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Oorstromings in Centurion veroorsaak chaos

Oorstromings in Centurion veroorsaak chaos

Aanhoudende reën in Sentraal Transvaal het ook gesorg vir ontwrigting van verkeer maar in Centurion het geboue, paaie en laagwater brûe gevaarlik geword.

Groot dele is oorstroom, en menige voertuie is deur die vloedwater meegesleur, maar tot hede is dit nie bekend of enige mense in die vloedwater omgekom het nie.

Op sommige plekke is reeds meer as 280 mm reën gemeet vir die afgelope week, en die weerkundiges voorspel vir Dinsdag nog meer reën.

Chaos het op paaie en sommige strate ontstaan, en beurtkrag het ook gesorg dat lang toue voertuie by robotte staan wat nie werk nie.

Intussen het Die Vryburger verneem dat dele in die Noord-Kaap wat nou reeds vir vier jaar geen reën gehad het nie, dat hulle “verby die stadium is waar droogtehulp sal help”, het een van die boere gesê.

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Swiss pensioner scammed out of R13,500 at Pretoria home affairs

It is believed a certain Stoffel and a Diana L Kamwenje may have information related to the ‘agency’ that allegedly scammed Denise Hausermann.

Forensic investigators are asking for two people to come forward who they believe may have information about an alleged fraud at the department of home affairs (DHA) in Pretoria, after a Swiss national was scammed.

When her pensioner’s permit expired, Denise Hausermann, 67, had come to love living in SA and she found an “agency” in a newspaper to help her through the red tape.

It is believed a certain Stoffel and a Diana L Kamwenje may have information related to the “agency”.

According to senior specialist investigator from IRS Forensic Investigations Andre van Wyk, Hausermann initially paid R10,000 for her application for permanent residency (PRP).

Hausermann’s purse, containing her passport after she received her PRP and temporary identity document (ID), was stolen in a separate incident soon after she started dealing with the agency.

“Over and above the R10,000 cash, the victim had to pay for the application, two more deposit slips were found for R1,500 and R2,000 respectively as top-up payments for the ID and passport that had to be paid into a FNB bank account in April 2014,” said Van Wyk.

Hausermann then attempted to obtain a new permanent residence visa but after she failed to reach Stoffel, she approached a well-known immigration lawyer. The attorney found the documents to be fraudulent.

And while Van Wyk hunts for the perpetrators, the DHA apparently wants nothing to do with the matter.

“This turned into a monumental disaster for Hausermann, with her being branded as a dishonest person and told to leave SA, instead of [the DHA] investigating the allegations,” said van Wyk.

An appeal was made and other letters followed, to no avail until a formal complaint was laid with the minister, as well as a criminal case registered against the alleged agent.

“It was initially thought the DHA would initiate the investigation but this was never done. The client did attempt to register a case with [the police] but was turned away [through lack of] evidence,” he said.

Hausermann cannot visit her family abroad, use banking facilities or do anything where she needs to prove legal status in SA.

“She can’t even visit her mom’s grave and bid another gravely ill family member farewell. She can’t access her bank account as she isn’t able to comply with their Fica requirements due to not having a visa. Her life is falling apart and the DHA couldn’t care less about the matter,” he said.

DHA spokesperson Siyabulela Qoza did not respond to The Citizen by the time of going press but promised to do so at a later stage.

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Chaos heers in Pretoria se middestad na talle busdrywers staak en paaie versper vir 18% salaris verhoging

Chaos heer in Pretoria se middestad na talle busdrywers staak en paaie versper vir 18% salaris verhoging

Verkeer in die Pretoria se middestad is Maandagoggend tot stilstand geruk na talle busdrywers van die Tshwane-busdiens besluit het om te staak.

Betogende busbestuurders van die Tshwane-munisipale busdienste het busse gebruik om hoofroetes te blokkeer om verkeersvloei te belemmer. Sheila-Lynn Senkubuge, burgemeesterskomiteelid vir paaie en vervoer in Tshwane sê dat Samwu-lede om beter lone betoog, maar ’n stappie te vêr gegaan deur busse sonder toestemming van die stad te neem om die sakekern te blokkeer en honderde motoriste te verontrief en moet nou deur die metro weggesleep word. Sy vra onverskoning vir die ontrief en gaan vêrder deur te sê dat die stad alles in hul vermoë doen om die busse te verwyder sodat verkeersvloei vir die res van die dag kan normaliseer. Senkubuge sê ook dat hul die opsie oorweeg om die busbestuurders wat die busse wederregtelik uit die depot geneem het, van diefstal aan te kla.

