26 Jul 2010
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Parenting/Business 101

It seems the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) needs a few lessons in parenting, as one of the body's wards just won't listen and doesn't seem to be fooled by threats that they seem to regard as idle. Kids have a sixth sense in knowing when parents are bluffing, and they will call you out on it. It's important to follow through with threats or they'll walk all over you - which is what Global Advanced Integrated Networks' G-Mobile appears to be doing to MACRA.

G-Mobile was awarded an operations licence last year to become the third mobile operator in Malawi. MACRA gave the company 10 months to roll out its services or the licence would be revoked. G-Mobile's initial deadline was 31 December 2009 which it failed to meet. A second deadline was set for 20 January 2010 - which again it failed to meet. It was then given 12 April 2010 as the third deadline, and it didn't meet that one either. The licence was not revoked.

MACRA then had the High Court of Malawi impose a penalty in which G-Mobile had 30 days to pay a hefty fee or...have its licence revoked. G-Mobile is the kid that has been walking all over MACRA because MACRA, the parent, keeps dishing out idle threats. It's quite ridiculous, actually. The two are now set to meet in court next month when it should have been settled earlier this year with MACRA revoking the licence and awarding it to another provider.

It seems life's lessons can be applied around business tables worldwide. It will be interesting to see how the saga will eventually be played out. Stay tuned!


Cheers, Sindy Peters, Africa editor
Responses to this column welcomed in our online editor's column archive. Send all your Africa marketing news to africanews@bizcommunity.com.

Top stories


Editorial news

Advertising

AFRICA
Telegraph team featured at 2010 Advertising Summit
Jim Freeman, trading director and head of the Telegraph Media Group's cross-media sales team Create, has joined the programme of the WAN-IFRA Advertising Summit, to be held in Hamburg, Germany on 7 October 2010 following the IFRA Expo. Read more >>

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AFRICA
Loeries 2010 judging procedure
The Loerie Awards will this year publish tables of the top brands, top agencies, and top production companies, listing the top agencies in advertising, communication design, experiential marketing and digital media. The Loeries has invited over 150 specialists, including three world creative leaders, to review over 3000 pieces of work. Read more >>

Branding

ZIMBABWE
TM Supermarkets rebrands
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's biggest retail group by outlets, TM Supermarkets has rebranded into a new look the company says reaffirms its commitment to provide an "unparalleled standard of quality and service". Read more >>

CSI

AFRICA
Hyundai takes football fever to Africa's children
Hyundai, one of the 2010 FIFA World Cup official sponsors is launching its 'One Million Dream Balls for Africa' project. The programme aims to teach life skills such as team work and strategy, build confidence and motivate performance. The delivery of soccer balls will be assumed by NGOs and organisations under the auspices of the UN from July to December 2010. Read more >>

Digital

AFRICA
SEACOM undersea cable repairs on track
SEACOM, a provider of submarine fibre-optic cable connecting communication carriers in South and East Africa, on Tuesday (20 July 2010) confirmed that repairs for its faulty undersea cable line between Mumbai and Mombasa were on track for completion by the end of the week, having originally gone down on July 5. Read more >>

AFRICA
6 ways to turn your Wordpress blog into a web socialite
[Matt Cohen] A blog is usually a place where individuals or groups publish thoughts and ideas on niche topics, current affairs or daily occurrences. But how do you make a WordPress blog more social and attractive to people wanting to interact and bring it to life? Read more >>

AFRICA
Facebook celebrates half-a-billion with half-arsed campaign
[Rob Dickens] Facebook has just announced the mind-boggling achievement of 500-million active monthly users, placing it way out in front of all its rivals. It's not really a race, given that its next closest rival is China's Qzone (owned by Tencent, in which South Africa's Naspers has a 46% stake) with an estimated 200-million users. Social media darling Twitter has yet to sniff the 100-million mark with new memberships peaking last year July at 7.8-million per month. Read more >>

Education and Training

AFRICA
IPS publishes Gender Reporting Toolkits online
The Inter Press Service has announced a third edition of "The Gender and Development Glossary" to offer journalists and writers a guide on reporting with regards to gender, media and development, and the use of gender-related terms and language in media. Read more >>

BOTSWANA
Botswana opens path for Bushmen to study at university
GABORONE: Growing up in a dusty hunter-gatherer village in Botswana's Kalahari game reserve, Bihela Sekere never even knew what a university was, much less thought of becoming a graduate. Read more >>

Eventing

AFRICA
All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards open
[Walter Wafula] Innovative public sector departments in Africa are set to be honoured for their work and strategic partnerships during the second phase of the All Africa Public Sector Innovation Awards that opened yesterday, Tuesday, 20 July 2010. Read more >>

AFRICA
AU summit kicks-off in Uganda
PRETORIA: The 15th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union (AU) got underway in Kampala, Uganda, on Monday (19 July 2010), under the theme 'Maternal, infant and child health and development in Africa'. Read more >>

Media

ZIMBABWE
Zim journos denounce licensing requirements
HARARE: Journalists and media organisations have denounced the move by the Securities Commission of Zimbabwe (SEC) to register financial journalists as securities investor advisers in terms of the Securities Act of 2004. Read more >>

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AFRICA
WAN-IFRA pays tribute to Pius Njawé
Pius Njawé, 57, who received the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers' (WAN-IFRA) highest accolade, the Golden Pen of Freedom, in 1993 for his outstanding work in promoting an independent press in Cameroon, was killed on 13 July 2010 while in the US. In a tribute to his courage and achievements, WAN-IFRA described him as "an authentic and truly rare hero" in the struggle for press freedom in Africa. Read more >>

