A PLAY called Itsoseng which was written by an internationally celebrated and actor and writer from Bokone Bophirima, Omphile Molusi, is currently running at the Market Theatre.

  The production is about a childhood love story and life in a township (Itsoseng) formerly known as “Mooidorpie” because of its beauty during the Bophutatswana days. 

  Molusi’s talent was showcased at the Edinburgh Arts Festival where he received the Scotsman Fringe First Award, an honour which is given to the best plays at the international festival.

  Itsoseng was first published by Junkets Publishers, later by Oxford Publishers and it has been adopted as a formal set work for grade 11 drama students.

  His formal training at the Market Theatre Laboratory led him to become the first winner of the Royal Shakespeare Company Brett Goldin Bursary which enabled him to study theatre in the United Kingdom (UK) where he sharpened his skills in acting, voice and heightened writing.

  The play has toured in the UK, Ireland, America and Zimbabwe and has also played at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

  Molusi is also a winner of the Black Excellence Award in Chicago in the United States.

HE said that what keeps him going is his love to keep people entertained and a passion for storytelling.

  “My family also motivates me to take my work seriously and achieve even greater things as I have a loving wife and a three-year-old daughter. It has not been an easy journey though, people think that when you are from The Market Theatre Laboratory you will instantly make it. You have to keep hustling and make sure that you are always innovative and creative.”

  Molusi has also written a number of published short stories which include Cadre-based on the story of an African People’s Liberation Army (APLA) soldier, For the Right Reasons and Balalatladi.

  He also teaches writing at the Market Theatre Laboratory and is a writer for a popular television soapie on e.tv calledScandal!

  The play is currently showing at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. It started on April 7 and will run until May 7. -Newsnote

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North West Provincial Legislature’s Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts (SCOPA) led by the Chairperson, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng has requested the Department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development and Department of Local Government to urgently assist Ditsobotla and Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipalities to develop a recovery plan that will ensure that salaries and statutory deductions are paid in the last three months of the financial year ending June 2017.

This came after the Standing Committee held an oversight meeting with Mayors and senior management of both municipalities, where they admitted to delays on payments of salaries of employees and statutory deductions including, South African Revenue Services deductions, Unemployment Insurance Fund and other Municipal Gratuity Fund Deductions dating from August 2016.

Mahlakeng said the departments should assist the municipalities in developing the recovery plan and provide key personnel who will ensure that salaries and statutory deductions are paid in the last three months of the financial year ending June 2017.

“The Municipal Public Accounts Committees should also be involved in the turn-around strategy.  There is no political and administrative leadership in both municipalities hence there were delays on such important legal payments affecting employees. In Lekwa-Teemane local municipality, the position of the Chief Financial Officer has been vacant for a long time, and consultant is being paid over R3 million to manage its Budget and Treasury Office.

“There is also no clarity on whether the more than three Provincial Government’s interventions at these municipalities yielded any positive results,” said Mahlakeng.

Local Government and Human Settlements Head of Department, Ephraim Motoko said the department is assisting with many interventions including secondment of senior managers and implementation of valuation roll,  credit control debt collection, and revenue enhancement measures.

“We are also assisting with collection of debt from different government departments. Stability in senior management positions has been a challenge in these municipalities,” said Motoko.

Linda Negovhle from the Department of Finance said both municipalities’ budget is not sustainable and they are unable to pay its budgeted obligations including creditors due to low revenue collection and high consultancy fees on finance and legal functions which are part of their organograms. 

“Both municipalities have outsourced its credit control functions however there is no improvement in collection rates. They also cannot pay Auditor General, their owing Eskom more than R14m , 3^rdParties and SARS which resulted in constant accruals.

“At Lekwa-Teemane, Equitable Share (which includes administration cost and community services) is R39 million whilst employee cost is only R57 million. In Ditsobotla the Equitable Share is R89,9 million whilst employee cost is R169.9million. Their salaries are then funded by their revenue collection which is not reliable, that is why they find themselves in this situation,” said Negovhle.

The Acting Municipal Manager at Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality,  Mokgatlhe Ratlhogo said employees and councillors’ salaries were paid on 27 March 2017 instead of the prescribed date of the 25^ththrough the conditional grants on understanding that Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality could intervene through provision of a short-term loan of R3 million.

“A Special Municipal Council meeting in March 2017 has also resolved to pass a resolution to request the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements to assist with an amount of R14, 1 million for remuneration and salaries for April to June 2017 as the amount will be covered during the implementation of revenue enhancement strategies. 

“We still owe SARS for January to March 2017,” said Ratlhogo. 

He said the municipality has pleaded with both departments to assist on filing critical positions including senior managers.

The Municipal Manager for Ditsobotla Local Municipality, Tsatsi Ramagaga said due to serious cash flow challenges from August 2016, salaries and statutory deductions were not paid on time.

