TCS - The TechCentral Show

Telkom is facing difficult times, but CEO Serame Taukobong has insisted the company “does not need a knight in shining armour” to come riding to its rescue.

In this TechCentral Show (TCS) interview with Taukobong, the Telkom boss provides his views on the interest received from a consortium that includes former CEO Sipho Maseko and Mauritius-based Axian Telecom, as well as MTN Group signalling that it, too, may still be interested in a deal.

MTN walked away from early stage talks with Telkom last year after the latter’s board agreed to entertain a rival offer from wireless broadband provider Rain, which had sought a merger with Telkom. But this week, during Telkom’s annual results presentation to. Investors, MTN issued a statement in which it said a deal makes sense for shareholders of both entities.

In the interview, at the JSE in Sandton, Taukobong answered several pressing questions:

• Without corporate action, can Telkom survive and thrive in the longer term?

• How supportive is government towards a partial or full sale of Telkom?

• How will market consolidation likely happen and can South Africa’s mobile market sustain four infrastructure competitors in Telkom, Vodacom, MTN and Rain?

• Are the retrenchments at Telkom over, or is there still more pain to come?

• What’s the prognosis for capital expenditure at Telkom, and why did mobile spending outpace revenue growth?

• What’s hurting Telkom’s free cash flow (a negative R2.7-billion in the 2023 financial year), and what is management doing to address the problem?

• Does it still make sense for Telkom to own an IT services business?

• What are the plans to unlock shareholder value, especially in Gyro?

Don’t miss the discussion!

Senior Altron executive Collin Govender is passionate about leadership – and believes South Africa needs much more of it if it is to solve its myriad challenges.

Govender – who started his career as a forklift operator in a Durban warehouse and who today heads two important businesses in the Altron stable, Altron Systems Integration and Altron Karabina – joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to discuss the topic.

The conversation starts with a discussion about Govender’s career in IT, which included 17 years at T-Systems, and how the Altron opportunity (now opportunities, after he took the reins at Systems Integration in addition to his role leading Karabina) came about.

He also unpacks his plans for Altron Systems Integration, where it is positioned in the market and the opportunity for acquisitions – and why systems integration has become a scale game.

The conversation then turns to leadership, and the role it plays in business and society. Govender talks about his own management style, and also shares his insights into why he believes South Africa’s biggest problems flow from a lack of decisive and accountable leadership. The fix can be applied to business and politics. But what will it take? Govender’s ideas deserve attention.

The State IT Agency (Sita), government’s central IT procurement and services agency, has been through the wringer.

The entity, created in 1999, has been plagued for much of its existence by oftentimes poor leadership and well as widespread corruption – detailed in a 2017 TechCentral interview former CEO Setumo Mohapi.

Now, after several years without a CEO – the company had been placed into a form of administration by former communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams – Bongani Mabaso has taken the reins. Mabaso, previously a senior IT executive at Standard Bank Group, is promising to shake things up at Sita - by fixing what’s broken and focusing on service delivery to its government clients.

Mabaso, who has a PhD in machine ethics and computational morality from the University of Pretoria and a BSc in engineering from the University of Cape Town, tells Duncan McLeod in this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS) about his plan to turn around the troubled entity.

In the interview, Mabaso speaks about:

• The direction he intends to take Sita in and why;

• How artificial intelligence could be used in Sita’s procurement processes – and how it could help stamp out corruption in tenders;

• His strategic plan, and how he will measure its success;

• The IT skills shortage in the public sector and why it's at crisis levels;

• The announcement by communications minister Mondli Gungubele that Sita will build a R6-billion broadband network – much of this work is already, in fact, happening; and

• The impact of load shedding on public sector IT systems.

The rise and fall of Nokia’s mobile phone business has been well documented. Once dominant in the feature-phone era, the Finnish company was caught flat-footed by the launch of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.

The acquisition of Nokia’s handset business by Microsoft – desperate at the time for its Windows Phone operating system to be a meaningful third player in smartphone software and also desperate for Nokia not to embrace Google’s Android – went awry.

