training south africa

Stringer Bell knew it: there’s not a hell of a lot of difference between running a legal business and an illegal one. Barring the incidence of kneecap-shooting, the principles are essentially the same.

So why, then, do high crime levels and successful entrepreneurship end up being mutually exclusive? In the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report, released this week, the greatest challenges to the growth of small businesses were, in no particular order, top-down corruption, high levels of crime, low standards of education and poor health.

Two out of four are crime, and the other two are arguably linked directly to crime. A vicious circle, really: corruption prevents the fair distribution of wealth. Lack of funds results in poor education. Poverty ensues. Hot on the heels of poverty comes crime. And once there’s crime in the mix, there’s little hope for entrepreneurship. Or is there?

The United States has come up with an interesting solution to the dilemma: pulling potential businesspeople out of the criminal talent pool. Scoff if you will, but the Prison Entrepreneurship Programme, which operates as a not-for-profit organisation in prisons across the US, has achieved a staggering rate of success in converting high-crime areas into founts of successful business. Founded in May 2004, it set itself the simple goal of transforming criminals who displayed passion, resourcefulness and the capacity to influence others into legitimate businesspeople who benefit their community.

The PEP founders dared to think differently. Like Google before them, who had the good sense to realise that hackers often made the smartest employees, they saw what seems obvious when you look at it: the qualities that make a successful career criminal are the same qualities that underpin success in general. Resourcefulness, for example. The ability to think on one’s feet. Intelligence. Strategy. Persuasiveness. A bullshit detector that can cut through cement. The ability to stay one step ahead. The trick, according to PEP, is not to change the fabric of the person, but to encourage ethical decision making and channel this resourcefulness into executive positions.

They’ve achieved remarkable successes. By connecting ex-cons to business talent by providing mentoring, MBA-level business courses and fostering entrepreneurial enthusiasm, the programme has turned thousands of lives around.

Almost half their graduates have gone on to sales and marketing management positions, and 98% of them are employed.

Hans Becker, formerly charged with assault, possession of cocaine and a DUI, for example, is now the owner of a landscaping business called Armadillo Tree Shrub in Dallas, reports the National Crime Prevention Council. Despite being a year old, the business is bringing in $10,000 a month. Becker says if it hadn’t been for PEP’s entrepreneurial education programme, he would have spent his sentence “watching TV, playing dominoes, gambling – all that life is in a penitentiary.”

“These people transferred the same skills they learned on the streets into the business world,” writes NCPC’s Angela Sivak. “Ex-offenders rarely find employment after they get out of prison… and the problems that many released offenders face in finding employment and finding money may lead them back to a life of crime.”

Of the 650,000 Americans released from jail annually, two-thirds reoffend. Among PEP graduates, however, there is a 95% long-term rehabilitation rate.

It’s not an easy mind shift, though. In a study conducted by the Syracuse University across five US cities, the relationship between business and crime was investigated, and the results were not pretty. In areas where there was a significant threat of crime, they found it was difficult for a broad spectrum of small businesses to thrive. The reason? Some businesses are, by nature, more vulnerable to attacks by criminals, particularly violent criminals.

“Different sectors of the economy will sort into high and low-crime areas, depending on their relative sensitivity to crime,” the study says, noting that retail industries are especially sensitive to violent crime owing to their dependency on pedestrian shoppers. So crime makes it harder to create a healthy economy with a variety of competitive businesses, since big business – with big buildings and big security – is necessarily less vulnerable to criminal attack. Restaurants, for example, are particularly vulnerable, as are small retail outlets of all kinds.

Furthermore, crime tended to increase as the number of small businesses increased in a given area, which “could arise because violent crime is attracted to our target industries,” reads the study. So, while entrepreneurship programmes may be a long-term solution to unemployment and related crime, in the short term business owners face a very real danger of being exploited by criminals from the second they start up.

