THE NORTH West University has embarked on a consultation process to get the views of the students on how they want to elect their student representative council (SRC).

University spokesperson, Koos Degenaar, said that this will help the university to get what the students want.

“We have sent out short messages services (sms) to all our students in three campuses. We want to get their views on what suitable method can be used to elect student leaders. University Management and Student Leaders would like to hear their opinions through consultation process.

“Vice-chancellor, Prof Dan Kgwadi and the management came up with this consultation process as part of transformation. There is a link to follow and let their voices to be heard. This is a new approach, and is part of restructuring process at the university,” Degenaar said.

He pointed out that the initiative did not come up as a response to the arson that happened in February this year.

The administration block and science centre were burnt to ashes after students reportedly went berserk in protest of the disbandment of the student leadership structure.

The damage was valued at R150m.

Students have been calling for transformation at the North West University. They said the inequality amongst three campuses, namely; Vaal, Potchefstroom and Mafikeng campuses should come to an end.

According to the students, they want Afrikaans to be substituted as medium of communication at Potchefstroom campus and be replaced by English. They also mentioned that infrastructure at two campuses, Vaal and Mafikeng needs to meet the same standard at Potchefstroom.

International Relations honours student at NWU Mafikeng campus, Sindiswa Maduma said: “I do not think political parties must partake into SRC elections at the tertiary level after what happened at NWU Mafikeng campus. Students politics need to be disassociated from streamline political parties. I think the students will learn from what happened and make unambiguous choices.”

Political analyst from University of Free State, Dr Sethulego Matebesi said: “Politics will always be part of churches and universities whether we like it or not. The university students play a significant role in our politics. Tertiary institutions politics are the most vibrant areas compare to mainstream politics.

“However I foresee the point where students will be publicly insulting each other at the universities. The politics changes behaviour of political affiliated students. So it will be very difficult to isolate university politics to political parties,” Dr Matebesi said.

-TDN

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BY REGINALD KANYANE

PUPILS from schools around Klerksdorp received tips on effective ways to prevent, mitigate and respond to the impact of disasters like an earthquake.

The local government and human settlements in North West together Matlosana local municipality’s disaster management centre rolled out the campaign to pupils on Monday.

Department spokesperson, Ben Bole said that pupils were taught about the causes of disasters like dolomite, earthquake and sinkholes.

The campaign reached out to four schools which were hit hard by earthquake in August 2015. Vuyanimawethu, Borakanelo Secondary Schools, Khayalethu and Selang-Thuto Primary Schools were affected during a tremor that hit the area about two years ago.

Matlosana disaster management centre representative, Collen Mofokeng together with Selebogo Molusiwa from Mahikeng local municipality took time to educate pupils on precautionary measures that needed to be taken during an earthquake.

“Stilfontein is immensely built under a dolomitic rock.  So we must replace leaking taps and drainage systems to prevent dolomite from getting water as it will cause sink holes,” Molusiwa said.

Pupils were given leaflets and posters of evacuation plan as well as information on how to prevent sinkholes. They were also given a clear under understanding on what dolomite was and what to do during disaster.

Bole said: “Almost two years ago, the province experienced an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale with a depth of 10km. Orkney was the epicentre. Thirteen houses were completely evacuated as a result of the earthquake. Ten houses in Stilfontein, two in Khuma Location and one at Dinokana village, in Ramotshere Moiloa local municipality were also affected.

“The Provincial Executive Committee declared the Dr Kenneth Kaunda district a provincial earthquake disaster in terms of Section 41 of the Provincial Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 which is administered through the department’s Provincial Management Disaster Centre,” he said.

-TDN

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THE ANC has called for calm as nomination of councillor candidates hot up in all wards across the province.

This came after some party members in Matsheng village, near Taung, tried to elbow out incumbent councillor Ebusang Tladi on allegations that he did not stay in their ward.

Tladi is nominated for re-election in the August 3 local government elections.

One party member who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Our current councillor, Ebusang Tladi does not stay in Matsheng village anymore. He relocated to Matolong village, in Taung two years ago. So we oppose his nomination.”

However, another ANC member from dissimilar faction said: “We support Tladi’s nomination. People love him and they can easily relate to him. Whether he stays in our area or not, that does not matter. He was born here and we regard him as our child.”

Councillor Tladi told The NewAge newspaper that there are factions within his ward. He was under duress that is why he relocated.

“I can confirm that yes, I stay in Matolong village because I have divorced. So we had personal challenges with my wife and we decided to part ways. However I am always in Matsheng and I attend meetings there.

