How to raise funds, then scale your African start-up
Kathy Gibson reports from Everything AI and Gitex Kenya in Nairobi – For many African start-ups, their biggest challenge is not coming up with solutions or creating systems that work – it is in scaling them effectively. Once the excitement of the initial idea and...
Taxpayers’ 142 days of work for the government is officially over!
Here’s a faint glimmer of hope in the dark tunnel that South Africa’s already beleaguered taxpayers can latch on to - the Free Market Foundation (FMF) has officially announced that today (22 May) is Tax Freedom Day for 2026. This means the average South African...
Nvidia valuation fears grow
As expected, Nvidia’s latest earnings were strong, but investors are increasingly questioning whether the chip giant’s towering valuation can continue to withstand pressure from bond markets and elevated yields, says Nigel Green, CEO of global financial advisory...
Meta helps local businesses generate greater revenue
South Africa's R495-billion digital economy could grow to R874,5-billion by 2035, according to new research from Public First conducted on behalf of Meta, with AI set to add a further R528-billion to GDP over the next decade. The "Meta's Impact in South Africa" report...
AI will create more jobs than it eliminates
Beginning in 2028, AI will create more jobs than it eliminates, and therefore robust internal talent pipelines will be critical to meet talent demand, according to Gartner. “AI is ultimately going to result in more job gains than losses, but in the process it’s going...
Varsity will never be the same …
An innovative new academic study warns that higher education institutions worldwide must urgently reinvent teaching, learning, and curriculum delivery or risk becoming obsolete in the face of rapidly evolving student expectations and technological disruption. The...
China is leading the AI Supercycle
China isn’t waiting. As the global AI industry shifts from infrastructure build-out to enterprise application at scale, China is already running - and the gap with most other markets is widening. That was the signal at IDC Directions 2026 in Beijing, where more than...
Connectivity has become a board-level strategic issue
There was a time when connectivity was seen as infrastructure, or worse, as background noise for the IT department while business decision-makers focused on more important decisions. By Willem van Zyl, chief technology officer of Backspace Technologies Those days are...
When a school is offline, opportunity is not just delayed, it is denied
South Africa has approximately 23,000 public schools, yet around 17 000 remain completely offline. That means only about 6 000 have some form of internet connectivity, while roughly 74% of public schools have no access at all - not for teaching and learning, not for...
Most data strategies fail before they start
Most organisations do not have a data strategy problem, but one of visibility. Across industries, businesses continue to invest in platforms, tools, and skills to become more data-driven. Yet many of these strategies struggle to deliver sustained value. The reason is...
Your next best prompt engineer is a business analyst
In the rush to deploy AI, most organisations have been asking the wrong question. By Martin Pienaar, chief operations officer at Mindworx Academy The debate has centred on which platforms to use and how quickly engineering teams can ship. The harder question, and the...
Skills development must become one of corporate SA’s most powerful growth strategies
Skills development should never be reduced to a paperwork exercise or a narrow compliance obligation. Yes, it has a place on the B-BBEE scorecard. Yes, it contributes points. But if that is where the conversation begins and ends, we have missed the true power of what...