Innholdsfortegnelse for 2023-04-05 i Pretoria News

MURRAY & Roberts (M&R) has completed the sale of its stake in Bombela Concession, and the debt-leaner group is optimistic about prospects for its multinational Mining Platform and Africa-focused power, water industrial (PWI) Platform. The sale of the stake in Bombela Concession to a subsidiary of Europe-based Intertoll International Holdings BV had been finalised, and the R1.26 billion proceeds would be used to repay debt, M&R’s directors said in a trading update yesterday. The share price fell 1.25% on the JSE yesterday to close at R1.58, a price well down from R12.52 a year ago. The share price decline reflects the problems the multinational construction and engineering group has been facing. In August 2022 strong growth in revenue and earnings were reported for the year to June, but…

THE LATEST mortgage lending data shows that the value of new mortgage loans granted for the 2022 fourth quarter declined year-on-year as expected due to the current interest rate hiking environment, according to FNB Commercial Property Finance Property Sector strategist John Loos. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) New Mortgage Lending data showed a return to negative growth, following the prior quarter’s slight positive growth rate. The value of new mortgages granted returned to -12.65% in the fourth quarter, from the previous quarter’s slightly positive growth of +0.65% year on year. Writing in the bank’s Property Insights, Loos said the year-on-year decline was not surprising, given the economy went into quarter-on-quarter contraction in the final quarter, while above-target inflation led to a continuation of SARB’s interest rate hiking in the…

Kaley Cuoco has given birth to her first child. The Big Bang Theory star has announced that she and partner, Tom Pelphrey, welcomed daughter Matilda into the world on Thursday, March 30, with a series of Instagram photos. The snaps include Cuoco cradling her baby. Pelphrey is also seen cuddling the tot. She captioned the post: “3-30-23. Introducing, Matilda Carmine Richie Pelphrey, the new light of our lives! We are overjoyed and grateful for this little miracle. “Thank you to the doctors, nurses, family and friends who have helped us immensely over the last few days. We are blessed beyond belief @tommypelphrey didn’t think I could fall even more in love with you, but I did.” Pelphrey shared some photos of Matilda on his own Instagram page. The Ozark actor…

A woman who lost money she paid into the trust account of an advocate for him to pay an estate agent and have a property transferred into her name, turned to court after her money disappeared. Onolia Rabalao told the Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, that she transferred R160 000 into the trust account of the advocate after she was instructed to do. Months later nothing happened with the transfer of the property. When she enquired about it the advocate said he had been “scammed” by the estate agent when he transferred the money. Rabalao turned to the Legal Practice Council – the watchdog over the legal profession – but its Fidelity Fund Board refused to reimburse her. The primary function of the fund is to protect the public against…

THE widow of Chief Clyde Mnisi of Mpumalanga who was murdered last week, Charlene Felicity Mathews, 30, has also been brutally killed. “She was reportedly gunned down in the early hours of yesterday at 1.10am. “A case of murder with two counts of attempted murder is being investigated by police in Calcutta,” said Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala. “Police were called to a shooting at the residential place of the late chief. Upon arrival they found the body of the woman with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Two other men identified as family members sustained gunshot wounds.” Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that armed assailant(s) got into the house and shot at the three before fleeing. Police found some cartridges on the scene. “A team of investigators…

SA has added conundrum of relatively poor infrastructure and technology choices Last week was dramatic. It saw the convergence of the last instalment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the sixth Assessment (AR6) report; the UN Water Summit and South African Human Rights Day 2023. In all of them, the need for climate resilience in service of reducing the risk and dangers while concomitantly improving people’s quality of life is in sharp focus. This is as we approach the anniversary of the devastating “rain bomb” of KwaZulu-Natal’s flood events last year. The IPCC AR6 Synthesis report was launched on March 17, providing a composite picture of Climate Change Risk in the world today, and what we need to do to take advantage of the very narrow window…

An avalanche killed seven tourists in India’s Himalayan state of Sikkim near a mountain pass to the Chinese region of Tibet yesterday, with rescue workers calling off the search for bodies as night fell. The army said at least 20 people had been rescued alive after several vehicles carrying tourists to the strategically located Nathu La pass between Sikkim and Tibet were hit by the falling snow. Local police added that eight survivors were in critical condition. “We are doing one more check before calling off the rescue operation, since it is getting dark and some more snow has started coming down,” said senior police official Tenzing Loden Lepcha. “We have accounted for all missing persons, but to be sure we are doing one more check. We have put…

