By Obakeng Maje

Mahikeng- Over four thousand Public Servants employees of the North West Provincial Administration are to participate in sporting activities aimed at promoting individual wellness, fitness and healthy lifestyles.

The celebration of the Public Service Provincial Sports & Wellness Day is to be held at the Mmabatho Stadium in Mahikeng on Friday.

Activities for the day will start at 6:30 am with a fun walk and fun run around a special route for which civil servants will have to register and participate in.

A marathon of aerobics will precede the keynote address by Premier Mme Thandi Modise that is expected to highlight the objectives of Batho Pele Fridays that are part of the Public Service Month and the advantage of observing healthier lifestyles.

In addition to free health and wellness screening for ailments like high blood pressure, cholesterol, Tuberculosis, HIV & Aids and cancer pap smear screening for female employees, employees will also participate in recreational and indigenous games and sporting codes like Soccer, Netball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Volleyball and Tenniquatte. Entertainment will be provided local artists.

The fun-filled programme for the day’s activities is to be celebrated under a strict code of no-alcoholic drinks for the entire day.

The programme hosted in partnership and sponsored by Government Employees Medical Aid Scheme (GEMS) will end with a price awards for participants and winning teams.

Public Service Month is an integral part of the Batho Pele movement aimed at instilling and/or rebuilding good ethics, morale and pride in public servants to encourage the culture of providing quality services.

The objective of the programme for the month is to promote inter-governmental relations by encouraging integrated approaches in rendering public services to effectively utilise limited government resources for improved results.

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BY Obakeng Maje

North West- Fifty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty work opportunities were created during the 2011/2012 financial year across all spheres of government in all sectors of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the North West Province .The milestone was noted by the Provincial Executive Council in its forthnightly meeting held in Mahikeng 

 on Wednesday

According to the 4

th Quarter Report on EPWP Phase 2 for the past financial year tabled by the Executive Council Cluster on Economic and Infrastructure Development over R6,2 billion was spend 

 across departments on 1554 projects that were implemented.

Twenty seven thousand two hundred and eighty-nine jobs were created by the provincial sphere of government,17 855 by the national sphere and 10686 by the municipal sphere of government.

Mahikeng Local municipality recently scooped the National Kamoso Award for being the leading municipality in the  implementation of EPWP.  

MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport, Raymond Elisha reported through the cluster that the highest wage paid for EPWP in the province was R94 paid to beneficiaries that participated in the infrastructure sector and the lowest was R41 for Social Sector projects.

The infrastructure Sector of the EPWP involved the use of labour intensive construction methods to deliver service in all government –funded infrastructure projects for construction of rural and low volume roads, municipal pipelines, sidewalks, and storm water drains.

In order to sustain interventions to create work opportunities for the unemployed, Exco resolved that all Heads of Departments must ensure that the programme is prioritised to meet its targets, this should include that all senior managers sign performance that integrate EPWP implementation and success. 

  In urging departments to intensify their effort to create more jobs in the current financial year, Premier Mme Thandi Modise reminded MEC’s that the objective of using labour-intensive methods in all potential government-funded service delivery projects is to create more work opportunities and stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of the participants.

“This obviously means that those who have acquired skills through training provided should make way for new beneficiaries. Mentorship should support our exit strategies to  ensure that those who have completed their learnership programmes stand on their own,“ stressed Premier Modise.

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Brits, North West – A man caught impersonating a police officer when someone saw he was wearing “takkies” (running shoes) instead of boots has appeared in the Brits Magistrate’s Court, police said on Wednesday.

North West police spokesman Captain Pelonomi Makau said 21-year-old Kgomotso Tota appeared in court on Monday. The case was postponed until Tuesday.

The man and an accomplice, who is still sought, were arrested in Letlhabile on Saturday.

The men, dressed in police uniforms, had apparently just robbed people of their cellphones and shoes, then tried to hijack a car.

“Community members contacted the police immediately after the car hijacking attempt, after they saw the bogus police officers wearing police uniforms with takkies instead of boots.” – Sapa

Three of South Africa’s biggest mines were at a standstill on Wednesday, with thousands of workers reiterating a growing call for a pay increase to R12,500.

A strike at Lonmin Platinum in Rustenburg went into its second month, with the company reporting an average 1.8 percent attendance at all its shafts on Wednesday.

Further afield, near Carletonville, security guards fired teargas at strikers at Gold Fields’ KDC west gold mine.

The company said they had been intimidating and threatening contractors, people at a training centre, and had rushed towards a train.

Eighty-five percent of the workforce there did not heed a call to return to work, in spite of an interdict by the Labour Court declaring their strike unprotected.

Anglo American Platinum, also in Rustenburg, said it had to “redirect” its staff from their premises for their own safety, and that large groups gathered nearby were not their workers, as claimed.

Workers angrily denied this with one saying: “If it were not for this industrial action, most of us would be deep inside shafts, sweating for Anglo Platinum. Do not be tricked by them,” said protester Themba Ngaba.

In a statement, Lonmin said it was saddened after a body was discovered near the area where strikers gathered on Tuesday.

