Tech sales under the lash as consumers curb spending

Tech sales under the lash as consumers curb spending

South Africa’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market is proving resilient so far in 2026, although retailers and brands in the tech and durables (T&D) sector are experiencing a number of challenges. This is according to NielsenIQ (NIQ) South Africa, which has...

SMBs targeted in enterprise-level attacks

The illusion that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) can fly under the radar of cybercriminals is becoming obsolete. Kaspersky warns that attackers are deploying the same methods against smaller businesses as they do against large enterprises. To help strengthen...

Drop in factory activity drives PMI down

The seasonally adjusted Absa PMI declined from 46.8 to 45.8 in August, marking its lowest reading so far in 2026 and a fourth consecutive month-on-month decline. The deterioration was driven by a sharp fall in factory activity and a renewed weakening in new orders,...

Why the rise of model routing is a bet against permanence

Recently, Stripe agreed to acquire OpenRouter at a reported $8-billion. Just last week Nvidia reportedly agreed to buy Hugging Face, the open-source AI model hub, for $12,9-billion. Different headlines, but they reflect the same broader shift. The value in AI is...

Call for a constitutional approach to regulating AI

South Africa needs to move beyond its longstanding “wait-and-see” approach to artificial intelligence (AI) regulation and establish a binding, constitutional framework that protects human rights while allowing technological innovation to continue. This is according to...

SA’s women are winning on homes, stalled on land, behind on business

The numbers on women and property in South Africa seem to contradict each other. Women hold just 13% of the country’s farmland by area. Yet women-only home purchases have climbed from roughly 29,5% of residential transfers in 1995 to about 38% today – and have...