ADSL on its last legs in South Africa

-
Image
  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 ...
Post a Comment

The ups and downs of farming

-

 BY GCIS VUK'UZENZELE - 26 February 2020 - 07:00

Njabulo Mbokane, emerging farmer.
Njabulo Mbokane, emerging farmer.
Image: Supplied.

A young female maize farmer is taking giant leaps towards becoming a successful commercial farmer.

Njabulo Mbokane (24), the owner of a 200-hectare non-genetically modified organism yellow maize farm, was recently named the South African Breweries (SAB) and FarmSol Young Emerging Farmer of the Year.

The Ermelo-based farmer leases two farms; one in her hometown; where she grows crops, and the other in Lothair; where she raises sheep.

Despite only starting farming in 2016, Mbokane already has a year-on-year maize contract with SAB.

She is part of the FarmSol programme, which is an SAB Thrive Fund initiative aimed at funding Agri-SMMEs; providing technical training and support to emerging farmers; giving access to modern production inputs and patient financing to qualifying enterprises and enabling emerging farmers to find a route to market for their produce.

“FarmSol mentors us and helps us with training. It also assists us in taking samples of the maize and soil.” Mbokane was financially unable to study further after matric but knew that agriculture held many opportunities for people with the will to work hard.

“I started farming because I saw a gap that young people should explore and I went for it.”

Mbokane employs three permanent staff members and hires 15 seasonal employees during peak periods. She is looking to expand her operations to include cattle and vegetables once she has secured her own land and farming equipment.

Having her own tractors, for instance, will enable her to plant on time whereas with hired equipment, she can only plant when the tractor owner has finished his planting.

Mbokane started the farm with her mother’s pension payout and said that young people need not wait for a big break before making a start on their farming dream. “Start with the little that you have, even if it’s the garden in your backyard, and grow from there,” she said.

-This article was originally published in the GCIS Vuk'uzenzele.

READ MORE:

WATCH |South Africa’s first black woman at Wimbledon is blazing a trail of victory

Kgothatso Montjane is a big deal. She’s the first black woman South African to compete at Wimbledon – and she did it in a wheelchair.
SEBENZALIVE
1 year ago

Here is how Google Lense can keep you on trend as an influencer

With tools that help businesses organise their sites or show results on customer satisfaction, Google tools have been a great help to multiple users ...
SEBENZALIVE
1 year ago

WATCH |Extending an olive branch to uplift a community

Could extending an olive branch give children the roots to flourish.
SEBENZALIVE
1 year ago

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise?

-
Image
  There are a lot of people, but the oceans are very big.   Rosley Majid/EyeEm via Getty Images If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise? March 29, 2021 2.07pm SAST Author Tony E. Wong Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology Disclosure statement Tony E. Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners Rochester Institute of Technology  provides funding as a member of The Conversation US. The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. It is hosted by the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Wester...
Read more

Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

-
Image
  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen...
Read more

Which countries have the world’s largest coal reserves?

-
Image
  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 ...
Read more