Picture: The community members attending child substance abuse program/Supplied
By REGINALD KANYANE
3 May 2025- The South African Police Service (SAPS) in Sutherland in conjunction with the local Community Police Forum (CPF), Department of Social Development, Department of Education, SASSA, Karoo Hoogland Municipality and the Roggevels Windfarm, held a child protection and substance abuse program for children at the Roggeveld Primary School in Sutherland.
The executive mayor of Hantam District Municipality, Koos Alexander said this is one of many programs to follow in the interest of school safety by the SAPS. Alexander said crimes against the youth, as well as youth involvement, remain a priority for the police.
“Community engagements and outreach programmes will continue to address trending issues,” he said.
More than 800 suspects were arrested for various offences during Operation Shanela. This comes after police in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies and other role players, including Traffic Police, Department of Education, Transnet, the Gambling Board, Community Police Forums (CPFs), private security companies, ESKOM and Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS), continue with weekly high density operations to prevent and combat crime.
The North West police spokesperson, Colonel Adele Myburgh said a total of 31 high density operations were conducted between 6 and 11 August 2024, and led to the arrest of 828 suspects for various offences. Myburgh said high density operations led to 3796 actions that included amongst others 14 roadblocks, searching of 49 premises, 2006 persons, 1 022 vehicles, closing of seven unlicensed liquor premises and inspection of 41 others.
“Furthermore, 29 Second-Hand dealers were inspected and six received notices for non-compliance of the Second Hand Goods Act. Numerous patrols and stop and search actions were also effected.
“The suspects were among others, arrested for crimes such as rape, murder, assault, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH), house robberies, malicious damage to property, burglary at residential and business premises, possession and illegal dealing in drugs, theft out of / from motor vehicle and 67 persons were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” she said.
Myburgh added that 102 suspected undocumented persons were taken in for processing by Immigration Officials. She said of the 828 suspects, 382 were apprehended during detectives’ suspect raiding operations.
“During the operations, a variety of drugs, four cell phones, explosives, three firearms, ammunition, liquor, tobacco products, three vehicles and other items were confiscated,” said Myburgh.
Meanwhile, the North West Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Sello Kwena, thanked all role players for their collaboration and support in continuing to ensure safer communities.
Picture: Learners encouraged to persevere water/Supplied
By OBAKENG MAJE
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in collaboration with Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality and its Local Municipalities, JB Marks Local Municipality, City of Matlosana, Maquassi Hills Local Municipality, Department of Education, Itireleng Zezeleni Community Based Organisation and Midvaal Water Company, participated in a three-day Public Education and Awareness Programme from the 21-23 February 2024, spreading water conservation messages and good health and hygiene messages to communities.
The Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, Wisane Mavasa said, public education and awareness programme initiated was initiated by the department back in 2009. Mavasa said the initiative has been receiving positive response in the North West Province and it has mobilised action and change of behaviour towards wise water use and good hygienic practices.
“With South Africa recording approximately 480 millilitres of rainfall per annum, other countries record more or less 800-1 000 millilitres per annum, this implies that SA has lesser amount of water.
“Thus, the department will constantly educate the public to be prudent when using water because South Africa is still one of the driest countries in the world,” he said.
The Executive Mayor of the City of Matlosana, James Tsolela said, he support the initiative and motivated Inyathela Primary School learners to start practising water conservation methods and good health and hygiene.
“As children are the future of this country, learners should incorporate all water conservation methods acquired from the Department of Water and Sanitation and report water leaks to their teachers and parents.
“We also encourage them to use a cup when drinking water, close taps when not in use, harvest rainwater and among other measures, use buckets when cleaning cars instead of a hosepipe,” he said.
The ward 16 councillor in JB Marks Local Municipality, Tshepiso Moalusi said with an increased rate of vandalism of the water infrastructure in the North West municipalities, learners should encouraged to teach the communities to conserve water and to protect their water infrastructure against vandalism.
“The campaign was also held in Tlokwe High School and further proceeded to Fikadibeng Primary School, kilometres away from Potchefstroom. The emphasis was on the demonstration on the seven steps on hand washing, and thedemonstration enlightened school learners on proper way of washing hands with soap and water,” he said.
Meanwhile, one of the commuters at the Klerksdorp terminus taxi rank said: “The practice of using one bucket to wash hands is unhygienic especially in funerals as germs are easily transferred from one person to the other, hence people always experience runny stomachs after funerals.
“Most people blame the meat they ate whereas it’s the virus from the contaminated shared water.”
A terrible lightning and thunderstorm that stroke in the early hours of Tuesday, left the computer laboratory at Lekwakwa Primary School in Tlhabane, near Rustenburg damaged.
36 computers, computer equipment, cables, tables, chairs, textbooks were burnt to ashes after the lightning. Ceiling and roofing were also damaged and that left the school in constraints.
The department of Education in the province said the community members who were in the school vicinity, were woken up by a blaze at the school and rushed to quench the fire with fire extinguishers that were mounted at the computer laboratory.
Departmental spokesperson, Elias Malindi said fire fighters were also called in to tackle the blaze and the estimated not yet finalised.
“The rest of the school building was not affected by the lightening. Teaching and learning is proceeds uninterrupted, but only computer lessons will be suspended until a contingency plan is initiated,” Malindi said.
MEC for Education and Sport Development, Wendy Matsemela said she was shocked of the incident and sent her appreciation to those who came out to quench fire at the school.
“As the department of Education and Sport Development we wish to thank the community members those who rushed to quench the fire at the school. This is a clear depiction of community and parental involvement we always advocate when difficulty affects our schools. This is a demonstration of parents taking pride of their schools and children’s future”, Matsemela said.
