TCS - The TechCentral Show

Wetility co-founder and CEO Vincent Maposa is a busy man. The alternative energy start-up is helping South African homeowners go solar, overcoming (or at least reducing the impact of) load shedding in the process, using financing models that don’t result in prohibitive upfront capital costs. Wetility – pronounced we-tility – is one of several South African start-ups in this space, including GoSola...

You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone in South Africa as passionate about public broadcasting as Michael Markovitz. A former journalist whose storied career has included serving as adviser to Mandla Langa, the former chairman of communications regulator Icasa, Markovitz has just completed five eventful years as a member of the SABC board. He joins Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio to talk about...

Television white-spaces (TVWS) spectrum – the gaps in the frequencies used by terrestrial TV broadcasters – has long been seen as a way of bringing affordable Internet to even remote areas. But what’s happened with the various TVWS initiatives in South Africa? Keith Pitout, a leading local expert on the subject and chief technology officer of Indigo Broadband, joins TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod in...

The leadership teams at Vumatel and Vuma parent Maziv don't dream small. The company, South Africa's largest provider of fibre-to-the-home broadband infrastructure, has an audacious plan to deploy fibre not only to townships - a project that is already well under way - but also to informal settlements. It doesn't intend doing this via wireless for the "last mile". It wants to deploy a fixed-fibre...

Cliff de Wit, a former Microsoft South Africa director and now chief technology at Altron's Netstar, is passionate about many things: skills development, the internet of things, artificial intelligence ... even astrophotography. He joins TechCentral's Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio for a wide-ranging -- and fascinating -- discussion on some of the latest technologies Netstar is exploring tha...

Meet the man behind Showmax. As chief operating officer of MultiChoice Connected Video, Barry Dubovsky is leading the charge to bring the 2022 Fifa World Cup to Showmax Pro in 4K. Dubovsky joins Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio to chat about what has been involved in getting Showmax ready for the World Cup, and what the plans are for bringing other content to the platform in 4K once the global...

The launch of 4K for the 2022 Fifa World Cup, the development of DStv Glass smart TVs, the launch of uncapped fibre services, and more – it’s been a busy period for South Africa’s incumbent pay-TV operator. MultiChoice South Africa CEO Nyiko Shiburi joins TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio to chat about all the announcements the broadcaster made at its recent DStv Showcase event, a...

The “data-free” messaging app MoyaApp, which already has six million active monthly users in South Africa, is working hard to become as big as WhatsApp in the country. The app’s founder, Gour Lentell, joins Duncan McLeod on TechCentral's technology show, TC|Daily, to talk about how the development of the app is progressing. Lentell talks about the history of MoyaApp, how it’s able to offer “data-f...

Alviva Holdings’ latest financial results show a group firing on all cylinders – full-year dividend up 90%, revenue up 57% and headline earnings per share up 91%. But can the party last? Group CEO Pierre Spies and Craig Brusden, CEO of technology distributor Axiz (Alviva’s largest subsidiary), join Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio to unpack just how the group managed to turn in such stellar re...

There has never been a more exciting time to be in the satellite communications industry, says Dawie de Wet, CEO of Pretoria-based Q-KON. In this episode of TC|Daily, De Wet, who is one of South Africa’s leading experts in satellite communications technology, tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the huge changes happening in the satellite space and what they mean for consumers and for indu...

Spare a thought for Douglas Craigie Stevenson. The Cell C CEO is leading one of the most complex and difficult business turnarounds in South African corporate history. Craigie Stevenson tells TechCentral's Duncan McLeod in this episode of TC|Daily that it's been a stressful few years for the company's management team, but that the long-delayed but recently concluded recapitalisation of the mobile...

In many respects, South African IT services firm BCX is at a crossroads. The storied company, which is now owned by Telkom, may soon bring in a strategic equity partner. The industry is also facing significant changes, with the shift to cloud changing the business propositions of traditional systems integrators - BCX among them. CEO Jonas Bogoshi joins Duncan McLeod in the TC|Daily studio for a wi...

Rob Walker, owner and director of the Sasol Solar Challenge, joins TechCentral’s TC|Daily to chat about the biennial event that sees local and international teams “racing” entirely solar-powered vehicles across the length and breadth of South Africa. Founded in 2008 by now GridCars CEO Winstone Jordaan (himself a recent guest on TC|Daily), the 2022 edition of the Sasol Solar Challenge has just con...

Walmart-owned retail group Massmart has ambitious plans to become one of the most significant players in e-commerce in South Africa. In this episode of TC|Daily, TechCentral’s new technology show, the retail group’s head of e-commerce, Sylvester John, joins Duncan McLeod in-studio to unpack its plans. John, who was a key figure behind the development of e-commerce platforms at Walmart, believes th...

Former technology journalist and now author and entrepreneur Simon Dingle is the guest in this episode of TechCentral's TC|Daily. Dingle, who co-founded the rand-pegged stablecoin ZARP with Kenny Inggs, chats about some of the latest development in the world of cryptocurrencies. In this episode of TC|Daily, he unpacks: * The thinking behind ZARP * What it takes to run a stablecoin * Stablecoin reg...

Alviva Holdings-owned GridCars has built South Africa’s largest network of charging stations for electric vehicles – more than 300 so far – yet the company is just getting started, says CEO Winstone Jordaan. Jordaan joined TC|Daily, TechCentral new technology show, for a discussion about the roll-out EV charging infrastructure in South Africa. In the show, Jordaan talks about the genesis of GridCa...

Big changes are coming to the payments industry in South Africa early next year, including cheap and instantaneous payments directly to mobile numbers – no bank account number or branch code required. BankservAfrica has been working behind the scenes for years on a major system overhaul that, when it goes live, will dramatically shake up the financial services sector in South Africa, ushering in a...

Andy Higgins is a pioneer in e-commerce in South Africa – just don’t call him a “veteran”, he says, because the industry is still just getting started and he plans to be a part of its development for years to come. In this interview on TechCentral’s new technology show, TC|Daily, Higgins joins Duncan McLeod in the studio to talk about his latest venture, called Bob Group, which is an amalgamation...

Despite the challenges in convincing South African drivers to ditch fossil fuel-powered vehicles for electric alternatives, Mercedes-Benz South Africa co-CEO Mark Raine predicts that more than half of the company’s car sales locally by the end of 2026 will be fully electric. That’s just four years from now (plus a few months), yet Raine believes the South African luxury vehicle-buying market is re...

In the inaugural episode of TechCentral’s new technology show, TC|Daily, Sean Sanders, CEO of Cape Town-based cryptocurrency platform Revix, chats to host Duncan McLeod about the imminent “Merge” affecting the ethereum blockchain and what it means. Sanders explains what the Merge is, how it will impact the blockchain and what it might mean for investors in the ether token. Could it even lead to th...