Archive for January, 2012


We currently are seeking a

ASP.net Developer (see attached specs)

Business System Analyst (see attached specs)

SQL Developer (see attached specs)

Should you know anyone with the required skills please do refer them.

Please contact Deidre Naidu on below details:

Deidre Naidu

Next Dimension Recruiters
Tel : (011) 465 6628
Mobile: 082 320 7800

Email : deidre@nextdimension.co.za

Taking your work experience to the next level !!!!

2012 ASP Net developer.doc

2012 Business system analyst.doc

2012 SQL Dev.doc

.Net Developer position – STD Bank

.Net Developer
Complete Description:
8-12 years experience

Job purpose
• Standard Bank is seeking highly motivated candidate for the position of Technical Specialist for in-house developed applications within Operations IT division
• Operations IT provides development of settlement and inventory management systems, all of which are developed in-house with state-of-the-art technology, and are global applications with users in major Standard Bank business centres

• The successful candidate will be responsible for providing lights-on support and enhancement of settlement applications and inventory management system
• This role will be well suited to a candidate who would like to excel in a user facing role while remain hands on with development skills in up-to-date technologies

• Main interfaces are Operations users and Change-The-Bank development team
• Key skills are C#, Silverlight/ASP.Net, SQL Server and investment banking industry (trade settlement and physical commodities settlement)

Key responsibilities
• Provide lights-on support for in-house built settlement and inventory management system
• Provide development for enhancements to existing systems
• Pro-actively responding to the demands, challenges of Business and Operations IT, prioritising those solutions/demands and managing expectations of users/customers

• Ensure robustness of systems and procedures within Operations IT in-house applications
• Adhere to development standards and best practices
• Share knowledge and participate as a team member within Operations IT team

Internal and external relationships
• Work closely with Operations and client services function
• Liaise with development team for project development and code delivery
Qualifications
• Must have strong analytical skills.

• Must be educated to degree level, preferably a numerical degree

Knowledge
• Must have worked in financial trading organisations.

Beneficial:
• Product knowledge of banking / trading products in relation to commodities products

• Knowledge of trade lifecycle from inception to settlement
Experience
• The ideal candidate should have at least 3 years experience in IT, preferably in financial institutions
• Experience of project lifecycle

• Experience of supporting applications and user facing functions
Personal competencies
• Proactive and a self-starter, act professional manner with integrity
• Attention to detail
• Strong analytical skills, able to assess situations quickly, determine the core issues and problem dependencies and establish solutions/workarounds

• Ability to think laterally/outside the box
• Ability to produce pragmatic and low-risk solutions
• Must be delivery focused, pragmatic, team player.
• Willing to ‘go extra length’ to ensure delivery
• Ability to communicate effectively across disciplines and levels within the organisation

• Must be client focused to meet expectations and provide results
Technical competencies
• C#
• ASP.Net
• Silverlight
• Linq
• SQL Server or other relational database (e.g. Oracle, Sybase)
• SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Server Integration Services

• Stored procedures, functions, debugging
• Subversion and msbuild
• Good general knowledge of Microsoft technologies, including Access and Excel

To all the ladies who really think they can just hang around in clubs, looking all beautiful to catch a rich (BEE) man, please think again. Make your own monies and the rich men will follow you with great respect.

Consultant Arts Manager Post Available

Call for Consultant Arts Manager to lead residential training in Zimbabwe

Role of Consultant

To conduct in-house institutional training of two leading Zimbabwean arts groups, Tumbuka Dance Company and Savanna Trust in arts management, marketing and producing performing arts products and projects to an international standard.

To lead secondary training of 10 performing arts managers in producing and touring performing arts productions, building on existing skills and experience in the sector and consolidating current and past training.

To Produce a practical ‘how to’ manual for contemporary dance and theatre managers in Zimbabwe in partnership with programme partners

Requirements
A high level arts manager or producer whose experience and track record is outstanding in fundraising, successful corporate relations, managing a performing arts company, production and touring; with a proven ability to build capacity in arts management and artistic leadership.

