A Remarkable Year For Techcentral - And For South Africa

The biggest event in South Africa in 2024 was undoubtedly the general election in May, which brought about the biggest change to the political landscape since the dawn of democracy 30 years ago.

The ANC lost its majority , forcing the former liberation movement into a government of national unity with other political parties for the first time. It chose wisely, leaving the radical left out in the cold.

It's early days, but the GNU has brought a measure of much-needed stability to our politics. The longer this can hold, the better for the country's long-term prospects. After the disaster that was Jacob Zuma's corruption-stained era, and after his successor Cyril Ramaphosa's disappointing first time as president, most sensible South Africans breathed a big sigh of relief on the expectation that, just maybe, the country's long downward slide might be stopped.

Again, it's early days, but there are signs that positive momentum is starting to build - at least at a national level. Unfortunately, the positive vibes of the GNU have not filtered down to South Africa's richest province, Gauteng, or to the long-suffering residents of its biggest cities, including Johannesburg, which certainly can no longer claim to be a "world-class African city" given the current sorry state of affairs.

On the technology front, the big story this year as it was in 2023 was artificial intelligence - heck, it will probably be the biggest story again in 2025. Other notable tech stories this year included the rapid advancements in quantum computing, the turmoil in the semiconductor industry Nvidia's rise to superstardom and Intel's slide into crisis and the rise of China's electric car industry, which will become even more pronounced in the second half of this decade.