Author: Staff Writer

A phone call regarding an overdue account is generally one of the most dreaded conversations a consumer can have. Even when a missed payment is merely an oversight, the interaction feels deeply personal and embarrassing. Yet, as South Africa grapples with an escalating household debt crisis, a surprising trend is emerging in customer experience: some consumers are finding genuine comfort in talking to AI voice agents rather than human debt collectors, explains Bruce von Maltitz, CEO of1Stream. The reality of South Africa’s credit crunch Von Maltitz says one of the more interesting trends emerging currently is that some consumers are…

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) recently prioritised diversity when updating its Listings Requirements (effective 16 February 2026) with initiatives aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This agenda emphasises board diversity across gender, race, age, and culture, with a sharpened focus on age inclusion as part of its broader agenda to foster equitable and representative corporate leadership. While gender and race remain important considerations, the inclusion of age diversity underscores the JSE’s recognition of the value of intergenerational collaboration in driving sustainable growth. This progressive step ensures that boards reflect not only demographic representation but also a balance of generational…

From today, 1 June 2026, all travellers crossing South Africa’s borders must submit an online customs declaration and declare any foreign-registered vehicles they bring into the country. This launch of the South African Revenue Service’s (SARS) new digital Traveller Declaration System, together with stepped-up education of customs rules at every port of entry, marks a major step in modernising border controls, streamlining legitimate trade and travel, and curbing non-compliance. The new requirements are grounded in South African law, specifically Section 15 of the Customs and Excise Act, 1964, which obliges travellers to declare all goods, including vehicles, when entering or…

Nearly half of young South Africans are locked out of formal work. Youth unemployment is now 45.8%, and for many entering the job market is not an option. Instead, many of them build their own business, increasingly with income streams that are diversified beyond South Africa’s borders. A designer in Johannesburg could invoice clients in Europe. A developer in Durban could programme for a US tech firm and receive payment in dollars. A Cape Town copywriter could write for clients in the UK and charge a London rate. Others might sell goods through Etsy or YouTube, earning foreign currency while…

Huge Group Limited (JSE: HUG), a South African investment holding entity focused on building and managing strategically integrated enabling ecosystems, today announced the publication of its Integrated Annual Report for the financial period ended 28 February 2026.  The report details Huge Group’s continued evolution as an investment holding company focused on ecosystem investments and provides a comprehensive account of the largest investment entities in its Portfolio, with particular focus on the milestone progress achieved by Huge NXTGN; an investment made by Huge Group in 2024. “Success is not always swift. It requires patience, resolve, and unwavering resilience.” says James Herbst,…

Bloomberg has named South African-founded fintech Omnisient one of its African Startups to Watch in 2026, recognising the company’s work in helping banks and insurers assess people who are excluded from affordable financial services because they lack traditional credit histories. Bloomberg positioned Omnisient around a simple but powerful question: what if your grocery basket could unlock access to credit? It is a question increasingly relevant to banks, insurers and lenders across Africa and other markets, where millions of people earn, spend and manage money responsibly but remain invisible to traditional credit scoring models. Without a formal credit history, many are…

MortgageMarket, a  FinTech and the largest online marketplace for home loans in South Africa, today announced a landmark industry development becoming the first company in 25 years to secure direct bank mortgage origination contracts with major lenders including FNB, Absa, Standard Bank, Nedbank, RMB and Investec. This milestone fundamentally changes how industry players such as, real-estate agencies, property developers and mortgage aggregators, submit home loan applications, using their own white label platform to get multiple quotes within 48hrs. For the first time in over two decades, bank origination capability has been extended beyond a narrow group of incumbents, opening the…

Vodacom M-Pesa Tanzania has announced a new partnership with PayPal that will enable customers in Tanzania to seamlessly transfer funds between their PayPal and M-Pesa wallets through the M-Pesa Super App;. As part of M-Pesa’s broader Global payments solutions, this marks a significant step forward in expanding access to global digital financial services. Through this integration, eligible M-Pesa customers will be able to deposit funds directly into their PayPal wallets and withdraw funds from PayPal back into their M-Pesa wallets securely and conveniently, simplifying international transactions for freelancers, developers, content creators, entrepreneurs, gig economy workers and other digitally connected customers.…

