Shopping mall’s in the West Rand get a facelift!

The West Rand of Johannesburg has seen a number of changes over the last five years, not the least of which has been the construction of a slew of new apartment and townhouse complexes along the outskirts of major areas, as well as an initiative that has allowed for the areas entertainment complexes to be revitalized.

 

Three of these complexes, two existing and one brand new, have been under construction from early 2012, and the developments are all nearing completion at a fantastic rate.

 

Key West Shopping Centre in Krugersdorp has recently been part of upgrades by Aucacap Investments, who have allocated around R105 million to a three-part project at the mall. The Waterfront section of the Key West Shopping Centre will be upgraded and modernized, hosting a number of new family restaurants, activity areas for children and a brand new amphitheater for live events. 

 

The waterfront area will also be accessible directly from the brand new ‘Entrance 7’, which, along with Entrance 4, will get elevators that will allow visitors to access the second floor. The mall itself will also be revamped, inside and out, with new signage, more rest facilities and a host of new retail tenants.

 

The developments are expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

 

 

 

Silverstar casino investors Tsogo Sun have allocated an estimated R480 million to construction and refurbishment at the relatively young casino complex. Expected to be completed by August 2014, Silverstar Casino will become an entertainment hub for the West Rand with six cinemas boasting the latest technology 3D screens, a 12-lane bowling alley and four new restaurants surrounding a central square that can also be used for outdoor events. 

 

There will also be an outdoor screen in the central square with two restaurants inside the property, bringing the total number of restaurants to six. A beer garden, laser games, a refurbished casino and a large outdoor domed events arena as well as an upmarket indoor multipurpose events venue and additional parking will feature in the development. Most of the facilities will remain operational throughout the period, though many of them are also undergoing refurbishment behind the scenes.

 

The West Rand’s newest addition, Cradlestone Mall, is said to be on track with its construction, and has set an official opening date for October 24th, 2013. The mall, located ideally between the West Rand hub of entertainment that holds its sister malls like Clearwater and Silverstar Casino, and the World Heritage Site in the Cradle of Humankind. Cradlestone will be a testament to the evolutionary heritage of the area, and will show off the importance of the area in Human history. 

 

It will host 240 retail stores, entertainment areas and restaurants, as well as a state of the art IMAX theatre, free Wi-Fi in the food court, fiber optics and a brand new tubing system that will make the handling of cash on the premises safer for all parties involved.

The mall is planned to have as low a carbon footprint as possible, in order to promote ‘green entertainment’ and to foster in a new way of conducting business. 

 

 

Written by Wesley Geyer

Creative writer at ATKA SA

Remember the Black Eagle Conservation Project

 

The Black Eagle is a fairly common resident of South Africa and is said to be one of the most thoroughly researched eagles in the country. 

 

They are found at sea level from the Cape Province to the Drakensberg in Natal, in the North West Province and up into Africa. Mountain terrains with cliffs, rock ledges and caves are preferred as habitat by the black eagle, with the ledges providing nesting sites and abundant prey.

 

When the Watler Sisulu National Botanical Garden was established in 1982, the black eagles were already nesting on the cliffs next to the Witpoortjie Falls. Despite increasing urbanisation and development within their immediate hunting area, the pair breeding at the Gardens has stayed, regardless of their existence being challenged by influx of visitors, noise and lack of prey. The interference within and around the territory escalated with stray and domestic dogs and vagrans, who feed on the eagles’ principal prey, the dassie. The pair have had to adapt their prey base to include guinea fowl, francolin, red rock rabbit and in very desperate cases, chickens.

 

The Black Eagle Monitoring Project was initiated in 1992 with its aims being the following: educate and inform the public on black eagles, conserve and secure the black eagle pair in the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens and to monitor and obtain vital information on their breeding cycle.

 

In 1998, the Black Eagle Monitoring Group became affiliated to the Gardens and subsequently the project was renamed the Black Eagle Project Roodekrans and was registered as a non-profit organisation that consists of a 7-member committee and approximately 30 dedicated volunteer members. For the next three years since 2006, the project placed a ring on the juvenile eagle’s tarsus and took blood samples for correct sexing and DNA.

 

This project proves how much can be learned and achieved by the voluntary efforts of a passionate amateur team. The importance of preserving the ‘Black Eagles of Roodekrans’ will remain the top priority of the project. Monitoring will continue as it is only through a thorough knowledge of these raptors that any arising problems can be rectified.

 

A live camera was installed on the cliff watching over the nests of the black eagle pair. To view the feed from this camera, go to: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/africam-black-eagle.