Eventually, Microsoft exited the phone business entirely, selling the phone business back to Nokia (whose main business is selling telecommunications gear to network operators), writing off billions of dollars in the process, and leaving the mobile OS market as a virtual duopoly controlled by Apple and Google.

But the Nokia phone brand never went away. After the Microsoft collapse, a team ex-Nokia executives founded HMD Global, a Chinese-Finnish phone maker, and licensed the Nokia brand name to continue building smartphones – this time running Android.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), Duncan McLeod is joined in TechCentral’s Johannesburg studio by Patrick Henchie, head of product and operations at HMD Global in sub-Saharan Africa, to unpack some of the history of the Nokia brand, how HMD got its start, the company’s market focus, and what’s coming next from the firm in both handsets and tablets.

In this TCS interview, Henchie talks about:

• His favourite legacy Nokia phone and why he loved it;

• HMD’s relationship with Google;

• Why the company does not compete directly with Apple and Samsung in top-tier flagship devices, preferring instead to cater to the mid-market and entry-level tiers;

• The Nokia phone line-up: the C series, G series and X series, and where they fit in HMD’s portfolio and in the market;

• What South Africans think of the Nokia brand today; and

• Why HMD still makes feature phones.

Don’t miss a fascinating discussion about a storied brand.

JSE-listed retailer Woolworths is moving to replace its fleet of fossil fuel-burning logistics and delivery vehicles with fully electric alternatives.

To discuss the project, and more, Duncan McLeod is joined on the TechCentral Show (TCS) by Ndia Magadagela, co-founder and CEO of South African EV-as-a-service (EVaaS) start-up Everlectric.

Everlectric, through Woolworths’ logistics partner DSV, is deploying electric panel vans to help the retailer reduce its carbon emissions.

The new vans have a 300km range from fully charged and feature “live advanced telematics” that helps improve the efficiency of the vehicles – from managing the top speed (they are governed to 120km/h) to the maximum power output.

In this episode of TCS, Magadagela talks about the Woolworths project, and why she believes the EVaaS model is suited to the local market. She also talks about:

• Her and her co-founders’ backgrounds, and how Everlectric got its start.

• The proofs of concept that the company has run.

• The logistics behind managing in an EV fleet in a country plagued by load shedding – and why it nevertheless still makes sense.

• Learnings from the Woolworths project and how it fits into the retailer’s objective to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2040.

• How the internet of things helps Everlectric manage its fleet.

• Everlectric’s scale-up plans over the next three to five years.

It’s a fascinating interview … don’t miss it!

It’s been eight months since Werner Kapp took the reins from Mteto Nyati at Altron. Now firmly in his new role, Kapp joins the TechCentral Show (TCS) to unpack his strategy for the storied JSE-listed technology group.

Kapp, who previously led Dimension Data, talks about Altron’s financial results for the year ended 28 February 2023 and how, despite the rotten economy, it still managed to produce revenue growth of 19%.

In the interview, Kapp unpacks:

• His strategy for Altron – and why he’s focusing on the areas he is;

• Which parts of Altron have him particularly excited;

• Value-unlock opportunities for Netstar and other operating companies;

• The role played by Altron investor Value Capital Partners;

• The plans for Altron Document Solutions;

• The opportunities and challenges facing Altron Karabina, Altron Systems Integration and Altron Security;

• The impact of load shedding on Altron; and

• Why he’s still cautiously optimistic about South Africa’s future.

Don’t miss the interview!

Planetworld, a distributor of audio gear from brands such as Sonos and Shure, has proven that there is still strong demand among South African consumers for specialist audio.

The company, which was founded by four brothers, has built a strong niche in the audio market, led by Sonos, but also representing brands such as JVC, Kenwood, Cambridge Audio, Alpine, Pioneer, Onkyo and Savant.

Planetworld co-founder, director and CEO Maurice van Heerden – one of the four Van Heerden brothers – joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to chat about the history of the company, including:

• The 2008 acquisition of Planet Electronics, which formed the basis on what became Planetworld.

