Innholdsfortegnelse for Sunday, August 9, 2020 i Sunday Independent

AFFIDAVITS Ledla settles Diko’s PPE bill Gauteng Health Department uses front company to pay Royal Bhaca R80m, Mediwaste boss spills the beans on deal PIET MAHASHA RAMPEDI LEDLA Structural Development, a front company used by the Gauteng Health Department to pay Royal Bhaca Projects R80 million, paid R300 000 towards Thandisizwe Diko’s R4m personal protective equipment (PPE) bill with the supplier. One of its directors, former Ned-bank senior manager Rhulani Lehong-Mboweni, who was joined by Diko when she visited Mediwaste to negotiate payment terms for Royal Bhaca, also swindled Diko of R1m by asking the PPE manufacturer to inflate prices and deposit the difference into her personal account. This is contained in an affidavit given to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) by Mediwaste director Jonathan Maake this week. Sources said…

Tail Piece A RISING STAR’S LEAP OF FAITH Gracefully spinning among a group of dancers clad in pink, 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu stands out in black leggings, a white turtleneck and poise beyond his years. His parents in Lagos, Nigeria’s teeming lagoon city, wanted him to become a priest. Instead, he has captivated millions with his ballet. “When I am dancing, I feel as if I am on top of the world,” he said. A video of him dancing barefoot in the rain on concrete outside the studio where he trains, the Leap of Dance Academy, went viral last month. More than 15 million people have watched his joyful leaps and pirouettes, undeterred by the rain and coarse surface. The video caught the eye of the elite American Ballet Theatre,…

LIMPOPO Minister accused of plot to axe premier Stan Mathabatha BONGANI HANS bongani.hans@inl.co.za THE lifting of the suspension of two senior ANC leaders in Limpopo who were implicated in the VBS looting scandal has led to legal threats involving Minister of Small Business Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. Ntshavheni had also been accused of having taken part in a plot to remove Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha and reconstitute the provincial cabinet. ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule had late last month announced the lifting of party provincial treasurer Danny Msiza and former Vhembe Municipality mayor Florence Radzilani’s suspensions. The two were suspended in 2018 after they were fingered in the looting scandal which has seen a number of senior VBS officials arrested and charged recently by the Hawks. However, Independent Media has seen a…

SABC Treasury’s qualms about debt agencies LOYISO SIDIMBA THE SABC has promised to avoid a projected R330 million shortfall in television licence revenue after the National Treasury raised alarm about the troubled broadcaster’s appointment of five debt collection agencies with no clue on its systems. The public broadcaster then later tried to hire another three agencies for a year due to the five it initially engaged being new to the SABC and had not been in its debt collection agency panel. Documents show that the five agencies still required information technology integration and connectivity to the SABC. To fix its bungling, the SABC proposed to the Treasury that its three best performing agencies from a previous panel be appointed for a period of 12 months. The SABC had warned the…

EDUCATION Students unable to graduate Provincial education department did not pay training institutions, redirecting money to PPE fund MANYANE MANYANE manyane.manyane@inl.co.za HUNDREDS of Gauteng youths are unable to graduate or receive certificates because the provincial education department could not pay training institutions after redirecting R26million of its skills development budget to Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) fund. The money was part of the R2.2billion Gauteng PPE budget looted through corrupt tenders awarded by the Gauteng Department of Health, documents seen by the Sunday Independent show. The money, a portion of the R161m set aside for youth upliftment and skills development, was redirected from the Gauteng City Region Academy (GCRA) by the newly appointed chief executive Percy Moleke. The GCRA is a branch of the Gauteng Department of Education responsible for…

JUSTICE Daughter’s quest for answers Father’s remains were traced to a burial site in Thandukukhanya EDWIN NAIDU KWAMASHU resident Nomthandazo Mthethwa never knew her father. “I was 4 on the day he was shot,” she says. “Although I didn’t know him, he knew me. I look a lot like him,” she adds, sadness in her tone. Her father, Msongeleni Mthethwa, was born in eNgudwini in the Shayinja district of Eshowe on November 16, 1955. He moved to Durban in 1970 where he became politically active in the ANC. In 1981, Msongeleni, who was also known by the names “Otto”, “Gobinsimbi” or “Magujane”, left South Africa with Magwaza Maphalala, “Tunkie” Thulani Maphumulo and “Goso” Mhlawumbe Maphumulo to undergo military training with Umkhonto we Sizwe. On April 21, 1984, he and three…