 

The Black Eagles are a part of our South African heritage and we should all give our support to this project to ensure the survival of these spectacular birds!

 

 

Written by Marleen Theunissen

Creative writer at ATKA SA

How the rising petrol price affects business

Fuel price hikes is one thing that a business cannot avoid. Petrol is made from crude oil, which is extracted from the ground and then refined and exported from the main oil-producing nations to the rest of the world.

 

 

As with other goods, if the supply of oil increases, price will decrease and vice versa. The recent increases in the fuel price have much to do with political conflicts in the large oil-producing nations of the Middle East. Uprisings like these can change the fuel price in two ways – it may lead to a decrease in supply or the anticipation of future drops in supply will lead to other countries stockpiling oil and therefore raising the demand and price of oil.

 

The consistent rise of the fuel price has forced business to re-evaluate logistics costs. The rise in the price will lead to increased road and delivery costs, which have seen businesses streamline delivery processes in order to stabilize costs. Another strategy considered by businesses is to reduce petrol-related costs by planning smarter travel routes and shipments. Business owners have also started to actively outsource logistics to external partners in order to reduce costs and simplify delivery structures.

 

The increasing pressure in the current economic climate is on business to become and remain competitive, both locally and globally. A problem experienced by South Africa is also that foreign investors find our country less attractive. Many companies use South Africa as a gateway into Africa, but fuel costs are piling up on existing logistical costs leading to foreign businesses to look for alternative entry points into Africa.

To top this off, the average rand/US Dollar exchange rate had weakened in the last couple of months, causing fuel prices to rise even more.

 

In the long run, the upward petrol price trajectory will have a negative impact on all industries, especially the logistics industry, as firms with low revenues will most likely be unable to compete with the bigger market players who find themselves in a much better position to absorb these cost increases.

 

Smart logistics strategies could help to improve customer services and reduce product costs and unnecessary pressure on business owners. However, this needs to be done with much diligence and care, as failure of these systems could have far reaching negative effects. As far as the foreseeable future is concerned, petrol prices will keep on rising. It is therefore becoming imperative for businesses to create alternatives regarding transportation in order to reduce overhead costs effectively.

 

 

Written By Marleen Theunissen 

Creative Writer for ATKA SA

Job prospects for South African youth

 

 

South Africa’s recent fall in the global markets to over R10 to the US Dollar and a national growth rate of just 0.9% has caused an increase in the official national unemployment rate, which has gone from 24.9% to 25.2%, as well as an increase in the percentage of the unemployed that have given up on looking for a job (now at just under 38%).

 

These factors have all weighed down on the youth job market and the number and range of opportunities available to both high school and university graduates.

 

The blame for the increase cannot necessarily be placed on one part of the economic process, whether its unions and wage increase disputes or profit margins and cuts higher up in the chain. 

 

 

Each part of the process is responsible for a part of the blame, and in order to fix it, the entire system, as well as the capitalization and unfair profit distribution should be addressed. 

 

While workers unions like COSATU are disputing wage increases, looking for rates much higher than the national inflation rate, causes difficulty for new employees looking to get into the industries at an entry level with a fair wage, profit margins and exploitation of agriculture and high product price markups create an imbalance at a higher level.

 

However, the use of apprenticeship and internship programs may help drive the youth employment rate up while developing much needed skills and workforce competency in the long run. 

 

The apprentice system, much like the one used in Germany (a country where the unemployment rate is the lowest in the destabilized European Union at around 7.6%) provides young employees with skills development and career options after they have left school and are looking at specializing in a certain field. 

 

Apprenticeships are typically used in manual labor-intensive industries such as automotive, mechanics, etc., whereas internships provide skills development and career opportunities in other areas. 

 

These systems are most successful when interns and apprentices are utilized for more than just grunt work, allowing them to get used to practical work systems and pressures while learning from more experienced employees.

 

This kind of employment system is not necessarily an answer to all of our economic problems, as the jobs typically given to young people in these positions are not very high-paying, it provides a some alleviation to the increasing unemployment rate and promotes career growth for the foreseeable future.

 

 

Written by: Wesley Geyer

Creative writer at ATKA SA

Prominent Female Entrepreneurs In South Africa

Over the last ten years, South Africa has seen a major rise in the development and continued success of some of its most prominent female entrepreneur’s.

 

Many of these promising developments have come in fields such as medicine, social work, business, economics and cultural development.Furthermore, many of these entrepreneurs have been given recognition not only for their excellent work in their respective fields, but also because they have managed to break down some social barriers that face women in many societies around the world.

