By Staff Reporter

Arrest of granny’s rapist and murder gives hope-Premier Modise

North West Premier Thandi Modise commends police for the breakthrough in the case involving the brutal murder and rape of a 98-year-old woman from Tloung village outside Mahikeng.

Premier Modise said that though the arrest of the suspect will not bring back Betty Tiseng, the provincial government trusts that it will allow the Titse family to find closure and give hope that justice will be served on all perpetrator of the scourge of rape.

“Heartless criminals who have no regard for human life and respect for women, girl children and the elderly should have no place in our society. Granny Titse like all our elderly women deserved to age gracefully and die in peace someday surrounded by love and care. The perpetrator who ended her life robbed her of dignity when he violated, defiled and prematurely ended her valued life,” said Modise.

According to police, blood stained clothes which the 33- year- old suspect who lives in the same village with the deceased Tiseng purportedly wore during the commission of the wicked crime was found at his home after his arrest in the Mahikeng Central Business District (CBD) on Tuesday afternoon.The body of the old woman with bruises on her neck was found at her house by her grandson .Her lifeless body was covered with a blanket.

The suspect is expected to appear before Mmabatho Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 15 February 2013 on charges of Murder and Rape.

Polokwane – A proposal by the North West to change the name of the province to Moses Kotane is repugnant, the FFPlus said on Wednesday.

Freedom Front Plus provincial leader Pieter Groenewald said the change was a waste of taxpayers’ money and disregarded cultural diversity.

“The name ‘North West’ is neutral and accommodates everybody in the province,” he said in a statement.

“To want to change this to Moses Kotane creates repugnance with some people, as not everyone shares his political views.”

Kotane was the general secretary of the SA Communist Party from 1939 to 1978.

Last month, provincial African National Congress chairman Supra Mahumapelo reportedly said the party was contemplating a name change for the province because North West was “just a direction”.

Groenewald said the name change discussion was being used to distract attention from problems in the province.

“The FFPlus will definitely oppose the name change,” he said.

Democratic Alliance provincial leader Chris Hattingh said on Wednesday the name change was a sign of factional battles in the ANC.

“This, Mr Mahumapelo’s announcement, is an attempt to get ahead of Premier Thandi Modise, who was likely to address the name change  in her forthcoming state-of-the-province address,” he said.

“Mahumapelo’s announcement made the name change a rallying-point  in his struggle for the premier’s position, which has evaded him for such a long time.”

Mahumapelo was not immediately available for comment.

Hattingh said Mahumapelo was using Kotane’s name to gain support  from the North West SACP.

“Moses Kotane would certainly not have associated himself with what the NW (North West) ANC has transformed itself into,” he said. – Sapa

Koster, North West – A policeman shot and wounded his wife before killing himself on Wednesday, North West police said.

Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said the 34-year-old sergeant’s wife was en route to Koster police station to lay a charge of domestic violence against him when he stopped her.

“The suspect went to the victim’s car and fired seven gunshots (at) … the wife,” Ngubane said.

“The wife was hit in the body. The sergeant then turned the gun to himself. He shot himself… (in) the head and he died on the scene.”

The wife was taken to a nearby hospital. – Sapa

Polokwane – Poor infrastructure at a Limpopo school had resulted in rain damaging textbooks and pupils missing lessons, Section27 said on Wednesday.

“A few days earlier, at Jaji Secondary School, teachers and pupils held (up) umbrellas inside the classrooms while lessons were conducted,” it said in a statement.

The organisation said it had found “shocking” infrastructure when one of its representatives visited the school, which is situated in the Vhembe district, last month.

The leaks had damaged textbooks, stationary and electronic equipment.

The rain also destroyed a small bridge, resulting in pupils, teachers and the principal not being able to get to the school.

The Limpopo education department accused Section27 of “grandstanding”.

“It is unfortunate that Section27 decided to grandstand and declare themselves champions of service delivery in our schools,” said spokesman Pat Kgomo.

“We welcome their continuous engagements with us, but not to the extent of them overstating their importance over the department.”

Kgomo said the infrastructure at Jaji and other schools was being addressed.

The public works department had been asked to help refurbish five leaking classroom blocks at Jaji.

“The refurbishments will be completed by the end of the month. We have also engaged the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) to build extra toilets at the school.”

Section27 said it would hold a media briefing on Thursday about its findings at the school. – Sapa

BY Obakeng Maje

Mmabatho-North West police arrested a 33 year old man after a rape and murder of a granny.

Betty Titse,98 was found murdered in her home at Tloung village, near Mahikeng.

The granny was found by her grandson in the Sunday morning while on his way to church.

