Author: Chris Anu

Petter Sveum, EMEA CTO, Cohesity. Following the Cohesity acquisition of Veritas Technologies’ enterprise data protection business in 2024, significant enhancements have been made to Veritas NetBackup, which deliver even faster and more resilient backup and recovery in the event of malware attacks or system failures.This is according to Petter Sveum, EMEA CTO at Cohesity, who was addressing a Cohesity webinar presented in partnership with ITWeb.Sveum outlined the Cohesity and NetBackup roadmap, highlighting how the acquisition has accelerated evolution and how Cohesity’s Direct I/O architecture is transforming the technologies and reducing complexity through a unified recovery platform.He noted that organisations face mounting pressure…

Deputy communications minister Mondli Gungubele Deputy communications minister Mondli Gungubele has publicly distanced himself from minister Solly Malatsi’s decision to strip the South African Post Office of its exclusive right to deliver parcels weighing less than 1kg – a move that business rescue practitioners warn has undermined the entity’s turnaround strategy. Speaking during a portfolio committee last week, Gungubele said he had not been consulted on the decision to gazette the policy direction in December 2025. “I did not have line of sight to the decision to gazette the policy direction,” Gungubele told MPs. He added that should records exist…

The Department of Transport seeks a turnkey solution for personalisation of smart driving licence cards. (Image source: 123RF) The ICT industry is favoured with a broad range of requests on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal this week. Nevertheless, all eyes will be on a tender from the Department of Transport’s Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) for a turnkey solution for personalisation of smart driving licence cards in South Africa. The tender follows last month’s ruling from the North Gauteng High Court Pretoria that the original award to French firm IDEMIA, was irregular, invalid, unlawful and unenforceable. The court set aside the…

In a first-of-its-kind collaboration between tech and content, Xiaomi teamed up with the New Gen Podcast to do something no one has attempted before: record The Toughest Podcast Ever at the summit of Tugela Falls, Africa’s tallest waterfall and the second tallest in the world. For Xiaomi, bringing its South Africa flagship models, the Redmi Note 15 Pro+ 5G, Redmi Note 15 Pro 5G and Redmi Note 15 into one of the most demanding landscapes in the country was a deliberate decision: to take a tough device into a terrain that demands durability, dependability and long-lasting performance. Working with New…

SA reached a median mobile download speed of 65.7Mbps by the end 2025. (Image from 123RF) Despite slipping five places, South Africa’s mobile download speeds make it a “consistent leader” in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Additionally, the country is one of only three SSA nations in the global top 100 list for mobile in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Ookla. The US-based market research firm released the latest Speedtest Global Index, which analysed mobile and fixed broadband performance in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in 2025. Ookla notes Sub-Saharan Africa relies mostly on mobile infrastructure, with a…

Vodacom Group-controlled Vodafone Egypt has secured additional mobile spectrum as part of a multi-year investment programme announced by the Egyptian government, in a deal that will see Vodacom book an intangible asset of about US$350-million (R5.6-billion) in the 2026 financial year. Egypt’s ministry of communications & IT and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority announced the programme on 7 February, offering mobile operators a structured pathway to acquire and renew spectrum over a six-year period running from the 2026 to 2032 financial years. Vodafone Egypt, in which JSE-listed Vodacom holds a controlling 55% stake, has confirmed it will participate and has…

Winners of the 2026 Wired4Women Awards will be announced on 16 April. This is the final call to nominate a female tech champion – whether she is an industry veteran or about to start her career in ICT.Nominations for the 2026 Wired4Women Awards close on Sunday, 8 February at 23:59 (SAST).An initiative of ITWeb Brainstorm and the Wired4Women Tech Forum, and supported by Telkom as lead sponsor, the Wired4Women Awards showcase the depth of talent and impact women bring to South Africa’s technology sector. By giving exceptional female leaders, innovators, mentors and rising stars the visibility they deserve, the awards…

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb said at the weekend that it had accidentally given away more than US$40-billion worth of bitcoin to customers as promotional rewards, triggering a sharp selloff on the exchange. Bithumb apologised for the mistake, which took place on Friday, and said it had recovered 99.7% of the 620 000 bitcoin, worth about $44-billion (R706-billion) at current prices. It had restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the erroneous distribution on Friday. The exchange had planned to distribute small cash rewards of ₩2 000 (R22) or more to each user as part of…

Tony Anscombe, chief security evangelist at ESET. The evolution of ransomware means that in 2026, African organisations can expect more targeted phishing attacks, the rise of endpoint detection and response (EDR) killers and AI-powered ransomware.This is according to cyber security firm ESET’s H2 2025 Threat Report, based on telemetry from threat data sourced in January 2026.Phishing remains an effective and popular threat vector, and cyber criminals identify SA as a fertile market. According to the report, 32.5% of cyber attacks targeting Africa were phishing related, while in SA, the statistic is 45.7%. Allan Juma, lead cyber security engineer at ESET,…

Eskom says more than 140 000 customers are no longer subject to load reduction during peak periods, as the utility makes progress on a programme to eliminate the practice entirely by 2027. Load reduction – distinct from load shedding – is a targeted measure Eskom uses in areas plagued by illegal connections, meter tampering and overloaded infrastructure. While load shedding involves rolling blackouts across the grid when generation capacity falls short of demand, load reduction sees Eskom deliberately curtail supply to specific feeders where electricity theft and infrastructure abuse threaten the safety and stability of the local network. Central to Eskom’s…