Author: Gugu Lourie

Shareholders of Vodacom Group are set to receive hefty rewards following the Vodafone-owned group’s financial performance in the 2022 financial year, which saw revenue climbed 4.5% to R102.7-billion. Vodacom will pay a final dividend of R7.9 billion withholding tax to its investors. The company paid an interim dividend in half-year and took the total dividend to R8.50 a share, up 3% to R15.6 billion total disbursement to shareholders. But the company said that since the financial year ended 31 March 2013, the board has maintained its dividend policy of paying at least 90% of adjusted headline earnings, excluding the contribution…

MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile phone company, has navigated the impacts of COVID-19 to deliver a solid Q1 2022 performance. To investors, MTN Group said in a statement that FinTech revenue rose by 21.2% year-on-year (YoY). Mobile Money (MoMo) active monthly users grew by 25.9% YoY. “The volume of transactions processed through our fintech platform was up 32.5% in Q1 2022 YoY to 2.9 billion transactions. “The value of transactions increased by 12.6% YoY to $59.9 billion (up 18.9% in constant currency).” MTN Group said new commission-earning rules were implemented in Ghana during Q3 2021 to improve margins, which impacted…

The Bethulie Regional Court in the Free State province has sentenced three men to 30 years’ imprisonment each for theft and damaging Vodacom’s network infrastructure. Patrick Chirambandare, 34, Washington Khoza, 32, and Cliff Hove, 28, were sentenced to 15 years each for tampering with a Vodacom tower near Springfontein and an additional 15 years for stealing 12 Narada batteries valued at R78 000 belonging to Vodacom. On 9 June 2021, police responded to a call at two cellphone towers close to the N1, where the was a signal of a break-in. “The police, together with private security, found the accused…

The new Lexus NX Hybrid Range has been confirmed for the South African market and orders are open despite the carmaker experiencing supply constraints like all motoring brands. Lexus is fully committed to its carbon-neutral strategy and focusing on lowering fuel emissions by taking yet another confident step on the path to providing realistic electrified motoring. The Lexus NX hybrid range joins its petrol grade siblings – the 2.5-litre normally-aspirated eight-speed automatic EX grade and the 2.4-litre turbocharged petrol grade which comes in F Sport guise. In the newly-minted hybrid range, the models comprise three derivatives, namely: NX 350h EX…

Mercedes and will.i.am have teamed up to create “The Flip”, a vehicle dubbed the “WILL.I.AMG” which is described as a one-off automotive vehicle designed by a multi-platinum American musician and tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist. In their sixth project together, will.i.am teamed up again with West Coast Customs to execute his fearless vision for “The Flip.” It also sets an example for the future: the mission of this joint project “The Flip – Innovation for Purpose” is to give more students from disadvantaged communities access to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education in order to be equipped with the…

Ralph Mupita, the boss of Africa’s largest mobile phone firm MTN, was paid R84.2 million in the 2021 financial year. The total package of R84.2 million was made up of a R15.4 million salary and a R28.9 million in short-term incentives, plus more than R37.7 million in reflected long term incentive bonus. Mupita was paid R36 million in 2020. The company informed investors that the difference in Mupita’s remuneration received in 2021 compared to 2020 was attributed to improved performance outcomes between the two years and his promotion to group CEO effective from 1 September 2020. Tsholofelo Molefe, MTN’s Group Chief…

JSE-listed technology group SilverBridge is likely to delist from the JSE if UK-based private equity firm Rox Equity Partners’s unsolicited offer is accepted by shareholders. Rox has tabled a revised R2.00 a share offer to buy SiilverBridge and delist it from the JSE. The private equity firm had previously offered R1.525/share to buy the company. The implementation of the Offer is subject to fulfilment or waiver by no later than 17h00 on 31 August 2022. Rox is a private equity investment holding company headquartered in the United Kingdom taking material interests in established global companies at the forefront of disrupting…

The South African government’s plan to have every household getting 10GB of free data a month appears to be a ‘pipedream’ for now. Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni promised that the government would provide 10GB of free data to every household in South Africa regardless of income level. She made the promise during a joint State of the Nation debate on Tuesday, 15 February 2022. The basic data allocation will be similar to the provision of essential municipal water and electricity services to needy households. In a written response to parliamentary questions from Zandile Majozi of the Inkatha Freedom…

