NEWS
Page 2 People’s Post ClaremontRondebosch
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Celebrating SA’s best Homegrown companies PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN announced the winners of its fifth annual Homegrown Awards competition at a glamorous gala dinner on Thursday. The event, sponsored by PetroSA, was celebrated at the Sandton Convention Centre and attended by more than 450 delegates, including special guests such as councillor Parks Tau, Joburg mayor Herbert Mkhize, Nedlac executive director Cyril Ramaphosa, Baxolile Zwane (acting vice president of trade, supply and logistics for PetroSA), Leslie Sedibe (CEO of PSA), and advocate Dali Mpofu (chairperson of PSA). Sedibe applauded the winners for their great achievement and hard work. “These are the companies that are role models to small and big companies, as these companies are
committed to the values of being Proudly South African. They are buying local to create jobs, and committed to fair labour practice, environmental responsibility and delivering high-quality goods and services. It is a real pity that some of South Africa’s leading corporations and listed companies are not members of Proudly South African, yet they often claim to be a Proudly South African company.” Sedibe challenges each and every company in South Africa to become a Proudly South African member so that they “can truly commit themselves to working together as a nation to create jobs and eradicate poverty in this beautiful country”. The winners of the Homegrown Awards in their respective categories this year are: Product of the year • Optiphi Skin Rejuvenation
Technologies; Service of the year • Cora’s Costumes; • Karan Beef (special recognition award); CSI of the year • Clover Mama Afrika Trust; Environmental (most green) company of the year • Green Office; Best recognised and acclaimed PSA member company (by public voting) • Stormsriver Adventures; PSA/CGF schools governance award • Victoria Girls’ High School (its second Homegrown Award); • Gert Sibande FET College (special recognition award); Best PSA company over the past 10 years • Longspan Gutters; • Karan Beef (special recognition
FASHIONA BLE WIN: The award for Service of the Year was giv en to Cora Costumes. Cora Simp son, owner of Cora Cos tumes, is seen here with Obed Bapela, deputy minis ter of Commu nications, and event MC Tu mi Makgabo. award). Says PetroSA’s Baxolile Zwane, “We are proud sponsors of this event, and it is an honour for us to witness the greatness of our nation
through the efforts of these companies, both big and small. Well done, PSA members; keep flying the flag high so that others can follow.”
Bag yourself a good bargain
News in the palm of your hand
DUE to public demand, the SPCA will host another of its Bag a Bargain Book Sales on Saturday at the SPCA vet shop at 6 Gabriel Road in Plumstead from 08:00 until 14:00. The SPCA will sell bags to shoppers, who can then fill them up with their favourite titles from the large selection on offer.
YOU will now be able to access local news and information on your web-enabled cellphone with Netlocal and Media24. Not everyone has access to a computer and internet, statistics indicate that South Africa has one of the highest ratios in the world of cellphones to people. So People’s Post has just launched its
Small bags, which can hold around 13 books, will be sold for R50; larger bags, which can hold about 40 books, will go for R150 each. A limited number of big bags will be in stock. For more information contact Natasha on (021) 700-4155/40.
The lies you learn at school TONY ROBINSON
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS discovered America. Sir Alexander Fleming invented penicillin. Thomas Edison invented the electric light. Marconi invented Radio. Elijah Grey invented the telephone. Few people would argue with those statements, but the first four are dead wrong. Columbus never set foot on American soil. He discovered the West Indies, and he may have landed in Central America, but the man who actually landed on the North American mainland was John Cabot, a naturalised englishman who sailed from Bristol in 1497 looking for more northerly route to the East. So why does Columbus get all the credit? Probably because he paved the way for the Spanish Conquistadors who brought back the gold. That got all the attention, and Columbus was seen as the discoverer of the “new world”, which the US came to dominate a few hundred years later.
Cabot landed in New England, but the territory did not become important until much later. He did not survive his second voyage, and is largely a forgotten man. There was no one to blow his trumpet. Sir Alexander Fleming made the observation that mould appeared to kill some bacteria. He tried hard to invent penicillin, but gave it up as a bad job in 1928 and had nothing whatsoever to do with the development of the drug. That was done in Oxford during the war by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. The manufacturing processes were perfected in America with their help. But Fleming did have someone to blow his trumpet – Lord Beaverbrook, who controlled the press in England. Beaverbrook served on the board of St Mary’s Hospital and he used his papers to promote the hospital and its fundraising efforts. Fleming and penicillin made a good story, and Beaverbrook did not let the truth get in the way of good headlines. He even campaigned for Fleming’s Nobel Prize.
But the Americans objected. They knew the real story and as a result of their pressure, the Nobel Prize was jointly awarded to Florey, Chain and Fleming. The electric light was invented by an Englishman, Joseph Swan. Edison improved it, and most people now give him the credit. The problem with Swan’s globe was the filament, which had a short life. Edison used his vast resources to hunt down a better filament and, as we know, he succeeded. Marconi never invented radio. The real inventor was Nicola Tesla, one of the great unheralded geniuses. Tesla used radio waves to steer a model boat and gave public demonstrations of radio control before Marconi entered the picture. He was trying to sell radio to the US Navy as a guidance system for torpedos. Marconi, wealthy heir to the Guiness for-
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R5.00
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REDUCED TO R5.00 & R10.00
ASSORTED SUMMER & WINTER SCARVES SUMMER FLOPPY FASHION HATS
R15.00
UNIT E5 ACCESS PARK, KENILWORTH (Back of Access Park off M5)
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new mobile site; the new Mobi functionality, made possible by a separate platform created by Prezence SA, is synchronised with the newspaper’s website. This enables cellphone users to gain access to the People’s Post website – instantly, and from just about anywhere. Take a look at our Mobi site on ppost.mobi tune, challenged Tesla’s patents and won the first round, but Tesla appealed and the US Supreme Court eventually overturned the decision. By that time Marconi was famous and Tesla was an old man about as cranky as Howard Hughes. Elijah Grey did invent the telephone, but so did Alexander Graham Bell. Bell’s triumph was to get to the patent office a few hours before Grey. If Grey had got to the patent office first, Edison would have been credited with the invention. How come? Edison was a patent-breaker, and he was hired by Western Union to get round Bell’s patent. He did make a big improvement, but Bell’s wealthy father-in-law went to court and won. If the patent had been granted to Grey, he would not have been in a position to defend it, and Edison would now be seen as the inventor of the telephone. The moral of the story? There are lies, damn lies and history.
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