Table of contents for 2022-01-14 in DFA News

Sandi Kwon Hoo sandi.kwonhoo@inl.co.za PHOKWANE mayor Olebogeng Tumodi, Speaker Goitsemodimo Halter and acting municipal manager Mpho Mojaki stated that they would remain in their positions despite a court yesterday removing conditions to interdict and restrain the officials who were previously occupying these positions. An interim urgent interdict was obtained against municipal mayor Tebogo Afrika, Speaker Portia Selogilwe and acting municipal manager Busiswe Mgaguli on January 7 after the majority councillors voted them out. Bodyguards controlled access to the municipal offices last week, while councillors claimed that they were manhandled and assaulted. The ANC expelled Tumodi from the party earlier this week for voting with the opposition. Northern Cape High Court Judge Lawrence Lever yesterday removed the conditions of the interdict that interdicted and restrained Afrika, Selogilwe and Mgaguli from unlawfully…

Xinhua GENEVA – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that current Covid-19 vaccines may need to be updated if they are to provide continued protection against emerging variants, including Omicron. WHO's Technical Advisory Group on Covid 19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC), a group of 18 experts, said that although current vaccines provide a high level of protection against severe disease and death caused by Variants Of Concern (VOC), future vaccines that can prevent infection and transmission need to be developed. In the meantime, the composition of current Covid-19 vaccines may need to be updated in order to protect against the evolution of the virus. Such updates need to be based on strains that are genetically and antigenically close to the circulating variants. They should also elicit "broad, strong, and…

Boipelo Mere boipelo.mere@inl.co.za RESIDENTS in Ritchie had to call the SPCA yesterday morning after three pit bulls attacked a 30-year-old man in Makotoi Street. It has been claimed that this was the eighth person to have been attacked by the dogs in the last year. The man, who suffered bite wounds on both of his legs and arm, was rushed to the nearest clinic and later transported to Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberley for further treatment. Apparently, some of the previous victims decided not to open cases with the Ritchie police after no progress was made with already existing cases. They claimed that the police kept on promising to open cases after the J88 forms were available. The residents called the SPCA yesterday after accusing the Ritchie police of…

Vernon Pillay vernon.pillay@inl.co.za BUSINESS REPORT A UK-BASED think tank has dubbed 2022 as ‘the year of the squeeze’ – a nod to an impending "cost-of-living catastrophe" caused by fuel, energy, transport and insurance price hikes. “In 2022, South Africans are also going to experience a similar financial ‘squeeze’ with an assumed interest rate hike during the first quarter of the year and a looming electricity price hike of massive proportions. Navigating this squeeze in Janu-worry and beyond will take some smart money management, which starts with an ironclad budget,” says Susan Steward, spokesperson for Budget Insurance. Here are a few tips to get your finances on track and take on the new year: To draw up a budget, start with a list of fixed expenditures and other monthly deductions. Have a…

Matthew Marcus Opinion WHAT an encouraging start to the new year for South African cricket. Let me be honest and tell you I maar had some skraal hopes for the Proteas ahead of India’s current tour. But I’ve been impressed by what I saw in the Test series – a series I expected the hosts to get a spierwit whitewash in. It couldn’t have been easy to summon up the performances that they did over the festive period, with the rest of South Africa enjoying their families and friends – not against the world’s top-ranked five-day side. And certainly not with Cricket South Africa (CSA) set to investigate the appointment of coach Mark Boucher by his BFF and director of cricket Graeme Smith. Still, Dean Elgar and his troops blocked out…

Dudley Carstens SOUTH Africa need 111 more runs with eight wickets in hand to win the match as well as the three-Test series against India at Newlands today. This after India had set them a fourth-innings winning target of 212, after scoring 223 and 198 in their two innings, with the Proteas getting 210 in their first knock. Resuming South Africa’s innings on Day Four today will be the hero of the first innings Keegan Petersen on 48* and possibly Rassie van der Dussen who is yet to walk out after captain Dean Elgar (30) lost his wicket with the last ball of the day – playing a Jasprit Bumrah delivery down leg side and straight into the hands of wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. That wicket, coupled with that of Aiden…

Benida Phillips benida.phillips@inl.co.za A HISTORIC debt of around R100 million owed to Eskom has resulted in Renosterberg Municipality employees barricading roads with burning tyres and other objects to demonstrate their frustration with the municipality’s failure to pay their December salaries. The workers have vowed to bring the municipality to its knees and to halt the supply of basic services if the local authority does not pay them. The Renosterberg mayor said that the failure to pay salaries was brought on by the municipal account being “frozen” by Eskom due to non-payment. The municipality owes Eskom just over R100 million. The unpaid workers said they had to “struggle and scrape together some money” in order to survive over the past weeks. “We had a meeting with the mayor on Monday in…

