Why The Suspension of South Africa’s Gambling Board Is Good For The Country’s Online Casinos South Africa’s offline gambling industry has a long and chequered history, which now looks likely to be mirrored in its online casino endeavours. The South African Gambling Act of 1965 saw all forms of gambling banned except the countries traditional [...]Suspension of South Africa’s Gambling Board Could Be Good is a post from: South Africa Business
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International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says it is essential for South Africa and Botswana to pay particular...

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The number of rhinos poached this year has tipped the 1000 mark, the Department of Environmental Affairs announced on Thursday. A total of 1020 rhinos have been poached for their horn since January, already more than the 1004 rhinos poached in 2013. The largest number of rhino poached has been in the Kruger National Park, [...]Rhinos poached reaches 1000 is a post from: GlobalBuzz SA
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President Jacob Zuma has congratulated AB de Villiers on being named the ICC’s One Day International Cricketer of the Year.

Describing the cricketer as a “prolific run scorer”, President Zuma commended de Villiers on achieving a score of 7 000 One Day International runs.

“Mr de Villiers has done the country immensely proud with his sterling achievements and we wish him all the best going forward,” said the President in a statement on Sunday.

President Zuma, who is currently attending the G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane, Australia, also wished the national cricket team well ahead of their One Day International match against Australia.

The Proteas will play on Sunday at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground in Perth.

"We also stand fully behind the national team as they face Australia today",” said President Zuma. – SAnews.gov.za

South Africa’s power system is expected to remain constrained for the rest of the week going into the weekend.

“The system is expected to be extremely constrained. This is due to the cold, wet weather conditions and the loss of additional units as a result of technical faults,” said Eskom on Thursday, as it released an update on the state of the power system.

Many parts of the country have been experiencing wet and cold weather conditions which tend to increase demand in electricity as consumers use more lighting and space heating.

At the Majuba power station, generating capacity has reduced to about 1 200MW as the station is faced with wet coal challenges given that some of the coal handling is taking place out in the open.

As mentioned at a previous time, Eskom has implemented a wet coal management strategy to ensure that the wet coal risk is reduced at other power stations.

“It is however not possible to neutralise this risk completely, especially over periods of prolonged high rainfall.”

Recently the country was plunged into darkness after one of the silos at the Majuba power station cracked and later collapsed. This left South Africans without electricity. Subsequently Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown visited the plant.

On Thursday, the power utility said that similar to last week, the dam levels at its peaking power stations which use water to generate electricity are depleting.

The probability of load shedding on Friday was low.

“Eskom appeals to consumers to reduce their electricity usage throughout the day, but especially from 6pm to 10pm. Please switch off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances to prevent the need for rotational load shedding.” - SAnews.gov.za

The latest exhibition of art at Lowes Court Gallery features textile artist Sue Cosham. Sue’s unique style of “painting” with fabrics showcases her delicate talent of piecing together landscapes using colour and texture to create movement and depth in unexpected materials. “Living in a Material World” is an exhibition of framed fabric art on show... Read MoreExhibition of Textile Art by Sue Cosham is a post from: ArtnSpire


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Identified as the voice of the voiceless - the media - especially community media, have a crucial role to play in promoting active citizenry in the country.

This is according to Communications Deputy Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who made the remarks at the Media Development and Diversity Summit, which was hosted by the City of Tshwane, on Thursday.

The Deputy Minister told the summit, which was attended by representatives from national and community media houses, that a vibrant media sector is also essential to the transformation and deepening of South Africa’s democracy.

“Media practitioners as the representatives of the voiceless - must present the true reflection of the views of the citizens … it is only when we talk openly about the challenges that we are facing as a country that we as government can be able to address the challenges and improve the lives of our people.”

She said the new administration aims to use the media sector to communicate more with local communities and fulfill the mandate of giving every citizen a voice.

“We want to create dialogue everywhere we go,” she said.

