HBD Venture Capital, the venture capital company founded by "space tourist" Mark Shuttleworth, has announced a R9-million investment in technology start-up orderTalk, a creator of highly sophisticated online restaurant ordering software that has its back office operations in Cape Town.

Software developer Translate.org.za has been honoured once more for translating software like Firefox and OpenOffice.org into indigenous languages, as well as developing South Africa's first multilingual keyboard.

The Industrial Development Corporation and a new South African company aim to break the domestic steel monopoly by investing R100-million in a project that uses a locally developed process to convert tailings from iron ore mining into high-quality iron ore units.

Where would you expect to find the inventor of the CAT scan, the makers of the "speed gun" used in cricket ovals the world over, or the world's first oil-from coal refinery?