Author: Gugu Lourie

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub is to join Vodafone executive committee. British mobile phone giant Vodafone is a majority shareholder of Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator. Vodafone will simplify its management structure with the removal of the rest of world regional organisation, from the beginning of full-year 20/21, Vodacom spokesperson told TechFinancials in an email. Vodacom was responding to TechFinancials query that Joosub will be joining Vodafone as its head of Africa operations. For more read: Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub ‘Quits’ to Head Vodafone Africa “Following this reorganisation, Shameel Joosub, the Chief Executive of Vodacom Group, will be joining…

There are some unconfirmed rumours swirling around long-serving Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub, who recently was sent on study leave at Harvard Business School. For more read: Vodacom CEO on ‘Study Leave’, Vuyani Jarana ‘May’ Rejoin the Operator The alleged imminent departure of Joosub follows the resignation of chief financial officer Till Streichert and chief technology officer, Andries Delport. However, in an internal communique seen by TechCentral, Joosub assured his team early on Thursday morning that “contrary to what may be speculated, there is nothing sinister about this and no link to Andries’s announcement”. But, Joosub might have been trying to…

The performance of the share price of Welkom Yizani, the black economic empowerment (BEE) shares of Media24, continues to disappoint investors. Investors paid in a subscription of R10.00 per share at the establishment of the scheme in 2006. In the past 12 months, the share price has reached a low of R6.51 per share and at the same time shot up to a high of R13.00 per share. The stock on Tuesday was trading at R7.52 per share and yesterday was at R7.50 per share. This is way below the subscription price of R10.00 per share. Investors of Welkom Yizani…

Vodacom Group CFO Till Streichert will leave the company in June 2020 to pursue an external opportunity outside of Vodacom. The Vodafone-owned telco said Streichert will step down from his role on the Vodacom Group board at around the same time or at an earlier mutually agreed date. Streichert departure follows the resignation on Monday of Vodacom’s chief technology officer, Andries Delport. For more read: Vodacom Says CTO Andries Delport Leaves the Company Streichert was seconded to Vodacom from Vodafone in February 2014. During his tenure at Vodacom, he evolved the finance team into a successful intelligence unit focused on…

The listing on the JSE of MTN Zakhele Futhi, the black economic empowerment scheme of MTN Group, disappoints investors. The shares of MTN Zakhele Futhi debuted on Monday on the JSE. Yesterday, the stock opened at R6 and peaked at R9,20 to close at R4,80. By 1153, the stock was trading at R5.50 a share. Investors of MTN Zakhele Futhi are disappointed as this implies the stock has lost close to 90% of its value. The shares are trading way below its net asset value which was more than R22 in September 2018. Black investor spent R20 each, with a…

SA Taxi, a vertically integrated minibus taxi platform, wants to use technology to modernize the South African minibus taxi industry and make travelling safe. The company announced on Tuesday is using its telematics and other data accumulated from its rewards programmes to proactively drive behavioural changes in the minibus taxi industry. The company said using telematics and data in the taxi industry would have a positive social impact and enhance commuter safety. SA Taxi will expand its tailored rewards programmes within the minibus taxi ecosystem. “Ultimately, the division intends to leverage its telematics and rewards programmes data to connect to…

Vodacom Group said on Tuesday Chief Technology Officer Andries Delport was leaving the company. The Vodafone-owned mobile phone operator said Delport will pursue external interests with effect from May 2020. Vodacom will announce a successor for the Group CTO position in due course. “Andries has been a key member of the Vodacom family for the past 23 years and his contribution to the Group has been immeasurable. I would like to thank Andries for his leadership in building world-class networks and his commitment to transforming our technology capability across the group,” said Vodacom Group Chief Executive Officer, Shameel Joosub. “Andries…

Liquid Telecom South Africa, part of pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, is equipping Batlhalerwa Secondary school in Limpopo with much-needed ICT equipment and training to help learners and teachers achieve better results.  For the past two years, the South African government has been vocal about how the digital revolution is unlocking job creation and stimulating economic growth.  “As we drive societal digital transformation, access to ICT infrastructure and training forms a basic tenet of our digital inclusion imperative,” Communications and Digital Technologies Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says. “The department therefore continues to partner with industry stakeholders to provide Cyberlabs that are…