Zimbabwe’s government said yesterday it would investigate allegations of fraud and corruption raised by a documentary on gold smuggling and money laundering in the country. Gold Mafia, a four-part journalistic investigation by Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, alleges syndicates with links to government officials use Zimbabwe’s gold exports to wash dirty money. The landlocked southern African country boasts vast gold reserves. The precious metal accounted for about a third of all exports in May last year, according to official data. Gold Mafia shows gold dealers licensed by Zimbabwean authorities offering undercover reporters posing as foreign criminals to launder money for them through the sale of Zimbabwe’s gold abroad. Earlier in March, Zimbabwe’s central bank dismissed what it said were the “false allegations” made by the TV investigation, which it said purveyed…

NEW DELHI: No contamination was found in samples of eye drops made by India’s Global Pharma Healthcare, a product linked to three deaths and blindness in some patients, India’s health ministry said yesterday. Tests found the samples of “standard quality”, the report said, two months after US agencies warned against using the Artificial Tears eye drops, citing potential contamination by drug-resistant bacteria. The company issued a nationwide voluntary recall of the product in February. At least three people have died, and there have been eight reports of vision loss and four of surgical removal of an eyeball, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. | Reuters…

Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday appointed his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, a Wellington-led global initiative to fight terrorism and extremism after the deadly March 2019 mosque shootings. Ardern has declined to receive any remuneration for the new post and will start her role on April 17, Hipkins said. The special envoy will serve as New Zealand’s senior representative on Christchurch Call-related matters, working closely with France as co-leaders, he said. | IANS…

The transaction is expected to conclude in the final quarter of this year, with £100bn in funds Investec Group plans to merge its UK-based Investec Wealth & Investment UK with UK-listed Rathbones Group in an all share deal valued at £839 million (R18.5 billion) to create the UK’s leading discretionary wealth manager. Investec will be a minority shareholder in the enlarged Rathbones entity, with 41.25% stake and 29.9% voting rights, Investec said in a statement yesterday. Dealmakers International chief executive Andrew Bahlman said mergers and acquisitions such as between Rathbones buying Investec UK wealth unit have been a strong feature of the wealth management market for at least a decade. Drivers of this were the “baby boomer” generation slowly coming to end of cycle, with many of them…

THERE was some good news in the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Quarterly Bulletin released on March 31. In this case it was not an April Fool joke, but rather the result of many hours of work by the statistical section at the SARB, which determined that the upward phase in the South African business cycle started in May 2020. The business cycle dating section analysed a large number of data series rather than using the easy conventional economist’s definition of saying that two consecutive quarterly declines in economic activity constitute a “recession”. Growth cycles on the other hand have a longer duration and are captured by fluctuations around the long-term trend of economic activity. They are also called trend-adjusted business cycles. The SARB’s business cycle chronology data uses similar…

AYO Technology Solutions chairperson, lawyer and acting judge at the Land Claims Court, Dr Wallace Mgoqi, has died. The retired advocate, attorney, businessman and activist passed away on Monday evening. It is believed he had suffered a heart attack. Dr Mgoqi served as AYO’s chairperson from 2018. During his distinguished judicial and public service career, he served as acting judge in the Land Claims Court from 2014 to 2019, as chief land claims commissioner in 1999, on the Commission for Gender Equality between 2012 and 2019, and as city manager for the City of Cape Town between 2003 and 2006. Dr Mgoqi also served on the board of the National Development Agency, UCT’s Alumni Advisory Board and the Ernest Mancoba Advisory Board. He held three honorary doctorates from the University…

A LEGAL tussle has ensued between a bank and a panel beating company over a Toyota Hilux, with both wanting to obtain possession of the vehicle. The bank said it is owed money in regards to arrears payment instalments, and the panel beater was claiming for storage costs. Standard Bank turned to the high court sitting in Polokwane in a bid to get the car from Mohlabafase Panel Beaters. The bank made it clear that it was the owner of the vehicle, as the person who bought it fell in arrears with his monthly instalments. The bank, to date, could not get possession of the vehicle as the panel beaters retain the vehicle on an alleged lien in respect of storage costs. According to the bank, the purchaser was in…

