Latest news with #Papo
The Citizen
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
From dusty Ludo to global dreams: Limpopo man invents Dicato72 board game
Drawing from his rural roots and love for classic games, Lesiba Papo has turned his childhood nostalgia into a fusion board game. He has vivid memories of himself and his childhood friends playing Ludo in Ga-Matlapa, a village in Ga-Mashashane, Limpopo. Lesiba Papo and his buddies would huddle up, take turns rolling the dice and race to finish first. In their case, they drew it on the ground or on cardboard because they couldn't afford to buy the actual game. Decades later, the boy who played Ludo in the dust is now the creator of his own board game, Dicato72. A fusion of classic games 'Dicato is an acronym for dice, cards and tokens. It fuses elements of ludo and casino games, and they are both stitched together by rock, paper, scissors,' Papo tells us. 'The number 72 represents the blocks players have to move through before getting to the finish line,' the 35-year-old adds. The two-player game challenges opponents to out-move each other and get past the 72nd block first, or to have the furthest token by the time the deck of 54 cards runs out. They first roll the dice, have a face-off with the cards, which carry either a rock, paper or scissors symbol, and advance depending on who has the advantage. 'I'd like to think the game is good for mental stimulation, especially for kids, for their mental development, and just to harness their critical skills. 'It's also good for adults who are maybe faced with work pressure and want to unwind. It's basically for the whole family to have fun and relax.' The makings of Dicato72 Dicato72 can be played by children as young as eight. Picture: Supplied Now based in Pretoria East, Papo began exploring the idea of designing a game between 2021 and 2022, and says it is influenced by the games he played growing up. 'I came up with the concept because we used to play a lot of Ludo and casino games separately growing up. So, I thought of how I could fuse the two so that you don't have to play the games separately, and adding rock, paper, scissors felt like a brilliant idea,' he says. Without any prior background in game design, he utilised online resources to bring his imagined idea to visual reality. Papo did this while also juggling his career as a botanist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Bringing the concept to life has mostly been a one-man show for the University of Johannesburg Master's degree graduate. Big dreams However, he says he is now tapping into his network and roping in professionals to make it available digitally. He has big dreams for Dicato72. 'I'd like to see it being distributed globally just like chess and 30 Seconds, being played in many households, in schools as well as in corporate,' Papo says. 'I'd also like to see the game being recognised by Mind Sports South Africa, both as a physical board and in esports for mobile and web applications.'
Daily Maverick
15-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
ANC task team in Gauteng vows to ‘clean out' self-serving members
Following a strong by-election win in Soweto, the ANC's Gauteng task team says work is being done to reposition the organisation ahead of the 2026 local government elections. Nearly three months after the 68-member Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) was appointed to rebuild the ANC's structures in the province, halt its electoral decline and improve its image, the team believes it is starting to make progress. When the structure took over, the party had suffered major electoral losses in South Africa's economic hub, with its share of the vote in Gauteng dropping from 50.02% in 2019 to 34.8% in 2024. The decline was attributed to a number of factors, including the collapse of branches. The party's secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said one of the immediate tasks was to conduct an audit and rebuild the party's structures, after which it could hold elective conferences. Addressing journalists on Thursday, the Gauteng PTT coordinator, Hope Papo, said the team hit the ground running, with 80% of the branches now in good standing. 'As things stand, many of the branches in our province are administratively in good standing; we no longer have a situation where a branch has less than 100 members. We are now dealing with political and ideological ethos so that branches understand that their main purpose is to serve their communities.' By-election win Papo and his team briefed journalists hours after the party had its best by-election result in 2025 and arguably its second-best since the 2024 national elections, when it comfortably retained wards in Soweto after securing 2,630 votes, well ahead of the uMkhonto Wesizwe party, with 1,100 votes. Papo said the results were a demonstration of the work being done to reposition the organisation. Gauteng is grappling with recurring problems, including governance failures, financial mismanagement, crumbling infrastructure, crime and lawlessness and lack of service delivery. In March 2025, Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile, who is an ANC deployee, warned of a liquidity crisis if resources were not spent prudently across various government departments, threatening service delivery and exposing the province to significant governance and fiscal risks. 'We think we can turn around Gauteng,' said Papo. The media briefing followed a two-day inaugural provincial lekgotla earlier this month, which, among other things, agreed to support the government in resolving the Gauteng priorities. 'The PTT will monitor the implementation of the Local Government Turnaround Summit resolutions, which will play a significant role in improving local governance,' said Papo. He said the PTT would evaluate the work of the government quarterly, but would not micromanage the party's deployees as they had the power to act in government. One of the first steps the Gauteng PTT would take towards improving local governance was supporting the Presidential Johannesburg Working Group and the Department of Cooperative Governance's Turnaround Plan in Emfuleni Local Municipality, said Papo. Members with 'ulterior motives' At the lekgotla, it was also acknowledged that some leaders, acting in their own interest, had damaged the party's image. It was agreed that the party should break away from those who are in the organisation only for personal gain. As SA prepares for the 2026 local government elections, Papo said the party needed to intensify renewal programmes. 'There are ANC leaders who are out of touch with their constituency, not schooled in the values and goals of the ANC … people who join the ANC for nefarious and ulterior motives, and part of the renewal is to deal with that section in the organisation which are not there to serve the community, but for their own personal endorsement and issues like that,' he said. Part of the renewal process, said Papo, involved 'cleaning them out', without naming anyone. He added that some of these individuals had already walked away and were no longer active in the party's structures. Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi explained that the party's strategy was based on detailed polling and surveys, which the ANC had invested heavily in after the 2024 electoral losses. 'The strategic direction that we are taking in local government is to do things that other people are not aware that the ANC is doing,' he said, pointing to recent by-election results, reclaiming control of SRCs at universities, securing majorities in school governing bodies and placing ANC leaders in senior municipal roles, including mayors. On Wednesday, Mbalula sang Papo's praises while speaking at the Duma Nokwe Memorial Lecture, saying the Gauteng PTT was doing a good job of reviving and rebuilding the party. 'We must build our structures, and we must exorcise the wrongs out of the ANC. If it means we must lose friends because we are doing the right thing, let it be,' said Mbalula. DM
