The province needs to change its tourism image as platinum and chrome as natural resources have not yielded economic benefits for a “knowledge economy” or for the cultural heritage to be preserved.

This was the view of Tlhako Ya Pele Cultural and Heritage Institute director and senior researcher, Otsile Ntsoane, in an interview with The New Age following the Tourism Indaba which ended in Durban last week.

“We need to ask ourselves about the future of tourism in the coming 20 years based on community tourism beyond bed and breakfast establishments.

“Culture will play a significant role in shaping worker behaviour, business and ethics of political character. As a province we should consolidate the cultural heritage sector as an industry, hence the North West Tourism motto of Taking Pride in our Heritage should be taken seriously,” Ntsoane said.

He said the provincial government needed to communicate the criteria to roll out “effectively” the National Planning Commission’s objectives and its relevance to the economy.

“The important objective is to have a strong team at top political leadership. This will consolidate economic plans beyond political alliances and skills development for both young and old within government and the private sector to bring a new culture of entrepreneurship, social trust and responsive citizenship,” Ntsoane said.

North West Parks and Tourism Board marketing manager, Mpho Motshegoa, said: “We need to get a better sense of how to incorporate the aspect of heritage tourism. There must be a deliberate focus to promote heritage.

For more http://www.thenewage.co.za

Acting local government and traditional affairs MEC Paul Sebegoe said the department has partnered with MDB Solutions, a debt collection company, to analyse municipal books to draw up an accurate list of debtors.

Presenting his budget vote at the provincial legislature last week, Sebegoe said five North West municipalities (Ventersdorp, Naledi, Lekwa-Teemane, Tswaing and Mahikeng) had benefited from revenue enhancement projects to improve their financial stability.

He said the department intended to aid municipalities in 11 key areas of revenue management strategies involving legal matters, meter installations, data management, meter readings, billing, receipt management, credit control, debt management, indigent management, customer care and service departments.

“The five municipalities have made progress in implementing key elements for improvement with rates and taxes and service charges.

“To date, Ventersdorp municipality is at 73% and Naledi municipality has made a significant improvement from 46% to 72%,” he said.

“To maintain this improvement, a revenue enhancement project forum has been established with the primary objective of ensuring municipalities share best practices and that excellence is replicated.

“This forum is tasked with reconciling and clarifying disputes around government debt,” Sebegoe said.

He said the Mahikeng municipality was identified as a pilot site for the project and intensive data cleansing, debts/credit control management and customer care activities would be undertaken free for a period of six months.

Sebegoe recently invoked Section 139 (1) (b) administrative intervention in the Matlosana, Maquassi Hills and Ditsobotla municipalities.

The section states: “When a municipality cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the constitution or legislation, the relevant provincial executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of that obligation, including assuming responsibility for the relevant obligation in that municipality to the extent necessary.”

For more http://www.thenewage.co.za

Two men have been killed in an apparent mob justice attack at the Selokong informal settlement in Wonderkop, Marikana, North West police said on Tuesday.

Around 11pm on Monday a crowd of residents accused the two men of committing theft and other crimes in the area, Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

Police arrived to find one man dead and another badly burnt, but still alive.

“The deceased’s clothes were burnt and he was allegedly set alight with tyres,” Ngubane said.

The second man was taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday morning.

Ten people were arrested in connection with the crime on Monday night. They would appear in the Marikana Periodical Court on Wednesday on charges of arson and murder.

Ngubane said the killings were unrelated to issues connected with Lomin’s Marikana mine, where 44 people were killed in strike-related violence in August.

-Sapa

Mahikeng-Functional coordinating structures of PHC re-engineering are in place at Districts and Sub-Districts.

The North West PHC re-engineering costed plan has been developed to implement the three streams, i.e. School Health services, Specialist team, and Ward based outreach teams .

Training has been standardized by National and phase one (1) which is orientation and basic foundation, is provided by a contracted service provider and funded through conditional grants.

Speaking during his budget speech, MEC Magome Masike said that PHC Re-engineering communication strategy is already in place.

“We have started marketing the programme through community dialogues where 18 sub-districts participated”.

“We will further strengthen social mobilization through community dialogues, ward and cluster meetings, the media and other marketing initiatives” said MEC Masike. 

