PMI shows signs of recovery
The Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for January 2026 reflects a rebound in manufacturing sentiment after a sharp contraction at the end of 2025. The seasonally adjusted PMI rose by 8.2 points to 48.7 in January, marking a significant recovery from December’s...
Obituary: Julian Pienaar
Julian Pienaar, well-known in the industry for his long service at Lenovo and IBM, passed away on Thursday, 29 January. Julian graduated from King Edward School in 1994. He joined IBM in 2000 as a brand manager and moved across to Lenovo when IBM’s personal computing...
Staffing shortages, rising costs, weak support slows hospitality recovery
South Africa’s hospitality sector is facing growing concerns that threaten its long term stability and growth, according to the inaugural Hospitality Asset Management Company (HAMAC) South African Hoteliers Report. The report reveals that 77% of hoteliers identify...
What you need to know about the new face of banking fraud
One of the fastest-growing and most dangerous scams targeting South African consumers involves something many people have never heard of: RAT attacks. According to Bonolo Sebolai, head of fraud at TymeBank, these scams rely on tricking customers into giving criminals...
Why Agile ways of working make sense beyond tech
According to the 17th State of Agile Report, 71% of surveyed organisations are using Agile principles in their software development lifecycle. While Agile is most often associated with IT projects, it’s increasingly extending beyond technology. This is because Agile...
Prominent risks that emerged in SA in 2025
As South Africa’s short-term insurance landscape continued to evolve in 2025, PSG Insure observed several persistent and emerging risks affecting local businesses. This is the word from Ryno de Kock, head of distribution at PSG Insure. By reviewing some of these...
Cassava and AXON Networks take AI to Africa
Cassava Technologies and AXON Networks have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop, deploy, and manage what they believe to be Africa’s first end-to-end Operator-as-a-Service (OaaS) platform. Customers and service providers will leverage AXON’s AI-ready,...
Gig economy gets a boost with Uptooyoo
Uptooyoo is a South African-developed app and web platform, built to economically empower anyone with a skill they want to turn into an additional income stream or just to expand their current business profile. From plumbers and hairdressers to digital marketers,...
Mastercard launches Agent Suite
The agentic era has arrived, and while businesses know they must keep pace with rapid change, not all businesses have the tools to start. Mastercard has announced a suite of services to help customers take actionable steps to integrate agentic AI into their daily...
Rethinking power, control, infrastructure resilience in Africa
Across much of the African continent, power and control infrastructure does not fail because it is poorly designed. It fails because it is too often designed for ideal conditions that simply do not exist. By Nhlanhla Zondo, sales director of Power Process Systems...
NASA analysis shows La Niña limited 2025 sea level rise
A mild La Niña caused greater rainfall over the Amazon basin, which offset rising sea levels due to record warming of Earth’s oceans. The rise in the global mean sea level slowed in 2025 relative to the year before, an effect largely due to the La Niña conditions that...
Call for mental health support to be integrated into HIV care
A recent study by researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Linköping University in Sweden showed that people living with HIV face an elevated risk of suicide due to a combination of stigma, fear of disclosure, mental health challenges and gaps in primary...