Author: Gugu Lourie
Gareth Cliff’s legal team on Monday afternoon confirmed that Advocate Dali Mpofu has been appointed as the lead attorney in the defamation case he is threatening to file against M-Net. News that Cliff intended filing a R25m lawsuit against M-Net for defamation and unfair dismissal broke early on Monday morning. He is threatening to sue M-Net for R5m for defamation; and another R20m for breach of contract after getting axed from Idols SA. Cliff’s team confirmed that legal papers were handed over to M-Net on Friday. Cliff’s lawyer Eric Mabuza confirmed to The Juice that Mpofu will be leading the…
Local banks are investing in cybercrime defence as financial institutions globally face an increasing trend of cyber theft, an international survey has found. By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency According to a survey by security company Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, a third of global international financial organisations don’t offer their customers a secure channel for transactions. But in South Africa, the dominant banks have made strides to limit the impact of cybercrime, the survey said. “As cybercrime is a world issue, banks in South Africa are among organisations that are investing heavily in cyber security – based on the need for it,” Riaan…
As part of its goal to become the preferred fibre provider to all residents of the greater Kyalami area, Metrofibre Networx is planning to connect homes to fibre in Beaulieu, Heathcliff and Blue Hills estates. By Staff Writer Metrofibre, which is targeting more than 600 homes, is planning to complete the connection of homes in Beaulieu, Heathcliff and Blue Hills by April 2016. “We set ourselves a goal to become the preferred fibre provider to all residents of the greater Kyalami area,” explains Jacques de Villiers at Metrofibre Networx. “By winning the contract to supply these three estates we are…
Gareth Cliff is reportedly suing M-Net for R25m. Cliff got axed as a judge on the reality singing competition after a Twitter frenzy over comments related to the Penny Sparrow race debacle. According to a report by eNCA on Monday morning the ex-Idols judge is taking the South African broadcaster to court for wrongful dismissal. M-Net announced on Friday, 8 January that Cliff will not be part of the judging panel for Idols SA Season 12, which is due to commence with countrywide auditions at the end of January. According to Cliff’s lawyer M-Net didn’t follow proper procedure during his dismissal.…
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) will start its public hearings on Monday as part of Eskom’s application to recover an additional R22.8bn through an electricity tariff increase.
If ISIS and its supporters use Twitter to facilitate terrorist action or merely spread propaganda, is the social network liable? By Bruce Baer Arnold A lawsuit against Twitter in the United States in which a family is seeking compensation for the death of family member in an ISIS terrorist attack, may test this. The results will have implications for social networks and other businesses such as BT, Telstra, Facebook, Verizon and Google. We do not expect postal services, the phone company, the ISP or other network operators to check, and endorse, every message or parcel. In the United States, Australia,…
Outsourced workers are planning to shutdown all Pretoria universities and colleges as well as Tshwane municipality on Monday to protest against outsourcing. By Lizeka Tandwa, NewsAgency “We are planning to intensify our actions – aiming for total shutdown of all universities, colleges and the municipality,” #OutSourcingMustFall spokesperson Mametlwe Sebei told News24. Sebei said they would target the University of Pretoria (UP), the Tshwane University of Technology, the Tshwane North College, the Tshwane South College and Medunsa this week. “We want to achieve a total shutdown of all services which are using outsourced workers. We have done this at UP and Unisa…
The removal of the “Zuma Must Fall” banner from the Cape Town CBD has shown the true colours of “thugs” who supported the president. By Thulani Gqirana, NewsAgency This is according to the #ZumaMustFall movement, who on Sunday said by tearing down the banner, President Jacob Zuma’s supporters have given the movement a powerful tool. The #ZumaMustFall movement’s Marian Frances said their membership spiked overnight following the removal of the banner. She said she refused to believe it was true African National Congress members who had removed the banner. “The ANC that gave us freedom would never have done that. This…
If the rand/dollar exchange rate had remained flat in 2015, South Africans would currently have been paying on average 45 cents a litre less at the pumps, the Automobile Association (AA) said on Friday. By Carin Smith, NewsAgency This estimate is based on unaudited mid-month data released by the Central Energy Fund (CEF). “South Africa’s sagging rand/US dollar exchange rate continues to take the shine off ongoing international oil price weakness,” the AA explained. “This deficit has widened by another 32 cents to 40 cents in the first two weeks of January 2016, turning what would have been a 24 cents…