In surveys in South Africa and abroad, entrepreneurs have expressed fear of becoming targets of crime, particularly in areas where they are forced to depend on gang protection or are caught in the crossfire between rival gangs. South Africa is particularly threatened by this kind of system. In Cape Town and its surrounds alone, there are several thousand operating gangs, and often businesses have little choice but to co-operate with gang leaders if they want to survive.

Crime has had no small impact on our country’s business performance. The World Bank’s “Investment Climate Report: South Africa” has rated crime as one of the four main constraints on business operation and growth. Nearly a third of the enterprises surveyed said crime was a serious problem for them. The Grant Thornton International Business Report has cited crime as a major barrier to entrepreneurship in the country, stating that while expectations for growth were high, levels of optimism in South African private businesses were much lower – mostly as a result of non-business factors such as (you guessed it) crime.

What is to be done? In a country where – according to the Consumer Insight Agency – half of the youth (aged 15-24) cannot find work, regardless of their level of education, it appears entrepreneurship is the only viable solution for people to earn money legitimately. Given the staggering number of unemployed university graduates, too, it seems entrepreneurship education is the one area in which learning can conceivably make a difference to one’s money-making potential. And this applies whether said education is made available to prison inmates wanting to start again, or whether it’s made available to people who – through whatever disadvantage – have never managed to get started in the first place. 

In developing our entrepreneurs, however, we have our work cut out for us. GEM, the largest research project of its kind in the world, notes there has been a sustained increase in South Africa’s business activity after the 2010 Soccer World Cup, but that we are only limping along. The total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rates remained fairly constant from 8,9% in 2010 to 9,1% in 2011. But, says the report, this is still a “matter of grave concern” as South Africa’s entrepreneurial rate is, again, far below the rate of comparable economies in the world. In fact, we’re second-last of the BRIC countries by about a mile, followed only by Russia. Nations who are doing it right include China and, notably, Brazil, whose rate has increased by 28% since 2006.

What are these countries doing right? According to lead GEM researcher Mike Herrington, the answer lies in well-managed government programmes and business reforms, media buy-in, closing the gender gap and ensuring extensive long-term monitoring of interventions. Lastly, he notes, China is run by “technocrats with business sense” – combining technological know-how with the knowledge of how to run a business. Based on research in other BRIC countries, the GEM analysts have made extensive policy recommendations for South Africa, mostly focused on education and training, government programmes, financial support, increasing entrepreneurial capacity and improving infrastructure – including educational structures.

All of which resonates with the principles of both the intervention in the US and the government strategies that are working in countries like Brazil and China. “We need to invest in our youth as a priority,” says Herrington, noting that we also need to “reduce red tape further” and provide “practical business support”.

The good news is that some businesses have stepped up. Educational programmes such as the Raymond Ackerman Academy, TSiBA and Bridge are functioning independently, while companies like Sasol are using their power as large businesses to provide support to small businesses.

Now, the National Planning Commission faces one of its biggest tasks. It will need to ensure that, on a government level, the plans translate into action – not only for young people starting out, but also for those who need a second chance. DM

• Find out more about entrepreneurial development: visit The Raymond Ackerman Academy, TSiBA and Business Bridge, which were all featured in the GEM report as best practice entrepreneurship education programmes.

Photo: A child displays a South African rand coin next to her eye. REUTERS.

Article source: http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-05-18-what-the-wire-can-teach-us-about-entrepreneurship

Sandile Hlangani

Four young black South Africans won the South African leg of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Global Business Challenge 2012 on Thursday night.

These young business minds sealed the deal in a nail biting finish at the Holiday Inn Rivonia, to be South Africa’s third winners to go forward to the annual global business challenge for undergraduates.
 
The competition which is sponsored by Barclays and ABSA Capital was started in China as a way to highlight young business talent and give undergraduates experience in developing business recommendations.

This is the third year that South Africa has competed. Ghana and Zambia joined the competition for the first time this year.

