At Home

SA foresees increasing collaboration between Chinese and local astronomers and scientists in the face of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. China has been a major player in the development of the SKA project and is a member of the board of directors of the SKA organisation. - ITWeb

Recently-launched joint venture Lime St Xchange is targeting the short-term insurance sector with its data exchange offering. The venture, formed by management and staff at Ovations and Knowledge Dimension, was launched in late February. It offers a system developed by TriSystems over the past 10 years in the UK market. - ITWeb

Implementation of the Department of Home Affairs’ “Who am I Online” project, its plan to modernise its information systems, will continue this year, after stalling in 2010. National Treasury’s Estimates of National Expenditure for the 2012 budget indicates that an additional amount of R134.1 million has been set aside for spending by the department in the new financial year, most of which has been earmarked for “Who am I Online”. – ITWeb

<a href=

Rob Sussman" />ZunguZ, a multi-tiered platform that integrates social networks, financial service providers and banking institutions to facilitate micro-payments, has gone live in SA. Local tech entrepreneurs Robert Sussman and Lance Fanaroff, joint CEOs of ZunguZ, have introduced the first version of the platform (version 1.0) into the local market after ensuring compliance with beta testing. – ITWeb

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster said government remains committed to fighting and defeating cyber criminals. Combating cyber crime is listed as the eighth output of the cluster. “Pursuant to this, a Cyber Security Policy Framework will be tabled with Cabinet shortly. In addition, the finalisation of specific cyber crime plans will be a priority for 2012.” - ITWeb

The new three-year committee for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has officially been welcomed on board. The new board received a salute from science and technology minister Naledi Pandor" rel=tag>Naledi Pandor, at the inaugural CSIR board meeting, in Pretoria, during which she spoke of the Council’s legacy and forward-looking intentions. – ITWeb

Scott Corry

Kathea has started a company called Jabster Technologies, which will be the sole distributor for Jabra products to resellers in southern Africa. This, according to the company, is in order to boost its market share and growth in SA. Pete de Lange has been appointed as MD and Scott Corry as sales director for Jabster Technologies. – ITWeb

Gauteng residents are set to benefit from 95% broadband coverage in the next few years as the province rolls out its Gauteng Link (G-Link) project. Speaking in Mamelodi, Pretoria, premier Nomvula Mokonyane said during her State of the Province speech that the project aims to narrow the digital divide, roll out e-government services and grow the economy. – ITWeb

Into Africa

Africa’s leaders agreed to increase public spending on infrastructure. The recent 18th summit of the African Union noted that the continent’s regional integration agenda was presently affected by low-level connectivity of infrastructure networks and poor access to energy and information services. In response to these challenges, the summit agreed to a resolution to speed up Africa’s infrastructure development. – Southern African News Features

Kenyan media houses and open governance advocates are to establish a task force to promote data-driven journalism after it emerged that the government’s online open data portal is underutilised. The Kenyan government launched a portal, called the Kenya Open Data Initiative, in July last year. Available data includes national census data and other statistics covering health, education and land. – ITWeb

<a href=

Robert Mugabe" src="http://www.iweek.co.za/images/stories/2010/March7_12/Robert%20Mugabe.jpg" />Social networking sites could help foster freedom of expression among Zimbabweans in the wake of the Zanu PF’s clampdown on civil liberties ahead of elections this year, says a senior Movement for Democratic Change party member. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party is reluctant to implement crucial media reforms, as part of the roadmap to free and fair elections, according to the International Crisis Group. – ITWeb

A Ghana government official says the country’s drive to get voters to register their biometric data will result in “fraud-free” elections in that country later this year. The country’s electoral commission has announced it is to start carrying out a biometric voter registration exercise between 24 March and 25 May in the lead-up to the December parliamentary and presidential vote. – ITWeb

A Moroccan telecoms operator has blocked voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) services Viber, TeamSpeak and possibly even Skype. This is according to customers of Maroc Telecom, which Morocco’s telecommunications regulator, ANRT, says is the country’s leading Internet service provider, with a 56% market share. Maroc is one of three operators in the country. – ITWeb

A crowd-sourcing initiative to map all of Africa’s tech hubs has been started by a group of Zambian-based technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. BongoHive is a technology and innovation hub, in Lusaka, that uses the Kenyan-made Ushahidi mapping Web site software to track major technology centres in Africa. Visitors to Africahubs.crowdmap.com can also make a submission to list a tech hub on the map. – ITWeb

CEO of Etisalat Nigeria, Steven Evans, says the company’s subscriber base increased by four million in 2011. Evans, in a statement, in Lagos, said: “Our business increased from a subscriber base of about 6.8 million at the beginning of the year, to a closing figure of 10.8 million subscribers at the end of December 2011.” – Leadership

Abroad

Proview Electronics, the firm trying to stop Apple from using the iPad name in China, has a plausible claim over the unusual methods Apple used to conceal its identity when attempting to acquire Proview’s trademarks, according to several legal experts. However, Apple also has some strong defences against a lawsuit Proview filed recently, including the argument that Proview can only sue the corporation that bought the trademarks, the experts said. – Reuters

Dropbox unveiled a photo-uploading feature for Android smartphones, potentially sharpening its competition with Google, Apple and a host of other companies. With a single click, the feature will allow users to wirelessly upload high-resolution pictures straight from their smartphones onto the virtual “cloud”, where the files can be accessed from any computer or mobile device. – Reuters

WikiLeaks began publishing on 27 February more than five million e-mails from a US-based global security think tank. WikiLeaks did not say how it had acquired access to the vast haul of internal and external correspondence of Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) of Austin, Texas. Hackers linked to the group Anonymous said at the beginning of 2012 they had stolen the e-mail correspondence of some 100 of the firm’s employees and would one day publish the data. – Reuters

France Telecom’s mobile unit, Orange, will launch a smartphone designed by Intel and using its newest processor in France and the UK this year. While the handset will be branded by Orange, its back cover will also boast the Intel swirl that consumers expect to see on PCs over the past two decades. – Reuters

Sony declared a return to the smartphone business, unveiling its first smartphones under the Sony brand. Kazuo Hirai is due to formally take over as Sony CEO on 1 April, replacing Howard Stringer. Hirai said while some management changes had already been identified, there was still a long way to go to “explain to everybody who’s doing what”. – Reuters

Cyber security experts have uncovered a flaw in a component of the operating system of Google’s widely-used Android smartphone that they say hackers can exploit to gain control of the devices. Researchers at start-up cyber security firm CrowdStrike said they would demonstrate the findings at a major computer security conference, in San Francisco. – ITWeb