{"id":91082,"date":"2026-03-06T15:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/?p=91082"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:15:11","slug":"outlier-147-school-infrastructure-shock-food-prices-showmax-loses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/03\/06\/outlier-147-school-infrastructure-shock-food-prices-showmax-loses\/","title":{"rendered":"Outlier #147:\u00a0School infrastructure shock, food prices, Showmax loses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\ud83d\udcda\"\u00a0Hard lessons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Nearly 25% of public schools in the Eastern Cape are in poor or very poor condition, according to information presented to Parliament\u2019s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on 3 March 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this means, in the words of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), is that those schools are either in a \u201ctotally unacceptable\u201d condition or are \u201cbarely fulfilling their intended purpose\u201d. They are also in need of \u201csignificant repairs\u201d to fix \u201cmajor defects\u201d or they need \u201cmajor replacements to restore functionality\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eastern Cape has almost double the proportion of schools in poor or very poor condition as the national average of 13%, highlighting a major infrastructure challenge in the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The percentages mask the scale of the problem, however, because in raw numbers that 25% is 1,221 schools in the Eastern Cape and that 13% is 3,050 nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DBE uses a five-level condition rating system ranging from very poor to excellent. Schools classified as excellent, of which there were 2,588 across the country, have \u201cno defects and appearance is as new\u201d. Those classified as in good condition \u201cperform satisfactorily but not optimally\u201d and show \u201csigns of superficial wear and tear and minor signs of deterioration to surface\u201d. Most schools fall in this category (11,153 or 49%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools in the richest provinces, Gauteng and the Western Cape, were more likely to be rated as excellent. In Gauteng, 24% of schools were rated as excellent and only 2 were in poor or very poor condition. In the Western Cape 34% of schools were in excellent condition and none were rated as being in poor or very poor condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\ud83c\udfe6\"\u00a0Banking security<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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As South African banks move towards 2030, the “invisible” layers of the financial system are being rebuilt. AI and advanced analytics<\/strong> are no longer just experimental tools; they are now core to how banks manage risk and protect customer data. By embedding machine learning into their payments stacks, institutions are moving from reactive security to real-time, sophisticated risk simulations that stop threats before they impact the user. Both Danske Bank and The Commonwealth Bank have already seen success in using sophisticated AI models for fraud detection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning Technical Capability into Practical Value<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n