TCS - The TechCentral Show

We strongly recommend watching the video version of this episode of TCS.

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Enviro Automotive has launched South Africa’s most affordable electric car yet, the Dayun S5 Mini SUV – and TechCentral has taken the vehicle for a test drive.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, we are joined by Environ Automotive executives Gideon Wolvaardt and Francois Malan to unpack the new Chinese EV and why they believe the S5 Mini is a gamechanger for South Africa’s motoring industry.

The four-seater compact SUV features a 31.7kWh ternary lithium battery, offering a range of about 300km and a top speed of 115km/h, making it ideal for urban commuting.

The vehicle has a modern interior equipped with a touchscreen infotainment system, multifunction steering wheel and a digital instrument panel. Convenience features include central locking, electric windows and air conditioning that can be operated remotely via an app, allowing drivers to start the vehicle before entering.

In this episode of TCS, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod takes the car for a test drive and shares his views on the build and ride quality – and much more!

Adam Craker has strong views on what’s needed to turn around South Africa’s fortunes and fix its biggest city, Johannesburg, which has fallen into a state of disrepair.

The CEO of iqbusiness, a digital integrator in the Reunert stable formed recently though the merger of IQbusiness and +OneX, is our guest in this episode of the TechCentral Show.

Craker – whose career has seen him working for the likes of Accenture, Merchants, Dimension Data and Super Group – tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about his plans for iqbusiness post-merger, how it fits in with Reunert’s overall growth plans and why the transaction made sense.

He also unpacks:

• His take on the government of national unity and why he remains bullish about South Africa’s prospects;

• The news that government is considering listing some of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises on the JSE;

• His biggest concerns about the country’s future; and

• What needs to be done to save Joburg – and the role of the Jozi My Jozi initiative.

Don’t miss a great conversation!

Matric Live is a study tool to help students in grades 10-12 supplement their in-class learning with additional exercises – and even get exam practice via a digital platform. And it recently won the FNB App of the Year award amid stiff competition from the likes of Checkers Sixty60 and TFG’s Bash.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Matric Live CEO Kagisho Masae and chief technology officer Lesego Finger tell TechCentral’s Nathi Ndlovu about their journey as a start-up and the growth Matric Live has gone through in the last few years.

They delve into:

• The inspiration behind the Matric Live app and the problem it seeks to solve for students;

• The journey from app idea to full-fledged live system and the challenges faced along the way;

• How the application is being monetised while keeping access to the platform free for its users;

• The impact Matric Live has had on South African students;

• Some success stories about students who have used the app;

• Upcoming features to look forward to on the application;

• The vision Masae and Finger have for the future of their business; and

• The significance of winning the App of the Year award.

Masae and Finger tell an inspiring story of battling against the odds and succeeding at solving one of the most foundational problems confronting South African society: the dissemination of quality education to all corners of the country. Don’t miss a great conversation!

Well-known South African technology entrepreneur Stafford Masie is one of the key backers behind an audacious bid to buy a stake of up to 40% in the South African Rugby Union (Saru)-owned entity that owns the commercial rights to the Springboks brand.

Masie, who chairs JSE-listed Altvest Capital – a key player in the consortium making the bid – joins the TechCentral Show with Altvest CEO Warren Wheatley to unpack the plan and what spurred it, and to explain why tech is central to the bid.

The bid comes after member unions of SA Rugby last week rejected a plan to sell a 20% in the commercial rightsholder to US-based Ackerley Sports Group for US$75-million. Ackerley has until the end of the year to submit a revised offer, but Wheatley and Masie told TechCentral that they do not expect a deal with the American firm will succeed.

The South African consortium is made up of Altvest as well as EasyEquities, RainFin and 27four Investment Managers.

In a statement, the consortium explained that if its bid is successful, it will list the special purpose vehicle that has been created to do the deal on the JSE and allow investors to buy shares.

This is not dissimilar to Altvest’s business model, which sees it taking stakes in companies on behalf of public shareholders who participate in the economic benefits thereof.

“Worth thinking about for the tech community is that our platform allows for ‘crowdfunding’ in a regulated environment that allows for participation in a funding round to anybody with disposable income – from first-time users or customers, all the way through to regulated institutions and pension funds,” Wheatley explained.

In this episode of TCS, Masie and Wheatley unpack:

• The background to their consortium’s Springboks bid – and why the consortium members came together;

• How the bidders will work with SA Rugby to commercialise the rights, assuming their bid is successful;

• How the deal could affect broadcast partners; and

• Why they believe the deal could be used as a platform for technology innovation in South Africa.

It’s an interesting discussion – don’t miss it!

The South African Reserve Bank is working with its peers in the Southern African region to drive financial inclusion by digitising cash and making instant payments across borders an everyday reality.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), Tim Masela, head of the National Payments System department at the Reserve Bank – he has been with the Bank for the past 30 years – tells TechCentral’s Nathi Ndlovu about the efforts it is making to create a “cash smart” society not only in Southern Africa but across the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region.

Masela unpacks:

• Why the introduction of non-bank fintechs into the national and regional clearance and settlements systems is important;

• The importance of designing “fit for purpose” regulations that allow fintech to remain nimble and innovative;

• A detailed explanation of how the payments and settlements system worked historically, including how it has evolved in the digital era;

• The efforts the Reserve Bank and its regional counterparts are undertaking to standardise financial legislation and regulation across Sadc;

- The importance of the Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) platform, which facilitates PayShap-style instant payments across borders;

- The challenges that currency conversion poses in facilitating instant payments across borders;

- Findings from the National Payments Study conducted by the Reserve Bank and released in September;

- What a “cash light” and “cash smart” society are and why the Reserve Bank believes this is desirable; and

- Where the Reserve Bank stands on crypto assets and the road to their incorporation into South Africa’s National Payments System.

