AFRICA

Brand Africa - flexing its muscles in the 21st century

[Thabani Khumalo] In the year 2000, marking the close of the 20th century, the World Bank published a report provocatively entitled, Can Africa Claim the 21st Century? Seeking to answer this question, the report said: "The question of whether Sub-Saharan Africa can claim the 21st century is complex and provocative...Our central message is: Yes, Africa can claim the new century." Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Customers' complaints need strategy

[Aki Kalliatakis] Customers have the power to change service levels, performance and product, yet still they feel they are often mistreated. Successful complaining however needs to be focused in order to achieve lasting results. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Affordable satellite bandwidth could change rural access

[Douglas Reed] There is little ADSL or 3G access in rural areas. Farms and lodges for example have no communications or are battling with dialup or EDGE services, which are next to useless, and their businesses are suffering as a result. There is research suggesting that safari lodges could increase their occupancies by 50% if they could offer their foreign guests quality internet access. Read more >>

AFRICA

Broadband satellite connects inland, rural Africa

Satellite services continues to fulfil an important role in providing the telecommunications infrastructure for Africa's inland and remote rural areas, while the dozens of optic fibre cable networks now reaching the continent's shores will - at least initially - have limited penetration inland. Read more >>

NIGERIA

Airtel partners with GYADI to empower youths

Airtel Nigeria has partnered with Global Youth Awareness & Development Initiatives (GYADI), a non-governmental organisation, to host an Information Communication Technology (ICT) Summit which takes place today, 25 May 2012 at the Golden Royal, Independence Layout, Enugu State, Nigeria. The summit aims to empower youths in Enugu to succeed in their chosen career and business endeavours. Read more >>

AFRICA

Identity: Still the ultimate hot potato for Africa's artists

[Rebecca Davis] Is there anything that African artists agree on? At a sometimes fractious panel discussion convened as part of the Open Society's 'Money, Power & Sex' conference on Wednesday, it was hard to discern any common ground shared by some of the continent's prominent cultural figures. Read more >>

MALAWI

Banda appoints Steve Nhlane as press secretary

[Gregory Gondwe: @Kalipochi] Malawian president Joyce Banda has engaged Steve Nhlane, editor of the Malawi News as her press secretary. The country's media fraternity has hailed his appointment, saying he will bring sanity into the president's office because of his level headedness. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Three steps to writing well

[James Hurford] Often when people write, they're afraid to make mistakes and so they edit themselves word by word, inhibiting the natural flow of ideas and sentences. However, professional writers know that writing is a process consisting of numerous drafts, rewrites, deletions and revisions. Read more >>

UGANDA

Airtel Uganda announces new calling rates

Airtel Uganda has announced its new harmonized calling rates to all African destinations, cutting costs for Ugandans who communicate with family, friends and business associates across the continent. Read more >>

AFRICA

Airtel ranked amongst Top 100 Global Brands

Bharti Airtel, a telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, announced that they have reached an overall ranking of 71 in this year's BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. Read more >>

MALAWI

University graduates create social network

[Gregory Gondwe: @Kalipochi] Barely four months after bringing into the ICT market a search engine they call 'C-Finder', Mzuzu University Bachelor of Science graduates, Kondwani Chimatiro and Daniel Chiwinga, have brought another ICT innovation with a social network platform, almost designed to work as international social network set-up called 'Sahebo'. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Beating online fraud

According to Peter Harvey, the founder and CEO of payment gateway provider PayGate, Yuppiechef is one of the most successful online businesses staying one-step ahead of fraud attempts. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

E-mail to be ditched in favour of social media?

According to a Business Live report, some companies are likely to ditch e-mails in favour of social networking sites to forge closer ties with customers and partners, which quotes the IBM CEO study of 1 700 chief executives from 64 countries. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Investing in Africa - SAPOA Conference tackles issues

Property opportunities in Africa are hot topics for the local industry and these are one of the issues to be tackled at the 44th annual SAPOA International Property Convention & Exhibition on 30-31 May 2012 at the Durban International Convention Centre. Read more >>

MOZAMBIQUE

CNBC Africa opens office in Mozambique

CNBC Africa, a CNBC International franchise owned by Africa Business News, has entered into a joint venture with Mozambique's state broadcaster, Televisão de Moçambique (TVM), and will open a bureau in Maputo. CNBC Africa's country bureau representative will be Sunnyboy Mshengu. Read more >>

AFRICA

CAF unveils TV figures for CAN

Confederation of African Football (CAF), yesterday, 23 May 2012, unveiled the TV figures of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations 2012 that was co-hosted in Gabon - Equatorial Guinea. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

The Bees Awards: 2012 winners

SAN FRANCISCO, US: The Bees Awards, the international social media marketing awards, have announced the 2012 winners. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Deloitte named a top ten company for multicultural women in 2012

NEW YORK, US: For the seventh consecutive year, Working Mother magazine has named Deloitte one of the top ten employers in the United States for multicultural women. The ranking, now in its tenth year, recognises 25 US organisations based on representation; hiring, attrition and promotion rates; recruitment, retention and advancement; and company culture. Read more >>

UNITED KINGDOM

Executives don't value their pay plans - PwC and LSE study

LONDON, UK: Incentives have become so complex and volatile that they no longer motivate the executives they are aimed at. This is according to new PwC research in conjunction with the London School of Economics and Political Science, which found that many features of current pay packages mean that the value executives place on them is materially lower than the cost to companies of providing them. In many cases executives would be happier being paid a smaller salary in a less complex and less volatile form. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Google reveals copyrighted material claims

SAN FRANCISCO, US: Google on Thursday began revealing details about requests for links to be removed from Internet search results on the grounds they lead to copyrighted material posted without permission. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Hewlett-Packard to slash 27 000 jobs by 2014

SAN FRANCISCO, US: Hewlett-Packard said Wednesday it plans to cut 27 000 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce, by 2014 in a major restructuring effort for the computer giant. The world's biggest personal computer maker said the move was part of "a multi-year productivity initiative designed to simplify business processes, advance innovation and deliver better results for customers, employees and shareholders." Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Promote Africa but address challenges too, says Zuma

While the African continent should promote Afro-optimism and Ubuntu, challenges such as possibly not meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline must be addressed, says President Jacob Zuma. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

SACP boycott call 'disturbs' newspaper

City Press editor-in-chief Ferial Haffajee said yesterday she is "deeply disturbed" by SACP's calls to boycott the newspaper over its coverage of the controversial artwork The Spear. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Govt slams e.tv's 'selective broadcasting'

According to the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), the SA government is "appalled and disappointed" that e.tv censored visuals showing Advocate Gcina Malindi breaking down in tears during the South Gauteng High Court proceedings relating to The Spear portrait. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Fabulous has a new home

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] When The Alphen, Constantia was built in 1772 the owners had no idea that, over three hundred years later, sophisticates would be sipping cocktails in the garden's Rose Bar or that the sweeping lawns would be festooned in jaunty red, blue and white striped couches. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Get ready for the weekend

[Daniel Dercksen] If there is one way to combat the winter blues this weekend, it's warming up your spirit with live entertainment. Read more >>