By Libuseng Nyaka

WALKING THE TALK: Free State Health MEC Fezi Ngubentombi stresses a point at a stakeholders meeting called to find solutions to deteriorating conditions at Mphumelela hospital in Thabo Mofutsanyana district on Tuesday, October 2

QWA QWA – The deteriorating health delivery system in the countryside stared MEC Fezi Ngubentombi in the face when she visited Mphumelela hospital that is operating without cleaners, an acute shortage of health staff and other problems in remote rural Thabo Mofutsanyana district on Tuesday, October 2.

Ngubentombi turned the tables on the staff and demanded steps be taken to remedy a slew of problems she had been presented with.

Mphumelela hospital, National Health Insurance pilot project, operates without a doctor and less than nine nurses because staff shun working in such a remote area.

The CEO of Thebe hospital Fanyana Moloi also told the MEC during a gathering held at Mofumahadi Manapo Mopeli hospital in Thabo Mofutsanayana that the hospital direly needed resources.

A nurse at Mphumelela recounted how lack of staff remained a barrier to quality health care service.

“We have recruited some nurses but after acquiring their qualification they leave this area because the place is too remote and lacks basic amenities such as transport.

“There are no incentives to attract health professionals to come and work here. A nurse deployed here has to hike while visiting home while lack of affordable accommodation for health workers, forces them to rent a room for R900,” she said.

She told Ngubentombi there was one nurse at Memela. “When she is sick the clinic closes,” she said.

She said they had hoped things would change after Premier Ace Magashule visited the area in 2010 and promised to improve the situation but till now nothing had been done. “It is very depressing to be willing to help patients but fail due to lack of equipment and infrastructure. We need a permanent driver to be deployed here “she said.

She said the implementation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains a challenge as there is no storeroom for drugs.

Another senior health officer from Setsoto, Ntsoaki, Nathane said Ficksburg has been operating without a doctor for months beside the unresolved issue of lack of water. “Setsoto is trying; nurses have to carry buckets of water to wash toilets. Clocolan has been out of water for 43 days.”

Another common problem that is a challenge to all municipalities that fall under Thabo Mofutsanyana is the lack of security.

Molefi Rakhome head of security at Thabo Mofutsanyana said the province was creating problems for itself by employing security personnel without screening them first as this allowed criminal elements to be hired. Rakhome said the problem is created by lack of

collaboration between his office and cooperatives offices.

But Ngubentombi shot back at administrators and said some of the challenges could be corrected. “Those challenges are possible to confront and will be attended to by November1. I do not understand why there are no cleaners in some of health facilities while we have a high rate of unemployment. On the issue of nurse’s post I do not want to compromise, such vacancies must be filled. We will engage with our committee to ensure that this entire problem is given urgent attention,” MEC promised.

She also blamed poor planning as one of the challenges that added to some of the problems. “We fail to put our priorities right. We need to have a retention strategy,” said Ngubentombi. Thabo Mofutsanyana is a pilot district of National Health Insurance (NHI) in Free State.

The NHI is a financing system that will make sure that all citizens of South Africa and legal long term residents are provided with essential health care regardless of their employment status. The plotting of NHI commenced on April 2012 whereby ten districts based on their poverty line had been selected to pilot NHI of which Thabo Mofutsanyana is one of them.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan addresses the media

JOHANNESBURG – The Treasury has committed itself to ensuring that a settlement is reached with respect to the money owed by the Free State government to civil engineering group‚ Sanyati Holdings.

Sanyati went into liquidation earlier this year after the Free State government failed to honour payments amounting to R60m.

Malcolm Lobban‚ the former CEO of Sanyati‚ said he had struggled to work with the Free State‚ Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

Treasury has had the Free State roads department‚ most departments in Limpopo and some in the Eastern Cape under national administration all of this year.

The opposition Democratic Alliance at the weekend said it had received a letter from Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan (pictured on your left) detailing the intervention.

“We deeply regret‚ however‚ that the payment was not made in time to save the company and the approximately 2‚000 workers whose jobs were lost. Our initial request to the National Treasury to release the R60m owed to Sanyati was made almost three months ago‚ so it is unfortunate that it took so long to reach settlement that the company could not be saved‚” DA shadow minister of finance‚ Tim Harris said.

“National Treasury identified several breaches of the Public Finance Management Act by the Free State Provincial Roads Department in their letter to me. But the most common breach of the Act by government is of the clause that requires service providers be paid within 30 days.

“Chronic disregard for this requirement across government puts numerous companies at risk and imposes a massive cost on the country in terms of jobs and economic growth. On-time payment by government is an essential national standard that must be enforced by National Treasury‚” he said. - Sapa

By Dinga Nkhwashu

Angie Motshekga

As the ANC approaches its watershed Mangaung Conference it is yet time to reflect on the likely outcome of the all important gathering. For months petty and sometimes childish displays of egos within the party has been dominating the news.

The country being now part of the global village these events have and continue to be beamed across the world with such influential networks as ALJAZEERA, SKYNEWS and CNN, with the last two even being declared by local conspiracy theorists as having adopted one of the protagonists in this sorry saga, one Julius Malema,

Apparently Mr.Malema has been adopted particularly by CNN because the public broadcaster, caught in the throes of internal crisis and paralysis and doing the bidding of one or the other faction depending on how positive or negatively they are presumed to have favoured one or the other, has been “instructed” not to provide coverage of Malema.

It is argued in this respect by some media houses and so called “political experts and analysts” that CNN, like Malema during the Marikana massacre, saw a vacuum and took it. Whether or not this is the case in itself is a subject of a long and separate thesis which I choose not to pursue at this stage,

The focus of this piece is, however, how our mothers in all the structures of the ANC, more particularly in the Women’s League, may have to be confronted with a historic and revolutionary duty to rescue the glorious ANC – and by extension the country – from the slippery slope on the back of what the character in one of the local soap operas, Generations called our “fragile egos” as man. Like going to church my appearance before a television set has been, over the years, patchy but I distinctly remember a sound clip from the soapie character Ntsiki, played then by Pamela Nomvete in which she dutifully chastises man and their fragile egos.

