Despite the effect commercialization has on the Kruger National Park - here are some reasons why it is still worth your while to visit the Park. The Kruger National Park covers a vast area, the size of a small country (19 485 km²). More species of large mammals are found in the Kruger National Park than any other African game reserve (147 species). The Kruger National Park is a Bird lover’s paradise with more than 500 bird species inhabiting the Park. The size and diversity of habitats in the Kruger Park have given sanctuary to bird species that otherwise may have disappeared altogether from Southern Africa. The Kruger National Park boasts a tremendous botanic diversity. To put it in simple terms – the Park can be divided into 16 macro ecozones. North of the Olifants River consists of predominantly mopane veld and south of the Olifants River the ecozones are thornveld. There are an astonishing 336 tree species in the Park. Of the 47 protected species listed in the Government Gazette No. 26752 of 10 September 2004, 17 (36 %) occur in the Kruger National Park. There are no more than 20 camps in the Kruger National Park and no two camps are alike as the vegetation and geology changes as you drive from one end of the Kruger Park to the other. It boasts seven major rivers that cross the Park from West to East making the Kruger National Park a lush, sub-tropical paradise. The Kruger National Park is undoubtedly one of the best destinations for nature photographers as it provides excellent landscape, wildlife & bird photo opportunities. The diversity of the Kruger National Park is truly astounding. Especially first-time Kruger National Park safaris visitors, naturally want to see the widest range and diversity of wild animals. In our humble opinion there is no better National Park to visit on the entire earth. It is true that the Park have become commercialized over the years and there are a lot of visitors driving around on Kruger Park Safaris …
Luxury rehab: is it worth the money you pay?
Luxury rehab centres started popping up in the 1980s and yes, for a long time they were the domain of the rich and famous. If you were fabulously wealthy or enjoyed celebrity status, you could slip away discretely and spend time recuperating at a high-heel rehab centre. If you weren’t, you more than likely found yourself subjected to a punishing regime at a facility that favoured a bootcamp approach to treating addiction. The no-frills approach where inpatients find themselves making their own beds, peeling potatoes and washing dishes has its roots in the 12-step programme that advocates the need to humble an addict; to cultivate resilience and gratitude in a physically-demanding or uncomfortable environment to get them to acknowledge their addiction and make them take responsibility for it. The hard-core bootcamp approach works for some but certainly not for the majority, if you take a look at the historically low success rates of complete recovery. It perpetuates the notion that addiction is a ‘punishable’ offence and fuels the stigma associated with seeking treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. It certainly does nothing for the men and women who already battle with low self-esteem and chronic self-depreciation. Why luxury rehab is growing in popularity Luxury rehab emerged to meet the demand for more privacy and comfort but today the resort-like addiction treatment centers like White River Manor have a far more serious role to play. This is because there has been a striking shift from ‘punishment’ to compassion when it comes to understanding and treating addiction. And don’t be mislead into thinking compassion is a weaker approach. The true meaning of compassion means “to suffer together”. It’s defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. It’s not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. If you pick out the dominant emotion “feel …
Measured Ability Group Holdings South Africa (MASA) measuring up to high industry standards
Durban, KwaZulu Natal, 11 October 2019: MASA has fine-tuned its service offering over a period of four decades and established itself as leader in the recruitment and outsourcing industry. Measured Ability Group Holdings South Africa (MASA) Is a decade old this year, still a relatively new brand name in the marketplace, however the directors and their staff were the progenitors of labor outsourcing in South Africa having been in the business of recruitment and outsourcing for close on four decades. To put it in perspective; when the founding company, Greys Personnel, was established in 1982 Michael Jackson had just released his groundbreaking album “Thriller”, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and went to war with the UK, FW de Klerk became the new leader of the National Party and a bomb exploded in the ANC headquarters in London. The company now has a national footprint with a recruitment agency in Durban, recruitment agency in Port Elizabeth as well as recruitment agencies in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein, East London and George. When you look at it like that, you realise that MASA stands on foundations that have stood the test of time. It’s a company that has its roots embedded in permanent personnel recruitment and has evolved admirably to encompass contract recruitment, labour outsourcing as well as nursing services. In 2012, the business merged the strength of Greys Personnel that operated in the permanent placement market with the depth of experience of Western Star Outsourcing which operated in the contract and outsourcing market and rebranded as MASA to pull together a company that comprises five distinctive business units. The 5 pillars of business are: Measured Ability SA (MASA) Blue collar labour hire / labour broking / temporary employment / temporary staffing / permanent blue collar recruitment; incorporating payroll services, site management, human resources and industrial relations, …
Connecting People to Therapists and Mental Health Services
