Altron Group announced last week that it was selling its Altron Nexus businesses in a management buyout led by Nexus MD Louis du Toit and BriteGaze founder and technology entrepreneur Reshaad Sha.
Sha and Du Toit are our guests in this episode of the TechCentral Show, where they tell TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the acquisition and their growth plans for the business.
As part of the acquisition – which is still subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions, which should be concluded by the end of June – Altron Nexus will be rebranded as Sentiv, a portmanteau of “sentient” and “intuitive”.
Sha will serve as Sentiv’s executive chairman while Du Toit will be CEO.
“Together they will steer Sentiv’s transformation into a future-orientated technology partner offering intelligent, context-aware, mission-critical communications and industrial internet-of-things solutions,” according to a statement from the acquiring parties.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Du Toit and Sha tell McLeod about:
• How the deal came about;
• The assets and businesses housed in Altron Nexus; and
• The plan to turn the business around.
Don’t miss a great conversation!

Sentiv, and the story behind the buyout of Altron Nexus

TechCentral’s guests in this episode of the TechCentral Show believe Blue Label Telecoms and its affiliate (and soon to be subsidiary) Cell C present a compelling investment case.
Philip Short, global portfolio manager at Flagship Asset Management – which counts Blue label as its sole South African investment – and Dylan Bradfield, portfolio manager at Sharenet, tell TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod that they believe the turnaround taking place at Cell C is real, and will have a meaningful impact on Blue Label shares.
Blue shares, which have already rallied strongly – which have more than doubled in the past six months – could still have plenty of room to run, according to Short.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Short and Bradfield unpack:
• Blue Label’s announcement earlier this month that it is considering a JSE listing for Cell C;
• Why Cell C’s restructured operating model and strategy makes sense, and why that’s good news for Blue Label shareholders;
• The role of Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes in the turnaround – and what the opportunity is for the mobile operator with its new “asset-light” model of running its network – management of its radio access network has effectively been outsourced to partners (and competitors) MTN and Vodacom;
• Which operators would be most vulnerable to a resurgent Cell C;
• The importance of Cell C’s strategy around mobile virtual network operators and the significance of its relationship with Capitec;
• The move by Blue Label to sell Comm Equipment Company to Cell C – good move or not?
• Whether Cell C can compete with Telkom, Vodacom and MTN in the business market, something Mendes has signalled his desire to do;
• What the listing of Cell C could look like, what management’s focus should be before the listing and what kind of valuation the business could attract; and
• How much more value could be unlocked for Blue Label shareholders.
Don’t miss a fascinating discussion!

Signal restored: Unpacking the Blue Label and Cell C turnaround

4Sight Holdings has turned the corner and has signalled this with a recent move from the AltX to the main board of the JSE.
CEO Tertius Zitzke is our guest in this episode of the TechCentral Show. He tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the turnaround he’s leading – not to mention the mess he inherited when he took over leadership of the business in December 2019, months before Covid hit.
4Sight has been operating largely below the radar, but the investment community has begun paying attention – and, although the shares been moving sideways for the past year, over three years they have climbed by 250%.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Zitzke unpacks:
• What motivated the decision to move to the JSE’s main board;
• His background, including his leadership AccTech Systems, its acquisition by 4Sight and how he became CEO of the group;
• Why the business was listed originally, and how its focus has changed under his leadership;
• How the turnaround was achieved – and what still needs to be done;
• Where 4Sight fits into the ICT market in South Africa;
• The recent acquisition of XFour Group and plans for more acquisitions; and
• What’s next for 4Sight.
Don’t miss an interesting discussion!

Tertius Zitzke on 4Sight’s big turnaround

One of South Africa’s responsibilities as president of the global Group of 20 (G20) nations in 2025 is to hosting the G20 TechSprint, an event that invites innovators from around the world to develop financial solutions that solve the most pressing challenges faced by central banks.
The South African Reserve Bank is hosting this year’s TechSprint in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements.
Lyle Horsley, head of fintech at the Reserve Bank, joined TechCentral’s Nkosinathi Ndlovu on the TechCentral Show to talk about the competition and other initiatives spearheaded by Bank under the G20 banner.
In this episode of the show, Horsley delves into:
The history of the G20 TechSprint and some of the solutions developed in previous iterations of the competition;
The problem statements entrants are required to centre their solutions on;
How central banks balance the often-opposing concerns of innovation on one hand and strong regulation on the other;
How digital identity and the principles of open finance are critical to digitised financial systems;
How the global central banking community will help winners develop and scale their solutions; and
Details about the format of the TechSprint, how to participate and the prizes up for grabs.
Don’t miss an interesting discussion!

