The death toll in an accident in which dozens of young women were killed in Swaziland has risen to 65.
Daily Archives: August 29, 2015
Pupil arrested after stabbing at school fundraiser
A 20-year-old pupil has been arrested after a teenager was stabbed to death, following an argument over a cap.
Tshepong Hospital helps in reducing burns
BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
TSHEPONG Hospital Provincial Burns Unit now provides holistic burns patients’ treatment and clinical support. The move is to ensure that family involvement in their care within the province. This was a clinical approach to treatment and management of burns.
According to Matron Pontsho Sepato, Operational Manager in Burns unit at the hospital, the outreach comes amid high number of burns admissions during winter.
Sepato said they experience more burns during winter season. She said this year alone, 67 patients were admitted as compared to last year where 73 patients were admitted.
“This shows that the remarkable reduction in terms of burns prevention which can be attributed to our aggressive Burns outreaches of the 67 admissions of 21 (children), 19 (females) and 27 (Males adults). The main cause for this burns are open flame, water followed by electricity. Candle Light, Heating and cooking equipment are the number one cause of home fire injuries/burns,” she said.
Sepato said some of those who were admitted had the degree and extent of burns seen ranges from Superficial to Full Thickness.
“We are proud to announce that despite the fact that this is a high risk unit, there were no infection outbreaks, patients from 40-63% with deep partial to full thickness burns walked out of the ward alive,” she said.
According to Sepato, now patients spend almost 18 days at the centre compared to previous length of 24 days. She highlighted that the unit is doing exceptionally well in terms of Clinical treatment and advance material used such as Biobrane.
A 36 year-old man, Josiah Motlhanke from Rustenburg who was admitted at the hospital a month ago (6 July 2015) said: “I was at my neighbour’s house enjoying myself by drinking few beers. I was freezing and decided to go to my place and sat next to a stove heater to warm myself. I did not realize that I caught fire. I went outside and try to extinguish the fire on my leg. I screamed for help, and people came to my rescue,” said Josiah. He advised people to take serious precautionary measure regarding fire, and more especially when they are under the influence of alcohol.
Sepato said as part of outreach programme, the Burns Unit recently hosted its annual clinical Burns symposium to share with other health professionals the best practices in burns clinical interventions on first contact and the discharged of burns patients to avoid the long after effect of the burns. “This has helped a lot to ensure proper referral pattern for burned patients from clinics and district hospitals in the province, and adherence to guidelines and protocol for treatment and management of burned patients which drastically reduced the unnecessary deformities and dependents,” she said.
Sepato said: “The symposium indeed helped minimized burned patients transferred unnecessarily to the unit as they can be managed across the province.”
-TDN
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‘North West Fire Fighters fly SA flag high in Canada’
BY REGINALD KANYANE
THE First group of the 48 South African fire fighters were welcomed back home on Monday and received overwhelming praises from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) for their high work ethic whilst they were part of international wildland fire fighting teams, fighting multiple fires in Canada during July and August.
The two North West fire-fighters could not held their excitement and willing to share their experience. Tsholofelo Lorekang, 30, from Vaalkop in Rustenburg, and Julius Saibok were part of the 48 crew members who were made up of participants from the South African Working on Fire programme and have been in Canada, since the 21 July 2015 as part of a resource sharing arrangement between Canadian fire fighting agencies and South Africa.
Following their first two weeks in Canada, CIFFC released a positive Crew Performance Report which lauded amongst others, South Africans for their physical fitness, productivity, health and safety and mopping up operations.
“When they arrived in Canada we knew already that the South African training standards and qualifications were verified against the Canadian, USA, Mexico, Australian and New Zealand systems and our training was way up there, being compatible with international standards.
“Our upbeat and always happy South African crew with their song and dance have been well received in Canada and have even appeared in the local and national media as well as on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. We have set positive example to the local and international crews on how to build strong morale and teamwork,” Lorekang said.
Provincial spokesperson for Working On Fire organisation, Patricia Maneelo said: “Our crew is excited to be returning back home and once they have spent some time with their families they will be re-joining their respective Working on Fire teams throughout the country. All of them have expressed their joy at having been able to assist Canada with their wildfires and have described their journey as having changed their perspectives on live in general, but they have also learned a lot whilst having been over there,” she said.
Julius Saibok, 25, said it was an eye-opening experience. “I was inspired by my background. In Mamusa, near Schweizer Reneke there is a Fire Fighters’ centre, so I always visited them and enrolled afterwards. I am armed with Safety Representative and Advanced Induction certificate,” Saibok said.
