The National Energy Regulator of South Africa on Wednesday granted state-owned utility Eskom a 24,8% tariff increase for the 2010/11 financial year, falling short of the power firm’s request for a 35% hike. For the following two financial years, Eskom was granted increases of 25,8% and 25,9% respectively.
How much does that amount to for you? Try the calculator below:
Read the story on Mail and Guardian
Here’s a Google Map of the road closures for the opening of South African Parliament
View Opening of Parliament 2010 in a larger map
Would it not have been easier for them to stick to DeWaal Drive, Roeland Street?
Spotted in Voortrekker Road


Got this in an email. Neat!

Good News for South Africans is that SkypeIn is now available in South Africa! SkypeIn allows users to have the own personal number. People call you from a phone or cell phone and you pick up the call with Skype.
Via MyBroadBand website:
Local Skype users can now get their own SkypeIn number and can make unlimited international calls for R 102 per month
Voice over IP (VoIP) provider Skype recently announced that it has extended its SkypeIn service to South Africa. SkypeIn provides Skype users with their own unique number on which they can receive calls on their computer from regular landline and mobile phone users.
“An online number (SkypeIn) is perfect if you have friends, family or business colleagues who don’t use Skype. Anyone can dial your online number from any phone or mobile and hey presto, your Skype rings and you pick up the call – wherever you are in the world,” the Skype website explains.
“You buy an online number and your friends, family or business contacts can call that number and only pay for a standard rate call (if they are in the same country as your online number) – the online number uses the internet to route the call and so saves them money. It makes absolutely no difference wherever you are, you can pick up the call at no cost to you wherever in the world you are logged into Skype.”
SkypeIn numbers cost US $18 for 3 months or US $60 for a full year. This translates into R 141 for a SkypeIn number for three months and R 471 per number for a 12 month period.
Unlimited International calls for R 102 per month
SkypeIn complements the company’s existing products like SkypeOut and Unlimited flat rated calling. Apart from standard SkypeOut credits, South Africans can purchase South Africa 400, World 400 and Unlimited World packages providing discounted call rates to fixed lines.
South Africa 400, priced at $ 14.95 (R 117), gives subscribers 400 minutes of calls to landlines in South Africa per month. World 400, which costs $ 17.95 (R 141) per month, offers 400 minutes of calls to landlines in South Africa and over 40 countries per month.
The most attractive deal is however the company’s Unlimited World service which at $ 12.95 (R 102) per month allows for unlimited calls to landlines in over 40 countries worldwide. These countries include Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and the United States. Calls to South African landlines are however excluded.
Starting from Constantia Nek, we went up to Devillier’s Dam and past Camel Rock

De Villier’s Dam
From an email I received recently, I decided to lookup some more information:

This what we usually get to see when the King of Saudi Arabia visits the Kaaba in Makkah
1. OH MY GOSH! I just saw part of your hair, now you’re obliged to marry me.
2. Our parents engaged us when we were little, they must have forgotten to tell you.
3. I’d like to be more than just your brother in Islam.
4. To watch you pray is a sin of its own.
5. Will my platinum VISA cover your dowry?
6. You can’t play basketball with a jilbab on, marry me, and we will go one-on-one our entire life.
7. Muslims are supposed to have many children, and I am willing to do my part…
8. Will you help the cause of the Ummah by helping me fulfill my deen?
9. Wanna pray in jamaat? shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet?”
10. Assalamu alaikum, so what time does a hur al-ayn (beautiful person from Jannah) like you have to be back in paradise?
Though I’ll share this email I got.
THIS ILLUSTRATES THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE ECONOMY
now you know why car companies are losing money or close to it…

Nissan has announced plans to cut its Sunderland workforce by 1,200. Thousands of unsold cars are stored around the factory’s test track
SWFRIP is a Macromedia Flash resource extractor and editor. It can save resources in various formats, including SVG conversion from the flash vector format, decompile ActionScript, and remove the protect tag from SWF files.
Works with WINE on Linux (which others couldn’t) and is FOSS!