On the back of the successful conclusion to the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series, ITU is pleased to confirm the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series calendar. For the first time, the 2015 Series will touch down in at least nine cities across five continents, and includes a variety of new and familiar sites. “We have [...]2015 World Triathlon Series schedule is a post from: Time-to-Tri


more [url=http://www.time-to-tri.com/news/2015-world-triathlon-series-scheduleTriathlon news ...[/url]

As a part of its 25th year anniversary celebrations, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) today inducted seven individuals into its inaugural Hall of Fame on the penultimate evening of the 2014 TransCanada Corp. Grand Final Edmonton. “It is a great privilege to induct these nominees into the first Hall of Fame,” said ITU President and [...]ITU Hall of Fame inductees is a post from: Time-to-Tri


more [url=http://www.time-to-tri.com/news/itu-hall-fame-inducteesTriathlon news ...[/url]

The ozone layer was showing positive signs of recovery, a report presented by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said.

CSIR atmospheric scientist Dr Thando Ndarana presented the findings of the 2014 World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Scientific Assessment of ozone depletion at the annual International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

“According to the report … the stratospheric ozone layer is on track to recovery,” CSIR spokesman Tendani Tsedu said.

The International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer is celebrated annually on 16 September. The theme for this year’s celebration was “Ozone Layer Protection: The mission goes on”.

He said the 1987 Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer successfully led to a halt in the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as one of its interventions to protect the ozone layer.

“As a result, the ozone layer is expected to recover to pre-1980 levels by the middle of the 2060s,” Tsedu said.

The recovery of the ozone layer depended on the continued compliance of the Montreal Protocol.

Tsedu said the release of chlorofluorocarbons and other atmospheric pollutants were known to deplete the stratospheric ozone and increase human exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation causing skin cancer and cataracts.

“The recognition of the direct effect a depleting ozone layer has on human health was a major motivation to the Montreal Protocol.

“Although the ozone layer is beginning to recover, UV radiation remains a health hazard,” he said.

Tsedu said the ozone layer absorbed some of the sun’s biologically harmful UV radiation. – SAnews.gov.za

Stewart Chaperon and Olivia Read are the new champions of the Wildcoast Wildrun – the popular three day 112km stage race from Kei Mouth to Hole-in-the-Wall on the Wild Coast. Chaperon was made to work hard for his title and chased throughout by Jacques Mouton from George and twin brothers, Andrew and Steven Erasmus from [...]Chaperon and Read take Wildcoast Wildrun is a post from: Trail Running South Africa


read more South Africa Trail Running news

Residents living in the north of Pretoria will be able to make use of a specialised burns unit at the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital, in GaRankuwa, by the end of the year.

The new unit is expected to be operational by the end of November, according to acting hospital CEO, Dr Freddy Kgongwana.

Speaking during an unannounced inspection by Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza on Monday, the acting CEO said the unit will specialise in treating patients with burn wounds and 40 nurses and 20 plastic surgery doctors have been appointed.

He said the unit, built by the Royal Bafokeng Holdings and the Gauteng Department of Health, will boast 32 beds, a theatre room and an Intensive Care Unit with three beds.

Kgongwana said he could not wait for the unit to offer its services to the public.

In addition to the burns unit, the hospital is renovating its nursing home which has 14 blocks housing between 18 and 24 people in each block.

Work has already begun on seven blocks at the nursing home and the first phase of the renovations is expected to be completed in December.

Kgongwana said the renovations were in line with the reclassification of the hospital as an academic hospital.

The acting CEO said this meant added benefits at the facility, such as the respect for healthcare professionals and recruiting highly qualified nurses, while also retaining staff.

“We are competing with outside countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, so it’s very important as a retention and recruitment strategy,” he said.

Kgongwana said the hospital had to produce about 10 000 healthcare workers in the complex.

“We are conjoined with the [Limpopo] University as an academic complex, so that that speaks to our plans to produce adequate numbers of healthcare professionals, especially nurses who are the core in terms of functions so that is very exciting for us,” he said.

The 40-year-old hospital cares for 1 652 patients on its beds each day and provides all three levels of care as there is no primary or secondary facility in the district. It is the country’s second largest hospital after Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg.

The MEC said she was encouraged by the work that was being done at the hospital, and the maintenance of the infrastructure.

“I am happy that most of the weaknesses that have been identified are being addressed,” she said.

