By Tendani Mantshimuli, consumer economist, Liberty
Indicators to watch in the year ahead.

A possible global recession
Economic performance in 2012 is not expected to be much of an improvement on what we experienced in 2011. Global economic developments will still have a major impact on the domestic economy. Since it doesn’t look like the European economy will strengthen in a meaningful way; the OECD[1] is even forecasting a mild recession.

Also, the US sovereign debt problems have not been resolved. As 2012 is an election year, it might actually make resolutions more difficult to reach.

These developments might lead to a very bleak global economic outlook which will result in our growth remaining weak. Consequently, we cannot hope to see our exports faring well, which will have an impact on manufacturing performance in the year. As things stand now there is no indication that the SA economy might slide into a recession in 2012, but this is dependent on events outside of this country.

The rand and rising prices
The strength of the rand will be another thing to watch out for. A significant deterioration in the rand will have a negative influence on inflation developments.

International food prices and higher petrol prices are partly behind inflation being over the upper target band. While oil prices are high they haven’t been increasing steeply, so most of the increases we’ve seen in petrol prices were related to the weak rand. The weakness of the rand recently has been related to risk aversion and investors selling off emerging-market assets as a result of eurozone problems, not a result of SA economic fundamentals. Administered prices[2] will still continue to pose an upward risk to inflation. Eskom will be adding another tranche of the higher tariffs they requested from the energy regulator to finance power stations. These are mainly cost-push pressures, in other words created by the supplier rather than consumer demand, so an increase in interest rates would not be very effective against this type of inflation.

A concern for the SARB[3] will be if these price increases feed into expectations of higher salaries which will then influence wage negotiations; and so the spiral in price increases will become generalised throughout the economy.

What will happen to interest rates?
2012 will be a year of increasing inflation and weak economic growth; at least for the first half of the year. This will make the SARB’s job a bit tricky. Reading between the lines it is clear that price stability remains the primary focus of the bank. The bank is right to focus on inflation because higher prices affect everyone negatively, particularly low income earners; the rands you have at the beginning of the year should be able to buy more or less the same number of goods at the end of the year.

Currently the inflation rate for lower-income earners is 7.8%, well above the national average. The bank will have to fulfil their mandate of maintaining price stability while monitoring global economic developments and the potential impact on the domestic economy. This was made clear in the MPC[4] statement. The MPC is aware of the dangers of the worsening euro area crisis, and its possible effects on the global and domestic economy and on inflation. Should the need arise, the MPC will act and could even cut rates.

Article supplied by Liberty

Date: 14 December 2011
Time: 10:00-12:00
Venue: 65 Meerut Road Westville
Entrance: R10 (adult) kids free
Bring a partner to promote your books while you are browsing
Carry small denominations of cash for change
Attach a price to each book
Contact: Khadija Lockhat
082 555 1431
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khatija@lockhat.com
www.kidenuf.wordpress.com

Kindly advice us about available grants in this regard. Individual and other donations to facilitate the project are requested. We have received some help from the World Islamic Call Society and contacted many other and still await responses.
Dr Basheer B L Shabangu
basheer@realnet.co.sz
www.theiyos.org
Islamic Youth Organization of Swaziland.
Tel 00268 2505 8355 direct 00268 2505 5110
Mobile 00268 7602 1747.

Ladies Contact for Programmes Abeeda and Penelope 00268 7602 1982 (programmes include preschools with madressa, domestic and women and child anti-abuse campaigns, agriculture-dairy, poultry, goats, sports and dawah, etc)

Sara submitted the following recipes:

Chicken sosaties

1kg Goldi chicken breasts (cut in big cubes)

MARINATE IN:

1¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon red chillies

3 tablespoon mayonnaise

3 tablespoon Italian salad dressing

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Other items

1 bottle pickled onions

Pineapple cubes

3 green and red peppers

METHOD:

1. Put the cubes of chicken on skewers with pickled onions, peppers,
pineapple cubes (as desired).

2. Baste with butter and braai

3. Serve on platters with sauce.

SAUCE:

125g melted butter

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

2 tablespoon mayonnaise
lemon juice to taste

Crushed garlic

METHOD:

Boil together and pour over chicken sosaties.

Braai chicken breasts

12 Goldi chicken breasts

2 tablespoon lemon juice

salt to taste (± 2½ teaspoon)

½ cup yogurt

½ cup cream

2 tablespoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

2 teaspoon roasted and ground jeeru

2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coarse black pepper

ghee or butter

Make incisions on the chicken breasts and rub in lemon juice, and salt. Refrigerate for a few hours

Mix the rest of the ingredients and marinate drumsticks for two hours

Braai, basting with ghee or butter.

Braai chicken masala

1 Goldi chicken, cut up into pieces for braai

1 teaspoon ginger garlic

1 tablespoon crushed red chillis

1 tablespoon mustard sauce

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoon flour

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients and marinate chicken. Braai while basting with oil.

Here are some of the entries received so you can start preparing for tomorrow….

Chicken sosaties

1kg Goldi chicken breasts (cut in big cubes)

MARINATE IN:

1¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon red chillies

3 tablespoon mayonnaise

3 tablespoon Italian salad dressing

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Other items

1 bottle pickled onions

Pineapple cubes

3 green and red peppers

METHOD:

1. Put the cubes of chicken on skewers with pickled onions, peppers,
pineapple cubes (as desired).

2. Baste with butter and braai

3. Serve on platters with sauce.

SAUCE:

125g melted butter

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

2 tablespoon mayonnaise
lemon juice to taste

Crushed garlic

METHOD:

Boil together and pour over chicken sosaties.

