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 ...
Where have all the chippies gone? Lin Sampson casts her net wide.
The writer supportsThe Hope Exchange, a group of people who provide food for the homeless in Cape Town. Please help them here
Coming out of a heaving Atlantic sea on a Sat afternoon, I said to my friend, “I am gek for fish and chips.” Funny how one’s working class background often surfaces on a Saturday arvie.
We searched Camps Bay where incomes rise to Croesian heights, seeking among sleek eateries that offer such exotica as “hand-pulled” greens, searching for an old fashioned chippy.
On my Tamboerskloof neighbourhood page, someone asks, “Has anyone considered opening a fish and chips shop in the hood? Why is this beautiful part of our culture missing in the CBD and surrounds? What I would give for a fresh piece of deep fried hake & slap chips with salt & vinegar close by.”
To start gathering string on the subject, I go to Koeberg Road, filled with strange fruit. The chippies (and there are many) are crowbarred between the ubiquitous Thai massage parlours, laundrettes and betting shops. Drugstore cowboys and crusty cod wobblers crack the street corners.
A supermarket is called Lorna Doone (is there someone in Brooklyn reading this Blackmore classic?). A neon notice flashes; Will God Shop, is it a question or a statement, who knows? A trickle of blood oozes from a parcel lying on a table.
Friday night and it’s full of popinjays in jammy rags. A man in a scarlet pin striped suit and cowboy hat shouts out words in formless spurts of loquacity. His voice has a vocal fry that sounds like Britney Spears singing “oh baby, baby”.
I count six fish and chip shops, people waiting for “parcels”. A parcel costs about R70, usually hake or snoek plus chips, and is easy filling for two. Nourishing as well, wrapped in thick white paper.
Fish is the gold of the Cape. Snoek, around R70 for a whole fish, can feed a family of up to 10 people with enough micronutrients to satisfy a speedrunner.
According to new research published in Nature magazine, millions of people are suffering from malnutrition despite some of the most nutritious fish species in the world being caught near their homes. While there is snoek in the sea nobody need starve.
I wanted to rate the fish and chips from various outlets. But fish and chips always taste the same, a sort of addictive combination of wallpaper glue, old stink and staircase balustrade. But once you crack open the sandblasted batter, there is sweet white flaky fish, soft on the senses, usually hake.
Personally I am not a fan of slap chips. They remind me too much of the private parts of certain animals. I like my chips crisp on the outside, fluffy in the middle and most important, cooked right through.
I have my favourite chippies, Manny’s in Imam Haron Road, Claremont, where I lived as a child. “Fish and chips are in my DNA, right here in the roots, my father had a fish shop and our whole family are fishermen,” says owner Manny Jardine.
“The most important thing is that the fish has to be fresh. A lot of chippies use frozen fish, and they don’t change their oil regularly. They think they’re saving money but all they’re doing is losing custom.”
There are famous chippies like Kalky’s in Kalk Bay and Snoekies in Hout Bay, but for something world class try Fish Hoek Fisheries.
The owner sources fresh fish, usually hake, every day (mainly from Hout Bay). His working day revolves around it. If the hake arrives at 4pm, he’ll probably be hard at work until 11pm that evening preparing the fish for the next day.
You can ask for light batter and also buy a whole fish which they will clean for you. I love the coarsely crystalline chips with the soft-as-snow fish flakes, succulent and white; also great fish cakes.
Sour foods go magically well with fish and although tartare sauce is a bit of a con, its acidity can cut the grease.
(Image of fish, chips and tartare sauce by pixel1 from Pixabay)
Make at home with supermarket mayonnaise or if you belong to the rare club of homemade mayonnaise-makers, better still. Chuck in plenty of parsley and capers; freshly ground black pepper.
Consider mushy peas; if any one food signals the ridiculously junky eating habits of the English, it is mushy peas.
Traditionally, mushy peas are made with marrowfat peas, which are mature peas left to dry outside in the field. But I just take a bag of frozen peas, drain them and stick in a blender. Add cream, butter, salt and pepper.
For the traditional mushy peas, buy a packet of Batchelors Bigga Marrowfat peas from Takealot, cook them low and slow and add a swoosh of baking powder for that echt mush.
The thing about real fish and chips is that they are set in time. Signature chefs have tried adding recherché accompaniments like celeriac roulade and apricot jus but for the real thing you need medium fries, rainy skies and newspaper wrapping in a real low rent neighbourhood. DM/TGIFood
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Visual Capitalist Elements | September 15, 2021 | 8:58 am Intelligence Australia USA Coal The Countries With the Largest Coal Reserves Cheap and abundant coal remains one of the largest sources of energy worldwide, even as governments set out goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While jurisdictions in Europe and North America have been phasing out coal use in power generation, it has been on the rise in Asia. China and India are scrambling to provide electricity to a growing population and relying on coal power plants to meet demands despite the environmental costs. SIGN UP FOR THE ENERGY DIGEST Sign Up This infographic takes a look into the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2021 , and the 11 countries that make up 89% of the coal reserves globally. Coal Reserves, by Country While countries need to phase out coal by 2040 to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC, consumption in key ...
The epic vessel is a 30-knot "battlewagon" designed to chase marlin, swordfish and sailfish. It's also decidedly lavish. By HOWARD WALKER Courtesy Vripack To hook the world’s biggest fighting fish, in the words of Chief Brody in the classic 1975 movie Jaws , “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” Privately owned fishing boats won’t come any bigger than this astonishing 171-foot super-luxury sportfisherman, set to claim the title of “World’s Largest Sportfish Superyacht.” Designed by Dutch naval architects Vripack , and soon to start construction at the Royal Huisman yard in the Netherlands, Project 406 as it’s currently codenamed, will be a 30-knot “battlewagon,” designed to chase marlin, swordfish and sailfish to the ends of the earth. “Project 406 is a sportfishing machine on steroids,” Vripack co-creative director Bart M. Bouwhuis told Robb Report . “It has the proportions of a typical American sportfishing ...
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Everybody has an opinion but not everyone has the knowledge and the experience to contribute meaningfully to a discussion. That’s what we want from our members. Help us learn with your expertise and insights on articles that we publish. We encourage different, respectful viewpoints to further our understanding of the world. View our comments policy here.