Author: Staff Writer

An app that takes away the notion that investing is hard and expensive has been adjudged the overall winner of the MTN Business App of the Year Awards. EasyEquities was announced as the overall winner in Johannesburg on Thursday evening. EasyEquities makes the purchase of shares safe, easy and fun, helping new and existing investors to stay on top of their investment portfolios, with detailed account overviews and personalised reporting. EasyEquities, which also placed first in the Best Consumer Solution category, walks away with the overall grand prize of an international trip to a tech-related destination valued at R200,000. The…

South Africa’s largest digital bank, Capitec, has partnered with popular music streaming service, JOOX, to provide its clients with a Live Better benefit of 30% off of the app’s monthly subscription fee. From 28 October 2020, Capitec clients can enjoy a number of VIP benefits at a discounted monthly subscription fee (usually R59.99 per month, now R41.99) when paying with a Capitec Card and registering on joox.com. Once subscribed to JOOX, clients will have access to all their favourite top local and international artists. In addition to having no audio ad disturbances, in-app features include live streaming concerts, karaoke functions,…

Mobile phone operator MTN is launching a full mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in South Africa. MTN said the aim to launch MVNO service is to bring the digital world closer to more people and communities. With its extensive national network that covers rural areas, MTN said it will offer MVNO partners a high-quality network experience and opportunity to deliver innovative solutions that reach even more South Africans. “We expect MVNO subscribers across the country to double over the next five years, with several large players introducing offerings. MTN is excited to be an enabler of this further growth…

Yoco announced today that its customer base of small businesses had crossed the 100,000 milestone and to further grow its customer base the South African FinTech firm is launching its first ‘standalone’ card machine. The ‘standalone’ card machine is known as the Yoco Neo. This device does not require a smart device or bluetooth to enable payments. Speaking from the Yoco Next, a virtual launch event, Yoco’s founders summarised the product development journey that the FinTech company has been on since the launch of South Africa’s most affordable card machine – the Yoco Go – late last year.  Yoco Go is…

Pick n Pay’s Smart Shoppers can now have their till receipts sent directly to their email instead of receiving a printed receipt. These will also be loaded onto customer’s PnP mobile app profile for 90 days so that they are conveniently saved in one place for easy access and review. Pick n Pay’s new Digital Receipts will be sent to a customer’s email or PnP app within minutes of completing their purchase at any Pick n Pay store, including Clothing, Liquor, and Express stores. This is another step in the retailer’s efforts to reduce unnecessary waste. Many till receipts land…

AURA, South Africa’s security and safety platform, has appointed Alon Lits as its Chairman with immediate effect. Previously General Manager for Uber sub-Saharan Africa, Lits brings with him decades of experience and aims to assist Aura CEO, Warren Myers, to maximise the opportunities that exist for the growing platform business. “In my seven-year tenure at Uber I have learnt some valuable lessons and I hope to share these with the Aura team, while helping them continue on their important journey of democratising access to security solutions and medical response across South Africa,” says Lits. With a career that began in…

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni, have retreated from their commitment to the “active scenario”, which lasted just 3 months, according to Geordin Hill-Lewis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Finance. Lewis was reacting to Mboweni’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) the Minister delivered in Parliament on Wednesday. Debt will not stabilise by 2023. In fact, it will continue to balloon to a massive 95% of GDP and will now only stabilise in 2025/26, with an extra R1 trillion in additional debt. “The ANC government has chosen to cut essential services to the public – like education and policing…

In an effort to stabilise the spiraling public sector wage bill, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has announced that National Treasury will propose a three-year wage freeze. The proposal is contained in the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) the Minister delivered in Parliament on Wednesday. About R36.5 billion has been reduced from the compensation of employees, mainly from a freeze in salary increases. In supporting documents, Treasury said government proposes growth in the public service wage bill of 1.8% in the current year and average annual growth of 0.8% over the 2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period. “To achieve…

Stabilising government’s debt will come with difficult decisions, and the public sector wage bill is the main area where government will impose reductions aimed at returning public finances to a stable position. The National Treasury said this in its Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, in which it proposes steps to reduce the fiscal deficit and stabilise the debt-to-GDP ratio over a five-year period. This as National Treasury looks to make spending reductions of R60 billion in 2021/22, R90 billion in 2022/23 and R150 billion in 2023/24 – mostly falling on compensation. “Large fiscal adjustments and an improving economic…

Nokia today announced that it is enabling ultra-fast 5G services for Vodacom South Africa’s customers by deploying its 5G radio, core and fixed network solutions across Vodacom’s network. Vodacom is using Nokia’s 2G, 3G, 4G and fibre access networks, as well as 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) and mobile broadband services. Nokia is supplying its AirScale, Fastmile and Subscriber Data Management (SDM) / Home Subscriber Server (HSS) products to Vodacom to enhance its service offering and deliver increased operational efficiencies. Nokia’s AirScale radio network product portfolio will enable Vodacom to deploy 5G services across several spectrum bands, including the new…