The North West MEC for Tourism, Desbo Mohono, has congratulated Thaba Tshwene Game Lodge for shining at the recent Annual Lilizela Tourism...

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Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan says the forthcoming Africities Summit, to be hosted by the City of...

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KONA, Hawaii – October 12, 2014 – Dave McGillivray, the 60-year-old race director of the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and famed endurance athlete now battling coronary heart disease, made a triumphant return to the Ironman World Championship triathlon on Saturday after a 25-year absence from the event. McGillivray, who is a member of the USA Triathlon [...]Dave McGillivray returns to Ironman is a post from: Time-to-Tri


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South Africa and France have signed an Inter-Governmental Framework Agreement on Nuclear Cooperation, the Energy Department announced on Tuesday.

“This agreement initiates the preparatory phase for the possible deployment of French nuclear technology in South Africa,” said the department.

The agreement builds on the more than 40 years of cooperation between South Africa and France, as symbolised by the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant.

The agreement -- which was signed by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, Laurent Fabius -- covers areas including skills development, localisation of nuclear technology as well as research and development in South Africa.

Minister Joemat-Pettersson said that South Africa was pleased to continue its long-standing cooperation with France.

“…This paves the way for establishing a nuclear procurement process. To date, South Africa has concluded several Inter-Governmental Agreements and will proceed to sign similar agreements with the remaining nuclear vendor countries in preparation for the rollout of 9.6GW Nuclear New Build programme,” said the Minister.

In a statement last Friday, President Jacob Zuma announced that he had given authority to Minister Joemat-Pettersson to sign an agreement for the safe use of nuclear energy with France.

Last month, President Zuma granted permission to Minister Joemat-Pettersson to sign a nuclear agreement between South Africa and Russia.

The Presidency earlier this month said media reports that President Zuma has negotiated or will negotiate and conclude nuclear power agreements alone were incorrect.

In the State of the Nation Address in June, President Zuma announced that the country would prioritise energy security and would pursue an energy mix including coal, nuclear, shale gas and renewable energy.

At a media briefing earlier this month, the Energy Department said it was doing preparatory work towards the procurement process of nuclear power.

“… There will be a procurement process and the work that the department is doing is preparation towards that,” Deputy Director General (DDG) for Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy, Zizamele Mbambo, said at the time.

In 2008, South Africa approved the nuclear energy policy with the long term vision to be self-sufficient in the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

In March 2011, Cabinet approved the Integrated Resource Plan 2010-2030 (IRP) that provides for the balanced energy mix that includes coal, renewable, gas and nuclear energy.

“The expansion of SA’s nuclear programme will yield tremendous benefit for the country ranging from mining, beneficiation, manufacturing, industrialisation, skills development and power generation without a sharp increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

“Significantly, this programme will create the much needed quality jobs and catapult South Africa into the knowledge economy to achieve energy security for the successful implementation of the country’s National Development Plan,” said Minister Joemat-Pettersson. - SAnews.gov.za

Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rakometsi says the South African examination system is ready for the 2014 final matric examinations.

Rakometsi said preparations for the upcoming matric exams have started in earnest and all assessment bodies have presented their plans to Umalusi.

Speaking to media at the University of Johannesburg, on Tuesday, he said a total of 6 86 915 learners in the country will write the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations from 20 October.

“For the NSC alone, the 2014 examinations will be written by 551 656 full time and 135 259 part-time candidates. These examinations will take place across more than 8 110 examination centres as compared 6 699 examination centres in 2013,” said Rakometsi.

He added that over 41 509 markers will mark the examinations scripts. Last year, there were about 35 000 markers.

He said Umalusi, as a quality assurance body, is not involved in the process of selecting competent markers who will be deployed in provinces, but wanted quality in the end.

“We are not going to prescribe how competent markers are appointed. It is up to the provinces if they want to run a competency test, we just want to be satisfied… we want the end product to be of good quality,” he said.

Umalusi, the Quality Council for General and Further Education and Training, moderates and approves all examination papers before they can be written by learners.

Rakometsi said internal assessment that takes place in schools also fall under Umalusi’s mandate, and that final marks that contribute to the overall results are also statistically moderated to ensure consistency and reliability.

Mathematics

Umalusi said the first two papers for mathematics will be compulsory for mathematics learners, as the third paper of the subject is phased out.

“Previously, the third paper was optional for high achievers, now there has been an outcry from institutions of higher learning. They wanted the components of the third paper to be done by all the candidates. Now those components of the third paper have been incorporated into the second paper,” he said.

Intensive monitoring for E-Cape, Limpopo and KZN

However, Rakometsi said Umalusi was concerned about the status of Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, where education departments are currently challenged with staff capacity and lack of adequate resources.

The two provinces were put under administration due to, amongst other things, high expenditure and shortage of money.

Rakometsi said due to the departments in these provinces being under administration, approval processes take longer than usual.

“Umalusi has recommended to the Department of Basic Education that intensive monitoring of these provinces needs to be instituted, to mitigate possible unintended consequences of this situation,” he said.

He added that Umalusi will also intensify its monitoring where necessary and that Umalusi strives to improve its systems every year to continue to close down any gaps or spaces where such events can occur.

Manager Evaluation and Accreditation at Umalusi, Faith Ramotlhale, added that monitoring will also be intensified in KwaZulu-Natal.

She said Umalusi was also concerned about vacant posts in some education departments in provinces, but filling those posts cannot happen overnight.

“… Also with regard to the issue of budgetary constraints, the department has put measures in place to ensure that they are going to address this matter before examinations start,” Ramotlhale said.

