Duncan McLeod
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Articles by Duncan McLeod
Jensen Huang is out at Nvidia
Former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Lisi Niesner/Reuters Jensen Huang has resigned as CEO of Nvidia with immediate effect, ending a 33-year run at the head of the company he co-founded and built into the world’s dominant supplier of AI chips. Nvidia’s board announced on Thursday that Huang had stepped down as president, CEO and director.
Bob Shop hackers copied card numbers and the key to unlock them
Bob Group, the company behind online marketplace Bob Shop, has told customers to treat their card details as exposed after an attacker breached its systems and copied encrypted card numbers along with the key needed to decrypt them. In a notice emailed to customers on Thursday and seen by TechCentral, the company said an “unauthorised party” gained access to parts of its systems on 30 and 31 October.
Court bid could open the door to Starlink in South Africa
A court challenge by business organisation Sakeliga could open a path for operators such as Elon Musk’s Starlink to qualify for telecoms licences without selling 30% of their local operations – and without parliament first changing the law.
Telkom wants Icasa’s BEE rules eased for everyone, Starlink included
A Telkom communications tower in Pretoria Telkom has told Icasa that the regulator’s black ownership rules for telecoms licensees go beyond what the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act and the ICT sector code envisage, and that the resulting uncertainty has “potentially deterred much-needed investment” in South Africa’s networks.
Vox veteran Jacques du Toit hangs up his gloves
Jacques du Toit Internet service provider Vox has appointed Martin Springer, a former NTT Data executive, as CEO. He replaces Jacques du Toit, who has led the company since 2013. The appointment took effect on 2 November, Vox said in a statement on Tuesday. It described the change as “a planned executive leadership transition”, agreed between Du Toit and the board. Vox said the timing was tied to “the upcoming completion of key strategic transaction milestones”. It did not name the transaction.
Vodacom targets satellite-to-phone service in South Africa next year
Vodacom hopes to launch a commercial satellite-to-phone service in South Africa towards the end of 2027, and will “more than likely” do it with AST SpaceMobile, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub told TechCentral. Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, after the release of Vodacom’s interim results, Joosub confirmed that the target applies to South Africa.
Vodacom eyes SA and Kenya for AI data centre hubs after Egypt
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub The sovereign AI data centre Vodafone Egypt plans to build with Elsewedy Electric and Cassava Technologies will cost about US$1-billion (R16.4-billion) over the next couple of years, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said, and Vodacom-controlled Vodafone Egypt will own about 30% of it. Vodacom disclosed the joint venture in its interim results on Tuesday, describing the project as Egypt’s largest data centre and its first sovereign AI data centre.
Safaricom ruling tripped default clauses in Vodacom’s loans
Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub The Kenyan court ruling that nullified part of Vodacom’s Safaricom deal triggered events of default and cross-default under some of the group’s funding arrangements, forcing it to seek waivers from lenders, its interim results show. Kenya’s high court nullified the government’s sale of a 15% stake in Safaricom to Vodacom’s subsidiary Vodafone Kenya on 15 September, two and a half months after the deal closed.
Vodacom gets prepaid growing again as MTN’s shrinks
Vodacom Group has returned its South African prepaid business to growth, a day after rival MTN reported another fall in its prepaid customer base. Vodacom South Africa’s prepaid mobile customer revenue rose 1.7% to R13.4-billion in the six months to 30 September 2026, accelerating to 3.1% in the second quarter from 0.4% in the first, the group said in its interim results on Tuesday. CEO Shameel Joosub said Vodacom had delivered on its “commitment to return prepaid to growth”.
MTN South Africa’s margins climb as its customer base shrinks
MTN South Africa had its most profitable quarter of the year in the three months to September, but it got there by cutting costs, not by growing. Service revenue was flat, and the company shed about two million prepaid customers in 12 months.
