Friday 26 February 2016Year 6 168th Edition Tel: 013 262 4416

For the past 15 years, Elias Motsaoledi Local Municipality appointedcontractors to invoice the council for refuse-removal work. The contrac-tors, who were appointed to pay the salaries of the refuse-removalworkers, were paid an amount of R3 Million per year. In this amount ofR3 Million, only R1.1 Million is paid to 45 refuse removal workers whowork on a temporary basis. The contractor pockets the remaining R1.9Million for just invoicing the municipality and pay the workers.All the resources used to do the work including vehicles, drivers, fueland rubbish bins are provided by the municipality.The contract of the current refuse-removal contractor is lapsing at theend of February, the council is in the process of appointing a newcontractor for an amount of R28 Million for just 3 years. Meaning anincrease of R19 Million will be paid to the new contractor.Seun Mogotji, opposition Mpumalanga Party Councillor in the munici-pality says there was no need for the municipality to appoint refuse-removal contractors in the first place. He says the contractor is been paida lot of money for just invoicing the municipality to and determine andpay salaries.Mogotji said the amount was raised by the council to indirectly fund theruling party's electioneering campaigns."This is too much money for someone who uses the municipality'svehicles, fuel and rubbish bins to do the work. He only supplies labourersand pay each of them a stipend of just R2 490-00 per month which is far

Millions for refuse-removal contractors

less than what they should be earning for doingthis kind of a job," said Mogotji.He said there was an agreement in the 2014/2015financial year between SAMWU and the mu-nicipality that refuse-removal will no longer begiven to contractors.He said in the recent 2014/2015 Elias MotsaolediFinancial Statements it was discovered that anamount of R113 Million was paid unlawfullyand irregularly to contractors and individuals,but this seems not to be an eye opener to thecouncil."The municipality is not generating enoughmoney; it only depends on government grantsfor its operational expenses. The council shouldtherefore consider on cutting costs at the stagebut instead, the tender board convinced con-tractors who bid for the tender to inflate theirbids," Mogotji said.He said the agreement between SAMWU andElias Motsaoledi Council must be honouredand the municipality must refrain from appoint-ing a contractor to benefit the ANC.

One suspect has been arrested and the other fled after an attemptedarmed robbery at Jet Mart in Moutse Mall, Dennilton. The incident tookplace on Saturday 20 February during mid-day.According to the police report, it is alleged that the two suspects enteredthe shop pretending to be customers."They approached one of the employees demanding keys to the storeroom while lifting their clothes to show off their firearms, instructing himnot to make any noise," said Dennilton SAPS ' Constable Linda Malefahlo.Malefahlo said the employee replied by saying the keys were in posses-sion of another employee and one of the robbers went to look for him."The suspect approached the employee who was in possession of thestore room keys demanded that he opens the door. The door was openedand the suspects started helping themselves to a number of cellphones,"Malefahlo said.She said customers and passerbys started to notice the robbery whenthe suspect dragged a bag over the floor full of cellphones."Some community members confronted the suspects and one got in thecar and drove off, leaving his accomplice behind. He was apprehendedby the community, handed over to the police and arrested. The cellphones were discovered at the crime scene," he will appear before theMoutse Magistrate's Court on armed robbery charges," she said.

One arrested, another fledduring attempted armed

robbery in Jet Mart MoutseMall

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After the Dispatch come to the plight of theChauke Mahubane, a disabled person fromNgwalemong Village in Ephraim Mogale LocalMunicipality, the ward councillor decided tohelp. Mahubane's story was published in theDispatch of Friday 12 February where the disa-bled man was complaining about government'sfailure to provide him with an RDP house formore than ten years.After reading the story, Ephraim Mogale Ward12 Councillor George Phala paid the 52 year oldMahubane a visit and promised to build him ahouse.

Ramatsetse Primary School in Stompo Village,Moutse is in a horrible state. The school'sbuilding is very old, the walls have cracks allover, threatening lives of pupils. A number offruitless meetings were held between parentsand the Department of Education.Parents claim that the Education Departmentpromised to provide the school with mobileclassrooms but nothing happened.The shortage of proper classrooms results inovercrowding at Ramatsese Primary. The furni-ture is in such a bad condition that pupils haveto use empty boxes and papers to cushion theseats. Parents describe the school's situationas unbearable to both learners and teachers.They say teachers are not doing their workproperly as a result of overcrowding and animproper working environment.Reacting to the situation, parents refrainedtheir children from attending their lessons, de-manding the Education Department to act to

