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Daily podcast – January 13, 2015

Daily podcast – January 13, 2015

13th January 2015

By: Sane Dhlamini
Creamer Media Senior Contributing Editor and Researcher

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January 13, 2015.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande says graduating matriculants should not consider acceptance to a university as the only option.

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Boko Haram attacks a town in northern Cameroon, killing at least one person.

And, South Africa’s Department of Energy has issued a formal appeal for companies and individuals to provide it with information on possible near-term solutions to reduce or shift electricity demand.  

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Graduating matriculants should not consider acceptance to a university as the only option available to them to kick-start their career, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has asserted. He says they should also investigate other further education opportunities within the Post-School Education and Training (or PSET) system.

Nzimande said the future of the youth doesn't only lie in going to university after Matric but there are many other opportunities that can be accessed.

He said it was important that learners break away from the [mentality] [that we impose on] the youth when it comes to education.

Nzimande also announced that over 425 000 opportunities were available to school-leavers in 2015 within the PSET system.

Nzimande’s announcement came a week after Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed that the national Matric pass rate had dropped from 78.2% in 2013 to 75.8% in 2014.

 

Boko Haram attacked a town in northern Cameroon on Monday, killing at least one person. This comes less than a week after the group issued threats against the central African country.

The Nigerian group's insurgency, which is thought to have killed more than 10 000 people last year, has intensified in recent months and is posing a growing threat to neighbours Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

A source in the Cameroonian special forces said the group attacked their military base at Kolofata killing one of their soldiers and wounding many others.

Last week, a man purporting to be the leader of the Nigerian militant sect, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to intensify violence in Cameroon unless it scrapped its constitution and embraced Islam.

Meanwhile, Cameroon's President Paul Biya has appealed for international military help to fight Boko Haram. Chad also called for international aid last week after 2 000 refugees fled Boko Haram attacks and crossed the border from Nigeria into Chad.


South Africa’s Department of Energy (or DoE) has issued a formal appeal for companies and individuals to provide it with information on possible near-term solutions to reduce or shift electricity demand, as well as to immediately improve supply. The responses will guide on the design of future procurement processes.

Government’s Independent Power Producer (or IPP) Office released the request for information (or RFI) in mid-December and responses had to be submitted by February 2.

The RFI documentation notes that demand response and/or distributed generation strategies are “critical” to improving the reserves needed by the system operator to better employ available generating capacity and to allow for higher levels of power-station maintenance.

The anticipated daily shortfall is likely to be between 3 000 and 5000 megawatt s(or MW) until additional generation capacity is introduced.

The RFI follows the adoption by Cabinet in December of a five-point plan designed to stabilise the electricity supply sector, which has become increasingly prone to disruption, owing to a delay in Eskom’s build programme and a decline in the performance of the utility’s aging generation fleet.

 

Also making headlines:

The South African government says it has taken note of the UN Security Council statement concerning the disarmament of the armed group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.

Manufacturing output for November fell below analyst expectations, registering a “disappointing” 1.3% year-on-year contraction.

Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has announced that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme has set aside R9.5-billion in bursaries and loans for 2015.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. [@PolityZA]

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today.

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