THE TRAGIC DEATH OF TETELO SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATOR @KASIBC_NEWS

THE TRAGIC DEATH OF TETELO SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATOR @KASIBC_NEWS 

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane is deeply saddened to have learned about the tragic death of a 34-year-old male educator from Tetelo Secondary School in Soweto, who was unfortunately found dead on Monday, 9 June 2025. According to reports, the educator had allegedly requested an e-hailing service on Wednesday, 4 June 2025, and subsequently went missing. It is alleged that his family was informed of his death on Monday, 9 June 2025.  

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident.  Our Psycho-Social Support Unit has been dispatched to the school to provide necessary counselling to learners and educators following this traumatic loss. The deceased educator taught English and isiZulu to Grade 11 and Grade 12 learners at Tetelo Secondary School. 

The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) mourns the loss of not only an educator, but a beacon of hope that was meant to empower young minds in the heart of Soweto, inspiring them to succeed beyond their capabilities. “As the Department, we are deeply saddened by the tragedy that has struck the school community of Tetelo Secondary. Educators are the architects of our children’s futures, and to have lost such an invaluable educator is a loss that ultimately alters the trajectory of our children’s futures. 

We extend our most sincerest condolences to his family, as well as the learners and fellow staff members. We share in your pain and your plea for those responsible for this senseless crime to be apprehended speedily,” said MEC Chiloane.  

THE REPATRIATION OF AFRICAN ANCESTORS' SACRED HUMAN REMAINS FROM EURO-WESTERN COUNTRIES @KASIBC_NEWS

THE REPATRIATION OF AFRICAN ANCESTORS' SACRED HUMAN REMAINS FROM EURO-WESTERN COUNTRIES @KASIBC_NEWS

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the recent call by Minister Gayton McKenzie and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) for public assistance in identifying the remains of South Africans who died in exile during the anti-apartheid struggle. These include liberation fighters, cultural icons, visual artists and indigenous peoples whose mortal remains lie in unmarked graves on foreign soil, despite their contributions to the freedom we all enjoy today. 

While the EFF fully supports the repatriation of our heroes and heroines for dignified reburial on home soil, we are deeply concerned by what appears to be performative posturing by the Minister. The issue of ancestral repatriation is not symbolic it is a matter of national identity, redress, and historical justice. 

On 24 November 2024, the EFF formally submitted to the Minister detailed information on the grave site of William "Bloke" Modisane, a towering literary figure of the Drum era who passed away on 1 March 1986 in Dortmund, Germany. 

We requested a clear plan and timeline for his repatriation. To date eight (8) months later his remains have not been returned. In the same month, we alerted the Minister to the historical theft of five (5) full human skeletons from graves in Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape (EC), which were taken to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) around 1910 and later shipped to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. under the racist "skull-for-a-skull" exchange program between the two museums. 

These remains, stolen for pseudo scientific race research practice sought to undermine black people’s human dignity, have yet to be returned. Furthermore, the DSAC is called upon to work closely with the National Prosecution Authority Missing in Action Task Team to bring closure to the fallen heroes of the Wankie/Spolilo Campaign in Zimbabwe. 

The families have not been visited nor closure brought to them. There was never compensation to the families of those gallant fighters to date nor a symbolic return from the battlefield of their spirits. Additionally, the family of Comrade Modikwa Frans Ratsoma (MK Phooka) and many others who fought alongside the ZIPRA/MK Luthuli detachment in the 1968 battles are awaiting with eager for information on the spot where their bones are buried in shallow graves made by the white Rhodesian security forces. 

The continued inaction and tangible outcomes on all these matters and others similar to them reflects a failure of leadership and seriousness. We call on the Minister to treat the repatriation of ancestral remains as a matter of urgency, not ceremony. 

