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Dakar 2020 Saudi Arabia Kicked off

Encee van Huyssteen
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Dakar 2020: Saudi Arabia
Having moved from South America to Saudi Arabia, the world’s most gruelling cross-country rally, the Dakar Rally, kicked-off its 42nd event from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. This is the ultimate test for man and machine against the elements of nature that traditionally takes place in harsh desert terrain.
This year the race will be run over 12 stages with a well-deserved rest day halfway through. Competitors will cover a total distance of 7900 kilometres from 5 January 2020 to 17 January 2020. The racing distance is 5000km that will be run at maximum speeds. The organisers believe the race will be faster this year, like the old events in Africa, as the terrain allows for higher speeds and they expect an average speed of 105km/h on the special stages for the front runners.
From Jeddah the race will head north along the Red Sea and then turn East towards the capital Riyadh. After the rest day, teams will head South through the Arabian Desert before they pass the most southern point at Shubaytah at the end of Stage 10. After the final two stages the race ends in Qiddiya which is further North West. With ten South Africans competing in the race and the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team hailing from South Africa the local interest has grown tremendously. A total of 351 vehicles consisting of 147 Bikes, 23 Quads, 89 Cars, 47 Side-by-sides and 45 Trucks participate in the event. Former Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso (#310) from Spain will be racing one of the South African built Toyotas, with Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar (#300), the defending Dakar champion, out to win his second title in a row and former Dakar winner, South Africa’s Giniel de Villiers (#304), in an identical Toyota. Bernard Ten Brinke from the Netherlands (#307) who boasts several Dakar trophies, complete the very strong Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Multi-discipline winner and the man who carries the title of Mr. Dakar, Stephane Peterhansel from France and former World Rally Champion, Carlos Sainz Sr. from Spain, will pose a major threat for the Toyota team in their X-Raid Minis. Many of the former Dakar Factory Minis are raced by private teams and they will be in the mix to get an overall Mini win in Qiddiya. A very interesting entry in the factory teams is former bike winner, Nani Roma from Spain, who drives a Borgward for the first time in this event.
Amongst the bikes, KTM will be the team to beat with Australia’s Toby Price the favourite and defending champion. Sam Sunderland from the UK, 2017 winner and 2018 winner, Austrian, Matthias Walkner, will put up a great fight with their KTM team-mates.
There is a wide range of manufacturers amongst the bikes with KTM, Honda, Husqvarna, Yamaha, Gas Gas and Kawasaki represented.
With the Petronas De Rooy Iveco Team from the Netherlands having changed almost their entire crew, the door was left wide open for the Russian Kamaz team to take their 17th overall win in the truck category.
Stage 1 – 5 January 2020 – Jeddah to Al Wajh – Special Stage 319km, Liaison 433km, Total 752km
Romain Dumas and his co-driver Alexandre Winocq from France, who competed in numerous Dakar Rallies, had to look on as their car burnt out during the stage. Competitors found the first stage of the race extremely tough with the Toyota Gazoo Team suffering 11 punctures amongst their four cars, especially in the rocky sections towards the end of the stage. As a result, Nasser Al Attiyah had to settle for fourth place after he led most of the stage. A surprise win goes to Lithuanian, Vaidotas Zala (#319), in a Mini who kept it together ahead of Mini works drivers Stephane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz Sr. who also suffered punctures in the rocks.Bernhard Ten Brinke finished 5th with Fernando Alonso in 11th place and Giniel de Villiers bringing the fourth Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota home in 14th position. The Borgwart of Nani Roma is currently in 16th place.
Toby Price continued his 2019 dominance and finished ahead of Honda rider Ricky Brabec from the USA and his KTM team-mate Matthias Walkner in the bike category.
Chilean, Ignacio Casale, an old hand and very competitive rider, won the quad race, while maiden SxS racer, Poland’s, Aron Domzala won the stage in the Side-by-Side competition.
As predicted, Kamaz had a great day with Russian, Anton Shibalov and his team, finishing first in truck #516 of the KAMAZ-Master team followed by the Maz-Sportauto team’s #503 with Siarhei Viazovich from Belorussia just over a minute slower. The Dutch Petronas De Rooy Iveco #505 finished 1’33” later in the hands of Janus van Kasteren.
Stage 2 – 6 January 2020 – Al Wajh to Neom – Special Stage 367km, Liaison 26km, Total 393km
As a first “Super Marathon” stage for the bikes and quads, where the time allowed to work on their machines is limited, this will be a very tough stage.
Navigation on the stage is critical and the teams will learn about the different Saudi landmarks compared to those in South America.

