Author: Gugu Lourie

State Security Minister David Mahlobo urged parents to keep an eye on what their children were doing on the internet and social media. By Jenni Evans, NewsAgency “Have an interest. What is your child doing?” Mahlobo said while answering questions on cybercrime in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday. He was responding to a question from EFF NCOP member Leigh-Ann Mathys on what the government was doing to protect children on social media. “You have a responsibility to know, even on this platform, what are your children up to,” said Mahlobo. He said older people needed to be “conscientised”…

The Post Office’s acquisition of a R161m ten-year lease in 2010 for an office building in Centurion, Gauteng was “tainted by procurement irregularities and corruption”. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency This is according to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s findings on Tuesday afternoon after a years-long investigation into the South African Post Office (Sapo). The report on the findings, dubbed ‘Postponed Delivery’, comes after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) lodged complaints about Sapo with the public protector in 2011. At the time, the CWU asked the public protector to investigate issues such as Sapo’s alleged maladministration in a head office leasing…

MTN announced on Tuesday that it has has successfully concluded a transaction with Liquid Telecom to purchase almost 400 kilometres of both Long Distance and Metro fibres connecting Pretoria and Polokwane for an undisclosed sum. The purchase agreement marks a significant milestone in MTN’s self-provisioning strategy and the company’s quest to build its own transmission network, thus further augmenting the operator’s plans of providing its customers with high speed connectivity. The route forms part of the National Long Distance fibre network, a consortium-led initiative that saw a number of operators in partnership with the South African national Road Agency…

  A man has been arrested for allegedly circulating an email claiming high ranking officials and politicians wanted to assassinate President Jacob Zuma, the Hawks said on Tuesday. “The Hawks have arrested a man who is believed to be behind the email which claimed that the life of the President Jacob Zuma was in danger,” Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said. Mulaudzi said Ernest Nkosi, 26, allegedly sent the emails to the spokesperson of the minister of police, the spokesperson of the Gauteng government, the Crime Intelligence Divisional Commissioner, as well as car dealership BMW South Africa. “Nkosi wrote in his…

The South African public has been overcharged to the tune of 321% for the construction of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), according to civil rights body the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). By Eugenie du Preez, NewAgency A research paper on benchmarks and comparisons of the GFIP to road construction pricing around the world, published by Outa on Monday, has brought it to the conclusion that the project was “severely and significantly overcharged for the construction costs”. According to Outa, its initial research indicated that the South African Roads Agency (Sanral) put a “highly inflated” price tag of R17.9bn – or…

A Twitter storm has erupted between EFF leader Julius Malema and FF Plus Chief Whip Corné Mulder over students clashes at the University of Pretoria and Free State. Mulder tweeted this morning: #EFF Fascists – Universities under siege from radicals and new fascists trying to impose their revolution on us. Unite and crush them — Corné_Mulder (@MulderCorn) February 22, 2016 A Twitter user responded immediattely: @MulderCorn Can you explain the word “crush” means? maybe you are declaring a civil war between White Afrikaaners and Blacks. #UPProtest — #Vusimuzi_Ntombela (@CallMeVoto) February 22, 2016 Then EFF leader, Malema, said: The Apartheid murders are threatening to repeat…

Much has been written over the past couple of years around the topic of ‘Smart Cities’. The utopian vision of the Smart City often involves carefully orchestrated traffic and public transport systems, connected with Internet Protocol (IP) security cameras, solar power generators, well-functioning water and sanitation services, city-wide access and payment solutions using smartcards and biometrics. By Lionel Moyal, Head of Intervate, a T-Systems company It evokes images of the digital cityscapes seen in the popular video game, The Sims. While in reality, South Africa may have to wait some time to see these kinds of integrated city-wide systems, the…

Five people convicted for cable theft were on Monday collectively sentenced to 140 years behind bars, Eskom has announced. By Naledi Shange, NewsAgency The group was sentenced in the High Court, sitting in Kroonstad. “The thefts occurred mainly in the Free State and Mpumalanga provinces affecting not only Eskom equipment, but Transnet, Telkom and local municipalities as well,” Eskom said. The suspects  – Americo Njango, Thabo Mandlas, Orlando Mathebula, Themba Masiya and James Malope – were arrested on June 4 2014 following a tip off to police. They were found in possession of 10 span overhead catenaries, which had been stolen in the…

