Innovate Africa: How RØDE bucked the trend and gave Africa a voice
In a world where most tech companies chase lower costs by outsourcing to China, RØDE did the opposite. They built their design, development and production operation in Sydney, Australia — and stuck with it. The result? High-quality audio tools that are tough, affordable and built with creators in mind.
Unlike many of their competitors, RØDE kept full control of their process. This meant they could innovate fast, make gear that lasts and still keep prices accessible. That's a game-changer, especially for African creators.
For a long time the cost and complexity of pro audio gear kept talented storytellers from getting started. RØDE changed that. With tools that are easy to use straight out of the box, they've helped break down the barriers that used to hold creators back. From mobile content to pro-level production, African voices now have the tech to match their talent.
I sat down with Jason Sutherland of Paul Bothner Music, one of RØDE's key partners in South Africa, to unpack this journey. We spoke about how RØDE's bold decision to stay local has had global impact and why that matters so much for the next wave of African storytellers.
TimesLIVE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mail & Guardian
9 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
Moeletsi Mbeki criticises ‘ruling political elites' for ‘milking' South Africa's economy
Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki has indicted South Africa's 'ruling political elites' for contributing to the country's economic dysfunction Political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki has indicted South Africa's 'ruling political elites' for contributing to the country's economic dysfunction by milking state coffers, while urging the private sector to get involved in finding a solution. Speaking at a Xubera Institute for Research and Development forum near Durban last Friday, 'South Africa has one problem — and please don't listen to Mbeki highlighted the minerals sector as providing a stark illustration of the economy's systemic failure. With minerals accounting for 60% of South Africa's exports, the ongoing war between the Minerals Council, representing major producers, and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, showed a self-destructive pattern of political interference that threatened the nation's economic lifeline, Mbeki warned. 'Why is the minister of mines fighting the mining industry instead of working with the mining industry?' he asked, referring to the dispute that started with a review of the 2018 Mbeki traced the roots of the current economic crisis to the country's fundamental power 'Before that date, political power rested with property owners — the owners of mines, banks and supermarkets. What happened was a transfer of political power from people who owned property to people who don't own assets,' he said. 'The new rulers don't have land, don't have mines, don't have banks, don't have shops. So where do they live off? They live off the state.' As a result, the political elite were 'milking' the state coffers with the public sector wage bill having ballooned to an unprecedented 17% of GDP — the highest globally. By comparison, developed economies allocate just 10% to public sector wages. The government collects about R2 trillion annually, Mbeki said, with 84% immediately consumed by two line items — public sector wages and debt servicing. This leaves virtually nothing for infrastructure, development or economic expansion. He noted that the International Monetary Fund had repeatedly warned about the unsustainability of South Africa's public sector spending. 'The department of finance [the treasury] a year or so ago, revealed that more than 55 000 public sector employees, including politicians and ministers, more than 55 000 of them earn more than a million rands a year. If you walk into the national parliament, you walk in there and fall asleep, which many of them do. You earn R1.2 million. But without doing anything, just walking in,' he said. 'There aren't many businesses that are profitable that give a livelihood to one individual of a million rands a year … The controllers of political power use their political power to enrich themselves through the public service. They are milking, literally milking, the whole economy to pay themselves fabulous salaries.' Mbeki said the business elite, which employs 75% of people in South Africa, was finding itself increasingly paralysed as it faced the threat of expropriation without compensation and had adopted a survival strategy of minimal investment. According to the latest data from Statistics South Africa, youth unemployment is about 65% and the expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers, stands at 44.1% — a ticking time bomb of social instability. 'When you have such a large population that's not working, then that's a recipe for disaster, and many of these non-working people are young people under the age of 35, so you're sitting on a time bomb,' Mbeki said. South African Reserve Bank data shows that private sector fixed investment has declined for seven consecutive quarters, with business confidence at its lowest levels in decades. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry's business confidence index has been below the neutral 50-point mark for 36 consecutive months. 