“The police pounced on a 33 year-old man after an intensive investigations. The police found the clothes he was allegedly wearing during the commission of crime with stain of blood” captain Amanda Funani said.

The suspect will appear before magistrate at Mmabatho Magistrate Court on Friday for charges of rape and murder. 

South Africa has experienced scourge of rapes across the country recently.

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BY Obakeng Maje

Taung-The classes came to a standstill today at Vuselela FET College in Pudumong, near Taung after the students embarked on a strike.

The students are accusing the Management of the college for ill-treating them. The college is situated in Pudumong village near Taung.

They demand Campus Manager to step down as she does not listen to their grievances. The strike forced the CEO Dr Mochwanaesi to come and calm the students down.

“The CEO Mr Mochwanaesi is currently on his way to Taung to talk to the unhappy students” The college Head office said.

Even though the details are little bit sketchy, the students say one of the unhappiness issues is that the Campus Manager trweat that like dirt.

They accusing the Acting Campus Manager as a racist and she is practicing favouritism.

The students are currently protesting outside the building and the situation is calm.

Taung DailyNews tried to contact Dr Mochwanaesi but our try was futile as his phone was engaged.

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Free State – Free State male nurse Michael Moema was on Wednesday acquitted on two charges of rape by the Bloemfontein High Court.

Judge Faan Hancke acquitted Moema, who was accused of raping a terminally ill cancer patient at the National Hospital in Bloemfontein.

The judge held there was a possibility the cancer patient was not raped.

There were tears of joy out in the public gallery, where some of  Moema’s colleagues were seated.

An emotional Moema said outside the court he was very relieved. He said the allegation that he raped the patient was “a pure lie and that you cannot mix a lie with the truth”.

“I’m very relieved,” he added. – Sapa

By Obakeng Maje

Bafana Bafana Coach Gordon Igesund yesterday admitted himself in hospital suffering from severe abdominal pains.

Initial tests showed that the Bafana coach might be suffering from appendicitis.

Dr Ephraim Nematswerani who is attending to coach Igesund said so far he had detected that the national coach might be having appendicitis.

“Thorough and further investigations are being carried out to confirm the diagnosis. We are however, confident that he will be back on his feet soon. It is nothing too serious,” added Dr Nematswerani.

SA Jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim is visiting Kimberley’ Beaconsfield Community hall at 12 (noon) today (Wed 13. 2013) with Japanese artists.

Ibrahim and the Japanese entourage will jam with local cultural activists/artists at the Beaconsfield hall starting at noon today.

Entrance Free.

The Tlokwe municipality’s finances are on a “progressive path”, despite irregularly spending of millions in the 2011/2012 financial  year, it said on Tuesday.

“The irregular expenditure or unauthorised expenditure incidents  do not necessarily mean that money was misused, but only that certain supply chain procedures were not followed,” spokesman William Maphosa said in a statement.

The municipality was responding to the Democratic Alliance citing an auditor general report, which found the North West municipality had irregularly spent R143 million while under the administration of former mayor Maphetle Maphetle.

On Monday, DA leader in the North West Chris Hattingh, said now that the party was running the Tlokwe municipality it would clean up its finances and focus on delivery.

“Dramatic increases in irregular and unauthorised expenditure, as well as material under-expenditure, have become endemic in the North West province, plagued by years of the ANC’s factional infighting in a quest for power and control over financial resources,” Hattingh said.

The AG’s figures showed that under Maphetle R152 million was spent without authorisation, and a further R2.8 million was wastefully spent. In addition, the municipality under-spent its budget by R48 million.

The AG found a total of 63 problem areas in the municipality’s finances.

“As a consequence, service delivery was negatively affected, the  AG found,” Hattingh said.

“In most cases, 60 percent of the delivery targets set for the municipality were too vague for the AG to verify.”

The municipality said the DA had not fully interpreted the report.

“What the DA is not disclosing is the fact that the AG has also pronounced an unqualified audit for the municipality’s 2011/2012

finances, the period before the DA had hardly dreamt of assuming administrative power in the local council,” Maphosa said.

He said the municipality had established a public finance committee and had staffed the supply chain unit.

“Once these processes are finalised, this municipality will consistently maintain a clean audit, and indications are that this will have been achieved already by next year,” said Maphosa.

Maphetle was replaced by the DA’s Annette Combrink in November last year, after warring factions within the African National Congress filed a motion of no confidence in him.

The ANC in Tlokwe said it would have Maphetle re-instated, with several ANC members already tabling a motion of no confidence in Combrink.

On Monday, President Jacob Zuma and deputy ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa visited the area for talks with members of the divided city council. – Sapa