New York – A United Nations envoy, dispatched by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, held talks with senior Ukrainian officials in Kiev and pledged the world body’s commitment to assist the country as it seeks to emerge from the current crisis. Robert Serry “delivered important messages from the Secretary-General, including that the United Nations stands in solidarity [...]UN envoy discusses efforts to restore stability is a post from: All4Data


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Imagine a psychological experiment. You set up a “shop” where the people taking part in the experiment have to purchase a washing power from a choice of 12 available. They have to pay for the washing power with their own money, but they get to keep it after the purchase. The psychologists running the experiment [...]Hard Choices: Why do we do what we do? is a post from: Wittgenstein and Freud


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Pretoria – Judge Dunstan Mlambo has ruled on Tuesday that Paralympian Oscar Pistorius's murder trial will be televised in part with conditions at the North Gauteng High Court.

Pistorius’s trail is set to start on 3 March 2014.

The application to film the proceedings was brought by news channel eNCA, joined by media houses MultiChoice and Eyewitness News.

Judge Mlambo approved media’s application to broadcast but with strict conditions. Media will be allowed to broadcast the opening argument for the State and defence, expert evidence, testimony of police and all consenting State witnesses.

He said there will be no close ups and recording of private conversations.

Mlambo permitted the use of small, unmanned spy cameras to be fitted in the courtroom. The cameras will be installed where they will not interfere with proceedings.

There will be no recordings of personal legal discussions and no recordings when court is not session.

Pistorius is accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on 14 February 2013 at his home in the east of Pretoria. – SAnews.gov.za

Amsterdam - The Mpumalanga government has officially opened a state-of-the-art boarding school to cater for vulnerable children, including orphans and children who are the heads of their households.

Premier David Mabuza and Education MEC Reginah Mhaule opened the 24-classroom Izimbali Combined Boarding School in Amsterdam on Monday.

“This is one of the four boarding schools which were established following a pronouncement made by Premier Mabuza. It is aimed at phasing out multi-grade schools and unsafe schools in order to ensure that learners from rural communities, including farms, are able to access the quality education they deserve,” said MEC Mhaule.

She said this was in keeping with the government's Comprehensive Rural Development Programme.

"It intends to ensure that vulnerable children such as orphans and child-headed families are given the required support and a new lease on life through education,” she said.

The building of the boarding school started towards the end of the 2012 academic year.

It boasts 24 classrooms, a science laboratory, library, computer centre, 40 toilets, a state-of-the-art administration block, four sets of male dormitories, four sets of female dormitories, a fence, water and electricity.

According to MEC Mhaule, the school will cater for 456 pupils from the following primary schools: Broadholm, Idalia, Nongena, Samlee, Thokomala, Westoe, Zandspruit, Riverbend and Lithole.

“The principal has already been appointed, as well as a deputy principal, four heads of department and 20 post level teachers. The teachers from the above mentioned schools will be absorbed by the boarding school. The learners are expected to move into their new school at the beginning of April, the next quarter,” the MEC said.

She said buildings have been completed in accordance with the scope of work and are ready for occupation.

“The appointment of hostel staff is at an advanced stage, with some processes that require review to ensure that available skills, which can be sourced locally, are given consideration.

"The classes are furnished, which includes the Grade R class and the laboratory. The computer centres as well as the library still require to be resourced. Bedding equipment and mattresses have been procured, linen is outstanding," MEC Mhaule said.

Premier Mabuza said he will donate school uniform to the pupils as the school was in a healthy state to be handed to the school governing body and to the community. – SAnews.gov.za

As several commentators have noted, any government with the track record of Jacob Zuma’s ANC should not stand a chance of re-election.

Yet, in the real world, it will be a political breakthrough if the ANC merely falls below 60% nationally, and below 50% in Gauteng.

Various analysts proffer a range of reasons for this. But most ignore a very important one, which I summarise as follows: Despite President Zuma’s dismal record, the ANC only needs to follow a simple strategy to win an election. It only has to ensure that the electorate remains divided along historical fault lines, particularly race and ethnicity. The DA has the much harder task of bringing together individuals, who identify with diverse groups, around issues of common interest. This is much tougher than it sounds, because, in all divided societies, issues relating to identity and group solidarity generally “trump” any other priority.

