Author: Staff Writer
The South African army could be deployed to patrol the streets in a bid to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Health minister Zweli Mkhize told the newspaper that the government would gradually impose stricter measures as the virus spreads before the worse case of a national shutdown. “Right now it is restrictions. [We] might have to begin to bring in the army to go out and work around the people, talk to them about hygiene, getting them to go sanitise, and so on,” said Mkhize. It was announced yesterday that…
The time is past when tossing a single coin was already an added value. There are currently hundreds of coins and thousands of tokens in the world of cryptocurrencies, and therefore when a company wants to succeed it must offer not just one coin or one token, but an entire value proposition for an entire ecosystem. This is the case of the proposal that we bring today: Silk Road Coin by LGR Group. What do we understand by Silk Road? Before going in to talk in-depth, we must be clear about what we are talking about when we talk about…
Huawei Technologies has handed over a million rand donation to South Africa’s Department of Health, to support efforts to fight and contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize who also received a further two million from the South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association, at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria, says the money will be used for testing and managing the outbreak. The Minister hailed the donation as a very important mark of friendship, solidarity and partnership from Huawei and other Chinese businesses. He went on to say that there has been a huge amount of…
What do grocery shopping, performing a banking transaction, avoiding traffic congestion, booking a restaurant and hailing a ride all have in common? If this question was asked a little over a decade ago, the simple answer would have been a resolute “nothing”. After all, it was only in July 2008 that the entire mobile industry began to revolve around apps. Fast-forward to 2020, and now there is an app for almost anything and everything. With approximately six million apps available in the market today, consumers have uninterrupted access to a richer, hyper-connected experience. These apps have shaped the way we…
Zindi will host UmojaHack Africa, the first-ever pan-African inter-university machine learning hackathon, virtually due to coronavirus outbreak. The UmojaHack Africa competition which takes place on Saturday, 21 March 2020. Zindi will host the first-ever virtual inter-university artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon for students across Africa. Over 70 universities from 17 African countries, with an estimated 2500 students, have registered to participate in the hackathon taking place on Zindi’s online platform. “This level of collaboration and partnership across Africa is very exciting, and it is quite simple for students to join remotely through Zindi. The day’s activities will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel, from the launch…
Red Puppy, the latest South African, 100% black-owned online marketplace platform, today announced the launch of its website, with iOS and Android App to be launch by the end of March 2020. This addition to Red Puppy’s technology suite illustrates the startup’s initiative in bringing effective methods for delivering goods to South Africans. The platform features a variety of vendors displaying environmentally friendly products and will also be an advertising platform for services providers. The South African online shopping industry is a R10 billion market and stand to benefit from the Coronavirus pandemic. Global online giants such as Amazon and…
At Liquid Telecom, we believe that ‘every individual on the African continent has the right to be connected’. This enduring belief is guiding us as we respond to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. The health and safety of our people and those of our customers, suppliers and other business partners is paramount. We have implemented robust contingency planning across the business to protect the health of our people and those with whom we come into contact. This includes, but is not limited to, implementing the advice of the authorities, particularly the World Health Organisation and other reliable sources. Liquid Telecom’s focus…
MTN Group announced on Thursday that it has completed the sale of ATC joint ventures. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator sold ATC joint ventures for R8.9 billion. The sale is part of MTN’s asset realisation programme (ARP), introduced in March 2019, which aims to reduce debt, simplify its portfolio, reduce risk and improve returns. Subsequent to MTN Group’s announcement on 11 March 2020 reporting its 2019 annual results and the conclusion of the disposal of its stake in ATC Uganda for R2,2 billion, MTN confirms that regulatory approvals have now been received for the disposal of its stake in ATC…
In these uncertain times, only one thing is really certain, and that’s that every company and its dog wants to tell you what it’s doing in the wake of the Corona crisis. Yet amidst the benign platitudes, gloomy headlines and pervasive uncertainty, here’s some really, really good news: TymeBank, South Africa’s first digital bank, will honour their commitment to their customers and keep their interest rate unchanged at 10%. Worth noting is that TymeBank has taken this decision before the Reserve Bank makes its announcement later today and likely cuts the benchmark interest rate by a considerable amount. TymeBank’s bold…
As part of its efforts to continuously give consumers more than what they bargain for, Telkom has announced that it has revamped its FreeMe offerings. From 20 March 2020, new Telkom mobile customers will get a bit of everything on the New FreeMe plans. This means more benefits across all tariff plans and MORE Monate for everyone. Some of the new product offerings like all network calls and extra data for streaming will be available across all packages. “Customers are at the core of how we innovate and improve our product offering. Over the years, we have been able to…