Table of contents for 2022-05-20 in DFA News

NURSES at Connie Vorster Hospital in Hartswater will limit their working hours to 12 hours per day until staff shortages are addressed. The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the Health and other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) and the Public Servants Association (PSA) indicated that their members would only work from 7am until 7 pm. “Once vacancies are filled, nurses are willing to return to the 24-hour shift. Nurses are overworked and overwhelmed, while patients are not receiving the necessary medical attention. Emergency patients will have to be transferred to Kimberley after hours as health facilities in Warrenton and Pampierstad are only open between 7am and 4pm. There are only night-shift and three specialist nurses. There is no one to relieve them if they fall…

MORE than 40 beneficiaries at Bophelong Care Centre were spoiled when V3 Consulting Engineers donated winter supplies, tasty eats and fruit and spent the day in their company. Employees from the company said they had decided to reach out to those who the community overlooks and sometimes even forgets about. The project manager of V3, Mbali Khumalo, said they have witnessed the challenges experienced by communities. “We are a company that conducts many projects in the community. We have been building RDP homes and we have seen the challenges that some of the communities where we are working are experiencing,” said Khumalo. “Although we are constructing buildings, the aim is to improve the living conditions of people. We had the same aim in mind when we identified Bophelong Care Centre…

... with the help of a Jack of all trades and master of many WHEN we think of the sport of bowls, we may get this mental picture of a bunch of old men and women, leisurely rolling a ball down a green on Sunday afternoons to pass the time. But that classic image is far from reality. Today, the sport of lawn bowls is as healthy and competitive as any other sport out there. There’s an old bowls poem that goes a long way to describe the charm and addictiveness of the game, even for someone who is not even actively rolling woods (yes, that’s what the ‘balls’ are called) up and down the green. It goes: Up and down, walking walking, Often measuring, sometimes chalking; Shifting mats –…

LIBRARIES can play a vital role in intellectual development and help build vocabulary ... plus books are much more interesting than just watching a movie. These were the sentiments of some of Kimberley’s “bookworms”, who stated that the Judy Scott Library has impacted their lives positively. One of the library’s eldest readers, 86-year-old Magdalene Oliphant, who lives in Colville, said the local library is a great part of her weekly programme. Oliphant makes her way to her local library every week on foot to pick up her books. According to the librarians, Oliphant has read almost every book in the library and they struggle to keep up with her demand for new reading stock. Oliphant said the books have kept her company from a very young age. “I have been…

WHO SAID that there is nothing to do in Kimberley? For those who have a taste for, or an interest in, the supernatural, the Rudd House in Kimberley is a popular attraction for those looking to experience some paranormal activity, and can be visited on request on the Kimberley Ghost Tour. When I personally visited the house a couple of years ago during one of those ghost tours, I could definitely sense that there was a presence in the house. I have to add that what I sensed was that it was not a presence of evil, it was just a presence. I can clearly remember standing in one of the rooms next to an old piano when suddenly there was a very noticeable drop in temperature. I can definitely…

Remember? I wrote: “I do find though that there are types of music that make me twitchy – I won’t go into any detail and single out genres … but I have fled stores at the mall that were piping what I considered obnoxious tunes through their loudspeakers.” So … what kinds of music make me twitch? I’ll tell you … music that repeats a phrase, slogan or riff too often. Music that demands that I move when I don’t want to. No one would probably believe this, but as I am writing this, one such song is playing on my streaming service … it’s a pure disco dance number. And it’s in a disco that it works perfectly fine. Not when I am writing a column! No thank…

ROOKIE ABC Motsepe League club, Upington City FC, are in the provincial finals of the Safa administered league taking place in Postmasburg this weekend and may, if successful, advance to the national finals from where they may contest for a spot in the Glad Africa League. The Upington side have set the provincial league on fire with their enterprising brand of football that has seen them rise to the top of the ABC Motsepe League’s southern stream. Upington City's journey to the top has been so rapid that they will face veteran ABC Motsepe League team Kimberley Real Madrid in their first provincial play-offs on Sunday at 2pm at the Postmasburg exhibition grounds. Upington City, otherwise affectionately referred to as ‘Bafana ba Gucci’ by the team’s supporters, early last year…

BEING on the rather short side proved to be quite a challenge for Tebogo Archie Makama as he attempted to play rugby at school in his first grade and the eager youngster had to endure being benched by his coaches based on that disadvantage. The now 19 year-old Makame chose rugby as his preferred sport at Newton Primary school in Kimberley. But he soon realised he had to hassle for game time as the coaches thought nothing of putting him on the bench because what he suspected might have had to do with his height. “I started playing rugby in grade one as far as I can remember. But I stopped playing rugby in grade four or five because the coaches wouldn't play me,” Tebogo told the DFA. The youngster…

THE PHOKWANE Service Delivery Forum (PSDF) has questioned payments that were apparently made “in the middle of the night” to service providers. PSDF councillor Castro Sethlogomi said he had requested Phokwane Municipality to provide a report on how many roofs were replaced in Pampierstad following storm damage in 2020 and 2021. “A contractor from the Free State was appointed to repair the roofs, where R120 000 was paid to them to fix a four-bedroomed house. It was used as an electioneering campaign as only houses in Ward 4 in Pampierstad were repaired,” said Sethlogomi. “We want a criminal investigation into a R9 million payment to this company to fix a few roofs as well as a R1.7 million payment that was made late at night on May 13 without…

VOLUNTEERS from Jordaan Street in Postmasburg have started fixing potholes on their street at their own expense. The volunteers used crusher dust and tar to fill the potholes. This is the second section of the road to be fixed after they had to stop in 2021 due to running out of material. One of the volunteers, Richard Mogobeng, said they had spent almost R10,000 on the material they used on the project. He said they had bought the material themselves because they were tired of waiting for Tsantsabane Local Municipality to fix the roads. Mogobeng explained that he and his partner, Ace Barnard, used their own money, got guidance from a specialist from Kuruman and recruited another volunteer for additional labour. He said they will be patching the road from…

SPRINGBOK Sevens captain Siviwe Soyizwapi says the team is “ready to play” in what he is expecting to be a very competitive weekend in Toulouse. The seventh leg of the World Sevens Series at Stade Ernest-Wallon kicks off today, with the defending series champions grouped with Samoa, Ireland and Spain in Pool D. While the Blitzboks had a last-minute setback in Cape Town – with Selvyn Davids withdrawn on medical grounds – the South Africa captain was more than happy with what they managed to get done during training this week. Neil Powell’s team will, of course, be looking to bounce back from their disappointments in the last two tournaments, in Vancouver and Singapore, where they finished seventh and fifth. “We will play similar type of teams again,” said Soyizwapi.…