Author: Chris Anu

French pay-TV giant Canal+ has announced sweeping changes to the leadership structure of its African operations, just days after finalising its takeover of South Africa’s MultiChoice Group. Already announced is that the combined business – covering all of Africa, including French-speaking territories – will be led by David Mignot as CEO, and that outgoing MultiChoice Group CEO Calvo Mawela has been appointed chairman of Canal+ Africa. But the combined business has now announced a huge overhaul of its management team and reporting structures, just days after the conclusion of the deal placed the South African broadcaster under foreign control for…

In this episode of ITWeb TV, Langa Dube, regional director for TCS South Africa and Rest of Africa, touches on the company’s plans to leverage local ICT skills in South Africa, how TCS clients are adapting to current macroeconomic uncertainties and the dichotomy of assessing risk by corporates compared to individuals.South African universities are “doing a fantastic job in terms of producing ICT skills,” says Tata Consultancy Services’ Langa Dube.The company sees this as a key part of an opportunity for growth and one it will use in a “very strong way” in the next five years.Dube, who is regional…

Maski, a South African-built WhatsApp-based AI tutor for students in grades 1 to 12, has surpassed the 100 000-user mark just six months after the platform launched in March. It was built by Bytefuse in collaboration with textbook publisher Maskew Miller Longman. The two companies believe Maski’s AI foundations make it appropriate for individualised learning paths, while the use of WhatsApp as a platform makes it accessible to pupils even in the most far-flung areas. “Seeing thousands of learners on Maski at midnight before a maths exam asking for help changed everything,” said Bytefuse CEO Greg Newman in a statement…

Tseliso Mohlomi, senior director at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Institute for the Future of Work. Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau; Director-General of the Department of the DSTI, Dr Mlungisi Cele; ICASA Chairperson Mothibi Ramusi; and academic and industry thought leaders will be among the dignitaries debating the future of work at the 4th Annual Future of Work National Dialogue next month.The event, to be staged on 1-2 October at The Maslow, in Pretoria, will be hosted by Tshwane University of Technology’s Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW).Key themes at this year’s National Dialogue will be…

South Africa’s payments ecosystem is evolving at a rapid pace. PayInc – previously BankservAfrica – sits at the core of the country’s payments infrastructure. As the builder and manager of the PayShap instant payment rails, PayInc is central to the Reserve Bank’s plans to drive digital inclusion through payment modernisation. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Stephen Linnell, CEO of PayInc, tells TechCentral’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu about the strategy behind the rebrand to PayInc and how that fits into the utility’s vision of the payments ecosystem in South Africa and the broader Southern Africa region. Watch the interview Linnell delves…

Alpheus Mangale, group CEO of Seacom. Pan-African submarine internet cable operator Seacom has launched a new subsea cable system across the Indian Ocean Basin, Middle East, Mediterranean and Southern Europe.Unveiled at Submarine Networks World 2025, in Singapore, Seacom says the project marks a leap toward securing Africa’s role in the global digital economy, while addressing the explosive demand for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and real-time data services.Seacom is best-known for launching Africa’s first privately-owned subsea cable system in 2009. The company provides high-capacity international bandwidth and connectivity solutions that link Africa to Europe and Asia, powering internet access for businesses,…

Seacom, the company that constructed the first submarine cable along Africa’s east coast, connecting South Africa with Europe and Asia, has announced plans to build a massive new system along a similar route. Called Seacom 2.0, the system will be one of the highest-capacity undersea broadband cables ever built, offering 48 fibre pairs and over 2 000Tbit/s in speed (design capacity). The new system will connect the Indian Ocean basin, the Middle East, the Mediterranean Sea and southern Europe, Seacom said in a statement shared with TechCentral on Thursday. Seacom announced the plans at Submarine Networks World 2025 in Singapore. This…

Meta’s Llama Impact Grant supports organisations and individuals that leverage Llama to develop solutions tailored for Sub-Saharan Africa. Two local start-ups − Vambo AI and PropelMapper − are among the five winners of the Llama Impact Grant for start-ups and researchers based in Sub-Saharan Africa.In March, Facebook-parent company Meta, in partnership with Data Science Africa, invited proposals from organisations and individuals across the region that leverage Llama to develop solutions tailored to Sub-Saharan Africa’s needs.The initiative’s aim, according to a statement, is to build on Meta’s broader commitment to strengthen Africa’s artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation ecosystems. See also As…

Government and state-owned power utility Eskom are embarking on what they describe as an aggressive roll-out of infrastructure to end the “load reduction” of electricity within the next 12-18 months. “We will end load reduction in 12 months if there is absolute cooperation by communities… [but] there are parts where will get resistance,” energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told reporters at a media briefing on Thursday. He said there would be “agitation” by those benefiting from illegal connections and vandalism. Some 1.69 million people on Eskom’s direct database alone are impacted by load reduction A total of 1.69 million people on…

For many organisations, the cyber challenge has shifted. It is not about whether vulnerabilities exist – that is a given – but whether security teams can tell which of them really matter. The modern attack surface is sprawling, shaped by cloud adoption, SaaS applications, hybrid work models and third-party integrations. Each new connection creates potential exposure, and attackers are quick to find and exploit the weakest link.The problem is not visibility. Most enterprises already generate vast amounts of vulnerability data. The problem is validation. Security teams are drowning in alerts and false positives. Lists of CVEs grow longer every week,…