Author: Staff Writer

Heading out of a long, cold winter, South African households will soon be thinking about reflecting heat instead of retaining warmth. While the country’s energy supply continues to fall short, the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) looks forward to continuing its rollout of an energy-efficient cooling solution – known as ‘cool roofs’. Cool roofing simply involves the coating of roofs with a durable, reflective membrane which reflects the heat of the sun. It is inexpensive and highly effective passive energy, low-tech cooling intervention. SANEDI is one of ten global teams awarded a $100 000 grant by the Million…

Banks in Africa must provide mobile payments and other digital services to remain competitive as well as to unlock new business opportunities across sectors such as energy, health care, education and transportation, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled Five Strategies for Mobile-Payment Banking in Africa. Although many African banks have little direct experience with mobile payments, it represents a must-win opportunity for these institutions on the continent because technology companies outside of Africa will capture the market if African banks fail to provide these services. “The estimated market in facilitating payments alone is $500 billion.…

Cash may have traditionally been king, but COVID-19 has contributed to a faster pace of digital payment adoption. Recently on AlphaCode’s monthly Industry Insights webinar, two global FinTech players discussed the emergence of a plethora of digital payments and debated if cash is on its way out. Omosalewa Adeyemi, Head of Global Partnerships and Expansion at Flutterwave (a technology company that helps businesses in Africa and across the world send and receive payments) and Nicolas Vonthron, co-CEO of Mama Money (a rapidly growing international payment operator using mobile technology to reach new markets and underserved communities with a key focus…

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) wishes to inform all stakeholders of the passing of former Councillor Botlenyana Mokhele yesterday. Mokhele joined ICASA as a Councillor on the 4th of April 2016 and left the office on the 10th of June 2020, upon the end of her four (4) year term. She was not new to ICASA when she joined in 2016, as she had served at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority (ICASA’s predecessor), ICASA’s Policy Department and the Department of Communications, to name but a few. The regulator said it is indeed grateful to have had Ms…

Telkom has welcomed the Independent Communication Authority’s announcement that it will release the Invitation to Apply (ITA) for both Wireless Open Access Network (WOAN) and the International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) spectrum by the end of September. Telkom Group Chief Executive Officer, Sipho Maseko has welcomed the move as the kind of decisive action needed to drive South Africa’s economic recovery. Maseko commended the approach taken by the new ICASA council to issue both ITAs simultaneously as a considered and pragmatic approach to the spectrum release process. “We are looking forward to seeing innovation in auction design by the new council,”…

Today, local data science competition platform Zindi launched its new recruitment platform  to help organisations around the world find the data science talent they need. Zindi will draw on its community of more than 18 000 data scientists across Africa and the rest of the world to match companies and organisations with the right talent for the job at hand. “Zindi has the largest community of data scientists in Africa, which makes us uniquely positioned to help organisations find the talent they are looking for,” says Celina Lee, CEO of Zindi. “We are proud to be pioneering a data-driven, evidence-based…

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says to ensure that matriculants are not compromised by the late release of the Grade 12 results, Universities South Africa has agreed to extend the academic year to the end of February 2021. Universities are expected to start their 2021 academic year in March or April next year. This, Motshekga said, will ensure that students will still be able to get admitted to institutions of higher learning on time. The Minister said this when Ministers in the Social Services Cluster responded to oral questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday. “On 24 August this year,…

Electric Life Rides, a South African electric scooter and vehicle tech company, will officially launch its service in Cape Town in early September 2020. The launch introduces their initial fleet of electric kick scooters, which will be available at their new mobility hub and partner, The President Hotel in Bantry Bay. Electric Life Rides works through a mobile app – similar to Uber – powered by globally acclaimed vehicle-sharing platform creators, Wunder Mobility. Users are able to scan a barcode on the kick scooter to download the app and activate it, and are then able to buy ride credits directly…

