Author: Gugu Lourie

Lexus today announced the global debut of the new Lexus UX 300e, a significant evolution of the brand’s first production BEV model. Globally, the updated UX 300e will join the new UX 200/250h announced earlier this year, with deliveries scheduled to begin in later in 2023. Lexus South Africa plans to introduce a big spec change before the end of the year. Since the 2005 launch of the RX 400h, the world’s first hybrid SUV, Lexus has been a pioneer of electrification in the luxury market. Based on the electrification vision “Lexus Electrified” announced in 2019, Lexus aims to meet…

Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) has invested an undisclosed amount for a 24.85% stake in TooMuchWifi, a network infrastructure and communications company. TooMuchWifii has been announced as the latest investment in the impact investing portfolio of MIC. The strategic investment will play a major role in enabling the Cape Town-based business to achieve its ambitions of providing economic internet solutions to all South Africans. This funding will be used to appoint a South African CEO and expand the local leadership team to drive expansion. The company that was established back in 2016. TooMuchWifi was conceptualised by Ian Thomson and Jonathan Endersby.…

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz deliveries reach 517,800 units or up 21% in Q3 in a volatile market with ongoing semiconductor supply bottlenecks. Mercedes-Benz added that EV ramp-up continues with Q3 Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) sales more than double to 30,000 units or up+115%. Mercedes-Benz is transforming at full speed. On the way towards a fully electric future, Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars increased BEV sales between July and September to 30,000 units, up 28% compared to Q2 and an increase of 115% compared with the year-earlier period. In the first nine months, sales of BEVs doubled to 75,400 units (+126%). September deliveries of…

The 100% Witwatersrand University-owned digital incubation hub, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Pretoria, announced the call for entries for their Digital Twin Hackathon. Entries are open to 15 students from South Africa and 15 students from the Netherlands. The Digital Twin Hackathon holds the potential to benefit policy-making for the City of Johannesburg. 30 university students hold the power to combine their diverse experiences to solve problems that could change the narrative of municipalities in South Africa. The goal is to transform their hypotheses into theories and, ultimately, action. “Globally, the use of…

Pepkor IT, a division of JSE-listed retailer Pepkor, says it is continuously growing and seeking talented and skilled individuals to bring positive energy to its culture. On its website, Pepkor IT said it researches modern technologies and applies best practices to develop a centralized infrastructure that reduces costs and strengthens productivity for the Pepkor global group. Pepkor is a retailer with 28 million in-store customers and a footprint of 5,400 retail stores. The company owns stores such as Pep, Ackermans, Shoe City, etc. Pepkor IT said it was looking for a skills base in the following areas: Integration Developer Senior…

The City of Tshwane on Tuesday imposed a Stage 2 water restriction that includes a ban on the use of hosepipes to wash cars, clean driveways or patios, and fill up swimming pools. The move follows a notification by Rand Water, the water utility, informing the City of Tshwane, City of Johannesburg, and City of Ekurhuleni about the implementation of Stage 2 water restrictions. The water utility indicated that it had noted over the last 2 weeks that water consumption had increased significantly resulting in a decline in their overall reservoir storage capacity from 52% to 38%. Rand Water said…

Telkom informed investors today that it has received a non-binding offer from data-only network provider Rain. In a statement, Telkom said it was proceeding with its strategy to unlock value for its shareholders, underpinned by the view that its share price does not reflect its intrinsic value. “The Telkom Board of Directors, conscious of economic and market dynamics and in accordance with its legal obligations, is considering various strategic options, including non-binding merger and acquisition proposals received to date.” The company added: “Further to the SENS issued by Telkom on 12 August 2022, shareholders are advised that Telkom received a non-binding…

Capitec Bank announced yesterday that funeral plan income soared by 72% to R629 million in the six months ended 31 August 2022 compared to R366 million in the same period last year. The banking group said the increase was driven by growth in the active book, increased average premiums per policy and improved claims experience. Capitec informed investors that active policies increased to 2 million versus 1.5 million in the same period in 2021. At the end of August 2022, 8.9 million South Africans were covered by a Capitec funeral plan. “Persistency in the 12 months after a policy is issued is…

