Monday, May 21, 2012

How To Hire A Personal Assistant


By Abdulazizi as your business expands you will need to hire someone to take over admin tasks. Here's how
Admin(Getty Images)
As your business expands you will find it more difficult to do things like paperwork and other duties around the office like answering the phone all the time. This is most likely to mean that it is time you hire help in the form of a personal assistant. However, it is not as easy as just hiring anyone. You will need to take various things into consideration before hiring the person who will suit your needs.
Set out a job description
Clearly set out a job description of the duties you will require your personal assistant to carry out.These duties will be tailored to your needs in order to free up more time for you and to ensure that daily tasks are carried out successfully.
Selecting the candidate
When selecting the candidate you will need to carefully sift through CV's and cover letters and eliminate the candidates who you deem not to be suited to the job. Select the experienced candidates, however, do not rule out recent graduates.
Arrange an interview
Set up and interview with the short listed candidates. You can use a first interview to analyse a candidates personality. It will also give you a chance to see if the actual resume matches with the person you are interviewing.
Narrow the list down
You will need to come up with a final shortlist of candidates. Often it is useful to get a partner, employee or colleague to give you feedback. In the second interview you will discuss salary, hours and benefits of the job in more detail.
Hiring the suitable candidate
Once you have selected someone to fill the position, you can hire them on a probation period. Employing a personal assistant is similar to starting a new relationship, until you start working together you won't know if your styles gel or not.

West Africa mediators wrap up successful mission to Mali



Richest Africans (© HowzitMSN)

West African mediators wrap up their mission to Mali today.

BAMAKO - West African mediators wrapped up their mission to Mali on Monday, after securing their choice for transition president by offering the leader of a March coup the status of former head of state.
"We are all leaving, with the feeling that we have accomplished our mission" set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Ivory Coast Minister of African Integration Adama Bictogo told AFP.
"We wanted to bring a modest contribution to peace, but the merit goes to the Malians themselves. The framework of the transition has been defined," he added.
After weeks of laborious negotiations between ECOWAS and the junta, which often ended in stalemate, the parties on Sunday agreed that coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo would step down with all the privileges owed to a former president.
One of west Africa's most stable democracies, Mali was plunged into crisis when Sanogo on March 22 led a band of low-ranking soldiers to oust Amadou Toumani Toure's government.
The soldiers claimed that the government was incompetent in handling a Tuareg rebellion in the northern desert.
However the coup allowed the Tuaregs and a motley group of armed Islamists and criminal bands to seize the northern half of the country, an area larger than France..
The northern crisis will pose the biggest challenge to the transitional leaders.
The transition period will last 12 months and current interim leader Dioncounda Traore, 70, will remain the president in the period leading up to elections.
Initially Sanogo had wanted Traore to step down after the constitutionally mandated 40 days, raising fears he was not willing to return to the barracks as he tried to keep a hand on the wheel after agreeing to a transition.
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Precious Dollars in Zimbabwe


Richest Africans (© HowzitMSN)

