South Africa’s innovation frontier expands with the R400 million University Technology Fund II.

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Investment vehicle Stocks & Strauss Fund Manager has announced the second instalment of the University Technology Fund (UTF).

This, in an effort to extend commercialising technology, research and intellectual property (IP) originating from South African universities, says Stocks & Strauss.

According to a statement, UTF II achieved a milestone in December 2024 with all agreements concluded and a substantial portion of the funds committed, marking a step towards reaching the R400 million target fund size.

The fund’s anchor investors include the SA SME Fund, Stellenbosch University and Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropies Africa. Other key university investors in UTF II include the University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Town and Wits University.

Wayne Stocks, managing partner at Stocks & Strauss, comments: “The potential is immense, both for the companies and for investors. The world is witnessing a shift towards valuing university IP as an important asset class and opportunity.

“These companies are also providing solutions to real-world challenges, which boosts their impact and value. If you’re seeking deep-tech investment opportunities in Africa, universities are unparalleled hubs. They possess the capacity, skilled talent, cross-faculty institutional knowledge and long-term funding necessary to drive meaningful innovation and development in this space.”

The fund’s predecessor, UTF I, demonstrated the potential of university-originated technologies, with investments in Hyrax Biosciences and CubeSpace, says Stocks & Strauss.

UTF II aims to invest in 15 to 20 companies, focusing on highly-scalable technology IP across various sectors. The fund will channel resources into technology commercialisation and growth, ensuring a targeted approach to supporting innovative ventures with high potential.

To strengthen the country’s ecosystem of entrepreneurs, UTF II has expanded its mandate to allocate a portion of the fund to include alumni of South African universities.

Anita Nel, chief director of innovation and commercialisation at Stellenbosch University, comments: “Stellenbosch University partnered with the University Technology Fund II to support innovation on our campus and to help students, staff and alumni bring their ideas to market.

“The fund accelerates the development of new technologies and reinforces the university’s reputation as a hub for research and innovation and builds on the successful relationship between our university and the UTF I.

“Additionally, the partnership offers potential financial returns that can be reinvested in research and infrastructure.”

Ketso Gordhan, CEO of the SA SME Fund, emphasised the importance of the UTF’s role in shaping SA’s economic future: “UTF Fund I is a powerful example of what can be achieved when we align resources to unlock the potential of South Africa’s brightest minds and world-class intellectual property.

“The UTF Fund II will elevate our innovation landscape further, and we foresee that it will attract both local and international investment interest.”

Six former Dimension Data executives, who were found last November by the high court to have engaged in a “brazen and dishonest” scheme involving the sale of the company’s Johannesburg head office, The Campus in Bryanston, have won leave to appeal the judgment.

High court judge Denise Fisher, who handed down the scathing judgment against the former executives, on Wednesday agreed that it could be taken on appeal.

Fisher, in her November judgment, found that the former senior executives had “entered into an illegal scheme” designed to benefit them personally at the expense of the company and its Japanese parent, NTT Group.

Read: Dimension Data drags ex-bosses to court over Campus deal

The court declared the sale of The Campus property in Bryanston null and void and awarded punitive costs against the former executives. TechCentral broke the news in January 2022 that several former executives – unnamed at the time – had become embroiled in a fraud scandal following a forensic probe into the December 2019 sale of The Campus in a complex black economic empowerment transaction.

NTT Ltd, which is owned by Japan’s NTT Group, appointed international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills to conduct a forensic investigation into allegations brought forward by a whistle-blower.

In November’s judgment, Fisher not only found in favour of NTT but awarded punitive costs against the former executives and made several damning findings against them.

She found that the executives had “entered into an illegal scheme designed to appropriate for themselves a secret financial benefit which placed them in conflict with their boards”. She described the scheme as “brazen and dishonest” and said it was orchestrated “without due regard to the relationships between the Japanese holding entities (NTT) and the South African interests”.

The judge also found that should “this kind of flouting of foundational and universal commercial values remain unchecked and unpunished, this would represent a travesty of South Africa’s commitment nationally and internationally to the upholding of the values of honesty and integrity which are so intrinsic to proper commercial relationships”.

But in a joint statement after the judgment was handed down, the former executives said the court’s findings “came as a surprise” to them and their lawyers. “We are resolute in our commitment to ensuring that we are exonerated from any wrongdoing,” they said at the time.

