BY Staff Reporter

The North West Province is to establish technical teams on planning and one on water and sanitation, Premier Thandi Modise announced in her closing reply to the State of the Province Address Debate in the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday.

Premier Modise said that the Provincial Exco Lekgotla had resolved that regional planning meetings should be held to ensure that Integrated Development Plans and Local Economic Developments find proper expression in the provincial plan that part of the rollout of the National Development Plan.

““Making the people of our province to recite the National Development Plan(NDP) without seeing their concerns being addressed would show no foresight,” stressed the Premier in response to a call by COPE Provincial leader Nikiwe Num that people should recite the NDP.

On Num’s criticism that that the State of the Province Address was “too detailed”, Modise questioned whether Num is a leader of a party in opposition should not be holding government to account and representing the people who put her in the provincial legislature.

She said that Num spoke for many voices but failed to represent COPE in the debate.

Kaizer Chiefs defender Jimmy Tau is “comfortable” with the club’s decision to shelve talks over a new contract until he fully recovers from injury.

By Obakeng Maje

Taung-North West Department of Health MEC, Dr. Magome Masike will officially open Taung Hospital’s Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) TB Unit on Friday, 15 March 2013 at 10h00 as part of World TB Commemoration activities. 

“The unit is a component of the Department’s MDR TB decentralisation model that seeks to treat patients next to their home” Tebogo Lekgethwane said. “The opening of the Unit will be followed by a TB Indaba aimed at improving TB treatment outcome and infection control” department spokesperson said. 

The TB Indaba is scheduled to start at 14h00 at Taung Tusk.

Teams of healthcare workers, Directly Observed Therapy Supporters and developmental partners are currently busy with Intensified Tuberculosis (TB) Case Finding in villages around Taung. 

The major component of Intensified TB Case Finding is TB screening and those found to have TB symptoms will be referred to the nearest health facility.

Intensified TB Case Finding has been identified as one of the key priority areas critical to the success of Department’s effort to promote greater community involvement in disease management, community development, and empowerment to deal with own health issues and promote an integrated healthcare management system.

“TB case finding proved to be the most effective method to intensify community education on Tuberculosis, improve treatment adherence of all diagnosed patients, solicit treatment support for all patients on treatment by their immediate family members, and improve TB outcomes when it was piloted in the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District in January 2011” He said.

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QUESTION: My sex life with my boyfriend of a year is dull because he only ever wants to have sex in the same position. I’ve tried to talk to him about it, but he shies away from intimate conversations. I love him and don’t want to end the relationship, but I can’t bear such routine love-making.

ANSWER: When I read your letter I had just stepped from a London taxi where the driver had told me he owned 25 identical shirts, so he could wear the same outfit every day.

This sort of obdurate consistency is not unusual among men. Many enjoy routine and this tendency can extend to the bedroom.

I imagine your boyfriend feels safe and confident with one sexual position. He’s mastered a particular approach to sex and presumably finds it’s a reliable source of pleasure. Where he’s made a mistake, however, is in believing this brings you equal bliss.

Your partner may feel he’s reliable in bed, rather than dull. It will be hard for him to acknowledge he’s controlling the sexual relationship to the exclusion of your preferences.

If your man hasn’t allowed you to voice your dissatisfaction clearly, he probably has little idea how unhappy you are. You need to open a full and frank dialogue with your lover, without knocking his ego so badly he doesn’t dare make love again.

You say your boyfriend has ducked away from your best attempts at discussion. Many men find intimate conversations mortifying and can’t enter into them without the aid of alcohol or even mild threats (“You’re dumped unless you open up”).

You need to find a time and place where your chap can’t beat an easy retreat. A restaurant or hotel room would prevent a dash to the safety of the potting shed.

It’s also important to be warm rather than critical. Lack of imagination isn’t the same as being actively selfish, so don’t be too tough on the poor man.

And do bear in mind that a previous lover may have made your partner feel nervous about experimentation.

We need only one person to pour scorn over our attempt at sex to wither like a popped balloon. Creatures of habit need coaxing and praise to try something new – the key thing is not to frighten them by going too far.

It looks as if you will have to be the innovator in the relationship if you want to shake up things. I wonder if you’ve tried taking the initiative in bed?

You could even claim that a bad back or strained ligament means that you can’t make love in his preferred manner.

If you suggest something new in a sensual way perhaps he’ll be willing to be more adventurous.

I’d also advise you to buy a couple of good, clear, unthreatening sex guides that you can read together. The Joy Of Sex is to the bedroom as Delia Smith is to the kitchen. The Rough Guide To Sex is a bit more youthful, while Tracey Cox’s Hot Sex covers all the bases.

If none of this works, you will have to settle for becoming a creature of habit yourself or issue an ultimatum.

It seems to me that you can’t have equality in bed if one lover imposes their sexual tastes to the exclusion of their partner’s. – Daily Mail

Pretoria – Paralympian murder accused Oscar Pistorius’s legal team has examined the toilet door through which Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead, it was reported on Tuesday.

National police spokesman Brigadier Phuti Setati told Beeld the door was taken to the athlete’s home in Silver Woods Estate, in Pretoria, on Friday as part of the investigation and was being retained as evidence.

The newspaper reported that investigators appointed by Pistorius’s legal team had asked to see the door in its original position in the house.

The damaged door was removed the day after Steenkamp’s death, because it was considered to be a crucial piece of evidence.

After being examined by the defence team, the door was taken back by the police.

