Southern Africa
Facebook Launches Messenger Kids across Sub-Saharan Africa
Sourced from Shutterstock Facebook is rolling out Messenger Kids – a video chat and messaging app that helps children connect with friends and family in a fun, parent-controlled space. Available to download from the Apple App and Google Play Stores, Messenger Kids has been designed for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years. Ahead of its launch, Facebook consulted with child safety advocates and educators across Africa to ensure that it’s providing a service that balances parental control with features that help kids learn how to connect responsibly online. Messenger Kids is made for Kids but controlled by parents, the app is full of features for kids to connect with the people they love. Once their account is set up by a parent, kids can start a one-on-one or group video chat. The hom...
Tourism Suffers as COVID-19 Restrictions Throttle Safari Industry
Sourced from And Beyond. SafariBookings.com, an online marketplace for African safari tours, recently ran its fourth monthly survey among 308 safari tour operators. The survey’s aim was to acquire a detailed understanding of the impact in the safari industry from the downturn in travel associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The results were in line with the previous three surveys – an overwhelming number of tour operators are suffering from a decline in bookings of at least 75%. A terrible figure for an industry in which so many people rely on in East and Southern Africa. As one operator from Tanzania says, “We have not received any bookings from potential clients since the COVID-19 spread worldwide.” And it’s a similar story in neighbouring Kenya, “At the moment customers are not willi...
Sharing A Defamatory WhatsApp or Facebook Post Could Get You Sued or Fired in SA – Legal Experts
The social media sphere has quickly become a new stage to be navigated carefully in these modern times. Often filled with deepening negativity and debacles that are dreadfully embarrassing for those involved – like the fallout over a Miss South Africa candidate and her history of crude tweets. Now, lawyers at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH) have warned South Africans that sharing defamatory posts can mean serious trouble. “It is important to understand that South African law considers repeating or sharing defamatory content as sufficient to constitute ‘publication’ and, thus, defamation in its own right, even if the repeater or sharer was not the author of the original defamatory post,” Timothy Smit, director, and Elizabeth Sonnekus, an associate in the firm’s dispute resolution practice...
Mukuru and WorldRemit Expand Network of Remittances into Zimbabwe
Mukuru, one of Africa’s largest remittance providers, has announced a partnership with global online money transfer service WorldRemit to facilitate money transfers to Zimbabwe from across the globe. The partnership will be instrumental in bringing world-class financial services to Zimbabweans and generating new synergies for African financial inclusion. “We are excited to be able to extend Mukuru’s valuable pay-out footprint to more customers and to harness this opportunity with WorldRemit’s global reach to expand our fast-growing global presence – while simultaneously creating new opportunities for customer-led innovation on the continent. These types of synergies bring immediate value to our customers, and alleviates their day to day challenges with user-friendly solutions,” says Andy J...
COVID-19 Threatens Cybersecurity in South Africa
According to researchers at IBM X-Force, Sphinx, a modular malware based on leaked source code of the infamous Zeus banking trojan began resurfacing in December 2019. However, a substantial increase in volume was reported in March 2020. This was due to Sphinx’s operators taking advantage of the interest and news around government relief payments in the U.S, Canada and Australia. Across the globe fraud and cyberattacks have soared. This is of particular concern for South Africa as funds are collected to uphold the economy during lockdown and new grants are implemented to ensure the wellbeing of citizens. The local situation South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced a significant package of social and economic relief to address the fallout from the country’s COVID-19 lockdow...
Ride-Hailing Businesses Begin to Recover
Sourced from Forbes. Uber Technologies Inc.’s global rides business is down 70% from this time last year, a small improvement from its rock-bottom fall during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Though slight, it is an indication that recovery is coming, albeit slowly. The decline in rides seems to be offset, if partially, by a boom in food delivery. Uber Eats’ gains have more than doubled, and they continue to accelerate, says Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, speaking at a virtual tech conference hosted by Bank of America. Bloomberg reports that the ride-hailing company intends to continue to look for opportunities in the food delivery market. Khosrowshahi declined to comment on Uber’s proposal to buy Grubhub Inc., which was first reported by Bloomberg last month. Since being so hars...