Ramatsetse on theverge of collapse

A house for Chauke

Chauke Mahubane visited by EphraimMogale Ward 12 Councillor GeorgePhala after his plight of a need for anRDP house was published in the Dis-patch Newspaper.

better the situation of the school.This happened because parents feared that theold wall at the school would collapse on theirchildren.Limpopo Provincial Education SpokespersonDr Naledzani Rasila told the Dispatch that thedepartment is aware of the backlog."We are aware that some of the schools in theprovince are in a bad condition. But the depart-ment is dealing with the problem. We are cur-rently prioritizing schools where we alreadystarted with renovations and building newones," he said.Rasila said the department has put aside abudget of R900 Million to renovate and buildschools in the province."The department is actually in need of R1.5Billion to complete the work, which is why weexperience a delay in speeding up the work ofrenovating and building new schools in theprovince," he said.

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The situation is back to normal at Philadelphia Hospital following a protest by staff members. Thehospital employees, mainly doctors were complaining about poor safety standard when a stringof robberies and house breakings took place in the hospital recently.Workers then preferred to down tools, embarked on a protest demanding the Health Departmentto strengthen safety inside the hospital premises. An on duty security guard was also shot in theabdomen during a robbery in progress inside the hospital premises. He suffered serious injuriesand was transferred to Mankweng Hospital for medical treatment. It was listed that sometimes gun-shots are heard firing in the hospital premises, and this threatens lives of the Health Departmentemployees and those of patients.During a meeting with the department representatives and the hospital management, extra securityguards were placed in the hospital to strengthen the security. The police monitored the situationin the hospital where suspects linked to crimes committed in the hospital were arrested. LimpopoHealth Department Spokesperson Derrick Kganyago told the Dispatch that they agreed on termswith Philadelphia Hospital employees and everything is back to normal. He said a total of eightsecurity guards were placed to strengthen safety in the hospital. "We are also working with thepolice to monitor the hospital's situation on daily basis.The issue of electric fence is still in the process as the department will be urged to provide allhospitals in the province with electrical fence," he said.

Situation back to normal atPhiladelphia Hospital

Residents of Malaeneng in Dennilton say they have been waiting for water and RDP houses forthe past 15 years. The issues were raised during a community meeting held in the village onSaturday 13 February at the local Community Hall.The meeting was organized by the newly formed Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA) andwas aimed at giving the community members a platform to address their challenges. Thecommunity made it clear during the meeting that they are tired of ANC's empty promises. Theissues of water shortages, unviability of RDP houses, the poor roads standard and the high rateof unemployment were the community's main concerns.The Chairperson of the Bolsheviks Party of South Africa in the village, Vusi Ndlela said water andhousing issues must be prioritized. He said it is unacceptable that after 22 years of democracypeople are still struggling to get basic services.Ndlela blames the current Elias Motsaoledi Ward 7 Councillor Lucas Phala for failing to addressresidents’ challenges in the municipality. He said projects were implemented during the term ofthe previous councillor but Phala did not maintain any project when becoming councillor in 2011.He hinted that there is a huge demand of water in the community; residents travel long distancesto fetch drinkable water.Ndlela encouraged people to vote for change this coming Local Government Elections."Be sure you are voting for the party that will make your life better, not the party that will focuson individual and self-enrichment," he said.

Malaeneng residents tiredof ANC’s empty promises

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Residents to expect waterscarcity after pump cable stolenThe community of Mohlaletsi Village and othersurrounding areas will be without water for aperiod of time. This is as a result of theft ofelectricity cables from 7 pumps at LerajanePump Station. A case of theft has been openedwith the South African Police Services at Ga-NkoanaVillage. Officials from the SekhukhuneDistrict Municipality and Lepelle NorthernWater have started with the repair work. React-ing to this latest act of vandalism, SekhukhuneDistrict Mayor Cllr Mogobo David Magabesaid: “We apologize unreservedly to all af-fected villages for the water cuts resulting fromtheft and vandalism of our infrastructure. Weappeal to all members of the community to workwith government, traditional leaders and the

SAPS to find perpe-trators of these crimesso that they can bepunished. In additionto that we have calledfor an urgent meetingto be held atMohlaletsi Village tobe addressed byMMC Mokhulwane Mathale, in order to re-solve this problem before it escalates to uncon-trollable levels. We call upon our traditionalleaders and civil society groups to be part of themeeting”. Magabe slammed the vandalism actsand said they are taking place during a difficulttime of drought in the country.

