By Obakeng Maje

Bafana Bafana have started serious preparations for the Norway game scheduled for the Mother City next Tuesday, 8 January 2013. The Senior National team arrived in Cape Town on Wednesday, 2 January 2013.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 20h15.

A total of 22 players reported for national team duty, including England-based Kagisho Dikgacoi who arrived on Thursday but missed the first training session at Athlone Stadium. Still to arrive is Dean Furman who plays for Oldham Athletic also in England. The midfielder will feature in an FA Cup clash for his side this weekend and is expected in Cape Town on Sunday, 6 January.

This is the first time the team gets together since head coach Gordon Igesund announced the final 23-man squad that will represent South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 tournament.

“It is good to be playing Norway as part of the AFCON 2013 preparations because if you look at the style of play of both Morocco and Cape Verde, it is European orientated.

“So this match will help me a great deal. And I must emphasise that while winning is good that is however, not everything we are looking for. We need to gel and be ready for the tournament, which is the bigger picture,” said Igesund at a press conference in Cape Town.

“There is no point winning against Norway and Algeria and then not deliver on the 19th when we face Cape Verde. This is a very new team and we have some different combinations we need to work on. So these two matches are crucial in that they will help the team to become a unit so that by the time the AFCON kicks off we will play as a unit.”

The coach was excited with his side’s first training session in the morning.

“The players are giving me a very good headache; previously they were fighting to be in the final 23 now they are fighting to make the starting line-up. That is great for the overall picture,” said Igesund.

Captain Bongani Khumalo concurred with his head coach.

“It is a great honour representing your country in such a prestigious tournament and competition for places is stiff because we all want to be in the starting line up. We want to leave our mark as a new generation and we believe we have the ability to do that. The boys are eager to work even harder,” said Khumalo.

City of Cape Town Executive Director, Anton Groenewald said they were proud to host this match as a sign of their commitment and continuous support for Bafana Bafana.

“We are confident that they will do the nation proud,” he said.

Johannesburg – The improvement in the matric pass rate is to be commended, but there is still a long way to go in promoting education in South Africa, a number of organisations said on Thursday.

“[The] improvement in the matric pass rate [is] positive, but many ‘born frees’ [born post 1994] [have been] lost along the way,” civil rights body Equal Education said.

On Wednesday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the matric pass rate in South Africa had improved in 2012, with 73.9% of grade 12 pupils passing their final exams.

The pass rate in 2011 was 70.2%.

Challenges

Equal Education said many schools still needed functioning libraries and basic amenities like electricity and running water.

“Due to shortages of qualified teachers, inadequate salaries and a lack of incentives to attract teachers into poor communities, schools often have large classes.”

The organisation gave the example of Khayelitsha, in Cape Town, where it claimed between 50 to 60 students were sometimes in one class.

The African National Congress commended the 2012 matric class on its “sterling performance”.

Party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said that the improvement vindicated the basic education department’s strategies.

Mthembu said young people could help the country by studying.

“We call on the tertiary education institutions to ensure that these matriculants get the necessary help to enrol.”

Quality

Secretary of the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa), Dennis George, said concerns remained about the quality of schooling in South Africa.

“The standard of basic education is not up to scratch,” he said in a statement.

“Our union members working in the tertiary education sector continually complain about the standard of first-year students enrolled at our universities.”

George said it seemed pressure to produce good results had led to a drop in standards.

“This, then, would be nothing more than a hollow victory.”

The federation believed the skills taught in schools were “too academic”.

“Our economy demands artisans and those with technical skills.”

The ANC in the North West “jubilantly” welcomed the results.

“[We] are overjoyed with the improvement in our overall national results.”

Drop-out rates

Provincial spokesperson Kenny Morolong, however, said the party was concerned about the drop-out rate of pupils.

“We vow to pay attention to this unacceptable phenomenon during this academic year.”

The African Christian Democratic Party’s Chief Whip, Cheryllyn Dudley, said the 2012 results “did not disappoint”.

“First year ‘born-free’ matriculants have certainly made their mark, as 29 000 more learners than last year passed.”

Dudley said the emphasis now had to be on ensuring fewer children dropped out before matric.

United

She said all political parties were united on education.

“We are on the same side – the side of South Africa and all her people.”

The Democratic Alliance Youth was encouraged by the improved pass rates in mathematics and physical science.

“These are key skills needed to grow the economy and create jobs,” federal DA youth leader Makashule Gana said.

Meanwhile the National Congress of School Governing Bodies’ secretary-general, Monokoane Hlobo, said they welcomed Motshekga’s announcement that she was establishing a task team to look at the matter of students’ names being published next to their results in newspapers.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A man was arrested for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in a shebeen in Jabulani, Soweto, on Thursday, Gauteng police said.

“They were having drinks when the man grabbed the girl, took her clothes off and raped her in view of other people,” Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said.

The girl left to report the crime to a police station. When she returned with the police they found the 22-year-old man still there.

He was arrested and was expected to appear in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Friday. – Sapa

Seventy-four per cent of matric learners nationwide have not passed their matric well enough to be admitted for a bachelor degree at university. The 2012 matric pass-rate is 73.9%, 3.7% better than 2011’s 70.2%. 

But while the number of those who obtained a bachelor pass has improved at 26 %, most students will have to enroll for lower qualifications if they choose to further their studies. 

