A culture of corruption and impunity is seeping through every level of government and corroding society, Agang leader Mamphela Ramphele said Thursday.

“It is estimated that corruption robs us of more than R30 billion of the government’s budget every year through an abusive procurement system,” she said in Johannesburg.

“The most outrageous example is in the private palace costing more than R200 million which was built for President (Jacob) Zuma at Nkandla.”

Ramphele listed other examples, such as irregular leasing for police buildings, and civil servants and their families doing business with government.

She said it was no wonder that the Eastern Cape health department had “collapsed” after government acknowledged that 8 000 public servants in the province were doing business with the department.

“These are not just bumps on the road to a better future. These are not the inevitable pains of a transitional period,” Ramphele said.

“They are a betrayal of the founding principles of our democracy, a betrayal of what our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, who fought all those freedom fights and died.”

Speaking at the Wits Origin Centre, she told students, media, and business people that the fight against apartheid had not been fought so that millions of South Africans could live like the “forgotten people”.

It was important for South Africans to overcome their “fear” and stand up against corruption and patronage.

Quoting former president Nelson Mandela, she said “never, never, never again” should the oppression of one by another in South Africa be allowed.

“Let us mark a formidable war on corruption,” Ramphele said.

“We can’t govern a 21st century democracy without knowledge, science, and technology… Our (Agang’s) policies are going to be based on evidence.” – Sapa

Durban – The aunt of one of the eight children who died in a fatal bus accident near Ulundi, has described the horror of the search for her nephew and the bloody state of the injured children at the hospital.The bus, carrying 43 pupils and four teachers, overturned on the R66 on Tuesday evening.

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Pretoria – AfriForum Youth will highlight affirmative action by charging students of different races different prices for a cup of coffee at the University of Pretoria (UP) on Friday.

White students would pay R5 a cup, coloureds and Indians R3, and blacks R1, AfriForum Youth chairperson Barend Taute said in a statement.

ANC supporters would be given a free cup of coffee if they dropped a donation into a box marked “Corruption Fund”.

Taute said the campaign was being held to commemorate Freedom Day, and to draw attention to the impact of racial profiling.

“Nineteen years after South Africa was ostensibly freed from racial profiling, students at the UP are still admitted based on their race,” he said.

“Students want to be free from racial profiling, and this action is a way to show how inane racial bias has become.”

Taute said a recent referendum at UP indicated that 97 percent of students supported the abolition of racial profiling.

The coffee sales would start at 10am on Friday. – Sapa

Johannesburg – Coloured people in the Western Cape are finding it difficult to be promoted within the correctional services department, it was reported on Thursday.

This was one of the issues which emerged in a Labour Court case on Wednesday, The Star reported

According to the newspaper, several employees took the province’s correctional services department to court about its employment equity plan.

Pupils from across the province will be taught about national symbols and hoisting of the national flag in a ceremony to be held at all schools on the eve of the of the Freedom Day celebrations on Saturday.

For more http://www.thenewage.co.za 

The provincial secretaries of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in Limpopo and Gauteng said they had attended the court appearance of exiled league president Julius Malema in Polokwane on Tuesday in their personal capacities.

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Animal health technicians and veterinarian services officials have intensified the provision of animal health care to farming communities across the province.

This comes partly as the provincial agriculture and rural development department seeks to mark April as animal health month but at the same time providing much-needed care to farmers in all parts.

The campaign started at the beginning of this month and has seen officials vaccinating animals against various diseases.

The agriculture department is working in partnership with the North West University’s school of agriculture at the Mahikeng campus to provide general animal husbandry services such as dehorning, deworming, castration, animal identification or brand marking, animal handling and parasite control.

Agriculture MEC Desbo Mohono said that vaccines were very valuable tools to stop the spread of a large number of transmittable diseases that threaten the health and welfare of animals and human beings.

“What the department has embarked upon is an attempt to contribute positively to the development of livestock farmers in the rural community by improving the health and quality of our livestock.

“The officials have also been helping farmers with information on livestock supplements that can be helpful to animals during this winter season because it’s the disease-prone time that puts most animals in danger,” she said.

Mohono said that vaccination and general screening of animals were rendered free of charge and anyone could have their livestock inspected.

The MEC further encouraged livestock farmers to keep in close contact with their local animal health technicians, saying their services to farmers was critical to the broader programme of livestock improvement in the province.

Department spokesperson Bonolo Mohlakoana said: “While most rural areas have been serviced since the beginning of this month, the primary animal healthcare services would continue to be provided at various sites, with the last round of Ngaka Modiri Molema district activities moving to Mmanawana and Ramatlabama today.”

She said that the campaign would be taken to Uitkyk village on May 7. “Farmers in Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati district had technicians visiting Matsheng and Tlapeng villages in Kagisano-Molopo local municipality yesterday, while Dipodi, Kudunkgoane and Tlapeng livestock will be vaccinated on Friday.”

Some of the livestock farmers expressed gratitude for the gesture shown by the department and promised to take full advantage of the campaign.

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