Author: Staff Writer

MTN’s Mobile Money solution, MoMo, has launched some new functionalities aimed at assisting South Africans during challenging economic times. These include the new food vouchers functionality, and the option for users to make charitable donations to a range of reputable, vetted charity and faith-based organisations that are offering relief to those who need it the most. The food voucher service is designed to assist registered MoMo users, by removing the worry of giving cash to someone to purchase essential items – it could be a family member, neighbour, someone at work or a stranger in need. This new functionality enables…

Audi has utilised its brand partnership with South African Olympic runner and world record holder, Wayde van Niekerk, in a brand campaign which is titled #Lane8. The brand campaign is driven on social media and centres on Wayde’s historic victory at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, where he broke a 17 year old world record in the 400 metre sprint, from the eighth lane. The #Lane8 campaign is aimed at inspiring South Africans to strive for greatness and to overcome doubt and hardship no matter the challenge faced. The main video, which is part of this campaign is an…

Digital payments company Ozow, has launched the Ozow Revolution. According to the company, the Ozow Revolution is a visionary effort to make digital payments available to everyone and create greater opportunity to participate in the digital economy – especially for historically excluded communities that rely on costly and unsecure cash payments. Thomas Pays, CEO and co-founder of Ozow, says far too many consumers and businesses have been excluded from the benefits of the digital economy. “As an impact-driven and market-led company, Ozow is at the forefront of developing breakthrough payments products that enable greater financial and digital inclusion. While more than…

Huawei South Africa has announced the winning teams and individuals from the SA national finals round of its Global ICT Competition at an online awards webinar. Top honours went to Tshwane University of Technology and University of Venda, who claimed the First to Excellence Prize in the Network and Cloud streams. Instructors, Topside Ehleketani Mathonsi (from TUT) and Kudakwashe Madzima (from UNIVEN) also received individual awards for Excellent Instructor for First Half of 2020. Globally the Huawei ICT Competition 2019-2020 has covered over 70 countries worldwide, with 150 000 contestants from more than 2,000 universities and colleges. In South Africa,…

This past week, the national Department of Health (DoH) launched a COVID Alert SA App – in partnership with Discovery – to strengthen the existing contact tracing methods to help break the transmission of COVID-19 as South Africa seeks to prevent a resurgence of cases since the easing of restrictions to level two. Vodacom has zero-rated this App in a bid to reduce barriers of access and help the government in its fight to halt the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. This COVID Alert SA App is South Africa’s free exposure notification tool that lets people know when they have been…

Vodacom Group and the SADC Banking Association have signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow the Vodacom Group to join the South African Development Community’s Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) payment scheme. The TCIB payment scheme has been developed in cooperation with interested financial institutions by the  SADC Banking Association and is supported by the SADC Payment System Oversight Committee of the Committee of Central Bank Governors of Southern Africa. It aims to advance regional integration of payments on the African continent. Earlier this year, the World Bank projected that global remittances – payments made for either…

Vodafone Foundation is committing $28 million (R474 million) to expand its m-mama ‘ambulance taxi’ programme beyond Tanzania. The programme will initially expand to Lesotho, with a co-investment of $4.5 million (R76 million) by the foundation and the Government of Lesotho to introduce m-mama across the country through the Ministry of Health. Lesotho has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, and the programme could potentially save 200 lives over the next four years alone. “Vodafone Foundation shares the commitment of the Government of Lesotho to reduce maternal mortality and contribute to the UN’s health goal,” Joakim…

In a bold industry move, Cash Crusaders – leaders in second hand, quality new goods and secure loans, has built and launched Click & Collect – the first instalment in taking their retail business online. “Although we’ve been planning the launch of e-commerce for our business for a while, COVID-19 rapidly increased the rate in which we rolled the service out,” says Sean Stegmann, CEO of Cash Crusaders Franchising. “As discussed in our recent 702’s Franchising for Future Success webinar, with shopper behaviours changing somewhat, the timing was perfect for us to aggressively embrace our digitisation strategy. We started with…

Global studies show that young people are capable of contributing to the economy by working, starting businesses and leading organisations, yet far too many do not have access to the opportunities they need to reach their full potential. According to the  UN World Youth Report, over 71 million young people are unemployed, and many more millions are in precarious or informal work. The stats also show that 156 million young people in low-and-middle-income countries are living in poverty even though they are employed. We can evidently see this in Africa in the high number of young people who are unemployed and…

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…