By PAKO NEWS REPORTER

GOOD FRIDAY! What a weekend! CHRISTIAN community globally commemorate Good Friday or Easter weekend in memory of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Church of Praised and Salvation popular known as Pako le Pholoso under the stewardship of Archbishop Stephan Mokgadi Molokwane and Bishop Letsholo Ramapatsi and head reverent David Lesejane hosted a successful commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ on the Easter service in Pella. Pako le Pholoso (Christ Apostolic Church) registered as the Church of Praised and Salvation was founded by the late Her Grace Queen Prophet Archbishop Bolele Molokwane who ordinated the Presiding Archbishop Stephen Mokgadi Molokwane 25 years ago.

The annual church conference and commemorate Jesus Christ (death and resurrection) was attended by thousands of worshippers including Pastor Wonder Tlhowe from Rustenburg (Tlhabane West) Lady Pastor Phindile Gama from Tlokweng and Lady Pastor Granny Segale from Lekgalong.

The church originates in Pella and slowly growing as its messages and services reach out to everyone across the world. Church spokesperson Head Reverent David Seabelo Lesejane said, “We are a community or family church, as you see we are both young and old not forgetting our peoples living with disabilities. We converged in this holy mount of Horeba as members of the church of Praised and Salvation (CAC) known as Pako le Pholoso in good standing for three important reasons.

Firstly we are here to commemorate the death of our great Lord Jesus Christ as Christians, secondly will be our church's annual conference, and also vote for new church leaders. Lastly, we pray and praise as a family, and receive different spiritual messages from our church leaders including our Presiding Archbishop Stephen Mokgadi Molokwane”.

Church members who were interviewed said they are happy to be in the spiritual mountain. “Pako le Pholoso is my spiritual home, as human beings, we all need spiritual homes to give us spiritual motivations, guidance and teaching,” said one member.

Jayne Chilwane who also attended said, “I am not a member of this church but a visitor and receive help from Archbishop Molokwane, I was referred by a friend and notice a big change in my life. It is my first-time experience coming to this mountain on this Good Friday but everything is perfect up so far”. 

“Bible tells us about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it tells us that Jesus Christ was killed for our sins that including oppression by fellow human beings. Some people enjoy bullying, controlling and oppressing fellow human beings hence Jesus Christ came to liberate or free the oppressed. People are born free but always in a chain to submit to the advantageous and powerful. True Godly Spiritual do empower knowledge and understanding,” said another church member.

By PAKO NEWS REPORTER

THE MOSES KOTANE Local Municipality in the North West province hosted a successful graduation ceremony at Modizen Guest House in Mogwase on Thursday the 30 March. The graduation ceremony was organized by Moses Kotane Municipality’s Department of Local Economic Development in collaboration with the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation to award 16 artists certificates after completing 6 months of training in creative art. The graduates were trained in creative arts through the EPWP (Extended Public works Program). They received training in film production, music, drama and others related to creative art.

According to acting director of Local Economic Development Abby Mogashoa, the purpose of the event was to bid farewell to the second group of performing artists who have enrolled for the second year. These 16 potential artists were presented with certificates by the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation’s representative known as Mr Makinita and  Tebogo Modisane from JM Ntsime High School.

Acting Director of LED Abby Mogashoa said “Each time a movie is recorded or TV series, catering, transport, accommodation, wardrobe, makeup, props and sets set to benefit and this industry when looked after it can create the much-needed jobs in our communities and as a Municipality, we are working tirelessly with industry specialists to help unearth talent in our communities”

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture applauded Moses Kotanes LED Department for being the first in the province to come up with such a program to empower the youth with skills in creative art. A nonprofit organization will be registered as an aftercare program together with three cooperatives. The department will oversee this development and ensure its success.

Mogashoa closed off the ceremony by quoting the Ghanaian writer Ayi Kweyi Armah's famous novel The beautiful one are not born He warned everyone against scammers in the trade and that they should always be vigilant with their lives and future. 

By PAKO NEWS REPORTER

EDUCATION IS THE key, and the Bill of rights requires the state to make educational facilities available to all children in South Africa. It is unfortunate that a large number of scholars have to walk more than 5km for a single trip to school.

