COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Telkom hits back at government’s planThe South African government’s plan to switch of 3G wireless technology by 2025 is unrealistic, says Telkom, the country's third-largest cellular network provider.Last week, government published the country’s draft new policy on broadband spectrum, which included plans to shut down the 2G network on 30 June 2024. The shutdown of the 3G network, the third generation of wireless technology, is slated for 30 March 2025. The 2G network is the second generation of cellular telephone technology and was introduced in 1992. It was the first to offer data services and SMS text messaging. It was followed by 3G, which offered faster data transfer speeds and enabled video calls.While Telkom carries less than 1% of data traffic on its 2G network, a sizeable group of its clients still use 3G, which was introduced in 1998."We still carry a significant amount of voice on the 3G network, and don't believe the 2025 deadline is realistic," Telkom said. In rural areas of South Africa, often the only available connectivity options are 2G and 3G. While 4G is relatively common, the rollout of 5G has not reached the entire country.Vodacom said it is currently analysing the feasibility of the timelines proposed by the minister and intends to engage her on the policy. The operator said switching off 2G and 3G networks, would "require a multi-stakeholder approach."MTN has already indicated its intention of deactivating 3G in 2025/26. MTN also has a network roaming agreement with Cell C.-Fin24Barclays to hire more SA bankersBarclays is expanding private-banking services in Africa, looking to target the continent’s US$2 trillion (R37 trillion) high-net worth market.The British lender has hired nine bankers from Credit Suisse Group AG based in mainly Dubai, London and Zurich after agreeing a deal to handle clients referred by the Swiss rival, according to Barclays Private Bank Chief Executive Officer Jean-Christophe Gerard.“Barclays franchise in Africa is experiencing an accelerated build-out across south, west and east Africa,” Gerard said in an interview. “This will be done through organic growth and the referral agreement we have with Credit Suisse.” The US$2.1 trillion of private wealth held on the African continent is expected to rise by 38% over the next 10 years, according to the Africa Wealth Report published in April. The move by Barclays to expand in the area contrasts with its exit from retail banking in South Africa, where it recently sold the last of its holding in Absa.About half of Africa’s super-rich individuals are from South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, where a lot of the bank’s focus will be, Gerard said. The lender has about 15 bankers in South Africa though is looking to hire more, Barclays country CEO Amol Prabhu said in the same interview. Other staff elsewhere are focused on the expansion. -Fin24ARC posts double-digit valuation growthAfrican Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC), a firm founded by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, has posted a double-digit rise in its portfolio valuation for its 2022 year, given a boost by gains from its key digital businesses, TymeBank and data-focused mobile operator Rain.ARC's intrinsic portfolio value rose 11.3% to R13.6 billion in the investment holding company's year to end-June, with the effective value of its TymeBank stake rising a fifth to R1.41 billion, while Rain's valuation gained 9.7% to R3.6 billion.TymeBank, about a tenth of the ARC Fund's value, has now reached 5 million customers, ARC said on Tuesday, 36 months after launch. The firm says it was increasingly focused on tracking customer activity and ensuring new product roll-outs.The fair value of the TymeBank investment was adjusted to reflect a successful capital raise in late 2021, during which Chinese tech giant Tencent and the UK development financier the CDC Group invested into TymeBank and Tyme Global. TymeBank received US$142.5 million (R2.4 billion).Rain, more than a quarter of the fund's value, had successfully participated in the SA government's spectrum auction, when it spent R1.43 billion on allocations that are expected to significantly enhance its competitiveness. -Fin24African Uber Eats riders protest in ParisAround 500 Uber Eats riders from Africa, many without French working papers, demonstrated in Paris on Monday after the company kicked 2 500 accounts off its restaurant delivery platform that allegedly used fake identities.Many said they had been working for years with Uber, claiming the company was well aware that its riders are often undocumented migrants who use "borrowed" ID to open their accounts."I was disconnected two weeks ago, but I worked all through the lockdowns [during the Covid-19 pandemic]," 34-year-old Osseni Kone from Ivory Coast said outside the Uber Eats offices in central Paris."I'm asking Uber to regularise my situation so I can work freely," he said.The US-based company is facing growing pressure across Europe to hire riders outright as employees, instead of independent contractors, to respect the rights of "gig economy" workers.In France, that prompted Uber Eats to audit its rider accounts after signing a charter with the government to "harmonise the oversight practices" of its platform.It said 2 500 of the roughly 60 000 accounts overall were identified as fraudulent, and said riders whose accounts were blocked could still appeal. -Fin24Stargems Group probing the collapse of a damStargems Group, a Dubai-based diamond merchant, said it’s probing the collapse of a dam containing mining waste in South Africa that triggered heavy flooding and resulted in three people dying and property being damaged.About nine houses were swept away and 20 damaged when the reservoir wall at the abandoned Jagersfontein diamond mine gave away on Sunday, Nathi Shabangu, a spokesman for the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, said in a text message.In addition to the three people killed, four were reported missing, while 23 others have been treated for hypothermia and four for broken legs, Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement. Ramaphosa will visit the affected area Monday.The mine in the Free State, formerly owned by De Beers Plc, was shut in the 1970s. The disaster adds to the sector woes as South Africa tries to stem illegal mining, theft of equipment and robbers stripping metal from power cables.The tailings dump is owned by Stargems’s unit Jagersfontein Developments. It acquired the shareholding of the tailing dump from billionaire Johann Rupert’s Reinet Investments in April. Jagersfontein Developments will offer R20 million to assist the community, an external spokesman for the company said in an email."A full due diligence was conducted prior to this acquisition showing that the assets, including the dam were safe and secure," according to the email. -Fin24

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