Kwa thema is a township in Springs in the eastrand called Ekurhuleni, which a population of about 45 000 people,high number of uneployment and crime is high.
Recently from July concerns have been raised corcerning the Electricity in Kwa thema,a letter has been written to Mayor and Mec in August the 6th and 22nd the was no response from the local Government,s office, after escalating the lack of response to electricity crisis corncerns.An letter addressed to Ekurhuleni Mayor Mondli Gugubele was handed to his office 6th of September 2011 detalaing electricity problems in the township. given two weeks to respond,no response has yet been forth coming from the mayor,prompting community escalate the matter to Mec for local government Humphrey Mmmemzi in September, Community appears to have hit another wall. two marches were done and damages and injuries were expereinced but no response from the local government,Latetly on 17th-10-2011 again the was a march demanding a response from the local government and the Mayor, the government office was damage and cars, streets were bloked with rocks and burning tyres as well.
We hope the local Government will respond soon before more damages are done,in my previous aticle i explain the problem of the electricity, how it negatively affect the community.
Kwa thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Grootvlei mine in Springs(aurora)finally liquidated
Springs is situated in the east of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni.Grootvlei mine is at Paynvile in Springs.Paynville is an area which blacks were moved out to Kwa thema during time of apartheid and it was used for mining.
Grootvlei mine was bought by Aurora under directors Khulubuse Zuma,Zodwa Mandela, Michael Hulley and Thulani Ngubani.The decision to liquidate Aurora Empowerment system,the company responsible for unpaid salaries of workers at Grootvlei mine from march last year to date, was finally ratified last Wednesday, after yet another liquidation application against the cash -strpped company.
Workers suffered and lost property that houses because they could not pay bonds,others lost their cars,workers stayed without food, until churches and other organisation intervened.Trade unoin Solidarity lodged a liquidation application againts Aurora in May this year in an attempt to recover R3,1 million in unpaid salaries for workers at Grootvlei mine.This after the company ran into financial problems in March last year,problems that resultsd in thousands of workers going unpaid for months thereafer.Solidarity applcation was not the one that prompted the courts decision. however.as Copper eagle,a former contractor for Aurora had previously lodged an application of its ,totaling R9m
The decision represent a victory for solidarity regardless,asit has tirelessly fought to bring the politically connected company to book,According to the union,the liquidation order paves the way for legal action against directors Khulubuse Zuma,Zodwa Mandela,Michael Hulley and Thulani Ngubani, who may now held accountable for R1,7billion in damages from looting of mining assets at both mines while under their management.
The final liquidation of this affiliate, under which tyhe contracts of all Aurora employees fell and of which Mandela is director,is expected to be ratified on November.We hope and think all the employees will be informed and benefit after a long suffering because of capitalist,who really dont care about workers and commuunities,wish the best of luck.
Kwa thma monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Grootvlei mine was bought by Aurora under directors Khulubuse Zuma,Zodwa Mandela, Michael Hulley and Thulani Ngubani.The decision to liquidate Aurora Empowerment system,the company responsible for unpaid salaries of workers at Grootvlei mine from march last year to date, was finally ratified last Wednesday, after yet another liquidation application against the cash -strpped company.
Workers suffered and lost property that houses because they could not pay bonds,others lost their cars,workers stayed without food, until churches and other organisation intervened.Trade unoin Solidarity lodged a liquidation application againts Aurora in May this year in an attempt to recover R3,1 million in unpaid salaries for workers at Grootvlei mine.This after the company ran into financial problems in March last year,problems that resultsd in thousands of workers going unpaid for months thereafer.Solidarity applcation was not the one that prompted the courts decision. however.as Copper eagle,a former contractor for Aurora had previously lodged an application of its ,totaling R9m
The decision represent a victory for solidarity regardless,asit has tirelessly fought to bring the politically connected company to book,According to the union,the liquidation order paves the way for legal action against directors Khulubuse Zuma,Zodwa Mandela,Michael Hulley and Thulani Ngubani, who may now held accountable for R1,7billion in damages from looting of mining assets at both mines while under their management.
