Halala Madiba, halala! Yesterday marked the 92nd birthday of internationally renowned leader, Nelson Mandela. Commemorating Mandela Day on 18 July began in 2009 as a global affair with organisers requesting people to celebrate the legacy of Nelson Mandela by using 67 minutes of the day to give back to society and help those in need. Why 67 minutes you ask? The occasion is based on Mandela spending 67 years of his life working towards a better future for South Africans. With support for Mandela Day growing year-on-year, it's a day on which social and economic boundaries between citizens grow fractionally smaller. The global icon is respected and revered by the world as an exceptional human being and we can only strive to emulate, at least in part, the person he has been throughout his life. With Mandela making an appearance during the closing of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he crowned what was an already spectacular occasion. With Madiba as a role model to the entire world, we can all make it a much better place for everyone. Happy-belated Birthday Madiba; thank you for all you have done for us. Cheers, Sindy Peters, Africa editor
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 [Henrie Geyser: motoring editor] Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) has appointed Dean Stoneley as its new vice president marketing, sales and service effective from July 2010. Stoneley replaces Jacques Brent who has accepted a position as executive marketing director for Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, based in Shanghai. Read more >>2010 FIFA World Cup
 NEW YORK: The United Nations has hailed the 2010 World Cup as a great success for the government and people of the host nation South Africa, as well as the entire African continent, adding that the event also served as a vital tool to promote development and peace. Read more >> MTN, the first African global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, showcased the network and its products and services during the sporting event. According to the mobile service provider, all through the tournament, the network carried approximately one terabyte of traffic in locations like stadia, airports, and fan parks. Read more >> [South African Civil Society Information Service] The FIFA headquarters are nestled into a secluded spot on the hill overlooking Zurich, one of the richest cities in the world. Here a glass of Coke will cost you R60 (US$8) at a restaurant. The city, set around a lake with snow capped mountains in the background, is picture perfect in a chocolate-box kind of way. Read more >> The VWV Consortium produced the closing ceremony for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, held before the final match on 11 July 2010. The performance involved approximately 730 cast members and included technology and projection that aimed to create an African feel. Read more >> [Thabani Khumalo] The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games demonstrated, for the first time, that events are no longer just about leisure, entertainment and recreation, but are a serious business with the potential to yield huge returns to host regions, investors and stakeholders. Events have become the biggest industry within the modern global economy. Read more >> JOHANNESBURG: FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, has given South Africa 9 out of 10 for organising a successful World Cup. Read more >> [John Battersby] In the space of four weeks the vuvuzela has become the defining sound, shape and buzzword of Africa's first FIFA World Cup. It is on everyone's lips - both literally and figuratively - and is likely to gets its place in the Oxford English Dictionary some time soon. Read more >>Branding
 [Issa Sikiti da Silva] It has been written that music forms part of a nation's culture. Culture, which reflects the identity of people, can be a powerful tool of social upliftment and branding. African music, which has been mostly inspired by decades of hunger, armed conflict, suffering and lack of freedom of expression, still lacks that cutting-edge due to lack of resources and self-sacrificial political leadership. Read more >>CSI
Following Nedbank's announcement in September 2009 of its commitment to work towards carbon neutrality, it announced on 13 July 2010 that it has achieved this goal. Read more >>Digital
ACCRA, GHANA: The Connecting Rural Communities Africa 2010 Forum will be hosted by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) from the 17-19 August in Accra, Ghana. The theme for the fifth annual event is 'Effective governance, transparent public services and citizen empowerment through information and communication technologies'. Read more >>[Franklin Ozekhome] A few days ago, I was chatting with a former colleague in San Francisco, California - he works in the planning department of a prominent advertising agency in Lagos, and was vacationing in the US for the summer. Naturally, our gist had revolved around current events and trends in the Nigerian media and advertising industry, especially given the country's poor representation at the recently concluded 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Read more >> Eventing
AFRICA Vodadome hosts 2010 Africa Photographic Awards ceremony The inaugural Africa Photographic Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, 12 August 2010, at the Vodadome (Vodaworld) in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Official proceedings will commence at 7pm and will include a cocktail dinner with a cash bar and live entertainment. For more information, go to www.africaphotographicawards.com. Magazines
Mikateko Media, the South African 54% black-owned and controlled publishing company, has signed Safaricom, the East African telecommunications service provider and will produce The Option, a quarterly publication, which will go out to 100 000 Safaricom customers. Read more >>Media
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabweans who do not have satellite dishes and decoders for alternative broadcast are stuck with what has become a regular feature of domestic television and radio programming: a jingle reminding them that President Robert Mugabe is still ruling. Read more >> Advertisement:
