As we celebrate Gimme Fibre Day globally on November 4th, and throughout the month, we reflect on the significant contributions of fibre connectivity to society, while acknowledging that many South Africans still lack access to its benefits. This year, Gimme Fibre Day draws attention to a critical challenge facing the fibre industry: the widespread adoption of fibre services throughout the world, but particularly in South Africa. Recent data from Omdia indicates that as of September 2023, South Africa has over 8.5 million broadband subscriptions, with only 2.16 million being fibre connections. The fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) on the other hand market is experiencing robust growth, with Africa Analysis reporting over 243,000 active endpoints and a 6.4% year-on-year increase. Myriad’s businesses Open Fibre and Reflex have emerged as key players in South Africa’s connectivity landscape. Supported by AEX, which provides a powerful system agnostic connectivity platform, and by partnering with Fibre Network Operators (FNOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), they have created platforms that provide businesses with access to next-generation technologies. "At Myriad, our investment in fibre infrastructure and related services is driven by a vision to make fibre accessible to all South Africans. We believe that widespread connectivity is key to unlocking economic opportunities, fostering innovation, and empowering communities across the nation," says David Robinson, Chief Financial Officer of Myriad. “We are dedicated to connecting communities and enhancing opportunities in employment, education, and digital experiences.” Fibre's Impact on Employment The rollout of fibre infrastructure in South Africa requires a skilled workforce, and the demand for trained professionals continues to grow. However, according to Juanita Clark, CEO of the Digital Council Africa and co-founder of FTTX Council Africa, speaking at the recent Digital Infrastructure Investment …
Edu Inc celebrates 10 years of innovation in education and announces a bursary fund
Education Incorporated (Edu Inc), a boutique school in Fourways, Johannesburg celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year with the launch of a bursary fund for deserving students. The school was founded in 2013 by Jacqueline and Gershom Aitchison, whose vision it was to develop well rounded learners who could successfully embrace and adapt to the rapidly changing world around them. Edu Inc’s mission statement is: ‘Think different. Learn different. Succeed different.’ This personal conviction has led to the school establishing a non-profit company, Edu Looking Forward, whose focus is to provide bursaries to children who would excel under the Edu Inc methodology but who lack the means to attend a private school. “Our ultimate aim is to build a perpetual bursary fund for one child per grade to ensure that their schooling career is stable, continuous and provides them with the best possible opportunity to grow into their potential. From there they will be well positioned to attain tertiary scholarships to continue their academic journey,” Executive Head Jacqueline Aitchison says. Edu Inc has also introduced 'The Alumni Scholarship’, which affords the opportunity for alumni to make a minimum monthly contribution of R50 per month towards a bursary for one of these children. Edu Inc counts among its alumni some of South Africa’s emerging sporting and cultural stars, who benefitted from the school’s personalised attention as well as their accommodation of their rigorous training schedules within the academic programme. “There are so many deserving children out there with the potential to be one of the worlds’ next greats, and this provides an opportunity for them to have that potential cultivated,” she adds. Edu Inc Looking Forward While academic excellence is prioritised – Edu Inc has an immaculate IEB matric pass record (seven out of seven years) – the school instils in each of their learners the notion of the ‘portfolio of self’ as a principle of …
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Become a mompreneur this Women’s Month
Johannesburg August, 2022 In the current tough economic times of high unemployment and rising cost of living, more South African women than ever are looking for convenient ways to supplement their families’ incomes without disrupting the flow of family life. Becoming a NeoLife distributor is one way of doing this. In Women’s Month, a new term for these women who start businesses has emerged – mompreneur – a perfect description of a stay-at-home-mom who doesn’t want to leave her children while pursuing a full-time job, but rather sets up a business working from home, in hours that suit her. NeoLife (formerly known as Golden Products and GNLD) is an international company that offers people, particularly women, an opportunity to build sustainable and profitable businesses, with low risk and without start-up capital, through the promotion of top-quality nutritional supplements, earth friendly homecare and organic skincare products. Drew McDermid, Vice President of NeoLife in Southern Africa, explains, “The NeoLife business model has a 50-year history of successful operations in South Africa. It