Mahikeng- Lack of parental care, drugs and stigmatisation are some of the reasons compelling children to live and work on the streets, Thakaneng Project Manager Meshack Seemelo revealed.

Seemelo was speaking at a day long Child Protection Week campaign held at Thakaneng shelter in Ikangeng township on Friday.

“Our shelter has the capacity to cater for 60 children. Currently we have 54 children. This number fluctuates because most the children go back to the streets. They lack support from their parents. As a result they go back home and never go back to school again or come back to the shelter. Some are being stigmatised by their peers at their various school here in Ikageng township. That is why they end up going back to streets and retail stores to beg for money from the passer-by and motorists” he said.

Despite the challenges Seemelo said they have good stories to tell about some of the children who once indulged in street life. He said some of the kids managed to complete Grade 12 and are employed by Spar and others are now taxi drivers.

Childline Director Alice Carnell urged parents to use the childline optimally to report cases of abused children and those living and working in the streets.

More than ten children live at Promosa taxi rank. Most of them indulge in glue and have all dropped out of school. They claimed that they have not stolen from anybody. They said most of sellers at the taxi rank often send them to the banks to draw and deposit money in their accounts.

One of them who spoke on condition of anonymity said they he is not prepared to go home. He said they depend on food they get from the sellers at the taxi rank.

“In the morning we bath at Mooiriver near the mall. That is our life,” he said.

On Friday newly appointed MEC for Department of Social Development, Fenny Gaolaolwe deployed social workers to Ikageng hotspots areas, taxi ranks and road intersections to raise awareness on the plight of children living and working on the streets and profile them.

Gaolalolwe said her street campaign is geared towards assessing children living and working on the street, identifying push factors that led to the children choosing the streets and retail shops as their homes.

She urged the social workers to visit the families of the children living and working on the streets and write home circumstance report.

“The issue of children living and working on the streets is a serious challenge facing all of us. This year we are targeting hotspots such as road intersections, built-up areas and the hotels in Ngaka Modiri Molema and Dr Kenneth Kaunda districts, Gaolalolwe said adding that her department would assess the report of the families visited by social workers at Ikageng and take necessary steps restore the children to their families.-TDN
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Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was pleased with his team’s 47-13 win over a star-studded World XV at DHL Newlands on Saturday.

As it happened: Boks v World XV

The Springboks scored six tries and gained a lot of momentum in the second half of the match, going into the second 40 minutes leading 18-13. This bodes well for next week’s test match against Wales in the Castle Lager Incoming Series.
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Johannesburg – ANC stalwart Epainette Mbeki, and the mother of former president Thabo Mbeki, was a true icon, the Commission for Gender Equality said on Saturday.

“Ma Mbeki was not only known as former president Thabo Mbeki’s mother, but had a distinctive uniqueness of speaking her mind on social- political issues,” the CGE said in a statement.

“She was a true icon of our time that was loved and embraced by many in her community for her social responsibility activities.”

She will be missed across by all whose lives she has touched in her family, her village and in the country, the commission said.

Epainette Mbeki, 98, died in East London, Eastern Cape.

She was the mother of former president Thabo Mbeki and the wife of the late African National Congress and SA Communist Party stalwart Govan Mbeki.

The Economic Freedom Fighters said Epainette Mbeki lived an exemplary life in pursuit of the betterment of others.

“Mama Mbeki was hands-on to the very end. She lived among the poor, worked with the poor and provided hope to the hopeless,” spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said.

South Africans, especially the community in her village of Ngcingwane will miss her independent and intelligent mind, her fearlessness to challenge power even when it meant disagreeing with her own son who served as president of the country, said Ndlozi.

North West premier Supra Mahumapelo also sent his condolences to the Mbeki family.

He said the struggle icon lived for her community and gave her life and everything that was hers to the course for the struggle for liberation.

“In her we have lost a humble role model, a courageous and fearless anti-apartheid activist and an independent thinker,” Mahumapelo said in a statement.

