Author: Staff Writer

Access to the official South African COVID-19 website has been made 100% free. Working in partnership with the Department of Health, Vodacom has zero-rated the site so that any customer with a device can have access without data or airtime. With President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 21-day national lockdown declared last night, South African citizens need a trusted, up-to-date, accurate source of information about the COVID-19 pandemic during this uncertain time. The National Department of Health‘s COVID-19 Connect WhatsApp line has provided this information to nearly 2 million people within the last week. In partnership with the NDoH, Vodacom is sending awareness…

At the stroke of midnight on Thursday, South Africa will go on a nationwide lock-down with the exception of essential services. President Cyril Ramaphosa made this announcement on Monday evening, following a meeting held on Sunday with the National Coronavirus Command Council. The lockdown, is government’s bid to contain and slow down the spread of the Coronavirus in the country. The announcement comes a week after the President declared the outbreak a national state of disaster. The nationwide lockdown comes as South Africa saw a surge in the number of confirmed cases rising from 274 on Sunday to 402 by…

In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, The National Coronavirus Command Council has decided to enforce a 21-day nation-wide lockdown with effect from midnight on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Monday. In a televised address to the nation, the President announced that the lockdown is necessary in order to save lives in light of the Coronavirus. “This is a decisive measure to save millions of South Africans from infection and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. While this measure will have a considerable impact on people’s livelihoods, on the life of our society and on our economy,…

The South African business community has mobilised to combine its resources as a way of limiting the economic, social and health impact of COVID-19 on the country. This emerged at the discussions held by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the country’s business formations on Sunday. Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), the Black Business Council (BBC) and other companies and business associations, have established a Project Management Office aimed at ensuring collaboration with government and to use the available business resources and capacity to support public sector initiatives. “In a unique collaboration across public and private sectors, this will see business being…

South Africa has 402 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 128 from Sunday’s announcement. On Monday, the Health Department confirmed an increase of 128 cases. The Northern Cape has its first confirmed cases. The announcement comes just hours ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on measures to be undertaken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The President is scheduled to address the nation this evening. “We will thereafter engage the public to give further details and explanations on the results including the significant rise, the ongoing testing processes, each province’s progress on contact tracing efforts,” said…

With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the full economic impact on business needs to be critically considered. Especially for a country such as South Africa, that is still grappling with the effects of a recent technical recession. We are all very aware of the human toll that the virus has had on societies across the board. We have also seen the measures that various governments have put in place to try curb and gain some sense of control over the spread and intensity of the virus, by encouraging self-isolation during this pandemic. “Taking the necessary precautions is vital,…

As business and society, we are seeing a concerning increase in the transmissions of COVID-19 cases across multiple countries. The virus has had a far-reaching impact on our societies and is testing the resilience and tenacity of businesses and individuals alike. Globally, governments and companies are ramping up efforts to help mitigate the spread of the virus. In MTN’s footprint 17 of our 21 markets have COVID-19 infections. “MTN’s priority is keeping people connected during this period.  We need to play our part in the alleviation of the economic, social and educational impact through the support of key institutions such…

As South Africa and the international community continue to intensify efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, FNB has reaffirmed its commitment to help SMEs and individual customers whose financial position is adversely impacted by COVID-19. The Bank continues to work with the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA), in engaging with the SARB and Government on a variety of solutions aimed at supporting both consumers and businesses through these difficult times. We will make further announcements on the nature of this support in the days ahead. FNB believes that SMEs and an economically viable consumer market are vital to…

To play its part in reducing the impact of COVID-19 on customers,Nedbank says it will offer all clients “individual solutions to cashflow challenges”. The solutions will be available to clients in good standing who are impacted by this pandemic. “We undertake to work with our clients to help them through this period of enormous challenge for all South Africans,” the bank said in a statement. “This undertaking to work alongside and support our clients with suitable individual solutions to cashflow challenges they may experience as a result of COVID-19 extends to any loan agreement they have with us. “This support…

Call blocking by South Africa’s biggest network operators is negatively impacting many local telecoms customers who are finding they cannot always successfully complete phone calls. This is according to Anthony Engelbrecht, Technical Director at an independent telco, Huge Networks. He explains that some clients of SA’s many Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecoms networks such as Huge Networks, Connection Telecoms and dozens of others are increasingly finding that calls they place are not reaching the intended telecoms user. VoIP operators are typically smaller telcos that came into being as the country’s telecoms landscape was liberalised in the 1990s. Their emergence…