Author: Contributor

With the first cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus confirmed in South Africa, online cleaning service SweepSouth has announced that it has proactively started preparing domestic workers who find work using its platform on the illness. While SweepSouth is only a platform connecting previously unemployed and underemployed domestic workers looking for work with opportunities, it wants to ensure that the domestic workers who make use of its services are prepared should COVID-19 spread further in South Africa. To that effect, SweepSouth has started informing SweepStars on the symptoms to watch out for regarding COVID-19 and what actions they need to take…

Capital on Tap has revealed the number of businesses and start-ups that have been created as a result of disruptive technologies. The study highlights what industry and countries are leading the way, as well as the jobs roles that are most in-demand and the average salary you can earn in these positions. You can view the full campaign here. Disruptive technology has emerged and become embedded across all industries. From virtual reality to 3D printing, disruptive technology is now rooted in countries, industries, businesses and our day-to-day lives. But which disruptive technologies are the most popular amongst businesses and what…

by Paul Heald The current term of copyright in South Africa is life-of-the-author plus 50 years. But the US is pressuring South Africa to extend the term to life-plus-70. Since the US is a net exporter of copyrighted media, like songs, books, and movies, US copyrights earn billions in revenue yearly. The US wants to prolong this trade imbalance as long as possible and deny foreigners free access to older US works. Research I have done shows that caving in to this demand would be bad for South African consumers. This is because copyright term extensions prevent works from entering…

by Nicklaus Kruger The Zenzeleni Project has reimagined how internet services could be provided to rural South Africa by rural South Africans, giving the community access to affordable solar-powered, Wi-Fi telecommunication networks – and changing lives along the way. In the rural Mankosi community, data really has fallen, thanks to Zenzeleni Networks putting network power in the hands of the people – as Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande discovered in a visit on 5 March 2020. “South Africa has one of the lowest levels of household internet access in the world,” noted Prof Shaun Pather,…

Snapplify, EdTech Company, has acquired Onnie Media / Teacha! – an educator media hub for South African teachers. The acquisition further diversifies the Snapplify Group’s fast-growing educational portfolio and highlights the EdTech company’s already established position as a serious contender in the global e-learning market. Onnie Media / Teacha! is South Africa’s largest independent online teacher community. A media hub, resource marketplace, and careers portal – the company specialises in empowering, inspiring, and uplifting South African teachers. ‘Onnie Media’s primary goal has been to empower, inspire, and support South African teachers by building platforms that enable teachers to help one…

by Alison Gillwald In the South African President’s State of the Nation Address earlier this month Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the fact that the country’s Competition Commission had instructed mobile operators to adjust their pricing in a bid to reduce digital inequality in the country. He referred positively to a number of interventions aimed at mitigating inequality. But, in reality, these are likely to have mixed outcomes. The commission’s decision to force mobile operators to remove the ‘poverty premium’ on low-denomination, prepaid mobile bundles has been widely welcomed as something the telecommunications regulator should have done years ago. The ‘poverty premium’…

Unless you live in France, you might not think recent mass strikes over the proposed pension reforms in that country have anything to do with you. But given how fast demographics are changing around the world, that would be a mistake. If you live in Europe and your parents are getting ready to retire at the age of 65 (the statutory retirement age in many countries), you should know that today there are, on average, 3.4 working-age people to support the retirement of every person 65 and older. By 2050, the year when you might be expecting to retire, that…

by Hanan Morsy As a girl, I was taught to believe that personal agency prevails over societal biases. I was told that I could accomplish anything if I believed in myself and that sexism was not insurmountable. Later, as a woman, I found out that my parents’ advice could not have been wiser. In Africa, the gender gap in access to financial services is driven by women entrepreneurs’ own self-perception. Such perception leaves many African women on the fringes of the financial sector—unable to save, borrow, or build capital. Worldwide, women’s access to finance is disproportionately low. Despite substantial overall…

by Vikram Haksar and Emanuel Kopp Money has been around for a long time. And we have always paid for using someone else’s money or savings. The charge for doing this is known by many different words, from prayog in ancient Sanskrit to interest in modern English. The oldest known example of an institutionalized, legal interest rate is found in the Laws of Eshnunna, an ancient Babylonian text dating back to about 2000 BC. For most of history, nominal interest rates—stated rates that borrowers pay on a loan—have been positive, that is, greater than zero. However, consider what happens when the rate of inflation exceeds…

CB Insights today named DataProphet, a leader in AI that enables manufacturers to step towards autonomous manufacturing, to the fourth annual AI 100 ranking, showcasing the 100 most promising private artificial intelligence companies in the world. “It’s been remarkable to see the success of the companies named to the Artificial Intelligence 100 over the last four years. The 2019 AI 100 saw 48 companies go on to raise $4.9B of additional financing and nine got acquired,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal. “It has been gratifying to see that CB Insights’ data-driven approach to identifying the top AI companies using…