Author: Staff Reporter

A new, South African-developed rival to Facebook’s WhatsApp, which offers zero-rated data access on South Africa’s four largest mobile operators, has been launched.

Altron subsidiary Netstar has partnered with Dark Fibre Africa’s Internet of things business SqwidNet to roll IoT solutions in South Africa.

The State IT Agency, which provides centralised IT services to the public sector, was again hit by downtime on Monday, the second time this has happened in three days.

Samsung’s tap-and-go payments platform, Samsung Pay, is now live in a trial phase for Standard Bank customers. This follows the soft-launch of the service earlier this month with Absa.

MTN Group remains on track to report a total 2018 dividend of R5/share, despite “continued challenges in repatriating funds from MTN Irancell”, it said in notes alongside interim results for the six months to 30 June.

Naspers’s Video Entertainment unit, which has oversight of DStv parent MultiChoice, has created a new Connected Video unit and appointed a CEO to lead it.

MTN South Africa has improved profitability on the back of a strong retail consumer business, though its enterprise segment is not turning around as quickly as had been hoped, putting pressure on service revenue growth.

First National Bank clients who own certain Garmin and Fitbit smartwatches can now use them to “tap to pay” at retail outlets where tap-based payments are supported.

For the second time in less than five years, Altron has launched a major refresh of its brand identity. It last did this in early 2014.

Shares in JSE-listed software company Adapt IT rose slightly on Wednesday afternoon after it said normalised headline earnings per share could increase by as much as 16% for the full financial year.