The quality of electricity, network expansions and roll out of electrification projects are to feature prominently in the meeting between North West Premier Thandi Modise and Eskom to be held in Mahikeng today.

Electrification is part of the Strategic Infrastructure Programme (SIP) 4 and one of the deliverables that Premier Modise wishes to see accelerated and visible delivery to unlock economic development in the province.

Premier Modise will later in the day also meet with Harmony Gold Mining to discuss among others its social contribution and its Kalgold D-Zone Pit option for Strategic Water Resource Management.

North West Premier Thandi Modise is to address the main service of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) mass prayer meeting to be held at the Huhudi Stadium in Vryburg on Sunday.

Thousands of congregants from around the North West Province, Northern Cape, Gauteng including other provinces from around the country are expected to be part of the weekend mass prayer meeting hosted by the North West Provincial Government as part of moral regeneration. The sermon at the main service is to be delivered by His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop Dr Barnabas Lekganyane.

The provincial authorities are satisfied that joint safety operational and contingency plans that are in place will ensure that there is no opportunistic crime and that roads are safe for usage by all road users.

Motorists who will be driving vehicles to the event are advised to arrange co-drivers and to rest after every 200 kilometers and or two hours of driving to avoid fatigue.

Members of the public are advised that road closures will be maintained along Mosiapoa, Eli Mabusela, Segawana and Mokgosi streets around Huhudi

  Stadium as from Friday afternoon.

 Motorists are requested to cooperate with traffic officials and to obey signage that will direct them along alternative routes to demarcated parking reserved for the various types of motor vehicles.

 ZCC marshals will be deployed to guide motorists on how to park vehicles for swift movement in and out of the parking areas.

Premier Modise wishes congregants who will be travelling to the event safe travel and appeals to residents of Vryburg to extend their warmest welcome and hospitality to them.

Roads in the North West Province are a lot safer after 120 000 potholes and 800 kilometers of tarred road were repaired on the public roads network in the past six months.

Briefing provincial stakeholders on the Strategic Infrastructure Programme (SIP) 4 at the Special North West Premiers Coordinating Council(NWPCC) held in Mahikeng this week, South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) as the implementation agency highlighted that it had thus far spend 

 R73,1 million on routine road maintenance across the province.

 SANRAL projected that it would have spend a further R71,9 on rehabilitation of the road infrastructure by November this year.

Other projects for implementation under SIP-4 include the resuscitation of rural towns of Groot Marico, Mahikeng and Taung, rollout of 289 public works projects and 30 additional roads projects. 

 Minister of Transport, Ben Martin as the Minister responsible for SIP-4 urged provincial government departments and municipalities to continue to engage and mobilise other stakeholders such as traditional leaders, local businesses, youth and women organisations, individuals and communities to support and participate actively in all SIP-4 projects,“All stakeholders should exercise leadership within the remit of their responsibilities to avoid duplication and overlaps. Our responsibilities are indivisible. When one sphere fails to carry it mandates, it affects the others – and we all fail,” emphasised Martin in calling for cooperation.

 Martins said that emphasis should be placed on outputs that will contribute towards government’s efforts to address the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

 “Our people cannot eat our egos. We have to put them aside to accelerate service delivery. Development should not be skewed to an extent that other parts of our province feel neglected and unloved” emphasised Premier Thandi Modise in calling for unity of purpose.

“Projects at various stages of implementation in the province under SIP 4 are aimed at acceleration investments in road, rail, bulk water, water treatment and transmission infrastructure, enabling reliable supply and basic service delivery, facilitating development of mining, agricultural activities and tourism opportunities and opening up beneficiation opportunities,” highlighted Modise.

In responding to Kagiso-Molopo Mayor, Councillor Motshwari’s plea for investigation of shoddy work on the infamous Tlakameng road, Premier Modise said that province will not hesitate to take action against companies that do not complete projects including blacklisting those that deliver sub-standard work.

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