Cape Town, October, 2019 - In a bid to improve access to mental health services throughout South Africa (and beyond), TherapyRoute.com has announced opening its online - free to list - mental health service directory to all qualified mental professionals and service providers including non-profits, community clinics, and private practices. TherapyRoute believes that opening their platform, to both private and non-profit services, is an example of how private and community organisations can collaborate to achieve mutual aims more efficiently. For example, equipping the public to locate and access mental health services and professionals like psychologists, registered counsellors, and social workers. Just this year (2019), TherapyRoute served hundreds of thousands of page views (USA, UK, ZA, and AU) and linked thousands of visitors to mental health professionals and services providers. Registering on the platform improves access to services by placing links to these services in front of the people seeking them. It also allows registered organisations and professionals to access tools that they can use to grow their profiles into informative websites and publish high-quality mental-health-related content. Mindful that barriers to access can extend beyond availability and affordability; TherapyRoute includes socially relevant filters (e.g. Black, LGBT+, Armenian speaking, etc.) that help visitors find the best fit mental health professionals for them. The platform also caters for people who are unsure of what to search for by automatically displaying nearby services. According to Enzo Sinisi (founder) "one challenge to improving access is that providers focus on delivery and sometimes lack the resources to ensure that their services, and often even their contact details, are accurately presented online". TherapyRoute recently led a project that saw 1000 hours donated to collecting, verifying, and adding well over 100 low-fee and no-fee South African …
Golden business opportunities despite the economic climate in SA
Despite our current challenging economic situation, the present moment is full of opportunity for buying a business and thriving. If you've been thinking of owning your own business you probably have already looked around for a business for sale, but are unsure about where to invest your hard-earned cash, consider that some of the smaller or medium-sized businesses are affordable, easier to manage and good value for money in an ever-shifting economy. Increased domestic demand in the second quarter allowed the South African economy to bounce back a bit. Further good news is that international ratings agency Moody’s hinted at a “low likelihood” that they will downgrade South Africa’s credit rating to junk status in their November review. In addition, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) announced it will keep the repurchase rate unchanged at 6.50%, after having cut rates by 25 basis points previously, adding more stability. In his latest economic talk, President Ramaphosa announced priority reforms to improve the ease of doing business and reducing the cost of compliance. These new laws will reduce the abuse of dominance and high concentration that keeps small and emerging companies out of the economy. Given that entrepreneurs and small businesses are currently being tasked with the responsibility of reviving the economy and creating millions of new jobs, the government is focusing on improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem, ensuring an enabling environment for businesses to grow and thrive in South Africa. Small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) not only provide an attractive opportunity for the country’s economic growth but they also contribute 60-80% of the projected GDP increase, and generate a large percentage of the new jobs in our country. Statistics provided by Stats SA show that a significant contribution SMMEs have been made by SMMEs across all industries – Business services, Trade, Community and …
Latest news on claiming from the RAF in 2019
An update on the amendments to the Road Accident Fund in South Africa. At the time of drafting this article, the RAF is in the final process of amending the general damages pay-outs to road accident victims. This means that victims of road accidents will no longer get a pay-out for general damages. General damages are paid to people for what is known as ‘pain and suffering’ and can include trauma. Below is very brief summary of the RAF changes in near future. The proposed changes: Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill In 2005 general damages claims were limited to serious pain and suffering only. Now the RAF plans to drop these pay-outs altogether. The RAF also plans to setup a standard medical tariff for medical costs and adjusting its pay-outs to be made on a monthly basis, instead of a lump sum. A draft bill called RABS for Road Accident Benefit Scheme will change the process of Road accident fund claims substantially. The reasons behind the draft bill includes the rise in fraudulent claims which has hurt the RAF, and the fact that it has a R215bn liability. RABS seeks to lower costs of legal cases against the RAF significantly. While this bill has been touted as a shift in approach from the RAF as insurance fund to a social-security benefit system, mismanagement cannot be ignored and the RAF should be under more scrutiny. A well-meaning amendment bill which benefits lower-income people more than higher-income people is not a bad thing, but the RAF should be held more accountable with stricter people management, systems, checks and balances to manage an entity that has such an important mandate. This is not a political article so let’s get on with how you claim from the RAF in 2019, until the new bill is ratified by Parliament. What does this mean for any claim you may have against the RAF? You will need to join the queue of existing Road accident fund claims to be paid out; expect a wait as RAF claims can take up to seven years to settle. …
IMImobile to become global market leader for RCS Business Messaging
Global communications software provider IMImobile PLC has conditionally agreed to acquire 3Cinteractive Corp (3C). IMImobile is headquartered in London with offices across the world that include Johannesburg. 3C is a private US, cloud-based mobile customer engagement platform company. The move will see IMImobile acquiring complementary product capabilities and a new blue-chip customer base in North America. “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of 3Cinteractive and look forward to bringing our technology platform and automation capabilities to more clients in North America and enhancing our RCS deployment capabilities globally,” commented Jay Patel, Group Chief Executive of IMImobile. 3Cinteractive provides a number of mobile engagement capabilities to enterprises, including mobile messaging, mobile coupons, mobile wallet, mobile web, and more. It is a pioneer in the Rich Communications Services (RCS) Business Messaging market in North America, and the acquisition will see IMImobile establish a leadership position in deploying RCS Business Messaging solutions for large consumer-facing brands and enterprises globally. According to industry analysts Mobilesquared, over 3.5 billion people will use RCS by 2023 and business spend will grow to more than $11.4 billion. For the past three years, 3Cinteractive has been working in close partnership with the GSMA and global mobile carriers to make RCS the preferred messaging channel for brands and enterprises. IMImobile’s enterprise CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) cloud communications platform, IMIconnect, enables businesses to intelligently create, manage and automate end-to-end digital customer communications across multiple channels. Earlier this year, IMImobile announced the release of its unified RCS messaging API. Through the API and alongside IMIconnect’s low-code tools and visual workflow builder, enterprises can design, build and launch RCS messaging journeys at speed and …
