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 ...

Simphiwe Dana: 'Ramaphosa is the worst president we have had'

 Deepika Naidoo

26 April 2021 - 13:00
Simphiwe Dana has a bone to pick the president!
Simphiwe Dana has a bone to pick the president!
Image: Instagram/Simphiwe Dana

Singer-songwriter Simphiwe Dana has made her views on SA's leadership crystal clear and in her opinion believes President Cyril Ramaphosa is the “worst president” Mzansi has had.

Taking to Twitter, the star was frank about her views on SA's current leadership. 

I know we’re scared to say it. But Ramaphosa is the worst president we have had,” said Simphiwe.

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This led to a conversation about the country's leadership where social media users  weighed in, sharing their thoughts. Here are some of the responses: 

One user said that they haven't entertained the idea, as the country deals with the coronavirus pandemic and Ramaphosa is doing the best under these unprecedented circumstances. 

That’s me too. I guess him ignoring the arts has rubbed me the wrong way,” said Simphiwe. 

This isn't the first time Simphiwe Dana has called out the president. Earlier this year, the star called out Ramaphosa for apparently “ignoring” artists and their cries for help. The Bamako musician said she is unimpressed with the president for his supposed disinterest in the arts. 

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“I’m also quite unimpressed with how our president has ignored the arts during this pandemic. But he will be “shocked” when things completely fall apart in this sector,” said Simphiwe.

“The thing about politics. It can’t just be a job. Same for the arts,” she added. 


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