‘Welcomed’

The former executives, first identified in TechCentral’s reporting on this story, are:

• Jeremy Ord, who until mid-2021 served as Dimension Data’s executive chairman;
• Jason Goodall, a former Dimension Data CEO who later took the reins at NTT Ltd;
• Grant Bodley, who served as Dimension Data Middle East & Africa CEO until March 2021;
• Steven Nathan, Dimension Data’s former head of corporate finance, who resigned in mid-2021;
• Saki Missaikos, a former MD of Dimension Data’s Internet Solutions who was group head of strategy prior to his exit, also in mid-2021; and
• Bruce “Doc” Watson, a Dimension Data stalwart who left around the same time.

On securing leave to appeal, the ex-executives said on Wednesday that they welcomed the decision. They said they are “confident that the orders made by Judge Fisher will be set aside on appeal”.

They said the judge granted leave to appeal on the basis that:

• “The court embarked on an in-depth interpretation of written exchanges and drew far-reaching inferences from them on the papers” and another court may determine that the judge had been wrong in the inferences drawn;
• “The applicants allege that, on a proper interpretation of the transaction, it does not amount to a subversion of BEE legislation” and that the empowerment structure should be assessed by another court; and
• “The question of whether there are real indications of a ratification of the transaction by the respondent which required oral evidence for proper determination” and the determination that there was no evidence of ratification should be revisited on appeal.

In their statement, they said that they expect that the appeal court will find that:

• “The correspondence that the lower court drew inferences from was inadmissible”;
• “The inferences that were drawn were incorrect”;
• “The matter should not have been determined on paper, thereby depriving the respondents of the benefit of obtaining discovery of documentation, leading evidence and cross-examining NTT’s witnesses, including their senior Japanese and South African executives”;
• “The allegation that the BEE structure was a subterfuge was one that none of the parties raised and is incorrect. The BEE structure was fully compliant with all BEE rules and was sanctioned by Eversheds and Webber Wentzel acting for NTT and Webber Wentzel acting for the empowerment entity”; and
• “There is compelling evidence that NTT elected to abide by the transaction, which had achieved the BEE result NTT sought, and that it in fact relied on and benefited from the transaction. Moreover, the CEO of the business, Werner Kapp, said on 25 January 2022, ‘We have taken the decision to ratify The Campus transaction subject to dealing with the exit of the executives in a manner which preserves the original objectives of this transaction. Based on that step, which we took today, the BEE status remains unchanged.’”

In their statement, the former executives provided detailed insight for the first time into how they plan to fight the judgment in the appeal court. TechCentral has republished this below (slightly edited for style and readability):

In January 2019, NTT advised Jeremy Ord, one of the founders of Dimension Data, that it wished to divest from Africa. It offered to sell the African business to a consortium of executives of NTT. Ord expressed interest in the proposal because he saw an opportunity to rebuild the South African IT company that he had dedicated his life to establishing. He knew that many of the managers in the African business, who had lost faith in NTT’s ability to operate in Africa, would also be keen to participate in a management buyout and to contribute to the rebirth of Dimension Data. However, Ord cited to NTT the poor broad-based BEE rating of the South African business as a factor that would need to be addressed in order for a sale to proceed.

Ord and NTT agreed that Ord would resign from NTT to pursue the MBO, which he did in June 2019, and that Ord would identify other members of the management team to participate in the MBO. Steven Nathan, an independent contractor working at NTT, joined Ord in negotiating the MBO. Nathan did not need to resign from the business because he was not an employee. NTT and Ord agreed that the business would be sold at market value for the assets comprising the African business, including specifically the Bryanston head office known as The Campus.

Historically, as a Japanese company, NTT had struggled with the concept of empowerment and its implementation, and it had fallen behind its competitors in this regard. It understood, however, that unless the BEE rating was improved, full value could not be achieved on a sale of the business. Initially, it was envisaged that NTT would simultaneously sell shares to the executives and BEE investors. Standard Bank and other property experts were also employed by NTT. However, it proved challenging logistically to achieve both sales at once. Moreover, when NTT realised that an equity deal would necessitate the sale of some of the shares at a discount, they began looking for other ways to achieve a better BEE rating.

