Author: Staff Writer
In a digital-first market, customer experience is increasingly shaped by the quality of the connectivity sitting behind it. For a small business, customer experience often lives in everyday moments. A card payment goes through without delay, a WhatsApp query gets a fast reply, a booking system loads when a customer needs it, and a delivery update reaches the customer on time. When those moments are smooth, trust grows. When they lag or fail, customers move on, quickly. That’s why connectivity quality is increasingly shaping how SMEs compete in a digital-first market. Customer experience research is beginning to reflect this shift.…
MyMoolah, a South African fintech company, today announced the launch of its core digital wallet, giving consumers a practical way to receive, store, send, spend and access money through one platform. The MyMoolah wallet is built for South Africa’s real economy, where digital payments and cash access must work together. Through the wallet, users can access everyday financial services including wallet payments, prepaid airtime, data, prepaid electricity, bill payments, digital vouchers and cash-in/cash-out functionality through partner networks. The launch is backed by MyMoolah’s PASA-issued Third Party Payments Provider certificate, confirming its registration in terms of the National Payment System Act,…
Eskom’s power system continues to demonstrate improved resilience as colder temperatures drive higher evening demand. The sustained performance underscores the impact of the Generation Recovery Plan, reinforcing Eskom’s Winter Outlook projection of no loadshedding. Exactly at 24:00 tonight, Eskom will complete a year without the need to implement loadshedding, which was last implemented on a rotational basis on Thursday, 15 May 2025, from 16:00 to 22:00. The last time South Africa experienced one full year without loadshedding was in September 2018. For the financial year to date (1 April to 14 May 2026), diesel expenditure is at R589.95 million, significantly lower…
GoTyme Bank has announced that its employees will now become shareholders in the business, a meaningful step as the bank moves into its next phase of growth. The decision comes at a time when GoTyme is evolving beyond its early days as a challenger brand, following strong customer growth, a growing physical presence, and its recent move into profitability. “At a certain point, you realise success shouldn’t sit in one place,” says Cheslyn Jacobs, CEO of GoTyme Bank. “This business has been built by people who show up every day and make it work. Giving them a stake in what…
Global Tier 1 carrier Cogent Communications is now live at Digital Parks Africa’s (DPA) Samrand data centre, giving customers direct access to one of the world’s largest Internet Protocol (IP) backbone networks from within the facility. As a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider (ISP), Cogent owns and operates a global network enabling high performance and direct connections to data centres and end user locations, only exchanging traffic with other Tier 1 ISPs where necessary and without the need to buy internet service from any other provider. For DPA customers, this means closer proximity to global content and fewer intermediary networks…
DStv, the market leader in South African entertainment, has partnered with Discovery Bank as part of its Discovery Miles rewards programme. “Partnering with Discovery to give our customers such great value is an obvious choice,” says Willington Ngwepe, CEO of MultiChoice, the broadcasting services licensee in South Africa. “DStv customers who bank with Discovery can earn up to 50% of their DStv package payment back in Discovery Miles, while they tune in for our world-class content line-up, which includes the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in June.” This comes after DStv announced its lowest-ever HD Single View decoder deals as part of its “Everything can wait” FIFA World Cup 2026™ campaign: R299 for the decoder only or R499 including installation. DStv Stream…
The Information Regulator has not authorised any certification scheme — businesses relying on third-party “Certified” badges are left exposed to significant legal and financial risk. ATG Digital, a provider of access control and data compliance solutions for gated environments, has published an alert to South African organisations. It warns about a growing and potentially costly misconception: that terms like “POPIA Certified” and similar certificates do not confer any legal protection under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). The Information Regulator of South Africa—the only body empowered to monitor and enforce POPIA compliance—has not created, endorsed, or authorised any…
Maziv, the parent company of Vumatel, welcomes the decision by ICASA to approve the licence transfer application of Herotel. This follows the approval of Vumatel’s (Vuma) acquisition of Herotel by the Competition Tribunal in December last year. The ICASA approval marks a definitive step forward in strengthening South Africa’s fibre ecosystem and accelerating the collective mission of building connected lives, communities, and societies. As the pioneer of open access offering high-speed fibre-to-the-home in South Africa, Vuma has revolutionised digital access by reaching over two million homes. By combining Vuma’s national scale and metropolitan expertise with Herotel’s specialised rural and underserved…