We further urge all museums in South Africa that still house human remains of African ancestors, whether collected ethically or unethically, to return these remains to their rightful communities and families. It is deeply disturbing that institutions such as Iziko Museums of South Africa one of the oldest museums in the country continue to hold 1,266 human remains in their collection. Of these, 225 are ancestral remains that were unethically collected from across South Africa (particularly the Northern Cape), as well as Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Australia for pseudo race scientific purposes. 

 The continued possession of these sacred remains of African people is a stark reminder of the colonial violations that dehumanised indigenous African peoples, and it demands urgent redress. This constitutes a crime against humanity, and institutions such as this along with others who engaged in similar nefarious practices must be held accountable for the historical and ongoing violations they have committed against African people. 

Colonial institutions must no longer serve as custodians of our ancestors, treating their remains as objects of scientific curiosity. It is unacceptable that colonial institutions, such as museums, continue to imprison the mortal remains of our ancestors treated as ‘specimens’ under discredited pseudo-scientific race theories that sought to depict African people as subhuman and justify colonial brutality. 

We must reject, unequivocally, the indignity of our ancestors being reduced to ‘objects’ of scientific curiosity, denied the humanity and reverence they deserve. True freedom and justice remain incomplete while African ancestral remains languish in display cases and storage vaults of museums, ‘scientific’ institutions and universities, both in this country and abroad. We say: never again shall our dignity be compromised by institutions that once legitimised the violence and dehumanisation of our people. 

The era of storing African ancestor’s sacred human remains in glass cabinets must end, now and museums must be decolonised, by hook or by crook. True freedom and dignity cannot exist while the remains of our forebears languish in museological prisons born of discredited race science. 

Repatriation is not a symbolic act it is a necessary restoration of humanity, dignity, and sovereignty. 

The EFF demands immediate and measurable action from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Our ancestors must come home.  

MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE TSHWANE SPEAKER MNCEDI NDZWANANA @KASIBC_NEWS

MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE TSHWANE SPEAKER MNCEDI NDZWANANA @KASIBC_NEWS 

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane has resolved that it will bring a Motion of No Confidence (MoNC) against Speaker of Council Cllr Mncedi Ndzwanana, during the Council Meeting of 26 June 2025.

Since 2023, Tshwane’s Council Chamber, which is meant to serve as a beacon of democracy, has been subjected to the tyranny of a Speaker of Council, who runs it like a dictator, who views Councillors as his subjects.

He makes his rulings based on emotion, and neither logic nor the rules of Council. Due to this attitude, Councillors cannot participate in meetings as equal peers.

His discriminatory behaviour has reached a point where parties outside of the governing coalition do not have a fair say or hearing for that matter, in Council meetings. The speaker has developed a disposition to dismiss all propositions of the DA Caucus, as legally and rationally sound as they may be, these include:

Points of order;

Requests for deliberation on reports and amendments to reports;

Recommendations; and

Motions brought before Council especially when they do not favour his coalition partners.

At the Council meeting of 29 May 2025, the DA Caucus expressed its dissent with a report tabled to the Council on the establishment of the Economic Growth Advisory Committee, to which it argued, was replicating the work of many other committees already in existence. 

We requested for a vote on the report, in terms of Section 39 of the Rules and Orders By-Laws (2012). The Speaker denied the DA Caucus the opportunity to exercise its right to vote. Endorsing this report was not only unethical, but an additional cost burden for the city.

Furthermore, at the Council meeting of 24 April 2025, the Speaker denied the DA the opportunity to debate motions brought before Council, even with it having fulfilled all the requirements as per the Rules and Orders By-Laws of Council. Subsequent to that, in the very same Council meeting, the Speaker acceded to having ruled incorrectly with regards to the debating of the motions. He is both indecisive and impulsive.

The Speaker has been at the helm of a new administration that brought oversight to a complete halt towards the end of 2024. For a period of almost four (4) months, committee meetings of Council failed to take place, either being postponed or cancelled. It was only after the DA’s public outcry in this regard, that some sort of stability prevailed and committee meetings were resuscitated in February 2025.