South African government institutions must use the Post Office so that the state doesn’t have to bail out the operator of the postal services, according to a new draft Bill published for public comment on Wednesday. The South African Post Office SOC Ltd Amendment Bill calls on government institutions which include national and provincial departments, national and provincial government components, and municipalities are encouraged to utilise services offerings by the Post Office and its infrastructure in the delivery of their services. The draft Bill also calls for government institutions to set-aside certain services to be provided by the Post Office…

Cool Ideas is ranked first among South Africa’s Internet Services Providers (ISPs) with a median download speed of 46.05 Mbps, followed by Afrihost and WebAfrica, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Tuesday. Ookla, which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service, has published its latest Speedtest Global Index rankings for South Africa for the first quarter of 2022, revealing that Webafrica and Cool Ideas had the lowest latency at 4 ms. Consistency Score In measuring the consistency of each fixed broadband provider’s performance, we found that Cool Ideas had the highest Consistency Score in South Africa…

MTN is ranked first among South Africa’s mobile operators with a median download speed of 51.76 Mbps, followed by Vodacom and Telkom, a report by speed test service Ookla revealed on Tuesday. Ookla, which owns and operates the popular speedtest.net Internet speed testing service, has published its latest Speedtest Global Index rankings for South Africa for the first quarter of 2022, showing that Telkom had the lowest latency at 19 ms. Fastest Mobile Providers Speedtest Intelligence reveals MTN was the fastest mobile operator among top providers in South Africa in Q1 2022 with a median download speed of 51.76 Mbps. Latency Calculating…

FIFA is getting into the streaming service business with a soccer version of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. The service is free. The first slate of FIFA+ Originals will feature Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, Ronaldo Nazário, Romelu Lukaku, Lucy Bronze and Carli Lloyd, among others. Launching today, FIFA+ will provide access to live football matches from every corner of the world, interactive games, news, tournament information, ground-breaking, unrivalled video content delivering truly global storytelling around the men’s and women’s game and much more.  FIFA is the first sports federation ever to offer such an extensive streaming and content experience to its…

Capitec Bank announced today that funeral plan income soared by 39% to R906 million in 2022 versus R650 million in the previous year. The banking group attributed the rise in funeral plan income to the continued success of the funeral product which increased the number of active policies. As of 28 February 2022, the active book was 1.7 million policies in 2022 financial year compared to 1.2 million policies in 2021. Capitec Bank said the average active funeral book for the current year was about 500 000 policies more than the prior year. “The substantial growth in the average active…

Capitec Bank revealed that its retail clients using digital channels swelled by 17% or 1.9 million new customers to 10.5 million for the year to end-February 2022 versus 8.6 million in 2021. “Active digital users of the banking app, USSD channel, internet banking or a combination of digital channels increased by 17% to 10.1 million, the digital bank informed investors today. Capitec added that clients performed 1.4 billion digital transactions for the year, an increase of 27% versus R800 million in 2021. “We encourage our clients to make use of digital channels to manage their banking costs,” said Capitec. The…

Epic Games announced today a $2 billion or R29 billion round of funding to advance the company’s vision to build a place for kids to play in the metaverse. This round includes investments from existing investor Sony Group Corporation as well as KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company behind The LEGO Group, with each party investing $1 billion or R14.5 billion respectively. “As we reimagine the future of entertainment and play we need partners who share our vision. We have found this in our partnership with Sony and KIRKBI,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO and Founder, Epic Games. “This investment…

MTN announced today it has received a final approval licence to operate its mobile money platform in Nigeria, the continent’s biggest market. MTN said in a statement that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted final approval for MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited (MoMo PSB) to commence operations. MTN said it was pleased to announce that MTN Nigeria, as promoter of MoMo PSB, has received a letter dated 8 April 2022 from the CBN addressed to MoMo PSB conveying approval for it to commence the operations. The company said this follows the approval in principle for MoMo PSB dated…

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies plans to reinvest R4.4 billion proceeds of the high-demand spectrum into South Africa’s telecommunications, Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said yesterday.   Ntshavheni made the pronouncement at the Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Digital Talent Programme Launch and ICT Competition Awards Ceremony in Sandton.   The communications and digital technologies minister said the country’s long-overdue high-demand radio frequency spectrum auction had netted the national fiscus R14.4 billion.   Ntshavheni said her department negotiated with President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to reinvest R4.4 billion in the telecommunications industry.   “The eldership [president and finance minister] believed…

