The rand began the week at its lowest level in four months as escalating hostilities in the Middle East kept oil prices high, stoking inflation worries ahead of a much-anticipated interest rate decision. At 8.51am, the rand traded at R17.23/US$, down 1.3% from its previous close, at its weakest level sincelate November 2025. A sustained…
There was a time when having an IT department, or at least a trusted technician on call, signalled that a business had found its footing. Servers sat in back rooms. Software lived on individual machines. Updates were disruptive. Security was reactive. That model no longer holds For many South African small and medium enterprises, that…
Once again on this day, 23 March 2026, we celebrate the Southern Africa Liberation Day – one of the most significant milestones in our shared journey toward freedom and independence as a regional community. We honour, with deep respect and gratitude, the brave men and women who stood at the forefront of the struggle to…
A new paper by the Reserve Bank argues that South Africa’s market-driven approach to open banking is limited in its reach. In fact, it risks entrenching the same socioeconomic barriers that have locked large sections of the population out of the financial system. The newly published working paper (PDF) argues that a regulated approach is…
As a boom in online gambling across Africa gathers pace, governments are hiking taxes to contain addiction risks and fill depleted state coffers. In by far the biggest market, South Africa, the industry is pushing back. Once a niche activity, gambling has exploded across the continent as a result of easily available online betting accounts….
Environmental activists in South Africa have been waging legal battles against the state and mining companies for years. This is often on the grounds that communities haven’t been consulted before mines were given permission to start digging and blasting on their land. Environmental justice researcher Mzingaye Brilliant Xaba has tracked the legal cases against mines…
The author, Workday’s Jannie Malan Artificial intelligence has rapidly moved from boardroom curiosity to boardroom mandate. Across South Africa — from Sandton’s financial district to Cape Town’s technology hubs — executives are under growing pressure to demonstrate how AI will deliver real business value. Yet amid the surge in investment and experimentation, a critical question…
Cleaner air, healthier communities and new economic opportunities are not secondary benefits of climate policy. They are central outcomes of a transition designed to protect people and the economy. South Africa stands at an important crossroads. The country faces the challenge of managing a coal-dependent energy system while confronting high unemployment and growing climate vulnerability….
The attacks by the US and Israel on Iran, which started on 28 February 2026, upended key supply chains, driving oil prices above US$100 a barrel. The spike followed Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US and Israeli action. About 20% of the world’s oil supplies are transported through the…
MTN Group and Vodacom Group, the two giants of South Africa’s telecommunications sector, each clock up more than R1-billion in revenue in just two and three days, respectively. TechCentral analysed companies listed in the technology section of the JSE, along with those in the tech-heavy telecoms sector, to see just how quickly locally listed tech…