Braai chicken breasts

12 Goldi chicken breasts

2 tablespoon lemon juice

salt to taste (± 2½ teaspoon)

½ cup yogurt

½ cup cream

2 tablespoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

2 teaspoon roasted and ground jeeru

2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coarse black pepper

ghee or butter

Make incisions on the chicken breasts and rub in lemon juice, and salt. Refrigerate for a few hours

Mix the rest of the ingredients and marinate drumsticks for two hours

Braai, basting with ghee or butter.

Braai chicken masala

1 Goldi chicken, cut up into pieces for braai

1 teaspoon ginger garlic

1 tablespoon crushed red chillis

1 tablespoon mustard sauce

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoon flour

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients and marinate chicken. Braai while basting with oil.

Thanks to S Khan for the above

TAGLIETELLE ALFREDO!!!

Ingredients:

1/2packet alfredo(250g)
3 pieces fillet chicken cubed(250g)
1tsp fine salt
1 tsp grounded green chillies
1/2 tsp aromat
1tsp robertsons chicken spice
1tsp garlic
1tsp black pepper pwder
1 med green pepper cubed
1/2 punnet mushrooms saute in garlic butter
6 salami/polony slices(slice into strips n cut in 1/2)
1/2 (125ml)tub fresh cream
2tblsp flour
1 packet floyds/knorr mushroom sauce(or chick&mushroom pasta sauce).

METHOD:
Boil alfredo wit salt and 1tsp oil to avoid it from getting stuck. Cook chicken with spices,add cubed peppers. Make a paste with flour-add to chicken! Add fresh cream!Empty knorr/floyds sauce in mug-add boiling water-mix we’ll then add to chicken! Add alfredo to chicken-mix wel!mix saute mushrooms and add fried salami(macon) in2pasta.top wit grated cheese(optional).heat in oven before serving!

Thanks to Zakira Essack (Durban) for the above

Ingredients

GRILLED LIME CHICKEN BREASTS

Chicken breasts – (boneless, skinless)
1 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon Honey
3/4 cup Water
1/2 teaspoon Fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Ground thyme
2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Fresh ginger – (peeled, grated)

Combine all the ingredients except chicken in blender or food processor. Process until combined well. Pour over chicken.

Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Grill over hot coals, turning once, until done.

Garnish with lime slices.

From ‘faymeera’

Send recipes to info@muslimmums.co.za or post below before 5pm.

Bring the kids and let us all together experience the spectacular 2nd Children of Islam Jalsah in commemoration of the 1400th solar anniversary of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an. With an attendance of 5000 it is dubbed as the “Biggest Gathering of Children in Gauteng” – an interactive programme by children for children – featuring qiraats, nasheeds, plays, skits, displays, thikr, the thundrous sounds of Takbir and more…

Ellis Park Arena (formerly the Standard Bank Arena), Johannesburg
Sunday, 25 September 2011 / 9am to 1pm

BOOK NOW AT COMPUTICKET. R100 per person. LIMITED SEATS!
www.computicket.co.za Tickets obtainable at all Checkers/Shoprite outlets.
(NB. All computicket proceeds towards defraying costs of invited school/madressah children attending).

Enquiries and information: info@awqafsa.org.za www.awqafsa.org.za
Contact: Faizel 0824516462 Shakera 0827759448 Zeinoul 0828768027
Click here to view poster www.awqafsa.org.za

The website evolved from a spread sheet that was being distributed via email and the idea then came about to have a user-friendly website dedicated to mosques in South Africa. The website was officially launched in May this year and received very positive feedback both locally and internationally.

The main feature is the dedicated page that can store almost unlimited information for each mosque. Mosque pages are searchable per area within each province. Mosques can be added to the website or updated via the website’s online form. Each page includes physical location, contact details, a Google map including street view, GPS coordinates and other information that is relevant and has been made available to us.

There is a blog feature for recent news related to mosques and website activity that visitors can subscribe to via RSS and Email. For those using social media the website can be followed via Twitter and our Facebook fan page. We also started an online photo album – using the popular Google Picasa – many of the photographs have been submitted by the public.

Readers can also subscribe to any specific mosque(s), comment on that mosque page and receive email notifications as others comment without subscribing. This acts as a virtual noticeboard where visitors can share events and news relating to that mosque.

Finally, we have a GPX file that was sent to us that can be downloaded and then uploaded to a GPS device which is preloaded with a number of Mosques and places to pray in Southern Africa. We also have a page that displays all these locations as an interactive Google map.

Going forward we are looking at listing other Southern African countries and perhaps someday all Muslim places to pray in Africa.

The public can assist by visiting the website, spreading the word and assisting in information correction, sending photographs and even videos. You can submit a Mosque by completing the online form or simply leave a comment on a mosque page and we will update the information accordingly. Our biggest challenge is getting information updated as the website has a national target base and we rely on public feedback and currently have no commercial backing.

Organisations and businesses may contact us for advertising opportunities.

We would appreciate any constructive criticism, comments or suggestions which can be sent anonymously via our contact page so we can identify user trends to further enhance the website experience.

Visit us at www.masjids.co.za or for more information email us at info@masjids.co.za

Recipes can be posted as comments below or emailed to info@muslimmums.co.za

Astral is a leading South African integrated poultry producer. Key activities consist of animal feed pre-mixes, manufacturing of animal feeds, broiler genetics, production and sale of day-old chicks and hatching eggs, integrated breeder and broiler production operations, abattoirs and the sale and distribution of various key poultry brands.

EDITOR’S NOTE: ASTRAL FOOD PRODUCTS IN SOUTH AFRICA ARE CERTIFIED HALAAL BY THE MUSLIM JUDICIAL COUNCIL (MJC)