The battle of the leadership of the ANC since the Mbeki era has, at most times, been dominated by fragile egos and that is continuing as the party approaches Mangaung. Week in week out we (ordinary members of the ANC and the country as a whole) have been bombarded with overwhelming “news” of clashes of egos from Julius Malema, COSATU, SACP and the various internal structures of the ANC. At first the Limpopo PEC played a solitary prominent role with a counter side show presented by the local COSATU and SACP. Recently, if media reports are anything to go by, Gauteng has joined the fray as well as other provinces,

In the course of democratic engagements there is nothing absolutely untoward about the engagements save for the sometimes acerbic, below the belt and insulting utterances that certain ANC and former ANC members throw at their nemesis. That said there is no denying that the party is increasing following a slippery and self destructing path that if left unabated will consume and kill the democratic “miracle” that South Africa is. Most saddening of all is that it is a miracle that the selfsame ANC has fought for decades for,

Those of us in the organization who have been closely monitoring the events knows that none of the present candidates will be able, realistically, to rescue the party from this slippery slope. There are many reasons why but mainly the issues can be conveniently surmised around the issue of ego and self interest.

Fortunately for the ANC and the country there is that other very strong and special group of organisms called our mothers, women. It is this group that, sans their men who were being murdered, maimed, imprisoned and railroaded into exile, marched against the pass laws and sent a clear, decisive and unambiguous message to the then apartheid regime that pushed too far they can take on the system.

During the course of last week I had the privilege of having a brief discussion with one of those women during a professional visit to a state owned parastatal in Limpopo. She reflected nostalgically about how the struggle that she became part of her life and that of her family and had taught her selflessness and service to the broader community. I have heard that before, nothing new there!

It was what she proposed when I confronted her about what she is going to do or propose about restoring the ANC to that party that she grew up in. Her answer was profound and telling: after a brief analysis of what led the party to its current state, she effortlessly posited that maybe it is time for the women in the organization to stand up and lead because clearly men are either failing or simply preoccupied with self interest at the expense of the party and the country.

A sense of déjà vu hit me as I vividly recalled an impromptu discussion that I had weeks earlier in a hotel in Maputo on the state of the Women’s League and the current young women in the leadership structures of the ANC. We reflected on how they seem not to know what their exact role in the ANC is. They also seem to be driven by the desire to belong to one or other faction led by men, when they have every opportunity to rise above these petty politics and help save the organization.

Names were even thrown around of formidable women of character and fortitude who, given a chance, could unite and rescue the organization from the slippery slope that it has taken with men at the helm. The name of Cde.NkosazanaDlamini-Zuma and others came up and some of us felt strongly that if it meant that she be recalled from her new AU position so be it as we felt the country needed her most at the present juncture.

It is therefore was refreshing when one read a sober, incisive and cogent argument advanced by Mama Cde. ThenjiweMtintso, published in some Sunday papers. Reading the article left some of us embarrassed by the systematic but subliminally entrenched patriarchy and chauvinism that has plagued the ANC for years.

Those of us who were raised by strong women (I am sure almost all of us were in the ANC and other societal structures) were hit so hard between the eyes by the truth of her reflections. In its 100 years of existence the ANC has NEVER been led by a woman!

History is incapable of erasure so I was quite impressed by her bold assertions. After a precise and scientific diagnosis of the role that women leaders and structures in the organization are playing – and have played in entrenching the current toxic slate politics – she argued that the time has arrived for women to “rescue” the ANC from the clearly self-serving male comrades.

Upon reflection it is clear that the only people, without being understood to mean that the ANC must be divided between genders, who can realistically unite the organization and help it renew itself and forge a way forward are the women. Not only those active in its structures but also those who have chosen not to actively participate but criticize from the sidelines.

The current political “strife” in the organization may represent a golden opportunity for the ANC and the country to actually be honest with itself and tap on the best of humanity to rescue it: the women, our mothers! In fact the more one thinks about it the more the whole thing is clear. The fundamental question that remains therefore is whether the membership of the ANC is capable, including those in positions of power at present, of rising above the prevalent self serving pettiness and let our mothers rescue us from the crisis we find ourselves in.

More crucially are the mbokodos ready and willing to come to the rescue, Whatever the answer history will judge us on it. - The writer is a member of the ANC in Gauteng, Pretoria East and he writes in his personal capacity.

Palesa Morudu asks why a president whose term of office ends officially in less than 18 months would need an elaborate system of bunkers at his private residence

OUR constitution guarantees the right to cultural diversity. So President Jacob Zuma’s rural home cannot be judged through standards of an urban white home.” So said Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi at a media briefing on Friday. Presumably his crude race-baiting aimed to shut up people who are asking too many questions.

And so it was that, on the advice of the distinguished minister of the super-clean Department of Public Works and other presidential apologists, I decided to put aside my “urban bias” to fully understand the meaning of Nkandla.

This clearing of misperceptions has been a revelation and I am pleased to report that the logic is unassailable. We should simply declare Zuma president for life. (I also made a mental note to reread Govan Mbeki’s The Peasants’ Revolt so that I am not caught off guard when the rural masses finally rise up against the profligacy and vanity of the Leader.)

Zuma is clearly not a “less is more” man. He is the Big Man. He likes big things such as a helipad, a fully equipped trauma clinic, a fire department, a visitor centre, playgrounds, underground living quarters, underground parking and several houses for security personnel. Nearly all of the top-secret price tag for the presidential aggrandisement, which reportedly runs to well more than R200m, is funded by the public.

Leave aside the fact that Zuma has access to three official residences in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. This is clearly not enough. We now have a sprawling rural homestead that is not only an ostentatious eyesore amid the surrounding poverty in Nkandla but a reminder of what happens to a country when thieving becomes policy.

I’m pretty sure I heard Nxesi utter the inevitable “international best practice”, a phrase no South African politician can afford to do without in a tight spot. Happily, there is substantial precedent in the president for life field — Papa Doc Duvalier, Mobutu SeseSeko and Idi Amin, to name a few.

Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj told the UK’s Daily Telegraph that Zuma needs this elaborate rural sprawl so he is able to host leaders such as US President Barack Obama when they visit SA.

And why not? We can see the need for many world leaders to consult Zuma and obtain his wise counsel, whether he is president or not, at his personal mansion. They could seek his advice on matters ranging from fiscal probity to prosecutorial avoidance, plus think of the boost to rural tourism.

The underground bunkers are perhaps the most intriguing thing. Why would a president whose term of office ends officially in less than 18 months need an elaborate system of bunkers at his private residence? Either someone is coining it on the presidential vanity or there are plans for Zuma to host Cabinet meetings at the “homestead” for many years to come.

Or perhaps the bunkers will provide militarily secure retirement facilities for officials who have performed necessary but constitutionally dubious services for Zuma.

Nxesi and his pliant acting director-general should understand that Friday’s media briefing will forever define them in the national memory. We trust that the craven bootlicking was worth it. In the service of the president, the two threw a veil of secrecy over this scandalous splurge. They relied on the Defence Act and the National Key Points Act, the latter being a relic of apartheid. Nxesi said disclosing the amounts being spent on this project would “endanger the president”. (Politically, he is probably right.) No one asked Nxesi to provide security details of the compound, just the amounts spent.