The final liquidation of this affiliate, under which tyhe contracts of all Aurora employees fell and of which Mandela is director,is expected to be ratified on November.We hope and think all the employees will be informed and benefit after a long suffering because of capitalist,who really dont care about workers and commuunities,wish the best of luck.
Kwa thma monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Friday, 14 October 2011
Climate change in South africa
South africa is the largest CO2 emitter on the African continent, and the 12th leargest emitter in the world.Devastating
Climate change is an average change of weather pattern of place for a long period of time, the cause of climate change is green house gases especially CO2 in the atmosphere.
Climate change will have a negative impact on us all as the earths average temperatures rises, Oceans are warming, ice caps in the north and south poles are melting, sea level are rising and extreme weather events like huricanes, drouhgt, floods, cold spells and heat waves are occuring more often. climate change is likely to results in adrain on the economy because of increased sickness among the population,damage to transpotation infrastructure, reduction in prdutive land and available water, loss of homes,through heavy rains.Having based our industrialisation on the burning of fossil fuels, we placed ourselves at the brief point between ecological contrant and ecological catastroph.We are living like there is no tomorrow,no coming generation.
Our South African Government is showing very little commitment or nothing at all, because they are still building more coal power station like Khusile and Modupi to generate electricity out of which emit lot of CO2. secondly our Government want to build 6 nuclear plant in Cape province to generate electricity.Nuclear is produced out of uranium which is radioactive as well as Nuclear,How can you generate electricity out of a bomb, we saw what happen in Japan.Government is not looking at itroducing renewable energies like Soalr, Wind turbines and Biomas and so on,We have all the resources in South africa.
Our commitment to tackle climate change does not rest only on the achievment and implementation of international agreements.Our commitment must be borne out by what we do here at home. We have the means indeed, the responsibility to ensure that our policies, programs and actvities contribute to emission reduction and respond to the impact of climate change on our country and region.Avoiding runaway climate change will require the most far reaching structral reforms carried out by human society, businness as usual is simply not an option, already other Countries like Kenya and Somalia are affected by drought. rewable energy must be introduced to aviod catastrophy in our country
Kwathema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Climate change is an average change of weather pattern of place for a long period of time, the cause of climate change is green house gases especially CO2 in the atmosphere.
Climate change will have a negative impact on us all as the earths average temperatures rises, Oceans are warming, ice caps in the north and south poles are melting, sea level are rising and extreme weather events like huricanes, drouhgt, floods, cold spells and heat waves are occuring more often. climate change is likely to results in adrain on the economy because of increased sickness among the population,damage to transpotation infrastructure, reduction in prdutive land and available water, loss of homes,through heavy rains.Having based our industrialisation on the burning of fossil fuels, we placed ourselves at the brief point between ecological contrant and ecological catastroph.We are living like there is no tomorrow,no coming generation.
Our South African Government is showing very little commitment or nothing at all, because they are still building more coal power station like Khusile and Modupi to generate electricity out of which emit lot of CO2. secondly our Government want to build 6 nuclear plant in Cape province to generate electricity.Nuclear is produced out of uranium which is radioactive as well as Nuclear,How can you generate electricity out of a bomb, we saw what happen in Japan.Government is not looking at itroducing renewable energies like Soalr, Wind turbines and Biomas and so on,We have all the resources in South africa.
Our commitment to tackle climate change does not rest only on the achievment and implementation of international agreements.Our commitment must be borne out by what we do here at home. We have the means indeed, the responsibility to ensure that our policies, programs and actvities contribute to emission reduction and respond to the impact of climate change on our country and region.Avoiding runaway climate change will require the most far reaching structral reforms carried out by human society, businness as usual is simply not an option, already other Countries like Kenya and Somalia are affected by drought. rewable energy must be introduced to aviod catastrophy in our country
Kwathema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Monday, 10 October 2011
Ekkurhuleni(springs, nigel and brakpan(isf)
Ekurhuleni is east of Johannesburg in the Eastrand. Springs, nigel and brakpan are as well in the aest rand, Ekurhuleni,Ekurhuleni is place which was occupied by mines and other big companies without looking at the
effects of health of the communities and the was no consultation regarding their concerns
The industry safety forum recently launched to look at health and safety standards as well as conerns of the communty. The ISF has attracted representative from 15 leading companies,mostlty from manufacturing sector, together with the eastern Gauteng Chamber of commerce and industry.ISF chairman Leon, whois safety manager.says this broadbased represenatation is vital to the suatainability and effiecy of the forum.The role of the kwa thema monitor is to make sure the community issues are taken into consideration as well,the ISF has been established to create a pltform for information sharing and grwth in the field of health and safety.
