• Centre for entrepreneurship opened in Katlehong, South Africa
• South Africa: Jobs, construction boom at Coega
• South Africa: Multi-purpose centre brings hope to Limpopo village

• South Africa: Students participate in Maharishi University of Management degree programmes via distance education
• Member of Alliance of Women Scientists and Scholars for a Better World receives prestigious award
• 'Why is it so peaceful in here?' South Africa schools thrive on Consciousness-Based Education

• South Africa's beach invasion.
• South African police, a force in turmoil
• Black South Africans come up short in share ownership

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Centre for entrepreneurship opened in Katlehong, South Africa
19 June 2013 - A centre for entrepreneurship that will promote entrepreneurship education, training, and development has been opened, South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry (dti) said on Tuesday. The dti, in partnership with the Ekurhuleni West College, launched the Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE) at the college in Katlehong. (more)

South Africa: Jobs, construction boom at Coega
19 June 2013 - Building projects at the Coega Industrial Development Zone outside Port Elizabeth have injected over R1.2-billion into South Africa's Eastern Cape construction industry over the past two quarters, in the process creating over 2,500 jobs, the state-owned Coega Development Corporation (CDC) said last week. Six major construction projects are currently under way. (more)

South Africa: Multi-purpose centre brings hope to Limpopo village
17 June 2013 - The construction of a state-of-the-art multi-purpose centre in Ha-Masia village in Limpopo has brought hope to the community. The modern facility for the Masia community will comprise of an amphi-theatre, sporting facility, multi-purpose centre, ICT centre, and library as well as other government administration facilities for residents. (more)

South Africa: Top accreditation for the UCT Graduate School of Business
13 June 2013 - The University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business (GSB) has received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), making it one of the few business schools in the world to hold the prestigious title of being 'triple-crown' accredited. Director of the GSB, Walter Baets, stated, 'This has implications not just for the GSB but for business education in South Africa and the African continent more generally. We are showing the world that African business schools can be taken seriously.' (more)

South Africa marks National Youth Financial Literacy Day
11 June 2013 - For three consecutive years, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has run the National Youth Financial Literacy Day (NYFL) in conjunction with South African financial institutions and organizations with the aim of increasing financial literacy among the youth. (more)

South Africa: Township based recycling business receives huge donation
11 June 2013 - A township based recycling business is increasingly gaining recognition for its services and impact on the community, prompting a leading waste management NPO to donate them a state-of-the-art recycling machine, as part of their strategy to assist capable new entrants in the sector to grow. (more)

South Africa: Cultural storybooks for children
7 June 2013 - For the past 14 years Biblionef has played a leading role in making storybooks with a focus on African culture and heritage available to children and adolescents, providing a foundation for literacy. To date the organization donated over one million books to 6,148 children's organizations countrywide benefitting more than three million children. (more)

South Africa: Helping young people beat drug abuse
6 June 2013 - Young people in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, learned about the effects of alcohol and drug abuse as the Department of Trade and Industry's National Liquor Authority kicked off its Youth Month campaign on Wednesday. Youngsters from Mamelodi and its surrounds came out in numbers to learn about the opportunities available to help them turn their lives around in a positive manner. (more)

South Africa: Strides have been made in improving people's lives
6 June 2013 - Strides have been made to improve people's lives, says Energy Minister Dipuo Peters. Speaking in Warrenton, near Kimberly in the Northern Cape, after officiating the electrification of the 5.6 millionth house, Peters said government was committed to ensure that services were brought to the people. The electrification of the 5.6 millionth household is part of government's programme of electrifying all households in the country. (more)

South Africa: New computer lab for Khensani Primary School
5 June 2013 - A partnership between South African fruit exporter Dole South Africa and shipping line Safmarine has culminated in the opening of a colourful new computer laboratory and classroom facility at the Khensani Primary School in Soshanguve, Gauteng. According to Khensani's Headmaster, Dr Fannie Sebolela, the new computer lab and classrooms will be used to grow the skills base of learners, teachers, and Soshanguve community members. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

