Crafty idea on TRAC for invasive alien trees

Invasive alien trees are being put to creative use by local crafters for décor accessories. Wetherlys has announced the launch of its newest collection which incorporates items from The Khumbulani Collection. Read more >>

Valuing art - Citadel Art Price Index launched

Citadel, a private client wealth care company, has partnered with Econex, a leading independent economics consultancy, to launch a robust model for its Citadel Art Price Index (API), which will provide accurate information over time. This is reportedly the first local index to track the value change of art sold at auction in the country, beyond the headlines of record sale prices achieved for prominent works sold at auctions locally and abroad. Read more >>

Longridge, exclusive wine supplier to Cultivaria festival

Longridge Wines have signed an agreement with the Cultivaria arts festival to become the exclusive wine supplier to the festival's Bovril Black Tie Dinner. The gala dinner takes place on 27 October 2011 and heralds the official opening of the festival which runs until 30 October in Paarl. Read more >>

Art exhibition hosted for rare plant lovers

Detailed artwork of flowers and fruits, mushrooms and roots will be on display at the first botanical art exhibition to be held by the Gauteng branch of Botanical Artists of Southern Africa (BAASA). The exhibition will be held at the Morningside Shopping Centre in Johannesburg from 27-30 October. It will feature one of the biggest collections of botanical art to be held in Gauteng with many award-winning pieces. Read more >>

JM Coetzee archive heads to US

[Ray Maota] The archive of South African literary giant and Nobel laureate JM Coetzee has been bought by the Harry Ransom Centre library at the University of Texas in the US. The collection of work covers the life and career of the author, spanning more than five decades. Read more >>

"Skeem" gets top award for Greene

Cape Town movie director Tim Greene has scooped the Audience Choice award for "Skeem" at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, according to Channel24 and Sowetan Live. "Skeem" is a comedy adventure story about a group of small-time crooks and greedy holiday-makers who scheme to get their hands of a box of cash at a run-down resort. Read more >>

Coelacanth documentary film at East London

A documentary about the coelacanth is using the East London museum and scuba diving sites off Tanzania and Sodwana Bay in KwaZulu-Natal and will feature a re-enactment of the discovery of the world's first coelacanth and its identification at the JBL Smith Institute of Ichthyology. Read more >>

September 2011 US online video rankings

RESTON, US: comScore, Inc has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 182 million US Internet users watched online video content in September for an average of 19.5 hours per viewer. The total US Internet audience engaged in 39.8 billion video views. Read more >>

Mixed reaction to Zuma's Padayachie move

[Duncan McLeod & Craig Wilson] President Jacob Zuma's decision to redeploy communications minister Roy Padayachie and his deputy, Obed Bapela, has drawn mixed reaction from the information and communications technology industry, with one analyst saying he was "stunned" by the move and that it would delay several important projects, including the migration to digital terrestrial television. Read more >>

SABC makes or breaks communications ministers

[Chris Moerdyk: @chrismoerdyk] When the new communications minister was shifted out of her role as deputy minister of the department last year and into the presidency, I wondered if she breathed a huge sigh of relief. And I wonder now whether she is really as happy as she seems about going back, in spite of being promoted to full minister? Read more >>

Wal-Mart hearings focus on efficiencies, labour

[Paul Vecchiatto] The Competition Appeals court hearings into the Wal-Mart/Massmart merger turned mainly around labour and economic efficiency issues that the giant US retailer could bring into the local market. Read more >>