COMMENT TIME TO RECONSIDER ALCOHOL BAN SIBANI MNGADI THE idea of banning the formal sale of alcohol again last month emerged from provinces that were under pressure to demonstrate their health system preparedness for a peak in the Covid-19 outbreak. The concern was that the surge in coronavirus cases would lead to a much higher demand for hospitalisation than the number of beds available in the province. A unilateral decision was taken to ban alcohol without consultation nor consideration of other measures that could have been taken to strengthen the health response, particularly in Gauteng where Covid-19 interventions have since been marred by allegations of corruption, leading to the suspension of the health MEC. Six days before that Sunday night announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa to ban alcohol sales and…

EMPOWERMENT Women’s voices will be heard Their decades of struggle are not over OVER decades, African women have faced various challenges while trying to survive. In rural areas and townships, many were left to fend for the families as their husbands were in the Transvaal working in the mines. In her book, Call Me Woman, Ellen Kuzwayo in a few pages shares stories of how women brewed mbamba, gavini, skokiaan and macontsana. Kuzwayo tells us of one concoction appropriately called uhamba nabani? That literally means, “whom are you with?” Uhamba nabani was so potent any drinker needed to be accompanied because he was sure to black out and not be able to get back home. The skokiaan queens were fervent in defending their families; brewing for survival. In a song…

COMMENT SYLLABUS DEVOID OF HOME-GROWN SOUTH AFRICAN CONTRIBUTIONS DR TSHEPO MVULANE MOLOI AS PART of my pursuit and advocacy to advance the decolonisation of education, I share my trajectory in academia as a black South African. I completed my undergraduate (2002 to 2005) and Honours (2006) degrees at the University of Zululand, with political science as a major. We were hardly taught about black South African political scientists. Oddly, this prevails across most institutions. Why? Unbeknown to our credulous, budding minds back then, we overlooked that most of our lecturers were also colonised graduates. The two who taught me political science were alumni of the University of Pretoria and the University of Durban-West-ville (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal). One was a descendant of Afrikaners and the other of Indians. Emphasis…

LETTERS Email: scribe@inl.co.za (no attachments). All letters must contain the writer’s full name, physical address and telephone number. No pen names. ‘Integrity panel’ of ANC has no principle THE ANC’s Integrity Committee is but a factionalism tool used to settle political scores. The chairperson of the committee, Tintswalo George Mashamba, a Robben Islander, should know better as he suffered political miscarriage that prevented him to flourish for decades. A communist who ought to be sympathetic to Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo’s political views and understanding as they (are) both cut from the same political cloth. It is shocking that the commission headed by a communist has elected to persecute Masondo. The timing of the report by the committee is suspicious and quite frankly puzzling. What message is it driving by…

INDIAN OCEAN Mauritius in ecological emergency THE Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has declared a “state of environmental emergency” after Japanese-owned bulk carrier MV Wakashio, that ran aground days ago, began spilling tons of fuel. The ship was evacuated on Thursday. Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced the development on Friday as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near environmental areas that the government called “very sensitive”. The ship was carrying nearly 4000 tons of fuel. “Our country doesn’t have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships. Bad weather has made it impossible to act,” Jugnauth said, adding that his government had asked France for help, saying the spill “represents a danger” for the country of 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and…

ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA COVID-19 CASES BREACH 1 MILLION IN AFRICA The world needs strong women. Women who will lift and build others, who will love and be loved. Women who live bravely, both tender and fierce. Women of indomitable will.AMY TENNEY A US attorney who has worked with NPO’s on immigration and refugee issues Africa now has more than one million people infected with the coronavirus. South Africa remains the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for over 50% of infections in Africa with more than 538 000 cases followed by Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Algeria.…

Climate activists occupy power towers BERLIN: Climate activists occupied two German power stations yesterday, part of a campaign to encourage the government to transition away from coal faster than currently planned. A police spokesperson said about 20 people managed to gain access the tower of the power plant in the Berlin district of Moabit. They unrolled a banner that read, “Anyone who moves on us is in favour of coal”. The activists, who are part of the Direct Action Berlin group, are calling for an end to what they call “fossil capitalism”. The plant in Moabit, built in 1900, processes coal and started to process biomass in 2013. It is operated by Vattenfall of Sweden. At the other plant, in Mannheim, five to six people accessed a coal-fired power plant.…

AFRICA THIS WEEK ZIM LEADERSHIP FAILING ULTIMATE TEST OF POWER VICTOR KGOMOESWANA @VictorAfrica WE USED to have a joke during the brutal apartheid regime of PW Botha, Magnus Malan and Louis le Grange, about the government imagining a terrorist behind every tree and dustbin. This meant, under the pretext of ensuring internal security, the government would want to label everyone who challenged its legitimacy a terrorist or a communist. Such accusations turned a wave of public sentiment against legitimate anti-apartheid activists as they would automatically be seen as the enemy of the state by those brainwashed by the regime. This year, regrettably, the government of Zimbabwe is losing the currency it gained by removing former president Robert Mugabe from power. The celebrations that marked the watershed moment rode on the…

