Well, Mangaung has come and gone - as has the end of the world, the festive season and New Year, and we've survived them all and now we're back on stream with our newsletters.
Taking centre stage has been the
violent protests by farmworkers in the Western Cape. These protests need to be brought to an end; they're damaging Brand SA and have the potential to seriously curb exports (and hence foreign earnings) as customers overseas turn to more reliable suppliers.
On the education front, the
Matric pass rate increased to 73.9% but critics are asking whether a requirement of 30% to pass is enough to equip school-leavers with an adequate standard of education. Many employers reckon not - they're prepared to train new staff in the roles the new recruits will have to take up in the company - but those recruits need to be literate and enumerate to a level that will enable them to acquire and apply their new knowledge properly.
If you're in business, you're in IT... perhaps not directly, but every time you use a computer, you're operating within the IT world. So what are the
23 business attitudes to IT security you should be looking at? Kaspersky Lab research has some answers for you.
Finally, for all you petrol heads out there, our scorchingly good-looking motoring editor Henrie Geyser takes you for a drive in the
Mercedes SL 500 and shows off his tough, rugged side with the
Land Cruiser 70 double cab.
Rod Baker: Content Director
Submit your company news to
agriculturenews@bizcommunity.com. Exclusive contributions may be sent to
contributors-agriculture@bizcommunity.com.
The SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) has condemned what it terms "the vicious attack" by striking farmworkers on Cape Times' journalists covering the workers' unprotected strike at De Doorns in the Western Cape on 9 January and has called on the police to arrest the attackers and prosecute them. 
An SABC car was stoned by striking farm workers in De Doorns in the Western Cape on Monday (14 January), the public broadcaster reported. 
Calls for an international boycott of export fruit from South Africa are irresponsible‚ the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Monday (7 January). 
Government should compel Agri-SA to return to the negotiating table with farmworkers‚ unions said in Cape Town on Friday (4 January) 
PRETORIA: Government says it has noted a planned illegal protest by farm workers in the Western Cape, following a meeting in De Doorns on Sunday, 6 January 2012, by more than 1,500 workers. 