How are democratically elected public representatives expected to represent their constituencies, when their voices are being stifled? This is not symbolic of representative democracy; it is tantamount to censorship. We will remove the Speaker, and restore democracy to Tshwane’s Council chamber.

Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya on Menopause @KASIBC_NEWS

Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya on Menopause @KASIBC_NEWS 

The ANC Women’s League is appalled by the statement made by the ANC Youth League in Greater Tshwane Region, and strongly condemns the impertinent and imprudent “invocation of menopause as a metaphor for political atavism and reactionary regression by the ANC Youth League”. Such language is not only scientifically and socially flawed but also deeply disrespectful to the lived experiences of women, particularly within our movement, which champions equality, dignity and progressive discourse. Chapter two (2) of the South African Constitution guarantees the right to human dignity and the extent to which the right is protected is limitless, and the ANCWL subscribes to the principles of non-sexism and opposed to all forms of discrimination and chauvinism. 

Irrespective of our anger and dissatisfaction on various issues we differ upon, it is impolite to vulgarise the reproductive cycle of women. Menopause is a natural biological transition, representing wisdom, experience, and strength - qualities that should be celebrated, not disparaged. To use it as a means of demeaning an individual, borders on the lines of ill-discipline and disrespect for our elders and women in general. It also undermines the struggle for gender equity and reinforces harmful stereotypes that have no place in a progressive and democratic society. 

This type of behaviour wreaks of patriarchal behaviour, that’s borne out of a demonic patriarchal system that has a negative impact on the well-being of our women. Many women sacrificed everything to break the chains of patriarchy, and if it can't be corrected today, all those efforts will be undermined and reduced to derogatory and misogyny. 

Whilst we appreciate the withdrawal of the ANCYL paragraph five (5) as stated in their selective apology, we are concerned about the uncouth language used in the statement. We frown on the behaviour and the obscene literature which stands against our upbringing and the moral fibre of our movement and society. 

The ANC Youth League has a revolutionary duty to define their own path, in an endeavour to equip young people with the necessary expertise in a rapidly changing economic landscape, however the ANCWL encourages civility and demeanour in addressing these pertinent matters. 

We cannot therefore condone the use of crude words to describe the Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Nasiphi Moya and Cde Morakane Mosupye, especially when we celebrate a month where young people of yesteryear played a significant role in shaping a new political trajectory through the 1976 June uprising.  

We are equally bewildered with the statement issued by the Young Women’s Desk (YWD) in Tshwane which further exacerbated the unrefined pronouncement on the dignity of Cde Morakane Mosupye, and we want to categorically state that none of our structures has commissioned such discourse. 

The ANCWL unreservedly extend our heartfelt apologies to Cde Morakane Mosupye on the assertions made by the YWD from Tshwane, which approximate to malicious intent to harm her personal integrity. The Young Women’s Desk continues to be a “desk” of the ANC Women’s League and its purpose of existence remains that of amplifying the voice of young people in pursuit of the struggle for the total emancipation of women from an inherently patriarchal society. 

Therefore, the indecorum which departs from the adopted organisational principles and culture of the ANC Women’s League is tantamount to unethical and immoral conduct which detracts from the character, values and integrity of our movement. In consequence of the deviation from the good character that defines our movement, the ANC Women’s League has directed the Young Women’s Desk in Tshwane to withdraw its statement, and issue a public apology. We further encourage these young people to seek counsel to confront future political discourse. 

The ANC Women’s League remains committed to the battle of ideas which upholds the values of inclusivity, respect, and meaningful engagement in pursuit of the democratic ideals we stand for and advancing gender equality. We will continue to speak out against any form of sexist and/or disrespectful language that undermines the dignity of women. 

We urge the Youth League to apologize without reservations for their comments and to demonstrate greater sensitivity in future communications. In the seventieth (70) year of the Freedom Charter let us draw inspiration from the 1955 generation of volunteers who devoted their lives in pursuance of social justice, equality and human rights for all.