It is August, and while you may be asking yourself how the first seven months of the year went by so quickly, the africast is back again this week looking at the latest report and recommendations from the Competition Commission.
Before that, however, we round up some of the important news stories of the week.
These include a report on the average download speeds in SA compared to the rest of the world, which does not make for good reading if you’re South African. In fact, the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region is the second slowest in the world, according to Cable.co.uk’s numbers.
We then look at an initiative from MTN and the JRA to keep traffic lights going in parts of Soweto when loadshedding hits. This is good news for motorists in the area, and hopefully sees more independent power producers look to collaborate with local agencies.
Our last piece of news is a landmark quarterly report from Uber in which the company turned its first profit in 14 years. This likely won’t change the status of drivers, who are still recognised as employees by the ride sharing platform, however.
As for the meat and potatoes of this africast, we discuss the local regulator recently published its Online Intermediation Platform Markets Inquiry (OIPMI) report, which takes specific aim at big tech companies operating in South Africa, including a local ecommerce giant in the form of Takealot.
While we are all in agreement that these big tech companies need to be better regulated, adhering to SA’s policies and ensuring that no anti-competitive behaviour is allowed to happen unchecked, our africast members were split as to whether the Competition Commission can make these companies yield.
It sparked some spirited debate, which is well worth listening to in the episode below.
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