REAL NUMBERS Politicians’ affinity for population numbers PALI LEHOHLA WHEN time-lines trump methods then know that the end of democracy is nigh. Late Lesotho Prime Minister Dr Ntsu Mokhehle used to define politics as how society agrees to organise itself. Nothing draws attention to politicians as the population numbers and their distribution across space. These numbers are political currency and can be such an absurdity in gerrymandering of constituency delimitation. Part of the inhibition to densification programmes and persistent urban sprawl is driven by such numbers and can be converted into monetary currency. They are also an important element in our array of drivers for corruption. The most crucial source of information on human population numbers and their territorial distribution is a census of the population – part of the…

TV HIGHLIGHTS RENTED FAMILY SUNDAYS AT 9.30PM, SABC 1 The sitcom tells the story of Muzi, a township entrepreneur whose big house attracts a motley crew of incompatible family and friends. A self-made, rich entrepreneur, he owns taxis, a shisa nyama and the biggest house on his street, which he is constantly extending in order to rent out more rooms. @LASIZWE: FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT 3 MONDAY AT 9.30PM, MTV (DSTV 130) This season, Lasizwe can be seen dealing with issues from his relationship with his father and family, as well as his personal state of well-being. Season 3 was filmed against the backdrop of the global pandemic and we see Lasizwe and new cast members hold nothing back on how they have been dealing with the new…

INJURY TIME STUART HESS BUBBLE BURSTS FOR BOBBY WHAT’S that? Bobby Motaung reckoned ‘nah’ lockdown aint for him. Nevermind his position at one of the most popular sports teams in the country, which is going into a ‘bio secure environment,’ to try and complete its season, thereby saving millions of rands, which impacts on thousands of jobs. Nah, there were shishas to be sucked on (at least he doesn’t have to tell Bheki Cele he was break the cigarette law or does he?), girls to be danced with and drinks to be drunk. Nevermind it had taken months to gain the trust of the government and careful planning and that there is an actual virus floating around for which there is no vaccine...nah bra, lets PARTAY, like it’s 1995. VIRTUAL…

Gatland ready to coach Chiefs for free WARREN Gatland says he would like to continue coaching at New Zealand’s Waikato Chiefs next year if the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa is unable to go ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Gatland’s four-year deal at the Chiefs gives him the second season off to coach the Lions. The Lions tour is scheduled for July and August 2021 but South Africa is struggling to contain Covid-19 and has recorded more than 500 000 cases. The tour organisers, however, are confident the show will go ahead as planned. The Chiefs have lined up Clayton McMillan as coach for 2021 but Gatland said he would like to remain on board if the Lions tour fell victim to the virus. “I’d have…

Tail Piece THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX HAVANA: Ever since the novel coronavirus reached Cuba, a tall cardboard box with arms and legs can be seen tottering around a Havana suburb, popping into the bakery or butchers, or browsing the newspaper stand. This is Feridia Rojas, 82, who decided to build and wear mobile housing to shield herself from the virus that is particularly deadly to seniors in a country where personal protective equipment is not sold. “I am at home, what about you?” reads a message on her box, in a witty nod to Cuba’s coronavirus slogan “stay at home.” The widower, whose daughters both live in the US, said with no one to run her errands she had to find a way to do so safely by herself, illustrating…

LIFE ESIDIMENI Families still waiting for payouts Provincial government says all claims paid ABOUT 100 Life Esidimeni family members are at loggerheads with the Gauteng provincial government over outstanding amounts from the arbitration awarded by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke. The Gauteng provincial government insists that it has paid all claims of the Life Esidimeni tragedy in accordance with Moseneke’s arbitration award. Yet, at least 100 victims are taking legal steps to force the provincial government to pay the outstanding amount immediately. Provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe is adamant that the Gauteng government has paid all claims in accordance with Justice Moseneke’s ruling. And he pointed out that new claims were made after the arbitration process was finalised. “As the government was dealing with the new claims, clarity was…

ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA CALL FOR LIFTING OF ALCOHOL BAN IOL Without strong watchdog institutions, impunity becomes the very foundation upon which systems of corruption are built. And if impunity is not demolished, all efforts to bring an end to corruption are in vainRIGOBERTA MENCHÚ Nobel Prize laureate The Democratic Alliance has welcomed Western Cape premier Alan Winde and his government’s resolution to engage the national government on allowing the sale of alcohol and safe reopening of all businesses. |…

