Table of contents for 2021-05-14 in DFA News

Sandi Kwon Hoo CHIEF REPOTER THE PORTFOLIO committee on health will visit public health facilities in the Northern Cape to assess the state of readiness of the roll-out of Phase 2 of the Covid-19 vaccination programme to include the elderly and persons with comorbidities in the Province as from May 17. The chairperson of the portfolio committee on health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, said they would visit Seoding Clinic in Kuruman and the medical depot in Kimberley today. He said the committee would inspect whether vaccines were properly and securely stored and if facilities were adhering to the proper disposal of vaccine vials. “Also important is to assess the transportation plans for the vaccines especially to rural areas in a vast province such as the Northern Cape. It is important that…

Sandi Kwon Hoo CHIEF REPORTER COMMUNITY members from Valspan and Jan Kempdorp have vowed to continue to protest until their pleas regarding poor service delivery are attended to. Northern Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Dimakatso Mooi said yesterday that the situation was “currently calm”. “Roads were opened after protesters barricaded roads in Jan Kempdorp on Wednesday and forced their way into the municipal chambers. Stun grenades were used to disperse the group. No injuries were reported. The police will continue to monitor the situation,” said Mooi. The protesters meanwhile distanced themselves from incidents of looting at tuck shops in Valspan and an incident where a store was apparently broken into at Andalusia Park on Wednesday night. Northern Cape Premier Dr Zamani Saul sent a delegation from provincial government to meet with…

Sandi Kwon Hoo CHIEF REPORTER KIMBERLEY, Kuruman and Colesberg have been identified as human trafficking hot spots in the Northern Cape. The spokesperson for the Department of Social Development, Lumka Oliphant, said on Tuesday that roads in these areas connected the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Free State provinces. “As a result, young women and children are trafficked and transported into other provinces, where on arrival they are forced into prostitution and child labour, while others are killed and used for muti purposes,” said Oliphant. She added that the high prevalence of unemployment, especially in the Colesberg and Noupoort communities, made women and children more vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual offences. “In the process, the constitutional rights of most women and children are compromised as a result of human…

IOL Reporter LOCATE International is appealing for help in trying to solve a 40-year-old mystery of an unidentified man, with possible South African links, whose skeletal remains were found on the mountainside in Wales. Locate International is a UK community interest company dedicated to reviewing unsolved missing persons and unidentified body cases at no cost to families or the police. With regard to this particular 40-year-old case, Locate’s Emma Tilley says: “In December 1979, the skeletal remains of a man were found on the mountainside near Resolven, South Wales, United Kingdom. He has not yet been identified and therefore his family cannot be notified. “The man is believed to have been born between the World Wars and was therefore aged between 40 and 60 at the time of his death.…

Gerry Cupido STAFF WRITER A FEW DAYS ago, I woke up with a sore throat, headache and blocked nose. Alarm bells immediately went off in my mind. Could I have the virus? Did I use the same mask one too many times? Am I sanitising enough? As I went through the interactions I’ve had with others lately, I kept asking: ’Why have we changed our behaviour when the threat of the deadly virus hasn’t? A year ago we were too scared to leave our homes. The only physical interactions we had was with the people we lived with. Visiting family wasn’t an option. No hugs and kisses on our birthdays. Our bedrooms or lounges became our offices and the only time we got to see our colleagues was via zoom…

Benida Phillips STAFF REPORTER THE NORTHERN Cape Department of Education has slammed a statement by the Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA) on Covid-19 cases at Northern Cape High School in Kimberley, labelling it a “distortion of the truth”. Department spokesperson Lehuma Ntuane said yesterday that the allegations made by the PSA in a statement issued on May 11 were misleading and factually incorrect. “In the statement, the PSA said there were nine confirmed Covid-19 cases at Northern Cape High School. The statement further claimed that the department was inconsistent in applying Covid-19 guidelines and regulations. The department received Covid-19 information from the school last week Friday, which stated that on May 3 there was one learner who tested positive for Covid-19, another learner tested positive on May 5,…

Boipelo Mere STAFF REPORTER THE DEPUTY Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Obed Bapela, was in Kimberley this week to kick off the first roadshow to engage with different stakeholders on the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act (TKLA) 3 of 2019, which came into effect on April 1, 2021. As determined by the president under Proclamation No. 38, the act was published in the Government Gazette No. 43981 of December 11, 2020. The TKLA makes provision for the statutory recognition of Khoi-San leaders and communities, as well as the establishment of Khoi-San leadership structures. The Northern Cape is the first province to host the engagements, where the deputy minister was on Wednesday joined by the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta), Bentley Vass, the…

