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The Burger King-sponsored South African Men National U20 team (Amajita) has secured two friendly matches against Mali as they build up to the 2017 CAF U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Zambia next month.
The matches against the West Africans will take place on 16 and 19 February at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
 
And before the two games against Mali, Amajita will travel to Ndola, Zambia for another friendly match against Zambia that will be played on 8 February 2017.
 
U20 national coach Thabo Senong said he was excited to have secured friendly matches against hosts Zambia and Mali.
 
“We are very happy to have secured these matches and I believe we will gain a lot of momentum with these friendly matches against Zambia and Mali. We have two West African teams in our group, so these matches will assist us in addressing some strengths and weakness of the West Africans.
 
“In the match against Zambia, we will be looking more at ourselves. We need the players to gain confidence in the box, we need our midfielders and defenders to play as a unit and we need to re-emphasize the levels of fitness,” said Senong.
 
Amajita will begin their first phase of preparations this coming Thursday, 26 January 2017 before travelling to Zambia for an international friendly.
 
The team will then break camp for a few days before regrouping for the second phase of preparations on 13 February 2017 where they will pitch tent in Limpopo and play the two matches against Mali.
 
The first match against the Eagles of Mali will be played behind closed doors, on 16 February 2017 and kicks-off at 19h00 while the official international friendly will take place on Sunday, 19 February 2017.
 
Kickoff is scheduled for 15h00 and entrance will be free.
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JOHANNESBURG – The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (NSPCA) says there’s a massive increase in donkey poaching, with the animals being slaughtered in a barbaric way.

Donkey skin is in demand in China as it’s used to produce medicine which is believed to delay menopause.

More than 100 donkeys were illegally slaughtered in the Northern Cape and North West in the last three months.

Meanwhile, 5,000 donkey hides were discovered in a shack in Benoni.

The NSPCA’s Mpho Mokoena says, “People are using a hammer to hit them. When they fall down, they don’t even wait to see if the donkey is dead and just start skinning it.”

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The Minister of Water and Sanitation department, Nomvula Mokonyane, will meet with the MEC’s responsible for Cooperative Governance in the nine provinces of the Republic.

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Picture: (MEC for community safety & transport management department, Dr Mpho Motlhabane)

BY REGINALD KANYANE
MEC for community safety and transport management department, Dr Mpho Motlhabane said he is concern about a 12 months traffic training learnership advert doing rounds on social media and some of other platforms.

“We are warning the unemployed young people of this province and South Africa at large to be wary of these bogus traffic learnership advertisements that was globalised. The advert is captured as Traffic Officer Learnership X 250. This is not an advert from our department.

“Our last 12 months advert for traffic training learnership was globalised early in 2016 with the last intake of 20 learners to compliment the 2016/17 financial intake recently. Those intakes commenced their training at the traffic college in January 2017,” Motlhabane said.

He further said his department is in line with the national call for intensive traffic training and has introduced a new three year traffic learnership training diploma. Motlhabane said the advert was closed on January 6 this year.

“Communities are alerted that the circulating advert has no letterhead of the department, recruit learners to train for the next 12 months period and applicants are requested to download the application form from a link provided by these bogus initiators.

“Note that all our department advertisements including traffic training learnerships are published with our letterhead including correct logo, address and contact details. Applicants are requested to fill in the Z83 application form and we do not specify the number of positions available for the learnership,” he said.

Motlhabane added that they were not sure of the intentions of the people behind this. He said this could end up putting the lives of the people in danger and eventually lose their hard-earned monies.  

“We request unemployed youth not to fall for these bogus schemes. They must ignore the advert and never attempt to apply or respond. They are also advised to report anyone who is suspicious of being behind this scam. 

“Let us avoid further circulation of the advert as that could lead you to be an accessory to the crime ring unintentionally,” he said.

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BY BAKANG MOKOTO
Three suspects between the age of 39 and 42 are expected to appear in the Bray Periodical Court on Tuesday for rhino poaching. 

North West police spokesperson, Brig Sabata Mokgwabone said the suspects were arrested inside a private game farm in Mokopong on Sunday.

“According to information available at this stage, police were called to the Game Farm after a rhino was found dead. It’s horns were removed. The police together with Game Rangers tracked down the suspects by following the vehicle trails. 

“The police spotted the suspects and arrested them. All of the suspects are from Mozambique. They were found to be in a possession of a rifle and two rhino horns,” Mokgwabone said.

The North West Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Baile Motswenyane commended the police and game rangers for their team work that led to the arrest of the suspects. 

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BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

MEC for Tourism in the North West Desbo Mohono has uncovered what she called a “potential tourism gem” situated along the banks of Spitskop dam in Kgomotso village outside Taung.

Mohono was accompanied by MEC for community safety and transport management department, Dr Mpho Motlhabane. She immediately called on the Greater Taung local municipality to consider the area as a new economic hub.

“The area stretches for over few kilometres along the Spitskop dam and has beautiful landscape with few birds spices and different types of fishes. We engaged with the municipality to start considering the area and include it in their future plans. It is crucial that there has to be developments in the area so that serious marketing of the area can be done.

