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South Africa’s mobile operators want tougher Sim registration, but not on the terms communications regulator Icasa has proposed. Draft amendments to Icasa’s numbering plan regulations, published for comment last month, would require a fingerprint or face check against home affairs records for every new Sim, reactivation and Sim swap. Subscribers would be capped at five numbers per operator, and operators would have two years to re-verify existing customers. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT), tells Duncan McLeod why the industry body won’t support the rules as drafted. ACT, which represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, has spent two years working with the justice department on amendments to Rica, the Sim registration law, and its members agreed an industry framework in June. Batyi says Icasa officials sat in meetings where that work was presented, so the draft came as a surprise. The industry framework would allow 20 Sims per person per network rather than five. It also targets informal dealers who sell Sims pre-registered in their own names. Batyi explains why prepaid customers are the hard part – some traders in rural areas still register Sims over 2G connections – and what it will cost to query the home affairs database. She warns that forcing every subscriber to re-verify risks repeating the failures of digital migration, and describes the fraud driving the debate, from WhatsApp scams and stolen phones to one-time Pin fraud. Don’t miss the discussion! TechCentral

AI is the defining technology of our era. At one extreme, it fuels fears of job losses, robot wars and computers ruling over human beings. At the other, it holds out hope: curing diseases such as cancer, bolstering global food security and even freeing people from the need to work. Old Mutual was the headline sponsor of this year's Singularity Summit South Africa, held on 21-22 October at the Sandton Convention Centre, where these questions took centre stage. In this episode of TCS+, Celiwe Ross, group chief human capital and corporate affairs officer at Old Mutual, looks back at the summit. She discusses how companies, their managers and employees should approach integrating the technology as AI becomes more deeply embedded in the workplace. In the interview, Ross discusses: - Why a 181-year-old insurer sponsors a future-focused event like the Singularity Summit, and how Old Mutual's founding story shapes its approach to disruption; - How AI is changing the role of the chief human resources officer, from workforce planning to the design of work, reskilling and organisational change; - Why leaders should look at AI through three lenses: the work, the worker and, only later, the workforce; - How AI could eventually change a company's operating model, and why that is still a distant reality, especially in South Africa; - Why experimentation is essential to building an AI strategy; - The usage trap: why some organisations have high adoption rates that do not translate into productivity gains or a return on investment; - Emerging global trends in the use of AI agents, and what South Africa can learn from them; - How Old Mutual is approaching AI training; - Why judgment, empathy and vulnerability are becoming more important leadership skills, and how organisations can help people build them; and - Where South Africa and Africa stand on AI adoption. Ross also argues that, done properly, AI should create more opportunities and career paths, not fewer, and that leaders should approach the AI debate in terms of capacity rather than headcount. Don't miss the discussion. -- TCS+ episodes are sponsored TechCentral

Small and medium enterprises are under constant pressure to stay nimble and competitive in a tough economic climate, and technology that runs smoothly is a big part of how they manage it. In this second episode of the Mac for SME series, brought to you by iStore Business, Sudesh Pillay, executive head of iStore Business South Africa, and Kevin McLennan, founder and CEO of PR and marketing firm The Prophecy Group, discuss the value of the Apple ecosystem as a productivity driver for small businesses. Pillay and McLennan delve into: ● Why seamless IT experience is important for SMEs where resource maximisation is key to success; ● How quickly technology is changing, and whether investing in the Apple ecosystem can futureproof hardware against advances in AI; ● The support available to SMEs when upgrades become unavoidable; ● Whether moving employees to a new operating system is as daunting as it sounds; ● How important native data protection is for small businesses that struggle with security and compliance; and ● Which software subscriptions, beyond AI tools, small businesses can avoid paying for. Don’t miss the discussion. -- TCS+ episodes are sponsored TechCentral

