Author: Staff Writer

Vodacom KwaZulu Natal Region, in partnership with KwaZulu Natal Department of Education and Durban University of Technology (DUT), are launching an exciting programme that will see over 300 young girls between the ages of 14 and 18 from previously disadvantaged schools receive coding and robotics training. Vodacom’s #CodeLikeAGirl programme aims to encourage more girls to explore careers that require coding skills to help them get a start in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Female participation is lagging in a field that is expanding globally and men continue to dominate the number of STEM graduates in most countries.…

Vodacom Tanzania’s Smart Kitochi, enabled by KaiOS, wins the Last Mile Connectivity Award at AfricaCom 2020 Awards. The Last Mile Connectivity Award recognises organisations and initiatives that have significantly increased access to reliable and affordable internet in underserved areas. KaiOS powers low-cost devices to significantly increase access to reliable and affordable internet in underserved areas and help build a better, more inclusive, digital world. Today KaiOS has shipped 135 million devices to over 150 countries. The first KaiOS-enabled device in Africa was announced at 2018 AfricaCom, and now these devices are available in most of the Sub-Saharan Africa countries and…

The Gauteng Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTCs) will from Monday dedicate 70% of their capacity to driving licence renewals to address current backlogs. “Working together with all the stakeholders, the province will ensure that 70% of all slots made available to the DLTCs will be dedicated exclusively to processing driving licence renewals on a daily basis. “We have also taken a decision that available capacity in the DLTCs, such as equipment, machinery and staff will be dedicated to addressing the backlog in driving licences renewals,” said the Gauteng Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure MEC, Jacob Mamabolo. Mamabolo on Wednesday said…

DStv’s much-anticipated DStv Explora Ultra has officially launched, ushering in a new world of video entertainment for customers, with more choice and value. The new Explora Ultra will be available at participating retail stores from next week. As part of the new experience, Netflix will be available for the first time on the Explora Ultra decoder. The first generation Explora launched seven years ago with updated versions of the device released over the years culminating in the Explora 3B decoder. The Explora Ultra builds on its predecessor with exciting new features. DStv, Netflix Partnership As part of the partnership, the…

Black Friday is a major shopping event each year, where consumers have traditionally flocked to retail stores to capitalise on massive specials and pre-Christmas deals. However, with COVID-19 fears still high and social distancing protocols in place, South African consumer behaviour has shifted away from physical stores and into the digital world, with Google statistics indicating that 77% of South African shoppers say the pandemic has affected how they will shop for the holidays and 51% deciding to avoid retail stores on Black Friday this year. Today, consumers are Phygital (Physical + Digital = Phygital) as they purchase goods and…

FinChatBot, a creator of conversational AI solutions for the financial services industry, has attracted $1.6 million (R25 million) in investments. The investment was led by Saviu Ventures, a French investment holding company which focuses on African startups; Mauritius-based Compass Venture Capital and leading South African venture capital firm Kalon Venture Partners. Both Compass Venture Capital and Kalon Venture Established in 2016, FinChatBot’s solutions have become key conversation and customer service channels for most financial service providers in South Africa. It now services 20+ top-tier financial service providers including banks and insurers, helping to sell and service financial products with no…

There are significant business opportunities in the mobile broadband space in building an ecosystem of affordable mobile devices to support user migration to 4G and 5G cellular network technology. This was the message emerging from the 5th Huawei Africa Mobile Broadband Salon taking place at the online Africacom Africa Tech Festival from 9-12 November. Delegates heard that the ICT industry had never been more important to society, and that it was now at the forefront of social development and restoring economies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Connectivity is the foundation for digital transformation,” said Salon facilitator Mohamed Madkour, vice president,…

Five winning bidders have been announced for the controversial National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) tender to supply laptops to students. The five shortlisted bidders are Pinnacle, CEOS Technologies, MLO Distinctive Solutions, ANG Group and East Side Group. The winning bidder will be responsible for procuring 730 000 laptops to benefit 430 000 students in 26 universities and 300 000 students in 50 TVET colleges across the country. The tender has been cancelled twice due to corruption allegations. “The review of the end to end procurement process was performed by NSFAS external legal attorneys,” NSFAS said in a statement. “The…

