Author: Staff Writer

Nokia today announced that it is enabling ultra-fast 5G services for Vodacom South Africa’s customers by deploying its 5G radio, core and fixed network solutions across Vodacom’s network. Vodacom is using Nokia’s 2G, 3G, 4G and fibre access networks, as well as 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) and mobile broadband services. Nokia is supplying its AirScale, Fastmile and Subscriber Data Management (SDM) / Home Subscriber Server (HSS) products to Vodacom to enhance its service offering and deliver increased operational efficiencies. Nokia’s AirScale radio network product portfolio will enable Vodacom to deploy 5G services across several spectrum bands, including the new…

A syndicate of criminals posing as employees of vehicle-tracking companies is targeting these companies’ customers in a car-theft scam. The criminals claim that customers’ tracking devices need repairing, then set up appointments, where they attempt to steal vehicles. The syndicate is targeting high-value vehicles from all major tracking providers. Vehicle-tracking and fleet-management organisation Netstar has launched a multi-pronged strategy to combat the threat. Alerts have been sent to customers, staff and fitment centres, and investigations are underway. “We are conducting an inquiry to ensure customer information remains protected and to help apprehend suspects so that justice is served.” said Netstar’s…

IT services company Gijima, owned by Robert Gumede, has bought one of its main rivals T-Systems South Africa for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is pending Competition Commission approval. T-Systems South Africa, owned by T-Systems International, the IT services arm of German-based Deutsche Telekom, has been providing ICT networks, applications and systems to South African companies for over 20 years. This transaction is the result of T-Systems International’s strategic review of its global portfolio and its decision to refocus on its core markets in Europe and the Americas. The transaction will enable Gijima to have access to international IP, expertise…

Payment and merchant solutions provider, Dashpay, has partnered with South Africa’s biggest financial marketplace, Fincheck, to offer an array of on-demand personal finance facilities via hundreds of thousands of Newland point of sale smart terminals, in stores across South Africa. Dashpay’s Newland devices operate on the Android platform, which means that they are able to run a variety of applications, alongside the processing of traditional credit card purchases. The Fincheck app, which merchants can register for and download directly to the terminal, offers customers the opportunity to compare and apply for personal finance via the in-store terminal. Fincheck compares offers…

Aki Anastasiou, one of South Africa’s leading radio and TV personalities and avid tech lover, joins eNCA as the host of a brand-new technology and gaming show, TecHub. TecHub airs every week on Sundays from 1 November 2020 at 17:30. Anastasiou is a renowned technophile and is highly ranked among Tech speakers in the country. He plans to simplify and expose viewers to the exciting world of technology and gaming. Technology is a part of our daily lives and in the time of Covid-19, gaming and tech has outstripped the movie industry from an interest perspective. In terms of revenue,…

CDC, the UK’s development finance institution, has today announced a $40 million (R652 million) equity investment in Liquid Telecom, Africa’s largest independent fibre, data centre and cloud technology provider. This marks CDC’s second investment in the company, following a $180 million equity investment in 2018. CDC’s additional investment is made as part of Liquid Telecom’s wider fundraise where the company attracted $307 million through a rights issue to shareholders. CDC’s investment will enable Liquid Telecom to further expand its pan-African data centre operation business, Africa Data Centres, and consolidate its position as the leading data centre operator on the continent.…

Telkom has launched FreeMe Share Plans, a shared data plan that allows multiple SIMs to share a single data plan. The company said in a statement the new plans are a response to changes in work and education arrangements amid the COVID-19 pandemic increase in internet data usage for families and small businesses. The FreeMe Share data plan comes as 24-month post-paid contracts and include SIM-only or multiple-device combo options. According to Telkom, up to 10 SIM cards can share data, voice minutes, and SMS bundles with these contracts. The plans are available in 3 options, namely: FreeMe Share 36GB,…

DearSA attorneys Hurter Spies this week sent a letter [view below] to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma asking her to provide reasons why she extended the lockdown earlier this month and to give an undertaking no further extensions will be given. She has also been asked to support her reasons with documents and expert evidence. The minister has been given until 30 October 2020 to reply, failing which DearSA says it will approach the High Court for relief. DearSA has run several public participation campaigns showing an overwhelming majority are against any further lockdowns. The letter to the minister…