Rift opens between MTN and Cell C
MTN South Africa and Cell C have failed to agree on “certain matters” in their longstanding commercial relationship, and those matters will now be dealt with through the mechanisms set out in their agreement. “MTN SA and Cell C have engaged extensively on the terms of their longstanding commercial relationship but have not reached agreement on certain matters,” MTN said in a trading update for the nine months to September, published on Monday.
Fewer stores, more Bash: TFG’s online pivot gathers pace
Online sales at The Foschini Group’s African business grew 53.3% in the six months to 30 September, driven by its Bash platform, even as the retailer closed 120 stores in the region. Online now contributes 10.9% of TFG Africa’s sales, up from 7.4% a year earlier, the JSE-listed group said in its interim results on Friday. E-commerce revenue in the division’s retail business rose to R2.2-billion from R1.4-billion. The pace is picking up.
MTN keeps its ‘best network’ crown
MTN has again been named South Africa’s best mobile network by Opensignal, winning or sharing 10 of the 16 awards in the analytics company’s latest report, though it now shares the reliability award with Cell C. Opensignal’s November 2026 mobile network experience report, based on measurements from users’ devices between 1 July and 28 September, gives MTN four outright wins: consistent quality, download speed, upload speed and 5G availability.
DUNCAN McLEOD: The Prime-ification of South African retail
In 2023, Shoprite Group’s Checkers became the first South African grocer to charge shoppers a monthly fee, launching Xtra Savings Plus at R99. Many of its rivals have since followed. Pick n Pay launched Smart Shopper Pro last week at the same price, offering free asap! deliveries on orders over R350, triple points on fresh food and 10% off an in-store shop. TakealotMore costs R39 or R99, for standard or premium.
Telcos push for 20-Sim cap and accuse Icasa of overreach
ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi South Africa’s biggest mobile operators want to allow each person up to 20 Sim cards per network, four times the limit of five per operator proposed by Icasa. They also accuse the regulator of giving itself powers it doesn’t have. The 20-Sim limit is part of a framework agreement that members of the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT), which represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, signed in June.
DJ Zinhle is launching a mobile network for her ‘besties’
DJ Zinhle DJ Zinhle, one of South Africa’s best-known DJs, is launching her own mobile network. Bestie Connect is a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on MTN’s infrastructure and is aimed squarely at her followers. The venture is being built with BlueStream Mobile, an MVNO advisory business run by Hymie Marnewick, who sold payments connectivity company XLink Communications to Vodacom in 2015. Zinhle is a shareholder in Bestie Connect alongside BlueStream.
Sales of new-energy vehicles are surging in South Africa
South Africans bought more new-energy vehicles in the first nine months of 2026 than in the whole of last year, and most of them now of the plug-in variety. Plug-in hybrids outsell fully electric cars by more than 2.5 to one. Sales of new-energy vehicles – hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles – reached 22 389 by the end of September, industry body Naamsa said in its October sales release on Monday. That is 34% more than the 16 703 sold in all of 2025, with a quarter still to go.
The door to new network operators in South Africa is about to open
Icasa has concluded, provisionally, that South Africa’s system for letting new telecoms network operators into the market isn’t working, and that would-be operators should be allowed to apply to it directly for licences.
MTN Nigeria’s growth engine restarts
MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola MTN Nigeria’s revenue growth picked up again in the third quarter after a sharp slowdown in the three months to June, but its fintech business is still recovering from the suspension of its airtime lending service. Service revenue rose 19.7% year on year to ₦1.61-trillion in the three months to September, up from 13.2% growth in the second quarter. Growth accelerated each month, reaching 21.6% in September.
Altron lifts dividend 15% as IT services returns to growth
Altron Group CEO Werner Kapp Altron’s IT services businesses grew revenue in the six months to August for the first time since a two-year restructuring, and Altron Digital Business made a profit against a loss a year earlier. Its security unit, however, suffered a sharp fall in earnings. Headline earnings per share from continuing operations rose 14% to 109c, within the range of 107c-112c Altron flagged in September.
