South Africa is paying renewable energy producers hundreds of millions of rand to stop generating, and no rule anywhere in the electricity rule book governs how that money is recovered or who ultimately carries it. That is according to energy regulator Nersa, which told TechCentral that the framework meant to manage the country’s shift to…
Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago speaking at the MTN Group Fintech Summit on Tuesday. Fanie van Rooyen/TechCentral The South African Reserve Bank is preparing to put the country’s fast-growing fintech sector on the same regulatory footing as banks, with governor Lesetja Kganyago using the opening of MTN Group Fintech’s 2026 summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday…
Khusela Sangoni-Diko, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo) Parliament’s oversight body on communications has extended the deadline for written submissions on the Electronic Communications Amendment Bill, giving the public another month to make their views known. In a statement, the portfolio committee says the new deadline for…
Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa Energy regulator Nersa will be required to publish a rolling 10-year electricity price forecast, and Eskom and municipalities will be barred from recovering unpaid customer debt through tariffs, under a revised pricing policy that goes out for public comment on Friday. Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa outlined the revised electricity pricing policy…
Standard Bank Group reported technology costs of R11.83-billion in its banking operations for the six months to 30 June, up just 2% on the R11.62-billion a year earlier – 3% growth in constant currency – in a period in which it said almost three-quarters of its staff were active users of generative AI tools. The…
Eskom recorded a daily energy availability factor (EAF) of 80.24% on 20 July, its best single day since 20 September 2017. The financial year-to-date EAF stands at 66.22%, an improvement of 6.97 percentage points year on year but still short of the 70% Eskom has set as its recovery benchmark. The daily record also owes…
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Carlos Barria/Reuters Meta Platforms reported a 91% plunge in second-quarter free cash flow on Wednesday, underscoring the financial strain of the social media giant’s costly AI buildout amid an uncertain payoff. The Facebook and Instagram parent company reported free cash flow of US$784-million in the second quarter ended 30 June, down…
American philanthropist Bill Gates has called for artificial intelligence (AI) to be deployed in Africa from the early stages of its development, warning that introducing the technology only after it has benefited wealthier nations would deepen global health inequalities. The chair of the Gates Foundation made the remarks during the inaugural Paul Farmer Butaro Dialogues…
A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill championed by Sen. Lindsey Graham that would impose sanctions on top Russian figures and heavy tariffs on the biggest buyers of Russian oil. The “Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026” aims to squeeze Russian leaders in an effort to bring the Kremlin’s four-year war on Ukraine to an…
Vancouver, Canada: In an era of artificial intelligence, deepfakes and data-driven decision-making, Canada is moving to revise its privacy laws through Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act. Announced in June, Bill C-36 is Canada’s first major overhaul of private-sector privacy legislation in more than 25 years. The bill explicitly recognises privacy as…