The members are commited to assisting each other in areas such as compliance with statutory health,safety obligations and commuty issues,shaing of the best practices.problem solving and continous improvement. We also collectively review our strategies, to indentify opportunities for improvement and raising standards. We hope the spirit of cooperation and willingness to share information, this together with increased membership and broader represatation going foward,will raise overall awareness of the importance of communty issues the importance of thesafety and allow local businesses to benchmark their health and safety perfomances.
membership of of the ISF voluntary and meetings are held once a month.we beleive that working with monitors and community based organisation and professional people will assist all the stake holders to achieve better results for everyone involveWe must be to capacitate communties workers about their rights againts the companies around their places,more information will be shed as we kick off.
Kwa thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Ekurhuleni Environmental Org
effects of health of the communities and the was no consultation regarding their concerns
The industry safety forum recently launched to look at health and safety standards as well as conerns of the communty. The ISF has attracted representative from 15 leading companies,mostlty from manufacturing sector, together with the eastern Gauteng Chamber of commerce and industry.ISF chairman Leon, whois safety manager.says this broadbased represenatation is vital to the suatainability and effiecy of the forum.The role of the kwa thema monitor is to make sure the community issues are taken into consideration as well,the ISF has been established to create a pltform for information sharing and grwth in the field of health and safety.
The members are commited to assisting each other in areas such as compliance with statutory health,safety obligations and commuty issues,shaing of the best practices.problem solving and continous improvement. We also collectively review our strategies, to indentify opportunities for improvement and raising standards. We hope the spirit of cooperation and willingness to share information, this together with increased membership and broader represatation going foward,will raise overall awareness of the importance of communty issues the importance of thesafety and allow local businesses to benchmark their health and safety perfomances.
membership of of the ISF voluntary and meetings are held once a month.we beleive that working with monitors and community based organisation and professional people will assist all the stake holders to achieve better results for everyone involveWe must be to capacitate communties workers about their rights againts the companies around their places,more information will be shed as we kick off.
Kwa thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Ekurhuleni Environmental Org
Monday, 26 September 2011
kwa thema electricity crisis
Kwa thema is township which is in the east of Johannesburg which fall under Ekurhuleni metro. Kwa thema is having population of 45 000 and high number of un employment which escalates crime.
Kwa thema recently is having a problem with local goverment corncening electricity,The new system was introduced without consulting the community and leaders of the community as well. The system most of the communty dont understant it but what they tell is that ir is expensive, as i have indicated most of the people are not working, those who do are earning next to nothing at all.
The leaders of the Kwathema community that is PAC and ANC called a commnity meeeting on issue of electrictyon 03.08.2011 and letter was drafted to the Mayor and the team, stated all the problem the community is not happy about with the issue of electricity as main issue.The moyor was given two weeks to respond, two weeks went by and the was no responce.another commnity meeting was called and a decision was taken that action must be taken to show the goverment the serouisness of the matter. On the 15.09.2011 comminity went on rampage stoping people from going to work burning gorverment propety street were closed with rockss and burning tyres government officials were threaten as well police came and used rubber bullts to stop the crowd. The second day again it was the same story.Eskom aproach the commnity leaders on the same issue and explain to the leaders that it was not him who introduced the system but the municipalty of kwa thema.The information made commniy more angry and on the 22.08.2011 again community of kwa thema took action destroying government propety and cars blocking the strees again.
