Pretoria – Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe was booed as he approached the stage to receive a memorandum of understanding at an anti-corruption march in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Marchers gesticulated for him to go away.
Some blew whistles while others rolled their hands – a soccer signal for substitution.
The crowd drowned out Radebe as he tried to address them.
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BY REGINALD KANYANE
The North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Human Settlements led by Motlalepula Rosho has expressed serious concerns about the performance and continuous disclaimers by most of the municipalities under Ngaka Modiri Molema district.
The committee met with Mahikeng; Tswaing and DitsobotlaLocal municipalities, and Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality over their 2013-14 financial year audit findings and annual reports. The district municipality was placed under second administration in March this year.
The deputy business executive at the office of the Auditor-General, Schalla Van Schalk Wyk said that Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality received a disclaimer audit opinion in a year under review, with matters of emphasis on instability or high vacancy rate in key leadership and management positions. He said that key officials lack appropriate competencies and there is lack of consequences for poor performance and transgressions.
“Mahikeng local municipality received a qualified audit opinion on matters of emphasis on non-compliance with laws and regulations and lack of municipal commitment on addressing prior year audit findings,” Schalk Wyk said.
Rosho said that the committee was worried about continuous disclaimer audit opinions as the municipalities fail to provide the Office of the Auditor General with relevant audit evidence and documentation, and address audit findings.
“There is much instability as many officials in some of these municipalities are on acting capacities. Failure to present close-up reports from previous administrators in the district municipal council has worsened its performance and did not assist the new administrator to change the status quo,” she said.
“It is worrying that the administration team is not involved on investigations instituted by the Department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development (FEED) through PricewaterhouseCoopers and there has been failure to take action on fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure. We are also concerned about the role of the department of Local Government and Human Settlement and Department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development on failure to appear before the Committee to present a report on support given to municipalities.”
The Administrator of the district municipality, Nono Dince said the weekly audit steering meetings are aimed at addressing audit findings.
“The administration team will investigate the root causes of fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure and we will take action to recover amounts from the responsible officials. We will also develop a proper document management system and train supply chain management officials on laws, regulations and compliance,” Dince said.
The committee requested Mahikeng local municipality to submit a report on non-payments of councils and ward committees, and Tswaing local municipality should submit a progress report on handover report of previous administrators in the municipality. Ditsobotla local municipality provide close-up report and terms of reference of 2 previous administrations.
“During an interaction with these municipalities, we observed that senior managers including chief financial officers; municipal managers and administrators do not have relevant expertise which will change their situations and improve performances. In Mahikeng local municipality where the acting municipal manager has relevant qualifications, we are worried and not confident that the 3 he was allocated to change the situation is not adequate enough,” Rosho said.
-TDN
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BY REGINALD KANYANE
THE North West South African Police Service (SAPS) kick-started their annual SAPS National Netball Championships in Potchefstroom on Monday.
Provincial spokesperson, colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said: “The championship is held annually on a rotational basis, and the event will ends on Friday. The event is hosted at North West University in Potchefstroom campus. SAPS Netball Championships will be attended by participants from all nine SA provinces and Head Office,” he said.
Mokgwabone said that the acting provincial commissioner, Major General Jacob Tsumane wished the team all the best.
-TDN
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BY REGINALD KANYANE
The Bokone Bophirima Community Safety and Transport Management MEC Gaoage Molapisi says the destruction of public properties is not only a drawback but also serves to exacerbate service delivery challenges within some communities.
MEC Molapisi’s comment follows the torching of the clinic and three schools in Kopela village in the Tswaing Local Municipality Province during the service delivery protests.
“We condemn in the strongest term acts of criminality that are an affront to our democracy. We must all condemn these barbaric acts because they derail progress and development.
Those who have burned the clinic and schools are in serious trouble, our police will leave no stone unturned and must work very hard to arrest those responsible, charge them and prosecute. One major concern and the question that I ask myself is, ” where are the leaders including, community, church, parents and other scholars when their property is destroyed, what are they saying”? definitely we must set an example and this matter cannot go unabated” said Molapisi.
Members of the public who have information can approach SAPS or contact the Departmental Call Centre on this number: 0800 204 992.
-TDN
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Police Minister Nathi Nhleko and national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega on Tuesday released crime statistics for 2014/2015. Here are some interesting figures provided by Phiyega:
1. Approximately 5.3 million firearms are accounted for by around 2.4 million owners. “These figures include 61 162 naturalised foreign nationals in possession of 90 083 firearms. Over the past three financial years, we have issued 296 315 individual and business firearm licenses. We have destroyed 108 257 firearms over the past three years alone.
2. She said that police were still struggling to stem the surge of money moved illegally out of the country – in the review period a total of R10.8bn was illegally transferred.
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Johannesburg – Motorists heading into the Sandton CBD on Tuesday morning expressed their anger on social media about road closures and backed-up traffic during a dry run for the looming EcoMobility World Festival.
To make things worse, the afternoon peak was expected to see another dry run take place for the festival, set to start on Thursday and run until the end of October.
On Monday the City of Johannesburg released a statement forewarning the dry run, stating: “A dry run to test the efficiency of the traffic measures will be conducted during morning and afternoon peak hours on Tuesday September 29.”
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Johannesburg – Murders increased for the third year in a row in South Africa, according to crime statistics released by police on Tuesday.
“These are figures I would expect from a country at war,” DA MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard said.
She was commenting after national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega had presented the annual crime statistics to Parliament’s police portfolio committee.
“We cannot continue with this,” FF Plus MP Pieter Groenewald said.