Staff Reporter DURBAN – Consistency is king for Sharks coach Sean Everitt (pictured below) who for the third week in a row has named an almost identical team, this time to play the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday as the Rainbow Cup SA reaches the halfway stage. The coach has made one rotational change to the match 23 that beat the Lions last week, with Jaden Hendrike starting at scrumhalf and Sanele Nohamba promoted to the bench. Grant Williams drops out of the squad after having started two matches in a row. The Sharks are blessed with quality depth at scrumhalf, and this is the one area where Everitt is prepared to rotate. Otherwise, it is about building momentum through what is a very short competition. Everitt has said…

Alicia Pillay and AFP PARIS – UEFA announced yesterday that the Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea had been moved from Istanbul to Porto. The match on May 29 has been switched to allow English spectators to attend as travel between the UK and Turkey is suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier, European football’s governing body announced up to 6,000 supporters from each club will be able to attend. “We accept that the decision of the British Government to place Turkey on the red list for travel was taken in good faith and in the best interests of protecting its citizens from the spread of the virus but it also presented us with a major challenge in staging a final featuring two English teams,” UEFA president Aleksander…

Sandi Kwon Hoo chief reporter SEWAGE is still leaking at the intersection between Mataleng and De Beershoogte despite R5 million being allocated by the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation to repair sewage leaks in Barkly West. According to the minutes of the site handover contract meeting, dated June 2019, a R5 million contract was awarded to MVD Kalahari Consulting Engineers and Town Planners (Pty) Ltd for the refurbishment of the sewage pump stations in Barkly West. Work was to commence in June 2019 and be completed by September 2019. Dikgatlong Local Municipality independent councillor Mently Bezuidenhout said yesterday that sewage leaks in Spitskop Road and at Barkly West Primary School had only been temporarily fixed. “The stench of sewage lingers in the air and is unsightly and unhygienic. It…

IOL Reporter THE DA wants the government to act against tax dodgers in the taxi industry, calling on the SA Revenue Service (Sars) to brief Parliament on how it intends to bring them to book. In reply to a DA parliamentary question, Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni has revealed that only about R5 million in tax is collected from the entire minibus taxi industry, which has an estimated turnover of R90 billion per annum. However, the R5 million includes tax collected from their employment income. “This is because the industry does not correctly disclose income from taxi business on their CIT (corporate income tax) returns but included under a generic income source code. We were not able to determine income solely from taxi operations,’’ Mboweni said. ’’Our analysis indicates that…

AFP PARIS, FRANCE - The novel coronavirus has killed at least 3,319,512 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP on Wednesday. At least 159,593,520 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later. These figures are based on daily tolls provided by health authorities in each country and exclude later re-evaluations by statistical organisations, as has happened in Russia, Spain and Britain. On Tuesday, 13,475 new deaths and 748,719 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on the latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were India with 4,205 new deaths, followed by Brazil with 2,311 and the US with 658. The…

Boipelo Mere staff reporter THE NORTHERN Cape tops the list of new Covid-19 cases recorded in the country over the past seven days, raising concern within the Province. Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize earlier this week stated that the Province has recorded the highest percentage increase at 68%. An additional 299 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the Province on Wednesday. An additional four Covid-19-related deaths were also recorded, bringing the cumulative total to 958. Mkhize indicated that there has been an overall 46% increase in cases countrywide in the last two weeks. “The 14-day comparison also shows that new cases increased from 17 017 in the preceding 14 days to 21 124 cases in the last 14 days . . . an overall 24% increase. “The Northern Cape is…

Morgan Bolton JOHANNESBURG – Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen has made a massive call, and placed his faith in young flyhalf Jordan Hendrikse to help lead the Joburg-based outfit to their first victory of the Rainbow Cup South Africa against the Stormers this weekend. The 19-year-old will make his first start for the Lions this season in a crunch match with both teams desperate to win after failing to do so in their two previous encounters. Hendrikse replaces veteran Fred Zeilinga, who is suffering from a slight niggle, but who will be on the bench for tomorrow’s encounter at Emirates Airline Park (kick-off 2pm). Lions’ supporters will also be happy to note that the big bruiser, Willem Alberts, is back in the matchday squad, and will add much needed…

Dave Alexander FREE State Cricket Union (FSCU) says it is “extremely excited” about the transition to the new orange machine era, since their inclusion in the top 8 of division 1 teams as part of Cricket South Africa’s domestic restructuring model. The orange machine that used to dominate cricket in South Africa and that has always been part of the history of sports within the province, and the Knights name with recent social media poles led to the decision to keep the Knights name but revert back to the orange colours. FSCU was on Tuesday proud to announce that their division 1 professional side will remain as the Knights Cricket team with a new corporate logo. The union believes that with the new corporate image fans will be able to…

