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NORTH West premier and ANC provincial chairperson Supra Mahumapelo urged for tranquillity at Rustenburg. Mahumapelo has recommended that all political parties to work together in delivering good governance and improve the lives of the masses.

This came about after Botho Community Movement leader allegedly received death threats after he voted for ANC during council meeting. ANC won Rustenburg local municipality with the assistance of smaller political parties. 

“We are grateful that we managed to secure Rustenburg local municipality and other all municipalities in province. We also acknowledge that ANC received declined percentage during local government elections 2016.

“As ANC, we will go back to the drawing board and see where and how can we improve. We have reached an agreement with AIC and BCM in Rustenburg to work together until 2021. 

“We will make sure that we put people’s needs first. Batho Pele principles will be implemented and we will also engage with other political oppositions to speed-up the service delivery process,” Mahumapelo said.

He added that service delivery like job creation, poverty eradication, and unemployment, making sure that healthcare centres are intact, compacting roads and supplying water to the people will be on the top of their list.

Mahumapelo said many people did not vote in Rustenburg because they were allegedly threatened. Mahumapelo said they will also investigate the allegations and address them.

“We will make sure that all councillors conduct monthly meetings and they must report back. We have appointed local government and human settlements department MEC, Galaletsang Gaolaolwe to oversee the process. Councillors will also be capacitated so that they can be able to deliver.

“We met with all government top managers on Tuesday to discuss strategic plans. We want to speed up the process of Village, Township and Small Dorpies (VTSD). This will assist in job creation and eradicate unemployment, poverty and inequality,” he said.

Mahumapelo also added that they will speed up village Development Plan (VDP) for each village across North West. He said there are more than 800 villages in the province and they will implement chamber of commerce in each village.  

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Muhsin Ertugral was pleased to start his tenure as Orlando Pirates coach with a 3-1 win over Golden Arrows but insists his side are far from the finished article.

Pirates dispatched Arrows in their league opener courtesy of a Tendai Ndoro hat-trick at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday night.

Ertugral said: “We wanted that [win] but we have a lot of work to do. I must say that it is a marvelous team to work with, it is one of the best teams I’ve worked with in my career. We have wonderful individual players but there are a lot of other patterns we need to look into, there are a lot of elements we need to look into. As much as we played brilliant football in the second half – technically, tactically we did everything better – but there’s a long way to go. We need to be a little more patient with the team, there is a lot of potential in this team and I think we will go a long way.”

The former Mpumalanga Black Aces tactician continued: “We have great players, fantastic individual players but we need to find a team. We need to know when we lose the ball what to do, we need to know when to pressurize so there are a lot of elements and a new pattern for the boys but I must say the way these boys are taking it I enjoy every training session.

“I was a bit surprised at the beginning of the season when we had the Carling Cup and it was very clear that we had a long way to go but we knew what we were going to do and I kept quiet and worked behind the scenes and I must say thank you to the management and mr Khoza who has given us a lot of support about what the techincal side wanted to do. We have a fantastic technical squad behind the scenes who are great to work with.”

Source: http://www.kickoff.com

Cape Town – Bidvest Wits got their 2016-17 Absa Premiership campaign up and running with a 2-1 win over Kaizer Chiefs at Bidvest Stadium on Tuesday evening. 

Goals from Elias Pelembe and Thulani Hlatshwayo leading the Clever Boys to all three points in what was an early season heavyweight clash in Braamfontein. 

Lorenzo Gordinho pulled back a late goal for the visitors, but it proved of little importance as the Students held on for what was their first league home victory over the their illustrious hosts since November 2002. 

Bidvest Wits dominated the opening exchanges, but Chiefs started to find their rhythm and were just in their stride when the Clever Boys struck through Pelembe in the 34th minute. 

The Mozambique international with an expert diving finish from a Sifiso Hlanti cross following good work by Frank Mhango in the build-up – a wonderful passage of play rewarded with a goal. 

Hlatshwayo doubled the visitors lead in the 65th minute following poor marking by the Amakhosi. 

Their strength for most of the past few seasons, set-pieces have proved to be their Achilles heel of late and it again proved the case. ‘Tyson’ rising highest – unmarked – to nod home for the Clever Boys’ second on the night. 

Gordinho gave Chiefs some hope of a late fightback in the 82nd minute with a superb glancing header, but after Emmanuel Letlotlo skied a late chance, Bidvest Wits held on for a rare win on home soil over the Glamour Boys. 

Source: http://www.news24.com

THE Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts (SCOPA) provincial chairperson, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng sent stern warnings to all head of departments (HoDs). Mahlakeng said according to audit general reports, most HoDs in the province do not adhere to the legislative frameworks that deal with procurement processes.

This was during an oversight meeting that the committee held with the Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development department (FEED) over the progress report on the provincial departments and their entities’ irregular expenditure and implementation of consequence management recently.

The AG reported that, the provincial legislature which is also a government institution was not included in the list of departments presented by the HoD, but has an irregular expenditure of R9million.

