Day: December 9, 2022

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Africa’s first regional centre for biosecurity now open

Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, on Friday officially opened Africa’s first Regional Diagnostic Demonstration Centre (RDDC).

 

“The centre advances and strengthens South Africa’s biosafety and biosecurity system capabilities and its role in the Southern African region to prevent natural, accidental, or deliberate biological events,” the Minister explained.

 

Under the umbrella of the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organisation (WHO), biosafety and biosecurity capacity and competency in the Member States is identified as an area most in need of improvement.

 

Recognising this need, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) and the Defence Threat Reduction Agency Biological Threat Reduction Program (DTRA-BTRP) of the United States and Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) launched the RDDC, the first of its kind in the continent.

 

The centre, which has its headquarters in Johannesburg, Gauteng, will boost laboratory capabilities all over Africa, advancing the objective of a safe and secure Africa.

 

The RDDC will also provide specialised diagnostic training and capacity building for Africa.

 

The centre will also cover areas of viral haemorrhagic fevers and other emerging infectious diseases.

 

“Over the past decade, Africa has experienced an increased number of devastating outbreaks, including Ebola in West Africa and now the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

“Upholding robust biosafety and biosecurity systems and practices remains a critical priority for the global community, especially in mounting a response to these outbreaks,” Phaahla said.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, compounded the public health challenges experienced on the African continent where resources to respond to epidemic-prone diseases remain limited.

 

He noted that the pandemic amplified pre-existing concerns, especially in Africa about the safekeeping and handling of pathogens, samples, and other potentially harmful biological materials.

 

According to the Minister, this also prompted the construction of new laboratories with new technologies.

 

“But not all were accompanied with rigorous personnel training, robust dual-use oversight protocols, bioinformatics, cybersecurity, and physical plant security.”

 

He believes to strengthen the efficiency of responding quickly, African States need to improve their capacities in disease recognition and laboratory competence, including biosafety and biosecurity capacities.

 

Since the launch of the Africa CDC Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative in 2019, Phaahla said South African experts have played a significant role in supporting the objectives of this programme.

 

“This, and other initiatives like it, illustrates how regional collaborative action can be harnessed to implement robust structures and programmes aimed at improving health security and capabilities.”

 

The Minister believes the facility has great promise since the Africa CDC certified the RDDC as the first Regional Centre of Excellence for Biosafety and Biosecurity (RCoEBB) to offer its Regional Training and Certification Programmes for Biosafety and Biosecurity Professionals in the continent.

 

This facility, according to the Minister, will also serve as a pilot for the other four regional centres of excellence that the Africa CDC plans to establish across the continent.

 

“Therefore, there is no room for failure. It is imperative that we make a deliberate and concerted effort aimed at building regional capability to overcome identified regional biosafety and biosecurity vulnerabilities.”

 

In addition, he said South Africa is committed to building regional laboratory capacity to mitigate the spread of any infections in the event of an outbreak in the region and beyond.

 

“The role of governments in improving biosecurity and global capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious events cannot be overemphasised,” he stressed.

 

He also recognised the Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa, Christopher Cooler, who announced funding for the establishment of the RDDC as a regional centre of excellence.

 

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Anti-Corruption Day an opportunity to turn the tide against corruption

International Anti-Corruption Day, observed on 9 December every year, is an opportunity to critically reflect and consider what decisive steps to take as well as coordinate efforts in dealing with corruption, says Public Service Commission Chairperson, Professor Somadoda Fikeni.

 

“We gather here to say Anti-Corruption Day 2022 should not and cannot be business as usual given the scale of carnage caused by corruption,” Prof Fikeni said.

 

In his welcome address at the International Anti-corruption Day Summit underway at UNISA in Pretoria, Fikeni said corruption has become a national catastrophe especially for the most vulnerable such as the poor, women and the youth.

 

“It is an unsightly blemish and scar in our collective psyche and in the eyes of our citizens and the world. In the history of South Africa there have been defining and difficult moments when men and women of goodwill and unparalleled vision gathered in the face of great challenges to curve a new course and blueprint for the future,” Fikeni said.

 

The Public Service Commission and its partners have committed that this year Anti-Corruption Day should be a defining moment in the fight against corruption.

 

“We invited heads of all three branches of government, Legislature, Judiciary and the Executive as well as partnered with all Chapter 9 and 13 constitutional accountability and oversight bodies to join efforts in search of concrete interventions to turn the tide.

 

“While we acknowledge many honest, hardworking public servants, we also are acutely aware of the great damage caused by the corrupt ones,” Fikeni said.

 

He said the framers of the Constitution were quite deliberate in isolating public service values and principles and the desired state of the public service in Chapter 10.

 

“Pervasive corruption has eroded all these principles and weaponised elements of public service against the very people they are supposed to serve.

