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/ 2 February 2007
Okay. You are one of the country’s top earners, raking in a touch under R2-million a month. You are only here until 2010 and so may want to rent rather than buy a joint to call home. New Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is reportedly looking to rent a house for R60Â 000 a month.
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/ 18 January 2007
Fancy a new quad bike, a laptop with printer, television, hi-fi, DVD player, camera, home theatre system, PlayStation, Xbox 360, skottel braai, pair of sunglasses or Game shopping vouchers? In the rush to capture new cellphone customers in the saturated South African market, operators and service providers are bundling expensive free gifts with contracts to entice new subscribers.
Technological innovation is key to South Africa’s growth strategy, helping the country achieve international competitiveness and growing the local knowledge economy. The Innovation Hub in Pretoria, where start-up businesses are busy developing cutting-edge technologies, is at the forefront of local technological advancements.
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/ 15 December 2006
While customers in Tshwane are browsing and downloading to their hearts’ content, residents within the eThekwini municipality can expect a service that will offer broadband access and domestic voice calls for as little as R150 a month. The race to deliver cheaper broadband and telephony services to residents via municipal net works is alive and kicking.
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/ 8 December 2006
South Africa’s rock’n’roll royalty, in the form of the Flames’s Blondie Chaplin has released his first solo album in 30 years. Lloyd Gedye reports.
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/ 8 December 2006
Mobile Number Portability is a non-event, with operators experiencing a number of system problems and consumers reluctant to make the switch. MNP, which was introduced on November 10 after numerous delays, allows consumers to switch operators while keeping their number.
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/ 1 December 2006
The Pretoria suburb of Hatfield is leading the pack in the race to bring affordable internet access to broadband-starved South Africa. Residents and business owners in Hatfield can sign up for 1GB of wireless broadband for a mere R180 a month, or a 3GB service for R350, thanks to a network set up by internet service provider (ISP) Neology as a proof of concept.
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/ 27 November 2006
While purists still cling to their vinyl collections and scoff at the CD-buying masses, a local independent record label is breaking new ground by releasing its latest offering in a new format, a USB memory stick. Is this a trend that could reshape the way record labels deliver music to the fans, or is this just a clever marketing strategy targeting the iPod generation?
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/ 27 November 2006
A dual pricing system, which South African cellphone operators have threatened to use to protect themselves against cannibalisation of voice revenue, has not been sanctioned by the communications regulator. This dual pricing system would allow the cellular operators to charge one price for normal data traffic, such as email, browsing and downloading, and then bill traffic that was identified as voice-over internet protocol.
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/ 20 November 2006
Lloyd Gedye chats to some of the overseas speakers at the Moshito music conference to find out how technology is driving change in the music industry.
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/ 20 November 2006
The Smoking Popes reunite and release a DVD and CD, to the delight of Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 17 November 2006
The album <i>Frieze</i> illustrates that Chris Letcher is one of the greatest songwriters to grace the shores of this southern-most tip of Africa, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 10 November 2006
Tito Mboweni has come up against a new enemy in his battle to curb the credit-spending splurge. The banks. Flying in the face of the Reserve Bank governor’s attempts to bring down consumer spending and debt, South Africa’s banks are going into overdrive by offering consumers new lines of credit in an attempt to grow their books.
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/ 3 November 2006
Founded in 2005 One Minute Trolley Dash is mutating into a bona fide independent label, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 27 October 2006
Property owners in the close vicinity of the proposed Gautrain railway stations are sitting on hot assets, with prices rising by up to 25% in the past year. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> surveyed a number of real estate agents who operate in the Rosebank, Sandton, Midrand and Rhodesfield areas this week, the majority of whom were overwhelmingly positive that property prices were set to boom.
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/ 24 October 2006
Poorly written legislation has historically allowed telecoms operators to play the competition authorities off against the communications regulator, creating a regulation void that gives rise to a phenomenon known as forum shopping. The recently promulgated Electronic Communications Act has made the problem worse.
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/ 13 October 2006
General Motors is set to reap a giant-sized return on its investment into a Hummer assembly plant in Port Elizabeth. GM announced last year that it was investing $100-million (R773-million) into its South African operations, primarily in the production of the Hummer H3, a mid-size version of the vehicle Arnie Schwarzenegger made famous, the Hummer.
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/ 10 October 2006
The annual taxation cycle is one of my pet hates. I know that the deadline is drawing nearer, but I tend to put off sending in my forms until the last minute, when it becomes a dash for the nearest post office. Then you wait to find out if you owe money or you have paid too much over the past year.
With just over 1Â 300 days to the World Cup kick-off, there are no signs of development in Bertrams, the run-down suburb adjoining the Ellis Park Stadium that hosts the opening event for 2010. Dilapidated and broken buildings house unemployed South Africans, refugees and illegal immigrants who pay between R200 and R1 000 rent per month, while the street corners are teeming with drug dealers who have been chased from the CBD.
In the face of serious shortages of medical professionals, the nurses at Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein put on a brave face. "We must do our best and pray to God to help us, so that nothing ever happens to patients because of staff shortages," says chief professional nurse Dipuo Konote. "We do our utmost best."
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/ 29 September 2006
The South African music festival circuit is a cluttered mesh of gatherings; it seems all you have to do is put a sound system in the middle of a field and the punters will come, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 29 September 2006
A war of words has erupted among Moshito board members over claims of bad corporate governance and a lack of accountability. Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition, which represents the South African music industry, is supposed to act as a clearing house, allowing its members to communicate on matters affecting the music industry.
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/ 29 September 2006
While the global music industry is haemorrhaging and shrinking at alarming rates, South Africa’s music industry is booming — thanks in no small part to the phenomenal performance of locally produced music. On the whole South Africa’s recorded music market grew by 22% last year in the number of units sold.
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/ 26 September 2006
Regulator Icasa, Cell-C, second network operator Neotel and the country’s internet service providers are putting new energy into tackling the interconnect regime that rakes in R5-billion to R6-billion a year each for cellphone giants Vodacom and MTN.
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/ 26 September 2006
Regulator Icasa, Cell-C, second network operator Neotel and the country’s internet service providers are putting new energy into tackling the interconnect regime that rakes in R5-billion to R6-billion a year each for cellphone giants Vodacom and MTN. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and most of these smaller telecommunications players support a new regime where interconnection fees will be charged at cost.
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/ 18 September 2006
Dissatisfied South African cellphone users who have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to jump ship to another operator while keeping their number, will have to wait another two months. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa announced this week that mobile number portability would once again be delayed.
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/ 15 September 2006
The Rudimentals are one of many bands frustrated by the lack of radio-station interest in local music, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 15 September 2006
Lloyd Gedye criticises the plot — or lack of one — in Douglas Coupland’s latest novel.
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/ 12 September 2006
The second network operator is finally here, and it’s called Neotel. Managing director Ajay Pandey announced its first offerings in the wholesale market last week and said consumers and businesses could expect services by early next year. Pandey is a telecommunications sector veteran of 23 years, having honed his skills and expertise in the Indian telecoms sector.
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/ 4 September 2006
Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer has five times as many South African patients using its anti-retroviral (ARV) products as it had just more than a year ago. Sixteen months ago Aspen Pharmacare won a 58% stake of the government’s ARV tender, worth R1,2-billion in turnover to Aspen over three years.
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/ 1 September 2006
Having completely sold out the entire pressing of their debut EP, <i>Mouth of Me</i>, Lark returns with a dark, brooding release, writes Lloyd Gedye.
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/ 1 September 2006
Muso and label owner Paul Riekert is bursting back in style, writes Lloyd Gedye.