South Africa: Students participate in Maharishi University of Management degree programmes via distance education
12 December 2012 - Sixty-two students in South Africa are now participating in Maharishi University of Management undergraduate and graduate degree programmes through distance education. Students at Maharishi Invincibility Institute in Johannesburg and at Neotel, a South African telecommunications company, are connecting via videoconferencing to classes taught by MUM faculty. (more)

Member of Alliance of Women Scientists and Scholars for a Better World receives prestigious award
31 October 2012 - Global Good News congratulates physicist Dr Amanda Weltman from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who received the prestigious President's Award from the National Research Foundation of South Africa on 13 September. Recipients of this award represent the next generation of knowledge leaders, a valuable asset in a country where critical knowledge skills are highly valued. Dr Weltman also spoke at this year's conference of the Alliance of Women Scientists and Scholars for a Better World, held in June at MERU, Netherlands, presenting on 'Fundamental Physics at the Low Energy Frontier'. (more)

'Why is it so peaceful in here?' South Africa schools thrive on Consciousness-Based Education
13 August 2012 - A primary school principal in Durban, South Africa, commented on positive changes in his school since many students and teachers began practising Transcendental Meditation: 'The academic performance has gone up, and the behavioural problems have gone down.' (more)

MUM students study at nature reserve in South Africa
23 May 2012 - Maharishi University of Management students spent a month at Ezemvelo Nature Reserve in South Africa studying ecotourism and helping to create a business and marketing plan. The course, taught by professors Scott and Vicki Herriott, also included eight students from Maharishi Invincibility Institute (MII) in Johannesburg. (more)

Beyond information - 'Education that works'
16 March 2012 - At Maharishi Institute in South Africa, Consciousness-Based Education offers students a dynamic and balanced curriculum, including academic study, daily Transcendental Meditation and yoga, time at the Institute's Ezemvelo Nature Reserve, and 'celebration of knowledge in many forms of art'. All of this contributes to students' growing inner happiness and confidence in their future, as they gain skills to be successful in both the inner and outer spheres of life. Their great delight in their education may be best summed up by one student's comment: 'School holidays are boring in comparison!' (more)

South Africa: MUM sustainability initiatives highlighted
10 March 2012 - While in the area of Capetown, South Africa during the continuing Invincible Africa tour, Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management (MUM), met with leaders of the Sustainability Institute at the Stellenbosch University, presenting the successes of sustainability initiatives on the MUM campus in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. (more)

South African students who learned Transcendental Meditation: 'How did I become so nice and kind and helpful?'
4 March 2012 - In several schools in South Africa where Consciousness-Based Education programmes have begun, many children have noticed that they've become much friendlier and kinder to each other since learning the Transcendental Meditation Technique. One small boy asked in surprise, 'How did this happen to me, that I became so nice and kind and helpful?' Some of the students also asked their teacher, 'Why did you wait, why didn't you teach us this last year?' (more)

Johannesburg, South Africa: Students of Maharishi Institute 'a bright hope for the future of Africa'
28 February 2012 - It was 'a complete inspiration' to spend time with the students of Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, said Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, about his recent visit to the campus. 'The whole situation is full of hope for the whole nation, and you could just see these youngsters rising in national leadership, in all dimensions of national life.' (more)

South Africa: Educators enjoy peaceful atmosphere of Consciousness-Based Education schools
28 February 2012 - Describing a recent day spent visiting schools in suburbs of Durban, South Africa, where many students have learned the Transcendental Meditation Technique, Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, said that he would 'never forget the delight of being in the classroom with those children'. Another recent visitor who didn't know the students practised meditation asked, 'Why is it so peaceful in here?' (more)

Invincible Africa tour comes to South Africa
17 February 2012 - The 14-nation 'Invincible Africa' tour of Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, recently moved on from the four West African countries where it began, to its second major phase in South Africa. Dr Morris spent several days in Johannesburg and nearby areas, before going on to Durban on the southeast coast. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

South Africa's beach invasion.
13 June 2013 - South Africa's beautiful '16 Mile Beach' in the West Coast National Park may look near pristine to the casual observer, but researchers have found more than one thousand pieces of plastic collectively weighing just over 1kg in every metre of this beach. Most of these pieces are micro-sized -- just a few millimetres or even smaller -- and are the real environmental problem because they are consumed by marine organisms, biologist Peter Ryan told the opening session of the African Marine Debris summit that was held at the SA National Biodiversity Institute at Kirstenbosch. (more)

