Author: The Bulrushes
Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Wednesday visited the cannabis CBD Full Spectrum factory in the Vaal, where he urged South African growers to build a sustainable industry. The factory houses various strains and medicinal purposes of the cannabis plants. The facility, founded by CEO Prof De Beer is the first licensed and most advanced cannabis plant in South Africa. Prof De Beer also unveiled a cutting-edge indoor cannabis medicinal growing unit technology that is ushering in new industrialisation. The Gauteng Provincial Government is committed to building new sustainable industries. The cannabis industry is a very critical industry that is at the centre…
The highly anticipated opening of apartment sales at Steyn City – owned by South African billionaire Douw Steyn – is happening on Monday. With the finalisation of Phase I, as many as 283 apartments have been completed at the City Centre. Of these, 185 apartments and two penthouses have been made available to potential buyers when sales open to the public next week. The occupation for these newly released apartments is scheduled for August 2022. When complete, the City Centre will offer over 700 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroomed simplex and duplex apartments, measuring from 68m2. Added to this, 11 penthouses…
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has launched a new and exciting competition with cash prizes up for grabs for its Virtual Trading Game (VTG). The new VTG competition takes place on an online platform that simulates a real trading environment and gives members of the general public a risk-free opportunity to practice trading shares. Entry into this competition will be free of charge and open to qualifying individuals. Competition winners stand a chance to win a share of R60 000 in Satrix vouchers – R30 000 for first place, R20 000 for second, and R10 000 for third. All prizes will be in the…
The six-hour outage of Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms on Monday – which has been resolved – left users worldwide fuming and unsure of the reliability of the services. Billions of users around the world could not access Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, cutting them off from communications they have come to rely on. The social media platform last suffered a massive blackout in 2019, when the network shut down for 14 hours. Forbes is reporting that Facebook stock came under pressure from two fronts: an unusually long outage of its namesake platform, Instagram and WhatsApp, a mistake likely costing…
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Monday said while it encourages voluntary vaccination against COVID-19 it was not against forced jabs if ordered by the government. Medical scientists are united worldwide that the best defence against Covid-19, at the moment, is vaccination. The SAHRC said it “strongly supports” Covid-19 vaccination as its benefits have been shown to clearly and significantly outweigh any possible disadvantages. More than 17 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in South Africa out of a population of about 60 million. The government intends to vaccinate at least 40 million adults by the end…
The University of Mpumalanga (UMP) revealed at the weekend that it had suffered a cyberattack that could have cost the institution R100 million but the threat had been resolved for much less. The incident, which was said to be an “attempted hacking” was reported at a Council of the UMP meeting on Thursday. The council was informed at the meeting by the university management of the attempted hacking incident that would have cost the University about R100 million. Management said the incident was averted and “the university only lost R3 000”. “This is as a result of robust cyber security…
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday night further relaxed South Africa’s lockdown restrictions down to Alert Level One. The president said hours of curfew are now from 12 midnight to 4 am, nonessential establishments such as bars, restaurants, and fitness centres must close at 11 pm. Ramaphosa said indoor gatherings were now limited to 750 people, while outdoor gatherings have been increased to a maximum of 2 000. However, the president warned that political campaign activities pose the greatest risk of infections. He urged parties to act responsibly and follow Covid-19 safety protocols. Political parties are campaigning for the 1 November local…
The Empire Partner Foundation has announced that it is hosting the Mental Health Hackathon for young African developers at the weekend. Africa’s leading technology non-profit organisation is hosting the Mental Health Hackathon on 2 and 3 October 2021, in partnership with the WIB Group. The two-day hackathon event allows young African developers to develop real-world skills. Participants gain direct experience by pitching solutions to real-world problems, networking, and earning monetary prizes. The competition will take place through a hybrid model (physical and online) from 8:00 a.m- 4: 30p.m. The physical event will be in Illovo, Sandton, and face masks are required.…
A warrant for the arrest of Ronica Ragavan, a co-director of Islandsite Investments Pty Ltd a company owned by the Gupta family, has been issued – but stayed. Ragavan failed to appear on Tuesday before the Bloemfontein Regional Court as a representative of the company citing medical reasons. The case relates to procurement fraud involving R24.9 million by the Free State Department of Agriculture (FSDoA) to Nulane Investment 204 (PTY) LTD, a company owned and controlled by Iqbal Sharma. Sharma is a Transnet Board member. The money was purportedly paid to Nulane to conduct a feasibility study for the Free…
The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Monday said it welcomes Cabinet approval of the Multipurpose Reactor (MPR). The MPR is intended to succeed SAFARI-1 when it reaches its end of life. SAFARI-1, a 20 MW light water-cooled research reactor, went critical (a reactor achieves criticality when each fission event releases a sufficient number of neutrons to sustain an ongoing series of reactions) on 18 March 1965. It is operated by Necsa and located at Pelindaba, west of Pretoria. SAFARI-1 boasts a proud safety record having operated for over 56 years without any major incidents. The Cabinet approval allows…