Author: Chris Anu

President Cyril Ramaphosa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen meet in Brussels, Belgium, on 9 October. Yves Herman/Reuters The EU has pledged to invest €11.5-billion (R230-billion) in South Africa in clean energy, infrastructure and pharmaceutical projects, it said late on Thursday. A large chunk of the investment aims to accelerate South Africa’s shift to renewable energy through new power generation capacity, grid upgrades, energy storage and green hydrogen. Africa’s biggest economy is trying to woo investors to help lift flagging growth and bring down high unemployment, while US tariffs have also dealt it a blow. South Africa is…

In this episode of ITWeb TV, news editor Admire Moyo speaks to Q-KON group CEO, Dr Dawie de Wet about the state of satellite broadband internet connectivity in SA and the company’s plans, as Starlink’s SA launch remains in limbo. He also touches on the impact of space debris as a result of LEO satellites among other issues. #Satellite #Connectivity #Broadband #QKON #Starlink #LEOsatelliteWhile Elon Musk’s Starlink remains caught in regulatory quagmire with South African authorities, local company Q-KON is preparing to bring consumer satellite connectivity to the country.Dr Dawie de Wet, group CEO of Q-KON, told ITWeb TV that…

The author, Seacom’s Nic Breytenbach When it comes to digital infrastructure in Africa, few things are more pressing than the need for faster, more resilient and more direct connectivity between the continent’s east and west coasts. As things stand today, if a submarine cable is cut north of Mombasa, data traffic must travel all the way down to South Africa, across the country, and back up the west coast to reach Europe or the Americas. That detour not only adds significant cost but also doubles latency – something no cloud-reliant business or internet user wants. However, what if we flipped…

Fabricio Bloisi, CEO at Prosus. Naspers unit Prosus has introduced large commerce models (LCMs) – agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems that it says are set to replace traditional search and recommendation engines.In a statement today, the company says the LCM has been trained on Prosus’s global database of commercial transactions, continually learning from over 500 million users and over 10 trillion tokens of data.According to Prosus, this is a new operating system for e-commerce – a single integrated model which can power diverse tasks from improving basic search to personalised recommendations.It notes that this LCM is already driving substantial impact…

Despite repeated government commitments to accelerate South Africa’s transition to new energy vehicles (NEVs), there has been very little tangible progress in terms of incentives and regulations, according to industry leaders. Last year, at South African Auto Week, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that government was working to finalise comprehensive NEV policy guidelines and that it would consider incentives for manufacturers as well as tax rebates or subsidies for consumers to accelerate the uptake of EVs. One year later, there has not been much movement – a 150% tax rebate for EV and hydrogen vehicle production, signed into law in December…

Dion Harvey, regional GM at Red Hat, sub-Saharan Africa. Artificial intelligence and quantum computing are foundational to the current global “technology arms race”, said Dion Harvey, regional GM of Red Hat SSA. Speaking at the company’s partner and customer focused Connect 2025 Johannesburg Summit at Melrose Arch this week, Harvey reiterated the company’s focus on open source and hybrid cloud technology, and the growth of its partner-centric ecosystem to support businesses as they operate in increasingly competitive markets.He said global markets today are characterised by tech-driven heightened competition between countries, companies and individuals, which he described as a hype-fuelled “technology…

The author, Change Logic’s Keenan Crouch Change leaders are accustomed to thinking in terms of people and process. These are the pillars of transformation, the levers that guide organisations through mergers, digital rollouts or shifts in operating models. Yet today, where technology is ingrained in the heartbeat of every business, process and engagement, a third pillar is no less important. And that is security. As a change leader, you would be remiss to treat protection and security as a downstream concern once the change design is set and the people are mobilised. They need to be part of the change…

Megaport Limited (Megaport) (ASX: MP1), the global leader in Network as a Service (NaaS), today released its 2025 Cloud Network Report, revealing a decisive industry shift: enterprises are going further than expansion and growth with connectivity and are virtualizing and orchestrating their networks to deliver resilience, sovereignty, and performance at scale. The report draws on operational data from Megaport’s platform, spanning over 1,000 enabled locations across 150+ cities, and global survey insights from IT leaders. Findings show that routing and edge product deployments grew 42% year-on-year, underscoring a move from static cloud builds to programmable, intelligent fabrics.“The future of competitiveness lies…

Valdene Reddy JSE CEO Leila Fourie is to retire early next year after nearly six-and-a-half years at the helm and will be succeeded by the head of the bourse’s capital markets, Valdene Reddy, the group said on Thursday. Reddy’s appointment is effective from 1 April 2026, it said in a statement. She has been with Africa’s largest stock exchange for more than 10 years, bringing over two decades of experience in financial markets, including senior roles at international investment banks, it added. She is currently the director of capital markets focusing on listings and secondary market trade activity across all…

AARTO may have the opposite effect to what was intended. (Source: Freepik.) Motorists could lose their driver’s licences when the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act (AARTO) rolls out nationally, not because they’re dangerous drivers, but because critical technological flaws leave the system vulnerable to errors, corruption and outdated data. “I feel that the chances of people getting into trouble because of a faulty system is way more than people [who] will get into trouble because they drive like maniacs,” says Advocate Stephanie Fick, the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse’s executive director of the accountability division.The Road Traffic Infringement…