For the first time since Sunday, South Africa's power utility Eskom has not switched off the lights. A load shedding free Friday morning comes after a week of power cuts left much of South Africa in the dark. On Thursday, Stage 2 load shedding was announced. Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe and the company itself on Twitter have yet to confirm that load shedding will occur on Friday, but did state that the probability for power cuts was "low". "We are currently NOT loadshedding," tweeted Eskom from its official account on Friday morning. "Please contact your service provider if experiencing a power outage as...
Don't be surprised to see Ajay Gupta lazing on a Cape Town beach in the future. The controversial businessmen and one of the brothers involved in state capture, bribery and corruption allegations, is no longer a wanted man in South Africa. The Gupta brothers' wanted level increased in August last year, when former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas revealed that he was offered a R600-million bribe to become the new finance minister in a meeting organised by former President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane Zuma. However, on Thursday, the National Prosecuting Authority announced that Ajay Gupta's warrant for arrest has been revoked. The news...
Load shedding apps first came to the fore in 2014, back when it was common practice for our glorious electricity provider to switch off our lights at the most inconvenient times. Some five years later, South Africa's once again facing long nights lit only by ever-shortening candles. But while this fate can't be avoided by the average South African, we can all be prepared for when it does. That's where apps, and their ability to quickly serve information, come to the fore. We've seen a fair few of these come and go, but one has stuck around since 2014. Perhaps its the name,...
Showmax and South African school for film and arts AFDA, have revealed a new deal that will give local film makers the opportunity to publish their work on the video-on-demand platform. "From 18 February, 18 of the best recent short films made by AFDA students from their Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth campuses will be live on Showmax," said the streaming company in a press release. According to Showmax, platforms like YouTube and broadcast TV do not give local talent the right kind of space for their work to be noticed. "Thanks to the growing popularity of video-on-demand services, there’s...
South Africa's unemployment rate dropped in the final quarter of 2018, Statistics South Africa announced on Tuesday in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey results. The rate decreased from 27.5% in Q3 2018 to 27.1% in Q4 2018, after an additional 70 000 citizens found employment during this period. In total, 16.5-million South Africans are currently employed. https://twitter.com/StatsSA/status/1095254861053128705 While this is a small win that should be celebrated, there are a multitude of negatives that should be highlighted. For one, this means that 6.1-million people remained unemployed in South Africa in Q4 2018. Additionally, the youth unemployment rate -- specifically looking at those aged between 15...
If you're an FNB Connect user, you will now have the option to roll over your remaining data to the following month. In a statement on Tuesday, FNB revealed that the move is in response to ICASA's requirements on data expiry on mobile networks. FNB Connect will also introduce a free data transfer feature, allowing users to send data to one another on the network. This also includes data that has rolled over. The network is also adding an option for users to receive data depletion notifications at 50%, 80% and 100% "allowing them to actively track and manage usage". "This is part...
If the announcement on Sunday that load shedding was set to ruin South Africans' lives once again for the next few months didn't annoy you, Eskom's latest announcement surely will. On Monday, Stage 2 load shedding was implemented from 9am, but by around 1pm, not enough load was being shed from the grid. In response, the company's spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe on Monday afternoon announced that the country is now facing Stage 4 load shedding for the remainder of the day. Stage 4 is the most severe level on its panic chart. https://twitter.com/KhuluPhasiwe/status/1094918900637200384 This will allow the ailing power utility to shed more than 4000mW...
After last year's SONA delay, courtesy of the change in the Presidency, 2019's State of the Nation Address will start on time, and on the initially proposed date. That date is today! President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to deliver his second address at the helm of the country, which will begin at 7pm tonight (that is, if the EFF doesn't disrupt proceedings as suggested). But, if you can't quite get out of the Cape Town CBD before then, find yourself stuck without a television, or want to covertly watch the address from abroad, you can do that from the Parliament YouTube channel's...
South African streaming service Showmax on Wednesday announced its third Original set to debut after 2017's Tali's Wedding Diary, and January's The Girl From St Agnes. But unlike these shows, this Original will take the form of a travel show, hosted by and starring South African comedians. Trippin' With Skhumba will star Tembisa-born comedian Skhumba Hlophe as he travels with fellow comedians to their hometowns. Showmax explains that the show will cover the "places that won’t make any tourism brochures and stories that would be edited out of any authorised biographies". Starring in the first season are comedians Celeste Ntuli, Siya Seya, Salesman,...
A US student could face more than 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing $5-million in cryptocurrency, reported Motherboard. Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old California native, SIM swapped the numbers of around 40 victims to gain access to their cryptocurrency wallets. A number of services, even with two-factor authentication enabled, request users for a phone number for additional security. But, ironically, this additional security barrier can weaken the others if another person discovers and swaps your number to another SIM card. It's the loophole the Ortiz, and a number of others in the US, have reportedly used to...
Uber Eats is now available 60km northeast of Cape Town in the Winelands town of Paarl, the company announced on Thursday. It's the third location in the Western Cape after Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and the seventh town in South Africa to receive the service. "We are always excited to expand to a new city not only because we are bringing eaters an innovative way to order their meals but because it affords us the opportunity to give delivery-partners an additional earning opportunity as well as enabling local restaurants to connect with more customers to grow their business," said...
There are many lite versions of popular apps today, all aiming to make our lives easier when we're struggling with data costs, low storage and terrible internet service providers. Now Uber has brought a lite version of its app to South Africa. I recently came across the Uber Lite via an email from the company, saying that it would help me "even with limited connectivity, mobile data or battery life". With my smartphone struggling with storage issues, the app being just 5MB, and data being considerably expensive, I decided to give it a try. It was almost (almost) better than the...
The grand reopening of Lion's Head's popular hiking trail frequented by selfie-seekers has been postponed following the wildfire which ravaged the peak on Sunday. The blaze, which burned for much of the day and through into Monday, is now largely under control. However, South African National Parks board (SANParks) today tweeted that it caused damaged to the peak's infrastructure. https://twitter.com/SANParks/status/1089832593376329729 "Infrastructure on Lion's Head has been damaged and this will delay the reopening of Lion's Head," the national parks board tweeted on Monday. "The reopening was originally scheduled for the 15th of February 2019. As yet the park is unable to determine a...
Political parties swapped megaphones for Twitter this week in the wake of the final IEC South Africa voter registration weekend. Between 26-27 January 2019, you can register to vote for the political party of your choice in the upcoming national elections, which still doesn't have a confirmed date. If you didn't yet know this, you probably haven't logged in to Twitter this week. Parties are, in their unique ways, are reminding South African citizens that voting is a right, and that they should totally exercise that right to vote for them. The EFF kicked off Friday morning with a lengthy Q&A thread, which...
After South Africa was crowned as the fifth most Instagrammable country in the world earlier this month by Big Seven Travel, a long list of places that put it on the map has now been published. The travel firm on Wednesday revealed "the destinations that sparked conversation between judges and were most mentioned by our readers in their SA votes". There are 50 in total, and surprisingly, not all are in Cape Town. What is in Cape Town is the front runner. Bloubergstrand -- a beach north of the city that affords views of Table Mountain -- tops the list. Sabi Sands...
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