[Gregory Gondwe] President Bingu wa Mutharika has ended growing speculation by appointing former acting director general of the defunct Malawi Television (TVM), Bright Malopa, director general of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) which will now be running the state-controlled television services and two radio stations. Read more >> NAIROBI: A prominent media rights group called on Wednesday (14 July 2010) on the European Union and other donors to suspend financial support for Rwanda's "repressive" regime ahead of next month's presidential polls. Read more >>HARARE: President Mugabe has announced that the Media Practitioners' Bill, which has been on the cards for more than a year following recommendations of the All Media Stakeholders Conference held in Kariba in May 2009, will be among the 23 Bills constituting the legislative agenda of the next parliamentary session. Read more >>Ivory Coast's public prosecutor said on Thursday (15 July 2010) that three local journalists have been arrested and will be formally charged for allegedly stealing secret documents that were used in an article about corruption in the cocoa sector. Read more >>WASHINGTON, DC: The National Peace Corps Association's (NPCA) Africa Rural Connect (ARC) essay contest with the World Policy Journal on Africa food security closes for entries on 31 July 2010. Essays identifying innovative solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the rural regions of Africa are invited for submission. Read more >>NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned a decision by the Security and National Intelligence Service to bar publication of the daily Al-Intibaha. Authorities suspended the newspaper last week because of the newspaper's supposed role "in strengthening separatist tendencies in the south and the north," a security official told local reporters. Read more >>CAPE TOWN: John Kufuor, former president of Ghana, recently launched an education toolkit published by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) that will serve as a training tool for journalists and communication specialists. He also launched the 6th edition of ADEA's Africa Education Journalism Award. Read more >>Mobile
A new web-based product developed in India could soon offer internet access via text messages and voice commands to users of low-end mobile phones. UK newspaper The Guardian reported on Thursday (15 July 2010) that SiteOnMobile is currently being tested by three companies. Read more >>Advertisement:
Kenya launched a free text message service on Wednesday (14 July 2010) which allows the public to report examples of hate speech ahead of a constitutional referendum in August. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission said it will monitor the service and respond to hate speech reported to the free SMS number (6397) within 12 hours. Read more >> Last week marked yet another milestone in communications when the five billionth mobile subscription was added to the count, thanks largely to emerging markets like China, India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Read more >>[Simon Russell] Twelve years ago the retail banking industry thought the end of 'bricks-and-mortar banking' era was close, with the introduction of mainstream internet banking. However, this did not materialise as banks in their quest to differentiate, realised the value of the branch in the selling process and its necessity for customer acquisition and authentication. Read more >>  If you're in downtown Nairobi before the 4th of August, be sure to pop into the Barber Q Hair Studio and get yourself a free head massage. The studio is on the 2nd Floor of El-Roi Plaza, close to the Odeon Cinema. This is just one example of the thousands of snippets of information that are at the heart of Mocality, a free-to-list, hyper-local mobile business directory in Nairobi, Kenya. Read more >>Newspapers
ABIDJAN: The National Press Council (CNP), the print media regulatory body in Côte d'Ivoire, on 9 July 2010 imposed a fine of three million CFA francs (about US$6,000) on Regie Cyclone Company, publishers of Le Temps, a pro-government daily newspaper. Read more >>Research
 [Issa Sikiti da Silva] Despite decades of economic stagnation and declining productivity, the African continent, more especially the sub-Saharan region, is on the move and is about to be transformed in the 21st century, according to the current MasterCard Worldwide Africa report and the McKinsey on Africa report. Read more >> [Issa Sikiti da Silva] As the global economic recovery gets off to a slow, uneven start, 45% of South African consumers say they will be restricting their purchases on 'essential' expenses, and in the process cutting down on luxury goods in the next six months, according to a MasterCard Worldwide survey released today, 15 July 2010. The number of Nigerian and Moroccan consumers planning to increase spending on luxury goods has also decreased, according to the survey. Read more >> In partnership with OMD, Tony Koenderman's AdReview is designed to provide expert and accurate media information covering South Africa and the SADC. The review covers Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Read more >>Retail
[Dumisani Ndlela] To control or not to control food imports from South Africa has become the single major headache for the Zimbabwe government, now facing spiralling inflation after a disinflationary period in 2009. Read more >> [Dumisani Ndlela] A liquidity crunch in Zimbabwe since dollarisation has meant that cash has become the most sought after commodity in the country after food. But fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers are ensuring a massive ramp up of food production to get people's cash trickling into their coffers even when other businesses are haemorrhaging from dwindling demand. Read more >> [Ignatius Banda] BULAWAYO: A resurgence of interest in dried traditional vegetables has opened up a market opportunity for women entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. Read more >> Game Stores has come a long way since it opened its first store in Durban in 1970 in cramped premises in the city's CBD, ringing up sales of R78 000 in its first month of trading. Its founders believed that shopping had become a tedious and boring pastime. They wanted to create a fun shopping environment and so conceptualised retailing as a game. The signature bright pink prevails to this day. Read more >>[Zeenat Moorad] Fresh from an impressive 52-week sales update, retailer Massmart Holdings, has announced the buy-out of Namibia-based hardware chain, Pupkewitz Megabuild, in line with its African expansion strategy. Read more >> TV
MBABANE: On 11 July 2010, Channel Swazi, a privately-owned TV station was forced to pull a religious programme off air after Swazi authorities felt the sermon which was being preached in the programme was critical of royalty and Swazi cultural practices. Read more >> [Franklin Ozekhome] Some people say they love advertising because of the ads they see on television, billboards and YouTube videos that generate mad buzz. Others see the glamorous side of the ad world - TV production shoots with models, launch parties with celebrities, Cannes Lions Festival showstoppers, and exclusive dinners at upscale restaurants with clients. Read more >>
- Analytical thinking and creative problem solving Faculty Training Institute - Johannesburg, 19 July
- Principles of professional business analysis Faculty Training Institute - Cape Town, 2 August
- NGO's: Build a communication toolkit Africanscribe Media - Johannesburg, 7 August
- GCX certified carbon literacy course Global Carbon Exchange - Cape Town, 10 August
- Face the media with confidence - Johannesburg, 11 August
- 12th Encounters documentary festival 2010 - Cape Town, 12 August
- mobiFEST 2010 MobileMoney Africa - Lagos, 17 August
- The seven tools for management success REAL Consulting - Cape Town, 19 August
- Project management simulation Sobethu - Johannesburg, 25 August
- Programme in supply chain management USB Executive Development Ltd - Cape Town, 6 September
"Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation." - Milan Kundera "Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected." - William Plomer "All of us perform better and more willingly when we know why we're doing what we have been told or asked to do." - Zig Ziglar
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