PAGE THURSDAY DAILY NEWS X NEWS People living · PDF filealcohol and substance abuse...
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SHERLISSA PETERS TWO shattered families sat on oppo- site ends of the public gallery at the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court where the teenager accused of stab- bing his girlfriend to death at a Fur- ther Education and Training college appeared briefly yesterday. Claudius Chetty, 18, is charged with the murder of 17-year-old Rash- mika Janthielayal. He was expected to apply for bail yesterday. However, his attorney, Anand Pil- lay, confirmed to the court that they were abandoning the bail application due to certain developments. Pillay said the defence was only in- formed yesterday morning that the grounds of the State’s opposition to bail was that the murder was pre- meditated. “There are certain aspects of the investigation, which are pertinent to this bail application, still outstanding. We will therefore abandon the appli- cation now and bring it at a later, ap- propriate date, once all investigations have been finalised,” Pillay said. The matter was adjourned provi- sionally to July 10. Chetty appeared calm as he stood in the dock waiting to be taken back into custody. His family left the court immediately after the adjournment, while Rashmika’s family stood out- side, comforting each other. Rashmika, who was studying hair- dressing at Umgungundlovu FET Northdale campus, was allegedly killed by Chetty, who is believed to have been her boyfriend, after an argument. Rashmika was stabbed several times in the face, neck and chest on the stairway at the college, and died on the scene on June 3. Chetty fled the campus after the stabbing, but was arrested by police later that day when he returned to the scene. Rashmika’s family have denied the two were in a relationship. Her mother Shireen said that she had warned Chetty on numerous oc- casions to stay away from Rashmika, and had received threatening phone calls and text messages from him. She said the family was still strug- gling to accept what had happened. “We just want justice to be done,” she said. PAGE 6 DAILY NEWS X THURSDAY JUNE 20 2013 NEWS OUR YOUTH. OUR FUTURE. REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA @NYDARSA National Youth Development Agency 0800 52 52 52 www.nyda.gov.za T he commemoration of Youth Day this year marks the 37th anniversary of the 16 June Soweto uprising who were willing to lay down their lives in a fight against the apartheid government for freedom and the creation of a democratic state. The focus on youth development is still very much on the government’s and NYDA’s agenda. Since inception, the NYDA has initiated several programmes, with a focus on entrepreneurship support, skills development, career guidance and information dissemination. NYDA has managed to create more than 28 000 jobs in the last three years, provided career guidance services to more than 1 million young people, provided over 110 bursaries and issued more than 33 000 loans to micro, small and medium enterprises. But the harsh reality is that these figures are but a drop in the ocean. Much more needs to be done. NYDA also recognises that the youth of today have a completely different struggle which is that of substance abuse over and above the fight for economic emancipation, access to quality education, unemployment and HIV/AIDS. It is therefore fitting to have the Youth Month theme for this year as: “Working Together for Youth Development and a Drug Free South Africa.” Alcohol and Substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is a global phenomenon, and South Africa is no exception. This has serious implications for millions of South Africans because alcohol and substance abuse contributes to crime, gangsterism, domestic violence, family dysfunction and other social problems. Moreover, it has been reported that drug abuse in South Africa is twice the world norm in most cases. In particular, youth have borne the brunt of abuse with the emergence of local drugs such as Nyaope and Kubar. A drug free generation is everyone’s responsibility. Government is committed to rid our society of substance abuse which is the cause of numerous social problems; however help is needed from parents, civil society and faith-based organisations and communities in tackling this scourge. We urge parents, relatives and other community structures to play a role in raising awareness and to provide support to those affected. Communities are called on to report those involved in the trade of illegal substances