  • Coen van Zyl

Panda Darts Club AGM and 2020 opening

Encee van Huyssteen
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Panda Darts Club hosted their AGM recently and the following Executives were selected for 2020.
Chairperson – Nick Blake
Vice Chairperson – Hendry Erasmus
Secretary – Kim Blake
Development Officer – Rees Naidoo
Tournament Co-ordinator – Karin Naidoo
Pandas Darts opened the year with an open tournament. Sasol Darts club also attended and Panda Darts Club would like to express their gratitude towards them for attending.
The winners are:
Women’s singles runner up:
Wendy van Vuuren.
Champion: Esther.
Doubles runners up:
Wendy and Jennifer van Vuuren.
Champions:
Karen Anthony and Minette Oberholzer.
Mens singles runner up:
Darron Pretorius.
Champion:
Arthur Oberholzer.
Mens Doubles runners up:
Wilfred and Frank Jonker.
Singles: Darron Pretorius – 180.
Wilfred highest close 103.

Pandas – SA Chinese Eightball Champions

Encee van Huyssteen
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The South African Chinese Eightball Championship was held at Wynberg military sports grounds in Cape Town from 17 – 21 Dec 2019.
Mpumalanga was represented by Jacobus Le Roux, Thabo Taljaard and Nathan Rupping, they all play for Pandas club in Secunda.
They participated against 18 teams from all different provinces including some national and international players. Mpumalanga managed to win the team event by winning 17 out of 18 matches.
Nathan Rupping finished as the nr 1 ranked player in the team event with Jacobus and Thabo finishing 7th and 8th respectively.
This is the first time Mpumalanga managed to win a nationals in a team event.
Jacobus Le Roux also managed to finish 3rd in the singles event. Nathan will represent South Africa in a team event in 2020 that will host 32 countries.

Laerskool Krielpark laat die lyne sing by SA Kampioenskappe

Ane Prinsloo
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Baie geluk aan Twané Venter en Lizanie van der Westhuizen het uitnodigings ontvang om te gaan proef vir SAVOF (Suid-Afrikaanse varswater oewerhengel Federasie). Alhoewel hulle nie hierdie jaar die uitnodiging gaan aanvaar nie is Laerskool Krielpark steeds baie trots op hierdie groot prestasies. Hierdie was Lizanie van der Westhuizen se eerste SA Kampioenskap en Twané was die jongste in haar span.
Twané Venter en die NOM Jonge Dames Span behaal 3e plek tydens die SA Hengel Kampioenskappe by Bloemhof dam.

Oosterland Leerlingraad ontvang hemde

Ane Prinsloo
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Sulize Alberts en Eduan Naude. Hoofleiers van Oosterland ontvang hemde van Safety Horizon Services. Hier oorhandig Altus en Ripah die hemde.

