AGRICULTURE NEWS

A place in the sun for university graduate

 

Alvercia Juries (26), is graduating with a B Nursing degree from the University of the Western Cape, with her four-year studies having primarily been funded by Fairtrade brand Place in the Sun. She is the first person in her family and her community to attain a tertiary qualification and the first amongst those belonging to South Africa's network of Fairtrade-accredited farms.

Fairtrade is an ethical certification established to promote equality and sustainability in the farming sector. Globally, the system benefits more than 1,4 million farmers and workers in 74 countries. In South Africa, 72 wine farms are currently Fairtrade-accredited, with a premium of R600 per ton paid for their grapes. The money raised from the premiums goes towards social development projects that benefit farmworkers, their families and their communities. Although there are around 20 Fairtrade wine brands made and sold in South Africa, there are over 300 locally produced Fairtrade wine brands marketed globally.

Fairtrade premiums pay for education

Alvercia is the daughter of Devon Valley farm worker Arend Juries and his wife, Charmaine. She has become the role model for many, including her younger sister Chandré, who is now studying for a business diploma at Boland College. Juries senior is responsible for the health and safety of the workers on the farm, where some of the grapes are grown to produce the popular Place in the Sun wines. The balance of the grapes are grown on the farm next door which is also Fairtrade-accredited.

Without access to funding for their tuition, their studies were made possible by the Fairtrade premiums paid for the wine grapes grown on the two adjoining farms of the Carinus family. Cameron Goieman is another member of their Devon Valley community studying at Boland College, thanks to the premiums, and it is expected that others will follow. 

Place in the Sun wines are made at the award-winning Zonnebloem cellars close by in Stellenbosch. They are sold in South Africa, Scandinavia, the UK and the US and many other parts of the world.

The Nietbegin Joint Body Trust, representing the 220 farm workers and their families in Devon Valley, administers the funds generated by the premiums. Since the launch of Place in the Sun wines in 2011, premiums have funded a range of projects. Apart from the tertiary tuition, textbooks, and transport for the students, premiums have paid for early-learning initiatives, school fees and uniforms at local schools of choice, sporting and other recreational activities, the creation of two vegetable gardens to improve nutrition and community eye testing.

BIP Ready To Kick Off

THANDISIZWE MGUDLWA

"THE Black Industrialists Programme is ready to start", so says Trade and Industry Minister  Dr.Rob Davies.

Davies says the programme will boost the number of black industrialists in the country.

With the SA Cabinet giving the policy the go-ahead earlier this year, Davies has now confirmed that everything is now in place for it to start. 

According to the DTI, the Black Industrialist Programme (BIP) aims to provide financial and other support to new entrants or existing players in a bid to open up a sector of the economy that’s remained largely in white hands. The programme is aimed at creating at least 100 black industrialists in the next three years.

Dr. Davies says, “This programme will now start to operate, we will start to receive the applications.”

He says the criteria will be tight to cut out broad-based empowerment fronting and rent-seekers wanting to make a quick buck.

He further notes that industrialising is the only future for an economy battered by its reliance on exporting raw minerals and the global slump in commodity prices but that this has to be inclusive.

The minister reiterated that the definition of black industrialist would be very tight.

“We want to make sure that we are targeting the right kind of people so the definition of black industrialist is quite tight,” he said last Thursday in Parliament.

More broadly, "The policy describes a black industrialist as a juristic person that includes co-operatives, incorporated in terms of the Companies Act (2008), owned by Black South Africans as defined by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act who creates and owns value-adding industrial capacity and provides long-term strategic and operational leadership to a business."

Dr. Davies also revealed that  to benefit, those interested had to be real entrepreneurs in the industrial economy.

“We want to be very very clear that this is not an opportunity for someone who is peripherally connected to manufacturing.”

He said the programme would provide dedicated financial support and all kinds of other support as it unfolded.

“We are asking all parts of government . . .  to dedicate a particular portion of their activities for the Black industrialists programme.” 

Furthermore, A dedicated forum of officials will be created that would be responsible for funding decisions, he said.

“It won’t be politicians, it will be officials who take funding decisions from the participating DFI’s.”

DTI adds that the BIP programme, which is a key component of the dti’s Industrial Policy Action Plan, was approved by Cabinet on November 4 this year.

"The BIP programme will form stakeholder relationships with multi-corporations, commercial banks, development finance institutions and state-owned enterprises - all with a common goal of assisting black industrialists towards accessing capital markets and growing in the sectors that they operate in."

However, political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki  takes a different stance.

