AfricanLeader

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

With COP17 having just taken place in Durban, it seemed like an opportune moment to turn the attention of the African Leader debate forum in that direction. Consequently, we asked proponents of two opposing views to present their arguments for and against humankind's industrial activity being the cause of climate change. THE PROTAGONISTS WERE given the same brief, with one word change: presen

REASSESSING PRIORITIES

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As was repeatedly noted last year, 2011 marked the BMF's 35th year. This anniversary showed how committed former BMF office bearers still are to the vision and mission of the organisation. This was perhaps most apparent in founding president Eric Mafuna's impassioned keynote address at the 2011 Gala Dinner. It is reassuring that the BMF lineage is intact and this organisation's forebears are

YOUTH FINDS ITS VOICE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There can be little doubt that 2011 will go down in the annals of history as the year South African youth found its voice. Brian Bakker watched as young people turned the BMF Conference into another platform to make their voices heard. As these things are wont to do, the BMF Conference began at a leisurely pace with an address by BMF president, Jimmy Manyi.

He reiterated the theme of economic

SUBSIDISING OUR CHILDREN

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The minister of finance rattled a lot of cages when he first mooted a wage subsidy for young people but, as Thabo Mophiring found out, the idea has a lot of merit. The background to the pro posed youth wage subsidy can be traced to the current high levels (42 percent) of unemployment among young people under the age of 30, which can be contrasted with that of the over 30 group (17 percent). In l

SAMSA PAINTS `COLOURS OF HOPE' FOR AN EASTERN CAPE SCHOOL

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

In light of this year's Mandela Day theme of `change' and the motto `Take action; inspire change; make every day a Mandela Day,' South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) employees joined hands with teachers, Walter Sisulu University staff members, Buffalo City Municipality officials, community members and learners on 18 July as they set about revitalising Ngwenyathi High School in Nxarhuni

Focus on Mapitso Dlepu

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

B-Tech: Public Relations, Tshwane University of Technology Head of Corporate Social Investment In February 2011, Mapitso was appointed the head of Corporate Social Investment for SAMSA. Her role will be to establish the CSI unit from strategy formulation through to implementation. Drawing from her extensive experience in strategic marketing and communications, acquired from working with the Depart

THE YOKE OF PATRIARCHY

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Recent legislation to bolster the authority of traditional leaders has apparently had negative consequences for women's rights in rural areas, writes Lance Harris. Over the past decade, Government has enacted or proposed a number of new laws that are meant to validate the role of traditional leaders in local government, with the goal of turning them into agents for rural development and ser

AT A GLANCE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

WHAT IS PROJECT ALCHEMY?
Project Alchemy is a unique initiative in South Africa's mining sector, using resources flowing through mine host equity ownership to promote and sustain local development.
Alchemy has been initiated and facilitated by Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).
What are the guiding principles that have been followed throughout the development of Project Alchemy?
· Seek

CODE OF CONDUCT

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Department of Trade and Industry recently unveiled its standardised plan for the transformation of South Africa's economy. Ntombeli Motswati scratches under the surface.
T rade and Industry recently unveiled a new programme the standardised national Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Management Development Programme (MDP). The plan has been hailed as a welcome move to promote

LAND PAPER: A DAMP SQUIB

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The long-awaited Green Paper on Land Reform was released in September 2011. Jeff Delaney explains why it was greeted with universal disappointment. Former ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader Julius Malema has his many critics, but few will dispute his skill at highlighting the inequalities that persist in South Africa almost two decades into democracy.

It's no surprise, therefore, that the A

SUPERFLUOUS SOLUTIONS

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The South African government has been agonising over land reform and redistribution since 1994, yet according to Leon Louw of the Freedom Foundation, it owns the solution. `Government' he says, `is the primary owner of land in historically black areas - land that can be redistributed immediately to existing occupiers at virtually no cost. Estimates of the number of parcels of land vary widely, but

THE GREEN FIELDS OF AFRICA

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

With local economic conditions lacklustre, many South African firms are looking at the continent for a better return on investment.
Katherine Graham scrutinises the risks and rewards of African expansion. If recent research is anything to go by, now is a good time to invest in Africa. The Economist forecasts that seven out of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world between 2011 and 20

CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As you read this, COP17 or, to give it its full and rather unwieldy name: the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is either in full swing in Durban or already over. Brian Bakker outlines the debate. However, the problem with COP17 and the other con ferences before it, is that it represents only one side of the argument. Inde

IN FAVOUR HUMANKIND, NOT NATURE, CONTROLS THE CLIMATE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There is a large volume of evidence to suggest that our planet's climate is undergoing very dramatic changes and the majority of the world's scientists who are active in this field believe that these changes are predominantly the result of human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, as opposed to natural phenomena. They argue that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have

`The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen from approximately 284 parts per million (ppm) in pre industrial times to around 390ppm today.'

