Author: Staff Writer

Since its launch in November last year, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT has had a massive impact in just a few short months. Already, some schools have banned it as students quickly employed the bot to take shortcuts in their schoolwork, while debates rage on whether the bot will or won’t replace copywriters. It can also write code – so well, in fact, that when Google fed it a series of coding interview questions, its answers would have qualified it for an entry-level engineering position with annual compensation of $183,000. But Saša Slankamenac, Architect at Dariel Software, doesn’t agree…

As more South Africans look for alternative energy sources to cope with loadshedding, Massmart, in partnership with Retail Credit Solutions (RCS), has introduced a solar energy funding solution for its customers. Massmart said in a statement the funding is available in the form of a loan of up to R250 000, which can be released within 24 hours through a convenient application process. The retail group offers flexible payment plans, where fixed monthly repayments can be tailored to the customer’s monthly expense budget. To achieve this the repayment period can be extended from 12 to 60 months. Varsha Dayaram, Senior…

Santam, South Africa’s short-term insurer, has entered into an alliance with MTN South Africa, that will see the company purchase the mobile telecommunication firm’s device insurance book. The acquisition, and alliance, is aimed to support MTN South Africa in broadening the reach of device protection to their clients, in line with the importance of devices in the lives of customers. MTN South Africa’s device insurance book currently has just over 400 000 policies and an annual Gross Written Premium value of nearly R400 million. Tavaziva Madzinga, the Santam Group CEO, said the acquisition was an opportunity to expand the company’s…

At the heart of the digital transformation of South Africa’s healthcare sector is the drive to improve the safety and care of patients. The world is moving towards the vision of ‘Smart Hospitals’ where even the hospital bed can serve as a data-collection and analysing device that monitors a patient’s well-being in real-time and creates alerts in anticipation of a patient requiring assistance. In the current healthcare environment, patients will encounter many care touch points, with data being created at each point along this journey. Health-related data is amongst the most private and sensitive of datasets, and there are a…

The new all-electric Lexus RZ 450e is the first model to be developed by the company as a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) from the outset. With it, the intention is not simply to deliver zero emission, all-electric driving, but to re-invent the BEV driving experience. To achieve this, the car has undergone extensive track testing and refinement at the Shimoyama Centre in Japan, a venue that is soon to be Lexus’ new global headquarters. The RZ is not a vehicle that simply adopts battery electric power in lieu of a conventional engine; it adapts exciting new technologies to enhance performance…

Eskom said on Tuesday that due to some recovery in generation capacity over the past 48 hours, loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 3 from 05:00 on Wednesday until 16:00. Thereafter, Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Thursday. This pattern will continue as illustrated, until further notice. A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur. Over the past 48 hours, the repairs to the damaged towers from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique were completed and restored to full capacity. We have successfully returned to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Grootvlei, Kriel,…

Independent power producer Red Rocket has placed a 373 MW order for the Brandvalley, Rietkloof and Wolf wind parks, to be located in Western Cape and Eastern Cape, South Africa.  The contract includes the supply and installation of 64 V150-4.5 MW wind turbines, 12 V163-4.5 MW wind turbines and five V162-6.2 MW Enventus wind turbines. Vestas will service the wind parks through a 15-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) agreement. Red Rocket’s CEO, Matteo Brambilla said: “Red Rocket has been investing and supporting South Africa’s electricity crisis for more than a decade and with a portfolio of more than…

Africa Data Centres has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Distributed Power Africa; distributed Power Africa will supply 12MW of renewable solar energy for Africa Data Centres facilities in South Africa through wheeling; by working together, the two companies are also supporting several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies group, is pleased to announce it has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with DPA Southern Africa Pty Ltd (DPA SA), a joint company of Distributed Power Africa  and the French utility company, EDF. Under the terms of the agreement,…

Jaguar Land Rover is partnering with Tata Technologies, the global engineering, product development and digital services company, to accelerate the digital transformation of Jaguar Land Rover’s industrial strategy. The first phase will include UK core production facilities, with solutions subsequently deployed to other global locations. Tata Technologies will deliver end-to-end integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to transform Jaguar Land Rover’s manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, finance and purchasing modules by bringing data and knowledge from multiple departments into one single source. The intuitive new user interface of Tata Technologies award-winning software will drive stability in operations, improving visibility both between teams…

