AFRICA

Con Court reserves ruling on the temporary shelters
[Bathandwa Mbola] Johannesburg: South Africa's highest court has reserved judgement on an application to prevent the closure of temporary shelters for people displaced by violence in Gauteng.

Call to enter APEX Awards 2009
Entries are now open for the 2009 APEX Awards, the Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) announced earlier this week. The awards will now be held annually and entries are open to the entire African continent.

AFRICA

Gearing up for Sign Africa 2008
Practical Publishing is gearing up for its largest event of the year, the international Sign Africa Johannesburg and the Africa In-Store show 2008. The show opens 10 - 12 September 2008 at the Sandton Convention Centre, covering two exhibition halls and features a new Sign Africa Technology in Africa Conference area.

East Africa: Book to track region's top brands
East African companies have been urged to become more innovative in order to secure international markets for their products and services and in the quest for competitiveness.

East Africa to join high speed internet
One of the last missing sections in the global high speed internet will be filled in when East Africa finally gets connected. The area has so far been reliant entirely on expensive satellite connections to dial up to the world wide web.

Fort Hare University to honour Madiba
[Nthambeleni Gabara] Johannesburg: The University of Fort Hare is to hold a Festival of Ideas to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of it's former students - Nelson Mandela. According to Sahm Venter of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the two-day festival themed "Fort Hare as a space for African Liberation," will kick off on 29 August.

SOUTH AFRICA

Meetings Africa 2009 to focus on local corporate market
Meetings Africa will be held for the fifth consecutive year, 25 - 27 February 2009, at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, and South African Tourism is reminding companies in the business tourism industry - including conference venues, incentive travel destinations and event support services - to reserve their space as soon as possible as space is running out.

Upper east holds exhibition of made-in-Africa products
A five-day exhibition of made-in-Africa products and cultural awareness creation is underway in Bolgatanga in the upper east region. It seeks to showcase potentials of the northern, upper east and upper west regions and provide avenue for Africans in the Diaspora to easily trace their roots and invest in Ghana.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi's media practitioners to be accredited
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawian journalists will from November this year, be accredited by the Media Council of Malawi before starting their practice in the country.

Global internet innovators at Africa's 1st international E-Tourism conference
Johannesburg: World leading online experts will be speaking at Africa's first international e-tourism conference next month, giving presentations at the two-day conference from 1-2 September, on how Southern Africa's tourism sector can harness the potential of the web, especially in the lead up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Malawi trade union body clashes with Chinese investors
[Gregory Gondwe] Barely nine months after Malawi entered into diplomatic ties with China, Chinese investors visiting Malawi because of the ties, clashed with the Malawi Congress of Trade Unions (MCTU) over working conditions of local employees.

Child labour in cocoa industry
With the fears that the multi-billion dollar cocoa industry may have consigned the Harkin-Engel Protocol to the dustbin of history, there seems to be no end to the suffering of the poor children working in about two million cocoa farms in West Africa.

ZIMBABWE

Travellers in a quandary as American Express cuts off Zimbabwe
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's banks were reportedly scrambling for a solution after American Express began the process of withdrawing from the country.

Zambians urged to take advantage of Free Trade agreement
Lusaka: A senior Zambian government official has called on local producers and manufacturers to take advantage of the recently launched Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement to produce goods of high quality which can compete favourably in the region.

Jet honours Namibia and Botswana's community heroes
Southern Africa's premier grassroots awards programme, the Jet Community Awards, has honoured five outstanding community-based organisations from Namibia and Botswana as the first regional winners were announced at an open event at the Jet store in Southgate in Johannesburg last week.

Second African Experiential Marketing Summit - final agenda and speakers announced - Exp
The finalised agenda and lineup of speakers for the second African Experiential Marketing Summit have been announced.