We all know that many former liberation movements have presided over periods of precipitous decline. Lying party hacks mumble about defending the revolution as the looting spreads. Security paranoia mushrooms, as do police brutality, calls to have laws to protect the “dignity” of the ruler, deployment of the army in the streets, the banning of demonstrations and political assassinations.

And pretty soon you start to hear calls for a leader to stay in office to ensure “unity” and defend the “revolution”. We still have the power to stop it. - • Morudu writes from Cape Town.

By Godfrey Simons

BLOEMFONTEIN – Bloemfontein High court Judge, Justice Stephanus Hancke has postponed the case of a Qwa Qwa man suspected to be mentally ill to January 25 2013 to allow doctors to assess him.

Thabang Champagne Mokoena, 21 is facing three charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and rape of a police reservist in November 24 2010.

When the judge read the order postponing the case, Mokoena started giggling and then stopped. The case had been postponed from Monday, October 7 to Wednesday, October 9 because his legal counsel could not get instructions from him.

Justice Hancke said: “The reason for postponement is for you to get medication for your condition. The court orders the correctional warders to give you medicine and record the administration of the medicine in your file. Dr Maduna should issue a psychological report on your behalf two weeks before the trial starts.”

On Wednesday Mokoena’s lawyer Advocate Sunette Kruger said there was no record of medication being administered to him. “I cannot take instructions from the accused. I’m not sure if he is faking his mental illness or it is genuine. However, when I was consulting with him, he

just stood up and walked away,” Kruger said.

Mokoena wanted his case to proceed because he thought he would die in jail. Two of his co-accused have been given lengthy jail terms. Lucky Nhgwedi, 20, from Lusaka Square in Batho Location was sentenced to 25 years for murder, 7 years for robbery and 20 years for rape. All sentences are running concurrently.

Seanette Mashinini, 22, from Bethlehem was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, 15 years for robbery and life imprisonment for rape. All the sentences are running concurrently.

The state was represented by Advocate Silas Chalale. The case has been set for 21 to 25 January 2013.

By Libuseng Nyaka

QWA QWA – Making an appointment to be tested for drivers at Nelson Mandela Park testing station in Phuthaditjhaba licencing offices is hassle.

Prospective examinees are forced to sleep in the queue just to get a date to undergo a test while some have to wake up as early as 3 am to join the queue.

Ntebaleng Mokoena, an employee at Maluti A Phofung (MAP) asked for a day off to take the test.

“I did not want to waste this day so I came as early as 3 am so that I would be among the first group to be booked for a driver’s licence test. When I arrived here some people were already on the queue,” she said.

“They had spent the night here. But we were only told that we were not going to be assisted as station only test 12 people for code and two for code eight.

“What makes it even worse was that bookings for this year were closed sometime ago meaning we would be tested next year,” Mokoena told Public Eye in an Interview on Monday, October 8.

Puleng Thekiso was also in the queue when she was turned away after spending the whole night at the testing station.

“I came here yesterday at around 7pm only to be told that we are not going to be booked for testing. It is very suspicious because during the week I had been coming here and I saw some people managed to make appointments for their driver’s tests. After they told us to go I did not leave hoping that there might be something,” Thekiso said.

Another man who was also on the queue who preferred anonymity said the traffic officer even threatened to beat up people on the queue if they refused to leave.

“I do not know what to do now. I was looking forward to making my booking today but this day had been a complete waste. I think I will have to go to Bethlehem. Maybe booking are still open” Mamoleboheng Moekete said.

But the 44 people who had refused to budge were lucky after Public Eye approached the management at the station as they were given an opportunity to book for their drivers’ licences test.

The two senior officers in charge at the station said they acted according to directives from Dawis Snoer who is based in Bethlehem.

The Principal traffic inspector Fikile Molefi confirmed that when they left the station the night before people were already there waiting to book for an appointment the following day.  “It would be unfair to assist these people after we have dismissed others. Some have already left, helping others after we dismissed some would be not good,” said principal Lephoka in response to complaints from the public.

The congestion has resulted from the closure of the testing station at Harrismith while Kerstel only testsCode8 drivers.

By Molefi Sompane

KROONSTAD – The shaky truce between municipal workers and their employer following a two-day unprotected strike was set to meet its waterloo at a meeting slated for Moqhaka Local Municipality headquarters offices in Kroonstad on Thursday, October 11.

Management and workers’ representatives were set to meet to thrash out differences that sparked a work boycott which ended after provincial and regional leaders from Independent Municipal workers Association and Trade Union (Imatu) and South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) intervened.

Workers unions asked members to return to work to allow legal procedures to be addressed by their representatives and the municipality.

Moqhaka communication officer, Mandisa Titi admitted on Tuesday, October 9 that workers had returned to their jobs while waiting for the outcome of a meeting between their unions and municipality.

She said the Local Labour Forum (LLF) was supposed to meet on Thursday, October 11 for  unions to table their concerns.

“LLF will sit this coming Thursday where Unions will table their concerns. We are pleased to announce that both Samwu and Imatu have called off the illegal strike of Monday, October 1 and Tuesday the second.”

Workers earlier stated that promotions were given only to people connect to both Mayor Jihad Mohapi and the Municipal Manager.

“I have been working here for almost 9 years but still I am on the same position only people who share certain ideologies with the mayor and MM get ahead,” one of the workers who declined to be named said.

“We’ve been telling our shopstewads about a lot of things that are happening here but not all of our concerns have been attended to until we decided to go on a strike. “

Union leaders asked to remain anonymous fearing possible victimisation. “I respect what our leaders have done but members have told them to represent them not themselves.”

Another worker added: “We are firm on what we want to see happening to our members, we are here to support our members and tell the employer what his employees are demanding.”

One of the demands was calling on both Mohapi and the Municipal Manager to vacate their offices accusing them of driving the municipality maliciously into the ground.

But Titi said: “I cannot respond to unsubstantiated claims by workers of victimisation by both MM and Mayor unless these serious claims are backed up by facts.”

But the workers who claim to have been victimised said they are afraid to lodge complaints as they might lose their jobs. “All of the directors are pro Mayor and his MM. So it will be difficult for us to air our grievances as we fear losing our jobs,” another worker said.

Imatu met with its members on Friday, October 5 but remained mum about decisions taken at the meeting Public Eye has it on good authority that the municipality was preparing to issue workers with warning letters but Titi could not verify that.