Precious Dollars in Zimbabwe
By Patrick McGroarty in Johannesburg and Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe
Street hawker Yvonne Chikotsa last visited a bank in 2008, near the zenith of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation. She would wake each morning at dawn to beat long lines and withdraw more than one trillion Zimbabwean dollars, which was what a loaf of bread cost at the time.
"I still have mortal fear of banks," said Ms. Chikotsa, who sells used clothing at a market in Harare's impoverished Mbare district. She blames the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for allowing the runaway inflation that destroyed the value of her modest income. Now, she says: "My pillow is my bank."
Zimbabwe's economy is growing, in part because the government in 2009 discarded the country's currency in favor of the U.S. dollar. The move tamed inflation and slowed a rush to the exits for investors. Yet deep-seated distrust of the government's handling of money matters lingers among ordinary Zimbabweans, depriving banks of the deposits they need to drive a faster economic expansion that might ease some of the country's tensions.
The uncertainty has turned Zimbabwe into a nation of hoarders. The grubby graying American dollars on Zimbabwe's streets-including bountiful supplies of $2 bills, last printed by the U.S. Treasury in 2006-attest to a robust cash economy that largely bypasses the country's banks. Deposits in Zimbabwe's banks have recovered from $1.25 billion at the beginning of 2010 to some $3.3 billion since "dollarization," but people hold more than that amount-or about $3.5 billion-outside of banks, according to the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's cash-starved banks, and a central bank that has lost control of its currency, mirror challenges in other countries, including Greece, Malawi and Swaziland. But troubles at Zimbabwe's central bank have reached a different level of dysfunction.
Over the past decade, the reserve bank lent $1.5 billion to President Robert Mugabe's government for pet projects. The bank now owes $1.1 billion to a cast of regional development and central banks that it says it can't repay because the government hasn't reimbursed it.
Gideon Gono, who has led the reserve bank since 2003, is also battling allegations he has embezzled millions in central bank funds for personal use. Mr. Gono hasn't publicly addressed the allegations, and in an email response to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Gono declined to comment in detail. He said he would "respond to pressures" about the allegations "at the appropriate time."
In the meantime, the bank can't even serve as Zimbabwe's lender of last resort. The government is in talks with the African Export-Import Bank to create a $100 million program to restart the lender-of-last-resort facility.
Short of that, if the central bank can't step in to guarantee bank lending, liquidity will dry up, which is what has happened.
The string of troubles has left Zimbabwe's financial system gasping, depriving businesses of capital at a time of sky-high unemployment. Zimbabwe officials estimate 90% of the country's working-age population is unemployed.
After Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in favor of the greenback, the economy grew at an annual rate of 6% in 2009 and 9% in 2010. But growth dropped back to a rate of 6% last year and will fall to 3.1% this year, the International Monetary Fund predicts.
The crippled banking sector is contributing to the eroding growth rate, said Yvonne Mhango, Renaissance Capital's economist for sub-Saharan Africa.
"Basically there is no monetary policy. I think they're out of ideas," Ms. Mhango said.
The banking troubles have dimmed an already bleak investment picture.
The country has untapped deposits of platinum and rich agricultural land. But few are willing to risk losing their investment to the "indigenization" agenda of President Mugabe, which aims to transfer farms and control of businesses and mines to blacks.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's ideas for shoring up the financial sector have had a similar effect, economists say. In February, the central bank demanded that foreign banks, including Barclays PLC and Standard Chartered PLC, keep at least 70% of local deposits and assets in the country. Mr. Gono has promised meetings with banks and unspecified punishment for those that don't comply.
A spokeswoman for Standard Chartered in Harare, Lillian Muchafara Hapanyengwi, said the bank always tries to comply with local laws. "All regulatory issues are given the highest attention," Ms. Hapanyengwi wrote in an email. Barclays didn't respond to requests for comment.
The demands have made banks hesitant to lend in Zimbabwe, hurting small domestic ventures that need capital to expand.
Tofara Kwenda, who earns $1,000 a month as a field officer for a democracy-advocacy group, applied last year for a $2,000 loan from Standard Chartered to open a candle-making business.
He says the bank never ruled on his application, even after a bank official called to scold him for complaining on his Facebook page about the slow process. Eventually, he got a loan from one of the many for-profit microfinance firms that have proliferated in Zimbabwe as traditional banks have pulled back.
"The banks are not grateful," Mr. Kwenda said. "I am just using my bank account as a conduit to get my salary, which I immediately withdraw and keep at home."
The distrust of banks is a problem for small domestic lenders that haven't been able to rebuild deposit bases enough to expand their businesses, economists say. Many of Zimbabwe's local banks have merged or sold majority stakes after struggling to meet capital requirements. The government is pushing for more consolidation.
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are trying to get by without traditional loans and bank accounts.
Ms. Chikotsa, the 33-year-old clothing merchant in Harare, said she had never heard of Mr. Gono or Zimbabwe's reserve bank until her small deposits started losing their value so rapidly.
"We were only taught to count to a thousand when we were in primary school, but that man, Gono, got us to know figures that we never thought existed," Ms. Chikotsa said.
The government says it wants to compensate depositors for the money they lost. But three years have passed, and Ms. Chikotsa is still waiting.
Write to Patrick McGroarty at patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com ...

