Innholdsfortegnelse for 2022-10-16 i Sunday Independent

Mark Zuckerberg has revived the metaverse concept. It’s a well-known fact he is not the originator of the concept. In our modern era, however, he’s one person who’s taking a lead in driving the technology industry towards thinking about the metaverse. All of a sudden, companies have chief metaverse officers, metaverse strategies and “metaverse” is on everyone’s lips. His thoughts and plans about the metaverse are worth following and understanding. This is even more important in a world that claims a lot of things about the metaverse. Here’s the state of the metaverse, according to Zuck and as presented at the Meta Connect, the company’s annual developer conference. Work in progress What stood out from the presentation by Zuckerberg at Connect is simply that we are far from experiencing a…

THAMI Mtshali, a chemical engineer and an entrepreneur par excellence, is no more. He pounced unexpectedly and by the time the discussion ended, he had dazzled you with no fewer than four connected and significant ideas. I have known him for just two and half years and this started a journey of infinite revelations from this onion bulb. With a gentle peel of a leaf of onion at a time comes an explosion of fresh aroma that blasts nasal cavities open, pierces the retina into teary eyes and transforms the eyes to instantly see clearly, leaves the palate drooling saliva and relieves the ears of the broken sticks that cause deafness. All this focused attention was directed at preparing the brain and the heart to be mission-receptive and solution-ready. He…

Food trucks have become a major force in the restaurant industry. They are the perfect dining-out option for friends who want to have fun and socialise in a relaxed atmosphere. Food trucks have come a long way from their early days of selling plastic- wrapped sandwiches and bland coffee to factory workers looking for something cheap and quick. Today these mobile eateries feature unique offerings of every type – from freshly caught seafood and gourmet burgers to gluten-free and vegan sandwiches, sides and desserts. And their popularity is growing. Why do food trucks matter? Food trucks matter because they introduce us to new cuisines and they are fun and creative. Food trucks can often provide people with a way to venture away from foods they know and be introduced to…

It is always a good idea to periodically examine your relationship with alcohol. A popular way to do this is to participate in a month like “Sober October”, which is a health and wellness trend that emphasises taking a break from alcohol for an entire month. Depending on how much a person drinks, taking a break from alcohol for a month could lead to many positive changes. What is Sober October? Sober October began in 2014 as a fund-raising campaign for Macmillan Cancer Support, a UK-based charity that provides support to people living with cancer. This campaign’s primary goal is raising money, but the movement also emphasises the importance of checking in with yourself about your relationship with alcohol. Like Dry January, Sober October encourages people to give up alcohol…

According to the Labour Laws Amendment Act, fathers in South Africa are entitled to 10 days of parental leave following the birth of the employee’s child. For four months, mothers are eligible for unpaid maternity leave. The validity of this act has been questioned, though. Werner and Ika van Wyk contend that the Basic Conditions of Employment Act should be declared illegal because it unfairly discriminates against fathers of newborn children in a recent case filed in the high court. This is accomplished by unfairly limiting their ability to take paternity leave in South Africa. Local legislation must be used to support various parental options, according to Carmen Arico, Chartered reward specialist and spokesperson for the South African Reward Association. This can be giving fathers extra time off or allowing…

I never met Angela Lansbury, but she was one of those icons that felt like a trusted friend and family member. Every Sunday evening, I devoured Jessica Fletcher’s activities in Murder, She Wrote – catching the bad guys and saving another poor victim from eternal damnation. The younger generation discovered her as Mrs Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and, more recently, as the balloon seller in Mary Poppins Returns (a role created as a cameo appearance for Julie Andrews, who turned it down so attention was not taken away from Emily Blunt). Disney considered Lansbury for the original casting of Mary Poppins, so it is fitting that one of her last film appearances return full circle to her earlier Hollywood career. Lansbury, who died on October 11, 2022,…

BALI, the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, stands to go down in the annals of contemporary history as a place where a possible World War III was averted. On November 15-16, Bali will play host to the 17th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit. Indonesia holds the current Presidency of the G20, the influential group of leading economies whose influence in geopolitics is beyond impactful. The attention in Bali will most likely – in fact inevitably – fall on two men, US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. For the first time since the outbreak of the Ukraine war on February 24, the two leaders of nuclear powers will be under one roof. They have never spoken directly, not even by telephone, since…