Workers are expected to meet on Friday, October 12 for feedback from their reps.

By Libuseng Nyaka

QWA QWA – Former South African President, Thabo Mbeki has come under fire for lacking a vision to improve service delivery by municipalities despite his high level of education as the blame game raises pitch ahead of the ANC elective congress in Mangaung in December this year.

Criticism against Mbeki’s administration came from none other than deputy chairperson of Thabo Mofutsanayana and Speaker in the same district council Mbothoma Maduna during an address at the Regional African National Congress Youth League council meeting last weekend.

Maduna who was former mayor for Setsoto Municipality praised current president Jacob Zuma for having a national plan to roll back Mbeki’s policy failures that hobbled municipal administrations during his tenure as head of state.

“I am not criticising former president Thabo Mbeki but I am merely stating a fact. Educated as he was, he did not have any plan on how municipalities must be run. We are now suffering as a result of his lack of national plan during his tenure,” Maduna said.

He said despite having no degree Zama has a national plan. “People wonder whether there is something wrong with our thinking. How on earth can educated and intellectuals elect a man who never attended school to lead them. We did not make a mistake; Zuma is

a born intellectual if he had acquired an education he would be a hell of a leader,” Maduna waxed.

Although Maduma denied lobbying for Zuma’s bid for a second presidential term, the unsolicited accolades made it abundantly clear where his support lay.

He painted Zuma as a political icon from a humble beginning where he cut his teeth working as a domestic worker at age of nine.

“Zuma never enjoyed his childhood or youth. He would accompany his mother who worked as a maid. He joined politics at a tender age and was imprisoned so that you can have this democracy you are enjoying today,” Maduna told members of the ANCYL at the University of Free State Qwa Qwa branch.

Maduna also defended Zuma against Malema‘s attack that the Zuma had stolen the ANCYL’s ideas of economic freedom.

“ANCYL is part on ANC and it is its duty to breathe new ideas to the mother body for the development of this country. It does not make sense for Malema to say President has stolen his idea,” Maduna said.

Maduna said Malema deserved expulsion from the party after being given a chance to defend his actions but remained defiant and disrespectful during the disciplinary hearing.

“Yet he considers himself as a victim” Maduna said.

BLOEMFONTEIN – The trial of a Free State male nurse accused of raping a terminally ill cancer patient was postponed to next year in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein on Monday, October 7.

Free State National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phaladi Shuping, said the 33-year-old man’s new legal counsel needed to prepare for the case after the previous counsel withdrew.

The nurse faces two counts of rape.

He was arrested after the woman said she had been raped during a night shift at the National Hospital in Bloemfontein.

The 50-year-old woman’s husband told police the attack happened on 15 October last year.

The patient, who has since died, could not identify a woman nurse she said had held her down while she was raped. The accused is out on bail. - Sapa

BLOEMFONTEIN -  Free State ANC leader Ace Magashule and others were abusing court procedures to prevent the merits of their election as leaders being aired in public, the Bloemfontein High Court heard on Thursday, October 11.

Counsel for six local unhappy ANC members, Dali Mpofu, told Free State Judge MH Rampai that Magashule and 25 other respondents had ignored court orders and tried to escape arguing the merits of the case in court.

“It’s an abuse of court processes, used to keep the case out of the court.”

The court was hearing an application by Free State ANC members unhappy with the leadership elected at the provincial party conference on June 22. The application was for a court order to stop Magashule, re-elected at the conference, and his provincial executive committee (PEC) from working.

The six ANC members want an interdict against Magashule and his PEC. The group also wants the ANC, against whom papers were also filed, to dissolve the Free State PEC and to appoint an interim management structure until the end of the case.

They want the party’s Free State conference, held in Parys, and any decisions made there, declared null and void.

The national ANC’s decision to accept and support the June Free State conference elections should also be put aside.

In addition, Rampai would have to consider an application for postponement of the matter by Magashule and the others on the grounds that the group’s original court application was “stillborn”.

However, Mpofu submitted the application for a postponement should be dismissed because Magashule and the others had been in possession of the papers well in advance.

“The dismissal has no merits,” Mpofu said.

Counsel for Magashule and the others, MajellieWessels, said the application was riddled with problems.

“They ask the court not to postpone an application fraught with problems.”

Wessels told Rampai the application was “stillborn” from the outset.

“This is not abuse of processes.”

He argued not all people that might be affected by the matter had been served with papers. That had been the reason for the postponements in the past.

“They are bold today to ask for relief sought,” he said.

Wessels said the six members had not followed court rules and made their own, the same thing Magashule and the others were accused of. He submitted that the six had not provided all the papers that would be used in the matter.

“You should serve all papers you propose to use. Follow the rules.”

Rampai adjourned the case to later in the day.

The street in front of the court was cordoned off by police and razor wire. Two groups of supporters, supporting the two parties, sang and danced on opposite sides of the closed street while police officers kept watch. - Sapa

By Libuseng Nyaka and Molefi Sompane

President Jacob Zuma and his Deputy Kgalema Motlanthe

QWA QWA – ANC president Jacob Zuma’s bid for a second term at the helm of the ruling party and state got a big boost this week when Thabo Mofutsanayana youths and the Fezile Dabi branch nominated him for the coveted job.

As the crucial elective conference draws closer, the ANCYL in Thabo Mofutsanyana said this week that it also wants Gwede Mantashe to retain his current seat as Secretary Generalat  the forth coming ruling party ‘s conference to be held in Mangaung in December .

Youth leaders said this during their first council meeting after the leadershipelection since April 4. All branches that fall under Thabo Mofutsanyana except Mantsopawere represented at the meeting that washeld at the University of Free State Qwa Qwa Campus on Sunday, October 7.

Also, Fezile Dabi Regional secretary Moshe Tladi told Public Eye on Wednesday, October 10 that the region had decided to support Zuma pending branch nominations. “We are supporting the current leadership of Zuma, although we are waiting for all our branches to nominate their choice of candidates,” he said.

Regional ANCYL chairperson of ThaboMofutsanyana, Motloung Mohoabali confirmed that they werebacking Zuma for a second term, setting the region on a collision course with the national ANYCL which is backing Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe for the post.

“It is our wish to see the two retain their posts after Mangaung. However, we will support any decision made by the branches in thechoice of the leadership”.

Palesa Notsi of the ANCYL Working Committee decried indiscipline among ANCYL members. “The issue of behaviour must be addressed among members. We do have members of ANC who call themselves ‘regime change’, regime change is fuelling division among members. It is not fair forthem to serve their individual interests in the name of ANC. We saw our members being taken to court just because people were not happywith the nomination. That we cannot tolerate.”