Sun Exchange, South African renewable energy start-up, today announced its expansion into sub-Saharan Africa with the launch of the crowdsale for a multiphase 1.9 megawatt (MW) solar-plus-storage project for Nhimbe Fresh, one of Zimbabwe’s biggest fruit and tobacco producers. This will be the largest Sun Exchange solar installation to date and the first outside South Africa. The multiphase solar and battery project will power Nhimbe Fresh packhouses, cold store facilities, pump sites, and Churchill Farm. The introduction of continuous, reliable power, at a lower cost than running diesel generators, is forecast to reduce the Nhimbe Fresh facilities’ energy costs by…

Mondia, a Dubai-based tech firm, has announced the launch of its time-based entertainment platform Monsooq in South Africa. Monsooq is a first-of-its kind model where time is the currency and users pay only for the time they spend consuming content. Monsooq does not require contracts or subscriptions. Instead, new visitors to monsooq.com will receive 60 minutes’ worth of free access to content, after which pricing is just R2 per 30 minutes. This unique time-based model allows consumers to buy entertainment time just as they would cellular airtime and use that time to consume any content they choose, including movies, series,…

South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association is warning the country’s 11 million gamers to minimise their chances of being targeted for vindictive hacking by being respectful online. The global gaming industry has exploded under lockdown when it was already the third most popular entertainment genre in the world after books and gambling. Unfortunately, more people playing games professionally or for leisure online has exposed the ease with which gaming consoles can be hacked, especially by fellow gamers with an axe to grind. Online games are played on PCs, mobile phones and dedicated gaming consoles. When it comes to the latter,…

Showmax has introduced a subscription-free streaming service in South Africa. Showmax Free features a hand-picked content slate that gives customers an opportunity to sample some of Showmax’s award-winning entertainment. At launch, titles on the service include local movies, series and sports shows. Users will be able stream movies and binge-watch the first few episodes of available series for free. Expect early episodes and some full seasons of many of South Africa’s most-loved series, including telenovelas like International Emmy nominee The River; Gomora, recently named Most Popular Soapie at the 2020 Royalty Soapie Awards; record-breaking reality shows like the Showmax Originals…

Telkom and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) today announced a partnership to launch a new streaming channel, TelkomONE. The mobile operator channel will house the public broadcaster’s free-to-air radio and TV channels. The five-year partnership, a first-of-its-kind digital carriage agreement for the SABC, will showcase South Africa’s most-watched TV programmes and most listened to radio platforms, on one online platform. TelkomONE will stream live SABC’s television channels 1, 2, Sport and Education as well as all 19 SABC radio stations. “We are excited about the opportunity to provide South Africans with free access to watch their favourite SABC content,…

The Nedbank Digital Team has been vital in the bank’s digital transformation journey, enabling the group to offer clients cutting-edge digital banking solutions to meet their unique needs. Despite COVID-19 making the job market unpredictable, a total of 29 digital design roles are available in specialized fields ranging from design research, product design, to design ops and UI and UX design. “Design at Nedbank is embraced as strategic capability and engages with all aspects of the value chain from business modeling, design research, Digital Customer Value Proposition development, design systems, UI & UX and design ops,” Head of Design Strategy…

South Africa’s first Mara Experience Store today opened its doors exactly one year since the opening by Mara Phones of the country’s first smartphone manufacturing facility.  Eager shoppers at Soweto’s landmark Maponya Mall practised social distancing as they waited in line ready to snap up opening specials at the franchise owned by well-known broadcaster, philanthropist and businesswoman, Chante Jantjies. The opening of two Mara Phones facilities – one retail and one manufacturing – within a short space of time represents bold steps for Africa’s most established home-grown smartphone brand in a challenging but promising environment. An impressive 50 Mara Experience Stores,…

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula says a recently unveiled multifaceted security plan, anchored on insourcing capacity, will make an invaluable contribution to the fight against theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure. Mbalula on Tuesday participated in a debate in the National Assembly, which focused on the impact that the ongoing damage to public rail infrastructure has on the economic lives of the most vulnerable and poor commuters. Security-related incidents in the rail environment increased by 20% between 2017/18 and 2018/19 from 7 737 to 9 268. Since 2012/13, security-related incidents per million train kilometres increased by 175% per million train kilometres.…

