Posted on 15 October 2008 by Nic Haralambous
I often harp on about people and their involvement in our community. So instead of doing that I thought that I’d make an effort and indicate who to call when you see a burst pipe or a robot that isn’t working.
I only have details for CT, DBN and JHB so if you have these details for other areas of SA then please leave them in the comments of this post.
Cape Town:
Roads, stormwater, water and sanitation (potholes, flooded roads, burst pipes,
sewer defects/blockages) — 0860 103 054/watertoc@capetown.gov.za
Solid waste (illegal dumping, wheelie bins, cleansing etc) —
0860 103 089/wastewise@capetown.gov.za
Traffic signal faults — 0860 765 423
Cable theft — 0800 222 771
Joburg:
Joburg Connect (potholes, traffic lights, street lighting, overflowing stormwater
drains) — 011 375 5555/hotline@jra.org.za
Joburg water — 011 688 1400
Durban:
Water, roads, stormwater, potholes — 080 131 3013/
eservices@dmws.durban.gov.za
Electrical faults — 080 131 311
Traffic lights — aucampa@durban.gov.za
Solid waste — dswcsl@dmws.durban.gov.za
Verges — swartc@durban.gov.za
iAfrica
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted on 17 March 2008 by Nic Haralambous
I was chatting to a friend of mine last night about Facebook. We’re doing a story for FM Campus about start-ups and making money, business plans and ideas online.
We came to a conclusion. Society is fairly messed up. We couldn’t decide is Facebook has created a stunning success from the “Gifts” or if society has downgraded itself to a pseudo-existence.
I am pushing toward the latter. What is wrong with people (especially locals) who spend money, US$1 or US$10, any money in fact, on purchasing a gift from Facebook (FB) for a friend? What are you thinking?
What is the purpose of these gifts? If you give your mate a sandwich that cost you US$1 they can’t eat when they receive it, they can’t smell the roses you sent them, pop the balloon, eat the cupcake or do anything with any of the gifts they’ve ever received. Ever. So what’s the point?
In my mind there are two reasons for this sort of insanity. Firstly you think that Mark Zuckerberg is such an incredible fellow that you would like to give him your money, so you buy a gift for someone. Or secondly society has sunk to such lows that we need to parade gif-file gifts on a FB profile page to make ourselves look cool in our cyber-existence. Again I think I lean to the latter and that concerns me a lot.
So for today I am happy that I am South African, that the exchange-rate is too high for me to be willing to pass through a R10 purchase on my credit card to Facebook to place a roll of toilet paper gift on my best mates profile page. Nonsense I tell you.
I am still interested to know how many South Africans are spending money on gifts. I think I might be scarily surprised at the number.
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