Sunday Independent 2022-03-06

Wesley Diphoko wesley@fastcompany.co.za Ever since cryptocurrencies showed up in the financial world they’ve been met with scepticism from some quarters. Even the Coinbase listing was not enough to clear doubts of some in the financial establishment. The Russia-Ukraine war however may be what may trigger societal acceptance across the board. As big tech companies deactivate Russia from their financial systems and Swift begins to kick off there’s one option, cryptocurrency. Blockchain technology gives the Russians the ability to transact directly. Ukrainians have raised tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to assist in the fighting. Ukraine’s vice prime minister announced on Twitter the country would soon release non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to help raise funds for its defence against Russia’s invasion. To date, Ukraine has raised more than $50 million in…

Fast Company GOVERNMENTS around the world are applying sanctions against Russia due to its war with Ukraine. But they’re not the only ones using business and economic means to punish Russia. A number of private companies – including many US tech giants – have found their own ways to hit back against the invasion. Though this list is not complete, these are some of the biggest corporations that are sanctioning Russia right now: Apple Airbus Alphabet (Google and YouTube) Boeing Disney Exxon Mobil Facebook Ford Harley-Davidson Mastercard Microsoft Netflix Reddit Snap Twitter Visa So how are these companies sanctioning Russia? Each is doing its own thing, and few have an outright ban on all of their products or services provided to Russia. For example, Apple has stopped all sales of…

The Chinese tech giant Huawei has introduced a fibre-to-the room (FTTR) connectivity solution for home users as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This comes as the global workforce has speedily had to adapt to new ways of working, with some calling for better quality for in-home wi-fi connections to support the hybrid work model. VALR.com, a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in South Africa, has raised $50 million (over R750 million) in Africa’s largest ever crypto funding round. This values the company at $240 million (R3.7 billion).VALR’s oversubscribed Series B equity funding round was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Alameda Research, Cadenza, CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, GSR, Third Prime, Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with the parent company of Fidelity Investments, along with existing…

Banele Ginindza banele.ginindza@inl.co.za POULTRY prices are in the cross hairs of the Russia-Ukraine conflict with escalating food price inflation and chicken anti-dumping tariffs said to be pushing up the price consumers pay at the till. This while local poultry players try to build the sector to meet local demand and boost jobs so that South Africa is not reliant on overseas chicken. According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group programme co-ordinator, Mervyn Abrahams, the price of frozen chicken portions has increased by 17 percent in a year. Labour unions and debt firms warned this week that South African consumers would have to be very frugal as they faced the “double whammy” of a massive fuel price hike, which would result in higher food prices, and the fallout…

The terms “digital transformation” and “digitalisation” have been bandied about boardrooms since the 1990s. Big corporates have invested millions in finding ways to carve their niche into the digital marketplace, leading to a misconception that only big industry role-players can afford to invest in digitising their businesses. The reality is that small businesses stand to gain substantial ground by injecting themselves into the digital space. And although digital transformation might look different for a small medium enterprise (SME) than it does in the con-text of big business, arguably there is a case to be made for it to be considered a business imperative. The saying, “if it’s not on social media, it didn’t happen”, may be tongue-in-cheek but there’s a nugget of truth in it. Three essential principles in order…

IN THE early years of being the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe won accolades for progressive policies, especially in food production and enabling Zimbabwe to be food secure. Mugabe proceeded to prod the British on the full implementation of the agreements of independence. Among these was land purchase with funds the UK had agreed to set aside for that purpose. But after 10 years of waiting and begging for the implementation of the Lancaster agreements on land sharing, Mugabe decided to start the programme of expropriation of land from white farmers. Guess what the superior club did? They imposed sanctions on him. The economy of Zimbabwe collapsed and suffered one of the highest inflation rates the world has witnessed. Zimbabweans became billionaires as the dollar came in denomination notes of…