Author: Duncan McLeod

As has become customary at this time of the year, TechCentral is pleased to present its lists of who it considers the biggest technology newsmakers over the past 12 months, both internationally and in South Africa. We kick it off, as always, with the five people the

Proposed amendments to the Icasa Act, which governs the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, have come under heavy fire, with critics warning the changes hand too much power to communications minister Dina Pule. After two years of inaction, government has revived the Icasa

The opposition Democratic Alliance’s annual report card of the cabinet is in, and communications minister Dina Pule has not emerged well, receiving an “E” for her performance in 2012.

“Pule’s involvement in the ICT Indaba scandal and her hand in the year of missed opportunities at Telkom

Last week, my Android-powered smartphone, which had just been upgraded to Jelly Bean, the latest version of the software, popped up a message warning me that it would take nine minutes longer than normal to get to my next meeting, in Midrand. The reason, it said, was that there was a traffic

It’s been a good year for most technology stocks listed on the JSE. One notable exception is Gijima, whose share price has tumbled by more than two-thirds in the past 12 months as investors fret about the company’s future. It’s lost nearly half its value since it published its annual results in

Ghana’s National Communications Authority has ordered MTN, that country’s largest mobile operator, to stop adding new subscribers to its network because network quality “continues to deteriorate”. MTN Ghana has 11m subscribers in a country of 25m people, according

JSE- and Nasdaq-listed Net1 UEPS Technologies, which earlier this year won a contested multibillion-rand project to roll out a system for the payment of social grants in South Africa, is now facing investigations by US authorities into whether it made corrupt payments to government officials to secure the contract

Struggling telecommunications operator Telkom has suffered another blow after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded its credit rating on Tuesday, warning that the continued decline in its fixed-line business and losses in mobile will result in further profit erosion. S&P cut Telkom’s credit

South Africans can finally download music from Apple’s iTunes Store, the US firm said in a statement on Tuesday. The news comes just a day after the company announced that the iPhone 5 would be launched in South Africa on 14 December. “Apple today announced the launch of the iTunes Store in Russia

Technology entrepreneur Stafford Masie spent two-and-a-half years working on the Payment Pebble smartphone payment device before it was unveiled last week by retail banking giant Absa. The device was engineered and built by Masie’s Centurion-based company Thumbzup, which he wants