Luke Adams and Damian Bamford from chimney and woodstove specialist, Topstak, have become registered chimney sweeps after training at the National Association of Chimney Sweeps (NACS) headquarters in Staffordshire. NACS was formed in 1982 as a professional trade association, promoting high standards for the sweeping, inspection and maintenance of chimneys Luke and Damian then cut [...]Topstak adds new skills is a post from:


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Running and Hygiene Practicing good hygiene is as impor […] The post Running and Hygiene appeared first on HealthnSpire. … HealthnSpire » News Running and Hygiene is a post from: All4DataRunning and Hygiene is a post from: All4Data


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The ASA Ad Hoc committee that met on Saturday, 22 March 2014 agreed to financial matters that involved cash flow problems as well as the selection of a Team to the World Half Marathon Champs in Copenhagen The ASA Ad Hoc committee met on Saturday, 22 March 2014 and agreed to the following: Finance Â*ASA [...]ASA Ad Hoc committee in March 2014 is a post from: Time-to-Run South Africa

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A new and innovative small key ring, is the latest personal safety alarm, that can save a person’s life. By simply pulling on the lanyard, an oscillating sound of 140 decibels is emitted.

The Memeza Women Empowerment Project developed the key ring that is a loud personal safety alarm as well as a household community safety alarm.

During the launch on Tuesday, Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko said Gauteng women are to feel safe with the creation of the new personal alarm.

“This will make Gauteng women feel safe. Crime affects all of us but what is on the increase is the violence against women and children.

“We hope with this gadget we will see more women being protected. It’s a beautiful device,” said the MEC.

The device was developed by Memeza director Thuli Mthethwa, after her family was attacked in their home in Tembisa.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Mthethwa said the initiative was about empowering police in the help against crime.

The alarm was also a tool to give a voice to the community and would be victims. It was also about uniting a community and strengthening ties with Community Policing Forums so that the community can better drive out crime.

“Studies show that criminals are more afraid of crime prevention measures at community levels and not prosecution measures at state level. Thus they more afraid of bull dogs, of terrier dogs, they more afraid of burglar alarms than the promise of a lengthy prison sentence,” said Mthethwa.

Mthethwa appealed to government to increase crime prevention at community level, taking the alarms to the people.

She also appealed to the corporate world to increase social responsible budgets aimed at crime prevention. Currently only 2% of corporate social responsibility budgets are allocated to crime fighting initiatives.

“If you teach a woman, you teach a nation and through Mthethwa’s innovation, we’ll see women feel safer. We also hope that people won’t abuse the device,” said MEC Mazibuko.

Major General Oswald Reddy, who is the commander of the Honeydew Cluster SAPS, expressed his confidence in the alarm, saying that although alarms are nothing new, such a device is of help to vulnerable communities as they are targeted by criminals.

“This initiative I support 100%, it’s something that can work on the street. It won’t solve all crime problems but it draws attention of the community,” he said.

The project has distributed 10 000 personal alarm devices to disadvantaged learners and community members over the course of last month. The devices have been distributed to women and children in Diepsloot, Soshanguve and Ebony Park, among others.

Household community alarm

Another alarm developed by Memeza is the household community alarm that has several features in that it’s the first pay as you go alarm system with airtime pooling to reduce monthly airtime costs for its owner.

The device has a long battery life making it usable to people in rural areas as well. It can be charged via solar energy at local community centres. The alarm system is cellphone enabled.

This community alarm emits a three phased siren to alert the community of intrusions with the affected house being easily identifiable by a flashing red light and an alert SMSs being sent to the cell phones of the local sector police and community crime initiatives as well as pre-selected family, neighbours and friends.

The alarm and its back end system are being finalised with testing since January.

Gauteng MEC for Economic Development Mxolisi Xayiya and MEC Mazibuko commended the work done by Mthethwa and the Innovation Hub.

Memeza is one of the 54 entrepreneurs in the Maxum Programme at the Innovation Hub, which is Africa’s first accredited Science and Technology Park. Its an entrepreneurship intervention designed to accelerate the growth of innovative knowledge.

MEC Xayiya said the department supported the initiative. “Such an innovation for us is critical because it deals with a core challenge in our society. Any product that comes to the fore must assist us in changing the anomalies that we find in our societies,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za

Learners from the Ntambanana community in the uThungulu District of KwaZulu-Natal are expected to reap the benefits of a R11 million investment in a library.

The facility, which was officially opened by KwaZulu-Natal Arts and Culture Department MEC Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha on Tuesday, will service five schools in the area, two of which are high schools.

"We are extremely proud of this project as it is an investment in our children's future.

“The entire community will benefit from this initiative and it will help the area progress not only on a socio-economic level but also expose the people to facilities that can better their lives," said MEC Sibhidla-Saphetha, speaking at the opening event.

She said the state-of-the-art library was part of ongoing efforts by the provincial government to encourage reading and contribute towards improving the province's matric pass rate.

The library, which is a partnership between the department and the municipality, already has 600 registered members and boasts a reading and writing club, where community members will be trained to read and write in isiZulu.

The facility also has a children's section that will encourage early childhood development and has books prescribed by Unisa and the University of Zululand. There is also a free Internet café.

MEC Sibhidla-Saphetha said the department will spend R640 000 annually to keep the library going. - SAnews.gov.za

The importance of the Secondary School Improvement Programme (SSIP) will be pushed to the fore, as Gauteng matrics will for the first time write the National Senior Certificate exams based on the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS).

“SSIP will be especially important in 2014 to help us mitigate the risks posed by the fact that this year, Gauteng matriculants will write the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations based on CAPS for the first time,” Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy said on Wednesday.

“Through the programme, teachers will receive additional training to ensure they are confident to deliver the new curriculum.

