Table of contents for 2021-08-11 in Post

Nokuthula Mabuza nokuthula.mabuza@inl.co.za NATRISHA Naidoo has fulfilled a childhood dream. Naidoo, 38, of Greytown, released her first children’s book, Oopsie Whoopsie Clumsy Lucie, last month. She said she was inspired to write after extensive interactions with pupils in mainstream schools in South Africa and in the Middle East. “As a child, I loved Enid Blyton books. She had a way of taking her readers to magical places. I felt as if I was really having adventures with the characters. As an adult, I am a fan of Colleen Hoover. I’ve read every book she wrote. I like the way she explores different genres of writing and every book is a hit.” She said she loved working with and talking to children, and wanted them to be equally passionate about books.…

Janine Moodley janine.moodley@inl.co.za THE 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng was a more catastrophic repeat of what transpired during the Inanda riots in 1985, says Linda Zama. The United Democratic Front (UDF) activist lawyer and ANC Struggle veteran told the POST this week that South Africa was a divided country with palpable inequality. “Where there is division, psychologically and otherwise, there is conflict.” Friday marked the 36th anniversary since more than 1 500 families were forced out of their homes in Inanda. For two days, homes and shops were looted and burnt. This included the home of Mahatma Gandhi at the nearby Phoenix Settlement; and the Kasturba Gandhi Primary School, named after his wife, was also destroyed. Many of the displaced families resettled in Phoenix. Some people had…

Charlene Somduth charlene.somduth@inl.co.za GREENBURY Secondary School is one of the first high schools in Phoenix to benefit from 123NET's free fibre programme. The digital company launched the programme as part of its social responsibility programme. The company aims to provide free fibre to government clinics, schools, libraries, hospitals, and non-profit and religious organisations in the area. It had already rolled out free fibre to Siphosethu and Natest primary schools in Phoenix and the Shri Mariammen Temple Society in Mount Edgecombe. Angel Minev, the operational manager of 123NET, said apart from providing free fibre to schools, they also created about 130 new jobs. “We have employed technical and administrative staff as well as civil workers from Phoenix and surrounding areas. “Now we want to provide a platform for learning that is…

Nadia Khan nadia.khan@inl.co.za THE Department of Education has called for public comment on its proposed 2023 school calendar. According to the calendar, pupils will have 199 school days and teachers 203. If approved, the year will commence on January 11, 2023, for schools in the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces. Schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape will open on January 18. The year for inland and coastal schools will end on December 13, 2023. The 2022 school calendar has already been approved. Teachers and pupils will return to school on January 10 and 12, respectively. According to the Department of Education, the planning of a school calendar, which is done 18 months in advance, is an important tool for families and…

Charlene Somduth charlene.somduth@inl.co.za IN 1949, Moodley’s Supply Store was rebuilt after it was looted and burnt during the Durban riots. History repeated itself during the recent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal. Trevor and Lucinda Moodley, fourth-generation owners, have used their savings to repair some of the damage. They reopened the store at the Mobeni Heights Shopping Centre in Chatsworth, just over a week ago. “The store was opened by my great-grandfather, Valaithum Moodley, who travelled from India more than 100 years ago with his wife and son, Anamaly Moodley. His son, who is my grandfather, settled in Mayville. He opened the store in Cato Manor and gave it its name,” said Trevor. Anamaly married and had eight children, who also began working in the business. “My dad, Kisten, was about 9 when…

Zakhele Ndlovu ON Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa reshuffled the Cabinet amid calls for him to remove ministers deemed incompetent and those prone to scandals. It took brazen acts of looting and violence – that went on for four days without the government taking control of the situation – to convince Ramaphosa that change was needed. The embarrassing failure of the security cluster to discharge its basic duty, that is protect citizens, property and livelihoods, left Ramaphosa with no other choice but to reshuffle. As Ramaphosa moved some ministers around, the lingering question was: what criteria does he use to determine the fitness of a politician for a particular ministerial position? In the cases of Ayanda Dlodlo and Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, does it mean that they are going to perform better in…

