Author: Gugu Lourie

Tech consultancy giant Accenture announced today plans to retrench 19,000 people, or 2.5% of its workforce, as part of its actions to streamline operations and transform non-billable corporate functions to reduce costs. The retrenchments will be undertaken in the next 18 months, the tech giant informed investors in an SEC filing. Accenture added that it hire  consultants to meet current and projected future demand. “We proactively plan and manage the size and composition of our workforce and take actions as needed to address changes in the anticipated demand for our services and solutions, given that compensation costs are the most…

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JSE-listed firm Blue Label Telecoms announced on Thursday that Douglas Craigie Stevenson stepped down as CEO of struggling mobile phone operator Cell C. Blue Label Telecoms said Craigie Stevenson resignation is effective 31 March 2023. The company said Craigie Stevenson has elected to resign for personal reasons and to pursue other opportunities in line with his personal career goals. “We thank Douglas for his valued contribution and for successfully assisting in navigating Cell C through the recapitalisation process,” Joe Mthimunye, Chairman of the Cell C Board, said in a statement. “Through the implementation of Cell C’s new strategy, he has…

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JSE-listed Metair CEO Riaz Haffejee resign to ‘pursue other opportunities more in line with his personal career goals’. The manufacturer, distributor and retailer of batteries and automotive components informed investors that the board has duly accepted his resignation and wishes him well in his future endeavours. Haffejee, who joined the company two years agao, will be available for a period of two-months up to the end of May 2023 to ensure a smooth transition and handover. Metair also announced that Sjoerd Douwenga, chief financial officer (CFO), has been appointed as interim CEO and as a member of the S&E Committee. Anesh…

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MindGeek, a technology and media company, owner of a large portfolio of adult entertainment properties, including Pornhub, has been acuired by a Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP). The terms of the transaction are private and are not being publicly disclosed. “At ECP, we seek out innovative and ethically-driven companies that operate at the frontier of new, evolving industries. In MindGeek, we have identified a dynamic tech brand that is built upon a foundation of trust, safety and compliance, and with ECP’s resources and broad expertise spanning regulatory, law enforcement, public engagement and finance, we have a unique…

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Financial services provider Sanlam has acquired half of mobile operator MTN ‘s insurtech platform aYo. The strategic alliance, which takes effect on 31 October 2022, will market and distribute insurance and investment products across Africa through MTN Group’s insurTech aYo, in which each partner will hold 50%. “The group entered into an agreement with Sanlam Emerging Markets Proprietary Limited (Sanlam) to sell 50% of aYo’s issued shares for S$40 million ( approximately R735 million translated at the signature date ),” MTN said on Monday. “Subsequent to the sale, a new shareholders’ agreement has become effective governing each shareholder’s rights in…

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Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says collaboration between government, business and society is imperative if South Africa is to overcome the current electricity crisis gripping the nation. The Minister was speaking during the launch of the Resource Mobilisation Fund (RMF) on Thursday afternoon. The RMF is a collaborative effort between government and Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) to provide resources and expertise that will assist government to fully implement the Energy Action Plan. “The establishment of the Resource Mobilisation Fund is a significant step in this regard. It is only through a collective national effort that…

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President Cyril Ramaphosa says government is working to build a public service staffed by men and women who are professional, skilled, selfless and honest. He said that this in order to build a capable developmental state for the implementation of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP). The President said that this includes implementation of the Professionalisation of the Public Service Framework. The Framework proposes fundamental reforms, including a stronger emphasis on merit-based recruitment and appointments, integrity testing before recruitment, revising the tenure of Heads of Departments, and curriculum development for ongoing learning of public servants. President Ramaphosa was responding…

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SAP today announced key data innovations and partnerships that give customers access to mission-critical data, enabling faster time to insights and better business decision-making. SAP Datasphere solution, the next generation of its data management portfolio, give customers easy access to business-ready data across the data landscape. SAP also introduced strategic partnerships with industry-leading data and AI companies – Collibra NV, Confluent Inc., Databricks Inc. and DataRobot Inc. – to enrich SAP Datasphere and allow organizations to create a unified data architecture that securely combines SAP software data and non-SAP data. Until today, accessing and using data located in disparate systems…

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SEACOM, Africa’s telecommunications and managed services provider, today announced the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Fortuin, has resigned. Fortuin will continue to serve in his position until June this year, during which time he will continue to support the SEACOM board and also participate in the process to announce his successor, which the company expects to conclude in the coming weeks. Fortuin’s decision to leave SEACOM comes as a result of a decision to be closer to his adult children who have relocated overseas. “It’s been a privilege to lead SEACOM on this next stage of its development. SEACOM…

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Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, says it had more than 2.6 million digitally active customers at the end of December 2022, a 13% increase from the same period in 2021. “Our digital initiatives helped us to increase the number of digitally active retail clients in SA by 13% to 2.6 million,” Nedbank said. “This now represents 39% of total active retail clients and 68% of retail main-banked clients. “Retail digital transaction volumes in SA increased by 18% and transaction values up by 16% ( up by 40% since 2019).” Nedbank added that digitally active customers across Nedbank Africa…

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