Good News

BULLETIN 22 March 

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# Authors are being urged to help build up the National Library of South Africa’s reading collections as Library Week is drawing to a close. The National Library in Pretoria Central is home to the only de-acidifying laboratory in Africa. It also houses some of the country’s most important historical documents, and processes and records over 28-thousand new pieces of literature that require legal certification every year. NLSA’s spokesperson, Jolene Bhadais, says they need people to donate more historical works to the library’s collection for generations to come.

# Ex-offender, Tsiane Phakedi, has started the #Hashtag Operation Lukisa Sgela programme, to help keep learners away from a life of crime. The programme entails him visiting schools in Mamelodi, Pretoria, and spending time discussing drug use, bullying and the dangers of firearms. As part of the programme, Phakedi works with police, Correctional Services, wardens, and the community policing forum. He says he wants to help learners make the right life decisions.

# The Western Cape government will spend over 315-million-rand over the 2024/25 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework to combat substance abuse. DA provincial spokesperson on Social Development, Conrad Poole, says resources will focus on prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation. Poole says early intervention services will reach 12-thousand-930 users, with three-thousand-951 receiving aftercare. Poole sasy in addition, in-patient treatment services will accommodate 360 users, with 498 subsidised beds provided: 

# Cycling duo Marinda Pretorius and Ernst Stipp are setting off to tackle well over one-thousand kilometres from Johannesburg to Blouberg in Limpopo to raise funds for Guild Cottage. It is a haven for 18 young girls who have been rescued from abusive homes and have faced sexual assault. The duo is aiming to cover around 250-kilometres of distance every day and hopes to arrive in Blouberg on the second of next month. Even before they begin this enormous challenge, Pretorius and Stipp have already raised over ten-thousand-rand.

# And finally: City of Cape Town firefighters, Jermaine Carelse and Renaldo Duncan, will once again participate in the Two Oceans half marathon next month. The duo aim to finish in under three-and-a-half hours kitted out in their full firefighting gear. This year they will run with their self-containing breathing apparatus which weighs ten kilograms. Mayoral committee member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, says last year the duo raised 181-thousand-rand for the Volunteer Wildfire Service:

Stay tuned for more news………….