Author: Staff Writer

Eskom and Hyosung Heavy Industries, one of the appointed service providers for the Eskom Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project, yesterday marked the beginning of construction of the first energy storage facility under Eskom’s flagship BESS project. The sod-turning ceremony was held at the Elandskop BESS site, located within Msunduzi and Impendle Local Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. Construction will take between seven and twelve months and the batteries on the site will be charged from the main grid via Eskom’s Elandskop substation. The facility will have a capacity of 8MW, equivalent to 32MWh of distributed electricity, enough to power a town…

BMW Group South Africa announces the appointment of Thilosh Moodally to General Manager: Group Communications and External Affairs, effective 1 January 2023. Moodally, currently the General Manager of Customer and Brand for BMW, has held several key roles over 20 years in BMW Group South Africa. Previously the Head of MINI South Africa, Moodally joined BMW South Africa in 2003 as a Chartered Accountant CA(SA) in the Finance Department at BMW Group Plant Rosslyn. Her experience spans the Finance, Customer Support, and Dealer Development areas within BMW Group South Africa. Said Moodally upon her appointment: “I have had the privilege…

Huawei this week further cemented South Africa’s reputation as a leading destination for data centres on the African continent, announcing new updates to its data centre facility channel partnership plan. These updates will improve continuity between Huawei Digital Power and its distributors and partners, focusing on the key areas of protection, profitability, simplicity, and growth. Speaking at the Huawei Data Centre Facility Ecosystem Strategy Launch this week, Mr. Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa’s Digital Power Business, highlighted the growing importance of data centres, pointing out that in the coming decades, we can expect to see 10x growth in…

Ukheshe International, the UK-headquartered division of digital-first, Banking as a Service (BAAS) enabler Ukheshe Group (Ukheshe), today announced the conclusion of an investment agreement that will help accelerate its international expansion. The investment will be led by ADP III, a fund advised by Development Partners International (DPI), a premier, Africa-focused investment firm with $3 billion in assets under management and co-investment, alongside funds advised by Fireball Capital, a leading South African venture capital firm. The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, reinforces Ukheshe’s strategy and will support its long-term growth as the business continues to drive forward its…

Sun Exchange today announced that energy industry veteran, Martin Webb, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer. Founder and former CEO, Abraham Cambridge, will continue to serve on the Board of Directors and serve as senior strategic advisor to the CEO and leadership team. Webb brings nearly three decades of energy industry experience, most recently having co-founded and served as CEO of Électricité de France (EDF) Renewables, an early-mover renewable energy company in South Africa. Under his leadership, EDF achieved fast growth, ultimately becoming established as a leading independent renewable asset owner-operator in South Africa, building a project portfolio of…

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wishes to express its heartfelt congratulations to the outstanding recognition of its Head of Technology and Solutions Delivery (TSD), Intikhab Shaik, for receiving the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA) President’s Award as the Visionary Chief Information Officer of the Year. What makes this prestigious accomplishment so noteworthy is that Mr Shaik’s work was compared against industry peers in both the private and public sectors. The determination that his performance is unmatched and stands head and shoulders above all others is a testament to the quality of his technology leadership. It was…

Huawei has hosted its first Cape Town Tech Convention at which it demonstrated its investment and commitment to partners and customers in the Western Cape. It also shared some of the innovative products and solutions it offers in the region as well as its plans for further expansion, which will allow customers to compete globally. Opening the convention, Gene Zhang, Huawei Managing Director of Enterprise Business South Africa, underlined how investing in the ICT ecosystem, is critical in an increasingly digital world. “The global economy and society are recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic and the digital transformation of industries has…

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies a pan-African technology group,  announced today it has secured a piece of land adjacent to its existing data centre in Nairobi, Kenya, and plans to expand the facility up to an extra 15MW of IT load. The build will be completed in the first half of 2024 and will bring five times more than the current capacity. According to Hardy Pemhiwa, Group President & CEO of Cassava Technologies, “Colocation has become the foundation of African digital transformation and will be for the foreseeable future. Our investment into expanding our data centre operations…

