Author: Chris Anu

SARS commissioner Edward Kieswetter. Budget 2025: The South African Revenue Service (SARS) will receive an additional R4 billion over the medium-term to modernise its operations and enhance taxpayer services.This is in addition to the R3.5 billion it was allocated at the time of the 2024 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, bringing the total allocation of funds to SARS to R7.5 billion.This came to light during a media briefing held today ahead of finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech. Godongwana tabled Budget 2025 at Cape Town City Hall this afternoon, following last month’s historic postponement over the proposed 2% value-added tax spike.Speaking…

Climate programmes targeting about US$45-billion (R825-billion) in funding for emerging economies won’t be derailed by America’s decision to withdraw, according to analysts. The US decision to exit from a leading role in Just Energy Transition Partnerships for South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam will complicate financing efforts, but won’t halt the overall objectives of the deals, BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a research note. “Although we expect the loss of US funding in the JETP partnerships to be disruptive and potentially add further delays to these programmes, we see other international partners stepping up to fill the void,”…

Cyber security and data protection companies confirm an increased interest in cyber security insurance as threats continue to hit businesses. Market research by several cyber security and data protection firms reflects an increased interest in cyber insurance as business leaders muster defences against ever-present sophisticated cyber threats – with the human factor remaining the biggest headache for business leaders.According to KnowBe4’s latest research paper, Cyber Insurance and Security: Meeting the Rising Threat, the human factor remains the most vulnerable aspect of cyber security, and accounts for 75% of data breaches.The research also found that cyber attack expenses are escalating rapidly,…

The Yangtze Optics Africa (YOA) Cable fibre-optic cable manufacturing facility in Durban’s Dube TradePort special economic zone now produces more than 4 800km of cable for the local telecommunications industry per month, with more expected as production ramps up. Construction of the 14 000sq m facility was completed in December 2024 after eight years and R310-million of investment. Although the plant’s production line started making cables for local customers including Openserve and Dark Fibre Africa as early as January this year, an official opening event was held at the facility on Tuesday. “This is an incredible, exciting time for the optical cable…

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies seeks to secure a service provider for an organisational performance management software system to support its 2025 to 2030 strategic plan. South Africans are awaiting the outcome of finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s reworked budget speech tomorrow with some trepidation, but several provincial departments are opting to go ahead with the advertisement of technology requirements for the new financial year starting on 1 April. Two national government departments also feature in this week’s top tenders on National Treasury’s eTender Portal, including a specialised request from the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) for…

Pam Golding Properties has experienced what it has described as a “cyber incident” that likely led to the unauthorised access of personal client information stored on its CRM system, Alchemy. The company, which is a major player in the high-end real estate market in South Africa, said in a statement posted on its website that no banking details, financial information, commercial information or other documents were compromised. The incident occurred last Friday and involved an unknown third party that gained access to its systems through a user account. As soon as we became aware of the security compromise, we took…

YOA Cable’s journey began with an initial investment of R150 million, which helped to establish a local presence in optical fibre cable manufacturing in South Africa. Yangtze Optics Africa (YOA) Cable has today announced the expansion of its 14 000 square metre fibre optics manufacturing plant at Dube TradePort special economic zone in Durban after making a R160 million investment into the facility.The company’s total investment now stands at over R320 million, marking a significant milestone in local optical fibre manufacturing and innovation.YOA Cable’s shareholders are Chinese-based Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Company, which has a 74.9% stake…

Image: Dall-E The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) is holding a three-day conference to investigate the feasibility and desirability of an electronic voting system for South Africa. The conference, which started on Monday in Cape Town, includes speakers from a number of countries, including Estonia, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, that have already implemented e-voting systems. Their insights will inform the IEC’s decision making on whether or not to incorporate e-voting into South African elections. E-voting offers a wide range of benefits, including improved access for the elderly and the disabled and those in living in remote…

Pnet investigated international jobs attracting South African talent over 12 months. South African IT professionals are increasingly getting “poached” by international firms, as the growing digital skills dearth leads to a fierce fight for highly-skilled tech resources.This is according to online recruitment firm Pnet in its Job Market Trend Report for February 2025.The Pnet Job Market Trends Report has been created and interpreted by the firm’s expert team of data insights specialists. The report is based on empirical data sourced from The Stepstone Group, South Africa’s online recruitment platforms, which currently hold a combined database of over nine million registered…

Being a chief information security officer (CISO) in 2025 is a daunting role, but one that TechCentral’s guest in this episode of the Meet the CIO relishes. Kerissa Varma, who was recently appointed as chief cybersecurity advisor in Africa for Microsoft, previously served as group CISO at Vodacom and before that as group CISO at Old Mutual. She understands what it takes to be a leading CISO. Meet the CIO is presented by Wipro She tells Meet the CIO about what’s involved in being a leader in enterprise cybersecurity, why she is passionate about developing female talent in the industry –…