Daily Archives: May 20, 2025

A man sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for murder

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Picture: A man holding knife smeared with blood and still dripping/Supplied

By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI 

20 May 2025- A man sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the Pretoria North Regional Court for stabbing a man to death. On 23 January 2024, in the evening, Tshireletso Manamela (20), went to the local tuck shop to buy cigarettes in Soshanguve Township, near Pretoria. 

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson in Gauteng, Lumka Mahanjana said while Manamela was at the tuck shop, he came across the accused, Tebogo Boikie Selowa (31), who pointed at him with a knife. Mahanjana said a community member who was nearby witnessed the altercation and tried intervening, but Selowa pushed him away.  

“Thereafter, he proceeded to stab Manamela twice in the neck, and he died on the scene because of his injuries. Selowa then fled the scene. However, the following morning, he handed himself over to the Soshanguve Police Station.

“In court, Selowa pleaded not guilty to the charge of intentionally killing the deceased. Instead, he told the court that he acted out of self-defence. However, the state prosecutor Hanlie Du Preez led compelling evidence from witnesses who were on the scene when the incident happened and proved that indeed Selowa intentionally stabbed the deceased unprovoked,” she said. 

Mahanjana further said during sentencing proceedings, Selowa, through his legal representative, asked the court to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence of 15 years’ direct imprisonment because he is young and has also shown remorse by apologising to the family of the deceased. She added that Du Preez argued against the deviation from the prescribed minimum sentence because Selowa was convicted of a serious offence that is very prevalent in the court’s jurisdiction. 

“Furthermore, she said that the deceased was a young man, who had a bright future ahead of him and in just minutes, his entire future was robbed from him. His family was also robbed of a son. Du Preez argued that Selowa showed no sincere remorse for the offence because he only apologised to the family of the deceased after he was found guilty of the offence. 

“She also handed in Victim Impact Statements (VIS) facilitated by the Court Preparation Officer, Maano Magondo, where the deceased parents stated how the death of their son left them traumatised and heartbroken, as they had hopes that their son would grow up and make them proud,” said Mahanjana.

In delivering the judgement, Magistrate Pieter Nel agreed with the state that Selowa did not show sincere remorse for the offence and continued to add that a young man’s life was taken away from him for no apparent reason. 

“Unfortunately, our country has a high criminal rate as such, the community expects the court to protect them from perpetrators such as this one, by removing them from society. The VIS clearly shows the court that the murder of the deceased left a severe and traumatic impact on the family. 

“Therefore, I found no substantial and compelling circumstances to deviate from imposing the prescribed minimum sentence. I also ordered that he be declared unfit to possess a firearm,” he said.

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 ‘Declare high rate of unemployment a disaster’

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Picture: The SACP Provincial Secretary, Madoda Sambatha/Facebook

By OBAKENG MAJE 

20 May 2025- The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the North West has called on the North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi to declare sky-rocketing unemployment as a disaster. This comes after North West recorded the highest unemployment rate this quarter of 40.4%. 

SACP provincial secretary, Madoda Sambatha said the unemployment in the province relates to the mining industry. Sambatha said this is one of the sectors that contributed negatively to the employment figures. 

“I was highly shocked that our unemployment statistics in the province are not decreasing. While it is not also decreasing across the province, ours is the worst component. Surprisingly, we are credited as one of the provinces that have mineral deposits still not extracted from the ground. 

“So, we call on Mokgosi to declare unemployment statistics and status in the province as a provincial disaster. Each provincial department and private sector must be convened to come up with options on how to address the disaster of unemployment,” he said. 

Sambatha further said unemployment is easily a disaster of hunger and inequality. He added that they call for the implementation of the National Development Strategy that was adopted by the government. 

The ANCYL Provincial Secretary, Brian Huma shared the same sentiments. Huma said they have noted with sadness the Q1 of QLFS and its unintended consequences on the plight of young people. 

“North West as a province forms part of the 50.2 % unemployment rate of young people in South Africa. We further note that young people face the highest barriers of entry to entering the workforce. Whilst the challenges facing young people are not new as a result they are trending negatively in many cases.

“The report by Statistics SA, makes a good point by sharing the uneven ground between the rural youth and urban youth. This is corroborated through the staggering 58% of unemployment, which is mainly attributed to the economic exclusion,” he said. 

Huma said the situation has to be turned around. He said with three public TVET colleges and 6 state colleges of agriculture, nursing and hotel schools respectively being present in our province we need to propel the revolution of making sure that young people acquire impactful skills that will contribute towards the growth of our province. 

“We have made significant points as far as the reforms are concerned in the province. The first point is on our state of SOEs and how they ought to be realigned for a better realisation of the impact they will have in as far as economic growth and job creation are concerned. 

“Further support the move for an establishment of a road agency of the province and further advancing for the absorption of many graduates and artisans that are unemployed to propel the transformation and growth agenda for our province,” said Huma. 

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Patients sleeping on the floor at Ganyesa Hospital 

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Picture: Some of patients sleeping on the floor at Ganyesa District Hospital/Facebook

By OBAKENG MAJE 

20 May 2025- The North West Department of Health is under scrutiny after patients were found sleeping on the benches and floors at Ganyesa District Hospital. It is alleged that some of the waiting patients have chronic diseases. 

One of the community members in Ganyesa, who refused to be named for fear of reprisal said, he believes that the North West Department of Health is at the ‘brink of collapse’ because this has been going on for a long time. He further said what is happening is uncalled for and the hospital management seems not to care. 

“Patients continue to be subjected to harsher treatment at the hospital and nothing is being done. We call on the North West MEC for Health, Sello Lehari to launch a high level investigation into the matter. 

“These patients have left their homes and come here so that they can be reviewed. Even though the hospital provides transport for them to go to tertiary hospitals, I think it must also provide them with beds to sleep in when waiting overnight for transport to other hospitals,” he added. 

Meanwhile, the North West Department of Health spokesperson, Tshegofatso Mothibedi said following a concern raised on social media related to patients sleeping on the floor, while awaiting transportation to Klerksdorp, the facility managed to source out 30 beds and 60 blankets to be utilized by these patients. Mothibedi said the Nursing Manager responsible for the night shift will supervise the process daily and report in the morning during handover.

“The institution would like to report that the reason for accommodating patients in the Outpatient Department (OPD) is that the identified area for overnight stay was damaged by fire on 30 November 2024, and is currently under renovation. So, due to limited space overnight, the patients await OPD and arrangements have been made for accommodation of patients from 13 May 2025,” he said. 

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