Pako Community Newspaper news team was part of the Qhubeka Bicycles Donation event held at Morare High School in Pella recently. MmeTumi Mudutwane representative of Qhubeka NPO in an interview with Pako Community   Newspaper said, “Today we as Qhubeka NPO are in Morare High School to donate 115 bicycles to grade 10, normally we donate to grades 10, 11 and 12. This is a motivation to our grade 10 as we are also motivated by the fact that Morare High School have improve their matric last year.

“Qhubeka is a Nguni word for progress in Setswana it means tswelopele. Our NPO originates in USA and Italy, it comes to South Africa Pretoria where our head offices are based but production and manufacturing of bicycles are done in Skundrief and Grootmarico. We have adopted eight schools which are Morare High School(Madikwe), Sewagodimo Technical High School (Pella), Thutokematla High School(Groot Marico), Kgosi Bodiba and Motlhaputseng High schools (Tlokweng), Reiboseng Hgh School ( Vrede) and Thebe ya Tlhajwa High School in Koffikraal.

“We have been donating for the past five years, we encourage our bicycle riders to make sure that they move as a group to avoid being isolated and marked by criminals”, said Mudutwane. 

One of the senior educators at Morare High School Mam Saria Mmalekwakwe said they are fortunate to be considered under the leadership of the hard-working and dedicated Mr Mokwena.

“We are fortunate as Morare High School to be considered under the leadership of hard-working and dedicated Mr Mokwena, considering the fact that majority of scholar travel or walk from Letlhakane village sometimes some arrive late, with tiredness that influence lack of concentration in class, program it is helpful,” said Mmalekwakwe.

A parent Joyce Lesejane is happy for the bicycle will help her child arrive at school on time and at home before sunset. “This bicycle came at the right time for my child because he used to come home very tired after walking a long distance from and to school, I would to thank Qhubeka, the principal and the teachers for great work,”Lesejane.

One of the students that received the bicycle is Nkwe and she said responding to Pako Community News, “Iyo shocked and excited at some time. I like cycling as a sport because it keeps me healthy. I am happy about the bicycle as it will help me to travel to school with my friends, it will keep us healthy and avoid health diseases or conditions like obesity, chronic and diabetes”.  

The principal of Morare High School, Mokwena said emphasis that these bicycles are scholars’ source of transport to school. “Ensure that scholars are on time and at school at all times. This bicycle is a token of appreciation from Qhubeka and Morare high school as we appreciate this moment of being with you as our learner. It’s a tool to motivate you to invest your time and efforts in your studies,” he said addressing the learners.

By Thato Seleke

We are emotional human beings with different feelings. During our childhood growth, we are loved, admired, embraced, kissed and hugged by our loving parents or guardians but when we grow to be teenagers towards our youth sad changes occur. Some of us never experienced childhoods love from anyone but only have a sad painful story to tell and we are used to our loneliness.

Dating means different things to different individuals, and dating has a different purpose for different individuals especially those who proposed to date. When agreeing to a date, you might not have full details of what will transpire, you might just take it lightly but end up in an unexpected direction as this is part of blind dating. We experience this in our daily life and living even if dating a person you know.

Dating is when two peoples agree on a specific engagement, it might be a visit at home, or a social visit at restaurants, taverns or malls. Simply we agree to be together for that moment at that given time and space. Decision-making about dating might be a good thing but come with a price which has after-effects or consequences. It is important and necessary to inquire from the date proposer what is the plan or intentions of this dating so you are able to come up with straightforward terms and conditions to secure yourself and mean what you stand for to avoid surprises. It might be a secret dating but inform someone you trust so that you have a backup in case of need. 

We all need love, we all need to be loved and all we need is love. Human nature; from our childhood we grow and develop throw experimenting and experiencing, we hear, we see and develop an emotional need to test to have experience. During the teenage stage when hormones develop, we might be tempted to experiment with fire knowing that it burns. The teenage stage introduces you to the youth stage and period this is a stage of confusion (adolescence) where peer pressure dictates a young person's daily plan. Hormone changes, emotional growth and development, anything is possible.

Blind dating might go either way or one way. Adolescence is not for teenagers only we also see this peer pressure behaviour in youth and adults. Relationships are established out of dating activity, there are many kinds of relationships such as friendly dating with friends with benefits, casual dating with casual benefits, intimate or romantic dating with its benefits, Inquest dating with its benefits and so on. What about one-night stand dating also with its benefits? What are the terms and conditions for one-night stand dating? Is this one-night stand dating the same as a transactional sexual activity? Transitional sex dating is a relationship for sex for the exchange of gifts or money depending on the agreement between the two. It might turn ugly when another party's promise is not fulfilled. 