This year’s team from Witwatersrand University, Team Monomotapa, comprising Panashe Chigumadzi, Simbarashe Nyatsambo, Khetinkosi Dlamini and Sizwe Nxumalo, were named as the overall winners.
 
They are now about to jet off for the trip of a lifetime to meet and compete against the top undergrads from 22 other countries at the Global Finals in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
 
ABSA Capital COO Sponsor, Charles Russon said:  “It is a privilege as sponsors to be involved with this initiative. The first year that I attended the event, I did not know what to expect, but came away thinking ‘what a fantastic experience’. 

He added that the event of this nature is of fundamental importance to an organisation like ABSA Capital.  Investing in the youth and education is what I term the sweet spot.
 
“It is a significant sponsorship for us, in that business, finance and accounting skills are a scarce resource in South Africa and it is a national imperative to rectify this. As sponsors of Global Business Challenge we believe we’ve done something important for the country,” he said.

sandileh@thenewage.co.za 

Article source: http://www.thenewage.co.za/51237-1007-53-Wits_University_team_wins_global_business_challenge

“I am not a libertarian,” Tim Harris, DA shadow minister of finance protests as he takes me to task for saying that his alternative budget was firmly rooted in Keynesian “rising tide” economics.

Litres of real and digital ink have been spilled about why black people and the poor do not or should not trust the DA. As the reasoning goes, the party has only the interests of business and rich whites at heart. The more radical arguments, coming mostly from the ANC and its partners, are that the party is racist, sexist and anti-transformation. Going by Raenette Taljaard’s account of her time in there, there may have been a point when the latter held true.

But presently, I am not sure. Before me are five senior representatives of the party, including Harris. Two are female and three are black. Between them, I’ve heard at least five of South Africa’s 11 official languages.

Transformation is much more than getting the numbers and clicks right, but this is not your mother’s DA.

Harris – along with party leader Helen Zille, parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko, national spokesman Mmusi Maimane and youth leader Makashule Gana – are launching the party’s campaign to pressure the government into implementing the youth wage subsidy. Depending on whom you believe, the DA is either punting the policy because it believes it’s a solution to South Africa’s youth unemployment problem or they’re trying to side-step constitutionally protected labour rights for the benefit of “white monopoly capital”.

Another suggestion is that it’s an attempt to exploit the innumerable differences of ideologies in the broad church that is the ANC-led tripartite alliance. When I put the question to her months back, Mazibuko denied this.

“There is no wedge to drive because it (Cosatu) has already thrown itself (out) into the cold and the ANC’s policies contradict (each other) with no help from us. For me, it’s much more important to achieve what we need, even if it means having to cross party lines to understand who is on the same page as we are and what that can mean in terms of lobbying power,” she said.

For a few years now the DA has had on the table the “open opportunity society” as an alternative to ANC policy, but it’s been hard to discern from the policy documents what this means in the overall scheme of things.

The debate over the youth unemployment and the mooted youth wage subsidy provides an ideal aperture into understanding many of the DA’s positions. The problem is complex, drawing questions about the party’s position on labour rights, the role of business in society and whether it plays clean in the game of politics.

I corner Harris after the press conference.

By last count, I say, corporate deposits are sitting at R520.5-billion. This is money that could be invested in new products, services and businesses. It could make a huge dent in unemployment, but these companies are waiting to be incentivised before getting involved. Businesses are accountable to their shareholders, but are they not also accountable to the society in which they operate? Is the DA going to march to the JSE to pressure corporate SA into navigating the uncertainty and adverse conditions in such a way that they fulfil their obligation to society while providing returns to their shareholders?

“Businesses want to see a return on their money that outweighs the risk,” Harris says. Surprisingly assured for someone so young, he is one of many young stars that has risen to the top in the party. While its chief rival, the ANC, is still deciding whether to debate a “generational mix“, the DA is living it.

