Author: Gugu Lourie

A South African innovator in Internet of Things (IoT) technology, IoT.nxt, has developed a solution that will make it possible for companies to manage social distancing and control the number of people at a facility in real-time. The product, known as Covision, is currently being tested at various supermarkets in Pretoria. Furthermore, IoT.nxt’s office in The Netherlands is in discussion with a retailer in The Hague for a test site in that city. Since the introduction of social distancing requirements for varied facilities all around the world, many companies have experienced challenges with the management of this. In South Africa,…

MTN has asked a United States court to scrap the case filed against it on 29 December 2019, asserting claims for civil monetary relief under the U.S Anti-Terrorism Act. The lawsuit was lodged by more than 143 families of American troops and contractors killed by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. They alleged that MTN, along with five other Western businesses, paid the Taliban for protection, providing the insurgency with money that was used to attack and kill U.S. troops. The Taliban then used the money, according to the lawsuit, to fund attacks on other companies that didn’t make payments…

As of today, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Africa is 5, 350, an increase of 354 cases from yesterday. “This is the highest number of cases in a 24-hour cycle recorded to date and represents a 73% increase relative to the day before COVID-19,” said Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize. The total number of tests conducted to date is 197 127, of which 11 630 were done in the last 24 hours. “This is the highest number of tests done in a 24 hour period, representing a 66% increase relative to the previous day’s tally,”…

Matus was fined R11 million for inflating prices of essential hygienic items during the COVID-19 disaster. The face mask distributor inflated prices of dust masks (FFP1 and FFP2 masks. The Competition Commission announced late on Wednesday that it has found that Matus unreasonably increased the prices of dusk masks resulting in excessively inflated gross profit margins. The country’s competition watchdog said this was in contravention of the Competition Act and Regulation 4 of the Consumer Protection Regulations. “Matus has agreed to pay an administrative penalty of R5.9 million after it admitted to inflation of its gross profit margins with regards…

As the coronavirus becomes more widespread and deadly, South Africans are being encouraged to stay at home to weather the deadly COVID-19 storm. However, besides the fear of catching the highly infectious COVID-19, there’s little incentive to remain caged at home. A new chatbot, developed in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is hoping to change that by incentivising users who check their COVID-19 status. Concorona, developed by Kyle Ueckermann, is a chatbot that incentivises users to track their symptoms through a daily check-up. By completing the check-up, users earn points that they can redeem in partner stores. The chatbot also offers different…

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…