Tuesday, July 24 2018

Oh you live here? Shame, now we drive here Onlookers watch as bulldozers demolish houses to make way for a new road in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
Image: Reuters/Baz Ratner

Six things about SA you need to know

Home Affairs has 20 days’ downtime a month

Home Affairs offices experience an average of 20 days’ system downtime a month owing to power interruptions and problems with Telkom lines. This affects the pace of service delivery in the department that is characterised by long queues and delays. Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said IT company Dimension Data had been hired to assess its networks at the department’s 184 live capture offices. These offices are capacitated to process smart ID cards and other digital services offered by Home Affairs. The minister also announced that the campaign to get rid of queues at Home Affairs offices‚ launched in April‚ had had a slow start. A monitoring tool designed to measure average waiting time had shown that it took 25 to 30 minutes to issue products to clients.

Conflicting statement sinks Manana assault case

Former deputy education minister Mduduzi Manana will not be prosecuted for allegedly assaulting his domestic worker. “Basically there are no prospects for success‚” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said on Monday. “The version of an independent eyewitness who was allegedly present at the scene does not corroborate the version of the complainant.” In May, his domestic worker, Christine Wiro claimed she and Manana had an argument, during which she was pushed down the stairs. She said she quit and went directly to the police to open the assault case against her former boss.

CT sewers clogged by sheep heads‚ ovens‚ nappies

Sheep heads‚ lawnmowers and ovens are just some of the items dumped into the sewers of Cape Town‚ causing blockages and overflows that cost the city R170-million a year to fix. Smaller items flushed into the system, such as condoms and human hair, stick to huge balls of congealed cooking oil in the city’s sewers. Mayoral committee member for informal settlements‚ water and waste services‚ and energy, Xanthea Limberg, said residents were abusing the sewerage system‚ increasing blockages from 293 per day in 2015/16 to an average of 330 per day in 2017/18. “The persistent misuse of the sewer system continues in areas across the metro‚ causing blockages and overflows which place the health of our environment and communities at risk. It also wastes city resources which could rather be used to extend service delivery to our communities,” she said.

Charges withdrawn after man dies in racial attack

Mpumalanga police on Monday confirmed that they had withdrawn charges against a group of men who allegedly beat a person to death in an apparent racial attack in Middelburg. “Yes‚ [the case] has been withdrawn pending investigation‚” said Brigadier Leonard Hlathi. “I can't tell you how were they arrested because it’s an operational question [but] three suspects were arrested. [The] murder case and [the assault] case was withdrawn on Thursday.” Last week‚ TimesLIVE reported that despite having the attackers’ details‚ it had taken police more than a week to arrest the suspects. The attack‚ which was captured on CCTV cameras‚ showed the assault of 27-year-old Xolisile Ndzongana and his friend‚ Lawrence Nelumoni. Ndzongana died in hospital. The attackers allegedly used the k-word during the assault.

Wealthy ‘bill-dodger’ properties to be attached

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is toughening its stance on bill dodgers by going after the properties of those who own multiple homes or buildings. It will specifically target account defaulters who own three properties or more and will go after the most expensive properties with the highest arrears first. The city’s bean counters revealed at a budget and treasury committee meeting on Friday that the metro would implement a clause in its credit-control policy and attach properties after exhausting all other credit-control measures. The move comes amid a desperate attempt by the municipality to recoup about R3.2-billoin owed by households‚ companies and government departments.

Zulu king ready for lavish 70th birthday

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's 70th birthday celebration at his Enyokeni palace in Nongoma on Friday is expected to be a lavish affair, attended by the likes of President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ deputy president David Mabuza‚ former president Jacob Zuma and IFP leader Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Zulu royal household spokesperson Prince Thulani Zulu said the celebrations at the Enyokeni palace will be followed by a gala dinner at the king’s Linduzulu palace in the evening. At his 69th birthday bash Zwelithini complained that the Zulu royal household‚ which is allocated in excess of R50-million annually‚ remains one of the poorest in the country. He was showered with gifts‚ including expensive wine‚ several head of cattle, and horses. He announced that he wanted an even bigger celebration to mark his 70th birthday.

World

'I don't want the men who cut my son's head off to die'

Diane Foley said the death penalty would not be 'just' for the Isil jihadists who murdered her son James

By Harry Yorke

2 min read

World

Bloom or bust: Afghans enjoy sweet smell of success

Farmers have taken to a viable alternative to growing opium poppies and the raging conflict it spawned

By AFP

4 min read

World

Just when you thought it was safe ... crocs take over from sharks

Phuket is being terrorised by an sneaky crocodile

By AFP

2 min read

World

They're no snowflakes: Older generations could learn a lot from millennials

Psychologists say that millennials are just better at admitting to their feelings

By Sarah Knapton

2 min read

Activists burn an effigy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte while he delivers his State of the Nation address at the House of Representatives in the Philippines.

