Friday 28 September 2018

Has the nation failed women or is it the women who have failed themselves? A post-mortem of the recent Eswatini national elections



Statistics from the voters’ role for the recent national elections at Eswatini indicate that more women than men had registered. The Press Reader of July 25, 2018 accordingly remarked that women were dominating the voter registration role. Taken at face value, this signalled that, as part of the electorate, women stood to make their voice heard through the ballot.  Sadly, as I write this brief election review; that was not to be.

When nominations came, men took the stage with women following in comparatively negligible numbers. From a gender perspective, that was an early disquieting moment in the election race.  On 20 September 2018 – the eve of the final elections, Ncane Maziya of Gender Links poignantly reported that a mere 14% of women were in the race.  By then, it was pretty obvious that the hoped-for women’s representation in parliament was a far-fetched dream.  As it turned out, we are stared in the face by the same old story of gender disparity in a post-election context where once again men are poised to be sworn-in in droves into our 11th parliament.

And so I ask: Has the nation failed women or is it the women who have failed themselves?  This question is not rhetorical.  It seriously probes the validity of our formal claims to being an inclusive society with a special commitment to gender equality.  It further wants to call for a serious self-reflection of the nation and women in particular, pertaining this chronic failure to achieve the stipulated SADC quota of women in national parliaments.   

Is it now time to face it and admit that any claim to be an equal society is as false as claiming the sun rises in the west?  The election results speak for themselves – 57 male MPs in-waiting against 2 females.  No amount of denial can controvert what these figures indicate about the deeply entrenched patriarchy in this country.  It’s simply a cliché of an observation that needs no appeal to any authoritative feminist view.  

But then again, when I say women have to introspect on this I am not unaware of the fact that women in any society, Eswatini included, are not a homogeneous social group.  In this instance, I would hazard to say that it is women who have any political consciousness who need to do this.  Frankly, I do not believe grassroots women in this country who likely constitute the majority of the female electorate think twice about voting for a man.  Does anybody think differently from me? I’m ready to listen.

 In the meantime, let me declare my vested interest: I have a dream. I have a dream that this nation will turn the political rhetoric of social inclusion into a living tradition. I have a dream that as a society, we will outgrow the tokenism of “vote for a woman” campaigns and other tokenisms that reduce constitutional equality into a first-order Marxian “false consciousness”. I have a dream that one day I’ll be a father to girls who will fully enjoy growing up in a society where they will fully participation in the political life of this nation.  And so, I am not about to rest my case – trust me. 

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Saturday 1 September 2018

2011 WEB DESIGN ASSIGNMENT


WEBPAGE           DESIGN ASSIGNMENT

 

              

            BONGANI MHLANGA
Mr Bongani Mhlanga graduating in Botswana (2012)


        

INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (SWAZILAND)

 

TABLE OF CONTENT

TOPIC                                                                       PAGE

RESEARCH……………………………………………………. 3

PROJECT PLAN……………………………………………… 4

DESIGN SPECIFICATION………………………………… 5-7

CRITICAL EVALUATION…………………………………. 8-9

REFERENCES……………………………………………….. 10

 

TASK 1 - RESEARCH


  • It has got a UK map that directs visitors
  • Articles about what is happening in the camping industry
  • Quick search options with(name, country, UK post code)
  • Different popular campsite searches
  • Tents reviews, shops, company directories

 


  • It has got featured campsites
  • Clear pictures that make it easy to navigate
  • Refine search to choose from
  • Nice coloring which are attractive


  • Has got a map of UK different campsite search tools
  • Good company logo
  • Clear pictures of different campsites
  • Detailed information about each campsite
  • Easy to search tools for each campsite to get to different areas
  • Each site has all featured entries with option to e-mail them
     

SUMMARY

  • My site will have a map of the UK to direct visitors
  • It will have the quick search options(name, town, country, UK postcode)
  • It will have a logo and a theme color
  • It will have clear pictures of different campsites
  • Will have detailed information about my site and contact details
  • It will have the list of the areas that have campsites in UK



TASK 2 - PROJECT PLAN

DATE
ACTIVITY
RESOURCE
TIME FRAME
OUTPUT
25-27 Oct
Research UK campsites
IDM Computer lab
3 Days
An idea of how other campsites look like
1-2 Nov
Consultation
Students and lectures
2 Days
Gathered ideas of my webpage features
17 Nov
Drafting a project plan
Students and lectures
1 Day
Arranged events for the project
21 Nov
Verification of project plan
Tutor
1 Day
To come out with an accurate project plan
22-24 Nov
Draft design specification
Internet
2 Days
Creating a picture of the website to be designed
25 Nov
Design a final specification
IDM Computer lab
1 Day
Detailed information about the website to be designed
27-30 Nov
Start designing my website
IDM computer lab
3 Days
To see how my website will look like
1 Dec
Complete and test website
Other student’s laptops
1 Day
To come out with a good website
1 Dec
Write project analysis
IDM Computer lab
1 Day
An analytical report of my website
2 Dec
Submit my assignment
CD-ROM
1 Day
My project is complete

