Author: Silver Sibiya
ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, has rejected Ace Magashule’s attempts to reach out to him saying in his usual crowd-rousing rhetoric that “Magashule will not even see (the) slightest (sic) of me. He can meet up with those he wants to meet up”. Mbalula was speaking during the party’s Letsema Campaign rally in Tumahole, Parys, in the Free State on Tuesday and he spoke at great length about how Magashule failed to condemn the actions of those who were burning ANC T-shirts. He said to the cheering crowd: “Magashule is not a branch secretary member he is a former secretary-general of the…
Chairman of the Soweto Investment Conference 2023 Thato Mothopeng says the two-day event gave business people an opportunity to sell their products to the broader market with great networking opportunities to investors between local and private businesses. The conference was hosted by the Soweto Tourism and Business Development Association at Nasrec Expo Centre Johannesburg. This was the second conference expo to be hosted at Nasrec and government officials were conspicuous by their absence although they were invited. But they did however send representatives. The expo was lively and interactive as entrepreneurs exhibited their products ranging from traditional food, paintings, loans,…
Mystery surrounds the origins of expensive wireless headsets costing about R1 029 each and handed out to the 270 councillors in the City of Johannesburg Council seating on Wednesday. The DA’s Mohammed Alex Christians told Newsnote it is concerning that no one seems to know how the headsets landed on their desks when even the Speaker seems unaware of the source or the donor. “When we arrived at the council we were given a piece of paper with a name on it and headphones that we needed to sign for it. In terms of the Code of Conduct when we…
Angry Diepsloot residents on Tuesday played a cat-and-mouse game with the police as they went on a rampage forcing local shops to close while attacking and trying to demolish houses allegedly used by criminals as hideouts. The residents have alleged that foreign nationals were behind the crimes that have led to the death of six people including a Community Police Forum (CPF) Chairperson John Makola who was shot and later died in hospital. Community leader Loyiso Toyiya said the six people were killed after the community had protested “peacefully” and went around demolishing homes and shacks belonging to criminals. “You…
The President of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) , Zizamele Cebekhulu, calls for all traffic officers to be under the Department of Transport. Cebekhulu said this when addressing union members at the Johannesburg Correctional Centre where he expressed concerns about the placement of officers in some provinces where he also engaged on challenges experienced by public sector employees. “We are dealing with nationalisation of traffic officers under one Traffic Act. Different traffic officers have different salaries. Traffic officers in Mpumalanga belong to the Department of Safety, others belong to the Department of Public Works. What does Public…
It seems even children are not spared in the orgy of violence as police crime stats show that more than 60 children were killed in Gauteng alone in the first three months of 2023. Gauteng Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela confirmed that 61 children have been murdered between January to March this year while releasing crime statistics in Joburg on Wednesday. The provincial statistics show that for the same period 1 556 people were murdered, the highest number of homicides recorded in the last five years. “Although our overall crime increased by 2 129 counts, translating to a 2.0% increase as…
The City of Joburg has increased its budget to R80.9 billion for 2023/24 financial year. This was announced on Tuesday by Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance Dada Morero when he was delivering his first budget speech at the Council. Morero said the City was transformed with a budget of less than R50 billion in 2000 and today the budget for 2023/24 is approximately R80.9 billion, catering for about 6 million people. “10 years later from iGoli 2000, the vision of being ‘A world-class African City’ was born. We transformed the City with less than R50 billion. Today,…
President Cyril Ramaphosa has held a briefing with Chinese President Xi Jin Ping on the African Leaders Peace Mission to Ukraine and Russia to try and persuade both parties to get to a negotiation table to end the ongoing conflict. Ramaphosa last month announced the formation of an African delegation comprising the presidents of the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. African countries have been among the hardest hit by rising prices for grain since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest producers of wheat, fertilizers and other agricultural commodities.…
The City of Johannesburg’s coalition government has moved to reassure residents that Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda who fell ill during the debate on his State of the City Address (Soca) last Wednesday is in good health. Mayoral Committee Member Dr Mgcini Tshwaku who conducted a winter safety campaign in Zandspruit on Friday said Gwamanda is now in a much better health condition because he is already back attending some meetings. “The mayor is actually doing very well; he is recuperating at home. He attended the meeting virtually, he contributed to the meeting we had,” he said. The MMC called out Action…
A four-month-old baby who was kidnapped on Tuesday afternoon outside his home in Dobsonville, Soweto has been found and returned safely home to his family. The kidnapping was reported to the police who mobilised a search party of all relevant specialised units including the Anti-Kidnapping Task Team to find the infant as well as to apprehend those behind the kidnapping. The unit traced the infant to a Roodepoort mining area and just after 11pm on Tuesday the infant was rescued and taken to a nearby clinic for medical examination. The baby received and clean bill of health and was reunited…