The new Burning man Activists burn an effigy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte while he delivers his State of the Nation address at the House of Representatives in the Philippines.
Image: Reuters/Erik De Castro

SIX THINGS ABOUT THE WORLD YOU NEED TO KNOW

Three held for acid attack on three-year-old

Three men have been arrested in London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm over a suspected acid attack on a three-year-old boy in Worcester. The boy, who was targeted in a “deliberate attack” at a Home Bargains shop, suffered injuries to his face and arm. After a 39-year-old man was arrested on Sunday, police released CCTV images of three men they wanted to question. Chief Superintendent Mark Travis of West Mercia Police said: "At this time we are treating this as a deliberate attack on a three-year-old boy. The incident will rightly shock the local community. At this time, the motive for the attack is unclear. Officers are working hard to establish exactly what happened and what the substance involved was." - © The Daily Telegraph

Bristol’s slaver Ed gets dressing down

Bristol Council has become embroiled in a row after announcing plans to add an “enslaver of Africans” plaque to a statue of philanthropist Edward Colston, erected in 1895. His legacy of pioneering the slave trade in Bristol in the 17th century has caused controversy in the UK city and the installation has been repeatedly defaced and vandalised. The suggested text for the new plaque reads: "As a high official of the Royal African Company from 1680 to 1692, Edward Colston played an active role in the enslavement of over 84,000 Africans (including 12,000 children) of whom over 19,000 died en route to the Caribbean and America. Colston also invested in the Spanish slave trade and in slave-produced sugar. As Tory MP for Bristol (1710-1713), he defended the city's 'right' to trade in enslaved Africans. Bristolians who did not subscribe to his religious and political beliefs were not permitted to benefit from his charities." - © The Daily Telegraph

Lynching victim dies 'while cops sip tea'

Indian police have begun an inquiry into officers alleged to have taken a tea break instead of rushing a critically injured lynching victim to hospital. Akbar Khan, 28, succumbed to his injuries after being attacked by a gang of Hindu cow vigilantes in the district of Alwar in Rajasthan state on Friday. Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India where vigilantes roam highways inspecting livestock trucks. Police also allegedly cared for the cows first, transporting them to a bovine shelter much farther away. State police chief OP Galhotra said: “A team has been constituted to look into the circumstances leading to the alleged delay and connected issues.” India’s right-wing government has been accused of turning a blind eye to a rising number of vigilante attacks on minority Muslims in the name of cow protection. - AFP

UK won’t block death penalty for ‘Beatles’

Britain’s interior minister has indicated London would not object to Washington seeking the death penalty against two British Islamic State militants if they are extradited to the US, the Daily Telegraph reported. According to a leaked letter published in the newspaper from British Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Britain was prepared to waive its long-standing objection to executions in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. The men are suspected of being two of four militants dubbed the “Beatles” because of their English accents, who took part in the kidnap, torture and murder of Western hostages. They were captured in Syria in January, and Britain and the US have been in discussions about how and where they should face justice. According to the Telegraph, Javid wrote to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying Britain was not intending to request that the men be sent to the UK, saying a successful prosecution in the US was more likely. Furthermore, Javid felt “there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance”. - Reuters

'Miracle' stone misses crone at Wailing Wall

An elderly worshipper had a close call on Monday when a 100kg stone suddenly fell from Jerusalem’s Western Wall and crashed at her feet. The Israel Antiquities Authority said the boulder may have been dislodged by erosion caused by vegetation or moisture in the biblical wall, the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray. “I didn’t hear or feel anything until it landed right at my feet,” Daniella Goldberg, a 79-year-old Jerusalem resident who had gone to the wall in the early morning to worship, said. A security camera captured the rare moment as the stone fell from about 7m in a nearly vacant section of the wall adjacent to its picture-postcard main plaza, where Jewish worshippers traditionally cram written prayers into crevices. Perhaps predictably, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat called the incident a “great miracle”, although a 2014 study by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem red-flagged erosion in the different kinds of limestone that make up the Western Wall. - Reuters

Nudist dune bonking is not for a lark

Belgian nudists have hit a snag in a wildlife agency’s move to block an application for the country’s second nudist beach because sexual activity in the dunes would scare off the rare crested lark, reports The Guardian. The Belgian Naturism Federation has come to the defence of its burgeoning membership after the Flemish wildlife agency blocked an application for a second nudist beach in the country on the grounds that bathers’ “subsidiary activities” would pose a threat to a rare bird. The Flemish Agency for Nature and Woodland claims the lark, whose name derives from the feathers on its head that rise up during courtship, would be alarmed by the “subsidiary activities”, while the dunes themselves would likely be damaged by such activities. - Staff reporter