KOPANO’S NEW R12M PLANT IN EKANGALA CREATES 50 JOBS IDO LEKOTA BLACK-OWNED brick-making company Kopano Brickworks has opened a new multimillion-rand plant in Ekangala, Mpumalanga, creating 50 new jobs as part of its post-Covid lockdown recovery plan. According to managing director David Matlou, the job tally is expected to rise to 90 by November depending on the economy’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. “The R12million worth Taai Brickworks is a low-cost plant that will be able to offer competitive prices to the market,” says Matlou. “What is pleasing about the commissioning of the plant is that the factory has re-employed some of the employees who worked at this factory before it was closed by its previous owners six years ago. “These employees have had no meaningful employment since the closure…

CAREER Shifting perceptions in sports LESEGO MAKGATHO lesego.makgatho@inl.co.za THROUGHOUT her school career, Nqobile Gama always strove for excellence. In 2009 she was deputy head girl at Holy Family College in Joburg, following in her sister’s footsteps who was also head girl a few years before her. Fast-forward to 2020, Gama at 29, is still making strides. The sponsorships manager at a bank has made it as a finalist for the 2020 GSport Awards in the Woman in PR and Sponsorship category. “This nomination is humbling and very exciting at the same time because it says ‘we see you’.” Her passion for sport dates back to primary school, where she enjoyed playing sport. “I literally tried and played every single sport my school offered at the time. As I progressed into…

COVID-19 ‘Inequality in education system laid bare’ ROLAND MPOFU SOME key education role-players have said the Covid-19 outbreak has exposed the government’s unpreparedness to handle “disastrous and emergency situations” in tackling inequality in the South African education system. This comes after Equal Education took the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to court on Thursday after it missed its deadline to roll out plans for the national school nutrition programme. The department was expected to submit the plan last Friday, as ordered by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, but it failed to do so. Professor Vusi Mncube, deputy dean for research and internationalisation at the faculty of education at the University of Fort Hare, said the pandemic had revealed deep-seated inequalities in education systems. “While there have been transformations…

DISAPPEARANCES Struggle continues for survivors seeking closure EDWIN NAIDU AMONG those requesting help in locating missing persons was Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize in his capacity as a former Umkhonto we Sizwe commander in KwaZulu-Natal, who wanted to help the families of missing MK operatives Mandla Mjwara and Mfaniseni Mdlalose to establish their fate and recover their remains. Mjwara, known as Sandile Zinhle Mahlangu, and Mdlalose, known as Aaron Hlatshwayo, joined MK in 1983 and 1984, respectively, receiving military training in Angola. During 1987, both were operating in a cell inside the country under the command of Mkhize when they disappeared. The recent probe into their disappearance was led by investigator Deborah Quin in the Durban office of the National Prosecuting Authority. The investigation drew up various sources of information…

OPINION Vaccine not the only way Therapeutic views on Covid-19 are suppressed FLOYD SHIVAMBU DADO RUVIC Reuters THE COVID-19 pandemic is a reality that will redefine world history and narratives of what exactly is happening in the world. While there is a global consensus that this Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome known as CoronaVirus Disease-2019 (Covid-19) is a deadly disease which has led to lockdowns in virtually all parts of the world, there is still no commonly accepted solution for what is to be done to contain and eliminate it. Various developments in many parts of the world nevertheless raise many more questions than answers and we should all begin to think about what should be sustainable health, economic, political and social responses to the pandemic. As of early August, the world…

NATION Patience required to win corruption battle in SA WRITING in the weekly online newsletter, ANC Today in 2003, former president Thabo Mbeki, asserted that: “The fishers of corrupt men happily construct doom scenarios that serve their purpose. They speculate about the possibility of a senior official being shown to be corrupt, and how this might lead to the conclusion that the whole procurement process was corrupted.” Mbeki was providing clarity on the issue of arms procurement, decrying the role played by the media and some individuals (including aggrieved business people), for a variety of reasons, in branding procurement processes of the ANC-led government as corrupt and inept. The recent brouhaha regarding the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) has jogged my memory to that period. Again, we see similar…

EDITORIAL Government needs to contain loss of livelihoods THE restrictions that have been necessitated by Covid-19 have caused untold harm on all industries. There are court challenges by the liquor and cigarette industries to have the bans lifted. The bans have resulted in massive revenue losses and companies like South African Breweries (SAB), Heineken and Consol have decided to put on hold planned investments. Heineken has put on ice its R6 billion plans to expand its brewery, a move that might be indefinite. This week, SAB also suspended its R5bn planned investments in South Africa due to a volatile industry. Consol Holdings also deferred a billion-rand bricks-and-mortar plan for a production plant. The alcohol industry has suffered a jobs bloodbath at a time when the illicit trade in alcohol is…

