Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      South Africa loosens media ownership rules – but keeps one hand on the remote

      16 July 2025

      Eskom targets 32GW green energy shift by 2040

      16 July 2025

      MTN Group appoints new chief enterprise officer

      16 July 2025

      Kruger Park’s white rhinos get a hi-tech lifeline

      16 July 2025

      The real cost of a cashless economy

      16 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Samsung’s bet on folding phones faces major test

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      OpenAI to launch web browser in direct challenge to Google Chrome

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025
    • In-depth

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

      10 July 2025

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | Samsung unveils significant new safety feature for Galaxy A-series phones

      16 July 2025

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025
    • Opinion

      A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

      15 July 2025

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Duncan McLeod » Government’s recipe for telecoms failure

    Government’s recipe for telecoms failure

    By Duncan McLeod25 April 2012
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    The industry can be forgiven for suffering from “colloquium fatigue”. Politicians get up on stage and make grand promises that there will be change for the better, only for the industry to be disappointed when little or nothing happens while the country continues slipping down the world broadband rankings.

    The colloquium was certainly well run, though it was outsourced to Deloitte, so that’s perhaps not unexpected. Right on cue, new communications minister Dina Pule and her director-general, Rosey Sekese, took to the stage, promising a full review of information and communications technology policy — a green paper this year, a white paper in 2013 and new legislation in 2014.

    But the industry and consumers have heard these promises before. Siphiwe Nyanda undertook to tackle high telecoms prices, but appeared to waste most of his time in internecine warfare with his director-general, Mamodupi Mohlala. His successor, Roy Padayachie, made the right noises and was much more engaged than Nyanda, but President Jacob Zuma redeployed him before he had a chance to shine, if he was ever going to.

    Like her predecessors, Pule is promising big changes. But the industry is now deeply sceptical of the ruling party’s promises. Steve Song, a former fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation who now runs Village Telco, a company that wants to take cheap broadband to rural areas by making clever use of radio frequency spectrum, expressed dismay last week at yet another industry talk shop.

    “I hate saying negative things about the ANC,” Song wrote in a blog post. “For such a long period of my life, the ANC has represented the spirit of justice, of resilience, of endurance in the face of overwhelming odds that it is hard to bring myself to criticise [it] openly. But, like William Shatner in a corset, sometimes you have to recognise that things have changed.”

    Song wrote the ANC had “failed to take telecoms seriously” and had “consistently relegated communications as a junior ministry and appointed ministers for reasons other than their competence or vision”.

    The result, he said, has been the “unhappy, bitter, finger-pointing environment that we have today”.

    There were a few notable exceptions, but many industry players I spoke to at the colloquium said they felt this was probably going to be yet another talk shop. Will Pule be redeployed if Zuma takes umbrage at an unfavourable report on the SABC, which falls under her ambit? Speculation is that politics at the public broadcaster resulted in Padayachie’s redeployment.

    The technology sector in SA is in urgent need of a strong political leader. Pule’s legacy will be determined by how she deals with the management of scarce radio frequency spectrum in the “digital dividend” bands below 850MHz that broadcasters must cede to the telecoms industry in the next few years. The wrong approach or more unnecessary delays will cost the SA economy dearly; the right decisions will lift GDP and create jobs.

    Unfortunately, Pule appears set to repeat the mistakes of her predecessors. Instead of encouraging maximum competition in the sector, indications are she wants state-owned Sentech, which has failed at previous attempts to be a telecoms operator, to take broadband to rural communities. Instead of forcing Sentech to give up its valuable radio spectrum to private players that can make more effective use of it, Pule is placing her faith, at least in part, on government being both a player and a referee in telecoms.

    That’s a recipe for failure.

    • Duncan McLeod is editor of TechCentral; this column is also published in Financial Mail


    Deloitte Dina Pule Duncan McLeod Jacob Zuma Mamodupi Mohlala Rosey Sekese Roy Padayachie SABC Sentech Shuttleworth Foundation Siphiwe Nyanda Steve Song Village Telco
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleID smart cards on the way for SA
    Next Article End of the line for Cable & Wireless

    Related Posts

    Legislative overhaul on the cards for South Africa’s ICT sector

    14 July 2025

    South Africa begins complex job of overhauling media laws

    13 July 2025

    Icasa publishes new draft regulations for digital TV

    8 July 2025
    Company News

    Ransomware in South Africa: the human factor behind the growing crisis

    16 July 2025

    Mental wellness at scale: how Mac fuels October Health’s mission

    15 July 2025

    Banking on LEO: Q-KON transforms financial services connectivity

    14 July 2025
    Opinion

    A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

    15 July 2025

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.