As an individual let’s know and understand what we need or want. Knowledge is the power so we are able to make informed decisions. Let’s avoid agreeing on dating for Ke tla bona kopele. Blind dating includes Nthekele di drinks tuu ngwana ko lapeng ke go phelela waitse mos! tumalano ke tumalano but ke tumalano ya mofuta mang? Communication – puisano e botlhokwa gore both so that we won’t experience surprises otherwise it will be surprises and or consequences. Let’s avoid talking without reaching an agreement.  Let’s talk and communicate to clearly understand this Dating and relationship activity. 

By PAKO NEWS REPORTER

THE PRAISE AND Salvation Foundation a nonprofit organization based in Pella - Matlhako Village Moses Kotane Local Municipality in the North West province, is not only striving to improve the quality of life of the vulnerable victims of gender-based violence and victim of poverty.

The organisation also helped the villagers by inviting Sassa, Social Development, IEC and Cogta to explain and provide some of the services to the community.

On 28 February, they were at Letlhakane Community hall to bring services to the villagers.

In an interview with Pako Community News  Nthabiseng Nkwe, the spokesperson of Praised and Salvation Foundation explain that the event is a follow-up of the activity that took place on 5 December last year.

“The foundation organized door to door campaign in Letlhakane -Pella, our goal was to find out if peoples are aware of gender-based violence and empower them with information to report and deal with this gender-based violence.  Today on 28 February 2023, Praised and Salvation Foundation invited the Department of Home Affairs, Sassa, Social development, IEC and Cogta in Moses Kotane Local municipality to bring their services to our communities.

“Some people don’t have Identity Documents and birth certificates as a result they are unable to get Sassa grants and we invited different governments department to render their services. Our grade 12 needs to have IDs so they can register for matric certificate that is why we saw the need to do this”, said Nkwe.

Another department representative Lenah Kgaswane from Cogta addressed residents who said they are delighted to receive this warm welcome from residents of Letlhakane.

“We are here invited by the NPO Praised and Salvation Foundation to come and inform, educate and remind some of you about our services to you as a government. We are here for you, we brought services to you now. Not all of your problems will be solved as we are here with a few important departments for your immediate challenges. We brought the Department of Home Affairs, Sassa and Social Service to address all relevant challenges, when we leave here everyone would be helped,” said Kgaswane. 

She added by saying whiles services are on at the local community hall they went to visit some families so that representatives from departments may see and witness the living conditions of their vulnerable community members.

“We have a wheelchair to donate to one of our disable girl child; it’s a family of five and no income except this girl child Sassa grand”, she added.  

Ululation when Sassa’s Thapelo Disang announced an increment of grant known as Ramaphosa to residents this is Presidential Relief Grand for the unemployed. Letlhakane –Pella village has the majority of unemployed residents and youth for that matter, almost these residents depend on social grants as there is no employment.     

“We will also visit a girl child-headed family, according to these kids, their mother died a painful death after she was killed by a speeding train in Johannesburg. Transnet compensated them but their aunt has been collecting and using that money for her selfish intentions”.

 Lerato not the girl's real name as she is a minor said, “My aunt doesn’t want us to talk about how she treats us when people give us clothes she throws them away and tells us not to accept any assistance from anyone. We have been thrown out on the street, and we have been accommodated by the community in this shack. As you see no furniture and no food we sleep on the floor as you see, we don’t have birth certificates cause our aunt doesn’t want to assist us”.

Among community members who received Home Affairs assistance include 26-year Kgothatso Phego who did late birth registration, he said “Finally I will have ID smart card, I didn’t have ID because I didn’t have a chance to do it when my mother was still alive. My mother died when I was still young. I dropped out of school to find work on farms to take care of my siblings. I am happy to have people like those at Praised and Salvation Foundation who made this entire event possible.”

The 24-year-old Tebogo Lesilo said he registered for an unemployment grant. “I am happy that Sassa comes to our village and helps us because we are not working so it’s difficult for us to go to Swartruggens or Zeerust.