Read: Dimension Data campus sale was an ‘illegal scheme’

In May 2019, NTT instructed Standard Bank to abandon the proposal to sell shares to black people and to instead implement an arrangement to achieve the BEE rating that involved the sale and lease back of The Campus. Importantly, this was a proposal that NTT (as opposed to the executives) came up with in consultation with its own advisors, Eversheds, Webber Wentzel and Standard Bank. In so doing, NTT hoped to achieve the desired BEE result without having to incur a discount on the sale of shares in the business.

In July 2019, NTT made a binding offer (which was accepted) to sell the Campus to Identity Property Co (Propco), a subsidiary of Identity Partners, a BEE fund manager. None of the executives signed that binding offer, which NTT says was not authorised until August 2019. None of the executives has ever held any participation whatsoever in Propco.

The executives were disappointed with the arrangement because they did not consider that it resulted in genuine empowerment within the South African business which they were set to acquire. Given NTT’s insistence on pursuing this structure, extensive work was done by all of the professional advisors to ensure that the structure that was finally implemented was fully compliant.

In November 2019, Identity Partners contributed their rights to The Campus to a fund, Identity Fund I, established at the same time and managed by Identity Fund Managers, a black fund manager. The terms of the fund had been negotiated extensively to ensure it complied with BEE rules.

Read: Ex-Dimension Data bosses slam court judgment that skewered them

The relevant BEE rules under which the scheme operated seek to promote the transformation of the private equity industry by incentivising investors to invest with black fund managers. They provide that the assets of a fund managed by a black fund manager (a “BEE fund”) will be deemed to be black owned. These rules do not dictate that black fund managers can only manage black capital because such a rule would prejudice black fund managers and necessarily inhibit transformation. The BEE rating derives exclusively from management by a black fund manager irrespective of the source of funds under management.

Certain of the executives indirectly participated in the Areti Partnership, which is a partner in the fund. They did so on the basis that NTT had always intended to sell The Campus as part of the MBO, that for the MBO to proceed, the BEE rating had to be improved, that negotiations on all other aspects of the MBO were proceeding and that this structure facilitated any investor participating. NTT was sensitive to an inadvertent announcement of the MBO through public disclosures and steps were therefore taken to ensure that the public did not become aware of the MBO through The Campus sale process.

The executives’ indirect participation was managed, in the first instance, by an expert property manager, and in the second instance by Identity Partners. The executives had no control over Areti or the fund or The Campus asset, but held only an indirect, passive participation. That participation comprised less than 5% of the capital required to purchase The Campus with the remaining 95% being provided by NTT, who also retained control of The Campus through the loan terms. Those terms prohibited the fund from selling the asset or refinancing the loan without NTT’s permission.

Read: Dimension Data to be renamed NTT Data

NTT decided, in March 2021, not to complete the MBO. Shortly thereafter, in October 2021, NTT approached the fund with a view to retaining the BEE consequences of the fund while exiting the executives. All the parties, including NTT, agreed to the principle and all of the parties except NTT agreed to a proposal to achieve that.

On 25 January 2022, Dimension Data announced to its clients and the press that The Campus transaction had been ratified on that day. NTT proceeded to rely on the validity of The Campus Transaction until August 2022.

Subsequently, NTT states that it decided not to settle as a “matter of principle”. It instead purported to revert to the position that The Campus transaction was void and made application to court. In its founding papers, NTT made no mention of the MBO nor of the ratification. It denied the executives access to documentation giving them only the documents NTT had selected as relevant. Because it brought its case as an application, no witnesses were heard or cross-examined. When confronted, NTT claimed that the MBO was not relevant and explained its misleading January 2022 announcement as “crisis control”.

NTT’s application was granted on 25 November by the Gauteng high court and it was immediately appealed. Leave to appeal was granted today and the applicants are confident that the appeal will be successful and the application by NTT will be dismissed.

• This is a developing story … refresh this page for updates

South Africa may have a new minister of communications, the Democratic Alliance’s Solly Malatsi, but the latest development in the digital TV migration saga still feels a bit like Groundhog Day.

TechCentral has learnt that free-to-air broadcaster e.tv has filed an urgent application at the high court in Pretoria seeking to stop Malatsi from switching off analogue broadcasts on 31 March 2025 as planned.

“This is an urgent application for an interim interdict preventing the minister from switching off analogue broadcasting on 31 March,” said e.tv executive director Antonio Lee in the broadcaster’s founding affidavit, which TechCentral has read. The papers were filed on 24 January.

