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09 December 2015

Four Telkom Unlimited Movie Marathon contestants drop out of GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ attempt

Only seven contestants remain in the race to set a new record, certified by Guinness World Records, for the longest time spent watching movies.

Thulisile Madyo declined her place shortly before the competition started on Tuesday afternoon and was replaced by Louis Marx. Aqeel Dockrat voluntarily withdrew after 13 hours 38 minutes due to ill health, while Tibor Donatus Kurucz, Tiberius Tjo and Louis fell asleep for between seven and 20 minutes each, after they had been participating for 12 hours 42 minutes, 14 hours 22 minutes, and 14 hours 5 minutes respectively.

At 2:36pm today, the remaining seven contestants had clocked 22 hours 43 minutes.

The rules of the record attempt state that contestants may not sleep or take their eyes off the screen while watching the movie, and they are allowed only a ten minute rest break between movies. Movies have to be at least 90 minutes in length, and they must watch the entire film until the credits end.

The current record stands at 120 hours 23 minutes, and the contestants are attempting to spend over 122 hours watching movies delivered via Telkom’s BOLTSPEED fibre. This is the first time the record has been attempted by streaming content over high-speed internet.

“While four are down, seven are still hanging in there. It’s a tremendously gruelling event and we are very proud of the contestants for staying in the game so far,” said Jacqui O’Sullivan, Managing Executive for Group Communication and Public Relations at Telkom.

Suresh Joachim, an international endurance competitor who holds multiple titles, arrived in South Africa on Monday morning to compete against ten South African contestants chosen by 94.7 listeners.

The contestants have been advised not to consume drinks containing caffeine, as this would affect their heart rates. As a result of sleep deprivation during the event, participants are likely to experience an increase in blood pressure, mood swings, nausea and vomiting. Existing mental health issues may be exacerbated.

Paramedics are on standby to check participants’ vital signs and an official Guinness World Records adjudicator will verify that all the requirements for the record breaking attempt have been met.

The Telkom Unlimited Movie Marathon is taking place at the Sheds in Newtown, Johannesburg. Visitors to the event will be able to watch movies for as long as they want, for only R30 a day. Secure parking is available and the R30 includes popcorn and a frozen drink. All proceeds will go towards LifeLine, which provides free counselling services across South Africa. Visit www.itickets.co.za to buy tickets or http://www.telkom.co.za/movie-marathon/index.html for more information.

The remaining seven contestants are:

  • Suresh Joachim (Canada)
  • Sheetal Vallabh (South Africa)
  • David Erasmus (South Africa)
  • Delon Munian (South Africa)
  • Buhlebethu Hlatshwayo (South Africa)
  • Lionel Havenga (South Africa)
  • Clarissa Schoeman (South Africa)

For further enquiries, please contact:

Pynee Chetty

Senior Specialist: Media Relations

Group Communication

Tel:+27 12 642 1716

Mobile: +27 81 389 7874

Email: chettpr2@telkom.co.za

Telkom Park, The Apex

92 Oak Avenue

Technopark

Highveld

Centurion

ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R16.8 billion and normalised profit after tax of R1, 683 million for the period ended 30 September 2015. Total assets amounted to R41.9 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R23.5 billion as of 30 September 2015. The group generated normalised free cash flow of R1.4 billion for the period ended 30 September 2015.

As of 30 September 2015, we had approximately 3.3 million telephone access lines in service and 1,030,441 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

  • fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;
  • fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;
  • interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
  • fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
  • Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
  • W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
  • mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile navbar-brand called Telkom Mobile;
  •  information and communication services including cloud services, infrastructure services, workspace services, global service integration management and hardware and network equipment sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and
  • other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom.  We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.