IOL News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
No place for the corrupt: ANC challenges all parties to match its zero-tolerance stance
South Africa - Johannesburg - 15 May 2025 - Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi, ANC Gauteng Provincial Task Team Coordinator Hope Papo and Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko MEC for Health and Wellness. The African National Congress (ANC) Gauteng Provincial Task Team (PTT) announces the outcomes of the two-day Provincial Lekgotla held on 3–4 May 2025 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways. The ANC Gauteng coordinator, Hope Papo, has called on other political parties to be like the ANC, and have policies that take disciplinary action against members charged with corruption. Speaking in Johannesburg on Thursday, Papo stressed that the political system would benefit if all parties introduced policies that discipline members formally charged with corruption—just as the ANC has done through its "step-aside" rule. 'So we encourage all political parties in South Africa to follow the ANC, we are the biggest party, we are doing it, all political parties must do,' he said. The ANC has implemented a step-aside rule that requires members who are formally charged with corruption or other serious crimes to voluntarily withdraw from party and government activities, failing which they may face suspension. Papo stated some of the party leaders appeared in criminal courts, but they were not charged they are still leading the organisation, while the ANC leaders were ambushed. But he said in the ANC, stepping aside was mandatory. Papo has echoed the party's position on renewal and rebuilding, saying this will be a way for the ANC to reclaim power. 'So, we think that through that policy, we will actually, it will help in renewing the organisation. 'Because ultimately, ANC doesn't arrest, charge, and convict people. That is why there's an issue of stepping aside from your leadership positions. 'And a number of our leaders have done so. And sometimes they would have been wrongly accused, but they would have stepped aside. And sometimes they lose leadership positions,' he said. The provincial co-convener, Panyaza Lesufi, had previously promised to clamp down on corruption and laziness in the party. IOL Politics
IOL News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
ANC declares war on illegal immigration in Gauteng: ‘They cannot walk around comfortably'
ANC Gauteng Coordinator, Hope Papo, and the Provincial Task Team (PTT) announced the outcomes of the two-day Provincial Lekgotla held on 3–4 May 2025 at the Indaba Hotel, Fourways. The ANC in Gauteng has declared war on illegal immigration, stating that illegal foreigners cannot be comfortable in the country without the right to be here. Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday, ANC Gauteng coordinator Hope Papo said the recent provincial Lekgotla resolved that illegal immigration and its impact on labour laws and public services can no longer be ignored. 'This is a violation of labour laws, violation of immigration act. The Lekgotla said that's a very serious matter we must take up as part of our work…. They cannot walk around comfortably without proper documentation,' he said. Papo said it cannot be business as usual that lawlessness and illegal immigration are tolerated in Gauteng. He urged the government to take decisive steps against the matter. 'So it's a combination of what government does, but it's also what citizens do to assist in dealing with the problem of illegal immigration. It has to be a joint effort so that citizens who participate in abetting illegal immigration must also understand that they're doing a disservice to the country. 'Because you cannot come in public and say illegal immigration is a problem when you've got an illegal employee in your home employed when you've got a tenant in your home renting, and then you say that illegal immigration is a problem,' he said. Papo clarified that is not on foreigners they were targeting but their illegal entry into the country. Supporting his sentiments, ANC co-convener, Panyaza Lesufi, said they have started with the process of reclaiming hijacked buildings across the province but more especially in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ). Gauteng residents continue to suffer from persistent service delivery failures, including limited water supply, overflowing sewage, uncollected waste, and rolling power outages—symptoms of crumbling infrastructure and unchecked corruption at the municipal level. Despite these challenges having plagued communities for years, little meaningful change has been seen. The ANC's renewed stance signals a potential turning point, with illegal immigration, failing infrastructure, and lawlessness now squarely in the crosshairs. IOL Politics
Rudaw Net
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Kurdish women run for Hamburg state parliament
Also in World US says potential PKK disarmament a 'welcome move' ISIS can still inspire, support terror attacks, says Coalition Russia 'not withdrawing' from Middle East after losing ally Assad: Analyst UN welcomes Ocalan's call on the PKK to disarm, disband A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two Kurdish women are running in Hamburg state elections for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after their party won the recent German federal parliament vote. Zalal Papo is 30 years old and was born in Germany. Her family is originally from the Cizre district of southeast Turkey's Sirnak province. 'I have been working in politics for nearly seven years. I have taken my place at the CDU. I am from Cizra Botan and I was born in Germany. Politics is very important to us so that we can make our voices louder. The most important is being able to serve your people,' Papo told Rudaw. 'We do not have many Kurdish members of parliament and I would like to become the voice of Kurdish people, the youth, the voice of women, especially the voice of the youth. I want to serve our people in Germany, for Germany and for the Kurdish people,' she added. Before getting into politics, Papo worked as a Kurdish-German translator. There is a large Kurdish population in Hamburg, mainly hailing from Turkey. Hamburg is a city-state in northern Germany. It holds state elections every five years to elect its parliament (Bürgerschaft), which selects the mayor who leads the state government. The election is on March 2. Last month, the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), won the federal parliament election, securing 29 percent of the votes. Seven out of the twelve Kurdish candidates won their seats.
