JOHANNESBURG – Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital management on Wednesday said reports of a huge patient backlog are true, but those numbers will drop substantially in the next few months.

The hospital’s surgery backlog was highlighted on Wednesday after Gauteng Health MEC Hope Papo revealed that almost four thousand patients are part of the surgery backlog.

Hospital CEO Johanna More said the only real backlog is the urology department which still has to treat 2,000 patients.

“I can tell you that between January and July 2012, we’ve already covered 19,620 operating cases.”

The province’s hospital has made news in recent months for broken equipment, non-payment to service providers and shortages of medication.

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Bloemfontein – Residents of Welkom have been shocked by a cellphone video showing a 14-year-old girl having sex with a 20-year-old man.

The girl’s 12-year-old friend was apparently told by the man to make the video, reported Volksblad.

The children had been drinking alcohol with the accused at his flat after which they lay down on a bed because they felt ill. 

The man then came in and said he wanted to kiss and cuddle with the victim. The younger girl was told to record his actions.

The man was arrested after the younger girl showed the video to friends at school and the principal called the police.

Neither the girl nor her friend were apparently able to remember the events of the night before.

The prosecutor in the case said the principal had acted correctly by calling the police.

The girls unwittingly also committed an offence in making and distributing the video but would probably only be told to undergo therapy and behavioural programmes.

The man was arrested.

News24

Church leaders, led by Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verryn, have intervened to avoid a clash between thousands of protesters and police at Lonmin in Marikana in North-West. The protesters are marching to Shaft 3 West of Marikana to ask management to close the Shaft.

An agreement to allow four delegates from rock drillers and four police officials have been allowed inside the Shaft to request management to heed their request. No violence has been reported thus far.

Earlier reports said another bloody clash between miners and police at Lonmin’s Kareespruit was imminent. The reports were triggered after striking rock drill operators ignored orders to disperse. The number of strikers carrying spears and axes was said to have increased from 1 000 to 2 000.

As police kept a watchful eye on the protesters, four Nyala vehicles as well as a water tanker were on stand-by. Peace negotiations aimed at ending violence in the mining area are expected to have resumed at Sun City.

Johannesburg – Thousands of defiant workers marched on the crippled Lonmin mine on Wednesday, refusing to end a deadly strike and threatening to make the platinum giant’s mine “ungovernable”.

Armoured police trucks and two police helicopters kept watch as around 3 000 miners, carrying sticks and chanting, marched to a shaft owned by the world’s number three platinum producer where a wildcat action is in its fourth week.

“We told them if they don’t close the mine shafts we will make them ungovernable,” a worker leader told strikers after the group had re-gathered near where police shot 34 people last month.

“The management is trying to divide us and coaxing some of you to go to work. Remember people died as a result of the struggle and at the end of the day your boss does not stay with you.”

Earlier, marchers took to the streets to demand that the company bow to their wage demands. One placard stating “Lonmin must decide to give us money or close”.

The show of defiance came as a fresh round of mediated talks kicked off to try to broker a breakthrough in the stalemate, as Lonmin warning that an indefinite strike will put 40 000 jobs at risk.

Mine manager Jan Thirion said worker representatives had threatened that “if we don’t leave here at one o’clock (11h00 GMT) they will come and burn down the shaft, burn down cars and kill us”.

“We want to talk peace, they want to talk war,” he told reporters after speaking to the representatives through a fence under high security.

But workers dispersed peacefully after their deadline passed, singing “(President Jacob) Zuma is a fool, we are ruled by stupid people” as they headed back to where police had opened fire on August 16, killing their colleagues.

Some carried a picture of a dead miner who is to be buried this weekend. There was shock at his death as he had left the site with only a bullet wound in the leg.

“We believe police finished him,” said worker representative Xolani Mzuzu.

“We consider him a hero like Chris Hani,” Mzuzu added, referring to the anti-apartheid icon gunned down a year before South Africa headed into democracy.

The deadly police volley against the miners on August 16 shocked the world with its echoes of apartheid-era police brutality.

The police shootings brought the death toll to 44 after escalating from a wildcat strike in which 10 people, including two police officers, had already been killed.

The dispute has become a battleground for rival political and labour factions and sparked fears of a spillover of unrest into the key mining sector.

London-listed Lonmin, whose shares dropped on Wednesday, reported 4.2 percent attendance across all its shafts but was hopeful of an outcome in the latest talks.

“We are willing to negotiate wages, in the right manner,” it said.

“Violence and intimidation have no place in bargaining. We are working hard to reach agreement with all parties through the peace talks. All of us must condemn violence.”

Workers are insisting on R12 500 per month. – AFP

By Obakeng Maje

The representation of female senior managers in the public service still need much attention considering the fact that men continue to dominate senior positions, says North West Premier, Thandi Modise.

Speaking at the Public Service Women Management Meeting held at Mahikeng Hotel School on Tuesday, Premier Modise noted the worrying picture of female representation in the public service.

She encouraged women who are already senior managers in the public service to play their role in increasing the number of senior managers at their workplace.

“We really need women to gather in this nature regularly so that the intention of promoting gender equality in the public service is driven by women themselves.

Regularly when you meet like this, it is your responsibility to mentor, nature and come up with programmes that will assists other women who want to lead in the public service,” Premier Modise said at the meeting attended by senior managers across all the provincial departments.

She told women that government is trying its best to provide support mechanisms to empower women to be in senior positions.

Modise added that women must be senior managers in all field including in the finances so that they continue to overcome many barriers such as lack of access to finance and technology.

 Premier Modise told women senior managers that gender equality should not be viewed simply as a compliance issue to pacify the Employment Equity Commission.

“Gender equality is a fundamental principle of democracy and human rights. Women must not sit in senior positions in government and not influence the decisions taken at that level,” she added.

Premier Modise warned those women senior managers in the public service who use their position to block other competent women to progress.

“As a women manager at your work, you should be able to empower other women rather than blocking them to progress.

You will not earn your respect if you do not embrace other women by empowering them, ”she cited.

In 2007, the Head of the departments (HoD’s) 8-Principle Plan of Action for Promoting Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality within the Public Service Workplace was launched.

The meeting was part of the plan intended to enhance women’s empowerment and equality in the public service.

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By SAPS

Rustenburg- The Police are monitoring a INTIMIDATION CASE YET TO BE OPENED AGAINST EASTERN PLATINUM MINE WORKERS

On Tuesday, 4 September 2012, at about 09:00, a group of 200 mineworkers gathered at the Eastern Platinum Mine, Shaft 30 gates.

A delegation of four mineworkers representing the group went to the mine management at shaft number 30.

The group of four met at the shaft gate with a mine representative where the team of four instructed them to close down the shaft.

It is reported that they said if the manager does not adhere to the instruction, they will return the following day, 5 September to kill them.

They then  went back and rejoined the group at shaft 30 and later dispersed peacefully.

“The group moved towards shaft number 01 under police guard, they then moved back to their residential area at hostels next to shaft number 30” Captain Ngubane said.

At this stage no case of violence, damage to property and intimidation was reported to the police. It is also confirmed that no case of intimidation against the group of four that has been opened at Bethani police station by the Eastern Platinum Mine manager at this moment. Police are constantly monitoring the situation at the mine.