Author: Chris Anu
South Africa’s cabinet will back a VAT increase in exchange for a commitment from national treasury to review spending and fast-track economic growth, according to people familiar with the discussions. Treasury is likely to opt for a smaller, 0.5 percentage point hike in a rescheduled budget to be presented on Wednesday, compared with its initially proposed two percentage point increase, according to two of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. That option would resolve an impasse within the coalition government over the planned VAT hike that caused an unprecedented postponement of the budget…
Conflicts have also brought about an increase in hacktivism. Can you provide an overview of the current cyber security landscape for critical infrastructure in the MEA region?The MEA region is largely focused on energy. It has invested significantly in oil and gas across upstream, midstream and downstream functions and the utilities to support these environments and communities. This region has also seen one of the most threatening cyber attacks on equipment and human life, with the Trisis attack in 2017, which targeted a Triconix Controller at a refinery in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, there has been a significant focus on cyber…
The Nasdaq 100 Index sank into a correction on Friday, as investors continue to sour on the megacap technology stocks that led the stock market rally over the past two years. The index is now 10.2% below a peak hit just last month, putting it past the 10% threshold that represents a market correction. Among notable decliners, Nvidia slid 0.7%, Amazon.com fell 1.5% and Microsoft 1.9%. The Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index, which entered a correction of its own in late February, 1.1% on Friday. Much of the slump reflects Wall Street’s rapid rotation out of companies tied to…
South African banks have largely slashed their instant payment charges following the introduction of PayShap. South African banks have largely slashed their instant payment charges following the introduction of PayShap to the local market.This is according to the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) Bank Cost Report for 2025, which has just been released.Solidarity’s annual bank cost report analyses only ordinary transaction profiles – accounts that are available to any member of the public.It says at the start of 2025, competitiveness improved in all four transaction profiles, with charges not only decreasing among the banks, but also moving closer to each other.The…
Apple has confirmed that it’s delaying the release of a new AI-infused Siri digital assistant, saying the company now expects to roll out the software sometime “in the coming year”. The effort will give Siri “more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps”, the iPhone maker said in a statement. “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features.” The new capabilities were first touted last June at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. At the time, the company was aiming for a…
The rapid evolution of the tech industry has yet to eradicate the significant hurdles women face. Despite the tech industry’s rapid growth and innovation, women continue to face significant barriers to success in the tech space.So said women in tech that ITWeb spoke to ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, 8 March. International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also marks a call to action to accelerate female equality.“Looking back, I can genuinely say that my tech journey through university came with a noticeable lack of support and representation,” says Shana-Michelle Rabonda,…
Eskom will implement stage-3 load shedding from 2pm on Friday following the loss of 2.7GW of generation capacity. Several generation units went offline, including Kusile unit 2, two days after it was reintroduced to the grid on Wednesday. Two other coal-fired units were taken offline due to coal operations becoming “suboptimal” following “adverse weather” in the area, said Eskom. The constrained capacity resulted in the increased reliance on emergency reserves during this week The power cuts are expected to persist throughout the weekend and end on Monday at 5am. “The constrained capacity resulted in the increased reliance on emergency reserves…
Filmed at Microsoft’s head office in Bryanston, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and Microsoft’s global vice chair and president Brad Smith outline the company’s latest round of investment into the country, the importance of AI and the development of the National AI Policy, hoped to be a catalyst in supporting economic growth and job creation.The National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy seeks to position South Africa as a leader in AI innovation and will be a catalyst in supporting economic growth.This was the word from president Cyril Ramaphosa, delivering the keynote address last night at Microsoft South Africa’s head office in…
Elon Musk. Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 Elon Musk has turned to his social media platform X to complain that his Starlink satellite internet service is “not allowed to operate in South Africa because I’m not black”. The incendiary post immediately drew strong criticism from X users, including Clayson Monyela, South Africa’s head of public diplomacy, who branded it as “not true” and “nothing to do with your skin colour”. Musk’s post was in response to another post quoting South African businessman and right-wing political campaigner Rob Hersov who told a podcast that South Africa was “on the edge…
Clint Payne, architect of Upside Down CX, culture transformation and change metrics expert. AI, automation and cloud technologies are transforming customer interactions and experiences, said guests at a CX Professionals Executive Dinner, hosted by Connect South Africa, in Johannesburg this week.Transformative AIClint Payne, Architect of Upside Down CX, CX Culture Transformation Expert and Leading Change Metrics Visionary at Ipsos, outlined the progress in customer experience in recent years and how AI is proving transformative in the space. AI is already helping us to do speech analysis, sentiment analysis and reporting that we once had to do manually.”However, AI also has…