• The 2017 acquisition of Audiotronic, which brought the Sonos, Polk Audio, Onkyo and Dali brands to the stable.

• What it’s like going into business with siblings – and why it worked so well for Planetworld.

• Why Sonos has changed the world of audio, and why Planetworld believes there is still a huge market opportunity for the brand in South Africa.

In the TCS interview, Van Heerden also chats about the state of the economy and the impact – or not – that this has had on high-end audio sales.

Lastly, he unveils details about Planetworld’s new initiative, Rockstar Studios.

Don’t miss a great discussion!

For years, Cell C was the only game in town for brands wanting to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). That’s changing -- fast -- and now MTN has said it is positioning itself as the “go-to network backbone partner” in South Africa.

MTN South Africa wholesale executive Quintus de Beer joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) to unpack in detail what this plan means for other network carriers and prospective MVNO players.

De Beer said MTN wants to be the “network of choice” for the wholesale market by 2025, even as rivals Vodacom and Telkom gear up to launch MVNO enablement platforms of their own -- in line with the requirements set out in last year’s broadband spectrum auction.

Already, both Telkom and Cell C both roam on MTN's infrastructure, with a number of MVNOs also launching on the operator’s network, including Pick n Pay’s PnP Mobile and Afrihost’s Air Mobile -- with more to be announced soon, according to De Beer.

In this episode of TCS, De Beer chats about:

* Why wholesale is so important to MTN

* MTN’s relationship with Cell C and Telkom

* The MVNOs on MTN’s network

* What’s involved in supporting MVNOs

* The market size for MVNOs

* Why it took so long for MVNOs to take off in South Africa

Don’t miss a fascinating discussion.

Muggie van Staden is CEO of one of South Africa's largest and oldest open-source software companies, Obsidian Systems. But ask him what he runs on his desktop, and he'll tell you it's a Mac. And he recently moved to it from ... Microsoft Windows.

Van Staden says his desktop computing choices are based on the fact that he's not particularly technical, and prefers the relative ease of use of both Windows and macOS.

Indeed, many of the non-technical staff at Obsidian run Windows PCs or Macs, while the company's developers tend to prefer either macOS or Linux.

That Linux hasn't succeeded in displacing Microsoft and Apple on the desktop, against the fervent wishes of many open-source software fans, doesn't worry Van Staden, who points out in this interview on the TechCentral Show (TCS) that Linux and open-source software have won everywhere else - on servers, in the data centre and on phones (Android).

In this episode of TCS, Van Staden chats about:

* How Obsidian got its start;

* The relevance of open-source software in the modern computing world;

* Why Linux has never become popular on the desktop and whether it will ever be anything more than a niche on PCs;

* Why Microsoft should no longer be seen as the enemy of the open-source community, and why the community should not distrust the company's motives in its embrace of Linux and other open-source software; and

* The role of open-source software in enterprise computing in South Africa.

Don't miss a great discussion!

South African Internet entrepreneur Calvin Collett is launching his latest venture, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Melon Mobile, next week, hoping to lure customers looking for a simpler proposition for their telecommunications needs.

Collett joined TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) on Thursday to unpack the new company’s plans.

Melon Mobile, which will be launched officially next Thursday, piggybacks off MTN South Africa’s network and offers a full range of connectivity solutions, including voice, data and text messages.

Customers can choose exactly how much data, voice or SMSes they want upfront using sliders, offering them the sort of granularity that’s not available from the big network operators. Collett, speaking on TCS, explained that Melon Mobile has worked to remove the inefficiencies associated with subscribing to mobile services.

In the interview, Collett, who previously headed the MTN-owned Internet service provider Supersonic, talks about:

• Why the MVNO market in South Africa is mushrooming;

• Why Melon Mobile chose MTN as its network partner;

• Melon Mobile’s prices, and the company’s pricing strategy;

• The company’s target market and the market opportunity; and

• What its next moves are after launch.

Don’t miss the interview – and if you enjoy it, please subscribe to TechCentral’s tech shows on YouTube, Spotify and elsewhere (see details below).