3 September 2024 – The Powers and Privileges Committee today elected Weziwe Tikana-Gxotiwe as the Chairperson of the Committee. In accordance with Rule 212 of the National Assembly (NA), the committee is composed of 9 members.
The ANC is represented in the committee by Weziwe Tikana-Gxotiwe, Gijimani Skosana, Mikateko Mahlaule and Nonceba Gcaleka-Mazibuko. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is represented by George Michalakis and Baxolile Nodada.
The uMkhonto WeSizwe Party (MKP) is represented by Dr Mandlakayise Hlophe, Nhlamulo Ndlela and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is represented by Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi with Poppy Moila as an alternate member.
Picture: Two police officers burned to death in a police van/Generic
By OBAKENG MAJE
3 September 2024 – The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), has opened an inquest docket for investigation after a man (age not known) died apparently due to smoke inhalation, while the other (24), was taken to hospital as a result of burn wounds.
The North West police spokesperson, Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone said the man allegedly burnt while at the back of a police truck in the early hours of today at Morokweng Police Station, near Ganyesa.
“The pair was allegedly kept temporarily at the back of a police truck that was parked at the station. Internal departmental investigation to determine circumstances that led to keeping of the men in the truck have been instituted,” he said.
According to Mokgwabone, IPID is investigating an inquest case.
Setshwantsho: Sepodisi se dira dipatlisiso tsa polao kwa tarveneng kwa motsesetoropong wa Orkney/Setshwantsho-papiso
Ka OBAKENG MAJE
Lekgarebe la dingwaga di le 40, lwa kwa motseng wa Maphoitsile, gaufi le Taung, le solofetswe go tlhagelela fa pele ga Kgotlhatshekelo ya Taung mo letsatsing la gompieno. Se se tla morago ga gore lekgarebe le, le latofadiwe ka go bolaya mokapelo walone.
Go ya ka sebueledi sa sepodisi mo sedikeng sa Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Warrant Officer Tryphosa van Rooyen, tiragalo e, e diragetse kwa di RDP Section, kwa Maphoitsile ka di 29 Phatwe 2024.
“Go begwa fa baratani ba, ba ne ba tswa kwa ntlung e rekisang bojalwa go ya go ijesa monate. Fela ene ya re fa ba fitlha kwa ntlung, go ne ga tsoga kgakgauthano ya mafoko.
“Go begwa fa molatofadiwa a ile a tlhaba moswi ka thipa mo sehubeng. Molatofadiwa o ile a amogelwa kwa bookelong jwa sedika jwa Taung, mme one a ntshiwa ka Mosupulogo le go isiwa kwa ntlo-lefitshwana,” van Rooyen wa tlhalosa.
We have just ended Women’s Month, in which we have celebrated the achievements of South Africa’s women across many areas of life. We have recognised the great progress that has been made in improving the position of women in our society.
We have also recognised the many challenges that still remain and the tasks that we must undertake to build a truly non-sexist and equal society. At the same time, the country has gone more than 150 days without load shedding.
This is in large part due to the concerted efforts of the leadership and staff of Eskom to improve the performance of its power stations. While there is much attention on what Eskom is doing to stabilise our electricity system, another significant change has been quietly underway at the company over the course of the last few years.
Women are taking a more prominent role in the work of Eskom and are playing a pivotal role in keeping the country’s lights on. Two years ago, I met Eskom’s power station managers and I was pleased to see that there were a number of women amongst them who were in charge of our power stations as managers.
I found this to be a complete departure from the past where power station managers were always white men. The inspiring story of Maserati Lesolang, the General Manager of the Matla Power Station in Mpumalanga, is a demonstration of Eskom’s successes in growing a new generation of female leaders.
Under Lesolang’s able leadership, Matla Power Station has implemented a turnaround plan resulting in it now being among Eskom’s better performing power stations. At a number of state-owned enterprises, women are excelling not only in management and leadership positions, but also in technical roles and occupations that were previously the preserve of men.