Reserve Bank fintech head Lyle Horsley on the G20 TechSprint

Boasting 1.6 million subscribers after less than three years in the market, Capitec Connect has quickly become South Africa’s largest MVNO – and it has an ambitious plan for further growth.
Dalene Steyn, head of Capitec Connect, tells the TechCentral Show (TCS) that the MVNO – or mobile virtual network operator – market in South Africa is poised for further expansion as banks, retailers and other brands muscle into the mobile business through wholesale partnerships with network operators.
According to Steyn, although Capitec Connect is not a loss leader for the bank, the focus for now is building a critical mass of subscribers from Capitec Bank’s customer base – Capitec Connect users must be bank clients to sign up for the service.
In the interview, Steyn tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about:
• Why Capitec Connect recently cut its prices, matching another MVNO, Afrihost AirMobile, as the cheapest MVNO provider in South Africa – spoiler: it’s all about building scale;
• Why Capitec is pulling ahead in the MVNO market and how big the bank wants to be in mobile – and why it’s so important to its business;
• Capitec Connect’s plans to introduce post-paid contracts later this year and how this aligns with its push into business banking services;
• The company’s plans for device financing;
• Its relationship with Cell C, whose network it uses to provide mobile services to its clients, and why it’s pleased with the relationship; and
• The unconfirmed market talk that Capitec might buy a strategic equity stake in Cell C.
Don’t miss the discussion!

Dalene Steyn on Capitec’s ambitious mobile gameplan

Cape Town-based fintech start-up Stitch last month caught the attention of many people when it announced it was raising R1-billion (US$55-million) in a significant series-B funding round.
Co-founder and CEO Kiaan Pillay is our guest in this episode of the TechCentral Show, where he tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the funding round, which was led by QED Investors with participation from a range of new and existing investors.
The latest round brings Stitch’s total funding to date to nearly R2-billion, or $107-million.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Pillay unpacks:
• His background and why and how Stitch was founded;
• How well-known South African comedian Trevor Noah became one of the participating funders in the latest funding round;
• What Stitch is doing differently to other fintech and payment start-ups that has allowed to raise the quantum of funding that it has;
• The significance of Stitch’s recent acquisition of Exipay – and why it’s important for Stitch to be a player in the in-person payments market;
• Stitch’s plans in the cryptocurrency space; and
• Why the company is focused (for now) on the South African market.
Don’t miss a great discussion!

Kiaan Pillay on fintech start-up Stitch and its R1-billion funding round

Shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Tiffany Dunsdon – at the time CEO of JSE-listed Adapt IT – found herself having to fend off an unwanted takeover bid from Huge Group.
Dunsdon did not feel the deal made much sense for Adapt IT – a fast-growing enterprise software services provider whose share price, like many others at the time, had been knocked lower by the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
The Huge Group approach was opportunistic, said Dunsdon.
So, instead of entertaining the approach from Huge Group, she set about engineering a very different deal: one involving Canadian-listed Constellation Software: Constellation subsidiary Volaris Group would buy out Adapt IT and delist it from the JSE.
Dunsdon, who was recently appointed as acquiring group leader at Omegro – a portfolio company within Volaris Group that houses Adapt IT – joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show for an update following the conclusion of the sale.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Dunsdon also discusses:
• Adapt IT’s performance since its acquisition and delisting;
• The Huge Group hostile approach and how that played out inside Adapt IT;
• The timeline of events that led to the acquisition by Volaris Group; and
• What’s next for Adapt IT and Omegro.
Don’t miss the conversation!

