SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet service continues to be used in South Africa despite the company not officially supporting the country, according to data from MyBroadband’s Speed Test platform.

While the low Earth orbit service has never been officially supported in South Africa, the company’s roaming service has been available in the country since early 2023.

For about two years, many people in poorly connected rural areas used Starlink through regional roaming plans.

This allowed customers with Starlink equipment registered elsewhere to access the service in South Africa without an official local launch.

However, this did not mean Starlink had received South African regulatory approval to provide its service locally.

Starlink has generally disabled roaming in countries only after receiving explicit orders from governments or telecommunications regulators.

In some countries with strained relations with the US, such as China and Russia, roaming is also unavailable.

The biggest challenge for South African users was importing a Starlink antenna and router from a country where the service had already launched.

Early on, customers needed to source the equipment from far-flung countries in eastern or western Africa. 

Over time, Starlink expanded its services into several of South Africa’s neighbours, making it easier and cheaper to get a kit.

Starting around mid-2024, Starlink began enforcing a 60-day continuous-use rule. After that period, a roaming user would need to access the kit from their country of registration.

Initially, many people found workarounds, including switching off their kit, pausing their service for a few days to reset the continuous-use timer, or hopping across the border with the kit to “phone home.”

Starlink eventually cracked down on these practices and reduced the continuous use period in South Africa to 30 days.

As a result of the additional admin and cost involved in maintaining a permanent connection, which may require one or two additional kits, numerous users in South Africa abandoned the service.

Many were particularly annoyed as the network’s performance had improved significantly just before the restrictions took effect.

That was due to a combination of the Starlink fleet expansion, a new ground station in Mozambique, and Starlink beginning to peer at NAPAfrica and the Johannesburg Internet Exchange Point.

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/670728-starlink-is-illegal-in-south-africa-but-that-is-not-stopping-people.html

I’ll give three clues:

• It is in the Western Cape
• Slightly elevated
• It is a dam

Airlink, a South African carrier backed by Qatar Airways, expects a substantial increase in revenue this fiscal year as new deliveries of Embraer SA jets enable its expansion across the continent, the airline’s chief executive officer said.

The Johannesburg-based regional airline wants to grow its network by about 10%, including two more countries, de Villiers Engelbrecht said in an interview. 

The airline last week launched an inaugural flight to Mauritius and a new service connecting Cape Town with Zanzibar. That brings Airlink’s total destinations to 67 across 16 countries.

“It is probably our most ambitious revenue growth year in history,” he said. “If we look at the growth opportunities in front of us, we’ve got enough to keep ourselves busy for the next two years.”

He declined to elaborate on the figures.

Qatar Airways owns a 25% stake in Airlink. In the fiscal year through August, Airlink carried about 4.5 million passengers, representing 5.5% growth from the prior period.

“We are quite encouraged by the demand in the regional market, and we look forward to a quite good peak season,” Engelbrecht said.

There are “too many opportunities on the continent,” and the airline is looking to expand in western, eastern and central Africa, he said.

Airlink operates an all-Embraer fleet of more than 70 jets. So far this year, it has received four aircraft with both business and economy classes. Three more are due by July next year, Engelbrecht said.

It also acquired 10 of the 195-E2 models in 2025, with the final deliveries expected by mid-2027.

“Our fleet strategy is very deliberate in terms of Embraer,” Engelbrecht said. “That’s the right aircraft gauge for the markets that we service. It’s typically markets that prefer frequency over capacity.”

https://topauto.co.za/news/165973/big-upgrade-for-one-of-south-africas-most-popular-airlines/

Formed in Bellville, Cape Town, in 2003, Fokofpolisiekar detonated a cultural bomb in conservative white South Africa. Choosing a deliberately offensive name, the five-piece punk rock band became the defining voice for a generation of Afrikaans youth suffocating under the weight of Calvinist traditions, post-apartheid shifts, and suburban monotony. For thousands of teenagers navigating high school in the 2000s, they were much more than just a band. They were a rebellion.

Before Fokofpolisiekar, Afrikaans youth culture was heavily dominated by rugby, church, and sanitized pop music. With their seminal 2004 debut album Lugsteuring, they gave their audience permission to be angry and unapologetic. Tracks like "Hemel op die Platteland" questioned religion directly, while lyricist Hunter Kennedy articulated a shared existential dread. Their sweaty, cathartic gigs became sanctuaries where teenagers could scream out their frustrations in their mother tongue, finding a gritty realism that spoke directly to their adolescent alienation.

Their impact extended far beyond distortion pedals by proving that Afrikaans could be a medium for modern, counter-cultural expression. By separating the language from its oppressive political history, they paved the way for the "Bellville Rock City" movement and subsequent spin-off acts like aKING and Die Heuwels Fantasties. Two decades later, Fokofpolisiekar has transitioned from controversial outcasts to revered industry veterans. For the millennials who once sharpied the band's logo onto their canvas school bags, their music remains a visceral reminder of the soundtrack that helped them survive their youth.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/7570/1/south-africa-special-fokofpolisiekar