Durban chosen to host new business forum

The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) has launched a monthly forum in Durban, in association with Nedbank and Old Mutual, one that will give South Africa's top business leaders, academics and authors a platform to share their expertise with the Kwazulu-Natal business community.

GSB director Professor Frank Horwitz said the KwaZulu-Natal Prominent Speaker's Forum follows the success of similar programmes in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

"We are very pleased to launch this forum in Kwazulu-Natal with sponsorship support from Nedbank and Old Mutual, and the help of alumni in the region. It is part of the GSB's goal of positioning ourselves more prominently throughout the country," said Horwitz.

The format of the forum will be an interactive one with the public able to engage the speakers on the areas that interest them..

The first event will take place at the Nedbank Auditorium in Kingsmead. For more information contact events@gsb.uct.ac.za or call (021) 406 1426.

GSB conference puts Africa at top of pyramid

This month the GSB is hosting the second annual Doing Business in Africa Conference, with full endorsement from NEPAD.

The conference, the only one of its kind in South Africa to be hosted by a business school, is designed to help governments, business and other stakeholders reflect on how business is conducted in Africa and encourage more investment and trade in the region.

Conference director Loyiso Mbabane, a senior lecturer at GSB, said the conference is all about transformation.

"We want to facilitate transformation in the manner in which business is conducted in Africa and at the same time to throw more light on the opportunities that exist in this very rich continent of ours," he said.

The 2005 conference runs on September 29-30. It is the first time that NEPAD has put its weight behind a South African business school conference of this nature.

More information is available to the public from Hawa Palekar on (021) 406 1442 or hpalekar@gsb.uct.ac.za. You can also go to http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/dbia.

Highest Canadian honour for GSB Visiting Fellow

Professor Frank Horwitz, director of the UCT GSB, extended the GSB's congratulations to Jain.

At McMaster University, Jain is professor emeritus of human resources in the DeGroote School of Business. He specialises in human rights as it relates to various aspects of employment and industrial relations. The author of numerous articles and books, Jain has advocated for racial and other minority rights, both in Canada and internationally.

Jain's association with the GSB began in 1994 when he helped out with the Breakwater Monitor, a project that at one stage had assisted 150 companies come to grips South Africa's employment equity policies.

It was his work at the UCT GSB that attracted the South African government's attention in 1997, and he was approached to assist with the Employment Equity Bill that was then in the process of being drafted.

Ackerman Academy celebrates first graduation

Nineteen young Capetonians have become the first graduates of the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development at the GSB.

The Ackerman Academy is the brainchild of alumnus Raymond Ackerman and is run by the GSB's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

It was launched six months ago to provide life and business skills training to youth who struggle to gain access to tertiary education opportunities or employment.