“Main contributors are non-implementation of credit controls and unavailability of capital budget from own revenue. Although we had these challenges, the municipality managed to pay salaries and statutory deductions with the last tranche of equitable share on 17 March 2017. 

“We have made arrangement with SARS to pay the balance in tranches as and when the funds are available.

“The municipality is owed over R348 million by government, businesses and households. The National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is assisting the municipality in finalising revenue enhancement plan,” said Ramagaga.

Mahlakeng said the municipalities should submit a detailed report on Councillors and municipal employees who do not pay municipal rates and taxes.

 “Municipalities should conduct consultative meetings to encourage communities to pay services as municipalities rely on revenue to improve service delivery,”M ahlakeng said. 

taungdailynews@gmail.com

BY BAKANG MOKOTO

North West under-12 Danone Nations Cup provincial soccer finals will take place on May 6 at the Alabama Stadium in Klerksdorp. Mmamitlwa Primary School of Saulspoort will be there for the first time.

Moses Mahau who is the coach, said that they entered the competition for the first time last year and they are thrilled to advance to the next stage at their second attempt. There will be 3 other regional winners competing in the province.

“We are a rural school, located in Raserapane Section, Moruleng in the Moses Kotane district. So we do not have good facilities. Even though we play on a sand field, we have the same chance as any other school of going further in the competition. Look at Benny’s Sport and Academy. They are also a rural school but they won the national finals last year and finished 14^th at the world finals, out of 32 schools,” Mohau said.

Mmamitlwa qualified after winning their regional finals that took place on 1^st April this year.

There were 12 schools competing in the regional finals and they were divided into 3 groups of 4 schools each.  One of the teams in their pool was disqualified and Mmamitlwa won one and drew the other of their pool games to finish on top of their group.

They met Segwetlhane Primary School in the semi-finals, and won in a penalty shootout.

“It was a tough semi-final. Segwetlhane scored first, but we managed to equalised. We eventually won the game on penalties. That put us into the final against Matlhware of Rustenburg Rural. That game also ended in a 1-all draw and Mmamitlwa won on penalties.

Mahau started teaching at the school in 2013. He has no formal coaching qualification, but he coaches at two local clubs and his experience has helped him with the school team.

“I am passionate about development and it is the responsibility of school coaches to teach the children the basic rules of the game. That will instill good habits at an early age to help develop them to professional level.

“It is critical at this young age to build the players’ self-esteem and confidence. That comes primarily from the home environment so I encourage parents to get involved with every aspect of the child from their school work to extra murals,” he said.

Mahau also encouraged the parents to watch their kids whenever they can. He further said he always tried to motivate and encourage them.

“I hope they will all come to the provincials as that is great motivation for the team to perform well. Although I have no idea what to expect at the provincial finals, I am pretty confident that my team has the same chance of getting into the national finals as any other school there. If we get the systems into place and stick to our structures we can do as well as Benny’s,” he concluded.

Competing schools:

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JOHANNESBURG – A champion of positivity, Ontlametse Phalatse, has passed away.

She passed away on Tuesday night at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, outside Pretoria.

The 18-year-old was one of two South African girls living with the rare genetic disorder.

Progeria causes rapid aging.

Her doctors predicted that she would only survive until her 14th birthday.

Last month, President Jacob Zuma fulfilled her wish to meet him.

The family will release a statement later on Wednesday morning.

– eNCA

Pic:  (Bokone Bophirima Premier, Supra Mahumapelo) 

By BAKANG MOKOTO

BOKONE Bophirima provincial government Director-General, Dr Lydia Sebego has assured the people of the province that government work would proceed as normal amid reported pickets planned for Wednesday.

Sebego reacted to media reports that claims that a newly formed forum called Anti State Capture Forum in North West has organised the picket. According to Sebego, the forum call for Premier, Supra Mahumapelo to resign.

“It is sad that in this day when democratic processes are communicated almost on a daily basis, we still find people forming alliances of convenience and making unfounded allegations to try and mislead our people. Mahumapelo and the provincial government were democratically elected and anyone who is unhappy with his presence should use the democratic route, which is only through the ballot.

“It is clear that a media campaign was being waged to tarnish Mahumapelo’s name with unfounded allegations. The reason this small group of people has chosen to do this through a media campaign is because they know there’s a very little chance that they would be asked to present evidence,” Sebego said.

Sebego further said they were also disappointed that this new forum is exploiting the pain that the province and the country at large felt with the 2012 Marikana tragedy.

“Taking such unfounded allegations to Marikana is equal to playing on our people’s emotions and exploiting the same poor people this group claims to represent. Our government respect everyone’s constitutional right to protest or march, as long as they do that peacefully.

“We respect the democratic right to protest or picket, as long as in the process the protesters also remember their responsibility to respect other people’s rights,” she said.

Mahumapelo once again reiterated that anyone who alleges corruption to approach the relevant law enforcement agencies with evidence.