 

Lesley-Ann van Selm

Lesley-Ann van Selm is a highly successful social entrepreneur, who is the founder and managing director of Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiatives. She has won a number of awards, including the Pinnacle Award at last year’s Southern Africa Social Entrepreneurship (SASE) Awards, which focuses on social developments that have potential to thrive financially, as well as the MIB Group Majuba Forest Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Khulisa Crime Prevention is a Section 21 - non-profit company, which was launched at Leeuwkop Prison in 1997. It is a crime prevention initiative that involves ex-offenders in starting rehabilitation and reintegration processes for juvenile offenders while they are still in prison. In 2001 she was elected as an Ashoka Fellow. 

 

Linda Olga Nghatsane

 

 

The winner of the 2007 Shoprite/Checkers Business Entrepreneur Woman of the Year award, Linda Olga Nghatsane is an ex-public health practitioner who famously built up a successful career in not only health services, education and rural development, but also a highly successful farmer - having built a farm with her husband which eventually went on to turn over around R2 million a year. 

In addition to the farm itself, Linda Nghatsane also launched a business called Abundant Life Skills (ALS) that offers training and consultancy services related not only to farming, but also educating people about issues such as HIV/AIDS; managing childhood illnesses; health and sanitation and public health.As chairperson of the Nelspruit Agricultural Development Committee she also does all she can to motivate women to get involved in agricultural projects as a means to fighting poverty and providing healthy food. 

 

Dr. Thabang Molefe

A category winner of the 2008 Shoprite/Checkers Business Entrepreneur Woman of the Year award, Dr. Thabang Molefe is an outstanding example of successful South African female entrepreneurs.

A qualified medical practitioner and professional beauty therapist, Thabang opened Soweto’s very first health spa eight years ago.At the time, all she had was a small amount of money she had saved and the determination to succeed. 

 

At the time of her award, she had already created more than 40 jobs for women in communities where she established Roots Healthcare Centre businesses in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State.

 

Brenda Roopai

 

Brenda’s luxury travel and tourism business has gone from strength to       strength and has notably won the Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award last year.The competition is open specifically to South African black entrepreneurs operating small, micro and medium level hospitality or tourism related businesses. 

Founder of City of Choice Travel & Tours, Brenda had won a business plan competition in the tourism sector two years before she clinched the ETEYA award. Describing herself as ambitious and passionate, she was head girl of both her primary and high schools.

 

After completing a nursing degree, she worked as a pharmaceutical rep and did a postgraduate diploma course in business management. It was only in 2007 that she decided to make a change to the tourism industry, largely inspired by the annual tourism industry Indaba held in KZN. Interestingly, ETEYA has identified more than 300 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the past eight years, and of these, about 60 percent are businesses that are owned and run by women.

 

Shona McDonald

Cape Town-based Shona McDonald is a highly successful woman who has clinched several prestigious awards for entrepreneurship over the past couple of years.

In 2008 her company, Shonaquip, won the Western Cape Productivity Award based on the growth and continuing success of her business since 2004. She also won the Social Entrepreneur Regional Business Achiever’s Award from the Business Woman’s Association (BWA) of South Africa.Shona has also won the Ernst and Young Social Entrepreneur of South Africa Award and the Top Woman Entrepreneur in Business Award, as well as the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship’s South African award.

A business that grew out of the pain of having a child with cerebral palsy, Shona founded Shonaquip as a close corporation in 1992, selling wheelchair buggies and support devices for disabled children. These were devices that she had designed and built to cater for her own disabled child, Shelley, simply because there weren't any locally made wheelchairs that fitted her needs.In the early days Shona had two people working for her, and they operated out of her garage.

Today Shonaquip is a well-established and highly regarded business that builds more than 6 000 wheelchairs a year, and generates more than US$4-million in revenue. The company employs more than 65 people who help to improve the lives of some of the many disabled people in this country. 

 

Written By:  Wesley Geyer

Creative Writer at ATKA SA

 

ROCCI | 5 Tips To Keep Your Employees Happy

 

1. Building real trust

To many employers, the idea of building relationships with their staff begins and ends with the annual company team-building retreat. While these retreats may help somewhat when it comes to getting to know the people you work with, it doesn't necessarily convert into trust within the workplace. In the face of the tough economic times being felt around the world at the moment, one of the most fundamental ways that an employer can earn the trust of their staff is to be honest about what kind of trouble might be coming, while at the same time assuring them that their job security will not be threatened, instead of building false trust with lunches, outings and special gifts.