Regional deputy secretary and a member of ANCYL from Dihlabeng, Mohloki Moki said it was good that (former ANCYL leader Julius) Malema had been expelled from the party.  “He cannot be trusted.  This same man used to say he would ‘kill for Zuma’ but today he is singing adifferent tune. In what capacity was Malema addressing the soldiersexcept to try to over throw the government. Defence forces are the last lineof the country’s security and no one is allowed to interfere with them byso doing he is threatening the security of this country,” he said.

Moki also defended the President against Malema‘s claims that he had stolen the youth league’s idea of spurring economic freedom. “We are a product of the ANC infact it was an ANC decision that the ANCYL be established and it is our role tocome up with new ideas for the same organisation,” said Moki.

The decision contrasts national deputy president of ANYCL Ronald Lomala who said the league wants Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe as president.

Lamola said Kgalema has the credentials to lead this country.“He is very disciplined and credible, but also firm. He asked Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate him if therewere any allegations of corruption. He also reprimanded us when we wanted him to lead the country,” said Lamola.

The Youth League also wants Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula to ascend to the position of ANC secretary general.

Other candidates that the league wants branches to consider forleadership positions include current ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa, ANC Gauteng chairperson Paul Mashatile, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale, current deputy secretary general Thandi Modise and ANC national executive member Thenjiwe Mtints.

In Fezile Dabi, home of current chairperson of the ANC in Free State, Ace Magashule- a known Zuma ally –the party faithful were first out of the blocks in rallying behind Zuma’s bid for a second presidential term.

Magashule and his PEC are also believed to support a second term for General Secretary Gwede Mantashe. But provincial secretary William Bulwane said on Wednesday, October 10that the region had given their it’s branches two weeks to nominatetheir preferred candidates.

“We have decided not to officially announce our choice but wait forbranches to do that first as they are accredited bodies to nominate. They will be dealing with the process from Monday for two weeks,” hesaid.

An ANC member who requested his name be withheld said the PEC and all the regions elected before the Parys provincial conference that catapulted Magashule’ into a fourth win as the provincial leader will retain Zuma and Mantashe’s leadership.

“Magashule would not sabotage or betray president Zuma. After all, he gave him a job as a premier after both Mandela and Mbeki side-lined him, and he also has ambitions to be in the National Working Committee so that he becomes a minister,” he said.

“That is why he was against the youth league. However, this year’selections are not about ANC. It’s about individuals who are returningfavours so that they benefit after.”

He added: “We know that all of those in favour of Magashule automatically are rooting for Zuma, but the concern here is that mostof the branches in the Free State do not want either him or Zuma. The party leadership here is going to lie to the people that branches support Zuma whereas people are lobbying for Kgalema Motlanthe to takeover.”

The women’s league leader in the region Thandi Soetsang was notavailable for immediate response on who they want to lead theprovince. Free State will have 324 delegates at the elective congress.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said on Wednesday, October 10 thatall of the people to be nominated by branches will not differ to those Magashule and his PEC will support.

“We know the politics of the province; we know that branches willnominate people who the PEC supports. However, this does notguarantee that those people will be elected in Mangaung. We have toremember in 2007 prior to the Polokwane conference, there was havoc at allthe nomination centres; we hope not to experience the same thing again,” Friedman said.

..to cut R81 million electricity shortfall

By Molefi Sompane

SASOLBURG – Supporters of the Absa Currie Cup Premier Division side Toyota Free State Cheetahs are disenchanted by a recent spate of poor performances by their side.

The team is going through a bad patch since its establishment decades ago. Cheetahs dropped from position three to six and now stare relegation in the face.

They will have to play in the promotional playoffs against Eastern Province Kings on Friday, October 19, in order to survive an unusual situation they wrought for the first time
since 1988.

A dispirited fan, Marius Van der Merwe said the poor performances had torn their hearts apart.

“They have disappointed us and this has killed rugby in the province. Players pretended they had the guts to win but they did the opposite on the field of play,” he moaned.
He said that sponsors should start withdrawing their support for an ailing side that was touted as favourites to win the league.

“No sponsors would like to be associated with losers. I wish they could terminate their contracts with the club and take their investments to other hard working clubs not Cheetahs because it has let us down terribly,” he said.

However, Free State Rugby Union has been quite for sometime about the possibility of firing the club’s mentor and former Springbok hooker coach Naka Drotske and his assistant Hawie Fourie. Cheetahs have to win the match to retain sponsorship and be able to play in the same league next season.

But many people believe that it won’t be easy for the Bloem-based outfit to defeat the hard working Kings.

“This is a real do-or-die fixture for Drotske’s boys. It is late for them to make inroads and have they missed great chances when they should have balanced their matches so they avoid the situation they are now under.”

Public Eye learnt that leadership of the FSRU plans to fire Drotske if the club loses to the Kings and fails to secure a position in the Premier division of the Absa Currie Cup rugby.

Everyone at the Union is praying for the local side to win so they can keep their jobs because all of the sponsors have made the union aware of possible termination of the contracts.

Among the sponsors likely to withdraw is the headline sponsor, Toyota who has been part of the team since next year. FSRU President Lyndsey Mould said changes have to be made after Friday’s match.

“Whether we beat the EP Kings on Friday or not, I want to get all the decision makers together and if we have to act aggressively, we will do that,” Mould said.
“A lot of things have gone wrong this season and we have played without a number of our stalwarts, but that is no excuse. There simply isn’t any excuse.”

Cheetahs bosses could not fire coach Drotske, although he hasn’t performed well both in the Vodacom Super Rugby series and Currie Cup since their last victory in 2007.
Mould added that relegation would bring a great loss to the union. “If we are to be relegated, it will have major consequences for the Free State Rugby Union. We will lose sponsorships and that will mean that everybody’s jobs will be on the line. Friday night is all that the players and management must focus on, nothing else,” he said.

Meanwhile Free State Cheetahs Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Harold Verster defended the team, insisting that the outfit is well managed and that it was too early to talk about firing coaches.

“We have to right the wrongs, no matter how hard it is. In any business if there is trouble, you need to look at the problems and make the necessary decisions to rectify them,” Verster said.

“There are many people who think that Free State Rugby is badly run, but I don’t see it that way. We are a professional entity. When we applied for a Super Rugby franchise, we were second best of all the local teams because of our business plan. The Cheetahs are still run on the same plan.”

He said people were apprehensive about the club’s involvement in the Super Rugby but the side had managed to surprise them.

Tony Yengeni

As the 53rd national conference of the ANC approaches, two exaggerated analogies come to mind.

