Lelapa AI's Ambitious Growth Plan | ITWeb Tech Headlines | 31 Aug – 5 Sept 2026
These are the stories making headlines on ITWeb this week. South African AI start-up Lelapa AI is expanding its Vulavula platform with text-to-speech capabilities and new languages beyond Africa, as it builds efficient AI models tailored for African languages. Meanwhile, Discovery Bank posted its first full year of profit, with normalised operating profit of R370 million and client numbers growing 26% to 1.57 million, as it leans on AI to power its new "super bank" strategy.
Rising Data Centre Costs, Global Conflicts Disrupt IT Spending as SA Banks Accelerate Digital Growth
In this week's tech news roundup, South African data centre providers warn that cloud computing and web hosting costs will rise in 2026 due to surging infrastructure and energy expenses. However, geopolitical conflicts—like those involving Israel, the US, and Iran—are disrupting IT spending patterns in unprecedented ways, as Phillip de Wet notes.
ITWeb Turns 30 as MultiChoice Axes Showmax, Nedbank Boosts Tech Spend and Spinnaker Enters SA Market
In this week's tech news roundup, This year marks our 30th anniversary at ITWeb – the company that pioneered technology media reporting in South Africa back in 1996. We now have a live feed that chronicles our journey from where we started to where we are today. Other than that, MultiChoice, which was recently acquired by French-based media giant Canal+, this week announced the forthcoming discontinuation of its Showmax streaming platform.