TCS - The TechCentral Show

Yugen Naidoo on Lenovo and the future of the PC

The PC industry has been through a boom-and-bust cycle in the past few years, with demand first spiking higher due to Covid and work-from-home measures, only to fall back as people returned to the office. Despite this, there’s plenty happening in the PC space, including interesting experimentation with new form…

10 Mar 5AM 26 min

Mastercard’s Robert Brine on the fast changing world of payments

Robert Brine, director of Cyber & Intelligence Solutions at Mastercard in Southern Africa, joins the TechCentral Show (TCS) to talk about security in the global payments industry. Brine tells TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod about the security challenges in the fintech and financial services space, and what consumers and businesses need to…

6 Mar 4AM 35 min

The inside story of toco, the Stellenbosch-born digital currency

TechCentral on Tuesday broke the news about Toco, a new payments platform and associated digital currency, toco, backed by the founder of Vumatel. Now Toco CEO Paul Rowett joins the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about the project, which aims to fight climate change by “fixing the current economic model…

21 Feb 4AM 41 min

How Naked got covered - Alex Thomson unpacks huge funding round

Naked Insurance, the South African digital insurance start-up, announced earlier on Wednesday that it has secured US$17-million (R306-million at the time of writing) in a series-B funding round. Alex Thomson, Naked’s CEO and a co-founder of the company, joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to unpack the investment,…

15 Feb 5AM 20 min

Brandon Doyle on Convergence Partners’ big new infrastructure fund

Convergence Partners CEO Brandon Doyle joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to unpack the recently announced closing, at $296-million (R5.3-billion), of the private equity company’s new Digital Infrastructure Fund. Convergence Partners, which is chaired by well-known South African technology investor and entrepreneur Andile Ngcaba, unpacks what the fund…

14 Feb 7AM 43 min

Pinnacle’s Tim Humphreys-Davies on the state of the IT nation

Tim Humphreys-Davies, CEO of Alviva Holdings-owned technology distributor Pinnacle, believes the worst of the supply-chain challenges that afflicted the global and local tech industries in recent years is largely over. Speaking on the TechCentral Show (TCS), Humphreys-Davies explains that although there are still some challenges in the networking space, the…

9 Feb 9AM 29 min

Inside AfriForum's plan to deploy modular nuclear reactors in SA

AfriForum, the vocal Afrikaner civil rights organisation, wants to deploy pebble-bed modular nuclear reactors (PBMRs) in South African communities to help solve the country’s crippling energy woes. But why PBMRs? And how will the project work exactly? It might seem strange for a non-governmental organisation like AfriForum to want to…

3 Feb 4AM 38 min

Rob Godlonton on his plans for +OneX - and what went wrong at EOH

In the final TC|Daily interview of 2022, Duncan McLeod is joined in the TechCentral studio by +OneX founder Rob Godlonton for a wide-ranging discussion on the company and the South African IT sector more broadly. Godlonton tells McLeod about his career history, including the 10 years between 2009 and 2019…

14 Dec 2022 5AM 34 min

Alan Dickson on why Reunert is thriving

Despite being one of South Africa’s oldest companies – it was founded in 1888 and listed on the JSE in 1948 – Reunert is a picture of health. The group, which owns assets in engineering, electronics, IT and defence, last month reported a 16% improvement in full-year revenue to 30…

7 Dec 2022 9AM 45 min

A R3-million TV, and everything else coming from Samsung

How would you like a R3-million TV in your living room? Samsung Electronics is happy to oblige – and they’ll even help you install it. Next year, the Korean consumer electronics giant will launch its new range of ultra-high-premium micro-LED televisions in South Africa – and the top-end model, which…

28 Nov 2022 7AM 47 min

Uncapped fibre for R5/day - Isizwe's big gambit

Kayamandi, a township next to Stellenbosch, is the subject of two interesting experiments, which, if they succeed, could transform the way South Africans – and the world – connect to the Internet. The township is the site of two fibre deployments, one being led by Vumatel and the other by…

24 Nov 2022 9AM 28 min

Stephen van Coller on what's really happening at EOH

EOH Holdings is about to embark on a rights offer, seeking up to R600-million from its long-suffering shareholders as it moves to deal with the unsustainable debt on its balance sheet. At the same time, the share price – R3.10 at the time of publication – has fallen to levels…

19 Nov 2022 11AM 39 min

This South African app wants to help fix your city

Joao Zoio is a man on a mission. As CEO of Acumen Software, he is overseeing the development of My Smart City, a platform that integrates with municipalities to try to resolve service delivery issues quickly and efficiently. The platform, available on the Web or via smartphone apps, allows residents…

18 Nov 2022 8AM 24 min

Unpacking the FTX disaster, with OVEX’s Jon Ovadia

The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has sent shockwaves through the crypto community worldwide. In this episode of TC|Daily, Jon Ovadia, CEO of South Africa crypto exchange OVEX, joins TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod from Dubai to talk about FTX’s bankruptcy and what it means for South African crypto players and for…

18 Nov 2022 3AM 27 min

Mteto Nyati on investing, IT and South Africa's future

Former Altron Group and MTN South Africa chief executive Mteto Nyati has strong views on South Africa, specifically regarding the country's potential with the right leadership in place. Nyati joins Duncan McLeod on TechCentral's TC|Daily technology show to chat about the announcement this week that he has acquired a 40%…

16 Nov 2022 3AM 33 min

Russell Southwood on the African telecoms revolution

Russell Southwood probably knows more about the communications revolution in Africa than anyone. The founder and CEO of Balancing Act Africa, Southwood has covered the industry for decades. In a new book, he's now shared the story of how Africa went from having fewer telephone lines than Manhattan in 1986…

14 Nov 2022 6AM 32 min

This start-up wants to save you from Eskom

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 –…

9 Nov 2022 3AM 34 min

Michael Markovitz: ‘My five years on the SABC board’

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…

7 Nov 2022 3AM 49 min

TV white spaces - the current state of play, with Keith Pitout

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…

2 Nov 2022 4AM 33 min

Vumatel's audacious plan to take fibre to everyone

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…

31 Oct 2022 5AM 33 min