Paul Kirk Delegates and observers attending the World Conference against Racism in Durban at the end of the month are being charged more than twice the going rate for accommodation in the city. A visit to the United Nations-run conference website showed Durban-based company Turners Conferences has been appointed the agent to arrange accommodation for […]

Training programmes are being devised to spread high-tech skills Jubie Matlou Mateli Mpuntsha speaks with confidence when asked about the training challenges facing South Africa’s information system, electronics and the telecommunications technologies’ industry (ISETT). As chief executive of the industry’s Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), Mpuntsha is responsible for co-ordinating the skills development programme […]

Social and regional alliances are some of the strategies that will be discussed at a labour conference next week focusing on how to deal with the problem of globalisation and the changing nature of work. The conference is entitled Challenges Facing Labour in Southern Africa: Marginalisation or Revitalisation?. Topics for discussion include: labour in a […]

Q&A: Nicky newman Matthew Krouse Johannesburg comes under fire in The Architecture of Fear, a frightening documentary expounding every city-dwellers worst fears. Unwittingly, it’s a dark comedy of paranoia. Well-known individuals, such as photographer David Goldblatt and confidence coach Mike Lipkin, as well as a host of suburban reprobates reflect on the way Jo’burg fortifies […]

Jo’burg people are portrayed as complex and creative in the work of Patrick de Mervelec Matthew Krouse Patrick de Mervelec’s exhibition Jo’burger, currently at the Pretoria Art Museum, is the result of a labour-intensive work of love. This master of French photography, now living in South Africa, has initiated a body of work “born out […]

Jubie Matlou One training institution that has cut a niche for itself in information and communications technology is the Learning Information Networking Knowledge Centre (Link) of the Wits University Graduate School of Public and Development Management. Cellphone provider Vodacom made funds available for the study of new information and communications technologies and their possible effects […]

Mungo Soggot In what would be a first in modern times, South Africa is within reach of a budget surplus. Tax collections have far exceeded expectations during the first few months of the fiscal year. At the same time, government expenditure is not keeping up the pace amid ongoing concerns that several departments lack the […]

Local soccer cannot seem to avoid controversy Ntuthuko Maphumulo Just as the Premier Soccer League (PSL) was about to breathe a sigh of relief that the end of its off-the-field problems was in sight, trouble blew up on the field. Efforts by African Wanderers and Bloemfontein Celtic to extend their stay in the elite league […]

Thebe Mabanga Telecommunication features prominently in any analysis of economic trends and investment issues in determining a country’s rating in the world. Business Map SA consultant Pam Sykes calls telecommunication an enabling sector that facilitates ease of operations in sectors like transport. It is also important as an industrial sector in its own right. Jan […]

Will the racism conference be hijacked? comment David Saks It was always predictable, if deplorable, that the forthcoming World Conference Against Racism would be used by certain lobbies as a diplomatic weapon against Israel. Indeed, preparations for the conference have been the occasion for a vast amount of violently anti-Israel rhetoric. It remains to be […]