Government's Wiki'd game

A huge coup for ITWeb this week was breaking the story that a government employee had fiddled with a Wikipedia entry, regarding SA's HIV/Aids policies. This may not be a government-wide conspiracy aimed at censorship. However, it does speak volumes about a government historically not prone to taking criticism lightly, and it certainly says something about the dimwits in its employ.

This genius, obviously feeling particularly patriotic and protective over government and its lame-duck policies, took it upon himself to delete some unfavourable entries regarding HIV/Aids and SA's incompetence or unwillingness to deal with it.

Good move! Warms the heart. Pity the IP address was traced to Stats SA. Yes, a great pity indeed.

While this may be the work of some lowly Stats SA pencil-pusher, we need to ask who sets the example. When last did a senior government official, minister, or indeed the president himself, take criticism gracefully, without crying racism or telling the disgruntled that they are free to leave the country if they don't like it? Probably around the same time as when Gauteng education MEC Angie Motshekga won her first beauty contest. Which was, like, never!

Perhaps a case of monkey see, monkey do?

As for the Stats SA kumquat: do you remember the good old days of apartheid when newspapers would be censored with big black blocks? This isn't much different. Perhaps a re-education trip to some well-developed democracy like China, Cuba or Albania would serve to make you appreciate freedom or speech.

The Competition Tribunal finally revealed the reasons behind its decision to disallow the Telkom-Business Connexion (BCX) merger in June, and harshly criticised both parties for being less than truthful.

In fact, the tribunal accused Telkom of being "downright dishonest".

"In our view, this transaction is an attempt by an erstwhile monopolist to thwart the beneficial impact of deregulation... for rival managed network service providers and... customers. We express concern that the acquisition could have provided Telkom with an unregulated subsidiary, through which it would seek to evade regulation," the tribunal stated.

The competition authority also took issue with the testimony of BCX executives, saying it lacked transparency.

I would like to think that maybe, somewhere deep down inside, Telkom is perhaps just a little bit ashamed. But, in reality, I doubt it very much...

I would like to think that maybe, somewhere deep down inside, Telkom is perhaps just a little bit ashamed. But, in reality, I doubt it very much...

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

Here's a shocker: yet another government department has revealed it is seriously lacking human resources. The Department of Communications is the latest to join the list of lame, broken and dysfunctional entities that make up national government.

The department says its current vacancy rate is 37%, with only 326 of its 516 posts filled. This should be worrying. Then again, the situation is forcing it to outsource and rely on consultants, who may actually know what they're doing. So, maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.

Come to think of it, perhaps everyone in the department should be fired and every position should be outsourced - this could increase efficiency.

Taken a step further, this could be done across all government departments, including the Presidency. Perhaps the country could be run entirely by consultants, who would actually get paid for delivering.

Imagine: an outsourced president and deputy, who work according to billable hours. An outsourced minister of health, who has her own watch and liver...

Just a thought...

When Neotel and Seacom announced their agreement to land an undersea cable in SA, I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the only one going: "So where's the catch?"

It didn't take long for government to create one. Moving quickly to ensure that, God forbid, South Africans do not become spoilt by such ridiculous notions as readily available cheap broadband, the current regime moved the goal posts.

Suddenly, government was adamant it was not in favour of a commercial cable landing, as it would not contribute to reducing the cost of broadband connectivity.

Huh?

No doubt, this was a hastily thrown together excuse and clearly had to be refined. A day later, after some head-scratching, the state announced undersea cables landing in SA must have an element of local ownership for security purposes and to stimulate the country's development.

Good one. Problem is that Seacom claims it does have local ownership. Watch this space for more goal post moves.

As intriguing as the mystery of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's magical new liver, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe is boldly fighting terrorism and ensuring national security.

Unfortunately, the ungrateful infidels who are the country's Internet service providers (ISPs) are complaining about the cost of installing equipment to monitor the flow of information in the southern African country, as required by the Interception of Communications Act.

Yes, the thriving democracy's new law stipulates ISPs are under mandatory obligation to pay for and install the monitoring equipment. Unfortunately, with an inflation rate of around 4 500%, and a lack of foreign currency, this could prove difficult.

Perhaps I'm ignorant, but I ask yet again: what idiotic terrorist would want to target Zimbabwe and for what exactly...?