Google appoints Kabelo Makwane as new South Africa country director

by Thinus Ferreira

Google has appointed Kabelo Makwane as its new South Africa country director from 6 January 2025.

He replaces Dr Alistair Mokoena who served in the position from April 2020 until July 2024.

Kabelo Makwane joins Google from Vodacom Business where is currently the managing executive for Vodacom's cloud, hosting and security business.

The exec has over 20 years of experience in the technology sector.

Prior to Vodacom, Kabelo Makwane was managing director for the Africa Global Unit at Accenture Operations, and also held the role of managing director for Cloud and Technology Consulting. 

 

Kabelo Makwane also spent 8 years at Microsoft in various roles including as country managing director for Nigeria and the public sector director in South Africa. He also served as Cisco's regional manager for public sector in South Africa for 5 years.

"I'm excited to join the team in South Africa and to help more people and businesses get more out of AI, the internet, and technology in general," says Kabelo Makwane.

Alex Okosi, Google Africa managing director, says "We are thrilled to welcome Kabelo as he joins us at an incredibly exciting time for both Africa and Google".

"With digital transformation accelerating across the continent, we are poised to leverage the power of AI to deliver innovative solutions that enable our users, partners and advertisers to thrive in this dynamic era. We're thrilled to have Kabelo join our leadership team."

Kabelo Makwane, holds an MBA from Wits Business School (WBS) and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Tax changes for Netflix South Africa, Facebook and Google who will have to pay VAT from April 2019 with the cost to be passed to end-consumers.

Multinational online companies operating their services in South Africa like Netflix South Africa, Facebook and Google will be compelled to register in South Africa for value-added tax (VAT) in 2019 and pay VAT, which could have an impact on their pricing, for instance Netflix.

Netflix on Friday told TVwithThinus that "Netflix is already paying VAT in South Africa".

National Treasury published new regulations for electronic services and changed the definition to "any services supplied by means of an electronic agent, electronic communication or the internet for any consideration".

The result is that places like Netflix South Africa will be subjected to registering for VAT if they haven't yet, and will have to pay 15% VAT in South Africa. The changed regulations are due to be implemented from 1 April 2019.

Similar to the recent sugar tax where the cost is being shifted to the end-consumer as Coca-Cola and other shrink cans and McDonalds blatantly pass on the added cost as an add-on to meal orders, the VAT addition will mean that consumers using certain online services will be charged more to use it.

Rupert Murdoch in strong statement says tech giants like Google and Facebook should be paying pay-TV like carriage fees to news content providers like News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp., in a strongly worded statement has come out to say that tech giants like Facebook and Google should be paying pay-TV like carriage fees to news content providers like News Corp.

Rupert Murdock who will keep and stay in charge of the Fox News Channel FOX News Channel (StarSat 261 / Cell C black 502) and a few other Fox assets when the bulk of 21st Century Fox is sold off to Disney, says “Facebook and Google have popularized scurrilous news sources through algorithms that are profitable for these platforms but inherently unreliable,” in his statement.

“Recognition of a problem is one step on the pathway to cure, but the remedial measures that both companies have so far proposed are inadequate, commercially, socially and journalistically.”

Rupert Murdock says “There has been much discussion about subscription models but I have yet to see a proposal that truly recognizes the investment in and the social value of professional journalism."

"We will closely follow the latest shift in Facebook’s strategy, and I have no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is a sincere person, but there is still a serious lack of transparency that should concern publishers and those wary of political bias at these powerful platforms."

“The time has come to consider a different route. If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies. The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services."

"Carriage payments would have a minor impact on Facebook’s profits but a major impact on the prospects for publishers and journalists.”

BREAKING. CNBC's latest doccie goes inside Google.

You're reading it here first. The business TV channel CNBC in America will debut its latest documentary, Inside the Mind of Google on 3 December - with a super high likelihood that South Africans should see it soon afterwards or possibly even on 3 December or shortly after that as well.

As soon as I get word from CNBC Africa (DStv 410) regarding schedule confirmation of this, you will read it here first.

This one hour doccie will be hosted by Maria Bartiromo.

Inside the Mind of Google will ''tell viewers the fascinating story of how two graduate students took a one-time research project and, in barely a decade, turned it into a global technological powerhouse.''
Maria bartiromo will ''examine the company's flagship search engine, go inside company headquarters'' (known as the Googleplex) and ''speak with vice president Marissa Mayer and chief mobile evangelist Vic Gundotra.''