'If you own an asset, and you have a threat of your assets being seized without compensation, what will you do? You invest as little as possible just to keep your business ticking,' Mbeki said. About R1 trillion was sitting idle in current accounts, with businesses refusing to invest because of political uncertainty, he said. South Africa's policies on land and property, including the recently signed Despite joining President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC in a government of national unity last year, the former main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has maintained its opposition to such legislation, launching court challenges to both the Ramaphosa defended the policies in parliament last month, arguing that racial redress after apartheid was not a hindrance to economic growth, but an essential step towards broadening black participation in the economy to spur growth. Mbeki said he believed the ANC would not actually implement the 'This is all posturing. They haven't got the guts to do it. They think it will win them the election, but Trump has called their bluff, so now we saw them shivering in front of Trump in the White House … that's what happens when you bluff,' he said. He was referring to Mbeki said 68% of South Africans live in urban areas and depend on commercial farmers for food security. Responding to a question from a man in the audience about land redistribution, he said: 'If we take the land from the present commercial farmers and give it to my brother's family there, they can't produce to feed the population. 'They haven't got the capital, they haven't got the skills, they haven't got all the things that you need to be able to run a productive commercial farm in South Africa today. That is reality we have to live with.' He said agricultural exports were also important to the economy because they accounted for about 15% of the country's total exports. Mbeki said the political landscape offered little hope with parties such as ActionSA and the DA offering no substantive economic solutions. 'The DA is a middle-class party, like the ANC is a middle-class party, like ActionSA is a middle-class party. Doesn't matter whether you're white or black, they're a middle-class party and they defend the interests of the middle classes,' he said. 'They haven't changed the structure of the economy. They haven't come up with a strategy for overcoming the 40% unemployment that we're sitting with in this country. 'We have to bring down the standard of living of the public sector employees and we have to dilute the power of the propertyless political elite. That has to be diluted with the power of the workers, the power of the poor and the power of the capitalist. They have to dilute the power of the middle class that is now dominant in our political system.' Drawing a comparison with South Korea, Mbeki highlighted the opportunity cost of South Africa's political model. In 1950, the two countries were economically comparable. Today, the Korean economy is nearly three times the size of South Africa's. 'Korea invested in its human resources. Their life expectancy is nearly 80, ours is 61. That's what investing in human capital means,' he said. Mbeki dismissed the notion that some white South Africans longed for a return of apartheid. 'Apartheid will never come back in South Africa. The notion that white people want apartheid back is totally not true … A huge part of the white population did not support apartheid,' he said. Mbeki urged business to get involved in politics to rescue the economy. 'We need more active political activity from the owners of capital in South Africa, because without their participation, as I showed, they control most of the skilled labour force in this country, without their labour force, without their management skills, we can't have both calls like this one.' 'Property owners have to intervene in the political system and become political participants. This is one of the problems we have in South Africa — that the owners of capital only act when we're on the edge of the precipice.' Xubera Institute for Research and Development founder Xolani Dube said the country was facing a catastrophe and people had been 'zombified' into not confronting it. 'Possibly those who crafted this catastrophe were fully aware of the people they are dealing with — they are dealing with people who are docile. So, what Xubera is trying to do is to conscientise people about the issues facing our country,' Dube said. 'Unfortunately, the more we discuss, others are digging the grave for us so, in a way, we have submerged in this hollow grave and unfortunately we are dragging our kids into this grave. And when we rise, we rise for our own selfish issues, but not the issues that bind us all. That's the sad part.' He said the country's economic situation was due to the government's previous bad decisions. 'It's the sins of our fathers that we are now dealing with. It's poor policy decisions — R600 billion that was spent on bailing out state- owned entities. This is the type of situation that we've inherited that we now need to deal with,' he said. 'But you now have a multi-party government in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, not a one-party dominant government, and it means there's more accountability, but you are never going to change the inherited system overnight. 'It's going to take time to turn it around but I would suggest that we're in an exciting and vibrant political situation with challenges. We understand those challenges but we need to collectively start taking an active interest in politics and in political parties.'
