A man, believed to be in his 20s, was left critically injured on the evening of 1 October after he was stabbed in the back on Angola Drive in Cosmo City. ER24 spokesperson Russel Meeting said that paramedics were called to the scene by local authorities for further backup. “Upon arrival, paramedics found the man lying on the side of the road surrounded by numerous members of the Police. On assessment, paramedics found that the man had sustained a serious stab wound to his back, leaving him in a critical condition.” Meiring said the man was immediately treated for his injuries and provided with advanced life support interventions. “Once treated, the patient was transported to Helen Joseph Hospital Hospital for further treatment.”
HONEYDEW – Honeydew Police Station statistics reveal that it deals with a relatively high number of cases due to the size of the area it services.
Honeydew services a large area in Joburg.
Honeydew Police Station is among the five stations in Gauteng with the highest number of crimes reported because it serves such a large area. This is according to the station’s spokesperson, Captain Balan Muthan.
“The station services a large area with some places that have a dense population like Cosmo City and Zandspruit,” he said. Muthan said the station is trying to deploy more resources because of the population increase. “Resources are an issue, but we try our best,” he said.
Focusing on crimes committed in the province in the last year, Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Deliwe de Lange this week revealed that the murder rate has increased by 4.7 per cent with 3 842 cases reported. Sexual offences decreased by 4 per cent with 9 510 cases reported. The Johannesburg Central, Hillbrow, Sandton and Pretoria Central police stations join Honeydew Police Station as the top five stations with the highest number of crimes reported.
According to statistic released by the South African Police Service for April last year until March this year, 28 more murder cases were opened than the previous year’s 48 cases.
In total, there were 3 225 contact crimes reported at Honeydew Police Station, that saw an increase of 3.7 per cent of said crimes. Property-related crimes decreased by 13.6 per cent. Burglary at residential premises decreased by 15.7 per cent. No bank or cash-in-transit robberies were reported at the station this year. Sexual offence cases decreased this year, with 17 fewer reported than the previous year’s 170 cases.
Kate Lorimer, a member of the Provincial Legislature for Safety and Security, said she did not believe that the sexual offences statistics are a true reflection of what happens in reality and should be higher. “The main problem is, people feel harassed at police stations when reporting sexual offences,” she alleged.
Muthan said the goal is always to reduce crime, thus reducing the high number of crimes reported at the station. On 16 September, Cosmo City residents organised a peaceful march against crime in the area, causing heavy traffic delays.
COSMO CITY – Trees and the life they bring was celebrated in schools in and around Cosmo City.
Pupils from schools in Cosmo City learn about trees and the impact they have on our environment.
Green Beings, based in Fourways, celebrated Arbour Week by promoting active citizenship through its Ethoma ka Wena (The buck stops with you) Campaign, which combines Arbour Week and National Clean-up Week.
The aim is to create awareness within Cosmo City’s schools and residents by promoting a clean, green, healthy community for everyone to enjoy. Special guests were invited to conduct awareness assemblies at each school.
Arbour Day is a day that pays special attention to the importance of trees. The day is celebrated on different dates around the world, depending on seasons. South Africans celebrate Arbour Week during the first week of September, to encourage people to plant trees so they are not lost to us and future generations.
Schools are encouraged to conduct action projects to promote effective environmental management within the school and the surrounding community. Each year, the tree-of-the-year is planted by pupils, while also carrying out a school clean-up.
Indigenous trees are part of our natural heritage; they serve many purposes in our lives and in other living organisms. They provide an important habitat for the survival of bird, animal and insect species. Our indigenous trees also play an important role in attracting tourists to South Africa.
The campaign impacted about 10 000 pupils and over 240 teaching staff. Each school planted fruit and indigenous trees on the school grounds.
COSMO CITY – About 90 children from low-income households read books from Cosmo City Kids’
Nelson Modiba, Blessing Bengu, Wonderboy Madhlala and Muzi Nkosi spend time reading books.
COSMO CITY – Muzi Nkosi has received an overwhelming response from members of the public who want to help him reach his dream of building a community library in Cosmo City.
He said he has received more books since Randburg Sun published his story, Nkosi helps children read books, recently.
To date, one donor has already donated a Wendy house and he is currently using it to store books, chairs and tables.
About 90 children from low-income households flock to Cosmo City Kids’ Haven every weekday after school to read and borrow books. They are currently using a tent.
Nkosi is still waiting for a donor who will deliver containers from Soweto to Cosmo City. These containers were recently donated to him as he strives to achieve his goal to help children in the suburb develop a culture of reading.
“The donors are promising. One of them came to view the place and promised to move the containers,” he said.
The embassies of Vienna and Austria also came on board and promised to help him after he wrote to them.
