Author Archives: vrapto

Sport24.co.za | Drawing the series is as good as winning – Faf

You Need Posted on by

Cape Town – Preserving a proud away record is a strong incentive for the Proteas ahead of the second must-win Test match against Sri Lanka starting in Colombo on Friday.

The Proteas trail Sri Lanka 1-0 after a poor opening performance in Galle, but can push back to level the series with a victory at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground (SSC).

Proteas captain, Faf du Plessis, says drawing the series will be as special as a win, but it will take ‘better’ decision-making and confidence in game plans to pull off a comeback. 

“I thought in the first Test we were off the ball in a lot of areas,” he admitted to the media on Thursday. “We have also been a team that sometimes unfortunately starts slowly before we start making better decisions. Hopefully we can do that in this Test match, we know it is going to be tough but we are looking forward to the challenge.

“The (away) record is one that we are very proud of,” he said. “It is never easy winning away from home, but when you come to the sub-continent drawing a series is as good as winning 3-0 at home. It is tough but it is what the best teams do in the world. We want to try and get to the No 1 position and in order to get there we have to make sure we don’t just do well at home.”

Du Plessis announced that the selectors have decided to play the extra batsman, but have yet to decide if they will field two spinners or three seamers. Although spin is expected to be a factor, the Proteas remain reliant on their pace resources, who are expected to come out firing after a first run in Galle. Du Plessis says he was excited to see Dale Steyn come through the match after a long injury lay-off.

“The thing with Dale is that he gets better and better the more he plays, I know that because I have played with him for a long time,” he said. “ The biggest thing for him would be getting through a Test match, so that is a massive positive for us. I am expecting him to do big things going forward for this team.

“It looks quite dry,” he said of the pitch. “Sometimes there is some assistance for the seam bowlers. Our batting was a concern in the first Test so we will probably go with the extra batsman and we will decide how it affects the balance of the team.”

The captain says nothing has changed in the squad’s preparation, but that the batsmen have worked on having clearer game plans against the spinners. There has been a call for patience and the need for the batsmen to ‘trust their defence’ after a few uncharacteristic and careless dismissals in Galle.

“The thing that let us down in the first Test was that we didn’t trust our defence well enough,” he explained. “Part of Test cricket is trusting your defence when you are playing spin. At times you can put the spinner under pressure by having a clear game plan of what you are trying to do. The guys worked well on their game plans in order to try and be positive against the spinners, which is an element of playing spin, but you have to trust your defence as well.

“I don’t think we play spin badly,” he added. “If I go back to the last series we played against Australia, the wickets were spinning quite a bit, we played Nathan Lyon exceptionally well. He got three or four wickets throughout the series and went for over four an over. It is not something we mentally struggle with, it is more about us not trusting our defence. In the second innings there was a carelessness about our batting which doesn’t go with Test cricket.” 

eNCA | Trevor Noah joke about ‘African’ world cup winners sparks identity debate

You Need Posted on by

WASHINGTON – A light-hearted quip about a soccer team has sparked a serious debate about identity politics and the merits of France’s “colorblind” republican model versus American multiculturalism.

When the host of American television’s popular “The Daily Show” joked that the real winner of the World Cup was “Africa,” it prompted a fierce reaction on social media and drew a pointed rebuttal from the French ambassador to Washington.

Trevor Noah, the popular comedian who hosts the TV show, was calling attention to the fact that many of the winning French team’s players are of African origin – immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants.

“Africa won the World Cup,” he said, before adding: “I get it. They have to say it’s the French team, but look at those guys: you don’t get that tan in the south of France!”

Noah’s gag provoked an avalanche of reactions on social media, reviving angry debates about the very different approaches to race, immigration, and assimilation taken by France and the United States.

While many commenters found Noah’s remarks amusing, others accused the 34-year-old – who grew up under South Africa’s race-based apartheid system, with a white father and black mother – as doing the work of the extreme right. 

French Ambassador Gerard Araud immediately sent Noah a stern letter saying that “nothing could be less true.”

“The rich and various backgrounds of these players is a reflection of France’s diversity,” Araud said. “Unlike in the United States of America, France does not refer to its citizens based on their race, religion or origin.”

“To us, there is no hyphenated identity, roots are an individual reality,” the ambassador continued. “By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness.

“This, even in jest, legitimizes the ideology which claims whiteness as the only definition of being French,” said Araud, who regularly defends France’s republican model on Twitter.

