Table of contents for 2023-02-17 in DFA News

COMMUNITY members in Florianville, Colville, Roodepan, Homelite and Homevale are hot under the collar over the state of the local municipal swimming pools. The angry residents pointed the finger at Sol Plaatje Municipality, saying that the local authority has over the years not maintained or upgraded the Roodepan and Brian Hermanus swimming pools. They accused the municipality of neglecting these swimming pools as they are located in “disadvantaged” communities. They pointed out that community members are forced to travel to town in order to make use of Karen Muir Swimming Pool. “It is heartbreaking that we have to travel to town to have access to a swimming pool. Our young children have to take a taxi to and from town just to go and swim. Parents not only have to…

THE CITY of Cape Town's plan to make it easier for ordinary consumers to sell excess solar power to their municipality is attracting a lot of attention . . . and the question of what impact it will have can partially be answered by looking at data from a town in the Northern Cape. From June this year Cape Town will start paying cash to commercial and industrial customers to feed excess power generated from small-scale embedded generators (SSEGs) back into its municipal grid. Because of continuous load shedding more and more South Africans are investing in rooftop solar panels, diesel generators and other means of electricity generation. Cape Town’s announcement was made after the National Treasury authorised the city to deviate from prescribed procurement requirements in purchasing electricity from…

TAXIS blockaded the entrances at Sol Plaatje Municipality this week, as they are demanding that pirate taxis be impounded. Operators parked their taxis at the entrances of the municipality on February 14 and 15, preventing other vehicles from entering the premises. The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) Frances Baard region secretary general, Kingston Hottie, said they only dispersed after the municipal manager, Tebogo Matlala, agreed to look into the possibility of establishing an impounding facility in the city. “There is currently no impounding facility in Kimberley while there are in excess of 270 illegal operators who are flooding our routes and are stealing our passengers. Registered taxi drivers are losing their livelihoods. The banks are repossessing our vehicles as we are not achieving our targets,” said Hottie. He indicated…

KIMBERLEY’S own Charles Peter Mathewson will soon be packing his green and gold kit as he prepares to embark on a trip to Australia next month to compete at the Multi-Nations Bowls Tournament Down under. This is no social tournament, in fact it’s a big deal as the multinationals in Australia are also used to decide who is selected to attend the World Championships at the end of the year. Charles, 28, is well known in the local lawn bowls circles. He was born and bred in Kimberley, and spends most of every Saturday and Sunday playing bowls, a sport he has always loved. The young athlete told the DFA that his parents introduced him to bowling when he was just seven years old. “Early on, my parents started bringing…

THE SOL Plaatje Masters Football League held a general council meeting recently where they concluded the stream selection of who will be playing against each other in the 2023 season that will kick off on March 5. Teams were placed in two streams, Stream A and Stream B with teams set to battle it out on the field to see who will end up in the top three positions at the end of the season in November. The teams that make up the two streams are: Stream A: Crusaders, Tigers Masters, Sunshine, Real Madrid, Chippa Masters, Diamond Park, Saps Masters, Vultures, Masokolara, Pescodia Masters, Aztec, DA Milan, Barcelona, Batlhaping, Newtown Masters, Greenpoint Masters, Zulu Sweepers, and Ritchie Masters. Stream B: Jeppes Masters, Five Masters, Burning Spear, Naughty Boys,…

The DFA is giving readers a little insight into the young men who are representing Griquas this season to see what makes these young men tick? Let’s find out: This week Danie van der Lith speaks to Rosko Specman and Ashlon Davids What sports do you enjoy apart from rugby: Golf Who was the one person that motivated, inspired, and mentored you as a young player: My Dad, Joseph Specman Your biggest rugby hero: My dad, He played provincial rugby in his younger days Your biggest sporting hero outside of rugby: Tiger Woods Favourite book: Crazy Faith – Michael Todd Favourite movie: Any anime movie What type of music do you enjoy: I don’t have a favourite, my playlist has a wide variety of music If…

AN EDUCATOR from Kuruman, who attended a training workshop that was hosted by the Northern Cape Department of Education in Kimberley last week, was left traumatised after she was allegedly attacked at knifepoint at a city guest house. Another local guest house owner, who met the educator at the police station, said that the complainant was awoken at around 2am on February 11 by a suspect who was standing over her bed. “He broke her necklace and shoved a stone and a cap in her mouth in an attempt to prevent her from screaming and almost raped her. “She managed to scream like crazy and one of her colleagues ran to her assistance, whereupon the suspect escaped through the bathroom window. “She told me that the security guards claimed that…

