Author: Gugu Lourie

1Fetch, a new on-demand, same-day, hand-to-hand motorbike delivery service, has hit the market revving, providing users with “speedy, professional and super-efficient service – all at the push of a button”, the company said on Wednesday. “It’s that simple.” By Staff Writer The hand-to-hand motorbike delivery service is available via an app, and the entire delivery process is done in-app, just like the Uber franchise that has completely changed the taxi industry worldwide. 1Fetch connects users with drivers – it’s delivery when you need it and how you need it. It is available on Google Play and on the Apple App Store.…

You want to experience ‘fast, reliable Internet’ for the lowest price ever, sign up for any Afrihost monthly DSL Broadband package this month and you’ll pay only R1 for September! “No, that’s not a typo, we’re actually giving you internet for a steal this month,” said the Internet provider on Tuesday. By Staff Writer Afrihost, which is no longer part of MTN South Africa, said it it was giving away broadband internet for almost nothing with the R1 Steal Promotion. The promotion offers you the chance to sign up for any monthly capped or uncapped DSL package in September and only…

The BMW i8 is different.  It is a new take on the concept of sports car – one that allows you to have your cake and eat it.  It is a petrol – electric hybrid that with a tiny combustion engine in the back and an electric motor in the front.  The result is a car that outperforms many supercars and uses less petrol than a Mini.  But all of this is still missing the point with the i8.  The point is that it transforms how you think about cars.  You start thinking differently and even driving differently. By Hywel Glyn-Jones,…

The FNB Banking App now has a total of over 2 million active devices in use and remains the most downloaded banking app in South Africa.  By Staff Writer The App was launched in July 2011 and was SA’s first smart phone and tablet banking app. About 60% of FNB App users are millenials; they fall under the 16 -36 age brackets and they are digitally savvy and value the role of technology in their daily lives. “The FNB Banking App has become the preferred channel of banking for our clients, and that’s primarily because it’s a convenient way of…

South African mobile payments startup iKhokha and Mastercard aims to significantly boost payment card acceptance at micro, small and medium enterprises in informal settlements. By Staff Writer In the next six months, iKhokha aims to roll out 700 mobile point of sale terminals to cash-based micro-enterprises including spaza shops, taverns, food outlets, and hair and beauty salons in KwaMashu, north of Durban and in Ladybrand in the eastern Free State. This pilot project will act as a blueprint for the direct expansion into other informal settlements nationally. iKhokha managing director Matt Putman says card acceptance can help small business owners to…

We have received numerous calls and emails from our readers asking questions about the application process for MTN Zakhele Futhi. We have lifted from the MTN Zakhele Futhi’s prospectus a quick overview highlighting the application process. By Staff Writer Who can apply for MTN Zakhele Futhi shares? Black People: Black People (African, Coloured and Indian people) who are natural persons and citizens of South Africa by birth or descent; or who are citizens through naturalisation before 27 April 1994 or after that date, but who would have qualified for naturalisation before that date. Minors (i.e. a Black Person below 18 years…

In South Africa, there are some tough economic challenges ahead. Unemployment remains high and rating agencies believe that a downgrade of the country’s credit ratings to junk status is still possible at the end of the year. Open innovation through ecosystem expansion could help turn the tide. By William Mzimba, chief executive South and Sub-Saharan Africa at Accenture The evolving digital business environment and business models, supported by new digital technologies, make new and deeper forms of collaboration possible – and greater digital collaboration increasingly correlates with better business and economic performance. Accenture’s Digital Collaboration Index indicates that digital collaboration can…

Australian geologists say they have found ancient microbial fossils in 3.7 billion-year-old rocks in Greenland. The finding, reported in Nature last month, is some 200 million years older than previously accepted fossils. By David Flannery Previously, the best-known evidence for life in these rocks has been a fractionation of stable carbon isotopes. All organisms fractionate carbon isotopes, and the carbon isotope record of sedimentary rocks is good evidence for the presence of life as we know it. The fractionation of isotopes in Greenland is less than in younger rocks, where values are consistent with known microbial metabolisms. But since time, heat…

While MTN hasn’t fully provided the market and its customers with its complete financial services strategy, a move by Africa’s largest mobile phone operator to partner with MMI Holdings indicates that efforts to accelerate diversification into the financial services industry are gathering speed. By Gugu Lourie MTN is targeting more than 200 million of its customers through a micro-insurance solutions powered by its vast network and the expertise of MMI Holdings, a South African-based insurance financial services player. Buying Barclays Africa assets may still be on MTN’s radar screens That said we must add that a possibility of MTN seeking…

There’s a growing belief that asserts that our civilisation is embarked on a new epoch, the Anthropocene. This new epoch will be defined by human domination of earth’s physical and natural environment. It’s more popular slogan is climate change. By John J Stremlau It replaces the Holocene epoch, a period stretching back 11 700 years during which conditions were uniquely conducive to the global spread and flourishing of Africa’s original Homo sapiens. When did the Anthropocene epoch start? This is the big issue still being debated by an authoritative international and multidisciplinary working group of earth scientists. They are considering what…