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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