José Soares, director of IT at The Capital Hotels, Apartments and Resorts, fell in love with computers when his dad brought home a Sinclair ZX81.
Through a series of upgrades – from the Commodore 64 to early Apple machines and eventually his first PC – Soares developed a passion for gaming and technology.
Meet the CIO is presented by Wipro
That passion led him to co-found a mobile gaming company and eventually to pursue a career in IT management.
Our guest in the latest episode of Meet the CIO, Soares tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the journey that led him to The Capital Hotels group.
Soares also discusses:
• The assets owned by the group and why it’s focus is a little different to other companies in the hospitality industry;
• What the group’s IT stack looks like, and the big projects Soares is leading;
• How the internet and modern technology have transformed the hospitality industry;
• His strategic priorities as head of IT;
• The role of artificial intelligence in the hospitality industry, and how The Capital Hotel is approaching AI;
• The qualities that make for a good CIO; and
• The importance of developing the next generation of IT talent.
Don’t miss a great conversation! TechCentral

The digitisation of money is helping drive financial inclusion and improve access to complex financial services in South Africa and the rest of the African continent.
In this episode of TCS+, Hannes Wessels, GM for South Africa at Binance, explains the role cryptocurrencies are playing in the digitisation of cash as well as the potential that blockchain technology offers in enhancing the security of digital transactions.
In this episode, Wessels delves into:
• The trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the future of digital banking in South Africa;
• How Binance is capitalising on the growth of mobile banking and other advancements in financial technology;
• Examples of how blockchain technology can enhance transaction security;
• How decentralised finance can make financial services accessible to everyone in Africa; and
• How Binance is contributing to the digital cash revolution.
Don’t miss this exciting episode of TCS+. TechCentral

In the second part of a three-part interview series with TechCentral’s TCS+, Digicloud Africa executives unpack how African ICT companies can become reseller partners for Google Cloud in Africa.
Digicloud is Google Cloud’s chosen enablement partner for Africa and works closely with the US technology giant to deliver its services across the continent – through a network of resellers.
In this episode of TCS+, Digicloud Africa CEO Gregory MacLennan and head of technical operations Louis van Schalkwyk unpack what’s involved in becoming a reseller partner to Digicloud Africa and Google Cloud.
The two men chat about:
• Digicloud Africa’s role as the African enablement partner for Google Cloud;
• Google Cloud’s go-to-market strategy in Africa and how it works through Digicloud Africa to support a network of resellers across the continent;
• How the relationship between Google Cloud, Digicloud and its resellers partners operate in the context of serving end-user customers;
• How IT companies can sign up to become Google Cloud resellers through Digicloud – the requirements and what’s involved;
• How Digicloud supports specialisation by its reseller partners; and
• The challenge of managing a network of resellers across a continent as vast as Africa.
Don’t miss the interview, or the others in this insightful series with Digicloud Africa. TechCentral

Digicloud Africa has a big role to play in the African ICT ecosystem as Google Cloud’s enablement partner on the continent.
Two of Digicloud’s top executives recently sat down for an interview with TechCentral’s TCS+ to unpack the business, its relationship with Google, and how it serves its reseller partners and their clients in adopting Google Cloud services.
Gregory MacLennan, Digicloud’s CEO, and Louis van Schalkwyk, the company’s head of technical operations, tell TechCentral about the business and why Google Cloud services are seeing strong demand across Africa.
In this first of a succinct three-part series with Digicloud, MacLennan and Van Schalkwyk discuss:
• The history of Digicloud and how it became Google Cloud’s enablement partner for Africa;
• How the partnership with Google Cloud works, and why Google chooses to work through reseller partners in smaller markets like those in Africa;
• The solutions on offer from Google via Digicloud; and
• How companies can become Google Cloud resellers through Digicloud Africa – and why the company is encouraging more entities to sign up and go through the process of accreditation (and what’s involved).
Don’t miss the interview! TechCentral