North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Education and Sports Development, Arts, Culture and Traditional affairs held a meeting with the Department of Education on Thursday and requested MEC Wendy Matsemela to go back and prepare a detailed and comprehensive report on the North West School for the Deaf incident; after the Committee found the one she presented lacked details.
The Committee had requested a brief report from the Department of Education after an incident that occurred at North West School for the Deaf in the early hours of Monday morning where a fire gutted down the school hostel, leaving three (3) learners dead and 53 others being hospitalised after suffering minor injuries.
The committee also requested the department to present a comprehensive report on the Christiana School for the Blind incident where a fire broke down at the school on the 29 November 2010, leaving four (4) learners dead.
After hearing about the incident in the media, the Committee went on a fact finding mission at the North West School for Deaf to actually find out what had happened, thus the request for the reports from the department.
Committee Chairperson, Boitumelo Moiloa said the department’s report could not be discussed at the meeting because it lacked detail, and left members of the Portfolio Committee having to guess what had actually transpired.
“It did not specify whether during the time of the incident, there were security personnel and care-givers at the school and educators adequately responded to the incident on time.
“The report can only be taken as a briefing document but then it still lacks detail and it did not include security and disaster management plans of the school,” said Moiloa.
The report for the Christiana School for the Blind incident was not signed; therefore the Committee rejected it on the basis that it was not a legal document that the Committee can hold the department accountable for.
The Chairperson said the Committee had requested the department to provide the Christiana School for the Blind incident report because some issues could have helped the department to ensure that special schools are properly resourced to avoid such incidents.
The department has been requested to submit comprehensive reports on both incidents by Monday, 31 August 2015. Those reports will be discussed in a meeting that will be held at the Legislature on Tuesday 1 September 2015 in the Legislature Committee Room2 at 16h00.
The Young Adults League (YAL) of the Lutheran Church in the Western Diocese distributed Bibles to 96 learners from Tshedimosetso Secondary School in Jouberton on Sunday.
The distribution of Bibles to learners is part of a campaign led by YAL in partnership with the Department of Education to fight Satanism in schools.
The Director of YAL in the Western Diocese, Richard Montsho, explained that the campaign was launched last year to respond to the reported incidents of Satanism in schools which showed to be mushrooming.
“As the league of the church, we could not fold our arms and hope that our will kids fend-off this devastating phenomenon alone. Our resolve was to go back to basics – teach and encourage the kids to read the Bible and pray daily,” said Montsho.
He said the plan is to collect and distribute 10 000 Bibles to schools throughout the North West province.
The representative of the Department of Education, Simon Mogotsi welcomed and appreciated the initiative as an investment in learners’ future. He indicated that Satanism is alive and the schools do not have the capacity to deal with that plague adequately.
More stakeholders are urged to join in the fight against Satanism to ensure that learners stay focused on their studies without any menace.
Officiating at the event, the Presiding Bishop of ELCSA, Reverend Bishop Marcus Molefe Ditlhale encouraged the members of the church to become active change agents who respond to the needs of the communities that they live in.
“The role of the church is within the communities because these are people who need our help, not only spiritually but also to deal with the harsh realities of poverty and unemployment”, Bishop Ditlhale said.
The Bishop encouraged YAL members to do more in addition to this Bible initiative and the community outreach activity which the league embarked on, on Saturday to mark the end of Mandela month celebrations.
Fourteen needy families and the Centre for the disabled (We can Care Centre) benefited groceries, schools uniforms and cleaning materials to the tune of R45 000.00.
BY OBAKENG MAJE
PARENTS of Gelukspan village outside Mahikeng in the North West are angry and demand answers from department of education and sports development as they are not happy with the building of Regomoditswe primary school in their area.
Parents are claiming that the building is dilapidating and unsafe for their kids. It is said that five years ago renovation was done at the school but that did not help.
According to parents they have been writing letters to the department requesting that extra classes be built or be given mobile classes since 1999. The department of labour inspector allegedly visited the school two weeks back and as a results, block B which consists of grade R,1,2,6, administration staff room and the school kitchen were closed after the inspection.
Only three classes are working so far and learners had to rotate while others play outside, now parents are against the plan by the department to renovate the building and instead they want it to be demolished and be built from scratch.
Modiegi Mooki, has two kids attending at the school, she told the TDN that they want the department to do what is right to resolve the situation,
“Renovations will not be helpful, and as such we demand they demolish the building and bring mobile classes in the meantime” she said.
North west department of education and sports development Elias Malindi confirmed that the school building is dilapidated as it is old, but has urge parents to not panic as they are working around the clock to resolve the situation.
“An alternative plan to place learners elsewhere for safety is been discussed, we have appointed a contract who will work hand-in-hand with our inspectors to ensure that the process goes well, and we are confident. We also appeal to our learners at school to look after this infrastructure” said Malindi.
A member of the school governing body said they are aware that the reports made by the civil engineers recommended that the building must be demolished as it is not safe, and they together with parents does not expect the department to compromise the lives of their kids.
Another local resident Thabo Molopyane said the appointment of the contract should be reviewed because they suspect that proper channels might not have been followed.
“We want the department to look into such matters too. The parent also alleged that the school has no records that shows that the contractor has visited the school for inspection before , and they were surprised that on the 08th of June the contractor showed up with commitment letter to do the renovations,” he said.
The school roofing is said to be leaking, windows are closed with boxes, walls are cracking and toilets are also not flashing.
“This building is too old and the cracks start from the foundation, which clearly shows that our kids are not safe as the building may collapse” said a member of SGB.
-TDN
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