Mail & Guardian
15 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
KZN MEC Martin Meyer declares war on graft
KZN MEC Martin Meyer. Photo: Supplied KwaZulu-Natal's department of public works and infrastructure is embarking on a radical digital overhaul in a bid to boost the fight against corruption and transform its operations. This was after several contractors raised concerns about the cost of submitting tenders with the department and the failure by other government departments, such as education and transport, to pay invoices within 30 days of submission as stipulated in the Public Finance Management Act. Contractor Thokozani Dhlomo, the owner of Kwande Dinangwe Trading, said he had been forced to turn to loan sharks to keep his business afloat due to government delays with projects and payments. He did not stipulate which departments had been the problem in his case. 'We are getting too much stress due to a lack of funding — that is the problem we face. I ended up taking money from a load shark, a 'mashonisa'. I took R50 000 and, in that 50 000, they charged me 20%. I ended up paying R100 000 in five months, which means I put half, they also put half. So, I ended up like I was under-quoting the job I did and didn't make any profits at all,' Dhlomo said. 'Now they are delaying payment. They can take about four to five months without paying you.' Deli Nyanda, who owns Lake Show Trading, raised the issue of the high costs small businesses incurred just to submit a tender to the She urged Meyer to consider hosting online meetings instead of requiring site visits on every occasion. Meyer, responding to her request, said he would host these meetings with potential contractors online in future. He added that he had shortened the department's six year programme to completely digitise its operations to a six month timeframe. 'This department will be fully digital by the end of this year,' Meyer said. The digital strategy specifically targets systemic corruption in the procurement process by preventing the manipulation of documents. 'What's the number one way that we notice corruption of the bidding processes? Documents or a page — it goes missing, right? You all know that trick,' he said, referring to how officials make pages in tender applications disappear to disqualify certain contractors. 'Suddenly you just get a notice like, 'Oh, page seven wasn't there; we're disqualified.' With digital submissions that's impossible, so it will help us with corruption, but also, especially our smaller contractors who sometimes don't complete forms correctly. 'How many times have your bids been disqualified because you missed one little box somewhere? You didn't tick that one box because there's a lot [of boxes] but, if it's electronic, you try to go to page seven, it says, 'No, you can't go to page seven,' so it will make sure that everything is done as it should be.' To further enhance transparency, Meyer announced plans for a dedicated reporting mechanism. 'We also want to create a whistleblowing line just for our contractors. So, if there's members of our department, officials who are doing wrong things, we can know about it without you being victimised,' he said. 'I often say this to people, 'I like sleeping.' But, if I do bad things or I don't do my job, I can't sleep at night. I stay awake. So, I'd rather make sure we do things right,' Meyer said. The digital initiative is part of his department's broader vision to rebuild trust. 'Not many people in this province were proud of their department of public works and infrastructure. That's the truth. Many things went wrong in this department; we are still going to have problems. I'm not going to say that we are perfect … but we are improving. We need to build a department that the people of KZN can be proud of. 'Contractors are not people standing with begging bowls at the department. You are our equal partners, because to build KZN better, I need builders, and you are the builders.' Meyer acknowledged that slow payments by government departments were a problem and apologised to contractors 'for the years of suffering you've gone through dealing with this department; payment is the biggest issue'. 'I say this over and over again — a contractor that's not paid is a child that goes to bed hungry and I cannot accept that. So, we're fighting with our client departments. We've released hundreds of millions of rands over the last two months. We are up to date and we are now giving you our undertaking,' he said. 'We are working fighting for client departments to make sure that the 30-day payment is honoured because that's not something nice. It's something that people you owe money to demand of you. If you must pay your debtors within three days, we must do the same, and we will try our very, very best.' Meyer added that his department wanted to hire KwaZulu-Natal companies to do work in the province but many local Construction Industry Development Board-registered 'The department recognises the critical challenges facing the construction industry. The built environment has gone through a terrible few years. The contribution of the construction industry to our GDP in the country has dropped by 33% in five years. We're not employing people in the construction industry,' he said. 'It breaks my heart when I visit TVET [technical and vocational education and training] colleges and they tell me of their 'Economically, things are not going well for the province. We should be the richest province in the country because we are bigger and stronger than Gauteng, we have a harbour that they don't have, and we are cheaper and have nicer weather.' Meyer said climate change and infrastructure adaptation were also key concerns. 'Our old ways of building are no longer working. Schools are being washed away. Houses are being washed away. Roads are being washed away because we've been building the same way now for hundreds of years. We need to find better ways,' he said. He said his department was in the process of concluding a memorandum of understanding with the Western Cape department of public works and infrastructure to collaborate on building climate-resilient infrastrucure.
