TCS - The TechCentral Show

Cryptocurrencies are increasingly moving beyond being seen as an investment asset as users find more real-world uses in everyday contexts. It appears that crypto is becoming more like cash – with users prepared to use it as the point of sale.

Crypto payments specialist MoneyBadger recently signed a deal with fintech Scan to Pay allowing crypto wallet users pay at more than 650 000 stores nationwide.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, MoneyBadger CEO Carel van Wyk and Luno country manager for South Africa Christo de Wit tell TechCentral’s Nathi Ndlovu about what the partnership means for crypto platforms, their users and the broader economy.

Van Wyk and De Wit delve into:

• The mindset shift that happens when users move from being crypto investors to day-to-day users of digital currencies;

• How crypto payments allow for immediate settlement in rands and what that means for merchants and users;

• How merchants benefit by supporting crypto payments at their stores;

• Why a crypto investor might want to consider using it to make payments;

• The tax implications that must be considered before investing in or using crypto for payments;

• The role cryptocurrencies play in promoting financial inclusion; and

• The role cryptocurrencies will play as the Reserve Bank modernises the National Payment System.

Don’t miss an interesting discussion!

E-commerce will soon reach an important milestone in South Africa: by January, according to World Wide Worx research, online shopping will top 10% of total retail sales for the first time. The move to 15% and then to 20% will come much quicker.

That’s the view of Frederik Zietsman, CEO of Naspers-owned Takealot Group – South Africa’s largest online retailer – who was speaking to TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show.

In the interview, Zietsman unpacks what’s driving the rapid adoption of online shopping in South Africa – Covid-19 was a key trigger – and what the future holds as international e-commerce giants step up their investments in the country.

He also discusses:

• How the competitive dynamics of the market have changed in recent years;

• The impact of the entry of international giants such as Amazon and Walmart and how this will reshape the market in the coming years;

• The decision to expand subsidiary Mr D’s focus from fast food to include new product categories;

• The township opportunity and how Takealot is working to crack that market;

• Takealot’s plans to move to electric vehicles in its logistics fleet, including a look at what’s needed to introduce electric motorbikes at scale;

• The challenge of crime in the logistics chain and what’s being done to fight it;

• Why Takealot is getting into the home loans business; and

• What’s going to drive the company’s growth in the next few years.

Don’t miss a fascinating conversation!

Seacom last week announced that it plans to build one of the highest-capacity subsea broadband cable systems the world has ever seen.

Dubbed Seacom 2.0, the cable system – which will have an expected design capacity of a staggering 2 000Tbit/s – will be larger than the company’s original system, which brought high-speed connectivity to Africa’s eastern coastline when it was launched in 2009.

The new system, which will include an “express route” from South Africa to Singapore and leg around South Africa to Lobito in Angola – and which will also cover much of the same East African coastline as the first system – will use the latest fibre-optic technology and 48 fibre pairs to deliver its extreme total capacity.

Alpheus Mangale, CEO of Seacom, sat down with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod for an exclusive first interview with the TechCentral Show to unpack the announcement and provide much greater detail about the deployment – including its timelines and the technology that will be used.

In the interview, Mangale touches on a range of topics, including:

• What’s involved in building a submarine cable system of this magnitude;

• Why Seacom has chosen the routing for the cable that it has;

• The need for great redundancy around the African continent, and how this fed into Seacom’s planning for Seacom 2.0;

• The commercial model for the new system and what this means for the region;

• The assumptions Seacom is making about future internet demand and how that feeds into its return-on-investment forecasts;

• How the system will be funded and who is backing it;

• The risks inherent in building telecommunications infrastructure at this scale; and

• The terrestrial infrastructure that will be deployed to support Seacom 2.0, including landing stations and edge data centres.

Don’t miss a fascinating interview!