The AG’s office said that the presentation stated that no unauthorised expenditure was incurred during the 2015/16. According to AG, this is not a true reflection of audits.

The Deputy Business Executive in the Office of the AG, Schalla van Schalkwyk said 60% of provincial departments including municipalities have not done anything about fruitless and wasteful expenditures in the prior years and current status is most likely to increase.

“Accounting Officers fail to act according to what the constitution stipulates, through the legislative framework. A R28 million was incurred on the prior years on the irregular expenditure.

“That has doubled in the current year to R41 Million. This is due to failure of Accounting Officers to take insurmountable action against officials who cause such irregularities,” Schalkwyk said.

The SCOPA provincial chairperson, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng said they were concerned about the lack of competency of Accounting Officers. Mahlakeng added that it was a concern for accounting officers for not taking action on consequence management of officials committing irregularities leading to disclaimers.

“We will not accept HoDs to be lenient on officials and give us many excuses that they could not recover monies lost due to failure of not knowing who has committed such deficiencies.

“We are not going to allow inactive Heads of Departments to continue to let officials waste tax payers’ money on wasteful and fruitless expenditures, without any investigations or implicated costs to be recovered,” he said.

The committee strongly opposed the current statistics of the North West province.  Mahlakeng said that action should be taken to rectify this challenge and deal with those who contribute negatively in the departments.

“We urge the FEED department to spear-head the course of showing measures put in place to curb the challenges. FEED managed to achieve a clean audit,” he said.

The Head of Department of FEED, Ndlela Kunene made a presentation before the committee. Kunene said the presentation was on the progress of clearing unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure for the departments, which was not updated according to the Auditor General’s office.

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Municipalities in Bokone Bophirima province are ready to provide much needed services to communities. This follows the swearing-in of councillors, and the appointment of Speakers, Mayors, Executive Mayors and Single Whips in different local and district councils across the province recently, to constitute a council and kick-start the fourth administration of democratic local government.

MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements Galaletsang Gaolaolwe said now it’s time for people to get what they deserve from their municipality. “We are happy that an era of elections has passed so that we can focus on providing services to communities.  We wish to welcome all the elected councillors. They should be aware of the task ahead of them and we wish them all the best of luck. It’s all hands on deck as we will be rolling up our sleeves and ensure services to our people” said MEC Gaolaolwe.

MEC Gaolaolwe said local government is at the cold face of services delivery and we dare not to fail our people. “It is the responsibility of each and every municipality to provide services to our communities. We want to see less service delivery protest action in this term. Access to clean running water, which is a basic right, remain one of the biggest challenge that we facing however we need to everything in our power to provide our people with water. We have great expectation in the in-coming councils and we hope they will fulfil their immediate mandate diligently” concluded Gaolaolwe.

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Somizi Mhlongo is entangled in a bitter row over his choreography services in Botswana.

The celebrity dancer, choreographer and Idols SA judge was allegedly awarded a half-a-million pula deal to direct the country’s golden jubilee celebrations to be held next month in the capital, Gaborone.

The country had budgeted 100million pula (about R130-million) for the celebrations, appointing a committee with the name Botswana50 (Bot50). The committee has recently been accused of corruption and favouritism in the award of tenders for events linked to the celebrations.

The country’s anti-corruption unit, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), has now been roped in to investigate the tenders.

But the latest scandal to rock the country would be Somgaga’s P500000 gig for the two-day event.

This is not the first time Mhlongo has been booked to choreograph a major event in Botswana. He was also brought in to facilitate the opening ceremony of the Africa Youth Games in May 2014.

Sowetan can confirm that Mhlongo was not contracted by Bot50 but rather by Red Pepper PR and Consultancy agency, which won the P14-million tender to procure the dance and theatre productions for the celebrations.

Batswana dancers and choreographers complained they were being sidelined.

“I don’t doubt Somizi’s capabilities and talent, but when we’re told this is time to celebrate us, as Batswana, then why hire a South African for the job? We can do it too,” commented one of Botswana’s top choreographers, who refused to be named.

Another protested: “Bot50 promised they would hire only locals, why were we overlooked this time around?”

“Could a Motswana have been paid that much for the same job? That is my question,” said another local.

Efforts to reach Mhlongo were unsuccessful at the time of going to press, but his Instagram profile shows that he is excited about the event.

He posted: “… this brings so much joy to my soul. Spreading and sharing my talent with the continent. Botswana has talent. Day 1 dance workshop for #bot50.”

The Bot50 committee held a press briefing on Thurs- day in Gaborone. Fielding questions from the media about Mhlongo’s appointment , Bot50 coordinator Charity Kgotlafela was quoted as saying they had nothing to do with Mhlongo’s appointment.

She said all Bot50 tenders were awarded to local companies just as they had promised from the outset.

However, she said Bot50 did not have control over who these companies engaged, just as long as they got the job done.

Efforts to reach Red Pepper PR and Consultancy agency failed.