In this episode of TCS+, TechCentral speaks with Jason Oehley and Andre den Hond, regional sales manager and senior sales engineer, respectively, at Arctic Wolf, a company specialising in cybersecurity operations. They discuss the benefits of partnering with a cybersecurity provider versus building an in-house security operations centre (SOC).
The conversation begins by focusing on the critical role of security operations in ensuring business continuity. Every organisation requires a certain level of security, which can vary based on what employees are doing and what the organisation is focused on. Security operations are about finding the right balance between the actual security level and the required level – enough to be protected but without overspending.
The speakers then explore the challenges of building an in-house SOC. The biggest challenges they see with customers trying to build a SOC are skills shortages, identifying and integrating the right security tools, and a lack of comprehensive visibility across the organisation's attack surface. They find that organisations often struggle to find the right skills and tools, and even if they do, it can be difficult to retain skilled security professionals. Customers also experience alert fatigue from too many alerts from their security tools.
Partnering with a provider like Arctic Wolf can help address these challenges. Arctic Wolf will work and integrate with the customer's existing security tools and team, providing 24/7 monitoring and threat detection. This removes the burden of building and managing an SOC from the customer, allowing them to focus on business risk and strategic security management.
Arctic Wolf’s “concierge delivery model” helps customers continuously improve their security posture through a collaborative, partnership approach. This includes vulnerability management, security awareness training and incident response capabilities. This approach contrasts with a product-centric approach, which the speakers argue is not enough in today’s threat landscape.
The speakers conclude by discussing future trends in cybersecurity. They predict a consolidation in the cybersecurity market, with smaller companies being absorbed by larger ones. They also believe that the threat landscape will become more complex as attackers leverage AI and other advanced techniques. They stress the importance of a proactive and comprehensive approach to security, and the value of partnering with a security provider that can help organisations stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape.
Don’t miss this informative and important discussion! TechCentral

The world of telephony might not be particularly sexy, but it is an industry that has changed fundamentally in the past 20 years.
And David Meintjes and Rob Lith of Telviva, a South African company specialising in cloud-based unified communications solutions for businesses, has been at the forefront of the technology changes that have swept through the industry in that time.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, the pair tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the journey from the early days of the business – when it was known as Connection Telecom – to the cloud-based telephony specialist it is today, as Telviva.
In the interview, Meintjes and Lith chat about:
• The evolution of Connection Telecom, its original mission, and how the business evolved into the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provider it is today;
• How the telephony market in South Africa has changed beyond recognition over the past 20 years; and
• Telviva’s international expansion plans and its strategy around acquisitions.
There’s plenty more in this interview with two ICT industry legends – don’t miss it. TechCentral

South Africa’s rooftop solar installation industry has a bright future and is on track for its second-best year on record, despite the suspension of load shedding in March.
That’s according to Andrew Middleton, co-founder and CEO of GoSolr, one of South Africa’s largest rooftop solar installation companies, who spoke to TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show (TCS) earlier this week.
According to Middleton, citing figures from Eskom, 749MW of rooftop solar capacity has been installed in South Africa this year, taking the total to 5.9GW. Some 162MW of new rooftop solar was added in the third quarter, down 267MW from the same three months in 2023, when load shedding was frequently at stage 4 or higher.
The figures are contained in the latest quarterly report published by GoSolr on the state of the industry.
In his interview with TCS, Middleton unpacks:
• The impact of the suspension of load shedding on the rooftop solar industry;
• What’s driving consumers to consider solar at home today;
• The impact of the adoption of electric vehicles on the demand for home solar – and what sort of solar installation consumers who own or are thinking of buying an EV need to consider;
• The state of play in the municipalities around feed-in tariff structures – an update on Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and more;
• The future role of embedded generation systems in communities – the way forward and the hurdles that might be encountered; and
• Why government was wrong to withdraw the tax rebate on solar panels and to impose higher taxes on their importation.
Don’t miss this insightful conversation about the state of South Africa’s rooftop solar industry. TechCentral

Nasdaq-listed Equinix has completed construction of the first phase of a new data centre in Johannesburg, part of a R7.5-billion commitment to building cloud infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent over the next five years.
The company’s South African MD, Sandile Dube – a former country manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a former executive at Dimension Data (now NTT Data) – tells TechCentral Show host Duncan McLeod about the new Johannesburg data centre, which is located in Isando on the East Rand, and what type of clients it’s hoping to attract.
In the interview, Dube chats about:
• Equinix’s African investment plans and where it intends to build data centre facilities and why;
• The Isando data centre and what it offers;
• The Equinix company and its investment focus – including its investments in West Africa;
• Whether there is an overbuild of data centres taking place in South Africa. Can market demand sustain the level of investment taking place?; and
• How Equinix differentiates itself in an increasingly crowded market.
Don’t miss a great interview! TechCentral