Within Eskom itself, women are working as power station managers, engineers, artisans, operators and technicians. This is the result of a deliberate and sustained initiative to increase female representation in the form of Eskom’s Women Advancement Programme.
The programme was launched ten years ago to redress the under-representation of women in leadership and technical roles at Eskom. The programme’s focus has been on creating a pipeline of female leaders.
It has also focused on transforming workplace culture to make it more gender-friendly, on skilling and training more women to occupy specialist roles, to conduct outreach in communities where Eskom operates, and to address issues of equal work for equal pay. Among the achievements of the programme since its inception has been that just over 33% of Eskom’s workforce is now female, 20% of Eskom executives are women, and women occupy approximately 43% of senior management roles.
This is important progress, but there is still the same way to go to achieve gender parity. Eskom has succeeded in narrowing the gender pay gap from 41% to below 6%.
The company’s procurement spends on black-women owned businesses has increased from R6 billion in 2013 to over R16 billion by 2022. The national power utility continues to invest heavily in skilling and training for women, with just over half of further study opportunities at Eskom taken up by women.
Another key focus area of the programme is conducting outreach at schools and in communities to encourage female learners to consider future careers at Eskom. Earlier this year Eskom also launched a Young Professionals Development Programme, a graduate trainee programme that places participants in positions across the span of its operations.
Eskom has made a concerted effort to encourage female graduates to apply. We call on other companies, both public and private, to put in place deliberate programmes to eradicate workplace discrimination and make workplaces more conducive to women’s participation and development.
Companies need to empower women in decision-making and technical roles. This is to ensure that every workplace and every occupation reflects the demographics of our country.
We must commend the leadership of Eskom and of other state-owned entities, as well as many other businesses, for all they are doing to advance gender equality in the workplace.
By continuing and intensifying this work, we can make sure that we have more and more to celebrate during Women’s Month in the years to come.
Picture: Former Finance Manager at Customer Loyalty Consultant (PTY) Ltd, Prishne Khan/Supplied
By REGINALD KANYANE
Former Finance Manager at Customer Loyalty Consultant (PTY) Ltd, Prishne Khan (37), was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Pretoria Specialized Commercial Crimes Court for fraud. This resulted in the losses exceeding R3 million.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson in Gauteng, Lumka Mahanjana said in addition to this, Khan received a further 4-year imprisonment for theft amounting to R350 000, with the court ordering that these sentences run concurrently.
“The court heard that Khan was employed as a bookkeeper at Northern Cricket Union from June 2015 to 18 January 2017, with responsibilities that included processing payments for various service providers.
“Instead of executing her duties honestly, she altered banking details on multiple invoices, replacing them with those of her husband and cousin and misappropriated R350 000 over six weeks from May to June 2016,” she said.
Mahanjana said when questioned about her actions, Khan resigned from her position. She further said following her resignation, Khan became the finance manager at Customer Loyalty Consultant (PTY) Ltd from 9 March 2017 until 30 September 2017.
“This role provided her with access to the company’s bank account and banking systems. During her employment, Khan again manipulated customer banking details to funnel payments into accounts controlled by her husband and cousin.
“Despite her ability to process payments, she could not execute them immediately due to a token needed, which was the responsibility of another employee. After leaving the company in September 2017, another employee provided her with the token, allowing her to release payments totalling more than R3 million to herself from September 2017 until March 2018,” said Mahanjana.
She added that the fraudulent activities came to light when the bank alerted the company about suspicious transactions. Mahanjana said subsequent investigations by the police led to Khan’s first court appearance on 31 May 2018.
“In court, she pleaded guilty to the charges and attributed her criminal conduct to financial difficulties, claiming she needed the money for essentials, including purchasing a motor vehicle for her husband.
“However, evidence in the pre-sentence report revealed that she had used the stolen funds for gambling. During sentencing proceedings, Khan sought leniency based on her responsibilities towards her three minor children aged 6, 12, and 15, and cited ill health as factors in her favour,” she said.
