118 Today, 5 January 2026, South Africa marks 50 years since television was launched in 1976 – a milestone that invites a hard look at what television has been in this country:…
Category: Tech
Television turns 50 in South Africa
118 This Monday marks 50 years since television was officially launched in South Africa – on 5 January 1976, a lifetime ago. South Africa was late – very late – to launch…
Why Solly Malatsi was right to bury the Post Office monopoly
103 South Africa has a curious habit of legislating fantasies and then acting surprised when the real economy ignores them. The now-defunct monopoly of the South African Post Office over sub-1kg parcels…
Starlink plans to lower satellite orbit to enhance safety
126 Starlink satellites being blasted into space aboard a SpaceX rocket in an undated file photo Starlink will begin a reconfiguration of its satellite constellation by lowering all of its satellites orbiting…
TechCentral’s International Newsmakers of 2025
97 Technology in 2025 was shaped less by breakthrough products than by power – who holds it, how it is exercised and where its limits lie. From trade wars and tariffs to…
Telecoms industry backs Malatsi policy directive, warns on execution
105 ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi Telecommunications industry body the Association for Comms & Technology (ACT) has called for greater transparency of equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) should sector regulator Icasa choose to…
Crypto’s Trump-era boom faces a 2026 reality check
98 US President Donald Trump. Brian Snyder/Reuters After celebrating Donald Trump’s second presidential term by swilling cocktails and partying to Snoop Dogg at a pre-inauguration event in January, the crypto industry went…
Coursera to buy Udemy, in which Prosus is an investor
134 Online education platform Coursera will acquire rival Udemy in an all-stock deal, valuing the combined company at US$2.5-billion, as the industry consolidates after a post-pandemic slowdown and heightened investor scrutiny. Udemy…
China races to crack EUV lithography as chip war with the West intensifies
116 In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power…
Malatsi buries Post Office monopoly the market ignored
120 Communications minister Solly Malatsi last week gazetted amendments to the Postal Services Act that have effectively removed the Post Office’s monopoly on the delivery of sub-1kg parcels. The rule allowing the…