South Africa’s payments ecosystem is evolving at a rapid pace. PayInc – previously BankservAfrica – sits at the core of the country’s payments infrastructure. As the builder and manager of the PayShap instant payment rails, PayInc is central to the Reserve Bank’s plans to drive digital inclusion through payment modernisation.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Stephen Linnell, CEO of PayInc, tells TechCentral’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu about the strategy behind the rebrand to PayInc and how that fits into the utility’s vision of the payments ecosystem in South Africa and the broader Southern Africa region.

Linnell delves into:

• PayInc’s new ownership structure with the Reserve Bank taking over 50% ownership from the private banks;

• How the Reserve Bank’s participation will help PayInc achieve its goals;

• An assessment of PayShap since its 2023 launch and what comes next;

• What the proposed inclusion of non-bank players including fintechs, retailers and telecommunications operators in the national payments and settlements system means for the economy;

• The efforts PayInc is making to implement instant payments at a regional level; and

• Emerging payment technologies like central bank digital currencies and stablecoins.

Don’t miss this informative discussion.

The Invigilator, the developer of a South African application that helps educational institutions monitor web-based assessments to prevent cheating, recenty secured US$11-million (R195-million) in funding to help it expand internationally.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Nicolas Riemer, co-founder and CEO of The Invigilator, joins TechCentral’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu to discuss how the start-up is going to use the cash injection to take on international markets.

He also gives insight into the app’s software and the company behind it.

In this episode, Riemer delves into:

• How The Invigilator app got started during the Covid-19 lockdown;

• The markets it plans to expand into internationally;

• The challenges of developing an app like The Invigilator in the South African market and why this may have set the company up for international success;

• How the app uses AI to minimise network and storage demands while improving outcomes;

• Barriers to The Invigilator’s adoption, like resistance from students, and how they were overcome; and

• The future technologies Riemer is most excited about in the ed-tech space.

Don’t miss the conversation!

Paratus Group executive chairman Barney Harmse joins the TechCentral Show to share the story of the telecommunications group’s rise from small beginnings in Angola and Namibia more than 20 years ago and how it became one of Southern Africa’s biggest ICT infrastructure players.

Paratus started life in Angola in 2003, evolving from a local internet service provider into a pan‑African telecoms powerhouse. Co-founded by Harmse with Schalk Erasmus, Rolf Mendelsohn, Martin Boese and Miles October, it grew rapidly and now has infrastructure across the region, including in Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, the DRC and Namibia.

This week, it officially launched the first privately owned mobile network operator in Namibia, which will compete directly with the state-owned incumbents.

Today the business works closely with the likes of Starlink, Google and Meta Platforms and plays a significant role in long-distance, metropolitan and access networks across the region. It also helped land Google’s Equiano cable on the Namibian coast.

In this lively interview with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Harmse unpacks the Paratus story, touching on:

• What building telecoms infrastructure across the vast reaches of Southern Africa has entailed, including memorable moments along the way;

• The company’s financial backers, and its capital-raising plans – including a possible future listing in New York;

• Why it built a network of long-distance fibre across Southern Africa;

• Paratus’s relationship with Elon Musk’s Starlink, and why it’s a key role player in the launch of the low-Earth orbit satellite provider’s offering across the region;

• The launch of the mobile network in Namibia and why it’s a significant development in the Paratus story; and

• The opportunities still ahead for Paratus Group.

Don’t miss a great interview!

Maziv, the company that owns Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, plans to spend R12-billion over the next five years as its ramps its deployment of fibre infrastructure across South Africa.

Poised for a big injection of cash and assets from Vodacom, which is buying a 30% co-controlling stake in the business, it has unveiled big plans to deploy fibre in townships and other underserved parts of the country.

In this exclusive podcast interview, CEO Dietlof Mare unpacks Maziv’s ambitious plans with the TechCentral Show, telling TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about:

• The painful three-and-a-half years it took to get the deal over the line with the competition authorities and how these delays undermined investment in new fibre builds in South Africa;

• Why regulators need to reflect on the time it took to conclude the transaction, and why they need to be quicker in adjudicating M&A activity to grow the economy;

• How the merging parties eventually secured the approval of the Competition Commission, which had initially recommended that the transaction be blocked on competition grounds;

• Vumatel’s deployment plans – where it’s going to focus next with its new fibre builds and why;

• The economics of rolling out fibre into townships and into low-income communities, a key focus for the business over the next five years;

• What the conclusion of the deal means for the sector, including the potential for further consolidation of fibre network operators;

• The policy and regulatory changes Maziv would like to see to help it speed up the deployment of fibre in South Africa; and

• How the Maziv business is expected to change in the coming years.