There are two major areas where emotion has heated up to the point of driving events. Domestically, race is getting more attention. Globally, financial markets are giving the impression of more than just an orderly retreat, meaning there are whiffs of panic in the ranks in some places as regrouping is full-throatedly underway, also infecting SA markets. By Cees Bruggemans Race is the ultimate cleavage in this country and revisiting this, sharpening the verbal interventions, invites recasting many understandings. Who knows where this will lead next, though no shortage of opinion. Something to watch. If race is a long…
From the start, I’ve always said the same thing: Bitcoin is an experiment and like all experiments, it can fail. So don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose, says Mike Hearn, who spent five years developing software for Bitcoin. By Staff Writer In an article on Medium, Hearn writes that despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that “it has failed still saddens me greatly”. Hearn has sold his coins and will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development. He warns that the fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the…
ANC supporters have removed the Zuma Must Fall poster that was covering one side of a block of flats in the Cape Town CBD. By Karabo Ngoepe, NewsAgency ANC Cape Metro spokesperson Khaya Yozi said it was mission accomplished for them. “Mission accomplished. The poster has been torn apart,” he said. “The message we want to send out there is that the racism that is down here in Cape Town is not acceptable.” The large ‘Zuma Must Fall’ sign was erected in Cape Town on Friday morning. It hugged one side of a block of flats at the top of Long…
In April 2000, Bill Joy famously wrote in Wired Magazine: Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to make humans an endangered species. At the time, Joy was an accomplished technologist and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems. Yet he argued passionately that society was in danger of being destroyed by the very technologies scientists and engineers thought could save it. By Andrew Maynard Nearly 16 years on, Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), has just published an equally passionate treatise on the power of emerging technologies. Unlike Joy, he maps out…
Netflix has sent the world into a frenzy of anxiety by announcing through their blog that they will be trying to restrict users to only viewing content licensed to the country where they are physically located. This effectively means stopping customers from using a variety of techniques to get around geographical restrictions. By David Glance Getting around “geoblocked” services is relatively easy and can be done using a VPN or proxy service provided by one of many companies that now provide these technologies. Although Netflix is now available in 190 countries, the content in 189 of those countries falls far short…
Some people who felt insulted by the #ZumaMustFall billboard that went up in Cape Town CBD or thought it was unnecessary reacted with some smart doctored images stating #GiveOurLandBack. By Staff Writer A hard-to-miss “Zuma Must Fall” billboard that went up in central Cape Town on Friday morning has got tongues wagging about who paid to erect it. But the City of Cape Town said later that the large “Zuma must fall” sign erected in the city on Friday morning did not comply with certain regulations and the person responsible would be prosecuted. This didn’t stop people reacting to the billboard by…
The large “Zuma must fall” sign erected in Cape Town on Friday morning did not comply with certain regulations and the person responsible would be prosecuted. By Jenna Etheridge, NewsAgency City spokesperson Priya Reddy said the advert did not comply with the Outdoor Advertising and Signage by-law. It was also erected in contravention of the National Building Regulations and Standards Act. “An application for the billboard in question was not received by the city. This matter has therefore been handed over for prosecution,” she said. The large sign hugs one side of an apartment block at the corner of Kloof and…
Over-the-top (OTT) video player Netflix announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in early January 2016 that it has expanded its coverage to include 160 countries. It is likely that regional roll-outs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), as well as those aimed at middle-income Asia-Pacific (APAC), will have the greatest impact on paid-for video usage. By Martin Scott, Principal Analyst at Analysys Mason This comment assesses operators’ potential responses to Netflix’s expansion. Netflix has expanded its coverage to include an additional 130 countries, but its content has not been scaled to the same extent Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced during…
