Promoted | Artificial intelligence and machine learning are useful tools in a war chest to improve a host of processes, not least customer service, say leading executives in South Africa.

Promoted | Ava Security recently hosted a roundtable on data protection trends and concerns faced by top security executives. It brought to light growing concerns about the risk posed by company insiders.

Outgoing Takealot Group CEO Kim Reid said the South African Post Office should get the basics right – delivering the mail – before trying to enforce a monopoly over the delivery of parcels weighing less than 1kg.

Kim Reid has spent the past 10 years building Takealot Group – today controlled by Naspers – into South Africa’s largest e-commerce company. He sat down with TechCentral to reflect on his time at the helm.

A few nights ago, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun announced on Twitter that he had paid half-a-million dollars for a picture of a rock with laser eyes. It wasn’t even a good picture of a rock.

Telkom has finally launched support for embedded Sims, or eSims, on smartphones connected to its network.

South Africa’s headline unemployment rate hit a record high of 34.4% in the second quarter from 32.6% in the first three months of the year as businesses shed staff due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

OPay, an Africa-focused digital payment start-up founded by a Chinese entrepreneur, has secured $400-million in its latest funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing it at $2-billion.

Google’s new submarine cable system, Equiano, which will connect Africa and Europe, will make its first landfall later this week – on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

Samsung Group will invest ₩240-trillion (R3.1-trillion) in the next three years to expand its footprint in biopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and robotics.