By OBAKENG MAJE 

The family of a missing elderly woman in Cokonyane village near Taung said, they hope the human skull and bones that were found in the veld in Modimong village belong to their mother, Kgalalelo Naledi (79).

The police made a gruesome discovery of the skull and bones in a grazing field on Thursday. It was reported that, on Monday, they again discovered some clothes belonging to Naledi and bones on the same spot.

The daughter of a missing woman, Patricia Naledi said: “It is true that the police discovered the human skull and feet bones last week Thursday. So, on Monday, they discovered my mother’s clothes and some bones. The forensic personnel has taken them away to run tests.”

Kgalalelo went missing almost four months ago and no one knew her whereabouts. She allegedly left her house and did not come back. Her daughter, Patricia said, they have searched for her everywhere with no luck.

“We even brought in traditional healers including sangomas to the house in quest of locating her. However, all that was futile and we hope that those bones belong to her.

“We have been in a difficult situation and prayed for her safe return. But, it seems all that did not work out. Also, those traditional healers who came to our house gave us confusing statements,” she said.

Patricia further said, others alleged that their mother has been killed, while others alleged that she is still alive.

The North West police spokesperson, Col Adele Myburgh said: “I can confirm that an inquest case is under investigation by Taung Police Station. This comes after a human skull was found on 9 February 2023 in a grazing field in Modimong.

“Furthermore, human bones and clothes were also discovered on 13 February 2023 in the same field. The bones were found far apart and the spine and hand bones are missing from the corpse.”

She said, they suspect that the bones might be belonging to Naledi, who was reported missing on 10 October 2022 because of the clothes. However, Myburgh said, the DNA results are awaited to confirm the identity.

Meanwhile, Taung DailyNews’s highly-placed source said: “It is highly impossible for that skull and bones to belong to someone, who died four months ago. Even the forensic unit said, there is nothing they could do in identifying who might the skull and bones belong to.

“There was no single muscle on the skull and bones. So, there is a high possibility that those bones do not belong to the missing Naledi. What is surprising is that community members including shepherds have been grazing in that field, but did not see these bones. But, suddenly, the clothes of Naledi and these bones appear.”

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By REGINALD KANYANE

The former North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo’s civil case against three Revolutionary Council leaders, Thato Magogodi, Lucky Kgabi, and Themba Gwabeni has been postponed to 4-5 September 2023 by the North West High Court in Mahikeng, North West on Tuesday (14 February 2023).

This comes after the plaintiff’s lawyer, Gofaona Seleka informed the court that, he could not familiarises himself with the supplementary evidence document on time. Seleka said, he just received the document which consists of more than 250 pages two days ago. 

Mahumapelo is suing Gwabeni, Magogodi, and Kgabi for R10 million for allegedly tarnishing his name. He accused them of calling him corrupt and allegedly orchestrated the infamous #SupraMustFall campaign against him in 2018.

Mahumapelo, who was unceremoniously ousted from his position as the Premier said, has launched the lawsuit to seek justice and clear his name. 

Judge Abigail Mfenyane postponed the matter to give time to the plaintiff’s attorney, Gofaona Seleka to familiarise himself with the supplementary evidence document. 

Mahumapelo said he is not deterred by the postponement. 

“Well, we are ready to continue with the trial and I am doing this to clear my name. As a person, you cannot go around blemishing people, then later on when they take legal steps against you, you say they are bitter. 

“So, we will wait for 4-5 September 2023. You will remember that when this matter was postponed six months ago, everyone thought it was too far. But, here we are and we also believe that date will come too,” he said.

Mahumapelo further said people should stop this thing of mudslinging others in the media without substantiating their arguments.

Meanwhile, one of the Revolutionary Council leaders, Themba Gwabeni said: “Well, the truth of the matter is, there is no character to defame. We, as members of the community and ANC, were not going to allow mismanagement and corruption to unfold and kept quiet.

“We have nothing against Mahumapelo as we are both members of the ANC. But as members of the community, we also have an obligation to stop any corruption activities taking place in this country. The Zondo Commission cleared us and confirmed what we said.”

He said, they have formed the Revolutionary Council with one objective, which is to unite and stand for what they believe is right. Gwabeni said this matter will be fully ventilated in court during trial, so he would not comment further. 

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By REGINALD KANYANE

The North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha said, they will continue to encourage parents to sign consent forms in order for their children to be vaccinated against measles. Sambatha, who launched the measles vaccination campaign at Signal Hill Primary School in Mahikeng, North West on 14 February 2023 said, the province has registered 168 measles cases thus far since the outbreak on 10 December 2022.

“Today, we are doing a campaign on measles vaccination. We visited Lonely Park because it is the epic centre of the measles outbreak in the province.

“You will remember that the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) had issued a national call on 2 December 2022 that, there is an outbreak of measles in North West, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and Limpopo provinces,” he said.

Sambatha further said, on 10 December 2022, they launched the campaign in Lichtenburg and had three cases of measles reported in Lonely Park at the time. He added that, out of 168 confirmed measles cases across the province, 148 are from Ngaka Modiri Molema District and predominately in Mahikeng.

“In terms of the number of vaccination from 10 December 2022 till today, we have managed to vaccinate 686 000 children between 5 months and 15 years respectively. So, in two months, we have vaccinated 600 000 children.

“We want to ensure that, all those who are between 5 months and 15 years are vaccinated. This also shows the capacity of the department to respond. So, the outbreak is still under control as we are not getting more than 10 reported cases per day,” said Sambatha.

However, Sabatha said, one of the serious challenges, is an issue of beliefs by families. He said, there are families that do not believe in any vaccination even though their children are in the same category.

“Unfortunately, some of them are the first children to be detected with measles. So, this means if one does not believe in vaccination, yet move around as a member of the community, they become a danger to those they are moving with,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Director-General of Institution at North West Department of Education, Dr Shadrack Mvula shared the same sentiments. Mvula said they will continue to work in partnership with their sister department of health in this campaign.

“We are very appreciative of this event. We have been working together with our sister department in creating awareness in terms of this campaign. So, the Department of Education will be working in partnership throughout the districts.

“Well, we have not observed a high volume of skepticism, however, we are aware that, there are quite a number of parents, who may not be willing to let their children vaccinated,” he said.  

Mvula said, however, they were surprised to see that because many of the parents were born at the time when vaccination happened at a very early age. He said they encourage parents to change their position.

“Even in this school, we were told about 25 parents who have not signed the consent forms. So, we hope that, these parents will change their position after getting more information and understanding of how the vaccine works. Truly, this is done in the best interest of their children,” said Mvula.

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