TCS - The TechCentral Show
The TechCentral Show (TCS, for short) is a tech show produced by South Africa's leading technology news platform. It features interviews with newsmakers, ICT industry leaders and other interesting people.
Muggie van Staden: Linux fans should learn to trust Microsoft
Muggie van Staden is CEO of one of South Africa's largest and oldest open-source software companies, Obsidian Systems. But ask him what he runs on his desktop, and he'll tell you it's a Mac. And he recently moved to it from ... Microsoft Windows. Van Staden says his desktop computing…
Calvin Collett on the launch of Melon Mobile, SA's latest MVNO
South African Internet entrepreneur Calvin Collett is launching his latest venture, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Melon Mobile, next week, hoping to lure customers looking for a simpler proposition for their telecommunications needs. Collett joined TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) on Thursday to unpack the new…
MetroFibre CEO on the township broadband opportunity
Jan-Jan Bezuidenhout, CEO of MetroFibre Networx, believes fibre network operators (FNOs) in South Africa will soon find a way to deliver fibre broadband profitably into underserviced areas. Speaking on the TechCentral Show (TCS), Bezuidenhout – who replaced former Absa boss Steve Booysen as CEO of MetroFibre in mid-2022 – said…
Kalon's Clive Butkow on the state of the VC nation
Clive Butkow is one of South Africa’s leading experts on venture capital investment in technology start-ups. The founder and CEO of Kalon Venture Partners joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about why the VC investment business has changed radically, especially since the world, led by the…
Pargo CEO Lars Veul on the changing shape of e-commerce logistics
When Dutch colleagues and business partners Lars Veul and Derk Hoekert came to South Africa on assignment with e-commerce marketplace Groupon in 2012, they soon realised there was a problem: up to 30% of local online orders were not getting delivered. This was due to various reasons, including consumers not…
Michele Gamberini on the criminal assault on MTN's base stations
MTN South Africa hosted a media event in Soweto on Thursday to demonstrate to journalists the severe impact that criminal vandalism is having on its base stations. In this interview, conducted at the site of an MTN base station in Mofolo South in Soweto, the company's chief technology and information…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…