This month, lady luck appears to be favouring the country’s diesel drivers with the CEF’s predictions pointing to a minor diesel price drop at the beginning of April. Petrol drivers won’t be as fortunate when the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DoE) gets ’round to altering the pumps on the first Wednesday of the new month.

The prices, Mason!

It’s not worth sulking about just yet. The CEF, a state-owned energy company reporting to the DoE, might offer up the most accurate representation of South Africa’s waning or growing petrol and diesel prices, but their word is not law. That responsibility lies with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy at the end of this month.

Until that happens, the CEF’s numbers are the best we’ve got. It arrived at these figures by looking at all the same information the Department does at the end of the month, giving us a running bout of predictions to help us better prepare for the official 3 April 2024 changeover date.

That means keeping an eye on the average price of refined oil globally throughout the month, and the current Rand/US Dollar exchange. South Africa’s economic position is a major factor, with changes to load shedding or falling Rand values massively affecting the price we’ll see in April.

Read More: FNB slashes license disc renewal fee, making it the cheapest option in South Africa

Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for April 2024:

• Petrol 93: increase of 8 cents per litre (R0.08)
• Petrol 95: increase of 10 cents per litre (R0.10)
• Diesel 0.05%: decrease of 33 cents per litre (R0.33)
• Diesel 0.005%: decrease of 38 cents per litre (R0.38)
• Illuminating Paraffin: decrease of 46 cents per litre (R0.46)

Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, is currently writing a book on fibre optic cables and digital connectivity. She spent time in late 2023 aboard the ship whose crew is responsible for maintaining most of Africa’s undersea network. She spoke to The Conversation Africa about the importance of these cables.

1. What’s the geographical extent of Africa’s current undersea network?

Fibre optic cables now literally encircle Africa, though some parts of the continent are far better connected than others. This is because both public and private organisations have made major investments in the past ten years.

Based on an interactive map of fibre optic cables, it’s clear that South Africa is in a relatively good position. When the breakages happened, the network was affected for a few hours before the internet traffic was rerouted; a technical process that depends both on there being alternative routes available and corporate agreements in place to enable the rerouting. It’s the same as driving using a tool like Google Maps. If there’s an accident on the road it finds another way to get you to your destination.

But, in several African countries – including Sierra Leone and Liberia – most of the cables don’t have spurs (the equivalent of off-ramps on the road), so only one fibre optic cable actually comes into the country. Internet traffic from these countries basically stops when the cable breaks.

Naturally that has huge implications for every aspect of life, business and even politics. Whilst some communication can be rerouted via satellites, satellite traffic accounts for only about 1% of digital transmissions globally. Even with interventions such as satellite-internet distribution service Starlink it’s still much slower and much more expensive than the connection provided by undersea cables.

Basically all internet for regular people relies on fibre optic cables. Even landlocked countries rely on the network, because they have agreements with countries with landing stations – highly-secured buildings close to the ocean where the cable comes up from underground and is plugged into terrestrial systems. For example southern Africa’s internet comes largely through connections in Melkbosstrand, just outside Cape Town, and Mtunzini in northern KwaZulu-Natal, both in South Africa. Then it’s routed overland to various neighbours.

Each fibre optic cable is extremely expensive to build and to maintain. Depending on the technical specifications (cables can have more or fewer fibre threads and enable different speeds for digital traffic) there are complex legal agreements in place for who is responsible for which aspects of maintenance.

2. What prompted you to write a book about the social history of fibre optic cables in Africa?

I first visited Angola in 2011 to start work for my PhD project. The internet was all but non-existent – sending an email took several minutes at the time. Then I went back in 2013, after the South Atlantic Cable System went into operation. It made an incredible difference: suddenly Angola’s digital ecosystem was up and running and everybody was online.

At the time I was working on social mobility and how people in Angola were improving their lives after a long war. Unsurprisingly, having digital access made all sorts of things possible that simply weren’t imaginable before. I picked up my interest again once I was professionally established, and am now writing it up as a book, Capricious Connections. The title refers to the fact that the cables wouldn’t do anything if it wasn’t for the infrastructure that they plug into at various points.

