Black Wednesday on Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and we the media people we call it Black Wednesday. We remember the role of the courageous journalists, newspapers, anti-apartheid organisations and activists targeted by the apartheid regime in 1977. These men and women sacrificed their freedom in their quest to inform the public about the realities of our country then; and in the struggle for democracy.

I was not born in 1977 on the 19th of October as most of, when The World and the Weekend World newspapers were banned by then minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger, their editor Mr Percy Qoboza and deputy editor Mr Aggrey Klaaste were detained and 17 anti-apartheid organisations were banned.

I read that Mr Nelson Mandela and his colleagues, then they were imprisoned on Robben Island. The Nelson Mandela foundation writes that, it remembers how Mr Qoboza was one of the first public figures to campaign for their release from jail. It goes on by saying that year marked a turning point in the South African state’s oppression of the media, and in the next decade many more journalists were detained and banned and newspapers were shut down. As the struggle intensified, so did the regime’s attempt to silence the media.

When he was finally released from prison in February 1990, Mr Mandela paid tribute to the press, both local and international, for keeping the world informed of his plight and that of his colleagues. The release of Mr Mandela and other political prisoners, the unbanning of political organisations and the return of exiles after 1990 led to democracy in South Africa and the adoption of a Constitution which enshrines press freedom (Nelson Mandela Foundation).

Mr Mandela had often paid tribute to journalists. In December 1997at the closing session of the ANC’s National Conference, Madiba said: “Instrumental in keeping us in touch and informed, in the dissemination of both, the good news and the bad, the sensational and the mundane, has been the media. I wish to pay tribute on this occasion to their unflinching, and often ill-appreciated, commitment to their task and their contribution to a more informed and hence a better world.”

We at Kovsie FM would like to honour all those journalists who had contributed to the struggle for freedom, and all our media who continue to contribute to the making of democracy. To our entire journalists and up and coming journalists of tomorrow happy Wednesday a happy Black one.

ABSA Macufe Cup 2010

After all music sounds had died out, it was time for the sounds of the vovozelas at the Free State stadium. The defending champions Kaizer Chiefs were outnumbered by the ever green and white Bloemfontein Celtic fans. Both fans were entertained by the curtain-raisers between Premiers eleven and ABSA-eleven, in which premier Ace Magashule was one of the players taking part. Premier eleven won two-one.

Coming the Macufe Cup between the host and Chiefs, the game started with both teams at each other’s throat. Celtic dominated the first opening minute, however, in the eleventh minute Prince Olomu scored the opening goal from a rebound by Benett Chenene. A minute after George Lebese missed a clear cut goal. In the fifteen minute again Lebese was denied by Patrick Tignyemb on the near post.

In the sixteen minute Chiefs was awarded a penalty, after Tignyemb brought down Kaizer Motaung Jnr. Jose Torrealba failed to equalize from the penalty mark. Chiefs came close to equalizing but Kaizer Jnr was denied by Tignyemb. Towards the end of the first half Chiefs played nice football in the middle of the path and Kaizer managed to equalize from Mthokozisi Yende’s pass. At half time both teams where level with the score of one each.

With the start of the second half both teams played an entertaining football but failed to produce any goal at the end. Referee Harry Lekitlane signalled it was time for penalties after a one all draw. In the penalties Kaizer Chiefs’ David Mathebula failed to score his penalty and after that Luyanda Bacela joined him too. After Tshifiwa Mmboi failing to convert his penalty, Bloemfontein Celtics’ Danny Venter scored the penalty that saw Sewelele been crowned the ABSA Macufe 2010 champions.

MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture & Recreation, Den Kgothule, said the Macufe has grown since it started in 2003, and the year it was yet another success. He said it is an initiative that they will continue to support.

NASA helps with the trapped miners in Chile.

A team of NASA doctors and scientists will travel to Chile this week to lend efforts to keep thrifty-three trapped miners fit and healthy. News24 reports the Chilean government had asked NASA to provide technical advice that might assist the trapped miners at gold and copper mine. NASA's expert knowledge of how astronauts deal mentally and physically with arduous space journeys could help the miners cope for months underground.

MySpace allows users to sync posts to Facebook

MySpace has recently revamped it’s image to look more like Facebook, is now allowing users to sync their posts to Facebook, too. News24 reports, users on Facebook can see their friends' MySpace items without leaving Facebook. MySpace users will also be able to share music, videos, game applications, links and photos across both social networking sites. The changes announced are part of an over pull at MySpace, which has faced falling advertising revenue and stagnant user growth.

