BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

Banyana Banyana’s preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games are in full swing at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto.

The South African Women’s Senior National team is holding regular training camps to ensure the players are ready when the tournament kicks off in August.

“We have fallen behind in terms of fitness if you compare to when we played against Equatorial Guinea in October last year. Our main priority is to keep the fitness levels up. I am glad we are back early in the year so we can get those levels to the highest intensity and to grow even further so we can be fitter and stronger and be able to compete,” said Banyana Banyana head coach Vera Pauw.

On Tuesday, the players underwent tests conducted by the University of Pretoria.

“We are conducting these tests, which will be regular so we can ensure that we keep track and monitor the recovery rate of the players so that we know how much work load we need to put.

“When you don’t recover well, it affects your performance. So it is crucial that we get it right,” added Pauw.

On the playing personnel, goalkeeper Roxanne Barker has left her Iceland club to focus her attention on the preparations for the Olympics. The training programme is jam-packed and will require players to be available all the time.

“It’s nice to see such commitment and players willing to sacrifice so much to be part of the final squad. We have others who have taken leave at work and school and it gives one pleasure to see so much enthusiasm from the players. Many know that this is a once-in-a-life time opportunity,” said the coach.

Meanwhile midfielder Amanda Dlamini has missed the two camps in the new year due to family commitments.

“We would have loved her to be here with us but in this case, family comes first. We have given her a training programme that she is following so she can be active and is not left behind too much. But obviously, we would love her to be with us so that she is on par with the other players. She can only do that once she is ready, and we understand her situation,”concluded Pauw.
Banyana Banyana will break from camp on Friday, 29 January and return on Monday, 1 February.

NB: Only 18 (eighteen) players will be registered to play for the tournament. An additional 4 (four) will be accredited but will only feature in the competition if there is an injury to any of the 18. The four will travel, stay and train with the team during the tournament.

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

Pic: Minster Lindiwe Zulu addressing business persons in Taung

The highly successful national stakeholder consultation sessions that are currently underway across the country, are now entering the second leg. The department seeks to solicit inputs from its stakeholders on the review of the National Small Business Act, 1996 (Act Number 102 of 1996), read with the National Small Business Amendment Act, Number 26, 2004 as well as engage stakeholders on the proposed National Minimum Wage.

The stakeholder consultations started on Monday, the 25^th of January and will be concluded on the 5^th of February 2016. Already two-day sessions have been held in Durban, East London and Kimberley. The department is satisfied with the quality of inputs received over the last two days as well as the quality of participation. The department is confident that the views expressed and inputs received will contribute to the formulation of a position on the review of the National Small Business Act and the National Minimum Wage.

The venues and dates for the remaining stakeholder sessions are as follows:

DATES:  (Thursday and Friday, 28-29 JANUARY 2016)

·         Rustenburg (North West): Hunters Rest Resort, Rustenburg, Rustenburg/Krugersdorp Road, 12 km outside, 24th Ave, Rustenburg.

·         Umtata (Eastern Cape)-Venue: Hotel Savoy; Address: 912 Nelson Mandela Drive, Mthatha

·         Ladysmith (KZN)- Venue:  Royal Hotel, 140 Murchison Street,Ladysmith

·         Upington (Northern Cape)– Desert Palace Casino, 1 Olifantshoek Road, Keidebees, South Africa, Upington

DATES: (Monday and Tuesday, 1-2 FEBRUARY 2016)

·         Polokwane (Limpopo): Bolivia Lodge: Road R81, 600m From Mall of the North, Polokwane.

DATES: (Tuesday and Wednesday, 2-3 FEBRUARY 2016

·         Nelspruit (Mpumalanga): The Hotel Promenade CBD, Samora Machel Dr & Henshall Street

·         Cape Town (Western Cape): River Club in Observatory, Address: Observatory Rd, Observatory

·         Boksburg (Gauteng): Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo; No 14 View Point Road

DATES: (Thursday and Friday, 4-5 FEBRUARY 2016)

·         Bloemfontein (Free State): President Hotel & Conference Venue, 1 Union Avenue, Naval Hill

Registration in all sessions will start at 8:30.

The provincial consultations will culminate into a National Stakeholder Indaba on the review of National Small Business Amendment Act.     

Each consultation session takes place over two days. The first day is dedicated to the review of the National Small Business Act and the second day will focus on the National Minimum Wage.

The Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and KZN provinces have been allocated two sessions of two days each, given their sizes. This is meant to ensure that all the stakeholders are fully consulted. The rest of the other provinces will have a single session.

The review of the Act is aimed at ensuring that legislation relating to small businesses is developmental in its orientation and that it is in line with the current realities that confront small business. With regards to the proposed National Minimum Wage, the department seeks to give stakeholders an opportunity to make inputs on the proposed National Minimum Wage.

The following stakeholders are amongst those expected to attend: Micro businesses; Small businesses; Cooperatives enterprises; Small business chambers; Cooperative associations; Cooperative members; Labour; Academia; NGOs supporting cooperatives and small businesses; local and provincial government officials.

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

Last week, the uThekela municipality in KwaZulu-Natal announced that sixteen scholarships would be made available for sexually inactive students, as part of a programme called Maiden’s Bursary Awards.

Understandably, women’s rights groups have freaked the flip out, pointing out that there’s a whole host of stuff wrong with this notion.

They have raised the issue that there is no particular link between sexual activity and academic ability, that it silences dialogue around safe sex in a country with a severe HIV infection problem among teenage girls, that it targets only girls and allows boys to do whatever they like, and that it shames girls who legally engage in physical intimacy.

It is patriarchal tosh of the highest order.

For more http://www.enca.com

George Lebese of Kaizer Chiefs celebrates his goal during the 2015 MTN8 semifinal, second leg football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Bloemfontein Celtic at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 29, 2015 ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

JOHANNESBURG – Former Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates captain caught the wrong end of the stick on Twitter after his fiancé, Sizakele Manonga, broke up with him.

The retired footballer, who now works as a soccer commentator on Supersport, is alleged to have ended his relationship with Manonga after paying R200 000 lobola for her last year in July.

Manonga is formet Tau’s Kaizer Chiefs teammate George Lebese’s ex-girlfriend, who started seeing Tau after a public and violent break-up with Lebese. She is now rumoured to be dating one of the Major League DJ twins.

For more http://www.enca.com