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has been urged not to hike taxes and instead focus on cutting down on the size and cost of government, and privatise state owned enterprises (SOEs). Wayne Duvenage, who started Outa as a body to fight road agency Sanral on the implementation of e-tolls in Gauteng, has broadened the scope of the organisation to challenge government’s misuse of taxpayers’ money. In a message to Gordhan, Duvenage said government has displayed a growing appetite for additional taxes over and above the standard taxes, without delivering the required value. “The result… has been less return for our input…

We can learn a remarkable amount of information about an individual, such as their health or safety, and about the surrounding environment simply by placing a tracking device on them. By Raja Jurdak For example, consider the recent Tianjin chemical warehouse explosions, which killed 173 people. Investigators found that the explosions occurred because the warehouse was storing hazardous material both unsafely and illegally. What if authorities had received early warning of this illegal stock limit, or of the condition of the nitrocellulose which sparked the fire when it dried out and overheated? This is where tracking can help solve problems and,…

Shareholders of Welkom Yizani Investments received an unexpected boon when the board of directors announced on Monday that Naspers has agreed to write off the preference share debt and accrued interest owed by Welkom Yizani. The debt is valued in excess of R400m and will be waived effective on March 31 2016. “We are delighted to share news of this windfall with our shareholders,” said Professor Rachel Jafta, chair of Welkom Yizani. “They have been loyal in a time when print media in South Africa, much like in the rest of the world, has been under pressure due to structural…

The world’s biggest technology companies are handing over the keys to their success, making their artificial intelligence systems open-source. By Patrick Shafto Traditionally, computer users could see the end product of what a piece of software did by, for instance, writing a document in Microsoft Word or playing a video game. But the underlying programming – the source code – was proprietary, kept from public view. Opening source material in computer science is a big deal because the more people that look at code, the more likely it is that bugs and long-term opportunities and risks can be worked out. Openness…

First National Bank (FNB) says its launch of a new technology system will not see customers on cellphone banking being dumped. By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency The bank this month has announced that its new banking API (application program interface) will drive its interface across multiple devices as South Africans increasingly adopt smartphones. However, those on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) or cellphone banking will not be left behind. “USSD is still one of our largest platforms and most of our users actually use USSD. However, what we also realised is that in the market at the moment, if we look at…

Instant Life is seeking expansion opportunities across the African continent.  The South African online life insurer is planning to leverage the brand of its parent company, Absa, to grow its business locally and on the continent. By Gugu Lourie Instant Life, which employs 65 people, has developed a tele-underwriting methodology that caters for 99% of lives to be underwritten online or through a telephonic interview that is backed up by an interactive underwriting decision. The online insurer – which is offering life, disability and critical illness cover to qualifying customers – is 75% owned by Absa, one of South…

Computer viruses now have their own museum. The recently opened online Malware Museum exhibits samples of early viruses that often include amusing graphics or popular culture references. But the significance of viruses goes beyond funny curiosities from the 1980s and 1990s. By Jussi Parikka The practice of creating viruses became an important subculture and part of new sorts of cultural activities, practices and interests. We too often think that all malware is by necessity just vandalism or criminal activity. The actual skills of coding them – even with simple scripts – may be just a hobby for some but an art…

A looming ratings downgrade, the falling rand and rising inflation means that the National Treasury will have to hike taxes even more significantly this year than in the previous few years. And much of this burden will land on consumers’ shoulders, warned Old Mutual Investment Group senior economist, Johann Els, ahead of Wednesday’s 2016 Budget address. To prevent a downgrade to SA’s debt, the government would need to make some difficult decisions that will reduce the budget deficit faster than the targets set in the mini budget in October 2015, said Els. “Most of the deficit reduction will likely come from…

In Australia there are many more mobile services in use than there are people. The majority of Australians upgrade or exchange their mobile phones every 18 to 24 months, while an increasing number have owned their mobile for more than two years. The upshot is that there is around 22.5 million unwanted mobiles cluttering up homes around Australia. By Glen Corder And many of these mobiles incorporate components using elements from across the periodic table, including many rare and valuable ones, such as gold. On average, there will be a total of one gram of gold across 41 mobile phones. In other…

