Daily Archives: July 2, 2015

Portfolio committee to conduct oversight visit in Marikana

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The Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Human Settlements will be conducting an oversight visit at the Marikana Housing Projects on Friday.

The oversight will commence with a briefing session at the Rustenburg Local Municipality – Mayoral’s Boardroom at 09h00 and will proceed to the Marikana Housing Projects thereafter.

As part of its constitutional mandate, the Committee will conduct oversight on the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements based on the pronouncement made on the department’s annual performance plans for 2015/16 to build housing units at Marikana.
-TDN
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Human skeleton found in a maize silo in N West

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
Potchefstroom police are investigating a case of an inquest after a human being skeleton was found at King Food in Potchefstroom. 

North West police spokesperson Captain Paul Ramaloko said it is alleged that, on Friday, 19 June 2015 the production manager opened the silo and noticed a human being skeleton in the maize. 

“The manager informed the police and the Department of Health. Upon arrival, police were shown a skeleton of a unknown person suspected to be a male adult. The body’s age is not clear at the moment, but it appears that it has been lying there for months,” Ramaloko said. 

 He said at this stage, the body has not been identified.

“Police appeal to anyone with information to approach the police in Potchefstroom.  

“The bones were sent to Forensics laboratory for analysis and to determine the circumstances around the death,” he said.  
-TDN
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North West artists encouraged to register with various departments

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
NORTH West department of Culture, Art and Traditional Affairs organised a workshop for up and coming artists in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District. The initiative was to illuminates young artists regarding the desires needed.

The event took place in Naledi Local municipality in Vryburg. District Director for CATA in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Tshwaro Mocumi said the department saw it vigorously to visits all artists in their wards in delivering the message.

“We will be visiting all wards in our consultative meetings with our emerging artists. If they fancy doing business with all government departments, they must be registered to avoid hassle,” Mocumi said.

He said most artists are not registered and at the end of the day they accuse the government for not taking them serious.

“We advised them to at least have NPO because if we book them as government, they need to have SARS certificate, Company registration number and be in our database. Most artists will not be booked and they sulk saying the government is overlooking them,” he said.

Vryburg-born fashion designer, Kealeboga Maruping said it is rigid nowadays as artist to get funding from any organisation.

“We hope the meeting will yields fruit because this is not for the first time being called to such meeting. We just hope this time around we will receive help. The government always preaches that they supporting youth, but that help never came.

“We have been registering from local municipality, regional and provincially but lets hope for the best,” Maruping outlines.

Another artist who is a producer, musician said the department of CATA must make sure that all artists in the province are catered for because without artists, culture is non-existence.

“A large proportion of the department of CATA’s budget must be dedicated to support developing institutional and infrastructure to showcase, restore and preserve South Africa’s heritage for the future generations.

“Investing in culture is the department’s flagship programme to eradicate poverty, providing the necessary skills to enable people to assume greater responsibility for the future,” Olebogeng Bondiwa said.
-TDN
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DENOSA lambasts N West health department over non-renewed contracts

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
DENOSA in North West prepares to embark on a massive strike after the Community Service Nurses are facing numerous serious challenges.

This came to light after DENOSA provincial secretary in North West, Oscar Phaka said some of the aspects at which the nurses who are doing their final year were supposed to be purged at different institution on the bases that the department have no posts for them as Professional nurses.

Phaka said what is painful is that they were only told that that will not be possible few days before the expiry of the contract.

“These workers are told to go and seek the job somewhere else, whereas the contract signed to grand them funding while studying makes it clear that they are still expected to fullfil their departmental contractual obligation for another year in addiction to the first year.

“The department cite that it has reached the necessary threshold of Professional Nurses according their staff establishment, and above statement is contrary to results of the research surveys that show that the Country have a great shortage of professional nurses including our province,” Phaka said.

He said the department expect nursing training institutions to expand their undergraduate intake with 10% annually where exorbitant amount of tax payers money is paid for training and development of this candidates only to discard them upon completion.

“There community service contracts is as thus; those who were funded through persal are eligible to serve the Community service for two years and those on bursary, the expectation according to the contact is six years, but to our dismay after a year these workers are shown the open doors,” he said.

Phaka said this is a matters of a concern as to this day, they have more than 300 Community Service Practitioners who are deprived an opportunity to serve their contractual obligation by the department of health since the end of April 2015 to date.