Alarm as Brazil death toll keeps on climbing with peak yet to come BRASILIA: Brazil’s death toll from Covid-19 is expected to hit 100000 this weekend and continue to climb as most Brazilian cities reopen shops and dining even though the pandemic has yet to peak. Confronting its most lethal outbreak since the Spanish flu a century ago, Brazil reported its first Covid-19 cases at the end of February. It took three months for the virus to cause the deaths of 50000 people, and just 50 days to kill the next 50000. President Jair Bolsonaro has played down the gravity of the disease and fought lockdowns. “Brazil is under collective anesthesia,” said Dr José Davi Urbaez, a senior member of the Infectious Diseases Society. He and other pubic health experts…

Soldiers killed in suicide bombing MOGADISHU: A blast rocked a military base in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu yesterday, killing at least eight people and injuring 14, emergency workers said. A suicide bomber blew up a car at the military checkpoint, an army spokesperson said. Soldiers opened fire after the explosion amid clouds of smoke, said Halima Abdisalan, a mother of three who lives near the area. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. The group, which seeks to establish a fundamentalist Islamist state in Somalia, has been fighting in the region for years and controls much of the south and centre of the country. Somalia’s government is supported by US forces, which conduct airstrikes, and by AU soldiers. Reuters and dpa…

Concern over two deaths from plague BEIJING: The authorities in a city in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia issued a warning after a patient who had bubonic plague died of multiple organ failure, state media reported yesterday. The patient died on Friday from multiple organ failure, the Bayannaoer city health commission said on its website. On Thursday, medical authorities confirmed a different form of the disease as the cause of death of another person four days earlier, the commission said. China has largely eradicated the plague, but occasional cases are still reported. The last major known outbreak was in 2009, when several people died in Ziketan in Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau. AP and Reuters…

FINANCES Understanding why we should save with a purpose AMANDA MALIBA amanda.maliba@inl.co.za SAVING money for a purpose, even during these tough economic times, is still a possibility and also crucial for one’s survival. That is according to financial education eEntrepreneur and property investor Nicolette Mashile, also known as the “Financial Bunny”, who recently launched her debut finance book, What’s Your Move? According to Mashile, many people have a very skewed understanding of why we should save. “A lot of people save because they think it’s the right thing to do, that is, when it becomes difficult to save. But when you have specific things that you are trying to achieve, saving becomes easier. “And because personal finance campaigns by financial institutions, banks and other personal finance coaches always preach saving…

Telkom chief executive takes R1.3m pay cut this year DINEO FAKU dineo.faku@inl.co.za TELKOM chief executive Sipho Maseko took home R1.3 million less during the year ended in March than the R23m he scored last year. Telkom said in its annual report on Friday that Maseko’s pay included a guaranteed salary of R8.3m, unvested shares of R2.4m, and R10.5m in vested shares. The group said Maseko did not receive a short-term incentive during the year under review. The group paid a whopping R76m to prescribed officers, including R26m to its chief investment officer, Deon Fredericks. Last year the prescribed officers received R63m. MTN chief executive Rob Shuter took R58m while Vodacom’s Shameel Joosub received R43.4m which amounted to R23.9m after tax. Telkom, which operates BCX, Gyro, Telkom Consumer, Telkom Small and…

ENTERTAINMENT Laugh out loud while in lockdown Comedy podcasts to keep us chuckling EMMA DIBDIN The New York Times IRENE RINALDI The New York Times AS THE coronavirus continues to rage and production shutdowns persist, new episodes of television sitcoms may soon be in short supply – and going to a stand-up show is likely to remain out of reach for some time. But that doesn’t mean you need to forgo a comedy fix. Whether you’re craving the binge-worthy laughs of a scripted series or the electric wit of live sets, these seven podcasts will bring you some much-needed comic relief. Bodega Boys Before the Bronx comedy duo Desus Nice and the Kid Mero became widely known as the hosts of their self-titled late-night series, they built a loyal following through their…

GOLF It’s just not rolling out for Woods at ‘fuzzy’ TPC TPC Harding Park’s narrow fairways and thick rough gave players fits through the first two rounds of the PGA Championship, but it was the course’s unexpectedly slow greens that caused headaches for Tiger Woods. The greens are relatively flat, but the combination of second-round hole positions that favoured their edges, and cool coastal fog that slowed them down as the day wore on, bewildered even the 15-time Major champion. “For me they looked faster than they were putting,” Woods said after shooting a two-over 72 to sit at even par and eight strokes back of the leader, China’s Li Haotong, on Friday. “As the day wore on, they got a little more fuzzy and got even slower, and I…