IT WAS just a few years ago when I was walking on two legs ... playing an 18-hole round of golf, fishing and going on long walks. Then, within a few months, life changed for me. With multiple health issues I'm now using walking aids to get around. I've often visited shopping centres in my neighbourhood and made use of the allocated parking spaces for people with disabilities. On numerous occasions, people who didn't qualify to occupy these spots were parked there. However, if I found a parking space nearby I would take it and not bother about someone's inconsiderate attitude. But my parking/disabled issues reached a peak on Saturday when I went to a nearby supermarket. There was no parking available in the disabled zone. I parked further down…

THE inflammatory ramblings of “one India, one bullet” by one Jackie Shandu and others outside the steps of city hall shows the deep-seated hatred some people have. Let us not sugar-coat it with any other definition. This hatred is real and we must face up to it. Also alarming was that the police have been standing by while these people were calling for Indians to be killed. It was the same Shandu who earlier stated that Indians were brought to South Africa to work the sugar plantations and that Indians are visitors who need to go back to India. Clearly, he needs a lesson in history. Indians have made great sacrifices and have endured. We feature in every aspect of society: business, academia, medicine, etc. We are a proud community…

NIKITA CHINIAH nikita.chiniah@inl.co.za ABDUL Majid Joosab, a singer, musician and journalist, died due to a lung infection and pneumonia on Saturday. He was 53. Joosab, of Asherville in Overport, was known for the songs he wrote and performed such as Jaane Jaana and Diwani Diwaana. Waseem-Ahmad Joosab, his younger brother, said his sibling’s singing career started when he was 8. “He won many accolades. One of which was a radio competition in the ’90s. He also appeared and took part in the Indian singing contest, Antakshree. Majid lived in India for a short time. While there, he spent six months recording an album, Diwani Diwaana. He was also a journalist and loved to write about football, sports and Bollywood. Majid wrote articles for the Leader newspaper and the…

Nadia Khan nadia.khan@inl.co.za SUNJEEV Dukwah and his staff have been working from temporary makeshift offices until they fully reopen. He runs a wholesale fruit and vegetable business, Dukwah’s Fresh Produce, in Shortts Retreat Road in Mkondeni, Pietermaritzburg. The business is 28 years old. Dukwah said a truck and two vans, used to transport produce, were stolen. The truck and a van were later recovered. Unfortunately, they were damaged and stripped of their parts. “Our warehouse was looted of all the fresh produce and packaging, and the offices were burnt. All the equipment was either stolen or damaged. “Our cold rooms were also not working. It was disheartening to see what I worked so hard for, being destroyed. I have about 50 employees and they have been faithful workers over the…

Eshlin Vedan eshlin.vedan@inl.co.za While people of Indian descent are typically associated with being “passive”, WWE star Jinder Mahal is anything but. Mahal is one of the most fascinating characters on the WWE roster and is the nephew of wrestling legend Gama Singh who fought in many epic matches in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Mahal has challenged former friend Drew Mclntyre to a “Punjabi Prison match” at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam event. “Drew and I were tag-team partners and like brothers. We travelled together and roomed together. We also got released at the same time. I came to the WWE before Drew and won the WWE title before Drew did and I believe that he did it because I did. “ When Drew did it, he was celebrated and…

THOSE rock and shore anglers that have managed to go fishing have caught decent hauls of shad and ground fish. The bigger inedibles have been restricted to the North Coast other than the drone-caught fish down south. The North Coast remains the place to go if you are still after the classic summer fish or larger edibles. The reefs and ledges up around Vidal are a great place to scratch for these bigger edibles. The reefs and beaches up north can produce so many different species! The pompano have been feeding in the sandier areas, preferring a crayfish and chokka bait on a light hook snood. The benefit of this type of bait is that not many fish can resist it. The use of circle hooks in this application is…