Swiss tourist regions outvoted in holiday homes upset


By Abdulazizi
Swiss narrowly back a cap on second homes in every community.
SION - High in the Swiss alpine village of Salins, plans are afoot to build a new hotel and residence complex catering to the hordes of skiers who flock to the resort each season.
Developer Jean-Marie Fournier can breath a sigh of relief: he submitted the development proposal before a March 11 vote which sent shockwaves across the country.
The initiative was the mastermind of an 84-year-old called Franz Weber who has described it as a watershed in the country's environment policy.
It saw the Swiss narrowly back a cap on second homes in every community, sparking concern in the construction, property and tourism sectors.
The ballot, approved by 50.4 percent of voters, will limit the number of second homes to only 20 percent in any one area.
What this means is that no further permission will be given to build second homes in towns and villages where the 20 percent mark has already been reached.
The people of the canton of Valais, where Salins is located, are assessing their options ahead of the implementation of the new law in 2013, though some legal experts think it will more likely come into force the following year.
"The revolt is under way," said Fournier, who is also the owner of the regional newspaper, Le Nouvelliste.
"A committee has been put together," he told AFP.
The local man's firm, VIP, plans to build a new cable car station at the foot of the resort as well as several residential blocks and hotels with a total of about 1,500 beds.
They will serve the needs of the thousands of Europeans -- mainly Belgians and Dutch -- who come to enjoy the ski season each winter, says Fournier.
The problem is that out of season the buildings are more often than not left empty, creating a desolate picture.
In the Crans-Montana resort, also in the Valais canton, chalet blocks five to ten storeys high extend for as far as the eye can see.
Come spring and their shutters remain closed barring a few exceptions.
Swiss Environment Minister Doris Leuthard said the government shared the voters' concerns about the increasing number of empty holiday homes off-season and the difficulties locals face in holiday resorts to get housing.
"We need a more careful use of our territory as well as a better occupancy rate of second homes," she said.
Owing to the confusion surrounding the terms of the proposed law, Swiss authorities have had to create a working group tasked with responding to a mountain of questions, not least the most obvious: what is classed as a second home?
But while many in property and tourism sectors fear the consequences of the new law, which a conference of seven mountain cantons said "jeopardises the economic development of the mountain regions", some are acting swiftly to capitalise on the present muddle.
For Angela Turnbull from the real estate agency Angela Immobilier, acquiring a property in Crans-Montana "has never been so attractive."
The new law "will certainly mean that few or even no new-builds whatsoever will see the light of day in the years to come," she says.
And by logic of supply and demand, this will likely lead to an jump in value of second homes.
"Switzerland is becoming the hottest property owners' club in the world," said Turnbull, who recommends that investors, and wealthy foreigners in particular, should act fast.
Marcel Maurer, mayor of the Valais capital Sion, voiced his discontent.
"A 20 percent quota is no way to carry out town planning," he says, adding: "We don't need lessons," he said.
Maurer however remains optimistic.
"There is a culture (of tourism) that is in the process of changing. The Valais people have understood that."
And as his town prepares to merge with Salins next year, Maurer promises that he will keep a close watch on Fournier's hotel development.
"We will do something exemplary," he says reassuringly.
In the meantime, local finance and tourism officials are mulling the creation of a property fund which would finance "tourism residences" for rental.
How this will fit in with the new law remains to be seen.

Mauritius honeymoon murder trial to start Tuesday


Two Mauritius hotel employees accused of murdering the daughter of Ireland's sports personalities will go on trial tomorrow.
PORT LOUIS - Two hotel employees accused of murdering the daughter of one of Ireland's leading sports personalities while she honeymooned on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius will go on trial on Tuesday.
Avinash Treebhowoon, 29, and Sandip Mooneea, 41, will face trial for the January 2011 murder of schoolteacher Michaela McAreavey, the daughter of Tyrone Gaelic football boss Mickey Harte, who was strangled in her hotel
room.
Police believe McAreavey, 27, was strangled after she stumbled in on a burglary upon returning to her room at the four-star Legends resort in the fishing village of Grande Gaube in the north of Mauritius.
Police said hotel key card records show someone else had used a card to gain access to the room two minutes before McAreavey entered it.
Her killers then placed the body in the bath and turned the taps on to make it look as if the victim had drowned.
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte will not attend the trial.
"The father won't be coming," Dick Ng Sui Wa, a lawyer representing the McAreavey-Harte family, told AFP.
Gaelic football is the most popular sport in Ireland and many players and managers are celebrities.
Widower John McAreavey, who is expected to give evidence at the trial, arrived Friday evening on the island, accompanied by his father, sister and brother-in-law and was escorted straight from the airport to a private location.
Local media said the family was being looked after by the diocese of Port Louis.
A jury will be picked on Tuesday and will decide on the guilt or innocence of Treebhowoon and Mooneea.
The two suspects, who both worked at Legends where McAreavey was staying, could be jailed for 60 years if found guilty. The trial is scheduled to last until June 1.
Legends resort is popular with honeymooners and was popular with Irish newlyweds in particular, who voted it number one honeymoon destination the year before McAreavey's murder.
Mauritius, a volcanic island surrounded by coral reefs and lagoons, that lies 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) from Ireland, is best known for top-end tourism and as a honeymoon destination. It welcomes nearly one million tourists a year.
The sector is an important pillar of the economy, employing, directly or indirectly around 100,000 people in the island nation, which has one of the highest per capita incomes of the African continent.

