CMO Council convenes first Africa board meeting - CMO Council
The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, a global network of more than 3500 senior marketing executives in 57 countries, held the inaugural meeting of its new Africa Advisory Board at Dimension Data offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday, Tuesday, 12 August 2008.

AFRICA

Call for natural history film entries
Enter your wildlife, travel and/or cultural productions, and stand a chance of walking away with a ROSCAR (Rhino sculpture) Award.

ZAMTEL rolling out fibre-optic backbone
[Gregory Gondwe] The Zambia Telecommunications Company Limited (ZAMTEL) has announced that it has started its plans of rolling out a metropolitan optical fibre network which will provide new broadband services to Capital Lusaka's corporate customers.

Africa investor Index Series Awards shortlist announced
Africa investor (Ai), a leading international investment research and communication group, has announced the shortlist for its prestigious Ai Index Series Awards, to be held at the New York Stock Exchange on 15 September 2008.


National Energy Association recognises Engen's GM at awards
The 2008 South African National Energy Association (SANEA) held their annual awards dinner last week in recognition of companies, individuals and projects that have directly or indirectly promoted sustainable energy use and the benefits of sustainability to all.


CAF Southern Africa 2008 Conference
The CAF Southern Africa 2008 Conference themed, "Innovating for sustainability - Africans investing in Africa," is set for 17-18 September 2008 at The Wanderers' Club in Illovo, Johannesburg. The conference will explore how innovative financial models involving local investment, private equity and social enterprise can enhance the region's sustainability. Participants will discover the relationships between social investment, good corporate governance and visionary leadership. For more info, view the event listing here.

Court orders reinstatement of journalists suspended for not reporting positively on President Mugabe
The Labour Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to reinstate immediately, without loss of salary or benefits, six journalists who were suspended in June 2008.

Ugandan minister: Africa needs to harness mobile tech
Africa needs to devise ways to harness mobile technology, considering the explosive growth the technology and services have had on the continent, Uganda's minister of ICT has said.

UGANDA

Advertising companies battle for Entebbe Airport space
[Walter Wafula] Alliance Media Uganda and Messrs Clear Channel Independent are at war. The two advertising agencies are fighting for the rights to manage advertising space at Entebbe International Airport causing confusion that could lead to major losses by key advertisers.

Malawi: Radio station rekindles annual awards
[Gregory Gondwe] The state controlled radio station, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) has started preparations to rekindle the annual awards bestowed on the country's best entertainers, which slumped into hibernation after the company tasked to run it failed to conduct the event for three years.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi: Hoarding affects food supply
Despite government assurances of a food surplus, Malawi's traders are betting that maize prices will rise later in the year and are holding on to stocks, artificially pushing up the price at the tills for consumers.


Zambia hikes fuel prices
[Gregory Gondwe] Zambia's Energy Regulation Board (ERB) announced in a statement released in Lusaka lats week that it has increased prices of all petroleum products.

Illovo Malawi invests K1,5bn in sugar production
[Gregory Gondwe] Illovo Sugar Malawi board chair, Graham Clark announced last week that his company has this year injected K1,5bn to increase production before adding a further K2bn next year.


NEPAD - alive and working
Building on the NEPAD Projects Conference hosted in October 2007, the NEPAD SADC Regional Infrastructure Projects Conference held at the Sandton Sun, Johannesburg, on 8 August 2008, demonstrated the interest and desire from the private sector to participate in infrastructure projects across the continent.

Malawi: GTV partners with a local bank
[Gregory Gondwe] The pan-African pay-TV satellite service GTV has partnered with National Bank of Malawi (NBM) to run a finance facility that will allow prospective clients acquiring GTV equipment and services.

AFRICA

Face of Africa 2008
A new season of Face of Africa hits the runway this month as M-Net re-launches it's cross-continental model talent search. The new season will mark the seventh time that the project has run, having already delivered fresh new stars to the world's biggest catwalks.