Author: Gugu Lourie

Nedbank has launched a new ‘super app’, called Avo, which will give the bank’s customers to access online shopping, essential services and financial products on a single platform. “Created to bring customers and businesses together, accurately matching customer’s lifestyle needs to product and service offerings through powerful artificial intelligence, safe and secure payments, and bank-grade security.” – Fred Swanepoel, Chief Information Officer of Nedbank. To date, Avo has reached the milestone of over 5 000 customers registered and 170 registered Home Repair and Services merchants. With requests flying in daily, Avo may just be the platform small businesses need to…

In these times of great economic uncertainty, the fibre industry is a great South African success story and proof of how the private sector can drive economic development, says Jessica Spira, Business Development Director at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). The bank was the joint mandated lead arranger and co-funder of a R16-billion senior debt financing package provided to Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), concluded in December 2019, to help fund the expansion of their operating companies Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, the country’s two largest privately-owned providers of fibre infrastructure. “Funders don’t put that kind of money into a business…

Agile Capital, a black-owned private equity firm, is sitting on R900 million cash pile and is hunting for investment opportunities. The Johannesburg-based mid-market private equity investment firm offers a solid investment track record and long-term growth prospects. Agile, which means “to build” in Setswana, was launched in 2015 by passionate and highly-skilled business partners Tshego Sefolo and Londeka Shezi. Agile, through its private equity funds, targets investments across diverse sectors. It has R2,38 billion assets under management. Agile Capital has a capital of about R900-million available for investment into new opportunities. “We have managed to establish ourselves as a respected private…

JSE-listed property group Balwin is slowly building its fibre business. Balwin is a construction and property group focusing on large scale sectional-title residential estates in high-growth, high-density metropolitan nodes in South Africa’s major cities. In 2017, Balwin Properties created Balwin Fibre to own all fibre infrastructure across its estate to become a large fibre network operator in South Africa. The group now generates annuity income by leveraging off its asset base and expanding its service offering to homeowners.  The primary source of annuity income is through the provision of high-speed fibre connectivity to homeowners within Balwin’s estates through Balwin Fibre. …

Inspired by a BBC article, a journalist asked people to share the last “normal photo” on their phones. The #LastNormalPhoto is now trending on Twitter, with thousands of people sharing images of what feels like a different lifetime. The BBC recently asked people to share an image their pre-COVID life, asking for the “last normal photo” in everyone’s camera roll. They then published an article over the weekend with 13 images, and 13 people’s touching stories about those images, from weddings to huge sporting events. Inspired by the article, journalist Robyn Vinter also asked Twitter users to share, and the…

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has ordered all soldiers to return to work as it sets up four field hospitals to deal with COVID-19. The Sunday Independent reports that SANDF is setting up four field hospitals valued at R50 million. The newspaper added that the army is also planning to convert 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums into countrywide field hospitals. A senior SANDF official told the paper that FNB Stadium and Moses Mabhida Stadium were among the four venues. Two weeks ago President Cyril Ramaphosa warned the country that the “worst is still coming.” The president has deployed…

As part of South Africa’s lockdown regulations – including during level 4 – the sale of cigarettes is not allowed. Smokers say the lockdown ban on cigarette sales has been a spectacular failure and should be lifted as soon as possible, according to a Sunday Times report. In a study entitled Lighting up the illicit market, members of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) research unit on the economics of excisable products said the ban had caused “hyperinflation” in which cigarette prices “skyrocketed” by 4.4% a day. The ban has made a cigarette price war after the lockdown inevitable and…

The department of basic education wants schools in ‘hotspots’ such as Buffalo City, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Mangaung and Nelson Mandela Bay to be regarded as being on lockdown level 5 and remain closed in June. Schools were closed from March 18 due to a coronavirus outbreak. More than 5,000 schools in COVID-19 hot spots across SA, including 929 private schools, will stay shut next month if the cabinet approves a new proposal by the basic education department, the Sunday Times reports. Keeping these schools shut would affect 3.7-million pupils and 134,779 teachers. The Sunday Times reports that according…

South African businesses have called for the coronavirus lockdown level 4 to be lifted so that the country can be moved to level 2. The country is preparing for a further easing and gradual reopening of the economy. Most of South Africa is likely to move to level 3 lockdown by June 1 while hotspot areas, especially big metros, are likely to remain on level 4 lockdown. The government is likely to review the regulations for level 4 restrictions. For more read: South Africa’s COVID-19 Hotspots To Remain in Level 4 Sandile Zungu, chair of the Black Business Council, said…

As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 13 524. Case Data Province New cases on 15 May 2020 Total cases for 15 May 2020 Percentage total Eastern Cape 93 1662 12,3 Free State 6 151 1,1 Gauteng 75 2210 16,3 KwaZulu-Natal 38 1482 11,0 Limpopo 2 57 0,4 Mpumalanga 0 67 0,5 North West 5 63 0,5 Northern Cape 3 34 0,3 Western Cape 563 7798 57,7 Unknown 0 0 0,0 Total 785 13524 100,0 Testing Data 421 555 tests have been conducted with 18 537 done in the last 24 hour cycle. Sector…