© 2017 South Africa - The Good News
31th of January 2018
2018: A Better year – yes or no?
17 Reasons why the answer is “YES”
By Steuart Pennington
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one” Voltaire.
In breezing through the Sunday papers, notably the Sunday Times and City Press I was struck by Mavuso Msimang’s question “is the clean-up in progress?” So I did a quick search, there is a lot going on…………and while there is no certainty……….there is hope, as the 17 points below illustrate.
INVESTIGATIONS:
1) Mineral Resources Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane and the three Gupta brothers and their associates will be charged with money laundering in the next few weeks in what will become the first state capture case to be prosecuted. The Estina Farm project was used to siphon off R 220 million meant to benefit poor farmers. The net has been cast wide and includes CEOs of various Gupta owned companies. South African law enforcement agencies have obtained co-operation agreements from the Indian, British and UAE governments in this regard.
...[read more]
Follow us:
DO WE TALK IT LIKE IT IS? TAKE THE TEST
By Steuart Pennington
Subject: Poverty, inequality and unemployment
A few weeks ago I invited you to take a test of eight questions to check whether your perceptions matched the reality of life in South Africa.
I mentioned that out of the 38 countries that participated in this Ipsos survey South Africans ranked worst in terms of being most wrong in their reply
Take the test yourself https://perils.ipsos.com/quiz/zaf/index.html
I had calls to do the same this week in respect of the way we talk about poverty, inequality and unemployment in response to a question from my mate Fred.
LETTER
Dear Fred
Yes, I fear that we do use the terms poverty, inequality and unemployment as if we are all agreed on the definitions and the accompanying measures, but are we?
...[read more]
Beating leukaemia in my matric year: Neo Rakuba’s story
My name is Neo Rakuba, and I matriculated with the class of 2017. They say that your matric year is a hard one… I didn’t know just how hard it was going to be.
In 2016, it seemed as though everything was going well for me when I was elected as head boy of my school, Curro’s Meridian Rustenburg. As the year gradually progressed, I fell ill – an illness that I could not shake. After numerous visits to the doctors, I was diagnosed with leukaemia that April and spent the rest of the year in hospital undergoing chemotherapy and other medical support. I then had to be moved to Steve Biko hospital in Pretoria when my life was in grave danger.
Yet despite my unfortunate fate, I never let my spirits fail me. I responded well to the chemotherapy treatments and I went on to beat the cancer – triumphantly returning to school to finish Grade 12. Suddenly, matric didn’t seem so tough anymore!
My hard work paid off at the end of 2017, as I matriculated with an overall average of 71.43% – achieving notably great results in English First Additional Language, Mathematics, Computer App Technology, Physical Sciences and Life Orientation.
Even though I was completely isolated during parts of my treatment, I never lost hope. I never saw myself as having leukaemia. I just tried to maintain a positive mind-set, forever smiling and never blaming anyone for the disease.
...[read more]
THIS WEEK'S FAST FACT
Technology
Droning on about money: Around 2 million consumer-focused drones were sold globally in 2016, vastly outnumbering the number of military drones. Despite this, nearly 90% of worldwide spending on drones is attributable to military use.
(Source: www.Eighty20.co.za)