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BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The 3rd Supadrift Series Extravaganza gave small businesses extra edge to succeed. The Sportainment was hosted by Department of Economy and Enterprise Development in partnership with Ultrapex Communications managed by Rolance Molapisi, drifter from Mahikeng from 25-26 September 2015 in the parking area of Mmabatho Stadium.
The initiative was part of departmental mandate to support the small business sector as one of trajectories of economic growth through encouraged job creation and economic inclusion initiatives.
MEC Wendy Nelson said: “By supporting Molapisi, we are inculcating the culture of entrepreneurship with a possibility of aspiring young entrepreneurs being exposed not only to driving in this crowd pulling sporting activity, but exposure to opportunities in the niche markets of mechanization and textile industries within the sporting arena.”
Nelson further added that the event further provided a platform to activate vibrant economy for the realization of the Mahikeng Rebranding, Repositioning and Renewal Plan (MRRRP) as was launched by premier Supra Mahumapelo earlier this year to put Mahikeng back in the spotlight as the capital city of Bokone Bophirima.
Addressing people of Mahikeng and visitors from other places who were full of excitement, Nelson said that the partnership was forged to mitigate the challenges of youth unemployment and to showcase that government can work closely with entrepreneurs with the view of improving ordinary life of our communities in general.
The crowd puller sport brought the spinoffs to trickle down entrepreneurs both in the formal and informal business sectors, and thus created direct economic benefit through consumables.
“Young people should take advantage of available skills in areas of mechanics, driver development, textile and related activities which cannot be ruled out”.
Nelson said that the event can also be considered as a composite sector that contributes to hospitality, tourism and transport.
Young aspiring entrepreneur like Naledi Tsetse,33, and a mother of 3 residing in Motlhabeng village were afforded an opportunity to sell food and fizzy drinks during the event.
Naledi was the owner of the gazebo that was selling food daily in Mmabatho Stadium parking lot.
According to department, she started her business three years ago with Lesley Tlholatlung from Rooigroond.
They sold pap and meat to government employees and taxi drivers during lunch time.
“We have not yet registered a company but after making a profit of R1000 in a day we are surely going to accept the assistance from the department to register a cooperative so that we can formalise our business and make more money for our kids” Naledi said.
Nelson also urged young people to use untapped opportunities like this kind of an event to come up with innovative initiatives that can enable them to venture into and participate in the mainstream economy of the province without re-inventing the wheel.
“We have also established an economic empowerment fund to assist qualifying enterprises with equipments and raw material and to date we have offered assistance to approximately 30 businesses inclusive of women and young people across all the sectors,” she said.
-TDN
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BY REGINALD KANYANE
A rape case against a 46 year-old man was postponed until October 28 after he appeared before Taung Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
SGB chairperson of a primary school in Lokaleng village, near Taung was subsequently arrested in connection of raping a 10 year-old girl.
It is alleged that the rape took place at the man’s house in April and it was only reported recently.
He was granted a R1000 bail and will be back in court in October.
-TDN
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BY REGINALD KANYANE
NORTH West provincial government said that they will continue to build a relationship with the Botswana, and put in place few projects that will benefit both countries.
MEC for Department of Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs Tebogo Modise said that South Africans and Batswana people from the Republic of Botswana, must be inspired to write about events of the past and work together towards uniting the two nations.
Modise said this on Saturday in Gaborone, where she was representing North West premier Supra Obakeng Ramoeletsi Mahumapelo during the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the 1985 June 14 raid in Gaborone.
Speaking at the commemoration which was attended by amongst others, survivors of that horrendous night in Gaborone, which included Nathaniel Mooketsi Serache and Abel Masifi from Mahikeng, and Moitse Botshelo from Gaborone, MEC Modise said information on the history of our liberation struggle must be documented for future generation.
“In the spirit of preserving our heritage, we must retrace the steps, highlight the memorable events of the apartheid regime, and ensure that stories of South Africa and Botswana are properly told,” Modise said.
She deeply thanked people from Botswana for their sacrifices and selfless support to South Africans during the struggle for freedom.
Dignitaries who attended the commemoration visited the Gaborone Cemetery in Extension 14 where Modise was joined by the South African High Commissioner to Botswana Mdu Lembede in laying wreaths in memory of the fallen heroes and heroines.
Most of the freedom fighters who were in exile are buried in this cemetery.
Narrating his ordeal to those in attendance, Nathaniel Mooketsi Serache who survived the June 14 attack when the then South African Defence Force (SANDF) crossed the borders illegally and indiscriminately attacked innocent people in Gaborone, leaving 12 South Africa and Botswana nationals dead and scores seriously injured, said 1985 was the year that Botswana really demonstrated its undivided support to South Africans.
“I am lucky to have survived that dreadful attack as the house I was sleeping in that night was bombed, and that nothing was left of it except rubbles. As a result of that, I am often referred to as the one who rose from the dead.” Serache said.
He said that Botswana was at the forefront of making sure that South Africa is liberated, and assisted some of them to get the best medical treatment ever.
The Executive Mayor of the City of Gaborone, Cllr Kagiso Thutlwe said Botswana was proud to have played a significant role in the fight against apartheid, and that through this commemoration, people from these two countries must be more united and tolerant towards one another.
These sentiments were shared by the Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders in Botswana, Kgosi Gaborone, who said it was important to revisit the history of the struggle, and draw inspiration from the courage of those who died while in exile.
The 30th commemoration of the Gaborone June 14 raid was attended by amongst others, South African High Commissioners to other SADC countries, Ambassadors, and the delegation from the North West Province led by MEC Tebogo Modise.
-TDN
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The Guardian 