At Home

The SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) has been running a marketing campaign touting e-tolls on Gauteng’s roads as pleasantly inexpensive, but opposition to the system said recent newspaper adverts are a “pathetic attempt” to hoodwink the public. Sanral has published an advertisement in various publications that positions the financial implications of e-tolls on motorists as “better than expected”. – ITWeb

ADZUNA, established in 2011 by Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro, has gained traction in the UK with its social job hunting tools, real-time labour market data and search, and has now launched in SA. The job search engine has over 1.5 million monthly visitors and revenue is growing 50% a quarter, pushing it towards profitability. – ITWeb

The SA MWeb Battlefield 3 team has made it to the quarterfi nal stage of the ClanBase Nations Cup competition. According to Colin Webster, president of Mind Sports SA (MSSA), the governing body of e-sports in SA, while competing, the team always behaved with an attitude befi tting the very best of South Africans. – ITWeb

Manelisa Mavuso, <a href=

Telkom" />Telkom’s MD for consumer services and retail, Manelisa Mavuso, recently opened a computer literacy laboratory at the Othandweni Family Care Centre, in partnership with Huawei. The contribution to Othandweni was initiated by Mavuso through the Telkom Foundation’s Adopt-A-Project Programme. Mavuso hopes the access to technology will advance the quality of education for the children at the centre. – ITWeb

A free WiFi service available at more than 1 000 hotspots in SA has been opened up to owners of certain Samsung smart devices in the country. Samsung Electronics South Africa says customers who own Samsung WiFi-enabled smart devices, which were purchased after March 2010, qualify for the free WiFi service. – ITWeb Africa

South African music streaming service Simfy Africa has teamed up with local digital agency Prezence Digital to develop a BlackBerry version of its music services app. According to the companies, the upcoming BlackBerry Simfy Africa app is part of a roll-out of fresh apps for the three major platforms in SA’s smartphone market: iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. – ITWeb Africa

The Siyakhula Living Lab celebrated the work achieved to date in providing ICTD solutions to the rural community of Dwesa, in the Eastern Cape. Launched in 2006, the lab is an ICT for Development (ICTD) initiative between academia (University of Fort Hare and Rhodes University), private IT industry companies, government (the Departments of Trade and Industry, and Science and Technology) and rural communities. – ITWeb

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Michael Jordaan, FNB" />Big four bank First National Bank (FNB) has unveiled a new banking application that has been developed from scratch and customised for several tablet operating systems. “Global tablet sales will surpass desktops in 2013 and mobile computers in 2014. Every business needs a tablet-specific strategy,” tweeted FNB CEO Michael Jordaan ahead of the big four bank’s “next-generation Banking App” launch. – ITWeb

Software giant Microsoft revealed in a tweet, through @MicrosoftZA, that its Surface tablet is expected to make an appearance in SA in the second half of 2013. Microsoft SA responded, but did not reveal any more information. “All we can share at this point is that Surface is coming to South Africa.” – ITWeb

Into Africa

Kenyan mobile operator, Orange, which is operated by Telkom Kenya, has slashed its voice and SMS tariffs in a bid to boost its market share. Orange announced a 25% drop in off-net voice charges as well as a 50% cut in off-net SMS tariffs. The new tariff offer, dubbed Tujuane, will run up to 31 May. – ITWeb Africa

Rhys Phillip, IHS

An ex-Ernst & Young and Vodafone veteran has joined African telecommunications infrastructure provider IHS as its chief commercial officer. Rhys Phillip joins the Nigerian-headquartered IHS from Ernst & Young, where he was partner and global head of transaction advisory services for the telecommunications sector. Phillip qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse, following a law degree from Cambridge University. – ITWeb Africa

Kopo-Kopo, a Kenyan mobile money integrator start-up, has partnered with one of the largest online food catalogues, Eat Out Kenya, to enable customers to pay for meals using M-Pesa. “We are excited about the partnership with Safaricom and Eat Out as it gives Kenya’s leading restaurants a chance to accept electronic payments at the best rate in Kenya,” said Dylan Higgins, chief executive of Kopo Kopo. – ITWeb Africa

About 400 Nigerian government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have migrated to an online system and set up Web sites using the .gov.ng domain. This is according to Nigerian Communications Week, which has reported that all Nigerian MDAs are expected to migrate to the local domain by the end of 2014. – ITWeb Africa

Tanzania’s election body plans to use biometric voter registration and identification systems for the nation’s 2015 vote, following in the footsteps of Kenya and Ghana. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) says the biometric system is expected to capture facial, identification document and fingerprint data of voters. Tanzania’s NEC plans to publish a tender to roll-out the technology. – ITWeb Africa

Rwanda’s ICT Bill is planned to be tabled in Parliament for debate in June this year. According to member of parliament Agnès Mukazibera – who is the chairperson of the parliamentary committee on science, education, culture and youth – the Bill is said to have over ‘450 articles’ and sets out an ICT legal framework. – ITWeb Africa

Pastoralist communities in arid areas in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia are using text messages to share water reserve data with relief organisations. The initiative forms part of a pilot project run by international charity organisation, Oxfam, and is planned to provide relief organisations with real-time information on drought-prone areas. Oxfam in turn shares this data with the respective governments and international relief organisations. – ITWeb Africa

African broadband wholesale carrier West Indian Ocean Cable Company has hired three senior telecoms industry professionals in a bid to strengthen its presence on the continent. Darren Bedford, from PCCW (formerly Gateway Communications); Martin Mutiiria, from Nokia Siemens Networks; and Jason Tutty, from Reliance Globalcom, have been hired to respectively head up director roles of ‘Africa business development’; ‘sales’; and ‘network planning and operations’. – ITWeb Africa

Internet user numbers in Kenya grew 11.6% between October and December 2012, to reach 16.2 million, outpacing mobile voice users’ growth of just 1% in the country in the same period. This is according the latest industry statistics released by the Communications Commission of Kenya, which put the total number of mobile subscribers at 30.7 million as at December 2012.

Abroad

Toshiba and SunEdison, a unit of US-based MEMC Electronic Materials, have agreed to build solar power plants in Japan. Toshiba expects 270 billion yen ($2.75 billion) in orders for construction of power-plantrelated facilities by fiscal year-end, the business daily said, adding the Japanese company is in talks to build four or five mega-solar plants. – Reuters

BYD, one of the better known Chinese brands, thanks to a stake held by billionaire US investor Warren Buffett, may stop making conventional gasoline-fuelled cars within two years and focus on “new energy” battery models as part of a “rebirth plan” to arrest a slump in sales. The company unveiled its Green Hybrid Technology at the Shanghai auto show. – Reuters

Twitter has launched a standalone music-streaming app, opening another front in the micro-messaging service’s ambitious expansion into multimedia content. The iPhone app, called #music, will recommend and stream songs based on who users follow on Twitter and artists’ recommendations. Twitter said in its blog-post announcement that #music will be available in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand beginning 18 April. – Reuters

Microsoft CFO Peter Klein is leaving at the end of June after three-and-a-half years in the post, as the software company struggles with sharply declining personal computer sales and a lukewarm reception for the new Windows 8 operating system. The 11-year Microsoft veteran becomes the latest in a line of top-level executives to leave the company, following Windows head Steven Sinofsky last November. – Reuters

Blackstone Group has ended its pursuit of Dell, easing the way for founder Michael Dell and his private equity partner Silver Lake to go ahead with a $24.4 billion deal to acquire the PC maker. Blackstone withdrew, citing an unprecedented 14% drop in industry PC sales in the first quarter of 2013, and a lower earnings forecast by Dell’s management. – Reuters