Author: Chris Anu
Land Bank confirms temporary unavailability of certain IT systems. The Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank) has announced a temporary disruption to certain internal IT systems.In a statement yesterday, the bank and its subsidiary Land Bank Insurance Company informed stakeholders and the public of the disruption, saying the matter is receiving the highest priority.The Land Bank has not divulged the nature of the disruption, only stating that it has taken the affected systems offline as a precautionary measure. The bank’s website was inaccessible on Friday morning. “Land Bank’s internal IT teams, supported by external specialists, are…
Anja Bates, head of data at Pnet A new report from Pnet shows that software development jobs are highly available but there is little competition for them among jobseekers. The difference between the number of software developers needed in the economy versus the number of qualified individuals applying for roles is so significant that there is relatively little competition for programming jobs. This is according to online recruitment platform Pnet’s Jobs Market Trends report for December 2025, released on Wednesday. Software developer returned to the top of the list of the most demanding jobs in South Africa “Our data shows…
Automation drives ecommerce gains in South Africa. South Africa’s e-commerce sector recorded strong growth in 2025, with order volumes across all channels increasing by 47% year-on-year (YOY), according to a new report by e-commerce marketing platform, Omnisend. The report is based on an analysis of nearly 3 000 South African e-commerce platforms, drawing on data from social commerce, online marketplaces, brand-owned websites, emails, SMS messages and push notifications sent in 2025. Despite a significant increase in online order volumes, the report found that the growth was unevenly distributed, with a small group of high-performing e-commerce brands capturing a disproportionate share…
Mpho Sadiki, MD for Payfast Whereas merchants and industry usually push digital innovation, consumers are driving merchants to innovate in online payments. The proliferation of digital tools is upending the online payments space, with consumers now driving the pace of innovation by forcing merchants to adopt their preferred payment methods instead of the other way round. This is according to Mpho Sadiki, MD for merchant services in Africa at Network International and its subsidiary, Payfast. We get merchants who ask us to add digital wallets, embedded finance and cryptocurrency payment options “Consumers engage with something somewhere and they want it,…
Ransomware and GenAI risks are on the rise. In December 2025, organisations globally faced sustained cyber pressure, as the average number of cyber attacks per organisation per week reached 2 027, a 1% increase from the previous month and a 9% increase from December 2024. In SA, companies faced 1 850 attacks per week, with financial services, transportation and logistics, and government sectors being prime targets.This is according to December 2025 Global Cyber Attack Statistics by Check Point Research, the threat intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies.According to the statistics, Latin America was the hardest hit, with companies experiencing an…
Several major renewable energy projects currently under construction will go live this year, according to industry organisation Sapvia. Once operational, these projects will collectively add hundreds of megawatts of new generation capacity to the national grid. This additional capacity is expected to contribute to improved energy security, reduce reliance on fossil-fuel-based generation and support increased private-sector participation in electricity supply. They projects are: Virginia Solar Park (275MWp/240MW contracted): Red Rocket’s flagship project is in the Free State. It is the largest solar farm procured under the renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP) to date. Financial close was reached…
SolarAfrica secures R1.5 billion to deliver power to SA businesses. Independent power producer SolarAfrica has secured R1.5 billion in funding to build SunCentral 2, the next 114MW plant of its utility-scale solar development in the Northern Cape. SunCentral is a large-scale solar photovoltaic plant located between Hanover and De Aar in the Northern Cape. The project will be developed in three phases.According to the company, the new SunCentral 2 funding will follow SunCentral 1, which reached financial close at the end of 2024, also at 114MW.Together with SunCentral 3, the projects will total 342MW. At full scale, SunCentral is planned…
X owner Elon Musk. Benoit Tessier/Reuters A coalition of women’s groups, tech watchdogs and progressive activists is calling on Google and Apple to remove the social media site X and its related chatbot, Grok, from their app stores. In open letters published on Wednesday, the coalition accused the Elon Musk-owned apps of generating illegal content that violates both companies’ terms of service. The push, whose backers include the feminist group UltraViolet, the National Organization for Women, the leftist group MoveOn, and the parent advocacy group ParentsTogether Action, is aimed at piling pressure on Musk after Grok began generating sexually charged,…
EV adoption in Africa could accelerate before 2040, but high financing costs remain the main barrier to uptake. Electric vehicles (EVs) could become economically competitive across large parts of Africa well before 2040, driven by falling technology costs and the rise of solar-powered, off-grid charging infrastructure.This is according to new research led by research institute ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute , in collaboration with African researchers from Makerere University, the University of Port Harcourt and Stellenbosch University.The study suggests that EV adoption on the continent may accelerate faster than previously assumed — provided charging infrastructure is designed around…
The decline in the number of South African learners taking and passing pure mathematics – as opposed to the more rudimentary maths literacy – at high school level is going to have profound negative consequences for the economy, experts have warned. This is because digital skills and computational thinking are increasingly becoming crucial components of career success. “The universities are not getting enough throughput from high schools to train Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates, not in the quantities or quality required for a modern Stem economy, and the latest national senior certificate data makes this very clear,” said…