Sigma Connected, which offers ‘white label’ customer contact centre services, will set up a state-of-the-art call centre in Cape Flats, Mitchells Plain. The move will see Sigma become the first Global Business Services (GBS) operation in the Western Cape to provide call centre solutions from Mitchells Plain. The company will create up to 1,000 new jobs in local communities. The call centre will support businesses in the telecommunications, retail, insurance, financial services, government and logistics industries. A total of 320 Digicall staff in Johannesburg and Cape Town will also join Sigma Connected South Africa. As a hugely experienced and South African-owned…

Daniel Mminele, a former Absa CEO, was paid R30 million in other payments in 2021 as part of a separation agreement with the banking group. The banking group said other payments included separation payments, contractual notice payments, and leave payments. Mminele’s total fixed remuneration for 2021 stood at R3 million, which consists of R2.9 million basic salary, R51 466 retirement benefits, and R26 247 in other employee benefits. He stepped down as a director on 20 April 2021 and ceased being an employee on 30 April 2021. “The decision by Absa and former Group Chief Executive, Mminele, to part ways in April…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday said it was going to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for “a racist attack on the appointment of ABSA’s new CEO, Arrie Rautenbach”. “Last week the PIC suggested that Rautenbach is unsuitable to be the CEO of ABSA, not because he lacks expertise and qualifications, but because he is white,” recounted DA Spokesperson Cilliers Brink. “This statement is racist, and its release an abuse of public power. “The Human Rights Commission complaint is an attempt to call the PIC and its management to account.” Brink said the…

SA’s Telviva, the market leader in cloud-based communications for business, has opted to penetrate European markets through a strategic partner-led approach. Telviva, formerly Connection Telecom, is a market leader in cloud-based communications for business. Seamlessly integrating voice, video and chat in one intelligent platform, Telviva allows you to have better quality conversations with customers, suppliers and staff. Telvivas’ CEO David Meintjes said the attendance at the recent Mobile World Congress marked Telviva’s soft launch into Europe, targeting service providers, IT integrators and Cloud PBX players in Europe. “We were well received and activated the first trial customer within two weeks…

Over the past decade, mobile money has expanded from a niche offering in a handful of markets to a mainstream financial service. Mobile money services is moving millions of households in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from the informal cash economy into a more inclusive digital economy. In 2021, there were more than 1.35 billion registered mobile money accounts worldwide, a tenfold increase from 134 million in 2012. This was revealed in the GSMA’s 10th annual ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’ published today. “Year-on-year growth in new registrations continues, defying initial expectations that it would taper off,”…

Is the idea of eliminating all animal products from one’s diet about to rapidly become mainstream in South Africa? This article explores if South Africa’s biggest food companies are embracing veganism. People love meat products, dietary change can be challenging, and switching to a vegan diet isn’t always easy given that cultural and socio-economic factors can affect plant-based food accessibility. However, it appears flexitarians, part-time vegetarianism, or veganism, is becoming more and more popular in South Africa. Young South African women – who want a healthy lifestyle – seem to be driving the growth of the vegan movement. Veganism —…

Famous Brands, the owners of Steers, announced today that it has acquired 51% of Lexi’s Healthy Eatery, whose slogan is “Eat more plants”. Lexi’s Healthy Eatery is a mostly vegan, whole-food restaurant. The JSE-listed company said its acquisition of Lexi’s Healthy Eatery is effective 1 April. Lexi’s Healthy Eatery is a casual dining restaurant (CDR) brand, offering a full-service, sit-down, plant-based dining experience across all key day parts: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The acquisition pertains to the franchise and central kitchen operations of the business. The acquisition is aligned with Famous Brands’ three-year strategic roadmap, which includes acquiring brands that…

Hackers stole more than $600 million or R8.7 billion worth of digital ledger used by players of the popular online game Axie Infinity, making it one of the largest thefts ever in the crypto world. Ronin Network revealed in its newsletter that hackers targeting its blockchain netted 173,600 ether and $25.5 million worth of stablecoin. The Ronin bridge and Katana Dex have been halted, said the company, after it was discovered on March 23rd, Sky Mavis’s Ronin validator nodes and Axie DAO validator nodes had been compromised. The attacker used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals. “We…