“We strongly condemn the on-going violence and again urge all parties to actively work towards restoring peace and stability within our operations,” the company said.

This brings the death toll associated with the Lonmin strike to 45 since August 10.

Ten people, including police and security guards, died in the week before police fired on protesters, killing 34 on August 16.

The strikers have said they will go back to work only if their salaries are increased to R12,500.

Other issues have also been raised.

At Gold Fields, workers wanted the branch leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) removed, and pay equalisation.

At Amplats, workers complained about the quality of an energy drink provided for them.

The call for R12,500 has been supported by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who visited the Gold Fields workers on Tuesday.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – South Africa is a “banana republic” that does not follow the rule of law, expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema said on Wednesday.

“No one is above the law, not the military, not the presidency, and not Parliament. Every court decision must be respected,” Malema told about 60 soldiers in civilian dress at the Lenasia Recreation Centre, south of Johannesburg.

“We must respect the courts, but the leadership of this banana republic disrespects the courts.”

He said government had not followed court orders in three instances.

It did not provide the Democratic Alliance the evidence in the case against President Jacob Zuma, had not delivered textbooks, and was not re-instating 1100 soldiers put on special leave for marching at the Union Buildings in 2009.

The country’s confidence in its leadership needed to be rebuilt.

“Your Commander in Chief (Zuma) is engaged in other things. You are a lesser priority. All of us are a lesser priority,” Malema said.

“I don’t know what is a priority to him, maybe getting married every year. He specialises on that one. Maybe that is what is going right for him.

“Here, children don’t have books, people in hospitals don’t have the necessary machines, they don’t have roads or clean water.”

Malema repeated an earlier accusation that Zuma was a dictator.

“These are the symptoms of dictatorship, a political principle in the form of a president becoming more rich and rich, and those that he is leading becoming more poorer and poorer.”

Malema led the crowd in an alternative version of dubula ibhunu (shoot the boer) called “kiss the boer” before pointing his index finger to the sky. – Sapa

The North West Police arrested four suspects between the ages of 20 and 34 on Sunday, 9 September 2012, for a house robbery that took place on a farm in Buffelshoek on 5 August 2012.

82-year-old Mr. Barnard and his 80-year-old wife allegedly returned from church when they were overpowered by two suspects that were waiting for them inside their house on the Tierfontein farm. The two victims were tied up and their vehicle, a Toyota Hi-lux bakkie as well as a cellular phone and clothing were robbed during the incident.

Police traced the four suspects to Setlagole in the Vryburg Cluster, where they were arrested. The stolen vehicle, cellular phone and the clothing were all recovered by police.  

Katlego Marius Mogale(20), Philus Mogale(25), Diteko William Moreo(26) and Edward Matong(34) appeared before the Potchefstroom Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 11 September 2012 as well as on Wednesday,12 September 2012, for charges of house robbery. They will remain in custody until the next court appearance for a formal bail application.

The Provincial Commissioner of the North West, Lt Gen Zukiswa Mbombo congratulated the members for their efforts to put the culprits behind bars.

KwaZulu-Natal – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has raised sharp questions about the decline of moral standards in the country, saying he is appalled by cases of innocent orphans being stoned to death or children being raped.

Delivering a moving tribute at the funeral of church leader, freedom fighter and community leader the Reverend Khoza Mgojo in Port Shepstone on Tuesday, Tutu painted a gloomy picture of a society in which morals had undergone a frightening decline and a nation tearing itself apart.

He suggested it was difficult to convince the world that apartheid was over in SA, but assured President Jacob Zuma, with whom he shared a platform at the service, that he was not attacking anyone and that he still needed to have a meeting with him.

Tutu was almost in tears as he spoke about things that had gone terribly wrong in SA.

“When we voted in 1994, it was so peaceful and we thought we had crossed river Jordan to the Promised Land. What has happened to us and what do we think of our police force?

“How do we explain to people who want us to prosper that our police shot and killed our own people? What has happened to us?” he said, breaking into an anti-apartheid song Senzeni na? (What have we done?)

“What has happened to us when a grown-up man rapes a child? What has happened to us that three orphans were stoned to death? What have we done? God, tell us. We thought you had given us freedom. What have we done? Every day we see different forms of violence. We see people protesting and demonstrating,” he said.

The funeral provided a rare occasion on which Tutu and Zuma shared a platform following years of sharp differences between them.

Last October, Tutu said Zuma was not his president and that he was going to pray for the “downfall of the ANC government”.

That was after the government declined to issue a visa to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Zuma agreed with Tutu, although he added it was not enough to ask what had happened.

“Archbishop Tutu’s concerns are pertinent and fundamental. What has happened to us as people? This is a challenge to all of us. What we should do is go beyond asking the question. I think we should do something because we are all concerned that killing has become so easy.”

For police to shoot and kill people and for the people to protest with pangas and spears meant there was a problem.

“We need a gathering for us all to ask the question on what has happened to us, particularly the Africans,” said Zuma.

Rather than the fact that crime had risen so much in SA compared with other countries, what was of concern was the violent nature of the crimes.