This initiative is the RESIDENTIAL TRAINING component of the
ARTS LAB SADC EXCHANGE PROGRAMME, funded by PRO-HELVETIA

Overall goals of the 2 year RESIDENTIAL TRAINING PROGRAMME:
•To build capacity in Zimbabwe’s leading institutions or arts groups.
•To develop more inclusive, skilled and sustainable local creative sectors by building arts administration and the environment for artistic excellence to thrive, in Zimbabwe.

Objective:
Provide 4 leading national institutions over 2 years with the managerial and administrative capacity to manage and produce professional arts products and sustain the administration and growth of the institution, and create further opportunity for sustainable living for individuals through the art form of each sub-sector.

Methodology:
•Capacity building is linked directly to specific targets and projects, is sustainable, integrated and long term.
•Training is incorporated into a residency programme and conducted through practise rather than theory.
•One high level, practising expert in producing and arts management works with the institution for 1 month. The expert works hand in hand with a carefully selected Zimbabwean arts manager who demonstrates exceptional writing, networking, liaison and organisational skills

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO & HOW TO APPLY !!

Visit Virgo – South Africa http://www.djwebster.co.cc/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Four-Day Work Week!!!!

The Case for a Four-Day Work Week

Here are six reasons to consider cutting your work week down a day while boosting company morale exponentially.

By Jay Love |  @SlingshotSEO   | Jan 11, 2012

shutterstock images

After living within the confines of a four-day work week during the past four months at Slingshot SEO, my first reaction to questions about this unbelievable perk is “Why not?” Small business owners, CEO’s and executives from all over the country ask me on a weekly basis if it really works. My answer is a resounding YES!

Obviously, if you have a large customer service component to your business or if you must be open for retail hours, it takes a bit of ingenuity and some scheduling prowess to adjust to this type of schedule. Perhaps after reading this blog post you will want to try a pilot version of the famous Slingshot SEO four-day work week in your business. If you do, I would love to hear how it goes or answer a question or two.

First, let me explain the “why” behind this concept by beginning with a very important aspect of the “people” portion of any business – the “company culture.” Believe it or not, many aspects of our culture are directly related to this special perk. Here are a few of the reasons for that statement and perhaps a few questions you should ask yourself as a business owner:

  1.  How much more innovative and exciting would your business be if every single team member spent one full day each week devoted to research? What insights, new ideas and energy would be pumped into your business?
  2. Such a perk is an amazing draw in the age of recruiting the best in talent to your team. Like a hit song, your HR department needs a “hook” to snag the cream of the crop. It will make an incredible difference!
  3. Tied into No. 2, your employee retention rate literally soars! Who would ever want to give up three days at home, only commuting four days a week and the cerebral exercise of weekly research?
  4. Even though the team is working 10-hour days, the sense of urgency brings a high level of energy, and, in my opinion, focused collaboration. It is a joy to watch and to be sucked up into.
  5. The extra time for research makes for a well-informed team and the realization they have something unique. (Plus, meeting a repairman on a Friday or planning numerous three-day getaways is never taken for granted …)
  6. In our case, Thursday nights after work become an even bigger chance for team socialization and fun. This also seems to be vital to retention rates. A recent study indicated the No. 1 reason for a person not to change jobs is based upon having a close friend at the same company. Sort of makes sense, right?

Add these six reasons along with three or four you likely came up with while reading this blog and you should come to the conclusion that the extra focus, energy, teamwork and dedication resulting from a four-day work week will drive your productivity skyward!  Not a bad outcome for a simple idea …

Read more:

Jay Love

Jay Love, a respected technology entrepreneur, joined Slingshot SEO, No. 58 on the 2011 Inc. 500 list, in August 2011 as chief executive officer. Jay co-founded eTapestry, a SaaS technology company, in 1997. The company was sold in August 2007 to Blackbaud, with Jay remaining in charge of Blackbaud’s eTapestry division until he moved to Baltimore to lead Social Solutions, which is the industry leader in SaaS outcome and case-management applications for social-service agencies.

