Kimberley – Five municipal workers died at Kimberley’s sewerage works on Tuesday afternoon when one of them succumbed to methane gas fumes and the other four were engulfed by rising sludge in a series of failed rescue attempts.

While the exact details of what happened are still being investigated, four workers apparently tried to rescue one of their colleagues who became trapped inside a pump station while he was unclogging a pump that was overflowing.

It is believed that the workers may have been covered in sludge for about 15 minutes before someone raised the alarm.

Spokesman for the Northern Cape police, Lieutenant Donald Mdhluli, said on Tuesday that the police were investigating an inquest into their deaths.

ER24’s operations manager in the Northern Cape, Albert Hensberg, who was on standby at the scene while emergency workers retrieved to bodies, stated that methane inhalation induced drowsiness and could result in instant death.

The Kimberley fire brigade, the Sol Plaatje Municipality’s emergency workers and ambulance personnel, Hazmat, the police’s forensic unit, crime scene experts as well as the police’s diving unit raced to the scene at about 12.45pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Four workers apparently tried to save a colleague trapped at an overflowing pump station at Kimberleys sewerage works. While their colleague succumbed to the methane gas fumes, the four workers then also became trapped in the rising sludge and died after rescue bids failed. Photo: Johnnie van Niekerk

DFA

Waste water had to be pumped out before rescue workers were able to reach the bodies.

The first body was retrieved at about 3.15pm on Tuesday afternoon while the last body was brought to the surface at about 5.45pm.

Other workers at the plant were extremely emotional and traumatised by the incident and are no longer willing to work in the pump station, which they called a “death trap”.

They pointed out that safety checks were rarely conducted and felt that their lives were in danger.

Spokesman for the Sol Plaatje Municipality, Sello Matsie, confirmed the incident and described the selfless actions of the four workers, who tried to save the life of the first worker, as “heroic”.

“One worker was tasked to clean the pump house in which four pumps, all about six metres deep, are located. It appears as if sludge came out at one of the monitors and the worker was overcome by methane gas and sludge that filled the room. The sludge was about one and a half metres deep.

“The other workers, in turn, tried to rescue their colleagues which eventually resulted in the deaths of five people.”

He said the identities of the deceased workers could not be released until their next of kin have been informed.

“Their deaths are a tragedy.”

Matsie indicated that several investigations would be launched by various state departments and the police as well as the municipality.

“We were alerted by a hysterical worker that one of the workers had collapsed and that others had gone in to assist him. At that stage we believed that the workers were still alive. I immediately contacted the emergency services, the police and the fire brigade.”

He explained that the building in which the workers were found, retained methane gas.

“There is a machine that monitors the gas levels inside the pump house. However, we do not want to speculate on the cause of death and will allow the Department of Labour to determine the exact chain of events.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Cape Town – Western Cape police are hunting a mom who allegedly sold her 13-year-old daughter as a sex slave for just R50 a time.

The woman allegedly regularly took her little girl to bushes or outside shebeens and rented her out to men.

She allegedly used the money to feed her own alcohol addiction as her little one was being raped.

The alleged abuse only came to light when the girl told one of her friends who in turn alerted their teacher.

The girl is now being cared for at a shelter run by Atlantis ward councillor and abuse councillor Barbara Rass.

“I have to applaud the teacher, the silence was broken,” Rass said. “It seems everyone knew what was going on but no one protected her… no one intervened at any point. If she didn’t tell her friend and that teacher, this would have been continuing.”

Barbara Rass points out the area where the little 13-year-old had to go for sex with men. Photo: Patrick Louw

DAILY VOICE

On Monday, a case was formally opened with the police who are investigating a case of rape and child prostitution.

Rass – who has 35 years experience serving the community and fighting on behalf of victims of sex attacks – was close to tears as she spoke of the horrific case.

She said the teen told her how her mother would allegedly lure her to shebeens to have sex with old men.

“The mother would take her to the shebeen yard and say ‘here is a man for you’,” said Barbara.

“Or she would give her a chocolate and say ‘En hier is vir jou ’n man [and here is a man for you]’.

“She had to go into bushes with the men while her mother would always be drinking.”

When the Daily Voice team visited the isolated scene on Tuesday, children as young as five were walking around aimlessly and without parental guidance.

Waste removal trucks chugged along the main dusty road leading out of the area which is surrounded by bush and shacks.

The traumatised teen finally ended up in the care of the police last week.

But she did not disclose the abuse she has been forced to endure until she met Rass.

“She didn’t want to open up and the last person who raped her was a Xhosa man,” the councillor added.

“She didn’t want to undress or speak, then she told me what had happened.”

The young girl on Tuesday spoke – in the presence of her temporary guardians – about the abuse she has suffered.