Netwerk 24 berig dat Mpho Tladinyane, streeksekretaris van Samwu in die Groter Tshwane-streek, Maandag aan die onderhandelings vir ’n 18%-loonverhoging vir munisipale werkers het op niks uitgeloop nie en die verbreking van die dooiepunt word doelbewus deur die Tshwane-metro vertraag.

Volgens Tladinyane is munisipale busbestuurders ontevrede oor die salarisverhogings wat sommige afdelingshoofde gekry het. “Werknemers op laer vlakke se salarisse is nie verhoog nie. Al wat Samwu eis, is die billike behandeling van dié groep. Die metro gebruik ’n vertragingstaktiek aangesien daar nie op werkers se eise gereageer word nie en voortgegaan is met die herstrukturing van vergoedingspakkette. Dié reaksie van die metro beskou ons as ’n verwerping van ons 18%-eis,” sê Tladinyane.

“Dit is jammer dat ons tot hierdie uiterste moet gaan om die metro se aandag te kry,” sê hy. Hy wou hom egter nie verder uitlaat oor die versperring van paaie as deel van die protesoptrede nie.

Isaac Mahamba, woordvoerder van die Tshwane- metropolisie, het vroeër gesê roetes soos Es’kia Mphahlele-, WF Nokoma-, Thabo Sehume- en Madibastraat word deur die busse versper.

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Catastrophic ” R100-million renovation job done on City Hall to be fixed after inapt contract workers botched project

Catastrophic ” R100-million renovation job done on City Hall to be fixed after contract workers botched operation

The Tshwane metro said it had no choice but to fix up a “catastrophic” R100-million renovation job done on the city hall in the centre of Pretoria under the previous administration.

The city hall, located on Visagie Street and Paul Kruger Street, has been fenced off in its entirety as plans to refurbish it kicked off in July for the 2019/20 financial year.
Previous renovations indicated that the contract workers put cement over a wooden floor and in the main hall‚ the seats in the balcony were all stolen as were most door handles‚ all made of brass.

“An assessment on what needs to be done is underway,” said Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

The total cost of renovations would only be determined once the evaluation was completed.

“The renovations could take 2-3 years to complete.”

This after claims by the metro that previous renovations to the hall was a “waste” of millions of rands.

In 2016, then-mayor Solly Msimanga blamed the office of former mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa for the allegedly shoddy renovations made to the hall.

“The council initially wanted to restore city hall, but on a low budget,” said Msimanga’s then spokesperson Matthew Gerstner at the time.

“Ramokgopa’s office then hijacked the project to build luxurious offices behind council’s back without the knowledge of the chief financial officer and national treasury.”

In October of that year, Msimanga took journalists on a tour of the hall to show them several on-site “irregularities” by the contractor such as broken wooden floors.

The hall’s historic organ also suffered serious damage; the repairs of which would cost at least R18-million.

Gerstner claimed Ramokgopa’s office selected the contractor without a budget.

“The contractor dictated what the budget should be. The contractor was not even qualified to do the job.”

The walls were painted before the hall was completed. Attempts were then made to install smoke detectors and cameras, but this work was never finished.

There were also indications that contract workers decided to pour cement over a wooden floor. In the main hall‚ the seats in the balcony were all stolen as were most door handles made of brass.

On the second floor, holes were drilled for cables in ways that compromised the building’s structural integrity.

In the old Pretoria council chamber, heritage paintings have been spoiled by careless paintwork.

The condition of the hall was so bad that six companies withdrew their applications to film in this room, said the mayor’s office senior strategic executive specialist Pieter de Necker at the time.

At the time, Msimanga told reporters that “we will get to the bottom of this”.

“People will have to be held accountable,” he said.

Msimanga at the time said that metro officials implicated in the city hall upgrade would face a disciplinary inquiry.

In a 2016 statement, acting mayoral spokesperson Matthew Gerstner said some of these officials include two senior directors who served former mayor Ramokgopa’s office.

Mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane, however, told Record this week that the metro had no details regarding such investigations.

AUTHOR – Reitumetse Mahope / Rekord East / 2019-07-25

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Centurion residents taught how to avoid driveway hijackings by RICHARD BRUSSOW of the National Hijack Prevention Academy

Centurion residents were on Saturday taught about how to avoid becoming victims of hijackings in driveways.