“We are still going through divorce process and it is taking long. Matsheng village is my hometown. I was born and bred here, so I will never leave this place. However I will come back to the area after divorce process is completed,” Tladi said.

Some argue that Tladi’s divorce process was processed back in 2012 though.

ANC in Dr Ruth Mompati region called for calmness in the area. Regional co-ordinator, Pontsho Kgosieng said they were not aware of the situation unfolded.

“We call for tranquillity and tolerance within our members ahead of nation local government elections. We will investigate the matter and if we found that any of our candidates has misled the party, he/she will face disciplinary hearing.

“As the ANC we call for our members to refrain from using dirty tactics against other members. We do not want to reach the point where things resort to infights. We also want to encourage our members to refrain from faction because all that reflects bad on the party itself. We will launch investigations against Tladi because according to IEC a nominee needs to stay at the ward he/she contesting to be eligible,” Kgosieng said.

Meanwhile ANC in North West said they will not tolerate the fact that the ANC meetings be marred with violence. Some of ANC members were gunned down which their deaths were politically related.

Provincial secretary, Dakota Legoete said: “We call for peace and harmony within our members. We need to deal with our differences in a sober manner. The party is eyeing to win the local government elections and we are ready. Everyone is allowed to raise their views and it is not wrong to differ. In ANC we allow freedom of speech, and we want our members to follow proper channels in raising their views to avoid in-fights.”

Courtesy- The NewAge Newspaper

-TDN

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Picture: (Books in a warehouse) from internet

BY REGINALD KANYANE

EDUCATION and sport development MEC, Wendy Matsemela, reacted with anger after learning material was found in a locked warehouse in Mahikeng.

The MEC strongly warned one of distributors indicating that the department would not allow service providers to sabotage the department’s operations.

Though the material was deemed surplus, Matsemela took exception that nothing had been brought to the department’s attention.

The learning and teaching material was deemed to have been for the 2015 academic year.

“The department has an agreement with distributors and warehouses to safely store learning materials. However we informed them to notify the department if there are surplus materials left. In this particular instance, the distributor did not notify the department of this. We were notified by the whistleblower.

“I was very surprised to hear about the surplus material being locked in the warehouse from the whistleblower. It is not our standing arrangement with the distributors. We launched investigations and indeed found that the material was locked in the warehouse,” she said.

Matsemela added that they were grateful that the material has been recovered.

The material was removed from the warehouse and stored at Ngaka Modiri Molema district education offices.

The MEC quickly allayed concerns that failure of the material to reach schools could have jeopardised learning and teaching.

“We can further confirm that this surplus material did not affect the curriculum delivery in our schools. Furthermore, the department condemns the actions of the distributor. We have reprimanded the affected distributor accordingly,” she said.

-TDN

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BY REGINALD KANYANE

Democratic Alliance said they will no longer tolerate the bias and unethical conduct of North West Provincial Legislature, Susana Dantjie. This came about after DA and the EFF walked out of the North West Provincial Legislature sitting yesterday. They accused the Speaker for denying them their right to participate in proceedings.

DA provincial leader, Joe McGluwa said all motions and member statements were unilaterally removed from the order paper by the ANC Chief Whip, Hofman Galeng.

“We asked for intervention based on Rule 114 of the North West Provincial Standing Rules. This rule allows for the scheduling of the programme prior to sittings by all parties involved, but the removal of items from the order paper were never discussed when the committee met on the April 15.

“The sitting scheduled for various departments to debate budget votes just became another case where the ANC government blatantly ignored the rules and enforced their own agenda by sheer numbers,” McGluwa said.

He said according to Rule 46 (3) of the House rules, parties are allowed to rise and extend condolences and congratulations or address important issues of the day in member statements.

“When the DA requested the Speaker to overrule the ANC Chief Whip’s decision, the Speaker responded that the House agreed with Galeng’s advice and that statements would only be allowed again after the Local Government Elections in August.

“The DA believes that motions and member statements are imperative tools for the opposition to voice their opinions through Legislative channels. We have a constitution that guarantees that every person be treated with dignity and equality. We must treasure our constitution, protect it so it can protect us,” he said.

McGluwa said the prohibition for them to debate is undemocratic. He said that was confirmed on Tuesday that the ANC stifles any debate.

The Sergeant of Arms was called in to remove the DA Leader, Joe McGluwa.

“The DA can assure our communities that we will not be intimidated by the ANC. We will stop at nothing to ensure the legislature remains transparent. It is the right of voters to have the public representatives they elected to act on their behalf on issues that impact their daily lives,” he said.

However, ANC Chief Whip, Hoffman Galeng refuted the DA’s claims. He regarded EFF and DA’s move as cheap political stunt.