 

“… Pervasive corruption has now emerged as a powerful force with just the same destructive effect as colonialism and apartheid,” Fikeni said.

 

Chairperson of the National Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, Prof Firoz Cachalia, said the summit needed to answer urgent questions related to corruption.

 

“We do not hide from the truth that is self-evident that our democracy is being damaged by corrupt and self-serving leaders.

 

“Persons who are elected into high office in a representative democracy are required to act faithfully at all times in the interests of the people and never in the interests of themselves as an elected caste of wannabe oligarchs and plutocrats.

 

“They should also never place themselves in a relationship of dependence on private economic interests or allow such interests to capture the democratic process for their own selfish ends,” Cachalia said.

 

Among the dignitaries attending the summit are the former Public Protector, Professor Thuli Madonsela and Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

 

International Anti-Corruption Day 2022 is observed on 9 December. It is aimed at creating awareness among people about the impact of corruption on the nation.

 

Source: South African Government News Agency

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Park Place Technologies Acquires CentricsIT Global Services Division

Purchase Strengthens Park Place as Global Leader for all IT Infrastructure Solutions, as Economy and Skills Gap Challenges Impact Global Business.

CLEVELAND, Dec. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Park Place Technologies, the leading global data center and networking optimization firm, has acquired the TPM and Professional Services assets of CentricsIT, an IT services provider based in Atlanta, Georgia.

The demand for Professional Services is growing globally, driven by economic conditions and skills gaps. Park Place’s Professional Services offering will benefit from the acquisition with greater capabilities in IMAC, ITAD, Remote Hands, and deployment services, including cabling, wi-fi surveys, data center installs and refreshes, and network installations. Park Place clients will benefit from a state-of-the-art Professional Services portal developed by CentricsIT that provides real-time project status, reporting, and collaboration tools. Park Place’s Project Management Office function will be enhanced with the addition of Project Management Institute-certified CentricsIT employees worldwide. CentricsIT customers will gain access to Park Place Technologies’ unique portfolio of products and services, including automated monitoring and managed services.

Chris Adams, President and CEO of Park Place Technologies, said in addition to investing in Professional Services, Park Place continues to focus on providing exceptional customer service and support. “When acquiring businesses, we always search for companies that are intensely focused on customer service and have a similar culture and value set to PPT. CentricsIT delivers that and more,” he said. “Our combined Professional Services capabilities are evolving to meet client needs, and this will accelerate that CX agenda. CentricsIT’s EVP of Global Services, Patrick Keuller, will join the global Professional Services group. Patrick brings decades of experience and understands the growing needs of companies around the globe that are struggling to recruit skilled stafff and stretching budgets to efficiently manage their infrastructures.”

CentricsIT has been a global leader in IT lifecycle management solutions and professional services since 2007. As the company transitions its professional services and TPM divisions to Park Place Technologies, it will retain its server, storage and networking resale division.

“We’re pleased to have found the right fit in Park Place Technologies for our services practice to grow and thrive,” said CentricsIT founder and CEO Derek Odegard. “We know they will continue to excel in service delivery and client support.”

This is Park Place’s fourth acquisition in 2022.

“Agile Equity provided investment banking services to CentricsIT and facilitated the transaction,” Odegard said. “We enjoyed working with the Agile Equity team. Their expertise in the data center infrastructure industry was very beneficial throughout the transaction.”

Founded in 1991, Park Place Technologies is powered by the world’s largest on-the-ground engineering team, a robust group of hundreds of advanced engineers and its fully staffed 24x7x365 Enterprise Operations Center. Park Place leverages a global parts supply chain, automation, machine learning and a comprehensive portfolio of services and products to optimize networking and data center uptime and performance.

About Park Place Technologies

Park Place Technologies is a global data center and networking optimization firm. Powered by the world’s largest on-the-ground engineering team, a robust group of advanced engineers and our fully staffed, 24x7x365 Enterprise Operations Center, we offer a robust portfolio of IT solutions to optimize networking and data center uptime and performance. Our services include third-party data center hardware maintenance, professional services, infrastructure managed services, network performance monitoring and hardware sales. Through our unique and fully integrated DMSO (Discover, Monitor, Support, Optimize) approach, customers enjoy streamlined infrastructure monitoring and management, cost efficiencies, less chaos, and faster mean-time-to-resolution – ultimately providing the freedom to think bigger. Park Place’s industry-leading and award-winning services include Park Place Hardware Maintenance™, Park Place Professional Services™, ParkView Managed Services™, Entuity Software™ and Curvature Hardware sales. For more information, visit www.parkplacetechnologies.com. Park Place is a portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners and GTCR.

Jennifer Deutsch
Park Place Technologies
(440) 991-3105
jdeutsch@parkplacetech.com

Michael Miller
Park Place Technologies
(440) 991-5509
mmiller@parkplacetech.com

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8711279