Employees at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have requested the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe CEO Andile Nongogo and his board for corruption, malpractice and nepotism. The employees alleged that corruption was rampant under Nongogo and his board. Nongogo, who took over from administrator Dr Randall Carolissen, was appointed in November 2020. In a seven-page letter to the SIU, the employees said the rot at the entity continued under Nongogo and his board. The employees asked the SIU to probe all tender processes, including failed IT systems and failed laptop tenders. The employees said Nongogo had also taken over the supply chain management (SCM) to give tenders to his close associates. They said the SIU should look into Nongogo’s cellphone records and contacts. “Sometimes they (service providers)…

THE rising rates of violence perpetrated against women sex workers have led advocacy groups to ask the government how long it will take for (legal and social) protection. Sex workers in Johannesburg feel they are under siege and vulnerable to violence, both from unknown perpetrators and the authorities. Their cries come after the South African Police Service (SAPS) discovered six decomposed bodies in a panel-beating workshop near the Faraday area of Johannesburg last Sunday. The SAPS arrested 20-year-old Sifiso Mkhwanazi in connection with the deaths. He was at the workshop, which is owned by his father. Mkhwanazi was charged with six counts of murder, and will make his second appearance before the Joburg Magistrate’s Court on October 18. Sex workers in the area said they were familiar with Mkhwanazi…

ENTREPRENEUR Miles Khubeka has found an innovative way to disrupt the townships’ retail market through the establishment of Gcwalisa, a grocery refill dispensary outlet in Alexandra, Johannesburg. This innovation provides a multi- pronged solution to informal settlement areas in South Africa that are drowning in waste due to the lack of waste collection services, in that the refill process eliminates the need for single-use plastics and/or containers. Gcwalisa is an innovative tuckshop, where they sell food items on a weigh-and-pay model. For example, customers can get 250gm maize meal for as little as R4, or 250ml cooking oil for R12. To qualify for these low prices, the customer needs to bring their own container/jar or can purchase a reusable jar from Gwcalisa. This idea was driven by the need to…

THE renowned artwork of sculptor Noria Mabasa will be in Gauteng for the exhibition, Noria Mabasa: Shaping Dreams. This exhibition will be held at the Nirox Sculpture Park in collaboration with !KAURU Contemporary Art from Africa and the Vhutsila Arts and Craft Centre. The exhibition aims to question the extent to which people’s knowledge is informed by things that have little to do with the artist, but more insight into the artist’s practice. “The exhibition at the centre is comprised of new works produced during her residency and since, with a new selection of pre-existing works that speak to its overarching concerns,” said Tshepiso Mohlala of !KAURU. Family representative Tala Motsepe said much of the exhibition aims to honour and celebrate Mabasa’s work and pay tribute to a great woman…

IN MANY sectors, sex is still regarded as a taboo topic. To South Africans, the thought of children as young as 15 having their love huts would send shivers down their spine. But that is the reality in Cambodia. Located in the Ratanakiri region, the Kreung tribe does things differently. Parents sleep in one house while their children have love huts. They have given rise to allowing children to make their own decisions and to participate in sex. According to vancouverisawesome.com, when young girls reach puberty around the age of 13-15, their fathers will build them a separate bamboo hut, away from the family home, so they can socialise and experiment with boys in privacy. The Kreung people instil a strong message that sex before marriage is acceptable, encouraged when…

FOLLOWING the Kingdom of Lesotho’s elections, the incoming Prime Minister Sam Matekane said he had great ambitions for the country, including not drawing a salary. In an interview with The Sunday Independent this week, Matekane indicated that he would channel his salary back into projects that would benefit the locals. Sunday Independent (SI) - Congratulations on the victory. How did you manage to pull it off when your party was launched only a few months ago? Sam Matekane (SM) - Thank you. The victory of the RFP in the just-ended elections was a team effort. It would not have been possible without the hard work of the leadership of the party, the different campaign teams and most importantly, the electorate. RFP ran a data-driven campaign where each candidate was working…

