Happy Holidays from HWB

deVere talks about Botswana on CNBC

The deVere Group is the world's largest independent financial consultancy group. International investors and expatriates employ us to find financial services products that suit their medium to long term requirements for insurance, investments, savings and pensions. With in excess of US $8 billion of funds under administration and management, deVere has more than sixty thousand clients in over a hundred countries.

Craig Featherby, CEO of deVere Africa, spoke to CNBC on their investment in Botswana.


http://www.abndigital.com/page/multimedia/video/invest-africa/1482275-Opportunities-and-Challenges-Facing-Botswana-Part-1

http://www.abndigital.com/page/multimedia/video/invest-africa/1482274-Opportunities-and-Challenges-Facing-Botswana-Part-2

MyCiTi - Getting to Cape Town International Airport on time - YouTube

SA youth follow politics, shun parties

Download SA Reconciliation Barometer (SARB) survey 2012 report here:

http://www.ijr.org.za/news-and-events.php?nid=105&type=news
 
Young South Africans want to participate in politics, but on their own terms. With two-thirds of the population under 35 years, parties should take note that conventional politicking doesn’t guarantee votes from the ‘Facebook generation’. 

This is the finding of the latest round of the SA Reconciliation Barometer (SARB) survey, conducted annually by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) since 2003.

With the ANC’s national conference in Mangaung just days away, much more than leadership and policy is at stake. In the run-up to the 2014 general elections, party leadership will have to consider how to appeal to a generation of ‘born frees’, who may be beyond the range of traditional recruiting strategies.

The results of the SARB show that young South Africans have different ideas about political engagement, than older generations who lived through the democratic transition. ‘We have grown up in a digital age,’ explained a student at a recent IJR event in the Eastern Cape, ‘we don’t read a lot, we Google and we Facebook a lot, and watch TV.’

Barometer results this year show that 40% of black under-35’s have little or no confidence in political parties, and the same is true of more than two-thirds of young people of other races. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of young South Africans say that they would consider supporting a political party different to the one preferred by most of their friends and family. The same student commented, ‘what’s this trend about voting and regurgitating my vote with the same vote for the same party, there is a new trend now.’

Young and older South Africans alike (49% overall) also doubt that national leaders are concerned with the views of ordinary people. Large numbers (44%) believe they have witnessed corruption in their own communities, and more than one in three believe government is not doing enough to combat it.

Some young South Africans, however, are more optimistic than adults that they can make a difference, and get disinterested government officials to listen to their views.

The survey also raises some disconcerting findings about political activity in this demographic. Thirty-five percent (35%) of youth think it’s better to ignore the law and solve problems immediately, and a quarter (24%) that it is not necessary to follow the laws of a government they didn’t vote for.

For some, mistrust of political parties and leaders, the desire to effect change and the view that the law can be bent or broken, may bring about consequences for the country: one in five under-35’s say they have been part of a violent or destructive protest in the past year. 

Without addressing the complex challenges young South Africans face – access to quality education, finding jobs, and ensuring their views are heard – they may increasingly turn to unconventional and unexpected channels to express their frustration.

The SA Reconciliation Barometer is a nationally-representative public opinion poll conducted annually across the country. More information is available at www.reconciliationbarometer.org or www.ijr.org.za. You can follow the Reconciliation Barometer on Twitter at @SABarometer.

Broadband access doubles in SA in two years

Broadband access in South Africa has more than doubled in the last two years, as mobile operators slashed the cost of data and network roll-out accelerated.

This is revealed in new data contained in the final version of the Internet Access in South Africa 2012 study which was conducted by World Wide Worx.

The broadband data, which is analysed in detail in the report, shows that the number of broadband subscriptions grew from 3.6 million at the end of 2010 to an expected 8.2 million by the end of 2012 which is a total of 128% growth.

Many users have multiple forms of broadband access, such as an ADSL account as well as 3G, while many hop between operators to take advantage of promotional offers.

As a result, the number of individual broadband users is substantially lower, but also more than doubling in the past two years.

The number has grown from 2.8 million to 6.7 million, 140% growth in just two years.

Telkom’s ADSL service now holds just 10.6% of the broadband subscriber market in South Africa.

Measured by subscriptions, South Africa now has an apparent 15.8% broadband penetration of the population. - News24

Nothing black & white about media freedom - Business Day

2012 SA Reconciliation Barometer survey conducted by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) to be released 6 Dec

In the lead-up to the ANC national conference in Mangaung, that young South Africans want to participate in politics - but on their own terms. With two-thirds of the population under 35 years, parties should take note that conventional politicking doesn’t guarantee votes from the ‘Facebook generation’.

Youth lack confidence in political parties, distrust leaders and believe corruption is widespread.

The Reconciliation Barometer is the only survey in South Africa that provides a measure of progress in reconciliation since the transition to democracy in 1994. Read and learn more about this factor in political life in South Africa by following the media coverage of the survey.

The IJR will release the report on 6 December 2012 to the media at a press conference at the offices of HWB in Greenpoint, Cape Town.

South Africans Speak about the Crisis of Moral Leadership

You are invited to a Public Dialogue at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein:

“South Africans Speak about the Crisis of Moral Leadership”

Speakers include some of South Africa’s most thoughtful social commentators and a community activist:

- Barney Pityana
- Prince Mashele
- Pierre de Vos
- Faeza Meyer

Date: 7 December 2012
Time: 18h00 – 19h30
Venue: Centenary Complex, The Reitz Hall, University of the Free State

This public dialogue forms part of an international conference taking place at the University of the Free State titled “Engaging the Other: Breaking  Intergenerational Cycles of Repetition”

An interdisciplinary group of scholars, experts and practitioners will gather at UFS from 5 - 8 December. The conference intends to open new avenues of inquiry into the generational effects on communities that have experienced extreme violence.

According to conference coordinator, Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, The Engaging the Other conference is an attempt to "draw from the global trends of reconciliation and deepen our understanding of the elements necessary to develop empathy between victims/survivors and perpetrators".

Speakers include:

Jonathon Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State
Opening address

Mark Solms, Head of Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town.
When Solms inherited the family wine estate in Franschhoek, he also inherited the farm workers, a consequence of apartheid. These people were descendants of slaves and the families had worked on the farm for more than three centuries. His presentation takes on the dialogue with the workers on his wine estate—digging into the past—in order to investigate the hidden history of the land he inherited and understand the wounds inflicted by his forebears.

Marguerite Barankitse, survivor of the Rwandan genocide
Marguerite holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in France. She has received several awards and distinctions for her work for her work aimed at transforming the lives of Hutu and Tutsi children affected by war. Among these are the highly prestigious humanitarian prize, the Opus Prize, the UNESCO Prize, and the World's Children's Prize. Marguerite will be in conversation with Desmond Tutu.

Jessica Benjamin, on the faculty of New York University's Postdoctoral Psychology Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
Jessica has made significant contributions to the concept of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis. More recently she has directed a project on inter-group dialogue in the Middle East for Palestinian and Israeli mental health professionals and written about collective trauma and witnessing.

You are invited to attend the conference in full, or to attend those sessions of interest to you. Download the full programme here: http://www.engagingtheother.co.za/full-programme.html
Please RSVP to Andrea Kirk andrea@hwb.co.za

Please see press release attached for a more detailed overview of the conference.

For more information visit:
www.engagingtheother.co.za
Facebook: Engaging the Other
Twitter: @EngagingUFS
Conference main hashtag: #ETO