Author: Chris Anu
Naspers has declared and finalised a five-for-one subdivision of both its “N” and “A” shares, saying the move will make the stock more accessible to retail investors. The implementation will kick in from Monday, 6 October 2025. New N ordinary shares will list on the JSE from Wednesday, 1 October, with the record date set for Friday, 3 October. Management’s rationale is straightforward: the Naspers N share price has become one of the highest nominal prices on the JSE, which can crimp liquidity and discourage participation from smaller investors. The market has rewarded the simplification and capital returns – and,…
MCP Hackathon to embed African contexts in next-gen AI. Cortex Hub has launched the MCP Hackathon Africa 2025, a continent-wide initiative designed to embed African languages, culture and priorities into the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI).Cortex Hub says the eight-week programme aims to unite developers, researchers, start-ups and students to build practical solutions using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an emerging open standard that enables applications to deliver structured, locally relevant information to large language models.”This is Africa’s opportunity to move from being consumers of AI to creators of the standards that govern it,” says Andile Ngcaba, patron of Cortex Hub.…
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane Eskom CEO Dan Marokane has again pledged that the state-owned power utility will hold future electricity tariff hikes to single-digit increases, a major shift in tone from earlier double-digit increases that have rattled consumers and businesses, pressured economic growth, and fuelled inflation. Speaking in an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Marokane said Eskom has accepted it must “live within” annual increases of less than 10% to support South Africa’s economic recovery. Annual consumer price inflation in July was 3.5%. “We are certain that we will be asking nothing more than a single-digit increase going forward,” Marokane said.…
Winners of the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Decade of Service awards in 2024: AfriSam’s Louise van der Bank and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Dr Stanley Mpofu. To honour the outstanding contributions of South Africa’s CIOs over the past year, ITWeb Brainstorm, in partnership with MTN Business, is introducing two new CIO awards for 2025.The publication is calling on the ICT community to help identify the most deserving candidates.Last year, in tandem with the 10th anniversary of the CIO Survey, Brainstorm and MTN Business ran a one-off awards process to celebrate two CIOs who had been at the top of their…
Competition Commission deputy commissioner Hardin Ratshisusu Artificial intelligence poses a challenge for competition regulators, which must balance a desire for innovation and economic growth with the possibility that monopolistic, AI-driven markets could develop, leading to the exclusion of some segments of society. If regulators are unable to get this balance right, they could stifle the economic growth promised by AI. This is according to Hardin Ratshisusu, deputy commissioner of the Competition Commission, who was speaking at the Brics International Competition Conference in Cape Town last week. The conference was led by competition authorities from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South…
ICASA wants to extend its almost decade-long focus on the state of competition in subscription TV broadcasting services. It’s another bumper week on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal, with almost 700 new opportunities advertised. The ICT sector, however, will have to be content with looking to a handful of public sector organisations for this week’s most interesting tenders. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) takes the headline with the news it is looking for a service provider to assist it in conducting an inquiry into the effective competitiveness of television subscription broadcasting services. The initiative is the latest in…
Trade minister Parks Tau It felt like good progress was being made on two fronts – easing the labour law burden on small companies and enabling lending to small businesses. But by the end of the week, the second of those had shockingly been withdrawn despite its obvious benefit to a large part of the economy. Positive reforms are essential to turning around our poor economic growth and tackling our unemployment crisis. Through Nedlac and initiatives like Business for South Africa, we work extensively to help develop proposed policy changes that can contribute to improving the business environment. The new…
BYD says the launch positions the model as the country’s most affordable electric vehicle to date. BYD Auto South Africa has introduced the Dolphin Surf to the local market. The compact electric hatchback is priced at under R400 000.The Chinese multinational company said the launch positions the model as the country’s most affordable electric vehicle to date.According to Statista, the volume weighted average price of the electric vehicle (EV) market in SA is expected to be about US$85 600 in 2025. Statista has also predicted a significant growth in revenue, with projections indicating a reach of US$94.4 million this year.…
US megaretailer Walmart’s move to introduce its own-branded stores in South Africa is going to be met with stiff competition from established retailers, but its advancements in retail technology – spanning its operations from in-store management to its logistics pipeline – could give it an edge. According to Chris Gilmour, investment analyst at Gilmour Research, Walmart will have to wrestle away market share from market-leading incumbents like Shoprite and Pick n Pay that have a long history with South African consumers and understand their shopping habits well. Walmart’s purported strategy to offer a “wide range of merchandise, including fresh groceries,…
Luke Cifarelli, AttackIQ SA country manager. US-based cyber security firm AttackIQ today announced its official entrance into the South African market.With its South African debut, the company has appointed cyber security veteran Luke Cifarelli as country manager.Cifarelli tells ITWeb via e-mail that South Africa, and the broader African continent, is in a rapid digital transformation phase, which brings immense opportunity but also significant cyber risk.“We’ve seen a surge in high-profile breaches affecting financial services, critical infrastructure and the public sector,” he says.“These organisations are realising that traditional, point-in-time security testing is no longer enough. There is a clear and growing…