Author: Staff Writer

“We get to understand the clients and build tailor-made products for them, which makes it easier for them to give us feedback. It is more feedback for us, which enables us to further improve.”

South African signal distributor Sentech is leveraging the computing power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to create streaming services in the country. The signal distributor provides broadcast transmission services to all SABC radio and television stations, commercial radio, and TV stations, and over 130 community radio stations country-wide daily. It also provides connectivity and infrastructure services to the retail, telecommunications, and public sector. Kopano Thage, Sentech’s acting Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, explains that AWS is one of the state-owned company’s suppliers and has assisted it in providing streaming solutions. “As the country went into Lockdown level 5 due to…

Software programming training academy WeThinkCode has announced plans to open a campus in Durban this July. The new facility will complement the school’s existing campuses in Johannesburg and Cape Town and is part of an ambitious plan to double their student intake to 600 this year. This will give more South Africans the opportunity to join the digital world and help build the country’s technology skills capability.   E Squared Investments has committed R9,2-million to establish the new campus.  “As an impact investor whose mandate is to attack poverty and unemployment in South Africa, there are strong synergies between WeThinkCode’s involvement…

Telkom’s landline customers will be able to align their calling plans to its popular SmartVoice offering. The SmartVoice packages, which are fibre or “fixed wireless landline look-alike” products that usually include additional features such as mobile data, minutes, and free on-net calls. The company said it has not only introduced new closer calling plans for customers wishing to get more value for their money, but it has also reduced the prices of some of these plans. The new Closer Calling plans are available to new and existing customers and can be provisioned on Copper, Fibre and as a bolt-on to…

Telkom’s Blue Bargain Sale is offering unbelievable deals, dropped prices and fabulous freebies. The Blue Bargain Sale with a reduced price applies to selected FreeMe contracts. It offers up to 30% reduction devices and free data for three months. The free promotional Telkom Mobile Data shall be allocated for three consecutive months (deal dependent). The sale is available to new and existing mobile customers who apply or renewing a contract. The company will charge the standard Once-off SIM and Connection fee of R99.00 applicable to mobile deals on the customer’s first invoice for all new provide orders. The Blue Bargain…

Volvo Cars is committed to becoming a leader in the fast-growing premium electric car market and plan to become a fully electric car company by 2030, the Swedish firm said. By then, Volvo Cars intends to only sell fully electric cars and phase out any car in its global portfolio with an internal combustion engine, including hybrids. The company’s transition towards becoming a fully electric car maker is part of its ambitious climate plan, which seeks to consistently reduce the life cycle carbon footprint per car through concrete action. Volvo Cars said the 2030 ambition represents an acceleration of its…

Vodacom Financial Services has announced an expansion of its services to include a supplier portal called VodaTrade, where the small supplier will be able to go digital and connect with bigger business partners. This digital trading platform is set to support small and medium-sized business by connecting them to exciting new business prospects. VodaTrade is a one-stop interface for small business to interact with all aspects of their trade. Some key features include analytics, receiving orders, catalogue management, confirming fulfilment, as well as sending back an invoice. “I’m really excited that we are launching a product which caters for SMEs,…

Vodacom and Mondia announced today the rollout of the Mum & Baby maternal health service across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mum & Baby is a free-of-charge mobile health intervention service that provides Vodacom DRC subscribers with maternal, neonatal and child health information designed to encourage good health practices amongst pregnant women, mothers, partners and caregivers. Mondia creates Mum & Baby’s tailored content in the local language, and includes expert articles, videos and information-sharing SMS messages. Mum & Baby’s future enhancements in the DRC will provide interactive tools including a due-date calculator, an immunisation calendar, medication reminder, medication…