Shoprite’s new transactional Money Market Account enables private and public sector businesses and institutions to make safe bulk mobile payments to thousands of people without incurring massive bank charges. Businesses of any size can use the Shoprite Money Market Account to process bulk payments to any number of recipients who just need a cellphone to access their funds. The free digital account – which is safer, more efficient and cheaper than bank accounts – can be used by businesses, government entities, NGOs and charities to pay anybody, whether they are South African citizens or foreign nationals, easily and safely. Bulk payments, including rewards, incentives…

South African e-health startup Signapps has won a prestigious contract with Britain’s National Health Services (NHS). Signapps will provide its software as a service communication platform for the management of clinical communication to NHS Trusts. “The contract with the NHS is a major coup for us, as a South African company, proving that our product engineering teams can create product to compete with the very best internationally” said Andrew Davies, CEO of Signapps. Since its launch three years ago, the Signapps messaging platform has a proven local track record, having been established in numerous areas, including the Chris Hani Baragwanath…

MTN today announced that their customers can now enjoy over 60 million songs on Apple Music, South Africa’s number one Premium Music Streaming service anytime, anywhere, by signing up for an exclusive offer of up to six months of free Apple Music. Customers can enjoy Apple Music across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, CarPlay, PC, Android devices and Samsung TV. The offer is exclusively available to all MTN prepaid customers and selected MTN post-paid customers. MTN post-paid customers who are currently subscribed to MTN Sky, MTN Sky VIP and Sky Black, and to all new customers who sign…

Long queues outside the South African Post Office (SAPO) pay points will soon be a thing of the past with the help of an electronic voucher system. The Postbank and Post Office have jointly developed an electronic voucher payment system for recipients of the SASSA monthly grants and the COVID-19 Special Relief of Distress grant, which amounts to R350. The electronic voucher system will enable grant recipients to cash their vouchers at retail outlets. Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, has emphasised the importance of expediting the digitisation of the banking service to alleviate long queues outside pay points.…

Today, Vodacom is announcing that all its employees, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation, will be offered 16 weeks (four months) of fully paid parental leave. This means that any employee whose partner is having a baby, adopts a child, or becomes a parent through surrogacy will have the flexibility to take up to 16 weeks paid leave at any time during the first 18 months. The move is derived from Vodacom’s new leave policy, which is designed to support families by giving every parent the opportunity to have more time with children new to their family. Under the…

Emerging technology will continue to play a vital and accelerated role in the recovery of the Coronavirus health pandemic (COVID-19). This was the core sentiment message shared by speakers during the “Adjusting to the New Normal” webinar and panel discussion hosted by Nexio and partners Dell Technologies and IoT.nxt, last Friday. The International Data Corporation (IDC) has identified key technology trends that South African Chief Information Officers (CIO) report are key in shaping the recovery process in the near term. The top six trends include security (91%) followed by creating and enabling new applications to drive digital experiences for customers…

The Department of Transport has sought to clarify some uncertainties surrounding various licence renewals and expiry deadlines. According to the directions previously published by the department, the following deadlines were set: Motor vehicles licence discs, temporary permits and roadworthy certificates, which expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 May 2020, were deemed to be valid up until on 31 August 2020. All learner’s licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licences and professional driving permits, which expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2020, are deemed to be valid for a period ending on 31 January 2021. Motor trade number…

MTN has announced it now offers a month-to-month payment option giving customers control of their spend commitments With no lock-ins, no credit checks and no complicated paperwork, MTN Month-to-Month is available to anyone that either doesn’t want to be tied to a contract or who is unable to get a long-term contract due to not meeting minimum requirements. New or existing customers simply need to choose the package they want and opt for the month-to-month payment option, allowing them to experience the quality, value and convenience of the MTN network without a 24-month obligation. All they will be asked for is…

South Africa’s proptech startup Roundr has secured further backing from Scottish VC firm i7V which will see it through its current beta stage and move to market towards the end of 2020. i7V has invested an undisclosed amount in Roundr, a three-year-old business based in Cape Town. The Roundr app takes estate agent’s work onto their smart devices, offering an organized and easy way to work on mandates, schedule viewings, interact with clients and other agents, and even collaborate on sales. In a first for the real estate sales industry, the Roundr office and enterprise platforms enable real-time insight-informed performance…