While Others…


PLAN while others are playing.

STUDY while others are sleeping.

DECIDEwhile others are delaying.

PREPARE while others are daydreaming.

BEGINwhile others are procrastinating.

WORK while others are wishing.

SAVEwhile others are wasting.

LISTEN while others are talking.

SMILE while others are frowning.

COMMENDwhile others are criticizing.

PERSISTwhile others are quitting.

Views from the News – 12/01/2012

 

Views from the News  

‘How I found Modimolle monster’

Pretoria News

12 January 2012

Graeme Hosken

A late night drive by a Limpopo mother, desperate to get her two young sons to sleep, led to the arrest, “through God’s guidance”, of elusive murder suspect, Johan Kotze.

On the run for eight days, Kotze, 50, who allegedly masterminded his estranged wife’s rape and mutilation and the murder of her son, was finally caught on Wednesday after his luck ran out.

Kotze, a meat distributor, wept as he was taken from the police station, passing a jeering crowd of locals who had gathered, to a local clinic for treatment.

His arrest came after police from the Hawks Tactical Operations Management Services arrested one of the suspected rapists during a raid on a house in Makapanstad near Hammanskraal in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

With police swarming through Modimolle while a helicopter circled overhead, Kotze was arrested as he walked through a suburb on his way to a friend’s house.

He wanted help after apparently injuring himself following a high-speed chase on Tuesday night while escaping from the authorities.

It was in Modimolle on Tuesday last week that Kotze hired three men on the pretext of removing palm trees from his house.

But he allegedly held the trio at gunpoint, forcing them to rape his estranged wife, before he apparently mutilated her with pliers, screwdriver, nails and a grinder.

Kotze is also said to have forced the woman to listen as he allegedly made her 20-year-old son, a Pretoria University computer science student, beg for his life before executing him with a single gunshot to the back of the head.

Police roped in the help of Interpol as they tracked the suspect across the country,

Kotze was arrested after Surinda du Preez spotted his SUV on Tuesday night as she drove through the town trying to get her toddler sons to fall asleep. “At a stop street I saw a white Toyota Fortuna with Free State number plates. I became suspicious, but was scared and drove on.”

Afraid he would escape, Du Preez began searching for him.

Driving around the suburb she eventually spotted his vehicle parked in a darkened corner at Duggans Supermarket.

Stopping outside the entrance, she stared straight into Kotze’s eyes as he bought a coke, 10l of water, Powerade energy drinks and two tins of bully beef.

“I went cold. I couldn’t move or breathe. I just stared at him and then the panic hit me.

“I tried to reverse as quickly as possible. That is when he saw me and realised I had spotted him.”

Racing to a police friend’s home, Du Preez screamed for help.

Taking nearly 30 minutes to convince police she had seen Kotze, officers eventually began searching for him, blocking off streets, setting up cordons and radioing for back-up from national units.

Du Preez’s husband, Anton, and her brother-in-law, Werner du Preez, alerted community police members.

With intimate knowledge of disused 4×4 routes around the town, the two began searching backroads, eventually spotting a light from the boot of Kotze’s car, which he had crashed and abandoned.

“It was God’s guidance that led them to the car,” she said.

“They came to a fork in the road and didn’t know which way to go. Suddenly Anton got a feeling and started driving down a dirt track and that’s when he saw the light. If it hadn’t been for God he wouldn’t have found the car.

“That man would never have been caught. He would still be out there,” she said.

Police, who raced to the area, seized Kotze’s vehicle, recovering blankets, clothes, newspaper clippings of his alleged crimes, money and a gas bottle he had used for cooking.

