Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter With daily dosages of COVID-19 information and statistics dominating the headlines and flooding your social media timelines, you are probably now sick and tired of coronavirus news. But seeing how the pandemic is wreaking havoc in the Free State and elsewhere across the country, this is one health crisis you cannot afford to ignore, not even for a minute. Take a look at this picture: on the morning of June 1 when President Cyril Ramaphosa first eased the lockdown restrictions, the Free State had 266 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including eight related deaths. Now, just two months later –…

Staff Reporter Eskom will reduce the amount of electricity it delivers to at least three districts in the Free State starting Thursday as it tries to limit power overloads in areas where illegal connections are rife. In a statement, the national power utility said it will be implementing load reduction in Thabo Mofutsanyana, Lejweleputswa and Fezile Dabi districts during the morning peak period of 6am-9am. “Overloading on the Eskom electrical network results in damage to electricity infrastructure through explosions of transformers and mini-substations and prolonged outages,” Eskom said. Lejweleputswa is set to be the first area to be affected as…

Staff Reporter Driving a foreign-registered vehicle on South African roads without a valid import permit could land you in trouble with the law, like a Free State businessman recently found out. Joaquim Alves, from Ficksburg in the eastern part of the province, can however count himself lucky after the courts thwarted – on a technicality – the state’s attempts to seize his car, a second-hand Nissan Serena station wagon. The Free State High Court last week dismissed with costs an appeal lodged by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) against a court order to release the vehicle in question to…

Staff Reporter The two-month-old baby boy who was reported to have gone missing at Bloemspruit Clinic in Bloemfontein last week has been reunited with his mother. The woman who allegedly abducted the baby last Friday is now behind bars after being traced to a house in Phase 6, Bloemspruit. The suspect, aged 38, will appear in the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on a charge of abduction on Thursday. Police say the suspect was initially pregnant but somehow lost her unborn baby and was scared to tell the husband, hence she schemed the evil plan. “She was scared to inform the husband…

Staff Reporter Murder-accused Mojalefa Letele, a former prison warder at the Goedemoed Correctional Centre near Rouxville, had a very close relationship with an inmate, Jongikhaya Madala Sam-Sam, with whom he allegedly connived to attack and kill his colleague Nomsa Stuurman in March last year, the Free State High Court has heard. So close were the two that Letele, 49, is said to have often assigned Sam-Sam, 38, to do chores for him including cleaning for him, mending his clothes and polishing his shoes. The allegations were made by the first state witness in the trial of Letele, who is facing…

Staff Reporter The ANC says it is “outraged and deeply embarrassed” by its members and their families who are implicated in fresh allegations of corruption related to COVID-19 tender irregularities and profiteering. The condemnation – coming a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa likened those who sought to profit from the coronavirus pandemic to “scavengers” – follows a meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) at the weekend that was reportedly split along factional lines over how to deal with the latest scandals. In a statement released Monday, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the law must come down hard on…

Staff Reporter The trial of a Goedemoed Correctional Centre warder believed to be at the centre of the killing of a female colleague and the rape of another by an inmate in March 2019 started in the Free State High Court this Monday. Mojalefa Letele, 49, is said to have offered a pair of shoes and promised money to convicted criminal Jongikhaya Madala Sam-Sam, 38, to “intimidate” Nomsa Stuurman and a few other prison warders as he did not get along well with them. Sam-Sam, who was already serving two life sentences for rape and attempted murder, was handed a…

Staff Reporter Services at the Mangaung Metro head office, Bram Fischer Building, are expected to resume Tuesday after it was closed today for decontamination following a COVID-19 case. A statement released by municipal spokesperson Qondile Khedama said they received confirmation over the weekend that an official working in the building had tested positive for the acute respiratory disease. “As the city, we have in line with the COVID-19 health regulations and our internal toolkit closed the building for decontamination processes,” he said in the statement. Operations at all other regional offices of the city were not affected by the disruption.…

Staff Reporter Dozens of graves containing bodies of people with albinism have either been robbed or violated over the past five years in different parts of Africa – including South Africa – by people targeting their body parts and other personal effects, a new book on African skin conditions says. The African Atlas, Synopsis and Practical Guide to Clinical Dermatology by Bloemfontein dermatologist Dr Lehlohonolo Makhakhe states that at least 28 graves were robbed and a further 22 violated. The book says a shocking 207 people living albinism were killed from a reported 507 attacks in which they were targeted…

Staff Reporter A Bloemfontein woman is said to have handed over her two-month-old baby to a stranger at a local clinic after she was duped into believing children were not allowed inside. In a statement release Saturday evening, Free State police spokesperson Brigadier Sam Makhele said the incident happened on Thursday when Kgomotso King, 18, went to collect her medication at Bloemspruit Clinic at about 3:45pm. “Another lady who was also in the queue told her that babies are not allowed in the clinic,” Makhele said. King is then said to have asked the unknown woman, whom she believed to…