Mahanjana said the NPA welcomed the ruling and reaffirmed its commitment to holding offenders accountable for commercial crimes. She said this case serves as a reminder that the NPA is dedicated to prosecuting fraud and maintaining integrity within financial dealings in South Africa.
In response, the state prosecutor, Advocate Pulane Segalo, argued that Khan had committed serious offences, emphasizing that she had betrayed the trust of her employers for personal gain. Segalo urged the court to impose a sentence of direct imprisonment to reflect the gravity of her actions.
“The matter was postponed to 3 March 2023, for the judgment on the sentence. However, Khan absconded, leading to a warrant for her arrest. Over a year later, on 30 August 2024, she was located hiding in a freezer at her new home in Nigel, leading to her arrest and court appearance yesterday,” she said.
Meanwhile, when delivering the sentence, Magistrate Du Preez agreed with the state, stating that Khan’s actions were motivated by greed rather than necessity. Du Preez said he noted that Khan did not demonstrate genuine remorse.
“She pleaded guilty only due to the realization of the consequences of her actions. Consequently, the court determined that the only suitable sentence in these circumstances was imprisonment,” she said.
Setshwantsho: Motaki o a itsegeng, Kagiso Clifford Mogokotleng/Facebook
Ka OBAKENG MAJE
3 Lwetse 2024- Motaki o a itsegeng wa kwa motseng wa Veertien gaufi le Taung, o reboletswe beile ya R500 ke kgotlha-tshekelo ya Taung mo letsatsing la maabane. Seno se tla morago ga gore Clifford Kagiso Mogokotleng (42), a tshwarwe mabapi le ditatofatso tsa petelelo.
Go begwa fa ka di 7 Diphalane 2023, Mogokotleng a ile a betelela lekgarebe la dingwaga di le 17 kwa gagabo. Go ya ka tshedimosetso ya kwa kgotlha-tshekelo, lekgarebe le, le dula kwa Kimberly kwa profenseng ya Northern Cape, mme ba ne ba tlile phitlhong ya mongwe wa losika mono Taung, ga mmogo le mmagwe ka motsi wa tiragalo.
Go begwa fa mmagwe motswa-setlhabelo, a ne a na le dikamano tsa marato le mogoloe Mogokotleng. Go ya ka motaki o, ga ana dikgetsi tse dingwe tse di fetileng, ga mmogo le lekwalo la mosepele (passport).
Bosekisi jwa National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), ga bowa ema kgatlhanong le kopo eno ya beile ya molatofadiwa. Bosekisi bo tlhalositse fa bo sa belaele fa Mogokotleng a ka itshona-tshona nko mo di patlisisong tsa kgetsi e, gape motswa-setlhabelo o dula kwa Kimberly.
Bosekisi bo tlhalosistse gape fa paki enngwe mo kgetsing e, e dula kwa porofenseng ya Limpopo. Kgetsi ya petelelo kgatlhanong le Mogokotleng, e buseditswe morago go fitlha ka di 3 Diphalane 2024, mme dipatlisiso di tsweletse.
3 September 2024- A man (39) was sentenced to life imprisonment by the De Aar Regional Court for murder. On 6 December 2023, the accused, Ettiene Kula woke up in the morning to find that his girlfriend, Delia Smiles (27), was not home.
The incident took place Petrusville in the Northern Cape.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson in Northern Cape, Mojalefa Senokoatsane said Kula was informed that the victim had left early in the morning to go help her cousin with house chores. Senokoatsane said the accused, informed the victim that, he had a job that he had to do and that she must go home when she was done as her children were still sleeping.
“Later in the day when he arrived home from the alleged job, Kula said the children told him that, their mother was never home to give them food. He went back to the house where he had earlier found his girlfriend and found her drinking with friends.
“The accused and girlfriend got into a verbal argument, which led to the accused stabbing her once in the chest and she died. The police were called, and Kula was arrested and charged with murder,” he said.
