Author: Staff Writer

Vodacom has launched three new 30-day promotional LTE bundles available exclusively to new prepaid customers. Everyday-ta! Data Bundles come standard with a bolt-on YouTube data allocation, enabling customers to stay connected on SA’s leading network. To enjoy access to the Everyday-ta! Data Bundles, customers need to simply buy a bundle via the My Vodacom App or *135*111#. The bundle will be rationed in equal daily amounts, over the validity period with a YouTube allocation. For example, a customer opting for a 30GB Everyday-ta! Data Bundle at R299, will get a 1GB anytime data, every single day for 30 days,…

 Movile, one of Latin America’s leading and longest-standing investors and growth accelerators for technology companies, has received a new investment from Prosus totaling$200 million or R2.8 billion, the largest primary investment in a single round since Movile’s founding in 1998. Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, has been an investor since 2008 and is the majority shareholder of Movile. The new funds will go towards expanding Movile’s current companies, including iFood, a leading foodtech company and one of the biggest tech success stories to date in Latin America; MovilePay and Zoop, two of…

Following the devastating scenes of unrest and violence in parts of South Africa, and the vandalising of infrastructure, Absa has introduced a range of customised relief measures for customers impacted by the recent disorder. “Through and post the crisis Absa has had to deliver uninterrupted banking services to our customers. The immediate need was to ensure that the closure of a branch or an ATM in an area, did not equate to eliminating access to banking. We have been hard at work restoring branch and ATM operations that were impacted in parts of South Africa,” says Bongiwe Gangeni, Deputy Chief…

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) will implement tax relief measures in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and recent civil unrest. At the weekend, the revenue collector said the relief measures, which were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa a week ago, are to assist affected and tax compliant businesses to recover and ensure livelihoods for their employees. “SARS will implement these tax relief measures because compliant taxpayers have paid their fair share of tax, making it possible for the government to provide such a temporary safety net in a time of extreme difficulty,” SARS said in a statement. SARS…

Capitec clients can now get cash back on their purchases at Dis-Chem and Baby City by simply paying with their Capitec Debit or Credit card. A benefit that can collectively save their clients that shop there over R25 million per year.  The 2% cash back will automatically be paid monthly into their free Capitec Live Better Savings Account, which offers a percent higher interest rate than clients earn on their main transactional account. Francois Viviers, executive of Marketing and Communications at Capitec says “Research shows us that people are tired of traditional rewards programs that require you to jump through…

This week the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) came to an agreement with South Africa’s banks that Saswitch fee, a fee that customers pay for using other banks’ ATMs, will be waived for a period of two months with effect from 1st August 2021. This is in response to the recent civil unrest where some ATMs in Gauteng and KwaZulu -Natal were damaged and are currently not available for use. Kabelo Makeke, Head of Consumer and High Net Worth clients South Africa says, “We understand that some of our clients are adversely affected by the unavailability of the damaged…

By some estimates, South Africa has as much as R35 trillion worth of untapped mineral wealth. Despite that, the country has in recent years not attracted sufficient investment to allow for new mines to be opened or for substantial exploration campaigns to be carried out. One way to fuel new growth in the sector is for it to embrace digital transformation. Despite the unique challenges associated with South Africa’s mining conditions, embracing new technologies and digitally driven processes could result in mass benefits to the local mining sector. That was the messaging from a mining roundtable hosted by Huawei and…

MakwaIT, a 100% youth and black-owned Information and Communications Technology (ICT) company is committed to closing the ICT skills gap by assisting in the development of skills through a specialized ICT skills incubation program. The incubation is a 12-month contractual program for both unemployed but determined youth with no prior ICT skills as well as youth who have formal IT education but no working experience and are extremely eager to pursue a thriving career in the ICT sector. The MakwaIT Academy has been offering global-standard practical experience and theoretical training to South African self-starters since February 2020. To this day,…

InsurTech firm Flock announced on Thursday it has raised $17 million or R248 million to reinvent insurance for connected vehicles. The InsurTech firm will use the funds to supercharge its expansion into new geographies and product lines. Flock is a venture capital and Government-backed London InsurTech using data to insure connected motor fleets and commercial drone operations. The round was led by Social Capital, the Californian investment firm run by Chamath Palihapitiya, a renowned tech investor, Chairman of Virgin Galactic, and an early backer of Slack, Tesla, and Bitcoin. Our incredible existing investors Anthemis and Dig Ventures also participated. The company said the funding marks…

Standard Bank’s Instant Money cash transfer product has more than tripled its access points in nine months. Today, the bank announced that the service is now available at about 50 000 access points in South Africa. In November last year, the bank had 15 000 access points. Instant Money is a money transfer product that allows consumers who do not have a bank account to send and receive cash. Funds can be transferred using internet banking, ATM’s, the banking app and cellphone banking. The service is also available at various retail partners. With Instant Money, a limit of R 5000…