The moyor till today have not responded to the leaders and the commnity about the matter.Meeting was held on 24.09.2011 for stategic action to pressurise the government to respond to the demands of the comminty.
MESHACK MBANGULA
KWA THEMA MONITOR
Kwa thema recently is having a problem with local goverment corncening electricity,The new system was introduced without consulting the community and leaders of the community as well. The system most of the communty dont understant it but what they tell is that ir is expensive, as i have indicated most of the people are not working, those who do are earning next to nothing at all.
The leaders of the Kwathema community that is PAC and ANC called a commnity meeeting on issue of electrictyon 03.08.2011 and letter was drafted to the Mayor and the team, stated all the problem the community is not happy about with the issue of electricity as main issue.The moyor was given two weeks to respond, two weeks went by and the was no responce.another commnity meeting was called and a decision was taken that action must be taken to show the goverment the serouisness of the matter. On the 15.09.2011 comminity went on rampage stoping people from going to work burning gorverment propety street were closed with rockss and burning tyres government officials were threaten as well police came and used rubber bullts to stop the crowd. The second day again it was the same story.Eskom aproach the commnity leaders on the same issue and explain to the leaders that it was not him who introduced the system but the municipalty of kwa thema.The information made commniy more angry and on the 22.08.2011 again community of kwa thema took action destroying government propety and cars blocking the strees again.
The moyor till today have not responded to the leaders and the commnity about the matter.Meeting was held on 24.09.2011 for stategic action to pressurise the government to respond to the demands of the comminty.
MESHACK MBANGULA
KWA THEMA MONITOR
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
OLD AGE CRISIS EKURHULENI
The future of local old age homes andfrail care centres could come under threat, as lack of Government support has seen homes closes in Gauteng.
Old people wake early in the morning cold or raining to queue outside municipality halls to get paid,sometimes they dont get paid for a reason not known to her.secondly if he or she does get paid, the kids or grand kids use the money for they purposes, thirdly electricity is so expensive the old cant afford any more. who cares.It was better for the old if they live in the old age homes but with the Governmentlacking support. this is despite the fact that the Gauteng Department of social development underspent R66 million of its annual budget, The old age homes will be the thing of the past. This means that, This means thatthe number of older people without a home is likell to increase. following the death of 12 residents at Sruisbult care centre, proves the lack of safety for old and that the centres are not being monitored correctly.
If nothing is done about this centres the old willbe on the street. the Question that arises is ,What happen to the money from the Department of Social development. I spoke to Robbie Nkabinde spokeman for thesocial development. He accuses the department of funding non-complant old age homes while compliant care facilities remain grossly underfunded with littlte to no increase in financial resources.
Its a shame that the Government we voted in let the older to run through thunder. The life of the old is deteriorating and unfortunatly their villages are disappearing too.Keep this in mind we are getting old too, if we dont fix this problem now, whos going to fix for us when times come. Iwish to point out that social development is inconsiderate state.Our Government is able to borrow other countries like Lesotho R2 billion and at the same time cant take of their own old age residents, its shame
Kwa thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Old people wake early in the morning cold or raining to queue outside municipality halls to get paid,sometimes they dont get paid for a reason not known to her.secondly if he or she does get paid, the kids or grand kids use the money for they purposes, thirdly electricity is so expensive the old cant afford any more. who cares.It was better for the old if they live in the old age homes but with the Governmentlacking support. this is despite the fact that the Gauteng Department of social development underspent R66 million of its annual budget, The old age homes will be the thing of the past. This means that, This means thatthe number of older people without a home is likell to increase. following the death of 12 residents at Sruisbult care centre, proves the lack of safety for old and that the centres are not being monitored correctly.
If nothing is done about this centres the old willbe on the street. the Question that arises is ,What happen to the money from the Department of Social development. I spoke to Robbie Nkabinde spokeman for thesocial development. He accuses the department of funding non-complant old age homes while compliant care facilities remain grossly underfunded with littlte to no increase in financial resources.
