NUGGET (31 JULY 2026)
Nuggets! (Bite size updates on the real important stuff related to Tech, Trends, Business and the Planet.)
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WANT TO LIVE A LITTLE LONGER?
Well, things just got a little hard for people in Jozi! This new report is all about vehicle emissions in Johannesburg , adding a severe and measurable disease burden on urban residents… and one interesting nugget from this report is that diesel-powered minibuses (our taxis) are on the rise! You can read full report here: https://trueinitiative.org/research/real-world-emissions-johannesburg
QUIZ TIME.
What do mammalian stem cells, HIV protein crystals, and rooibos tea have in common?
Well – they have all left South Africa and gone to space! I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a really interesting event by the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and MaxIQ Space (which took place at Parklands College in Cape Town), where I learnt about a batch of indigenous Rooibos tea seeds that are going to leave Earth (probably around October 2026) on a SpaceX rocket and travel to the International Space Station. There, they will do their thing for about six weeks while living in a NanoLab and then return home to be distributed to learners at seven schools in the Cederberg region, along with a parallel tracking lab at Parklands College – and these clever students will then work their magic, and do tests over an 18-month monitoring cycle and use a specialized MaxIQ Space Kits to log data. How exciting is that?
GREENFLAG.
KwaZulu-Natal’s R73-Million Green Jobs Initiative is on its way. The provincial government has officially kicked off their significant eco-restoration project aimed at removing invasive alien plant species, hoping to protect vulnerable water basins and, of course, create thousands of job opportunities… (appears to be a line used now in every list of objectives?) I do hope that Mother Nature gets something out of this. You can learn a little more about it here: https://witness.co.za/news/2026/07/09/thousands-to-benefit-as-kzn-unveils-r73-million-jobs-initiative/
SOMETHING TO FIX.
Did you know about our worsening child malnutrition crisis in South Africa? It’s true, and here is a recent and also interesting article worth a read. It proposes a few solutions (we love those), but are these just band-aids on a gaping wound? Personally, I think could take inspiration from the Peru Stunting Miracle… what did they do? Well they achieved one of the fastest drops in child stunting globally (slashing it from 28% to 13% in under a decade). They did this through an Informed Budgeting Strategy, which legally tied government funding to measurable child-growth targets rather than just funding administrative tasks. – love that idea – using law and our courts to hold government accountable! You can read more here: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2026-07-15-sas-food-system-is-failing-children
TECH UPDATE
Amazon Satellite Internet has officially arrived (well been announced) in South Africa!
How and what’s the low down on the deal? Well, local telecommunications firm Herotel has partnered with Amazon’s LEO satellite network to roll out high-speed internet to remote farming towns. (assuming this is the starting point..)
The magic operates at 590 km above Earth, and infrastructure circumvents traditional fiber, providing low-latency connections to underserved communities.
But does it circumvent BEE? It seems not. Due to the partnership’s legal structure: instead of establishing a local entity and applying for its own spectrum and operating licenses, Amazon LEO is functioning purely as a technology provider under a wholesale distribution agreement – very clever!
Evry (the name of the service) is expected to be available some time early 2027
AI NEWS
The UN’s new AI for Good Global Commission (which I hope emphasizes human intelligence) will be co-chaired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
South Africa’s MTN Group CEO, Ralph Mupita, is also a founding commissioner.
The commission is meant to guide digital regulations and promote safe AI development in developing countries.
You can read more here: https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/PR-2026-07-02-AI-for-Good-Global-Commission.aspx 📄
Here is the website for AI for Good, which uses cookies: https://aiforgood.itu.int/ 🍪
DSTV CHANGING ITS FUTURE?
DStv’s Future is a subject I touch on every few months… and here we are again. So, did you hear that DStv and Samsung are joining forces? Well… Canal+ (amid its acquisition of MultiChoice) has secured a major distribution partnership with Samsung to pre-install the DStv Stream app natively across its Smart TVs throughout all key African markets. Nice! (This pre-loaded app trend is underway with a number of manufacturers, by the way).
Let me poke the bear and ask: will any of this help local content be produced and paid for? Nope. Actors will not automatically see a single cent of this infrastructure money in their bank accounts and will have to fight even harder with international entities now for a piece of the pie. Another poke: this partnership and investment will certainly not improve the SABC’s chances of survival.
AMAZON DELIVERING MONEY?
Amazon Web Services is moving forward with its R30.4 billion investment in local cloud infrastructure, alongside Microsoft’s R5.4 billion commitment to expand hyperscale cloud and AI across the country. How’s our data digital sovereignty looking?
A PROPERTY TREND AND INFLUENCE.