ACCORDING to The Gardening Site, garlic and ginger are easy to grow in a home herb garden and will produce abundantly. Bonus, both are easy to store, so once you grow them in your garden you will never have to buy either one of them again. Follow these tips for growing of garlic and ginger, so you can enjoy the tasty rewards all year. Garlic Garlic seeds are the cloves on the outside of the bulb. Buy them at your garden supply centre or use healthy seed cloves from garlic bought at a supermarket. Don’t remove seed cloves from garlic bulbs until you are ready to plant them. Autumn is the best time to plant them, but garlic can also be planted in the spring. In very mild climates, garlic…

The Great Pretenders: Race and Class under ANC Rule by veteran political analyst Ebrahim Harvey was recently published by Jacana Media. Harvey argues that a series of events – including HIV/Aids denialism, the Marikana shootings, the Nkandla funding scandal, mass student protests, the Esidimeni tragedy, systemic corruption and state capture – are rooted in policy choices made by the ANC during negotiations and in power. Below is an extract titled Dali Mpofu’s Intervention In 2017, a very significant event occurred in Parliament. Floyd Shivambu, deputy leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), waged an angry attack on Ismail Momoniat, deputy director-general of the Treasury, for his alleged dominance of the standing committee on finance and marginalisation of Africans in the Treasury. But what further racialised the matter was a subsequent…

Nadia Khan nadia.khan@inl.co.za IN HIS debut book, Sathasiva Sunny Pillay hopes to take readers on a historical journey through his life experiences – of growing up in the barracks and working in the sugar mill. Pillay, 79, of Campbells Town in Mount Edgecombe, launched his self-published book, Sugar Mill Barracks: The Making of Mount Edgecombe, at the Shree Emperumal Temple on Sunday. The non-fiction book, he said, was about the cultural heritage of Mount Edgecombe. The married father of three began writing the book three years ago. He completed it last November. “I have been collecting archival material on the sugar mill barracks and other sugar estates for the past 40 years. I thought it was therefore important to record the unparalleled contributions made by our ancestors and forefathers. “However,…

Nadia Khan and Charlene Somduth private security companies are being investigated for allegedly lending guns to civilians during the unrest in Phoenix. Lirandzu Themba, the spokesperson for the Police Ministry, said four security companies were being investigated by the SAPS and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira). “The companies being investigated for their alleged role in the violence that engulfed Phoenix were KZN VIP Security, Royal Protection, Reaction Unit South Africa and Sealen Security.” Themba said she was unable to comment further on the investigation. During a media briefing at Inanda police station last Tuesday, Police Minister General Bheki Cele said the SAPS were working closely with Psira. “The team of investigators has seized 152 firearms from four private security companies working in the area. They also seized 112…

Nokuthula Mabuza and NIKITA CHINIAH PARENTS believe a proposal for primary school children to sit half a metre apart in class is dangerous and can lead to an increase in Covid-19 infections. Angie Motshekga, Minister of Education, recently proposed that pupils sit closer together, as schools return to full capacity. This was due to the lack of space in classrooms, to social distance and to accommodate many pupils. She reportedly said the Department of Education intended to approach Cabinet in this regard. The development comes after the publication of the new department Covid-19 directions on July 31, that determine social distancing as 1m. Claude Govender, the school governing body (SGB) chairperson at Olympia Primary, in Phoenix, said – if implemented – this would be a foolish decision. “The Covid-19…

AS DEVASTATED businesses and communities in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng were licking their wounds and rebuilding, last week all eyes were on President Cyril Ramaphosa who we all expected to show leadership, once and for all. The clamour for action had reached fever pitch and beyond. As speculation mounted about a Cabinet reshuffle, many fingers pointed towards the president’s security cluster. Ramaphosa needed to crack the whip in order to restore investor and citizen confidence, and restore stability and respect for the rule of law. He needed to act swiftly and ruthlessly if he was to stand any chance of saving our economy and our democracy that have been threatened like never before by last month’s looting, violence and destruction. Now that the president has spoken, can we say…

