Pins, needles and a voodoo doll called Phuthuma

What do you do for money if you're a struggling African country, with an underdeveloped economy, depending mainly on subsistence farming? Why, you shake down some telecoms operators, of course.

Yes, the West African country of Benin has indeed come up with an ingenious way of adding to its gross domestic product. Its Telecommunications Regulation Authority suspended MTN and Atlantique Telecom's Moov service in July, claiming both companies changed their names without permission.

This move effectively means both companies need new licences, but at a much higher cost than the initial licence fees. To restart operations in Benin, MTN will have to fork out $620 million - about R4.34 billion - which is a 620% increase from the $10 million under the original structure.

This might sound rather extravagant, but then maybe Benin's president, Thomas Yayi Boni, needs a new residence/car/yacht/private island. After all, the gentleman is a banker in real life and certainly knows the colour of money and how to extort it. And it's helluva difficult to acquire these necessities with money made from growing cotton.

Neither MTN nor Atlantique Telecom have paid yet, and claim to be in discussions with government. Good luck to them.

However, this week, MTN group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko commented: "We have said to [the Benin government] they are acting outside the provisions of the licence, they are acting outside local law and they are acting outside international law."

This may be a valid point, but hey, this is an African democracy, after all. Part of government's job is to shift the goalposts, be that at the expense of the local populace or economic growth - some half-a-million MTN subscribers have been left stranded.

Nhleko also bemoaned the switch-off presented MTN with one of its worst headaches in its history. Yeah, I can believe that. The prospect of having to part with more than R4 billion would give me a headache too.

But I guess it's only fair that the country where voodoo originated should practice voodoo economics. Phuthuma, should you ever feel like pins are being stuck in your eyes, perhaps it's not just a tension headache...

Hooray to Stats SA for moving so quickly to suspend the alleged culprit who altered Wikipedia entries.

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

Hooray to Stats SA for moving so quickly to suspend the alleged culprit who altered Wikipedia entries. The data capturer was captured after ITWeb discovered a government employee had made extensive deletions on Wikipedia's "HIV/Aids in SA" page.

Naturally, Stats SA has reiterated it never endorsed such actions. But the sceptical DA - don't you just hate the opposition - wants to know the wider conspiracy behind this.

Sandy Kalyan, DA spokesperson on health and HIV/Aids, said: "I cannot believe that a person woke up one morning and decided on his/her own to make such changes. We want to know who was behind this."

Maybe it was the second gunman, behind the grassy knoll. Maybe it was just Lee Harvey Oswald. Either way, let's just hope the suspended data capturer isn't just a scapegoat, sacrificial lamb or an ass to kick.

A polite young man from Gartner this week described the creation of government's broadband infrastructure provider Infraco as a "novel idea", as it runs contrary to the international telecommunications trend.

Perhaps we should worry. I'm not sure if SA needs novelty gags in its efforts to bring down international broadband prices, but then what else have we come to expect.

Analyst Will Hahn, speaking on the sidelines of the Gartner Symposium, commented: "Historically, telecoms carriers have divested from their networks. For instance, BT is now pushing itself as a solutions provider rather than a telecoms operator."

Yes, but this is SA; we do things differently. Clearly, Mr Hahn must be an idealist, or plain na"ive. After all, he dared to ask: "What I want to know is that if Infraco is being kept out of Neotel, then why is Telkom being allowed to keep its wholesale and retail operations under one umbrella?"

Yes, why indeed?

We may not always agree with government's actions, but it can always be counted on to say the right things.

This week it was trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa's turn to show off his insight and understanding of SA and its socio-political issues.

During a parliamentary briefing, the esteemed minister pointed out that telecommunications is among the sectors government has targeted for an anti-competitive behaviour clampdown. This is clearly a man of action...

He said the Department of Trade and Industry had completed a review of competition policy, in consultation with other economic cluster departments. Proposals will be forwarded to Cabinet based on these discussions.

So far, so good. Unfortunately, Mpahlwa then proceeded to show that he is nothing more than a South African politician after all, by saying the recommendations would not be "earth-shattering". I suppose this was in case Telkom was listening.

Anyway, I beg to differ. Perhaps the telecoms sector does need something earth-shattering, like true liberalisation...

Just a thought.