Piloting of two monitoring and evaluation system is nearing an end with participating sub-districts including Tlokwe and Greater Taung. 

Data from households has been integrated into the District Health Information System (DHIS) and household registration in pilot wards has been completed. 

However some households could not be reached due to various reasons like working occupants during office hours.

As President Jacob Zuma indicated in the State of the Nation Address, the Department of Health will accelerate and intensify progress in the pilot districts.

“Our efforts in strengthening implementation of the NHI pilot in 2013/2014 include improved supply chain management systems and processes to support efficient and effective health services provision within the pilot district” Masike said.  

We will also enhance the pilot District capacity in the areas of District Health Planning and Monitoring and Evaluation as well as strengthening referral system based on a re-engineered primary health care platform with a particular focus in rural and previously disadvantaged areas” stressed the MEC. 

Appropriate communication equipment will be made available at all levels of the referral system to equip Outreach Teams, PHC facilities and Hospitals to provide appropriate care at all levels.  

There will be a full scale roll out of Integrated Chronic Disease Management (ICDM), Community Health Worker (CHW) equipment for chronic disease screening throughout the pilot district. Twenty two (22) pharmacists’ assistants will be trained in Post Basic and 35 nurses will be trained on drug supply management.    

The specialist teams will use own transport for official duties until the Department approves subsidised transport or pool vehicle for them.

“We have realised that the district specialist teams need to have a community psychiatrist on the team to support peripheral facilities as there is manifold increase in drug and substance abuse. There is no budget for this post but the National Department of Health will be approached to support this” said the MEC. 

The Department undertakes to improve access and infection control in the referral chain through maintenance of Infrastructure; hand washing facilities; signage; colour coded cleaning trolleys, fast queues and electronic queue management system.

“We will focus on improving IT equipment, software, networks and connectivity for improved support from referral hospitals” lamented Masike.  

The pilot sites will also have the Electronic Patient’s Record, Life tracking and bio-metrics system to strengthen the referral system by improved access to patient records.   

“We will provide all the necessary support to the Community Health Workers and Outreach teams with uniforms and identification tags. Some of the resources to be made available to them include pepper spray, whistles, name tag, branded clothing, SMS phones, etc” said MEC Masike.                         The Department intends to embark on full expansion of Ward Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams (WBPHCOT) at the pilot district with small scale expansion at other 3 districts as it fast-tracks implementation of the PHC Re-engineering Programme in 2013/2014.

Recruitment of more nurses and other allied health professionals to support roll out is needed and the Department will explore alternative staffing models for short term solutions.

“There is a need to align budget and procure school mobile units as well as vehicles for WBPHCOT. We have progressively started registering CHWs into the PERSAL system and we want to complete this process within 2013/2014 financial year” concluded MEC Masike.

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Mahikeng-In a bit to increase visibility and law enforcement on the major roads of the province, the department of Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison launched a high way patrol vehicles which will operate on the N4 and N12 highways. MEC Nono Maloyi launched the project by handing over 55 vehicles that will be used by traffic officials when enforcing the law on daily basis.

According to MEC Maloyi, the vehicles will assist in ensuring law enforcement across the province and further ensure that innocent lives are saved. 

“We want to make sure that road traffic law offenders don’t find breathing space on our roads. We are going to suffocate them until they adhere to traffic laws” MEC Nono Maloyi said. 

“We cannot continue to lose lives as if we don’t have strategies to curb that. We have re-enforced manpower and we have capable men and women who are energetic, enthusiastic, and fit to protect and enforce the law on our roads,” said Maloyi.

The MEC launched the highway patrol after he delivered his departmental budget vote at the North West Provincial Legislature. 

He took the opportunity to thank traffic officials for showing bravery when doing their work and further encouraged them not to find themselves involved on fraud and corruption activities.

Maloyi further praised Chief Provincial Inspector Andrew Maano for not being tempted when he was offered R60 000 as bribe by a Gauteng based bus company owner, who wanted his company buses released after being impounded for unroadworthy conditions. 

“We need law enforcement officers like you in this country. You are a shining example of the kind of traffic officials we want. Keep up the good work,” concluded Maloyi. 

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By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-On Tuesday at about 05h00, a group of about 500 mine workers gathered at the Lenxes mine demanding bonuses from the Mine Management. Lenxess Chrome mine is situated in the Rustenburg Platinum Belt next to Bleskop.