In acknowledging Cybersecurity Awareness Month during October this year, leading peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency marketplace, Paxful, is highlighting the importance of security awareness amongst users when trading in digital currency. A recent report says illicit cryptocurrency activity accounted for just 2% of Africa’s roughly $16 billion trading volume from July 2019 to June 2020. The cryptocurrency sphere is not immune to opportunists with illicit intent, “In our experience, the majority of cryptocurrency transactions are safe. Despite this, risk management is top-of-mind for us to protect our customers and we have a dedicated team that focuses on risk assessment and security to…

South Africa’s most prestigious fintech R10 million startup initiative, AlphaCode Incubate, shares how to improve chances of accessing its support and unpacks the trends in the fintech incubation ecosystem. AlphaCode Incubate has disbursed R30 million in funding to 31 black-owned financial services businesses over the past five years and is currently accepting applications for its next programme which offers packages valued at R1,5 million for successful applicants. “We’re primarily seeing applicants aged 19 plus, those who are in their final year of tertiary education, as well as corporate refugees who have experience in financial services or tech. We have seen…

Navigating banking systems is almost always stressful and tediously litigious, and particularly true when it comes to applying for a home loan. Despite all their efforts, new home buyers are still not successful when applying for a bond independently. While bond originators take the hassle out of applying for a home loan and reduce the time it takes to be approved, they also give prospective buyers a way to ensure that they are offered the most favourable loan package and interest rate. Using a bond originator saves you time and paperwork and often means that the banks’ turnaround time is reduced, ensuring…

The New Yorker magazine has suspended staff writer Jeffrey Toobin after he exposed his penis during a virtual staff call last week over the messaging platform Zoom. Jeffrey Toobin has been suspended while we investigate the matter,” a spokesperson told The Washington Post. Vice.com first reported the suspension Monday afternoon. The magazine, which has employed Toobin since 1993, did not comment further about the nature of the incident or the length of the suspension. Earlier, the New York Post wrote: ‘One former staffer at the magazine said she believes his 25-year career will come to an end over the incident.’ “How do…

Prosus Ventures has announced its first investment in Mexico, leading a $15 million (R246 million) Series A funding round in Klar, a challenger bank in Mexico. Prosus Ventures, formerly Naspers Ventures, is the early-stage venture investing arm of Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. The company said other investors include International Finance Corporation and former investors Quona capital, who led Klar´s SEED round, Mouro Capital (formerly Santander Innoventures) and aCrew. The round brings the total debt and equity funds raised to approximately $72 million. Klar has been working to democratize financial services in Mexico since…

The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday against Google, alleging the search giant is engaging in anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets to remedy the competitive harms. The department alleged that Google, a unit of Alphabet, is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide. For years, Google has accounted for almost 90% of all search queries in the United States and has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in search and search advertising. “Today, millions of Americans rely on the Internet and online…

The world’s first “robot lawyer” has gone from helping people dispute their parking tickets, to assisting lawyers with over a hundred different areas of consumer rights. With technology rapidly evolving, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a valuable tool for law firms to increase efficiency through automation. “Law firms have traditionally been slow to adapt to new technology, with many fearing that it will replace key roles within the legal profession. In reality, automation can be used to help lawyers save time and resources,” says Dries Cronje, founder of Deep Learning Café, a South African AI consulting company. Legal tech presents…

It was a dark and stormy summer night. As they curled up on the couch, the couple swooned over the dream home they found online. They swiped right and put in an offer, but a dark spectre hung over them. Diligently filling out reams of documents to secure their future, they slept fitfully that night as with trepidation they awaited the news. When the ding of the email lit up their phones in the morning mist, they were petrified to look. Declined! Their dream home in Ballito was not to be. Why not? They could not get their home loan…

Pick n Pay announced today that it had concluded an agreement to purchase on-demand, online grocery service Bottles.  This will enable Pick n Pay to build on the success it has achieved in partnership with Bottles in recent months, and further strengthens what is already sub-Saharan Africa’s largest and most popular online grocery business. Bottles was launched in 2016 as South Africa’s first alcohol on-demand delivery app, and partnered with Pick n Pay in 2018.  Its offer was the first of its kind, promising that orders would be fulfilled within 60 minutes. Following the prohibition on the sale of alcohol…