Lions (18) 37 Tries: F Horn (2), Tshituka, Coetzee, Q Horn; Conversions: Lombard, Hendrikse (2); Penalties: Lombard (2) Yellow Card: Van Wyk Ulster (15) 39 Tries: Baloucoune; Burns, Lyttle, McCloskey, Herring; Conversions: Cooney (4); Penalties: Cooney, Doak THE Emirates Lions were brought back to earth by a determined and street-smart Ulster in their United Rugby Championship encounter at Emirates Airline Park yesterday. A 10-minute blitz, which started in the 38th minute and which netted Ulster 19 points, swung the encounter the way of the Irish giants. It was during this period that Henco van Wyk served 10 minutes in the sin-bin for a failed intercept attempt, and Ulster used that numerical advantage. Ulster also started off the better of the two sides. They scored in the second minute, an easy…

New Delhi: As you enjoy the new Samsung foldable devices, do you realise that the blue part you see in Galaxy Z Flip 4 is made of repurposed fishing nets? According to Pranveer Singh Rathore, Materials R&D manager, Samsung Electronics, the blue part, the side key bracket, basically makes your phone waterproof from the side keeper and dustproof. “So it acts as a barrier to water and dust and improves the durability of your phone. Similarly, with the receiver decode that displays connector cap and other green parts, they act as housing to the crucial components,” he said. “As they are housing the critical components, they act as a barrier and are durable so that they can withstand all kinds of climatic conditions and all kinds of stresses they are…

ACTRESS Mila Kunis has been tickling the funny bone from the time she found fame on That ’70s Show to her doing a plethora of comedy films, the most recent ones being A Bad Mom’s Christmas and The Spy Who Dumped Me. But this is the first time I’ve seen her in a serious role. Hers isn’t just a part of being a troubled teenager. No, it goes beyond that. She has mummy issues, firstly. Second, in trying to fit in as a scholarship student at the prestigious Brentley School, she finds herself susceptible to the rules set out by the elite, where money buys entitlement and power. When we first meet Tiffani “Ani” Fanelli (Kunis), the 38-year-old has a perfect life. She’s on the cusp of a promotion…

Barbarian has a typical horror movie setup. Tess (Georgina Campbell) is in Detroit for a job interview. On a dark and stormy night, she arrives at her Airbnb, but somebody else is there. Keith (Bill Skarsgard), who rented the house from a different service, tries to be helpful, but he’s awkward and a little creepy. He suggests they both spend the night there. If you were a young woman travelling alone, would you stay in a double-booked rental with someone whose sunken eyes make him look like Steve Buscemi’s unsettling character in Fargo? But Barbarian does something unusual. Writer-director Zach Cregger’s script takes the various paint-by-number horror elements – a vulnerable debutante, an unfamiliar house, a hidden room – and colours outside the lines. Cregger is part of the comedy…

OUR arch-rivals News24 have declared war on us and, as stated as early as 1918 by US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson: “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” In firing off the first salvo in this war, our adversary made sure to slay the truth. There is no shred of evidence in their sensationalist “scoop” that we intend to mount a media campaign to unseat President Cyril Ramaphosa at the upcoming ANC elective conference in December. The onus still lies with them to provide this proof and substantiate the spurious claims levelled against us. But, as is the nature of fake news, it will be a futile exercise to await such from the peddlers of rumour – almost tantamount to waiting for Godot. The truth is never the desired…

NEW GAUTENG premier Panyaza Lesufi has caught some flak for the reconfiguration of some of the departments with some claiming this will hamper service delivery. This week, three ANC members indicated to the publication that the reconfiguration was “political suicide” heading to the 2024 general elections. “It’s going to take some time for the merged departments to find their feet and start delivering services. What will happen in the meantime? People are going to revolt and we are going to see a lot of service delivery-related protests. This was a bad move, he should have left the departments as they were and just capacitated them,” said a party member speaking on condition of anonymity. The members further claimed that even those in the top leadership positions in the province were…

AS a young person considering starting your own business, you should avoid relying on government “handouts” because being passed from pillar to post may discourage you, according to the dynamic duo of Mpho Serabele, 32, and Dimakatso Motiang-Ngoveni, 30, from North West. Serabele described how, after giving up on begging for money from the government’s youth funding schemes, she and her business partner dug deep into their pockets last year – using their monthly salaries – to finance Twin Chicks, a small-scale chicken business they co-own. According to Kganki Matabane, chief executive of the Black Business Council, of which the businesswomen are members, there has been an increase in young people starting their own businesses, but the environment in South Africa is still not very conducive to it because financial…

