GlobalSupplier - Daimler

News
Freightliner has launched SmartShift, a high-technology
new system that provides a convenient driver interface
for new automated mechanical transmissions available
in the market, in South Africa.
SmartShift electronically manipulates engine speed and torque
for the driver and moves the clutches in the transmission with
actuators so that a float-shift is completed without the need to use
the clutch. The clutch is used only for starting and stopping.
SmartShift is mounted to the steering column, to free up interior
space, and a small display provides information on the gear
engaged and gears available under current driving conditions.
All the driver needs to do while travelling is pull or push the
SmartShift lever to change up or down without having to use
accelerator and clutch pedals.
Bell’s best
DaimlerChrysler WAS honoured with Gold and Silver awards for being a leading supplier to Bell
Equipment at Bell’s Supplier Conference recently.
Bell, based in Richard’s Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, manufactures specialised earthmoving vehicles and equipment.
DaimlerChrysler’s Powertrain Unit (PTU) was presented with the Gold Supplier Award for Industrial Engine sales, while the
Parts Division in Pinetown won the Silver Award for Parts sales. The conference also announced the launch of Bell’s new
D-series, which are fitted with Mercedes-Benz OM500 and OM900 electronic engines.
Jane Alexander
SmartShift comes to South Africa
Bom boys
sculptor wins
Jane Alexander, a senior lecturer at
the Michaelis School of Fine Art in
Cape Town, has won the Daimler-
Chrysler Award for South African
Sculpture 2002.
One of the jurists, Harald Szeeman, curator and director of the
Department of Visual Arts, La Biennale di Venezia, Switzerland,
said her work gave form “to the fragility of a multi-cultural
society”.
“Her protagonists - a gang of street children known as the Bom
Boys - neither look at each other nor the viewer; they do not
ask for acknowledgement and exist in a nowhere land where
the difference between victim and perpetrator is blurred and
immaterial.”
The other nominees for the award were: Albert Munyai from
Venda, Langa Magwa from KwaZulu Natal, Paul du Toit from Cape
Town, Moses Seleku, Joachim Schonfeldt, Claudette Schreuders
and Minette Vari from Gauteng.
The Award is worth about R500 000 and consists of a cash prize
of DM10 000, the international production of a glossy, full-colour
31
catalogue of works, an opportunity to study for three months in
Germany or the United States and a series of solo exhibitions in
Germany and South Africa during 2002.
DCAG’s Chairman and initiator of the Award, Mr J¸rgen
Schrempp, as part of celebrations commemorating South Africa’s
National Day will present the award to Alexander at a ceremony
on May 16, 2002, in Stuttgart.
DCSA’s Management Board Member for Finance, Mr Rudi Borgenheimer,
announced that in future the Award would be under
the custodianship of DaimlerChrysler South Africa and broadened
to be responsive to the specific needs, conditions, changes and
potentials of the South African arts and culture sector.
The Bom Boys which have made Jane Alexander an internationally recognised
sculptor and helped her to win the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African
Sculpture 2002.