However for this goal to be achieved, Deputy Minister Ndabeni–Abrahams said the stories that are written or broadcasted by the media must be a true reflection of the views of the people on the ground.

There was also a need to ensure that all the role players in the media and communication environment are under the same roof, she said, making an example of educating the public about their rights and responsibilities.

“We need to put the interests of South Africa first.”

Deputy Minister Ndabeni–Abrahams also indicated that government is in support of a diverse media that is developmental.

She mentioned the work of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) which through its advocacy and lobbying has seen a number of changes which have led to the sector's growth and development of a diverse media.

These changes include, amongst others, an enabling regulatory environment created by ICASA; reduction of tariffs for community broadcasting signal distribution by SENTECH; and discounts provided by printers for community and small commercial newspapers and magazines.

The Deputy Minister however acknowledged that the sector was still experiencing challenges when it comes to the sustainability of community and small commercial media.

The City of Tshwane Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa deemed the summit an opportunity fit to strengthen ties between its top officials, government communicators and the relevant media houses.

Mayor Ramokgopa said that the City had decided to join the media, because it remains its responsibility to innovatively identify and offer integrated development services and resources that enable media development and diversity.

“An engaged citizenry is incontrovertibly indispensable in the success and growth of a democratic way of life.”

The summit will culminate in a development compact with the media, the community, institutions of higher learning, NGOs and other government agencies to collectively craft a long-term framework for media development and support as part of Tshwane Vision 2055 - which is aimed at improving the quality of life for its citizens, revitalising the economy and industrial development, regenerating townships and attracting investment.

The summit will include presentations, discussions and information sharing on media freedom, funding, access to information, digitisation, and new media as well as the role media can play in the implementation of the National Development Plan.

The summit will conclude with a media networking session in the evening. - SAnews.gov.za

The Department of Basic Education says the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) has been halted in schools where reports of food contamination have emerged.The department said the NSNP operates as normal in many parts of Limpopo, except to the affected schools located in the Sekhukhune...

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Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says the country needs more black female research students in the science and technology field from the new generation of students.

Speaking at the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation annual Centres of Excellence (CoEs) Directors' Forum at the University of the Western Cape, the Minister said she was concerned that the country was not attracting enough black students – particularly black female students – to enrol for Doctoral or Masters degrees in the field of science and technology.

“We are not seeing enough black students proceeding into this level of intellectual studying. We are not seeing enough South African black students, and we have to address that.

“We are not seeing enough women in this new generation that is emerging, particularly, not enough African women,” the Minister said.

She said a low proportion of female students were enrolling for post-graduate studies, and said this was a trend that needed to be reversed.

“In terms of gender, proportionately fewer women enrol for Masters and Doctorate studies than men, and we need to examine why,” she said.

The Minister also said that overall, while a proportion of black postgraduates grew since 2002, the proportion of black students from other countries grew at a much faster rate for the past six to eight years.

The Minister said interventions need to be devised to attract black students into post-graduate research degrees and ultimately, into research careers.

“What we are concerned about is that we are not really getting young people to appreciate that an academic career is a career worth pursuing amongst black students.

“We need to find ways of incentivising and also of attracting [black students in the field of research]

“We need to find what form of strategy will help us in getting these young people in the fields of research,” she said.

The Minister said, meanwhile, that the Centres of Excellence that the department has sponsored since 2004 – that are this year celebrating 10 years of existence – have done well ever since they were established.

The five key performance areas of the CoEs are research/knowledge production; education and training; information brokerage; networking; and service rendering.

The Minister said through the centres, more than 650 post-graduates were trained through the centres per annum.

She said that in 2012/ 13, just fewer than 1000 Masters and Doctorate students were South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARCI) – which translates to 10 Masters and Doctorate students per supervisor.

The Minister said the students were trained in the areas of engineering, science and technology. – SAnews.gov.za

The Lydenburg Magistrate’s Court has ordered Samancor Chrome Limited to pay R200 000 for contravening the Environment Conservation Act. The...

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