Friday 27 June 2014Year 5 130th Edition Tel: 013 262 4416

Four mayors in Limpopo Province have been fired, the ANC Secretary in Limpopo Nocks Seabiannounced on Tuesday 24 June. Wendy Matemane from Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality,Capricorn District Municipality’s Lawrence Mapoulo, Josias Mahlake from Greater Tubatse LocalMunicipality and the Mopani District Municipality’s Joshua Matlou received their marchingorders for alleged underperformance. This is as president Zuma in his state of the nation addressvowed to improve the state of service delivery at municipalities around the country. The ANCProvincial Executive Committee took a decision on Monday 23 June but the announcement wasmade on Tuesday Morning to recall these mayors. "The ANC made the decision after determiningthe weaknesses and challenges of the different municipalities. We want to strengthen ourperformance in municipalities for better service delivery." Nocks Seabi told reporters. There werereports that the mayors were linked to Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema. Seabisaid the decision had nothing to do with the four apparently being aligned to Julius Malema andformer Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale. "Whether they are friends or not is not an issue to us.For us strengthening performance is the priority." Seabi said no interim mayors had beenappointed yet but the party is busy preparing for it. Seabi said the president ,in delivering his 2014state of nation address, said that government has listened to the complaints and proposals ofSouth Africans over the past five years relating to the performance of municipalities and hasoutlined intervention plans for 15 municipalities across the country. He said Mayors are sackedfor underperformance and failed to improve service delivery. ANC secretary general GwedeMantashe said last week that local government was going to be the party’s focus going forward.Mantashe vowed that they will be focusing on local government and they are going to be moresystematic in their approach. The ANCYL in Elias Motsoaledi Sub-Region, Sekhukhune Regionwelcomed the recalling of the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality Mayor Cllr. Wendy Matemane.The statement was made by the ANCYL in Elias Motsoaledi Sub-Region, Sekhukhune RegionSecretary Mr Bongani Nkonyana.

ANC Limpopo recalls fourMayors

Recalled: The former Mopani DistrictMunicipality Joshua Matlou.

Axed: Capricorn District Municipali-ty’s Lawrence Mapoulo.

Dismissed: The former EliasMotsoaledi Local Municipality’sWendy Matemane.

Fired: The former Mayor of GreaterTubatse Local Municipality NkosiMahlake.

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A Sekhukhune FET College Financial Administrator was held accountable for fraud after he paidthe invoice worth more than R25 000-00 into his daughter’s bank account. According to an insiderwho doesn’t want to be named, the Financial Administrator Mr Dingaan Lekoana who served atthe Central Office in CS Barlow Campus, Motetema, defrauded the college by depositing themoney into his daughter’s bank account. The source said the crime was committed in May thisyear and the college management suspended him with immediate effect. “Three weeks later,Lekoana paid up the money and said it was a mistake, he later resigned.” he said. The MotetemaFET College CS Barlow Campus CEO Mr Tebogo Kekana told the Dispatch that the allegationsare true and Lekoana has refunded the money. He added that the matter is now held by the policeas Lekoana is no longer a college employee. Kekana said it is possible for a person in the collegeto process and finalise invoices. He added that the college has no powers to refuse resignationfrom any employee who has a pending case that is under investigation. “It is not true that themoney has been deposited into his daughter’s account. It is a different account and the policeare busy investigating to whom the account belongs to. Yes after his suspension he resigned afterhe was advised by his lawyer. No one in the college advised him to resign. What I can tell younow is that the case is been investigated by the police and we are still waiting for the reports,”he said.

Sek FET Financial Administrator heldaccountable for fraud

The Mpumalanga Party councillors in EliasMotsoaledi say they have unanswered ques-tions after a large amount of money was de-ducted from their monthly salaries. This wasraised by the Mpumalanga Party Councillorand Task Team Secretary Alfred Maloba.According to Maloba, the Elias MotsoalediLocal Municipality made unauthorised deduc-tions from the councillors’ salaries since Au-gust 2011 without the councillors’ agreement.“The Elias Motsoaledi Local Council sinceAugust 2011 acted unlawfully when imple-menting deductions from Mpumalanga Coun-cillors’ monthly allowances without having thenecessary authorization from the respectivecouncillors to deduct the said amount onmonthly basis,” he said. In the letter that havethe party’s letter head, the councillors writtento the Limpopo MEC for CoGHSTA, it is statedthat a total amount of R 366 500.00 has beendeducted from councillors allowances to whichthey did not consent or authorize the council to