 

TASK 3 - DESIGN SPECIFICATION

PROPOSED DOMAIN NAME: www.enjoyholiday.co.uk

  1.  OVERVIEW OF WEBSITE REQUIREMENT

1.1 OUR NEW SITE WILL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING FUNCTION FOR OUR BUSINESS:

“We want people with little or no prior experience of camping to find a lot of information about camping in the UK.The site will provide a lot of information about guidelines to get people started with camping as a relaxing and enjoyable holiday, and will provide advices and recommendations for places to camp in the UK on-line”.

 

  1.  SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
     
    1. SEARCH ENGINE RANKING:

The website should be accessible to search engine spiders and be coded with good on-page search engine optimisation.The designer should proposed separately a budget for link building required to make the site reasonably competitive in the target market.

 

  1.  LIST OF PAGES
     
    1. HOME PAGE:

I will make it possible for a visitor to navigate to all the other resources in the website. The home page will quickly communicate the purpose of the site, be visually engaging and provide clear navigation to the rest of the site.

 

    1. CAMPING EQUIPMENT PAGE:

This page will describe essential camping equipments including pictures and brief detailed summary of equipment.

    1. CAMPSITE INFORMATION PAGE:

This page will describe essential camping facilities that are found in each campsite, including pictures of those sites.

    1. UK BEST CAMPING AREAS:

This page will describe different areas of the UK, which are good for camping. The page will provide with maps, showing areas, photographs of that area and a brief description of that area.

    1. MORE INFORMATION PAGE:

This page will provide link to other websites of interest and sources of further information.

    1. REGISTER PAGE:

This page will have HTML form which will provide an interface through which users can sign up to receive a regular camping newsletter from our organization.

    1. ABOUT US PAGE:

This page will have full details about our organization and full contacts details will be all found in this page.

 

  1.  STYLE AND LAYOUT
     
    1. OVERALL STYLE:

The site style should incorporate our corporate colors and logo.

          4.2NAVIGATION:

A common navigation bar should be included on all pages. The navigation bar will include links to all pages in the site.

 

  1. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
     
    5.1ACCESSIBILITY:

This site must comply with the standards of accessibility contained in W3C WAI (World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative) level A Guidelines.

     5.2 VALID CODE:

All code on the site should validate to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) specification

 

TASK 5   CRITICAL EVALUATIONS

THE HOME PAGE:

The home page is less informative. But it does set the proper context for visitors. It is not slow to upload. The home page does not quickly communicate the purpose of the site.

 

NAVIGATION:

The global navigation from page to page is not consistent. The major major sections have local navigation.

 

SITE ORGANIZATION:

The site is clear and easy to understand. The information has been organized and placed in a way that makes it easy to use.

 

LINKS AND LABELS:

The labels on the section headers and content grouping is easy to understand and gives a picture of what the site is all about. The links are easy to distinguish from each other. They have been listed which makes them easy to be distinguished from each other. But it is not informative like giving visitors an option like “click here” option. The links are not spread out in the documents.

 

SEARCH AND SEARCH RESULTS:

The search engine is easy to use. There are basic and advanced search functions. They are organized and easy to understand. They give relevance weightings and context. The searches do not remind visitors what they searched for.

 

READABILITY:

The font is easy to read though some have colors that are not good for reading. These include some font colors that are too faint like “grey” and those that are bright like “lime”. The line lengths are good because they are just short and straight to the point.

 

PERFOMANCE:

Pages are too quick to load which makes it to have a high performance in terms of upload speed. The site does have graphics and applications like search but does not have multimedia presentations that have been optimized for easy web viewing.

 

CONTENT:

There is insufficient depth and breadth of content offering of content or written information. The content seems to match the mission of the organization and the needs of the audience because the most information that is in the content is about camping which is the main mission of the site. The site is poorly developing its own content and is mostly using other sources content throughout their site. There is no good mix of in-depth materials like (detailed case studies, articles and white papers).there is no superficial content like (press releases, marketing copy).

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

The designing team must be so creative in a way that will attract visitors as they browse the site. The site must have well structured pictures that give the clear objective of the site. They must use graphics and applications that will give the page a dynamic nature.