Dis-Chem’s earnings slide as its tech spending doubles
Dis-Chem doubled its spending on X, bigly labs, its in-house technology and innovation unit, in the six months to August. The pharmacy group’s earnings fell again, even though revenue grew 8%. Headline earnings per share dropped 12.8% to 64.3c, Dis-Chem said in its interim results published after markets closed on Thursday. Revenue rose 8% to R23-billion, but expenses climbed 13.1%, outpacing a 9% rise in total income, and operating profit fell 10.5% to R1-billion.
R99 grocery subscription war: Pick n Pay takes on Checkers
Pick n Pay has launched a paid tier of its Smart Shopper loyalty programme at R99/month, the same price Shoprite charges for Xtra Savings Plus, the paid tier of its Checkers and Shoprite loyalty programme. Smart Shopper Pro, announced on Thursday, gives members unlimited free deliveries on asap! orders over R350, triple points on fresh groceries, double points on BP fuel and an extra 10% off in-store shopping, capped at R200/month. Customers sign up in the asap! app.
Icasa’s fingerprint Sim plan runs into major telco resistance
ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi South Africa’s biggest mobile operators, through their industry body, will not back Icasa’s proposed biometric Sim checks and five-number cap in their current form, warning that the draft rules overlap with Rica, the existing Sim registration law, and could disrupt the industry’s own clean-up of the Sim market.
Put the Woan’s spectrum in orbit, says Vodacom
Vodacom wants Icasa to make the spectrum once reserved for the defunct wholesale open-access network (Woan) available to mobile operators for satellite-to-phone services, priced below what it would fetch for conventional mobile use. Vodacom Group CTO Dejan Kastelic told TechCentral in an interview this week that the frequencies could help operators reach “100% coverage” in South Africa by linking ordinary phones directly to satellites in areas that towers do not reach.
AI has started a tech ‘supercycle’, says Datatec’s Jens Montanana
Datatec Group CEO Jens Montanana AI has triggered a lasting step change in demand for computing, networking and cybersecurity, Datatec CEO Jens Montanana told investors on Thursday, as the JSE-listed group reported record first-half adjusted earnings at its two biggest divisions. “There are many characteristics of a new technology supercycle,” Montanana said. “We do not think this is a one-off moment.
Icasa wants your fingerprint before you can get a Sim card
Anyone activating a Sim card, swapping one or keeping an existing mobile number would have their fingerprint or face checked against home affairs records under draft regulations published by communications regulator Icasa this week.
Vodacom books R23-billion Safaricom gain as court fight rages
Vodacom Group will book a once-off gain of R23.2-billion on Safaricom in its interim results, even as the Kenyan courts decide whether its purchase of a controlling stake in the operator should be undone. The gain, disclosed in a trading statement on Wednesday, will lift earnings per share for the six months to 30 September by between 272% and 279%, to between 1 756c and 1 789c. It arises on “the remeasurement of a previously held associate interest in Safaricom”, Vodacom said.
South Africa’s 3G networks could go dark within two years
Vodacom Group CTO Dejan Kastelic Vodacom believes South Africa could be ready to switch off its 3G networks within 12-24 months, but group CTO Dejan Kastelic says no operator will want to do it alone. “We would be super keen to switch off 3G in all of the markets, not only South Africa,” Kastelic told TechCentral in an interview on Wednesday.
The unregulated online market betting on South Africa’s next mayors
Johannesburg is one of the battleground cities in next week’s local government elections. Just over half of punters on Polymarket expect Helen Zille will be the city’s next mayor With a week to go before South Africa’s 4 November local government elections, punters on Polymarket give the DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis a 96% chance of being Cape Town’s next mayor and Helen Zille a 52% chance of taking Johannesburg.
The start-up turning township addresses into alternative credit data
DigiDeeds co-founder Jaco Carstens A start-up founded by a former Capitec credit executive is building digital records of homes that sit outside South Africa’s title-deed system. It believes banks, insurers and credit bureaus will pay for what it learns about the people who live in them. DigiDeeds launched its app in March and says it has signed up more than 6 600 members, in areas including Khayelitsha, Soweto and Soshanguve.