A new generation of South African innovators is building technology solutions that address the country’s most pressing social and economic challenges. The top finalists in the Huawei Developer Competition Code4Mzansi have developed solutions rooted in the realities people move through every day, children buying food from spaza shops, households stretching social grants, young people locked out of work experience, patients struggling to access healthcare, communities dealing with electricity theft, and small businesses trying to survive and grow. The competition attracted 1,041 participants in South Africa, the highest number in any Huawei Cloud Developer Competition market globally. South Africa also recorded…
Discovery Bank today announced a major expansion of its AI-powered’ banking capabilities, alongside new security and servicing enhancements, streamlined access to life insurance, and a rewards partnership with DStv, as it continues to build a single, intelligent digital banking platform for everyday spending, protection and rewards. Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank, says, “We are entering the next phase in Discovery Bank as we deepen the integration of banking, protection, rewards and investments into a single digital experience. At its core, this is about building a platform that works more intelligently for our clients – connecting payments, data and security…
Salesforce hosted an intimate media roundtable at WeWork Oxford Road in Rosebank for a candid, unvarnished conversation about AI’s mounting impact on the South African workforce. Bringing together senior Salesforce leaders and an enterprise change practitioner from Standard Bank Group, the session produced a collective message that left little room for equivocation: AI is already reshaping how work is designed, delivered, and measured — and South African organisations cannot afford to wait. Why localisation is everything Opening the discussion, Linda Saunders, Country Manager & Snr. Director Solution Engineering Africa at Salesforce, grounded the conversation in a reality specific to the…
Lulapay has partnered with leading cloud distributer Cloud on Demand to introduce integrated cash flow flexibility for ICT resellers and managed service providers across South Africa. Lulapay is a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) offering powered by Lula. Through the partnership, qualifying Cloud on Demand partners will now have access to structured 30-day payment flexibility, helping them better align supplier payments with customer billing cycles, and easing one of the most persistent pressures facing profitable technology SMEs. Cloud on Demand is a major player in South Africa’s ICT ecosystem, enabling resellers to procure and manage subscription-based cloud and software solutions at scale. But…
One month after launching into Exclusive Books stores across South Africa, FinMaster, the locally created board game teaching families, teenagers and young adults how to think differently about money, has recorded its strongest end-user sales month to date. For co-founders Elijah Djan and Danei Rall, the milestone is more than a commercial result. It’s the latest chapter in a story that began with a rough prototype made from a pizza box, a university challenge to solve a problem made worse by Covid, and a deeply personal belief that financial literacy should not be reserved for people who grow up around…
New York Stock Exchange-listed Energy Vault Holdings, a global leader in sustainable, grid-scale energy storage and AI compute infrastructure solutions, today announced a Strategic Development Agreement with Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility, to deploy a long-duration gravity energy storage system (GESS). The first GESS plant will be built at Eskom’s Hendrina Power Station in Mpumalanga, South Africa, one of the utility’s oldest operating stations. The system is expected to provide 25MW of capacity with four hours of storage, equivalent to 100MWh, and is designed to be fully scalable, up to 4GW. This landmark agreement establishes a partnership between the…
South African insurance platform, Naked, has become the first company in the world to successfully develop and deploy a native app in ChatGPT that can provide a final, binding car insurance quote. The launch also appears to make Naked the first South African company to release a native app in ChatGPT, representing an early step towards a future where consumers will use AI assistants to understand, compare and manage financial products on their behalf. Naked’s ChatGPT app connects directly to the same live underwriting and rating engine that powers quoting and buying on its website and app. This means the…
In many communities, food is not just nourishment. It is structure, survival, and dignity. Each day, across towns and cities, a quiet system of food production already exists. Local restaurants prepare meals before sunrise. Street vendors set up at key movement points. Informal kitchens serve workers, students, and families throughout the day. The system is active. The demand is constant. Yet access remains inconsistent. In places like the Vaal, particularly Vanderbijlpark and surrounding communities, this reality is visible. Food businesses already exist within the local economy restaurants, vendors, and small informal enterprises built on resilience, necessity, and consistency. They feed…
5FM, South Africa’s favourite youth radio station, is turning Youth Month into a launchpad for the future with Code Youth, a high-energy, hands-on digital skills bootcamp created to give young South Africans the most valuable skill sets of the 21st century. In partnership with WeThinkCode_, this nationwide CSI initiative brings coding, creativity and real digital confidence directly to the youth who need it most – completely free and designed for absolute beginners. Because 5FM isn’t only about the hottest tunes and the biggest vibes… we’re a station that Ampli5s the future of Mzansi’s most promising young talent. Running across Johannesburg…
