ZIMBABWE

New brand on the horizon: merging to add colour
The makeover of company names and logos has hitherto characterised Zimbabwe's brand revolution, without the dreaded management or shareholder shake-ups that bring in new culture.

AFRICA

Africa sets the trend in design
The influence of Africa, particularly when it came to store design, has always tended be of less value than more ‘modern' design concepts. This was particularly so in South Africa, but it was also widespread in Africa. Now, in South Africa at least, that now seems to be changing.

NAMIBIA

Namibia: Land reform reproducing poverty
Namibia's land reform programme is a "zero sum game" that merely swaps one form of poverty for another in its current resettlement programme, according to an independent report on attempts to find a equitable solution to racially skewed land ownership.

Malawian government pushes green vehicles
As crude oil prices hit a record high, the Malawi government has launched a project to ensure that all vehicles in the country switch to the cheaper and greener alternative fuel - ethanol - in a few years.

The new aid giants
Can the entrepreneurial zeal, innovation and super-size budgets of private foundations succeed where a sclerotic and undisciplined international aid industry has failed? Or is the “New Philanthropy” simply executive arrogance, vanity and naïveté - rushing in where even the "aid experts" have failed?

Investor firm to acquire stake in Kenya bank
[Carole Kimutai] Equity Bank is set to become the biggest bank in Kenya in terms of capital base following plans by a Pan African based investment firm, Helios EB Investors to acquire over 90 million new shares.

KENYA

France Telecom wins 51% of Telkom Kenya
[O'Brien Kimani] France Telecom has won the bid for a 51% share of Telkom Kenya, according to Investment Secretary Esther Koimett.

Liberalise ICT sector for growth
[Zachary Ochieng] The 5th International Conference on Open Access opened on Wednesday in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, with a call to industry regulators to allow more players on board, if developing nations are to 'leap frog' the traditional technological stages taken by developed countries.

Computer literacy for the information age
[Timothy Kasonde] A total of 53 teachers last week completed five days of intermediate computer literacy training at Coffee Bay Junior Secondary School and Mdedeleni Secondary School in the Eastern Cape. Twenty teachers attended a beginner's course at Lerato Secondary School in the Free State.

Africa must train more content developers
[Irene Hoaes] Africa must improve ICT infrastructure and expand training for content developers to have any prospects in the knowledge and digital economy.

AFRICA

Swedish agency offers training opportunities to African journalists
[Walter Wafula] The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has announced vacancies for the 2008 Seminar on Journalism and Democracy at the Institute for Further Education of Journalists, Fojo in Sweden. Journalists from six African countries, including; Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Rwanda, and Somalia are eligible for the course.

Beleaguered Rushwaya gives journalists the run-around
[Nkanyiso Moyo] For a second day running, beleaguered Zimbabwe FA chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya on Saturday avoided journalists as questions mounted around her following her arrest last week on fraud charges.

EAST AFRICA

Somali government shuts down media groups
Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has shut down Shabelle Media Network, Banadir Radio and Radio Simba, media officials told IRIN.

Mobile phones benefit fishing community
[Zachary Ochieng] A study conducted by two students from Upsalla University, Sweden, in collaboration with the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT), has concluded that the use of mobile phones has improved the livelihood of the Tanzanian fishermen who had hitherto no reliable means of communication.

Foundation launched to empower Ugandans
[Walter Wafula] For any business to prosper, it should serve people who are able to enable it to survive through effective demand for its products or services. If its target market cannot offer this support then the business is destined to wind up as soon as possible.

Newspaper chiefs balk at price increases after government threats
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's two independent weekly newspapers, the Zimbabwe Independent and The Financial Gazette, slashed cover prices to Z$150 000 per copy last week after a government agency said the new prices of Z$600 000 per copy were illegal.

Zimbabwe: Media commission head clearly biased, but retained
The chair of Zimbabwe's media commission has been retained despite his bias against publisher applying for licence

ZIMBABWE

Three SA newspapers hit Zimbabwe newsstands
A newspaper marketing company has started selling titles from South Africa's Independent News & Media, just over a month after the Sowetan hit the country's newspaper stands but was quickly withdrawn because distributors had been “testing the market”.

Zimbabwean executives in trouble over newspaper prices
Media executives in trouble as government maintains blitz ahead of elections.

Partnership to grow Internet information in African nations
[HANA Reporter] Increasing awareness about Internet Governance issues and working together on the development and growth of the Internet in Africa are part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU).

Steps taken for multilingual Internet
[HANA Reporter] The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the International Telecommunication Union, and UNESCO will collaborate on global efforts to forge universal standards towards building a multilingual cyberspace.

Online game helps to feed the hungry
An Internet game, which donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for every correctly answered question, has passed the one billion grain mark after one month.

Kenyan ISP grows its bandwidth by 150% in one year
[Carole Kimutai] AccessKenya has contracted to purchase 250Mbps of international bandwidth. As part of this contract, they have now strategically installed three uplinks and three downlinks in Nairobi to create extra redundancy on their international network.

The Linear Connection - Right Stuff
The Linear Range is the latest suite of products to be introduced into Right Stuff's extensive product range. It is a set of aluminium structures which can be configured in a number of ways to create any one of the five suggested product variations, making it the most customisable item that Right Stuff has introduced to date.

Burkina Faso producers reluctant to sell crops, market prices rising
Despite the fact that the prices for their products are increasing, producers in this West African country are not willing to sell their produce.

KENYA

A first for Kenyan retail chain - 24-hour shopping
[Carole Kimutai] Following the growing success of a round-the-clock shopping concept introduced by Nakumatt Holdings earlier this year, the supermarket chain has expanded the service to Nakumatt Downtown in Nairobi's city centre.

Chiefs vs Pirates on European TV
[Brad Morgan] European soccer fans will get a chance to see Kaizer Chiefs versus Orlando Pirates when, for the first time, the clubs' clash on 24 November will be broadcast in 43 European countries.

GTV cashes-in on low pricing
[Joyce Joan Wangui] GTV, the satellite-based pay television network based in Nairobi, Kenya, brings with it a unique bouquet of goodies, among them lower pricing and a relevant content for African viewers.

Tourism TV station to launch
Southern Africa Direct, a new free-to-air lifestyle and culture television channel is set to go on on-air on the UK's Sky digital broadcast platform on November 26 2007.