During her presentation, MEC Mayathula-Khoza said the challenges that were facing the hospital included old equipment which sometimes broke down, low staff morale because of late payments of overtime and some of the lifts were not working.

“There are plans in place to either renovate or replace [the equipment]. I am encouraged by the performance but I would like the officials who are working here to speed up service delivery and meet the targets they have set for themselves,” the MEC said. – SAnews.gov.za

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi says government will continue to put the needs of the people first as the country marks Thusong Service Centre Week.

The week officially gets underway today, and was launched by Minister Muthambi at Denlyn Mall in Mamelodi, north of Pretoria, on Sunday.

She used the platform to call on public servants to improve services given to the public.

“It’s our belief that given all the service delivery protests that we have seen in recent times, there is a great need for all of us to do some introspection about how we are at the service of our people as a civil service,” said the Minister.

The campaign will run until Friday, 19 September, and it seeks to highlight the communication of services offered at Thusong Service Centres across the country and how people can benefit from them. The campaign also falls under Public Service Month.

Guided by the month’s theme, “Reinventing the way Public Service Works, Batho Pele”, the Thusong Week’s activities will deepen this focus as they will mainly concentrate on encouraging service providers within the centres to promote the Batho Pele principles in the way they render services and conduct themselves.

Minister Muthambi was joined at the launch by officials from the City of Tshwane. The team engaged with the centre manager, who demonstrated how the model of the Mamelodi service centre works.

Other activities during the launch included interacting with the local Aids Training Project, which will form a working partnership with the centre for public meetings on related topics.

Minister Muthambi did a walkabout at Denlyn Mall, where she, along with the other officials, introduced the services offered at a Thusong Center to the people. During this session, the Minister listened to people from all walks of life, some of whom are unemployed youth, who had benefited from government’s training programmes.

Minister Muthambi encouraged more South Africans to make use of the services given at the Thusong centres.

“These centres are there to build the much needed bridges between the government and its people. Practically, these centres do not just disseminate information for the sake of it, but underline what we mean by development communications – communications that empowers our people,” said Minister Muthambi.

Serving with care

Minister Muthambi reminded public servants of their responsibility towards communities.

She outlined eight principles that she said every public servant should embody.

Consultation: Citizens should be consulted about the level and quality of the public services they receive and, wherever possible, should be given a choice about the services that are offered.

Service standards: Citizens should be told what level and quality of public service they will receive so that they are aware of what to expect.

The principles are as follows:

Access: All citizens should have equal access to the services to which they are entitled.

Courtesy: Citizens should be treated with courtesy and consideration.

Information: Citizens should be given full accurate information about the public services they are entitled to receive.

Openness and transparency: Citizens should be told how national and provincial departments are run, how much they cost and who is in charge.

Redress: If the promised standard of service is not delivered, citizens should be offered an apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy. When complaints are made, citizens should receive a sympathetic, positive response.

Value for money: Public services should be provided economically and efficiently in order to give citizens the best possible value for money.

“If all abide by these principles, our service to the public will improve exponentially.

“I look forward to a changed culture of serving our people and hopefully a national dialogue will be triggered by activities set aside for this week to mark the existence of these centres,” said Minister Muthambi.

Helping the nation

Currently, there are 183 Thusong Service Centres established in 107 Local Municipalities countrywide. These are complemented by 114 integrated mobile routes taking government services to the far flung areas.

The following government services can be found at the centres: applications for identity documents, birth certificates, social grants and the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and municipal services that are provided by the departments such as Home Affairs, Labour, Justice and Constitutional Development as well as the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

More about Thusong centres

The Thusong Service Centre Programme is one of the first unique initiatives implemented by the South African democratic government, which integrates services across the three spheres of government, namely national, provincial and local.

This year marks the 15th year of the programme’s existence. The programme not only creates access to government information and services, but also enables communities to access opportunities offered by other civil society groups such as businesses, NGOs and parastatals.

There are 14 tele-centres within the Thusong centres. These tele-centres are managed by young entrepreneurs, thus creating job opportunities and assisting to widen government access to information, particularly in the rural areas.

The programme has enjoyed the support of the business community (particularly the mines), where a major capital injection was given towards the construction of the centres as part of the Business Cooperate Social Responsibility.

To date, about 109 centre managers and caretakers have been assigned to oversee the operations of the centres and to ensure that they operate at their optimum level.