enables women to increase their income with no capital requirements outside of a small sign on fee of under R1000. Distributors promote the NeoLife range of high-quality products to friends, neighbours and community members.” NeoLife offers extensive training, business tools, personal development and ongoing mentorship to ensure distributors are successful. To date hundreds of thousands of South Africans have benefitted from becoming NeoLife distributors. “The company also gives distributors a personalised website and mobile app, and provides warehousing, marketing, logistics and training backup. This allows the distributor to focus on the key income-generating aspects of their business,” adds McDermid. NeoLife mompreneurs happily tell their stories. Heidi Kelly of Pretoria says, “Being part of the NeoLife Family has been a source of much happiness for me. It’s …
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NeoLife to empower local entrepreneurship and tackle unemployment on the back of health and wellness trends
August, 2022 Concerned by the rising cost of living and high rate of unemployment in South Africa, particularly amongst our youth, health and wellness stalwart NeoLife is on a drive to grow its entrepreneurial programme by 20% in the coming year. The direct selling business has a 50-year track record of operation in South Africa (63 internationally). Formerly known as Golden Products and GNLD, NeoLife health and lifestyle products have provided income generating opportunities for millions of individuals during that time. “There has never been a better or more important time than the present to give people the power to live healthier and happier lives through entrepreneurship thereby bolstering our efforts to overcome the ravages of unemployment,” said Drew McDermid, Vice President of NeoLife in Southern Africa. McDermid’s comments are borne out by the global performance of the direct selling sector. According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) of which South Africa’s local body Direct Selling Association is a member, global direct sales increased by 2.3 per cent year-on-year, from US$175.3 billion in 2019 to US$179.3 billion in 2020. “The challenges of the COVID years saw a rise in micro enterprises and the so-called ‘gig economy’. No more so than in Asia and Africa, where entrepreneurship and self-reliance is even more of a necessity than elsewhere,” McDermid says. According to the same report, the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) experienced by individuals involved in direct selling opportunities over the last three years, continues to increase exponentially, despite COVID and other challenges. Entrepreneurship is the obvious answer for many of the challenges facing South Africans, however the success rates among traditional business start-ups are dismally low. In South Africa alone, five in seven businesses fail within the first five years according to Cova Advisory. Direct selling benefits “Direct selling …
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NeoLife offers South Africans a great opportunity to start a business with little risk through direct selling
Johannesburg August, 2022 More South Africans than ever before are looking for ways to generate income for their families. International company NeoLife, previously known as Golden Products and GNLD, offers people from all walks of life an opportunity to build a sustainable and profitable business, with low risk and no start-up capital, through promoting leading edge nutritional supplements, earth friendly homecare and organic skincare products. Unemployment in South Africa, particularly among the youth, worsened during the Covid pandemic and more people than ever are seeking ways to generate income by working from home or starting small businesses. However, the success rate among local business start-ups is low. Drew McDermid, Vice President of NeoLife in Southern Africa, explains, “The NeoLife direct-selling business model, with a 50-year history of successful operations in South Africa, enables people to increase their income in a practical way with no capital requirements (outside of a small sign on fee of under R1000). Distributors who join the NeoLife family promote a range of high-quality nutritional supplements, aimed at impacting the rising trend of chronic disease and promoting long-term health and vitality, to friends, neighbours and community members.” NeoLife offers extensive training, business tools, personal development and ongoing mentorship to ensure that distributors are successful in their businesses. The company gives distributors a personalised website and mobile app and provides warehousing, marketing, logistics and training backup. “This allows the distributor to focus on the key income-generating aspects of their business,” adds McDermid. More and more medical evidence points to the importance and value of supplements in a person’s diet. “Modern diets and lifestyles have generally resulted in a global trend towards poor health and research has shown that a bad diet is three times more dangerous than smoking in terms of …
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New diagnostic platform for hospital dietitians aims to improve patient nutrition and recovery outcomes – a SA first