The Mbeki family said her funeral would be held at the family home in Ngcingwane, Idutywa, Eastern Cape on Saturday, 14 June.
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Mama Nomaka Epainette Mbeki was a selfless revolutionary, an educator, community builder and one of the mothers of our nation and midwives of our freedom for democracy, North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo said in paying tribute to veteran struggle heroine who died in the early hours of Saturday.
 “Ma-Mbeki lived for her community and gave her life and everything that was hers to the course for the struggle for liberation of our people. In her we have lost a humble role model, a courageous and fearless anti-apartheid activist and an independent thinker. Her passing away has left the Ngcingwane rural community and South Africa poorer but enriched by invaluable lessons to be learnt from her legacy of selflessness,” Premier Mahumapelo said.“On behalf of the provincial government and the people of North West Province, we wish to express our heartfelt condolences to former President Thabo Mbeki, his brother Moeletsi, the Moerane and Mbeki families who are in mourning and communities she loved and served,” Mahumapelo added.
The 98-year- old Ma-Mbeki who was the second black woman to join the Communist Party of South Africa after Josie Palmer (nee Mphama) in 1937 was the brain behind the Khanyisa beadwork project, which has sustained the art of traditional African beadwork and provided livelihoods for 24 women in her rural village.
She was also a prominent force in the
 Linda Mbeki Hospice which operates  from the former Mbeki home in Mbuweleni founded to commemorate the life of her daughter who died in 2005.
Ma-Mbeki who was passionate about education had also established the Nomaka Mbeki Technical Senior Secondary School
 and owned the Goodwill Trading Store, whose cash-counting and bookkeeping she did herself.
Among the accolades that the hard working Ma-Mbeki had earned was the Community Builder of the Year award, the  NAFCOC founder member award, a Transkei chamber stalwart award, the King Cetshwayo African Image Award and the Eastern Cape arts and culture award for Khanyisa, given her by former Premier of the Eastern Cape Rev
 Makhenkhesi Stofile.
Ma-Mbeki was also recipient of the Order of the Baobab in Gold National Award conferred on her by the South African government for her “exceptional contribution to the economic upliftment of the underprivileged communities of the Eastern Cape and her commitment to the fight against apartheid.”
Rhodes University had also conferred the degree od Doctors of Laws,honoris causa on her in 2012.
-TDN
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Johannesburg – A recent diarrhoea outbreak in Bloemhof, North West, that led to the deaths of three babies is being probed, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Friday.

“People in Bloemhof and many other areas are entitled to the right to clean drinking water that is enshrined in our Constitution and in our laws,” it said in a statement.

The organisation recently released a report on sanitation, stating it was unacceptable that apartheid-era spatial geography still negatively affected black, poor and working class people 20 years into democracy.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Friday contaminated water was the probable cause of the Bloemhof diarrhoea outbreak.

“Considering the nature of the diarrhoea disease, the specific types of E. coli and viruses detected in ill persons, and the extent of the outbreak in the affected community, contaminated drinking water is the likely source of the outbreak,” it said in a statement.

Three children in the area, aged under two years old, have died from diarrhoea, complicated by dehydration.

Since 25 May, over 500 cases of people suffering from diarrhoea have been recorded at health care facilities in Bloemhof.

The NICD ruled out cholera as the cause of the outbreak.

“E. coli bacteria were identified in a number of stool samples tested at Tshepong National Health Laboratory Services, and have been confirmed at the NICD Centre for Enteric Diseases as specific types of E. coli that can cause diarrhoea.”

Various diarrhoea-causing viruses were also identified in the samples.

The municipality has since drained the entire water system and sanitised it.

The NICD said the number of cases of diarrhoea had declined, but there were still more cases reported than usual. This indicated that the outbreak was not yet over.

Residents were advised to make their drinking water safe by boiling it for one minute. Alternatively, one teaspoon of household bleach could be added to 20 litres of water to ensure it was potable.

Earlier on Friday, North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo’s spokesperson, Sam Mokaila, confirmed that Lekwa-Teemane municipal manager Andrew Makwapane had resigned amid the water contamination crisis.

Makwapane was suspended on Monday after a meeting by provincial and municipal leaders.

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New York – Coca-Cola is taking on obesity, this time with an online video showing how fun it could be to burn off the 140 calories in a can of its cooldrink.
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Johannesburg – It was the “worst possible thing” to have the IEC connected to any politician, the Electoral Court heard on Friday.

This was the submission of, David Unterhalter, SC, for the United Democratic Movement, the African Christian Democratic Party, the Congress of the People, Agang SA, and the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Having the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) connected to a politician amounted to a conflict of interest, Unterhalter said.

He was submitting his final arguments to the court sitting in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

The five parties want IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula removed because she did not follow due processes in the procurement of the IEC’s premises in Centurion, Pretoria.

A forensic investigation by the Treasury found that the procurement of the Riverside Office Park was neither fair, transparent, nor cost-effective.

The Treasury investigation followed a recommendation by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in her own investigations into the matter.

Madonsela found Tlakula had a relationship – possibly of a romantic nature – with the chair of Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, Thaba Mufamadi.

He was a shareholder in Abland, which owns the commission’s current premises.

“If you happen to be the CEO of an electoral commission, you can’t be in a business relationship with someone who is a politician,” Unterhalter said.

He said this was a compromised relationship.

‘Honest mistake’

Daniel Berger, SC, for Tlakula has told the court his client had made an “honest mistake”.

He asked the court to take into consideration that she made this mistake while still serving as the IEC’s CEO, not while in her current position.

Berger contended the procurement deal had not affected how she conducted her duties.

Unterhalter argued in response: “Tlakula had a duty to disclose. Just because she didn’t stand to derive financial gain does not make the relationship okay.”

In 2010 the IEC published a document on its tender processes, in which it indicated its staff had been trained in the subject.

This might mean she willingly ignored the procedures, Unterhalter said.

Berger said he was unaware of this and could not argue on it.

Justice Lotter Wepener gave Berger until Tuesday to produce a written submission in reply.

Judgment was reserved.

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