Landing centres such as Sangano in Angola are fascinating both because of what they do technically (connecting and routing internet traffic all over the country) and because they often highlight the complexities of the digital divide.

For example, Sangano is a remarkable high-tech facility run by an incredibly competent and socially engaged company, Angola Cables. Yet the school a few hundred metres from the landing station still doesn’t have electricity.

When we think about the digital divide in Africa, that’s often still the reality: you can bring internet everywhere but if there’s no infrastructure, skills or frameworks to make it accessible, it can remain something abstract even for those who live right beside it.

In terms of history, fibre optic cables follow all sorts of fascinating global precedents. The 2012 cable that connected one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other is laid almost exactly over the route of the transatlantic slave trade, for example. Much of the basic cable map is layered over the routes of the copper telegraph network that was essential for the British empire in the 1800s.

Most of Africa’s cables are maintained at sea by the remarkable crew of the ship Léon Thévenin. I joined them in late 2023 during a repair operation off the coast of Ghana. These are uniquely skilled artisans and technicians who retrieve and repair cables, sometimes from depths of multiple kilometres under the ocean.

When I spent time with the crew last year, they recounted once accidentally retrieving a section of Victorian-era cable when they were trying to “catch” a much more recent fibre optic line. (Cables are retrieved in many ways; one way is with a grapnel-like hook that is dragged along the ocean bed in roughly the right location until it snags the cable.)

There are some very interesting questions emerging now about what is commonly called digital colonialism. In an environment where data is often referred to with terms like “the new oil”, we’re seeing an important change in digital infrastructure.

Previously cables were usually financed by a combination of public and private sector partnerships, but now big private companies such as Alphabet, Meta and Huawei are increasingly financing cable infrastructure. That has serious implications for control and monitoring of digital infrastructure.

Given we all depend so much on digital tools, poorer countries often have little choice but to accept the terms and conditions of wealthy corporate entities. That’s potentially incredibly dangerous for African digital sovereignty, and is something we should be seeing a lot more public conversation about.

• Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah is an Associate Professor, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
• This article first appeared in The Conversation

As for the new console’s accessories — the standalone BluRay disc drive and Slim Vertical stand will be released alongside their console counterparts on 5 April 2024. The disc drive will cost R3,000, while the vertical stand (also sold separately) will cost R700.

ORIGINAL 15/03/2024:

Seriously, it’s time to say goodbye to that first-gen PS4 you’re still holding onto. We get it. A failing economy, nostalgia, and the fact that it doubles as a mini heater in Winter makes it an enticing bit of kit. But it’s 2024. It’s time to move on and what better way to do so than with the PS5 “Slim”, which is expected to land in South Africa sometime in early April.

It might not be a “Slim” in Sony’s eyes — who insists on calling it a plain old PlayStation 5 — but the massive weight and volume reduction coupled with a facelift that doesn’t make us want to hurl beg to differ. It’s a Slim, Sony. Get over it. And it’s turning up in South Africa, and soon. That’s what South Africa’s PlayStation distributor, Gamefinity had to say on the subject.

Will the real PS5 Slim please stand up?

When Sony first launched the refreshed PS5 in November last year, it didn’t come with any technical upgrades. It’s rocking the same hardware as a regular COVID-era PlayStation 5, wrapped in a smaller, lighter and prettier package. The most notable change was the loss of the disc drive, making the “Slim” an entirely digital affair.

Don’t worry, physical isn’t dead (yet). Sony’s dreamed up a solution that’ll see customers picking up their own disc drives and installing them separately, bringing in a new revenue stream for the Japanese company.

Read More: PS5 vs. PS5 Slim – What’s the difference?

If you were hoping for a price cut once the new consoles arrived, we envy your naivety. Sony’s sticking with the current console’s RRP of R12,000 for a PS5 with a single controller and no BluRay disc drive. If you’re after a bundle that contains a disc drive out of the box, you’ll be paying R14,000 — the price of the base PS5 in store now.

The PS5 Slim without a disc drive should arrive in the first week of April, as long as South Africa’s port services remain on track. The console’s Disc Drive Edition will only arrive three weeks later, nearer the end of April, again, contingent on South Africa’s port services.