so that we can fight and beat the scourge together. Already there are 215 Local Drug Action Committees around the country that are assisting communities manage their own preventative work at grassroots level. The theme for Youth Month is a call for society and communities to mobilise in support of youth development but also working with youth and various organisations in fighting substance abuse. Let us work together against substance abuse in our country. #YouthMonth2013 VENUE: PHELANDABA SPORTS GROUND EMADADENI SECTION 3, NEWCASTLE DATE: 16 JUNE 2013 TIME: 09H00 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA YOUTH DAY COMMEMORATION 2013 CLAUDIUS Chetty, who is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death. PICTURE SHAN PILLAY Murder accused abandons bail bid Stats show it’s easier to get women on ARVs People living longer with HIV: research MPUME MADLALA H IV PREVALENCE in the country has increased, while condom use has de- clined, according to the summary of a major survey made public yesterday. The 2012 National HIV House- hold Survey found HIV prevalence was 12.3 percent in 2012, up from 10.6 percent of the population when the survey was previously con- ducted in 2008. Professor Thomas Rehle, direc- tor of the Human Sciences Re- search Council (HSRC), told a ses- sion at the 6th SA Aids Conference in Durban yesterday that the survey also showed that while the prevalence in women aged 30 to 34 was at 36.7 percent, the figure for men of the same age group was 23.1 percent. In almost all the age groups, in- cluding 55 and above, HIV was more prevalent among women. Rehle said there had been a “sig- nificant” drop in HIV prevalence among males aged between 15 and 24 – from 10.3 percent in 2008 to 7.3 percent last year. Of the 6.4 million people living with HIV in the country, Rehle said 2 006 593 were receiving antiretrovi- ral treatment. Some 33.7 percent of women and 27.3 percent of men were getting treatment. Rehle said the statistics sug- gested it was harder to get men on treatment than women. Speaking on the behavioural findings of the survey, Professor Le- ickness Simbayi of the Human Sci- ences Research Council said they had found a significant decline in condom use in the 15-24 age group. Simbayi said across all age groups they had found an increase in people who had two or more sex- ual partners in one year. Simbayi, however, said the num- ber of people who were aware they had HIV had increased, which he said was good news. “We are on our way, but we are not quite there yet,” he said. In response to the survey, Yogan Pillay, of the national Department of Health, said he was happy to hear that more than 2 million peo- ple were on treatment and more people were aware of their status. Pillay said men were still a chal- lenge and “we need to figure out how to do better”. Dr Olive Shisana, chief execu- tive of the HSRC, said they were still working on the full report. She said the research they did showed that one of the main rea- sons for the increase in HIV preva- lence (people living with HIV) was the successes of antiretroviral treatment. [email protected] Driving force for city’s World Transplant Games dies at 53 BARBARA COLE FOR years, athlete and kidney trans- plant patient Ganasen “Gunston” Pa- dayachee was passionate about bring- ing the World Transplant Games to Durban. But on Tuesday, just weeks before the global event was due to be held in the city, Padaychee died. The Allendale, Pietermaritzburg, man, who had a kidney transplant 21 years ago, was admitted to hospital with cellulitis and died of a heart attack. Padayachee, who earlier this month celebrated his 53rd birthday, was part of the local organising com- mittee of the World Transplant Games 2013, which will attract com- petitors from 50 countries and will be staged around Durban from July 28 to August 4. He had been looking for- ward to representing South Africa at the games for the eighth consecutive time. “It is very sad. Since 2005, Gunston dreamt of bringing the World Trans- plant Games to South Africa and he was over the moon when Durban won the bid in 2010,” said Willie Uys, the national chairman of the World Transplant Games in South Africa. “We should now all be worthy of his efforts and help make the World Transplant Games in Durban a huge success,” Uys said last night. “Gunston was doing very well. He kept himself fit and was so active. Be- fore his kidney transplant, he was at the point of dying. His transplant gave him 21 years’ quality of life and he was able to see his two sons grow up.” Padayachee was