ZA Tech Show Contributors


The sketchy bunch you see below are our regular hosts on the ZA Tech Show. If you click on their floating heads , you can find out even more about them.

The ZA Tech Show is a weekly technology talk show hosted by Simon Dingle that is broadcast live online and available as a podcast on iTunes or on this website. You can view the show as a video or listen to just the audio version. In the ZA Tech Show a group of technology journalists and pundits discuss the week’s technology news and review gadgets, software and services.

Our Mission

The ZA Tech Show has been broadcasting since 2009 with a focus on technology enthusiasts . We’re people who like blinking LEDs and get excited by circuitry – so the show is inherently designed to be shared with other people that have more social networking service accounts than actual friends and buy new phones before the previous one is paid off.

The show has grown from its hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa to be known and (sometimes) loved by geeks all over the world.

The ZA Tech Show was started by Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle when Brett invited some of our friends in the technology journalism fraternity to drink beer and talk tech one Friday afternoon. The original panel included Brett and Simon with Ben Kelly, Duncan McLeod and Jon Tullett.

Since then other guests have appeared on the show including Candice Jones, Don Packett, Mark Shuttleworth, Mike Stopforth, Samantha Perry, Stafford Masie, Steven Ambrose and others. Our family grows every month as new guests join the panel to talk about technology.

We are committed to remaining independent and to fiercely protecting our integrity so that our panellists are free to say whatever they want about whoever they want. Our sponsors agree to respect this independence and the show is made possible via voluntary subscriptions from our listeners and readers. Subscribe to the ZA Tech Show now and receive access to competitions and other things we’re working on…

Brett Haggard

Brett Haggard
Brett Haggard is the steemed founder of the ZA Tech Show , along with Simon Dingle. Brett was responsible for first mixing beer and nerds in an attempt to create a technology talk show that has since evolved into the finest podcast of its kind (our words, not his). As a technology journalist , Brett has edited and written for publications such as Computing SA , Brainstorm , iWeek and Digital Life . He is the technology editor for Destiny Man and owns Hypertext Media Communications – the company behind Connect Magazine and Girl Guides. He is known for demanding eye contact when downing shooters and routing for pitiful premiership teams that wear red and cry a lot.

Web: http://bretthaggard.com

Andy Hadfield

Andy Hadfield
Andy Hadfield is a digital native and has big dreams for the Internet. He has played in every corner of the digital industry, launching his first startup at age 19 while still at the University of Cape Town. He started getALife (gAL) – essentially a social network before the word was even invented that achieved over 1.2 million page impressions (a month!) back in 1999/2000 and was covered on every major media platform, including Time Magazine . He then spent the next 7 years honing his strategic skills at The Virtual Works and later at FNB, developing a team that handled digital strategy across the consumer-banking segment. He runs OneBigWidget , a boutique strategic consultancy and digital advisory .

Web: http://www.andyhadfield.com

Toby Shapshak

Toby Shapshak
Toby is editor of Stuff magazine and a columnist for The Times newspaper .
He was named in GQ’s top 30 men in media and the M&G’s 300 influential young South Africans list in 2009; and was the ICT Journalist of the Year in 2002.
He has been the Mail & Guardian’s technology and sports editor, ran the M&G website when it was the first news site in Africa, shadowed Nelson Mandela when he was president, and covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Formerly a senior newspaper reporter covering everything from crime to politics, he has been writing about technology, the internet and the impact it has on our lives for more than 10 years ago for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Sunday Times, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, ThisDay, The Financial Mail and The Weekender.
He also does public speaking.

Web: http://www.shapshak.com

Candice Jones

Candice Jones
Candice Jones is deputy editor of TechCentral and queen of the technology industry in SA. She is an eternal optimist and hopes that one day South Africans will be able to play World of Warcraft on a local server – the safety dance at 500ms doesn’t always work out well, she says. Candice loves good food and better wine , but most of all, Candice loves to enjoy all of those things with friends and family. She brings balance to the force of fanboism that would otherwise run rampant on the ZA Tech Show.

Web: http://www.techcentral.co.za

Simon Dingle

Simon Dingle
Simon invented the Internet so he could stay in touch with an American girlfriend he had as a teenager. True story. Since then, his love has shifted to broadcasting and writing . You’ll find articles by Simon in Finweek Magazine , Live Out Loud , Brainstorm and online at Fin24.com and Simon.co.za . He hosts a weekly technology show called (tech)5 on 5FM and does public speaking , MC work and other tricks for money. In a past life, Simon also operated turntables at parties, played in a band and critiqued fine art. He likes taking pictures of things, hanging out in far off lands with interesting people. And eating. Simon hosts the ZA Tech Show and naked-lady volleyball competitions in his lounge.

Web: http://simondingle.com

Duncan McLeod

Duncan McLeod
Duncan McLeod is founder and editor of technology news website, TechCentral . He is also a columnist for Financial Mail , one of South Africa’s leading business magazines. Duncan is a keen photographer , gentleman and proud father of two magnificent bulldogs . Don’t ask him about swords unless you want to lose your pip. Do ask him about telecommunications regimes , the weather and who your daddy might be.

Web: http://www.techcentral..co.za

Ben Kelly

Ben Kelly
Ben Kelly spent the better part of the last 12 years pretending to be a tech and telecoms journalist . Having failed miserably at that, he now works as the surveys editor at the Mail & Guardian , writes a weekly column for MyBroadband and puts in a guest appearance at Stuff magazine every now and then. His Twitter feed contains references to tech , gadgets , kids , politics and religion . Ben often escapes the hustle and bustle to a cave in the Magaliesburg Mountains just outside of Johannesburg where his only connection to civilisation is a Neotel CDMA modem that invariably sucks at getting him online.

Web: http://ww.ungeeked.co.za

Jon Tullett

Jon Tullett
Jon Tullett spent over a decade as an IT journalist in various parts of the world. He’s currently managing editor of Infixion Media and TechTarget South Africa . On the ZA Tech Show, Jon’s our resident security pervert and a keen hater of anything new. He’d like to point out that he dislikes mediocrity not technology; it’s not his fault so much new stuff is rubbish. He holds the world record for hating a smartphone after first being exposed to it – about 50ms.

Web : http://techtarget.co.za

Aki Anastasiou

Aki Anastasiou
Aki Anastasiou presents the Technobyte feature on the David O’Sullivan show and weekday morning traffic reports on Talk Radio 702. Aki is known for his iconic flokati jackets that he will even don in the heat of summer as he guides South Africans around the highways and byways of their vast land. Aki used to have a helicopter but traded it in for a Twitter account that makes less noise and is easier on his life insurance. He had the first iPad in SA . We know this because he told us so.

Web: http://www.aki702.posterous.com