It is difficult to teach radio astronomy, which detects invisible radio waves, to students. It is not like optical astronomy where you can point a dish at the sky and stare at a star, says Anita Loots, associate director at Square Kilometre Array (SKA) South Africa. “The concepts are abstract because you can’t
Axed communications minister Dina Pule cut a lonely figure as national assembly speaker Max Sisulu rebuked her publicly in Parliament on Tuesday. She responded by offering a qualified apology to parliament. “Hon speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity. I want to say in this house that I gave the best
Lengthy negotiations are underway to establish how much each country involved will pay for the first phase of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, MPs heard on Wednesday. “The big issue is the funding model,” SKA South Africa project director Bernie Fanaroff told members
Former communications minister Dina Pule has been reprimanded in parliament as part of the punitive measures enacted against her after parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests found her guilty of abusing her position to benefit her boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, and misleading the
“I want to say in this house that I gave the best I could do to do my job. And that if in the course of me doing my job I made a mistake, I am sorry, I apologise.” Those were the brief words uttered by former communications minister Dina Pule after she was reprimanded by parliament and subjected
The cost of banking has remained unchanged in the past year, according to research by trade union Solidarity released on Tuesday. “Monthly bank costs have started to stagnate at an R80 to R100 level,” senior researcher Paul Joubert said at a presentation in Pretoria. “Bank fees are a lot better
Communications department director-general Rosey Sekese has apologised to parliament’s portfolio committee on communications for misleading it last year over her failure to sign a performance agreement. In January, Sekese was placed on special leave
The market for hailing taxis using mobile applications is hotting up, with competition coming from local companies like Cape Town’s Zapacab and international ones like Uber. Now another player, SnappCab, has entered the fray. SnappCab, based in the CBD’s Maboneng Precinct, is set to be
Sentech’s direct-to-home satellite service, Vivid, is being rebranded as Freevision as the company gears up to take on OpenView HD, which Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), the owner of e.tv, intends launching in October. Vivid is the platform the state-owned broadcasting signal distributor
The latest annual financial results from Blue Label Telecoms show that Cell C is gaining ground on its rivals and is specifically stealing market share from rival MTN. In a presentation accompanying publication of its results for the financial year ended 31 May 2013, the company, which is by far the country’s largest
