Rhino poacher gets 11 years - 4 Jun 2013[Rod Baker, Content Director] ... and there are many of us out there who wish Abel Mashabane had got more than 11 years in prison for poaching. read more Whale watching? Watch out! - 28 May 2013[Rod Baker, Content Director] "Hello? Hello? Hellllooooo? Ah! Is that Tina? Listen, I want to go and watch some whales off Hermanus... is that OK with you..?" Bureaucracy going overboard... read more Cloaks without daggers? - 21 May 2013[Rod Baker, Content Director] Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele says that a solid case is being built against South Africans suspected of having links with terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab; arrests can be expected soon. In passing, however, he also mentioned that the government wants to recruit more spies. That begs the question for some: what for? It also makes some people wonder... read more 'Dirtbin' needs a paint job - 14 May 2013[Sindy Peters, Group Head: Content] Durban's city centre has never been my favourite place; I always find my senses being thoroughly assaulted. Don't get me wrong, I grew up in Durban and still feel very precious about my home town, and I'll defend it to the summit of Tafelberg because I have always seen its potential - in my mind all it's ever needed is a fresh coat of paint. KZN MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu sees that same potential, calling for the recently held Tourism Indaba to make Durban its home. And why not, really? In its 34 years, the conference has more often than not been held successfully in Durban. read more Turbulent times for SAA - 7 May 2013[Sindy Peters, Group Head: Content] SAA has found itself in a spot of bother yet again. Anyone surprised? This time round it's had to borrow R1,5 billion just to keep the airline operating. read more What's Kookin'? - 23 Apr 2013[Sindy Peters, Group Head: Content] British band The Kooks were cookin' in Cape Town and Joburg last weekend, all part of the latest #5GumExperience - a brand activation that had fans fighting servere cases of FOMO in their efforts to win tickets. Ruth Cooper travelled to the secret location in Cape Town, a film studio warehouse in Salt River, for a Flippin' Kooky night. While being in a band like The Kooks must seem like all play and no work, there's always some ground work to be covered to make sure your IP rights are covered. read more Oh, the shame! - 16 Apr 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] So you thought it was beef you were eating? Well, yes and perhaps no... It seems - and if you haven't been made painfully aware of this issue over the past weeks then you are not on this planet - that some tried-and-trusted supermarket chains have been stocking incorrectly labelled meat products. read more Horn o’ puke - 9 Apr 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] In a bid to counter rhino poaching for their horns, the horns are being given non-lethal toxic infusions so that consumers overseas will risk becoming seriously ill. There are many people in this country who probably wish that the infusions were lethal, so that the trade dries up altogether. Meanwhile, our president is a bit miffed over what he terms newspapers' 'selective' reporting. read more BRICS for Africa - 2 Apr 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] The fifth BRICS Summit ended recently and was marked by Jacob Zuma's call for the organisation to create a new funding model in Africa. He wants regional projects to be favoured for finance. read more Pule pummels paper - 26 Mar 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] Via the Department of Communications, the communications minister Dina Pule has come out firing on all barrels and has taken on the Sunday Times over what the department claims is a smear campaign against her. The final straw was apparently the newspaper's call on Sunday to Zuma to fire Pule. On a happy note, and this is not an April Fool's joke so there's not need to check the calendar, Bizcommunity.com has instituted a price freeze on most of our rates for 2013! Also on a happy, more melodious note (pardon the pun), the 19th Annual MTN South African Music Awards has announced this year's nominees. Ford is doing its bit for the environment, and to combat water shortages, has cut its global water use by 62% since 2000. read more Do not waste that water! - 19 Mar 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] We live in a country in which water is not as plentiful as we'd like, so it makes sense that conserving water is the theme of Green Office Week (GOW). GOW this year takes place from Monday, 22 to Friday, 26 April. TopTV wants to broadcast porn, and many people and religious groups don't want them to - so it seems there is a TopTV porn boycott looming. read more SAAF, Denel agree to retain skilled jobs - 12 Mar 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] If there is one thing that is common in SA today, it is a shortage of skills, so it's good news to see that Denel and the SAAF have agreed to retain 139 skilled jobs. So at least sense has prevailed in this instance. How was that last braai you had? You enjoyed the steaks? Do I hear you say 'nay'? Well, if you found out your tasty steak was actually the last nag in the Bod Raker Handicap at Kenilworth last Saturday, you might not be able to get a payday out of it... read more The taxman cometh - 5 Mar 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] Of course, the big news over the past few days has been Pravin Gordhan's budget speech, which has been dissected and analysed, as usual. Not least of these analyses is that by Nedbank Private Wealth, which provided its observations on the 2013-14 Budget Speech. Gordhan's budget, as usual, was somewhat of a balancing act, but what taxpayers everywhere would like to see is action, not just words, on corruption, mismanagement and waste. read more At last… Some meaningful action against corrupt officials? - 26 Feb 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] Service delivery is a major problem as it is, but what exacerbates the issue is when those charged with using our tax monies to deliver services too often use it to further their own ends and enrich themselves. So it is to be welcomed that Minister of Justice and Reconciliation Jeff Radebe has announced that the names of those government officials convicted of corruption are to be published. read more So where are our taxes going? - 19 Feb 2013[Rod Baker: Content Director] According to an article by Amanda Visser, fewer than half of government departments are able to provide "credible and quality information" in their financial reports. Quoting auditor-general Terence Nombembe, it seems state finances are regressing. It's bad enough when we hear of our tax monies being wasted through the need (call that greed) of individuals within government deciding to spend millions on parties, luxury cars, first-class travel and so on, but it's almost worse when even the auditor-general has an issue with the departments and municipalities' accounting standards, and we then don't know where money is going or how it is being spent or wasted. Do you want to know what the best programs to protect passwords are? Subhash Chandra has some suggestions for you. On the aquaculture front, the environmental impact guideline for aquaculture has been published for public comment. read more |