“Around 12 million people are reliant on analogue signals to receive television broadcasts because they cannot afford satellite or other forms of digital broadcasting. The analogue switch-off – if not postponed – will leave millions of people without access to television,” Lee said.

E.tv is the first applicant, while media watchdogs Media Monitoring Africa and SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition are listed in the court papers as the second and third applicants. Apart from Malatsi, respondents include President Cyril Ramaphosa, broadcast signal distributor Sentech, communications regulator Icasa, the SABC and number of regional community TV stations.

Lee said in his affidavit that switching off analogue broadcasts at the end of March will break a promise made by government that it will “leave no one behind” in the migration to digital broadcasting.

Litigious

Lee further argued that government’s roll-out of subsidised set-top boxes to indigent households is a shambles. According to e.tv, the state has failed to supply these devices to the 450 000 households that applied for the programme. “These indigent households will have their television cut off, despite being eligible and duly registered for a set-top box,” he said. According to Sentech, it still has 220 000 boxes to install and just two months in which to do it.

This is not the first time e.tv – or its parent, eMedia – has taken a communications minister to court over the analogue switch-off. The constitutional court in 2022 ruled in favour of e.tv and others, finding that former communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni had failed to consult with industry stakeholders including e.tv, Media Monitoring Africa and others before deciding to set a date for switching off analogue broadcasts.

Read: E.tv in stunning victory over minister in digital TV fight

The court found Ntshavheni’ s lack of consultation was unlawful and slammed her ministry’s lethargic approach to the registration and distribution of set-top boxes. Ntshavheni’s unilateral decision to set a deadline for set-top-box registrations was described as “irrational”.

Lee said in his affidavit that Malatsi was guilty of making the same mistake as Ntshavheni: not consulting industry stakeholders before setting the 31 March deadline.

This is not the first time that e.tv and eMedia have voiced concerns regarding the fallout that might follow the termination of analogue broadcasts in South Africa.

At Icasa hearings last June, eMedia CEO Khaliq Sherrif slammed the communications ministry’s previous 31 December deadline, labelling it “premature”.

In his presentation to a panel of Icasa councillors, Sherrif said it was unlikely that the millions of households that still could not access digital broadcasts – mainly because they didn’t have the necessary hardware – would be connected by 31 December. This prediction turned out to be true.

Lee said free-to-air broadcasters such as e.tv and the SABC face “irreparable harm” should the analogue switch-off go ahead.

E.tv has asked the court to set the 31 March deadline aside while a review of the decision is pending. It has also argued that the potential for harm is grounds for the court to hear the matter on an urgent basis.

“The analogue switch-off deadline is on 31 March 2025. Any hearing after that date cannot afford the applicants or millions of indigent viewers effective relief,” said Lee.

Minister Malatsi’s spokesman, Kwena Moloto, could not immediately be reached on his mobile phone for comment.  – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

 

 

 

The South African Police Service wants to obtain information on open-source intelligence and social media investigation and monitoring technologies.

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National Treasury’s eTender Portal is roaring back, with over 650 advertisements posted on the site in the past week. For the ICT sector, however, the advertisers are mostly smaller municipalities, with state-owned entities stepping up to provide tenders of interest.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) easily grabs the headlines, however, with its request for information on open-source intelligence (OSINT) and social media investigation and monitoring technologies. This solution is required to support operational strategic components requirements, to ensure national safety and security as and when required, it says.

While no further background is provided, the SABC revealed in July last year that SAPS was launching a social media monitoring unit to track down criminals using online profiles. The initiative followed the 2021 unrest, which led to 350 deaths across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, highlighting the need for closer scrutiny of online activities.

The extensive business requirements stipulated by the SAPS, however, demonstrate a focused approach to its intelligence-gathering efforts. Data collection is required to target social media platforms and applications, including news feeds, marketplaces and publications; as well as the open web, dark web, Telegram, paste sites, Discord and deep web. Any other sources exceeding these minimum requirements will be beneficial to bidders, it says.

In terms of search functionality, SAPS expects the OSINT to support the ability to conduct searches in public domain available data to analyse and support focused investigations with the use of specific keyword searches to assist in identification of trends. Search results should be expandable to provide the linkage across social media platforms.