– Different approaches –

That republican model is based on the idea that true equality can be achieved only when the state interacts with people as individuals, not as members of national, racial, religious or linguistic groups.

That precludes any official collecting of race-based data, for example, but it also rules out the affirmative action approach used in the US explicitly to overcome – not prolong – years of discrimination.

Some French see Americans as relentlessly race-conscious in ways that are needlessly damaging. But some Americans say the French system allows minority groups to live on in official invisibility, facing self-perpetuating social and economic obstacles.

For Noah, the French simply need to get a sense of humor.

“When I’m saying ‘African,’ I’m not saying it to exclude them from their French-ness, I’m saying it to include them in my African-ness,” Noah said in a video posted Wednesday on Twitter. “I’m saying, ‘I see you, my French brother of African descent.'”

– Double identity –

Noah said he recognised that the far right in both France and the US used the argument of people’s origin to attack immigrants and their descendants at a time both countries face sensitive immigration issues.

But he added that he found it “strange” to suggest that France’s soccer stars could not be simultaneously French and African.

WATCH: Trevor Noah takes on Trump

“Why can’t they be both?” he asked. “Why is that duality only afforded to a select group of people?”

“What they’re arguing here is in order to be French, you have to erase everything that is African?” Noah continued.

“America is not a perfect country, but what I love about this place is that people can still celebrate their identity in their American-ness,” he said.

An American can attend a parade to celebrate his or her Puerto Rican or Irish heritage, for example, while still being American, Noah said.

The comedian said that some French media and politicians evoke a person’s African origin when the person is unemployed, accused of a crime or “considered unsavory.”

But “when their children go on to provide a World Cup victory for France, we should only refer to them as ‘France,'” he added, referencing the case of Mamoudou Gassama, the 22-year-old African immigrant who was granted French citizenship after scaling four floors to rescue a child hanging from a balcony.

Noah said he would continue to sing the players’ praises as both Africans and as French.

“And if French people are saying they cannot be both, then I think they have a problem – not me.”

Former US president Barack Obama touched on the same subject, but a bit less contentiously, during a visit to Johannesburg to mark the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. 

Praising the virtues of diversity, Obama singled out the French team, adding with a smile, “Not all these folks look like Gauls to me (but) they are French, they are French!”

AFP

eNCA | WATCH: Fired heist-linked ANC employee’s wife speaks out

You Need Posted on by

JOHANNESBURG – The former ANC employee arrested in connection with a cash-in-transit heist in Soweto is believed to be involved in two other similar robberies in the North West.

On Wednesday, the African National Congress (ANC) dismissed Errol Velile Present, an employee at its headquarters, after it came to light that he has been arrested in connection with a recent cash-in-transit heist in Soweto.

eNCA’s Jane Dutton asked the ANC’s spokesperson Pule Mabe why Mduduzi Manana is still a party member while this employee has been dismissed after allegations of criminality were made against him.

Manana, the former deputy higher education minister, was sentenced to a R100,000 fine or one year in prison in November 2017 after he pleaded guilty to assaulting two women at a Johannesburg nightclub in August 2017.

Present’s wife, Zanele Present, spoke to eNCA’s Aldrin Sampear on Thursday, saying she could not believe the allegations leveled against her husband. 

eNCA

Contact Centre Product Trainer (Randburg)

You Need Posted on by
Remuneration: R25000 – R30000 per month 
Location: Randburg
Job policy: Employment Equity position
Type: Permanent
Reference: #AG/BLTR
Company: SelectONE

The goal of the Trainer is to ensure that all customer service reps, team leaders and QA officers are trained and equipped with the necessary knowledge of Blue Label products, services processes and systems. In so doing, the trainer drives a consistently superior customer experience and a high level of first and second level resolution through best practice customer practices.

