Sunday Independent 2021-11-14

INTERNATIONAL Fraud Awareness Week – recognised from November 15 to 21, 2021 – is of particular relevance to South African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) considering the extent of economic crime in the country and the significant threat it poses to local businesses. According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey, about 7 percent of South African companies who were defrauded in some way over the past 24 months lost in excess of R740 million, with 4 percent reporting direct losses of more than R1.5 billion. Most recently, South Africa has faced its own pandemic above and beyond Covid-19 – a cybercrime pandemic with a dramatic spike in internet-based offences and bank detail fraud. One of the most common…

Kenneth Chikanga kenneth.chikanga@inl.co.za A BUSINESSMAN who grew up helping his parents brew traditional Zimbab- wean beer is one of three entrepreneurs behind the Masau Craft Distillery (MCD) in Krugersdorp which aims to put African beverages on the world map. MCD chief executive and master distiller Lameck Garonga, chief financial officer Blessed Magagada and sales and marketing manager Bongiwe Mo- khemisa said they had struck the sweet spot with Masau and are on course to producing a genuine African whisky by 2027. “Our spirits will not be available in retail shops anytime soon. We strongly believe in social distancing and saving lives and we encourage responsible drinking of our alcoholic beverages while we isolate with friends and family,” Garonga said – adding that anyone could now order oline – and they…

PROFESSOR Joan Elizabeth Means Khabele passed on at her home in Austin Texas on the October 11. She was aptly described as an activist, adventurer, educator, and entrepreneur. She was also a sociologist, historian and genealogist who loved seeking knowledge of the past to inform the future. And she was a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend to many. Forty-five years ago, the student roll of the National University of Lesotho was just about 700. African studies and maths for humanities were two compulsory first-year courses for all students in social sciences and humanities. The classes for these courses were usually very large and had to be conducted in the lecture theatre, which took up to 200 students. Khabele had the burden of lecturing to 200 students. Not only…

Wesley Diphoko In RECENT days, South Africans have felt the true impact of challenges at Eskom. Many have been without electricity for more hours than before. This has affected their quality of life in business, education and health. It has become clear that South Africans will have to find alternative methods to keep going while Eskom develops a long-term solution. In view of this, over the next few weeks, BizTech will be taking a look at how people across the world have coped with similar challenges, starting with California in the US. Hundreds of thousands of homes in California lost power early on recently as windy, dry weather increased the risk of fire, prompting the electric utility, PG&E, to shut down the grid to avoid any chance…

The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports, together with Microsoft and digital cultural heritage company Iconem, has unveiled a digital reconstruction of ancient Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games, as it stood more than 2 000 years ago. A website and app enable anyone to take a virtual guided tour through 27 sites, among them the ancient Olympic Stadium, a gymnasium where athletes trained, and temples devoted to the Greek gods Hera and Zeus. The basic models of the buildings were constructed using hundreds of thousands of images taken with traditional cameras and drones and stitched together using AI technology, according to Microsoft. The models were then enhanced with information from archaeological research to help viewers understand what the sites would have looked like at the time. “This…

Helena Andrews-Dyer Travis Scott, the chart-topping Houston rapper known for his hyperkinetic live shows, has risen to the top of the hip-hop world thanks to a devoted and young fan base. The 29-year-old Grammy winner’s deep understanding of youth culture and what makes the TikTok generation tick catapulted him past A-list status to cultural phenomenon. “This is an artist that we know has a following among young people in particular,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon, discussing the aftermath of the mass casualty event at Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston that left eight concertgoers dead. In the years since his breakthrough 2014 mix tape, Days Before Rodeo, Scott has been nominated for eight Grammys but has experienced success and fame well beyond the…