Author: Chris Anu

The Kusile power station east of Pretoria. Image (c) NewsCentral Media Eskom has added 800MW of new generation capacity to the national grid after successfully bringing Kusile power station’s final unit, unit 6, online. It marks a “crucial step towards completing one of South Africa’s largest infrastructure projects and is a key milestone in Eskom’s strategic objective of adding 2.5GW of new capacity to the grid by March 2025”, the company said in a statement on Sunday. “Kusile power station will contribute a total of 4.8GW to the national grid once all units are fully operational, making it South Africa’s…

Broadcaster Etv argued that “millions” of households risk being without access to TV services if the 31 March analogue switch-off deadline is upheld. Minister Solly Malatsi is adamant there was sufficient consultation with industry stakeholders, as government looks to move ahead with the 31 March deadline for South Africa’s analogue switch-off (ASO).This is according to the minister’s answering affidavit submitted to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, as broadcasters seek legal intervention in SA’s analogue switch-off deadline. The country’s decade-long broadcasting digital migration (BDM) project is again before the courts, as eMedia-owned Etv, joined by public interest non-government organisations Media…

Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner believes technology is fundamental to the company’s success. Kallner, an actuary who joined Discovery in its early days as a medical insurance company and who has held various senior leadership roles over the years, tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the group’s decision to launch a bank when it did. He shares how the business is doing – spoiler: it’s trending well ahead of schedule – and what comes next. He tells the TechCentral Show about: How Discovery Bank is doing financially and how it’s tracking against its business plan; Its client base – who…

The .africa domain name is now available on US-based web hosting company GoDaddy. Registry Africa has announced the .africa top-level domain is now available on US-based web hosting company GoDaddy.It says making the .africa domain available on GoDaddy will increase Africa’s digital ecosystem and cater to the rising international demand for connectivity with the continent.“Having GoDaddy as our registrar increases our market reach and puts .africa at the top shelf for users to access,” says Lucky Masilela, CEO of Registry Africa. The official registry operator and administrator of the .africa domain name launched in 2017.GoDaddy, headquartered in Arizona, is regarded…

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Tuesday the company was well placed to navigate a shift in the artificial intelligence industry, in which businesses are moving from training AI models to getting detailed answers from them. Huang, speaking at the company’s annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, defended the company’s lead in selling costly AI chips to customers, which has recently been questioned by investors after China’s DeepSeek made a competitive chatbot with allegedly fewer AI chips. But his presentation failed to reassure investors. Nvidia shares fell 3.4%. The chip index closed down 1.6%. The computation we need…

ITWeb news editor Admire Moyo. While South Africa continues to walk a diplomatic tight rope with the US, American tech giants are continuing to make solid investments in Africa’s biggest economy.South Africa’s relationship with the US reached a new low last week, when the US State Department in Washington expelled South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, for allegedly launching a “diplomatic attack on the US that could not be ignored”.On Friday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio declared Rasool “persona non grata” after remarks he made regarding the Trump administration during a discussion.The diplomatic tiff set off after…

MultiChoice this week relaxed its limitation on the number of concurrent streams available via its DStv Stream and Showmax plans. Streaming companies around the world, including Netflix, have been cracking down on concurrent streaming in an effort to stop password sharing, which had become rampant in the industry as consumers sought to cut costs. The strategy has worked well for some, like Netflix, but arguably not as well for others. Still, the ability to stream concurrently to multiple devices is in high demand by consumers, not only because they want to share their password credentials with friends, but because many…

Ian Engelbrecht, system engineering manager: Africa, Veeam. ITWeb, in partnership with Veeam, is running a survey on data resilience readiness among businesses in Africa. The survey aims to explore just how prepared these businesses are to recover from a ransomware or cyber attack, as well as the resources they have at their disposal to help them recover.Brendan Widlake, the Regional Director for Africa at Veeam, says, “Data is at the heart of businesses. It’s the most important asset.“However, the amount of data has absolutely exploded over the past few years. Data touches every aspect of operations, the customer database, internal…

Fireworks erupted at the high court in Pretoria on Wednesday as the standoff between e.tv and communications minister Solly Malatsi over analogue television switch-off at the end of this month continues. The legal team representing Malatsi first refused to present to the court in their allotted timeslot on Tuesday, arguing that they needed more time to prepare their arguments. This was disputed by Malatsi’s opponents in the case – e.tv, Media Monitoring Africa and the SOS Coalition – and questioned by the judge, who highlighted the urgency of the matter given that the court has less than 10 days to…

Google’s products and services contributed R118 billion to SA’s economy in 2023. Tech giant Google has committed to help create 300 000 jobs in South Africa, through its ecosystem, by 2030. This was announced yesterday in Johannesburg, at the official launch of its first Africa-based cloud region, which went live in January 2024.At the event, Google announced an additional investment in its cloud region and skills development initiatives in SA. The latest round of investment forms part of Google’s commitment to invest $1 billion over five years, to boost Africa’s digital transformation. Its investment was first announced in 2021.Speaking at…