 

REFERENCES









Mr Bongani Mhlanga taking a certificate from Director of IDM Botswana (2012)



 
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MY 2011 FUNDAMENTALS OF HARDWARE AND OPERATING STSTEMS ASSINGMENT


INSTITUTE OF DELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (IDM SWAZILAND)

 

 

FUNDAMENTALS OF HARDWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEMS ASSIGNMENT

 

 

 STUDENT NAME: BONGANI MHLANGA

2012 graduation in Botswana

 

 

STUDENT NUMBER: 00126860

 


 

TABLE OF CONTENT

                                                                              PAGE

TASK 1………………………………………………..3-5

 

TASK 2………………………………………………..6-8

 

TASK 3………………………………………………..9-10

 

TASK 5……………………………………………….11-13

 

REFFERENCES…………………………................14-15                                                          

 

 

TASK 1

 
PERFORMER COMPUTER
POWER PRO IV COMPUTER
MOTHERBOARDS
Foxconn “Intel H61” MB Professional Classic
Power Pro IV                                             Professional Classic
 
32 RAM
32 RAM
 
DDR3
DDR3
 
HARD DRIVE
1 TB SATA3 7200RPM
500GB SATA3 HDD 7200RPM
 
PROCESSORS
Intel Core i-5 2400
-       3.1Ghz CPU
Intel Core i3-2100
-       3.13Ghz CPU
 
MEMORY
8 GB DDR3 RAM
-       24x DVD Writer +/-
4 GB DDR3 RAM
-       24x DVD Writer +/-
 
MONITORS
24” ACER LCD Monitor
18.5” Wide LCD MONITOR
 
POWER SUPPLY
350W
 
 
MOUSE
Optical mouse
Optical mouse
 
KEYBOARDS
Computer keyboard
USB keyboard
 
NIC
DFE – 520 TX
MECER AD-1102M
 
32-bit PCI local bus master high-speed operation
Support 32-bit PCI interface
-56k modem
WINDOWS VERSIONS
Windows 7
Windows 7
 
APPLICATION SOFTWARES
Open office suite
 
 
Microsoft office 2007
Microsoft Office 2010
 
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
 
 
Educational software
 
Database software
Database software
 
 
Nero Express
 
 
Kaspersky Antivirus
 
Adobe Reader
Adobe Reader
PRINTERS
 
 
Dell 5230 DN Monochrome Laser Printer
-Very high speed
-3 years warranty
-High-volume printing
-Not
Epson B-510 DN Inkjet color printer
-High speed
-No warranty
-High-volume
-Economy
 
SERVERS
SINGLE XEON 2.13 GHZ QC
DUAL XEON 2.4GHZ/12MB QC

 



 

TASK 2

PROCESSORS
MANUFACTURE
SPEED
PRICE
Intel Core i-5 2400
INTEL
3.1GHZ
-
Intel Core i-3 2100
INTEL
3.13GHZ
-

 

 

 

MONITORS
 
 
MANUFACTURE
WIDTH
PRICE
24” ACCER LCD Monitor
 
 
ACCER
24” LCD
$200
 
18.5” SUMSUNG Monitor
 
SUMSUNG
18.5” LCD
$145

 

 

 

 

PRINTERS
 
 
MANUFACTURE
QUALITY
SPEED
ECONOMY
PRICE
 
DELL 5230 DN MONOCHROME LASER PRINTER
 
DELL
HIGH
HIGH
NO
$1000
EPSON B-510DN INKJET PRINTER
 
 
EPSON
HIGH
VERY HIGH
YES
$599

 

 

 

 

SERVERS
 
 
MANUFACTURE
WARANTY
MEMORY
SPEED
PRICE
MOTHERBOARD
SINGLE XEON 2.13GHZ QC
 
 
INTEL
3 YEARS
1TBS(Raid Rdy)
8GB ECC RAM
R 15 274.00 incl.
Intel Xeon E5606(2.13Quad.8MB)
 
 
 
INTEL
3 YEARS
3x 300GB SAS 15K HDD(Hot Plug)
16GB ECC RAM
R 27 358.00 incl.
2* Intel Xeon X5620(2.4Ghz.12MB)

 

 

 

 

MOUSE
 
MANUFACTURE
CONNECTION
PRICE
Optical mouse
 
ACCER
OPTICAL- USB
R 44 incl.
Optical mouse
 
SAHARA
OPTICAL- PS2
R 33 incl.

 

 

TASK 3


 

PROJECT PLAN

 

PROBLEM STATEMENT: Creating a standard computer lab for PC Support Technician studies.

 

MISSION STATEMENT: A standard lab that will meet the students’ needs.

 

PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

-To help the Training Institute to choose the best hardware and software for the students’ lab.

-To highlight more information about some computer components that are the best in terms of performance and cost.

-Design a high quality lab that function very well to meet the needs of the students as they undergo their training.

 

INPUTS

-Money. To fund the buying of the software and hardware’s that are needed for the Institute and for labor.

-IT specialists. They will help to implement a high quality lab.

 

PROCESSES:

-Planning the technical structure of the lab. This is how computers will be placed, the logical and physical design.

-Collect quotations from different suppliers. This will help to identify a supplier with the required products and price comparisons.

-Buying of products from suppliers. The required products as per the specification of the Institute are bought.

-Implementation of the lab by technicians. All hardware’s are installed in the lab.

-Installation of all software’s. All the application software and operating systems of the institute are installed.

-The lab is tested for functionality. This includes testing if the printer works well, if the software’s works well and other minor tests.

-The students are given some passwords for logging to the systems.

-Students are trained on how to use the systems. This might be a short training of how to use the lab.

-Payment of all hired labor is done.

-User manuals are given to the institution.

 

OUTPUTS:

-The lab is used by students. This shows the completeness of the project.


 

TASK 5

USER MANUAL FOR POWERPOINT:

POWERPOINT APPLICATION is a software program to enhance your oral presentation and to keep the audience focused on your subject during a presentation. It operates like an old fashioned slide show, but uses modern technology inform of computers and digital projectors.

 

OPENING IT:

-Go to Microsoft office 2010 in your computer.

-Click and select power point.

 

SLIDE LAYOUT:

-Each page in Power Point presentation is called slide.

-Your presentation is structured in a slide format.

 

POWER POINT BACKGROUND COLOR AND GRAPHICS:

-Backgrounds can be added to individual slides or all the presentation.

-Backgrounds for slides can be solid colors, gradient colors, textures or pictures.

 

MODIFYING POWER POINT SLIDES:

-Slides and slides layout in Power Point can be modified to your specification.

-Most slides modification is as simple as a few clicks of the mouse.

 

ADD, DELETE OR REARRANGE POWER POINT

-Just a few mouse clicks is all that is all that is needed to add, delete or rearrange slides in presentation.

 

USER MANUAL FOR INTERNET EXPLORER:

This is software is used to have access to internet.

 

GUIDELINES:

-Type the correct address at the Address Bar near the top of the page then press enter.

 

THE MAIN EXPLORER TOOLBAR:

-BACK BUTTON: This is taking you back to the previous document.

 

-FORWARD BUTTON: Takes you forward to the next document if you previously browsed multiple documents.

 

-STOP BUTTON: To stop any current document operating by internet explorer. It will stop any type of file from loading.

 

-REFRESH BUTTON: This button reload the current document that you are viewing.

 

-HOME BUTTON: This button will return you to the page you have selected as a default start-up page for Internet Explorer.

 

-SEARCH BUTTON: This button will take to the page you have selected as a default Web search page for Internet Explorer.

 

-FAVOURITES BUTTON: This button will open up the favorite menu.

 

-PRINT BUTTON: Give you an option to print the page you are viewing.

-FONT BUTTON: Give your site a font colour size that is comfortable for you to view.

 

USER MANUAL FOR MICROSOFT WORD 2010:

This is a popular word processing program.

 

GUIDELINES:

-Use the tool bar to create a page layout, font size, colors and many more.

-Delete any unwanted text from the document by simply highlighting the things you want to delete and press delete/back space in your keyboard.

-Select the font size of your file by highlighting the text and select the font size.

-Also underline, bold and make your text italic by selecting the tool bar.

 

 

REFFERENCES:

Different Types of Application Software http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-applicaion-software.html [Accessed 10/01/2012]

Types of Application Software: http://micis.jsu.edu/faculty/malam/cs201-lecture7.html [Accessed 10/01/2012]

PCWORLD EPSON B-510 DN INKJET PRINTER RIVALS COLOR LASERS WTH ITS HIGH SPEED AND LOW INK COST. [JULY 13 2010]http://www.pcworld.com/article/2009/epson_b510dn_inkjet_printer_rivals_color_lasers_with_its_high_speed_and_low_ink_cost.html [Accessed 10/01/2012]

PCWORLD DELL 5230dn monochrome laser Printer Has the Speed and features for a Busy Office [23/August/2011]

 Components of the Project Plan| Project Management Tips|| Project Management, collaboration and knowledge management Blog. http://pmtips.net?components-project-plan/ [Accessed 12/01/2012]

World Tutorials—A Guide to World Tutorials http://wordprocessing.about.com/cs/introtowor1/a/wordoutline.html? [Accessed 15/01/2012]

Tutorials-Learn to use Internet Explorer Guide http://www.newbie.org/internet_explorer/ [Accessed 15/01/2012]

 

 

 

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