For more information on the Thusong programme, visit thusong.gov.za. – SAnews.gov.za

South African Poet Laureate, Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile will hold a poetry reading session at the National Library with his Jamaican counterpart poet Laureate, Professor Emeritus Mervyn Morris, on Tuesday.

This as South Africa marks 20 years of democracy and freedom and Jamaica recently celebrated its 52nd Independence Day. It is also 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and South Africa.

The aim of the event is to foster relations with the Diaspora and broaden cultural relations with Jamaica.

The two countries have agreed to co-operate in projects and activities in the fields of artistic, architectural restoration, preservation, and generally developing their national heritage.

These two cultural ambassadors have achieved many accolades in their lifetime.

Professor Kgositsile has been a literary and political activist. In 2008, he was awarded the National Order of Ikhamanga Silver (OIS) for excellent achievements in the field of literature and using these exceptional talents to expose the evils of the system of apartheid to the world.

He became active in theatre while in New York, founding the Black Arts Theatre in Harlem.

Among the many literary awards he has received include the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Harlem Cultural Council Poetry Award, the Conrad Kent Rivers Memorial Poetry Award, and the Herman Charles Bosman Prize.

Mervyn Eustace Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and studied at the University College of the West Indies and as a Rhodes Scholar at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

He is a poet and Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. – SAnews.gov.za

The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has obtained an order in the North Gauteng High Court freezing a cash amount of US$9.34 million - about R102 million - that was confiscated at Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg.

The order, according to NPA spokesperson Nathi Mncube, was granted in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act which provides that property that is used to commit a crime can be frozen while the NPA applies for a final order to forfeit the money to the state.

The cash was brought into the country on a flight from Nigeria to Lanseria Airport on 5 September by two Nigerians and an Israeli.

“The money was initially detained by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) as it was not disclosed or declared at customs, and was above the prescribed legal limit for the amount of cash that may be brought into the country,” said Mncube.

Mncube said the cash consisted of 90 blocks of $100 000 each and was found in two black plastic suitcases.

Each suitcase had a combination lock to which only the Israeli citizen had the combination.

“In addition to the 90 blocks, some hand luggage of [the Israeli citizen] contained three sealed blocks and one partially opened block of US dollars,” Mncube said.

The money is currently being kept safe by the South African Reserve Bank. – SAnews.gov.za

Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and her Chinese counterpart, Yin Weimin, on Monday met to thrash out matters related to improving human resource development in both countries.

The two ministers also signed a memorandum of understanding, which will see parties working together to strengthen employment services, labour inspection services, social security and employment programmes to meet the challenges of the labour market and globalisation.

“During my visit to China in August 2013, we learnt a lot about your labour market and visited institutions of interest to us.

“Key amongst them was the Public Employment Centre in Haidian District, where I was quite impressed with the advanced digital display-wall reflecting by-the-second updates on vacancies. We are still grappling with resources to enable us to reach that level as a country,” Minister Oliphant told Weimin.

Weimin said China was looking forward to deeper cooperation with South Africa.

“The purpose of our visit is to promote our exchanges in the fields of human resources and employment services between South Africa and China,” said Weimin.

Youth unemployment remains a huge challenge globally and domestically. Minister Oliphant said government, however, is mitigating this through active labour market programmes such as learnerships, the Expanded Public Works Programme and other targeted initiatives like the Youth Accord and Youth Incentive.

Minister Oliphant said officials her department will visit China to explore IT systems, their governance service delivery models and business processes.

Minister Oliphant said during the sixth BRICS Summit held in Fortaleza, Brazil, the leaders agreed that a Labour and Employment, Social Security and Social Inclusion Public Policies Forum be explored as a new area of focus.

She said she is aware of informal discussions of officials in Geneva with a view to formalise agreements in this forum.

The Minister said she was keen that this initiative be supported to ensure that labour and employment issues also get the proper recognition within BRICS’ processes.

The Minister’s delegation included her deputy, Inkosi Pathekile Holomisa, acting Director-General Sam Moratoba and acting Deputy Director-General: Labour Policy, Thembinkosi Mkalipi. – SAnews.gov.za

Specialist energy management company RUMM, has signed al multimillion pound deal in the USA, licensing the company’s technology and methodology. RUMM – remote utility monitoring and management –Â* based at Tredomen Gateway in Ystrad Mynach, is a spin-out company from the University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales), formed in 2005. RUMM has developed [...]Rumm Energy Management company deal is a post from: EconSpire
The post Rumm Energy Management company deal appeared first on EconSpire.


read more Eco News ..