“We have also ensured that learner study notes and extra classes are aligned to the CAPS curriculum,” said the MEC, who was visiting Ponelopele Secondary in Ivory Park to motivate the Matric Class of 2014.

Under SSIP, Grade 12 learners get extra classes on Saturdays and during school holidays.

Now in its fifth year, SSIP has become an important element in improving the quality of education in Gauteng schools by giving support to educators and school managers to ensure better curriculum delivery.

SSIP has helped 435 priority schools to achieve the provincial benchmarks.

Accompanied by the province’s top 2013 matriculant, Praise Ndebele (who is a graduate of Ponelopele), the MEC congratulated learners for attending extra classes during the April school holidays and assured them that their sacrifices now would reward them when the matric results are announced in January 2015.

“I know no one wants to give up their holidays and attend extra classes. I also know that learners who do well and who achieve a university pass and even succeed in getting a bursary for their further studies are learners who attend SSIP classes on a regular basis,” said MEC Creecy.

She told learners that there was no substitute for hard work and urged them to make the most of their learning time.

SSIP has shown an average performance increase of 15% since 2009 and the gap in performance between fee-paying and no-fee schools has narrowed from 24% in 2009 to 9% in 2013.

“Today, the number of public schools achieving a pass rate of less than 60% has dropped from 188 in 2009 to 19 in 2013,” she said.

Extra classes for the 2014 matrics will run throughout the week. Once term starts, extra classes will be held every Saturday. Programmes will also run during the June holidays, as well as the September vacation.

Subjects targeted are: Maths; Maths Literacy; Physical Science; Life Sciences; Accounting; English First Additional Language; Economics, Business Studies; History and Geography. – SAnews.gov.za

The Human Resources Development Council (HRDC) has pledged its support for small business and quality education to help the country meet its development goals. The council on Wednesday held its 14th meeting, which was chaired by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe. The multi-tiered stakeholder advisory body, established in 2010, under the leadership of the Deputy President, [...]HRDC pledges support for small business is a post from: South Africa Business

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Pretoria – Metrorail Operations have been given a safety directive that trains will no longer leave the platform if commuters are hanging on the outside.

Security has also been put on high alert to take strong action against any passenger found riding outside the trains.

“We have taken a decision to strengthen our enforcement against commuters hanging on the outside of our trains putting their lives at risk and opening Metrorail to unsafe operating practices. We will now insist that our trains only depart the platform once all the doors have been closed with no commuter hanging on the outside of the train,” said PRASA Rail CEO Mosenngwa Mofi.

She said anyone caught hanging on the outside of the train, including those people that staff ride trains in between stations, will be arrested and prosecuted.

Mofi said that while there was a shortage in train sets and a high prevalence of breakdowns resulting in overcrowding, this did not justify operating under “perilous conditions”.

“We have on many occasions been candid about the chronic shortage and unreliability of our train sets which is why the expected new trains in 2015/16 will be such a welcome relief. We are, however, making no concessions when it comes to unsafe travelling practices which have become prevalent on our system.”

In the 2012/13 financial year, Metrorail operators reported 238 fatalities, out of those 221 were people struck by trains while walking on the tracks which accounts for 93% of the fatalities. A total of 17 of those were of people falling while hanging outside the trains or vandalised train doors.

Older train sets are currently being refurbished to improve reliability and express trains and shuttle train services have been introduced for short and intermediate trips to alleviate overcrowding. The Metrorail system is also undergoing a major modernisation exercise on critical areas of operations, such as rail tracks and signalling, among others.

“Metrorail will not tolerate dangerous and unsafe travel practices. We have on many occasions agreed that currently, our service is not to our customer’s needs in terms of on-time performance and reliability.

“At the heart of it, we as PRASA Rail want to run a safe and efficient service while still undergoing major improvements and modernisation that will, over time, be able to respond to customer expectations.

“Until such time, we will not condone unsafe travel in the name of overcrowding and our trains will not leave the platform if commuters are not securely inside the trains with closed doors. We are working with the Commuter Forums in promoting safe travelling and the reporting of any adverse behaviour, we also encourage our commuters to be responsible and safe while travelling,” said the CEO.

Mofi also appealed to commuters to stop vandalising trains which further reduces the number of operational sets as they have to go for replacement. – SAnews.gov.za

Spanish champions Barcelona have been given a 14-month transfer ban by Fifa for breaking rules on signing international players under 18. The Catalan club cannot buy or sell players until the summer of 2015 after the world governing body imposed a transfer ban for the next two windows. They have also been fined 450,000 Swiss [...]Barcelona transfer ban is a post from: Time-4-Sport


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International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane is in Brussels today, where she is leading the South African delegation to the 4th Africa-European Union (EU) Summit.

The summit is scheduled to take place between 2 and 3 April under the theme ‘Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace’.

According to the Department of International Relations, the summit affords Africa and Europe the opportunity to further strengthen political and socio-economic cooperation between the two continents.

High on the agenda will be peace and security, trade and investment, human development and the future institutional and financial arrangements of the Africa-EU Partnership.

Leaders from the two continents are also expected to use the opportunity to stocktake what has been achieved over the past three years, as guided by the Africa-EU Action Plan 2010-2013. The action plans was adopted at the 3rd Africa-EU Summit in Libya in November 2010.

Issues concerning the financing of priority projects aimed at meeting the developmental challenges of Africa will also be addressed.

Agreements that are to be signed during the meeting include the Brussels Declaration of the Heads of State and Government, which is the main outcome document for the 4th Africa-EU Summit; the Africa-EU Roadmap; and the Declaration on Migration and Mobility.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane is expected to hold bilateral consultations with her counterparts from Africa and Europe on the sidelines of the summit.

The delegation includes Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies. – SAnews.gov.za