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Job losses may continue for some time in Bokone Bophirima’s mining sector as big mining companies sell off their assets and new players coming into the sector opting to use machines.

This was the warning from mining analyst, Mmamokgethi Molopyane, who was speaking to Semphete following the release of Statistics South Africa’s (StatsSA) report on the mining industry in 2015.

According to the report, the total number of people employed in the mining industry as at the end of June 2015 was 490 146.

“The mining of platinum group metal ore division employed the largest number of persons (198 952 or 40,6%), followed by mining of gold and uranium ore with (104 369 or 21,3%) and mining of coal and lignite (97 952 or 20,0%),” the report stated.

“Employment in the mining industry declined from 538 144 in 2012 to 490 146 in 2015 (a loss of 47 998 jobs). The biggest losses in jobs were recorded in mining of gold and uranium ore (a loss of 39 715 jobs), followed by mining of platinum group metal ore (a loss of 7 812 jobs) and other stone quarrying, including stone crushing and clay and sandpits (a loss of 4 512 jobs),” the report continued.

“As companies sell off some of their assets, especially in the North West; some are laying off people. Some of the new companies coming in prefer to use machines and that does not help with job creation,” Molopyane said.

In terms of mine employees, Bokone Bophirima was the largest contributor with 133 428 (37,8%) persons working in the industry, followed by Mpumalanga (78 518 or 22,2%), Gauteng  (53 764 or 15,2%) and Limpopo (37 005 or 10,5%).

The report further revealed that the total income for the mining industry in 2015 was R419,5 billion.

“The total income represents an increase of 2,2% per annum over the income reported in the corresponding survey of 2012 (R393,4 billion). Comparing 2012 and 2015, large increases were reported for mining of coal and lignite (+R21,9 billion), mining of manganese (+R6,8 billion) and mining of diamonds (including alluvial diamonds) (+R6,4 billion). However, large decreases were reported for mining of platinum group metal ore (-R15,5 billion), mining of iron ore (-R7,4 billion) and mining of gold and uranium ore (-R3,3 billion),” the report stated.

Between 2012 and 2015, the mining of coal and lignite group gained the biggest percentage share of income (3,7 percentage points) (from a percentage contribution of 24,4% in 2012 to 28,1% in 2015). The mining of platinum group metal ore lost the biggest percentage share (5,4 percentage points) in the same period (from 27,1% in 2012 to 21,7% in 2015).

Mpumalanga was the province with the largest income from sales of goods in the mining industry in 2015 with R114,4 billion.

“The province with the second largest income from sales of goods was North West (R84,7 billion or 21,3%), followed by Northern Cape (R69,5 billion or 17,5%) and Limpopo (R45,3 billion or 11,4%),” the report stated.

Source: http://www.semphete.co.za 

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African National Congress (ANC) MP, Makhosi Khoza has defended her comments regarding the state of the ANC.

Khoza has received widespread criticism after writing on her Facebook page that politics of patronage have finally claimed the sanity of the ANC leadership.

In sharing her thoughts, Khoza describes the leadership of the ANC as ill-advised and harmful to the relevance and lifespan of the party.

Speaking on AM Live, Khoza says no matter how ANC MPs will vote on the motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma on the 18th of April; the ANC has lost its moral ground.

“Whether the ANC votes for or against, equally the ANC is going to lose. I honestly don’t believe that we have taken into account the fact that we’re not just voted by our members of the ANC. Last election we got over 11 million, 10 million of those people they’re not card carrying members of the ANC and we need to be listening to that. Hence I was saying that we’re a leader of society and I really don’t see anything wrong with what I said.”Source: http://www.sabc.co.za

Fans will be rubbing their hands in anticipation as this encounter will be a reunion of sorts for United coach Stuart Baxter and several of his players after he led them to several trophies while still in Chiefs colours.

The PSL will announce the venues‚ the dates and kick off times of all the matches at a later stage.

The full quarterfinal draw:

Golden Arrows vs Platinum Stars

Kaizer Chiefs vs Supersport United

Orlando Pirates vs Bloemfontein Celtic

Chippa United vs Jomo Cosmos –

Source: TMG Digital/ TMG Sport

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By BAKANG MOKOTO
Four people were killed and four sustained injuries after a car rolled on the N12 in Stilfontein on Monday.

Er24 spokesperson, Anine Dormehl said the paramedics found four people flung 10-15 meters from the vehicle after it rolled multiple times.

“Unfortunately there was nothing paramedics could do for the two women and two children and they were declared dead on the scene. It is estimated that the women were 35 and 60 years old and that the two children were 7 and 11 years old.

“It is believed that two men and two toddlers were lucky to escape with minor injuries. They were all treated  and transported to hospital by other emergency services on scene,” Dormehl said.

The white vehicle could not be identified and it is not clear what caused the car to roll.

Local authorities will be conducting an investigation into the matter.

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