Source:www.sowetanlive.co.za

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Women in law enforcement stamped their authority on the borders of North West and Limpopo when they impounded more than 36 taxis and de-registered 7 vehicles from using our public roads. This was during the three inter-provincial roadblocks which were recently conducted simultaneously in all borders of the two provinces.

More than 1500 vehicles were stopped, searched and more than 30 were tested on the mobile testing station that was operating on the R510 road between Northam and Rustenburg.

One taxi that was transporting school kids from Mmakau to Tsogo Primary School was impounded for un-roadworthiness.

The vehicle was not registered and the driver did not have a driver’s license either.

The Bokone Bophirima MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Dr Mpho Motlhabane raised his concern on the state of vehicles that are transporting kids to schools in particular.

“We are experiencing serious challenges about taxis that are transporting kids to school. They are not road worthy and mostly overload the kids”.

“This is a serious concern and it means we must continue ensuring that tough measures are put in place to defaulting motorists. If you look at the taxi that is transporting 15 kids in Mmakau on daily basis you will realise how the lives of this kids are put to risk”.

“Parents of these kids must also stop risking the lives of their children, how can a parent pay for his/her child to be transported in a moving coffin like this. It’s like they are paying for the death of their kids”.

“Road safety begins with us, let us all take responsibility to safe our own lives on the road,” said the visibly irritated Dr Motlhabane.

The North West, Limpopo inter provincial roadblocks were conducted by the women in law enforcement from the two provinces as part of commemorating the August Women’s month.

Members of the public experiencing any challenges or non compliance on the road are advised to contact the Departmental Call Centre on this number: 0800 204 992.

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A 32-year-old man is expected to appear in the Jan Kempdorp magistrate court on Monday for allegedly killing a 6-year-old boy.

The boy was allegedly killed while trying to protect his mother from being raped. The man was arrested by police while roaming around the community.

“We are investigating a case of murder following the death of a six-year-old boy, Kutlwano Garesape in Jankempdorp, the suspect was arrested and charged with murder,” said Captain Olebogeng Tawana.

The incident happened on 12 August when the deceased was in the company of his mother on their way to school.

While they were on their way to school they were allegedly attacked by the suspect.

In the process Kutlwano tried to defend his mother against the attacker and the suspect allegedly fatally stabbed him.

Northern Cape Premier Sylvia Lucas joined organisations and individuals who have expressed shock at the attack and killing of the six-year-old boy.

Lucas labelled the killing as a “senseless and insensitive attack that came during a month when we actively advocate for the rights of women”.

Lucas said there can be no justifiable reason or explanation for one person to inflict so much pain and suffering on an innocent child.

“Kutlwano had his whole life ahead of him and then one merciless act destroyed the life of a child, that of his parents and the community.

“More disturbing is the fact that this innocent boy was on his way to school to get an education” she said.

Source: http://www.thenewage.co.za

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Platinum Stars coach Cavin Johnson says he wants his side to start their Absa Premiership season on a high note when they face Supersport United on Wednesday. 

Last season, Dikwena had an impressive season under Johnson finishing third in the Absa Premiership and also qualifying for the upcoming MTN8 tournament.

The 57-year-old coach insists that his side are looking to open their Absa Premiership account on a positive note and he is hopeful that the team does well this season with the help of his new signings.

‘It’s important that we start on a good note. In 2015/16 season we started well. We started with a draw against Mamelodi Sundowns and it was a big boost for the players because they played well against a so called big team. We need to start on a good footing,’ Johnson toldPlatinumstars.com.

‘The beginning of the season is always exciting. Everyone has a package – new players. Some have bought two, three or four players. It’s always mixed feelings because you don’t know what the teams are coming with. Hopefully, we are able to do well this season.’

Johnson says he expects Matsatsantsa will put up a fight but the former SuperSport coach insists Dikwena are well prepared for coach Stuart Baxter’s men.

‘SuperSport have been one of the busiest teams in the market. We are expecting a lot of effort from them but we are not scared of them. We are well prepared. They are coming to our home ground so hopefully, we can play the best football and get off to a good start,’ he added.

Platinum Stars will welcome SuperSport United to the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in their opening Absa Premiership match on Tuesday.

Kick-off has been set for 19:30.

Source: http://www.sasoccermag.co.za

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BY REGINALD KANYANE 

A 30-YEAR-OLD man allegedly strangled his younger brother,12 to death. The atrocity took place at Masutlhe village near Mahikeng on Friday.

North West police spokesperson, Lieutenant Col Pelonomi Makau said the lifeless body of a boy was found in an abandoned house by hawkers.

“The boy was still wearing his school uniform when found. The hawkers called the police and the body was found without visible injuries.

“Post-mortem was conducted and it was revealed that the boy was strangled to death. The preliminary investigation led the police to the deceased’s brother who was the last person to be seen with him alive,” she said.

Makau said the suspect confessed and he will appear in Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court on Monday after being charged with murder.

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