Nutritional support for hospitalised patients can now be managed using the Medical Nutrition Therapy Tool (MNTT), a locally developed software platform believed to be a first for South Africa. This is a simple yet effective tablet-based platform that will improve the clinical outcomes for patients by tracking the metabolic and nutritional progress of patients throughout their hospital stay. The tool was developed jointly by The Hospital Dietitians Interest Group (HDIG) and the Enteral Nutrition Association of South Africa (ENASA). The problem Because critically ill patients often present with hypermetabolic or catabolic states, nutritional support plays a vital role in their clinical management programme. Protein loss and caloric deficit in these patients is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, while muscle mass depletion leads to impaired function, more ventilator days, additional complications, increased length of hospital stay and generally poor clinical outcomes. The need Adele Marais is a hospital dietitian working at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg, specialising in the treatment of cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. She is also passionate about optimal nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. Adele co-developed the MNTT under the auspices of HDIG and ENASA. She explains: “There is a real need for a systematic approach in order to optimise nutritional support for critically ill patients. The primary goals of nutritional support are to preserve or restore lean body mass, improve immune function and avert metabolic complications.” “Each patient's nutritional needs should be individually determined and a tailored nutritional therapy regimen must specify the type of solution, delivery site, access devices and administration rate and method,” explains Marais. The situation in hospitals Currently there are no centralised, standardised and consistent means of monitoring patient nutrition within South Africa's …
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New training course points to sustainable design’s potential for SA’s fashion industry
Johannesburg September 7th, 2021 - Nurturing sustainable design and production processes could unlock global growth for South Africa’s fashion sector, as the industry looks to revive local textile and manufacturing capabilities that prioritise both social and environmental wellbeing. This is the view of sustainability consultants Sarah Botha and Laura Llonch, who in collaboration with STADIO School of Fashion, have developed a 12-week online course tackling sustainable design and production processes for South African fashion designers and retailers. Called Designing a Sustainable Fashion Future for Southern Africa, the course is designed to empower attendees with the principles of sustainable design and how these can be applied in a fashion business context. “STADIO School of Fashion is honoured to collaborate with Sarah and Laura on a course speaking to the future of Fashion. These current changes and shifts facing the fashion industry will make an impact on the entire value chain and offering Southern African designers a platform and network to educate and engage on an international level through this course is a very exciting offer to add to our portfolio,” said Stephanie van den Bergh, STADIO’s Short Learning Programme Manager. An estimated 1.14 million South Africans are employed in the R90-billion a year local creative industry - which includes fashion, design and craft. South Africa’s fashion designers contributed about R1-billion to the country’s GDP in 2019. South Africa’s rich heritage of craft, design and fashion coupled with local retailers seeking to revive the dormant textile and clothing industry through local manufacturing, make for a unique industry opportunity for job creation and industry revival - one that is based upon sustainable design practices. “Local retailers are in the early stages of addressing sustainability, compared to our local designers, who have more readily adopted sustainable design practices. However, the entire …
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Simply sees a big increase in sales of life insurance and other products due to CoVID-19
Local online life insurer Simply Financial Services has seen a significant increase in demand for its life assurance, disability cover and funeral policy products as a result of the CoVID-19 pandemic. Simply’s CEO, Anthony Miller, says, “There has been a seismic shift on the consumer side of the life insurance equation. The advent of CoVID-19 has caused people to re-evaluate their lives as they sit at home, viewing images from across the world and studying statistics around case numbers and deaths. The new reality is that people now imagine death or disability as a very real possibility and see life cover for themselves and their families as a necessity.” Simply has experienced strong growth in product uptake. “Since the beginning of March, sales of our individual life insurance products are up around 30 percent,” says Miller. “This is an incredible turnaround in such a short time and, if you add the fact that most South Africans are far more cash-strapped now, the