chairman of the KZN Transplant Sports Association, a life member of the South African Transplant Sports Association (Satsa), a member of the management committee and vice-chairman until 2010. He had competed in the World Transplant Games since 1999, win- ning silver and bronze medals, mainly for race-walking. The games are held every two years, and Padayachee was the South African team captain in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011. He was looking forward to compet- ing in the discus, petanque and tenpin bowling events in Durban. He founded the Pietermaritzburg Kidney Association as well as the as- sociation’s youth group and helped to counsel patients suffering with renal disease. He was instrumental in help- ing Grey’s Hospital buy a blood pres- sure machine and helped secure spon- sorship for a dialysis machine. Padayachee was the head of the de- partment of social sciences at Kha- rina Secondary School, Pietermar- itzburg. In charge of athletics at ward level, he was an executive member of the Cumberwood High School Sports Association. His work was recognised with the premier’s sports award for outstand- ing contribution in athletics, as well as the meritorious achievement award for dedicated contribution to sport promotion from the Pietermar- itzburg Sports Veterans’ Association. He was further honoured by the SA Democratic Teachers Union. He leaves his wife, Thavapushani, and two sons. The funeral is today. GANASEN ‘GUNSTON’ PADAYACHEE Land bill ‘must benefit women’ WOMEN must benefit from the passing of the new land reform bill, the Progressive Women’s Move- ment of SA says. “We anticipate that the bill will serve women’s rights and interests in all respects, including the right to land,” national convener Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize said yesterday. The 1992 land policy document called for special procedures to en- sure women gained equal access to land. However, this has not yet been achieved due to the slow pace of the willing buyer, willing seller system. “Women are still the face of poverty, inequality and unemploy- ment,” said Mkhize. The movement urged the gov- ernment to ensure land reform pro- grammes were monitored to guar- antee women could be official land owners. It asked that proactive steps be taken to ensure women took part in land reform programmes. It also asked that “women-only” agricul- tural and other income-generating activities were encouraged to ad- dress the food security issue. – Sapa LIE OF THE LAND: PAGE 16
Transcript of PAGE THURSDAY DAILY NEWS X NEWS People living · PDF filealcohol and substance abuse...
SHERLISSA PETERS
TWO shattered families sat on oppo-site ends of the public gallery at thePietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Courtwhere the teenager accused of stab-bing his girlfriend to death at a Fur-ther Education and Training collegeappeared briefly yesterday.
Claudius Chetty, 18, is chargedwith the murder of 17-year-old Rash-mika Janthielayal. He was expected toapply for bail yesterday.
However, his attorney, Anand Pil-lay, confirmed to the court that theywere abandoning the bail applicationdue to certain developments.
Pillay said the defence was only in-formed yesterday morning that thegrounds of the State’s opposition tobail was that the murder was pre-meditated.
“There are certain aspects of theinvestigation, which are pertinent tothis bail application, still outstanding.We will therefore abandon the appli-cation now and bring it at a later, ap-propriate date, once all investigationshave been finalised,” Pillay said.
The matter was adjourned provi-sionally to July 10.
Chetty appeared calm as he stoodin the dock waiting to be taken backinto custody. His family left the courtimmediately after the adjournment,while Rashmika’s family stood out-side, comforting each other.
Rashmika, who was studying hair-dressing at Umgungundlovu FETNorthdale campus, was allegedlykilled by Chetty, who is believed to
have been her boyfriend, after an argument.
Rashmika was stabbed severaltimes in the face, neck and chest onthe stairway at the college, and diedon the scene on June 3.
Chetty fled the campus after thestabbing, but was arrested by policelater that day when he returned to thescene.
Rashmika’s family have denied thetwo were in a relationship.
Her mother Shireen said that shehad warned Chetty on numerous oc-casions to stay away from Rashmika,and had received threatening phonecalls and text messages from him.
She said the family was still strug-gling to accept what had happened.
“We just want justice to be done,”she said.