Is it like being trapped on a runaway roller coaster, hurtling up and down at heart-stopping speeds? Or is it like plummeting to the earth on a doomed flight?

The nation is obsessed with the ANC conference and its outcome.

This is inevitable because the governing party materially affects the lives of all South Africans.

Since its founding in 1912, the ANC nurtured a tradition and practice of contesting leadership positions.

After HF Verwoerd’s National Party government banned the ANC in 1960, it was only able to hold three conferences before 1990.

At the secret Lobatsi conference in 1962, the ANC constitution was suspended and many of its practices were put on ice.

As an illegal underground movement the ANC was unable to operate like a conventional political formation – holding public meetings, publicising the names of its leadership and members, and conducting its internal political life transparently.

A number of expedients were adopted to keep the movement alive, and to protect its members and supporters against violent state repression.

Among the procedures put on hold was the election of its leadership in open political contests.

The 1985 Kabwe conference reasserted the tradition of an elected leadership, but still under conditions of illegality, placing constraints on the manner the elections were conducted.

Once unbanned, the ANC returned to its prior traditions of open leadership elections and now mandates an external electoral body to conduct them transparently.

Thirty years of underground activity did, however, have an impact on movement practice.

At its 49th conference in June 1991, the ANC presidency was not contested, though other senior positions were.

Contestation of positions had been the ANC norm for decades prior to 1960.

For example, at the 1952 annual conference, where Chief Albert Luthuli was elected president, 50 different candidates were nominated to that position from the floor of the conference.

In the end the contest boiled down to about five candidates, including Dr James Njongwe and Nelson Mandela.

The wide open field of prospective candidates for the ANC presidency and other top positions is nothing remarkable to those conversant with pre-1960 ANC traditions.

Unfortunately, at the first three elective conferences held after 1990, the president was elected unopposed, so now many observers and ANC members have come to believe this is the customary practice.

What happened at Polokwane in 2007 had in the past been the norm.

Its reappearance as standard ANC practice is a welcome sign of political normalisation and maturity.

The ANC is a broad church and therefore any political contest entails like-minded members of an organisation clustering around a platform, usually represented by a candidate or slate of candidates.

It therefore comes as no surprise that as the national conference draws closer, one will find groups within the ANC differing in size and style, punting their preferred candidates.

Returning to my earlier analogies, a regrettable feature of this otherwise healthy procedure is the practice in the current contests for these lobbying groups to crystallise and congeal into political factions prepared to conduct undignified and potentially destructive campaigns.

The prospect of the highest decision-making body in the ANC, its national conference, being reduced to a deadly combat zone for positions, with complete disregard for the consequences not only for the integrity and dignity of the movement, but its very survival, is indeed highly disturbing.

It has now become the norm that, on the eve of ANC elective conferences at all levels, tensions build up as different groupings enter into highly polarised and fractious battles to win certain key positions for their candidates.

This competition affects all levels of the movement.

What is baffling is that while there is absolutely nothing wrong with contestation for any position, why does destructiveness and acrimony accompany such lobbying?

Why can’t we engage one another in a robust and constructive manner as many other political parties around the globe do?

Why do we find it necessary to visit this indignity upon ourselves and the country every time we hold elective conferences?

One has watched with dismay as inflamed passions have closed the ears and minds of competing groups to opposing arguments and ideas.

Each grouping fervently believes it is right and all the others are wrong.

In such an environment, the temptation for the group whose candidates come out on top to behave in a factional manner and for it to be regarded as such by those who have lost out is greatly increased.

Unfortunately, since the contest is among senior leaders, they too might yield to such temptations, to the detriment of the movement.

That holds the threat of factions within the movement becoming formalised and legitimated by new and strange practices that depart from the movement’s established culture and traditions.

When matters reach such a point, it becomes difficult to distinguish between factional decisions and statements, and those representing the actual voice of the ANC.

That internal democracy and the tradition of healthy debate has been the lifeblood of the ANC over the decades cannot be overstated.

Factionalism stimulates an environment of intolerance for differing viewpoints.

One outcome is that those who state their views frankly and fearlessly can immediately be labelled and derided as “right-wing opportunists”, “ultraleftists”, “populists”, or even “enemy agents”!

Once this becomes regular practice, anarchy, indiscipline and rumourmongering will be elevated from a deviant subculture to the norm.

Public spats and leaks to the press become the order of the day.

In no time, procedures that had in the past been unacceptable will infect even the top leadership.

It is my observation that factions anywhere in the world and in all political parties are the same.

Perhaps the only difference is the degree of support each enjoys on the ground.

Some may even profess a different ideology from the other, but in the final analysis they all behave in the same manner.

All factions, irrespective of political affiliation, have the same destructive effect.

The greatest tragedy about this is that the new generation of ANC members who joined the ANC after its unbanning come to regard the behaviour of their leaders as the example to follow.

What one sees in ANC conferences today can be viewed as the germination of the seeds planted by us, the leaders.

The danger with factionalism is that the vicious cycle continues because almost immediately after a conference, the “losers” will take up the cudgels and begin the fight from scratch, or the “winners” will fracture into splinter groups and immediately go for one another’s throats.

The movement is then reduced to something akin to a permanent political war zone. It never stops.

It affects everything and everyone.  Even songs in ANC conferences today are no longer about the struggle, the people or freedom, but about candidates. It’s ugly, annoying and boring.

Will we again and again wake up before the next local government elections to discover that the open toilets the people complained about are still not covered? Is this all because we are inward looking and care less about solving people’s problems?

Is it all about us and less about them?

In the meantime, the masses that gave birth to and have sustained the ANC with their support over the decades watch such an ugly spectacle unfold and are in many instances baffled and disgusted by the actions of those they regard as leaders.

This beloved ANC does not deserve to be reduced to a battlefield for factional interests.

This glorious movement was forged and built over a long, difficult period by the poor fighting masses of this country.

It is their creation and it belongs to them.

No single individual or faction, no matter how powerful or ruthless, should be allowed to hijack and impose their will on it.

Returning the ANC to its roots and its time-tested democratic practices will not be done behind closed doors.

Neither must this be a call by some to purge others.

It must be a genuine effort to renew the ANC and make it relevant to the needs and demands of the times.

Light must shine on everything and the masses of our people must be a part of this because without them the ANC will be left at the mercy of ruthless political amateurs masquerading as revolutionaries.

The time has come for the masses to reclaim the ANC and recreate it in their own image so that it continues to be the party that champions their noble and just cause, their dreams and aspirations.

I often ask why we appear not to have learnt from the experience of our brothers and sisters to the north, since we were the last to be liberated in Africa.