TV GUIDE SUNDAY 11 AUGUST Cricket: Test Series: England v Pakistan, First Test, Day 5, 11.30am, SS2, SS13 Golf: European Tour: English Championship, Day 4, 2.30pm, CSN, SS5; PGA Tour: PGA Championship, Day 4, 4pm, SS1, CSN (7pm), SS5 (7pm), LPGA Tour: Marathon Classic presented by Dana, Day 4, 9pm, SS12 Motorsport: MotoGP: Grand Prix of Czech Republic, Moto3, 10.45am, SS1; Moto2, 12.05pm, SS1; MotoGP, 1.30pm, SS1; FIM Superbike World Championship, Portugal SBK Superpole Race, 11.45am, SS8; FIM Superbike World Championship, Portugal SSP Race 2, 1.15pm, SS8; FIM Superbike World Championship, Portugal SBK Race 2, 2.30pm, SS8; FIM Superbike World Championship, Portugal SSP300 Race 2, 4pm, SS8; FIA Formula 2 Championship, Round 5: Race 2, 11am, SS6; FIA Formula E Championship, Round 9: Berlin, 6.30pm, SS6; FIA Formula E Championship,…

CUP Celtic storm into Nedbank Cup final with historic victory Mabena the star against 10-man Baroka MIHLALI BALEKA BAROKA FC (0) (0) BLOEMFONTEINCELTIC (1) (3) Mabena 45+5, Letsoalo 84 and 90+3 BLOEMFONTEIN Celtic became the first team to bag a win under the “new normal” after progressing to the final of the Nedbank Cup by defeating Baroka FC 3-0 in the first semi-final at Orlando Stadium yesterday. This was a historic match in South African football as it marked the resumption of the season under the supervised safety and health protocols following a five-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The match brought delight to the football fraternity after the break but it also served as a reminder that it may very well be a while before clubs…

ETHICS Gordhan’s niece appointed Eskom pension fund trustee MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA and KARABO NGOEPE PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s niece Hasha Tlhotlhalemaje was appointed one of the trustees of the R146 billion Eskom pension and provident fund and allegedly only declared more than a month into the position that the minister was her uncle. Her father is Gordhan’s elder brother. The niece, whose maiden name is also Gordhan, is the general manager for regulation at Eskom and married to A Tlhotlhalemaje, sources said. The Sunday Independent can today exclusively reveal that Tlhotlhalemaje was appointed to the fund on May 13 this year and is expected to serve until May 2024. She is said to have only declared during the fund’s fourth virtual board meeting on July 3 that Gordhan is…

POLITICS ‘Masondo remains part of NEC’ ANC reiterates stance on deputy finance minister PIET MAHASHA RAMPEDI THE ANC says Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo remains a member of its national executive committee (NEC) and the second in command at the National Treasury until his appeal against the recommendation of the Integrity Commission is heard and the party’s top brass takes a final decision on his future. Speaking to Sunday Independent yesterday, party national spokesperson Pule Mabe said Masondo’s matter would be speeded up because of the important role he played in the governing party and President Cyrl Ramaphosa’s administration. This comes after the ethics body led by ANC veteran George Mashamba recommended that Masondo steps down from his party and government position for allegedly bringing the ANC into disrepute. This…

POST OFFICE Post office runs out of cash for R350 grant LESEGO MAKGATHO lesego.makgatho@inl.co.za SCORES of Covid-19 R350 beneficiaries were left stranded last Thursday after staff at the Brits post office in the North West told them it ran out of cash and couldn’t process their payments. Most of them had queued for the funds since Wednesday and came back on Thursday hoping that they would get the much-needed funds. But the acting chief operating officer at the SA Post Office, John Nanyane, said many people were not paid because they went to the post office before they received the SMS payment notifications. According to Nanyane, to solve the problem, the post office will now only pay beneficiaries who received the SMS telling them to visit their nearest post office.…

MOUNTAINEERING Climbing to conquer ourselves Media personalities Gerry Elsdon and Pearl Shongwe aim to summit Kilimanjaro next year DON MAKATILE EVEN though the travel bans necessitated by the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus have rained on many a parade, they have not dampened the spirits of two hikers who should have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last month, on Mandela Day. Media personalities Gerry Elsdon and Pearl Shongwe have made a vow to do even better next year, the next date of the Trek4Mandela hike done in aid of charity. For someone with epilepsy, Elsdon is very fit and is not averse to throwing caution to the wind when it comes to climbing mountains. She’s already suffered an episode once after coming down Kilimanjaro, and this was after she’d defied doctor’s orders…