Searching the area, police discovered a camouflaged hideout Kotze had allegedly been using.

Broken branches, empty water bottles and packets of food, discarded pieces of toilet paper and plastic were evidence of where Kotze had been hiding out.

Hours before Kotze’s arrest, police, heavily armed community police forum members and farmers were seen swarming through the Drie Hekke farming area using sniffer dogs and specialised trackers to try to locate the suspect.

Friends of the estranged wife said she was extremely emotional.

“This has been extremely tough. None of us are coping. Even if he has been arrested, which we are extremely glad about, it won’t change anything. A young boy has been murdered and his mother mutilated and raped.

“This monster must be made to pay. He must be made to suffer like she will for the rest of her life,” they said.

Police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the suspect, who is being held at Bela Bela police station for his safety, will appear in the Modimolle Magistrate’s Court along with the alleged rapist on Friday.

The two face charges of rape and murder but additional charges can be added as the investigation progresses, he said.

“He is incarcerated now and detectives are interrogating him before his court appearance.”

Hangwani said more arrests were imminent.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the remaining suspects can call Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Mohale on 082 565 8606.

 

 

Ex-mayor’s case dropped

The Citizen

12 January 2012

Musa Mohamed

 

JOHANNESBURG – Believing they had a weak case, with no “possibility of success”, Western Cape prosecuting authorities this week decided to drop corruption charges against a former ANC mayor.

They declined to prosecute despite findings of the Public Protector last July, that controversial  former ANC mayor of the Hessequa municipality, Christopher Taute, had “abused his office and had acted unlawfully”.

Taute reportedly requested cash donations to  the ANC from local businesses during the May municipal polls, using his office resources, including his mayoral letterhead, which the Public Protector deemed an “abuse of power”.

Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions Advocate Rodney de Kock, said however, there were no  “grounds at all to prosecute Taute for corruption”.

“The State will not be able to disprove Mr Taute’s defence that the unfortunate wording of the letters and the use of official letterheads was simply a mistake,” De Kock said.

Democratic Alliance federal chairman Wilmot James insisted that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should give a reasonable explanation for the dropping of Taute’s case.

This comes in the face of yet another ANC mayor facing criminal charges.

Oudtshoorn mayor Gordon April, will appear in the local magistrates court on February 3 on charges of theft and intimidation.

April stands accused of stealing municipal property, including building sand and stone.

Several other criminal cases to play out in the courts, involving prominent ANC figures facing  corruption charges are pending.

Northern Cape ANC bigwig John Block is out on bail of R100 000 on charges of corruption and will appear in court in early March.

 

 

 

Case of attack on journo postponed

 

Sowetan

12 January 2012

Elijar Mushiana

The case against Clifford Mohloana, the Limpopo man accused of attacking a journalist, has been postponed to February 14.

Mohloana, 30, appeared before magistrate Jaeanine Ungerer in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with attacking Independent freelance reporter Chester Makana.

The incident happened during the ill-fated ANC Limpopo conference on December 18 2011.

Makana was allegedly attacked while taking pictures of Mohloana and his friends, who were allegedly making name tags for the conference.

Mohloana was captured on national television footage hitting Makana on the head, using a brick.

Makana’s memory card for his camera was also destroyed in the process.

Subsequent to that, Makana laid a charge at Polokwane police station, which resulted in Mohloana’s arrest.

Mohloana has been charged with assault and malicious damaged to property.

Magistrate Ungerer postponed the case for trial on February 14.

Mohloana’s free bail was extended.

 

Kotze, one employee bust

 

Sowetan

12 January 2012

Alex Matlala

 

FUGITIVE Johan Kotze, who has been sought in connection with the murder of his stepson and the gang-rape of his estranged wife, has been arrested.

Police announced that Kotze was arrested yesterday in Modimolle, formerly Nylstroom, in Limpopo.

Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Kotze had been on the run since last week after the murder of his stepson and the gang-rape of his estranged wife.

“On the day of the alleged tragedy, Kotze allegedly lured his ex-wife into the house and tied her legs and hands around the bed and ordered his employees to rape her.

“His stepson.. went to the house and found three men taking turns raping his mother and Kotze pointing a gun to her head.

“Kotze allegedly shot the boy in the head. The stepson died instantly. Kotze and the three employees fled and had been on the run since,” said Mulaudzi.

Earlier yesterday, a 42-year-old man, believed to be one of the three employees who took part in the gang-rape of Kotze’s ex-wife, was arrested at about 12.30am while hiding at Makapanstad in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.

Mulaudzi said during the arrest, police recovered Kotze’s Toyota Fortuner, which was abandoned in the bushes.

On Monday police in Limpopo distributed Kotze’s particulars to different border posts in the province to thwart any bid to flee the country.

Police thanked the public for helping to track down Kotze and one of his alleged accomplices.

Kotze and his accomplice will appear in the Modimolle Magistrate’s Court soon to face charges of murder and rape.

Mulaudzi said the search for the two remaining fugitives was continuing. He appealed to anyone with information on the men to contact the nearest police station or call 10111.

 

 

You are all Baboons Company employees humiliated by altered photograph

 

Sowetan

12 January 2012

Sibongile Mashaba

 

IT all started as a group photo, but it turned very ugly. The events took place at Lenseria Airport on the West Rand.

Five employees of a service provider for the airport were instructed to pose for a picture. Then their faces were later replaced with those of baboons.

The picture was taken in June 2009 but the humiliation has not subsided and the group still wants justice to be served.

They have accused their supervisor, Harry McGarry at the Skycare Maintenance company of humiliating and causing them pain with the picture.

One of the men, Moshe Ramahlo, has since left the company. The others are Steven Moekeletsi, Lovemore Mchube, Michael Khumalo and Prince Makhubela.

The men allege they are called “baboons” and “k*****s”.

“I felf humiliated when he (McGarry) brought the picture to us.

“He was going around showing it to other white employees, saying “here are the baboons’. I work with baboons’.

“It hurt so much,” said Makhubela.

He said when he confronted McGarry about the photo McGarry told him he did not care how he felt.

Makhubela, a father of two from Diepsloot, has been working for the company for about 15 years.

“We suffer abuse every day. I’m hated here because I was the one making a lot of noise about the photo and I refuse to call my seniors bass,” he told sowetan yesterday.

“We tried to find lawyers to assist us with the matter but none of them could.”

Makhubela opened a crimen injuria case in Muldersdrift, Krugersdorp, in June last year.

But the claimed he was not informed when the case went to court.

The senior public prosecutor in Krugersdorp declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence, National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said yesterday.

Mhaga said the NPA has now requested the Director of Public Prosecutions South Gauteng to review the case.

“He (the DPP) has now intervened by requesting the case docket with  a view to reconsidering the matter,” Mhaga said.

“We are also trying to contact the complainants to explain the current intervention by the DPP office.

“Our advocates at the DPP office will interrogate that decision and see if it was correct,” he said.

McGarry denied taking the picture.

“We have nothing further to discuss.  I’m not interested.

The matter has been dealt with by the police,” McGarry told Sowetan before hanging up.

Human Rights Commission spokesman Vincent Moaga described the matter as serious.

“It cannot be dismissed lightly.  Racism is a serious matter, It is hurtful.

“We wrote to the respondent (McGarry) in November.

He was given seven days to respond but has not done so.

“We are looking at alternative measures. Investigations are ingoing.”

Ramahlo said he did not regret leaving the company.

“When he (McGarry) showed us the picture, he said ‘cameras do not lie.  You are Skycare monkeys’. I felt humiliated and angry,” he said.

Police spokeswoman Captain Tebogo Kgomo said when the case was withdrawn in June, the complainants were advised to lay charges internally.