SAICA

Rakometsi announced that the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SAICA), which is provisionally accredited, will pilot their full NSC exams for the first time this year.

“Overall, Umalusi is satisfied with the preparations for the end-of-year exams, and is confident that the general education system is adequately prepared to run these assessment successfully,” he added. - SAnews.gov.za

More effort has to be made to document and profile women in history, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi said on Tuesday.

“More women need to tell their stories, to lay bare what their actual experiences are,” Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said.

Addressing delegates at the 11th Annual National Oral History Conference in Johannesburg, she said this year marked the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Charter.

“How many studies capture the oral histories of those who participated in the making of this charter and of those who walked the streets as part of protest marches?” Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said.

The Department of Arts and Culture, in partnership with the Oral History Association of South Africa, hosted the conference under the theme Celebrating 20 years of democracy: “Oral History and the Politics of Transformation”.

The conference was aimed at acquiring new information that would help grow the country’s archival holdings.

Efforts also needed to be made to tell the stories about the liberation struggle and the youth, she said.

“This momentous occasion of the Oral History conference further presents an opportunity for us to reflect on how our freedom and democracy were achieved, the progress we have made in the past 20 years and how South Africa will, and should, work together to implement Vision 2030,” Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said.

She said the country should not forget the birth of its democracy which had been hailed as a miracle.

Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi said the Oral History programme was established to redress knowledge about the country’s history.

The old order created gaps in the public records and public knowledge.

“These gaps were caused by deliberate omission of African knowledge, technologies, stories and philosophies from the mainstream of the body of knowledge generated in the country,” she said.

Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Molebatsi Bopape, said the culture of telling stories in classrooms, libraries and hospitals should be encouraged.

“Parents communicate with their children on social networks and we have lost the essence of communal living, now more than ever there is a dire need to restore this practice and custom,” MEC Bopape said.

She said African languages had to be preserved as it was withering in the new age space.

Oral History Association of South Africa (OHASA) President Professor Sekibakiba Lekgoathi said one of the key impacts of the Oral History programme was the involvement of high school learners from various provinces.

“We have created space for learners…who have interesting oral history projects that they are working on to come to the conference, to participate in the conference and present,” Lekgoathe said.

He said OHASA had established the first oral history journal in the country.

The Department of Arts and Culture has supported the Oral History programme since 2003. – SAnews.gov.za

Tribespeople living inside a tiger reserve in India are being “threatened” and “cheated” into leaving their ancestral land in the name of tiger “conservation” – even though there is no evidence that they harm the wildlife, and they desperately want to stay on their land. In September 2014, members of the Munda tribe in Similipal [...] Tiger Reserve tribe faces eviction is a post from: EconSpire
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Learners and teachers around the country will continue to celebrate the second annual Schools Democracy Week until Sunday, the Electoral Commission of South Africa said on Tuesday.

The campaign is a project between the Electoral Commission and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to educate young people about democracy.

One of the project’s goals is to increase youth voter registration and to educate youngsters and first-time voters on voting.

The first Schools Democracy Week was held in 2013, following the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Agreement between the Electoral Commission and the department, to address the challenge of increasing youth participation in electoral democracy.

While young people make up the majority of the South African population, their participation in electoral processes is not as high as older voters.

Only 28% of potential voters under 30 voted in the 7 May 2014 elections, compared to an average turnout of over 60% for those aged 40 and older and 70% for those aged 60 and older.

Teaching and learning support materials for the 2014 Schools Democracy Week have been sent to schools. They include a 58-page booklet titled Becoming a Good Citizen: Electoral Democracy Toolkit for learners in secondary schools and a 95-page booklet called Not Too Young – Teaching Electoral Democracy to Young South Africans for teachers and younger learners in primary schools.

Additional fact sheets covering registration and various aspects of electoral democracy will also be provided to schools as part of this week’s activities.

All materials and classroom activities are linked to co-curricular activities and social media opportunities on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. - SAnews.gov.za

Strides are being made to address youth unemployment which is a huge challenge for South Africa, says the Department of Labour.

“Part of these strides include the R300 million training initiative for training unemployed beneficiaries from the Unemployment Insurance Fund in partnership with SETAs on youth, which was launched by the Minister of Labour in 2013. The initiative will target 8 000 unemployed beneficiaries,” said Acting Deputy Director General for Public Employment Services (PES) Esther Tloane.

The Acting Deputy Director General’s comments were made at a Select Committee meeting in Cape Town on Tuesday.

She also shed light on the contributions by the department through the Compensation Fund in partnership with, Productivity SA, National Economic and Development Labour Council, as well as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.

“In addition, aspects such as registration of work-seekers, vocational and career counselling and assessment of work-seekers to determine their suitability, advising work-seekers on access to education and training as well as providing specialised services to assist vulnerable workers are some of the measures pursued,” she said.

Youth unemployment has increased from 3 million in 2009 to the highest level of 3.4 million in 2013 and 2014.

Sam Morotoba, Acting Director General for Labour, said “with an unemployment rate of 25.5% (5 154 000 unemployed people) South Africa is faced with the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.

“The most pressing problem facing the country today is the absence of sustained economic growth and job creation, which are essential to reduce poverty and improve living conditions,” he said.

Although there were jobs that emerge from time to time “the challenges we face are the persistent structural skills deficit informed by the mismatch between the skills acquired by the job seekers in the education system against the skills demanded by the labour market”.

“The Small Medium Micro Enterprise sector is relatively underdeveloped; the country is also faced with a huge challenge of the ever growing shredding of permanent or stable employment, replaced by casual and unstable jobs,” said Morotoba. – SAnews.gov.za

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