Celebrating its 29th year, the Entrepreneur of the Year competition sponsored by Sanlam and Business/Partners competition seeks to promote entrepreneurship in South Africa as a viable career path, by honouring dedicated entrepreneurs who have made great strides in their businesses and whose passion for growing their businesses and communities inspires and stimulates the nation.
The platform rewards and acknowledges the ongoing hard work of these entrepreneurs. With five categories, entrepreneurs from emerging to small and medium businesses can enter.
Prizes valued at over R2 million can be won, which include cash prizes of R60 000 for each main category winner, and R160 000 for the overall winner. Competition winners will also receive valuable mentorship support, networking opportunities and national media exposure.
“Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor, but also one of the most rewarding. Through the competition, we want to share the successes of these inspirational individuals who are making a difference, as well as create an environment in which entrepreneurs can engage, network and learn from each other.”
Entrepreneurs interested in entering the competition can download entry forms online at www.eoy.co.za as well as interact with fellow entrepreneurs and entrants on the competition’s social media platforms www.twitter.com/@EOY_SA and www.facebook.com/EOY.SA. The closing date for the competition is 31 May 2017.
Competition Commission Declines to Prosecute Vodacom and MTN For Alleged Anti-Competitive Conduct
The Competition Commission said on Tuesday it has decided not to prosecute a complaint of anti-competitive conduct lodged by Cell C against rival network providers, Vodacom and MTN, due to insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case.
The Commission said this decision followed a lengthy investigation which revealed that there were several features in the mobile telephony market which affect the ability of smaller mobile operators to compete in the market.
In 2013, Cell C alleged that Vodacom and MTN engaged in pricing strategies that made it cheaper to make calls between users of the same network (on-net calls) compared to calls between people on different networks (off-net calls).
In particular, Cell C complained that the price differentials applied by Vodacom and MTN prevented competition, and further accused the two companies of excessive pricing, inducement and margin squeeze.
The Commission said it found that it would be unlikely to succeed in a prosecution of the specific conduct subject to Cell C’s complaint.
However, the Commission said there was evidence to suggest that this conduct and other features of the market, in particular the price differentials applied for on-net and off-net calls as well as long-term subscribers’ contracts, made it difficult for late entrants such as Cell C to compete effectively.
The Commission said there was, therefore, a need to look broadly into the state of competition in the mobile telephony market in South Africa, specifically at the retail level, as the market is still dominated by two mobile market players, years after the licensing of Cell C and Telkom Mobile. (via African News Agency)
New Course To Help Developers Build Blockchain-Based Apps
Developers are invited to enroll for the Blockchain Academy Blockchain for Developers course on 25 April 2017 in Johannesburg.
Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a proven technology and its use is growing. A number of banks and financial institutions in South Africa are experimenting with the technology, installing it in innovation labs and running proof of concepts.
Companies are starting to require their developers to understand this technology and how to build solutions based on blockchain or distributed ledger technology.
The Blockchain for Developers course will provide the information developers need to understand the basics of bitcoin and blockchain, how transactions work, how to create public and private keys, digital signatures, and how to start building blockchain-based applications.
The aim of this course is to provide developers with hands-on experience to develop applications using the Bitcoin Protocol. The instructor will do code examples in Node.js and demonstrate which plugins, APIs and tools can be used to build decentralised distributed ledger applications.