Do not miss this insightful and informative episode.

Datafree Technologies, the company behind popular zero-rated messaging tool MoyaApp, has an ambitious plan to build a R1-billion/year business by tapping to the APN market provided by the mobile operators.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), Datafree chief commercial officer Kruben Pillay tells Duncan McLeod about the company’s plan to build a software-as-a-service-based APN – or “access point name” – to sell to businesses. An APN is a gateway that allows a mobile device to connect to the network and the internet.

Datafree describes itself as a specialist in “mobile data optimisation” that “identified the opportunity to empower inclusive mobile connection by removing the data cost barrier to engage mobile audiences”.

To do this, it uses reverse-billing technology for data, not dissimilar to the way toll-free numbers work for phone calls.

Although many people use or are at least aware of MoyaApp, much less is known about Datafree. In this episode of TCS, Pillay tells McLeod more about the business. He also unpacks:

• His history in the telecommunications industry, including his time at Vodacom and Telkom;

• How MoyaApp is doing;

• Datafree’s R1-billion/year APN opportunity; and

• How APNs work, why companies use them (and why they sometimes run into issues) and Datafree’s APN services for business.

Don’t miss the interview!

The world of telephony might not be particularly sexy, but it is an industry that has changed fundamentally in the past 20 years.

And David Meintjes and Rob Lith of Telviva, a South African company specialising in cloud-based unified communications solutions for businesses, has been at the forefront of the technology changes that have swept through the industry in that time.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, the pair tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the journey from the early days of the business – when it was known as Connection Telecom – to the cloud-based telephony specialist it is today, as Telviva.

In the interview, Meintjes and Lith chat about:

• The evolution of Connection Telecom, its original mission, and how the business evolved into the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provider it is today;

• How the telephony market in South Africa has changed beyond recognition over the past 20 years; and

• Telviva’s international expansion plans and its strategy around acquisitions.

There’s plenty more in this interview with two ICT industry legends – don’t miss it.

South Africa’s rooftop solar installation industry has a bright future and is on track for its second-best year on record, despite the suspension of load shedding in March.

That’s according to Andrew Middleton, co-founder and CEO of GoSolr, one of South Africa’s largest rooftop solar installation companies, who spoke to TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) earlier this week.

According to Middleton, citing figures from Eskom, 749MW of rooftop solar capacity has been installed in South Africa this year, taking the total to 5.9GW. Some 162MW of new rooftop solar was added in the third quarter, down 267MW from the same three months in 2023, when load shedding was frequently at stage 4 or higher.

The figures are contained in the latest quarterly report published by GoSolr on the state of the industry.

In his interview with TCS, Middleton unpacks:

• The impact of the suspension of load shedding on the rooftop solar industry;

• What’s driving consumers to consider solar at home today;

• The impact of the adoption of electric vehicles on the demand for home solar – and what sort of solar installation consumers who own or are thinking of buying an EV need to consider;

• The state of play in the municipalities around feed-in tariff structures – an update on Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and more;

• The future role of embedded generation systems in communities – the way forward and the hurdles that might be encountered; and

• Why government was wrong to withdraw the tax rebate on solar panels and to impose higher taxes on their importation.

Don’t miss this insightful conversation about the state of South Africa’s rooftop solar industry.

Nasdaq-listed Equinix has completed construction of the first phase of a new data centre in Johannesburg, part of a R7.5-billion commitment to building cloud infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent over the next five years.

The company’s South African MD, Sandile Dube – a former country manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a former executive at Dimension Data (now NTT Data) – tells TechCentral Show host Duncan McLeod about the new Johannesburg data centre, which is located in Isando on the East Rand, and what type of clients it’s hoping to attract.

In the interview, Dube chats about:

• Equinix’s African investment plans and where it intends to build data centre facilities and why;

• The Isando data centre and what it offers;

• The Equinix company and its investment focus – including its investments in West Africa;

• Whether there is an overbuild of data centres taking place in South Africa. Can market demand sustain the level of investment taking place?; and

• How Equinix differentiates itself in an increasingly crowded market.

Don’t miss a great interview!

Lincoln Mali has been at the helm of Lesaka Technologies Southern Africa, a fintech with a sizeable footprint in Southern Africa’s informal markets, since 2021.

One of his main tasks has been to turn the company’s finances around by reigning in business units that were haemorrhaging cash in the past. Lesaka’s latest set of financial results suggests it’s making progress.

In this episode of TechCentral Show, Mali speaks to TechCentral’s Nathi Ndlovu about:

• Lesaka’s latest financial results, breaking down each of the group's key business units;

• The resilience of Lesaka’s loans business;

• The importance of data analytics in driving Lesaka’s merchant lending business;

• The impact of the interest rate cycle on business;

• How the digitisation of cash is progressing in the informal market;

• Lesaka’s acquisition strategy, including the recent blockbuster purchase of Adumo; and

• The rationale behind Lesaka’s primary listing on the Nasdaq in the US (it has a secondary listing on the JSE).

Don’t miss this fast-paced episode of the TechCentral Show.