CULTURE Management Group (CMG), a leading African media management company, has announced the launch of its “Road to Afrochella” experiential pop-up activation to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa later this month in order to introduce and highlight Afrochella to the sub-Saharan market. As we get closer to “Detty December” in Ghana, the “Road to Afrochella” series will make a stop in South Africa’s entertainment capital on Sunday, 30th October at the premium Altitude Beach venue. The first-of-its-kind one-day event will be the ultimate destination for luxury and exclusivity in the heart of Johannesburg’s buzzing city. “Afrochella has always been more than just a festival in Ghana and because of that, we’re so excited to bring our ‘Road to Afrochella’ series to South Africa! Through this pop-up event, we have…

THE National Treasury has been ordered by the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council (GPSSBC) to reinstate its chief financial officer, Priya Lutchman, and pay her more than R850 000 after she was fired in December. Lutchman, who was hired in December 2020, was axed after she was charged with gross dishonesty for allegedly failing to disclose that she faced misconduct charges at the Gauteng department of sports, recreation, arts and culture. Treasury accused her of failing to be upfront about the charges in a pre-interview questionnaire and during her interview. Lutchman was also charged with deliberately misleading and misrepresenting facts to the National Treasury to advance her employment opportunity. She was dismissed in December last year. During her interview for the job, she was asked about a video in…

FORMER University of Johannesburg lecturer Lyness Matizirofa wants Judge Phanuel Mudau to be investigated for allegedly using non-existent facts in her unfair dismissal case against the institution. This comes after Judge Mudau ruled in favour of the university in August when Matizirofa challenged her dismissal in the South Gauteng High Court. She said Judge Mudau relied on non-existent information to rule against her. Matizirofa also said the judge violated the Constitution and the code of judicial conduct. She said the use of non-existent facts led to a judgment based on the wrong narrative, resulting in incorrect findings. Matizirofa, who was a lecturer in the UJ statistics department, was axed for poor performance and gross dishonesty in February 2020. She said these were trumped-up charges. Matizirofa, who hails from Zimbabwe, said…

Sometimes in rugby, you get a match where a certain player proves without a shadow of a doubt that they are ready for higher honours. Just a few that come to mind are a 19-year-old Frans Steyn dominating at flyhalf for the Sharks against Western Province in a Currie Cup match in heavy rain in Durban in 2006; Eben Etzebeth knocking Bismarck du Plessis backwards for the Stormers in a 2012 Super Rugby semi-final at Newlands; and Rynhardt Elstadt getting the better of Bakkies Botha in a 2011 Super Rugby game at Loftus Versfeld. A similar kind of moment seemed to arrive for Stormers flyhalf Manie Libbok in Swansea on Friday night. Despite being the leading points-scorer and playing a major role in the Stormers’ charge to the United Rugby…

The Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board has launched a digital nomad visa. Mostly technology-aided, the location-independent work has risen in popularity over the years. Namibia is one of five southern African countries that improved visa openness measures the most during the 2016 to 2021 period, according to the 2021 Africa Visa Openness Report. It has been ranked 19th in terms of visa openness (compared to 38 in 2016), where first is “most open”. Year to date, (August 2022) Namibian airports average 12 044 international arrivals per month, compared to a monthly average of 3 840 (213.7%) for January to August last year. At the launch, the investment promotion board said many countries with appreciable tourism sectors suffering from a reduction in global travel had begun offering digital nomad…

South African travellers will pay higher fees for new passports for the first time in 11 years, starting in November this year, says Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. The amended fees, above 50% or more of the current passport prices, would come into effect on November 1, the minister said on Monday. The changes to fees were informed by the outcome of a bench-marking exercise with other countries which found South African tariffs were up to three times lower, Motsoaledi said. The decision was also informed by the fact that production costs were much higher than what the travellers would be paying for their passports. There are different fees for applications made in South Africa and those coming from its diplomatic missions. A South African passport or travel document, applied…

