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Man incourtaftermurder} Tladi Moloi

TOKELO MOKONA (20), who hasbeen accused of killing Lebohang Tjob-inyana (25), will re-appear before theTsheseng Magistrate’s Court nextweek Thursday after he briefly ap-peared before the same court on Fri-day.

Mokona allegedly approached theward councillor last Tuesday andasked him to summon the police to hishome after he had allegedly killed hiswife.

The police in the Tsheseng villagewent to the crime scene where theyfound the body of Tjobinyana withwounds to the head and legs on the bed-room floor.

Sgt Mmako Mophiring, policespokesperson, said a piece of wire anda spade had been found on the sceneand were exhibits in the investigation.

He said on their arrival at the scenethe corpse had been found lying on thefloor next to the bed, but had alreadybeen cleaned and had been dressed inclean clothes.

“The husband allegedly accused hiswife of being involved in satanic wor-ship and could not bear it any longer,”Mophiring said. “Domestic, personalor other problems do not justify mur-dering a partner, friend or familymember. We need a society that livespeacefully. Let us identify the prob-lems and find amicable solutions or ad-vice. Do not take the law into your ownhands because crime does not pay,”said Lt. Gen. Khehla Sithole ,the pro-vincial commissioner of the Free State.

‘Not good enough’houses go down} Tladi Moloi

HERSEYMOFOKENG (34), whohails from Bluegumbosch inQwaqwa, cried as she watched hertwo-room house being demol-ished when Ace Magashule, theFree State premier, assisted by abulldozer driver, destroyed it onWednesday.

However, Mofokeng said shewas not hurt at all, but that thosewere just tears of joy.

“I am happy that our govern-ment is going to build a house forme,” she said.

Mofokeng said the two-roomhouse was not enough for her andthe family as she had to share aroom with the children.

“We have been promised ahouse with two bedrooms – thenI would have my privacy. Theysaid it would take two months forthe house to be completed,” shesaid.

The demolishing of the twohouses in Bluegumbosch was partof the Operation Hlasela out-reach, planned to ensure thatservices reach the intended bene-ficiaries and that the governmentyields the expected results fromthe service delivery programmesit has embarked on since it cameinto office in 2009.

Olly Mlamleli, the MEC of Coop-erative Governance, TraditionalAffairs and Human Settlementsfor the Free State, said they haveallocated R54 million whichwould be used to build houses inthe province.

She said the premier stated dur-ing his State of the Province Ad-dress that they should come up

with a strategy to get rid of all thetwo-room houses in the province.

“We have prioritised some ofthe areas where those houseswere found in the province andBluegombosch is one of them. Wehave found that there were 3 400one door (two-room) houses in thearea,” she said.

She said she was not in a posi-tion to say how many houseswould be built in Qwaqwa andadded that they would have towait for the two contractors who

have requested to build two showhouses.

“We have two contractors herewho have requested us to do theshow houses. We have given thema chance, as we want to see whatkind of houses they would buildand after that we will determinehow many houses would be builtin that place. After having builtthose houses we will again call onthe community and get theirviews so that we can continue,”she said.

The MEC said those houseswhere identified by the premierduring his door-to-door campaignwhich was aimed at finding outhow people have been living.

“I like it because it brings us tothe people who entrusted the pro-vincial government to us. When Iarrived here I was not happy withone of the houses where two doorsfrom a bedroom and bath roomwhere coming straight to thekitchen. I asked myself where thedignity of our people was.”

GOING DOWN: Ace Magashule, the premier of the Free State, is in this bulldozer which is destroy­ing one of the houses in Bluegumbosch, Qwaqwa. Photo: Tladi Moloi

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NEWS

MEC unhappy with conditions at Phekolong} Tladi Moloi

“WA bona dipetlele tsa rona” meaning,“You see our hospitals”.

These were the words of Benny Malako-ane, the new Free State MEC for Health,talking to one of the officials who accom-panied him during a surprise visit to theDihlabeng Regional Hospital and thetroubled Phekolong Hospital in Bethlehemlast Tuesday.

Malakoane said this after he had foundthat the ear, nose and throat set (ENT)and a suction machine at Phekolong werenot working. The nurses at the hospitalfailed to show the MEC that these thingswere in working order and they ended up

pointing fingers at one another.“We cannot tolerate such things in our

hospitals. Next time when I find thesethings not working whoever is responsi-ble, must voluntarily resign, because heor she wants to go home,” he said.