MP claims unauthorized deductions byEMLM

make in the first instance. The councillors statedthat in August 2011 to December 2011, anamount of R60 000.00 was deducted from 12councillors at R 1000.00 each every month.From January 2012 to December 2012 the amountof R144 000.00 was also deducted from 12councillors at R1000.00 every month. From Janu-ary 2013 to December 2013 12 Councillors sala-ries at R 1000.00 each were also deductedamounting to R 144 000.00. From January 2014the deductions was changed to a R 2000.00deduction from 2 councillors and R 1500.00 wasdeducted from 10 councillors amounting to R 19000.00. Maloba said only statutory deductionscan be made from allowances or salaries, yet thecouncil acted in strict violation of such regula-tion and continued to deduct unlawfully.Speaking to the Dispatch, the CommunicationsManager in Elias Motsoaledi Mr ShakesMokganyetji said the municipal manager wasabsent and he has no details concerning thematter.

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Parents of learners attending school at Ramohlokolo Secondary School in Motetema Townshipare concerned about the health of their children after they experienced a very bad smell comingfrom the toilets. The toilets are untidy as the flushing equipment is broken. Now parents fear fortheir children’s health. According to a parent, the situation started five years ago and when theylodged a complaint, they were told Sekhukhune Sanitation will deal with the problem. “It has beentoo long now and we see no changes. Sometimes the smell enters the classrooms and it becomesdifficult for our children to concentrate. You can bet that the toilets are no longer in use if youcan pay a visit at the school because human faeces are all over the place,” she said. She addedthat the issue is raised in each and every parent meeting and the school responded by saying theyhave informed the department about this disturbing situation and are still in vain. One of thelearners said they are not allowed to use toilets outside the school as the gates are always locked.He added that they complain everyday about the situation to the educators but nothing seemsto change. The Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality Regional Manager in Sanitation, Reticulationand Bulk Mr Jabu Motha said the contractor who deals with refurbishment of Motetema Seweragehas already been appointed three months ago. He said he cannot comment any further and referredus to the ward councillor. The Ward Councillor Mr Sipho Nkosi agreed that the contractor isappointed and referred the Dispatch to the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality for response.“I can respond on some of the issues affecting the community but this one is a municipal issueand it needs the municipality to respond,” he said.

Three male suspects named Johannes Lepota(56), Leonard Maleka (38) and Oupa Nchabeleng(32) have been arrested for allegedly transport-ing stolen cattle from villages around MarbleHall the police said. According to ConstableLethunya Mmuroa from Marble Hall SAPS, thesuspects, aged between 32 and 56, were ar-rested after police intercepted their white truckloaded with 13 cattle on the road on Thursdayafternoon 12 June.Police were acting on a tip-off from members ofthe public and they set up a road block for thesuspects. Preliminary investigations revealedthose cattle were branded by the suspects anight before their transportation. The cattle,three bulls and 10 cows with different colours,are currently being kept by the Marble Hallpolice. The suspects, who were apparently

Suspects arrested transportingstolen livestock

going to sell the animals at an auction, appearedat the Groblersdal Magistrate’s Court on Mon-day 16 June and were denied bail. They ap-peared again on Tuesday 24 June and LeonardMaleka and Oupa Nchabeleng were given aR3000-00 bail each. The third suspect JohannesLepota was denied bail. They will appear againon Tuesday 8 July.“We once more appeal to cattle and otherlivestock owners to make sure that their animalsare secured or are monitored when grazing inpastures. Several farmers and villagers havecomplained of frequent stock theft. Most of ouranimals are sold at auctions by these mercilessthieves,” Said Mmuroa.Police have appealed to anyone who lost cattleto call Warrant Officer Anthony Magaela of theMarble Hall stock theft unit on 0733446209.

Stinking Ramohlokolotoilets

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RDP housing scan-dals seem to be an or-der of the day in EliasMotsoaledi LocalMunicipality. Manyresidents claims theyare approved but theirRDP’s aren’t beenbuilt. The communitysays according to theirinvestigations, theirhouses were built forother people in otherareas of EliasMotsoaledi Munici-pality. A ward 10 resi-dent MamoshalaMathebe told the Dis-patch that her motherregistered for a RDPhouse in 2012. Thehouse was approvedby the Housing De-partment the sameyear but it wasn’t built.

