Sangoma wanted
May. 20th, 2008 05:42 pmSAA boss needs a new sangoma to help in fuel crisis
May 18, 2008
By Edwin Naidu
Khaya Ngqula, the SAA chief executive, must change sangomas. When economists warned the price of oil was rising and forecast to break the $100 (R763) a barrel barrier, the airline budgeted for oil at $65 a barrel.
No surprises to hear on Wednesday that soaring oil prices, which peaked this week at $125 a barrel, cost SAA R950 million. Someone at SAA got it hopelessly wrong but there was some good news. Ngqula says the airline's fuel levy on ticket fares had enabled SAA to make up for the extra it paid for oil. So, passengers paid for someone's blunder.
As head it is not for Ngqula to simply explain away such a substantial loss, blaming factors beyond SAA's control, when he ought to be tackling the inept in-house forecasters who obviously struggle with budgeting. But he will not.
If the track record of much-ado-about-nothing Alec Erwin, who, as minister of public enterprises has political responsibility for the airline, is anything to go by, Ngqula must be preparing a hefty bonus for his officials who cannot budget for a crisis.
Article from Business Report here.
May 18, 2008
By Edwin Naidu
Khaya Ngqula, the SAA chief executive, must change sangomas. When economists warned the price of oil was rising and forecast to break the $100 (R763) a barrel barrier, the airline budgeted for oil at $65 a barrel.
No surprises to hear on Wednesday that soaring oil prices, which peaked this week at $125 a barrel, cost SAA R950 million. Someone at SAA got it hopelessly wrong but there was some good news. Ngqula says the airline's fuel levy on ticket fares had enabled SAA to make up for the extra it paid for oil. So, passengers paid for someone's blunder.
As head it is not for Ngqula to simply explain away such a substantial loss, blaming factors beyond SAA's control, when he ought to be tackling the inept in-house forecasters who obviously struggle with budgeting. But he will not.
If the track record of much-ado-about-nothing Alec Erwin, who, as minister of public enterprises has political responsibility for the airline, is anything to go by, Ngqula must be preparing a hefty bonus for his officials who cannot budget for a crisis.
Article from Business Report here.
I applaud their decision
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:39 am Sending arms to Zim 'a recipe for conflict'
Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased yesterday when South Africa's largest transport workers' union announced that its members would not unload the ship.
"The union does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons," said Randall Howard, the general secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union.
Source: Independent News Online
By Kamini Padayachee & Sapa
Opposition to a shipment of arms being offloaded in Durban and transported to Zimbabwe increased yesterday when South Africa's largest transport workers' union announced that its members would not unload the ship.
"The union does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons," said Randall Howard, the general secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union.
( Read more... )
Source: Independent News Online
As someone who is currently looking to become a homeowner I find this behavior form a finance industry disgusting. The deliberate setting up of people into debt by misrepresenting the situation is a worst kind of fraud
Interest-only home loans may come at a cost
You can now delay repaying the capital on your home loan until it matures. While this repayment option has advantages in certain circumstances, you need to weigh these against the potential risks. September 23, 2006
By Charlene Clayton
Paying only the interest on your home loan may alleviate your cash flow problems in the short term, but it may have serious consequences.
SA Home Loans recently launch-ed a feature on its loans that allows you to service only the interest on your home loan - for the full 20 years of your loan term if you wish.
Interest-only loans are risky because the "spend now, pay later" premise of the product could result in many people landing in deep financial trouble, Gavin Opperman, the managing executive of Absa Home Loans, says.
Richard Sparg, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and chartered accountant at Cape Town financial planning company Netto Financial Services, says the risks of not paying any capital on your home loan until the end of your loan term are:
The rest of the article from Personal Finance website can be found here.
It is bad enough that the property prices have soared at least 20-30% since I last checked them out in January, but this is plain robbery. What is even more amazing is such practices are allowed to continue by our wonderful government.
Interest-only home loans may come at a cost
You can now delay repaying the capital on your home loan until it matures. While this repayment option has advantages in certain circumstances, you need to weigh these against the potential risks. September 23, 2006
By Charlene Clayton
Paying only the interest on your home loan may alleviate your cash flow problems in the short term, but it may have serious consequences.
SA Home Loans recently launch-ed a feature on its loans that allows you to service only the interest on your home loan - for the full 20 years of your loan term if you wish.
Interest-only loans are risky because the "spend now, pay later" premise of the product could result in many people landing in deep financial trouble, Gavin Opperman, the managing executive of Absa Home Loans, says.
Richard Sparg, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and chartered accountant at Cape Town financial planning company Netto Financial Services, says the risks of not paying any capital on your home loan until the end of your loan term are:
( Read more... )
The rest of the article from Personal Finance website can be found here.
It is bad enough that the property prices have soared at least 20-30% since I last checked them out in January, but this is plain robbery. What is even more amazing is such practices are allowed to continue by our wonderful government.
Home sweet home, why art thou so cold?
Jul. 6th, 2007 10:56 amI am officially back into the land of multiple barbeques, many friends and one pleased cat, not to mention delighted parents. I know I complain about the routine when I am at home, but for once, the routine is a novelty. Get up, go to work, come home, potter about, go to sleep. Heck, I m even getting the 8 hours per day sleep! Of course, the nice thing is: I am starting to fall into my old social life, starting with roleplaying for Verdant, where the evil wonderful DM has put my poor character in the cargo box to get to the other characters. I suppose it is one way to catch up to the rest of the party halfway around the world from where you last seen them. Although a cabin on a ship would have sufficed:)
I was also greeted by a nice surprise: The jewellery exhibition which is generally jumps dates between end of June and end of July is actually on right now. Okay, the money spending is not brilliant, but the new fashion of creating semi-precious stone bead necklaces is quite nice and really, can be done by anyone once the strings are bought. Although the amethyst strings are very pricy.