Soon thereafter he had said this,Shelly-Ann Danster, the nursing head,said: “I will resign”.

Malakoane said to her: “You see, nowyou are laughing about it, but when wecome, we will send you home.”

Malakoane was unhappy with manythings at Phekolong.

He also pointed out that they could notkeep people in the passageway and callsto admission waiting and said people

should not be kept long. It was establishedthat people wait long while staff have tosearch for their files in a small, dark backroom which Malakoane was also nothappy with.

“There has to be an improvement in theIT system to avoid this. This is an oldstyle of filing and we cannot still be usingit in 2013,” he said.

Malakoane also pointed out that teatime must be abolished because it is beingabused. He said he was going to investi-

gate whether it was a condition ofemployment.

“If it is not, we should stop it immedi-ately. You will find nurses ignoring peoplein the queues and going on a tea breakand that is unacceptable,” he said.

The MEC did not have many concernsabout the Dihlabeng Regional Hospital ofwhich a part is under construction.

“We should get more contractors so thatthey can finish the process as soon aspossible,” he said.

IN HOT WATER: Ouma Noosi, a nurse at the Phekolong Hospital, says “But that oneis working” to Benny Malakoane, the Free State MEC for Health.

Photo: Tladi Moloi

EXPRESS EASTERN FREE STATE, WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL 2013 3

NEWS

Factorydestroyedby fire} Tladi Moloi

ABOUT 600 people fromQwaqwa might lose their jobsafter Khwaja Lounge Furni-ture, a factory in the industrialarea of Qwaqwa where theyhad been working, wasconsumed by fire on Wednes-day afternoon.The workers had to run for

their lives after the fire hadbeen spotted by some of them.No one died in the incident,but Cassim Somrey of manage-ment told Express EasternFree State that two people, aworker and the owner, hadbeen rushed to the ManapoHospital and MediClinicHoogland in Bethlehem fortreatment.It was the second time that

the same factory was con-sumed by fire after it hadsuffered the same fate threeyears ago and it was thenmoved to another premises.Some of the employees

claimed that the managementmight have intentionally burntdown the factory after they hadclaimed that they had nomoney to pay them.A worker who preferred to

remain anonymous for securityreasons, said: “They had ameeting with our supervisorsand soon after the meeting thefactory was on fire. I smell arat . . . Let’s wait for theinvestigation and see.”The cause of the fire is still

unknown and Somrey said the

damage could not be estimatedas they had to wait a few daysto establish the damage.“Everything happened so

fast. I was walking around thefactory when I saw the smoke.I then rushed to the workersand instructed them to gooutside quickly because we hadsome explosive items whichcould have been dangerous tothem,” he said.Somrey said he had been

worried about some of theirpeople who had been taken tohospital and added that theywere, however, happy that theyhad managed to save a numberof people from dying or gettinginjured.Joseph Tshabalala, a cleaner

at Khwaja, said: “I am stillshocked. The fire started at theback of the factory and wedon’t know what caused it. Wewere busy cleaning one of therooms and when we went out,we saw people screaming andrunning from the factory. Ilooked around and saw smokeand I told one of the guys whowas working with me to go outand we ran,” he said.Some of the workers tried to

load furniture onto a truck, butthey were stopped by manage-ment and told to get out of thefactory leaving the FireDepartment personnel only.Sgt Mmako Mophiring, the

police spokesperson, confirmedthe incident and added that acase of arson had been regis-tered.

ON FIRE: Some of the Khwaja Lounge Furniture management and workers were captured looking at the burn­ing factory. Photo: Tladi Moloi

NCOP unhappyabout FS progressTHE National Council ofProvinces (NCOP) delegationon a week-long service deliv-ery oversight to the Free Statehas expressed its displeasureat the snail’s pace with whichthe province was implement-ing its 2010 recommendations.The delegation, led by

Mbuyiselo Jacobs, Free Statewhip in the NCOP, foundamong others that the hous-ing problems they found inthe Maqhekung settlement inQwaqwa were still not re-solved despite being identi-fied during the Taking Parlia-ment to the People campaignheld in the Thabo Mofutsan-yana District in 2010.Quoting from the 2010