SuperSport has appointed Gideon Khobane as the new CEO with effect from 1 April 2016. He is currently the Director of M-Net General Entertainment Channels responsible for some of the most popular and exciting channels on DStv such as M-Net, M-Net Edge, M-Net City and M-Net Family. Khobane has been with the MultiChoice Group since 2008. He has held roles as Head of Marketing and Publicity for M-Net Africa and Director for Research and Business Intelligence for M-Net South Africa. During his time at M-Net, Khobane has driven a number of very successful projects for the MultiChoice. He also helped…

Of all of the manual skills that computers are in the process of replacing, handwriting is taking its time to fade completely. By David Glance Despite the fact that a great deal of written work is now done on a computer, universities for example, still expect students to do their exams using pen and paper. This is despite the fact that students will write at an average speed of around 70 letters per minute compared to average typing speeds of 190 characters per minute. Not only that, but marking of handwritten tests become more biased and students lose marks based on…

The Internet of Things (IoT) has the ability to transform the lives of citizens, providing tangible solutions to many of society’s ills. That said, partnerships between the public and private sector will be key in ensuring that these are fully realised. “It is important to understand that IoT is not a technology, but rather an ecosystem of connected ‘things’ that can only be enabled through partnerships among industry players,” says George Kalebaila, senior research manager at IDC Sub-Saharan Africa. “What is lacking in South Africa and many other regions, is an overarching platform where everything can plug into bringing…

Juniper’s latest research into Digital Health has found that ageing populations mean more home-based care is needed. The corresponding digital health deliverable systems allow medical adherence or remote patient monitoring. Unhealthy lifestyles lead both to the increase in chronic diseases, but also create a need for targeted information and education. By Sam Barker A Shift in Healthcare Model One of the most significant changes in the structure of the healthcare industry is the move to accountable care. Chronic illnesses, including diabetes and renal failure, can be monitored at the patient’s home. The benefits include 24 hour monitoring, a greater degree of…

Civil rights body the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has voiced what it terms its disgust at the mandatory tariff hikes announced by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) in recent government gazette notices. By Eugenie du Preez, NewsAgency The Automobile Association (AA) said in a separate statement that it would like to advise Gauteng motorists that the price of e-tolls on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) roads, is set to increase by almost 5% on 1 March, as “it  does not appear on Sanral’s e-toll website, nor are we aware of any Sanral customers being directly informed thereof”.These…

MTN South Africa announced on Wednesday afternoon that it will reimburse its customers who were affected by the intermittent connection issue at the beginning of this week. The issue has been resolved and all services have been fully restored by Tuesday (16 February 2016) evening. The compensation will be awarded to affected customers that purchased an MTN 1 Day data bundle during the past two days that have not utilised these bundles due to the network outage experienced. The rationale behind this is that a number of customers had purchased MTN 1 Day data bundles which they could not…

MTN South Africa announced on Wednesday that it has appointed Benjamin Marais as its new chief information officer, effective 01 March 2016.  Marais joins MTN from Discovery Health where he served in a similar role. Marais has a wealth of experience in the banking, health and digital space. A qualified engineer with a BEng, Electronic Engineering qualification from the University of Pretoria, Marais has extensive global experience, having worked across the continent, in the United Kingdom and in the Middle East. Mteto Nyati, Chief Executive Officer of MTN South Africa, says Marais brings a wealth of experience to MTN…

Pick n Pay and AlwaysOn Wi-Fi have partnered to deliver a cash-based payment option with AlwaysOn vouchers and  R199.00 will get you 10GB of AlwaysOn WiFi hotspot data, which is up to 3000 songs or about 1000 videos. The cash-based payment option with AlwaysOn vouchers is available at selected Pick n Pay stores. Connectivity is king! Whether checking emails at the airport before boarding the plane, Skyping with a friend in a far-off land or dialling into a conference call, there is one thing you’ll always need – seamless internet connectivity and data on the go. Thanks to this new…