“When you have government policy that is often unco-ordinated and contradictory, like you do under the Zuma administration, that shifts the risk assessment toward sitting on the money until you have more certainty on the investment situation,” he says.

“I don’t think business is under obligation to spend their money on anything except what they think they could get a return on. What this intervention (the youth wage subsidy) does, however, is simply make it cheaper for them to hire more workers than to buy more machines.”

In short, the DA will not be marching to the JSE. Instead, they will continue to lobby government on labour policy and eradicating the uncertainty caused by contradictory policy positions.

Fellow DA-er and Western Cape MEC of economic development and tourism Alan Winde responded differently to a similar question. He said when he spoke to businesses in the province, he asked them if they’d put youth unemployment on their risk register and devised a plan to mitigate the risk. For Winde, youth unemployment, at the kinds of levels we have in South Africa, threatens directly the financial sustainability of businesses.

Winde’s department runs the Work and Skills for 100,000 programme, which has seen over 2,000 18 to 34-year-olds who’d never worked before employed by a partner company for six to 12 months. Some of them have gone on to become part of the permanent workforce, while the rest have left with skills that made them employable elsewhere.

The number could be significantly more if the DA had a bigger budget, Winde said, but the programme is making a real difference with the approximately R9-million a year it has. His excitement about its effects on young people’s lives is infectious.

The programme to tackle youth unemployment in the Western Cape is different from the plan national treasury proposed (and the DA marched for). The Western Cape plan sees businesses as partners in tackling youth unemployment, not as Mohammeds to whom the mountain must be brought.

This is not a contradiction, Zille and Harris tell me. If the DA were in national government and had control of the SA Revenue Service, they would implement the programme, similar to that proposed by the treasury, nationally.

Mild-mannered Harris maintains that the net effect is the same. Both plans reduce the cost of hiring new young workers.

“Currently, that cost is too high, especially for small businesses,” he says.

“These labour laws have been implemented without consideration of the cost of compliance for small businesses, and the balance needs to shift. I’m not suggesting a totally regulation-free labour market. I’m suggesting we rebalance the labour laws, especially with regards to small businesses, to lower the cost of compliance without removing the fundamental protections for workers.”

I remain unconvinced. Business should be expected to do more.But I do take his point on small businesses.

Of late, the party’s younger leaders (and many of the older ones) have steered the DA away from being the party of choice for the verkrampte. This reached a crescendo in what I thought was a revolutionary remark from Mazibuko: “Reconciliation is meaningless without its attendant process: redress.”

With my citizen’s hat on, I’m not sure how tenable the deadlock in political thinking is in this country, considering the magnitude of issues we face. Even my reporter side – despite revelling in the complexity and drama of the power plays – wishes to see ideas cross partisan lines to make real differences in people’s lives.

After all, most of the parties say they want the same thing: a South Africa founded in values such as human dignity and equality. By all means disagree on how we get there, just as long as we get there

In late July or early August, the party will release the details of its plan to grow the economy by 8%. I tell Harris that I’m looking forward to reading how the plan tackles redress, inequality, poverty and unemployment.

I really am. DM

Read more:

• Losing confidence and changing business models are two different things, in Daily Maverick.

Article source: http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-05-18-reporters-notebook-decoding-the-democratic-alliance

Pravin Gordhan, Finance Minister

Growth in output in our own economy is uneven and slow, though consumption spending is still buoyant, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday 18 May, delivering the National Treasury Budget Vote in Parliament.

The minister described the current global environment as “dangerous” adding that global economic growth had remained weak this year.

Broad based transformation and extending opportunities to the unemployed were some of the challenges faced by South Africa.

The domestic economy, he said, was showing some signs of moderate growth but the external environment remained weak.

Data had shown that in the final quarter of 2011, household consumption and investment were still growing robustly. Consumption grew by 4.6 % in the quarter, investment by 7.2 % and government consumption grew by 7.3 %. 

