Labouring on - 2 May 2012

Many observers in business reckon that South Africa's labour laws are too restrictive and actually hamper employment and damage business. Well, be that as it may, the Labour Relations Act is now being amended - this time to address labour broking and child labour (among other things), so it remains to be seen whether its critics are correct as our labour laws set a new course.

On the digital TV front, it appears the plans are in place... But where's the money? The Department of Communications is confident it can successfully "kick-start" the rollout of digital terrestrial television (DTT) despite the funding shortfalls experienced by some of its key entities. However, as Democratic Alliance MP Marian Shinn said: "One wonders why funding was not secured before projects were embarked on... if one looks at DTT, (the deadline) is a couple of months away and set-top boxes have not been acquired." A fair question - it's usually a good idea to have all the funding arranged before beginning a project.

Kudos for Cape Town: Amazon Web Services is ready to expand to the Mother City. The new AWS Developer Support office will provide technical assistance for customers.

Here's a bit of a surprise on the environment front... Scientists have reported that the Arctic Ocean could be a significant contributor of methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the scientists report finding concentrations of the gas close to the ocean surface, especially where sea ice had cracked or broken up.

Now it's our turn to help... Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA) went 'outa' to bat for us against e-tolling but, as you know, those legal eagles don't come cheap and now the alliance needs cash to continue the fight. It's running an SMS fund-raising campaign this week to raise the money needed to continue its battle, so it's time for us to break out those wallets...

Remember, whatever you donate will be a darn side less than you motorists would be dishing out to Sanral as tolls.