Over the past few days we've been reading about South Africa (SA) being invited to be part of the BRIC economic formation. The invitation into the BRIC family was been made by the formation's biggest and most influential partner, China. By all accounts, the invitation is due more to South Africa's influence on the African continent than the country's economic strength.
China's is one of South Africa's biggest trading partners and South Africa is Africa's largest economy. The size of SA's economy, no doubt gives the country great influence over decisions taken by the African Union (AU) and the regional organization, the SADC. It is now emerging that one of the reasons China may have invited SA to be part of BRIC (the acronym may be changed to BRICS should SA accept this invitation), is to leverage South Africa's influence on the African continent. It is an open secret that China is looking for opportunities to invest its accumulated cash stockpiles and Africa is as great an investment candidate for China as any other region in the world. What better way to understand the goings on in Africa than to bring South Africa to the BRIC table to share on the African agenda. China's invitation of SA to be part of BRIC can only be described as a stroke of genius. Previously I wrote about how China's may one day becomes Africa's new colonizer, and one day we may look back at China's invitation of SA to be part of BRIC as the event which accelerated this neo-colonization attempt.
Now the question is whether or not South Africa should accept this invitation. In my view, President Jacob Zuma should accept the invitiation to sit at this auspicious table, if only for selfish reasons for the benefit the economy of South Africa and perhaps those of other countries on the African continent.
. During the particular month, the user could surf, upload and download as much data as they wished. The advantage of the uncapped data concept for the customers is that they could now extend their surfing activities beyond essential content to more recreational content. The uncapped data method of selling bandwidth has the effect of reducing the cost of using the Internet and offers the consumer the freedom to roam wider and do more on the Internet. The advantages for the network operators is that because the user pays in advance, the network could guarantee future revenues. Indeed we can not overestimate the role of broadband has also played in the growth of Internet usage in the developed countries. A combination of both uncapped data and enhanced bandwidth has therefore been a potent recipe for the Facebook phenomenon and other similar Internet offerings. 
slowly coming into stream. The consumer may begin to dabble in unsavoury content, such as pornography etc. However, the impact of the upside offered by uncapped data, would far outweigh any downsides.
by Minister in the Department of Economic Development, Ibrahim Patel. The NGP is government's new chapter in a book which aims to outline a vision for South Africa’s growth and development. The jury is still out as to whether or not the growth and development strategies outlined in the NGP document are realistic and achievable. What concerns me is the role of the 
on which every sphere of government would have to base their plans.
growth over the past decade has been nothing short of explosive, as a result of the growth of the manufacturing sector in that country. A lot has also been written about China's cheap labour practices which have played a major role in making country one of the world's leading exporters, earning valuable foreign currency. 
has demonstrated, it is also about 
by a huge margin. President Obama’s campaign slogan was simply “Yes we can” and many will argue that since coming to office he has achieved a number of good things for the US and the world in general.
. At the heart of this law was an attempt by the government of Namibia to give priority to certain sectors of the economy, specifically manufacturing where companies in the business of processing finished goods are incentivised to produce and export more of their goods. The incentives ranged from corporate tax holiday, to free repatriation of profits by companies operating in the Export Processing Zone 
The latter incentive was aimed at attracting foreign investment into Namibia. However, the ultimate aim of setting up the EPZ was to help create at least 25,000 jobs for Namibian citizens. Almost fifteens years down the line, the EPZ strategy seems to have failed to deliver on the job-creation goal, with less than 1000 jobs created by companies operating within the EPZ. There are a number of reasons why the Namibian EPZ experience has proved less successful than originally planned. Firstly, legislation and incentives alone clearly have not been enough to ensure that exports really drive economic growth. 
, indeed for the year to end June 2010, the 
rate in South Africa increased by 1.7% to the current figure of 25.3%. The formal sector, which excludes the agricultural sector and by far the largest employment sector of the economy has shed 5.5% of its workforce over the one year period ending Jun 2010.
To be sure, a lot of work has gone into transforming our roads both to increase the traffic-carrying capacity as well as to enhance traffic flow on existing roads however, with some of the road works still continuing, we have yet to see real improvements in the levels of traffic congestion. Indeed, SANRAL, the government agency responsible for managing our roads has announced that work on our roads will not be completed before the World Cup and that the construction sites will simply be shut down during the period of the tournament. Also of concern to me is that so far we’ve seen little evidence of coordinated national traffic policing plan aimed at ensuring smooth traffic flows throughout the period of the World Cup. By now, we ought to be seeing would be visible signs of government’s plan unfolding, with drills and dry runs taking place throughout the country, especially in the host cities. Imagine for a moment that the traffic lights have gone out on major roads near the airports, hotels and stadia during a World Cup match-day. Of greater disappointment to me however, is that the ambitious Joburg bus rapid transport system, Rea Vaya, has been anything but a success. Poor planning has prevented the Rea Vaya project from being as rapid as it was intended to be, largely due to the buses not having completely dedicated lanes on some parts of their routes. One can only hope that those in charge of planning for Cape Town’s own bus rapid system have learnt valuable lessons from the blunders of Joburg’s Rea Vaya..jpg){kind=spacer}
congratulated South Africa for showing leadership in being the first country to completely abandon its 
. Watching on as President Obama was painting a picture of South Africa as a moral leader when it comes nuclear disarmament, was our own 
. I could not help but notice that President Zuma seemed to have a wry smile on his face and in my own mind I began to wonder whether the smile meant that President Zuma was simply busking in the glory being bestowed on South Africa, or was it that President Zuma was secretly thinking, well what about you President Obama, when will the USA completely abandon its nuclear bomb programme? We’ll never really know what was on President Zuma’s mind at that point in time however, considering that at the height of South Africa’s nuclear arms programme (under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Corporation), the country could at most assemble only 6 nuclear warheads, President Obama’s praise of South Africa was at best, symbolic and at worst, exaggerated South Africa’s nuclear power.