“These are some of many areas that are still undiscovered within the province. It is my first time here and I already see potential in this area. The area is good for Tourism and Economic Development and a good potential to implement the Villages Townships and Small Dorpies (VTSD) concept,” she said.

Mohono further said the area can also be used for recreation as people can venture into different water sport activities. She further said some of the local fishermen we found fishing there.

“There are lots of fishes in the dam and the only challenge is that the fishermen use the conventional way of fishing. They should be using the modern way to make a fortune from the fishes they catch daily. The municipality has also vowed to plan in developing the area,” she said.

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The North West Provincial Government will through the Department of Education and Sport Development take a deliberate decision to redirect more education resources to schools in the province’s villages, townships and small dorpies (VTSD), this in a bid to improve these schools’ overall performance and matric results. 

This was said by Premier Supra Mahumapelo while addressing hundreds of high school principals and chairpersons of schools governing bodies on Friday, 20 January at Rustenburg Civic Centre.  

According to Premier Mahumapelo, this conscious decision will not only be consistent with the provincial government’s VTSD strategy and its efforts to fight the levels of poverty, but will help in ensuring that quality teaching and learning takes place at all schools in the province, with special focus on VTSD schools.

“While we are pleased by the performance of the province in the 2016 matric results, the fact that schools in urban areas continue to perform far much better than those in rural areas, remains our concern. A radical action must therefore be done, to ensure that the contribution of VTSD schools in the province’s overall pass rate is pleasingly visible”, emphasised Premier Mahumapelo.

In evaluating the schools’ contribution to the overall provincial percentage, Mahumapelo announced that from this year onwards, the province will announce matric results per village, township and small dorpie. 

Premier Mahumapelo also expressed the provincial government’s concern about the seemingly high discrepancy between the number of learners who started Grade 1 in 2005 and those who wrote the 2016 matric examination.

According to the Department of Education and Sport Development, approximately 80 000 learners started Grade 1 in 2005, and only 32 049 wrote the 2016 matric results. 

“While we note that there could be various reasons for this difference, it remains my dream as a leader that every learner who starts schooling at Grade 1 must complete by the twelfth year, and that every learner who is in class, doing Grade 12, must pass”.  

The purpose of this meeting was for the Premier to thank the schools principals, teachers, members of the schools governing bodies and parents, for the support shown to the learners during the 2016 schooling year, and to encourage them to continue enforcing efficiency and discipline at all schools.

Accompanied by MEC for Education and Sport Development Mr Sello Lehari and MEC for Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development Ms Wendy Nelson, Premier Mahumapelo expressed his satisfaction about the readiness of the province on the first day of schools reopening, saying so far 98% of schools across the province have recorded 100% of learner supported material delivered.

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: https://youtu.be/-Osq6mB9R2g

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BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

Mahikeng Ministers Fellowship (MMF) in the North West slammed the actions of a Daveyton pastor, Prophet Theo Bongani Maseko of the Breath of Christ Ministries for allegedly making his congregants to drink a vehicle engine cleaning fluid during a sermon describing them as atrocious and outrageously wicked.

Chairperson of an Interdenominational Fellowship of Pastors, Zandisile Mpame said: “It is about time for the church of Jesus Christ to take a stance and say, not in our name. Charlatans that are misrepresenting the Kingdom of God through abuse of our people’s belief systems and their so-called miracles that are not supported by the Word of God must be dealt with accordingly.”

Mpame called on the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to act against occultism and charlatans that are involved in human rights abuses.

“We do not need draconian laws or imposed structures to deal with a handful of individuals that are an embarrassment that is giving Christianity and an overwhelming majority of upright servants of God a bad name but consistent and firm implementation of the existing legal framework and adequate acts that are available to deal with the impostors,” he said.

Mpame highlighted that charlatans are giving traction to processes that might ultimately lead to the persecution of the church.

“The history of the church is replete with examples that prove that once regimes involve themselves with where and how people worship though direct or indirect control, persecution follows,” he said.

Meanwhile, MMF has mobilised fraternal associations and individual church leaders to participate in the provincial consultative engagement to consolidate submissions towards the Hate Speech Bill and the Commission for Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Religious, Cultural and Linguistic Communities (CRL) Report on Commercialization of Religion.

“The Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, John Jeffrey will be the keynote speaker at the event and engage with those in attendance on the objective of the draft Hate Speech Bill which church leaders are concerned might declare quoting of certain Bible verses unlawful.

“Church leaders from various denominations across the province and representatives from other provinces are expected are being part of the engagement to commence at 9:30 at Mocoseng Sundown Resort in Mahikeng on Saturday,” Mpame said.

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Pic: (Prisoner’s cell)

BY KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

A 35 year-old man was sanctioned to 25 years for raping his cousin. Alfonso James Visser raped his cousin, 20 at Sunrise near, De Aar on November 2016. Northern Cape police spokesperson, Lt Colonel Dimakatso Mooi said Visser appeared at De Aar Regional Court recently. She said the perpetrator’s cousin was from a party and came home late at night under the influence of alcohol.

“Visser who stays in the same house with the victim, found her asleep and raped her. The victim woke up and caught Visser busy raping her. She called for help and the accused was arrested and charged with rape,” she said.

Mooi further said the provincial management welcomed the sentence and applauds the investigating team for a job well done.

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