Author: Gugu Lourie

Applications for the inaugural Tech Awards will be open from 1 July 2023. The South African Annual Tech for Innovation and Social Impact Awards, soon to become one of the premier annual ICT events in South Africa, will be hosted by the Empire Partner Foundation (EPF) in collaboration with MICT SETA. The awards gala will take place on Saturday 11 November 2023 at Montecasino Ballroom in Fourways, Johannesburg. The South African Annual Tech for Innovation and Social Impact Awards provide a platform for youth, businesses, startups and innovators to showcase their tech solutions. The aim is to promote technological innovation,…

Mobile phone operator Cell C, which is owned by JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, has confirmed the appointment of Jorge Mendes As CEO. His appointment is effective 1 July 2023. IT Web speculated on Wednesday that Mendes will be revealed as CEO today by Cell C. Cell C today said Mendes brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role and is widely regarded as a strategic leader with a proven track record of driving growth and profitability in the telecommunications industry. “We are thrilled to welcome Jorge Mendes to the Cell C team,” said Joe Mthimunye, Cell C Board Chairman…

Jorge Mendes, former chief consumer business officer at Vodacom South Africa, is to become Cell C’s new CEO, according to a report published by IT Web on Wednesday. According to the report, Cell C did not deny that Mendes is the new man taking control of the company when asked for comment. Instead, Cell C told the technology publication that the company will announce the appointment of its CEO tomorrow. Mendes will replace Brett Copans, chief restructuring officer, who had been interim CEO, succeeding Douglas Craigie Stevenson, who stepped down as Cell C’s chief executive in March. In January, Mendes…

Spar announced on Wednesday that it had delivered a commendable trading performance in the six months to the end of March 2023 in a challenging environment. Group revenue increased by 7,9% to R72,9 billion. It added that over the past 12 months, all regions have come under significant inflationary cost pressures. “The cost pressures, coupled with SAP software go-live challenges at the KwaZulu-Natal distribution centre (KZN DC) and subsequent loss of turnover during the latter half of the period, resulted in a decline in operating profit of 17.5%to R1,5 billion,” Spar said. “Due to rising interest rates across all geographies,…

JSE-listed retailer Spar said South Africa experienced unprecedented levels of electricity loadshedding which directly is impacting trading performance and profitability of its retailers. Higher levels of loadshedding are expected to impact retailer profitability due to the additional energy costs associated with back-up solutions required during loadshedding hours, said the retailer. “Our retailers have experienced a significant increase in operating costs, primarily driven by the increased cost of diesel required to run generators during the higher levels of loadshedding, coupled with higher repairs and maintenance costs, and product wastage, as generators occasionally fail under extended periods of usage,” said Spar. Spar estimates…

South African supper app VodaPay, which is operated by Vodacom, has launched a feature that makes the platform to look like a bank. Two new Deposit and Send Money services have been added to the VodaPay super app, according to Vodacom Financial and Digital Lifestyle Services. “VodaPay’s new Deposit and Send Money services support our intention to accelerate digital and financial inclusion. Both banked and unbanked users can deposit and/or send money from their VodaPay Wallet, securely, cost-effectively and instantly. By building broader, more convenient offerings onto VodaPay, such as deposit and cash-out networks, we aim to enable more people…

South Africa’s Telkom announced today that it has come through a year marred by unparalleled levels of loadshedding and an alarming number of incidents of theft and vandalism targeting network infrastructure. Despite these challenges, Telkom said its team replaced over 5 000 backup batteries and undertook repair work on over 1 600 sites, which was crucial in restoring services and maintaining network stability. The partial state-owned entity added that it had spent R655 million on diesel and back-up batteries in the year to end-March 2023 to ease Eskom’s load shedding on its business. Cumulatively, Telkom said there were 5 585…

Telkom has formally appointed advisors to drive the process to seek a strategic equity partner for BCX, its limping IT business that has been losing money for a few years now. BCX was founded by Benjamin and Isaac Mophatlane in 1996, and was later acquired by Telkom in 2015, in a deal worth R2.6 billion. Telkom announced on Tuesday that BCX had a challenging year but managed to maintain stable revenue levels at R14.2 billion in the year to end-March 2023. The company said the performance was driven by a 9.1% growth in the IT business, which was offset…

Telkom announced on Tuesday that the disposal of its masts and towers business, Swiftnet, is at an advance stage. Telkom also announced that Swiftnet continued commercialising its productive portfolio and saw marginal revenue growth of 0.9% to R1 304 million in the year to end-March 2023. The company said this was driven by construction of 66 additional towers and eight new in-building coverage solutions (IBS) sites. “Continued modernisation by mobile network operators (MNOs) on our sites, coupled with new base station sites and the deployment of 5G by our clients, grew revenue from continuing customers by 10.3%, mitigating the impact…

Telkom Mobile has increased its subscriber base by 7.8% to 18.3 million customers in the year to end-March 2023, Telkom announced on Tuesday. The mobile service revenue growth of 1.8% was supported by the growth in subscribers. “The post-paid strategy paid off as the post-paid base grew by 11.0% to reach the 3 million customers. The pre-paid base grew by 7.2% to 15.3 million,” said Telkom. “We extended our network footprint, using the newly acquired spectrum to enhance LTE coverage and launch 5G services,” says Serame Taukobong, Telkom CEO, said. “This benefited the mobile broadband subscriber base, which grew 9.2%…