Author: Chris Anu

The South African National Space Agency (Sansa) has warned that geomagnetic storm activity is expected to intensify over the next 24 hours following a powerful solar eruption that sent a cloud of charged plasma towards Earth. According to Sansa’s Space Weather Centre, the disturbance was triggered by a long-duration X1.9-class solar flare that erupted from the sun on Sunday evening, followed by an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME is expected to reach Earth from the early hours of Wednesday, where it will interact with the planet’s magnetic field. Sansa said the resulting geomagnetic storm could reach G4 (severe)…

A ruling finds homeowners’ associations can give permission for fibre to be laid. (Photograph: Freepik) Two key appeals set to be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) this year will determine whether homeowners can freely give permission for fibre rollout in their estates, or whether competitors must first seek approval from Telkom.This comes as there are two contradicting rulings over whether Telkom has rights to infrastructure in housing estates and whether smaller fibre companies must lease from the telecoms giant to roll out cable.There are more than 50 000 registered housing estates in South Africa containing millions of…

Authoritarian governments have long relied on a blunt but effective tool to silence dissent: switching off the internet. From nationwide blackouts during elections to targeted throttling of social media platforms during protests, cutting connectivity has become a depressingly familiar tactic across parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A recent Reuters report on Iran’s escalating battle with Starlink highlights why that playbook is starting to fray. Tehran has spent years perfecting censorship and surveillance, yet it now finds itself struggling to contain a satellite-based internet service designed explicitly to bypass terrestrial controls. Starlink terminals, smuggled into the country and…

Ruth Hickin, VP of Workforce Innovation at Salesforce. Agentic AI can boost productivity in businesses by removing routine bureaucracy and ‘noise’ from the workplace, but this is only achievable with an AI fluent workforce, says Ruth Hickin, VP of Workforce Innovation at CRM technology firm Salesforce.The company says businesses are looking to emerge as agentic enterprises or those in which human employees and AI agents work together in a seamless, collaborative ecosystem. However, to achieve this goal, much will depend on their workforce’s ability to harness and apply agentic AI in their daily work.Salesforce says agentic AI is now part…

Elon Musk. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Elon Musk is seeking up to US$134-billion (R2.2-trillion) from OpenAI and Microsoft, saying he deserves the “wrongful gains” that they received from his early support, according to a court filing on Friday. OpenAI gained between $65.5-billion and $109.4-billion from the billionaire entrepreneur’s contributions when he was co-founding what was then a start-up from 2015, while Microsoft gained between $13.3-billion and $25.1-billion, Musk said in the federal court filing ahead of his trial against the two companies. “Without Elon Musk, there’d be no OpenAI. He provided the bulk of the seed funding, lent his reputation and taught…

Rahana Vally, Director at Brilliant Link. (Image: Supplied) As organisations enter a new financial year in March, many finance and operational leaders are reviewing their technology landscape, weighing up whether their current systems can support growth, automation and smarter decision-making. For those considering a new ERP platform, the same pattern plays out repeatedly: the product impresses, the price raises hesitation and the search begins for a cheaper option. But as many soon discover, the moment they shop around, the trade-off between price and functionality becomes clear – and the cheaper alternative rarely delivers what the business actually needs.Rahana Vally, director…

The authors, Altman Solon’s Björn Menden and Switala Ventures’ Thomas Switala When the competition authorities last year finally approved Vodacom’s acquisition of a 30% stake in Maziv – the parent of Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa – they quietly reshaped the rules of engagement for South Africa’s digital infrastructure market. For years, open access has been treated as a policy ideal: shared networks, used on fair and non-discriminatory terms, driving affordability and inclusion. In practice, the market that emerged was fragmented, capital-constrained and uneven. The Maziv decision signalled a pragmatic shift. It recognised that, under the right conditions, scale can enable…

Gail Holt, Managing Director of Hardware Distribution. In today’s economic climate, many companies are under pressure to do more with less. Large-scale network refreshes are often postponed in favour of maximising the value of existing infrastructure, a strategy commonly known as “sweating the assets”. For many companies running legacy Cisco networks, SmartCare offers a practical, cost-effective way to extend network life and maintain products without immediate capital investment.SmartCare, an SLA-driven maintenance and support service exclusive to Hardware Distribution, enables companies to confidently sweat their legacy Cisco assets until they can afford to upgrade.“Too often, companies feel pressured into replacing perfectly…

Enterprise organisations face increasing data volumes, advanced cyberthreats, and higher demands for availability and recovery. Leaders are questioning whether current data resilience strategies can ensure security, governance and scalability without adding unnecessary operational risk or cost. A significant change has transformed the enterprise data resilience landscape. With Veritas’s enterprise data resilience capabilities available through Cohesity, organisations now have access to a new, unified, modern data platform. This combines proven reliability with Cohesity’s scalable, AI-driven architecture. The result is a complete solution that improves recovery, simplifies operations and boosts cyber resilience. Cohesity’s approach is grounded in five guiding principles: speed, scale,…

Ericsson has proposed staff reductions in Sweden, adding to job cuts in the global tech sector. Multinational networking and telecoms company Ericsson is looking to reduce its staff by 1 600 positions in its home market Sweden.This, as part of measures aimed at ensuring its competitive position, according to the company statement.“The proposed staff reduction is part of global initiatives to improve cost position while maintaining investments critical to Ericsson’s technology leadership and the execution of the strategy to deliver high-performing, programmable networks that enable differentiated services and new monetization opportunities.“Initiatives to increase operational efficiency will continue across the group…