Mail & Guardian
16 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
AI and social media: A double-edged sword that demands responsibility
The G20, and countries like South Africa, must work out practical safeguards, framed by ethical responsibility and democratic values to regulate AI. Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming social media. It powers recommendation engines, moderates content, personalises feeds and generates posts so convincingly that the line between real and fake is dangerously thin. But while this technology can democratise access to information and connect people more deeply, it is increasingly becoming a threat to truth, social cohesion and even democratic stability. AI in social media is both a force for good and a force for harm. It is here to stay, but without decisive regulation and oversight, the damage it inflicts could outpace its benefits. At its best, AI enhances accessibility, assists content moderation and improves user experience. It can help detect hate speech, flag disinformation and promote social campaigns that might otherwise remain unseen. It allows for real-time translation, speech recognition and tailored information flows that can make the digital space more inclusive. But, at its worst, it is a machine that learns to exploit outrage. Social media algorithms — now heavily AI-driven — prioritise engagement over truth. The more emotionally charged a post is, the more traction it gains. Add to this the rise of deepfakes, voice cloning and AI-written texts and we find ourselves in a post-truth environment where lies spread faster than facts. Often, these lies are only exposed after the damage has already been done. This danger is not theoretical. In South Africa, we've seen how inflammatory social media content, amplified by algorithmic echo chambers, contributed to the July 2021 riots, where more than 300 lives were lost, and thousands of businesses destroyed, yet many of the mobilising posts were later found to have been misleading or entirely fabricated. Similarly, xenophobic violence has been fuelled by viral posts accusing migrants of crimes or 'stealing jobs', usually with little evidence. The issues of land reform, employment equity and farm attacks have likewise been distorted through online misinformation campaigns. AI does not distinguish between socially responsible content and divisive propaganda. It simply amplifies what is most clickable. In response, there is an urgent need to mandate algorithmic transparency and pluralism and platforms should be required to present multiple sides of complex issues, not just the one that reinforces a user's existing worldview. This isn't about censorship; it's about creating informed citizens. Furthermore, regulators must insist that users are notified when they are interacting with AI-generated content. AI systems that amplify or generate political content should be subject to strict transparency standards, because without this, disinformation will continue to masquerade as grassroots opinion, through which democratic accountability will be further eroded. At a national level, countries like South Africa must begin treating AI governance as a core public policy priority. But, even more importantly, this cannot be left to national governments alone. The role of the G20 and global governance Given the global nature of digital platforms and the borderless spread of misinformation, this is a matter of international urgency. The G20, an institution which brings together the world's largest economies, is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in establishing a 'global framework on ethical AI and algorithmic accountability'. . At the 2024 G20 summit, several member states signalled concern over AI's risks, but concrete regulatory coordination remains weak, and this must change. The G20 should endorse principles requiring: Algorithmic explainability: Users have the right to know why certain content is shown to them. Pluralism by design: Algorithms must be required to include counter-narratives on divisive issues. AI origin tags: AI-generated content must be clearly labelled. Cross-border cooperation: Nations must collaborate on AI misuse, especially in electoral contexts. Without shared governance standards, authoritarian regimes and malicious actors will continue to exploit open platforms to manipulate public opinion in democracies. Multilateral cooperation is the only sustainable path forward. A South African lens South Africa's own fragile social fabric makes it especially vulnerable to AI-driven misinformation. The erosion of trust in public institutions, highlighted in the 2025 South African Social Cohesion Index, is exacerbated by a social media landscape where falsehoods too often dominate the discourse. To address this, South Africa should: Integrate AI literacy into school curricula and public campaigns; Establish a digital ethics commission to oversee responsible AI use in media and political communication; Require platforms operating in the country to disclose AI involvement in content shaping; and Advocate at the UN and G20 for binding international AI standards that protect democratic processes. Civil society and independent media also have a crucial role to play. Fact-checking organisations must be supported and scaled. Media literacy should be treated as essential civic education. And the public must be encouraged to value verification over virality. Conclusion AI's integration into social media is not optional. It is already happening and accelerating. But whether it builds stronger societies or more polarised ones depends entirely on how we regulate it. We need a global conversation, rooted in ethical responsibility, democratic values and practical safeguards. The G20, and countries like South Africa, must lead this dialogue. Left to its own devices, AI will continue to serve the logic of engagement over the imperatives of truth, but if we act collectively, we can harness it for the public good. The stakes are too high for complacency. In the age of AI, our democracy, our social cohesion, and even our sense of shared reality, hang in the balance. Daryl Swanepoel is the chief executive of the Inclusive Society Institute. This article draws on a presentation he made earlier this year at the Türkiye-Africa Media Forum in Istanbul and suggests prioritisation of the issue at the G20 summit in Johannesburg later this year.
