Pietermaritzburg – An elderly woman sat weeping in the corner unable to accept that her niece’s daughter won’t be coming home.
For almost five months, 17-year-old Rashmika Janthilayal had been living with her relatives in Pietermaritzburg to pursue her dreams of becoming a hairdresser.
For more http://www.iol.co.za
Bafana need victory over Les Fauves to stay on course for a ticket to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup and Parker believes Bafana are capable of winning their match at Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
“We know it is not gonna be easy, because we don’t have a good history playing away from home but I’m sure we can turn things around.
“The coach is always reminding us what we will be up against,” he tells KickOff.com.
He adds: “The whole nation is backing us so we are confident.”
Source: http://www.kickoff.com
Bafana Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund said on Wednesday he was still very much upbeat despite travelling disruptions that saw the team staying overnight in Douala after failing to get the scheduled connecting flight to Yaoundé yesterday (Tuesday).
Bafana Bafana’s plans were thrown into disarray on Tuesday after their connecting flight to Yaoundé was unexpectedly cancelled and had to alter their plans after they could not proceed to their base camp.
This means the national team can only fully train twice – tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday – before the crunch match on Saturday against Central African Republic (CAR).
“Ideally, I would have liked to be on the training field today (Wednesday) but there is nothing we can do, we have to make the best of the situation. The boys will have a light session in the pool as there is no time to arrange a training pitch.
“Of course, the swimming pool activity was not part of the plan but we have to keep the players busy. That leaves us with two days of training and I cannot blame anybody. These things happen but it would be quite interesting to know what exactly happened,” said Igesund.
“The good thing is that before we left, I told the players to be mentally strong and expect such disruptions. But we should not take it to head; we must just continue to be strong and know what task lies ahead. If it was not for team manager Barney Kujane leaving ahead of the team, we would have found ourselves totally stranded.”
The Bafana Bafana mentor believes the Lesotho international match, which Bafana won 2-0, in the bigger scheme of things, has become an important factor.
“Following that match, we now know what we have to do, and we will do the best we can in the remaining two days. It is a setback that we cannot fit in a third training session but it is not a train-smash. The boys are professionals, and being at the end of the season their fitness levels are very high. Now it becomes even more important that we played the Lesotho match because it gives us a lot of ideas on areas to work on,” added Igesund.
The team will have their first training session in Yaoundé on Thursday afternoon (6 June).
Cape Town – The soon-to-be-established anti-corruption bureau will target private sector players who lure public servants into “unholy alliances”, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu warned on Wednesday.
Briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on public service and administration, Sisulu said the bureau would be based on a model used by the Tanzanian government.
A presidential proclamation would be issued at the end of the month to disband the department’s special anti-corruption unit and establish the new bureau.
It would eventually become a fully-fledged agency under the public administration and management (PAM) bill, which is expected to be tabled in parliament at the end of this month.
National, provincial, and local government departments would under the new law be able to refer big corruption cases to the bureau.
Sisulu said the establishment of a single anti-corruption agency would, however, not encroach on the powers and independence of other spheres of government, but encourage them to refer corruption matters to the bureau.
“We’re not going to force ourselves on them… local government doesn’t have the capacity to deal with corruption… we have huge problems at this level [of government] and they don’t know what to do with them,” Sisulu said.
The bureau would start operating on an “incremental basis” and the department would not be using a “big bang approach”.
This was partly because the bureau needed to first prove itself to government and citizens.
When the bureau was up and running by July it would operate on a R17m budget, which MPs complained was miniscule, given the billions of rand stolen from public coffers or lost due to mismanagement.
“What we are wanting to do is actually measure what we will be saving the state and use that as a leverage to get the necessary resources,” Sisulu said.
She would ask the National Treasury for more funding. The minister would also be talking to those in the private sector, which she blamed for the huge scale of corruption in government.
“I’m very concerned about the corrupters… because only they have the financial muscle to corrupt my people,” she said.
If the PAM bill was enacted, companies involved in corruption would be blacklisted, and its employees found guilty of syphoning off public money could face jail time.
“We’re going to make sure there are mandatory sentences for all those people who were found to have corrupted our public servants,” Sisulu said.
The bureau would work with the Auditor General and the Public Service Commission, and refer criminal cases to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
Sisulu said the Hawks and the Special Investigating Unit had already seconded people to the bureau to help.
For more http://www.news24.com
Cape Town – The State rejected an accused’s guilty plea for the rape of slain teenager Anene Booysen because it would have implied a lesser sentence, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday.
Western Cape NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said they asked Johannes Kana, 21, to plead to Booysen’s rape and murder on Monday to limit the issues in dispute at a later stage.
Kana pleaded guilty to the rape but not to the murder.