As online shopping continues to grow in the country, customers are spoilt for choice on how and where they shop. Trends show that many South Africans are increasingly choosing to shop both in-store and online, or often simultaneously, before making a purchase. iVend Retail found 90.8% of South African consumers shop on mobile devices while in a physical store, while a Shopify study reported that 59% of consumers are likely to browse online and buy in-store, and 54% are likely to look at a product in-store and buy online. As online shopping continues to grow in South Africa – with…

 PayShap, South Africa’s first low value, interbank, real-time digital payments service, has been launched in the country. It is currently available at four participating banks in South Africa, namely Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank with more banks expected to go live in the coming months. “Widely anticipated in the market and global payments community since its journey kicked off in 2017, we are extremely pleased to announce that PayShap is officially live,” says Mpho Sadiki, Head of Real-time Payments at BankservAfrica. With no waiting periods, South African bank account holders can now easily pay and receive money (up to…

Cybersecurity in Africa: The digital landscape is overflowing with an ever-evolving array of solutions and services created to make lives easier, offices smoother and engagements richer. Smartphones, applications, social media, artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and multiple other tools have all become part and parcel of daily life on the African continent, transforming how people connect, collaborate and engage. Unfortunately, they have also opened up cyber windows that let in the attacks and the threats that compromise organisations and individuals. For Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 AFRICA, it has become critical for organisations to invest in training…

MTN Group announced the appointment of Marcin Waligora, Executive: Software Engineering with effect from 27 March 2023. With more than 20 years of progressive experience, exceptional technical skills, and solid business acumen, Marcin joins MTN Group from Citigroup in Tampa, USA. “As Executive: Software Engineering, Marcin will be responsible for defining, developing and executing our Software Engineering strategic programme to accelerate the PACE of Ambition 2025, and maintaining the long-term growth for delivering the software engineering on front-end customer experience layer systems, partnerships and integration points. He will also help achieve business agility, at scale, impacting a multiplier effect by…

MTN GlobalConnect, a digital wholesale and infrastructure services company and an operating company in the MTN Group, announced today that it has signed $90.8 million or R1.6 billion in fixed external infrastructure deals. MTN GlobalConnect has subsidiaries in five African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and Kenya). The MTN subsidiary made further progress to drive its fibreco ambitions and continued to scale its fixed connectivity and wholesale mobility services. MTN group announced that MTN Global Connect’s external revenue grew by 19.3% YoY to $344.4 million or R6.2 billion, with mobility revenue up by 19.1%. MTN GlobalConnect is driving MTN’s fibreco…

MTN Group today announced that the loss of power utility Eskom (SA) has cost the local company R695 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in the 2022 financial year. The company said in South Africa, the extent of persistent power outages (load shedding) worsened in the second quarter, exacerbating the negative impact on network availability and pressures on the business. “We continued to implement our comprehensive network resilience plan to mitigate these impacts,” MTN said in a statement. “Our investment in this regard, which included dealing with vandalism and additional security on sites, put additional pressure…

MTN is making great efforts in shedding off its image as a pure mobile operator, with investments in FinTech, fibre, subsea cables, etc, fast tracking the company’s evolution from a ‘telco to a techno’. MTN today reported a strong 2022 financial performance, including an expansion in return on equity to 23.4% and a 10% increase in the dividend to 330 cents per share, in a challenging macroeconomic environment of elevated inflation across our 19 markets. In the year to 31 December 2022, total subscribers rose 6% to 289 million, with data subscribers growing by more than 12% to 137 million and Mobile Money…

Meta is in the early stages of building a decentralised, standalone dedicated app for people to post text-based updates to rival Elon Musk’s Twitter, reported the Platformer. “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates,” the company told Platformer exclusively in an email. “We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” Details about the project are scant. The product is still in its earliest stages, sources said, and there is no time frame for it being released. But legal and regulatory teams have already started to…

