Kamogelo Seekoei and Edward Tsumele, Sowetan17 September, 2007 05:08:00 http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/1339.html
Yet another controversy has hit the SABC over claims that the broadcaster demands payola from musicians.
A number of musicians from Mzwakhe Mbuli and Johnny Clegg to hip-hop artist HHP have blasted the national broadcaster’s officials for demanding that local artists plump down up to R3000 a minute for on-air interviews.
They say the controversial policy harms the music industry and is open to abuse by unscrupulous DJs, producers and programme managers.
The musicians aren’t sure how much of the money goes to the broadcaster and how much lines DJs’ pockets.
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago denies that musicians must pay to be interviewed on the public broadcaster’s airwaves and says musicians only pay to advertise their CDs. Denials notwithstanding, investigations are underway in at least two of South Africa’s biggest radio stations.
“Though I personally have not been asked for money, I have heard there is something called payola whereby people on radio are given money to play certain music,” said HHP.
“What I know for sure, and what I condemn, is the policy of the SABC requiring artists to pay for interviews. This is wrong because artists from overseas are not required to pay.”
The enraged artist said musicians had recently been turning to African language stations to promote their music. But these stations wanted to see the colour of the musicians’ cash before conducting an interview.
The scandal has also left People’s Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli flaming mad: “I don’t understand how the public broadcaster could come up with such a policy, which applies only to artists in the country. Overseas artists visiting South Africa do not pay for interviews.”
In April, Ukhozi FM interviewed the maskandi veteran Johnny Clegg at the station’s studio in Durban before the musician performed at a local gig.
“The interview lasted five minutes and I have never heard any of my songs played on the station,” Clegg said.
But his manager was told to cough up R14 000 for the interview.
Manager Patric Meyer corroborated Clegg’ s experience with Ukhozi.
Meyer said though Clegg’s promoters knew they were not paying for airplay at the station, they had assumed the station would play one or two of his new songs after the interview.
“Johnny has four Zulu songs on his album. They have never played one, not even once,” said Meyer.
Kganyago said he would have to know all the facts before investigating the matter.
He confirmed that the SABC was investigating Ukhozi FM for allegedly taking bribes from musicians.
“But I don’t know the issues, so I can’t say what was happening there,” he said.
Jazzz pianist Don Laka said he was shocked by the SABC’s recent policy of charging artists who are interviewed on air.
“I think this is the only country in the world that requires musicians to pay for an interview. ”
Johnny Clegg exposes SA`s e-wasteBy Candice Jones - Posted: 19 August 2008 - http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/quickprint/print.asp?StoryID=188481
SA is generating vast quantities of electronic waste; however, the impact of e-waste in the country is hidden.
According to Johnny Clegg, local musician and e-waste evangelist, delivering a keynote address at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, in Cape Town, there is a close connection between the dumping of e-waste and poverty.
Clegg said the large quantities of scrap metal that PCs produce created a new sector within the informal economy, known as metal and PC board scavengers. "The metal that people can salvage from the computer parts represents cash in hand for them. When they turn in a hard drive or metal to a dealer, they can at least put food on the table."
While SA has better regulation to protect against the illegal dumping of electronic goods, there are still those who are dumping, burning and shredding in areas that are not designated for these activities, he said.
Clegg`s presentation illustrated several dumping grounds in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria, which are close to agricultural areas and are affecting drinking water and food production.
While SA`s legal system does not specifically qualify the law around e-waste, it does provide for the disposal and destruction of toxic elements, he noted. "People have been and will continue to be prosecuted for illegal disposal."
Companies that are caught dumping illegally could be fined, which in turn will bring bad publicity, he added. "If companies are listed, they will experience falling stock prices."
It`s a goldmine
Clegg commented that part of the disposal opportunities for PC motherboards comes in the form of "shredding". When people shred mainboards, the toxins contained in them are mixed and released into the environment.
According to him, the process is also often used for illegal gold and platinum production. While one ton of excavation will produce one ounce of gold, one ton of e-waste can produce up to six ounces of gold. "The gold is then exported along with the shredded waste and a market is created for it."
Copper is also a large local market and is often associated with the burning of the waste, said Clegg. He added that people could get around R20 for 1kg of copper.
