Perhaps best known for its foray into pornography, TopTV’s anti-climax in the world of broadcasting has resulted in a little-known fact: South Africa has suffered a loss of almost R1,2bn because of this venture, which critics say it should not have flirted with in the first place. Three arms
With a potential repositioning of some of the country’s most significant parastatals in the offing, a number of ministers could lose out as key entities are placed under the ever-extending wing of public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba. Not least of these
The national council of provinces (NCOP) has proposed an amendment which would give parliament more say in the determination of toll prices. Currently, the minister of transport has sole powers to determine toll fees and toll increases. This week, the
Whatever happened to cracking open Telkom’s last mile of copper cables into homes and businesses to rival broadband operators? The industry regulator has gone silent on the issue, leaving industry players wondering whether local-loop unbundling has quietly been shelved
Shareholders in financially troubled technology services company Gijima have given the green light to its proposed rights offer, in which it’s raising R150m “to ensure compliance with all its funding covenants” and to finance its working capital requirements. Gijima announced the rights offer at the
It will take up to eight years to issue all South Africans with smart card identity documents, home affairs minister Naledi Pandor said on Thursday. The department believed that once the process was underway, it could print about 3m ID cards a year, using the government printing works, Pandor told reporters
Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will issue 13m MasterCard-branded and payment-enabled national ID smart cards as part of a pilot programme. This programme is the largest ever roll-out of a formal electronic payment solution in Nigeria. In the first phase
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will face off with Amatole Telecommunication Services, the Eastern Cape company that trades as Easttel, on 29 May. This follows a raid by Icasa on the operator’s facilities on Wednesday that led to an interruption in voice and Internet services
The Rockefeller Foundation will pledge close to a US$100m to create digital field jobs in Africa, it was announced at the World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday. “There is no better place to announce the official launch of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative, a $97m investment,” said the
It appears the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is not going let up in in its effort to tackle companies it believes are not paying their dues for use of radio frequency spectrum. The authority on Wednesday raided the facilities of an Eastern Cape telecommunications operator, just weeks