Makhubela said his boss Dave Bellingham refused to open a case.

“He said you can’t charge a white man,” he said.

Bellingham has denied the allegations.

“I know nothing about the picture. I didn’t know about it until last year when the police came to our workplace after the case was reported.

‘No one seems to know who superimposed the faces of the baboons on the faces of these guys in the picture.

“I have not even seen the picture. I do not know why you want to dig up the past,” he said yesterday.

 

                                                                                                                         

C#.Net Programmer URGENT – d.Code Mobility

Hope you are well. All the best for 2012!

We are in urgent need to fill 2 programmer positions at d.Code Mobility. Either on contract or permanent positions. I’ve attached the job specification.

The salary will be negotiable according to experience. Appointment with immediate effect after successful interviews and assessment.

Your urgent assistance in this regard would be appreciated.

Carlien Grieshaber

(c) +27 84 650 8949

(f) +27 86 611 2134

(e) carlien@dcodemobile.com

(w) http://www.dcodemobile.com

d.Code Mobility – Company Profile – Job Spec – C# Developer.docx

Hormone DHEA to the rescue!!!!

A hormone called DHEA, mostly secreted by the adrenal glands, may help women who are going through menopause and could also give them better sex lives, a study found late last year.

Italian researchers writing in the journal of the International Menopause Society, Climacteric, said they had found the first robust evidence that low doses of DHEA could help sexual function and menopausal symptoms, suggesting it may one day become an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

But they stressed that the trial was small, so much bigger studies were needed to confirm the results.

DHEA, or dehydroepiandrosterone, is a natural steroid hormone mostly made in the adrenal glands and has various therapeutic uses.

HRT, a combination of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, is an approved treatment for women going through menopause, who often experience unpleasant symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats, loss of sex drive and mood swings.

African National Congress (ANC)

ANC Origins and Background

Delegation from the SANNC that went to England in 1914 to convey the objections of the African people to the 1913 Land Act

Delegation from the SANNC that went to England in 1914 to convey the objections of the African people to the 1913 Land Act

The ANC was formed in 1912 as a result of many grievances. This included black dissatisfaction with theSouth Africa Act of 1910 that established the Union of South Africa, their treatment after the South African War and numerous laws that controlled and restricted black movement and labour.

The end of the South African War (1899-1902) paved the way for the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The eight years between the end of the war in 1902 and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 was marked by intense negotiations between the four, previously unconnected provinces. Populations of the Cape Province and Natal were considered to owe allegiance to Britain, while Transvaal and the Orange Free State had become independent Boer/Afrikaner republics in 1852 and 1854 respectively. The war was fought over the question of independence of the latter two provinces from British control.

During the eight years of negotiations, it became apparent that delegates of the four provinces were determined to forge a settlement that excluded Africans from meaningful political participation in the envisaged unified South Africa. This galvanized different African political formations, hitherto fragmented and each with a ‘provincial’ appeal, to forge a unified political movement that would challenge the exclusion of Black people. The African People’s Organisation, largely a Cape political formation, the Orange River Colony Vigilance Association and the Transvaal Vigilance Association were all formed during this period.

In 1909, a group of Black delegates from the four provinces met in Waaihoek, Bloemfontein to propose a means to object to the draft South Africa Act, and Union Constitution. This was the South African Native Convention (SANC). A nine man delegation was sent to England. The Convention is considered a precursor to the South African Native National Congress (SANNC). Apart from sympathetic coverage from the British media to the plight of Blacks, little else was achieved by the delegation.

The SANC continued to be active in 1910 and in 1911, objecting to further discriminatory legislation. The need for a permanent body to represent Blacks on a national level was the reason for the transformation of the body into a more representative and dynamic organisation. Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a well educated attorney, and author Solomon Plaatje, pioneered the formation of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC).

Read more here: ANC Origins and Background | South African History Online.

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