Author: Staff Writer

Vodacom will cut its data bundles prices by more than 30% across all of its channels as of 1 April 2020. “Vodacom has agreed to a multi-year substantial reduction of monthly data bundles across the board. For example, the key 1GB monthly data bundle will drop from R149 per 1 Gigabyte to no more that R99 (including Vat). This represents a 34% price decrease,” said Competition Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele. Bonakele, together with Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel and Vodacom group CEO Shameel Joosub, held a media briefing in Tshwane on Tuesday, to announce Vodacom’s settlement agreement on data…

Avon calls for an end to pejorative words and phrases used to silence women Campaign urges women to reclaim stereotyped language and be proud to speak out and share their stories Avon pledges $10 million to support women’s issues across the globe Avon, the company for women, has launched a campaign calling on men and women worldwide to #SpeakOut and put an end to pejorative words and phrases used to silence women. Launched ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8th, the campaign is in response to growing evidence of a gender divide, with the World Economic Forum’s 2020 report…

We are pleased to present to your attention LocalAgro, an International Agricultural Business Platform designed for local food market participants and equipped with a wide range of communication and search tools that provide a full range of services for business relations. The platform based on blockchain technologies and designed to simplify business processes and cut out the middlemen between the food producer and consumer. Food drives the world!  Agriculture is an industry with a total volume of over 8.7 trillion dollars, and it is growing. If current population growth trends continue, by 2050, the demand for calories will increase by…

Short-term insurer King Price is diversifying its business into the South African life insurance market. King Price announced on Friday it has received regulatory approval for its acquisition of life insurer Stangen from JSE-listed African Phoenix Investments. The deal is valued at R140 million. The move allows King Price to achieve its ambition of gaining a running start into the local life insurance market, said chief executive Gideon Galloway. The insurer plans to launch the King Price life brand within the next 12 months and forecasts that life products will make up half of its revenue within the next decade.…

South African payment technology platform Ozow has broken through the R10bn milestone in transactions processed – and is looking at doubling the number of users on its platform in 2020 as part of aggressive expansion plans. Ozow enables merchants to receive and process payments from any South African with a bank account across all payment environments, allowing people who do not have debit or credit cards to transact quickly and safely. More than 4 million consumers have already used Ozow, which has the vast majority of ecommerce leaders like Take A Lot, MRD and Superbalist as registered merchants business users…

The iconic Volkswagen Polo – a modern-day legend when it comes to car sales in South Africa, has been dethroned by the mighty Ford Ranger. According to George Mienie, AutoTrader CEO, the Ford bakkie was the top-selling used vehicle in South Africa during the second half of 2019. “We have just released the next iteration of our Car Industry Report covering the period 1 July to 31 December 2019, and this is one of the most notable facts to have surfaced” he notes. The Volkswagen Polo is, after all, a vehicle that clocks up one sales achievement after the other.…

Good lawyers are expensive, let us be honest. So much so that when one needs a contract or legal document, its generally prohibitively expensive, with the result that you either go without, or you end up hacking a contracting together yourself without the legal knowledge necessary to ensure that all bases are covered. Hello Contract is changing all of that for the ordinary South African business. The startup provides South Africa’s first fully automated business legal document webshop. The platform, which focusses on entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized enterprises will bring automated business contracts and documents to these businesses at massive…

Teraco has announced that Africa’s largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP), NAPAfrica, has reached a landmark with 1 Terabit per second (Tbps) of peak traffic. According to Andrew Owens, Manager of Interconnection & Peering at Teraco, this is not only a significant milestone for the exchange, but also for the continent. “The NAPAfrica members, including global content and cloud providers, over 250 telecommunication providers, managed service providers and a growing enterprise base, are the driving force behind achieving this momentous goal,” says Owens. Launched in 2012, NAPAfrica first recorded traffic of 532Mbps. Eight years later the exchange has reached 1Tbps, showing…

While there haven’t been any reported cases of the Corona-virus in South Africa, entrepreneurial locals are already selling masks and “survival kits” online at higher than average prices. According to Gumtree SA Marketing Manager Estelle Nagel, the surgical masks sell for between R6 – R13,00 each on the site, but prices will go up even further. “In other markets, these masks are being sold at 600% mark-ups.” Nagel says the site is removing adverts purporting to 100% prevent Corona-virus infections and similar claims. “Some sellers are selling welding masks and construction-grade facemasks (used for working in dusty conditions during demolition),…

After more than five years of connecting domestic workers with clients for homes and businesses, SweepSouth, the online cleaning service, is diversifying its offering to customers with the launch of SweepSouth Outdoor. With bookings currently available through the SweepSouth website – with the app soon to be updated – SweepSouth clients in Johannesburg and Cape Town can now book an Outdoor SweepStar to assist with outdoor necessities whether it be gardening, pool cleaning, making sure that the outside of your windows are sparkling clean or even helping with carrying boxes when moving. SweepSouth is looking to launch the service in…