On Monday, the British broadcaster, the BBC, aired a documentary about the shooting, in which it interviewed Steenkamp’s ex-boyfriend Warren Lahoud, who claimed to have met her for coffee two days before she was killed. – Sapa

Pretoria – Oscar Pistorius wants a court to allow him to drink alcohol if he wants and maybe even visit the sunny shores of Mozambique before his trial starts.

The Olympic and Paralympic star is charged with his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp’s murder.

Less than a month after he paid R1 million bail money and was allowed to go home, Pistorius now wants more freedom.

Since his release Oscar, 26, has stayed behind closed doors at his uncle Arnold Pistorius’ home in Pretoria.

He had to hand over all his firearms and agree to not leave the country or drink any alcohol.

Speaking through his personal assistant, Arnold said being stuck at home is one of the first bail conditions Oscar wants changed.

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

Johannesburg – Little Nonhlanhla’s fingertips fell off her small hand one by one. It started with the thumb, then the ring finger, followed by the middle finger. The pinky and the index fingertips fell off last.

The girl’s mother, Precious Mjikwa, recalls how, a week after she took her newborn twins home, she felt a fingertip fall into her jacket and onto her chest.

“I was holding her, and when I looked down, my chest had some blood on it. I pulled it out and saw it was one of Nonhlanhla’s fingers. A fingertip would fall off every other day,” she said.

Mjikwa keeps her baby’s five charred-looking fingertips in a brown paper bag and cries every time she looks at them.

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

A rampant start to the second half gave Banyana Banyana their first victory at the Cyprus Cup as they beat Northern Ireland 2-1 at the Tasos Markou stadium in Paralimni on Monday afternoon.

After a slow start and a rather dull first half, it was the two second half substitutions made by coach Joseph Mkhonza that livened things up. The two sides came into the match having not scored nor registered a point in their opening two Group C encounters in the tournament but that was to change.

Shortly after resumption, Mkhonza brought in Gloria Thato and Robyn Moodaly to operate on the wings, and it was their superb work on the flanks that made the telling changes, resulting in strikers Jermaine Seoposenwe and Andisiwe Mgcoyi manufacture the much-needed victory for the African silver medallists. Moodaly and Seoposenwe, the two talented youngsters promoted from Basetsana, scored the two goals within a space of five minutes.

First, Thato linked well with Mgcoyi on the left wing and the tall striker controlled the ball with her right foot and whipped in a delightful cross which was brilliantly volleyed into the back of the net by Moodaly.

Shortly after that opener, Banyana got the second goal. Thato’s neat interchange with Nothando Vilakazi saw the later cross from the left wing for Seoposenwe to easily slot the ball home at the near post to make it 2-0 for Banyana.

As was the case with their defeat to Republic of Ireland last Friday, Banyana Banyana again dominated the contest for most parts of the match and should have added a couple more goals had the outstanding destroyer Refiloe Jane and debutant Shiwe Nogwaya been more accurate in front of goals towards the end of the match.

“We may have won but it was not an easy outing. The substitutions made us change our system, which completely caught the opponents off guard. But overall, we are thrilled with the result and being able to finally find the target in Cyprus,” said Jane, Banyana Banyana’s vice captain after the match.

The central defensive pair of Lebogang Mabatle and Janine van Wyk defended with aplomb but despite their heroics, they could not prevent Northern Ireland’s Lynda Sheperd from scoring the consolation goal. The striker flicked the ball home from a free kick to make the final score 2-1.

The 2012 African Women championship runners up will play Northern Ireland again on Wednesday morning (11h00) to determine places for the 11th and 12th spot.

Ninehealth facilities across the province have been equipped with Gene Xpert machines, new technology that helps with quick diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB).

The nine hospitals are Mahikeng, Ganyesa, Tshepong, Job Shimankane Tabane, Nic Bodenstein, Taung, Joe Morolong and Potchefstroom.

The Gene Xpert machine is a new technology used to test for TB and it can detect if a person is infected with the disease within two hours.

It can also detect if the TB bacterium of the person has resistance to one of the common TB drugs and is expected to go a long way in fighting the disease in the province.

Provincial health department spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, said the Gene Xpert had already been tested in facilities in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in 2010.

“This is a great development in the fight against TB as the technological development now makes it possible for quick results turnaround, meaning patients who come out positive can be immediately put on treatment.

“With the use of new technology more people are now being diagnosed with TB,” he said.

Between 2009 and 2011, North West province recorded 300 to 380 cases of Extreme Drug Resistance (XDR) TB, a strain of the disease that is most difficult to cure.

Lekgethwane said the new cases far exceeded bed capacity of 76 beds at Klerksdorp Tshepong Hospital Complex’s multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB Unit but the new technology would help mitigate on this challenge.

“The department readies itself to roll-out the implementation of the Gene Xpert in all hospitals.

“There are also efforts to decentralise the MDR TB treatment to other hospitals. Taung, Gelukspan and Koster hospitals were identified to offer MDR TB services and Taung has already registered noteworthy achievements after two patients were certified to have been completely cured from MDR TB,” Lekgethwane said.

He added that the province had about 96 MDR in-patients with 20 being attended to at the Taung hospital.

“MDR cure rate in the province currently stands at 55%. Three primary healthcare facilities have been identified in Moretele, Madibeng and Maquassi Hills sub districts in Bojanala and Dr Kenneth Kaunda districts respectively for community MDR decentralisation.

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