Luxury rehab: Why it is now the norm
Luxury rehab centers started popping up in the 1980s and yes, for a long time they were the domain of the rich and famous. If you were fabulously wealthy or enjoyed celebrity status, you could slip away discretely and spend time recuperating at a high-heel rehab center. If you weren’t, you more than likely found yourself subjected to a punishing regime at a facility that favored a boot camp approach to treating addiction. The no-frills approach where inpatients find themselves making their own beds, peeling potatoes and washing dishes has its roots in the 12-step program that advocates the need to humble an addict; to cultivate resilience and gratitude in a physically-demanding or uncomfortable environment to get them to acknowledge their addiction and make them take responsibility for it. The hard-core boot camp approach works for some but certainly not for the majority, if you take a look at the historically low success rates of complete recovery. It perpetuates the notion that addiction is a ‘punishable’ offence and fuels the stigma associated with seeking treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. It certainly does nothing for the men and women who already battle with low self-esteem and chronic self-depreciation. Why luxury rehab is growing in popularity Luxury rehab emerged to meet the demand for more privacy and comfort but today the resort-like addiction treatment centers have a far more serious role to play. This is because there has been a striking shift from ‘punishment’ to compassion when it comes to understanding and treating addiction. And don’t be mislead into thinking compassion is a weaker approach. The true meaning of compassion means “to suffer together”. It’s defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. It’s not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. If you pick out the dominant emotion “feel motivated to relieve that …
SA Forestry Sector Makes Chainsaw Training Safer With Virtual Reality
JOHANNESBURG, 10 SEPTEMBER 2019 ? In a world first, trainee chainsaw operators will soon be able to use a virtual reality (VR) application to test their theoretical knowledge and hone their skill in a simulated timber plantation. Developed by Forestry South Africa (FSA), the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FP&M Seta) and industry partners, this solution trains chainsaw operators in a safe, simulated environment before they test their skills in this high-risk activity in timber plantations. While the number of chainsaw operators employed in large commercial plantations has declined in recent years, the opposite is true in small-scale and community forestry, where suitably trained chainsaw operators need to be equipped with this scarce and critical skill. Although forestry has used simulators over the past decade, their use in the training of chainsaw operators is an innovative development. Mobile, cost-effective, learner-adaptable and injury-free The cost of practical training has risen substantially. The sector sought a solution that would not only provide a cost-effective coaching medium with minimal risk, but a means whereby trainee operators could gain a feel for their equipment before taking their first steps into the field or forest. Safety concerns have proved to be a limiting factor in the training of chainsaw operators. Other constraints include unwieldy class sizes and a limited number of trees available for practical instruction. “Besides the obvious benefits that our industry stands to gain from this project, VR is the future of skills development and training. It transports learners into the environment for which they are being trained, promotes interactivity and improves the retention of information through experience,” says FSA business development director Norman Dlamini. “I am holding the very first real chainsaw in the world that has been wired with sensors and can transport a …
Forestry South Africa celebrates women in forestry with its profile series
JOHANNESBURG, AUGUST 8, 2019 – This month, Forestry South Africa (FSA) is celebrating women in forestry. Over the next few weeks, FSA will be publishing the stories of 24 women in a series of profiles on www.forestryexplained.co.za. With more than 320 years experience among them in a variety of roles, these women show that no job is off limits as long as you have the passion and dedication required. “Some have dedicated their lives to the sector, others are just at the start of their career, but all have one thing in common – the wish to dispel the myth that forestry is a man’s world,” says Michael Peter, executive director of FSA. "Their success is testament to how our sector has embraced and benefited from the skills and qualities women bring to the industry." In turn, the forestry sector gives women the opportunity to contribute to a challenging and ever-evolving industry that produces essential everyday items – from furniture to face wash, pencils to paper and a myriad of novel products all made from the wood of locally farmed trees. It is an industry where there is always room to grow, where you are part of a globally recognised community and have the opportunity to work outdoors with leaders in multiple fields. Khosi Mavimbela, executive director of the Forest Sector Charter Council, says, “It is little wonder why women in forestry are proud of what they do and all they have achieved. These women want to plant a seed of inspiration in the mind of others, who many not have thought about a career in forestry, but could greatly benefit from one.” By sharing their story of triumph and growth within the industry, FSA hopes other women will follow in their footsteps and the myth that forestry is a male-only workforce will be busted once and for all. “Women like myself operate machines and there is scope to learn and improve. I started out as a general worker, so forestry definitely provides opportunities for growth.” Ephine Mogakane, SAFCOL – Senior …