Author: Gugu Lourie
South Africa’s government will start paying COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant on May 15, Lindiwe Zulu, Minister of Social Development, said. Zulu was speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday to elaborate on the socio-economic relief interventions on COVID-19. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, the country imposed a 21-day lockdown that has since been extended by two weeks to the end of April. However, on Thursday President Cyril Ramaphosa announced five-level plan to ease lockdown. South Africa’s COVID-19 cases are nearing 5, 000 with 93 deaths. Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a special COVID-19 Social Relief of…
South Africa’s fuel prices are expected to drop significantly in May 2020, according to the Automobile Association (AA), which was commenting on unaudited month-end data released by the Central Energy Fund. Petrol is set to drop by around R1.74 a litre in May, with diesel falling by R1.56 and illuminating paraffin by a whopping R2.18. Seen in context, the predicted decreases will result in a fall of R3.84 a litre to 93 unleaded petrol inland since January, and R4.00 to 95 petrol over the same period. Diesel users are also benefiting with the predicted price now around R3.49 a litre…
Seacom has launched its fibre service, WonderNet which the company believes introduces a new level of customer experience in the home fibre market. WonderNet is Seacom’s play for a stake in the growing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) market. It offers a range of uncapped, unthrottled packages starting from 10Mbps through to 1Gbps. All packages include a standard Wi-Fi enabled router, without upfront costs and which can be purchased on a month-to-month option. There is also no Fair Usage Policy (FUP), and, as customers have come to expect from Africa’s leading network provider, no contention ratios. “Consumers require a simple, fast and effective…
To avoid being labelled a financial conglomerate, PSG is considering unbundling part or all of its stake in Capitec Bank. PSG owns 30.7% shareholding in Capitec Bank, which is valued at R46 billion. The shareholding represents more than two-thirds of PSG’s assets. PSG informed investors on Wednesday morning that it is investigating, and is seriously considering, the potential unbundling of some or all of its shareholding in Capitec “The rationale for the potential unbundling is that: certain new legislation may potentially deem PSG Group (as a material shareholder in Capitec) to be a financial conglomerate, which will substantially increase the…
Openserve is launching a new product that allows customers to directly obtain broadband service from their ISPs and will no longer be required to obtain a copper line from Telkom Retail. Openserve is the wholesale division of Telkom and South Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider. The product is known as Openserve Pure Connect product across multiple speeds and is clearly a “Naked ADSL” service. Naked DSL is the practice of providing users with only an ADSL connection which isn’t tethered to a landline number or voice connection. It’s a more cost-effective way for users to connect to the internet without…
MTN Nigeria, MTN Group’s biggest operating subsidiary, diversification from its voice telephony business into digital and FinTech space has been gaining traction and is a boon for its earnings. Profit before tax increased by 8.9% to 76.3-billion naira (R3.6 billion) during the quarter, year on year. Nigeria is MTN’s most profitable market and on Wednesday the operator said it would continue to gain market share, with the addition of 4.2 million subscribers to the network, representing a 6.5% increase in the quarter to 68.5 million. The operator said in the three months ended 31 March 2020, active data subscribers rose…
As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 4, 996 cases. “We have a burden of hypertension, over 4.5 million people in South Africa have diabetes. Such diseases factor in COVID-19 infection,” says Dr Zweli Mkhize, Health Minister. Currently, in South Africa, we have seen an increase in COVID-19 deaths. We had 203 cases today and 3 more deaths. “There are now 93 deaths,” says Mkhize. All three deaths were in the Western Cape. “We convey our condolences to the families and friends. Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this…
The South African National Treasury is replacing measures relating to the COVID-19 Disaster Management Central Emergency Procurement Strategy. The replacement follows concerns about the procurement process, stating that the approach adopted has excluded a number of domestic suppliers and has covered an array of goods especially goods that can be manufactured locally. On Sunday, Sunday World reported that the massive treasure trove of R20 billion set aside for the Department of Health to help South Africa weather the deadly COVID-19 storm could trigger a war among businesspeople. Black businesses allege that they have been sidelined in the allocation of multimillion-rand…
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) says it has completed testing its WhatsApp registration system to payout the six-month coronavirus grant known as COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant. Under the grant, jobless South Africans will each receive R350 monthly for six months. Sassa says on its Twitter page: “The WhatsApp application system for #COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant opened only for testing over the weekend and it’s closed now. We’ll announce the official opening date”. The WhatsApp application system for #COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant opened only for testing over the weekend and it’s…
As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 4, 793. The total number of tests conducted to date is 178 470, of which 9 827 were done in the last 24 hours. The provincial breakdown is as follows: Reported Deaths “We regret to report a further three deaths: two from the Western Cape and one from KZN,” said Dr Zweli Mkhize, Health Minister. “This brings the total cumulative COVID-19 related deaths to 90.” The cases were: A 79-yr-old-male who presented with shortness of breath&chest pain. His co-morbidi- ties included diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease&cardiac…