Author: Gugu Lourie
Glafit, a Japanese mobility startup company, today is launching the Micro mobility scooter – X-SCOOTER “Last One Mile (LOM) crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Having been involved in the automobile industry for more than 15 years, glafit had always wanted to launch a fun & exciting vehicle that fits people’s modern lifestyle. In 2017 May, the startup launched its first product, Hybrid Bike GFR-01, on a Japanese crowdfunding platform and set an all-time record for the amount raised with over $1.2 million (R18 million). “We have continued our development to launch our second product, X-SCOOTER LOM, in the global market through…
EOH, JSE-listed technology group, announced today that Andrew Mthembu, a proven executive with vast industry experience, will assume the role of chairman. His appointment is effective on 6 February 2020. Mthembu replaces the late Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi, who was chairman of the board at the time of his passing on 4 January 2020. For more read: Prominent Businessman Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi Passes Away Mthembu joined the EOH board in June 2019. He was appointed the lead independent director last year and led the board in the absence of Dr Mkhwanazi as a result of his illness. Mthembu is the chairperson…
ANC chairperson and has urged the government to close South African Airways (SAA) and SA Express. According to a report by The Sunday Times, Mantashe said if SAA wanted to survive, it should start to make a profit and stand on its own. He added that otherwise it should be closed down or taken over by a more capable entity. Mantashe was speaking at the ANC’s 108 celebrations in Komga, Eastern Cape. “Anyone who can manage to run it should take over. Do you know that we even pay cheaper rates at FlySafair? That airline is much cheaper than SAA…
JSE-listed Balwin Properties is planning to build a Munyaka, a R9 billion development in Waterfall, Midrand. Construction of the spectacular lagoon, boundary wall, gatehouse, lifestyle centre and show apartment block has already commenced with the balance of apartments being rolled out over the next eight years. “Munyaka, which translates to “Crystal” in Venda, is set to be the crown jewel in our development portfolio,” Steve Brookes, founder and CEO of Balwin Properties said. “We have worked very closely with our architects to bring something exceptional to South African sectional title buyers and believe that it will not only set a…
Telkom mobile network is experiencing disruptions and customers are angry while others are even labelling the company an abusive network operator. In a tweet, Telkom advised its customers as follows: “Dear customers, we are currently experiencing disruptions on our mobile voice and data network which may affect your connectivity. Our team of technicians are working on resolving this. We thank you for your patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused” Dear customers, we are currently experiencing disruptions on our mobile voice and data network which may affect your connectivity. Our team of technicians are working on resolving this. We thank…
Universal Partners is merging three tech talent specialists Xcede, TechStream and Etonwood to create a £100m (R1.9 billion) revenue company. The merger has been funded by private equity firm Universal Partners and Investec Bank. The merged firms will share a group parent company branded as TechStream Group, headquartered in London and operating across its current global office network in New York, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Singapore, Malaga and Cape Town. It will employ 220 people. Founded by Paul Beeke, TechStream is an internationally recognised human capital business. The merged company will specialise in talent for cloud transformation, digital transformation, cybersecurity, data…
Neela, a KwaZulu-Natal based business, is demanding that Mobax settle an outstanding debt of R22 million, which includes interest, storage, and loss of income until 31 January 2020. Mobax, a little-known company, is a subcontractor to Vodacom. It is a management company that subcontract work to providers that deploy and maintain generators, refuels and services them – for managed services – that power the mobile phone company’s base stations. Mobax replaced Swedish telecom giant Ericsson in January 2018 as a management company. Neela, a Port Shepstone-based company, has been contracted to Vodacom since 2011. Neela signed a contract with Ericsson…
Vodacom has added 484 000 customers in South Africa in the fourth quarter of the 2019 calendar year, supported by a successful Summer campaign and the mobile operator also revealed plans to launch 5G. “A highly successful Summer campaign, which delivered 334 million free rewards to 17 million customers, contributed to an uplift in activity across our customer base,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom’s CEO. “This increase in data customers and usage is evidence of our success in transforming data pricing in South Africa. Notable contributions from our Financial Services and Enterprise businesses saw service revenue in South Africa rise by…
Five years ago Telkom retrenched skilled workers whom they promised to help set up as small businesses that would be contracted to the giant telecoms company. Telkom in 2015 created the Independent Field Technicians (IFT) programme. The aim of the programme was to help retrenched technicians to establish their own businesses to offer fault fixing to Openserve, a free-standing division of Telkom and the country’s largest fixed wholesale operator. Telkom says the IFT programme was established as a finite programme that would offer support to these enterprises with the aim of enterprises graduating out of the programme in 2020. It…
TymeBank, a digital bank that is owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, is targeting 12 million churchgoers of Zion Christian Church (ZCC) as clients. African Rainbow Capital (ARC), which was founded by Motsepe, announced on Sunday that TymeBank has entered into a partnership with the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) to offer a banking proposition to its members. TymeBank will offer ZCC members a membership card that also works like a debit card. The ZCC is the largest African-initiated church in Southern Africa, with a membership of about 12 million. “Some nine million ZCC members are based in South Africa,” said TymeBank.…