Author: Silver Sibiya
City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s health has come under scrutiny after the council meeting was adjourned abruptly due to his ill health. The council was debating his State of the City Address (Soca) speech and Gwamanda was expected to respond to it today. After consulting with her team, the Speaker Colleen Makhubele adjourned the meeting because she said the council cannot continue without the Mayor. “We need the Mayor in the house, the only question is when are we going to continue and have a Soca debate and have the Mayor respond and I don’t think that is…
The City of Johannesburg has instructed Members of the Mayoral Committees (MMC) to attend the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), to address the challenges encountered by residents following complaints raised at the pre- State of the City Address (Soca) media briefing. Residents and other political parties complained that members of the executive including the Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, don’t avail themselves for the meetings aimed at addressing service delivery concerns and grievances. Ironically Gwamanda himself recently encouraged residents of Fleurhof and Florida who were protesting to go to IDP meetings for their grievances to be heard. ANC Chief at Council Sithembiso Zungu…
An e-hailing driver who was assaulted at the Maponya Mall in Soweto last night, says he’s lucky to be alive following the torching of three vehicles, the robbing, assault and shooting of drivers by a gang of minibus taxi drivers. Three men who suffered injuries were taken to a local hospital. The victim, who requested anonymity, said he was forced out of his car and assaulted. “I was driving out of the mall. I saw six men approaching my car while I was talking on the phone then they took my phone. They demanded I get out of the car.…
Residents of Kwa-Thema in Springs have threatened to intensify their protest if electricity is not restored. The residents, who have been without electricity for the past three weeks, went on a rampage, burning two municipal vehicles and damaging municipal buildings. Community member Tebogo Choma said the lack of electricity is expensive and affects her pocket as she spends R50 on 2litres of petrol for a generator, R24 daily traveling to my family home to charge my cell phone. Choma said crime was also rising due to the dark nights adding that they stole from her neighbour’s car while her husband…
The strike by Gauteng nursing students continues after talks between them and the government deadlocked over compensation disagreements. The students have completed their training but want the government to employ them as general nurses and continue paying them until they write their board exams in November. They are the first group introduced in 2020 for training for a Diploma in General Nursing known as R171. The group marched to Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s office in Johannesburg to hand over a memorandum of demands. Last week the government obtained a court order from South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg interdicting the strike…
About 2 000 incomplete structures built by the City of Joburg in 2020 to the tune of R500 million in response to the Covid-19 outbreak remain unoccupied three years later and security guards had to be posted to prevent further vandalism and destruction of the properties. The City was responding to calls from President Cyril Ramaphosa during Covid-19 that people living in overcrowded areas be relocated to new places to prevent overcrowding and the spread of pandemic. City’s Human Settlements Executive Director Patric Poppy told Newsnote on Friday that when the project was underway they suspended it due to restrictions…
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a panel to investigate U.S. allegations that a Russian ship had collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town last year, the presidency said in a statement on Sunday. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, said on May 11 that he was confident that a Russian ship, which docked at a naval base in Simonstown in the Western Cape in December last year, took aboard weapons from South Africa, an allegation South Africa has since denied. The allegations have caused a diplomatic row among the U.S., South Africa and Russia and called into question South Africa’s non-aligned…
The EFF has for the first time had a presence and influence in the running of a metro as Finance Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) in Ekurhuleni Nkululeko Dunga presented his maiden budget speech termed ‘people’s budget’. Dunga and four other EFF councilors recently became MMC’s in a coalition government that includes the ANC, ATM and Patriotic Alliance. Dunga said Ekurhuleni’s poor had been neglected and that the current budget will restore their dignity. “This budget will reflect what has been the demands of the people through the Integrated Development Program (IDP) consultative period. The people of Thembisa, we…
The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities recommends Setlokoa, Sepulana and Isimpondo among the dialects to be granted an official language status. The CRL Rights Commission Chairperson David Mosoma said the education department should be the first to recognise the said dialects at a media briefing in Joburg on Tuesday. “Pansalb, in collaboration with the Department of Justice, should work for the standardisation and development of all official languages into a legal language. The department of Higher Education and Training is encouraged to subsidise institutions of higher learning that are…
Some residents of Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria say life has become unbearable in the area, following the outbreak of cholera which has resulted in the death of 15 people. The Department of Health said there were 41 positive cases of Cholera countrywide and the National Health Department has issued a warning to all doctors to treat people who display symptoms of Cholera as Cholera patients and not wait for the test results. The South African National Civic Organisations (SANCO) Hammanskraal Chairperson, Mahlathini Qebelo, said the deaths have caused panic in the area. “This situation is causing panic and frustration. They…