NCOP Taking Parliament tothe People report, Jacobs saidthat these houses were sup-posed to be providedwith run-ning water and sanitation.“It is worrying that the

same houses we visited morethan two years ago are still ex-periencing the same challeng-es.Wehope theMECresponsi-ble for Human Settlements inthis province will be able toexplain this in our meetingwith the provincial govern-ment tomorrow,” said Jacobs.The delegation was also not

happy with the status quo atthe Maluti Dairy Farm. Ac-cording to the delegation, thefarm was supposed to havebeen revivedand revamped sothat it could continue with itsoperations. However, theywere shocked to find that thesituation was far worse thanthe last time they visited.Pockets of progress were

found at the BluegumbushClinic where the NCOP rec-ommended, among others: theintroduction of flexi hours toensure availability of nursingstaff at all times, hiring of re-tired nurses to deal with theissue of skill shortage as wellas the upgrading of the clinicto accommodate the largenumber of patients.The delegation learnt that

the clinic has been able to ad-dress most of these recom-mendations, but believedmorehad tobedoneespeciallyon the upgrading front. Theimportance of prioritising theclinic’s upgrade was empha-sised as the delegation be-lieved itwould enable the staffto carry out their operationsmore effectively.The delegation’s stance was

strengthened by patients whocomplained that the clinicwas too small and they foundthemselves crammed intosmall waiting areas and pro-cedure rooms.The Manapo Hospital,

whichwas tasked to develop arecruitment and retentionplan for competent medicalstaff, was another site whereprogress was evident, thoughthe delegation still had con-cerns.The hospital CEO reported

on how the hospital had im-proved its recruitment drive,however the delegation felthis retention strategy did notyield any results as he admit-ted that the hospital was stillexperiencing a high turnoverof doctors and professionalnurses.

4 EXPRESS EASTERN FREE STATE, WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL 2013

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6 EXPRESS EASTERN FREE STATE, WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL 2013

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E F SASTERN REE TATE

On track to win} Tladi Moloi

WITH nine league games re-maining for the NationalFirst Division (NFD) cam-paigners, African Warriors,their mentor, Thami Ngu-bane, is adamant that the firstspot is within their reach.

Maihlome Ihlasele are sit-ting third on the league tablewith 34 points after 21 games.They are just 4 points awayfrom the log leaders ThandaZulu Royal after the samenumber of games.

“The league race is wideopen and any team canwin. Ifyou look at the gap between ateamontopand thirdpositionyou’ll realise that anything ispossible,” he said.

Ngubane who has said onnumerous occasions that hismain focus is to win theleague is hoping to collectmaximumpoints in all the re-maining games to guide the

Qwaqwa-based team to theelite league.

Warriors will welcomeBlackburn Rovers in theCharles Mopeli Stadium to-day at 15:00 before visitingRosesUnited inBloemfonteinon Saturday. They are still toplay Polokwane City homeand away, ThandaZuluRoyalaway, Witbank Spurs awayand Milano United home.

Three games are not regis-tered on the league fixtures,and it is not yet clear whatwill happen. They were sup-posed to be played at the startof the league, but the teamsboycotted the games becausethere was a dispute betweenthe Absa Premier League andthe NFD. The good news forthe blue and white boys isthey still have to play the logleaders and they will have tofight like soldiers to win thegame which could see themreducing the gap by a point.

Theywill, however, have torelyonother teams todo thema favour and beat the log lead-ers while the show goes on.Should they finishwhere theyare at now, Warriors willhave to play in thepromotion-al play-off against the teamthat finished second and theone that finished second laston the Absa Premier Leaguetable.) Free State Stars, whoplayed to a one-all drawawayagainst theUniversityof Pretoria on Saturday,will welcome Amazulu whoalso played to a goallessdraw against MamelodiSundowns. The game willtake place on Saturday af-ternoon in the Goble ParkStadium in Bethlehem. Thekick-off is at 15:00. Ticketswill be available at the FreeState Stars sports shop andthe Lotto Shop, Phuthadith-jaba, from Friday.

DEDICATED: Thefocused AfricanWarriors headcoach Thami Ngu­bane believes thathis team is on theright track to winthe league.

Photo: Tladi Moloi