This includes relationships between entities and persons; contact details and government-issued identification numbers; organisations and companies; property and vehicles; events and actions planned in public; and “secondary sources” such as queries on internet search engines, online databases, registries, news sites, and networks and internet infrastructure records.

As for analysis functionality, the supplied OSINT tool must be able to identify criminal markets of hot spots to initiate investigations. Additionally, an early warning capability is required regarding trends on social media and identifying people of interest in pre-sets of specific searches set up to constantly interrogate all databases and applications in the background to have immediate awareness and alerts to activities. This should include real-time threat identification and gathering of intelligence to support investigation.

While the OSINT tool must support anonymous safe date collection from all available sources, the audit trail of searched information must only be available to selected SAPS user profiles, must always be retained, and never shared with anyone except SAPS-selected users.

Further information can be found on the SAPS website.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The Airports Company of South Africa calls on ServiceNow partners to bid for the renewal and procurement of licensing of the ITSM tool for 24 months. The company notes the final decision on which modules and licences are required will be made during its review process.
• The Department of Home Affairs wishes to appoint a service provider to manage the repositioning enterprise programme management office (EPMO) and provide project management and specialist services for 36 months. The department says the EPMO will play a critical role in providing project management and technical support for projects that contribute to its digital transformation agenda.
• Transnet is inviting proposals for the provision of redundancy and backup connectivity for 47 SD-WAN campus sites nationally. The company notes it relies heavily on its current SD-WAN infrastructure network to support critical business operations, including data exchange between multiple locations, access to cloud services, and communication with external stakeholders. However, the current SD-WAN design lacks redundancy, making it vulnerable to single points of failure and potential network outages.
• The Industrial Development Corporation is advertising for the provision of manufacturing execution system (MES) application redevelopment and the implementation of enhancements on behalf of Foskor. The company’s current MES system was implemented in 2007 and is mainly used for tracking production data and workflows, aggregating data for research or business intelligence purposes, as well as to ensure production operations are compliant with various standards and regulations. However, it has limitations in accurately specifying the product specifications for capturing and reporting purposes, among other requirements.
• The South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) is looking for a suitably qualified professional bidder for the provision and maintenance of a supply chain management system (SCM). Bidders must have access to a Sage value-added reseller to develop, implement and integrate the system with the SANAS SQL database engines, Sage Evolution V10 and National Treasury’s central supplier database.
• North West’s Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism wishes to appoint an independent, professional and suitably qualified service provider to develop and maintain an integrated North West electronic biodiversity permit administration system for three years. The department notes the contract for the NIPAS system, shared with other provinces, lapsed at the end of the 2021/22 financial year, requiring it to appoint a service provider for maintenance and support of the system until 30 November 2024.
• The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development requires IT services from SITA’s RFB 1183/2022 transversal tender to capacitate the Integrated Justice System (IJS) transversal sub-programme, in order to deliver the key priorities for the integration of the Criminal Justice System. The primary objective of the IJS is to electronically enable and integrate the end-to-end criminal justice business processes through technology solutions and manage the related inter-departmental information exchanges across the CJS.
• The South African Broadcasting Corporation closes the issue with two requests for information. The first focuses on data classification, labelling systems and disclaimers on AI applications. The broadcaster explains that with growing data volumes, varied sources and increasing risks associated with sensitive information, the need for a robust solution to systematically classify, label and manage data has become paramount. “Furthermore, as AI applications become more integral to business operations, ensuring transparency and accountability through disclaimers is critical to maintaining ethical standards and regulatory compliance,” it says.
• The broadcaster also requires information on the replacement of Final Control Centre (FCC) playout servers. The FCC is responsible for the playout of content that comes from video entertainment, sport, news and sales departments with the aim of playing it on air on different platforms. There is currently an Ingest server, near-line storage server and three transmission (playout) servers, which ensure seamless transmission on content. However, this infrastructure is reaching its end of life and will soon be unsupported, placing FCC at risk of not fulfilling its mandate.

Airports Company of South Africa

ACSA is calling for the procurement and renewal of licensing for its ITSM tool, ServiceNow, for 24 months.

Tender no: COR7746/2025/RFP
Information: Anastacia Chellan, E-mail: Anastacia.chellan@airports.co.za
Closing date: 25 February 2025

­­Tags: Software, software licensing, IT service management, ITSM

Department of Home Affairs

The national department wishes to appoint a service provider to manage the repositioning EPMO, and provide project management and specialist services for 36 months.