“National Treasury forecasts that household consumption and investment will continue to grow robustly in 2012, and government spending will also support growth,” he said.

Also, Gordhan noted that monthly figures were volatile with investment being held back by uncertainties globally and domestically.

“The main risks to the economy remain external,” said the minister, adding that political developments in the Eurozone had heightened the risk that Greece will exit the single currency within the next year, although there was little clarity on how this would be achieved and what its impacts would be.

“More serious for both the global economy and the potential impact on South Africa is the continuing vulnerability of several larger European economies, including Spain,” said Gordhan. 

He said he expected a shallow recession in the Eurozone but that the risk of a deeper contraction had grown since the Budget that was tabled in February.

Meanwhile, several African economies and the developing world continue to grow quicker than the developed economies with trade and investment patterns shifting.

He said both South Africa’s international relations and trade and industry policies had to adapt to this rapidly changing global environment, with South Africa needing to join its African counterparts in boosting industrialisation on the continent and increasing intra-African trade.

The minister said the global financial crisis had also highlighted the inadequacy of international cooperation.

In order to find a growth path that reduces poverty, creates jobs and broadens participation in the economy, work on a long term fiscal report and guidelines is in process, as was requested by Parliament. The first report is to be tabled later this year.

Treasury has also stepped up its capacity to assess and support major infrastructure programmes. 

Earlier this year, President Jacob Zuma announced the country’s infrastructure development programme, in which more than R800 billion will invested until 2014. 

On the issue of employment, a broad range of measures was needed especially for youth unemployment. These measures include stronger investment and growth through the infrastructure programme and addressing skills constraints and improving access to education.

“There have been a number of concerns raised with the proposed youth employment incentive. Discussions with social partners are aimed at mitigating these concerns,” he said.

At a breakfast meeting hosted by the New Age and SABC this week, Zuma said discussions over the proposal would go ahead as government continued to find “multi-prolonged” strategies to tackle youth joblessness. 

“We would like to see these issues addressed fully in discussion between social partners at Nedlac, but with urgency as the challenge of creating jobs for young people cannot be indefinitely deferred,” noted Treasury. 

The second phase in the review of procurement legislation will go ahead in 2012.

On the Jobs Fund, run by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, R1.8 billion has been allocated to 34 projects to date. This will be matched by project sponsor contributions of about R1.7 billion.

These projects are expected to generate about 102 000 new jobs, and over 50 000 placement and training opportunities, with a second call for proposals being issued.

Treasury will also report on lessons from the Neighbourhood Development Programme Grant, which will see about 85 projects under construction by the end of 2012. Work is already in progress on a broader framework for township regeneration and improved integration of urban landscapes. 

Article source: http://www.sacommercialpropnews.co.za/south-africa-economy/4851-s-africa-economic-growth-uneven-and-slow-says-gordhan.html

Reuters

The DA marches to Cosatu in support of the youth wage subsidy. Photo: Reuters

Facts, fictions and often emotional assumptions pepper the current intense debate about a youth wage subsidy. But there is one fact about which all parties agree: there is a massive problem of youth unemployment. Millions of young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 simply do not have jobs; they are, for the most part unproductive, poor, frustrated and angry.

They also happen to constitute a potentially crucial voting bloc in any future election. And this is why the debate around the wage subsidy issue has become as intense as it has. These are the children of the new South Africa, men and women who never knew apartheid and who grew up under an ANC government that, as many see it, promised much and delivered little.

But there has been delivery. There are now more RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses and more electricity and water connections that have to be paid for. This requires income. And income requires jobs. So any political party that holds out the prospect of creating jobs could win the votes of a substantial part of the estimated 7 million unemployed youth.

This is the background to the youth wage subsidy and the rows and clashes that have followed. Last year, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan proposed a R5 billion fund to subsidise youth wages with the intention of making major inroads into youth unemployment. The opposition DA concurred and business agreed. The unions, however, were less than happy and opposed the scheme.