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With Table Mountain like a flicked-up collar, Cape Town has the confidence and smoothness that George Clooney-esque greying European men have. It has everything. Glorious coastlines, beautiful beaches (and 1-inch freezing cold water in the Atlantic, unless you go to the Muizenberg side, an hour’s drive away, here the warmer Indian Ocean flows passed) and scenic splendour aplenty. Unless you go in winter – where it’s both cold and windy; and rains too.

But summer is splendorous and November to March is a good time to be there. The seas are deep blue, and it’s worth the drive out along the escapement from Clifton to Hout Bay and then on the cliff-hugging Chapman’s Peak to a viewpoint that looks back on Cape Town in all her glory. Visit Robben Island – if the ferry is working.

The Grand | Haul Rd, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, 8002

The Grand is a chic beach bar with a private beach, masses of seagulls flying by and a fairly good menu if you want to eat. It’s a fun, upmarket place, with tables on the beach. Go late afternoon for sundowners. The snobbish types can be easily avoided because the view is so good.

It’s just near the Waterfront, which is a tourist trap hell and to be avoided at all costs.

Long Street | Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8001

Go drinking in Long Street. Pick a bar, any bar. It’ll do.

Woodstock is the equivalent of New York’s Soho or San Franciso’s Mission. A peri-industrial, working-class suburb that has been gentrified and is now filled with ad agencies, digital cool kids and good restaurants.

Old Biscuit Mill market | 375 Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7915

Great Saturday morning thing to do. Good food, organic “farmer’s market” and lots of craft beer. In a part of Woodstock, which is the cool part of town. Lots of great little stores nearby, selling old stuff or locally-made things.

Woodstock Exchange | Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7915

Woodstock Exchange is one of those converted factory-type spaces filled with one-off shops offering quirky furniture, hand-made leather goods, and small art galleries (mostly stocking unknown and mostly untalented artists; but staffed with earnest art snobs). San Franciscans will feel right at home.

Superette | Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7915

One of the lesser pretentious places in Woodstock Exchange is Superette, which serves wholesome food and good coffee. Again, very Mission-esque.

The alternative city guide to Cape Town, South Africa – The Guardian

Written by my friend Nechama Brodie:

“Cape Town is often described as being like a European city as if this were something African metropolises should aspire to. In some ways, it is not an entirely inaccurate description. The compact city centre, hemmed in by the harbour and the curve of Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill, is almost entirely walkable. Or, if you prefer, it’s also an easy trip on a MyCiTi bus or a hop-on, hop-off open-top Red Bus.

“The “grachts” – Buitengracht, Heerengracht, Keizersgracht – all sit above what were once freshwater canals, running from the mountain to the sea (gracht is the Dutch word for canal). The early Dutch-era street grid has been overlaid with later Victorian structures, and there are clusters of 20th-century brutal modernist buildings pointing towards the Foreshore (which is built on land reclaimed from the sea).

“Long Street has an assortment of bars, clubs, backpackers’ lodges, shops and restaurants. Just two blocks up, Bree Street, particularly between Buitensingel and Strand, is a little less frenetic and much more stylish. And there are hundreds of other little spots to be discovered, not just on the trio of Long, Bree and Loop Streets, but in the side alleys in between.”

Teetering on the good end of ‘mid-range’, the C67 is Realme’s latest smartphone to land on South Africa’s shelves. It’ll fetch R7,500 or R400/m if you pick it up on an MTN contract. Customers under the Vodacom umbrella will have to wait until April, unfortunately.

No fakers here

If you asked Realme, they’d tell you this is a great smartphone for “trendsetters everywhere”. If you asked us, we’d tell you it seems like a great smartphone for anyone sporting less than five digits in their bank account although we’ll need to get our hands on one to confirm that. It certainly helps that the C67 features one of the largest main camera sensors you can get in a mid-range device, clocking in at 108MP. The Snapdragon 685 processor, 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB storage specs aren’t shabby, either.

One downside of this particular Qualcomm chip is the lack of 5G support. It’ll hit those 4G notes just fine, but in a land where 2G and 3G are on the chopping block, we’d have liked to see a tad more support included.

It might lack the gaming chops necessary to run PUGB Mobile at the highest settings, but less-intensive titles will benefit from the C67’s 90Hz on offer from the 6.72in LCD display.