In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States launched an anti-trust lawsuit against Facebook in conjunction with 46 states. The FTC alleged that Facebook’s purchases of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 – which the FTC had approved – had allowed Facebook (now Meta) to accrue monopoly power in the social media sector. According to Daryl Dingley, Partner at Webber Wentzel, Facebook appears to habitually leverage its dominant position within the sector by either purchasing competitors or undermining them through limiting access to its ecosystem. “It’s a strategy referred to as ‘buy or bury’, with Facebook…

South Africa’s emerging developers are building close to the ground, with many of the strongest solutions at the inaugural Huawei Code4Mzansi finals focused on the systems people use every day: township retail, healthcare, energy, agriculture, payments and the creative economy. The competition was held in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development. “The Code4Mzansi competition is not just a celebration of achievement, it is a launchpad for the future,” said Minister Stella Ndabeni, whose department co-hosted the event and delivered the closing address. The finals showed a clear pattern in the way young innovators are approaching technology, a shift…

Artificial intelligence is reshaping property valuations in South Africa by combining trusted data, machine learning, and human expertise to produce faster and more accurate results, moving beyond valuation as professional judgment and historical comparables. The scale and depth of data underlying the use of AiVM, Lightstone’s AI-powered tool used for residential property valuation, matters because valuation models are only as strong as the information they learn from. “By combining deeds records, cadastral data, municipal rolls, listing data, point-of-interest information, and imagery, Lightstone’s system builds a much richer view of property value than traditional methods alone”, Hayley Ivins-Downes, Managing Executive Real Estate, Lightstone Property, said at The Africa Valuation Conference 2026…

Johannesburg-based SwapVend, the digital marketplace platform focused on enabling trade within South Africa’s township and informal economies, has announced that it is expanding into a broader economic infrastructure ecosystem known as SwapUnion. The announcement follows the continued market rollout of SwapVend, which has quietly been building traction on the ground across South Africa through community mobilisation and grassroots onboarding initiatives. Originally launched as a hybrid marketplace enabling users to trade through both cash and barter transactions, SwapVend was designed to help informal businesses and entrepreneurs become more visible, connected and economically active. Since deploying its MVP2 platform into the market…

In today’s ever-evolving workplace, culture is often understood as little more than the odd team-building exercise organised by HR or dismissed as a corporate buzzword. However, for leading South African organisations operating in 2026, culture is the internal architecture that dictates a company’s resilience, growth, and survival. A robust internal culture is built from the ground up. It is less about “fun Fridays” and entirely about building  a solid foundation that promotes a purpose-driven environment designed for people to thrive.  In an era defined by economic volatility, rapid technological disruption and shifting employee expectations, a human-centric culture must be a…

As South Africa prepares to mark Youth Month in June against the backdrop of persistently high youth unemployment, questions are growing around whether corporate skills development spending is delivering meaningful economic returns — for employers or for young people entering the workforce. The numbers make the problem stark. Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey places youth unemployment among people aged 15–34 at 43.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the same time, businesses across sectors continue to report acute shortages in digital and technical skills. Both things are true simultaneously. That contradiction points to a systemic failure —…

Axiz has announced the integration of its Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) business with Cloud On Demand as Alviva Group moves to strengthen its specialist cloud capability. The transition of Axiz’s CSP business to Cloud On Demand is expected to conclude by 1 July 2026. Cloud On Demand will continue to operate independently for the next 12 to 18 months, managing Microsoft CSP provisioning and support across both Cloud On Demand and Axiz partners. Thereafter, the two cloud businesses will become one under Axiz. Cloud On Demand evolved from Alviva’s acquisition of Tarsus on Demand, the cloud solutions business that formed…

Investing in African Mining Indaba (Mining Indaba) is entering the next phase of its evolution, one defined by shifting from collaborative conversations to successful commitment delivery. As preparations begin toward Mining Indaba 2027, the event is sharpening its focus on how partnerships across African mining translate into practical outcomes and investment decisions. South Africa’s Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resource Gwede Mantashe sees Mining Indaba as a critical platform for building and advancing partnerships, while unlocking investment. “Through this platform, we have seen how dialogue translates into concrete action that supports growth, industrialisation and shared prosperity across the continent,” he…

Balwin Properties Limited has received a firm intention offer from a Consortium including the Public Investment Corporation, acting on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, together with Balwin founder investors to acquire all eligible issued ordinary shares in Balwin for R4.35 per share in cash. The offer values Balwin’s total issued share capital at approximately R2.26 billion and gives eligible shareholders the opportunity to realise cash value at a premium to recent trading levels. If approved and implemented, Balwin will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Balwin will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bidco, and its shares will…