Nashua Appoints New CEO
Nashua has announced the appointment of Barry Venter as CEO – the company says this comes at a time when the challenging economic and social times we face would have many on the run. Venter’s career has mostly been within the ranks of Nashua Group. He says “Nashua forms part of my DNA as I have grown and evolved over 22 years with this business. It is an aspirational, truly South African brand and the value system and culture within the business is very important to me.” Venter started at the very bottom in Nashua – he was a contractor, worked in the warehouse, packed SIM cards and even sold second-hand phones to dealers – along the way, was exposed to great mentorship and opportunities, moving into IT to implement new technology and create a call centre before moving back onto the busines...
Vodacom Partners with WITS University to Ensure Continued Online Learning
To help students stay on track to successfully complete the 2020 academic year despite not being on campus, Vodacom has partnered with the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) in Johannesburg to keep students connected to higher learning activities. The network provider says that it has committed to providing each student with a 30GB data bundle to remain connected and continue their education while they are away from campus. “We can all agree that success begins with education. For many students, remote learning is a challenge as they do not have the means to access online learning materials,” says William Mzimba, Chief Officer for Vodacom Business. “As remote learning becomes a necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vodacom Business is proud to partner with WITS to support education a...
Major Petrol Price Hike Could Cripple South Africa’s Economy says Expert
Sourced from the South African The major fuel price hike scheduled for tomorrow (3 June) is going to further hurt the economy and have a major impact on deeply indebted consumers. This is after the petrol price in the country slumped to a 21-year low as South Africa descended into a nationwide lockdown. All grades of petrol will spike at R1.18 ($0.07) a litre while diesel will increase by R0.22 ($0.013) a litre. Neil Roets, CEO of one of the largest debt counselling companies in South Africa, Debt Rescue, says the increases would have a devastating impact on consumers who are mostly three months or more behind in the repayments of their loans. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_56f.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_56f.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “This is going to lead to further un...
FreshStop Thanks Frontline Employees with New Digital Campaign
Retail employees, who prior to the health pandemic were assets to the business, have become invaluable as they continued to serve customers throughout lockdown while most people stayed home. To thank them for their service and heroism, FreshStop – one of South Africa’s largest convenience store brands – has launched a #ThankYoufromFreshStop digital campaign to recognise their staff and reflect their appreciation. According to Joe Boyle, Director at FreshStop, their people have become their heroes. “Our teams have managed to get to work under extreme conditions, keep our stores well stocked and tidy, focus on health and hygiene standards and provide top-class customer service with a smile. The campaign reflects our thanks to all our staff – from the cashiers, kitchen staff, manager and clea...
41% of Parents are Suspicious of their Children’s Social Media
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has forced families to spend their free time mostly at home. Staying at home usually also means spending much time using different Internet-connected devices. For clear reasons, children’s growing online activity can cause lots of worries for their parents. According to a Kaspersky survey, 41% of South African parents claim that they have come across something in their child’s social media account that seemed suspicious. Elaborating on what it exactly was, they mention people they interact with (55%), posts that they publish or share (46%), groups or public pages they join (32%), private messages (a quarter) and videos on their page (23%). What is more, 38% state their child has seen or listened to something that seemed suspicious to them, be that videos (72...
5 Best Video Games For Parents and Kids Under Lockdown
Sourced from The Guardian. With only grade 7 and grade 12 learners returning to school in the next few weeks, most children are still confined to their homes under the nationwide level 3 lockdown in South Africa. While many parents are working from home, and children are schooling from home as well, there is always a few hours of the day to settle down to some video games together. Of course, you don’t want your kids drowning in screen time, but if you’re a parent that games, or if your children game, this is an excellent way to connect with them. The following are 5 great video games to play with your children during level 3 lockdown in South Africa that are certain to be fun for both you and your kids: 5. FIFA or any other sports game /* custom css */ .tdi_3_d66.td-a-rec-img{ text-align:...
