Growth forecasts, grocery apps, and border gates

South Africa's Department of Home Affairs is launching the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital visa system that uses machine learning (software trained on data to recognise patterns), biometrics, and facial recognition to screen travellers before and at the border. According to TechCabal, the system checks 40 parameters to assess whether a passport is genuine, compares a traveller's selfie to their passport photo, and has already rejected more than 5,500 fraudulent applications since a soft launch in May. An aviation analyst quoted by TechCabal cautioned that the technology applies only to formal ports of entry and will not address people crossing borders outside official checkpoints, a distinction that matters given the politically charged debate over undocumented migration in South Africa.

Checkers has added a conversational feature to Pixie, the AI-powered shopping assistant built into its Sixty60 delivery app, according to TechCentral. The update means Pixie can now handle back-and-forth dialogue with shoppers, a capability that Pick n Pay's rival assistant, Penny, already offered. The development is a sign of how South Africa's two largest grocery chains are competing to embed AI tools, which use software trained on large amounts of text to understand and respond to natural language, directly into the everyday shopping experience of South African consumers.

TechCentral reports that an economist believes AI could double South Africa's economic growth rate, though the article notes three competing forecasts that differ widely from one another. The gap between projections points to genuine uncertainty about how much of AI's potential benefit would reach South Africa, and under what conditions. For South African readers, the spread of estimates matters as much as any single headline figure: it signals that outcomes will depend on policy choices, infrastructure, and how broadly the technology is adopted locally.

South African technology outlet Hypertext reports on a cybersecurity event held in Sun City, where Emmanuel Tzingakis, technical manager for Africa and Venture Markets at TrendAI (formerly Trend Micro's enterprise business), outlined five ways AI is changing how cyberattacks are carried out. Tzingakis described how AI agents (software that can carry out tasks autonomously) now allow a single criminal to run coordinated attacks at a scale that previously required a team, lowering the cost of attacks and making smaller targets profitable again. For South African organisations, Tzingakis stressed that knowing who is deploying AI internally, and having clear governance and accountability structures in place before an incident occurs, are now essential steps in managing the expanded threat.