If leadership places self-advancement, the contest for positions and the interests of factions ahead of those of the ordinary people, the movement will wither and die in our hands.

As our national conference draws nearer and temperatures rise, the pursuit of political office might close many minds to reason.

Speaking the truth is revolutionary and liberating. *Yengeni is the ANC’s head of political education. – City Press

Pallo Jordan

As December approaches, virtually every political commentator has his mind fixed on the elective conference of the African National Congress (ANC) — the inordinate concentration on the ANC presidency underscoring a view that the person who occupies that office will affect SA as a whole.

Until the 1940s, the office of the president wielded enormous power in the ANC. Alert to the tensions and ethnic divisions that colonial powers had exploited to conquer Africans in the 19th century, the ANC’s founders tried to make the ANC as inclusive as possible.

The constitution provided for the election of the secretary-general, the deputy secretary-general and the treasurer-general. There were four deputy presidential posts, filled by the four provincial presidents. Beyond that, the president had the power to appoint other members of his national executive.

In the first 30 years of the ANC’s life, the calibre of the person elected president was decisive. Fearful of Josiah Gumede’s radicalism, the moderates engineered a coup in 1929 and elected PixleySeme to replace him. But Seme’s presidency proved disastrous.

The once radical lawyer had become a crusty old conservative with age. The ANC virtually ground to a halt under his stewardship. The national executive did not meet for nearly a year and conferences did not quorate. John L Dube, the founding president, also seceded to form his ANC of Natal.

Seme’s inertia and autocratic style of leadership rendered the ANC incapable of intervening when the Hertzog-Smuts United Party government abolished African voting rights in 1935.

The ANC presidency was redefined by AB Xuma after he took office in 1940. Assisted by a Professor Macmillin from Wits University and a young Afrikaner barrister named Abraham Fischer, Xuma drafted a new constitution, which the ANC annual conference duly adopted in 1943.

The Xuma constitution established a national working committee that would meet monthly and exercise full executive powers between meetings of the national executive committee and as its subcommittee.

The powers of the president were subjected to the authority of the national working committee. It thus institutionalised collective leadership by subordinating the three top officials to the committee and replaced presidentialism with the principle of “first among equals”.

Though the ANC adopted a new constitution in 1958, it did not substantively alter the powers of the office of the president. Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo held office during the most difficult period of the ANC’s history. In 1960, with Luthuli at the helm, the movement was banned. His death in 1967 catapulted Tambo into the presidency.

Operating illegally with a membership dispersed among exile, prison and underground structures inside the country, the ANC suspended its constitution in 1962.

By default Tambo became the ANC’s longest-serving president, an office he filled with quiet confidence and immense dignity.

Tambo brought to the office his own deeply held Christian values, a profound commitment to democratic practice and a leadership style that was inclusive.

The ethos of collective leadership was firmly stamped on the leadership bodies. The challenge Tambo faced was reconstructing a movement that had been battered by repression inside SA while knitting together a body of international opinion in opposition to apartheid.

Nelson Mandela, emerging from 28 years of incarceration as an international icon, was elected president in 1991.

Unlike his predecessors, Mandela led an executive composed mainly of his political juniors. Apart from Sisulu and Joe Slovo, no one in the national executive committee had a comparable track record of membership.

Mandela’s intervention in debate invariably tilted the balance in the direction of the option he favoured. The undecideds were silenced while others deferred to the respected elder. Consequently, new informal powers accrued to the office of president.

Thabo Mbeki inherited many of the informal powers Mandela had accumulated owing to his stature. At the formal level, Mbeki engaged the committee more regularly and broadened participation by drawing in key players from the alliance in extended meetings, and institutionalising meetings of the six top officials.

His aloofness could not, however, dispel the atmosphere of wheeling and dealing behind the backs of committee members, which resulted in his isolation.

For many in the ANC, Jacob Zuma’s election promised relief from the managed internal democracy of Mbeki’s incumbency. Instead, it has been marked by political problems, most notably a radical decline in the ANC’s credibility. Zuma’s own actions have also stripped the office he holds of dignity.

Whoever the ANC membership elects in December will have to grasp the nettle of restoring the ANC’s dented credibility and dignity to the office of the president.

• Jordan is a former minister of arts and culture.

ENKANINI — The Plaatjie family – like more than a million households in South Africa – lives in an informal settlement. But unlike most such households, the Plaatjies’ shack is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and it has an independent electricity supply as well as an alarm system.

It is the iShack – or improved shack – and it is envisaged as a stepping stone that will raise living standards in informal settlements while residents wait to move into brick-and-mortar government housing. A 2009 government report estimated about 2.3 million households lived in inadequate housing; of these, some 1.2 million were living in shacks in more than 2,500 informal settlements across the country.

About a year ago, NosangoPlaatjie, her husband Ntoya and their three children became the first family to occupy one of three prototype iShacks in Enkanini, an informal settlement near Stellenbosch, about 40km from Cape Town. While they still want to live in “a real house,” they say their lives have improved significantly.

“My old shack was made from wood, and it was also very cold and flooded often. My children were constantly sick, but life is very different now. We have lights, and it is no longer cold at night. The children are feeling better, which makes me happy,” Plaatjie told IRIN.

The three iShacks in Enkanini cost $870 each, and are equipped with a solar panel, distribution box and battery – which can power three lights, a cell phone charger and an outdoor motion detector spotlight, a consequence of technological advances in lower wattage lighting systems. Each also has a rainwater harvesting system.

Temperature control was a major consideration. The iShack is oriented in a north-northeast direction to take advantage of the morning sun during the southern hemisphere’s winter.

Its back wall is constructed from straw and clay, which absorbs the sun’s heat during the day, and at night, it radiates the heat for warmth. There is a roof overhang at the front of the shack to provide shade during the summer months. Windows can be opened and closed, or the curtains drawn, to help regulate temperature.

We got together with shack dwellers and brainstormed about what they needed to make their lives more comfortable, and then set about designing solutions

Because most shacks are constructed with combustible materials and many residents rely on flammable paraffin for cooking and candles for lighting, fires are one of the greatest hazards in informal settlements.

The iShack addresses this; its interior is insulated with discarded drinks cartons and coated with a fire-retardant paint.

The iShack was developed in a master’s degree programme at the Sustainability Institute of Stellenbosch University; it was the brainchild of Andreas Keller and his professor Mark Swilling.

Berry Wessels of the iShack programme said that although the government is committed to upgrading informal settlements, communities generally wait at least eight years for basic services and even longer for low-cost housing.