Non-compulsory briefing: 31 January – Microsoft Teams, Link
Tender no: DHA03-2025
Information: Sihle Mthiyane, Tel: 012 406 4353, E-mail: sihle.mthiyane@dha.gov.za
Closing date: 14 February 2025

­­Tags: Services, professional services, enterprise programme management office, EPMO, project management

Transnet

Proposals are invited for the provision of redundancy and backup connectivity for SD-WAN traffic for three years, on an as and when required basis.

Non-compulsory briefing: 4 February – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: TCC/2024/09/0002/76777/RFP
Information: Barbara Msomi, Tel: 011 308 3703, E-mail: Barbara.msomi@transnet.net
Closing date: 24 February 2025

­­Tags: Telecommunications, networking, redundancy, backup, SD-WAN

Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa

The IDC is advertising for the provision of MES application redevelopment and implementation of enhancements for 36 months.

Compulsory briefing: 3 February – Microsoft Teams
Tender no: FOSRBY-RFP-29-24/25 (R)
Information: Nana Ndlovu, Tel: 035 902 3235, E-mail: NanaN@foskor.co.za
Closing date: 18 February 2025

­Tags: Software, software development

South African Police Service

Bids are invited for the supply, installation, hosting, training, maintenance and support of an OSINT and social media investigation and monitoring technologies for five years.

Compulsory briefing: 30 January
Tender no: 19/1/9/1/13TR (24)
Information: Lt Col Mahlaule, Tel: 012 841 7852, E-mail: Mahlauleg@saps.gov.za
Closing date: 13 February 2025

­­Tags: Software, open-source, open-source intelligence, OSINT, social media, social media monitoring, analytics

South African National Accreditation System

A suitably qualified professional bidder is sought for the provision and maintenance of an SCM for a period not exceeding 36 months. The duration for the provision of the system must not exceed 12 months, followed by a maintenance period not exceeding 36 months.

Compulsory briefing: 31 January – Zoom, Link, Passcode: 776221
Tender no: SANAS/SCM/2024-25/08
Information: Zanele Ngwenya, Tel: 012 740 8535, E-mail: zanelen@sanas.co.za
Closing date: 13 February 2025

­­Tags: Software, supply chain management, SCM, services, support and maintenance

Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, North West

The provincial department is looking for a service provider to develop and maintain an integrated North West electronic biodiversity permit administration system for three years.

Non-compulsory briefing: 29 January
Tender no: DEDECT 03/2024
Information: Aobakwe Mabogole, Tel: 018 388 1618, E-mail: amabogole@nwpg.gov.za
Closing date: 12 February 2025

­­Tags: Software, software development, permitting

Department of Justice and Constitutional Development

The department requires IT services to capacitate the IJS transversal sub-programme to deliver the key priorities for the integration of the Criminal Justice System. Bidders must be accredited in SITA transversal contract RFB 1183/2022.

Compulsory briefing: 29 January – Virtual, Meeting ID: 318 028 174 339, Passcode: vB6yb7SN
Tender no: RFQ 08 2024
Information: SCM, Tel: 012 315 1187, E-mail: Sourcing@justice.gov.za
Closing date: 21 February 2025

­­Tags: Services, software development, skills resourcing

South African Broadcasting Corporation

The SABC is calling for information on data classification, labelling systems and disclaimers on AI applications.

Tender no: RFI NO: RFI/IT/2024/2
Information: Lebohang Tlale, Tel: 011 714 4644, E-mail: tenderqueries@sabc.co.za
Closing date: 19 February 2025

­­Tags: Software, artificial intelligence, data classification, labelling

The broadcaster also requires information on the replacement of FCC playout servers.

Tender no: RFI/HEN/2025/1
Information: Nombulelo, Tel: 011 714 4644, E-mail: tenderqueries@sabc.co.za
Closing date: 17 February 2025

­­Tags: Hardware, servers

 

 

 

Dewald Booysen, COO of Maziv, and Andreas Uys, CTO of Maziv.

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Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) has invested over R800 million to upgrade and future-proof its national fibre network.

In a statement, DFA says this investment strengthens its position as a key wholesale open-access connectivity provider in SA and addresses the growing demand for reliable, high-speed internet.

