All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.
The whispers that started weeks ago were wrong, as they so often are: presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj will not be the minister for propaganda after all. But what President Jacob Zuma did announce on Sunday still has all the makings of a ministry for information, replete with overtones of spin and advocacy, but headed by the relatively unknown
The national treasury on Monday warned of a fake Twitter account claiming to be that of newly appointed finance minister Nhlanhla Nene. “Minister Nene does not have a Twitter account,” spokesman Zwikhodo Netshituni said in a statement. “The Twitter account with a handle @NhlanhlaNeneZA is counterfeit.” The account, with
In a development that is likely to send shockwaves through South Africa’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry, President Jacob Zuma has replaced his hard-working communications minister, Yunus Carrim, with Siyabonga Cwele, formerly the minister of state security
This is a copy of the speech delivered by President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria on Sunday evening, where he announced his new cabinet ministers. The president announced a new department, telecommunications and postal services, will replace communications
It’s been three minutes since I booked a taxi ride on my smartphone; not quite enough time to get to the road outside my office in Rosebank. My taxi driver has already arrived and is calling to let me know. I find a white Mercedes C-Class pulled up at the kerb. There is no taxi sign on the car, but I recognise
US$100m, or over R1bn. That’s the amount South African e-commerce site Takealot has raised from Tiger Global Management, an international investment company, according to a report on US website TechCrunch. Takealot CEO Kim Reid CEO says Tiger Global has been a shareholder in Takealot since its inception
For the first time, more smartphones are being sold in South Africa than feature phones, new research shows. Samsung Africa vice-president and chief operating officer George Ferreira, quoting GfK market research, says 51% of mobile phones sold in South Africa in March 2014 were smartphones, with the rest made up of feature
MultiChoice and Samsung Electronics intend launching the pay-television operator’s DStv BoxOffice movie rental service on Samsung Smart TVs in about a month from now, TechCentral can reveal. “We have Smart Hub already on our TVs, but it’s limited,” says Samsung Africa vice-president and chief operating officer George Ferreira
Communications regulator Icasa has moved to deflect criticism that consolidation in South Africa’s telecommunications industry is a result of its failure to award new radio frequency spectrum licences. In a statement on Friday, Icasa says there have been “insinuations in the media to the effect that some of these developments are as a
Leading payment systems provider Net1 has ignored demands by the minister of social development to stop lending to social grant recipients and is continuing to grant loans to some of the country’s poorest citizens. Net1 UEPS Technologies wholly owns Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), which in 2009 was awarded a tender to distribute R10bn worth of social