The earliest known stone-arrow heads are discovered in Kwazulu Natal

A team of South African scientists have discovered the earliest-known examples of stone-arrow heads. Independent on Line reports these weapons are sixty-four thousand year-old hunting scene in KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Marlize Lombard of University of the Witwatersrand says this forms part of the evidence that has enabled a team of South African scientists to deduce the quartz segments that are the earliest-known examples of stone-arrow heads. The findings are published in the team's journal Antiquity.

• Sun-tech sings a solar plants deal with the South African government.

Sun-tech Power Holdings has signed a deal to develop solar plants in South Africa with up to one hundred megawatts as South Africa looks to boost clean energy output. SABCnews reports the signing of the memorandum of understanding is one of a dozen of deals involving investments in energy, power transmission and railways between China and South Africa. Zuma has urged China to invest more in infrastructure and manufacturing in South Africa.

A man has been sentenced for ninety-five years imprisonment.

Bloemfontein High court has sentenced a man for ninety-five imprisonment for hijacking truck on the N3, between Ladysmith and Villiers. He was arrested and never got bailed and his sentence came after four cases of truck hijacks were investigated against him by the Hawks in Free State. The accused once hijacked a truck of fish oil and attempted to murder a driver of a truck transporting new vehicles.

The National Credit Regulator CEO resins.

The National Credit Regulator (NCR) says its CEO, Gabriel Davel, will resin with effect from the first of January. His contract has expired and he has decided not to renew. Davel has been with the NCR since 2006 and lead to the development of the National Credit Act. He believes he has made an important contribution in establishing a more equitable credit market which has an important role to play in improving the lives of South Africans.

Today's science and technology

A review on medicines prescribed last year shows many South Africans are living unhealthy lifestyles. News24 reports that the findings clearly shows that more money was send on medication for high blood pressure, cancer, high cholesterol and others. The report shows lifestyle factors such as smoking, incorrect diet and heavy alcohol use are known to increase the risk of developing chronic diseases. According to a science research company, medication for high blood pressure constituted 10.8% of expenditure on medicines.

A national committee has been set up to tackle rhino poaching in South Africa. News24 reports that the committee is to improve communication and co-ordination among the anti-poaching initiatives and government. The newly-elected committee-chair, Sam Ferreira, says four initial priorities are set to fight rhino poaching are agreed upon by the committee. He says the first to set up a national number where people could phone to report rhino poaching activities.

BlackBerry may provide some solution next week to help Indian security agencies access corporate email by obtaining encrypted data in readable format. This is after threatening to shut down BlackBerry if it did not address the security concerns by the end of this month. The Indian authorities want BlackBerry to give them the means to track and read BlackBerry Enterprise email and its separate BlackBerry Messenger service. It says it is concerned about the potential for militants to use the secure BlackBerry network to carry out attacks.

A study published by Nature Geo-science says the solar system could be nearly two million years older that it had been believed before. Independent on line reports, evidence comes from a 1,49-kilo meteorite, found in the Moroccan desert in 2004, that contains a "relict" mineral, which is one of the oldest solid materials formed after the birth of the Sun. Analysis of lead isotopes suggest the mineral was formed 4.4 billion years ago, making the meteorite the oldest object ever found

Murder investigation under way in Kgotsong Location

The Hawks are investigating a murder case of a (36) thrifty-Six year old man, who was shot and killed by an unknown suspect this past weekend. Sergeant Mmako Mophiring says the man was watching TV with his girlfriend when the incident took place in Kgotsong Location. It is alleged that the suspect shot (3) three bullets at the victim and die instantly. The motive behind the killing is not yet known and no arrest has being made.

The Hawks investigates a case of fraud in Bethule

The Hawks are investigating a case of fraud against a woman employed by a loan company in Bethule, Free State. Sergeant Mmako Mophiring says the woman was employed as a check and she used client’s personal details to defraud fifty thousand rends (50 000). When clients were confronted for repayment they say they knew nothing about the applications taken on their names. The suspect will appear in court on Monday in the Bloemfontein Magistrates' court.

The 2010 Liberation Marathon

UMendo Trading has organized 2010 Liberation Route Marathon scheduled for 17th October this year. The sixty-five kilometer (65km) distance marathon is open for every athlete and registration will be closing on 10th October. The marathon will start at Mmabana Stadium in Thaba Nchu and will finish at Vodacom Park Athletic Stadium in Bloemfontein. It aims to celebrate the contribution played by heroes of the liberation struggle as the route has a historic significance.

The Indian government shut down BlackBerry

The Indian government says it will shut down BlackBerry if the maker does not address the Indian security concerns by the end of this month. SABC news reports, if India’s demands are not met, mobile phone operators will be required by law to close BlackBerry email and instant messaging services. Indian’s demands follow a deal with Saudi Arabia, where a source says Research in Motion agreed to give authorities codes for BlackBerry Messenger instant of messaging users.

