Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Bheki Nthalintshali has called on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to charge those fingered in the Zondo commission – even if they are sick or old.

“Those fingered must face the music. Whether others are sick or old, they must be convicted first and then they must ask for pardon,” Nthalintshali said at the commemoration for the SACP’s former national chairperson, Joe Slovo, at the Avalon cemetery in Soweto on Monday.  Slovo died in 1995.

Nthalintshali said bonuses should not be paid to Eskom staff.

“If we give them bonuses we are encouraging them to implement more load-shedding,” Nthalintshali said.

He lashed out at the ANC for not sending one of its leaders to Slovo’s commemoration.

“You can’t come to a grave and make commitments that you can’t keep. The ANC has 90 leaders. If they can’t send one here, then the party is in danger.”

He said cabinet ministers who did not want to do their jobs should be fired.

He commended transport minister Fikile Mbalula for being visible on the roads during the festive season.

“All we are waiting to hear from him is when are we are getting rid of e-tolls. People don’t want e-tolls. They don’t even pay for them,” Nthalintshali said.

Service providers have been blasted for not having proper security measures in place to protect the identities of their clients.

This after several cellphone users from different service providers fell victim to identity theft in a number-porting scam.

The online crime sees fraudsters transfer clients’ cellphone numbers from their  network service provider to another without the clients’ knowledge.

In one instance, an MTN user received a SMS on Saturday afternoon confirming that a porting request was being processed on his cellphone number.

“The port request has been received and is now being processed,” the message from the service provider read.

When phoning MTN to report the matter, the call centre told him the porting department was open only on weekdays.

On Monday morning he was lucky. He was informed that the porting request had been declined because he was on contract.

A Cell C user was not so fortunate.

Nonkululeko Njilo told TimesLIVE she received an SMS on Sunday evening that an application to port her number was successful.

Her number was ported to MTN without her authorisation.

An ambulance assistant was left temporarily blinded after he was sprayed with a liquid during an ambulance robbery in Ntuzuma E section, north of Durban, in the early hours of Monday.

Netcare 911 managing director Craig Grindell confirmed the incident took place while paramedics were attending to a patient.

“As Netcare 911 emergency medical services practitioners were loading the patient into the ambulance, they were approached by two people who demanded they hand over their possessions, and then fled the scene,” Grindell said.

Grindell said the two knife-wielding men sprayed a substance, believed to be petrol or brake fluid, into the eyes of one of the paramedics before they fled.

“Another Netcare 911 response vehicle rushed to the scene, and both the patient and the ambulance crew members were transported to the hospital for further treatment,” said Grindell.

“Fortunately, the ambulance emergency assistant’s eyesight has now been restored. Counselling is being offered to the patient and our staff members following the crime, which has been reported to the police,” he said.

Grindell expressed his disappointment about the situation.

“It is disappointing that emergency medical services are targeted while providing communities with life-saving emergency medical services. However, thankfully in this case, no serious injuries were sustained,” he said.

South Africans prefer to own their own vehicles, are sceptical of overseas trends like carpooling and are happy to pay for apps that make their time on the road quicker and safer.

This is according to the latest Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study.

The country’s constrained economy was evident in the finding that “South African consumers are looking for practicality and 67% said they would consider a model that offers more utility, compared to 26% who would likely favour more luxury”.

In addition, second-hand cars are in demand.

“South Africans still place a high value on owning their own cars and purchasing a car is also still very much a rite of passage for most South Africans. However, we have in recent years seen more and more consumers opting for used cars instead of new cars,” said Deloitte Africa Automotive monitor Adheesh Ori.

One of the leaders of a splinter refugee group living in the Central Methodist Church in Cape Town appeared in court on robbery charges on Monday.

Lusilu Papy Sukami, 44, was arrested on Friday as tension among the refugees at the church escalated.

According to the charge sheet, Sukami, from the Congo, allegedly assaulted Serge Shauba in the Cape Town CDB in October 2019 and robbed him of an iPhone 6, a Canon camera, a wallet, R2,000, cards, a watch and shoes.

Sukami was also accused of robbing Jurol Leomba, whose Samsung Galaxy cellphone, wallet, R200, Canon camera and bank cards were taken on the same day.

Sukami appeared briefly in the Cape Town magistrate’s court. The state asked for time to obtain more information to prepare for his bail application.

The prosecution said it had received more complaints about Sukami and intended to oppose his release on bail. The matter was postponed until Thursday.