Former Icasa chairman Paris Mashile has died
Former Icasa chairman Paris Mashile Paris Mashile, who chaired communications regulator Icasa from 2005 to 2010 and served it again for much of the 16 years that followed, has died. Icasa announced his death in a statement on Monday. It did not say when or how he died. Mashile was chairman from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2010. He returned as a councillor in April 2016 and was acting chairman from September to November 2017, and his term ended in June 2020.
Blu Label starts building its first power plant
Blu Label Unlimited Group co-CEO Mark Levy Blu Label Unlimited’s energy unit has started building its first power plant: a R360-million solar project at the Springs Fresh Produce Market that will supply electricity to the City of Ekurhuleni for 20 years. BluEnergy and its development partner, IBS Crafts, broke ground on the 25.6MWp (megawatt-peak) plant on Thursday, the company said in a statement.
Pick n Pay’s online sales jump while store sales barely grow
Pick n Pay’s online sales grew 35.4% in the six months to 30 August, in line with the growth Shoprite reported for Checkers Sixty60 in its latest financial year. But the retailer, which reported interim results on Monday, gave no rand figure for the business, so there is no way to tell how much ground it is making up. Pick n Pay called online “another standout performance”. It was the fastest-growing part of a business whose overall turnover stood still.
Rand Mutual Assurance probes alleged theft of 1.68 million claim records
Rand Mutual Assurance (RMA), which handles workplace injury and disease claims for South Africa’s mining and metals industries, is investigating a claimed data breach. A hacker says it has stolen 1.68 million compensation claim records and is demanding a US$95 000 (R1.6-million) ransom. RMA “has received an alert about a data breach” and “investigations are under way”, Nduduzo Majozi, RMA’s chief information security officer, said in a statement shared with TechCentral on Friday.
Global PHP scramble reaches the Union Buildings
The Union Buildings in Pretoria The presidency took its website offline on Friday “as a precautionary measure in response to a global cybersecurity event”. It did so two days after the developers of the PHP programming language released emergency fixes for two critical flaws that attackers are already exploiting.
4Sight revenue jumps 29%, but software resale squeezes margins
4Sight Holdings grew revenue by 29.3% in the six months to August, but most of the growth came from reselling software at thin margins, and profit rose far more slowly. Revenue increased to R748.3-million from R578.7-million, the JSE-listed technology group said in its interim results on Thursday.
Malatsi asks Icasa to rewrite network-sharing rules
Communications minister Solly Malatsi has asked the sector regulator, Icasa, to rewrite South Africa’s 16-year-old rules on how operators share infrastructure and has set out principles for long-delayed regulations meant to speed up the building of broadband networks. The policy direction, signed on 19 October and published in the Government Gazette on Tuesday, asks Icasa to review the Facilities Leasing Regulations of 2010 and to develop rapid deployment regulations.
DStv’s South African revenue keeps sliding
MultiChoice’s revenue fell 3% on a like-for-like basis in the nine months to September, driven by lower subscription revenue in South Africa, its French owner Canal+ said on Thursday. The decline eased in the third quarter to 2% year on year, from 3.4% in the first half, which Canal+ attributed partly to “favourable comparison effects related to the sporting events line-up”. Higher revenue in most of MultiChoice’s other English-speaking markets partly offset the fall in South Africa.
DUNCAN McLEOD: Kganyago’s mission creep of cash and crypto assets
Lesetja Kganyago will be remembered as one of the finest governors the Reserve Bank has had, and particularly for being ruthless about inflation. But in the past year the Bank has started reaching beyond its brief. It is no longer content to set the rules of the game. Increasingly it appears to want to own the pitch, too.
Discovery ranks cybercrime as its top risk, citing frontier AI
Discovery has moved cybercrime to the top of its risk register, warning that advanced AI models are speeding up attacks to the point where they could outpace its defences. In its integrated annual report for the year to 30 June 2026, the financial services group ranks “cybercrime and cybersecurity” first among its top 10 risks, up from third a year earlier. Geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, last year’s top risk, drops to second.