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

the earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses.
These models predict all of the actually observed climatic changes, but only if human contributions are incorporated. Natural factors alone cannot do the job.

This includes the effects of variations in cloud cover and behaviour, volcanoes (according to the US Geological Survey, humans produce, on average, more than 100 times as much CO2 as vol

AGAINST NATURE, NOT HUMANKIND, CONTROLS THE CLIMATE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The orthodox notion about climate change the so-called consensus has been unravelling at an accelerating pace in recent years.

Of course, there has been energetic push-back from environmentalists who believe it offers a great reason to demand that humanity cuts back on the productive use of natural resources, socialists who believe it to be a great excuse to expand the regulatory power of

`The scandal revealed that the data on which climate models are based is a hopeless mess that drives programmers to drink.'

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

the so-called consensus of scientists masks private declarations that they're nowhere near balancing the earth's energy budget.

The scandal revealed that the data on which climate models are based is a hopeless mess that drives programmers to drink, that influential scientists actively conspire to suppress sceptical science papers and the editors who dare publish them, and that historical reco

SEASON OF GOODWILL

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It is customary during the season of goodwill to reflect on the past year and begin to ponder the possibilities for the future. Lately, however, when considering the idea of `goodwill' or `Ubuntu', it has occurred to me that this is not something that happens necessarily by chance. Indeed, I was recently challenged on values that I espouse and hold dear. Shortly thereafter, in a conversation wi

THE BMF GREAT DEBATE PARASTATALS - FACILITATING OR RESTRICTING GROWTH?

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The role that state-owned enterprises play in the economy was the subject of a lively discussion held at a recent Black Management Forum breakfast held in Cape Town. THE BMF GREAT DEBATE Breakfast, the second of its kind, afforded two well-known speakers the opportunity to present their arguments for and against government's involvement in the economy. Held at the Cape Sun Hotel on 22 September

BMF RE-LAUNCH AND GENERAL MEETING

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Black Management Forum (BMF) Kathu branch held its first general meeting in Kathu in August 2011 at the Gamagara Lodge.

The event also celebrated the re-launch of the organisation in Kathu. THE TURNOUT OF INTERESTED individuals and members was good and showed clearly the interest people have in the economic welfare of the region and the province alike. Mayor of Gamagara loca

INVESTMENT ECHELONS

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

AFTER COMPLETING HER STUDIES at the University of Stellenbosch (BA LLB) and Cambridge (LLM with first-class honours) in England, Nicky Newton-King joined Webber Wentzel Bowens where she advised clients in the securities and financial services industry. She was responsible for developing one of the first derivatives law practices in South Africa and was closely involved in advising the JSE on all a

EMPLOYMENT EXCELLENCE

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

WITH A BPROC FROM the University of the North, an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), an LLM from Harvard and an honorary doctorate in legal studies from the Vaal University of Technology, Pansy Tlakula first joined the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in February 2002. Before that, she spent six years as a member of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), where s

INAUSPICIOUS BEGINNINGS

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

HAVING BEGUN HIS CAREER as a bank teller with the Permanent Building Society back in 1984, Thulani Nzima grabbed the opportunity to become sub-branch manager with both hands, some seven years later. Along the way he also studied for and received a BComm degree.

In 1991 Nzima joined SAA as an overseas cadet manager, undergoing training and progressing quickly to become a special projects manager

MINISTERIAL PROGRESSION

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

HAILING FROM THE EASTERN CAPE, Thembeleni Thulas Nxesi was a troubled child who, like many others, grew up under the Apartheid regime of the 1960s and 70s, and was subjected to the appalling Bantu education system of the time.
Being politically aware, he regularly became involved in protest activities and was consequently expelled from school a number of times.

That didn't stop him from get

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

authour@pressmart.com (authour) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

As a schoolboy in the pre-democratic South Africa of the 1970s, your editor was not exposed to the complete history of this beautiful but previously benighted country. Since 1994, however, much has changed including the available knowledge of our own history. ANOTHER STEP ALONG the path of further learning was taken recently when the opportunity arose to review a biography of John Langaliba