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

State’s detailed allegations of bribes between Schabir Shaik and Jacob Zuma

-

 NEWS

POLITICS
Former president Jacob Zuma. FIle picture
Former president Jacob Zuma. FIle picture

State’s detailed allegations of bribes between Schabir Shaik and Jacob Zuma

By Baldwin Ndaba Time of article published May 16, 2021

Johannesburg - Former president Jacob Zuma is set to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday on charges of racketeering, two counts of corruption and 12 counts of fraud – nine of which were for allegedly making false income tax returns.

All these are included in a 90-page indictment served on Zuma on March 23, 2018 by the prosecution.

Detailing allegations against Zuma, the State alleges that between October 25, 1995 and July 1, 2005, the Nkobi Group and Thales formed a common purpose to bribe the former president while he was MEC for Economic Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature and later when he was deputy president of South Africa.

Jacob Zuma corruption case back in court
Former President Jacob Zuma’s arms deal case is expected back in court on Monday. Zuma and French arms company, Thales are charged in connection with a multi-billion-rand arms deal back in 1999. The case has been postponed for many times, and with Zuma’s legal team having withdrawn its services from him another postponement is imminent. Legal Expert ,Ulrich Roux, discusses...

According to the indictment, the two groups paid an amount of R4 million through 783 payments to Zuma.

The State alleges that some of the scheduled payments were described in Nkobi Group documents as loans, although the treatment was inconsistent.

“The final accounting treatment of R1 137 722.48 of the total payments of R4 072 499.85 does not reflect the payments as loans. However, the scheduled payments were intended by Schabir Shaik, the Nkobi Group and the present accused as bribes.

“The funds were paid without security. This is not a usual commercial practice with banks, more specifically of a customer with Zuma’s risk profile. This accordingly constitutes a benefit,” the State alleges.

Contesting claims that the monies were loans given to Zuma, the State is expected to argue that the Nkobi Group made no effort to recover any of the payments from Zuma.

“This failure to demand repayment is itself a benefit to Zuma. Shaik did not intend to enforce the terms of the ’loan’ and neither has he done so. This is a benefit,” the indictment alleges.

The prosecution alleges that the initial payments were made to Zuma while he was MEC for Economic Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature.

According to the charge sheet, South Africa’s interim Constitution and final Constitution imposed certain duties upon Zuma by virtue of his office as an MEC of a province.

ADVERTISING

“In terms of Section 149 of the interim Constitution, Zuma may not have taken up any other paid employment, engaged in any activities inconsistent with his membership of the executive council, or exposed himself to any situation which carried with it the risk of a conflict between his responsibilities as a member of the executive council and his private interest; or used his position as MEC to enrich himself or any other person.”

The State also alleges that the Constitution also barred him from gaining additional income.

Political Bureau

CORRUPTIONJACOB ZUMACRIME AND COURTS

SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

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