“In the case of Kana, his guilty plea did not correspond with the evidence available to the State,” Ntabazalila said.
“In respect of the rape charge he describes circumstances which only warrant a minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and not the circumstances as contained in the docket, which warrants a minimum sentence of life imprisonment.”
Denies murder charge
In Kana’s plea, he admitted to leaving a Bredasdorp pub with Booysen and later assaulting her by kicking her and hitting her with his fists. He then raped her.
Ntabazalila said Kana did not say where or how he raped the 17-year-old.
“[I]t is clear from the plea explanation offered in respect of the rape charge that he denies inflicting the extensive genital injuries on the deceased which caused her intestines to protrude from her genital area and ultimately, caused her death.
“He therefore denies that he murdered her.”
The State alleges Kana unlawfully and deliberately sexually penetrated Booysen with his penis or with another object not known to the State, between 1 and 2 February this year, near Kleinbegin, Bredasdorp.
Kana then allegedly used his hand or another object to disembowel her, which resulted in her death at Tygerberg Hospital on Saturday, 2 February.
The matter would now go to trial and the State would use Kana’s admissions as evidence against him.
“This will shorten the trial because the focus of the trial will be on proving the exact circumstances of the rape and the remaining murder charge,” Ntabazalila said.
‘Five or six men involved’
The case was postponed until 9 July for provincial public prosecutions director Rodney de Kock to decide whether the trial should be held in the regional court or the Western Cape High Court.
Two weeks ago the State dropped charges against Kana’s co-accused, 22-year-old Jonathan Davids. At the time, Ntabazalila said an investigation had revealed there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
“We understand the sense of shock and outrage that was induced by the incident. However, as the prosecution, we can only prosecute successfully on sufficient evidence,” he said.
Before she died, Booysen said from her hospital bed that five or six men were involved in the attack. She mentioned the name “Zwai”, which was both the nickname of Davids and another man said to live in Zwelitsha.
SAPA
By Obakeng Maje
Mahikeng-Efforts to reduce perinatal and neonatal mortality received a major boost with the completion of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital, in Rustenburg.
The 14 bedded unit which has been under construction since August 2012, was built at cost of R8 million thanks to financial injection from Impala.
“The Unit will officially open tomorrow” Health MEC, Dr. Magome Masike said.
Masike said The NICU is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants with low weight or who have a medical condition that requires specialized treatment.
“The community of Bojanala District has for years functioned with only four public beds forcing the Department of Health to outsource at high cost when the demand upscale” Masike said. The economic hub of Bojanala, Rustenburg is the fastest growing city in the continent. The population growth in this area alone demands continuous improvement and strengthening of the health care system including the development of infrastructure.
The official opening scheduled to start at 09h00 at the Job Shimankane Tabane Hospital.
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews
By Obakeng Maje
Kimberley-The Cell C ‘Take a Girl Child to Work Day’ campaign is in it’s eleventh year and this campaign creates a platform to address the needs and aspirations of girls by opening up a bouquet of career opportunities, inspiring girl children to reach heights of success they never would have dreamed previously possible and to make them aware of the important role they can play in the South African economy.
The 2013 ‘Take a Girl Child to Work Day’ campaign was celebrated nationwide on Thursday, 30 May 2013.
This year’s theme was ‘empower a girl, empower a nation’.
The Northern Cape SAPS Provincial Human Resource Development (HRD) in conjunction with the Provincial Human Resource Utilisation (HRU) held a very successful career information sharing session with learners from five schools in the Kimberley area.
“Brigadier Gilroy Tait ,head of the Provincial HRU welcomed the 15 learners and gave a brief overview of the objective of the campaign” colonel Priscilla Naidu said.
The SAPS focussed on exposing a “Girl Child’ of different ages to the SAPS and also to introduce them to the different fields of policing within the organisation said Naidu.
The learners spent half a day with the SAPS and the programme included watching a video of the various careers within the SAPS; a display of illegal items that they should take note of; a personal identikit for each child was compiled (with fingerprints).
Police said the children also witnessed a crime scene simulation.
At the end of the day, each girl received a complimentary parcel which included :
A SAPS lunchbox with a muffin, biltong and juice.
Pamphlets on the rights of children.
SAPS promotional items (included rulers, an educational boardgame, pens) Cell C sportsbag/beanie (sponsored by Cell C)
SAPS Vanderkloof also entertained 22 Grade 6 and 7 from Keurtjie Primary School. “The learners thoroughly enjoyed their educational tour of the police station” police said.
The campaign affords South African girl children the opportunity to visit the workplace to experience first hand the ‘working world’ and various career opportunities available within the public service sectors.
This campaign is well supported annually.
