Daily Archives: August 18, 2015

Fireworks expected at Taung Cultural Calabash Festival

NEWS Leave a comment

The future cream of South Africa’s creative talents will gather to reveal the 21st Taung Cultural Calabash on Mmabana Centre in Mafikeng, North West Province at a media launch on Saturday 29 August at 09:00 am.

Taung Cultural Calabash began as a one day cultural event taking place in Taung, (the area famous for the Taung Skull), in 1994 with a vision to stir the pride of the community in their heritage.

It has since grown into a great cultural spectacle uncovering and showcasing the finest talent on offer in the North-West Province.

Taung Cultural Calabash is a province wide annual arts festival with a unique focus to uncover the best budding creative talent the North West Province has to offer.

The festival comprises of a series of auditions and performances for amateurs and semi-professional artists in Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. 

The auditions are held at venues across the provinces’ four districts: Bojanala District; Dr Ruth Segomtsi Mompati District; Ngaka Modiri Molema District and Dr Kenneth Kaunda District.

The auditions are followed by the grand finale event at Mmabana Taung Centre on 24 to 27 September 2015 where the districts auditions’ winners come head-on in a contest to determine the overall winners who will share the stage with some of the country’s biggest stars.

The Taung Cultural Calabash Festival is supported by the North West Department Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs, Mmabana Arts, Culture & Sports Foundation and the Department of Arts and Culture.

Audition details are as follows:

District

Date

Venues

Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District

15-Aug-15

Mmabana Taung

Bojanala District

22-Aug-15

Mmabana Rustenburg

Ngaka Modiri Molema District

29-Aug-15

Mmabana Mahikeng

Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District

05-Sep-15

Klerksdorp Recreation Centre
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taaung_DailyNews

MEC MASIKE SATISFIED WITH ROLE PLAYED BY GOVERNANCE STRUCTURES

NEWS Leave a comment

BY REGINALD KANYANE
North West Health MEC, Dr Magome Masike met with the Health Governance Structures from Ngaka Modiri Molema District on Friday to evaluate their performance.

Governance structures are established to advice the MEC on health service delivery matters, concerns of our communities and to represent communities’ views and input on health policy implementation.

They comprises of clinic committees, hospital boards, district health council and the provincial health council.

Commenting on the role played by governance structures since appointment in September 2012, MEC Masike has expressed satisfaction but emphasized the need to for the advisory panel not to only raise healthcare challenges but to also offer solutions.

Masike said he sees governance as an investment that was created to transform and develop communities.

“As we go through rationalization of health services and a change process that is often uncomfortable to a lot of people, you will be our link with communities and share with them our challenges and our intended plans to turn the situation around.

 “Though the current environment and impatience of our communities might be blamed, I often suspect their frustrations are further compounded by inadequate feedback.

“Ours has always been to ensure that our people indeed have affordable, accessible and community based health services,” he said.Motswedi

Clinic committee chairperson, Michael Moletsane welcomed the meeting with MEC Masike.

He urged the department to fast track training of nurses in the wake of growing population and demand for quality healthcare service delivery.

Moletsane called on fellow colleagues serving in various structures to embark on health promotion campaigns to help the department tackle lifestyle diseases.

He said the clinic council has collaborated with traditional authorities in Motswedi to drill a borehole in order to address challenges of water supply in the area.

Mosela Kaudi, acting Chief Directory of Ngaka Modiri Molema Health District commended governance structures in Deelpan.

The structure motivated for the department to erect a health post to be manned by a nurse in the area as the village is too big to be serviced only by a mobile clinic.

Masike said the people of the North West province will be best served if they influence policy decisions of government and have a say in the manner in which services should be delivered to them.

He urged governance to constantly engage in public participation and report community concerns to the department.

Masike will meet with Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Health Governance Structures on Friday, 21 August at the North West EMRS College in Orkney. Bojanala and Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati districts Governance Structures are scheduled to meet with MEC Masike on 25 August and 04 September 2015 respectively.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

‘Potchefstroom man died in shooting’

NEWS Leave a comment

BY REGINALD KANYANE
A man died after a shooting on Jeppe Street in Potchefstroom.

ER24 paramedics were alerted to the incident by security services and immediately responded.

ER24 spokesperson, Russel Meiring said paramedics found the body of the patient lying outside his vehicle in a pool of blood.

