Author: Chris Anu

Communications minister Solly Malatsi. Image: DCDT If you needed a case study in political point-scoring trumping sober analysis, look no further than the ANC’s broadside on Saturday against communications minister Solly Malatsi’s policy directive on equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs). The party’s statement – framed as a defence of transformation and parliamentary authority – comes off less like a defence of constitutionalism and the rule of law and more like an ideological reflex: if it has anything to do with black economic empowerment and isn’t enforced exactly the ANC’s way, it must be wrong. This isn’t just quibbling over semantics.…

Cell C headquarters in Midrand. (Photograph by Nicola Mawson) Cell C is set to follow the same capex-light model that it does for cellular services when it expands its fibre offerings – partnering with open access companies.CEO Jorge Mendes says the company, which turned its first profit earlier this year ahead of a 27 November listing, sees the next wave of growth in broadband for operators coming from underserved areas.“We think there will be a lot more connectivity done in townships with WiFi. In the rural areas, you’re seeing that with the fibre companies,” says Mendes during a conversation with…

The cybersecurity industry has spent years perfecting how to defend laptops, servers, identities and APIs. Yet some of the most important systems in our lives, the industrial ones that keep society up and running, were never designed for cybersecurity at all. As they connect to modern networks, the stakes rise dramatically. These are the machines, sensors, weighbridges, centrifuges, conveyor belts, control rooms, utility grids, MRI scanners and industrial internet of things endpoints that power our hospitals, mines, ports, manufacturing plants and national infrastructure. They’re the systems that have always been silent, because that’s how they were designed. Air-gapped, invisible and…

AI-powered cyber attacks and ransomware top the cyber security challenges for 2026, warn cyber security firms. In November 2025, global organisations faced an average of 2 003 cyber attacks per week, driven by ransomware expansion and GenAI-linked risks, representing a 3% increase from October and a 4% rise year-on-year.This is according to cyber security firm Check Point’s overview of activity, including its latest Global Threat Intelligent insights, which confirmed a 22% rise in ransomware. It also found that one in every 35 GenAI prompts posed a high risk of data leakage, impacting 87% of organisations that use GenAI regularly.Of the four…

Communications minister Solly Malatsi The ANC has delivered a withering rebuke of communications minister Solly Malatsi’s final policy directive on black economic empowerment and regulatory alignment, arguing that it goes beyond the minister’s legal authority and threatens transformation, national security and regulatory independence. In a statement on Saturday, the party condemned Malatsi’s policy directive to Icasa, published in the Government Gazette on Friday, in which the DA minister in the government of national unity asked the communications regulator to adjust its ownership and licensing regulations to align with the ICT BEE sector code – including the recognition of equity equivalent…

The partnership will boost integrated multiome data analysis and AI-driven insights. (Image created using GenAI via ChatGPT) The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed a memorandum of understanding and licensing agreement with PromptBio, a California-based data and life sciences company.According to a statement, the partnership will boost integrated multiome data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights for the Clinical Multiome Atlas Platform (Clin-MAP), which is based at the CSIR.Multiome data analysis is the study and integration of multiple layers of biological information from the same cell samples to get a more complete view of cellular function.The Clin-MAP…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Shelby Tauber/Reuters OpenAI has launched its GPT-5.2 artificial intelligence model, after CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red” in early December pausing non‑core projects and redirecting teams to accelerate development in response to Google’s Gemini 3. GPT-5.2 comes with improvements in general intelligence, coding and long-context understanding, the company said in a statement. The new model is expected to bring even more economic value for users, as it is better at creating spreadsheets, building presentations and handling complex, multi-step projects, OpenAI said. GPT-5.2 comes with improvements in general intelligence, coding and long-context understanding Google launched…

Communications and digital technologies minister Solly Malatsi. (Photograph by Jesse Sterk) Communications minister Solly Malatsi gazettes the final policy direction on the role of equity equivalent investment programmes in the ICT sector.[Story] Communications minister Solly Malatsi has gazetted the final policy direction on the role of equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) in the ICT sector.This follows the draft policy direction released in May, which some viewed asclearing the way for Elon Musk’s low-Earth orbit satellite internet constellation Starlink to operate locally.South Africa’s current Electronic Communications Act (ECA) mandates that foreign telecoms companies must allocate 30% local equity to historically disadvantaged…

Africa’s digital transformation continues to accelerate, driven by growing cloud adoption and rising interest in artificial intelligence. Yet many organisations still face challenges in converting these ambitions into measurable business outcomes. According to Cliff de Wit, group chief innovation officer at Accelera Digital Group, the success of AI-driven initiatives depends as much on culture and governance as it does on technology. In this episode of TechCentral’s TCS+ podcast, De Wit outlines the practical steps leaders can take to reduce organisational friction, strengthen data foundations and enable cloud-led innovation at scale. Watch the interview “Cloud is no longer an IT decision.…

MoneyBadger CEO Carel Van Wyk. South African payment and logistics leaders say the country’s digital commerce sector is set for solid growth in 2026, but exporters may face continued pressure from US tariffs.The forecasts come from executives at Peach Payments, MoneyBadger and TUNL, who outlined expected trends for the year ahead.MoneyBadger CEO Carel Van Wyk said merchants are finally acting on long-standing consumer interest in new payment types. “The need for alternative payment options has been evident in consumer surveys over the past few years but it seems to be finally resulting in substantial change in merchant behaviour.“This has been…