SA’s digital banking group Capitec informed investors today that its rewards programme, Live Better, now reaches 8.5 million customers. “Now fully-fledged, Live Better is already the fastest growing rewards programme in South Africa with 8.5 million clients that are registered,” Capitec said on Thursday. “Clients benefit from Bank Better rewards, automated savings tools, and Spend Better partner discounts as we aim to help clients save R1 billion by the end of February 2023.” The Live Better rewards programme encourages clients to Bank Better, Save Better and Spend Better. All credit card holders get 1% cash back on the value of…

Capitec Bank rewards shareholders with an interim dividend of 1,400 cents a share for the six months to end-August 2022, as the bank signs up 165 000 new customers a month for the past year. The bank informed investors today that directors resolved that a gross interim dividend of 1,400 cents per ordinary share be declared for the 6 months ended 31 August 2022  versus 1,200 cents a share on 31 August 2021. There are 116 099 843 ordinary shares in issue. The banking group added that on average, over 165 000 new clients have joined the bank every month…

BMW has unveiled the BMW XM, the first M car to deploy a plug-in hybrid system comprising a V8 petrol engine and an exceptionally powerful electric motor. The BMW XM is also the first BMW M original since the BMW M1. Production of the BMW XM will get underway at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in the USA in December 2022 before it arrives at dealers worldwide in spring 2023. The M HYBRID drive system in the BMW XM delivers an overall output of 480 kW (generated by the combination of the combustion engine with up to 360 kW and the…

Vodacom in Johannesburg stole the show in terms of being the fastest mobile operator across 12 African cities, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Monday. Ookla said Johannesburg led the pack, with a median download speed of 66.54 Mbps, ahead of Cape Town at 49.22 Mbps. Vodacom got ahead of MTN in Johannesburg and was the fastest operator across 12 cities we analysed, with a median download speed of 81.36 Mbps in Q2 2022 compared to 73.83 Mbps in Q1 2022. MTN was faster in Cape Town. “Taking 5G out of the equation, Orange in Gaborone, the…

New research from credible network speed-testing services Ookla has put MTN ahead of rivals – Airtel, Orange, and Vodacom – in terms of the speed available on their respective network. The report by Ookla revealed that MTN was the fastest mobile operator among the top four providers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Speedtest Intelligence data shows that MTN South Africa delivered the fastest median download speeds across analyzed operators, at 65.95 Mbps in Q2 2022. However, Vodacom in Johannesburg was the fastest operator considering speeds across top cities, reaching 81.36 Mbps median download speed in Q2 2022. In South Africa, MTN outperformed Vodacom…

Mteto Nyati has been appointed as an independent non-executive director and Nedbank’s IT Committee member. His appointment is effective from 1 October 2022. Nedbank informed investors that Nyati’s appointment has been made in terms of the group’s policy on the nomination and appointment of directors. Mteto is Chairman of Wazo Investments, and a non-executive director of Telkom. Previous roles include being Chief Executive at Altron, Chief Executive of MTN South Africa, and Managing Director of Microsoft South Africa. He was named one of the Yale University’s World Fellows on Global Leadership in 2004. Mpho Makwana, Chairman of Nedbank Group, welcomed…

Brazilian FinTech company Ebanx is expanding its operations and payments solutions outside Latin America. The company said in a statement that it has started operations in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria in late August amid soaring demand for payments via mobile phones in recent years. Ebanx believes Africa is the next big growth frontier for digital payments and the digital market during the 2020s. Ebanx solutions in the Africa region will contemplate popular local payment methods including:   In South Africa: Instant EFT by OZOW, lets online shoppers access internet banking to make an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) that gets instantly…

Attacq, the JSE-listed REIT developing Waterfall City, today announced the resumption of dividends of 50.0 cents per share for the year to end-June 2022, representing a pay-out ratio of 80%, as well as an increase in distributable income per share by 34.2% to 62.8 cents. Attacq said its performance was particularly satisfying in the context of South Africa’s record unemployment levels and low-growth environment, and emphasised the underlying quality of the portfolio, characterised by continued growth in the burgeoning mixed-use Waterfall City precinct, which continues to attract quality local and global blue-chip corporate clients. “During the past year, we emerged…

TYMEBANK, one of South Africa’s digital banks, has attracted 5 million customers as of 30 June 2022. The digital bank owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe was launched in February 2019. “While progress continues to be made on customer acquisitions, the bank is placing increased focus on tracking customer activity and ensuring new product rollouts,” African Raibow Capital Investments informed investors today. “The bank is continuously adapting its product set to reflect the changing needs of customers, which includes diversifying the customer base.” TymeBank has no monthly banking fees and in most cases, transaction costs are 30 to 50% lower than what customers would pay…

