Daily Archives: July 9, 2014

Free State health care workers sleep over


Johannesburg – Free State health care workers on Wednesday staged an overnight sit-in at the province’s health headquarters known as Bophelo House, said the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

TAC general secretary, Anele Yawa, said they were joining the health care workers in the demonstrations, which were expected to continue until Thursday.

“This sit-in signals the start of a campaign of civil disobedience in the Free State,” Yawa said in a statement.

He said it would be a peaceful demonstration.

The sit-in came after their efforts to address the provincial health department through meetings and letters had failed.

“In parallel to the civil disobedience campaign, we are also exploring the potential of litigating against [health MEC Benny] Malakoane and the Free State department of health,” said Yawa.

“We would have preferred to avoid litigation, but we have exhausted all other avenues.”

The group was demanding that Free State Premier Ace Magashule remove Malakoane from his position.

“If Magashule is not willing to do this, we call on the ANC’s national leadership to intervene.”

The TAC claimed that Magashule had responded to a letter it had written to him.

Retire at 50

“His response was evasive and showed no understanding of the crisis in the province,” Yawa said.

The disgruntled health care workers were also calling for the immediate reinstatement of some of their dismissed colleagues. It was unclear why they had been fired.

They also wanted changes within the health department and for it to go public on its financial problems.

This was the second overnight sit-in held by the health care workers in as many weeks.

They staged another sit-in on 26 June, demanding clarity from Malakoane after he reportedly suggested that health care workers without matric would need to obtain matric certificates before rejoining the health care programme. He also allegedly stated that those who were over the age of 50 would need to retire.

The workers were also demanding their salaries after they were not paid for two months.

SAPA

‘Taung family to be honoured during Mandela’s 67 minutes’


By Obakeng Maje
Taung- South Africa and the World at large will be remembering the late icon, Nelson Mandela on the 18th of July 2014. Mandela passed on in December 2013 at the age 95 after succumbed to an ensuing lung infection.

Mpolokeng family in Nhole village, Taung will receive a newly-built house from Mokibelo Investments Holdings.

The family was cooped up in a dilapidated two-roomed house with broken windows.

Motlalepula Mpolokeng,31, said they are very pleased to have their house being extended. “We are seven family members and being confined in a two-room house is not good at all. Our parents passed away back in 1992 and 2010 respectively” said Mpolokeng.

A Limpopo-based company said they identified Mpolokeng family through their employee who resides in the area.

“We believe it is everyone’s task to help those in need. Ploughing back to the community, is a sensible thing to do. We would appreciate any help from other stakeholders who could help on furnishing the house” Mokibelo Investment Holdings Tshepo Duba said.

According to Motlalepula, no one is working in the house and they survive on a disability grant that belongs to Letlhogonolo Mpolokeng who is disable.

The two-roomed house cost the company R50 000 and the official hand over will be on the 18th of July 2014 during Mandela’s 67 minutes.

Those who are willing to help can reach Mokibelo Investment Holdings on 0717362322.
-TDN
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Media24 Graduate in Media Programme Internship


Multi Media Internship Opportunity for a Graduate in Media Programme at Media24.

Close Date: 2014/08/04

Job Title:Multi Media internship : Graduate in Media Programme
Department:Digital
Division:Corporate Services
Business Unit:Academic
Organisation:Media24
Job Type:Intern
Location – Town / City:Cape Town
Location – Province:Western Cape

Job Description

Media24 is looking for graduates with strong multimedia skills for a one-year internship contract.

We seek to appoint dynamic and energetic individuals to join the Graduates in Media Programme run by the Media24 Academy. The positions will be based in our digital News businesses in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Minimum Requirements

A tertiary qualification in Multimedia, especially broadcasting production.

The ideal candidate must have well developed video editing skills (Adobe Premier Pro, Final Cut or iMovie), an ability to shoot good video and tell a compelling visual story.

Skills & Competencies

The successful candidate will be able to survive and thrive in the rough and tumble of the organisation, adapt to different situations and innovate where necessary.

The graduate needs to be resilient, able to withstand criticism in a pressured workplace and drive their own learning and career. This candidate must be a newshound, be immersed in digital media and possess strong multi-tasking abilities.

Duties & Responsibilities

The positions have been designed to provide graduates with an entrance into the workplace in the rapidly changing world of Media24.

About Us

Media24 is Africa’s leading media publishing company.

The operating business segments span publishing, printing and distribution of magazines, newspapers, books and related products as well as digital content and ecommerce ventures.

