By TDN
Mahikeng-North West Department of Social Development, Women, Children and People with Disabilities has invested R3 million in empowering rural young people with construction skills, through the implementation of National Youth Service Programme, MEC Collen Maine said on Tuesday.
“About fifty (50) unemployed youth between the ages of 18 and 35, Maine said were trained on as brick-making, brick laying, enterprise development and end-user computing in 2012/2013 financial year. The youth were recruited from Koffiekraal, Brakkuil and Uitkyk villages in Moses Kotane Local Municipality” minister Maine said.
“Tomorrow we will host a certificate ceremony to honour these learners. We are doing this, so that they become future employers and be the change agents in the communities they come from,” he said.
Maine said that the skills the learners have acquired will increase their employability and encourage them to venture into the labour market.-TDN
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Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows shared the spoils in their league clash at FNB Stadium on Tuesday night.

After a goalless – and, frankly, boring – first half, the game sprung into life after the break, with two goals in four minutes setting the tone.

First Lerato Chabangu opened the scoring with a first-time finish from Dikgang Mabalane’s cross.

However, Chiefs were level on 60 minutes when Bernard Parker netted from the spot ater Knowledge Musona was brought down.

Chabangu also had two great efforts saved Itumeleng Khune, while Musona flashed a shot across the face of goal late on.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Pietermaritzburg – Nineteen members of an alleged copper theft syndicate appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court on Tuesday.

They could face charges of sabotage in addition to the charges they already faced, the court heard.

Prosecutor Annelie Harrison told the court her national directorate would be asked for authority to charge the accused of sabotage in terms of the Internal Security Act.

Harrison said the charges against the accused in more than 20 dockets dealing with copper and other thefts would be correlated.

Most of the 19 men were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal, but some also faced charges in other provinces, the court heard.

The group included Zimbabwean and Mozambican nationals.

During the multiple arrests across KwaZulu-Natal, police found stolen cables worth thousands of rands and five cars.

“Cable recovered during four arrests near Pietermaritzburg had cost Eskom R720 000 to replace. This cable would have fetched R72 000 as scrap,” Inspector Nico Smith of the Pietermaritzburg police told the court.

The matter was postponed to October 24.

Sapa

Durban – Two KwaZulu-Natal men have been arrested for conning people out of cash by promising to double their money, police said on Tuesday.

The men, who posed as traditional doctors, were arrested at Madadeni, near Newcastle, early on Tuesday by police acting on a tip-off, said Captain Thulani Zwane.

“They were found in possession of a briefcase full of counterfeit cash that is suspected to be used for defrauding people,” he said.

Police later established that the men were also wanted for robbery, fraud and dealing in drugs in Madadeni, Ladysmith, Pietermaritzburg, Point and Durban.

“Police appeal to anyone who might have been conned to contact Newcastle police station or any local police station,” Zwane said.

He said the men, aged 30 and 40, would appear in the Madadeni Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Sapa

Polokwane – Two men were sentenced to life in jail by the Polokwane Regional Court for raping a teenage girl in Limpopo in 2009, police said on Tuesday.

“The 18-year-old girl was on her way home when she was attacked and dragged to a nearby mountain where she was raped and assaulted by the two men,” said Colonel Ronel Otto.

The men left the girl unconscious and with injuries all over her body, she said.

“When she regained consciousness, she managed to go to a local clinic where she received treatment for her injuries.”

Otto said she was taken to the Mankweng hospital where it was confirmed that she had been raped.

Police arrested Elvis Modula, 26, a day after the rape and his accomplice Jackie Sekhwela in 2010.

“Modula was sentenced to life in prison in May this year, while Sekhwela was sentenced on Monday,” Otto said.

Sapa

Thohoyandou – Red tape is responsible for the dire state at Limpopo’s Tshilidzini Hospital, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was told by hospital staff on Tuesday.

Communicating their needs annually to provincial health authorities had not borne fruit, doctors and nurses told Madonsela, during a surprise visit to the facility in Thohoyandou.

Madonsela was in Limpopo as part of her office’s national stakeholder dialogue.

“We regularly borrow equipment from other hospitals. Sometimes they take back their equipment and we have to beg,” she was told by a nurse, according to a statement released by the Protector’s office.

The hospital was in dire need of surgical items such as gloves and masks.