2. Fair and consistent feedback

The only way to keep your employees happy is to let them know that their effort in the workplace is appreciated and beneficial. If that is not the case, and employers make the mistake of ignoring the employees deliberately, or punish them by reducing salaries, changing shifts or commenting negatively, the employee is likely to get fed up and start looking for another job. In the mean time, the added stress of not doing well will most likely negatively impact on performance in the future. By staying honest and open about how employees could improve, and by actually telling them what they are excelling at, employers will benefit from having their staff working to do even better during the next feedback session.

3. Maintain employee respect

In the current job market, employers tend to think that their staff will do virtually anything to keep a steady source of income. This leads to unfair workloads, working hours and a general tendency to treat employees as desperate people who ‘need this job’. Just because employers think like this, doesn't make it true. Although many employees will be willing to put up with a lot more than usual if they are in a tight financial situation, it is always more beneficial to a company to treat their employees respectfully and to make them feel like they are a crucial part of the team. By doing this, employers and managers will be able to avoid situations where their star employees are willing to jump over to another company as soon as the opportunity arises. If you treat every employee as if they are crucial to the survival of your company, they will be more likely to gain confidence and remain at the job they are good at.

4. Provide opportunities for professional growth

For many people, having a job and having a career are two completely different things. If you have a job, you go to work every day in order to earn your salary at the end of the month. You recognize that you will probably be doing the same job for the rest of your life unless you quit and get a new one where the cycle may repeat itself. However, if you make it clear to employees that their efforts at their current job will allow them to gain opportunities at higher positions further down the road, chances are you will have employees working much harder and with more enthusiasm, because of the possibility of beginning a long and successful career full of growth over the course of their working lives. Even though this may not be possible in all companies, especially smaller ones with limited positions available, offering training opportunities for higher positions and skills development is a huge confidence and morale booster for employees looking for long-term success.

5. Scrap the 9-5 work day

In the 21st century, everyone seems to have a whole lot more to do every day than there looks to be time for. At the same time, our capabilities in the communication and technological fields allow for generally easy transitions into out-of-office work. Along with that, the idea of having to go to an office for eight hours a day without having any control over how your day is structured is no longer something that is necessary for productivity. Even if allowing employees to work from home over Wi-Fi is not a possibility, studies have shown that employees respond better to being given freedom to choose their own working hours. Setting clear goals for weekly or daily productivity will allow you to keep a handle on their progress, while still giving them the opportunity to work according to their own schedule.

What does the Tax Administration Act mean for businesses?

 

The recently passed Tax Administration Act is the latest in a series of changes made to the Tax laws in South Africa, gradually making the laws surrounding both personal and business taxes stricter in hopes of increasing returns and to get individuals and businesses to file their returns more responsibly.

 



The TAA gives more control to SARS in terms of effecting penalties, not only for late submissions, which has been the norm for many years, but for a variety of other issues that might arise with any one individual tax return.

 



For businesses, it is not as common for problems to happen as it is for individuals on their tax returns. This is because businesses, depending on the size, will have professional accounting staff employed in order to have the company’s tax set in order in-house, whereas individuals either have to do it themselves, or spend money to hire a consultant.

 



In the past (that is, the days before the Tax Administration Act) SARS had the ability to impose fines of up to 200% on taxpayers (whether private individuals or registered businesses) due to under-paying, major mistakes or outright failure to submit. In most cases, however, these fees were waived if the mistakes could be proven to have been committed unintentionally. Mostly, the only fines that would be dealt out by SARS were late fees, expect of course in serious cases of fraud and/or negligence.

 



Under the TAA, however, the increments of payment fines has been set out according to a fixed system based on two major factors: taxpayer behavior and severity of the act (the act being failure to comply with SARS policies in any number of ways).

 



The penalty increments, while remaining the same in stature for business and individuals, is significantly more important to avoid for businesses, purely because the amount of money that will be involved will be higher (along with the fact that having a business with a poor tax record is something that should be avoided entirely!).

 



For instance, in a standard case (a case involving a first time offender) that has ‘ substantially understated’ the values on their tax returns will be charged a 25% fine. A repeat offender of the same offence will pay 50%. Also, if the taxpayer (or business) in question fully and voluntarily discloses all information after being called for an audit, the fine will be reduced to 5%, and if they disclose fully before being called for an audit, the fine will be reduced to 100%.

 



This example is of a simple case of under calculating values on the tax forms, and there are various other offences that are affected by the TAA changes, many of which are more serious, but in most cases, the reduction in fines for voluntary disclosure before and after the audit process will stand (at least partially).