Senokoatsane further said the NPA will continue to prosecute these matters that affect the safety and well-being of our communities and to ensure justice for victims of crime by arguing for harsher sentences for the perpetrators. He added that the court also declared the accused unfit to possess a firearm.
In aggravation of the sentence the acting state prosecutor, Xolisa March, argued that there were no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from the prescribed sentence of life imprisonment. March said the accused person had a previous conviction of murder, where he was sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment.
“So, it was not the first time that he had taken a life. The accused was again found guilty of assault with the intent to do Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH) in 2017 and 2020, and he is a repeat offender. The state further argued that the accused is a dangerous person, who should be removed from society.
“We have also handed in a Victim Impact Statement compiled by Lettie Ndawo, the aunt of the deceased, and advanced by Trott Manghana. In her statement, Ndawo said that the deceased had two young kids, who still needed her and that she also took care of her younger siblings,” she said.
In sentencing, the court found that there exist no compelling and substantiating circumstances to deviate from the prescribed sentence of life imprisonment. The accused was found guilty on a charge of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Picture: Newly-appointed NPA’s Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) in the Western Cape, Kelebogile Lesie-Shale/Supplied
By OLEBOGENG MORAKE
She is popularly known as Nono Lesie. Her appointment not only marks the achievement of her hard work, dedication and well-deserved attainment, but it is one of the first in the history of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
It is the transition of the system of the Western Cape that we are celebrating her particular achievement. Lesie is a young black woman from the dusty streets of Utlwanang Township, in Christiana.
She is a product of Lekwa-Teemane, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District and North West province and our national milestone, undoubtedly. It is historic because it comes with the start of another female Chief Justice appointment, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya.
If I have it right, they are both appointed in the Women’s Month of August. Kelebogile Lesie-Shale, was sworn in today as the first black female Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP) in the Western Cape.
Congratulations are in order Ma’am.
(Note: Olebogeng Morake is a ward committee member in Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality under ward 7 and a community activist. He writes in his personal capacity and whatever raised in this article, Taung DailyNews and its associates does not agree nor disagree with as the content remains the views of the writer).
Picture: The police bakkie where police officers were burned to death/Generic
By OBAKENG MAJE
Two men who were allegedly in detention at Morokweng Police Station, near Ganyesa, burned at the back of a police bakkie. Even though details surrounding the incident are still sketchy, it is alleged that the atrocity took place on Monday.
One person died on the scene, while the other one was ferried to the local hospital for medical attention. According to a witness, two men were allegedly detained temporarily because of nuisance behaviour.
“At least one person died in this incident, while the other was taken to hospital by paramedics in critical condition,” our source said.
Meanwhile, the North West police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Amanda Funani said: “Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone requested that you give us time and he will handle your inquiry. The police are busy investigating the matter.”
3 September 2024– The South African U17 Men’s National Team (Amajimbos) departed for Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, on Saturday morning ahead of their fourth international match as they continue preparations for the 2024 COSAFA Championships, to be played in December 2024.
Amajimbos will be participating in a FIFA 6 Nations Talent Development Scheme (TDS) tournament in the West African country. The scheme is the brainchild of FIFA with the aim of exposing junior players to international football at a young age in order to fast-track their development.
South Africa will play three international friendly matches during their week-long stay in Cote D’Ivoire. Their opening match of the tournament will be played on 3 September 2024, against Algeria.
They will then face East Africans Tanzania on 5 September 2024, before their last match against Morocco on 7 September 2024.
Amajimbos head coach, Vela Khumalo said they aim to qualify for the 2025 FIFA U17 Men’s World Cup and are building up to this by preparing the team at every opportunity provided to them.
“Amajimbos last played two weeks ago in South Africa against Lesotho in two practice matches. They beat their counterparts 4-0 and 3-1 consecutively over two matches.
“Prior to that, the U17 National Team had played two international friendlies in Colombia earlier in the year and participated in a Three Nations TDS Tournament in Morocco in December 2023,” he said.
The Guardian 