trend is quite remarkable.” The 2020 pandemic has eerie parallels with the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. In a recent Financial Mail editorial journalist Rob Rose wrote, “During the 1918 flu epidemic, the government dithered and 4.3% of SA died. On 27 October, 1918, the Sunday Times reported that, one month after the Spanish flu arrived, no-one was quite sure why people were dying. Back then, there was no health minister explaining cases or causes, no wall-to-wall TV coverage, no Twitter. Hysteria was the order of the day.” The difference today is that the population is well-informed and, as a result, people can take precautions where possible. Miller says, “We are seeing people taking responsibility in the areas that they can control. The majority of low- and middle-income earners are chronically under-insured. Many have funeral or credit life insurance policies but few have life insurance or disability cover. Because of the pandemic that is changing rapidly and South Africans are becoming …
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Online no-touch broking throws life line to local insurance brokers during lockdown
South Africa's insurance brokers are using technology to respond to the challenges of lockdown The COVID19 lockdown has been a catalyst for brokers to accelerate their use of cloud-based technology platforms to manage client relationships remotely. Unlike ecommerce, which is very much in the public domain, Insurtech platforms have surged in relevance and market share behind the scenes. Cape Town based Simply Financial Services, an Insurtech company selling life, disability and funeral cover online, has seen a five-fold increase in sales by brokers on their No-Touch Broker Platform since lockdown started. This mirrors international trends. For example, in the UK, AEGIS has seen substantial increase in demand for their PPL Platform which provides underwriting for several (non-life) products, allowing their underwriters to continue delivering business during lockdown[i]. Where brokers have previously viewed Insurtech platforms as competition to their business, they are now seeing the value of adopting cloud-based systems that allow them to continue writing new business and servicing clients. Technology platforms ease the administrative burden and give brokers the freedom to focus on the relationship with the customer – which is where the real value lies in the intermediary role. Nathan Golia, chief editor of Digital Insurance magazine says “if we ever needed a reminder as an industry of the importance of technology, remote functionality, online interaction and digital processes, it is this current environment in which many of us find ourselves.”[ii] More than just facilitating broker relationships, technology platforms also provide the opportunity to improve governance and lessen fraud. Ben Potts of Novidea says that “with the right cloud-based systems in place they (brokers) can help to facilitate more robust governance and compliant systems.”[iii] Potts says that using technology in this way “is the future of broking”. Simply’s online broker platform …
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RelateED Education partners up with Gateway to provide work readiness training for South Africa’s unemployed youth
Johannesburg May 2 2019. RelatED Education and Gateway International Education, a subsidiary of Gateway Capital, have partnered to provide critical work readiness training for young South Africans. With unemployment among the youth at 52.4% on the rise the role of the private sector of the economy is becoming critically important. The partnership between long-time operator RelatED Education and Gateway International Education, a subsidiary of Gateway Capital, is a key development in the area of training in the retail sector. This partnership, between a company with a successful track-record of work readiness education in the wholesale and retail industries, with an organization boasting an enviable history of investment in private education, promises to create a combined entity that will greatly increase the opportunities for young people to enter the work environment. Since its inception in 2011 RelatED Education has trained over 8 700 learners and nearly 4 000 managers, impacting over 35 retail groups across more than 250 communities throughout South Africa. Their courses range from NQF2 12-month learnerships to NQF 5 supervisory and management training programmes. These are currently recognised by the Wholesale and Retail SETA, and RelatED aims to extends its training to other industry sectors as well. The organisation is currently one of only three retail training organisations to have received QTOC accreditation. “We see a particular need to prepare our young people for the world of work. While full time jobs may be scarce, work of some description can be found generally for those equipped with a basic skill set,” said Leigh Blochlinger, CEO of RelatED Education. Of more than 10 million South Africans between the ages of 15 and 24, nearly one third are currently not in employment, education or training. Young people in remote rural areas generally do not have access to networks that connect them to employment opportunities and have little …