which then came into effect in 1991 when South Africa signed a disarmament treaty with the International Atomic Energy Agency) I wonder about the wisdom of having done so when many countries such as the US continued to hold large arsenals of nuclear warheads. Indeed, recently the US and Russia signed an agreement where both countries agreed to reduce their nuclear bomb arsenals to 1,500 each. Many would argue that the age of nuclear or indeed atomic warfare is behind us, however as long as there are countries that continue to develop and hold nuclear bomb arsenals, the possibility of nuclear war remains, remote as this possibility may be. In my opinion, President Zuma ought to take advantage of the higher moral ground bestowed upon him by President Obama and use this to push for nuclear disarmament by all countries currently harbouring an arsenal. With the US now effectively the only global super power, there remains no threat large enough to warrant the use of a nuclear bomb. To be sure, the world needs more peace but, with some countries continuing to hold on to nuclear bomb arsenals, world peace can never really be completely assured, and this is the argument President Zuma could use in favour of nuclear disarmament.
announced that it would acquire the remaining stake it does not already own in freight rail operator, 
.
It is estimated that 40% of all freight in the US is transported via rail and Burlington which has a large share of the rail market, transports mainly, coal, grain and canned beverages. Berkshire Hathaway has folked out a staggering US$26 billion to make Burlington a wholly-owned subsidiary, an invest which many see as Buffet’s great faith in the freight rail business. When asked in an interview on one of the business news channels as to why he made the investment, Buffet said he believed that as the US population grows demand for goods would grow and as demand for goods grows, freight volumes would also grow accordingly. By some estimates, of all the freight and cargo transported across South Africa, 60% is transported by roads with the remainder split between rail, air and sea. South Africa has a fairly robust rail network system and in my opinion, there should be no reason why more of the freight is not transported by rail. The reality however is that South Africa’s only freight rail operator, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has not been employing new rolling stock at a fast enough rate to meet the freight transportation demands of the country. 
initiative in Southern Africa, if not on the African Continent. After years of debate under the government of President Zuma regarding how best to deal with the HIV/AIDS problem, it is encouraging that government is now taking a clear stand on dealing with this problem. The details of the HCT programme will be unveiled in April, but what we know so far is that the campaign will target South Africans aged 12 years and older. 
and an antidote against the Human Immuno Virus.
(SAPS). South Africa is a country that is not at war, certainly not with any of its neighbours, it is therefore not surprising that the well-trained men and women of the SANDF find themselves with little to do. My guess is that, currently the SANDF is largely involved in patrolling our borders, in intelligence gathering as well as in counter intelligence initiatives. Such activities leave the SANDF with plenty of resource capacity, the kind of capacity which makes it possible for the Army engineers to embark on the building of much needed bridges for civilian use. Indeed, it is my hope that the SANDF extends its services to more civilians across our country.
. According to 
have generated around the even in South Africa. However, the real measure of the World Cup will be the number of tickets sold and the television audience figures attained both in South Africa and around the world. I have no doubt in my mind that despite the low levels of hype and media activity, FIFA will make a profit from this event and soccer fans will come to SA in large numbers to the benefit of our economy. The jury is still out as to the number of foreign visitors who will enter our shores, with the initial figure of 450,000 having been revised down to around 350,000 visitors. 
reached boiling point round about the same time that South Africa was in the home-straight in the country’s race towards its first democratic elections on 1994. Of the three conflicts, Rwanda was by far the worst, based purely on the sheer number of deaths, estimated to be over 800 thousand after the dust had settled, although some argue that the true statistics will never be known. The UN later declared the conflicts in Bosnia and Rwanda as genocide and crimes against humanity. What is striking about the three conflicts, is that the initial acts of violence were perpetrated by forces internal to those countries, forces which pit one ethnic group against the other. In each of these three cases, the conflict symbolized a country at war with itself. Many countries around the world invest al lot of resources in the establishment and maintenance of armed forces, primarily to protect against an external threat. South Africa is no exception, with more government expenditure allocated towards the Army, Nany and Air Force, combined, than to the SA Police Services (SAPS).
, the United Nations and the world in general failed to intervene until extensive damage had been inflicted and thousands of lives were lost. It is my fear that unless our government acts swiftly, as the crime rate continues to escalate in South Africa, government may soon find itself fighting an internal all-out war against the criminals. Many would argue that it is the task of the SA Police Services (SAPS) to deal with this internal threat called crime, this argument remains valid for as long as crime is contained to the minimum and law-and-order in maintained. I my view, it is only a matter of time until crime gets so far out of hand as to cause a real threat to our national security. Enter the armed forces. I think time has come for the armed forces to be beefed up and used side-by-side with the SAPS to help reduce the levels of crime in our society. Somehow I have a feeling that the presence of heavily armed men and women in brown uniform would serve as a better deterrence to criminals than the men and women in blue. Indeed, the last thing we want is a police state, with autocratic rule but time has come for drastic action against crime and criminals. Without sounding too alarmist, death statistics as a result of crime are piling up and we can not wait until we have a situation similar to Somalia, Bosnia or Rwanda before appropriate action is taken by our government, our democracy is far too valuable to take that risk.