Fading confidence?

State-owned ICT company Sentech came under the spotlight this week, as rumours emerged that government is withholding the funding (about R500 million) that Sentech needs to roll-out its wireless broadband network.

However, Department of Communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole said government is not stalling and will announce funding for the project later this month. Reports of large-scale problems at the company, due to a lack of cash, are also untrue, she says. Some media would have one believe 100 people left Sentech last year.

The funding issue is a sensitive one. A senior source at Sentech once described the way all staff have to carefully tread around the issue of government funding, either by speaking about it cautiously or - better yet - not speaking about it at all.

The company preferred not to comment on whether Fynn's resignation is linked to alleged financial irregularities at the local operation.

Dave Glazier, journalist, ITWeb

While Sentech's wireless broadband plan seems to have hit some snags, Neotel is moving forward with its strategy. Motorola won a WiMax and CDMA planning contract, and firmly believes that - once the planning is over - Neotel will be so impressed that it will commission Motorola to build the networks.

"When this contract is awarded is entirely up to Neotel, but they will have to start making decisions soon," says Motorola's regional sales director Stefano Mattiello, confidently. It's definitely something to look forward to.

Infraco's board of directors is expected to be finalised shortly, ITWeb reported on Monday. While rumours abound that a senior Eskom manager and a former Vodacom executive will head the company, shareholders refuse to confirm this.

Vodacom this week denied claims by the Communication Workers Union that the company refuses to recognise it as an official union.

The union has taken the cellular giant to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, and protested against Vodacom in Johannesburg this week.

MTN Uganda, Vodacom Tanzania and Kenya's Safaricom concluded an interesting roaming agreement this week, allowing people to make calls to those on the same network at local rates, even when one is outside their home country, and inside one of the other two.

Cisco local GM Clive Fynn left the company last week, after being in the position for a year. The news comes on the back of confirmation that Cisco will create two new divisions locally, each of which will be 25% black-owned.

The company did not comment on whether Fynn's resignation is linked to an investigation by legal firm Cliffe Dekker into alleged financial irregularities at the local operation.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) lashed out at electronics company Reunert this week, slamming its R1.1 billion black empowerment deal with Rebatona Investment Holdings. Numsa national information officer Mziwakhe Hlangani says the deal primarily benefits the country's "four richest women".