Internet of Things (IoT) innovator IoT.nxt has beefed up its management team to handle global growth as the roll-out of its solutions picks up pace across different territories. IoT.nxt has offices in South Africa, The Netherlands and USA. South African telecoms company Vodacom, a subsidiary of Vodafone, acquired a majority stake in IoT.nxt in 2019 which will drive the companies’ global roll-out of IoT solutions. “Our partnership with IoT.nxt majority shareholder Vodacom and its parent company Vodafone has fast-tracked access to markets globally, as both companies have added our advanced IoT offerings to their enterprise solutions for customers across a…

EasyEquities has partnered with Synatic to create data aggregation and data integration components for all the systems it uses to track clients current lifecycle, trading and investment history. The solution gives a comprehensive view of all client activities. The investment platform, aimed at making share trading accessible for all, needed to make sense of the data of its more than 500 000 clients. The challenge was to give the same level of customer experience to all its clients, regardless of the investment size. EasyEquities caters for all investors regardless of their wealth. It attracts investors big and small, young and old,…

South Africa’s largest digital bank, Capitec, has partnered with SA Home Loans to launch its first full home loan offering. Built on the principles of simplicity and affordability, the product has one of the fastest application processes in the country – allowing consumers to initiate an application in under 5 minutes – alongside highly competitive linked interest rates from 6%. Francois Viviers, Executive of Marketing and Communications at Capitec, says the offering was developed in response to strong demand for a simple and efficient, digitally-led home loan option. “We’ve continually received requests from both clients and the public asking us…

South African ICT students came out tops in the networking track of the Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa ICT Competition, earning themselves a place in the global final which takes place online from 6-9 November. Team SA stood out from more than 40 African teams during the fierce regional competition. This year, more than 50,000 students from 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa participated in the Huawei ICT Competition, the biggest attendance so far. The move to online also allowed more students to be part of this event. In South Africa, over 10 000 students from 25 universities and colleges participated in the national…

Nthoese Developments hosted a sod-turning ceremony to mark the commencement of the redevelopment and expansion of Bushbuckridge shopping centre to address social-economic challenges in the area. Despite the ongoing global pandemic and tough property market this year, Nthoese is forging ahead with the expansion and redevelopment of the existing Bushbuckridge shopping centre that will be rebranded to become Bushbuckridge mall. The shopping centre is located at the corner of R40 and R533 in Bushbuckridge CBD which is portion 8 (a portion of portion 5) of the farm Maviljan 252 measuring 7,4608 hectares. The R40 is the main north-south road through…

Teraco Data Environments (Pty) Ltd., Africa’s largest interconnection hub and vendor-neutral data centre provider, today announced that construction has commenced on a new hyperscale data centre with 38 megawatts (MW) of critical power load in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, South Africa. The facility, known as JB4, is scheduled for completion in Q1 2022 and as a stand-alone building, will be the largest data centre in Africa. CEO of Teraco, Jan Hnizdo, said that the company is poised for significant growth as hyperscale requirements continue to expand as a result of increased demand for cloud services in Africa. “South Africa is…

bidorbuy, one of South Africa’s largest online shopping and auction marketplaces, has strengthened its shipping offering with an easy-to-use facility that will source quotes from leading courier companies and offer the most competitive rate at the time of shipping. The platform, called bidorbuy Shipping, is made possible through a partnership with uAfrica.com, a technology company that assists online merchants with omni-channel solutions, streamlining their order-fulfilment and shipping processes. bidorbuy Shipping will generate electronic shipping labels at the click of a button, while payments for the service are made through a bidorbuy account, meaning simpler, safer shipping all around. This comes…

Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has announced an investment in its brand – recently valued at R4 billion by Brand Finance – to align with its evolved business strategy and a rapidly advancing digital business environment. “A lot has happened since our last brand refresh in 2006, both in terms of our operating strategy and the business environment in general,” says RMB Chief Executive Officer James Formby. “The latest investment in our brand reflects these changes, ensuring that the RMB brand remains relevant, modern and distinctive in the broader African market and with our growing client base.” Watch the…

Paxful, the global crypto marketplace powered by people announced adding Uhuru Wallet as a payment method to their platform. The company, known for its goal of financial inclusion, is helping the underbanked around the world to gain financial independence using peer-to-peer transactions. The partnership with Uhuru will help encompass this vision and provide easy access to the crypto economy for users in Southern Africa. Acting as a fiat on and off-ramp on the Paxful platform, which already hosts over 300 different payment options, Uhuru Wallet will enable users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) with ease. Uhuru…