caravan of Zorro,” which every February takes cyclists to Esquipulas, a city declared in 1996 by then Pope John Paul II as the…

ABEOKUTA: Eugene Konboye, a Nigerian artist, is turning discarded plastic flip-flop sandals into colourful portraits in an effort to help clean up the environment in a country where plastic pollution is prevalent. What started out as an assignment in college in 2017, has become a full- time job for Konboye, whose studio in the city of Abeokuta in the south-west state of Ogun province, now trains aspiring artists who want to follow in his footsteps and create flip-flop portraits. Nigeria produces at least 2.5 million tons of plastic waste annually, according to government figures, with some of it finding its way into the ocean and rivers. Flip-flops are the footwear of choice for many Nigerians and Konboye, 30, sources his material mostly from dump sites, landfills and river banks. Back…

Baghdad: A prominent Iraqi activist campaigning for the preservation of the famed Mesopotamian marshes has been kidnapped by armed men south of the capital Baghdad, his family said yesterday. Jassim al-Assadi, 65, head of the environmental group Nature Iraq, raises awareness of the threats facing the drought-hit World Heritage Site. Assadi was driving to Baghdad on Wednesday when he was abducted 5km before the capital. Two cars stopped him, and armed men in plain clothes handcuffed him and put him into a vehicle, his brother Nazim said. “My cousin was with him. They left him on the road,” he added. The family has not heard from Assadi since. “The motive isn’t clear.”…

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena has reiterated that Cassius Mailula still has a lot to improve on despite scoring a vital goal against Orlando Pirates on Saturday. Sundowns beat Pirates 1-0 to rack up their 15th consecutive DStv Premiership win, a PSL record, thanks to an early solo goal from the 21-year-old Mailula, who also walked away with the Man of the Match accolade. That was Mailula’s sixth goal in just 10 league games this season, and his 11th goal contribution in 14 games across all competitions since his debut last year. Mokwena, though, continued to plead with the masses - the supporters and media - to be patient with the attacker as he finds his feet in the top-flight. “Don’t watch the goal, but the contribution throughout the match,”…

Chippa United coach Morgan Mammila said a lack of concentration cost his team dearly after they suffered a 2-1Premiership defeat at the hands of a visiting Stellenbosch FC on Saturday. The match at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was headed for a draw, but then Stellenbosch grabbed a goal by recent signing Iqraam Rayners deep into injury time to snatch a 2-1 win. Mammila said afterwards the goal came about because of “schoolboy errors” by his defence. “We gave away two points but, in this league, you can’t play like this,” said Mammila. “In the last five minutes were started losing concentration. We made schoolboy errors and we should have done better. “The keeper started making mistakes, as did the central defender and we just have to concentrate for 90 minutes.…

THE public has been urged to remain extra cautious in low lying areas as more rain has been predicted. Spokesperson for Tshwane Emergency Services Department and deputy chief Charles Mabaso said there were no fatalities or serious injuries from the rains, but they had to assist families to channel water away from their homes. This included residents in informal settlements in Mamelodi, Nellmapius and Soshanguve, while roads over low-lying bridges in some areas had to be closed because of floods. “We also experienced traffic congestions in the afternoons of heavy rain, due to the weather. A number of trees fell, probably due to lightning. “We will keep monitoring weather patterns as well as the warnings by the SA Weather Service. If need be, we will then warn communities based on…

I have several women in my life: my spouse, mother, siblings, friends, sisters in Christ. The more I engage with them at a personal and emotional level, the more I realise there are many things we, as men, fail to understand. Among those are three impacts that result from our actions. In dealing with these three impacts, I need to tread softly, take off my shoes, as this is a serious and sensitive matter. Few men, if any, can be exempted on these issues. The first impact is the impact of cheating. A woman can be cheated on many times, yet the impact is the same. We can cheaply say she is used to it, but the embarrassment of the last incident equates to the embarrassment of the first. The…

Lima: Violent new street protests gripped downtown Lima on Saturday night, hours after a Roman Catholic cardinal voiced dismay that the nation’s Congress again declined to advance elections to defuse Peru’s political crisis. Thousands of protesters skirmished with riot police once night fell, scattering amid tear gas volleys but regrouping in an effort to reach Peru’s Congress. In the latest of two months of often-lethal protests, some demonstrators fired back at police with homemade fireworks. A tally of arrests and injuries was not immediately available. Peru’s legislature, meanwhile, received a rebuke from a top Roman Catholic prelate. “It hurts our souls that they have (not acted on) a proposal to move up elections,” Cardinal Pedro Barreto said. Congress a day earlier slammed the door until August on any further debate…

