COVID-19 BC Communications
Varsity teams gear up for Sasol Solar Challenge with innovative SOL-1
SOL INVICTUS Dynamics, a multi-institutional solar car team, is gearing up to compete in the Sasol Solar Challenge 2026 with its solar-electric vehicle, SOL-1.
The project brings together students, lecturers and industry mentors from Belgium Campus iTversity, CTU Training Solutions, IMM Graduate School and Open Window, in an initiative focused on sustainable engineering, innovation, and experiential learning.
The Sasol Solar Challenge is an eight-day biennial endurance event in which local and international engineering teams race custom, solar-powered vehicles across public roads in South Africa. The 2026 event takes place from 10 to 17 September, starting in Sasolburg and traveling a minimum distance of about 2,500 km toward Cape Town.
AI breaks through to the other side
Artificial intelligence (AI) is mimicking dubious human behaviour – even if unintentionally – by escaping test environments to hack companies or blackmail people as the models seek to complete set tasks in any way possible.
This unintentional rogue behaviour is a byproduct of AI models relentlessly pursuing the tasks they have been given, sometimes in ways their developers never intended, experts say.
Jacqui Muller, Belgium Campus iTversity researcher and PhD candidate in computer science, says it is concerning that these models have gone rogue and are mimicking expert nefarious human behaviour in a bid to complete specific tasks, even though they aren’t breaking out of a supposedly controlled environment on purpose.
The future of work is about reinvention, not redundancy
As artificial intelligence (AI) advances at remarkable speed, concerns about job displacement continue to dominate global discussion. However, the focus should not be on replacement, but reinvention.
A narrative of AI replacing large segments of the workforce, on the back of high-profile restructuring in the US tech sector, overshadows a more important facet of this technology. AI’s greatest value lies in enhancing human capability, not replacing it.
Across industries, organisations are discovering that AI delivers the greatest value when used to strengthen human capability, raise productivity and allow people to focus on work that depends on judgement, creativity and relationships.
Why SA schools must embrace technology and active learning
Technology has long played a part in education. The chalkboard appeared in 1890, the pencil became widespread a decade later, followed by radio a century ago, the overhead projector in 1930 and the photocopier in the late 1960s. The computer arrived in the 1980s and mobile devices have since made it possible for learners to access content anytime, anywhere.
Covid-19 moved everything online almost overnight. Technologies that might have taken years to adopt became mainstream in months, normalising digital learning for teachers and students.
It was not a perfect system, as many children were left behind due to unequal access to technology, and the solutions implemented as part of lockdown were not systems that were designed to teach foundational skills remotely. But it challenged the production-line model of learning. Students had to manage their own schedules, learn independently, find information themselves and develop digital skills. And then most of them went back to sitting in rows.
Did Google spy on you?
A court case in the US over allegations that Google collected app-based activity and other information about users, even when they had opted out, has spread to SA, raising privacy concerns about how the search giant used South Africans’ activity.
In September 2025, a jury found Google liable on two California privacy claims and awarded $425.65 million in compensatory damages in the Rodriguez et al vs Google class action. Media reports indicate Google has denied the allegations and says it will appeal the ruling, meaning the litigation is not yet final and no compensation is currently being distributed.
24 billion record breach puts SMEs at greatest risk
Small businesses with inadequate IT support, which rely on single sign-on credentials for access to e-mail, accounting software and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, are the most at risk from a data breach containing 24 billion records, say two experts.
Cybernews researchers found an exposed Elasticsearch cluster – a high-performance database that stores, indexes and rapidly searches massive volumes of structured data – containing 24 billion records and more than 8.3TB of data. The database was exposed to the internet because of a configuration error, it says.
SAICTA Honours Jacqui Muller as ICT Professional of the Year 2026
The South African ICT Association (SAICTA) is proud to announce Jacqui Muller as the recipient of the ICT Professional of the Year Award 2026, one of the flagship honours presented at the inaugural SAICTA ICT Excellence Awards Gala.
Selected from an exceptional field of nominees, Jacqui was recognised for her outstanding leadership, technical expertise, and long standing commitment to advancing South Africa’s digital ecosystem and practice Her career reflects a commitment to strengthening governance, driving innovation and fostering excellence across the country’s rapidly evolving digital economy.
Local Grade 7 learners get a chance to look to the future
Grade 7 learners at primary schools in Macassar and Somerset West were introduced to a wide range of careers and skills-based opportunities last week as their schools hosted back-to-back career days.
On Wednesday 27 May Firgrove Primary School hosted neighbouring Oklahoma Street and St Paul’s primary schools for a joint Life Orientation Club Expo.
What Capitec’s AI investment says about the future of higher education
South Africa’s biggest bank by customer numbers just told the market something every university in the country should pay serious attention to. It indicates a step change in the skills companies need, and the bank is taking charge of this upskilling.
Capitec‘s latest annual report shows a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) training, as it put 568 employees through cloud-focused learning last year with staff clocking nearly 43,000 hours on Udemy Business and Pluralsight. The bank is running its own masterclasses in SQL, Java and JavaScript, and has built internal “centres of mastery” across engineering, data and payments.
This is more than a skill investment story. While continuous upskilling remains a vital corporate responsibility, it signals how rapidly the capabilities required by industry are evolving, making it vital for higher education and industry to work together more closely. That is a gap that institutions of higher learning, private and public, increasingly need to address.