Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-01-09 i Sunday Independent

Edwin Naidu edwin.naidu@live.co.za Distraught Pietermaritzburg mother of three Zandile Nguse lost her teenage son during the July riots last year. She says her boy, Sbahle Nguse, would have been alive had the South African Police Services (SAPS) kept its promise to serve and protect citizens in communities throughout South Africa. Sbahle, a 17-year-old Grade 11 pupil at Raisethorpe Secondary School, dreamed of becoming a pilot and helping his family escape life from the informal settlement in which he died on July 12 after being shot at about 1 am. “During my last conversation with him, he promised that in two years he would take his siblings and me out of the informal settlement. He wanted to be a pilot and was passionate about planes, but being in business was a…

Amanda Maliba amanda.maliba@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa has over the years produced a pool of reality TV shows that have captured the hearts and the minds of Mzansi. These have allowed us inside the homes of local celebrities such as Somizi Mhlongo and Bonang Matheba, as well as Dineo Ranaka, through her reality TV show, Dineo’s Diary. Now, a spin-off from Dineo’s Diary, the popular show The Ranakas, has Mzansi intrigued and talking. The show, which follows the Ranaka family, including parents Ntate Kgotlaesele and Mam’ Nonceba Ranaka, made its fifth season return on Thursday on Mzansi Magic, and trended on Twitter for over 10 hours. Tweeps could not hold back on their comments about Metro FM radio host and actress and sister to Dineo, Manaka’s altercation with her family in the…

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa could not miss an opportunity to rush to the parliamentary scene of a crime. A less excitable head of state would wait for reports from responsible department officials and ministers before commenting on an unfolding investigation. But that would not be in keeping with a presidency marked by cheap publicity stunts. This is so when there appears to be political mileage to be gained. Arguably, a stampede to a crime scene is excusable where there has been a massive loss of life. Ramaphosa made one to Phoenix following the social unrest in July. God knows why, despite many promises, he is yet to go to Marikana. It is in such unguarded moments when he plays to the gallery that Ramaphosa makes inane comments. The memorable ones include…

Sidney Poitier, who broke through racial barriers as the first black winner of the best actor Oscar for his role in Lilies of the Field, and inspired a generation during the civil rights movement, has died at age 94, Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said on Friday. “Even as we mourn, we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian: a cultural icon, an actor and director, an entrepreneur, civil and human rights activist and, latterly, a diplomat.” Poitier created a distinguished film legacy in a single year with three 1967 films at a time when segregation prevailed in the US. |…

Chinese President Xi Jinping has appointed three new ambassadors in after a decision was taken by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, according to a statement from China’s top legislature yesterday. Yan Wenbin was appointed ambassador to Moldova. Cui Aimin was appointed ambassador to Sweden. Wang Xiaolong was appointed ambassador to New Zealand and the Cook Islands, as well as ambassador to the Island of Niue. On Thursday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced that Beijing would appoint a special envoy to the Horn of Africa, signalling his country’s intention to play a greater role in the conflict-torn region. The announcement came as US envoy Jeffrey Feltman was due to arrive in Ethiopia to encourage talks to end more than a year of war in the…

Mzilikazi Wa Afrika THE fires that ravaged the national assembly this week and left damage estimated to cost R1 billion might be the result of government cost-cutting measures and the failure to implement maintenance recommendations submitted to Parliament from various safety reports. DA spokesperson on public works and infrastructure, Samantha Graham-Mare, yesterday put the blame squarely on the government and highlighted that other department buildings could be in a worse condition if the National Assembly has been left in shambles. “We have been misled about the maintenance of the national assembly. We have also found out that issues raised in the report about the fire that happened in parliament in March last year weren’t even addressed,” Graham-Mare said. Graham-Mare said although she doesn’t have full knowledge on how the fires…

Mpho Rantao mpho.rantao@inl.co.za BEAUTY and lifestyle content creators are becoming the new frontline leaders as they are now taking over the ever-evolving industry and making a success out of it. Combining social media platforms trends and their own creative skill, content creators from across the world amass large followings as contemporary salespeople – a far cry from the over-the-counter salesperson or television advertisement we grew up with. Creatives like Foyin Ogunrombi (FoyinOg on her social media platforms), who chose the path to become a beauty and lifestyle influencer after graduating and leaving her job, is one example. “I realised that I was not ready for an office job, nor did I think I really wanted one,” Ogunrombi said. “I had already experienced the whole being a content creator because I…

KARABO NGOEPE karabo.ngoepe@inl.co.za IT IS said that quality lasts a lifetime. And it was quality from three generations ago that has allowed 34-year-old Akhona Vundisa to launch a thriving high-end bag range. Sifting through old stuff stashed in a hut on the outskirts of the Eastern Cape, Vundisa came across two vintage leather bags that caught his attention. Drawn to them, he dusted them off and admired the artistry. “I asked my father who they belonged to, and he said they were his father’s,“ Vundisa said. “He explained to me that my great-grandfather was leather bag maker in Scotland, and he would give my grandfather two bags each time he was coming to South Africa,” he said. Intrigued by the design and quality of the leather used, Vundisa took the…

