Browsing: In-depth

Three weeks ago, in mid-April, Absa became the last of South Africa’s big banks to launch a mobile transactional banking application for smartphones and tablets, beating at the finish line by First National Bank, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec. But Absa, South Africa’s

On 10 April, communications minister Dina Pule stripped her director-general, Rosey Sekese, of a range of key powers. In a letter signed by the minister, which TechCentral today publishes in full, Pule assigned all human resources matters to one of Sekese’s deputies, Gift Buthelezi, just as the the DG returned to

The department of communications (DOC) is in a mess. Minister Dina Pule and director-general Rosey Sekese are no longer on speaking terms and, although Sekese has been back at work for the past two weeks following her recent suspension, she’s reportedly been locked out of her office

Two planets as friendly to life as the Earth have been found. Now, Harvard astronomers have confirmed the existence of life out there is just a matter of time, using an ingenious trick with starlight. In an announcement mostly

Mobile operators are reporting a sharp increase in Sim-swap fraud, where fraudsters request the companies to swap out Sims so that they can get the one-time Pins needed to perform transactions using Internet banking. Criminals do this to compromise consumers

Communications minister Dina Pule has levelled sensational allegations against three of South Africa’s top investigative journalists, but has failed to provide evidence to back up her claims, including that one of the journalists, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, attempted to blackmail her. Pule told

A thick Australian accent belies the fact that digital agency Quirk’s CEO, 37-year-old Justin Spratt, is a South African and African at heart. “I f***ing love this place,” he says colourfully when I meet with him at the company’s Sandton offices. “I’m exceptionally passionate about Africa in general,” he quickly adds

Crime is threatening to tear apart South Africa’s fledgling fibre-optic telecommunications industry as naked corruption by local government officials, deliberate damage to infrastructure by criminal syndicates and repeated threats of physical violence force sector players to stop building networks in parts of the country that desperately need

The Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (Icasa) should be pursuing iBurst parent Wireless Business Solutions (WBS) for using spectrum unlawfully rather than simply trying to get the company to settle its outstanding fees. This is the view of Icasa

The World Economic Forum has painted a shocking picture of South Africa’s education system, and its maths and science education in particular. In the forum’s 2013 Global IT Report, it ranks the country second last for maths and science education and fifth-last for its overall education system. The report