“On assessment, paramedics found that the man had sustained a gunshot wound to his head and was in a critical condition,” Meiring said.

Treatment and advanced life support was immediately performed on the patient to stabilise his vital signs.

He said the patient was transported to Medi-clinic in Potchefstroom where he was stabilised. “He was later airlifted to Medi-clinic Sandton for further treatment.

“The patient’s wife, who was with him at the time, did not sustain any injuries,” Meiring concludes.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

DA: Discrepancy hits Ventersdorp municipality’

NEWS Leave a comment

BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The Democratic Alliance in North West said the real reasons driving the implosion of the Ventersdorp Local Municipality was revealed during a North West Public Accounts Committee Public Hearing during which the Auditor General’s Report on the municipality was interrogated.

According to Chris Hattingh, the municipality is currently under administration and received its seventh consecutive Disclaimer Audit Opinion from the AG.

Hattingh said during the public hearing evidence that the municipality remains in a state of regression.

“That was presented and that issues identified in previous AG reports, (irregular, unauthorized and fruitless and wasteful expenditure) and recommendations were not only blatantly ignored but repeated year after year,” he said.

The AG reported:
∙That no audit evidence (documentation) could be submitted to audit a whole series of auditable areas: Property, Plant and Equipment; Inventory, Debtors, Revenue, Expenditure, Capital Commitments etc. 

∙That the claims made in applications of appointed officials were not verified before appointment and that job descriptions were not established for all posts in which appointments were made. 

∙That on average creditors are being paid 392 days after the service was delivered. 

∙That debt collection stand at 289 days. 

∙That 42% of electricity bought by the municipality is lost. 

∙That 95,4% of water purchased by the municipality is lost and cannot be accounted for. 

∙That conditional grants are being underspent and was forfeited to Treasury. (9,1%) 

Hattingh further added that evidence that officials prevented councillors to enter the municipal offices for months was also put forward as a reasons for the dysfunctionality of the municipality.

“It has become clear that the political instability in the council, the deployment of incompetent cadres into positions of authority can be regarded as the root problem of this failing municipality. 

“Only the acknowledgement of these facts can serve as a starting point to turn the municipality around. This should be followed by a skills and capacity audit, the training and capacitation of selected officials and the dismissal of officials appointed irregularly or on the basis of possible false qualifications or application forms.” 

According to Hattingh, ANC’s attempts to address the cadre deployment fiasco it created in Ventersdorp by an attempt to amalgamate Ventersdorp with Potchefstroom will fail as it will not address the root of the problem.

“The DA will use all resources to their disposal to stop the amalgamation and will approach the highest courts to stop the Demarcation Board in their quest to unite these two town. The DA will also not stop to inform the public of the problems in Ventersdorp and the wastage of tax payer’s money,” he concludes.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews
*NB: Our team’s attempt to get comment from ANC North West proved futile before going to print.

‘MEC urges communities to vote for North West Satma nominees,

NEWS Leave a comment

BY NALEDI BOGACWI
Nine traditional music acts from Bokone Bophirima are in line to win the coveted South African Traditional Music Achievement Awards following the announcement of nominees in Mahikeng over the weekend.

The nominations are in seven categories.

Leading the Provincial pack with four nominations is Nomtiti, who have been penciled for honours in the following categories: “Best Song of the Year” (Mofe Ngwanaka), Best Female Artist (album titled Kaditshwene), Best Traditional Group and Best SeTswana Album (Kaditshwene).

Satma Awards veteran, nimble-fingered Jazz ace Quincy K has been nominated for the Best African Jazz Song award for his Motswana gorileng.
Another pride of the Province, Cassper Nyovest, appears on the list for the Best Vernacular Hip Hop Song contestants for Doc Shebeleza.

In the Best SeTswana Album title race, the rest are Johnny Mokhali (Mpotse), Diragammu Cultural Group (Mahikeng) and Tswelelang (Richang).

Other nominations are: David Leshomo in the Best Praise Singer category and Kopano Ke Matla Traditional Group, contesting the Best Song of the Year award for Shwelane.

The Satma Awards will take place from October 2- 3 at the University of Zululand in eMpangeni, KwaZulu Natal.

Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs (Cata) MEC Ms Tebogo Modise has encouraged the people of Bokone Bophirima to cast their votes for the province’s nominated artists.

