Author: Gugu Lourie

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…