Retailer Pepkor, previously Steinhoff Africa Retail, is starting to generate more income from financial technology (FinTech) services. The company, which is a subsidiary of JSE-listed Steinhoff, owns clothing retailers Pep and Ackermans, furniture stores such as Bradlows, Russells and Incredible Connection. Pepkor disclosed on Monday that its FinTech business delivered a 43.9% rise in revenue to R7.2 billion in the financial year ended September 30, 2019. The retailer added that operating profit for FinTech business swells by 93% to R483 million. The company operates its FinTech division through FLASH and Capfin. The FLASH business continues to report strong growth, completing…

A South African FinTech (financial technology) startup has instituted a R14 million claim for damages against social media giant Facebook. PrepaidWealth.com, a startup co-founded by Gabriel Nkuna, has served a notice of motion filed at the Gauteng Local Division High Court in Johannesburg to Facebook Inc on the 19th November 2019. Nkuna said the notice was served following two incidences where Facebook Inc suspended and/or closed two promotional pages created for PrepaidWealth.com on the Facebook.com platform. The notice of motion served to Facebook Inc contains three terms. The first one is to declare the reason for suspending or closing the…

Tech giant Prosus has called on Just Eat shareholders to accept its offer and reject that of rival Takeaway.com. Just Eat has rejected a £5bn hostile swoop by Prosus, the Dutch arm of South Africa internet titan Naspers. Its board is instead recommending investors support a planned merger with Takeaway.com that was announced this summer. The Euronext and JSE-listed tech giant owned by Naspers has made a bid of 4.9 billion pounds ($6.35 billion or R94 billion) or 710 pence a share, in cash. For more read: Naspers’ Prosus Makes R94bn Bid For Just Eat The offer, Prosus said, represented a 20% premium…

Jaguar Land Rover has developed a technology that alerts the driver if it detects the tell-tale signs of drowsiness. The technology takes inputs from thousands of data points, some of which are measured every thousandth of a second, including the Electronic Power Assisted Steering system, pedal inputs and general driving behaviour. It also uses complex algorithms to analyse all this to accurately determine whether a driver is becoming fatigued. The technology is known as the Driver Condition Monitor and Jaguar Land Rover has developed it as part of a wider vision to enrich and improve the lives of its drivers…

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has requested both MTN and Cell C to provide all the agreements and associated information on the roaming transaction for review and to assess compliance with the applicable law and regulations. On Monday, MTN South Africa disclosed that it has signed a new long-form roaming and services agreement with Cell C, subject to certain conditions precedent. In May 2018, Cell C signed its first roaming agreement with MTN, providing Cell C with 2G, 3G and 4G roaming services on MTN’s network in select areas of South Africa. The new agreement will see…

Telkom has confirmed it is in talks to buy struggling mobile phone operator Cell C. Cell C is 45% owned by JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, 15% by Net 1, 3 Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) collectively hold 30% (in turn held by 3C Telecommunications and further in turn held as 29.4% by the Employee Believe Trust, 45.6% by Oger Telecoms and 25% by broad-based black empowerment grouping CellSAf); and Cell C Management and Staff hold 10%. “Telkom has substantially concluded its due diligence, however, discussions are at a preliminary stage,” the company informed investors on Friday. The company, which is partially…

Even with the 5G era already upon us, investment in 4G/LTE networks is still vitally important for operators in sub-Saharan Africa and must remain a core focus of network construction for the immediate future. This is according to David Chen, vice-president, Huawei Southern Africa. “Currently, the mobile broadband penetration rate in Africa is only 47%, while 4G penetration rate is merely 10%,” Chen said. “Insufficient coverage causes LTE users to fall back to the 2G or 3G networks, resulting in significant decline in user experience. It also leads to congestion on the 2G and 3G networks and makes it difficult…

At the root of the troubled tech firm EOH misery in the past few years has been a flawed strategy around corporate governance. EOH’s new management team under its boss Stephen van Coller initiated a probe led by law firm ENSafrica (ENS) to review all its large, historical licensing contracts with the state. The probe uncovered suspicious transactions worth R1.2 billion. EOH had issued reports to regulators and is pressing criminal charges as well as civil claims to recover stolen funds. “This has been a difficult time for the EOH business but we will continue the process of meaningful engagement…

EOH, troubled JSE-listed technology group, has paid its CEO more than R19 million in 2019. The company disclosed in its annual report that Stephen van Coller, having been bought out of an existing contract joined with a guaranteed payment of R10 million, paid in two equal tranches in October 2018, and October 2019. Van Coller was also awarded 1 million share options on joining EOH. His total package include a basic salary of R5.4 million ( which includes medical aid, death and disability insurance, unemployment insurance fund (‘UIF’) and any amounts paid on resignation). It also consists of R14 million…

