Author: Gugu Lourie
South Africa’s banking group FNB is aiming to redefined mobile banking by launching its own branded FNB smartphone, a move that fully integrates banking and customer mobility. The smartphone comes on the back of the FNB Connect cellular offering launched in 2015, which seamlessly integrates customer’s financial and mobile accounts on a single banking platform. FNB is offering customers the choice of two smartphones, the ConeXis A1 and X1 respectively. The A1 is pitched at the price-sensitive Easy bank account holder, who now has access to possibly their first high quality smartphone at an affordable price of only R59 per…
MTN SA has strengthened its executive team once again following the appointment of Maxwell Takalani Nonge as the new Chief Digital Officer. Nonge’s appointment will be effective 01 September 2016. Nonge is an accomplished professional who has extensive experience in the telecommunications and broadcasting space. He has worked for a number of organisations in a career spanning approximately 17 years where he served in a number of roles. Before he accepted his new role at MTN SA, Nonge was the Group Chief Technology Officer for eMedia Investments, and served as Managing Director of Platco Digital, eTV’s sister company, between 2013…
At present, purchasing travel insurance online can be a confusing experience for the customer., but a Cape Town-based fintech company Hepstar has announced the launch of what it terms a “simplified online service” to take the “hassle” out of buying travel insurance. By Staff Writer This mobile app-like website is customer-centric with an interface that is exceptionally easy to use, making the purchase of travel insurance faster, simpler and more streamlined. No more quotes. The confirmation is immediate and the policy kicks in the same minute. “Our vision is making travel insurance easy for the customer,” said Hepstar chief operatingoOfficer,…
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi says the planned picket outside her department’s head office in Pretoria today by the Right to Know Campaign is aimed at silencing her from driving media transformation in the country. By Staff agency “It is interesting to note that Right2Know is staging the picket on the eve of our Print Media Transformation Colloquium — a clear indication that it is meant to distract the attention and focus of department idea to de-racialise print media by increasing black ownership and control, as well as its role in support of development. “We want to make it clear that…
Who was the first woman to have her period in space? What is it like changing sanitary products while being weightless? And why doesn’t menstrual flow just float up into the body when gravity isn’t around? By Varsha Jain These were some of the questions I had when I started researching female astronaut health. The human body goes through a lot of changes when in space. Not having gravity to constantly work against, it loses bone density and muscle mass. The cardiovascular system gets lazy and the body’s balance control mechanisms have to completely readapt themselves to find a new norm.…
End-to-end telecommunications and networking solutions provider Saicom Voice Services has entered into a strategic partnership with SEACOM, a provider of internet, connectivity and cloud based services, to allow SEACOM to provide Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Cloud PBX services over a white-label platform to corporate and SME customers. By Staff writer Through the partnership, SEACOM will offer voice services to its growing customer base, in addition to its existing high-speed internet access and cloud services. “Our strategy is to build our channel platform in order for resellers to partner with us and in turn extend their service offering to…
South Africa’s mobile phone giant MTN has announced a second black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, under which it will sell a 4% stake in the mobile phone company, worth about R9.9 billion, to black investors. By Gugu Lourie The mobile phone operator said the new MTN BEE transaction, together with the continuing contribution of the MTN Zakhele empowerment transaction, translates to an effective indirect “see-through” black ownership in excess of 30% of MTN’s South African operations. MTN will provide an effective transaction discount of 20%, through additional equity in the structure. BEE is designed to widen ownership of the South…
Anyone who knows me also knows that I have a huge sweet tooth. I always have. My friend and fellow graduate student Andrew is equally afflicted, and living in Hershey, Pennsylvania – the “Chocolate Capital of the World” – doesn’t help either of us. By Jordan Gaines Lewis But Andrew is braver than I am. Last year, he gave up sweets for Lent. I can’t say that I’m following in his footsteps this year, but if you are abstaining from sweets for Lent this year, here’s what you can expect over the next 40 days. Sugar: natural reward, unnatural fix…
Anger can be very quick, powerful, reactive, and can make us do things we typically wouldn’t do. There is nothing inherently wrong with anger as an emotion, but nowhere is anger less helpful, more common, and potentially more dangerous than when we are behind the wheel of a car. By Stan Steindl and James Kirby Most of us are familiar with “road rage”. There are, of course, extreme examples of violence and assaults on the roads that end up in the courts, hospitals, and the media. But every day, drivers get angry and aggressive, and the evidence is mounting that this can…
Mercedes unveiled a new all-electric luxury-class coupé concept: the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6. The coupé reinterprets classic, emotional design principles in an extreme way, following the Mercedes-Benz design philosophy of sensual purity. The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, which measures almost six metres in length, is designed as an electric car. The output of the drive system is 550 kW. The shallow underfloor battery has a usable capacity of approx. 80 kWh. This not only allows performance characteristics typical of a sports car (acceleration from 0‑100 km/h in under four seconds, top speed electronically governed at 250 km/h) but also a range of over 500 kilometres. The extended, round “boat tail” format…