“We also need a fencing to secure the property,” he said.
An unemployed Blessing Bengu endorsed Nkosi’s initiative and believes that it would help many children in Cosmo City. “I don’t have a full-time job, I am actually a labourer and when I am not doing anything I spend most of the time here, reading books,” he said.
Nelson Modiba added that it also helped children open up their minds. “Some of these children’s parents are not privileged and cannot afford to buy books,” he said.
JOHANNESBURG - The Gauteng Community Safety Department says it’s studying a memorandum submitted by Cosmo City residents and will meet with them in the next week.
Residents have been protesting against the high crime rate in the area.
Yesterday community members marched to the Johannesburg offices of Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane.
The department’s Thapelo Moiloa says, “They want operation Fiela to kick in, but we want to confirm that we are planning a meeting with residents in a weeks time.”
On the 18th of August we published a story http://cosmohousing.blogspot.com/2016/08/cosmo-city-grade-10-learner-wins-gold.html
little did we know this product of Cosmo City was gonna hit the world scale.
Meridian Cosmo City (MCC), a school in a mixed housing suburb north of JHB, was the winner of a silver medal in the Senior High School open category at the World Robot Olympiad (WRO) national finals held in Pretoria this month.
robot
MCC is managed by JSE-listed independent education provider Curro Holdings, which saw sister school Curro Grantleigh take a gold medal in the Senior High School regular category. Grantleigh will be travelling to New Delhi, India, in November to compete in the WRO world finals, along with
The WRO is a non-profit organisation founded in 2004, comprising more than 50 member countries, and involving more than 20 000 teams competing in the challenges each year. The 2016 “Rap the Scrap” theme is focused on recycling, which calls for contestants to build robots that can reduce, manage, and recycle waste. Participants built their robots using Lego components.
The Natal-based Curro Grantleigh team comprises Bonga Gumbi and Dominique Spies, who had to make a robot that picks up sorted waste into recycling containers at a recycling plant. The robot had two minutes to complete the challenge and the team had to ensure the robot did not damage the recycling containers.
“I had a team that went to Qatar last year. This year I have a senior team qualifying for the world finals in Dehli,” said Alan Lewis, a robotics teacher at Curro Grantleigh.
Spies’ 15 year old grade 9 teammate, Gumbi, said one of the challenges they faced at the WRO was the surface of the mats on which the robot was operating – it was were different to the ones from school.
“We changed the program a bit and we succeeded,” said Gumbi.
Meridian Cosmo City participated for the first time in the WRO. The team, made up of grade 6 learners Tshimologo Mafokosho and Rethabile Moeketsi, built a robot called “Mrs Kling”, designed to clean littered caves. As some of the cave areas are too tight and inaccessible for humans, Mrs Kling has been built to collect litter and rubble in spaces that cannot accommodate humans.
“I am very happy with the achievement. This is just the best moment so far,” said Mafokosho, while Moeketsi insisted it wouldn’t end there: “Next year we will continue.”
The two also had the recent privilege of testing their robot at the Rising Star cave system where human ancestor Homo Naledi was discovered. Mafokosho and Moeketsi’s project was judged second to an electronic bin designed by Greenside Primary School. Greesnide also won the Junior Primary open category.
Parklands was the big winner, taking the gold medal in the Primary School regular category and the Senior High School open category. Redhill earned a silver medal in both the Junior High School and Senior High School regular categories.
Meridian Cosmo City Primary School operational head Swarts Sibanyoni said his school would have sent more than just one team to compete in the World Robot Olympiad if it had more robotics components.
Tony Williams, Curro’s project manager of IT and Robotics, said robotics had been taught as a subject from Grades R to 6 at Curro schools since 2011. It has led to annual Robotics Competitions which encourage Curro learners to explore the world of coding in a fun and rewarding way, and in a manner that provides an interactive learning platform and creates excitement in the classroom.
– A massive community march was scheduled to shut down all taxi services in Cosmo City this morning 16 September. No taxi’s were expected to be entering or leaving Cosmo City until after 9am.
Honeydew Police spokesperson, Captain Bulan Muthan, has confirmed that a march will take place from the Multipurpose Centre in Cosmo City on 16 September.
According to a message being circulated on WhatsApp, and confirmed by Muthan, the march against crime in the area was organised by members of the community.
Marchers planned to make their way from the taxi rank, to the MEC of Safety and Security’s office in Joburg.
According to the message, the march “comes after the killing of one of the Pakistan in ext 4″.
Muthan confirmed that all necessary precautions had been taken, and that officials were already on site on the evening of 15 September. He did not anticipate that traffic would be affected.
It is unclear at this point whether or not the march is protected.
This is a developing story. More information will follow as it becomes available.
ER24 treated a man who was stabbed.