Eskom said this morning that three units at the Kendal Power Station tripped, forcing the power utility to implement stage 4 load shedding. Eskom said state 4 load shedding will start at 10am until 5am on Thursday. The power utility tweeted this morning: #Loadshedding #Stage4 A sudden tripping of three Kendal Power Station units (1 920MW maximum generating capacity) has forced the implementation of Stage 4 loadshedding starting at 10:00 THIS morning until 05:00 on Thursday morning. A full statement will be published shortly — Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 13, 2022 “In the early hours of…

Strong bi-national relationships between Nigeria and South Africa are critical for Africa’s progress,” said MTN Group Chairman Mcebisi Jonas. This week, MTN Group hosted MTN Nigeria’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee in Johannesburg for a strategy retreat during which the leadership of the Group’s largest subsidiary reflected on its strategic priorities for the next three years. “As MTN, we appreciate that our own progress cannot happen without the two nations building stronger and stronger ties and providing leadership to the continent,” said Jonas. The MTN Nigeria delegation was led by Chairman Ernest Ndukwe and CEO Karl Toriola. During the trip,…

Discovery Bank, part of Adrian Gore’s Discovery Group, said on Wednesday that new business volumes continued to be strong, achieving more than 800 average daily new-to-Bank sales (vs 500 in June 2021). Discovery Group said the bank is showing significant progress toward a medium-term target of 1 000 sales per day and 1 000 000 clients by 2026. The Bank has also continued to attract high-quality clients, resulting in high levels of average non-interest revenue (NIR) and a low credit loss ratio of 1.56%. However, Discovery Group informed investors that Discovery Bank’s operating loss for the financial year was R990 million,…

Rider-hailing company Uber has launched a new feature on its platform enabling you to record audio while on a trip in the event of an emergency. Uber is piloting the feature in Pretoria and Johannesburg. The new feature will now allow riders and drivers to use the app to record and share audio of their trip as evidence in case of a safety incident. This is something that drivers have been asking for based on their feedback from roundtable sessions. The new opt-in audio recording feature has been successful in the US and Latin American regions where Uber has a…

Fixed broadband speeds in South Africa doubled over the past three years – from 15.11 Mbps median download speed in Q1-Q2 2020 to 31.34 Mbps in Q1-Q2 2022, benefiting from increased competition and growth in Fibre to the Home subscriptions, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Tuesday. China topped the rankings across the BRICS countries, posting a median download speed of nearly 160 Mbps. South Africa, meanwhile, finished last, indicating that South Africa still has room to grow in terms of fixed broadband performance and adoption. Ookla said Gauteng, home to the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, had the best…

Johannesburg performed well across the five cities we looked at in terms of median download and upload speeds, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Wednesday. Ookla said download speeds in Johannesburg ranged from 25.53 Mbps to 51.49 Mbps, while in Port Elizabeth, speeds were much lower, ranging from 6.36 Mbps to 30.11 Mbps. “Typically fibre networks first reach rich and affluent communities that present a fertile ground for their services. For example, a northern suburb of Johannesburg–Parkhurst–was Vumatel’s first suburb.” Ookla added that across the nine South African provinces, Gauteng is the smallest by land mass, but…

Cool Ideas is ranked first among South Africa’s Internet Services Providers (ISPs), reaching almost 50 Mbps symmetrical speeds, with a 48.32 Mbps median upload speed and 47.89 Mbps download speed, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Tuesday. Afrihost, Webafrica, Vox Telecom, Axxess, and Rain achieved median download speeds in excess of 30 Mbps. Ookla said operator performance in the region could be heavily impacted by the technology offered, with pure fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provider Cool Ideas topping our rankings. Ookla, which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service, published its latest Speedtest Global Index rankings for South Africa for…

Woolworths reported today a 45.4% surge in online food sales as the retailer benefited from the further rollout of its on-demand online offering. The Woolworths Food business grew turnover and concession sales in the second quarter by 4.6%, with trading momentum improving throughout the period, as Covid-19 base effects eased. Sales for the full year grew by 4.2%, and by 3.1% in comparable stores, reflecting the impact of the high base and the return to out-of-home consumption, an increasingly competitive backdrop, and low product inflation across our key categories. Price movement averaged 3.5% for the full year, with underlying product…