Since 1994, the government has delivered about 2.8 million subsidized houses, but residents can spend decades on the waiting list. The average cost of building and installing services for each low-cost house is about US$12,500.

The Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements Bonginkosi  Madikizela said in his 2012 budget speech that there is a backlog about 500,000 housing units required to accommodate the number of people on the province’s low-cost housing waiting lists.

“The iShack is the result of our research into how the lives of these people can be improved in a cost-effective way while they wait. We got together with shack dwellers and brainstormed about what they needed to make their lives more comfortable, and then set about designing solutions,” Wessels told IRIN.

In January, the Sustainability Institute was asked by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to apply for a grant to develop and broaden their ideas. They received an initial instalment of $250,000 to scale-up the project.

“We have 18 months from that date to prove a viable business model to the Gates Foundation,” Wessels said. “New stakeholders have come on board, and we are looking at building another 100 iShacks in Enkanini by the middle of next year that will have new elements in its design.”

Among the improvements under consideration are greater use of recycled products and ways to counter dampness within the structure.

Because construction costs remained prohibitive for most shack dwellers, the Sustainability Institute and its stakeholders are consulting banks to see if loans could be made available to potential owners.

The Sustainability Institute is also exploring whether the solar power units can be used as a basic infrastructure delivery system for informal settlements, given it is much cheaper to set up and operate than traditional energy infrastructure.

“People will not have to buy a solar power system as it will be infrastructure owned by the municipality. Instead, they will pay a service fee to use it that will cost about 80 rand ($9.27) per month,” Wessels said.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]

By Libuseng Nyaka

Director of SMMEs and Cooperatives Joseph Setsabi

BETHLEHEM – The Acting Head of Strategic Planning and Development in Free State Government Premier’s Office Mafole Mokalobe has attributed high unemployment in the area to an education system that places greater emphasis on academic subjects while failing to equip learners with relevant life skills.

Mokalobe told a provincial summit on job creation and sustenance attended by informal and small business communities from Thabo Mofutsanyana district held at Bethlehem on Tuesday, October 16 that unemployment resulted from skills mismatch.

“Our education system fails to address skills that will address economic development. We need students who are able to create employment instead of looking for the government to provide jobs,” Mokalobe said.

He said the province needed to utilise the ability of some individuals who can make profit out of their business.

People need to be trained in how best to identify markets.
“Starting a business is not a problem but how to sustain it. We need to train our informal small businesses on how best they can be competitive, by so doing they will able to provide jobs for other people,” Mokalobe said.

Mokalobe also said municipalities like Maluti A Phofung as well as Setsoto used to be rich in agricultural produce in the province and these activities needed to be revived so that they could provide employment and eradicate poverty.

“Nothing can beat agriculture production because we need to eat every day,” Mokalobe emphasised.

Senior officer responsible for Cooperative and SMMEs in the Premier’s office Joseph Setsabi told the gathering, that he would assist them to bolster their businesses only if they are willing.

He pledged to help the communities and informal traders create self-help projects without waiting for government to lend a hand.

“We have partners in business who are willing to assist us with the training such as Sida and Seta. I am going to give you hope and empower you to make money without waiting for government hand-outs. When we look back three years, we can pride ourselves in that at least we have made a difference,” Setsabi said.

The summit highlighted the importance of government‘s partnership with FET colleges and business partners like Sida in mitigating unemployment in the Province.
Executive Mayor of Thabo Mofutsanyana District, Balekile Mzangwa said the summit was in line with a United Nations declaration that states that “cooperatives build a better world”.

He said the declaration intended to raise public awareness of the invaluable contributions of cooperative enterprises.

Mzangwa said that small cooperatives and SMMEs must be used as a vehicle for rural development and SMMEs as units of production and permanent job creation.

FREE STATE – Four people were shot dead and another seriously wounded near an abandoned mine in Welkom on Thursday, police said.

Sergeant Puleng Motsoeneng said the car they were travelling in was attacked shortly after midnight in what appeared to be a robbery.

“The male driver, who was from Zimbabwe, was shot in the neck.” The other  four vehicle occupants, all women, were from Lesotho.

“Three of them had been shot in the head, while one of them was shot in the face and shoulder… She survived the shooting and is in a critical condition in hospital,” Motsoeneng said. A 9mm pistol without a serial number was found on the dead driver.

Police suspect that the victims were hawkers who sold food to illegal miners at the St Helena mine.

“We believe an undisclosed amount of money was taken from the victims.” A case of murder, attempted murder and robbery was opened. - Sapa

By Libuseng Nyaka

BETHELEHEM – A probe is underway to unearth unknown people who were paid by government officials in the name of small business enterprises and cooperatives, Free State Premier Ace Magashule has said.

Speaking at a two-day Provincial business summit which was held in Bethlehem in the Thabo Mofutsanyana district Magashule said some of these cooperatives and small businesses which had been consuming public funds do not even exist, while some school feeding schemes are owned by teachers.

Magashule also complained about the manner in which tenders were issued to communities.

“Some tenders are reserved for certain individuals not because they qualify. I have seen a tender advert running in a newspaper for four days and that alone showed that it was meant for someone.

“I approached  he concerned Department. We are investigating issues like this and I am going to be unpopular because people do not want to be reprimanded.” Magashule also warned citizens against giving government officials bribes in exchange for services or tenders.

“Individuals also contribute to corruption. When you give an official some money for work, you are taking part in corruption. We can only win the fight against corruption if citizens can join us in the fight.

They must stop contributing to this crime and must also report such activities,” he said. Speaking on behalf of entrepreneurs, Tirhani Marun said the issue of bribes had demoralised his colleagues.

“We do not even bother to apply for tenders knowing that they are designed for certain individuals  who would have paid bribes to government officials in the tender department. I am happy that

Premier has mentioned it and promised that at least something will be done.” Magashule said he would make sure that tenders were phased out. “We have already started with the security sector. We do not need a security company to guard government buildings when we can train people and absorb them as government employees who are entitled to benefits and salaries.”

However, Magashule said he was aware that this could “kill” some genuine entrepreneurs. “We know that when we abolished tendering for security companies it affected some business people negatively. But we need to come up with a plan on how people can be empowered to stop depending on tenders but be able to run businesses which can generate profit,” the premier said.

During the summit Dihlabeng Municipality was used as a pilot project targeting small businesses and cooperatives.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the Executive Mayor of Thabo Mofutsanyana Balekile Mzangwa and Dr Moon on behalf of Seta which will fund and assist with the training of members of communities in the area.

Seta is going to finance the training of small business people and cooperatives. This will be monitored monthly and later on quarterly.

…escapees cornered in suburb