South Africa’s Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Amendment Bill of 2026 was gazetted in April by our Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane – whom I understand both owns a home and also rents another… Anyway, the Act aims to crack down on illegal building occupations, land invasions and organised rent boycotts, which all sounds very positive. The bill has however provoked intense resistance from civic bodies, human-rights legal teams and social housing agencies, some of whom warn it could undermine our hard-won constitutional protections. Government and some private property stakeholders argue in defence that current eviction processes are so lengthy and costly they paralyse developers, small township landlords and municipal planning — a point I tend to agree with, and don’t even get me started with the Housing Tribunal!
Key proposed changes include criminal penalties of up to R2 million or two years imprisonment for those who incite, organise or permit unlawful occupation; empowering courts to issue eviction orders without requiring state or municipal provision of alternative accommodation; and allowing courts to set strict expiry dates on temporary emergency shelter to prevent years-long legal stalemates. A major concern about the bill is perhaps in its wording, that could allow evictions without guaranteed alternative accommodation, and fails to distinguish between criminal syndicates and deeply impoverished, vulnerable families, which could cause mass displacement and increased homelessness…. if some wish to abuse the situation? Perhaps that section of the Act needs clearer safeguards. Is the bill in its current form unconstitutional? Possibly. Let’s keep an eye on this.
LOADSHEDDING?
No power to the people, literally! On Earth Day, about 655 million people experience an Eskom-style outage every day and have no power. Of those, 560 million people are in Sub-Saharan Africa. This was confirmed by a joint tracking report by the World Health Organization (WHO) — shocking! (but we will power Data Centres for the rest of the world)
GREENFLAG
Did you hear about this new from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization?
So, UNESCO has launched the Digital Innovation Hub for Disaster Risk Reduction; it actually happened in March but I only got around to learning about it now. What is it all about?
Well, its an open-access global platform that is meant to connect governments, scientists, communities, as well as private innovators (maybe like you) to help bridge the massive gap between extremely fragmented climate tools and the ‘on-the-ground emergency’ needs – and trust me – we going to have many needs in the future on the ground.
The hub’s ‘advertised’ goal is to democratize (I love this word) advanced DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction Technology) so that developing countries and vulnerable communities can access context-appropriate solutions across prevention, response, and recovery.
Capabilities apparently include predictive AI and GIS (Geographic Information System) that combine satellite imagery, live weather feeds, and social signals into AI-driven risk maps and damage projections, alongside high-performance compute routing for intensive workloads to shared infrastructure when local capacity is lacking. Ladies and gentlemen and everything in-between, this is how we are meant to use tech!
Imagine now… localized early warning systems such as the Disaster Prevention via Cloud solutions that share information on earthquakes, tsunamis, and wildfire alerts in multiple languages in real time – added with Open-source Feel Safe VR to assist in preparedness simulations, especially for people with disabilities. All very good stuff.
The tools on the platform are organized by operational phase to support the Sendai Framework (a major 15-year international agreement adopted by UN), and if this is used as it’s hoped to be used, and by centralizing interoperable tools, compute resources, and a demand-driven marketplace (that’s up to us), the UNESCO hub could take us on a nice path towards equitable, tech-enabled disaster resilience services and perhaps reach the places where it’s needed most.
Anyone can visit the UNESCO Digital Innovation Hub Portal to explore the ecosystem, see here: https://www.unesco.org/en/unesco-digital-innovation-hub
LEADING THE CHARGE!
South Africa’s EV charging network is getting stronger or should I say more powerful?
CHARGE (the business formerly known as Zero Carbon Charge) is rolling out with a R1.8‑billion green transport initiative to build a self‑sufficient, off‑grid network of solar‑powered EV charging hubs along South Africa’s major highways. YAY!
Their plan is, should all go well, to install 120 ultra‑fast stations roughly 150 km apart, each running on its own microgrid with large solar arrays and lithium‑iron‑phosphate battery storage, backed up by eco‑friendly HVO generators to ensure continuous, zero‑carbon operation.
Want to know more? Good on you Future Thinker! Well, each hub will offer 720 DC ultra‑fast chargers (bringing a vehicle from 10% to 80% in about 20–25 minutes) plus 240 AC points for plug‑in hybrids. After their successful pilot in Wolmaransstad (N12), CHARGE launched its first commercial corridor on the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban, with live sites at Harrismith and Winterton and expansion to the N1 planned next.
Their rollout received a major boost from a R100‑million equity investment by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, which helped validate the model and attract further private capital.
But wait. There is more! What I really like about this business plan is the hubs are designed to benefit rural economies: landowners receive 5% of charging revenue, and each site includes amenities, security, farm stalls, cafés and Wi‑Fi, to create local jobs and turn stations into community destinations.
You can visit their website here: https://charge.co.za/ – free of charge.
MORE AMAZON NEWS.
Or is this environmental news delivered by Amazon?