PAGE 6 DAILY NEWS XTHURSDAY JUNE 20 2013 NEWS
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The commemoration of Youth Day this year marks the
37th anniversary of the 16 June Soweto uprising who
were willing to lay down their lives in a fight against
the apartheid government for freedom and the creation of a
democratic state. The focus on youth development is still very
much on the government’s and NYDA’s agenda. Since inception,
the NYDA has initiated several programmes, with a focus on
entrepreneurship support, skills development, career guidance
and information dissemination. NYDA has managed to create
more than 28 000 jobs in the last three years, provided career
guidance services to more than 1 million young people, provided
over 110 bursaries and issued more than 33 000 loans to micro,
small and medium enterprises. But the harsh reality is that these
figures are but a drop in the ocean. Much more needs to be done.
NYDA also recognises that the youth of today have a completely
different struggle which is that of substance abuse over and above
the fight for economic emancipation, access to quality education,
unemployment and HIV/AIDS. It is therefore fitting to have the
Youth Month theme for this year as: “Working Together for
Youth Development and a Drug Free South Africa.”
Alcohol and Substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is a
global phenomenon, and South Africa is no exception. This
has serious implications for millions of South Africans because
alcohol and substance abuse contributes to crime, gangsterism,
domestic violence, family dysfunction and other social problems.
Moreover, it has been reported that drug abuse in South Africa
is twice the world norm in most cases. In particular, youth have
borne the brunt of abuse with the emergence of local drugs such
as Nyaope and Kubar.
A drug free generation is everyone’s responsibility. Government
is committed to rid our society of substance abuse which is the
cause of numerous social problems; however help is needed
from parents, civil society and faith-based organisations and
communities in tackling this scourge. We urge parents, relatives
and other community structures to play a role in raising awareness
and to provide support to those affected. Communities are called
on to report those involved in the trade of illegal substances so
that we can fight and beat the scourge together. Already there
are 215 Local Drug Action Committees around the country that
are assisting communities manage their own preventative work
at grassroots level.
The theme for Youth Month is a call for society and communities to
mobilise in support of youth development but also working with
youth and various organisations in fighting substance abuse.
Let us work together against substance abuse in our country.
#YouthMonth2013
VENUE: PHELANDABA SPORTS GROUND
EMADADENI SECTION 3, NEWCASTLE
DATE: 16 JUNE 2013
TIME: 09H00
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA
YOUTH DAY COMMEMORATION 2013
CLAUDIUS Chetty, who is accused ofstabbing his girlfriend to death.
PICTURE SHAN PILLAY
Murder accusedabandons bail bid
Stats show it’s easier to get women on ARVs
People living longerwith HIV: researchMPUME MADLALA
HIV PREVALENCE in thecountry has increased,while condom use has de-clined, according to the
summary of a major survey madepublic yesterday.
The 2012 National HIV House-hold Survey found HIV prevalencewas 12.3 percent in 2012, up from10.6 percent of the population whenthe survey was previously con-ducted in 2008.
Professor Thomas Rehle, direc-tor of the Human Sciences Re-search Council (HSRC), told a ses-sion at the 6th SA Aids Conferencein Durban yesterday that the
survey also showed that while theprevalence in women aged 30 to 34was at 36.7 percent, the figure formen of the same age group was23.1 percent.
In almost all the age groups, in-cluding 55 and above, HIV wasmore prevalent among women.
Rehle said there had been a “sig-nificant” drop in HIV prevalenceamong males aged between 15 and24 – from 10.3 percent in 2008 to7.3 percent last year.
Of the 6.4 million people livingwith HIV in the country, Rehle said2 006 593 were receiving antiretrovi-ral treatment. Some 33.7 percent ofwomen and 27.3 percent of menwere getting treatment.
Rehle said the statistics sug-gested it was harder to get men ontreatment than women.
Speaking on the behaviouralfindings of the survey, Professor Le-ickness Simbayi of the Human Sci-ences Research Council said theyhad found a significant decline incondom use in the 15-24 age group.
Simbayi said across all agegroups they had found an increasein people who had two or more sex-ual partners in one year.
Simbayi, however, said the num-ber of people who were aware theyhad HIV had increased, which hesaid was good news.
“We are on our way, but we arenot quite there yet,” he said.
In response to the survey, YoganPillay, of the national Departmentof Health, said he was happy tohear that more than 2 million peo-ple were on treatment and morepeople were aware of their status.