Read More: The Realme C51 smartphone is new in South Africa and wants your budget bucks

Realme’s blown most of the budget to get the C67’s camera spec into triple-digit territory. In turn, the accompanying macro and selfie shooters took a minor hit, brandishing 2MP and 8Mp sensors respectively. It might be worth familiarising yourself better with the phone’s other end for an Instagram-worthy post.

The second most notable feature is the 5,000mAh battery lodged inside. Not only does it put the C67 on par with Samsung’s finest, but it actually beats the Galaxy S24 and S24+ with its 33W charging capabilities. Whether the on-paper victories translate into real-world usage remains to be seen. But for R7,500 we doubt there’ll be many complaints.

And if you’re at all worried about the seedy pub around the corner favouring the weekend’s sparse Premier League fixtures rather than the clash between Liverpool and Man United, stop it. Showmax has just announced that it’ll be broadcasting the Emirates FA Cup quarter-finals this weekend – with no disruptions to its Premier League broadcasting and at no extra cost.

FA Cup: not without some sacrifice

Obviously, streaming the matches through Showmax’s Premier League tier means there are a few caveats to keep in mind. For one, the streamer’s Premier League tier is a mobile-only option, meaning you’ll be forced to watch Man United’s thrashing of Liverpool through a 6in display, or if you have one handy, a tablet.

And two, there’s currently no way to access Showmax’s Premier League tier without sacrificing the R70/m fee. There is currently no ‘free trial’ option available that would unlock access to the matches for free.

Showmax’s announcement only details this weekend’s FA Cup quarter-finals and doesn’t mention the tournament’s subsequent semi-finals or final match. Stuff spoke with a Showmax representative, who confirmed the streamer will only be showing the quarter-finals for now, though it didn’t rule out the possibility of broadcasting the semi-final and final matches down the line.

Not a fever dream

Fortunately, Showmax is sweetening the deal in the hopes of getting new football fans through the door. Alongside the FA Cup broadcast announcement, the streamer unveiled Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League – a four-part documentary “that takes viewers on a mesmerising journey through the inception and evolution of the English Premier League.”

It is said to feature the likes of David Beckham, Alan Shearer, and Eric Cantona and “unravels the gripping tale of how the Premier League transformed into the global powerhouse it is today.”

If documentaries aren’t your thing, a trip to the UK might just be. Showmax is hosting a competition that’ll send four subscribers and their partners to the UK to watch a Premier League match live. To enter, customers — new and returning — must subscribe to the R70/m Showmax Premier League tier between 8 March 2024 to 31 March 2024.

For more information and the competition’s Ts & Cs, go here.

What can get into my water that will make me sick?

Two things.

You can have chemicals in the water that are toxic, or you can have pathogenic organisms which can make you ill. These lead to different diseases and have different treatment strategies.

As a general rule, South Africa’s water works are able to remove almost all chemicals such that the water is safe to drink. The water treatment works also disinfect the water, killing harmful bacteria and viruses. This is primarily done with chlorine, but the water is overdosed slightly. This leaves a little chlorine in the water for “residual” disinfection. The residual chlorine travels with the water down the pipe to the reservoir and into your home, keeping the water pathogen-free. Pathogens include viruses, bacteria and small animals such as worms and larvae.

This is why the water from taps sometimes smells a little like chlorine. This is a good thing. It means your water is safe.

Is my tap water safe to drink?

As a rule, the answer here is yes, but probably only if you live in a big city. If there is a continuous supply of water, the pressure in the pipe prevents contaminants from entering the pipeline. And if the water has residual chlorine in it, that means the supply to your home is good.

Unfortunately, this relies on drinking water treatment works functioning properly, which is not always the case. The department of water and sanitation runs an auditing process of the water treatment works and the water they supply. The results are released as Blue Drop reports. Johannesburg has been classified as having excellent quality of supply, both chemically and microbiologically. However, the overall scores in Gauteng, the province Johannesburg is located in, are dropping even though they are still high.

Across the country 46% of drinking water is classified as “unacceptable” and scores of towns and cities have substantially declined in the last decade. The latest Blue Drop report shows a decreasing quality of drinking water supply across South Africa.