For this reason, political parties that represent majority groups in complex, divided societies have a massive built-in electoral advantage. All they need to do is keep old divisions alive, and they win every time. This is exactly what the National Party did under apartheid. So it makes sense that both the NNP’s former leaders, as well as the “old nationalists” now with the Freedom Front Plus are with the ANC today. They all use the same strategy of ethnic and racial mobilisation, otherwise known as “divide and rule”.

The DA, on the other hand, has the monumental task of bringing people together who still often live in different realities, divided by old fault-lines, including race, ethnicity, and religion.

When the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, visited South Africa in 2010, he asked to meet me to discuss the DA’s growth, and described our success as a project of “international significance”. He warned that no other party in comparable circumstances had yet managed to achieve what we had set out to do, and he was amazed by our progress. He was also optimistic that our historic endeavour had a real chance of success.

We are unshakeable in our belief that it is possible to build an open, opportunity society for all in a complex plural society, in which everyone is free to choose their own identity, is equal before the law, and where each person has the means and the opportunities to become the very best they can be.

And we also know that unless we can achieve this, South Africa’s democracy cannot succeed.

But we are also under no illusion:when the ANC faces the prospect of a serious setback at the polls, as it does now, they will mount the mother of all “divide-and-rule” campaigns, starting with the platform of Parliament.

That is the reason that so many “divide-and-rule” Bills are being rushed through Parliament and its committees before the House rises on 15 March.

Take land reform, an issue on which the ANC has lost all credibility. The three pillars of the land reform programme include redistribution, tenure security and land restitution.

If land restitution had worked, much progress would have been made in land redistribution, so these programmes cannot be clearly separated from each other.

But, what is often ignored, is that 92% of all restitution claimants have preferred to take cash pay-outs, rather than return to the land. So when critics complain about the slow rate of return to the land by dispossessed people, it is important to note that vast majority of successful claimants up till now have chosen not to.

But those who have chosen to return to take their right to land, have found the going very tough. In fact, according to the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, about 90% of such programmes have failed to keep the land productive.This simply makes poor people poorer, even though they nominally have their land back.

And there remains a serious backlog -- involving mainly complicated rural claims -- that is having devastating consequences for both the claimants, and the farmers who are unable to develop or borrow money against land on which a claim has been lodged. An investigation into the restitution process by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found: illegal land grants to the value of at least R96.6 million, 636 examples of non-existent or false beneficiaries, forgery of valuation documents and officials’ family members listed as beneficiaries.

The reason for the failure of the restitution policy is NOT the “willing-buyer-willing-seller” principle, as the ANC falsely claims. It is the corruption, mismanagement, inefficiency and arrogance that has characterised the government’s approach up till now. And it is also due to the lack of support provided to new farmers to keep the land productive once it has been transferred.

The ANC’s failure in land reform and tenure -- in both rural and urban areas -- is even greater than the mess of the restitution process.

source: DA

Pretoria - Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe will today lead a 40-member business delegation to India for the fifth annual...

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The atmosphere was tense at the start of the 2014 Totalsports XTERRA South African Championship presented by REHIDRAT® SPORT on Sunday, 23 February 2014.Â* Top XTERRA Warriors Dan Hugo (South Africa) and Flora Duffy (Bermuda) had the crowd on their feet as they crossed the finish line first in the men’s and women’s races respectively [...]2014 XTERRA South African Championship is a post from: Time-to-Tri

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A tribunal has found that a tax avoidance scheme which involved celebrities, fund managers and other high earners claiming that they were second-hand car dealers in their spare time did not work. The decision, which will save the country £290 million, is the fourth consecutive win by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) against schemes promoted [...]
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Stellenbosch based trail running enthusiasts Craig Burns and Danette Smith had the rest of the field running scared on Saturday, 22 February 2014 at the second annual New Balance Trail Run presented by ISUZU in Grabouw. Burns claimed victory in the men’s 11km New Balance Trail Run presented by ISUZU in the fast paced time [...]Stellenbosch athletes dominant is a post from: Trail Running South Africa


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Transition – There is something inspirational and intriguing when it comes to the transition area in triathlon. If ever you have the opportunity, stop and watch the process from the swim to the cycle. Ironman Lanzarote Triathlon Transition This is not straightforward, as the athlete is wet and tired after their swim rush. They come [...]Transition – Pick and Go is a post from: Time-to-Tri

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