He said series of engagements unfolded with the department of Health without positive outcome and this culminated into a bilateral with the executive authority led by Head of Department (HOD) Dr Lekalakala on 20 May 2015, who acknowledged that indeed they are obliged to appoint those workers and made a commitment to ensure their appointment by the latest 29 May 2015.

“This commitment has not yet been fullfilled but rather the HOD indicates that we should have another meeting on the 10 June 2015 to give explanation for the procrastination of process, meanwhile poor workers are stranded and frustrated without a salary and this is not acceptable.

“To our dismay when the department was suppose to give letter of appointments to the Community Service Nurses, they rather gave them a verbal notice on the 30 June 2015, stating that they don’t have funds to appoint them, we deem this behaviour of the department to be unfair and undermining Labour legislations and us as a collective Labour,” said Phaka.

According to Phaka, they had a meeting with HOD of Health on the 10 June 2015, and the HOD made a commitment that on 30 June 2015 all the Community service practitioners would be appointed, process in underway to create an environment for absorption of those mentioned above.

“The department highlighted that they can’t carry out their functions because everything is controlled and approved by treasury so these causes delay, surprisingly in response from treasury MEC for Finance, Wendy Nelson in her budget speech indicated that they co-manage with departments but they don’t exonerate them from executing their responsibilities.

“These matter of community service were once deliberated on with the department and it was further raised with the health Practitioners sectoral Parliament and the respond of the department was as thus placement of community Service is mandatory and community service Practitioners are placed according to the needs of the department and today they are ignoring this issue,” he said.

Phaka further say the department of health last year at around November passed a Embargo on appointment, maintenance and purchase of equipment absurdly the MEC Masike in his budget speech. 50 clinics that were operating 8 hours now they operate 24 hours and further stated that 82% of overtime in public service is spent on health and they intend to reduce it altogether, then the critical thing is how will the department be able to render quality service through expanded hours of service without expanding human resource by appointing the newly qualified?

However North West departmental spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane said “The Department of Health in the Province has indeed engaged Denosa about the challenges facing it and plans to turn around the situation. One of the main challenges faced by the Department is the budget shortfall which is a result of the over R500 million accruals accumulated over the years against little or no real budget increase in the MTF.

“That being said it is important to understand that the Department of Health trains nurses in our nursing colleges with the long term plan to curb shortage of nurses. Once student nurses complete their studies they are then placed in various health facilities to do community service as part of experiential learning. Upon completion of community service the nurses are then absorbed permanently where there are posts available and if the budget allows. Unfortunately due to the fact that the budget does not allow those nurses who completed their community service will not be able to be absorbed at once,” Lekgethwane said.

He said now they know that shortage of nurses is a national crisis not just a challenge that is facing the Province only.

“Department is now engaging other provinces to absorb the nurses who have just completed their community service in the province.

“The Head of the Department will for example next week be meeting his counter part in Mpumalanga to discuss absorbing these nurses. This is therefore a matter that the Department is working around the clock to find a solution for,” he concludes.
-TDN
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N West Provincial govt appoints new DG

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
Premier Supra Obakeng Ramoeletsi Mahumapelo has appointed Dr Lydia Keneilwe Sebego as a Director General for the Bokone Bophirima Provincial Government with effect from 01 July 2015. MEC Wendy Nelson made this announcement at a meeting of Heads of Departments and Chief Directors yesterday.

MEC Nelson asserted that Dr Sebego brings with her a wealth of experience within the public service that is vitally needed to fast rack service delivery in the province, having previously served as Head of Department at the departments of Public Works and Health in Bokone Bophirima.

At the time of her appointment Sebego served as the Chief Operations Officer at the national department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

MEC Nelson quoted Premier Mahumapelo as saying Dr Sebego’s appointment comes at a time when the provincial government has embarked on a process of rebranding, repositioning and renewal.
In her address to the meeting Dr Sebego minced no words when she stated that she expected shoulders to be put to the wheel. “The buck stops with us as far as administration is concerned.” She said.

MEC Nelson conveyed Premier Mahumapelo’s gratitude to Professor Tebogo Job Mokgoro who has been the acting Director General since the advent of the fifth administration.
As she puts “You were entrusted with the responsibility of reconfiguring departments and of steering the provincial administration in a path to accelerate service delivery and you executed it with due diligence and availed yourself at all times including during weekends and late at night.”

“As Dr Sebego assumes duty from today, Premier Mahumapelo entrusted Professor Mokgoro with the responsibility to establish a Bokone Bophirima School of Government. This is crucial to complement academic knowledge which employees obtained at institutions of higher learning.” MEC Nelson concluded.

