Who's Johann Rupert and how rich is he?

Over the past few days as from 5 December 2018 Johann Rupert (68) has been trending on social networks with dozens of articles being published about him since he appeared on a radio talk show hosted by Given Mkhari on Power Fm, a radio station owned by Mkhari himself under the imprint - MSG Africa Holdings.

Some might not know much about Rupert and must be wondering who is Johann Rupert and how wealthy is he? Simply put Johann Rupert might not be the wealthiest person born in South Africa enlisted under the Forbes magazine elite club. That title would arguably go to Elon Musk. However Johann Rupert is the second richest South African citizen who currently resides in South Africa.

This is how Rupert climbed the corporate ladder:

Net Worth: $5,3 billion (2018)

* Born to Anton Rupert, a South African tycoon and Huberte Rupert; Johann Peter Rupert grew up in Stellenbosch. He schooled at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch. He furthered in the University of Stellenbosch to obtain a degree in economics and company law but had to drop out of school to venture into business.

*Johann started out his business career in New York when he served his apprenticeship at Chase
Manhattan. He stayed with the company for two years then moved to Lizard Feres and worked for three years. In 1976, he returned to South Africa and started a bank called Rand Merchant Bank of which he served as the CEO.

*The Rupert family empire was started in 1941 and his father operated a dry cleaning business for a while and then decided to go into tobacco industry a year later. The firm’s first cigarette brand was named Rembrandt and it was famous among South African smokers. Later on, the company was split into two, Remgro and Richemont. Remgro deals in Mining, Finance and industrial area. Richemont, on the other hand, works as Swiss Luxury Goods Group. Now, the company has been expanded in six continents over more than 30 countries.

Rupert has over the past few days set twitter trends alight with thousands of unimpressed users expressing their displeasure at his controversial remarks. Here are some quotes from the interview that made Southern Hemisphere shake:

Do you think Johann Rupert is racist ? Comment with your views below here.

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Cassper fails to Fill Up in Durban

Amid tremendous anticipation this time it was not to be for the man who has previously claimed to have exclusive copyright of the word #FillUp .

Arguably the event does seem like a success in terms of attendance if you would take into account that Durban hardly pulls in 20 000 people per event even for December festivals except perhaps for the MTN sponsored Jazz Festival by Touch Africa on 1 January even though the rapper had a full backing of the SABC broadcast services via SABC 1 and South Africa's biggest radio station by listener numbers i.e. Ukhozi FM. OIL Lifestyle took to their twitter to claim the attendance stood at about 22 000 which could not be verified.

By Cassper's expectations and claims that he would fill KwaZulu Natal's biggest stadium to capacity it was not a success as he later claimed he had lost millions trying to achieve this feet. High end lighting and AV screens could be seen glittering at the stadium when Cassper finally got onto stage. Official attendance numbers were never released however one can make up their own conclusions as to how many people attended but one thing was clear that the stadium was not sold out as Cassper had even stopped telling people to buy tickets instead he posted messages of prayers so that the event would not turn out to be an embarrassing affair.

Here is a list of images that were posted by fans and attendees as the hour of reckoning approached.

IOL Lifestyle posted this video around 8:00 pm on 1 January and it was clear from that point the venue would not be filled to capacity.

#FillUpMosesMabhida its 7.45pm. The stadium is not even halfway full. But there's so many people outside still coming i pic.twitter.com/zYbdVwS1Nf

— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) December 1, 2018

IOL Lifestyle on twitter posted these image just about 20 minutes before Cassper started performing on stage.

Numbers update: pic.twitter.com/IbCTj0aQJX

— IOL Lifestyle (@IOL_Lifestyle) December 1, 2018

Cassper sympathetic followers even posted after movie videos on youtube commending the show as a resounding "success". On 2 December Cassper took to twitter to express his disappointment at not filling up the iconic venue.

Bitter sweet morning. Knowing that we lost millions due 2 the lack of sponsorship&broken promises breaks my heart but knowing that 100 000s of ppl r inspired makes my life. Would I do it again? HELL YEAH!!! It’ll take me a while 2 make d money back but the feeling is PRICELESS!!!

— R.M Phoolo (@CassperNyovest) December 2, 2018

There are many things that could be said as fans and people who are not fond of the artist argue but one thing is for sure South Africa has not seen the end of Cassper. He will keep trying to reach for the stars, organizing international standard shows and losing a lot of money while he also gains a lot of money through endorsements and booking fees. Only the future will tell how Cassper's legacy would be remembered in the music industry.

