Awards to celebrate SMME excellence

Johannesburg - The inaugural National Presidential SMME Awards, which identify and showcase innovative stakeholders that are driving economic development and job creation, are to be held in Bryanston on 13 November.

Partnership delivers health services to the needy

Johannesburg - Digital healthcare company Quro Medical has partnered with charity initiative Operation Healing Hands in an effort to give back to the community and be a helpful establishment for the local and African medical industry.

Operation Healing Hands was started by a group of doctors and other medical professionals in the private sector in 2016 as a Mandela Day project, with the aim of providing life-changing surgeries to patients while fulfilling the responsibility of closing the socio-economic gap of patients in need of surgery.

Chief executive officer of Operation Healing Hands, Helene Basson says they are excited about Quro Medical joining their initiative.

Chief executive officer of Quro Medical, Vuyane Mhlomi says: “Their hospital-at-home solution is a perfect accompaniment to the total service package we provide to patients. At Quro Medical we are connected by belief that the private healthcare sector should be doing more to shoulder the burden of healthcare provision in this country and on the continent. We have developed a responsive solution to the needs of our people. Our partnership with Operation Healing Hands is evidence of our commitment to work with those who share our vision to solve Africa’s intractable healthcare challenges.”

Mhlomi adds that the partnership with Operation Healing Hands aligns with their vision to deliver accessible and affordable premium healthcare solutions for everyone.

“Our services help reduce the burden on the strained healthcare system. We believe that the private sector can do more to shoulder the burden of healthcare provision because the public sector, which services the vast majority of the population, continues to be severely underfunded, relative to the private sector, which services a minority of the population. Through sponsorships and contributions to causes like Operation Healing Hands, we share the responsibility and work together with the public and private sectors to solve Africa’s complex healthcare challenges,” she says.

Serial rapist case postponed

Johannesburg - The case against the man known as the ‘Ekurhuleni serial rapist’ has been postponed to 8 December.

On Tuesday the Palm Ridge magistrate’s court found the man, Nkosinathi Phakathi guilty of multiple counts of rape and kidnapping. He was arrested in March last year after nine years of terrorising women and children in Ekurhuleni.

Phakathi pleaded guilty to 148 charges, which included 89 rapes, 42 kidnappings, six of compelling a child to witness a sexual act, four of forcing a minor to rape, two of assault and two of sexual assault.

The matter has 96 dockets, which were placed on the roll and Phakathi was linked to the cases through DNA evidence. Most of his victims were teenagers who would be going or coming from school. He lured the victims and raped them on church premises between 2012 and 2021.

His defence requested postponement to allow psychological and pre-sentencing reports to be made available to the courts. His legal team requested Judge Lesego Makolomakwe to postpone the matter to next month. His lawyers argued that it was in the interest of justice to consider the provision of his clinical psychological reports before sentencing him.

The National Prosecuting Authority’s Lumka Mahanjana said although Phakathi’s case was postponed to next month, justice was close to being served. “We will ask the court to impose a sentence that will send a strong message that such crimes are not tolerated and will be prosecuted,” Mahanjana said.

On its first project with Operation Healing Hands, Quro Medical provided hospital-level care at home to a 71-year-old Mangaye Ramasela from Tshwane, who received a total knee replacement.

Ramasela had been on a long waiting list in the public sector. This is a medical procedure she would never have been able to afford to pay for herself, and she did not have medical aid or insurance to cover the operation.

Along with five other partners, which included the surgeon, medical facility and operating theatre, prosthesis and financial support, Quro Medical provided hospital-athome care for her, keeping a constant eye on her vitals, progress and recovery as well as providing physiotherapy at home.

Ramasela says the staff is professional, kind and caring.

“The remote monitoring is comforting, knowing that there are people checking up on me by means of virtual calls and home visits where nurses and clinicians come to examine me,” Ramasela adds.

The awards, to be hosted by the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD), are in partnership with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA), the European Union and 22 On Sloane.

