Author: Chris Anu
ICT tenders: Currently under business rescue, SAPO is seeking a single service provider to deliver managed WAN and telephony services. It’s an auspicious start to the new year for the ICT industry as last-minute invitations posted on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal during the closing weeks of 2025 provide opportunities to dig in to. Interestingly, many of these feature compulsory briefings, indicating specialised or complex requirements.The South African Post Office (SAPO) takes the headline of the first issue of the year with its request for proposals on managed wide area network and telephony services.Currently under business rescue and having recently lost…
JSE-listed technology group iOCO is stepping up its share repurchase programme, acquiring a further 2.34 million ordinary shares between 29 November and 31 December 2025, at prices between R3.98 and R4/share. The total value of the latest buybacks was R9.4-million, excluding transaction costs. The repurchased shares are being held as treasury shares. Since the programme began on 1 August last year, the company has bought back 4.29 million shares, representing about 0.7 % of its issued share capital, and currently holds 6.38 million shares in treasury. The board said it believes the repurchases are in the best interests of the…
ITWeb contributor Phillip de Wet. 2026 is going to be quite something.The good old CES in Las Vegas is going to show just how much artificial intelligence (AI) we now have at the edge. Memory shortages are going to bite everywhere. We’re going to see new chip approaches allowing cool new systems. There will be a lot of pressure to open up app stores and social media protocols, and every other closed ecosystem that acts as a platform.But my bet for the big tech story of 2026 is mundane compared to all of that: AI regulation. Of the kind that…
Ongoing confusion within South Africa’ electrical sector has led to claims that all Schuko sockets are banned. The reality is far more nuanced, and the misunderstanding is affecting product sales, certificate-of-compliance approvals and appliance imports. There’s a fundamental misreading of the specifications. Many people assume all Schuko-style plugs and sockets are illegal. That’s incorrect and is causing unnecessary disruption across the supply chain. Traditional earthed Schuko plugs and sockets, with exposed earth contacts on the sides, are prohibited in South Africa. The side-contact earth design, standard in Europe, has the risk of becoming live due to adverse conditions that are…
Nkosinathi Temba, co-founder and CEO of Thito.io. South African education start-up Thuto.io is expanding its footprint, offering a platform that combines AI-driven learning, real-time progress tracking, and a digital allowance system to address gaps in student motivation and academic accountability.The platform was developed by Nkosinathi Temba, co-founder and CEO, who began working on the system in 2022 with pilots running through 2025.“Thuto was built to make learning feel personal, supportive, and human again — rewarding effort, building financial literacy, and giving students real-time feedback that strengthens their belief in themselves,” says Temba in an e-mail interview with ITWeb.Thuto.io targets learners…
This Monday marks 50 years since television was officially launched in South Africa – on 5 January 1976, a lifetime ago. South Africa was late – very late – to launch television. While many countries embraced TV in the 1950s and 1960s, apartheid-era government concerns about foreign cultural influence and social change delayed its introduction by decades. When broadcasts finally kicked off in the mid-1970s, they did so under the tight control of the SABC, initially offering a single channel with limited broadcasting hours and heavy government oversight. Today linear TV coexists uneasily with on-demand services, social video and mobile-first…
Jun Asakawa, Co-founder & CEO of Pale Blue (left in photo) and Yuya Nakamura, President and CEO of Axelspace Axelspace Corporation (“Axelspace”), a leading microsatellite company committed to making “Space within Your Reach,” has entered into a service agreement with Pale Blue Inc. (“Pale Blue”), a company that develops, manufactures, and sells thrusters (engines) for small satellites, for an in-orbit demonstration, as detailed below. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251219321165/en/Axelspace provides AxelLiner Laboratory (AL Lab), a new service originating from the AxelLiner business that is specialized in in-orbit demonstration of space components. Under this contract,…
South Africa has a curious habit of legislating fantasies and then acting surprised when the real economy ignores them. The now-defunct monopoly of the South African Post Office over sub-1kg parcels is a perfect example of this. On paper, the monopoly existed; in practice, it died years ago. Communications minister Solly Malatsi has merely done what government should have done long ago: align the law with reality. The notion that the Post Office had an exclusive right to deliver small parcels had long become absurd. It became downright farcical as e-commerce exploded, private couriers scaled nationally and consumers came to…
Axelspace Corporation (“Axelspace”), a leading microsatellite company committed to making “Space within Your Reach,” is pleased to announce a multi-launch agreement (MLA) with Exolaunch, a global launch integrator and leader in launch mission management, satellite integration and satellite deployment technologies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251219038364/en/The Multi-Launch Agreement will accelerate the growth of Axelspace. In particular, one satellite scheduled for launch under the new Agreement will be used in the AxelLiner business’s in-orbit demonstration service, “AxelLiner Laboratory”. Exolaunch has already secured launches for eight (8) Axelspace’s satellites on the upcoming missions. Axelspace provides AxelLiner Laboratory…
Starlink satellites being blasted into space aboard a SpaceX rocket in an undated file photo Starlink will begin a reconfiguration of its satellite constellation by lowering all of its satellites orbiting at around 550km to the lower orbit of 480km over the course of 2026, Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink engineering, said on Thursday. The company is looking to increase space safety by lowering the satellites’ orbit. This comes after Starlink said in December that one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in space, creating a “small” amount of debris and cutting off communications with the spacecraft at…