How Covid sparked a corporate tug-of-war over Adapt IT

New GX Capital, one of the principal investors in Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa parent CIVH, recently announced it was launching a R2.4-billion clean-tech investment fund in partnership with RMB Ventures.
To unpack the details of the new fund and why it’s being established, New GX Capital founder and CEO Khudusela Pitje joined TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod in the latest episode of the TechCentral Show for a wide-ranging conversation.
In the interview, Pitje chatted about the fund – called the Airnegize Capital Fund – and its plans to invest in renewable energy and water and gas infrastructure across Africa.
New GX Capital and RMB Ventures have described the fund as “one of the largest of its kind on the continent”.
The fund has secured R2.4-billion in initial commitments, with the companies targeting a further R1.6-billion before financial close in the coming months.
In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Pitje expands on:
• His career background and the formation of New GX Capital;
• The role his father, the late HM Pitje, a businessman and former mayor of Mamelodi, played in his life and career choices;
• His role in helping build Dark Fibre Africa and CIVH;
• Why he feels the decision by the competition authorities to block the acquisition by Vodacom of a 30% co-controlling stake in Maziv – a subsidiary of CIVH that houses Vumatel and DFA – was wrongheaded;
• The role New GX Capital plays today, as well as its investment philosophy;
• What led to the creation of the Airnegize Fund with RMB Ventures; and
• The role and future of black economic empowerment in South Africa.
Don’t miss a fascinating conversation!

From fibre to clean tech: Khudu Pitje on New GX Capital’s next chapter

A company with its headquarters in Pretoria has designed and built an advanced drone that can attain speeds of 250km/h, reach altitudes of up to 30 000ft and travel more than 4 000km before having to return to its base.
The company, Milkor, is a South African defence equipment and cybersecurity specialist that was founded all the way back in 1981.
Its newly developed Milkor 380 System unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – in essence, a giant drone – has a cruising altitude of 10 000ft, a wingspan of 18m and a maximum payload of 220kg.
The drone has a flight time of up to 35 hours and can be used for border surveillance, maritime surveillance, strategic reconnaissance and information gathering operations, among other things.
To talk about the UAV, Milkor communications director Daniel du Plessis sat down with Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral Show recently and shared more details about its capabilities.
Other than the Milkor 380, the interview also covers topics including:
* Milkor’s founding in the 1980s, and how the company shifted focus in the democratic era – it got its start, and may still be best known for, manufacturing the world’s first six-shot 40mm grenade launcher, which is widely used around the world;
* The company’s other products – for land, air and sea operations – as well as what’s involved in conducting advanced R&D and manufacturing in a market like South Africa;
* The people who work for Milkor, and the sort of skills the company is looking for (and how it’s finding them);
* The role of UAVs in modern warfare and defence operations; and
* Why Milkor has entered the cybersecurity space.
Don’t miss a fascinating interview!

TCS | How South Africa's Milkor became a global player in drone innovation

Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner believes technology is fundamental to the company’s success.
Kallner, an actuary who joined Discovery in its early days as a medical insurance company and who has held various senior leadership roles over the years, tells TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod about the group’s decision to launch a bank when it did. He shares how the business is doing – spoiler: it’s trending well ahead of schedule – and what comes next.
He tells the TechCentral Show about:
• How Discovery Bank is doing financially and how it’s tracking against its business plan;
• Its client base – who they are and who the bank is targeting as its clientele (the answer may surprise you);
• Why Discovery launched a bank into what was already a competitive market and what it’s doing differently to its rivals to attract people to switch;
• The learnings from Discovery Health and Discovery Vitality, and how Discovery Bank has leveraged these in its products and services;
• Discovery Bank’s technology stack, why it chose the IT solutions it did, and why it built much of its banking solution in-house;
• What’s next from Discovery Bank in terms of solutions; and
• The bank’s plans with AI – and why it believes AI could be a gamechanger.
Lastly, Kallner, a prolific reader, shares two of his favourite non-fiction books with the TechCentral audience.
Don’t miss a great discussion!

Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner on tech, AI and the future of banking

TC|Daily is a technology show from TechCentral, South Africa's premier business technology news website. It features interviews with newsmakers, ICT industry leaders and other interesting people.