Author: Toby Shapshak

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter is looking beyond SA’s coal addiction to new, appropriate technologies and smarter investment strategies. Stuff publisher Toby Shapshak learns more. André de Ruyter is the most important businessman in South Africa today. If the Eskom CEO can’t deal with its debt, its notorious inefficiency and the load-shedding problems, the whole country will suffer. It wasn’t helped by an explosion in Medupi in August which caused an estimated R2bn in damages and will take two years to repair. De Ruyter is planning to evolve Eskom into a modern power utility, lessening its dependence on coal and…

In a sea of misinformation, there are 12 people whose odious spreading of toxic “fake news” about Covid-19 is so bad, they have earned the nickname of the Disinformation Dozen. The most prolific of this dishonourable crowd is Dr Joseph Mercola, a 67-year-old osteopathic physician, who the New York Times writes has “long been a subject of criticism and government regulatory actions for his promotion of unproven or unapproved treatments”. Now he has the dubious dishonour of being the chief spreader of coronavirus misinformation online. “An internet-savvy entrepreneur who employs dozens, Dr Mercola has published over 600 articles on Facebook…

Samsung’s newly launched device offers the luxury of a larger screen on a compact phone — but it doesn’t come cheap I’ve got a confession to make. I am a closet foldable phone fan. I don’t know why it seems something to keep secret — perhaps the price tag makes these phones an exclusive device — but I just love the idea of a regular-sized phone that folds into a smallish phablet. There is a particular kind of usefulness foldable phones offer which may not be for everyone right now, because of their price. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 costs…

Fintech app Shyft won a prestigious innovation award from global banking organisation Efma in Barcelona in 2016 before it even launched – “The Most Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services” at the 2016 Efma awards. The innovative forex app – which was the first to offer virtual credit cards in South Africa, about five years before they became mainstream – has grown significantly, adding investment. Its head Arno von Helden tells Stuff Studio’s editor-in-chief Toby Shapshak how it is planning to Shyft digital banking. Also available on Apple podcast | Spotify | Google podcasts Visit getshyft.co.za for more info.

The British computer pioneer’s influence can be directly traced to the growth of the UK’s computer industry and the emergence of mobile processors. “He’d come up with an idea and say, ‘There’s no point in asking if someone wants it, because they can’t imagine it’.” Pride of place in my technology archive is a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, one of the earliest, and most impactful, computers. It was created by that rampant genius Sir Clive Sinclair, who died last week aged 81. Sinclair’s amazing computer, the ZX Spectrum 48K, was launched in 1982 and is widely credited for the UK’s computer…

Until last Sunday, Pegasus usually meant the fabled Greek mythical flying horse. Now the name to stand for arguably the most diabolical spyware the world has ever seen. Starting revelations this past weekend have emerged that a spyware tool called Pegasus – made by Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group – might have been used to snoop on Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and France’s Emmanuel Macron, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and 11 other heads of state. Once “infected with Pegasus, a client of NSO could in effect take control of a phone, enabling them to extract a person’s messages, calls, photos…

TikTok is the new MTV. Except you don’t actually have to have any talent or do anything original, like sing your own songs or choreograph your own dances. So-called influencers are the ultimate expression of hype over substance, real or otherwise. I read an enthralling, but horrific, profile of the epicentre of so-called influencers’ activity, Los Angeles – or Lost Angeles – in Harper’s magazine, a New Yorker-esque publication that still spends time on so-called deep journalism. Thanks, Anne Taylor, a die-hard journo in her soul. “The Anxiety of Influencers” is a brilliant, albeit disturbing, feature about the TikTok generation by…

There is light at the end of the tunnel for rolling blackouts after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 10 x increase in the capacity companies can self-generate to 100MW. This is good news for mining, manufacturing, farms and other big firms which have seethed at the artificially low 10MW that mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe has been trying to impose. Bizarrely Mantashe, who was appointed to the all-important portfolio by Ramaphosa in 2018, claimed during his budget speech in parliament, that “a lot of noise” about the 50MW threshold and incredulously claimed that “our research and survey, where…

Going off-grid isn’t entirely cost-effective yet, but we’re 80% there and it has freed us from Eskom’s sudden-onset rolling blackouts. Now that my new solar household has lived through several cycles of Eskom’s unpredictable load-shedding, I can report back on what the experience was like. But first I have to apologise. It’s the same apology I felt I had to make after I had fibre installed in our home. Suddenly, I know what it’s like to live in the same suburb as a cabinet minister or Eskom manager. When the rest of the neighbourhood WhatsApp group started the usual “has…

The ruling party has mastered the art of not answering the question. Last week the country was treated to the absurd spectacle of ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe trying to not answer a direct question. How hard can it be? The question was: has suspended secretary general Ace Magashule been invited to the weekend Zoom call? “Everyone expected to attend the NEC meeting will attend,” he told an incredulous nation last Friday night. It was an opportunity for a simple yes or no. These words clearly do not exist in the limited logic of the ANC. Politicians have developed a frustrating…