AFRICA
APO moves HQ to Senegal
The African Press Organisation (APO) announced on Monday, 19 July 2010, the signing of a Headquarters Agreement with Senegal. The agreement marks the official transfer of APO's headquarters from Lausanne, Switzerland to Dakar, Senegal. Read more >>

SOUTHERN AFRICA
Authorities threaten Swazi journalists with death
MBABANE: Swazi traditional authorities have threatened journalists of the country with death if they continue to write stories, considered by the authorities, as undermining the country's leadership and system of government. Read more >>

GHANA
Ghana police criminally prosecute journalist over sources
NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Ghana's attorney general to drop prosecution of prominent journalist Ato Kwamena Dadzie under the 1960 criminal code in an attempt to get him to reveal his sources. Read more >>

EAST AFRICA
Somali government steps up media crackdown
MOGADISHU: Amnesty International has called on Somali authorities and armed opposition groups in the country to respect freedom of expression amid a growing government crackdown on independent journalism. Read more >>

MALAWI
Malawian journalists compete for Microfinance Award
[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi Microfinance Network (MAMN) in collaboration with the Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has called on the country's journalists from both print and electronic media to submit their published work for the newly introduced Microfinance Journalist of the Year Award. Read more >>

Mobile

MALAWI
MACRA slams US$6.9 m penalty on G-Mobile
[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has ordered Global Advanced Integrated Networks (G-Mobile), a company expected to become Malawi's third cellular phone service operator, to pay US$6.9m for failing to meet a final deadline set for the company to roll out. Read more >>

AFRICA
Mobile phone interfaces should get with the social times
[Jeremy Daniel] The user interface employed by mobile phones has not adapted sufficiently to accommodate the communication needs of the average user in the 21st Century. But help is at hand from social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter that can serve as inspiration for designers of handheld devices looking to improve on the way we communicate. Read more >>

Newspapers

NORTH AFRICA
Opposition newspaper confiscated in Tunisia
NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the apparent censorship of Al-Mawkif, an opposition weekly belonging to the Progressive Democratic Party in Tunisia. Rachid Khechana, Al-Mawkif editor-in-chief, told CPJ that 10,000 copies of the newspaper's Friday edition disappeared from newsstands, apparently confiscated by security agents. Read more >>

Online Media

AFRICA
Tech, media executives debate free vs. paid
ASPEN: Top technology and media executives wrapped up a three-day conference, during which they grappled with, and left unresolved the question of whether readers will pay for news online. Read more >>

Out Of Home

AFRICA
Adidas utilises Matrix Frame
International sport apparel company, adidas is the first brand in Africa to use the Matrix Light Box, the European aluminium fabric-framing system with LED-back lighting, sold exclusively by Clarion Printed Products. Read more >>

Research

ZIMBABWE
Zim newspaper readership slumps, TV viewership grows
[Dumisani Ndlela] Newspaper readership slumped across the board during the second quarter (Q2) of the year, largely reflecting a liquidity crunch triggered by the dollarisation of the country's economy last year, according to the 2010 Zimbabwe All Media Products and Services Survey (ZAMPS). Read more >>

Retail

SOUTH AFRICA
Pick n Pay opens in Zambia
Pick n Pay opened its first store in Zambia yesterday, Thursday 22 July 2010, in Woodlands, Lusaka and is the first of seven planned over the next five years. Read more >>

ZIMBABWE
Zim bank begins importing SA rand coins
[Dumisani Ndlela] A Zimbabwean commercial bank has begun offering South African rand coins to deal with a shortage of change in the country's retail market. Read more >>

AFRICA
Why does being in Africa make you untrustworthy?
[Erik Hersman] I haven't been able to use PayPal for two months. I just got profiled for extra security measures on Facebook. I can't make certain purchases from Africa. Few organisations ship goods to me here. Read more >>

NIGERIA
China-Nigeria: New refinery planned for Lagos Free Trade Zone
[Toluwa Olusegun] LAGOS: Nigeria is a place where many more deals are announced than are ever completed. But July saw progress towards the construction of one of three new Nigerian refineries expected to reduce imports of refined petroleum products, a costly and ironic feature of the oil-rich nation's economy. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA
Shopping centre in Mauritius features SA retailers
Medine Property is developing the first shopping mall for the west coast of Mauritius in a joint venture with international partners Retail Africa and GIMCO. Read more >>

ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe gets green light for diamond exports
The international body that regulates the global trade of diamonds decided on Thursday (15 July 2010) to allow Zimbabwe to resume limited sales from its controversial Marange fields. Read more >>


International news
JAPAN
Space Barley: The final frontier
TOKYO, JAPAN: The power of producing limited edition versions of a product should not to be underestimated. Releasing a special "collectors" edition at a premium price is an excellent way to generate PR, as well as enhance the image of a brand. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA
Dangers in the Dust - inside the global asbestos trade
LONDON, UK / WASHINGTON, DC: Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing nations, according to Dangers in the Dust, a joint report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the BBC's International News Services. Read more >>

UNITED STATES
YouTube, Art Directors Club launch second round of "Show & Tell"
NEW YORK, US: YouTube and the Art Directors Club (www.adcglobal.org) have selected the latest round of new content for the YouTube Show & Tell brand channel, and announced the next group of top agency creatives and strategists to provide written and video reviews and commentary on the work. Read more >>

UNITED STATES
Nielsen releases spring radio ratings
UNITED KINGDOM
UK lags behind US on employee return on investment
UNITED STATES
New apps for iPhone, iPod touch
UNITED STATES
Research shows entertainment banners impact box office revenues
UNITED KINGDOM
Brits turn to social media
UNITED STATES
Facebook hits 500 million users
AFRICA
International trade delegations flock to SAITEX
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Quotes
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry S. Truman
"Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper." - Kazuo Inamori
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