[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: Communications Minister Dina Pule wants to be in on SABC board appointments, reports Mail & Guardian, which also reports that both the ANC and the DA are upset over a BBC programme on the plight of SA whites. MyBroadband reports on the hack attack on the SAPS website, and the SABC says that TV and radio presenter Vuyo Mbuli will be given a provincial official funeral.
22 May 2013 07:52
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: Glitches in the voting on the POIB included a vote being recorded for a former MP who hasn't actually been in Parliament for a while, and a few who also weren't even there for the vote, reports Times Live.
30 Apr 2013 07:48
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: Communications Minister Dina Pule has blamed soccer legend Jomo Sono for what she alleges is a 'smear campaign' against her, reports City Press; meanwhile Stephen Grootes, writing for BD Live, suggests Pule might have reason to fear Zuma's next press conference. Mail & Guardian reports on the ANC's reaction to the DA's call for a redo on last week's POIB vote, and on IOL, Murray Williams asks whether porn is worse than many other industries?
29 Apr 2013 08:14
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: As expected, the controversial Protection of State Information Bill has been passed in the National Assembly, but will probably face a challenge in the Constitutional Court, reports Mail & Guardian, while Rebecca Hodes, writing in Daily Maverick, takes ASASA to task over the Xpanda ad that critics reckon is racist. In IOL, Caxton non-executive chairman Paul Jenkins says that established news outlets are not stifling the smaller players.
26 Apr 2013 08:22[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: As expected, MPs have adopted the Protection of State Information Bill report, reports Mail & Guardian, and in BD Live, Allister Sparks recounts how the late Mervyn Rees helped change the course of SA history - by doing exactly what many critics of the POIB believe the bill is designed to stamp out.
24 Apr 2013 06:41 
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: It has come to light that police confiscated the cellphones of 45 officials for images taken after Oscar Pistorius' arrest, reports The Citizen.
16 Apr 2013 10:24
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: The Democratic Alliance wants Communications Minister Dina Pule investigated and charged with corruption over appointments made in her department, reports Mail & Guardian.
11 Apr 2013 06:23
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: The DA and opposition parties reckon communications minister Dina Pule is not interested in her job, incompetent, and should go, reports BD Live. Meanwhile, Zuma has approved the SABC interim board, reports Mail & Guardian.
9 Apr 2013 06:26
[Gavin Mills] Human Rights Day has come again and gone, and got me thinking: If aliens ever came to Earth, who would we choose to meet them? Who would be the best representative of humanity - and of all life on Earth.
30 Mar 2013 09:42
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: If the ANC has its way, there will be no judicial oversight over eavesdropping on communications originating outside of SA, reports BD Live, and Dina Pule's going to have her conduct investigated, reports Mail & Guardian.
28 Mar 2013 09:34
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: It appears that the Free State government's control over news and information in that province is growing, reports Mail & Guardian, while BD Live reports that the Department of Communications is aiming for 100% broadband coverage by 2020.
27 Mar 2013 07:28
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: Communications Minister Dina Pule says claims that her lover appointed friends and family to organisations she controls are part of a 'smear campaign', reports Mail & Guardian, and Brand SA is looking somewhat battered, according to Johannes Myburgh, writing in Business Report.
25 Mar 2013 06:32
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: The interim board has been appointed, reports Mail & Guardian, but opposition MPs are unhappy at the haste at which it was approved, reports IOL; former board member Pippa Green reckons the SABC should be broken down into smaller pieces, reports EWN, and Telkom has relaunched its mobile arm, reports Moneyweb.
20 Mar 2013 06:15
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: It seems that communications minister Dina Pule offered a pal - Gugu Duda - a job, though Duda does not have the experience to do it, reports IOL, and in the UK, MPs vote today on press regulation. The Indian Express reports that 19-year-old men are the biggest victims of online bullying, and Science a Gogo says that someone jabbering on their mobile can be very distracting.
18 Mar 2013 08:58
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: The DA wants the Special Investigations Unit to report on its probe into the SABC, reports The Citizen; the ANC's Gwede Mantashe has slammed the on-going board war at the broadcaster, reports IOL, and on the digital front, there is yet more on the migration from analogue to digital and the set-top box issue, reports Mail & Guardian.