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews
It is all systems go for Banyana Banyana as they continue their preparations for the upcoming friendly match against Mozambique scheduled for Sunday, 9 June at the Kanyamazane Stadium in Nelspruit.
The Sasol-sponsored Senior Women’s national team has been training at the Ingwenyama Lodge Sports Grounds in Nelspruit since arriving in Mpumalanga on Monday. Banyana coach Joseph Mkhonza and his technical team said they were highly impressed by the commitment from entire squad of 21 players.
The Banyana Banyana mentor feels preparations are right on track. The camp will give him further opportunity to look at the progress of players following the two training sessions on Tuesday.
“Preparations for the encounter against Mozambique this coming Sunday are well underway and looking at the players’ commitment, I must say I am very impressed. That is why it is going to be difficult to drop certain players and have the final 18 players that will travel back to Johannesburg for the match against Zimbabwe.
“Apart from a bit of fatigue following a long journey from Johannesburg, there are no injuries and the players have recovered well after travelling a long distance. We are now looking at trying out new combinations. We are also working on the players’ tactical awareness on the field because this will be crucial in our game against Mozambique,” said Mkhonza.
Nelisiwe Mchunu, who is among the new additions to the Banyana Banyana squad, is excited about the opportunity to play at national team level and representing her country. The 21-year old defender, who is doing her first year in Sports Management at the University of Johannesburg, has been rising up the ranks of women’s football.
The Moroka Swallows FC (Sasol league, Gauteng) defender was voted the player of the year in the 2012 JVW Schools League and also captained the JVW Stars team feels the national team call-up will motivate her to work even harder to improve her game.
“It is an honour to be among some of the players who I always idolised like Amanda Dlamini and ‘China’ (Gabisile Hlumbane). These are players I have always looked up to in football. It is really exciting to be here.
“The level of training in the national team cannot be compared with what we do at club level. I have come to understand that fitness is key and I am going to take everything I have learned here and put it into practice at my club. I will work harder with the hope that I will be recognised for future national team call-ups,” said Mchunu.
Nelisiwe’s love for football is the reason she now has an opportunity to also excel academically. She was awarded a bursary to study at the university through her participation in the 2012 JVW Schools League.
“Nelisiwe has a great future ahead of her. She has always been a player with great potential and was even awarded a bursary to further her studies at the University of Johannesburg. With mentoring and hard work, I believe she has all the characteristics to excel as a player,” said Van Wyk.
Banyana Banyana will train twice today (Wednesday) as coach Mkhonza looks to finalise his starting 11 for the Mozambique game.
The Office of Premier in the North West Province will be strengthening its capacity to monitor infrastructure development and track the implementation of infrastructure projects with specific focus on value for money, job creation and spending.
Premier Thandi Modise had recently briefed the Portfolio Committee on Provincial Affairs and Finance in the provincial legislature of the process to expedite the appointment of a dedicated project manager to keep tap on all projects implemented in the province.
The monitoring of infrastructure projects will be supplemented by the Frontline Service Delivery Monitoring (DSDM) Programme which is implemented in collaboration with the Department of Perfomance Monitoring and Evaluation. Service sites such as Clinics, Hospitals, Schools, SASSA Offices, and Magistrate Courts among others are visited to assess the quality of service delivery.
The monitoring team has together with facilities managers, district offices and relevant stakeholders sourced on site solutions to solve the challenges particularly around staff shortage. Other challenges that were observed during monitoring exercises include infrastructure, lack of equipment and infrastructure.
As a sequel to the Frontline Visit to Montshioa Clinic in Mahikeng last year, additional staff was transferred to the clinic to speed up service delivery.
Through these FSDM visits and interventions, the provincial government would continue to unblock some of these challenges.
Corrective measures have been put in place to accelerate implementation of infrastructure projects particularly some Department such as Sports, Arts and Culture have had challenges with regards to the implementation of their projects.
The Office of the Premier is also monitoring the implementation of the Infrastructure projects in the Moretele Municipality emanating from the Presidents visit in Ngobi. Though the initial focus of the projects was on the water projects, focus is also on the roads, housing, health and education infrastructure monitoring.Premier’s office will continue to monitor infrastructure projects and seek solutions where necessary.
A 66-year-old who lived his whole life as a man was given a surprising diagnosis after visiting the doctor in Hong Kong with a swollen abdomen — he was a woman.
Doctors realised the patient was female after they found the swelling came from a large cyst on an ovary, the Hong Kong Medical Journal reported.
The condition was the result of two rare genetic disorders.
The subject had Turner syndrome, which affects girls and women and results from a problem with the chromosomes, with characteristics including infertility and short stature.
For more http://www.timelive.co.za
The Guardian 