Cape Town – Minister for Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande will launch an investigation into allegations of corruption in the government’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The department has ordered a forensic investigation into the extent of fraud, corruption, maladministration and collusion in the allocation of financial aid by institutions, NSFAS spokesperson Kagisho Mamabolo told News24 last week.

Many students have labelled the application process for government funding at certain universities as “corrupt” and “biased”, based on a survey hosted by News24.

For more http://www.news24.com

The Rustenburg local municipality has issued water restrictions due to the heat wave, the municipality said on Thursday.

“The municipality has issued water restrictions for consumers and it is important that consumers do understand the seriousness of this. We also hereby request each and every one to keep by the restrictions and conserve our water as it is precious and can’t be replaced,” said municipal spokesman Thapelo Matebesi.

He said the main contributors of water in the municipality were Magalies Water and Rand Water.

“The systems are currently under tremendous strain due to the heat wave combined with the extremely dry season. The level of Rand Water’s Barnardsvlei dropped during the last month from a steady 80 percent to a critical 14 percent. The Bospoort reservoir feeding the Boitekong areas is merely six percent currently,” explained Matebesi.

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The Department of Water and Sanitation said on Thursday that it has deployed water tankers to provide water to areas that had been hardest hit by the drought.

These include rural areas in the KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Limpopo province, which have been declared disaster areas.

Other provinces affected by drought include, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West.

In Gauteng the municipalities are experiencing strain on the supply systems due to high demand and current high temperatures.

Deputy Director General for Planning and Transformation, Deborah Mochotlhi said there were short, medium to long-term measures in place to deal with drought.

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

BY REGINALD KANYANE

A 31 year-old man was arrested in Vryburg after armed robbery. The incident took place at Morokweng village, near Ganyesa on Tuesday. North West police said one man was arrested in connection with the robbery.

Provincial police spokesperson, Captain Paul Ramaloko said: “Mafikeng Flying Squad arrested Motsewabatho Buthelezi at Tshidilamolomo village for armed robbery. Buthelezi and his four accomplices allegedly robbed a tuck shop belonging to Ethiopian.  The incident took place on Tuesday at around 02:00 in the morning. They broke into a shop wearing balaclava and demanded cash from him.

“The suspects pointed the victim with a firearm and assaulted him. They found nearly R37 000 inside the wardrobe after searching his room. The suspects fled the scene with that cash, 8 boxes of cigarettes and the victim’s Nissan Hard body. The stolen vehicle was found abandoned 5km away from the scene by Morokweng police and Vryburg K9.” Ramaloko said.

He said Buthelezi appeared at Vryburg Magistrate’s Court for armed robbery and investigations continue.

-TDN

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The police in Setlogelo have launched a manhunt for a group of armed men who are accused of bombing an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) at a Sasol garage in Setlogelo.

The police in Setlagole have launched a manhunt for a group of armed men who are accused of bombing an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) at a Sasol garage in Setlagole.

A group of armed men found a security guard in a caravan, which he uses as his guard house, next to the filling station. They then tied him up before they inserted some explosives into the ATM. Once the explosives went off, the suspects took a substantial amount of cash and fled.

The filling station manager alerted the police after he received the signal of his safe that had been tampered with . No arrests have yet been made, but the Investigations are continuing.

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

Johannesburg – The arrest of Nigerian man who allegedly used fake qualifications to practice as a “doctor” in Polokwane in Limpopo for years, has raised fears the medical profession in South Africa may have been infiltrated by many more impostors.

Anton Nwuafor allegedly used fake qualifications to find a job as a doctor at a Limpopo government hospital.

On Monday the Nigerian national appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate Court on charges of fraud, corruption and violation of South African immigration laws.

According to the charge sheet, Nwuafor was in South Africa illegally and had fake qualifications. He was operating in Pretoria at the time of his arrest on Friday, November 6.

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Pretoria – “I cannot leave evidence lying around,” a killer said after he severely assaulted a man and set him alight while he was still alive.

Sentencing Brakpan resident Sheldon “Chicco” Abrahams to life imprisonment, Judge Selby Baqwa of the high court in Pretoria said this was a “spine-chilling” killing.

The deceased Jerry Martin Smith was on his knees when Abrahams necklaced him.

Abrahams was convicted on an array of charges, including murder and attempted murder.

It is not known what sparked the killing, as Abrahams denied any knowledge of the incident.

Judge Baqwa said this was one of the most senseless killings he had ever dealt with as a judge.

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Police in the Eastern Cape are still searching for a woman who allegedly abducted a five-month baby recently.

Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse Van Rensburg said the police’s Family violence, Child Protection and Sexual offence (FCS) unit was looking for information regarding the abduction of the baby from Kuyga in Port Elizabeth late last month.

“The complainant met a female suspect by the name of Asanda at Polar Park on 26 October 2015,” Van Rensburg said. “The suspect was allegedly looking for a place to sleep, which was offered to her by the complainant at her house in Kuyga.

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Residents in Paarl and surrounding areas who need psychiatric services would now be able to access essential mental health services at the new state-of-the-art R35 million psychiatric building at Paarl Hospital, the Western Cape MEC for Health, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, has announced.

Mbombo, together with the Western Cape MEC for Transport and Public Works, Donald Grant, visited the new building on Wednesday.

Mental health was a critical issue in South Africa, and the new building which offered the best multi-disciplinary care for patients was a step in the right direction and would “assist in managing the high number of psychiatric patients at this facility,” Mbombo said.

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A courier company’s international manager, who “saw an opportunity” to scam his employer, was sentenced to three year’s house arrest on Wednesday on fraud charges.

Shaun van der Lingen, 31, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg and pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud.

The proceedings took the form of a plea bargain, negotiated by defence attorney Liesl Vermaak and State prosecutor advocate Juan Agulhas.

According to the plea bargain document, Van der Lingen was an international manager with the company Globe Flight Worldwide Express.

The document says he “saw an opportunity” to exploit Globe Flight for his own benefit, and over a period of nine months defrauded the company to the extent of R315 187.

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