TCS - The TechCentral Show

Walmart-owned retail group Massmart has ambitious plans to become one of the most significant players in e-commerce in South Africa. In this episode of TC|Daily, TechCentral’s new technology show, the retail group’s head of e-commerce, Sylvester John, joins Duncan McLeod in-studio to unpack its plans. John, who was a key figure behind the development of e-commerce platforms at Walmart, believes the online shopping market in South Africa is poised for lift-off – from less than 4% of total retail sales today, he expects the figure to jump to about 12% by the end of the decade. In the interview, John talks about: • How the Covid-19 pandemic changed the e-commerce game globally and in South Africa. • His predictions for the growth of e-commerce in South Africa. • How South Africa compares to other markets, including other developing countries, when it comes to e-commerce. • How Massmart is using its retail brands such as Makro, Builders and Game to go to market while building a supportive backend infrastructure. • Why the group is firmly focused on developing for mobile first. • The acquisitions of WumDrop and OneCart and what they bring to Massmart. • The relevance of Black Friday – and what Massmart has planned for the 2022 event. • The impending launch of Amazon.com retail operations in South Africa and why Massmart is ready for the competition. • The importance of B2B in e-commerce in South Africa. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion with a key player in e-commerce in South Africa. Did you enjoy this content? Please subscribe to our channel.

Former technology journalist and now author and entrepreneur Simon Dingle is the guest in this episode of TechCentral's TC|Daily. Dingle, who co-founded the rand-pegged stablecoin ZARP with Kenny Inggs, chats about some of the latest development in the world of cryptocurrencies. In this episode of TC|Daily, he unpacks: * The thinking behind ZARP * What it takes to run a stablecoin * Stablecoin regulation * Ethereum's big "Merge" - how important was it? * Is crypto bad for the planet? * What to watch for next in crypto * And more... Don't miss the discussion.

Alviva Holdings-owned GridCars has built South Africa’s largest network of charging stations for electric vehicles – more than 300 so far – yet the company is just getting started, says CEO Winstone Jordaan. Jordaan joined TC|Daily, TechCentral new technology show, for a discussion about the roll-out EV charging infrastructure in South Africa. In the show, Jordaan talks about the genesis of GridCars and why he thinks the EV revolution is about to get going in South Africa, despite the country’s electricity supply challenges. If you’re at all interested in EVs, or indeed the future of motoring in South Africa, don’t miss this fascinating interview.

Big changes are coming to the payments industry in South Africa early next year, including cheap and instantaneous payments directly to mobile numbers – no bank account number or branch code required. BankservAfrica has been working behind the scenes for years on a major system overhaul that, when it goes live, will dramatically shake up the financial services sector in South Africa, ushering in a new era of fintech-led innovation. Through a project called the Rapid Payments Programme (RPP) – which will be launched commercially under the name PayShap – South Africans will be able to transfer money instantly from their phones, even, once developed, from instant messaging apps like WhatsApp. The new platform will usher in a dramatic modernisation of the payments system, with cloud services, open application programming interfaces and a flexible microservices architecture forming the foundation for further development by industry players. Indeed, the launch PayShap early in 2023 promises to herald a new era of rapid digital payments in South Africa that BankservAfrica believes could begin to displace cash from the economy – astonishingly, despite the country’s sophisticated banking sector, almost nine in 10 transactions are still cash based. In this episode of TC|Daily, BankservAfrica CEO Jan Pilbauer joins TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod in-studio to talk about the RPP, the launch of PayShap, what it means for innovation in banking and fintech in South Africa, and how companies, including fintech start-ups and social media companies, can use it to develop cutting-edge solutions. BankservAfrica is a non-profit company established 50 years ago that serves as a financial clearing house for the financial sector. It is a vital cog in South Africa’s economy and is owned by the big banks – Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank and FirstRand each hold about 23.1% of its equity, while the remaining 7.5% is held by an entity called Dandyshelf, whose shareholders include Capitec, Investec, Bidvest and Sasfin.