DFA is part of the Maziv group. Its national network delivers connectivity and backhaul for mobile operators, data centres, internet service providers and public sector institutions.

The investment follows DFA’s R400 million dry underground distribution cabinet network enhancement project launched in August 2023, which focused on stabilising and future-proofing DFA’s network infrastructure.

This has already delivered measurable results, including a 40% improvement in new circuit delivery times and a 100% improvement in mean time to repair (MTTR), where the new architecture is operational, says the company.

“We have improved the average number of new circuits delivered from 800 to 1 500 per month. In one month, we delivered nearly 2 000 new connections − a record for us,” says Andreas Uys, CTO of Maziv.

“We’re also enabling higher line speeds and increasing available capacity to meet the changing needs of our customers.

“With the new architecture supported by a recently consolidated project management office (PMO), we are focused on reducing delivery times, while driving high-quality service. Our target this year is to deliver up to 2 500 connections per month.

“We could potentially deliver fibre connectivity to buildings already on our network within 14 days, and to non-connected buildings within 55 days. These upgrades and changes in our PMO are critical to meeting the increasing demand for fast, stable internet services.”

While in late 2022, customers complained about network instability and slower service delivery, Dewald Booysen, COO of Maziv, highlights the improvements the firm has made in the customer experience.

“We’ve worked tirelessly to address these challenges. Our network upgrades have vastly improved resilience and diversity in the network. We still maintained a national uptime of over 99.5%, even during high-incident periods. Currently, we’re performing at an exceptional 99.99% uptime.”

Booysen notes that maintaining a national network of over 15 000km can be challenging, with force majeure events – such as third-party construction damage, vandalism, copper theft, severe weather and other environmental factors − more than doubling in the past two years.

Despite these challenges, DFA says it has improved its MTTR by 100% through strategic interventions over the past 12 months.

“We are seeing consistent and predictable improvements month-on-month,” says Booysen.

“We have drastically improved the time taken to repair customer faults, while simultaneously delivering new circuits, conducting ongoing maintenance and deploying new network architecture.

“Of the 15 000km of fibre, about 40% of that infrastructure is in Gauteng, where we experienced the bulk of our challenges, which is just under 5 000km of fibre.”

Google has accused EU antitrust watchdogs of blundering their way through a probe that culminated in a record €4.3 billion (R84 billion) fine for allegedly abusing the market power of its Android mobile ecosystem.

At an appeals hearing at the EU’s court of justice on Tuesday, lawyers for Google slammed the European Commission for making “grave errors,” failing to take into account that Android’s success stemmed from successful innovation rather than brute force.

The commission “punished Google for its superior merits, attractiveness, and innovation,” Google lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid told judges at the Luxembourg-based court.

The Android fine is among a slew of EU penalties targeting Big Tech that sparked a backlash from Silicon Valley executives seeking to curry favour with US President Donald Trump, who last week called the EU’s fines “a form of taxation.”. A final ruling in the Android case is expected in the coming months, following a non-binding opinion from an adviser to the tribunal.

The EU court’s decision could prove pivotal for the future of Google Android’s business model, which has provided free software in exchange for conditions imposed on mobile phone manufacturers.

Such contracts provoked the ire of the commission in 2018, when the watchdog accused Google of three separate types of illegal behaviour that helped cement the dominance of its search engine, accompanying the order with the record fine.

First, it said Google was illegally forcing handset makers to pre-install the Google Search app and the Chrome browser as a condition for licensing its Play Store—the marketplace for Android apps.

Upheld

Second, the EU said Google made payments to some large manufacturers and operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app.

Lastly, the EU said the Mountain View, California-based company prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install apps from running alternative versions of Android not approved by Google.

In September 2022, judges at the bloc’s lower-tier court upheld the vast majority of the commission’s arguments but cut the penalty to €4.1 billion after finding that regulators hadn’t provided enough evidence for specific abuses.

Read: Google Maps to rename Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America—but only for US users

EU lawyers vehemently defended their decision on Tuesday, accusing Google of implementing a “carrots and sticks strategy” in their dealings with phone manufacturers.

Google’s Android “has almost total control over the ecosystem,” Fernando Castillo de la Torre, a lawyer for the EU regulator, said, adding that “the degree of competition in that ecosystem depends critically” on the company’s own actions. — Samuel Stolton, (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP