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In South Africa, ‘load shedding’ takes a toll on small businesses | energy

Cape Town, South Africa – In the five years since Corner Cafe opened its doors a few meters away from the South African Parliament building in Cape Town’s central business district, it has become a popular meeting place for politicians, researchers and other locals.

But less than two years after the COVID-19 pandemic flattened business in the area and led to many closing shops, Prisca Horonga, the cafe’s owner, who works up to 12 hours and employs three people, says it is facing another existential crisis.

Since 2022, there have been scheduled blackouts, or load shedding, across the country for

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Canada added 150,000 jobs last month, 10 times what economists expected

Canada’s economy added 150,000 jobs in January, blowing past expectations for the second month in a row.

Statistics Canada reported Friday that most of the jobs — more than 120,000 — were of the full-time variety.

Canada’s economy added 150,000 jobs last month, Statistics Canada reported Friday. (Anis Heydari/CBC)

The gains came on the heels of an initial report of more than 100,000 jobs in December, a report that the data agency later revised down to just 69,000. But that still brings the two-month tally to more than 220,000 new jobs. January’s gain was also ten times more than the

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India’s Adani tries to pacify investors as watchdog probes report | Business and Economy News

Adani Group sought to reassure investors on Monday, saying it had strong cashflows and its business plans were fully funded, as an Indian regulator confirmed it was investigating a critical report by a short-seller that has battered the group’s stocks.

Led by billionaire businessman Gautam Adani, the group’s seven listed stocks have together lost about $120bn in market value since a January 24 report by United States-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation, allegations the group has been denied.

The turmoil continued on Monday, with shares in the listed companies extending

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Why You Shouldn’t Drop Your Marketing Budget in a Recession

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When the economy takes a downturn, and the word “recession” is uttered in executive offices across the country, there is often one standard response: cut the budget. For many companies, the first department on the chopping block is marketing. This is the one area of ​​business where results may seem intangible, and executives could assume — at their peril — that slicing away some of the perceived marketing fat will make little difference to the end result. The truth could not be more different.

You can switch it off — but you

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Housing Ombudsman launches consultation on 2023-24 business plan

The Housing Ombudsman has started to consult on its business plan for 2023-24. The business plan covers the second year of the Ombudsman’s 2022-25 corporate plan, which aims to deliver an independent, visible and proactive service for social housing residents and landlords.

The consultation seeks views to help the Ombudsman deliver its awareness raising and Center for Learning activities, representing two of the three strategic programs set out in the corporate plan.

The consultation comes after the request into the tragic and preventable death of Awaab Ishak. The period following the request led to another surge in inquiries and complaints

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Is Your Practice Fraudulently Billing?

Most of our clients would obviously answer ‘no’, however, some providers are submitting bills incorrectly and could be subjecting themselves to hefty fines.

We can help you stay on top of the latest news that affects your everyday life. Subscribe to stay up to date. (To subscribe to our blog ).

Recently, a Florida Cardiology group and 10 of its physicians agreed to pay $2 million to settle False Claims Act allegations.

According to the settlement, the group submitted inflated claims to Medicare and Medicaid and billed for services while they were outside of the United States.

Whistleblowers

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Some Meta employees are getting paid to do ‘zero work’ as the company embarks on a ‘year of efficiency’: Financial Times

MetaMark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that 2023 will be the “year of efficiency” for the company.Getty Images

  • Meta signaled in February it’s likely to cut more jobs this year after culling 11,000 jobs last year.

  • The company has delayed budget-setting for some teams as it gears up for the new round of layoffs, per the FT.

  • That has resulted in some staff doing “zero work” because managers have not been able to plan their schedules.

Meta’s “year of efficiency” may be starting on an inefficient note.

The tech giant — which laid off 11,000 people in November and

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FUTURE OF WORK: Remote work is more of a curse than a blessing for small businesses in Toronto | News

A shift in employment trends has seen foot traffic and subsequent sales drop in the downtown core’s local businesses, and even if outlying residential areas like Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough are able to scrape off some of that business, some of it just disappears, experts say, striking a heavy blow as small businesses grapple with COVID-19-accrued debt.

The spring 2022 survey of remote work from the Environics Institute’s latest wave of research on the topic found that almost half of employed Canadians are working from home at least some of the time.

It also found that 76 per cent

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