Last weekend I spent some time collecting signatures for a petition to stop the development of the Sea Point Pavilion in Cape Town. The development being planned consists of a hotel on one side of the Sea Point swimming pool and a three-storey shopping complex, restaurants, a gymnasium and other retail outlets on the other […]
Business
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
Property versus renting among the youth
I am currently in the process of buying a home. It has been one of the most time-consuming and irritating times of my life; not only because the prices of houses are ridiculous, but also due to the fact that banks make it almost impossible for one to get a home loan. One is treated […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Weapon of mass collaboration (or how the market has just gotten smarter)
Rapid change is integral to how we operate these days. Although South African businesses have often been praised for the way in which they are able to harness rapid change for organisational results, the impact of this quicksilver modus operandi has not however been fully digested for our businesses practises in the long term. Ever-accelerating […]
Posted inBusiness
Mismanaged transformation is a bigot’s best friend
Submitted by Rob Rutherford As the thin blue line swept across the map and brought drizzle and ice to Gauteng recently, I imagined scenes across the country. Somewhere, a spinster found herself shivering over her knitting and resorted to hot marmalade toast. Incandescent bulbs zizzed in little houses under brooding afternoon cumulonimbi. Unsullied water gurgled […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Social-media marketing needs a new name
Many people involved in the South African (and global) social media industry will agree that, if anything, these past few years have taught us a lot about web-based content and copywriting, online communities and networks, and marketing and communications on the internet. We have also seen how numerous companies, both locally and abroad, find value […]
Posted inBusiness
Down with debasing anagrams — AA, BEE …
Submitted by James Tobias Suspend reality for a moment and imagine I am green and have no political agendas. Hard, but humour me. Has the time arrived for us to rid ourselves of initiatives designed at promoting one sector of the population over another? Fifteen years later, shouldn’t we allow natural forces to decide who […]
Posted inBusiness
Is the rand’s decline overdone?
Is the rand overvalued in dollar terms? This graph, which compares the exchange rate for Australian dollars against the rand-dollar exchange rate, suggests that it is. The South African and Australian economies both depend on the exports of commodities, so it is not surprising that our currency and the Australian dollar have moved in tandem […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Energy-crisis myths, misrepresentations and fallacies
Submitted by Bryan Hadfield Much of the recent reporting on the Eskom crisis is based on a poor understanding of the true nature of the energy problems and what would constitute useful responses from the public. Half-truths, disingenuous excuses, obfuscation and myths abound. Turning off your hot-water cylinder for a few hours a day saves […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
MyEnergy: A tool for powerless South Africa
That’s a powerful image of Africa’s most advanced country… Power outages in South Africa has had everyone up in arms for the past couple weeks. A simple search on M&G, The Times or Thought Leader will give you its history and interesting commentary on it. Load-shedding by Eskom, the local power supplier which also provides […]
Posted inBusiness
Power pain
Pay more for less service — this was pretty much the message from Eskom this week. Now, I know, before you start jumping up and down, that price escalation is critical to ensure capital availability to construct generation capacity and infrastructure, which may deliver power in 10 years’ time at approximately the same levels of […]
Posted inBusiness
Lies — more lies — and then there are financial firms
A blogger friend posted a lovely short article recently with the title “6 Reasons Why We Lie”. All of his reasons were absolutely spot-on. However, his final summary was the best. He maintained that the fundamental reason why people lie is because it mostly works. I want to add to this: it mostly works when […]
Posted inBusiness, Sport
The Silicon Valley of sun
In May 1961, President Kennedy addressed a special session of the US Congress. It was the height of the Cold War. There was a sense in the land that the US was falling behind and needed to pick up its game. Kennedy announced a number of initiatives, mostly now forgotten. The last, however, has proved […]