Author: Gugu Lourie
By Staff Writer African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED) has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its solar kiosk that charges over 30 phones at once and brings free Wi-Fi. The Rwandan-based start-up wants to support life-changing access to electricity and the internet in Africa to about 600 million people, who must make the long journey into the next town with electricity to just charge their phones and access the internet. The firm founded by entrepreneur, Henri Nyakarundi, wants to bring digital access to all of Africa, Him and his team want to produce many more solar kiosks to be able to…
by Gugu Lourie Anyone who seriously thought that the South African government was going to spend more money into implementing broadband access in the country simply hasn’t been paying attention and the budget delivered on Wednesday confirmed that politicians don’t see fast Internet access as a priority for its citizens. South Africa will spend a mere R1.9 billion to implement broadband in the country, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Wednesday in a budget speech. Gordhan said the 2017 budget allocates funds over the mini budget period of R1.9 billion versus R1.6 billion in 2016. These funds are aimed at…
by Staff Writer South Africa’s health informatics firm LifeQ has collaborated with Silicon Valley-based Striiv to develop a high-scale, low-friction & personalised health information platform for the corporate wellness, insurance, care provider and pharmaceutical industries. They will jointly develop a wrist-based body monitoring platform. Together, Striiv and LifeQ will deliver a solution that removes the two major barriers to a scaled health information platform, namely: lack of quality biometric information and up-front technology and program costs. Building on the technical depth of Striiv’s wearable platforms, the two companies will combine expertise to deliver wearable devices that extract maximum relevant physiological…
by Staff Writer JSE-listed tech firm EOH has collaborated with German-based STEAG Energy Services to deliver world-class energy solutions to the region. The two companies have created a joint venture business to be known as STEAG EOH Energy Services South Africa. The aim of the joint venture is to bring leading expertise to the energy sector in South Africa. “STEAG EOH Energy Services brings together leaders in technology and engineering innovation in a unique partnership which will deliver world-class energy solutions to the region, spanning; design, engineering, operation and optimisation of all types of power generation facilities,” said Zunaid Mayet,…
SA’s MetroFibre Networx and Steyn City Properties have collaborated to bring Fibre Connectivity to residents of Steyn City Parkland. Connectivity Services is a joint venture between the parties, that will see ownership of the passive fibre infrastructure which resides with Steyn City Properties, while the operations, management, support and maintenance of the network will be performed by MetroFibre Networx. Connectivity Services will provide an open access fibre communications network, offering residents and business within the development offerings of multiple service providers, dependent on the needs of the customer. “Fibre is one of the fastest growing markets in the country and…
A Cape Town-based FinTech business, Electrum, has been providing local retailers and banks with the technology platform that they need in order to connect their systems to Value Added Services (VAS) providers and sell VAS. The tremendous growth of VAS has created substantial demand from South African retailers such as retailer Pick ‘n Pay and the country’s fastest growing bank Capitec for the technology to support the sale of these services. VAS include prepaid airtime, prepaid electricity, gift cards, bill payments, money transfers, e-tickets, and loyalty transactions. But it’s not as simple as selling a normal stock item that sits…
by Nox Makunga Children’s ideas about what their gender means for their intellectual capacity are formed before they have even turned six. One idea that’s particularly pervasive and dangerous is that, only boys are good at maths and science. Popular media only exacerbates the problem. Research has shown that girls hardly ever see adult women doing jobs that involve science, technology, engineering and maths on television programmes. Children’s programmes also rarely feature women doing anything scientific. These early stereotypes may lead to young girls developing a “fear” of these subjects throughout their schooling. This ultimately limits their career aspirations. They become…
by Staff Writer South African-based Internet of Things (IoT) firm IoT.nxt, which recently spreads its wings to the UK, has secured R100 million to pursue global expansion. The Pretoria-based IoT company has secured a further R100m from its dedicated investor and funding partner Talent Holdings. “We are grateful for the confidence Talent have shown with this latest round of funding and believe this will cause another shift in our growth,” IoT.nxt CEO, Nico Steyn, said on Friday. “We will apply these funds further step up innovation and at the same time extend the productization of the platform into specifically target market sectors.”…
by Zandile Mchiza Food advertising strongly influences the eating choices of adults, adolescents and children alike. But TV and magazine adverts often carry misleading health and nutrition claims. Advertisers use persuasive techniques to entice vulnerable viewers who can’t make informed decisions about the products they buy. Our study looked at how different groups in South Africa were exposed to food advertising in magazines. We found that more than half of the adverts in magazines that primarily target poor, black people were for unhealthy and starchy foods. Affluent, non-black groups were shown slimming foods and dietary supplements. Adverts also made false claims…