However, the proposal went, in May last year, to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) – the forum at which representatives from business, government and labour debate government policy proposals and, hopefully, produce a consensus that can be put into practice.

No consensus was possible and the debate has now erupted into the open.

Among the fictions broadcast is the claim that Cosatu opposes the subsidy because it wishes to protect established, higher-paid workers at the expense of the youth. Yet these young people are often the offspring of unionised workers in permanent jobs.

But Cosatu – and the labour movement as a whole – supports the idea of the greatest possible job creation. Their argument is that, at the very least, the government’s proposals amount to merely “throwing money” at a problem that requires much more careful thought and action.

The more cynical among the unionists also see the proposal by the government as a simple election ploy to win the crucial youth vote. Much the same, they maintain, applies to the DA and its vociferous support for the subsidy.

But there are trade unionists too who allege that the DA is a “fascist” organisation bent on crushing the unions in the cause of “international imperialism”. Yet, by no stretch of the imagination can the DA be categorised as fascist and while the party certainly supports the concept of free enterprise business, there is no evidence that it is involved in any international conspiracy, even if one exists.

The DA also claims that youth wage subsidies around the world have shown that they create jobs and open up opportunities for young people. This is rejected by labour.

Yet there is truth in both of the claims. An Australian wage subsidy scheme was shown, in 1998, to have had mainly positive outcomes while youth unemployment in Singapore was probably halved between 2003 and 2007 when a wage subsidy scheme was in operation.

However, both refer to a time before the global economic crisis fully struck home.

They also apply in countries where the level of education, across the board, is much superior to the average in South Africa. The problem here is that many of the unemployed youth are not only unskilled, they are also ill-educated.

So what South Africa needs, if there is to be any real reduction in youth joblessness, is structured technical education, perhaps in the form of apprenticeships that can produce competent artisans in trades where this shortage of skills exists.

When all these factors are taken into account, the rejection out of hand of any form of subsidy is as simplistic as the wholehearted acceptance that a youth wage subsidy will provide anything more than a temporary plaster over a gaping social wound.

Article source: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/analysis-compromise-needed-on-subsidy-1.1300237

Independent Newspapers

The Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters. Picture:Christiaan Louw

South Africa is well on its way to embracing a nuclear and shale gas energy future with little likelihood that even if a vast reservoir of gas is found in the Karoo that the government will scale back plans to build new nuclear power plants.

This emerged during a briefing by Energy Minister Dipuo Peters and her director-general Nelisiwe Magubane ahead of the Department of Energy’s budget vote last week.

Pressed on her favourable stance towards hydraulic fracturing – which a Royal Dutch Shell survey indicated could produce R80 billion for the gross domestic product of the country even if the resource was found to be limited – Peters was asked whether the government would consider scaling back a nuclear build programme if the shale gas resource was found on a large scale. “If the extraction for shale gas is agreed to by cabinet, we don’t see it replacing (the nuclear option),” she said.

Her response was emphatic that a nuclear component to the energy requirements remained a deep-seated commitment of the government.

She also emphasised that any nuclear build programme should be carried out “in collaboration” with other countries and that the process should not be so localised that South Africa ended up using “technologies not used elsewhere”. It was clearly a reference to the failed – and recently scrapped – pebble bed nuclear reactor project.

However, nuclear power was part of the plan for South Africa, particularly when one considered the growing power needs of the country.

On shale gas extraction, which is done by injecting water and chemicals deep in to the earth under great pressure, she said this procedure had benefited the US tremendously at a time when petro-chemical costs had risen sharply.

Noting that a decision on a technical report would be presented to the cabinet on fracking in July, she said: “Those skills (in the oil and gas sector) would be lost if we do not exploit that which we have.”