Basil Manuel, president of teachers’ union NAPTOSA, says this is worrisome. Provincial Education departments will release their matric results today. 

Provinces will have a lot to boast about, as all of them have improved except the Western Cape which has achieved an 82.8% per cent matric pass-rate, marginally down from the 82.9% per cent last year. 

It emerged last night that the national matric pass rate had edged up to 73.9% per cent an improvement from last year’s 70-point-two per cent. The number of learners who have passed well enough to access tertiary education has also gone up to 54%. 

Provinces have much to celebrate this year. Even historically troublesome provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape have improved this year. The Northern Cape also made headlines last year when some learners were prevented from going to school but it would seem the department has made special arrangements for those who did not write. 

Even the quality of the matric passes has improved, more learners than ever have achieved bachelor passes and there were improvements in pass rates in all subjects. 

Today provinces will be analysing their results, Gauteng edged the Western Cape out of position one, and Free State made it third at 81.1 %.

For more details go to http://www.sabc.co.za

The South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) has embarked on a campaign to educate South African musicians about their rights to earn royalty payments from overseas performances or whenever their music is used.

Consequently, the organisation will be issuing out payments – under the Ascap Payment scheme – to musicians who have performed in the US between October 1 and September 30 last year.

But in order to do so more efficiently, Samro is calling out to local musicians to come forward with relevant information on the dates and venues of their previous performances overseas, along with the contact details of the promoter or venue organiser.

Samro spokesperson Sipho Dlamini said yesterday about the campaign: “We have found that South African music is travelling a lot more now than it used to.

“There are more performances being done on a regular basis and as an organisation we felt that it is necessary that our members are aware of their rights in this regard. “It is our duty to ensure that they receive what it is due to them.”

Ever since the campaign was launched late last year, the response from performing artists had been overwhelming.

“This communication process has allowed us to get more musicians informing us whenever they are travelling overseas, which is a great thing because this helps us to track their performances and ensure that we collect the money from various international collective societies.”

It is great news that South African musicians can receive more money for the work outside their borders, more so when they least expect it, he said.

“This is over and above what they get paid for by the promoters whenever they perform abroad. It means additional payments and this is great news for them.”

About how the process works, Dlamini further said: “When one of our local groups goes to London, for example, we would alert the UK’s Performing Right Society to ensure that the venue or the promoter there pays a fee for having their music performed.

“As an organisation we will then collect the money and distribute it to relevant musicians and groups, be it Freshlyground or The Parlotones,” said Dlamini, adding that although Samro is based in South Africa, it is able to represent anyone who’s making waves around the world.

Samro is an internationally affiliated music rights collection society that manages the music rights of its members.

Its job is to make sure that South African musicians, composers and authors of musical works enjoy the fruits of their labour by collecting royalties on their behalf whenever their music is used publicly, both locally and internationally.

Membership is free and once accepted, members receive royalties and benefits from their protected musical works for life.

In terms of international copyright law, anyone whose original musical work is performed abroad can enjoy what is known as performing rights – yet a lot of musicians who travel overseas continue to miss out on valuable additional income.

Samro’s Christine Reddy said: “We run ongoing workshops to help members understand how we go about collecting royalties from societies overseas and pass them on to the music creators, but more needs to be done to spread this message.”

Reddy was speaking in reference to various social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, created for musicians to share their stories with friends and colleagues.

The good news, however, for those who have performed abroad recently, is that Samro can still collect royalties from last year’s performances.

To apply, visit http://www.samro.org.za before the closing date on January 15.

JOHANNESBURG – Gauteng police acted swiftly on Wednesday against a man who was allegedly selling matric results just hours before they were to be officially released. 

Crimeline said it received several tip offs that a Lenasia resident was charging R30 for people to come and view their results on Wednesday night. 

Apparently the man managed to secure a local newspaper carrying the results ahead of Thursday morning’s 6am embargo. 

Crimeline’s Yusuf Abramjee said, “We got reports that people were travelling from areas around Pretoria to Lenasia to access their results. At one stage we were told there were between 20 and 25 people waiting outside this house.”

The Basic Education Department’s Panyaza Lesufi said they want answers.

“I am deeply disappointed. I have requested a detailed report.”

A second man was detained for allegedly trying to interfere with the arrest by pretending to be a lawyer.

It is not clear whether the men were charged overnight. 

For more details go to http://www.ewn.co.za

Johannesburg – While the improved pass rate was good news, there are reasons to worry about the quality of the passes, opposition political parties said on Wednesday.

It was “concerning” that only 26.6 percent of students qualified for bachelor studies at a university, said Democratic Alliance spokeswoman for education Annette Lovemore in a statement.

Worsening the contrast, Lovemore said that of the 1.1 million pupils who enrolled in Grade One in 2001, only 511,152 took the matric examinations.

This means only 12 percent of pupils who enrolled in Grade One would eventually qualify for university.

“This raises serious questions about the ability of South Africa’s schools to produce learners who can stay in the system and emerge as successful matriculants,” Lovemore said.

National Freedom Party president Zanele Msibi also expressed reservations about the quality of the passes.

Msibi noted that math and science scores were still lagging. She said this was due to a lack of teachers in rural areas.

“We also concerned about the level of schooling in rural areas as rural schools are failing to attract enough competent maths and science teachers,” Msibi said.

She said the NFP would propose incentives be created to attract math and science teachers to rural schools. – Sapa