Pope criticises 'tyrants' who spend billions on wars, days after Trump spat
The comments follow a high-profile spat with US President Donald Trump, who called the Pope weak on crime.
Tag: spend
Read More
Concern as SA regresses on R&D spend
South Africa’s R&D investment remains stagnant at 0.61% of GDP. (Image source: 123RF) Even with the National Development Plan targets firmly in sight, South Africa looks unlikely to reach its target of 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) expenditure on research and development (R&D) by 2030. This, as the latest datasets on the state of…
ZADNA probe exposes costly executive spend amid cash decline
An investigation uncovered weaknesses in ZADNA’s credit card section of the procurement policy. (Image source: 123RF) Communications minister Solly Malatsi’s department is initiating several actions to give full effect to the recommendations of an investigation report on alleged misconduct by the CEO of the .ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA). This, after the entity was again…
U.S. can spend billions less on defense, says Anduril Industries founder
Defense spending has been the talk of Singapore’s Airshow this week but that’s not an accurate way to measure military strength, Palmer Luckey, founder of defense tech firm Anduril Industries, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Wednesday. That comes after U.S. President Donald Trump in January expressed interest in raising the U.S military budget to…
South Africans spend grocery money on online gambling
National Gambling Board data shows about R1.5 trillion was wagered in SA’s gambling industry in 2024–2025. South Africans are diverting money they are supposed to spend on groceries to try their luck on online gambling. This is one of the biggest findings from a study conducted by Durban-based market research firm Trade Intelligence. The online…
Oil companies will spend $100 billion in Venezuela
President Donald Trump met Friday afternoon with more than a dozen oil companies at the White House to discuss plans for investment in Venezuela, less than a week after the U.S. ousted President Nicolás Maduro. Exxon CEO Darren Woods, ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance and Chevron Vice Chairman Mark Nelson attended. Executives from Halliburton, Valero and…
It’s time for a new approach to government IT spend in South Africa
The author, Richard Firth The South African government spends billions of rand annually on technology and infrastructure, yet citizen-facing systems are well-known for being inadequate for the task. From chronic billing issues in municipalities like the City of Johannesburg to cries of “offline” at every home affairs office in the country, South Africans are left…
Pick n Pay customers spend R1.4m monthly in Bitcoin
Deven Moodley, executive head: VAS, FS and mobile at Pick n Pay. Pick n Pay customers collectively spent a monthly average of R1.4 million in crypto-currency over the past 12 months, across its retail stores nationwide. According to the retail giant, Bitcoin payments are following mainstream retail trends, as more crypto holders are now using…
Anthropic announces $50 billion AI spend, two U.S. data centers
Anthropic announced plans Wednesday to spend $50 billion on a U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out, starting with custom data centers in Texas and New York. The facilities, which will be designed to support the company’s rapid enterprise growth and its long-term research agenda, will be developed in partnership with Fluidstack. Fluidstack is an AI cloud…
Why South Africans are starting to spend crypto, not just trade it
Cryptocurrencies are moving beyond being seen as an investment asset as users find real-world uses in everyday contexts. It appears crypto is becoming more like cash – with users prepared to use it more at the point of sale. Crypto payments specialist MoneyBadger is hoping to profit from this trend, recently signing a deal with…