Author: Gugu Lourie

The Jasco group announced on Wednesday that it has recently appointed Craig Unsworth as its new MD of Jasco Electrical Manufacturers. By Staff Writer Unsworth is no stranger to the manufacturing industry. He began his career with Jasco Electrical Manufacturers (formerly Special Cables) in 1997 as an assistant to the Financial Manager, and later in 2007, he was appointed as the Financial Director. Unsworth is tasked with the responsibility of diversifying and growing the business. Jasco Electrical Manufacturers offers an outsourced manufacturing service for a number of industries on an ad-hoc and contract basis. The company also assists with product…

MTN has confirmed its willingness to engage in talks with the FF Plus after the party announced its intention to take complaints against the cellphone company to Parliament. By Mpho Raborife, NewsAgency Corporate Services executive at MTN SA Graham de Vries said although the company had not received any formal communication from the FF Plus, they were ready to meet and discuss the matter. “MTN has not received any formal correspondence from the Freedom Front Plus, but has noted the comments that have been attributed to the party,” he said. “MTN will be engaging the Freedom Front Plus on this matter…

The Video-on-Demand (VoD) platform owned by MTN South Africa, MTN FrontRow, is to be rebranded into VU and pronounced “view you” from today, 1 December 2015. The platform is also slashing its prices to retain and entice more customers. By Gugu Lourie VU, previously known as MTN FrontRow, is VoD service that offers TV series, music and movies to stream through your smart devices. It is available to users on all networks. “We want to share our exciting news with you. We’re making big changes and we want you, our valued MTNFrontrow user, to be the first to know. From…

  A widespread scam is targeting prospective buyers on major classifieds sites pretending to sell high value items. Claire Cobbledick, head of Gumtree South Africa marketing, writes for TechFinancials and explains that their customer service desk has received numerous enquiries asking to validate Gumtree holding accounts and invoices – even from users who responded to ads on competitor sites. We have to be 100% clear that Gumtree does not and will not “hold” money on behalf of our buyers or sellers. Sales on the site are concluded directly between the buyer and the seller or through our endorsed safe transacting partners, Shepherd…

South African mobile phone operators – Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile – are losing millions from the battery theft in some of their base stations across the country. Investing in this batteries and base stations that get vandalised by criminals is becoming a costly exercise for the mobile phone operators. By Gugu Lourie But operators seem to have discovered a solution. South African technology firm Poynting seems to have find a better solution for the operators to deal with this headache costing millions. Poynting is described as a manufacturer and supplier of antenna solutions to the telecommunications,…

Telkom today announced that it will be extending its SmartBroadband Uncapped High Speed Wireless packages focusing on select LTE base stations nationally. By Staff Writer The packages will target 520 sites in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Western Cape. But strangely the Northern Cape is excluded from the Telkom and therefore the operator’s SmartBroadband Uncapped High Speed Wireless packages are not covering the entire population of South Africa. The telco said this is an extension of the original phase and it will be available from 1 December 2015 to 30 June 2016. Customers…

South Africans can rest assured; they are still alone. This follows speculation about an Unidentified Flying Object [UFO] “crashing” in Sandton, north of Johannesburg. By Lizeka Tandwa, NewsAgency Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar told News24 that an advertisement was being filmed in Sandton for a milk drink. He said the advert included a spaceship that crashed on the side of the road. “The advert storyline involves a spaceship and that has got the entire city in a frenzy,” Minnaar said. “It’s creating a lot of chaos in the roads. Traffic has been backed up from Republic Road moving towards…

Financial services company Discovery said it is giving away Apple Watch wearable devices – but at an exercising cost. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency The company – which sells health insurance services – announced on Tuesday that it will fund Apple Watch devices in full for Vitality Active Rewards members, if they meet all their weekly fitness goals for 24 months. Discovery on Tuesday also launched its Apple Watch app, which leverages the device’s capabilities to measure movement and heart rate to track members’ activities and points regarding their weekly fitness goals. The app also taps QR code features of the…

Technology provider Vox Telecom on Tuesday launched an uncapped voice product aimed at reducing the telephony costs of small to medium businesses. By Staff Writer Uncapped voice for business enables unlimited calls to mobile, national and local fixed line and select international destinations. Three contract options have been created for the uncapped voice offering, starting at R1495 per month for five outbound channels, R4990 per month for 10 outbound channels and R8985 per month for 15 outbound channels. Vox Telecom will match outbound channels, with the equivalent inbound channels. Customers will be required to port to Vox Telecom, and…

The FF Plus has invited people who have unresolved billing and administrative problems with cellphone company MTN to come forward so they can ask Parliament and the Consumer Protection Commission for help. By Jenni Evans, NewsAgency FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson on communications Anton Alberts said they had received numerous complaints about unresolved billing and administrative problems at MTN and decided to help. The complaints range from excessive data charges to unexplained amounts billed on dormant accounts. “For example, a woman working in Saudi Arabia received a bill for thousands on an account that was dormant,” said Alberts. They say they were approached after the…