Author: Staff Writer

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) South Africa has announced two new appointments to the country’s leadership team. Michael Langeveld has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer and Celeste Le Grange assumes the position of Head of Channel, Commercial, Mid-Market and SMB. These appointments will help accelerate HPE’s strategy of becoming the edge-to-cloud company by giving our customers the cloud experience everywhere with HPE GreenLake. “I am delighted to welcome Michael Langeveld and Celeste Le Grange to my leadership team to help us to continue our momentum in South Africa,” said Sandile Dube, Acting Managing Director for South Africa, HPE. “Both Michael…

The latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SA-csi) for Life Insurance (2021) conducted by Consulta reveals how satisfied customers are with their life insurers over the last year. The benchmark measurement for Life Insurance (2021) provides important insights into the levels of customer satisfaction of  South Africa’s major life insurers – 1Life Insurance, Absa Life, Discovery Life, FNB Life, Metropolitan, Old Mutual, Sanlam and Standard Bank Life Insurance. The index surveyed over 2100 customers of SA’s largest life insurers by market share during the last quarter of 2021. “Two years into the pandemic and it is clear that any excuses…

Financial technology insurance consultancy Askari has concluded an agreement with Hollard Mozambique Insurance to launch its digital strategy targeting cross-border trucking fleets. Vehicles travelling across South Africa and the Mozambique border must have third-party motor insurance and the insurance digitisation process completed in January this year will help to further eliminate potential fraudulent practices while also improving the user experience for customers. Gary Wild, CEO of Askari says, “before embarking of this digitisation process, the insurance processes at the border were paper-based and riddled with inefficiencies, and for many others they still are. Now, the wait for cash to exchange…

TymeBank, one of the world’s fastest growing digital banks, has partnered with National HealthCare Group to bring quality, affordable medical insurance to consumers, through the launch of TymeHealth, an app-based offering that provides medical insurance for as little as R139 a month. Statistics show that just 8,9 million South Africans are covered by a medical scheme, with the high costs of contributions making membership of a medical aid unaffordable for most of the population. Tauriq Keraan, TymeBank CEO says: “Our country has a population of just over 60-million people, and the dire reality is only one in seven South Africans…

After remaining unchanged at 43 points in the fourth quarter of 2021, the RMB/BER Business Confidence Index (BCI) increased to 46 in the first quarter of 2022. Although this is just below the neutral-50 mark reached in the second half of last year, the latest reading is nonetheless encouraging in that it equals the BCI’s long-term average which, at 46, is a far cry from the five-index-point low recorded at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Figure 1: RMB/BER Business Confidence Index Source: BER, SARB (Shaded areas represent economic downswings)    The fieldwork for the first quarter survey was…

Jaguar has unveiled its third all-electric virtual gaming sports car – the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Roadster. Jaguar’s latest all-electric virtual race car joins the grid for the launch of Gran Turismo 7 – the latest and most immersive iteration yet of the world-renowned racing game. The Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Roadster is an all-electric single-seater that combines the race-proven powertrain from the Coupé with a taut, sculpted form inspired by the iconic, timeless Jaguar D-type. “As a car designer, being part of the team that has delivered three virtual cars for the Gran Turismo series has been a dream…

A private sector-driven task force will provide small businesses with instant financial assistance to survive the latest round of load shedding. It was re-initiated in Cape Town at the end of 2021. The “SME Load shedding Task Force” was launched by Lulalend, a fin-tech business that offers real time business funding to South African small businesses and which counts the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) amongst its investors. Lulalend CEO Trevor Gosling says the task force has been reinstated to prioritise applications and provide an almost instant response to businesses in crisis due to load shedding. Many small…

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced it had commenced with the Opt-In Phase of the spectrum auction process in line with its commitment for the licensing of high demand spectrum today. ICASA said in a statement that bidders submitted their bids in person between 10h00 and 12h00 this morning, and the bids’ evaluation was carried out in front of all authorised representatives following the close of the bids’ submission window. Even though there were four bidders who were eligible to bid, only three bidders submitted valid bids, namely Cell C, Rain Networks and Telkom, said ICASA. The…

Nearly a third of South Africa’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) see digitisation as a challenge. Many are unsure about what to prioritise or feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of technology decisions to make, often without the support of IT departments or chief information officers (CIOs) that guide larger businesses. This is why V-Hub was created. Launched by Vodacom Business, V-Hub is an online resource portal, specifically designed to help SMEs unlock their full potential as they embark on a digital transformation journey. “Adopting the right digital solutions will help SMEs become more agile and resilient, enabling them to…

Avo super app by Nedbank has grown beyond the bank’s expectations, further solidifying its place in the e-commerce space as it reaches the milestone of 1 million customers. The banking group said it had seen exponential growth and have doubled customer base in the last 4 months, with a staggering 50% of that being achieved in the last 4 weeks. Avo is becoming one of South Africa’s preferred destinations for online consumers, as it continues to lead the way in offering inflation-busting deals and promotions. Consumers are spoilt for choice with an ever-expanding selection of restaurants and liquor outlets with…