Author: Staff Writer
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…