Author: Kgaogelo Magolego
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has vowed to roll out interventions for the benefit of the province’s poor and unemployed. Among others, Lesufi says his administration will be giving free school uniforms to children from poor households as well as food parcels. The Premier made the commitment in Randburg on Saturday where he handed out over ten thousand appointment letters to new recruits who are beneficiaries of the provincial government’s Nasi spane mass employment programme. Lesufi used the opportunity to hit back at opposition parties who claimed the sudden job creation initiative was meant to help the ANC retain power during…
Staff and families gathered at the OR Tambo Memorial Hospital to remember the dozen healthcare workers who were killed in a truck explosion near the facility on Christmas Eve. 39 other people who were in the vicinity of the hospital also perished while a dozen or so sustained serious injuries. Gauteng health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko on Friday led proceedings at opening of a remembrance tombstone in honour of the twelve healthcare workers who were killed instantly during the explosion. Nkomo-Ralehoko paid tribute to the hospital’s surviving staff and emergency services personnel for the rescue of colleagues even when the situation…
More than 350 miners are holed up underground at Gold One Mine in Springs. The National Union of Mineworkers says the group went underground as part of yesterday’s night shift and never came to the surface. The union says it is unclear if the unfolding situation is sit-in or hostage. Livhuwani Mambhuru, the spokesperson for NUM confirms that more than 350 mineworkers didn’t come to surface after going down for the night shift on Thursday. “The NUM can confirm that there’s a situation that is currently unfolding at Gold One that involves more than 350 mineworkers underground. So we don’t…
The Gauteng provincial government says it is accelerating provision of housing to millions of citizens and will be rapidly handing over RDP houses and serviced stands over the coming months. Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile on Thursday handed over two hundred such stands and some four hundred and thirty-four RDP houses at Wilbotsdal Extension 7 in the West Rand. Maile said the stands are meant to benefit strictly people who do not qualify for RDP houses as they’re working and are not financed by lending institutions as they earn too little. “It’s for the missing middle. All these beneficiaries are…
In Diepsloot, residents are again on the verge of protesting rising crime that they accuse law enforcement authorities of not dealing with. Residents from Randburg and surrounding areas flocked to the Randburg Magistrate’s Court to watch five of their fellow residents face murder charges, among others, for the weekend mob killings. “The people of Diepsloot are very much tired. As you know we’re a community that has been on the streets for the past three years pleading with the government to intervene to stop the high rate of crime. Over the past weeks people were being killed like animals day…
The government has vowed to spare no money effort in its commitment to bring home a handful of South Africans who remain trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip. International Relations and Cooperation Director General Zane Dangor made the promise at the OR Tambo International Airport moments after welcoming a group of 19 patriots who had been stuck in the enclave amid indiscriminate bombardment by Israeli forces purportedly in pursuit of resistance movement Hamas. “We are happy that you are home and aware that a few of your loved ones are ones remain in the remain there and we are are…
The group of South Africans who were evacuated from the Gaza Strip where they had been stuck since the beginning of Isreal’s siege on the enclave have given rather horrifying accounts of the situation there. Nineteen of them arrived in South Africa on Tuesday on board an Ethiopian Airlines plane and were received by emotional loved ones and officials from the Department of International Relations including Director General Zane Dengo. “Its a total ethnic cleansing that is going on there. Each time we found a hideout the Israeli aircrafts would start hovering above warning us the building is was about…
The Gauteng provincial government has tasked City Power with leading efforts to rid the province of load shedding. Provincial treasury has allocated over a billion rand to the utility with a little over R 400 million to be transferred immediately to finance its power generation ventures which include refurbishing existing infrastructure to increase generation capacity. Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo and his local government counterpart Mzi Khumalo on Thursday visited the projects that the money is earmarked for an urge City Power officials to fulfill their promise of bringing an additional fifty megawatts of electricity into the grid as part of…
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has launched a crackdown on employers it believes defrauded it by using employee details to make Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) claims but failed to pay the monies to the workers. The fund is enlisting the help of organised labour and on Wednesday met with Cosatu’s Gauteng chapter to find ways of holding culprits accountable. UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping says the institution is not acting on the basis of mere suspicion. “We have reason to believe that such fraud has taken place but also we have evidence that has shown overtime that a number is of…
Ahead of the pause in the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, the liberation movement has warned that the situation in Gaza is beyond desperate. The two agreed to a four day break from fighting in talks conducted through Qatar and was scheduled to kick in on Friday. On Thursday Hamas, in its daily updates painted a grim picture of what remains of the Gaza Strip on the 48th day of indiscriminate bombardment by Israel. “The healthcare crisis in Gaza has reached a critical juncture, as incessant attacks on medical facilities and personnel intensify an already dire humanitarian predicament”, said…