Synatic, SA’s data integration and automation business, has secured an additional $2.5 million or R42 million in a seed extension funding round led by Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures and UW Ventures. Synatic will use the additional funds to expand its market reach in the United States in preparation for Series A funding in 2023. Synatic has built off a strong South African customer base, providing large scale enterprise data integration and aggregation to the likes of Easy Equities. Through growing its market globally it currently provides data solutions to multiple multinationals such as HCC Tokio Marine, a US-headquartered insurance group.…

With the goal of serving South Africans with hearing loss, MTN is piloting a national relay service (NRS) which harnesses the power of technology to enable users to make and receive phone calls. Depending on the type of call, an operator will speak, type, or use sign language when facilitating calls for or between deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind South Africans. Together with Convo South Africa, a deaf-owned company, the pilot project expands communication access for those who otherwise would not be able to communicate via voice call, audio or video. Users of MTN’s NRS service will be able…

Spotify today announced the arrival of South Africa’s Wrapped 2022, the platform’s deep dive into the music that defined the year for users locally. The way we listen to music says a lot about us. As part of Wrapped 2022, Spotify users get a detailed snapshot of their most loved artists, creators and songs. And as part of this year’s fun, Audio Day shows how Spotify users’ musical choices evolve throughout the day while the new Your Listening Personality feature tells users about the music they listen to and what that says about their music taste. One of 16 different…

The Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation has launched the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Green Energy, a $2 million or R33.8 million prize competition to reward entrepreneurs and innovators working to address one of the most pressing and immediate challenges of our time—access to green, renewable energy. The winning individual or team will be awarded $1 million, with an additional $1 million disbursed throughout the competition as finalists progress and field test ideas. Registration for the prize is open now. There is no cost to apply, and anyone, anywhere in the world is eligible to submit their idea for consideration.…

African countries have been urged to invest in building resilient internet infrastructure to tap digital opportunities and accelerate social and economic transformation on the continent. Global leaders attending the 17th Internet Governance Forum being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, underscored the importance of digital technologies as tools for enhancing development across Africa. “The internet’s contribution to social development is immense, the democratization of knowledge and communication, access to entrepreneurship skills and new employment opportunities health care access and education are a few noteworthy ones,” Mr. Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, said in opening remarks…

Mercedes-Benz and Bosch have reached an important milestone on the way to automated driving: Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved their highly automated parking system for use in the P6 parking garage run by APCOA at Stuttgart Airport. This makes it the world’s first highly automated driverless parking function (SAE Level 4)[1] to be officially approved for commercial use. “The world’s first approval for customer use of our highly automated and driverless parking function, developed together with our technology partner Bosch, shows that innovation leadership and ‘Made in Germany’ go hand in hand,” says Markus Schäfer, Member of the…

ICT skills development is critical for South Africa to participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and reap the benefits of a digital economy. This was the consensus of various speakers at Huawei South Africa’s ICT Talent Development annual awards ceremony at its Woodmead campus yesterday. The event celebrated the higher education partner institutions and facilitators of the Huawei ICT Academy Programme, which was established to identify, cultivate, and develop the best talent through collaboration between industry, educational institutions, and the public sector. “The ICT sector is growing fast and we must respond to its needs, especially when it comes…

RMB acted as Mandated Lead Arranger & Bookrunner for IHS Holdings (IHS Towers) $600 million or R10.2 billion syndicated term loan facility. IHS Towers is one of the largest independent owners, operators and developers of shared communications infrastructure in the world by tower count, and is the largest independent multinational towerco solely focused on the emerging markets. IHS Towers has nearly 40,000 towers across its 11 markets and a strong track record of delivering growth. “RMB is proud to facilitate strategic investments that have a powerful economic impact,” Conny Konopi, Debt & Trade Solutions Transactor says,. “IHS Towers focuses exclusively…

South African early-stage venture capital firm, 4Di Capital, has today announced the second closing of its new $25 million or R425 million seed fund – created in partnership with DotExe Ventures in Mauritius – with an undisclosed raise from Mauritian-based conglomerate, IBL Group, via its investment vehicle, IBL Link Investments Ltd. The announcement establishes a close working relationship between the three organisations, while creating a new presence in Mauritius for the venture capital firm. This follows an initial close of $8 million or R135 million from the SA SME Fund, with capital targeting seed and post-seed stage startups in South…

Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) announces that Klaus Eser, currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director Finance and Controlling, will retire and be succeeded by Taryn Woodbridge, effective 1 December 2022. “I’m very pleased to welcome Taryn Woodbridge to the leadership team at Mercedes-Benz South Africa as the company’s first female Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director Finance and Controlling,” said Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-Benz South Africa and Executive Director Manufacturing, Andreas Brand. “Taryn brings on board vast industry experience and will certainly make an even greater impact within the business to ensure we continue to meet our strategic…

The Shoprite Group is the first South African retailer to pilot a heavy-duty electric truck as part of its fleet, and 28-year-old Robin Jooste from Colorado Park, Mitchells Plain has been selected to drive it. The vehicle, a Scania Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), is 100% electric, therefore has no reliance on fossil fuels and emits no carbon dioxide. The refrigerated truck can hold approximately 16 pallets, has nine batteries, solar panels fitted to its roof and a fully electric cooling system which is also powered by the battery packs of the vehicle. With a range in the region of 350km,…

Global tech company Zoho announced today that it will be opening a new office in Johannesburg to accommodate its growing employee base in the country and cater to its customers. The company has seen the net new customer growth of 75% in South Africa in 2021, and doubled its employee base since opening its first office in Cape Town. In addition, Zoho and the Institute of African Royalty (IAR), a startup and SME incubator, have entered into a strategic partnership to remove access barriers to enterprise technology for small and medium businesses, and help them in their digital transformation journey.…

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, announced today that it is building its first data centre in Kigali, Rwanda. The data centre will have 2MW of IT load and will be purpose-built to meet growing demand in the region. “It is an exciting time for Africa Data Centres,” says Tesh Durvasula, the company’s CEO. “Our decision to build a data centre in Kigali was an easy one, given Rwanda’s robust economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government of Rwanda’s focus on digital transformation”. “This latest announcement adds to and complements our existing…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, officially announces the launch of its operations in Nigeria. As a one-stop shop technology company offering high-speed connectivity, cloud and cyber security services with unmatched resilience and scalability, Liquid Intelligent Technologies entry into Nigeria will give new impetus to the country and region’s digital transformation journey. “We were the first African company to lay over 100,000 km of fibre network across the African continent, and we plan to extend our reach into Nigeria. Expanding our operations here reiterates our interest in working with the government to achieve the…

The first batch of over 100 South African solar industry practitioners received training from Huawei this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, marking the official kick-off of Huawei’s “Thousand Digital Power Talents Programme“. The programme aims to upskill more than 1 000 solar practitioners across Sub-Saharan Africa. With the theme “Together, for a Better and Greener Africa”, the programme was a significant milestone in Huawei’s effort to drive growth and expand the ecosystem for Africa’s solar sector. Sector stakeholders including John van Zuylen, CEO of Africa Solar Industry Association (AFSIA), and Dr. Rethabile Melamu, CEO of South African Photovoltaic Industry Association…

Large numbers of South African school-goers face significant digital and literacy gaps. Through its DigiSchool programme, Huawei supports NGO Click Learning’s efforts in addressing the problem. Merely 49% of South African schools have some form of connectivity, of which only 20% use it for teaching and learning, while the remaining for administration. Supporting initiatives like DigiSchool also underscores Huawei’s commitment to connecting more unconnected people and organisations to foster positive social change. “Many people around the world remain unconnected. So connecting them is the first step. This will give them greater access to knowledge, digital skills training, and opportunities,” said…

MTN Zambia today launched our 5G network, becoming the first mobile operator in Zambia to offer 5G services commercially after successfully undertaking trials of the transformative technology over the past 11 months. “The launch of this ultra-fast communication capacity serves as a clear indication of MTN’s commitment to being a major player in Zambia’s digital economy,” said Mcebisi Jonas, MTN Group chairman. “We look forward to continuing to work together to meaningfully impact the growth and development of Zambia.” MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said MTN Zambia was the Group’s third operation in Africa (after Nigeria and South Africa) where…