Tecoluca: Conditions inside a huge new mega-prison designed to house 40 000 gang members in El Salvador will be particularly severe, according to visiting journalists. Miguel Montenegro, director of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, has warned of the “risks of violence” in a prison he said would likely end up being badly overcrowded. “There will most likely be more than the (announced capacity of) 40 000,” considering that 63 000 presumed gang members have been arrested since President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency last spring, allowing arrests without warrants in the violence-plagued country. Montenegro has assailed the vast prison – a 166-hectare (410-acre) facility known as the Terrorism Containment Center, or Cecot – as “an embarrassment for the country.” An AFP team…

MOSCOW: Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennet, who served as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev at the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine a year ago, said that Western countries blocked negotiations between the sides to the conflict. “Anything I did was coordinated down to the last detail with the US, Germany and France … They blocked it [dialogue],” Bennet said in an interview with Israeli journalist Hanoch Daum. The former mediator added that he believed there was “a legitimate decision by the West to keep striking [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” and not trying to negotiate. Russia-Ukraine talks began at the end of February after the start of Moscow’s military operation. The negotiations were concluded in Istanbul on March 29.…

Kyiv: Heavy fighting was under way yesterday in the northern parts of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the head of Russia’s mercenary group Wagner said. Russian forces have been trying to seize control of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk for months – the longest and bloodiest battle since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. Despite the flow of Western weapons, Russia has in recent days claimed gains in the region. “In the northern quarters of Artemovsk, fierce battles are going on for every street, every house,” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said, referring to Bakhmut by its old name. The Ukrainian army was not retreating. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv’s troops would fight for Bakhmut “as long as we can”.…

The Nedbank Cup resumes tomorrow with the Round of 32 set to be held over a week. There will be no less than 15 fixtures taking place in that time, four of which will see top-flight teams battle it out against each other. The first all-Premiership clash takes place tomorrow as runaway league leaders Mamelodi Sundowns prepare to tackle surprise package Richards Bay. The Brazilians will be overwhelming favourites to win and will also be out for redemption after they were dumped out of the MTN8 by Orlando Pirates earlier in the season. Richards Bay’s stubborn defence has been a major factor behind their successes this season and they will be looking to prove to Rhulani Mokwena’s side that they are no pushovers. Maritzburg United host Kaizer Chiefs at Harry…

SOUTH African share and bond markets moved in a volatile manner last week. The announcement by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) last Wednesday, that it would increase its bank rate by 0.25 basis points to 4.75% came as expected, but the hawkish tone of the Fed chairperson Jerome Powell that more hikes were in store made world financial markets nervous. The latest increase, however, was lower than the 0.5% at its previous meeting announcement in December. US equities initially rallied 2% shortly after Powell announced that inflation was expected to ease much lower in months to come. The announcement saw oil prices rally quickly and the dollar depreciate against most currencies. On Thursday, the rand – after losing initially more than 40 cents after the rate hike announcement to…

Molatelo Maloka thought she had bought a dream home, but found a damp, smelly house with sagging cupboards and bubbling and cracking paint. The new owner turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to get a reduction in the selling price of the house, and to force the sellers to cough up for fixing the damp problem. The sellers claimed they were not aware of these problems when they sold the house “voetstoots” to the plaintiff. Thus, they argued, they were protected by the voetstoots clause against latent defects unknown to them. But the court found that because the latent defects were known to the defendants, they could not be protected by the voetstoots clause in the offer to purchase. Maloka told the court that when she saw the Roodepoort…

THE DA has been accused of quoting the Deputy Minister of Justice John Jeffery, out of context when claiming he meant that “white Afrikaners are the biggest perpetrators of hate crime and hate speech in South Africa”. Chrispin Phiri, spkesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, said Jeffery had, in response to the Freedom Front Plus, said their constituency was predominantly white Afrikaners, and he had been misunderstood. “They were trying to illustrate that if there were perceptions of certain groups committing hate crimes, the proposed legislation would, in fact, protect those groups, among them white Afrikaners, when they themselves were victims of hate crimes.” In a media statement titled, “John Jeffery reveals ANC’s true intentions behind the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill”, DA spokesperson for Justice…

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba led a prayer and walkabout ceremony during the seventh anniversary of the Lily Mine accident where three mine workers were trapped underground. There were initial search and rescue efforts to retrieve the remains, but these were later abandoned. Yesterday marked seven years since three mineworkers – Solomon Nyirenda, Yvonne Mnisi and Pretty Nkambule – were trapped 70 metres underground at Lily Mine in Mpumalanga. Seven years later, their families, colleagues and community members are still awaiting answers from the mine. One of the victims’ family members believes the mineworkers will be brought to the mine’s surface one day. “What happened is painful. Our home is no longer the same and is now left vacant. The home is always locked now because Solomon is still trapped underground.…

