Weekly Round Up #103: Big Naspers/Takealot deal, government backtracks on R1.5bn fund

Welcome to Weekly Round Up, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation and news from the last few days.

This week, Hadlee Simons hosts Andy Walker, Matthew Alexander and Stephen Timm in studio.

The team open with the latest Zapiro cartoon to cause an uproar on South African social media. The image, displaying South Africa as a woman being gang-raped, had many South Africans furious with the cartoonist. We question whether or not the cartoon was necessary, and whether public discourse was productive.

We then move on to Naspers R960-million investment in Takealot. The company, which is notorious for shutting down e-commerce sites that don’t make a profit, now has a 46.5% interest in the combined retail powerhouse.

Naspers shoved nearly R1-billion into Takealot this week in a surprise investment deal

Over on the Gearburn side, LG gets two shout-outs this week. The first is for its flagship G6’s massive price drop in South Africa. Andy Walker considers if this means anything for consumers who don’t pay cash for devices, while Hadlee asks if the price makes it a better deal than the S8.

In other LG news, Google has offered to invest almost US$900-million in its OLED screen manufacturing. This move is amidst rumours that Apple will be using OLED displays in its next iPhone.

Finally we move over to Ventureburn, where Stephen Timm discusses how the South African government rescinded on its promise to match the R1.5-billion companies have committed to the SA SME fund. In May last year, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to match the fund, but in a statement to Ventureburn, National Treasury Director-General Lungisa Fuzile said that was no longer the case.

What are we watching, reading, playing: Andy is shockingly playing something other than Plants vs Zombies this week, and we’re all very excited for this new chapter in his life. Instead, he’s moved over to LEGO City Undercover — which he says is like a PG GTA 5 with LEGO. He’s also been listening to the Cracked podcast, most notably its latest episode entitled Commonplace Ideas Invented More Recently Than You Think.

Matthew is currently reviewing Persona 5 and Mass Effect: Andromeda, both of which he says are very enjoyable. He’s also been rewatching Futurama while he waits for the next episode of Rick and Morty.

Stephen Timm has had a quiet week, only managing to catch the latest episodes of National Geographic’s Air Crash Investigation.

Finally, Hadlee has been watching the History Channel’s Dog Fights, because there’s nothing like naming one vile violent act after another violent act. He is still playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild on Nintendo Switch. He’s also reviewing FlatOut 4, which is off to a rocky start.

For all this and more, have a listen to the podcast below. Also, be sure to catch the thorough Recommended Reading list at the foot of this article.

Recommended Reading:

• Zapiro’s controversial South Africa ‘rape’ cartoon debated on Twitter
• Naspers ploughs R960m into Takealot, becomes majority shareholder
• LG G6 gets priced for SA, slightly cheaper than S8 [Update: new price]
• Google offers $876m to LG for flexible OLED displays – report
• Exclusive: ‘Government won’t match private sector in R1.5bn SME fund’

Additional Reading:

• Gearburn’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review diary