Author: Contributor

Eskom’s Group Treasurer will leave the power utility at the end of August. In a statement on Monday, Eskom announced the resignation of Andre Pillay, who has been with the utility since 2011 when he was appointed as Senior Manager for Funding Execution in the Eskom Treasury department. He was subsequently promoted to General Manager (Group Treasurer) in September 2016. The utility said Pillay’s contribution to the successful execution of treasury mandate has been immeasurable adding that it appreciates the role he played in ensuring that Eskom’s funding plans were successfully executed year after year. The utility has asked Pillay…

Startupbootcamp (SBC) AfriTech today announced the eleven best tech startups (three of whom are from South Africa) selected to be the latest cohort in the globally renowned, multi-corporate backed accelerator programme. SBC AfriTech is the African leg of a global family of industry-focused accelerators and this is the third year that it will be held on the continent. The top 11 startups chosen for the SBC AfriTech 2019 cohort are: Databotics (South Africa) incorporates Robotics Process Automation, giving customers a streamlined solution geared towards generating value for their client base with the least amount of operational effort. Rentoza (South Africa)…

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says a special bill on Eskom — aimed at finding a roadmap of the power utility’s recovery — is currently being drafted. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Gordhan said, will soon introduce a Special Appropriation Bill aimed at bolstering Eskom’s cash position soon. Gordhan on Thursday briefed journalists in Cape Town ahead of participating in a debate on his department’s budget vote in Parliament. “We have begun the work on the paper itself and we have brought all the role players together. We should have a draft very soon for government to look at,” the Minister…

by Tom Lee This article is part of our occasional long read series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity. “Design” has been one of the big words of the twentieth century. To say that an object has been designed implies a level of specialness. “Designer items” are invested with a particular kind of expertise that is likely to make them pleasing to use, stylish, or – less common in late-capitalist society – well made. Due to this positive association, design has become an “elevator word”, to borrow…

Telecommunications network provider MTN’s Zakhele-Futhi’s scheme has been found to be inconsistent with South Africa’s Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act. The BBBEE Commission on Thursday announced that the scheme, which was announced by MTN on 12 September 2016, is inconsistent with the act that provides a legislative framework for the promotion of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). “The Commission found that the black ownership held through MTN Zakhele-Futhi is contrary to the objectives of the B-BBEE Act and further that the MTN Zakhele Futhi, as a broad-based ownership scheme, did not comply with the rules in Annexe 100 (D) of…

by Miguel Da Silva Despite the important contribution small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) make to the economic growth of South Africa, the sector battles to access funding using traditional means. The biggest stumbling blocks are the risk barriers and red tape associated with traditional funding products. The underwriting systems and financials required by institutions to finance small business simply do not provide a true reflection of operating conditions. This has seen the emergence of FinTech solutions and alternative funding products that have been steadily gaining momentum. Yet most local SMEs are unaware of how and where to gain access to funding. For…

Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande says progress has been made towards the establishment of a five-year R5 billion SMME fund aimed at helping innovators commercialise their products. The Minister said this when he briefed the media ahead of tabling the department’s Budget Vote at the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon. “I am pleased to report that progress has been made towards establishing a fund that will help bring locally developed innovations into the market. “The fund is designed to largely de-risk the early stages of technology commercialization and business development. “An injection of R1 billion per year for…

From today, South African cryptocurrency traders, will be able to buy Ethereum using Rands directly on the Luno exchange at attractive launch fees of between 0% and 0.2%. Marius Reitz, Luno’s GM: Africa, says that a direct Ethereum/Rand pair will make it quicker, simpler and cheaper for customers to interact with and use Ethereum on the exchange. “We are working on a number of enhancements to our platform and this pairing has been introduced in response to demand from our customers. Previously, customers could buy Ethereum through our instant buy option but having this ability directly on the exchange makes it faster…

MyBroadband Insights has released its Q2 2019 Mobile Network Quality Report, which shows that MTN has the best mobile network in South Africa. The report is based on 330,596-speed tests which were performed by thousands of MyBroadband Android Speed Test App users across South Africa between 1 April and 30 June 2019. The research shows that South Africa had an average mobile download speed of 25.67 Mbps, up from 24.20Mbps in the previous quarter. MTN had the highest average download speed at 35.90Mbps, followed by Vodacom on 29.76Mbps, Telkom on 23.07Mbps, Rain on 17.91Mbps, and Cell C on 17.32Mbps. MyBroadband…

by Lauren Gawne We’re much more likely to be hanging out on social media than at the watercooler these days. But just because we’re no longer face-to-face when we chat, doesn’t mean our communication is completely disembodied. Over the last three decades, psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists, along with researchers from other traditions, have come together to understand how people gesture, and the relationship between gesture and speech. The field of gesture studies has demonstrated that there are several different categories of gesture, and each of them has a different relationship to the words that we say them with. In a…