Author: Staff Writer
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has confirmed the arrest of a former Merafong Local Municipality senior official for allegedly illegally depositing funds into the collapsed Venda Building Society (VBS) Mutual Bank. Mattheys Gerhardus Wienekus, 64, a former senior official in Merafong, appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday after being subpoenaed to face charges of contravention of the Municipality Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 in the ongoing investigation linked to the bank. “The suspect, who was arrested this morning, was employed at Merafong Local Municipality as Manager: Budget and Treasury until his retirement,” said…
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced that the 2020 Filing Season will begin on 1 August 2020. In a statement issued on Thursday, SARS said on the day, a significant number of taxpayers can expect to receive an SMS indicating that SARS has prepared their tax returns on their behalf and that a draft assessment is available on eFiling or Mobiapp to consider. With this year’s filing season coinciding with the economy-damaging COVID-19 pandemic, SARS has conceded this will detrimentally affect collection rates. Amid the pandemic, SARS said it continues to play its critical revenue collection role to…
The relaxation of rules under level 3 of the lockdown regulations allowing for more economic activity comes amid a continuing job’s bloodbath. Several large South African corporates including SAA, Edcon, SABC and Cell C among others have recently announced plans for massive reductions in headcount. Karl Muller, operations manager at Tiger Brands Foundation, says the development follows disappointing financial performances all round. In his adjusted budget speech, the minister of finance also announced that the economy is expected to contract by as much as 7%. Muller says the number of people who will soon be out of work from large,…
Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced the general availability of AWS Outposts in South Africa. AWS Outposts delivers fully managed and configurable compute and storage racks built with AWS-designed hardware that allow customers to run AWS compute, storage, database, and other services on-premises, while seamlessly connecting to AWS’s broad array of services in the cloud. AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility. With AWS Outposts, customers can use the same AWS APIs, control plane, tools, and hardware on-premises as in the AWS cloud to deliver a truly consistent hybrid experience.…
JSE listed company TeleMasters, a licenced communication service provider in the South African market, has announced the acquisition of a 25% stake in data centre specialists ConexLink. The acquisition by TeleMasters came into effect on 1 June 2020. ConexLink, a new carrier neutral and vendor neutral facility outside Pretoria, brings to Gauteng an carrier grade disaster recovery centre that ticks all the boxes for physical security and georedundancy, says TeleMasters CEO Jaco Voigt. Agreements have been concluded with a number of leading fibre providers who now have nodes in place at the facility to support enterprises that must comply with…
iSchoolAfrica announced on Friday a partnership with iStore which aims to bring iPads to 10 000 South African matriculants through the #MyFuture programme. iSchoolAfrica is an education trust which brings the world’s best technology to under-resourced schools in South Africa. “School closures have necessitated a move to e-learning. In theory, this could be an important step towards a more equitable education system. But the reality is very different. Most South African learners lack access to devices, data and quality educational resources,” says Michelle Lissoos, Director of iSchoolAfrica Education Trust. It is with this in mind that iSchoolAfrica in partnership with iStore,…
Uber Eats is now available in East London, Eastern Cape Eaters can enjoy ordering their favourite meals from their long time favourites Milky Lane, Rocomama’s and McDonald’s as well as local favourites Sanook, Angela’s Coffee Shop and Earth Forrest. For those who are not close by and would love to surprise their friends or family, Uber Eats has introduced a new feature that allows users to easily send food to loved ones and share the status of that delivery with a simple link. “We are so delighted to be launching in East London to provide small businesses with an extra…
Cape Town-based IMPower has developed a market-leading medium-sized solution comprising of solar and energy storage technologies for the commercial & industrial market, which includes business parks, factories, shopping malls, schools and many others, providing reliable, affordable power. Energy storage technologies are viewed as a potential game-changer for widespread adoption of renewable energy generation throughout Africa. They facilitate the management of renewable power intermittency, demand response services and the dispatchability of stable, clean and sustainable power into the local or national grid system. “Our energy solution combining solar and energy storage provides a maximum benefit solution for the market, ensuring security…
Gameloft has partnered with MTN to create a unique subscription platform for millions of South African users. The platform is available for a fixed daily subscription fee, with a large catalogue of premium mobile games such as Asphalt Nitro, NOVA Legacy, PAC-MAN and Sonic Runners Adventure. MTN Arcade allows users to immerse themselves in a complete mobile gaming universe with hundreds of games of all genres with exclusive features such as tournaments and esports events, in one single environment. For the past 20 years, Gameloft has been working together with over 330 global distribution partners to bring its games to…
Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has approved plans for the resumption of football. “The plans of the Premier Soccer League have been approved, considering the mitigation strategies and plans in relation to the level 3 risk adjusted strategy in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture said on Wednesday. The plans have further been subject to analysis by health authorities and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), who have recommended that the measures put in place by the organisation meet and in some instances, exceed, the required protocol for a safe return to…