Addressing the skills shortage in the South African ICT sector should be the role of the vendors within the industry who must pull together to find a solution for what is a common problem. The ICT sector in South Africa is in the midst of a growing skills shortage. Projections in this regard paint a bleak picture for the industry. Government has called on local role players within the sector to formulate a solution to this problem and meet local needs.
Forestry is a topic that doesn’t often make headlines — except when runaway fires destroy thousands of trees, as happened recently across the country on a large scale, in what was described as the worst forest fires in South African history. More than 50 000ha of commercial plantations were destroyed (and another 18 000ha in Swaziland). The cost to timber companies ran into hundreds of millions of rands.
Fresh fruit remains at the centre of most healthy diets. Apples, oranges, apricots, pears, in fact, anything that one can eat fresh has health benefits to the consumer. And fresh fruit exports represent more than 7% of South Africa’s export with its largest trading partner, the European Union. South African fruit is highly sought-after overseas.
South Africa’s department of trade and industry said last week that it was concerned the Employee Share Ownership Scheme (Esop), proposed under Sasol’s R17,9-billion BEE deal, "falls short of the level of empowerment envisioned in the codes". "The BEE Act and its accom-panying Codes of Good Practice were specifically intended for the benefit of black South African citizens," the department said.
Rural areas — in any country — have always presented a challenge to both the inhabitants and local government in terms of infrastructure and services. This makes economic viability of these areas difficult to achieve. But in South Africa no one is Âsitting still when it comes to Âfinding alternatives to conventional Âinfrastructural delivery — whether in the area of telephony, internet access or power Âgeneration.
People’s assumptions about post-school studies may lead to recommendations that are not necessarily in a school-leaver’s best interests. For too long, a matric exemption has been hailed as the be-all and end-all, giving rise to expectations that, while well-intended, could end up pushing people into university who should never be there. Matric is a milestone, but any milestone is only one point on a journey.
The Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies based in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, has received a major funding boost of £15-million over a five-year period from the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom to undertake cutting-edge research in HIV/Aids. The Africa Centre is a joint initiative of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the Medical Research Council of South Africa.
Many people are familiar with the concept of distance education, which has evolved from the centuries-old correspondence courses where one simply received one’s study matter through the mail and sent back assignments the same way. Then the computer age arrived and threw in a few extras — primarily, however, a far faster, more convenient and more secure way of communicating with one’s distance university.
When is a company empowered? For me, this goes beyond a mere stamp of verification. It is when there is a sustained sense that there are no unfair obstacles preventing you from realising your potential. As this is a sustained state, there is no need to celebrate occasional events of affirmation, writes Nkosinathi Chonco
There is a tacit belief in a number of archival disciplines that making documents related to the history of liberation struggles in Southern Africa more widely accessible via the Internet and stockpiling new resources on the web will result in new and better histories. However, a survey of a range of digitisation projects currently underway in Africa suggests that this may be a naïve expectation, writes Premesh Lalu.