Josh the pure-bred wire-haired fox terrier is a lap dog and the apple of his daddy’s eye. But when a Mozambican spitting cobra was ready to attack his human mom, the 4-year-old, together with his sister of the same breed, did not think twice before pouncing on the snake. Josh was bitten in the face and had to spend several days at Valley Farm Animal Hospital in Pretoria. He was discharged a week ago and is still recovering at home. His fearless conduct left him with a gash in the face. Owner Veronica Baartman, who lives on a smallholding in Bela-Bela with her husband George, is still in shock. “Josh is my husband’s dog, his best friend and his life. He and his sister Amy are like our children.” Veronica…

Dire reading for Ramaphosa and his 2023 Cabinet lekgotla cohorts IT IS one of the most ancient debilities of humanity. It is the pariah of all the belief systems that define the world. And yet its persistence and perseverance are so pervasive that it would make its arch patron, Hades, ever so proud. I am, of course, referring to the pandemic of corruption, the scourge of economies, governments, political parties, business and finance, the public sector and procurement, whose impact and the inability of governments and global gatekeeper institutions at least to contain it has left a trail of societal, social and economic devastation, which in reality acts as a mere multiplier effect. The year 2022 was no exception. Every year in January, Transparency International (TI), arguably the integrity conscience…

Washington: The Biden administration has lauded the Pentagon for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the US Atlantic coast on Saturday, but China angrily voiced its “strong dissatisfaction” and said it might make “necessary responses”. The craft spent several days flying over North America before it was targeted off the coast of the south-eastern state of South Carolina, with a missile fired from an F-22 plane falling into relatively shallow water, Pentagon officials said. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called the operation a “deliberate and lawful action” that came in response to China’s “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty”. But China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted the US action in a statement yesterday, saying the downing of the “civilian” aircraft was “clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice”.…

Beijing: A highway pile-up in central China has killed 16 people and injured dozens, authorities said yesterday, with footage aired on local media showing burning trucks and smashed cars. Nearly 50 vehicles were involved in multiple collisions along a highway in Hunan province within the span of 10 minutes on Saturday evening, “with some vehicles catching on fire”, local traffic police said in a statement. Footage republished online by the state-owned People’s Daily showed multiple burning trucks bearing the logos of delivery companies, crushed and overturned cars and a dark cloud of smoke rising from the crashes. China’s emergency management ministry has called for an investigation into the cause of the accident.…

Islamabad: Pakistan’s exiled former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who became a key US ally during the “War on Terror”, died in a Dubai hospital yesterday, aged 79, after a long illness. Musharraf seized power in a 1999 bloodless coup and was simultaneously Pakistan’s army chief, chief executive and president when 9/11 happened. The general twice suspended the constitution and was accused of rigging a referendum shoring up his power, as well as rampant rights abuses including the rounding up of opponents. Nonetheless, he became Washington’s chief regional ally during their invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. The decision put him in the crosshairs of Islamist militants who made several attempts on his life. But it also earned Pakistan a huge influx of foreign aid which bolstered the economy. He famously said the…

Tehran: Iranian authorities have detained a journalist at a reformist publication, local media reported yesterday, as her sister, also a journalist, remains in custody after reporting on Mahsa Amini’s death. Iran has been gripped by nationwide protests since the September 16 death in custody of Amini, a 22-year-old ethnic Kurd, who was arrested for an alleged breach of strict dress rules for women. Elnaz Mohammadi, a reporter for reformist newspaper Hammihan, was detained at the Evin prosecutor’s office in Tehran after she had gone there “for an explanation”, reported Shargh, another reformist daily. It was not clear why Mohammadi had been summoned there. Her sister, Elahe Mohammadi, was arrested In September after reporting for Hammihan from Amini’s funeral. The journalist was charged with “propaganda against the system and conspiracy to…

There has been a huge outcry from all sectors of society over the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship deal by Tourism South Africa (TSA). It has reached hysterical proportions, and quite rightly so. This is no time to be spending millions on sports sponsorship because the country’s economy is in dire straits. The impact of the country’s floundering SOEs is such that South Africa has become a state of disaster. This is not the time to ramp up tourism drives when daily curses like loadshedding, high unemployment and out-of-control crime have become a nightmare in the lives of citizens. Much of the anger and criticism directed at TSA would be far more beneficial for South African sport if it was channelled at the national government. On so many levels, the government has…