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.
In a similar vein, National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel says there should be
consequences for public servants who do not deliver. Many people might add to that: "What about adding non-performing government ministers and provincial MECs to the mix?"
Writing from the US, Reuben Yonatan tells us
what we can expect from VoIP in 2013. As he says, the future is always bright for any kind of computer-related or especially internet-related technology so we can always expect new innovations, but just what sort of innovations can we predict?
It is the government's job to provide the environment in which business can thrive, and it is the job of business to then provide employment. Unfortunately, it appears that in SA much conspires against the establishment and healthy growth of SMEs; a recent
study finds South Africa is hostile to SMEs.
Finally, the thought of our tame motoring editor Henrie Geyser in makeup - fancy or otherwise - is, well... deeply disturbing. But the same cannot be said, thank goodness, for Opel's new OPC rocket, which Henrie reckons is
a rocket ship with fancy make-up.
Rod Baker: Content Director
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itnews@bizcommunity.com. Exclusive contributions may be sent to
contributors-it@bizcommunity.com.
David Stephenson has joined Ruckus Wireless as senior principal engineer within its System Architecture group. The current chair of the Wi-Fi Alliance Hotspot 2.0 Technical Task Group, Stephenson has more than 20 years of networking experience and actively participates in a number of industry organisations including the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and GSMA industry trade associations. 
Embarcadero Technologies, a provider of software solutions for application and database development, is actively engaging with the academic community across South Africa to support secondary and university-level ICT education in the country. 
According to the 2012 annual security report from PandaLabs, nearly a third of all computers were infected globally in 2012. There were 27 million new malware strains found, at an average of 74,000 new samples per day, of which three out of every four were caused by Trojans. 
NewTelco SA‚ a unit of JSE-listed Jasco‚ has entered into an agreement with Telecom Namibia to build four international points of presence that will be connected to the West Africa undersea cable‚ it said on Tuesday (19 February). 
BARCELONA, SPAIN: Mozilla Foundation is to launch its widely anticipated Firefox operating system for smartphones in a direct challenge to the duopoly of Apple's iOS and Google's Android. 
BARCELONA, SPAIN: Nokia, once the leader of the mobile phone world, unveiled two new Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones aimed at the cheaper end of the market. 
BARCELONA, SPAIN: Credit card giant MasterCard launched a new digital payment system that lets people use a wide variety of devices including smartphones to spend their money. 
VATICAN CITY - The pope's official Twitter account, which has more than two million followers in six languages, will close this week when Pope Benedict XVI leaves office, Vatican Radio says. 
RESTON, US: comScore, Inc has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that nearly 180 million US Internet users watched 36.2 billion online content videos in January, while the number of video ad views reached 9.1 billion. 
XAI-XAI, MOZAMBIQUE: As Mozambique struggles to recover from the worst flooding in more than a decade, aid agencies are pioneering the use of mobile phones to distribute aid and, they hope, cut the cost of logistics in disaster zones. 
WASHINGTON, USA: The global market for tablet computers surged 78.4% last year, with 128m of the devices sold, a survey showed on Thursday (21 February). 
WASHINGTON, USA: Google's revamping of its search formula last year has failed to live up to its promise of discouraging consumers from visiting illegal music websites, an industry group says. 
PARIS, FRANCE / DARMSTADT, GERMANY: Will 2013 be a watershed year for paid content? Will new digital advertising formats bring in much needed new revenue? With many publishers doubling down on digital, the annual Digital Media Europe conference in London will offer recommendations based on lessons from all over the world. 
SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Yahoo! has a brand new look after a make-over tailored by the style, savvy and smart engineering of its new chief executive Marissa Mayer. 
LONDON, UK: Julian Jest, Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media comments on the new Acer smartphone. 
WASHINGTON, USA: Burger King sustained a virtual Big Mac attack on Monday (18 February) when its Twitter account was hacked then redesigned with a bogus claim of a corporate takeover by McDonald's. 
LONDON, UK / TAIPEI, TIAWAN: Julian Jest, research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media comments on the launch of the HTC One. 
NUREMBERG, GERMANY: The Technical Consumer Goods market closed the fourth quarter, as well as the total year, with a sales growth of 2.8%. Sales volume generated from October to December amounted to €15.1bn. The total sales volume for 2012 was around €51.6bn. This is the result of GfK TEMAX Germany for the fourth quarter of 2012. 
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