Good News

Media statement

8 September 2016

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is proud to announce that it has been awarded a UNESCO International Literacy Award.  The 2016 UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy is for the Department’s Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign and will be handed over at a ceremony to be held in Paris on Thursday, 8 September 2016.

The Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign was launched in 2008 to fulfil the ambitions of the Freedom Charter. Through the campaign recruits volunteers who make up the thousands of community-based coordinators, supervisors and educators that are engaged to run the literacy courses every year since the inception of the campaign. The volunteers teach at community-based learning centres across the country as well as in informal venues such as backyards, local churches and even bus-shelters.

To date the campaign has touched 4.7 million people across the country and focuses on basic literacy and numeracy skills for people who were never afforded the opportunity to learn to read and write.

The UNESCO Jury appreciated the Kha Ri Gude programme for its well-developed mass literacy campaign that applied scientific research on how illiterate adults read. The panel found it impressive that since its inception in 2008, the programme had taught urban and rural based adults in 11 official languages including Braille and to date it has reached 4.7 million South Africans, mostly women.

Since 1967, UNESCO has awarded International Literacy Prizes to outstanding and innovative programmes that promote literacy, and this year UNESCO awards laureates from around the world under the theme: Innovation in Literacy.

The Minister of Basic Education Mrs Angie Motshekga will be represented by the South African Ambassador to France and Permanent Representative to UNESCO, HE Mr. Rapulane Molekane, who will receive the award on behalf of the Department and the country. 

The Department of Basic Education is proud of all those who have been involved in Kha Ri Gude over the past eight years, and this award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the officials, as well as the volunteers and participants of the Kha Ri Gude mass literacy campaign.

-End-

Enquiries:     Elijah Mhlanga – 083 580 8275

Troy Martens – 079 899 3070

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Three Cape Town hotels have made it onto the "World's Best Service" list in the Africa and Middle East category in an international survey by the US edition of Travel and Leisure released in the magazine's June 2013 issue.

The Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa took top spot, while the Cape Grace and the One & Only took second and fourth respectively.

The best service category of the magazine's annual "World Best Awards" survey aims to recognise the best hotels, resorts, airlines and cruise liners around the world as rated by its readers.

"Excellent service is a definitive factor in repeat visits by overseas travellers," Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Alan Winde said in a statement last week.

"I hope these awards serve as an inspiration to the Western Cape hospitality industry to consistently strive for the highest service levels. I am also confident these awards will encourage more international visitors to our world-class destination," Winde said.

Johannesburg's Saxon Boutique Hotel, Villas & Spa also featured on the best service list in the Africa and the Middle East category, scoring the same as the One & Only.

Singita Kruger National Park and Singita Sabi Sand also made their way onto the list, coming in at second and fifth respectively in the resorts and lodges category.

The overall results for best service were reached by surveying the general managers at the top 16 hotels in each region.

According to the results of this survey: 44% of general managers admit to using Google and Facebook to research guests prior to check-in; 31% ensure each guest is personally greeted by a manager upon arrival; 50% have a staff-to-guest ratio of at least 1.5 to 1; and 56% offer room service 24 hours a day.

SA - the Good News via SouthAfrica.info

13 May 2013

South Africa has been voted the top destination by members of the world's largest travel and lifestyle social network, Where Are You Now? (WAYN), in the site's recent "dream destination competition".

The country beat Brazil, India, Dubai, Fiji, Turkey and Indonesia with 15 300 votes from members around the world.

A total 78 000 votes were counted for all seven of the destinations. The nominated countries and cities were selected through market research and tracking user engagement on WAYN.

"All seven countries and cities nominated were extremely worthy contenders and dream destinations in their own right," WAYN co-founder and chief risk officer, Jeremy Touze, said in a statement last week.

"The immense popularity of South Africa as a tourist destination has been reinforced by this competition, and interestingly the activity we are seeing correlates with the recent announcement by President Jacob Zuma that the amount of foreign visitors to South Africa has grown by 300% to 13.5-million visitors, 9.2-million of which were tourists."

Touze said South Africa's strongest following comes from Asia, in particular India. "Out of the 408 000 fans of South Africa on WAYN, there are now over 108 000 fans from India alone," he said.

"We are privileged to live in an incredible country, a land of spectacular wildlife, awe-inspiring adventure and unique heritage and culture," said chief executive officer of South African Tourism, Thulani Nzima.

"It is home to warm, welcoming people, eager to share it with travellers from around the world.

"We are already touched by the hundreds of thousands of friends our destination has made on the WAYN.com platform and we are delighted with this accolade, which we hope will make more people's dreams of visiting South Africa a reality," Nzima said.

SAinfo reporter