This was during a workshop at Laerskool Louis Leipoldt in Lyttelton, where former police officer Richard Brussow spoke to them about prevention of crimes such as hijacking and robbery.

Brussow, who established the National Hijack Prevention Academy in 2001, said 68% of hijackings happened in driveways and could be avoided.

He has more than 15 years of experience in motor vehicle crime investigation, organized crime, motor vehicle theft, metro police crime prevention, and vehicle tracking.

Brussow educated his audience about tricks used by hijackers, their motivation, factors that lead to attacks and categories of hijacked vehicles.

Robbers liked using service stations as a base to prey on unsuspecting victims, he said. Once they had identified their victims they drove behind them until they arrived home.

Brussow advised motorists to always look at the car behind them to prevent the crime.

Those in attendance were also warned against inviting potential car buyers to their homes after they had advertised them online.

Rather, Brussow said, ask to meet them at a service station where there were CCTV cameras. He said sellers ought to carefully examine the buyers’ driving licenses to check if they were not fake.

They also needed to guard against receiving counterfeit cash from unscrupulous buyers.

Motorists must also be aware of a technique where criminals bumped into cars during rush hour with the intention to get them out of their vehicles, where they would be robbed. However, he said the technique was well known.

Robbers had slightly changed it by sending female drivers to bump into cars, hoping that drivers wouldn’t be scared to stop for inspecting the extent of the damage. “Just get a number plate and drive off,” warned Brussow.

-Pretoria News

This news release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of SA-news.

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The City of Tshwane is pulling the plug on smart meters contract with Peu

The City of Tshwane’s daily payment to its erstwhile electricity smart meters contractor Peu Capital Partners has been drastically reduced from R4million to R1.8m.

In addition, MMC for utility services Abel Tau said the municipality has covered ground towards the replacement of the almost 13 000 meters that had already been installed as part of the deal.

The replacement of the meters comes after AfriBusiness succeeded in having the Peu irregular smart meter contract set aside in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

But Tau said the reduction of daily payments to Peu was the essence of what the City wanted residents to know about.

“We have made a decision that would save the City a huge amount of money to ensure that we can take those savings and redirect them to service delivery,” he said.

Regarding the sum of R4m previously paid to Peu, he said: “I checked last week and the amount has drastically dropped. I think we were at R1.8m”

He said the City was making inroads in terms of replacing the Peu meters. It had replaced more than 5100 for small power users, leaving only 1200.

The meters in some households could not be replaced because their owners were not at home, while others had refused to have them replaced.

Tau said that from July 1, residents should know that Peu meters information stored on the saver might be lost. “It is important to move them over to the new system so that we may continue to deliver service to them,” he added.

There had been complaints that the new meters were not adequate, allowing users to buy only up to R1000 electricity at the time.

However, Tau said: “For the big power users I think we have changed over 2000 meters (with) not a single complaint.”

He said the bulk of complaints came from households.

“If you look at the contingent of over 10000 meters and we only have 20 complaints, that should tell you that we are doing quite well,” he said.

On March 1, when the City started with the replacement, it was not ready for the process, he said.

“There were a number of things that were challenges, like the software, not interfacing with what we had at the time.”

Previously the buyer could only buy electricity at the working centres, but now they can purchase it everywhere.

“Once we have rolled out the software completely the residents will realize that the meters they have now are actually smarter than what they thought,” Tau said.

“We are looking at vision 2030 to become a smart City.

“The plan is to roll out the smart meters to the rest of the residents,” Tau added.

-Pretoria News

This news release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of SA-news.

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It’s all systems go for Atteridgeville R1.2bn Capital Mall

The much-anticipated R1.2 billion Capital Mall in Atteridgeville will go ahead despite efforts to halt its construction on the basis that it would “cannibalize” smaller shopping centres in the vicinity.

MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning Isak Pietersen said the City of Tshwane’s Appeals Tribunal successfully intervened in the impasse, which threatened to block the development.

The legal wrangling was between the developer, McCormick Property Development, and Safari Investments, over the threats posed by the new mall on the existing shopping centres.

Pietersen said the complaint was overturned on the basis that it lacked substance and went against the spirit of competition permitted in business.

He said the mall construction was an example of what the City wanted to do by creating a conducive economic environment for job creation.

“The aim of the City is to make sure we create those jobs and this is going to make sure that we create jobs,” he said.