Alfred Nzo 'to curb abuse' by leasing vehicles


By Abdulazizi
Alfred Nzo District Municipality is opting to lease vehicles in an effort to curb abuse costing it about R1m a year
By POLISWA PLAATJIE
Mthatha Bureau
ALFRED Nzo District Municipality has opted to lease vehicles from a private company instead of buying in an effort to curb abuse costing it about R1-million a year.
The municipality said it believed it would save close to R1-million a year when it starts using the new fleet of 22 vehicles, handed over by Fleet Africa last week.
The municipality previously owned more than 20 vehicles but some were not in a good condition.
Alfred Nzo mayor Eunice Diko said the initiative would help reduce the abuse of municipal vehicles by employees.
The municipality spent more than R1-million on petrol a year.
Manager for infrastructure development and municipal services, Ngubende Hlazo, said in the past they had cases where municipal vehicles were used by employees for private matters.
“We had the normal trackers in our previous cars but the new trackers are more advanced so we will be able to check on our vehicles daily.”
Hlazo said in some cases employees had also used municipal petrol cards to fill up their own private vehicles.
Diko said in the past the municipality had failed to respond to water scheme calls because vehicles where either not in good shape or were not to be found.
“These vehicles will be used in all those projects we are undertaking as the municipality; we have reservoir and dam projects that are currently running in Mbizana and Ntabankhulu,” she said.
This includes a billion rand water project in the Bizana and Flagstaff areas.
Earlier this month the Daily Dispatch reported the project was being stalled by villagers who claimed the municipality had not asked for permission to put pipes across communal land.
The community land committee demanded the municipality compensate them before work could resume.
Diko said the issue had been resolved and work on the project had resumed. — poliswa@dispatch.co.za

North Koreans in rice belt starve to death


By Abdulazizi
North Koreans starve to death as food shortages worsen.
SEOUL - Food shortages have worsened even in North Korea's southwestern rice belt and some residents have starved to death there, a Seoul-based online newspaper said on Monday.
"Because of worsening food shortages this year there were reports of people starving to death even in South and North Hwanghae provinces," a Daily NK reporter told AFP, referring to the country's agricultural heartland.
Six people -- children or the elderly -- died in just one village in Shingye county after the authorities released an emergency supply of only one or two kilograms (2.2-4.4 pounds) of corn to each household, the paper said.
It quoted another source as saying that about 10 people had died of starvation on each collective farm in and around the coastal city of Haeju by April, following shortages in late winter.
Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group, also said on its website that starvation continued to claim victims throughout South Hwanghae. At Hwanghae Steelworks some workers had died because food rations stopped, it said.
The South's unification ministry which handles cross-border affairs said it had no information.
Daily NK said North and South Hwanghae saw rice production fall last year due to flooding, and most of the autumn harvest was diverted to military stores or for citizens of Pyongyang.
In South Hwanghae shortages were aggravated by restrictions on market trading and travel during the 100-day mourning period for leader Kim Jong-Il who died on December 17, it said.
Near the border with the South soldiers were mobilised for farming because many farm workers left to seek help from relatives in other areas, it said.
The North's official food distribution system, part of its state-directed economy, largely collapsed during the famine years of the mid to-late 1990s.
Severe food shortages have persisted. But donations to UN programmes have dwindled due to international irritation at the North's missile and nuclear programmes.
The United States suspended a plan to deliver 240,000 tonnes of food after the North's latest rocket launch on April 13.