Pic: (Prisoner’s cell)

BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

A 35 year-old man was sanctioned to 25 years for raping his cousin. Alfonso James Visser raped his cousin, 20 at Sunrise near, De Aar on November 2016. Northern Cape police spokesperson, Lt Colonel Dimakatso Mooi said Visser appeared at De Aar Regional Court recently. She said the perpetrator’s cousin was from a party and came home late at night under the influence of alcohol.

“Visser who stays in the same house with the victim, found her asleep and raped her. The victim woke up and caught Visser busy raping her. She called for help and the accused was arrested and charged with rape,” she said.

Mooi further said the provincial management welcomed the sentence and applauds the investigating team for a job well done.

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BY REGINALD KANYANE

NORTH West premier, Supra Mahumapelo along with MEC for education and sport development department, Sello Lehari will host a dialogue session with SGB chairpersons and principals at Rustenburg Civic Centre in Rustenburg on Friday.

The department of education spokesperson, Freddy Sepeng said: “This is an effort to improve the matric results. We also want to push the province to the top position. We will host a dialogue session with School Governing Bodies Chairpersons and the School Principals for all schools across the province.”

Sepeng said the primary objective of the meeting is for Mahumapelo to interact with school management in terms of 2017 academic year activities.

“Mahumapelo has called this meeting to come and personally thank the school management for their contribution in the Rebranding, Repositioning and Renewal of the Bokone Bophirima. The outcome of the National Senior Certificate is an indication of the hard work and commitment of men and women under their leadership in schools,” he said.

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BY REGINALD KANYANE

North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo has commended Eskom for reaching its 2016/17 target of connecting electricity to citizens of the province.

Mahumapelo addressing the media alongside the Premier’s Infrastructure Coordinating Committee Meeting (PICOCO) held at Cookes Lake, Mahikeng on Tuesday.

He further also applauded Eskom for its hard work.

“We have received an update from Eskom about the progress they are making as far as electricity connectivity is concerned and I must say it was impressive. Eskom has put a lot of work in making sure that more and more people in our province benefit from the electrification programme and they are way ahead of the target they have set for themselves,” Mahumapelo said.

Eskom has targeted to electrify 19 285 houses in the province for 2016/2017.

“So far, they have managed to connect 18 007, leaving 1 278 in the province. This means Eskom is well within their target as they will have completed the 19 285 by the end of March 2017 according its North West Regional Manager,” he said.

Eskom is currently cutting electricity for municipalities which owe them money. Five municipalities in the province where affected. Mahumapelo cited that he has established a Task team led by the MEC for Local Government and Human Settlement, Fenny Gaolaolwe and the MEC for Finance Economy and Enterprise Development, Wendy Nelson to assist the struggling municipalities.

“We have set up a task team in December last year to deal with the challenge of electricity debts and so far the team has made interventions in assist struggling municipalities to make payment plans working with Eskom.

“The municipalities affected by the cut offs is only Naledi and NW 405 Local Municipality. However, the team is currently working with Eskom to come up with an amicable solution to the challenges in these municipalities,” he explained,” he said.

Mahumapelo added that indicators show that residents in the communities do not pay electricity which makes many municipalities to end up accumulating huge debts.

MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements, Fenny Gaolaolwe has urged municipalities to pay ESKOM because the provincial government will take strict and decisive action on municipalities failing to pay their debts.

“We call upon all our people and the municipalities to pay for their electricity to avoid unnecessary blackouts. Eskom is not playing, it will cut off electricity if we do not pay our bills on time,” she said.

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