Updated news from South Africa!
FREE STATE - The telephone lines at 10111 centre in the Free State are temporarily out of order. SAPS management is busy attending to the matter.
In the meantime community can contact their nearest police station or use the following numbers in case of an emergency:
082 465 6030,
051 412 6800, 412 6801,412 6802,
082 461 7442
082 041 3867
The matter will be resolved as soon as possible.
Source: South African Police Service
An intelligence driven operation, dubbed "Operation Vhuthu Hawe" yielded enormous successes, when two suspects were nabbed for dealing in drugs, with an estimated street value of more than half a million rand.
The operation was conducted on Monday, 30 May 2022, after members of Upington Border Police, Upington K9, Upington Highway Patrol and Danielskuil Visible raided suspects' residence at New Stands, Hloya in Danielskuil.
During raids dagga weighing 3,712kg worth R579,079.00 and crystal meth weighing 310 grams to the value of R77,500.00 were found on the suspects' premises, including R1600,00 cash believed to be the proceeds of the sales of the drugs.
The operation proceeded to, a house in Kuilsville in Danielskuil, where a suspect was also apprehended, after being found in possession of crystal meth weighing 1gram to the value of R250,00.
The trio is expected to appear in the Danielskuil Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 31 May 2022 on a charge of dealing in drugs.
The Northern Cape Acting Provincial Commissioner, Major General Otola, commended the team who were involved in the operation, which yielded positive results and also ensuring that drug peddlers are brought to book.
Source: South African Police Service
The Department of Higher Education and Training will host the fourth WorldSkills South Africa (WSZA) Biennial National Competition at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in KwaZulu-Natal.
The WSZA National Competition, which kicks off on 7 – 10 June 2022, takes place three years after the 45th WorldSkills International Competition in Russia, Kazan, in September 2019.
The Department noted that it hosts the biennial WSZA National Competition as an important mechanism to promote artisan skills as a viable career choice, as well as to open up potential partnerships with industry.
“The national competition supported by regional competitions provide a critical platform from which the country is able to assess the levels of apprenticeship and artisan training in addition to advocating for the uptake of artisan careers as careers of first choice.
“The WSZA programme also plays a critical role in building bridges between all stakeholders within the apprenticeship and artisan development arena,” the department said in a statement.
Hosted under the theme “It’s Cool to be a 21st Century Artisan”, the 2022 WSZA National Competition will incorporate a two-day WSZA Conference at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre parallel to the National Competition.
National Apprenticeship and Artisan Development Strategy 2030
The department is in the final stages of promulgating the National Apprenticeship and Artisan Development Strategy 2030.
“The conference will be used as a launching pad for the promulgated strategy. Also incorporated at the WSZA National Competition, will be the National Artisan Development Career Festival, which will be hosted in different selected districts of the KwaZulu-Natal province.
“The aim of the career festival is to reduce, among others, the stigma related to artisan careers, provide information on artisan careers and possible career projections,” the department said.
WorldSkills International Competition
The winners at the National Competition will get an opportunity to represent the country at the WorldSkills International Competition in Shanghai, China. They will compete in different skills areas covering different disciplines, including construction and building technology; manufacturing and engineering technology; information and communications; social and personal services; creative arts and fashion; and transportation and logistics, among others.
The 46th WorldSkills International Competition, which was previously scheduled for September 2021 in Shanghai, had to be rescheduled for 12 - 17 October 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
WorldSkills South Africa said the postponement of the international competition afforded member countries, including South Africa, time to focus on local competitions and other related activities in preparation for the international competition.
“The postponement also allowed WSZA time to prepare for the WorldSkills Africa Competition, which took place in Swakopmund, Namibia in March 2022. South Africa participated in 14 of the skills at the WorldSkills Africa competition and managed to bring home eight medals,” WorldSkills South Africa said.
According to WorldSkills South Africa, the WorldSkills Africa competition in Namibia was a huge opportunity for South Africa’s young competitors and prepared them for what will probably be a tough national competition in June.
“WSZA travelled between provinces to host workshops with different stakeholders, monitor and ensure the success of all WSZA provincial competitions in preparation for the 2022 WSZA National Competitions.
“The provincial competitions were a result of a rigorous and transparent sifting process at local competitions which took place at colleges, workplaces and training centres across the country,” WSZA said.
The 46th WorldSkills International Competition will feature over 1 600 competitors from more than 60 countries and regions, competing in over 63 skills.
Source: South African Government News Agency
Special Investigating Unit head, Advocate Andy Mothibi, has hailed a new partnership between the corruption-busting unit, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ (SAICA) Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund (TEUF), and the North-West University (NWU) as a strong move towards ensuring that the SIU is well capacitated in the future.
The partnership facilitates a programme at the North West University, which, according to the SIU, “aims to train and produce a new generation of forensic accountants”.
Mothibi said criminals and their criminality has become more complex and the use of forensic accountants in investigation is becoming a top requirement.
“The corrupt and the criminals out there use sophisticated tools and ways to commit crime and they use sophisticated methods to hide the money and the assets that they have corruptly acquired.
“We need to up the game in terms of ensuring that we meet them pound for pound. We need to ensure that we have the skills that will analyse all those financial statements, all those balance sheets, all those income statements to ensure that we come to grips on the kind of offences and corruption that has been committed,” he said.
Mothibi reflected that as recent as six years ago, the unit had a forensic accounting team that was under-capacitated.
“At the time when I joined the [SIU]…back in 2016, as we did the analysis we found that we had just two forensic accountants and after a year or two, there were three. As we adopted the new strategy… [which] placed premium at the impact of our work and the impact required us to investigate and to investigate effectively.
“As we were executing the strategy, we started seeing the allegations coming in and allegations from the public and government. So to [investigate effectively] we also started noticing some of the complexities in the investigation and as a team we agreed that part of what we needed to strengthen on was the part the forensic accountant skills,” he said.
He said that as the SIU enacted its new strategy and organogram, it made more space for forensic accountants.
“As we took this decision to increase the accountants…we recruited a few and of late we are numbering at around nine at the moment. There is still a need so this project is really going to enable us to build the timber such that we benefit previously disadvantaged students through the university and…SAICA.
“This is a flagship project and we would like to make sure that we benefit both from reducing youth unemployment and also that we benefit the state agencies’ capacity,” he said.
Zondo commission recommendations
Turning to recommendations made in the report of the State Capture Commission’s report, Mothibi said the SIU is already investigating some of the findings and allegations at several state-owned entities including Transnet, South African Airways, Eskom and Denel.
“We do have proclamations already in most of those areas. What we are doing is that we already have a process in place to ensure that we understand the outomces of the Zondo Commission and ensure that we run all of those outcomes and recommendations and places them in our processes so that they produce the results that we all are looking for. Be it civil litigation where we have got to recover monies that have been lost by government and by the state,” he said.
Source: South African Government News Agency