JOHANNESBURG –  Parliament has confirmed that former transport minister Dipuo Peters tendered her resignation as its member.

Peters was removed from her position as transport minister during the recent cabinet reshuffle.

She was replaced by Joe Maswanganyi, a former MEC of Sports, Arts and Culture in Limpopo.

More on this story to follow

– eNCA

(Picture: By Reginald Kanyane)

The statue of the late freedom fighter John Beaver “JB” Marks should benefit the economy of Ventersdorp through tourism. This is the view of Bokone Bophirima Premier, Supra Mahumapelo, who unveiled the six metre bronze statue of JB Marks last weekend.

“The Local Municipality of NW 405 … please make sure that you develop a programme that will ensure that South Africans and the world know about this heritage site.

When the people come here please tell them about the struggles of South Africa led by freedom fighters such as uncle JB Marks,” Mahumapelo said during the unveiling ceremony of the JB Marks statue. The history of the Tshing township and the Ventersdorp town should form part of the history lessons shared with the tourists, he said.

The Premier said for the country to successfully preserve its history, the current generation must package it accordingly and tell it like it is to the coming generations and the world.

“As the current generation we must make sure that we get older and younger people to work together in packaging our history and culture in a creative and interesting way.

We need to get on board young people into the tourism sector, arts and culture to do book writing, singing and acting more about our freedom fighter who has sacrificed a lot for this country,” he said, emphasizing that this work alone would create jobs for the locals.

Executive Mayor of Ventersdorp/Tlokwe NW 405 Local Municipality, Kgotso Khumalo, said his municipality will indeed use the statue to promote tourism in the municipality.

“I believe that this statue will create opportunities for many of our people in the municipality because of the tourists from different parts of the world.

The hospitality industry will get even better because of this magnificent statue of uncle JB Marks,” he said. Khumalo said the statue will even play a huge part in uniting the people of different colour in an area previously characterized by racism.

Asked about proposals to rename the merged Ventersdorp/Tlokwe NW 405 Local Municipality the JB Marks Local Municipality, Khumalo said the process that involves public participation was still underway and should be given a chance.

“The process of changing the name of the municipality is a sensitive matter and it must therefore be treated with care in consultation with the masses of our people in this municipality. We are currently in the consultation process and our people are throwing in different names. Once the process is done we will be able to tell the public our final name before July this year,” he said.

Moipone Tomeletso, a resident of Tshing Township, said her biggest wish is for the statue to create the much needed employment for local young people.

“We welcome the statue in our area. It is encouraging and making us understand the importance of this democracy and that great people like uncle JB Marks came out of our dusty small town.

“My hope is that this heritage site will create more opportunities for the majority of us young people because unemployment and poverty is unacceptably high here,” she said.

She urged the municipality to create hype about the statue so that investors can also be attracted to build big infrastructure projects such as hotels and malls in their area.

Source: http://www.semphete.co.za 

BY REGINALD  KANYANE
NEWLY-appointed minister, Joe Maswanganyi will officially activate the 2017 Road Safety and Law Enforcement Easter Operations. 

Maswanganyi will be joined by MEC for community and transport managememt, Dr Mpho Motlhabane during the event that is scheduled to take place in the Rustenburg Municipality.

They will be joined by Faith-Based Organisations who will conduct prayers in four different areas identified as accident hotspot areas.

“Eight people recently collided with a cement truck on the N4 road. The activation of the Road Safety and Law Enforcement Operations is an annual campaign aimed at intensifying road safety education and increasing traffic officers’ visibility on the roads. 

“The operations are meant to reduce road accidents and fatalities across all major roads across the province. These are also informed by the global UN Decade of Action for Road Safety campaign aimed at reducing fatalities by 50% by 2020,” Motlhabane said.

He said that Maswanganyi will further address the law enforcement and road safety officials who form part of the provincial Easter Road Safety and Law enforcement operations. 

“During these operations, the Department joins forces with all stakeholders in the transport sector to ensure that the citizens of the province enjoy road accident and crime free Easter period,” he said.

taungdailynews@gmail.com 

The Department of Local Government and Human Settlements in Bokone Bophirima cemented these alliances on Friday last week during the Human Settlements Indaba held in Rustenburg. It signed a social contract for sustainable integrated human settlements.

The province’s traditional leadership, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), North West University, the private sector, developers and contractors, the mining sector, building material manufactures and suppliers, the banking sector and civil society organizations form part of this social contract.

Signatories of the social contract jointly undertook to work together with the provincial government towards the delivery of 1.5 million housing opportunities, and undertook to free blocked projects, as well as eradicate the backlog of title deeds for the pre- and post-1994 housing stock.

Local Government and Human Settlements MEC, Galaletsang Gaolaolwe, said her department is driven by the provincial government’s five concretes of Agriculture, Culture and Tourism (ACT), Villages, Townships and Small Dorpies (VTSD), Reconciliation, Healing and Renewal (RHR), Setsokotsane as well as Saamtrek-Saamwerk to fast track the delivery of integrated human settlements.

“The delivery of sustainable human settlements can be achieved by bringing all stakeholders together in a rapid provision of decent and dignified human settlements to move the province forward through the Saamtrek-Saamwerk philosophy,’’ said the MEC.

The department will, on a continuous basis, intercact with all social contract signatories to assess the implementation of the agreements in the contract.

The department would also prioritise the provision of human settlements to senior citizens, people with disabilities and child-headed households as a special focus, Gaolaolwe said.

Source: http://www.semphete.co.za