It is reported that this gathering of mine workers led to confrontation between mine security and the striking workers. 

“It is alleged that mine security used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.Ten of the mine workers were allegedly injured during the incident” Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said. 

“They were then admitted at the mine hospital. This situation occurred in the private property of the mine” Ngubane said.

Union leaders went into a meeting with Mine Management to discuss the workers needs and the Police took over the security of the mine workers. 

The group was later addressed by union leaders and dispersed peacefully.

Police are still investigating the situation, further legal actions will be taken as soon as investigation is completed.

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Johannesburg – Under-fire President Jacob Zuma got a little support from an unlikely quarter on Tuesday when former president FW de Klerk laid into the “prophets of doom” putting down the country.

De Klerk said “Afro-pessimists” did not give the country or the continent enough credit for strides made.

De Klerk acknowledged the country faces “serious international perception problems” but said the country had seen 18 years of almost uninterrupted economic growth.

He added that significant steps had been made in alleviating poverty, improving access to housing, water and electricity.

His comment echoes those of Zuma and the ANC, which have come under a barrage of criticism for failing to tackle corruption, labour violence and unemployment.

But De Klerk was not completely gushing about the government’s performance.

“We score badly in those areas of national activity that fall under the responsibility of government,” he said.

“We are in the bottom 20% with regard to the quality of education; the business cost of crime; HIV prevalence; and labour market efficiency.”

But, he added, the government was aware of these problems and had endorsed a National Development Plan to deal with them.

“Africa and South Africa are on the march,” he said.

– AFP

Cape Town – Seven weeks after the highly publicised kidnap and sexual assault of an exchange student near Signal Hill, police have appealed to the public for information, and have released CCTV stills of one of the three suspects.
For more http://www.iol.co.za

Mahikeng-To date, the progress registered includes the establishment of the Municipal ward-based family health teams.
The established and functional number of outreach teams is standing at eleven (11). Hundred and fifteen ((115) community health workers have been trained and the piloting District of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda managed to cover eight (8) wards. Thus far, 15 467 households across the pilot district have been profiled. Chronic disease management has been linked to Primary Health Care (PHC) outreach teams. School Health Services are being revitalized. Vehicles to provide school health services have been received from National Department of Health (NDoH) and are currently being registered.

“We have appointed specialist outreach teams to provide specialist outreach services.They include obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine and anesthesia” exclaimed MEC Masike during his budget vote.

All health facilities in Dr Kenneth Kaunda are approved for Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) initiation.
Doctor support to clinics has been stepped up to twice a week in order to build confidence of nursing staff in initiating ART.

Capacity building for NHI has been prioritized. To this effect, all members of the District Management Team (DMT) have been trained on procurement matters.
All members of DMT have been trained in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) by North West University.
All Sub district managers have been registered for Executive Development Programme and Oliver Tambo Fellowship. Furthermore, PHC teams have been trained on PHC Re-engineering Programme.
Capacity has therefore been built progressively at facility management level for further decentralising control in view of NHI requirement. The aim is to make all clinics as cost centres before the end of 2013-14 financial year.

“We will continue to improve training on nursing, EMRS and medical care to strengthen PHC and health care service delivery towards a well functioning NHI” said the MEC.

Two training workshops on leadership and supervision have been conducted while one information sharing session with sub-district management was conducted and supported by BroadReach.
The Health System Trust (HST) continues to provide support.

“Phase 1 orientation and basic foundation was conducted for 1500 CHWs and 80 nurses. We conducted two (2) studies on readiness assessment and one (1) on competency assessment of managers in PHC” MEC said.

Professional Nurses will be assigned according to availability.
Facilities with low caseloads will be targeted. Where there is gross shortage of nurses, retired nurses will be appointed to support outreach teams.
“We will also go ahead with contracting-in of General Practitioners” said the MEC.

The piloting District of Dr. Kenneth Kaunda has also formed a collaboration with its District Municipality to inform all Communities about NHI. Just recently (last Friday), a workshop on NHI was held with Community based planners from the District Municipality, Ward Committees and Community health workers who will be expected to cascade the information down to communities in their wards.
“This initiative will ensure that information on NHI reaches communities in all corners of the District. It is also envisaged to be extended to other Districts in future” Masike said.
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