Nexio, South Africa’s digital system aggregator and solution provider, has strengthened its management with the appointment of six executives. In August, Nexio appointed Mickey Mashale as CEO to drive the company’s digital transformation strategy to greater heights. Mashale joined the organization from Vodacom where she held the position of chief sales officer for Vodacom Business from February 2018. The company said on Monday it has supported its fit-for-purpose organisational strategy with the appointment of six new exceptional senior executives that will complement the organisation’s dynamic team and complete its executive leadership. Last month, Dakalo Kangala was appointed as Executive Head…

SixThirty, US-based tech venture capital fund, is making a big bet on South Africa’s InsurTech company Click2Sure. SixThirty is a venture capital fund and a business development accelerator program that focuses on financial-based technology, InsurTech, and Cybersecurity solutions. The company said in a statement it has made a multi-million rand investment in Cape Town-based Click2Sure, marking the first time an African startup has caught the eye of the US-based tech venture fund. It invests in early-stage enterprise technology companies building. The investment will enable Click2Sure to further develop its product and ensure businesses offering insurance take advantage of the benefits…

Nyiko Shiburi has been appointed the new CEO of MultiChoice South Africa (MCSA). Until now, Nyiko has been the Regional Director of MultiChoice Africa: Southern Region — a role that spans nine countries. His appointment is effective from 1 December 2020. Nyiko is an extremely experienced leader and has successfully navigated the complexity of multiple territories and businesses, working with deeply skilled teams within the organisation as well as a multitude of stakeholders in our ecosystem,” comments MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela. As the new CEO of MCSA, Nyiko will further drive the growth and momentum of the South African business based…

Vodacom will invest just over R320 million into the network across KwaZulu-Natal province during the 2020/2021 financial year. The lion’s share of the capital expenditure will go towards building new LTE base station sites in both urban and deep rural areas of the province. This network acceleration will aid in removing barriers to communications, provide access to fast internet and help in driving digital inclusion among communities in deep rural areas of the province. The availability of high-speed broadband is critical to deep rural development but research shows that deep rural communities are lagging behind in terms of broadband connectivity,…

While 2020 has certainly not been the year any of us imagined it would be, the Summer of 2020 is our opportunity to change the story, closing out the year the way we choose. To help our customers #REMAKE2020, MTN is giving all subscribers the chance to earn their share of R100 million in rewards – and it starts today. MTN subscribers need to simply download the MTN app or dial *234# and register for MyMTN Rewards to start earning YelloBucks to spend on things they enjoy the most. Every customer that joins will get 200 YelloBucks for simply being…

Integer\Hotspot SA, a Through-The-Line marketing agency and a member of the Matrix Group, has announced its exclusive partnership agreement with SoPost that will enable local clients to benefit from SoPost’s digital sampling platform. The SoPost sampling platform and its visualisation tool, “Campaign Manager” aims to be the most powerful product sampling platform in the world and will enable local brands to get their products into the right consumers’ hands as well as collecting valuable data and insight. Integer\Hotspot SA said synergies influenced its partnership with SoPost. Both companies are interested in delivering to touchpoints that create connections and accelerate transactions. The…

Within just 72 hours, more than 1 million customers have already joined the new Shoprite Xtra Savings programme. On average 400 customers per minute have signed up for a Shoprite Xtra Savings card since Monday, 12 October. Central to the programme’s success is its lack of paperwork and ease of signup. Shoppers can join free of charge in under 60 seconds via any of the following channels: WhatsApp (add (+27 87 240 5709 as a contact and say “Hi!”) USSD (simply dial *134*569*CARDNUMBER#) Online (visit shoprite.co.za) In-store There are no points to earn, and no tiers or levels to achieve.…

Uber announced on Thursday a South African-first pharmacy offering with Medicare that will now provide users with access to over-the-counter medication (self-medication). The company will compete with local pharmacy chains Clicks and Dis-Chem. The extended partnership with Medicare will allow Uber Eats users to add over-the-counter schedule 1 and 2 medication (self-medication) directly into their basket for convenient delivery. This significantly increases access to medication for those who need it most, without any risk of leaving the safety of their homes. The partnership will utilise Medicare’s network of pharmacies across Johannesburg and Cape Town to fulfil the orders. The visible…