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Koffi Kouakou: split ministries a bad idea

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 26 May 2014
Koffi Kouakou, Africa analyst and senior lecturer at Wits University.
Koffi Kouakou, Africa analyst and senior lecturer at Wits University.

The creation of a new telecommunications and postal service portfolio signals a focus on telecommunications as a priority for the new government, says Koffi Kouakou, Africa analyst and senior lecturer at Wits University.

"However, the establishment of this new ministry sends the wrong signal against the idea of a consolidated and more coordinated strategy for the competitiveness of the South African telecommunications industry.

"There are several reasons why the new ministry is not good news and is a strategic mistake for the future of the telecommunications industry in SA.

"Firstly, the new ministry will fragment further the existing uncoordinated policies and it will increase the implementation silo gaps with the old ministry of communications.

"Secondly, it will take time for the new ministry to get up to speed about its own operations and the delivery on its mandate.

"Thirdly, there may be a leadership competition role between the new telecommunications and postal service and the ministry of communications that could lead to a confusion of policy custodianship.

"Fourthly and worse, the above-mentioned bureaucratic and policy tensions will delay and exacerbate the existing crisis around the imperatives for the rapid delivery of telecommunication services in the country and make it all most costlier than before.

"Finally, while the establishment of the new telecommunications and postal service might look good in the new Cabinet portfolio, it is a bad unbundling idea.

"The future of telecommunications lies in integration rather than unbundling. Therefore, a better approach to revitalising the industry would have been to deeply restructure the ministry of communications around an effective and dynamic integration strategy with the suitable technical managerial talent and resources.

"No new ministry of telecommunications and postal service is needed. And who needs traditional postal services today? They are dinosaurs already."

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