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South Africa

While you were sleeping: 17May 2016

Metre taxis in Uber clash, ISIL is losing territory, and Sheffield Wednesday can taste the Premier League
John Stupart
By John Stupart
17 May

























"He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone."

– Charles Churchill

 
































Story of the Day






























TRAINSPOTTER: Judge Cred – Two court cases you didn’t know about that have set South Africa free



Every time anyone even vaguely associated with the government goes inside a courtroom, or a near a courtroom, or so much as mentions the word “courtroom”, the legal equivalent of midgets getting shot out of a cannon ensues. How many times are we supposed to watch high-ranking ANC members, or the sleazebags they cover for, humiliated by someone wearing a robe? Soon, we shall be forced to etch the following onto Luthuli House’s coat of arms: We fought the law, and the law won. By RICHARD POPLAK.
Read more
































While you were sleeping
















Taxis clash with Uber drivers, again


A group of metered taxi drivers confronted and "clashed" with a group of Uber drivers who were leaving a meeting in Gauteng. They were consulting Gauteng transport MEC, Ismail Vadi, on a process to formalise the Uber trade. Although nobody was injured, the metered taxi drivers should definitely get three stars for their behaviour. Maybe two. Read More
















ISIL territory vastly reduced – Pentagon


The United States' department of defence has claimed ISIL now controls less than half the territory it had claimed in Syria and Iraq. For the latter, the terrorist organsation now holds 40 percent less territory, while the figure in Syria is hovering around 16-20 percent. Read more
















Fishing ban to save porpoises


Mexican officials have proposed a major fishing ban in the Gulf of California. The intention is to attempt to save the vaquita marina, the world's smallest porpoise. With just 60 left in the wild as a result of Chinese poaching of the totoaba, which catches the porpoises as a side effect, the World Wildlife Fund has led the call to save them from extinction. Read more
















Sheffield Wednesday to play-off final


Sheffield Wednesday has made it to a Championship play-off final, with the possibility of entering the Premier League on the line. Wednesday drew 1-1 with Brighton late last night. If they prove victorious in the final, they could be in the line for £170 million in additional funds upon entering the Premier League. Read more
 








































In Numbers































1:3,934,300







The odds of an American citizen dying of Ebola.































Facts of the Day
















Today in 1900 British troops relieved the besieged town of Mafeking during the Second Boer War.

Fact of the day: Men are four times more likely than women to be struck by lightning.































Weather








Financial Data
















BFN: min: 9° max: 23°, sunny
CPT: min: 15° max: 28°, cloudy
DBN: min: 19° max: 25°, cloudy
EL: min: 17° max: 25°, cloudy
JHB: min: 8° max: 23°, sunny
KIM: min: 11° max: 24°, sunny
NLP: min: 8° max: 26°, sunny
PMB: min: 7° max: 24°, cloudy
PKN: min: 9° max: 24°, cloudy
PE: min: 15° max: 24°, cloudy
PTA: min: 9° max: 24°, sunny








Oil=$49.24

Gold=$1,275.91
Platinum=$1,051.10
R/$=15.63
R/€=17.70
R/£=22.52
$/€=1.13
JSE All Share=52,412.68
DJIA=17,680.27
FTSE 100=6,151.40
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Photo: President Jacob Zuma is seen during a meeting with members of <br>the SA Editors' Forum at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria on Friday, <br>20 February 2015. In the background is presidential spokesperson Mac <br>Maharaj. Zuma assured editors that the jamming of cellphone networks in <br>Parliament will not happen again. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA TRAINSPOTTER: Judge Cred – Two court cases you didn’t know about that have set South Africa free 
By Richard Poplak
Photo: Robert McBride is seen at the Constitutional Court in <br>Johannesburg on Thursday, 30 September 2010 during an appeal by the Citizen <br>newspaper against an award of damages and defamation granted to him. <br>Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA House of Cards: Daggers at dawn as Ipid boss Robert McBride heads for ConCourt 
By Marianne Thamm
Photo: Secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana (Parliament of South <br>Africa via Flickr) ‘Fiscal Dumping’: Calls multiply for top Parliament administrator’s suspension over bad trip 
By Marianne Merten
Photo: President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir (R), listens as the Ugandan <br>President, Yoweri Museveni (L), speaks during a joint press conference at <br>the airport in Khartoum, Sudan, 16 September 2015. EPA/MORWAN AL Op-Ed: Déjà vu for Africa – Bashir goes in and out of Uganda unscathed 
By Angela Mudukuti
Photo: South African boys play with a toy car made from a milk carton <br>in Happy Valley, Cape Town, South Africa, 05 May 2016. EPA/NIC BOTHMA Suffer the children: SA’s inequality strikes hardest where it hurts the most 
By Marelise van der Merwe
Photo: South Africans evicted from their land two weeks ago, warm <br>themselves around a fire as they gather at a site to discuss their options <br>after their homes were destroyed in Lwandle, Cape Town, South Africa, 18 <br>June 2014. EPA/NIC BOTHMA Budgeting in time for elections: DA ‘redistributes’ the ANC’s budget 
By Marianne Merten
Photo of burnt UJ’s Sanlam Auditorium by Anne-Marie Beukes via <br>Facebook. UJ arson: University gets interdict while no aggrieved parties claim responsibility 
By Greg Nicolson
Photo: From Thom Pierce’s The Price of Gold: Patrick Sitwayi <br>lives in Upper Mcambalala with his wife, five children and three grand <br>children. He is 57 years old and has silicosis from working underground in <br>the gold mines for 22 years. He did not receive any compensation for his <br>illness and is unable to support his family without a job. He has to walk <br>with crutches because his toes became infected and were amputated. He says <br>that this is because of the primitive safety equipment and hot working <br>conditions on the mines, causing excess sweating that collected in his <br>plastic gumboots. GroundUp: Understanding the silicosis judgment 
By GroundUp
Photo of ‘Basetsana from Lesotho’ by Tobias Nawrath. Living on the Margins: The migrant experience of Basotho in South Africa 
By John Aerni-Flessner
Photo: Rain clouds cover the newly erected Nelson Mandela Statue in <br>Howick, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, 06 August 2012. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK. Nelson Mandela’s Howick arrest: Was it all a CIA Effort? 
By J Brooks Spector
Photo: Domenico Scala (L), chairman of the Fifa Audit & Compliance <br>Committee, talks with an unidentified man at the Fifa Headquarters in <br>Zurich, Switzerland, 2 December 2015. EPA/WALTER BIERI Fifa’s audit head Scala quits as Blatterism turns Infantile 
By Antoinette Muller
Savelio Ropati from Samoa catches the ball against Tim Agaba from RSA <br>during the quarter-final match between Samoa and South Africa on the third <br>day of the World Rugby Sevens Series in Paris, France, 15 May 2016. <br>EPA/CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON While you were sleeping: 16 May 2016 
By John Stupart

















OPINIONS



































IvoVegterBW The power of scientific predictions 
By Ivo Vegter
Siya-Khumalo.jpg A Request Not to Humanise Mabel Jansen 
By Siya Khumalo
Shelagh-Gastrow.jpg Constitutionalism, Civil Rights and Philanthropy 
By Shelagh Gastrow
Mastenbroek.jpg You’re on our own, Mabel 
By Rudolf Mastenbroek



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