This well-balanced portfolio of investments in the media and publishing industries and an ongoing strategy of continuous renewal and adaptations have proven to be a winning formula that has turned Media24 into a leading business entity in the field
http://www.careersportal.co.za/internships/internship-opportunities/3690-media24-graduate-in-media-programme-internship.html
-TDN
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Negotiations between Department and Nursing College SRC Collapse


Mahikeng- The North West MEC for Health, Dr Magome Masike has expressed disappointment at the failed negotiations between the Mmabatho College SRC and the management of the Department.

The MEC had earlier today called a meeting with the Student representatives and other stakeholders including Denosa and Cosatu. “It must be on record that the students’ representatives elected to walk out of the meeting when they were not willing to negotiate on the basis of the progress that was made in the last meeting but rather asked to start the negotiations afresh” departmental spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said.

To date, the students have now embarked on more than two months long boycott of clinical practicals and learning activities.

“It should also be on record that the initial demands of the students were that the Department of Health cease to transport them to clinical facilities and to accommodate them. As result, they wanted to be given transport and accommodation allowance” Lekgethwane said.

The Department said it has always been willing to negotiate and meet the students half-way as some of their demands were deemed reasonable.

“To that effect, the Department has after countless meetings resolved to move from the original position and therefore agreed to pay transport allowance with immediate effect. However, with regard to accommodation, the Department reasoned that there are already lease agreements for rental of accommodation facilities occupied by students and therefore requested that such an allowance should start in the new academic year in January 2015” he said.

This was to avoid paying both the students and the landlords. To the shock of the management, the students demanded that the Department can pay students allowance for accommodation and continue to pay landlords in respect of the lease agreement. The Department refused to this demand as it will be irregular expenditure.

“The students have continued to change goal posts in the negotiations, a clear indication that they are not interested in assisting to finding solutions to their demands.”

On alleged congestion at facilities, the Department resolved on a rotation system, however ensuring that all students get to be placed on night duty because even when they graduate to be nurses, they will be expected to work at night.

To the disappointment of the Department, when progress was made and there SRC seemed to accede to the solutions proposed, the student continued to parachute issues into the negotiations, the latest being that the students are now demanding to be put on the persal system, says department.

“The Department is of the view that a move to put students on a persal system requires multi-stakeholders engagements as there are many students who are offered bursaries by the Department.”

Moreover, such a move will require extensive consultation not only in the province but nationally. This is because nursing students are not employees and therefore cannot be treated differently to other students who are offered bursaries by government elsewhere.

Students are further reminded of the fact that by engaging on class boycott they have violated the contract they signed with the Department. The contract clearly states that, “the Department further reserves the right to cancel the contract should students chose to do among others; disrupt classes and clinical practicals or the boycott thereof”.

The contract further states that the students are obliged to among others “attend all prescribed classes and clinical practicals or research at the College/University of Technology/ University, attend and complete the programme within the period provided or such extended period as may be approved by the College/ University of technology/University”.

The Department is of the view that the students have violated the contract in all these instances.

By walking out of the negotiations earlier today, the students have also violated a court ruling which ordered the Department to re-open the college, to continue with negotiations and resume academic activities.

The Department has however noted that there are students who desperately want to go to class and continue with their studies. To that effect and in taking a way forward, the Department is announcing to all the parents and the students that the college is re-opening and the academic activities will resume on Monday, 14 July 2014.

The Department calls for a meeting with the general college students on Friday, 11 July 2014 at 08h00 which will be followed by a meeting with the parents of all the students at 11h00am on the same day. The meeting will express the position of the Department to the students and parents and further resolve on mechanisms to recoup lost academic time.

The Department said they remain committed to resolve any legitimate grievance of the students.-TDN
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100 new land claims received


Cape Town – Government has received roughly 100 new land claims since last week when the process reopened for five years, chief land claims commissioner Nomfundo Gobodo said on Wednesday.

“We have received about a hundred claims, from all the provinces,” she told Sapa on the sidelines of briefing in Parliament.

“We are expecting more, depending on the number of people who were left out. But there was always this perception that they would flood our offices, and we have not seen that.”

Gobodo added that so far the claims have been lodged at the department’s provincial offices in cities, and said officials planned to take the process to rural areas.

It was starting an awareness campaign with the help of community radio stations and non-governmental organisations.

The lodgement of land claims reopened on 30 June when President Jacob Zuma signed the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act into law. It allows those who missed the 31 December 1998 deadline to bring claims until mid-2019.

