Author: Chris Anu
Mpho Sadiki, MD for Payfast Whereas merchants and industry usually push digital innovation, consumers are driving merchants to innovate in online payments. The proliferation of digital tools is upending the online payments space, with consumers now driving the pace of innovation by forcing merchants to adopt their preferred payment methods instead of the other way round. This is according to Mpho Sadiki, MD for merchant services in Africa at Network International and its subsidiary, Payfast. We get merchants who ask us to add digital wallets, embedded finance and cryptocurrency payment options “Consumers engage with something somewhere and they want it,…
Ransomware and GenAI risks are on the rise. In December 2025, organisations globally faced sustained cyber pressure, as the average number of cyber attacks per organisation per week reached 2 027, a 1% increase from the previous month and a 9% increase from December 2024. In SA, companies faced 1 850 attacks per week, with financial services, transportation and logistics, and government sectors being prime targets.This is according to December 2025 Global Cyber Attack Statistics by Check Point Research, the threat intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies.According to the statistics, Latin America was the hardest hit, with companies experiencing an…
Several major renewable energy projects currently under construction will go live this year, according to industry organisation Sapvia. Once operational, these projects will collectively add hundreds of megawatts of new generation capacity to the national grid. This additional capacity is expected to contribute to improved energy security, reduce reliance on fossil-fuel-based generation and support increased private-sector participation in electricity supply. They projects are: Virginia Solar Park (275MWp/240MW contracted): Red Rocket’s flagship project is in the Free State. It is the largest solar farm procured under the renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPPP) to date. Financial close was reached…
SolarAfrica secures R1.5 billion to deliver power to SA businesses. Independent power producer SolarAfrica has secured R1.5 billion in funding to build SunCentral 2, the next 114MW plant of its utility-scale solar development in the Northern Cape. SunCentral is a large-scale solar photovoltaic plant located between Hanover and De Aar in the Northern Cape. The project will be developed in three phases.According to the company, the new SunCentral 2 funding will follow SunCentral 1, which reached financial close at the end of 2024, also at 114MW.Together with SunCentral 3, the projects will total 342MW. At full scale, SunCentral is planned…
X owner Elon Musk. Benoit Tessier/Reuters A coalition of women’s groups, tech watchdogs and progressive activists is calling on Google and Apple to remove the social media site X and its related chatbot, Grok, from their app stores. In open letters published on Wednesday, the coalition accused the Elon Musk-owned apps of generating illegal content that violates both companies’ terms of service. The push, whose backers include the feminist group UltraViolet, the National Organization for Women, the leftist group MoveOn, and the parent advocacy group ParentsTogether Action, is aimed at piling pressure on Musk after Grok began generating sexually charged,…
EV adoption in Africa could accelerate before 2040, but high financing costs remain the main barrier to uptake. Electric vehicles (EVs) could become economically competitive across large parts of Africa well before 2040, driven by falling technology costs and the rise of solar-powered, off-grid charging infrastructure.This is according to new research led by research institute ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute , in collaboration with African researchers from Makerere University, the University of Port Harcourt and Stellenbosch University.The study suggests that EV adoption on the continent may accelerate faster than previously assumed — provided charging infrastructure is designed around…
The decline in the number of South African learners taking and passing pure mathematics – as opposed to the more rudimentary maths literacy – at high school level is going to have profound negative consequences for the economy, experts have warned. This is because digital skills and computational thinking are increasingly becoming crucial components of career success. “The universities are not getting enough throughput from high schools to train Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates, not in the quantities or quality required for a modern Stem economy, and the latest national senior certificate data makes this very clear,” said…
Dr Boloka, founder and CEO of OS Lab. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo) Former Film and Publication Board (FPB) CEO Dr Mashilo Boloka has ventured into fighting digital and online threats by establishing Online Safety Lab (OS Lab) – a trust safety start-up.The start-up, which started operating in 2025, seeks to help organisations across Africa navigate the growing risks associated with digital platforms, emerging technologies and online abuse. OS Lab operates within what has become known globally as the trust and safety industry – a relatively new sector that has evolved from online content moderation into a broader market encompassing regulatory…
Sola Group’s Springbok solar farm South Africa’s renewable energy sector is poised for a busy year, with multiple projects set to reach commercialisation or break ground as market confidence remains generally upbeat. According to industry body the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association, the country’s renewable energy sector is heading in the right direction. “The policy architecture is largely in place, private investment continues to flow, and the technical capacity to deploy solar, wind and storage at scale has been demonstrated,” Sapvia spokesman Mark Spencer told TechCentral. The technical capacity to deploy solar, wind and storage at scale has been demonstrated…
Meta will initiate staff cuts of more than 1 000 people within its Reality Labs division. Facebook-parent company Meta is reportedly in the process of laying off employees focused on virtual reality (VR) within its Reality Labs division.This comes on the back of last April’s report that Meta would lay off “an unspecified number of employees” from its Reality Labs division “amid ongoing restructuring efforts”.CNBC has reported that layoffs, amounting to more than 1 000 jobs, will impact about 10% of the hardware division, which makes Quest VR headsets, and the Horizon Worlds virtual social network. Reports further note that Meta plans…