Author: The Free Stater

Staff Reporter Free State Education MEC Tate Makgoe has condemned the assault of a teacher at Setjhaba se Maketse Combined School in Botshabelo by a parent and his daughter. A statement released by provincial education spokesperson Howard Ndaba says a father and his daughter doing Grade 11 arrived at the school in the morning and beat up the Physical Science teacher. “We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the assault of the teacher in full view of the learners and teachers,” said Makgoe in the statement. Teaching and learning was disrupted due to the incident described by the provincial education…

Staff Reporter Three armed suspects wearing police masks robbed a manager, two employees and a security officer at the Wesselsbron Post Office at gun point on Thursday morning. Lejweleputswa district police spokesperson Captain Stephen Thakeng said in a statement the trio made off with an undisclosed amount of cash. “At 07:45 the manager of Wesselsbron Post Office was with two employees and a security officer when they were forced to get to the back offices of the business premises,” read part of the statement. “They were tied up at gunpoint. The manager was forced to open the safe and an…

Staff Reporter Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) president Professor Bonang Mohale has blamed the high poverty levels among black South Africans on slow transformation and urged the government to use its powers to improve people’s lives. “When you have political power, you were not given this political power to look at it and admire it every morning and caress it,” said Mohale, who is also the chancellor of the University of the Free State. He said this during a Business Breakfast Masterclass organised by the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA) and the Free State…

After the Free State once again emerged as South Africa’s best-performing province in the 2021 National Senior Certificate examinations to make it a record sixth time over the past eight years, The Free Stater has published a special digital magazine to celebrate the success. How has the province managed to do it? Who were the top achievers? What plans are in place to keep the Free State among the best-performing provinces in matric exams? To read all about this and more and join us in celebrating our province’s feats in education, here are the links for the Matric e-magazine: www.thefreestater.co.za…

It is a pity that a substantial number of owners buy into sectional title complexes without understanding how they really work. Most importantly, they don’t understand that they are becoming part of a community that is run on democratic principles where the majority rules. So often we have individual owners that don’t understand why a building is not being run the way that they want it to be run. Body corporates are made up of every owner in the building or complex and each owner has a say at a general meeting. They are able to vote on any item…

Staff Reporter Mangaung council speaker Stefan Lockman has been suspended with immediate effect. Lockman, an ANC member, was suspended by her party after she allegedly defied the party’s caucus in council and allowed a vote of no confidence against city manager Sello More on Wednesday evening. More was kicked out of office with just three days left on his contract and has since approached the courts on an urgent basis for an interdict. The suspension was announced by the ANC Interim Regional Committee (IRC) in Mangaung on Thursday following an urgent meeting earlier in the day. “The speaker is suspended…

Staff Reporter Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela has expressed shock at the untimely passing of former Police, Roads and Transport MEC Butana Komphela, He was 65. Komphela is said to have passed away on Monday afternoon. A statement from the premier’s office said she is deeply saddened by the unexpected death of the former MEC. According to the statement, Ntombela, who served with Komphela in the provincial executive, is distraught at his passing. She described him as a passionate, loyal and patriotic man whose death has left a void which will be difficult to fill. Komphela also served as MEC…

Staff Reporter The Free State High Court has handed a 25-year-old man from Brandfort an effective 20 years in jail after he was convicted of killing his girlfriend in May last year. Judge Sylvia Daniso sentenced Lebohang Lucas Morake for the murder of Angelina Dora Lecwidi. Morake and Lecwidi were drinking at a local tavern when they were involved in a verbal argument after he accused her of cheating. National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phaladi Shuping said in a statement the accused grabbed Lecwidi by her clothes and pulled her outside. “He then assaulted her by hitting her with fists,…

Staff Reporter The long-running social problems such as water shortages that gripped Thabo Mofutsanyana district over the greater part of last year could have contributed to the drop in the pass rate recorded by the class of 2021 in the area, Education MEC Tate Makgoe has said. Usually one of the best districts in the Free State, Thabo Mofutsanyana recorded the lowest pass rate in the province after it achieved 82.5 percent following a drop of 3.3 percentage points from the previous year. “I think what probably went wrong is that there have been a lot of social problems in…

Staff Reporter Free State top learner Chané Nel from Oranje Meisieskool feels the material taught in economics for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) should be updated so it becomes more relevant to the current economic situation. Nel, who got nine distinctions in the 2021 NSC exams including economics, says the subject is quite demanding in terms of the workload compared to other subjects. She said this is made even worse by the fact that the main textbook is more than 13 years old yet the exam focuses on the current economic situation. “Our textbook was written in 2009, and obviously…