Lorenzo A Davids * The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the DFA. ANC PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa’s January 8 speech gave us an insight into how complex his role has become as both ANC president and president of South Africa. The two roles could not be further apart at this point in the ANC’s 110th year and the Republic’s 28th year. Listening to Ramaphosa deliver his speech, it was as if one heard a member of the public appealing to his government to do the right thing, forgetting for a moment that the president was speaking to himself. He is the government he is appealing to. In listing the ANC priorities for 2022, he called for the building of “a social compact to decisively address unemployment and poverty”.…

Mzilikazi Wa Afrika mzeetheicon@gmail.com Sunday Independent THE MAN accused of starting last week’s major fire in Parliament, causing damage that will cost an estimated R1 billion to repair, is a soccer fanatic who couldn’t harm a fly, says his family. Thousands of South Africans pledged their support for Zandile Christmas Mafe when he appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday last week, labelled an arsonist. In an interview with Sunday Independent, Mafe’s lawyer, Vuyani Godla, says his client is a scapegoat. “My client was charged with arson, housebreaking and theft, yet the State hasn’t yet produced a single piece of evidence, even a video, implicating him in any of these crimes. There is no merit in this case; they are just using him as a scapegoat.” Godla said Mafe…

Neville Motlhabakwe neville.motlhabakwe@inl.co.za TAFEL Lager Griquas, with a number of debutants in its line-up, will tomorrow square up against neighbours Toyota Cheetahs at the Free State stadium in the first match of the revamped Carling Currie Cup tournament. Griquas have not rested on their laurels over the festive period and seemed to have spared no expense acquiring fresh talent for the team. Coach Pieter Bergh is taking ample advantage of the new purchases and will start with six debutants on the field with the same number making it onto his bench for this game. The coach yesterday said that it would be better to check out the rookies now, very early on in the season, so as to have time to straighten out kinks in the team while he has…

Staff Reporter THE SPAR Proteas retained their fifth-place ranking in the latest World Netball rankings released in London, while Uganda moved into sixth place. There has been no change in the top five netball countries, with Australia ranked No.1, the World Champions, New Zealand ranked second and the Commonwealth Games Champions, England ranked third. They are followed by Jamaica and South Africa. Uganda, a growing force in world netball, have risen to No.6, replacing South Africa’s long-time nemesis, Malawi, who have dropped down to seventh place. Uganda benefited from their strong showing at the Africa Netball Cup in Windhoek, which was won by the Proteas, who defended their title in style, winning every match. Uganda went into the tournament on a high, having won the Debmarine Pent Series, which involved…

Chad Williams ana reporter Cape Town – New research at Oregon State University (OSU) has found that hemp compounds, identified via a chemical screening technique invented at the institution, show the ability to prevent the virus that causes Covid-19 from entering human cells. Hemp, known scientifically as Cannabis sativa, is a source of fibre, food and animal feed, and multiple hemp extracts and compounds are added to cosmetics, body lotions, dietary supplements and food. Findings of the study led by Richard van Breemen, a researcher with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Centre, College of Pharmacy and Linus Pauling Institute, were published recently in the Journal of Natural Products. Van Breemen and collaborators, including scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2…

STAFF REPORTER The Department of Basic Education (DBE) this week announced that the usual practice of publishing matric results on media platforms would not take place for the 2021 results. DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said this was in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), 2013 (Act No 4 of 2013) which came into effect in July 2021. An act put in place for the protection of private information against the unlawful collection, retention, dissemination and use of personal information. Before 2014, matric results were published displaying each learner’s name. In an effort to protect the identities of learners, from 2014 onwards, matric results were published displaying only the learner’s identity number or examination number without displaying their name It has been argued that a learner’s examination…

Motoring Staff IOL Motoring IT’S NO secret that many South Africans are struggling to renew their driver’s licences at the moment, and there is currently a backlog of almost 400,000 licence cards thanks to a defective printing machine. However, the Department of Transport is confident that the current problems will be resolved through a new card system that is set to be introduced. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced this at a briefing on Wednesday, along with plans to introduce online payment for not only driving licence card renewals but also vehicle licenses as well as learner and driving licence tests. “You can also pay an added fee to get your driving licence card delivered at your doorstep,” said a statement from the Road Traffic Management Corporation posted on Twitter by Mbalula.…

Staff Reporter SOUTH Africa could be in line to host the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to reports yesterday, as India has just entered its third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Indian Express reports that The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is considering alternative venues for the massive cricketing showpiece event, as Covid-19 numbers in the country begin to surge again. The IPL is scheduled to be held from April 2 to June 3. Third wave India is just over two weeks into its third wave, since their active cases dropped down to 81 906 on December 27, that number has now skyrocketed to over 1.1m as of Wednesday. Last year, India began its second wave in March with 167 845 active cases and only reached…