ON OR about July 30, a UKZN researcher named Imraan Buccus penned a column to the New Frame online publication titled, “The dangerous collapse of non-racialism”. I am responding to this column because it is a ploy against Hindus in South Africa. It is cunning because it is predicated on a manipulative intent that should there be another African uprising against Indians, Hindu homes and businesses, as well as their places of worship, will be selectively targeted. Buccus backtracked in history in order to bring into focus a litany of peoples’ names, places and events over the last century. He mentioned Mahatma Gandhi and Anton Lembede, with emphasis on their racialised views of each other and their communities. Building upon the leaders and events that followed over time, Buccus creates…

THE recent weeks have seen South Africa being transformed into a theatre of despicable criminality and untoward racial haranguing. It was, arguably, designed for specific political agendas that must never be left unchecked. Phoenix, once a designated “Indian” suburb created by the masters of apartheid, has become an epicentre for political opportunists to invest their morbid capital of unfair rhetoric and disdainful narratives to disparage a community. While this community is often considered stoic and docile, they remain a community of people integral to the cosmopolitan tapestry of the South African nation. The EFF have sought opportunity in protesting in Phoenix. They initially called it a protest against “racist Indians” and then backtracked and called it a “march against racism”. The contemptible events in the Phoenix/Bambayi/Amouti areas that led to…

NIKITA CHINIAH nikita.chiniah@inl.co.za FOLLOWING the riots in Durban, Mohammed and Soraya Ismail were uncertain about their future. Their six-year-old business, Mr Bake, a bakery in eMkomazi, was broken into and appliances, as well as industrial ovens and mixers, were stolen. They said their customers often called them thereafter to check when they would reopen, and this motivated them to start afresh. Mr Bake reopened on Thursday. “The looters even took the cutlery, and whatever they could not carry or they were not interested in, they damaged,” said Mohammed, who specialises in breadmaking and confectionery. He said his dad owned a bakery and that was how he entered the field. The father of three said he worked at a supermarket retail chain as a bakery manager and, thereafter, as a buyer…

SQUASH and pumpkins have been enjoyed on South African dinner tables for centuries. This is not surprising, considering how delicious they are and the ease with which they grow. Most squash varieties need quite a bit of space in which to grow and have historically only been grown by gardeners with large vegetable gardens. Fortunately, through modern hybridising techniques, new cultivars have been developed that will not take over large areas and can be grown in most gardens. A quick look on the back of the seed packet will tell you if the cultivar is suitable for your garden. It is advisable to plant your squash seeds as soon as all danger of frost has passed. Alternatively, they can be started off early, in pots kept in a sheltered, frost-free…

Nadia Khan nadia.khan@inl.co.za KRISH Govender hopes to create awareness of women’s rights and their sacrifices in his book, Fighting For My Family. Govender, 50, a businessman, of Musgrave, said the book was about a mother’s struggle to fight for her children. “The book is an original South African story that spans three continents: Africa, Europe and North America. It is a dramatic tale of one woman’s fight to protect her family against insurmountable opposition and fear and the great lengths she will go through to protect them even if it means putting herself in harm’s way.” Govender said he began writing the book last September and completed it in March. The book, which is part three of a trilogy, was published by Infinity Dynamic Media and launched virtually on Facebook.…

Duff is a psychic medium, soul coach, spiritual mentor, healer and animal communicator. She has been connecting with spirit for over 20 years and runs her business, Quantum Soul, from Waterfall in KwaZulu-Natal. Listen to her on Lotus FM, live at 1.30pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as she connects with loved ones in spirit, and on GlowTV on Sundays after 8pm. Contact her at 072 986 5514 or email sharron@quantsoul.com Sharron Duff ARIES (March 21 – April 19) It’s time to make a move on a pending decision this week. Use your logic over your emotion and carry through on your plans. There may be an unexpected visitor in your personal space or a new association in your workspace. Be open to change. Lucky colour: blue. TAURUS (April…

