Picture: Identikit of two unknown suspects/Supplied
By OBAKENG MAJE
Two unknown men aged 26 and 35 allegedly robbed a local café of cigarettes and an undisclosed amount of cash at gunpoint in Kimberley. The Northern Cape police spokesperson, Sergeant Dikeledi Gopane said the suspects allegedly threatened and ordered the shop assistants lay on the ground at the back of the store.
“They fled the scene in a maroon motor vehicle with no registration number. Anyone who has information regarding the incident is requested to contact the investigating officer, Warrant Officer, Segoje of Kimberley Detective on 071 208 3094,” said Gopane.
A child aged 5 died in a fierce fire in Khibitswane village, near Taung on Saturday. The North West police spokesperson in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati cluster, Warrant Officer Tryphosa van Rooyen, said two women were sleeping with the child during load shedding at around 8:25pm. The house caught fire when electricity allegedly returned.
“When electricity came back, the fire started. It is unknown at this point what caused the fire. A case of arson and an inquest is underway. No foul play is suspected thus far.”
Picture: North West MEC for Public Works and Roads, Oageng Molapisi/Google
By OBAKENG MAJE
North West MEC for Public Works and Roads, Oageng Molapisi said much of R3.8 billion budget for 2023/24 financial year investment will be focused on roads. Molapisi said the department has appointed 37 contractors for projects across all four districts of the province.
“This publication comes at a time when we have just tabled our budget speech for the North West Department of Public Works and Roads for 2023/2024 before the North West Provincial Legislature (NWPL). As you may be aware, the department has set aside about R3.8 billion for the province, and much of the investment will be focused on roads.
“We have come a long way as a province and have made steady progress towards improving service delivery for our people. In his State of the Province Address (SOPA), North West Premier, Bushy Maape said the provincial government is on its feet, restless and listening attentively to the cries of our people, who are delivering messages of impatience, requesting us to deliver on our promise,” he said.
Molapisi further said they are on the verge of finalising the establishment of the Roads Agency for the province, with a view to implementing its Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) projects. He added that, the agency will augment the department’s internal capacity and assist in fast-tracking service delivery of the planned major road infrastructure within the allocated time and budget.
“We are happy to announce that, SANRAL will implement 33 projects to the value of R1.6 billion, covering approximately 2.598km of road network across all four districts. We look forward to a growing relationship that will continue to benefit the province, the country and our people.
“24 of these are for the major rehabilitation and special maintenance, while 13 are for upgrading from gravel to tar. In addition, a total of 1063 jobs have been created and 272 SMMEs have been sub-contracted on all projects currently under construction,” said Molapisi.
He said, furthermore, the department will be appointing 10 consultants for the planning and design for planned upgrades of 10 roads from gravel to surface by the end of the second quarter. Molapisi said they continue to enjoy the support of and partnership with SANRAL to deliver world-class infrastructure for our people.
SANRAL CEO, Reginald Demana said: “Our mission to transform the national roads infrastructure in South Africa is at full steam, particularly for a province like the North West, which is at the epicentre of the mining and agricultural activity driving our economy.
“We intend to put major investment into key routes. Some of our key infrastructure in the province includes the N4, which stretches from the Botswana border post, through Pretoria to the Maputo Port in Mozambique. We also have N18 from Ramatlabama Border Post, which is a gateway to Botswana, also stretching across the province to Gauteng.”
Demana said they have earmarked several key infrastructure developments in the province, like the rehabilitation of the sinkhole on national route N12 in the Stilfontein urban area between 11.6km (Buffelfontein Road) and 12.6km in Wintervogel road. He said they have set aside R55 million for the project over six months and are glad to announce that, they have met their targeted groups for labour, which are 30% female, 30% youth and 0.5% of persons with disabilities.
Picture: The female farmers continue to be ill-treated/Generic
By OBAKENG MAJE
The residents of the ZF Mgcawu District Municipality welcomed the Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land (PDAL) Bill and expressed hope that it will address their challenges on agricultural land.
However, the residents also highlighted a few issues which they considered as shortcomings of the Bill. The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development held the public hearing in Upington, Northern Cape on Sunday.
According to some residents, the Bill should seek to consider ways of managing the agricultural land in a sustainable way. They indicated that the Bill is silent on methodology of the use of the land for food production.
One of the residents, Antoinette Erasmus said: “The commercial farmers in South Africa are using high level pesticides, but there is no provision in the Bill to deal with their effects in the agro-ecosystems to ensure that these pesticides do not negatively affect the agricultural land.
“The pesticides also contribute towards climate change and global warming, which is basically happening in the country. The Bill is also silent on matters affecting small-scale farmers. Many of the small-scale farmers use the commonage land, in particular the livestock farmers.”
Erasmus indicated that the Bill does not address the interests of the small-scale farmers because municipalities in the district are currently patronising them in the area.
Another farmer, Magdalene Odendaal shared the same sentiments. Odendaal further said small-scale farmers are always allocated commonage land, where they cannot produce quality and marketable livestock. She added that there are a number of issues that affect them in the area including land ownership, lack of funding, stock theft and ill-treatment of female farmers.
“I am part of an agricultural cooperative, which owns approximately 2000 hectares of land, and informed the committee that their challenge is that only 75% of women farmers received their title deeds, while the remaining 25% of them are still waiting.
“There is an unfairness of the system towards us. I have been farming for the past 12 years and recently, I lost my husband who was leasing an agricultural land for our farming activity. Our contract which was under the name of my husband expired and I am unable to renew it or to apply for a new one in order to continue farming,” said Odendaal.
She said this matter is very difficult for her and does not think that officials are fully aware of the challenges that women farmers are facing. Odendaal said female farmers are forced to share communal bathrooms with men.
“We have no privacy and believe that the system is very unfair towards women. The committee does not have knowledge of what women are really dealing with on farms,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the committee, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela said: “We are conducting these public hearings to ensure that all your views are reflected in the final Bill. Public participation is very important in the development and processing of legislation to ensure that laws that parliament passes are progressive and responsive to the needs of every citizen and do not infringe on their rights.
“The committee held its last leg of the public hearings at Pixley kaSeme District at Prieska Omega Hall, in Prieska.”
The Guardian 