My water supply has been interrupted a lot. Is my tap water safe to drink?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question may not be yes, depending on a range of factors.

If there is no water in the pipe, and there is an underground sewage leak near the water pipe, or contaminated storm water near the pipe, there’s a real possibility that contaminated water can enter the pipe. Or, if maintenance work is done on a pipeline, as happens after any major leak, there is no real way to prevent soil and external untreated water entering the pipeline.

As water supply returns, this “first flush” down the pipe has the potential to contain contaminants. Because there is no way to know what it looks like underground around the pipe, it is sensible to protect yourself as water returns. You can protect yourself by flushing your taps until the water is fully clear. I would recommend that you wait until after the air has finished exiting the pipe and give it another minute or so, or until fully clear. Collect this water in a bucket for watering plants or flushing toilets. Once the water is clear, your quality should be similar to the bulk supply.

If you are worried, boil the water before use.

If your water remains brown or discoloured, report it and drink purified water.

I get my water from a mobile water tanker. Is this safe to drink?

Here the answer is supposed to be yes. But there are far too many instances of unscrupulous, roaming water tanker suppliers selling water, especially in areas with no access to safe tap water.

Since water supplies have become less dependable, the state has turned to businesses to supply water to communities. This has developed into a big business, as is clear from the size of one of Johannesburg’s tenders for vacuum trucks (honeysuckers) and water tankers. As a result, fraud and collusion are on the rise.

Read More: From waste to clean water: tiny carbon particles can do the job

Unfortunately having no access to piped tap water is the daily reality more than 4 million South Africans. If this is the case, it is sensible to purify the water.

What are the diseases that make drinking water unsafe? How are they spread?

There are a number of water-borne diseases that can cause very serious illness and death.

When water is sent to a laboratory for testing, the first test is for an organism called Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

E. coli is found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded animals. It does not necessarily cause disease. But if it is found in the water, there is absolute certainty that the water has been contaminated with faecal matter which has not been properly treated. This is why it is used as a screening tool for more serious diseases which are also spread through faecal matter.

Not all water that has E. coli will have pathogens. But the presence of E. coli is a serious warning that there is a high chance of other pathogenic organisms in the water such as cholera.

Cholera is caused by a bacterium found in the faecal matter of sick people. It is highly contagious and can spread by contact mainly from drinking contaminated water, food or from unwashed hands. The symptoms of cholera are watery diarrhoea (runny tummy), vomiting and leg cramps.

If I store water in bottles, how long before it’s unsafe to drink?

This is a really tricky question to answer. There are too many factors that can cause your water quality to deteriorate. For example, is the cap of the bottle open? How warm is the water? Is the container very clean or just rinsed? Water safety cannot be fully assured without analysing the actual water.

At the Centre of Water Research and Development we are doing research partly funded through the Water Research Commission to develop test strips to give a rapid analysis of drinking water quality that can easily be understood by the general public.

But I’d recommend that you try not to keep water for too long. Preferably not more than a day. And if you do, then boil or purify the water before drinking it.

Is purifying water difficult?

At the University of the Witwatersrand we commissioned a short animation in all of South Africa’s 11 official languages as well as French and Portuguese on how to prevent cholera transmission and how to purify your water to ensure you stay safe.

We have also shared guidance on how to purify your water to make it safe.

• Craig Sheridan is a Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
• This article first appeared in The Conversation

Pick n Pay renewals no more

Pick n Pay did not announce the service’s departure from its bouquet of offerings traditionally, instead contacting MyBroadband in an attempt to remove the retailer’s name from the outlet’s list of available licence disc renewal services offered around the country, simply noting that it “no longer offered this service at present.”

Visiting Pick n Pay’s online portal for disc renewal submissions led us to a similar notice — “Please note that we no longer offer this service.”

According to the Wayback Machine, as of 3 October 2023, Pick n Pay’s portal noted that the service had been taken offline and that Pick n Pay “will soon launch [its] exciting new Licence Disc Renewal Service!” It isn’t yet clear if those plans to launch a revamped service are still in play, as the portal’s current iteration does not mention anything about a revamped ‘Licence Disc Renewal Service.”