BOOK Troubling tale of how injustice thrives in SA DON MAKATILE IN January 2016 two black men, farmworkers, are accosted by a posse of around 40 Afrikaner farmers on a plot in Parys, in the Free State. For their sins – ostensibly an attempt to rob and possibly kill an older farmer, Loedie van der Westhuizen – the men are beaten to a pulp. The first policeman who arrives on the scene, after driving around lost, prods the men with a cattle taser and later argues in court that he saw no visible and life-threatening injuries on the victims. Two juniors who arrive later hold a different view and quickly ferry the men, Biko-style, on the back of the police van to hospital. The farmers are a network of relatives,…

ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA TUT STRIVES FOR DIGITAL EXCELLENCE The hyenas were at the door, the thieves were at the door. Once Covid-19 happened, the open tender system was not being implemented, the hyenas attacked and they brought great disrepute to our governmentGAUTENG PREMIER DAVID MAKHURA THE Tshwane University of Technology said it would improve the delivery of a fully blended and fully online learning experience to more than 64 000 students as it bids to become SA’s first truly digital institute of higher learning.…

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MUST BE DELIVERED RESTORATIVE justice has been broached extensively by civil society groups since democracy, but in June last year, apartheid era security branch policeman Joao Rodrigues lost his bid for a permanent stay of prosecution, and will go on trial on charges of murder and allegedly attempting to cover up the crime in the 1971 murder of schoolteacher activist Ahmed Timol. The policeman wanted a permanent stay of prosecution after being charged in July 2018 with murder. Timol died in 1971 after falling from the tenth floor of the then John Vorster Square police station in central Joburg, where he was detained with police claiming that he had jumped. However, the findings of an inquest in 2017 found Timol did not commit suicide but was murdered.…

ECONOMY THE IMF AND THE NEO-LIBERAL HEGEMONY DR LEHLOHONOLO KENNEDY MAHLATSI THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved South Africa’s request for emergency financial support for an amount of $4.3billion (R75.7bn) to help the country mitigate the adverse social and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ironically, the policy reforms demanded by the IMF over the past two decades in exchange for loans have undermined the ability of governments in western Africa to repair their historical problems. These include limiting the ability of clinics and hospitals to employ more doctors and nurses. The IMF also encouraged decentralisation of health services to make them responsive to local needs, which hampered the delivery of adequate health care. The IMF and the World Bank are products of a previous era of shift in…

ICYMI | IOL.CO.ZA NORMA GIGABA AN UNLIKEY AMBASSADOR FOR WOMEN’S DAY And one day she discovered that she was fierce, and strong, and full of fire, and that not even she could hold herself back because her passion burned brighter than her fearsMARK ANTHONY NORMA Gigaba might be an unlikely ambassador for Women’s Day 2020 – but if you ever needed proof of the much storeyed wathint’ abafazi,wathint’ imbokodo,uza kufa (you strike a woman, you strike a rock, you die), then her perpetually priapic spouse might finally have met his match.…

INDIA Plane crash death toll rises THE death toll from an Indian passenger aircraft accident has risen to18, while 16 people have been seriously injured, a senior government official said yesterday. The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday. It was India’s worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010. The flight was carrying 190 passengers and crew. The plane’s pilot and the co-pilot were killed, K Gopalakrishnan, chief of the Malappuram district in the southern state of Kerala said. All the survivors were admitted to various hospitals and were also tested for Covid-19, Gopalakrishnan said, adding that autopsies of the dead would also…

ZIMBABWE Call for action against regime PEOPLE of Zimbabwe do not need “PR stunts” but action against a totalitarian regime The People’s Dialogue founder Herman Mashaba said yesterday. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of Baleka Mbete and Sydney Mufamadi as special envoys to Zimbabwe “is a farcical public relations stunt” aimed at placating those calling for action against the human rights abuses being perpetrated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime, Mashaba said. “The people of Zimbabwe do not need Ramaphosa’s PR stunt. “They need real action against a totalitarian regime that is subjecting them to the worst kinds of persecution, torture, and oppression.” He said, as AU chairperson, Ramaphosa should be leading the charge in denouncing the atrocities being committed in Mnangagwa’s name, and protecting the human rights of the people of…

Pesticide not cause of mass elephant deaths GABORONE: Research continues into the cause of the mysterious deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana, but pesticide has been excluded as a possible factor, the Environment Ministry said. Nine pesticides and agrochemicals have been tested, excluding these as a possible cause, although the ministry said it was still possible that the deaths were due to a natural toxin. Further tests are needed using samples from elephants which have died recently to identify what is causing their deaths, said environmental organisation Future for Elephants yesterday. The authorities have found 281 dead elephants in the north-western Okavango Delta area over the past few weeks. Other organisations place the figure at 350. The animals’ tusks remain intact, ruling out poaching as a possible cause. Botswana…