THE National Zoological Garden (aka the Pretoria Zoo) will be hosting “The Amazing Race: Easter Egg Hunt” from Friday until Monday. There will be two races daily in the picnic area. The first will be from 11am to 12pm; the second from 2pm to 3pm. The first team on the day to complete the race will win a Pick n Pay voucher. Participants must register team members of three or more (all ages), and teams must take pictures of the animals at each stop. The pictures will be presented at the final stop. Golf carts may be used in the race. The Pretoria Zoo is not only the largest zoo in South Africa and the only one with national status, but is also rated as one of the top zoos…

The University of Pretoria (UP) has continued to demonstrate it deserves the recognition and respect as the capital city’s institution of choice, with a 100% pass rate in the 2023 South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) initial test of competence. The university came ahead of the pack in the results following exams administered by Saica in January and released on March 31. To sweeten the pot, three of the university’s students Aneé van Staden, Cloë Anne Longwitz and Savannah-Lee Correia da Silva took top spots. In addition to the top three and 100% pass rate, UP has 10 candidates on Saica’s honours roll for achieving 75% or more. “The successful completion of the examination is a passport. Our students need to continue on their journey to reimagine and…

ACTIONSA has formerly laid a complaint about an Mpumalanga R50 million beauty pageant scandal that has rocked the province. Despite this, the glitzy event took place last Saturday, seeing the crowning of a new Miss Mpumalanga. Pretoria News recently reported that ActionSA provincial chairperson Thoko Mashiane accused the province’s Economic Regulator of corruption involving the awarding of the multimillion-rand tender to a company called Mzimari Productions, to hold the province’s beauty contest yearly. The party says the contest has been embroiled in allegations of corruption to the tune of R4.5m every year for the past 12 years, which would amount to a total in excess of R50m. In a formal complaint letter, addressed to the Hawks and seen by Pretoria News, Mashiane states: “It has come to my attention that…

In the past three years, more than 452 cases of sexual misconduct have been reported to the South African Council for Educators (Sace). The 2022 crime statistics show, among other things, that 294 of the reported rapes took place at school. AfriForum said yesterday that since it is clear that the criminal justice system fails victims of sexual offences, it advises schools, teachers, parents, and learners to act pro-actively against sexual bullying behaviour. The organisation said this follows reports, as well as Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s reaction in Parliament last week about the increase in sexual offences in South African schools. “These figures are alarming, and it is important that these cases are thoroughly investigated. In South Africa, sexual crimes and bullying are increasing daily. Schools must be a…

Our young people, as the dominant age group, are facing a lot of challenges in a country that is constantly in a state of flux, yet we continue to see some of these challenges being overcome by young women and men. While some prosper and manage to find the light at the end of the tunnel, there are those who still struggle to even reach the tunnel. After Human Rights Month (March), we need to think of the constitutional rights of our young people that are not met, such as the failure to be afforded equal opportunity in entrepreneurship or employment. Similarly, Human Rights Day on March 21 was an emotive day as it reminded us of how many inspiring young people took to the streets of Sharpeville in 1960.…

About 1 in 6 adults have experienced infertility over their lives, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) that emphasises the shared burden of infertility across the world. “The report reveals an important truth: infertility does not discriminate,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, said yesterday. “The sheer proportion of people affected shows the need to widen access to fertility care.” There was little variation across economic levels, with higher-income countries experiencing infertility rates of nearly 18% and low- to medium-income countries seeing rates of almost 17%. (The global rate was 17.5%.) There was more variation across regions, though the report’s authors cautioned that there was limited data for Africa and South Asia. “While findings show a high prevalence of infertility globally and regionally,” they…

JERUSALEM: A top Israeli rabbi moved yesterday to prevent Jewish activists from breaking a ban on holding a traditional Passover sacrifice at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem. The move by the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, comes amid fears of violence at the holy site as the Jewish holiday coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadaan, which draws tens of thousands of worshippers to pray at Al-Aqsa. The Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray and sits below the mosque, which they revere as the Temple Mount. The Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, warned that permitting Jewish sacrifice there “would fuel an already explosive situation”. | AFP…

