Author: Gugu Lourie
South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has no dedicated staff assigned to assist with the grant funding appeals process of the Special R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD). Bridget Masango, a DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, reveled on Thursday that SASSA was relying on 10 staff members to deal with appeals, in addition to their other responsibilities. “That is 10 people who need to assess thousands of rejected applications.” This was revealed in a Parliamentary question submitted by the DA to the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu. In winding down the system, both the final payment date and…
The shares of Etion spiked Wednesday on anticipation of the struggling JSE-listed company announcing disposal of its various operating subsidiaries/divisions. The diversified digital technology company announced the end of October 2020 that it is considering selling off business units to create shareholder value for its investors. Etion stock open on Wednesday at 35c share, up 2.94% giving the company R191 million market value. The stock has spiked 17% in the past seven days. In the past 30 days, Etion stock swelled by more than 112% and more than 200% in the past 90 days. “The upward stock push driven by…
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has issued its 2020 South Africa FinTech study, which points out that the financial technology market is growing fast. The study uncovered that there are 220 active and operational FinTechs in South Africa and this number is expected to grow as technology adoption increases. The pace of change and innovation in the FinTech space in South Africa is rapid and on the rise. It has become even more so in the last year as the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic drove widespread digital adoption and catapulted upstart FinTech firms into the mainstream. This…
Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has signed her performance agreement with President Cyril Ramaphosa promising to cut data prices by 50%. “As stated in the State of the Nation Address on 13 February 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed performance agreements with all Ministers to strengthen the capacity of the State and increase accountability, “These agreements – which are based on the targets contained in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework – will be made public so that the people of South Africa can hold those who they elected into office to account. The agreement between Ndabeni-Abrahams and President Ramaphosa was signed on…
South African Convergence Partners, which is owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba, has spent R75 million ($5 million) to acquire an additional stake in fast-growing FinTech Player Channel VAS. Convergence Partners exercised preferential and exclusive rights to acquire the stake as a result of an intra-consortium rebalancing of the holdings of another member of the Ethos consortium through which Convergence Partners is partially invested. Last week private equity firm Ethos announced that it has sold its 1.4% stake in FinTech player Channel VAS. The company said it has has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of $5 million (R76.6 million). Ethos…
New Wave, a company co-owned by ICT industry veteran Phumlani Moholi has been awarded a contract for smart power management by SqwidNet, an Internet of Things (IoT) network operator in South Africa. Moholi’s company said this partnership will see New Wave undertaking to deploy and manage 1500 CabiSense devices in Sqwidnet’s network over a period of 3 years. “CabiSense is a network and power infrastructure solution that we’ve created and manufactured locally. It is designed to enhance the monitoring and management of network elements remotely in a manner that’s geared towards improved cost-efficiency and increased network availability,” says Moholi, an…
MTN Group announced on Friday it had appointed Tsholofelo Molefe as a new Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO). Molefe has resigned with immediate effect at Telkom.Molefe, joined Telkom on 1 July 2016 as Deputy CFO and was appointed as Group CFO two years later. In her two-year tenure, she derisked the balance sheet, optimised working capital management through structural changes and enhanced the capital allocation framework to focus on return on investment. Prior to working at Telkom, Tsholofelo was the Finance Director at Eskom as well as the CFO for First National Bank’s Personal Banking division. She is also a…
Telkom announced on Friday it has appointed Dirk Reyneke as the acting chief financial officer (CFO) after the resignation of Tsholofelo Molefe. Molefe will also join the MTN Group board and take over from Sugentharan Perumal who has been acting in the position of GCFO since 1 September 2020. Perumal took on that role following the appointment of Ralph Mupita as MTN’s new president and CEO, replacing Rob Shuter. For more read: MTN Taps Telkom CFO As New Finance Chief Reyneke, current CFO of Openserve for the past 18 months will take over the position of Telkom Acting Group CFO,…
Netstar, a subsidiary of JSE-listed technology company Altron, has set up an office in Malaysia and is exploring expansion opportunities in Indonesia. The company pioneered the vehicle tracking and stolen vehicle recovery industry in South Africa in 1994. Netstar operations extend into Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, and the organisation has customers throughout the rest of Africa and Australia. “We have set up an office in Malaysia with a local partner and are looking at expansion throughout South East Asia with Indonesia being the next market we are focusing on, our Australian operation has offices throughout that country,”…
Media group Media24 announced on Thursday plans to buy out all shareholders of Welkom Yizani, its black economic empowerment share scheme. The media group is proposing to pay R15.70 per Welkom Yizani ordinary share. The proposal is subject to the approval of Welkom Yizani shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 22 January 2021. Investors paid in a subscription of R10.00 per share at the establishment of the scheme in 2006. Then scheme’s shares were listed for trading on an over the counter platform on 9 December 2013. The shares were stuck at R10.00 for more than a year and…