Clickatell, the Chat Commerce and business messaging firm, has launched their Chat 2 Pay feature for South Africa’s Telkom. Telkom’s millions of customers can now make payments in WhatsApp, the country’s largest chat channel. Responding to the growing demand for fast, digital, self-help services, Telkom now deploys to its customers the Chat 2 Pay pay-by-link capability in WhatsApp, providing them with the convenience of safe and effortless mobile payments. Telkom post-paid and prepaid customers can pay their phone and xDSL/fibre bills, and buy airtime, data and SMS bundles by simply sending “Hi” on WhatsApp to 0811 601 700. Currently, Telkom’s…

Kaspersky experts have discovered cybercriminals launched more than 7 million attacks on children gamers exploiting popular game titles in 2022, a 57% increase compared to 2021. Kaspersky’s latest report The Dark Side of Kids’ Virtual Gaming Worlds explores the risks for young players in online gaming and analyses threats related to the most popular online games for 3-16-year-old children. Phishing pages used by cybercriminals to target young players mostly mimicked global titles including Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Apex Legends games. To reach parents’ devices, cybercriminals purposely create fake game sites evoking children’s interest to follow phishing pages and download malicious…

SAP Africa today released a new report ‘Africa’s Tech Skills Scarcity Revealed‘ which seeks to unveil the specific challenges and opportunities for African organisations seeking greater tech skills availability. Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa, says there is an urgent need to invest in skills development and training to ensure Africa can capitalise on its youth dividend. “More than half of the world’s population growth between now and 2050 will take place in Africa, where 1.3-billion people are expected to be born by mid-century. With the correct investment in skills development, Africa’s economy could transition away from its reliance…

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted written questions to the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) requesting a detailed breakdown on where $145 million or R2.7 billion received from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has been allocated. In a DFFE portfolio committee meeting where the second quarter performance report was presented, it was revealed that $145 million was raised under the climate change, air quality and sustainable development program. “What remained conspicuous by its absence though was transparency over where this $145 million had been allocated and what mechanisms have been put in place to ensure parliamentary and…

The earning potential available to millions of women mitigates against these barriers and provides them with the opportunity to share in Avon’s success.  Beauty brand Avon launches its Global Progress for Women Report, shining a light on women’s lived experiences of equality and choice in the world of work and money. Report highlights inequalities that women believe are holding them back from reaching their full potential. South African women sampled in the survey scored higher on some metrics relating to obstacles that hamper entrepreneurship and access to flexible working opportunities. Over a third of women surveyed believe access to setting…

FinaMaze has announced the appointment of Grant Niven to its Advisory Board, effective February 2023. The ADGM-based innovative digital wealth management firm made the announcement in pursuant to progress in its growth and sustainability, as it continues to provide cutting-edge financial investment services within the Fintech space. Originally from Scotland, UK, Grant has worked in several executive roles over the last 24 years spanning the technology, consulting and financial services industry, in both Europe and the Middle East. Prior to recently founding Mingzulu, a strategy & venture funding advisory, focused on the Financial Sector, (including Fintechs), Grant held a role…

Thousands of young African prospective students will be able to access world-class courses in the most in-demand technology fields offered by a leading technology training provider, ALX. This announcement comes as developed economies face historic talent and labour shortages in key sectors, with players in the digital and tech industries increasingly looking to Africa as an emerging hotspot for skilled digital talent, addressing a global talent shortfall that is predicted to exceed 85 million people by 2030. To help boost this skills revolution, ALX, a division of African Leadership International (ALI), has launched four new and accessible tech programmes for…

Global technology brand HONOR today announced today the open sale of its newly smartphone HONOR X7a in South Africa markets. With a long-lasting battery, expandable storage and upgraded features, users can enjoy a smarter life with an HONOR mobile device. The exceptionally durable HONOR X7a boasts a massive long-lasting 6,000mAh battery, a 50MP Ultra-clear Quad Camera system, large storage with a capacity of 128GB[5] storage, in addition to its astonishing 6.74-inch HONOR FullView Display, providing users all-rounder experience when it comes to performance, photography, display and more at an affordable price point. HONOR X7a is available now at Telkom on 24-month…