Thanks to its extensive data collection and analysis, the Paris-based anti-fraud firm Evina has determined that one out of every three mobile subscription attempts in South Africa is fraudulent. South African cellular users are very often subscribed to mobile services without their consent, the company says. After Kenya, South Africa is the African country most affected by fraud that daily fleeces millions from the mobile accounts of cellular users around the globe. “As Africa’s most advanced economy, it is particularly tragic that South African mobile users are falling victim to subscription frauds that are well managed in many other countries,”…

The Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, has – in the recent past – said that South Africa needs a “capable army” that includes women that can contribute to and benefit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). She added that the government has realised that in order to derive an effective economic spin-off from #4IR, there is a need to build and continuously nurture these capable soldiers. This army, she believes, will not be capable enough unless there are women in it. The Afrovation Group has answered this call by establishing and nurturing a small, yet a capable…

Pay-TV operator MultiChoice is looking to significantly expand its reach, investment in people and infrastructure, and its support of Ethiopian content and content creators. The company said on Monday that this includes investing heavily in local content as part of the Group’s hyper-local content strategy. MultiChoice has operated in the country since 1992. The group previously announced its intention to significantly increase its investment in Ethiopia, which is recognised as having huge growth potential with its large population (second only to Nigeria), impressive GDP growth and its largely untapped potential within the ICT sector. “Ethiopia is open for business and…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has learned that the previous Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, spent more than R2.5 million for a technical task team to review the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) business model and make recommendations in reforming how SASSA made its cash payments. In a reply to a DA parliamentary question, the Department of Social Development (DSD) said it paid six technical advisers a total of R2.5 million between May and October 2018. These technical advisors clearly did not fix any of the Agency’s challenges as reports confirm that SASSA is currently drowning under a backlog…

If South African companies hired and promoted women at the same rate as countries such as Norway, the economy could grow by 30%, according to a recent study by a leading research company. “To those who think that gender equality only benefits women, the numbers tell a different story,” says Shaun Rademeyer, CEO of MultiINET Home Loans. “Data makes it clear that gender equality is the engine for the global workforce. Greater female participation in the workforce can make a greater impact on the economy.” According to McKinsey & Company, gender-diverse companies around the world are 15% more likely to…

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series, the power phone that empowers your work and play, is now available from MTN on South Africa’s best mobile network. Effective 1 September 2020, MTN customers can sign-up or upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy Note20 LTE, Samsung Galaxy Note20 5G and Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G. All deals come with free UV Sterilizer with wireless charging valued at R999, and the first one thousand MTN customers that sign up or upgrade in the month of September 2020 can also claim a free Samsung LED 24” flat monitor valued at R2199, while stock lasts, all redeemable…

Liquid Telecom has appointed Clayton Naidoo as Group Chief Business Officer (GCBO).  He will be responsible for driving growth, innovation and strategy in the enterprise market across the Group’s holdings. Naidoo will join the Liquid Telecom team in this role on 1 October 2020. A seasoned ICT professional, Naidoo has more than 14 years of experience in the industry. Prior to joining Liquid Telecom, he worked at Cisco in several key leadership positions. Most recently, he was General Manager – Sub-Saharan Africa, covering 31 countries. He was responsible for executing a region-wide vision and strategy that delivered transformational value to…

Over the next few years, Atterbury’s groundbreaking Barlow Park Precinct will add to the ever-changing skyline of Sandton. The redevelopment of the prime Barlow Park Campus, situated at 180 Katherine Street, Sandton. Barlow Park occupies a prime site adjacent to the M1 dual carriageway and Katherine Street in Sandton. Barloworld, Atterbury and African Rainbow Capital have partnered as co-investors in the redevelopment of the prime Barlow Park Campus. The initial property transaction involves each party holding one-third of the landmark site currently housing Barloworld’s corporate offices. The investment value will eventually climb to well over R3billion as the total redevelopment…