“This is our chance to make our artists shine on the national stage,” said MEC Modise.

“The Satmas are a critical launch pad for the careers of the artists who go on to win. For that reason only, let us get behind our groups and individual artists. The Department will soon be embarking on a campaign to promote the nominated artists for the public to vote for them. We will go to the people and campaign for these artists.”

To vote, sms Satma, the name of the artist and the category to 34066.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

‘Big Walk event will encourage healthy Life-style’

NEWS Leave a comment

BY REGINALD KANYANE
In an effort to encourage the communities to good health lifestyle, the North West department of Education and Sport Development embarked on a Big Walk which consisted of the 5km Walk, 10km Fun Run and the cycling activities held between Rustenburg and Phokeng Village on Saturday.

The Big Walk which was launched by the Education and Sport Development MEC, Maphefo Matsemela in 2014 at Omaramba to honour women in the Women’s Month. This year event attracted more than 1000 throngs of people from across the province.

Amongst the people and stakeholders who attended the event, were the SAMANCOR runners, 2015 Comrade Marathon Champion, Gift Kelehe, Royal Bafokeng Sports, IMPALA professional runners, Bojanala District municipality officials, MEC Maphefo Matsemela and many officials from the department.

She said the objective of the department about the Big Walk is to create awareness across the province about the importance of exercising to reduce the opportunistic diseases like heart attack, hypertension, obesity, etc. The games are a form of physical activity for improving the cardio-vascular system that is the heart, blood vessels and lungs.

“Our primary objective as the department is to ensure that the society at large is healthy at all times, we are having a mandate as government as sports to ensure that we keep the nation healthy.”

The National Sport and Recreational Plan document from the department has 3 pillars namely, ensuring that there is an active nation, healthy nation and an enabling environment. As a caring government we want to remind our communities about the importance of taking part in recreation activities.

“The former state President of the Republic of South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela said, Sports is a unifier. Now as a department we are excited that people from different backgrounds came together to make this day a success by participating in the fun run and also walking together. We hope that as you go back to your areas, you should continue to exercise”, said MEC Matsemela.

Gift Kelehe the Comrade Marathon Champion motivated the participants and highlighted the importance of exercising.

“Let us all take part in sports because it is very important to exercise, our body needs exercise all the time in order to avoid diseases. Currently our country has a problem of people suffering from cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, etc due to lack of exercising. I am appealing to all members of the community to take care of their bodies as their bodies will take care of them”, said Kelehe.

The participants who finished within the top 100 in both the 5km walk and 10km fun run were awarded with certificates to recognize their participation.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews

Supersport confirm Furman deal

NEWS Leave a comment


SuperSport United have announced the signing of Bafana Bafana midfielder Dean Furman on a two-year deal.

Furman left English Championship club Doncaster Rovers during the off-season but now comes to the PSL for the first time in his career. He also has the option of a third year on his SuperSport contract.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

Supersport confirm Furman deal

NEWS Leave a comment


SuperSport United have announced the signing of Bafana Bafana midfielder Dean Furman on a two-year deal.

Furman left English Championship club Doncaster Rovers during the off-season but now comes to the PSL for the first time in his career. He also has the option of a third year on his SuperSport contract.
For more http://www.kickoff.com

A man shot dead in armed robbery

NEWS Leave a comment

BY STAFF REPORTER
Potchefstroom- A 68-year-man was shot and killed by unknown suspects on Tuesday at around 05:45am.

Koos Van Der Leeuw was allegedly shot dead and the suspects drove off with a Subaru vehicle with no registration numbers.   

North West police spokesperson major Pelonomi Makau said: “It is alleged that one of the suspects approached a man who was about to do a cash transaction with the victim, at the abattoir in Potchefstroom Industria and demanded money. He was instructed to lie on the ground and an undisclosed amount of cash and his cellphone were allegedly taken from him,” she said.

Makau said four shots were allegedly fired towards Van der Leeuw and he was shot in the head.

The suspects fled the scene.

The victim was rushed to hospital for medical treatment.

“At first, a case of attempted murder and robbery was registered, later the charge was changed to murder, after the victim died in hospital. The police are continue with the search for the suspects and urge the members of the community to come forward with any information that can lead to the arrest of the suspects,” she said.  

Detective Warrant Officer Dry can be contacted on 082 411 2552.
-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews