Author: Contributor
by Carla Lever Bobi Wine has come a long way in two years. The self-styled “Ghetto President” of Uganda used to be a music star, playing politically charged reggae beats to packed houses. In 2017, the politics took over. Donning a red beret, he formed the People Power movement, running a successful grassroots campaign to be elected as a parliamentary representative. Now, he’s challenging Yoweri Museveni for the presidency in 2021. In two years, Wine’s red beret has become synonymous with a fiery spirit of Ugandan resistance, long since thought to be extinguished after 33 years of ironclad rule by…
As South Africans prepare to celebrate the festive season, MTN has been hard at work capacitating its network in high density areas and tourist hotspots in order to carry increased voice and data traffic over the festive season. Operations are underway to cater for additional coverage and capacity requirements in selected hotspots. The areas that have been identified for network optimisation are major routes including the N1 which connects Cape Town and the Limpopo, the N3 which links Gauteng and Durban, the N12 which connects Johannesburg and the Garden Route, the N2 which links Cape Town and Durban, the N4…
The arrival of Summer is the perfect opportunity for young South Africans to log onto the worldwide web and claim their digital identities within the dotZA (.ZA) and dotAfrica (.africa) namespaces. “Schools are out and the youth are now able to turn their bright young minds towards implementing what should be their number one digital resolution for 2020: securing their digital identities in cyberspace,” says ZACR CEO, Lucky Masilela. “Young people helped lay the foundation for South Africa’s democracy and they must now turn their attention to building the digital identities that will be so crucial to their…
by Byron Clatterbuck Africa may be a growing hub of digital innovation, particularly noticeable in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos – with companies in these metropolitan areas taking advantage of high-speed fibre connections to embrace the cloud and develop new business models and processes. These leading-edge companies are connecting with their peers more-and-more at a regional and global level. As a key part of this digital evolution, the Content Delivery Networks, the Content Providers, Hyper-Scalers, and the Cloud-based Service Providers are increasingly moving their capabilities, content and infrastructure to Africa. It’s easy to forget how far we’ve come in…
FNB is now expanding the Smart IDs and Passports service to its customers in Limpopo. The bank’s customers in the province can now apply via the online system of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and be able to collect their Smart IDs and Passports at FNB’s Burgersfort branch. The booking process for ID and 2nd passport documents is facilitated through eChannel, a Home Affairs online booking portal that captures the applicant’s personal details. Once the application has been processed online, the customer can schedule a booking to visit one of the designated branches for finger print verification. The final…
by Alan Kelly I have a radical suggestion: let’s ban processed and ultra-processed foods. Not the products, but the terms. With so many diet plans and nutritional instructions offering such varied advice on how to eat healthily, a simple message like avoiding processed food is understandably attractive. As a result, some journalists, social media influencers and even health charities and academics have gathered behind the idea that processed food is bad for you – and so-called ultra-processed food is even worse. This position has been taken to detailed extremes, with commandments not to eat food with more than five ingredients,…
by Genavee Brown Phones, tablets and laptops are usually at the top of many teenage wish lists at Christmas. But parents often worry that giving their children a mobile phone might mean they never see them again. Will they stay locked away in their room for the whole Christmas break? It turns out that might not be such a bad thing. In a recent study, we found that talking online and texting actually strengthened friendships more than just spending time in each other’s company. Rather than neglecting relationships and encouraging insularity, having a phone meant that young people were more…
Mr D Food is a truly South African technology business, started and run by South Africans. Its origins trace back to the days of Mr Delivery in 1992 when ordering was done via the phone from printed menus on the fridge. After a technology-led transformation, Mr Delivery became Mr D Food and is now South Africa’s leading online food delivery business, with over 100% year-on-year growth. It has already grown by more than 10 times in the past two and a half years. It is one of South Africa’s resounding technology success stories and a hub for ambitious individuals seeking…
by Angus Brown Despite crypto being unregulated in South Africa, the current regulatory stance is that South Africans may buy any cryptocurrency assets, store them and pay for goods and services. Like art and jewellery, even though cryptocurrencies are not registered as financial security, it is still legal to own and use them. At Centbee, we’ve provided detailed commentary and recommendations to the Intergovernmental FinTech Working Group (IFWG), which has been well-received by the regulators. We strongly believe that regulation supporting cryptocurrencies is necessary to protect customers. We have been a prominent voice in the South African and global media…
by Bitange Ndemo Africacross the world, the conversion of information into a digital format – also called “digitalisation” – has increased productivity in the public and private sectors. As a result, virtually every country in the world is working towards a digital economy. As this new economy evolves, special skills like computer programming are needed. This is like a language of numbers, known as code, which allows people to write instructions that are executed by computers. The goal is to create something: from a web page, to an image, to a piece of software. Early coding languages emerged in the…