Friday, January 11 2019

The DA has threatened to take legal action against the ruling ANC for allegedly stealing its election slogan - but the ANC says it is unbothered. The slogan "One South Africa for All", says DA spokesperson Solly Malatsi, was launched in April 2018 but the ANC has used it for its birthday celebrations. "The DA has chosen the slogan 'One South Africa for All' because we are the only party that is still committed to achieving nonracial ideals in South Africa," said Malatsi. However, acting ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa denied the accusation, saying the DA was desperate and merely seeking attention. "The DA is just desperate. It is sinking deeper in the ocean and we are unfazed," said Kodwa. "How can we steal that slogan when the DA suffers from colour blindism? (sic) If anyone is guilty, it’s the DA that has been stealing our songs and heritage … “

Ramaphosa’s Eskom task team shrinks further

The task team set up by President Cyril Ramaphosa to advise the government on how to save the crisis-hit Eskom has lost another member. Sy Gourrah, general manager of Actom Power Systems, confirmed her resignation from the sustainability task team to the Business Day on Thursday. “Once I saw the scope of the work, I had to resign,” she said, noting that Eskom is one of Actom’s biggest clients. Gourrah said she had resigned in December. News of Gourrah’s resignation comes after Brian Dames’s exit from the task team, which was appointed by Ramaphosa in mid-December. Just days after his appointment, Dames, a former Eskom CEO and head of Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Energy and Power, resigned from the task team over a “perceived” conflict of interest. The task team is down to six members from eight.

Pay for yourselves or watch TV, Cape ANC told

The ANC in the Western Cape has told its members it will not be sending any buses to the ANC anniversary celebrations in Durban on Saturday. ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobz told members on Monday to make their own travel arrangements or watch the event on TV in groups. Called for comment, Jacobz referred questions to provincial spokesperson Dennis Crywagen, who would neither confirm nor deny claims of financial constraints being behind the move. Crywagen instead said the ANC in the Western Cape was preoccupied with its mission to wrest power from the DA in the general and provincial elections. "Our focus as the ANC in the Western Cape is to regain political power from the DA so we would rather put all our resources into that. "We would have wanted to be in Durban but there is a huge battle ahead. Our entire leadership is in Durban with the leadership and the president."

Is the new #charcoalchallenge racist?

Social media users are divided over a recent challenge where participants cover their heads with bags of charcoal. Bizarre videos of the #charcoalchallenge took Facebook by storm. Several videos have been uploaded since December 30 2018. In the videos, shirtless men take near-empty charcoal bags, cover their heads, and wiggle around until their faces are pitch black. Some have called it "The Bobjan Challenge" after the Afrikaans singer Robbie Wessel's song Bobjan was used as a soundtrack in the background. The song is about a man who believed that he was a baboon. Despite many seeing the funny side of the videos, others said "That challenge as an insult to my afican skin (sic)", and "Me and my African brothers cannot participate in this challenge due to camouflage reasons".

Baragwanath gets new CEO - after three years

Dr Nkele Lesia's appointment as the new CEO of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital was on Thursday welcomed by veteran health observer Jack Bloom – who hopes she tackles its deep-rooted problems head on. "This appointment is long overdue as the hospital has been without a permanent CEO for three years since former health MEC Qedani Mahlangu removed the previous CEO for unexplained reasons," said Bloom, who represents the DA in the Gauteng legislature with a focus on the health portfolio. Bloom said the newly appointed Lesia would be in charge of a R3bn budget and 6,000 employees. The hospital made headlines several times in 2018. In August, workers at the hospital downed tools and embarked on a strike against what they said was "rife corruption which has crippled healthcare service at the hospital".

Greed gets better of uniform thieves

Thieves who tried to capitalise on the back-to-school rush by robbing a Johannesburg store selling uniforms - and its customers - have been arrested. While their initial plan to rob the store on Tuesday succeeded, greed got the better of them, say police. Wanting to make extra cash off the illegal deed, one of the gang phoned the husband of a woman whose purse they had stolen, asking for "a token of appreciation" for "finding" it. The savvy man promptly alerted police, who set up a showdown.

