Author: Gugu Lourie

With summer fast approaching, Vodacom is raising the bar this year with the launch of the Summer ShakeOff 2020 campaign. 2020 was a year filled with difficulties, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic putting many South Africans under pressure. Many would like to shake off the negativity of 2020 and look toward the opportunities that 2021 has to offer. As a result of massive customer engagement in the 2019 Shake!Up Summer campaign, the country’s leading network has introduced new interactive gamification and rewards campaign called Summer #ShakeOff 2020. This year’s exciting new game, enabled through a Daily or Mega…

Telkom, South Africa’s biggest fixed-line telephone group, on Monday posted a 25.4% rise in headline earnings per share (HEPS) to 219 cents for the six months to end-September 2020, bolstered by the growth of its mobile phone unit. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge. The company said this was driven by an 18.8% growth in operating profit because of a 6.3% growth in group EBITDA. This was partially offset by an increase in the effective tax rate from 29.9% in the prior period to 34.8%. Telkom informed investors on Tuesday that its mobile business performed exceptionally well, despite the…

The new affordable HTC Wildfire E Lite smartphone deceptively looks like any other budget handset, but it packs features only associated with high-end mobile phones.    This smartphone brand had disappeared from the local market for some time. It is now back in South Africa intending to recapture the interests of former and new customers.   HTC smartphones are back on the market courtesy of an ICT firm, Evercomm, which obtained the exclusive rights to relaunch the phone brand in South Africa.   The HTC Wildfire is an affordable smartphone that performs as well as, if not better, than many…

Vodacom has launched its latest “Red Hot Dealz”, offering not-to-be missed super value SIM-only data bundles on a 24-month contract. The Red Hot Dealz are available from 6 November until 6 December 2020. The Vodafone-owned operator is offering a 50GB data mega-deal, consisting of 20GB of anytime data and 20GB of Night Owl data plus a free 10GB video ticket, for R199 per month over 24 months. Through this deal you stand to save R1 200. The deal comes with a free Vodafone Mobile Wi-Fi Router if you extend the contract to 36 months. See more Red Hot Dealz below and you…

swiftVEE is targeting global expansion after the South African AgriTecth startup secured $1.5 million (R23.6 million). The investment round was led by Sybtropico, an unlisted company specialising in Agri investments across the fruit, vegetable, and livestock industries and a private syndicate. The industry is investing heavily in technology to create farm-to-fork solutions that optimise food production across the value chain in fruit, veg and livestock. Founded in 2016 and officially launching in 2017, swiftVEE is an agricultural trading platform that helps the buyers and sellers of livestock connect in real-time through the use of third-party “livestock agents”. Livestock agents are…

JSE announced on Thursday that it has agreed the terms of a commercial arrangement with Globacap Technology (Globacap) to establish a blockchain-enabled private placements platform. The company said the platform will enable the raising of infrastructure finance and to allow small-to-medium sized issuers to raise capital in South Africa. The deal includes digital registry services, and remains subject to licensing approval requirements. “As private capital markets continue to grow in importance, and are an increasingly attractive alternative source of capital for issuers, the JSE intends to create a centralised platform for issuers to effectively and efficiently raise capital,” the JSE…

JSE and Nasdaq-listed listed Datatec announced on Thurday that its subsidiary Logicalis Group has acquired a 65% interest in iZeno, a specialist in Digital Transformation solutions based in Singapore. iZeno has a team of 85 skilled employees who have delivered, implemented and optimized enterprise solutions to more than 300 clients across finance, manufacturing, banking, gaming, healthcare, telecom and retail industries. The company is headquartered in Singapore with additional operations in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The deep skills iZeno has in DevOps, application modernization, customer experience and hybrid cloud strongly enhances the scope of services offered by Logicalis and will accelerate the…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has highlighted preparation – through the Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) project preparation roundtable – as the key to unlock South Africa’s post COVID-19 economic recovery. “This roundtable is the beginning of a more dedicated and structured approach to project preparation. It paves the way for greater private sector participation in this crucial stage of the project life-cycle. The South African government is committed to financing project preparation,” he said. The President delivered the opening address at the ISA project preparation roundtable at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Tuesday. The ISA project preparation roundtable aligns with…

Thousands of South Africans from every nook and cranny of the country painted the country pink on Saturday as they walked with a purpose and to make a difference in different locations across the country to pledge their support to the fight against breast cancer in the first-ever virtual Avon Justine iThemba Walkathon. The 15th edition of the Avon Justine Walkathon, which is the biggest breast cancer awareness walkathon in the Avon world, was hosted virtually due to lockdown restrictions on social gatherings. Nonetheless, the event was coordinated from the nerve centre at the Avon Justine Head Office in Johannesburg…

Huawei, rain and Wits University have jointly launched South Africa’s and Africa’s first 5G laboratory, which gives students access to a live 5G environment to build knowledge of the revolutionary technology’s applications for the local market. The 5G Innovation Lab, situated at the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, is part of a longer-term joint innovation programme between business and the leading academic institution. It is aimed at driving innovations to promote social progress for South Africa in the digital era or fourth industrial revolution (4IR). In terms of the collaboration, Huawei provides its end to end 5G solution, supported by…