Its a shame that the Government we voted in let the older to run through thunder. The life of the old is deteriorating and unfortunatly their villages are disappearing too.Keep this in mind we are getting old too, if we dont fix this problem now, whos going to fix for us when times come. Iwish to point out that social development is inconsiderate state.Our Government is able to borrow other countries like Lesotho R2 billion and at the same time cant take of their own old age residents, its shame
Kwa thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Bench mark foundation,Road to development,(monitoring school)
Bench mark foundation is an independent church based organisation.It is involve in multiple responsibilities eg, Monitoring school.I felt that it is very important for me and other organisation as well as world to know about Monitoring school.
The Monitoring School started in 2008 by Bench mark. I Meshack Mbangula i started in 2010 May. The Monitoring shool is an amazing capacity building school, when i was called from Justice and peace to attend the school. I was disturb reason being, was the first time i heard of such thing or animal. Disturb as i was,i attended the school with negative intentions.Supringly the Monitoring school of Bench mark is a class of its own, Im saying this because of what i was before and after i attended the school. Before i attended the school i did not care what is happening in my community, they health,drinking water, dumping and Companies who polluting our environment, I was selfish that the right word.
What Bech Mark did to are the following, Computer skills eg basic computer, emails and windows.The other skills are as follows, free writing,speaker trainig, information reseach, confidance and interact with other organisation as well.With these tools i was able to face the Companies around who polluting to take responsability, capacitated my community about environmentas well as domestic pollution and involving the local government in issues pataining the communty that need be dealt with urgently.I was able to change some of the things like the open areas are no more dumping areas but Parks.
Interacting with other organisation help a lot in gathering in information and used in your community.
Now im part of the Movement called CJN(climate justice now).CJN is movement formed by number of organisation to fight issue of climate change,the aim is to pressurise Govermenmt and big corporates to reduce emmissions that affect our climate negatively with green house gases,Im helping in organising the capacitation of the people of Gauteng about Climate change and the trip to Durban, to Cop17( conference of the parties)where the whole world will be meeting to discuss climate change. We want our Government to be commited and sign a binding agreement, that is why we are taking everybody to Durban.
Bench Mark foundation significance, importace and relevance of these contributions cannot be over emphasised, im Valued. I hope and believe that other organisation as well as the goverment will follow suit.Thank you Bench Mark you Rock.
Kwa Thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
The Monitoring School started in 2008 by Bench mark. I Meshack Mbangula i started in 2010 May. The Monitoring shool is an amazing capacity building school, when i was called from Justice and peace to attend the school. I was disturb reason being, was the first time i heard of such thing or animal. Disturb as i was,i attended the school with negative intentions.Supringly the Monitoring school of Bench mark is a class of its own, Im saying this because of what i was before and after i attended the school. Before i attended the school i did not care what is happening in my community, they health,drinking water, dumping and Companies who polluting our environment, I was selfish that the right word.
What Bech Mark did to are the following, Computer skills eg basic computer, emails and windows.The other skills are as follows, free writing,speaker trainig, information reseach, confidance and interact with other organisation as well.With these tools i was able to face the Companies around who polluting to take responsability, capacitated my community about environmentas well as domestic pollution and involving the local government in issues pataining the communty that need be dealt with urgently.I was able to change some of the things like the open areas are no more dumping areas but Parks.
Interacting with other organisation help a lot in gathering in information and used in your community.
Now im part of the Movement called CJN(climate justice now).CJN is movement formed by number of organisation to fight issue of climate change,the aim is to pressurise Govermenmt and big corporates to reduce emmissions that affect our climate negatively with green house gases,Im helping in organising the capacitation of the people of Gauteng about Climate change and the trip to Durban, to Cop17( conference of the parties)where the whole world will be meeting to discuss climate change. We want our Government to be commited and sign a binding agreement, that is why we are taking everybody to Durban.
Bench Mark foundation significance, importace and relevance of these contributions cannot be over emphasised, im Valued. I hope and believe that other organisation as well as the goverment will follow suit.Thank you Bench Mark you Rock.
Kwa Thema monitor
MESHACK MBANGULA
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