Malema inciting violence with his Gupta comments - ANC

 Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema's comments regarding the Gupta family and its media outlets go against the Constitution and incited violence, the ANC said on Thursday.

"The very same Constitution which allows him to be in Parliament, he is violating it," national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said. Malema's statement was nothing but a call to suspend the Constitution, he added "We must condemn the statements of the EFF with the contempt that they deserve because they are likely to incite violence and bring hatred among different groups.

Addressing the media in Johannesburg on Thursday, Malema said the Gupta family, which is seen to have close ties to the ANC and some of its top leaders, should leave the country. He also told journalists who worked for Gupta-owned media, ANN7 and The New Age not to attend EFF events. "We are going to take practical action. It's a battle. It's a war against Guptas. We want to advise the Gupta television and newspapers [that] they must no longer come to EFF events because they are not safe for them. "We are not going to allow South Africa to be sold over a plate of curry."

Kodwa said the comments about "curry" amounted to xenophobia. "All different tribes and groups in South Africa have their own cuisine and they can't be insulted on the basis of their cuisine. In that sense it is xenophobic... it's inciting violence against a group of people." He also denied that the Gupta family had any influence over the ANC or that the ruling party was defending the family because of this. The family would never "control" the ruling party. "The Guptas are not close to the ANC and the ANC is not close to the Guptas," said Kodwa. "If there are individuals, who for business reasons are influenced by Guptas or have business with the Guptas it does not mean the ANC as an organisation is part of that."

Source:

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2016/02/05/malema-s-gupta-comments-incite-violence---anc

New sex scare through disease - Zika virus

 A patient acquired Zika virus in the U.S. through sex with a person who had traveled to a place where the virus is circulating, Dallas County, Texas, health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.
 
This is not the first time that the virus has been sexually transmitted, and it most likely isn't the first time it's been sexually transmitted in the U.S. Aedes aegypti, the species of mosquito that transmits Zika virus.

In 2008, two scientists returned to Colorado after months of field work in Senegal, where they'd been bitten by
One of them ended up passing the virus to his wife, most likely during intercourse. The couple noticed that the husband's semen had been bloody for a few days before the wife felt sick. She later tested positive for Zika, even though she had not left the U.S. in years. The pair co-authored a paper on their case, which has been called the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease.

During a Zika virus outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013, the virus was isolated from the bloody semen of a man in Tahiti. This was a few weeks after he had symptoms, and while his blood no longer contained traces of the virus, his urine did, and his semen contained live virus capable of replicating. The authors speculate that the virus may have replicated in the man's genital tract.
Similarly, Japanese researchers studying boars infected with a virus in the same family as Zika isolated virus from the urine and semen of boars that was capable of infecting a female through artificial insemination.
Is sexual transmission definitely possible? "Well, it sounds like it," says Dr. Robert Tesh, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch who studies emerging infectious diseases. But if it is, it's probably quite rare.

"I know it's sexy, talking about sexual transmission, but it's still the mosquito that's the important vector," says Tesh, who co-authored the case report from Colorado.
The silver lining is that both the Colorado case and the Texas case happened in the winter, when it's too cold out for the species of mosquito that transmits the virus to be out and about. So Zika couldn't have spread to other people by mosquito.

Though the virus has been connected with birth defects in Brazil, in adults the symptoms, if any appear, are often mild and short-lived: rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis and slight fever. The CDC is trying to figure out if an uptick in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder, that was reported by the Brazil Ministry of Health is connected to Zika.

Research on a 2013 outbreak in French Polynesia, the largest known, has yielded the most information on which bodily fluids Zika hangs out in, and when. One study found signs of the virus in the saliva of patients shortly after the onset of symptoms. A small study in New Caledonia detected it in patients' urine more than 10 days after their first symptoms, and more than a week after it became undetectable in blood.
A third study found the virus in the breast milk of infected mothers, and concluded that two babies who tested positive for Zika virus within days of birth possibly acquired it from their mothers' bodily fluids during pregnancy or birth. Tesh says it's unclear how the virus remains in bodily fluids, but hypothesizes that the virus could hide in white blood cells.

Source:
 http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/03/465339603/what-we-know-so-far-about-sexual-transmission-of-zika-virus

Is South Africa's education system the worst in Africa?

At a discussion on affirmative action hosted by trade union Solidarity , former foreign affairs minister Pik Botha took a swipe at South Africa's education system. "Our education system is far behind. It's the worst in Africa and we have the highest per capita expenditure in Africa. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's education system is better," he is reported to have claimed.