Takeaway announced on Wednesday that its bid offer for Britain’s Just Eat presented a compelling opportunity for both companies. The Takeaway’s offer is backed by Just Eat’s boards despite a higher bid price from cash-flush larger rival Prosus, which is owned by South African-based tech giant Naspers. Prosus hit back on Wednesday saying that “the Takeaway materials published today continue to underestimate the level of investment required in a sector that is changing rapidly. “Just Eat requires substantial investment in technology, product, marketing and own-delivery to capture its long-term opportunity,” Prosus said in a statement, emailed to TechFinancials. “With our global experience,…

A Cape Town blockchain-based startup, Registree, has partnered with the University of Cape Town (UCT to create blockchain-based records for thousands of UCT students. Over the past two years, a group of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) students and their professor quietly built Registree, a blockchain-based student registry to address one of the country’s most pressing problems: the coexistence one of the world’s highest youth unemployment rate with a massive and persistent skills shortage across all sectors of the economy. “We started Registree because we realized that universities struggle to fully use of the vast amount of student data,…

Bank Zero, a start-up by mostly former First National Bank (FNB) staffers chaired by venture capitalist Michael Jordaan, on Wednesday reassured the market that is making progress to launch in 2020. The digital bank was initially planned to launch three months ago. Today, the bank – which is set to compete with fellow newcomers TymeBank and Discovery Bank – revealed on Wednesday a debit card beta. To protect customers from widespread card fraud, Bank Zero said it has designed a new patented card which offers vital security and convenience. This patent will dramatically minimise the negative impact of card data…

Nokia today announced that Spectranet, Nigeria’s largest Internet Service Provider, will bring high-speed access to customers in Lagos and Abuja. Spectranet will deploy Nokia’s GPON solution as part of an extensive Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) rollout. The solution will enable Spectranet to provide new ultra-broadband services such as 4K HD video streaming and online gaming to residential and enterprise subscribers in the region.  “In today’s digital economy, our customers increasingly seek high-speed internet access to use applications like streaming ultra HD videos and online gaming,” Ajay Awasthi, Chief Executive Officer at Spectranet, said. “With Nokia’s GPON solution, we will be able to…

South African mobile operator MTN, together with Huawei launched their C-band 5G trial on the first day of AfricaCom 2019, as part of the operator’s network evolution plan towards 5G. C-band, the so-called ‘golden band’ for 5G spectrum, is a valuable slice of spectrum and comprises of a frequency range of around 3.3 – 3.8GHz. Many countries around the world are deploying this spectrum band to deliver their 5G services, making it highly valuable for mobile operators. MTN and Huawei signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Joint 5G Innovation Program to assess and work on new technologies such…

MultiChoice continues to experience strong subscriber growth for the period ended 30 September 2019 despite concerns from experts that this growth would taper off as competition intensifies. Africa’s biggest pay-TV operator, which is valued close to R60 billion on the JSE, informed investors on Monday that it added 1.2 million 90-day active subscribers, representing 7% year-on-year (YoY) growth. This growth pushed MultiChoices’ overall 90-day active subscriber base to 18.9 million households as at 30 September 2019. The group said it’s home market of South Africa delivered solid results, reporting subscriber growth of 7% YoY or 600 000 subscribers on a 90-day…

OLX Group (OLX), a Prosus’ classifieds business, is investing $400 million (R5.9 billion) in online car marketplace Frontier Car Group (FCG). The transaction will result in OLX becoming the largest shareholder in FCG. FCG is a Berlin-based automotive marketplace group founded in 2016. It develops, launches, and operates online and offline used-car marketplaces within high-growth market economies, with operations in over 10 countries and 5 continents. In these marketplaces, FCG enables buyers and sellers of cars to transact in trustworthy and transparent ways through technology, infrastructure, access to capital, and innovative business models compared to otherwise complex systems. OLX, the fastest-growing…

Tech giant Prosus has threated Just East investors that it will withdraw its takeover bid if they back a merger with Takeaway.com. The Telegraph reported that despite being armed with a €20bn (£17bn) warchest, Prosus’ boss Bob van Dijk is telling Just Eat shareholders that Prosus is not interested in buying both companies. Just Eat has rejected a £5bn hostile swoop by Prosus, the Dutch arm of South Africa internet titan Naspers. Its board is instead recommending investors support a planned merger with Takeaway.com that was announced this summer. The Euronext and JSE-listed tech giant owned by Naspers has made a…