VOORSCHOTEN: A passenger train in the Netherlands rammed into a maintenance crane on the railway tracks yesterday, killing the equipment operator and injuring dozens of passengers as the train derailed, officials said. Rescue teams ferried away the injured at the pre-dawn incident in Voorschoten, a village near The Hague. Some of the injured were treated on the spot or in nearby homes, 19 were taken to hospital. Train services were suspended for days on one of the busiest routes in the Netherlands, between The Hague and Leiden. There would be several investigations to ascertain the reasons for the crash, officials said. | Reuters…

London: Nigel Lawson, the British politician whose tax-cutting zeal came to define Thatcherite economics in 1980s Britain, has died aged 91, prompting tributes from his Conservative descendants. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who like Lawson served as chancellor of the exchequer, said: “He was a transformational chancellor and an inspiration to me and many others.” As chancellor in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet from 1983 to 1989, Lawson enacted the policies of tax cutting, deregulation and privatisation that are the hallmark now of right-wing politics in Britain and beyond. But he fell out with Thatcher over his desire for the pound to shadow a European currency system that was a precursor of the euro. Ironically, as a member of the House of Lords, he later came to espouse Britain’s withdrawal from the…

SHOPRITE said yesterday that its shares will be traded on the A2X stock exchange from April 11, 2023. Its listing would be retained on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), and Lusaka Securities Exchange (Luse), and its issued share capital will be unaffected by the secondary listing on A2X, the group said in a statement. Shoprite’s core business is food retailing, furniture, digital commerce, pharmaceutical, ticketing, hospitality, as well as financial and cellular services. A2X is a licensed stock exchange authorised to provide a secondary trading venue for companies. The Shoprite listing will bring the number of instruments listed on A2X to 112, with a combined market capitalisation of around R6.7 trillion. “Shoprite’s listing on A2X highlights an important milestone for A2X as more than…

South African food is vibrant, cosmopolitan, and truly unique – just like the country’s people and culture. A mixture of African, Dutch, French, and Malay, among others, have influenced South African cuisine through the decades. If you’re looking for inspiration in the kitchen, look no further than chef Ukhonaye Mconi, a dynamic rising star on the South African culinary scene. As both a lecturer at Capsicum Culinary Studio and as a chef, Mconi brings a passion for cooking and a love of traditional South African flavours and ingredients to every dish he creates. One of the concepts he loves to incorporate into his cooking is the ‘Seven Colours’ food culture which has become a tradition on South African tables on Sundays. Mconi incorporates the concept of ‘Seven Colours’ into his…

Commuters urged to make alternative plans as Numsa fights for medical aid for members The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has threatened to launch a massive bus strike ahead of the Easter weekend – a decision likely to leave millions of bus commuters stranded. This would not be the first such strike action – in April 2017, millions of commuters around the country were left stranded after striking bus workers ditched their buses and joined Numsa’s call for a total bus boycott. Some of these commuters were due to travel to neighbouring countries and had already booked and paid for their tickets, but had to use alternative means of transport – an extra burden for them – to travel home. Those who didn’t have enough cash had…

YET another woman has been murdered, this time by a knife-wielding ex-boyfriend in Namakgale, near Phalaborwa, Limpopo. According to police, Judith Mathebula from Makhushane village was allegedly stabbed on the head and neck by her ex, who has been arrested. Speaking to Pretoria News, SAPS spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba said the police found the victim lying in a pool of blood in an open field near the Makhushane Dairy. “Police received a complaint about a woman who was allegedly stabbed by her ex-boyfriend and immediately rushed to the scene. Upon arrival, they found the victim laying in a pool of blood at an open field,” he said. He added that preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect had allegedly asked the victim to meet him there, with the intention to hand…

WASTE transporters using vehicles with 1 ton or 1 000kg capacity have been warned that froom April 10 they won’t be allowed to dispose of waste at the City of Tshwane’s landfill sites without a valid permit. Municipal spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the City’s waste management by-law required all transporters of waste operating within the city’s jurisdiction to apply for a waste transportation permit. The permit was renewable annually in line with approved tariffs. Mashigo said the City would implement “no-permit–no-entry” at its waste disposal facilities to ensure that waste was managed in a sustainable manner. “This will, in turn, enable efficient management and operations of the City’s waste disposal sites and ensure proper control and management of the incoming volume of waste,” he said. Only vehicles with 1 ton…