The SMME awards aim to cultivate an enabling environment for the development; and nurturing of innovative ideas and best practices across the whole spectrum of small business development in the country.

The awards recognise outstanding SMMEs, SMME financiers, entrepreneur support organisations and success stories from enterprise supplier development programmes. The DSBD also aims to award businesses that have shown resilience and have managed to sustain operations during and post the Covid-19 pandemic.

The awards will also serve as a platform to launch the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week 2022 (GEW); a global event celebrated in over 200 countries with over 10 000 partners and 40 000 activities. Furthermore GEW aims to inspire nations to empower entrepreneurs and encourage citizens to become self-starters by finding innovative ways

Telkom launches 5G network

Johannesburg - Telkom has announced the launch of a 5G network service.

In a statement it said additional spectrum has evolved its connectivity ecosystem and catapulted the journey into 5G connectivity.

The Telkom 5G network was recently launched in partnership with Huawei, Telkom said.

CEO of Telkom Consumer and Business Lunga Siyo said though the 5G network stands above 4G and LTE through faster and more reliable connection, it is critical to make sure that the existing 4G ecosystem remains strong.

“Telkom will primarily focus on providing 5G fixed wireless access solutions, as the demand for mobile 5G increases; we will supplement this with suitable mobile propositions. We are excited to offer our consumers even faster internet speeds. 5G is the next frontier of technological innovation and we are excited to bring this technology to the fingertips of all South Africans to realise the potential of a fully connected world. Our purpose is to seamlessly connect our customers to a better life, and through our entry into 5G we believe that our customers will enjoy a better, connected world,” Siyo said. of doing business. It is a call to action for societies to promote resilience and leverage the power of new ideas to impact societies globally.

Huawei SA director Fortune Wang said 5G, with its ultra-high-speed and low latency, will support new services for South African consumers.

Small Business Development Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams says: “We are proud to be hosting this celebration of entrepreneurial excellence to showcase entrepreneurial activities through identifying and showcasing innovative stakeholders that are driving economic development and job creation.”

The department will also host the Inaugural National Presidential SMMEs and Cooperatives Summit from 14-15 November. Its focus will be to solicit inputs on areas of potential collaboration from key role players in the small enterprise ecosystem, as guided by the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Masterplan.

The award prizes consist of cash prizes worth R100 000 to winning SMMEs and access to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress Africa on 13 and 14 September 2023, in Cape Town.

“Those include online AR/VR gaming and UHD streaming; it will also enable businesses with cloud and AI technologies. Huawei, as Telkom’s strategic partner, will help to build 5G networks and is also committed to support Telkom to achieve business success in the 5G era,” he said. CEO of

Writer wins playwright contest

Johannesburg - The 2022 Distell National Playwright Competition has declared writer Sibongakonke Mama as the winner.

She was chosen from a group of five finalists for her isiXhosa and English work, Ibuhlungu le Ndawo

Born in Gcuwa in the Eastern Cape she is currently based in Johannesburg and working as an investigative journalist. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Rhodes University, and also studied journalism at Rhodes and the University of the Witwatersrand.

Her submission to the Distell National Playwright Competition was her first foray into the world of theatre.

The judges highlighted her moving script that weaves oral tradition, grief, cultural and family history through storytelling, children’s games and ritual.

Set in the fictional village of uMzimkhulu, where three sisters return home to play as a way of remembering and mending family fences after the loss of a parent, Mama’s script exposes the characters’ building, dismantling and reassembling the playhouse over and over again.

Mama presents a spectacular world where the trio recalls the spirit of their mother who has transitioned to the ancestral realm. She has called the play a poetic and movement meditation on ‘disease, disease and alienation’.

Apart from the initial prize of R5 000 awarded to all the finalists, Mama receives a further R20 000 as the overall winner of the competition. Part of her prize includes mentorship in fine-tuning her script.

Facilitator and sponsorship and partnerships manager of the Na-