While the housing market continues its recovery trajectory, an increasingly cautious approach to lending amid growing inflationary pressure linked to fuel price shocks and global uncertainty, could see the prime lending rate increase when the Monetary Policy Committee meets on 28 May. “Although not ideal, enough has been done in recent months to instill investor confidence in the property market,” says Bradd Bendall, BetterBond’s National Head of Sales. Several economic indicators remain positive. The country’s cumulative trade surplus for the first quarter of the year increased to R77 billion, supported by strong precious metal exports. Closer to home, inflation has…

In a digital-first market, customer experience is increasingly shaped by the quality of the connectivity sitting behind it. For a small business, customer experience often lives in everyday moments. A card payment goes through without delay, a WhatsApp query gets a fast reply, a booking system loads when a customer needs it, and a delivery update reaches the customer on time. When those moments are smooth, trust grows. When they lag or fail, customers move on, quickly. That’s why connectivity quality is increasingly shaping how SMEs compete in a digital-first market. Customer experience research is beginning to reflect this shift.…

MyMoolah, a South African fintech company, today announced the launch of its core digital wallet, giving consumers a practical way to receive, store, send, spend and access money through one platform. The MyMoolah wallet is built for South Africa’s real economy, where digital payments and cash access must work together. Through the wallet, users can access everyday financial services including wallet payments, prepaid airtime, data, prepaid electricity, bill payments, digital vouchers and cash-in/cash-out functionality through partner networks. The launch is backed by MyMoolah’s PASA-issued Third Party Payments Provider certificate, confirming its registration in terms of the National Payment System Act,…

Eskom’s power system continues to demonstrate improved resilience as colder temperatures drive higher evening demand. The sustained performance underscores the impact of the Generation Recovery Plan, reinforcing Eskom’s Winter Outlook projection of no loadshedding. Exactly at 24:00 tonight, Eskom will complete a year without the need to implement loadshedding, which was last implemented on a rotational basis on Thursday, 15 May 2025, from 16:00 to 22:00. The last time South Africa experienced one full year without loadshedding was in September 2018. For the financial year to date (1 April to 14 May 2026), diesel expenditure is at R589.95 million, significantly lower…

GoTyme Bank has announced that its employees will now become shareholders in the business, a meaningful step as the bank moves into its next phase of growth. The decision comes at a time when GoTyme is evolving beyond its early days as a challenger brand, following strong customer growth, a growing physical presence, and its recent move into profitability. “At a certain point, you realise success shouldn’t sit in one place,” says Cheslyn Jacobs, CEO of GoTyme Bank. “This business has been built by people who show up every day and make it work. Giving them a stake in what…

Global Tier 1 carrier Cogent Communications is now live at Digital Parks Africa’s (DPA) Samrand data centre, giving customers direct access to one of the world’s largest Internet Protocol (IP) backbone networks from within the facility. As a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider (ISP), Cogent owns and operates a global network enabling high performance and direct connections to data centres and end user locations, only exchanging traffic with other Tier 1 ISPs where necessary and without the need to buy internet service from any other provider. For DPA customers, this means closer proximity to global content and fewer intermediary networks…

DStv, the market leader in South African entertainment, has partnered with Discovery Bank as part of its Discovery Miles rewards programme. “Partnering with Discovery to give our customers such great value is an obvious choice,” says Willington Ngwepe, CEO of MultiChoice, the broadcasting services licensee in South Africa. “DStv customers who bank with Discovery can earn up to 50% of their DStv package payment back in Discovery Miles, while they tune in for our world-class content line-up, which includes the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in June.” This comes after DStv announced its lowest-ever HD Single View decoder deals as part of its “Everything can wait” FIFA World Cup 2026™ campaign: R299 for the decoder only or R499 including installation. DStv Stream…

The Information Regulator has not authorised any certification scheme — businesses relying on third-party “Certified” badges are left exposed to significant legal and financial risk. ATG Digital, a provider of access control and data compliance solutions for gated environments, has published an alert to South African organisations. It warns about a growing and potentially costly misconception: that terms like “POPIA Certified” and similar certificates do not confer any legal protection under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). The Information Regulator of South Africa—the only body empowered to monitor and enforce POPIA compliance—has not created, endorsed, or authorised any…