Author: Gugu Lourie

SA Taxi owner, Transaction Capital, has published its financial results for the year ending March 2022, outlining the amount of money the taxi industry is spending annually to buy fuel. The group’s data reveals that minibus taxis use 2 to 3 billion litres of fuel per year. Transaction Capital said the taxi industry spent R40 billion on buying fuel in the 2022 financial year. South Africa’s petrol price breached R20 per litre in December 2021. The fuel price hike in April 2022 resulted in the highest fuel price to date at R21.609 per litre. Petrol prices are expected to remain…

South African taxi operators have earned R3.3 million rewards through the SA Taxi Rewards, a minibus taxi rewards programme, JSE-listed Transaction Capital revealed on Wednesday. The rewards programme was launched in April 2018 by SA Taxi, an independent minibus taxi financier, in collaboration with Taxi Choice, the commercial arm of the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO). The SA Taxi Rewards programme was previously known as Black Elite. The SA Taxi Rewards has 52 992 rewards cards. The programme aims to leverage the minibus taxi industry’s purchasing power to negotiate better pricing to benefit minibus taxi operators, associations and ultimately the…

Soweto-born entrepreneurs have teamed up to create a way for ordinary South Africans to buy online without entering their bank details. This innovation opens up possibilities for both businesses and customers to engage without the worry of scams. Airbuy was officially launched in 2019 with a mission to help ordinary South Africans pay and transact online more safely using their phone numbers instead of risking their banking details. This startup vision was to make paying online as simple as buying from a “Spaza Shop”. The startup was co-founded by Soweto-born Wits Alumni, Njabulo Makhathini and Tshepang Kobo. To commercialise their…

Naspers-backed car subscription company Planet42 is targeting expansion opportunities in Mexico and Brazil. Planet42 is a car subscription company that puts cars in the hands of people unfairly ignored by banks. There, every year more than 7 million second-hand cars are bought and sold, but Mexico also faces the social and economic challenge of having a large population of underbanked individuals. After developing a foothold in Mexico, Brazil is the next major market Planet42 is planning on moving into. “Mexico faces similar challenges to South Africa with an incredibly large population of underbanked professionals and substantial transport inequality,” said Grant…

Naspers-owned Takealot Group and Pick n Pay announced today that their two companies have signed a commercial services agreement which will enable customers across South Africa to buy Pick n Pay food, groceries, and liquor on a new platform on the Mr D app. This new service brings together the strengths of Pick n Pay and the Takealot Group. Pick n Pay will bring its tremendous expertise in running fresh food and grocery, its nationwide store network, and its leading Smart Shopper loyalty programme. The Takealot Group will bring its proven ability to satisfy online, its technical expertise, and its…

Online shopping is booming for Pick n Pay Clothing, which in October 2020, created its online shop to lure customers who were impacted by the spread of COVID-19. Today, Pick n Pay informed investors that online clothing sales increased 233% year-on-year, including through its strategic partnership with online retail platform Zando. The retailer also said that its clothing division made excellent progress, with sales growth of 21.0% year-on-year. “The strong performance was driven by solid market share gains across a number of women’s, men’s and childrenswear categories, for the fourth consecutive year. On a two-year compound annual growth basis, clothing…

Pick n Pay asap!, formerly known as Bottles, is delivering value as more shoppers continue to use the app. The retailer informed investors today that it has made progress against a number of its strategic priorities. The refurbishment of key Pick n Pay Select supermarkets, serving our most affluent customers, resulted in a gain in customers. Pick n Pay Clothing delivered market-leading sales growth and increased its market share across several key categories. The company said its on-demand online grocery offer was relaunched as Pick n Pay asap!, resulting in significant growth in the second half of the year. “Relaunch…

When the draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, many of us who have been studying privacy for vulnerable individuals came to a troubling realization: The marginalized and vulnerable populations whose online risks have been the subject of our attention are likely to grow exponentially. These groups are poised to encompass all women of child-bearing age, regardless of how secure and how privileged they may have imagined themselves to be. In overturning Roe, the anticipated decision would not merely deprive women of reproductive control and physical agency as a matter…

THElatest data released today shows that the value of Vodacom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, continues to scale at an impressive rate with transaction values exceeding R5.3 trillion in 2022 financial year. “Alongside M-Pesa, which is expected to further establish itself as Africa’s largest fintech provider through the implementation of an enhanced product roadmap, VodaPay will be instrumental in our quest in connecting the next 100 million African customers so that no one is left behind,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom CEO. “M-Pesa across our markets has grown to serve more than 47.1 million customers and 550 000 merchants through 510 000 agents…

Vodacom announced today that its Super App, VodaPay, is gaining traction as more customers sign up to use the platform. The VodaPay super app is available for download from Apple and Android app stores. VodaPay delivers a digital shopping, lifestyle and financial platform for consumers and businesses. “Through our sustained investments into financial, digital and lifestyle services, we remain focused on providing opportunities to enhance our relationship with the 129.6 million customers we serve across our footprint,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s CEO. “I am particularly excited about VodaPay’s high adoption rate since its launch in South Africa in October last year…