Ashfak Mohamed CAPE TOWN – Getting into the Olympic Village as late as possible could be the key to the Blitzboks bringing home a gold medal from Tokyo. That was the word from Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell to Independent Media yesterday as he prepared his team for another warm-up tournament in Stellenbosch this weekend. The Blitzboks were split into two squads for matches against Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport Sevens side over two days, with the World Sevens Series having been cancelled due to Covid-19. It has made life more difficult for Powell and his coaching staff in preparing for the Olympics, while he is also still awaiting the return of captain Stedman Gans from the ankle injury he sustained on Bulls duty. Gans will…

Sandi Kwon Hoo staff reporter THE SISHEN Iron Ore Community Development Trust (SIOC-CDT) recently handed over 273 sets of uniforms to 15 schools in the Northern Cape as part of its Kanako social responsibility programme. CEO of the SIOC-CDT Vusani Malie was hopeful that the provision of school uniforms, would encourage pupils who did not have uniforms not to miss school and to motivate them to achieve academically. “The schools with pupils who are most in need were identified with assistance from the Department of Education. The school uniform project, is an extension of its annual school shoe project and distribution of female sanitary hygiene products,” said Malie. He added that this initiative served to restore the beneficiaries' self-esteem and confidence. “Some learners would stay at home simply…

STAFF Reporter VOTER registration weekend is expected to kick off in July. The Independent Electoral Commission has announced that voter registration for the upcoming local government elections is expected to take place on July 17 and 18. "Over this weekend all 23,146 voting stations around the country will open from 8am to 5pm to assist new voters to register and existing voters to check and, where necessary, update their registration details," the IEC said. In the lead-up to this weekend, the Electoral Commission will embark on a nationwide voter education and awareness campaign to encourage all eligible voters to make sure they are ready to participate in the elections scheduled to be held on October 27. This campaign will span a variety of multimedia platforms including television, radio, outdoor and…

CAPE TOWN - The Proteas have plummeted to their joint-lowest ranking in Test cricket history yesterday. South Africa have slipped to No 7 after the latest ICC rankings update. They have been overtaken by the West Indies, who have jumped up two places. The Proteas have won just two of their last seven Test series since 2018. Their last series was a 2-0 reversal away to Pakistan. - Zaahier Adams…

The Washington Post The past 12 months didn’t exactly do wonders for Conor McGregor’s MMA career, but he had plenty of other reasons to remain in good spirits. To put it another way, his ranking atop a new list of highest-paid athletes can be distilled down to his outside-the-Octagon pursuits. That's because the time McGregor has spent moonshining . . . er, moonlighting as a whiskey entrepreneur has recently paid off in a big way. He was able to sell his stake in the company that produces bottles of Proper No. Twelve as part of a $150 million deal in March. That pushed the Irishman to a properly impressive No. 1 perch in Forbes’ latest list of highly successful sports figures, which was published on Wednesday. McGregor was credited…

Zaahier Adams CAPE TOWN - Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena (pictured) has stated that arriving in Egypt during the Muslim holy of month of Ramadaan has helped his team "maintain their focus" ahead of the all-important CAF Champions League clash against Al Ahly tomorrow. Having departed from OR Tambo airport on Tuesday afternoon, Sundowns arrived in Cairo on Wednesday morning at 3am via Addis Abba in Ethiopia. Egypt, a predominantly Islamic country, were still observing the last day of Ramadaan which requires Muslims to stay without food and drink for from an hour before sunrise to sunset. The Egyptians will celebrate the culmination of a month long of fasting through Eid-al-Fitr yesterday. "The reception has been good. The weather has been accommodating. It's a very different climate coming into Egypt…

Herman Gibbs CAPE TOWN – Embattled Kaizer Chiefs were back in the trenches on Wednesday evening at the FNB Stadium, where they managed to keep their slender Top 8 hopes alive with a 1-all stalemate against Swallows. The outcome of this Soweto derby means that Chiefs will remain in 10th place and live to fight another day for a Top 8 berth. Swallows retain a fifth place on the standings. Swallows were the first to draw blood after a freakish goal by striker Kagiso Malinga who enjoyed a rare slot in the run-on XI after battling injury this season. Left-back Sifiso Hlanti booted the ball into Chiefs' goalmouth from 30 metres out and Malinga deflected the ball from under the noses of two hesitant opposition defenders past Bruce Bvuma, the…