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 ...

MultiChoice’s BEE scheme trying to find 22 000 shareholders who are missing out on millions

 USINESS REPORT

MultiChoice’s black economic empowerment scheme is looking for about 22 000 shareholders who owned shares and did not receive dividends of R207 million between 2006 and 2020. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency(ANA)
MultiChoice’s black economic empowerment scheme is looking for about 22 000 shareholders who owned shares and did not receive dividends of R207 million between 2006 and 2020. Picture: Karen Sandison/African News Agency(ANA)

MultiChoice’s BEE scheme trying to find 22 000 shareholders who are missing out on millions

By Edward West Time of article published Feb 16, 2021

CAPE TOWN - PHUTUMA Nathi, the MultiChoice black economic empowerment scheme of more than 80 000 shareholders, is looking for about 22 000 shareholders who owned shares and did not receive dividends of R207 million between 2006 and 2020.

“This money belongs to our shareholders. We’re calling on them to contact us to get their money. In these tough economic times we want to do everything in our power to give them what is rightfully theirs,” Phuthuma Nathi chairperson Mandla Langa said in a statement yesterday.

Phuthuma Nathi has been paying dividends every year since the start of the scheme in 2006.

Among the reasons why dividends were not paid could be that personal details such as banking details might have changed, but had not been updated with Phuthuma Nathi, or that the shareholder had died.

He said the 22 000 shareholders could claim their dividends by contacting the Phuthuma Nathi call centre on 086 011 6226 or alternatively by visiting the Phuthuma Nathi website at www.phuthumanathi.co.za

The shareholder would have to provide their identity number and checks to confirm the legitimacy of the shareholder would be conducted before payments were made.

Phuthuma Nathi had been trying to locate these shareholders for some time by using the contact details on record, which may not have been updated by shareholders, and through tracing agents.

Although some of the shareholders had been found, there were still many who had not claimed their dividends, he said.

edward.west@inl.co.za

BUSINESS REPORT

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