Read More: Why should we pay for our SABC TV licence?

Should Pick n Pay’s old plans eventually come to fruition, it’s likely to bring with it new features and a far reduced price in an attempt to counter FNB’s R100/renewal fee (now R70 until 30 June 2024). Despite numerous price cuts to Pick n Pay’s service while it was still alive, it was still the most expensive option, charging R240 for a renewal, plus a hefty R100 delivery fee.

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Eskom’s taking us for a hike

It’s not as though Eskom is coming out of left field with this one. These plans have been in the works since early 2023 when The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved a massive 33.77% tariff increase split over two years. 2023 took the brunt of the hike — swallowing an 18.65% increase, while 2024’s residential homepower rates will be going up by 12.74% in April.

Had the Democratic Alliance (DA) been successful in its attempts to thwart Nersa’s approved increase, we might’ve been sitting with far lower prices. The DA described the two-year 33.77% increase as “astronomical”, noting that the hike had the potential to price electricity out of many South African residents’ incomes.

When it attempted to get the High Court involved, it dismissed the case — ruling in favour of Nersa’s hike.

“All relevant factors have properly and in detail been considered, the conclusions reached were neither arbitrary nor irrational and the issue of cross-subsidisation was considered at the appropriate stage,” the High Court judgement stated. “The High Court, therefore, found that both the review applications of the DA and SALGA (The South African Local Government Association) must fail.”

Read More: How to find out if you qualify for Free Basic Electricity in South Africa, and how it works

After the 12.74% comes into effect next month, it’ll bring the tariff up to 195.95c/kWh — up from 2023’s 173.8c/kWh. But how will that affect your bottom line on your bill come April? Well, it depends. Houses that use, on average, 600kWh per month will see an extra R168.24 no matter which Homepower tariff they are on.

Bringing that up to 900kWh of electricity each month, residents in the Homepower 1 bracket will pay an extra R398.52, while those in the Homepower 2 and 3 brackets will see a R388.53 increase. Homepower 4 customers have a R405.81 increase to look forward to.

Eskom customers that use around 1,200kWh/m are looking at an increase of around R518.04 and R541.08, depending on which tariff they fall under. Houses that use as much as 1,500kWh/m can expect a R664 hike under the Homepower 1 umbrella, R648 for Homepower 2 and 3 customers, and R676 for those in the Homepower 4 bracket.

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The fun involved includes a decent store-wide sale on Switch consoles, games, and accessories — both online and in-store (check out what we thought of that) — and a competition that’ll see someone pick up a Switch bundle worth R10,000. So… a Switch and there might just be enough left over for a game or two. We’d recommend Super Mario Bros. Wonder or Odyssey, but we doubt Nintendo will let you do the picking.

There’s a fire! (sale)

The sale isn’t particularly special aside from a couple of standout items. The obvious leaders are the two Switch consoles on sale — the Switch OLED Mario Red Edition (for obvious reasons) or a plain ol’ Switch with a physical copy of Wonder for R8,000. That’s important. Seriously. Give it fifteen years, and it’ll pick up a couple of grand on eBay, easily.

The game that’s been slashed down the most is WarioWare: Get it Together! selling for R500 — R600 off the initial retail price. We’re not sure why you might want a Mario-branded SD card for the Switch, but we won’t stop you. Nintendo’s cut the price from R1,400 for a 256GB card to R700. Something similar fetches a lower price on Takealot, but we’re not telling you how to spend your money.

There are around five pages of sales explore, which you can do here.

O MAR10? Wherefore art thou, Mario?

As for the people who aren’t so interested in actually paying Nintendo, the company is running a competition that’ll win one lucky person a Switch hamper worth over R10,000. All you need to do is head to Nintendo’s official store in Sandton and… find Mario. Simple enough.

Find the fella (pictured above) sometime between 10:00 and 16:00 on Saturday or Sunday (9-10 March), snap a picture with him, and post it to social media using the tag #MAR10Day_SA and tag @NintendoSADistributor and @SandtonCityMall in the same post. Make your way back to the official store — use the Switch on display, play a round of Mario Kart (using Mario), and have a store representative mark off your lap and enter you into the competition.