Highway robbery

The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) - under the auspices of the department that brought you "Leave Your Car at Home Day" - is again threatening motorists with toll gates.

Forty-six new electronic toll gates will ring Johannesburg and highways leading east from the city, as well as Pretoria, each ripping motorists a proposed R3.30 a time. And just as you start thinking that R3.30 does not sound so bad, keep in mind that these rip-off points will be spaced at 11km intervals, and in place by 2015. Feeling screwed yet?

By the way, Sanral claims this latest bit of highway robbery - this is not even a poor attempt at a pun - will work towards financing a new Pretoria-Johannesburg highway. Not too sure where this new road will go though, unless the grand scheme involves flattening Midrand. Arguably, not such a bad idea in itself.

The department that brought you "Drive With Your Lights On Day", "Ramp Metering Madness" and "High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane Hell", will clearly not rest until SA`s traffic problem is solved. And it has just dawned on me how this will work: with the exorbitant petrol prices, over-inflated car prices and new toll gate system, no one will be able to afford to drive.

There, no more traffic. No problem.

Several South African publications seem to have misinterpreted a government statement regarding the Telkom-MTN talks.

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story. That was certainly the case this week, as several South African publications seem to have misinterpreted a government statement regarding the Telkom-MTN talks.

Hey, I guess it was a slow week.

To put this in context, government sent out a statement saying it notes the cautionaries issued by the two companies and, in principle, supports discussions being held. To this end, and to placate some volatile union-types, government further stated it has appointed a task team to ensure any outcome will benefit SA, its economy, workers and all other stakeholders.

Frighteningly, in the heat of the moment, some senior journos in the industry chose to read this as government endorsing the sale of Telkom`s fixed-line assets to MTN, and wrote some highly speculative stories regarding possible scenarios and such. Nice try guys!

The next day, government obviously denied it supports any kind of outcome, but that it simply has no problem with the fact that talks are taking place. Bitch slaps all around. I guess it pays to read properly.

Those nice gentlemen from the Solidarity trade union are again making polite noises. The union, in the middle of an ongoing wage dispute regarding Telkom`s interpretation of a two-year agreement, wants to use ex-Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane`s salary to prove the company can afford to restructure workers` wages.

Solidarity asked Telkom to disclose the full remuneration package of its former chief executive after media reported that Moletsane earned more than R9.5 million for his 19 months in the job.

A quick look at Telkom`s annual report confirmed this was indeed the case. So, here`s a man who kept his job for less than two years before being given the boot. This comes to about R500 000 a month. Not bad for a fellow who was either incompetent, insubordinate, or committed some other form of infringement. Telkom is not saying.

Regardless, if I got paid that amount, I would certainly not mind being kicked out on my ass either. After all, I would never have to work again.

As for Solidarity, if the bad executives walk away with that kind of money, imagine what good ones earn, especially over a longer period. So, no. There is no money left over to restructure workers` salaries. Sorry.

A Parliamentary Portfolio Committee probe into the State IT Agency`s (SITA`s) R428 340 "thank you" junket for 75 government officials had to be postponed.

The reason, simply, was that not enough MPs bothered to pitch for the hearing.

This was after the director-general of the Department of Public Service and Administration, with his personnel, and the SITA CEO, with his personnel, were flown from Pretoria and accommodated in Cape Town.

Sigh.