Andy Higgins is a pioneer in e-commerce in South Africa – just don’t call him a “veteran”, he says, because the industry is still just getting started and he plans to be a part of its development for years to come. In this interview on TechCentral’s new technology show, TC|Daily, Higgins joins Duncan McLeod in the studio to talk about his latest venture, called Bob Group, which is an amalgamation of two businesses he either founded or c-founded, Bidorbuy and uAfrica. Higgins, who started Bidorbuy in 1999 at the height of the dot-com bubble, has many interesting stories to tell – about venture capital excesses, global expansion and the inevitable pain that followed the dot-com collapse – and he shares some of these tales in this show. Now Higgins and his team are launching a new venture, which he hopes will make it easier for small and medium businesses to sell their products online in South Africa. It’s going to put Bob Group on a collision course with well-funded rivals like Takealot – and possibly Amazon from next year – but Higgins says he’s ready for it. Bob Group will offer a full suite of e-commerce services to South African businesses, including an online marketplace, inventory management, order fulfilment, a shipping tool, online payments and courier software as a service. It “offers everything e-commerce to all South African consumers and companies operating online, whether they are looking to sell, buy – or both”. “The merger means that merchants will now be offered a complete set of e-commerce services, including payments, logistics and a marketplace,” Higgins said earlier this week about the launch of Bob Group. In this episode of TC|Daily, he unpacks more details about Bob Group, and gives his views on what the (still not officially confirmed) launch of Amazon in South Africa early next year will mean for the local e-commerce landscape. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion.

Despite the challenges in convincing South African drivers to ditch fossil fuel-powered vehicles for electric alternatives, Mercedes-Benz South Africa co-CEO Mark Raine predicts that more than half of the company’s car sales locally by the end of 2026 will be fully electric. That’s just four years from now (plus a few months), yet Raine believes the South African luxury vehicle-buying market is ready for this massive shift. And he’s betting big on it, with Mercedes announcing four new EVs coming to local showrooms that it hopes will, umm, electrify fans of the badge. Speaking on TC|Daily, TechCentral’s new technology show, Raine unpacked in an interview with Duncan McLeod what must happen in the coming years for EVs to take off in the same way they are expected to in markets like Europe and North America. In the show, Raine chats about the state of the industry in South Africa following the Covid pandemic and last year’s riots in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as Mercedes’ investments locally, including in its flagship manufacturing plant in East London, which manufactures C-Class Mercedes-Benz vehicles for markets around the world. In the show, Raine talks about: • Why he believes the local market is ready to adopt EVs, despite concerns about load shedding, charging networks and range anxiety; • Whether government is doing enough to encourage the uptake of EVs (spoiler: it’s not); and • Whether we can expect Mercedes to build EVs in South Africa anytime soon. He then takes TC|Daily viewers through the EV models that Mercedes is introducing in South Africa this year: the EQA, the EQB, the EQC and the top-of-the-line EQS. If you haven't already subscribed to TechCentral's YouTube channel, please do so now. TC|Daily is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts.

In the inaugural episode of TechCentral’s new technology show, TC|Daily, Sean Sanders, CEO of Cape Town-based cryptocurrency platform Revix, chats to host Duncan McLeod about the imminent “Merge” affecting the ethereum blockchain and what it means. Sanders explains what the Merge is, how it will impact the blockchain and what it might mean for investors in the ether token. Could it even lead to the so-called “Flippening”, where ether overtakes bitcoin to become the most valuable crypto token by market cap? The wide-ranging conversation with Sanders also touches on the recent (current?) crypto winter and the impact this has had on South African investors in crypto (and on Revix specifically). Other topics discussed include: • Consumer vs institutional investment in crypto in South Africa; • Crypto’s correlation with US technology stocks – will it last?; • Could crypto still become a hedge against inflation?; • The Prudential Authority's recent “practice note” to South African banks regarding cryptocurrency exchanges – how significant is it?; • What’s happening when it comes to crypto regulation in South Africa?; and • Taxing crypto investments in South Africa – the current state of play with the South African Revenue Service.