COURAGE How to turn fear into strength AMANDA MALIBA amanda.maliba@inl.co.za REIGNING Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi is stepping forward this Woman’s Day to make her voice heard as she partners with 1st for Women in a national campaign dubbed Living Fearless is Liberating. The 26-year-old, who has become a beacon by encouraging women to come forward and be counted, admits that fearlessness does not mean being immune to fear, but simply being courageous enough in how one lives their life. “And liberation in today’s world could mean something like being free from the imprisonment of our own minds. It also means being free from societal standards that are forced on us on a daily basis. All of which we are aiming to promote to all women,” she said. She admitted that…

ZIMBABWE How artists have preserved the memory of Zimbabwe’s 1980s massacres GIBSON NCUBE “LET people vent,” lamented performing artist and TV personality Kudzai Sevenzo in a tweet as Zimbabweans on social media reacted to the death of Perence Shiri. Shiri was the minister of lands, agriculture and rural resettlement. Zenzele Ndebele, an investigative journalist, also spoke out: “Shiri gets to be buried like a hero. We never got a chance to mourn our relatives who were killed by the 5th Brigade.” Shiri was a military man who commandeered a praetorian army that killed more than 20 000 civilians in the provinces of Matabeleland and the Midlands between 1983 and 1987. Gukurahundi saw his North Korean-trained unit, the Fifth Brigade, descend on provinces inhabited by the Ndebele people to quell dissent.…

Crypto could be the way of the future EDWARD WEST IT IS premature for cryptocurrencies to form part of individual investment portfolios, but the biggest, Bitcoin, could be viable as a store of wealth asset, while there might be significant investment opportunity in Ethereum cryptocurrency over a decade. This was according to Old Mutual Investments director of investments Hywel George, who said in a recent webinar that if the much anticipated Blockchain revolution gathered pace as anticipated, investing in Ethereum was something to be considered. George said the World Economic Forum had predicted that within five years, up to 10 percent of the global gross domestic product would be invested and transacted on a Blockchain platform. At present, the majority of Blockchain projects were being implemented on Ethereum, the second-largest…

BIZ 101 Supporting women working full-time from home BEN BIERMAN PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to close most grades in public schools for a month comes with additional responsibilities for families. While this should impact equally on all working parents, research by Unicef, the UN Children’s Fund, shows this to be unlikely, with women carrying out three times the amount of unpaid care and domestic work than men. For many South African women the schools’ closure means a juggle of childcare, homeschooling and domestic chores while working full-time from home. Here are ways businesses can use to support the hard-working superwomen during this challenging time. Commnunication Working parents pretend that they are not torn between their children and work. But the reality is that there are times when the children need…

STARS TANYA OBREZA Aries (March 21 - April 20) Like it or not, sometimes the best things happen when they’re least expected. Be patient in matters of the heart; there’s no hurry for a decision. A change of living arrangements could also either frustrate or delight you. Taurus (April 21 - May 20) Watch out, Taurus. Boundaries could be blurred this week as Mars continues to stir your house of illusion and secrets. Your sexual mojo could be muted. Stressed planetary activity here may bring up painful memories or resentment. Rid yourself of whatever’s outmoded or unproductive. Gemini (May 21 - June 21) You’ve strong ideas about what you want done and when. But a bit of tact wouldn’t go amiss. This isn’t the best time for tackling contentious issues.…

SOCCER Sarri gets boot for Champions League failure Maurizio Sarri Reuters SERIE A club Juventus have sacked coach Maurizio Sarri after one season in charge, following the team’s elimination from the Champions League in the round of 16 on Friday, the Turin club said in a statement. The 61-year-old was dismissed despite leading Juventus to the Serie A title two weeks ago, their ninth in a row. Sarri had been under pressure since his side lost to Napoli on penalties in the final of the Coppa Italia in June. Juventus have become so dominant in Serie A in the last decade that winning the domestic league is regarded as almost an obligation, while the Champions League - which the side have not won since 1996 - is regarded as their…

SOCCER Xulu excelled after sound of music put on hold MINENHLE MKHIZE WHEN Siyanda Xulu was about to quit football and pursue a career in music, his development mentor Lindani Shezi managed to convince him not to hang up his boots. The Bafana Bafana international started his career with eThekwini Coastal in KwaMakhutha where he played in dusty fields of the Durban south township. Born and bred in KwaMashu, the 29-year-old would travel by train to attend training sessions at Kingsway High School in Amanzimtoti. Shezi never doubted that Xulu would make it big in football. Indeed he was never wrong in his imagination at that time as Xulu went on to represent big clubs such as Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and FC Rostov of Russia. “I discovered Siyanda when…