Commenting last week on the BIP Mbeki said the ANC does not seem to understand how capitalism works. “I am surprised it does not understand what capitalism is. The ANC was started by a capitalist class who started businesses. They were industrialists. They did not go to Paul Kruger and say, can I set up my printing and publishing business?” The capitalist system works through innovation and is driven by individuals; it is entrepreneurs who must come up with ideas, and not government. “Governments don’t innovate, they administer,” he says.

“The idea that the ANC government can create industrialists is laughable. John Dube (founding president of the ANC) did not go to the colonialists and say, give me money to set up printers for iLanga (LaseNatal, the first Zulu newspaper in 1903).”

President Zuma Still Busy During Festive Period

Zuma hosts annual chess day

December 22, 2015

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Pawn and the king: Pretoria teenager Willford Gwabeni was lucky enough to play against President Jacob Zuma during the annual JG Zuma Foundation chess tournament on Sunday.

President Jacob Zuma spoke out against alcohol and substance abuse during an address to hundreds of chess enthusiasts who gathered in his home village of Nkandla for the annual JG Zuma Foundation chess tournament on Sunday.
Zuma said life was similar to a game of chess because individuals had to make decisions about the direction they want their lives to take, which meant it was important to “make the right move” as one would in chess to achieve success.

This was the seventh year the tournament was organised at the behest of the president in order to teach the youth patience and strategic thinking as well as promote recreational activities in rural areas.

Zuma, an ardent chess player, wants to see the game being rolled out to other remote communities of the province as it requires minimal infrastructure.

He said chess was the most exciting sport even though it does not rank in the same level of popularity as soccer and rugby.

Initially, only about 60 youngsters participated but the since the introduction of the annual tournament, numbers have grown tremendously with 310 people taking part this year.

“The game encourages you to think strategically as you have to combine strategy and tactics,” Zuma said.

Zuma also joined in on the fun and played against partially sighted teenager Willford Gwabeni, who travelled by taxi all the way from Pretoria to be part of the event.

“Chess is a game of the mind. You have to visualise your moves before making them so Willford was no easy opponent for the president,” chess coordinator for the JG Zuma Foundation, Sandile Xulu said.

Zuma sponsored Gwabeni and his father’s flight tickets back home sparing them a more than eight hour road trip. Xulu said the popularity of the event had spread to other provinces as this year they had the Steve Tshwete municipality form Mpumalanga joining the 11 KZN districts in the competition.

“They brought the Woza Nabangani Bakho Chess Club and for us this was very exciting because we’ve always only had KZN teams taking part but now our vision of taking the game across the country is being realised.”

Xulu also facilitates the introduction of chess to rural schools and they have already done it in 20 schools in the iLembe district. He said they were seeking funding to fulfil their mission.

“We are making progress and the numbers are evident in those coming to the tournament, for example this year for the first time we had a grade R pupil, Fanele Xulu from Nkandla, who is only five years old.”

The Amajuba district team won this year’s tournament with Mandeni and Nkandla taking second and third positions respectively.

In the open section, Wandimuzi Khanyile was crowned the champion, followed by Khetha Mngadi in second and then Davidson Kondowe.
NOKUTHULA NTULI

SOURCE: The New Age Online

Industry leaders are taking EFF seriously – Malema

2015-12-07 14:13

Jenna Etheridge, News24

EFF leader Julius Malema (Jenni Evans, News24)

Cape Town – The EFF has the “busiest office” because companies are starting to take its goal of economic freedom seriously, its leader Julius Malema said on Monday in a Radio 702 interview.

“For the first time, arrogant captains of industry are prepared to talk to a party that is not in power."

He said the party's recent well-attended march to the Chamber of Mines and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Sandton had brought about “very good results”.

Corporates regularly arrive at the Economic Freedom Fighters' office to make presentations on how they are transferring shares to workers and adopting schools, he said.

“The ANC called us clowns. The ANC said they [the EFF] shouldn’t be taken seriously, there is nothing they can do. The captains of industry realise the ANC has been misleading them… results are coming and people will be very thankful of such an intervention.”

Malema told Radio 702 that the EFF remains adamant about occupying Absa Bank branches.

- Read: EFF will engage in 'peaceful lobbying' for nationalisation

“We are not the youth of the ANC anymore and the ANC can’t tell us what to do. I see them occupying platforms and say Malema must apologise, Malema must do this. These clowns think they can tell me what to do when they couldn’t tell me what to do when I was [one of] them? I defied them. I never listen to cowards.”

The EFF leader recently came under fire for saying that a collective of the ANC, including late former president Nelson Mandela, compromised the Freedom Charter.

He told the radio station that this didn’t make Mandela “an evil person”.

“He ushered in a political freedom which we appreciate and enjoy today, but we are saying he could have done more.”

In a statement on Sunday, the ANC parliamentary caucus said Madiba’s legacy “does not need to be defended. It speaks for itself”.