Tshwane University unveil a bicycle powered by hydrogen

Tshwne University of Technology in partnership with Science and Technology has unveiled a bicycle which is powered by hydrogen. SABC news reports the bicycle was designed and developed by the students. The Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor, says this bicycle is foreseen as a mode of transport and that it would be good to see such production increase in Africa. Pandor says department is determined to improve funding to encourage students take science studies seriously.

Free State University student is given a suspended sentence

A student from Free State University has been given a suspended sentence of five thousand rand (R5 000) fine or six months imprisonment in the Bloemfontein Regional Court. News24 reports, the student broke into the mainframe computer as the University. It is reported; he gained access to highly confidential information. The student admitted guilty and says he did out of curiosity. His lawyer says he only wanted to see how far he can go in to the system.

Kovsie FM tranning

In your headlines:

Operation Ukhangelo Lwezigebengu arrests 66 people in the Free State.

The Young Communist League asks the higher education minister to intervene at UFS

This is Kovsie FM news at three: good afternoon.

Sixty-six people have being arrested in the Virginia and Welkom mining areas. Free State police says operation Ukhangelo Lwezigebengu was a success. This is after (28) twenty-eight people were arrested in Virginia and (38) thirty-eight in Welkom. Amongst the arrested are (17) seventeen illegal immigrants. The operation was turned into roadblocks that were conducted in Ventersburg yesterday. Sixty motorists were issued with fines during the two phases of the operation.

Twenty-five people have being arrested for various crimes in Allanridge. A nine millimetre pistol, an unclosed amount of cash, fake ID documents and a large quantity of liquor has being seized. The arrested have being charged for assault with the intent to cause body harm, fraud, robbery, theft, possession of dagga, attempted murder and other crimes.

The Young Communist League (YCL) has called for the higher education minister to intervene at Free State University, as it is a publicly-funded institution. The YCL stated that if management wishes to run the university as an exclusively Afrikaner institution, they should simply privatise it. They say funds should be channelled to deserving institutions that are under-resourced. They added their voice to the resignation of the university's rector Jonathan Jansen.

On a lighter note

Jack Daniels was found dead by Johnny Walker this morning at Savannah Street, near Castle in Red Square centre. Sergeant Heineken says he was killed by Hunters who stabbed him with a Strongbow. His Four Cousins believes he was from J&B club in Melowood when the incident happened. No arrests have being made.

For Kovsie FM news, I’m Zonela Mkhumbeni, the next bulletin is at 4

Breaking news!

Accoding to souces, Jack Daniels was found dead by Johnny Walker this morning at Savannah Street,near Castle in Red Square center. Sergeant Heineken believes he was killed by Hunters who stabbed him with a Strongbow and his Four Cousins said he was from J&B club in Melowood. More news later.

Ya rona Kwanda Project

The project is a world first community project and reality TV show broadcasted on SABC 1.
Soul City embarked on an exciting community development project and a reality TV makeover show called “Kwanda”. It was an innovative project that challenged communities to work together to make their communities look better, feel better and work better. Teams in 5 different communities worked in their communities for 120 days, on projects that enabled them to generate income in their community and to combat some of the social problems that arise from their poor environments; they faced problems such as HIV/AIDS, poverty, substance abuse ranging from alcohol to drug abuse.

Gripping television viewing one would say when watching this programme.
All the participating teams were filmed throughout this process during the time they implement their projects in their different communities. All these efforts formed part of an exciting community makeover show, “Kwanda”, geared for prime time television, where ordinary South Africans witnessed different communities tackling major projects and achieving the extraordinary.

One by one until they were 108, these individuals from Kwakwatsi, Koppies in the Northern Free State participated in the Kwanda project and underwent training in Rustenburg that pertained them, to the challenges they live with, in their community. Ya Rona project were formed with the main objective of addressing some of these social challenges facing the community of Kwakwatsi. The project team was assisted by three coaches in terms of guidance and implementation of skills.
Ya rona Kwanda team of Kwakwatsi raised funds towards a children’s project – to help the orphaned and vulnerable children of Kwakwatsi.

Speaking to Die Noord-Vrystaatese Gazette in an interview, the ordinary looking chairperson of the Ya rona Kwanda, Liesbet Mathe, talked about the problems and challenges that they are faced with in their project. When asked what their project was all about, she said in a sweet and exhausted voice, “we are involved in many things like sewing, food garden; tree planting, fencing, landscaping, chicken farm and social themes that include alcohol and drug abuse and many more”. The project started as a Soul City and Eventual Africa initiative, which took project leaders from six provinces to a learning camp. “The camps coached us many things that we had to implement in our communities and we had to make a pledge on what we had to do when we came back”, said Liesbet Mathe with a smile on her exhausted looking face.