RDP housingscandal in Moutse

“We went to enquire about the house from aWard Committee Member NtlhaneMohlamonyane but she told us that our housewill be built soon. We kept on waiting but thisis two years now,” she said. The DemocraticAlliance councillor in Elias Motsoaledi MokhinePitje told the Dispatch that he started to beaware about the RDP scandal when he was aChief Coordinator of the Ntwane ConcernedGroup in 2012. He said by then he was dealingwith the regularities in the distribution of RDPhouses in the ward. “After knowing about thescandal we informed CoGHSTA but it failed toassist. When I became a councillor I wrote aletter to the Public Protector and our matter wasthen taken back to CoGHSTA. After the PublicProtector instructed CoGHSTA to investigate,we were promised that a report will be sent to ussoon by the HOD. Recently we heard that thereport has been sent to the Elias MotsoalediMayor Cllr Wendy Matemane. I demanded tosee the report in November last year but theMayor refused and said she prefers to give it tothe affected community,” he said. He addedthat a few months later, the Mayor told him thatthe report is lost and promised to request an-other one from the CoGHSTA HOD. He said theMayor never came back with a response sinceand then he approached her and was told thereport will now be presented to the council. “Iwas surprised when I heard that the ward coun-cillor and other ward community members are inpossession of the report. Now the affectedcommunity members are left with unansweredquestions about where their houses were build,”he concluded. The Elias Motsoaledi LocalMunicipality Communications Manager MrShakes Mokganyetji told the Dispatch he can-not comment on the matter as the Mayor is nolonger in the office.

Mamoshala Mathebe says her fami-ly’s RDP house has been approved butbuilt in Malaeneng.

On Monday 16 June, the Ndlovu Medical Cen-tre Patients were pleasantly surprised whenNdlovu Medical staff was fully dressed in vari-ous school uniforms when attending to them atthe Elandsdoorn Clinic.

NMC staffsurprises patients

on Youth Day

The Ndlovu Medical Centre staffdressed in school uniform and sur-prised patients on workers day.

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The Tafelkop Football League under 15 Zonalfirst round is now coming to an end. The leaguestarted in February this year with eight teamsnamely, Red Stars FC, Junior Bucks FC, Shin-ning Stars FC, Blue Birds FC, AC Milan FC,Young Stars FC, Stadium Stars FC and WinterRoses FC.According to the league Coordinator Mr JeffreyMtshweni, the league is falling under the SouthAfrican Football Association with EliasMotsoaledi Football Association as its um-brella. He said their aim is to groom the under 15

The Tafelkop U-15 Zonal first roundchildren from the dusty streets in rural villagesto participate in big soccer teams in the country.“Every year we select the best teams in EliasMotsoaledi that participate in the regions. Af-ter selecting the best from the regions, ourSekhukhune Regional team participates pro-vincially and the best Limpopo team is able totake part nationally,” he said.He added that he also coordinates promotionaland open leagues. The promotional leagueconsists of 8 teams from different villages inElias Motsoaledi.

“In the promotional league we have two teamsfrom Roosenekaal, one team from Monsterlus,one team from Tafelkop, and four teams fromDennilton. In the under 15 we have seven teamsfrom Tafelkop and one team from Mogaung.Our open league consists of 22 teams and it hasbeen divided into two divisions which is streamA and stream B. Now we are finished with thefirst round of our under 15 league and thesecond round will start very soon,” he said.

He said the promotional and open leagues areonly scheduled from July to May. “We are nowpreparing for the starting of the promotionaland open leagues next month. We also inviteother interested teams within the due restric-tions of Elias Motsoaledi to come and partici-pate,” he said.Anyone who wishes to enquire and take part inthe league can contact Mr Jeffrey Mtshweni on078 575 4223.

Stadium Stars in action with Red Stars in Tafelkop Stadium for a TafelkopFootball League Match.

The Elshadai Combined School gymnasticsteam competed in Gezina, Pretoria on Saturday14 June. The competition was tough but theElshadai Combined School gymnasts justproved that they are a force to be reckoningwith when they managed to bring 14 medalshome.The names of the winning gymnasts are, DimeMokwana (2 silver medals), Tashinga Mambo

Elshadai Gymnasts win 14 medals

The Elshadai winning gymnastic team showing off their medals after participat-ing at Gezina in Pretoria.

(gold), Musa Maphosa (gold), Phetolo Napo(silver), Thapelo Mdakane (gold), Jabu Nkosi(gold), Banele Mahlangu (2 bronze medals),Motlatsi Mogalaki (silver), Masego Ramphisa(gold), Kagiso Moima (bronze), Thato Mocheko(silver), Motlatsi Maepa (bronze).The gymnasts will now compete at the NorthCircle championships during the July schoolholidays.