Phone calls, e-mails and in-person conversations were once the only ways businesses could talk to their customers. Social media changed that. Marketing, customer acquisition, sales and support now happen across a growing number of channels. That brings clear benefits, but it can also leave businesses with a fragmented communication ecosystem that hurts the customer experience. In this episode of TCS+, Natalie van der Merwe, head of telephony at Vox, unpacks why an omnichannel approach matters, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. Topics covered in the discussion include: * What "omnichannel" means and why businesses need it now * The benefits for SMEs and their customers * How customer expectations of business communication have changed * Why continuity across channels matters to customers * What a poor or disconnected experience can cost in loyalty and reputation * How a fragmented communication ecosystem disrupts a business internally * Whether SMEs are right to see omnichannel as complex * The role of AI in business communications * Why customers should be involved in designing new channels * The regulatory considerations businesses should keep in mind about the kinds of data exchanged on different platforms Van der Merwe also explains how to make the business case for investing in omnichannel, and advises SMEs on how to start improving their communication ecosystems. TCS+ episodes are sponsored TechCentral

Réan van Niekerk Metacom has spent 25 years designing its own routers and running private networks for some of Africa's biggest retailers, without a cent of venture capital. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, founder Réan van Niekerk tells Fanie van Rooyen how the Cape Town company came to connect more than 6 000 ATMs, every Pep store in Africa and, by his account, well over half the communications Eskom uses to monitor and control electricity distribution. He explains why Metacom designs its hardware in-house instead of buying white-label Asian routers, and why one box per store works better than equipment from four suppliers. He also says satellite services such as Starlink would be a "wonderful supplier", not a threat. Van Niekerk also discusses enterprise technology spending in 2026, the AI-driven memory shortages that now force Metacom to order some components a year ahead, the company's cautious approach to AI, which keeps humans on its support lines, and why Africa is not one market. TechCentral

In this episode of TCS+, brought to you by Arctic Wolf, Jason Oehley, the company's country sales manager, and Andre Den Hond, senior systems engineer, talk about why South Africa is bearing the brunt of ransomware in Africa and what businesses can do about it. The pair unpack an Interpol report that found 92% of ransomware detections on the continent are in South Africa. Oehley explains that the country's high connectivity, big financial services sector and large mid-market are part of the reason, along with a tactical rather than proactive approach to security. Den Hond explains how agentic AI systems can automate the attack chain, adapt when an exploit fails and never tire, putting small and medium-sized enterprises squarely in the crosshairs. Watch the video The pair also explain why the time between a vulnerability being identified and exploited has collapsed, why attackers are increasingly stealing data rather than encrypting it and why cyber insurance often doesn't cover the costs that hurt most. Other points discussed include: Why SMEs that supply bigger companies are a back door for attackers, including the recent breach of a group of South African insurers; The hidden costs of a breach, including downtime averaging 22 days, lost income, idle payroll and reputational damage; A customer that put off a security purchase because of the cost and was hit months later for much more; How to measure the financial impact of cyber risk, and why the return-on-investment argument matters at board level; Proactive versus reactive security, and why there is no silver bullet; Whether South Africa's regulators are keeping up, and the prospect of directors' liability; and Why building a 24/7 security operations centre in-house rarely makes financial sense Don't miss this practical conversation about turning cyber risk into terms that decision-makers understand. TechCentral

Milkor’s advanced 380 drone is flying for a customer in the Middle East, but South Africa’s own defence force has yet to buy one. In this episode of TCS, Milkor vice-president for Africa Daniel du Plessis talks to deputy editor Fanie van Rooyen about why, and about where drones, AI and autonomy are taking modern warfare. Fresh from the Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) expo at Air Force Base Waterkloof, Du Plessis explains what buyers were asking about most: drones of all sizes, data fusion and artificial intelligence. He sets out where a 1.5-tonne surveillance aircraft that can fly for more than 30 hours fits in a world of cheap, expendable drones like those used in Ukraine. He also tackles the harder questions. Who decides who Milkor can sell to, and how do South Africa’s arms export controls work? Where does a human stay in control as drones carry guided missiles and become more autonomous? Are fears about “killer robots” overblown? And how does the 380 keep flying when GPS signals are jammed or spoofed? Closer to home, Du Plessis says the SANDF is severely underfunded and that money, not interest, is what stands between the 380 and South Africa’s defence force and Border Management Authority. He warns that South Africa and the rest of the continent are not ready for cheap attack drones, but says the local defence industry has the capability to respond if government acts now. The conversation also covers Milkor’s larger 780, its new agreement with European missile maker MBDA and how much of the 380 is built in Cape Town. TechCentral