Chanelle Lutchman chanelle.lutchman@inl.co.za IN A first for the African continent, UCT has launched an online high school that will enrol its first pupils next year. The university recently announced its intention to become the first university to extend its expertise to the basic education sector, for secondary school pupils through an online mode. UCT is following in the lead of others such as Stanford University in the US, which offered online high school since 2006. Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, UCT's vice-chancellor, said the university was committed to playing its part in addressing systemic challenges facing the education system. “At UCT, we see first-hand how matriculants who have received a compromised basic education, struggle to catch up in our classes – even with academic support, bridging programmes, extended degree programmes and the…

THE recent countrywide mayhem may be packaged in various ways, with descriptions such as treason, revolution, terrorism, coup and insurgence. Given the magnitude of the experience, it is unlikely that there is any South African whose mental health has not taken a knock. An area of concern is the manifestation of post traumatic stress (PTS) on school pupils. Pupils, even at the best of times, are under pressure with curriculum demands. Now, they have to cope with a Covid-19 adjusted timetable, and cope with the impact that the recent unrest has caused. It is a heavy load for young shoulders to bear. While PTS reactions could be described as normal or expected human reactions to abnormal situations, manifestations, for example fearfulness, the inability to sleep properly, impeded concentration, hyper-vigilance, and…

DURING the first lockdown we experienced last year, the full deployment of about 71 000 soldiers was used to ensure compliance by South African citizens. During the recent unrest in the country, when the question was put to the now-former defence minister, she said they were not in a war to deploy the army. The army will be on duty until August 12 and the situation will be reviewed. The army recently sent 1 500 soldiers to north Mozambique to fight terrorists. During the recent unrest, it was seen on television that the police were under-resourced and outnumbered to handle the unrest. I think the soldiers should be used to patrol areas where communities live because sending them back to their bases is not constructive. In keeping the soldiers in…

INDIA is preparing to celebrate 75 years of independence on Sunday, with the main activities scheduled at the Red Fort in New Delhi, followed by a global fund-raiser. August 15 is a national holiday in India – commemorating the nation’s independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. All security arrangements, including extra-precautionary and preventive measures against Covid-19, are being put in place to ensure a seamless event. A two-day vaccination camp was organised for all the staff at Red Fort. The prime minister hoists the flag every year on Independence Day, and addresses the country from the Red Fort. IANS reported that the prime minister, Narendra Modi, would be tested for Covid-19 two days before Sunday. Also, those who have not been vaccinated will be given the jabs. Similar to…

THE recent unrest and incidents of looting have created devastation on a weak economy. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been exacerbated by the destruction left in the wake of the unrest. The Minara Chamber of Commerce has expressed its concerns about the loss to the economy, which will further impact the cost of living and income inequality. Initial figures indicate that the total cost of the riots on the country’s GDP was about R50 billion and the GDP loss R40bn, or about 0.7% of GDP, while the loss to Durban’s GDP could be as much as R20bn Estimates are that damages to the retail industry alone amount to more than R5bn, with more than 200 malls targeted and 800 stores looted and 100 completely burnt. Within Durban, more…

HE TURNED 18 in February this year, and now Lythe Pillay can add “OLY” to his social media profile name. The deputy head boy at King Edward VII School in Joburg completed a remarkable season in his matric year by running the first leg for Team South Africa in the men’s 4x400m relay at the Tokyo Olympics last week. Pillay got a taste of international action in May, when he was part of the South African 4x400m relay squad that reached the final at the World Relays championships in Poland. That experience seemed to help Pillay stay calm in Tokyo, as he roared out of the starting blocks and was actually in the lead in the first 300m, with South Africa missing 400m world record-holder Wayde van Niekerk,…