Why your iPhone 14 might call the cops San Francisco: Tech giant Google has announced to roll out Passkey support to both Android and Chrome for better safety. Passkeys are a safer alternative to passwords and other phishable forms of authentication. “They cannot be reused, don’t leak in server breaches, and protect users from phishing attacks”, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. “Passkeys are built on industry standards and work across different operating systems and browser ecosystems, and can be used for both websites and apps,” it said. Passkeys follow user experience (UX) patterns and build on the existing experience of password autofill. To avoid lockouts in the event of device loss, Passkeys on users’ phones and PCs are stored up and synced through the cloud. Users…

Almost a year after the Financial Action Task Force (Fatf) identified substantial limitations to South Africa’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism regimes, sceptics and studies have shown and said the country’s greylisting is imminent and inevitable. A recent report published by Intellidex, commissioned by Business Leadership South Africa, has found there is an 85% probability that South Africa will be greylisted, while Brenthurst Wealth director and investment strategist, Magnus Heystek, believes it is as good as done. South Africa entered into a one-year observation period late last year to end October 2022, and a final decision on whether a greylisting will happen should be made in February. Intellidex said despite some progress by the government and other institutions to tackle tax crimes, illicit money flows and more…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently launched a campaign to spread knowledge about suicide prevention efforts and encourage action in Africa, which has the highest incidence of suicide-related fatalities worldwide. The suicide rate on the African continent is higher than the global average of nine per 100 000 individuals, at about 11 per 100 000 each year. This is partly because not enough is being done to manage and prevent risk factors, such as mental health issues, which impact 116 million people today – up from 53 million in 1990 – and are on the rise. The social media campaign, which was launched ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, aims to reach 10 million people in the area and raise public awareness in order to encourage…

A reality show without a villain might as well be cancelled. After all, who wants to watch a cast of goody two shoes meander through their dull existence? Not me. I’m here for the drama. I’m here for the catfights. I’m here for the backstabbings. That’s why I gravitate towards offerings like Selling Sunset, Selling the OC, Indian Matchmaking, Love is Blind, the 90 Day Fiancé franchise, The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On, The Real Housewives franchise and, of course, The Kardashians. These offerings provide the perfect escapism. As such, I was super excited when I saw the third season of Bling Empire return on Netflix. With Christine Chiu and Anna Shay going for the jugular since season one, I wanted to see where things stood between them. Then there…

The entertainment industry has been rocked by the news of Cape Town DJ Luwayne Wonder cheating on his sick wife after he begged South Africa to help get her home from Dubai. The 37-year-old radio DJ, real name Luwayne Bouwers, made headlines in 2020 when he sent an urgent plea to listeners via his Facebook page. Bouwers called for assistance after his wife Crystal Pretorius suffered brain damage caused by a haemorrhage while they were in Dubai. Pretorius, who worked as an SEO manager in Dubai, gave birth to her youngest daughter two weeks before the brain bleed incident. The couple has three daughters, aged 2, 5 and 9. The incident left Pretorius paralysed on her right side and Luwayne said she needed to be airlifted home to a hospital.…

Halloween Ends (Cinemas nationwide) Four years after her last encounter with masked killer Michael Myers, Laurie Strode is living with her granddaughter and trying to finish her memoir. Myers hasn’t been seen since, and Laurie finally decides to liberate herself from rage and fear and embrace life. However, when a young man stands accused of murdering a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to confront the evil she can’t control. Sex, Lies and Alibis by Eva Mazza (R209 on loot.co.za) The much anticipated final instalment in Eva Mazza's “sex-trilogy”. After stumbling on her adulterous husband, John, in book one, by the time Jen gets to the final part of the trilogy, she’s discovered that happy endings don’t necessarily come in the…

A POLICE general is facing the music after he allegedly took a state helicopter on a 296-minute joyride while waiting for his car to be serviced. The Sunday Independent has learnt that the general has now been charged with fraud but has not been suspended because “he is politically connected”. The publication can today reveal that Major-General Gopolang Patrick Asaneng is also accused of submitting a false claim that his vehicle, a Ford Ranger, travelled for 44 kilometres “on official duties” while the vehicle was being serviced. He is also accused of submitting false claims for two dinners which “he knew he was not entitled to claim”. An internal police investigation report seen by the Sunday Independent reveals that Asaneng on May 7, 2019, dropped off his vehicle at a…