After a day and a half of being without a network connection I am trying to catch up to my friends list and managing to balance the need to constantly be on that new axis of evil, Facebook. Seriously, I really do not want to see some of my old school people on there, but I did manage to reconnect with a few people I wanted. So I shall be more accessible thanks to the ADSL at work.
To my Johannesburg friends - there is a Sunday Times Food show at the Sandton Convention centre if anyone is interested. I was wondering about going on Sunday, although me and food are not on best terms right now.
Back to the grindstone of sorting out all my admin, like Medical Aid, tax and finding the department secretary who mysteriously moved since last year and has all the stationary I need.
If only it was not that cold, otherwise I would not be half-pleased going to Brussels next month, stupid weather!
I was also greeted by a nice surprise: The jewellery exhibition which is generally jumps dates between end of June and end of July is actually on right now. Okay, the money spending is not brilliant, but the new fashion of creating semi-precious stone bead necklaces is quite nice and really, can be done by anyone once the strings are bought. Although the amethyst strings are very pricy.
After a day and a half of being without a network connection I am trying to catch up to my friends list and managing to balance the need to constantly be on that new axis of evil, Facebook. Seriously, I really do not want to see some of my old school people on there, but I did manage to reconnect with a few people I wanted. So I shall be more accessible thanks to the ADSL at work.
To my Johannesburg friends - there is a Sunday Times Food show at the Sandton Convention centre if anyone is interested. I was wondering about going on Sunday, although me and food are not on best terms right now.
Back to the grindstone of sorting out all my admin, like Medical Aid, tax and finding the department secretary who mysteriously moved since last year and has all the stationary I need.
If only it was not that cold, otherwise I would not be half-pleased going to Brussels next month, stupid weather!
Well, my Mom went back to SA on Monday and I realized how much I miss it. It is not too bad when I am on my own, but when Mom visited I almost burst into tears from homesickness.
Since Denmark has at least 4 public holidays in May and two of them are next to each other, I booked my next trip to SA not in July (like I originally planned to come back to) but in May. Cannot wait to see the sun and actually drive a car. I, of course, would love to see all of you if you guys can make it (I know how very hectic everyone's schedule is).
Now, all I have to arrange for are the copies for my Czech visa, grumble, grumble, if one has an EU work permit, some countries still require a visa. At least, there is no fee. Pictures will be forthcoming after Prague and Vienna since I go there a week before Johannesburg.
Back to head banging to "White stripes".
Since Denmark has at least 4 public holidays in May and two of them are next to each other, I booked my next trip to SA not in July (like I originally planned to come back to) but in May. Cannot wait to see the sun and actually drive a car. I, of course, would love to see all of you if you guys can make it (I know how very hectic everyone's schedule is).
Now, all I have to arrange for are the copies for my Czech visa, grumble, grumble, if one has an EU work permit, some countries still require a visa. At least, there is no fee. Pictures will be forthcoming after Prague and Vienna since I go there a week before Johannesburg.
Back to head banging to "White stripes".
Dem bullet points [Part 1 - milder events]
Sep. 3rd, 2006 01:47 pm- I quite like the idea of using bullet point lists to make a short quick report about events of the week/day/month/hour so I'm trying this one out
- Live Journal has been giving me problems of late, taking a long time to load, timing out when trying to update my journal or simply view my Friends Page. The Front page says that they have implemented a new menu system, Horizon and today it seems to work without a problem after one full week of increasing frustration.
- On Wednesday, together with
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
claidheamhmor and melancthe visited a vietnamese themed restaurant, Saigon. It was also C's first time there (the guy I'm currently dating), but he seemed to enjoy it, even gracefully finishing the chocolate mousse dessert, which was simply too much for my stomach after a sumptious meal. This is the second time I am making use of the work's social club's corporate discounts and have to say I really enjoy their ideas for new social experiences for the employees. - I also slipped into one of my rare moments of stupidity this past week. On my way to Saigon restaurant, some idiot in a pickup truck decided to sit on my tail because I was going oh-so-slow at speed limit of 120km/h at night in the fast lane. So instead of either ignoring him or moving into the slower lane, my aggro hormone decided to spike up, causing me to slow down even further and "make" him stop this foolishness. Well, all that got me was him almost running me off the bloody highway later. I vindicated by cutting in front of him, and then it was his turn to get off the highway. Not one of my better moments, sadly, this kind of behaiviour in those who drive pickups or other big high-powered vehicles is the norm in South Africa, and those of us, driving the non-syndrome-telling cars are also guilty of a milder form of road rage.
- Friday was team building with my team. I really enjoy the company of my colleagues, a stark contrast to my previous job. Let's not forget to mention the fun to be had of watching inebriated people trying to putt-putt. Strangely enough, for some it was merely an improvement in their game, whilst I acknowledge that I still suck in any golf-related sports, sigh. I did make the par more then once though! Yey for me:)
- Did a heck of a lot of studying today and yesterday by coming to work and doing it properly without all the distractions from home. I feel so proud of myself.
- Finished "Grey's Anatomy" first season, I'm so hopelessly addicted, I want McDreamy!
