South Africa

- Is the cabinet heading for a reshuffle in the not too distant future? Many analysts are pointing to signs that President Mbeki may be soon making changes to his cabinet on the back of a few resignations and in line with the 6% growth target.

 

- A few of SA's best and brightest were honored by the Prez. after their sterling efforts in last years Matric Exams. The biggest surprise of the day came when the Prez actually made a joke - "When I was in matric I had no distinctions, so I don't know what that means" - which caused an uncomfortable 30 seconds of silence before Snuki Zikalala erupted in loud guffaws and ran up to high-five the Prez, "for the best joke....ever!"

 

- I don't agree with the UCB (or Cricket SA, whichever way you want it) on this one. Apparently they are thinking of boycotting future tours of Australia unless the racist taunting of SA players does not stop. Surely there must be a more constructive way to tackle the problem than this? Punishing everyone for the actions of a tiny, tiny minority hardly seems like a good way to go about things.

 

- Truman Prince is finally out of the ANC.

 

- Very interesting website that I will definitely be visiting more in the future.

 

Dijon de Jager, a qualified chartered accountant, launched Mpower Ratings (www.mpowerratings.co.za) in 2004 in an attempt to cater for small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) that do not have the capability or understanding of the empowerment codes to get themselves BEE accredited. For a monthly subscription of R100, a small business can enter its empowerment credentials online and generate its latest scorecard rating.

De Jager says the costs of getting a BEE rating are quite substantial and can range anywhere between R5 000 and R15 000, depending on the size of the business. (from the M&G)