THE newly-elected ANC leadership in North West is facing a fresh legal challenge to its election by disgruntled party members. A group of unhappy ANC members are heading back to the North West High Court to challenge the provincial conference that elected former ANC MP and culpable homicide accused Nono Maloyi as chairperson in August. On Monday, the Constitutional Court denied ANC members – Lebogang Medupe, Lesego Serapelwane, Puso Moeng, Sello Molefe and Itumeleng Moswane – direct access in their bid to overturn the outcomes of the provincial conference. However, on the same day, the five ANC members filed their urgent application at the North West High Court again. They now want the court to declare the provincial conference unlawful and be set aside claiming that it was held in…

PREGNANCY can be an exhilarating time for many while, for others, it sinks them deep into depression, with the children at times unwanted. For those women who feel they are not ready for the responsibility that comes with parenting, abortion becomes the only option or, at times, the only solution. But that comes with its dangers. There are thousands of backyard facilities in the country which tend to put the lives of these women in danger. They tend not to follow the guidelines and time frames allowed for the safe termination of a pregnancy. The Department of Health has urged people to use its facilities to terminate pregnancies instead of resorting to bogus abortion clinics. However, the department will need to pull up its socks as only 367 facilities in…

WHY can a car be financed over a shorter period of time than a house? This has been the subject of many discussions for as long as one can remember. It must be one of social media’s favourite discourses. It is of paramount importance to understand the difference in the quality of debt and how home loans work. An explanation of the question is provided by Jaco Fouché CA (SA), school of accounting science at North-West University. Fouché compares the bond repayment on a two-bedroom town house in Bryanston valued at R1.1 million with the repayment plan for a luxury vehicle also priced at R1.1m. The primary aspect to take into consideration is the useful life of the property (more than 50 years) compared with that of the vehicle (about…

MANIFESTO: A New Vision for South Africa is a recent offering by author Songezo Zibi. As an industry leader, journalist and editor, Zibi has written extensively about South Africa’s political system, economy and social dynamics. Since 2007, he has been a consistent and recognised voice for accountability, good governance, nation-building and for the creation of a dynamic, inclusive economy. In January 2022, Zibi co-founded Rivonia Circle, a think tank that will give birth to innovative and more effective ways of political participation. Their mission is to produce ideas and leaders that will turn South Africa into a modern, prosperous and just society. Manifesto asserts that for millions of South Africans, the promise of democracy, a promise our Constitution attempts to set out in its preamble, will not be realised in…

THOSE who followed his career knew him to be a gifted footballer in his heyday. Now in the autumn of his life, he is convinced he has gifts from above. The man known variously as Maria-Maria, General or Computer to his hordes of fans as a dazzling midfielder for glamour club Kaizer Chiefs says he was 24 when he gave his life to Jesus Christ. It was at the peak of his game. Today that man, born Vusi Zacharia Lamola, is an ordained pastor and peppers his conversation with quotes from the Scriptures. Before sitting down to our conversation with him at his Diepkloof Zone 1 home in Soweto, he asked that he open proceedings with a prayer, asking God to bless the interview. Now 72, he chuckles when asked…

THE ANC earned itself the distinction of being a liberation movement that fights for the total liberation of all South Africans. In the course of the Struggle, through the conduct, sacrifice and dedication of its cadres, it earned the position of being a leader of the society, especially the oppressed; Africans in particular and blacks in general, as well as progressive white democrats. The ANC never earned the status of being a liberation movement by mere proclamation but through the adaption from old methods of the Struggle and the adoption of the 1949 Programme of Action as propelled by the then ANC Youth League, which brought about mass mobilisation and later adoption of the armed Struggle. It was also the M-Plan, prepared mainly by Nelson Mandela, which helped the ANC…

Flight bookings to Qatar are booming for the Football World Cup in November and December, with particularly strong demand from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as fans work around a shortage of accommodation in Doha. Flight bookings to Qatar from the UAE and nine other countries have risen tenfold compared with before the pandemic, travel analysis group Forward Keys said. From the UAE, they have rocketed 103 times compared with 2016 – the last year before the UAE joined other Arab countries in a boycott of Qatar that halted direct flights. The boycott ended in early 2021. “The UAE’s strong showing is explained by a shortage of accommodation in Qatar,” ForwardKeys said, adding many fans were expected to stay in Dubai. The strong demand comes in spite of the requirement…