11 Mar 2013 07:27
[Abram Molelemane] As I write this, I'm having a drink with my colleague Nick Owsley, a graduate with an Honours Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Cape Town. With Human Rights Day approaching I can't help but think how fortunate our generation is.
9 Mar 2013 10:27
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: Rebecca Davis, writing in Daily Maverick, tries reading The New Age and asks whether it really is pro-ANC. Meanwhile, it appears there's no hassle for MTN after Lord Hoffman cleared the company over the Iran deal, reports Politics Web; mobile provider Turkcell and its subsidiary, East Asian Consortium (EAC), had lodged a claim against MTN.
4 Feb 2013 10:14
[Rose Setshoge] So, First National Bank (FNB) received an incredible volume of publicity recently; trended on Twitter, dominated other social media conversations, headlined peak hour news, talk shows opened lines for debate and met with the ruling party due to the 'You Can Help' campaign. Honestly, what more can a brand possibly ask for?
30 Jan 2013 07:33
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: FNB has bounced back following its tiff with the ANC over its recent 'You Can Help' advertising campaign with full-page adverts in a number of national newspapers. The adverts are written to look like poetry, reports
iafrica.com.
28 Jan 2013 07:03
[Paddy Hartdegen] I may have been saying this for years but now another much more august body agrees that black economic empowerment initiatives should be scrapped and South Africa should entrust its development, growth and social change to the people who are best trained to implement them - whether they are black, Indian, coloured or white.
21 Jan 2013 08:51
[Steve Ferguson] The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI), due to become law early this year, introduces legal protection in SA for the first time against the serious risks and harm arising from the unauthorised collection and abuse of personal information.
14 Jan 2013 07:29[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH:
Mail & Guardian reports that during the Western Cape farm protests yesterday, an
IOL journalist's car was set alight and destroyed.
10 Jan 2013 06:20 
[Johan Botes] Here are some resolutions for 2013 for you that you, as an employer, may well find useful. Get them right now - and avoid any unpleasant surprises during the year.
31 Dec 2012 07:37
[Dr Nikolaus Eberl] With the 53rd Elective Conference of the ANC now on in Mangaung, and 33 prominent business leaders calling for a joint effort to "arrest a decline in confidence in South Africa's future" (a clarion call joined by members of the banks and the clergy), there is the question as to what exactly will restore both investor and consumer confidence post the event that is causing so much anxiety throughout the nation.
16 Dec 2012 07:58
[Karl Reed] There's good news and bad news for citizens frustrated by their interactions with government call centres: major change is happening, but it will take time. Government-run contact centres get a lot of bad publicity. Some of it is deserved, but some of the bad press is purely because bad news sells.
29 Oct 2012 06:33
[Rod Baker] NEWSWATCH: According to yesterday's
Sunday Times and today's
Times Live, much of the licence fees we pay to the SABC are being wasted, misspent and if the newspaper terminology is to be used... "looted". Meanwhile,
Times Live also reports taxpayers are going to be coughing up yet more cash to prop up the broadcaster's new 24-hour news channel - which in an editorial the publication says we can "ill-afford". However, some good news: The new press regulations have been well received, reports
BDlive.
8 Oct 2012 06:30
[Janine Lazarus] It's not every day that you are afforded the opportunity to debate with a government minister live on national radio - especially when the topic under discussion is what works or doesn't work in government communications.
12 Sep 2012 11:51
[Chris Moerdyk] One thing was abundantly clear to me when I looked at the tragedy of what is now being called "The Marikana Massacre" and that is everyone from the mine management to the police, government and the miners themselves, failed hopelessly when it came to communicating with each other.
24 Aug 2012 05:44
Angola
Botswana
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Cote D'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Kenya
Uganda
Tanzania
Mauritius
Seychelles
Algeria
Egypt
Morocco
Zambia
[Danie Strachan] Up to now, South Africa has not had comprehensive legislation that governs the protection of personal information and similar data. However, this situation will change when the Protection of Personal Information Bill (POPI) comes into force. 13 Sep 2012 09:37