During the debate Anton Alberts, the Freedom Front MP, said: “Let me warn the minister: fracking will be the ANC’s third suicide scandal, the first being the arms deal and the second the Gauteng e-toll system.

“We will be watching who positions themselves to get what tenders.

“And we will, with the rest of the world, oppose this ill-founded idea to make money out of nature.”

ID energy spokesman Lance Greyling said the current 20-year energy plan required all South Africans to shoulder the risk of massive investments.

If nuclear energy came on stream for a price that was not globally competitive, these companies could decide to expand their operations elsewhere, leaving us with the problem of “extremely expensive stranded assets”.

Asked if the government had held talks with nuclear energy companies like France’s Areva and the US-based Westinghouse, Peters said this would not be appropriate before any bidding process for the build programme was started.

Article source: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/it-s-a-done-deal-on-fracking-1.1300219?showComments=true

The quarterly PPS Graduate Professionals Confidence Index, which tracks confidence levels of about 6000 graduate professionals, found that the number of professionals who are confident of remaining in the country has dropped from 84% to 78%.

“Though a confidence level of 78% is still very positive, it is concerning that this figure has declined,” said the PPS head of group marketing and stakeholder relations, Gerhard Joubert yesterday.

“Graduate professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants are a crucial segment of the economy and, as do many other countries, we already face a major skills shortage within these important professions.

“It is crucial that the concerns of this segment are taken into account to ensure that we do not lose further scarce skills.”

He said more dentists were considering emigrating because they were finding working in South Africa “tough” and were “not getting a slice of the pie”.

The SA Dental Association last year said several dentists were struggling to stay in practice because during tough economic times dentistry was low on the list of essential needs.

The survey found that professionals were concerned about the feasibility of National Health Insurance and that confidence in the future of healthcare in South Africa dropped 5% to 45%.

Eighty-four percent of professionals believe National Health Insurance is not the cure for the ailing health system.

Joubert said professionals were concerned that the NHI green paper did not give sufficient detail.

“Many graduate professionals support the principle of improving the healthcare system . to ensure better healthcare for all citizens but are concerned about the way in which it is being implemented.

“Further consultation on the issue is vital to ensure that all stakeholders buy into the process,” he said.

The web-based survey found that 94% of respondents were troubled by the lack of maths and science graduates in the country.

“Many of our skills shortages are in professions that require a mathematics or science degree, so it is critical that we address the reasons for fewer people choosing to study these subjects. Fewer graduates in these fields will lead to an even greater skills shortage in the future,” Joubert said.

Only 42% of respondents were confident that employment would improve over the next five years.

Article source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/05/16/nhi-crime-drive-brain-drain

Force

Rebels

Full Time
 
nib Stadium, Perth

Article source: http://www.rugby.com.au/SuperRugbyRedirect/ForceVsRebels/id/272/tabid/1892/Default.aspx

“We are very concerned with the proposition tabled by the Minister [of Human Settlements],” said Tumi Dlamini, executive director of the MBSA.

“Our concern stems from the fact that South Africa already has an existing and established building and construction industry with the necessary expertise to deliver on both complex building and infrastructure projects as well as the housing needs, both in this country and abroad.”

Sexwale’s reason for suggesting the need for a state construction company was because of the large amount spent to rectify government houses due to inexperienced contractors.

“This does not take away the fact that some small companies have experience, but a lot of fly-by-nights take the taxpayer to the cleaners for their shoddy workmanship,” said Sexwale.

To this, Dlamini said: “The introduction of a state-owned firm will no doubt have a negative effect on the growth and sustainability of the existing building industry, an industry that is already under a lot of pressure.”

Construction companies Stefanutti Stocks, Basil Read and Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) reported a decline in operating profits as well as headline earnings a share in their latest financial results. So too did road construction company Raubex.

Dlamini said government should rather improve its efficiency through skills and training projects for construction workers.

Frost and Sullivan analyst Sarah O’Carroll said government should first consider the success or failure of other sub-Saharan state construction companies.

