By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-On Tuesday at about 05h00, a group of about 500 mine workers gathered at the Lenxes mine demanding bonuses from the Mine Management. Lenxess Chrome mine is situated in the Rustenburg Platinum Belt next to Bleskop.

It is reported that this gathering of mine workers led to confrontation between mine security and the striking workers. 

“It is alleged that mine security used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.Ten of the mine workers were allegedly injured during the incident” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said. 

“They were then admitted at the mine hospital. This situation occurred in the private property of the mine” Ngubane said.

Union leaders went into a meeting with Mine Management to discuss the workers needs and the Police took over the security of the mine workers. 

The group was later addressed by union leaders and dispersed peacefully.

Police are still investigating the situation, further legal actions will be taken as soon as investigation is completed.

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Johannesburg – Under-fire President Jacob Zuma got a little support from an unlikely quarter on Tuesday when former president FW de Klerk laid into the “prophets of doom” putting down the country.

De Klerk said “Afro-pessimists” did not give the country or the continent enough credit for strides made.

De Klerk acknowledged the country faces “serious international perception problems” but said the country had seen 18 years of almost uninterrupted economic growth.

He added that significant steps had been made in alleviating poverty, improving access to housing, water and electricity.

His comment echoes those of Zuma and the ANC, which have come under a barrage of criticism for failing to tackle corruption, labour violence and unemployment.

But De Klerk was not completely gushing about the government’s performance.

“We score badly in those areas of national activity that fall under the responsibility of government,” he said.

“We are in the bottom 20% with regard to the quality of education; the business cost of crime; HIV prevalence; and labour market efficiency.”

But, he added, the government was aware of these problems and had endorsed a National Development Plan to deal with them.

“Africa and South Africa are on the march,” he said.

– AFP

Cape Town – Seven weeks after the highly publicised kidnap and sexual assault of an exchange student near Signal Hill, police have appealed to the public for information, and have released CCTV stills of one of the three suspects.
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Mahikeng-To date, the progress registered includes the establishment of the Municipal ward-based family health teams.
The established and functional number of outreach teams is standing at eleven (11). Hundred and fifteen ((115) community health workers have been trained and the piloting District of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda managed to cover eight (8) wards. Thus far, 15 467 households across the pilot district have been profiled. Chronic disease management has been linked to Primary Health Care (PHC) outreach teams. School Health Services are being revitalized. Vehicles to provide school health services have been received from National Department of Health (NDoH) and are currently being registered.

“We have appointed specialist outreach teams to provide specialist outreach services.They include obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine and anesthesia” exclaimed MEC Masike during his budget vote.

All health facilities in Dr Kenneth Kaunda are approved for Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) initiation.
Doctor support to clinics has been stepped up to twice a week in order to build confidence of nursing staff in initiating ART.

Capacity building for NHI has been prioritized. To this effect, all members of the District Management Team (DMT) have been trained on procurement matters.
All members of DMT have been trained in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) by North West University.
All Sub district managers have been registered for Executive Development Programme and Oliver Tambo Fellowship. Furthermore, PHC teams have been trained on PHC Re-engineering Programme.
Capacity has therefore been built progressively at facility management level for further decentralising control in view of NHI requirement. The aim is to make all clinics as cost centres before the end of 2013-14 financial year.

“We will continue to improve training on nursing, EMRS and medical care to strengthen PHC and health care service delivery towards a well functioning NHI” said the MEC.

Two training workshops on leadership and supervision have been conducted while one information sharing session with sub-district management was conducted and supported by BroadReach.
The Health System Trust (HST) continues to provide support.

“Phase 1 orientation and basic foundation was conducted for 1500 CHWs and 80 nurses. We conducted two (2) studies on readiness assessment and one (1) on competency assessment of managers in PHC” MEC said.

Professional Nurses will be assigned according to availability.
Facilities with low caseloads will be targeted. Where there is gross shortage of nurses, retired nurses will be appointed to support outreach teams.
“We will also go ahead with contracting-in of General Practitioners” said the MEC.

The piloting District of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda has also formed a collaboration with its District Municipality to inform all Communities about NHI. Just recently (last Friday), a workshop on NHI was held with Community based planners from the District Municipality, Ward Committees and Community health workers who will be expected to cascade the information down to communities in their wards.
“This initiative will ensure that information on NHI reaches communities in all corners of the District. It is also envisaged to be extended to other Districts in future” Masike said.
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Thousands bid farewell to Dr Tuelo Joshua “Baba” Schalk and celebrated his contribution and dedication to the struggle for freedom at his funeral held in Vryburg over the weekend. In her moving tribute, North West Premier Thandi Modise described Dr. Schalk as a freedom fighter, a mentor who helped others and was a model for cadre deployment as he had the requisite skills, experience and expertise to serve at the highest level in the public service.

North West MEC for Development,Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Mme Mosetsanagape Mokomele-Mothibi has tabled the 2013/2014 Department’s Budget Vote before the North West Provincial Legislature today totalling R1.082 billion. 

She told Members of the Provincial Legislature that the budget is an increase of R118.8 million from the previous financial year and that increased funding will be directed to the following:

i) An amount of R18 million will be allocation for the absorption of Social Work Graduates into the Department’s Staff complement. 

ii) Early Childhood Development Massification Programme, which will receive an allocation R9.3 million – R7 million of which will be for equipment to be bought for Early Childhood Development Centres in the North West 

iii) A further R4 million has been set aside for maintenance of departmental facilities 

iv) An amount of R6.2 million will be allocated to Learnerships and Internships to ensure that government’s programme of providing graduates with workplace experience continues 

v) An additional R6.7 million will be allocated to ensure all the support is provided to the NGO sector while the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the Social Sector will get amount of R16.4 million.

MEC Mokomele-Mothibi added that, in total the 2013/2014 Departmental Budget will be divided as follows, totalling R1.082 million:

i) Administration R154.8 million

ii) Social Welfare and Social Specialist ServicesR786.5 million

iii) Community Development R132 million

iv) Special Programmes R8.6 million 

“She further announced that the Department has appointed an extra 105 newly qualified Social Workers who are products of the Department’s Social Work Scholarship Programme and they will be deployed accordingly throughout the North West Province to curb the shortage of Social Work professional in most parts of the province” department spokesperson Vuyisilwe Ngesi said. 

“The National Development Plan indicates that there is a serious shortage of social services professionals including social workers and community development practitioners”, MEC Mokomele-Mothibi said. 

She added that 90 Community Development Practitioners received customised accredited training on community development planning, integrated planning and project management. 

MEC Mokomele-Mothibi added that for the current financial year, the Department will fund the establishment of 16 Youth Development Structures, link 26 unemployed young people to entrepreneurship development programmes and 200 unemployed youth to the National Youth Service programme. 

“About 20 Women Income Generation Projects in the North West will receive financial and technical funding” she said. 

MEC Mokomele-Mothibi said that the Department will prioritise the strengthening of in-patient and out-patient centres for this financial year through funding of existing and new community based organisations and one in-patient treatment centre at a cost of R7.7 million targeting over 500 000 people using and abusing drugs and related substances.

Mokomele said the department will ensure that this year the Witrand Hospital In-Patient Treatment Centre in Potchefstroom will be fully operational and that the Taung Hospital In-Patient Treatment Centre for Substance Abuse is completed.

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