Her skeletal frame and dark eyes hint at the awful pain she has endured.

She fidgeted nervously as she revealed that she lived with her mom and stepfather, who frequently called her foul names.

“Ons het op die plaas gebly, op die tip [we lived on the farm, at the dump site],” she said as she clutched a doll.

“We lived inside a hokkie (We lived in a shack).

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za

Washington – Voting went smoothly in Tuesday’s United States election – except when it didn’t.

Some computer problems, as well as human ones, drew complaints across the country as millions of Americans went to the polls.

One Pennsylvania voter highlighted a problem with voting machines in which a touchscreen changed his choice from President Barack Obama to Republican Mitt Romney.

“I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted,” the man wrote. “I assumed it was being picky so I de-selected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney.”

This was not the first allegation of foul-ups with electronic machines.

In Ohio, some Republicans claimed machines were changing Romney votes to Obama, while Democrats accused Republican state officials of installing untested “experimental” software at the last minute.

To make matters worse in the crucial swing state, some voting machines were malfunctioning in parts of the Cleveland area, said The Plain Dealer, which quoted election officials as saying ballots would be counted even if scanning machines were down.

In New Jersey, a late decision to allow voters displaced by superstorm Sandy to cast ballots by email caused confusion and frustration.

“Oh no! Email box for Essex County Clerk’s box is full. No one can email in their ballots,” said a tweet from one resident.

Betsy Morais, a writer for The New Yorker, found similar glitches. Her email bounced back.

“I tried again, and once more the message failed. It took three tries to get through to the clerk’s office by phone. ‘Oh, you can just go online to our website to find the ballot and fax it in,’ I was told. I was confused.”

Another source of confusion was a last-minute modification, hours before polls opened, stipulating that voters needed to mail in paper ballots as a verification of the email vote.

The news website Buzzfeed reported that in two major New Jersey counties, email addresses advertised on the county clerk’s website were down, and that one county clerk posted his hotmail address on Facebook for voters.

That in turn prompted a Facebook response from one netizen, who said: “Using your personal hotmail address for official use is very dangerous and quite likely illegal.”

In Benton County, Arkansas, officials ran out of paper ballots, local television reported. Voters, who normally have an option to vote electronically or on paper, only had the e-vote option.

Barbara Arnwine of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said that in Pennsylvania, some voters were told they needed photo identification, even though state law has no such requirement.

“This is the fault of the Pennsylvania state government,” Arnwine said, noting that Pennsylvania passed a voter ID law, but a court blocked it from being enforced.

An “election protection hotline” set up up the lawyers’ committee said voters complained of “chaos” in some Florida precincts, with waits of up to five hours.

In Palm Beach County, Florida, epicentre of the 2000 punch card debacle, local television reported voting was delayed by a printing machine malfunction.

Elsewhere in Florida, the Tampa Bay Times reported that hundreds of voters received automated “robo-calls” telling them the election was on Wednesday.

An official told the paper a glitch in the phone system allowed the calls to go through early on Tuesday, telling voters the election was “tomorrow”.

“We stopped it immediately when we found out about it,” Pinellas County elections supervisor spokesperson Nancy Whitlock told the newspaper.

A similar glitch was reported in the US capital city Washington.

The Arizona Republic reported that robo-calls directed voters to the wrong polling stations, and that Democrats claimed it was an intentional effort by Republicans to misdirect people amid a tight Senate race. – Sapa-AFP

BY Obakeng Maje

Lichtenburg- A 36 year pastor was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Lichtenburg Magistrate Court today after he molested two teenagers.

Pastor Dannie Venter originally from Blydeville sexually abused two boys aged 12 and 14 in several occassions.

“The Pastor lured the boys under false pretence to accompany him to the nearest garage to buy electricity.Then he will change route by driving to the bushes” Captain Pelonomi Makau.

“According to evidence demostrated before magistrate,Venter will show them pornographic magazines and touch their private parts. He will then molest them” she said.

A 36 year-old man bought the boys silence by offering them chips and sweets. According to the boys Venter started sexually abusing them since February this year.

“The boys finally let the cat out of the bag by informing their teacher. The meeting between the parents and boys were organised where the boys tell nothing but the truth” Makau said.

Pastor Dannie Venter was left speechless like confused dinasours flee Juriseen Park when Police pounced on him.

Pastor could not even get mercy from the bible as the bible also says “You will reap what you sow” and is guilty as charged.

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews 

Johannesburg – Five people have been arrested for allegedly forcing four workers at Anglo American’s Amandelbult mine to strip naked, Limpopo police said on Tuesday.

“They were arrested on 1 November and they appeared in court on 2 November, facing charges of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, indecent assault, and illegal gathering,” Colonel Ronel Otto said.