Luno, South Africa’s cryptocurrency exchange, now has seven million customers (wallets), just seven weeks after reaching the milestone of six million customers. The business has grown rapidly due to the simplicity of its online and mobile platforms, offering education, bank-grade security and self-regulation. It is actively working with regulators and banks to safely increase access to cryptocurrencies. Luno was ranked in the top six cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in the latest CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark and also received the top tier AA rating. Luno was founded in 2013 by two South Africans, Marcus Swanepoel, a former investment banker, and Timothy Stranex, who…

New research from beauty company Avon reveals that women find strength from hearing every day, relatable stories and sharing experiences with others. Nearly a third say these connections help them overcome challenges (32%) and for over a third (36%) it decreases feelings of anxiety or reduces self-doubt. With fears that the coronavirus pandemic has set the fight for gender equality back decades[1], and the new research highlighting that 41% of women have lost confidence as a result of lockdown restrictions, Avon is launching a campaign to celebrate the achievements and stories of women and men around the world. Commissioned as…

Decision Inc. has become one of only four companies in South Africa to have achieved the Qlik Elite Partner Status, the highest tier available from the multinational business intelligence organisation that develops cloud data integration and data analytics solutions. “The recognition reaffirms Decision Inc.’s commitment to delivering purpose-built, value-driven solutions that result in a demonstratable business return for our customers across industry sectors,” says Gavin Sheehan, Executive: Data, Information and Analytics at Decision Inc. “Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown conditions, Decision Inc. has shown its resilience to weather the storm, maintain its strong client…

Microsoft is continuing to roll out more industry-specific cloud packages tailored for specific vertical industries. “Over the past year, we have experienced dramatic disruption around the world. Companies in every industry have turned to digital technologies for the resilience and agility necessary to survive. The urgency for entire industries to transform at scale has never been greater,” said Alysa Taylor, Corporate vice president of Business Applications and Global Industry. In response, Taylor said the company has accelerated its efforts to support and co-innovate with customers and partners — both now and long term — with industry-specific cloud offerings that can…

Spotify, the global audio streaming subscription service, is now available in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda as of 23 February. With a worldwide community of more than 345 million monthly active listeners, Spotify will offer a world-class audio listening and music discovery experience to listeners. The Spotify service is available for free or with an upgrade to Spotify Premium, a subscription service that offers an ad-free music listening experience. Spotify, which is already in South Africa, expands its operations into the rest of Africa with its unrivalled mix of features that have made it the world’s most popular audio…

Microsoft has added, in public preview, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) support for two of South Africa’s official languages, Afrikaans and isiZulu. “Adding support for these languages is part of Microsoft’s mission to build meaningful cognitive products and services that improve local engagement,” says Rory Preddy, Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft South Africa. “This support, which now counts a total of 73 languages, means that more people are able to connect in their own language and that language will become a seamless feature of using technology, rather than a hindrance.” OCR support for local languages allows users to use visual data…

“As we look towards recovery,” Hu said, “we need to ensure that innovation isn’t just about today. It’s about lighting up tomorrow and creating greater social value.”

The second Gauteng SMME Summit 2021 will be held be virtually to adhere to best practice in social distancing measures and live-streamed on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The Gauteng SMME Summit 2021 aims to help create access to information, financial assistance, and ultimately access to markets for the township-based enterprises. It will seek ways to ensure that the SMMEs overcome the financial burden that the coronavirus pandemic has caused. “Through this summit, the department seeks to tackle the issues of inclusive economic transformation and strengthen the importance of collaboration and cooperation amongst small businesses. Our objectives are to achieve tangible…

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) has committed to buy up to $50 million (R745 million) of a bond issue by Liquid Telecom. Today, the company launched the bond, which aims to raise $600 million (R8.9 billion). The capital raised from the bond issue will be used to refinance existing debt and for corporate purposes. EAIF, acting through its agent Ninety One SA, along with The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and DEG-Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG), has committed to placing orders to purchase up to an aggregate $178 million (R2,6 billion) in the New Note Offering. Liquid Telecom has built…