“Unlike other hospitals that the Public Protector has been to, Tshilidzini does not have sanitisers to disinfect visitors to its high care wards, something that ought to be a standard procedure,” said another staff member.

Madonsela was told the 55-year-old hospital was in short supply of anaesthetic machines, suction machines, patient monitors, diathermy machines, autoclaving machines and tourniquets.

Officials blamed bureaucracy for the non-renewal of procurement contracts which more than six months ago.

She was told that the hospital’s human resources were also overstretched, with only 24 doctors, few specialists and no resident paediatricians.

Staff said two paediatricians from Mankweng Hospital, in Polokwane, visited twice a month as part of their outreach.

They said a major impediment to the recruitment and retention of professionals was incentives; the hospital’s rural location was a major disincentive for doctors and other professionals as the rural allowance offered was the same as that provided to doctors who chose to work at semi-urban hospitals.

“There is a need for the different degrees of ‘rural areas’ to be reflected in these allowances,” the staff said.

Sapa

Durban – Seven people have died in accidents in KwaZulu-Natal in the past two days, the provincial community safety department said on Tuesday.

The driver of a pick-up truck lost control of the vehicle and knocked down five school children in Umsinga on Tuesday, said community safety spokesman Kwanele Ncalane.

“Two children died on the scene, while the third one died in hospital. The other two children were taken to Tugela Ferry hospital,” he said.

On Monday, two pupils died when one of their overloaded minibus’s tyres burst and it overturned between Jolivet and KwaDumisa. It was carrying 24 passengers at the time.

Two people died the same day in a three vehicle pile-up between Umhlanga and Umdloti.

Community safety MEC Willies Mchunu said it was regrettable that lives were being lost in avoidable accidents.

“I am extremely disturbed to observe such untold impertinence and lack of respect for people’s lives by those who disobey traffic laws,” he said.

Sapa

Johannesburg – A Nigerian man was arrested in Germiston on Tuesday for manufacturing drugs, Ekurhuleni metro police said.

“Police escorted him to his flat where a funnel, miniature scale and two kilograms of phosphor and iodine were found,” said spokesman Wilfred Kgasago.

He said the 29-year-old man was also found in possession of cathinone, a chemical similar to amphetamines.

The man would appear in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Sapa

Johannesburg – The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) expressed concern on Tuesday over IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula’s refusal to resign.

This was after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found on Monday that Tlakula had played a “grossly irregular” role in procuring the Riverside Office Park building in Centurion for the IEC’s head office.

“If we want to establish a proper democracy, the credibility of the IEC needs to be beyond reproach,” CDP leader Theunis Botha said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Democracy requires transparency and accountability, which appears to be lacking in Tlakula’s approach.”

Madonsela recommended on Monday that Parliament consider taking action against Tlakula.

Madonsela found improper conduct and maladministration on Tlakula’s part, and a conflict of interest involving a company co-director, with whom she was accused of being romantically involved.

“The speaker of Parliament… [should] consider whether action should be taken against advocate Tlakula for her role in the procurement… in light of the undisclosed and unmanaged conflict of interest and her contravention of the procurement laws and prescripts,” Madonsela said in her report.

Botha said he was disappointed by the IEC’s response to irregularities the CDP had reported to the electoral commission.

“Especially for the IEC’s lack of response in investigating irregularities such as the ANC combining food parcels paid for by the taxpayers with electioneering.

“Concerns will now only increase with the bad example set by Tlakula, and we urge her to do the right thing,” he said.

Botha said Tlakula’s position did not only require capable management, but also the “highest level of integrity, transparency and independence”.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Students have been told to vacate the Walter Sisulu University, in the Eastern Cape, because of labour trouble, administrator Lourens van Staden said on Tuesday.

“The volatile situation that is unfolding has made it impossible for management to risk or to guarantee the safety and well-being of our students and the communities in which they live,” he said in a statement.

“We, therefore, regret to announce that all students are to vacate university premises, university residences and university rented accommodation with immediate effect.”

He said the labour deadlock had dragged on for five weeks.

“The response to the offer made by management to staff last week has not been sufficiently conclusive to enable classes to resume,” Van Staden said.

“The university does not want to keep students waiting on campus indefinitely.”

Van Staden said management would continue seeking ways to resolve the dispute.

“The decision to send students home does not mean that the academic year is lost,” he said.

“All efforts will be made to put alternative arrangements in place in order to complete this second semester.”

– SAPA