South Africa’s two biggest mobile networks are gearing up to attend Parliament hearings on possible regulation for over-the-top services in the country. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency Vodacom and MTN will attend hearings on January 26 in which Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services will discuss possible regulation of OTT services. The hearings have been scheduled following requests from mobile networks, the committee said in a statement on Thursday. Maya Makanjee, who is Vodacom’s [JSE:VOD] chief officer of corporate affairs, said her company will be attending the hearings on January 26 but that it won’t be delivering a…
The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) has allegedly started texting messages to Gauteng drivers who have shunned paying their e-toll fees, telling them to pay up or face action, an anti-tolls group said on Friday. By Matthew le Cordeur, NewsAgency The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) disclosed that Sanral has started sending SMS messages to drivers, listing their current outstanding balance and an indication of the 60% discount they will receive if they settle. According to Outa, the SMS then reads: “Failure to settle outstanding e-toll will result in a loss of this discount, vehicle listing, and collection…
An online petition is calling on South Africa’s government to reject calls by mobile networks to regulate over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp and Skype. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency Online women’s magazine All4Women.co.za has launched the petition dubbed ‘#SaveWhatsApp – and other communication apps you can’t live without’ this week. The creation of the petition comes after All4Women received a number of responses from readers on their website to a story about possible WhatsApp regulation in South Africa, said the site’s editor Sasha Wyatt-Minter. The Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services said this week that it plans to hold…
A hard-to-miss “Zuma Must Fall” billboard that went up in central Cape Town on Friday morning has got tongues wagging about who paid to erect it. By Jenna Etheridge, NewsAgency Many suspected it was the Democratic Alliance, after the party repeatedly called for President Jacob Zuma’s impeachment. But DA national spokesperson Phumzile van Damme said they were not responsible. “It isn’t ours,” she said with a chuckle. The large advertising space hugs one side of an apartment block at the top of Long Street, on the corner of Kloof and Buitensingel streets. Renting the space is sure to cost a…
About 3.8 billion light years away, a star has exploded with a brightness of 570 billion times that of our own sun. If that fails to impress you, consider that this is almost 20 times the output of the 100 billion stars that comprise our Milky Way galaxy. By Ahmed Areff, NewsAgency This supernova, which is being regarded as one of the most powerful explosions in human history, was unveiled through a collaboration of several telescopes. However, a major contribution came from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in Sutherland, a small Karoo town in the Northern Cape. To prove the record…
Living things accumulate and reproduce information. That’s really the driving principle behind life, and behind evolution. By Michael Gillings; Darrell Kemp, and Martin Hilbert But humans have invented a new method of accumulating and reproducing information. It’s digital information, and it’s growing at an astonishing speed. The number of people using the internet is growing, as are the devices connected to it through the Internet of Things. Digital information can copy itself perfectly, increases in copy number with every download or view, can be modified (mutated), or combined to generate novel information packets. And it can be expressed through artificial intelligence.…
In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers to access Netflix will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are, David Fullagar, Netflix’s vice president of content delivery architecture, wrote in a company’s blog post. This is aimed at stopping users, like in South Africa or Nigeria, accessing content that is strictly available for the US or Europe. By Staff Writer Fullagar said some of Netflix members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory. “To address this, we employ the same or similar measures other firms do. This technology continues…
The UK government is proposing to follow Australia with the introduction of their version of data retention legislation called the Investigatory Powers bill. This will require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to maintain records of web addresses customers visit for a period of 12 months (in Australia it is 24 months). By David Glance The legislation has been opposed by much of the tech industry including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo acting as the “Reform Government Surveillance” alliance. Companies are largely concerned that anything that diminishes their customers’ trust in the companies’ ability to protect a user’s privacy will diminish their…