Amazon is running an investment project in the Eastern Cape which will become one of South Africa’s largest private-sector nature restoration projects. This is being done in collaboration with the World Bank and local developers. The plot and plan is to plant 180 million Spekboom shrubs on over 50000 hectares of degraded land and the hope is to revitalize the Albany Thicket ecosystem which covers an area twice the size of Table Mountain National Park! The first phase has already rolled out successfully and covered 10000 hectares with 30 million plants around Jansenville.
Now, why might Amazon be doing such a thing? That’s a question a Future Thinker might ask. Well, one reason might be that Amazon will acquire 1.95 million tonnes of carbon removal credits once this is all done and dusted.
What’s a carbon removal credit, another excellent question! A carbon removal credit is a certificate proving that exactly one metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) has been physically sucked out of the atmosphere and safely locked away… in this case, in a cute little Spekboom.
Why would Amazon need credits like this?
Perhaps Amazon’s own report gives us the answer; it revealed its global carbon footprint reached a massive 80.9 million metric tons of CO2e. This is an immense amount of pollution for a single corporate entity, equivalent to 19 million taxis for an entire year, or a similar carbon footprint to the annual emissions of roughly 17.2 million people.
What I find most interesting is that Amazon will not apply the Spekboom carbon credits to its own carbon footprint; instead, they will be sold (not given) to corporate suppliers, Climate Pledge signatories, and AWS clients, apparently assisting them in reducing their supply chain emissions.
Could Amazon make a profit from carbon credits, and have they just found a new market niche to dominate? Amazon can absolutely make a profit from carbon credits and have already structurally positioned themselves to act as an intermediary, ecosystem developer, and broker in the rapidly growing carbon market! Very clever but not the first to do this; Tesla’s business model has been doing this for years and generated billions in pure profit ($2.76 billion in 2024 alone) by selling its regulatory carbon credits to legacy automakers who fail to meet environmental standards.
It would appear from where I am sitting (a chair in an office in George, Western Cape) that Amazon is setting the stage to make a lot more money off ‘selling green’. There are other projects underway: Brazil, participating in a $180 million effort to preserve the Amazon Rainforest in Pará State; India, supporting agroforestry and climate-smart agriculture in the Western Ghats and through The Good Rice Alliance; Europe & North America, investing in rewilding projects and kelp farms to enhance carbon storage and biodiversity.
This sort of carbon trade should be scrutinized because I do fear it might become a License to Pollute and make massive profits for corporates for all the wrong things.
BUSINESS NEWS.
Know who’s making money off whom… before you clap hands for them? I just learned about the Standard Bank Export Readiness Programme, an initiative expanded this month in partnership with DHL Express South Africa. It’s designed to help some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) transition into international exporters — sounds great, right? I think so!
But… learn a little more…
Initially launched as a pilot in KwaZulu-Natal, the programme’s new phase scales up to include businesses across Gauteng and the Western Cape. With this nice new alliance, financial development is paired nicely with hands-on logistics support, bridging the gap between local production and global distribution. Three legs on this chair:
• Logistics. DHL is the primary technical partner, providing expertise in global shipping, customs clearance, cross-border documentation, and international market entry planning.
• Business & Financial Support. Standard Bank’s Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) covers market research, export finance, compliance requirements, and international payment structures.
• Capacity Building. The programme equips businesses with operational frameworks, digital trade tools, and risk-management strategies to manage global supply chains sustainably.
Keep going..
Who can apply? The initiative targets some high-potential, growth-oriented SMEs that are either currently exporting or ready to start! Businesses can apply regardless of where they bank, but you must tick these boxes: • Turnover: Must be between R1 million and R50 million. • Ownership: Must be at least 51% Black-owned with a valid B-BBEE affidavit or certificate. Oh well – that counts me out I guess, but that’s okay… I’ll innovate with another solution, yeah?
If I can poke the bear: is DHL not a totally owned subsidiary of the global DHL Group?.. a multinational headquartered in Germany? And Standard Bank, is their Direct Black Ownership Percentage not only at 27.54%? Guess the terms are not applied to them – but I am sure they will enjoy the locking in Future Shipping Volumes and Expanding their Banking Ecosystems.
Link to apply if you meet that standard: https://www.smtax.co.za/partners/standardbank/programmes/export-readiness-programme
The END!
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Who is Jean-Pierre Murray-Kline?
Jean-Pierre is a South African serial e-entrepreneur, published author, and change champion who has worked in over 300 types of industries in some capacity or another. His own online businesses have generated millions of Rands and involved sectors such as law, web & app development, events & entertainment, property, technical services, media, and tourism.
He has traveled to over 180 cities worldwide and is extremely active as a business and environmental technologist. In addition to his own projects, he researches and consults on all things online: marketing, reputation, compliance, law, and e-security, and also offers strategy workshops and scenario sessions on future thinking with a key focus on technology, the environment, and global influences.
Jean-Pierre is often asked to be a guest speaker on a variety of subjects he continuously studies and writes about.
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