“In Namibia, the National Housing Enterprise was established to assist government to increase the housing stock, particularly low- and middle- income houses. However, the state construction company no longer builds low-income houses, but is instead focused on providing middle-income houses,” said O’Carroll.

Article source: http://www.businesslive.co.za/southafrica/sa_markets/2012/05/19/sexwale-ruffles-builders-feathers

Articles

• This social network just grew and grew
  

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• For some, Facebook is their fortune
  

• Facebook boosts IPO size by 25 percent, could top $16 billion
  

• Facebook to sell apps through new online hub
  

• Facebook reveals revenue, profit slide ahead of IPO
  

“Consumer engagement on social media platforms
is important for all businesses, especially South Africa’s vital SME sector, in
order to grow their businesses and assist with skills development,” Dirk
Dijkstra, head of communications at Ensight, said.

Facebook, which
sprouted from a Harvard dorm project in 2004 to an online hothouse with over 900
million members, made its debut as a public company on Friday.

Although
the IPO was the third-largest in US history and valued Facebook at $104 billion,
market commentators believe it fell short of the hype, due to trading glitches
and the company’s lofty valuation.

Last week, Facebook raised its
stock’s projected price to a range of $34 to $38 from the initial $28 to $35,
making it pricier than peers, Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

Facebook’s (FB)
shares opened at $42.05, or 11% above its $38 initial public offering price,
then fell when shares traded down to an intraday low of $38. Facebook closed up
0.6% at $38.23.

A dud, when compared to other tech IPOs – LinkedIn which
skyrocketed 109% on its first day and Groupon which rose 31%.

According
to Dow Jones Newswires, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc were scrambling on Friday to
address frustration among brokers and traders, who sought clarity on whether
some trades in the newly issued shares of Facebook Inc had gone through.

Stock market regulators, meanwhile, planned to review Nasdaq OMX’s
handling of the Facebook initial public offering, in what a Securities and
Exchange Commission spokesman said was in line with standard practices.

“The glitches that dogged the Facebook offering marred the biggest IPO
on record in terms of valuation at the time of the offering, and one that was
hotly anticipated by both retail and institutional investors,” Dow Jones
Newswires said.

“This looks to be disappointment in the price action in
Facebook after the IPO,” Todd Salamone, director of research at Schaeffer’s
Investment Research told Dow Jones Newswires.

Although the No 1. social
networking company failed to set the stock market alight, and revenue growth
from its online advertising business has slowed in recent months, punters
believe its star won’t fade.

“Facebook has just scratched the surface of
its revenue and advertising. They’re going to grow with a much more diverse
income stream than what they have today,” Menlo Ventures managing director Mark
Siegel told media company VentureBeat.

Facebook has started toying with
new revenue streams by introducing a paid app store, advertisements on mobile
phones and coupons for businesses.

According to Ensight, Facebook will
become a vital consumer engagement channel locally due to its projected usage
growth.

Facebook in numbers:

- Facebook had 901
million monthly active users at the end of March 2012

- On
average more than 300 million photos uploaded are to Facebook per day

- Approximately 80% of Facebook’s monthly active users are
outside the US and Canada

- With 157 million members, the US has
the most Facebook users. Brazil is in second place with 47 million, followed by
India with 45.8 million, Indonesia with 42.2 million and Mexico with 33.1
million.

- Around 488 million people use Facebook on mobile
devices, and the reach is even bigger in countries like South Africa, Nigeria
and Japan, where mobile use is 70% to 90%

- There were an
average of 3.2 billion ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’ generated by Facebook users per
day during the first quarter of 2012.

- Facebook is available in
more than 70 languages

- Facebook has minted four billionaires:
Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker.

Article source: http://www.businesslive.co.za/world/int_companies/2012/05/20/room-for-growth-despite-facebook-s-tepid-ipo-debut