-TDN
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Adopt-A-Cop initiative to curb crime at schools
Picture: (Police found dead)
BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
THE North West Education and Sport Development said the issue of school safety is a major concern at all levels of government. The Department of Education and Sport Development mobilized Department of Community Safety and Transport Management as well as South African Police Services to collectively declare to respond proactively and intervene when adverse situations of crime are present in schools.
This declaration was made at Vaal Reefs Technical High School recently when all three provincial departments agreed on linking of all public schools to local police stations, allocating a police officer per individual school (Adopt-a-Cop) and establishment of functional school safety committees in all the schools.
Addressing the issue of protocol, all structures agreed to work together and mobilize communities to fight crime and violence in schools.
North West Education spokesperson, Elias Malindi said the notion was also supported by local municipality (Matlosana municipality), School Governing Body (SGB), National Interfaith Council of Southern Africa (NICSA) and House of Traditional leaders in which they shared school safety non-negotiables comprising of availability of school safety policy, learner’s code of conduct, emergency plans supervision schedule of learners and implementation of school based anti crime and violence programmes.
Pudimoe cluster police spokesperson, Sergeant Tebogo Thebe said, the adopt a cop initiative helps a lot as each cop is appointed to head each school. “If there is anything that need police intervention, the school will call the cop they working closely with. But if the matter needs thorough investigations, then the law will take its cause. Adopt a cop initiative also works with local organisations in alerting the pupils about the drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and other issues that affect them daily,” Thebe said.
National Interfaith Council of Southern Africa (NICSA) co-ordinator in the province, David Olefile Morwaagae said: “Adopt-a-cop initiative is part of quality learning and teaching campaign structure (QLTC), and bears fruitful results. It is now easy for pupils to communicate with various structures if there is any concern they need to attend to. We also capacitated the use of social workers to help all pupils who need attention as some of the pupils are from child-headed families,” Morwaagae said.
-TDN
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Zeerust man sought after murder
BY REGINALD KANYANE
A 27 years-old man is sought after a murder case. According to the North West police, the incident happened on the 31st July 2015, at Gatego Guest House in Zeerust. North West police spokesperson, col Sabata Mokgwabone said the suspect allegedly worked as a security guard before the incident happened.
“Police request anyone who might have any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspect to come forward. The investigating officer in this case is Cst B I Dithate from Zeerust Detective Service. Those who would like to contact investigating officer can call Cst Dithate on 018-642 8020 / 063 248 0734,” Mokgwabone said.
-TDN
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Presidency warns of fake Zuma Facebook account
Johannesburg – The Presidency has warned people of a fake Facebook account purporting to be that of President Jacob Zuma.
“The president does not have a personal Facebook account,” spokesperson Bongani Majola said in a statement on Saturday.
“The official Facebook page of the Presidency is:https://www.facebook.com/PresidencyZA.”
The Gauteng provincial government also warned of a fake Facebook account said it belong to Premier David Makhura.
For more http://www.news24.com
Sit-in at Rhodes University over transformation – report
Johannesburg – The Black Student Movement (BSM) is staging a sit-in at Rhodes University’s council chambers in Grahamstown.
This was reportedly over the failure of transformation at the university, according to theSABC.
The BSM has accused the university of not taking racism incidents seriously.
Allegations of racism surfaced after a white student allegedly called another the k-word on social media, according to the SABC.
For more http://www.news24.com
Bok team ‘most representative ever selected’
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Cape Town – The Springbok Rugby World Cup team named on Friday has been hailed “the most representative team that has ever been elected”, Cosatu said on Saturday.
The trade union federation’s provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich in a statement applauded the selections.
“Cosatu claims this as a victory for workers and a victory for transformation in rugby in South Africa. This is a move in the right direction,” he said.
For more http://www.news24.com
A child died after drowning in Vryburg
BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
A 18 month-old baby allegedly drowned in Huhudi township, near Vryburg on Friday.
According to North West police, a grandmother of the deceased was doing laundry at her house and the baby was playing in the yard with other children.
North West police spokesperson, sergeant Kelebogile Moleko said, a case of inquest has been opened and investigation is underway.
“Police are investigating a case of inquest after an 18-month-old baby died. It is alleged that the baby fell into a bath and was found few minutes after drowning.
“The grandmother to the child was doing laundry at her house while the kid was playing around with others. The kid allegedly fell into the washing basin without anyone noticing and police are investigating a case of inquest,” she said.
-TDN
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