According to Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, there are 8 471 claims lodged before the 1998 cut-off period that had not yet been settled or resolved.

These would be prioritised, and processed simultaneously with the new ones. Nkwinti said he expected the new land claim process to proceed faster than the first four-year drive because claims would be filed electronically.

SAPA

Fired Cape Times editor turns to court


Cape Town – Dismissed Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois will approach the Labour Court following her dismissal, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

“The matter has been conciliated by the CCMA. We are now heading to the Labour Court,” said lawyer Jason White.

Papers would be filed within a month, he said.

Dismissed

Dasnois approached the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration following her dismissal in December last year.

Dasnois contended she was fired after the newspaper published a front-page article on Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s finding against former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

It found that the minister was guilty of maladministration and improper and unethical conduct in the awarding of an R800m tender to a Sekunjalo subsidiary to manage the state’s fishery vessels.

The Cape Times is owned by Independent Newspapers, whose controlling shareholder is Sekunjalo Consortium.

In a year-end letter, Independent News and Media SA (INMSA) chairperson Iqbal Survé said Dasnois was reprimanded for not leading the paper with the news about the death of former president Nelson Mandela.

Mandela died in December at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, aged 95.

Public interest issue

Alison Tilley of the Open Democracy Advice Centre said her organisation was helping with the case and was raising funds for Dasnois.

“We think this is a public interest issue. Employees in the workplace should be able to speak up and still be safe. We are hoping for a positive outcome for Alide,” she said.

The matter also involved the right of journalists and editors on what to publish against what media owners want published, she said.

Independent Newspapers declined to comment and said the matter was an internal labour issue.

SAPA

The world Population Day To Be Launched In Mapopane


Mabopane- The Deputy Minister for the Department of Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu will host an event commemorating World Population Day on Friday.

In keeping with the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) focus on adolescent well-being, and to help include a new goal for young people in the post-2015 development agenda, the theme of the World Population Day 2014 is “Investing in Young People.”

This year’s World Population Day commemorations will be tied in with the UNFPA’s Youth Campaign designed to gather millions of “selfies” from young people, decision-makers, high-profile celebrities and others, in support of UNFPA’s proposal for a youth goal to be included in the post-2015 development agenda.

“There are 1.8 billion people aged 10-24 in the world, making one quarter of the world’s population.  In South Africa, nearly forty percent(40%) of the population is made up by young people between the ages of 15 and 35” departmental spokesperson Emillie Olifant said.

The idea behind the “selfie” campaign is to gather these photos as a show of support and then use the collection to communicate to decision-makers that young people all over the world want to make sure that they are “put in the picture” of future development plans.

Olifant said key among the issues facing young people to be highlighted during the 2014 World Population Day campaign are poverty, access to education and health care (including reproductive health rights), teenage pregnancy, child marriage, female genital mutilation, youth unemployment, violence, death and injury.

The South African Human Rights Commission Report – Poverty Traps and Social Exclusion among Children in South Africa 2014 – notes that, whilst there is still widespread evidence of considerable and deep-rooted poverty amongst children (people younger than 18 years), in the two decades since South Africa’s transition to democracy, the country has experienced considerable success in reducing poverty, both in money terms and in multi-dimensional forms of deprivation such as lack of access to important services such as water and sanitation.

This applies particularly to children, who in a period of declining fertility were also the nominal beneficiaries of the Child Support Grant, which contributed much to a strong decline in money metric poverty and in the number of children who go to bed hungry.

“The Social Development event will bring together fifty young people from across the country who have taken up the role of championing the youth development agenda in their communities.  They will have an opportunity to engage Deputy Minister Bogopane-Zulu on their accomplishments as well as the challenges they would like the Department’s intervention on” Olifant said.

The event scheduled as follows:

Date         : 11 July 2014

Time        : 08h30

Venue      : Morula Sun, Mabopane

-TDN
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13 held in Marikana for arson, kidnapping


Johannesburg – Thirteen people were arrested for arson and kidnapping at the Mmaditlhokwa informal settlement in Marikana on Wednesday, North West police said.

“They were wanted for allegedly setting alight a ward councillor’s house and a house belonging to the councillor’s close friend where a person was also kidnapped during the night on Tuesday, 13 May,” Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said.

Residents blocked the entrance to the informal settlement with rocks, apparently protesting over the arrest of the 13.

“The road has been blocked. Police are monitoring the situation,” he said.

Ward councillor Appearance Ndlovu’s house was burnt down during a protest by residents in May. They barricaded roads with burning tyres and rubble in protest against blasting at the nearby Tharisa mine.

They alleged the blasts damaged their houses and affected their children’s health.

Sixteen people were arrested on that night for public violence. They pleaded guilty and each paid a R100 admission of guilt fine in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on 4 July.

Mokgwabone said the four women and nine men arrested on Wednesday were expected to appear in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court soon.

In a separate incident, three men were arrested for possession of an illegal firearm in Marikana.

“The suspects were arrested after information was received that they were in possession of a firearm.

They are expected to appear in Ga-Rankuwa Magistrate’s Court on Thursday,” said Mokgwabone.
SAPA

NCOP chair takes ‘Sowetan’ newspaper to Ombudsman over pigs comment


Cape Town- Former North West Premier Thandi Modise and Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Thandi Modise has lodged a complaint with the Press Ombudsman against “The Sowetan” newspaper for distorting her statement on animals that were found abandoned on her farm over the weekend.

The article by the national daily newspaper of Tuesday 8 July 2014 under the headline “I suffered more than my pigs” on its front page is not only defamatory, amounts to character assassination but also creates the impression that Thandi Modise did not value the lives of or care for  the animals that were kept on her farm.

While Modise has expressed sadness and explained in detail the unfortunate and tragic circumstance surrounding the desertion of the animals on her farm, she is angered by the twist that portrays her as uncompassionate which was also extended to the Tuesday SABC TV 2 Morning Live Show.
 
“Desertion of my livestock without my knowledge is the worst nightmare that I have ever experienced and though i might not receive sympathy from some quarters, the least that I expect is that truth be told about what happened and what i said,” Modise said.

She reiterate that though she is deeply saddened by the abandonment and trauma that the livestock suffered, the suffering that the animals endured is greater than the financial loss that she suffered.-TDN
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Madonsela ‘surprised’ by Motsoeneng appointment


Johannesburg – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Wednesday expressed her surprise at the permanent appointment of controversial acting SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, SABC radio news reported.

“I don’t know what to make of it. I was surprised when I read this morning that he has been appointed,” Madonsela told the station.

“I’m still waiting for a response from the SABC and from the minister; until then I’m not in a position to understand what has just happened.”

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi announced Motsoeneng’s appointment on Tuesday night in Pretoria, saying she had made the appointment following a recommendation by the SABC board.

Damning report

In February, Madonsela released a report “When governance and ethics fail” which found Motsoeneng’s SABC appointment irregular. Among other things, his salary increased from R1.5m to R2.4m in one year.

She found he had misrepresented his qualifications – that he passed matric – to the SABC, and recommended that he be replaced.

At the time of releasing her report, Madonsela recommended that a new COO be appointed within 90 days. This deadline has since elapsed.

After a previous request for extra time, the SABC board was given until 17 August to respond to Madonsela’s report.

On Wednesday, Madonsela said she had had no response from either the communications department or the SABC.

Madonsela said that in reacting to Motsoeneng’s appointment, in addition to investigating “any alleged or suspected improper conduct”, she had the power to take appropriate remedial action.

“I’m not too concerned about what has happened. Of course the actors involved have done what they thought they needed to do. My way forward is to call them to my office to come and explain themselves and then I’ll take it from there.”

Parliamentary debate

Madonsela said one possible option was for her to approach Parliament to debate the matter.

The Democratic Alliance said Motsoeneng’s permanent appointment meant he could continue his “reign of terror” at the national broadcaster.

“We can expect more surveillance and purging of SABC staff, more clampdowns on editorial independence and more ‘happy news’ that reflects positively on the governing party,” DA MP Gavin Davis said.

The Media Workers Association of SA said the SABC needed to ensure its sustainability.

“The SABC needs a credible exit strategy from its persistent circumstances characterised by diminished public confidence, widening trust-deficit and compromised business competitiveness,” general secretary Tuwani Gumani said.

“Strengthening the SABC in terms of its independence from commercial, political and cultural influences is vital.”

Controversy

Last week, political parties called for Motsoeneng to be relieved of his duties. This was after Motsoeneng suggested journalists should have a licence to practice, as in the medical and law professions.

Also last week, Motsoeneng appeared before Parliament to present a strategic plan and budget for the SABC, which received a disclaimer of opinion from the Auditor General – the most adverse finding he can make.

Parliament heard the SABC was losing advertisers and viewers.

SAPA