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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Biggest Chinese bank ditches R43bn Zim coal power plant

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Ray Ndlovu and Antony Sguazzin
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Coal power station, as illustration (iStock)
Coal power station, as illustration (iStock)
  • The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dumped a plan to finance a $3 billion (~R43 billion) coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe.
  • This will deal a blow to coal developers in Africa.
  • The backing of ICBC was seen by RioEnergy as a fresh start in a plan to develop the plant and end recurrent power outages in Zimbabwe.

China’s biggest bank dumped a plan to finance a $3 billion (around R43 billion) coal-fired power plant in Zimbabwe, dealing a blow to coal developers in Africa that see the Asian country as the last potential funder of their projects.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) told Go Clean ICBC, an ad-hoc body representing 32 environmental groups, that it won’t fund the 2 800-MW Sengwa coal project in northern Zimbabwe, according to a June 18 email seen by Bloomberg that was sent to 350.org, one of the Go Clean groups. ICBC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Western and South African banks have come under increasing pressure from their shareholders not to fund developments that could contribute to climate change, leaving Chinese lenders as one of the last avenues to secure finance. That door may now be closing, should China plan to improve its own environment credentials.

"This is highly significant, obviously for Zimbabwe but also for Chinese overseas energy financing," said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst for the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. "It is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Chinese bank has pro-actively walked away from a coal-power project."

The Sengwa project was being developed by RioEnergy, a unit of RioZim. RioEnergy Chairman Caleb Dengu said last year that ICBC had signed a formal notice of interest in funding the plant, to be constructed by China Gezhouba Group, while associated transmission lines would be built by Power Construction of China.

ICBC’s withdrawal marks the second time the bank’s coal-funding plans have been scrapped. A permit to build a coal-fired plant in Lamu in Kenya was canceled by the government last year.

ICBC described Sengwa as a "bad plan due to environmental problems", 350.Org said in the email.

The Chinese lender has been under scrutiny over the environmental impact of funding coal projects and is in discussion with the coalition to "chart a clear road map to stop funding coal", Go Clean ICBC said in the email. Nathalia Clark, the associate director of Global Communications at 350.org, declined to give further details.

The coalition had planned to roll out a global campaign last week against the lender’s coal activity, which it suspended after ICBC said it would halt engagement if it did so.

Over the past two decades, China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have funded more than $50 billion of coal projects across Asia, Europe, Africa and South America, according to research from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. A plan proposed last year would make it tougher for the so-called Belt and Road Initiative to finance environmentally damaging projects like coal power plants and metal smelters.

While Chinese President Xi Jinping in September put the country on a path to zero out carbon emissions by 2060, he plans to let coal consumption increase through 2026 and the fuel is expected to remain an important part of the country’s energy mix for a decade beyond that.

RioEnergy is seeking alternative financiers, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because ICBC’s withdrawal hasn’t been formally announced. Simba Mhuriro, the general manager at RioEnergy, said he wasn’t privy to the matter and couldn’t comment. Wilson Gwatiringa, a spokesman for RioZim, also declined to comment. Winston Chitando, Zimbabwe’s mines minister, said he wasn’t aware of ICBC’s decision.

Sengwa was initially owned by London-based miner Rio Tinto Group, the one-time parent of RioZim. It was set aside as Zimbabwe’s relations with the UK, its former colonial ruler, deteriorated. After the project was revived in 2016, General Electric and a unit of Blackstone Group didn’t pursue initial inquiries.

The backing of ICBC was seen by RioEnergy as a fresh start in a plan to develop the plant and end recurrent power outages in Zimbabwe. Climate activists say the company will struggle to find another funder.

"Opportunities to fund coal power are rapidly diminishing, given the climate and other impacts of coal," said Robyn Hugo, director of climate change engagement at Just Share, a Cape Town-based shareholder activist group. "There is simply no basis to consider new coal-fired projects and all plans to do so are likely to be strongly opposed."

- With assistance from Godfrey Marawanyika, Evelyn Yu and Dan Murtaugh.

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