New Mayoral vehicle purchased

Encee van Huyssteen
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The mayor has a new car! Despite all the efforts from opposition parties to block the purchase of a new vehicle a new mayoral car was purchased during December.
The BMW X3 is considerably cheaper than the X5 that she insisted on previously. The X5 was quoted at over R2m with extras such as tow bars and blue lights.
The Bulletin was told that the X3 will fall within the R700000 range that the minister once said in his speech.
Residents are expected to be outraged at the purchase as Govan Mbeki Municipality is under severe financial strain.
Rand Water and Eskom constitutes the bulk of the outstanding debt that is now well over R1,5b.
All the communities are affected by the non-payment of these suppliers. Bethal Rand is continually without water as a direct result of the non-payment of the Rand Water account. Water is restricted regularly to GMM and several areas are affected to the extent that there is no water supply.
Sources revealed to The Bulletin that the Mayoral car is indeed fitted with a tow bar. There is no need for a tow bar on a mayoral vehicle. Official vehicles such as that should not be towing anything.
Opposition Leader DA Cllr Ciska Jordaan sent the following statement to The Bulletin: “The Democratic Alliance is appalled by the news that the Executive Mayor, Thandi Ngxonono and her mayoral committee has opted to purchase a new luxury vehicle with council funds despite the horrendous financial state of the Govan Mbeki Municipality.
The DA has highlighted its concern and condemnation of frivolous expenditure relating to the purchase of luxury vehicles numerously in the council but was repeatedly responded to by the ANC majority with quotations from the promulgated upper limits and benefits of executive mayors and the redundant reiteration of the high cost of rent of a vehicle that she was travelling with, since the prior mayoral vehicle is allegedly beyond repair.
In addition, several practical proposals have been made in the council by the DA to avoid hefty rental fees and the purchase of vehicles for political office bearers. With the GMMs ESKOM and Rand Water debt remaining yet at the incredibly staggering amount of over R1.5bn it is absolutely a violation of the trust that residents have placed in members of the council to abuse funds that are meant to deliver services for the comfort of someone who should be acting as a civil servant. This proves that the ruling ANC repeatedly expresses its disdain for the best interest of Govan Mbeki.
Furthermore, it is clear as daylight that service delivery deteriorates under the financial constraint of the municipality by the day, with residents experiencing to an unreasonable extent this past December, since several towns were often left without water or otherwise electricity for days on end.
Executive Mayors in DA metros such as Cape Town and Tshwane has denied or sold off similar benefits in the past with the interest of the public they serve at heart. The residents of Govan Mbeki deserve a ruling party that will ensure that money meant for the people, is spent on the people.”
It would appear to the public that the purchase was timed to coincide with the holiday season as the vehicle was delivered during December according to our sources.

THE PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER CONCERNED ABOUT DRUNKEN DRIVING CASES

Encee van Huyssteen
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The Provincial commissioner expressed his concern regarding the Nelspruit area. The Bulletin regularly reports on accidents in the Govan Mbeki Municipal area. In most cases the vehicles are littered with bottles of alcohol. This in itself does not say that the driver is under the influence but increases the possibility that it may be so.
Nelspruit – The Provincial Commissioner of Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma, has expressed his anxiety about the alarming drunken driving cases being opened against misbehaving drivers in the Nelspruit area during the festive season.
“In spite of fatal accidents occurring daily on the roads as well as the continuous call made by police and the government, for drivers to refrain from drinking and driving, this seems to be falling on deaf ears among some drivers.” said General Zuma.
This has once again been noticed in the number of drivers that have just been nabbed only on Saturday 04 January 2020 wherein more than 20 drivers were put behind bars for driving under the influence of alcohol in a space of about eight hours in the Nelspruit area alone.
Meanwhile recently on 21 December 2019, the police reported that 28 people were arrested at Nelspruit for driving under the influence of liquor.
Drivers continue to ignore the call made by the authorities in order to make the roads safer for motorists and other road users. Police continue to appeal to citizens to exercise caution whenever they use the roads because failure to do that will only lead to fatalities and serious injuries on the roads.
The message was not only meant for the festive season period only but rather an instruction that should be adhered to at all times. Schools will reopen in a few days and police call on motorists to be sober when driving on the roads. Children will also be making use of the same roads used by motorists and hence a need to drive with consideration for other road users so as to prevent road accidents.