While many African countries, like Ghana and Nigeria, are being affected by dumping from Europe and the US, disguised as donations, SA has managed to escape this. The country also does not export e-waste into other African countries, he said.
According to Clegg`s figures, SA is estimated to produce around 50 000 tons of e-waste a year. The US produces 2.5 million tons and Europe around 10 million tons. Of that, around 95% can be recycled, but the problem is the cost, he explained.
However, the more the e-waste recycling and disposal industry grows, the less it will cost, he concluded.
eWaste open to abuseAlastair Otter, MyBroadband 19 August, 2008 10:53:00 http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Hardware/4882.html
Johnny Clegg speaks out on electronic waste
Although eWaste only accounts for 2% to 3% of the substance of landfills it contributes about 60% of the toxicity of landfill sites. This is according to African Sky's Johnny Clegg who was speaking at the Gartner Symposium in Cape Town yesterday.
Clegg, the famous South Africa singer, said that there were many misconceptions about eWaste and its consequences. Among these, he said, was that companies would not be held liable for illegal dumping of old IT equipment. Clegg said that just because old IT equipment had been handed over to a "recycler", companies were obliged to ensure that equipment was correctly and safely recycled.
Clegg said that in South Africa there was a lack of proper recycling facilities. He said that recyclers locally were in fact separators and not recyclers. What this meant for companies, he said, was that they must find out where the separated IT equipment went once it left local shores. He said countries such as China and parts of Europe had proper recycling facilities.
Clegg also said that the eWaste sector often attracted criminal elements and organised crime. He said that while the mining industry typically extracted one ounce of gold from one ton of rock, one ton of PC boards yielded as much as six ounces of gold. This made illegal recycling attractive to criminal elements who were able to export the raw waste and import the profits, said Clegg.
Clegg said that one of the other problems with eWaste was that manufacturers did not build a recycling cost into their costs. He said that in European countries PC makers were obliged to include a recycling cost in their production costs to cover the end-of-life disposal of their products.
Green opportunityAlastair Otter, MyBroadband 22 October, 2008 02:11:00 http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Hardware/5676.html
Technology recycling opportunities are starting to take off in South Africa
Environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important for technology users, be they multinationals looking to improve their public image or consumers worried about their personal carbon footprint. But, in both cases buying "greener" technology is just half the equation. An equally important part is the disposal of hardware when it reaches the end of its useful life, and until recently that was a largely ignored problem.
IT analyst Gartner estimates that as many as 460 000 PCs reach "end of life" every day around the world. Another 550 million mobile phones are estimated to be dumped for a new one every year. Which adds up to a lot of toxic waste that needs to be dealt with.
South African musician turned e-waste recycler, Johnny Clegg, says that as much as 60% of the toxicity in waste dump sites in directly related to e-waste and yet e-waste accounts for just 2% to 3% of the actually waste in a typical waste site.
The problem that exists, however, is that e-waste recycling is a specialised service and South Africa doesn't yet have the facilities to recycle the entire e-waste package. Typically, South African waste recyclers will salvage the obvious materials from PCs - the metal casings and plastics - and then crush the motherboards for shipment to overseas recyclers, usually in China or Europe.
Technology dump
With current techniques, as much as 98% of a normal PC can be recycled, says Clegg, but the problem locally is that consumers and businesses don't know where to dispose of their old hardware.
Fortunately this is starting to improve with a number of initiatives launched recently. One of these is the joint Makro-FujitsuSiemens collection points at a number of Makro stores. The Woodmead branch of Makro in Gauteng launched its collection point in August this year and collected 3.7 tons of e-waste in the first month. Collection points are also being set up in other provinces.
Another, more recent, initiative is one by Nokia which will soon be available in at least 20 locations around the country. The sites will provide boxes for owners of old mobile phones to deposit them for recycling. Nokia at this point won't recycle the phones locally but will ship them overseas for processing.
At the other end of the scale, Sun Microsystems South Africa also offers a recycling opportunity to its customers. Sun server hardware tends to be big and very expensive so instead the hardware gathering dust in a corner Sun covers the costs of removing the hardware and shipping it overseas for recycling. And because customers have invested significant money in the old hardware, Sun negotiates a discount on new Sun hardware in exchange for the old hardware. Interestingly, Sun will remove and recycle any server hardware - irrespective of brand - when it is replaced with Sun servers.