South African police, a force in turmoil
28 February 2013 - The job of the South African police is to fight one of the highest crime rates in the world. Instead, the force stands accused of contributing to it. On Thursday, the release of a video showing uniformed police binding a taxi driver to the back of a police vehicle and dragging him -- the man was later found dead, shocked South Africans long accustomed to stories of police misconduct. At a bail hearing for Oscar Pistorius last week, a magistrate harshly criticized a police detective for shoddy work in the investigation. And last year, police fired into a crowd of striking miners, killing 34 in a convulsion of violence that reminded many of the worst excesses of the apartheid era. These high-profile episodes cap a steady flow of allegations of police misconduct. Many South Africans mistrust the very institution that is supposed to protect them, and the scandals weaken efforts by South Africa to project itself as a model country and a leader by example in sub-Saharan Africa. 'It is a crisis that starts at the top and filters down and it has a huge impact on morale of police on the ground,' Johan Burger, a former police veteran and a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria said, adding that reforms to the police would be a hard, lengthy process. (more)

Black South Africans come up short in share ownership
6 December 2012 - South Africa's black majority directly owns less than 10 per cent of the Johannesburg stock market, a study showed on Thursday, evidence that Africa's top economy remains firmly in white hands nearly two decades after the end of apartheid. Despite the ruling African National Congress' drive for 'black economic empowerment', under which firms are set black ownership and other targets, millions of blacks remain trapped in poverty and excluded from the formal economy. Inequality fuelled labour unrest this year, unleashing a wave of crippling strikes that began in the mining industry and spread for months, unsettling investors. Frustrated by the slow pace of change, the ANC's Youth League has called for the wholesale nationalization of mines and banks and the seizure of white-owned farms -- a policy that triggered economic meltdown in neighbouring Zimbabwe in 2000. (more)

Evidence points to police manipulation in South Africa
7 November 2012 - South African police may have altered evidence and planted weapons after they shot dead 34 striking miners near Lonmin's Marikana mines in August, according to photographic evidence presented at a commission of inquiry into the killings. Photographs taken by police the night after the shootings show more weapons by the dead bodies than there were in photographs taken immediately after the violence on 16 August. Thousands of miners had gathered at hills in Marikana about 94 kilometres (58 miles) northwest of Johannesburg where 34 miners were shot dead by police and 78 wounded in the worst state violence since the end of apartheid in 1994. Video evidence shown Monday also indicated that some of the slain miners may have been handcuffed. Human rights lawyer George Bizos said the evidence presented at the inquiry clearly indicates an attempt was made to alter the scene. 'The evidence clearly showed there is at least a strong prima facie case that there has been an attempt to defeat the ends of justice,' he said. Bizos, who is representing the Legal Resources Centre and Bench Marks Foundation during the inquiry, called on senior police officers in charge of the scene to present evidence. (more)

South Africa: Child migrants illegally imprisoned
19 September 2012 - South African law prohibits the detention of children for immigration purposes, but according to Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), a local NGO, a significant and increasing number of children, as well as asylum seekers and refugees, are being detained and deported. Limited access to immigration detention facilities makes it impossible to determine the precise number, but in its 2012 Detention Report LHR notes that it achieved the release of four minors between February 2011 and March 2012, and a former child detainee said he met at least 10 others during his time in the detention centre. LHR points to the lack of a screening process to identify minors among new detainees. 'Children are often only identified if an independent monitor visits the detention centre and puts pressure on the detention facility to release them,' the report says. LHR also notes that the detention facilities, run by private companies, lack procedures to allow detainees to communicate with Home Affairs officials or exercise their legal right to apply for asylum. (more)

South Africa police fire tear gas as mine unrest spreads
3 September 2012 - South African police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse striking miners at a gold mine near Johannesburg on Monday, the latest outbreak in a wave of labour militancy spreading from platinum mining into other parts of the sector. The unrest occurred less than three weeks after police shot dead 34 striking miners at Lonmin's Marikana mine, the deadliest security incident since the end of apartheid, or white minority rule, in 1994. The Marikana shooting, which local media dubbed a massacre, shocked South Africa and marred the image of Africa's biggest economy as the full extent of a breakdown in labour relations in the mining sector became apparent. The Marikana strike stemmed ultimately from a turf struggle in the platinum sector between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the small but militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). Many miners have accused the NUM of caring more about its political connections than about the plight of workers deep underground. (more)

Miners charged in deaths of 34 killed by police
30 August 2012 - Some 270 miners were charged Thursday with the murders of 34 striking colleagues who were shot and killed by South African police officers, authorities said, a development that could further infuriate South Africans already shocked and angered by the police action, and suggests that President Jacob Zuma's government wants to shift blame for the killings from police to the striking miners. Prosecution spokesman Lesenyego said the 270 miners were charged under Roman-Dutch law that held sway in South Africa before a new liberal constitution was adopted after apartheid ended in 1994. He said it was case law, meaning it has been used in previous cases and that there is legal precedent even though it is not in the constitution. The police killings were the worst public display of state-sponsored violence since apartheid was overthrown and have traumatized a nation that hoped it had seen the last of such scenes. (more)

Labour strife returns in South Africa's platinum belt
27 August 2012 - Labour strife returned to South Africa's platinum sector on Monday, derailing London-based Lonmin's efforts to restart mining and fanning fears of a resurgence of the violence that has killed 44 people this month. Workers blocked colleagues from going down mine shafts and used threats of violence to snarl transport at Lonmin's Marikana mine -- where 10 people were killed in a union turf war and police shot dead 34 striking miners. The miners' strike has raised fears of cuts in supplies of the precious metal and pushed the spot price of platinum up 10.5 percent over the past fortnight. South Africa has some 80 percent of the world's known platinum reserves. Suspected police brutality and the problems the government faces in brokering a deal between the rival unions have turned up the heat on the ruling African National Congress and stoked concern about wider labour disputes in the country. (more)

Unrest spreads in violence-hit South Africa mining belt
22 August 2012 - Labour unrest in South Africa's platinum belt spread on Wednesday, raising concerns that anger over low wages and poor living conditions could generate fresh violence after 34 striking miners were shot dead by police last week. The labour troubles were touched off by a violent turf war between labour unions at the Marikana mine. Similar rumblings have emerged at other mines. 'There is a very high chance that this is going to be contagious,' said SBG Securities platinum analyst Justin Froneman. 'Whether or not it has been orchestrated and arranged remains to be seen, but certainly the fact that this has spread in what we viewed as a previously stable labour force is slightly concerning.' (more)

Workers to warriors: union war batters South Africa mines
19 August 2012 - South Africa's platinum promise of prosperity has turned into a heap of broken dreams for Vusimuzi Mathosi, one of 2,000 workers laid off by Aquarius Platinum at its Everest Mine. 'This place can only be sustained with platinum. What can we do now?,' he told Reuters near the one-room box he and his family call home in a dilapidated township on the outskirts of Lydenburg, 300 km (180 miles) east of Johannesburg. He belongs to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), whose bloody turf war for members with the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was the backdrop to Thursday's killing of 34 striking platinum miners by police at the Marikana mine. When Aquarius, the world's 4th largest producer of the precious metal, closed production at Everest, it cited worsening industrial relations stemming from the AMCU/NUM battle, which has turned workers into warriors across the platinum sector. The country's ruling African National Congress is in a governing alliance with the NUM-affiliated national union confederation COSATU, and a perception has filtered down the shafts that the rank and file are not getting a fair deal because NUM is in bed with companies and the ANC. The groundswell of revolt against the NUM is tapping into the same popular anger with poor government delivery of services that is confronting the ANC, marked by frequent riots in poor townships and squatter camps. More mine shafts across the industry may be forced to shut as it faces union militancy, soaring costs and low prices linked to the sluggish global auto industry as platinum is the key ingredient used for emissions-capping catalytic converters. (more)