ADSL on its last legs in South Africa

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  By   Daniel Puchert Partially state-owned telecommunications company Telkom announced in its financial results for the year ending 31 March 2025 that its ADSL subscribers had more than halved to under 30,000. According to the company’s operational data, ADSL lines decreased from 64,959 in March 2024 to 29,770. This 54.2% decline highlights that the legacy broadband technology is slowly approaching the end of the road. Telkom’s ADSL business peaked at the end of March 2016 with 1.01 million subscribers — two years after fibre upstart Vumatel  broke ground in Parkhurst . What followed was a sharp decline in Telkom ADSL subscribers. Customers connected to its copper networks decreased by more than 500,000 over the next four years. This was partly driven by Telkom itself, which began actively switching off its copper network in some neighbourhoods. If it did not have fibre in the area, it would offer a “fixed line lookalike” wireless service that ran over its cellular ...
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Zaka residents warn of worsening violence in Masvingo (more on my father's attack)

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Residents in Zaka have warned that there is worsening violence in Masvingo
province, with ZANU PF being blamed for a growing number of attacks and
incidents of intimidation.

Most recently, the ward chairman of the MDC-T in Zaka Central was
hospitalised along with his wife after their home was petrol bombed by
suspected ZANU PF members last week. Nelson Bvudzijena and his wife were
rushed to St. Anthony’s Musiso hospital with reportedly serious injuries.

A resident in Zaka told SW Radio Africa this week that the attack on the
Bvudzijena home followed a confrontation between the ward chairman and a
gang of known ZANU PF thugs. The argument is believed to have been about
Bvudzijena’s loyalties to the MDC, which prompted the ZANU PF members to
threaten him. The thugs are said to have warned Bvudzijena that they “would
come for him at night.” Days later, Bvudzijena’s home was burned down while
was sleeping.

The resident explained that not one of the perpetrators of the arson attack
was arrested, despite the group openly bragging about the incident. The same
group is believed to have assaulted a number of other people in Zaka last
week, and have threatened to repeat the same violence seen in the province
during the 2008 elections.

The resident told SW Radio Africa that people are living in fear, because
the memories of the violence in 2008 are still strong.

“Things are so bad that right now I am looking around to see that no one
hears me. If they heard me talking like this I could be in danger,” the
resident said.

The MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai visited Bvudzijena over the weekend,
during a memorial service held in honour of MDC members who were murdered in
Zaka district at the height of the 2008 election period. Tsvangirai said:
“We need justice to prevail because we are going for a crucial election and
the fear factor has to be dealt with. We are aware ZANU PF is involved in
military actions that are being planned against unarmed civilians.”

“(Robert) Mugabe is a hypocrite because he is only shedding crocodile tears
calling for an end to violence when he is not keen to stop violence,”
Tsvangirai said, adding: “We are tired of being fooled around with by ZANU
PF.”

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