Key responsibility areas

Outputs and accountabilities

  1.  Training
  • Design, develop and maintain the Blue Label Customer Interface Centre training material.
  • Evaluate Training needs and develop new training materials / revise current materials to ensure all training needs are met.
  • Work closely with the QA Officer to identify capability gaps and develop and execute training to cover these.
  • Interact with Blue Label Divisions to develop specifications for content of courses.
  • Conduct skills, technical, product and staff development training courses
  • Implement effective training, coaching, and participant assessment techniques.
  • Evaluate training methodology.
  • Liaise with Team Leaders, Quality Assurance Officers and Manager to schedule training.
  • Ensure all Reps, Team Leaders and QA Officers are trained on all new Blue Label products, processes and applications.
  • Identify the need for Refresher Training courses and deliver as required.
  1.  Performance and Service levels measurement
  • Manage own performance to defined targets and service levels
    • Meet or exceed service level targets
    • Report on gaps in training related to attaining First Level Resolution and Back Office Resolution targets.
    • Track scores and competency levels post training to measure effectiveness of training.
    • Provide reporting feedback to Team Leaders and Management.
    • Provide training attendance register to HR.
  1. Client relationships management
  • Improve turnaround time for resolving client issues
  • Display a passion for client service, client satisfaction and commitment to meeting and exceeding client expectations.
  • Increase customer satisfaction ratings by designing and deploying improvement interventions.

Competencies: behaviours and skills

The successful incumbent must have excellent skills and behaviours in the following areas:

  • Strong communication skills
  • Display a passion for customer service, customer satisfaction and exceeding customer expectations.
  • Demonstrate initiative in follow through to ensure that personal quality and productivity standards are consistently and accurately maintained.
  • Show commitment to teamwork and a willingness to go the extra mile to achieve team objectives.
  • Drive excellent working relationships with clients, peers and management
  • Motivated to invest in self-development and career development to enhance customer orientation skills and build a career with Blue Label
  • A distinct passion for training, development and coaching.

Special requirements

  • The successful incumbent will need to have or quickly grow their knowledge of Blue Label systems, policies and procedures

Education and qualification

  • Matric grade 12
  • A diploma in Training or HR

Experience:

  • At least two years’ experience in a call centre environment is required
  • At least two years’ experience in Training within a call centre
  • Demonstrated experience in developing training material for call centres and training schedules for all call centre personnel.
  • Proven experience in identifying skills gaps and escalating to drive overall skill improvement
  • Strong experience in linking training solutions with customer service enhancements.

Posted on 19 Jul 15:39

Apply
angela gordon
Or apply with your Biz CV

Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.

Select One

SelectONE is a young, forward thinking and disruptive recruitment partner. We compress the timeline of the appointment process through the use of Augmented Intelligence.

View company profile

Get job alerts for Trainer jobs

Software Engineer – Testing/Performance/Automation (Cape Town)

You Need Posted on by
Location: Cape Town
Type: Permanent
Reference: #1708116
Company: Datafin Recruitment

Environment:

A fast-paced leading online retailer seeks a software engineer to join their teams in Cape Town (CBD), Stellenbosch and JHB. The role also includes working closely with the test lead to ensure quality is implemented and that quality standards are adhered to by converting manual test preparation into automated test preparation. The suitable candidate will develop, implement and maintain testing frameworks in all aspects such as Performance, UI and API, at a very low/code level.

Duties:

  • Raise development quality by developing processes and best practices for testing in Dev teams.
  • Improve and automate test strategies.
  • Develop and execute test cases to diagnose issues and bugs, creating test data when required.
  • Design, develop, execute and maintain automation scripts/code.
  • Implement automation framework with continuous integration/deployment covering UI, API, unit and integration tests.
  • Identify testing deficiencies and subsequently implementing automated tests based on their requirements
  • Identify, record, document thoroughly and track bugs.
  • Perform regression testing when bugs are resolved.
  • Increase code coverage across the team’s technology stack.
  • Develop status reports based on test completion/findings and communicate these to team leaders including any impact on the overall project plan.
  • Mentoring and guiding the test team on test approaches and automation suite.

Requirements:

  • Degree in computer science, software engineering or related technical discipline.
  • Minimum three years of commercial QA experience.
  • Experience managing testing throughout the SDLC (development testing, unit/integration testing, API testing, performance testing, system testing and regression testing etc.)
  • Strong experience with Python, Ruby, Java, C# and/or other OOP programming languages
  • Strong knowledge of software QA methodologies, tools, and processes.
  • Experience in writing clear, concise and comprehensive test plans and test cases.
  • Hands-on experience with both white box and black box testing.
  • Understands web services (REST) and underlying protocols (HTTP/S, TCP/IP).
  • Hands on experience with testing tools and frameworks Selenium, Robot, SOAPUI etc.
  • An understanding of networking protocols.

Advantageous –

  • ISTQB/ISEB qualification.

Attributes:

  • Self-motivated with strong capability of fast learning.
  • Ability to work efficiently both independently and within the team.
  • Flexibility to learn new technologies and explore new tools with ease.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to understand and critique requirements.
  • Excellent communication skills.