Lincoln Mali has been at the helm of Lesaka Technologies Southern Africa, a fintech with a sizeable footprint in Southern Africa’s informal markets, since 2021.
One of his main tasks has been to turn the company’s finances around by reigning in business units that were haemorrhaging cash in the past. Lesaka’s latest set of financial results suggests it’s making progress.
In this episode of TechCentral Show, Mali speaks to TechCentral’s Nathi Ndlovu about:
• Lesaka’s latest financial results, breaking down each of the group's key business units;
• The resilience of Lesaka’s loans business;
• The importance of data analytics in driving Lesaka’s merchant lending business;
• The impact of the interest rate cycle on business;
• How the digitisation of cash is progressing in the informal market;
• Lesaka’s acquisition strategy, including the recent blockbuster purchase of Adumo; and
• The rationale behind Lesaka’s primary listing on the Nasdaq in the US (it has a secondary listing on the JSE).
Don’t miss this fast-paced episode of the TechCentral Show. TechCentral

Networking equipment wholesaler Switchcom Distribution has partnered with Huawei Technologies to bring new offerings to the South African market and elsewhere in Africa.
In this episode of TCS+, Lynton Brits, national sales manager at Switchcom, and Tanki Lebatla, account manager at Huawei, tell TechCentral’s TCS+ business technology show about the partnership and what it means for the market.
In the show, Brits and Lebatla delve into:
• The networking and backup power solutions offered by Switchcom through its partnership with Huawei;
• The training and implementation support Huawei provides to Switchcom and what that means for Switchcom’s reseller clients;
• How the two companies are shoring up the supply chain to ensure that customers have enough stock;
• The guarantees Huawei and Switchcom offer clients on the hardware, as well as the process for swap-outs and replacements; and
• The hardware innovations and capabilities of Huawei’s networking and backup power products.
This interview is not to be missed, especially for builders of networks or owners of large-scale infrastructure that cannot afford to be without power. TechCentral

In this episode of TCS+, TechCentral speaks to CYBER1 Solutions executives Jayson O’Reilly, the company’s MD, and Akeel Sayed, head of its managed services division, about the benefits and challenges of using a managed security service provider (MSSP).
The conversation starts by discussing the growing complexity of cybersecurity and the financial motivations driving cybercriminals. With the underground economy expanding, MSSPs must constantly adapt to new attack methods. Early adopters of cutting-edge technology may take on higher risks, but they also build knowledge that benefits future clients, reducing their exposure to emerging threats.
The proliferation of security operations centres in South Africa, now numbering more than 30, is driven by skill shortages and the need for assurance. Many organisations still lack visibility into their network environments, which the experts identify as a key issue. Understanding what’s connected to a network and which applications are in use is essential but often overlooked.
MSSPs also help clients manage budget constraints and meet compliance requirements while keeping pace with fast-moving technological change. South Africa is seen as a testing ground for cybercriminals targeting the broader African market. Clients now prefer flexible, short-term investments over long-term contracts due to the evolving threat landscape. The experts stress the importance of MSSPs staying relevant by challenging vendors and adapting their offerings to new threats like artificial intelligence.
A major concern is the lack of governance in many industries, especially those with strict compliance needs. Organisations are realising the need to think like attackers and continuously evolve their defences. AI is highlighted as a significant disruptor, with MSSPs now focused on securing AI algorithms and leveraging AI to enhance security operations.
The podcast discussion compares MSSPs with in-house security teams, noting that MSSPs offer greater agility and a broader range of expertise. In-house teams often face resource constraints and difficulty staying up to date with new technologies. MSSPs, on the other hand, focus on governance and outcomes, allowing businesses to prioritise other critical needs.
The experts underscore the need for collaboration across the cybersecurity industry. MSSPs can share anonymised insights across clients, helping create a unified defence against attackers. Ultimately, MSSPs provide value by evolving their offerings, focusing on outcomes and using collective experience to keep clients secure in an ever-changing threat landscape.
Don’t miss a great discussion. TechCentral