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TSOLO – Tsolo police are searching for a suspect who stabbed a 56-year-old male at a shebeen in Mbokothwana A/A.
It is alleged that on Sunday, 15 August 2021 approximately 13:00 the victim were consuming liquor with the suspect when a quarrel ensued. The suspect stabbed the victim at the upper body and was rushed to hospital where he later died.
A murder docket is under investigation.
The suspect is known and will be arrested soon.
Source: South African Police Service
GRAAFF-REINET – Suspects aged between 22 and 64 years are expected to appear before Graaff Reinet Magistrates Court soon following weekend operations.
It is alleged that on Saturday, 14 August 2021 at about 11.30 Graaff Reinet Operational Command Center members conducted patrols, stop and search operations in and around Graaff-Reinet, when they stop and searched suspects 35, 46 and 25 years of age in Krom Street, Santaville. The team found the suspects to be in possession of straw containing Tik.
The Graaff Reinet Occ team moved their operation to Asherville and arrested two suspects aged 20 and 32 after they were found to be in possession of mandrax tablets and Tik.
The team later arrested suspects aged 64, 28, 22 in Umasizakhe, and in the Central of Graaff Reinet for being in possession of mandrax tablets and straws containing Tik.
A total of ninety-six (96) straws containing Tik , ten (10) plastic bank packets containing Tik , six (6) full, six (6) half and four (4) quarter Mandrax tablets were recovered with the estimated street value of about R 6000-00
Graaff-Reinet police station Commander, Colonel Andrè Arends commended the Operational Command Center members for the positive attitude shown towards fighting crime in Graaff Reinet, the good arrest and Recoveries made.
Source: South African Police Service
More than 14 246 community members of Prieska in the Siyathemba Municipality, Northern Cape, are now proud beneficiaries of the R34.2million Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) that has been completed in the area.
As a result of population growth in Prieska, including socio-economic developments and the construction of human settlements, the Prieska Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) could no longer cope with the load of sewerage and was compromised.
To remedy this, the Department of Water and Sanitation in the Northern Cape, in partnership with Siyathemba Local Municipality, increased the capacity of the WWTW from 2.175 ML/day to 3.6 ML/day (Megalitres per day).
“The project commenced in March 2020 and was practically completed at the end of June 2021. Some minor and additional works are now being completed,” said the department in a statement on Monday.
The Prieska Waste Water Treatment Works is now in compliance with the South African National Standards with all spillages eliminated.
Further upgrades include:
• Installation of a sludge pump
• Drying beds
• Bulk sewer outfall line of 247metres and
• Construction of four primary ponds.
Source: South African Government News Agency
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), has commended the arrest of a Vietnamese national in connection with the illegal trade in wildlife and an illegal firearm found during a recent raid on properties in Bela-Bela and Pretoria.
The DFFE said the arrest of the man follows a four-month investigation involving analysts and wildlife investigators.
“The integrated team involved in the raid comprised the Green Scorpions from the department, the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET), the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and South African National Parks, as well as members of the South African Police Service,” the department said.
Search and seizure warrants were executed simultaneously at a Vietnamese-owned farm near Bela-Bela in Limpopo and at two storage units in Pretoria.
The joint investigation team seized 4.19kg of lion teeth, 680g of lion claws, and more than 60kg of processed animal products believed to be lion gelatine. An illegal firearm was also confiscated.
The suspect appeared in the Bela-Bela Regional Court on Friday and was charged with illegal possession of a threatened species in terms of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act.
The case was postponed to 20 August 2021 for a Vietnamese interpreter.
The department said a collaborative nature of the operation has once again proven the importance of an integrated approach to investigations.
“The valuable assistance of the private sector in this matter is also highly appreciated.”
Source: South African Government News Agency
Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Chairperson Nonhlanhla Ncube-Ndaba, has commended the Commission for Gender Equality’s (CGE) decision to place Commissioner Mbuyiselo Botha on precautionary suspension after his verbal attack on fellow commissioners.
In a recording, which was doing the rounds in the media, Botha is heard objectifying and demeaning the CGE Chairperson Tamara Mathebula, her Deputy Nthabiseng Moleko and two other Commissioners, Nomasonto Mazibuko and Advocate Nthabiseng Sepanya Mogale.
In a sound clip Botha is heard calling Mazibuko an albino and accuses Mathebula of lacking a backbone.
Ncube-Ndaba said referring to someone as an albino is an unacceptable derogatory characterisation of South Africans who experience disabilities.
“Furthermore, it is a shocking gross discrimination that belongs to the dark era of apartheid,” Ncube-Ndaba said.
Last week, the commission appeared before the committee on among other things, the CGE’s response to Commissioner Botha’s matter and the key operational matters of concern.
The CGE reported that Botha will appear before a disciplinary hearing that the CGE has instituted.
Ncube-Ndaba said the suspension of Commissioner Botha and his appearance before a disciplinary committee for a hearing is befitting and justifiable for the gross and shocking discrimination heard in the recording.
“We are looking forward, as the committee to the outcome of the internal disciplinary hearing and wish it to proceed well,” Ncube-Ndaba said.
Source: South African Government News Agency
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has expressed its dismay at reports that some healthcare workers, including doctors, have discouraged patients from getting COVID-19 vaccinations, based on doubts about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
SAMA Chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee, said the organisation wholly rejects any doubts about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“There is high confidence among the scientific and medical community about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines being rolled-out in South Africa, and they have also undergone safety and efficacy tests by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.
“These are overwhelming endorsements of the vaccines, and there should be no doubt that every citizen must get them,” Dr Coetzee said.
Dr Coetzee said the medical fraternity must be united in its commitment to ensure wider access to the vaccines.
This, she said, must be based on spreading accurate, evidence-based information, dispelling any misinformation and overcoming vaccine hesitancy, which threatens the goal of achieving optimal vaccine coverage.
Dr Coetzee said the vaccine hesitancy arises from a combination of ignorance, misinformation, conspiracy theories, doubt of scientific evidence, concerns relating to medical histories, and cultural, religious and philosophical beliefs.
“Vaccine hesitancy, however, should be condemned, and so should those who fuel it, particularly doctors who should know better. We share concerns with global and local scientists – and I use that term purposefully – that unfounded objections to COVID-19 vaccines deepen the public health crisis caused by the pandemic.”
Vaccines represent significant public health innovations
The chairperson noted that the societal benefits of vaccines have historically been proven over and over again, and that “vaccines represent one of the most significant public health innovations to date which have altered the trajectory of human health”.
“It’s important that South Africans realise the value of vaccines and that the country’s vaccine rate rapidly increases from its current low of only six percent of the population. For this reason, SAMA will continue to urge for greater global vaccine equity and continue to challenge intellectual and property restrictions which are impeding access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines,” she said.
She further noted that significant strides have been made by prioritising healthcare workers for vaccines, and that the government should be commended for this action.
Share science-based data, not personal views
Dr Coetzee emphasised that healthcare workers, especially doctors, who have not yet been vaccinated must take the opportunity to do so not only for their own health, but also because of an ethical responsibility to “do no harm”.
“We have an obligation to protect our patients from COVID-19 and this includes encouraging vaccination. Encouraging vaccinations means, as medical doctors, we must impart accurate, science-based data, not personal views. This is the only way we afford patients the right to informed consent,” Dr Coetzee said.
Source: South African Government News Agency