Up on arrival from camp they were given 120 day to use their pledges constructively and the camera was always there to capture these moments. The first step the held a community meeting to intrudes themselves to the community and give them their ideas on what the intended on doing in the community of Kwakwatsi. Hand-in-hand with the Ngwathe Municipality they embarked and a live changing project. They help the orphans, people with disability and those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. The one step that they themselves did was to take an HIV test and out of 108 volunteers only 68 were brave enough to undergo the test.

Despite the hard work that they did, they all committed and working hard every day. One of their achievements was the awarding of yet another project, CWP (Community Work Programme). Mathe said the project employed 1500 people working for eight day per month and earning about R1000.

The Ya Rona Kwanda project won a wiping R1 million from Soul City and Eventual Africa. With the money Mathe said that they intended on keeping their promice to the community of Kwakwatsi and that is making it to be a better place to be living in. One of their intentions is to get a bigger place for their office as at this moment they are still at the Municipality’s buildings and to get a bigger farm.

“With them we sell them to the community at large” that was Mathe’s response to what they do with the products that the produce. She also added that with the food that they produce at their food garden they give some to the local schools and orphaned and vulnerable children of Kwakwatsi. As with the bugs they were still manufacturing the whole night, Mathe was more than happy to mention that they have signed a contract with Woolworths, according to her the bugs and other Kwanda clothing will be available at Woolworths.

What can go wrong

Yesterday it was 50 day before kickoff to the FIFA World Cup South Africa. For a long time I been thinking what can be the west case scenario just few days before the first match starts. We have seen what Mother Nature can do to us. By this I’m referring to the volcanic ash in Iceland and to human error can also do Pretoria train accident that claimed three victims so far. I intend to come up with 47 west case scenarios that can happen before the FIFA World Cup.

Jackie Selebi' application

It looks like the former police commissioner, Jackie Selebi will still be going to court, and this is after Judge Meyer Joffe dismissed his application for acquittal on corruption charges today in the Johannesburg High Court

The ANC and their songs

I don’t understand the ANC and their songs, the sing “kill the boer, kill the former” and it has been over 16 years of freedom. The ANC says that it will file an application in the Equality Court to complain about the Freedom Front Plus' "prosecute Malema" campaign. Now the matter of hate speech is at hand and in my view of someone was singing kill the blacks they would have been the first ones at the Equality Court.

SABC Sport Disappoint again

Orlando Pirates was playing against Bloemfontein Celtic this past weekend and when I turned my TV on, to watch the game, the so called the home of soccer (SABC1) was playing an old match between Orlando Pirates and Ajax Cape Town as if we did not see that match. The SABC should beef ship in or ship out of the sports arena. My parents have been paying TV licence since I don’t know when and there is no quality in broadcasting live matches. We are left with only 87 day before the kickoff and thank God that FIFA is bringing their people to help the SABC. When I get to the SABC things will change for the better.

PSL soccer

I can’t believe what Coca-Cola Soccer Zone said about Jomo Cosmo. They tend to forget that all PSL clubs have one or two players from Jomo Cosmo. In my opinion Cosmo was relegated because Jomo did not have good player due to that fact that his entire player are at the other 15 clubs. People like Tsepo Mabona has no right what so ever to make fan of Jomo Sono and his club. He has no idea what is like to run a club like Jomo Cosmo, a club that has produced many quality player that are playing for the so called the “Big teams” from Gauteng. Jomo did say that he will be back and he did come back to the PSL and again in my opinion that does not tarn him into an iyo-yo like Tsepo Mabona said last night. People with negative attitude like him should keep the mouth shat and don’t care about freedom of speech. If SAFA wants a good coach they should look no father and look at the history of Jomo Sono. Viva Jomo viva.

What a day!

Todayit was yet another long day at UOFS. I wrote a test that i was not even ready to write. When most people a happy about the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I'm starting to be unhappy about it,cause now I have a lot of school work to do at the same time, having to get ready for test and on the other hand write assignments that is not Ayoba.

The Movie

Today I watched a movie about this journalist named Hendry Ncumalo. He was working for the Drum magazine. The man was made aware of the challenges during the bad old days in South Africa by his wife. My lecture told us as journalist we should be agents for change, in my views this man, Hendry Ncumalo, was a true agent for change. With his pen, notebook and typewriter he was a really good agent for change. The man, being a journalist, worked hard labour, went to prison, got batten up and went to all sought of hell, in order to get his story. Thank God that I, as a journalist for the future I don’t have to go through that pain.

The first day

this is my first time using a blog