Author: Staff Writer

BMW Group South Africa announces the appointment of Carmen Myles as Head of MINI South Africa, effective 1 September 2023. With over 17 years of experience in sales, Carmen has built and maintained strong business relations across BMW Group South Africa and its retailer network. In her current role as BMW Group South Africa Manager: Transaction Pricing and Product Offers, she has been responsible for transaction pricing in the new direct sales model for BMW Group South Africa, MINI and BMW Motorrad for the past three years. Carmen is a resourceful and skilled sales professional, having previously filled roles such…

The Deaf-and-hard-of-hearing community will use September Deaf Awareness Month to continue celebrating the Government’s decision to make SA Sign Language (SASL) the 12th official language. Cebisile Ndebele, Chairperson of the Neema Foundation for the Deaf, says SASL being an official language is a monumental victory for the Deaf community. It will ensure that their rights to equality, dignity and social inclusion are not only recognised but implemented. “As we celebrate, we must realise that the battle for equality, dignity and social inclusion for Deaf people is far from over,” says Ndebele. Ndebele says the struggle for Deaf equality and inclusion…

The management of data quality is a common struggle across companies and industries. Prioritising fraud prevention and having insight into data can have a ripple effect on the economy. Everything is hyper-personalised by tracking people’s engagements, clicks, and movements.  Insights into this invaluable data can enable rapid instant information with various benefits. To explore the value of Data Streaming, we took a deep dive into some of South Africa’s Top Financial Services, Insurance, and Retail companies. Earlier this month, Synthesis hosted Confluent Round Tables in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, moderated by Colin Iles. We invited our clients; Standard Bank,…

Shareholder demand for innovation – often taking companies into high-risk, uncharted waters and even cannibalising existing business models – can do more harm than good. Sometimes real innovation is about exploring how to revolutionise existing processes or simply harnessing data to more fully understand the customer.   “First digital transformation, and now artificial intelligence, is causing seismic shifts in how we do business and sometimes resulting in the disruption of entire value chains. Companies are only just discovering how much data they have and the value of the insights it can deliver. Using new AI tools to deliver these insights can…

MTN Group today announced the promotion of Marina Madale to Group Executive: Sustainability & Shared Value, effective 1 September 2023. Prior to this, Marina served as the General Manager: Sustainability and Shared Value, MTN Group. In her new role, she will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for the management of Sustainability and Shared Value and the work of our foundations across MTN Group markets. Marina has a wealth of experience across multiple sectors globally, including oil & gas, energy, banking, and property development across multiple countries such as Qatar, Mozambique, Botswana, Gabon, South Africa, and Australia. She played…

The Embassy of Ireland in South Africa, in collaboration with Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), and Dogpatch Labs Ireland, is now accepting applications for the Irish Tech Challenge South Africa 2023. This initiative aims to foster mutually advantageous partnerships between local technopreneurs in South Africa and the technological expertise of Ireland, leveraging Ireland’s status as a prominent global high-tech centre. The Irish Tech Challenge 2023 is on the lookout for the most compelling growth-stage tech startups based in South Africa that are in alignment with the United…

In a first of its kind in South Africa, Vodacom signed a Virtual Wheeling agreement with Eskom earlier today that will help accelerate efforts to solve the country’s energy crisis. In addition to adding capacity to the nation’s power grid, this agreement – a Vodacom innovation which has been co-developed with Eskom – will also play a significant role in moving Vodacom closer to its goal of sourcing 100% of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2025. This agreement will now enable Vodacom to execute the next phase of this innovative solution – securing Independent Power Producers (IPPs)…

Huawei South Africa and the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies (DCDT) have officially launched partnership programmes aimed at enhancing broadband deployment as a foundation for a digital economy and providing digital skills training for SMMEs. The programmes were launched at an official event attended by Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mondli Gungubele. They additionally form part of a wider cooperation agreement between the two parties that was signed earlier this month, and which will see Huawei share global best practices for the planning of digital economy policies and technology rollouts, among other things. Africa Analysis and Digital Coucil…

Today’s blend of young women is breaking barriers. They are not holding back on taking up careers in industries and fields that are traditionally male-dominated. In technology, in particular, many young women are blazing the trail set alight by global tech leaders like former META COO and author of the book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg. This is despite the fact that women make up less than 28% of the global technology workforce and just 17% of CEOs. While the stats may not reflect the strides women are making in tech, the sector is not short of women who are leading…

TymeBank, South Africa’s fastest growing digital bank, has become the latest bank to offer PayShap. It also promised to be the first South African bank to offer the new real-time interbank digital payments service to its 7.6-million customers for free for all payments up to the R3,000 limit made to a cellphone number (ShapID). This reinforces the bank’s commitment to making banking affordable for South Africans across the economic spectrum. PayShap, which aims to reduce South Africans’ dependence on cash and build trust in digital payment methods, makes payments safer, faster, and more cost-effective.    “With the aim of digitising cash…