South Africa's education system has been strongly criticized over the these past years. There were the highly publicized textbook shortages and school infrastructure backlogs.  In 2012, the department of basic education's annual national assessments revealed that grade nine students on average scored 13 % for mathematics. But is South Africa's education system really the worst in Africa?

How education is ranked?

Ranking education systems is not as simple as comparing different countries and matric pass rates.  Different countries use different exams and have different pass rates.  In order to compare country's educational performance, the same test needs to be conducted on a representative sample of students in each country.

The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) consists of fifteen ministries of education.  The countries represented include Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

SACMEQ has conducted three education policy research projects:  1995 - 1998 , 1998 - 2004 and 2005 - 2010.  Data for the most recent research project was collected during the last quarter of 2007 from 61, 396 grade six students and 8, 026 grade six teachers in 2, 779 schools.  during the assessment , students were required to answer multiple - choice question on reading, mathematics and health.  the date from this assessment is the most recent and comprehensive survey on educational quality in sub- Saharan Africa.

South African's average student reading score placed it in tenth out of the fifteen countries scored.  Uganda, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zambia, and Malawi performed worse then South Africa.  Tanzania was the best performing country.  South Africa's average student mathematics score placed it eighth out of the fifteen countries.  Mozambique, Uganda, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi and Zambia achieved lower rankings.

As of 2012 study published by Nicholas Squall and Stephen Taylor from the university of Stellenbosch questioned the existing practice of reporting education quality statistics that ignore enrollment statistics.  The percentage of children enrolled in school varies in different countries.

For example, 98% of South African children that should be in grade six are in school.  However, in Malawi only 85.7% of children that should be in grade six are in school.  Students that stay in the schooling stystem are usually the strongest, wealthiest and most able.  Poorer, weaker students often drop out.

By taking into account how many children have dropped out of school, Spaull and Taylor's studey calculates how many children that should be in grade six have acquired basic numeracy and literacy.  The study assumes that all children that are not in school are illiterate and innumerate.

SA still performs badly.

Only ten of the countries included in the third Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality research project had reliable and recent date on school attendance:  Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi , Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Taking enrollment into account, South Africa still performs badly.  Only 71, 2% of children that should be in grade six are literate.  It is ranked sixth out of the ten countries, behind Swaziland, Kenya, Tanzania, Nam ibia, and Zimbabwe.  Zambia is ranked last and only 49,3% of children that should be in grade six there are considered literate.

Only about 58,6% of South African children that should be in grade six are numerate.  In this regard South Africa is ranked fifth, behind Kenya, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.  Zambia, again, comes in last.  Only 28,8% of their grade six children are numerate.

Does South Africa spend the most on primary education?

Botha's second claim was that South Africa has the highest per capita education expenditure in Africa.  The 2010 Education for All Global Monitoring Report provided data on country's expenditure on primary education per pupil.

In 2007 South Africa was spending $1,225 on primary education per pupil - more then most African countries. However both Botswana and Seychelles were spending more per primary education in that year per pupil: 1,228 and 2,089 respectively.  Data for many African countries is not available in the report.

South Africa's low scores despite its education expenditure are worrying.  Kenya spends only $258 on primary education per pupil but performs better than South Africa in both reading and mathematics.

Botha's last claim, that Zimbabwe's education system is better than South Africa, is correct.  In both numeracy and literacy it is ranked higher than South Africa.

Conclusion- SA does not have the worst education systems in Africa

Botha's claim that South Africa's education system is "the worst in Africa" was false.  The available data, which notably does not cover countries in central Africa and the Sahel where conditions are more challenging, clearly shows that.

Taking enrollment rates in to account, South Africa performs better than many sub-Saharan African countries in both numeracy and literacy.  However, there is still a great deal of room for improvement.  South Africa consistently scores below such as Kenya and Swaziland, which spend considerably less on education then it does.

Source:

 https://africacheck.org/reports/is-sas-education-system-the-worst-in-africa-not-according-to-the-data/

South Africa’s former apartheid-era foreign affairs minister, Pik Botha, recently claimed that the country’s education system is the worst in Africa. How much does Botha know about education system rankings? Very little it turns out. Data shows that while South Africa lags behind a number of African countries, there are many with worse education systems. - See more at: https://africacheck.org/reports/is-sas-education-system-the-worst-in-africa-not-according-to-the-data/#sthash.HtWMBx7w.dpuf