Remember the flying sword engineer {{ FIRSTNAME }}? Well, he was back this week, this time controlling an entire swarm of swords. Real or not? 😮

In This Open Letter

Africa’s healthcare sector will quadruple in the next 4-5 years, but doctors are burning out and patients dying by the millions – this startup wants to help pull it together…

It’s no secret Africa faces a massive healthcare crisis: It carries 24% of the world’s disease burden, but only 3% of its healthcare workforce, with just 1.55 health workers per 1’000 people.

For perspective: Africa has only about 340k doctors, the same as Japan (also 340k), which has only 124 million people. Africa has 1.5 billion.

That’s probably why many of the 3 million deaths and 134 million “adverse events” in low-income region hospitals per year happen in Africa – our workforce just can’t keep up.

Being a doctor in Africa is scary

Studies show 24-36-hour shifts among SA doctors are common, and up to 72-hour shifts in Uganda and Kenya. Perhaps why 1 in 10 African healthcare workers have already emigrated, 74.2% are planning to leave the continent and 46% of sub-Saharan African doctors show medically diagnosable burnout symptoms. 

And it’s having a serious knock-on effect on the next generation…

Being a young doctor is even scarier

Africa doubled its medical schools from 169 in 2010 to 444 today, adding at least 255k new skilled health workers per year. The problem is now there’s virtually no mentorship during their crucial, formative first 7 to 10 years.

Studies show a critical on-the-job learning gap, where students often have to go from purely theoretical classroom training to being the only doctor in the ward on their first day of work.

With almost zero supervision, a new doctor can’t lug 20 textbooks with them on shift, so they often turn to global digital resources (geared towards Europe, etc.) to try to cope — resources that are far removed from the local context and realities of the African continent.

The local startup solving Africa’s doctor-mentor crisis

Four Minute Medicine is a medical education platform building Africa-aligned training that blends structured courses with AI-driven clinical simulations, delivered in powerful 4-minute bursts directly onto the doc’s phone (easy to carry into the ward).

The team’s own hospital training experience shaped the product: Helping overwhelmed new docs get vital insights quickly between patients. As well as access certificate courses and CPD-accredited modules (useful for older doctors, too).

There’s even an AI-powered clinical-education tool called Medhi that acts as a safe testing ground, letting doctors practise realistic clinical scenarios, answer MCQs and run “virtual patient” cases.

With Africa's R848bn healthcare set to quadruple to R4.3 trillion by 2030, this simulation-led training could be just the thing to keep new doctors ahead of the curve.

We’re watching this space.

Have your say…

Speed sounds good in a boardroom. “Let’s move fast.” “Let’s roll out AI.”

Everybody at the table is talking about AI. But let me tell you: the companies actually winning? They’re not necessarily the fastest; they’re the ones who see clearly. Why does visibility matter? 

If you don’t know what you have and where it lies, if data is scattered, undocumented, and underused, you’re shooting in the dark, and that means redoing everything later. 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn hidden data into visible, trusted assets so the finance team sees one version of the truth, operations doesn’t chase shadows, and compliance doesn’t wake up in panic? 

When you have that clarity, speed follows naturally. Because you don’t have to stop and check whether the data is right every time. You can move confidently. 

In the next 18–24 months, you’re not going to win by hacking faster. 

You’re going to win by knowing better. Visibility’s your throttle. Use it.

🔁 Hit Repeat. Stitch and Capitec have teamed up to launch Capitec Pay Variable Recurring Payments. It allows Capitec customers to make recurring payments via their bank accounts and pre-approve future transactions via their Capitec app, but with different monthly amounts (think usage or variable billing). Pretty cool.

🗼 Locking It In. Vodacom is set to drop R36 billion to take majority control of Safaricom, one of Africa’s most valuable telecommunications operators and FinTech players, taking its shareholding from 35% to 55%. Interesting.

🛵 Meep Meep. Uber SA is considering a switch to electric motorbikes for its Uber Moto service that lets riders hop on the back of a motorbike for a short-distance trip. This is hot on the heels of the launch of its electric car fleet last month. Nice one.

🔎 What You looking For? Google released its Year in Search 2025, and “Gemini” was the top search term of the year globally. Locally, we wanted to know “how to vote on big brother”, “when is father’s day”, and recipes for pickled fish. Gotta feel sorry for the constellation/star sign…

✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools, so our Founder’s Stack gives you company setup and compliance with Govchain, trust-building brand & comms with DoubleShift and more.

Yesterday, we showed you how Funti3r’s helping get South Africans freelance work overseas, asking about the real snag to hiring SA talent. Most say discerning who’s good’s the game…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🕵️‍♂️ Everyone says they’re a rockstar… until the first stand-up. (18%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🌐 Great talent, but why does finding them feel like online dating? (32%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🚧 The skills are here, the signal-to-noise ratio isn’t. (36%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪄 I want magic, but not the disappearing act after week two. (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📦 Plug-and-play talent sounds great… until it doesn’t plug or play. (11%)

🎨 UI/UX Design Lead @ Entrostat

🧑‍⚖️ Senior Angular Developer @ LexisNexis Shared Services

🧑‍💻 Senior Front End Engineer @ Whzan

🤖 AI Operations & Strategy Engineer @ Social Places

🪙 Full Stack Developer, React/Python @ Adsum

📑 Development Team Lead @ Lucro

Miners gained on strong GDP and metal prices; FirstRand rallied on a positive trading update.

IMPALA PLATINUM: +7.52%
VALTERRA PLATINUM: +7.16%
BHP GROUP LTD: +7.02%
FIRSTRAND LTD: +6.44%
NORTHAM PLATINUM HOLDINGS: +6.24%

Data from Investing.com (captured 4 Dec 2025, 1-Week performance)

Global gold was supported by US rate cut bets, but Rand strength drove the commodity price lower locally.

-1.61% (R 72’405.46 → R 71’242.80)

Data from Investing.com (Fri 28 Nov 2025 → Thu 4 Dec 2025)

Volatility saw a mid-week slump erased by renewed institutional interest and positive ETF news.

+1.11% (R 1’555’549 → R 1’572’858)

Data from Investing.com (Fri 28 Nov 2025 → Thu 4 Dec 2025)

Ethereum surged on its Fusaka upgrade and massive institutional buying amidst stronger Fed rate cut expectations.

+3.99% (R 51’880.3 → R 53’949.0)

Data from Investing.com (Fri 28 Nov 2025 → Thu 4 Dec 2025)

💡 Tool to Try: Mindpali turns study notes into 3D memory palaces for active recall (early access waitlist).

📱 That’s Interesting: Microsoft spent ~$1B developing the Kin phone: it launched in 2010 and was discontinued after just 48 days.

💧 Next Level: This Percy Jackson billboard has a real waterfall effect.

📈 Hack: A simple guide for teaching kids investing with free printables.

🌲 Wow Site: SilentForest is a hand-animated woodland where animals appear only when the room stays quiet. Great for classrooms.

Vote in the poll, leave a quick comment, or hit reply — we read every single one.