It may soon be time to say goodbye to old-fashioned physical, driving licence cards.
This week saw a demonstration of a new, working digital driving licence, which took a small team in the Presidency just three months to build.
It’s not available to the public yet, but it has been put together by the Presidency’s Digital Service Unit – working in conjunction with the Department of Transport.
If and when it comes out, there will be no need to visit a traffic centre to make an application, payment will be done online, and the turnaround time should be minutes rather than days or weeks.
Indications are that the new licence will be part of the MyMzansi digital platform, which is due to launch around June next year.
PLEASE CALL ME INVENTOR TO RECEIVE OVER HALF A BILLION RAND
Analysts and accountants are poring over the news that Vodacom has reached an out-of-court settlement in the long-running Please Call Me case.
It’s estimated that Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate could be taking home somewhere between R550 million and R748 million.
That’s based on a Vodacom statement which says interim EPS are now expected to increase by 30% to 40% – lower than previously forecast due to what the company calls ‘a one-off cost’.
Calculate the difference between this and earlier announcements and you have the payout number.
We’ll know for certain when Vodacom releases its interim results on Monday.
TESLA SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE MUSK’S US$1 TRILLION PACKAGE
A payout of an entirely different magnitude is in the pipeline for Elon Musk. Yes, Tesla’s shareholders did approve Musk’s $1 trillion US dollar pay packet.
Around 75% voted in favour, clearing the path for Musk to become the first-ever trillionaire.
It sounds a lot, but don’t forget Musk will have to significantly expand Tesla’s market value, revive its flagging car business, and get the robotaxi and Optimus robotics efforts off the ground to achieve the full payout.
For the record, it is the largest remuneration package ever awarded to a corporate leader.
On the markets, something of a recovery for the JSE – not so much in other parts.
The JSE All Share ended last evening up 1.2% – the Top 40 up 1.3%.
London’s FTSE, though, was down 0.4% – while in New York, the Dow was down 0.8%, the S&P 500 down 1.1% and the Nasdaq down 1.9%.
Tokyo this morning is down 2.2% – Hong Kong down 0.7% and Sydney down 0.6%.
The US dollar is unchanged at $1.15 to the euro – the rand – R17.40 to the dollar, R20.08 to the euro and R22.83 to the pound.
Gold – $3,992 – platinum $1,542 – Bitcoin – just over $102,100 and Brent Crude oil – $63.60 per barrel.