Pillay said men were still a chal-lenge and “we need to figure outhow to do better”.
Dr Olive Shisana, chief execu-tive of the HSRC, said they werestill working on the full report.
She said the research they didshowed that one of the main rea-sons for the increase in HIV preva-lence (people living with HIV) wasthe successes of antiretroviraltreatment.
Driving force for city’sWorld TransplantGames dies at 53BARBARA COLE
FOR years, athlete and kidney trans-plant patient Ganasen “Gunston” Pa-dayachee was passionate about bring-ing the World Transplant Games toDurban. But on Tuesday, just weeksbefore the global event was due to beheld in the city, Padaychee died.
The Allendale, Pietermaritzburg,man, who had a kidney transplant 21years ago, was admitted to hospitalwith cellulitis and died of a heartattack.
Padayachee, who earlier thismonth celebrated his 53rd birthday,was part of the local organising com-mittee of the World TransplantGames 2013, which will attract com-petitors from 50 countries and will bestaged around Durban from July 28 toAugust 4. He had been looking for-ward to representing South Africa atthe games for the eighth consecutivetime.
“It is very sad. Since 2005, Gunstondreamt of bringing the World Trans-plant Games to South Africa and hewas over the moon when Durban wonthe bid in 2010,” said Willie Uys, thenational chairman of the WorldTransplant Games in South Africa.
“We should now all be worthy ofhis efforts and help make the WorldTransplant Games in Durban a hugesuccess,” Uys said last night.
“Gunston was doing very well. Hekept himself fit and was so active. Be-fore his kidney transplant, he was atthe point of dying. His transplantgave him 21 years’ quality of life andhe was able to see his two sons growup.”
Padayachee was chairman of theKZN Transplant Sports Association, alife member of the South AfricanTransplant Sports Association(Satsa), a member of the managementcommittee and vice-chairman until2010.
He had competed in the WorldTransplant Games since 1999, win-ning silver and bronze medals, mainlyfor race-walking. The games are heldevery two years, and Padayachee wasthe South African team captain in2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011.
He was looking forward to compet-ing in the discus, petanque and tenpinbowling events in Durban.
He founded the PietermaritzburgKidney Association as well as the as-sociation’s youth group and helped tocounsel patients suffering with renaldisease. He was instrumental in help-ing Grey’s Hospital buy a blood pres-sure machine and helped secure spon-sorship for a dialysis machine.
Padayachee was the head of the de-partment of social sciences at Kha-rina Secondary School, Pietermar-itzburg. In charge of athletics at wardlevel, he was an executive member ofthe Cumberwood High School SportsAssociation.
His work was recognised with thepremier’s sports award for outstand-ing contribution in athletics, as wellas the meritorious achievementaward for dedicated contribution tosport promotion from the Pietermar-itzburg Sports Veterans’ Association.He was further honoured by the SADemocratic Teachers Union.
He leaves his wife, Thavapushani,and two sons. The funeral is today.
GANASEN ‘GUNSTON’ PADAYACHEE
Land bill ‘mustbenefit women’WOMEN must benefit from thepassing of the new land reform bill,the Progressive Women’s Move-ment of SA says.
“We anticipate that the bill willserve women’s rights and interestsin all respects, including the rightto land,” national convener ProfHlengiwe Mkhize said yesterday.
The 1992 land policy documentcalled for special procedures to en-sure women gained equal access toland. However, this has not yet beenachieved due to the slow pace of thewilling buyer, willing seller system.
“Women are still the face ofpoverty, inequality and unemploy-ment,” said Mkhize.
The movement urged the gov-ernment to ensure land reform pro-grammes were monitored to guar-antee women could be official landowners.
It asked that proactive steps betaken to ensure women took part inland reform programmes. It alsoasked that “women-only” agricul-tural and other income-generatingactivities were encouraged to ad-dress the food security issue. – Sapa
LIE OF THE LAND: PAGE 16