As South African consumers continue to seek greater value, energy efficiency, and innovation in the home appliance category, Massmart is expanding its home appliance range with the introduction of Haier as a globally recognised home appliances brand, now available at Makro stores nationwide. The move forms part of Makro’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its position as a leader in appliance retail through continued investment in global sourcing, category innovation, and an expanded assortment of international brands that combine performance, innovation, and affordability for South African consumers. Through the collaboration, Makro customers will now have access to a curated range of…
Disney+ debuted the official trailer and key art for season two of the Original comedy series “Deli Boys,” premiering on Thursday, 28 May with all 6 episodes, exclusively on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally. Turns out inheriting a criminal empire was the easy part… and more money really does mean more problems. This season on “Deli Boys,” the Dars are drowning in dirty cash and Philly’s sketchiest crooks are circling. Enter Max Sugar: casino king, money launderer, and Lucky’s new crush who turns laundering into a chaotic situationship. Raj plots revenge on Ahmad, Mir tries to expand DarCo without blowing it up, and Philly D.A. Andrew Chadwater hopes one…
Meetable, the South African social discovery platform curating dinners between strangers, officially launches in Johannesburg this month, with its first Johannesburg dinner taking place on Thursday 14 May 2026. Originally launched in Cape Town, Meetable brings together four to six strangers for curated dinners at carefully selected restaurants across the city. The concept is intentionally simple: no networking agenda, no speed dating format, no awkward icebreakers. Just a good restaurant, a shared table, and the opportunity to meet people you otherwise never would have crossed paths with. Since launching in Cape Town, the platform has seen strong early momentum, with…
Despite higher demand driven by seasonal conditions, including a sharp rise in evening consumption as temperatures dropped, with peak demand at times reaching nearly 2 000MW above anticipated levels, the system has remained stable, Eskom said late on Friday. “This has been achieved alongside the natural tapering of solar generation at sunset, demonstrating enhanced operational resilience and improved capacity utilisation across the fleet, ” says Eskom. “This performance reflects the sustained impact of the Generation Recovery Plan and reinforces Eskom’s Winter Outlook projection of no loadshedding, supported by continued progress in reliability, disciplined maintenance execution, and cost optimisation.” For the financial…
Disney+ announced FX’s “The Bear,” the critically acclaimed, Emmy® Award-winning hit series, will premiere its fifth and final season on Friday, 26 June exclusively on Disney+. All eight episodes will be available to stream at debut. Key art for the season has also been released. The news comes on the heels of yesterday’s surprise release of “Gary,” a flashback episode of “The Bear” co-written by and starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal that follows Richie (Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Bernthal) on a work trip to Gary, Indiana. Fans can discover the episode by searching for “Gary” on Disney+. Premiering on 26 June, the fifth…
Global markets are entering a renewed risk-on phase as easing inflation pressures, declining oil prices, and sustained demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure drive stronger investor appetite for equities and digital assets. According to research by Bitget Research, global equities continued to advance this week, led by technology and semiconductor stocks as investors reposition toward growth sectors amid improving macroeconomic conditions. Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget Research, said recent market movements signal a notable shift in investor sentiment as geopolitical and inflation risks begin to moderate. “Markets are increasingly repricing both geopolitical and inflation-related risks simultaneously. The combination of…
“A declined home loan application can feel like a closed door, but it’s actually a starting point to rehabilitate your credit score, for a better outcome in the next few months,” says Bradd Bendall, National Head of Sales for BetterBond. “A rejection of a bond approval is often a signal to fix the part of your profile that the bank found too weak, whether that is affordability, credit history or documentation.” “In a housing market where approval rates are improving, buyers who take the time to reduce their debt, correct flagged credit issues and improve affordability can come back stronger,” says…
From a student digs kitchen in Stellenbosch, to a majority investment from PSG Group, ButtaNutt’s growth story is one of calculated risk and local focus. Founded in 2013, the business started with a single product: macadamia nut butter. Today, ButtaNutt is one of South Africa’s leading plant-based milk brands, with expansion into plant-based milks since 2020 and with consecutive triple-digit growth to match. That growth, coupled with a bold move to cut plant-based milk prices by 25% during a high inflation period, has positioned ButtaNutt as a serious challenger in a category still in its infancy locally. Plant- based milk…