While we would really like to respond to every application, should you not be contacted for this position within 10 working days please consider your application unsuccessful.

Comments:

When applying for jobs, ensure that you have the minimum job requirements. Only SA citizens will be considered for this role. If you are not in the mentioned location of any of the jobs, please note your relocation plans in all applications for jobs and correspondence. Please email a word copy of your CV to

moc.nifatad@nyrat

and mention the reference numbers of the jobs.

Posted on 19 Jul 15:37

Apply
Loren Adrian
Or apply with your Biz CV

Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.

Datafin

DataFin was established in 1999. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have established relationships with industry leaders and a vast majority of our business is repeat business.

View company profile

Get job alerts for Software Engineer jobs

More…

Midweight Designer (Pretoria)

You Need Posted on by
Remuneration: Negotiable depending on experience 
Location: Pretoria
Education level: Diploma
Job level: Mid
Type: Permanent
Company: Rain Catchers Marketing

Job description

Hello, we are looking for a designer.

This enthusiastic individual will have to use their creative craft, understanding of platforms and grasp of culture to solve marketing problems for a variety of brands. Typically you will work with a team but occasionally you will function alone. Under the direction of the creative director, you will be assigned projects by the resource manager. You will have to manage your time effectively to meet the demands of multiple jobs.

You need to be able to understand the difference between a creative idea and a tactical execution depending on the project at hand, and should be proficient in generating both. You should be capable and able to take responsibility for the design/art direction in all mediums, everything from print to social media post. You must have a passion to stay current with technology and trends as well as be able to seek opportunities to improve your art/design skills.

As a designer, you understand the parameters of a brand look/feel/tone and your work must reflect this. You know how to handle and implement feedback from the creative director in a timely manner.

Requirements

Your qualifications must include:

  • Degree or diploma
  • A minimum of two to three years of experience
  • Proficient in InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator.
  • Strong art/design skills
  • Comfortable at concepting ideas
  • Good collaborator
  • Time management

Posted on 19 Jul 15:37

Apply by email
Or apply with your Biz CV

Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.

Get job alerts for Designer jobs

More…

Japanese Speaking Call Centre Operator (Cape Town)

You Need Posted on by
Remuneration: Market related 
Location: Cape Town
Type: Permanent
Reference: #AR
Company: ABC Worldwide

Our client, an established financial institution seeks to recruit a dynamic and experienced Japanese speaking call centre operator to join their expanding team. The right candidate will be responsible to answer fraud and ethics related calls in Japanese and English. The successful candidate will be required to work shifts and be appointed as an independent contractor.

Key responsibilities

  • Answer incoming calls timeously and ensure that the caller is assisted in a polite and professional manner
  • Ensure that the information conveyed by the caller is accurately captured, comprehended and documented
  • Ensure that anonymity and confidentiality is provided – where required
  • Prepare a professional and detailed report containing information obtained above
  • Assess the urgency and sensitivity of information and classify the report accordingly
  • Handle various administrative tasks (including translating reports into English) – where required

Qualification and experience

  • Matric
  • Previous call centre/customer service experience would be an added advantage
  • Knowledge of fraud, corruption and general corporate governance ethics principles will be an advantage

Key competencies

  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Japanese and English in order to write business reports and translate
  • Computer literacy is essential
  • Attention to detail and accuracy
  • Good data entry and typing skills
  • Willingness to work shifts – weekdays/weekends and over public holidays
  • Basic knowledge of any of the other official South African languages will be an added advantage
  • Punctuality, resilience, ethics and trustworthiness are traits that are critical to this position – as well as the ability to work well in a team environment

If you believe you have what it takes to succeed and meet the requirements for the position, then send your CV to

moc.ediwdlrowcba@yma

Posted on 19 Jul 15:22

Apply by email
Amy
Or apply with your Biz CV

Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.

Get job alerts for Operator jobs

More…

Fitter Assistant

You Need Posted on by

A factory in Sasolburg is looking for an assistant to assist fitter in his daily tasks.
Requirements:
-Grade 12.
-Fluent in English.
-Must be reliable and hard working.
Duties:
-Will assist artisan.
-Will clean up afterwards.
-Will help artisan with his tools.
Please forward your updated CV to us.
We do not charge any fees.
Fax: 086 566 8632
Phone: 084 572 4146