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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New twist in Tokyo Sexwale ’stolen quadrillion’ saga – fund invites government, bank to Singapore

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ANC stalwart Tokyo Sexwale addresses the media on alleged stolen funds in Johannesburg this week. Picture: Nokuthula Mbatha/African News Agency (ANA)
ANC stalwart Tokyo Sexwale addresses the media on alleged stolen funds in Johannesburg this week. Picture: Nokuthula Mbatha/African News Agency (ANA)

New twist in Tokyo Sexwale ’stolen quadrillion’ saga – fund invites government, bank to Singapore

By Ntombi Nkosi Time of article published Apr 26, 2021

Johannesburg – The chairman of the Worldwide Proxy and Trustee of the White Spiritual Boy (WSB) and Spiritual Wonder Boy (SWB) Heritage Funds, Chark Leong Boey, has written a letter in his personal capacity in an effort to clarify the confusion around the Heritage Fund.

Boey, who is from Singapore, wrote a letter in which he extended an invitation to a South African delegation to travel to the Asian country to verify the said fund.

Reports about the fund emerged last week of how trillions of rand had allegedly been looted from the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) and National Treasury. The damning allegations were dismissed as being a mere scam by the two financial institutions.

A letter addressed to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, Tokyo Sexwale and Godwin Webb was released today.

“With reference to the numerous meetings held between the Mandate Holders as well as letters exchanged between themselves and the different organs of government, plus the news conference held by the team on Thursday, I feel compelled to write to assist in the clearing of the confusion around the matter of the WSB and SWB Heritage Fund,” said Boey.

“As it is known by the fund owner and myself, it has taken nearly five years to reach this point, and myself as the proxy again confirm our intention of assisting, through the Joint Mandate Holders, with the initiating of the investments into the different categories, as spelt out in the first proposal delivered in July 2016 as well as all subsequent submissions,” he said.

Boey said the first official submission for release of the funds was made on 15 July, 2016 to the Sarb.

“During the past two years, the mandate was shared with Sexwale but the Mandate Holders have had no positive results. This left the Mandate holders with no other option but to alert the relevant authorities (Hawks) to the possibility of funds being misappropriated by people with access to the BIS system. Copies of these illegal transactions are ready to be exposed should the present state of affairs remain unresolved.

“The action plan of release clearly states the intentions of the Joint Mandate Holders to support the government over the next 40 years. I understand after consultation with the Mandate Holders today, that it has now been proposed that a team from South Africa travel to Singapore with the intention for final verification of these funds.

“This would be welcomed and to this end it is important to work out the modalities and logistics regarding the delegation’s travel arrangements. I would be happy to facilitate this mission with the Singapore authorities, especially in view of the current global Covid-19 restrictions. To this end, I request a list of participants from government, Reserve Bank, as well as Security Services personnel who will attend,” he said.

Boey said it would be advisable that the governmental delegation should be restricted to no more than eight persons. The joint Mandate Holders will be present.

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“I assure you that I am here, together with the Mandate Holders and their team, to assist all the African countries mentioned in the mandate, for development and upliftment of its people, '' he said.

Over the weekend, State Security Deputy Minister Zizi Kodwa reiterated that Sexwale was scammed.

“The network of scammers and paddlers is to compromise the leadership of a country. Attacking institutions like Treasury and the Reserve Bank is to create doubt within the community,” said Kodwa.

“I was shocked by these revelations of unfounded and wild allegations made by Sexwale. It is most likely that Sexwale’s utterances and actions are due to his exposure to a very sophisticated network of scammers. It is possible that he may have become an instrument in the hands of this groupings,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Hawks on Monday confirmed that they were investigating two cases of alleged theft amounting to over R41 quadrillion.

Political Bureau

SA RESERVE BANKNATIONAL TREASURYCYRIL RAMAPHOSA

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