T2S2

South Africans are good at solving problems. With extreme load-shredding, we’ve started finding alternatives in true “n boer maak ‘n plan” style. From LED lightbulbs with built-in batteries to backup batteries for Wi-Fi routers, and a new category of small, but powerful, power stations, there are a range of new Eskom-induced technology. Several innovative South African companies have their own ways of tackling the blackouts. In the second of Stuff’s going off-grid podcast series, editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak meets local firm Syntech. He speaks to co-founder Ryan Martyn​ and CEO Craig Nowitz. Read more on Stuff.

With rolling blackouts hitting stage 6, insurance companies have stopped insuring against some Eskom-related claims. But, if your home solar system was installed by someone without the right certification and not registered with the correct authorities, that system isn’t insured. Nor is your house as a result, warns Chris Liebenberg, Elite Energy’s technical director. Going solar needs planning and research, he tells Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak in the first podcast in a new series about getting off-grid. Read more on Stuff.

Smartphones have taken over many other functions from other devices, including, most recently, most people’s wallets. Is the end of the credit card nigh, Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak asks Nedbank CIO Fred Swanepoel. After years of rapid progress, fuelled by the Covid lockdown, how we pay has changed, as has the ways banks themselves are operating. As ever, cybersecurity remains one of the biggest trends this year. Read more on Stuff.

Not only has Shoprite won the first round of the app delivery wars, its quietly been offering banking to its customers. How did a grocer evolve into such a commanding position, to the point where it has a general manger of financial services, Stuff editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak asks Jean Olivier in this latest episode of T2S2’s fintech podcast series. Listen here to Shoprite X CEO Neil Schreuder telling Shapshak how Checkers Sixty60 changed the grocery delivery game. Read more on Stuff

The newest frontier in the fight against cyber criminals is identity, Nedbank’s Vickus Meyer tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. As South Africa has gotten more fibre and faster speeds, criminals are finding new ways to hack into companies and personal accounts, requiring new ways of keeping yourself safe, including multifactor authentication, adds Alan Dewaal Smit, a security expert from ITR Technology. Read more on Stuff.

Covid-19 accelerated the way people use digital platforms to do the things we used to do in real life. As people upgraded their tech skills, it was also a boon for many companies. Mutsa Chironga, Nedbank’s consumer segment managing executive who is responsible for over 7-million individual clients in South Africa, discusses the way people’s financial habits have changed. Google South Africa’s head of financial services Paul Mayanja tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak how businesses are shifting to digital. Read more on Stuff.

Changing consumer behaviour and a lack of storage means people are turning to so-called super apps like Nedbank’s Avo and Moya.app. There apps provide more than one service – including messaging, news and a marketplace – and are increasingly popular. Lentell discusses how Moya.app has grown to 10m customers, while Maharaj tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about is the first super app launched by a bank, Avo. Read more on Stuff.

Now that our smartphones have become the centre of our lives, the way we pay for things has completely changed. I was in New York in May and London in August and used my phone to pay for everything – as I have done for the last year at home. Nedbank’s executive for emerging innovations Chipo Mushwana and Payments Association of SA CEO Ghita Erling tell Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about current trends and developments. Read more on Stuff.

For a time, FedGroup's investment app was the top downloaded app in South Africa. When it launched it was a revolutionary way of investing in bee hives and raspberries. It also epitomised how FedGroup itself operates, and now its amicable CEO Grant Field is following his passion and trying to fish plastic out of South Africa’s rivers. He spoke to Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak. Read more on Stuff.

How did a bullied introverted Pretoria schoolboy become the world’s richest person and arguably humanity’s greatest change agent? Michael Vlismas, who went to the same school, has produced an extensively researched biography that does a great job of unwrapping Elon Musk’s remarkable life story. He tells Stuff Studios editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak about writing the first South African biography about Musk. Read more on Stuff.