ICASA staff theft allegations continue

ITWeb reported yesterday that the former CFO at the telecoms regulator, ICASA, may be charged for the theft of R110 000 out of ICASA's offices in 2005. Bridget Mohlala, who has since resigned from ICASA, awaits the prosecutor's decision on whether the evidence against her is sufficient to lay formal charges.

Meanwhile, CEO Jackie Manche has resigned, after being suspended for almost a year for allegedly violating the Public Finance Management Act. She was cleared of all suspicion, just before she returned from a full-pay suspension.

Earlier this week an analyst speaking to ITWeb poured cold water on market speculation that German-based T-Mobile may purchase MTN. T-Mobile is too rigid to approach the African and Middle Eastern cellular provider, he pointed out. There are always rumours flying around that MTN may be bought out by some big gun from the East, or from Europe, but it hasn't happened yet, so no need to get too excited.

Interestingly, BCX's black economic empowerment shareholder Gadlex has also applied to "intervene" in the hearings.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

It seems 2007 might just be the year for online retail. As research house World Wide Worx prepares to release its Online Retail in SA 2007 report, MD Arthur Goldstuck says the figures surpassed expectations, which were a 20% to 25% rise.

We learned this week that parastatal IT group arivia.kom should be placed on the open market within a few weeks. Work is being concluded on the request for proposals, and several unsolicited bids for the company have been received. This one should be interesting - everyone is waiting to see who will be daring enough to buy arivia, and turn the company around.

Telkom confirmed this week it is in acquisition discussions with a Ugandan telecommunications operator Ucom, a consortium that owns 51% of Uganda Telecom. It isn't clear whether Telkom is interested in acquiring all or part of Ucom, but its time may be running out, as Uganda Telecom recently indicated there is a sticking point over price and other bidders are interested, as Telkom's period of exclusivity has elapsed.

There's also news on a long-running Telkom saga - the proposed takeover of Business Connexion (BCX). Dimension Data and the South African chapter of the Internet Service Providers Association have come out in opposition of the takeover, currently being heard by the Competition Tribunal. Interestingly, BCX's black economic empowerment shareholder Gadlex has also applied to "intervene" in the hearings.

The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) made a strong call this week for policy reform in the ICT sector of the Southern African Development Community, saying changes are imperative for ICT's contribution to sustainable development in the region to reach its full potential.