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) on Monday announced it will delay the announcement of qualified bidders upcoming spectrum auction. “The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa advises stakeholders that the announcement of qualified bidders in terms of the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) Invitation to Apply (ITA) of 2 October 2020 has been moved from the initial date of 22 February 2021 to 23 March 2021.” This, therefore, means that the auction phase – which comprises, amongst others, the bidder seminar, the mock auction and the actual auction – will commence by 31 March 2021, said ICASA. One…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that the recent attacks on the country’s judiciary should not be taken lightly, warning that these shake the very foundations of South Africa’s constitutional democracy. “Unless supported by evidence, such claims undermine confidence in our courts, and weaken our Constitutional order,” wrote the President in his weekly newsletter on Monday. This as there have been utterances directed at the judiciary, in which some judges are accused, without any evidence, of pursuing interests other than the cause of justice. Judges have been accused of political agendas and some have even been accused of accepting bribes. “We…

Khulisa Investment Partners is planning to raise R750 million from institutional investors to invest in small-medium enterprises (SMEs). The private equity enabler founded by Dr Phumla Mnganga, Malcolm Rutherford and Chris Lister-James enables clients to build their bespoke portfolios in the private equity asset class. “Khulisa has identified the two largest bottlenecks faced by growing SME’s: the first being access to strategic and governance skills and the second, access to finance. Our solution was to establish Khulisa to address this conundrum and, by so doing, also contribute positively to our own future,” says Dr Mnganga, founder of Khulisa and Lehumo…

Capitec, South Africa’s largest digital bank, continues to support its over 15 million clients during this tough financial time through its new 2021 fees. No increases were applied to monthly fees or digital banking with the Global One monthly admin fee remaining flat at only R5, monthly credit card fee at R40, debit orders at R3.50 and digital payments at just R1. Immediate payments were reduced further to R7.50 from R8 last year and from R10 three years ago showing the bank’s commitment to lead in innovative digital payment solutions. “We’re keeping our competitive digital fees unchanged to meet client…

Smile Telecoms Holdings founder Irene Charnley has retired with effect from 1 January 2021, the Pan-African telecommunications group said on Monday. Hailed as one of Africa’s most successful business leaders, Charnley has led Smile Telecom’s innovation and pioneering of Africa’s first 4G LTE network infrastructure. Charnley has retired as deputy chairman from the Smile Telecoms board. The company also the retirement of Smile Telecoms co-founder Mohammed Wajih Sharbatly from its board and all boards of the operating companies, effective 1 January 1 2021. Sharbatly has acted as co-chairman of the group through December 2020. “Today we say farewell to our…

A distributional analysis of the ownership of South African household net wealth revealed that the wealthiest 2% of households owned almost 50% of household net wealth (just before the start of the pandemic). South African households’ real net wealth increased by an estimated R1 009.1 billion (R1.009 trillion) from the onset of the second quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020) to the end of the year (Q4 2020). This happened despite COVID-19, the lockdown, job losses and an economic contraction. This recovery follows an estimated decline of R772.8 billion during Q1 2020 that resulted from the introduction of lockdowns in many…

After over a decade of research and development around hydrogen fuel technology, President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa is now ready to manufacture and commercialise hydrogen fuels technology. The President said this when he responded to a debate on the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday. “For more than a decade, government has been working with various partners, including the private sector and academia, to develop hydrogen fuel cell and lithium battery storage technologies. “This work serves two important developmental objectives: it offers the possibility of a new, renewable source of energy, while establishing new uses and…

South Africa’s largest digital bank Capitec has launched a new benefit that collectively can save its clients approximately R10 million per month. Capitec Bank has partnered with Shell South Africa to put 20c per litre back into its clients’ pockets. While other banks’ fuel benefits require monthly admin, fees linked to their loyalty schemes and are designed with multiple tiers and hoops, Capitec offers all clients the benefit at no additional cost. Francois Viviers, Marketing and Communications Executive at Capitec, says, “This partnership with Shell is part of our continuous drive to help our clients live better. To us, living…