The project would be in line with the City’s transport system plans, accommodating A Re Yeng bus system from the CBD towards the direction of the mall, Pietersen said.

“A lot of people who are going to use buses will have an opportunity to use the shopping mall.”

He said he was not sure when construction would start.

“There was an issue emanating from the appeal of the opposite mall that the big mall would cannibalise the smaller malls there. The matter was solved,” he said.

The project head of communications, Gayle Crow, said it was all systems go on the mega-development set to serve the entire Pretoria West region.

“An appeal to halt the development was overturned during a sitting of the City of Tshwane’s Municipal Appeals Tribunal in April, paving the way for the development of the iconic 60000m² regional mall, which will bring more than 3000 employment opportunities to the surrounding communities,” she said.

Crow said the mall would have direct access to both the N4 and WF Nkomo Street and situated on the planned N4/R55 interchange.

The double level mall will also anchor Capital City, an R5bn mixed-use development.

“The development node includes a 1500-bed private hospital, value retail centre, motor dealerships, affordable housing, student housing, schooling and community facilities,” Crow said.

The mall would probably open towards the end of 2021.

-Pretoria News

This news release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of SA-news.

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Tshwane city manager, Dr Moeketsi Mosola, reprimanded for aborted China trip

Tshwane city manager Dr. Moeketsi Mosola has received a serious talking-to from executive mayor Stevens Mokgalapa about the controversial authorization of a trip by officials to China.

Mokgalapa called off the trip in April after it came to his attention that Mosola “erroneously” signed a document on his behalf.

He then called for an investigation to determine how the anomaly in the documents occurred.

On Monday he broke his silence in the wake of the probe, saying he had already given the implicated parties a tongue-lashing.

“I did reprimand those who were involved. For me the fact that it was canceled and that the city never incurred any funds for it; it ended there,” he said. Asked who exactly he reprimanded, he said: “It was the city manager I reprimanded because that was his signature.”

He said that his message to Mosola was that what happened with the China trip must not repeat itself.

“What I have received was that it was done in hindsight and I requested that it should never happen again. It was just an administrative error in terms of the signature that happened,” he said. He slammed the practice by senior city officials to overlook the role of politicians in the municipality.

He said that by canceling the trip he wanted to make a point to “people to understand that the politician is in charge here”.

“If I feel that a trip is not useful or viable for the city I’ve got to manage those interests. I can’t allow a willy-nilly trip while I am preaching that we don’t have money,” he said.

He said it had become a norm that officials would submit documents to him at the last minute, hoping that he would sign them without scrutiny.

“Luckily you have the mayor who knows how to do an oversight part. All the applications that come to me I do apply my mind. I always say the answer is ‘no’ up until it becomes a ‘yes’ with convincing reasons.”

-Pretoria News

This news release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of SA-news.

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Father of two was shot six times in a home invasion incident in north of Pretoria

A father of two in the north of Pretoria was in a critical condition after he was shot six times in a home invasion.

“It’s so surreal. I cannot believe my husband Jan is in ICU and fighting for his life,” Lorna Schoeman told Rekord.

A normal weekday for the Schoeman family in Great Dane Street in Hesteapark turned into a nightmare when two men suddenly entered their home at around 04:50.

Schoeman said she was in the kitchen preparing their children’s school lunches when she heard a window break.

“Something was thrown through the window, and the next moment there were two unknown men in our house.”

A struggle ensued between her husband Jan, who had just woken up, and the attackers in the hallway.

“The next moment the gunshots were fired,” said Schoeman.

Schoeman said Jan was rushed to the Netcare Montana Hospital.

“The bullets did a lot of damage. I just want my husband to recover; there is still a long road ahead as he is in critical condition.”

The couple’s two children, aged 12 and 18, were left unharmed during the attack.

“I can’t believe they didn’t shoot me. I stood there and screamed and screamed. I have never in my life screamed as I did. I hoped and prayed that they would not hurt me nor my children.”

The robbers fled the scene with two television sets and one of the children’s school bags.

“I am so thankful for the paramedics who responded so promptly and to the doctors who treated my husband. The Lord was with my husband.”

A friend of the family has posted on Facebook for the community to pray for Jan.

Tshwane police cluster spokesperson Captain Matthews Nkoadi confirmed a case of attempted murder was being investigated.

“The victim was shot multiple times in the upper body before he was taken to the hospital.”

-rekordnorth

This news release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of SA-news.