South Africa News Archives - Page 68 of 72

15Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

BRICS Countries: Delayed Reforms are Jeopardising Positive Development

BERLIN and RIO DE JANEIRO, October 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Growth alone will not resolve problems if emerging markets do not change at the same time Contrary to the forecasts of success in recent years, the 'BRICS' (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are greatly in need of reform in key political areas. At the same time, their political systems often lack the capacity to reform, which is jeopardising future growth potential. A large-scale international comparative study by the German Bertelsmann Stiftung also comes to the same conclusion. The urgency of the problem and the capacities for reform vary significantly between the five countries. By comparison, Brazil has the most promising future prospects. Here, major reforms, for example in the fight against poverty a...

15Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, JACOB ZUMA

Afrobarometer Bulletin [Briefing Paper No.104] PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, JACOB ZUMA by Paul Graham and Carmen Alpin Introduction In May 2012, a display of art entitled “Hail to the Thief II” caused a national controversy because of a single element hung on a separate wall. This was a pastiche of a well-known image of Lenin with the face of the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. The piece was entitled “Spear of the Nation”. The controversy centred on issues of respect and dignity versus those of freedom of artistic expression. An unresolved court case was withdrawn after the image was serially defaced by two individuals, a public march on the gallery and a subsequent press conference between the African National Congress a...

13Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

A warning to South African Skype users about a malicious worm

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa ESET, a global provider of security software for enterprises and consumers, has warned South Africans about malicious worm spreading through Skype instant messaging. Further, South Africans are also warned to exercise caution when using Skype as they may fall victim to a recent campaign started by cyber-criminals aimed at spreading malicious malware. A new ESET report says the malicious worm has been spreading quickly among local Skype users. Some infections will install a ransomware variant, locking users out of their computers and informing them that their files have been encrypted and will be deleted unless a ransom payment of $200 is made within 48 hours. And this worm is spreading through Skype's instant messaging s...

13Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

What’s in it for me?

By Chemory Gunko Author and social psychologist, Robert Cialdini has conducted a very interesting experiment (Brandwashed, Martin Lindstrom, 2012). In this experiment, about 700 volunteers were brought into an auditorium, ostensibly to fill in a survey. The real purpose of the experiment though, was the glass jar of cookies on the researchers’ front desk. In stage one, the jar was filled to the brim with cookie deliciousness, and when the researcher asked if anyone would like a cookie, about a fifth of the people took him up on the offer. In stage two, many of the cookies were removed from the jar so that it would look as if others had already taken one. Again, when offered, only about a fifth of the respondents opted to enjoy a cookie. ...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

Frost & Sullivan: Mobile Operators Reap the Benefits from Infrastructure Investment in Sub Saharan Africa

Decline in retail price to push growth of voice and internet services CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct., 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadband penetration in African countries is significantly low, with a majority of countries recording penetration levels of less than 5%. This has had a considerable impact on internet usage levels in the region. African countries, however, have experienced a steady uptake of mobile communications and are poised to witness an appreciable growth of mobile, broadband and internet services over the next 4-5 years. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.wireless.frost.com), Sub Saharan African Communications Quantitative Quarterly Tracker Q3 2012, covering key countries in the region, finds that the market had 181.7 million mobile and fixed telephon...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

‘Sh’boom’ heralds launch of major new Standard Bank TV campaign

Standard Bank has launched the next phase of its brand campaign “Moving Forward” including a major television commercial that captures key moments in world history, demonstrating progress and the positive emotion people feel when they move forward. The campaign, developed by the group’s advertising agency TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, will flight in South Africa and other African markets where Standard Bank has a presence. The 60 second commercial follows a series of global events - from the first flight in the early 1900’s to the first democratic elections in South Africa. These moments capture significant social change and technology advances that have moved the world and humanity forward in a positive way. The famous tune “Sh’boom” by The Crew Cuts, which enjoyed nine weeks at Number...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

SA fanatical gamers are in for more entertainment

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa Oh ye! South African gaming solution is responding to high demand from fanatical gamers. And this week, gamers are to benefit from a niche product from South African hosting solution provider, Openweb. Reports show that the launch of its new 4MB and 10MB Uncapped Gold Solution positions itself square in the heart of SA gamers, answering a genuine local need for the type of reliability and bandwidth demanded in supreme quality gaming. Keoma Wright, Openweb CEO, explains: "The contention ratio is why Gold Uncapped works so well. We keep contention low and prioritise traffic for gaming. Latency can make or break a gamer - if your ISP doesn't add a priority flag on your gaming traffic, even if your gaming connection seems to be working well, you won't stan...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

South Africa: John Thompson flying higher

By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa Here is a company that knows how to make it big in the international business arena. The South African group, John Thompson is continuing its strong international performance with multiple export orders into the East African tea industry, brewing industry and the highly competitive Far East market, research reveals. According to JT, the tea industry, mostly concentrated in the East African region, has placed orders for a total of five wood-fired boiler units during the year to date. This industry also has vast tracks of land available for planting of blue gum trees making this the cheapest and most sustainable fuel. And the John Thompson Simpac boiler has been custom designed for wood log firing. It complies with latest design code yet is robustly built ...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, South Africa News

EIGHT OUT OF TEN COMPANIES STEP ON TO THE CLOUD

Johannesburg, South Africa: 11:30am 10 October 2012 – Nearly 80 per cent of organisations either use Cloud computing in their business or are planning to do so over the next 12 months, an audience of South African business executives heard today. Visitors to the Cloud and Virtualization Africa Summit attended a workshop by KeyedIn® Solutions, the global SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions provider and consulting organization that has recently established an office in Johannesburg. The workshop ‘Cloud Computing and the Changes to the Way we see Technology’ was presented by Patrick Coulbourne, VP Channels and Ecosystems and Hugh Muller, Director of Channels and Ecosystems, Africa. Patrick Coulbourne, who has more than 18 years’ experience in the technology space, told his audi...

10Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Ghana News, South Africa News

Summit aims to encourage enterprises and governments to be tech intensive and ICT empowered

Enterprises and governments to be tech intensive and ICT empowered (Microsoft Word) The anticipated annual IT Leaders West Africa Summit will take place from 28 to 29 November 2012 in the heart of Ghana’s esteemed capital city, Accra. The summit is produced by international business-to-business conferencing company, Kinetic Events; key strategic information providers to the IT and telecoms sector within Africa. South Africa, Republic of, Oct, 2012 – Globally, information and communication technology (ICT) has proven to be a driving force and an enabler for socio-economic development. In order to facilitate successful ICT policies and strategically plan for further development in West Africa, enterprises and governments are now being encouraged to fully understand and implement s...