FINANCE Minister Enoch Godongwana fingered Madibeng Local Municipality in Brits, in the North West, as one of the nine worst municipalities, for failing to spend their conditional grants from the national government. Godongwana’s withdrawal of more than R145 million from the municipality in an indictment against Madibeng and eight others, is revealed in his letter to MEC for Co-operative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements Nana Maloyi. Maloyi is also the ANC provincial chairperson. Godongwana listed Madibeng and eight other municipalities as failing to comply with his request to spend their conditional grants, in letters sent in February. “The letters issued to these municipalities and the responses from the respective municipalities led to the National Treasury to decide to either proceed with the stopping or the non stopping of the…

CERVICAL cancer incidence and mortality rates were the highest among black African women between 2008 and 2019, likely due to late diagnosis or the high burden of HIV in this population group, according to Statistics South Africa. The data covered the number of people diagnosed with cancer, as well as those who died of cancer between these years. Stats SA revealed that in South Africa, some groups were at a higher risk of cancer than others due to comorbidities or unequal access to treatment. The report further stated that women with HIV were much more likely to develop cervical cancer than women without HIV. “Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are due to Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. “The sustained rollout of HPV vaccination is therefore important to protect adolescent females…

Donald Trump, the former US president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, was to be formally charged yesterday in a watershed moment ahead of the 2024 presidential election as his supporters and detractors noisily rallied outside the Manhattan court where he will appear. Trump, 76, is the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, though the specific charges have yet to be disclosed. Trump has said he is innocent and is due to plead not guilty. “Today (Tuesday) is the day that a ruling political party ARRESTS its leading opponent for having committed NO CRIME,” Trump, who flew to New York from his…

Finland’s blue-and-white Nordic cross flag was hoisted outside Nato headquarters yesterday as it became the 31st member of the alliance, in the first step of a historic realignment of Europe’s defences sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Already Helsinki’s shift, which ended decades of military non-alignment, has doubled the length of the US-led alliance’s land border with Russia and drawn an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin. Joining Nato puts Finland under the alliance’s Article Five, the collective defence pledge that an attack on one member “shall be considered an attack against them all”. This was the guarantee Finnish leaders decided they needed as they watched Putin’s devastating assault on Ukraine. Moscow erupted in fury at the move, which takes its frontier with Nato member states to 2 500km…

Washington: The recent banking turmoil in the US and Europe could spread to crucial non-bank institutions such as pension funds, further complicating the central banks’ fight against high inflation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday. Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic have been walking a fine line as they try to tackle high inflation by raising interest rates without adding to the turmoil in the banking sector sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The hi-tech lender collapsed after it took on excessive interest-rate risk. The IMF said policymakers must robustly regulate the pension and investment sector. | AFP…

Paris: A meme-inspired cryptocurrency’s price jumped yesterday after Elon Musk changed the bluebird logo of Twitter to a dog associated with the digital token, despite the mogul being sued over his previous promotion of the coin. Musk bought Twitter in October last year for $44 billion and has since slashed the workforce, introduced paid-for accounts and reinstated banned users. His decision to change the logo to a Shibu Inu dog, whether permanent or a short-lived joke, caused the price of dogecoin to surge by more than 20%, from below $0.08 to more than $0.10. The dog became a popular meme in 2013 and the cryptocurrency was launched as a joke later that year. | AFP…

Titans youngster Dewald Brevis and SA Under-19 women’s captain Oluhle Siyo headline Cricket South Africa’s men and women’s National Academy squads for 2023. Brevis will be joined by his former SA Under-19 captain Matthew Boast, as well as teammates Liam Alder, Andile Simelane, Valentine Kitime, Caleb Seleka and Michael Copeland. Brevis, 19, is currently part of the Mumbai Indians squad at the IPL along with fellow North West all-rounder Duan Jansen – brother of Proteas star Marco – who also forms part of the Academy squad. Brevis has already displayed his vast array of skills in the shortest format when he smashed 162 off 57 balls, which included 13 fours and 13 sixes, in last season’s CSA T20 Challenge. Impressive top-order batters Jordan Hermann (Warriors) and Josh Richards (Lions) have…