Sunday Independent 2021-11-21

Wesley Diphoko wesley@fastcompany.co.za When Apple announced that it would now allow consumers to fix their own devices, it partly laid a foundation for a comeback of an old tradition and a new product category. In a statement, the US tech giant said the programme would be available first for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 line-ups and soon to be followed by Mac computers featuring M1 chips. Apple went on to say that self-service repair will be available early next year in the US and expand to additional countries throughout 2022. We might as well add that other device manufacturers could also introduce similar services and products. Because Apple was partly succumbing to shareholder pressure and also reacting to an imminent bill, it is only natural that other big tech…

Wesley Diphoko wesley@fastcompany.co.za THE tech that might just end the careers of truck drivers has crossed the Atlantic from Sweden and landed in the US. Soon they will take cargo and household goods with no one in the driver’s seat, because there is no driver’s seat. The human being will be many kilometres away with his or her hands on a wheel and other controls. This will be made possible by a Swedish freight tech company, Einride, which developed the autonomous electric transport pod, and a new trucking driving job, the world’s first Remote Pod Operator. According to media reports, the company will start its operations in the US. The Einride company founder and CEO Robert Falck announced that the company has signed agreements with technical partners such as Ericsson…

THE SESOTHO culture has a mystique animal that is invoked to put the fear of God in children. Called “koko”, it is said to come in at night and eat children. It is this ghost or fearful mystique animal that is omnipresent with its absence in our houses, offices, factories, schools, places of prayer, entertainment areas, health facilities, trains and, later, motor vehicles. Eskom, the koko of our times, has a very adversarial relationship with its former boss Matshela Koko, the engineer. The drama would have been an interesting and entertaining encounter of science and leadership training, only if at the centre of it were not a tragic and existential social, political and economic conundrum of Koko the engineer and Eskom the koko of our times. Koko, the engineer, has…

Black Friday, which takes place next week, was traditionally an American shopping phenomenon brought on by a stock market crash in 1869. Since then, it has grown in popularity throughout the world. On this day, consumers flock to shopping malls to take advantage of discounts that are exclusively available on the day or into “Cyber Monday”, the following Monday. Since the onset of the pandemic, e-commerce retailers have been positioned to capitalise on the fact that people prefer to shop from the comfort and safety of their own homes or offices. Last year, just under 50 percent of South African adults made purchases during the Black Friday period, with online transactions spiking more than 60 percent. This year, predictions are that up to 74 percent of South African adults will…

Siphelele Dludla siphelele.dludla@inl.co.za SOUTH Africa is open for business and hosted the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021) in Durban this week where it positioned itself to take a leading position in the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The IATF2021, which ends today, is poised to boost commerce across Africa, with $40 billion of trade and investment deals set to be concluded at the event. Kicking off the event, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the implementation of the AfCFTA will accelerate Africa’s economic growth and integrated development. The AfCFTA agreement has created the largest free trade area in the world, measured by the number of countries participating, and established a market of 1.3 billion people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of about $3.4 trillion. According to the UN…

Catherine Oliver A shift to eating more plants and fewer animals is on the agenda for many people and institutions. Research has long shown the impact of industrial animal agriculture on the planet, and zoologist Joseph Poore, the lead author of a study on food’s environmental impacts, has said that “a vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth”. This is why the menu for delegates at the COP26 climate conference has been criticised for its reliance on meat and dairy. But researchers are warning that eating meat isn’t just a dietary preference: it is wrapped up with gender. The most common demographic of vegans are women aged between 18 and 34 and twice as many women as men are vegan. Partially, this…