Author: Gugu Lourie

Mobile phone operator MTN’s efforts to boost profitability in its troubled South African operation are starting to pay off even sales rose slightly in the 2015 financial year. By Gugu Lourie MTN South Africa, the country’s second biggest mobile phone operator, on Thursday reported a 2.9% rise in revenue to R40 billion for the year to end-December 2015, driven main by healthy growth in data revenue. The local telco, which was last year faced by strikes and saw resignation of CEO for its South Africa operation, also delivered good customer growth on the back of  attractive voice and data packages.…

MTN has noted the reports about customers losing money from their personal bank accounts. MTN wishes to assure its customers that it has put security requirements and systems in place to improve security. MTN continuously reassesses the applicability of such security controls and as and when such security controls are breached, new and different controls are developed and implemented. However, as with any security and control systems, unscrupulous individuals will always explore ways of circumventing such systems. It is unfortunately a continuous process as criminal elements always find ways to improve their fraudulent methods. Since 2009, MTN has implemented…

Politicians should not run ahead of themselves and expect the wholesale or partial privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said in parliament on Wednesday. By Liesl Peyper, NewsAgency Responding to oral questions from MPs, Ramaphosa said there are currently around 700 SOEs – some of them key to South Africa’s developmental mandate and others less so. The inter-ministerial committee tasked with reviewing all the SOEs will come up with a list of which ones are relevant and which not. “As of now we will put the horse before the cart to decide which ones should be retained,” Ramaphosa…

A forensic investigator has alleged an inside job at First National Bank (FNB) and MTN in a SIM-swap scam that pilfers customers of hundreds of thousands of rands. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency Private consulting forensic scientist, Dr David Klatzow, says his client, Cape Town audiologist Gail Jacklin, lost over R200 000 from the scam earlier this year. Dr Klatzow said his client hasn’t been reimbursed by FNB. Dr Klatzow told Fin24 that MTN failed to prevent an unauthorised SIM-swap of Jacklin’s phone, which resulted in fraudsters stealing from her FNB accounts. But Dr Klatzow said he knows of at least…

Technology has changed the world, including the banking sector, and consumers increasingly require the choice of multi-channel in addition to traditional bricks-and-mortar trading. These include telephone and Internet banking as well as banking apps on smart devices. However, simply providing multiple channels is no longer enough, as can be seen by the emergence of alternate banking services including PayPal, PayFast or Boodle. By Saurabh Kumar, MD at In2IT Technologies South Africa The proliferation of always-on devices and an increasingly social and connected world has changed the way businesses operate. By providing consumers with multiple channels of communication, available 24…

Mattel recently announced that it will release a US$300 3D printer for kids in time for the 2016 holiday season. With accompanying software that is specially tailored for young toy designers, the ThingMaker promises to introduce a new generation of innovators to the up-and-coming world of 3D printing. By Carolyn Conner Seepersad Known in technology circles as “additive manufacturing,” 3D printing has grown into a $4 billion industry since it was first commercialized 30 years ago by 3D Systems. For most of its history, though, it has been out of the reach of typical consumers. Most industrial-scale 3D printing machines cost…

Vodacom officially dropped its R7 billion bid for Neotel on Tuesday following the Pretoria High Court’s ruling that Icasa’s approval of the transfer of Neotel’s operating and spectrum licences to Vodacom be set aside in its entirety. By Gugu Lourie Techcentral reported on Monday that Icasa met secretly and unlawfully with Vodacom to discuss the operator’s proposed R7bn acquisition of Neotel, leading to a “reasonable suspicion of bias” against the communications regulator, the high court in Pretoria has found. The end to the 22-month quest to combine South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator with the country’s second biggest fixed-line telephone…

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s job is not in jeopardy, the Presidency said on Monday. By Genevieve Quintal, NewsAgency “The President wishes to emphasise that Minister Gordhan remains the Minister of Finance and any positing that the position of the Minister is under any threat is dismissed with the contempt it deserves,” spokesperson Bongani Majola said. Reports emerged on Friday that Gordhan threatened to resign shortly before his Budget Speech last week after he received a list of 27 questions from the Hawks investigating the operation of a rogue unit at Sars. The Hawks on Monday denied that they are investigating the…

The Raspberry Pi 3 –  the latest generation low-cost computer board that raises the bar with higher performance, 64-bit support and wireless connectivity – is now available from RS Components at R642.00 (excl. VAT). By Staff Writer Available from RS Components, the latest generation Raspberry Pi delivers 50% higher performance than Raspberry Pi 2, and integrates Bluetooth and wireless LAN communications technologies, according to RS Components. The new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B credit-card-sized single-board computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation is now available to order at http://za.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi. Targeting use in industry, in homes and in schools and colleges worldwide, the…

Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu will travel to Colombia in two weeks time with a strong local team on a charm offensive to attract investors and promote the country’s entrepreneurial culture. By Staff Writer The minister will lead a South African delegation to attend the he 8th edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC 2016) under the theme The Business of Next at Medellin in Colombia. Every year, the GEC gathers together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and other startup champions from more than 160 countries to identify new ways of helping founders start and scale new…