Don’t miss a great discussion about the future of broadband internet infrastructure in South Africa!

Nedbank announced last week that it was acquiring Durban-based fintech iKhokha in a R1.65-billion deal that could signal the start of further consolidation in the payments industry in South Africa.

Nedbank described the deal as a “significant milestone” in its strategy to target small and medium enterprises.

iKhokha co-founder and CEO Matt Putman is TechCentral’s guest in this episode of the TechCentral Show. He unpacks the deal with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, explaining how it came about and what it means for the company’s further growth.

Founded in Durban in 2012, iKhokha provides mobile point-of-sale solutions to SMEs. Its products include card machines and a mobile app that allows merchants to accept card payments, with added business management tools.

It was founded by Putman, Ramsay Daly and Putman’s father Clive.

Putman tells the TechCentral Show about:

• How the deal with Nedbank happened;

• The origins of iKhokha and its growth over the past 13 years, leading to the sale to Nedbank – a deal that is still subject to regulatory approval;

• How iKhokha will work with Nedbank (it will remain an independent brand within the banking group), including a possible expansion into new markets in Africa; and

• The exit of iKhokha’s backers, including Crossfin Technology Holdings, Apis Partners and the International Finance Corporation.

Don’t miss a great discussion!

Alan Knott-Craig’s new fibre internet business has been flying below the radar for some time now, but the serial telecommunications entrepreneur has finally unpacked his plans for the business.

Speaking to the TechCentral Show this week, Knott-Craig – who has led a range of well-known tech businesses, including Mxit, World of Avatar, Project Isizwe and iBurst – talks about why he believes there’s money to be made in wiring up townships with fibre and how Fibertime (stylised as “fibertime”) hopes to reach millions of data-poor South Africans who, until now, have had to rely on expensive mobile data for connectivity.

In the interview, with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Knott-Craig also chats about:

• What’s been involved in building Fibertime;

• The Fibertime business model and the economics of township fibre;

• The network’s footprint and where the company plans to build next (it is currently deploying infrastructure in Alexandra in Johannesburg);

• Why fibre beats wireless for township internet services;

• The difficulties of working in township settings, including the threat posed by crime;

• Plans to list the business, possibly in 2027; and

• The recently approved Vodacom/Maziv deal, and what that means for the telecoms sector.

Don’t miss a fascinating interview!

Although Shoprite Group stole a march on many of South Africa’s retailers in on-demand online grocery delivery during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Pick n Pay has a clear plan to make up lost ground and compete aggressively for market share.

Enrico Ferigolli, who co-founded the liquor delivery app Bottles – which was later acquired by Pick n Pay to form the basis of its online shopping push with asap! – joins the TechCentral Show to unpack the journey Pick n Pay is on, and how the e-commerce market is likely to develop in the coming years.

Ferigolli tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about:

* Why and how technology has become fundamental to modern retail;

* The launch of Bottles and what led to the Pick n Pay acquisition;

* The dynamics of on-demand delivery and what it takes to be a successful player;

* How Pick n Pay is working to convince people to try asap! for their grocery needs;

* The role of AI (and AI agents) in future omnichannel retail environments;

How online shopping is likely to change the way Pick n Pay designs its physical stores;

* Pick n Pay’s relationship with Takealot Group, and where that alliance is headed;

* Pick n Pay’s plans to expand into townships and other underserved markets with on-demand deliveries; and

* The threat posed by international e-commerce companies that don’t have a presence in South Africa but which ship goods to local consumers.

It’s a great interview about the future of e-commerce in South Africa – be sure not to miss it!