AI cuts Absa’s debt review turnaround | ITWeb Tech Headlines | 2 - 7 November 2026
These are the stories making headlines on ITWeb this week. Absa has reduced debt review processing from four days to one using AI, as the big-four bank moves the technology from experimentation into live operations. Meanwhile, township fibre uptake could climb from about 15% to 70% within a year, compared with 40% to 50% in suburbia, according to Accelerit Technologies CEO Mandla Ngcobo. In addition, Lesaka Technologies has built its pending acquisition of Bank Zero into its full-year forecast.
The big-four bank reduces debt review processing from four days to one using AI, as it moves AI from experimentation into production.
ITWeb Honours SA’s Top CIOs of 2026 | ITWeb Tech Headlines, 19 - 24 October 2026
These are the stories making headlines on ITWeb this week. Transnet group CIO Pandelani Munyai and Absa's Jochem Melis, CIO of cloud, infrastructure and core platforms, were named the top public and private sector CIOs at the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Awards 2026, with Sanlam's Theo Mabaso receiving an honourable mention.
Transnet’s Pandelani Munyai and Absa’s Jochem Melis win the public and private sector categories at the 2026 ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Awards, recognising their leadership in digital transformation.
Developed and implemented by Projectized Management in partnership with Absa, the programme is built around a Salesforce certification pathway.
Lawyers present hallucinated cases, a judge had ChatGPT reconcile car payments and another tested it on dubious citations, while experts say judges must stay accountable.
The bank ventures into the retail crypto market, allowing customers to trade five crypto-currencies through its share trading platform.
SA’s new-energy vehicles market is shaped by affordability concerns, Chinese brands and lower operating costs, says Cars.co.za.
SA’s major banks shift digital transformation towards measurable returns, as AI moves deeper into core operations.
Mall-based kiosks become central to Nedbank’s strategy, as it transforms traditional branches into tech-enabled service centres.
Investment focuses on strengthening digital infrastructure, enhancing cyber security, and advancing data, cloud and AI initiatives.
The bank implements an AI and optical character recognition solution to improve the efficiency of the debt review process.
The new payment API enables real-time, bank-authenticated transactions while removing manual EFT steps for merchants.
Home Affairs expands smart ID replacement, processing more than 250 000 transactions in just over three months.
Sanral Tender Battle, Africa’s AI Future & Rising Cyber Threats | ITWeb This Week
In this week's tech news roundup on ITWeb, This week on ITWeb, a legal dispute between the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and WIB Group over a R438 million SAP support and maintenance tender heads to court. Meanwhile, Absa Group’s Johnson Idesoh discusses how autonomous AI agents and human-AI collaboration are set to shape the future of artificial intelligence across Africa.