Author: The Bulrushes
Tech nonprofit organisation Empire Partner Foundation recently held a historic hackathon to tackle youth unemployment in the Great Kei Municipality, Eastern Cape. The two-day youth unemployment coding festival was designed to provide participants with the right mindset, tools, and confidence needed to see, assess and shape opportunities for launching new projects and ventures. Young software developers were guided through a process of creating solutions to self-defined problems in an agile method, where testing the problems and validating solutions were crucial. Empire Partner Foundation has taken a leading role in tackling youth unemployment through hackathons. The non-profit organisation has in the…
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) has warned of cold and wet weather in large parts of South Africa from Thursday into the weekend. “A steep upper-air trough system will develop into a cut-off low-pressure system over the north-western interior of the country by Friday,” said SAWS. “Widespread rainfall can be expected over the southern and central parts of the country from Thursday onwards, with light snowfalls likely over the mountainous, high-lying areas of the Western and Eastern Cape, spreading to the Lesotho Drakensberg regions by the weekend, where heavier falls are anticipated.” SAWS said light snowfalls can also be…
Stung by criticism, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Thursday bowed to pressure to scrap the plan to erect a massive flag that lights up at night for R22 million. Mthethwa’s attempt to justify the plan on television was met with an avalanche of criticism on radio and social media. “Over the past few days the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture has followed and taken note of public discourse that has unfolded in respect of the envisaged Monumental Flag,” said Mthethwa. “The diversity of voices around this important heritage project is a welcome celebration of our country’s…
The Pretoria Commercial Crime Court has sentenced businessman Veloro Davids and former Ekurhuleni employees Nilesh Singh and Andrew Mphusomadi collectively to 36 years direct imprisonment for their involvement in a corrupt IT tender. David received 10 years for fraud, 15 years for corruption and Singh was sentenced to 10 years for fraud plus 15 years for corruption. The magistrate ordered that the sentences run concurrently Mphushomadi, former IT senior manager at Ekurhuleni, was given a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering, of which four years were suspended. Meropa Sechabeng Technology CC represented by David and Nanga Transport CC represented by…
Just hours after Eskom warned it was struggling to meet electricity demand, the power utility on Monday announced that it was implementing Stage 4 load-shedding from 5 pm to 10 pm tonight. “Due to a further loss of generating capacity, load-shedding will be increased to Stage 4 from 17:00 – 22:00 tonight,” announced Eskom, which had earlier on Monday upped load-shedding from Stage 2 to Stage 3. Eskom said: “Unit 2 of the Kusile Power Station tripped earlier this afternoon, taking 720MW of generating capacity with it. “While this unit has since returned to service, it will slowly load up…
Police crime intelligence officers have have recovered stained cash, explosives and arrested five suspects in connection with an ATM bombing in Carousel View, Tshwane. The suspects were bust hours after an ATM was bombed and a fuel station robbed in the area and the contents stolen. Recounting events leading up to the arrests, Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo said: “At about 01h30 on Friday 13 May 2022, police were notified about an ATM that had just been bombed and fuel station robbed in Carousel View. “Several units of SAPS [SA Police Service] were activated and led to a safe house in…
Mechatronics engineering students’ analytical skills have trumped the competition in the JSE challenge, proving that predicting and anticipating the future can be profitable if you get it right. Megan Greggor and Shreya Gopaulsingh of team “Queen of Mechanics” are winners in the university’s speculator portfolio in the JSE Investment Challenge for March 2022. This is what great investors try to do each day, using the information that is before them about the economy, and the business environment to understand how these moving variables will affect and determine the state of industries and businesses in the future. However, the knowledge and…
South Africa is donating millions of doses of Pfizer and J&J vaccines to other African countries, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced. In his message to the 2nd Global Summit on Covid-19, Ramaphosa – the AU champion for covid-19 response – on Thursday said: “To get more life-saving vaccines to those in need, South Africa is donating 5 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 10 million doses of the J&J vaccine to other African countries.” He said South Africa has contributed $10 million to the Global Fund and plans to contribute financial support to the ACT-Accelerator. “To address low testing rates,…
An intriguing tale of the theft of more than 100 million rand from ABSA bank, involving murder, and the arrest of six people including a traditional healer – is unfolding in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, Johannesburg. On Thursday, 43-year-old traditional healer, Khumbulani Elvis Ntombela – also known as “Mabalengwe” and 29-year-old Nonelwa Nondlazi, were in the dock for their part in the theft of more than 100 million rand from ABSA. Nondlazi was the former partner of the main suspect – the late Xolela Masebeni. The money was stolen from a Sandton branch between September and December last…
MultiChoice is searching for 60 aspiring film and TV content creators from Southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa to be part of the Class of 2023. Now approaching its fifth year, the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) (www.MultiChoiceTalentFactory.com) Academy is excited to once again call for applications for its world-class film and TV training programme which kicks off in October this year. The call is open to all emerging filmmakers with either some industry experience or a relevant post-school qualification, to apply for this exciting opportunity to hone their television and film production skills. “Our curriculum combines film studies such…