Author: Gugu Lourie

Woolworths’ top five executives took home R59 million in 2020, but the company’s South Africa frontline workers shared R25.6 million, the company’s latest annual report revealed. Roy Bagattini, the boss of Woolworths, was paid R15.7 million. The total remuneration for Bagattini, appointed as Group CEO on 17 February 2020, includes conditional sign-on bonuses, relocation, rental accommodation, legal expenses, and incidental relocation expenses amounting to R9.5 million. His base salary was R4.6 million. Former CEO Ian Moir took home a salary of R13.9 million. Moir resigned as Group CEO on 16 February 2020.  The company said from 17 February Moir earned an…

Capitec Bank revealed on Wednesday it has attracted more than 1.1 million new customers on its banking app. According to the bank, its clients are able to stay safe and bank from home using its banking app, and benefit from lower transaction fees and zero data charges. At the end of August 2020, Capitec said there were 4 million app users versus 2.9 million in the same period in 2019. The banking group added that it recorded 5.2 million USSD users at the end of August 2020 compared to 4.7 million in 2019. “Certain clients use both the app and…

Blue Label Telecoms has published its annual report for 2020, showing how much its joint chief executive officers were paid. Blue Label joint-CEOs Mark and Brett Levy were paid a combined R26 million – taking home just under R13 million each. The salaries comprise a basic salary of R9.7 million. In addition to the basic salary of R9.733 million each, the joint CEOs will receive R3.3 million each in line with the restraint of trade agreement that was concluded with them in November 2017. The tenure of the restraint of trade undertaking is 36 months, which commenced on 1 November…

Deloitte, a consulting firm, and Stephen Koseff, a former CEO of Investec, have been appointed as advisors for Cell C’s recapitalisation process. “Deloitte was appointed to advise on the recapitalisation process. An Investment Committee that meets bi-weekly, was established under the Chairmanship of Stephen Koseff, to work with Deloitte on this difficult task as it involved negotiations with many lenders and bondholders from many different jurisdictions,” Larry Nestadt, chairman of Blue Label Telecoms, disclosed in the company’s latest annual report. “I am most grateful for their efforts and am confident a settlement will be reached within the near future.” Blue…

South African firm  Lumkani has received €1,000,000 (just under R 20 million). Lumkani is a low-cost solution providing community-wide alerts for fires in informal settlements. This comes after Lumkani took top honours at the European Research and Innovation Days event for the EIC Horizon Prize on Affordable High-Tech for Humanitarian Aid. The prize is funded under Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme, as part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot. It rewards the best, proven, cost-effective, technology-based solutions for humanitarian aid in five categories: shelter and related assistance; water, hygiene and sanitation; energy; health and medical care;…

Channel VAS is the premium FinTech provider of mobile financial services, airtime credit & airtime advance services, handset loans and big data analytics, all through cutting edge proprietary analytics tools. Operating since 2012 and expanded to more than 42 countries in Africa, Middle East, Asia and LATAM with a focus in emerging markets, Channel VAS supported mobile network operators (MNOs) and financial institutions to provide over R204 million ($12 million) credit daily to more than 750 million people in 2020 and continues to expand to new markets globally. The company, which is valued at R548 million in 2020 versus R423…

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo is investing in South Africa with local head office and a commitment to making world-leading innovations more accessible. Oppo is the second-biggest smartphone manufacturer in China. From today South Africans will join the 350-million people who experience technology through Oppo’s uniquely familiar and personalised user experience around the world. Soon, South African consumers stand to benefit from the innovations like SuperVOOC rapid charging and bespoke audio tuning that Oppo has spread around the globe over the last 16 years. “Oppo is committed to offering South African businesses and consumers the best technology experience possible and is…

BMW has finally revealed its new M3 and M4 Coupe models that are likely to launch locally towards the middle of 2021. South Africans are not getting the standard M3 and M4 Coupe models as well as the manual gearbox. Only the BMW M3 Competition Sedan and the BMW M4 Competition Coupe will be introduced to the South African market. Both models will be introduced in the first half of 2021. BMW M3 Competition Sedan and BMW M4 Competition Coupé with eight-speed M Steptronic transmission. Competition models also available with M xDrive all-wheel-drive system for the first time, est. from summer 2021. M xDrive links up with Active M Differential, rear-wheel-biased…

Founders Factory Africa (FFA) announced today that it has selected RxAll, an AI-hyperspectral platform for authenticating drugs,  into its venture scale programme. Launched in 2018 and headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, FFA is backed by Standard Bank and Netcare Group. RxAll was founded by Adebayo Alonge, a Nigerian pharmacist, who developed a handheld nano-scanner called ‘RxScanner’ that detects fake drugs in real time after fake medicine nearly killed him. RxAll enables hospitals, pharmacies and patients in Africa to buy high quality, non-counterfeit medicines online by authenticating and delivering drugs through their curated marketplace. RxAll is dedicated to providing high quality…

The liquidity of MTN Zakhele Futhi has been impacted by MTN’s decision not to declare a dividend in its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2020. The decision by MTN Group would affect MTN Zakhele Futhi’s ability to pay expected preference dividends. MTN Zakhele Futhi scheme, which is listed on the JSE, has entered discussions with MTN and the preference share funders to find solutions to mitigate the impact. “Further to the cautionary announcements dated 3 August 2020 and 6 August 2020, MTN Zakhele Futhi shareholders are advised that the funding from MTN in the amount of…