The outcome of the trial held at Northam Magistrate’s Court was not immediately available.

According to media reports on Tuesday, the SA Human Rights Commission was investigating reports that photographs of non-striking mineworkers who had been stripped naked had been circulated on social media.

“As the commission, we will be taking up this matter,” SAHRC spokesman Isaac Mangena told SAfm.

“We have mandated our Limpopo office to take up the matter at the mine, and we… call on the police to investigate this, because this is clearly a criminal act.”

The New Age reported on Monday that strikers forced four workers at the Amandelbult mine to strip naked to punish them for reporting for work.

A photograph in the newspaper showed three men over the age of 50 and a woman in her 30s standing naked in front of a crowd of striking workers.

Mangena said the SAHRC would work with the Commission for Gender Equality to “look at what can be done to protect the rights of women and men whose pictures have been circulating (on) the social media”.

The New Age reported on Tuesday that the administrators of social networking site Facebook removed the pictures on Monday afternoon.

Anglo American Platinum miners are currently on an unprotected strike at its Union and Amandelbult mines in Limpopo. – Sapa

BY Obakeng Maje

Banyana Banyana will be out to record their first ever win over Nigeria when the two African women’s football powers meet in the semi-final of the CAF African Women Championship 2012.

The clash takes place on Wednesday, 7 November 2012 in Bata, Equatorial Guinea.

Kickoff is at 18h30 South African time, with 30 minutes extra time to follow if the score is deadlocked after 90 minutes of play. If there is still no winner after extra time, the match will be decided via a penalty shoot out.

The Sasol-sponsored South African Women’s Senior National Team go into the match ranked No 4 in Africa, compared to the No1 ranked Nigerians – and captain Amanda Dlamini’s team will be looking to break the mental block and record their first win over the Super Falcons since Banyana Banyana was formed in 1993.

“We came to the tournament with the aim of improving on our world ranking of 56th and African ranking of 4th, and with the top four African nations (Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and South Africa) all having made the semi-finals, we now need to deliver to meet our objective,” said Banyana Banyana head coach Joseph Mkhonza.

Hosts Equatorial Guinea face All-Africa Games champions Cameroon in the first semi-final, to be played in Malabo earlier in the day (15h30 kick-off).

“We played to a 1-all draw with Nigeria in an international friendly played in Phokeng near Rustenburg, North West Province earlier this year (3 June), and shared a goal-less draw with them in Lagos two weeks later, so we know we are competitive enough to match Africa’s No 1 side,” added Mkhonza.

“The Banyana Banyana players are keen to do better than their bronze medal finish at the CAF African Women Championship 2010 held in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg, and will be looking to use the experience gained at the London Olympics held in July, to good advantage.”

Mkhonza has an injury-free squad of 20 players to choose from and has the option of fielding his attack-minded 3-5-2 formation which brought success (a 1-0 win over Senegal and a 4-1 triumph over the Democratic Republic of Congo) in the group stages, or revert to the conventional 4-4-2 format.

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies (Sasol League Gauteng) striker Andiswe Mgcoyi will arrive at the semi-final as the joint leading goal-scorer in the tournament on four goals, having scored the only goal of the match against Senegal and a hat-trick against the Congolese.

BY Obakeng Maje

Bafana Bafana will play Norway in a friendly international at Cape Town on 8 January 2013.

By Obakeng Maje

North West Premier, Thandi Modise together with Provincial Health MEC, Dr. Magome Masike will on Tuesday, 06 November 2012 handover site to the winning bidder for construction of new Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital.

“A total of R478 million has been set aside for the construction of new psychiatric hospital in Mahikeng and the project is expected to be completed in the next 24 months” Tebogo Lekgethwane said.

“Initially the Department planned to construct a 648 beds hospital, but following extensive consultation with mental health experts and recommendations by World Health Organization (WHO) MEC Masike decided to downsize psychiatric hospital in favour of community based psychiatric health care facilities” He added.

This will increase access to mental health care services and also boost chances of psychiatric patients to respond to treatment as they will be treated and cared next to home. In no distant future the Department will construct community based psychiatric health care facilities in the four districts of the Province namely, Ngaka Modiri Molema, Bojanala, Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda. The facilities together with the new hospital will make available 648 psychiatric beds of which 384 will be at the new hospital and the remaining beds will be spread across the districts.

Each community based facility will make a provision for residential needs, day care center, a workshop for occupational activities and industrial therapy. It is envisaged that each of these facilities will function independently in terms of staff structures and will be located near health facilities to promote easy outreach of health professionals. 

Members of the media are invited to attend the handing over ceremony billed for 12h00 at the new Bophelong Psychiatric hospital construction site along the Nelson Mandela Drive to Lichtenburg from Mahikeng.