Ivy's prestige at stake

When feeling threatened, our communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri follows the time-old western tactic of circling the wagons and waiting for “dem pesky injuns to skit”. Kind of what Texans do.

Court cases cost money. For a commercial enterprise such as Altech, no matter how profitable it is, litigation is not what it does. Rather, Altech wants to get on with doing what it does best: making profit for its shareholders in the ICT industry. The group most certainly wants to stop spending money on legal fees and spend it on whatever plans it has to build its own infrastructure.

On the other hand, the minister has the seemingly unlimited resources of the taxpayers' coffers. For her, the most important thing at stake is her prestige. If her policy of “managed liberalisation” is shown for what it really is - non-existent - her political legacy will go up in smoke.

Central to the various courts' findings are that value-added network services (VANS) are allowed to build their own networks, and essentially become telecommunications companies in their own right. The ruling also upholds Altech's right to be awarded an individual-electronic communications network service (I-ECNS) licence immediately. If the regulator, ICASA, does not comply, it is in contempt of a court order.

Matsepe-Casaburri's argument against VANS getting such licences is that it would lead “to an absurd situation” as there are potentially 600 such licence-holders that would qualify to build their own networks.

Paul Vecchiatto, Cape Town correspondent

Matsepe-Casaburri's argument against VANS getting such licences is that it would lead “to an absurd situation” as there are potentially 600 such licence-holders that would qualify to build their own networks. But common logic says only a small portion of them would really be able to raise the funding to build such infrastructure anyway.

Another part of her argument is that consumers must be protected from unscrupulous operators who will quickly fleece them. That is as absurd as it is patronising and it presumes a large part of our population is stupid.

Saying it is the minister's ego that is leading to the continuation of the litigation is also a little simplistic. There is the money factor as well, because Neotel is up to its eyeballs in hock paying off its fees to have the privilege of being the second national operator, and the cellular networks are still forking out on their corporate social responsibilities.

This means if the VANS do get their licences for little more than the R6 000 application fee and the promise to deliver a small part of their turnover to the ever-burgeoning Universal Service and Access Fund, one can easily surmise that a massive con has been pulled over the incumbent operators. This was not a deliberate con; rather, it was just a matter of bumbling along that led to this situation.

It also means all those conferences, such as the convergence colloquium, in 2001, the pricing colloquium, in 2003, and many other gatherings were just a complete waste of money and, more preciously, time. And for business, that is the biggest waste, as wasting their time means less investment, fewer jobs, no profit and no reason to upgrade the economy.

It is remarkable how similar our minister of communications is to outgoing US president George W Bush. They both have very low approval ratings, they both have no problem dipping into the tax coffers to fund pet projects, both have so-called policies that are politically and economically bankrupt, and both are far beyond their sell-by dates.

Interestingly, both come from parts of their respective countries, namely Texas and the Free State, which are known for wide-open spaces, and with miles and miles of nothing behind them.

The sooner they both return to their states of emptiness, the better it will be for all of us.