There is a growing list of books written by those with inside information on how the talks about negotiations and subsequently the negotiations proper which led to the 1994 political settlement, that ushered in the current liberal democratic dispensation originated and were conducted. The list can loosely be divided into two broad categories. The first is by politicians who were close to the happenings within either the African National Congress or the National Party at the time, and therefore speak with authority on what happened within and between these parties as they engaged in negotiations. Mac Maharaj and Pallo Jordan share rare insights into dynamics within the ANC in their offering, Breakthrough: The Struggles and Secret Talks that Brought Apartheid South Africa to the Negotiating Table (2021). The book sheds…

THE news about the burning of the Parliament building in Cape Town came as a shock to many of us who love this country. The fact that something like this was unprecedented raised serious questions which are yet to be answered. As if this was not enough, South Africans were shocked once again by the news that the Constitutional Court building had been attacked by a 36-year-old man. This latest development further compounded the problem of the attack on our national institutions. What can we glean from this burning of our national parliament? What does this mean for our nascent democracy? These are the questions I will confine myself to. To answer the first question, there is no doubt that this incident poses a threat to our democracy. The manner…

The Indian government has renewed permission for the Missionaries of Charity to receive foreign funds, the organisation said yesterday. On Christmas Day the government moved to cut off foreign funding to charity and refused to renew its licence under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. The Missionaries of Charity runs shelter homes across India. It was founded in 1950 by the late Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun who devoted her life to helping the poor in Kolkata. She won the Nobel Peace Prize and was later declared a saint.…

THE UN said yesterday it would invite Sudanese military leaders, political parties and other groups to take part in a “political process” aimed at ending a crisis unleashed by a coup in October. The UN Security Council will meet on Wednesday in an informal session to address the latest developments in Sudan as demonstrations against military rule in the African nation continue, diplomatic sources said. Mediation by the UN in the weeks after the coup succeeded in reinstating Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, but his resignation last week deepened uncertainty around Sudan’s political future and a transition towards elections scheduled for 2023. Neighbourhood-based resistance committees, political parties and other pro-democracy groups have carried out a campaign of protests under a “no negotiation” slogan. Unless a new course towards a transition and…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za BONGOKUHLE Hlongwane’s Bafana Bafana performances, combined with a new American soccer initiative known as the “U-22 initiative”, helped the player secure a move to the US from Maritzburg United, according to Major League Soccer (MLS) insider Andrew Olsson. The 21-year-old was signed by Minnesota United on a three-year contract this week with a “one year club option”. He also becomes the Loons’ first U-22 signing. “The U-22 initiative allows each team in MLS to sign players who fit that bill at a reduced cost to the salary cap. It had to do with his (Hlongwane’s) national team performances. He broke through with Bafana Bafana in World Cup qualifiers and every African World Cup qualifier has been broadcast in the US. I’d imagine that MLS teams have…

BURKINA Faso captain Bertrand Traore has deplored as “a scandal” coronavirus testing procedures at the Africa Cup of Nations after up to five players and coach Kamou Malo tested positive in the run-up to today’s opener against hosts Cameroon. The Aston Villa forward told a press conference in Yaounde yesterday: “It’s a scandal, we cannot be deprived of first team players 24 hours before the match.” Assistant coach Firmin Sanou, standing in for Malo, said: “We have four or five Covid cases, mainly first team players, we're not going to name names. “It calls everything into question, but we have confidence in the players who will replace them,” continued Sanou, who hit out at the organisation with two different medical teams arriving to test the team. “On Friday a…

Bang Showbiz Scientists have named a newly-discovered tree after Leonardo DiCaprio. The four-metre tree, which grows only in Cameroon’s Ebo Forest, has been officially named Uvariopsis dicaprio after the Wolf of Wall Street star campaigned to stop logging in the woodland. Dr Martin Cheek, a senior research leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, told the BBC: “We think he was crucial in helping to stop the logging of the Ebo Forest.” The tropical plant – which has yellow flowers – is the first one new to science to be officially named by Kew scientists this year. DiCaprio – who can now put the wood into Hollywood – previously took to his social media channels to support a campaign against the logging of the Ebo Forest. International experts…

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that “Death is not life’s simple opposite, or its necessary terminus, but rather its completion.” Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu’s passing has concluded his life gracefully and consistently with the values and character that were manifested throughout the 90 years he lived. The standard word of comfort when someone has died is that they will live on through the individuals that knew and loved them. However, in the case of Archbishop Tutu, his loss is beyond those who knew him personally. But the loss is clear: there will never be another like him. Armed only with his unshakeable faith in the Bible and in the ultimate victory of his cause, Tutu, who emerged as the most visible and most outspoken critic of the apartheid government, was…