Potholes increasing, Residents repair roads

Encee van Huyssteen
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The past December saw a number of residents from various towns taking matters into their own hands and they decided to repair potholes.
Repairing a pothole is quite labour intensive.
In Secunda the Zello group, Secunda 911 was approached by a resident to help with the repair of the potholes. within a day the wheels were set in motion and bags of tar were purchased. Secunda 911 contacted Afriforum to assist and everyone was ready.
A few potholes were filled from the Sasol CBD Filling Station towards the Fire Station. The costs of repairing the potholes were about R200 per pothole.
If there are any other residents that have similar ideas, Roelof Gouws would be the person to contact. His phone number is 0725934052
Secunda 911 is a registered Non Profit Organisation
In eMzinoni, ANC Youth members from ward 24 decided to repair damaged paving. The paved road in eMzinoni was damaged during the heavy rains at the beginning of December. The youth repaired the road before Christmas.
Jabulani Masilela, Chairperson of the ANCYL (Ward 24) said: “We are trying to send a message to all the youth of Govan Mbeki Municipality that they should not always wait for the municipality but some things need the community to unify and meet the municipality halfway.”

Oud hoof van LS Hoëveld oorlede

Encee van Huyssteen
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Mnr Frans Rossouw, oud hoof van Laerskool Hoëveld is op 26 Desember 2019 oorlede. Frans was hoof by die skool vanaf 1987 tot 2003.
Hy is gebore op 17 Mei 1946 en was 17 jaar verbonde aan die skool.
Die Bulletin wil ons innige simpatie en meedelye aan sy familie, vriende en kolegas oordra.

Water problems persist in Govan Mbeki Municipality

Encee van Huyssteen
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Residents in Evander and Bethal are infuriated with the current water situation. Both towns have been struggling with either no water or poor pressure.
The problems in Evander started on 13 December when a pipe burst and the reservoir ran dry. Residents have been venting their frustrations on every platform possible. The group called “Evander/Secunda Wyk18” was particularly busy with tempers flaring.
One of the major problems is that some areas would be affected and others not. GMM struggled to get the reservoir to an acceptable level so that the water distribution could begin only to have pressure problems.
The problem was later identified and was reported as follows by DA Cllr Mariaan Chamberlain: “I think we have discovered why the reservoir was run dry. Currently, we don’t know who is to blame or which shift. A valve was not closed. Thank you to a wake-up resident in Graz street area who heard this, took a video and reported it to the call centre. The video was taken at a stormwater drain.”
Mariaan posted another message a little later with the following content, “I have spoken to a qualified person now. Indeed, it is what they do. This valve is in a manhole. Which the team opens to release pressure in the pipeline so the work on the burst pipe can be done. Then they forget where they have opened the valves (In Secunda and think all over they also open fire hydrants). The low pressure in GRAZ street was reported not once…but many times. Someone must get sjambok.”
A lot of blame was placed on GMM not paying Rand Water but even after the payment was received the problem persisted. The valve was closed and the problem fixed.
Evander residents decided to do something about the situation and contacted Carte Blanch. One post to Carte Blanch read (Translation): “We have had enough! We have been sitting without water for days and the municipality is doing just what they want. No reasons why large sections of the town are without water. Can you help with an investigation?”
Residents commented on the post asking for help.
The problem in Bethal is a different story altogether. Certain areas have water and others not. It is the same as December 2018/ January 2019 when all the reservoirs ran dry and some residents didn’t have any supply for up to 26 days.
The Bulletin is engaging with various stakeholders to try and get to the root of the problem.
Here are some comments:
“I hope that the resevior stay full now,,,Because off the rain ~ I really get tired off all the stories and explaining…When will the truth come to the point..Every week the some old story…..”
and
“My feedback from the official now was. …bacause the reservoir was empty yesterday…they closed the outlet early yesterday and right through the night. Reservoir currently at 50%, and they are pumping to the town.”
as well as
“Somehow we as Evander residents have to stand together even if it’s just by sending an email to draw attention to our problem”
and
“So for years the demand was same as the inflow? And the fact that some areas hav water ND others not is confusing, don’t we all use the same reservoir reserves?”
and lastly
“Sure all the residents will aggree at the moment gmm is a zero on n contract feel nothing for basic service delivery our constitutional right to have water”

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