Galeng said: “North West provincial legislature Rule 114 says the programming committee shall consist of the speaker, deputy speaker, and leader of government business, the chairperson of committees, the chief whip of the house and the whip of each opposition party. Now it also states that the motions that need to be discussed should be sent to the chief of the majority party before 12pm.

“Now DA provincial chief whip, Jacqueline Theologo sent the motions at 16:50. So as the Chief Whip of the legislature, the rules allow me to decide whether we proceed with motions raised or not. Rule 46 says every motion requires notice, except a motion by way of amendment to a draft Resolution permitted in terms of these Rules,” Galeng said.

-TDN

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BY REGINALD KANYANE

DEMOCRATIC Alliance leader in North West, Joe McGluwa celebrated Freedom Day with the community of Lomanyane village, near Mahikeng on Wednesday. McGluwa said 22 years ago, the nation took a bold step into the new dawn of a democratic of South Africa. He said this day brought hope that the country would one day realise total liberation for all South Africans.

“The aim is to make South Africa a country of freedom, opportunity and prosperity. We want each South African to be the master of his/her own destiny. Let today be very significant and a day to remember.

“This is the day which heralded in our constitutional democracy. Democrats, as we celebrate this historic day, we agree that South Africa today is better than the South Africa prior to 1994. We have made considerable strides as a nation,” McGluwa said.

He said it astonishes that each and everyone has contributed to this success. McGluwa said indeed South Africans were amazing. He said all generations, ethnicities and genders played a foremost role in contributing to this success.

“Democrats, we should also be reminded that 22 years later, progress has been made. But it is not enough. Freedom was fought for and won, but freedom cannot be seen in North West as the majority of the people still live in abject poverty.

“Our constitution is under siege by the African National Congress. The corruption that is so endemic in the ANC is eating away at the gains that we have amassed. In the process, no one in the ANC seems to realise how wrong this is. Or they do, but they choose Zuma and his side- kick Mahumapelo over the constitution and over the people of South Africa,” he said.

McGluwa said in March 2016, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that President Jacob Zuma failed to uphold, defend, and respect the constitution as supreme law of land. He said this was in relation to the Public Protector’s report on the building of his sprawling palace in Nkandla.

McGluwa said Zuma was found to have unduly benefited from the public purse. He said Zuma supported by his drum majorettes, the ANC caucus in parliament as well as provincial chapters of the ANC and their senior leaders, most notably North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo.

“They disregarded the Public Protector’s report and sought to ridicule her. The Court unanimously judged that remedial action ordered by the Public Protector cannot be ignored without legal consequence.

“However Zuma should have challenged the report through a judicial process before disregarding it. He continues to undermine this judgment as if nothing has happened. What we have just seen is a less than genuine apology from the President and laughable letters of reprimand to some of his drum majorettes.

“Fellow Democrats, last year the ruling party laid the red carpet for a wanted criminal, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, who is wanted for crimes against humanity. Calls were made for the arrest of this fellow, but the ANC government refused to arrest him despite being a signatory to the Rome Statutes and having a legal obligation to arrest Al Bashir,” McGluwa said.

-TDN

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BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

A 25-YEAR-OLD man was arrested after dagga weighing more than 3kg found at his house in Alheit, near Kakamas yesterday. Northern Cape police spokesperson, Lieutenant Sergio Kock said the police received tip-off from member of the community.

“He was arrested by Kakamas police at around 11pm. The Visible Policing unit searched the suspect’s house and found several bags of dagga in his bedroom. The dagga weighs 3.639kg with a street value of R18 200.

“The suspect was charged for dealing with dagga and is expected to appear in the Kakamas Magistrate’s Court soon. The investigation continues,” Kock said.

-TDN

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A R17 million fraud trial against the former chief financial officer at North West University’s (NWU) Mahikeng campus is expected to resume on Monday.

Bradley Freeman and two others allegedly defrauded the Edu Loan scheme of more than R10 million.

The three accused Bradley Freeman, Gert Freeman and Fred Freeman are facing 34 counts of fraud, 5 money laundering and several charges of corruption.
 
Most of their valuable goods, including luxurious vehicles and houses were since repossessed by the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), while others were auctioned off.

The prosecuting authority has so far recovered an amount of R5.2 million.
Source- SABC

Durban – A police officer, who was also a taxi boss, was killed in Mbumbulu on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Monday.

Hawks provincial spokesperson, Lieutenant Simphiwe Mhlongo, said Warrant Officer Andries ‘Boy’ Zungu had been in an unmarked vehicle when he was “ambushed” by a group of men.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Courtesy: Kruger National Park

-TDN

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