MANYANE MANYANE and MASHUDU SADIKE President Cyril Ramaphosa has had a torrid week ahead of the ANC’s January 8 statement which coincided with the party’s 110th anniversary celebrations in Polokwane, Limpopo, throughout this week. But the president must have heaved a sigh of relief that it is all over and that Limpopo is in the bag by being the first province to endorse him for a second term. The province’s premier and chairperson, Stan Mathabatha, said yesterday the province was confident that Ramaphosa would see them through the next phase. However, this week hasn’t been smooth sailing for the first citizen of South Africa. It started to go awry when Number 1 was called a liar, forced to walk out of an ANC Women’s League Indaba where he was due…

From page 1 With the ANC's 110th anniversary celebrations and all that drama firmly behind him, Ramaphosa now has the daunting task of striking a balance between retaining his seat for a second term and gluing together a fractured and limping ANC so that it’s strong enough to celebrate 111 years next year. The road for the ruling party is set to be a tough one as provincial structures look at wrapping up their conferences ahead of the big national elective conference in December. Last month,the ANC in its national executive committee meeting gave all provincial committees until March this year to hold their conferences. The endorsement by the province comes despite two influential regions – namely Peter Mokaba and Sekhukhune regions – recently holding their elective conferences at which…

From the lips of regular and trusted commentators to the alert and unsuspecting listening ears, is it now an established position that the ANC is made up of two factions? Has the ANC also come to accept the position to be so, as to believe and to operate on the basis that it is constituted of two factions? If the answers are in the affirmative, does it follow that for the breath of its life and its pulmonary fitness, the ANC, as seen by commentators – factions have become its vital organs as good as its lungs, without which, it can no longer breathe? Or is this finding an unchecked figment of commentators’ imagination that has been repeated as an unquestionable convention serving as staple diet analysis to chew, bite,…

Roland Mpofu roland.mpofu@inl.co.za It’s been almost two years of living in a Covid-19 world and South Africans have been surfing four waves of variants, some deadly, including Beta, Delta and presently Omicron under some of the most stringent lock down rules and protocols. Throughout this period, the government has been consistent only in sending out conflicting, confusing and often downright misleading information on how to deal with this perceived threat to our lives and livelihoods. The scaremongering, fear and anxiety that South Africans were subjected to at the beginning of the pandemic, far outweighed the impacts of Covid-19 on the lives of healthy citizens which resulted in a high number of suicides and an increase in cases of domestic violence as more and more people fell into depression while others…

Novak Djokovic’s legal challenge to the Australian government’s decision to cancel his visa on arrival last week says a certified Covid-19 infection last month meant he qualified for a medical exemption to the county’s vaccination requirements. A 35-page document lodged in the Federal Circuit and Family Court by his legal team yesterday outlines the Serbian’s case for challenging the visa cancellation, which would prevent the world number one from playing tennis in the Australian Open. The challenge will be heard in court tomorrow. |…

Applications made under the return of undeveloped land scheme, set up on October 1, 2020, by the Seychelles government, will be reviewed this month, said the Ministry of Land and Housing in a press statement. The scheme applies to land which was either compulsorily acquired by the state under the Lands Acquisition Act of 1977, or acquired via private agreement by the government from Seychellois individuals in the national interest during the period 1977 to 1993. The ministry has received 148 applications under the scheme. During the hearings of the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) that started in 2019, many individual Seychellois came forward with cases of unjustified land acquisition by the state that took place after the 1977 coup, which was led by President France-Albert Rene and…

Russia yesterday slammed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as “boorish” for saying Kazakhstan will be saddled with a Russian presence after asking Moscow to send troops to quell unrest. “US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to make a funny joke today about the tragic events in Kazakhstan,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Facebook. “A boorish attempt, but then again not his first one,” it said, adding that Blinken “ridiculed a totally legitimate response” of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military alliance led by Russia. Kazakhstan appealed for help from the CSTO to quell unprecedented protests sparked by fuel prices that broke out across the Central Asian country earlier this week. It is not clear how many troops are being sent in the force…

| IANS GOING into the rest day on Saturday, TVS Racing Factory rider Harith Noah nurtured his injured shoulder and was eager to take on the challenge ahead in the Dakar Rally Moto section in Riyadh from Sunday. “It was very rocky and bumpy on Friday and did not help my injured shoulder. Thankfully, a part of the route which was dangerous, was cancelled. And I am using the rest day for my recovery and hoping to be back in full flow tomorrow. The target is to finish and I am taking it stage-by -stage,” said the lone crusader from India at Dakar 2022, considered the world’s toughest rally. The five-time Indian national champion from Bengaluru, Noah survived dangerous terrain and a couple of crashes to be placed 28th…

Matshelane Mamabolo GROUP D (Egypt, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan) EGYPT and Nigeria should have little trouble making it out of this group. Both countries are looking to re-establish themselves as continental giants. The Pharaohs, record eight-time champions, last won in 2010 and would love nothing more than success to go with their dominance of the club scene in Africa. They have, in Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, a world superstar in the form of his life who should fire on all cylinders in Cameroon alongside Aston Villa forward Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’ Hassan. While they have the Europe-based stars, the core of Egypt’s squad is made up of local players – 19 of the 25 play in Egypt. Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz knows though that his big task is to qualify Egypt for the…