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
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According to the latest FNB/Bureau for Economic Research (BER) Building Confidence Index Survey, confidence in the building sector has risen from 26 index points during the third quarter of 2012 to 32 in the fourth. 
Hotels and gaming group Sun International has‚ in the past three weeks‚ opened two new hotels with an overall capacity of 420 rooms‚ strengthening its position in the key commercial and tourism markets. 
Tourism in Cape Town is reaping the benefits of its iconic landmark, Table Mountain, being named one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, with latest figures showing that the mountain's cableway had a record-breaking holiday season. 
SA's hotel operators are generally more upbeat about the outlook of the local industry after a difficult period characterised by a combination of oversupply and lower demand from leisure and business travellers. 
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). 
A "special purpose vehicle" or company is likely to be set up by April and will be crucial to the success of the redevelopment of Cape Town's District Six, District Six Redevelopment and Beneficiary Trust chief executive Nas Allie said on Tuesday (8 January). 
