Author: Gugu Lourie
Many years ago Michael left his small town for the big city to pursue his studies in Law. Although just 19 years of age, he believed ambition and intelligence was his perfect recipe for success. By Staff Writer Upon obtaining his LLB degree from one of the countries top universities, with a Cum Laude, finding a top firm for his articles was a smooth and quick process, actually this would be the first time that Michael would experience being headhunted, how exciting he thought, a real Harvey Spector. In just 5 short years, after completing his articles and being…
Mark van Wyk, a private pilot and entrepreneur from Cape Town, has won the first prize at the inaugural AVI Awards for his prototype UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle). By Staff Writer Van Wyk’s UAV will become the first hydrogen powered aircraft in Africa, fully developed in South Africa. The awards are a culmination of the partnership between the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS). Van Wyk, founder of the company FlyH2 Aerospace and his partner, Onno Huyser, is developing a large, fixed-wing unmanned aircraft for survey and environmental research purposes. The aircraft will…
Globally the construction industry has been labeled as a late adopter, but the advent of mobility and resulting trends such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has led to the industry using these devices in a manner adverse to the industry’s effective management. By John Haefele, managing director of Onsite Control Systems, providers of cloud collaboration solutions for construction in Africa. Ironically, developed to make business easier and progress quicker, these very same tools have caused disarray for construction projects. There are now simply too many methods of communication and very little in place to manage any of it.…
The City of Tshwane’s free Wi-Fi programme hit a milestone of one million unique devices on Wednesday. The free Wi-Fi rollout programme is part of the metro’s eKaelo strategy to boost engagement and government response with citizens. By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency “It’s just a number, but it’s a biggie. It means that Tshwane has touched the lives of over one million people: Mostly young and mostly in low income communities. That’s cool,” Alan Knott-Craig Jnr, Project Isizwe chief executive told Fin24.The non-governmental organisation is responsible for the delivery of the Tshwane network and the record was reached at 20:47 on Wednesday…
Many consumers agree to buying goods or services over the phone yet are unaware that these verbal contracts can be legally binding and may have financial implications. By Staff Writer It’s a scene that will be all-too-familiar to South African consumers. You’re sitting at your desk, frantically working on a report that was due an hour ago, when your cellphone rings. It’s your cellphone company, or gym, or other service provider, and they have a special offer they want to tell you about to get you to upgrade your service. You “uhuh” your way through the conversation, giving a final “uhuh” when the caller asks…
For organisations within the transportation sector, the use of intelligent predictive maintenance platforms – connected to a variety of structured and unstructured data sources – can unleash some powerful business advantages. By Martin Vergunst, Business Solutions Executive at T-Systems South Africa Case studies show that maintenance costs can be reduced by up to 30%, productivity can rocket by 25%, and downtime due to outage can be lowered by up to 45%. Predictive maintenance platforms rely on sensors that monitor the performance of a particular component or piece of equipment. For example, on a passenger train there may be sensors monitoring…
The South African Post Office (Sapo) has won an urgent court interdict to halt planned strike action on Thursday. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency On Wednesday, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) at a media briefing said it was planning a march involving an estimated 4 000 Gauteng postal workers in Johannesburg. CWU issued demands to convert all Sapo contract workers to permanent employment, payment of outstanding back pay, 10% salary increases for the current financial year, a halt to changes in workers’ terms and conditions of employment and a “total stop to piecemeal salary payments”. Union members further expected to…
About 28% of parents in South Africa feel they have no control over what their children see or do online, with 41% concerned that their children’s Internet-dependency is becoming an addiction, according to a new research by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. Added to this, many adults worry that their own, digitally-active parents and grandparents could be equally vulnerable. By Staff Writer About 47% of respondents in South Africa believe that the threats their children face online are increasing. The top concern is the risk of kids encountering inappropriate or explicit content (52%), with 55% convinced that kids have unrestricted access…
From the first mobile phone 30 years ago, which weighed in at a massive 4.7kg and had 30 minutes of talk time, we’ve evolved in just 20 years to a time where the telephony function is but one small element of our smart-devices. By Yule Edwards MTN and Vodacom launched the first cellular services in South Africa in 1994 and the public was sceptical. Calls were expensive and only the top LSMs were able to afford the devices and their upkeep. And why would you need to be available on the trot anyway? It seemed ridiculous in a country where most…
Identity theft in South Africa is on the rise as cyber crooks eye stealing from company executives, a survey has found. By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency According to a 2015 Metrofile Information and Records Management Index of 200 executive managers of local companies, 7% of respondents indicated that their companies had been the victim of identity theft in the last year. That number is up four percentage points from 2014 as cyber crooks eye lucrative schemes to steal personal and financial data. “It is more lucrative for criminals to target businesses, rather than individuals, when it comes to perpetrating identity…