It referred to the EFF as “genetically modified revolutionaries” which had attained an “unprecedented level of political infantilism and ignorance”.

SOURCE: News24

ENTREPRENEURSHIP NEWS

SAB KickStart youth entrepreneurship winners for 2015

 

SAB KickStart has announced its top five winning youth-owned businesses for 2015. The winners, announced during 20th anniversary celebration of SAB KickStart, will receive a share of R1.5 million in business grants.

Winners of the SAB KickStart Youth Entrepreneurship 2015 competition. Image: SABKickStart on Facebook

Winners

The overall winner of SAB Kickstart 2015 is Clement Pilusa, owner of Pilusa and Mabotja Farming based in Tshwane, Gauteng. His business will be provided with a first place grant fund of R500,000, which adds to the seed capital of R170,000 he received at the start of the programme early this year. Pilusa, 26, established his farming and fresh produce business in 2012, beginning with vegetables and later expanding into broiler chicken production. 

In second place is Ranjan Sewgambar of Private Practicing Audiologist based in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, who won a grant of R400,000. He established his health care practice in 2009 and provides diagnostic audiology and hearing aid services. 

Third place winner, Caroline Kgomo of Meqheleng Waste Management based in Ficksburg, Free State, received a business grant of R300,000 and Chantelle Smith of Health View Clinic in Johannesburg, Gauteng, who is in the fourth place received R200,000. Fifth place, Angelo Maart of EnviroCare from Cape Town, Western Cape, was awarded a business grant of R100,000. 

All five winners will receive an additional six-month long programme of business development support and mentorship to assist in efficiently employing the grant investment provided. 

The top five winners were selected from a group of 18 SAB KickStart finalists who completed a year-long programme of business development support, which included a business growth strategy designed for their business, grant funding of between R100,000 and R200,000, and individualised business mentorship. 

"Our support model is designed to build and strengthen the capabilities of the SMEs so that they become sustainable entities with the ability to achieve one of government's top priorities - create jobs while at the same time make a worthwhile contribution the country's economy," says Octavius Phukubye, SAB Economic Development Manager. The top 18 national finalists created more than 100 fulltime and part-time jobs in 2015. 

"The key objective of SAB KickStart, with its model of business development support, is to ensure that the start-up businesses thrive rather than merely survive. This support creates an enabling environment in which young entrepreneurs are able to assist others in becoming economically active," says Phukubye.

"In addition, it allows SAB and its entrepreneurs to make a genuine contribution towards the national vision, indicated by the National Development Plan, of creating one-million jobs by 2030 through involvement of big business and the power of entrepreneurship."

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EDUCATION & TRAINING NEWS

Livity Africa and Rockefeller Foundation collaborate to train youths

Livity Africa has announced a collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation for the development of a programme designed to train and up-skill 48,000 South African youths in digital skills.

© tomertu – 123RF.com

The programme, Digify Bytes, will be delivered by South African-based youth agency, publisher and academy Livity Africa, with additional support from Google South Africa, the British Council and British High Commission.

Digify Bytes is an extension of the three month Digify ZA programme, which was launched by Livity Africa in 2014 in partnership with Google South Africa and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). In an effort to expand its reach, Digify Bytes was created as a two day training workshop aimed at giving thousands of young learners and job seekers a short, sharp shot of digital marketing skills.

Delivered by young digital professionals, the programme is designed to introduce the fundamentals of digital marketing tools, strategies and platforms to young people who can utilise them for self-branding, industry preparedness, employability and digital literacy.

Skills development

The collaboration is part of the Rockefeller Foundation's Digital Jobs Africa initiative, launched in May 2013 with a goal to impact one million lives Africa through job creation and skills development for youth who would otherwise have limited access to employment.

"We are excited to partner with the Rockefeller Foundation on this groundbreaking initiative," said Gavin Weale, founder and managing director at Livity Africa. "As the digital industry continues to grow, the demand for young talent to feed the industry will only increase. Through Digify Bytes, we hope to showcase the wide range of opportunities that exist once a young person is empowered with digital skills. Once they have that, the sky is the limit."

Digify Bytes workshops are offered for free to universities, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, training institutions and youth organisations. To-date, workshops have taken place at several institutions in Gauteng, ranging from Sedibeng College, the Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship and Sparrow Schools. Workshops will kick off in the Western Cape in the second quarter of 2016.

"The Rockefeller Foundation is pleased to support Livity Africa with the delivery of Digify Bytes," said Michelline Ntiru, associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation Africa regional office. "They have found great success through their core Digify ZA programme over the past year and given their expertise in the youth market, we have no doubt that this programme will contribute significantly to improving the lives of young disadvantaged South Africans as they take steps to enter the workforce."

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