Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter Two police stations in the Free State were closed this morning after some officers tested positive for COVID-19. Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Thandi Mbambo announced in two separate statements that Kroonstad and Allanridge police stations have been temporarily closed after an officer at each of the two community service centres tested positive for the coronavirus. “All communities serviced by Kroonstad SAPS are advised that the station has been temporarily closed after one member tested positive for COVID-19,” Mbambo said in her initial statement around mid-morning Monday. Kroonstad is an agriculture-rich town in Fezile Dabi district and is also…

Staff Reporter Free State police have launched a double inquest after a man and a woman, believed to be lovers, were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a car in Bayswater, Bloemfontein. Provincial police spokesperson Thandi Mbambo said in a statement released Friday night the bodies of the pair, believed to be from eastern Free State, were found at about 8am near the Gwen Bali Water World on the north-eastern outskirts of the city. Mbambo said police made the gruesome finding after a community member reported that a vehicle had been parked at the waterpark from the previous night. The…

Staff Reporter Free State Education MEC Tate Makgoe says learners in Grades 7 and 12 in the province’s rural and farming communities should be accommodated in hostels so they can dedicate more time to their studies without having to travel long distances to school. Makgoe said the learner transport that ferries some of them to school is not always reliable and this has resulted in some of them missing classes. “We want to ensure that more and more of our farm learners live in hostels,” Makgoe said during a learner transport roadshow at Kagisho Comprehensive Secondary School in Bloemfontein The…

Staff Reporter At least 37 learners, eight teachers, a principal and a senior education official in the Free State have tested positive for COVID-19 as the province’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases edges towards 1 000. The hardest hit is Vaal Christian School, an independent school in Viljoensdrif in the Metsimaholo Local Municipality, where 27 learners, five teachers and a hostel staffer tested positive this week. At Christian Deweet School in Dewetsdorp, eight learners have tested positive for COVID-19. Both schools had to immediately suspend classes to allow for decontamination to take place. In Welkom, two teachers from Hani…

Staff Reporter Free State Stars home ground, Goble Park Stadium in Bethlehem, will be renamed the Mike Mokoena Stadium in honour of the football club’s late founder and chairman. Addressing mourners at Mokoena’s funeral in Bethlehem today, Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela said the provincial government felt it a fitting honour to rename the venue and the process is expected to start soon. “In his honour, we have resolved . . . to urgently begin a process of renaming Goble Park Stadium, here in Bethlehem, to Mike Mokoena Stadium,” Ntombela said. The premier said the necessary legal processes as informed…

Staff Reporter Central University of Technology (CUT) has reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case after a staff member at the Free State institution’s Bloemfontein campus tested positive for the coronavirus. In a statement released Friday, the university said the infected staff member is currently in self-isolation and is being treated under the supervision of the Free State provincial health department. “We wish our colleague all of the best during the self-isolation period, and a speedy, full recovery. We care about you as CUT family, and you are in our thoughts and prayers,” CUT vice chancellor and principal, Professor Henk de…

Staff Reporter Another clinic in the Free State has been temporarily closed after a health official at the facility tested positive for COVID-19. A joint statement issued by the Ngwathe Local Municipal and the Free State Department of Health Friday morning said Parys Clinic and the municipality’s administration building have been closed with immediate effect after the coronavirus infection was confirmed but services will not be disrupted. “The health services will not be interrupted as the Parys Clinic is running its operations from a mobile health service in the same vicinity where the municipality also performs its operations,” read part…

Staff Reporter Mike Mokoena, the late founder and chairperson of Free State Stars Football Club, will be buried today at the Utopia Cemetery in Morelig, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. All flags in the province are expected to fly at half-mast today in honour of the veteran football administrator who was accorded a special official provincial funeral by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The funeral service for the late Mokoena was scheduled for this morning at the Methodist Church in the Bohlokong township, near Thabo Thokoza Secondary School, in Bethlehem. Premier Sisi Ntombela is the only high-ranking government official expected to attend…

Staff Reporter At least 92 houses in Ngwathe Local Municipality in northern Free State have been drawing electricity directly from the main supply lines without any meters installed to measure and regulate their consumption, an official has said. Municipal spokesperson Steve Nale told The Free Stater in a telephone interview Thursday that illegal connections were putting a major strain on their supplies, thereby prompting them to revamp the electricity meter system in the municipality. The municipality has also approached Eskom to increase the amount of electricity it receives as it has now been forced to resort to load shedding due to increased…

Staff Reporter A Bethlehem man aged 31 was arrested this week after he stabbed his cousin several times following a failed rape attempt in her house. Police spokesperson Colonel Thandi Mbambo said the accused was arrested by members of the Bethlehem K9 Unit on the street after bolting out of the house following the attack on the 19-year-old cousin on Tuesday. It is alleged the woman was washing dishes at her house in the Egypt area of Bohlokong township in Bethlehem. She shares the house with her other cousins but not the accused. According to the police, her other cousins…