Author: Chris Anu

Sonja De Bruyn. Image: Identity Partners One of the key players in the aborted sale of Dimension Data’s The Campus property has lashed out at the company’s former executives over an allegation that she misappropriated R5-million related to the transaction. Sonja De Bruyn, founder of Identity Fund Managers, on Monday took strong exception to a statement by five former Dimension Data executives who were involved in what the high court last November described as a “fraudulent scheme” to enrich themselves through the sale of the sprawling Sandton property. Read: Former Dimension Data execs accuse NTT of smear tactics Most seriously,…

Judy Winn Combining AI, ML, network intelligence and next-generation payment hubs can reduce risk in real-time payments, according to payments experts at the ACI Worldwide Payments Intelligence Roadshow, in Johannesburg.Outlining trends in global payments and new risks inherent in instant payments, ACI Worldwide experts noted that technologies such as cloud native payment hubs, advanced data analytics and AI are making it safer for banks and financial institutions to embrace modernisation while remaining compliant and mitigating risk.Judy Winn, Head of Information Security and Governance at Peach Payments, stated that the rapid acceleration of digital payment scams and fraud poses a significant…

Former Dimension Data executive chairman Jeremy Ord Five of six former Dimension Data executives who were found last November by the high court to have engaged in a “brazen and dishonest” scheme involving the sale of the company’s Johannesburg head office have hit back at “false claims” that they engaged in BEE fronting and improper conduct. The former executives, who in January won leave to appeal the high court judgment against them, called the allegations “part of a sustained and sinister campaign launched by NTT” – the Japanese company that acquired Dimension Data in 2010 – “to deflect attention from…

ITWeb contributor Phillip de Wet. The villain of the moment is the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which really, deeply, and utterly screwed it up.But at heart, the Please Call Me saga is the fault of lawyers, or rather the two pig-headed clients, Vodacom and Nkosana Makate, who should have stopped listening to those lawyers long ago.Makate and Vodacom started with what boils down to a simple contractual dispute: Makate handed over some intellectual property (the idea for Please Call Me) and wanted a cut of the proceeds.Had Vodacom taken that claim seriously from the outset, it could have dropped…

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Carlos Barria/Reuters Apple CEO Tim Cook signalled on Thursday the iPhone maker was ready to spend more to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence by building more data centres or buying a larger player in the segment, a departure from a long practice of fiscal frugality. Apple has struggled to keep pace with rivals such as Microsoft and Google, both of which have attracted hundreds of millions of users to their AI-powered chatbots and assistants. That growth has come at a steep cost, however, with Google planning to spend US$85-billion over the next year and…

Demand for AI professionals has been steady and sustained. Companies globally are fiercely competing for top artificial intelligence (AI) talent, offering premium salaries to attract experienced AI professionals.Last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai brushed off concerns about the company’s ability to attract and keep top AI talent. Speaking during the tech giant’s second quarter earnings announcement, he acknowledged there is a skills war, with big tech brands like Meta relentlessly recruiting and actively poaching top AI talent by offering them multimillion-dollar pay packages. His comments echo the findings of a recent report from a US consulting firm, which revealed that…

For seven decades, poor countries wanting to get rich have turned again and again to dams. For the post-independence leaders of Egypt and Ghana in the 1950s, hydroelectricity and sovereignty were inextricably linked. Building vast irrigation and electricity projects across the Nile and the Volta was a prerequisite if they were to catch up with their former colonial masters. That association still holds: four of the six biggest users of hydro today are Brazil, Russia, India and China, the Bric nations synonymous with the idea of rapid economic development. That may be changing, however. The rise of data centres mining…

Vodacom invests R620 million to improve connectivity and digital inclusion in Mpumalanga. Mobile telephony group Vodacom will spend R620 million on improving connectivity and digital inclusion in Mpumalanga this financial year.This is in addition to the over R400 million the telco invested in the region in the previous financial year (2024-2025), it says.According to a statement, the funds form part of an investment totalling more than R1 billion over two years, in line with the operator’s efforts to ensure its network is accessible to all South Africans. The investment is focused on expanding network infrastructure and driving access to connectivity,…

The cost of a data breach in South Africa has declined slightly to R44.1-million, according to a new research report from IBM. The company said in a statement on Friday that despite an increase in the number of breaches recorded in South Africa, the adoption of data security, artificial intelligence and machine learning insights, and DevSecOps practices have helped lower the average cost of such incidents. A year ago, the average cost of a data breach in South Africa was R53.1-million, according to IBM, representing a nearly 17% decline. However, the average number of breached records increased to 23 445 versus…

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in the financial services industry. As artificial intelligence (AI) takes on a growing role in financial services, from granting loans, to automating small-business bookkeeping, banks grapple with how to use it responsibly and authorities seek to put rules in place.Ciko Thomas, group managing executive of personal and private banking at Nedbank, says the ethical use of AI is “a big factor in banking. Already, we’re grappling [with this] a lot as an industry, and I know we’ve done a lot of work inside Nedbank to think about the ramifications of AI in our business.”Thomas…