6 things you need to know about the world

Case full of cash stolen from Mugabe, court hears

A suitcase containing $150,000 in cash was stolen from ousted Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, a court in Harare has heard, with the suspected thieves spending the money on cars, houses and farm animals. The three accused -- which include Constancia Mugabe, 50, a relative -- appeared before the Chinhoyi Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, state media reported. Constancia had keys to Mugabe's rural house in Zvimba, outside Harare, allowing the others, who were employed as cleaners, to gain full access to the property some time after December 1 2018. "Johanne Mapurisa bought a Toyota Camry … and a house for $20,000 after the incident," prosecutor Teveraishe Zinyemba told the court. "Saymore Nhetekwa also bought a Honda … and livestock which included pigs and cattle." The three accused were bailed and are due back in court on January 24. One suspect is still at large. – AFP

Has China just snared Elon Musk?

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been offered a "green card", China said on Thursday, a privilege enjoyed by an elite group of foreigners, including several Nobel laureates and a former NBA star. Musk was in China for the ground breaking of Tesla's first overseas factory, which will allow it to sell vehicles directly in the world's largest market for electric vehicles. The entrepreneur met Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday in Beijing, where they discussed Tesla's China ambitions, said the State Council, the country's cabinet. "I hope to build Tesla's Shanghai factory into a global example," Musk told Li, according to a readout. "I really love China, I'm willing to visit here more often. "Li replied: "If this is what you truly have in mind, we can give you a 'Chinese green card'”. – AFP

Jumping jellyfish! Tintin rides again, at 90

Tintin may have just turned 90 but the boy hero is about to get himself into a whole new snakepit of scrapes. Casterman, which publishes his comic book adventures, said a new film featuring the cub reporter by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is in the pipeline, with Steven Spielberg -- who made Tintin's first Hollywood outing in 2011 -- producing this time. A new Tintin book is also in the offing, the Belgian publishing house said. Speculation is mounting that the film is likely to be a mix of King Ottokar's Sceptre, a swashbuckling jape from 1938 that was a thinly disguised satire on Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria the same year, and the later story, The Calculus Affair. – AFP

Mafia bistro stands out from the mob

It is not your average Parisian dining experience, but it may add a little extra frisson to tucking into fettuccine. The daughter of a notorious mafia killer nicknamed The Beast has opened a restaurant in Paris, calling it Corleone after her home town, the infamous lair of Sicily's Cosa Nostra. Corleone shot to fame after being immortalised in The Godfather films. Now its name has been appropriated by Lucia Riina, 39, the youngest daughter of former Cosa Nostra boss of bosses Toto "The Beast" Riina, who was serving multiple life sentences when he died of cancer in prison in 2017. The bistro, located near the Arc de Triomphe, promises "authentic Sicilian-Italian food". It offers "a welcoming atmosphere" - something not often associated with Riina's father, who for years led a reign of terror in Sicily, murdering his rivals, investigators and journalists. – © The Daily Telegraph

Ballsy artist in dock for setting bank ablaze

An exiled Russian artist and his partner have gone on trial in Paris for setting fire to the facade of a French central bank building, a performance that was filmed and circulated on social media. Pyotr Pavlensky, 34, fled to France and was given asylum in 2017 after several provocative protests drew the ire of Russian authorities, not least one in which he nailed his scrotum to Moscow's Red Square. Pavlensky kept up his work once in France, and in October 2017 he and Oksana Shalygina torched the front door of the Bastille branch of the Banque de France to protest against what they deemed the outsize role of bankers. "The Bank of France has taken the Place de la Bastille," he explained, referring to the square where the French Revolution began in 1789, "and bankers have taken the place of monarchs". – AFP

Original Cyn finally recognised

As the “Streatham Madam” whose notable gentleman callers swapped luncheon vouchers for the entertainment of young women, she was hardly the toast of the establishment. But Cynthia Payne, whose visitors were said to include MPs, vicars and peers of the realm, has officially taken her place in history, as she is immortalised in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The ODNB’s 2019 edition has added 226 men and women who left their mark on the UK to its pages, from Denis Healey and Geoffrey Howe to Cilla Black, Sir Terry Pratchett and Ruth Rendell. Among the more colourful additions, selected from the notable figures who died in 2015, is Payne, whose Streatham house because of source of national fascination after it was raided in 1978 and details of the scandals inside revealed. “Her monthly ‘parties’ at the ‘House of 1001 Delights’ would begin with a pornographic display and enough food and drink to lift the spirits,” the entry in the ODNB details. – © The Daily Telegraph