In South Africa, the biggest threats to democracy are pretty obvious: the stuttering economy, never-ending rolling blackouts (let’s call them what they are), the rampant unemployment (nearly 30% in total, over 50% for youth) and a delusional political elite that doesn’t know it’s out of touch, out of money (due to said economic woes and therefore the inability of Sars to collect revenue) and generalised arrogance.
The traditional first column of the year is usually a prediction of the events and trends to expect this year. I’ll give it to you in a sentence, then focus on the unfortunate reality in South Africa where the tech we need to focus on is somewhat more prosaic but infinitely necessary: solar.
The country may be hit by some ‘scheduled rolling blackouts’, but that doesn’t mean we should stop having fun. Although it may feel like we’re back in the stone age, and traffic seems to add hours to your commute, there are ways to make the dark times more comfortable for everyone.
Light Start – iPhone’s tracking you, more Huawei’s we can’t have, load shedding issues and cop Cybertrucks
This week in Light Start, we’re looking at a new Galaxy Fold, Gmail goes dark mode too, Tesla launches new solar roof tiles and a rumoured new drone.
Probably the only good load shedding news to come out of SA, is that locally developed load shedding push-notification app…