Information In South Africa Research Articles

Aspects of the predictive and explanatory power of value added information in South Africa

In this paper the predictive and explanatory power of value added information was investigated with regards to three external indicators by doing statistical analysis on empirical data of South African listed companies. The analysis indicated that value added information did not have significant predictive and explanatory power additional to that of earnings for the three selected external indicators. It also showed that the high inter-correlation between value added and earnings prevented value added from being used in prediction models in combination with earnings. The predictive and explanatory power of value added information therefore seems to be limited.

Information and communication policy: Issues and initiatives in South Africa

Abstract The issue of access to government information in South Africa is clearly a significant one. Ways in which to exploit available infrastructure and expertise to achieve access to this information is becoming an area of considerable debate. The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications has established a human focus as the starting point in the approach to information and communication. People require easy access to information to make the practical decisions that govern their daily lives and enable them to exercise increasing control. Information is also the basis of interaction between communities and their representatives about the many issues being considered at all levels of government. Access to information is critical to development and democracy.

Improved criteria for classifying hydric soils in South Africa

There is an increasing awareness of the ecological and agricultural importance of hydric (wetland) soils. Because of the scarcity of information in South Africa, this study aimed to critically examine systems currently being applied to the hydric soils of South Africa, recommend the best criteria to be used from a management point of view, and suggest future research. Soil taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 1975) was found to be superior to the South African soil classification system for describing hydric soils, primarily because it accounts for depth of waterlogging. Nevertheless, Soil taxonomy does not account adequately for degree of wetness, with some series including a wide range of water regimes. A review of soil morphology/water-regime studies revealed that along the continuum from temporarily wet to permanently wet areas: matrix chroma decreases; the most intensively mottled zone becomes progressively shallower; mottle abundance increases then decreases; and soil organic matter increases. Based on thes...

The Struggle For Information in South Africa

The Struggle For Information in South Africa

Information technologies in South Africa: problems and prospects

Development of South Africa's information technologies infrastructure has been skewed by apartheid and the constraints of past policies, but IT can be part of the solution. The authors consider how critical IT is to the process of change.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Children of apartheid: a generation at risk.

In recent years, large numbers of South African children have been the target of state-sanctioned abuse, including imprisonment in adult gaols. In spite of the restrictions on the gathering and dissemination of information in South Africa, reports from diverse sources have provided evidence that detainees as young as 11 years of age are subjected to unsanitary and crowded prison conditions, near-starvation diets, intimidation and torture. The immediate and potential long-term effects of this political abuse of children should be of great concern to the medical community.

Effects of soil compaction on pasture growth during rehabilitation of strip‐mined land

Abstract Compaction of soils by heavy earthmoving equipment is an endemic problem in the rehabilitation of land after strip‐mining. Accordingly, special tillage operations and other precautions to reduce the severity of compaction are practised on strip coal mines of the Anglo American Coal Corporation. There is, however, a lack of information in South Africa on the extent to which soil penetrability is affected by such compaction (which is different from that occurring in agricultural situations), its effect on plant growth, and the efficacy of tillage operations. In a study carried out on one of Amcoal's collieries, dry matter production of Eragrostis tef and penetrometer data were used to quantify the compaction effects.

Towards an integrated information society policy in South Africa: an overview of political rhetoric and policy initiatives 1994–2000

South Africa is considered one of the few developing countries that has fully embraced the concept of information society and has formulated and implemented policy inititives in order to change society accordingly. By 1995 the theme of the information society started to surface regularly in political discourse and policy documents. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and access to ICTs started to have prominence both in policy formulation and implementation. Although there was much talk about a Green Paper/White Paper process on the information society during 1996 and the beginning of 1997, such a policy process never materialised. To date, there is no document defining the government's view of the information society, no policy document outlining an integrated strategy to arrive there and no government department officially responsible for the coordination of policy initiatives. This article sets out to analyse the notion of the information society in South Africa and to analyse the broad evolution of South Africa's information society policy between 1994 and 2000.