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AA CEO Bobby Ramagwede tells Watts & Wheels that South Africa’s car manufacturing industry could be decimated within five years.

Is South Africa’s car manufacturing industry running out of road? Automobile Association (AA) CEO Bobby Ramagwede thinks it might be.

In this episode of Watts & Wheels, he tells William Kelly that unless the country settles on a clear policy direction, local vehicle manufacturing could be decimated within five years. And he isn’t shy about naming the car makers he’s worried about.

Ramagwede, who took over at the AA in October 2024 after careers in banking, healthcare and insurance, sees the 96-year-old association’s real job as “playing referee” in a motoring system that has gone without oversight for years. That means challenging government, testing car makers’ claims – including putting vehicles on a weighbridge – and holding motorists to account when they ignore the rules they expect everyone else to follow.

He also makes the case for scrapping the Road Accident Fund in favour of compulsory third-party insurance, argues that motorists should have to prove their cars are roadworthy before renewing their licence discs each year, and says he would bring back local crash testing if the AA could afford it.

On the motor industry, Ramagwede warns of a “hodgepodge of policy”, holds up Thailand as a cautionary tale of what happens when imports flood a market, and challenges car makers to stop staying quiet: “This is an all-or-nothing game.”

Read TechCentral’s report on the interview, including responses from Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Ford and industry body Naamsa.

Don’t miss the discussion. TechCentral

Pick n Pay will keep Smart Shopper Pro, its new paid loyalty tier, at its R99/month launch price "for a very extended period", says Vince Viviers, executive: innovation and digital transformation at the retailer. If the price does change, customers will be told well in advance, "so that there are no sneaky surprises".

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Viviers tells Duncan McLeod how Pro, launched last month at the same price as Shoprite's Xtra Savings Plus, is meant to pay its way. A customer who orders weekly on asap! would pay about R148 a month in delivery fees alone, he says.

For Pick n Pay, the prize is loyalty. "Once you commit to paying monthly to be part of a specific programme, then your focus is: how do I unlock the most value here?" Members spend more and shop more often, Viviers says, much of it at competitors' expense.

With rival apps now much alike, he argues, shoppers will choose on product. Fresh food, the biggest part of the basket and the reason people shop every week, is where Pick n Pay thinks it can win. It is also where Amazon, whose Prime service costs R59 a month, has struggled, though Viviers counts it as a competitor already.

He also explains why Pick n Pay is considering dark stores in busy metros, and how Takealot's Mr D app has brought it new customers. Penny, its AI shopping assistant, has lifted basket sizes and shopping frequency, he says, but he gives no figures. Nor does Pick n Pay disclose the size of its online business, whose sales grew 35.4% in the six months to 30 August.

Next is personalisation. Viviers says Pick n Pay is moving to "a much more one-to-one model", with new features due in asap! and Smart Shopper over the next six to 12 months. TechCentral

South Africa’s mobile operators want tougher Sim registration, but not on the terms communications regulator Icasa has proposed.

Draft amendments to Icasa’s numbering plan regulations, published for comment last month, would require a fingerprint or face check against home affairs records for every new Sim, reactivation and Sim swap. Subscribers would be capped at five numbers per operator, and operators would have two years to re-verify existing customers.

In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Nomvuyiso Batyi, CEO of the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT), tells Duncan McLeod why the industry body won’t support the rules as drafted. ACT, which represents Vodacom, MTN, Telkom, Cell C, Rain and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, has spent two years working with the justice department on amendments to Rica, the Sim registration law, and its members agreed an industry framework in June.

Batyi says Icasa officials sat in meetings where that work was presented, so the draft came as a surprise. The industry framework would allow 20 Sims per person per network rather than five. It also targets informal dealers who sell Sims pre-registered in their own names.

Batyi explains why prepaid customers are the hard part – some traders in rural areas still register Sims over 2G connections – and what it will cost to query the home affairs database. She warns that forcing every subscriber to re-verify risks repeating the failures of digital migration, and describes the fraud driving the debate, from WhatsApp scams and stolen phones to one-time Pin fraud.

Don’t miss the discussion! TechCentral

AI is the defining technology of our era. At one extreme, it fuels fears of job losses, robot wars and computers ruling over human beings. At the other, it holds out hope: curing diseases such as cancer, bolstering global food security and even freeing people from the need to work.

Old Mutual was the headline sponsor of this year's Singularity Summit South Africa, held on 21-22 October at the Sandton Convention Centre, where these questions took centre stage.

In this episode of TCS+, Celiwe Ross, group chief human capital and corporate affairs officer at Old Mutual, looks back at the summit. She discusses how companies, their managers and employees should approach integrating the technology as AI becomes more deeply embedded in the workplace.

In the interview, Ross discusses:

- Why a 181-year-old insurer sponsors a future-focused event like the Singularity Summit, and how Old Mutual's founding story shapes its approach to disruption;

- How AI is changing the role of the chief human resources officer, from workforce planning to the design of work, reskilling and organisational change;

- Why leaders should look at AI through three lenses: the work, the worker and, only later, the workforce;

- How AI could eventually change a company's operating model, and why that is still a distant reality, especially in South Africa;

- Why experimentation is essential to building an AI strategy;

- The usage trap: why some organisations have high adoption rates that do not translate into productivity gains or a return on investment;

- Emerging global trends in the use of AI agents, and what South Africa can learn from them;

- How Old Mutual is approaching AI training;

- Why judgment, empathy and vulnerability are becoming more important leadership skills, and how organisations can help people build them; and

- Where South Africa and Africa stand on AI adoption.

Ross also argues that, done properly, AI should create more opportunities and career paths, not fewer, and that leaders should approach the AI debate in terms of capacity rather than headcount.

Don't miss the discussion.

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TCS+ episodes are sponsored TechCentral

Small and medium enterprises are under constant pressure to stay nimble and competitive in a tough economic climate, and technology that runs smoothly is a big part of how they manage it.

In this second episode of the Mac for SME series, brought to you by iStore Business, Sudesh Pillay, executive head of iStore Business South Africa, and Kevin McLennan, founder and CEO of PR and marketing firm The Prophecy Group, discuss the value of the Apple ecosystem as a productivity driver for small businesses.

Pillay and McLennan delve into:

● Why seamless IT experience is important for SMEs where resource maximisation is key to success;

● How quickly technology is changing, and whether investing in the Apple ecosystem can futureproof hardware against advances in AI;

● The support available to SMEs when upgrades become unavoidable;

● Whether moving employees to a new operating system is as daunting as it sounds;

● How important native data protection is for small businesses that struggle with security and compliance; and

● Which software subscriptions, beyond AI tools, small businesses can avoid paying for.

Don’t miss the discussion.

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TCS+ episodes are sponsored TechCentral