Professor Mokgoro, who stated that he attended a Forum of Directors General last week, said there is an admission by the forum that human capital development has been neglected to the detriment of government as a whole.

He said he was looking forward to the school of government as if he were a first year student who was looking forward to his academic career. As he puts it: “The attitude should be that failure is not an option.”
-TDN
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Maquassi Hills gets new learning centre

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
The dream of two women from Kgakala township outside Wolmaranstad became true when the authorities unveiled the plaque to mark the official launch of ‘Re a Bopa’ state of the art learning centre on Tuesday.

Adeline Polela and Florence Monageng took an initiative to address the plight of children roaming the streets at the township by combining their two crèches; Bopanang and Reabona to provide early childhood education to children who were not attending any crèche in the area.

“I had a vision to rid children off the streets and take care of them. It was during the riots. Whenever children were arrested I would consult the SA Council of Churches to negotiate with the then government to release the children. Surely patience brings success. See where we are now,” Polela said, referring to the newly prototype centred.

Polela said she has for many years operated the crèche in an RDP house donated by the residents of Kgakala and Maquassi Hill local municipality. They agreed to combine their two crèches and registered them under one name, ‘Reabopa’ (loosed translated as ‘we are moulding’). This they say is, the joint name to be used in at the centre built by government.

Polela’s partner, Monageng said they agreed to cluster their crèches together so that they can operate together in a new centre.

“I am so overjoyed for this gift from government. For a long time I wished to operate in a centre like this one,” Monageng said. Currently, Monageng is operating a crèche in a rented house in area.

On Tuesday North West MEC for Social Development Fenny Gaolaolwe unveiled the plaque and cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the new centre in full view of the beneficiaries.

Delivering her handover speech Gaolaolwe urged residents to take care of the facility and bring more children to the centre.

“The department is geared to achieve the intended purpose, of intervening in the lives of toddlers, between the ages of 0 to 4 years by preparing them mentally and physically for the life that awaits them in the later years. We appeal to all the residents including the local municipality to take care of this centre so that it should last long and benefit many children in this area,” Gaolaolwe said.

Condemning the mushrooming of crèches in the area, Gaolaolwe urged people to stop making business with crèches. She said her department will start to build similar facilities in villages and combine all local crèches into prototype early childhood development centres.

“When we combine these crèches no practitioner will lose her job. All staff members will continue to work in the new centres built by government,” Gaolaolwe said adding that the prototype centres that government has built, have the capacity to cater for more than 150 children and have an open playing ground with equipments, kitchen, waterborne toilets, sick room, staff office, scullery and a store room.

Gaolaolwe said ‘Re a Bopa’ ECD centre is one of the other two centres that the department has built at Matsheng in Taung and Ngobi in Moretele at a cost of R1,5m each. She said the centres were built to address the challenges facing the crèches which fail to comply with the norms and standards of operating a crèche.

Meanwhile Capacity building officer Costa Motsikwe from National Development Agency that served as a disbursing agency said they have already provided training to ten staff members on governance, conflict management, financial management and resource mobilisation. He said the agency will continue to mentor all staff to ensure smooth operation of the centre.
-TDN
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Cosatu demand retail shops reinstate fired employees in Vryburg

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BY OBAKENG MAJE
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and its affiliate Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) marched to two shops in Vryburg after they demand those shops to reinstate their members who were fired recently.

The picketing took place on Wednesday at Indian Centre in Vryburg and police were monitoring the situation.

According to Cosatu provincial secretary, Solly Phetoe the march was an indication of showing solidarity to their members.

“Most companies fail to follow labour laws and procedures. Feed Pro and Price Chain management do not take into consideration the labour laws and the constitutions that protect workers in the country.

“They fired our members because they deny them joining any representatives of their choice. Another issue was that, racism and exploitation is still alive. Our members are working many hours without getting any overtime allowance, the owners threatened them after joining union of their choice, so we say enough is enough,” Phetoe said.

Phetoe said they delivered memorandum of grievances and they gave the owners until next week Friday to reinstate those who were fired for no apparent reasons.

He said they will be resolute regarding the matter and if nothing happens, they will be left with no choice but to embark on a massive strike.

Situation was tense as protesters picketed in front of one of the shops holding placards and denied members of the public in entering shops to buy.
-TDN
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Malema: All police who shot Marikana miners must be arrested

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