Treasury puts R150-million behind MyMzansi government app
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana Treasury has set aside R150-million in this year’s adjustments budget for the team building MyMzansi, the app through which government wants South Africans to reach its services and, eventually, carry a digital ID.
Treasury backs down on crypto rules after ‘thousands’ of comments
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana National treasury and the Reserve Bank will rewrite their draft rules on moving crypto assets across South Africa’s borders after receiving “thousands of comments” on the proposals, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said on Wednesday. “It is clear that we need to take a different approach to these amendments,” Godongwana told parliament in his medium-term budget policy statement. “We must aim to shift away from pre-approvals.
Newspapers hit with import duty to save South Africa’s last newsprint machine
Image: Steve Buissinne Most imported newsprint now carries a 5% customs duty, after the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) backed Sappi’s bid to protect the newsprint machine at its Ngodwana mill in Mpumalanga from cheaper imports. The general rate of duty on newsprint in rolls or sheets went from 0% to 5% on 16 October, under a tariff amendment signed by finance minister Enoch Godongwana and published by the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
Before South Africa licenses Starlink, it should look at Ukraine
Last week, Ukrainian drone operators found that their satellite links stopped working above about 160km/h. Interceptor drones built to hunt down Russian attack drones suddenly couldn’t keep up with their targets. Nobody in Kyiv had been warned. The cap hit Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink. Who ordered it depends on whom you read. Three US officials told Reuters it came from a White House directive to the Pentagon.
Most of Datatec’s R7-billion payout was taken in shares, not cash
Datatec expects underlying earnings per share for the six months to 31 August to rise by between 53% and 61%, a day after issuing 94.3 million new shares to investors who chose stock instead of cash from its R7.05-billion special dividend. The JSE-listed ICT group said in a trading statement on Tuesday that underlying earnings per share would come in at between 29.5 and 31 US cents, up from 19.3 US cents a year earlier.
Post Office wants R2.2-billion from government as it braces for another loss
Vredefort Post Office The South African Post Office expects to lose about R391-million in 2026/2027, even after public funding, and is asking the state for about R2.2-billion in new money over the next three years to keep operating and start rebuilding its network. The figures are in the Post Office’s corporate plan for 2026/2027, presented last week to the national council of provinces’ select committee on economic development & trade.
A software revolution is heading for South African driveways
Toyota expects its Arene software platform to be running in 10 million new vehicles a year, across 50 models, by 2030, the company said on Friday. Subaru, in which Toyota holds a 21% stake, told a strategy briefing north of Tokyo that it will launch its own software-defined vehicles in the second half of the decade. They will be built around an integrated control unit whose core chip Subaru developed with AMD. Subaru also aims to cut its development times by about 40%.
The R77 000 iPhone has arrived in South Africa
iPhone’s new folding phone, the Duo Apple’s iPhone Duo will cost South Africans R47 999 for the 256GB model and R76 999 for the 2TB version, according to pricing on the iStore website. That makes the foldable the most expensive iPhone in the Apple reseller’s range. The top-end 2TB Duo costs R17 000 more than a 2TB iPhone 18 Pro Max, which iStore sells for R59 999. In between, the 512GB Duo costs R52 999 and the 1TB model R62 499.
Netflix is losing the battle for your screen time
A Netflix building in Hollywood. Daniel Cole/Reuters Netflix has replaced its chief content officer a day after cutting about a thousand jobs, its biggest layoffs since 2022, as the world’s largest streaming service struggles to hold viewers’ attention against YouTube and TikTok. The company said on Thursday it had appointed former Disney executive Peter Rice as chief content officer, succeeding Bela Bajaria, who is leaving after nearly a decade at Netflix.
Vodacom says it keeps Safaricom control for now
Vodacom Group said on Friday that its subsidiary will remain the registered owner of the Safaricom shares that gave it control of the Kenyan operator, at least for now, after Kenya’s court of appeal agreed to fast-track its challenge to a ruling that voided the deal and ordered that the status quo be maintained in the meantime.
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