Frogfoot plans to keep buying smaller fibre network operators in South Africa’s suburbs as the market consolidates, but CEO Shane Chorley stopped short of ruling out a sale of the business. “I’d be ignorant to say that we would ignore any offer,” Chorley said on the latest episode of the TechCentral Show – watch or listen below. “I would hope to say that we will be the acquirer rather than being sold.” Frogfoot has already bought a couple of small suburban operators and wants to acquire “as many of those smaller operators as possible”, he told show host Duncan McLeod. He expects somewhat larger networks, of more than 30 000 homes, to come up for sale in the next few years, followed in time by “a much bigger consolidation of one or two of the bigger ones”. The mooted merger of Octotel and MetroFibre had been “going on for a while”, Chorley said, and he expected consolidation among suburban operators to continue. Abraham van der Merwe, who leads Frogfoot, Vox and Hypa, said consolidation was inevitable because “infrastructure requires scale”. But he said Frogfoot was unlikely to be consolidated any time soon because its “long-term and patient” investors, among them the founders, intend to own the business for a very long time. The two spoke after a DNI-led consortium invested in the businesses in a deal valuing them at R14.4-billion. Most of the money will go into townships, where Van der Merwe said fewer than two million of 12 million to 15 million homes have fibre. Frogfoot wants to lift its build rate from about 80 000 connections a year to 360 000. That untapped market is also why Van der Merwe is not worried about operators overbuilding each other. Overbuilding splits market share and wrecks the economics, he said, and there is little reason to do it when so many homes have no fibre at all. It took about a decade to connect the 4.5 million homes in the suburbs; the township market is three times that size. TechCentral

Mohamed Sami, group chief information officer at Vodacom, says autonomous AI agents that resolve customer problems without handing them to a human are the next big shift in customer experience – and that it is closer than many think. Speaking on TechCentral’s Meet the CIO podcast series, brought to you by NTT DATA, Sami said Vodacom’s chatbots and voice bots already handle a considerable share of customer calls, while AI tools help its human agents find information without jumping between systems. “When I say it is the next big thing, it is not something that is happening in years. It’s something that is happening very soon,” he said. How autonomous those agents become, he added, depends on how much intelligence and orchestration sits behind them. Watch the episode Sami also discusses: • Where the line falls between his role and that of the group CTO as network and IT converge; • Why Vodacom is using small language models to help large models handle isiZulu, Swahili, Amharic and Egypt’s Arabic dialects; • How a standard set of AI agents across the software development life cycle is lifting developer productivity, and why it hasn’t cost software engineers their jobs; • How Vodacom is trying to stop AI token bills running away, including orchestrators that route work between expensive, cheap and self-hosted models; • Why he told the board that cybersecurity is one of the company’s biggest risks, and the programme to rebuild core platforms designed before the generative AI era; and • What it takes to be a modern CIO, and his advice for a graduate who wants his job in 20 years. Don’t miss a great discussion on technology in telecoms. TechCentral

Chinese companies have built their position in African technology one layer at a time – first phones and telecoms equipment, then fintech and now the AI models that local start-ups build on. American private capital, meanwhile, is pulling back. Lexi Novitske, general partner at Norrsken22, thinks US investors will regret it. Novitske moved to Nigeria in 2012 and has invested from Lagos ever since. Norrsken22, a pan-African growth fund backed by Nordic tech founders including those behind Klarna, Skype and Minecraft, closed its debut fund at US$205-million in 2023. It is now about halfway through deploying that capital, with no exits yet. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, she expands on the argument TechCentral reported last week: that African start-ups are increasingly building on Chinese AI models such as Alibaba’s Qwen because they are cheaper and more available, and that the US risks losing both a young, digital-first market and access to its data. In the interview, with TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod, Novitske also discusses: • How Nigeria’s start-up scene has changed since she began as an angel investor; • Why unpredictable regulation and a shortage of top talent are bigger obstacles for Nigerian founders than power cuts; • How Chinese-backed OPay and PalmPay won Nigerian fintech by absorbing years of losses, and why that now makes regulators uneasy; • Why Silicon Valley’s AI boom has drawn venture capital away from Africa, and when she expects it to return; • Why Egypt and South Africa offer the best opportunities right now, with Nigeria likely to follow; and • What Optasia’s oversubscribed JSE listing means for Johannesburg, why the biggest African fintechs are looking to New York, London and Hong Kong instead, and why one or two winners can return an entire fund. Don’t miss the discussion! TechCentral