A case of attempted murder was opened at Motetema SAPS after a 28-year-old male victim wasstabbed and left to die by unknown suspects. According to the police, the victim was on his wayhome from the tavern at Tafelkop Village around 01:H20 on Sunday 21 February."While on the way, the victim came across a woman and they agreed to walk together to the nearbyfilling station to withdraw money. On their way just after withdrew money, the pair was approachedby four men where one pointed them with a firearm, demanding money from the victim. He refusedand that’s when one of the four suspects produced a knife and stabbed him," said ConstableThelma Makofane, Motetema SAPS Spokesperson.Makofane added that the woman managed to flee from the scene unharmed. She said the victimsustained serious injuries from the stabbing."The police were called and the victim was rushed to hospital to receive immediate medicalattention. A case of attempted murder was opened and is under investigation. No one is arrested,"she said.

Man stabbed, womanescaped unharmed duringarmed robbery in Tafelkop

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A total of six matches were played by teams within the Motetema Football League on Saturday20 February at Mamokgalake Sports Grounds. The matches were played by both under-10 andunder-21 categories in the league. According to the Coordinator of the league Thabo Leshaba,they decided to play all matches in one day in order to catch up as they are already behind in theirfirst round. Leshaba told the Dispatch that the delay was caused because there are not enoughteams in the league. He added that the delay caused the management to reschedule the launchingof the league to next month, in order to try and give some other interested soccer teams a chanceto come and join. "Our launch will be held on Wednesday 8 March. By doing this we want to allowall interested soccer teams to come and get registered. We are already behind and cannot affordto reschedule again," he said. Leshaba added that the other challenge the league is facing is thatnetball players do not pitch in the matches. "We had a number of ladies taking part in the leaguelast year but it seems like this year they are no longer interested. This is a challenge to us as someinterested netball players started asking if something happened and ended up players losing hopein taking part. But I can assure them that we are still willing to accommodate netball teams in theleague and we are expecting a number of teams to participate," he said. He appealed to Motetemaresidents to start soccer teams and those who are already playing should come and register inthe Motetema Football League. "We are expecting the number of teams to increase before thelaunch that will be held on 8 March at Mamokgalake Chuene Sports Grounds. We are also indemand of netball ladies to come and participate in the league as we are already behind theschedule," he said. The results of matches played on Saturday 20 February are as follows in theunder-10 category, Flying Birds FC 4-0 Koste FC, Baba FC 4-0 Janibo FC. In the under-21 categorythe teams played as follows; Flying Birda FC 1-1 Janibo FC, Koste FC 5-2 Bisto FC, Baba FC 2-2 Disco FC.

Motetema Football League behind schedule

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The Ephraim Mogale Local Football Associa-tion's Promotional League is now in round 8.The league has started succesfully in Decem-ber with 16 teams from Villages around EphraimMogale Local Municipality. Teams currently inthe league are as follows; Mohlalaotoane YoungBirds FC from Mohlalaotoane Village, MarbleUnited FC from Manapyane Village, RatanangFC from Tsimanyane Village, Mohlotsi FC rep-resenting Mohlotsi Village, Blue BirdsFC,Masokolara FC, Young Stars FC, Rivers FCall from Leeuwfontein Village, Vultures FC,Mubs United FC, Sprinters FC all fromManapyane, Try Again FC from New Stand,Mighty Blues FC from Moganyaka, JuniorDitlou FC from Mmakgatle, Junior Rocks FCalso from Mmakgatle and Arsenal FC repre-senting Greenside Village. According to thecoordinator of Ephraim Mogale Local FootballAssociation, Felane Mahlangu, all footballteams within the league are performing out-standingly and up to date in all matches. He saidthey will be finished with all rounds in theleague by May and will be preparing for the playoffs. Mahlangu added that each and every team

Ephraim Mogale Promotional Football League progressingshould have at least five under-19 players intheir starting line up in every league match."Three of our teams Juventus FC, Senior DitlouFC and Senior Rocks FC are already playing inthe SAB League. This shows a lot of progressto us as it determines our growth in the activityof soccer," saidMahlangu. Mahlanguappealed to soccerteam coaches in othervillages aroundEphraim Mogale tocome and register theirteams in the league."There are other bril-liant soccer teams invillages aroundEphraim Mogale butthey are not yet regis-tered in the league.Soccer teams from vil-lages such as Mmatilo,Moeding, Mamphogoand others can pro-duce good soccer

playing young people but they do not followthe right procedure. They must come forwardand attend meetings so that their teams will beregistered. This is one step ahead that couldmake some young people around our area suc-cessful soccer players in the future," he said.