“THE MENTORSHIP and guidance I received from AKA is something I will hold dear for my entire life”. These were the sentiments of the first Northern Cape Talent Expo winner, Tyrone Phillips, whose stage name is ‘Weatherd’, when talking about his single, ‘She Bad’, where he collaborated with South African artist Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes. On December 29 last year, Phillips, who is from Steinkopf, walked away as the overall winner of the Northern Cape Talent Expo after competing against 30 other vocalists from across the Province. Winning the competition gave him an opportunity to record a song with award-winning musician and rapper AKA. Phillips said his single will also feature on AKA’s album, ‘Mass Country’. He said that people will get an opportunity to hear his newly-released single from tomorrow…

MATLA A Bokone Solar partnered with the Northern Cape departments of Health and Education to foster dental hygiene among young children by reaching out to early childhood development (ECD) centres in Kimberley, where more than 2,500 children benefited. The public-private partnership programme was presented through a mobile truck that provided dental services over a period of two days. The dental marathon, targeting children between the ages of three to five, also aimed to teach ECD learners how to take care of their teeth from an early age. The truck visited 50 local ECD centres during December and January, where learners were given dental screenings and provided with a dental hygiene pack and relevant learning material. The community operations manager for Matla A Bokone Solar, Tshepo Kgoloane, said they decided to…

SOL PLAATJE University (SPU) students want the student accommodation crisis to be resolved before the new academic year starts on February 20. The students stated that they had resorted to sleeping on the floors of living rooms or staying in overcrowded spaces. Tyres were set alight at the main campus as well as at a student residence situated in the CBD on Wednesday, as a large number of second-, third- and fourth-year students have not secured suitable accommodation yet. Preference has been given to first-year and first-time students to be accommodated on campus, while returning National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) beneficiaries have to find off-site accredited accommodation. Students who are not staying on campus are also demanding that they be provided with meals from the university cafeteria. Following protest…

Sharks friendly will help gauge if Griquas form has spilled over from excellent 2022 AS THE 2023 rugby season draws ever closer, the Windhoek Draught Griquas are keen to kick on from what was a brilliant season last year. To that end, the Kimberley team will be taking on the Cell C Sharks in a pre-season friendly encounter at Windhoek Draught Park today at 2pm. And the good news is, if Kimberlites want to see for themselves how well-prepared the boys are, entry to the match is free. Pieter Bergh, the Griquas head coach, told the DFA that the team’s preparations are progressing well and that the level of training intensity has increased significantly. “We are extremely pleased with how the past two weeks of training have gone. We have…

YOU KNOW how it is when you’re young and cute and cuddly and everyone wants to pinch your cheeks and ruffle your hair? That time when you start saying cute things and your parents call you in to say cute stuff to the gathered family members to show off your wisdom or your lack thereof? Then when you say it – that one profound or stupid thing – there’s either an outpouring of “Awwww, how cute,” followed by a cupcake or similar treat, or they fall off their chairs laughing at you, and you eventually walk away because you no longer feel needed. The laughter was the indication that there’d be no cupcake. Anyway, my cute ‘thing’ was, apparently, meteorology. I was called in to join the adult company on…

THE NORTHERN Cape Department of Social Development, in partnership with Sol Plaatje University (SPU) and the Middelburg Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College, is waging war against substance and alcohol abuse by hosting an awareness campaign to address these social ills. Spokesperson for the department, Moss Tyuthuza, said the campaign ran from Tuesday until yesterday under the theme “Protecting students against crime, substance abuse and gender-based violence”. Tyuthuza said the aim of the campaign was to educate the students about these social ills. “Some students at times diverge from their studies as a result of access to alcohol and drugs. The abuse of alcohol is also one of the contributing factors to the high prevalence of gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), which has been declared as the second…

Less than 30-days to go before the 2023 Absa Cape Epic gets under way THE RENOWNED Absa Cape Epic, the most well-known mountain bike stage event in the world, will begin in less than 30 days. The hors catégorie-classified race will be one of the key attractions on the world calendar on March 19, when mountain biking's elite riders line up alongside eager amateurs to take on the adventure through 658km of wonderful, untamed landscape and about 16,000m of climbing. The 2023 route promises to be among the most breathtaking yet. Expanded divisions provide amateurs from around the world with even more reasons to participate while giving professionals opportunities to attack, test their competitors' resolve, and fight back. This year will be no different from previous years, as hundreds of…

Sol Plaatje University takes aim at archery as a sports code THE KIMBERLEY Adventure Archery Club will host the Africa Genesis Archery Northern Cape Bull’s Eye Competition tomorrow, Saturday February 18 at the Vooruitsig Primary School in what will be the first interschool and interclub competition for 2023. In the build-up to the event on Saturday (tomorrow), the Kimberley Adventure Archery Club and Africa Genesis Archery Northern Cape (AGA-NC) had the privilege of exhibiting and demonstrating archery as a new sport at the Sol Plaatje University. Students flocked to a diverse variety of stalls, exhibitions, associations, and lectures about the sport at the university’s two-week orientation and introduction programme that ran from February 6-17 (and ends today). Tshepo Edison Masoeu, Head of Sports at Sol Plaatje University, said that he…